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Opinion / Columnist

My photo when I was 1 year old

Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, and author. Please WhatsApp/call: +263782283975, or email: tendaiandtinta.mbofana@gmail.com

I was reading an interview held with Rhodesia Prime Minister Ian Smith in Holland in 1994 - which a friend of mine sent - and my mind could not help wandering back to those Rhodesia days.Though I was born in 1973, and was only seven years old at Zimbabwe's birth in 1980, the faint nostalgic memories of my Rhodesian experience shows that those were better days than what we have today in this so-called 'Independent' Zimbabwe.In fact, I had a better standard of life in my first seven years of life than what son - who was born in 2003 - had.In our Rhodesian household there were never any shortages of our needs: we had all the food we needed (plus the luxuries), the accommodation was freely provided for by the company my parents worked for, both my parents had cars, and when I started school in 1979 - my fees were taken care of by the company.We could afford certain luxuries, as holidaying, and eating out.The company that my parents worked for paid them comfortable wages, on time every time, including guaranteed annual and production target bonuses.In my one year of schooling in Rhodesia, my school had plenty of books, stationery, and good standard learning and sporting facilities.The area we resided also had well functioning shops, recreational facilities and other amenities.One reading this article would think that I am bragging about my highly educated rich family, living in some lavish suburb - but, it is quite the opposite.We lived in the high density township of Torwood in Redcliff, my mother has a Standard 6 education, and father only got to Form 2.Nevertheless, with that Standard 6 education, she qualified to be a nurse, and my father was a trained teacher - although, during those years he had been blacklisted by the Rhodesian government for his political activities, and found jobs here and there in various companies.As such, my parents - by those days' standards - were struggling, and at the periphery of the economic life of Rhodesian society - which is why my father was a very vibrant anti-Rhodesia activist.However, by today's standards - in an 'Independent' Zimbabwe - that 'poverty' now seems like 'heaven on earth', and I can not help but reminiscent about those days.Even my fiercely pro-Mugabe father was now having very serious doubts about this 'Independence' by the time he passed away in the year 2000.Additionally, all those that I talk to, who lived through those Rhodesian days, have the same testimony - that things were better during those days than what the ZANU PF government has done.It would be disingenuous of me to whitewash the obvious oppression and atrocities committed by the Rhodesian government against the majority of the population - including, my own father's blacklisting - but then, what has changed in 'Independent' Zimbabwe?What testimony would today's seven year old tell his or her children in 37 years time - if they even manage to reach that age, due to a paralyzed medical system and moral decadence?They will tell of the complete running down of a once vibrant country by an embarrassingly incompetent kleptomaniac and repressive government - which failed just to maintain what was already there.There will be stories on the inability of their parents to buy the very basic food stuff, buy decent clothes for them, or even pay rent - resulting in a whole family of 5 staying and sleeping in one room.All this as a result of pathetic salaries, or even their nonpayment, and company closures.They will tell about schools that did no have any books, whereby, their already overburdened parents were expected to buy every single book and piece of stationery.Even though Rhodesia had only one university and a few schools for the so-called African Education, those schools were well-equipped and of a far higher standard than today's 11 or so universities, and numerous schools.Such is so evident in that I strongly believe that my Standard 6 mother had better nursing training than today's medical staff.So what is the point in the government bragging about the number of schools they built, yet producing lower standard material.Actually, I still have the textbooks that were used in primary schools in Rhodesia's 'White schools'.A few years ago, I lent a Grade 5 textbook to my nephew (who was in the same grade), who then showed it to his teacher, and she told him not to use high school material!Furthermore, there will be stories about how their parents died due to the unavailability of the most basic of drugs in the country's health sector.Our children will give testimony on how they never saw water coming out of a tap, or how they have never seen the shower working, as there was never any tap water.They will tell how urban families had to divide their daily schedules between going to work, fetching water from the nearest borehole, searching for firewood, and then the typical household chores of cooking, laundry and cleaning the house - something that was only associated with rural areas in Rhodesia.An 'Independent' country, whereby, there are no opportunities for any other career except to go into farming.I could go on and on, but this is a story that every Zimbabwean clearly knows.I feel sorry for those born in Zimbabwe, as they are born in a land of suffering and abject poverty - without any opportunity for growth - and, indeed, I was born in Rhodesia, and very proud of it!
The test of the latest North Korean ICBM, even though it may have been less than successful, has got American policymakers concerned. The most recent missile might be able to deliver a nuclear weapon to targets beyond the west coast of the United States into its interior. However, the reaction has been somewhat mixed, though the Washington Examiner has put a good face on the matter by casting it as an example of good cop/bad cop.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plays good cop

Tillerson offered a more consolatory statement to the North Korean government than perhaps the situation called for.

He assured North Korea that the United States does not seek regime change or an accelerated reunification of Korea. He insisted that the United States does not represent a threat to the North Korean government. However, the regime is threatening the United States, and that requires a response.

Sen. Lindsey Graham plays bad cop

Sen. Lindsey Graham. R-South Carolina offered a more bellicose response. He suggested that war in Korea is a real possibility, If the choice is between thousands dying in Korea and thousands dying in the United States, the Trump administration will not find it a choice at all. However, most estimates of War In Korea peg the casualties in the millions. The carnage that would be wrought by a successful nuclear strike on an American city would be beyond imagination.

Ted Cruz calls for more missile defense

Sen. Ted Cruz,.R-Texas suggested a third option between a war in Korea and a nuclear strike on the United States. He suggested that American missile defense efforts be greatly expanded to include a space based option. The proposal is a revival of the Reagan-era SDI program but would concentrate, at least initially, on the threat from rogue states.

Cruz also advocates targeting the cash flow to the government in Pyongyang that is used to pay for its military and to cut it off entirely. Some of that money, incredibly, comes from American banks. However, another source of money comes from Chinese financial institutions, which should be hit by sanctions.

Finally, Cruz suggests a targeted information campaign aimed at the North Korean elite.

The idea is that they will benefit if they do the right thing which presumably means ending the regime of Kim Jong-un and then taking a more conciliatory stance toward its neighbors as well as the United States.

The bottom line

While the media is entertaining itself with stories of White House chaos, the threat of war in the Northern Pacific is genuine. Resolving the crisis without armed conflict will take no little skill and a lot of luck.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in last year's Presidential election and the possibility of collusion with the Trump campaign took a far more serious turn after a grand jury convened. However, a report by Bloomberg Politics claims that The President and his advisors are now mulling over how they might discredit the probe if it does not lead to a favorable verdict for the Trump campaign.

A devious plan

The news about the formation of a grand jury must not have come as good news for the president and during a rally in West Virginia this week he revealed his hand.

Trump seemed to indicate that if the verdict does not vindicate him then it should be considered demeaning to American democracy. It is clearly a devious ploy to completely discredit the investigation. He said, Theyre trying to cheat you out of the leadership that you won with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most importantly demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution. I just hope the final determination is a truly honest one. The crowd cheered.

It is quite clear that the president is now on the offensive regarding this investigation. According to reports, he might also give the whole investigation a political color in order to rally his supporters and save his closest aides.

The federal grand jury is believed to be investigating several close aides of the President and their links to Russia. For instance, the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner is already a person of interest.

.@JudgeJeanine: There will be an uproar in this country if they end up with an indictment against a Trump family member just to get at POTUS pic.twitter.com/tm10kRA2Ws  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) August 4, 2017

It is underway

The campaign to discredit the investigation is already underway if the president's Twitter feed is anything to go by.

Yesterday, Trump shared a tweet (above) by Fox & Friends, which stated that there would be an 'uproar in the country' if any member of the president's family ends up getting an indictment. The President has been scathing about the investigation in the past and once called the whole thing a 'witch hunt'. However, the latest offensive is a concerted effort to ensure that the whole thing stands discredited even before a verdict is announced.

Over the past month or so, Mueller's investigation has expanded in scope. There have been reports suggesting that Russian links to Trump's business transactions are also under investigation. In such a situation, it is no wonder that the president feels a bit cornered and is fighting back in the only way that he is used to. Revelations of Donald Trump Jr.'s meetings with the Russian lawyer have not helped matters either.
Fans met Alexsandra and Josh on a recent season of "90 Day Fiance." These two fell in love and ended up getting married. Not long after the show, Alexsandra had a little girl, that she said was Josh's, but the fans have always wondered if this is true or not. When she shares pictures of her, she just shows her daughter from the back and never shows her face. She has only posted a picture of her face one time.

Why did Alexsandra decide to leave social networks?

Alexsandra started out telling her thanks for supporting her. She said, "I just wanted to say sorry to all those people who support and understand me.

Without you Im nothing, and I love you all." The thing is she is going to be leaving social networks anyway.

She went on to explain that she has decided to leave social networks. When talking about the reason she is leaving, she started out saying, "And I want to say to all the haters and those who tried to humiliate me under every post, God bless you and your families." Alexandra went on to tell them that they should get their own life and that would make them happier. It is obvious that she is really upset about everything.

Basically, Alexsandra is done with reading all of the negative posts from everyone. She doesn't want to hear what they have to say about her and is moving on. She feels like everyone wasn't there when she was in labor or during her pregnancy and that they need to realize that Josh was there with her basically.

Is Alexsandra really gone from social networks?

It really does look like she is gone from social networks. This was the last post from the "90 Day Fiance" star on her Instagram account. On her Facebook, she changed her picture to a pic of herself and Josh and hasn't posted since. It looks like she is ready to move on from it all.

Right now, Josh and Alexsandra seem to be doing great and are still together. They have the one daughter that she insists is Josh's daughter even though other people feel like she looks like she is biracial. There have been some accusations that she belongs to Alexsandra's friend, but she denied that and said that he is just a friend to her, who is more like a brother.

Are you surprised to hear that Alexsandra has decided to remove herself from social media? Do you think that the little girl belongs to Josh or not? Sound off in the comments section below on your thoughts, and don't miss the new episodes of "90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After" on Sunday nights on TLC.
Asian stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, who play roles Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua respectively, surprise their fans with their departure from Hawaii Five-0. According to reports, the stars are quite underpaid compared to their American co-stars. Now, the 48-year-old actor breaks his silence over the issue in a Facebook post. The Lost star addressed the pay equity, the contract he has with CBS, and his exit in Hawaii Five-0 Season 8.

Kims official statement

Daniel Dae Kims post is titled, A Message To My Fans About Hawaii 5-0.

He first apologized to his fans for airing his side a little late.

He admitted that the exit rumors are true and he wont be returning to Hawaii Five-0 Season 8s production next week. He went on to say that he made himself available for filming, but he and CBS didnt agree with the terms of their new contract.

So I made the difficult choice not to continue, he said. However, he still gives his deepest gratitude to the people behind the show and to his fellow actors and actresses. He then apologized for not continuing the television series with them.

Daniel Dae Kim also addressed his battle over the salary with the network. "The path to equality is rarely easy," he said. As a Korean American actor, he explained that he knows how hard to find opportunities in a foreign land.

This also includes playing a well-developed, three-dimensional character like Chin Ho Kelly. But, he is still grateful for playing the role of the detective lieutenant in the action police procedural drama.

The 2 Asian actors exit

According to Variety, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park left Hawaii Five-0 as their negotiation with CBS to have the same pay as Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan didnt succeed.

The publication claimed that the Asian actors were paid 10 to 15 percent less compared to what the two American actors received. This was albeit they were all in the television series since it started in 2010.

CBS, on the other hand, refused to give comments on the salary issue. However, the network gave Daily News its statement along with the shows executive producer Peter Lenkov.

The broadcasting company asserted that it very much appreciated Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Parks talents, professional excellence, and aloha spirits they have imparted in the television series that totaled to 168 episodes.

In fact, it stated that the two Asian actors have helped to build the police procedural drama. The speech ended by wishing them both well and success in the next chapters of their lives. With that, fans wont see the Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua in the coming Hawaii Five-0 Season 8 and their exit will be elaborated in the shows first episode.
Jessica Alba was spotted on the streets of New York City on Wednesday, August 2, showing off her baby bump in a gorgeous pink floral frock. The actress, who is married to film producer Cash Warren, is already mom to 9-year-old Honor Marie and 5-year-old Haven Warner.

The 36-year-old beauty broke the news that she's expecting her third child on July 18. Alba posted a video on her Instagram feed of her with her two daughters, each one holding a numbered balloon. Honor can be seen holding balloon number 1 and Haven is holding balloon number 2, with Alba cradling her round belly and holding balloon number 3.

The actress captioned the video, exclaiming she and husband Warren will soon be "outnumbered." Alba has over 11 million followers on the social media site and the video has received more than 3 million views.

Jessica Alba and Cash Warrens growing brood

Jessica Alba married 38-year-old Cash Warren in 2008. According to US Weekly, the couple was dating for three years before their marriage. Alba and Warren met in 2005 on the set of "Fantastic Four," with Alba playing the character of Sue Storm and Warren working as a production assistant.

Jessica told Cosmopolitan in October 2005 that she thought Warren might be "The One". She revealed to the publication that she met her now-husband while she was dating someone else, so their relationship began as a friendship.

The star added that she was attracted to his spirit and mind, and their meeting was like love-at-first-sight.

In May 2008, the Daily Mail reported that a heavily pregnant Alba and Warren had wed in a low-key ceremony on May 19. According to reports, the couple married at the Beverly Hills courthouse. Alba and Warren welcomed their first daughter, Honor, in June 2008, only two weeks after the couple had married.

Their second daughter, Haven, was born in 2011.

Jessica Alba reveals how she manages to spend quality time with daughters Honor and Haven

In an interview with US Weekly last year, Alba revealed just how she manages to spend quality time with her daughters Honor and Haven. The star has a notoriously busy schedule. Not only does Alba act for a career, but she is also the co-founder of The Honest Company, an American company which sells household products and goods with a focus on ethical consumerism.

Speaking to US Weekly, the mom said that although spending time with her daughters can be difficult, she takes turns bringing each of them with her on 2 to 3-day business trips. During the trips, she revealed they order room service, rent a movie and have a sleepover.
People recently shared a new photo of socialite Paris Hilton in her summer vacation in the beautiful island of Maldives. In the report, Hilton shared her new summer look, a mermaid-inspired swimsuit.

The controversial celebrity flaunted her summer bikini body while wearing a mermaid one-piece during her vacation in Maldives, an island off the coasts of India.

"It seems that the inventor of the selfie isn't quite done letting her fashionable influence be felt just yet, posing in a mermaid one-piece that's sure to inspire copycats all across the gram" the news report stated.

Her stylish photos were reportedly posted on her Instagram page Wednesday. She finished the look, with her arm just at the back of her head, showing her armpit. Then, she is seen bending her hips a little to flaunt her new mermaid one-piece beachwear.

Hilton chose to arrange her hair in two braids, the photo showed. She was wearing a pair of white, large cat-eye sunglasses. She completed her look with a tiara fit for a socialite queen like her.

She wrote the caption for the shot, "Mermaid in Paradise." People noted that there are more shots of her in the same swimsuit, such wading across the surf and a catalog shot. They are both captioned "#MermaidVibes" with varying emojis, the report added.

Swimsuit from Dolls Kill

People reported that the mermaid swimwear came from online clothing brand Dolls Kill. The swimsuit featured a baby pink boy short bottom with holographic texture. It has prints all over the fabric, and a white mesh thin shoulder strap top with a pair of blue metallic shell-like design over the breast part.

In their website, Dolls Kill describes their collection as rebellious fashion that is out of the norm. Other items sold by the brand are graphic tees, denims, dresses and jump suits among many others.

Meanwhile, Hilton's adorable tiara came from Epicly Inventive Crowns.

Mermaid in Paradise  pic.twitter.com/n8sCrVvyec  Paris Hilton (@ParisHilton) August 2, 2017

Paris in Maldives

According to the news article, the socialite and DJ are currently in Maldives with her boyfriend Chris Zylka.

Rumors said that Hilton allegedly spent for their vacation as a gift for her boyfriend after he wore a tattoo with her name over his forearm.

The report said the couple checked in Amilla Fushi in Baa Atool, a four-bedroom villa residence that offers wide living space, high-end kitchen and private pool just by the beach.

Maldives, a remote island in the Indian Ocean, has been a favorite destination of various celebrities.
Rape and murder of a Chinese student in Germany was alleged to have taken place merely to satisfy the sick Sexual Fantasy of a couple in May last year. The horrific mutilations and multiple efforts to kill 25-year-old Yangjie meant that experts were unable to pinpoint the exact cause of her death, the International Business Times reported.

Sexual fantasy rapist and murder was son of cops

The couple who carried out this horrendous rape and murder crime were Sebastian Flech and his girlfriend Xenia Lang. The police and the courts learned that Flech is actually the son of police officers, which somehow makes it even worse.

IBT reported that Initially, there was some suspicion that the parental cops may have had " some role or influence in the case," but that was later disproven.

The sexual fantasy murderers were sentenced on Friday 4 August in a German court, with Sebastian Flech landing a life sentence. His girlfriend Xenia Lang seems to have gotten off quite lightly with a five year and six-month sentence.

According to The Local De, the couple were also ordered to pay "damages for pain and suffering amounting to 60,000" (US$70 644).

Mutilations so severe actual cause of death not pinpointed

The sexual fantasy rape and murder was reportedly such a dreadful crime that as details emerged, the country of German was shocked by the brutality of the assault.

In summing up the case, Judge Uda Schmidt echoed the sentiments of the country when she described the murder as an "incomprehensible crime" and that,"The student had to die so that the defendants could live out their sexual fantasies."

The facts of the case came to light during the trial and revealed that their victim was an architecture student who was lured into an empty apartment under the pretext of an emergency while she was out on a jog.

Court documents showed that she was tortured and raped repeatedly before being left to die.

The will to survive was very strong, and their first attempts to kill the Chinese student failed. Returning some hours later, the couple found her still alive. Their murder attempts following the rape included smashing her head on a wooden floor, attempts to drown her in a bucket and strangulation.

They finally dumped her in some underbrush. Her mutilated body was so extensively damaged that prosecutors told the court it was impossible to say which injury had caused her death.

IBT reported that the rape and murder pair who had taken the Chinese student's life to enact a sexual fantasy, "remained silent and showed no emotion when the court pronounced its verdict."
A record-breaking cocaine haul was seized on a yacht near New Caledonia on July 27 while en route to Australia. The stash, weighing some 1.464 tons, had been hidden in the yachts hull. The cocaine has an estimated street value of more than $320 million and would be sufficient for 1.5 million street deals.

French Navy seizes yacht with 1.464 tons of cocaine on board

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), working together with the French Navy, thwarted the cocaine smuggling plot. The 1.464 ton haul of cocaine is considered to be enough for 1.5 million street deals and was seized from the yacht Afalina off the New Caledonia coast.

The yacht was then towed to Noumea for additional investigation. The crew from the French Navy frigate Vendemiaire arrested four members of the Latvian and Lithuanian crew from the yacht. Authorities believe a South American organized crime syndicate was behind the supply of the cocaine.

Speaking of the record-breaking drug seizure on Thursday, Col Blanch, executive director of intelligence at ACIC, said they were thankful for the French authorities action which halted the supply of a significant amount of drugs from reaching the Australian streets.

Drug bust in South Pacific: Record cocaine haul headed for Australia seized by French Navy | Herald Sun https://t.co/MwhPEytt9F  Mr. Swift (@ELGINDOTCOM) August 4, 2017

Latest seizure highlights the importance of international cooperation

As reported by the Herald Sun, Blanch said the latest drug seizure shows the importance of cooperation between international law enforcement and intelligence agencies in targeting transnational criminal enterprises, adding that trust built between nations is paramount in fighting organized crime.

Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan also praised the efforts of the French Navy over the record cocaine haul. Keenan said Australian lives had been saved, as well as crippling a major organized crime syndicate. Keenan also went on to stress the importance of international cooperation to fight drug smuggling. Keenan added that while drug trafficking is a multi-national crime, Australia is working with its international partners to take the fight beyond their borders.

Previous record-breaking cocaine seizure in February 2017

News.com.au reports that the previous record-breaking seizure of cocaine heading to Australia was 1.422 tons discovered on a New Zealand-owned yacht, Elakha, off the New South Wales coast on February 2. In that case the drugs had been taken on board the yacht from a mother ship out in the South Pacific and had a street value of around $312 million.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) announced Wednesday morning that it is "deeply concerned" over the increasingly violent political situation in Burundi, which has resulted in humanitarian consequences.

Public statements encouraging violence against different groups, from political opposition groups to women and girls, were condemned in the UNSC's announcement. Burundian officials were urged to "cease and reject" the violence, Eyewitness News said. The violence and instability has resulted in "nearly 202,000 internally displaced persons, 3 million people in need and more than 416,000 Burundians seeking refuge in neighbouring countries," the statement said.

The UNSC reaffirmed its commitment to track down those who continue to threaten Burundi's peace, security, and stability. The announcement comes two weeks after the country's teenage robotics team disappeared from the international robotics competition in Washington, D.C.

Civil unrest in Burundi

Government officials have tortured and killed political opponents since President Pierre Nkurunziza sought a third term in 2015. Opponents boycotted the election, ensuring Nkurunziza's victory.

Burundi's security forces and the Imbonerakure, the ruling party's youth militia, are responsible for vast human rights violations and abuses. They have tortured, raped, impregnated, abused, extorted, forced disappearances, and killed perceived political opponents, women's organizations, human right's organizations, journalists, women and girls, and businesses.

Grenade attacks on civilian populations have also occurred.

The UNSC said it expects Burundi's 2020 elections to be "free, fair, transparent, peaceful, fully inclusive, with the participation of all political parties, and will ensure the full and equal participation of women throughout the process."

COMESA

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) withdrew Burundi's right to host October's summit.

A common market or customs union is a group of countries with the same, set import duty to allow for free trade between each other. By removing trade barriers and integrating the economies, member countries can achieve greater political and economic cooperation, according to Investopedia.

The secretary general of COMESA said Burundi lacked the infrastructure to hold the summit.

Burundi does not have reliable internet, transportation, and hotel accommodations for the 19 delegations. A COMESA delegation recently went to assess the hotel accommodations, eNCA said, but the Burundian government did not allow them to visit the hotels. Nkurunziza did not attend the 2016 secretariat meeting -- a requirement to host the summit. Zambia will now host it instead.
BANGKOK - Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday agreed to further enhance the two sides' economic cooperation.

"I have a thorough discussion with Thai prime minister, we talked about a wide range of issues but basically, are to enhance our collaboration and partnership between Hong Kong and Thailand and the anticipation of the conclusion of free trade agreement between Hong Kong and ASEAN," Lam said to media late Friday during a press conference.

"I will certainly follow up the things that I discussed with PM. Hopefully, we will see close relationship between Hong Kong and Thailand," she added.

According to Thai Deputy Government Spokesman Veerachon Sukhonthapatipark, during their talks earlier Friday, Prayut thanked Lam for visiting Thailand during her first trip outside Hong Kong since she assumed the post of HKSAR's chief executive and also expressed his congratulations to her for being elected to the position and on the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

Prayut also thanked Lam for bringing businessmen with her.

"Until now, Thailand has been acting as the gateway to ASEAN, especially Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam for Hong Kong while Hong Kong has been acting as Thailand's gateway to China," said Prayut.

The Thai leader also asked the HKSAR government to set up an economic and trade office here in his country to further enhance their cooperation in economy, trade and investment.

Lam arrived here on Thursday after visiting Singapore.
Sources told China Daily that it is doubtful if Vietnam will take the lead in acting upon its call for "demilitarizing" the South China Sea as it has in recent years been increasing military staff stationed on islands and reefs there it has illegally occupied.

Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity who are close to the matter, made the revelation as Vietnam is reportedly pushing for "demilitarizing" the South China Sea ahead of a gathering of foreign ministers from ASEAN countries starting this weekend.

According to a copy of a draft obtained by Agence France-Presse, Vietnam lobbied for ASEAN to express serious concern over "construction" in the sea. Sources said Vietnam has dedicated a large amount of funds, manpower and materials for large-scale projects and construction there.

Since 2007, Vietnam has increased the pace of its large-scale land reclamation on 21 of the illegally occupied islands and reefs, and has newly built a number of military facilities, including helicopter pads.

According to the information unveiled by reports of Vietnamese media, Vietnam has deployed a large number of weapons and equipment on the South China Sea islands and reefs, mainly anti-aircraft guns, cannons, howitzers, tanks, anti-tank missiles, anti-ship missiles and armed helicopters.

On Nanwei Island and Hongxiu Island in the South China Sea, the Vietnamese military also has deployed battalions with 122 mm beacons, 85 mm cannons and 130 mm cannons.

In addition, at least five of the occupied islands or reefs can accommodate the take-off and landing of armed helicopters.

Vietnam is the country that first started construction on the islands and reefs in the South China Sea, and it is the country that has deployed the largest number of military facilities there.

It remains unknown whether Vietnam could take the lead of "demilitarizing" the South China Sea, as it has called for, when the overall situation in the South China Sea is positive and is developing.
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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..04 August '17..The Foreign Press Association (FPA), an organization representing hundreds of foreign journalists who work for various media outlets in Israel, is upset. What seems to be the problem? In their view, recent Israeli security measures in Jerusalem are preventing reporters from doing their jobs. The FPA's position, expressed in at least two statements during the past three weeks, came in response to Israeli security measures enforced in the city after Muslim terrorists murdered two police officers at the Temple Mount on July 14.Earlier this week, the FPA, which has often served as a platform for airing anti-Israeli sentiments, went farther by filing a petition to Israel's High Court of Justice challenging the actions and behavior of the Israeli security forces toward journalists during Palestinian riots in protest against the installation of metal detectors and cameras at the entrances to the Temple Mount. The petition demanded that the Israeli security forces stop restricting journalists' entry to the Temple Mount compound. It also complained of verbal and physical abuse against journalists by the police.The FPA protest should come as no surprise to those familiar with the anti-Israel agenda of its leadership. This organization has a long record of black-and-white thinking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- and somehow, the Israelis always come out in the wrong.While the FPA is teeming with self-proclaimed "open-minded" journalists, their minds seem closed to facts surrounding Palestinian violence.
HA NOI  Firms operating in Viet Nam with foreign direct investment (FDI) will be subjected to regular and sudden examinations by appropriate Vietnamese authorities of their financial assets, according to the recently issued Decision 1381/Q-BTC by the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

The decision regulates joint inspections of FDI businesses, regarding asset values of land and real estate, machinery and other tangible assets, as well as intangible corporate assets (i.e. licensing, lease, franchise agreements or employment contracts).

This is considered a step up from the usual treatment of regulated annual examinations and notifications from Vietnamese authorities towards FDI firms. This is intended to expose and stop perceived malpractice by FDI firms,

State agencies may conduct regular or sudden examinations and oversight of the implementation of FDI projects by foreign investors, covering the legal compliance of FDI enterprises, their commitments to the Vietnamese government, and the firms actual implementation and achievements.

Decision 1381 states that annual examinations should take place in October, while the Agency of Corporate Finance under the MoF will join forces with the MoFs Inspectorate to compose next years inspection plan, which will then be submitted to the MoF and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) before November 30 of the same year.

Vietnamese authorities will now also be able to examine the use and purpose of imported goods under tangible assets owned by those exempt from import tax, the disbursement of commercial bank loans and corporate bonds, or devaluation of tangible assets based on exchange rate fluctuations.

Some other areas in need of inspection include FDI firms implementation of capital transfer between stakeholders within the same firm and division of turnover from State capital.

Further investigations are included for other corporate responsibilities such as environmental protection, labour rights and social insurance, as well as safe and sustainable use of land and resources in accordance with the national legal framework.

Effective use and commitment to agreed technological transfer will also be included to ensure that the FDI firm in question may continue to receive the preferential treatment given under the projects contract.

The Foreign Investment Agency reported that as of July 20, up to US$21.93 billion in FDI has flown into Viet Nam, up by 52 per cent against the same period last year.

The FDI sector is a key exporter for the country, as during the last seven months overseas shipments from the sector have been valued at $83.05 billion, representing a year on year surge of 20.3 per cent and accounting for 72 per cent of total export turnover. VNS
HA NOI  Domestic firms in the leather and footwear industry lag far behind their foreign directed investment (FDI) peers as Viet Nam cements its position as a leading world exporter in the sector, experts say.

Viet Nams leather and footwear industry posted exports of US$8.5 billion by July 15, a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent, the General Department of Viet Nam Customs has reported.

This figure makes Viet Nam fourth largest footwear producer in the world in terms of volume, after China, India and Brazil, and the third largest exporter in terms of value after China and Italy.

However, foreign invested firms account for 81 per cent of the export value and domestic firms account for the remaining, according to the Viet Nam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso).

Lefaso attributes the domination of FDI firms to their ability to expand capacity and build new factories as they prepare to benefit from tax breaks accorded by several Free Trade Agreements (FTA) that Viet Nam has signed.

The association says domestic firms are constrained by capital shortage and market access, making it difficult for them to expand production and increase their competitiveness. On the other hand, FDI firms are able to build on already existing advantages of capital, experience, technological superiority and other factors.

A Thursday report in the online baohaiquan.vn (Customs News) cited experts as saying Vietnamese footwear enterprises have the opportunity to get new orders because China continues cutting investment incentives for textiles and footwear sectors to focus on hi-tech sectors.

However, with the situation tilted strongly towards FDI enterprises, domestic firms must bring in drastic changes to improve their position by strengthening information linkages, joining associations as well as promotion initiatives of ministries and other agencies.

Lefaso General Secretary Phan Thi Thanh Xuan said the staff of domestic enterprise should be trained to be proactive in marketing and accessing information and to respond quickly to orders, instead of passively waiting for customers to find them.

Moreover, increasing investment by FDI enterprises should be seen as an opportunity for domestic firms to learn from the formers experiences. Domestic firms should also consider co-operating with FDI firms to get orders, Xuan said.

The report on baohaiquan.vn also said that domestic enterprises want the Government to support them through the creation of legal corridors, mechanisms and policies to facilitate their operations.

For instance, they need preferential policies on credit, taxes and labour so that they can reduce operational costs and become more competitive, the report said.  VNS
HA NOI  Trade promotion activities in the southern region this year have focused on monitoring start ups and promoting clean agricultural and industrial production, officials said at a conference on Thursday.

Training and enhancement of stakeholders managerial skills was another focus area, said o Thi Minh Tram, deputy head of the Agency for Regional Industry Development (ARID).

The eighth annual conference on trade promotion in southern cities and provinces was organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), ARID and HCM Citys Department of Industry and Trade (DoIT).

It took note of numerous successes and discussed solutions to remaining problems.

The conference noted that a training workshop held recently had more than 730 participants gain insights into business management, quality control, accessing distribution networks, eCommerce and the use of technology in trade promotion.

The HCM City DoIT also reported a number of support activities for technology transfer, with 48 rural areas receiving modern machinery worth VN6.7 billion ($298,653) for use in agricultural production at a cost of

Several deficiencies were also highlighted at the meeting, including the low rate of disbursement of State capital at just 18.8 per cent of the annual target.

The provinces of Ba Ria  Vung Tau and Soc Trang have yet to begin the disbursement process, while others like Tay Ninh, Tien Giang and Hau Giang have only achieved one to six per cent of the yearly goal, the meeting heard.

Tram said trade promotion and industrial support for businesses in the region had seen certain setbacks with many officials not performing at maximum efficiency.

Tran Quoc Tuan, Director of the Tra Vinh Department of Industry and Trade, said trade promotion activities should focus more on supporting regional imperatives like facilitating agricultural production and distribution in the Mekong Delta.

Tuan said this can be done by changing several administrative procedures, improving cold storage equipment, water supply, input supply and upgrading production chains.

The need to use regional strengths in order to create a value chain between provinces and cities was emphasised at the conference.  VNS
HA NOI  The Government will not accept resignations from officials under investigation, according to the Law on Officers and Public Servants, said Mai Tien Dung, Chairman of the Government Office regarding the resignation recently submitted by Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Ho Thi Kim Thoa.

At a press conference held after a monthly Government meeting on Thursday, Dung said the Party Central Committees Inspection Commission proposed agencies consider striping Thoa of her titles.

If the Party Central Committees Secretariat agrees with the Party Central Committees Inspection Commission, Thoa will have all her current positions striped.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will assign Minister of Home Affairs and Party Delegation to Ministry of Industry and Trade to carry out the stripping.

On July 31, the Party Delegation to the Government received a report about Thoas resignation letter.

Earlier, on Monday, the Party Central Committees Inspection Commission issued a warning to Thoa for serious violations when she was Party Committee secretary and director of former State-owned ien Quang Lamp Company (later ien Quang Lamp Joint Stock Company) from January 2004 to May 2010.

Environment and economic profits

Development must be in tandem with environmental protection, said Tran Hong Ha, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment at the press conference on the dumping of one million cubic metres of sludge from Vinh Tan thermal power plant into the sea.

The investor has prepared a full report into the dumping, with the ministry responsible for verifying the information and accounting for the concerns of the public and experts, he said.

Ha said the Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography published an independent assessment on the environment as a foundation to assess the impacts of dredging and sinking.

The Viet Nam Academy of Science and Technology also established an independent council of scientists and will assess the issue, according to Ha.

The Viet Nam Academy of Science and Technology must identify a scientific foundation to ensure the 70-year development of Vinh Tan thermal power plant, the minister said.

He said that coastal area landslide prevention also requires studies as these activities may affect the environment and economy.

On June 23, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment granted a licence to the Vinh Tan 1 Thermal Power Plant to sink one million cubic metres of sludge near the Hon Cau Marine Protected Area, one of 16 such areas in the country.

The Hon Cau Marine Protected Area contains a 2km long coral reef and 234 kinds of coral, home to many rare marine species.  VNS
HA NOI  The might of the pen and the paint brush as well as their contributions to the nations achievements were lauded by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday.

He said that during the renovation period that had ushered in great socio-economic changes as well as artistic trends, the community of writers and artists had shown solidarity with the Party and the revolutionary cause.

They had also contributed significantly to national development, he added.

Phuc was speaking with the Viet Nam Union of Literary and Art Associations for the first time in the capacity of the countrys Prime Minister in a meeting held yesterday in Ha Noi.

The union, established in 1943, operates under the leadership of the Party and the management of the Government. It represents 40,000 artists and 74 member art associations throughout the country.

Uncle Ho considered artists and writers to be as powerful as an army, helping build the soul and character of the Vietnamese people, the PM said.

Union officials told the PM that in recent years, artistic works have progressed well, both in terms of quantity and quality. Many works showed profound depth, they said.

On behalf of the unions member associations, Chairman Huu Thinh presented a 9 requests petition to the PM aimed at alleviating difficulties and hardships for artists nationwide.

One of the pressing concerns raised at the meeting was State support for traditional arts that are losing ground against contemporary art forms. Financial support and access to social housing for struggling artists (in the form of an artists village) were also included in the requests.

Union members also asked the PM for provision of an annual working capital instead of having artists going around seeking funds. The proposal was accepted by the PM who said an annual fund of VN90 billion (US$3.96 million) will be made available.

Stressing the unions role as a political, social, and vocational organisation, the PM suggested that it improves links between member associations and handle financial matters better. He urged the promotion of young talents and the ties between different generations of artists.

PM Phuc also told the union to take proactive measures to defend against the intrusion of negative cultural influences from the outside and peaceful evolution attempts by hostile forces aiming to dilute socialist ideas and ideals.  VNS
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. MARTAVEOUS DONTA KELLY, Defendant - Appellant. No. 15-4303 Decided: July 21, 2017

Before NIEMEYER, MOTZ, and KING, Circuit Judges. Ames C. Chamberlin, LAW OFFICES OF AMES C. CHAMBERLIN, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellant. Sandra J. Hairston, Acting United States Attorney, Michael A. DeFranco, Assistant United States Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Martaveous Donta Kelly pled guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  922(g)(1), 924(a)(2) (2012). The district court calculated Kelly's Guidelines range under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual (2014) at 100 to 120 months' imprisonment and sentenced Kelly to 110 months' imprisonment. On appeal, Kelly challenges his sentence, arguing that the district court erred in calculating his base offense level at 24 under USSG  2K2.1(a)(2) because he lacks a predicate qualifying felony conviction of a crime of violence. We affirm.

We review Kelly's challenge for plain error because he did not object in the district court to the application of USSG  2K2.1(a)(2). United States v. Hargrove, 625 F.3d 170, 183-84 (4th Cir. 2010). To establish plain error, Kelly must show that (1) the district court erred, (2) the error was plain, and (3) the error affected his substantial rights. Henderson v. United States, 568 U.S. 266, 272 (2013). A plain error is one that is clear or obvious, United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 734 (1993), under the settled law of the Supreme Court or this circuit. United States v. Carthorne, 726 F.3d 503, 516 (4th Cir. 2013) (internal quotation marks omitted). In other words, the presence of the error must be beyond reasonable dispute. United States v. Marcus, 560 U.S. 258, 262 (2010).

Section 2K2.1(a)(2) of the Guidelines provides for the application of a base offense level of 24 if the defendant committed any part of the instant offense[[* ] subsequent to sustaining at least two felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. USSG  2K2.1(a)(2). A felony conviction means a prior adult federal or state conviction for an offense punishable by death or imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, and a crime of violence has the meaning given that term in  4B1.2(a) and Application Note 1 of the Commentary to  4B1.2. USSG  2K2.1 cmt. n.1. Under the version of USSG  4B1.2(a) applied in this case, a crime of violence means any offense under federal or state law, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another or is burglary of a dwelling, arson, or extortion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another. USSG  4B1.2(a)(1)-(2).

Kelly concedes that his prior North Carolina state conviction for possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine qualifies as a predicate felony conviction of a controlled substance offense. Further, after review of the record, we conclude that Kelly's prior North Carolina state convictions for common law robberywhich no party suggests were anything other than punishable by imprisonment for terms exceeding one yearare properly considered crimes of violence under USSG  4B1.2(a)(2). Because Kelly committed the instant possession offense subsequent to sustaining at least two felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense, the district court did not plainly err in calculating his base offense level at 24 pursuant to USSG  2K2.1(a)(2).

We therefore affirm the criminal judgment. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

FOOTNOTES

. This Guideline applies to defendants, like Kelly, convicted of violating 18 U.S.C.  922(g). USSG  2K2.1 cmt.

PER CURIAM:
A doctor examines an HIV patient at the Viet Nam-Czech Friendship Hospital in the northern port city of Hai Phong.  VNA/VNS Photo Duong Ngoc

HA NOI  All people who suffer from life-threatening diseases will be eligible for palliative care, with the care beginning as soon as their diseases are detected, due to a change in a national guidance on palliative care.

Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment under health ministry made the statement on Thursday during discussion on amendments to the guidance.

According to the World Health Organisation, palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and treatment of pain and other problems.

In 2006, with assistance from national and international experts, the health ministry issued guidance on palliative care for cancer and AIDS patients. Khue said the guidance was a legal basis and reference point for healthcare workers to deliver proper care.

So far, hundreds of doctors and nurses have undergone palliative care training and thousands of patients have received improved care in the last stage of their life, Khue said.

The updated document expands the subjects of the specialised medical and nursing care to all people with life-limiting illnesses.

It also encourages the building of multi-component groups, which include medical staff, families, social workers and volunteers, to care for patients. Palliative care can take place at hospitals, at home and within the community.

Eric Krakauer, an expert from the World Health Organisation, said the therapy helps reduce pain and should be incorporated into primary and comprehensive healthcare.

According to Viet Nam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control under the Ministry of Health, by May this year, Viet Nam had more than 209,000 people living with HIV.

In the first five months of this year, more than 1,900 people infected with the HIV virus contracted AIDS.

The first five month of this year saw 3,546 new HIV cases and 641 HIV-related deaths, deceases of 11 per cent and 34 per cent respectively compared with the same period last year.

The administration also reported that only about 50 per cent of people with HIV in Viet Nam have health insurance cards, with some not buying the insurance as they are afraid of discrimination, others being unable to afford it and some lacking necessary personal legal documents.

People living with HIV/AIDS in Viet Nam used to receive assistance from international organisations to cover medical costs and medicines. Most of the assistance was cut when Viet Nam became a middle-income country.

In response, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked localities and central agencies to arrange funding to buy health insurance for all people living with HIV.  VNS
A NANG  The Vietnamese Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affair and his Lao counterpart agreed to boost the 2013 Viet Nam-Laos Labour Cooperation Pact and to search for the remains of Vietnamese martyrs and experts who died in Laos during war time.

The conclusion was made at the fifth Viet Nam-Laos Ministerial Conference on Cooperation in Labour and Social Welfare in a Nang yesterday.

The two sides signed an agreement on the 2017-19 co-operation programmes in boosting labour exchanges and management and manpower training.

As planned, Viet Nam will continue providing short and long-term scholarships for Lao civil servants under the Vietnamese governments Official Development Assistance (ODA) fund.

The two ministries agreed to exchange more law and policy information on employment and labour management. Viet Nam will provide an official list of its authorised job-seeking businesses for Laos employers, said Vietnamese Minister, ao Ngoc Dung.

Dung also expressed his thanks for efforts made by Lao counterparts in searching and collecting the remains of Vietnamese martyrs in the past decades.

Khampheng Saysompheng, Laoss Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, said Laos also hosted conferences on law and policy on employment and labourers for Vietnamese businesses in Vientiane under the Labour Co-operation Pact.

He said the Lao Government has offered favourable conditions for Vietnamese workers in Laos.

The two ministries also shared information exchanges on the topics of salary, safe labour, labour inspection, childcare, and work on behalf of the differently abled and the elderly.

In 2015, Viet Nam supported Laoss efforts to build a centre for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation with an ODA fund of VN48.6 billion (US$2.1 million).

Locals from Laos and Viet Nam have been boosting human resource training courses for border provinces in the two countries.

Viet Nams investments in Laos now totals $5.3 billion in registered capital, with an annual growth rate averaging 30 per cent over the last five years, according to the Association of Viet Nam Investors to Laos.

More than 350 Vietnamese businesses have invested in sectors such as energy, mining, agriculture, forestry and banking in Laos.

Investments registered in Laos account for roughly one quarter of Viet Nams overseas investments of $20.2 billion.

Also on the occasion, Viet Nam gave Laos vocational training equipment and facilities with total funds of VN1 billion ($44,200).  VNS
Hua Nam Village in the northern mountainous province of Son La has been hit hard by flooding. Nine people have died, six are missing, six injured and nearly 300 houses destroyed by flash floods.  VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Cuong

HA NOI  This years natural disasters in Viet Nam have caused much severer consequences than the first seven months of 2016.

Some 1,768 natural disasters hit the country by July 30, down 203 compared to the same period of last year. However, death toll and the number of people missing amounted to 511 and 145 respectively, up 42 and 45, respectively since the same period last year.

Chairing a conference on evaluating natural disaster response in the capital city yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh inh Dung pointed out some shortcomings in the natural disaster rescue process nationwide.

Reviews of landslide-prone locations and resident evacuations were not conducted in an urgent manner, he said. Some localities were passive during emergencies.

Some areas did not take natural disaster forecasts and warnings seriously and were not fully prepared for evacuations during storms and floods, he added.

The Deputy PM asked local authorities and residents to fully grasp the severity of the current climate situation to stay ready for response.

Natural disasters will continue to ravage the country this year and the following years as a result of climate change, creating negative effects on agriculture and industrial production and prompting unexpected accidents in mainland and on the sea, he said.

He urged the National Committee on Incident, Disaster Response and Search and Rescue to instruct ministries, agencies and localities to continue revising and supplementing solutions to flash floods, landslides, tsunamis and other disasters.

At the same time, they should raise public awareness of disaster response and search and rescue, increasing supervision over the effort, he added.

Search and rescue forces should enhance international cooperation  bilaterally and multilaterally  to share meteorological and hydrological data, while improving forecasting capacity and learning from previous disaster prevention and victim rescue experiences, he said.

People clean up classrooms in Mu Cang Chai District of the northern province of Yen Bai to prepare for the coming school year.  VNA/VNS Photo inh Huu Du

Flood aftermath

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday ordered authorities of northern mountainous provinces and agencies and ministries to augment efforts to respond to torrential rains and floods wreaking havoc in the region over the last few days.

Heavy rains have been reported across mountainous and midland provinces in northern Viet Nam. Flash floods and landslides in some areas caused heavy human and property losses, especially in Muong La District of Son La Province and Mu Cang Chai District of Yen Bai Province.

According to the Central Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control, as of Thursday, the natural disasters have left nine people dead, 24 missing and 12 injured. Nearly 200 houses were swept away or collapsed while about 180 others suffered heavy damages.

Meanwhile, more than 13,640 cubic metres of earth and rocks eroded on national highways in northern provinces. Floods also washed away 3km of provincial road No 109, isolating Nam Chien Commune and the Nam Chien hydropower plant in Son La Province. Some 144 irrigation works in Yen Bai and Son La, along with many other infrastructure facilities in the region, were also damaged.



Cost of road repairs due to floods amount to VN244 billion HA NOI  The cost of repairing roads damaged by floods and storms in the first seven months of 2017 amounted to almost VN244 billion (US$10.7 million) by the end of July, the Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam reported on Thursday.

Floods and storms blew off more than 853,000 cubic metres of taluses, destroyed some 122,300 square metres of road surface and blocked almost 113,000 metres of sewers.

The Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam said it instructed the provincial Departments of Transport to take measures to ensure traffic flow and protect traffic works to minimise damages.

The agency has also worked with relevant bodies and localities in rescue work when traffic incidents occurred.  VNS

Total damage has amounted to more than VN538.2 billion (US$23.7 million)

In his written order, the PM requested provincial Peoples Committees, particularly of Yen Bai and Son La, to mobilise forces to search for the missing and relocate residents out of zones which are prone to landslides and flash floods, as more rains and floods are expected in the coming days.

The PM also ordered authorities to support households incurring damages, treat the injured and bury the dead. They were also asked to provide temporary shelters and food for affected residents.

The National Committee for Search and Rescue, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Public Security were told to deploy local forces to assist search and rescue activities and help localities overcome flood consequences.

While the Transport Ministry has to support the provinces to ensure traffic safety in areas hit by landslides, the Health Ministry must direct grassroots medical staff to provide free healthcare for the injured and help local residents ensure post-flood hygiene.

Earlier on Thursday, Deputy Minister Trinh inh Dung came to Mu Cang Chai District in Yen Bai Province, one of the hardest hit localities, to direct and supervise rescue and recovery efforts.  VNS


HA NOI  For more than 10 years, a row of cheap rooms on Ha Nois e La Thanh Street has become second home for dozens of relatives of sick children.

The rooms are rented out by Nguyen The Hiep, 70, to relatives of children admitted to the nearby National Pediatrics Hospital.

The price to hire a shared room with air-conditioning and an old television is just VN15,000 (65 US cents) a day.

Pham Cuc, a native of Ha Giang Province, one of Hieps tenants, said shed taken her 5-year-old daughter to the hospital for treating a heart condition.

Its an unbelievably cheap place in an expensive city like Ha Noi, she told the Gia inh moi (New family) online newspaper.

Nguyen Thi Huong, from the central province of Nghe An Province, said she has been using a shared room in Hieps house for two years. Huongs daughter has been treated for a brain-related disease in the hospital for two years. The treatment has cost her a lot of money.

Hiep only charged Huong rent for the first year, and has not taken anything for this year.

Im always sad because my daughter is sick and I worry about the hospital charges.

But his kindness makes me feel better.

Ngoc Khanh, father of a 15-year-old daughter who needs regular dialysis at the hospital, said he and his daughter have fought the disease for 29 months now, and they have stayed at Hieps house for all this time.

It seems to be my second home, he said.

Living here at a cheap price has helped us much. The room has air conditioning, so we can survive during the summer, he added.

Normally, a shared room can accommodate about 10 persons, with three parts, a kitchen, toilet and sleeping area.

In ong a District, it costs at least VN1.5 million ($65) a month for a separate room with air conditioning and television, and only two people are normally allowed.

Poor, but kind

Luong Thi Thuan, 64, Hieps wife, said she and her husband started renting rooms since 2008. Both of them have no job. The rent is their sole source of income.

But they set the rent at the lowest level they could, because the need very little to live a simple life, she said.

We have only one desire. To help poor people, especially poor parents of sick children, she said.

Thuan, a vegetarian and a Buddhist, said she always felt warmth and happiness when she could support other people.

Hiep and his wife use a 6sq.m room in the house for themselves, and the rest is rented out to poor people.

Hiep said that the Phuong Lien Wards administration, where he lived, had asked him to attend a meeting in 2015 in order to award him with a certificate to recognize his contribution to the community.

However, when several people at the meeting remarked that he was doing it to become famous, he rejected the certificate.

I do it because I just want to do something good for other people.  VNS
by Thu Van

MANILA  In the context of growing rivalries between major world powers, ASEAN needs to demonstrate strong political will and unity to promote peace, security and prosperity, foreign policy experts said on Friday.

They were speaking at a panel discussion at the inaugural ASEAN Media Forum in Manila, ahead of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum.

ASEAN was forged as a mechanism for managing collective security, and the groupings role had worked very well for a while, until it began to de-stabilise in 2010, said Michael Vatikiotis, the Asian Regional Director of the Centre for Human Dialogue.

It was around this time that the two largest powers in Asia, the US and China started sparring more openly, he said, citing Chinas direct investment, support for strategic infrastructure development and military co-operation and the USs pivot to Asia.

The escalation of tension between the US and China in and around Southeast Asia has posed a significant challenge to ASEAN, one which the existing architecture of collective security has been unable to cope with, Vatikiotis said.

He noted that the most divisive issue among ASEAN itself, South China Sea (East Sea in Viet Nam), was one that had undermined the basic assumption that ASEAN has always been solid in its external relations.

Some member states have adopted positions seen as either pro- or anti- one of the two major powers. and at a recent ministerial meeting it was proved impossible to issue agreed statements on critical issues, he said.

In order to not succumb to the strategic power plays of major nations and to retain global trust and confidence, ASEAN needs to developed a strong united stand, said Surin Pitsuwan, former Secretary General of ASEAN.

The challenge for ASEAN is whether it is willing, capable and ready to play a larger role. It will need to enhance its capacity, streamline its decision making process... and adopt a new mindset from its passive ASEAN Way of the past 50 years, Pitsuwan said.

Vatikiotis shared the opinion, saying it was vital that ASEAN reinforces and reinvigorates collective security discussions at the leadership and ministerial level.

Talking about one of the key issues for ASEAN, financing, Termsak Chalermpalanupap, a fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, and a researcher on ASEAN political and security affairs at the Institutes ASEAN Studies Centre, said ASEAN has very Iimited resources to fund development co-operation projects and major infrastructure constructions.

ASEAN has to rely heavily on funding support from its external partners, he said.

However, Pitsuwan called for more creative measures to limit this dependence.

ASEAN should not be an empty forum. We have to have our own scripts, our own resources, our own ways to go forward by ourselves, not just wait for development funds from others. We wont earn respect going into the future like this, he said.

Pitsuwan said he has proposed an initiative.

Collectively, ASEAN has US$806 billion in foreign reserves. If were serious about our connectivity plan, 10 per cent of that could go to a common fund, and those who want funding from that for infrastructure development can have it without having to ask for investment from other countries, which often come with terms and conditions that ASEAN members are not comfortable with, he said.

And it would also show that ASEAN had matured and can deploy its own resources, he added.

Code of Conduct

The experts also discussed the possibility of approving the framework for the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea drafted by China and ASEAN.

Vatikiotis noted that the framework was thin and a mere table of contents, but at least China is cooperating.

Yes, it lacks legally binding aspects, its very thin, but it does include the importance of confidence and trust building, which opens the way for protocols for codes or principles that could determine interactions at sea, for both naval and maritime law enforcement. That is significant and will help reduce tension, he said.

Philips Vermonte from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies welcomed the show of co-operation between ASEAN and China without transforming the existing difficult conflict in the South China Sea.

ASEAN and China relations should not be defined by the South China Sea problem. There are other areas of co-operation between China and ASEAN that both sides can agree on, Vermonte said.VNS
DES MOINES  Officials with the state Department of Human Services said Friday they have used Iowas safe haven procedures for the 29th time since the law went into effect. A boy was born July 25 at an Iowa hospital and the infant was released to DHS custody, state officials said.

A court hearing to terminate parental rights will be held within a month. Details were withheld in order to protect the identity of the parents and child.

Under the safe haven law, the life and health of newborns is protected, said DHS Director Jerry Foxhoven. In addition, parents in crisis are protected from prosecution for abandonment, allowing them to safely leave an infant at a hospital or health care facility, no questions asked.

Through Iowas safe haven law, parents have the option to safely hand over custody of babies age 14 days or younger without fear of prosecution for abandonment. Babies can be left at a hospital or health care facility. The law was approved in the wake of a high-profile case in 2001 involving a teen mother in eastern Iowa who killed her home-delivered newborn. Safe haven babies are placed with foster or adoptive families.

Stem leader

The Iowa Governors Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Advisory Council announced it has a new co-chair. Roger Hargens, president and CEO of Accumold in Ankeny since 2000, will serve along with Gov. Kim Reynolds as co-leader, succeeding Dr. Chris Nelson, president and CEO of Kemin Industries. In addition to serving as co-chair of the council, Hargens serves on the Iowa Innovation Council, the board of directors for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry and the Des Moines Area Community College Foundation board.

Gas prices

The price of regular unleaded gasoline in Iowa increased 4 cents per gallon and retail diesel prices in Iowa rose a nickel last week, according to the state Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. The price of regular unleaded gasoline averaged $2.24 a gallon across Iowa, according to AAA, an increase of four cents from the previous week and 13 cents from one year ago. The national average Tuesday was $2.32 per gallon. Retail diesel fuel prices in Iowa averaged $2.44 a gallon, which also was 13 cents higher than one year ago. The current Iowa diesel average is 4 cents lower than the national average of $2.48 per gallon. Propane prices held steady last mont at $1.11 per gallon, while home heating oil rose six from last months figures, averaging of $1.93. Natural gas prices are down 12 cents at $2.84/MMbtu.

Disaster aid

Kim Reynolds announced Friday the U.S. Small Business Administration has declared a disaster for seven Iowa counties impacted by severe storms and flooding July 19-23. The SBA disaster declaration makes assistance available in Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Chickasaw, Fayette and Floyd counties. Affected residents and business owners may apply for low-interest loans from the SBA. Disaster loans up to $200,000 are available to homeowners to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate. Homeowners and renters are eligible for up to $40,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed personal property. Businesses of any size and private, nonprofit organizations may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory and other business assets.

SBA can also lend additional funds to homeowners and businesses to help with the cost of making improvements that protect or prevent the same type of disaster damage in the future. For small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives and most private, nonprofit organizations of any size, SBA offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans to help meet working capital needs caused by the disaster. Economic injury assistance is available regardless of whether the business suffered any property damage.
DES MOINES  As the United States prepares to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said his priority is do no harm.

Overall, agriculture has done very well under NAFTA, and we hope to continue that, Perdue told reporters Saturday at the 2017 Iowa Ag Summit.   So, do no harm, but then lets figure out how we can enhance the agreement.

Federal officials are expected to hold the first round of renegotiations between Aug. 16 and 20.

Perdue is on a five-state tour to discuss the 2018 farm bill, which governs a number of agricultural and food support programs including crop insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The Farm Bill is the pre-eminent piece of legislation for rural America.  I know of no other piece of legislation that impacts such a large area of our country, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at the summit.

Agribusinessman and prominent Iowa Republican Bruce Rastetter hosted the summit, which brought together farmers, state officials and industry representatives. Rastetter is former Iowa Board of Regents president.

The summit came amid proposed changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard, statewide debates on water quality, an expected decline in farm income and arguments the United States needs to reduce its trade deficit with China.

We want to do everything we can to ensure Iowa continues to be positioned to succeed globally as we not only maintain our existing market and footprint, but we have the opportunity to explore new ones, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, argued the nation needs to negotiate new trade deals with countries in Asia, especially since President Donald Trump pulled the country out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

If we dont pursue these trade agreements, I guarantee you that China will, Ernst said.

Heres what else was discussed Saturday:

Farm bill

Grassley said he is hopeful Congress can pass a farm bill by Christmas. No new funding will be included, though, meaning existing and proposed programs will fight over the same money.

Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, said the farm bill represents only about 2 percent of the federal budget.

You cant balance the budget on the backs of farmers. ... Even if we take a cut, its not going to make a bit of difference in the federal budget, he said.

Wendy Wintersteen, dean of Iowa State Universitys College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, said Congress should invest more in agricultural research. More research dollars, she said, can help the United States prepare for disease outbreaks or other disasters.

With inadequate investment, were never prepared for the next crisis thats occurring in the food systems, and you literally cant predict it, she said.

Infrastructure

Vermeer Executive Vice President Mark Core said other countries are investing heavily in infrastructure to help agriculture, while the United States does not appear to be doing the same.

We talk about roadways and waterways and those kinds of things, but its also water infrastructure, its broadband infrastructure. Theres a lot of other elements for us to be competitive as a global player and to keep agriculture in the top where we need to be, and its in that whole infrastructure discussion that I assume after Obamacare well talk about, Core said, adding that he cant access internet service fast enough to stream Netflix despite living 35 miles south of Des Moines.

When its released, Trumps proposed infrastructure bill will include funding for increased rural broadband service, Perdue said.

When you see his infrastructure bill coming out here very soon, youll see a real emphasis on rural prosperity, rural infrastructure, Perdue said.

Other voices

While panelists spoke inside the Iowa Events Center, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement members protested outside.

Rastetters Corporate Ag Summit is about fattening the pockets of Big Ag tycoons and championing a race to the bottom in environmental degradation, CCI Board President Cherie Mortice said in a statement.

Responding Saturday, Rastetter said the Ag Summit is not a Republican event, its not a big corporate business event.

The Democratic National Committee also jumped in, arguing Trumps proposed budget cuts would hurt programs that have benefited rural Iowans, including crop insurance.

As Congress is preparing to craft the 2018 farm bill, Republicans must work across the aisle to put forward a balanced, bipartisan bill that strengthens programs for farm families, invests in conservation and energy, and creates jobs by growing the economic base of Iowas rural communities, DNC Midwest Press Secretary Mandy McClure said in a statement.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. SHANTANU NERAVETLA MD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VIRGINIA MASON MEDICAL CENTER; L. KEITH DIPBOYE MD; MICHAEL GLENN MD; GARY KAPLAN MD, Defendants-Appellees. No. 15-35230 Decided: August 04, 2017

Before: TASHIMA, McKEOWN, and NGUYEN, Circuit Judges.

MEMORANDUM*

Dr. Shantanu Neravetla (Neravetla) appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendants on his Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and related state claims. Neravetla was a resident in the Transitional Year residency program at Virginia Mason Medical Center (Virginia Mason). He claims that he was terminated from his residency because his employer perceived him to be mentally ill. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291 and we affirm.

1(a) To make out a prima facie case for discrimination under the ADA, the plaintiff must show, among other elements, that she is a qualified individual, meaning she can perform the essential functions of her job. Nunes v. WalMart Stores, Inc., 164 F.3d 1243, 1246 (9th Cir. 1999). Likewise, discrimination under the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) requires a showing that the plaintiff was doing satisfactory work [.] Brownfield v. City of Yakima, 316 P.3d 520, 533 (Wash. Ct. App. 2014). Neravetla demonstrated on multiple occasions that he was neither qualified nor doing satisfactory work. On at least one occasion, Neravetla left the hospital while on call without so much as giving the pager to a colleague. The red flag incident that Neravetla was involved in also merits concern.

(b) Neravetla also cannot demonstrate causation for either his ADA or WLAD discrimination claims. Under the ADA, a plaintiff must demonstrate that he was terminated on the basis of disability. 42 U.S.C.  12112(a). Our jurisprudence has established that an employee is terminated on the basis of disability if the disability was a motivating factor for the termination. Martin v. Cal. Dep't of Veteran Affairs, 560 F.3d 1042, 1048 (9th Cir. 2009). Under the WLAD, a plaintiff must demonstrate that discrimination was a substantial factor motivating the adverse employment action. Scrivener v. Clark Coll., 334 P.3d 541, 544 (Wash. 2014). The record in this case is uncontroverted that Neravetla was terminated solely because he failed to comply with his referral to the Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP).

(c) Nor was the referral itself illegal under the ADA. An employer may require a medical examination if such examination or inquiry is shown to be job-related and consistent with business necessity. 42 U.S.C.  12112(d)(4)(A). In Brownfield v. City of Yakima, we held that a mandatory psychological evaluation satisfied this standard when the plaintiff police officer had displayed highly emotional responses[.] 612 F.3d 1140, 1146 (9th Cir. 2010). We noted that volatile responses are of particular concern when the plaintiff is involved in dangerous work. Id. The practice of medicine is without a doubt similarly dangerous work. Neravetla's emotional and belligerent behavior put patients at risk, and his referral to WPHP was job-related and consistent with business necessity.

2. Neravetla also brings a number of state law claims, none of which has merit.

(a) Neravetla's defamation claim fails at the outset, as he has not identified any specific defamatory statement, nor has he shown that any statement about him was published. See Doe v. Gonzaga Univ., 24 P.3d 390, 397 (Wash. 2001), rev'd on other grounds, 536 U.S. 273 (2002). Finally, Neravetla has not shown that Defendants acted negligently. See Bender v. City of Seattle, 664 P.2d 492, 503 (Wash. 1983). On the contrary, it appears that Defendants acted in compliance with a Washington statute requiring that impaired practitioners be reported to a disciplining authority, an impaired practitioner program, or voluntary substance abuse monitoring program  Wash. Rev. Code  18.130.070(1)(a). Washington law expressly immunizes such referrals from civil liability. Wash. Rev. Code  18.130.070(3).

(b) Neravetla's intentional interference with business expectancy claim fails for the simple reason that there is no evidence that Defendants intentionally interfered with Neravetla's residency plans. There is certainly no evidence that they did so for an improper purpose. Koch v. Mut. of Enumclaw Ins. Co., 31 P.3d 698, 701 (Wash. Ct. App. 2001).

(c) Defendants did not breach the contract governing Neravetla's Transitional Year residency. The contract requires Virginia Mason to provide a suitable education experience  through a training program that substantially complies with the Essentials of Accredited Residencies in Graduate Medical Education as adopted or amended by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. There is no dispute that Virginia Mason's program complies with these guidelines. Even were Neravetla to demonstrate a breach, he has not demonstrated that he suffered contract damages. When Neravetla was referred to WPHP, he was placed on administrative leave with pay. Under Washington law, the mere expectancy of employment is not sufficient to award contract damages for the distant future. McAnulty v. Snohomish Sch. Dist. No. 201, 515 P.2d 523, 525 (Wash. Ct. App. 1973).

(d) Neravetla may not bring a promissory estoppel claim because his relationship with Defendants was fully governed by contracts. [T]he doctrine of promissory estoppel does not apply where a contract governs. Spectrum Glass Co. v. Pub. Util. Dist. No. 1 of Snohomish Cty., 119 P.3d 854, 861 (Wash. Ct. App. 2005).

(e) Neravetla has not established any of the elements of intentional infliction of emotional distress. See Reid v. Pierce Cty., 961 P.2d 333, 337 (Wash. 1998). Defendants did not engage in the type of outrageous conduct envisioned for the tort, nor is there any evidence that they intentionally inflicted harm of any kind on Neravetla.

3. Neravetla also challenges two orders of the district court denying him leave to amend and precluding the deposition of the CEO of the Virginia Mason Health System, Dr. Kaplan.

(a) With regard to the former, the district court properly denied Neravetla's motion to file a second amended complaint with a new conspiracy claim. Neravetla's first conspiracy claim was dismissed with prejudice. The law of the case therefore forecloses Neravetla from pleading the same claim again. United States v. Alexander, 106 F.3d 874, 877 (9th Cir. 1997). Nor does newly discovered evidence foreclose application of the law of the case. The new evidence posited by Neravetla was in Neravetla's possession at the time he filed his First Amended Complaint, and could have been incorporated into his previous amendment.

(b) Finally, the district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a protective order precluding the deposition of Dr. Kaplan. Dr. Kaplan's only involvement in this case is that Neravetla sent him two emails, to which Kaplan briefly responded. The district court correctly determined that a deposition of Dr. Kaplan would be excessively burdensome and inconvenient, and that the same information could be obtained from lower-level employees. See Fed. R. CIV. P. 26(b)(2)(C).

  

For the reasons set forth above, the judgment of the district court is

AFFIRMED.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 04, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 04, 2017 | 04:02 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A meeting set for Tuesday at the Parks Services Office to hear a group's appeal of a recent resolution by the Paducah City Commission to limit participation in its Veterans Day parade has been cancelled.



Mayor Brandi Harless announced the cancellation on Friday. The Parade Committee was to hear an appeal from the local Sons of the Confederacy, who wants to continue to be part of the event. The City recently sent a letter to the SOC explaining that entry into the Parade is limited to participants who represent the U.S. Armed Forces, which would bar the organization from participating.



"While the Veterans Day Parade was originally initiated by a Committee of local Veterans, the Parade is very much an event conducted by the City," Harless said. "Both the Veterans Day Committee and the City Commission recently passed Resolutions affirming the purpose of the Parade, and I believe that it continues to make sense to value the position of Veterans on

defining that purpose."



Harless added that it would be disrespectful to go ahead with the meeting on the same day as the city's celebration of Emancipation.



Harless' Office is reportedly in the process of organizing a meeting with both groups for the purpose of "offering further dialogue on that issue."
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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.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. JACOB RAMIE PRATT, Petitioner-Appellant, v. TIMOTHY FILSON and NEVADA ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondents-Appellees. No. 16-15505 Decided: August 04, 2017

Before: WALLACE, CHRISTEN, and WATFORD, Circuit Judges.

MEMORANDUM*

Pratt appeals from the district court's judgment dismissing his habeas corpus petition as untimely. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C.  1291, and we affirm.

We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C.  2254 as untimely. Porter v. Ollison, 620 F.3d 952, 958 (9th Cir. 2010). Our court has not yet decided whether we review actual innocence gateway claims de novo or for abuse of discretion. Stewart v. Cate, 757 F.3d 929, 93839 (9th Cir. 2014). We need not answer that question here because Pratt has not made out his claim under either standard.

It is undisputed that Pratt filed this action outside the one-year statute of limitations set by 28 U.S.C.  2244(d)(1). Nonetheless, he argues that he qualifies for the actual innocence gateway exception to the limitations period. See McQuiggin v. Perkins,  U.S. , 133 S. Ct. 1924, 1928 (2013). To make out an actual innocence gateway claim, Pratt must present new evidence and show that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in the light of the new evidence. Id. at 1935, quoting Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 327 (1995).

The parties disagree on what qualifies as new evidence for purposes of an actual innocence gateway claim. The root of this disagreement is the Supreme Court's fragmented decision on the issue in Schlup. Although five justices joined Justice Stevens's opinion for the Court, Justice O'Connor, who joined the opinion, also wrote a separate concurrence to explain  what [she] underst[ood] the Court to decide and what it d[id] not. 513 U.S. at 332. As relevant to this appeal, Justice O'Connor's concurrence differed from Justice Stevens's opinion as to the type of new evidence of innocence a petitioner must present to qualify for the actual innocence gateway exception: while the plurality would require newly presented evidence, see id. (emphasis added), Justice O'Connor understood the Court's holding to extend only to newly discovered evidence, id. (emphasis added). Schlup therefore lacked a majority on this point, creating a fragmented decision. See Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188, 193 (1977).

We previously have held that actual innocence claims require only newly presented evidence, thus embracing the Schlup plurality's standard. Griffin v. Johnson, 350 F.3d 956, 962 (9th Cir. 2003). Recently, however, we re-examined our method for interpreting fragmented Supreme Court decisions and adopted a reasoning-based approach that looks to whether one opinion is a logical subset of other, broader opinions. United States v. Davis, 825 F.3d 1014, 102021 (9th Cir. 2016) (en banc), quoting King v. Palmer, 950 F.2d 771, 781 (D.C. Cir. 1991) (en banc). The Nevada Attorney General argues that, under this test, it is Justice O'Connor's concurrence that determines what new evidence a petitioner must produce to invoke the actual innocence gateway exception.

This question of whether Davis displaced Griffin is one that our court will need to address, but not today. Even if we were to assume, without deciding, that the Schlup plurality's newly presented evidence standard applies to actual innocence gateway claims, the evidence that Pratt has produced is not nearly sufficient to carry his burden.

With respect to Pratt's first-degree kidnapping conviction, he has produced no new evidence whatsoever. He merely argues that he is not guilty because the facts of the crime, which he admitted, do not support a finding that he kidnapped the victim for the purpose of committing a robbery as the statute requires. See Nev. Rev. Stat.  200.310(1). This is a legal argument, not evidence. The actual innocence gateway is therefore closed to Pratt on this conviction.

Regarding the attempted murder conviction, Pratt offers only his own testimony that he did not intend to kill the victim, and that he did not push her as she said he did at sentencing. Assuming that Pratt would testify at trial, his testimony would, at most, create a credibility dispute. A reasonable juror easily could believe the victim's account over Pratt's, especially considering that Pratt does not dispute that he (1) actively participated in robbing the victim, (2) kept her in the backseat at knife point (after she had already been stabbed in the neck) as his co-defendant drove the victim's cab around the area while the two debated whether to kill her, and (3) forced her to climb out onto a tree overhanging the Truckee River on threat of death, all while he was on a 17-day drug runner.

Pratt's assertion that the state's presentence report (PSR) supports his proffered testimony is exaggerated. The PSR was not included in the record before the district court, but it would not change our decision even if we considered it. According to the PSR, Pratt led the victim to a bridge where he made her climb down to the tree or he would kill her. The victim then fell when the branch she grabbed broke. Although this report may be consistent with Pratt's account that he wanted to allow the victim to climb to safety and still be able to tell his co-defendant that he killed her, it also is consistent with an intent that the victim plummet to her death from the tree (especially in light of Pratt's threat to kill her if she did not climb onto it). The PSR therefore does not enhance the credibility of Pratt's account.

Pratt's testimony would challenge the victim's account of events, but we disagree that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in the light of that testimony. McQuiggin, 133 S. Ct. at 1935, quoting Schlup, 513 U.S. at 327. Indeed, if a habeas petitioner's own testimony disputing that he committed the crime were enough to satisfy the actual innocence gateway's exacting standard, that gateway would be open in nearly every case, not only in the extraordinary case. Lee v. Lampert, 653 F.3d 929, 938 (9th Cir. 2011) (en banc), quoting House v. Bell, 547 U.S. 518, 538 (2006).

Accordingly, the district court correctly held that Pratt did not qualify for the actual innocence gateway exception for either of his convictions and dismissed his habeas petition as untimely. To the extent Pratt challenges the district court's denial of his motion for appointment of counsel, the district court did not abuse its discretion because Pratt has not shown that the circumstances of [his] particular case indicate that appointed counsel is necessary to prevent due process violations. Chaney v. Lewis, 801 F.2d 1191, 1196 (9th Cir. 1986).

AFFIRMED.
The Hamilton County Department of Education will receive a portion of the more than $1 million Principal Pipeline Partnership grant provided by Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen.

The grants support leadership models that develop or improve innovative and high-impact school leader programs. The nine principal pipeline models that have been approved for funding will train a total of 160 aspiring school leaders across the state.

Assistant Superintendent of School Operations, Zac Brown, said the grant will be used, in part, to create the Gateway Principals Residency initiative at HCDE in which some of the most talented current school leaders take on a bigger role in preparing our next principals. "One of the districts top priorities is to have great leadership in all of our schools. This grant allows us to not only recruit the next generation of great principals, but retain them," Brown said.

HCDE Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson said HCDE plans to use the grant to support leaders across the district. "We want to be the fastest improving school district in Tennessee. Every student deserves an education that prepares them for post-secondary opportunities. Having great leaders in every building is one of the ways we achieve that goal," Dr. Johnson said.

The Public Education Foundation played a key role in obtaining the grant funding. PEF President Dan Challener agreed that strong leadership is a vital component of any successful school. "PEF knows that great schools require great leaders. This is why we continue to support the Leadership Pipeline, Leadership Fellows, the Principal Leadership Academy, and continuously offer support to new principals across HCDE," Challener said. The Benwood Foundation has also supported the Leadership work and was also instrumental in helping the district secure the grant.

Last summer, the state launched the Tennessee Transformational Leadership Alliance (TTLA) to serve as a leader pipeline incubator and help districts develop a deeper pool of high-quality leaders.

In order to be selected for the grants, partnerships were required to articulate a four-year plan for either a new model or an existing model to improve. The four-year plan submitted with each application required three program elements: principal residency training content, bridge support for candidates between program completion and placement, and an induction program for these newly placed leaders.

HCDE will announce more details about the Gateway Principals Residency plan in the near future.
Aug 5, 2017 | By David

While it is increasingly implementing 3D printing technology into production of its large-scale jets and ships, the U.S Navy has also been furthering its advances into drone technology, and the latest breakthrough must be one of the smallest aircraft it has ever developed. The CICADA (Close-In Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft) is a surveillance drone, designed to be carried by larger aircraft and then released in big groups similar to the swarms that its insect namesake travels around in. It carries a small sensor payload, and has a custom autopilot system as well as a 3D printed fuselage.

Photo: Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum

The U.S Naval Research Laboratory has been working on these CICADA drones continuously for around six years now, and the newest prototypes were demonstrated at the 2017 Sea Air Space expo, held in Maryland back in April. The latest delivery system that has been developed for the Mk5 is capable of releasing 32 of the drones simultaneously, and 18 Mk5 drones can be packed together inside a single cube.

The main part of the drone is a circuit board, which also makes up the wings of the miniature aircraft. The fuselage was made using 3D printing to speed up production time and minimize the amount of assembly required. The aim is for the future versions of the CICADA to be produced automatically, built and assembled entirely by robots. This will enable many swarms of these things to be deployed efficiently, at a low cost. Currently each CICADA costs around $250 each, which is already a low enough price tag for them to be considered disposable.

Photo: Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum

Each CICADA Mk5 weighs just 6.5 grams, and it will descend at a rate of around 1,000 feet per minute. The glide ratio is around 3.5, which means it has a very stable descent, and it will travel further the higher it is released from. The drone is guided towards specific GPS co-ordinates, The initially chaotic tumbling of the drone is corrected by the on-board autopilot system.

The miniature electronic payloads seed an area and can be interconnected to form an ad-hoc, self-configuring network. This allows for communication nodes, sensors, or effectors to be placed in a programmable geometric pattern in hostile territory without directly flying over those regions or exposing any human agents on the ground. The sensors that the prototype drones were equipped with were meteorological sensors. The data that the sensors gathers is transmitted back to the launch aircraft through an antenna embedded in the wings.

According to the NRLs Dan Edwards, these CICADA drones are always popular with military and tech enthusiasts, and they have a huge range of potential applications beyond their current use: Every time I show up at a trade show, or talk with people about CICADA, its oh, could you do this?  he said. Chemical and biological sensing is a very interesting idea. There are other electronics you could put in it for seismic sensing along a road. Really, the sky is the limit. Its just a flying circuit board, so anything you can integrate at the component level is fair game...Right now, [CICADAs] would be ready to go drop into a hurricane or tornado, he said. I really would love to fly an airplane over, and each of these could sample in the tornado. Thats ready now. Wed just need a ride. And [FAA] approval.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Gary Silverman in the FT:

I went down to Alabama a few weeks ago and had a religious experience. A man of God welcomed me into his home, poured us both cups of English tea and talked about what has been happening to Jesus Christ in the land of Donald Trump.

My host was Wayne Flynt, an Alabaman who has made the people of the southern US his lifes work. A 76-year-old emeritus professor of history at Auburn University, he has written empathetically about his region in books such as Poor But Proud. A Baptist minister, he still teaches Sunday school at his church and delivered the eulogy at last years funeral of his friend Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird.

I took my place in the book-lined study of Flynts redwood house in Auburn, Alabama, to hear his thoughts on the local economy, but the conversation turned to a central mystery of US politics. Trump would not be president without the strong support of the folks Flynt has chronicled  white residents of the Bible Belt, raised in the do-it-yourself religious traditions that distinguish the US from Europe. I wondered how a thrice-married former casino owner  who had been recorded bragging about grabbing women by the genitals  had won over the faithful.

Flynts answer is that his people are changing. The words of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels, are less central to their thinking and behaviour, he says. Church is less compelling. Marriage is less important. Reading from a severely abridged Bible, their political concerns have narrowed down to abortion and issues involving homosexuality. Their faith, he says, has been put in a president who embodies an unholy trinity of materialism, hedonism and narcissism. Trumps victory, in this sense, is less an expression of the old-time religion than evidence of a move away from it.

More here.
Sheldon Lee Glashow in Inference:

Quantitative science depends on measurement; measurements are expressed in numbers. Our number system is based on ten but some earlier systems were based on twentyperhaps because our barefoot ancestors counted on their toes as well as on their fingers. Linguistic remnants, like eighty as four-score in English, firs in Danish and quatre-vingt in French, reveal their vigesimal ancestry, as did the once widely used Reaumur temperature scale, where the boiling point of water was set at 80 degrees. Many living languages, such as Mayan, Nahuatl, Georgian and Yoruba, retain heavily vigesimal counting schemes.

Computers, using simple yes-no binary numbers, are both digital and digitless.

Four millennia ago, our Sumerian and Babylonian antecedents favored 12 for the number of hours of daylight, signs of the zodiac, and months of the year. They also introduced the 360 degrees of the circle, and, for a while, used a year of that many days. Their number system was decimal from 1 to 59, but otherwise sexagesimal, using positive or negative powers of 60. It was a sophisticated choice.

In the measurement of time, early civilizations recognized three natural but incommensurate periods, each of which now has a precise meaning: 1) the solar year, the interval between successive vernal equinoxes, 2) the lunar month, that between successive new moons, and 3) the solar day, that between successive sunsets. The mean solar year is a few days more than 12 lunar months and a few hours more than 365 days. To deal with this issue the Sumerians came up with a remarkably accurate lunisolar calendar based on the near equality between 19 solar years and 235 lunar months. Their year consisted of 12 lunar months, one for each sign of the zodiac.

More here.
For bookworms with a soft spot for the nostalgia of independent shops, the Bay Area delivers.

Though small, local bookstores seem to be going the way of dinosaurs, our region is still a bibliophile's mecca for indie purveyors, where the shelves are stocked with old leather-bound books as well as modern paperbacks, and community programming still includes author readings and signings.

Each year on the last Saturday in April, hundreds of small bookstores nationwide host special in-store and online events for Independent Bookstore Day. See which of your local shops have something planned, or just celebrate all things literary by sending love to our favorite, quirkiest, and coziest book nooks around the Bay Area.

The Best Independent Bookstores in San Francisco (Courtesy of @greenapplebooks) City Lights Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, book lovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of this literary landmark. The nation's first all-paperback bookstore, City Lights now offers three floors of both new-release hardcovers and quality paperbacks with an impressive range of titles from smaller, harder-to-find, specialty publishers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, City Lights nearly went dark forever, but San Franciscans stepped up, raising over half a million dollars to keep this unique SF experience shining bright. // Open daily noon to 8pm, 261 Columbus Ave. (North Beach), citylights.com Green Apple Books Richard Savoy founded Green Apple Books in 1967 with a stock of used books, comics, and National Geographic magazines. These days, they've modernized with a music and DVD collection as well, but it's hard to find a better-stocked bookstore no matter which location you visit. Look out for Book of the Month recommendations and events. // Open 10am to 9pm daily at 506 Clement St. (Inner Richmond); 1231 Ninth Ave. (Inner Sunset); and Browser Books, 2195 Fillmore St. (Pacific Heights); greenapplebooks.com Omnivore Books on Food When pro chefs, home cooks, and foodies go searching for vintage and modern cookbooks, they walk their Crocs over to owner Celia Sack's Noe Valley shop where, since 2008, a stock of new and antiquarian books covering all things culinary has been ripe for the plucking. Here you can pick up a copy of the latest It cookbook from your favorite chefs and restaurants (look for Chris Cosentino's Offal Good and Elizabeth Pruiett's Tartine All Day), as well as geekier manuals on everything from roots to pickling. SF foodies also love Omnivore for its cookbook launch parties and readings. Follow Omnivore on Instagram for their latest rare and kitschy finds. // Open 11am to 6pm Monday through Saturday and noon to 5pm Sunday; 3855 Cesar Chavez (Noe Valley), omnivorebooks.com Book Passage Book Passage has served the Bay Area for more than 30 years, providing the community with an array of author events, writing and language classes, and highly respected annual conferences. These walls have seen everyone from Presidents and prelates to Nobel Prize winners and first-time novelists speak, with an average of more than 700 author events every year (except during Covid). You can register for the series and also watch archival interviews. And oh yeah, they have tons of books, too. // Hours vary; 1 Ferry Building (Embarcadero) and 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. (Corte Madera), bookpassage.com Borderlands Books Specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and horror (in fact, that's all they sell), Borderlands has been supplying the nerds of SF with good literature for over 20 years. Plus, they have one of the best selections of small-press genre titles in the country with a stock of nearly 14,000 titles. No big deal. // Open 11am to 6pm daily; 866 Valencia St. (Mission), borderlands-books.com Booksmith A neighborhood gem, Booksmith was founded in the '70s, and though people held their breaths when it was remodeled in 2007, the store still captures Haight-Ashbury's counterculture ambiance as vibrantly as ever. Between boycotting controversial publishers to occasionally giving out books at the counter that mysterious benefactors bought out, the store is a total community hub. // Open noon to 7pm daily; 1644 Haight St. (Haight-Ashbury), booksmith.com Adobe Books Adobe Books is a longtime local champion of SF's art scene from the literary to the musical. Stop by to peruse the great selection of books, peek into the back gallery where local artists showcase masterpieces, or just hang out with owner Andrew McKinley. As of Summer 2020, Adobe is also home to the City's first community fridge, so feel free to bring fresh groceries for donation next time you stop in. // Open noon to 8pm weekdays, 11am to 8pm weekends; 3130 24th St. (Mission), adobebooks.com

The Best Independent Bookstores in Marin & Wine Country (Courtesy of @pointreyesbooks) Point Reyes Books Chandeliers dangle from the ceiling of this quirky bookshop, which changed hands in January 2017 to a pair of Green Apple Books alumswho got married a month later. The couple has preserved this beloved bookstore's community spirit while adding their own flair. You'll find a section in the front dedicated solely to local authors as well as a schedule of virtual events. // Open daily 10am to 5pm weekdays and till 6pm weekends; 11315 CA-1 (Point Reyes), ptreyesbooks.com

Copperfield's Books

With nine North Bay locations including a prime spot in the heart of downtown Petaluma and a new store on Napa's First Street, Copperfield's Books is easily the indie bookstore for literati north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Enticing window displays, cozy reading nooks, and handmade cards from local artists will fill anyone with warm bookshop vibes. // Hours vary; copperfieldsbooks.com Stinson Beach Books The storefront may look narrow from the outside, but don't be fooledupon entry, you'll feel like you've wandered off the beach and into Narnia. Besides a good variety of beach reads, this community-oriented bookshop stocks non-literary finds such as maps, trail guides, and even linens. // Open 10:30am to 5pm daily (closed Tuesdays); 3455 Shoreline Highway (Stinson Beach), facebook.com

The South Bay's Best Independent Bookstores (Courtesy of @keplersbooks) Kepler's Books This indie bookstore, founded in 1955, is a historical gem. It has learned well all the ingredients to stay afloat in modern times: a cozy reading nook for kids, nonconventional nonfiction, and even a radio podcast, recorded right in the storeyou're still in Silicon Valley, after all. // Opens at 10am daily; 1010 El Camino Real (Menlo Park), keplers.com Linden Tree Books What started in 1981 as a bookshop specializing in children's recordings, Linden Tree Books has since branched out to include more than just your standard kidlitpuppets, puzzles, science games, and book-character dolls grace their shelves, offering something for any wild child or young bookworm out there. The shop also offers free local delivery on orders $50 or more. // Closed Mondays; 265 State St. (Los Altos), lindentreebooks.com Bells Books Founded by Herbert Bell in 1935, this popular bookstore was originally a place for Stanford students to purchase textbooks, but after realizing textbooks didnt sell so well, The College Book Company, as it was then called, changed to Bells Books. The family-owned shop has been serving the Palo Alto community with its vast collection of new, used, and collectible books and has an assortment of genres including childrens fiction, art, poetry, history, cooking, gardening, philosophy, religion, and classic literature. // Open 11am to 6pm daily; 536 Emerson St. (Palo Alto), bellsbooks.com Feldmans Books Founded by Jack Feldman, Feldmans Books is the beloved independent used bookstore in the heart of Menlo Park. A lot of people may remember the shop being located on El Camino, but as of recently, Feldman has found a new home for his store on Curtis Street, which resides on the busy and popular Santa Cruz Avenue where many people go to dine and shop. When entering the shop, you will be greeted by the owner himself, Jack Feldman, or one of his staff members, who are all willing to answer any of your book related questions. Masks are not mandatory, but are suggested. // Open Noon to 5pm daily; 1075 Curtis St. (Menlo Park), facebook.com Encore Books on the Square In the heart of downtown Redwood City sits the grand and magnificent San Mateo County History Museum where people can learn about the incredible history of the Peninsula. While the museum tends to attract many visitors from around the Bay Area, many people may not know that one of the largest used bookstores in the Peninsula sits right underneath the museum. Before walking up the main steps toward the museum entrance, be sure to take a sharp left down a short ramp. There, you will be greeted by a large selection of used books sold at fair prices. Encore Books accepts cash only. // Open 10am to 3pm Saturdays; 2200 Broadway, lower level (Redwood City), historysmc.org B Street Books Founded by Lew Cohen, B Street Books is the only used bookstore in the city of San Mateo and has been serving the community for over 10 years. Though the shop may look small on the outside, B Street books has more than 40,000 titles that include fiction, art, travel, graphic novels, history, and children's. The shop buys books from owners every Wednesday through Sunday from 2:30pm to 4pm, but if anyone wishes to sell their books to the store, they must first make an appointment. Book owners have the option to either receive cash or store credit. // 11am to 6pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday; 11am to 8pm Friday and Saturday; 301 South B St. (San Mateo), bstreetbooks.com






Kienholz does it all to lead Pierre to sixth-straight 11AA title

Pierre quarterback Lincoln Kienholz had an interception and scored the game-winning touchdown on consecutive drives to seal Pierre's sixth-straight 11AA title.
Ms. Life Care 2017, Violet Carr, with Beecher Hunter, Life Care president, and Deborah Norton, activity director Mr. Life Care 2017, Robert Lee Vicki Hood, Eastern Division director of business development, with Mitty James, Vicki Hood Most Spirited Award winner Previous Next





July 21 marked a milestone at Life Care Center of Cleveland as it hosted its 30th annual Mr. and Ms. Life Care pageant.After interviewing 14 residents, the judges from the Pilot Club of Cleveland announced the 2017 reigning duo, Violet Carr as Ms. Life Care and Robert Lee as Mr. Life Care.The surprise was wonderful, said Mr. Lee, a former salesman from Bradley County who answered questions about his traveling days and his collection of model cars. It feels good to be Mr.Life Care.I am very proud I won, said Ms. Carr, a former seamstress from Missouri who answered questions about her travels as well. I am thankful and am trying to live up to it. I pray for this place and everyone in it  they are good to me and people my age.The judges reached their decision only after extensive deliberation, and then presented several other awards to the participants, including Prettiest Eyes, Ms. Congeniality and Best Interview.Mr. Life Care had two runners up  Elmer James as the first runner-up and Elwood Sperry as the second runner-up.Likewise, Ms. Life Care also had several runners up. Esther Houser was named first runner-up, with Barbara McKinney placing second runner-up, and Alice Thomas awarded third runner-up.Beecher Hunter, Life Care Centers of America president, crowned Mr. Lee, Ms. Carr and the runners-up.Life Care Center of Cleveland also presented a new award this year, the Vicki Hood Most Spirited Award, in honor of Ms. Hood, former activity director at the center who started the pageant in 1987. Ms. Hood now serves as director of business development for Life Care Centers of Americas Eastern Division.Im very honored to be thought about, said Ms. Hood. I was a brand-new activity director when I started the pageant. Its extremely humbling.The very first Vicki Hood Most Spirited Award went to resident Mitty James.As Mr. and Ms. Life Care, Ms. Carr and Mr. Lee will take part in various community events throughout the year.In addition to facility staff and volunteers, several local organizations help make the pageant possible each year, including the Pilot Club for judging, Prior Attire consignment for the ladies clothing, and Hair Graphix for hair styling.
Dr. Caleb Halulko of River of Life Chiropractic and Wellness in Traverse City is Active Release Technique Certified.

River of Life Chiropractic and Wellness according to ARTs (Active Release Techniques) is only 1 of 2 providers in all of Traverse City.



Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/AGQlglVK9fI

What is Active Release Technique?

Click here to learn more about it.



Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/nsQBCPpU2fY

Doctor of Chiropractic in Traverse City Answers the Question What is Chiropractic?

There has been a lot of buzz about chiropractic since it was started in the late 19th century. Some people believe that chiropractic is a facade started by a quack; others say that it is an evolution of ancient healing techniques. Those who have gone through a chiropractic procedure can attest to the amazing healing power of this form of medicine. Chiropractic can have a lot of advantages over conventional medicine procedures. For one, you can avoid surgery and swallowing pills for back pain and headache relief. Chiropractic is very popular in most countries including US and Canada. A local Doctor of chiropractic in Traverse City discusses why:

Doctor of Chiropractic in Traverse City Answers the QuestionWhat is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is an alternative form of medicine that works by correcting neural abnormalities in the human body. It uses a hands-on approach to diagnosing illnesses and also administers treatment. It is the most popular form of alternative medicine today. In the field of chiropractic, a disorder or complication in the neural system (particularly the spine) is usually the cause of all illnesses. Therefore, manipulation of the spine through spinal adjustments is the most effective chiropractic technique. A person who practices chiropractic is a called a chiropractor or Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C).



Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/Fxkr80LsLp4

When Was Chiropractic Started?

Chiropractic was started in the late 19th Century. This was in Iowa, a state in the USA. Daniel David(D.D) Palmer was a magnetic physician and he started this form of medicine after extensive research in the year 1895. He fell upon this amazing science when he administered a spine adjustment on a partially deaf patient. He recorded feeling a cracking sound and his hearing got better in the days that followed. Upon this discovery, D.D Palmer delved deeper into the healing powers of spine adjustments, neck adjustments and soft tissue therapy. After two years, he started the first college of chiropractic to teach other people this form of medicine. Chiropractic is based on the notion of the body parts working in harmony and any interference in the structure of the body can cause illness.

Straight Chiropractors and Mixers

The field of chiropractic is divided into two trains of thought. One group believes in using modern medicine techniques together with chiropractic adjustments to alleviate pain or discomfort. The other group holds on to traditional chiropractic teachings, which explain that the body has an innate intelligence running through the nervous system. The first group is called mixers due to their mixed modern medicine and chiropractic procedure while the traditional chiropractors are called straight chiropractors.

Popularity of Chiropractic in Traverse City

Chiropractic is gaining popularity and more people are reaping the benefits of chiropractic care. In the US alone, more than 22 million people have gone to a chiropractor for medical assistance in the previous year. And the number is ever increasing. The reason why chiropractic is so popular is because many people need solutions for headache reliefand back pain. A lot of patients suffering from such do not find relief from medicinal drugs such as pain medication. It is in this light that they go to a chiropractor for physical spinal and neck manipulation since it can be more effective.

It may just be time for you to visit a Doctor of chiropractic in Traverse City, such as , and start experiencing a healthier spine. If you are still apprehensive, do yourself a favor and set up a consultation. Come with every question you can think of that, when answered, will make you confident that chiropractic is something you should try.

Ready for Chiropractic in Traverse City? Click here or Call now!



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Media Contact

Company Name: River of Life Chiropractic And Wellness

Contact Person: Caleb Halulko

Email: dr@riveroflifetc.com

Phone: (231) 946-9246

Address: 827 W Front St

City: Traverse City

State: Michigan

Country: United States

Website: http://www.riveroflifetc.com
Regular Almanack readers are used to hearing me stress the importance of perspectives from outside the Adirondack Park. Today Ive got one from way outside the Adirondack Park, specifically Norway, where my wife Amy and I are traveling for two weeks. While here I have enjoyed the geologic kinship Norway shares with the Adirondacks. I have also enjoyed the fact that my experiences so far have reinforced the sentiments I expressed in my last Almanack column, namely that we should not overreact to busy trails in the High Peaks. If you think we have a problem in the Adirondacks, you should see the hiking traffic here. And if you think that pervasive cultural experiences of pristine, wild places cant place their fragile value at the heart of an entire society, you should see this country.

Yesterday Amy and I climbed Preikestolen, one of Norways most popular hiking destinations and a national icon. In some ways Preikestolen is Norways answer to Indian Head: a massive, open rock slab with a spectacular view, positioned far above a narrow body of water that is set between mountain ridges. However the scale is far greater: Priekestolens height above the water is three times that of Indian Head and the body of water is a sizeable fjord, not a small lake. For the purposes of this article, a better comparison is our own infamous Cascade Mountain. Cascades trail involves several hundred feet more vertical ascent than Preikestolen, but both routes are 2.4 miles and, more important, both trails are crammed with people who want an accessible but authentic regional mountain experience. Like Cascade, Preikestolen is a challenge that a neophyte hiker or ambitious family might take, an intimidating but doable workout with major parking problems down below and a show-stopper payoff on top. The difference, once again, is scale: Preikestolens foot traffic makes Cascade look like Allen Mountain.

Amy and I climbed Preikestolen late in the day on a Tuesday, when the hiking traffic was starting to wind down, and nowhere near weekend peak activity. For a considerable portion of the ascent we passed a steady stream of descending hikers who took up the six-foot-width of the trail. A conservative estimate is that we passed somewhere on the order of 2,100 hikers in the seventy minutes it took to us to reach the summit. Adding in people on the summit or that we passed on our descent and were talking around 3,000 visitors on part of a Tuesday afternoon. Yet, while the hardened trail was no wilderness hike, the surroundings were pristine, clearly respected and worth every step.

It is important to describe the context of these hikes. After all, the Cascade hike is in a Wilderness and the view takes in one of the worlds great wild areas, something which needs to factor into my claims. Preikestolen is not a wilderness like that, however it is not far off. The trail has signage and two permanent restroom huts, and it is completely hardened with rock work. But on either side of the trail the land is undisturbed, natural and quite Adirondack-like, with woods, meadows, wetlands crossed by boardwalks, open rock and Alpine ponds. The view from the top, while not wild, shows miles of forest and rocky ridges fading into the distance, with some settlement along the edges of Lysefjord, below. The nearest town, Jorpeland, is physically about the size of Saranac Lake and about the same distance from the trail head as Lake Placid is from Cascade. The rest of the area is largely unpopulated, dotted with protected lands here and there and a few minor roads. The one campground in the area is modest in size. Adjacent trails are much less visited and invite inexperienced hikers to get good and lost. The campground folks, who suggested a neighboring trail they told us no one might be on, said that the local search and rescue teams are busy all the time. Added up, the surrounding environment is not substantially different from Cascade.

So here we have a marquee mountain hike that based upon trail head numbers sees at least ten times the traffic Cascade does. Like Cascade, Preikestolen and other popular hikes in Norway have seen huge spikes in usage, mostly reflecting younger generations desires to have dramatic nature experiences. In Preikestolens case the increase is fivefold in the last decade, a much higher rate than Cascade, and it has generated similar debates about limiting overuse. Yet Preikestolen and its surroundings retain their natural beauty. Even on the trail itself there was very little litter compared to the number of visitors, no signs of human waste or toilet paper and a only few places with modest trail erosion. There is a clearly understood hiking etiquette at work, combined with a national ethic that values cleanliness and respect for nature: these things help to ensure that first experiences on Preikestolen are good experiences, despite the crowd. Can we not work for the same experience at Cascade, with only a fraction of the traffic?

As I wrote about a crowded hike up Ampersand a few weeks ago, I wanted every one of the hikers we met at Preikestolen right there, inconveniencing my path, sweating their way up the rock stairs and water bars. I know they were learning to appreciate, value and protect the mountains, forests and waters of Norway. Im certain they were reinforcing a national cultural norm that has made Norway an international version of the Adirondacks: an extremely rare example of people living in relative harmony with wild, forested places. Norway has a centuries-long tradition of doing this, borne of peoples living experiences with nature. It is evident in every aspect of their interaction with the natural world, from how roads are built to how trees roots are left intact to minimize erosion, to how water is protected, to how they graze their sheep.

Being in Norway has reinforced a calculus I already trusted: the value of each person who has a positive experience on Cascade, crowds and all, is immeasurably more important to environmental protection than the value of each person we keep off the trail. We should accept Cascades use and make it a positive, protecting the wilderness as best we can, teaching visitors of every description and helping to build a collective environmental ethic that protects a nation. Norway did it. So can we.

Top photo: Preikestolens wall, towering over Lysefjord, Norway
Chattanooga-based Steak n Shake franchise, Debos Diners, is donating a portion of its sales every Tuesday toward the construction of a new Childrens Hospital at Erlanger in addition to providing restaurant guests an opportunity to round up their checks every day of the week as a contribution to the campaign. The Gunbarrel, Hixson, Dalton, Fort Oglethorpe and Cleveland locations are all participating in the fundraiser that is expected to generate between $150,000 and $200,000 by 2020.

People before profit is more than just a tagline. Debos Diners President Debbie Richman said. Weve seen first hand that putting people first is good for business and good for the community. We are excited to partner with Erlanger on this fundraiser that allows us to give back and positively impact families throughout the region. We hope the community will join us in supporting this important cause.

Once completed, the new childrens hospital will serve more than 1 million children in four states, providing the highest level of care to patients in general pediatrics as well as 22 subspecialties. Phase 1 of construction is currently underway and Phase 2 is expected to be completed in 2020.

"Debo's Diners has been family owned for more than 20 years, and we feel strongly about making peoples lives better whether theyre guests in our restaurants, Steak n Shake employees or members of the communities we serve. Debos Diners Vice President Matt Richman said. My daughter was born with a congenital heart defect, so we fully understand the impact something like that can have on a family and what it means to have peace of mind when your child receives care. All families deserve access to the latest technology and best physicians when their children need it most. Were excited to be a part of making that happen for our friends and neighbors."

Erlanger Health System Chief Development Officer, Julie Taylor, said the hospital is delighted with the partnership and she encourages the community to dine at any of the participating Steak n Shakes.

Your contributions will directly benefit the Believe Campaign to build the new childrens hospital, she said.

About Debos Diners

Debos Diners is a two-time Steak n Shake franchise of the year with seven locations in Chattanooga, Northwest Georgia and Knoxville. Family owned and operated more than two decades, Debos Diners is committed to putting people before profit and improving the lives of guests, employees and the members of the communities it serves. Debbie Debo Richman, president of Debos diners, started her career with Steak n Shake as a 15-year-old waitress in Indianapolis, IN. Her sons, Matthew and Michael Richman, now work alongside her operating the business locations on Gunbarrel Road, Hixson, Dalton, Fort Oglethorpe, Cleveland, Turkey Creek and Powell.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Chance of a shower or two during the evening, followed by partly cloudy skies overnight. Low 42F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Chance of a shower or two during the evening, followed by partly cloudy skies overnight. Low 42F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Incoming students at Chattanooga State, who might be feeling a little overwhelmed, have questions about technology, or are worried about balancing it all, can get help by attending the newly created ChattState Reconnect Refresh Sessions. All students (not just Reconnect students) are welcome to attend these free events.

Beginning Aug. 7-11 and continuing through Aug. 14-16, there will be a number of sessions designed specifically with students in mind to brush up on many of the things that are crucial to a successful college experience.

Sessions include: How to study; how to format your papers; navigating Office 365; eLearn and ePortfolio training; prior learning assessment tips; getting organized, time and money management; and balancing work, life and school.

For a complete schedule with dates and times, please see https://tinyurl.com/2017Refresh

Hover over the titles for a description of the class objectives. Click on any of the titles and register today.

For more information, call Kolwyck Library & Information Commons (KLIC) at 423-697-2576.
August 4, 2017

Seven exceptionally talented Iranian math students lost their lives in a bus crash on March 17, 1998. One of them was enrolled at Tehran University, while the others were studying at Sharif University of Technology. They had all won awards in national and international Olympiads and were returning from the 22nd Mathematics Competition for Students at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in southwestern Iran.

The bus that crashed into a ravine 20 years ago was carrying other passengers who survived. One of them was Maryam Mirzakhani, the Iranian-American winner of the 2014 Fields Medal (equivalent to the Nobel Prize in mathematics). Mirzakhani, who emigrated to the United States to continue her education at Harvard University a few years after the crash, died from cancer on July 14.

Reactions to the news of Mirzakhanis passing on Persian-language social media networks brought back memories of the 1998 tragedy, which claimed the lives of her fellow mathematicians. There was also debate about the exceptionally talented Iranian students who emigrate from Iran, the possibilities and limitations that exist in Irans education system, as well as the role this system plays in cultivating talents.

Iranian universities were shut down for nearly three years in the aftermath of the 1979 overthrow of the shah and the subsequent cultural revolution (1980-83). The endeavor, which aimed to purge Iranian universities from Westernized students and professors, had many consequences. One of them was the exodus of a large number of university elites and experts from Iran.

The issue of brain drain was discussed as a serious problem within Iran. The leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, addressed this issue during a speech in October 1979 in which he said, Who cares if these brains leave Iran? They are not scientific brains, they are traitors! Who would leave their own country and run away to the United States?

The idea of establishing a center for the development of exceptional talents in Iran initially emerged in 1977, when two schools were set up: Farzanegan High School for girls and Allameh Helli High School for boys. Over the years, however, both of these centers received their share of criticism, including from those who believed that their mere existence was a sign of discrimination and thus against social justice.

In 1988, the statute of the National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (SAMPAD) was approved so that the organization could continue its activities under the Ministry of Education. According to the latest official statistics, by 2013, there were 150,000 students enrolled in 660 SAMPAD schools.

Mirzakhani was one of the students who was educated in these special schools. In 1994, when she was still a student at the Farzanegan High School in Tehran, she won the gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad in Hong Kong. A year later, she once again won the gold medal, this time in Canada.

According to a 2010 report published by Shargh Daily, Mirzakhani was one of the 225 Iranian students who participated in 53 international Olympiads between 1993 and 2007. Of these 225 students, more than 140 left Iran to pursue their studies abroad.

Mirzakhani received her bachelors degree from Sharif University of Technology, which is known as a center for exceptional talent. According to Shargh Daily, more than 94% of exceptionally talented Iranians who are either studying or working at various universities around the world received their bachelors degrees from Sharif University.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Omid Kokabee, an exceptionally talented student of nuclear physics, agreed that the role played by Sharif University in cultivating Mirzakhanis talents is undeniable. Yet, he added, Such conditions only exist in a limited number of Iranian universities.

Kokabee was one of those exceptionally talented students and was ranked first in the 1999 Students Chemistry Olympiad. One year later, he was admitted to Sharif University for a joint doctoral degree in physics and mechanical engineering.

In 2007, Kokabee emigrated to Spain to pursue a master's degree in nuclear physics with a focus on lasers. He subsequently entered a doctoral program in the same field at the University of Texas. Kokabee spoke with Al-Monitor about his reasons for leaving Iran as well as his desire to study and do research in the field of nuclear physics. He said, [In Iran] I had to manage with the limited equipment that was available. Neither at university nor when I was in high school were there any equipped laboratories  even with basic equipment. Therefore, we could not experiment with what we had learned.

According to Kokabee, Iranians have the opportunity to achieve an advanced level of learning in terms of theory and established pedagogy in Iran, but when it comes to actual research, there are no prospects. Applied research requires modern and well-equipped laboratories, raw materials and international collaboration, which are not possible in Iran. Unfortunately, in Iran, applied physics is very weak, both in terms of resources and understanding its importance for industry and society, he said.

The case of Kokabee, similar to that of Mirzakhani, has been widely discussed on social media. In 2011, while about to return to the United States after a trip to Iran, Kokabee was arrested at Tehrans Imam Khomeini International Airport. Later he was charged with having relations with a hostile country and receiving illegitimate funds and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. On Aug. 29, 2016, after being diagnosed with kidney cancer and due to increased domestic and international pressure for his release, he was conditionally freed from prison.

According to a 2009 International Monetary Fund report, Iran ranks first among 91 countries in terms of brain drain.

Under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13), there was an increase in the number of elites leaving the country due to his policy of purging the universities from Western liberal and secular influences. Indeed, data shows that in the academic year 2009-10, the number of Iranian students at American universities increased by 33% compared to the year before.

It appears that the trend of talented students emigrating from Iran has continued under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, too. On July 11, 2016, the head of the exceptional talent group of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution in an interview with Tasnim news agency noted a 16% increase in the number of talented students emigrating from Iran in the academic year 2014-15.

Kokabee believes that considering the current situation in Iran, the public education system can only play a supportive role in cultivating and educating exceptionally talented students. He noted, A weaker education system can even waste these talents. These exceptional talents are naturally curious and thus need a suitable and nurturing environment to reach their goals. In the case of professor Mirzakhani, it is obvious that being a student at Sharif University provided her with such an environment.
August 2, 2017

In an article that could deliver a further blow to Turkeys ailing tourism sector and international image, Forbes magazine on July 28 described Turkey as one of the 10 most dangerous places for solo female travelers.

The article, which ranked Turkey ninth, was based on the travel website Trip.coms country evaluations in March, adding in information from US State Department warnings. The Trip.com website, while generally rating Turkey poorly, also features remarkably positive reviews of the country and of Istanbul  reportedly now Europe's cheapest city to stay in  by several female and male travelers.

The Forbes' piece hit a nerve with Turkeys Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Pro-AKP media outlets pronounced the article to be presumptuous and untrustworthy. The daily Hurriyet said the story had provoked a wide reaction in Turkey, without clarifying the exact nature of this response or explaining what critics found objectionable in the ranking.

The hospitality industry has taken a series of serious hits in the last two years, including terror attacks and the failed coup attempt of July 2016. According to Tourism and Culture Ministry statistics, Turkey received nearly 36 million foreign visitors in 2014, with the number going down about 200,000 the following year. In 2016, the number of foreign visitors sank to nearly 25.3 million. The numbers appear to be dropping even more this year; in the first half of 2016, slightly over 11 million visitors were reported to have visited Turkey.

On Aug. 1, the ministry issued a press release about the Forbes article, saying it involved misperceptions that have targeted Turkey for some time. The ministry accused the article of being based on speculation rather than fact and charged that it deliberately sought to portray Turkey as a dangerous destination for women to influence the way the international community sees the country. Yet the statement, presented by the pro-AKP media as a severe response by the ministry to Forbes, did not provide data to counter Forbes arguments or to assure the international community that Turkey is a safe and hospitable destination for solo female travelers. The ministry's statement did not even mention traveling solo. In this case, what was not said is the crux of the matter.

The owner of one of the most prominent tourism firms in Turkey, who spoke with Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, said, I believe what bothered the government about the Forbes report is the issue of security. They have totally disregarded that the matter was about solo female travelers. Indeed, I am not even sure if they ever wonder what kind of services they could provide for solo female travelers or gay or transgender tourists so that they would feel safe and welcome in Turkey. Istanbul used to host one of the biggest Gay Pride marches in Europe for years. For the last few years, what gets in the international press is news of police brutality in those marches. Conference tourism is almost dead. This is significant because about half of the participants in conferences were solo female travelers.

The Forbes ranking comes after a decade of AKP policies that have been pushing women out of public spaces. Most of the party's base would say that a good womans place is in the house  unless the woman happens to be working for the AKP or other religious causes. The party's moves to push women out of public view and Islamicize the image and rhetoric of the public arena have left their marks.

For over a decade, government officials in Turkey have been telling women to get married as soon as possible, not to seek divorce, to have as many kids as they can, not to wear makeup or even laugh in public. Indeed, we have heard advice for pregnant women to avoid walking out of the house and for women to seek a means of transportation that is only for females. In the last year, random attacks on women in parks, buses or other public spaces have become commonplace. The pressure has become so heavy that the hashtag #Kiyafetimekarisma (Dont mess with my outfit) was a trending topic on social media for days and there have been several protests in major cities demanding freedom to dress as one wishes. Sexual and physical attacks as well as murder of women are on the rise in Turkey and the perpetuators often get off lightly.

Al-Monitor spoke with several seasoned female travelers who have been to Turkey multiple times as well as young women who visited Turkey once. Although none of them visited Turkey as solo travelers, all of them, at one point or other, had to walk alone at some point during their visit. When asked about safety concerns, none of them felt any danger in Turkey, but admitted that they had been worried or concerned at times. Some said that the reason for their initial worry was the rape and murder of Pippa Bacca, an Italian artist, in 2008, and the murder of Sarai Sierra, an American in Istanbul.

In both incidents, locals questioned why these women had traveled alone, as traveling solo for women is not the norm in Turkey.

Women travelers, except the ones who lived in Turkey for some time, told Al-Monitor that one of their biggest impressions about Turkey was that Turkish women refrained from talking to them. For the women travelers, that signaled a wider issue about Turkey and Turks: This is a male-dominated society, from taxi drivers to shopkeepers. It was mostly men who would do the talking. In rural areas, local women would rarely engage foreigners.

This, in turn, raises concern that the number of women in Turkish public spaces  city centers, bazaars, bars  is gradually diminishing. Therefore, women who dare to be present and active in public face higher risks.

New technologies have also made the uglier side of life more visible. For example, there was an incident where a young woman was beaten up on a bus while other passengers just looked on without interfering. Several drivers and their assistants on intercity buses were caught on cameras masturbating over and even ejaculating on sleeping female passengers.

The above and other similar news indicate that traveling or just being in public in Turkey for women has become much more difficult with or without a headscarf. Dressing modestly would help minimize visibility but it will not guarantee safety on the street. One Omani college student from the United States who was visiting Istanbul told Al-Monitor, We were at an upscale halal restaurant [not serving alcohol] with my family and I went upstairs to go to the bathroom; a middle-aged man coming out of mens bathroom groped me, but I could not say anything as I did not want my dad to get into a fight. The man was a customer dining with his family, with daughters about my age.

Jenny White, a professor at Stockholm University's Institute for Turkish Studies, is a keen observer of Turkish culture and politics who has researched, lived in and written about Turkey. Asked about changing risk factors for female travelers, White told Al-Monitor, You may no longer be able to rely on ordinary citizens to step in and help you.

She added that in Turkish society, there was savage hatred between different groups of people and an inability to rely on other people for help, as well as a sense of impunity that if you do something to someone else, you won't be held accountable.

Robyn Eckhardt, a food and travel journalist and cookbook author who has traveled in Turkey extensively to do research for her book, highlighted the hospitality in rural areas, particularly in the southeast. She said, I think there is a changing risk factor for any foreign traveler in Turkey caused by pronouncements from various members of the governing party about 'foreign plots' to destabilize Turkey and 'foreign spies' traveling around the country. Some people are likely to take such 'warnings' seriously, and if they do, this will not have good implications for visitors.

Despite the social turmoil and difficulties faced by local and foreign women, Turkey remains an intriguing travel destination with a vibrant young culture. It is not fair to list Turkey as one of the 10 most dangerous places to travel for women. It is crucial, however, to raise a red flag that rising xenophobia and misogyny are leading to the isolation of the country in all aspects. What can the solo female travelers do then? Stay sober, appear strong and in control at all times and be vigilant even at halal restaurants.
Michael Studer, Tennessee State Apiarist and Apiculturist, will be speaking on the importance of bees and conservation at Cleveland State Community College on Thursday, Aug. 31 at 3 p.m. in the George R. Johnson Cultural Heritage Center Theater.

The presentation is part of a seminar series sponsored by the Greg A. Vital Center for Natural Resources and Conservation, the first named academic program at the college.

Since pollinators are so important in the environment, I thought this would be a great way to start off this seminar series. stated Robert Brewer, Associate Professor of Biology. Mike is a good speaker; everyone will get something out of this. Most places usually charge for him, so this is a great opportunity to hear him speak at no charge. The community can attend for free.



According to Mr. Brewer, this is just one of four events the Vital Center will host this year. In addition to Studer, the college will also have another seminar in February, a set of high school competitions in November and Conservation Day in May.



Mr. Studer is currently an apiarist and apiculturist for the State of Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Consumer and Industry Services. Some of Studers responsibilities include colony inspection, entry permits, moving colonies, pollination list, apiary registration, County or Area Beekeeping Associations Apiary Inspection Grants, collaborative research and education with the State Apiculturist and other regulatory issues.



Basically, Im responsible for all the honeybees in the state of Tennessee, stated Studer. Trying to keep them alive, trying to make sure there are no disease problems, regulating bees coming in and going out and moving within the state.



Mr. Studer continued, Im looking forward to speaking at CSCC. I enjoy talking to lots of different groups. I try to tailor the talk according to the group and what they want. When someone needs me, if I can work it into my schedule, Ill do it. I like to talk about the importance of bees, how they are used in agriculture and arent just important for producing our foodthey are responsible for producing things like hay and other crops. They pollenate clover, alfalfa, things like that. They pollenate things in the forest and help wildlife. They do a lot of good for everything.



For more information on the seminar series sponsored by the Vital Center, contact Mr. Brewer at (423) 472-7141, ext. 342.






August 4, 2017

There's a potential conflict looming for Turkey that hasn't been getting the attention it deserves, especially as it would involve one of Ankara's very few remaining regional partners: the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq.

Turkey's statements about the KRG's upcoming independence referendum vacillate slightly between criticisms and warnings, just short of outright rejection. KRG President Massoud Barzani is determined to hold the referendum Sept. 25.

When Barzani announced his decision to ultimately pave the way for the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan on Turkeys southeastern border, the Turkish Foreign Ministry reacted June 9.

We have been conveying for some time Turkeys concerns about the independence referendum  to the government of Iraq and the KRG, as well as to the leading members of the international community. In this regard, we have been stressing that, at a time when critical developments are unfolding in the region, such a move would benefit neither the KRG nor Iraq and that it would have negative consequences which will cause further instability, the ministry's statement said.

We see the KRGs decision to hold the independence referendum on Sept. 25, which runs counter to our advice and warnings, within the above-stated context and consider that it will be a grave mistake. Preserving Iraqs territorial integrity and political unity is one of the fundamental principles of Turkeys Iraq policy.  Furthermore, given the present extraordinary circumstances that the people of Iraq are in [in part because of the devastation of the war against the Islamic State], it is obvious that a referendum which will also include the disputed territories will be far from reflecting the will of the people, it added.

Turkey does not want oil-rich Kirkuk province to be included in the Sept. 25 vote.

Right after the foreign ministry released its statement, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim spoke on the issue and went a bit further, labeling the planned referendum an irresponsible act.

Kurdish authorities found Turkey's stand lukewarm. KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who champions extremely close relations with Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogans household, was quoted by Kurdish media as saying, I believe from what we have seen so far, the reactions of [various] countries are very normal. He continued, There is nothing in [the Turkish statements] that could cause concerns.

According to my Kurdish sources in the inner circle of the KRG decision-making process, negative comments by the Turkish side are for the benefit of Turkey's domestic political scene. What they have heard from their Turkish colleagues privately on the referendum issue is quite different.

Therefore, for the Kurds, there is supposedly no need to be concerned about Turkey's reactions.

However, Erdogans statement and the words he chose have to be treated with the utmost importance, as his position overrides every institution and personality in todays Turkey. His remarks during a July 5 interview with TV channel France 24 do not support KRG officials optimism on Turkeys ultimate position.

The Turkish president unequivocally said that he does not see the referendum as the right step, and that he was directing his message to the local administration in northern Iraq. He said the administration would regret such action.

Barzani and the northern Iraqi local administration are not ready for such an initiative, he added. His most dramatic words in the interview were these: If you take such a step, that means you have started dismembering [Iraq], and other similar moves will follow. Therefore, we do not see it as the right step."

Anybody familiar with Erdogans speaking style should know that these phrases are quite tough  beyond a friendly warning. Tellingly, Erdogan was also belittling the KRG by saying local administration rather than using Iraqi Kurdistan's official name.

Erdogan has consistently made it known that he doesn't support even the autonomous Kurdish entity in northern Iraq, fearing the same thing will happen in Syria.

Turkeys military establishment, one of Erdogans recent staunch domestic allies, is also known for its opposition to the autonomous Kurdish entity. Anti-Kurdish military hard-liners believe that northern Iraq sounds like a distinct region and that using the phrase could legitimize establishment of a sovereign authority other than Baghdad. About a decade ago, the hard-liners stopped using the phrase "northern Iraq," instead referring to the area as the north of Iraq to emphasize that the country is one territorially indivisible unit.

Now they are doing so again. The phrase "north of Iraq" resurfaced July 17 in the communique of Turkeys National Security Council, an advisory body chaired by the president that brings together top military brass and the government.

It is stated that the decision made by the regional administration of the north of Iraq cannot be implemented neither de jure nor de facto; that such an initiative is a grave mistake which would bear undesirable consequences, the official communique said.

The last salvo against the referendum came from the Iraqi Turkmen Front, which is well known for its affiliation with Turkey, particularly with Turkish military intelligence. Speaking to Turkeys state-owned Anadolu Agency, Iraqi Turkmen Front leader Ershad Salihi said the upcoming referendum would lead to chaos.

"Kurds will be those who will suffer the most after the referendum, which would only trigger the division of the country that has been struggling with various types of chaos, terrorism, conflict and problems for 10 years now," Salihi said, adding that Kurds, who have gained a certain amount of autonomy since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein [in 2003], will suffer losses in political, economic and national areas.

There is no doubt that Salihi's statement reflected the outlook of Turkeys decision-makers on Iraqi and Kurdish issues.

Despite the strong relationship gradually established, particularly since 2009, between Ankara and Erbil (the city Iraqi Kurds consider their capital), few people expect Turkish authorities to endorse or acquiesce to the Sept. 25 referendum on Kurdistans independence. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
August 4, 2017

In a remarkable shift of events, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense added on July 20 a number of Al-Abbas Combat Division troops to its ranks following Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis approval, thus making the brigade the first Shiite faction in the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) to partially join the Iraqi regular forces.

This step underscores the divergence in views and trends among the PMU Shiite factions, which have different viewpoints on the future of the PMU and its relationship with the Iraqi state. While some of them entrench their Iraqi orientation, others are keen to deepen their relations with Iran and be part of its regional plans.

Al-Abbas Combat Division was founded by Al-Abbas holy shrine under the patronage of Ahmad al-Safi, the secretary-general of the shrine and the spokesman for the supreme religious authority Ali al-Sistani. Other armed factions are affiliated with the Shiite holy shrines  such as Ansar al-Marjaiya Brigade, Ali Akbar Brigade and Imam Ali Combat Division  but Al-Abbas Combat Division has special military capabilities, as it consists of four infantry brigades, an armored brigade, artillery battalions and a highly equipped special force trained by the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service as well as an engineering and incursion squad, according to the Tactical Cell, an Iraqi cell of experts that focuses on military and security issues in Iraq.

Al-Abbas Combat Division's media wing confirmed the news to Al-Monitor, providing a statement saying, We have registered 1,000 fighters from the brigade at the Ministry of Defense after obtaining the approval of the commander in chief of the armed forces and the minister of defense.

Some Shiite factions, such as the Shiite holy shrine factions affiliated with Sistani, are trying hard to ensure their affiliations are only Iraqi ones. In this context, the commander of Al-Abbas Combat Division, Maitham al-Zaidi, said that they have instructions not to meet with any non-Iraqi security figure.

Regarding the reason why the commander in chief of the armed forces approved the addition of some forces of Al-Abbas Combat Division to the Ministry of Defense forces, Al-Abbas media wing statement noted, The performance of the brigade is close to the armys and the brigade directly receives operation-related orders from the commander in chief of the armed forces. Despite being on the PMU payroll, Al-Abbas Combat Division does not receive orders from Iran-affiliated PMU leaders such as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

The media wing's statement stressed that the move aims at strengthening the Iraqi regular forces and said, The command of the brigade has specific goals and works toward a promising national defense project to boost the prestige of the Iraqi army and its security forces.

Meanwhile, Saraya al-Salam is moving in a similar direction, and the commanders of this brigade emphasized the importance of strengthening the Iraqi military institutions. Saraya al-Salam is an armed faction affiliated with Muqtada al-Sadr, who has repeatedly warned against the dangers of Shiite factions undermining state institutions. In this regard, the Jihadi Commission of Saraya al-Salam decided to close the Sayyid al-Kunin Academy of Military Sciences on July 16 as a first step toward strengthening the institutions of the Iraqi state, according to the statement of the commission. The Sayyid al-Kunin Academy was providing followers of the Sadrist movement with military knowledge.

Commenting on the efforts of Saraya al-Salam to preserve the Iraqi identity of its forces, spokesman for the Sadrist movement Salah al-Obeidi said in a TV interview July 17, We [Sayyid al-Kunin Academy] invested in purely Iraqi talents.  We did not send our members to foreign countries.

Meanwhile, other Shiite factions do not see themselves as pure Iraqi groups, but seek to play a key role in the Iran-led axis of resistance all the while following Iran in its moves in the region. Senior commanders in such groups dominate the PMU, as they try to build a dogmatic ideological force parallel to the regular forces and similar to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran.

In an effort to highlight its independent identity from the Iraqi forces and to confirm its proximity to the IRGC, a battalion from the PMU chose similar uniforms to the IRGC and opted for a march comparable to that of the IRGC in a July 15 military parade in Baghdad.

Commenting on this event, PMU spokesman Ahmed al-Asadi said July 22, This is a message whereby the PMU is a new addition to the Iraqi armed forces."

"We are proud that in Iran there is the revolutionary force that has managed to defend the state and the Iranian revolution. We are also proud that the PMU has reached a level of strength, competence and training that can be compared to that of Iran's revolutionary force, he added, in reference to the IRGC.

This trend, however, is not consistent with Sistanis, who is reluctant to send his followers to Syria to fight. Sistani does not even recognize the PMU and considers fighters who are not affiliated with the Iraqi regular forces as volunteers. Sadr agrees with Sistani in this regard and he earlier ordered the expulsion of members who took part in the fighting in Syria.

The competition between these two trends is clear with regard to the future of the PMU and its affiliations. But the pro-Iran trend seems to have the upper hand given its control over the PMU budget and the continued support it receives from Iran. Moreover, supporters of this trend are planning to gain substantial political gains to proceed with their projects.

A military victory without a political victory has no meaning and no value, the secretary-general of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a faction close to Iran, said on the third anniversary of the PMU founding in June. Meanwhile, Secretary-General of the Badr Organization Hadi al-Amiri enjoys broad public support, according to a poll published by the National Democratic Institute in June. Amiri is one of the closest PMU commanders to Iran, and he is a potential candidate for prime minister.

Therefore, the political conflict between the Sistani current and the current of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has expanded to include the security establishment at a time when developments seem to be leading to a possible confrontation between the two.
August 4, 2017

Turkish authorities are trying to determine how to handle the case of a Russian couple detained at the Turkish border with Syria as they were allegedly on their way to join the Islamic State (IS) with two young children in tow.

Svetlana Ukhanova, 24, Yevgeny Kochaari, 27, and two children were trying to get to Syria using forged documents, according to Tass, the Russian governments news agency. Ukhanova is the mother of both children. Her 6-year-old daughter, Lisa, is from her first marriage; 18-month-old Amina is Kochaaris daughter. It is unclear whether Kochaari and Ukhanova are legally married.

When the group left for Turkey in mid-June, Ukhanova told relatives she would visit friends and return by the end of the month. The relatives became concerned soon after because they couldnt reach her. When she did contact them, they told the media, she asked that they not look for her or raise a fuss.

On July 12, the group was detained in Turkeys Hatay province on the Syrian border. Sergey Ukhanov, Svetlanas ex-husband and the father of 6-year-old Lisa, immediately went to Turkey, where he was allowed to meet with his daughter in the deportation center  but Turkish authorities initially wouldnt let him take Lisa back to Russia. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to take his daughter home, he made a video asking Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, to help him with the cause.

In the video, I told him that he should understand me because he is also a father, he explained to Russian media.

Almost immediately, Kadyrov promised to take all necessary measures to retrieve Lisa. On July 26, the girl returned to Russia with her father, safe and sound.

Amina, however, has not been so lucky. At press time, she apparently was still in the deportation center in Antakya with her parents. The Russian Embassys press attache, Irina Kasimova, said the Russian consular staff has met with local officials and the detainees to discuss their fate, Tass reported.

Its unlikely that the 18-month-old will be allowed to return to Russia, Tatyana Zagorodnyaya, Russia's ombudsman for childrens rights in the Saratov region, said during a July 28 news conference. According to Zagorodnyaya, the situation is complicated because both of the girls legal representatives have been detained.

Turkey accuses the couple of having IS links. Relatives also admit the family was probably headed to Syria to join jihadists. According to Sergey Ukhanov, Lisas father, the reason he and Svetlana divorced was her growing interest in Islam. The woman converted to Islam four years ago, and she and Kochaari have been living under Sharia law.

Valery Ukhanov, Lisas grandfather and the womans former father-in-law, told RT news Lisa wasnt allowed to attend school or communicate with other children, and there was no computer or TV in the home. He recalled that the couple had pictures of armed militants on their social media profiles.

Unfortunately, the familys story isnt unique. Many Russians use Turkish territory to get into Syria to join terror groups. Two years ago, Russian society was struck by the story of Varvara Karaulova, a 19-year-old student from Moscow. She was detained in Turkey in June 2015 when she and other foreigners tried to enter Syria allegedly to join IS ranks. Karaulova was deported to Russia, where she changed her name to Alexandra Ivanova and soon was captured making another attempt to enter Syria. Moscow District Military Court found her guilty of attempting to join IS and in 2016 sentenced her to 4 years in a penal colony.

On July 22, at least 26 foreigners, including 16 women, were taken into custody in Mosul by Iraqi forces. According to Iraqi officials who spoke with the Associated Press off the record, the women allegedly worked for the IS police and their husbands were IS fighters. Most of them were from Russia; others were from Germany, France and Belgium.

According to Turkeys Ministry of Internal Affairs, Russia ranks No. 3 among countries whose citizens have links with terror groups such as IS and travel to Turkey. Saudi Arabia and Tunisia were Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. Since 2011, Turkey has deported around 800 Russian citizens who allegedly tried to get to Syria via Turkish territory to join terror groups. More than 4,100 Russians were refused the right to enter Turkey and were blacklisted by Turkish authorities during that period.
August 4, 2017

After decades of estrangement, Saudi Arabia is trying to become an influential player in Iraq to provide an alternative to Iran. Its ambitions should be kept in check, as its Persian rival has considerable experience and advantages, but a resurgence of Saudi diplomacy is a positive step.

Twenty-seven years ago this week, the kingdom broke ties with Saddam Hussein's Iraq after his invasion of Kuwait and the threatened invasion of Saudi Arabia. After badly underestimating Saddam's ambitions, King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz decided that the Saudis would not be Saddam's next conquest and invited US President George H. W. Bush to save his throne. When Kuwait was liberated, Fahd hoped a Sunni general would remove Saddam and restore Iraq as the eastern shield of the Arab Sunni world against Shiite Iran. The Saudis despised Saddam's Shiite opponents, like Ahmed Chalabi, who they saw to be Iranian agents, but they welcomed Sunni ex-generals.

When President George W. Bush toppled Saddam, Fahd's successor, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, said America was handing Iraq to Iran on a golden tray. Saudi princes scoffed at American naivete in letting free elections empower the Shiite majority. Saudi jihadis flocked by the thousands to join the insurgency against the Americans and the Shiite governments in Baghdad. The Saudi Wahhabi clerical establishment at first cheered them on until al-Qaeda came home to attack the royals.

In 2015, the kingdom finally opened an embassy in Baghdad, but little followed. The first Saudi ambassador in decades left after his tour was cut short due to assassination threats. The Iraqi government asked him to leave.

In February, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir became the first senior Saudi official to visit Baghdad since then-Saudi ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin Sultan visited in May 1990. The Iraqi president attended the May summit in Riyadh with President Donald Trump and 40 Muslim leaders, even though it was dominated by Iran bashing. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi followed up with a visit to Riyadh in June, and Saudi Chief of General Staff Abdulrahman al-Bunyan reciprocated in July, leading to a partial border opening at Arar, the first since August 1990 on the 800-kilometer (497-mile) frontier.

In late July, the Saudis hosted Muqtada al-Sadr, the notorious and mercurial Shiite politician who has a long history of self-promotion in Iraq but also has a strong and loyal base. Before traveling to the kingdom, Sadr said he wants to defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran to help stabilize the region. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Sadr, and the Saudi press hailed the meeting as a step toward reducing Iranian influence in Baghdad. Iranian hard-line media expressed concern about the meeting.

The crown prince raised the question of opening a Saudi consulate in Najaf, Iraq's premier Shiite holy city. It's deeply ironic for the Saudis to seek a diplomatic presence in the city where Imam Ali is buried, where Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini plotted the Iranian Revolution and where Wahhabi armies tried to sack repeatedly in the early 1800s during the first Saudi state. But it is also an effort to boost Najaf as a rival to Qom, Iran's second holiest city.

The Saudi efforts to promote Arab unity between Iraq and Saudi Arabia are long overdue. The crown prince is the architect of the rapprochement approach. It will require a sustained engagement to achieve even modest expectations.

Iran simply is better placed to engage with the Shiite majority and also the Kurdish minority in Iraq. It has been devoting resources to both for decades, and it has built extensive economic, cultural and political ties. The Iran-Iraq border is open, Iranian pilgrims flock to Najaf, and trade is extensive. Iran routinely accuses the Saudis of helping to create the Islamic State and of encouraging Sunni extremism. History, demography and geography benefit Iran. But Iran can also overplay its hand and be too domineering. Iranian officials are not always careful to play their role with subtle nuance.

Of course the Saudis can overplay their hands as well. Their war in Yemen and their siege of Qatar underscores Riyadh's propensity to act aggressively without a thoughtful plan under King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his favorite son. Iraqi sympathies are with the Zaydi Houthis in Yemen, and Baghdad has remained neutral in the dispute over Qatar.

There is no sign that the Saudis are interested in using Iraq as a mechanism to reduce tensions with Tehran. Salman is the most hostile king toward Iran since the Iranian Revolution. Rapprochement with Baghdad does not augur rapprochement with Tehran.
Officials from Alabama and a global company based in Italy are embracing the history of the Tuskegee Airmen as part of the effort to land an Air Force contract called a "generational game-changer."

Leonardo DRS, American subsidiary of Italian jet-maker Leonardo, chose Moton Field in Macon County for a proposed plant to build the next combat jet trainer for the U.S. Air Force.

That was announced in March. Since then, company officials and Alabama recruiters have worked to build the case for Leonardo DRS, which is bidding against Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the contract.

They have included the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen in their efforts to build support for the bid. The airmen, the U.S. military's first African American pilots, trained at Moton Field.

Joe Turnham, director of the Macon County Economic Development Authority, sees a "cycle of life" quality in the project. During World War II, a fighter group of the Tuskegee Airmen was stationed in Italy and participated heavily in combat missions there.

"The Italian people embrace them while they are there and inspire them to come back and fight for equal justice at home after the war," Turnham said. "And a lot of that's embedded in their Italian experience. And then the Italians embrace that history and come back 75 years later to Moton Field.

"It's not your everyday economic development site selection process. It's been very fun to work on and it's been very emotional and just almost has a spiritual dimension to it."

Leonardo DRS submitted its proposal to the Air Force in the spring. If selected for the contract, it would build 350 trainer jets to replace the T-38 Talon, which the Air Force has used since the Vietnam War era. A decision is expected late this year.

"It's going to be a tight competition and very competitive and we know that," Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said. "I think you've got three great companies that are competing for the contract."

A model of the T-100 jet trainer with the trademark red tail of the Tuskegee Airmen on display at the national convention of the Airmen in Orlando.

The Leonardo DRS recruitment effort was visible at this week's 46th annual convention of the Tuskegee Airmen in Orlando. Leonardo DRS is one of the main sponsors of the event and displayed a 6-foot model of the T-100 trainer bearing the trademark red tail section of the Tuskegee Airmen.

The company also provided a video of one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, Ret. 2nd Lt. Jerry Hodges, operating the T-100 simulator at the convention.

Michael Mount, a spokesman for Leonardo DRS, said the company chose the Tuskegee site for multiple reasons, including the incentives offered by state and local authorities and the proximity of Tuskegee University, the only historically black university with an accredited aerospace engineering program.

"It's a unique area," Mount said. "The state has a great pool of aviation talent to pull from. The Tuskegee area is also a unique area with its school and the aviation school there.

"For us it's a nice opportunity to be able to come to a region where there's a lot of potential for all sides to have success."

The project would create 750 direct jobs and an investment of $70 million, officials estimate. The state would provide $18.6 million in tax credits payable over 10 years, a period during which the plant's payroll would be about $240 million, Canfield said. The state would help recruit and train the workforce at an estimated cost of $6.7 million over the life of the project.

The local incentives would total about $50 million, Turnham said. They would come through a public-private partnership and would include tax abatements, grants, roads and construction of the plant, which would be leased to Leonardo DRS, Turnham said.

Honeywell Aerospace would build the jet engines in Phoenix. CAE USA, based in Tampa, Fla., would build the ground-based training simulators that are part of the T-100 integrated training system. Mount said Leonardo DRS has worked with those two companies for years.

Leonardo DRS would adapt its T-100 to meet the Air Force's requirements. The Air Force would use it to train pilots for the F-35 and the F-22, Mount said.

Italy, Israel, Poland and Singapore use the T-100. Mount said the fact that Leonardo is proposing to build an established aircraft for the Air Force could strengthen its bid.

"There's not a lot of development costs going into the plane," Mount said. "It's already there. It's already built. It's proven. That can bring a lesser overall cost."

Alabama officials, including Gov. Kay Ivey, met with officials from Leonardo during the Paris Air Show in June. Canfield said his office is helping the company engage Alabama's congressional delegation in the recruitment effort.

Alabama Industrial Development Training, which trains workers for Alabama's auto assembly plants and other projects, would recruit and train employees for the T-100 plant, Canfield said.

"We'll be working very closely with community colleges and universities that are going to be educating the people that need certifications as well as advanced degrees in engineering and more technical degree skills when those are necessary," Canfield said. "It will have a wide pull. We'll pull employment from probably a five-county area."

Canfield said he likes the approach Leonardo DRS is taking against what he acknowledges is stiff competition.

"Of course, they've got to have a product that satisfies the Air Force requirements and they've got to do it at the best costs," Canfield said. "So those are issues that Alabama can't control. But we can certainly help them influence decision-makers as much as possible."

Canfield said landing the project would be an important addition to the already strong presence of the aerospace industry in Alabama. And it would benefit a section of state where the need for good jobs is substantial. Macon County's unemployment rate in June was 7.4 percent, well above the state's rate of 5.2 percent (the non-seasonally adjusted, which the Department of Labor says is most comparable to county rates).

"I don't think that you could overestimate how important it would be for Macon County," Canfield said. "It's a county that for a long time, along with other counties has sometimes been challenged by projects coming their way. This project would really create a new opportunity for that whole region of the state."

Canfield and Turnham said that although the initial contract would be for 350 jets, there is potential for more production, including orders from other countries. That's especially true considering that the F-38 has been in use more than 50 years, they said.

"It could be a generational game-changer for this community," Turnham said.

This story was edited at 10:03 a.m. to say that state would spend an estimated $6.7 million to recruit and train employees over the life of the project.
The National Hurricane Center on Saturday continued to track two tropical waves in the Atlantic that have the potential to develop.

The wave of most immediate concern is located in the central Caribbean.

Rain and storms increased overnight near that wave, which is being called Invest 90L.

It's headed to the west-northwest, and forecasters think it will reach Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday. After that it could emerge into the southern Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche.

It it stays over water conditions favor it getting more organized, and the probability of a tropical depression or storm forming is 50 percent.

If it veers over land instead, then it likely won't develop, the hurricane center said.

The forecast track keeps Invest 90L on a path that could take it toward Mexico's Gulf Coast, but it will be something for those in Texas to also monitor next week.

There's a second system with higher odds of development, but it's located far to the east in the central Atlantic.

That tropical wave, Invest 99L, hasn't done a whole lot in the past 24 hours, the hurricane center said.

But forecasters said the environment is still ripe for it to gain organization and a tropical depression could form next week.

It's moving to the west-northwest at about 15 mph and could come close to the Lesser Antilles next week.

The chances of a tropical depression forming in the next five days are at 70 percent as of Saturday morning -- which is down a bit from recent days.

There have already been five named storms in the Atlantic so far this year -- all tropical storms.

The next names on the list are Franklin and Gert.

The Atlantic hurricane season lasts until Nov. 30.
Occupied East Jerusalem  Its hard not to get detained here, 16-year-old Abdallah Balalawi, an Afro-Palestinian from Chad, told Al Jazeera from his home in the Old City. I have to be aware of the way I look and even the way I walk to avoid making the Israelis suspicious.

Abdallah is one of at least 350 Afro-Palestinians from Nigeria, Chad, Senegal and Sudan residing in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The Afro-Palestinian neighbourhood is not the easiest to find, accessible only through an Israeli police checkpoint where officers interrogate anyone who is not from the local community.

On a nearly hidden road straddled between two police blockades, third generation Afro-Palestinian teenagers tell Al Jazeera about the world they inherited, characterised by checkpoints, daily interrogations, night raids and incessant fears of detention by Israeli forces.

READ MORE: Palestinian women lead resistance in Budrus

Most Afro-Palestinians in this tight-knit community came to the region as religious pilgrims during the British Mandate for Palestine, and many have been part of the Palestinian resistance movement since Israels establishment in 1948. Others arrived as volunteers with the Egyptian army to fight against Zionist militias taking control of historic Palestine during the Arab-Israeli war.

The community has played a pivotal role in the history of Palestinian resistance. Locals say that the first Palestinian woman to be imprisoned for a paramilitary operation against Israel was Fatima Barnawi, a Nigerian-Palestinian detained in 1967 for the attempted bombing of an Israeli cinema in West Jerusalem.

Yet decades later, Afro-Palestinian youth continue to live their daily lives under Israeli control.

At just 17, Abdallahs cousin, Jibrin, has already been detained five times by Israeli forces, mostly over allegations that he threw stones at Israeli police and military officers. While he and his friends face the same harassment as other Palestinians, he said, they sometimes experience double-racism for both being Palestinian and having dark skin.

The soldiers are always cursing at me and interrogating me when I pass them. They try to provoke me so that I do something they could get me in trouble for, Jibrin told Al Jazeera, noting that he has been beaten several times by Israeli police and soldiers during detentions.

Most of those in my generation have the same experiences, he added with a shrug. Its routine.

Growing up under the constant presence of Israeli soldiers, police and checkpoints, Jibrins sister, Ruaa, 18, told Al Jazeera that the militarisation of the Old City felt normal. But watching Jibrin leave home every day fills her with dread, as Israeli forces constantly harass young Palestinian men, she said.

Ruaa, now studying psychology at Al-Quds University, said that in the future she wants to develop lectures for young Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, to teach them how to deal with Israeli police and soldiers in hopes of preventing their arrest.

If I am educated, I can challenge this occupation more effectively than by throwing stones. by Jibrin Balalawi, resident

Ali Jiddeh, a long-standing leader in the Afro-Palestinian community, said that Israels harassment and routine detention of Palestinian youth has intensified since a wave of violence erupted in late 2015.

You have to notice these soldiers, Jiddeh told Al Jazeera. They focus on the young generation of girls and boys, because they are the main element of this uprising. They interrogate them and humiliate them in front of everyone. Eventually, the youth cant take it any more, and they explode.

But this generation of Afro-Palestinians is different from those before, Jiddeh added: They are watching TV and constantly browsing the internet. They make comparisons with what they see in other countries. From a very young age, they realise life under occupation is not normal.

For Jibrin, education is the most important tool of resistance for his generation.

If I am educated, I can challenge this occupation more effectively than by throwing stones, he said.

READ MORE: Basil al-Araj was a beacon for Palestinian youth

However, education in the Old City is far from immune from Israels occupation. Most of the youth in the community attend the nearby Dar al-Aytam school, a target of frequent Israeli raids.

Saed Firawi, a 17-year-old Sudanese-Palestinian, said students merely have to throw a plastic bottle to prompt Israeli forces to raid the entire school and fire tear gas at students and staff.

Meanwhile, Saeds cousin, Ali, 18, was detained by Israeli forces the night before crucial examinations that determine students eligibility to graduate; sleep-deprived and shaken, he ultimately failed.

The Israeli occupation has also ruptured Alis family life. At the age of 16, his brother, Mohammad, was sentenced last year in an Israeli court to eight years in prison after authorities accused him of dropping a large rock on the head of an Israeli soldier, paralysing him. Ali contends that his brother was innocent, claiming that Israeli forces used the allegations as an excuse to lock up Mohammad for his political activism.

Ali and his siblings have not been allowed to visit their brother in prison because of what the Israelis have deemed security concerns, while the familys home has been repeatedly raided by Israeli forces.

Mohammad Qous, 17, whose fathers family migrated to historic Palestine from Chad, has big goals for the future, aiming to study in Switzerland in the coming months. Always on edge, Mohammad said, he must remain calm and collected when dealing with Israeli forces, since one wrong move could send him to prison and destroy his future dreams.

One day when Mohammad was late for school, he recalls rushing past Israeli police, who stopped him to search his belongings. They found my house key and began interrogating me about what I was doing with it, saying that I could stab someone with it, he said, noting that the soldiers allowed him to pass only after he showed them his US passport.





Mohammads sister, Shaden, 14, said it was difficult to hold out much hope for Palestine in the years ahead.

In East Jerusalem, its different for us, she told Al Jazeera. I think Palestinians in other places have more hope. But we live with the Israelis. It has become part of our lives.

Still, this has not stopped her from resisting the Israeli occupation in her own way. Shaden considers the dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance, to be a powerful form of resistance to Israels colonisation.

Its a creative way of resisting. It keeps our Palestinian traditions alive, and we all know the Israelis dont like it, she said with a smile.

A member of the el-Funoun Palestinian dance group, Shaden and her fellow members also attempt to boycott Israeli products in occupied East Jerusalem whenever possible.

Her brother, meanwhile, echoed the feeling of despair expressed by numerous youths in the Afro-Palestinian community: Weve been resisting Israel since 1948 and nothing has changed, Mohammad said. Nonviolence hasnt worked; violence hasnt worked. I really dont know what any of us should do any more.
More than 465,000 people have died in Syrias war and more than 12 million have been displaced  but two young women are determined to keep the humanity of those affected from disappearing into the numbers.

The names, struggles and words of these people should be heard, vocalised and spread, because they are what matters, Marianne and Melina Moussalli, the Syrian Lebanese sisters who founded the Ana Collection, noted on their website.

Each doll in their collection is made of soft, white cotton decorated with colourful designs that tell the stories of families displaced by war, and profits from the dolls go back to help the affected families. The word ana means I in Arabic, and each doll, which bears the name of a Syrian mother, comes with a stitched tag that says: I protect the dreams of my children.

READ MORE: Syrias civil war explained from the beginning

One doll, Adryeh, is decorated with a beautiful village of trees and homes nestled together. In a pocket on the back is a card that tells Adryehs story, which speaks of her son, Hassan.

He always tells me that he dreams of building us a new home, the card reads.

There are a variety of different lines of dolls within the Ana Collection, including From Inside Aleppo, Stories from the Bekaa, the Holiday Collection and more. Mariam, a Holiday doll, is stitched with a picture of her son, Abed, crouching in the grass with the one thing he wishes for: a tiger as a friend.

And Falaks blue-and-white skirts tell the story of her daughter, Amal, who fears that if the family tries to travel to Europe by sea, the boat will sink and she will be eaten by fish.

The hands that make these dolls are no strangers to the suffering of these families: The artisans who work with the Moussalli sisters to craft these dolls are also refugees from Syria, having fled to Lebanons Shatila refugee camp since the Syrian conflict began in 2011. Struggling for survival in the decades-old Palestinian camp, which has been overwhelmed by thousands of new arrivals from Syria, they have found a way to express themselves while also helping to support their families.

Our motivation was at first simply a way of giving back to Aleppo, Syria, where we grew up, Marianne said, noting that they have been working on the Ana Collection for the past year and a half with the help of their parents and these other refugees. It has now turned into wanting to provide jobs to the women who are helping us embroider  refugees helping other refugees.

They are always very touched by the stories that come with the doll  especially when they know that buying this doll will help out the person whose name it carries. by Melina Mousalli, cofounder of the Ana Collection

Inspiration first struck in January 2016, when the Moussalli sisters were running a childrens art class. It was inside that classroom that the first doll was born, with an aim to telling the story of a displaced Syrian family; the children created an early prototype, and the Moussalli sisters decided to develop the idea further.

Stories for future dolls came to the Moussallis from their aunt, who continues to live in Aleppo, where she works with hundreds of displaced families.

Marianne took the idea to an old schoolmate from Aleppo who co-founded Basmeh & Zeitooneh, a local NGO that works with the skilled women who could help to make their doll idea into a reality on a larger scale.

At the outset, there were only a few interested artisans, but as the months went on, the Ana Collection began to pick up steam.

The artisans associate closely with one or more of the stories from the Ana Collection. In many cases, they connect to the recounting of past living circumstances, usually better than the more recent onset of war and displacement, and  the dreams and fears revealed through the stories and designs, Saba Sadar, the womens workshop project manager for Basmeh & Zeitooneh, told Al Jazeera.

The stories are also cherished by the people who have bought the dolls, Melina said.

We always get feedback from people who buy the dolls. They are always very touched by the stories that come with the doll  especially when they know that buying this doll will help out the person whose name it carries, she added.

The dolls range in price from $25 to $75 and can be purchased directly through the sisters website, or from vendors in various countries. The women who make the dolls are paid for their work, while 80 percent of all profits are sent to the family whose story is on the doll.
We examine some of the cases and ask if enough is being done to investigate them and to prosecute the culprits.

UN peacekeepers are sent to the most war-ravaged countries on Earth, ostensibly to help them transition to peace.

But some stand accused of committing crimes against the very people they are supposed to protect.

According to a recent investigation by the Associated Press (AP), between 2004 and 2016, the United Nations received almost 2,000 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse against its peacekeepers.

The UN says it has a zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, but survivors, activists, lawyers and human rights organisations say such crimes have been allowed to continue with impunity.

Through conversations with UN peacekeepers and officials, gender experts, academics, researchers and activists, as well as through an investigation of UN data, in this four-part series, we try to navigate these competing accounts to answer the question: How did some peacekeepers become predators?

In the fourth and final part, we ask if the UN is doing enough to stop its peacekeepers committing abuses.

How are allegations investigated?

In May 2005, the UN Security Council held a public meeting about sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping. It was the first meeting of its kind at the UN. The council condemned all acts of sexual abuse and exploitation committed by peacekeepers and reiterated the importance of ensuring that they were properly investigated and appropriately punished.

In 2007, the UN created the Conduct and Discipline Unit (CDU) to deal with all types of misconduct, including sexual exploitation and abuse.

Allegations are reported to the CDU and Conduct and Discipline Teams (CDT) in the field. The CDT then assesses the allegations and refers them to an investigative arm of the field mission.

If the case involves a military officer, it is referred to the troop-contributing country for investigation. If it involves a civilian member of the UN, the UN is tasked with investigating it.

Crucially, a referral is supposed to activate support services, like psychosocial support or medical services, for the survivor.

Nicola Dahrendorf, the chief coordinator of the CDT at MINUSCA, the UN mission in the Central African Republic, says that if an allegation involves a member of the military contingent, the team will inform the troop-contributing state concerned within 72 hours and request their appointment of a National Investigation Officer (NIO) within five to 10 days, depending on the gravity of the allegation.

Atul Khare, the undersecretary-general for the UN Department of Field Support, says he believes the UN is advancing in the right direction and that it has displayed greater transparency over how allegations are investigated.

But activists, like Paula Donovan, codirector of the New York-based NGO Aids Free World, express concern that, by requiring the UN or troop-contributing countries to investigate cases against their own personnel, the process is fraught with conflicts of interest. As there is no independent body monitoring the process, there can be no way of knowing if it is honest and fair, Donovan explains.

According to Beatrice Lindstrom, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), a New York-based NGO that helps survivors of human rights violations pursue cases in national and international courts, if a case does make it to court the survivors arent always represented as the UN does not provide them with legal counsel.

Legal proceedings are rarely instituted. This is partly due to the fact that most survivors do not have access to representation to advise them on how to launch a claim, says Lindstrom.

If it is decided at the investigation stage, either by the UN or the troop-contributing country, that there is insufficient evidence to pursue a case, Lindstrom says there is no way for survivors to challenge that decision.

But Olivier Salgado, the spokesperson for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, disputes this, and says that if new information is presented, We will analyse it and re-open an investigation.

Our Conduct and Discipline Unit at headquarters and teams in the field have put in place a series of tools for victims or complainants to come forth at any time, whether it is by phone, email, in person or through confidential community-based complaint mechanisms established in host communities in partnership with local stakeholders, he says.

But an internal UN report published in June 2017 showed that an audit of the conduct and discipline function of the UN Mission in CAR, between September 2014 and October 2016, revealed that the missions systems to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse were in disarray.

The report by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) found that the mission had yet to finalise a communications strategy geared towards reaching survivors of abuse and exploitation and that it had yet to implement a reliable mechanism for tracking compliance with training requirements. Around 57 percent of military personnel had not attended mandatory training on standards of conduct, it revealed.

There was an unmitigated risk that mission personnel were not fully aware of the UN standards of conduct against sexual exploitation and abuse and did not conduct themselves accordingly, the report stated.

Although Salgado told Al Jazeera that identifying mitigating factors and risks of misconduct was something the UN missions do regularly, the OIOS report on the UN Mission in CAR found that it had carried out risk assessments at only 19 of the 37 UN bases in the country.

It also found that MINUSCA did not have a viable tracking system for solving long-pending cases.

The cases

According to the UNs data, many cases across all UN missions remain pending.

Since 2015, there have been 209 accusations across all UN peacekeeping missions. These involve 346 peacekeepers, both military and civilian personnel, and 388 survivors, including 171 children. According to UN data that tracks the status of allegations for each mission, 110 allegations across all missions remain unresolved since 2015.

In one pending case, 19 soldiers from Gabon are alleged to have raped 67 people, including 36 children between 2014 and 2015 in the Central African Republic.

In some of the cases that have been acted upon, punitive action has been minimal.

In one case, the UN found that there was sufficient evidence that a Cameroonian police officer had engaged in at least one incident of sexual exploitation in Haiti in 2009. In 2015, he was repatriated, but Cameroon has yet to conclude the case and he has not been jailed.

In another, a soldier from the Congo Republic who was found guilty of exploitative sexual relations was repatriated by the UN and jailed by his government for 15 days.

A Senegalese soldier found guilty of raping a child in the Ivory Coast in August 2016, was repatriated and has yet to be prosecuted in his home country.

Responding to these numbers, M Atul Khare, under-secretary general for the United Nations Department of Field Support, told Al Jazeera that the UN was well aware of the shortcomings in the system.

But, he added, Our partnership with member states, to hold perpetrators accountable in cases involving military personnel, is seeing results.

The UNs Salgado told Al Jazeera: Over the last two years, we have seen an increase in the response rate by member states, up to 92 percent. We have also seen in the last two years, troop-contributing countries imposing harsher punishments as national laws allow.

The governments of Senegal, the Congo Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cameroon did not reply to repeated requests for comment on these cases.

Al Jazeera also repeatedly reached out to the governments of Morocco and South Africa for comment on unresolved cases involving their troops but received no reply.

In response to questions about the ongoing case of eight Uruguayan peacekeepers accused of sexually exploiting two women in the Democratic Republic of Congo in March 2017, Ambassador Elbio Rosselli, the permanent representative of Uruguay to the UN, told Al Jazeera that his government has been moving tirelessly in this field by taking several measures to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and that tackling SEA [sexual exploitation and abuse] was a high priority for his government.

Roselli said that previous cases had usually been concluded within two to three months.

The UN has not been forthcoming, and there is a 'whatever happens in Africa, stays in Africa' approach; I am constantly torn between the scourge and the impression that the majority are not doing this by Marsha Henry, LSE

But even then questions remain over whether justice was served.

In 2011, five Uruguayan peacekeepers gang-raped a Haitian teenager and recorded the attack on their phones. Although the Uruguayan president apologised for the incident following a public outcry, when the case went to court, four out of the five soldiers were found guilty of private violence instead of rape. They were subsequently sentenced to two years and one month in prison.

The fifth soldier was acquitted.

So, can it be stopped?

On March 9, 2017, the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, released a Special Measures report that it described as a new approach to combat sexual exploitation and abuse.

But Aids Free World, which has repeatedly urged the creation of an independent body responsible for investigating crimes committed by the UN, argues that to allow the UN to continue policing itself will lead nowhere.

When asked if the UN is able to investigate itself, Salgado told Al Jazeera that this is a question for the member states who make up the rules of the General Assembly.

Meanwhile, researcher and academic Marsha Henry from the Gender Institute at the UKs London School of Economics, says she struggles to reconcile the reports of everyday abuse with the fact that many peacekeepers try to make life better for the host population.

The UN has not been forthcoming, and there is a whatever happens in Africa, stays in Africa approach; I am constantly torn between the scourge and the impression that the majority are not doing this.

But ultimately, Donovan says, it comes down to accountability.

UN troops need to know that they will be held accountable for their actions, she says. These are the rules, the recommendations. If you commit a crime, you will be prosecuted. And you will go to jail. This is the only way.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Maria Kalichi* was 17 when she was attacked by a peacekeeper close to her home in Port-au-Prince. When it was over, he put her in a car and dropped her off by the side of a road. For weeks, Kalichi didnt tell anyone what had happened. Then, she realised she was pregnant. She told her mother but did not report the rape to the UN. Her son is now four years old.

I want justice by finding the person who did this. I want to hear what he has to say to me  I am walking around the streets feeling destitute because of the UN, she says.

There are currently 4,971 peacekeepers in Haiti. Since 2015, there have been 18 accusations of sexual abuse or assault. The allegations concern some 20 UN peacekeepers and 16 survivors. To date, none of the accused has been jailed.

Source: Al Jazeera

*Name changed to protect identity
On July 24 the International Revolutionary Peoples Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF), a group of international fighters and volunteers fighting alongside the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), announced on their Twitter page the creation of a subgroup comprised of LGBTQI comrades and others who seek to smash the gender binary.

The group, called TQILA, was to join the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. The Twitter announcement was soon picked up by a few Western media outlets amid gleeful reactions by leftists, progressives and gay celebrities on their social media accounts.

(KHALLAS Enough is enough) First #LGBT fighting unit to fight ISIS is created in Syria https://t.co/usKvcnA9fA  Ricky Martin (@ricky_martin) July 26, 2017

On July 25, Mustafa Bali, the media relations director of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF  which includes YPG in its ranks), denied the formation of such a battalion within the framework of SDF. The following day, the IRPGF spokesperson, Heval Rojhilat, told Newsweek that SDF did not know the announcement was coming and that IRPGF does not need SDFs permission for that since it is within our own autonomous organization.

Responses and reactions to this announcement varied; some questioned the groups authenticity and asked whether the story was just another orientalist exotica concocted by the Western media. Others questioned the groups efficiency as proper fighters. Some even wondered whether this was a clever attempt by the YPG to gain favourable coverage in the Western media. And many among the Western leftists and progressives celebrated the news as queer vengeance against ISIL.

What has so far been missing in the debate, however, is how this announcement, its discourse and the logic behind it, situate violence and war on terror as a revolutionary method in achieving universal social justice on the Syrian front lines.

We learn, from the founding statements of TQILA and its umbrella group, IRPGF, that their causes of anarchism, smashing gender binary, and sexual revolution are all connected to the most selling hegemonic narrative of the 21st century: the war on terror.

Queer liberators or imperial queers?





Much decolonial and queer feminist literature has been written on the imperial project of the war on terror and its whiteness, its propagation of rescue narratives towards Muslim women, its destruction of the homes and resources of local communities in the global south and its civilising mission to bring democracy and human rights to these communities  and now smash gender binary and queerphobia for them.

Grassroots activists and community organisers from the Middle East know very well how the war on terror narrative is not a tool exclusive to the white Western state. It has also become the tool of self-identified anti-imperialist states, resistance bodies and authoritarian regimes in their crackdown on dissidents, popular uprisings and minority rights. Under the guise of participating in the so-called war on terror, these regimes and groups invade, bomb, torture, incarcerate and evacuate local civilian communities amid the cheerful endorsement of the international progressive left.

In this regard, Syrian queer academic-activist Fadi Saleh told me:

[Why] anarchists go to a country devastated by war and chaos for years now and say they want to spread anarchism is a bit beyond me. It is not only ridiculous, but also unethical and quite arrogant, because in a country that has been fighting for some sense of stability, peace, and belonging for years, their mission is nothing short of abhorrent. This global obsession with Daesh [ISIL] and the gays is another exhausted trope that this and other groups need to stop using and building their entire political agendas upon. Daesh has invariably and indiscriminately targeted all kinds of populations, that is first. Second, reducing sexual and gender-based violence to Daesh does not only wash all the violence the other parties committed and continue to commit against sexual and gender minorities as irrelevant, but also confers a twisted sense of legitimacy upon TQILA: if you oppose Daesh, your politics and entire being as a unit becomes unquestionable, ultimately good and probably beyond criticism. I still want to know who these people are if they continue to speak in my name. I want to be able to hold them accountable if they make mistakes.

TQILA tells us that it was formed to fight authority, patriarchy and oppressive heteronomativity, queer/homophobia and transphobia and explains how the images of gay men being thrown off roofs and stoned to death by ISIL was something they could not idly watch. Their umbrella group, IRPGF, tells us that their role is to be an armed force capable of defending liberatory social revolutions around the world while simultaneously being a force capable of insurrection and struggle against all kyriarchal forms of power wherever they exist  [and] to fight alongside other armed groups in solidarity with those who are oppressed, exploited and facing annihilation .

INTERACTIVE: Who and where are the Kurds?

This romantic sketching of a revolutionary path to utopia in a conflict that has been termed the worst man-made disaster since World War II, where almost half a million were killed and half of the population is displaced, render other perpetrators of the suffering of the Syrian people invisible.

By positioning the war on terror as context for such a laboratory and emancipating narrative, the IRPGF and TQILA end up providing a glossing template for the erasure of local communities inclusive struggles, including the ones they claim to rescue.

Ethno-orientalist constructions of Rojava

The Rojava administration in northern Syria, which was founded by the Democratic Union Party (PYD)  YPGs political arm  in 2013, has been portrayed as a success story of the struggle against borders and for autonomy by the international media and self-identified leftists and progressives.

Others applaud the Kurds  a common synonym used by leftists to refer to PYD  as the best hope for left politics in the region. PYD is also presented as a big champion for gender equality as a result of its inclusion of women in its armed forces.

Nevertheless, the PYD, like the rest of the conflicting parties in the region, commits human rights violations, targets its dissidents, including peaceful protesters and forcibly evacuates Arab and Turkman civilians  and some Kurds  from their villages.

To suggest that 'gender and sexual revolutions' are being accomplished by joining an authoritarian party participating in the imperial 'war on terror' not only functions as an erasure of other struggles, but also as a colonial rewriting of what the struggle is in Syria. by

As a result of the Western leftist ethno-orientalist fascination with Kurdish Rojavas feminist militarisation model which supposedly leads to womens emancipation, feminism and broader social justice movements replace and silence local communities struggles, including womens and queers.

Indeed, the PYD has been repeatedly criticised by Syrian Kurds living under the Rojava administration, including activists, members of the political opposition, journalists, civil society groups, women and queers.

For example, a Syrian Kurdish queer transwoman, Ziya Gorani, who lived under the Rojava administration, has a different perception of Rojava than the international left and TQILA. She told me:

I am angry about the image PYD is trying to sell to the outside world. They say theyre anarchists adopting feminism and now they are being celebrated for their inclusion of LGBTQ individuals. But at the same time, they do nothing to provide protection to marginalised groups. Just because there are no laws against LGBTQ in Rojava, this doesnt mean there are rights. There have been cases of discrimination against LGTBQ people, and the PYD watched and did nothing about it, because they dont care  it is not one of their priorities. As a LGBTQ person in Rojava you are faced with two options: Either you choose to come out and [be] killed, or live your life afraid of being outed. I was attacked for these views and accused of supporting rival groups. As a queer woman, I know for a fact that I cannot go back to Rojava without being attacked, and I know there is no protection for me there. So I am most certainly not defending anyone in this war. As a Kurdish Syrian queer woman, I have the right to criticise the PYD without being accused of defending other sides. The world has to stop seeing Rojava as a utopia. We do not know who are the members of this subgroup [TQILA], we do not know if theyre Kurds themselves, or Syrian. Theyre a bunch of international fighters with YPG, trying to sell an image that LGTBQ people can wander the streets of Rojava without being discriminated against  thats a lie. Thats not how things are in Rojava.

None of what Gorani said has been echoed among the international left celebrating the formation of TQILA.

The militarised liberation mission of this group of international self-identified anarchists to save Syrian queers from religiously motivated hatred and attacks is not only reminiscent of imperial and colonial legacies in the region, but also in the Syrian context, it obscures the ways in which the war on terror has provided the authoritarian Syrian state a legal platform to systematically eliminate the 2011 popular uprising by simply constructing itself as a secular, anti-imperialist and pan-Arabist state, with support of the global left.

Because of the war on terror narrative, secular and sovereign Bashar al-Assad legally killed peaceful protesters, media and aid workers, besieged civilian populations and built extermination camps.

Predominance of oppositional dichotomies such as terrorists versus seculars, or Kurds versus Sunni Arabs, queer anarchists versus Islamist terrorists and international leftists versus international terrorists in the narratives about Syrias six-year-old war expose how the war on local communities in Syria has been perpetuated by claims of modernity and civilisational superiority.

To suggest that gender and sexual revolutions are being accomplished by joining an authoritarian party participating in the imperial war on terror not only functions as an erasure of other struggles, but also as a colonial rewriting of what the struggle is in Syria. The struggle is, and has always been, according to these international fighters and their leftist supporters: a war on ISIL. The populations in Syria, however, have been saying that their struggle is for self-determination, and they can only achieve this goal by ousting Assad, takfiris and warlords by strengthening grassroots community organising.

Razan Ghazzawi is a Syrian Palestinian scholar and activist. She was a protestor and a grassroots activist in the 2011 uprising. She was detained twice by the Syrian State and was forced to get smuggled out of the country under threats of a third detention. In 2013 Ghazzawi returned to Syria to live in Kafranbel, a town in the north of Syria which was not under the control of the regime. She is currently a first year PhD candidate at the University of Sussex. Her thesis focuses on the intersections of sexuality, exceptional violence and sovereignty of the Syrian state.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Northwestern Professor, Oxford Clerk Arrested In Stabbing Murder

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 5, 2017 12:30PM



Wyndham Lathem (left); Andrew Warren (right)

The Northwestern University professor and University of Oxford employee wanted in a stabbing death in River North were arrested in California on Friday night, according to authorities.

The U.S. Marshals Office said Wyndham Lathema 42-year-old associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Northwesternturned himself in at a courthouse in Oakland. Andrew Warrena 56-year-old senior treasury assistant at Somerville College of Oxfordsurrendered at a police station in San Francisco, according to the Tribune.

Chicago Police Department spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi shared news of the arrests via Twitter:

BREAKING: CPD has gotten word that Prof. Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren are both in police custody in Oakland, CA via @USMarshalsGov pic.twitter.com/BrXufzsaUA  Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) August 5, 2017



The two men are suspected in the July 27 murder of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26. The victim was found last week stabbed to death in a River North high-rise apartment building.

Lathem and Warren reportedly donated $1,000 to a library in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in the name of Cornell-Duranleau shortly after the murder happened.

Before he surrendered, Lathem sent a video apology to family and friends over his role in the murder, police said on Friday. Cornell-Duranleau, a Pilsen resident, had reportedly moved to Chicago after completing cosmetology school in Michigan. Authorities have not released information about possible motives.
Iraqi PM rules out merging controversial unit with army, a call made by Muqtada al-Sadr following visit to Saudi Arabia.

An earlier version of this article stated that the Hashd al-Shaabi, is a Shia unit also known as the Badr militia. That is incorrect. The Badr militia is only one element of Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation Units. We regret the error.

Haidar al-Abadi, Iraqi prime minister, has rejected a call by Muqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Iraqi Shia leader, to dissolve a controversial militia involved in battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Hashd al-Shaabi, an umbrella organisation that includes armed groups like the Badr militia, was established in 2014 with the avowed purpose of fighting ISIL, also known as ISIS, after it captured vast expanses of territory in northern and western Iraq.

The Hashd al-Shaabi  is for Iraq and will not be dissolved, Abadi said in the capital Baghdad on Saturday.

The next phase after liberating the land from Daesh is the battle of the unity of word. Daesh is the Arabic term for ISIL.

Hashd al-Shaabi has faced accusations of abuses against civilians in Sunni-majority areas.

OPINION: The future of militias in post-ISIL Iraq

Last month, the Iraqi army recaptured Mosul, the countrys second-largest city, from ISIL, which overran the city in 2014.

Speaking to supporters on Friday, Sadr called for dissolving Hashd al-Shaabi and absorbing its fighters in the Iraqi army.

Sadr issued the statement after his visit to Saudi Arabia, where he held talks with the kingdoms leadership.

He met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and discussed issues of common interest, Reuters news agency reported on July 30.

Anti-American figure

The visit came with the Gulf region embroiled in its worst crisis in years  a dispute between Qatar and four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia which severed ties with Qatar.

Sadr, an anti-American figure, commands a large following among the urban poor of Baghdad and the southern cities, including Saraya al-Salam, or Peace Brigades militia.

He is now seen as a nationalist who has repeatedly called for protests against corruption in the Iraqi government, and his supporters have staged huge protests in Baghdad calling for electoral reform.

On Thursday, Sadr issued a new call for protests in Baghdad and other cities to denounce corrupt politicians and demand reforms.
Thousands of soldiers raid Rio de Janeiro favelas in bid to stop gangs behind a surge in robberies of commercial trucks.

Thousands of Brazilian troops have raided Rio de Janeiro favelas in a pre-dawn crackdown on criminal gangs, leaving parts of the city looking like a warzone.

Five favelas were targeted by police and 3,600 troops in a swoop that started at 4am local time (07:00 GMT) on Saturday, the Rio state security service said in a statement.

Officials said their main goal was to stop the gangs behind a surge in robberies of commercial trucks, but residents said the raids created more tension and fear.

Rio state authorities said there were 10,000 cases of cargo theft last year.

As part of the raids, 40 arrest warrants were issued.

READ MORE: Congress rejects corruption charge against Michel Temer

Al Jazeeras Daniel Schweimler, reporting from Rio de Janeiro, said the troops in action on Saturday were part of the 8,500 soldiers deployed to the city last week to curb a surge in violent crime after the end of last years Olympics.

At least 18 were arrested and soldiers confiscated a small cache of weapons, he said.

Scores of heavily armed soldiers in camouflage, rows of jeeps and armoured personnel carriers could be seen in the Lins favela, one of the many little-regulated shanty towns that dot the citys forest-clad hills.

Tension and fear

Troops stood guard with their fingers on the triggers of assault rifles, while units of soldiers and SWAT police roamed the streets, pointing their weapons out of car windows.

All those entering and leaving the favela were subjected to identity checks and searches, with men required to lift their shirts.





Favela residents, who woke up to shooting, said they felt no safer by the operation.

Theres an atmosphere of tension and fear, Vanuza Barroso da Silva, who was going to her job at a supermarket, told the AFP news agency. People can hardly get to work.

Al Jazeeras Schweimler said residents fear that Saturdays raid is just one more in a long series of dramatic, but ultimately futile actions to curb crime.

Deploying troops is a standard response by authorities, he said.

But experts say what is needed is fundamental change, such as measures to alleviate poverty and stifle gangs.

Brazils favela residents lack many basic rights and services.

In the first half of this year, there were more than 3,450 homicides in Rio, according to officials.

People are killed daily in gun battles between rival gangs competing for control of the favelas or from police action.

Since the beginning of the year, 93 police officers have also been killed in Rio state.

Officials said the other favelas targeted were Camarista Meier, Morros de Sao Joao and Engenho Novo in the north and Covanca in the west.

The armed forces are responsible for the perimeters in some of these regions and based at strategic points, the state security service said.

Some roads are blocked and the airspace is restricted to civilian flights over the sectors where the armed forces are operating.

Rios airports, however, were not affected.
Measure enforced after deadly protests ends with defence minister saying government has dealt with troublemakers.

Ethiopias government has lifted a state of emergency imposed in October after hundreds of people were killed in anti-government protests demanding wider political freedoms.

Politicians voted to end the measure on Friday, with officials saying the country has fewer security issues.

Last years protests saw some of the East African nations worst violence since the ruling party came to power in 1991.

A deadly stampede at a religious celebration at the beginning of October saw more than 50 people killed as police confronted protesters.

Emergency law, which was extended in March, restricted a number of rights and led to the arrests of more than 21,000 people. It also hurt one of Africas fastest-growing economies.

We have been able to deal with armed terrorists, anti-peace elements and troublemakers, Defence Minister Siraj Fegessa said, adding that the government was now able to deal with a few remaining security threats.

READ MORE: Ethiopia  Ethnic nationalism and the Gondar protests

In total, more than 600 people were killed in nearly a year of protests that began in the Oromia region and spread into the Amhara region and the capital, Addis Ababa.

Demands included an end arbitrary arrests and respect for regional autonomy.

Fegessa said more than 8,000 people are still behind bars and are being prosecuted for crimes they are accused of committing during the unrest.

Rights groups have claimed that many people were beaten and subjected to arbitrary detentions under the emergency law.

The government has maintained that those arrested by mistake or who unwillingly took part in demonstrations were released.

Restrictions under the state of emergency included arbitrary arrests without court orders; limits on radio, television and theatre; and dawn-to-dusk prohibitions on unauthorised movements around infrastructure facilities and factories.








Deaths due to extreme weather in Europe could increase 50-fold to reach 152,000 a year by the end of the century.

Deaths due to extreme weather in Europe could increase 50-fold from an estimated 3,000 a year recently to 152,000 by centurys end if global warming is not reined in, researchers warned on Saturday.

The toll would be especially high in temperate southern Europe, where deaths due to warming are projected to rise from 11 per million people a year to about 700 per million a year, they wrote in The Lancet Planetary Health.

Heatwaves will do most of the damage, claiming some 99 percent of future weather-related deaths  more than 151,000 of the annual total by 2100 from about 2,700 a year recently.

Unless global warming is curbed as a matter of urgency and appropriate adaptation measures are taken, about 350 million Europeans could be exposed to harmful climate extremes on an annual basis by the end of this century, said the report, based on pessimistic global warming forecasts.

OPINION: The case for collaborating on climate change

The researchers looked at records of weather-related events in Europe  the 28 European Union members plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland  for a 30-year stretch from 1981 to 2010  called the reference period.

They then compared this with projections for population growth and migration, as well as predictions for future heatwaves, cold snaps, wildfires, droughts, floods and windstorms.

We found that weather-related disasters could affect about two-thirds of the European population annually by the year 2100, wrote four European Commission researchers.

This translated to about 351 million people exposed each year, compared to about 25 million a year in the reference period, when it was just five percent of the population.

Exposure means anything from disease, injury and death due to an extreme weather event, to losing a home or post-event stress, the authors said.

Could be overestimated

Deaths from heatwaves were projected to increase by 5,400 percent, coastal foods by 3,780 percent, wildfires by 138 percent, river floods by 54 percent and windstorms by 20 percent.

Deaths from cold waves will decline by about 98 percent, said the team, which is not sufficient to compensate for the other increases.

Climate change is responsible for 90 percent of the additional weather-related deaths forecast for Europe, said the team.





Population growth accounts for the other 10 percent, along with migration to hazard-prone coastal zones and cities.

For the purposes of the study, the team assumed a rate of greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas that put the world on track for average global warming of three degrees Celsius by 2100 from 1990 levels.

The Paris Agreement, concluded by 195 nations in 2015, seeks to limit warming to under two degrees from levels before the Industrial Revolution, when fossil fuel burning kicked off.

The researchers also made no provision for additional measures being taken to boost human resilience to weather disasters.

In a comment on the study, Jae Young Lee and Ho Kim of the Seoul National University wrote its projections could be overestimated.

People are known to adapt and become less vulnerable than previously to extreme weather conditions because of advances in medical technology, air conditioning and thermal insulation in houses, they wrote in a comment carried by the journal.

Paul Wilkinson, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who was not involved in the research, told Reuters news agency that the reports findings were worrying.

READ MORE: As Trump ditches Paris, California leads on environment

Global warming could result in rapidly rising human impacts unless adequate adaptation measures are taken, with an especially steep rise in the mortality risks of extreme heat, he said.

The findings add further weight to the powerful argument for accelerating mitigation actions to limit emissions, slow climate change and protect population health, Wilkinson said.

On Wednesday, a study in the journal Science Advances said South Asia, home to a fifth of the global population, could see humid heat rise to unsurvivable levels by centurys end.

Also this week, researchers wrote in Environmental Research Letters, that rising carbon dioxide levels will dramatically cut the amount of protein in stable crops like rice and wheat in the decades to come.
Rouhani vows unified response to any breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal in the face of new sanctions imposed by US.

Hassan Rouhani has been inaugurated for a second term as Iranian president, calling for more negotiations with world powers amid new sanctions imposed by the United States.

In recent weeks, the US has imposed new sanctions on Iranian nationals and entities, accusing it of breaching the nuclear deal, allegations that Iran denies.

Today is the time for the mother of all negotiations, not the mother of all bombs, Rouhani said on Saturday as he addressed parliament members and foreign guests in Tehran.

Among the guests for Rouhanis inauguration on Saturday was Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, who has pledged to continue building ties with Iran despite mounting pressure from the US to keep the country isolated.

Meeting Mogherini before the ceremony in parliament, Rouhani called for greater efforts to uphold the 2015 nuclear deal struck by Iran and world powers.

WATCH: Iranian Americans discuss ties two years after nuclear deal (2:53)

Repeated breaches of commitments by the US administration  can be destructive, he said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

All sides have a heavy responsibility to safeguard this agreement which was achieved by a lot of effort.

Rouhani vowed a unified response to any breach of the landmark agreement.

The world should know that any breach of the deal will face a unified reaction of the Iranian nation and government, he said.

Some of Irans older friends, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, also arrived for the ceremony, which came two days after Rouhani was officially sworn in by the countrys supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, was absent despite attending Rouhanis last inauguration in 2013.

Cabinet candidates

Among Iranians, the real attention was on who would be named to Rouhanis new cabinet.

He has already been facing criticism over indications that women would again be entirely absent and that his reformist allies would barely be represented.

Rouhanis last government had three women among a large cohort of vice presidents, but they lacked ministerial roles that would require approval by parliament.





It was the reformists that allowed him to win the elections in 2013 and 2017 he must listen to those who supported him, Rassoul Montajabnia, of the reformist National Confidence party, told the Arman newspaper.

Rouhani won a convincing victory over Ebrahim Raisi in the May presidential election, promising to continue rebuilding ties with the West and easing social restrictions at home.

That helped win over the reformists  whose candidates dropped out of the last two elections to ensure his victory.

Rouhani created a lot of expectation and now there is a sense that he is retreating from his promises, said Ali Shakourirad, head of the reformist Peoples Unity Party.

The absence of women was down to pressure from religious conservatives behind the scenes, Shakourirad said.

Rouhani didnt want to make his task any more complicated than it already is, he told AFP news agency.

Final line-up

The final line-up is due to be announced in coming days, and must then be approved by parliament.

Despite the furore, the reshuffle is not expected to touch big names such as Mohammad Javad Zarif, foreign minister, and Bijan Namadar Zanganeh, the oil minister.

The main ministers are very likely to stay in place, said Henry Smith, Iran analyst with consultancy Control Risks, told AFP.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Arron Reza Merat, a London-based Iran analyst, said that while Rouhanis victory may be a reflection of the increasing influence of reformists, second-term presidents in Iran do turn into lame ducks, and that the supreme leader and the security establishment have larger sway in the country.
Zakariya al-Jawawdeh reacts to Israeli order to examine July 23 shooting in Amman that left his son and a doctor dead.

The father of 17-year-old Jordanian Mohammed al-Jawawdeh, who was fatally shot by an Israeli embassy guard in Amman on July 23, says he wants his sons killer to face justice.

Zakariya al-Jawawdeh was reacting on Saturday to the Israeli governments announcement that it would conduct a preliminary investigation into the shooting to death of two Jordanians by the guard who the kingdom says should face criminal prosecution.

The embassy guard, later identified as Ziv, shot and killed Mohammed and Dr Bashar Hamarneh, the owner of a property rented out to the Israeli embassy in Amman.

The Jordanian government established a security zone around the Israeli embassy, which included Hamarnehs property. As it was a closed security zone, Hamarneh, like others from the area, had no other reasonable choice but to rent their properties to the Israeli embassy.

The Hamarneh family issued a statement strongly denouncing the crime committed by the Zionists against Dr Hamaraneh and al-Jawawdeh. The statement also called on the Jordanian government to take all measures to stand up and punish the criminals and defend the national honor.

READ MORE: Deadly shooting incident at Israeli embassy in Jordan

Israels attorney general on Friday ordered police to look into the shootings, the Israeli justice ministry said in a statement, using terminology signifying a preliminary probe that could be upgraded into a criminal investigation if warranted.

Further along, as findings arise, the option will be considered of asking the Jordanian authorities  to provide additional material to the police, the ministry said.

Zakariya told Al Jazeera: I dont mind the guard facing the Israeli or any legal system so long as he faces justice and my sons blood does not go in vain.

Jordanian version

Mohammed was supposed to deliver and install a bedroom set at the embassy residence that was ordered by the Israeli embassy through Hamarneh.

The Jordanian government initially said that Jawawdeh stabbed the embassy guard during an altercation, who in turn acted in self-defence and shot the boy.

The Jordanian government later changed its official story and said the Israeli had committed a double-homicide crime.

Citing the guards diplomatic immunity, Israel repatriated him and other embassy staff after the incident, which stirred up anger in Jordan, where the 1994 peace deal between the countries is unpopular and pro-Palestinian sentiment widespread.

It is unclear why the guard also shot and killed Hamarneh, who was inside the apartment when the shooting occurred and may have been the only witness besides the guard himself.

According to the Israeli governments version, the guard fired in self-defence after being stabbed by a screwdriver-wielding Jordanian workman, who was killed along with a Jordanian bystander hit by stray gunfire.

Zakariya told Al Jazeera that Mohammed would never have attacked the guard, especially because he was so young while the guard was a fully armed and highly trained Israeli security officer.

Netanyahus embrace

Mohammeds uncle, Sami al-Jawawdeh, told Al Jazeera: Armed Israelis will not hesitate for a second before shooting and killing an Arab for whatever reason.

They think they are so superior to us and they can kill us with impunity.

Immediately after the incident, the embassy guard and staff crossed the border into Israel, where he was seen in a video being embraced by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, a gestured that angered the Jordanian public.

In his first public comments on the case, King Abdullah criticised Netanyahu last week for the embrace, calling it provocative and destabilising.

Abdullah later visited the families of both Jordanian victims to pay his respects.

Zakariya, who quoted Abdullah as telling him Your son is like my son, and I will not give up on his right, told Al Jazeera: I have faith in King Abdullah. He came to my house and assured me that he will personally bring my son justice.

He further said Fayez al-Tarawneh, chief of the royal court, called him to tell him personally that the government of Jordan was already working on Mohammeds case.

Zakariya quoted Tarawneh as telling him: We have started working on behalf of your son and we have hired international lawyers to follow through on this case. Your son is our son and we will not abandon his case.

Zakariya told Al Jazeera that Jordanian police have not shared with him the results of their investigation.

Fathers account

Insisting that his son had no inclination to attack the embassy guard, Zakariya told Al Jazeera that neither he nor his son knew they were selling a bedroom set to the Israeli embassy.

Zakariya said his son called him at around six in the evening, an hour before he was killed, telling him that everything was fine  he was about to finish the task as the doctor was helping him put the bedroom set together.

The Jordanian intelligence department detained the delivery truck driver, Maher Faris Ibrahimi, a key witness, for several days before he was released and ordered not speak to anyone about the case, according to his family members who spoke to Al Jazeera by phone from Amman.

Commenting on the launch of Israels preliminary investigation, Mohamad al-Momani, a Jordan government spokesperson, said: We think this is a step in the right direction. We expect a complete follow-up on the legal procedure in accordance with international law relevant to these cases. Justice must be served.

Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports
Latest bout of violence extends week of deadly protests, with fighters, civilians and troops among those killed.

Indian troops have killed at least three suspected fighters in a gun battle in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials say  an incident that has led to another round of protests.

Fighting erupted in the divided Himalayan region after government forces raided a cluster of homes on a tip that the fighters were hiding in northwestern Sopore area, Muneer Ahmed Khan, police inspector general, said on Saturday.

He said that as the soldiers began searching homes, they came under gunfire from the fighters.

A police statement said the men belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba group. Police on Tuesday had killed one of the groups senior Kashmir leaders, Abu Dajana.

As the news of the latest killings spread on Saturday, thousands protested and clashed with police in several parts of the region as residents chanted slogans against India and in favour of the fighters who have fought against New Delhis rule since 1989.

Soldiers fired at rock-throwing protesters in Bandipora area and wounded at least three civilians.

Tension has grown over the past week, with at least 10 fighters and four civilians killed in gun battles and in protests.

Two Indian army soldiers were also killed in an ambush by fighters.

READ MORE: Kashmir  The communalisation of a political dispute

India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.

Armed groups demand that Kashmir be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmirs predominantly Muslim population and most people support the fighters cause against Indian rule.

Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.

In recent years, Kashmiris, mainly young people, have displayed open solidarity with anti-Indian fighters and sought to protect them by engaging troops in street clashes during military operations.

The anti-India protests and clashes have persisted despite the Indian army chief warning recently that tough action would be taken against stone throwers during counter attacks.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the fighters, which Pakistan denies.

Armed groups have largely been suppressed by Indian forces in recent years and public opposition to Indian rule is now principally expressed through street protests.
Rwandas incumbent leader Paul Kagame has sealed a landslide victory in presidential elections, granting him a third term in office and extending his 17 years in power.

With 80 percent of votes accounted for, the 59-year-old former guerrilla leader secured 98.66 percent, the National Electoral Commissions Executive secretary Charles Munyaneza told a news conference.

We expect that even if we get 100 percent of votes, there will not be any change, he said.

Kagame has won international praise for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery in the east African nation since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 people were killed.

But he has also faced mounting criticism for what rights groups say are widespread human rights abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition.

About seven million people were registered to vote in the polls to pick a president who will lead the country for the next seven years.

The electoral board expected turnout to top 90 percent in elections that fielded two challengers.

Kagame, who cast his vote in Kigalis Rugunga polling station earlier on Friday, said he would work to sustain economic growth.

This is another seven years to take care of issues that affect Rwandans and ensure that we become real Rwandans who are [economically] developing, he said in a speech broadcast live on television.

He won the last election in 2010 with 93 percent of the vote.

WATCH: Paul Kagame talks to Al Jazeera (25:15)

Although Kagame is believed to be widely popular, international rights observers have expressed concern over the political environment in which voting took place.

Al Jazeeras Malcolm Webb, reporting from Kigali, said the ruling party claims that high turnout reflects its popularity.

But opposition says people dont have much choice and [the high turnout] reflects a climate of fear and oppression, he said.

Allegations of repression

Last month, Amnesty International, the international rights monitor, warned that the elections risked being held under a climate of fear created by years of repression due to alleged state intimidation of opposition.

Under Kagames rule, some dissidents were killed after they fled abroad, in cases that remain unsolved. The government denies any involvement.

Kagame faced only two challengers: Frank Habineza from the small Democratic Green Party  the only registered opposition party  and Philippe Mpayimana, a little-known independent candidate and former journalist.

READ MORE: Peace Clubs  Rwandas post-genocide search for renewal

Habineza had told Al Jazeera before the election that he expected a clean sweep at the polls.

Tonight, I predict a result of 70 percent in my favour  according to my calculations, that is what I will get if it is a free and fair election, said Habineza.

If I dont get it, I will accept the results, provided it is free and fair. We have already struggled with campaigning and some of our supporters have been scared off, but I hope they will vote today.





If they are scared today, then this is unfairness and I cannot accept [the result]  it will be a catastrophe.

Habineza, who won 0.45 percent of the early count, had promised to set up a tribunal to retry dissidents whose convictions by Rwandan courts have been criticised as politically motivated.

Authorities excluded several independent candidates from running, arguing they did not enjoy enough support.

Diane Rwigara, a disqualified candidate, told Al Jazeera that she believes her application to run was wrongly rejected by the electoral commission.

Rwandan people are fearful of the president. There is a fear of the ruling party. Out of fear, they act like they support the president, she said.

Kagames Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has governed the country since its armed wing defeated the countrys ruling civilian and military authorities in 1994, ending the genocide of 800,000 Tutsis  Kagames ethnic group  and moderate Hutus.

Kagames perceived popularity rests on Rwandas transformation after genocide and civil war into one of Africas most stable nations.

He has overseen strong economic growth, at an average of eight percent between 2001 and 2015, while also turning Rwanda into a technological hub and rooting out corruption.

A 2015 referendum saw 98 percent of the electorate in favour of changing the constitution to allow Kagame to seek a third term. He could stay in power until 2034.

WATCH: Rwanda votes  Economic claims under scrutiny (2:34)

Sarah Jackson, deputy director for Amnesty Internationals East Africa office, had called on the international community to remain watchful before and during the election.

In the immediate run-up to the elections, Rwandas international partners with a presence in the country should continue to closely monitor the situation and speak out about any violations they observe, she said in an email.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC) were reported to have sent observers to Fridays election, the final results of which are expected to be announced within a week.

With additional reporting by Tendai Marima: @i_amten
Three children and six women killed while sleeping at family home near Saada, with more injured.

At least three women and six children from the same family have been killed in an air raid by the Saudi-led coalition on their home in northern Yemen, according to a local health official.

Dr Abdel-Ilah al-Azzi, the head of the local health department, said on Friday that three other people were also injured in the attack at dawn on the family home of Taha al-Dharafi in Mahda district on the southwestern outskirts of Saada city.





We are recording all the crimes of the enemy and we will not forget them, he said. All the criminals will be put on trial soon, God willing.

A relative, who declined to be identified, said the attack happened while the family slept.

Their bodies were taken to the morgue while rescue workers continued to search for a missing woman in the rubble of the house.

Pictures from the scene showed the house completely destroyed by the attack. Residents who rushed to the scene were afraid to start rescue work while aircraft hovered overhead.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not respond to Reuters news agencys request for a comment.

The coalition says it does not target civilians.

SABA, an official news agency controlled by the Houthi rebel group, said that a second air attack on a car carrying civilians killed at least three people and wounded seven.

READ MORE: Saudi coalition blocks fuel for UN aid planes to Yemen

Yemen has been torn apart by a war, in which the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is trying to roll back gains made by the Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

Saada, a Houthi stronghold, has been repeatedly hit by Saudi-led aerial bombardment since the coalition of Arab states joined the war in March 2015.

Previous civilian casualties

At least 25 Yemenis were killed in June when Saudi-led coalition aircraft attacked a market in the Saada province.

And in March, another coalition air raid killed 22 people and wounded dozens in a market in western Yemen near the Red Sea fishing town of Khoukha.

Khoukha and the nearby city of Hodeidah are controlled by the Houthis who overran Sanaa in 2014 and moved south to Aden in 2015, forcing Hadi and his administration to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia.

The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than three million and ruined much of the impoverished countrys infrastructure.

In December, the coalition acknowledged it had made limited use of British-made cluster bombs, but said it had stopped using them.

Nearly half of Yemens 22 provinces are on the verge of famine, according to the UN World Food Programme.
Security Council votes unanimously to impose new sanctions on North Korea, including banning $1bn in exports.

The UN Security Council has approved a resolution toughening sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programme.

The Security Council unanimously adopted on Saturday the US-led resolution, which bans mineral and seafood exports worth more than $1bn.

The measures would be the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006.

Saturdays move comes after the North tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) last month, prompting the United States to lead a push at the United Nations for tougher sanctions.

The tests raised further alarm about North Korea leader Kim Jong-uns drive to develop a missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

READ MORE: Three things to know about North Koreas missile tests

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, praised the new sanctions, telling council members after the vote that it is the single largest economic package ever levelled against the North Korean regime.

But Al Jazeeras UN correspondent Rosiland Jordan said the US and China had significant differences when it comes to addressing North Koreas actions.

The US has been stepping up its joint military exercises with South Korea and soon with Japan, really as a show of force against North Korea to try to make it reconsider its behaviour, Jordan said.

The Chinese and the Russians dont like this show of military force by the United States. They say that this is a proactive action  almost as proactive as North Koreas actions to test intercontinental ballistic missiles and other ballistic missiles.

OPINION: What can Trump do about North Korea?

Liu Jieyi, Chinas ambassador to the UN, said the resolution does not intend to cause a negative impact to North Koreas people and stressed that it called for a return to talks on denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

China also urged the US to halt the deployment of the THAAD anti-missile defence system in South Korea.

The deployment of the THAAD system will not bring a solution to the issue of [North Koreas] nuclear testing and missile launches, the Chinese ambassador told the Security Council.

Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzia stressed that sanctions cannot be an end in themselves, but rather a tool for engaging [North Korea] in constructive talks.

Export ban

The resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. This represented one-third of its total exports last year, estimated at $3bn.

It also prohibits countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean labourers working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.

The resolution adds nine individuals and four entities to the UN blacklist, including North Koreas primary foreign exchange bank, subjecting them to a global asset freeze and travel ban.





It also condemns North Koreas massive diversion of its scarce resources towards developing nuclear weapons, noting UN findings that well over half the population lack sufficient food and medical care.

The Security Council members also reiterated language in previous resolutions supporting a return to six-party talks with the goal of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea pulled out of the talks in 2009 in protest against international condemnation of a long-range rocket launch.

ASEAN appeal

Earlier on Saturday, Southeast Asias top diplomats attending a regional security forum in Manila, in the Philippines, also criticised North Korea, saying its two ICBM tests last month threaten world stability.

These developments seriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers said in a statement on Saturday.

ASEAN Regional Forum is a 27-nation bloc that includes North Korea, South Korea, US and Japan.

Its position stopped short of a tougher line advocated by the US, which wanted the bloc to downgrade relations with North Korea.

Some Asian countries, including South Korea, are hoping to have bilateral talks with North Koreas foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho.

If there is a chance, I would tell him that we must have dialogue and that the North must stop the continuous provocations, Kang Kyung-wha, South Koreas foreign minister, said.

North Koreas foreign ministry on Saturday said it had briefed diplomats of Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia in Pyongyang earlier in the week about the resounding success of its latest ICBM test.

Last week, North Koreas Kim said the second ICBM missile test sent a serious warning to the US, which it also said has been meaninglessly blowing its trumpet with threats of war and stronger sanctions, according to the Norths KCNA news agency.
Wang Min, former Communist Party of China chief of northeast China's Liaoning Province and senior national legislator, was given a life sentence Friday for embezzlement, accepting bribes and dereliction of duty.

The sentence was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court of Luoyang City in central China's Henan Province.

Wang was also deprived of his political rights for life, with all his personal assets confiscated.

Wang was found to have taken advantage of his various positions to help others with business and promotions, among other offences, and accepted money and valuables worth more than 146 million yuan (21.7 million U.S. dollars) personally or through others when he served in senior positions in Jilin and Liaoning provinces between 2004 and 2016.

He was also found to have embezzled public funds worth one million yuan, when he was Party chief of Jilin Province.

The court also convicted Wang of dereliction of duty. During his time as Liaoning Party chief, Wang failed to properly supervise local elections and was responsible for serious election fraud including vote buying.

His negligence undermined the election system, resulting in major losses in the national and public interests and had an especially vile social impact, the court said.

The court decided to be lenient as Wang pleaded guilty, expressed remorse, returned his illegal gains and offered information on other crimes.
US will still attend UN climate change meetings during the withdrawal process, expected to take at least three years.

The US State Department has officially informed the United Nations that it will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement in a document issued on Friday but left the door open to re-engaging if the terms improved for the United States.

The State Department said in a press release the US would continue to participate in UN climate change meetings during the withdrawal process, which is expected to take at least three years.

The United States supports a balanced approach to climate policy that lowers emissions while promoting economic growth and ensuring energy security, the department said in the release.

President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris deal in June, saying the accord would have cost America trillions of dollars, killed jobs, and hindered the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries.

READ MORE: Paris climate agreement  What you need to know

But he also, at the time, said he would be open to renegotiating the deal, which was agreed by nearly 200 nations over the course of years  drawing ridicule from world and business leaders who said that would be impossible.

During a visit last month to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, the two discussed the deal and Trump told reporters Something could happen with respect to the Paris accords, lets see what happens.





As the President indicated in his June 1 announcement and subsequently, he is open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favourable to it, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers, the State Department said in its press release about the formal notice of withdrawal.

Republican US congressional leaders have backed Trumps move to exit the accord. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example, said it was another significant blow to the Obama administrations assault on domestic energy production and jobs.

But numerous business leaders have called the move a blow to international efforts to combat climate change, and a missed opportunity to capture growth in the emerging clean energy industry.

The Paris accord commits signatories to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, which is blamed for melting ice caps and glaciers, rising sea levels and more violent weather events.

They vowed steps to keep the worldwide rise in temperatures well below two degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times and to pursue efforts to hold the increase under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

OPINION: Clean cars will save us from climate change deniers

The US is the worlds second biggest producer of greenhouse gases after China and its withdrawal was a seen as a body blow to the Paris agreement.

The US, under former President Barack Obama, had pledged as part of the Paris accord to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 to help slow global warming.

The earliest date for the US to completely withdraw from the agreement is November 4, 2020  around the time of the next US presidential election.
Typhoon Noru is threatening floods and damaging winds across Japans main islands as it sweeps in from the northwest Pacific over the next few days.

Noru is currently located to the south of Kyushu around 350km to the south of Nagasaki Prefecture and staggering along at only 7km per hour, which is barely walking pace.

That has allowed parts of the Ryukyu Islands to receive some massive rainfall, not least in Naze where an incredible 504mm of rain was recorded in the 24 hours up to 06:00 GMT on Saturday.

The storm is expected to keep moving north and the eye of the storm is due to hit landfall in southern Kyushu at around 00:00 GMT on Sunday with winds of around 150km per hour and gusts nearer 185km per hour.

That would make it equivalent to a strong Category 1 Atlantic hurricane, packing very dangerous winds, and capable of causing extensive damage.

A large storm surge is also adding to the flooding concerns.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued warnings for high waves, which could reach as high as 12 metres at times.

The large swells and heavy seas are likely to cause flooding across the Ryukyu Islands, as well as the Pacific coasts of Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu.

Typhoon Noru is then forecast to move into the Sea of Japan by the early part of next week, threatening floods across parts of western Japan.
A look at fake news, inaccurate polls and misleading ads in the run-up to Kenyas vote. Plus, Omar Khadr and the media.

On The Listening Post this week: Fake news stories, inaccurate polls and misleading ads in the run-up to Kenyas elections. Plus, Canadas media split over the case of Omar Khadr.

Kenya elections: Media manipulations and misdemeanours

As Kenyans head to the polls, we examine the coverage around the incumbent president, Uhuru Kenyatta and his old rival Raila Odinga.

Four years ago, when Kenyatta and Odinga faced each other, it was thought the innovative use of social media was key for a Kenyatta win.

However, this time round, Kenya is facing a different kind of phenomenon. The emergence of fake news stories circulating online and the speed with which these stories are spreading, is causing alarm among the general public. But its not only fake news that has voters concerned.

In the past few weeks, attention has focused on Kenyattas reported relationship with Cambridge Analytica, an international data crunching firm with links to US President Donald Trump and reportedly the Brexit campaign in Britain. Which has Kenyans wondering, what is Cambridge Analytica up to this time?

Contributors:

Njoki Chege, reporter, Daily Nation

Macharia Gaitho, political commentator, former editor of Daily Nation

Robi Ochieng, academic, United States International University  Africa

Alphonce Shiundu, Kenya editor, Africa Check

On our radar:

The online space for Web users in Russia and China is narrowing after authorities clamp down on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs).

Media outlets operating out of Ramallah in the West Bank have had their officers raided and equipment seized by Israeli forces.

After a tumultuous precedent-setting 11-day tenure, Anthony Scaramucci, the White House communications director, was fired.

Omar Khadr: The case, the compensation and the media

A news story broke last month in Canada that has divided both Canadians and their media outlets. Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal government announced it would settle a lawsuit filed by Omar Khadr, a former prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, by paying Khadr $8m.

Canadians watching or reading conservative news outlets tended to come away outraged. Khadr, they were told, was a convicted terrorist  who had confessed, or so it seemed, to killing an American soldier in Afghanistan.

Those exposed to a more liberal treatment of the story were informed Khadr was a child soldier, just 15-years-old at the time of his alleged crime; that he had been held at Guantanamo illegally; that he had been tortured; that his confession, therefore, would not stand up in court and that he was more of a victim of the so-called war on terror than a participant.

Contributors:

Jeffrey Dvorkin, lecturer, University of Toronto

Sandy Garossino, columnist, National Observer

Jesse Brown, host, Canadaland podcast

Jonathan Kay, journalist
Violence in the Kasai provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo appears to be taking on an increasing and disturbing ethnic dimension, a report by the UN Human Rights Office has warned. Information gathered by a team of UN human rights investigators* suggests that some of the violations and abuses committed in the Kasais []Source : http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
Having witnessed first-hand various security challenges and humanitarian efforts in South Sudan, the United Nations peacekeeping chief has wrapped up his three-day mission to the country, which included a visit to the UN Protection of Civilians site in Malakal, where he expressed the Organizations resolve to support the return to stability. We are determined to []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
Special Counsel Mueller has empanelled a grand jury with respect to his investigation into collusion between members of the Trump Campaign and Russian agents. At least thats the premise. It would not be beyond the realm of possibility that what is presented to this grand jury has little to do with the 2016 election and much to do with whatever he has found looking into all aspects of President Trumps life and business dealings going back to before the election of Barack Obama. We already know he has been asking questions about a real estate deal from 2008 where a Russian oligarch bought a Florida mansion from the president.

Thats the problem with the Mueller investigation. He has gone way beyond what he was charged to do with his appointment as Special Prosecutor.

Can anyones life take the kind of scrutiny Special Counsel Mueller is subjecting Donald Trump to and come out clean? Sorry, but I dont know anyone. One thing about the past is its never really the past. Harvey Silverglate wrote a book (with the forward by Alan Dershowitz) called Three Felonies a Day. In it, he maintained that just about everyone commits 3 felonies a day without even being aware of it because the statutes of today are so complicated that everyone is demonstrably a criminal if you look hard enough.

Acting Attorney General Rod J. Rosensteins order appointing as Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III includes the following:

The Special Counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then-FBI Director James B. Comey in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 20, 2017, including: (i) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and (ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and (iii) any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R.  600.4(a) (the Special Counsel statute).

It does not include searching through Donald Trumps entire history to find any crime he may have ever committed so he can recommend federal criminal prosecution. If what he finds is beyond the statute of limitations, it can be used politically by Democrats as they try their hand at impeachment.

John Hinderaker said of Mueller:

I conclude that Mueller is not discharging his office of special counsel in good faith, but rather is acting as an agent of those who are trying to destroy or impede the Trump administration, and should be fired. Of course, whether President Trump thinks firing Mueller is politically viable is a separate question. In the meantime, it is good to see that Trump is at least pushing back against Mueller. It was reported this morning that Trumps lawyers are investigating Muellers lawyers, with a focus on conflicts of interest. That is good, but only a beginning. Trump and others in his administration need to make clear that they consider Muellers investigation illegitimate; that he has gone far beyond the mandate he was given by the Acting Attorney General; that he has hired a partisan, biased staff; that he is serving as a tool of the Democratic Party; and that his investigation is a fraud. They should accord Mueller and his staff no credibility whatsoever. Trump is in a war. The good thing is, I think he knows it.

Its good that he knows it, but what can Donald Trump do?

It was obvious from the inception of this investigative charade that this was to be a witch hunt. After all, the appointment of Mueller came about as the result of a crime committed by James Comey when he leaked his own FBI memos to a friend with the explicit purpose of forcing the appointment of a special counsel. It strains credulity that it was just a coincidence his best friend was the one to get the appointment.

If that didnt raise suspicions, all doubt should have been cast aside when he appointed exclusively progressive lawyers as staff (he now has 16 lawyers) to conduct the investigation:

Jeannie Rhee: Ms. Rhee is a former federal prosecutor. Rhee also worked for the Clinton Foundation and donated $5,400 to PACs in support of Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign. Rhee was once a senior adviser to Attorney General Eric Holder and is a former partner at Mueller's old law firm, WinterHale. James Quarles: Mr. Quarles was an assistant prosecutor during the Watergate investigation. He donated $1,000 to Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign and is also a former partner at WinterHale. Aaron Zebley: Mr. Zebly served with Mueller when he was the Director of the FBI and is also a former partner at WinterHale. Andrew Weissmann: Andrew Weissmann, headed the high-profile investigation into the wrongdoings at Enron and earlier investigated organized crime when he worked for the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York. According to Federal Election Commission records, he donated $2,300 to the Obama election campaign in 2008 after having given $2,300 to the Clinton campaign a year earlier and $2,000 to the DNC the year before that. Greg Andes: Andes is the 16th and last lawyer hired by Mueller (more to come?). He worked as Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Attorney General Eric Holder from 2010 to 2012. His wife is a federal judge who was nominated to the bench by Barack Obama. Brandon Van Grack, Van Grack an attorney for the DOJ, headed the grand jury investigation into Michael Flynn. Lisa Page: Lisa Page is an FBI attorney who ran an investigation into a former business partner of Paul Manafort. Peter Carr: Carr worked for the DOJ during the Obama presidency. Adam Jed: Jed defended ObamaCare while serving at the DOJ Civil Division. Elizabeth Prelogar: Prelogar who speaks Russian and like Drebeen also worked in the Office of Solicitor General is a former clerk to both Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Andrew Goldstein: Goldstein is a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York who worked with Preet Bharara when he was the U. S. Attorney. Bharara was fired by Trump. Mark Dreeben: Dreeben is a Deputy Solicitor General. He is a criminal law expert who is widely known as a progressive.

This is the progressive dream team assembled by Mueller. From the very beginning, this investigation has been a witch-hunt. When you have an investigation in search of a crime, you can bet one will be found. This leaves the president with only two options.

Fire Mueller

Mueller is a federal employee. As the head of the Executive Branch, Trump can fire him for any reason he chooses. Mueller is an underling, and as an employee, he serves at the pleasure of the president. Hence, Trump is constitutionally empowered to terminate him and his investigation. Terminating the investigation would be a form of prosecutorial discretion just as Obama exercised prosecutorial discretion to not prosecute illegal aliens.

While it would be legal for Trump to fire Mueller, it would definitely be politically unwise. In fact, all hell would break loose. The outcry from the media and the Democrats would be intensively shrill. Still, it might not hurt him any more politically than he has already been damaged by leaks and fake news, talk of impeachment, and now, the empanelment of a grand jury.

Let Mueller Proceed With the Investigation

Its altogether possible that Mueller is the high-integrity individual they all said he was when he was appointed a few months ago; he could eventually declare there was no crime and close down his investigation but now with the empanelment of his grand jury that seems unlikely. Or possibly, whatever evidence he presents to his grand jury may not be sufficient for it to recommend indictment. That also seems unlikely. Since Trump is a citizen and no citizen is above the law, he can be indicted; it wouldnt be surprising if Mueller were able to get the grand jury to indict Trump pertaining to one of the thousands of deals he has been a part of during his long career as a businessman. If worse comes to worst, he could always pardon himself. At which point the Democrats only remaining card to play would be impeachment, which is what they wanted all along anyway.

America used to be a free country but progressive policies cannot win in a free country, so the country has to go.

Mueller is prosecuting an investigation in search of a crime, and from the first day of Trumps presidency, progressives have been dreaming of a criminal indictment or impeachment. By the conduct of Robert S. Mueller III, they are willing to go to any lengths to get one or the other.
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A murder suspect has been caught in northern China after having plastic surgery to evade police.

The suspect, surnamed Zhang, is suspected of killing five people 17 years ago following a debt dispute, police of Weichang county in Hebei Province said Friday.

Last month, Weichang police received information about Zhang's presence in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Zhang was using the identity of a man surnamed Yu, despite the annulment of Yu's household registration, police said

Zhang was later caught in his home with the help of Heilongjiang police.

Police found scars on Zhang's face that indicated that he had gone through plastic surgery.

Zhang confessed that he killed five residents in his village and severely injured another in January 2000.

The investigation is ongoing.
Not sure why Bruce Willis even bothered. If he wanted to do a whitewashed remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson movie Death Wish, he could have just strung together a batch of home security ads where white criminals terrorize hapless and helpless homeowners.

But reality is different than the trailer for this new movie.

This time, Bruce Willis plays the Paul Kersey character as a doctor who comes home to find his wife dead and daughter wounded, both victims of a home invasion robbery in Chicago.

The cops cant do a thing, they say. So Bruce sets out to kill the killers. And a few others along the way. Since I do not have a hacked early edition of the movie, we are going to have to rely on the trailer, where the first four criminals we meet in Chicago are white.

Home invasions in Chicago are like home invasions in the rest of the country. They are a black thing. That is not to say there are no white home invaders, but like Eminem the rapper, the exception proves the rule.

And that is easy to see in any collection of recent news clips -- many of which I document on my YouTube channel, where I even made a playlist out of them.

Some end fatally: In Miami a few days ago, a couple of young guys were hanging out at their home when five black people burst in with weapons, killing one.

Some end ridiculously, as was the recent case in Fort Worth where a group of black people woke a prominent attorney and his wife at 3 a.m. One of the fellas took the husband to various ATMs to withdraw $4000 in cash, while the other held the wife hostage.

Before leaving, they discussed killing the power couple, but they decided to steal their car instead.

The following day, the wife told local TV news stations how much she wanted to talk to her recent home invaders, and certainly did not want to ruin their lives by putting them in prison. After all, she said, the criminals were just the victims of poverty.

And the whole black on white crime thing so wildly out of proportion? She didnt mind, so it didnt matter.

Some end ironically: Such was the case with my favorite black on rich white people story of home invasion and assault -- and yes, I have long since come to terms with my schadenfreude over this case -- that happened two years ago in Cincinnati at the home of federal judge Susan Dlott and her wealthy trial lawyer husband.

Judge Dlott became famous in the early 90s when, as a Clinton appointee, she issued the first federal ruling outlawing racial profiling. She said white cops were picking on black people for no reason whatsoever. And that had to stop.

The case was cited in many future legal proceedings of the same ilk. The local paper said the future of Cincinnatis race relations was in her hands.

That didnt turn out too well. Not for the people of Cincinnati. Not for the judge and her husband.

The judge and her very rich and very liberal spouse were enjoying their Cincinnati mansion -- the largest in town -- when three black people burst in, demanding all kinds of money and other party favors.

While the fellas were preoccupied with beating the 79-year old husband and knocking him down the stairs, Judge Dlott escaped, running one mile through the woods to find a phone.

Today we are able to listen to her 911 call for help, where the first thing she said was that there were three black men in her house with guns.

Then she repeated it.

So much for the ban on profiling.

Some end in the most unexpected places: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, most recently. Erin Garringer and her friend were watching TV when three black people with guns burst into their home, beat her into unconsciousness, and robbed them.

And as I write this, police are searching the woods for four black people with guns on the run after a home invasion robbery in Hawthorne, outside of Jacksonville. Find both stories by clicking here.

Like Bruce, the local TV station in Cedar Rapids does not care enough about catching the criminals to tell us they are black. Or that black criminality is exploding in Iowa. Erin told us though, on her Facebook page.

Bruce Willis does not seem overly worried about whitewashing the black criminality in his new movie. Hard to say he does not know better. Bruce and I are not just the same age, we grew up a few miles apart, he in South Jersey, I across the Delaware River in Wilmington.

We even went to the same club, the Crescendo, where Bruce was a bit more popular with the lovely ladies than your humble correspondent.

But every person of that age in the area was reminded daily of the existence of black on white hostility and violence. Whether they found it in a newly integrated school. Or a next to a newly constructed community of Section 8 housing. Or at the local public swimming pool, Prices Run, where in his autobiography, Joe Biden talked about the black on white violence there when he was a lifeguard.

Biden talked about it again, years later, at the national convention of the NAACP, even thanking the black person who had his back and saved him from racial violence.

Eli Roth, Death Wish's director and script doctor, on the other hand, is a child of white privilege, whose father is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard and the mother is an artist of international renown.

Though they lived in white areas, socialized with white people and sent their children to white schools, they knew every other white person in America -- except them -- was guilty of white racism.

Junior Eli learned his lessons well.

Bruce and Eli might be trying to sell us this fairy tale of white criminality, but more and more people are more and more aware this departure from reality is just another chapter in the greatest lie of this generation: The hoax of black victimization.

Now that would be a good movie. Just ask Judge Dlott.

Colin Flaherty is the author of the scintillating Amazon #1 Best Seller, Dont Make the Black Kids Angry. You can find the trailer to Bruces new movie and the Dlott 911 calls at my YouTube channel.
David Franco, reviewing the film Churchill, starring Brian Cox, raises questions he says every American should be asking: "Isn't the ability to accept one's mistakes part of what makes a person a good leader? ... To what extent should we rely [on] past experiences in order to minimize mistakes in the future? These are the questions that make a bad movie like Churchill worth seeing."

Well, I won't be seeing this bad movie. Described as "perverse fantasy" by historian Andrew Roberts, it joins a recent spate of sloppy Churchill biopics that favor skewed caricatures over historical fact.

Filmmakers might think it's novel to criticize Churchill, but this is far from the case. Attacks on his leadership began early after World War II and have continued ever since. There's a thriving mini-industry in "Churchill revisionism." But it started with books, not movies.

In 1963, R.W. Thompson's The Yankee Marlborough portrayed Churchill as a man of flesh and blood who made mistakes like anybody else. In his 1970 study, Churchill: A Study in Failure 1900-1939, Robert Rhodes James focused on Churchill's political gaffes, such as his dogged support of King Edward VIII in the 1936 abdication crisis. Edward, later Duke of Windsor, gave up the throne to marry an American divorcee. His later tepid admiration of Hitler, and a dismal performance as governor of the Bahamas, caused Churchill to reflect: "I'm glad I was wrong."

In 1993, John Charmley's Churchill: The End of Glory rocked Churchill's supporters by claiming he should have backed away from the Hitler war to preserve Britain's wealth, power, and empire. More recently, Max Hastings criticized Churchill's war leadership on multiple issues in both world wars: Catastrophe 1914, on the opening months of WWI, and Winston's War, 1940-45.

Whatever we make of their assessments, these historians were capable critics whose thoroughly researched theses merit consideration. Alas, we cannot say the same about the recent round of biopics.

Churchill movies started off well and were honest for decades. Young Winston (1972), starring Simon Ward as WSC and Anne Bancroft as his mother, was a vivid presentation based on Churchill's own account of his first twenty-five years. Its only inaccuracies were those introduced by Churchill himself in his autobiography. In 1974, Lee Remick brilliantly played Lady Randolph in the television series Jennie, as accurate a portrayal as ever existed.

That same year, Richard Burton played a believable Churchill in The Gathering Storm, about the years leading up to World War II. Again, it didn't deviate from fact, although Burton spoiled the effect by denouncing Churchill for fictitious acts against Welsh miners, including Burton's father. Privately, Burton had expressed his admiration for "the old boy"...but later, the cameras were on.

The 1981 TV series Churchill: The Wilderness Years remains the definitive Churchill biopic. Herein Robert Hardy showed us both Churchill's human frailties and his greatness. Hardy and the series' writers partnered with Churchill's official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, to portray the anxious politician of the 1930s, out of power, vainly warning of the Nazi menace. Brilliantly cast, the result was a masterpiece.

Albert Finney was a solid Churchill in the second Gathering Storm (2002), a 90-minute film for television. As skillfully cast as The Wilderness Years, it featured Vanessa Redgrave in a bravura performance as Clementine Churchill. The storyline, while not uncritical, did not deviate from fact. Even in the cynical, anti-heroic 21st century, it seemed, filmmakers could still tell his story without reducing Churchill to a flawed burlesque or a godlike caricature.

Or so I thought. Alas, in the last couple of years, we've had three films that can be described only as "fake history" and one-dimensional documentary that fails to tell the full story.

The Crown, a 2016 Netflix series covering the early reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was well acted. But John Lithgow portrayed a senile prime minister who hides his 1953 stroke from the queen and repeatedly paints his goldfish pond in a muddle of depression. Factually, the queen knew of Churchill's stroke three days after it happened  and he was never so dotty as to make repeated paintings of his fish pond. The duke of Windsor resurfaces here, promising that he will get the new queen to move into Buckingham Palace if Churchill restores his royal allowance. Where do they think of this stuff?

Viceroy's House has not been seen yet in the U.S., and we're missing nothing. A visually elaborate production, it covers the end of British rule in India under the last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, whitewashing the latter at Churchill's expense. Mountbatten's insistence on Britain's exit before the India-Pakistan boundaries were settled led to violent strife and the massacre of millions. Somehow, the film manages to blame this on Churchill, who was not even in power at the time.

Churchill, starring Brian Cox, is built around the myth that Churchill opposed D-Day virtually to the moment of the Normandy landings. In reality, he'd been seeking to regain "a lodgment on the continent" since the British were thrown out of Dunkirk in 1940. His concept of floating "Mulberry Harbors" for landing tanks and equipment dated back to 1917. This hasn't prevented Mr. Cox from flaunting his ignorance in interviews, repeating a host of canards, including the notion that Churchill wanted to invade Germany over the Alps.

I held my breath when the film Dunkirk appeared, hoping it would not be another dose of lame propaganda. I was relieved to find that Churchill doesn't appear in it. But his absence, along with the absence of other heroes of the Dunkirk evacuation, reduces the film to a one-dimensional portrait. It's war on a beach, with moving scenes of heroism and survival. But we are not told what Dunkirk was about or who the enemy was. A viewer has no idea why Churchill said after Dunkirk, "We shall never surrender"  though his words are read movingly by a soldier in the final scenes.

There's no question that fictitious scenes and conversations are legitimate devices in biopics. But they must not depart from what we know. And thanks to historians like Martin Gilbert and the Hillsdale College Churchill Project, we know a lot.

There is cause for hope. This autumn, Gary Oldman will star as Churchill in another biopic, Darkest Hour, about facing Hitler's armies in 1940. Promisingly, Oldman has consulted with qualified historians, striving to find "a way in" to the real Churchill.

One can only wish him success. Perhaps this film will answer David Franco's questions. Yes, accepting one's mistakes does make a person a good leader. Yes, Churchill did learn from his mistakes. That is why he was a man of quality, a good guide for our troubled decade  and why, after a long lapse, he deserves a film that does him justice.

Mr. Langworth is senior fellow for the Churchill Project at Hillsdale College. His new book, Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality: What He Actually Did and Said, is available from Amazon.com and at a discount from the Hillsdale College Bookshop.
On Wednesday, CNNs Jim Acosta took White House aide Stephen Miller to task for President Trumps proposed immigration policy reform, which seeks to institute a merit-based system for green cards based on the ability to speak English, educational attainment and job skills.

Rather than cite any legal or economic problems with Trumps proposed policy, Acosta invoked the American tradition when it comes to immigration. The Statue of Liberty says, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.

Trumps proposed immigration reform is wrong when viewed through the prism of American tradition, Acosta suggests. And his support for that position is not that Trumps policy runs afoul of the Constitution or any existing laws, but rather because it seems ideologically at odds with a poem, written by a late-nineteenth century socialist named Emma Lazarus, which he believes is a vital litmus test in determining what is, and what isnt, truly American when it comes to immigration policy.

I dont take issue with the poem itself. Aesthetically, Ive always thought it quite good. I just think its absurd to quote it as Exhibit A in arguing that restrictions on immigration amount to nativist xenophobia.

Quotes are funny things, because who originally said them generally provides the bulk of a quotes weight. Youll note that Acosta didnt say, As socialist poet Emma Lazarus once wrote He said that [t]he Statue of Liberty says

But lets play his game for a moment. Acosta clearly had a problem with the English requirement of Trumps policy proposition. Well, as Miller pointed out, the quote was not emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty when it was erected in America in 1886. It was added later. It was added in 1903, to be precise.

In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt was the American president. Given this fact, and the fact that his face appears alongside Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln on Mount Rushmore, Id say his words might carry some weight on the matter of what is traditionally American. And what Roosevelt said about immigrants, and the necessity of immigrants learning of the English language, could not be clearer.

In the first place, Roosevelt wrote in 1919, we should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates to us There can be no divided allegiance here We have room for but one language, and that is the English language.

Sounds pretty close to what we conservatives are arguing today, doesnt it? So how is it that Teddy Roosevelts words are just archaic xenophobic blather, but the words of a 19th century socialist, whose few widely remembered words appear in an exhibition at the base of the Statue of Liberty, are the standard by which all things regarding American immigration policy should be measured?

I could argue that the quote I referenced is weightier in a logical sense, and I certainly believe it is. But the reality is that this sort of thing may be good conversation fodder at a dinner table or social gathering, but what Teddy had to say about immigration in 1919, just before his death, is rather irrelevant when it comes to the legality of Americas immigration policy in 2017. And the pretty musings of a socialist have little, if anything, to do with what is traditionally American.

Neither should be invoked in honest policy discussion around immigration. What should be discussed in such debate is the economic and cultural impact of the existing and the proposed policies. And, being that its among the few jobs that the federal government is actually supposed to do, how federal immigration policy can best protect American citizens.

Nonetheless, Acostas odd performance made headlines, though perhaps not in the way he wouldve liked. Trump supporters happily watched as Miller somewhat indelicately dismantled Acostas logic. What amuses me most, though, is that so many on the left think Acosta made a valid argument, and are claiming that Miller is somehow at fault for the wild exchange. Callum Borchers writes in The Washington Post that Millers refusal to answer in an intellectually honest way sent the question-and-answer session off the rails.

But it was Acostas silly framing of the question that actually led the session off the rails. In truth, the only intellectual honesty in the exchange came from Miller, who reminded Acosta that immigration levels in America have not always been a deluge of poverty-stricken, unskilled laborers with little mind to assimilate to American society, but that immigration levels have ebbed and flowed throughout our nations history as power shifted in Congress and executive administrations over the years. He also reminded him that learning English is already a requirement of naturalization, despite Acostas claim that an English requirement for green cards is some wildly racist deviation from standing laws.

Acosta wasnt at the White House for an intellectually honest discussion on the dangers or benefits of unrestricted immigration, which should be obvious. His aim, as it is with so many other mainstream media journalists, was to signal his own progressive virtues and promote the lefts propaganda campaign to import voters who crave, and will forever wish to receive, taxpayer-subsidized benefits, thereby allowing for more expansive growth of the administrative State, and bringing our nation nearer to the collectivist utopia that they so foolishly endeavor to achieve.

But with no intellectually solid foundation upon which to stand in making the argument for unrestricted immigration, it might be understandable that Jim Acosta and his ilks best argument today boils down to a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty says...

Hard to think of a better metaphorical application of the idiom, grasping at straws.

William Sullivan blogs at Political Palaver and can be followed on Twitter.
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a radio interview that the city will sue the Department of Justice over denial of Byrne grants because of its failure to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

The new policy punishes sanctuary cities for not cooperating with federal agents charged with enforcing immigration laws. The city was set to receive $3.2 million in grants.

Fox News:

The suit will claim that it's illegal for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to withhold federal Byrne grants from cities the Trump administration believes aren't cooperating enough with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the mayor said. Chicago this year expects to receive $3.2 million from the Byrne grant program, money mostly used to buy police vehicles and other equipment, the Tribune reported. The grants are named for Edward Byrne, a New York City police officer who was murdered in 1988. "We are not going to be between picking our values of who we are as a welcoming city, and strengthening our police department," Emanuel said in the interview. In filing the suit, Emanuel is likely trying to court support from Chicago's Latinos, who are wary of the Trump administration's immigration policies, as well as gain clout among other big-city Democratic mayors as they try to block Trump initiatives, the newspaper reported. The Justice Department declined to comment on Emanuel's comments Friday. On Thursday, Fox News reported that Sessions threatened to withhold anti-crime funding from four cities  Baltimore; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Stockton and San Bernardino, California  if they did not begin to cooperate more thoroughly with federal immigration officers.

Dear Mr. Mayor: You are "welcoming" to your city illegal aliens who have been arrested for serious crimes and are therefore deportable. We're not talking about federal agents swooping into Hispanic neighborhoods rousting people to find illegal aliens. The reason for the denial of grants is that the city refuses to honor immigration "holds" for illegals arrested for a serious crime.

Perhaps residents of Chicago would be interested to know that you "welcome" violent criminals into the city. I'm sure they would be just as pleased as you are.

Courts in the past have ruled that cities can voluntarily refuse an ICE "hold" on an illegal already being held on another charge. To "encourage" cooperation, the federal government has decided that cities who play that game are ineligible for certain funds. The feds are not in the business of subsidizing police departments so that they can thumb their noses at the law.

Several other jurisdictions have already sued DoJ, so it will be up to the courts to say whether U.S. immigration law is for everyone or only those who choose to obey it.
A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of Nicholas Slatten, a Blackwater Security contractor involved in a 2007 incident in Iraq where 17 civilians lost their lives.

Three other contractors who were also convicted in the 2015 trial had their 30-year sentences thrown out on Eighth Amendment grounds.

Blackwater maintained that the convoy of State Department employees they were escorting came under attack in a crowded Baghdad square. But another contractor who turned states' evidence disputed that fact, as did the U.S. military. The jury convicted Slatten of first-degree murder and the three other contractors of murder with a machine gun.

Daily Caller:

In a 2007 incident, 14 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad's Nisour Square by Blackwater security employees protecting a four-truck convoy of State Department diplomats. Blackwater claimed the convoy was ambushed and the contractors engaged in a firefight. The four blackwater contractors who opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers were charged and convicted in 2014, Reuters reported. Paul A. Slough, Dustin L. Heard, and Evan S. Liberty, were convicted of manslaughter with a machine gun, which carries a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence, NYT reported. The fourth contractor, Nicholas A. Slatten, was a sniper who reportedly fired the first shots in the incident. He was convicted of murder and given a life sentence in October 2014, a decision thrown out by Friday's ruling. He is to be retried. The incident brought anger at U.S. involvement in the Middle East to a head, and many objected to the use of private military contracting in the war zone. However, both Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama used Blackwater security teams during trips to the region. It was a Blackwater operator who tackled a Middle Eastern man who threw a pair of shoes at President Bush duing his administration. The organization couldn't survive the public fallout following the 2007 incident, and founder Erik Prince later sold the company. In a 2-1 decision, the court sided with defense attorneys who argued the 30-year minimum attached to crimes committed with a machine gun should not apply to the other three contractors because they were in a war zone and the U.S. government required them to carry the weapons. The court found that the 30-years sentences were "grossly disproportionate to their culpability for using government-issued weapons in a war zone."

Slatten ended up being charged with first-degree murder because the Justice Department allowed the statute of limitations to run out on the initial charges. The appeals court ruled that Slatten's rights were violated when the prosecution refused to allow his trial to be severed from his co-defendants. He will likely be retried, but on lesser charges.

About 30 Iraqi eyewitnesses were flown into the U.S. to testify at the trial. The FBI lead investigator, John Patarini, reportedly told a colleague, "This is the My Lai massacre of Iraq." Perhaps he was hoping for a book deal and a film made about the incident.

It wasn't My Lai  not even close. Unless you want to believe the Blackwater contractors opened fire to deliberately kill civilians, you have to believe regardless of whether there was an ambush, Slatten and his colleagues believed there was. That doesn't absolve them of responsibility. They violated the rules of engagement by employing grenade launchers when they believed they were under attack, and 17 civilians died.

There is no doubt that the contractors were guilty. But of what? Manslaughter, maybe. Negligent homicide, certainly. But first-degree murder? It's actions like that by the prosecutor that makes one question whether the trial was politically motivated.

Slatten will likely be retried on lesser charges. The three other contractors will have their sentences reduced. A sad chapter of the Iraq war will finally end a decade after the tragedy happened.
Yes, leaks are part of Washington, or so we hear. However, leaking the transcripts of a presidential conversation with a foreign leader is a step too far. This is a leak that the leaker and the media will regret for a long time.

We learned on Friday that Attorney General Sessions is ready to bring down the hammer on the insiders who are leaking, as reported by the New York Times:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Friday that the Justice Department was now pursuing three times as many leak investigations as the previous administration, a significant devotion of law enforcement resources to hunt down the sources of unauthorized disclosures of information that have plagued the Trump administration. Mr. Sessions vowed that the Justice Department would not hesitate to bring criminal charges against people who had leaked classified information. He also announced that the F.B.I. had created a new counterintelligence unit to manage these cases. "I strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks," he said. The announcement by Mr. Sessions comes 10 days after President Trump publicly accused him of being "very" weak on pursuing these investigations in a post on Twitter. The Sessions news conference came against the backdrop of repeated pressure by Mr. Trump, in public and in private, for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. to hunt down people inside the government who have been telling reporters what was happening behind closed doors.

Get serious, A.G. Sessions, and go forward!

We need to send a message to those planning to leak:

First, leaking is illegal, and we will lock you up.

Second, and more important, it's time for people traumatized by the 2016 election to get over it.

Leaking a presidential conversation has consequences beyond Trump. It created problems for the other head of state, as a Mexican friend told me on the phone today. Some people in Mexico are angry that President Enrique Pena-Nieto did not cancel the call when paying for the wall came up. Of course, the Mexican president didn't know that the world would be reading all of this later. President Pena-Nieto was trying to establish a positive dialogue with President Trump and did not believe that a shouting match would serve their mutual needs.

This is no way to conduct diplomacy. Lock up the leakers. They are now hurting the U.S. not just President Trump.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
The U.S. Congress's recent bill of sanctions on Iran mainly cites the Iranian regime's terrorist activities throughout the Middle East.

The recently released Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 by the U.S. State Department says:

Iran continued its terrorist-related activity in 2016, including support for Hizballah, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and various groups in Syria, Iraq, and throughout the Middle East. Iran used the Islamic Revolutionary Guard CorpsQods Force (IRGC-QF) to implement foreign policy goals, provide cover for intelligence operations, and create instability in the Middle East. Iran has acknowledged the involvement of the IRGC-QF in the conflicts in Iraq and Syria and the IRGC-QF is Iran's primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad.

The report is strong; however, it does not mention anything on the Iranian regime's terrorist activities in Europe.

Iran's promotion of its brand of Shi'ite Islam, linked with its terrorist-related activities across the Middle East, has been obvious for decades, but such activities in Europe have largely managed to fly under the radar. The Iranian regime is advancing its presence and resources considerably in Europe, especially in the Balkans.

In 2016, the Iranian regime's Balkans-centered efforts came under scrutiny when an Iranian cleric in Kosovo was charged with financing terrorism and money-laundering through a nominally non-governmental organization he operated. Kosovar authorities claimed that Hasan Azari Bejandi, charged on July 26, 2016, ran five Shi'ite organizations with links to Tehran.

The umbrella group for the Iranian regime in Europe, including Kosovo, appears to be affiliated with the Al-Mustafa International University, headed by Ayatollah Alireza Aarafi, a member of Iran's Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution and a Friday Prayers leader in the holy city of Qom. The university claims that Bejandi is its representative in Kosovo. Al-Mustafa International University is owned and run by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Last week, non-government organizations and the German media warned the government about the activities of Al-Mustafa-linked organizations in the country. The federal family minister in Germany, Katarina Barley, was alerted about an Al-Mustafa workshop in Germany funded, wrongly, by her ministry, under the guise of a workshop of the Islamic Community of the Shiite Communes of Germany (IGS). The minister called the event off.

It demonstrates that Iran's effort to exert influence over the Balkan peninsula and its governments poses a grave security threat.

On March 9, the news media in the Balkans reported that American security agencies saw expanding activities from Iranian intelligence services over the Balkan area.

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has compiled a report on increased activities of Iranian intelligence services in Bosnia and Herzegovina, containing around 650 names of members, mostly from Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

The report actually covers 15 years of Iranian intelligence agents' activities and is mainly based on information gathered by the Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

First on the list of Iranian intelligence agents is Hassan Jawad, deputy minister of intelligence in Tehran, according to the report.

During the Bosnian war of the 1990s, Jawad was the IRGC chief for southeastern Europe and then became head of the Department of Central Asia and the Caucasus, according to OSA.

Jawad is also a member of the Iranian-Bosnian Friendship Association Board of Directors, but in reality, he is focused on intelligence work and was a key player in recruiting.

Iran began extending its malign influence in Bosnia back in 1990 as communism collapsed in Yugoslavia. The mullahs dispatched spies with cash to Sarajevo to grease politicians' palms, advocate radicalism, and recruit and train terrorists.

During the past three decades, Iran has launched consulates in the Balkans for espionage and other covert activities. The presence of Iranian intelligence agents in Bosnia in Herzegovina has sharply increased since the beginning of 2012, along with the activities of Iranian officials and diplomats. In particular, Iranian spies were seen visiting the jihadist colony at Gornja Maoca in northeastern Bosnia, which, despite occasional police raids, has operated for years as a more or less open training camp for jihad-minded radicals.

Albania is another Balkan country Iran has targeted in its attempt to create what Reza Shafa, an Iran expert, has called "a foothold in the European continent." As in Bosnia, the attempted Iranian infiltration of Albania followed the pattern of setting up "charities" and "cultural organizations" that serve as front organizations for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence. Despite such efforts, however, Iran draws little sympathy in either elite circles or among the general population. Last year, Albania's government and parliament were in unanimous agreement to allow a large number of members of Iran's democratic opposition group, the MEK, to settle in Albania.

Iran's techniques in training, equipping, and recruiting terrorists across the Balkans through the IRGC is well known. After the U.S. sanctions against the IRGC, in order to have a safer world, the next step for the civilized world is to join the U.S. sanctions to make them work to evict all the elements of IRGC from its targeted countries in the Middle East and Europe.

Pejman Amiri writes security and human rights issues related to Iran and Middle East, including Iran's efforts to export its version of violent Islamic fundamentalism.
Because Muslims are so welcoming of immigrants  especially non-Muslims  you have to wonder why this painting of the Statue of Liberty with Lady Liberty wearing a hijab has become so controversial.

I mean, really. Anyone who can't see the propriety of depicting the symbol of welcome for immigrants dressed as a Muslim is just an Islamophobe.

O.C. Register:

A student painting that depicts the Statue of Liberty wearing a Muslim hijab, displayed in congressman Lou Correa's Santa Ana office, is being attacked as an unpatriotic violation of the separation of church and state by members of We the People Rising, a Claremont-based activist group that advocates stricter enforcement of immigration laws. The group, including several Orange County participants, has asked without success that Correa remove the painting hanging with other finalists from the Democratic congressman's student art competition. Because of the complaint, Correa said he asked the House Office of Legislative Counsel for advice and was told there was no legal issue. That has not appeased the activists, who are tentatively planning a Sept. 11 protest at Correa's district office. "It's a bad example for our congressman," said Orange resident Mike McGertrick, an activist with We the People Rising. "He shouldn't have anything religious in his office.  I would like to see our Congress people be right-down-the-line patriotic." McGertick went farther in his condemnation during a July 3 meeting with Correa's district director, Claudio Gallegos, calling the hanging of the painting in the office "reprehensible and disrespectful." "In this day and age, we want to see that our elected officials are the utmost of patriotism," McGertick says in a video the group recorded and posted on YouTube. Correa sees nothing objectionable in the painting, which comes at a time of controversy over Donald Trump's efforts to ban the entry to the U.S. of people from Muslim countries and about the treatment of Muslims in this country. "You take it in the context of a lady, probably a Muslim American  with all that's going on, she's a proud American," Correa said by phone from Jerusalem, where he was attending meetings as part of a congressional information-gathering trip. "That's what it says to me." Correa said it was important to not remove the painting because of a few complaints.

It's not a question of patriotism to me. It's incredibly hypocritical to use the symbol of welcome for immigrants in the context that Muslims agree with that principle. They do not. Non-Muslim immigrants in most Muslim countries cannot become citizens.

Correa glosses over the controversy by not even referring to the Statue of Liberty being misused. "Probably a Muslim American"...? Don't all American teenagers wear hijabs? "Probably" nothing. She is what she is, and it is offensive to portray our most beloved symbol of welcome as part of a culture that spits in the face of immigrants.
The dominoes continue to fall at the Fox News channel (FNC). Last month, popular Fox Business channel host and Fox News channel occasional anchor and guest Charles Payne was suspended after allegations that he sexually harassed a frequent female guest on FNC with whom he admitted to having had a sexual relationship. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed last week that Payne remains on suspension.

Now it is Eric Bolling who is the target:



Eric Bolling.

On Friday evening, HuffPo, in an article subsequently distributed widely by Yahoo News, reported that rising star FNC host and anchor Eric Bolling "Sent Unsolicited Lewd Text Messages To Colleagues, Sources Say."

Eric Bolling, a longtime Fox News host, sent an unsolicited photo of male genitalia via text message to at least two colleagues at Fox Business and one colleague at Fox News, a dozen sources told HuffPost.

Recipients of the photo confirmed its contents to HuffPost, which is not revealing their identities. The women, who are Bolling's current and former Fox colleagues, concluded the message was from him because they recognized his number from previous work-related and informal interactions.The messages were sent several years ago, on separate occasions.

The women did not solicit the messages, which they told colleagues were deeply upsetting and offensive. One of the recipients said that when she replied to Bolling via text, telling him never to send her such photos again, he did not respond. Four people, outside of the recipients, confirmed to HuffPost they'd seen the photo, and eight others said the recipients had spoken to them about it.

For this story, HuffPost spoke to 14 sources in and out of Fox News and Fox Business, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity either because they currently work at the networks and aren't allowed to speak to members of the press without prior authorization or because they have confidentiality agreements with Fox News and its parent company 21st Century Fox.

The author of the story, Yashar Ali, also writes for Mother Jones, New York Magazine, and other leftist publications, according to his Twitter account.



Yashar Ali.

A box that appears when one searches his name at Google says, "He served as co-chair of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign." This January 24, 2017 article by Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator was also returned when searching "Yashar Ali": "Is Daily Beast Contributor Yashar Ali Crazy  Or Sex Obsessed?"

In any case, the published accusations against Bolling are troubling. Ali's article cites the response of an FNC representative when asked for comment: "A Fox spokesperson said, 'We were just informed of this and plan to investigate the matter.'"

During the past year, some of the top people at Fox News, both executives and on-air talent, have been embroiled in accusations of harassment. Fox News channel's co-founder, chairman, and CEO, the late Roger Ailes, denied the accusations unto his death, but he was ousted one year ago, followed by his deputy, Bill Shine, nine months later, while FNC's #1 on-air talent, Bill O'Reilly, was fired on April 19.

The Fox News channel powerhouse schedule has never quite recovered from the ensuing chaos. Bolling, who achieved prominence as a co-host of The Five between 2011 and 2017, was re-assigned as a co-host of FNC's new 5 P.M. E.T. program The Specialists last May when The Five moved to its new prime-time slot without him. The Five, meanwhile, a consistent ratings winner at 5 P.M., has been struggling at 9 P.M. E.T. against stiff competition from Rachel Maddow at MSNBC.

Ali's story cites the response of Bolling's lawyer, Michael J. Bowe, to the allegations: "Mr. Bolling recalls no such inappropriate communications, does not believe he sent any such communications, and will vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made."

Bolling is a former commodities trader who has worked for Fox since 2007. Five weeks ago, his book The Swamp: Washington's Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism and How Trump Can Drain It, was released. It has been reported that Bolling is eyeing the possibility of running for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey. It has also been reported that President Donald J. Trump is a fan of Bolling, and vice versa.

Observers will be watching to see if Bolling appears in his usual co-anchor role on The Specialists this coming Monday, August 7. In the meantime, stay tuned for details.

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about national politics, media, popular culture, and health care. He is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. His new website is AltMedNews.net. Peter's July 28, 2017 90-minute interview on The Hagmann Report can be watched here.
The homeless, downtrodden, and poor who show up at drug detox centers all must show photo identification to get treatment. It's done to prevent them from going to more than one center for whatever maintenance fix they may be receiving at the first center. It is obvious that the government knows everyone has the capability to get a photo ID, so why do so many Democrats block that requirement when it comes to voting? They use the false arguments of voter intimidation while dismissing the real issue that maintaining a fair election is extremely important to maintaining our freedoms.

These are the same Democrats (and their media allies) who are complaining that Russia supposedly interfered in our election process. Yet they do everything they can to block commonsense photo ID requirements that the majority of the public supports to ensure fair elections. They call people racists who support these laws. The fact that they fight these photo ID requirements shows they really don't care about the integrity of the voting process.

A couple excerpts from the following ABC News report:

The ID requirements at drug treatment facilities are intended to prevent people from enrolling in multiple programs and selling opioid medication such as methadone on the black market, said a spokesman from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, adding that programs would be liable for misuse of the medications. Some detox centers will admit a person without ID first and make time later to sort out the person's identity, but doing so comes at risk of running afoul of federal and state regulations on dispensing medications, experts said.

The government requires the poor and elderly to have a photo ID to get food stamps, to open a bank account, to get welfare, to get Medicaid, and to get Social Security among many other things. Yet..

Democrats will go to court to stop a state requiring people to get a photo ID to vote, using the argument that it is racist. The fact that they require photo IDs for so many other things the poor and minorities have to do shows what a crock that argument is.

The only reason to block the photo ID laws for voting is to open up voting to fraud.
It should be a big story if additional information comes out that shows just how willing Hillary Clinton and her aides were to violate national security laws and essentially used her paid position in government to enrich herself and hand out favors. Sadly, since most reporters support Hillary, they bury the story.

A few excerpts from the Washington Examiner:

The watchdog group also said several emails in the newly released batch show Clinton using her official position as secretary of state to trade favors and to provide influence to donors to the Clinton campaign and donors to the Clinton Foundation. For example, emails from April 2009 show a Puerto Rican TV executive named Miguel Lausell making a request that started with Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band, but was then moved over to Abedin. Lausell was pushing for his preferred candidate to become U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, and was reportedly a donor to both the Clinton presidential center and the Clinton Global Initiative. "Pay to play, classified information mishandling, influence peddling, cover ups  these new emails show why the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's conduct must be resumed," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. "The Trump Justice Department and FBI need to reassure the American people they have finally stopped providing political protection to Hillary Clinton."

Reporters should search deep to ask themselves if Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his aides intentionally violated national security laws; deleted massive numbers of emails to evade many laws, including the Freedom of Information Act; used his position to raise funds for a private foundation; jacked up speaking fees for his wife, including large amounts from Russia as well as other foreign governments; and handed out favors like candy to those who increased the Clintons' wealth. Would they say that is OK and support him anyway or would they go after him with wall-to-wall news coverage and investigations?

Would they support a decision by the FBI director to not prosecute even if he admitted how many laws Tillerson and his aides had hypothetically violated?

Would the media be supportive of Attorney General Jeff Sessions if he told the FBI director to call it "a matter" instead of an investigation?

Would the reporters accept that Sessions met with Tillerson's wife to talk about vacations and grandchildren a few days before a pretend interview with Tillerson, or would they call for Tillerson to be canned?

Would congressional Democrats give Tillerson and his aides a pass like they did Hillary?

I would hope that if reporters searched deep, they would see their double standard on reporting based on whether they support a person's policy positions and not whether he violated the law, which Hillary obviously did. She should have been prosecuted just as other people have been for far more minor transgressions.
In the latest instance of everyone seeming to pile on President Donald Trump, one of baby Charlie Gard's "medics," who communicated anonymously with the Guardian newspaper a week after the child died in hospice, blamed President Donald Trump (and Pope Francis) for unnecessarily prolonging the sick child's last days.

The health worker said Charlie's case became a distressing soap opera for some commentators that had prolonged the agony of Charlie's parents. . . Charlie, the medic said, had effectively been kept alive for people such as Donald Trump, the pope and Boris Johnson, who "suddenly knew more about mitochondrial diseases than our expert consultants."

The comments were included in an article published in The Guardian on August 4, which would have been Charlie's first birthday had he survived. The medic continued: "We gave him drugs and fluids, we did everything that we could, even though we thought he should be allowed to slip away in his parents' arms, peacefully, loved." The Guardian simultaneously published the medic's entire anonymous essay here.



Charlie Gard at age six weeks, September 2016.

Both President Trump and Pope Francis tweeted their support for the parents in early July, with President Trump saying he hoped Charlie's parents could take their baby to New York City, where Michio Hirano, M.D., a specialist in brain disorders at Columbia University Medical Center, had agreed to treat Charlie with experimental therapies. The British courts, confirming the wishes of the London hospital, prevented Charlie's parents from taking him out of England. It is not clear why the medic included Boris Johnson in her comments since Johnson, the British foreign secretary, had said on July 5 that baby Charlie could not be taken out of the U.K.

The Independent was even more explicit in appearing to blame President Trump. The subhead in its August 5 article read: "Health worker says they felt they were prolonging Charlie and his parents' suffering to placate politicians like Donald Trump."

Immediately after the parents agreed on July 24 to allow the hospital to end life support for Charlie, the judge in the case, the hospital, and the media started blaming everyone but themselves for the how the case had gotten out of control and morphed into a polarizing, controversial domestic issue, as Charlie's parents fought his doctors and the hospital in the courts for control of his treatment for over five months.

On August 4, the Daily Mail published "Our last hours with our son," an article that included the first interview with Charlie's parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, since Charlie passed away at 3:12 p.m. on July 28 in hospice shortly after being moved from the hospital and disconnected from his ventilator. Accompanying the interview were many heartrending pictures and cell phone videos of Charlie, alone and with his parents, that had never been published before, several of them taken before he started to show signs of illness last October.



Charlie Gard and his mother, shortly after his birth.

The Daily Mail's article was considerably more sensitive and nuanced than some of the other reporting in the British MSM, which has given extensive coverage to the Charlie story. The story first came to public attention last March, after the parents were dragged into court by the hospital, which wanted to pull the plug on Charlie as soon as possible against his parents' wishes.

His life  and his illness  drew us all in, from the Pope and the President of the United States to the man and woman in the street. Why? Because the controversies surrounding Charlie's life  and ultimate death  encapsulated a dilemma we all find almost impossible to face: who should choose when to end a life? His plight raised profound questions about the rights of parents, the right to life and the greatest question of all: should the opinion of doctors always override the instincts of parents who strongly believe their child has a chance of a good life  no matter how limited that might actually be?

The Daily Mail, and not only in this latest reporting on the Charlie Gard case, has distinguished itself with its extensive and probing coverage of news in the U.K., the United States, and internationally.

The stalemate threw into sharp focus how morally tangled and ultimately fragile are the rights of parents over the fate of their children when pitched against the might of the State. In their first interview since Charlie's death, the couple describe that David and Goliath struggle as "truly terrifying."

The Daily Mail quoted Charlie's mother, Connie:

It was terribly intimidating and stressful to find ourselves up against such a powerful hospital and one which, in many people's eyes, can do no wrong. It's equally terrifying to realise just how easily the rights of parents can be snatched away.

Charlie's parents recounted in considerable and heartbreaking detail their last days and hours with their son. They also commented on the involvement of Dr. Hirano and how he was attacked for his efforts.

Of Michio Hirano, the American doctor who gave them hope, and whose ethics were questioned in court by Katie Gollop QC, representing the hospital, they still will not hear a bad word. Connie and Chris point out that Hirano denied claims by GOSH [Great Ormond Street Hospital] that he had financial interest in some of the medication offered, which has been used on 18 people with another form of mitochondrial depletion syndrome. They remain convinced he had their best interests at heart. "He is one of the best doctors in the world," says Connie. "He had been trying to help us since December, and it is shocking how he was vilified by GOSH. "He was never invited to examine Charlie. Had he been, then he would have done and we believe Charlie would now be in the U.S. having treatment. His views were backed by six other doctors who all specialise in mitochondrial depletion syndrome."



Chris Gard holds Charlie's hand shortly before they leave the hospital for hospice, July 28, 2017.

After Charlie died, his parents were allowed to take his body back to their apartment.

A member of staff asked if they would like to take Charlie home in a temperature assisted "cuddle cot," which would allow them to have their son home with them for a few days. . . "It felt perfectly natural to leave the hospice with Charlie and take him with us. Charlie was still warm as we carried him through our front door," recalls Connie. "The moment was very emotional." Even though their son was no longer alive, "We had got our last wish to bring him home."

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about national politics, media, popular culture, and health care. He is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. His new website is AltMedNews.net. Peter's July 28, 2017 90-minute interview on The Hagmann Report can be watched here.
BRUSSELS - European Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told ANSA in an interview on Thursday that he wants all NGOs conducting migrant rescues in the Mediterranean to sign the Italian-drafted code of conduct for these operations. "I'm sorry that some NGOs decided not to sign the code of conduct," Avramopoulos said.

"We must all work together to dismantle the traffickers' business model and avoid migrant deaths. This is why I again call on all the NGOs to join the initiative.

"The broader the scale of our common work, the better the results on the ground will be". He also said that "return processing needs to be accelerated and the procedures need to be streamlined.

"Part of the problem is also that once a person in Italy is told they have to return, if they are not detained, then they have no incentive to cooperate with the authorities anymore," Avramopoulos continued.

He said that a law drafted by Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti was "a good step forward in this direction".

"The Commission is ready to support Italy in implementing the changes needed," he said. Avramopoulos told ANSA that it is possible that the Operation Sophia could be deployed in Libyan waters in the future. "At the moment, priority should be given to what can be done under the current mandate of Operation Sophia which was just renewed with added tasks," he said after the Italian navy started a mission to support the Libyan coast guard against human traffickers. "But the possibility of the Operation moving to a third stage working in Libyan waters was foreseen from the beginning. If the Libyan authorities ask for this, we should be ready to act".

The European Commission also said Thursday that it has faith in the Italian authorities regarding the case of the Iuventa, a ship operated by German NGO Jugend Rettet that has been confiscated in relation to a probe into alleged aiding of illegal immigration. "We know about the incident but we don't have details about whether it is the result of the code of conduct for the NGOs or something else," EC spokesperson Mina Andreeva said. "We have confidence in the Italian authorities that are handling the case".

The NGO's Dutch-flagged Iuventa ship was confiscated on Wednesday at the Italian island of Lampedusa. No members of the NGO have been charged so far and prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Trapani said that they believed Jugend Rettet's activists were working for humanitarian reasons and did not have direct relations with the traffickers.

However, photos that seem to show an incident when migrants were not rescued at sea but were effectively handed over by traffickers sparked almost unanimous condemnation on social media, with many users blasting it as "shameful".

Jugend Rettet put out a statement on Twitter Thursday saying that it was sorry it was unable to conduct search and rescue at the moment, adding that the "rescue of human life is and will be top priority". Jugend Rettet was one of several NGOs conducting rescues in the Mediterranean that this week refused to sign a new code of conduct at the interior ministry. The Commission has said NGOs that do not sign the code will not be guaranteed access to Italian ports.

Leonardo Marino, a lawyer representing Jugend Rettet, said Thursday that "we will appeal against the confiscation of the ship Iuventa".

He said the appeal with regard the computers and documents seized, not just the vessel itself.
U.S. President Donald Trump [Xinhua]

In the months leading up to his election as President, Donald Trump was accused of being a variety of loathsome things  an Islamophobe, a misogynist, a demagogue, and just an all-around bigot.

If there was one minority group that he wasn't regularly accused of harboring ill-feelings towards, however, it was the LGBT community. In fact, it's interesting to note that not only was Trump the most LGBT-friendly Republican candidate to ever run for the Presidency, he was also arguably the most LGBT-friendly candidate to reach America's highest political office.

However, his announcement that transgender soldiers would be banned from serving in the armed forces has severely dampened the optimism that LGBT rights supporters might have harbored at the time of Trump's inauguration.

Trump made his decision known through his favorite means of communicating serious policy decisions: Twitter. His announcement came in a series of tweets; however, the most pertinent piece of information was: "The United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

He also claimed that this choice had come about, "after consultation with my generals and military experts." It's a vague enough claim; however, it should be pointed out that several very high-ranking military officials  including Mark Milley, the Army's top general, and General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  were completely taken aback by Trump's tweets.

They both insisted they were unaware of any impending change to the military's policy regarding transgender soldiers.

Trump's announcement naturally was seized upon by the media. Transgender rights have been a huge issue in recent years in the U.S., with many on the left accusing those holding opposing views of being transphobic. Meanwhile, the right has decried the pro-transgender movement as being based on a denial of biological facts.

However, whichever side of the political spectrum you might be, Trump's main reasoning behind the ban is hardly convincing: namely, his claim that the military is spending too much money on the health costs associated with allowing transgender soldiers to serve.

Admittedly, hard facts are difficult to come by concerning military expenditure on transgender-related health costs, but one study by the RAND Corporation offered a figure of between 2.4 and 8.4 million dollars a year, a paltry amount for the world's largest military force.

To be fair, another estimate cited by right-wing sources  and attributed to Republican congresswoman Vicky Hartzler  claims that this figure could actually reach more than 100 million dollars, however, this comes from a single person with a clear political bias. Even if the estimate proves accurate, Trump's ban still faces two serious logical flaws.

The first: According to his tweets, all transgender people will be barred from serving. It doesn't matter if you've already undergone gender reassignment surgery, if you're transgender in any sense, you can't serve.

However, if someone's already passed through the whole process before enlisting, then their trans-related health costs for the military would be minimal. And if Trump's problem with transgender soldiers is really the cost of their healthcare, why not simply impose restrictions on how much the military will pay for an individual's transgender-related treatment?

[To be clear, I'm not arguing in favor of this; however, it's surely more palatable to many people than an outright ban on transgender soldiers) A policy that doesn't take these very basic ideas into account is clearly based on something more than mere financial reservations.

The second flaw: There are many other medical issues costing the military far more than the highest estimates of the monetary burden caused by transgender soldiers. For instance, it spends $84 million each year on erectile dysfunction treatment for servicemen, 10 times more than the RAND Corporation's upper-end estimate of transgender-related costs.

If the policy is for financial reasons, therefore, why not ban soldiers with erectile dysfunction as well and save taxpayers an exponentially larger amount of money?

These are both things that need to be addressed if the Trump administration expects the motives behind the transgender ban not to be viewed as bigotry. However, there's very little chance of that happening.

My guess is that Trump tweeted out the policy, likely to face serious challenges from both within and outside of the military, as a kind of petty form of vengeance against his many critics on the left. Given his past behavior, it's by no means an unlikely possibility.

Jesse Anderson is a writer and translator originally from Seattle. He is currently based in Mexico City.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 2 - These are the main events scheduled for today in the Euro-Mediterranean area: DOHA - Visit by Italy's Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who is scheduled to meet with high level officials.



ROME - The Lower House examines a report on a resolution on the Libya intervention approved by the joint defence and foreign affairs committees of the House and the Senate. (ANSAmed).




According to a study, traffic congestion in 77 percent of Chinese cities has significantly eased in the second quarter compared to last year, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reports.

The research was jointly conducted by digital map provider Amap, China Academy of Transportation Sciences with the Ministry of Transport, Tsinghua University-Daimler AG Sustainable Transport Research Center, Alibaba Cloud Computing Co. Ltd. and bicycle-sharing company Ofo.

The results showed that among the 100 cities monitored, 77 experienced an easing of traffic between April and June. Cities notorious for severe traffic jams such as Beijing, Harbin, and Chongqing saw drastic decreases in their congestion index.

Altogether15 cities saw their congestion index fall by at least eight percent with the average congestion index of the ten most congested cities dropping by 4.9 percent.

The newspaper attributes the reduction in traffic to new regulations regarding online car-hailing services, the introduction of bicycle-sharing, upgraded infrastructure, as well as the use of internet powered traffic management.





It also pointed out that traffic in small cities was more concerning. Take Qingyuan City of Guangdong Province for example, its congestion index had surged by 12.9 percent.

The following is the list of the top 10 most congested cities. Changchun City of Jilin Province is the only city in the top 10 to have experienced greater congestion.

Shijiazhuang










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A Bengaluru-based software engineer was arrested by police for allegedly misusing Aadhaar data.

Mumbai: The Unique Identification Authority of India has refuted reports that massive Aadhaar data were breached through an app developed by a Bengaluru-based techie employed with ride-hailing app Ola. UIDAI also clarified that there had not been any incidence of compromise over individuals' privacy as it was being widely reported.

The Bengaluru Crime Branch had arrested software engineer Abhinav Srivastav (31) who was working at Ola's head office in Koramangala after UIDAI filed a complaint against him and Qarth Technologies. Qarth was bought by Ola in March in 2016. Srivastav was taken into custody for misusing Aadhaar data downloaded from UIDAI website without authentication.

Ajay Bhushan Pandey who is chief executive officer of UIDAI said that residents were downloading their own demographic data, according to a report on The Economic Times. He added that the allegations of violation of privacy were not true as people stored data related to their own name, address, gender etc, through this application.

No one could not get data of any other person through this app. Even though residents were downloading their own demographic data such as name, address etc , yet legal actions were initiated against the owner of the App since it was not authorized to provide such services to people and such acts are criminal offence punishable action as per Aadhaar Act, 2016. It is further reiterated that data of not even a single non-consenting resident has been given by UIDAI through this App, ET quoted Pandey as saying.

Pandey also placated apprehensions and said that Aadhaar data were safe and secure. He appealed to the people to not disclose their Aadhaar number to any unknown websites or apps or persons on phone.

The complaint against Srivastav and Qarth Technologies was filed on July 26 with the High Ground Police station which after registration transferred the case to Cyber Crime investigation cell. Fearing for his arrest, Srivastav had gone underground but was found by police who then arrested him.
Going by the current trend, the AUM of the industry is all set to hit a major milestone of Rs 20 lakh crore (trillion) in the current month.

The higher inflows along with appreciation in the net asset value of MF units led to a 5.30% or `1 trillion jump in the industrys total AUM from `18.96 trillion recorded at the end of June 2017.

Mumbai: The assets under management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry has reached Rs 19.96 lakh crore as at the end of July 31, 2017 on the back of strong inflows into both debt and equity market schemes. Going by the current trend, the AUM of the industry is all set to hit a major milestone of Rs 20 lakh crore (trillion) in the current month.

As per the latest data released by Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), the industry saw net inflows of Rs 63,604 crore in July as compared to a net outflow of Rs 16,592 crore in June. The higher inflows along with appreciation in the net asset value (NAV) of mutual fund units led to a 5.30 per cent or `1 lakh crore jump in the industrys total AUM from Rs 18.96 lakh crore recorded at the end of June 2017.

Despite equity markets hovering around their historic peaks, the industry is yet to witness any major redemption pressure. According to fund managers, inflows from small investors are continuing at a steady pace amidst buoyancy in the equity market.

There are close to 1.5 crore systematic investment Plan (SIP) account with an average monthly inflow of above Rs 4,600 crore. While income schemes offered by fund houses saw a net inflow of Rs 60,084 crore as against a net outflow of Rs 20,685 crore in the previous month, the equity schemes witnessed a record inflow of Rs 12,037 crore as compared to Rs 7,453 crore in June.

There is no change in momentum and investors are showing tremendous confidence and conviction in the industry as MF products across segments have performed well. This is a clear divergence from what we witnessed some 4-5 years back, said Swarup Mohanty, CEO, Mirae Asset Global Investment.

Over the past six months, Mr Mohanty said the flows are little skewed towards balanced funds as these schemes across fund houses have done well.

Since the outlook towards the equity markets are quite positive and equity as an asset class is expected to outperform others, he said the net inflows into equity schemes would show a positive trend going forward.
The actor was hospitalised after complaining of dehydration and kidney problem.

Legendary actor Dilip Kumar has acted in more than 65 films in his career.

Mumbai: Yesteryear actor Dilip Kumar, who was rushed to Lilavati hospital on Wednesday morning, is battling kidney failure.

However, on Saturday, the doctor said that there have been no improvements yet.

Lilavati doctors informed saying, "Functioning of his kidneys still affected, there have been no improvements."

He is currently recuperating in the hospitals Intensive Care Unit (ICU). According to the doctors, his creatinine and potassium both are on rise in the body.

Creatinine is a chemical waste product in the blood that passes through the kidneys to be filtered and eliminated in urine while potassium is an essential electrolyte. High potassium causes kidney ailment.

On Thursday evening, the doctors treating Mr Kumar had said that his creatinine levels are rising, and he is going into renal failure. The situation remained the same on Friday.

Dr Jalil Parker, who treating the veteran actor said, Kumar is not good. His creatinine and potassium is increasing, while his haemoglobin is decreasing. He will need dialysis but is not kept on ventilator. Dr Parker said that Mr Kumars creatinine level is bad as compare to yesterday.

His kidney is not functioning well. He has been shifted into the ICU. He is responding well with the treatments, Dr Parker added.

The actor was hospitalised after complaining of dehydration and kidney problem.

This is the third time Mr Kumar was admitted to the hospital. On December 7, he had swelling in his right leg. On April 15, he had taken ill with pneumonia.

Mr Kumar had trouble breathing and his white blood cells had shot up. However, he recovered in two days. His wife and veteran actor, Saira Banu told via Twitter that the actor was doing well after the treatment.

During his six-decade long career, the legendary actor, whose real name is Mohammad Yusuf Khan, acted in several superhit films like 'Madhumati,' 'Devdas,' 'Mughal-e-Azam,' 'Ganga Jamuna,' 'Ram Aur Shyam' and Karma.

He was last seen in the film 'Qila' in 1998. Kumar was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015.
I made sure nothing would go wrong during their visit. I didnt want SRK to feel like he made a mistake by coming to Varanasi.

When Shah Rukh Khan, together with Imtiaz Ali and Anushka Sharma, decided to head to Varanasi, he asked Bhojpuri superstar Manoj Tiwari to play host.

Manoj says, I was at a Bhojpuri film festival in London, when I got a call from Shah Rukh bhai. He said he was going to Varanasi from promotions, and asked if I would join them. Without a second thought, I flew back from London and headed to Varanasi, not only to join Shah Rukh bhai, Imtiaz bhai and Anushkaji, but also to play their host while they visited the holy city.

This week, Manoj had a blast with SRK. By asking me to join them, he not only honoured me, but also the entire Bhojpuri film industry. I made sure that he and his colleagues had a fun time in Varanasi. The crowds in the city went berserk when Shah Rukh bhai and I danced to Bhojpuri songs, he reminisces.

All the security arrangements were taken care of by Manoj himself. I made sure nothing would go wrong during their visit. I didnt want Shah Rukh bhai to feel like he made a mistake by coming to Varanasi.

Interestingly, Manoj and SRK have been friends for a long time. Says Manoj fondly, In fact I sang a song for Shah Rukh in his film Fan. And now in Varanasi, I did a live Bhojpuri version of one of the songs from Jab Harry Met Sejal. The crowds loved it.

Manoj describes Shah Rukh as very inspiring. He told me to not give up on Bhojpuri cinema, and to do at least a few good Bhojpuri films. Shah Rukh bhai said You do a Bhojpuri film, Ill make a guest appearance in it. In fact, Imtiaz bhai also offered all help to revive Bhojpuri cinema. Im grateful to them for motivating me. Imagine what the fate of Bhojpuri cinema would be if Shah Rukh Khan were to join hands with me, he signs off.
According to the doctors, the creatinine and potassium levels in Mr Kumars body have increased, which affects the kidney.

A doctor at Lilavati Hospital said Mr Kumars kidneys are functioning at a very low level than normal.

Mumbai: Veteran actor Dilip Kumar (94) is battling likely kidney failure, as his kidneys are functioning at a very low level. Doctors from Lilavati Hospital, where the thespian has been admitted, said there has been no improvement in his health yet but he is recuperating in the hospitals Intensive Care Unit.

According to the doctors, the creatinine and potassium levels in Mr Kumars body have increased, which affects the kidney.

Mr Kumar was rushed to privately-run Lilavati Hospital on Wednesday. He was moved to the ICU on Thursday.

Functioning of his kidneys is still affected, there have been no improvements, said Dr Jalil Parkar, under whose observation the actor has been kept.

A doctor at Lilavati Hospital said Mr Kumars kidneys are functioning at a very low level than normal.

The doctors also said Mr Kumars health condition is deteriorating due to the rise in his creatinine and potassium levels. The haemoglobin level has decreased. We may start with dialysis to stabilise his health condition since his creatinine and potassium both are on the rise in his body. His creatinine level has gone up, leading to urinary complications. But he is stable, added Dr Parkar.

Mr Kumar has made several visits to hospitals in recent years. In April last year, he was hospitalised with fever and nausea. In December 2016, he was admitted to Lilavati Hospital to treat a swelling in his right leg.
Says Milo Ventimiglia on his efforts while talking about the latest hit show This Is Us.

Milo Ventimiglia, the American actor who gained international recognition for his roles like Jess Mariano on the television series Gilmore Girls, and Peter Petrelli on the series Heroes, currently stars as Jack Pearson on NBCs This Is Us. Ventimiglia shares about his experience working in the show, his chemistry with Mandy Moore, reasons for choosing this project and a lot more.

Milo Ventimiglia

Viewers have loved season one. Are you relieved as an actor, when people latch onto something that youve done?

You know, its so funny. I do the work and put my whole heart into the work no matter what it is. I do my best to honour the words and honour the character and the people that Im shoulder to shoulder with. But it is nice when there is a positive response and reaction to work that Im a part of. I cant say that it doesnt feel good.

What drew you to this project?

So many different things! One was Dan Fogelman and how much of a fan I was of his writing. Another is John Requa and Glen Ficarra, the directors of the pilot. And that a great character in Jack. You know hes inherently good and hes hopeful and loves his wife and hes excited about his baby, and his kids.

Did you spend time with babies to prepare for playing the father role?

I wouldnt say I spent time to prepare. Ive got no kids myself, but have nieces and nephews with whom I hang out and spend time with. I change diapers and Ive spent hours on the ground playing with toys and what not. Just being a positive source of goodness for kids. Falling into that world and holding a baby that Im pretending is mine or saddling up to a little kid and calling him or her mine, its not a stretch. Not a stretch at all.

Youre pretty jacked in this. Are you a gym buff normally or was that for this role?

No, this was actually the very first job that a producer said to me: stop working out. I keep myself fit just because I enjoy the way I feel and I think its good to be healthy. But this was one of those jobs that they did not want me to look like a very modern guy. I understood that. Thats just kind of me. Still working out but eating as much as I can. I try to be a normal guy.

We have to talk about Mandy Moore, who is great in this. Whats it like working with her?

It is everything youd expect it to be  joyous, fun, deep and meaningful work. She is someone whos very connected to her character Rebecca and committed to her character. For all intents and purposes when the cameras are rolling were husband and wife. I know that she is very passionate about her work but even more importantly shes a great human being, which makes the job easier. It really, truly does. Shes beautiful, kind, cool, smart and funny. But above all a good human being and that makes the work even better.

Had you met her before this project?

No. We literally shook hands in a network test and that was it.

(The first season of This Is Us starts 14th August at 9pm on Star World)
The films script, screenplay  by Shanker Raman, Sourabh R, Vipin Bhatti, Yogi Singha  and dialogue soaked in the flavour of the city and its ethos.

Rating:

Cast: Akshay Oberoi, Pankaj Tripathi, Aamir Bashir, Ragini Khanna, Shalini Vatsa, Arjun Singh Faujdar, Ashish Verma, Mukul Chaddha, Yogi Singha, Anna Adon, Srinivas Sunderajan

Director: Shanker Raman

Several films have been made on Gurgaon, but none explores and explains the estranged relationship and indelible bond of the citys original inhabitants with their own land like Shanker Ramans noir thriller Gurgaon does. Born of and set in new Gurgaon  Cyber City thats simultaneously bustling, busy, growing, and rotting at its core  the film opens with a disconnect thats all too apparent and common. The expensive, large house of Kehri Singh (Pankaj Tripathi), owner of Preet Estate, has a row of palm trees decorating its entrance. A car from the airport brings Preet (Ragini Khanna), and her friend Sophie home. Inside men are celebrating Kehri Singhs victory in the Rotary Club election. Kehri Singhs elder son Nikki Singh (Akshay Oberoi), younger son Chintu (Ashish Verma), their friend Rajvir (Arjun Fauzdar) are taking the ice bucket challenge.

Everything Kehri Singh owns belongs to Preet  his adopted daughter. His own son, Nikki, he says, is manhoos, no good. He failed in everything hes done  school, business, and thats why his plan to build Power House Gym is dismissed rudely. Kehri Singh has kept that land for Preets office. A foreign-trained architect, she will take over the business and her first assignment is Preet Nagar, a Rs 25,000 crore township that will have a Shanghai, Dubai-waali feel. In this world, where women are the most dispensable items, where the pursuit of power and money and perennial, Preet owes her special status to a dark twist of fate and a gurujis pronouncement. Nikki, hurting from the insult and loss of power, sets in motion a chain of events by placing a huge bet on Virendra Sehwags century. Gurgaons plot is simple, linear.

A lost bet requires a plan to get money. It involves a kidnapping, satta boss Vikki, Rajvir and his Mamajis house, an innocent bystander Anand Murthy (Srinivas Sunderrajan) and, eventually, the special skills of Kehri Singhs brother Bhupi (Aamir Bashir). But the idiot plan and its inept execution ensure that its a tumble to a disaster, tragedy. Bhupi brings with him flashbacks to a life before Gurgaon was handed over, one plot at a time, to builders. The lines on his face tell the story of a city that demanded unspeakable sacrifices, which often began at home. But today the violence  whether over Rs 27 at a toll booth, or a perceived slight  is often for reaffirmation of their macho power, and the victims are often people who have intruded into their land, innocent bystanders whose very existence is taken as a taunt. Gurgaon grabs you instantly with its moody cinematography (Vivek Shah) and thrilling background score (Naren Chandavarkar, Benedict Taylor, sound design by Mohandas V.P.).

The film draws its power from the unpredictability of what its simmering characters may do, and from situations that may at any time go out of their control. The film diligently follows the themes, style of noir  neon lights, urban landscape, corruption, squalor and glamour living cheek-by-jowl  and even draws some bits from genre predecessors, like the murder in the car. The sites writer-director Raman picks  from the toll booth to the garbage dump, from the empty posh bar, to the hotel with a jacuzzi bath  are all rich with meaning. Home  thats one of the many fascinating themes of Gurgaon. These are spaces where there are strong familial bonds, places where business is conducted and from where every member draws power. Yet the families, living with debilitating guilt and secrets, are dysfunctional. The upholstered, plush living rooms and manicured lawns have a haunted look thats disturbing.

The films script, screenplay  by Shanker Raman, Sourabh R, Vipin Bhatti, Yogi Singha  and dialogue soaked in the flavour of the city and its ethos. The language we hear  violent, abusive, is born of a world thats long gone  a world of farm lands, cow, milk and water. Gurgaon has an exceptional cast of actors. Pankaj Tripathi, as the always drunk Kehri Singh, speaks little, but controls the film. His grip over it loosening a bit when Aamir Bashir arrives. OMG!! Where has he been all this while? He invests Bhupi with a menacing mix of a dark past and a sharp focus on the task at hand. Akshay Oberois Nikki Singh is like a double-edge sword. A man so desperate and disturbed that the only way he can feel he is alive is by watching someone writhing in pain. Dont miss it.
Dujana, a Pak national, figured at number 1 in the list of 12 'most wanted terrorists' released by the Army in June 2017.

Musa while confirming his affiliation with Ansar Ghuzwat-Ul-Hind claimed that Dujana and Lalhari were its founding members. (Photo: Twitter)

Srinagar: Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, the Kashmiri militant named as the head of al-Qaedas recently launched India cell Ansar Ghuzwat-Ul-Hind has owned Abu Dujana as being its first martyr.

Dujana, a Pakistani national, who figured at number one in the list of 12 most wanted terrorists released by the Army in June 2017, was along with another Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Arif Nabi Dar alias Rehan alias Arif Lalhari, a local Kashmiri, killed during a fire fight with the security forces in southern Pulwama district on August 1.

Read: Congratulations! You caught me: Abu Dujana's last words to Armyman

In the making of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, they played a key role and became first martyrs of this jihad movement, Musa said in an audio message which has gone viral on social media platforms.

Meanwhile, three gunmen believed to be LeT cadres were killed in a gun battle with the security forces in Sopore area of north-western Baramulla district overnight, officials in Srinagar said on Saturday.

Musa while confirming his affiliation with Ansar Ghuzwat-Ul-Hind claimed that Dujana and Lalhari were its founding members. He paid glowing tributes to the slain duo and said in the 2-minute audio When Dujana joined us, the so-called bosses of jihad in Pakistan placed a number of hurdles for him. He termed Dujana and Lalhari as Mardan-e-Hur (the brave free men).

Musa, a close associate of slain Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, had declared in April 2017 that Kashmiris should not fall for nationalism, the traditional goal of the separatists. He had threatened to chop off the heads of separatist leaders over their calling the struggle a political movement.

The separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik who are part of an issue-based alliance named by them as Joint Resistance Leadership had earlier in a joint statement said that the ongoing freedom movement in Kashmir had nothing to do with ISIS and Al-Qaeda-like organizations. They had also said that there is no role for these groups in our movement which was indigenous and seeks freedom for 15 million people of the State and that the same is not driven by religion.

However, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the outfit Musa was affiliated to, quickly distanced itself from his statement and the ideology he was seeking to propagate. Musa reacted sharply to it and announced that he is not associated with the Hizb anymore. He said he stood by his earlier statement.

Dujana alias Hafiz who carried a cash reward of Rs 1.5 million on his head had refused to surrender saying that God will decide his fate when trapped inside a private house in Pulwamas Harkipora village along with Lalhari.

Aaj bhi marna hai, kal bhi marna hai (one has to die either today or tomorrow), he had responded to the plea of a security forces officer made during a phone call before the duo was shot dead on August 1.

Meanwhile, the police said on Saturday that three LeT militants were killed in an encounter with the security forces in Amarghad area of Sopore, 50-km northwest of Srinagar, overnight.

A police spokesman in Srinagar said that acting on specific information about the presence of militants in Jamia Mohalla of Amargarh, the troops from Armys 52 Rashtriya Rifles, J&K polices counterinsurgency Special Operations Groups (SOG) and the 92, 177 and 179 battallions of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched a cordon-and-search operation in the area during the intervening night of August 4 and 5.

The militants hiding in the area opened fire on the joint search party, triggering an encounter. During the encounter, three militants of LeT were eliminated. Their identity is being ascertained, the spokesman said. He added that three AK 74 rifles with magazines were found on the slain men.

The police also said that one of its men was injured during the encounter but added that his condition is stable.

As tensions are running high in the area after the killing of militants, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Baramulla announced the closure of all government and private schools and colleges in Sopore. The Internet services were withdrawn in the area earlier.
Earlier in the day, the Congress workers staged protests across the nation against the attack.

Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat's Dhanera. (Photo: PTI)

Ahmedabad (Gujarat): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker Jayesh Darji was on Saturday detained by police in Dhanera for attacking Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's convoy on Friday.

Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat's Dhanera.

Earlier in the day, the Congress workers staged protests across the nation against the attack.

Rahul, however, urged party workers to call off their protests and divert their energies in helping the flood affected people in Gujarat.

"Respect the sentiments of Congress workers in #Gujarat protesting against admin not filing an FIR against the stone pelting. But I urge them to divert their energy in helping the people affected by floods in the state (sic)," he said in a tweet.

Rahul blamed the BJP for the attack and said, "In yesterday's incident, BJP workers threw a stone at me which hit my personal security officer (PSO). This is Prime Minister Modi and BJP-RSS's way of politics. What can I say?" Rahul told media.

Earlier on Friday, Rahul took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

Read: Attack on Rahul Gandhi murderous act by BJP, RSS: Congress

Condemning the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that a senior officer were appointed to investigate into the incident and assured that strict action will be taken against the guilty.
Will continue to engage with Beijing diplomatically, says MEA

In this image taken from a recent video footage run by Chinas CCTV, artillery guns fire during a live-fire drill by the Chinese Army in Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region that border India. Chinese characters in yellow reads Artillery soldiers high altitude live fire drills.  CCTV via AP Video

New Delhi: India on Friday maintained a studied silence on Chinese claims that China had informed India twice about Beijings plans to construct a road in the Doklam area. External affairs ministry spokesman Gopal Baglay said: I will neither confirm nor deny. I will not like to characterise diplomatic interactions.

The MEA said it would not go into every detail of diplomatic interaction. India and Bhutan regard Doklam as Bhutanese territory while China calls it Dong Lang, and regards it as its territory.

The spokesman also referred to a June 30 statement on India being in consultation with Bhutan on this matter.

Indian and Chinese troops are involved in a tense face-off in the area for the past six weeks, but there have been no hostilities as yet. But China has been lashing out at India almost every day, seeking immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from the area.

On Thursday, senior diplomat and Chinas deputy chief of mission at its embassy in New Delhi Liu Jinsong had said that China had notified New Delhi twice  on May 18 and June 8  regarding road construction in the area out of goodwill, but that there was no response from India at that time. He also said the deployment of Indian troops in Doklam was shocking for China and accused India of trampling on Chinese goodwill. The intimation was apparently given by Chinese troops to Indian troops at the local level twice.

Meanwhile, New Delhi said it continues to engage with Beijing diplomatically to find a mutually-acceptable solution to the Doklam standoff. We continue to engage with China through diplomatic channels to find a mutually acceptable solution, Mr Baglay said.

Asked about Chinas claim of India reducing its troops from 400 to 48 in Doklam, the MEA spokesman refused to say how many Indian troops were there at Doklam, calling it an operational matter. He said Indias objective was to achieve peace and tranquillity, and that it would be achieved through diplomacy.
The income-tax department will restrict itself to examining the extent of tax evasion and the volume of black money.

Bengaluru: Two days after the directorate of income tax (investigation) conducted search and seizure operations at 60 locations in Delhi and Karnataka to investigate alleged tax evasion by Karnataka energy minister D.K. Shivakumar, top sources said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to step in to examine if there was a case of money laundering that attracted violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema).

The Central agencies are closely watching the I-T search and seizure operations at the premises of Mr Shivakumar and his family members and if there is any indication that money has been laundered and stashed offshore, he can be in bigger trouble, said an official source on condition of anonymity.

Though there was no official comment by the DGIT, informed sources said that the search operations have opened a can of worms with several names of powerful and influential people coming out during the course of investigation. The income-tax department will restrict itself to examining the extent of tax evasion and the volume of black money, but when the ED steps in, they will track the trail of money, Mr Shivakumars investments and his business interests in India and abroad, if any, the officer said.

Meanwhile, according to sources in the ministry of finance, the DGIT was well within its limits for requisition and deployment of the Central Reserve Police Force for the search operations.
The RSS has, meanwhile, demanded a judicial inquiry into the political killings of its supporters and cadres in the Left-ruled state.

New Delhi: Forty-eight hours before Union finance minister Arun Jaitley is expected to visit family members of Rajesh, the RSS activist allegedly killed by CPI(M) workers, the National Human Rights Commission has slapped a notice on the Kerala government over growing incidents of political violence in the state and sought a report in four weeks. Mr Jaitley will also visit the homes of BJP ward councillors which were allegedly attacked by CPI(M) cadres in Thiruvanantpuram last week.

The RSS has, meanwhile, demanded a judicial inquiry into the political killings of its supporters and cadres in the Left-ruled state. The RSS alleged that chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who hails from Kannur, the epicentre of political violence, is an accused in one such political murder.

Attacking the RSS, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the RSS did not respond to the Kerala governments initiatives to end the political violence in the state and that violence was a part of the RSS strategy to expand its social base by creating terror.

The RSS top brass, sources said, has also been holding meetings with senior BJP leaders, including Central ministers, asking them to highlight and take up the issue of the killing of its wokers and supporters by Communist cadres with the national media. The issue was also raised by BJP MPs in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament. Union home minister Rajnath Singh also spoke with the chief minister earlier this week, asking him to stop the violence. Kerala governor P. Sathasivam had also summoned Mr Vijayan and the state police chief to discuss the issue.

In its notice, the NHRC asked the state chief secretary and director-general of police to take effective measures to stop such incidents. The commission had in January taken suo-motu cognisance of the matter on the basis of a media report of the gruesome killings of RSS and BJP workers, and called for a report from the chief secretary along with specific information on whether any relief in these matters was granted to victims or their families.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has called an all-party meet on August 6 in the wake of the murderous assaults on political party workers in the state.

Demanding a judicial probe into the political killings of Sangh Parivar workers, senior RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale alleged that CPI(M) cadres were involved in the violence which was aimed at checking its expanding base in the state.

The Kerala government should fulfil its constitutional responsibilities and check this political violence. There should be a judicial inquiry by either a judge of the high court or Supreme Court in the murders of RSS workers in the state, Mr Hosabale said, addressing the media. He said Sangh Parivar cadres were being targeted as more and more ordinary people, including the poor, were now joining the RSS, which is not going well with the ruling CPI(M)... that is why they are killing our workers. The RSS leader attacked the Kerala CM, claiming that since he assumed the top post violence has seen new heights.

He also alleged Mr Vijayan, who hails from Kannur, the epicentre of political violence, was an accused in one such political murder.
Brick hurled at leaders car while touring flood-hit areas.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi interacts with the flood affected people of Runi village in Banaskantha district. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Congress and the BJP entered into a full-blown war after the cavalcade of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress vice-president, was attacked while he was touring the flood-hit areas of Gujarat.

Reacting sharply, former PM Manmohan Singh said, I condemn the attack on Mr Gandhi in Gujarat. Political violence has no place in a democracy.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi alleged that when Mr Gandhi was passing through the Lal Chowk area on his way to flood-affected areas of Banaskantha, he was atta-cked with cement bricks allegedly by BJP goons.

Not one to sit back, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, For Gods sake, dont call people goons. People are tired of the kind of politics that Mr Gandhi and his party are indulging in. Let us respect peoples emotions.

Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani tweeted, During Mr. Gandhis visit, the Gujarat Congress MLAs are nowhere to be seen. This is what the people want to know.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel sought the government to initiate an enquiry against those responsible for Mr Gandhis safety. Condemning the attack, the Gujarat CM said, I have instructed the concerned officials to take strict action against the guilty.

After the attack, Mr Gandhi tweeted, Neither black flags, nor stones will deter us. We will put our full strength in helping the people.

The Congress is likely to raise the issue during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament and dem-and the government to explain the security lapse.
The term of incumbent vice-president Hamid Ansari, who has held the post for two consecutive terms, will end on August 10.

NDA candidate for vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu, along with his wife Usha, daughter Deepa Venkat and granddaughter Sushma, during a luncheon hosted by him for the media at his residence in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Voting to elect Indias next vice-president will take place on Saturday. Members of both Houses of Parliament will cast their votes to choose between BJP-led NDA nominee M. Venkaiah Naidu and the Opposition parties joint candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi. The numbers seem to favour the NDA candidate, who is also likely to get the support of some non-NDA parties like the AIADMK, TRS and YSRCP. The results will be declared the same day, by the evening.

The electoral college comprises MPs of both Houses of Parliament, which comes to 790. There are two vacancies each in both Houses. The NDA has 336 members in the Lower House while in the Upper House it has nearly 90 members. With the support of the AIADMK (LS 37; RS 13), TRS (LS 11; RS 3) and YSRCP (LS 9; RS 1), Mr Naidu is in a comfortable position to win. The BJP is also hoping that cross-voting by some members of the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP and the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) will help its candidate. While the JD(U) has joined hands with the BJP in Bihar, Mr Kumar had said his party will vote for Mr Gandhi in the vice-presidential election.

Ahead of the V-P polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a dinner for NDA MPs and also MPs of the non-NDA parties supporting Mr Naidus candidature. Earlier, a dummy voting exercise was held for NDA MPs, but 16 MPs, including some BJP members, cast invalid votes. BJP president Amit Shah has asked NDA MPs to vote carefully. The BJP has again called a meeting of its MPs at 9 am on Saturday. The MPs were asked to vote carefully after 21 MPs votes were found invalid during the presidential elections. Unlike the presidential polls, however, where MLAs are also part of the electoral college, only MPs can vote in the vice-presidential polls.

Addressing NDA MPs, Mr Modi said 2017-2022 was a naya kalkhand (new phase) in the country as the President, vice-president, Speaker and Prime Minister were ek he kunbae ke pale bade hain (from the same ideological family). He said the BJP was different and as a reason people believe that we have the capabilities to bring the required changes in the country. He said there has been criticism of what is happening in Parliament but the BJP, which had got absolute majority after 30 years, had a responsility to ensure that the dignity of Parliament was maintained and enhanced. He said the Upper House had seen some fine speeches and was the place which guides the nation without political differences. Under Mr Naidu, the Rajya Sabha will be able to guide the country in the way envisaged by the Constitution, he said.

Mr Modi also released a book Tireless Voice, Relentless Journey, a compilation of Mr Naidus old speeches and articles. Sources said Mr Naidu will visit Bengaluru a day after the result was declared as he had represented Karnataka three times in the Rajya Sabha. He will also go to Tirupati to offer prayers and then visit his home district Nellore the next day.

The term of incumbent vice-president Hamid Ansari, who has held the post for two consecutive terms, will end on August 10. The vice-president is also ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Incidentally, on the eve of the V-P polls, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P.J. Kurien appeared confident that Mr Naidu would emerge victorious. During the proceedings on Friday, he said that he (Venkaiah) is going to be my Chairman. Prof. Kuriens comment came after Congress member Jairam Ramesh remarked to him in a lighter vein: You are getting Venkaiah Naidus skills now.

Another Congress member, Pramod Tewari, objected, asking: How can you say before the election? Election has to take place. Realising this, Prof. Kurien then said: Oh sorry, that is correct. Then I can say I expect...
As an ABVP activist during the Emergency, Venkaiah Naidu was arrested and jailed.

Vice President elect Venkaiah Naidu addresses media as BJP president Amit Shah and other leaders look on at his residence in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Famous for his witty one-liners and affable nature, former BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu, 68, elected as the next Vice-President, will take oath on August 11.

Coming from a humble background, Mr Naidus association with the BJP goes back to its former avatar, Jana Sangh. In those days Mr Naidu used to put up posters of leaders like Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani. As an ABVP activist during the Emergency, Mr Naidu was arrested and jailed.

A prominent political figure in national politics from the south, Mr Naidu is among few Indian politicians who has friendships cutting across party lines. Perhaps this virtue of his was a consideration when the BJP decided to name him as its V-P candidate.

Known for his oratory skills, Mr Naidu had vigorously backed Narendra Modi for the Prime Ministers post before the 2014 elections, describing the latter as Gods gift to India and a Messiah of the poor.

Born in an agricultural family in Andhra Pradeshs Nellore, Mr Naidu has served as BJP president, Central minister in-charge of various portfolios and he has been a long-time Rajya Sabha member. He was elected to the Upper House thrice from Karnataka, and the fourth time from Rajasthan. Mr Naidu was also a two-term member of the Andhra Pradesh legislative Assembly.

Losing his mother at a very tender age, Mr Naidu was brought up by his grandparents. Mr Naidu, who has travelled the length and breadth of the country for party related activities, often says jokingly that his own grandchildren should call him TV tata (grandfather) as his work keeps him away from home for many days. In political circles, Mr Naidu is known as a gracious host who mostly serves Andhras delicacies.

There is a story about how, during Shankarsinh Vaghelas coup in the late 90s, when he quit the BJP along with 45 MPs and formed a government with Congress support, Mr Naidu would ask his family to send pickles as he had to camp in Gujarat for nearly three weeks.

In the Modi government, he held information and broadcasting and housing and urban affairs and the parliamentary affairs portfolio. In the previous NDA government led by party patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he served as rural development minister.

The veteran party leader also served as the BJPs national president from July 2002 to October 2004 for two consecutive terms. He quit the post after the partys defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Several major legislations were cleared by Parliament when he was parliamentary affairs minister, including the historic Real Estate Act. He also oversaw fast-forwarding of the GST Bill.

As minister of urban development and housing and urban poverty alleviation, which was recently merged as housing and urban affairs, Mr Naidu launched the Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All. As rural development minister, Mr Naidu was instrumental in launching the hugely popular Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
A number of senior Congress leaders reacted strongly to the attack on Rahul Gandhi.

New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday held BJP and RSS workers responsible for the attack on his car in Gujarat, saying the incident was a pre-planned conspiracy.

In yesterdays incident, BJP workers threw such a huge stone that my personal security officer was injured. This is how they and Modi conduct politics, Mr Gandhi said. He urged Congress party workers in Gujarat to use their energy to help those affected by floods rather than to protest the attack on him.

Congress leaders have described the incident as a murderous attack and accused the Centre and state government of failing to provide security to the party vice-president who is guarded by the SPG.

On Friday, Mr Gandhi had gone to Dhanera town in Gujarats Banaskantha district to visit flood-affected areas and meet people whose lives have been disrupted as a consequence.

A huge stone was thrown at his vehicle as alleged BJP workers waved black flags. It hit the rear window of his car. Mr Gandhi escaped unhurt as he was sitting in the front seat.

Soon after the attack, Mr Gandhi tweeted that stones cant deter him or the Congress Party. Following the attack, several state Congress leaders went on a night-long dharna and organised demonstrations condemning the incident and demanding immediate arrest of the perpetrators.

While reacting to media questions that neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor the BJP had condemned the incident so far, Mr Gandhi said, How will they condemn it when they themselves do such a thing? The attack was carried out by their own people, so how will they condemn it?

Meanwhile, the Gujarat police claimed it has arrested one person for throwing stone on Mr Gandhis car. The accused has been identified as Jayesh Darji alias Anil Rathod, allegedly a Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing leader. During his Gujarat visit, Mr Gandhi was also shown black flags by protesters, which forced him to abruptly end his speech.

A number of senior Congress leaders reacted strongly to the attack on Mr Gandhi.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, described the incident as a murderous attack carried out by BJP and RSS workers as a part of a pre-planned conspiracy. He also accused the Gujarat government of failing to provide adequate security cover to Mr Gandhi.

When asked why Mr Gandhi refused to use the bullet-proof car provided by the state government, Mr Azad said at times, be sensitive to the public, one has to use a regular vehicle.

If such an incident happens again I dont think people of the country will tolerate it, he added.

Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said that the Gujarat incident was unacceptable in any civilised society or democracy. He said the BJP was using every possible means to capture power everywhere. Mr Sharma claimed that since elections are due in Gujarat, it is the duty and responsibility of Mr Gandhi to be with the people who are suffering due to floods and no one can stop him.

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram questioned the BJP leaderships silence on the attack. Why has national leadership of BJP not condemned the attack on Rahul Gandhis car (sic)? Abuse, false charges, suppression of protests and now violence. Nevertheless, BJP will not succeed in making Congress-mukt Bharat (sic), he tweeted.
According to the police, the family raised an alarm and admitted the unconscious girl to a local hospital.

A woman shows the chopped braids of a family member in Faridabad on Thursday as such cases are being reported from the area. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: A 17-year-old girls family cut off her hair after a relative said the government was giving Rs 1 lakh compensation to victims of braid cutting incidents. The incident was reported on Saturday from Laru village in Pratapgarh district. According to the police, the family raised an alarm and admitted the unconscious girl to a local hospital.

However, the police became suspicious when doctors said that the girl was not in a state of shock as claimed by the family. Kunda Kotwali station house officer A.K. Singh said the family members were questioned separately and were found to be making contradictory statements.

They later admitted to having cut off the braid themselves. Pratapgarh superintendent of police Shagun Gautam said some Punjab-based relatives of the girl told her family about the Rs 1 lakh compensation. The family assumed that she could also benefit if they managed to declare her a victim. The series of mysterious attacks, reported from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, have created panic among the villagers. many of whom believe them to be the work of ghosts.

The strings of unexplained attacks have occurred in largely rural areas, where superstition is sparking hysteria and allegations of witchcraft. In Uttar Pradesh, a 62-year-old woman was lynched in Agra on suspicion that she was a witch responsible for the hair cutting.
Venkaiah Naidu is the second BJP leader to become vice- president, after late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

New Delhi: Backed by two-third members of Parliament, senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday defeated the Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi. He will be sworn in as the countrys 13th Vice-President on August 11. Hamid Ansaris term as V-P ends on August 10.

Mr Naidu bagged 516 votes, while Mr Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhis grandson, secured 244. Nearly two-dozen MPs of Opposition parties, sources said, defied party whip and voted for the NDAs vice-presidential candidate.

Mr Naidu bagged 21 more votes than the ones pledged to him (around 495). Of the total 785 MPs eligible to vote, 14 could not vote for various reasons. The BJP claimed that 20 MPs cross-voted in favour of Mr Naidu, and called it the largest victory margin in last 33 years.

Accepting defeat, the Oppositions V-P candidate said, Congratulate Venkaiah Naidu Garu on his victory. Wish him all the best for his new office. Thank those who voted for me; was expecting handsome performance by united vote of Opposition parties and Im more than satisfied.

Mr Gandhi also said that the votes he secured were an affirmation of the right to free thought and speech and the duty to serve pluralism and secularism.

Mr Naidu is the second BJP leader to become vice- president, after late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. With Mr Naidu, a farmer son, winning the election, he is the third BJP leader, along with President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to hold the three top constitutional positions in the country.

The Vice-President of the country is also the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha. With Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan also from the BJP, the saffron party now has an effective control both Houses.

Mr Naidus candidature for the post of V-P is seen as part of the BJPs strategy to send a positive message to the south where the party is trying to expand its base. Assembly elections are scheduled in Karnataka early next year. Mr Naidu was elected from the state for three terms in the Rajya Sabha. In fact, sources said that his first visit after becoming Vice-President elect will be to Bengaluru, on Sunday. He will also visit Tirupati to offer prayers.

Upon winning the election, Mr Naidu said he was humbled by the honour bestowed on him and promised to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors. He also thanked the people, the MPs who voted for him, Mr Modi, Mr Shah and leaders of the non-NDA outfits.

Mr Naidu said the election result was an important milestone in Indias democratic journey, one that speaks for the beauty and strength of our parliamentary democracy where a farmers son can reach the top office. He also said that ever since his candidature was announced, he became a non-party man and would try to take everybody along. Mr Naidu also said that he would endeavour to enable every member in Rajya Sabha to make a meaningful contribution.

I will seek to utilise the vice-presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the President and uphold the dignity of the Upper House, Mr Naidu said.

Congratulating the Vice-Presidential elect, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that Mr Naidu will serve the nation with dedication and diligence.

Mr Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, senior leaders and Central ministers, including Ravishankar Prasad, Ananth Kumar, Dr Harshvardan, Hansraj Ahir, reached Mr Naidus residence to congratulate him.

Extending her wishes to Mr Naidu, Congress president Sonia Gandhi also extended her partys support in further strengthening the Rajya Sabha for effective scrutiny of legislations and government policies.

The strength of the electoral college, comprising both elected and nominated MPs of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, is 790. There are two vacancies each in the LS and RS. One BJP Lok Sabha MP is barred from voting following a judicial pronouncement.

In the 2007 V-P poll, incumbent Hamid Ansari had polled 456 votes, Najma Heptullah 222 votes and Rashid Masood 75 votes. In the 2012 polls, Mr Ansari had bagged 490 and NDA nominee Jaswant Singh 238 votes.
Earlier in the day, 3 Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in an encounter by the police, Army and the CRPF.

Shopian: Three Over ground workers (OGW) were arrested on Saturday by 62 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and Shopian Police in a joint operation at Nagbal, an area in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian.

Some weapons were also recovered from the area.

More details are awaited.

Earlier in the day, three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in an encounter by the police, Army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Sopore area's Amarghad of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district.

During the encounter, a police jawan was also injured, but he is stable.

Arms and ammunition were also recovered from the encounter area.

According to the Additional Deputy Commissioner, all government and private schools and colleges in Sopore were closed on Saturday post encounter.

The internet services have also been snapped in North Kashmir's Baramulla District.

A joint operation was conducted by 179 Battalion Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 52 Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police since 04:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
Sushil Kumar Modi was the Leader of Opposition in the 75-member Upper House during Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance ministry.

Patna: Bihar Legislative Council has rejected the request of the RJD to appoint Rabri Devi as the Leader of Opposition in the Upper House, stating that the party did not have the required number of MLCs needed for the post.

A strength of 9 MLCs is required for the post of leader of opposition in the upper house but RJD at present has only 7 MLCs. Hence their application was not in conformity with the rules, deputy chairman of Bihar State Legislative Council Harun Rashid said.

A letter citing existing rules has been sent to RJD Bihar president Ramchandra Purbe who had sent a request for appointing Rabri Devi as Leader of Opposition in the states Upper House, Mr Rashid said.

Sushil Kumar Modi was the Leader of Opposition in the 75-member Upper House during Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance ministry.

Rabri Devi was chosen as member of Legislative council for the second time in 2012 and her tenure will end in 2018.

CM Nitish Kumar is also a member of the Legisl-ative Council at present.

Mr Purbe told PTI that the council authority could have used discretionary power to appoint Rabri Devi as opposition leader despite the party falling short of requisite numbers.

Criticising the RJD, JD(U) spokesman and MLC Neeraj Kumar said, For the RJD, all the qualification for a constitutional post lies only to a member of Lalu Prasad family.
Sharma said that the Congress is committed to the Gandhian values and principles and will always fight against violence.

New Delhi: Branding the attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat as 'shameful', party leader Anand Sharma on Saturday said that the incident clearly indicates that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is 'disturbed' with the campaigning and upsurge of the grand old party across the nation.

"In a democracy, there is no room for violence and attack against political leaders. It is clear that the BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are disturbed by the efforts and campaigning of Rahul Gandhi and the upsurge of the Congress," Sharma said.

Sharma said that the Congress is committed to the Gandhian values and principles and will always fight against violence and the communal agendas.

"We want to make it absolutely clear to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, and to the BJP president that Congress shall never be cowed down. We will stand up and keep on fighting. Eventually their lies are getting exposed and their true faces are coming out," he said.

Another Congress leader Kapil Sibal said if a person with special protection is not spared, then it clearly reflects how the ruling-BJP Government is neither taking care of the Opposition leader in the country nor punishing the culprits.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Friday had said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) goons allegedly pelted heavy stones at Rahul's car on his way to the helipad after meeting flood victims at Gujarat's Dhanera.

After this assertion, Gandhi further attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying such obstacles like raising black flags, throwing stones won't stop them from helping people.

Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

Surjewala branded the attack on Gandhi's convoy "disgusting and disgraceful," accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying the latter must know the truth can't be silenced.

Also, earlier, Rahul visited flood affected areas in Gujarat where he was shown black flags by a group of protesters.

Addressing the villagers and the media, Rahul Gandhi said that he was in Assam the other day, Rajasthan on Friday and now in Gujarat.

Amidst his speech, few people waved black flags to which he asked the guards to let them in, and saying, "I don't care."

"It's a difficult and grievous time for all of you and so I wanted to come amongst you all," he said addressing the crowd.

Following this, reacting to the Congress' barbs and demand of launching a probe into the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has informed that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident in detail and assured that a strict action will be taken against the guilty.

"Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will tk strict action agnst those found responsible (sic)," Rupani tweeted.

Rupani had earlier taken to Twitter to condemn the incident and assure an inquiry into the same.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible," he tweeted.
Venkaiah Naidu's remarkable career in politics has been more than four decades in the making.

A two-term member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Venkaiah was elected to the Rajya Sabha three times from Karnataka. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: From pasting party posters to an epitome of political and ideological loyalty who rose to become one of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) most visible leaders and now India's vice president-elect, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu has come a long

way.

Born to a humble agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, the 68-year-old has served as BJP president, minister in various portfolios and a long-time Rajya Sabha member.

This remarkable career in politics has been more than four decades in the making. It began in the 1970s when BJP's precursor Jana Sangh was a marginal player with little clout in the south and a young party worker kept himself busy putting up posters of stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani.

Naidu has come a long way since those days of political obscurity.

"Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity," India's vice president-elect said.

"I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the Prime Minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the

hands of the president and uphold the dignity of the Upper House," he added.

Naidu is known for his oratory. A two-term member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha three times from Karnataka. He represented Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament before he was nominated to the vice president's post by the NDA.

Once an Advani protege, Naidu vigorously backed Modi for the prime minister's post before the 2014 elections.

He was minister for Information and Broadcasting and Housing and Urban Affairs in the Modi government and earlier also held the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

In the previous NDA government led by Vajpayee, he had served as Rural Development Minister.

The veteran party leader also served as the BJP national president from July 2002 to October 2004 for two consecutive terms. He quit the post after the party's defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Naidu was an ABVP activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed. As the first minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the Modi government, Naidu defended the prime minister and the government whenever the opposition targeted them in Parliament.

He had also ensured high political outreach by meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when there was a standoff between the government and the opposition in Parliament.

Several major legislations were cleared by Parliament when he was Parliamentary Affairs Minister, including the historic Real Estate Act and fast forwarding of the GST Bill.

Known for coining acronyms, Naidu termed the mission of the Modi Government as 'MODI- Making of Developed India' which had become the official line of the Centre in its public outreach campaign on the occasion of three years of being in office.

As the minister for Information and Broadcasting, he was always quick to present issues in perspective with effective repartee as and when required.

As Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, which was recently merged as Housing and Urban Affairs, Naidu pioneered the launch of several new urban missions, including the Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All.

As Rural Development Minister, Naidu was instrumental in launching the hugely popular 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana'.

When the Congress swept the polls in Andhra Pradesh in 1978, Naidu got elected as MLA from Udayagiri constituency as a Janata Party candidate.

He was re-elected on a BJP ticket when NT Rama Rao swept the polls in the state.

But all that has receded into the past.

"There is no my party or your party. Now I am a non-party man," Naidu said this morning as the election for the vice president got underway.
Shared Yadav has discussed the issue with Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav in Delhi recently and Mr Shivpal Yadav was also present at the meeting.

Lucknow: Rendered almost irrelevant by recent upheavals in politics, the three veteran Yadav leaders  Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav and Lalu Yadav  are planning to join hands and assert themselves.

According to sources close to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, the senior most amongst the three leaders, has been in talks with Mr Sharad Yadav and Mr Lalu Yadav and the three leaders could come together to form a front of sorts.

Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav has already appealed to Mr Sharad Yadav to lead the battle against fascist forces and a meeting between the two is likely in the coming days. Mr Shared Yadav has discussed the issue with Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav in Delhi recently and Mr Shivpal Yadav was also present at the meeting.

The only hitch in the coming together of these leaders is the Congress. While Mr Sharad Yadav and Mr Lalu Yadav are keen on continuing their relationship with the Congress, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav is still averse to the idea. In fact, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has recently inched closer to the BJP when he announced his support to the NDA candidate in the Presidential elections.

A Mulayam aide said, We are trying to convince Netaji to give up his resistance to the Congress in larger interests. He is still a trusted leader among minorities and the BJP is openly targeting his Samajwadi Party by engineering defections. At the moment, it is a question of the political survival of Netaji and all his supporters because it is apparent that there is no room left for him in the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav.

While Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has been isolated in his own party by his son in Uttar Pradesh and his supporters in the party have started deserting the party for greener pastures, Mr Lalu Yadav and Mr Sharad Yadav have been left on no mans land after Mr Nitish Kumar opted for an alliance with the BJP ton continue as chief minister.

A close associate of Mr Lalu Yadav in Lucknow said, As far as I know him, he is unlikely to sit back and accept his fate. He thrives in adversity and all of us are confident that he will bounce back. I know something is cooking but it is too early to give a statement.

Like the RJD , the Janata Dal (U) does not have any base in Uttar Pradesh but the two hope to mop up the disgruntled elements from the Samajwadi Party . We can stop the disgruntled Samajwadis from going to the BJP if Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav agrees to lead from the front, said a Mulayam loyalist.

Meanwhile Sunil Singh, president of the Lok Dal, reiterated his offer to hand over his party to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Lok Dal essentially belongs to socialist leaders and I will be only too happy if Netaji can take over the party and take it back to its original glory, he said.
According to NGO, gesture by people of Mewat region represents wish of people that ties are further strengthened between India and US.

US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi both will receive rakhis from (Photo: AP)

Gurgaon: He may have not heard of rakhi, but women and girls of a remote Muslim-dominated village symbolically named by an NGO after US President Donald Trump will send him 1001 sacred threads on the Hindu festival that celebrates the brother-sister bond.

The gesture by the residents of Marora village in the backward Mewat region represents the wish of the people that ties are further strengthened between India and the US, says the NGO which has adopted the village.

The village came into limelight after Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO) head Bindeshwar Pathak had announced to name it Trumps village.

The district administration had later said the move to rename the village was illegal, forcing the organisation members to remove boards mentioning the new name.

They said signage boards and banners carrying the new name of the village and image of Trump had been removed by the organisation.

The village, with a population of 1,800 people, lies under Punhana Tehshil, some 60 km from Gurgaon.

The NGO has been conducting many welfare programs for women and girls in the village, Monica Jain, vice president of the NGO, said.

These students have made 1001 rakhis with photos of Donald Trump and 501 rakhis for Narendra Modi. Women and girls of the village consider them their elder brothers, she said.

The consignment of rakhis was sent on August 4 through cargo so that it reached the US president on Raksha Bandhan on August 7. The villagers are also sending invitations to the two leaders to visit the village.

Widows of the village have also expressed a desire to meet Modi on Raksha Bandhan at his residence in the national capital and tie rakhis.

I have made 150 rakhis within three days for Trump bhaiyaa. I also written in a letter to be sent to the White House that the girls of your village want you to visit it with PM Modi, said 15-year-old Rekha Rani, a resident of the village.

Sulabh had recently constructed 95 toilets in Marora to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship program to make every village in the country open defecation free.

The village has 140 houses and only 45 of them were equipped with toilet facility. Sulabh constructed the remaining 95 toilets, Jain said.
We get celebrities to give their take on a current issue each week and lend their perspective to a much-discussed topic.

Condom ads in public places, like buses and hoardings where everyone can see, however, may be a way to educate the masses about safe sex.

A Goa legislator on Tuesday demanded a ban on condom advertisements, featuring actress Sunny Leone, on buses operated by the state transport corporation, saying it shames us. He added, What are these ads telling Goans. Students use buses... Goans use the bus.

Condom ads in public places, like buses and hoardings where everyone can see, however, may be a way to educate the masses about safe sex. But when lawmakers themselves raise objections to ads that promote safe sex, can it be pushed further?

We ask sex educators, feminists and political thinkers about their views on family planning, protection, and safe sex ads in public spaces. Are they detrimental to the society, or do they actually encourage safer sex?

Varnika Sharma, Creative Director, India Intimate Fashion Week

The ads are merely means to drive focus

It is regressive to be imposing such a ban when we live in a country where sex education and contraceptive awareness are very critical. As lawmakers, it is important to focus on facilitating an environment that promotes responsible sexual behaviour instead of opposing it. The advertisements are merely means to drive attention and focus towards safe and responsible sex, and the politicians should understand this simple fact.





Vaishnavi Sundar, filmmaker

there are better ways to educate people about condoms

You take the ads away from buses, public places and then whats going to happen? I dont understand why people have to keep kids away from what is important to them at that age; its not only about condoms. They should also be educating women about contraception, female condoms and more. But the thing is, we usually advertise condoms in a very sexualised and objectified manner, and thats exactly why theres Sunny Leone in the ad  thats a problem. There are better ways to educate people about condoms. I have nothing against Sunny; I think the woman is amazing. But when you have condoms portrayed in such sexualised manner, the impression that kids get about the whole act of sex is entirely wrong. That puts them in a very confused state of mind. But I would again like to say that having condom ads in public places must be encouraged, but not in this objectified manner.

Venugopal R, ad man and writer

Sunny is the perfect ambassador for a condom ad

A condom ad is a condom ad, and like every ad, it gives a customer the power of choice. And, it promotes safe sex, which in many ways is quite useful to the society. We use toothpaste, talcum powder and underarm deodorants. If there is nothing wrong in advertising those products, there is nothing wrong in condom ads either. Probably the next step by politicians would be to deport Sunny Leone to some remote island far away from India. If you were to ask me, Sunny Leone would be the perfect ambassador for a condom ad, because she is considered to be an erotic diva and a sex symbol. As long as sex is practiced by society, condoms are relevant and should be advertised. The advertising should be in good taste though.

Anu PD, fashion designer

cant compromise on health in the name of indian culture

Although sex may be considered taboo, people are clearly having it in abundance. There is no shame to be considered when we know that pregnant women can pass on STDs to their babies, resulting in many severe complications. How can lawmakers not support a sexually healthy population and dissemination of information about safe sex via condom ads? In the name of Indian culture, these so-called flag bearers of tradition are compromising the health of current and future generations.

Ads in public places have a larger audience whether it is on the side of a bus or on an elevator door. This translates into more awareness and resultant sexual responsibility. Safe sex predominantly supports a womans choice to have a baby or not, apart from preventing the spread of STDs among all genders.

Abhimanika Tavi, former Mrs India, South

TV ads should be dealt with a little more subtlety

I dont really know why the MLA had to say that but I dont agree with him at all. There shouldnt be a ban on these advertisements. In India, it is still awkward to talk about safe sex. And until you initiate that conversation, we will still remain in the dark ages. Maybe we can single out places for the hoarding ads, like near slum areas, where there is a need for awareness. And as far as TV ads are concerned, it should be dealt with little more subtlety, and not in-your-face raunchiness.

Neetu Sharma, HoD, Acharya Bangalore B School

These may not educate directly

This is purely reflective of the mindset of our countrys people. These ads, or even a few celebrities endorsing these commercials, may not really educate the people directly, but would help create awareness about safe sex to a certain extent. As far as the MLA is concerned, I guess he may not be aware of the history of our culture, and may not have visited places like Khajuraho, which has very aesthetically painted art depicting the same. Apart from this, I strongly object to any visual pollution at the public places or transport. Lets first get comfortable with the idea of discussing it, and not just tantalising the entire point.
The police were suspecting that a stalker had attacked her, but probe indicated that it could be a theft attempt.

New Delhi: An 18-year-old Delhi University student was attacked by an unidentified man with a sharp object in north Delhi's Timarpur on Friday, police said.

The woman was injured in the waist and required 38 stitches, they said.

Initially, the police were suspecting that a stalker had attacked her, but their probe has indicated that it could be a thief who wanted to cut off the strap of her bag.

The incident took place near a lake at Nehru Vihar when the woman, a first-year-student, was going to college, the police said.

The accused fled the spot and she was taken to a hospital by people in the area, they said.

Police suspect that the accused in an attempt to steal her bag, ended up stabbing her.

It is suspected that she was attacked with a blade, the police said

The woman told the police that she had seen the accused roaming in the locality with some other men, they said.
Few agitated passengers of the train went and lied on the track, which delayed the train for one and a half hour.

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested one for looting a passenger at the Sarai Rohilla Railway Station in Delhi.

The incident took place on the intervening night of August 4 and August 5 with the passenger identified as Dr. Astha Chauhan, who boarded train number 12416 for Indore.

The perpetrator looted a laptop and few other valuable things.

Few agitated passengers of the train went and lied on the track, which delayed the train for one and a half hour.

As per reports, the police took action two hours after the incident took place.
The buyers are moving to the e-commerce portals for their festive purchases, echoed the sellers.

New Delhi: A pall of gloom has descended on the Rakhi sellers in the city as they complain of fewer buyers owing to the availability of massive discounts on online shopping websites. The buyers are moving to the e-commerce portals for their festive purchases, echoed the sellers.

Ramesh Chandra, a rakhi stall owner at Sarojini Nagar, said, This year, the number of buyers for rakhi has reduced. In the era of e-commerce, people prefer buying rakhis from various online platforms because of various festive discounts and gifts being offered by websites, adding that even after ten days, the festive sales have been around just Rs 2,000.

Another shopkeeper, selling rakhis and other festive things including chocolates, puja material and gift items, said that the things have already become pricey after the implementation of GST. Due to this, rakhis have become costlier, especially the designer ones, thereby we are generating fewer sales, he said.

But Chandni Chowk paints a different picture. The market, known for its variety and reasonable price, is flooded with different hues of rakhis. This Raksha Bandhan, the handmade rakhis have gained immense popularity in the market. Contrary to this, the demand for the gold studded rakhis from high-end jewellers has reduced.
This document was an application seeking pardon for Rai.

Mumbai: On Friday, the On Friday, the accussed - turned- approver Shyamvar Rai could not identify the letter written on his behalf, seeking pardon in the April 2012 Sheena Bora murder case.

The letter was in English and when confronted with a copy of the application bearing his own signature seeking pardon in the case, Rai said he could not understand what was written in it.

Advocate Sudeep Pasbola and Gunjan Mangala on behalf of Indrani Mukerjea cross-examined Rai for around two and a half hours and he replied I cannot recollect or I dont know, in reply to almost 75 per cent of questions asked by defence lawyers.

Rai said he was not aware if senior police officers like Commissioner of Police (Rakesh Maria), DCP and Additional Commissioner of Police used to come and question him in Khar police station when he was in Khar polices custody.

Though the entire cross-examination went on in Hindi, however, before confronting with a letter bearing Rais signature and seeking pardon for him in Sheena Bora murder case, advocate Pasbole asked Rai in Engllish, When did it first occur to you that you should become an approver? Can you address me in English? to which Rai replied he was unable to understand what Pasbola was saying. After that Pasbola gave a two-page document typed in English to him and asked if he could read it but to this too he said he would be able to read few words but wont be able to understand it. This document was an application seeking pardon for Rai.

During further cross-examination, Rai also said that apart from writing a letter to the magistrate expressing his desire to tell the truth, he never informed anybody about his intention to confess or that he wanted to become a prosecution witness.

The defence also asked him if the latter had told anybody that he wanted his statement to be recorded under section 307 of CrPC to which he said he was not aware of the law and didnt know what that section was for. Special judge JC Jagdale had also said the witness is a layman and technical questions like this should not be asked to him but when the defence pointed out that this section is mentioned in his letter, the judge allowed the question.

To the question, Rai replied that he wrote a letter expressing his desire to tell the truth only in relation to Sheena Boras murder and not in Arms case for which he was arrested first.

It may be recalled that during his testimony he has already told this court that Indrani Mukerjeas instruction he had collected one parcel that contained a country made revolver and cartridges and when he was trying to throw them away, the police arrested him.
The 13th egg which was not known about by anyone for 34 years finally goes under the hammer.

The 983 treasure hunt saw a dozen certificates entitling whoever found one of the 250-gm decorative eggs to keep them (Photo: Facebook)

In 1983, Cadbury had commissioned 12 golden eggs for a competition that saw thousands of treasure hunters digging up the countryside in their search for gold.

Now, 34 years later, a retired couple are geared up to celebrate their wee days as they sell their one-of-a kind 22 carat gold egg for 20,000.

The 1983 treasure hunt saw a dozen certificates entitling whoever found one of the 250-gm decorative eggs to keep them, from the dozen locations across Britains countryside through cryptic clues and secret locations.

However, complaints from people whose private properties gold diggers were turning upside down forced the chocolate company to call off the competition.

Six of the 12 golden eggs were claimed by the time the contest was scrapped.

Or so they thought!

Now one of the treasure hunters from the time has finally got their hands on one of the eggs, and it is not even one of the 12 which were hidden!

The decorative egg is actually a 13th larger egg that was produced by Cadbury's and awarded to one of its retailers in a prize draw as a thank you for helping with the competition.

The couple, who live on the south coast of England, did not put their prize on display or tell friends or family about it but kept it squirreled away knowing it would be a valuable nest egg for their retirement.

Made by Queens jeweller Garrard & Co, it is about three inches tall and weighs 323.6 grams.

While it was estimated to fetch 10,000, it got sold for 17,200 and was bought by a man aged in his 50s and from the Midlands.

Greg Bateman, from Batemans Auctioneers in Stamford, Lincs, said that the 13th egg was never known about by the public.
Much of the corruption and looting of a Pakistans wealth comes from the plunder of its natural resources.

Karachi: Over the past few weeks, I have come across two powerful new words. Coincidentally, both are related in a certain way. The first, kakistocracy refers to government by the worst people. (Understandably, PML-N sympathisers want to insert an h after the first k). The second word, tenderpreneurs hasnt made it to the dictionary as yet, but it should. It has been coined by Raila Odinga, the veteran Kenyan opposition leader, to refer to the alleged money being made by the Kenyan President and his coterie via commissions from a raft of public works tenders by the government in the run-up to elections. Many of these are deemed to be overpriced and shoddy in construction.

Misuse of public funds, embezzlement, using a public office for private gain, stashing ill-gotten wealth in offshore tax havens etc., have all been around since people first stepped forward to serve others and exercise control of collective finances. The scale and scope is, unfortunately, much larger now, with allegations of mega corruption no longer the preserve of African dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko, Sani Abacha et al., or of presidents Marcos, Duvalier and Suharto.

Of recent, grand corruption scandals have broken out under democratically elected governments in Malaysia, Turkey, South Africa, Spain, France, Italy, Brazil, Russia, Argentina, South Korea among others. Of course, corruption is not the exclusive domain of civilians  far from it. Many of the corrupt African dictators were serving generals. In Pakistans case, the first major corruption scandal in Benazir Bhuttos tenure involved the serving naval chief at the time (in the Agosta submarine case). Under Gen. Musharrafs time, several high-profile cases of irregularities came to light with none being properly prosecuted.

Much of the corruption and looting of a Pakistans wealth comes from the plunder of its natural resources. For countries that are not resource-rich, a major avenue is the public investment programme  the building of motorways, mass transit programmes and other large infrastructure projects. This is well documented in economic literature. A 1997 IMF Working Paper co-authored by Vito Tanzi concludes that: (sic) corruption lowers growth. The evidence shows that corruption increases public investment while reducing its productivity. An implication is that economists should be more restrained in their praise of high public-sector investment, especially in countries with high corruption.

Considerable work has been done in the last decade on the costs of large-scale corruption. One of the more comprehensive ones is a 2006 study by the World Economic Forum, which found that even a slight improvement in governance results in a threefold increase in income per capita in the long run. That variation can spell the difference between poverty and prosperity for a nation.

So when a Third World leader facing allegations of mega corruption gets ensnared by the countrys top court for failing to account for millions of dollars of unexplained wealth amassed over a period coinciding with his tenure in public office, shouldnt the citizens of that poor country be celebrating? While large numbers of Pakistanis are jubilant, a sliver of its elite are mourning the victory for accountability and rule of law.

Driven by a visceral bias against the military, or by virtue of being connected insiders to the patronage dished out by governments, these members of the elite have based their non-stop bemoaning of the Supreme Court verdict purportedly on three counts: one, why was the Sharif family targeted while other corrupt public figures have not faced the courts; two, this was an Army-engineered conspiracy; and three, the actual verdict is based on a technicality.

Deconstructing these arguments finds them on flimsy foundations. Application of law is directed towards those who have been caught. With more than ample evidence coming to light of a web of complex global transfer of funds and transactions spread over two decades, including purchase of expensive offshore properties, and no explanation for the sources of income or a legitimate money trail, the court ruling was inescapable.

The military conspiracy argument ignores the elephant in the room  the presence of unexplained and undeclared assets whose ownership the ruling family accepted in court. While the military is likely to have watched this episode unfold gleefully, the Sharifs have been caught out by their massive unexplained aggrandisement of assets coinciding with their long stint in public office.

Pakistan has traversed a fair distance in terms of entrenchment of the rule of law since the lawyers movement of 2007. While there have been setbacks, the July 28 ruling by the Supreme Court is a huge step forward. We need to build on this by strengthening judicial processes and ensuring accountability and enforcement of rule of law in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner for all segments of society. This cause is not helped, however, by exhibiting intellectual dishonesty and not being able to call out a wrong that has been so evidently committed. The elite needs to develop loyalty to higher principles, not a self-serving one to individuals in power.

The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We feel morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought.  Vaclav Havel.

By arrangement with Dawn
The courts can insist that the grounds on which pardon is given are set out in the presidents order itself.

US President Donald Trump claims power to grant pardon to his associates and, presumably, himself  a complete power to pardon.

Section 3 Clause 1 of the US constitution provides that: The president shall have power to grant reprieves and pardon for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. But the power to pardon is not an unfettered one.

All constitutions confer on the head of state the power to grant pardon. Federations endow governors with the same power, but limit it to offences against state laws. In our part of the world, abuse of this power is far more common than in the US. One president pardoned police officials found guilty by a court of grave offences.

US chief justice William Howard Taft once remarked: If we could conjure up in our minds a President willing to paralyse courts by pardoning all criminal contempts, why not a president ordering a general jail delivery? There cannot be the slightest doubt that abusing the power to grant pardons will be held void by the courts. But this has happened in India. The governor of a state granted pardons to the ruling partys men no sooner than it came to power. Another wanted to pardon a man because he was a good Congress worker. Article 72(1) of Indias constitution contains familiar provisions.

The President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence  (a) in all cases where the punishment or sentence is by a court martial; (b) in all cases where the punishment or sentence is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the union extends; (c) in all cases where the sentence is a sentence of death.

A reprieve is a temporary suspension of the punishment fixed by law; a respite is a postponement of the execution of a sentence; a commutation is changing a punishment to a different one than that originally imposed; and remission is reduction of the amount of punishment. A pardon, it has been judicially held, reaches both the prescribed punishment and the offenders guilt.

A full pardon releases the punishment and blots out the existence of the guilt, so that in the eyes of the law it is as if the offender had never committed the offence. Before conviction, it wards off penalties that would have been attached to a conviction, and restores his civil rights.

The president and governors exercise these powers only on the advice of the council of ministers that binds them.

The petitioner for pardon is not entitled to an oral hearing by the president, but a president violates the constitution if he says he cannot grant a pardon because the court had already found the petitioner guilty. In the case of one of Indira Gandhis assassins, the supreme court struck down the presidents order and asked him to consider the petition afresh.

The raison detre of the power was well explained by the United States supreme court. Executive clemency exists to afford relief from undue harshness or evident mistakes in the operation or enforcement of the criminal law. The administration of justice by the courts is not necessarily always wise or certainly considerate of circumstances which may properly mitigate guilt. To afford a remedy, it has always been thought essential in popular governments, as well as in monarchies, to vest in some other authority than the courts power to ameliorate or avoid particular criminal judgements. It is a check entrusted to the executive for special cases.

To exercise it to the extent of destroying the deterrent effect of judicial punishment would be to pervert it; but whoever is to make it useful must have full discretion to exercise it. Our constitution confers this discretion on the highest officer in the nation, in confidence that he will not abuse it.

If he does, the courts are not powerless to strike it down. In a recent case, the Supreme Court of India ruled that judicial review of the order of the president or the governor under Article 72... is available and their orders can be impugned on the following grounds: that the order has been passed without application of mind; that the order is mala fide; the order has been passed on extraneous or wholly irrelevant considerations; that relevant materials have been kept out of consideration; that the order suffers from arbitrariness.

The courts can insist that the grounds on which pardon is given are set out in the presidents order itself. They have the power to hold it as an abuse of power if it is coloured by political considerations.

By arrangement with Dawn
In 2017, the number of mobile phone users is forecast to reach 4.77 billion.

There has been much animated discussion about the right to privacy these days. Of course, we have a right to privacy. There can be no question about that. But the problem now is that the march technology has made much of that right quite moot. In 2017, the number of mobile phone users is forecast to reach 4.77 billion. In 2016, an estimated 62.9 per cent of the population worldwide already owned a mobile phone. Of these, India and China alone accounted for about 2.5 billion. The United States followed with 327 million and a dysfunctional country like Pakistan had 125 million. Even in countries with little semblance of a government or a state, like Somalia and Afghanistan or Mali or Libya, there are functioning mobile phone networks. There are almost four billion Internet users world over now. Of these 44.8 per cent were in Asia, 21.5 per cent in Europe and 11.4 per cent in all of North America.

Quite clearly, we are talking and communicating more with each other. Billions of messages flit through the ether each day. Thats why this is called the communications era. This has led to new forms of business and new forms of doing business. With that small gizmo in your hand, that often nowadays packs more power than a bank of PCs half a dozen years ago, you can buy an airline ticket in another continent or send flowers to a special friend in yet another one.

There can be other less benign uses also. A terrorist can detonate a bomb in a distant country with a mobile phone call. Criminals can orchestrate their activities without moving from their lairs. This new technology has posed many new challenges to the modern state, and like before every modern state has to defend itself against some enemy or the other. But states with the technical means and the financial resources have, as always, risen to the challenges, and we see this in action in a variety of ways. It also poses new challenges to the law-abiding citizens right to privacy.

Since data exchanged on cellular and Internet networks fly through the ether, they are easier to net by electronic interception. But these nets catch them in huge numbers. This is where the supercomputers come in. The messages that are netted every moment are run through sieves of sophisticated and complex computer programs that can simultaneously decode, detect and unravel, and by further analysing the incoming and outgoing patterns of calls and data transfers for the sending and receiving terminals or phones, can with a fair probability of accuracy tell the agency seeking information about what is going on and who is up to what?

The problem is that since this information also goes through the mobile phone network and Internet Service Providers, and the data actually gets decoded from electronic blips into voice and digital data, the private players too gain access to such information. A few years ago we had the case of the infamous Amar Singh CDs, which titillated so many with its graphic content and lowbrow conversations. Then we had the episode of the Radia tapes where we were privy to the machinations of the Tatas corporate lobbyist in the national capital fixing policy, positioning ministers and string pulling media stars. But more usefully than this, a mobile phone, by nature of its technology, is also a personalised GPS indicator. It tells them where that phone is at any instant it is on. The Al Qaeda terrorist and US citizen Anwar el-Awlaki was blasted by a Hellfire missile fired from a CIA Predator drone flying over Yemen with the co-ordinates provided by Awlakis mobile phone.

Since a mobile phone is usually with you it tells the network (and other interested parties) where you are or were, and even where you are headed. If you are on a certain street, since it reveals where exactly you are and the direction of your movement, it can tell you where the next pizza place is or where and what is on sale. This is also breach of privacy, but often useful to you. But if you are up to no-good, then a switched on mobile phone is a certain giveaway. Thats what gave away Osama bin Laden in the end. A momentary indiscretion by a trusted courier and bodyguard and a name gleaned from a long ago water-boarding session was all it took.

Most of the credit for this must go to the secretive US intelligence gathering organisation, the National Security Agency. The NSAs eavesdropping mission includes radio broadcasting, both from various organisations and individuals, the Internet, telephone calls, and other intercepted forms of communication.

The NSA is all hi-tech. It collects intelligence from four geostationary satellites. These satellites track and monitor millions of conversations and the NSAs banks of high speed supercomputers process all these messages for certain phrases and patterns of conversations to decide if the persons at either end were worthy of further interest. The numbers these frequently connected up with would then again attract attention. In this manner linkages can be made.

NSA has installations in several US states and from them routinely intercepts electronic data from Europe, West Asia, North Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The US regularly and routinely shares this information with friendly governments all over the world. While Russian and Chinese SIGINT capabilities are not quite as wide and capable as the US NIP, they too have a capability to pry on people. Russia has shown what it is capable of when it intervened in the US presidential elections.

According to the Washington Post, every day, collection systems at the NSA intercept and store billions of emails, phone calls and other types of communications. The NSA sorts a fraction of those into 70 separate databases. Because of its listening task, NSA/CSS has been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research, continuing the work of predecessor agencies which had broken many World War II codes and ciphers. The NSA and CIA together comprise the greatest intelligence gathering effort in the world. The human and financial resources deployed are quite extraordinary. The overall US National Intelligence Program has a budget of $80 billion in 2015. Clearly, the US is more determined than ever never to be caught unawares like 9/11.
MIUI 9s China ROM will be available on Xiaomis flagship smartphones in China, others handsets in queue.

Xiaomis MIUI 9 is an incremental upgrade to their proprietary custom Android software. Launched last month, the new OS is based on Android 7.0 Nougat and brings in a lot of new features to Xiaomi users in China. Xiaomi also released a video lately to demonstrate the faster app opening compared to Samsungs Galaxy S8 and Huaweis P10. And now, a new report suggests that Xiaomi users will able to taste the new MIUI 9 from next week.

The report claims that Xiaomis current flagship  the Mi 6, and Redmi Note 4X will be the first to get the MIUI 9 update in China. Both of these smartphones sport the latest hardware and being the flagship models in their individual lineup, they will be getting the update before any other Xiaomi smartphone.

Another report from GizmoChina claims that Xiaomi official Weibo handle announced that the Mi 5 will be getting the MIUI 9 update by early next week. The Mi 5 was Xiaomis flagship smartphone in 2016 and is still the flagship device in markets like India. The Mi 5 is a very popular handset in China and Xiaomi decided to pamper Mi 5 users with MIUI 9 update before the scheduled date of sometime later in the next month.

However, it is to be noted that the MIUI 9 has only been released in China as of now. The company hasnt revealed anything about the announcement of the Global ROM for MIUI 9, which will be rolled out to Xiaomi users in markets other than China. The Global MIUI 9 ROM is expected to feature support for Google apps along with support for local regional languages.

(source)
Trump and Macron also agreed that the regime of President Nicolas Maduro must 'restore the rights of the Venezuelan people'.

The two leaders, US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, also spoke about 'countering Iranian malign influence,' according to a read-out of the call provided by the White House. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: US President Donald Trump discussed increasing cooperation in the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq over a telephone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Friday.

The two leaders also spoke about "countering Iranian malign influence," according to a read-out of the call provided by the White House.

On the issue of Venezuela, Trump and Macron agreed that the regime of President Nicolas Maduro must "restore the rights of the Venezuelan people," the statement added.

Venezuela's controversial new Constituent Assembly, packed with allies of the unpopular Maduro, held its inaugural session on Friday amid widespread international criticism of its legitimacy.

Trump and Macron also discussed matters of mutual interest on North Korea, and "reaffirmed the importance of all sides implementing the Minsk agreements to reach a peaceful settlement in Ukraine," the statement said.
If implemented by all countries, the ban would strip Pyongyang of roughly a third of its export earnings estimated at $3 billion per year.

United Nations: The UN Security Council will vote Saturday on a US-drafted resolution toughening sanctions on North Korea, diplomats said Friday, a proposed ban on certain exports that could deprive Pyongyang of $1 billion in annual revenue.

After a month of negotiations, the United States reached a deal with China, North Korea's main trading partner and ally, on the measures aimed at ratcheting up pressure on Pyongyang to halt its missile and nuclear tests.

The Security Council was scheduled to vote at 3 pm (1900 GMT) Saturday on the new raft of sanctions, diplomats confirmed. The draft resolution calls for a ban on all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state, according to the text seen by AFP.

If implemented by all countries, the ban would strip Pyongyang of roughly a third of its export earnings estimated at $3 billion per year, according to a diplomat familiar with the negotiations.

The diplomat, who briefed reporters on the content of the draft, said he had "high confidence" that China and Russia would support the proposed sanctions.

Backed by its European allies, Japan and South Korea, the United States has been leading the push at the United Nations for tougher sanctions in response to North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4.

A second test on July 28 further raised alarm about Pyongyang's drive to develop a missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

The draft text would also prevent North Korea from increasing the number of workers it sends abroad, prohibit all new joint ventures and ban new investment in the current joint companies.

North Korea is blamed for a "massive diversion of its scarce resources" toward the development of "nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programs," the draft resolution said.

The new raft of measures would be the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006, but these have failed to compel Pyongyang to change its behavior.

Two resolutions adopted last year however have introduced economic sanctions with more bite. The United States has put heavy pressure on China, which accounts for 90 percent of trade with North Korea, to enforce the sanctions.

The proposed resolution would add North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank, the primary foreign exchange bank, to a UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze. It would also tighten trade restrictions on technology to prevent North Korea from acquiring items that could be used for its military programs.

Under the proposed measure, North Korean vessels caught violating UN resolutions would be banned from entering ports in all countries.

The draft resolution however does not provide for cuts to oil deliveries to North Korea a move that would have dealt a serious blow to the economy.

Russia, which like China is a veto-wielding council member, had warned that it would not support sanctions that would worsen North Korea's humanitarian crisis.

The United States and its allies have argued that tougher sanctions are needed to force North Korea to come to the negotiating table to discuss a halt to its military programs.

China and Russia have meanwhile insisted that sanctions alone will not change Pyongyang's behavior and that talks are needed to address the crisis.

As negotiations at the United Nations entered the final stretch, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that Washington was not seeking regime change in North Korea and was willing to talk to Pyongyang.
President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a hallmark of his administration in an effort to bolster his legitimacy.

In 2016 alone, prosecutions were reportedly launched against 48 officials at the provincial level and above.(Photo: Representational/ File)

Beijing: A Chinese court sentenced the ex-Communist Party chief of a rust-belt province that had been hit by massive electoral fraud to life imprisonment for accepting bribes worth more than $22 million.

A court in the central city of Luoyang on Friday handed down the sentence to Wang Min, the former party leader of Liaoning province, after convicting him of bribery, corruption and negligence of duty, the official People's Daily newspaper said.

Wang was accused of accepted money and valuables worth more than 146 million yuan ($22 million) and abusing his power when he served as a senior official in Jilin and Liaoning provinces between 2004 and 2016, state media reported.

He was also found guilty of negligence that was "responsible for serious election fraud including vote buying." Allegations of electoral fraud led to the removal of many of the Liaoning legislature's nearly 600 members in September last year.

The legislature nominally oversees the province, though all key decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party. President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a hallmark of his administration in an effort to bolster his legitimacy.

In 2016 alone, prosecutions were reportedly launched against 48 officials at the provincial level and above.

In June, the former head of China's statistics bureau was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of taking bribes equivalent to more than $22 million over more than two decades.
The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops.

Beijing: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said on Saturday.

According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.

The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader to cut short his visit to Beijing.

The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.

The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."

"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.

Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India (Supporting India)."
Saeed is likely to launch his political outfit on Pakistan's Independence Day at a function in Lahore.

Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, another banned organisation and a US declared terrorist group. (File Photo)

Lahore: Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief and the mastermind of Mumbai terrorist attack Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has reportedly decided to launch his own political party in Pakistan by renaming his terror outfit JuD as Milli Muslim League Pakistan.

According to reports, he would be registering his political party with the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Saeed is likely to launch his political outfit on Pakistan's Independence Day at a function in Lahore.

This is being seen as a major happening as Pakistan recently elected its new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi after Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court over the Panama Papers scandal.

He is also said to have close relations with the Pakistani Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Recently the government of Pakistans Punjab province extended the house arrest of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his four aides for 60 more days for their activities that were detrimental to peace and security, The Express Tribune reported.

Saeed is a wanted terrorist by India and the United States for his alleged role in masterminding the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai that claimed 166 lives.

He even carries a bounty of 10 million USD (approx. Rs 66 crore) on his head for his role in the attack.

He is an internationally designated terrorist but continues to be an influential person in Pakistans certain religious groups.

Pakistan claims to have banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), but following the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2002, it re-emerged as Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD). The United States has designated the JuD as a front for the LeT.
Chinese expert, Zhao Gancheng said, China doesn't want dispute to impact upcoming BRICS summit in Sept which will be attended by India'

The incident happened in the first week of June near the Lalten post in the Doka La general area in Sikkim after a face-off between the two forces (Photo: Representational/PTI)

Beijing: As the standoff between two neighbouring countries enters its third month, the Chinese expert on Saturday said Beijing may conduct a small-scale military operation to expel Indian troops within two weeks after six ministries and institutions made remarks on the incident within the past 24 hours.

According to a report in Chinese state-run, Global Times, two ministries and four institutions, including the Chinese foreign ministry, the defence ministry, the Chinese Embassy in India and the People's Daily, released statements on the military standoff between China and India in Doklam.

The report quotes Chinese expert, Hu Zhiyong, saying, The series of remarks from the Chinese side within a 24-hour period sends a signal to India that there is no way China will tolerate the Indian troops' incursion into Chinese territory for too long.

Read: Sikkim standoff: Our restraint has 'bottom line', China tells India

Hu, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said, If India refuses to withdraw, China may conduct a small-scale military operation within two weeks".

Hu also said the military operation would aim to seize Indian personnel illegally lingering in Chinese territory or to expel them adding that the Chinese side will inform the Indian Foreign Ministry before its operation.

Blaming New Delhi for the border tensions between India and China, Hu said, "India should bear all the consequences. And no matter how the standoff ends, Sino-Indian ties have been severely damaged and strategic distrust will linger.

Mentioning the earlier military drills by the Peoples Liberation Army in the Tibetan region near the standoff area, the expert also drew a point that the drill was to warn Indian side that China is ready to give a befitting reply if needed.

Another expert, Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said, The exercises are a sign that China could use military means to end the standoff and the chances of doing so are increasing as the Indian side is still saying one thing and doing another.

Stating that the patience of China and its public is wearing thin, Zhao said, China does not want dispute to impact the upcoming BRICS summit in September which will be attended by India in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province.

Highlighting that the war would worsen the relations between the two neighbouring countries, Zhao said, If current standoff ends in a military clash, bilateral ties would suffer for at least five years, and India may stir up troubles with China, which may cause tensions among China's other neighbours.

Read: Amid Sikkim standoff, China holds advance military exercise near Arunachal Pradesh

Addressing the parliament on the standoff, External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday asserted that war was not a solution and that it would be wise to resolve the issue diplomatically. The report however, said she refrained from saying that military readiness is always there as the military is meant to fight wars.

The end for the Sikkim standoff is not seen on cards as China is in complete denial for dialogue over the border issues unless India withdraws troop from the region which Beijing claims to be its territory.

The spat worsened when China tried to build a road at the strategically important Chickens Neck area, also called as Doklam, which interestingly falls under disputed tri-junction land between India-Bhutan-China.




I remember 4 years ago when Kyle was born, I may look chill but I'm actually one of those moms who research on products/brands because I want the best for him.





One of the few brands that popped up my computer screen is Aveeno Baby - a brand recommended by pediatricians and dermatologists worldwide. I remembered shrugging off my shoulder because I knew there are several sellers here and there but I just don't have the effort to go all the way to wherever it is available because I have enough things to deal with (Motherhood and all!)





So it was indeed a great year (2017) when I learned the brand finally arrived in the Philippines FOR GOOD!

"What makes the Aveeno Baby line so remarkable are the Active Naturals Colloidal Oats, a natural element filled with proteins, enzymes, lipids, vitamins and antioxidants, that when harvested make up a profile that exfoliates, moisturizes and protects skin from damaging extermal elements." According to Johnson & Johnson (Philippines) Inc.'s Assistant Medical Affairs Officer Stephanie Lao.

Aveeno Baby Cleansing Therapy Moisturizing Wash

Php499.00

AVEENO Baby Cleansing Therapy Moisturizing Wash has harnessed the naturally soothing power of oatmeal in this ultra-gentle wash to help you care for baby's skin. Developed with leading dermatologist, this breakthrough formula combines soothing oat essence and natural colloidal oatmeal with rich emollients to soften and soothe irritated, extra dry skin. The creamy wash is formulated to gently cleanse without damaging the skin's barrier, and is clinically shown mild to delicate baby skin. It's even been awarded the National Eczema Association Seal of Acceptance.

Aveeno Baby Daily Moisture Lotion

Php344.50

AVEENO Baby Daily Moisture Lotion contains natural colloidal oatmeal blended with rich emollients that soothe and help protect your baby's delicate skin. The naturally nourishing, non-greasy formula absorbs quickly, moisturizes for a full 24 hours, contains no drying alcohols and won't clog pores. It's formulated to be hypoallergenic, fragrance-free and gentle enough for daily use on baby's sensitive skin.





Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Moisture Cream

Php630.50

AVEENO Baby Soothing Relief and Moisture Cream with natural colloidal oatmeal and rich emollients is shown to moisturize for 24 hours and soothe dry skin, even dry sensitive skin. No artificial fragrance added and even gentle for sensitive skin.

AVEENO Baby Soothing Relief Moisture Cream can be used everyday to keep your baby's skin moisturized and feeling healthy.





Aveeno Baby Wash and Shampoo

Php344.50

Aveeno Baby Wash & Shampoo contains natural oat extract blended into a rich lathering cleanser that cleans without drying because it is soap-free and allergy tested. This tear-free formula can be used on skin and hair for gentle cleansing that rinses clean with a soft, fresh fragrance. Aveeno Baby Wash & Shampoo is formulated to be gentle enough for baby's sensitive skin. Tear-free, Soap-free, Paraben-free, Pthalate-free, Hypoallergenic.



Aveeno Baby Wash & Shampoo can be used every day to help keep your baby's skin and hair soft, smooth and feeling healthier.

Aveeno Baby's Therapeutic and Daily Line are now available in all major drug stores and supermarkets nationwide. You may also purchase them online on www.lazada.com.ph/aveeno-official-store





To know more about the benefits your baby can get with colloidal oats, please visit www.Facebook.com/AveenoPH





Fellow mommies, what Aveeno Baby Product/s do you use for your baby?

Keep smilin'

Stay happy!

Here are just some of the must-try Daily Line from the brand.


(TK Kurikawa/Bigstock) (TK Kurikawa/Bigstock)

Plans to make the English language test for Australian citizenship tougher has been criticised by the Government's own body that advises on multiculturalism.The Australian Multicultural Council, appointed by Ministers, also says that the proposal to introduce a multiple choice test to determine a person's commitment to Australian values would be ineffective.The AMC warns that the planned changes to citizenship should not lose sight of the nation's freedom and openness and that the tougher English test would adopt a standard that is too high.The written submission to the Senate says that while the council is broadly supportive of the principle of strengthening citizenship requirements to improve Australia's social and economic outcomes and national security, there should be a balance between citizenship being a vehicle of social integration and ensuring that citizenship is not available to people not willing to commit to Australia's laws, shared values and responsibilities.It warns that a tougher English language requirement is likely to prove highly problematic for vulnerable sections of the migrant and refugee populations. 'While the level is not mandated in the Bill, it is worth noting that the IELTS Level 6 standard, or equivalent, which is being discussed by Government as the required English language proficiency level, is considered by most universities as being acceptable for undergraduate study in English,' the report says.'The proposed changes will make it much harder for people, particularly those who may have had a fragmented educational background, to become citizens. As it stands, the Government's Adult Migrant English Program, (AMEP) only helps new arrivals learn basic English skills, which are nonetheless currently deemed sufficient to assist them to successfully settle and confidently participate socially and economically in Australia,' it points out.It also voices concerns plans to give Immigration Minister Peter Dutton discretionary power to determine the eligibility criteria for a person seeking to sit the citizenship test, in particular, that a person who fails the citizenship test three times is not eligible to re-sit the citizenship test.'An amendment that enables the Minister to determine that a person who fails the test three times does not meet the eligibility requirements and should have their application refused is likely to disproportionally affect migrants from various visa and country groups, particularly humanitarian entrants, the report says.'Australia has always welcomed those who have travelled here to be a part of our wonderfully free and open society, to build better lives for themselves and their children and to contribute to this nation. It is important therefore that Australia, as a nation, not lose the opportunities that this openness allows, in its search to maintain national security,' it concludes.According to a 2015 OECD report over 80% of eligible migrants take the opportunity to become Australian citizens. More than five million people have been granted citizenship since the process was introduced in 1949.The current citizenship test examines whether the applicant has a basic knowledge of the English language. It can be taken as a multiple choice exam on the computer. Those with low levels of English literacy can take an alternative course based test if they are referred by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
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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WASHINGTON  John Kelly, President Trumps new chief of staff, is focused on ending chaos in the White House. Given that his boss is the self-disrupter in chief, good luck with that.

And Trump worlds vicious backstabbing is not, in any event, the administrations most important problem. A devotion to lying is a far graver danger to this presidency, and military efficiency will not dispel it.

The Washington Posts report, essentially confirmed by the White House, that the president was the prime mover behind Donald Trump Jr.s misleading statement about his meeting with a Russian lawyer peddling derogatory information about Hillary Clinton ratifies the pattern of deceit and misdirection on all matters Russian. Behaving as if you are guilty wont persuade others that you are innocent.

The president seems persuaded that he can survive whatever comes his way as long as he keeps his much celebrated political base with him. But this is not as easy as it sounds for either Trump or his party because his base is fundamentally divided.

Nothing illustrated this more dramatically than the health care showdown. Trumps rhetoric about the Affordable Care Act during last years campaign should have been a tipoff to the dilemma both he and conservative politicians confront now. On the one hand, he roundly denounced Obamacare, which made right-wing ideologues happy. But he also regularly promised an alternative that would be more, not less, generous in helping Americans of modest means.

His position was incoherent but very shrewd. To pull off his Electoral College victory in 2016, Trump needed the votes of traditional Republican conservatives, but he also had to add on non-ideological working-class voters, many of whom found Mitt Romney unappealing in 2012.

For clues about the political turmoil and coalition-management challenges the president and the GOP face, consult The Five Types of Trump Voters by Emily Ekins, the director of polling at the Cato Institute. The bottom line of her research is that Trump and his party cant win without the conservative faithful, but the conventional right alone cannot guarantee victory.

A narrow majority of Trumps voters, Ekins found, fell into two traditionally Republican groups, Staunch Conservatives, who made up 31 percent of his backers, and Free Marketeers, who constituted 25 percent. She also identifies a smaller, less loyally Republican faction, The Disengaged, who amounted to 5 percent of his supporters.

But two other large Trump groups, whom Ekins labeled American Preservationists (20 percent of Trumpists) and Anti-Elites (19 percent), are quite different from regular conservatives. In particular, Ekins notes, both lean economically progressive, which is why the health care issue is so problematic for Trump.

The preservationists might be seen as White House adviser Steve Bannons people. They have nativist immigration views, and a nativist and ethnocultural conception of American identity. The Anti-Elites are more moderate on these issues and the most likely of the Trump supporters to favor political compromise. This group was never as strongly pro-Trump as the others, and seems most ripe for defection to the Democrats.

Trump is so hungry for wins that he is still pushing the Senate to pass any bill to repeal Obamacare. But enacting proposals along the lines of those that failed last week would be the worst possible outcome for Trump because they effectively break the promises he made to nearly 40 percent of his own sympathizers.

Senate Republicans who want to back away from repeal, at least for now, seem more attuned to how disruptive this issue is. But the looming battle over deep tax cuts tilted toward the wealthy will also split the alliance Trump is counting on for survival.

As Ekins concludes, Trump voters hold different perceptions of justice in the political and economic systems.

Trumps coalition is by no means unique historically in bringing together constituencies with widely divergent views. Franklin D. Roosevelt, after all, won votes from Northern African-Americans and Southern white segregationists. On the other hand, the New Deal alignment was shattered when civil rights became a driving national issue.

Still, political leaders trying to hold diverse groups together need to demonstrate finesse and both the appearance and reality of successful governance. Finesse, needless to say, is not a Trump long suit. And every day that brings a new Trump revelation, new questions about Russia or sheer craziness (the Mooch interlude or the presidents description of the White House as a real dump) puts increased pressure on a rickety alliance that can only bear so much. When Trump most needs that base of his, it may no longer be there.
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Taiwan based company Foxconn might be coming to Wisconsin. Foxconn is best known for assembling Apple iPhones in China. Thats not what would be made at the Wisconsin plant. It would manufacture liquid crystal display screens used in computers, televisions self-driving cars, aircraft systems and other products if they build here.

Why wouldnt they build it? Foxconn has promised to build plants around the world and backed out. Foxconn promised in 2013 to invest $30 million and hire 500 workers for a new factory in Pennsylvania that was never built. Foxconn also had promised to build plants in Vietnam, India and Indonesia.

Wisconsins offer to Foxconn includes up to $1.5 billion in income tax credits for job creation, $1.35 billion in income tax credits for capital investment and up to $150 million in sales tax exemptions for the purchase of construction materials, and it will pay no corporate income tax in Wisconsin.

Not a bad deal is it? Wouldnt you like a deal like that especially if you had revenues of $132 billion last year.

And you may wish to think about this. In an editorial on Sunday July 30, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel informed us that in all likelihood the state of Wisconsin (you and I) will write a check for $200 million over the next 15 years to Foxconn.

I have several fundamental questions. First why would Foxconn choose to build in Racine and or Kenosha counties? (Guess where Speaker of the House Paul Ryans district is?) Why would Wisconsin pump such money as a gift to Foxconn? (They promise to create 13,000 jobs). Could Wisconsin use the $3 billion to help our own citizens? (probably).

The most fundamental question I have is why should I, in the village of Lake Hallie, subsidize jobs in the southeast part of the state again? If you want to bring jobs to Wisconsin, what is wrong with Chippewa County? Where was Congressman Sean Duffy or for that matter Ron Kind? That answer is simple in the scheme of things Sean Duffy is so far down the ladder in Congress the leadership does not know he exists, and Ron Kind is a Democrat.

Household income in the Eau Claire Metro Area is $50,611 while in the Racine/Kenosha area it is $54,142. I think household income up here could us a $4,000 boost, dont you? Of course you could call your area state legislator and ask them to put the heat on Gov. Walker, Assembly Speaker Robin Voss or Scott Fitzgerald the Senate Majority Leader, but you are wasting your time and theirs. Its a done deal.

This area of Wisconsin probably has the most experience with the electronics, computer and associated assemblies. The one caution we have all learned up here is that todays electronic fad is tomorrows electronic bust. Chippewa County has a dedicated workforce, and heaven knows that people need jobs up here, but we never quite seem to make the cut.

We in Chippewa County had better wake up to the fact that we dont count. It does not matter who we send to Madison from up here. Oh sure, the governor comes up every so often, and the presidential candidates fly in for campaign stops. They pat us on the head, but after that we are just a collection of blue skies, deer, pine trees and wood ticks.

The last and only senator from Chippewa County was Alexander Wiley, who served from 1939 to 1963. He lost to Gaylord Nelson, and Chippewa County faded into history. It is time to ask any political candidate who beats on your door, Tell me not what you will do for the country/state but tell me what you will do for Chippewa County.

The good Governor Walker can count me among, in his words, a lemon sucker. The nice thing about sucking a lemon is you know exactly what you are getting. The lemon tells you the truth about itself, and you know the cost of the lemon.

I may be a minority in this state, but I am tired of subsidizing profitable corporations who promise big and dont deliver. Yes I appreciate bringing jobs to this state, but for $3 billion, we have other priorities like roads, health care and the Cobban Bridge.
I have to tell you about this, even though some of the forecasts are crazy extreme. For several forecast cycles, the models have suggested t...
More than two years after Beaumont ISD sued its former auditor, the district and Gayle Botley have reached a settlement agreement following two rounds of mediation.

BISD sued Botley in July 2015 alleging negligence and breach of contract and seeking more than $1 million. The district will receive $750,000 from Botley's insurance carrier, it said in a statement.

According to a joint motion filed this week in Jefferson County's 58th District Court, "parties have executed a settlement agreement." All of BISD's claims against Botley have been dismissed and cannot be brought again.

BISD announced in May that the board of managers had approved a settlement in the case, but lawyers told Judge Kent Walston last month that they hadn't been able to agree on terms because of a "breakdown in communication."

Walston ordered them to try mediation again before going to trial in September.

"As part of the agreement, there is no admission of fault or responsibility by Mr. Botley for any of the events that occurred at BISD, and despite what has been said or written, there was no allegation Mr.

Botley participated in or benefited from any embezzlement," the district said in a statement released Tuesday.

Each party will be responsible for its own legal fees. BISD originally asked the court to order Botley to pay attorney's fees.

Frank McElroy, Botley's attorney, declined to comment.

In its most recent amended petition, filed July 21, the district accused Botley of failing to complete audits for 2012-13 and of the 2007 bond issue, as well as failing to notify the district of weaknesses in financial procedures that allowed theft from the district to happen from 2009 to 2013.

Botley defended his work at the State Office of Administrative Hearings in June, where the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy has asked a judge to revoke his certified public accountant license.

He testified that he documented tests of internal controls and never found any weaknesses, though the board's attorney said his work papers included no evidence of that.

That hearing will resume on Sept. 28 in Austin.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/LizTeitz
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One block from where Brandon Pratt was shot and killed on Wednesday, several Beaumont residents turned in firearms on Friday night as part of a community initiative to tackle gun violence.

Not In My City's Gun Buy-Back Program, organized by Cathedral and Antioch Missionary Baptist churches, collected 153 guns in almost three hours at five different locations around the city.

At the Judge John Paul Davis Community Center, across the railroad tracks from where Pratt, 32, was gunned down, Arthur Louis volunteered to help distribute money to participants.

"I'm here because I love Beaumont," Louis said. "We all need to do our part because we love our community."

The churches partnered with the Beaumont Police Department and offered cash in exchange for guns - $100 for rifles, $200 for handguns and $300 for large magazine assault-type firearms. The guns will be tested by BPD to see if they match any reported crimes and then destroyed.

Donors were guaranteed anonymity.

Eleven guns were brought to Cathedral Church within the first 15 minutes Friday night.

"There were a lot of nay-sayers," said Pastor Suzann Feldshau. "And I think there were so many people against it because they didn't quite understand what it was about."

The program was intended to target people in possession of illegal guns and those who had firearms that had the potential to get into the wrong hands.

"We're not naive," Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephens said. "We know that we're not getting guns from the people committing murders. Those types of firearms are only collected through good investigations or information provided to police. One of the things this does is prevent guns from getting stolen by lawful citizens in burglaries or car thefts, which can get into a criminal's hands."

There has been conflicting evidence from various gun buy-back programs across the country about how effective they can be, especially in a country where many citizens have large arsenals.

Numbers vary about how many guns there are in the U.S., but a Congressional Research Service report from 2012 estimated that there were 294 million firearms in homes and businesses in 2008.

With numbers that high, organizers and supporters of the Beaumont gun buy back said they know this isn't a solution to gun violence.

"This is not a fix for all of the crime in Beaumont," Feldshau said. "But if there is at least one death saved from a gun brought here today, it's worth it."

Money for the firearms, which was all donated by private residents, was beginning to run-out within the first hour of the program.

Feldshau said there have been talks about hosting another buy-back event.

"We have no way to measure if it has any impact on crime," Stephens said. "But what it does is spotlight gun violence and gun safety."

MGstalter@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/morgGstalt
A homeless man was arrested Friday after he burglarized law enforcement vehicles and led police on a chase that began at a Lumberton Wal-Mart and ended in Tyler County.

According to Lumberton Chief Danny Sullins, Hector Perez, 26, threw stolen police uniforms and other related equipment out of a stolen vehicle during the chase. Sullins said Perez, a McAllen native, stole items out of multiple police vehicles and fled in his own stolen car.
The victims of a Thursday morning machete attack near downtown are still in critical condition, the San Antonio Police Department said Friday.

Officers responded to a stabbing call in the 200 block of Army Street just after 7:00 a.m. Thursday, according to a preliminary police report.
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Amana Images/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- After a record loss last year, Pearson plans to slash 3,000 jobs worldwide.



The publishing company, which sells academic books and online teaching services, will cut down more than 9 percent of its workforce. This will affect back-office operations such as human resources and finance, according to the BBC.



In January, Pearson reported a slump in sales at its main operation: selling textbooks to college students in the U.S., the BBC reported. This comes as students switch to online textbooks and rentals.



Pearson CEO John Fallon previously promised to cut annual expenses by $394 million by 2019.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The play imagines Arlene Foster and Michelle ONeill on a trip together, much like Thelma and Louise

Move over Thelma and Louise - and get ready for Michelle O'Neill and Arlene Foster as you've never seen them before.

The DUP and Sinn Fein leaders are set to be the stars in a new play by Northern Ireland writer Rosemary Jenkinson, which opens in Belfast in three weeks' time.

Inspired by the hit Hollywood movie featuring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, the new play, called Rapid Response: Michelle and Arlene, explores Northern Ireland's fast-moving political landscape though the contrasting characters of its two most powerful women.

"Isn't it a great metaphor for Northern Ireland politics - Michelle and Arlene together in a car that's heading for the edge of a cliff?" writer Rosemary told the Belfast Telegraph last night.

"They're two incredibly strong-willed and strong-minded women - almost like an immovable object meeting an irresistible force - on both sides. And I wanted to explore that."

Setting the scene, Rosemary said: "Michelle and Arlene are going on holiday and they bump into each other - and a connection happens.

"Two very different people from opposite sides - and yet they find out they've something in common..."

Teasingly, Rosemary noted that in real life, Michelle and Arlene promised to keep in touch over the summer.

"In the play, they end up having closer contact than they ever expected," she added.

The play was written quickly to keep it fresh and topical, according to author Rosemary. "Usually, plays take ages to reach the stage - and if they are about contemporary politics, much of their freshness and topicality has drained away by the time the curtain goes up for the first time," she said.

"This play is about reflecting everything that's happening right now. It's going to be quite rough and raw, dark and funny, thought-provoking and provocative."

Rosemary has just completed the second draft of Rapid Response: Michelle and Arlene, but she's ready to update the script in response to news up to the very last minute.

"If something astonishing happens, I'll rewrite and add it in," she vowed.

But time is getting tight as the August 24 opening date looms.

Next up is the casting of the two star roles - and then a short period for rehearsals

"Casting is going to be crucial," Rosemary said. "We're going to need two very strong actresses to play those roles."

The award-winning playwright is hoping both Arlene and Michelle will come to see her new production.

"I'd love them to be at the first night," she explained. "They've both been invited, but I doubt if they will come. I'd love to them to be there."

Rapid Response: Michelle and Arlene is directed by Richard Lavery and will premiere on August 24 at the Accidental Theatre at 12-13 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast. Tickets start at 8 and can be booked via the website at: https://accidentaltheatre.co.uk/box-office/rapid-response
The Jewish mother and the Irish mammy are well-known stereotypes - they're basically the same person, guilt-tripping and nagging their grown children.

Now, thanks to The Big Sick, they've become part of an unholy trinity along with the Muslim Pakistani mum (MPM). The MPM in The Big Sick is a version of star Kumail Nanjiani's own mother, as he also co-wrote the film with his wife, Emily V Gordon.

The plot is based on their own experiences and how early in their relationship Emily became seriously ill and spent over a week in a medically induced coma.

In real life, Gordon is a lot cooler than her on-screen version played by Zoe Kazan. "That's a lovely thing to say," she tells me. "I think Emily in the movie is pretty cool too." The real Emily is far more hipster than the on-screen one, with a short fringe and a vintage-style dress.

The Big Sick is set in Chicago, where the couple met at one of Nanjiani's stand-up gigs. Despite much of the plot being true to life, Gordon stresses that the characters we see on screen are exactly that, characters, and that the on-screen parents (both hers and Kumail's) bear little relationship to their real-life namesakes.

"My father never cheated on my mother," Emily laughs. "I'm contractually obliged to say that in every interview. What kind of monster would I be if (her father had been unfaithful) and I was like, 'Hey Dad, remember when you cheated?'.

When I say there are plenty of people who would have no compunction about doing that, she looks genuinely horrified.

Despite The Big Sick tackling racism, Islamophobia, serious illness and inter-racial relationships, all rather weighty topics, it is a very funny, feel-good rom-com.

In the movie, Kumail and Emily have broken up when she gets sick. He keeps vigil by her bed and advocates on her behalf. He also meets her parents, Beth, (Holly Hunter) and Terry (Ray Romano at his awkward best). Hunter is brilliant as the mum who is grudgingly grateful to Kumail, but at the same time loathes him because he broke her daughter's heart.

The relationship that develops between Kumail and Emily's parents is both touching and funny, and culminates in my favourite scene in the movie, where Beth takes down a racist heckler at one of Kumail's stand-up gigs.

Even though their history has been fictionalised, I wonder how strange Gordon found watching her husband re-enacting their story with another woman.

"Maybe a little weird," she admits, "but actually it was surprisingly normal. We'd spent so long writing it that I kept drumming into my head, 'This isn't me, this is a character'." She goes on to say that she can't act, which is why she didn't play herself, as her husband has.

The only time Gordon felt odd was at the auditions for the part of Emily. "I was a little, 'What have I done? I've made a huge mistake', because there were gorgeous women flirting with my husband."

Gordon goes on to tell me that Nanjiani asked that she wasn't on set during the "make-out scenes". However, due to a schedule change, she was present for one of them. "I thought, 'That looks awful', it's awkward, it doesn't look sexy, it's kind of gross', and that really weirdly helped, because it does not look fun."

While the scenes of Kumail's family dinners, where his mother introduces him to a succession of Pakistani Muslim women who just 'happen to be passing' reminded me a lot of Woody Allen's films (in a good way), the fact that both men started out as stand-ups is where all similarity stops. Kumail is a handsome and confident man who has no problems with the opposite sex.

In the movie, he tells a lot of lies, and I tell Gordon that at times I thought on-screen Kumail was a total jerk. "It's interesting," she says, "some people think Emily is the jerk." When I say I hope that what we see isn't the real Kumail, she replies without a hint of acrimony: "It's shades of the real him, he was trying to avoid getting into trouble.

"He was one of those guys, his words weren't matching his actions. He would say, 'I don't want a relationship', and then (behave like) an amazing boyfriend. Most guys will tell you wonderful things and then treat you like s***. He was telling me s***** things then treating me like a wonderful boyfriend (would)." Gordon admits she was confused but, "I learned early just go with the actions".

While The Big Sick works as a rom-com, it actively subverts the usual cliches. When Emily awakens from her coma, she doesn't swoon into Kumail's arms, because as far as she is concerned he is still the man who broke her heart. It's a scene very much based in reality. "Everyone was so happy when I woke up," Gordon remembers. "I was so miserable, scared and angry. They couldn't get it. 'Why aren't you smiling?' I was catching up!"

In rom-coms, the climax often involves a character giving a heartfelt speech, spilling their emotional guts in a public setting, and The Big Sick is no different. At an important gig, instead of doing his usual material, Kumail talks about his ex-girlfriend being in a coma and the worry she might die. In a traditional rom-com, the heart of the booker from a prestigious comedy festival would melt. I won't spoil the reveal here.

Judd Apatow, the godfather of the modern rom-com commissioned and directed the film. He also made the couple do several rewrites. I wonder if working with her husband on such a project became problematic. "We weren't hovering over each other's laptops," Gordon laughs. "I probably would have murdered him if we'd done that."

Gordon also did some rewrites while on set. "I know a lot of writers aren't welcome on movie sets, so I'm grateful," she tells me before adding "I wasn't weighing in with, 'Well, that wasn't how my hair looked','' she says in a bratty voice. "I would never - people would have murdered me."

Three months after coming out of her coma, the real-life couple got married. Her in-laws, she tells me "are very much at peace" with having a non-Muslim, non-Pakistani daughter-in-law.

"It's been 10 years," she explains. "But they came around quite quickly because they love their son. We all realised that we were a family, so let's just dig in and be a family and we have and it's been really lovely."
As soon as Peter Capaldi announced he was stepping down as the Time Lord in Doctor Who, all bets were on as to who would replace him.

Death In Paradise's Kris Marshall was a hot favourite for a long time, as was Bond's Ben Whishaw, Chronicles of Narnia's Tilda Swinton and Fleabag's Pheobe Waller-Bridge.

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Jodie Whittaker was revealed to be the next, and first female, Doctor, in a short reveal following the men's Wimbledon final.

But before she makes her debut at Christmas, when Capaldi bows out, Whittaker's appearing as a very different kind of doctor in a new drama for BBC One called Trust Me.

In the four-parter, she stars as mum-of-one Cath Hardacre, a caring, hard-working nurse whose life derails when she raises her concerns about the standards slipping in the hospital. Sacked for whistleblowing, she turns to her best friend Dr Ally Sutton who's emigrating to New Zealand.

At a drunken party Cath finds Ally's discarded paperwork and makes the desperate decision to take a second chance at life - by stealing her best friend's identity.

But just how long can she lead a double-life without serious repercussions?

"I think it really fascinated me that we could easily judge her and we could've taken the really moral high ground, like, 'Who does this? She's obviously a b****'. Whereas it's a much more blurred line," explains the 35-year-old actress.

"There is ego; it's morally dubious, but there's also good intention, which makes it complicated. Also, I didn't know where it was going when I read it. I loved that, it's exciting to play."

In preparation, she and writer Dan Sefton, who's worked on the likes of Mr Selfridge and Delicious, were taken on a tour of an Edinburgh hospital.

"I only did medical research that I needed to do. You can't act the medical stuff, you're either holding a scalpel wrong or right," highlights Whittaker, who has a two-year-old child with her husband of nine years, Christian Contreras.

It's the first time Whittaker's heard of imposter doctors.

She doesn't consider herself suitably "clear-headed" to be in the medical profession ("There's a reason why I'm an actress and not a doctor"), but she can relate to the idea of being an imposter.

"You always think you're about to be found out. I don't know anyone that doesn't feel like that," admits the actress who studied at Guildhall School Of Music And Drama before making her professional stage debut in 2005.

The following year she appeared alongside the late Peter O'Toole in the movie Venus.

The industry deems it her breakthrough role and Whittaker herself describes it as "a game-changer".

"Venus absolutely changed everything because you could say I went from straight out of drama school to being in a film."

As for the Dorset-based detective drama Broadchurch, in which she starred as grieving mother Beth Latimer, Whittaker believes it will take time to appreciate just how significant the role has been.

"It's definitely been an amazing thing for my career, but it's difficult to know how much of a game-changer it is.

"I'm not (Star Wars') Daisy Ridley. It's not like I've gone from an absolute brand-new face to the biggest franchise in the world. It's from being on television, or in films, and working and knowing people to then being in a role that has a huge audience."

Whittaker cherishes the people she met during the three-series run - not least Chibnall, the Broadchurch creator who cast her in Doctor Who.

It's an exciting new chapter for them both, but then Whittaker's always keen to challenge herself.

"I've been really lucky because the jobs I've done have been really hard and that's what you want. You want to have to work at it, you don't want it to be second nature."
Emma (front left) with paternal grandparents Edna and Bill Griffiths, her mother Cathy and her sister Sharon

Emma on Who Do You Think You Are?

The Orange Order says scores around the world should not be surprised to discover they have loyalist roots.

Chief Executive Iain Carlisle was speaking after television presenter Emma Willis reacted with shock after learning one of her forebearers was a member of the Orange Order.

The revelation came as the Big Brother frontwoman took part in the BBC ancestry programme Who Do You Think You Are?

At the outset of the show she spoke of her hopes that her family would be deeply intertwined with her home city of Birmingham.

While her mother's family were, as Emma proudly put it, "grafters" who generation after generation were tradesmen in the city, her father's line took her on an unexpected journey across the Irish Sea.

"I had absolutely no idea we had any Irish on my dad's side," she said on the ferry journey over.

She followed the trail of genealogical breadcrumbs to the town of Dunlavin, Co Wicklow, where she discovered that her five times great-grandfather Richard Fowler had been a gentleman landowner and also a member of the Orange Order in the late 1700s.

Dunlavin had been a place of sectarian tensions at the time as one of just a few majority Protestant towns in the south of Ireland.

Genealogist Nicola Morris revealed to Emma that in November 1797 the Union Star newspaper - run by the republican United Irishmen - had published an article naming Fowler as "one of those privileged murderous Orange men".

Looking shocked, Emma asked: "What is that, what's Orangeman?"

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She was informed that the Orange Order had been established in the 1790s in Ireland, and that its members were Protestants loyal to the British Crown.

However, the tale took a darker twist when it emerged that Fowler and two others had stabbed a father and son, Michael and Thomas Egan, as well as interrogating them. The pair survived the attack.

It is said Fowler believed the Egans, who were blacksmiths, were making weapons for the United Irishmen.

In 1798 the United Irishmen staged an uprising against British rule in Ireland.

Emma became tearful at the discovery, but was heartened to discover that tensions appeared to have subsided two generations later when her great-grandmother Harriet Fowler married a Catholic, Michael Kirwan.

Iain Carlisle, chief executive of the Orange Order, said that with tens of thousands of members of the institution not only in Ireland but also across the UK and further afield since its formation, finding a relative who was involved should not be all that surprising.

He told the Belfast Telegraph that the Orange Order received several enquiries every week from people from around the world who had ancestors who were members of the organisation.
It is the first choice of A-list actresses, catwalk queens and glossy magazine beauty editors, and every minute of every day, somewhere in the world, someone buys a bottle of Vita Liberata self tanning lotion - that's a staggering 50 million sales a year.

It is quite an achievement for a Northern Ireland mum-of-three who was 40 when she first had the idea for a new self tanner and despite having no business experience, was driven by her passionate belief that she had something unique to offer.

Fast forward to today and that passion has driven Alyson Hogg to quite literally conquer the world, transforming herself into a globe-trotting businesswoman who now has homes in Ballyclare, London and New York.

Home still is Ballyclare, where she grew up and where the company is based and it is where Alyson (57) created the world's first odourless tan in 2007, famous for its unique Odour Remove  technology.

In 2011, Vita Liberata became the first completely non-toxic tanning brand free from parabens, perfume, alcohol and all chemicals of concern.

As well as being worn by stars on the red carpet, Vita Liberata self tanner is the choice of the world's top spas, including George V Paris, St Regis, Viceroy, Ritz-Carlton and Burj Al Arab.

It is stocked alongside the biggest brands in the world on the biggest beauty counters and is sold on QVC channels all over the globe.

Now a renowned entrepreneur, Alyson enjoyed a varied career, working in broadcast news for both UTV and BBC NI, in academia, hospitality and politics before launching her beauty business 17 years ago.

Her partner Colin Lewis (65) also worked in the media, which is where they met and he gave up his job six years ago to join Alyson in the business, working in global sales.

Success on the scale they enjoy doesn't come easy and yet the hard work, determination and willingness to travel have become a natural part of the Vita Liberata founder and CEO's life now.

Her time is spent travelling between the US and Europe and bouncing from adopted city to adopted city - London, Dusseldorf, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Alyson says it helps that her children are now grown up and that Colin has come into the company with her.

She describes theirs as a "blended family" - her kids Connor Leckey (27), Callum (26) and Caitlyn (22) and Colin's daughters Sarah Lewis (30) and Rachel (26) - and quality time is savoured when they all come together to travel on the family boat, which is where she is when we catch up with her this week.

Rachel also works in the company as head of education and Connor works in knowledge and insight.

In total, Vita Liberata now employs 55 staff and, as well as its Ballyclare base, it has what Alyson refers to as hubs in London and New York, plus field staff in Europe and the US.

Her own life has changed beyond recognition, but she readily admits that she now 'lives' for her brand: "I travel between the USA and Europe, work, travel and more work! Essentially, it is true to say that I live my business. I have no choice. A small beauty company from Ireland is not going to break into Europe and USA, and not get crushed, unless you are willing to give it every drop of energy and focus you have to give. And that continues to this day.

"I spend about half my time in the USA and half in Europe, possibly slightly more in Europe.

"My happy place is our boat, where I am today, with my kids being noisy and boisterous, as always. I have become nomadic over the last 10 years out of necessity, but this has now spilled over into normality, so I don't think we would know how to go to a hotel and sit in one spot for two weeks.

"The boat allows us to sleep in the same bed every night but still keep exploring and discovering and be inspired by the myriad cultures and people we see along the way. However, the boat is only a few weeks each year and maybe a few weekends in winter."

The boat is a Beneteau Oceanis 55-foot yacht which is moored in Valencia on the east coast of Spain, where they enjoy sailing around the Balearic Islands.

It is a rare break for this globetrotting businesswoman, who remembers well how it all began back home in Northern Ireland when she had the vision for a new self tanning product which was like no other on the market.

Her battle to make it global was achieved through sheer determination and hard work, but she makes it sound almost easy.

She recalls: "Ahhh - (it started) from an idea in my head that maybe I could pull together many benefits into multi-tasking products.

"That was at the very beginning. After a couple of years, when it seemed impossible to properly break into any bits of the beauty market, my assistant Cherith asked me to make her a better tan than the one she normally wore. This request scared me! Cherith was an amazing young woman, but every morning she would appear in work a rather odd shade of orange, or a patchy shade of dirty orange.

"She challenged me to make a better kind of product for her translucently pale skin, and that is essentially where it all started.

"I suppose once I saw how well the tan was selling, how much women were responding to the natural glow and the skincare benefits, I began to understand that this was a product portfolio worth taking to a world stage.

"The next thing to do was work out how to do that! So I tried to visualise where I would or could be in five years and then worked out the steps towards that.

"After that it was just a matter of putting those steps in place.

"I say just, but there is no such thing as just. It is a bit like a game of chess - two steps forward, one back, sometimes even three back, but if you stick with the programme, and know you have something extraordinary to offer, if you think through the choices, aren't daunted by the setbacks, embrace the challenges and opportunities, and of course are fortunate enough to have all the amazing support that I have been so lucky to build around the business, then it is certainly possible to do surprisingly big things!"

Building a brand in the highly competitive beauty world, where big companies spend millions on advertising and marketing, was no mean feat.

Alyson credits the fact that she had a good team around her and to this day building a team of go-getting, positive people is what she believes lies at the heart of her continued success. She says: "I guess I did several things right and probably an equal and opposite number of things wrong.

"I built a strong team of highly intelligent, committed people (mostly women) who were passionate about both the business and the product.

"I did not stand for negativity or naysayers - questioners and challengers, yes, naysayers, and energy suckers, no. In fact, we have banned the word 'no' from the company.

"We are very much a can-do company. Instead of thinking that you can't make something happen, we want people to think what the reason is for it and might there be a reason it could happen.

"I just don't think negativity is good for our business and I want people who can have fun and enjoy their work and I think that creates better productivity. One of my beliefs is that you should be delighted to succeed, but not scared to fail."

Alyson has also been a stickler for quality - rigorous about the formulations that the company developed, their organic contents, the technology invented along the way to get the most out of the organic content, and the beauty benefits of each of the products.

"I was never scared of change or challenge and remain extremely flexible - or so I am told," she says. "But also, I managed because I had tremendous support from my close family, especially the kids and, of course, Colin, who made it all much more doable when he agreed to join me in the business about six years ago and has been literally travelling this journey with me ever since."

She is immensely proud that so many A-listers love her products - Downton Abbey actress Joanne Froggatt, Orange Is The New Black actress Kimiko Glenn and actresses Taylor Schilling and Missi Pyle, to name but a few.

Emma Watson has spoken often about her love for the company's Self Tanning Bronzing Minerals, saying they are a favourite in her make-up bag.

"It makes me feel very proud, of course, especially as these girls can wear whatever they want and they choose our products and it is not because we pay them but because they choose it," Alyson explains.

"Emma Watson talks about our bronzing minerals every chance she gets and I've never even met her - that is wonderful.

"For me, what is almost, if not more, wonderful is if I am standing in a store somewhere and start talking to someone about self tanning and they mention they love Vita Liberata. That's so much more exciting, because they have adored it and used it, and it makes me feel that we have done something positive for them and helped to make them feel good and gave them something that made them smile.

"At the end of my life, if I can say I made women smile, that will be very satisfying."

While her business is all-consuming, she keeps herself fit by walking, but even that can be incorporated into her working life, as regardless of what city she is in she has found a favourite route to walk to the office.

"My main exercise is walking - so that I can use my exercise time to get to a work destination," she says. "So generally - when in New York, I walk literally everywhere. Manhattan is good for that. Very easy to do 20,000 steps, let alone 10,000 in a day.

"At the weekend we walk up the west Hudson River. It's lovely, if noisy from the motorway overhead. In London I walk by the Thames - stunning. In Los Angeles, I walk by the beach and in San Francisco I walk up and down the hills to Fisherman's Wharf. In Dusseldorf, I walk by the Rhine.

"When I am at home, which is rare these days, I walk around the country roads and lanes outside our door and down by the stream in Ballyclare.

"I guess water is a theme. I love its life-giving force, its light, its ebb and flow, its magnificence - which pales all else into insignificance and gives true perspective to the undoubted issues that always swirl around a business (and a life) such as ours."

Some of Alyson's favourite things

Favourite restaurants?

Can Roquet, Romanya de la Selva, Costa Brava, and Taboon on 52nd and 10th avenue New York.

Favourite stores?

Harvey Nicks in Knightsbridge for inspiration; Barneys in New York for similar reason (and their cafe on the top floor); Bloomingdale's on Lexington, for practical, good-quality clothes; and the stores in Laguna beach (southern California) for just the best linens ever.

Favourite hotels?

Gramercy Hotel in New York, Case Del Mar in Santa Monica, and Castillo Demporda in Costa Brava.

Win Vita Liberata Body Blur

We are delighted to be able to give 50 lucky readers the chance to win Vita Liberata Body Blur Skin Finish, which is the preferred product for stars at events like such as Oscars and Golden Globe Awards.

It is also the product favoured by Victoria Secrets fashion show models and has become a cult favourite across the globe.

Body Blur is a wash-off, skin-finishing body make-up that covers imperfections, gives a natural-looking tint and reflects light for a photo-ready finish.

To be in with a chance of winning this product, answer the following question:

Where is the Vita Liberata company based in Northern Ireland?

Email your answer, including your name and address, to weekend@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Heroic act: three children were saved from drowning at Ballycastle by Nathaniel Hunter

Modest hero: Nathaniel Hunter at the spot on Ballycastle beach where he saved three children

Following Nathaniel Hunter's dramatic rescue of three children from the sea this week, Stephanie Bell and Kerry McKittrick speak to other lifesavers about what went through their minds when they decided to act... and how it has affected their lives since.

Co Antrim man Nathaniel Hunter was praised as a hero this week after he rescued three children who were swept out to sea off the north coast.

Nathaniel was walking with his wife at Ballycastle beach on Wednesday evening when he spotted two girls and a boy - aged 10, 11 and 12 - in difficulty.

Without any thought for his own safety, he dived in and pulled them out of the freezing water.

Here, three other rescuers describe their experiences and the impact they continue to have of them.

It had an impact on me, you realise how fragile life can be

Engineering student Andrew Johnston (21), from Lurgan, saved a woman's life when he dived into the Swilly Burn River in Donegal and pulled her from an upturned car while on holiday last month. He says:

I was actually supposed to be somewhere else that week, but cancelled it at the last minute and booked a holiday with my girlfriend in Buncrana just the week before. Strangely, where it happened was called St Johnston, which is the same as my last name.

I think when something like that happens, it takes a while for it to sink in. It has been gradual, but I think it has changed me as it does put things in perspective.

Like Nathaniel Hunter in Ballycastle this week, it could have been anyone. If we had been a few minutes earlier, it could have been us in the river. It makes you realise how fragile life is.

It has had an impact on me. I always planned to travel some time during university and now that is a definite - I won't put it off. I plan to get it booked as soon as I can and go and see a bit of the world.

I had never been on that road in my life and for us to have been there at that exact time was crazy. The car was already in the water when we came along. I saw a crowd gathered at the side of the road and we slowed down and I put my window down.

A guy, who had a real look of shock on his face, asked me if I could swim. I think I was in the water within five seconds. I was just on autopilot. I didn't hesitate and I didn't even know what had happened or what to expect.

I got into the river and the car was completely submerged upside down to the wheels and there was a guy sitting on it, covered in blood. He was clearly in shock and, although I didn't know it at the time, his back was broken. He could hardly speak. He was just stunned.

I asked him if there was anyone else in the car and he said 'Yes', which was not the answer I wanted to hear. That's when the panic set it. I went down to the passenger door and there was no one there.

I came back up and the guy pointed to the back of the car and I went back down and, even though his back was broken, he helped me to pull her out.

It was tough keeping her afloat and the people who had gathered on the bank threw us a hose. It was a tricky situation getting her out, but we managed.

She didn't look too good and was unconscious and we worked with her, giving her CPR, with paramedics on the phone talking us through what to do.

To be honest my expectations werent great, because she had been under there a while and we couldnt bring her round.

I actually dont know how long the car had been in the water before we came along, but while I was there she was down quite a while.

It took the ambulance half an hour to get there. Lucky enough, I have since been told that both of them are now doing well and are out of hospital. I believe they are in their 60s and live in the Donegal area.

Im just glad it turned out the way it did. I havent met the couple yet, but hopefully one day I will.

I dont see what I did as anything special. The way I look at it is, if I hadnt done it, things would have been much worse.

People can call me a hero, but I believe I only did what my friends, or anyone else I know, would have done, too.

I think if I hadnt, then I would have felt bad the rest of my life.

'I didn't think at all when I saw him ... I just jumped in'

Ian Paisley (50) is DUP MP for North Antrim. He is married to Fiona and they have four children. In 1998, he saved a boy from drowning off the Giant's Causeway. He says:

I saw the news report on Nathaniel Hunter a few nights ago and I saw that the coastguard called Nathan a hero because of his quick thinking. It took me back to that day in 1998.

I remember it was a nice holiday afternoon. I was with my wife, Fiona, and our daughters and my wife's family for a day out at the Giant's Causeway.

I remember seeing a man walking out to the end of the Causeway and he was holding two boys by their hands.

All of a sudden, a big wave came in and swept them off the Causeway.

Straight away, the man - who I later found out was the boys' uncle - was thrown back in against the rocks.

He was swept out and swept in again, but the boys were still in the water.

There was a lot of screaming and shouting, so I went down to the rocks and saw one of the little boys in the water.

I didn't think when I saw him; I just jumped in with another Spanish fellow who was there.

We got the little boy out of the water, but we couldn't find his brother.

It wasn't until later on that day that the helicopter came and found his body.

I know exactly how Nathaniel felt when he saved those children from the sea. You don't think about consequences, you just do what has to be done.

It think it's both brave and foolhardy at the same time. I didn't think at all; I just jumped in. I didn't even take off my Barbour jacket or boots.

If I had have thought about it, I don't think I would have done it. It was just an instinct.

I am a good swimmer. I was taught to swim in the sea by my dad and I'm the captain of the House of Commons swimming team.

It was a risk for me to do it, though. I could easily not have come out of the water and left my children without a father.

I ran into the young fellow I saved in town years later and got to meet his family too.

It was lovely to meet him, but, at the same time, there is always the fact that I couldn't save his brother.

I was so disappointed not to be able to find him.

"The whole time we were looking, we just knew that a life had been lost.

The sense of loss has always been a great one for me."

'There's great satisfaction that the strain on families is lifted'

Alistair Warke (51) is a full-time volunteer for the Community Rescue Service and lives in Coleraine. He says:

I've been volunteering for over 18 months now - I've always had a concern for my fellow human beings.

I came across the Community Rescue Service (CRS) a few years ago and I wanted to give something back. It appealed to me because it is a very practical way of contributing to society.

This is something I have a great passion for - being able to do something practical for someone in need.

When I think of what Nathaniel Hunter did when rescuing those children in Ballycastle, I wonder: what would I do if faced with the same situation?

Thanks to my training with the CRS, I'm able to assess a situation.

Our training tells us that the most important person on a search is me - if I don't know how to look after myself, then I become the second casualty.

Then my team not only loses a member, but also has to deal with me as a casualty.

But when faced with the situation that Nathaniel was as an ordinary member of the public you do what has to be done. I think it's human nature.

We're a lowland rescue service - we're not a specialist team for mountain or sea rescue. There is, of course, training given to everyone who joins the team.

We spend a lot of time as a team searching, yet coming up with nothing.

That can either be because we don't find anything or it because another team finds the person we're looking for.

Each team is made up of three people - a team leader, a person looking after communications and another in charge of first aid.

Each of us can take up any one of those positions, but for each particular search we're allocated a set role.

Recently, we were called out to find an elderly person suffering from dementia. They had gone out for a short walk and didn't return.

We were called out from Coleraine at about 7.30am.

We arrived at the scene and conducted what is called a 'hasty search'. We cover as much ground as quickly as we can in case the person is still there.

After four hours, we reassessed the situation and were directed to return to one particular area where it was believed the person was likely to be.

We were going through wooded areas and farmland. It was a bright day, but it had rained heavily the night before.

There was concern because the missing person had not been dressed adequately for the weather.

It is a worry when you're doing a search like that; the longer the search goes on, the less likely there is to be a positive outcome.

We were searching the boundaries of fields in the hope that the person might have sought shelter there.

At the bottom of the field, there was a large mound of earth and, as I rounded that mound, the person was there in front of me - still alive.

Your first reaction is one of disbelief. The person that has been in your head for hours is, all of a sudden, there in front of you.

Then there's a slight panic: what should you do next? The training then kicks in and you go into action.

I was the communications person for that particular team, so my colleague began to administer first aid while we put the wheels into motion to recover the missing person and get them proper medical attention.

This was very much a case of a life that would have been lost if we hadn't found the person. The weather took a turn for the worse, with torrential rain for a full half-hour after that.

I'm not a medical professional, but a frail individual, dressed as they were, wouldn't have survived much longer.

We work very much as part of a team. Sometimes, we don't find what we're looking for and sometimes we find people who have not survived.

In this particular instance, there was a huge sense of relief that we hadn't searched for hours for no reason.

There's a great satisfaction that the person is now safe and the strain that has been with the family for so long has now been lifted."
A notable former alumnus of Royal Belfast Academical Institution has passed away in Vancouver, Canada.

The Rev Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles died on Tuesday after a battle with cancer. He was 74.

Rev Wilhelm-Boyles was born in Belfast in 1943 and first went to Canada as a teenager because of his father's business connections to the Beldam asbestos engineering company.

The family returned to Ireland, Andrew completed his teacher training studies, and went back to Canada to pursue a career. He taught both English and drama in Newfoundland.

However, after a change of professional direction he was employed by the Canadian Broadcasting Company and managed a television station in Churchill, Manitoba.

It was here that he had the scope to develop his true passion for music and the arts, becoming a national figure in the field, producing and hosting many network programmes from Winnipeg and Toronto.

Rev Wilhelm-Boyles went on to found the Yukon Arts Centre as well as holding positions with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Creative City Network of Canada.

He was also the executive director of the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture.

The passion he held for choral music and conducting was evident when he found the Whitehorse Community Choir in the 1990s, and he was also the choral director of Maple Ridge Choral Society.

Rev Wilhelm-Boyles developed a late vocation for religious service and in 2008 was ordained as a minister in the Anglican Church.

He was appointed Deacon at St Agnes' church in Vancouver, where he remained until 2012 before being attached to Christ Church Cathedral in the city. Around 18 months ago Rev Wilhelm-Boyles developed lung cancer and entered hospice care on July 21.

In his last days he was surrounded by his family and friends from across the Diocese and beyond.

Before his passing the Women's Schola of the Christ Cathedral Choir sang for him at his bedside.

He is survived by his wife Carrie, sister Hazle, brother Alastair, brother-in-law Stephen Richardson and sister-in-law Sally.

He will be laid to rest following a service at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver on Saturday, August 12.
A major GAA training centre is to be built on the site of an Army barracks in Co Down, it has been confirmed.

Ballykinler has been owned by the Ministry of Defence since 1901. The last resident battalion pulled out of the camp in 2014, leading to speculation over future uses of the site.

Parts of the complex are still in regular use by the police and Army for training, but it will close completely next year.

It has now emerged that it will home to a GAA training centre.

Yesterday the Down county board of GAA announced on its Facebook page that its committee had approved advanced negotiations to base a new centre of excellence at Ballykinler.

The move will see the organisation lease part of the facility from the MoD.

In the statement it said early discussions with the MoD had focused on the "potential lease and development of part of the Abercorn Barracks site at Ballykinler into a multi-purpose GAA complex" and that "all parties are working towards bringing this exciting plan to fruition".

It added that the new centre of excellence will be a "significant resource for the local communities".

"Ballykinler has a vibrant GAA community and the local club facility had been a training base for Down senior teams for a number of years," it said.

"If approved and progressed, the Ballykinler project will form an important part of a new Vision 2020 strategy for the county. While a new complex will cater for the training and administrative needs of Down teams in all Gaelic games codes, it will also be a significant resource for the Ballykinler club and the local communities."

In a statement to the Belfast Telegraph, the MoD said: "We can confirm that the MoD is in discussion with the Co Down GAA in relation to a proposed centre of excellence in the Ballykinler area."

Ballykinler has had a varied history, from hosting the training of the 36th Ulster Division during the First World War to being an internment camp during the Irish War of Independence in 1919, to housing troops from the United States during the Second World War.

In 1974 a 300lb IRA van bomb killed two soldiers and destroyed some buildings.

It was used as a training centre for the UDR during the 1970s and 1980s, and has been used by various Army regiments as a base since then.
David McFarland was speaking as he jailed a man for his involvement in a brutal assault and hijacking six years ago

A senior judge has warned that the courts will protect taxi drivers from hijacking and attack.

David McFarland was speaking as he jailed a man for his involvement in a brutal assault and hijacking six years ago.

Barney McGinley (24), of Castle Drive, Dublin, was told he would spend 12 months in custody followed by a further 12 months on licence after he pleaded guilty to hijacking a taxi and common assault.

Charges of stealing a bottle of wine from a restaurant and criminal damage to the taxi were left on the books "in the usual terms''.

Belfast Crown Court heard how a taxi driver picked up McGinley, his uncle and another male in the city centre at 12.15am on November 15, 2011.

Prosecution barrister Philip Henry said the cabbie was told to drive out to the Malone Road and then directed down New Forge Lane. He said that en route he had felt "scared'' of his passengers, one of whom was drinking from a bottle of wine in the rear of his Mercedes vehicle.

The court heard that the driver was directed to a "less populated part of New Forge Lane'', where he was told to stop, after which the front seat passenger, McGinley's uncle, reached over to try and grab the keys before pushing the driver out of the door.

Mr Henry said the taximan tried to run away and made a 999 call to police telling them what had happened and his location, saying: "These are big guys. You will need more than one police car to take them.''

The judge heard that the three males later caught up with him and pulled him to the ground, where he was kicked and punched to his upper body and face.

Police soon arrived on the scene to find the taxi's engine running and the vehicle empty. Officers called in the PSNI's dog section along with an armed response vehicle for back-up.

All three males were found hiding nearby in undergrowth and were arrested.

During police interview, McGinley said he couldn't remember what happened at New Forge Lane because he had been intoxicated.

They were subsequently charged over the incident, but the court heard they were later released on bail and skipped the jurisdiction to the Republic.

McGinley was later arrested by gardai over the robbery of a veterinary practice in December 2014, and was jailed for three years.

In April this year, he was extradited to Northern Ireland after he was formally arrested by gardai on foot of a European Extradition Warrant issued by the PSNI.

The prosecution counsel said there was no victim impact statement from the taxi driver because he was suffering from a terminal illness unrelated to the hijacking.

He told the court that there were a number of aggravating factors.

These included the fact that there were three males involved in the hijacking and assault, that the incident took place at night and that the taxi driver was vulnerable.

A defence barrister said McGinley was now "remorseful and had victim empathy'', adding that as a result of his involvement in this incident, his wife had separated from him and he had been unable to see his children.

Passing sentence, Belfast Recorder Judge McFarland issued a stern warning to future offenders.

"Taxi drivers will receive the support of the courts from anyone who attempts to hijack their vehicles or assault them, and they will receive severe punishment," he said.

"Taxi drivers provide a vital service to the community and it is important that they are protected from those who assault and try to take their vehicle from them, and they will receive the appropriate sentence.''
Leo Varadkar is in Belfast with 8,000 expected to march in the Pride parade

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said it is "only a matter of time" before same-sex marriage is introduced in Northern Ireland, as he attended a gay Pride event in Belfast.

Mr Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay leader, attended a Belfast Pride breakfast on Saturday morning.

He said he was attending the event to express solidarity and support for individual freedom and equality.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the British Isles where same-sex marriage remains outlawed after the Republic voted to change the law in a watershed 2015 referendum.

Mr Varadkar said: "It is of course a decision for the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course."

Police Service of Northern Ireland and Garda officers also joined Mr Varadkar at the event, arriving in a PSNI Land Rover.

For the first time uniformed officers will march in the Pride parade through the city centre.

Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said the PSNI's participation in the breakfast and parade "is about inclusion and representation".

"We represent all sections of society. Members of the LGBT community are a marginalised community in Northern Ireland," she said.

Mrs Gray added that the PSNI's presence at the events might encourage victims of hate crime to come forward and report them.

Up to 8,000 people are due to parade through Belfast city centre later.

Same-sex marriage has been one of the sticking points preventing the return of a devolved powersharing administration at Stormont, with Sinn Fein demanding the Democratic Unionists (DUP) stop blocking changes to the law.

The DUP, Prime Minister Theresa May's partner in government, has used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism to prevent the legalisation of same-sex marriage, despite most Assembly members supporting the move at the last vote.

The DUP rejects any suggestion it is homophobic, insisting it is protecting the "traditional" definition of marriage, and has called for tolerance of what are increasingly minority views.

It does not have enough members in the new Assembly to veto an equal marriage vote on its own, but there is no immediate prospect of the deeply divided administration being restored.

Mr Varadkar is not staying for the Pride parade because of other commitments.

A total of 8,000 people are expected to march from Custom House Square in the city centre and about 15,000 additional supporters are anticipated, said the Parades Commission, which rules on marches. Sixty bands are due to take part.

A rainbow Pride flag has been raised at a UK Government building at Stormont for the first time.

The flag was raised beside Stormont House on Friday morning to mark the Pride festival.

LGBT+ Conservatives patron, Stuart Andrew MP, will take part in the Pride march along with thousands of local demonstrators.
Lily ONeill from Portstewart with her husband Billy and her fathers war medals

A Portstewart woman has finally been reunited with the five medals won by her war hero father over 70 years ago, when he was commended for bravery following the Normandy Landings when he was badly wounded the day after saving a colleague's life.

Sgt Harry Staddon's decorations - including his prestigious Military Medal for gallantry which it is thought vanished from the soldier's home in Portrush in the 1970s - were found after Lily O'Neill's family conducted an exhaustive search which stretched all the way from Ireland, England and Wales to Australia and back again.

And Mrs O'Neill received an added bonus - a citation in recognition of Harry Staddon's bravery, signed by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery himself.

Monty wrote of how Harry bravely organised the men in his platoon in response to heavy fire from German positions in August 1944, two months after the 2nd Monmouthshire Regiment landed in Normandy as part of the 53rd Welsh Division.

The one-time British Commander-in-Chief said Harry's quick thinking led to a 25-strong German platoon surrendering.

But shortly afterwards Harry was back in action, selflessly rushing to the aid of one of his men who had been hit by shellfire which ignited a grenade and set him on fire.

"This NCO stripped off the man's clothing and equipment and extinguished the phosphorus which was burning", said Monty, who added that Harry set an example "which could not be improved upon".

The citation continued: "On the following day during the attack on Leffard whilst leading and encouraging his men he was wounded."

Doctors carried out no fewer than 22 operations on injuries to Harry's leg, but they couldn't save it.

After two years in hospital in England, the London-born soldier returned to Northern Ireland, where he'd been stationed.

He'd met his wife Sally in Newry and they set up home in Armagh, where he worked as a boilerman before moving to a similar job in Coleraine hospital.

He and his family lived in Hopefield Avenue in Portrush and Harry, who had an artificial leg, kept his medals in a drawer.

But he eventually discovered his medals were missing and it was impossible to establish where they'd gone.

Harry died in 1985 at the age of 67 without ever finding out what happened to his precious medals. But his daughter Lily and her husband Billy O'Neill never gave up hope, although they accepted that the chances of recovering the medals were slim.

However, one evening, a couple of years ago, as they watched TV coverage of Remembrance Day commemorations in London with their grandson David, the first steps were taken in the hunt for the medals, with a little help from technology.

Lily said: "I happened to say to David that his great-grandfather had fought in the war, but all his medals went missing from the house in Portrush."

David went on to Google on his smartphone and within minutes he found records showing that Harry's medals had been bought and sold by a series of collectors down the years.

"They'd been all around the world," said Lily. "There was documentation to prove they had been in the hands of private collectors in Australia and England."

Lily's husband Billy wasn't prepared to stop there and he set about tracing the latest owners of the medals. He contacted a number of dealers who'd been involved in the earlier transactions, but they were reluctant to share information with him.

However, then came a stroke of luck as he learnt by chance from a relative across the water that Harry's medals were back on the market with a Welsh dealer.

"I contacted him but I didn't say who I was and I made an offer which was accepted," said Billy.

After the medals were safely back in Northern Ireland, Billy revealed his identity to the dealer, who told him that the price would have been higher if he'd known he was a member of Harry's family.

"I said that was why I hadn't told him," laughed Billy.

Lily said she was overjoyed to have the medals returned to her family, along with the Field Marshal Montgomery citation, which she'd never seen before.

"That was very special to see," she added. "We had copies of the medals, but they're not the same as the real things"

Lily said her father was a modest man. "He never talked about the war. He'd been a very fit and strong man who'd been a weightlifter. He also trained boxers in his day," she said.

Billy added: "Harry was a very quiet man, but the citation shows just how brave he was in the heat of battle in France."

He is still keen to put all the missing pieces of the medals' jigsaw together.

"I want to trace their journey, but I'd also like to know how the medals disappeared in the first place," he said.
Demonstrators are set to bring hundreds of people onto the streets on Sunday to protest against Britain First and "reflect the true diversity of Belfast".

Organisers of the Belfast Says No to Fascism protest said they would be joined by people who are gay, black, white, of faith and of none to make sure the leadership of right-wing group Britain First understands "their views are not welcome in Belfast".

Tensions are high ahead of tomorrow's perfect storm of marches and protests in and around the city centre.

Five thousand people are expected to join an anti-internment march which, after being banned for the second year from its proposed route down Royal Avenue by the Parades Commission, will skim the city centre, while two separate loyalist protests plus an anti-fascist protest opposing Britain First's presence will happen at the same time in and around Belfast City Hall.

Britain First leader Paul Goulding, who is to speak at the Northern Ireland Against Terrorism protest organised by independent unionist Jolene Bunting, said that members of his group were "patriots not fascists", adding that they were not extremists, but "just love our country".

"It is ludicrous to say that we are extremists," he said. "We just love our country. We are against immigration, we want our country to stay the way it is. We want to put our own people first.

"If there is any trouble, if there is any hostility, it will not come from us. We just want a peaceful, democratic protest."

Davy McAuley, from Belfast Says No To Fascism, said his group "will have a peaceful, vibrant protest that will reflect Belfast".

But Ms Bunting said that those who were opposing them opposing terrorism "speaks volumes" about them.

A separate anti-terrorism march, the Loyalist People's Protest, will also take place at City Hall. Organisers said they would bring 10,000 people to Belfast for a march through part of the city centre after also being banned from Royal Avenue.

Meanwhile the Anti-Internment League has vowed to march "until forcibly stopped".
Arlene Foster and Leo Varadkar discussed the Kingsmill inquest during a meeting in Belfast

Tension between the DUP and the Irish Government has eased after Arlene Foster held talks with the Taoiseach in Belfast.

The DUP had accused Leo Varadkar of "megaphone diplomacy" following his recent statements on Brexit.

Leaving the talks yesterday, Mrs Foster pointed to party MP Sammy Wilson, who is on crutches, and joked: "We had a bit of a rough meeting!"

Mr Wilson quipped: "The ambulance is coming for the other guy!"

Mrs Foster said the meeting had helped clarify Dublin's position on Brexit matters.

"The Taoiseach is very clear that he is not in favour of a border in the Irish Sea and that is welcome," she said.

The DUP leader said she had made it "very clear" to the Taoiseach that the UK was leaving the EU and "exiting the customs union and the single market".

"We are leaving the European Union but we still want to do business very firmly with Europe, and it is finding those practical solutions that we want to engage in," she added.

"Not through megaphone diplomacy but actually through getting down to the nitty-gritty for what's needed for Northern Ireland and the Republic as well."

On restoring power-sharing at Stormont, the DUP said that if Sinn Fein continued with its "hardline" position there was little prospect of breaking the political deadlock.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said his party had "a productive meeting" with Mr Varadkar.

Mr Adams stated that he was in "total agreement" with Dublin on the need to restore the Assembly and the Executive.

But he insisted that a return to the status quo wasn't an option, and that both governments had a duty to ensure that.

"In the next round of talks there must be progress on Irish language rights, marriage equality, Bill of Rights, legacy matters and anti-sectarian measures," he added.

Mr Adams said that designated special status for Northern Ireland was "the most effective way to defend the Good Friday Agreement and ensure the two economies on the island of Ireland are protected under Brexit".

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood welcomed the Taoiseach's reassurances that "he will work to fight a hard Brexit and a hard border in Ireland".

He urged Mr Varadkar to "engage much more directly in the talks process" to help break the political stalemate.

He said: "There is a huge debate going on across the Continent about our future and we have been left voiceless.

"The utter failure of the two parties, who have the big mandates to form government, is a serious dereliction of duty. Progress must be made to give us a voice on Brexit and to get on with the job that we were elected to do - delivering on health, education and our economy."

Alliance leader Naomi Long described her meeting with the Taoiseach as "very constructive" and said both her party and Dublin were fairly optimistic that a deal to restore power-sharing could be done in the autumn.

"Alliance also outlined our concerns around the need to decouple Brexit and the debate on Irish unity," she added.

"While everyone is perfectly entitled to pursue their constitutional aspirations, it is important to keep the two issues separate. The Taoiseach also made mention of the short timetable before the European Council reviews the progress of negotiations later this year. That is yet another reason why we need a functioning Executive."

TUV leader Jim Allister claimed that Mr Vardakar's speech in Belfast had "disrespected" the UK's Brexit decision.
DUP leader Arlene Foster with party members (from right) Sammy Wilson, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Emma Little Pengelly at the meeting yesterday

Sinn Feins Gerry Adams and party colleagues after meeting the Taoiseach at the Irish Consulate in Belfast

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has pledged to "drop everything" and become directly involved in the Stormont talks if he thinks it will improve the chances of a deal.

Mr Varadkar said it was vital that Northern Ireland politicians resolved their differences and restored power-sharing as Brexit talks entered a crucial stage. The Taoiseach was speaking at Queen's University Belfast yesterday on his first official visit to Northern Ireland.

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The Fine Gael leader is seen as being more active and high-profile in events on this side of the border than his predecessor, Enda Kenny.

He agreed that there may be a difference in both "style and substance", but said this was partly due to the rapidly evolving situation with Brexit.

Although he has clashed with the DUP over the UK leaving the EU, Mr Varadkar stressed that he was committed to building a constructive relationship with the party.

He pointed out that, in previous roles, he had worked closely with DUP ministers including Arlene Foster, Simon Hamilton and Jim Wells.

The Taoiseach said that the restoration of power-sharing was necessary to try and secure the best outcome for the island of Ireland after Brexit.

He described the gulf between Sinn Fein and the DUP as "wide and deep", but insisted he did not believe the differences were insurmountable.

He said that, in a telephone call with British Prime Minister Theresa May, they had both agreed to become directly involved in the Northern Ireland talks if they believed it would be instrumental.

"If the main parties, Sinn Fein and the DUP, come to a point where an agreement can be sealed, we are willing and able to do what we can to get the Executive up and running again and have the Assembly meeting," Mr Varadkar added.

"If there is a point at which an intervention would make a difference, we are willing to drop everything and deal with that.

Mr Varadkar addressed an invited audience from political and civic society at Queen's.

Guests included DUP South Belfast MP Emma Little Pengelly, former SDLP MP Alasdair McDonnell and MLA Claire Hanna, UUP MLA Doug Beattie, Co-operation Ireland chief executive and former Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan, Ardoyne priest Fr Gary Donegan and business leaders.

Mr Varadkar claimed that "every single aspect of life in Northern Ireland could be affected by Brexit", which was "the challenge of this generation".

He pointed to a crucial EU meeting to discuss Brexit matters in October and said: "Today, we need an answer to the question of who do we, and others in Europe, talk to in Belfast?

"Who will speak for Northern Ireland and her 1.8 million people? Time is running out and I fear there will be no extra time allowed."

He said those Brexiteers who advocated a hard border had to come up with proposals as to how that would work. "They've already had 14 months to do so," he added.

Mr Varadkar said that if the UK remained in the customs union and single market, special status wouldn't be needed for Northern Ireland.

Such an option under a soft Brexit should appeal to those who wished to "preserve and protect the Union", he added.

Without such a deal, he proposed an EU-UK customs union.

"We have one with Turkey, surely we can have one with the UK?" Mr Varadkar asked.

He also proposed the UK entering a deep free trade agreement with the EU and rejoining the European Free Trade Association.

"At a time when Brexit threatens to drive a wedge between north and south, we need to build more bridges and fewer borders. I promise I will play my part in helping to do exactly that," he pledged.

Mr Varadkar repeated his hope that Brexit might not happen, suggesting that a second referendum could deliver a different outcome.

He pointed to the precedent of those unionists who opposed the Good Friday Agreement, later coming on board with the St Andrews Agreement.

Mr Varadkar said that his attendance at a Gay Pride breakfast today wasn't intended to "unsettle anyone" in Northern Ireland.

The Taoiseach "accepted fully" that marriage equality was a devolved issue to be dealt with by the Assembly. He was attending the breakfast to express his and his government's support for equality, he added.
A Conservative MP who was brutally beaten unconscious by three men for being gay has said he can't wait to take part in today's Pride march during his first visit to Belfast.

LGBT+ Conservatives patron Stuart Andrew, a passionate campaigner for equal marriage, will be joined by members of the Northern Ireland Conservative Party at today's high-profile event in the city centre.

The 45-year-old LGBT+ rights advocate said he felt it was important to stand tall alongside thousands of others from all walks of life who want to celebrate their diversity.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph ahead of his first trip here, Mr Andrew recalled the horrific attack he endured 20 years ago because of his sexuality.

"I'd gone back to the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, where I grew up, for a family get-together and we'd all gone out to the pub that particular evening," he said.

"I left earlier than the rest of my family and as I was walking home I became aware that I was being followed by three men.

"They started shouting out the words 'queer' and then 'you Tory queer' and although I tried to ignore the abuse I didn't escape from them in time."

Mr Andrew has been with his 46-year-old partner Robin Rogers for 17 years, although they "haven't quite got round to getting married". He recalled the pain and horror of being attacked by angry strangers.

"The three of them surrounded me, punching me on the nose and my head - the blows knocked me unconscious," he said. "The next thing I remember is waking up inside my parents' house with the rest of the family."

The Pudsey MP also told how his father Jim, now aged 72, sustained injures after he gave chase to his son's assailants following the barbaric attack.

"He saw what was happening when he was making his way home and he ran after them," added Stuart.

"One of the men hid round a corner and hit him in the face with a brick. He fractured his skull. It was horrendous.

"The police were called, but we didn't press charges. I regret that now, but it was a very different time. Back then, I just wanted to move on and draw a line under the whole episode."

"As a 25-year-old man the dreadful experience left me very shaken and very nervous, but now I think what happened has made me stronger because I'm not going to be bullied into hiding who I am."

Stuart, who has three younger brothers, said he told his 70-year-old mum Maureen that he was gay when he was 18. It took him another year to break the news to his dad, who was "absolutely brilliant" about it.

"My family have been superb; they're all very supportive of me and who I am," Stuart continued.

The former Labour politician said it was important to have voted for equal marriage in England and Wales in 2013 and echoed Prime Minister Theresa May's recent call that equal marriage should be made legal in Northern Ireland.

He also said that his job "was to push home the importance of equality" - not just when it comes to the DUP, but "people of all political persuasions who are not in favour of it".

"I grew up in a very traditional community a long way from any big cities and I don't remember knowing any gay people when I lived in Anglesey," he added.

"I understand that fear of being isolated, of not being accepted, and the fear of losing the people who are closest to you, whether that's family members or good friends."

Mr Andrew welcomed the "symbolic move" by Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire to fly a rainbow Pride flag at Stormont House yesterday to mark today's festival.

"It's a great gesture; I think that it's appreciated by LGBT people all over the country when the Pride flag is flown on a government building - and in Northern Ireland it's incredibly special," the MP said.

Uniformed police officers will take part in Belfast's Gay Pride parade for the first time today in an attempt to stamp out hate crime.

The unprecedented move comes amid increased scrutiny from Britain on LGBT issues here following the DUP's deal with the Conservatives.
Republicans outside the community hall in Knocklong in Co Limerick

Armed gardai were called to defuse a heated situation at a playground fundraiser in County Limerick where a dozen Republicans staged a protest against a British Legion band concert.

As a result of the activists disapproval of the event disappointed organisers  the Knocklong History Group  were forced to call off Tuesday night's charity concert at the local community centre.

The British Legion Leiston Band, hailing from the small town of Leiston in East Suffolk, was invited to perform a brass concert, which was to take a moment to remember the Knocklong men killed in the First World War, with proceeds going towards a playground for the local Heritage Park.

However, a planned peaceful protest scuppered any hopes of an enjoyable night going ahead, with 12 Irish Socialist Republicans arriving at the scene at around 6pm.

More than 10 gardai arrived at the scene, according to a spokesperson for the campaign, which was entitled British Imperialists not welcome in Knocklong.

The spokesperson said that despite the ring of steel around Knocklong Community Centre, the Republicans successfully prevented the pro-imperialist event from taking place.

He claimed that there was a heavy garda presence, including three squad cars, an armed response team, and members of the special branch. Gardai confirmed that the regional support unit were at the scene.

A spokesperson for the Knocklong History Group said that it was very disappointed that it was not possible for the concert to proceed. We would like to thank the band from Leiston for all their work preparing for the concert and traveling to Knocklong to perform. We wish them every good wish and hope that one day they will be able to play in Knocklong.

Protester and Knocklong native, George McAnaspie said that the protest was a massive victory for Socialist Republicans in the Munster area. Mr McAnaspies grandfather was involved in the rescue mission of IRA leader Sean Hogan in 1919, which took place in Knocklong.

Left unchecked, events like the concert in Knocklong could become subtle recruiting grounds for the Brit Army in Ireland and therefore must be opposed.

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He added: Let the message go out loud and clear from Knocklong, Brit Imperialists are not welcome in Ireland and will be challenged.

Limerick Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan said: I think it is a bit strange somebody invited them and didnt expect any sort of reaction to it. I am not saying that I condemn or support it, but it would be controversial to invite the British Legion band to come to a rural village, where there was a huge armed resistance during the British occupation at the time. It seems a bit strange that you would invite just the band from the occupying forces and not to have a Republican-type band  a bit of balance.

On July 30, a group called Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland posted on Facebook about the concert.

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Normalisation must be opposed. Imperialism in Ireland must be confronted. Brit Military recruitment in Ireland must be Challenged.

Therefore the concert in Knocklong must be opposed by Socialist Republicans and all those opposed to the illegal British presence in Ireland and in nations all over the world. Join us at 6pm this Tuesday at Knocklong Community Centre and let's take a stand for our youth, for our class and for our country against Imperialism!

Gardai said no arrests were made on the night. A number of attempts were made to contact the British Legion Leiston band.
Premier Leo Varadkar has said it is "only a matter of time" before same-sex marriage is introduced in Northern Ireland, as he attended a gay Pride event in Belfast.

Mr Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay leader, attended a Belfast Pride breakfast on Saturday morning.

He said he was attending the event to express solidarity and support for individual freedom and equality.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where same-sex marriage remains outlawed.

Mr Varadkar said: "It is of course a decision for the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course."

Police Service of Northern Ireland and Garda officers also joined Mr Varadkar at the event, arriving in a PSNI Land Rover.

For the first time uniformed officers will march in the Pride parade through the city centre.

Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said the PSNI's participation in the breakfast and parade "is about inclusion and representation".

"We represent all sections of society. Members of the LGBT community are a marginalised community in Northern Ireland," she said.

Mrs Gray added that the PSNI's presence at the events might encourage victims of hate crime to come forward and report them.

Up to 8,000 people are due to parade through Belfast city centre later.

Same-sex marriage has been one of the sticking points preventing the return of a devolved powersharing administration at Stormont, with Sinn Fein demanding the Democratic Unionists (DUP) stop blocking changes to the law.

The DUP, Prime Minister Theresa May's partner in government, has used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism to prevent the legalisation of same-sex marriage, despite most Assembly members supporting the move at the last vote.

The DUP rejects any suggestion it is homophobic, insisting it is protecting the "traditional" definition of marriage, and has called for tolerance of what are increasingly minority views.

It does not have enough members in the new Assembly to veto an equal marriage vote on its own, but there is no immediate prospect of the deeply divided administration being restored.

Mr Varadkar is not staying for the Pride parade because of other commitments.

A total of 8,000 people are expected to march from Custom House Square in the city centre and about 15,000 additional supporters are anticipated, said the Parades Commission, which rules on marches. Sixty bands are due to take part.

A rainbow Pride flag was raised at a UK Government building at Stormont for the first time on Friday to mark the festival
Donald Mackechnie with a 151-year-old Bible which has been returned to the Scots descendants of its original owner after making a 3,500 mile journey from the US

Donald Mackechnie with a 151-year-old Bible which has been returned to the Scots descendants of its original owner after making a 3,500 mile journey from the US

Donald Mackechnie with a 151-year-old Bible which has been returned to the Scots descendants of its original owner after making a 3,500 mile journey from the US

A 151-year-old Bible has been returned to the Scots descendants of its original owner after making a 3,500 mile journey from the United States.

The book was returned after American owner Marshall Whitehead decided to track down the family of the man who was the original possessor.

Donald Mackechnie (66), from Glasgow, said he was "amazed" when a stranger turned up at his home with the Bible that had belonged to his grandmother's great-grandfather.

Mr Whitehead, who was gifted the pocket-sized book in 2001 by an amateur Bible collector from Cleveland, Ohio, had rediscovered it when moving home in May.

Noting that the Bible bore the name Alexander MacDonald of Inverness with the date January 1, 1866, he decided to track down the descendants of Mr MacDonald, who was born in Inverness in 1825 and worked as a ship master, wine merchant and grocer.

After contacting Highland Council, he was put in touch with Anne Fraser, a historian at the Highland Archive Centre who created a MacDonald family tree.

Mr Whitehead then used social media to track down Mr Mackechnie's daughter Mairi in Glasgow, who alerted her Islay-raised father.

The Bible, which had a four-leaf clover tucked within its pages, was hand-delivered to Mr Mackechnie by Alistair Begg, a pastor at Mr Whitehead's church in Ohio, who is originally from Glasgow and was visiting relatives in the city last month.

Mr Mackechnie is clerk to the board at St Columba Gaelic Church of Scotland in Glasgow, which dates back to the 18th century and has a service in Gaelic every Sunday.

He said: "There was a knock on the door one day and this chap was standing there. I almost fell on the floor when he explained what he was giving me. I could not believe it, it was such a shock and a surprise.

"The whole family are delighted and over the moon to receive this previously unheard of family heirloom.

"It does not even enter your head that this kind of thing could ever happen - it is quite amazing."

Mr Mackechnie, a retired mechanical design draftsman, said the story of the Bible's return to Scotland is "fascinating and shows there are still kind people in the world".

Mr Whitehead, who chose the book from a collection of more than 100, said he believes it is not a coincidence that it has been returned to the family of the original owner.

"I am very pleased that this keepsake treasure of the MacDonald family, located in Cleveland, Ohio, was safely returned to Mr MacDonald's native homeland," he said.

"It would not have happened if it had not been for the tireless effort of Anne Fraser and the kind gracious act of my senior pastor, Alistair Begg."
Northern Ireland is the only part of the British Isles where same-sex marriage remains outlawed (Rui Vieira/PA)

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said it is only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is introduced in Northern Ireland, as he attended a gay Pride event in Belfast.

Mr Varadkar, Irelands first openly gay leader, attended a Belfast Pride breakfast on Saturday morning.

He said he was attending the event to express solidarity and support for individual freedom and equality.

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Northern Ireland is the only part of the British Isles where same-sex marriage remains outlawed after the Republic voted to change the law in a watershed 2015 referendum.

Mr Varadkar said: It is of course a decision for the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course.

Police Service of Northern Ireland and Garda officers also joined Mr Varadkar at the event, arriving in a PSNI Land Rover.

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For the first time uniformed officers will march in the Pride parade through the city centre.

Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said the PSNIs participation in the breakfast and parade is about inclusion and representation.

We represent all sections of society. Members of the LGBT community are a marginalised community in Northern Ireland, she said.

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Mrs Gray added that the PSNIs presence at the events might encourage victims of hate crime to come forward and report them.

Up to 8,000 people are due to parade through Belfast city centre later. Mr Varadkar is not staying for the parade because of other commitments.

Same-sex marriage has been one of the sticking points preventing the return of a devolved powersharing administration at Stormont, with Sinn Fein demanding the Democratic Unionists (DUP) stop blocking changes to the law.

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The DUP, Prime Minister Theresa Mays partner in government, has used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism to prevent the legalisation of same-sex marriage, despite most Assembly members supporting the move at the last vote.

The DUP rejects any suggestion it is homophobic, insisting it is protecting the traditional definition of marriage, and has called for tolerance of what are increasingly minority views.

It does not have enough members in the new Assembly to veto an equal marriage vote on its own, but there is no immediate prospect of the deeply divided administration being restored.

A total of 8,000 people are expected to march from Custom House Square in the city centre and about 15,000 additional supporters are anticipated, said the Parades Commission, which rules on marches. Sixty bands are due to take part.

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A rainbow Pride flag has been raised at a UK Government building at Stormont for the first time. The flag was raised beside Stormont House on Friday morning to mark the Pride festival.

LGBT+ Conservatives patron, Stuart Andrew MP, will take part in the Pride march along with thousands of local demonstrators.
Sir Vince Cable has lashed out at hardline Brexit "martyrs" who view economic pain as a price worth paying to break away from Brussels (Aaron Chown/PA)

Sir Vince Cable has lashed out at hardline Brexit martyrs who view economic pain as a price worth paying to break away from Brussels.

The Liberal Democrat leader accused them of masochism and claimed older Brexit voters with views coloured by nostalgia from an imperial past had imposed their will on a younger generation more comfortable with the European Union.

Meanwhile, Whitehall sources sought to play down speculation that Theresa May would be prepared to pay a Brexit bill of 36 billion as part of a deal to strike a comprehensive free trade agreement with Brussels.

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The so-called divorce bill has been one of the main stumbling blocks in Brexit negotiations between the Government and Brussels.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that the Government will only agree to pay the sum if the EU treats it as part of a deal on future relations  including the comprehensive trade agreement sought by the Prime Minister.

The EUs stance is that trade talks cannot begin until significant progress has been made on the financial settlement, citizens rights and Northern Ireland.

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The newspaper quoted a senior Whitehall source as saying the EUs position was that the fee should be 60 billion euro (54 billion), but the actual bottom line was 50 billion euro (45 billion), the UKs position was 30 billion euro (27 billion) and the landing zone is 40 billion (36 billion) even if the public and politicians are not all there yet.

A senior Government source told the Press Association that no such figure has been agreed while another Whitehall source said it was speculation.

Officials at the Brexit department would not comment on the report but referred to David Davis acknowledgement that the Government would work with Brussels to determine a fair settlement of the UKs rights and obligations.

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Lib Dem leader Sir Vinces strongly worded attack on Brexit martyrs came after a YouGov poll suggested 61% of Leave voters would consider significant damage to the British economy to be a price worth paying for leaving the EU.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday he said: To describe such masochism as martyrdom is dangerous. We havent yet heard about Brexit jihadis but there is an undercurrent of violence in the language which is troubling.

Sir Vince, 74, added that the self-declared martyrs appeared to be predominantly elderly.

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The martyrdom of the old comes cheap, since few have jobs to lose, he said.

The housing market, pensions and government policies  including some while he was in the Cabinet  had contributed to a growing rift between the generations.

The old have comprehensively shafted the young. And the old have had the last word about Brexit, imposing a world view coloured by nostalgia for an imperial past on a younger generation much more comfortable with modern Europe, he said.
Wang Min, the former Communist Party leader of Liaoning Province, appears in court in Luoyang (Xinhua via AP)

A Chinese court sentenced the ex-Communist Party chief of a rust-belt province that had been hit by massive electoral fraud to life imprisonment for accepting bribes around 17 million.

A court in the central city of Luoyang on Friday handed down the sentence to Wang Min, the former party leader of Liaoning province, after convicting him of bribery, corruption and negligence of duty, the official People's Daily newspaper said.

Wang was accused of accepted money and valuables worth some 17 million and abusing his power when he served as a senior official in Jilin and Liaoning provinces between 2004 and 2016, state media reported.

He was also found guilty of negligence that was "responsible for serious election fraud including vote buying".

Allegations of electoral fraud led to the removal of many of the Liaoning legislature's nearly 600 members in September last year. The legislature nominally oversees the province, though all key decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party.

President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a hallmark of his administration in an effort to bolster his legitimacy. In 2016 alone, prosecutions were reportedly launched against 48 officials at the provincial level and above.

In June, the former head of China's statistics bureau was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of taking bribes equivalent to more than 17 million over more than two decades.

AP
The entrance to Orsa Rovdjurspark in Sweden (Ulf Palm/TT via AP)

An employee at one of Europe's largest animal parks has died of bite wounds after being attacked by a bear.

The 19-year-old man was cleaning an enclosure at the Orsa Rovdjurspark in northern Sweden when a brown bear that had dug its way under a fence mauled him.

The employee was rushed by helicopter to hospital, where he later died.

Four visitors, described as a family, witnessed the attack but were unharmed.

Park spokesman Sven Brunberg said the two-year-old bear was euthanised after the attack.

The Orsa Rovdjurspark, 330 kilometres (205 miles) north of Stockholm, has animals including different species of bears, leopards, lynxes and wolves.

The park said on its Facebook page it would be closed for the rest of day.

AP
Knocknamuckley Parish in Co Armagh, which was recently the focus of tensions

How does a boy reared in a one-parent family in the strongly nationalist area of Shantallow in Londonderry end up decades later as the minister of a new Presbyterian Church at Maynooth, near the heart of the Roman Catholic Church?

Some might say that this is a mere coincidence, but others would see in this the hand of God, and how a religious conversion can have the most unexpected consequences.

The Reverend Dr Keith McCrory, who rarely uses his full title, is the minister of Maynooth Community Church(MCC), which began as a small group associated with the nearby Lucan Presbyterian Church.

Keith, who was an elder at Lucan, was part of a small group which began a midweek prayer and Bible study in 2002, and it held its first service as Maynooth Community Church a year later.

In 2007 it was formally recognised as a new Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Munster and Dublin

The MCC originally met in a post-primary school, and more recently it has been holding weekend services in a spacious corridor over a Dunnes store in a local shopping centre.

The church has obtained a three-acre site at a very competitive price, and it is now raising funds to construct a new multi-purpose building there as soon as possible.

Keith McCrory spoke to me at length last weekend and told me that the MCC has a congregation of around 90, that its members are mostly young and from many different backgrounds, and that the worship style is different from the traditional Presbyterian churches.

Sermons last about four minutes, and several speakers can take part. There is no fixed liturgy, and central aspects of each service "are adapted to the needs of the occasion".

It all sounds challenging and inspirational, and so too is Keith's personal journey from Shantallow to the Presbyterian ministry.

His parents separated when he was four, and for the next 11 years he and his two brothers and a sister were brought up by their father, who died when Keith was 15.

He came into contact with Christianity only at the age of 16 when a teacher introduced him to a Crusaders club run by a Presbyterian Church. He did not even known what 'Presbyterian' meant.

This led to a more permanent membership of Kilfennan Presbyterian Church, and eventually to becoming a Presbyterian minister, after his education at Durham University, Queen's and Union Theological College, as well as further training in Jamaica and Pasadena, California.

His career path and the establishment of the MCC itself shows how the traditional concept of church life is changing.

The attendance at all the main established churches is declining, but the numbers are growing in the newer evangelical and house churches.

This often leads to strains within the long-established churches, as in Knocknamuckley Parish in Co Armagh, where there was a huge row between the traditionalists and the so-called "progressives".

The Knocknamuckley minister, the Reverend Alan Kilpatrick, left to take up a position in the Hope Community Church, which he helped to set up. He recently resigned after two years in the post.

A new minister, Reverend Geoffrey Haugh, was appointed this April as incumbent at Knocknamuckley. One can only hope that the situation is improving greatly.

It is not easy for traditionalists to become used to new ways of worship and church practice. This is often most obvious in the divergence between those who prefer the traditional hymns, psalms and paraphrases, and the others who demand choruses, which are usually referred to as 'songs'. Sadly in some churches you rarely hear a hymn, psalm or paraphrase nowadays.

The career of the Reverend Dr Keith McCrory and the impressive Maynooth Community Church shows that, in the words of the hymn by William Cowper (the last one he wrote), "God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform".

In these times, the big challenges facing the traditionalists and the modernists in moving forward together is not to throw out the theological babies with the ecclesiastical bath water, especially as they all claim to worship the same God.
Accompanied by Coxs Bazar Deputy Commissioner Ali Hossain (second from left), OIC Secretary-General Yousef bin Ahmad al-Othaimeen visits a Rohingya refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, Aug. 4, 2017.

The head of the Islamic worlds largest inter-governmental body Friday visited a refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh and then promised to seek a permanent solution for the plight of Myanmars Rohingya Muslims who have been forced to leave their country.

Yousef bin Ahmad al-Othaimeen, the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), visited Rohingya refugees at the Kutupalong shantytown in Coxs Bazar district.

Coxs Bazar is where tens of thousands of Rohingya fled from a military crackdown launched late last year in the neighboring Myanmar state of Rakhine, amid allegations of rapes and extrajudicial killings carried out by Burmese security forces.

The OIC is cordially working to bring a permanent solution to resolve the crisis (of the Rohingya refugees) and vows to continue its campaign until a resolution to this end is found, al-Othaimeen told reporters.

He reached the Rohingya camp around noon Friday, accompanied by Coxs Bazar Deputy Commissioner Ali Hossain. During his 90-minute visit, he listened to 17 shantytown residents who shared horrific accounts of excesses and abuse carried out by suspected Myanmar security forces in Rakhine.

The OIC secretary-general was saddened by listening to the torture, Hossain told BenarNews, referring to alleged rapes of Rohingya women. He was very cordial in his vow to resolve the Rohingya problem.

A Rohingya leader expressed hope that the crisis would be solved after meeting with al-Othaimeen.

We have seen his love for us. He has assured us of resolving our problems. We believe him, Abu Siddique, president of Kutupalong Rohingya shanty, told BenarNews.

Meetings with Bangladeshi leaders

On Thursday, the second day of the OIC chiefs four-day trip to Bangladesh  his first official visit there  he discussed the Rohingya issue in meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, President M. Abdul Hamid, Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali and opposition leader Raushan Ershad.

During his meeting with President Hamid, al-Othaimeen also denounced the menace of terrorism and extremism and said Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance has nothing to do with violence, according to a press statement released by the 57-member OIC, whose headquarters is in Saudi Arabia.

Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim nation, has been contending with rising conservative Islamic sentiment and militant groups that have targeted secular writers, religious minorities and foreigners in acts of terrorism in recent years.

On the Rohingya question Hamid urged al-Othaimeen to press Myanmar to resolve the issue, according to local media reports.

Analysts said the OIC secretary-generals visit of the refugee camp was a way to expose the Rohingya problem to the international community.

The OICs initiative to resolve the Rohingya problem is praiseworthy. Bangladesh will have to play a proactive role to demonstrate that the Rohingya problem is merely not a problem of Bangladesh, C.R. Abrar, a professor in charge of refugee research at the University of Dhaka, told BenarNews.

He said Bangladesh had failed to expose the severity of the Rohingya problem to the rest of the world.

The Bangladeshi government estimates that at least 400,000 Rohingya fled from Myanmar over the past decades. That number includes an estimated 75,000 who entered Bangladesh since October 2016 during the crackdown that followed the killings of nine border guards by suspected Rohingya militants in Rakhine.

Aung San Suu Kyis government has denied allegations that security forces targeted Rohingya women for rape and carried out extrajudicial killings against other members of the religious minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Myanmar attack

Meanwhile in Myanmar on Thursday, local authorities began searching for the killers of at least six members of a Buddhist ethnic minority in the Rakhine state, Reuters news agency reported.

The group  three men and three women who were members of the Mro minority  suffered gunshot and machete wounds after they apparently stumbled upon a Rohingya militant camp, officials said. Two other women were missing.

Authorities declined to identify any suspects, but described them as extremists.
Rudiantara, (fourth from right), and Ann Lavin (to his right), Googles director for public policy and government affairs in Southeast Asia and Greater China, answer questions during a news conference in Jakarta, Aug. 4, 2017.

Indonesian officials said Friday that Google, the operator of YouTube, and Twitter had agreed to tighten monitoring by allowing selected users to flag material deemed as being linked to terrorism.

Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation of 260 million people, is a prolific user of social media, including YouTube, which is owned by Google. Government officials in recent years have warned that terrorist organizations like Islamic State (IS) were using such online platforms to spread propaganda and recruit young Indonesians to its violent cause.

This week alone, Indonesian officials held separate meetings with executives from four of the globes tech giants  Google, Twitter, Telegram and Facebook  to discuss ways in which these firms could help the Southeast Asian nation flag problematic content.

After the meeting with Google representatives in Jakarta on Friday, Rudiantara, Indonesias minister of Communications and Information, told reporters that Silicon Valley firm and ministry have agreed to implement a new system called trusted flagger during the next two to three months for YouTube only.

He issued the statement after meeting with Ann Lavin, Googles director for public policy and government affairs in Southeast Asia and Greater China, and other representatives of the search engine.

Lavin, who also attended a post-meeting news conference, said the flagger system was running in France, Germany, Britain and the United States.

With the trusted flagger program, were working even more closely with highly sensitive, well-trained users to flag the problematic content so we can move even faster, Lavin said.

Indonesia would be the first Southeast Asia nation to adopt the program allowing a panel of non-governmental organizations and other trusted groups to alert Google to questionable YouTube content.

The flagging system will be limited to YouTube and will not apply to Googles search engine, Rudiantara told Bloomberg news service.

Lavin said the screening process would be transparent and Google would issue a public report every six months revealing details of flagged data.

Rudiantara separately discussed the issue of negative content on Friday with Kathleen Reen, Twitters Asia Pacific director for public policy and philanthropy.

The two shared ideas about countering content related to radicalism, terrorism, drug abuse and child pornography, officials said.

Semuel Pangerapan, director-general of the Communications Ministry, told reporters that the reporting system on Twitter would be similar to the Google flagger system.

In addition to providing special access, Twitter will speed up the request of the Ministry of Communications and Information related to various types of negative contents, especially in handling the content of radicalism and terrorism, he said.

Flagged content would be removed within an hour to 24 hours, Semuel said.

Eradicating propaganda

Fridays announcements followed a similar one on Tuesday when the government agreed to unblock almost a dozen domain names used by the encrypted messaging service Telegram, after company founder Pavel Durov promised to eradicate terrorist propaganda and content.

Indonesia blocked 11 domain names belonging to Telegram last month after collecting evidence that many channels on the messaging app had been promoting extremist ideologies, including some linked to the extremist group IS.

On Wednesday, Rudiantara met Jeff Wu, Facebooks Asia Pacific Representative, and received assurances that the social-networking giant would include a new feature called geoblocking on its pages, allowing users to flag negative content, Semuel said.

He said negative content would include material considered to be pornographic, radical, terrorist, hateful speech as well as fake accounts and fake news.

There is special content that will not be accessible in Indonesia with the existence of this geoblocking feature, Semuel said.

He said Facebook, which has an estimated 80 million users in Indonesia, would improve its procedure of handling complaints about negative content by hiring employees based in Jakarta.

Threatening to infringe

Such moves by the government to crackdown on content deemed as problematic online alarmed human rights activists, who warned that this threatened to infringe on free speech.

The government has exceeded its authority, the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) said in a statement last month.

Indonesia is a major source of digital advertising revenue for Google and Facebook. Tax officials have been quoted in local reports as saying that the two online giants accounted for about 70 percent of the U.S. $830 million in estimated online revenue from the country in 2015.

Two months ago, Indonesia reached a tax settlement with Google for 2016 after senior tax officials said they planned to pursue the company for five years of back taxes, which could include a bill of more than $400 million for 2015 alone, Reuters reported.

Officials declined to disclose the figure in the settlement.

Marathon meetings

On Wednesday, Rudiantara met Jeff Wu, Facebooks Asia Pacific representative, and received assurances that the social-networking giant would include a new feature called geoblocking on its pages, allowing users to flag negative content, Semuel said.

He said negative content would include pornography, radicalism, terrorism, fake accounts, hoax news and hate speech.

There is special content that will not be accessible in Indonesia with the existence of this geoblocking feature, Semuel said.

He said Facebook, which has an estimated 80 million users in Indonesia, would improve its procedure of handling complaints about negative content by hiring employees based in Jakarta.
Foreign workers sit in an open field following a raid by Malaysian immigration authorities at a construction site in Port Dickson, July 11, 2017.

Bangladeshis and Indonesians topped an updated list of detained undocumented workers as Malaysian authorities announced Wednesday that they had swept up more than 5,000 foreigners in a crackdown on illegal immigration since July 1.

Malaysia launched the nationwide raids a day after the governments deadline for foreign workers to register with immigration authorities expired.

A total of 17,955 people have been screened and, as a result, 5,065 illegal immigrants from various countries have been arrested, Mustafar Ali, director-general of the immigration department, told reporters.

The arrested immigrants include 1,520 from Bangladesh, 1,476 from Indonesia, 429 from Myanmar, 285 from Vietnam, 206 from Thailand and 261 from the Philippines, Mustafar said.

He said those raids also led to the arrest of 108 employers, while 367 people have been notified to appear in court.

Strict actions will be taken on employers and undocumented workers caught in this operation, he said.

Many of the detainees have been charged in courts and some have been sentenced to jail for several months, officials said. The arrested employers were charged in courts and allowed to post bail.

Malaysia, whose population is 32 million, has 2 million legally registered foreign workers and a similar number of undocumented immigrants, according to non-governmental organizations.

Those without valid papers mostly work in what locals describe as 3D  dangerous, difficult and dirty  jobs in construction, plantations and factories.

Southeast Asias third biggest economy after Indonesia and Thailand, Malaysia became a popular destination for migrant workers after it posted robust economic growth in the past few years.

As the country experienced a surge in illegal immigration, it implemented a law on July 1, 2016, requiring a monthly minimum wage of 1,000 ringgit (U.S. $233) in most cities and about 920 ringgit ($214) in Sabah and Sarawak  for local and foreign workers.

Meeting diplomatic officials

Immigration officials said they had taken steps to inform foreigners about the registration program by meeting with Bangladeshi, Indian, Indonesian and Nepalese embassy officials in recent weeks.

The initiative taken was to explain efforts being taken, including measures that should be taken by employers and workers after the end of the E-Card (Enforcement Card) registration, including the issuance of travel document and the completion of the rehiring process, Mustafar said.

The rehiring program is a government initiative for former undocumented workers to apply for work permits in order to meet demands in specific sectors.

Mustafar urged employers who had failed to meet the registration deadline to send their workers through the Voluntary Deportation Program to avoid legal action.

Through this program, illegal immigrants could head back to their country in an orderly manner and in accordance with the law, he said, adding that, since January, about 125,000 illegal immigrants had taken advantage of the program and returned to their home countries.

In response to Malaysias widespread immigration raids, Southeast Asian lawmakers issued a statement two weeks ago expressing concern about the crackdown and local reports that more than 100 people, mostly from Myanmar, had died in the past two years in Malaysian immigration detention centers.

The lawmakers belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said little had been done to alleviate the plight of detained immigrants despite Malaysias pledge to investigate reports of poor living conditions for detainees.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte paid another surprise visit to Marawi on Friday to rally government troops battling fighters linked to the Islamic State (IS) who have stubbornly held onto pockets of the southern city for more than 10 weeks.

The visit, the presidents second to Marawi since July 20, came on the eve of regional meetings being hosted by Manila during which the situation in the besieged city figures to be on the agenda of discussions about security in Southeast Asia.

I have to be here because I want all of you to know that  Mahal ko kayo [I love you all]. I hope you will be able to clean up Marawi City and get rid of the terrorists, Duterte told troops belonging to the Joint Special Operation Task Force Trident during his visit to Camp Kilala, according to a transcript released by the presidential office in Manila.

Duterte said he was hopeful that the government would not lose more troops to the ongoing battle.

Like his first trip, the commander-in-chiefs second visit to Marawi was unannounced and confirmed by officials only after he had left the area, the presidential office said.

President Rodrigo Duterte visits troops in Marawi, Aug. 4, 2017. [Courtesy Presidential Communications Operations Office]

We dont know how many are still alive

Also on Friday, the Philippine military said it did not know how many of the estimated 300 people taken hostage by IS-linked militants in Marawi  as Duterte had claimed earlier  were alive after more than two months of fighting.

It has been tricky to get clear picture on the number of hostages who are alive because improvised bombs planted by the enemy have slowed down efforts by the military to advance deeper into the city, officials said.

The gunmen are believed to be controlling two villages that are problematic areas and less than about one-square kilometer in size, armed forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said.

So in the local governments tally, we continue to get about (an) approximate number of 300 individuals comprising all those who are still unaccounted for, Padilla said.

We dont know how many are still alive and we dont know how many are in the hands of the enemy exactly, he said.

Based on estimates, about 80 to 100 people may be held hostage by the gunmen inside the areas that are still contested, Padilla said without explaining how officials arrived at the figures.

Since the fighting erupted on May 23, the number of gunmen slain has reached 522, with nine more enemy casualties reported Thursday. One hundred fourteen troops and 45 civilians have been killed as well, the military said.

Despite the casualties, he said the troops morale was high, with many rearing to complete the liberation of Marawi, Padilla said, but he begged off giving a more definite timeline.

One is to always put our primary consideration, the safety of the remaining hostages and the possible rescue of all these individuals from the hands of terrorists, he said.

Fighting began when troops moved to arrest the elusive leader of the Abu Sayyaf group, Isnilon Hapilon, who had been seen in Marawi.

But a huge rebel contingent, backed by followers of the Maute group and several militants from several Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern countries repulsed the initial government attack.

At the height of the fighting, the gunmen took control of the city center, forcing its 200,000 or so residents to vacate.

The fighting caught Duterte by surprise, forcing him to place the entire south under military rule for two months.

He later won an extension from Congress, arguing that despite the massive military presence, the gunmens fire power had repelled the offensive.

Long-time military allies the United States and Australia have been helping their Filipino counterparts in gathering intelligence, while neighbors Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to boost anti-terrorism cooperation, fearing IS fighters from Marawi could cross over to their borders.

Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, the regional army commander, on Thursday said surveillance revealed that Hapilon was inside Marawi  a huge morale boost for the militants.

And in a sign that the fighting would stretch longer, the military sent 18 tanks and delivered about 2000 new M4 rifles to troops on the frontline earlier this week.

Tanks arrive in the port of Iligan city to reinforce troops fighting Islamic State-linked militants in Marawi, Aug. 2, 2017. [Richel V. Umel/BenarNews]
Following their dance, girls participate in a group hug. (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews)

A dancer lifts her toes to avoid the hot asphalt. (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews)

Three girls watch a performance as they wait for their chance to dance. (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews)

Girls perform Pareanom Joko Tarub, one of the parts of the classical Gambyong dance performance in Klaten, July 30, 2017. (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews)

A girl smiles to friends before starting her dance. (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews)

A teacher fixes a students hair to prepare for the Gambyong dance in Klaten, Central Java, July 30, 2017. (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews)

More than 2,000 girls in Klaten, a city in Indonesias Central Java province, took to the streets recently as they participated in Gambyong Pareanom, a Javanese classical dance.

The girls ranged in age from elementary school to college. They danced in groups for about 10 minutes to traditional gamelan music, a legacy of Keraton Kasunanan Surakarta, once a great kingdom in Java.

Klaten, located between two cultural cities (Yogyakarta and Solo), is supposed to preserve traditional culture. I hope through the colossal Gambyong dance, the students will love traditional dances more and more, said Joko Wiyono, Klatens chief of tourism, culture, youth and sports.

Dancers began gathering three and a half hours early for the program that started at 8:30 a.m.

Suparti, an elementary school principal, said her students began their preparations even earlier  at 2 a.m., following 10 days of practice.

We have no difficulty because we have a dance teacher in our school, she said.

Gambyong, performed by large groups, consists of 11 movements requiring synchronized feet, hand and head movements.
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COLUMBUS  A Duncan mans spotless previous criminal history and his willingness to seek treatment for a longtime addiction to child pornography prompted a district court judge to sentence the defendant to probation for possession of hundreds of file of explicit sexual images of children.

Platte County District Court Judge Robert Steinke sentenced 39-year-old Whitney Micek to three years of probation for convictions on two counts of possession of child porn stemming from an investigation that got underway in November when the sheriffs office received three separate cybertips from a state task force.

Steinke, who followed the recommendation of probation officials in the preparation of a presentence investigation report, said Micek had made proactive efforts to seek counseling while his case was pending in the court, showed remorse for his action and was a low-risk to reoffend.

You have a big, supportive family from which to draw strength, Steinke told the defendant. It could be a motivating factor for you (to do well on probation) and not let down your family.

The porn possession charges are Class 2A felonies, each punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment. In exchange for Miceks pleas, the county attorneys office agreed to dismiss 11 additional counts of porn possession.

Sheriffs investigators began an investigation of the allegations against Micek after receiving tips from the Nebraska State Patrol-Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Investigator Dane Jensen wrote in his probable cause arrest statement that phone records revealed that images of explicit sexual conduct involving children had been downloaded to an online address located at 914 Eighth St. in Duncan.

Jensen wrote that Micek was living at the address along with a relative.

During a subsequent search of the residence, Jensen said, a Sony laptop and Apple iPhone owned by Micek were seized. The devices contained 374 sexually explicit images, the investigator wrote in his statement.
There is no way of knowing, short of exhuming the remains, that the graves of Indian school students buried in the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery actually match the names inscribed on the tombstones.

A recent study by the Army Corps of Engineers turned up research that suggests the grave markers may have been placed at random locations after the bodies of about 180 students were reburied during the 1927 relocation of the Carlisle Indian School cemetery.

If enough remains are present upon excavation, the gender and age of the individual can be determined from the remains and should provide additional data to support the information recorded on the marker, according to the study released in late July.

The Army has scheduled Tuesday as the start date to disinter what may be the bodies of three Northern Arapaho boys who died in the early 1880s while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

The notice of intended disinterment from the post cemetery was published in the June 21 edition of the Federal Register. The Army National Military Cemeteries is honoring the requests of three families.

The Corps of Engineers is helping the ANMC process the requests  a procedure that included the gathering of archival research on not just the Post Cemetery but all the burial grounds that once existed at Carlisle Barracks, the second oldest military installation in the country.

The study identified other gaps in the historic record that led to the conclusion that the Post Cemetery may contain the remains of soldiers dating back to the American Revolution and even the French and Indian War.

Research results

The research traced the first burial ground back to 1757 and the establishment of a British military camp in the Carlisle area during the French and Indian War. There is reason to believe this original graveyard was then used by the Continental Army during the Revolution and that a burial plot also existed for British POWs captured during the Battle of Trenton.

However, there is no research available that can pinpoint the location of either burial ground or verify whether each had occupied the same space. So the possibility exists that bodies buried in the late 18th century could have been reinterred or included in the cemeteries that followed.

It is believed that in 1803 Jonathan Holmes Sr. died in Carlisle and was buried within a two-acre family-owned plot that was later incorporated into barracks land. This parcel was used for burials during the 19th century military occupation of Carlisle Barracks, according to the research.

The Old Burial Ground was established on post after the opening of the cavalry school in 1838. The earliest reference to death among soldiers stationed on post involved a pneumonia outbreak in 1815 that claimed four lives. Though their burial sites were not recorded, there is reason to believe those bodies may have been buried in the Holmes family plot.

Most of the burials through the mid-19th century involved graves that went unmarked or were indicated with temporary, folk or nondurable markers, the study reads. Whats more is many of the records on the Old Burial Ground were destroyed when the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia burned Carlisle Barracks during its 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania.

After the Civil War, the military presence on post diminished and the Old Burial Ground fell into neglect. There was even a report that cattle were allowed to roam on the installation and that the graves were damaged by trampling.

The research found no trace of a survey or inventory made of the Old Burial Ground prior to 1871 when the bodies buried there were disinterred and transferred to the federally owned plot at the nearby Ashland Cemetery. A source said as many as 300 sets of remains where moved under a contract awarded to Carlisle funeral director Alexander B. Ewing. But there is no way of knowing whether all the bodies were accounted for.

While there is every reason to believe that Ewing performed a competent job with the relocation, poorly marked graves could have caused some to be missed, the study reads. Thus, it is possible that complete or partial human remains from this burial area were still present at the time the Carlisle Indian school cemetery was established and used and may have been among those that were ultimately reinterred in the current Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery.

Indian School

The Carlisle Indian School received its first students in October 1879. The first child died that November and was buried in the federal plot at Ashland. Later the body of Amos LaFromboise was disinterred and buried in what became known as the Indian school cemetery.

That cemetery was located in the same general area as the Old Burial Ground behind the present-day track and grandstand in the vicinity of Root Hall  the main academic building of the Army War College. There is research that suggests the northwest corner of the Indian school cemetery overlapped the southeast corner of the former Old Burial Ground.

After the Indian school closed in 1918, the Army operated General Hospital No. 31 for about two years at Carlisle Barracks to care for wounded veterans returning from Europe after World War I. The hospital was then replaced by the Army Medical Field Service School.

In April 1927, money was allocated to relocate the Indian school cemetery to make way for an expansion of the service school. That summer the bodies of about 180 Native American children and young adults were moved to what became the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery along Claremont Road.

Ninety years later, research coordinated by the Corps of Engineers turned up no reports or reliable descriptions of the relocation effort so the process and the parties involved in the transfer are unknown. Lack of information on who was responsiblelimits our ability to find data that describes the protocols and procedures used the study concludes.

This significant gap in data means the Army has only limited information on how and why burials were placed where they were in the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery. There is research that suggests the only map and inventory of the Indian school cemetery may not account for all the bodies and that the pace of relocation was so brisk reburial took place shortly after each body was disinterred.

It is not known what order the graves were removed from the Indian school cemetery nor could it be determined where reinterment started or finished in the Post Cemetery, the study reads. What is known is no attempt was made to organize the graves according to their sequence from the Indian school cemetery. Patterning in the Post Cemetery probably reflected expediency and reinterment probably took place in the order the remains arrived at the relocation site.

The layout of the Post Cemetery is different from what is known of the Indian school cemetery. The school cemetery was organized into five sections, A-E, each with its own row of grave markers. The length of the rows and number of burial sites varied. The Post Cemetery has six sections, A-F, organized around a central monument  the grave marker of Thomas Marshal.l. Each section had parallel rows of graves with the outer sections (A, B, E and F) being longer with more graves than the inner sections (C and D).

Because there is no clear pattern on how the reburials were made, the Corps of Engineers can only speculate the amount of care given to the task depended on who was doing the burying. It is possible both the recovery and relocation were haphazard events that followed no system of organization, the Army study concludes.

The random distribution of markers could reflect a complete disassociation between the reburial of remains and the placement of burial markers, the study reads. With the data at hand it is impossible to definitively state whether the markers are correctly associated with the physical remains of the individuals names on these respective markers without physical investigation.
There is no way of knowing, short of exhuming the remains, that the graves of Indian school students buried in the Carlisle Barracks Post Ceme
A new partnership between the Carlisle Police Department and New Life Community Churchs LifeCycle program will give much-needed transportation to people willing to work for it, bicycles to children, and the opportunity to learn a new skill to those who dont mind getting dirty.

Carlisle Borough Council Wednesday approved a measure allowing the police department to donate bicycles it recovers throughout the town to LifeCycle. LifeCycle, in turn, fixes up the bikes for children and adults in need.

Sgt. Dave Miller of the Carlisle Police Department said the bicycles come to the department in a number of ways. Sometimes a resident will bring one in that they found on their property, or a resident will call to ask the police to come pick up a bike that has been abandoned. Other times, borough employees will find an abandoned bike in one of the borough parks.

Every so often, a bicycle may end up in the police department as a result of suspicious or criminal activity. For example, children on bicycles might be looking into cars and run off when police go by, leaving the bike behind, or a stolen bicycle may be recovered. In those cases, the department holds on to the bike until the owner comes to claim them.

Miller said the police department recovers 40-50 bicycles a year.

The bicycles are held for a minimum of 90 days. Over the years, the bikes have been placed in storage or given to Hope Station to be fixed up and given away.

Now, the bicycles will go to a growing ministry at New Life Community Church.

Drew Kalbach, Carlisle site pastor at New Life, said the church had identified transportation as a key need in the Carlisle area years ago, and starting kicking around ideas to meet the need.

When the church moved into the former First United Methodist Church on East North Street in January 2016, they had the space they needed to set up a bicycle ministry.

In 2016, we were able to provide about 120 bikes to the community, specifically adults in the community that didnt have another forms of transportation, Kalbach said.

LifeCycle is on pace to do the same this year as they have already given away about 60 bicycles. The ministry has also continued the partnership with Hope Station, and will be giving away bicycles at its back to school event.

The ministry started with the earn a bike program. In that program, individuals are credited the equivalent of $10 per hour towards the bike for completing community service at the bike shop or at some other location.

Weve had really positive results with that, Kalbach said.

The program is starting to grow from its original concept. Kalbach said people asked about buying the bicycles. That prompted him to think about how donations could help make the ministry more sustainable. The program last year had been funded with a grant from the Partnership for Better Health, but donations from individuals would help provide jobs, tools and everything the shop needs to run.

They [the bicycles] cost something to send them out, so how can we cover those costs? he said.

Now, those who do not wish to participate in the earn a bike program can also obtain a bike with a suggested donation to LifeCycle. The donations are broken down with portions going to New Life Community to help with the building, to a global initiative providing bicycles to pastors in Africa to use as transportation, to provide a job for a bicycle mechanic and to the LifeCycle budget itself.

We are fortunate because people are incredibly generous with what they will give away. We rely on that, Kalbach said.

The anticipated donations from the police department may help the ministry take another leap forward.

LifeCycle has always welcomed skilled bicycle mechanics to help fix up the bikes to be given away. They are now considering offering a basic mechanics class for those who want to try their hand at bike repair.

Kalbach said the bicycles they receive will need to be stripped down and repainted before being given away, no matter what condition they are in when they arrive at the shop.

Were going to use that as a whole training, Kalbach said. Anyone who is interested in becoming a bicycle mechanic will be stripping down bikes and learning the ins and outs of how they work and then building them back up.

Because the shop tries to use upcycled parts as much as possible, bicycles that are not in good condition when they arrive will be stripped down and their parts used in other bikes.

Standing among the dozens of bicycles in the basement LifeCycle shop, Kalbach speculated that the ministry may also move to a co-op model in which people would have access to tools and the advice of a mechanic when they come in to do their own bicycle maintenance work.

He is careful, however, to respect businesses like Coles Bicycle Shop which has been providing full service maintenance for bicycles for many years. As it grows, LifeCycle will still be a place where people will get dirty or maybe a little dinged up as they work on the bikes.

People who need full service on their bikes, do not bring them here, Kalbach said. We are an educational place. We are place where we want people to be able to learn.
The majority of the Indian school students who are buried in the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery are high school-aged males who died in the mid-1880s to early 1890s.

The Army Corps of Engineers recently released a detailed report of archival research gathered on the cemetery that is located next to the Claremont Road gate to the installation.

The report includes an inventory of the 229 burial plots, of which 180 are believed to contain the remains of Native American children and young adults who were enrolled at the first nonreservation boarding school in the country.

By compiling data from this inventory, some statistical patterns emerge on the gender, tribe, year of death and age at the time of death of most of the students buried there. The record is incomplete.

Ninety-six of the Indian school plots hold the remains of male students while 76 hold the remains of females. The rest are of an unknown gender but include such names on the burial markers as Young Eagle, a Sioux; Kawseh, a Pueblo; Cooking Look, an Alaskan Indian, and Tomicook, an Eskimo.

Most are Apache

Though people from about 50 tribes are buried in the cemetery, eight tribes or groupings account for 113 or 62 percent of the dead. Forty-nine of the students were from branches of the Apache nation.

Many of them were Chiricahua Apache prisoners of war associated with the capture of Geronimo, said Barbara Landis, archives and library specialist on the Carlisle Indian School for the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Prior to their arrival at Carlisle, these Apache prisoners had been incarcerated at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida, under the most devastating of circumstances, Landis wrote in her essay Death at Carlisle: Naming the Unknowns in the Cemetery. There were only two privies for over five hundred prisoners, sanitary conditions were horrendous and the fort was dark and dank.

Eleven of these prisoners arrived at Carlisle in February 1884, Landis wrote. They were followed by 15 more in the winter of 1886 and 17 the following spring. Most of the burials in the Indian cemetery are from this particular group. Almost all of these deaths were attributed to tuberculosis, although one child, Titus Deerhead  died of epilepsy.

Rosebud losses

Twenty of those buried at Carlisle Barracks are Sioux Indians, according to information gleaned from the inventory. At least nine of these were children who came from the Rosebud Agency, Landis wrote. In her essay, she identified five of the children as being from the first group of Native youths to enroll at the school.

They arrived together, around midnight on Oct. 5, 1879, and just fourteen months later, Maude [Swift Bear] and Ernest [White Thunder] passed away on the same day, Landis wrote. The school newspaper reported It was a sad and mysterious coincidence by which two of our pupils were taken from us by death on the night of the 13th of December, both of them being from the same agency and the same band of Sioux.

Both were the children of powerful and respected leaders, Swift Bear and White Thunder. Their deaths were of concern to the tribe back home, but researchers only have the word of school officials to provide clues on what happened, according to Landis.

From this we learn that White Thunders only son, Ernest, had become depressed and staged a hunger strike a year after his arrival, and that he lingered for two months, before succumbing to death, Landis wrote. As for Maude, a campus newspaper reported the girl had arrived at Carlisle suffering from diseased lungs, and so had not strength to resist [the] pneumonia which seized her.

The next to die were Dora Her Pipe and Rose, daughters of Brave Bull and Long Face. Both died in April 1881, three months after news reached the Rosebud Agency that Ernest and Maude had died. A fifth child in that first group died of an illness he contracted at Carlisle.

Dennis Strikes First was described as a bright studious, ambitious boy, standing first in his class, according to Landis. He died from typhoid pneumonia on Jan. 19, 1881.

Six other tribes have five or more dead buried at the cemetery. They include 13 Cheyenne, eight Alaskan, seven Chippewa, six Oneida and five each of Pueblo and Arapahoe.

Tuberculosis and pneumonia

Many Indian school students died of respiratory diseases, Landis said. She added conditions were made worse by the intermixing of individuals from a variety of tribes from all parts of the country into the close quarters of a boarding school.

The inventory included in the archival research mentioned a cause of death for 66 of the students buried in the post cemetery. Forty of them died of some form of tuberculosis while eight (including a student named Abe Lincoln) died of pneumonia.

Three students died of hemorrhaging, two of spinal meningitis and one each from such ailments as lung fever, vaccine fever, a cerebral lesion, appendicitis, diphtheria, malarial fever, inflammatory rheumatism, heart disease and inflammation of the bowels. Frank Green, an Oneida Indian, died on June 2, 1895, after being struck by a Pennsylvania Railroad train.

Ninety-three of those buried in the cemetery were of high school age at the time of death including 14 15-year-olds, 27 16-year-olds, 27 17-year-olds and 25 18-year-olds. The second largest group, at 37 individuals, was the college-aged students including 13 19-year-olds, 11 20-year-olds, eight 21-year-olds and five 22-year-olds.

The youngest Native American buried in the cemetery was 10 months old while the oldest was 28.

Some periods were more lethal than others. Eighty-nine students buried in the cemetery died from 1885 to 1894. The number of deaths doubled from six in 1886 to 12 in 1887 before peaking at 22 in 1888, the deadliest year.

All but 13 of the deaths occurred during the 25 years Indian school founder Richard Henry Pratt served as its superintendent. He was dismissed on June 30, 1904. Four students would die that year, Landis wrote. This was followed by five students in 1905 and four students in 1906, according to the archival research report.

More deaths

Over 10,000 native boys and girls attended the Indian school while it occupied the Carlisle Barracks campus for almost 40 years from 1879 to 1918.

The school was designed as a social experiment to remove youths from tribal influence, assimilate them into the white mans culture and teach them a vocation. These goals traumatized many of the children and their families.

Anecdotal research suggests that as many as 1,000 students died and 1,000 others ran away in the years the school was in operation, Landis said. A lot of that is based on conjecture.

Only a portion of the dead are buried at Carlisle Barracks. To avoid the criticism of a high death rate, Pratt sent many of the sick and dying children back home to die in their communities, researcher Jacqueline Fear-Segal wrote in her essay The History and Reclamation of a Sacred Space: The Indian School Cemetery.

The school offered students off-campus opportunities to either work on a farm or learn a trade from a host family or individual, often during the summer. These assignments were known as outings.

Although little research has been done on this topic, it seems likely that across Pennsylvania and beyond, small local cemeteries hold the remains of children from the Indian school, Fear-Segal wrote.
Travel experts are warning long airport queues in Europe could be here to stay.

Airlines have been urging holidaymakers in countries like Spain, France and Portugal to allow extra time for more stringent security checks.
European Union nationals could "tip the balance" towards Scottish independence if a second referendum was held before Brexit, academics have said.

A paper for the Scottish Centre on European Relations think-tank said a strong vote for independence from EU citizens resident in Scotland could have a "significant impact" on the outcome.

Authors Richard Marsh and Fabian Zuleeg said the timing of the vote could be crucial for a Yes win as EU nationals are likely to be disenfranchised after Brexit.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced in June that plans for a second referendum would be put on hold as the government would not introduce legislation for another vote immediately.

Ms Sturgeon had previously called for another vote to be held between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, but was forced to reconsider after the SNP lost 21 seats in the snap General Election.

EU citizens living in Scotland were allowed to vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, in which Scotland voted against becoming an independent country by 55% to 45%.

In the paper, Mr Marsh and Mr Zuleeg argue that voting rights would no longer be protected by EU treaties when the UK leaves the bloc and it is unlikely the UK would decide to extend them.

"In effect, this would exclude a significant proportion of the current electorate from a potential future Scottish independence referendum, if the referendum takes place after Brexit," they said.

The authors estimate that by 2020 there could be around 215,000 EU nationals living in Scotland who would be old enough to vote.

They said: "If all EU citizens vote Yes to independence, it could have a significant impact: if the 2020 projected number of EU citizens were assumed to have unanimously moved from the No to the Yes cohort in the 2014 referendum, it would have been just enough to switch the result, resulting in a 51% Yes vote.

"While there can be no definite predictions, it seems clear that the decision when to exit the EU and when to hold an independence referendum could have a material impact on the outcome, given the potential size of the non-UK EU citizen cohort, which might or might not be eligible to vote in such a referendum.

"If a second referendum is held before Brexit, EU voters could tip the balance towards independence. If it happens after the UK, and Scotland, leaves the EU, then this would reduce the likelihood of independence by excluding the cohort of non-UK EU citizens from the vote."
A British model was kidnapped in Milan and detained for six days as her captor tried to auction her off online, Italian police have said.

The 20-year-old woman was attacked on July 11 by two men as she attended an arranged photo shoot.

She is believed to have been drugged and transported in a bag to Borgial, an isolated village near Turin, before being released on July 17.

A 30-year-old Polish man, said to be a resident in Britain, was arrested on July 18 on suspicion of kidnap and extortion, state police said.

It is alleged two men tried to sell the woman online for more than US$300,000 and demanded the model's agent pay to secure her safe release.

The woman was kept handcuffed to furniture but was freed after six days and taken to the British embassy in Milan, despite the ransom not being paid.

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It has been reported that the captor demanded 50,000 upon the woman's release and threatened to kill her if she told police about the incident.

Italian police said they are working with officials in Britain and Poland as they continue to investigate.

A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said: "We have been providing consular support to a British woman in Italy and are in touch with local authorities."
Southeast Asia's top diplomats have criticised North Korea over its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests.

The envoys urged Pyongyang to comply with its duty of helping avert conflicts as a member of Asia's biggest security forum.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers however were split on an American proposal to suspend Pyongyang from the ASEAN Regional Forum, a 27-nation bloc that includes North Korea, the US, South Korea and Japan.

Ministers reiterated in a joint statement their grave concerns over the escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula due to the North's two ICBM tests last month, saying the launches threaten world stability.

The ministers traditionally issue a communique containing their diverse concerns, and their issuance of a separate statement on North Korea's missile tests and nuclear weapons programme reflects their deep worries about the issue.

"These developments seriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world," the ministers said in their statement. They urged the North to immediately and fully comply with its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions.

They also backed efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas and said their 10-nation bloc was ready "to play a constructive role in contributing to peace and stability" on the Korean Peninsula.

Philippine foreign secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the ministers were divided over a US proposal to suspend the North from the ASEAN Regional Forum, which will hold its annual meeting on Monday.

North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho will attend Monday's meeting with the US, Japan and South Korea expected to push for stronger actions against the North.

"There were views that, 'How can we hear them out or confront them if they're not there?' But there's also a view that we should give them an ultimatum," Mr Cayetano said on Friday after discussing the issue with other foreign ministers.

The ministers "strongly call upon" North Korea, as a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum, to help "maintain the Asia Pacific as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity," the ministers added in their statement.

PA
The UK needs to be better prepared for a "no deal" Brexit to show Brussels there is a "credible" alternative should the negotiations fail, a former Bank of England governor has said.

Lord King of Lothbury said failing to agree a trade deal with Brussels was "not the first preference of anybody", but more work needed to be done to show the European Union that the UK was serious about walking away if there was no agreement.

Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted "no deal is better than a bad deal", indicating the UK would leave the EU and rely on World Trade Organisation rules after Brexit if what is on offer from Brussels proves unacceptable.

Lord King said: "If you are going to have any successful negotiation, you have got to have a fallback position which the other side understands and believes is credible.

"So we need to able to say if we can't reach an agreement we will nevertheless leave and we can make it work."

He added: "It's not the first preference of anybody, I'm sure. But it's got to be a credible fallback position otherwise those negotiating on the other side will not take any notice of what we would like to achieve in the negotiations - why should they, if we had absolutely no alternative but to give in to what they demand?"

The crossbench peer - who led the Bank as Sir Mervyn King from 2003 to 2013 - said Brexit debate had seen both sides become "very extreme" and even now much of the press coverage was "hysterical".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This ought to be something that people ought to be able to agree on, irrespective of whether they are in favour of Brexit or not, because we are where we are, and we are in a negotiation and it's important that the negotiation succeeds.

"But it cannot succeed without a credible fallback position and that is something which I think is a practical thing that the civil service ought to be taking a lead on.

"It's do-able proposition if we start now. We've probably wasted a year but we need to be much further along the road to making that a credible fallback position."

Asked whether hardship was a price worth paying for leaving the European Union, Lord King said: "I don't know what the economic consequences of Brexit will be, that's the only honest answer."

Brexit minister Steve Baker has confirmed the Government was preparing for all outcomes of the Brexit talks, including the "unlikely" scenario of failing to strike a deal with Brussels.

In a letter to Labour MP Chuka Umunna of the Open Britain campaign group last month, Mr Baker said: "In relation to a 'no-deal' scenario, any responsible government would be prepared for a range of possible outcomes from the negotiation, and this is what we are doing."

PA
Interim chancellor named

HARRISBURG  The board of governors for Pennsylvanias struggling state-owned university system announced Friday that Clarion University of Pennsylvania President Karen Whitney will take over as the systems interim chancellor on Sept. 12.

Whitney will succeed Chancellor Frank Brogan, 63, who is retiring after four years at the helm of the State System of Higher Education .

The systems enrollment has fallen from a peak of about 112,000 six years ago to about 98,000, and its recent decision to raise tuition by 3.5 percent addressed only part of a massive budget deficit.

Board of Governors Chairwoman Cynthia Shapira praised Whitneys strong, steady leadership at Clarion during the past seven years.

She is smart, strategic and pragmatic, Shapria said. Because she has strong relationships across the system and beyond  and is keenly aware of the challenges and opportunities ahead  she will be able to hit the ground running so we can continue our forward momentum.

Whitney promised bold steps toward increasing educational opportunities for students, modernizing how we do business and ensuring a successful transition to the next permanent chancellor.

Whitney had planned to step down as Clarion president in 2018, but now she will leave that post in September.

The union representing faculty at the Pennsylvania 14-school system issued a statement raising concerns about Whitneys selection.

The union said Clarion University has struggled under her leadership, but added it is ready to work with her.

Kenneth Mash, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, said morale on the Clarion campus is low and faculty members have complained about Whitneys leadership style, her priorities, her lack of support for the academic enterprise, and her defensiveness in the wake of criticism.

We all hope that we can quickly turn the page and that Dr. Whitney will soon reach out to all constituencies and display the sensible, respectful, strong, and intelligent leadership that our system requires, Mash said.

A national search will begin in the fall for Brogans successor. A system spokesman said Whitney is not interested in holding the job permanently.

Whitney, 57, has bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Houston, as well as a doctorate in higher educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

The announcement follows a report last month that called for major changes in the university system and found fault with its governance structure and leadership.

The review by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems said the schools need more of a spirit of cooperation and a greater focus on their educational mission.

It did not recommend closing or merging any of the schools, but endorsed changing the board to become a group of lay persons that would no longer include the governor, his aides or sitting lawmakers.

The center said it was not criticizing Brogan, the board or any individuals, and that its study was focused on outdated processes and governance roles, structures, and traditions that have amassed over years and years.

Leadership failures it identified included a transparency and credibility gap, failure to recognize and address problems before crisis stage, a longstanding climate of confrontation and distrust between the chancellors office and the union, and a state of high tension and distrust at most campuses between institutional leaders and faculty and staff.
Church of the Brethren Newsline

August 5, 2017

by Kathleen Fry-Miller

Childrens Disaster Services (CDS) workshops are scheduled for this fall. The website link for registrations is www.brethren.org/cds/training/dates.html . CDS and its trained and certified volunteers provide care for children and families following disasters.

The 27-hour overnight workshops provide required training for volunteers who wish to serve in the program. Anyone age 18 or over is welcome to attend and become a certified CDS caregiver. References and background checks are also required for certification. Once caregivers complete certification, all expenses are paid for disaster responses.

The training is an overnight experience, simulating a shelter situation, and includes an overview of our work, understanding phases of disaster and how we fit in, working with disaster partners and children and family needs following disaster, supporting resilience in children, setting up a childrens center with a Kit of Comfort, ethical guidelines, and the certification process.

Here are the fall 2017 locations, dates, and contact information:

Bridgewater (Va.) Church of the Brethren, Sept. 22-23, contact Gladys Remnant at 540-810-4999 or gremnant@aol.com

Florida Christian Church in Jacksonville, Fla., Sept. 29-30, contact Tina Christian, CDS Gulf Coast Coordinator, at 561-889-2323 or cdsgulfcoast@gmail.com

Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Northville, Mich., Nov. 10-11, contact Jen Pifer at 734-776-1667 or cakegirl680@gmail.com

Little Swatara Church of the Brethren in Bethel, Pa., Nov. 17-18, contact Jean Myers at 610- 678-5247 or Jean@aol.com

In addition, a training workshop is scheduled specifically for Child Life Specialists (CLS) in New York, N.Y., on Sept. 16, 2017. For more information regarding the details of this child life specialized training, visit http://cldisasterrelief.org/childrens-disaster-services-training . To register and send payment, use this link: http://cldisasterrelief.org/new-york-new-york-registration .

 Kathleen Fry-Miller is associate director of Childrens Disaster Services, a program of the Church of the Brethren Global Mission and Service. For more information go to www.brethren.org/cds .

Go to www.brethren.org/Newsline to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.
Church of the Brethren Newsline

August 5, 2017

by Doris Abdullah

While we rightly call attention to the awful atrocities of Boko Haram in Nigeria, we often overlook the other great tragedy of trafficking in girls and women from Nigeria. The Central Mediterranean Route report show that nearly 80 percent of Nigerian girls and women, between the ages of 13-24, arriving in Europe are victims of sex trafficking.

Trafficking in persons is a transnational crime that devastates lives and causes untold suffering around the globe. All too many of the trafficked are children. The United Nations on June 23 held a hearing titled The Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, addressing trafficking from the perspectives of human rights, armed conflicts, and prosecutions in the context of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda (STG).

The informal and interactive multi-stakeholders hearing was opened by the president of the General Assembly, Peter Thomson, followed by statements from the co-facilitatorsrepresentatives from Qatar, Alya Al-Thani, and Belgium, Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve, of the intergovernmental negotiation of the Global Plan of Action. The introductory statements came from trafficking survivor Withelma T Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, and UNODC executive director Yury Fedotov and UN High Commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein.

United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data on human trafficking, which is also known as modern-day slavery, lists four main forms of trafficking:

1. Forced servitude or forced labor of young men and women. Usually these persons come from rural areas to work in urban manufacturing jobs. Many work on mega farms in India, Malaysia, and Bangladesh as well as the Americas and Europe. We use words like work or jobs, but these persons are usually coerced with the promise of a better life, sold outright by poor families, or stolen from their villages or neighborhoods.

2. Organ transplants usage. Persons from poor countries are either forcibly or volunteer to have taken from them their body parts. These parts are usually sold to the highest bidders in rich countries like the US.

3. Child soldiers usually young boys. Raids are conducted by terrorists in the war-ravished areas of the Middle East and in large swaths of Africa, and by gangs in Central and South America.

4. Trafficking in girls and women. Seventy-two percent of all trafficking is for sex. It is the most profitable of the slave trades.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #5 calls for Gender Equality and Empowerment of all Girls and Women. Goal 5.2 calls for eliminating all forms of violence against girls and women in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. SDG #8 calls on states to Promote Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth, Employment and Decent Work for All. Goal #8.7 calls for immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labor, modern-day slavery, and human trafficking, and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, including recruitment and use of child soldiers by 2025 and end child labor in all its forms. The 193 nations of the United Nations signed onto these goals on the behalf of their citizens. It is up to all of us to carry them forwardor let them just be beautifully written words.

T as she is known, hails from Oakland, Calif. She was trafficked from the age of 10-17. It was the shock of her story that raised my awareness of the horrors of trafficking across America. This is a topic of moral imperative. It is far easier to speak about trafficking over there, in another land, than it is to own up to it in our own back yards. It is a fact that large numbers of missing children are trafficked children, and thousands of men in the US buy children for sex. I ask us in the church to see the girl child called T from California as our child, and not as a stranger. See her as our daughter, sister, niece, or mother.

T was trafficked throughout the western states of America for seven years. Through her voice, and with the aid of pictures, I became an eye witness to her story, to girls younger than 10 put out naked in the street to attract men. Some were using their crayons to draw clothing on themselves. These girls wanted to cover their nakedness with crayons. I wanted to divert my eyes from the shame of not being able to protect them from such horror.

The kidnapping of Brethren girls in Nigeria has made all Brethren more aware of what happens to young women caught by terrorists in armed conflict zones. A panel member also called attention to the findings of raped girls and women in 40 mass graves left by ISIL (Daesh) and alarm about girls being sold for $10 in some refugee camps. Some girls in the refugee camps even commit suicide, rather than risk being raped.

One panel spoke on the legal matters of criminal investigations, convictions, and sentences. We are all aware that some societies punish the victims and let the perpetrators go free. The legal becomes wrapped up in social norms, culturally acceptable behavior, and so forth .

Ruchira Gupta, founder and president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, was on one of the panels. She reminded the meeting that the trafficked girl child is used until she is deemed useless. Useless trafficked girls are thrown out with the trash to die, as T was. She has no workers rights, because forced prostitution is not a job. T was abused as a child, denied an education, and never negotiated for any wages. One could say that she was worse off than a prisoner, because she could be denied food, shelter, and clothing by her owners.

Trafficking is a moral issue for the church, and deviant behavior for those who take part in it. What will we do about it? That is work for us to face up to.

 Doris Abdullah is the Church of the Brethren representative to the United Nations.

Go to www.brethren.org/Newsline to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.
Gamers, local artists and cosplay enthusiasts from across the region converged on Canberra for the annual Gamma.con pop culture convention.

Organisers expect four to five thousand people to attend the event at the AIS arena across the weekend.

Some Gamma.con goers spent months on their outfits. From left, Maddison Turner as Velvet Scarlatina, Chris Schofield as Reinhardt, and Taylor Hogan as Lie Ren. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Walking the rows between stalls you might bump into classics like Obi-Wan Kenobi or Halo's Master Chief while characters from Overwatch and Rooster Teeth productions were also popular this year.

Around every corner a new weapon, costume or game was being spruiked by local vendors and artists, promoting the work that locals are contributing to the genre.
Toyota and Mazda have agreed to buy stakes in each other and jointly build a $US1.6 billion ($2 billion) factory in the United States,the auto industry's first new assembly plant to be announced under President Donald Trump.

Toyota will acquire about 5 per cent of Mazda, which will hold a 0.25 per cent stake in the bigger automaker, according to a statement. The two plan to start producing Corolla compact cars and Mazda crossovers at a shared factory in 2021, creating as many as 4000 jobs.

Toyota will acquire about 5 per cent of Mazda, which will hold a 0.25 per cent stake in the bigger automaker. Credit:Bloomberg

Mazda lacks any US factories, which exposes one of Japan's smallest carmakers to both trade and currency risk. President Donald Trump threatened to tax auto imports early in his presidency and specifically attacked Toyota's plan to open a Corolla plant in Mexico. Shifting production of those cars out of a plant in Canada is going to enable Toyota to boost output of RAV4 crossovers. American consumers are buying that model in record numbers, while Mazda also is seeing booming demand for its entry in that segment, the CX-5.

Trump tweeted his praise of the Toyota and Mazda factory Friday, calling it "a great investment in American manufacturing." Toyota will still move forward with constructing a factory in Guanajuato, Mexico, though the facility will produce the Tacoma mid-size pickup instead of the Corolla as soon as 2019.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has backed a constitutionally-enshrined "Voice to Parliament" representing Indigenous people, marking the first clear commitment by him or Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to the Referendum Council's central recommendation.

In a speech to the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory, also attended by Mr Turnbull and leading Indigenous figures, Mr Shorten expressed support for a "Makarrata" reconciliation commission and repeated the Labor Party's openness to treaties between Indigenous people and Australian governments.

Mr Turnbull's more conservative address to the gathering outlined a respect for the Referendum Council's recommendations but said they would need to be considered properly and reiterated his caution about over-ambitious referendums.

The Opposition Leader said: "Labor supports a voice for Aboriginal people in our constitution, we support a declaration by all parliaments, we support a truth-telling commission, we are not confronted by the notion of treaties with our first Australians."
My mum, Barbara McIntyre-Conway, raised me mostly on her own. I was born in Adelaide but moved to Melbourne after my parents divorced when I was around two. She and my dad, Lachlan, weren't the right fit for each other. My maternal grandmother, Jillian, lived in the front room of our weatherboard home and she helped raise me while Mum worked.

Everybody thought Grandma was a movie star  she had that classic beauty about her. She was a soprano and pianist and spent a lot of time being creative. We would paint together. In fact, I wanted to be a painter before I wanted to be an actor, thanks to her. She also fed me too many home-made sausage rolls and I got chubby as a kid.

"I have never been a player. I am the sort of guy who would get nothing out of that situation." Credit:AAP/ABC

Mum always worked her butt off to make ends meet while I was growing up. At one point, she opened a cafe opposite my school so she could be close to me for drop-off and pick-up. She was also an antique dealer and we'd take trains at 5am drinking cups of coffee. There was never a dull moment and she is a great storyteller.

My mum was diagnosed with cancer while I was back in Australia recently filming Pulse. She's going through a tough time.
Ned Bikic was sentenced in 2001 to a minimum 11-year jail term for murder. Credit:Ken James It outsourced much of the money to companies run by Roy Bijkerk, who was jailed in the early 2000s for conspiracy to import cocaine. Administrators going through Guardian Youth Care's books found Mr Bijkerk was effectively a "shadow director", given his influence over the charity he helped found. In May 2013, Mr Bijkerk joined a Guardian Youth Care board member, accountant Paul Clarke, in a new company Sunergos Support Services. Mr Bijkerk joined the same day as his business partner Ned Bikic, a former standover man convicted of murder.

By July, Sunergos Support Services was earning $30,000 a month from Guardian Youth Care to provide plant, property and equipment services and to help with accreditation costs. Nine months later, Sunergos bought a Pyrmont apartment for $600,000, with a $480,000 mortgage. Ms Madigan, Guardian Youth Care's "executive administrator", was appointed as a Sunergos director in January 2017. Her Jaguar, however, belongs to Alpha Support Services, a contractor controlled by Mr Bijkerk, which has also received millions of dollars from the charity. Records show Alpha received an unrepaid $686,000 loan from the charity, which Alpha denied while refusing to open its books.

Another car registered to Alpha is a black 2016 Mercedes Benz e400 series. Mr Bikic, the former standover man, served as a director of Alpha between 2015 and 2016 and according to a former associate he was recently seen driving a black Mercedes. The Bikic-Bijkerk pair are in businesses with Vatche Hagopian, who was jailed in the early 2000s for his second drug supply offence. On release, Mr Hagopian bought a Seven Hills property that would house up to five Guardian Youth Care children at a time. It is not known how much rent was paid to Mr Hagopian, who ran a company called Guardian AAA Youth Services. The Seven Hills house was regarded by several youth workers as the worst of the western Sydney properties run by the charity: dilapidated, overcrowded and understaffed.

"Disgusting" was how two former residents described it. Until February, Mr Hagopian was a director of Guardian Care Properties, a company that lent $500,000 to big-time punter Eddie Hayson in 2013. Other directors included Mr Bijkerk and two accountants on the charity's board. Last year, Mr Bijkerk told Fairfax Media he refinanced a block of flats in Greenacre in Sydney's west, owned by Guardian Care Properties, to pay for the loan. He was adamant that company had nothing to do with Guardian Youth Care. Lawyer Stephen Tully said last year: "We are instructed that our client, but for the fact that it may have some common directors, has no association with the entity Guardian Youth Care, which is a not for profit organisation."

But two former youth workers say the Greenacre property housed children around the time of the Hayson loan. Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward did not answer questions about the adequacy of her department's checks. The Department said the "normal contract management process" uncovered problems with Guardian Youth Care. Opposition spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk introduced a bill to parliament this week calling for the Auditor-General to be given more powers to inspect government contractors' spending. "These reports are very disturbing," she said. "There needs to be a full forensic audit of the accounts."
Shoppers hide while police negotiate with Hillier during the Queen Street Mall lockdown. By his early 20s, Hillier had developed a serious heroin and meth addiction. He was injecting ice up to 10 times a day, robbing and thieving to support his habit. Two months before the siege, a drugged-up Hillier blew two fingers off his hand with a loaded home-made shotgun as he walked down a street in Caboolture, north of Brisbane. He had taken to walking around armed because it made him "safe", "confident" and "strong" in the outside world he struggled to adapt to. But in an interview with expert psychiatrist Dr Michael Beech in late 2013, Hillier said a month after the shotgun accident he had stopped using drugs, was living with his uncle and waiting for a spot in rehab.

Then his "best mate" Michael Sweeny, who he used to rob drug dealers with, shot himself during a police siege north of Brisbane. When Hillier saw the death on the news he "immediately knew" who it was and the spiral of drug abuse and homelessness resumed. According to Dr Beech's report, Hillier visited his friend's grave, sat there crying for hours and thought about killing himself but instead boarded a train to the city. In Queen Street Mall, wanting to die, the repeat criminal's tattoo-covered legs poked out of short shorts and runners as he pulled out a handgun when an officer asked for ID. Talking to Dr Beech, Hillier described what happened when he was not immediately shot dead.

"(I) felt powerful  like I was in control for once," he said. According to the psychiatric assessment, Hillier kept telling police to "just shoot me" but they refused and a realisation came over him as the mall emptied. "(It is) just me in the centre, with the gun, and 10 police all around me," he told Dr Beech. "... It's gone out of control. I couldn't put the gun down  that'd be weak and police would know and they'd laugh. "I didn't want to go to gaol and not see me kids."

Hillier tried to call his children from a phone box to say goodbye and told Dr Beech he felt excited when the police refused to shoot him. "For once the police couldn't grab me  and I didn't care," he said. According to Hillier, he was angry when the police negotiator arrived. He didn't want to negotiate. He didn't want to hurt anyone either, he would later tell a court. He cried and the news crews arrived, the special police and the snipers. He turned to the CCTV cameras to say goodbye to his kids. The police did shoot the gunman as he walked out threatening to shoot them with a gun they later realised wasn't loaded

Lethal and non-lethal rounds slammed into his shirtless body as he walked, then ran, leapt around and eventually fell to the ground. "He was angry when he realised that he was still alive," Dr Beech wrote. Back in prison, Hillier said he felt safe, but he applied for, and was briefly granted, parole in 2016. It was swiftly cancelled in August when the Central and Northern Parole Board decided he was an unacceptable risk of re-offending after reviewing his "criminal history, offending profile and progress toward "addressing his offending behaviour". He and two mates completing an anti-drug program had been caught injecting a banned opiate but he was not punished because of an administration error, according to court documents.

After assessing him, Community Services Tablelands senior psychologist Catherine Weston said she was hesitant to support parole but was worried Hillier would quickly relapse if it wasn't granted. "Offender Hillier stated that upon his release to the community he would like to work with kids who are at risk of becoming street kids or of becoming addicted to drugs," she wrote. "He also stated that he would like to work with adults who are coming out of the correctional system." In June, he took the parole board to court to appeal its decision, hoping for early release. "I'd like to be put out on parole into rehab and Salvation Army because the last thing I need right now is to be put onto the street full time with ... no direction," he told the court in July through a videolink from the Lotus Glen Correctional Facility.

Hillier, who had been eligible for parole since September 8, 2014, argued he was not given indications of how he could improve his chances of parole and the board had failed to consider his positive improvements in jail and impending release date. "(They don't focus on) the good things that I've achieved whilst I've been in prison," he said on Friday "Everyone just seems to be focused on the bad thing. "Yeah I've got a drug addiction and I was asking to go to rehab. We all know I've got a drug addiction. "I don't understand. Like, everybody just seems to give up on me and I haven't given up on myself."
The St. Louis Eclipse Task Force has announced it will provide students and staff members at St. Francois, Madison and Iron County K-12 public and private schools with solar glasses for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse.

The St. Louis Eclipse Task Force is a collaboration of organizations working together since 2014 to help the St. Louis area prepare for the rare celestial event coming up later this month. The task force is comprised of more than 100 organizations including cities, schools, parks, tourism groups and businesses who meet monthly at the Saint Louis Science Center.

According to Don Ficken, Eclipse Task Force coordinator, direct viewing of the visible surface of the sun requires suitable eye protection at any time, including the partial phases of a solar eclipse.

"It is only during the total phase of a solar eclipse that the sun can be viewed safely without protection," he said. "The solar viewing glasses filter out invisible radiation and 99.99 percent of the visible light. Even the view of a partial solar eclipse is a sight long remembered by adults and children alike.

"The very rare viewing of a total solar eclipse  with the solar corona shimmering in a deep twilight-dark sky  is one of the most spectacular sights in nature. Our goal is to have all students witness the partial eclipse safely and to have as many as possible view the total solar eclipse.

Ficken said there will be no expense for the glasses the schools receive from the task force.

"Schools in the three counties will receive one pair of glasses per student and staff member at no cost," he said. "The goal of the program is to promote safe viewing practices for the upcoming total solar eclipse by providing ISO certified solar glasses to as many pre-collegiate schools as possible located in the greater St. Louis area."

Ficken explained that priority was given to schools with the greatest percentage of students qualifying for federal free-and-reduced lunch programs and/or the lowest amount of per-pupil expenditures.

"The K-12 solar eclipse glasses giveaway program was launched with 20,000 solar glasses available for distribution to schools," Ficken said. "The task force also received a donation from MasterCard of 50,000 additional solar viewing glasses for local pre-college schools, as well."
Kigali: Rwanda's incumbent leader Paul Kagame has sealed a crushing victory in presidential elections that granted him a third term in office, extending his 17 years in power.

Kagame has won international plaudits for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery in the Central African nation since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 people Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

Voters line up to cast their vote at a polling station for the presidential election on Friday in the capital Kigali, Rawanda. Credit:AP

But he has also faced mounting censure for what critics and rights groups say are widespread human rights abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition.

With 80 per cent of votes accounted for, the 59-year-old former guerilla leader secured 98.66 per cent, the National Electoral Commission's Executive secretary Charles Munyaneza told a news conference.
Singapore's government has taken a bitter feud in the family of the city-state's founder Lee Kuan Yew to the courts.

The Attorney-General filed an application in the High Court for contempt of court proceedings against Li Shengwu, the 32 year-old Harvard educated grandson of the late Mr Lee, who ruled the country with an iron-fist from 1959 to 1990.

The action relates to a Facebook post Mr Li published on July 15 where he wrote that the "Singapore government is very litigious and has a pliant court system," and adding that because of previous legal action, foreign media had been cowed into self-censorship.

In the application the Attorney-General said the post was an "egregious and baseless attack" on the judiciary.
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
Rutgers vs. Michigan State: 5 takeaways from the Scarlet Knights' loss

Rutgers football suffered a loss to Michigan State as it failed to take advantage of a vulnerable Spartans team.
One day [Marine Theodore Wallace] saw an officer casually aim his rifle and try to shoot a Vietnamese boy in the distance.

"Sir, what are you doing?" he'd asked.

"He's probably supplying the [North Vietnamese Army]," the officer said. "What's he doing out here anyway?"

"It's his country!" said Wallace.

-- Mark Bowden, "Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam"

WASHINGTON -- As Vietnam's 1968 Tet holiday approached, Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces there, cabled the Joint Chiefs in Washington that he had a plan. He would serenade, perhaps into dissolution, the communist forces that he was certain would concentrate on attacking U.S. forces based at Khe Sanh near the demilitarized zone:

"The Vietnamese youth is quite sentimentally disposed toward his family, and Tet is a traditional time for intimate family gatherings. The Vietnamese PSY War [Psychological Warfare] people have recently written a highly sentimental Tet song which is recorded. The Vietnamese say it is a tear-jerker to the extent that they do not want it played to their troops during Tet for fear their desertion rate will skyrocket. This is one of the records we will play to the North Vietnamese soldiers in the Khe Sanh-Con Thien areas during Tet."

This surreal nugget is from Mark Bowden's magnificent and meticulous history, which tells, with excruciating detail, a story that is both inspiring and infuriating. His subtitle is an understatement. As the epicenter of North Vietnam's Tet offensive throughout South Vietnam, the swift capture of Hue, the country's third-largest city, by communist forces -- and of the 24 days of ferocious fighting that expelled them -- became a hinge of American history. A month later, President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek re-election in an America where opposition to the war and trust in the government were moving inversely.

After the battle's first day, Jan. 31, Westmoreland told Washington that the enemy had about 500 men in Hue's Citadel. "He was," Bowden writes, "off by a factor of 20." So it went with U.S. intelligence. A few months earlier, Walt Rostow, Johnson's national security adviser, had told a Hue-bound reporter on "deep background" that the war was essentially already won because a crop called "IR8 rice" was going to stymie the communists' revolution with a green revolution. Rostow's theory was slain by this fact: The Vietnamese disliked the taste of IR8 rice.

The communists arriving in Hue immediately began advancing the revolution by purging "enemies of the people" in what quickly became an orgy of violent score-settling. While Westmoreland remained fixated on Khe Sanh -- "Never," writes Bowden, "had a general so effectively willed away the facts" -- a secret U.S. planning group met in Okinawa the day after the offensive began to consider a plan, code-named Fractured Jaw, involving tactical nuclear weapons. Westmoreland said these were not needed "in the present situation."

Bowden's interviews, almost half a century on, with those who fought, on both sides, have produced unexampled descriptions of small-unit combat. The communists' many months of large-scale infiltration and preparation were matched by their military skills. "To a man," Bowden writes, "the American veterans I interviewed told me they had faced a disciplined, highly motivated, skilled and determined enemy. To characterize them otherwise is to diminish the accomplishment of those who drove them out of Hue." In June 1968, Westmoreland was relieved of his command.

What Bowden calls "one of the great shots in the annals of combat photography" is of a U.S. tank in Hue draped with dead and wounded Marines. None were identified. Until, more than four decades later, Bowden found that the 18-year-old with a hole in his chest, who looked "dead, or nearly so," was Alvin Bert Grantham from Mobile, Alabama, whose story Bowden tells.

During house-to-house fighting, Marine Eden Jimenez was clearing rooms -- tossing in grenades, then spraying the room with bullets -- in one of which he found a tall wardrobe that he had riddled. In it was a mortally wounded woman holding a rifle and a baby. Bowden writes: "When he was an old man, living in Odessa, Texas, he still wondered almost every day about that woman and child. ... Who was she? How would he have felt if he had killed the baby, too?"

Hue, like the war that pivoted there, continues to haunt some elderly men who live among us. And the war's legacy lives in Americans' diminished trust in government. Since 1968, trust has not risen to pre-Vietnam levels.
On Saturday, three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Sopore area of Baramulla district in Kashmir, police said.
China's state-run media has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to push India into a "reckless conflict" with China as People's Liberation Army, as the latter is sufficiently capable of annihilating Indian troops in the border region.

Describing India's military strength as being "far behind" that of China, the Global Times asserted that that if the nearly two-month long tense stand-off was escalated to a military conflict then "It is a war with an obvious result, as PLA has made sufficient preparation for military confrontation. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be aware of the PLA's overwhelming firepower and logistics."

The editorial titled, "Modi mustn't pull India into reckless conflict", has warned Indian border troops that there are no rivals to the PLA field forces. "If a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region."

Chinese foreign and defense ministries have been issuing warnings and strong statements against India on a daily basis and termed the standoff as an "illegal trespass of Indian troops into Chinese territory" and vowed "to take all necessary measures to make India withdraw its troops unconditionally".

The editorial even ridiculed Defence Minister Arun Jaitley's recent remark that India of 2017 is different from what it was in 1962, in which China had defeated Indian forces. It said the Modi government should stop "lying". "The gap in strength between the two countries is the largest in the past 50 years. If the Modi government wants to start a war, at least it should tell its people the truth," it said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has reiterated that India's road map is peace and talks are going on to resolve the issue diplomatically.

Our concerns emanate from Chinese action on the ground which have implications for the determination of the tri-junction boundary point between India, China and Bhutan and the alignment of India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector. Thus China is trying to change the status-quo of the disputed tri-junction boundary point.

The standoff started in June when Chinese soldiers tried to unilaterally change the status quo in the strategically important Doklam region of Bhutan by building a road in the area.

The editorial asserted that "India should shun its illusions of having the support of US and Japan to treat China." The editorial explained that China is giving peace a chance "So why hasn't the PLA started? China cherishes the decade-long peace on the border and wishes not to break it. We want to give peace a chance and allow India to recognize the grave consequences."

India has made its stance clear that that it stands for peace the border question can be solved diplomatically, not by war. Sushma said, "The tri-junction points and India-China boundary alignment in the Sikkim sector had been earlier addressed in a written common understanding reached between the Special Representatives of India and China on the boundary question in December 2012.i.e."The tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalised in consultation with the concerned countries." Since 2012 we have not held any discussion on the tri-junction with Bhutan. The Chinese action in the Doklam area is therefore of concern.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday urged the people of the country to boycott Chinese products.

His statement comes in the wake of the ongoing standoff between India and China in the Doklam area of Sikkim.

"China is openly supporting the terrorists of Pakistan. We need to give a befitting reply to Pakistan and for this firstly we have to merge Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) with India and secondly every Indian should boycott China made products whether it be mobile, watches, cars, or toys," Ramdev said.

He further appealed to the political parties to come together on this issue keeping aside the political rivalry.

With the growing tension between India and China, the traders across the country are boycotting Chinese products and also urging the public to not purchase them.

Earlier, Federation of All Odisha Traders' Association (FAOTA) asked the public to boycott Chinese products as China would earn huge profit by selling its products in Indian market.

The stand-off between India and China emerged after Chinese troops were stopped by the Indian Army from constructing roads along 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.
From pasting party posters to an epitome of political and ideological loyalty who rose to become one of BJP's most visible leaders and now India's vice president-elect, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu has come a long way.

Born to a humble agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, the 68-year-old has served as BJP president, minister in various portfolios and a long-time Rajya Sabha member.

This remarkable career in has been more than four decades in the making.

It began in the 1970s when BJP's precursor Jana Sangh was a marginal player with little clout in the south and a young party worker kept himself busy putting up posters of stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani.

Naidu has come a long way since those days of political obscurity.

"Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity," India's vice president-elect told PTI.



"I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the Prime Minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and uphold the dignity of the Upper House," he added.

NDA candidate for Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, arrives to cast his vote in the Vice-Presidential Election in New Delhi.

Once an Advani protege, Naidu vigorously backed Modi for the prime minister's post before the 2014 elections.

He was minister for Information and Broadcasting and Housing and Urban Affairs in the Modi government and earlier also held the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

In the previous NDA government led by Vajpayee, he had served as Rural Development Minister.

The veteran party leader also served as the BJP president from July 2002 to October 2004 for two consecutive terms.

He quit the post after the party's defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Naidu was an ABVP activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.

NDA candidate for Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, sharing a light moment with other MPs. Photo: PTI

He had also ensured high political outreach by meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when there was a standoff between the government and the opposition in Parliament.

Several major legislations were cleared by Parliament when he was Parliamentary Affairs Minister, including the historic Real Estate Act and fast forwarding of the GST Bill.

Known for coining acronyms, Naidu termed the mission of the Modi Government as 'MODI- Making of Developed India' which had become the official line of the Centre in its public outreach campaign on the occasion of three years of being in office.

As the minister for Information and Broadcasting, he was always quick to present issues in perspective with effective repartee as and when required.

As Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, which was recently merged as Housing and Urban Affairs, Naidu pioneered the launch of several new urban missions, including the Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All.

As Rural Development Minister, Naidu was instrumental in launching the hugely popular 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana'.

When the Congress swept the polls in Andhra Pradesh in 1978, Naidu got elected as MLA from Udayagiri constituency as a Janata Party candidate.

He was re-elected on a BJP ticket when N T Rama Rao swept the polls in the state.

But all that has receded into the past.

"There is no my party or your party. Now I am a non-party man," Naidu told reporters this morning as the election for the vice president got underway.
The Investigation Agency (NIA) questioned two more persons from the city, believed to be 'close friends' of the duo who have been interrogated two days ago in connection with an Islamic State (IS) module busted in Kannur district last year.

A team of officials, led by a DSP from Kerala arrived here and took the youths to a police station for "questioning" about the movement of their friends from Karumbukadai and Ukkadam in the city.

According to police sources, one youth is running a shop that sells second-hand books and the other a shoe outlet in the city. They would either be released after questioning or taken to Kochi, they said.

In the past few days, NIA has questioned "a few persons" from Coimbatore and Alappuzha in Kerala as part of its probe in connection with an Islamic State module busted in Kannur district last year.

The NIA sleuths had taken two persons from the city to Kochi two days ago for interrogation, after carrying out searches at their houses, following their alleged posts on the social media, supporting the activities of the IS.

A posse of police personnel has been deployed near the police station, since a large number of people had gathered during the searches carried out here two days ago.

Based on posts on some social media platforms, NIA officials have zeroed in on the duo, who allegedly posted content on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, supporting the activities of the IS.
Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in an encounter by the police, Army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Saturday in Sopore area's Amarghad of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district.

During the encounter, a police jawan was also injured, but he is stable.

Arms and ammunition were also recovered from the encounter area.

According to the Additional Deputy Commissioner, all government and private schools and colleges in Sopore are closed today post encounter.

The internet services have also been snapped in North Kashmir's Baramulla District.

Earlier in the day, a joint cordon and search operation (CASO) was being conducted by the security forces.

A joint operation was conducted by 179 Battalion Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 52 Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police since 04:30 am Saturday morning.

Heavy fire was being exchanged between the security forces and the terrorists.
Veteran BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, who had humble origins in an agriculturist family in Andhra Pradesh, was on Saturday elected as the Vice of President of India, completing the quartet of top four constitutional posts  President, Vice President, Prime Minister and Lok Sabha Speaker  going to persons from BJP with RSS background for the first time in 70 years.

Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, 68, who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later the Narendra Modi governments, defeated the combined opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by a huge margin of 272 votes in a straight contest, whose verdict was already predictable.

At the end of two-hour counting process in the 15th vice-presidential election, Returning Officer Shamsher K Sharif announced the election of Naidu, who secured 516 votes against 244 by Gandhi. In all, 771 votes were cast out of a total of 785 MPs eligible to vote. Eleven votes were declared invalid. Of this, seven were voters backing Gandhi.

Venkaiah Naidu being greeted after being elected as the Vice President of India, in New Delhi on Saturday. Photo: PTI

Soon after his election, Naidu said he as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, would steer the functioning of the House "without fear or favour" and uphold its dignity and decorum with the cooperation of all members by acting in accordance with the rules and conventions of the House. ALSO READ: Venkaiah Naidu: The meat lover in a vegetarian political party



A seasoned politician, Naidu, who had his political teeth cut in the RSS and later Bharatiya Jana Sangh, had been President of the BJP. Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, is a bureaucrat-turned-diplomat, who was Governor of West Bengal. He was fielded by the Congress-led Opposition with backing from parties, including Trinamool Congress, Left, BJD and the Janata Dal(U).

In his reaction, Gandhi congratulated Naidu on his victory and wished him all the best in his new office. He hoped Naidu would be Vice President of all sections of India.

Gandhi thanked all the parties that supported him and said that the voting figures showed that the numbers that voted for him were "beyond expectations".

He said the fight in the election was for free thought, free speech, pluralism and secularism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Naidu on his victory and expressed confidence that he will serve the nation "as a diligent and dedicated Vice President, committed to the goal of nation building".

"My mind is filled with memories of working with Venkaiah Naidu in the party and the government. Will cherish this aspect of our association. My best wishes for a fruitful and motivating tenure," Modi tweeted.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also congratulated Naidu and said he was sure that he would give time and opportunities to all leaders and parties to express their views in the way the outgoing Chairman Hamid Ansari conducted the House. ALSO READ: Venkaiah Naidu: All you need to know about your new Vice President

Azad and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said the fight was between two political trends. One wanted to strengthen the constitutional order. Both of them thanked Gandhi for agreeing to be the opposition candidate and for putting up a dignified fight.

NDA candidate for Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, arrives to cast his vote in the Vice-Presidential Election in New Delhi.

Azad and Yechury claimed that the opposition has got 19 votes more than what it got in the recent Presidential election. They said they would go into issues like how many of their voters were absent or invalid and the reasons for that and take actions internally.

Born in 1949 in Chavatapalem in Nellore district, Naidu acquired law degree from Andhra University College of Law Visakhapatnam. He was a "swayamsevak" in the RSS and joined ABVP during his college days. He came to the spotlight for his role in "Jai Andhra" movement of 1972 and became the convenor of the anti-corruption Jayaprakash Chhatra Samiti in 1974. He held street protests against the Emergency.

He served three terms in the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka from 1998 and was elected for his fourth term from Rajasthan last year. He was a member of the Andhra Pradesh assembly twice in the 1980s. ALSO READ: Difficult shoes to fill: Hamid Ansari retiring as Vice-President of India

Naidu was Rural Development Minister in the Vajpayee government between 2000-02. In Modi's government, first he was Parliamentary Affairs Minister as well as the Housing and Urban Development. From Parliamentary Affairs, he was shifted to Information and Broadcasting Minister which portfolio he held till he was nominated as the Vice Presidential candidate.

Soon after his election, a string of leaders of the BJP and allied parties and ministers went to Naidu's residence and greeted him on his victory.
Soon after getting the better of his Chinese opponent Zulpikar Maimaitiali at 'Battleground Asia', India's star boxer Vijender Singh on Saturday called for peace, even as Indian and Chinese troops are locked into a standoff over the disputed Doklam bowl near the Sikkim border.

Singh's stature grew a few notches as he outslugged Maimaitiali in a close bout to annex the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title.

It was 'double delight' for fans as Singh also snatched the WBO Oriental Super Middleweight title from the Chinese.

"I want to give back this belt to Zulpikar. I hope for peace at the border and the message is about peace. That is most important," Singh, an Olympic bronze medallist, said after his bout.

It was the 32-year-old's ninth successive win in his professional career.

Earlier, while Vijender Singh had commented that "Chinese products don't last long" prior to his bout, Zulpikar's spirited show left him surprised.

"I was under the impression that the Chinese would not last long, but he has left me surprised with the way he fought," Vijender 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.)
Narendra Modi must be realising by now that it is easier to demolish than to construct. He is unlikely to have spent sleepless nights before abolishing the Planning Commission. Instead, it was widely seen as a bold move in keeping with his personality.

The scrapping of the 64-year-old institution was generally hailed as it was felt that this relic of a Soviet-style economy was out of place in a free market system.

However, the commission's replacement by the rather pompously named Institution for Transforming India or the NITI Aayog was perceived from the start as new wine in an old bottle.

Even then, the appointment of well-known economist Arvind Panagariya, a professor of Columbia University, as the vice-chairman gave hope that it would be an improvement on its former avatar although the commission, too, had distinguished economists in that position.

Panagariya's selection was not surprising since he had been a long-standing supporter of Modi's economic policies like another reputed economist settled in the US, Jagdish Bhagwati. It seemed, therefore, like a new beginning in sync with the Prime Minister's developmental initiatives.

Over the next three years, however, the NITI Aayog was not seen as setting the official agenda, for its proposals for disinvestment and enabling women to work at night were strongly criticised by affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) like the protectionist Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the trade union, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).

Their views, which echoed the opinions of their ideological opposite, the Left, were that Panagariya was tilting in favour of the capitalists and did not know anything about the conditions in India.

For instance, as the BMS said, Indian women have to perform "heavy household duties" unlike in the West. So night shifts will be an additional burden for them. According to the trade union body, the NITI Aayog comprised "lopsided intellectuals" who were misleading the government.

It was only a question of time, therefore, before Panagariya would realise that Modi was not quite on top of the situation as he was in Gujarat. Hence, his resignation presumably because he saw that while the Prime Minister was not too bothered about a patently weak opposition, he had to contend with powerful lobbies in the saffron brotherhood whose perception of a Hindu India was totally at variance with the concept of private enterprises functioning in an open society which encouraged a large measure of freedom in terms of lifestyle choices.

Modi has tried to control some of the antediluvian elements in the social field like the gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) or the proponents of ghar wapsi or the return of Muslims to their "original home" of Hinduism.

However, he has also allowed the stationing of saffron apparatchiki at the head of highly regarded institutions although their academic credentials are not widely recognised. Among these institutions are the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

The Prime Minister may have taken these steps to keep the RSS in good humour so that the latter can incorporate its ideas in history books and social science research papers.

But the scene is different in the economic field. The reason is the belief in the saffron brotherhood that a buoyant economy will create an atmosphere of bold individuality which will be antithetical to the kind of paternalism favoured by the RSS. Since an academic like Panagariya could hardly be expected to counter such elements, the resignation was the easy way out.

He is the second noted economist to leave the battlefield, the other being the former Reserve Bank governor, Raghuram Rajan, who was mercilessly hounded by the BJP MP, Subramanian Swamy, towards the end of his tenure.

Swamy had also called for the dismissal of the Chief Economic Adviser, Arvind Subramanian. The latter has managed to survive, but Panagariya's departure has opened up an empty spot which the government will find difficult to fill.

As it is, the saffron dispensation is seen to be short of talent. This paucity is exposed by the fact that Arun Jaitley is in charge of both the finance and defence portfolios -- two ministries which require full-time supervision.

While his is a political appointment, the NITI Aayog will need a reputed economist as its vice-chairman. It will not do for the government to appoint second-raters as in the ICHR or ICSSR.

The economy is Modi's trump card. His electoral successes and 70 per cent popularity rating are the result of the continuing belief that he will be able to usher in a period of high growth and abundant employment opportunities. He needs, therefore, economists of high calibre in key positions.

But to enable them to function without let or hindrance, the Prime Minister will have to rein in the economic fundamentalists in the saffron ranks as he is doing with the Hindutva militants in the social and political fields.

(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
Since the beginning of the financial year, banks have been increasing their charges for the services they offer at the branch, especially for cash deposits and withdrawals. Most banks now also charge a fee for payment of credit card bill made in cash at a branch. By thus punishing customers for credit card bill payments made through cheques, they are forcing them to pay this bill via electronic modes.
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The Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is keen on developing Chabahar Port in Iran and is hopeful of starting operations by 2018. Shri Gadkari is in Teheran today, to represent India at the taking over of office by President Hassan Rouhani for the second term. On the eve of his visit to Iran the Minister said that India and Iran have shared special ties historically. .

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Shri Gadkari informed that civil construction work has already started at the Chabahar Port .The Indian Government has allocated Rs 6 billion for the development of the port. Out of this, tenders worth Rs 380 Crore for equipment have already been finalized. He said he was hopeful that the Iran Government would accord certain necessary approvals for expediting the work. Shri Gadkari said the Chabahar Port will boost trade and business between the two countries and in the region. .

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Iran's Chabahar port located in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province on the south-eastern coast is a port of great strategic utility for India. It lies outside the Persian Gulf and is accessed from India's western coast. As per an MoU signed between India and Iran in May lastyear, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million andannual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-yearlease. .

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Both The Economist and WIRED are worried about the splinternet. The UK research organisation NESTA thinks it could break up the world wide web as we know it.
As the Chinese government develops drones, the American technology giant is helping. The same goes for artificial intelligence, mobile technology and supercomputers. is also working to help Chinese like Huawei break into overseas markets in support of Chinas go global campaign to develop big multinational brands.
Investigators working for the special counsel, Robert S Mueller III, recently asked the White House for documents related to the former national security adviser Michael T Flynn, and have questioned witnesses about whether he was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the presidential campaign, according to people close to the investigation.
Hasnain Malik, head of equity research at Exotix Capital, tells Aditi Phadnis that if the general election in 2018 is conducted in a free, transparent and fair manner, it may rank amongst Pakistans historically most competitive  and could result in a coalition coming to power.
Something extraordinary has happened in Washington. President has made it clear, in no uncertain terms and with no effort to disguise his duplicity, that he will claim that Tehran is cheating on the nuclear deal by October  the facts be damned.
The UN chief today urged the US to re-engage with the 2015 Paris climate agreement even after America submitted its formal communication indicating its intention to withdraw from the historic pact as soon as possible.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has received a notification from the US expressing the country's intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, his spokesman said.

The notification received yesterday was communicated by US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley.

"The Secretary-General received, in his capacity as Depositary of the Paris Agreement, a communication from the Permanent Representative of the US expressing the intention of the US to exercise its right to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as soon as it is eligible to do so under the Agreement, unless it identifies suitable terms for reengagement," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 2C since the start of the industrial age.

The spokesperson added that the secretary-general "welcomes any effort to reengage in the Paris Agreement by the United States".

The notification came two months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the accord.

Under article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a party may withdraw at any time after three years from the date on which the agreement has entered into force for that party, and such withdrawal takes effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the depositary of the notification of withdrawal.

The US accepted the Paris Agreement on September 3, 2016 and the agreement entered into force for the US on November 4, 2016. This means that the US must stay in the pact until at least 2019.

The note referred to the June statement by the secretary-general in which he had said that the decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a "major disappointment" for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security.

"It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on climate and sustainable development. Climate change is impacting now," Dujarric said, adding that the UN Chief looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future for our children and future generations.
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In July 1967 President Lyndon B Johnson sent two of his principal advisers, Clark Clifford and Gen Maxwell Taylor, to Australia and New Zealand with an urgent mission. Protests were raging in American streets and on university campuses. Hawks and doves were battling in Washington. Defence Secretary Robert McNamara was heading toward resignation, an admission that his Vietnam policy had failed.
The Grasberg Mine is a massive scar 14,000 feet atop West Papuas part of New Guineas Central Cordillera. Its is the worlds biggest, most profitable gold mine and the worlds third biggest copper mine, with estimated reserves of $100 billion.
A seven member high level Afghan military delegation led by Lt Gen Muhammad Zaman Waziri, Commander 201 Corps,met with Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Nazir Ahmed Butt in Peshawar on Friday.

Both sides reaffirmed their resolve to continue their fight against terrorism and deliberated over mutual security interests and concerns including the border security mechanism.

The seven-member delegation discussed "areas of mutual security interests and concerns including border security mechanism," the Dawn quoted a statement from Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

Pakistan has already begun fencing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in an effort to improve the security situation along the international boundary.

According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) wing of the Pakistan Army, the Afghan delegation held meetings with Commander Peshawar Corps Lt Gen Nazir Ahmed Butt.The meeting was also attended by Director Generals Military Operations of both the Armies and IGFC Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

"Both sides concluded that peace and stability can best be achieved through complementary efforts and enhanced cooperation," according to ISPR.

The Pakistan Army announced on Saturday that it had completed the first phase of Operation Khyber-IV in the Rajgal area of Khyber Agency after gaining control of a key mountain top called Brekh Top, Dawn news reported.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least five people including four Spanish nationals were killed in Andhra Pradesh's Madanpalli district after a container rammed into a tempo traveler on Saturday.

Two others suffered injuries in the accident on their way back to Bengaluru.

The victims were travelling to Madanpalli to review Rural Development Trust (RDT) work.

An investigation is underway. Furthers details are awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the Income Tax department ends its raid at Karnataka Power Minister D.K. Shivakumar's various addresses, the minister on Saturday thanked the leaders for supporting him at the time of crisis and said truth will come out soon.

The Income Tax department conducted raid at the residences of Shivakumar in Bengaluru and Delhi for consecutive three days.

"I would like to thank leaders across the country, who stood by me in the crisis. I don't want to embarrass my party. It is my duty to be a party worker. I will not let down my party and its leaders. I have cooperated with all the officials. Truth will only come out," he told media.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah earlier on Friday said that IT raid on Shivakumar is a politically motivated move.

Raising question over the intention of the Central Government, the Chief Minister said "such things don't happen in a federal structure".

"This is a politically motivated raid, the timing shows that. I am not against any raid anywhere. The time that they have selected and the intention of the government is not right. This is the first time IT people have brought the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel to conduct raid," Siddaramiah told media.

Earlier, Shivakumar's brother, Suresh Kumar, said that the Rs. 10 crore recovered during the raids by the income tax does not belong to the minister.

"The IT department raided a total of 70 places from where they have collectively seized Rs. 10 crore. The whole amount does not belong to D.K. Shivakumar and his family," said Suresh Kumar, and added that raids are politically motivated.

The IT department had also raided the house of the minister's father-in-law in Bengaluru.

The IT department on July 2 had raided Shivakumar's residence and at a private resort in Bengaluru, where Congress' MLAs from Gujarat are staying.

In the wake of incessant raids the Congress created ruckus in both the Houses of Parliament and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central Government was indulging in political witch-hunt just to defeat Congress candidate Ahmed Patel in Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat.

The IT department also maintained that its raid at Shivkumar's residence and resort has nothing to do with the Gujarat's Congress MLAs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not succeed in making Congress free India (Congress-mukt Bharat).

While reacting on attack on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat, Chidambaram tweeted, "Abuse, false charges, suppression of protests and now violence: nevertheless, BJP will not succeed in making Congress-mukt Bharat."

"Why has the leadership of BJP not condemned the attack on Rahul Gandhi's car?" he further tweeted.

The Congress Party today said that the attack on was a murderous attack by BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and both the parties believe in violence, intimidation and physical assaults on political opponents or leaders.

Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told the media during the press conference, "I termed such attempt as a murderous attack by BJP and RSS on Congress vice president . The Central Government and the state government are answerable to this. They are responsible for Rahul Gandhi's security in upcoming election campaigning. was under SPG protection when he was attacked by a boulder."

The Congress Party today staged protests across the nation over the attack on party vice-president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat on Friday.

The Congress workers staged protests in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal and Maharashtra's capital Mumbai.

In Gatkopar, the Mumbai Youth Congress workers threw flowers inside Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office and shouted slogan against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat.

Earlier in the day, Rahul cornered Prime Minister Modi and said it was BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) way of .

"In yesterday's incident, BJP workers threw a stone at me which hit my personal security officer (PSO). This is Prime Minister Modi and BJP- RSS's way of . What can I say?" Rahul told media.

Indirectly referring to Prime Minister, Rahul said, "Why the one, who has done this, would condemn the incident?"

Following the attack, Rahul took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

Condemning the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident and assured that a strict action will be taken against the guilty.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible. Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will tk strict action against those found responsible (sic)," Rupani tweeted.
Unnati Silks, working since 1980 in the field of Handloom and Handcrafted Textiles, is celebrating Handloom Day via Campaign #Handloomswag to spread the love for Indian Handlooms among the Indian Youth. They shall also contribute 2 percent of a week's sale for helping the weavers and artisans of flood-hit areas of Rajasthan.

India will be celebrating the annual event of Handloom Day on August 7 like every year since 2015. Unnati Silks, a manufacturer and craftsman of handcrafts and handlooms since 1980, has kick started an online campaign this week, inviting contributions with selfie, wearing handlooms, with the hashtag '#handloomswag' on major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, Handloom Day is an acknowledgement of the nation, expressing its gratitude towards the immense contribution of the humble weaver or the dedicated craftsman, to the country's heritage and economy. It would be a fitting gesture to re-kindle India, as a nation, to invest its interest in the vast potential of handlooms and provide the dedicated craftsman an opportunity and his place in the sun.

Unnati Silks is always seeking new ways to celebrate 'handlooms' and so has begun a campaign for the occasion, with a hash tag #handloomswag, inviting contributions of selfies or images wearing handloom clothing, that would help strengthen the cause of popularising 'handlooms' among the youth of India and their by helping the Handloom community to grow.

"Handlooms are not new to India. Existing since traditional times, they are slowly being seen with more interest and anticipation. In fact, Handloom is one of the most valuable contribution of India to global fashion, yet these very talented weavers and artisans have not received their due. A major challenge is to reach out to the youth of this country. Many of them have pre-conceived notions that Handlooms are boring, they are unaffordable. This led to the conception of "#handloomswag" campaign to target specifically the Indian youth. And to show them that Handlooms are fun, interesting and they don't lack swag," said Devender Gopal Ladha, Founder of Unnati Silks Group.

Many states including Rajasthan have been hit with massive floods this year. And places like Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jaipur have been severely impacted.

Many artisan communities are located in and around Jaipur, Rajasthan which have been severely impacted with floods this year. And in order to help them, Unnati Silks is contributing 2 percent of our sales to these artisans. We would also want to appeal to the Textiles Industry to come forward and help weavers and artisans in various flood-hit areas across the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hours after M. Venkaiah Naidu was elected as the 13th Vice President of India, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader T.T.V Dinakaran and former chief minister O. Panneerselvam expressed their confidence and happiness over his win on Saturday.

Panneerselvam took to twitter saying, "I Congratulate Venkaiah Naidu on winning Vice Presidential Election".

Meanwhile, Dinakaran also tweeted saying, "I Congratulate Venkaiah Naidu on behalf of General Secretary Chinamma (V.K Sasikala)".

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee also congratulated Naidu and said, "I Congratulate Naidu ji, our next Vice President of India. I wish him well. In tradition of democracy, Gopalkrishna Gandhi ji fought with dignity for certain ideal".

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu too congratulated Naidu for being elected as new Vice President of India. He took to twitter saying, "Heartiest congratulations to Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji on winning the Vice-Presidential poll".

Minutes after Naidu being elected the 13th Vice President of India, politicians and common people alike expressed their confidence and happiness over his win.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too congratulated him and recalled his memories of working with Naidu in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Centre, adding that he will cherish this aspect of their association.

"Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected India's Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure. I am confident @MVenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building," the Prime Minister said.

Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu was elected as the 13th Vice President of India with 516 votes.

Whereas, Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi has secured 244 votes.

Total 771 out of 785 MPs cast their votes today. However, it was revealed that 14 Members of Parliament (MPs) were not present during the voting process.

Voting for Vice Presidential Election ended with a total poll percentage of 98.21%.

The voting began at 10 a.m. earlier in the day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress Party on Saturday said that the attack on party vice president Rahul Gandhi was a murderous attack by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and both the parties believes in violence, intimidation and physical assaults on political opponents or leaders.

Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told the media during the press conference, "I termed such attempt as a murderous attack by BJP and RSS on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. The Central Government and the state government are answerable to this. They are responsible for Rahul Gandhi's security in upcoming election campaigning. Rahul Gandhi was under SPG protectee when he was attack by boulder."

Meanwhile, another grand old party senior leader Anand Sharma said that such attacks not only deserve serious condemnation but also the exposure of the intent, ideology, characteristic of the BJP and the RSS.

"Whatever happened is unacceptable in Indian democracy. Not only it deserve serious condemnation but also the exposure of the intent, ideology, characteristic of the BJP and the RSS which believes in violence, intimidation and physical assaults on political opponents or leaders. We will fight against the BJP and the RSS agenda," Sharma said.

The Congress Party on Saturday staged protests across the nation over attack on party vice president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat on Friday.

The Congress workers staged protests in Gujarat's Ahmedabad , Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal and Maharashtra's capital Mumbai.

In Gatkopar, the Mumbai Youth Congress workers threw flowers inside Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office and shouted slogan against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat.

Earlier in the day, Rahul cornered Prime Minister Modi and said it was BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) way of politics.

"In yesterday's incident, BJP workers threw a stone at me which hit my personal security officer (PSO). This is Prime Minister Modi and BJP-RSS's way of politics. What can I say?" Rahul told media.

Indirectly referring to Prime Minister, Rahul said, "Why the one, who has done this, would condemn the incident?"

Following the attack, Rahul took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

Condemning the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident and assured that a strict action will be taken against the guilty.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible. Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will tk strict action against those found responsible (sic)," Rupani tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Saturday accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) for the killing of the former's party worker in Kerala and said the state government is patronising hooligans and added that a Talibani war is going on in the state.

"The state is patronising the hooligans, who belong to the CPM. They are terrorising and it is CPM's Talibani jung," RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha told ANI.

Sinha said the CPM is targetting the Dalits who are joining RSS, which exposes the anti-Dalit face of the party.

Recalling an incident of past, Sinha said that, "The party cannot even believe Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan because he himself was accused of killing of an RSS leader in 1969.'

Sinha alleged the ruling party in Kerala is creating violence, killing RSS people and are presenting itself as victims.

"It is their government that is dominating Kerala politics. They are trying to create panic among the people especially among the lower class people, who are in large number joining RSS,' he said.

Earlier on Friday, RSS blazing all guns at CPM, urged the Central Government to intervene in the killing of its workers in Kerala.

The RSS accused the CPM-led Kerala Government of not taking action against the killing of its workers claiming it was "politically beneficial" for the CPM.

"The Centre must intervene in the state-sponsored violence in Kerala," said RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale.

The RSS has also passed a resolution in the RSS Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal meet.

A series of clashes between CPM and BJP-RSS activists had rocked Thiruvanathauram last week, in which a 34-year-old RSS leader was murdered in Kozhikode.

Eight suspects have been detained in the murder of the RSS worker and taken into custody in connection with the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested one for looting a passenger at the Sarai Rohilla Railway Station here.

The incident took place on the intervening night of August 4 and August 5 with the passenger identified as Dr. Astha Chauhan, who boarded train number 12416 for Indore.

The perpetrator looted a laptop and few other valuable things.

Few agitated passengers of the train went and lied on the track, which delayed the train for one and a half hour.

As per reports, the police took action two hours after the incident took place.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Defence expert on Saturday backed the Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) stand on the Doklam stand-off and reiterated that 'diplomacy' is the only way to resolve the issue.

"We have been saying it loud and clear, both to China and to the international environment, that India is a peace loving country. Every problem has to be resolved diplomatically," defence expert P.K. Sehgal told ANI.

He further said that even if there's a war between the two countries, the solution again would have to be found through diplomacy post war too.

"It will be in the interest of both the nations that they act in a mature manner and seek a solution diplomatically rather then threatening each other of war," he said.

Earlier on Friday, MEA said that the Indian Government remains committed to ensure the security of its citizens and territory and will continue to engage with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels to find a mutually acceptable solution.

"The government remains prepared for its responsibilities to ensure the security of its citizens and territory, but Sushma Swaraj yesterday said that war is not the answer," MEA official spokesperson Gopal Baglay said while addressing a press conference in the capital.

Baglay also clarified that the development of its border areas is the legitimate matter of interest for the Indian Government as well as its responsibility.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj had, on Thursday, said in the Rajya Sabha that India has taken efforts to ease the stand-off with China.

She further stated that war cannot resolve problems and that the wisdom is to resolve issues diplomatically on the issue of border stand-off with China.

She also said that the government is not just negotiating on Doklam, but is also talking on the bilateral relations with China.

India on Wednesday had reiterated that peace and tranquility along Indo-China border is an important prerequisite for smooth development of bilateral relations between the New Delhi and Beijing.

Earlier, China had emphatically rejected India's interference in its ongoing boundary dispute with Bhutan in the Doklam area and again urged New Delhi to withdraw unconditionally and end the nearly two-month long stand-off.

China alleged that India's intrusion into its territory under the pretext of defending Bhutan's territorial claims, has not only violated Beijing's territorial sovereignty, but also challenged Bhutan's sovereignty and independence.

Meanwhile, Indian and Chinese troops continue to be locked in a stand-off in Doklam and both sides have moved additional troops, ammunition and military equipment to the area.

The stand-off emerged after Chinese troops were stopped by the Indian Army from constructing roads along 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.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China's state-run media has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to push India into a "reckless conflict" with China as People's Liberation Army, as the latter is sufficiently capable of annihilating Indian troops in the border region.

Describing India's military strength as being "far behind" that of China, the Global Times asserted that that if the nearly two-month long tense stand-off was escalated to a military conflict then "It is a war with an obvious result, as PLA has made sufficient preparation for military confrontation. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be aware of the PLA's overwhelming firepower and logistics."

The editorial titled, "Modi mustn't pull India into reckless conflict", has warned Indian border troops that there are no rivals to the PLA field forces. "If a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region."

Chinese foreign and defense ministries have been issuing warnings and strong statements against India on a daily basis and termed the standoff as an "illegal trespass of Indian troops into Chinese territory" and vowed "to take all necessary measures to make India withdraw its troops unconditionally".

The editorial even ridiculed Defence Minister Arun Jaitley's recent remark that India of 2017 is different from what it was in 1962, in which China had defeated Indian forces. It said the Modi government should stop "lying". "The gap in national strength between the two countries is the largest in the past 50 years. If the Modi government wants to start a war, at least it should tell its people the truth," it said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has reiterated that India's road map is peace and talks are going on to resolve the issue diplomatically.

Our concerns emanate from Chinese action on the ground which have implications for the determination of the tri-junction boundary point between India, China and Bhutan and the alignment of India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector. Thus China is trying to change the status-quo of the disputed tri-junction boundary point.

The standoff started in June when Chinese soldiers tried to unilaterally change the status quo in the strategically important Doklam region of Bhutan by building a road in the area.

The editorial asserted that "India should shun its illusions of having the support of U.S. and Japan to treat China." The editorial explained that China is giving peace a chance "So why hasn't the PLA started? China cherishes the decade-long peace on the border and wishes not to break it. We want to give peace a chance and allow India to recognize the grave consequences."

India has made its stance clear that that it stands for peace the border question can be solved diplomatically, not by war. Sushma said, "The tri-junction points and India-China boundary alignment in the Sikkim sector had been earlier addressed in a written common understanding reached between the Special Representatives of India and China on the boundary question in December 2012.i.e."The tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalised in consultation with the concerned countries." Since 2012 we have not held any discussion on the tri-junction with Bhutan. The Chinese action in the Doklam area is therefore of concern.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Economist Dr. Rajiv Kumar has been selected as the new Vice Chairman of Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog on Saturday.

Dr Kumar is currently a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a non-governmental think thank on public policy.

According to CPR, Dr Kumar holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford and a PhD from Lucknow University.

On August 1, Arvind Panagariya resigned from his post as vice chairman, and will hand over charge of his office on August 31.

The Indian American economist is reportedly returning to the United States to resume his academics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appointed him as the first vice-chairman of NITI Aayog on January 5, 2015.

Earlier, Panagariya served as a professor of Economics at New York's Columbia University till.

A Rajasthan University alumnus, Panagariya holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Princeton University.

Panagariya has in the past been the Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and a Professor of Economics and Co-director, Center for International Economics, University of Maryland at College Park.

He has also worked for the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in various capacities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Investigators of special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are examining the documents related to former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn to see if he was secretly paid by the Turkish government to lobby against a critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mueller's team has asked the White House for documents related to Flynn's lobbying and questioned witnesses about whether he was paid by the Turkish government, according to a report from The New York Times.The document request was not a formal subpoena, the newspaper has reported.

"The White House will not be discussing any specific communications with the Special Counsel out of respect for the Special Counsel and his process. Beyond that, as I have stressed repeatedly, we continue to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel,"CNN quoted Ty Cobb, the White House special counsel as saying.

"We've said before we're collaborating with the special counsel on an ongoing basis," he told the newspaper."It's full cooperation mode as far as we are concerned," he said, according to the report.

Flynn's former lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group, was paid $530,000 to represent a Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin but the contract ended in mid-Novermber 2016 because that time Flynn was announced as President Donald Trump's first national security adviser.

Flynn was forced to resign in February after 24 days as national security adviser after it was reported that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his phone calls with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.Since then, Flynn has become a target of both federal and congressional investigators and prosecutors have used multiple grand juries to issue subpoenas for documents related to him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived in Tehran to attend swearing in ceremony of his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani and discuss bilateral ties.

According to the Presidential palace statement Ghani will discuss bilateral issues with the Rouhani during his visit to Iran, Tolo News reported.

This comes after the Iranian president criticized Afghanistan's dam project at a conference on sandstorms in Tehran on Monday.

Rouhani said: "We cannot remain silent about the thing which is apparently damaging our environment such as the establishment of several dams in Afghanistan like Kajaki, Kamal Khan and Salma in the north and south of Afghanistan."

He said the dam projects in Afghanistan "threatens a number of bordering provinces in Iran".

Civil society activists from Afghanistan and residents of different provinces have reacted after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that dam projects in Afghanistan are damaging the environment.

"The remarks by the Iranian president show that Iran is not paying respect to the Helmand River agreement signed between Afghanistan and Iran in 1970. Their demands are a lot," said Rahmatullah Zaland, member of Paktia associations.

Neighbouring Iran receive much water from Afghanistan's two water zones - Helmand and Harirrod Zones.

Following comments by Rouhani on Afghanistan's dam projects, the Afghan Ministry of Water and Energy said, building dams on Helmand River is Kabul's top priority which is aimed at managing the country's water resources and improving the national economy.

On an average basis, the scale of water resources in Afghanistan is estimated up to 70 billion cubic meters annually. But 80 percent of these waters are flowing to Iran, Pakistan and other neighbouring nations in the Central Asian countries.

Some 70 delegations from foreign countries and international organisations have so far arrived in Tehran to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran.

The inauguration ceremony will be held in the parliament where Rouhani is expected to propose his 18-member cabinet on the same day for a vote of confidence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Soon after raids carried out by the Income Tax Department (ITD) on the premises of Karnataka Minister had ended, the Congress Party on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had initiated it to instill a sense of fear.

Speaking to the media in Bengaluru, Congress party MLA Shaktisinh Gohil accompanied by the 43 other MLAs who flew down to Bengaluru from Gujarat last week, painted the IT raids to be a 'misuse of power'.

" has been a businessman for 30 years, and has regularly filed tax returns. Three-day continuous raids are unheard of; this is a misuse of power by the BJP. The case being investigated is an old on; why did the IT department wait for us to come and then begin the raids? This has been done by the BJP solely to instill fear," he said, while suggesting raids to be conducted in the office of the BJP Chief Amit Shah.

Earlier, the 44 Congress MLAs currently stationed in Bengaluru attended a meeting with the Governor of Karnataka Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, in an attempt to 'safegaurd' democratic principles.

"Vajubhai has been a Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly, so he knows each of us personally. He has been an honest individual, who has risen above . This is why we chose to meet him, to safeguard our democracy and stand by our principles; not to indulge in dirty like the BJP," said Gohil.

"We want to go back as soon as possible, although nothing has been planned yet. We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow," he added.

Furthermore, Gohil denied reports of MLAs being detained by force and said any attempt by the saffron party to contact Congress party leaders or workers will be recorded hereafter.

"Neither we offer bribes nor accept it. We have notified our party cadets to install CCTVs wherever necessary. Any attempts of the BJP to buy us will be foiled. We will also record calls if required," added Gohil.

Earlier, the Congress accused the BJP of buying and threatening their MLAs in Gujarat for Rs 15 crore and parading its 44 MLAs in Bengaluru.

The Congress had earlier said that the BJP is using "money, muscle and state power" to engineer defection after at least six of its MLAs resigned to join the BJP.

In this backdrop, the Election Commission of India sought an inquiry report from the Chief Secretary of Gujarat over the allegations made by the Congress.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday launched an awareness campaign in collaboration with a local NGO against the use of Chinese threads in kite flying.

Students participated in large number in this campaign which was organised at Krishna Public High School in Jammu.

The event was held to create awareness for boycotting Chinese thread while flying Kite on Raksha Bandhan.

Ashwani Sharma, Station House Officer (SHO) of Bakshi Nagar, Jammu and Karandeep Singh of Child Care, a Non-profit organization (NGO) led the campaign in which a drawing competition was also organised to support the cause.

"Through this campaign, we informed students about the injuries which are caused due to Chinese thread and also how fatal it could be for children," said SHO Ashwani Sharma of Bakshi Nagar, Jammu after launching the campaign.

He also informed students that use of Chinese threads popularly known as 'gattu' in the market is banned and whoever uses and sell this, will be dealt according to law.

The police official also recommended everyone to use Kacha Dhaga instead of Chinese thread while flying the kite.

"It's just not about boycotting Chinese products in India, but it is also about people's safety. We should celebrate festival with love and affection and that's why we are banning these products," Karandeep Singh, Chairman of 'Child Care', a non governmental organisation told ANI.

Kite flying takes place in huge numbers on Raksha Bandhan and last year, many cases of fatal injuries were reported due to Chinese threads.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Fifteen Sri Lankan parliamentarians will visit China next week to attend a program on disaster management.

China handed over the equipment estimated at 293,000 U.S. dollars to the Sri Lankan Parliament to boost parliament to parliament ties between the two countries.

While appreciating and accepting the donation, Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said to date over 100 parliamentarians had visited China for several programs with the support of China.

Jayasuriya said a further 15 parliamentary members would visit China next week to undergo a program on disaster management. "We hope to strengthen this relationship further," Jayasuriya said.

China's Ambassador to Sri Lanka. Yi Xianliang, said China welcomed more local parliamentarians to visit China and would look forward to further boosting ties with the island country.

Yi said he would also encourage more Chinese companies and investors to invest in Sri Lanka.

Recently, China Merchants Port Holdings has signed a $1.12 billion agreement with the SriLanka Ports Authority to develop the Hambantota Port in southern Sri Lanka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Although the festival of Raksha Bandhan is special for every brother and sister, but this time it's even more special for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders will soon get Rakhis sent by Muslim sisters from Lucknow on the auspicious occasion of Raksha bandhan.

Lauding Prime Minister Modi and Adiyanath's efforts to bring change for the sufferers Triple talaq practice, Muslim women here have sent Rakhis for their 'brothers' wishing them to continue their good work they initiated.

"Prime Minister Modi and CM Yogi have supported us in our fight against triple talaq and played the role of being a brother. Because of that we all have decided that we will also take the responsibility of being their sister by sending rakhis to our brother PM Modi Ji and CM Yogi ji," one of the Muslim women told ANI.

Carrying the photographs of both the leaders, Muslim women sitting at Imambada said, "Maulana did not support us, our voices were suppressed but PM Modi, CM Yogi stood by us and raised their voices against this issue. I say, what Modi is doing for the country is very good. What he is doing for women, especially for Muslim women, is very good. We also hope that our brothers will be with us in future as well, we pray for them that Allah will make their efforts even better."

Another woman urged the assembled gathering to take the responsibility for initiating reform in the Triple Talaq issue. She appreciated the PM's stand in this regard.

Prime Minister Modi has termed Triple Talaq as a menace that was crippling the lives of Muslim women in India.

During a discussion on the Commission for Backward Classes, Prime Minister suggested that the political parties should hold conferences for 'backward Muslims'.

Yogi Adityanath has also voiced his support to abolish triple talaq practice.

He said the politicians maintaining silence on the issue of 'triple talaq' were equally responsible as those practising it.

He also linked the Muslim practice of divorce to the disrobing of Draupadi in the Mahabharata.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Vice President-elect Venkaiah Naidu after winning the 15th Vice Presidential elections today, said that his appointment speaks of the beauty of the Indian parliamentary democracy, adding he will sincerely operate the functioning of the Rajya Sabha as the chairman.

"I am humbled by the honour bestowed on me by electing me to the office of the Vice President of India, and by the virtue of which I will also be acting as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. I am grateful to the Members of Parliament belonging to different political parties who in an overwhelming manner have supported my candidature cutting across party line. This speaks of the beauty of our parliamentary democracy. As the chairman of Rajya Sabha I will sincerely try to chair the functioning of the House to enable it to effectively further the larger interest of the nation," Naidu said at a gathering at his residence, where several political dignitaries descended to congratulate him.

He added that he will uphold the dignity and decorum of the House with the cooperation of all the members by acting as per the rules of the House's procedure.

"For a common man like me with a background of agriculture, it is like a milestone in India's democratic journey. I am really grateful to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, to the leader of the various NDA constituents and also to the parties which are not part of the NDA who were kind enough to extend their support to me," he asserted.

Meanwhile, wishes are pouring for Vice President-designate Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the 13th Vice President.

Speaking to ANI Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that Naidu's win with such a great margin shows a great symbol of "cross-party" acceptance.

Speaking on the same, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that India as a nation will move forward under Naidu.

He further said that Naidu has a heart for the poor, but above all the "transformation" happening in India, which is very important.

Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has been elected as the 13th Vice President of India with 516 votes.

Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi congratulated Naidu for winning Vice-Presidential polls.

"I congratulate him on his victory and wish him all the best in his new office of Vice-President of India," Gopalkrishna Gandhi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Naidu on being elected as the next Vice President of India, expressing confidence that the former union minister will remain committed to the goal of nation building.

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee congratulated Naidu and said, "I Congratulate Naidu ji, our next Vice President of India. I wish him well. In tradition of democracy, Gopalkrishna Gandhi ji fought with dignity for certain ideal".

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also congratulated Naidu for being elected as new Vice President of India. He took to twitter saying, "Heartiest congratulations to Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji on winning the Vice-Presidential poll".

Total 771 out of 785 MPs cast their votes today. However, it was revealed that 14 Members of Parliament (MPs) were not present during the voting process.

Voting for Vice Presidential Election ended with a total poll percentage of 98.21%.

The voting began at 10 a.m. earlier in the day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With Venkaiah Naidu being elected as the next Vice President of India, the Congress has thanked their candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi for being their candidate in the elections.

Addressing the media Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury said that they are grateful for Gandhi for becoming their candidate.

"The fight was between two political stands. We are really happy that the campaign was done in a grateful and dignified manner," Yechury said.

However, he added that if there was any invalid vote then the parties will see to it accordingly.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also congratulated and thanked Gandhi for his support and being their candidate.

Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has been elected as the new Vice President of India with 516 votes.

Whereas, Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi has secured 244 votes.

760 votes were valid while 11 were invalid.

381 votes was the quota set to win the polls.

Total 771 out of 785 MPs cast their votes today.

However, it was revealed that 14 Members of Parliament (MPs) were not present during the voting process.

Voting for Vice Presidential Election ended with a total poll percentage of 98.21%.

The term of incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who held the position for two consecutive terms, will come to an end on August 10.

The voting began at 10 a.m. earlier in the day.

The Vice-President is selected through a secret ballot by the members of the Electoral College consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

The nominated Members of Rajya Sabha as well as of Lok Sabha are also eligible to be included in the Electoral College and, therefore, are entitled to participate in the election.

Members of Parliament had to use special pens for marking their choice.

Votes marked with any other pen are liable to be rejected.

The ballot paper contained the names of the contesting candidates, but did not contain any election symbol.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Saturday congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the 13th Vice President of India, saying his journey from a farmer's son to Vice President is victory for farmers which have contributed to nation's growth.

Shah took to Twitter expressing his happiness with a series of tweets, and said, "Heartiest congratulations to Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji on winning the Vice-Presidential poll."

Lauding Naidu's victory, Shah further tweeted saying, "The journey of Naidu ji, a farmer' son, to the office of Vice President is the victory of every small farmer contributing to nations growth".

Hailing Naidu's knowledge and experience, Shah also tweeted, "I am sure @MVenkaiahNaidu ji's extensive knowledge and vast experience will be a great asset to the office of Vice-President & Rajya Sabha".

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too congratulated Venkaiah Naidu and expressed confidence that the former union minister will remain committed to the goal of nation building.

In a series of tweets, the Prime Minister recalled his memories of working with Naidu in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Centre, adding that he will cherish this aspect of their association.

Meanwhile, wishes and greetings have begun pouring in, as the nation including politicos are congratulating Naidu for his victory.

Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu was elected as the 13th Vice President of India with 516 votes.

Whereas, Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi has secured 244 votes. A total 771 out of 785 MPs cast their votes today.

However, it was revealed that 14 Members of Parliament (MPs) were not present during the voting process. Voting for Vice Presidential Election ended with a total poll percentage of 98.21%.

The term of incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who held the position for two consecutive terms, will come to an end on August 10.

The voting began at 10 a.m. earlier in the day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Minutes after M. Venkaiah Naidu was elected as the 13th Vice President of India, politicians and common people alike expressed their confidence and happiness over his win on Saturday.

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee congratulated Naidu and said, "I Congratulate Naidu ji, our next Vice President of India. I wish him well. In tradition of democracy, Gopalkrishna Gandhi ji fought with dignity for certain ideal".

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also congratulated Naidu for being elected as new Vice President of India. He took to twitter saying, "Heartiest congratulations to Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji on winning the Vice-Presidential poll".

Naidu further tweeted saying, "Wish Sri @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu a successful journey as he embarks upon his new duties. He will surely lead the nation with wisdom & grace."

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also shared his happiness over Naidu's win and said, "Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu ji on being elected Vice President of India. My best wishes for success in your new responsibilities".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too congratulated him and recalled his memories of working with Naidu in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Centre, adding that he will cherish this aspect of their association.

"Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected India's Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure. I am confident @MVenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building," the Prime Minister said.

Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu was elected as the 13th Vice President of India with 516 votes.

Whereas, Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi has secured 244 votes.

Total 771 out of 785 MPs cast their votes today. However, it was revealed that 14 Members of Parliament (MPs) were not present during the voting process.

Voting for Vice Presidential Election ended with a total poll percentage of 98.21%.

The voting began at 10 a.m. earlier in the day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday expressed confidence over winning the Vice Presidential polls and said their nominee M. Venkaiah Naidu will do justice to the post.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told media that he was sure of Naidu's victory.

"I am sure of the victory. I hope that all members will vote. All NDA partners and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have described Venkaiah as unique personality. He will do justice for the post that he would hold from today," Javadekar said.

He further said Naidu will be one of the finest vice presidents and will conduct Rajya Sabha by taking everyone into confidence.

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also lauded Naidu and said he would strengthen the democratic principles as Vice President of India and Chairman of Rajya Sabha.

"Venkaiah ji is dedicated to the poor and knows democratic principles well. He struggled to serve the poor his entire life," Naqvi added.

Voting for Vice Presidential elections will be held today at the Parliament House complex between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

NDA candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu is pitted against Opposition parties' nominee Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

The counting of votes will begin after polling and the results will be declared by 7 PM. The one who bags 50 per cent plus one vote of the total valid votes cast will win the poll.

The electoral college for vice president consists of elected and nominated members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

The term of incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who held the position for two consecutive terms, will come to an end on August 10.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested a person who is accused of chopping off a professor's hand in Kerala in 2010. The accused was absconding.

An FIR was filed against Masoor, 47, and certain members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) for chopping off the hand of Professor T. J. Joseph, who had allegedly ridiculed Prophet Mohammed in the Malayalam question paper prepared for the internal examination of B. Com students at Newman College, Thodupuzha, Idukki district.

The FIR was originally filed on July 4, 2010 at the Muvattupuzha Police Station in Ernakulam District. They were charged with criminal conspiracy and consequent lethal attack on Professor Joseph.

On April 30, 2015, NIA Special Court in Ernakulam completed trial against 31 accused persons in the case and convicted 13 accused persons for various offences including those under the UA (P) Act for committing the terrorist act.

?On June 1, 2017, the NIA filed third supplementary charge sheet in this case against six accused persons including Mansoor, for offences punishable under sections 118, 341, 427, 324, 326, 506, 201, 202, 212, 153(A) and 307 r/w 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

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Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said that the country will remain stable if it remains on the path of democracy, otherwise there will be chaos.

During an informal chat with journalists after reaching Punjab House from Murree, Sharif said that he has a lot to speak on circumstances surrounding his disqualification, but for the time being he wants to remain silent.

Referring to the Supreme Court's grounds for his disqualification in the Panama Papers case, he questioned as how could he declare a salary that he had never received from his son's company.

"Whatever happened with me is in front of you all. Had there been any evidence of corruption, kickbacks or misuse of public funds there would have been logic [in the disqualification]," Geo News quoted Sharif as saying.

Sharif said that he acted upon the Supreme Court's verdict as he believes in the rule of law.

The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief claimed that he has done nothing which obstructed the country's progress.

"I want to take the country's politics in the right direction. I haven't used crass words against my political opponents. I am not politically isolated," he said.

Sharif, while referring to former military ruler of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf, asked whether or not there was any court in the country that could convict a person who violated the Constitution twice.

He also alleged that Baloch leader Akbar Bugti was ruthlessly killed during the Musharraf regime leading to instability in Balochistan and questioned that did anyone question those who weree responsibe for it and did anyone hold them accountable.

Earlier, Sharif was welcomed by scores of his followers on his arrival in Islamabad.

The former premier's convoy was surrounded by PML-N supporters, prompting Nawaz to get out of his car at one point and greet the crowd.

According to the report, Sharif will be staying in the capital tonight and proceed to Lahore Sunday morning.

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Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has initiated the process to form a special parliamentary committee to probe allegations levelled by MNA Ayesha Gulalai against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan.

Sadiq has asked chief whip Sheikh Aftab and Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah to nominate members for the committee, Geo News reports.

The Code of Conduct Committee will consist of 20 members. Aftab has been requested to nominate 13 members to the committee while Shah will nominate seven.

The hearings of the committee will be held in-camera and its final report will be submitted after a month.

Earlier today, the National Assembly passed a resolution, supported by the PML-N, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement, calling for the formation of a committee to probe Gulalai's allegations.

PTI members were not present in the assembly when the resolution was taken up.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday stressed that dialogue and debate is the only solution to the number of global challenges varying from terrorism to climate change.

The Prime Minister said this in a video message for the second edition of f "Samvad"- Global Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness.

"As inter-connected and inter-dependent world of 21st century battles a number of global challenges, from terrorism to climate change; I am confident that the solutions will be found through Asia's oldest traditions of dialogue and debate," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

He further said that Samvad (dialogue) is only way to cut through deep rooted religious stereotypes and prejudices that divide communities across world and 'sow seeds of conflict between nations.'

The Prime Minister said that he is a "product of the ancient Indian tradition that firmly believes in dialogue on difficult issues."

Giving examples from Indian mythology such as Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha and Bhakta Prahlada, the Prime Minister said that the purpose of each of their actions was to uphold Dharma, which has sustained Indians from ancient to modern times.

Further calling for 'harmonious environmental consciousness', the Prime Minister said every individual should nurture nature and should not exploit it.

"If man does not nurture nature then nature reacts in the form of climate change. Man must relate to nature, man must revere nature, not merely consider it a resource to be exploited," he said.

The second edition of conference, is being organised in Yangon today and tomorrow.

In September 2015, the Vivekananda Kendra had hosted the first edition of this conference in New Delhi.

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Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has assured that the third phase of civic polls in Province 2 would be held on due date, that is September 18, and the date could not be postponed on any grounds.

"Whether or not a political party takes part in the polls, the poll date can't be changed now," The Himalyan Times quoted Deuba, as saying during at a press meet organised in Janakpurdham.

Deuba, who is also the president of Nepali Congress (NC), said that Constitution Amendment Bill would be tabled in the House for endorsement at the earliest as attempts to garner two-thirds majority in the Parliament for amendment to the statute were in the final stage.

According to the report, he also accused the principal opposition The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) of not cooperating in the passage of the amendment bill.

Deuba said that Nepali Congress wanted to get the amendment bill endorsed by the Parliament before the upcoming civic polls in Province 2 but the bill has not been tabled yet as per the recommendation of Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal leaders.

Deuba also urged the agitating RJP-N to participate in the upcoming polls.

Emphasizing that the civic polls in Province 2 is a matter of prestige for Nepali Congress as the party has a stronghold in Madhes, Deuba said that NC will emerge the largest from these polls.

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Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf worker has approached a police station in Peshawar to invoke section 499/500 of Pakistan Penal code to register an FIR against MNA Ayesha Gulalai for defaming the party and its chairman, Imran Khan.

On Friday, Muhammad Amir Khan,chairman of the PTI's Youth Revival Committee PTI has submitted an application to the SHO of Peshawar's Hayatabad police station, requesting him to lodge an FIR against Gulalai.Khan claimed that Gulalai made allegations against Imran at Muqam and Reham's behest.

The SHO Hayatabad said they had received the application but it could not be entertained because it had no legal grounds. "The PTI worker has submitted an application but the crime has not been taken place in my area so he should instead go to the court and file a writ petition," Dawn quoted him as saying. "No FIR can be filed on the grounds provided in his application."

The application said Gulalai put him under immense mental agony as she "lied through electronic and print media by making false allegations against my party chairman Imran Khan and my party PTI."

Gulalai on August 1 resigned from the PTI after accusing Imran and his 'gang' of immoral behaviour against women. Gulalai had claimed that the PTI chief had been sending her obscene messages since 2013, a charge vehemently refuted by the PTI.

PTI Imran Khan has accused Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz of coordinating with media group to malign him over former PTI member Ayesha Gulalai harassment allegation.

He suspected the PML-N had used Gulalai and their "old smear tactics" to achieve their own ends.

Khan claimed he was taken by surprise by the MNA's allegations, especially because he had met her only 24 hours before her explosive press conference on Tuesday. "She was there with the NA-1 delegation; we discussed the seat as she wanted a ticket and asked me to let her campaign there... [and] give a speech," the Dawn quoted Khan, as saying.

"I told her that her performance in the assembly was not good and we had given her a reserved seat. I thought she had a lot of potential...; she performed very well in the beginning.... I don't know what happened to her," the PTI chief said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the wake of the attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat while he was on a visit to the flood-affected state, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, under the leadership of Ajay Maken, will organise a protest march on Saturday commencing from Teen Murthi Bhawan to Gujarat Bhawan, Kautilya Marg at 2:30 pm today.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Friday had said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) goons allegedly pelted heavy stones at Rahul's car on his way to the helipad after meeting flood victims at Gujarat's Dhanera.

After this assertion, Gandhi further attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying such obstacles like raising black flags, throwing stones won't stop them from helping people.

took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

     ,            ,            Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 4, 2017

Surjewala branded the attack on Gandhi's convoy "disgusting and disgraceful," accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying the latter must know the truth can't be silenced.

Also, earlier, Rahul visited flood affected areas in Gujarat where he was shown black flags by a group of protesters.

Addressing the villagers and the media, said that he was in Assam the other day, Rajasthan on Friday and now in Gujarat.

Amidst his speech, few people waved black flags to which he asked the guards to let them in, and said, "I don't care."

"It's a difficult and grievous time for all of you and so I wanted to come amongst you all," he said addressing the crowd.

Following this, reacting to the Congress' barbs and demand of launching a probe into the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has informed that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate the incident in detail and assured that strict action will be taken against those who are guilty.

The Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate the incident in detail & will take strict action against those found responsible. https://t.co/v58ltUs4ZS  Vijay Rupani (@vijayrupanibjp) August 4, 2017

"Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will take strict action against those found responsible (sic)," Rupani tweeted.

Rupani had earlier taken to Twitter to condemn the incident and assure an inquiry into the same.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy.

I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible," he tweeted.
Emphasising that terrorism is a common problem for both Tehran and Kabul, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday called for cooperation between the two sides against it.

During a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani, he said that Iran has made every effort in bringing about peace and stability in Afghanistan and has always stood by Afghan people in different segments of history.

He described Chabahar Port as a suitable link to promote economic, trade and mineral cooperation between the two sides.

The Afghan President congratulated Rouhani on being re-elected as Iran's next President.

He also hailed Iran's efforts in bringing about peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Ghani said Afghanistan is in favour of maintaining cooperation with the neighboring countries like Iran to safeguard its borders.

Earlier, Ghani arrived in Tehran to attend swearing in ceremony of his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani.

About 70 delegations from foreign countries and international organisations have so far arrived in Tehran to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran .

The inauguration ceremony will be held in the parliament where Rouhani is expected to propose his 18-member cabinet on the same day for a vote of confidence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Branding the attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat as 'shameful', party leader Anand Sharma on Saturday said that the incident clearly indicates that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is 'disturbed' with the campaigning and upsurge of the grand old party across the nation.

"In a democracy, there is no room for violence and attack against political leaders. It is clear that the BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are disturbed by the efforts and campaigning of Rahul Gandhi and the upsurge of the Congress," Sharma told ANI.

Sharma said that the Congress is committed to the Gandhian values and principles and will always fight against violence and the communal agendas.

"We want to make it absolutely clear to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, and to the BJP president that Congress shall never be cowed down. We will stand up and keep on fighting. Eventually their lies are getting exposed and their true faces are coming out," he said.

Another Congress leader Kapil Sibal said if a person with special protection is not spared, then it clearly reflects how the ruling-BJP Government is neither taking care of the Opposition leader in the country nor punishing the culprits.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Friday had said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) goons allegedly pelted heavy stones at Rahul's car on his way to the helipad after meeting flood victims at Gujarat's Dhanera.

After this assertion, Gandhi further attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying such obstacles like raising black flags, throwing stones won't stop them from helping people.

Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

Surjewala branded the attack on Gandhi's convoy "disgusting and disgraceful," accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying the latter must know the truth can't be silenced.

Also, earlier, Rahul visited flood affected areas in Gujarat where he was shown black flags by a group of protesters.

Addressing the villagers and the media, Rahul Gandhi said that he was in Assam the other day, Rajasthan on Friday and now in Gujarat.

Amidst his speech, few people waved black flags to which he asked the guards to let them in, and saying, "I don't care."

"It's a difficult and grievous time for all of you and so I wanted to come amongst you all," he said addressing the crowd.

Following this, reacting to the Congress' barbs and demand of launching a probe into the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has informed that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident in detail and assured that a strict action will be taken against the guilty.

"Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will tk strict action agnst those found responsible (sic)," Rupani tweeted.

Rupani had earlier taken to Twitter to condemn the incident and assure an inquiry into the same.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible," he tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has shattered the dreams of his younger brother Punjab chief minister of becoming prime minister and of his nephew (Hamza) to take up the reins in Punjab.

A federal minister said that the decision to 'retain' Shehbaz in Punjab had been finalised and just a mere "official" announcement is left from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) about withdrawing Shehbaz from the National Assembly NA-120 race.

"The extended cabinet of Abbasi is a proof of it," he said, adding the current arrangement suited the leadership as Nawaz Sharif would see matters in the Centre and in Punjab.

A number of PML-N leaders in Punjab believe that Shehbaz has missed or made to miss a "golden opportunity" to succeed his elder brother as there is no guarantee he will make it to Islamabad to don the premier's cap in 2018 in case the PML-N wins the election as more players from the elder Sharif family may be in the race for the top slot, the Dawn reports.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said, "The decision that will continue serving in Punjab is almost certain."

Punjab government spokesman Malik Ahmad Khan said that the parliamentary party headed by Nawaz Sharif was authorised to announce reversal of its earlier decision (to nominate Shahbaz for prime minister's slot). Khan, however, denied any differences in the Sharif brothers saying the crisis had even further united them and Shahbaz would follow his elder brother's instructions.

After Shehbaz was announced Nawaz Sharif's successor, the leaders in PML-N argued that Punjab cannot be left out as that would be disastrous for the party. Shehbaz convinced Nawaz in the begining that his son Hamza can take his place in Punjab.

Shehbaz had tried his best to convince Nawaz not to worry about Punjab and leave it to his son (Hamza). To consolidate his case, Shahbaz managed to send a request to him (Nawaz) from more than 300 PML-N MPAs from Punjab, endorsing father in the centre and son in Punjab.

Khurram Dastgir said, "Since Shahbaz has good equation with all MPAs in Punjab and all ongoing development projects are on his finger tips, a larger section of the party is of the view that he should continue delivering in Punjab."

Nawaz had announced after his disqualification by the Supreme Court that his younger brother would be prime minister after an interim arrangement of 45 days for which Abbasi was selected.

(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.)
Two motorcycle borne terrorists attacked a party of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police in Jammu and Kashmir's Nowgam on Saturday.

In this attack, a wireless operator of 29 BN CRPF received a bullet injury in his thigh.

Public Relation Officer (PRO) of CRPF, Rajesh Yadav said that the police fired in the air to avoid civilian causality as the area was very crowded and had heavy traffic movement.

The terrorists fled from the spot after the incident.

Meanwhile, a massive search operation is underway to nab the terrorists.

Further details are awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Appalled by the shocking statement by Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) leader Jaganmohan Reddy, that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu should be "shot in public", the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has condemned him for the remark.

Speaking to ANI, TDP vice-president C. M. Ramesh said that Reddy's family history is enough to describe his "culture."

"From the beginning we have been telling what his family is like. You can see his grandfather's history and his father's history," Ramesh said.

Vice President Ramesh also said, "In the elections he says that he would stay on for ten-fifteen years, but what message are you giving to the government and the people by giving such statements."

Talking about his family history Ramesh further said that the statement Reddy has given shows his culture, and advised him to be a responsible leader for the public.

Ramesh also said that Reddy is a criminal and that TDP has been maintaining this stand from the beginning.

"People have confidence in Chandrababu Naidu, we are for development and Naidu from, morning to night is only thinking about development, and how the government can bring happiness in Andhra Pradesh," he added.

Ramesh further said that people would themselves decide everything in this election and said that he has many cases filed under him, out of which in inquiry is going on in 13 cases.

"His ambition to become the chief minister will not come true as he has a lot of cases under him," he also said.

Similarly, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Association president, Ashwini Kumar Parida told reporters after their meeting that it was unfortunate that the Opposition leader spoke in such an intemperate manner.

"I have never come across such an incident in 37-years of my career. Elected representatives and officials should work together and everyone should respect the democratic institutions," he said.

The Association demands firm action against the accused, Parida added.

In the past, a series of incidents have been reported against YSR president Jagmohan Reddy.

Earlier when Reddy toured to meet a few bus accident victims in Krishna district he had a heated argument with the doctors and district collector, Babu Ahmad. He then apparently threatened to send Babu Ahmad and the doctors to Jail.

The outburst at Krishna District Collector Babu Ahmed by Reddy drew a widespread condemnation from various sections of the society.

A criminal case was registered against Reddy at Nandigama police station after the incident.

The AP IAS Officers Association, at an emergency meeting, strongly denounced the leader of Opposition's behaviour and condemned the "attempt made to degrade the institution of Collector and District Magistrate".

Reddy had allegedly created a scene when the State government organised CII Partnership Summit and other programmes at Vizag in January this year as well.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress on Saturday lambasted Mika Singh for using term 'Apna Pakistan' in a viral video and said being an Indian, to praise a country like Pakistan, which ploys against New Delhi is incorrect.

"The act of Mika Singh is very unfortunate and condemnable. He is enjoying the overwhelming fame because of India. The Indians have showered their love on him. He should know that the Pakistan which he is praising is our enemy. Pakistan always plans and plots against India and to praise such a country is incorrect," Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam told ANI.

Nirupam asked Mika to apologise for his act and to withdraw his statement.

Mika Singh has drawn flak from Indian-Americans for his appeal to his fans in Houston to join him in celebrating the independence days of India and "Apna Pakistan".

People are also said to have taken Singh's comment as cruel joke in the wake of the ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC), which have claimed lives of many Indian security personnel and innocent civilians.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday received a notification that secret information related to Indian Army from the SDM Sadar office in Jhansi, is being given out to detective agents.

Personnel in the office are being interrogated in connection with the case.

A few records have been taken in possession along with computers and pendrives.

The required action will be taken on the basis of evidence.

No arrest has been made yet.

A team led by ATS sub-inspector K.M. Rai is investigating the matter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Venkaiah Naidu is the 13th Vice-president of India and is the second Vice-president from Andhra Pradesh.

He was born at Chavatapalem in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh on July 1, 1949.

? His father was a farmer and he grew up in an environment where he could empathise with the problems of the farmers and the people of backward classes.

? Before joining active politics, Naidu was much of a social worker. After completing his graduation, Naidu pursued law from Andhra University in Visakhapatnam.

? Venkaiah Naidu's entry into politics was marked by his active participation in 'Jai Andhra Movement' of 1972.

? He was a swayamsevak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1973 during his college days.

? 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.

? During the Emergency between 1975-77, he remained underground until his arrest.

? He used to distribute anti-government literature in educational institutions in Andhra and Tamil Nadu.

? Naidu rose to prominence along with S Jaipal Reddy, who was then in Janata Party, during the campaign by NT Rama Rao.

? Naidu gained immense popularity because of his outspoken nature and great communication skills.

? After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed in 1980, he became Vice president of its youth wing.

? He was leader of the BJP Legislature Party in Andhra Pradesh, state general secretary and state unit chief.

? Naidu displayed his leadership skills when he won the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections twice in 1978 and 1983 from Udayagiri constituency.

? Naidu's oratory skills elevated him to different positions as a leader in the BJP and made him its president in 2002.

? He succeeded Jana Krishnamurthy as the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party. On 28 January 2004, he was elected unopposed for a full 3-year term.

? Naidu was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1998. He was re-elected twice in 2004 and 2010 from Karnataka.

? He served as the party spokesperson from 1996 to 2000.

? His communication skills and ability to maintain network with top political leaders of the party helped him achieving the post of president of the BJP and finally to the Union cabinet.

? Naidu was Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information and Broadcasting in the Narendra Modi Government before he was nominated for the post of Vice President.

? It was his second term as a Union Cabinet Minister.

? After the Democratic Alliance (NDA) 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 was also instrumental in helping BJP form alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a strong regional party.

? During the discussions held about bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in Rajya Sabha, Naidu fought for the Seemandhra people.

? M Venkaiah Naidu raised Special Status to Andhra Pradesh issue in Rajya Sabha and demanded special category state status to AP.

? To serve the poor and downtrodden of his hometown Nellore, Naidu initiated a social service organisation called 'Swarna Bharath Trust'. The trust provides education to the needy children. It also imparts employment training to women and the youth.

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iStock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- A Northwestern University professor accused in the fatal stabbing of a man found in the educator's Chicago apartment has been arrested -- as has the second suspect in the case -- and both men are now in police custody in Oakland, California, Chicago police announced late Friday night.



Arrest warrants for first-degree murder in Chicago were issued earlier this week for both men.



Latham was arrested around 7:30 p.m. in Oakland by U.S. Marshals after the agency was able to track the professor to the Bay Area city and get in contact with him, U.S. Marshals spokesman Ed Farrell told ABC News.



Farrell said U.S. Marshals were able to facilitate his surrender. He turned himself in at the Federal Courthouse in Oakland.



Andrew Warren was arrested after he "safely surrendered" himself around 6:30 p.m. to San Francisco police, authorities said.



Both men -- taken into custody without incident -- will appear before an Oakland court and are now awaiting extradition to Illinois, where they will be questioned by Chicago homicide detectives.



Here's what we know about the case:



The crime



On July 27 around 8:30 p.m. local time, officers responded to a call at an apartment registered to Wyndham Lathem, an associate professor at Northwestern, Chicago police said.



There, officers found a man with several lacerations to his body, police said. The victim died at the scene.



A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department told ABC News that authorities believe Lathem "and the victim had a relationship."



The suspects



Police have identified Lathem, 42, as well as Andrew Warren, 56, an Oxford employee, as suspects in the killing.



Lathem, who has been a faculty member at Northwestern's microbiology-immunology department for 10 years, has been banned from entering the school, Alan Cubbage, Northwestern University vice president for university relations, said in a statement Wednesday.



"There is no indication of any risk to the Northwestern community from this individual at this time," Cubbage added.



According to police, Lathem sent a video message to various friends and family members apologizing for his alleged involvement in the killing.



Lathem described the killing as the biggest mistake of his life, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, but police will not release the video, as it is evidence in an ongoing investigation.



Guglielmi told ABC News Friday the two suspects donated $1,000 in the victims name to the public library in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.



Warren's city of residence is listed as Oxford on his arrest warrant.



The manhunt



Guglielmi said in an email Thursday that the men are at-large but "we have an idea of their whereabouts."



"Efforts to locate them are only intensifying from here on in," Guglielmi said.



He said that once police had "suspicions that the professor and his associate may have fled the Chicago area," several federal agencies were brought in to investigate and a national alert was sent to police departments across the country advising that murder warrants were issued for both men.



"Our primary focus is to facilitate a safe surrender and we strongly encourage Professor Lathem and Mr. Warren to do the right thing and turn themselves into any police department in the U.S. or contact CPD [the Chicago Police Department] and we will make any necessary accommodations," Guglielmi said.



Lathem's passport and Warren's travel visa have been restricted, Guglielmi said.



The victim



Family members of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, confirmed in a statement Friday that he was killed in the apartment. Arrest warrants for the suspects identified the victim as Trenton Cornell.



The Cornell-Duranleau family said, "Our Family is deeply saddened by the death of our son. It is our hope that the person or persons responsible for his death are brought to justice."



The family requested privacy as they "process and grieve."



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Former union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu is set to take on former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the post of vice-president of India today.

The winner of the polls will be appointed as the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

The term of incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who held the position for two consecutive terms, will come to an end on August 10.

According to the Election Commission officials, the voting will begin on Friday at 10 a.m. and will carry on till 5 p.m. The counting of votes will start at 7 p.m. and the result will be declared Saturday evening.

The Vice- President is selected through a secret ballot by the members of the Electoral College consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The nominated Members of Rajya Sabha as well as of Lok Sabha are also eligible to be included in the Electoral College and, therefore, are entitled to participate in the election.

Members of Parliament will use special pens for marking their choice. Votes marked with any other pen are liable to be rejected. The ballot paper shall contain the names of the contesting candidates, but does not contain any election symbol.

Unlike the President, the Vice-President is not allotted any special residential privileges while in office. While the President of India stays at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Vice-President is not subjected to any such benefits during his or her tenure.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sales rise 1.33% to Rs 2284.08 crore

Net profit of Apollo Tyres declined 71.67% to Rs 67.13 crore in the quarter ended June 2017 as against Rs 236.93 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2016. Sales rose 1.33% to Rs 2284.08 crore in the quarter ended June 2017 as against Rs 2254.03 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2016.2284.082254.038.4317.62179.28399.1195.29335.9867.13236.93

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Consolidates its manufacturing facility in Pimpri with its Chakan unit

Autoline Industries announced that currently it is operating through its 9 manufacturing facilities spread across India along with in-house Design & Style Centre.

In continuation of Company's initiatives to achieve the operational efficiency, cost reduction and to reduce the debt, the Company has taken one more major step by way of consolidating one of its manufacturing facility situated at F-II, 24/25, MIDC, Pimpri, Pune to its Chakan Units, Pune.

The Company has entered into Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 03 August 2017 with the prospective buyer to transfer the said land and buildings thereon ('immovable property'). The Company will utilize the sale proceeds to settle the debt that has a charge on the above said immovable property and reduce overall debt exposure of the Company.

The Company believes that the consolidation of facilities will accrue substantial operational efficiency, cost savings, and smoothening of supply chain management by utilizing the available resources in Chakan Unit.

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Upto an aggregate Rs 1500 crore

Bank of Baroda announced that the Finance Committee of the Bank has approved on 05 August 2017 the issuance of AT-1 Capital Bonds compliant with Basel III Capital Regulations of the RBI for minimum amount of Rs 500 crore with Green Shoe Option, total issuance not exceeding Rs 1500 crore.

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Sales rise 3.80% to Rs 6694.13 crore

Net profit of Chennai Petroleum Corporation declined 92.87% to Rs 33.49 crore in the quarter ended June 2017 as against Rs 469.80 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2016. Sales rose 3.80% to Rs 6694.13 crore in the quarter ended June 2017 as against Rs 6448.90 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2016.6694.136448.902.9112.02127.80704.6956.43638.0733.49469.80

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Sales rise 3.16% to Rs 1156.61 crore

Net profit of Fortis Healthcare declined 10.49% to Rs 22.61 crore in the quarter ended June 2017 as against Rs 25.26 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2016. Sales rose 3.16% to Rs 1156.61 crore in the quarter ended June 2017 as against Rs 1121.16 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2016.1156.611121.167.455.5994.4275.6935.4328.1322.6125.26

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The Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on 11th July, 2017.

The MoU outlines targets on various performance parameters of the company during the year 2017-18. The revenue from operations has been targeted at Rs.17,900 crore, the highest ever.

Specific emphasis has been laid on capacity building, modernisation, solar power plants and aiming to achieve capital expenditure of Rs.1300 crore. The thrust on 'Make in India' is ensured by inclusion of specific milestones for projects such as Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), Jaguar DARIN-III Upgrade, Mirage 2000 Upgrade and civil version of Dornier Aircraft. The company also aims to achieve 5% increase in indigenous content through indigenisation under 'Make in India' initiatives, over the previous year.

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Two of the three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants killed in a gunfight with security forces in Sopore town of the Kashmir Valley on Saturday have been identified as locals, police said.

The third militant killed in the operation conducted jointly by the police, Army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Amargarh area is yet to be identified, a police officer said here.

Javaid Ahmad Dar, a resident of Baramulla town, and Abid Hamid Mir, a resident of Bandipora, were the local militants killed in the gunfight, the official said.

"Three AK-47 rifles and two magazines have been recovered from them."

A police constable has also been injured in the gunfight.

He has been rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors described his condition as stable.

--IANS

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At least three persons were killed and scores injured in a car bomb explosion in Somali capital Mogadishu, said an official.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Security, Ahmed Mohamed Mohmud said the blast on Friday took place near Ambassador Hotel along Maka Almukarama road in Mogadishu which was the scene of a deadly attack that claimed 10 lives barely a week ago, Xinhua news agency reported.

"It's too early to comment on the number of casualties as of now but several people have been wounded," Mohmud said.

Police officer Mohamid Ali confirmed to Xinhua the explosion which went off at around 7 p.m. local time.

"So far three people have died and six others injured. Security forces are already combing the area for details," Ali said.

Security forces could be seen along the streets of the city as they stopped vehicles for search. A witness said the explosion was so heavy and could be felt from his home.

"The explosion was deafening and so huge. My house was shaking and we learnt it was away in Tree Biyano area," Shire Nur said.

The scene has been cordoned off by security forces as ambulances rush the injured to hospitals.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosions happened after both Somalia and the US forces killed a senior Al-Shabaab terrorist during a drone attack on July 30.

--IANS

pgh/

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Delhi Police busted a gang of bike-lifters and arrested four persons who stole bikes for joyrides with their girlfriends in south Delhi, police said on Saturday.

Police said the accused - identified as Dhruv Kumar, Vishal, Sonu and Sagar - are residents of south Delhi's Hauz Khas, Badarpur and Khanpur.

The arrests were made on Friday on Devli road during integrated vehicle checking by police teams.

"During checking, the police party noticed three of them were riding on a motorcycle on Khanpur-Devli road in suspicious condition. Having seen the police checking, they tried to flee from the spot but were overpowered by police teams," Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh said, adding "they failed to provide any documents".

"During verification, the bike was found to be stolen. During interrogation, they told the interrogators that they are members of a bike lifter gang and robbed bikes for joy rides with their girlfriends," Singh said.

During checking of the CCTV footage of previous robberies in the Hauz Khas area, police teams with the help of Police Mitras identified Dhruv Kumar involved in bike lifting in the Hauz Khas area. Fifteen bikes were recovered from the gang's possession, the officer added.

--IANS

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At least 50 Taliban militants were killed and three wounded in an airstrike on a militants' hideout in Afghanistan's Khost province, a local official said on Saturday.

"The strike was conducted in a remote locality in Piri area of Musa Khil district late on Friday evening," District Chief Gulab Mangal told Xinhua news agency.

Mangal said the airstrike was conducted by the US-led coalition war planes in the province, 150 km southeast of Kabul. A Taliban hideout, together with weapons and ammunition, was also destroyed in the attack.

Earlier on Saturday, the Afghan Defence Ministry also confirmed in a statement the elimination of 50 militants in Khost, but did not give details.

The Afghan forces have beefed up security operations as the Taliban and Islamic State militants have been attempting to take territory and consolidate their positions across the country.

--IANS

soni/bg

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A 47-year-old activist of a radical Muslim group was arrested here on Saturday by the NIA for alleged involvement in the chopping off of the palm of a college professor seven years ago.

According to the NIA, Manzoor was the lone absconding accused in the case. He was produced before the NIA court here.

Activists of the Popular Front of India had chopped off the right palm of Prof T.J. Joseph on July 4, 2010, when he was returning along with his family members from the Sunday mass near his home in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district.

The case was transferred to the NIA which arrested those behind the crime. In 2015, the NIA court here found 13 guilty and acquitted 18.

PFI, a radical Muslim group, was upset after Joseph - a Malayalam teacher at New Man College Thodupuzha - in the Malayalam question paper that he had prepared for an internal examination at his college had inflammatory remarks on Prophet Mohammed. The PFI chopped off his right palm in retaliation.

--IANS

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday greeted NDA candidate M Venkaiah Naidu on being elected the next Vice President of India.

He added that Naidu's elevation to the significant post was a matter of great honor for all sections of the society, specially the farmers.

In a congratulatory message issued from his office, the Chief Minister credited the positive approach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah and the BJP parliamentary board because of which the country "has got a Vice President like Naidu, who has always discharged his duties to the best of his abilities".

Adityanath also said that Naidu has had a long and illustrious public life and he comes to the new office with very rich experience.

--IANS

md/vd

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Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on Saturday immersed the ashes of her late father here.

Accompanied by her mother Vrinda Rai, husband Abhishek Bachchan and daughter Aradhya, they drove straight to the Sangam soon after arrival.

He father Krishna Raj Rai had passed away on March 18 after a prolonged battle with cancer.

The ashes were immersed almost after four months. Local priests performed the rituals for the family, which later left in a a fleet of cars for Varanasi, where the remaining ashes would be immersed in the Ganges river.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues and opposition leaders including Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on Saturday cast their votes to elect the country's next Vice-President.

The voting, which began at 10 am, saw 761 members casting their votes out of the 785 members of the electoral college till 3 pm - registering a voting percentage at 96.94 per cent, Assistant Returning Officer Mukul Pandey told reporters at Parliament House.

The voting is open till 5 pm.

The counting will be held in the evening and the results announced later on Saturday.

NDA candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu is contesting against Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Naidu, who is also a member of Rajya Sabha, left his house around 9.30 am. and voted at around 10 am. He was accompanied by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and other BJP leaders.

Besides BJP veteran L.K. Advani, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also cast their votes.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi exchanged greetings with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other leaders when he reached the voting centre.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi was accompanied by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, party leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and other opposition leaders.

Nominated Rajya Sabha member and actress Rekha also voted. She was seen exchanging greetings with SP leader Dimple Yadav, the wife of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Naidu seems to be in a comfortable position as the NDA has a clear majority in the Lok Sabha and has the support of some political parties from the south.

Naidu expressed confidence on Saturday that majority parties will vote for him.

The Lok Sabha currently has 545 members and the Rajya Sabha 244. The Lok Sabha has two vacancies, while the Rajya Sabha has one vacancy.

According to BJP officials, apart from the NDA's 81 Rajya Sabha members and 338 Lok Sabha members, members of both Houses -- of the AIADMK (50), YSR Congress (10) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (14) will also vote in favour of Naidu.

With around support of 493 members, Naidu is all set to cross the magic figure of 394. However, BJP leaders are hopeful of crossing the 500 mark.

Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former West Bengal Governor and a diplomat, has support of the Congress, the Left parties, Nationalist Congress Party, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and National Conference.

Janata Dal-United, which is now a part of NDA, had announced support for Gandhi and is likely to vote in his favour.

The winner of the polls will be appointed as the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

The term of incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who held the position for two consecutive terms, will come to an end on August 10.



Unlike the President, the Vice-President is not allotted any special residential privileges while in office. While the President of India stays at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the vice-president is not subjected to any such benefits during his or her tenure.

(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.)
Hundreds of Congress workers held a march here on Saturday to protest against the attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat a day earlier, which they said was an "attack on democracy".

The Congress workers led by Delhi unit President Ajay Maken rallied at Teen Murti roundabout in central Delhi and marched towards Gujarat Bhavan.

The protesters carrying placards and banners raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- "Rahulji kare jana seva, BJP kare hamla jaanleva", "Rahulji ke nahi rukenge kadam, Modi chahe karle jithne zulm", "Gandhiji ke Gujarat me hinsa, Modi teri kaisi mansha".

Addressing the protesters, Maken said that the Friday attack in Bansakantha district was not just on Rahul Gandhi or the Congress but an attack on India's democracy.

The former Union Minister said the Congress or its leaders will not be cowed by stone-pelters or those waving black flags in the fight to help those affected by floods in Gujarat.

The Congress Vice President was not hurt in Friday's attack, though his personal security officer was.

Earlier in the day, Gujarat Police arrested Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Youth Wing Palanpur unit General Secretary Jayesh Darji in connection with the attack.

Maken said the three-year rule of the BJP at the Centre could be described in just one word -- pattharbaazi (stone-throwing).

"... whether it is the stone attack on Rahulji, stone-pelting at our soldiers in Kashmir, or stoning minorities to death."

He said this kind of hatred had never been witnessed in the country, and such attacks were being witnessed only during the National Democratic Alliance rule.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Youth Congress and National Students Union of India (NSUI) workers staged a protest outside the BJP headquarters in central Delhi and raised slogans against the party that leads the NDA.

The police used mild force to disperse the crowd.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A craft beer bar will be opened across the US-Mexico border to "make beer no walls", a Britain-based brewery announced.

BrewDog USA, a branch of Britain's biggest craft beer brewery, announced on Thursday a plan called "The Bar on the Edge" on the first Friday of August, the annually International Beer Day celebrated by millions of people over 200 cities globally, Xinhua news agency reports.

The company's press release said since "The Bar on the Edge" will be set up across the borderline, the exact location has not been disclosed with the current building being defined as a temporary one.

Meanwhile, in order to attract fans from both countries, the bar will serve the US beer on the Mexico side and vice versa, and "the geographical border will be represented by a dotted line across the center of the bar and along the venue's outdoor seating area", the brewery said.

"We will request official permission from the local authorities...I guess it would make it more difficult to build a wall if there's a BrewDog bar in the way," James Watt, co-founder of the company, said on the official website.

BrewDog is a peculiar company relying on equity crowdfunding.

Co-founders Watt and Martin Dickie set up an "Equity for Punks" initiative at $47.5 for each share with a minimum investment of two shares as the company earlier had a hard time getting access to capital.

The establishment of the US-Mexican border wall was a crucial campaign promise by US President Donald Trump's administration and also a major contention not only between the two countries but also between the conservatives and liberals in the United States.

--IANS

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Ottawa, Aug 5 (IANS/WAM) Muslims in Canada's Quebec City are going to have their own cemetery, the citys mayor and members of the Muslim community said.

The announcement on Friday came three weeks after a referendum narrowly defeated the establishment of a Muslim-only burial ground -- a project headed by the Quebec Islamic Culture Centre -- in a nearby town.

Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume announced the land deal, explaining that city regulations allowed for the creation of a cemetery on the property.

The 6,000-square metre site will open later this year and will be the first Muslim-owned and operated cemetery in the Quebec City region.

"It's a great day," said Mohamed Labidi, head of the Quebec Islamic Culture Centre. "It is a historic day for Quebec City. Today, we are reaping the benefits of 20 years of hard work," he added.

Boufeidja Benabdallah, Interim Coordinator of the cemetery project, said the cemetery means Muslim families in the area will not have to face a long trip to visit the graves of their deceased relatives and friends. The current closest Muslim cemetery is 266 kilometres away.

The new site is next to the Notre-Dame-de-Belmont cemetery, and near the centre, where six Muslims were gunned down by a white supremacist earlier this year.

--IANS/WAM

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Members of Japan's Korean community held a ceremony on Saturday in memory of Korean victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

About 330 people, including relatives of Korean victims of the bombing, as well as Korean students joined the event held at a Korean cenotaph in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Efe news quoted an epa journalist as reporting.

During the 30-minute event, the participants prayed, read out mourning passages and offered flowers at the cenotaph.

The ceremony precedes Sunday's main commemoration which marks the August 6, 1945, nuclear attack on Hiroshima. The initial blast killed almost 90,000 people, including several thousand Koreans, and destroyed most of the city.

The US dropped a second nuclear bomb on the southern Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, killing at least 40,000 people.

The bombings came days before Japan's surrender on August 15, which brought an end to the Second World War.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
FOGSI-FIGO international conference on clinical challenges in obstetrics and gynaecology that began here on Saturday is focusing on sustainable goals on safe motherhood, new borns' health, gynae care and gynaecologic oncology.

Over 1,500 delegates are attending the three-day conference being organised jointly by the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Societies of India (FOGSI) and the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO).

"Well being has always been the priority of our specialisation. Our aim at this conference is to devise sustainable development goals to enhance quality and inject steps forward in tackling women healthcare," said S. Shantha Kumari, Organising Secretary, FOGSI-FIGO.

FIGO President C.N. Purandare said the conference is discussing reduction in maternal mortality, family planning and cancer of the cervix which are extremely important in this region and in Africa.

He said while the spacing is very important to reduce maternal mortality, cancer of the cervix is completely preventable if one can look at prevention rather than cure which FIGO is actively promoting.

Gender violence is also a concern that is being dealt by the organisation through various awareness campaigns. This year FOGSI-FIGO is organising a bikethon to raise awareness.

Prevention of female mutilation is also among the important issues that are being addressed.

Though there has been concern about high cesarean section rates in India which is 17 per cent, FIGO is of the view that cesarean section rates depend on the condition of patients.

FOGSI President Rishma D. Pai in her address said the meet will discuss ways to strengthen abortion laws in the country.

There will also be a discussion on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) which has become an epidemic as almost 35 per cent young girls suffer from it.

--IANS

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The Congress on Saturday mounted a fierce attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over the "potentially fatal" attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat, saying the violence was the "style of pursued by the BJP and RSS".

Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leaders attacked the BJP and RSS even as hundreds of Congress workers, led by Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken, staged a march from Teen Murti to Gujarat Bhawan here, raising slogans against Prime Minister Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Yesterday (Friday) such a large stone was thrown by the BJP workers. It hit one of my PSOs (Personal Security Officer) and he was hurt. This is the style of of Modiji, BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)," Rahul Gandhi said outside Parliament House.

He also said that Prime Minister Modi would not condemn Friday's attack on his convoy in Banaskantha in Gujarat as it involved his own party workers. "When they have themselves done it, how will they condemn it?" he asked.

Condemning it as a "potentially fatal" attack on Gandhi's cavalcade in Gujarat, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the Congress was a 130-year-old party that had seen many ups and downs and its leaders won't be scared by such tactics.

"This stone could kill a human. What was the police doing? Let me say that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress won't be intimidated by such tactics," Sharma said as he showed a piece of concrete allegedly hurled at Gandhi's car in Gujarat on Friday.

"It deserves the strongest condemnation, and exposes the intent, ideology, and character of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which believe in violence, intimidation, and physical assaults on political opponents or leaders.

"It is integral to their thinking and their political philosophy and their actions."

Sharma said that the BJP was using every possible means to capture power everywhere.

Blaming the state government for lack of proper security, the Congress leader said: "It cannot just wash off its hands by saying a bullet proof car was offered." He said the Congress Vice President had every right to go and stand in solidarity with those affected by floods.

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala accused Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani of shielding the goons behind the attack.

"We have lodged a complaint of 'murderous assault' against four BJP workers, but police has not registered an FIR," Surjewala said.

He alleged that Gujarat's BJP government deliberately ignored the protocol followed in the case of the Special Protection Group protectee Rahul Gandhi.

"There is an abject failure on the part of Rupani and his administration."

Earlier in the day, the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and National Students Union of India (NSUI) workers staged a protest outside the BJP headquarters in central Delhi and raised slogans against the party.

The protests came as a BJP youth wing leader was arrested and the Dhanera City BJP president named as an accused on Saturday in connection with the attack on Rahul Gandhi's car.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi faced hostile crowds waving black flags and shouting slogans in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tour of flood-hit Dhanera town in Banaskantha district. His car was pelted with stones, shattering some windowpanes and injuring his personal security officer.

--IANS

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Hundreds of Congress workers on Saturday marched towards Gujarat Bhawan here to protest against the attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat.

The Congress workers gathered at Teen Murti in central Delhi and then marched towards Gujarat Bhawan.

The march was led by Delhi Congress President Ajay Maken.

The protesters raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Earlier in the day, the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and National Students Union of India (NSUI) workers staged a protest outside the BJP headquarters in central Delhi and raised slogans against the party.

The police had to use mild force to disperse the crowd.

Gandhi's car was stoned in Gujarat's Banaskantha on Friday while he was on a tour of flood-affected areas. The Congress leader was not hurt but his personal security officer was hurt in the stoning.

--IANS

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Hours after an AAP legislator was remanded in judicial custody, a court here on Saturday granted him bail in a case related to defacement of public property as he "dramatically" furnished a surety bond.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ashu Garg granted bail to Delhi Cantonment's Aam Aadmi Party MLA Surender Singh on a surety bond of Rs 20,000.

In the morning, the legislator had failed to furnish a surety and told the court he was ready to go to jail.

"Since the accused has refused to furnish a bail bond, the court has no other option but to take him into custody," the court said while remanding him in judicial custody till August 17.

The court was irked by his behaviour, including his non-appearance in the case, despite repeated warrants.

The court, on April 17, had issued a bailable warrant after Surender Singh failed to appear. The court also noted that the politician had not filed any application till date regarding cancellation of bail.

Surender Singh was granted bail by the Delhi Police in the instant case till November 20, 2016. Later, the legislator did not apply for extension of bail, the court said.

The AAP leader is accused of putting up posters and hoardings as well as defacing public property in south Delhi in 2014.

The court has listed the matter for November 6 for consideration of framing of charges.

--IANS

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An FIR has been lodged against two police officers for instigating a youth to commit suicide, police said on Saturday.

According to police, the FIR was lodged on the statement of Suresh Kumar, the father of Shiva Kumar who committed suicide.

Shiva Kumar had alleged police torture in his suicide note.

The FIR has been lodged against Inspector Ajay Kumar, the in-charge of Chutia Police Station, and City Deputy Superintendent of Police Shambhu Singh.

Ajay Kumar has been removed after the incident.

Shiva Kumar committed suicide on Thursday morning by hanging himself from a tree. A

resident of Dhanbad district, had come to Ranchi for passport related work. His father claimed that he was abducted by someone.

Shiva Kumar, who lodged a police complaint regarding his abduction, in his suicide note alleged that the two police officers had tortured and used foul language against him and his father.

He had written a letter to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) regarding the mental torture by the police.

--IANS

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Signalling the spread of digitisation in India, income tax (I-T) offices across the country did not witness any rush of assessees waiting to manually file their income tax returns for the 2016-17 fiscal by the deadline on Saturday.

The government had extended the deadline for filing of IT returns for the fiscal 2016-17 (assessment year 2017-18) to August 5 from the earlier July 31 date due to technical reasons.

The income tax office in Delhi had a deserted look when the IANS correspondent visited it around 3 p.m. on Friday.

According to an official, only short queues of assessees were witnessed at one of the main I-T offices in the national capital located at the Civic Centre near Ajmeri Gate.

"Most of the people have been able to file their returns till July 31st... during the five-day extension period an average turnout of only about 100-150 people a day have been noticed," an official said.

"Out of these 100-150-odd assesses, most head-out to our online filing assistance desk and very few actually submit the physical form," the official said

The quoting of Aadhaar has been made mandatory in the filing of the I-T return.

"The major rush now a days is for the online submission. Over here verified personanel licesnced by the department charge Rs 250 per filing of a salaried person, outside its over Rs 1,000," another official said.

In Chennai, filing of income tax returns was going on smoothly at the special counters set up at the Income Tax office on Saturday, with no technical or other glitches reported so far.

Not much of a crowd of assesses was witnessed since many preferred to file their ITRs online.

"The filing is being done smoothly and briskly. We are not facing any technical problem like slowing or hanging of the server," tax consultant R. Badrinarayanan told IANS.

"There is no need for any more extensions as the technical issues have been sorted out," he said.

Kolkata too did not report any extraordinary rush to filr ITRs on the last day.

"After the extension of last date, we did not find any extraordinary rush. Till now, about 500 income tax returns have been filed since morning. Around 27,000 paper returns were submitted here till July 31. In the five-day extension period, additional 2000 returns have so far been filed here," a tax official at Kolkata's Bamboo Villa I-T department office told IANS.

"Nowadays income tax returns are mostly filed online, even though last year up to March 31, we had received hard copy IT returns of about 78,000 only in Bamboo Villa," he added.

A Kolkata-based tax professional S. Mitra told IANS: "The online portal of the I-T departmen" had some technical glitches before the earlier deadline of July 31. We were finding difficulties in uploading our clients' annual statements on the website. The pro'lem, has been eased out to a large extent but, the website still remains slow."

In Mumbai, the filing of IT returns have "ontinued smoothly since the past five days and on the last date of the extended deadline, which ended here on Saturday.

"There have been no technical glitches or brea"downs in the IT servers, and it has been a largely hassle-free but hectic experience for the consultants and the assessees," corporate IT consultant J. P. Purohit told I"NS.

Before the extension of July 31 deadline, a sense of panic that prevailed among the assessees had subsided this time and the chaos witnessed earlier was absent at the offices of consultants as well as the special counters in IT offices, he said.

The government has informed Parliament that the number of income tax payers has increased after the November demonetisation measure. During the period between November 9, 2017, till March 31, 2017, 1.96 crore returns were filed, as compared to 1.63 crore returns filed during corresponding period of 2015-16.

--IANS

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Riding on the success of its "Honor" sub-brand, the time is ripe for the Chinese smartphone maker Huawei to ramp up its offline presence in India, especially in tier II and III cities, says a top company executive.

Xiaomi already has two exclusive retail stores Mi Home in Bengaluru, while Lenovo-owned Motorola on August 3 launched six Moto Hubs in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

"Since the skew is heavily in favour of going offline, we are working on strengthening this channel. Given the growing 4G penetration, we are set to serve tier II and III markets and working towards this on a priority basis," P. Sanjeev, Vice President, Sales, Huawei India-Consumer Business Group, said.

Chinese brands are not only strengthening their positions on home turf but fast expanding beyond mainland China, and India is among their top destinations for registering big numbers.

While overall global smartphone shipments grew three per cent Year-over-Year (YoY), reaching 365 million units in the second quarter of 2017, Chinese smartphone brands marked a record 48 per cent market share worldwide, with India remaining a key focus geography, says market research firm Counterpoint Research.

With 20 per cent overseas smartphones shipments (YoY), Huawei is one of the fastest-growing Chinese brands. In India, it recorded 1.5 per cent market share in the second quarter this year.

Keeping an eye on the upcoming festive season, Honor is focused on enhancing engagement with its customers which goes beyond transactional offers to that of more enduring value.

"Since Honor is a pan-India brand, our strategy would be two-pronged: Region-specific and national. For the former, we plan to leverage festivals like Onam, which is known for its consumer-buying frenzy (in Kerala), to widen our customer base with special promotions and irresistible offers."

"Similarly, for Durga Puja, we would adopt a focus to tap consumers in the eastern region with schemes specially tailored for that audience," Sanjeev said.

Huawei is confident of registering a significant spike with its rich Honor portfolio across various price-points led by the recently launched Honor 8 Pro.

"What is going to bolster this is the fact that Honor straddles offline and online retail channels, which means we effectively cater to a wide swathe of customers who can avail our festive offers," the executive noted.

In a bid to enhance after-sale device support, smartphone manufacturer Huawei last month launched 17 exclusive service centres across the country. According to Sanjeev, with the launch of these service centres, Huawei can now assure best in class after-sale services to its consumers.

In the coming months, Honor plans to unleash a host of products, in various segments and categories.

In the hot-selling Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 categories in India, Honor has three of its best-selling products -- Honor 6X, Honor Holly 3 and 3 Plus.

Launched in January this year, Honor 6X has been leading this segment when it comes to dual-camera innovation and overall experience.

"Honor Holly 3 and Honor 6X are our first 'Made in India' smartphones and have registered strong growth since their launch," Sanjeev said.

Recently launched premium device Honor 8 Pro has also received a highly encouraging response.

"The consumer affirmation and trust in the consistent high-quality and uncompromising performance of Honor products has been a key driver for introducing new devices in the country," Sanjeev added.

"India continues to be a priority market for us and, going forward, you will see that new product launches here will be simultaneous with other global geographies. In fact, there could even be instances of launches here ahead of other markets," he added.

Honor 8 Pro smartphone comes with a box that doubles up as a VR headset.
Rana Sarkar, an Indo-Canadian who was till recently national director for high growth markets at the Toronto-based multi-national KPMG, has been named by Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal government as Canadas Consul-General to San Francisco.

Simultaneously, Sarkar has also been named a member of the high-profile Canadian official team for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the US and Mexico.

The Indo-Canadian community is elated over this very high profile appointment:

"Rana Sarkar (previously President of Canada-India Business Council) brings an impressive array of skills to his new position as Consul General in San Francisco," says Kasi Rao, currently President of Canada-India Business Council and Vice-President of Asia-Pacific Foundation. "First, Rana is a global Canadian and has operated in multiple geographies - Canada, UK and India. Second, he has brought individual networks and made them into institutional ones.

"Rana has maintained an abiding interest in the ideas and innovation space and therefore will be adept at positioning the Canadian advantage in a critically important global city of San Francisco."

Gary Comerford, who till recently was President of C-IBC, says in an interview that Sarkar "will be a very strong addition to the Canadian-US trade team. His knowledge and considerable expertise in the areas of international trade will be invaluable as the NAFTA agreement is modernized."

Sarkar was also a Liberal Party candidate for the federal riding of Don Valley North (in Toronto) in 2014 but was not successful and he later became a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's team of advisers.

Sarkar was earlier visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science and more recently Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

Appointment of Sarkar in this high profile position is amongst a series of appointments of Indo-Canadians made by the Justin Trudeau government. They include four Indo-Canadian federal ministers: Amarjeet Sohi (Minister for Infrastructure and Communities); Bardish Chagger (Minister for Small Business and Tourism and House Leader); Harjit Singh Sajjan (Minister for National Defense); and Navdeep Bains (Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development).

More recently Trudeau named Anil Arora as Canada's Chief Statistician.

Two other high profile appointments include Sabi Marwah and Ratna Omidvar as Senators.

There are 19 Indo-Canadian Members of the House of Commons, 18 of whom are Liberals.

(Ajit Jain can be contacted at ajit.jain0410@gmail.com)

--IANS

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Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar on Saturday wished a quick recovery to veteran actor Dilip Kumar, who is currently being treated for kidney problems at a hospital here.

She tweeted: "Mujhe news dekhkar pata chala ki Dilip Kumar ji ki tabiyat acchi nahi hai. Unki sehat mein jald sudhaar ho yehi meri Ishwar se prarthana. (I found out from news channels that Dilip Kumar is not well. Hope his health gets better soon. That is my only wish from God)."

Dilip, 94, was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here on Wednesday evening after he suffered dehydration and a urinary tract infection.

One of the attending team of doctors told IANS on Friday that the actor's health was not good as his creatinine and potassium levels were rising and haemoglobin was decreasing. He is under observation in the ICU, and doctors are considering putting him on dialysis. They have clarified that he is not on ventilator.

In a book by Nasreen Munni Kabir, Lata had spoken about her regret at not being able to sing for Dilip Kumar.

Lata shares a close bond with the actor and they have a mutual admiration for each other as artistes.

"Obviously, I cannot sing for any man but when I watch Dilip Kumar sing 'Madhuban mein Radhika naache re' in 'Kohinoor', I can see the veins in his neck protruding.

"Dilip Kumar looks as though he is actually singing, not Rafi Sahib. If I had the chance, I would have happily sung for him," she had said.

--IANS

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A militant hideout was busted on Saturday in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir by security forces and a cache of arms and ammunition seized, official sources said.

"Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Rashtriya Rifles and state police launched a search in Kalakote tehsil and busted the hideout," Defence Ministry spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta told IANS here.

The cache seized from the forested area near Sadah village included one AK-47 assault rifle, one AK-56 rifle, one Chinese pistol, two rocket-propelled grenades, five hand grenades, two magazines and 639 rounds.

It is the second seizure of arms and ammunition by the Army in two days, he said.

--IANS

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By adopting a "hard line stance" towards China, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing his country into war and "gambling" with the destiny of its people, a Chinese daily said.

An editorial in the state-run Global Times said Modi should be aware of the "overwhelming" strength of the People's Liberation Army which is capable of "annihilating" Indian troops in Doklam.

The tone of the Chinese government and its media have become shriller over the past few days, with its Defence Ministry telling India not to test its patience.

India's response has been measured, always calling for dialogue to solve the crisis in Sikkim sector.

The editorial said India had challenged a country which was far more superior in strength.

"It is a war with an obvious result," the editorial pronounced.

It said India's recklessness had "shocked" the Chinese.

"The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be aware of the PLA's overwhelming firepower and logistics. Indian border troops are no rival to PLA field forces. If a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region."

"The Modi government's hard line stance is sustained by neither laws nor strength. This administration is recklessly breaking international norms and jeopardizing India's pride and peaceful development."

"Its move is irresponsible to regional security and is gambling against India's destiny and its people's well-being. If the Modi government refuses to stop, it will push its country into a war that India has no power to control," it went on.

The daily said India cannot bully China like other countries in South Asia.

The editorial comes a day after the Chinese Defence Ministry said that India should not test its patience over Doklam and that "restraint has a bottom line".

The Ministry told India to "give up the illusion of its delaying tactic, as no country should underestimate the Chinese forces' confidence and capability".

Adding to the growing belligerence, Global Times said that the PLA was combat-ready but has exercised restraint as it "cherishes peace".

"We want to give peace a chance and allow India to recognize the grave consequences."

"The PLA did not strike in the past month when Indian troops savagely trespassed into Chinese territory. If the Modi government takes China's goodwill for weakness, its recklessness will only lead to devastation.

Despite China raising the ante over the Doklam stand-off, India has maintained that it will continue to engage with Beijing diplomatically to resolve the border standoff and that war is not a solution.

"Our stand is that we maintain restraint in language and keep patience and engage in diplomacy. No solution will be gained out of war because even after war, talks are required. A solution cannot be derived out of war," India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament on Thursday.

"Times are changing and it is economic power and not strategic power that decides strength of a nation...If there is a dialogue there will be a solution," she said.

A standoff between Indian and Chinese troops is continuing along the border in Doklam in Sikkim sector close to the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan, since June 16. The standoff started after China attempted to build a road in Bhutanese territory and Indian soldiers stopped them.
LEBANON  A retired Lebanon teacher has filed a complaint with the Lebanon School Board, asking for an independent review of board and district actions in connection with the superintendent's romantic relationship.

Jennifer Walter, who retired from teaching at Seven Oak Middle School in 2014, sent the complaint to Board Chairman Tom Oliver via email July 30 and forwarded a copy to the Democrat-Herald.

Oliver said via email to the Democrat-Herald he plans to review the complaint with legal counsel and the board likely will review it in closed session.

The board's next meeting is 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, at the district office, 485 S. Fifth St.

Walter asked the board to hire an independent investigator to review actions by Superintendent Rob Hess, Principal Tonya Cairo and board members Russ McUne, Richard Borden and Jerry Williams in connection with Hess' relationship with Cairo.

The two married earlier this summer after about three years of dating. Hess arranged for the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Education Service District to perform Cairo's evaluations. Borden, then board chairman, signed off on a document presented by the couple in 2015 that acknowledged both the relationship and the evaluation arrangement.

Oregon law governs potential conflicts of interest in terms of employment decisions, supervision, gifts and financial gain, but specifies such decisions apply to relatives, spouses, domestic partners and "household members." It does not reference romantic attachments.

Walter has been among the most vocal critics of the way the relationship was conducted and disclosed. She asked at a previous board meeting whether the district remains in compliance with the law and with district policies governing personnel supervision now that Hess is married. The current board, which no longer includes Williams, is researching that question.

This is Walter's second formal complaint alleging district nepotism. Walter also filed a complaint with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission against Williams for voting, on two occasions, on board agenda items that affected his daughter's job as a Lebanon principal. The commission received the complaint June 2 and has said it will prepare a report within 180 days.

In the newest complaint, Walter alleges Hess and Cairo's actions damaged the reputation of the district and created a hostile work environment, and that both they and the named board members "failed to properly discharge the duties that are owed to the Lebanon Community Schools District and the public." She asked the current board to put system checks in place against similar situations.

"The public deserves more than a simple blanket statement that there was or was not wrongdoing," she wrote.
North Korea on Saturday warned the US against further military and economic pressure over its nuclear programme, after Pyongyang successfully tested its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a month.

The US has thrown "a hysteric fit" after being "taken aback by North Korea's continued demonstration of nuclear attack capabilities", Xinhua news agency cited an official as saying.

The US has been making repeated military threats against Pyongyang after it launched its second ICBM on July 28, by sending B-1B strategic bombers to the Korean peninsula and holding joint missile drills with South Korea.

"The more desperately the US works to realise its ambition for 'nuclear dismantlement of the north' through 'maximum pressure and engagement', the more dynamically North Korea has stepped up diversifying and modernising its nuclear force," it said.

The US proposed a new resolution of sanctions against North Korea at the UN Security Council on Saturday, media reports said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited Vice President-elect M. Venkaiah Naidu's residence to congratulate him on his victory and said he was confident that Naidu will serve the nation as a diligent and dedicated Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Modi along with BJP chief Amit Shah reached at Naidu's residence on 30, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Road, soon after the results were declared and greeted him for his victory in the polls.

"Congratulations to M. Venkaiah Naidu Garu on being elected India's Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful and motivating tenure," Modi said in a series of tweets.

"I am confident M. Venkaiah Naidu will serve the nation as a diligent and dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building," he said.

He also said that his mind was filled with memories of working with Naidu, in the party and government. "Will cherish this aspect of our association," Modi added.

Shah said that the journey of Naidu, a farmer' son, to the office of Vice President is the victory of every small farmer contributing to nation's growth.

"I am sure Naiduji's extensive knowledge and vast experience will be a great asset to the office of Vice President and Rajya Sabha," he said.

Apart from Modi and Shah other senior leaders from the the union cabinet including Bandaru Dattatreya, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Harsimrat Kaur Badal visited Naidu's house to congratulate him.

NDA nominee Naidu was on Saturday elected the next Vice President of India, defeating opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by a margin of 272 votes.

Naidu secured 516 votes while Gandhi got 244 votes. Of the 771 votes polled, 11 votes were declared invalid.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that M. Venkaiah Naidu will serve the nation as diligent and dedicated Vice President after he was announced winner in the poll.

"Congratulations to M. Venkaiah Naidu Garu on being elected India's Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful and motivating tenure," Modi said in a series of tweets.

"I am confident M Venkaiah Naidu will serve the nation as a diligent and dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building," he said.

He also said that his mind was filled with memories of working with Naidu, in the party and government. "Will cherish this aspect of our association," Modi added.

NDA nominee Naidu was on Saturday elected the next Vice President of India, defeating opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by a margin of 272 votes.

Naidu secured 516 votes while Gandhi got 244 votes. Of the 771 votes polled, 11 votes were declared invalid.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played down his former aide's decision to become a state witness against him in two graft cases.

On Friday, Ari Harow, Netanyahu's former chief of staff, agreed to provide testimonies against the Israeli Prime Minister in two separate long-running criminal investigations, Xinhua news agency reported.

In a post on his official Facebook page, the Israeli PM dismissed the move as "background noises."

He addressed the "citizens of Israel" and said he is "continuing working for the benefit of the country."

According to reports in local media, Harow, 44, has already provided the police with information about the cases.

The US-born Israeli was one of Netanyahu's most trusted aides. He served as Netanyahu's bureau chief in the prime minister's office in 2008 and was appointed as his chief of staff in 2014. Harow left this position in 2015 amid allegations of conflict of interests.

A document the police filed with the court on Thursday shows the investigations involve "suspicion of the commission of felonies of bribery, fraud and breach of trust."

Netanyahu, 67, is a suspect in two cases. One, dubbed by the police as "Case 2000," involves secret talks he held with the owner of a large Israeli newspaper called Yediot Aharonot about reducing the competition in the news sector in return for more positive coverage.

The other case, known as "Case 1000," involves suspicions that Netanyahu and his wife Sara received expensive gifts from Israeli-US businessman and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

Netanyahu had been investigated by the police at least four times. In March, Police Chief Roni Alsheikh estimated the police are close to completing the investigation, saying "we are in the final stages."

The procrastination of the law enforcement authorities sparked anger in the Israeli public, leading to weekly demonstrations near the home of Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit to demand charges against Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is serving his fourth term as Prime Minister.

--IANS

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Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday said the votes in favour of the opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi increased by 19 in the vice-presidential election compared to the President's election, which according to him was a positive thing.

"We have seen one thing that earlier in the presidential election, the opposition candidate got 225 votes, this time it was 244 votes.

"At least 19 votes have increased in favour of the opposition's candidate. This is a matter of happiness. Despite government's efforts, even after approaching the MPs of the opposition parties, our numbers have gone up compared to the President's election. I would like to thank all the MPs," Azad told reporters.

On the question of cross-voting, Azad said: "There will be an enquiry if there was any upset and why it happened. All parties will do it in their capacity.

"Opposition will never compromise on ideology whether we face defeat or victory. Thanks to all those who voted against the NDA candidate," he added.

CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said: "MPs of 19 opposition parties have voted. If there was any cross-voting or invalid votes, each party will look into it."

"This time the opposition candidate has got more votes than last time. This is a political fight as we always said. It is a fight between two political trends - those who want to strengthen the constitutional order in the country that is why we put up Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

"We are very grateful to him to have consented to be our candidate," he added.

NDA nominee M. Venkaiah Naidu was on Saturday elected the next Vice President of India, defeating Gandhi by a margin of 272 votes.

Naidu secured 516 votes while Gandhi got 244 votes. Of the 771 votes polled, 11 votes were declared invalid.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday greeted Vice President-elect M. Venkaiah Naidu on his victory and reminded him that it was an "onerous constitutional responsibility".

"Please accept my good wishes on your election as the Vice President of India.

"As you take on this onerous constitutional responsibility that includes chairing the Rajya Sabha, I hope and pray that you succeed in your endeavours and continue to serve the people of our great country," said Mukherjee in a letter to Naidu.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Naidu was on Saturday elected the next Vice President of India, defeating opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by 272 votes.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress Vice-President on Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party for the attack on his convoy in Gujarat, saying that it was "the style of politics pursued by the BJP and RSS".

"Yesterday (Friday) such a large stone was thrown by the BJP workers. It hit one of my PSOs (Personal Security Officer) and he was hurt. This is the style of politics of Modiji, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)," Gandhi said outside Parliament here.

Gandhi's car was stoned and windows broken by hostile black flag-waving crowds during his Gujarat tour of a flood-hit town in the Banaskantha district.





Jo apne aap kaam karta hai, wo condemn kaise karega?: Congress Vice President on being asked about no condemnation from PM pic.twitter.com/R0aC367VA4  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Modi ji aur BJP-RSS ka rajneeti ka tareeka hai, kya keh sakte hain?: Congress Vice President on attack on his convoy in Gujarat pic.twitter.com/YAF0grcvOx  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

He said why would the Prime Minister condemn the attack on his convoy when the attackers were from his party. "When they have themselves done it, how will they condemn it?" he asked.

Gandhi was on a day-long visit to the flood-affected regions of north Gujarat.
Upping the ante against power thefts, Reliance Energy's East Division vigilance team has lodged complaints against 10 illegal power distributors in Govandi area here, an official said here on Saturday.

The accused are: M. Akhtar Khan, his brother Anwar Khan, Ayyaj Khan, Zuber alias Pappa, Ashraf Hasmi, Saddam Israr Khan, Shahabuddin M. Idrasi, Shakil Chorwa, Imran Baba Sher and Abraar Ali.

Four other associates of Abraar Ali have been booked after they threatened to kill the Reliance Energy staffers.

Police have so far arrested Israr Khan, Zuber and Akhtar Khan, who have been remanded in two days police custody by a magistrate.

The company technicians were installing a theft-proof pillar at Indira Nagar in Bainganwadi, Govandi when they were threatened verbally and with choppers by the accused.

The staff left the venue and complained to the local Shivaji Nagar Police who provided security and the pillar was later installed.

A Reliance Energy spokesperson said the damage was done with the intention to take illegal power supply from the pillar, police have made preliminary inquiries and a probe is underway.

Earlier, in another case in Cheetah Camp area of Trombay under the East Division, the vigilance squad along with local police nabbed eight consumers using illegal electrical supply.

They confessed to receiving the illegal electricity supply from Mohammed Ibrahim Tamboli and two others on payment of Rs 200 per month. Tamboli has been arrested and further investigations are underway.

Reliance Energy has already lodged 120 FIRs in last one year covering 412 customers and 260 such illegal distributors, which is nearly double the figure last year.

As a part of its continuous efforts to control theft, Reliance Energy this year has managed to reduce its distribution losses further to 8.6 percent, which is amongst the lowest in the country.

"We are taking humongous efforts by filing FIRs against these illegal distributors. We want to spread the message amongst illegal distributors/consumers that pilfering electricity is a crime and they will face serious legal consequences for any effort to draw electricity illegally," said the spokesperson.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hassan Rouhani was sworn in as Iran's President for a second term in a ceremony at the country's Parliament on Saturday.

The 68-year-old cleric kissed the Quran and took the oath of office before lawmakers, foreign dignitaries and senior Iranian politicians, IRNA news agency reported. The inauguration ceremony was aired live on Iranian state TV.

Over 100 of the world leaders and officials, including representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, attended Rouhani's oath-taking ceremony.

During the ceremony, Rouhani vowed to use all means of power to serve the country, Iranian nation and the Islamic establishment.

"I swear to protect the Constitution and justice and to devote myself to protect freedom and people's dignity and rights on the basis of Constitution," he said during the inauguration.

He vowed to defend the country's borders and politico- cultural independence.

The incumbent moderate President was re-elected for a second term in office on May 19, for another four years, sweeping over 23 million or 57 per cent of the votes.

His nearest conservative challenger Ebrahim Raisi got 38.5 per cent of the ballots. Rouhani was endorsed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday.

--IANS

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Pakistan's disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has "smartly deprived" his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif of an opportunity to become premier, PML-N members in Punjab province believe.

Many Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders believe the Chief Minister of Punjab has missed or made to miss a "golden opportunity" to succeed his elder brother, and that Nawaz Sharif has shattered the dreams of his nephew Hamza Sharif to take up the reins in the province, Dawn online reported.

According to them, there is no guarantee that Shahbaz Sharif will make it to Islamabad to don the premier's cap in 2018 (if PML-N wins the election) as more players from Sharif family may be in the race for the top post.

The former Prime Minister's wife Kalsoom might contest if his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif remain entangled in the accountability process till 2018 election, the party leaders said.

"He (Shahbaz) has either failed to convince his elder brother or the latter played smart to keep him in Punjab," a PML-N leader close to Shahbaz Sharif told Dawn on Friday.

"Perhaps Shahbaz missed the golden chance of becoming premier. Who knows about 2018 election's outcome and family then."

"Nawaz played excellent family . First he announced Shahbaz as his successor. Later a campaign within the PML-N was built that Shahbaz's absence from Punjab would be disastrous for the party," another leader said.

According to the anonymous party member, Shahbaz Sharif had tried his best to convince his elder brother not to worry about Punjab and leave it to his son Hamza Sharif.

The Chief Minister also sent a request to Nawaz Sharif from more than 300 PML-N MPs from Punjab, endorsing Shahbaz Sahrif in the centre and Hamza Sharif in Punjab.

"Once the decision was conveyed to Shahbaz, he asked Rana Sanaullah to tell the media that most party members wanted him in Punjab. It was only a face saving for Shahbaz."

A federal minister told Dawn that the decision to "retain" Shahbaz Sharif had been finalised.

"The extended cabinet of Abbasi is a proof of it," he said, adding the current arrangement suited the leadership as Nawaz Sharif would see matters in the Centre and Shahbaz Sharif in Punjab.

A mere "official" announcement is left from the PML-N about withdrawing Shahbaz Sharif from the election race.

After the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case verdict disqualified Nawaz Sharif from hoding the Prime Minister's post, he had announced that his brother would be the premier after an interim arrangement of 45 days for which Abbasi was selected.

Some federal ministers including Khawaja Asif and Khurram Dastgir had already said they wanted Shahbaz Sharif in Punjab, which is a stronghold of PML-N.

"Since Shahbaz has good equation with all MPs in Punjab and development projects are on his finger tips, a larger section of the party is of the view that he should continue delivering in Punjab," Dastgir said.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said: "The decision that Shahbaz Sharif will continue serving in Punjab is almost certain."

Punjab government spokesman Malik Ahmad Khan told Dawn on Friday that parliamentary party headed by Nawaz Sharif was authorised to announce reversal of its earlier decision to nominate Shahbaz Sharif for Prime Minister's post.

Khan however denied any differences in the Sharif brothers saying the crisis had even further united them.

--IANS

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Pacific Ocean breezes Friday night should provide for less-smoky skies Saturday in the Mid-Willamette Valley, but a wind shift late Sunday could create a resurgence of haze next week, meteorologists say.

Temperatures are not expected to hit triple digits again over the next few days, but will still be well-above seasonal averages, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures will be in the low-90s Saturday and slightly warmer on Sunday.

Onshore air flow from the Coast Range could produce slightly more comfortable temperatures in the valley Saturday, according to the weather service. The wind could clear out some of the smoke in the valley, which is coming from wildfires in British Columbia and from the Whitewater blaze near Mount Jefferson.

The Whitewater fire has spread into Linn County. The Linn County Sheriff's Office and Linn County Search and Rescue Team began assisting the U.S. Forest Service with road closures and evacuations Friday.

Corvallis and Albany had "moderate"air quality ratings Friday evening, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. This was an improvement from Thursdays "unhealthy" ratings for the mid-valley.

While Saturdays skies might be bluer than theyve been recently, a weather system coming from the north Sunday night will increase temperatures and could bring more smoke with it, the weather service said.

Corvallis and Albany remain in an air quality alert until 7 p.m. Tuesday. Pollutants in smoke can cause burning eyes and a runny nose and may aggravate heart and lung diseases, the weather service said.

We want people to monitor the air quality level and if it does continue to be in that unhealthy range, limit their time outside, said meteorologist Amanda Bowen.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday greeted NDA nominee M. Venkaiah Naidu's election as the new Vice President and said "his position has the crucial challenge of assuming a non-partisan role" in running the Rajya Sabha.

"The position of the Vice President of India has the crucial challenge of assuming a non-partisan role in running the House of Elders, which acts as a storehouse of wisdom and sage advice for the government," Sonia Gandhi said in a statement.

"The House of Elders is an important determinant of our democratic functioning to address appropriate checks and balances," she added.

She offered Congress support in further strengthening the Rajya Sabha's functioning for effective scrutiny of legislation and government policies.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu was on Saturday elected the next Vice President of India, defeating opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by 272 votes.

Naidu secured 516 votes while Gandhi got 244 votes. Of the 771 votes polled, 11 votes were declared invalid.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Spontaneous protests broke out on Saturday in north Kashmir areas after three local LeT militants were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Sopore town, with three persons injured in firing during clashes.

Three local LeT militants, identified as Danish Ahmad Dar of Sopore, Abid Hamid Mir of Bandipora and Javid Ahmad Dar of Baramulla town, were killed in a gunfight with security forces, which included state police, army and the CRPF, in Amargarh area of Sopore town.

One police constable was injured in the gunfight. His condition was described as stable by doctors.

Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral processions of two slain militants in Bandipora and Baramulla districts.

Security forces did not intervene to stop the funeral processions of the slain militants in Hajin area of Bandipora and Khanpora in Baramulla town after the bodies were handed over to the families.

Authorities imposed restrictions in the old town areas of Baramulla as a precautionary measure.

Earlier, protesters clashed with security forces in Sadarkote area of Bandipora district as news about the death of Mir, militant belonging to Bandipora district, spread in the area.

Three protesters sustained bullet injuries and were shifted to hospital for treatment, police said.

Protesters also engaged security forces in clashes in Sopore town and at three other places in north Kashmir areas.

An army escort vehicle was attacked by stone pelters on the highway near Anantnag town.

The occupants of the escort vehicle fired in the air to ward off the protesters.

Police said three over ground workers of LeT were arrested on Saturday in south Kashmir's Shopian district.

Authorities closed schools and colleges in Sopore, Baramulla and Handwara in addition to suspending mobile phone services and Internet facility in north Kashmir areas, as a precautionary measure.

The Internet speed both on mobile phones and fixed landline broadband connections was brought down to 2G from 3G and 4G.

Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, the senior separatist leader who continues to remain under house arrest in his city outskirts Nigeen residence in Srinagar, has criticized the government's decision to close educational institutions and suspend Internet services whenever they face a law and order situation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MPs from Kerala on Saturday could not vote in the vice presidential election as they arrived late at the polling booth in Parliament House.

The two MPs are P.K. Kunhalikutty (Lok Sabha) and Abdul Wahab (Rajya Sabha). They arrived shortly after the close of voting at 5 p.m.

"We were coming from Kozhikode and the connecting flight was from Mumbai which got delayed due to technical snag. By the time we reached Delhi airport, it was 4.35 p.m. We reached Parliament House about 10 minutes late," Wahab told IANS.

Apart from these two MPs, Union Minister Vijay Goel and former Union Minister Sanwar Lal Jat also could not vote because they are indisposed and admitted to hospital.

BJP's Rajya Sabha member Bhushan Lal Jangde was also among the 14 members who could not turn up for voting.

In all, 771 of the 785 members of the electoral college comprising members of both the Houses of Parliament voted in the election.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.P Yoddha rode on fine performances from captain Nitin Tomar and Rishank Devadiga to register a narrow 32-27 victory over Bengaluru Bulls in a Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) contest at the Mankapur Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.

Nitin (9 points) and Devadiga (5 points) did the most damage to the opposition with their successful raids helping the Uttar Pradesh outfit clinch victory by five points.

For Bengaluru, captain Rohit Kumar (11 points) who earned a super 10 from his fast paced movement and technique inside the opposition mat was the only hope for the Bulls but failed to help his side take a lead.

U.P Yoddha were off to a good start clinching two bonus points and tackling the opposition raider to add initial points in the tally. Rishank Devadiga did the most damage to the opposition in the first-half with his technique and movement while skipper Nitin Tomar targeted the poor left corner defence of the Bengaluru outfit to earn points. The Uttar Pradesh outfit took a 10-points lead in the first-half with the scoreboard reading 18-8.

For Bengaluru, captain Rohit Kumar brought the first points on board with his successful raids. Ashish Kumar and Mahendra Singh also earned one point each in the first half but failed to give their side a good start.

In the second-half, Ajay Kumar opened the scoring for Bengaluru but the pressure kept building on Rohit who delivered for his side earning five points from a super-raid for his side and continued to earn points through his successful raids to reduce the deficit by five points but failed to take the lead.

For U.P, Nitin continued his fine run in the second-half helping his side add on to the lead by earning points from touching the bonus line and super-raid.

Both teams earned two points each for all-out but the U.P outfit earned nine points in comparison to Bengaluru's four points in tackle.

--IANS

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The UN Security Council will vote on a resolution on Saturday over new sanctions on North Korea in response to its recent inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests.

According to the organisation, the vote will take place at 3 p.m. The 15 countries of the Security Council will have before them a text written by the US, which proposes a significant tightening of sanctions on Pyongyang, Efe news reported.

The new measures could reduce the income that the country obtains with its exports by up to $1 billion a year.

Among other things, the draft states that North Korea will not be able to directly or indirectly sell coal, iron and lead or seafood. All countries should ensure that their companies and citizens do not purchase these products.

The text also states that governments should prohibit their nationals from initiating new joint ventures with North Korean entities or individuals and, with certain exceptions, expanding existing ones.

In addition, it expands the number of people and entities under UN sanctions, resulting in a ban on travel and the freezing of assets abroad.

In particular, it adds nine other individuals linked to the scheme and four entities, including the national insurance company, the main currency exchange bank and a group that sends North Korean workers to other countries.

The resolution comes after a month of negotiations between the US and China, North Korea's main supporter in the Security Council, in order to try to reach an agreement to respond to Pyongyang's first ICBM launch.

Since the beginning of the process, Russia has been critical, questioning the advisability of increasing sanctions. Moscow, in addition, maintains differences with the West on the technical analysis of the last North Korean tests.

While most of the international community believes that the projectiles are ICBMs, capable of reaching Alaska, for example, Moscow speaks of medium-range rockets, similar to others previously tested.

To move forward, the resolution needs a favourable vote from nine of the 15 countries of the Security Council and no veto from the five permanent members, including Russia and China.

--IANS

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Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu - the new Vice President of India - is known for his quick witted one-liners and wordplay.

Weeks before his nomination was announced by the BJP, curious scribes at a party function in May asked him if he was in the race to be the Rashtrapati or Uprashtrapati. In his characteristic wordplay, Naidu said he was happy being Ushapati - the husband of Usha, his wife.

Naidu, a BJP veteran and its best known leader from southern India, entered the RSS by accident. His links began in childhood when he chanced upon a 'shakha' while playing. Within some decades, he rose to become the BJP's President and was considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A key member of Prime Minister Modi's cabinet, the now 68-year-old cut his political teeth during the Emergency of 1975-77 when he went underground against the government of Indira Gandhi and eventually got jailed.

He remained underground until his arrest, distributing anti-government literature in educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, travelling on a scooter along with a woman activist on pillion in a bid not to arouse suspicion.

He was accused of disturbing a meeting of Sanjay Gandhi and was handcuffed during transit from one jail to the other.

Naidu hit the national scene when he was one of the prominent opposition spokespersons along with S. Jaipal Reddy, who was then in Janata Party, during the campaign by N.T. Rama Rao after his dismissal as the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister by Indira Gandhi in the 1980s.

Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party was on a weak wicket in southern India, Naidu embraced it tightly.

A quick-witted and effective communicator steeped in RSS-BJP ideology, Naidu rose from the ranks to become the party President and a Union Minister to finally be India's Vice President.

Naidu has been a troubleshooter for the government as also one of its best communicators with his alliterative and catchy one-liners. He has friends across political parties. It will help him as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha where the BJP has just got a majority of its own.

Naidu is quick to respond to criticism from the opposition.

He has handled key organisational assignments in the BJP and became its President in 2002.

Naidu had three continuous terms in the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka from 1998 to 2016, when he shifted to Rajasthan to get a fourth term.

He was Rural Development Minister during the first NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his inspiration along with senior party leader L.K. Advani.

With Modi scripting BJP's success in 2014, Naidu described him as the most popular Indian leader, the most credible political personality and among the top 10 leaders of the world. He is credited with coining the acronym MODI - Making Of Developed India, a BJP favourite.

Born on July 1, 1949 in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, Naidu was President of the Students Union, V.R. College, Nellore. In 1973-74, he was president of the Students Union of Andhra University Colleges.

Naidu pursued law and was involved in the movement launched by Jayaprakash Narayan.

He was President of the youth wing of the Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh from 1977 to 1980. After Emergency, he was elected to the Andhra Pradesh assembly in 1978 and was a legislator till 1985.

After the BJP was formed in 1980, he became vice president of its youth wing.

He was leader of the BJP Legislature Party in Andhra Pradesh, state general secretary and state unit chief.

Naidu was the BJP General Secretary in 1993-2000 and its spokesperson in between. He has been a part of apex committees of the party, including its parliamentary board and Central Election Committee.

Naidu was the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation of the Modi government before he was nominated for Vice President's post. He was the Parliamentary Affairs Minister for the first two years in the Modi government.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MPs queued up outside Parliament House to elect the country's next Vice President, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi being the first to cast his vote.

The voting started at 10 a.m. and will continue till 5 p.m.

The counting of votes will be done in the evening. The results would be announced later on Saturday.

NDA's candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu is contesting against Opposition's nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

--IANS

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Hollywood stunt artist Serge Crozon Crazin, who has worked in films like "Casino Royale" and "300: Rise of an Empire", says working in forthcoming Tamil film "Vivegam" was a memorable experience.

Crazin plays a key role in the film, due for release on August 24.

Talking about how he landed the role, Crazin said in a statement: "I attended an interview with director Siva and got this role. I was as highly impressed with director Siva's ability to visualize and to clearly know what he wants."

He considers it an "honour" to make his acting debut in Indian cinema with an "international movie like 'Vivegam'."

"Working in the film has been memorable, especially with Ajith sir. Only after I finished my portion and came back home, I discovered how big a star Ajith sir is and the tremendous celebrity status he enjoys. He was so simple and humble on the sets," he said.

Crazin said he was amazed by the "incredible stunts he (Ajith) pulled off".

"He did all action sequences sans a body double. He is such a perfectionist and hard worker. We both had a lot of interactions and I enjoyed every bit of it. Since I am a master of martial arts I loved my combat sequences," he said.

In "Vivegam", Ajith plays an Interpol agent and majority of the film has been shot across picturesque locations in Europe.

The film also stars Akshara Haasan, Kajal Aggarwal and Vivek Oberoi.

--IANS

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We will fight with whatever we have, is a statement famously attributed to then chief of our army, General V P Malik, at the time of the Kargil War. Nearly two decades later, including three years under the present government, it is not certain if the picture has changed much. According to the most recent reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the current army chief, General Rawat, may well have to make the same lament, should military conflict be forced upon India anytime soon. Why the situation should have not improved in all these years is one question; how this fits in with the Armys publicly articulated position that it has to be ready to fight a two-and-a-half-front war warrants even closer analysis.
A party constantly in strife



Strife within the (SP) never seems to end. A new salvo has been fired on behalf of Akhilesh Yadav. Last week in Kanpur, Samajwadi MLA from Hardoi and former minister Nitin Agrawal took on the Shivpal Yadav faction and said that some people in the party had stabbed the SP in the back and joined forces with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Without naming Shivpal Yadav, he said those people had held some of the most important portfolios in the SP government in Uttar Pradesh. His remarks should be seen in the context of some members of the Assembly and council who belonged to the SP, crossing the floor and joining the BJP. One of them was Bukkal Nawab, founder president of the Rashtriya Shia Samaj, who had been an SP member since 1992 and was considered close to Mulayam Singh Yadav. Nawab offered to donate Rs 10 lakh towards the building of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Saturday expressed satisfaction over the number of votes bagged by the opposition, stating that vice-presidential election was a 'political fight between two trends'.

Speaking to ANI, Yechury said, "First of all I would like to congratulate as the new Vice President of India. We wish him well for his term. This was a political fight between two trends. Those who want to strengthen the Constitution, had come together to field Gopalkrishna Gandhi. We are grateful to him (Gandhi) for agreeing to be the candidate of a united opposition".

Wishing Naidu luck and success for his term, Yechury further said that the former should assign his duties for the pluralistic society of India.

"We hope that the new Vice President will surely discharge his duties for the pluralistic society of India," he said.

Minutes after M was elected as the 13th Vice President of India, politicians and common people alike expressed their confidence and happiness over his win on Saturday.

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee congratulated Naidu and said, "I Congratulate Naidu ji, our next Vice President of India. I wish him well. In tradition of democracy, Gopalkrishna Gandhi ji fought with dignity for certain ideal".

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also congratulated Naidu for being elected as new Vice President of India. He took to twitter saying, "Heartiest congratulations to Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji on winning the Vice-Presidential poll".

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also shared his happiness over Naidu's win and said, "Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu ji on being elected Vice President of India. My best wishes for success in your new responsibilities".

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too congratulated him and recalled his memories of working with Naidu in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Centre, adding that he will cherish this aspect of their association.

"Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected India's Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure. I am confident @MVenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building," the Prime Minister said.

Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former union minister M. was elected as the 13th Vice President of India with 516 votes.

Whereas, Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi has secured 244 votes.

Total 771 out of 785 MPs cast their votes today. However, it was revealed that 14 Members of Parliament (MPs) were not present during the voting process.

Voting for Vice Presidential Election ended with a total poll percentage of 98.21%.

The voting began at 10 a.m. earlier in the day.
Three persons were today injured when Army personnel allegedly opened fire at a group of stone- pelting youths in Bandipora district of Kashmir,police said.

A group of youths pelted stones on Army vehicles which were passing through S K Bala locality in Sumbol area of Bandipora this morning, a police official said.

He said the Army personnel allegedly opened fire to disperse the mob, resulting in injuries to three persons.

The injured have been referred to a hospital here for treatment,he added.

A similar incident took place at Harnag in Anantnag district but there were no casualties in the alleged Army firing there,the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The police today arrested three overground workers (OGWs) of militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Shopian district of south Kashmir.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint 'naka' (checkpost) of the state police and Army's 62 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) unit was set up near Nagbal, in the Zainapora area of Shopian, said a police spokesman.

He added that during checking, the three LeT OGWs -- Showkat Ahmad Mir, Waseem Ahmad and Junaid Ali Bhat -- were apprehended and three hand grenades were seized from their possession.

During questioning, the three men confessed that they were working at the behest of LeT operative Wasim Shah and were tasked with hurling grenades at police establishments and snatching the weapons of the securitymen in Shopian, said the spokesman.

The trio had also carried out reconnaissance of a few police pickets with a design to carry out terror attacks, he added.

A case was registered in this regard and a probe was on, said the spokesman.

Earlier in the day, three LeT militants were killed in an encounter with the security forces in the Sopore area of Baramulla district in Kashmir.

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The Special Task Force (STF) has arrested eight people, including five policemen, on charges of extorting money from an alleged drug trafficker in Punjab's Patiala district, an official said today.

The accused allegedly "snatched" 300 gram of heroin and extorted Rs 8 lakh from the drug trafficker by posing as STF personnel in Fazilka last night, ADGP-cum-Chief STF and ADGP border range Harpreet Singh Sidhu, said here.

The accused police personnel were posted with the State Counter Intelligence (SCI) department, he said.

"SP STF (Mohali) Rajinder Singh Sohal received an information last light that a police party comprising counter intelligence personnel had snatched the drug from Narinder Singh and had also extorted Rs 8 lakh. The accused then released him," the ADGP said.

Sub-Inspector Sushil Kumar, Constable Gagandeep Singh posted with SCI Mansa; Head Constable Jarnail Singh and Constable Harjit Singh posted with SCI Mukatsar; and Sub- Inspector Sushil Kumar went to Lalru in Patiala, an area not in their jurisdiction, the officer said.

"They used their private cars and changed the vehicles' number plates. They neither informed nor took permission from their senior officers. They stopped the Narinder's vehicle in Lalru area posing as a STF team from Fazilka and took him forcibly towards Fatehgarh Sahib," he said.

The police officials first snatched the heroin and later extorted Rs 8 lakh by forcing him to call his friend in Chandigarh, Sidhu said, adding after getting the money and the drug they released him.

Three others Gagandeep Singh of Kharar, Sukhpreet Singh alias Harry from Bathinda district and Vakil Singh alias Kala from Mukatsar district are also among the accused, he said.

Sidhu said on finding the information reliable, a case under the NDPS Act and and different sections of the IPC was registered against them.

During interrogation, they admitted that they had also sold some heroin, he claimed.

Narinder was earlier involved in a NDPS case which had been registered against him on July 31, the officer said.

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and several other leaders today congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the Vice President.

"Congratulations to Sri @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected as the Vice President of India. A very well-deserved victory indeed," the chief minister said in a tweet.

"Wishing Sri Venkaiah Naidu a successful journey as he embarks upon his new duties. He will surely lead the nation with wisdom and grace," he said in another tweet.

YSR congress president Jaganmohan Reddy referred to Naidu's Telugu identity. Venkaiah Naidu was born in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

He said it is a proud moment to see a Telugu man as the (next) Chairman of the Upper House of Parliament.

"The YSR Congress party whole-heartedly supported Venkaiah Naidu and it is a proud moment to see a Telugu man as Chairman of the Upper House," he said in a statement.

Deputy Chief Minister K E Krishna Murthy, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and other ministers also congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on his victory.

The NDA nominee was elected as the next Vice President of India by securing over two-thirds of votes, leaving opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi far behind.

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Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today said the attack on his convoy in Gujarat was carried out by people from the BJP and the RSS.

Gandhi yesterday faced protests in flood-hit Gujarat where alleged BJP supporters hurled a cement brick at his car and showed him black flags, forcing him to cut short his address at a gathering and leave in a huff.

"Attack on me was carried out by the BJP RSS people. This is their, and PM Modi's, way of politics," he said.

"It is done by their people so why would they condemn it," he said.

Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also condemned the attack on Gandhi, saying that it was a "pre-planned conspiracy".

"It is a murderous attack by the BJP, RSS," Azad said.

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The journey of a farmer's son to the office of Vice President is the victory of every small farmer contributing to the nation's growth, BJP chief Amit Shah today said as he joined leaders from different parties in congratulating M Venkaiah Naidu on his win in the vice presidential election.

He said Naidu's extensive knowledge and vast experience will be a "great asset" to the office of Vice-President and the Rajya Sabha.

"Heartiest congratulations to Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji on winning the Vice-Presidential poll. The journey of Naidu ji, a farmer' son, to the office of Vice President is the victory of every small farmer contributing to nation's growth.

"I am sure @MVenkaiahNaidu ji's extensive knowledge and vast experience will be a great asset to the office of Vice- President & Rajya Sabha," Shah tweeted.

NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu was today elected as the next Vice President of India. He secured over two-third votes, leaving opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi far behind.

Terming it as a "great day" for India's democracy, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Venkaiah ji is a leader of great elements. He knows the constitution, knows parliament democracy. Above all, the transformation happening in India is very important".

Naidu will be the 13th person to hold the second highest Constitutional post.

Sharad Yadav, leader of the NDA's ally, JD(U), also congratulated Naidu describing him as an "excellent choice" for the post.

"I convey my heartiest congratulations to Shri Venkaiah Naidu on his election as Vice President of India...He is good human being and a caring person and I am sure that he will prove to be a neutral and balanced Chairman of Rajya Sabha also," Yadav said in a statement.

Congratulating Naidu, Union Minister Smriti Irani tweeted, "Congratulations to Vice-President Elect @MVenkaiahNaidu ji. We are confident his leadership would further enrich the Office of VP".

Her colleague, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore also took to Twitter to congratulated the vice president-elect, saying "In a contest free and fair #VenkaiahNaidu Garu chosen for the chair #VicePresidentialElections. Congrats #India for our newly elected VP sh @MVenkaiahNaidu! A dedicated, visionary leader & a true son of soil! #vicepresidentialelections".

Health Minister J P Nadda said that Naidu had worked for all sections of the society and his experience and wisdom will benefit the nation greatly.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said it is befitting of the aura, stature and the kind of goodwill and popularity that Venkaiah Naidu enjoys across the country.

"That is a pan India personality taking over the office of VP of India. We could not have had a better choice than that," he said.

Asked whether the Upper House will function smoothly, he said, "Certainly so. He is an extremely unassuming person, fair and follows a discipline which he expects others also to follow. It is not that he would be exercising discipline at the cost of any one section of the house.

"He would be fair to all. At the same time we have the confidence that he has the capacity to restore the semblance of the seriousness of working in the house which has gone amiss for quite sometime".

Singh said many of those who might have voted against Naidu because of their party constraint, would have in their heart of heart wished to vote for him.

He said Indian politics is now taking a new turn and it is in a phase where those seated in high offices will have to identify with the lowest of the lowest.

"We have somebody like that in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, we already have a prime minister's office, we have a BJP president and now the VP of India and I think this is the beginning of a new political culture and each political party will be, in times to come, constrained to follow this culture.

"We have to come out of that feudalist mould where dynasties could predominate," he said.

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Uttar Pradesh minister Brijesh Pathak today rubbished Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's charges that those who won 325 seats in the Assembly polls were weaning away his MLCs.

Yadav had yesterday alleged that those who won 325 seats in the recent Uttar Pradesh polls were weaning away his MLCs as they were was not willing to face the public again.

The BJP along with its NDA partners had bagged 325 seats in the Assembly polls earlier this year.

"The BJP is not weaning away members of any party... The charge levelled by the SP chief that BJP is breaking legislators only depicts his frustration after losing power," Pathak told newspersons when they sought his comment on Yadav's allegations.

"It would have been better had Akhilesh Yadav paid attention on the working in his party," he said.

SP MLC Sarojini Agarwal had yesterday resigned from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and joined the BJP. In total, three Samajwadi Party MLCs have resigned from the house in the last few days.

Pathak, however, said the BJP welcomes all those in the party who want to work in the interest of the country and the society and those who have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

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A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing leader was arrested on Saturday in connection with the attack on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's car when he was visiting north Gujarat's flood-affected Banaskantha district on Friday.

The action comes after 18 hours of night-long dharna and demonstration by Congress leaders and scores of district level supporters.

Palanpur unit BJP youth wing general secretary Jayesh Darji was arrested by the Banaskantha district on Saturday after registering an FIR, which also names three others.

One of them is Bhagwanbhai Patel, chairman of Dhanera Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC). It is from the APMC market yard in Dhanera that the wave of protests against Gandhi started.

The police had through the night refused to take the complaint from former Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia and others till a meeting between district police and senior officers.

The Congress on Saturday accused the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of being behind the "murderous attack" on Gandhi's car and said it was done as part of a "pre-planned" conspiracy.

The Congress vice president said the attack on his convoy was carried out by the BJP and RSS workers and this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the BJP's way of .

Gandhi on Friday faced protests in flood-hit Gujarat where a cement brick was hurled at his car allegedly by BJP supporters, breaking the window planes of his car.

He was also shown black flags, that forced him to cut short his address at a gathering in Dhanera town of Banaskantha district and had to leave in a huff.

The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad condemned the incident, saying it was a "murderous attack" by the BJP and the RSS carried out under a "pre-planned conspiracy".

He accused the BJP government led by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gujarat of failing to provide security to Gandhi, who is an SPG protectee.

"In yesterday's incident, the BJP workers hit a big stone at me that hit my PSO. This is Modi ji, BJP's and RSS's way of . What else can we say," Gandhi said outside Parliament.

When asked that the prime minister and the BJP have not condemned the incident so far, Gandhi said, "When they themselves do such a thing, how will they condemn it. It is done by their people so why would they condemn it."

Azad, accompanied by Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and AICC media incharge Randeep Surjewala strongly condemned the attack on Gandhi, saying such things cannot stop the Congress party or its vice president from meeting people and hearing their grievances.

"We strongly condemn the attack on Gandhi as it has also brought forward the real face of the BJP, which is known for doing this since independence," Azad said.

He said the concrete boulder weighing 1.5 kg was aimed at Gandhi who was seated on the front seat with his window pane lowered and had it hit him on the head it could have proved fatal.

Azad said that with elections round the corner, it was the responsibility of the state and central government to ensure safety and security of SPG protectees as they are to be "most protected" under an act of Parliament.

"If it happens again, I think the people of the country will not tolerate this," he said.

Asked why Gandhi did not accept the bullet proof car provided by the state government, Azad said sometimes one has to use a non-bullet proof car and be sensitive to the public.

Kharge said, "What is happening is not good for the country and for the democracy. If people are in distress, meeting them is not an offence and giving this treatment to those who meet the people is not good."

Anand Sharma said, "What happened in Gujarat is unacceptable in any civilised society and democracy."

"It is also an exposure of the intent, ideology and character of the BJP and the RSS, which believes in violence, intimidation and physical assaults on political opponents and leaders," he claimed.

He said the BJP was using every possible means to capture power everywhere.

Sharma said that there are elections in Gujarat and it was the duty and responsibility of to stand with the people suffering due to floods and no one can stop him.

"The Congress has seen challenges, ups and downs, neither Gandhi or the Congress leaders can ever be intimidated or suppressed and we will fight the BJP agenda and protect democracy," he said.

Surjewala had also said that the Congress party has demanded that a case of attempt to murder be registered after identifying four persons who have been named in the complaint.

"But the puppet police has not yet registered any case, even after our people standing on a dharna outside the police station there since last night. There is abject failure on the part of CM Vijay Rupani and his government," he said.

Noting that the Congress struggle will continue despite such violence, Surjewala said, "Will Godse-waad be converted into Modi-waad...Both are the same as they promote violence, fear and give physical harm which has been continuing since 1948 and is continuing even in 2017.

"But Godse-waad did not succeed in 1948 and neither will Modi-waad... Neither Gandhi nor the Congress will bow to their pressure.
The BJP will launch a 'Sankalp Se Siddhi' campaign across the country from August 9 to 30 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Quit India movement, the party's national secretary Tarun Chugh said.

The party would organise programmes on August 9 in all districts where freedom fighters would be honoured and statues of martyrs would be garlanded, he said in a statement here.

Chugh said torch marches would be organised on this occasion to make the youngsters aware of the sacrifices of the martyrs while bike-borne volunteers would take out 'Tiranga Yatras' in their respective districts from August 10 to 14.

Films on the lives of Mahatma Gandhi, Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh, B R Ambedkar will be screened on August 14 at all district headquarters. On Independence Day, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all Chief Ministers' speeches in their respective states, various programmes will be arranged at mandal level, he said.

"From August 16 to 30, the BJP will organise discussions and debates on 'Naya Bharat Manthan'," Chugh said, adding Union Ministers, MPs, ministers from different states, MLAs, other elected representatives, BJP's national and state office bearers and its Morchas would be participating in these programmes.

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A Pakistani national was apprehended today by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel on Indo-Pak international border in Dera Baba Nanak sector in the district, the border guarding force said.

The man was apprehended after BSF personnel found him moving suspiciously near Abad Border Out Post (BOP) in the district, the BSF said here.

He was later handed over to police, it said, adding that the man appears to be mentally unstable and probably crossed over to India accidentally.

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The chief ministers of southern states greeted M Venkaiah Naidu on his election as the 13th vice-president today.

"Congratulations to Sri Venkaiah Naidu Ji for being elected as the country's 13th Vice President," Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted from his official handle.

On his Facebook page, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan congratulated Naidu and said, "Wishing him that he will be able to uphold secular and democratic values."



People in Naidu's native village Chavatapalem in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh held grand celebrations on his victory.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his son and cabinet minister Nara Lokesh too extended their greetings to the newly-elected VP.

"Hearty congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu garu for being elected as the Vice President of India," Lokesh tweeted.

Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh Assembly Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said it was a proud moment to see a Telugu man as the chairman of the upper house of Parliament.

"Our party is always in favor of unanimous election to the high offices of President, Vice President and Speaker posts," Reddy said on his official Facebook page.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said Naidu would bring laurels to the post of the vice-president.

DMK Working President and Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly M K Stalin tweeted, "With vast experience in parliamentary procedures, I am quite confident that he (Naidu) will protect the plurality of our great nation."



Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O Panneerselvam too offered his wishes.

The ruling parties of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu had pledged their support to Naidu in the election.

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The Indian Coast Guard today rescued a yacht with two crew members sailing from Seychelles to Abu Dhabi on its maiden voyage after it suffered power failure.

The yacht was rescued off Kavaratti Island, Lakshadweep in early morning, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The yacht, on its maiden voyage from Seychelles to Abu Dhabi, suffered total power failure on board and had been drifting on the Arabian Sea since August 2, it added.

This is the second such operation this monsoon. On June 17, the Indian Coast Guard saved three lives on board a yacht.

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Scores of Congress activists staged demonstrations near the BJP headquarters and Gujarat Bhawan here against the attack on party vice president Rahul Gandhi's car in the western state.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Ajay Maken led a protest march to Gujarat Bhawan and said that the attack on Gandhi was "an attack on democracy".

"The BJP leadership should not force the Congress to cross the line by attacking him (Gandhi)," he said.

Maken asked the Gujarat government to take immediate action against the BJP Yuva Morcha leaders who allegedly attacked Gandhi's vehicle.

Gandhi had yesterday faced protests in flood-hit Dhanera town of Banaskantha district in Gujarat where alleged BJP supporters hurled a cement brick at his car and showed him black flags.

The Congress activists also staged a protest near BJP headquarters on Ashoka Road here.

Police put up barricades on roads leading to the BJP office to stop the protesters from marching ahead.

Some demonstrators were also detained.

"The attack on such a senior leader of the Congress is a failure of the state's security," Youth Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja.

The Congress today accused the BJP and the RSS of being behind what it described as a "murderous attack" on Gandhi in Gujarat and claimed it was a "pre-planned" conspiracy.

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The Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress Deputy Leader Anand Sharma today congratulated Vice-President-elect M Venkaiah Naidu and hoped to work with him constructively in the Upper House.

The vice-president is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament.

Sharma hoped the vice-president-elect will be non- partisan and will ensure that legitimate concerns of members are articulated and the opposition will have its space in the Upper House.

"We hope as Vice-President of India, he will be non- partisan and will rise above partisan divisions and ensure that the legitimate concerns of members are articulated and the opposition has its space which is essential in a democracy," he said.

Sharma also said all have known Naidu for a long time and "we look forward to working with him in giving constructive support in the functioning of the Rajya Sabha".

NDA nominee Naidu was today elected as India's next vice- president, receiving an overwhelming two-third of the votes against opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

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Zonal level bilateral talks to ensure peace was held between leaders of both CPI-M and BJP in Kannur that has witnessed clashes between cadres of both parties in the last few months.

CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and BJP state president Kummanom Rajasekharan led the peace talks, representing their parties.

RSS state secretary P Gopalankutty and CPI-M Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan were among those who participated at the meet held against the backdrop of recent clashes culminating in the killing of an RSS functionary at Thiruvanathpuram on July 29.

The meeting arrived at a consensus that there should not be any further political clashes and exhorted cadres to abstain from violence.

Rajasekharan said his party wanted that not a single drop of blood should be spilled further.

"BJP will extend full support for peace process," he added.

Balakrishnan said CPI-M also wanted to ensure political peace in the state.

Union Minister Arun Jaitley is scheduled to visit the house of the RSS functionary Rajesh hacked to death by a gang near here last week.

A BJP statement had said on Thursday that the Finance minister is visiting the state in the wake of increasing attacks on BJP-RSS workers allegedly by the activists of ruling CPI(M).

Jaitley's visit also coincides with the all party meeting convened by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to work out ways to ensure a peaceful political situation.

A series of clashes between CPI(M) and BJP-RSS activists had rocked Thiruvanathapuram last week, which culminated in the killing of Rajesh on July 29.

The BJP has alleged that CPI-M workers were behind the killing of Rajesh, a charge denied by CPI-M.

Meanwhile, CPI-M Thiruvananthapuram district secretary Anavoor Nagappan said it was unfortunate that Jaitley was "becoming a part of the RSS-BJP agenda to portray the district as an area of unrest."



In a letter to Jaitley, Nagappan said both BJP leadership and the Union government were "adopting double standards," but did not elaborate.

He also denied that CPI-M had any role in the killing of Rajesh and said it was an outcome of enmity between two groups.

He said all those connected with the killing had been arrested and "none of them have any links with CPI-M."



Nagappan also extended full co-operation and support to the all party meeting and peace efforts of the chief minister and said party was committed to "save the state from political tension.

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A former senior officer with Tata Motors jumped to death from a high-rise in Parel in central Mumbai, police said today.

Prashant Sibal (43) was found in a pool of blood at around 8 yesterday morning after he allegedly jumped from his 15th floor flat in Kalpataru Habitat in Parel.

Police rushed him to a hospital but he was declared dead before admission, said Dilip Ugale, senior police inspector at the Kalachouki Police Station.

"Sibal was a former general manager at the sales department of Tata Motors. He had been terminated from service last year," Ugale told PTI.

"We found a suicide note in his bedroom. It does not blame anybody," the police officer added.

Sibal's family told the police that he was under treatment for depression since April. He used to remain aloof and sometimes locked himself in his room, Ugale said, adding that the police had registered a case of accidental death and further probe was on.

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CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat today demanded that murder cases be filed against BCCL and central government for the death of a man and son in subsidence at Jharia in May.

Karat demanded this at Indira Chawk in Jharia where Babloo Khan and his son Rahim died in subsidence that occurred in front of their shop on May 24.

The CPI(M) leader also met the victims' family members and assured them to help them in getting compensation from BCCL (Bharat Coking Coal Limited), owner of the coal mines there.

Karat said her party would hold a dharna in Delhi to draw attention of central government about plight of people living in danger zone and those who have been displaced.

She said a delegation of her party would meet Coal Minister Piyush Goel and make him aware about the plight of Jharia people.

"I had fought for Jharia people in 2006, '07 and '08 at Delhi and again launch agitation for them," she said.

Karat also visited underground fire affected Fularitand residential area, RSP College Jharia and Belgaria township created for displaced families of Jharia mines fire.

She was here to attend the party's two-day state conference scheduled to begin from Sunday.

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Even though its nominee suffered a massive defeat in the vice-presidential poll, the opposition today said Gopalkrishna Gandhi had bagged more votes than Meira Kumar had garnered in the presidential election.

Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad pointed out that opposition candidate Kumar had got 225 votes in the July 17 presidential election, whereas her counterpart in the vice-presidential poll, Gandhi, bagged 244 votes.

"The number of votes has gone up by 19. It is a good thing that the votes have increased instead of decreasing," he said.

Azad also claimed that the ruling NDA had "approached all the opposition parties", seeking support for its candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.

"Despite all the efforts of the government, our number (of votes) has increased over the last around 20 days, after the presidential election," he said, while thanking the opposition parties and their MPs for supporting Gandhi.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury too expressed satisfaction over the number of votes bagged by the opposition candidate going up since the presidential election.

He also dubbed the vice-presidential election as a political fight between two trends.

"We got more votes compared to the presidential election. Those who want to strengthen the Constitution, had come together to field Gopalkrishna Gandhi. We are grateful to him (Gandhi) for agreeing to be the candidate of a united opposition," said Yechury.

Both Azad and Yechury said the opposition parties would look into the voting pattern of their respective MPs.

CPI national secretary D Raja congratulated Naidu on being elected as the next vice-president of the country.

"We hope he will uphold the Constitution and constitutional morality and be accommodative to all the parties as the Rajya Sabha chairman," he said.

Naidu bagged 516 of the total of 771 votes cast in the vice-presidential poll, while Gandhi could only manage 244. Of the 771 votes polled, 11 were found to be invalid.

Although, there are 785 MPs in both the Houses of Parliament, 14 members could not exercise their franchise.

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Georgia's exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili, stripped of both his Georgian and Ukrainian citizenship, has turned up in Poland and announced a tour of Europe, local media reported.

Just days ago, Saakashvili was in the United States vowing to fight a decision last week by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to take away his Ukrainian nationality.

Last evening he was in Warsaw telling Polish television that he had had no trouble travelling to their country.

"The Americans did not stop me. The Polish didn't either," he told TV Republika.

"I was welcomed in a pleasant manner by the official authorities and here I am in Warsaw," he added.

It is not clear which travel papers Saakashvili used to travel to Poland, but Poroshenko's decision to strip him of his citizenship effectively leaves him stateless.

He lost his Georgian citizenship when he was granted a Ukrainian passport in 2015, as the country bans dual citizenship.

Saakashvili made it clear he intended to travel inside the EU's Schengen borderless zone where, in principle, he will not be required to present any travel documents.

"I will have meetings in other European countries," visiting Brussels, among other cities, he told RMF FM radio.

Saakashvili also made it clear he intended to return to Ukraine, where the authorities have threatened him with extradition to Georgia.

Saakashvili is currently wanted in his homeland Georgia for alleged abuse of power during his tumultuous nine years as president that saw him fight and lose a brief war against Russia in 2008.

He insists the charges are politically motivated revenge masterminded by his billionaire foe Bidzina Ivanishvili, currently seen as the power behind the scenes of Georgia's government.

Saakashvili, 49, moved to Ukraine in 2015 to work for the country's pro-Western authorities as governor of the key Odessa region on the Black Sea.

But he quit in November 2016 amid a dramatic falling out with Poroshenko, accusing high-ranking officials of blocking his efforts to tackle rampant corruption.

Ukraine's announcement last week that it was pulling Saakashvili's passport came shortly after Poroshenko visited Georgia. Saakashvili alleges Poroshenko struck a secret deal to revoke his citizenship.

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The opposition's joint nominee for the vice-presidential election, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, today sat through most of the polling process in the voting hall in Parliament House.

Gandhi was also present when the counting took place between 6 pm and 7 pm in the same room.

Though Gandhi is not a member of either of the Houses, he was allowed as candidate contesting the election.

NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu was today elected as India's next vice-president, receiving an overwhelming two-third votes against former West Bengal Governor Gandhi.

The 68-year-old BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh got 516 votes out of the total 771 votes cast, while Gandhi could manage 244 votes. Of the total 771 votes polled, 11 were found to be invalid.

Although 785 MPs were eligible to vote in today's election, 14 MPs could not vote.

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Congress workers today staged protests across Gujarat condemning the attack on the car of party vice president Rahul Gandhi in Banaskantha district.

Members of the opposition party blocked the roads and burnt effigies of BJP as part of their protests against attack on Gandhi's vehicle at Dhanera yesterday.

The protests were carried out in cities including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Gandhinagar.

They demanded that the persons responsible for throwing stone at the vehicle be booked under section 307 (Attempt to murder) of the IPC.

However, police detained the protesting members as they blocked roads and affected traffic movement.

In Rajkot, two Congress workers were detained when they were moving towards the residence of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani situated at Prakash Society to stage a protest, police said.

Police officials rushed to Rupani's residence after the incident. Nobody is residing there as of now, they said.

Twenty more people were also detained for blocking a road in the city, thereby affecting traffic movement, Rajkot police said.

At Dhanera, dozens of Congress workers gheraoed police station demanding arrest of the culprit who had pelted stones at Gandhi's vehicle yesterday. They dispersed only after police announced the arrest of one person in this connection.

Gandhi had yesterday faced protests in flood-hit Gujarat where a man pelted a stone at his car.

The glass pane at the rear of his car was shattered as a piece of stone smashed through it when Gandhi was on his way to the helipad in Dhanera from Lal Chowk in flood-ravaged Banaskantha district, police said.

Police today arrested one Jayesh Darji, a BJP youth wing member, in this connection.

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The Haryana government today said it has decided to raise a women police battalion for which recruitment of 1,000 personnel will start soon.

The percentage of women personnel in the state police has increased from 6 to 9.3 per cent, and with the recruitment of 1,000 more personnel, this would increase to 11 per cent, an official release quoted Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar as saying.

Khattar made the announcement at the second Haryana Mahila Police Diwas programme here.

To train the personnel a centre will also be established in Hisar. There are three police training centres -- at Sunaria, Madhuban and Bhondsi -- in the state at present, the release said.

Reiterating his government's commitment towards empowerment and safety of women, Khattar said two years ago, on Raksha Bandhan, the Haryana government had decided to establish women police stations in all the districts of the state.

"These police stations have been established and approval has been given to establish such police stations in eight sub-divisions," the chief minister said.

Nearly 38 women help-desks are being operated at the sub-divisional level and these could be converted into full- fledged stations, if required, he said.

The government has also decided to provide an additional women police station at Gurugram and Faridabad, Khattar said.

Creches will also be provided at women police stations for children of police personnel and for those in custody. A counsellor will also be appointed at these stations, he said.

He said the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme was yielding positive results, with the sex ratio at birth in the state crossing the 950 females per 1,000 males mark.

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Producer Bhushan Kumar says today the audience is looking for films that are engaging and entertaining and his upcoming film "Baadshaho" is one such project.

"Baadshaho" is set against the backdrop of the 1975 Emergency period. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Esha Gupta, Ileana D'Cruz, Vidyut Jammwal and Sanjay Mishra.

"We have to make films as per the reliability factor of the audience. There have been commercial films that have come out (this year), but were too imaginative and they have not worked.

"'Baadshaho' is not an imaginative film, it's real and made it an entertaining way," Bhushan of T-Series told PTI.

"In 'Baadshaho', we have taken a topic that is relatable and we are hopeful people will connect with it. We are showing what has happened during the Emergency period. Milan Luthria (director) has given a great visual to the film," he says.

According to Bhushan, the unique point of his upcoming film "Baadshaho" is its genre - period heist action thriller.

"The genre is the USP of the film. Recently so many films have come - both big and small and nothing really has worked and there is always a change that is needed. The audience is open to all kinds of films but the content has to be good."



"Baadshaho" was earlier set to release on January 26 this year but as the film was incomplete, the makers changed the date. Bhushan says the delay was because the shooting was not complete and some scenes had to be reshot.

"We were looking for the right date with no competition. Though we had announced it earlier that we will release the film on January 26, we were not ready. That time Rakesh Roshan ji (producer of 'Kaabil') and Ritesh Sidhwani (producer of 'Raees') had called me to ask if our film was releasing on January 26," he says.

Produced by T series and Milan, "Baadshaho" is scheduled for a worldwide release on September 1.

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The government is hopeful that the strategic will be operational by 2018, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

The Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari is in Tehran on Friday to represent India at the oath taking ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier congratulated Rouhani on his re-election as the President of Iran and affirmed India's commitment to strengthen the special relations between the countries.

"India and Iran have been historically sharing special ties... We are keen on developing and are hopeful of starting operations in 12 to 18 months," Gadkari said.

Gadkari is keen on expediting development of the Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nation's southern coast that can be easily accessed from India's west coast, bypassing Pakistan.

The visit assumes significance as India has accelerated work at the and finalised some tenders for installation of key equipment at Chabahar Port.

"Civil construction work has started there. We have finalised tenders worth Rs 380 crore for equipment out of Rs 600 crore and once the port becomes operational it will become a growth engine," the minister has said.

The minister has said that he was also hopeful of certain approvals from the Iranian government for expediting work and added that once Chabahar becomes operational the trade and business between both the nations would see a boost.

For greater trade and investment flow with Iran and neighbouring countries, the Cabinet last year cleared proposals for the development of Chabahar port including through a $150 million credit from Exim Bank.

It also authorised the Shipping Ministry to form a company in Iran for implementing the Chabahar Port Development Project and related activities.

As per the MoU signed between the two nations in May last year, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million on a 10-year lease.

Ownership of equipment will be transferred to Iranian side on completion of 10 years or for an extended period, based on mutual agreement. The Iranian side had requested for provision of a credit of $150 million in accordance with the MoU.

As per the pact, operations of two berths are to commence within a period of maximum 18 months after the signing of the contract.

Besides the bilateral pact to develop the Chabahar port, for which India will invest $500 million, a trilateral Agreement on Transport and Transit Corridor has also been signed by India, Afghanistan and Iran.

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A 66-member Indian Navy band has joined the historic Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in the UK for this year's musical event where they will mark the 70th year of India's Independence.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an annual series of military tattoos -- performance of music -- by British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and international military bands and artistic performance teams on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.

It was first staged in 1950 and since then British and international musicians and acts from over 50 countries have entertained audiences.

The Indian Band, appearing with an array of colourful dancers, comprises one officer and 65 musician-sailors, performing under the baton of Commander Vijay Charles D'Cruz, Director of Music (Navy) and the principal conductor at the event.

More than 1,200 performers from around the world will take part in this year's military musical extravaganza, with the Indian band invited to mark the 70th year of Indian independence and the India-UK Year of Culture.

"Each year, we reach out across the world to find the very best acts and bring them to Edinburgh. We are always looking to bring people together to celebrate the rich differences of our global community.

"There is something for everyone in this show and an opportunity for all of us to be proud," said Brigadier David Allfrey, chief executive and producer of the tattoo.

The theme for this year's week-long event, which runs until August 26, is titled 'Splash of Tartan', celebrating Scotland's Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology.

There will be a total of 25 shows on the Esplanade of the Edinburgh Castle, with each show attracting a cast of over 1,200 musicians and other players.

Each show will have an audience of around 8,800 delivering an approximate total audience of 220,000 through the month of August.

In addition, the global television audience is estimated to reach between 100 and 300 million people.

Besides the Indian band, there are participants from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Malta, Monaco and the US, and 20 bands from Britain.

"It is our aspiration that, besides showcasing the Indian Navy, the deployment of our band will personally for each individual member be memorable and collectively enrich their repertoire," the Indian High Commission in London said in a statement.

The tattoo has also launched its first app to provide an interactive guide to the 2017 show.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was set to be inaugurated in front of foreign guests today, but already faces criticism for reportedly bowing to conservatives in forming a new government.

Rouhani, a 68-year-old cleric considered a political moderate, began his second term on Thursday when he was sworn in by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But today's ceremony in parliament is the glitzier affair, with guests including EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who has vowed to continue building ties with Iran despite mounting pressure from the United States to keep the Islamic republic isolated.

Some of Iran's older friends also arrived in Tehran, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

The emir of Qatar, which has fallen out with its Gulf allies in part over ties to Iran, was notably absent despite attending Rouhani's last inauguration in 2013.

But among Iranians, the real attention was on who would be named to Rouhani's new cabinet.

He has already been barraged with criticism over indications that women would again be entirely absent and that his reformist allies would barely be represented.

His last government had three women among a large cohort of vice-presidents, but they lacked ministerial roles that would require approval by parliament.

"It was the reformists that allowed him to win the elections in 2013 and 2017... He must listen to those who supported him," Rassoul Montajabnia, of the reformist National Confidence party, told the Arman newspaper.

Rouhani won a convincing victory over hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi in the May presidential election, vowing to continue rebuilding ties with the West and easing social restrictions at home.

That helped win over the reformists -- whose candidates dropped out of the last two elections to ensure his victory.

"Rouhani created a lot of expectation and now there is a sense that he is retreating from his promises," Ali Shakourirad, head of the reformist People's Unity Party.

The absence of women was down to pressure from religious conservatives behind the scenes, Shakourirad added.

"Rouhani didn't want to make his task any more complicated than it already is," he told AFP.

The final line-up is due to be announced in the coming days, and must then be approved by parliament.

Despite the furore, the reshuffle is not expected to touch big names such as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Oil Minister Bijan Namadar Zanganeh.

"The main ministers are very likely to stay in place," said Henry Smith, Iran analyst with consultancy Control Risks.

"Rouhani will have a fairly smooth time getting parliament to approve his appointees. He's been doing back and forth consultations with the necessary power centres -- the parliament speaker, supreme leader, the Revolutionary Guards -- and I don't think you'll see a significant change in economic or indeed social policy," he added.

Despite his efforts to build backroom consensus, hardliners have given Rouhani a rough ride since his election, perhaps worried at the growing strength of the reformists.

The arrest of his brother on corruption charges was interpreted by some as a shot across the bow by the hardline judiciary.

Rouhani also triggered a war of words with the Revolutionary Guards after criticising their outsized role in the economy, although analysts say this is part of a cautious realignment of Iran's policies to balance its security priorities with the need to attract investment.

"Rouhani has no interest in pushing the Revolutionary Guards totally out of the economy. It's about creating enough space so Iran can get the foreign investment and technology it needs," said Smith.

Investment has belatedly started to arrive in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal that eased sanctions, notably through last month's billion-dollar gas deal with France's Total and China's CNPC.

Billions more are needed to jumpstart the stagnant economy and tackle a jobless rate of 12.7 per cent.

But with Washington imposing yet more sanctions this week, Iran's re-engagement with the world remains largely stalled.

"The problem is Iran feels the need to react to these moves by the US, which just gives the US fuel," said Smith.

"What cooler heads would suggest is not to respond in kind and try to present themselves as the more rational party, but politically that is very difficult to do.

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Islamic State terror group which once had 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries is now fighting for its survival and has lost control in many parts of Iraq and Syria, the US has said.

"When ISIS really arrived on the international scene back in 2014, they had 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries around the world pouring into Syria and Iraq. They controlled what was effectively a quasi-state," said Brett McGurk, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the ISIS.

"They were able to mass and manoeuvre force all Iraq and Syria, taking entire cities, controlling millions under their domain," Brett said.

"Since that time, they have lost about 70,000 square kilometres of territory in Iraq and Syria; about 78 per cent of the territory they used to hold in Iraq they can no longer operate in, and about 58 per cent of the territory they used to hold in Syria they can no longer operate in," he told reporters yesterday.

Importantly, of all that territory that they have lost, they have not regained, he said.

When US-led coalition supports elements on the ground to retake territory from ISIS, they have never been able to reclaim that territory, he added.

"We are going to make sure that continues," he said adding that almost five million people who had been living under ISIS are no longer living under them.

They have been liberated by coalition enabled operations on the ground, Brett said.

He said that in the last six months, the US-led international coalition has turned the table against ISIS.

"About six months ago, ISIS was planning major attacks in Raqqa. They were planning major attacks against US, against our partners, and they were doing it in Raqqa, using infrastructure of a major city.

Today, in Raqqa, ISIS is fighting for every last block and trying to defend blocks that they are about to lose. They're fighting for their own survival. It is a fundamentally transformed situation," he said.

According to him, currently there are 2,000 ISIS fighters left in Raqqa, with 25,000 civilians on the ground.

"What's really happening, similar to what we saw in Mosul, but on a smaller scale, the ISIS fighters on the ground are using these civilians as their own shields, as their own hostages. They are using snipers to kill civilians who are trying to escape," he alleged.

"They're trying to put suicide bombers in columns of displaced people as they're trying to get out. The similar tactics we've seen from this barbaric terrorist organisation in other cities," he said.

Brett said the next phase of the ISIS campaign would be in Tal Afar.

"That will probably be the next battle. It will happen at a time of the choosing of the government of Iraq," he said.

"We estimate there's about 1,000 ISIS fighters or so in Tal Afar, among 20,000 to 40,000 civilians, so somewhat similar to Raqqa -- a little bit smaller," he added.

"But it'll be very difficult. This has been a hub for ISIS for three years. It has been the home for may of their leaders. It has been a place where terrible atrocities were committed against not only Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Yezidis, in this terrible kind of fulcrum of ISIS atrocities. Many of them happened in Tal Afar," he said.

"This will be very, very hard. The Iraqis are committed to liberating the people of Tal Afar, and we are committed to supporting them at a time of their choosing," Brett said.

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Karnataka Power Minister D K Shivakumar, who faced the heat of the Income Tax department raids, today apologised to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for the remarks made by his mother that the CM had "betrayed" her son.

Shivakumar, who was grilled by the Income Tax sleuths for three consecutive days in connection with an alleged tax evasion case, said that by "misusing" her innocence, certain sections of the media had "instigated" her to make comments against the chief minister.

Speaking to a Kannada TV channel, Shivakumar's mother Gowramma had accused Siddaramaiah of "betraying" her son.

She had said, "He (Siddaramaiah) has come up (in politics) because of my son, today he has malice against my son, but we can't say anything as elections are fast approaching. Let him and BJP wait and watch."



Asked whether she has doubts about chief minister's hand behind the IT raids, she had said, "there may be..."



Stating that the comments were made under the influence of motherly affection towards him, Shivakumar in a statement said, "I'm tendering public apology to the chief minister."



He said, "My mother is not educated; she is someone who is not aware of as to under whom the IT department comes. At a time when she was under stress, certain sections of the media by misusing her innocence, instigated her to make comments against the chief minister."



Apologising to the chief minister and to the public for the "unintentional" statements made by his mother, Shivakumar said Siddaramaiah had always encouraged and supported him.

"I convey my gratitude to the chief minister, party leaders, workers and well-wishers for the concern expressed towards me and my family at the time of crisis," he added.

On Gowramma's remarks, Siddaramaiah had yesterday said he did not want to react on it.

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Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu today congratulated M Venkaiah Naidu for being elected as the vice-president of the country.

The country will be benefited from his long political and parliamentary experience, an official release quoted Murmu as saying.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today also congratulated Venkaiah Naidu for winning the vice-presidential polls.

Das in his statement said the nation would get the benefit of his long experience.

His role would be there in creating new India, the chief minister added.

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Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the next Vice President of India.

He expressed confidence that Naidu would serve the nation with diligence and dedication.

Naidu, an NDA nominee, was today elected as India's next Vice President, receiving an overwhelming two-third votes against opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

The 68-year-old BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh got 516 votes out of the total 771 votes cast, while Gandhi could bag only 244 votes. Of the total 771 votes polled, 11 were found to be invalid.

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Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said today.

According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.

The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing.

The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.

The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."



"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.

Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India]."



He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement.

Khrushchev also told Mao that he was "outraged" by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union "time-servers".

"Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth. We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody... If you consider us time-servers, comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it," Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting.

After that visit, relations between China and then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the US.

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Militants tonight fired at a police vehicle in Nowgam area of Srinagar but no one was hurt in the attack that caused panic among the residents and passers by.

"Militants fired upon a bunker vehicle of police at Nowgam at 8.45 pm but there was no loss of life in the incident," a police official said.

He said the firing caused panic among the residents of Nowgam and adjoining areas as passers by at the busy city intersection ran towards safety.

Traffic was briefly suspended on the Parimpora-Pantha Chowk by pass road following the attack, he added.

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The voters will be able to see details like criminal records, assets and liabilities of contestants at every polling booth in the local bodies polls of 37 local bodies in Madhya Pradesh, slated for August 11.

Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) has issued a circular here, directing the officials engaged in the election process, to display the affidavit of the contestant vying for the post of president or the corporator in the ensuing polls, a public relations department officer said.

The officer said this arrangement is made for the polls in 37 local bodies on an experimental basis.

The large flex hoardings displaying the candidates' affidavits would be put up at every booth, he said.

The official said the decision was taken as voters have the right to know the details which the candidates have filed in the affidavits during the election process.

"Through this way, voters would be able to see the details of the candidates before casting the vote," the officials said.

Activists in the state fighting for voters' rights have welcomed the decision.

"We welcome the decision because the voters can take an informed decision. They will now be able to check the candidates' antecedents before entering to polling station," said Rolly Shivhare, Madhya Pradesh convener of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Shivhare said a delegation of ADR had called on the SEC commissioner R Parsuram in this connection.

"The SEC commissioner promised that efforts are being made to make this practice (of displaying candidates' details at polling booths) mandatory in the ensuing elections of local bodies. It would be better if this practice is adopted in the elections for the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha," she said.

Shivhare claimed that Madhya Pradesh is the second state after Maharashtra to adopt this practice.

The 37 local bodies, including 14 municipalities and 23 nagar parishad, will go to polls on August 11, while the counting would be held on August 16.

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The answer to combat sleep disorders may not be in the brain, say scientists who have found that a protein present in the muscles can lessen the effects of sleep loss.

Researchers from University of Texas Southwestern in the US demonstrated how a circadian clock protein in the muscle - BMAL1 - regulates the length and manner of sleep in mice.

The surprising revelation challenges the widely accepted notion that the brain controls all aspects of sleep, they said.

The team found that while the protein's presence or absence in the brain had little effect on sleep recovery, mice with higher levels of BMAL1 in their muscles recovered from sleep deprivation more quickly.

Removing BMAL1 from the muscle severely disrupted normal sleep, leading to an increased need for sleep, deeper sleep, and a reduced ability to recover, researchers said.

"These studies show that factors in muscles can signal to the brain to influence sleep. If similar pathways exist in people, this would provide new drug targets for the treatment of sleep disorders," said Joseph S Takahashi, Chairman of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

"This finding is completely unexpected and changes the ways we think sleep is controlled," Takahashi added.

The study was published in the journal eLife.

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A scuffle took place between employees of a popular cafe in south Delhi and members of a music band in the wee hours today, following which cross cases have been filed by the two parties, the police said.

A separate case has also been filed against members of the band for allegedly abusing a policeman and tearing his uniform under the influence of alcohol, they added.

The band named 'The Cosmic Truth' was performing at the Turquoise Cottage yesterday. The sound engineer of the band, Mayank Tiwari, had ordered some drinks at the bar.

After the band's performance, when he went to settle the bill, the waiter allegedly argued about the order quantity, Sahil Sharma, a member of the band alleged in his complaint.

Sharma alleged that he tried to speak to the manager but a bartender by the name of Harpal Singh, along with two bouncers, started thrashing him and Tiwari.

In his complaint, Sharma has also claimed that the bouncers even tried to strangulate him. They later dragged him in the stairs for two floors while punching and kicking him, he told police.

Sharma sustained injuries to his head. He also alleged that the police did not allow his brother to accompany him while he was being taken.

Singh has also filed a case against Sharma for allegedly fighting with him.

Police have registered cross cases. When Sharma and his band members were taken to the police station, they allegedly fought with the personnel from the Police Control Room van and tore the uniform of one of the personnel, said a senior police officer.

On the complaint of the policeman, a case was lodged against Sharma and other band members.

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Akshay Kumar said after his National award win, his wife Twinkle Khanna, who is the daughter of Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia, has stopped taunting him about not getting awards.

Akshay won the Best Actor award for "Rustom" at the 64th National Film Awards.

"My wife used to taunt me that all her family members have got several awards but not me. The taunting stopped when I got the National award," the 49-year-old actor quipped during an education festival here today.

When asked about his take on documentary films, the actor said very few people watch documentaries but such films give important messages.

Akshay said he feels very connected to the city of Jaipur as he has shot several films here.

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Gujarat Congress legislators today ventured out for the first time from a private resort on the city outskirts where they have been camping for about aweek and met the Karnataka Governor, besides visiting the state secretariat here.

The Congress had sent its 44 legislators here on July 29 to fend off what it alleged were "poaching" attempts by the BJP ahead of theAugust eight Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat in which Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, was contesting.

The MLAs were driven from the luxurious resort to Raj Bhavan in a state transport bus, where they met Governor Vajubhai Vala.

Congress sources said it was a courtesy visit, as Vala also hails from Gujarat and had served as Assembly Speaker andFinance Minister there. He enjoyed good rapport with the MLAs, they said.

"#Karnataka Guv hon Vajubhai Vala meet each of us, the 44 #GujaratCongressMLA s individually. This is #samvad and spirit of #Democracy," Congress' national spokesman and Gujarat MLA Shaktisinh Gohil said in a tweet. From Rajbhavan, the MLAs were taken to Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, where they were joined by Karnataka Minister D K Shivakumar, who is facing the Income Tax department heat with searches at multiple locations in the state and his house here.

Shivakumar, who is overseeing the arrangements to keep the flock together, emerged out of his house today after undergoing grilling by the Income Tax officials for three consecutive days.

During the first ever outing from the resort, the MLAs along with Shivakumar visited Mahatma Gandhi statue, next to the Vidhana Soudha, and staged a symbolic protest against what they alleged were "attempts to poach them by the BJP" and sang "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram".

After this, the MLAs were escorted inside VidhanaSoudha by Shivakumar.

"All the MLAs are happy and together...," Shivakaumar told reporters.

Shivakumar was at the resort when the search began on Wednesday.

IT sleuths even visited the resort to escort the Minister to his residence for questioning, which the Congress has alleged was an attempt to threaten Gujarat Congress MLAs.

The legislators in the last couple of days took part in "orientation classes" on a host of topics including the "party's achievements in the last 60 years" and the "BJP's lies and the truth" among others, conducted by Dr Suresh Sharma and NaushadParamar of Jawaharalal Nehru Leadership Institute, New Delhi.

Earlier, the itinerary of MLAs during their stay here included visit to some tourist destinations and religious places, but it was scrapped following accusations against the lawmakers of "abandoning" voters when their constituencieswere affected by floods.

Six of the 57 Congress MLAs in Gujarat have resigned from the party recently with three joining the BJP on July 28. The party has apprehensions about Patel's election to the Rajya Sabha, if more MLAs defect.

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A bovine smuggler was today arrested in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, foiling his attempt to smuggle five bovine animals to the valley, police said.

Acting on a specific information, a police team laid a trap at Changer Nallah Tuksan in Mahore Tehsil of Reasi and intercepted a man who was carrying five bovine animals without any legal document, a police spokesman said.

He said the man, identified as Rehmat Ali of village Shikari-Mahore, was arrested and the animals rescued.

Ali intended to smuggle the bovine animals towards Kashmir, the spokesman said, adding a case was registered against him.

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A doctor working at the Primary Health Centre at Navghar in Vasai was today booked by the Thane Unit of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) in a disproportionate assets case.

An open inquiry by the ACB revealed that Dr Anilkumar Yadav during his services with the health department from 2004 to March 2017 had acquired assets to the tune of Rs 81.21 lakh which were over and above his known sources of income, said an official release here.

A case has been filed against Yadav under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 at the Manickpur police station in Vasai division of Palghar.

No arrest has been made so far in connection with the case, said ACB officials.

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The Congress today dared Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to resign from his post and face the Assembly by-election from Panaji, scheduled for August 23.

Girish Chodankar, All India Congress Committee Secretary and the party's candidate against Parrikar, said the chief minister should provide a level playing field.

"I am fighting this election as a common man. Parrikar is contesting as a chief minister and a Member of Parliament. He is fighting with the backing of the state and Union governments. That is not fair in the election process," Chodankar told reporters here.

Parrikar, who resigned as the Defence Minister to return to Goa, is still a Rajya Sabha member.

"He should first put in his papers as the chief minister and an MP and then face the electorate," Chodankar said.

The Congress candidate said he had started a door-to-door campaign in the constituency and was getting a good response.

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A PIL has been filed in the Madras High Court against the removal of contact information including, phone numbers, of Tamil Nadu Ministers from the state government's official website.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan, son of former Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker PTR Palanivel Rajan, is likely to come up for hearing on Monday.

In his petition, Thiagarajan stated that the official website of Tamil Nadu government, www.Tn.Gov.In, containing the contact information including email addresses of the Ministers, was updated on July 21.

However, the information was removed from the site the next day for reasons best known to the authorities concerned, he alleged.

Stating that the information provided online was an official one and therefore it does not fall under the category of information exempted from disclosure as per law, the petitioner said its removal is in contravention of the Right to Information Act 2005 and as such "illegal."



People of his constituency had brought the issue to his knowledge claiming that they were unable to communicate with the ministers, he added.

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A direct air service between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Colombo in Sri Lanka was launched today, less than two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement about connecting the two places of Buddhist pilgrimage.

An 180-seater Air India aircraft ferried 101 passengers in the inaugural flight that was flagged off at 12.35 pm from the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport at Babatpur here in the Lok Sabha constituency of the prime minister.

For its return journey, 179 passengers have already made advance booking, said Air India spokesperson Dhanjay Kumar in Varanasi.

The Airbus 320 aircraft was flagged off by Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani.

The all-economy class flight will make two trips a week -- on Fridays and Sundays, the spokesperson said.

The prime minister, during his visit to Sri Lanka in May, had announced the decision to launch direct flight between Varanasi and Colombo to connect the Buddhist pilgrimage sites between the two countries.

Addressing the UN International Vesak Day celebrations in Colombo in May, Modi had said that Air India will operate direct flights between Colombo and Varansi in August "to honour and deepen the links of Buddhist heritage."



The direct flight service will be beneficial for the Buddhist pilgrims from Sri Lanka to visit Sarnath and Kushinagar along with Gaya.

Sarnath, one of the important Buddhist pilgrimage sites where Lord Buddha had given his first sermon, also falls under Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi.

On the occasion, Lohani presented a free ticket to a CISF official who made Rangoli at the Air India corner.

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A Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford employee wanted in the brutal stabbing death of a Chicago man were arrested in California and will be returned to Chicago for interrogation, federal and local authorities have said.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren were in custody in Oakland, California.

Lathem, an associate microbiology professor at Northwestern, surrendered at the federal courthouse in Oakland, according to the Chicago Tribune, which quoted US Marshals Service supervisory inspector Ed Farrell. Warren, a resident at Somerville College, a part of the Oxford University Network, was arrested in San Francisco, Farrell said.

Chicago police said the two would go before an Oakland court and then be returned to Chicago, where they would be interrogated by homicide detectives. Police did not say when that would happen.

A manhunt had been underway since first-degree murder warrants were issued for the two men shortly after the body of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found on July 27 riddled with stab wounds in the 10th floor Chicago apartment where Lathem lived.

Police said earlier on Friday that Lathem had sent a video to friends and relatives apologizing for his involvement in a crime that he called the "biggest mistake of my life," raising concern among investigators that he might kill himself.

Warren had arrived in the United States three days before the death of Cornell-Duranleau and was seen in surveillance video leaving the building with Lathem the day of the stabbing.

"Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today's arrest brings some comfort for the victim's family," a Chicago police statement said.

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Congress leader and former MP Ponnam Prabhakar today launched a 'fast unto death' demanding a government medical college in Karimnagar.

Prabhakar said that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had promised to establish a medical college in the town in 2014.

Even after three years no steps have been taken to set up the college here, while a medical college was announced for Siddipet district last year, he said.

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A court here today granted bail to former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati in connection with framing an IPS officer and his wife in a false rape case.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Sandhya Srivastava, while granting bail, directed that the accused be released on furnishing two sureties of Rs 20,000 each and a personal bond of the same amount.

Prajapati, however, will have to remain in jail as he is an accused in another rape case.

His bail plea had been rejected by the high court and trial proceedings are going on after framing of charge in that case.

Wife of IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, Nutan had lodged an FIR against Prajapati and others on June 20, 2105 with Gomtinagar police.

A charge-sheet was filed in the case on July 24, under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 203 of IPC, but the CJM found that prima-facie offence was made out under sections 211 and 203 of IPC only, hence she took cognisance against him under these two sections on August 1.

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In a first, President Ram Nath Kovind today called a separate meeting of officers of the President's Military Wing within days of assuming office to acquaint himself with them, a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said.

Underlining that the entire country looks at Rashtrapati Bhavan with great hope, Kovind urged the officers and staff to rise to these expectations by fulfilling their respective responsibilities.

He said they should focus more on duties rather than rights and develop the values of sacrifice and discipline, the statement from the president's Press Secretary Ashok Malik said.

During the meeting, Military Secretary to the President, Major General Anil Khosla introduced the Military Wing of Rashtrapati Bhavan to Kovind, comprising the DMSP, ADCs, the Ceremonial Section, Invitation Section, Tour Section, Visitor's Management Cell, Household Section, Sanitation Section, the President's Bodyguard, and the Ceremonial Guard Battalion.

"This is for the first time that within just a few days of assuming office, the President of India has called a separate meeting to acquaint himself with the President's military staff," the statement said.

It said the President told the staff that they should all be involved in the progress of the country and work together with honesty and dedication.

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Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson returned Saturday to Asia where the Trump administration faces a bevy of problems after its first six months in office.



From North Korea's relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons to increasingly-fraught relations with China and Russia, Tillerson will have his hands full at a summit hosted by Southeast Asian nations in Manila, Philippines.



Following days of meetings and negotiations with foreign counterparts at the summit, the secretary of state will travel to Thailand and Malaysia for one-on-one meetings with leaders in both countries.



Here are the top issues he'll be dealing with in his first trip to the region since March.



An increasingly urgent North Korea threat



A little over a week after North Korea launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile, this one capable of reaching even further distances than the first, the threat that the nation's rogue regime will achieve development of a nuclear-tipped missile is even more urgent than before. But despite some tweets from President Trump saying he is fed up with North Korea's provocations, the administration is continuing full-steam ahead on its policy of "peaceful pressure."



Tillerson will be trying to twist arms in Manila to highlight the need for more pressure from countries that have ties to North Korea, first and foremost China.



It's unclear how differently this approach will be received than it was five months ago when Tillerson traveled to Japan, South Korea, and China -- a trip that ultimately failed to stop North Korea from its two ICBM tests.



The tactic of urging other countries to exert pressure is made even trickier by the presence of North Korea's foreign minister at the conference, although the U.S. delegation will do its best to isolate him and even push for North Korea's expulsion from the summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum, according to America's top diplomat for East Asia.



"What we would expect to see this year at the meeting would be a general chorus of condemnation of North Koreas provocative behavior and pretty serious diplomatic isolation directed at the North Korean foreign minister," acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton told reporters Wednesday.



If anything, though, China has grown increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration, deflecting blame for the crisis to North Korea and the U.S.



"No matter how capable China is, China's efforts will not yield practical results because it depends on the two principal parties," Chinese ambassador to the U.N. Liu Jieyi said Monday.



With North Korea inching closer to having a nuclear-armed weapon, the question is whether time could be running out for Tillerson's diplomacy.



Face to face with Russia after new sanctions, diplomatic expulsions



Despite his push for better relations with Russia, Tillerson faced a huge setback in the last week with new congressional sanctions on Moscow and Russia's retaliation.



The secretary of state made his and Trump's distaste for the U.S. sanctions known, but now he has to enforce them and, in his view, soldier on to improve ties to Moscow despite them.



The first big step in that process is another face-to-face meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The two will meet on the sidelines of the summit after speaking on the phone Thursday -- their second call in a week.



"Our conversation following the actions has been professional. There's no -- theres been no belligerence," Tillerson told reporters Tuesday, adding, "Hes as committed as I am to trying to find ways that we can bring this relationship back closer towards one another."



But critics question what the former ExxonMobil CEO could be willing to give to improve relations with Moscow and ultimately what he could potentially sacrifice for warmer relations with an adversary that continues to sow instability and confusion -- in Ukraine, Syria, eastern Europe, the American political system, and online.



With human rights not a top priority, will Tillerson meet with Philippines's strongman president?



President Trump has faced outrage for his praise of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, who has advocated violence and unleashed a brutal crackdown on drugs and Islamist militants in his country. Trump even invited the foul-mouthed leader to the White House.



Trump's secretary of state has also been criticized for not speaking out forcefully on human rights and saying that at times U.S. values should take a back seat to national security and economic interests.



The State Department has so far declined to say whom Tillerson will meet with from the Filipino government at the summit, and a question is whether he may dignify Duterte with a one-on-one meeting.



"We will be raising all of the relevant issues that we have in the bilateral alliance relationship with the Philippines," said Thornton, including "governance... and human rights issues."



But just how forcefully Tillerson will do that, especially as the U.S. fears Duterte's turn away from America and toward China, remains to be seen -- and however strongly, it will likely be only behind closed doors.



Is Trump's China honeymoon over?



At first, it seemed like the president who relentlessly bashed China on the campaign trail had found a close ally in China's President Xi Jinping. But after months of talks on trade, North Korea, the South China Sea, and more, relations between the world's two largest economies have started to fray.



Trump has begun lashing out on Twitter again against China for not doing enough to pressure North Korea. A Chinese state-run newspaper responded by criticizing the president's "emotional venting" on the social media platform.



Tillerson warned on Tuesday that renewed efforts are needed to avoid "open conflict," but within the administration, that dire warning is being met by possible new trade actions, specifically an investigation into Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property.



Beijing, with an increasingly capable military and its strong economy, may respond just as assertively.



New terror hot spot?



En route to Manila during a stopover in Hawaii, Tillerson was briefed on the threat of ISIS and specifically the role of ISIS fighters returning to the Philippines from Syria by the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris.



The Philippines has long struggled with Muslim separatists in the south, but now it is becoming ground zero for a growing new terror threat in Asia from Islamist jihadists.



The country's south, with a large Muslim population, has seen some violence from a surprisingly strong ISIS affiliate, which successfully captured the city of Marawi. The Filipino military has largely defeated the terror group, but a battle between the two sides still rages on.



There have also been attacks in Bangladesh and Indonesia, including by self-declared ISIS-linked groups, and there is a rising tide of conservative Islamism in political circles in some countries, including among the world's largest Muslim population in Indonesia.



That political ideology could become a breeding ground for violent jihadism, and part of Tillerson's mission is to work with regional allies to combat these trends.



"We are working together not just with the Philippines, but other countries in the region to try to address the growing concerns and growing threats, frankly, of international terrorism," Thornton said Wednesday.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
District authorities here have launched a probe into alleged discrepancies in the information furnished by Abdullah Azam, the son of former Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, to the Election Commission during the assembly election.

The move comes two days after the EC instructed district officials to probe the matter.

Abdullah, MLA from the Suar Tanda assembly segment, is accused of possessing two Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) and giving incorrect date of birth while filing his nomination for the election earlier this year, officials said.

Rampur district magistrate Shiv Sahaya Awasthi said he had yesterday deputed additional district magistrate M P Singh to conduct an enquiry into the matter.

Probe has started and Abdullah's nomination papers were being scrutinised, he said.

The investigation officer has asked the complainant and the legislator to submit their response by August 8.

Meanwhile, when media persons sought Abdullah's response, he said "Jo jeeta wahi sikandar (He who wins, is the king) without elaborating. He also describe the complainant as "pitiable".

Akash Saxena, son of ex-minister Shiv Bahadur Saxena, had made a complaint against Abdullah with the Income Tax department and the Election Commission.

According to the complaint, Abdullah mentioned his date of birth as September 30, 1990 in his nomination papers while in income tax return for 2016-17 his date of birth was mentioned January 1, 1993, district magistrate Awasthi said.

It was alleged that Abdullah had obtained two PAN against rules during the Samajwadi Party rule in UP, in which his father was a cabinet minister, he said.

The EC had instructed district officials to enquire and ascertain whether the information in Abdullah's nomination papers were fictitious and if he was eligible, according to age, to contest assembly polls.

The complainant had claimed that Abdullah was below 25 years of age and expressed astonishment that the said count was ignored by returning officer and termed him as biased.

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High drama was witnessed today on top of a water tank opposite to the Gurdwara Singh Shaheedan, where two B.Ed Unemployed Teachers Union members threatened to commit suicide.

The threat was made in the presence of senior government officials on the 53rd day of the union's protest demanding appointment letters for its members.

The police said one protester poured petrol on herself and threatened immolation while another put a rope around his neck, the police said.

On the first day of the stir, some people associated with the union climbed to the top of the overhead water tank and have refused to come down, they said.

The protesters, today, threatened to commit suicide on top of the tank when the OSD to the Punjab Chief Minister, Sandeep Singh, DIG B L Meena, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Gupreet Kaur Sapra and Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal among others went to pacify them and appealed them to end their stir, the police said.

They threatened to commit suicide, claiming that they would return their homes only after getting appointment letters, they said.

The officials repeatedly appealed to them to come down and assured them that the state government was considering their case.

"We are here to assure you that your demands would be met soon. You just come down and end your protest," the officials told the agitators.

Sapra said their demand would be met soon, but they should end their protest and come to talk with the government.

"Threats and protests are not the right way", the DC said. However, the protesters refused to budge.

Five teachers, Taranjit Kaur, Satnam Singh, Hardeep Singh, Harvinder Singh and Vijay Kumar are atop the tank and have refused to come down despite repeated appeals.

Poonam Rani, the president of the union, said we would end our protest only after getting appointment letters.

"Earlier also, the previous government had befooled us. This time it's 'do or die' for us," said the president, adding even after meeting the education minister five times no decision has been taken..

She added that despite having proper qualification and passing of eligibility and subject tests, they all were jobless.

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Comic Russell Howard has been roped in to make a special stand-up programme for streaming giant, Netflix.

The 37-year-old comedian's show will be based on the lines of his tour "Round the World", which is currently in its final stages, reported Variety.

The special is yet to be titled and will premiere on Netflix in the UK and internationally later this year.

Talking about his new show, Howard said, "I'm really looking forward to making a special for Netflix. I've enjoyed watching so many of their stand-up specials, and to record my own for them is great."



It will be shot in 4K at his performances in Brighton, England, this weekend.

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Singapore Attorney-General's Chambers has filed an application to begin proceedings against Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's nephew for contempt of court over a Facebook post he put up on the country's judiciary.

The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said it decided to act after Li Shengwu, 32, the eldest son of Lee Hsien Yang, and nephew of the Prime Minister failed to remove the Facebook post and to apologise by an extended deadline of 5pm yesterday.

In the Facebook post on July 15, which Li set to "friends only" privacy setting, but which was published by several websites and widely circulated on social media, he said foreign media had been cowed into self-censorship because of previous legal action.

He shared a link of a Wall Street Journal newspaper article giving a summary of the recent dispute which saw his father and aunt Lee Wei Ling on one side, and his uncle, the Prime Minister, on the other, over their late father Lee Kuan Yew's home on 38, Oxley Road, off central business district.

The article was titled Singapore, "A Model Of Orderly Rule, Is Jolted By A Bitter Family Feud".

He also included a link to a 2010 New York Times commentary that was critical of the late Lee Kuan Yew and the government over what it deemed as censorship of the foreign press.

AGC, in its statement, said it issued a letter of warning on July 21 to Li.

In that letter, Senior State Counsel Francis Ng noted that the New York Times article described the Singapore government as "an authoritarian regime which aggressively uses the Singapore judicial system to silence its critics, even where such criticisms are fair or valid".

The article also described the late Lee Kuan Yew as the designer of "draconian press laws", which have been used to suppress legitimate criticism, he wrote.

Referring to Li's Facebook post, Ng said: "The clear meaning of the post, in referring to 'a pliant court system', is that the Singapore judiciary acts on the direction of the Singapore government, is not independent, and has ruled and will continue to rule in favour of the Singapore Government in any proceedings, regardless of the merits of the case".

"This assertion is reinforced by your reference to, and clear endorsement of, the article," he added, referring to the New York Times story.

The AGC said it had given Li until 5pm on July 28 to delete the post.

Li then wrote to the AGC to request an extension of time till 5pm on August 4 to respond to the AGC's letter.

But he failed to purge the contempt and to apologise by the extended deadline, the AGC said.

In a Facebook post earlier yesterday, Li said the post was not an attack on the judiciary.

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Scientists, researchers and students will take out a rally in the city on August 9 as part of the 'India March For Science' demanding more funds for scientific research.

The march will be organised to press for demands, including at least 3 per cent of GDP to scientific and technological research and 10 per cent towards education, a statement signed by Nilesh Maity, Convenor of the organising committee, said today.

On August 9, research scholars, scientists, teachers and students will converge at the Calcutta University's Science College campus and march towards Esplanade area in the city.

The other demands include stopping propogation of "obscurantist ideas and religious intolerance" and ensure that the education system imparts ideas that are supported by scientific evidence, the statement said.

The signatories included several academicians and researchers associated with leading educational institutions of the city.

Similar marches will be taken out in many other state capitals, the society said.

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Dozens of convicts serving time in US prisons for terrorism-related offenses are due to be released in the next several years, raising the question whether that's something Americans should fear. There's no easy answer.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has worked aggressively to foil attacks and has imprisoned hundreds of people who joined or helped militant groups. Experts say less attention has been paid to what happens once those prisoners complete their sentences.

Among the incarcerated, according to the Bureau of Prisons, are 380 linked to international terrorism and 83 tied to domestic terrorism. A Congressional Research Service report said 50 "homegrown violent jihadists" were to be released between last January and the end of 2026.

And more are entering prison.

Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump in May, had told Congress that the bureau had more than 900 active investigations related to Islamic State and other extremist activity in all 50 states. Most of those convicted of terrorism-related crimes are held at the high-security U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, and federal prisons in Terre Haute, Indiana, and Marion, Illinois. Some are in for life, but the average sentence is 13 years. That means most will walk out of prison with years of freedom ahead.

"There were people I was with in prison who you'd be happy to have as a neighbor because they were normal, reasonable people," said Ismail Royer. He was released last December after serving more than 13 years on firearms charges connected to his work helping others get to a militant training camp in Kashmir.

"The guys that I'm really, really concerned about are the loose cannons," Royer said.

Royer grew up in a Catholic family in suburban St. Louis. By the time he was 21, he had converted to Islam and was fighting alongside fellow Muslims in Bosnia. At 31, he was serving a 20-year sentence.

Today, he lives in the Washington, D.C., area, works for the Center for Islam and Religious Freedom and wants to help nonextremist Muslim-Americans find their footing in American society.

Behind bars, Royer got to know inmates arrested for only loose ties to terrorism. But he also met Richard Reid, the al-Qaida "shoe bomber," and John Walker Lindh, an American captured in Afghanistan while fighting with the Taliban.

Some were ensnared in sting operations, Royer said, or were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Others were up to no good; Royer said he was happy the FBI arrested them. "At any time, the loose cannon might go to the convenience store and cut off somebody's head. You just don't know. These guys are very problematic," Royer said while eating grilled cheese at a hotel not far from the White House. "I don't want them as my neighbor. You can't sit there and talk to them and tell them that their views are mistaken."



Eric Rosand, who directs a program at the Global Center on Cooperative Security that's aimed at combating violent extremism, said not enough is known about the mindset of the prisoners being released. Experts say there's been no comprehensive research to determine recidivism rates for these individuals.

Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University's School of Law, doesn't think the public should panic. Those released will face months to years of supervision. Phone calls and online communications are monitored. Travel can be restricted. Weekly meetings with counselors can be required.

"We're not talking about 9/11 perpetrators," Greenberg said.

While the State Department has spent more than USD 10 million since 2012 to help other countries deal with an increase in suspected terrorists, Rosand lamented that no similar effort is taking place here.

"People have to go back to some community once they are released," said Rosand, a former senior counterterrorism official at the State Department. "Are we preparing communities for their release? Where are they going to go? Is the community that they came from going to accept them back?" Patrick James, a researcher at National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland said the U.S. Lags behind European and Middle Eastern countries in finding ways to address paths to radicalization or ease the return of released individuals.

"There's no net to catch them. There is no way to make sure they don't re-engage in extremism," James said. At least 128 individuals have been charged in the United States with crimes related specifically to the Islamic State group since March 2014, when the first arrests were made, according to George Washington University's Program on Extremism.

Justice Department officials declined comment. But the department's internal watchdog is auditing the Bureau of Prisons' procedures, policies and practices for monitoring inmates with known or suspected terrorist ties, and efforts to prevent further radicalization among inmates.

The issue also is being addressed in pockets of the country.

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Sri Lankan Navy has commissioned an India-built state-of-the-art Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV), the first-ever purchase from a foreign ship builder, to boost its search and rescue capabilities.

Sri Lankan President and Armed Forces commander-in-chief Maithripala Sirisena commissioned the new patrol vessel "SLNS Sayurala" this week at a ceremony at the Eastern Container Terminal of the Port of Colombo.

It is the largest vessel built by an Indian ship builder for a foreign navy to date.

The event was also attended by Flag Officer Commander in Chief Southern Naval Command-Indian Navy Vice Admiral A R Karve.

Built at the Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) in India, SLNS Sayurala is the first-ever brand new platform purchased from a foreign ship builder and tailored for the specific requirements of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), a navy statement said.

It is expected to conduct patrols, policing, surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and pollution control missions in Sri Lanka's maritime zones, the statement said.

The 105.7 metre-long and 13.6 meter-wide vessel can also be used for external fire-fighting missions.

Sayurala features a range of modern facilities and advanced technological instrument and is capable of achieving the maximum speed of 26 knots and cruising speed of 12-14 knots. It has a displacement of 2,350 tonnes.

Equipped with a landing facility and hangar for an advanced light helicopter (ALH), the vessel can accommodate a total of 118 crew members.

The SLN signed the contract for two AOPVs on February 17, 2014 and officially initiated the construction of SLNS Sayurala in May the same year.

It took delivery of the first AOPV on July 22 and transported the vessel to Sri Lanka on July 28.

The second AOPV is currently under construction in India and is slated to join the SLN fleet by next year.

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A court in Surat issued an arrest warrant against Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel for not appearing for the hearing of a sedition case against him today.

District judge Geeta Gopi issued a bailable arrest warrant against Hardik after he failed to appear for the consecutive second time.

His lawyer Yashwant Vala said Hardik could not come because he was busy meeting members of the Patel community in Ahmedabad after a programme, scheduled for today, could not be held.

Bright students from the community were to be felicitated at the programme, but it had to be cancelled at the last moment, he said, seeking exemption for his client.

Government pleader Nayan Sukhadwala pressed for a warrant against Hardik, pointing out that the Patel leader had failed to appear before the court for a second time.

The court issued a bailable warrant against him, posting the matter for hearing to September 4.

The court had rejected Hardik's discharge application in the case on June 30.

The Surat police registered a case of sedition under the Indian Penal Code against Hardik in 2015 after he allegedly exhorted a fellow activist to "kill policemen instead of committing suicide".

Ahmedabad police too registered a sedition case against him and five others for allegedly inciting Patel youths to resort to violence, in order to destabilise the government.

Hardik is currently out on bail.

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The indefinite hunger strike of



the teachers of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) demanding regularization of their jobs entered the fifth day today.

"The jobs of SSA teachers were regularized in different states of the country, but despite our repeated memoranda to the government our jobs were not regularized.

"So we have decided to continue our agitation until our demands are met", Secretary of the Tripura SSA teachers Welfare Asssociation, Bastab Debbarma told reporters.

He said 38 teachers had participated in the fast and more than 300 teachers are remaining present near the ground of agitation here.

The state Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty has appealed to the agitating teachers to withdraw their strike on the plea that the Left Front Government was concerned about their problems.

"The SSA teachers are getting their salaries and facilities at par with the regular teachers of the state government and we have decided to introduce Employees Provident Fund (EPF) within short time," Chakraborty told reporters.

He said, Lok Sabha M P from Tripura, Jiten Chowdhury raised the issue in Parliament and requested the central government to regularize their jobs, but the central government remained silent on the issue.

There are 5,200 SSA teachers in the state.

Meanwhile, the state BJP president Biplab Deb and Tripura Pradesh Congress president, Birajit Sinha visited the site of agitating teachers and expressed their sympathy to the teachers.

Deb alleged that the state government was deliberately depriving the SSA teachers despite getting full funding from the central government.

He assured them that their jobs would be regularized if the BJP was voted to power in the next assembly elections scheduled to be held in next February.

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US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron has discussed various global issues, including mutual interests regarding North Korea, crisis in Syria and Iraq, the White House has said.

Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France spoke on the phone, the White House said in a statement yesterday.

"Trump spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France to explore how to increase cooperation in addressing the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq and countering Iranian malign influence," it said.

They also spoke about forging a political resolution in Libya and countering terror activity in the Sahel region of Africa, it added.

"They agreed that the Maduro regime in Venezuela must restore the rights of the Venezuelan people and reaffirmed the importance of all sides implementing the Minsk agreements to reach a peaceful settlement in Ukraine," the White House said.

"Finally, they discussed mutual interests regarding North Korea," it said.

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Friday, August 4, 2017 at 05:06AM

Blue Skunk readers know that this blog is both professional and personal, and the personal part includes short documentaries of my travels. I post these primarily to help me remember where I've been and what I've done. So if you are looking for stuff about libraries, technology, or education, jump to the next link on your "to-read" list...

In late July, a friend and I flew to the Czech Republic to do a week-long "boat and bike" trip that started in Prague and traveled north for 5 days along the Vtlava (Moldau) and Elbe Rivers. The boat served nicely as our hotel, restaurant, tour organizer, and bike provisioner. Here are a few shots ...

We had one and a half days in Prague before the boat sailed and the bikes rolled and three days there again when we got back. Using Rick Steve's guide to the city, we managed to work in the highlights (Old Town, Wenceslaus Square, Prague Castle, etc.) This ancient city received relatively little damage during WWII so the Soviets had little space in which to construct the ugly monstrosities you see in many Eastern European cities. Prague is truly a beautiful and fascinating place and easily walkable (if you don't mind hills). Oh, and I've never seen more statues in a city - every building, lamppost and bridge is covered with them! From Cubism to Baroque to Gothic to Renaissance, the city is an architecture lover's dream.

The purpose of this trip was to experience the Czech Republic (a new country for me) by bike. The floating hotel MS Florintina, shown here in the background, traveled to each day's biking destination where we would eat, sleep, and relax. Bikes were lifted aboard each evening and lowered each morning. These touring bikes, rented for a modest cost from the tour company, were simple 7 speeds that worked well and came with panniers and a handle bar bag.

The cabins were small but clean and comfortable, bathrooms ensuite. Lounge areas and an upper deck were comfortable for reading, game playing, visiting, or just watching the scenery roll by. Food was good although lacking in veggies to my taste. Breakfast was buffet style from which one could also make a sandwich to eat at lunch if out biking (along with daily provision of a water bottle and candy bar!)

Bike routes were prepared for us and the guides included both maps and written turn-by-turn instructions. The route was also described each evening at a meeting just before supper. It was great fun figuring out the day's sometimes tricky paths. Each day's ride was relatively short - 18-24 miles - which allowed plenty of time for touring castles and towns along the way. I doubt most bikers averaged 10mph.

The villages of Kralupy, Litomerice, and Melnik were highlights. Castles, cathedrals (one with ossuary), charming squares, and old cobblestone streets and alleys were parts of each visit. Each town had its own legends and histories, of course, and an optional guided tour was available for many sights.

As with much of Eastern Europe, the dark sides of history were evident, especially in places like Terezin where the entire town was used a Nazi holding area for Jews before being sent to extermination camps further east. Our hotel in Prague after the bike trip was the Unitas - now a lovely place but the site of brutal torture by the Soviet secret police we were told. But even after years of both Nazi occupation and Soviet control and depravations of both goods and freedoms, the country has rebounded.

No bike ride is complete without some challenging hills and each bike route usually had at least a couple good ones. Castles perched high above the river created astounding views, including the one of our ship above, heading through locks to the evening's port. A few trails were muddy and some rain did fall during the week, but very little while actually biking.

75% or better of the bike rides were on well-maintained, well-marked bike trails (mostly paved) that followed the river banks. Another 25% were lightly traveled streets and roads. The well-marked bike trail system in the CR is extensive and there were a lot of both tourists and residents taking advantage on bikes, scooters, skateboards, roller blades, and on foot.

One would think that when biking or hiking everyday, one would lose a little weight on a vacation like this. Thanks to trdlos (pictured above and tasting much better than they sound) and lots of meats, sauces, breads, and pastries - oh, and the ubiquitous beer - I managed to put on a couple pounds.

Given the number of damn tourists in Prague, I'm happy much of my vacation was spent in the countryside. Prague Castle and the streets of Old Town were especially crowded. Supposedly Prague has the reputation as a very "safe" city, contributing to its popularity with international visitors.

Even Mona Lisa was not immune to the charm of Czech "pivo." One evening I ordered my usual glass of red wine with my supper and the waiter seemed a little put out. Turns out I was in a micro-brewery's restaurant and I committed the gustatory faux pas of saying a Hail Mary in a Baptist church by ordering wine.

For those counting - a bonus photo...

The "Love Tester" chair sits in the lobby of Prague's Sex Machine Museum. Check your own score when you visit.

Great trip that combined exercise, culture, history, relaxation, and lots of good eating and drinking. I recommend it highly.
Two women pilgrims were killed and 22 others injured, seven of them seriously, in a head on collision between a truck and a mini-truck near Nangal village in Sirsa on Rupnagar-Nangal road here today, police said.

The incident occurred when the mini-truck, carrying pilgrims, was on its way from Delhi to Dera Baba Badbhag Singh in Una district of Himachal Pradesh, they said.

The other truck coming from Nangal on way to Rupnagar collided head on with it, they added.

The deceased have been identified as Shobha Jain (52) of Uttam Nagar and Raj Rani (70) of Jagat Puri in Delhi, police said.

The seriously injured persons were admitted to the PGIMER in Chandigarh, they said.

The other injured were admitted to a civil hospital here, they added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The UN Security Council on unanimously backed a US-drafted resolution that significantly strengthened sanctions on North Korea, with a ban on exports aimed at depriving Pyongyang of USD 1 billion in annual revenue.

The sweeping measures were the first of that scope to be imposed on North Korea since US President Donald Trump took office and highlighted China's willingness to punish its Pyongyang ally.

The resolution bans all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state -- stripping North Korea of a third of its export earnings estimated at USD 3 billion per year.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council that the stiffer measures brought the penalty imposed on North Korea for its ballistic missile tests "to a whole new level" and that the council had put leader Kim Jong-Un "on notice.

"This is the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation," Haley said.

If fully implemented by China and Russia, North Korea's main economic partners, the measures would tighten the vise around Pyongyang as it seeks to develop its military programs.

The resolution also prevents North Korea from increasing the number of workers it sends abroad whose earnings are another source of revenue for Kim's regime.

It prohibits all new joint ventures with North Korea, bans new investment in the current joint companies and adds nine North Korean officials and four entities including North Korea's main foreign exchange bank to the UN sanctions blacklist.

The United States entered into negotiations with China a month ago on the new resolution after North Korea launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4 which was followed by a second test on July 28.

But the measure does not provide for cuts to oil deliveries to North Korea as initially proposed by the United States -- a move that would have dealt a serious blow to the economy.

The new raft of measures are the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006, but these have failed to compel Pyongyang to change its behavior.

The United States has put heavy pressure on China, which accounts for 90 percent of trade with North Korea, to enforce the sanctions and the fate of these measures largely hinges on Beijing's cooperation.

China and Russia had resisted the US push, arguing that dialogue with North Korea was the way to persuade Pyongyang to halt its military programs.

Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi said the resolution "does not intend to cause a negative impact" to North Korea's people and stressed that it called for a return to talks on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia stressed that sanctions "cannot be an end in themselves" but rather "a tool for engaging this country in constructive talks."



Backed by its European allies, Japan and South Korea, the United States has maintained that tougher sanctions would put pressure on North Korea to come to the negotiating table.

Trump's national security advisor, Lieutenant General HR McMaster, said the United States would not tolerate the threat posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear tests.

McMaster, in the interview with MSNBC, said Trump had told China's President Xi Jinping it was no longer enough for North Korea to "freeze" its programs since it had already crossed "threshold capability" and the goal was now denuclearization.

As negotiations at the United Nations entered the final stretch, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that Washington was not seeking regime change in North Korea and was willing to talk to Pyongyang.

South Korea's foreign minister, meanwhile, held out a diplomatic olive branch today, saying she was open to holding discussions with her North Korean counterpart at a security forum in the Philippines.

"If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Kang Kyung-Wha told reporters as she landed in Manila today, according to South Korea's Yonhap agency.

North Korea's top diplomat, Ri Hong-Yo, was attending the regional summit, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Seoul last month proposed military talks with Pyongyang but the North refused to respond. Had they gone ahead, they would have been the first official inter-Korean talks since 2015.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US has informed the UN that it will withdraw from the historic 2015 Paris climate agreement but would still take part in negotiations to protect its own interests.

The formal notification to the UN comes two months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the accord, fulfilling a longtime campaign promise and rejecting appeals from other world leaders to stay in the deal.

But according to the terms of the pact, the US cannot fully withdraw until November 4, 2020, which would be a day after the next presidential election is held in the US. This means the next US president can still rejoin the agreement.

Reacting to the US' notification, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged it to re-engage with the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

The Paris climate deal aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 2 degrees Celsius since the start of the industrial age. The US is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China.

Trump drew condemnation in June when he first announced the US intention to withdraw. He said the deal "punished" the US and would cost millions of American jobs.

The State Department yesterday said that the US submitted a communication to the UN, in its capacity as a depositary for the Paris agreement, regarding the US intent to withdraw from it as soon as it is eligible to do so.

As the president indicated in his June 1 announcement and subsequently, he is open to re-engaging with the agreement if the US can identify terms that are more favourable to it, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers, it said in a statement.

The US supports a balanced approach to climate policy that lowers emissions while promoting economic growth and ensuring energy security, it said.

"We will continue to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through innovation and technology breakthroughs, and work with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently and deploy renewable and other clean energy sources, given the importance of energy access and security in many nationally determined contributions," the state department said.

However, the US will continue to participate in climate change negotiations and meetings, including the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP-23) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to protect US interests and ensure all future policy options remain open to the administration, it said.

"Such participation will include ongoing negotiations related to guidance for implementing the Paris agreement," it added.

The UN spokesperson, however, said that UN Secretary- General Guterres "welcomes any effort to re-engage in the Paris Agreement by the United States".

"The secretary-general received, in his capacity as Depositary of the Paris Agreement, a communication from the Permanent Representative of the US expressing the intention of the US to exercise its right to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as soon as it is eligible to do so under the Agreement, unless it identifies suitable terms for re-engagement," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"It is crucial that the US remains a leader on climate and sustainable development. Climate change is impacting now," Dujarric said, adding that the UN Chief looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future for our children and future generations.
NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu was today elected as India's next Vice-President, receiving an overwhelming two-third votes against opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

The 68-year-old BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh got 516 votes out of the total 771 votes cast while Gandhi could only manage 244 votes. Of the total 771 votes polled, 11 were found to be invalid.

Although 785 MPs were eligible to vote in today's election, 14 MPs could not vote.

The strength of the electoral college comprising both elected and nominated MPs of the Rajya Sabha (RS) and the Lok Sabha (LS) is 790. There are two vacancies each in the LS and RS.

One BJP Lok Sabha MP is barred from voting following a judicial pronouncement.

"Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity," India's vice president-elect told PTI.

"I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the Prime Minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and secondly uphold the dignity of the Upper House," he added.

Naidu will be the 13th person to hold the second highest Constitutional post. By virtue of being the vice-president, Naidu will also preside over the Rajya Sabha as the Chairman.

In the 2007 VP poll, incumbent Hamid Ansari had polled 456 votes, Najma Heptullah 222 votes and Rashid Masood 075 votes.

In the 2012 polls, Ansari had bagged 490 and NDA nominee Jaswant Singh 238 votes.

With today's election, those holding the three top positions in the country --the president, the vice-president and the Prime Minister --come from the BJP.

Last month, Ramnath Kovind became the first BJP leader to win presidential poll defeating opposition's Meira Kumar.

Naidu will be the second BJP leader to become vice- president after Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (2002-2007).

A two-term BJP president, Naidu was also elected to the Rajya Sabha three times from Karnataka. He represented Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament before he was nominated to the vice president's post by the NDA.

Once an L K Advani protege, Naidu vigorously backed Modi for the prime minister's post before the 2014 elections.

He was minister for information and broadcasting and housing and urban affairs in the Modi government and earlier held the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Only B D Jatti had secured more votes than NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu in the vice presidential polls held since 1974, according to an Election Commission document.

The only exception was in 1992 when K R Narayanan secured 700 of the 701 valid votes against Kaka Joginder Singh aka 'Dhartipakad' who got only one vote.

According to Wikipedia, textile owner Dhartipakad contested and lost over 300 elections in India.

According to the EC 'backgrounder' on vice presidential polls, outgoing Vice President Hamid Ansari bagged 490 votes in the 2012 polls against BJP's Jaswant Singh.

In the 2007 polls, a triangular contest, Ansari got 455 votes.

In the 1974 (sixth) VP polls, Jatti had secured 521 votes and his opponent N E Horo 141, the document said.

In today's election, 68-year-old Naidu got 516 votes out of the total 771 votes cast while Gopalkrishna Gandhi could only manage 244 votes. Of the total 771 votes polled, 11 were found to be invalid.

Although 785 MPs were eligible to vote in today's election, 14 MPs could not vote.

The strength of the electoral college comprising both elected and nominated MPs of the Rajya Sabha (RS) and the Lok Sabha (LS) is 790. There are two vacancies each in the LS and RS.

One BJP Lok Sabha MP is barred from voting following a judicial pronouncement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Desert communities in Arizona and California were cleaning up after summer storms unleashed muddy torrents into roadways and toppled huge trees into homes and vehicles.

A man in Los Angeles County was hoisted to safety by a helicopter when his pickup truck was surrounded by a river of muddy water.

Residents of the Phoenix metro area surveyed damage in their neighborhoods after high winds and heavy downbursts of rain downed scores of huge, old trees Thursday evening.

Jesse Thomas of All About Trees said Friday the phone at his Phoenix tree-removal service was ringing non-stop.

He spoke as his crew dealt with an 80-foot tall, 20-ton Aleppo pine that crashed into a house from a neighboring property.

"It's been a few years since we have seen a tree this big come down," Thomas said.

In Las Vegas, officials yesterday said seven people had to be rescued and another one was still missing after they were swept away by rushing flood waters in two washes.

Clark County Fire Department deputy chief Jeff Buchanan said emergency personnel were still searching for the person who went missing in a wash where another one was rescued and then transported to a hospital. He said six people were also rescued from a wash behind the Linq casino-hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

The summer storms in the US Southwest are known as monsoons, a term many associate with the Indian subcontinent and the Bay of Bengal.

A monsoon is simply a reversal of winds, National Weather Service forecaster Travis Wilson said. In the American Southwest, that means a switch of the region's wintertime westerly winds for the summertime's southerly and southeasterly flow bringing in moisture from Mexico's Gulf of California.

"With all that heat in the summer, and the clear skies, the moisture gets lifted up into the atmosphere and then we get thunderstorms and a lot of rain," said Wilson. "A lot of wind, too."



In the Phoenix area, the storms flooded streets, delayed flights and temporarily knocked out power to thousands of people. Dozens of utility company workers on Friday were replacing broken power poles and repairing downed lines.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 30-year-old woman, suspected to be a cybercrook and believed to be involved in the recent several ATM frauds, committed suicide in the Dugri Police Station here today, police said.

Ramandeep Kaur was found hanging in the bathroom of the police station where she had gone to relieve herself, they said.

Police Commissioner, Ludhiana, R N Dhoke said Kaur, along with Mukul Garg, were suspected to be involved in an ATM fraud in Ludhiana recently.

From initial evidences, they were called in to the police station yesterday and questioned accordingly the whole day, he said.

Subsequently, in the night they were arrested under different Sections of IPC on the basis of the evidence collected by the police, Dhoke said.

Gadgets like laptop, mobile phones, CDs, hard disks have been seized from the house of the accused where they were residing in a live-in relationship, he said.

During investigation, it has been found that the duo was well-trained and expert in committing such kind of crimes, he said, the officer said.

The accused were "habitual offenders" of ATM frauds as many similar cases have already been registered against them in Chandigarh, Haryana and Mumbai, he said.

Dhoke said, "This morning at 6 AM Kaur was found hanging in the bathroom with a long scarf tied to her neck. She was taken to a hospital where the doctors declared her as brought dead".

No suicide note was found near the place of the incident, he said.

Her post mortem was conducted by a board of the doctors of the Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, he said.

An internal inquiry has also been entrusted to Surendra Lamba, additional deputy commissioner of police, Ludhiana, said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Co is recalling nearly 800,000 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickup trucks worldwide that could lose power steering, according to documents made public Friday.

The largest United States (US) automaker said the 2014 model year trucks could suffer a temporary loss of electric power steering, especially during low-speed turning maneuvers, according to documents disclosed Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall includes about 690,000 vehicles in the US, 80,000 in Canada and around 25,000 in other markets. GM dealers will reflash the vehicle's software to address the defect.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson did not have any details on whether crashes or injuries are connected to the recall.

GM told regulators that before the 2015 model year it made a series of changes to address potential sources of temporary low voltage conditions that disable the power steering.

GM has not said when dealers will begin repairing vehicles.

(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.)
Last year we warned DC and West Virginia Democrats not to trust crooked Trump-like billionaire Jim Justice when he ran for governor as a Democrat. At the time we wrote that Justice was West Virginia's only billionaire and that he represents absolutely nothing remotely related to the Democratic Party-- not in terms of values, principles or even team identity. He was outspokenly anti-Obama and anti-Hillary and bragged to the media that he' wouldn't vote for her. His campaign, was self-funded and-- in a state where Bernie won every single county in the primary and beat Trump in many of them-- West Virginia Democrats were urged to support the local equivalent of Trump. Justice has generally contributed to Republicans and to Blue Dog Democrats who vote with the Republicans. He contributed to George W. Bush's campaigns, Joe Manchin's campaigns, to the West Virginia Republican Party and to the West Virginia Democratic Party. When I called the Democratic Governors Association-- the DCCC for gubernatorial races-- they refused to comment on the West Virginia gubernatorial race at all. Not even a chirp or a grunt. Nothing. I wonder what they'll have to say about about the stunt he pulled last night at Trump's rally in Huntington. (The idiots at the Democratic Governors Association wasted over a million dollars on Justice even though he's the richest man in the state and didn't need their money-- though others in other states certainly did.)

Justice, who was a registered Republican until 2015, has far more in common with Trump than with any Democrats or even any normal Republicans. In fact just before Senor Trumpanzee let the cat out of the bag yesterday, the West Virginia Republican Party had tweeted this:

Justices decision to change parties will further isolate Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat and himself a former governor. Mr. Manchin has resisted the entreaties of Republicans to change parties and add to the two-seat Senate majority. Some Trump administration officials, eyeing Mr. Manchins seat, also had hoped to put him in the cabinet, but he has declined all overtures. Now he must stand for re-election in 2018 without the help of a friendly governor.





...In his first months as governor, Mr. Justice, a colorful and hulking figure who stands over six feet, seven inches, drew headlines beyond West Virginias border for bringing a plate of cow excrement into the state capitol to express his anger at a Republican-passed budget proposal.





What we have is nothing more than bunch of political bull you-know-what, Mr. Justice said, pulling the lid off a silver platter to reveal the scented prop atop a printed copy of the budget.





But the governor, who found his fortune with coal and now owns The Greenbrier resort, has also been dogged by some of the same financial issues that Republicans sought to use against him in last years campaign. The state tax department has filed four liens this year against of one of Mr. Justices companies, Tams Management Inc., citing nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties related to his coal mines.





In West Virginia, Representative Evan Jenkins, one of the Republicans seeking Mr. Manchins Senate seat, said he would welcome the governor to his party.





I simply couldnt be a part of a liberal agenda that was so contrary to who we are and what we believe in West Virginia, said Mr. Jenkins, who switched parties several years ago.





Shaking hands with constituents at a meet-and-greet at a hotel next to the stadium where Mr. Trump is scheduled to speak, Mr. Jenkins said he would understand if Mr. Justice felt the same way.
54-year-old Zhou Xiu holds her granddaughter at their home in a village in the Qinba Mountains in mid-June. Photo: Zhang Jin/Caixin

(Qinba Mountains)  Fifty-four-year-old Zhou Xiu would like to go dancing with her friends at dusk on the public square or learn calligraphy at a college for seniors like many of her peers in cities do.

But Zhou lives in a rural backwater in the Qinba Mountains in Chinas impoverished northwest. She has been crushed under the double burden of farming while taking care of her 1-year-old granddaughter all alone. Zhaos husband, two grown sons and daughter-in-law toil in a city far away. They visit her only once or twice a year.

Day and night, I have too many things to do and to worry about, she told Caixin. I feel like I live for everyone else but myself.

Zhou is among a growing number of women struggling alone with solitude, deteriorating health and poverty in Chinas vast countryside that has been hollowed out by the countrys rapid push for urbanization.

More than 1 in 5 rural women show signs of depression and nearly 3% suffer from severe depression, according to a recent study by Peking University and Stanford University. In contrast, only 4.2% of the general population in China suffers from depression, which was on par with the global average.

Mental health issues among women left alone to care for a grandchild were even more acute with 1 in 3 showing signs of depression, according to the Rural Education Action Program (REAP). The study used an internationally accepted measure, known as DASS-21, to assess the severity of depression, anxiety and stress. Researchers interviewed 1,062 women including 268 grandmothers in 42 impoverished villages in Qinba, a vast mountainous area straddling parts of the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu, as well as the southwestern province of Sichuan.

An old man stands in a field in the Qinba Mountains. Photo: Zhang Jin/Caixin

Some of the grandmothers left behind were as young as 33 years old, given that early marriage was common in some rural pockets of China. Others were in their 80s and struggling with ill health while trying to look after babies between 6 months and 2 years old.

Aggravated by poverty

Researchers attributed the higher prevalence of depression among these caregivers to poverty, separation from family and lack of community support in many rural communities, which have disintegrated into ghost towns amid a rapid urbanization.

An estimate by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2015 put the number of adult women left behind in rural areas nationwide at 47 million.

A lack of public awareness about mental health issues and community support means that many sufferers are dealing with their conditions in silence. The growing epidemic of anxiety and depression is also affecting the cognitive development of children in their care, according to academics.

In Zhous village, once a community of more than 3,000 residents, many people in their prime have left to work in cities. Her husband, two sons and daughter-in-law are all working in Xian, the provincial capital of Shaanxi in northwest China.

Zhou herself used to work as a shop assistant in Xian before returning home more than a year ago when her granddaughter was born because it was too expensive for a family of migrant laborers to raise a child in a city.

She had to care for the baby by herself round-the-clock and also tend the familys farm from time to time.

Zhou only saw her husband, a construction worker, once or twice a year or when he was between jobs, she said.

She worried the most about saving enough to build a house for her second son. A new home is essential for a young man to find a wife. Zhous second son was already 27 years  an age perceived to be too old for the rural marriage market. According to her, a new home in her village costs between 200,000 yuan ($29,755) and 400,000 yuan to build.

Li Juan, a village leader, said she remained very occupied with the daily tasks of running a household.

People in Zhous village earned 8,200 yuan per person on average last year, less than two-thirds of the national average for rural residents, according to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics. Meanwhile, urban dwellers in China had an average annual disposable income of 33,616 yuan.

The more I think about these things, the more I get depressed and the less I sleep every night, she said.

Zhou said she only heard about depression when the research team from REAP raised the issue with her, but she has no plans to seek treatment or help. She doesnt trust the health services offered at the public clinic in her village or township and she cant afford to go to a larger county or city hospital.

In Shaanxi province alone, the local health authority recorded 119,829 cases of people living with mental disorders including severe or chronic depression in March 2015. Over four-fifths are living in rural areas, official statistics show.

Nearly half of the counties and districts in the province dont have a mental health clinic and there are only 64 qualified psychiatrists at community-level clinics for the province of more than 37 million people.

A 30-year-old mother from a village in Qinba, who only gave her first name, Nana, is taking care of her two boys alone. Her husband has been working in a factory in eastern Jiangsu province and earns 5,000 yuan per month.

Women work in a field in the Qinba Mountains on June 17. Photo: Zhang Jin/Caixin

Their second son, who was born prematurely in November 2015, suffers from asthma and anemia. The family had already spent more than 50,000 yuan last year and nearly another 10,000 yuan this year on the boys treatment because the medical insurance for rural residents didnt cover these ailments.

Nana had to stay behind to raise the two boys with only her mother to help her because its too expensive for the family to live in Jiangsu.

Nana often fights with me for no apparent reason or accuses me of not doing enough to help her, Su Zhen, Nanas mother said.

Researchers who interviewed Nana last year said she was moderately depressed, which led to her aggressive behavior.

The women who stay back in their villages are the ones who suffer the most because they cant just leave to work elsewhere and they are burdened by family responsibilities, Li Jun, the wife of a local village official, told Caixin. On top of the loneliness and stress, there are few rewards for them because they dont earn any money.

Many rural women left alone to take care of young children or aging parents have a strong sense of insecurity and loneliness because they have no one to turn to for comfort, according to Wang Gang, president of Beijing Anding Hospital, a hospital specializing in mental disorders.

If they dont receive proper medical help for a long time, they will certainly become depressed, he said. Wang wasnt involved in the REAP study.

Falling behind

Researchers found that stress and depression among female caregivers also has an adverse impact on the children in their care.

Nearly a third of the women who showed signs of depression said they had beaten their children or grandchildren when they were in a bad mood. But, it only made them feel worse because of the feelings of guilt that mixed with stress and frustration that followed.

By comparison, only 1 in 5 caregivers free of depression said they beat the child in their care when they felt bad.

Children living with depression-stricken custodians tend to be aggressive and ill-tempered, according to researchers. They also lagged behind others in terms of early-stage cognitive development, according to the study.

Villagers wash their clothing in a river. Photo: Zhang Jin/Caixin

Nearly half of the children under the care of the rural women surveyed fell behind in language skills and emotional development compared with the national average for children in their age group. More than a third were slow in cognitive development.

Previous REAP studies have also shown that rural children who are mostly left in the care of grandparents lagged behind in early-stage development because the grandparents were illiterate or werent aware of the need to talk to or stimulate toddlers.

For example, one study tracked nearly 2,000 children from some impoverished regions in western China between 2013 and 2015. The children surveyed scored 97 on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development in 2013 when they were 6 to 18 months old, but the score slid to 94.8 a year later and was only 80 in 2015.

Children who scored less than 70, which indicated their level of intelligence didnt match their age, accounted for only 7% of the group in 2013, but the number quickly rose to more than one-third by 2015.

Two out of 5 children aged 1  to 3  years in rural China showed significant delays in either cognitive or motor development, or both, due to a lack of parental interaction, according to a different REAP study conducted between 2013 and 2015.

Many education specialists fear that rural children may fall behind their peers in cities even before they enter first grade. Urban middle-class families in China expose their children to a host of activities such as music, sports, expensive summer camps and even robotics classes at a young age.

But millions of children in rural villages are left in the care of grandparents who are semi-literate. Many are also too weak to care for young children left by parents who move to cities to work, researchers said.

Zhou, the women left alone to take care of her 1-year old granddaughter, only had a few years of schooling. She said that it never occurred to her that she needs to do more than feed the baby.

I feed her well and cuddle her when she needs me and thats how I was raised, she said. What else do I need to do?

Contact Reporter Li Rongde (rongdeli@caixin.com)








immigrant Jews, especially from Russia, Jews voted overwhelmingly for Hillary against Trump last year, butJews, especially from Russia, voted for Trump . Emma Lazarus was born in 1849 to a family of Jewish immigrants from Germany, although she is known for her writings about Russian Jewish immigrants who fled the pogroms that followed the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. And, of course, she's even better known for her 1883 sonnet, "The New Colossus," which was placed on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty 1903.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.



"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Today, most Americans who are aware of it's existence at all, know the lines

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"









do if he decided to physically remove the plaque. Trump's war with Emma Lazarus' poem isn't about "illegals." It's about his own ugly xenophobia and the Know Nothing stand of American politics that energizes his base of supporters. As Heather Long Washington Post Trump's steep cut in legal immigration-- from a million annually to half that-- is seen as a "grave mistake" by most-- like nearly 90%-- economists. I wonder what people-- both Trump voters and normal Americans-- would think/say/if he decided to physically remove the plaque. Trump's war with Emma Lazarus' poem isn't about "illegals." It's about his own ugly xenophobia and the Know Nothing stand of American politics that energizes his base of supporters. As Heather Long wrote in yesterday'sTrump's steep cut in legal immigration-- from a million annually to half that-- is seen as a "grave mistake" by most-- like nearly 90%-- economists.

Experts overwhelmingly predict it would slow growth-- the exact opposite of what Trump wants to do with MAGAnomics.



Restricting immigration will only condemn us to chronically low rates of economic growth, said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. It also increases the risk of a recession.



During the campaign, Trump repeatedly told illegal immigrants to get out. Now he wants to cut back on legal immigration as well. On Wednesday, Trump stood side-by-side with Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) to endorse their bill, the RAISE Act. The bill does two things: It moves the United States toward a "skills-based immigration system" where people with special skills get top priority and it cuts legal immigration by 50 percent.



"This legislation demonstrates our compassion for struggling American families," Trump said Wednesday. He believes immigrants-- both legal and illegal-- take jobs from Americans, even though the jobless rate in the country is incredibly low.



...We need to modernize the immigration system, but cutting immigration in half is bad for the economy and bad policy, says Jeremy Robbins, executive director of New American Economy, a coalition founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to improve U.S. immigration policy.



Robbins points out that Canada and Australia-- the supposed models for the Trump administration's reforms-- both let in more than double the number of immigrants per capita than the United States does. There are also concerns that such a dramatic cut to legal immigration would cause illegal immigration to rise.



Cotton introduced the RAISE Act in February. It wasn't expected to go far given the crowded to-do list for Congress this year, but Trump's news conference Wednesday is giving it new life.



In April, over 1,400 economists from across the political spectrum sent a letter to Trump urging him not to cut immigration. The letter said there was near universal agreement on the the broad economic benefit that immigrants to this country bring. Thomas Simons, senior economist at Jefferies investment firm, said a 50 percent reduction would be absolutely harmful to an economy with a population undergoing the demographic transformation.



The bottom line is that the United States needs more workers. Growth happens when one of two things occurs: The economy gets more workers or the existing workers become more productive. At the moment, both of those factors are red flags. Productivity growth is sluggish, and, as Trump has pointed out many times, the percentage of American adults who actually work-- the labor-force participation rate-- is hovering at the lowest levels since the 1970s.



A big part of the problem is the baby boomers are starting to retire. The United States needs more people to replace them, but the U.S. birthrate just hit a historic low, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's why many economists, demographers and business owners keep calling for more immigration, not less.



Limiting immigration to the U.S. is a grave mistake, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moodys Analytics. The only way to meaningfully increase U.S. economic growth on a sustained basis anytime soon is to increase immigration. During the campaign, Zandi predicted that Trump's protectionist stances on trade and immigration would lead to a lengthy recession.



Trump portrays immigrants as scooping up American jobs. But the data appears to tell a different story.



U.S. unemployment is at 4.4 percent. In May, unemployment hit the lowest level since 2001, a milestone Trump celebrated. That implies there aren't many people struggling to find work. At the same time, the United States has 5.7 million job openings, which is near a record high. It's been that way for a year now. Business leaders with big and small firms say they can't find enough workers. They are especially vocal about not being able to find enough people for really low-skilled, low-pay work and for really high-skilled jobs.



Trump is already heeding the calls for more lower-skilled workers. His administration recently bumped up visas for seasonal foreign workers by 15,000, a 45 percent increase from last year.



There is growing support for moving the United States to a more merit-based immigration system. The idea is to attract more of the immigrant workers that the country desperately needs. At the moment, only 15 percent of green cards are issued for employment reasons, according to Department of Homeland Security data.



...From an economic standpoint, the key is to get more workers with the desired skills into the country. It's why the tech community is lobbying so hard for more H-1B visas. Immigrants also tend to start more businesses. While start-up founders in Silicon Valley are glorified, the reality is business formation in the United States is near a 40-year low. That worries Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust.



Countries that get collectively older are granted fewer patents, start fewer small businesses and take fewer risks with capital, Tannenbaum said. All of that hurts economic growth.

Doug Applegate, a former Marine colonel and the progressive opponent for GOP bigot Darrell Issa was crystal clear about where he stands on the immigration debate. This is a statement he sent out to voters in San Diego and Orange counties yesterday"

We are a nation of immigrants. One of the values our country was founded on is the acceptance of individuals from all over the world, with notions of lifting every person up and presenting opportunities they could not get elsewhere.



The most recent actions of Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have attempted to demolish the values our nation was founded on. Republican Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue have outlined new legislation that will cut legal immigration in half and cap refugees at 50,000 a year.



Lets be clear: This legislation is created under the false notion, which the Trump administration has continually pushed forward, that immigrants are taking away jobs from Americans and negatively impacting our communities.



I wholeheartedly know that to be false. I know that right here in California, and all over the country, we celebrate and embrace all cultures. We grow as we learn from one another, and we lift one another up to make this country better. Immigrants are our friends, our family, our colleagues, our neighbors, and their contributions are woven into the fabric of our lives.



The United States needs appropriate and comprehensive immigration reform-- but it should not deny children and family members of citizens or those with green cards just because our government is being led by a few closed-minded xenophobes. When I am in Congress, I will fight for sensible, compassionate, comprehensive immigration reform, with pathways to citizenship for our millions of hard-working undocumented residents.

Another military veteran and progressive candidate for Congress Blue America has endorsed is Jim Thompson (KS-04). The kind of insight he shows as he analyzed what Trump and Cotton are up to helps get a grasp on the kind of congressman he will be. He wrote that Trump's "new immigration policy is nothing more than a reflection of the homogenized world he wants to build, giving preference to those who speak English and already possess money and power. The practical effect of this policy will be to give admission to those individuals from western countries while denying entry to poor, non-Christian, and non-English speaking people. No longer will we allow entry to the poor, the hungry, or the huddled masses yearning to be free. From the Burroughs of New York, to the beaches of Florida and California, to the hills of Wisconsin and Minnesota, what would our country look like today if this policy had been in effect throughout our history. Our diversity is our strength. It has been woven into the fabric of our society because we once believed that all men and women are created equal and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.





"When a person joins the military, he or she agrees to give their life if needed to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic. President Trump cannot understand such selflessness because he dodged service in the armed forces during Vietnam. He does not know what it means to place his life in the hands of another and have them place their lives in his. Shamefully, Trump would deport soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and any member of their family that are not citizens. Deportations such as this will seriously jeopardize military readiness and enlistment. We owe these men and women a debt of gratitude for protecting us and our loved ones. Military service should guarantee citizenship and stop any deportation of a family member. Upon completion of the initial enlistment, the immediate family of any service member should be given citizenship as well. To do otherwise dishonors not just these brave men and women, but all who swore an oath to defend this country and sacrificed their lives. The graves in Arlington do not distinguish between citizen and non-citizen, and neither should our President."

Sam Jammal is the Blue America-endorsed candidate running for the Democratic nomination to take on notorious bigot Ed Royce, long famous for disparaging immigrants. Sam told us that his parents-- "like so many others before them-- came to America to build a better life. My mother came to the United States from South America to finish high school and my father came from the Middle East. Neither started with much, but they worked hard and sacrificed so my siblings and I could achieve the American Dream. This is the story for so many Americans. America is a welcoming country-- the land of hope and opportunity. We are a country where someone like me-- the son of an immigrant fast food restaurant worker-- can run for Congress. This is why I started my career working in civil rights at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)-- because we need an immigration system that works and is in line with our values. When it comes to immigration, it's about solutions, not divisive rhetoric. I strongly support Senator Duckworth's legislation to protect our military veterans from deportation. Someone willing to put their life on the line for our country should have their sacrifice honored regardless of their immigration status. This is the type of solutions oriented policy we need-- not what the Trump Administration and Ed Royce are proposing. Given the diversity of the 39th district, its shameful that Ed Royce refuses to speak out against the Trump immigration plan. But its not a surprise given Ed's 97% voting record with Trump and silence on every other bad policy being put out by this Administration." is the Blue America-endorsed candidate running for the Democratic nomination to take on notorious bigot Ed Royce, long famous for disparaging immigrants. Sam told us that his parents-- "like so many others before them-- came to America to build a better life. My mother came to the United States from South America to finish high school and my father came from the Middle East. Neither started with much, but they worked hard and sacrificed so my siblings and I could achieve the American Dream. This is the story for so many Americans. America is a welcoming country-- the land of hope and opportunity. We are a country where someone like me-- the son of an immigrant fast food restaurant worker-- can run for Congress. This is why I started my career working in civil rights at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)-- because we need an immigration system that works and is in line with our values. When it comes to immigration, it's about solutions, not divisive rhetoric. I strongly support Senator Duckworth's legislation to protect our military veterans from deportation. Someone willing to put their life on the line for our country should have their sacrifice honored regardless of their immigration status. This is the type of solutions oriented policy we need-- not what the Trump Administration and Ed Royce are proposing. Given the diversity of the 39th district, its shameful that Ed Royce refuses to speak out against the Trump immigration plan. But its not a surprise given Ed's 97% voting record with Trump and silence on every other bad policy being put out by this Administration."





Sam is referring to a very different kind of bill from Cotton's ugly xenophobic legislation, one that was introduced in the Senate by Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) on Thursday. Their bill attempts to protect U.S. military veterans convicted of nonviolent offenses from arbitraty deportation. Duckworth's and Cortez Masto's bill would also allow deported veterans convicted of nonviolent offenses to reenter the country to access Veterans Administration health care facilities, and allow deported veterans to apply for visas to permanently return to the U.S. Duckworth: "Men and women willing to wear our uniform shouldnt be deported by the same nation they risked their lives to defend."





I get the impression that this scapegoating of immigrants is pissing off Randy Bryce, the progressive running against Paul Ryan in southeast Wisconsin, just over the Illinois border. "I turned on my tv," he told us, "to see Stephen Miller distancing the White House from the Statue of Liberty. It wasnt any surprise. I guess the big problem is that I still havent gotten used to Trumps America (not mine) looking down its nose at those who have made the US what it is. How soon until 'melting pot' is removed from our vocabulary? Staying on the subject, I recently read some legislation being proposed by my (s)hero Sen. Tammy Duckworth. Do we really need a law to tell us that anyone willing to Serve in the US military might be someone we want to thank instead of deport? Apparently so-- seeing as the current resident of our White House who called it 'a dump' and took multiple deferments in order to avoid defending us chose Stephen Miller to do his talking."

Jenny Marshall is the courageous progressive running for the North Carolina seat occupied by one of Congress' worst bigots, Virginia Foxx. Jenny told us that her great grandparents "came to America from Poland and settled in Chicago. My grandfather didn't speak a word of English until he went to Kindergarten. This is a familiar story for millions of American's who can trace their roots to immigrants who flocked to this country for a better life and a place they could call home. Under Trump's RAISE plan my great grandparents and others like them would not have been allowed to come here. These immigrant newcomers become part of their communities. They join PTAs at their children's school, buy houses, learn a trade, start businesses and even serve our country in the military. They weave their story into the fabric that becomes America. But, frankly, our immigration system needs an overhaul. It is difficult to maneuver, subjective and is often out of reach for those who truly need to flee their home country for a better life. We could do much better. Take for instance Senator Tammy Duckworth's newly introduced legislation which could remedy a current injustice where non citizen men and women who serve in our military are subject to deportation. Do we really want to be a nation who deports our veterans? I say no and I support her efforts to right the wrong here. We must prioritize these servicemembers' path to citizenship and allow them to remain in the country they fought so bravely to protect."





David Gill is the progressive physician running for Congress against rubber stamp Republican hack Rodney Davis in Illinois' 13th district. This morning he told us that Trump and the Republicans "unveiled an immigration bill that is nothing more than an ethnic purity test. No matter what Trump tells you, his immigration policies will not improve our economy or make us safer. This is just more of the same unadulterated bigotry that we've seen time and time again from this man, and I look forward to getting to Congress in January 2019 to stand in his way when he seeks to discriminate against people based on their religion, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation. I'm proud to see my senator, Tammy Duckworth, propose bills to protect veterans from deportation. It's obvious that deportation of such veterans smacks of the same bigotry we see demonstrated repeatedly by the commander-in-chief. I'm a 24-year member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and I can't wait to get to work eliminating such naked racism from our federal government."
Cameroon Diaspora protest in Belgium N. Melo

Cameroonians in Belgium invaded the hall of the planned meeting scheduled by head of the delegation, Justice Minister LAURENT ESSO, he appeared to look very helpless. The main objective of the meeting was to meet Cameroonians to explain what is happening in the North West and South West Regions.

Many Cameroonians believed that the ideal place for dialogue was in Cameroon and not in Belgium. Most Cameroonians in Belgium considered this move as a waste of their precious time,those who created time to be there protested and requested the Minister to go back to Cameroon, dialogue with the jailed Leaders and resume schools in the two regions.

The meeting which was supposed to start at 3pm failed to start as Cameroonians took the hall hostage, singing, brandishing placards. However, the Belgian police unit were called, who escorted the scally Cameroonians in front of the hall where the protest continued. Other Cameroonians who had come in from other parts of Europe and France remained in the hall.

The situation in USA was different, Paul Ghogomo delegation in USA had a much more peaceful turnout which went successfully without any bullying and rowdy behaviour from Cameroonians in USA.Though a participant who attended the meeting said information circulated hiddenly.

He said,It Started 2hours late from schedule and lasted for about 2hours . Most of those who attended were embassy staff. The second group was made of the CPDM elites in the USA.

The meeting could be partitioned as follows . The Cameroun Ambassador to the USA Ambassador Etoundi Essomba took 10mins to welcome everyone and praises governments commitment to solving the crisis and then gave the floor to the head of the committee , Prof Paul Ghohomou who took about 20 minutes to explain all his trips to Bamenda and meetings with the consortium and outcomes, then a series of questions.
Six people are reportedly dead and 19 others seriously injured, in a ghastly accident that occurred as early as 5:00 a:m, this morning, between a 70 sitter inter-urban bus belonging to General Express, and a truck along the Yaounde-Bandjoun road.

Reacting to the news, Awa Fonka Augustine, Governor of the West Region told CRTV that rescue operations are underway, together with the help of fire fighters and villagers of Bandjoun.

The accident bus and truck blocked the road, creating hours of traffic before eventually being removed after the intervention of villagers, fire fighters, uniform officials and an emergency rescue team from Bafousssam. Presently the circulation is back to normal again.

Meanwhile some of the victims are presently undergoing treatment at the Mbouo Bandjoun Protestant Hospital, and the Bafoussam Regional Hospital. The corpses have undergone identification process and kept in the mortuary.
"We were the third team to compete in the finals and top-scored with 272 points, but then had to wait to see how the remaining teams performed before knowing if we would win."
"The average costs have been impacted by normal CPI increases and also the celebratory and involved nature of a funeral service. Families are looking for more elements to be included when celebrating the life of their loved one, and these decisions do impact the cost of a funeral service," she said.
Daramalan has had Japanese as part of the curriculum for many years and the parents and students are strongly supportive of these annual visits, which go a long way in increasing the understanding and acceptance of different cultures and traditions."
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
The former head of Volkswagens environmental and engineering center in Michigan has pleaded guilty to a variety of charges related to the companys dieselgate scandal.



According to Automotive News, Oliver Schmidt accepted a plea deal and admitted his guilt for violating the Clean Air Act and committing conspiracy to defraud the United States. The report goes on to say Schmidt knew about the companys defeat devices and worked with other executives to cover up their existence once questions were raised about possible emission violations.

According to his statement, Schmidt learned about defeat devices in the summer of 2015 and tried to hide them from the government by submitting fraudulent and misleading reports.

The deal means the former executive faces up to seven years in prison and a fine ranging from $40,000 to $400,000. Thats not exactly a slap on the wrist but Schmidt was originally charged with 11 different felonies that could have sent him to prison for 169 years.

Under the terms of the deal, Schmidt wont have to pay any restitution. However, he will be deported from the United States after his sentencing in complete.

Schmidts sentencing is scheduled to take place on December 6th and the disgraced executive will remain in custody until that occurs.

Photo Gallery
Toyota is pushing forward with improvements at its engine plant in West Virginia after announcing $400 million in investments at the facility in September last year.



During a seminar on Monday, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia, Leah Curry, said that the Japanese automaker was dedicating almost 500,000 hours to retrain employees and streamline processes at the plant.

Speaking to Autonews, Curry said Toyota has analyzed and identified any wasted motion of the team members on the factory floor in order to make manufacturing as efficient as possible, a process which started in Japan with the Toyota New Global Architecture platform.

On average, the West Virginia engine plant produces 650,000 engines and 740,000 transmission a year but according to Curry, those figures will increase thanks to the new measures being employed to ensure not a single second is wasted.

This includes comprehensive renovations to the production line so workers now move with the engine and transmission. Additionally, workers are required to learn 50 per cent more processes under the program.

The Toyota New Global Architecture debuted in the latest Prius and is also used by the C-HR and latest-generation Camry.

PHOTO GALLERY
Porsches 2018 911 GT2 RS has a lot of hype to live up to and knowing what we know of the German automaker, it will probably exceed every expectation.



Whereas other 911 models like the 911 R and GT3 have been made with driver thrills the top priority, the GT2 RS is all about destroying its rivals on a racetrack but as it turns out, it does have a split personality.

In the latest video promoting the track-focused 911, Porsches Mark Webber and Walter Rohrl had some driving time in the car at Circuit Paul Ricard and thanks to their different racing backgrounds, the two drive the GT2 RS very differently.

As Webber comes from Formula One, he is all about powering through corners completely flat and as fast as possible. On the other hand, Rohrls successful rally career means hes more comfortable kicking the tail out and getting the rear wheels spinning, showing that while the GT2 RS is a serious track weapon, it can also be used purely for fun.

VIDEO
You could have the missing piece of the puzzle that will help the RCMP put someone behind bars. Here are some recent crimes that Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers hope you can help solve by calling our anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

CRIME: THEFT OF WALLET

DATE: August 1, 2017

RCMP FILE: 2017-44722

West Kelowna RCMP would like your help in identifying this man whom they would like to question regarding the theft of an elderly ladys wallet on August 1st. Just before 7:00 a.m. the woman left her purse on a table to go place her order at the Tim Hortons located on the 2300 block of Highway 97 S. When she returned, her red wallet that contained a significant amount of cash, credit cards and identification had been stolen out of her purse.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

If you know anything about this crime, or any other crime, call the Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS or visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net. Your information will be kept confidential and could lead to a reward of up to $2000.00.

CRIME: BUSINESS BREAK AND ENTER

DATE: July 31, 2017

RCMP FILE: 2017-44410

At 3:42 a.m. on July 31st an alarm was activated at the Blind Angler Grill on the 5000 block of Beach Avenue in Peachland when someone kicked in the kitchen door. The restaurant was entered and money was taken from the cash drawer. The suspect must have kicked in the door when his first attempt at entering by pushing the air conditioner through the wall failed.

You can help catch these suspects and qualify for a reward by calling Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Wayne Moore

Dreams really can come true.

It happened for 110 sick or challenged kids last year, and will again on Sunday.

The second annual Dream Rally, put on by the August Family Foundation, will again see more than 150 exotic and rare collector cars roll from downtown Kelowna to Penticton.

Konrad Shultz will again be one of those sitting in the co-pilot seat.

Konrad is almost 15. He was born with a cleft lip and palate.

His mother Kasia says her son has had numerous surgeries, the last when he was 14.

At age seven, she said his pancreas failed and he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

When she received news about the Dream Rally from a diabetes clinic in Vernon last year, she jumped at the chance.

"This hit home for me for him to be a part of it," she said.

"I felt he had been through a lot. It is easy to explain to your child everything is going to be OK, you're just like everybody else, but it is hard as they enter their teenage years to justify it. They don't hear it, they feel different."

Kasia said Konrad loved the experience last year and is over the moon that he will be able to do it again this year.

"The drivers make it so special for them. They really emphasize no matter what happens in your life, whether it's a medical or personal issue, you could achieve anything.

"I think that's the message Konrad got. I can do anything, I can have a car like this, I can be part of the rally when I'm an adult and I can drive somebody."

This year's rally will be extra special for Konrad.

His grandfather has made the trip all the way from Poland to be part of his day.

"So many kids need a day like this," said Matt August, organizer of the Dream Rally.

Each participant will be paired with a driver for the day. They will leave the foot of Bernard Avenue at 10:30 a.m. and arrive in Penticton for lunch before turning around for the trip home.

Spectators can come out to the Sails to have a look at all the cars at 9:30 a.m. before they depart.

Those taking pictures of the event can send in their best photos to [email protected] to enter the Dream Rally photo contest.

Funds raised will go to the Central Okanagan Hospice Association to help support the bereavement programs, and the new centre at 1890 Cooper Road.
Photo: Dave Ogilvie A portion of the Gellatly walkway will reopen this weekend.

A portion of the Gellatly walkway in West Kelowna will reopen for the long weekend.

The city announced Friday construction is now complete on the portion of the walkway between Willow Beach, adjacent to the West Kelowna Yacht Club, and the CN Wharf.

Beginning Tuesday, the portion of the trail from the wharf to Rotary Beach, including the trail adjacent to the dog beach, will be closed for repairs.

Motorists may also encounter some delays on Gellatly Road during this second phase of construction.

The walkway was closed June 1 for repairs to damage caused by historically high levels of Okanagan Lake.
Photo: Contributed Due to the unprecedented heat and poor air quality the City of Kamloops is keeping some recreation centres open through the long weekend.

Due to the unprecedented heat and poor air quality, the City of Kamloops is keeping some recreation centres open through the long weekend.

The Tournament Capital Centre and the Canada Games Aquatic Centre will be open on the statutory holiday - Monday, Aug. 7 - from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre will also be open on Monday and is offering a free skate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. This free public skate event is sponsored by Tim Hortons, with free drinks and Timbits provided from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Music in the Park will continue to take place on a nightly basis, but acts could be cancelled at the discretion of the organizers if conditions are deemed unsuitable.

The City will attempt to provide as much advance notice as possible.

Provincial guidelines recommend that the at-risk population avoid strenuous outdoor activities. Children and the elderly should also avoid outdoor physical exertion.
Photo: Contributed The North Okanagan Hospice Society is presenting the two-hour workshop You are not Alone: Planning for Caregiving at Home.

Being a caregiver can be a daunting task, but an upcoming workshop aims to make it a little easier.

The North Okanagan Hospice Society is presenting the two-hour workshop You are not Alone: Planning for Caregiving at Home in Lumby, Sept 5 from 10 a.m. to noon; Vernon, Sept. 5 from 2-4 p.m. and in Armstrong, Sept. 6, 10 a.m. to noon.

This workshop is back due to popular demand and Dr. Carole Robinson, Professor in the School of Nursing at UBC Okanagan, will lead the conversation about caregiving in the home. Family caregivers and their seriously ill family member are invited to learn how to plan for caregiving early in the illness journey using a Family Caregiving Decision-making Guide.'

]This is an opportunity to gather information and network with other caregivers.

Discussion includes what to expect, where to turn, who to contact when things change and caregiving becomes more challenging.

This is an excellent workshop about understanding caregiving situations, concerns and how in- depth caregiving can be.

These free workshops are expected to fill up quickly and space is limited. Registration is required by Aug. 23 by calling Tanya at the North Okanagan Hospice Society at 250-503-1800 Ext. 101, or by email at [email protected]
Photo: TNRD More homes have been evacuated and a state of emergency has been declared due to the Elephant Hill wildfire.

As the 93,000-hectare Elephant Hill wildfire continues to burn out of control, more homes have been evacuated and another state of emergency has been declared.

The entire Electoral Area J, just west of Kamloops, has declared a state of emergency due to the fire that could potentially result in severe impact on the local economy and the wellbeing of the community, according to the declaration.

Additionally, dozens of properties in the Deadman Vidette area, northeast of Ashcroft and east of Loon Lake, have been evacuated.

A full list of evacuated properties can be found here.

Evacuees must travel to Kamloops, using Highway 1, and register at the Sandman Centre at 300 Lorne Street.

Additionally, those in the Tranquille Valley and Hat Creek areas have been put under an evacuation alert due to the blaze. The full list of those under the alert can be found here.

Over 600 personnel, including 466 firefighters, are battling the giant wildfire.
Photo: Facebook Donald Brodie is accused of running down a pedestrian during a 2013 police chase.

The man accused of running down a pedestrian during a 2013 police chase testified that he told a witness to mislead the court during the bail hearing of the first man accused of the crime.

Donald Brodie was cross-examined in Kelowna Supreme Court by the Crown Friday, after taking the stand for the first time Thursday.

He explained Thursday he told police he was behind the wheel of the black Eagle Talon that ran from a police check stop and hit a pedestrian on Dec. 6, 2013, because he wanted to get his friend who was initially accused of driving, Nathan Fahl, out of jail.

When Crown prosecutor David Grabavac asked why Dillon Sams, a man who was at the same party as Fahl and Brodie that night and followed them through the check stop, testified at Fahl's January 2014 bail hearing that Brodie was the driver, Brodie said he told Sams to lie to the court.

What you're saying right now is you asked Mr. Sams to intentionally mislead the court? Grabavac asked Brodie.

Yes, Brodie responded.

Fahl was granted bail at the hearing and his charges were eventually dropped. Brodie was then charged with several offences, including criminal negligence causing bodily harm and flight causing bodily harm.

Grabavac pressed Brodie on several letters he had written from jail, admitting to being behind the wheel, even after he had been charged.

You didn't have to identify yourself as the driver in that letter, correct? Grabavac asked Brodie.

Brodie explained he continued to tell people he was the driver so Fahl would not be arrested once again.

You can't believe half of the stuff I say in these letters because I also said I was the driver, and I was not, Brodie said.

Isn't it true sir that you can't believe you saying that you're not the driver? Grabavac responded.

I was not the driver, Brodie reiterated.

The trial will take a month break and resume in September.
Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Trudeau lost his footing during a kayak trip to B.C.

UPDATE: 2:13 p.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took an unscheduled dip on Saturday when he fell into the water trying to get into a kayak.

He kept his head above water, but much of the rest of his body was briefly submerged and his left leg was pointed straight upwards while he grabbed hold of the kayak. The spill happened at the shoreline where the water was shallow.

Trudeau, who was wearing a flotation vest, emerged from the spill with a smile on his face. His wife Sophie managed to manoeuvre her kayak without incident.

"I'm just happy the national media was there to capture that," he joked.

The prime minister's kayak voyage at the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve near Victoria became even more eventful when a bride and groom sailed up beside his kayak to pose for a selfie with Trudeau.

Michelle Gruetzner was wearing her white wedding dress.

She said she and her husband, Heiner Gruetzner, were holding their wedding reception on nearby Sidney Spit when they approached the prime minister. Trudeau kissed the bride, twice.

"He said, 'I'm not going to take my shirt off this time,'" said Michelle, referring to Trudeau's shirtless beach side appearance at a wedding ceremony last summer at Tofino, on the Island's west coast.

Michelle said she appreciated the kisses more than a shirtless prime minister.

"It's a nice addition to the photo album," said Heiner.

At a beach side news conference, Trudeau said he's deeply aware of the need to protect Canada's West Coast waters from pollution threats, but also keenly attuned to the benefits of building a strong economy while respecting the environment.

Trudeau's government has approved Kinder Morgan's $7.4 billion Trans Mountain 1,150-kilometre pipeline expansion project from Alberta to B.C.'s coast. The twin pipeline development will greatly increase Canada's oil export capacity but also increases oil tanker traffic along the coast.

"I have been out on these waters all my life, whether it was sailing off of English Bay ... whether it was swimming out here at my aunt's place near Brentwood Bay, and I have been a grandson of B.C. all my life and understand how important it is to protect these waters."

Trudeau travelled to Tofino later Saturday to have meetings with indigenous and regional leaders, discussing issues including the environment, economy and housing.

Chief Elmer Frank of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation said the relationship between his community and the federal government have improved over the last year after a dispute about commercial fishing rights led the chief to say the prime minister was no longer welcome on their territory.

"There's been significant movement. Not significant enough yet for a fisher to go out and make a tangible living, but it was significant enough for us to be able to demonstrate that there is some reconciliation hope," Frank said.

Trudeau acknowledged the progress in working with the First Nation, but said reaching solutions will take time.

"This process of reconciliation and building a future  and I understand your impatience that you wanted to get done overnight what took generations and centuries to go terribly wrong  is going to take more than a few months to get right," he said.
Photo: The Canadian Press Contents from a tailings pond is pictured going down the Hazeltine Creek into Quesnel Lake on Aug, 5, 2014.

An Indigenous woman has filed private charges in the 2014 collapse of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine, days after British Columbia's government announced that provincial charges would not be laid.

Bev Sellers has filed court documents alleging that Mount Polley Mining Corp. polluted the environment when a tailings dam burst, sending 24 million cubic metres of mine waste into local waterways.

Sellers was the acting chief of the Xat'sull First Nation, located near the gold and copper mine in B.C.'s Cariboo region, when the dam collapsed on Aug. 4 three years ago.

The 15 charges, filed in Vancouver provincial court under both the provincial Environmental Act and the Mines Act, come after the newly elected NDP government announced Wednesday there would be no provincial charges laid by Friday's three-year deadline.

Sellers said in a news release that she couldn't let the alleged pollution go.

"In my culture, we have a sacred responsibility not only to care for the land, waters, animals, and people living today, but also for the next seven generations to come," said Sellers, whose legal action is being by supported by MiningWatch Canada, West Coast Environmental Law, the Wilderness Committee and the First Nation Women Advocating for Responsible Mining.

"I could not bear to witness B.C. simply stepping aside and giving-up on its own responsibility to protect our shared environment and waters."

An investigation into the dam's collapse is ongoing by the B.C.'s Conservation Officer Service, but earlier this week the agency's deputy chief Chris Doyle couldn't say what stage the probe was at.

B.C. Premier John Horgan said Friday he was shocked to learn that provincial charges were not being laid.
Photo: CTV A crashed Chrysler 300 near the murder scene in Abbotsford Friday.

UPDATE: 9:10 p.m.

An Abbotsford woman has described the terrible moments Friday after a white car smashed through her fence, stopping just feet from where she stood.

Dawn Boldt said the young man behind the wheel of the car was bleeding.

She didn't realize he had been shot.

"He was sitting up, so I thought, oh, he's sitting up I guess he's okay," Dawn told CTV.

The victim of a targeted shooting, the man, 18, was rushed to hospital where he died of his wounds within the hour.

They had to bring him through my suite to take him to the ambulance, so I had to see this poor guy," Boldt said. "He's like, I'm dying, I can't breathe. And that was upsetting too."

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has taken over the case but no details about the victim or any possible suspect have been released.

ORIGINAL: 6:34 a.m.

An 18-year-old man was shot and killed in Abbotsford Friday afternoon.

Police were called to the 32500-block of George Ferguson Way at about 3:20 p.m. and found the injured man.

He was airlifted from the scene, but died in hospital.

Police have said the shooting appears targeted, but they've not provided a suspected motive.

They are still looking for suspects in the area.

A Chrysler 300 was found crashed through a nearby hedge, but police have not said if the victim was inside the car when he was shot.

Police have asked anyone with information on the murder to call the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team at 1-877-551-4448.

- with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: The Canadian Press A man was arrested after becoming unruly on a flight to Vancouver Friday.

A Vancouver man has been charged after he allegedly hit a flight attendant and damaged the plane on a flight from Toronto to Vancouver Friday.

Flight WS 79 left Toronto's Pearson Airport at 11:40 a.m. local time, but was diverted back shortly after takeoff due to mechanical issues.

At this point according to police, 68-year-old Randy Paholko, became unruly, and allegedly assaulted a flight attendant and caused minor damage to the plane's bathroom.

Paholko has been charged with assault, endangering an aircraft and two counts of mischief.

He remains in custody until a scheduled bail hearing Saturday.

- with files from CTV Vancouver
125 YEARS AGO

July 30, 1892: Two of Ross teams were in from Mountain City Tuesday with wool from his ranch. They loaded with merchandise Wednesday for Rosss Mountain City store.



E.L. Bingham of Tuscarora, is a candidate for County Clerk, subject to the Silver Convention of Elko county.



The Culver ranch on Jack Creek is to be sold by the Sheriff August 17th.



Joe Gardner and son, Charley, departed on Mondays train for Winnemucca, where they have a contract to put up a dwelling house. They will be absent about a month.

100 YEARS AGO

July 31, 1917: Jarbidge, which is coming into great prominence as a mining camp, is laying plans to have the next legislature segregate it from Elko county and give it a county government and county seat. Its greatest objection in being in Elko county is the distance from the county seat, something like 200 miles.

August 3, 1917: In just the past few days, daily stages have been put in operation between Elko and Jarbidge by Ben Howland and Harry McDonald, each owning and operating a one-ton truck. The stages leave Elko and Jarbidge each morning, passing at the half-way station and reaching their destination long before dark. With these states it is now possible for the Elko merchants to ship good to Jarbidge fresh each day at a cost of two cents per pound. Formerly it cost four cents from Deeth.

August 4, 1917: The city council last evening decided on the amount of the city clerks salary, placing it at $1,200 a year. This was entirely satisfactory to Mr. Taber who has been filling this position ever since the town was incorporated.

August 5, 1917: The hotels are filled to overflowing with men who are here to appear before the exemption board, who began work early this morning. At the noon hour today 24 had been examined, and of this number but two failed in the physical tests. The board expects to finish the examinations of the first lot of names called Wednesday night.

75 YEARS AGO

August 3, 1942: Elko county sagehen hunters, for the most part, had plenty of shooting yesterday, the opening day of the two-day season, according to all reports. Many hunters reported getting the bag limit of five birds while there was no word of any hunter being blinked. Hunters say that apparently there were two hatches of birds this year, the early birds being about the size of the old birds, while the second hatch birds were much smaller.



The Charleston Post Office reports sales amounting to $42.10 of War Savings Stamps sold during the month of July.

August 4, 1942: There is a difference in tin cans. The U.S.D.A. war board for Elko couny has announced that persons saving tin cans should keep the enameled and lacquered cans separate from ordinary cans. This procedure is necessary because when the cans are delivered to the smelter, where they are used for recovering copper, they must be sorted if this has not already been done. Consequently the price paid for the cans will be greatly reduced. If the lacquered cans are placed with ordinary cans they should first be burned or scorched. If they are kept separate they will be gathered in a separate pile and burned before shipment.

August 5, 1942: Announcement is made today by the Elko County Commissioners that the fishing season in two Elko county creeks and a portion of the South Fork of the Humboldt river will be closed, effective on August 17. Streams which will be closed include Pole Canyon creek, Secret creek, and the South Fork to the Bullion road.

50 YEARS AGO

August 1, 1967: The National High School Rodeo Association 1967 Finals begin in Elko today with the start of the first go-around of competition. The first go-around continues through the Thursday afternoon performance, and Thursday evening the second go-around begins. On Sunday the top ten competitors in each of the ten categories compete in the big Finals rodeo, naming the national champions, all-around boy and girl, and the National High School Rodeo Queen.

August 2, 1967: Fames Western actor Joel McCrea yesterday verified he will act as parson for the Sunday morning church service on horseback for rodeo contestants and the general public. The western actor last fall sold his ranch holdings in Ruby Valley, but has maintained an interest in the Elko County area, with plans to purchase a small holding here in the future.

August 3, 1967: A gala downtown parade, featuring 377 contestants and 21 floats, kicked off todays afternoon performance of the National High School Rodeo finals in Elko. Wide attention has been gained by the 1967 High School Rodeo, with news media from all competing states requesting information on how their contestants are faring. Two Elko youths, Joe Hess and Jim Wines, are among the national finalists.

25 YEARS AGO

July 30, 1992: Elko High School Principal Glen Adair has been selected as the new principal of Carson High School. The school board made the unanimous selection after interviewing four finalists Tuesday. Adair, who has been principal at Elko for the last six years, will replace Patricia Haller, who left to become principal at Dayton High School.



Elko City Hall will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays effective Monday, Elko City Council decided at its regular meeting Tuesday. At the same time, the daily work schedule of six of the citys eight appointed officials will be increased from seven hours to eight, the council declared. Although Councilman Nora Hatfield wanted to serve the public by expanding the buildings business hours even further, opening at 7 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. and closing at 5:30 p.m., or 6 p.m. Mayor Jim Polkinghorne said he would like to start with the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule to see how people react.

July 31, 1992: Top-ranked professional rodeo cowboys from throughout the United States will be in Elko this weekend to compete in Elkos Silver State Stampede. The show is scheduled to begin tomorrow at the Elko County Fair Grounds with a 3 p.m. county-western concert by Skip Ewing and rodeo performances at 4:30 p.m.
Photo: military.com A search has been halted for U.S Marines following a mishap with a MV-22 Osprey.

UPDATED: 7:40 p.m.

U.S. military officials called off a search and rescue operation on Sunday for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia while trying to land.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps suspended the rescue operation and launched a recovery effort instead, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement, essentially confirming the military does not expect to find the missing Marines alive.

The Marines' next of kin had been notified, and Australia's defence force was assisting the Americans with the recovery effort, the statement said.

The MV-22 Osprey had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard and was conducting regularly scheduled operations on Saturday when it crashed into the water, Camp Butler said. The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts, and 23 of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft were rescued.

"Recovery and salvage operations can take several months to complete, but can be extended based on several environmental factors," Camp Butler's statement said. "The circumstances of the mishap are currently under investigation, and there is no additional information available at this time."

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an airplane. They have been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.

The aircraft was in Australia for a joint military training exercise held by the U.S. and Australia last month in Shoalwater Bay in Queensland state. The Talisman Sabre exercise, a biennial event between the two nations, involved more than 30,000 troops and 200 aircraft.

Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said Saturday's incident occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay.

"I can confirm no Australian Defence Force personnel were on board the aircraft," Payne said in a statement.

Payne said she had spoken with U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis "to offer Australia's support in any way that can be of assistance."

A White House official said President Donald Trump had been briefed by chief of staff John Kelly on the mishap of an aircraft off the east coast of Australia.

In 2015, a U.S. Osprey crashed during a training exercise in Hawaii, killing two Marines. Last December, a U.S. military Osprey crash-landed off Japan's southern island of Okinawa. Its five crew members were rescued safely. And in January, three U.S. soldiers were wounded in the "hard landing" of an Osprey in Yemen.
Photo: RCMP Rene Cardinal, a high-risk sex offender, failed to show up at his halfway house Friday night.

Police have issued a Canada-wide warrant for a high-risk sex offender after he failed to return to his halfway house Friday.

Rene Troy Cardinal, 40, was convicted of manslaughter in 1997 and two counts of sexual assault in 2011.

He was transferred to a Vancouver halfway house just six days ago, but failed to return to it Friday evening.

Cardinal is a 5-foot-11, 189 pound Aboriginal man with short brown hair and brown eyes. He has a Playboy bunny tattoo on his left hand and a tribal tattoo on his left forearm. He often wears dark-framed glasses and was last seen wearing a black and white sweater, blue jeans and white Air Jordan shoes.

Police have asked anyone who sees Cardinal to call 911 immediately.
Photo: Stacey Herron Fire crews worked through the night on the wildfire south of Peachland.

UPDATE: 1:40 p.m.

The wildfire burning south of Peachland is now fully contained, and fire crews don't expect it to grow any larger.

Rachel Witt, fire information officer, says the fire is being held at four hectares, and 21 BC Wildfire Service firefighters are currently on scene.

There is no longer air support fighting the fire.

Despite the containment, Witt says crews will remain at the fire through Saturday night.

ORIGINAL: 9 a.m.

BC Wildfire Service firefighters worked through the night on the three-hectare fire in the hills just south of Peachland.

The fire was reported at 3:30 p.m. Friday as a 100 square metre blaze, but it quickly grew to about three hectares, as winds blew through the area.

The blaze burned really close to the Peachland water treatment facility in a heavily-forested and steep area, according to Peachland assistant fire chief James Springer. Several homes are also near the fire.

Rachel Witt, fire information officer, says eight BC Wildfire Service firefighters remained at the fire overnight.

Crews are heading to the fire this morning to relieve the firefighters who worked through the night, but Witt did not know how many would be working on the fire through the day.

Dennis Craig, Peachland fire chief, says his crew of 18 firefighters left the fire at about 10 p.m. Friday night.

"As far as Peachland and other structural agencies, unless things take a turn for the worse, we're not involved with that fire anymore," Craig said. "Our structural guys stayed on until we felt comfortable leaving."

Witt said she did not know if the fire was considered contained this morning, but Springer said Friday afternoon that the fire had been 65 per cent blanketed by retardant.

As of 8 p.m. Friday, air tankers had left the fire, leaving two helicopters to bucket it from the air.

Witt said she would have more information about the current state of the fire later this morning.

The fire did not force the evacuation of any homes in the area.
Photo: CTV A man has been charged in the arson that left a 94-year-old woman dead.

A 44-year-old Quebec man is facing a murder charge in connection with a fatal seniors' home fire left a 94-year-old woman dead last month.

Quebec provincial police say Alain Landais was arrested at his home in Terrebonne on Thursday and charged on Friday.

He faces one count of second-degree murder and one count of arson.

Ninety-four year old Marcelle Magnan died after the fire broke out on July 8 at the Oasis seniors' residence in Terrebonne, just north of Montreal.

Dozens of residents had to be taken out of the facility and over 10 were treated for smoke inhalation.

Police previously said they arrested a man on the day of the fire but released him after questioning.

It's not known when Landais is back in court.
Photo: oxford-street-therapy-centre.co.uk

Osteoarthritis is a chronic joint condition caused by a breakdown of cartilage and the bones beneath the cartilage.

This causes pain, stiffness, swelling, popping noises, and a loss of flexibility in the joint. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. About 10 per cent of Canadians have it.

There is no cure so treatment focuses on managing symptoms. Common recommendations include:

walking aids

wedged insoles

physiotherapy

transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS

cognitive behavioural therapy

pharmaceutical drugs

corticosteroid injections.

If mobility of the joint is severely impaired, a joint replacement may be recommended.

Acupuncture is a safe, effective, and cost-efficient treatment for managing osteoarthritis.

A 2017 Comparative Literature Review conducted by John McDonald and Stephen Janz concluded that current evidence supports the use of acupuncture as an alternative for traditional analgesics in patients with osteoarthritis.

Acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis:

Performed better than placebos, muscle-strengthening exercise, tai chi, weight loss, standard care and aerobic exercise (in ranked order).

Was superior to standard care and muscle-strengthening exercises.

Significantly reduced pain intensity, improved functional mobility and quality of life.

Had a greater reduction in pain intensity when treatments continued for more than four weeks.

In general, acupuncture is thought to stimulate the nervous system and cause biochemical changes that promote homeostasis for physical and emotional well being.

In western medical terms, acupuncture works by:

Stimulating areas of the brain that are known to reduce sensitivity to pain and stress

Releasing endogenous endorphins and neurohormones which changes the processing of pain in the brain and spinal cord

Inhibiting pain through the regulation and release of endogenous opioids

Reducing inflammation by releasing vascular and immunomodulatory factors

Increasing local microcirculation which helps to reduce swelling and promote healing

From a Chinese medicine perspective, pain is due to poor circulation.

Is the digestive system too weak to nourish blood?

Was there trauma?

Are there other health factors contributing to joint problems?

Once we determine the cause of the poor circulation, we can suggest a treatment.

Sometimes herbal medicine is better, sometimes acupuncture, sometimes both, sometimes neither and a referral for other treatments is best.

It all depends on the underlying cause.

Because we think pain is from improper circulation, we suggest using heat instead of ice for chronic pain.



While ice may be good for inflammation, it also tenses muscles and decreases circulation. Heat relaxes muscles, promotes blood flow, and therefore reduces pain.

That's why we often recommend moxibustion for people suffering from osteoarthritis. Moxibustion is a type of heat therapy that involves burning mugwort and using it to warm specific parts of the body.

A systematic review and meta-analysis from the journal Clinical Rheumatology (July 2011, Volume 30, Issue 7, pp 937945) suggests that moxibustion can be more effective than drugs for knee osteoarthritis, and that moxibustion can improve outcomes when its used in conjunction with conventional drug treatments.

I think thats pretty impressive

When I was 16, I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis and patellofemoral syndrome of the right knee. I had torn the meniscus in my right knee while playing Capture The Flag.

An orthopedic surgeon implanted three meniscal arrows because the damage was so bad, but unfortunately my knee became septic and I was hospitalized with intravenous antibiotics for a month.

This caused the muscles in my right leg to atrophy and my kneecap to dislocate and grind against the femur.

The surgery helped my knee move properly again even though it became infected, and physiotherapy helped me regain muscle strength. Those procedures, however, did nothing to solve my pain.

After I did seven acupuncture treatments, the pain went away and I had no problems for seven years. It helped me so much that I decided to study acupuncture so I could help others in similar situations.

I continue to get acupuncture periodically when my symptoms flare.

As you can see, I think acupuncture is amazing for osteoarthritis, but dont just take my word for it.

Research also shows that acupuncture is a great option to help you manage osteoarthritis symptoms. Living with this chronic condition doesnt mean that you have to suffer with daily pain.

For a detailed summary of the evidence for acupuncture please see the report by John McDonald and Stephen Janz: The Acupuncture Evidence Project: A Comparative Literature Review (Revised Edition).

For additional research on acupuncture for osteoarthritis, please visit the British Acupuncture Council website.

Michael Cote is a Registered Practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He can be reached at the Okanagan Acupuncture Centre at 1625 Ellis St. in downtown Kelowna.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Twitter - @kimmiperraton A wildfire can be seen burning from Highway 93.

UPDATE:2:22 pm.

The Verdant Creek wildfire has once again forced the closure of Highway 93 from Radium to Castle Junction. There is no estimate for re-opening, says Drive BC. An assessment ongoing.

Drivers are asked to take Highway 1 to Golden, then south via Highway 95 as an alternate route.

ORIGINAL STORY: 11:25 a.m.

Highway 93 between Radium Hot Springs and the junction with Highway 1 has reopened once again Saturday, after a wildfire in the area has caused off and on closures for several days.

The highway, which passes through Kootenay National Park, was closed due to the 4,800-hectare Verdant Creek wildfire.

The blaze has forced several closures of the highway due to reduced visibility from smoke.

Despite the reopening, the highway will have reduced speed limits in some areas, as firefighters are working right beside the highway.

"Drivers should anticipate possible delays, the highway may be closed without advance notice to ensure safety for motorists," DriveBC states.
Photo: BC Wildfire Service Wildfire conditions in B.C. are expected to get worse through August.

After an unprecedented start to the fire season in British Columbia, fire officials warn that the situation will be getting worse before it gets better.

There are currently 125 wildfires burning across the province, 16 of which were started Friday. So far in 2017, 884 fires have burned an estimated 588,000 hectares, almost 100,000 hectares more than was estimated Thursday.

The cost of fighting these fires is estimated at $219.6 million.

Chief fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek said Saturday that August is typically one of the Wildfire Service's busiest months, and he doesn't expect this year to be any different.

The weather forecast backs up Skrepnek's statements.

Continued hot and dry conditions are expected throughout the Interior of the province, but winds are expected to remain light.

Skrepnek says there is also a risk of dry thunderstorms in the Interior Sunday, as well as into early next week.

If we do have lightning there's a high likelihood we're going to be seeing new fires start because of that, and given just how tinder-dry it is out there, these fires are likely going to be quite a challenge for us in terms of how fast they are going to be growing.

Skrepnek pointed to possible showers across the province in the long-range forecast, 10 days out, but said he's not optimistic, as forecasts that far in advance are not very accurate.

We're preparing for a challenging few days ahead of us, he said.
Photo: CSRD A wildfire evacuation alert is in place for Galena Bay.

UPDATE: 6:55 p.m.

Fourteen BC Wildfire Service personnel, two helicopters and two pieces of heavy equipment are fighting a wildfire in the Galena Bay area.

The lightning-caused fire is highly visible from the Galena Bay area and Highway 23.

As a precautionary measure, the Columbia Shuswap Regional District issued an evacuation alert for the Galena Bay area earlier Saturday.

The wildfire is about five kilometres east of Galena Bay and covers about 120 hectares, according to the BC Wildfire Service.

Meanwhile, firefighters are having trouble with the 1,583-hectare Mountain Creek fire that's burning in Glacier National Park.

On Friday, embers from the fire blew across a containment line and started another fire.

Crews are working to contain the eight-hectare spot fire with the aid of air support and heavy equipment.

As a precautionary measure, the CSRD issued an evacuation alert for Heather Lodge and the surrounding area.

UPDATE: 4:55 p.m.

Revelstoke Fire Rescue Services firefighters warned residents in the Galena Bay area Saturday that they were now under an evacuation alert due to a wildfire.

The Revelstoke and Area Emergency Management Program also notified emergency management organizations in Trout Lake and the Village of Nakusp.

The Emergency Operations Centre was expected to close at 5 p.m. and re-open Sunday at 8:30 a.m.

ORIGINAL STORY: 2 p.m.

A small wildfire burning south of Revelstoke has prompted an evacuation alert.

The 60-hectare fire is burning just east of Galena Bay, near the east shore ferry terminal for the Upper Arrow Lake Ferry.

The alert covers the Galena Bay area near Highway 23 and Highway 31.

The cause of the fire is believed to be lightning and 14 firefighters are fighting the blaze.

Those under an evacuation alert should be prepared to leave their homes with little notice.
Photo: The Canadian Press Soldiers outside the office of Venezuela's chief prosecutor.

A newly installed constitutional assembly ousted Venezuela's defiant chief prosecutor Saturday, a sign that President Nicolas Maduro's embattled government intends to move swiftly against critics and consolidate power amid a fast-moving political crisis.

Cries of "traitor" and "justice" erupted from the stately, neo-classical salon were 545 pro-government delegates voted unanimously to remove Luisa Ortega from her post as the nation's top law enforcement official and replace her with a staunch government supporter.

They said they were acting in response to a ruling by the government-stacked Supreme Court, which banned Ortega from leaving the country and freezing her bank accounts while it weighs criminal charges against her for alleged irregularities.

Ortega, a longtime loyalist who broke with the socialist government in April, refused to recognize the decision and vowed to continue defending the rights of Venezuelans from Maduro's "coup" against the constitution "with my last breath."

"This is just a tiny example of what's coming for everyone that dares to oppose this totalitarian form of government," Ortega said in the statement she signed as chief prosecutor. "If they're doing this to the chief prosecutor, imagine the helpless state all Venezuelans live in."

Earlier Saturday, Ortega was pushed and barred from entering her office by dozens of national guardsmen in riot gear who took control of the entrance to the building.

She alleged that authorities were desperate to get their hands on dossiers containing information on dirty dealings by high-level officials, including sensitive details about millions of dollars in bribes paid by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Assembly delegates later swore in as her replacement Ombudsman Tarek William Saab, who was recently sanctioned by the Trump administration for failing to protect protesters from abuses in his role as the nation's top human rights official.

Members of the all-powerful constitutional assembly had pledged in their first meeting to move quickly against Maduro's opponents and didn't disappoint.

"Don't think we're going to wait weeks, months or years," former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said Friday after she was chosen to lead the assembly. "Tomorrow we start to act. The violent fascists, those who wage economic war on the people, those who wage psychological war, justice is coming for you."

The constitutional assembly was seated despite strong criticism from the United States, other countries and the Venezuelan opposition, which fear the it will be a tool for imposing dictatorship. Supporters say it will pacify a country rocked by violent protests.

Its installation is virtually certain to intensify a political crisis that has brought four months of protests in which at least 120 people have died and hundreds more have been jailed.

Maduro also wants the assembly to strip opposition lawmakers of their constitutional immunity from prosecution, saying their constant conspiring to oust him shouldn't be protected.

While members of congress say they will only be removed by force, the opposition is struggling to regain its footing in the face of the government's strong-arm tactics and the re-emergence of old, internal divisions. Several opposition activists have been jailed in recent days, others are rumoured to be seeking exile and one leader has broken ranks from the opposition alliance to say his party will field candidates in regional elections despite widespread distrust of the electoral system.
Photo: The Canadian Press The United Nations Security Council has agreed to more sanctions against North Korea.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday including a ban on coal and other exports totalling more than $1 billion  a huge bite in its total exports, valued at $3 billion last year.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley praised the new sanctions, telling council members after the vote that it is "the single largest economic package ever levelled against the North Korean regime."

The resolution also bans countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean labourers  another source of money for Kim Jong Un's regime. And it prohibits all new joint ventures with North Korean companies and bans new foreign investment in existing ones.

The U.S.-drafted measure, negotiated with North Korea's neighbour and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.

The Security Council has already imposed six rounds of sanctions that have failed to halt North Korea's drive to improve its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.

The resolution's adoption follows North Korea's first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States on July 3 and July 27.

"All of this ICBM and nuclear irresponsibility has to stop," Haley told reporters as she headed to the council to vote.

The resolution condemns the launches "in the strongest terms" and reiterates previous calls for North Korea to suspend all ballistic missile launches and abandon its nuclear weapons and nuclear program "in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner."

The resolution bans North Korea from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood products estimated to be worth over $1 billion. This represents one-third of last year's exports.

It adds nine North Koreans, mainly officials or representatives of companies and banks, to the U.N. sanctions blacklist, banning their travel and freezing their assets. It also imposes an asset freeze on two companies and two banks.

A Security Council diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity, called the newly sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank "a very critical clearing house for foreign exchange."

The Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies, which was also added to the blacklist, is described in the resolution as engaged in exporting workers for construction, including of monuments, in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The resolution asks the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea to ban the import of many more so-called dual-use items, which have commercial purposes but can also be used in conventional, biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

It also gives the committee a green light to designate specific vessels that are breaking sanctions from entering ports all over the world and to work with Interpol to enforce travel bans on North Koreans on the sanctions blacklist.

The resolution expresses regret at North Korea's "massive diversion of its scarce resources toward its development of nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programs"  a point stressed by Haley. It notes U.N. findings that well over half the population lacks sufficient food and medical care, while a quarter suffers from chronic malnutrition.
Young Western Shoshone tribal members can earn an education and get a job while honoring the customs of their ancestors.

That was the message behind Barrick Gold Corp.s third annual Tribal Summer Youth Career/Cultural Days at the South Fork Indian Reservation held July 20-21 and the Barrick-sponsored Shoshone Community Language Initiative with a graduation ceremony Aug. 4 at Great Basin College.

Barrick sees this as a wonderful event, and a wonderful program, and were happy to partner with our college, our hometown college; happy to partner with the Shoshone communities in all the areas we work, said Barrick U.S.A. Executive Director Nigel Bain at the language program graduation. But [were] most proud of our ability to see the new generation of Shoshone people learn about their heritage, learn about their history ... the language of the Shoshone, not to let that pass by, not to allow that history and culture to disappear.

Because all Barrick mining properties are on traditional Western Shoshone lands, the mining company partnered with the people to promote higher education among indigenous youths for the benefit and sustainability of the tribes. Through the collaborative agreement signed in 2008, Barrick offers college courses in native language, college preparation and advising, scholarships, internships, and additional programs for economic and community development.

Its amazing that this year alone, we had 47 tribal members graduate from college with associate, bachelors or masters degrees, said Brian Mason, manager of Native American affairs for Barrick and member of the Shoshone-Paiute tribes of Duck Valley, from Owyhee.

Thats a 50 percent increase in the number of graduates over last year, and since the program came to fruition in 2012, Barrick has hired 125 tribal members. Through 2016, Barrick has awarded 1,075 scholarships totaling more than $2.14 million. Twelve students, including Masons granddaughter, Princess Mason, graduated from the inaugural Shoshone Community Language Initiative, earning dual credit for foreign language.

Its been really aggressive, Mason said. Its been really successful.

Shoshone Community Language Initiative

During the language program graduation ceremony, the students introduced themselves in Shoshone then English and described the components of their five-week-long program. Each day included classes and activities through which the students could practice their language and learn about aspects of their culture from their elders.

Our group was very grateful to learn from these elders because some of these topics we might not have learned from our families, said graduate Adam Nalley.

Weekends allowed time for the students, all of Shoshone heritage but hailing from as far away as the East Coast, to go on field trips to places of historical significance, such as the Tosawihi Quarries and Hercules Gap. Ruby Valley made a big impression on Breeyanna Hooper, who said the trips opened her eyes to what her people have been through.

I think its important that we went out to these sites as well as learning the language because we learn the culture on these trips, she said. But without the language, theres no culture, and without the culture, theres no language.

Davis Gonzales, vice chairman of the Te-Moak and Elko Band tribal councils, emphasized the importance of listening to the old folks, he said. That is where I got my language. Thats whats really important about this opportunity for the graduates right now.  You have a Shoshone foundation. Its for you now to build on this one foundation, to continue our legacy and the Shoshone language.

He also extended his gratitude to Barrick. On behalf of the Elko Band Council and Tribal Council, he said, I want to thank Barrick for all the work that theyve done for us over all the years theyve sponsored the Shoshone class.

Career, Culture

Shanina Hicks, a Western Shoshone member from Duck Valley, described her success with Barrick support during the Tribal Summer Youth Career/Cultural Days. As a scholarship recipient, Hicks attends Boise State University where she has finished her bachelors degree in social sciences and is working on her masters degree in public administration. This summer, Barrick is sponsoring her as an employee to work in her field of study for her tribe.

In general, they are helping me develop skills to use in my career, she said, explaining that the internship provides real-world experience and leadership skills.

Hicks was one of about 20 interns, some of whom talked about college and careers at the event. She addressed a group of about 180 teens and preteens from the eight Western Shoshone tribes gathered in the shade of a tribal arbor draped with willows.

The youths in attendance can follow a similar career and education path. Through the program, they are already employed through Barrick to work for their tribes. Summer jobs include maintenance or working for environmental or health services, among other pursuits. The work puts money in their pockets while contributing to community development. The two-day event also featured a college fair with representatives from colleges in states including Nevada, Idaho and Utah.

Their interest shows initiative praised by guest presenter Andrew Iron Shell, community engagement coordinator for the Thunder Mountain Community Development Corp. in South Dakota.

Im really awed by all of you here because you had to fill out an application [to be here], he said. Thats what we need from our indigenous youth  to carry that value of, Were still here. 

In his presentation, Iron Shell explained about how the nonprofit, grass roots organization on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation works to solve poverty, eliminate hunger and instill hope.

We want to create change, he said.

Iron Shell encouraged the Western Shoshone students to tap into their survival instincts and use the resources available to them, including the Barrick programs, to improve their quality of life. He also reminded them to never forget history.

We used to think being isolated was a curse, he said. No, it is a gift.

The gift is that it helped preserved Native American culture, he explained. The Barrick program promotes the continuation of Western Shoshone traditions, and invited several teachers to the July event to pass on ancestral knowledge.

Guest speakers Darlene Hooper Dewey and Melanie Smokey from Yomba demonstrated the historic uses for native plants and reminded the youngsters of their beliefs.

Youre learning a lot, Dewey said, and I thank Barrick for providing our language teachers and you kids for learning.

The mother-daughter duo described how sage is considered a physical and spiritual disinfectant; how buck berry is high in antioxidants; and pine nuts are a rich food that helped keep the people alive and strong during the harsh Great Basin winters.

Smokey passed around samples of the plants and demonstrated traditional tools, including hand-woven baskets and grinding stones, while Dewey pronounced their names in her native tongue. Students nibbled the red buck berries from a branch, felt pine pitch between their fingers and tested an elderberry branch as a clapper stick, with a sharp thwack against a hand or thigh.

Our food is our medicine. I just want you to know that we came after the plants, Smokey said. They were born already knowing what their job is. They listen to Creator. They know.

Although the plants intrinsically know their purpose, she said, people do not always know, and the discovery process takes exploration. Thats why events such as the Barrick Tribal Summer Youth Career/Cultural Days can be helpful.

Charles Wadda-Martinez, visiting from the Shoshone tribe in Rigby, Idaho, said he had been considering joining the military after high school graduation but that the college fair the day before got him thinking about going to college in Idaho near his family. He also reflected on the importance of cultural education, saying that it is important because if we dont learn the ways our people, they might die out.
Photo: CTV The body was found in a grassy area off Glover Road in Langley.

A grass fire in Langley led emergency crews to discover a person's body.

Firefighters were fighting a blaze on the eastern edge of the city less than three kilometres from the local airport Saturday.

RCMP say in a news release that officers were contacted around 2 a.m. after the fire crews discovered the dead body.

An investigation is underway and police say the site will likely be cordoned off for "a significant amount of time."

Police say they have limited information on the cause of the fire and the identity of the deceased.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Langley RCMP detachment.
Its now clear to even the most casual Republican voter that the enemies of President Donald Trump arent just the Democrats, the militant left and the fake news media. Its also a number of moderate establishment Republican creatures of the DC Swamp.

The GOP in the Senate has a slim majority, 52-48. However, while its a Republican majority its not a conservative majority. And any three rogue Republicans can wander off the reservation, vote with the Ds, and kill anything the GOP wants to advance.

So under the circumstances, its quite possible Republicans in the Senate will, indeed, fail to honor their promises to repeal ObamaCare before the 2018 elections.

But the dynamic could dramatically change AFTER the 2018 elections.

You see, there are 23 Democrat senators - plus two independents who vote lockstep with the Democrats  who are up for re-election in 2018, and 8 Republicans. Only the GOP could possibly be incompetent enough not to significantly increase their majority under an electoral map like that.

But dont sell em short. It wouldnt be the first time. Remember how the GOP lost seven seats, including five incumbents, in 2008?

But the solution to the problem that has resulted in the GOPs failure thus far to repeal ObamaCare isnt to just elect more Republicans in 2018, but better ones as well.

As longtime conservative icon Richard Viguerie wrote in his excellent how to manifesto, Takeover, in 2014, Merely having an *R* next to your name on the ballot does not mean you will hold fast to limited-government constitutional conservative principles.

Sad but true.

Which is why its not enough for conservatives to simply challenge Democrats in general elections, but Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) in primaries  both as a matter of principle and party discipline  as well.

When you allow Republican politicians to get away with flipping off the partys conservative base, theyll just keep doing it. Such Republicans are a cancer on the party. Their betrayals eat away at voter support, ruin the brand for every other GOP candidate up and down the ballot, and demoralize both the partys volunteers and its donors.

It is hard for many conservatives to understand that establishment Republicans are the enemy, Viguerie continues, noting that those establishmentarians are not people who can simply be talked out of their commitment to Big Government; they must be defeated, because they are blocking the path to saving America.

Indeed, in the LONG scheme of things, they are NOT better than the Democrat alternative. Such serious actions of sabotage MUST have consequences. If you let a kid continue to throw temper tantrums, he - and others watching him get away with it - will continue to throw temper tantrums.

The other reason why Republican primaries are so important is that its not enough to simply have more conservatives with a seat at the table. If you really want to move the limited-government ball forward, unapologetic, principled conservatives who arent afraid to rock the boat need to be at the HEAD of the table.

So let it be written; so let it be done.
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Editor:

The last Friday in July the Elko Daily Free Press posted an article that declared how a jury found a 23-year-old young lady guilty in relation to a crime she had committed after giving birth to her newborn daughter, a very sad and tragic case indeed.

After reading the article, I thought to myself, as an American Indian/Native American parent or grandparent, was there more that we could have taught our children? What did we miss in presenting the traditional and cultural education of life to our children?

I have explained in the past how I operate an Indian news list (Reznews). I post a series of briefs and news summaries about three times a day, in other words I read a lot of news stories from throughout Indian Countrys communities.

For example, in connection to the guilty verdict above, I came across several articles of similar nature. One, a 26-year-old woman on the Standing Rock Reservation plead guilty in the beating death of her 5-year-old daughter that expressed that in one case she had beat her daughter for spilling a glass of milk. The child had bruises all over her body and later died from a critical head trauma.

Then over in Montana on the Fort Peck Reservation, a 43-year-old woman plead guilty to beating a 13-month-old child under her care to death because she wouldn't be quiet, put her body in a duffel bag and threw it in a trash can.

On the same reservation, a 21-year-old male chases down a 4-year-old girl, kidnaps, rapes and sodomize's her, infected her with an incurable sexually transmitted disease, leaves her for dead in an abandon pickup.

Should more be done to help these organizations and programs dedicated to helping preserve and protect the unborn, newborn, children and even teens? Shouldn't we be more concerned about the welfare and well-being of our people?

Seems to me that the very young in this country are suffering far too much and it needs to stop. Alcohol, drugs and domestic violence are wrong for some people.

Larry Kibby

Elko
On Friday afternoon, Martin Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud charges. Shortly after that, he returned to his apartment and started livestreaming to an admiring crowd of the Internet villain's devoted fans.

His message, essentially, was that his admirers shouldn't worry too much, that he felt his conviction on three of eight charges could have been worse.

"This could have been a real big setback for my life," he said," but it's gonna end up being a footnote in my life." He gave himself a "50-50 chance" of actually going to jail, and seemed confident that he would serve months, at most, behind bars. Shkreli faces up to 20 years in prison, although as my colleagues report, legal experts think he'll probably get a much shorter sentence.

Shkreli does this a lot, streaming for hours at a time, and chatting with a core group of fans who tune in to him regularly. He often streams investment advice sessions for his fans on YouTube and chatting on a private Discord server. He spent the Friday night after his 2015 arrest streaming alone in his apartment for hours.

But this stream was particularly surreal, even for Shkreli's online presence. At one point, a New York Daily News reporter visited his apartment and interviewed him on camera, seemingly unaware that their conversation was being streamed live. He pretended to take a phone call from President Donald Trump. He implied - but did not confirm - that he played a portion of the Wu Tang Clan album he owns, the only known copy (he has streamed portions of it at least once before).

But mostly, he bragged. "It doesn't seem like life will change very much for Martin Shkreli, basically ever," he said, speaking in the third person. He later added, "I'm one of the richest New Yorkers there is, and after this outcome, it's going to stay that way."

Shkreli, nicknamed "Pharma Bro," first became infamous for dramatically raising the price of a drug taken by AIDS patients. He was memed into Internet villainy for that, a role that he has, to some degree, embraced. Shkreli was suspended from Twitter in January for the "targeted harassment" of journalist Lauren Duca.

The Shkreli fandom has been a strange but persistent online rabbit hole since his rise as one of the most hated men on the Internet. Shkreli has nearly 70,000 subscribers on YouTube; his stream on Friday had a peak audience of a little over 4,000 viewers, while the New York Daily News reporter was interviewing him. Shkreli's fandom overlaps heavily with the pro-Trump Internet; he has adapted the president's language in calling the trial against him a "witch hunt."

Shkreli invited reporter Ellen Moynihan into his apartment at the urging of his fans, who were hoping to watch their hero epically troll another journalist, live on camera.

The lengthy interview was tense at times, as Moynihan questioned Shkreli's decision to dramatically raise the price of a vital drug, and Shkreli accused Moynihan's publication of being "fake news." The interview didn't appear to have the anti-media "gotcha" moment Shkreli's fans were hoping for, so some commenters in the stream's live chat resorted to making graphic comments about the reporter's appearance instead.

It wasn't clear whether Moynihan was aware that their conversation was being streamed live at the time, and Moynihan declined to go on the record about the interview when reached by email.

Shkreli had been streaming for four hours at the time of this writing. Early in the evening, he took a break to, he said, visit privately with his brother. But he kept the camera rolling so that his admirers could chat with each other. At 7:30 p.m., there were more than a thousand YouTube viewers waiting for him to come back.
The start-stop feature in the 2015 Mercedes-Benz C-Class, controlled by the button with an A encircled by an arrow, cuts the engine when idling, thereby saving fuel. Some makes and models, such as the 2017 Chevy Malibu, dont have a button to shut off the device, which frustrates some drivers. (Mercedes-Benz)

Q: I just traded in a 2014 Chevy Cruze and leased a 2017 Malibu. I didn't realize that the vehicle was equipped with auto stop/start until after I took delivery. I am retired and drive maybe 50 miles per week in and around Fort Lauderdale so the stop/start feature has really become annoying. Sitting at stoplights only to have the A/C shut down is just plain crazy. The dealer says there is no way to turn this feature off. Any thoughts on this?

 A.C., Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

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A: Has the dealership salesman read the owner's manual? Have you read your owner's manual? If you want to prevent the engine from auto-stopping while the air conditioning is needed, press the A/C button twice to get out of the econ mode. Also, the automatic stop/start feature will not work if the transmission is in anything but drive. Shifting to park will keep the engine running. Chill, dude.

Q: In regards to the older 2001 Buick having a hard-starting issue when warm, many GM cars have problems with the fuel pressure regulator leaking down. It can happen on cold or warm starts. A service tech can check the vacuum hose leading to the regulator, and if it shows signs of fuel or its odor, that is the starting problem. I have retired as a service tech for GM, and have seen countless regulators go bad. A good tech never throws parts on a car, hoping to correct it. Diagnosis takes time, as you will agree. Love your column!

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 B.L., Tinley Park

A: Thanks for writing. You are absolutely right about the fuel pressure regulator. Fuel leaks past the internal diaphragm, goes through the vacuum hose attached to the regulator, and collects in the engine's intake manifold. Diagnosis is super simple, as you pointed out.

Q: I'm driving a 2000 Honda CR-V. It's a nice car, old but very reliable. Coming back from a chili cook-off with my friend, the great chili-maker Bill, we had to hit the brakes when a car ran a stoplight. We're both OK, but in stopping some of our remaining chili spilled on the back seat. We were able to scrape most of it off the seat and put it back in the pot, so we didn't lose very much. My question is how do I get the stain out of the back seat?

 S.R., Cary

A: One must select the solvent carefully. Chili is a concoction that is both water-based and fat-based, making the choice difficult. Personally, we would moisten the area with beer. A hoppy IPA would be ideal. Give it time to absorb. We suggest sipping one of the ales while you wait. Then, gently scrape with the side of a spoon, being careful to save any solids in a proper vessel. A red Solo cup works well. If this method is unsuccessful, we suggest contacting Heloise atwww.heloise.com.

Q: My Nissan dealer is strongly recommending a fuel induction service for my 2011 Altima (30,000 miles). The charge is rather expensive and I don't see this in the owner's manual. I had a different service manager my last visit and, off the record, he said he wouldn't recommend it to me. Any comments?

 N.G., Lemont

A: Yeah, we predict that the new service writer won't be working there the next time you visit if his boss finds out. We also feel that, while the service may have some benefit, you do not need to agree to it.

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Send questions along with name and town to Motormouth, Rides, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Fourth Floor, Chicago, IL 60611 or motormouth.tribune@gmail.com.
In this May 20, 2012, file photo, the annular solar eclipse is seen as the sun sets behind the Rocky Mountains from downtown Denver. The solar eclipse that is cutting a diagonal path across the U.S. next month is a boon for tourism. Hotels and campsites are sold out as some communities are preparing for unparalleled numbers of visitors on Aug. 21, 2017, all to observe about two minutes of near-darkness at the height of the day. (David Zalubowski / AP)

Call us the proclipstinators, the eclipse procrastinators.

We're the dawdlers who only now are thinking we should have made plans to go see that total eclipse, the one that on Monday, Aug. 21, will cause gridlock from Oregon to South Carolina along a transcontinental trail called "the path of totality."

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From the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, across the mountains and the plains, the moon will hide the sun. The world will go dark. The stars will shine in the middle of the day.

It will, they say, be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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"People remember where they were when Kennedy was shot; people remember the moon landing," a NASA scientist recently told the New York Times in a story about the eclipse frenzy in Carbondale, Ill. "People will remember this eclipse."

Unless they're proclipstinators.

Months ago, a friend asked if I wanted to meet her in Oregon for the total eclipse. What eclipse? That was the first I'd heard of it, but I wasn't surprised she was planning. She's the kind of person who finished her college papers early. I'm the kind who always needed an extension. I made no plans to go.

At the time, missing the eclipse didn't seem much more significant than missing a Super Bowl party. If you went, great. If you didn't, you'd never remember that you didn't.

But in the past few weeks, eclipse mania has revved to the pitch of a jet engine. Everywhere are stories of the rare magnificence of this impending moment, the first coast-to-coast total eclipse since 1918. Hordes of pilgrims will travel the 70-mile-wide path of totality, undaunted by tales of shocking hotel prices and traffic jams, undeterred by the fact that the eclipse ecstasy won't last even as long as a pop song.

"It's starting to sink in, people realizing this is a rare event," said Joe McFarland, who calls himself the self-appointed eclipse coordinator of tiny Makanda, Illinois. "A lot of people waited too long to get accommodations."

Those would be the proclipstinators.

Makanda  pronounced Muh-can-duh  is a 19th Century railroad town a six-hour drive south of Chicago, 7 miles beyond the college town of Carbondale, in the wooded, hilly land where Illinois rolls into Kentucky.

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McFarland describes it as "Mayberry meets hippie artist community." Officially it calls itself "America's Eclipse Crossroads," because not only will it be dead center of the 2017 total eclipse but it will get another total eclipse in 2024.

"Every eclipse chaser in the world will want to be here," its web site proclaims.

But at this point, wanting to be there in 2017 is beside the point.

"Imagine a village of 600 people preparing to host the Olympics," McFarland said, when I called to see if a proclipstinator had any hope. "We are overwhelmed. We've had people trying to set up camp weeks in advance, but the village doesn't allow camping on village property so we had to chase them off. Basically every place that can be reserved has been, with the exception of the shameless price-gouging."

By "shameless price-gouging," I assume he meant places like the home, outside town, that I found online, available for Sunday night, Aug. 20, for $6,000. Plus tax.

Stories like this may convince proclipstinators that all opportunity is lost, but McFarland doesn't want to dim the eclipse-chasing spirit.

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"If nothing else, just drive into the path of totality and step out of your vehicle," he said. "You don't have to be in a special magical spot to experience this overwhelming wonder. You can step outside your vehicle, look up and be blown away."

As a proclipstinator who's disinclined to fight the traffic jams that are predicted along the sacred path, I continue to tell myself that the partial eclipse in Chicago  86.6 percent of the sun obscured  will be plenty.

But then I run across testimonials like this one in VOX, from a man who makes NASA eclipse maps and explains the power of a total eclipse this way:

"You suddenly feel as though you can see the clockwork of the solar system. Where you think you lived doesn't look like the same place anymore. We kind of know  in the back of our minds  that we live in a giant ball and it revolves around a hot ball of gas, and we're floating in space. But you don't really believe it until you see something like a total solar eclipse, where everything is all lined up and you go whoaaa."

In a country that so often seems tired, anxious and angry, it's good to know that so many people want to witness the mystery of what's bigger than us, beyond us.

And if you miss it? You can always pretend you were there by sending a stamped, addressed envelope or postcard to the Makanda postmaster, 709 Makanda Rd, Makanda, Ill., 62958.

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Ask for the special eclipse postmark. Even procrastinators can do mail, can't we?

mschmich@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MarySchmich
The following items were taken from Skokie Police Department reports and press releases. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.

BATTERY

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Alejandro Mendoza, 23, of the 800 block of Madison, Bolingbrook, was charged with battery stemming from an incident July 29 in the 800 block of Madison Boulevard.

Marcy H. Frankel, 57, of the 8400 block of Kedvale Avenue, was charged with battery stemming from an incident July 30 in the 8400 block of Kedvale Avenue.

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Two neighbors had a verbal dispute over the theft of miscellaneous items and one neighbor accused the other of battering her July 24 in the 9200 block of Drake Avenue.

DRUGS

Amar Hasikic, 20, of the 10000 block of Old Orchard Court, was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia stemming from an incident July 26 in the 9200 block of Kenneth Avenue.

THEFT

Jerome T. Graham, 31, of the 4200 block of Oakton Street, was charged with retail theft stemming from an incident July 26 in the 9400 block of Skokie Boulevard.

Scott A Hoffman, 52, of the 1600 block of Farwell, Chicago, was charged with retail theft stemming from an incident July 26 at a retailer in the 4900 block of Old Orchard Center.

Munkh-Erdene Bayarsaikhan, 33, of the 4000 block of Keystone, Chicago, was charged with retail theft and aggravated battery stemming from an incident July 25 in the 9400 block of Skokie Boulevard.

William Burton, 64, of the 1500 block of Lake, Evanston, was charged with retail theft and possession of drug equipment stemming from an incident July 30 in the 4900 block of Old Orchard Center.

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Personal belongings were reported stolen from a locker July 24 in the 3400 block of Touhy Avenue. Police said a lock was cut off the locker door to gain entry.

A line of credit was used to make purchases in an unauthorized person's name in an aggravated identity theft incident July 11 in the 9400 block of Lowell Avenue.

Unauthorized personal information was used to activate mobile service for three cell phones in an identity theft incident July 24 in the 9400 block of Lavergne Avenue.

A purse was reported stolen July 25 from a restaurant in the 9400 block of Skokie Boulevard. Police said the purse was reportedly stolen from an employee just before the restaurant closed.

A package was reportedly stolen from the common area of a building between July 22 and July 25 in the 8500 block of St. Louis Avenue.

Numerous items were reported stolen July 25 from a retailer in the 4900 block of Old Orchard Road. Two female suspects were placing items into a bag and leaving the store without paying, police said.

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BURGLARY

Various items were reported stolen from an unlocked vehicle July 24 while parked in the 5000 block of Pratt Avenue.

A store was broken into July 25 in the 4000 block of Old Orchard Road, police said. Police said two suspects, dressed in all black with their faces concealed, attempted to smash out the front glass door to the business but were unsuccessful. They then used a pry tool and forced open the door, police said. While inside, the suspects were seen running through the store but it was unknown if anything was taken, police said.

An attempt to break into a vehicle was made July 25 in the 4500 block of Kirk Street.

Change of about $3 was taken between July 25 and July 26 from a vehicle parked in the 7000 block of Carpenter Road.

A vehicle was reportedly broken into between July 25 and July 26 while parked in the 5000 block of Pratt Avenue.

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A garage was reportedly burglarized July 29 in the 4900 block of Sherwin Avenue. Nothing was reported taken at the time of the incident, police said.
While many ultra-premium vodkas have a pleasant flavor, you might not even notice if the vodka is served chilled (thereby neutralizing the taste) or mixed into a cocktail. (Image Source)

A few weeks ago, I tried a truly remarkable vodka. It was perfectly clear, clean and smooth, with a neutral aroma, and subtle citrus and cream flavors. It was just about everything you'd expect an ultra-premium vodka to be, including expensive. A bottle of it will set you back about $60 or $70.

The vodka is part of a broader trend in which market leaders Diageo's Smirnoff and Pernod Ricard's Absolut, which account for roughly one-fifth of the U.S. vodka market, are losing market share to smaller, often high-priced so-called craft vodkas.

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Now, I don't blink an eye when I see that type of price tag on a whiskey or other barrel-aged spirit, but when it comes to vodka, I do. And there's a good reason for that. Federal statutes require vodka to be a spirit "without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color." And while, yes, that vodka I recently had does have a pleasant flavor  as do many other craft vodkas  the flavor isn't pronounced. Heck, you might not even notice if you weren't paying attention or, more likely, if the vodka is served chilled (thereby neutralizing the taste) or mixed into a cocktail. That's why I'm reluctant to buy a bottle of that vodka (and why I've refrained from referring to it by name). And I'm not alone.

Head to Billy Sunday in Chicago, and you'll find hundreds of varieties of amaro (the category of Italian bittersweet liqueurs) but just a single vodka. There's a reason for that. While a distiller can put his own mark on a spirit like amaro or whiskey or absinthe, vodka is a really indistinct spirit. Given the category's constraints, vodka producers have to focus on consistency and so-called quality rather than flavor.

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"There's a tremendous amount of marketing behind a lot of these ultra-premium products that tell stories about how they're filtered through mountains or cultivated through the hands of an 85-year-old artist," says Lee Zaremba, Billy Sunday's general manager. "But really, all vodka is very similar once you get to a certain point in terms of quality and taste."

That's why Billy Sunday stocks a Polish vodka called Gvori that costs less than half the price of that other vodka for a bigger bottle, 1.75 milliliters. Billy Sunday isn't skimping; it just wants a quality vodka that, like just about any other quality vodka, will disappear into cocktails.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

"It's really about what's in the bottle," Zaremba says. "We're not interested in name brands, but rather how it tastes."

Here are four vodkas to try that you can find for $30 or less for a 750-milliliter bottle:

Dry Fly Distilling Vodka: Sweet and creamy, with notes of vanilla and butterscotch. $29.99

Gvori Vodka: Smooth and sweet, with a hint of vanilla. $15.99

Hangar One Vodka: Slightly sweet, with grape and floral notes. $24.99

Prairie Organic Vodka: Gentle and sweet, with hints of dried fruit and sweet cream. $18.99

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Zak Stambor is a freelance writer.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is the mother of the unfair soda tax. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune )

Toni Taxwinkle's ridiculous and unfair pop tax  one cent per ounce on sweetened beverages sold in Cook County  must be met with a serious response.

So from now on, let's have another law:

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Any politician who promotes a tax increase by mouthing ridiculous, idiotic cliches like "It's for the children," or "It's really a public health issue," when it's not really for the children or a public health issue, should immediately be fined $10,000.

If they don't pay, then the politician should go directly to the Cook County Jail and sit there, waiting for Sherriff Tom Dart to feed them cold gruel.

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"$20k each time one says, 'If it saves one life, it's worth it,' " says reader P.J. Geraghty.

Agreed. Make it $50K.

And if politicians don't like it, they can just blame Toni Taxwinkle  or if you prefer, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle  the mother of the stupid pop tax.

She's created a political disaster for Democrats. Her tax is not only unfair, it's confusing. Some end up paying a tax on ice. Others pay too much or too little. Naturally, people are furious.

But please, don't call it a "soda tax." It's a pop tax. In Chicago we say pop, not soda. Soda is for whiskey. Pop is what we're talking about.

So I'm also planning to fine the Chicago media  including a great metropolitan newspaper  because it's a POP tax, dang it, not a soda tax.

You feel me?

While we're at it, let's impose a $100,000 fine on politicians who use the phrase "social justice" without saying what they really mean: using the government to take somebody's money and give it to someone else who'll vote for you.

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I'm usually opposed to tax increases. And I don't like proposing jailing people, even Cook County politicians, for the many stupid things they've said.

But something must be done now that the Cook County government  a legendary refuge of weasels and boodle  has pushed through Taxwinkle's idiotic pop tax.

"The next thing you know, she will tax us three cents every time we flush our home toilet," said Dimitri Kotsis.

Don't think she's not thinking about it.

On social media, I asked people to come up with political cliches that should lead to hefty fines for politicians who use political cliches, which may replace the Taxwinkle Pop Tax.

" 'This will create xx,xxx jobs,' " is one that David Mansfield would fine, along with "middle class" (without defining it) and "fair share" (who's share?) and " 'Deficit neutral,' because it never is, they always add."

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Mike Chorvat would fine politicians an enormous amount for pretending they want sincere dialogue, when all they want is Mike's money.

" 'We need to have an honest debate' = $100k" says Chorvat.

But not everyone is angry with Taxwinkle.

Those who are beneficiaries of social programs that were once called 'food stamps' won't suffer the pop tax. And if you've got the money to pay high prices for gourmet coffee, you won't have to pay the tax when your barista makes you a sugary and expensive gourmet beverage.

They're exempt. Taxwinkle's pop tax protects two vital constituency groups, the poor and the coffee elites.

Who is not exempt? The so-called working and middle classes that drink pop, the people Democrats once said they cared about.

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What is less obvious  but something Tribune Editorial Board member Kristen McQueary mentioned on an upcoming edition of "The Chicago Way" podcast on WGN radio  is that Taxwinkle goes even further.

Taxwinkle is now reportedly pushing a legal fight against those who dared oppose her pop tax, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. She wants to punish her foes and force them to bend the knee for defying her.

It sounds to me as if Taxwinkle is pulling a page out of the Rod Blagojevich playbook, using the government hammer to exact personal political revenge.

This is not only wrong, it could hurt other careers. Especially if Taxwinkle's political protege, Cook County Attorney Kim Foxx, takes any part in it.

Word of advice, Kim? Just say, "No, Toni Taxwinkle. I will not be the icepick against your enemies."

Even in Cook County, people have the right to oppose tax increases in court, without being punished by tax-happy politicians hell bent on revenge.

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Still, Taxwinkle insists she needs the pop tax revenue. So let's replace it with fines, fees and taxes on stupid cliches offered by politicians as they reach for our wallets.

"Please tax this one: 'We're all in this together,' " said Michael J. Maggio.

That's worth $30K, easy.

Tony Jablonskis wants a big fat tax on any politician who mentions the word "temporary" in connection with a tax.

"A 'temporary' tax never ends up being temporary," Jablonskis says, and truer words were never spoken.

"How about when politicians say 'transparency,' " says Edward Roche. "Always see a lie after that."

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You do?

Patrick Brutus wants taxpayers to take note whenever the following words are uttered by a politician:

"Reform, rigorous, substantive, robust, transformative, right and necessary (must be spoken together), and 'We're gonna' (literally we're gonna)."

Irene Grecz-Dominelli worries that Taxwinkle will attack candy next.

"The next step in 'watching out for the public's health' will be taxing candy and cookies too. Just in time for Halloween."

Mary Spenser Jensen wants a heavy tax imposed on anyone who says or writes "It's the Chicago Way!"

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Mary, Mary, Mary.

Are you trying to provoke me?

Listen to "The Chicago Way"radio free Chicago in podcast form--with John Kass and Jeff Carlin at www.wgnradio.com/category/wgn-plus/thechicagoway.

jskass@chicagotribune.com
Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks during a news conference July 26, 2017, the first day of a special session on education funding at the state Capitol in Springfield. (Justin Fowler/The State Journal-Register )

An ambitious plan to reform the way Illinois distributes money for schools comes with laudable goals, myriad complexities and a fluctuating price tag that has so far spanned from $3.5 billion to $7.5 billion, state records show.

Those amounts, likely spread over a decade or longer, would be on top of the usual billions spent on public education every school year.

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Whether taxpayers and state officials are willing to invest that extra cash in public schools is one of the major challenges of a new funding formula that has been at the center of a political fight in Springfield, according to educators, lawmakers and policy experts.

The state House and Senate approved the new formula; Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the measure and revised parts of it  though he supports key concepts  and school officials aren't sure what will happen next as the new academic year approaches, with state dollars held up until a formula is finalized.

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What's clear is that for the first time in at least 20 years Illinois is preparing to revamp how state dollars are divvied up to schools, using an "evidence-based" approach supported by the state's major education groups though considered uncommon nationwide.

The main theme is adequacy. The new formula would calculate how much it costs to provide a quality education for students in each district, using academic research, practices and programs to improve student performance. Those ingredients for student success range from optimal class sizes to books and technology to staff positions that help kids, including teachers, guidance counselors, librarians and nurses.

The cost of all those elements added up would create a unique adequacy target for each district to ensure kids can graduate and go on to college and careers, among other goals.

That new formula also factors in student enrollment and low-income populations, as well as property wealth in school communities.

"Adequacy is the minimum amount of dollars that we would want to spend for every student," said Michael Jacoby, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, one of the key groups that helped craft the new formula. However, "local communities should have the opportunity to do more than that."

The billions of dollars come in because so many districts have shortfalls  or "adequacy funding gaps"  between their adequacy targets and the resources they have from state and local funds.

More than 700 districts  of about 850 in total  need more money, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. That includes the mammoth Chicago Public Schools system as well as districts in Aurora, Cicero, Elgin, Rockford and Waukegan.

Overall, hundreds of millions of dollars would be needed annually to fill the adequacy holes, and there's wide agreement that a commitment to provide extra funds  not just the usual money sent to districts  is key to making the new formula work. At least $350 million in extra state dollars would be expected for the new formula this coming school year, but whether that investment will continue in ensuing years is unclear.

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"There's got to be more money each year, and there's going to be skepticism," said state Rep. Robert Pritchard, R-Hinckley, who sits on the House appropriations committee for K-12 schools.

"How much will it cost? It's going to be a lot," Pritchard said. "Will we ever reach the adequacy level? I don't know."

Also uncertain is how Rauner's recent veto of the formula will affect the financial picture. His rewrite of the legislation changes how CPS would be treated in the formula, while revising other key financial provisions.

Rauner said in his veto message that the changes "will set Illinois students and schools on a brighter path with a fairer funding system."

However, some education groups and other advocates fear the governor's changes would stymie efforts to launch the reforms as intended.

Not only would Rauner's changes slow down some districts from reaching their adequacy targets, advocates say, but other broad goals could be diminished. Those include addressing longtime differences in funding between wealthy and poorer districts and pushing the state to provide the majority of funding for schools.

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Now, local communities provide the lion's share of dollars for school budgets, mostly from property taxes. And Illinois is at the bottom of the list compared with all other states when it comes to the state's share of public school funding, according to federal school finance data.

Recent Illinois data show the state contributes 24 percent of all revenues to public schools, with local revenues at 68 percent and federal at 8 percent.

The longtime concerns about disparities in Illinois' education funding prompted Rauner to appoint a commission to revise the funding formula created in 1997, which was based on setting a "foundation level" of support for schools that is a common in many states.

Gov. Bruce Rauner, center, shown at a July 27, 2017, news conference in the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, used an amendatory veto on a bill that would change how the state distributes money to school districts. (Justin L. Fowler/The State)

That foundation amount in Illinois has been $6,119 per student for several years now, and has been the basis of distributing state aid to districts, in a formula that combines with local funds. Districts also get federal dollars. And some property-rich districts have been getting a flat amount from the state instead of the formula-driven amount.

But to have that same foundation level, $6,119, apply to every district "never made sense because districts have different needs," said Benjamin Boer, deputy director at Advance Illinois, an education reform group that has been active in revamping the school funding formula.

The unique adequacy targets could mean surprises for taxpayers.

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For example, some affluent districts spend more than $20,000 per student. But there is no district with an adequacy target as high as $20,000 in the new formula, according to ISBE's analysis in May.

The range of per-pupil adequacy targets goes from about $9,800 to $16,650 in that analysis, which could prompt questions by taxpayers in some districts about why spending is higher than what's considered adequate.

"That becomes a conversation at the local level on whether they (taxpayers) want to tax themselves and pay that (larger) amount," Boer said.

The new formula, before Rauner's veto, started with a base amount of funding that districts received this past school year. New funding would be provided based on four tiers, ranging from districts that are far from reaching at least 90 percent of their adequacy targets to those already at or exceeding their targets. The neediest districts those furthest from their adequacy targets  would get extra state dollars first.

About 140 districts are already spending more than the adequacy targets calculated by ISBE .

The governor's commission estimated in February it would take a minimum of $3.5 billion in additional state money over the next decade to get all districts at or above their adequacy targets. Another $2.5 billion would be needed to increase the state's share of funding for schools. The price tag rose to $7.5 billion as lawmakers made changes to the legislation. And ISBE is now working on another analysis of the evidence-based model, in light of the governor's proposed revisions.

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There's been criticism in some quarters of the new funding plan.

Ted Dabrowski is a vice president of policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank from which Rauner has hired staffers in the governor's office.

"We've been clear this model is lacking in many ways and calls for billions more money, but if you look at the underlying promises, they are very faulty in terms of outcomes," Dabrowski said. "What they're creating now is a system that is just really a call for more money."

Advocates for the new formula acknowledge local school districts can spend the additional money the way they want. And although the funds are designed to improve student achievement, there's no punitive action laid out in the legislation if there's no progress.

However, districts will have to submit annual plans to the state on how they will use the money from the new formula, and how they expect to improve student achievement.

Schools won't be eligible for the evidence-based funds if they're not "recognized," meaning they haven't complied with all laws and rules. In the years ahead, the state will evaluate the evidence-based funding model to determine if it is achieving state education goals.

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Meanwhile, school administrators and financial officials say they are still dissecting the new formula and trying to understand all the components.

In Lake County, tiny Rondout School District 72, with roughly 130 students, spends more than $30,000 per pupil and gets very little money from the state. The district's figure is nearly three times what the adequacy target would be under the new formula.

Superintendent Jenny Wojcik said the "community has grown to having an understanding of why our costs are higher. We don't have the economies of scale."

Though her district is fortunate, "We are still concerned about the bigger picture and what happens to our neighbors," Wojcik said.

"Certainly there is a desperate need to come up with a plan to support schools so that every child in Illinois has a quality education."

At the same time, such a big shift in school funding may need incremental steps to be successful, Wojcik said. "You may not be able to ... fix something quickly that has been problematic over decades."

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drado@chicagotribune.com
A 16-year-old boy was charged Friday in connection with a July 26 shooting that led Dolton police to surround an empty house nearly eight hours, officials said.

The Dolton teen was charged as juvenile with attempted murder, armed robbery, and aggravated battery with a firearm, Dolton police said. Bail was set at $500,000, officials added.

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The teen was accused of allegedly robbing a male who responded to a Craigslist advertisement for an iPhone, officials said. The suspect got into the victim's vehicle shortly after noon in the 15100 block of Oak Street, police said. The two males eventually had a struggle before the victim was shot in his side, police said.

One neighborhood resident told police that the suspect ran to a relative's house in the 15100 block of Evers Street, police said.

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Police surrounded the house for nearly eight hours July 26 believing he had barricaded himself in the home, officials said. But about at 8:30 p.m., when officers went into the home, no one was there, police said.

On Thursday afternoon, the teen was arrested after a car and foot chase with police in Dolton, officials said. At one point, the teen's vehicle had hit another car before police decided to end the chase, police said. That same afternoon the teen was spotted again in the vehicle but was caught after a brief foot chase, police said.

gporterjr@tronc.com
Chicago police are searching for a car believed to have been used in a fatal shooting. (Provided by Chicago Police Department)

Police are searching for a car believed to have been used in last month's fatal shooting of community activist Willie Cooper, according to a news release.

About 4:15 p.m. on July 15, Cooper was walking in the 100 block of West 95th Street in the Princeton Park neighborhood when a dark-colored car approached. Two people got out of the car and opened fire using a high-powered rifle, police said.

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Cooper, 58, was shot in the mouth and the torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Late Friday, police released a photo of the black four-door Audi with tinted windows that was believed to have been used in the shooting. The people inside the cars were last seen heading south on LaSalle Street, according to the news release.

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At the scene of the shooting last month, about 20 casings were scattered near Cooper's body.

He had worked for the anti-violence organization Lilydale Outreach, which is located less than a block away from where the shooting took place.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call 911 or (312) 747-8271.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner says he expects an analysis of his changes to a Democratic education funding bill to show that what he is doing is "right and just and fair" and that his plan will "carry the day."

A different review released Friday by the Civic Federation of Chicago, though, concludes that his changes could mean school districts across the state gradually losing money in future years, in addition to the governor's move to take a key grant away from Chicago's Public Schools.

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At the end of the week, Rauner continued a tour of what he has called an effort to spread the truth about his amendatory veto of the education bill in anticipation of a district-by-district financial scorecard by the Illinois State Board of Education.

That analysis, Rauner said, could come as early as Monday "When the truth is out, the truth of how good my amendatory veto is, we'll carry the day," he said.

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"When the truth is out about my amendatory veto, people will see that what I'm doing is right and just and fair and my amendatory veto should be upheld," Rauner said on "At Issue," which airs Sunday on WBBM 780-AM.

What happens next with the school funding plan will be a focus of the governor and lawmakers in the coming days and weeks. Under the budget enacted last month over Rauner's veto, state school money expected to go out to districts this week won't be sent unless a new funding formula is made law.

It's a plan for that new formula that Rauner rewrote. Now, because Democrats who control the General Assembly have shown little interest in approving his changes, they must try to override them or negotiate a fresh version.

Democrats held onto the school funding bill that passed at the end of May, keeping it off Rauner's desk until July 31, and the Republican governor has frequently said Democrats and his chief political nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan caused the delay to try to create a crisis.

In his radio interview, Rauner said Democrats also didn't want to send him the bill because the State Board of Education "wouldn't run the numbers until my amendatory veto happened."

Madigan, the governor said, "didn't want those numbers run. He didn't want the truth to be out through the State Board of Education. He waited as long as he could. Now, ISBE is putting out the numbers on Monday morning and then everyone in the state will see the economic benefit to our teachers and students all across the state, including Chicago, from what I'm recommending."

Senate President John Cullerton, the Chicago Democrat who runs the chamber that held the bill, disagreed.

"If that's what he thinks our motivation was, he's mistaken. And he could have obtained that (district-by-district) information on his own in a number of ways," Cullerton said. He noted governors appoint members of the State Board of Education but also said Rauner could have asked a supportive GOP lawmaker to introduce his veto language as a separate bill and had it "scored" by the education board.

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Cullerton said the bill was held to offer negotiations with Rauner and Republicans after the governor's veto threat. But Rauner's veto "had the effect of slowing down the negotiations, which hopefully will still prove to be fruitful."

Rauner's rewrite of the school funding bill gained attention for changes that would remove a more than $200 million block grant for Chicago Public Schools, eliminate state help for CPS' historic pension debt and shift $221 million in pension costs to state pension laws.

Other parts of Rauner's changes could have hundreds of school districts across the state losing money, though, particularly in future years, the new analysis by the Institute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation showed.

The original version approved by lawmakers created a permanent guaranteed base of school funding for each district, using the previous state budget year's figures. Under the so-called hold-harmless provision, none of the state's 852 school districts would get less money than they received in the previous year's budget.

Rauner's changes would make the school district hold-harmless provision temporary for two years and replace it with a formula based on a three-year average of student enrollment. As a result, districts with declining enrollments eventually would see less state money. Statistics show Chicago and hundreds of other districts across the state have had a loss of students in recent school years.

Rauner said in his radio interview that leaving the permanent funding guarantee is place is "unfair."

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"Let's say, a small district in a rural community, their families move out to find jobs in other states, which has been happening forever. Should the state continue to send the same amount of money to a school district where maybe two-thirds of the students are gone?" he asked. "Is that fair? Should that always be true, off into the future for another 10 or 20 years? Is that fair to taxpayers? And is that fair to the parents who live in areas that have more needs and have more students to educate?"

The Civic Federation study also says Rauner's changes could mean less money for school districts that include tax-increment financing districts and in property tax capped communities.

Under the governor's rewrite, districts will get state money based on the value of property assessments, not how much tax money they actually receive. If a district shows it can get a lot of property tax money, regardless of whether it gets it, the schools would get less state money.

Chicago has several TIFs, where the growth of property taxes is captured to spur economic development rather than go to schools and other local taxing districts. But there are many TIFs across the state and much of the suburbs, some of which already receive few state dollars for schools and are property tax capped.

Rauner said in the radio interview that he believed his rewrite of the bill would be good for all school districts and not benefit Chicago at the expense of schoolchildren across the state.

Some people "have said, 'Governor, you're discriminating against Chicago' or 'You don't like Chicago,' or 'You don't care about low-income children in Chicago,'" Rauner said.

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"Completely false. It hurts my feelings and, I mean, it's insulting. I have worked to help Chicago students for almost 30 years now, my wife and I. I care deeply about the students in Chicago," he said.

rap30@aol.com

Twitter @rap30
Francis Kwong was a pioneer in flower seed production, said Anna Ball, CEO of Ball Horticultural Co., where Kwong worked for more than 30 years. ( Ball Horticultural Co. )

Francis Kwong had a passion for agriculture and the science of seeds that took him from his native China to suburban West Chicago, where he worked on flower and vegetable seed production for PanAmerican Seed, part of West Chicago-based Ball Horticultural Co.

"He had the mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet," said Anna Ball, chairman and CEO of Ball Horticultural Co., where Kwong worked for more than 30 years. "He had immense respect from everyone in the company."

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Kwong, 65, died of colon cancer on July 30 in Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, according to his wife, Jennifer. The couple formerly of Lisle, moved to the South Loop in 2006.

Kwong was born in 1952 in southern China during the land reforms begun under Mao Zedong. Kwong and his family left for Hong Kong, where he attended Catholic schools, his wife said.

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In 1969, he came to the United States to pursue his interest in agriculture. After getting an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, he got a master's degree from Oregon State University in Corvallis. He went on to get a doctorate in the same field, agriculture, from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

From there he moved to the Netherlands for a job with what was then Sluis & Groot, working in vegetable seed production for the company around the globe. In the process, he developed an appreciation for Dutch beer and travel.

In 1986, he returned to the U.S. to work at PanAmerican. Richard Edsall, the company's director of seed production, said Kwong was honored in November as he completed 30 years with the company, where he was director of production research.

Ball Horticultural Co. is an internationally known breeder, producer and wholesale distributor of ornamental plants and edibles. The family-owned business was founded in 1905, and since then has introduced many innovative, award-winning varieties to horticulture, including the Wave petunia family and Super Elfin impatiens. The company produces sells and markets internationally.

In an email, PanAmerican President Anne Leventry said Kwong was instrumental in helping introduce many groundbreaking products such as angelonia, calibrachoa and New Guinea impatiens.

"He established the production research department at PanAmerican Seed and led that effort for 30 years," Leventry wrote.

"He was absolutely key in working with all of our farms to help them to consistently produce high quality seed across an extremely wide and challenging group of products," she said "He was the worldwide leader in his field in the flower seed industry."

Kwong's combination of scientific brilliance and amazing creativity allowed him to solve seed production problems that others could not, Leventry said. He was also an excellent teacher who was willing to share his knowledge and approach with others.

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"He was very brilliant, but yet very practical," Edsall said. "He's been an inspiration in both flowers and vegetable seeds."

In 2005, Kwong edited with M.B. McDonald a comprehensive reference book, "Flower Seeds: Biology and Technology," on the science and technology behind flower seeds.

"In many ways he was a pioneer in flower seed production," said Ball. "During his distinguished career, he made many discoveries and developed new processes for seed production that helped the whole industry."

Kwong also had an interest philosophy and poetry. His wife said he spent hours reading Tennessee Williams, Walt Whitman, Greek classics and Adam Smith, among others.

Edsall noted in November that Kwong was then studying the philosophical and scientific basis of sustainable agriculture, study he called "important to the future of our industry."

"His curiosity was boundless, and the depth and breadth of his knowledge were phenomenal," his wife said.

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Kwong's wife was also an immigrant from China. Writing under the pen name Jian Ping, she is the author of "Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China." The story has been made into a film.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter, Lisa Xia; sisters Agnes Choi and Cecilia; and brothers John and Joe.

Services were held.

Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Saturday (Aug. 5) in Old St. Mary's Church, 1500 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 5) in Lakeview Funeral Home, 1458 W. Belmont Ave. Chicago.

Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
We've heard an awful lot about pre-existing conditions lately. In an ideal world, this would suggest a greater awareness of illnesses and the infinite issues they raise. In our world, it has meant that millions of Americans have been terrified by the potential loss of literally crucial health care.

But there's been another level to this conversation too  one that's less immediate in its practical dangers, but particularly insidious in its callousness. Right now, many of our leaders are behaving like the strangers every "sick person" encounters: the ones who boldly stare, or feel obliged to share their unkind thoughts, or otherwise make people with illnesses feel somehow shamed.

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I was born with an ultra-rare vascular disease, called blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome. I've been told there are fewer than 500 other people in the world who can say the same. The condition is caused by weak blood vessels, and identified by blue birthmarks filled with blood. Some people have only a few; others (like me) have thousands both inside our bodies and on our skin. There are far too many physical complications to list here; since birth, I've undergone hundreds of surgeries and medical procedures.

Millions of parents in America have a child with life-altering pre-existing conditions. Like many of them, my family spent much of my childhood in hospital waiting rooms, operating rooms and recovery rooms. We learned to be flexible, changing scheduled plans when I couldn't walk, or needed an emergency blood transfusion. We listened desperately to doctors who suggested painful, dangerous and sometimes unnecessary procedures in lieu of decisively approved treatments. All the way through, my parents reminded each other and me how extraordinarily fortunate we were to have access to any health care I might need.

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But when we weren't expressly dealing with illness, we did our best to ignore it. I would be no different than kids who didn't have "marks," the word my family still uses to avoid terms that sound scary and strange. Lots of people have marks on their bodies; some even add them on purpose.

Just because my family wanted to normalize my disease, however, didn't mean others were on board with the program. Nearly every kid experiences bullying, but those with visible pre-existing conditions are particular targets. Sometimes the arrows are sharper than others, but they're usually well-aimed. And as anyone who's been there knows, callousness and contempt leave their own scars.

My husband is still outraged by every stranger who's ever stared at me while I was in a wheelchair, or bluntly asked what was wrong with me. I'm touched by his protectiveness but care less than he does because I've learned that curiosity is a mostly innocent element of human nature.

That said, whenever people with pre-existing conditions convince themselves they're just like everyone else (assuming they even want to be), there's someone waiting to argue otherwise. Usually, this happens with children who haven't yet learned about a wide range of human experience. Even among adults, however, logic does not always hold up well to emotion.

When you're part of a group  on a playground, say, or at a political rally  cruelty can spread like wildfire. So one mean girl refuses to let you sit on her bed in camp, just because she can. And before long none of the others will allow you to share their games or eat with them or even touch them, in case they can catch whatever you have.

One could, perhaps, imagine the sort of camper Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., might have been, considering that this summer he compared people with chronic illnesses to irresponsible drivers who crash their cars.

Incidents that others might easily dismiss also tend to linger past an ordinary due date. And it feels as if the normalization of cruelty is getting considerably higher in profile, as when Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., went on CNN to insist that "people who live good lives," and "who've done things the right way" don't have pre-existing conditions.

I was at a party in college once when a friend suddenly grabbed my hand and said, "Let's get out of here." I'd already become so used to people's stares that I hadn't even noticed a large group rubbing their noses in giggly unison while I was talking. The aim was to subliminally get me to do the same, in hopes of removing the blue spot on my own nose. Just a drunken party game and easily forgotten, at least by the players.

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That experience  and dozens of others like it  were modest in their hurtfulness and unworthy of attention. Very different, in other words, from the sight of a presidential candidate gleefully mocking a reporter with arthrogryposis. Or the knowledge that not only did some of his supporters laugh and defend his imitation, but millions of people went on to validate his behavior in the most essential way.

Soon after that college party, still young and insecure, I began asking boyfriends if my marks bothered them. One said he didn't even notice. Another told me he thought they were sexy. A third confessed, with a swiftness that suggested a long-held tongue, "Honestly? They kind of freak me out." My assumption even now has always been that only he was telling the truth.

I may be wrong. But the brazen judgment of our elected officials  separating the sick and healthy into "them" and "us," moral and amoral, right-living and lazy  makes it hard to believe otherwise. And for children and adolescents in particular  even those who don't understand the perilous endgame when legislators lack compassion  personal slights can cut especially deep.

The politicians who've turned illness into a dividing line happen to be right about one thing: Our pre-existing conditions will continue to exist, even when we want to pretend otherwise.

In a logical universe, this alone should make any argument against easily accessible treatment both ethically and practically invalid. But it also serves as another sort of counterpoint to the dangerously indifferent  or flat-out malicious  maneuvering we've watched play out this year.

Far from reflecting immorality or laziness, chronic illness brings with it the unexpected advantage of any adversity: It inspires sufferers to develop inner strength and ingenuity, not to mention deeper empathy for those who are less fortunate. Can the healthy leaders so inclined to mock, dismiss or punish people for being sick claim to say the same?

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Elizabeth Weitzman is the author of 30 books for children and young adults.
Time is of the essence. It is imperative this plan becomes law so school aid payments can be sent on time, while also ensuring all school districts are treated fairly and equitably. Because Democrats sat on this measure for two months, the Illinois Senate now has little more than a week left to act. Therefore, we are encouraging our Democratic colleagues to support this plan as it provides the most immediate and best path forward.

Senate Bill 1, in its original form, provided special favors to the Chicago Public Schools at the expense of the other 851 school districts in Illinois. This is not the best way to move forward with fixing our antiquated school funding system. That is why the governor, once he finally got Senate Bill 1 sent to his desk, swiftly upheld his commitment to treat all school districts fairly and equitably through his amendatory veto.

If Democrats are unwilling to support this plan, then the burden falls on House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and their Democratic majorities to propose their own alternative that bridges the gap between both plans.

Our schools and students deserve nothing less than our best effort. Republicans believe the governors plan demonstrates this commitment. If Democrats want to come to the table and negotiate in good faith, we are ready and waiting. But the state cant wait another two months for them to act on this historic opportunity.

 Bill Brady, Illinois Senate Republican Leader-Designee, and Jim Durkin, Illinois House Republican Leader
A Kane County judge has sentenced an Aurora area man to prison for sexually assaulting a young child he knew.

Kane County Circuit Judge James C. Hallock Friday sentenced 24-year-old Orane R. Foster to 27 years in prison.

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A Kane County jury on May 11 convicted Foster of four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, each a Class X felony, and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony.

Kane County prosecutors presented evidence that between June and August 2015 Foster sexually assaulted the victim. Foster was living in Aurora with the victim and her mother at the time of the assaults, which occurred in their residence. The victim was younger than 12 years old.

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In addition to the prison term, Foster must register for life as a sexual offender in accordance with the Illinois Sexual Offender Registration Act.
With custody issues seemingly settled at the moment for Alfredo Pedraza-Arias, the former Aurora priest accused of sexually abusing two young girls, Kane County prosecutors plan to go to before a judge Monday to ask for an earlier trial date than scheduled, court records show.

Recently, Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson ordered Arias to stand trial beginning Sept. 18 on multiple counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving two girls who were under the age of 6 when, according to prosecutors, Arias fondled them at Sacred Heart Church in Aurora between 2012 and 2014. He was charged in February 2016.

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The case took a turn in May when, while free on bond, Arias was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. A few weeks later, a federal judge ordered Arias to be deported to his native Colombia. That move prompted prosecutors to ask Abrahamson to revoke or increase Arias' bail, which she did by $100,000 in July.

Arias was briefly held in Kane County Jail until someone  possibly former church parishioners, Arias' attorney said  posted bond on July 21. Immigration officials once again took Arias into their custody three days later, which led prosecutors to go back to court to pursue another bail increase or revocation.

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During a July 28 hearing, Abrahamson increased Arias' bail by $100,000 for a second time. He's remained in the jail ever since. Prosecutors believe they'll have a better chance to keep Arias in the country for a trial as long as he is held locally, but acknowledged uncertainty as to what would happen if someone posts his bond, and if he is deported.

Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
U.S. President Donald Trump makes an announcement on the introduction of the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Wednesday. Looking on is Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas). (Pool / Getty Images )

A new bill embraced by President Donald Trump that would cut legal immigration and re-prioritize the system could have a range of effects on the Fox Valley, area officials and immigration leaders said.

Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said the policy wouldn't help business owners there who have said they found it tough to fill positions, especially for unskilled labor. In Aurora, the proposal could have a significant effect because of the demographics of the city, Aurora immigration attorney David Richmond said.

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Richmond said though several parts of the proposal appear, to him, unfair, other provisions would better meet the employment needs of the country today.

But the measure has not gained much traction in the Senate. Republican leaders have showed no inclination to vote on immigration this year and Democrats have dismissed it.

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The bill would dramatically reduce legal immigration and the number of refugees, and eliminate a program that provides visas to people from countries with low rates of immigration.

It would eliminate preference for U.S. residents' extended and adult family members, though spouses and children would continue to have priority. The bill instead focuses on merit and skills, creating a new points-based system favoring those would can speak English, have high-paying job offers, can financially support themselves and offer skills that would contribute to the U.S. economy.

The White House has said only one in 15 immigrants come to the U.S. because of their skills, and the current system doesn't prioritize highly-skilled immigrants.

Trump has said immigrants compete with Americans for jobs and drive down wages. Those arguments are disputed by many economists who say in recent decades immigration doesn't appear to have meaningfully hurt wages in the long run and that immigration is associated with faster growth because the country is adding workers.

It is an argument also disputed by Susan Sperry, executive director of the Aurora and DuPage chapter of World Relief, an evangelical relief and development agency.

"In the midst of all this debate, I believe it is a fallacy to equate immigration with a lack of growth because the evidence just doesn't bare that out," she said.

She cited examples of companies throughout Kane and DuPage counties that were founded by immigrants or their children.

"Aurora, in particular, has such a strong history of immigration that has strengthened the fabric of our community that I simply can't imagine that changing and being good and healthy for the city of Aurora," she said.

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Sperry said World Relief wants to see immigration reform, and hopes the introduction of the bill will spark debate that will lead to a more robust, comprehensive measure. She stressed that the measure is not law and is likely to change as it moves through the legislative process, and there is room for input.

Richmond said the proposal would update the employment needs factored into the immigration system. The current system is based on the country's employment needs in the 1980s, he said. It would also allow for more flexibility to change those needs in the future.

But he highlighted two provisions of the proposal that he called unfair.

In one, mothers and fathers who meet certain requirements, including proving they have medical insurance and can be financially stable without government help, could come to the U.S. for a limited amount of time on a non-immigrant visa, he said. But he said the move would likely require them to leave as they are aging and would be more likely to need the help of their children, which eliminates family members' ability to take responsibility for each other.

The other provision means the immigration changes would apply to people who have previously petitioned for green cards or visas for siblings and are still waiting, he said. For example, he said, visas and green cards are just now going out for petitions for siblings from Mexico filed in September of 1997 and for petitions for siblings from the Philippines filed in April 1994. Petitions for siblings from other countries typically take seven to 10 years, he said.

He acknowledged that petitions for brothers and sisters to come to the U.S. can grow into a "mushroom cloud," and that is contributing to the current backlog. But the bill would apply to applicants who have spent what can sometimes be decades waiting in the backlog, he said.

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"So that, to me, seems quite unfair..." he said. "What would seem more fair is they would allow those people to still go forward who still have pending petitions."

He said in Aurora, many residents obtained green cards under a sweeping immigration reform package in the late 1980s, then petitioned to have siblings join them once they became citizens. Others have gotten green cards through other paths, he said. Children bring parents over "quite often," he said.

In a written statement, Aurora city officials said they did not know how federal decisions would affect states and municipalities.

"While we are not certain how federal decisions will impact or be implemented at the state and local levels, we are certain that the city of Aurora will continue to work with all of our community members and collaborate with our community organizations to make Aurora a safe and progressive place to live, work and visit," they said.

In Elgin, Kaptain said he was troubled by the undertones of the immigration proposal.

His family would not have been able to immigrate under the proposed bill, he said. Relatives came from Hungary on one side and Sweden on the other, and "didn't know a lick of English." They were laborers and farmers, he said.

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"It's really trying to control what type of people they want here," he said. "And it's not the right approach."

Elgin Courier-News reporter Mike Danahey and the Associated Press contributed

sfreishtat@tribpub.com

Twitter @srfreish
When high school student Aditya Balsekar was about to enter eighth grade he got an email that sparked the idea for the nonprofit he founded, Meaningful Summers.

The email was from the Northern Illinois Food Bank, and it pushed him to organize a charitable run to support the agency. Each summer since then, efforts and events grew supporting a variety of causes, until the organization became the nonprofit it is now: an agency run by a group of Aurora and Naperville teens designed to inspire youth to take part in and help better their communities, and to have fun while they're doing it, Balsekar said.

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For their latest, largest event, the organization teamed up with the city of Aurora to assist a homeless shelter and organize a night for youth at the end of July dedicated to science, technology, engineering, art and math. They're planning a "swim-a-thon" in early September to raise additional money for the homeless shelter and other organizations, the organizers said.

"We're not here to change the world, right?" said Rohan Chakrabarty, who will be a senior at Metea Valley High School in Aurora in the fall. "But by ... being able to inspire youth to have feelings of altruism, it's kind of a butterfly effect in which each person, those feelings of altruism, those feelings of wanting to create change in the community, gets passed on. And through that, we're able to make a huge change everywhere."

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Meaningful Summers leaders' were inspired to work with the city of Aurora after they heard Mayor Richard Irvin speak at Metea, a high school many of them attend that draws students from Aurora and Naperville, they said.

The group felt they had been focusing on providing monetary help, and wanted this year to focus on providing "substantive" and "fundamental" help, Shashank Vege, who helped organize one of the Aurora projects, said. The mayor spoke about getting youth involved in Aurora, and that was key to the group's goals this year, Chakrabarty said.

So they reached out to the mayor's office, and the city helped connect the group to some Aurora organizations, city Communications Director Clayton Muhammad said.

"We were inspired by (Irvin's) rhetoric in terms of, you know, putting aside socioeconomic differences, putting aside racial boundaries, not paying attention to religious dissimilarities, and bringing together Aurora, the community," Balsekar said. "And we wanted to do that as a 'for us, by us' movement. You know for the youth, by the youth, to unite Aurora students."

The Meaningful Summers Team, volunteers, Mayor Richard Irvin and Hesed House Executive Director Ryan Dowd at Hesed House in Aurora. (City of Aurora)

They called this summer's effort "One Aurora: The Next Generation," a play on Irvin's focus on "One Aurora." Balsekar, a Naperville teen who goes to boarding school in Connecticut, said the effort might sound like a Star Trek movie, "but I assure you it's just as exciting."

They pooled their money to purchase industrial shelving for Hesed House, an Aurora organization that works with the homeless, because Meaningful Summers' leaders saw a need for better storage on a visit to the agency. The group organized volunteers to help over two days to build the shelves, work on the Hesed House grounds, organize clothes and items in the agency's warehouse and serve lunch in the shelter.

Meaningful Summers also worked with Boys to Men, a mentoring group founded by Muhammad, to organize a student "STEAM" night focused on science, technology, engineering, art and math at SciTech Museum in Aurora. For younger children they set up interactive things to do and events featuring other Aurora students, and for older participants they organized career-oriented events.

They were inspired by Irvin's childhood, and their goal was to encourage the next generation to be thinkers and leaders, Chakrabarty said. The group hit their maximum capacity for the event and had to close registration, Vege said.

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Next, they are planning a swim-a-thon fundraiser at Metea Valley in early September to raise money for Hesed House and likely other Aurora organizations, Balsekar said.

In an emailed statement, Irvin said he was inspired by the leaders of Meaningful Summers.

"This is the future and clearly the future is in good hands," he said. "I've been so impressed by the young leaders of Meaningful Summer(s). From the first day they came to City Hall in May, I could see that spark in their eyes, and I've seen it whenever we have reconnected throughout the summer. They have a passion to make a change in this world, and I'm grateful that they chose Aurora."

Muhammad said the organization is encouraging, and gives him "a lot of hope." He stressed the maturity and professionalism of the group.

Meaningful Summers leaders marched with Irvin at Aurora's July Fourth parade, he said.

"They set an example, I think, that certainly all adults could follow," he said.

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Elementary school students learn about robotics during the STEAM night at SciTech in downtown Aurora. (City of Aurora)

The group's efforts this summer grew out of the email Balsekar got from the Northern Illinois Food bank four years ago. At that time, he set out to organize a "small, charitable" run to raise money for the organization, he said.

The following year, he helped organize another run and raised money to help with construction of a well for a community in Ethiopia. The group has screened a movie about and raised money for an orphanage in India that cares for children with HIV/AIDS, and helped support the Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans.

The group also organizes trips to volunteer at nursing homes during the winter, but much of their time is focused on planning their summer events, Balsekar said.

So far, attendance at Meaningful Summers' events this summer has broken the group's previous attendance records, Balsekar said. They are in the process of putting together a video showing the behind-the-scenes efforts that have gone into their Aurora events.

"We want to start changing some of the people's mindsets, or start expanding and developing on people's mindsets, and helping them, working together, so in the future we're all going to have a better city all together," Nikita Varshney said.

Many of the group's leaders are entering their senior years of high school, but Vege said younger students have already asked about taking over the effort. Some leaders have thought about expanding the organization to other area communities.

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The leaders plan to go to different colleges next year. There, they hope to open new Meaningful Summers chapters.

sfreishtat@tribpub.com

Twitter @srfreish
Founded by Cornelius R. Coffey and John C. Robinson, the Robbins Airport in Robbins was the first black owned and operated airport in the United States. (Robbins Historical Society)

In honor of the hometown of the nation's first airport operated by African-Americans, uniformed Tuskegee Airmen plan to ride through Robbins' annual Labor Day weekend parade, officials said.

"It's a major participation on their part, but Robbins was really (to an extent) the birthplace of the Tuskegee Airmen after the airport's construction in 1931," said Tyrone Haymore, a festival organizer and founder of the Robbins History Museum. "It was the first airport built by black people, and it trained some of the first men who later became Tuskegee airmen."

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The group's planned appearance is part of Robbins' 100th birthday celebration.

Robbins' actual birthday is Dec. 14, but its four-day Back to School Festival and Parade event, which includes the Labor Day weekend parade, offers a festive occasion to celebrate the community's "rich" past, Haymore said.

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The festival will highlight a variety of activities at 13800 Trumbull Ave. from Sept. 1-4. The event will feature DJs, gospel and jazz performances, games and inflatables for kids on Saturday, and the Sunday afternoon parade filled with floats and marching bands, Robbins officials said.

"We want everyone  the schools, businesses, religious community, our neighbors  to be involved and be a part of our festival and help us celebrate our 100th anniversary," Haymore said.

During the festival's last day, Haymore said, he plans at dusk to give a historical presentation on the village.

Haymore said he will discuss how Robbins was eventually incorporated in 1917 even though African-Americans settled there in 1892. He said he also will discuss the interesting figures tied to the village. The village is the sixth-oldest black town in the U.S, Haymore said.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Robbins' historical significance reaches beyond the town and the state of Illinois, said Erik S. McDuffie, professor of African-American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"The fact that you have black working-class people in the Chicago area wanting to live freely and control their own destinies speaks volumes," McDuffie said.

The nation's first blacked-owned airport was built in Robbins in 1931, and McDuffie said one of its originators, Col. John C. Robinson, also trained the Ethiopian Air Force. He added that Marcus Garvey also came to the village in its early years to start a chapter for his Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Some Tuskegee Airmen who fought in World War II were initially trained as pilots in Robbins before it was destroyed by a windstorm in 1933, Haymore said. A few former airmen plan to participate in the parade. Children of some other airmen also plan to ride in the parade, as well, Haymore added.

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Aside from its impact on black aviation, Robbins is the former home to some celebrities: Chicago Bulls star Dwyane Wade, actress Keke Palmer, actor Mr. T and Nichelle Nichols, who was a cast member of "Star Trek."

"What's important about the town, not only its importance to the Chicago area being a black-founded town, but its global footprint. ... This small town would have a profound impact on world history," McDuffie said.

gporterjr@tronc.com
In this file photo, Will County Sheriff's Deputy Jeff Jerz shows how to give a Narcan shot during the 2016 HERO-HELPS-Southwest Coalition Community Summit at The Edward Hospital Athletic and Event Center in Romeoville on Friday, April 29, 2016. (Sean King / Naperville Sun)

Will County's efforts to fight the heroin epidemic may be paying off, as fewer opioid-related deaths have occurred so far this year, compared to last year, according to the county's director of substance abuse initiatives.

Kathleen Burke's figures indicated there were 35 opioid-related deaths in the first six months of this year, compared to nearly 50 in the same period last year, she told the county's Public Health and Safety Committee Thursday morning.

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Burke said she believes the reduction is because of the use of the opioid-antidote Naloxone by all first responders in the county. She has trained several police and fire departments in how to use this nasal spray to save the life of someone who has overdosed and is now training those who live and work with addicts.

The county is "seeing some impact" from all of its initiatives, including Naloxone, educational programs in the schools and Safe Passage programs in local police departments, where addicts can turn themselves to get treatment.

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Heroin-related deaths are primarily white males, Burke said.

"Men far surpass women, but nationally there is a huge increase in women," she said, noting that Will County is behind that trend.

Last year, there also were more African-American deaths, which she said were linked to more "multi-drug deaths." This year, there are more cases involving fentanyl, a heroin substitute that is more potent, she said.

Victims are mostly in their 20s, Burke said, adding that she hopes to get people in this age group into treatment.

Joliet has the most deaths in the first half of this year, with 13, compared to 17 for the same period in 2016. That is followed by Lockport, Bolingbrook and Romeoville, all with three apiece.

The figures tell her where to focus her efforts, Burke said.

Romeoville and Crest Hill have increases this year, according to her data. She said she is now working with Romeoville police to get a Safe Passage program and will support any department that wants to launch this.

The "good news" is that deaths in Braidwood and Wilmington, which were high, have dropped, she said.

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Will County is "way ahead of the curve" in addressing the heroin epidemic, but it needs to keep moving forward, said committee member Laurie Summers, D-Crete.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

"We cannot drop the ball. We have to keep looking at new ideas. We need to think outside the box," she said.

At a recent National Association of Counties (NACo) conference in Ohio, Summers said she learned that the arts community has created a partnership with the county to help addicts.

Burked agreed with the concept, saying that it is a "healthy form of treatment" to engage the left brain to allow people to express themselves in ways that are not always verbal.

She said she also would like to add more yoga and meditation to their drug court programs.

"Our drug court is way ahead in the types of services it offers," Burke said.

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slafferty@tribpub.com

Twitter @SusanLaff
Moms and babies gathered Saturday to participate in the Big Latch-On, held by the Kane County Breastfeeding Coalition and Advocate Sherman Hospital to promote the health benefits of nursing children. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News )

Nine-month-old Maverick Collins' T-shirt message, "I'm a boob man," said it all.

The little guy lived up to the words Saturday morning as he nursed at his mom's breast as part of the Big Latch-On, an event aimed at encouraging mothers to breastfeed their babies in the first six to 12 months of their life.

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"It's a normal, healthy thing to do," said Maverick's mom, Joelle Hinkelgey, whose own T-shirt said, "Milk Maker."

Maverick laid in his mom's arms as she and a dozen other mothers and babies sat around a colorful parachute at a gathering held at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin. Musician Kate Taylor played a soothing lullaby and Gail Borden librarian Madeleine Villalobos read a book to calm the crowd.

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At exactly 10:30 a.m., each baby latched on to their mom's breast in an event that was coordinated in every time zone around the world, organizers said. The thought of so many moms breastfeeding at the same time was thrilling, Hinkelgey said.

"It is amazing and totally cool," said the Arlington Heights mom of two said.

Four-month-old Mason Mertogul latched on right away, hungry but calm while nursing. Jessica Mertogul, his mom, said she found the Big Latch-On empowering.

Mason was born weighing just six pounds. In four months, he's almost doubled his weight and is a happy baby with chubby legs and feet, said Mertogul, a first-time mom. She knew only a little about breastfeeding  no one in her family had nursed their babies  so she sought out information through Sherman Hospital's Empowered Pregnancy program.

"I know I am growing a healthy baby," said Mertogul, of South Elgin mom, who's become a breastfeeding advocate.

Statistics show that if 90 percent of new moms breastfed their babies for the first six months, $31.1 billion a year in health care costs could be saved, said Jill Downey, lactation coordinator for Sherman.

The annual Latch-On event is a part of Breastfeeding Week, an effort coordinated by the Kane County Breastfeeding Coalition and an extension of what Sherman tries to do year round by educating mothers about making informed decisions, Downey said.

The Kane County Breastfeeding Coalition, which includes other hospitals, businesses and government offices, works to inform parents about the benefits of breastfeeding as well and to offer "support as families make their first parenting decision," said Theresa Heaton, director of Kane County Family Health Division. "Then we want to make it an easier choice by offering support and more information."

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The World Health Organization recommends women breastfeed for the first year of a child's life, she said. According to the WHO, there are cognitive and health benefits for babies and it can help prevent illnesses, such as pneumonia, which can sometimes lead to an infant's death, its website said. For moms, breastfeeding helps reduce the risk of ovarian and breast cancer, the website said.

A study of 194 nations found only 40 percent of children were exclusively breastfed and only 23 countries have breastfeeding rates above 60 percent, the website said.

While breastfeeding is a natural act, it can be challenging for some women, said Downey, who helps moms through the process. She also runs a support group for breastfeeding mothers at the hospital.

Jess Bedsole knows about the challenges. She was determined to breastfeed her first child but it didn't go as she thought it would, she said.

"I didn't know latching on would be a problem," Bedsole said. The first 12 weeks were difficult and at one point, she developed mastitis, an infection of the milk ducts, she said. The condition led to painful breast sores, but she "nursed through it," she said.

"I refused to stop," she said. "I told myself there is no other way to feed my baby."

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Pattie Kaczorowski, of Hoffman Estates, breastfed both her children, Blake, now 4, and Elizabeth, 21 months.

"I didn't realize it wouldn't be easy," she said. Her first born refused to latch on so she pumped and gave the baby breast milk in a bottle. Downey helped with troubleshooting issues, said Kaczorowski, who had better luck with her daughter.

The support group was a good place to talk about her experience and get ideas from other moms, she said.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
A Rockford man faces criminal charges in connection with an incident that resulted in a co-worker's death at a Hampshire meat plant, according to a news release from the Kane County State's Attorney.

Ler Htoo, 24, of the 2200 block of North Court Street in Rockford, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, a class 3 felony, in the death of Ai Moo Say, 22, of Rockford.

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According to the state's attorney, on Aug. 2, Htoo, acting recklessly, threw a meat knife at Ai Moo Say, striking him and causing an entry wound near his heart, resulting in his death.

Htoo appeared Friday in Kane County Bond court. The judge set Htoo's bail at $100,000 and set his initial court appearance for Aug. 18, in front of Circuit Judge John A. Barsanti at the Kane County Judicial Center.

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If Htoo posts bond he must wear a GPS monitoring device, and he is prohibited from returning to the scene of the alleged offense, in the 200 block of Flannigan Road, Hampshire, according to the state's attorney. Htoo remains in custody at the Kane County jail.

If convicted, Htoo would face a sentence of probation or between two and five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The case was investigated by the Hampshire Police Department.
One of the buildings of the former Fox River Country Day School in Elgin. (Rafael Guerrero/The Courier-News )

The Elgin City Council voted 8-0 with one abstention from Council Member John Steffen, whose wife Kerry Kelly is a board member for the Elgin Math and Science Academy, to move forward with a lease agreement for the charter School.

Although the District U46 school board voted in May 4-3 against the project, the city council is giving the group until December for the ruling from the Illinois State Charter School Commission. The Elgin Math and Science Academy entered their appeal to the commission which now has 75 days to grant or deny the Charter School.

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Council Member Carol Rauschenberger said she "was disappointed that U46 did not approve the Charter School. I am looking forward to a good landlord tenant relationship if the Charter School Commission approves EMSA's appeal."

"I feel that the lease is fair and reasonable. I like EMSA's mission statement," said council member Corey Dixon, although he is not in full agreement with the idea of a charter school.

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The city council's willingness to lease the property to EMSA is a win/win situation for both parties. Elgin gets a tenant that will make improvements to the former Fox River Country Day School property. Although the structures on the property need a great deal of work, the surrounding landscape is a beautiful environment for all types of learning.

Elgin Math and Science Academy Board Member Valdamire Lopez encouraged the city council to vote for the lease agreement.

"I believe in our mission statement. This charter school will be focusing on disadvantaged students," she said. "We need to make this happen in our community."

"I feel it will be a good thing to return the Fox River Country Day School to its original use as an Elementary School," council member Rich Dunne said.

Council member Tish Powell has concerns about the Fox River Country Day School property. "We need to make a decision about this property if the Charter School is not approved."

I am in favor of opening a charter school in Elgin. The Elgin Math and Science Academy is able to offer disadvantaged students another educational opportunity that they presently do not have within the U46 boundaries. With this lease agreement, the Elgin City Council is giving their local students a chance to learn in a setting other than current private, parochial, and public schools within their city limits.

Although the lease agreement approved by the City Council is contingent upon the Illinois State Charter School Commission's approval, it was best to move forward with the plans for the lease agreement rather than say no the possibility of this exceptional educational opportunity.

Linda McDaniel-Hale is a Fox Valley resident who offers opinion on local topics.
Dan Zahn and Kate Moretti of Island Lake got bitten by the folk music bug when they were in high school.

They both picked up guitars and started singing and learning other instruments  and at one time, they both hosted separate folk festivals in Lake County.

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But they didn't meet until Moretti attended one of Zahn's festivals and was impressed with what she saw.

They combined the festivals and co-directed the Lake County Folk Festival for the next 13 years in Lake Zurich. They also began performing together throughout the Midwest, playing traditional and contemporary folk, blues, swing, jazz and original material.

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They will appear at the Grayslake Heritage Center Aug. 20 as Briar Road with Zahn singing and playing guitar and mandolin; Moretti singing and playing guitar, banjo and ukulele; and Rusty Winchel on bass guitar and vocals. They invited Winchel, who helped them produce a recent album, to join them several years ago.

"Kate and I both teach, and we do concerts. That's our life," said Zahn.

"We just love it," said Moretti. "It's who we are. We love sharing music with other people, and it's a privilege to be able to do that."

Though they love folk, they'll perform an eclectic concert in Grayslake including contemporary, folk, original songs, jazz, blues and swing and even a couple of cowboy tunes.

"In high school I was inspired by seeing classmates perform and by Gordon Lightfoot," Zahn said. "I started playing guitar when I was 14 and just took it from there. Over the years, I've played many different styles of music and traveled with a couple different bands," he said, but with Briar Road, he's back to his roots, he said.

Moretti said while growing up, her father listened to classic songs from the 1930s and 40s. "He'd make us listen to what my sister and I jokingly called W-DULL or W-OLD or W-DAD."

She wanted to listen to the Beatles on the radio, but her dad listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra instead.

That music, however, she said, "just seeped into me."

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Zahn said he particularly likes folk music because he's also a portrait painter and folk music back in the 1960s  especially Lightfoot  "painted a picture to me that I can see. It's the lyrics that really drew me to folk music."

Moretti said folk music is inclusive. "It's the music of the people. It's about everyday life. It really brings people together in a very deep way.

Two audience favorites are pieces Zahn and Moretti wrote. Zahn wrote "Aces & Eights," a song about Wild Bill Hickok. "That seems to go over well everywhere we play," he said.

The tune is on Briar Road's latest CD, "East Dakota Waltz."

Moretti said, "It's just a good song. It's a good story. The melody is driving and you kind of hear the journey of Wild Bill before he becomes Wild Bill until that fateful day when he has his cards in his hand and sits with his back to the door," something he vowed he'd never do.

Zahn said he was inspired to write the piece because his father, a former police chief in Franklin Park, had some similar traits that Wild Bill had. "Whenever he was out in public, he never sat with his back to the door," Zahn said. "He always sat where he could watch where he was going on. One day in my travels, I discovered Wild Bill was born in Illinois  that inspired me to write that song."

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Briar Road will also perform a song Moretti wrote, "Busy Woman's Blues," from a musical she created.

"Audiences absolutely love it," she said. "It's about a woman who's busy but not necessarily with keeping house. It has some blues and humor in it."

Long-time members of the Lake County Folk Club, Moretti and Zahn said the group provides a place for people to hear original and classic tunes in an informal environment.

"People just feel comfortable there," Moretti said. "They always enjoy good, honest music, and that's what we provide."

Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer for the News-Sun.

Briar Road

When: 7 p.m. Aug. 20

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Where: Grayslake Heritage Center, 164 Hawley St., Grayslake

Tickets: $13-$18

Information: 847-602-8882; thelakecountyfolkclub.org
Little Bear Ribfest participants listen to blues music after eating some barbecue. ( Vernon Hills Park District/HANDOUT )

Whatever your barbecue pleasure, you'll likely find it at the seventh annual Little Bear Ribfest held Aug. 18 and 19 next to Little Bear Lake at Century Park in Vernon Hills.

Six local barbecue vendors will be grilling ribs and cooking pulled pork, beef brisket, beef tips and other dishes that pair well with their many special sauces.

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They'll also sell some interesting items like brisket nachos and mac and cheese topped with rib meat, "all sorts of good stuff like that," said Jack Scherer, recreation supervisor for the Vernon Hills Park District, which sponsors the event.

The Rotary Club also will be roasting corn and dipping it in a vat of butter.

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"It's all made that weekend. You'll be able to smell it from a mile away," Scherer said.

You'll also be able to hear the sounds of Chicago blues at the fest. "We don't stray away from the blues" when lining up the bands, Scherer said. "People love their ribs and they love the blues."

The event is geared toward adults, he said, although children are welcome.

The fest features six local vendors including Superb Grill, new this year and recommended by one of the other five vendors that have been to the fest before. "We don't do any contests," Scherer said. It's all about tasting and comparing barbecue sauces and rubs.

The other vendors include Real Urban Barbecue of Vernon Hills, Smokin' T's Barbecue of Long Grove, BBQ'd Productions of Third Lake, Big Ed's BBQ of Waukegan and The Full Slab, also based in Lake County but without a storefront.

A full slab of ribs is $25, he said.

"My favorite barbecue meal is definitely a slab of ribs with cornbread on the side. I love that cornbread," Scherer said. "I like tangy sauces, but I know Smokin' T's is known for its different types of sauces. They put bottles out of the different sauces they make," for example Memphis mustard and sweet heat.

The Knights of Columbus will sell soda, water and other beverages, and a beer tent will have several kinds of beer and wine.

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Scherer suggested participants bring lawn chairs and blankets to sit and listen to the music. No coolers or pets are allowed at the venue.

As for the music, Scherer said it's all Chicago blues style. "It gets you moving, but it's not hard rock and they don't go into any other genres," he said.

Two local bands perform Friday night and the headliner Saturday night is Danielle Nicole. "She's returning to the Ribfest stage for the third time," Scherer said. "She plays the bass and her voice is really spectacular. She goes really low but she can wail really high."

Laura Rein and the Caesars are coming from Detroit to perform at 7 p.m. Saturday. "They wanted to come out and take part in a real blues festival," Scherer said.

Free parking and free shuttle service are available at Hawthorn Mall, 122 Hawthorn Center, Vernon Hills, starting at 6 p.m. both days.

Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer for the News-Sun.

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Little Bear Ribfest

When: 6-11 p.m. Aug 18 and 4-11 p.m. Aug. 19

Where: Century Park, 1001 Lakeview Parkway, Vernon Hills

Tickets: $5 for those older than 5 years
An ordinance limiting tobacco sales to those 21 and older is now in effect in Vernon Hills. (Joel Saget / AFP / Getty Images )

As Vernon Hills' new ordinance restricting tobacco sales to customers 21 and older took effect Aug. 1, Mundelein is planning to resume its discussion in the coming months.

The issue was first raised in Vernon Hills by Village Trustee Craig Takaoka during a May board meeting, and following lengthy discussions with area high schools and the Lake County Health Department an ordinance was eventually approved.

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Chicago, Oak Park, Naperville, Highland Park and Deerfield have already raised the age restriction to 21, according to a report by the Lake County Health Department.

Mundelein Mayor Steve Lentz facilitated a discussion on June 26, but delayed the official vote in favor of waiting to see what other towns do. He also cited a need to fill a board vacancy.

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Libertyville Mayor Terry Wepplersaid he isn't planning to schedule a discussion because his community doesn't have the authority to make that regulation.

"We've had that conversation before and as I recall our board was in favor," Weppler said. "A group of high school kids approached us about two years ago and we looked into it, but our attorney said we can't do it because we're not a home rule community."

Home rule status is primarily given to communities of more than 25,000, while a limited number were allowed to gain status if local referendums were approved. The Illinois Constitution says home rule status grants municipalities added authority to govern themselves without the long process of state legislation.

Grayslake  Mundelein's other neighbor  is not home rule either.

Weppler said he's not opposed to raising the age for tobacco sales since the dangers of smoking are "obvious." He said health care costs continue to rise and helping people avoid cancer is a worthy endeavor.

"And it's no secret that a lot of 18- and 19-year-olds buy for their 16- and 17-year-old friends and siblings," Weppler said.

Representatives from the Lake County Health Department about two months ago began researching ways for non-home rule communities to apply stricter tobacco regulations, according to Weppler, but he said they haven't sent him anything to review yet.

"Our board has changed a little since those students petitioned us, so I can't speak with absolute certainty that the same straw poll would happen now, but I'm not opposed to the conversation and I know our trustees are always willing to listen," Weppler said. "However, I don't plan on having that conversation unless we come across something that gives us legal authority."

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Mundelein's Village Board was split in June, with Village Trustee Dawn Abernathy saying a local ordinance that's more restrictive than state laws would be unfair to Mundelein businesses.

Before eventually voting in favor of the change, Vernon Hills Village Trustee Cindy Hebda questioned the role of government in matters that families should be addressing. A turning point for Hebda was when others argued that a growing number of local ordinances might sway state legislators to up the age requirement.

A provision that requires violators to meet with the Village Board or loose their licenses was key in swaying other Vernon Hills trustees who worried about passing a weak ordinance.

Abernathy was joined by Mundelein Village Trustee Kerston Russell, who said he was mostly not interested in the new regulation rather than apposed to it. Russell said he'd rather focus his energies on more important topics and let people live their lives.

However, three other Mundelein trustees cited health benefits as reasons they were in favor of the change. Four votes are needed to approve most ordinances, but instead of casting an opinion Mayor Steve Lentz delayed the decision until a vacant trustee seat was filled and until he could see what other communities were doing.

Since that June 26 Mundelein meeting, Vernon Hills approved and enacted its new ordinance and Lentz appoint Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Scott Black to the vacant village trustee seat. Lake County also is continuing with its ordinance to raise the age in unincorporated areas.

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When contacted on Wednesday Aug. 2, Lentz said he's planning to put the issue back on the table in Mundelein at some point in September or October, depending on the timeliness of other projects.

When asked for his position, Lentz said he's made up his mind but needs time to draft an explanation and will articulate his thoughts during the public forum.

"We'll see if I even need to weigh in," Lentz said. "It depends which way Trustee Black goes."

Black did not respond to calls and text messages from Pioneer Press asking for his position on tobacco sales.

rkambic@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @Rick_Kambic
The reigning 2017 Ms. Wheelchair Illinois, Shannon Webster, of Naperville, has been an advocate for people with disabilities since she was a student in Naperville District 203 schools. (Shannon Webster)

Shannon Webster served as Naperville Central High School's 2009 homecoming queen and was the 2010 queen of the Naperville St. Patrick's Day Parade.

The 25-year-old Naperville woman now has a national title in her sights: Ms. Wheelchair America 2017.

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As girl growing up in Naperville who never wanted to defined by her disability, her quest might seem an odd pursuit.

But for Webster, the reigning 2017 Ms. Wheelchair Illinois, seeking the national title is a way to combine her passion for empowering people with disabilities and promoting inclusion in the workplace.

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"What a great way to be the voice on a larger platform," Webster said. "I've always been interested in advocating for my people (those with disabilities)."

Diagnosed with cerebral palsy with spastic dysplasia when she was 2 years old, Webster can stand and walk short distances with the assistance of braces.

For mobility, she needs wheelchair, which qualifies for her to compete for Ms. Wheelchair America.

Open to contestants 21 years and older, the 46th annual Ms. Wheelchair America National Pageant is scheduled Aug. 14-20 in Erie, Penn.

While many pageants are starting to focus less on beauty and appearance and more on a woman's acumen, this pageant was started in 1972 on a tradition of focusing on women's accomplishments and advocacy.

"All my prior experience has been leading up to this," Webster said.

Much of who she is today reflects her upbringing in Naperville, she said.

"My parents chose to move to Naperville because of the schools," she said.

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Throughout her Naperville School District 203 education at River Woods Elementary, Madison Junior High and Naperville Central, school leaders worked with her parents to develop an individualized education program, or IEP, for physical therapy and other services.

Despite having an IEP, Webster said she always wanted to be treated like any other student, and as such she always participated with other students in every activity, even in physical education class.

The reigning 2017 Ms. Wheelchair Illinois, Shannon Webster wants to win the 2017 Ms. Wheelchair America title so she can have a broader voice to promote inclusion in the workplace. (Shannon Webster )

When she got to high school she expected to do the same, but found she often couldn't keep up with classmates who'd become stronger and faster.

"I wanted to fit in like all the other kids," Webster said. "I was adamantly against being in the adapted PE class."

That changed after meeting Naperville Central teacher Patricia Adamatis.

In adapted physical education, Adamatis doesn't view students as having a disability, just a challenge for the teacher to find a way perform the same activity regular students are doing.

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That was the case with Webster.

"No one ever let her try the rock climbing wall" or the high ropes course, Adamatis said. "We let everyone try everything. If you want to try, I'll figure out a way to do it."

Adamatis is confident Webster will do well at the pageant because she always was a very self-assured and outgoing student.

"She's a rock star," Adamatis said. "She's going to go far, and I'm going to be hanging onto her coattails."

That confidence received a huge boost in high school when Adamatis connected Webster with a Segway donated to District 203 by a local Lions Club.

"That even opened my eyes. For the first time, she was eye-level with me," Adamatis said.

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Students in the halls no longer saw her as that girl in the wheelchair. "People treated her so different. Now she's the cool kid with the Segway," the teacher said.

Her parents saw the merits too, and they were able to get Webster a Segway before she headed off to college at Marquette University to study communications and broadcasting. She graduated from the Milwaukee school in 2014.

She now works as a recruiting programs specialist at Exelon in Chicago, a job through which she strives to empower others and works to foster a spirit of inclusion for all people with disabilities in the workplace.

"Growing up I really wanted a mentor," she added. "Now I can be a mentor for with people with disabilities."

As Ms. Wheelchair Illinois, Webster returned to her high school alma mater this past school year to inspire students in adaptive PE classes.

"I spoke with students about the great experience I had and how the school instilled in everyone that we all have different abilities," she said.

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During her week in Pennsylvania, Webster is looking forward to the workshops and the bonding she'll have with 24 other contestants.

"I think we all have unique stories to tell," she said.

This year, the pageant also includes a People's Choice Award.

For a dollar per vote, people can vote, as many times they wish, for their favorite contestant at http://tinyurl.com/MWAPeoplesChoice2018.

The contestant who receives the most votes wins the People's Choice title and 40 percent of money collected for her state's pageant program.

The remaining 60 percent goes to the Ms. Wheelchair America Personal Care Attendant Fund to help cover travel and room and board costs for those who attend to the Ms. Wheelchair America titleholder.

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subaker@tribpub.com

Twitter @SBakerSun1
The Illinois Department of Transportation is seeking Naperville annexation of its maintenance yard, built on Ogden Avenue in 1941, so it can be connected to the citys water and sewer system. (Bill Bird / Naperville Sun)

More than 75 years after the Illinois Department of Transportation built a roadway maintenance facility on West Ogden Avenue in unincorporated Naperville, agency officials are asking the city to annex the property, provide water and sewer services, and rezone it for residential use.

IDOT is not shuttering the facility, just making a change to end its reliance on well water and an antiquated septic system for environmental reasons, IDOT Director of Communications Guy Tridgell said.

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"We have no plans to close or relocate this facility," Tridgell said.

The 3.46-acre maintenance yard is at 28W731 Ogden Ave. on a site adjoining the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks.

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Its amenities include a main building and a parking area, two garages, two sheds and a salt storage dome. Workers there are charged with salting and plowing state roads, grass-cutting, weed removal and other highway maintenance duties.

The facility dates to 1941, according to city documents, and is served by well water and a septic system. Annexation into Naperville would allow the yard to connect to municipal water and sewer lines.

Before annexation can take place, the industrial land on which the facility sits is to be rezoned to the city's "low-density, single-family" residential designation. Properties that border the facility to the south and east also are zoned residential, and include the Naperville Park District's Brush Hill Park and a cluster of apartment buildings leading toward River Road.

The designation will accompany the property should the state ever decide to sell it.

Employees of the city's Transportation, Engineering and Development Business Group, in a memorandum, said they found the proposed zoning change to be compatible with the surrounding properties in the area, and "a more appropriate approach for the property, given the uses of the surrounding properties."

Members of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday voiced unanimous support for the rezoning request and a "conditional use for public utilities."

Tridgell said IDOT operates about 30 maintenance yards in the Chicago metropolitan area. The agency's decision to pursue annexation of the Naperville-area property was not made in haste, he said.

"We're making the decision now to move forward," he said. "Anytime we have the potential to attach to municipal water and sewer services, we try to do that."

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Among the environmental benefits, Tridgell said, is "when we wash (maintenance) vehicles now, that runoff goes into a septic system, and (after annexation) it will go to a treatment facility, where it should be going," Tridgell said. "Environmentally, it's the smart thing to do."

The annexation and rezoning will go to the Naperville City Council for final approval in the next few weeks.

wbird@tribpub.com
Developer Dwight Avram has proposed taking down the old Nichols Library in downtown Naperville and replacing with a four-story, mixed-use building. (NicholsHistory)

When something is important to a city, it is up to its officials to fight for it. When they don't, it's up to its residents.

I've been quietly following efforts to save old Nichols Library in downtown Naperville. Initially, knowing Naperville, I thought it was a given that public outcry would coalesce and the idea of tearing up the city's first library would disappear like a lost library book.

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Though a wonderful group has been created to save it and two preservationists are seeking landmark status for it, I'm disappointed in our mayor's attitude towards what arguably is Naperville's most important historic building, certainly it's most visible.

I say that after researching and writing about downtown Naperville buildings for my "Building Memories" column for eight years or so.

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Plus, after spending the past year researching 90 Chicago buildings that have been adaptively reused, I have no doubt the old Nichols Library can be saved, restored and productively reused without tearing it, or our community, apart.

History itself is proof.

For instance, in the late 1980s, the old Reliance Building in Chicago had "fallen into serious disrepair," according to a Chicago Tribune article. There were leaks, water damage and electrical problems. Various rehabilitation schemes stalled, including some plans to tear up the building piecemeal.

A bold mayor fought to save the skyscraper, despite an alderman telling him in public, "This building is not worth a dime."

At the ribbon-cutting in 1999, when the old Reliance was unveiled as a boutique hotel and described as a "near-miracle" of restoration, Mayor Richard M. Daley said, "Many people thought it was unsalvageable, but many of us did not agree."

Sound familiar? Nichols' owner Dwight Avram has a website noting the 119-year-old building is "suffering from the ravages of weather and time. Bricks and stone are spalling, crumbling, molding and deteriorating with water damage. There is water damage to the roof, fascia, overhangs and areas where additions have joined the original building. Windows are no longer operational and doors no longer meet city code. A number of pragmatic physical updates to the facility have compromised the historic aspects of the building."

Avram's site emphasizes the building is not what it used to be, using that as an excuse to rip the place apart, "brick by brick," and incorporate it as a small piece of an 80,000-square-foot (80,000 square feet?!) building.

Well, the Reliance wasn't what it used to be until it was restored.

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"It's like seeing a great but time-worn fresco brought back to its legendary splendor. Once-vivid colors emerge from decades of dust and grime," Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin said. "Their achievement is all the more astonishing because they have converted the renowned Reliance to an entirely new use without compromising the building's brilliant original design."

Developer Dan McCaffery, added: "When you see how beautifully the building has turned out, it will be almost impossible to imagine that it was the subject of such intense debate as to whether or not it should be saved."

Countless similar stories exist in Chicago, which of course has many more buildings it can stand to lose than does Naperville. We have so few, and the one in question is arguably the city's most beautiful  a downtown-entry centerpiece, perhaps our one irreplaceable structure.

Naperville Sun Twice-weekly News updates from the Naperville area delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Mayor Steve Chirico has been quoted voicing concern about the funding aspect of the project. But before giving up, perhaps he should spend some time and effort trying to save a unique, important piece of Naperville's past as many of us have started to do.

I personally can't imagine a more worthwhile project than being involved in building a coalition of people/developers interested in restoring the beloved old Nichols Library. And I've only lived here 24 years.

If you want to argue economics, we all know part of Naperville's charm (and solvency) is its thriving, historic downtown. But as homes get torn down and our business district gets rebuilt (I still miss 10 West), eventually Naperville will be no different than other downtown shopping areas if we don't save what makes this city so charming  its historic buildings. The Riverwalk is our jewel, but downtown pays the bills.

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Mayor Daley said of the Reliance: "This is a landmark. It says a lot about the history of Chicago."

What says more about Naperville than preserving and re-purposing intact the city's first public library, a stunning historic structure dedicated to reading, education and generosity of one of its citizens?

Respectfully, Mr. Mayor, it's much, much more than "a pretty building."

Joni Hirsch Blackman is a Naperville resident and the author of "Downtown Naperville" and "This Used to Be Chicago."
Three of the five people believed responsible for the robbery of a Verizon store at Ridge Road and Calumet Avenue in Munster are in police custody. A fourth remains at large and the fifth, shot by a Gary police officer, has died, officials said. (Joe Puchek / Post-Tribune )

The 15-year-old shot by a Gary police officer following the armed robbery of a Munster cellphone store has died, officials said.

Kemonte Cobbs, 15, of the 500 block of Madison Street in Gary, was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m. Wednesday at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

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The teen's identity was confirmed Saturday by Mark Back, public information officer for the Lake County Sheriff's Department.

Cobbs was one of five people believed involved in the 6 p.m. Tuesday armed robbery at The Cellular Connection on Ridge Road in Munster, a Verizon dealership, according to information in federal court records.

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Witnesses said, and surveillance footage confirmed, the suspects  two armed with handguns  entered the store and took multiple cell phones and cash before fleeing in a silver Nissan with Ohio license plants, records said.

A Gary police officer spotted the Nissan in the area of 15th Avenue and Burr Street in Gary short while later, and followed it to an apartment building near 19th Place and Hanley Street, records said. There, the suspects left the vehicle and took off running. Police were able to arrest the driver near the car and took another man into custody nearby, records said.

Cobbs reportedly pointed a gun at the officers who were pursuing him, prompting one to fire "his weapon at the suspect, striking him at least once," Back said at the time.

"Preliminary investigation indicates that this suspect pointed a firearm at police officers," Back said.

Cobbs was initially taken to Methodist Hospital Northlake before being transferred to the Oak Lawn hospital.

No information about the officer who shot Cobbs had been released as of Friday. An investigation into the circumstances leading to the shooting is being handled by the Lake County Sheriff's Department at the request of the Gary Police Department.

The robbery case has been handed off to the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office, according to Munster police Lt. Ed Strbjak and FBI Supervisory Special Agent Bob Ramsey.

Two suspects, Deshalone Damian Davis and Vondell Henry Jr., both 20 and from Gary, have been charged in federal court with robbery and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. A third suspect is a juvenile who may be charged as an adult, police said.

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One of the five suspects was still at large as of Friday.

Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
The Lake County Sheriff's Department raided an alleged puppy mill in Crown Point on May 3, 2017. (Craig Lyons / Post-Tribune) (Chicago Tribune)

A Center Township man accused of running an illegal puppy mill operation and performing veterinary services at his home without a license is seeking to move his case elsewhere, claiming he can't get a fair trial in Lake County, accoring to court records.

Attorney Paul Stracci filed a motion in court Friday seeking a change of venue on behalf of his client, Stevce Rajcinoski. Extensive media coverage and a subsequent backlash on social media against Rajcinoski have tainted the opinions of any potential Lake County jurors, Stracci argued in court papers.

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"The defendant simply cannot receive a fair trial from a community so actively biased against him that the courts cannot fully withstand the expression of that bias," Stracci wrote.

Rajcinoski, 36, is facing 11 counts of felony animal mutilation, 72 counts of animal neglect, 11 counts of practicing veterinary medicine without a license, and one count of failing to register as a commercial breeder with the state. The charges followed an investigation into a complaint about dogs housed in a building at his residence.

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Sheriff's police along with the Indiana State Veterinarian served a search warrant May 3 on Rajcinoski's property in the 5600 block of 125th Avenue in Center Township.

Deputies discovered 66 dogs in a small building set back from a two-story home at the address, police said. Two larger dogs were chained outside. Three goats and a miniature horse also were removed from the property along with evidence including surgical scalpels and veterinary medical equipment, according to police.

Deputies confiscated 24 American bulldogs, 26 French bulldogs, three English bulldogs, 13 Leonbergers and two pit bulls. The 11 female dogs, including some that were nursing, had evidence of cesarean sections, authorities said. The mothers to the pit bull puppies and the English bulldog puppies could not be found.

A female French bulldog looks out from her cage Friday at Lake County Animal Control in Crown Point. The dog was one of 68 confiscated in a raid in Center Township. May 5, 2017. (Joe Puchek / Post-Tribune )

Stracci argued that local media coverage that followed, including that of the Post-Tribune, contained comments from law enforcement that he argued could taint a local jury pool.

Stracci also cited comments Lake County Sheriff John Buncich made to reporters about their findings, including "'We have had dealings with this guy before and now we received more complaints,'" and "'As you can see, it is really appalling what we are finding here.'"

Stracci maintained that such statements would prevent Rajcinoski from getting a fair trial in Lake County.

"Multiple inflammatory and incorrect or misleading statements were made by investigating law enforcement, and said statements were covered and repeated by multiple media outlets over multiple weeks," the motion read.

Social media users also were critical of Rajcinoski. Stracci cited social media posts that called for people to show up for court proceedings and demand Rajcinowski be punished. The posts came from residents in places such as Crown Point and Hammond, where potential jurors could be tapped for a trial in Lake Superior Court.

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"The pervasive media coverage, complete with conclusory statements about the defendant's character and the condition of the animals, as well as misstatement of facts, has elicited a profound and active social media response," the motion reads.

The court filing also pointed out that multiple judges already have removed themselves from the case due to people contacting them about it on social media.

Prosecutors David Moore and Robert McMahon have until Aug. 31 to provide the state's response at a hearing scheduled before Judge Diane Boswell.

Earlier this week, Rajcinoski and prosecutors agreed that he would relinquish 64 dogs, three goats and a miniature horse that was confiscated during the search at his home. Rajcinoski, meanwhile, is seeking the return of nine dogs at the conclusion of the pending trial.

If Rajcinoski is found not guilty, the animals will be returned to him. If he is found guilty, the nine remaining dogs will become county property, according to a release from the prosecutor's office.

Moore said Friday that, as part of the deal, Rajcinoski has agreed to pay a $10-per-dog-per-day bond, or $2,700 a month, while the trial proceeds.
Cedar Lake resident Ron Kuiper and his grandson Caleb Kuiper, 12, look into a window at the front of a B-24J Liberator on Friday during the Wings of Freedom tour visit to the Porter County airport. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune )

As the four engines revved up and started to roar, pilot Paul Reidy tightened his grip as he guided the World War II B-25 down the runway and prepared for takeoff.

In minutes, the bomber was airborne, lumbering through the Northwest Indiana skies.

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On the ground, spectators marveled as this historic aircraft soared overhead before landing at the Porter County Regional Airport in Valparaiso. Undeterred by the chilly temperature and light rain, an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the airport wanting to get a glimpse of these old warbirds. Scores of people waited at the hangar, taking photos and video on their cellphones as the planes landed.

"This is history," said Stephen Kohler, of Michigan City. "This is what all these people are here for; to appreciate history."

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The B-25 was one of four World War II-era planes to come to Northwest Indiana for the Wings of Freedom Tour, a tour organized by the Collings Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and showcasing old warplanes.

Oh Lord, I love flying these planes," Reidy said shortly after he landed at the Porter County Airport. "They're history. They're actual history. A lot of people don't even realize what happened in the 1940s. This airplane is a war veteran."

The B-24 patroled the skies of Europe and the Pacific during World War II for bombing operations.

Five planes will be on display at the Porter County Regional Airport through Sunday afternoon: a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber, a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber, a B-25 medium bomber, a P-51 Mustang fighter and a Supermarine Spitfire fighter.

For a fee, spectators can take a tour of the aircraft and even climb aboard. Visitors can take a half-hour flight aboard the B-17 or B-25 for $450.

"This is awesome," said Ryan Simkins, who came with his wife and two sons from Naperville, Ill. "Not often do you get to crawl through, look inside and see how these planes are actually constructed."

"It's incredible," Carrie Simkins said, sharing her husband's excitement. "Textbooks provide a limited history and you can see these planes in glorified movies. But here, my sons get to touch, see and visualize these warplanes."

But for Kohler, of Michigan City, coming to see these historic planes was personal.

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Kohler said his uncle was a waist gunner on the B-17 during World War II.

"I can't believe he was on the B-17," he said. "That's something I'm definitely proud of."

Reidy said he takes pride in being able to fly planes that served this country.

"I get to play a small part in helping keep this history, and the legacy of these planes that fought for our freedom alive," he said. "It's a pleasure to fly them."

jaanderson@tribpub.com

Twitter @JavonteA
Pueblo East, Pueblo West football teams knocked out of playoffs

Both Pueblo West and Pueblo East high schools had their faced stiff competition Friday night on the road.
After being kept in quarantine for 45 days, 980 out of 1,012 breeding hogs imported from the United States were allowed to leave the isolation field in central China's Hunan Province for farms across China.

They included durocs, landraces and large whites - breeds that grow faster and are superior to China's domestic breeds in many aspects.

The pigs departed from Chicago and arrived in Hunan on a chartered plane in June. They were isolated in a farm with precise temperature control, purified water and 24-hour watch. Professional animal nurses, treatment and massage were also provided.

The 980 that passed health test will be distributed to six farms in provinces of Hunan, Guangdong and Henan as well as Tianjin Municipality.

In 2012, Hunan imported more than 1,000 boars from the U.S. for the first time. Importing boars improved the quality of local breeding swine for Hunan, one of the major pig raising provinces in the country.

The United States is China's largest breeding swine exporter, accounting for 30 to 60 percent of China's total import over the past decade. Due to the outbreak of porcine epizootic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in the U.S. in 2013, the imports gradually fell to zero as of 2016.

But the trade picked up soon this year. In addition to Hunan, southwest China's Yunnan Province also imported 1,057 boars from the United States in June.

Pork is the staple meat for Chinese.
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos officially inaugurated the construction of the Caculo Cabaca Hydropower Project in Dondo, Angola on Friday.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Angolan Minister of Energy and Water Resources Joao Baptista Borges said the project, the largest of its kind being built in the country, is crucial to the economic construction of Angola in the future.

"It will solve the power shortage in Angola and play an active role in increasing employment of the country," he said, adding that the Angola government felt gratitude to the Chinese government and Chinese enterprises for their support to the development of Angola.

Located at the North Kwanza province, the hydropower project will be constructed by China Gezhouba Group Co., Ltd (CGGC).

According to Ren Jianguo, deputy general manager of CGGC, the group will turn Caculo Cabaca Hydropower Project into a high-quality project, making contribution to Angola's energy and power, infrastructure improvement, social and economic development, and people's livelihood improvement.

Angola Caculo Cabaca Hydropower Project is currently the largest hydropower station to be constructed by a Chinese company in Africa, Ren said, adding that upon completion, the project is expected to meet more than 50 percent of the country's electricity needs.

The project has a total contractual value of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars and has a planned installed capacity of 2,172 megawatts. The project will be completed within 80 months, and during the peak construction period nearly 10,000 jobs are expected to be provided for the locals.

According to the contract, CGGC will also be responsible for the four-year operation and maintenance of the power plant and for training a group of professional power plant operation management and technical personnel for Angola.

Cui Aimin, Chinese Ambassador to Angola, said that China is Angola's largest trading partner while Angola is China's second largest trading partner in Africa as well as the largest source country of imports in Africa.

To date, Angola is one of the countries in Africa to have the most extensive cooperation with China in investment and financing as well as infrastructure construction. China has cumulatively invested close to 50 billion U.S. dollars in the country, covering various fields in the infrastructure sector.
Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday agreed to further enhance the two sides' economic cooperation.

"I have a thorough discussion with Thai prime minister, we talked about a wide range of issues but basically, are to enhance our collaboration and partnership between Hong Kong and Thailand and the anticipation of the conclusion of free trade agreement between Hong Kong and ASEAN," Lam said to media late Friday during a press conference.

"I will certainly follow up the things that I discussed with PM. Hopefully, we will see close relationship between Hong Kong and Thailand," she added.

According to Thai Deputy Government Spokesman Veerachon Sukhonthapatipark, during their talks earlier Friday, Prayut thanked Lam for visiting Thailand during her first trip outside Hong Kong since she assumed the post of HKSAR's chief executive and also expressed his congratulations to her for being elected to the position and on the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

Prayut also thanked Lam for bringing businessmen with her.

"Until now, Thailand has been acting as the gateway to ASEAN, especially Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam for Hong Kong while Hong Kong has been acting as Thailand's gateway to China," said Prayut.

The Thai leader also asked the HKSAR government to set up an economic and trade office here in his country to further enhance their cooperation in economy, trade and investment.

Lam arrived in Bangkok on Thursday after visiting Singapore.
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Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Ri Yong-ho, left Pyongyang Saturday morning for the Philippines to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum.

The five-member delegation will return to Pyongyang on Aug. 10 after attending the meeting in Manila at the weekend, and wrapping up a visit to the Philippines, according to DPRK officials.

The forum will also be attended by foreign ministers of ASEAN countries, as well as those of China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.

Foreign ministers of the six-party talks sponsored by China to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula will thus all be present in Manila for the meeting.

Vice Foreign Minister of the DPRK Choe Hui Chol visited the Philippines last week in preparation for the visit.

The ASEAN regional forum is focused on security dialogue in Asia and draws ASEAN members and dialogue partners to discuss security issues of the Asia Pacific region.
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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!)
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Three militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant outfit were killed and a policeman was wounded Saturday in a fierce gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

The gunfight between militants and government forces broke out in Tarzoo village of Sopore town, about 52 km northwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"Three militants of LeT outfit were killed today in a gunfight with police and army in Jamia Mohalla, Amargarh locality," a police spokesman said.

Police said the search and cordon in the area was launched on specific intelligence information suggesting presence of militants.

"The hiding militants opened fire on the joint search party, triggering a gunfight, during which three militants of LeT were eliminated," the spokesman said. "Their identity of slain militants is being ascertained."

Since last week there has been an increase in the gunfights in region.

On Tuesday a top militant commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant outfit Abu Dujana and his local associate were killed in a fierce gunfight in Pulwama district. Two civilians were also killed and over three dozen wounded in government forces firing in the subsequent clashes that broke out to protest militant killings.

A separatist movement and guerrilla war challenging New Delhi's rule is going on in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.
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China has donated equipment estimated at 293,000 U.S. dollars to the Sri Lankan Parliament in order to further strengthen parliament to parliament ties between the two countries.

Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya while accepting and appreciating the donation on Friday from Yi Xianliang, China's ambassador to Sri Lanka, said to date over 100 parliamentarians had visited China on several programs with the support of China.

Jayasuriya said a further 15 parliamentary members would visit China next week to undergo a program on disaster management. "We hope to strengthen this relationship further," Jayasuriya said.

Yi said China welcomed more local parliamentarians to visit China and would look forward to further boosting ties with the island country.

Yi said he would also encourage more Chinese companies and investors to invest in Sri Lanka.

The equipment which included office materials and laptops was donated by the state-owned China National Corporation For Overseas Economic Cooperation.
US card network Visa has submitted a license request to China's central bank to operate in the Chinese market, according to an emailed response on Friday.

As stated in the response, representatives of the company hope to tap into the Chinese market, stating they were hopeful the People's Bank of China was able to approve the application.

US-based card company MasterCard was also preparing to submit a license request, according to the email.

Ajay Banga, chief executive officer of Mastercard, said the company has been finalizing the application in a meeting in July.

"We are working through our options for a joint venture or a 100 percent Mastercard application, and we expect to make a decision on this and it should be filed soon," he said.

Banga added it was just another step in the process that will likely play out in the next 12 to 18 months as there were several review cycles from the Chinese regulators.

China is set to become the world's largest payment market by 2020, according to research firm Global Data Plc.
The 5G promotion booth of ZTE at an industry expo in Beijing. [Photo by A JING/CHINA DAILY]

China's major telecom players are taking a cautious approach when it comes to 5G investment, an industry report has revealed.

UBS Securities Co Ltd, the investment bank and brokerage, expects capital expenditure on fifth-generation communication technology to be more measured compared to the rollout of 4G.

Tech standards for 5G have yet to be finalized, while the report is concerned about how the new network will be monetized.

"We expect lower capital expenditure and a gradual process when it comes to 5G," said Wang Jinjin, managing director of Asian telecom research at UBS Securities in Beijing.

"We believe the decline in spending, which began in 2016, will continue until 2018. This will put pressure on equipment vendors," Wang added.

Telecom carriers went on a capital expenditure binge between 2013 and 2015 on the back of 4G and fiber broadband construction, according to the report.

But China Mobile Communications Corp, China United Network Communications Group Co and China Telecommunications Corp appear to be more cautious about 5G construction, UBS Securities highlighted

"There are reasons behind this, as 5G standards have yet to be finalized, and the monetization model is completely different from 3G or 4G networks, because its machine-centric," Wang said. "We expect 5G investment to come later and it will be lower than market expectations."

Based on the International Telecommunication Union's roadmap, 5G standards will not be finalized until 2019, the report pointed out. A large-scale 5G rollout is likely to start in 2020.

China Mobile triggered spending on 4G after upgrading its network from the 3G era and is now the market leader, the report said.

The government has been a major backer of 5G, which is included in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

In March, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced China had established the world's largest 5G test site.

Next year, China Mobile will start 5G tests and launch a pre-commercial service in 2019. It aims to fully commercialize 5G services by 2020.

China Unicom has also accelerated its efforts to develop 5G technology. It has established the country's first pre-5G base station in Jilin province in partnership with Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

"We estimate the IoT (internet of things) network investment by the three telecom carriers will reach only 20 to 30 billion yuan ($2.9-4.4 billion) from 2017 to 2018, which represents just 3 to 4 percent of total industry expenditure," Wang said. "So, it is hard to reverse (the trend) of downward capital expenditure."
A man operates a tractor to crush coal, one of the fuels used by the thermal power industry, in Huaibei, Anhui province. [Photo by WU HE/CHINA DAILY]

China's coal and power industries are expected to see more mergers in the second half of the year, due to State-owned enterprise reform policies, industry insiders believe.

"Encouraged by government policies to reduce the number of SOEs and promote mergers and reorganizations, integration between coal and power companies has become an inevitable trend," said Zuo Qianming, a senior coal analyst from Cinda Securities.

At the beginning of the year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission announced the acceleration of mergers among steel, coal and power companies through vertical and horizontal integration. It stressed that coal and power company consolidation is particularly important when thermal coal prices are high and volatile.

The merger plan between Shenhua Group and China Guodian Crop has been already submitted to the State Council for approval, according to an official at an energy forum on Wednesday.

State Power Investment Corp is also in contact with China Huaneng Group, said Zhang Likuan, senior analyst at the China Coal Data Exchange Center, emphasizing that a major consolidation of the two sectors will become a highlight of SOE reform in the second half of 2017.

Since April last year, the price of thermal coal has risen continuously due to tightened supply, as many illegal coal mines were closed as the nation sought to reduce its outdated capacity in the sector.

The Bohai-Rim Steam-Coal Price Index, which tracks domestic thermal coal spot prices at six major ports in northern China, surged to 583 yuan ($87) per metric ton on Wednesday, about 38 percent higher than a year ago.

Most coal power companies have felt the pinch, due to the falling inventories and soaring fuel costs, according to a report from China Electricity Council, issued on July 25.

Most listed power companies reported losses in the first half of the year.

Shenzhen Nanshan Power Co Ltd forecast it would suffer losses of 56.45 million yuan in the first half and Guodian Changyuan Power Co Ltd's net deficit was expected to reach as much as 149.5 million yuan during the same period.

Ye Chun, an official from the China Electricity Council, said that coal enterprises, using thermal coal as fuel, were expected to stay in the red in the second half, due to coal prices hovering at high levels.

Mergers of coal and power companies can produce mutual benefits and reduce market risks from fluctuating coal prices, said Zuo.

The merger process will be a complex process, said Zhang, adding that various kinds of energy businesses need to be merged and their staff should be redeployed in a reasonable way.
Group links corporate governance to more foreign investments and listing in London

Chinese companies will have to improve their corporate governance if they are to earn the confidence of United Kingdom investors, an influential report has revealed.

The China City Group, which comprises business leaders and companies from the UK, aims to stimulate international investment in Chinese companies, as well as encourage them to list on the London markets.

Led by John McLean, chairman of China Resolutions, an investment management firm, the group believes Beijing regulatory authorities should better supervise Chinese companies.

It urged them to follow international corporate governance rules if they aim to list overseas.

"I genuinely believe that we can achieve momentum rapidly and that our shared vision will bring benefits for China and the UK," said McLean, who is chairman of China City Group.

"What we are suggesting are practical steps to ensure that the UK has reasons to be confident in the 'China brand'," he added.

The report is in response to declining investor confidence in London-listed Chinese firms.

There were 110 mainland company listings in London between 1997 and 2016.

By the end of last month, only 35 remained. The majority delisted due to corporate governance issues or a lack of investor trust.

Another reason for delisting has been poor share price performance in a bull market because of waning market confidence.

Lu Yingni, managing director of EcoLeap, a London-based consultancy that advises on Sino-UK deals, stressed that many Chinese companies listed in London are relatively young and small.

They also lack stringent corporate governance policies.

"Bad publicity resulting from some Chinese companies' fraudulent practices has significantly lowered investor expectations, so the willingness to buy Chinese shares is low," Lu said.

"That creates a vicious cycle, meaning healthy, high-growth Chinese companies are less likely to consider a London listing," Lu added.

McLean confirmed that China City Group will liaise with Chinese regulators, who can then help to supervise mainland companies and hold them accountable to international investors.

But many in the city of London doubt that such measures can be achieved.

Xue Haibin, managing partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm's UK subsidiary, felt it was unrealistic to expect Chinese regulators to perform these functions.

"It is a good idea to increase discussions with Chinese companies to make sure they understand best corporate governance practices," Xue said. "But enacting regulatory measures would be too much of a stretch.

"As London is such a free market, any regulatory frameworks that single out Chinese companies would be unrealistic," Xue added.




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Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Chief Executive Office Director O Lam and President of Alibaba Cloud Hu Xiaoming sign the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement to Build Smart City at a ceremony presided by SAR Chief Executive Chui Sai On (2nd R) and the board of directors of Alibaba Group Jack Ma (2nd L), in Macao, China, Aug 4, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

MACAO - Macao and Alibaba Cloud will work together to upgrade the special administrative region (SAR) into a smart city by applying cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), according to an agreement signed on Friday by Macao SAR government and Alibaba Cloud.

Macao SAR Chief Executive Office Director O Lam and President of Alibaba Cloud Hu Xiaoming signed the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement to Build Smart City at a ceremony presided by SAR Chief Executive Chui Sai On and the board of directors of Alibaba Group Jack Ma.

According to Alibaba Cloud, the world's top cloud computing service provider will help Macao build an AI hub to enhance its municipal administration capability by a four-year program. The first phase will finish a cloud computing center in two years and initiate AI applications such as traffic control, medical service, E-government and tourism promotion.

The program's second phase will start from 2019 and extend the application into such areas as environment protection, custom clearance and economy forecast.

O Lam told a press conference that the SAR government seriously considered the plan to build Macao as smart city with Alibaba and it was a strategic decision for economy development and people's welfare.

She noted that the SAR government chose Alibaba Cloud for its leading position in the industry, advantages in technology and experience in cloud computing, and its global talent pool in many countries and regions including Macao.
BEIJING - China will soon launch a new commodity futures contract as the country pushes for development of its commodity derivatives market.

Starting from Aug 18, cotton yarn futures will be trading on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, with preparation work for the launch already completed, said the China Securities Regulatory Commission(CSRC) in a statement Friday.

Trading tests will take place on Aug 5 and 12.

Futures contracts obligate investors to buy or sell underlying assets at a predetermined price at a specified time, helping investors mitigate risks of price volatilities.

In an earlier note the CSRC said cotton yarn futures together with cotton futures, which are already traded, would help companies in the industry to hedge against and improve the management of risk.

Large and frequent fluctuations in cotton yarn prices have had a negative impact on related industries in the past few years, and the launch of the cotton yarn futures will be an answer to market demand, the CSRC said.

China has been developing its commodity derivatives market and plans to gradually open it up to foreign investors. Earlier in April, the country launched white sugar options, the second commodity options after soybean meal.
BEIJING - In a new measure to stabilize the housing market, Beijing is planning to introduce homes with joint property rights shared between the government and buyers.

According to a document published by local authorities Thursday to solicit public opinions, individual buyers will be able to buy a share of a house but still have the full "right of use."

Chen Zhi, secretary general of Beijing real estate association, said the new homes were part of the city's long-term housing controls, making the system fairer by allowing more people to buy their own homes.

The policy has several restrictions. Buyers and their families cannot already own homes in their name. Single people making purchases must be at least 30 years old. And a family can only apply for one home.

"The new housing policy clearly targets households that have difficulties in purchasing a home," said Liu Weimin, researcher with the State Council development research center.

Deng Liang, a Beijing-based lawyer, said the new homes could better satisfy housing demand while curbing speculation. The government offers support in areas such as land prices and policy, while holding a share of the property rights, and buyers must pay a share of the price according to their share of the property rights.

Five years after purchase, owners can sell their shares based on the market price, but the government or its assigned management agencies have first-refusal to buy-back.

Zhao Xiuchi, professor with Capital University of Economics and Business, said that although it was more economical to rent considering the current high prices, people still preferred to buy.

The new policy will also help ease traffic in Beijing as people with local Hukou (residence permits) or those that work within a certain district would enjoy priority to buy new homes within their particular district, according to Zhao.

Liu Weimin said the policy was key to Beijing's plan to create a world-class, harmonious and livable metropolis, as it stipulated that at least 30 percent of the homes would be offered to "new Beijingers," referring to people without a Beijing Hukou but with stable jobs in Beijing.

China has recently taken a set of measure to stabilize the housing market and curb speculation.

On July 17, authorities in the southern city of Guangzhou decided to give tenants and homeowners equal rights to local education resources.

In many Chinese cities, the right to attend schools is limited to the children of homeowners rather than tenants. Guangzhou is the first top-tier Chinese city to grant such rights to tenants.

On July 20, a notice was issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and other government departments saying that measures would be taken in cities with net population inflows, including increasing rental housing supplies and setting up a government-backed home rental service platform.

Pilot projects will first start in 12 cities, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing and Hangzhou.

In the future, cities such as Wuhan, Shenyang and Wuxi will announce plans to grant more rights to tenants.

China's property market has shown signs of cooling as prices have faltered in major cities amid tough government curbs.
NAIROBI - East Africa's largest financial institution, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group and the Chinese financial service giant UnionPay International, on Friday entered into a partnership to boost digital payments in Eastern Africa.

KCB Kenya Head of Channels Dennis Njau said that the collaboration will see the issuance of UnionPay Prepaid Travel Mate cards in the Eastern Africa region.

"The cards will enable the digitalization of payments at retailers, large and small, to take advantage of one of the world's fastest payment processing networks," Njau said in a statement released in Nairobi.

As a result of the partnership, UnionPay prepaid and debit cards with chip-enabled technology, will be issued, first into the Kenyan market and then extended into East Africa.

The cards will be equipped with chip-enabled technology, to offer advanced speed, security and convenience to the bank's customers.

Njau said that with tourism and trade increasingly becoming the mainstay of East African region's economy, the partnership with UnionPay International strengthens its cooperation with a local financial institution to cater to the new customer segment.

UnionPay International CEO, Cai Jianbo said that the prepaid cards to be rolled out in East Africa will feature UnionPay contactless technology called "Quickpass" which provide speed and convenience to cardholders at major retailers, grocery stores, cinemas, parking lots, mass transit and taxis.

"The launch of UnionPay Business in Eastern Africa will further strengthen cooperation on people-to-people exchanges and advance the financial inclusion programs," Cai added.
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir - India signed a loan agreement with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for providing loan of $329 million to improve rural road connectivity in western state of Gujarat, officials said Saturday.

"The loan and project agreements for AIIB lending of $329 million for Gujarat rural roads project have been signed between the government of India, government of Gujarat and the AIIB yesterday in New Delhi," a finance ministry official said. "The objective of the project is to improve the rural road connectivity and accessibility in rural areas of Gujarat.

According to officials the project would benefit about 8 million people in the state by providing all weather road connectivity to 1,060 villages in 33 districts.

The project would envisage constructions and up-gradation of non-plan roads (NPRs), besides up-gradation of planned roads.
Terry Gou (L), founder and CEO of Foxconn Technology Group, and Richard Snyder (R), governor of the US state of Michigan, speak to the media.[Photo by Chai Hua/chinadaily.com.cn]

Terry Gou, founder and CEO of Foxconn Technology Group, met this afternoon with Richard Snyder, governor of the US state of Michigan, to discuss potential investment in the automobile industry.

Gou disclosed the firm plans to establish a research center in the state that accounts for 70 percent of the R&D development in the country's automobile industry, and that the industry will be a key aspect of the future development of the world's largest electronics manufacturer.

He announced last week the plan to invest $10 billion in the next four years to build a factory in Wisconsin in the US. However, US President Donald Trump said Foxconn's total investment will triple, according to Bloomberg.

"I can't say it is a sure thing, but we are indeed in discussion with several other states and the details will be announced soon," Gou responded to the media.

When asked how to balance investment in the US and China, Gou said the market and technology are most important for his firm and he will continue to expand investment in both countries.

"We won't decrease investment in one place because we expanded in another," he said.

After visiting Foxconn's factory at Shenzhen's Longhua district, Richard Snyder told the media that he is very excited to see Foxconn's facilities and that they are "extremely wonderful."

grace@chinadailyhk.com
A customer takes a look of the new apple watch inside an Apple Inc store in New York. [Photo/Agencies]

For the first time, Chinese technology giant Xiaomi Corp has leapfrogged Apple Inc to be the world's largest wearable product manufacturer, a new report said.

The Beijing-based Xiaomi has outcompeted rivals with affordable products in the second quarter of this year by shipping 3.7 million wearable devices, up 23 percent year-on-year.

This gave it a 17 percent share of the global wearable devices market, according to consultancy Strategy Analytics.

Xiaomi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its achievement.

Apple, which took the crown in the first quarter, shipped 2.8 million smart wearables in the second quarter and slipped to the third spot.

US hardware firm Fitbit came in second with 3.4 million shipped wearables, chiefly smart fitness bands, down 40 percent year-on-year.

According to the Strategy report, global shipments of wearables reached 22 million units in the second quarter, up 8 percent year-on-year.

Strong demand for low-cost fitness bands in China and premium smartwatches across the United States drove the uptick, industry insiders said.

Steven Waltzer, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, said Apple appears to have lost its wearables leadership to Xiaomi partly because it does not have a presence in the sizable fitness band subcategory.

Jean Xiao, research manager at IDC China, said: "Unlike basic wearable products in overseas markets where fitness tracking is their main function, Chinese consumers are demanding more functionalities. Players need to catch up with the trend."

As consumers become increasingly health-conscious, they are embracing smart wearables such as watches and bracelets to help track heart-rates, steps walked and other daily activities, experts said.

"Xiaomi's Mi Band fitness trackers are wildly popular in China, due to their highly competitive pricing and rich features such as heart-rate monitors, step-counters and calendar alerts," Waltzer said.

"But Apple's rumored upcoming Watch Series 3, which is said to have enhanced health tracking function, could prove to be highly popular, and enable it to reclaim the top wearables spot later this year."

Earlier this year, Xiaomi re-entered the club of world's top five smartphone sellers. It is stepping up efforts to expand partnership with both online and offline retail partners.
Chinese tourists are spending more money on upgraded travel experiences when they go abroad, and more people are willing to take in-depth, individualized and customized trips, according to a report released this week by the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip.com travel agency.

A tourist enjoys the sights in Bangkok, Thailand. More Chinese travelers prefer individualized travel. [China Daily]

"The middle class, who are the backbone of the outbound tourism market in China, are more willing to slow down their travel pace and enjoy in-depth travel experiences, no matter if it is in accommodations, eating, shopping or cultural consumption," said Dai Bin, director of the China Tourism Academy.

"More people prefer independent trips, instead of traveling with groups, and those who spend a lot of money shopping account for a smaller portion of Chinese tourists."

In the first half of the year, 42 percent of Chinese tourists chose to travel with groups and 58 percent took individualized trips, Ctrip said. The shift has coincided with the proliferation of travel websites and mobile applications to find travel information and book trips.

Take Lily Min, 26, a Hong Kongbased lawyer who traveled to Japan last month with a friend.

"I prefer to travel on individualized trips than go with groups because I will have a more flexible schedule and change it as needed," she said. "Besides, I like to plan the whole trip on my own, including booking hotels, choosing places to dine and exploring destinations."

Dai said the outbound tourism market in China has entered a steady growth period with low-to-medium growth rate.

During the first six months of the year, 62.03 million Chinese traveled abroad, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent, the report said.

Currently, 120 million Chinese have private passports, meaning 90 percent of passport holders have not traveled abroad yet, indicating a significant potential for outbound tourism.

As of July 11, 65 countries and regions had introduced favorable visa-free or visa-on-arrival polices to attract Chinese tourists, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Thailand was the most popular destination for Chinese tourists in the first six months of 2017, followed by Japan and Singapore. The number of Chinese tourists who visited South Korea dropped 41 percent year-on-year.

The total of Chinese tourists who traveled to Europe surged 65 percent, and 5.5 million Chinese are forecast to travel to Europe this year, the report said.

Chinese people from smaller cities are traveling abroad more frequently thanks to relaxed visa policies and more direct flights to foreign destinations, the report said.
WUHAN -- Wu Tianjun, a former senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official in central China's Henan Province, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for taking bribes.

The court also seized Wu's personal assets of 1 million yuan (150,000 U.S. dollars) which will be turned over to the state treasury, according to the verdict announced on Friday by the Intermediate People's Court of Xiangyang City in central China's Hubei Province.

Wu, a former member of the standing committee of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee, took advantage of his positions to help others with business operations and promotions. He accepted money and valuables worth more than 11 million yuan personally or through others between 2004 and 2015.

His illicit gains have been confiscated, according to the court.

Wu had also served as head of the commission for political and legal affairs of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee as well as chief of CPC committees of Xinxiang City and Zhengzhou City.

Wu had confessed his crimes and returned his illegal gains willingly, all grounds for leniency, according to the verdict.

Wu accepted the ruling at the court and said he would not appeal.

The discipline inspection agency of the CPC announced in January that Wu had been expelled from the Party and dismissed from public office following a corruption investigation.
NANCHANG -- Four people who were acquitted from a wrongful conviction of 13 years ago have each received 2.27 million yuan ($330,000) from the state, the Jiangxi Higher People's Court said.

Huang Zhiqiang, Fang Chunping, Cheng Fagen and Cheng Lihe were sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Jingdezhen city in July 2003 for murder, rape and robbery on May 23, 2000 in Leping City, in central China's Jiangxi Province. The appeal process has been continuing since 2003.

In 2016, the Jiangxi Higher People's Court ruled that the facts were unclear, the evidence insufficient, and the authenticity and legitimacy of their confessions in doubt.

Xia Keqin, vice president of Jiangxi higher court, made an apology to the four after their acquittal.
Suspects in telecom and online fraud cases are brought back to China from Fiji at Changchun Longjia International Airport, Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin province, Aug 5, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - A total of 77 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been brought back to China from Fiji, the Ministry of Public Security announced Saturday.

It was the first time for Chinese police to bring back so many suspects from an Oceanian country.

The suspects are accused in more than 50 cases involving over 6 million yuan ($892,000).

On Sept 22, 2016, one of the victims in Northeast China's Jilin province was swindled out of 1.3 million yuan and committed suicide, which triggered large-scale investigations at provincial and state levels.

An illegal online gambling and lottery gang was soon revealed, directing to more than 200 suspects based in China, Indonesia and Fiji, with nearly 100 million yuan illegal gains involved. Victims were from over 20 provinces and municipalities across China.

Chinese police sent a team to Fiji on July 2 to work with local police. On July 18, they took action, destroying five dens, arresting 77 suspects and confiscating equipment, including mobile phones, computers and bank cards.

In the meantime, police busted eight dens and two technical teams, arresting 83 suspects in China.

In a separate case, the ministry announced on Friday that it had brought 143 such suspects to China from Indonesia. Another 10 suspects, who had been arrested, remained in Indonesia under investigation. Their cases involved more than 20 million yuan, said the ministry.
Wang Min, a former provincial-level official of Northeast China's Liaoning province and a senior national legislator, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday for corruption, taking bribes and negligence of duty.

The sentence was given by the Luoyang Intermediate People's Court of in Central China's Henan province, which also deprived Wang of his political rights for life, with all his personal assets confiscated.

Wang was vice-chairman of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee of the 12th National People's Congress after leaving the post of Liaoning Party chief. In October last year, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China for serious breaches of Party discipline.
A Foreign Ministry photo released on Wednesday shows Indian troops encroaching on Chinese territory. Provided to China Daily

Since the standoff began between China and India on a remote Himalayan plateau in mid-June, Foreign Ministry spokespersons have issued one strong statement after another, asking India to withdraw its troops from Donglang, and warning it against miscalculations and nurturing illusions. And Defense Ministry spokespersons have stressed the resolution of the People's Liberation Army to defend China's territory and called on India not to underestimate the country's determination to safeguard its sovereignty.

In the past, India and China have been able to manage their differences over their disputed borders that have arisen from time to time.

But the Chinese government's strong response suggests something is different this time.

First, the simple fact is that China and India have no border dispute in the Donglang area, because the boundary there has been delimited under the 1890 Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet.

True, China and India share a long border across thousands of kilometers and most of it has not been officially demarcated. But the 220 km border between China and India in the Sikkim sector was settled way back in 1890, and successive Chinese and Indian governments have abided by it since then. But on June 18, the Indian troops crossed the established border and forcefully stopped their Chinese counterparts from building infrastructure on the Chinese side, which led to the current standoff.

India claims the standoff is at the "tri-junction" (meeting point of the borders of China, India and Bhutan), but the truth is that the site is at least 2 kilometers away from the tri-junction. China can only perceive the Indian intrusion as an attempt to expand the disputes into uncontested areas, which will make the border issue more difficult to resolve.

Second, India's claim of being under obligation to help Bhutan defend its territory has no legal basis, as Bhutan is not India's "treaty ally". Bhutan signed a Friendship Treaty with India in 1949, in which "Bhutan agrees to be guided by the advice of the Government of India in regard to its external relations". The treaty was revised in 2007, and now it states the two governments "shall cooperate closely with each other on issues relating to their national interests", and neither "shall allow the use of its territory for activities harmful to the national security and interest of the other".

Even though Bhutan has agreed to "cooperate", nothing in the treaty justifies India trespassing into Chinese territory.

Bhutan is a sovereign state, a friendly neighbor to both China and India. Of China's 14 land neighbors, Bhutan is the only one that has no diplomatic ties with China, and one of the two that have not settled their land borders with China (the other being India). Actually, Bhutan has made territorial claims that conflict with those of China. Both sides have held 24 rounds of talks since the 1980s and reached a common understanding on the basics of their borders.

But without India's endorsement, Bhutan cannot sign a border agreement with China. And without an India-endorsed border agreement, Bhutan cannot conclude negotiations to establish diplomatic relations with China.

As one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement whose core principles include national independence, state sovereignty, and opposition to bloc politics, India knows full well that intervention in the name of a third party does not conform to its own foreign policy. India actually is harming Bhutan's national interests, and its "cooperation" with Bhutan is only for its national interests.

Third, Donglang has been under China's control and administration. PLA units conduct regular patrols in the area, and the local government has built roads and facilities to facilitate economic activities there to help improve the livelihoods of local residents.

Chinese herdsmen use the grasslands in Donglang to graze their cattle in the summer, as do Bhutanese herdsmenbut only with the endorsement of the Chinese local government and after paying the "grass tax". So China has every right to build roads, houses and other facilities in the area, because it is part of its territory.

The fact is that China and India have no disputes in the Sikkim section of their border, and hence India cannot justify its border transgressioneither to defend its own territorial rights or to support a third party's territorial claim against China.

Contrary to what Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in her speech in the Indian parliament on July 20that China was "unilaterally" changing the status quo in Donglangit is India that is trying to change the status quo, by creating a dispute where there is none, disregarding China's control over the area, trying to impede China-Bhutan border negotiations, and complicating the border issue with military buildup. It is the illegal intrusion of Indian troops into Chinese territory that is the most disruptive factor to the status quo.

The Donglang standoff is unprecedented. That is why the Chinese government has adopted a very strong stance and is seeking an unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops. There can be no room for negotiations before this wrong is righted. New Delhi should understand the severity of the situation and handle the sensitive issue more carefully and prudently.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi once said that for four decades, not a single bullet has been fired across the India-China border. We all have to work harder to ensure the statement stands the test of time.

The author is a retired major general of the People's Liberation Army.

Courtesy: chinausfocus.com
Matt Scott sits in his office in Shenzhen, working on his AI research and development business. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Chinese government recently announced plans for a massive investment and research program aimed at turning the country into the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030. Artificial intelligence represents the latest goal in a technological revolution that in recent decades has changed not only the world but also the way we live, work and communicate.

It is a field in which China aims to catch up with competitors such as the United States by 2020 and overtake them in the subsequent decade to make AI a driver of its economic transformation.

The promises of AI sound impressive, but what exactly is it?

Most ordinary people can get their heads around the concept of the self-drive car and appreciate its potential advantages. For many, however, the prospect of machines one day being more intelligent than humans conjures up science fiction forebodings of a nightmarish world in which the same machines actually take over.

Even tech experts are divided over the direction that AI development should take if we are to avoid the potential pitfalls.

Elon Musk, CEO of the car and rocket giants Tesla and SpaceX, recently said, only half-jokingly, that the reason humans should colonize Mars was to provide a refuge from the thinking robots destined to take over the world. The billionaire AI-skeptic is worried that humans could accidentally stumble onto technologies that could lead to their own destruction. As early as 2014, he described AI as humankind's biggest existential threat.

Similar warnings have been sounded by Stephen Hawking.

Some tech innovators are more relaxed. Ray Kurzweil, a leading tech developer, is confident that sensible controls can head off the prospect of nightmare scenarios. He has cited advances in biotechnology, which was once regarded as a potential threat by those alarmed by the prospect of scientists tampering with human DNA.

Kurzweil has written that biotech guidelines established over several decades had worked very well. "There have been no significant problems, accidental or intentional, for the past 39 years," he wrote in a 2014 blog. "We are now seeing major advances in medical treatments reaching clinical practice and thus far none of the anticipated problems."

The arguments of Kurzweil and others that humans have faced existential challenges in the past and somehow overcome them are comforting. Most innovations since the dawn of time have had a potential for good and evil. The caveman's spear could be used to catch dinner or annihilate his neighbor.

The four great inventions of ancient China were the compass, paper, printing and gunpowder. It's another matter that we might be better off if the last one had been reserved for making fireworks rather than being developed by others for the industrialization of war.

But, as most of us would concede, you can't stop progress. AI will sooner or later become a reality, and one positive sign is that scientists worldwide are collaborating to ensure it is not misused.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology began collaborating with Tsinghua University and other Chinese institutions over the past decade on AI and other high-tech fields. In a 2010 report, MIT said: "If we are going to be involved in the resolution of global problemswhether sustainable cities, climate change, resource depletion, disease control or any otherwe have to be able to understand and engage partners in China."

With China set to take the lead in AI research, it and its international partners will also be looking at the potential disruptive consequences of the new technology in terms of job replacement and global security.

As Fei-Fei Li, AI expert and chief scientist of Google Cloud, recently told Xinhua News Agency, AI could be used to benefit humanity or cause it big problems. Everyone should be involved in the debate, she said. "Silicon Valley leaders, professors, students, policymakers, lawmakers, educators ... everybody should be at the table discussing this."

The author is a senior editorial consultant for China Daily. harveymorris@gmail.com
Thirty-meter tall matryoshka dolls at Matryoshka Square in Manzhouli, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/China Daily]

When it comes to Inner Mongolia, we usually think of expansive grassland, where cattle and sheep graze beside a meadow. But the Inner Mongolia autonomous region is not only China's largest pastoral region, but also China's first provincial-level ethnic region.

And the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the autonomous region will be held in Hohhot this month.

The region covers an area of 1.18 million square kilometers, accounting for 12.3 percent of the total area of the country, and is home to 25.11 million Han, Mongolian, Manchu and 55 other ethnic groups who live harmoniously.

People from all ethnic groups help each other, work together, and have built the region into a fertile land of culture and inclusive development.

In Hohhot, the story of the "grassland hero sisters", which influenced generations of young people, has been choreographed into a musical.

And, in Ulanhot, people share their signature dishes in Xing'an Street's multiethnic community. A food festival has been held for seven consecutive years.

Inner Mongolia shares a 4,200-km border with Mongolia and Russia.
A book titled 1987, Our Dream of the Red Chamber, written by actor-turned-director Ouyang Fenqiang, was published recently. [Photo Provided to China Daily]

The seeds for a groundbreaking Chinese TV period drama that recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of its first broadcast were sown on distant shores

When Wang Fulin visited London it was not Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, black taxis or red doubledecker buses that left the deepest impression on him. Instead, as he flew home to China, the picture fixed in his mind was a very Chinese red.

It was 1979, and Wang had just spent several days in the British capital with a delegation of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China. They had visited the BBC at a time when the series Downton Abbey was still years away from even being an idea on a storyboard, but when the British broadcaster had already made a worldwide reputation for itself with its TV period dramas.

One of those was the 1967 adaptation of the John Galsworthy novel The Forsyte Saga, which ran in 26 parts and was broadcast all over the world, and of which Sarah Crompton of the Daily Telegraph in London has said: "It was not the first literary adaptation on TV, but it was longer and more ambitious than anything screened before, and it has come to represent every value and standard to which British TV has aspired ever since."

So when the filmmaker Wang visited the BBC that day, the idea that occurred to him was essentially this: "If the British can do it, why can't we?"

Wang says now: "They had adapted many world classic novels into TV series, and I wondered why we could not do the same with Chinese classics and have them shown worldwide."
Caroline Vreeland and Shea Marie wear Tommy Hilfiger for autumn 2016. [Photo by Tommy Hilfiger Licensing LLC/Tommy Hilfiger Licensing BV for China Daily]

In the 1980s, fashion brands began putting their logos on everything. Here, we chart their recent rise to prominence

Before ready-to-wear became standard practice, made-tomeasure was a common choice when it came to getting a piece of clothing. In the 1950s, it became popular among Parisian women to collect sewing patterns - the garment template released periodically in magazines - so they could bring the pattern to a tailor's shop or sew it themselves at home.

However, self-sewn clothes had all but disappeared by the 1980s as ostentatious, showy styles took the lead. Attire became highly conspicuous, such as Madonna's garish look in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, Joan Collins's powerful woman's shoulder pads and the yuppies' preppy upscale styling that rose in parallel with the increase of wealth in many societies including the US, Britain and Hong Kong.

People seemed to be splashing heaps of cash on clothes and desired more visibility. Fashion companies smelled a business opportunity to increase their value by elevating their brand profiles, so they spent enormously on marketing and ad campaigns. Logos evolved from a differentiating name to a strong branding force and a status symbol.

From the decadent '80s to today, fashion brands have embraced marketing with glamour and creativity, putting their logos under the spotlight. Eminent players in the '80s and '90s included emerging American jeans brands such as Jordache, Calvin Klein and Guess, which put their distinctive logos on the back pocket. Traditional French fashion houses such as Chanel, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton have been huge marketers as well, in a quest to be at the top of those consumers' minds.

In that era, the size of the logo grew, as well as the influence, from runway to off-the-rack. At London Fashion Week in 1996, Tommy Hilfiger famously dressed his models and rapper Treach (from then-prominent American hip-hop group Naughty by Nature) in giant logo T-shirts with the brand's signature colors, making a big statement for the label, Hilfiger sales nearly hit US$500 million in 1996 - a huge jump from US$107 million in 1992.

Showing off logos became a key point in styling. When Calvin Klein launched its successful underwear campaigns in the early 1990s using topless, well-endowed male models such as Mark.

Wahlberg for its line of boxers, countless men (and certainly women, too) started to view the logo in a different light. Now it's possible to see any type of person sporting a Calvin Klein band around their waist, whether it's a Hollywood star, a plumber or your next-door neighbor.

Today, logos are prominent on the street - think the Nike swoosh, the Gucci double-G, the Chanel interlocking Cs, the Louis Vuitton monogram. Still others are turning to logo-less products, such as those by Japanese lifestyle brand Muji, whose name means "no-brand quality goods". Either way, whether you love or hate logos, you can be secure that you're not defined solely by what you wear.

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Gongchen Bridge stretches across the eastern and western banks of the Grand Canal and appears majestic and grand. [Photo/Xinhua]

Man-made waterway offers a link to country's past.

The ancient Chinese built two great engineering wonders: the Great Wall and the Grand Canal. Though the Great Wall's function in military defense has faded over time, the Grand Canal remains a crucial conduit of cultural communication.

The Grand Canal, spanning over 2,000 kilometers between Beijing and Hangzhou, was listed as a world heritage site in 2014.

Currently, the creation of the Grand Canal cultural belt is being discussed nationwide.

But why should a man-made waterway be considered a cultural treasure?

Zhang Shuheng, a researcher at an archaeological institute in Zhejiang province, says the canal was a pillar for the economy, social stability and government functions in ancient China.

The canal also helped the evolution of Chinese culture by enhancing communication between the south and the north.

Hangzhou resident Zhou Zhihua, who grew up beside the canal, says:" Areas around the Gongchen Bridge used to be busy - filled with people from all walks of life, like businessmen, dockmen, rickshaw drivers and vagrants."
New Delhi warned to 'not mistake restraint for weakness' over border

India must not expect China to concede its violation of China's territory, analysts said, after a spokesman from the Ministry of National Defense issued a statement warning India to abandon illusions.

A Foreign Ministry photo released on Wednesday shows Indian troops encroaching on Chinese territory. Provided to China Daily

There is a "bottom line" to the Chinese military's restraint in solving the incident caused by India's trespass, spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in the statement issued late on Thursday.

Ren said the Chinese military "has remained highly restrained", but "the restraint is not without a bottom line".

Urging Indian troops to withdraw immediately, Ren said India should "abandon any illusion" of delaying tactics, and not underestimate the Chinese military's confidence in and ability to defend peace.

Zhao Xiaozhuo, a researcher at the PLA Academy of Military Science, said India "should not mistake restraint for weakness", as China's restraint doesn't mean it will accept a violation of its territory.

"It doesn't mean there will be no further measures by China," Zhao said, adding that India "is approaching the bottom line" by having its troops remain in the Donglang area (Doklam).

Indian troops illegally crossed the China-India boundary in the Sikkim Sector on June 18 to obstruct China's road building in Donglang.

The Sikkim Sector is the only delimited part of the China-India boundary, and was defined in the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet signed in 1890.

According to the convention, the Donglang area is located on the Chinese side of the boundary.

Governments of both the People's Republic of China and post-independence India inherited the convention.

In letters to former premier Zhou Enlai in 1959, former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said the sector of the boundary was defined by the convention.

The Foreign Ministry has lodged repeated representations to India over its trespass across this defined sector of the boundary, but Indian troops have remained in the Donglang area.

Lan Jianxue, a researcher in South Asian studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said the statement made by Ren is a serious warning for India that asks it to withdraw its troops.

"China has tried its best to practice restraint. It has been asking through diplomatic channels for the Indian troops to withdraw. But India doesn't seem to understand," Lan said, adding that there are "various possibilities" if India keeps ignoring China's diplomatic efforts.
Photo taken on Aug 4, 2017 shows a screen shot of the pregnant panda Huan Huan in ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, France.[Photo/Xinhua]

SAINT-AIGNAN, France  Huan Huan, the female panda which is on loan to France from China, has delivered twin cubs on Friday night.

In her first delivery, Huan Huan has given birth to two cubs at interval of a few minutes, said the zoo in a communique.

The first panda cub was born at 10:18 pm local time (2018 GMT), and the other came 14 minutes later.

In the wild, female pandas raise only a cub, the "strongest", the one that has the most chances of survival, and abandon the second. Huan Huan has chosen the second cub and the first one was put immediately to an incubator.

The first cub was put immediately to the incubator but was announced dead shortly.

The female panda and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived in central France's Beauval zoo in January 2012. They are on loan from China for ten years.

The female panda is only on heat once a year for two days. There are about 2,000 pandas in the world.They classified as "vulnerable" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
PYONGYANG -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Saturday warned the United States against further military and economic pressure over its nuclear program, after Pyongyang successfully test fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The official Korean Central News Agency said the United States has thrown "a hysteric fit" after being "taken aback by the DPRK's continued demonstration of nuclear attack capabilities."

The United States has been making repeated military threats against Pyongyang after it launched its second ICBM on July 28, by sending B-1B strategic bombers to the Korean Peninsula and holding joint missile drills with South Korea, said the news agency in a commentary.

"The more desperately the US works to realize its ambition for 'nuclear dismantlement of the north' through 'maximum pressure and engagement,' the more dynamically the DPRK has stepped up diversifying and modernizing its nuclear force," it said.

The United States is going to propose a new resolution of sanctions against the DPRK at the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, according to media reports.
One of the most important things you should know about China employment law is that employees have many rights they cannot contract away. For an example of this, see China Employers: Pay Your Employees on Time to Avoid Lawsuits and Penalties. China employee working hours is another good example of this.

As I have written previously, most China employees can only work under Chinas standard working hours system, and in most places in China, that means a 40-hour work week  8 hours a day and 5 days a week. Many foreign employers dislike this system because it means work done outside standard working hours is overtime and must be paid accordingly. Chinas laws recognize this standard system is not practical for certain positions and for certain industries and it allows for two major exceptions, with one being the flexible working hours system. This system is somewhat similar to the salaried employee system in the United States in that it allows employees to work flexible hours without overtime.

Chinas flexible hours system sounds good to foreign company employers, but they so often mess it up that it sometimes seems most would be better off were it not to exist at all. To get one or more of your employees in under the flexible working hours system, you must secure prior government approval and this can be a painful and frustrating process, even for those of us who do it all the time. The requirements for getting an employee under the flexible hours system (like pretty much everything else employee related in China) are localized and can change without notice. The local government decision on whether to grant a flexible hours exception rests with local employment officers and they have plenty of discretion and their interpretations of the law can vary. Making things worse, an approval is usually valid for only one year so you need to renew it every year, and the renewal process can be just as arduous as the initial application. Once any of our China employment lawyers gets an approval, we are always certain to send that same lawyer back for any subsequent approvals, figuring that we are not going to mess with what works.

Because of these difficulties, we are starting to see China employers come up with creative ways to get around this problem. For example, instead of seeking government approval before they designate the employees to work flexible hours or securing approvals for renewals when the validity periods are expiring, they enter into a well-written Chinese-language agreement with the employee that specifically states the employee will work flexible hours and any overtime pay will be dealt with accordingly. Bad idea. The validity of these sorts of agreements has been tested by Chinas courts, and the employers have lost nearly every time. In a recent case in Fujian Province, an employer argued that the local law requiring prior government approval for a flexible hours system is not mandatory and because the employer and his employees had agreed to such a system of their own free will, their agreement did not violate any mandatory laws and should be respected. No surprise to anyone who knows Chinas employment laws, but the court did not side with the employer and it instead ordered it to pay all overtime, plus penalties.

There are actually a few very limited circumstances under which employers do not need prior government approval before they can make an employee work flexible hours, but those exceptions vary by locale and they can change without notice as well. On top of this, we are aware of situations where the law says government approval is not required for certain positions but the local labor authorities nonetheless still mandate prior approval. Your outcome will ultimately come down to your locale, but our advice to clients is never to institute a flexible hours program without first getting sign off from the relevant authorities. Failing to do so can lead to lawsuits and penalties.

Even if you do everything right in securing relevant government approval, you also must then follow all the requirements of a flexible hours system and these too can be complicated and local. For example, in a case in Tianjin, an employer that obtained government approval to have an employee work under the flexible working hours system lost a lawsuit to an employee who worked 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for years without overtime. The court ruled that even though the employer had secured government approval for the employee to work flexible hours, because the employer made the employee report her attendance and work overtime as though she were still on a standard hours system, the laws on standard working hours must apply and the employer must pay this employee overtime pay for all past overtime work.

When it comes to China employment laws, you really need to get clear on what can be contracted away, and what cannot.

Towards that end, it is with great pride that I announce the recent publication of my book on Chinas employment laws, entitled, The China Employment Law Guide: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Company. The Kindle edition is already out and the softcover version will soon follow. I wrote this book intending it to be a quick and easy off the shelf reference for companies with employees in China. Please check it out and let me know what you think.
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Authorities are searching for a self-proclaimed MS-13 gang member who is a suspect in the fatal stabbing of a 60-year-old man early Thursday morning in East Montgomery County.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is seeking the public's help in locating Guillermo Fernandez, aka Jose Alvarez-Fernandez, a 23-year-old Hispanic male.

He's described as being 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds and sporting a marijuana leaf tattoo on one of his forearms. He also has his last name tattooed on one of his triceps and a devil face tattoo on his left calf, according to law enforcement.

MURDER CHARGES: MS-13 member extradited to Houston

Detectives consider Fernandez armed and dangerous.

The victim, a Hispanic male in his 60s, was found with multiple stab wounds outside a home in the 23000 block of Goode Road off Texas 105 East around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. The victim's identity has not been released.

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A neighbor told The Courier the victim did not live at the home, although the homeowners rushed outside and found him in their driveway. They tried to administer first aid on the man, but he died before deputies and medics arrived.

"It is believed he was stabbed multiple times by an unknown subject," Montgomery County Sheriff's Lt. Scott Spencer said Thursday.

Briseyde Gonzalez, who lives next door, said she heard an altercation prior to the man's death.

MOST WANTED: Two from Houston' added to fugitives list

"You could hear banging," Gonzalez said. "I got up to see what was going on, and I just remember seeing there was a truck and it reversed right here, pulled up and picked someone up and went super fast."

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Fernandez is asked to contact local law enforcement or the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at 936-760-5800 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-392-STOP (7867).
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As schools open across northwest Houston, hundreds of new employees will be starting work in area districts, filling the demand as the region continues to boom.

School districts have been in a hiring frenzy to staff new schools for the 2017-18 school year starting soon and to staff schools where enrollment has grown.

Klein Independent School District has hired 500 new employees for the upcoming school year, said Terrell King, the district's Associate Superintendent for Human Resource Services.

"It's been a very busy recruiting and hiring season," he said.

Klein ISD has been working to staff its new high school, Klein Cain High School.

Klein ISD is offering stipends for competitive, hard-to-fill positions, including elementary bilingual teachers, who receive a $4,500 stipend, King said.

"Finding teachers at the elementary level with bilingual certification continues to be an area of need," King said. "We offer competitive stipends to attract teachers in our priority staffing areas."

New Health Science Technology teachers in Klein ISD receive a $4,000 stipend incentive. Secondary math and science teachers receive a $2,000 stipend.

The applicant pools have been strong, King said.

"We have experienced a healthy supply of applicants for our vacancies," he said.

Current enrollment at Klein ISD is 51,773 students and the district projects an enrollment of just over 52,800 students at peak enrollment, said Klein ISD spokeswoman Judy Rimato.

Spring Independent School District has hired 455 teachers since April 1, said Karen Garrison, district spokeswoman.

"This number includes teachers who will be new to the district, as well as teachers who have transferred from one position to another within the district," Garrison said.

The biggest challenge for Spring ISD is finding teachers for Bilingual and Career and Technical Education (CTE), Garrison said.

"The district has explored offering School District Teaching Permits to CTE candidates who aren't certified in these specific positions but possess industry certifications, licensures and work experience," Garrison said. In addition, Spring ISD has been working to ensure the application process is more user-friendly, Garrison said. In February, the district started a new applicant system, which is faster and easier to use.

"Our district made it a priority to secure staff earlier this year, and with that goal in mind, we began our hiring season in March," Garrison said. "We believe that decision has paid off and expect to have 100 percent of our staff in place by the start of school."

Garrison says Spring ISD offers competitive salaries to attract new teachers and stipends during some years.

"The district offers competitive stipends for positions in our critical shortage areas," Garrison said. "Although we have not added new incentives this year, we are working hard to keep our salaries competitive, offer excellent professional development opportunities throughout the school year and create systems that support a culture of excellence."

Schools are working to keep up with the area's population boom, driven by business growth and mobility improvements.

Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District has been working to staff four new schools opening this fall.

The new schools include Bridgeland High School, Jim and Pam Wells Elementary School, Janet Brenner Hoover Elementary School and Matzke Elementary.

Cy-Fair ISD expects enrollment to be well over 115,000 students for the fall, said Stephanie Migl, a spokeswoman for the district.

In the Tomball Independent School District, the district has hired between 100 to 140 new teachers for the 2017-18 school year.

Tomball ISD expects enrollment to grow to approximately 15,800 students for the 2017-18 school year, up from 14,980 students this year, said Staci Stanfield, director of communications at Tomball Independent School District.

Tomball ISD opened Creekside Park Junior High School in August 2016. In addition, the district opened three other new schools in 2015 - Creekview Elementary, Wildwood Elementary and Oakcrest Intermediate. The schools were funded with the district's $160 million bond referendum in 2013.

Teacher hiring will continue to remain robust over the next year for Klein ISD. Klein will begin construction in 2017 of a new intermediate school on West Rayford next to Metzler Elementary. The school will open in August of 2018.
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Grocery options continue to expand for northwest Houston residents.

A new Kroger grocery store will be opening in October in the master-planned community of Springwoods Village.

H-E-B opened a new store this spring in Champion Forest off the Grand Parkway.

In addition, German-based grocer Aldi has expanded its presence in northwest Houston with a Tomball location.

Sprouts Farmers Market has expanded in northwest Houston with two locations, including one at Texas 249 and Spring Cypress Road and another at 20708 Kuykehdahl Road.

And soon area residents will be able to have groceries delivered to their doorsteps, through AmazonFresh, which is building a new warehouse in northwest Houston, according to Realty News Report.

The real estate news website posted in July that AmazonFresh, the e-commerce giant's grocery arm, was expected to occupy more than 100,000 square feet of warehouse space at the Fallbrook Pines Business Park in northwest Houston.

Amazon has not responded to requests for comment. Developers of Fallbrook Pines Business Park referred all questions to Amazon.

The news of a new AmazonFresh warehouse comes weeks after Amazon's almost $14 billion offer to acquire Whole Foods was widely interpreted as a push to expand its logistical operation into groceries.

Residential growth in the area remains robust as the last several years of business growth and mobility improvements have brought a population boom to the region.

That means more shoppers at local grocery stores and more grocery store choices for residents.

The Market at Springwoods Village, located at the southeast corner of Holzwarth Road and the Grand Parkway, will be anchored by Kroger.

The Market, under development by Regency Centers in a joint venture with CDC-Houston, Inc., is 86 percent leased, said Vanessa Barfuss, leasing agent for the project.

Many anchor tenants were interested in The Market, but the developers chose Kroger for its vision for the community.

Kroger "believed in the benefits of being in Springwoods and on Grand Parkway," said Abe Pacetti, vice president of Investments with Regency Centers. "Kroger is a best-in-class grocer and a catalyst to build our shopping center around," he said.

The new Aldi store in Tomball is located near Hufsmith and Kuykendahl roads. Aldi operates nearly 1,600 stores in the U.S., throughout 35 states, including six in northwest Houston.

The location was chosen, in part, based on population density, traffic patterns and proximity to competition, said Karla Waddleton, Aldi Rosenberg Division Vice President.

More than 90 percent of the items sold at Aldi are sold under its exclusive brands. The store offers fresh meat, bread, dairy, produce and household items. Aldi says it is growing because its prices are low and its quality is high.

Also, the retailer offers a different type of shopping. The store is smaller than a typical grocery store, with just a few aisles, she said.
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A Houston police officer charged last year with intoxicated manslaughter has been found dead in his home, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office.

Fort Bend authorities arrested James Combs last August on suspicion of driving drunk and crashing into another vehicle, killing the driver, 36-year-old Brian Manring. Combs was 33 at the time.

Combs, who no longer works for the Houston Police Department, was later released on bond. But that bond was revoked Friday and a warrant was issued for his arrest, court records show.

The defendant allegedly had failed several of his bond conditions, according to court records. He failed a urine test for alcohol on July 13. He failed a breath analysis test the morning of May 8 and again on July 20.

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Combs' attorney, Mark Thiessen, on Friday morning planned to argue that those readings did not prove Combs had been drinking alcohol. They can be faulty and also affected by other factors, like food or cologne, he said.

But Combs, who had been expressing to Thiessen that he wasn't sure how much more he could handle, did not show up for the morning hearing Friday, Thiessen said.

"It was a red siren to me," Thiessen said.

The judge consequently raised the bail to $150,000, from $100,000.

The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Friday that the cause of death was suicide.

Comb's case, as it stood, was far from over. Another hearing was upcoming to determine whether the blood analysis from the night of the accident would be included in the case, Thiessen said.

News media meanwhile had followed the case closely. Manring, the man killed in the crash, had been the father of an 8-year-old girl. Manring's parents later filed a wrongful-death suit against Combs.

When Thiessen on Friday reached Combs to tell him he would have to post a new bond, he said Combs seemed despondent. As the day continued on, Thiessen learned that Combs, a military veteran, took his life.

"I think the stress of all this, and the guilt, it just left him hopeless and completely exhausted and depleted," Thiessen said, adding, "This accident ripped apart two families."

Like Manring, Combs had been a loving father, Thiessen said.

"This was a tragedy that took two great dads out of this world," he said.

Fort Bend County spokesperson Caitilin Espinosa said no further details on the circumstances of the death would be released.
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A driver slammed into a Houston fire truck that was on the scene of a three-car crash Saturday morning, causing the North Freeway to be shut down for a few hours, officials said.

The incident started around 3:30 a.m., when a drunk driver hit the back end of another car traveling northbound on Interstate 45 North Freeway, eventually causing both cars to strike another vehicle and hit the inside of a concrete guard wall, authorities said.
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The brazen, daylight heists happen in seconds.

A woman loading a shopping cart full of groceries into her SUV is attacked by a man who jumps from a vehicle, grabs her purse and shoves the woman so hard she falls.

She tries to give chase as the car speeds away, then spins around, dazed and breathless.

In another, a man jumps from a dark car, flings open the passenger door of a parked minivan and grabs a pocketbook from a woman's lap.

The robberies  captured on surveillance videos  are among an ongoing string of crimes targeting members of Houston's Chinese community. Now the community is making another appeal for help.

On Saturday, Chinatown residents and business owners will convene a safety seminar with Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, police and other officials to address the continuing rash of robberies in southwest Houston and other areas with large Asian populations. The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Chinese Community Center, 9800 Town Park Drive.

Read more: Asian community joins arms against crime

Recent concerns about grocery store attacks along Bellaire Boulevard shopping centers have curtailed shopper visits after dark, which is affecting commerce, according to Jessica Chen, an immigration lawyer and community activist who organized the meeting.

"Everybody feels fear," she said. "People just don't want to go to Chinatown right now. It's already affected businesses and the customers of the supermarkets."

Crime problems in Chinatown  which is centered generally east of the Sam Houston Tollway and north of Beechnut  have continued since last summer when area leaders and business people wrote Mayor Sylvester Turner about the "increasingly intolerable" situation. The issue also sparked demonstrations staged in the Galleria area to gain greater attention.

Officials from the Houston Police Department's Westside Station declined to discuss particulars of their efforts before the safety seminar, but have increased officer visibility and crime reduction initiatives.

"We are aware of the issues that have been occurring and we're taking them very seriously," HPD spokesman Victor Senties said. "We are currently working with the community and our partners to inform them on crime prevention and reporting."

Read more: Protesters demand more police protection for Chinatown neighborhood

Ogg will discuss how prosecutors are addressing crimes in the area, according to spokesman Dane Schiller.

Residents will appeal to new law enforcement leaders this time. Ogg took office in January and HPD Chief Art Acevedo began leading the department late last year.

Chen survived a robbery in July 2016 as she was leaving her Chinatown office late one night. Two men took her purse and keys and sped off in her BMW SUV with her iPhone. Chen's stolen vehicle was found the next day in Fort Bend County after the teen driver rear-ended another vehicle.

Chinatown merchants who live in Fort Bend County have been followed home and robbed in their driveways, which moved Chen to also invite a representative of the Fort Bend County District Attorney's office to the meeting, she said.

Community awareness has been heightened by the videos posted by HPD's robbery division. That footage has circulated widely and sparked a particular concern in Asian immigrant communities, Chen said. The woman whose purse was stolen from the shopping cart was loading groceries outside the Hong Kong Food Market location near the Gulf Freeway in southeast Houston.

"Most of the victims are Chinese females  when they are shopping, when they are parking their cars, when they go to their cars," Chen said. "The criminals just jump out and grab their bags. This is a kind of a typical crime. The criminals seem to be professionals. In under 2 minutes, they're finished."

Chen wants a renewed response from police and other officials.

"I want to let the local government know that something is happening in Chinatown and people need to take action," Chen said. "It's time for people in this community to do something to prevent this."
Police are searching for a suspect who hit and killed a man and broke the back of another person in southwest Houston last month, according to a news release from Houston Crime Stoppers.

The two victims were walking southbound around 12:15 a.m. July 19 in the 11200 block of Southwest Freeway when they were hit by a driver who failed to stop.
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A nine-year-old fourth grader recently made a compelling pitch to join NASA's Planetary Science Division.

The agency is on the hunt for a Planetary Protection Officer, a position that offers a six-figure salary to defend Earth from biological contamination as well as make sure NASA's space exploration doesn't contaminate space.

Jack Davis, self-proclaimed "Guardian of the Galaxy," sent a hand-written letter to NASA applying for the job opening.

UP CLOSE: Fly over Pluto in this new NASA video

Story continues below...

"I may be nine but I think I would be fit for the job," wrote Davis. "One of the reasons is my sister says I am an alien also, I have seen almost all the space and alien movies I can see."

Davis continued: "I have also seen the show 'Marvel Agents of Shield' and hope to see the movie 'Men in Black.' I am great at video games. I am young, so I can learn to think like an alien."

Clearly, NASA was impressed enough with Davis' resume to respond.

"I hear you are a 'Guardian of the Galaxy' and that you're interested in being a NASA Planetary Protection Officer," replied Dr. James Green, the director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. "That's great!"

CHIP IN: NASA's historic Mission Control is a ruin.

"We are always looking for bright future scientists and engineers to help us, so I hope you will study hard and do well in school," wrote Green. "We hope to see you here at NASA one of these days!"

No doubt, it will be tough for Davis to balance out school and video games all while learning to think like an alien  not to mention he's behind on three Men in Black movies. But he must, not for his sake, but for Earth's.

Godspeed, guardian.

Click through above to see how NASA's space suits have changed over the years.
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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Hyderabad August 05 :Its Genelia DSouza birthday today, and husband Riteish Deshmukh posted a cute message on his Instagram account on Saturday. The Bank Chor actor shared an adorable picture of himself with his cute wife Geneila. And its not just Riteish. Other Bollywood celebs also took the opportunity to wish the former actress. Right from Karan Johar to Farah Khan several celebs are pouring good wishes to the actress.

Happy Bday Baiko @geneliad you are an incredible woman,my best friend, my biggest support & the strongest mother. ??? ???????? ??? ???? ????, Riteish Deshmukh wrote.

Riteish and Genelia got married on 3rd February in 2012, and are blessed with two beautiful kids-Riaan, who was born on November 24, 2014, and Rahyl born on June 1, 2016.This has to be one of the romantic things in the internet today. What say? Well, happy birthday Genelia DSouza.In one of the skits performed by actors Riteish Deshmukh and Manish Paul they refereed Pahlaj Nahlani as watchman, which didnt go down well with him. Now, Riteish has apologised saying that the act was performed in a good humour.

In an interview to a leading news channel, Riteish admitted that there was a comment on CBFC chief adding that he would like to apologise if the act has upset anyone. Few days back, Pahlaj sent a five-page legal notice to the organisers of IIFA and called the skit an attempt to give boost to TRPs. Along with asking for a public apology, he demanded a declaration that IIFA wont defame him in future.Riteish and Genelia had made their debut together in Tujhe Meri Kasam in 2003. They later came together in movies like Masti and Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya.
Hyderabad August 05 : Telangana Chief Minister KCRs daughter and Telangana's Member of Parliament from Nizamabad, Kavita Kalvakuntla is always known for making controversial remarks against Power Star Pawan Kalyan. But the celebrity politician Kavitha stated that she is a huge fan of Pawan's brother and Mega Star Chiranjeevi. Today Kavitha clicked her selfie with Megastar Chiranjeevi during Vice Presidential voting and posted it on the wall of Twitter. She captioned it, Fan moment with #megastar during Vice Presidential voting in the parliament. Earlier on several occasion Kavitha has said that she admired always Chiranjeevi as an actor and never missed watching any of his films.



The name of the next Vice-President of India will be known Saturday evening after members of Parliament cast their ballot during the day in Parliament House. The voting takes place between 10 am and 5 pm and counting will start soon after polling. Result is expected to be declared around 7 pm today itself.



The ruling NDA, which has a majority in the Lok Sabha, will find it easy to place its candidate as the next vice president. The opposition has fielded Gopal Krishna Gandhi against M Venkaiah Naidu .
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two Case Western Reserve University law school professors asked a recently-confirmed federal prosecutor to review a deadly police shooting involving a student from the United Arab Emirates.

Lewis R. Katz, the director of the law school's foreign graduate studies program, and Michael J. Benza, a senior instructor, said that the investigation into the Dec. 4 shooting of Saif Nasser Mubarak Alameri was "flawed" and suggested the student's ethnicity may have played a role in his death.

A Summit County grand jury on Thursday decided not to bring charges against Hudson police officer Ryan Doran, who shot Alameri five times during a struggle in a wooded area near Hudson Aurora Road.

The law school professors questioned Doran's account of the deadly shooting and asked Justin Herdman, who was confirmed Thursday as the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, to review the incident. Herdman will not take the oath and begin working until later this month.

A Case Western spokesman said the professors made the request on their own, rather than on behalf of the law school.

A U.S. Attorney's office spokesman declined to comment on the letter.

It's unclear whether the U.S. Attorney's Office will review the shooting. Herdman told cleveland.com that he's been given no directives, but U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has suggested the Justice Department will pursue fewer lawsuits against police departments and officers accused of violating civil rights.

Katz, in a phone interview Friday afternoon, questioned why Doran was shown on dashboard camera video entering the woods with his gun drawn. The officer was investigating a report of a man who ran from a car crash on the Ohio Turnpike near Interstate 480; investigators later determined Alameri drove his car at least 112 mph when he sideswiped another car and flipped his car onto its roof.

"The dash cam didn't demonstrate an officer who was there to help someone involved in a car crash," Katz said.

The professors also suggested Alameri might have suffered a concussion in the crash.

Doran told investigators that Alameri, who was unarmed, attacked him in the woods. Doran said Alameri knocked him to the ground, choked him and grabbed at his gun, according to investigative records released by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The professors questioned how Doran lost his grip on his gun during the struggle. Doran told investigators he fell when Alameri ran toward him.

The letter notes that Doran fired several shots at Alameri's leg while both men were on the ground. The letter questions why Doran then blindly fired several shots over his shoulder; Doran told officers he kept shooting because he felt Alameri on his back.

"The officer claimed he fired the first two shots at [Alameri's] leg, which would have made any additional shots to his head unnecessary," the professors said in the letter.

Test results showed the officer's DNA on Alameri's fingernails, and the Emirati man's DNA on Doran's uniform collar. Those test results were consistent with Doran's description of the physical struggle, according to the investigative records.

The professors also said in the letter that police may have known Alameri was Middle Eastern before Doran entered the woods.

"There is every reason to believe that fact motivated the nature of the officer's response," the professors said in the letter.

The Emirati Embassy said Thursday that it is "deeply disappointed" by the grand jury's decision not to bring charges against Doran. The embassy is reviewing other legal options, a spokesman said in a statement.

To comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments page.
AMHERST, Ohio -- The Nord Family Foundation announced it will give up to $200,000 to help Lorain County combat the opioid epidemic by coordinating treatment and recovery resources.

The grant is for a systems audit of the county's service-providers to provide better care in Lorain County, according to a statement released Thursday by the foundation.

The foundation will partner with the Altarum Institute, a health research and consulting firm, to conduct the audit. It will share the results of the audit with Lorain County citizens, along with recommendations about how to better coordinate services.

The project will create geographic information system maps to identify where services are currently available in the county and where additional services are needed.

"At its core, the project will help determine the fiscal burden this epidemic has placed on local public resources such as public safety, criminal justice, healthcare, emergency services and recovery treatment facilities," the release says.

Lorain County is a high intensity drug area that will need multiple local and federal resources to tackle the opioid crisis as it continues to make a solid toehold in the region, Lorain County Commissioner Matthew Lundy said.

"You can't arrest your way out of this," he said. "There needs to be treatment beds, and we don't have treatment beds in Lorain. You're going to need to treat people. It's a county challenge."

Ohio led the nation in overdose deaths in 2014, and 3,050 people died in 2015, according to state reports. Several counties have reported more deaths in 2016, with no signs of it slowing down this year due largely to heroin, fentanyl and other opioid mixtures.

More than 130 people died from fatal overdoses in 2016 in Lorain County, the Chronicle-Telegram reported, citing county officials. About 200 people are expected to die from overdoses this year, the newspaper said.

The Nord family founded the Nordson Corp. of Elyria, which manufactures precision dispensing equipment that applies liquid and powder coatings, adhesives and sealants to products. W.G. Nord, an industrialist and entrepreneur, established the Nord Family Foundation charity in 1952.
OVI, Bainbridge Road: At 2:55 a.m. July 29, officers responded to a rollover crash on Bainbridge Road, near Dorset Avenue. Police found a car lying on its roof, and a short time later, located the car's driver, a Bainbridge man, 18, hiding in the woods.

Officers smelled the odor of alcohol on the man and determined he was impaired. He had a blood-alcohol content of .158.

After paramedics evaluated him, the man was charged with OVI, prohibited BAC and failure to maintain reasonable control.

Rape, Russell Drive: At 8 a.m. July 25, a woman reported that she had been raped by her older sister's live-in boyfriend.

Arrested and charged with rape was a Solon man, 21.

Theft, Aurora Road: At 7:40 a.m. July 27, police were called to Market District, 34310 Aurora Road, about a shoplifter. When police arrived, officers were told that the suspect had left the store.

Employees described the suspect and his car and officers were eventually able to locate the vehicle.

A Twinsburg man, 21, was arrested at his home and charged with theft.

OVI, Solon Road: At 9:55 p.m. July 27, police arrested an Aurora man, 57, after his car struck the bollards at the corner of SR 91 and Solon Road. It was subsequently found that the man was drunk. He performed poorly on field sobriety tests and had a blood-alcohol content of .098, above the state minimum for drunk driving of .08.

The man was charged with OVI, prohibited BAC and failure to maintain reasonable control.

OVI, US 422: At 10:40 p.m. July 28, police stopped a car driven by an Aurora woman, 48, after the car was spotted traveling 73 miles per hour in a 60-mile-per-hour zone.

The woman's eyes were red and glassy and she had the odor of alcohol about her. Field sobriety tests revealed that she was impaired. The woman refused to take a breath test.

She was charged with OVI and speeding.

Theft, Aurora Road: At 4 p.m. July 28, Market District management detained a Solon man, 19, after an employee saw him stuff store merchandise into his back pocket then leave the store without paying.

It was found that the man stole $49 worth of goods. He was cited for theft.

OVI, Aurora Road:

At 1:05 a.m. July 30, an officer stopped a car driven by a Bedford Heights woman, 34, after she was seen driving erratically and with expired plates.

The woman was found to be impaired. After performing poorly on field sobriety tests, it was learned she had a blood-alcohol content of .224.

Police charged the woman with OVI, prohibited BAC, having an open container of alcohol in her car, failure to signal before turning, and for displaying expired plates.

OVI, Cannon Road: At 3:05 a.m. July 30, police stopped a car driven by a Mayfield Heights man, 24, for traveling 52 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone.

Additionally, the man's car was seen weaving between lanes.

The man had a strong odor of alcohol about him and was found to be impaired. He had a blood-alcohol content of .131.

Police charged the man with OVI, prohibited BAC, speeding, not driving within marked lanes, and for not wearing a seat belt.

Burglary, SR 91: At 5:50 p.m. July 31, a woman reported that she returned home at 5 p.m. after being away four hours. The woman found that someone had entered her home and gone through drawers in her bedroom.

The burglar cut a window screen and entered through the window. Jewelry from a jewelry box and an old cell phone were stolen.

The detective bureau is investigating.

Theft, Aurora Road: At 1 p.m. July 30, police were called to Market District about an employee, a woman, 22, of Chagrin Falls, who had been stealing merchandise while at work.

The woman was cited for stealing merchandise worth $167.

Aggravated menacing, Bainbridge Road: At 2:10 p.m. Aug. 1, a woman, 46, reported that she had received calls from her former boyfriend in which he threatened to kill her.

Police issued a warrant for the arrest of the Cleveland man, 59.

OVI, Solon Road: At 9:15 p.m. Aug. 1, an officer stopped a car driven by a Mayfield Heights woman, 28, for driving without illuminated headlights.

The woman smelled of alcohol, and several open bottles of liquor were seen in the car's back seat. The woman had a blood-alcohol content of .177.

She was charged with OVI, prohibited BAC, and driving without headlights.

OVI, Aurora Road: At 12:50 a.m. Aug. 3, an officer spotted a car driven by a Solon man, 50, traveling 75 miles per hour in a 60-mile-per-hour zone on US 422.

The officer followed and saw the man make an illegal turn from Harper Road onto Aurora Road. The impaired man had slurred speech and bloodshot eyes.

The man had a blood-alcohol content of .152.

Police charged the man with OVI, prohibited BAC, speeding and making an improper left turn.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
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MILFORD >> It sounds like a simple name  Milford Diner  but the name is rich in local history, so Moe Elhelw was thrilled to get rights to it for his new restaurant business at 886 Bridgeport Ave.

Elhelw, who has more than 30 years in the restaurant business, opened Milford Diner in late June  and of the success of the business so far, It went beyond my expectations, Elhelw said.

The location  a unique, triangle-shaped lot that is known for just that  most recently was home to a bagel restaurant, Enterprise car rental and long ago, Phyllis Seafood Restaurant.

For Elhelw, who came here from Egypt in the 1980s, its a family business, even though hes the one who puts in the 16-hour days. His wife, an accountant elsewhere, helps on weekends. He has a daughter in college who helps when she can and two sons who have worked this summer but are headed back to school in September.

Elhelw, who has a degree in accounting, but has been cooking for pay since his 20s, formerly ran a corporate cafeteria, owned the local restaurant Somethings Cooking, which closed several years ago, and most recently before opening the diner had an events catering business specializing in kosher food.

This undertaking, Elhelw said, is a special food business.

This is like my last baby, he said.

Its also special because he loves to hear the stories from customers about the old original Milford Diner, a haven for many, including old-time veterans of Korea and Vietnam because the diner was the only place open late and the food was good.

He struck it lucky when his broker for the property, Steve Spector of Interstate Realty Advisors Inc., just happened to also have been on a committee of local business people who five years ago tried to raise enough money to preserve and restore the original Milford Diner on New Haven Avenue.

Spector said they fell short of raising the money, but they continued to hold the rights to the name.

When Spector brokered the deal, Elhelw had a few names in mind when Spector told him he just happened to have a name available. Elhelw, who loves the Milford community, jumped at the chance and took the name.

I couldnt believe I got the name (Milford Diner), he said. My customers are part of me.

The cozy diner is decorated with old-time pictures of Milford and Elhelw said the best part of the business is watching friends and families connecting at the booths and tables.

While he doesnt wish the restaurant business on his sons, the two have enjoyed helping at the diner this summer.

Oldest son Samir, 17, who graduated this year from Jonathan Law High School and will attend Northeastern University to study computer science, has gained management experience.

I love it, Samir said. Im really glad we have this business. Its an experience thats helped me grow as a person.

Youngest son Amir, 13, who will be a freshman at Jonathan Law High School, said the best part about the business to him is, all the free food.

The menu looks like most diners, except there is a Mediterranean section offering falafel, fava beans, chicken shawarma and changing specials that Elhelw creates, including chorizo burrito, stuffed French toast, cinnamon pancakes with coconut syrup.

Milford Diner is open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight Friday and Saturday.
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Unlike the liberal firebrand senator with whom she shares a ZIP code, Elizabeth Esty treads lightly in the Twitterverse on Donald Trump.

Dont be fooled by Estys trademark blue jacket or the presidents 36 percent approval rating in Connecticut, the sixth-worst of any state in a July Gallup poll.

The three-term congresswoman from Cheshire doesnt have the luxury of fellow Democrat and Senate rabblerouser Chris Murphy to lob Twitter salvos at Trump.

Not when just 12,000 votes separated Trump from Hillary Clinton in Estys congressional district in the November election, and 21 its 41 municipalities went red. The 5th District extends from Danbury and Litchfield County to the Farmington Valley and New Britain

I will leave much of the ideological battle to others, Esty said Thursday. That is not what my district elected me to do. Im not reflecting my district if all Im doing is fighting the president. There were many Trump-Esty voters, tens of thousands of them.

They dont fit neatly into one basket  Clintons basket of deplorables put-down notwithstanding.

This spring, Hearst Connecticut Media asked Donald Trump voters, their voices often muffled by a wave of anti-Trump sentiment in the state, why they supported the president. Trumps Connecticut: A blue state minority, ran in print on Sundays from April 9 through July, with supplementary online video.

The series gave Trump voters their say in a state whose governor and congressional delegation  all Democrats  often make headlines by opposing the president.

Split-ticket voting

The presidents Connecticut supporters come from the Litchfield Hills and the Naugatuck Valley. They come from means and from mill towns. They work in factories and financial services.

And as the 2016 election showed, they had no qualms about splitting their ticket, as they did for Esty and fellow House Democrat Rosa DeLauro. Trump won 15 of 25 municipalities the 3rd District, which DeLauro carried overwhelmingly en route to a 14th term.

Ben Proto, a Republican lawyer from Stratford who was state director of Trumps campaign, said Democrats are still in denial.

I think they have to be more (conscious) of reading the tea leaves and understanding why those towns went for Trump over Clinton, Proto said. I think its because people want change from business as usual in Washington.

Even though she was an early backer of Clinton and is one of the more liberal members of the House, DeLauro said she can see why Trump has such a significant following among her constituents. The spine of Connecticuts industrial past runs right down the middle of DeLauros district, from part of Waterbury and Prospect to Naugatuck, Beacon Falls and Ansonia. Prospect was the only town DeLauro lost.

He did win 15 towns, DeLauro said of Trump. To be frank about that, I think what he did was he tapped into a very real unease about peoples economic concerns and situations. People are in jobs today where they dont make enough money to live on, and they struggled.

DeLauro then delivered a very Trumpian line.

People believe, rightly so, that this is a rigged economy, DeLauro said.

The ultimate equalizer for DeLauro is her home city of New Haven, where Trump mustered just 11 percent of the vote. Esty doesnt have anything close to that in the 5th District, one of 36 races targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee for next years midterm elections.

I dont know if you go so anti-Trump in the 5th its going to work out in your favor, said Rob Kane, a former Republican state senator from Watertown who is now a state auditor. I think a lot of people still like him.

Targeted by GOP

Through June 30, Esty had out-raised each of her five House colleagues from Connecticut, all Democrats, for the next election.

Because the president did so well in this district meant that this is a seat that is targeted by the Republican Party, Esty said. I have to be prepared in case outside dark money comes in and decides to drop a bunch of attack ads. I would not be responsible if I wasnt prepared for what may come.

Neither Esty nor DeLauro say they have met Trump since took office in January.

Esty said she has been able to find common ground with the president in a few key areas, namely veterans affairs. She is ranking member of the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, which Esty said has crafted legislation to overhaul the disability appeals process for wounded service members and the eligibility requirements for education benefits under the GI Bill. Trump is expected to sign both bills into law, Esty said.

I have found in order to be effective for my district that I need to focus on where I can get things done, Esty said. The presidents tweets and social media more broadly can be a distraction from getting things done.

DeLauro said the ideals that Trump campaigned on, a national infrastructure program and better trade deals for the U.S., left her hopeful that she could work with the president. But she said Trump has gotten bogged down on health care, immigration and the investigation into his ties to Russia.

Again, none of that has been done, she said.

But dont expect DeLauro to emulate Murphy, either.

My office does not allow me to be on Twitter, DeLauro said, adding of her constituents, They dont want a diatribe. They dont want to see an attack.

http://twitter.com/gettinviggy; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436
The stocks a bit depleted at Billys, though you could still pick up a good nail gun, circular saw, juke box, banjo, gold chain or, as the guy who is toodling proficiently in the corner would attest, a nice piccolo.

Billy is Billy Onkey, proprietor of The Pawnbroker Inc., a colorful fixture these last 21 years at 232 Fairfield Ave., corner of Broad Street.

While Billy is still there, it remains the crossroads of routes that amble through local courthouses and Hells Angels clubhouses.

Lawyers, judges, jurors, prosecutors, plaintiffs, defendants, clerks, cops, salesmen, city building inspectors, teachers, musicians and, yes, Hells Angels, are regulars in the store.

Billys a stand-up guy, an Angel told me one recent St. Patricks Day as we sipped a couple of cold brews on the sidewalk outside Billys as the parade went by.

Whatever, Billy treats his customers all the same, looking neither down nor up to any of them. Hes a plain speaker. Not much on nuance. And not uncertain in his opinions. And not hesitant about expressing them. And as he gets animated, he spins the handset from the portable phone on the glass top of the counter, and slaps his beefy hand  hes a former ironworker  back and forth like a landed 20-pound bluefish thrashing on a deck.

Not everyone has a Visa platinum card, or American Express, or, for that matter, any card at all. A gold chain might be the card thats good at Billys, good for a loan.

There are people who live paycheck to paycheck. And there are people who live check to loan to check to loan. Bridgeport is an immigrants city and always will be and stores like Billys are their ATM machines.

But time marches on and Billy is leaving the crossroads.

Its hard to grasp that Jeff Bezos is partly responsible for the closing of The Pawnbroker, a shop that, for one thing, has been operating in Bridgeport for 21 years, that Amazon Prime is not only responsible for closed retail stores but also for decimating a business as long standing as the pawn shop.

At one time, there were eight shops down here, Billy said the other day. Amazon s killing brick and mortar, he said.

Other ingredients, though, alre also in the mix.

From Billys perspective, the controversial crackdown on parking in downtown Bridgeport, has come too late to help him.

Hes not the only small business person in downtown to welcome a stricter protocol that creates curbside parking for paying customers  not for business owners and their employees.

You know, he said, its not that anybodys done any one thing wrong, but theres nobody down here anymore.

Advancing technology has hurt, too. One time, I mightve had 200 televisions in here. Ive got one here now. Cameras? Everyones got one on their phone. They come in, take a picture of a tool. Bing. Hit the button. They get a list of prices. Lowes, Home Depot, yadda yadda.

By the end of the month, he estimated, hell be out of this spot and relocated over to East Main Street.

Not everyone will weep at Billys departure. Hes a throwback. The stores a throwback. And in a neighborhood thats striving for... well, its not quite clear what ... the Kool-Aid shades of neon shouting Cash for Gold, Cash for Gold Silver Diamonds, the flow of the Visa-less customers in and out, and the roll-down metal security panels when the store is closed, are not a desirable part of the Bijou neighborhood vibe.

Take a look at Billy in this seven-year-old installment of Michael Dalys Bridgeport. https://vimeo.com/10829662

Michael J. Daly is editor of the editorial page of the Connecticut Post. Email: mdaly@ctpost.com.
The Kyiv District Administrative Court has invalidated government decree No. 52 dated January 18, 2017 on amendments to the statute of PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, which provides for the withdrawal of Ukrzaliznytsia from subordination of the Infrastructure Ministry, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.

"Ministry representatives have received the judgment, according to which the court declared illegal the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers on the withdrawal of PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia from the jurisdiction of the Infrastructure Ministry," Omelyan wrote on his Facebook page.

"The court also recognized the illegality of actions of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade in part of preparation and submission of the relevant draft decision to the government. The court found numerous violations of the law, in particular, inconsistency of the draft resolution with the relevant authorities, a failure to conduct a legal examination by the Justice Ministry. In addition, the draft document was not considered at a meeting of the government committee and was not put on the agenda of the next meeting of the Cabinet," the minister added.
Great Allegheny Passage improvements coming

The bids were opened Nov. 1 and Adam Eidemiller's was the lower of two bids received. The project will take two weeks starting within the next week.
Ukraine will extradite suspect in laundering funds worth about $30 mln to U.S.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) has granted the United States request for the extradition of U.S. citizen Vladislav Khalupsky, wanted for a number of crimes, including fraud with securities and conspiracy to launder funds worth about $30 million, PGO Press Secretary Larysa Sarhan has said.

"Vladislav Khalupsky has American citizenship, but after his arrest he asked for Ukrainian citizenship. If his request is satisfied, the extradition of the suspect would not be possible," she wrote on her Facebook page.

In 2016, the New York District Court accused Khalupsky and his accomplices of conspiracy to commit fraud using electronic means of communications, fraudulent securities, and illegal interference for money laundering. In October an arrest warrant was issued.

Khalupsky was detained in Odesa in February 2017. On April 4 the Malynovsky Court of Odesa placed him under nightly house arrest.
She's the Instagram star renowned for sharing her striking yoga poses and helping her 1.3 million followers kick their health goals with her body and mind fitness program.

Sjana Elise Earp shot to stardom with her creative approach to showcasing her passion for yoga which she has since evolved into a career.

And now the stunning bikini model has opened up to Daily Mail Australia about the best ways to train the mind, before the body.

Instagram star Sjana Earp (pictured) has shared her top tips on training your mind to kick goals

The 22-year-old shot to stardom with her creative approach to showcasing her passion for yoga which she since evolved into a career

Earp developed a fitness program on the SWEAT platform to help others achieve their fitness goals, shared with Kayla Itsines and Kelsey Wells

The gorgeous yoga-enthusiast offered five pieces of advice for anyone looking to embark on a plan to make change, starting with moving past regret.

'No one is perfect, we can all make mistakes and we may have all done things we are not proud of.

'We can either choose to let these mistakes eat us up and continue to negatively impact our lives, or we can choose to learn and grow from them. Forgive yourself.'

The 22-year-old photojournalist said it was natural for people to make choices that in hindsight we learn weren't the best idea, however, to begin training of any sort, or adopting a new health regime, all must be forgiven within the soul.

Earp said the next move is letting go of any expectations.

'Expectation can be a root of disappointment. When we are able to remove our attachment to a certain outcome and celebrate what is, life can instantly become infinitely more enjoyable.'

The gorgeous yoga-enthusiast offered five pieces of advice for anyone looking to embark on a plan to make change, starting with moving past regret

She said as humans we all make mistakes, but you can't work towards future goals if you're holding on to the past

The blonde beauty believes a way to gain motivation, is to follow curiosities.

She said she often hears motivational speakers tell people to find what they are passionate about, as if it is the only pathway to success and doesn't agree with that outlook.

Sjana's five top tips for kicking health goals 1. Forgive yourself 2. Let go of expectation 3. Follow your curiosities 4. Surround yourself with positivity 5. Remove judgement, criticism and comparison Advertisement

'You dont need to have a burning desire or single pointed focus in order to find fulfillment, try to follow your curiosities.

'If you feel like doing something, learning something or being something, then do it.

'Do it until you no longer want to do it and are pulled in another direction, and then follow that new curiosity instead. There is no right or wrong, only countless different ways to end up in the same place.'

This idea can be adopted for finding new exercises that work, that don't bore and are easily maintained.

Another good tip, she says, is to surround yourself with positivity.

Between people, energy, words and thoughts, she thinks everything we hear, see and do shapes us in some way or another.

Earp believes it is important to surround yourself with positivity, but also what you desire

She says when attacking a new plan, it is absolutely important to remove any expectations or preconceived judgement

'Its inevitable that the little things we are surrounded by every day, can play a pivotal role in influencing who we are,' she said.

She says by surrounding yourself with what you desire, is a sure way to stepping closer to achieving targets.

In her last piece of advice, Earp says it is vital to remove any judgement, criticism or comparison from your state of mind.

'We cannot always control our situation and circumstances, but we CAN try and control our attitude.

'Once we understand this more, we can open ourselves up to an entire new realm of possibility and potential. Judgement, criticism and comparison are all limiting concepts, without them we can be free to explore and live openly, honestly and freely.'
She won The Apprentice and is now quickly building up a cake empire - but entrepreneur Alana Spencer says she still gets nervous before speaking to Alan Sugar.

The 25-year-old golden-haired Welsh businesswoman, who won the 2016 series, admits the business magnate, 70, is 'friendlier' now than when she had to face him in the boardroom every week on the hit BBC show.

But Alana, who relaunched her cake business Ridiculously Rich by Alana earlier this year, says she still gets anxious before every monthly board meeting she has with the Government's Entreprise Advisor.

Alana, who lives in Aberystwyth with her boyfriend, made the admission while speaking to FEMAIL about what it's like to work with the business mogul - as well as on how she manages to stay slim while surrounded by her Ridiculously Rich cakes, some of which contain more than 500 calories.

Alana Spencer (pictured) launched her Ridiculously Rich by Alana cake business earlier this year

Alana won The Apprentice last year, winning a 250,000 investment and 50/50 business partnership with Lord Sugar (right)

Alana says she speaks to Lord Sugar at least once a week - and it used to be everyday when she first won the show.

She said: 'He is friendlier... because we're sort on a level now working towards the same goals.

'But I still feel nervous that he's not going to be happy with how I'm done. Luckily I've never had a month where he's been disappointed.'

Alana says she still has to call him Lord Sugar, even though he is now her business partner.

Alana says she enjoys tucking into a slice of one of her cakes as an afternoon snack

Some of Alana's cakes contain between 400 and 500 calories, such as her Rocky Road, which contains 462 calories a slice. But she says they contain all natural ingredients and no preservatives

She revealed: 'I think the general rule is if you knew him as Lord sugar, you call him lord sugar, if you knew him before you can call him Alan.'

She added: 'I speak to him probably once a week now.

'It was everyday when I fist won, and because I'd gone from having the mindset of a small business to suddenly trying to think bigger, it was really helpful to have his vision as well and his guidance.

'I could talk to him when I was struggling to think of how to take it to that next step.

'Over the months he's gained trust in me and I've learned what's good to ask him and what I don't need to ask him.'

How Alana stays slim when surrounded by cake Alana used to sell her cakes exclusively in delis and at food festivals herself and now she employs ambassadors to sell them for her at these foodie events Alana is surprised when FEMAIL asks her how she stays slim when she is surrounded by cake all day. Some of her Ridiculously Rich slices come in at more than 500 calories, such as her Peanut Butter Fudge Cake which contains 522 calories a slice. 'I would never class myself as staying slim,' she says. 'It's definitely a challenge... I'm completely happy with myself though, and I've always just been of the opinion that there's no point comparing yourself to other people and be happy with how you are.' She added: 'I live in the countryside so I go for a lot of walks and I do the odd home workout video, but I'm so busy and that helps as I'm on the go constantly. 'I eat my fair share of cake. It's all about treating yourself rather than depriving yourself. Alana has had a cake business for several years now but it used to be called Nana's - her childhood nickname 'If you think "I can't have this and I can't have this," then you're going to be wanting it without realising and telling yourself you're not eating it. 'I do a lot of baking at home as well and I love to make nice food but I don't overindulge. 'Like every woman, I definitely still have my hang-ups. But treating yourself to a little bit of cake now and then is not a bad thing.' Alana also revealed what she tends to eat in a day - and remarkably she manages not to eat cake every single day. She said: 'I'm a vegetarian so I eat a lot of salad-y stuff, I'll always have a nice salad with lots of different bits and bobs on it for lunch. 'For breakfast, I'll usually have I love yoghurt and peanut butter and banana for breakfast, and then an afternoon snack, a bit of cake or something, though I don't do that everyday.' Advertisement

Alana (centre) still keeps in touch with her fellow contestants from The Apprentice such as Grainne McCoy (left) and Frances Bishop (right)

Alana beat Courtney Wood in the final of the 2016 series of The Apprentice to become Lord Sugar's business partner

As well as Lord Sugar, Alana keeps in touch with a few of her former contestants, particularly Grainne McCoy, Frances Bishop and Courtney Wood.

She met up with them last two weeks ago, as they are helping her launch a Youtube baking channel where she will talk about baking.

She has no ambitions to have her own baking show on TV though like Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain - yet.

'I do have ambitions in the baking world,' she says before trailing off momentarily.

'I really admire Nadiya and other people that have come from the show [Bake Off} that have done so well.

'But for me, I was on a business show and won a prize to grow my business. That's what I'm focusing on at the moment.'
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine actively uses small drones to monitor the line of the state border of controlled border areas and counteract the illegal movement of persons, as well as to prevent other unlawful activities.

"Drones are mainly used to conduct thermal imaging and video surveillance. The results of such observations are recorded by the ground control station and transferred to the service control center, which allows border guards to respond promptly to manifestations of illegal activities on the border," the press service of the State Border Service of Ukraine said.

The use of such aviation units allows border guards to monitor remote areas and perform tasks that require inspection in hard-to-reach places, especially in mountainous and forested areas.

"The successfully organized use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the areas of responsibility of border units has already made it possible to quickly identify and detain several violators. Most often they were found by the border guards of the Azov-Black Sea and the southern regional departments of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine," the report says.
Guy Forteith, 23, from Oban, Scotland, was relieved to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after an optician thought could have a brain tumour

A musician was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 16 after an optician thought he might have a brain tumour.

Guy Forteith, 23, from Oban, Scotland, was referred for an MRI when he went to get his eyes checked.

When he was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease, Guy said he was relieved it wasnt a tumour.

He told MailOnline: I didnt know what MS was so I kind of shrugged it off.

It could have been a brain tumour, it could have been worse.

The optician had seen something in my eye. She didnt want to say anything but she thought it could have been a brain tumour.

I got sent down to Glasgow for an MRI.

During the exam, the optician saw he had optic neuritis, when the optic nerve is inflamed.

The symptom is common in cases of both MS and brain tumours.

Multiple Sclerosis attacks the bodys immune systems, meaning that suffers are more susceptible to illnesses as their bodies weaken

Guy went to get his eyes tested when his sight started to get worse quickly. The optician saw he had optic neuritis, which is common in cases of both MS and brain tumours

Guy has problems with his eyesight and cannot walk properly. He said: 'My friends thought I was permentantly drunk.' But his MS doesn't affect his music as he plays his guitar by ear

The condition affects Guys eyesight and his ability to walk.

He said: I noticed when I was walking wonkily, because I was carrying a heavy guitar everywhere.

Im not good at walking distances, I need to hang onto something or someone.

My friends thought I was permanently drunk, I wish!

I found it difficult to read the blackboards at school so I just had to listen more.

My short term memory gets a bit foggy with MS, but its just now and again.'

Even though he scored 100 per cent in his driving theory test, Guys poor eyesight meant that he couldnt take the practical exam.

The risky therapy costs as much as 80,000. Guy said: 'The doctor basically just said I wasnt disabled enough so I was refused it'

The young musician also had to give up skateboarding when his balance deteriorated.

But music is one area that isnt affected by MS, as Guy plays his guitar by ear.

He said: 'When I started playing, I read music but on guitar it is not really about reading music. Its about listening and playing.

Guys lowered immune system means he finds travelling difficult.

He said: I get quite anxious because you dont know how its going to affect you.

I went to America last year around August time and I picked up bronchitis on the plane.

It was quite an effort getting through the airports.

Guy is using his music to try and raise money for a pioneering new treatment for MS, using stem cells.

He has raised just over 2,500 for the costly treatment by playing gigs around Oban after he claimed doctors dismissed the idea.

He wasn't allowed to sit his practical driving test because of his eyesight and struggles with anxiety when he travels. When he went to the U.S. last year, he caught bronchitis on the plane

The young musician had to give up skateboarding when his balance deteriorated. He is aiming to raise enough money to fund stem cell therapy which could halt his symptoms

He said: It was never really discussed. This doctor basically just said I wasnt disabled enough so I was refused it.

What is multiple sclerosis? Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition that attacks the body's immune system. It can affect the brain or spinal cord. Sufferers can experience difficulty with walking, balance and seeing. The condition can either relapse, or get worse progressively. Patients who suffer relapse will have stages where their symptoms will plateau and stages where they will deteriorate quickly. There is currently no cure and most sufferers control their symptoms with tablets or injections. Advertisement

It wasnt even a conversation, it was just shunted, it doesnt make sense. At my age, I should be pushed towards something that could make me better.'

In stem cell therapy, the patient goes through several rounds of chemotherapy to kill off the bad cells.

The patient's immune system is then effectively regrown using healthy stem cells not affected by the multiple sclerosis.

Guy said: The treatment could cost between 25,000 and 62,000 if youre lucky.

'Theres a new private clinic in England that offers it for 80,000

I started looking into it three or four years ago when they started doing experiments and I just started saving up for it. But its a gamble.

Im on tablets that the NHS supply, but I really want to try stem cell therapy.

My type of MS just gets worse slowly, which annoying.'

To donate to Guy, visit his JustGiving page.
Pearson Publishing is axing 3,000 jobs and slashing its dividend

Pearson is axing 3,000 jobs and slashing its dividend in an effort to revive its ailing business.

The cut, which represents 9 per cent of the education publisher's global workforce, will affect back office operations including human resources, technology and finance as well as its higher education business in North America.

Pearson has also cut its interim dividend from 18p to 5p, and announced plans for a 300million share buyback.

The company did not disclose how many of the job cuts will be in the UK, but a spokesman said the move will make the firm more 'streamlined' and efficient.

Pearson saw more than 1.9billion wiped off its market value in January after it admitted demand for printed books in America, its largest market, had 'gone off a cliff'.

It has been hit as students switch from textbooks to cheaper online alternatives  a move which contributed to a loss of 2.5billion in 2016  the biggest in its history.

Pearson's jobs cull was announced alongside its first-half results, which saw a 1 per cent rise in revenue to 1billion in the six months to the end of June, with profit coming in at 16million versus a 286million loss in the same period last year.
Drivers pulling off the forecourt in their brand new electric car may think they've just made a purchase which will improve the world.

Electric cars, it is argued, are cheaper to run, quieter to drive and better for the environment than any petrol or diesel alternatives. The Government has said that by 2040 all new cars will be electric.

It is not surprising, then, that investors have been scrambling to get a piece of the action, snapping up shares in Tesla, Toyota and other electric car manufacturers.

But what many people might not realise is that while their shiny new car may be a good choice for the environment, at the heart of most of these vehicles is cobalt, which comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Central African country, with a population of 70million, is home to nearly half of all the world's cobalt.

The metallic element is a key component in the lithium ion battery in your laptop, mobile phone and, of course, electric car.

The growing number of electric cars has seen demand for cobalt soar. As a result, the price has surged from less than $25,000 a ton in January 2016, to more than $55,000 a ton today.

Waging money on cobalt as a commodity is not easy though. Largely that's because the Congo population see none of the benefits of this boom so ethical concerns about the way it is sourced means there are no cheap Exchange Traded Funds similar to those that let investors take a punt on other commodities.

Child labour, forced migration and dangerous working conditions are all commonplace in the African republic.

Around 40,000 children, some as young as seven, work in the DRC's mining region.

Andy Mason, analyst at Standard Life Investments, says: 'There are some real human rights and ethical problems in the DRC and terrible working conditions.

'People might be buying electric cars thinking it's great for the environment but you have to think about the bigger picture.'

Cutting edge: Tesla's Model 3 is one of the newest and most practical electric cars offering a real alternative to petrol of diesel-powered vehicles

But that doesn't mean drivers need to abandon their electric vehicles or investors their shares just yet.

A clause in the Dodd-Frank Act, introduced in 2010, ruled that any companies using metals such as tin and gold must ensure it is responsibly sourced.

It was hoped the scope of the clause would be expanded to cover cobalt to help clean up the industry. But Donald Trump is looking to scrap the act because it has increased regulation on the banking industry.

China, where much of the mined cobalt is processed, has launched an initiative to drive responsible sourcing and many firms are looking more closely at supply chains.

Craig Bonthron, co-manager of the Kames Global Sustainable Equity fund, doesn't invest in any battery makers or cobalt miners, but he is keen to tap into the rise of the electric car.

He invests in lithium miner Albemarle. The mineral accounts for 22 per cent of the materials used in an electric car battery, cobalt makes up 6 per cent.

The 5.7billion Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust goes for a more direct option. The trust's second largest holding, accounting for 8 per cent of its assets, is Tesla.

The firm saw the biggest pre-order of any consumer product in history when it announced its mass-market Model 3, with around 10billion in future sales forecast.

If the firm meets its targets it will go from producing 83,000 cars in 2016 to 500,000 in 2018.

Tom Slater, manager of the trust, says: 'What other car manufacturer is likely to grow its production at this rate in the next two years, or shows the scale of ambition to challenge a global industry that is more accustomed to incremental change?'
Condifent: Investors ploughed 2.1bn into UK funds in June

Investors ploughed 2.1billion into funds in June as confidence returned to markets.

It was a dramatic change from a year ago when 3billion was taken out of funds as nervous investors awaited the outcome of the EU referendum.

Figures from trade body the Investment Association show some 1.1 trillion is invested in UK funds after a record 18.4billion was invested in the first half of the year.

The Investment Associations monthly statistics of UK investor behaviour in June 2017 show Targeted Absolute Return funds, which aim to protect cash if the market dips, were the most popular investment choice, attracting 2.2billion of savers cash over the past six months.

Meanwhile investors took more than 1billion out of UK equity investments in June.

Adrian Lowcock, investment director at Architas, said: Investors have been more positive on the outlook for the global economy than at any other time since the financial crisis.
olid State specialises in so-called ruggedized electronics

What is it? Solid State specialises in so-called ruggedized electronics  ruggedized essentially means that the products are designed for use in a harsh environment.

Typical industries are transport companies. They also work with military and construction firms who have specific requirements for products, such as toughened touchscreens.

What's the latest? Revenue was up 9 per cent to 40million and pre-tax profit had climbed 6 per cent to 3.1million for the year to March 31.

Solid State bought specialist battery business Creasefield for 1.6million.

Who backs it? The largest shareholder is Hargreave Hale, an investment company which specialises in smaller firms.

It has an 18 per cent stake in the business. Other investors include finance firms Schroder & Co and Charles Stanley.

Managing director of the firm Gary Marsh and founder Gordon Comben are also among the top five shareholders.

Why you should invest Broker FinnCap says Solid State's investment in its facilities and people means it is in a good position to grow.

It's aiming to double its revenue over the next five years. Analysts at WH Ireland said the growth prospects for the industry could be being underestimated.

...And why you shouldn't Solid State has carved out a niche but the projects it works on are small volume and very specific, so some investors might be concerned about whether it can get enough business for revenues to continue rising.

That said, some of the products and the companies it supplies are very sensitive, so firms are keen to use UK manufacturers which limits the possibility of losing out to cheaper, overseas rivals.
JOBS BOOST Unemployment in the United States fell to a 16-year low of 4.3 per cent last month in a sign of strength in the world's biggest economy.

The fall in the jobless rate came as American firms created another 209,000 jobs  a second straight month of robust hiring.

PAY GROWTH remained muted, however, with average hourly earnings up 2.5 per cent. That is below the 3.5 per cent to 4 per cent typical when the unemployment rate is this low.

POLL WINNERS Successfully polling the outcome of the snap General Election helped boost data research firm YouGov.

As a result the polling firm said it now expects its trading for the full year to be strong and well ahead of its sector competitors.

LOSING OUT Workers have been told that engineering firm Delphi Diesel Systems is to close a plant in Suffolk with the loss of 500 jobs.

The Unite union said it understands the American owners plan to move work to Romania, where labour costs are cheaper.

HIGH FLYING Budget airline EasyJet carried 8.2million passengers in July, up from 7.5million the year before.

Despite the strong growth the airline cancelled 541 flights, compared to 350 in the same month last year.

PROFITS GROW A 9 per cent increase in mortgage business helped Leeds Building Society to profits of 63.2million in the first half of the year, up from 58million in the same period a year ago.

DIGS DEAL Student housing provider GCP Student Living has completed its deal to buy a 70million property in Brighton to provide accommodation for Brighton and Sussex university students as well as office space.

ELECTRIC DREAMS Carmakers Toyota and Mazda are creating a 1.2billion assembly plant in America and collaborating on technologies for electric vehicles.

The two firms will take small stakes in each other as part of the tie-up  with Toyota taking a 5 per cent share of Mazda and Mazda taking a 0.25 per cent share of the larger rival.
The billionaire co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown has slammed regulators after they barred the investment group from paying a 50million dividend.

Peter Hargreaves said it felt as if the company was being 'victimised' after the Financial Conduct Authority ordered it to set aside the cash instead of handing it out to shareholders.

The watchdog said the business's rapid growth meant it had to hold back 50m extra in case of a possible downturn.

Peter Hargreaves said it felt as if the company was being 'victimised' after the Financial Conduct Authority ordered it to set aside 50minstead of handing it out to shareholders

Investors would otherwise have been given a special dividend likely worth around 9.9p a share.

Hargreaves trained as a chartered accountant and worked briefly in computer sales before returning to finance, then launched the firm in his bedroom in 1981. He owns 152.6m shares worth 2.1billion and would have pocketed 15million from the giveaway.

His co-founder Stephen Lansdown has 75.5m shares worth 1billion and would have picked up 7.5million in special dividends.

Regular shareholders will also suffer, many of them company employees who have earned stock as a reward for their service. An investor holding 1,000 shares will miss out on 99.

'I'm a little bit bemused as to why we almost seem to have been victimised,' said Hargreaves, who is the firm's largest shareholder but is no longer an employee or director and does not speak on its behalf.

'I can't understand why the company seems to get legislation piled onto it, and has to jump hurdles and hoops when it would appear to be the cleanest of clean businesses.

'Our track record is 100 per cent. We've never transgressed.'

The blow was revealed in a stock market announcement by Hargreaves, which runs an online trading platform used by 954,000 investors.

Shares in the company fell 2.6 per cent, or 36p, to 1347p, knocking 54.9million off the value of Hargreaves' holding and 27.2million from Lansdown's.

Bosses said the FCA told them on Thursday that it intended to reassess their regulatory capital requirements due to the company's 'strong recent growth in scale and complexity'.

Chief executive Chris Hill said the news was 'disappointing' but the business was 'in great shape'.

Hargreaves Lansdown said that for the year to June 30, the assets it oversees are expected to have risen by 28 per cent to 79.2billion. Profits are expected to be between 265million and 266million, up 21 per cent.

Hargreaves, who was chief executive until 2010, said he was concerned that the regulatory crackdown was part of a wider assault on success.

He said he would not have such a large shareholding if he thought there was any risk, and that the company paid the highest proportion of tax compared to its revenues of any UK business.

It gave 41.6million to HMRC in its last financial year, on turnover of 388.3million.

'Is that what's happening in this country  if you're profitable, you're seen as a horrible person?' Hargreaves said. 'It's gone mad. What are we doing wrong?

'I would just love somebody from the FCA's building to explain to me what we're doing wrong.'

The FCA did not comment.
Troubled Royal Bank of Scotland has unveiled first-half profits for the first time in three years  but this was overshadowed by a money-laundering probe.

The NatWest owner made 939million in the opening six months of 2017, a major turnaround from its 2billion loss for the same period last year.

However, the bank is still on course for an annual loss, the tenth since it was nearly destroyed by the financial crisis.

Profitable: The bank announced a second quarter of consecutive profit.

The lender revealed that the Financial Conduct Authority is investigating it for suspected breaches of money laundering rules.

It said a probe was started last month but declined to give any further details. The FCA also didnt want to comment.

There is growing speculation that the Government may soon sell down taxpayers 71.5 per cent stake in RBS, acquired when the bank was handed a 46billion bailout.

Ministers are thought to be waiting until after RBS has been fined by the US Department of Justice for selling toxic bundles of mortgage debt in the run-up to the Great Recession.
The only way is ethics for Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry when it comes to business ventures that peak her interest.

Berry is best known for her exploits on the big screen - most notably her performance in romantic drama Monster's Ball for which she was awarded the movie industry's top gong.

But behind the scenes, she has a penchant for philanthropic initiatives, having supported a number of charities, including Make-A-Wish foundation, and participated in United Nations World Food Programme to fight world hunger.

Halle Berry was a judge at this year's iteration of The Chivas Venture, a competition where social enterprises from across the world compete for a share of $1million (770,000) prize

In recent times, Berry's focus has shifted towards business. She set up a production company, launched a fragrance line, brought a 50 per cent stake in US lingerie company Scandale and is set to revive her fansite Hallewood.

Berry recently served as a judge on this year's final of The Chivas Venture, a competition where social enterprises from across the world compete for a share of $1million (770,000) in funding.

Speaking to This is Money ahead of the final, Berry said: 'I think it is everybody's responsibility to start caring about our world because it is falling apart in many ways and I think businesses and individuals need to care and believe that they can make a change.'

Asked what her advice to budding entrepreneurs would be, she said: 'Find something that you love and care about. I think that is true with anything in life, whether you are starting a business, a career or a family.

'You have to love what you are starting and be passionate about it. Starting a business is really hard and challenging and if you do not love it or believe 100 per cent in what you are doing, then there is no real reason to start. Find what you love and I am a big believer that the rest will come.'

Berry was joined by Sonal Shah (pictured below, right), former social innovation adviser to the White House under the Obama administration, on the Chivas judging panel. And giving her two cents on the landscape for small business in the UK compared to their American cousins, she said: 'Finding capital is the hardest thing for small business owners, whether you are in the UK or in the United States.

The Chivas Venture 2017 panel of judges also consisted of Pernod Ricard's chief executive Alexandre Ricard (left), former social innovation adviser to the White House Sonal Shah (far right), US entrepeneur and author, Adam Braun

'I think what you have in the US is much more ability to get access to capital and the banks are more relaxed. It was hard during the financial crisis but there are more investors and community development banks looking to invest in small businesses.

'We should be investing in small businesses because they are the engine of growth for communities around the world - whether you look at India, the UK or the US. So helping small businesses get access to capital is a huge opportunity because if you can't create all the jobs, you can certainly inspire people to create them.'

Consumers are becoming more attuned to the ethics of the companies they patronise, and so it is more important than ever to demonstrate what is known as corporate social responsibility. Many businesses recognise this and will often host many charitable initiatives such as annual fundraisers to be seen as doing their bit to help a good cause.

But other companies have gone further by making ethical and/or social responsibility the crux of their business model. Shah said: 'I think a lot of people are looking to work in businesses that have both a social and financial impact.'

Berry won an Academy Award in 2002 for her performance in Monster's Ball

She added: 'There has been a latent growth for this type of business but social media and technology has accelerated things.'

What was it like to work under the Obama administration?

'Inspiring,' Shah said. Barack and Michelle Obama did 26 events in the first year and a half [into Barack's administration] on social innovation. If the biggest access to the president is his time, the fact that he gave that much time to a set of events is pretty amazing.

'They are amazing people who care about doing the right thing. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work for them and be part of the presidency.'

US entrepreneur, philanthropist and author, Adam Braun and drinks giant Pernod Ricard's chief executive Alexandre Ricard completed the line-up of judges.

On the rationale behind the competition, the latter said: 'There was a clear and very simple rationale.

'The brief that was put on the table from the Chivas team was what would the two founding brothers, James and John Chivas, have done in today's world.

'These two guys started the company a couple hundred years ago. They were social entrepreneurs and as they grew their business, they really wanted to have a positive impact on their community in Aberdeen, Scotland.'

He added: 'I fundamentally believe in long-term sustainable projects that are here to make a better place and are profitable by doing so because if they don't make money they disappear.'
A woman who survived decades of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her own mother and father has revealed what it was like growing up around Sydney's notorious razor gangs and how she was forced into prostitution as a child.

Maria Tinschert, born Mary Goodfield, was treated as a personal sex slave for her parents and five of her brothers.

Her earliest memories date back to when she was just four years old and the family moved into the 'house of horrors' home where she was constantly raped and tortured for more than a decade.

At nine years old Mary was sent to work with her prostitute mother Jessie Goodfield in the city - where she was forced to have sex with men and steal money their wallets.

'Mum knew that children were very popular so she used me for that, and there were many, many men who wanted children,' Maria Tinschert told Daily Mail Australia.

Maria Tinschert, pictured left then known as Mary Goodfield, with her mother Violet Jessie Goodfield, on the way to work at a brothel in Sydney

Maria Tinschert admiring the rings her mother left her on her death bed

The young woman, pictured here aged about 15, was raped by her own parents from the age of four before she was forced into prostitution

Her mother worked alongside notorious underworld figures Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh - they didn't look twice at the child working from a room in their establishments.

Maria's sad story started on August 6, 1932, when she was born in the front room of her family terrace in Darlinghurst.

She was the first and only daughter of Violet Jessie Goodfield, who she described as a beautiful but evil woman, and Ralph Goodfield, a man she knew as the devil and bogeyman.

Mary never opened up about her horrific childhood until she was aged in her 60s, well after she had changed her name to Maria to escape from her painful past.

The code of silence Mary was brought up to respect was ingrained.

But decades on she has gone against the code and written a book detailing her harrowing upbringing.

'Daughter of the Razor' is Mary's story. It is the story of a child who would remain locked in fear until old age, following the violence of child prostitution, sexual tortures, murder and the terror of being locked in a closet day after day.

'Little Mary knew she should be seen and not heard, she wasn't allowed to cry, she wasn't allowed to say no.'

'When I speak of this horror I do not cry for me, I cry for Little Mary,' she said.

The 'house of horrors', as she remembers it, was located in Chullora, the family had moved to the suburb in the city's south west to be away from the razor gang violence which had surrounded them in their Darlinghurst terrace.

But Mary's mother still travelled to Central Station everyday to be close to her dangerous friends and clients.

Maria remembers seeing Matilda 'Tilly' Devine (pictured) at the brothels where her mother forced her to work and remembers her as a foul-mouthed blonde

She also remembers Kate Leigh, pictured here with Devine, and says she witnessed her putting things in her bloomers at the shops

A letter from Mary to her eldest brother - this brother was the only one of her siblings not to rape her but he was having an affair with their mother. The letter was sent in 1992

The great grandmother, now 85, is still terrified she might be punished by her long-dead relatives for speaking out, but she wants to show she is a survivor.

The book explores how Mary fell pregnant to her father aged about 12, how her mother had performed a home abortion and how her parents later paid a cruel man to marry her - so she wouldn't know any life without pain, keeping her silent about their abuse.

The tragic tale began when she was four darting back and fourth between the horrors she experienced at the hands of her parents, as a prostitute and as a woman sold into a bad marriage with a dangerous family.

Maria with her book - it has a posed photograph of her with her mother walking hand in hand down the street in Sydney

Mary changed her mother's headstone from rest in peace to 'Lord have mercy on her'

EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT

When I look back at myself as a little girl I see a sad sight. It fills me with pain for the little girl who seemed to be always alone and on the brink of death.

Her sweet little life was so close to ending many times, but for reasons too hard to understand, I did not go to my grave. Even though my childhood died and the little girl in me grew into forced womanhood, I went on.

The Goodfields, Brookfields, Valencia Street, Chullora was written on the letters that came to my house. It sounded better than it was.

The jewels her cruel mother left her when she died, they are now kept at a bank

At first the survivor didn't want the rings but changed her mind before burying

That house was hell encased in wood in a yard with a wire fence.

I remember one morning after the boys and my father left, she (Mary's mother) had a tin dish in the bedroom to use as a toilet because ours was out back in the yard and they never went there in the night.

She spilt some as she carried it out. When she slopped it up from the floor with a cloth, she stuffed the urine soaked rag into my mouth and made me leave it there till she pulled it out much later.

Maria's paternal grandmother, pictured, is described as a wonderful woman - she had often sent warm messages to the child from England but they were not passed on until after Ralph's death

The house of horrors, pictured, in front of the house is one of Maria's abusive brothers, this picture was taken in the late 1930s

The elderly grandmother remembers how she wished she was a dog - because the dog was left alone and that's all she wanted

They called me 'hook nose' when I got older and developed features like a little Jewess, 'spindle legs', 'ugly', 'shit-head', 'b***h', 's**t', 'c**t'. It was just a way of life, those names, but today it hurts  the impact of those injuries goes on. I guess it's because I now understand the real degradation.

She was skilled at being a clever monster and I was afraid of her. After that kind of talk he made me masturbate her. She would first give me a washout with her big red and black pump thing with a tube on it.

Then afterwards when I was still shaking, she would take her floral housecoat off and lie down naked on the lino floor with a pillow under her bottom where she would remain until it was over.

Maria revisited the house she was born in, which is in Sydney's Darlinghurst, as she worked through the pain of her upbringing

She was born in the front room of the terrace house in 1932, the family moved to get away from her mother's dangerous friends

It was just a normal day in this little girl's life. And pain that was a part of that every day life; walking in pain; sleeping in pain and the pain when I was very hurt inside me by my father.

'Your daddy needs this because he's only got mummy, you know.'

How those words now make me sick.

'Poor Daddy, look at how big his tool has got and it needs work. If you're a good girl you will open your legs wide and then daddy can work his tool.'

I always did what I was told, no matter how painful.

I didn't know what he did, just that when he put his penis in me, my mother had made him put some sticky stuff on me first.

Mary had always wanted to be a dancer and details her experience in the book - here she is aged in her 30s finally tackling that childhood dream

I don't know what it was, but I think now that it was Vaseline or stuff like that.

Whatever it was it didn't help me. He had put bread in my mouth, but still I could feel screaming inside me. The hurting just did not stop. After he pulled away from me, she looked up inside me and said, 'Christ, now look what you did. I've got to fix her up a bit.' And she did, with cotton dipped in iodine and a fine needle.

She said 'one stitch, that's all.' And still I wear the scar, along with many others.

****

My mother and father enjoyed watching me hang from the wardrobe. My father made a frame out of wood, a bit like a crucifix with rope loops hanging from the arms and a thing like a butcher's hook from the centre.

That went over the wardrobe. They would put a dish on the floor under it, then take my clothes off, strap me onto the frame, put the loops over my legs and fix me onto the top of the wardrobe.

This photograph is the only one Maria has of her father - he is strangely featured in the frame after something happened to the film, her mother's in the background

They would pull the loops, my legs would bend up. They would lay on the bed naked, playing, as she called it, telling me 'don't pee till I tell you and then you can come down.'

Sometimes it seemed like I was hanging forever while they played with each other.

Then, if they were finished, she would tell me to pee and it had to go into the dish.

****

She would either leave me on the street or take me with her (to the brothel where she worked) and make extra money with me. I was eight, nine or 10.

These were bad days for me but good days for her. Nobody else seemed to have a kid work with them, only her, and while she carried a razor with her, who was going to tell her to stop it. Nobody, I guess.

The 85-year-old doesn't have many photos of her life before she escaped from her first husband

For Kate Leigh and the Tilly Devine, say what you may, but I wasn't invisible, I was definitely there.

I did know of the this big fat dark haired lady who was Kate Leigh. I remember my mother talking about Kate, because she was a shop lifter I don't know why she had to be a shop lifter because she was making a lot of money out of brothels and sly grog because that was her game.

Mark Foy's is where we used to see her. She would go into Mark Foy's and in those days woman (especially fat woman) wore bloomers, rather big knickers with a lot of elastic.

Kate would put the stolen stuff down her bloomers, I knew about her and she knew about me. I didn't realise who she was or what it was about I only did what I was told.

As for opening my mouth or making a comment or saying anything it wasn't on. Yes Kate was a fat dark haired lady. I suppose she's got some rellies alive today who might think she was as nice as a little girl going through hell.

I just thought she was a horrible fat old lady who did nasty things.

Arrest records of Leigh, left, and Devine, right, who Maria remembers from her childhood

And there was Tilly, now Tilly portrayed in the Underbelly series they tell me they made her look pretty or something and I said I've never looked at the movie or the books about her. I don't want to.

But she wasn't pretty she was a horrible little squingy blonde who was a rough as bags with the filthiest mouth.

For Kate Leigh and the Tilly Devine, say what you may, but I wasn't invisible, I was definitely there.

The book explains how Mary's father paid her first husband, a problem gambler, about 500 pounds to take her off the family's hands. The couple married when Mary was about 15.

Mary's father died in a car accident in Yass in 1966 - which she said was 'fair punishment' for the paedophile who had raped her daily.

'Holding tightly to his hand, I looked at the face of the Devil. It was my father, he was dead. The identification was complete. He had returned to hell.'

Her mother became lonely and sick in her old age so Mary took her into her home, with her second husband, and looked after her until she died.

She never forgave the woman who had refused to love her and marked her headstone with the words 'May God show mercy'.

Before her mother died she gave Mary all of her jewels, which are now kept in a safety deposit box, because she didn't want her son's wives to have them.

The harrowing story also details the moment her mother slashed a man's throat with her razor leaving him to bleed to death. And how once her mother was angry with a young woman she flicked her blade out leaving the 'beautiful woman' with an L-shaped scar across her face.

Mary found love after leaving her first cruel husband, it took more than a decade of courting before she married him in 1971

She was never given her first marriage certificate and felt she was merely property - her second marriage was happy

Her blade had been made by her husband Ralph, and had a small cork handle.

'It was part of my mother's body and whenever she had it there would be trouble'.

The book is self published with the help of Publicous and is available from Amazon for $22.99.

She wants her readers to know it is possible to survive from horrific sexual and physical abuse, as she has done.

The author is writing a second biography which will focus on the part of her life after leaving her first husband - and how she struggled being an eight-year-old in a woman's body - totally unprepared to face the world.
Cynthia Nixon, the actress who played Miranda on Sex And The City, is said to be eyeing a run for governor of New York.

Nixon's name has been circulated as a potential Democratic primary challenger to incumbent New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is seeking a third term in the office in the 2018 election.

Liberal groups have approached the actress regarding a run for office, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Friday.

Sex And The City actress Cynthia Nixon (seen with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio last month) is said to be eyeing a primary challenge to Democrat Andrew Cuomo for New York governor

Nixon is active in liberal politics in the state, particularly on education issues.

She has not weighed in on her possible candidacy. A message left with her agent was not immediately returned Friday.

The director of the Alliance for Quality Education tells the Journal that Nixon has progressive credentials and her candidacy would excite voters.

Other names mentioned as possible challengers to Cuomo in the Democratic primary include former state Senator Terry Gipson and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner.
Nine officers in South Carolina had no choice but to fire on a man after he wounded a woman last month, then used her body as a shield during a shootout, a sheriff said.

Ramiro Ramirez, 34, 'came to do battle' after killing the woman on a busy highway in Greenville on July 14.

Dramatic footage released on Friday shows Ramirez firing on responding officers before they could even get out of their cars.

Scroll down for video

Ramiro Ramirez, 34, wounded 25-year-old Candy Rosario in Greenville, South Carolina on July 14 before using her body as a shield as he exchanged fire with police

Ramirez hid behind 25-year-old Candy Rosario's body, reloading once as he kept firing at deputies, Greenville County Sheriff Will Lewis said at a news conference on Fridau.

The shootout ended with Ramirez putting the gun to his own head and pulling the trigger, Greenville County Coroner Parks Evans has said.

Since the State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the shooting, Lewis said he doesn't know exactly how many shots his officers fired or whether any of them struck Rosario.

The nine deputies followed all police rules and he reinstated them to active duty 11 days after the shooting, Lewis said. The criminal investigation into the shootings continues.

Dramatic footage released on Friday shows Ramirez (blurred in the center) firing on responding officers before they could even get out of their cars

The shootout ended with Ramirez putting the gun to his own head and pulling the trigger, authorities said

'I don't think we could have prevented this, ever,' the sheriff said.

Ramirez and Rosario were in a romantic relationship before the shooting.

Lewis said the dashcam footage removes any questions about the officers' actions.

There is also body camera footage, but it shows graphic scenes like Ramirez's death and deputies dragging a badly wounded Rosario away and Lewis said he won't release that video.

'When they were dragging her away she became exposed,' Lewis said. 'I just don't want that video out there for the victim's family.'
The Trump administration officially told the United Nations on Friday that the US intends to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

But the State Department's announcement doesn't formally start the process of the US getting out of the voluntary agreement. That's still to come.

Still, the department described its communication as a 'strong message' to the world, following President Donald Trump's decision in June to leave the accord.

'The State Department is telling the UN what the president already told the world on June 1 and it has no legal effect,' said Nigel Purvis, who directed US climate diplomacy during the Bill Clinton and George W Bush administrations.

The Trump administration officially told the United Nations on Friday that the US intends to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement

The Paris agreement aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since the start of the industrial age. Majority of scientists say the burning of coal, oil and gas is causing the Earth's climate to change because of heat-trapping gases

Purvis said countries can't withdraw from new international agreements, including the Paris climate one, until three years after they go into effect. The Paris agreement went into effect on November 4, 2016. Then the process takes a year.

The State Department cited the same timeline, saying it can officially start withdrawing as soon as November 2019.

That means the earliest the US can be out of the climate agreement is November 4, 2020 - the day after the next presidential election.

In a statement, the State Department said the US will continue to participate in international meetings and negotiations on current and future climate change deals. The next meeting is in Bonn, Germany, in November.

Trump is 'open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the US can identify terms that are more favorable to it, its business, its workers, its people and its taxpayers,' the department said.

Under the agreement, countries set their own national plans for cutting climate emissions.

That means Trump can come up with different targets for the US than those set by former president Barack Obama. But Trump can't unilaterally change the text of the Paris deal.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres received 'a communication' from US Ambassador Nikki Haley 'expressing the intention of the US to exercise its right to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as soon as it is eligible to do so under the Agreement, unless it identifies suitable terms for reengagement'.

'The secretary-general welcomes any effort to re-engage in the Paris Agreement by the United States,' he said.

Dujarric reiterated Guterres' June 1 statement calling the US decision to withdraw 'a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security'.

'It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on climate and sustainable development,' Dujarric said.

'Climate change is impacting now. He looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future for our children and future generations.'

During the G20 in Germany, the summit's final statement made clear that the other countries and the European Union supported the Paris climate agreement rejected by Trump. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured) said at the time that the US position was 'regrettable'

Under Obama, the US agreed to reduce polluting emissions more than a quarter from 2005 levels by the year 2025. There is no climate court. All that's required in the agreement is a plan and reporting on progress toward reaching self-set goals.

No matter what the US does, the Paris agreement remains in effect because enough other countries ratified it.

During the G20 in Hamburg, Germany, last month the summit's final statement made clear that the other countries and the European Union unanimously supported the Paris climate agreement rejected by Trump.

They called the deal to reduce greenhouse gases 'irreversible' and vowed to implement it 'swiftly' and without exception.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the time that the US position was 'regrettable'.

The Paris agreement aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since the start of the industrial age.

The world has already warmed about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the Industrial Revolution. The overwhelming majority of scientists say the burning of coal, oil and gas is causing the Earth's climate to change because of heat-trapping gases.
The lawyer for a former escort under investigation for allegedly spending $5.8 million on a drug firm executive's company credit card claims she wasn't the 'brains' behind the spending.

Crystal Lundberg, 31, and former Nemera executive Scott Kennedy, 43, are both being investigated by the FBI for fraud and money laundering over the alleged spending spree.

Court filings obtained by the Chicago Tribune allege they spent millions on plastic surgery, a San Diego mansion, a chauffeur for her children, dogs and even potted plants.

Crystal Lundberg, 31, and former Nemera executive Scott Kennedy, 43, are both being investigated for fraud and money laundering over the alleged spending spree

Kennedy (center), who worked for France-based Nemera, says he let Lundberg dupe him into spending the millions because he wanted to be loved and hoped it would lead to a family

Kennedy says he let Lundberg dupe him into spending the millions because he wanted to be loved and had hoped it would lead to a family.

Lundberg's lawyer Marc Carlos hit out on Friday claiming Kennedy was responsible for the entire operation and said the former escort was not a 'financial genius'.

'He knew what she was. He knew what her past was. Then he's the one who wanted to get in her good graces by giving her gifts,' the lawyer told the Tribune.

He added that Lundberg did not go to college and lacked the sophistication to commit such a crime.

'He needs to do something to lessen his liability, and by saying he's a victim of the, whatever it is, psycho-sexual control this woman has over him is his only out,' he said.

'It's the only way he's going to be able to reduce his criminal liability, but it's ridiculous.'

Agents say Kennedy solicited Lundberg's (left and right) services between eight and ten times from 2012 to May 2015. By May 2015, she began seeking Kennedy's financial assistance

At first Lundberg (pictured), her two daughters and her pets moved into Kennedy's suburban home in San Diego

Soon enough, she moved into her own San Diego mansion (pictured) on Polvera Avenue, which cost $12,000-a-month in rent that the company covered

Kennedy told the FBI that he first met Lundberg in 2012 through the classified ad website Backpage.com, which advertises sexual services.

Lundberg was working as a professional escort at a time, and agents say Kennedy solicited her services between eight and ten times from 2012 to May 2015.

By May 2015, Lundberg began seeking financial assistance from Kennedy. Soon afterwards, she, her two young children, and their pets moved in with Kennedy at his suburban home.

That November, Kennedy gave Lundberg access to the company credit card for the first time after she asked for help buying Christmas gifts for her daughters, according to the filing.

Over the next 16 months, the two burned through $5.79million of company cash, authorities alleged.

Analysis conducted by Nemera found more than 8,800 improper charges to the company credit card between November 2015 and mid-March 2017.

This included money to front Lundberg's own spa known as K&K Cosmetics, plastic surgery during a stay in Miami, two Rolex watches, a personal driver for her daughters, a maid, two purebred dogs and trips to numerous locations including Bali, Hawaii, France and Costa Rica.

Almost $1million was spent on travel alone.

In November 2016 , Kennedy gave Lundberg (pictured) access to the company credit card for the first time after she asked for help buying Christmas gifts for her daughters, according to the filing

Lundberg (pictured) was given money to fund her own spa business, known as K&K Cosmetics

Analysis conducted by Nemera found more than 8,800 improper charges to the company credit card between November 2015 and mid-March 2017

In addition, $24,000 was spent for movers to haul Lundberg's potted plants from her home in Illinois to the mansion

Money was spent on two Rolex watches, a personal driver for her daughters, a maid, two purebred dogs and trips to numerous location include Bali, Hawaii, France and Costa Rica

The company also unknowingly gave $585,000 for Lundberg to spend time at a medical spa called the Royalty Room

BREAKDOWN OF COMPANY CREDIT CARD CHARGES Travel: $970,734 Bali

France

Costa Rica

Hawaii

Santorini

Island in the Aegean Sea

Bora Bora

Fiji Clothing and Accessories: $606,887 Home decor and improvement: $552,662 Lodging: $441,312 San Diego mansion rent at $12,000/month Entertainment: $315,117 Jewelry $279,231 Two Rolex watches for $60,000 Health and beauty: $253,019 Movers for the potted plants: $24,000 Personal driver: $8,000/month Two purebred dogs: up to $6,000 Maid: $2,500/month Advertisement

Lundberg moved to a 7,000-square-foot-mansion on Polvera Avenue in San Diego where the company footed the $12,000-a-month rent at the mansion.

In addition, $24,000 was spent for movers to haul the woman's potted plants from Illinois.

The company also unknowingly gave $585,000 for Lundberg to spend time at a medical spa called the Royalty Room.

Kennedy told the Chicago Tribune he was duped by the escort because 'wanted to have a family'.

'I wanted to be loved and cared for. My heart kind of overrid my head and said, 'Take a chance',' he said.

'Well, it blew up in my face. My mistake was trusting her. At this point, I have very little faith anything she told me ever was true.'

Nemera said it became aware of possible improper financial activity by Kennedy earlier this year. After a review, by an independent accounting firm and outside counsel, Kennedy was fired in March.

That is when the FBI confronted Kennedy. While he largely blamed Lundberg for the spending, he admitted to buying gift cards with the company card to pay for day-to-day expenses after Lundberg had allegedly maxed out his personal credit cards.

He told the agency that Lundberg had led him to believe she would eventually reimburse him as she claimed she was adopted by a wealthy family as a child and, at age 30, she would be able to access $4million.

But Lundberg, who filed for bankruptcy in 2009 reported to only about $100 in a checking account and income of about $200 a month with no mention of a trust fund.

In May, prosecutors filed a warrant to seize Lundberg's business checking account and FBI agents raided her San Diego mansion (pictured)

Kennedy said he was duped into the purchases because he 'wanted to be loved and have a family'

He told the FBI that Lundberg had led him to believe she would eventually reimburse him as she claimed she was adopted by a wealthy family as a child and, at age 30, she would be able to access $4million

But Lundberg, who filed for bankruptcy in 2009 reported to only about $100 in a checking account and income of about $200 a month with no mention of a trust fund

Kennedy agreed to cooperate with authorities, including making undercover recordings of face-to-face and telephone conversations, according to the court filing.

In May, prosecutors filed a warrant to seize Lundberg's business checking account and FBI agents raided her San Diego mansion.

According to 10News, dozens of agents in full gear with guns stormed the residence, seizing a Jaguar and white grand piano, among other things. Recent photos seem to suggest, however, that Lundberg is still living in the residence.

At the time, the mansion was the site of an estate sale advertised as 'Unexpected move for Chicago Heiress with Designer EVERYTHING'.
The gender pay gap was branded 'shocking' by Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner

Britain's top university came under fire today when it emerged that less than one in seven of its top paid staff are female.

Just 17 out of 123 Cambridge University's staff earning over 140,000 a year are women, according to figures released after a Freedom of Information request.

The gender pay gap was branded 'shocking' by Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner.

It comes in contrast with rivals at Oxford University where a bursar has slammed the 'grossly excessive' 410,000 pay packet of his own female vice-chancellor.

The university revealed less than one in seven staff on more than 140,000 were women following the FOI.

It also said that its highest paid employee was paid 440,344 annually - more than 31 times its lowest on 12,873pa and over 13 times its average pay.

Only 11 of the 31 masters of Cambridge University colleges are women despite it being an equal opportunities employer.

Cambridge university was forced to reveal its pay gap after its figures stated its female employees were paid about a fifth less than their male counterparts.

Its annual Equal Pay Review, which analyses employees' pay until July 31 2016, stated more than half its employees were female but they were paid about an average of a fifth less than their male counterparts.

It stated: 'Female employees occupy 50.8% of positions, the highest proportion since Equal Pay Reviews have been conducted.

'The gender pay gap including additional payments (total pay) is 20.2% and excluding additional payments (basic pay) is 18.6%.

'Male employees continue to occupy a higher proportion of the positions at the higher end of the pay scale compared to female employees, and vice versa (but there has been an overall improvement towards a more equal balance).'

The report raised particular concerns over a gender pay gap in the University's highest grades of pay.

'Male employees are more likely to be appointed above the grade minimum than female employees (but there has been an overall improvement towards a more equal balance),' it stated.

Just 17 out of 123 Cambridge University's staff earning over 140,000 a year are women

Less than one in five staff on the highest pay bracket - which has an average pay 85,634 per year - were women.

The salaries of staff on the top pay grade are organised into bands by the university.

But the report revealed the worst disparity for the top earning women was those which came under an 'unbanded' category - they were paid an average of 80,459 as men were paid 91,630.

The city's MP Daniel Zeichner said: 'I'm not surprised but it's still shocking. It's important the university looks at it.

'It's not just the university, we need transparency across the rest of the city where it's probably much the same problem. It's endemic.

'Wherever inequality is it needs to be shown. More needs to be done.'

Mr Zeichner also called for greater transparency across the private sector so that the full scale of the pay gap could be identified in Cambridge.

'I'd also like to see private institutions volunteer their figures, it would probably show the situation is worse there.'

Outspoken Professor Mary Beard, classics professor at Newnham College said: 'This is something that I think all institutions are working on. About time too one might say.

'I am not particularly close to the university high command. But I know they take this seriously. And I hope that leads to progress.'

A spokeswoman for the university said the 'overall gender pay gap at Cambridge continues to fall year on year'.

She said: 'The University of Cambridge is committed to the principles of equal pay for work of equal value, freedom from discrimination and recognition of University staff as its greatest asset.

'The University is committed to taking action to reduce this further. There are a variety of initiatives in progress to support this. Addressing the gender pay gap also forms part of the University's Equality and Diversity Strategy.

'In addition, the University will be publishing its own gender pay reporting data in line with the Government mandatory gender pay regulations before March 2018.'

The university achieved a Silver Athena SWAN award in early 2014 for addressing gender inequalities in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in higher education.

The figures emerged weeks after it was revealed that women at the BBC make up only a third of the corporation's top earners.
The two Sydney men accused of trying to blow up an Etihad plane flying from Sydney to the Middle East were allegedly introduced to ISIS heavyweight 'The Controller' by their own terrorist brother.

Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat were allegedly put in contact with the dangerous ISIS militant by their older brother Tarek Khayat, the Daily Telegraph reports.

They were allegedly planning to sacrifice their own brother in the attack - by planting the bomb which was disguised as a meat mincer in his luggage.

Police believe Tarek Khayat, the eldest of the three brothers allegedly involved in the terror plans, had never even met the younger brother who was to be sacrificed.

It has also been revealed that Tarek had fought in Syria alongside other extremists before ISIS established a caliphate there.

Khaled Khayat is accused by police of planning the bombing of an Etihad flight out of Sydney Airport

Khaled Khayat is accused of being part of an alleged plot to blow up an Etihad flight out of Sydney Airport

The alleged meat-mincer bomb is believed to have been made with 'military-grade explosives' sent from Turkey after exchanging messages with 'The Controller'.

Khaled Khayat, 49, accompanied his unwitting brother to Sydney airport ahead of his flight to Abu Dhabi, allegedly knowing his luggage contained an explosive hidden in a kitchen meat mincer.

AFP Commissioner Michael Phelan revealed that the luggage never make it on the plane and Khayat took it from the airport.

'There is a little bit of conjecture as to why it didn't go ahead,' Mr Phelan told reporters on Friday. 'It did not get through security.'

The beginnings of the alleged plot to bring down the Etihad Airways EY 451 was hatched on April 14 when Khaled Khayat allegedly contacted a senior Islamic State operative in Syria, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Khayat is alleged to have kept in contact with the commander leading to bomb components being sent from Turkey to Sydney by air cargo.

Following information being sent through on chemical reactions, Mr Khayat responded in a message with: 'Thanks be to God', according to the publication.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan (right) with NSW Deputy Commissioner David Hudson

Police allege Mr Khayat and his younger brother Mahmoud worked on the bomb for three months.

But upon arriving at Sydney Airport the bag never made it through check-in and was taken back to Mr Khayat's Lakemba home.

'This is one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil,' Police Commissioner Mike Phelan said.

After the bomb returned to Lakemba, it is alleged an IS member contacted Mr Khayat on how to create an 'improvised chemical dispersion device'.

Messages allege the IS member and Mr Khayat had talked about placing the gas device in a crowded place, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Authorities allege a second attack was planned after the first plot failed.

Police patrolling Parramatta Court ahead of the appearance of two alleged terrorists alleged to be behind a plane bombing plot

'It was designed to release the highly toxic hydrogen sulfide,' Mr Phelan said, but he stressed the alleged conspirators 'were a mile-and-a-half from having a functioning chemical dispersion device'.

Khayat, 49, of Lakemba and another brother, Mahmoud Khayat, 32, of Punchbowl had their first court mention at Parramatta Local Court on Friday.

Each have been charged with two counts of acting in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.

Their lawyer, Michael Coroneos, said his clients were 'entitled to the presumption of innocence'.

'Once the brief of evidence is served we can assess their legal position,' Mr Coroneos told reporters outside court.

An alleged ISIS-inspired terror plot to smuggle an improvised explosive device onto an Etihad Airways flight out of Sydney could have killed more than 400 people. File photo

The men, who were refused bail ahead of another hearing on November 14, face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

A third man remains behind bars held under special anti-terror laws. He can be detained until the weekend.

Mr Phelan said the aborted July 15 plot involved a high-end explosive being concealed in a meat grinder.

The brother who flew to Abu Dhabi has not returned to Australia and is not facing charges.
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The Russian president has been taking a summer holiday in Siberia, as he puts some of the country's troubles to one side to go diving and fishing.

Vladimir Putin has been photographed shirtless in the lakes of Siberia, as he catches fish and catches some sun.

The premier visited the region earlier this week, and was briefed there about a mining accident at one of the country's largest diamond mines.

Vladimir Putin goes fishing in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia at the beginning of the week, where he landed a big catch

Putin was in the region between August 1 and 3. It's an area he visits regularly, as a fan of rugged, outdoor leisure activities

Putin shows off his catch against the impressive backdrop of the Siberian mountains in the remote Tuva region of the country

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), accompanied by defence minister Sergei Shoigu, gestures as he takes a break to enjoy his surroundings

Its not the first time the outdoors adventureman has taken a break to the Siberian mountains.

The Russian premier visits the Tuva region regularly, even though it is not a big draw for many tourists.

And he usually opts to go shirtless here, as in 2009, the famous photo of him riding a horse without his top on was taken.

Political analysts say the president takes adventure holidays to show the nation that he is still healthy, strong and full of vigor.

It also helps encourage other Russians to holiday at home, instead of journeying out of the country for foreign vacations.

According to Russia Beyond the Headlines, besides walking, Putin loves to fish, and he has taken several trips with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

One of the fishing outings was historic as on August 17, 2011, as they were fishing, the politicians decided to switch positions, with Putin running for president, and Medvedev returning to being prime minister.

The Russian leader sunbathes in Tuva during his holiday. The president was photographed here in 2009 as well, when he rode shirtless on a horse

By taking outdoors holidays, Putin is said to be showing he is a healthy and strong president, despite being 64-years-old

Putin gives defence minister Sergei Shoigu some fishing tips as the pair cast their rods into the rivers in the remote Siberian region

While the president was away, emergency services dealt with a crisis in a mine, as more than 130 people became trapped after a sudden flood.

Alrosa, Russia's largest diamond producer, said 102 miners were evacuated and 33 are set to be raised to the surface after water broke through into the mine at around 4.30pm local time yesterday.

A further nine were unaccounted for, reports stated yesterday afternoon.

The water leaked into one of the mine's pumping stations out of a flooded disused crater that contained some 300,000 cubic metres of water, or the equivalent of 120 Olympic-size swimming pools, the emergency situations ministry said.

Alrosa's president, Sergei Ivanov, is the 36-year-old son of Putin's former chief of staff, also called Sergei Ivanov. He has headed Alrosa since March this year.

Alrosa, based in the Sakha region, made a net profit of 22.7 billion rubles ($376.37 million) in the first quarter of 2017.

Holidaying in Russia also helps encourage other citizens to holiday at home, rather than take foreign breaks abroad

Russian President Putin hunts fish underwater, wearing full diving gear as he plunges into the watery depths of the lake

While the president was away, he was being briefed by officials about the mining accident that trapped more than 130 diamond workers

Putin uses a snorkel and goggles to get through the waters as he tries to catch fish while taking a break with his defence minister

Putin swims through the country's rivers as he enjoyed his break in the southern Siberian area between August 1 and 3
A curious koala has left a rural New South Wales pharmacy stunned after waltzing into the store and taking a look around.

The inquisitive marsupial dropped into Tocumwal Pharmacy on the Victorian border on Friday afternoon to the delight of amazed customers and staff.

The chemist shared the lazy loner's visit to Facebook, paying homage to its love for a native Australian tree.

'Where are the eucalyptus drops?' the post read.

A curious koala has left a rural New South Wales pharmacy stunned after waltzing into the store and taking a look around

The inquisitive marsupial dropped into Tocumwal Pharmacy on the Victorian border on Friday afternoon to the delight of amazed customers and staff

'The front door opens and a Koala walks in on its own. He walked the store, got some free pharmacy advice and then headed to the tree up the road. Only in Toc.'

Pharmacy owner Ashley Wiles revealed to Daily Mail Australia the social animal took to customers and its new surroundings well.

'At about 5.00pm yesterday the koala emerged and sat at the entrance for a few minutes.

'As a customer opened the door to leave, it came in and took a look around the store before sitting down for five minutes.

'Customers were shocked but the koala was very, very friendly.'

Staff called a local vet for advice, who advised to leave the surprise guest to its own devices.

The rural chemist is located on the New South Wales border with Victoria and is about 250km north of Melbourne

After inspecting the staff only kitchen area out the back of the store, the blase bear retired to a nearby tree to bring his 10 minute adventure to an end

'Customers were asking what sex it was so they knew whether to show it to the perfume or not.' Wiles added.

After inspecting the staff only kitchen area out the back of the store, the blase bear retired to a nearby tree to bring his 10 minute adventure to an end.

The images were awash with adulation for the big-eyed bear from social media users, while some couldn't resist the chance to crack a joke.

'Love this! How special,' one comment read.

'Is he a koalafied pharmacist?' another joked.
British aid money has been used to help train elements of Venezuela's brutal security services, it emerged yesterday.

Official documents show that ministers approved a decision to spend 160,000 of taxpayers' money on training and 'capacity building' in the totalitarian state's police and security services.

The money was part of a 5.8million aid package spent in the oil-rich state over the last four years. The aid programme even included help for Venezuela's state oil industry, which is the main source of income for the country's socialist regime.

Boris Johnson accused Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro (pictured) 'acting like a dictator of an evil regime'

The revelation is embarrassing for Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who this week accused Venezuela's Marxist president, Nicolas Maduro, of 'acting like a dictator of an evil regime'.

The existence of the scheme is also uncomfortable for senior Tories who have piled pressure on Jeremy Corbyn  who has previously lionised the Maduro regime  to condemn his Venezuelan 'comrades'.

Last night the Foreign Office, which has responsibility for the project, suggested it could be halted, saying it would be 'kept under review given the current situation in the country.'

Tory MPs condemned the spending as 'barmy' and called for it to be stopped immediately. Peter Bone said there was no justification for giving aid to a country with bountiful oil reserves.

A protester being assisted with medics during clashes with the police on July 30 2017 (pictured). Venezuela was branded a dictatorship this week following a massive power grab by President Maduro

He added: 'Why are we giving overseas aid money to an oil-rich state that is effectively a dictatorship? It is completely barmy, and the Government should stop it immediately. If some of the money is going to help the police and security services then that is even worse, considering the footage we have all seen in recent days.'

Fellow Tory Nigel Evans added: 'We cannot on the one hand have the Foreign Secretary describing the country as a dictatorship, and on the other be handing them aid money. Spending money on the police in a police state is unacceptable.'

Venezuela was branded a dictatorship this week following a massive power grab by President Maduro.

ast year the watchdog accused Venezuela's police and security services of extra-judicial killings, unlawful detention and human rights abuses. A protester being hit with a jet from a riot police water cannon (pictured in May 2017

Police have launched a violent crackdown against protesters, and images have been beamed around the world of opposition leaders being arrested and locked up.

The regime's security services have been a byword for brutality and corruption for years. In a recent verdict on Venezuela, the Human Rights Watch group said: 'Security forces have arbitrarily detained and tortured protesters.'

Last year the watchdog accused Venezuela's police and security services of extra-judicial killings, unlawful detention and human rights abuses. The report focused on raids on low income areas. In 2015, in 135 raids, 245 members of the public were killed. The Maduro regime claims it was driving out crime gangs.

Much of the aid money devoted to Venezuela is spent by the Foreign Office. The majority of it has gone on worthy, if unsuccessful, projects to promote human rights and decrease violence.

But the latest published figures reveal that 160,000 was also spent on training and 'capacity building' with Venezuela's law enforcement services.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'The UK's work in Venezuela supports our long-term vision for the country to be more stable, democratic and prosperous, which is in the interest of the international community and our own national interest. The viability of work in Venezuela will be kept under review given the current situation in the country.

'We do not pay any money directly to the government, or entities close to the government.' Sources said the aid to the regime's security services was focused mainly on helping the fight against organised crime and drug trafficking.
New products from the ethical chocolate brand Green & Blacks have gone on sale without the familiar Fairtrade mark

The Fairtrade logo, which is used on thousands of products to demonstrate struggling producers are treated well, is under threat.

New products from the ethical chocolate brand Green & Blacks have gone on sale without the familiar Fairtrade mark.

The brand is owned by Cadbury, which is in the throes or removing the logo from products, including Dairy Milk, in favour of its own Cocoa Life scheme.

Separately, Sainsburys, which is the biggest seller of Fairtrade Foundation products in the world, has switched to its own scheme and a new Fairly Traded slogan for some tea.

The decision has created fears that this is the first step towards the store phasing out the scheme completely.

At the same time, Tesco is giving greater prominence to a rival scheme for tea and coffee run by the Rainforest Alliance.

Anti-poverty campaigners suspect others will follow suit, so undermining schemes designed to help poor farmers in the Third World and causing confusion for shoppers.

The Fairtrade logo appears on more than 5,000 products, everything from tea and coffee to bananas and flowers.

UK sales exceeded 1.65 billion in 2016. As a result, there was an estimated financial premium of around 30 million  on top of the normal market price  for producers across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean.

The move by some firms to dump the logo has been condemned by Oxfam, the Catholic charity Cafod, Christian Aid, the Womens Institute and several major ethical trading and co-operative groups representing millions of consumers.

In a joint statement, they said: We see own brand certification standards as a step backwards in tackling major issues related to poverty and environmental sustainability.

Rachel Wilshaw, ethical trade advisor for Oxfam GB, said: There is a risk of shoppers being left confused as some brands and retailers move away from the Fairtrade scheme to introduce their own alternative certification schemes.

With the Fairtrade mark on products, consumers are clear about what they are getting.

Miss Wilshaw said sales of some Fairtrade product lines have been going up, adding: This shows that customers continue to trust the Fairtrade mark as the best scheme for enabling poor farmers and workers to work their way out of poverty.

The National Federation of Womens Institutes said: We would be very disappointed to see Fairtrade accreditation replaced with schemes that may confuse the consumer and may not have the same rigorous standards.

Green & Blacks, which was founded in 1991 as a pioneering organic brand, was taken over by Cadbury, which is now part of US giant Mondelez, in 2005.

The Fairtrade logo appears on more than 5,000 products, everything from tea and coffee to bananas and flowers

The brands new Velvet Edition dark chocolate bars are not organic and the Fairtrade logo has been replaced with Cadburys Cocoa Life symbol.

The brands existing classic range of dark chocolate will continue to carry the Fairtrade mark and use organic ingredients.

Cadbury pioneered the take up of the Fairtrade scheme in the high street when it signed in 2009. However, it now claims its alternative Cocoa Life regime offers better pay and conditions for a much larger group of farmers.

The Fairtrade logo is being removed from Cadburys Dairy Milk range this month. By 2019, the brands entire chocolate range in the UK and Ireland  including Flake, Twirl and Wispa  will switch.

Cadbury said its new regime has been endorsed by the Fairtrade Foundation, which is effectively a partner in the scheme even though its logo wont be used.

It said Cocoa Life aims to secure a positive long-term future for 200,000 farmers and one million community members in six key cocoa growing countries by 2022.

The firm said: Fairtrade remains a valuable partner for Cadbury and Cocoa Life and will continue to be involved in Cocoa Life.

Alongside our other NGO partners, Fairtrade will ensure Cadbury continues to be an accountable partner for farmers and plays a positive role in building thriving coca-growing communities.

Fairtrade confirmed it is supporting the new Cadbury scheme, but it has refused to back the Sainsburys Fairly Traded initiative and logo.

Tesco is giving greater prominence to a rival scheme for tea and coffee run by the Rainforest Alliance

A spokesman said: We have some concerns on the Fairly Traded model, we do believe this particular scheme will create consumer confusion.

The organisation said the Sainsburys scheme appears to have less rigorous standards and makes it more difficult for farmers to benefit from higher prices charged for their ethically produced crops.

Sainsburys said the change to its own scheme for tea is a pilot and no decision has been made to roll it out to other products.

The company said its own scheme is better for farmers with extra safeguards to ensure they receive crucial funding.

Fairly Traded goes further than the current model with more benefits, including longer-term commercial relationships and individually-tailored support to help them make their businesses more resilient and sustainable in the face of unprecedented challenges, it said.

Tesco said: We are committed to sourcing our products in an ethical and sustainable way and work with a number of partners, including Fairtrade, to help us achieve this.

Tesco was one of the first retailers to support Fairtrade following its launch in 1994, and we offer our customers a wide selection of Fairtrade products.
Britain has educated more serving heads of state at university level than any other country in world, a new study has found.

A total of 58 world leaders have qualifications from British universities, while only 57 have studied in the United States.

French universities were ranked third place, educating 33 serving heads of state, while Russia had only nine to its name and Australia had eight.

Among Britains alumni are Australias Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who studied at Oxford, Singapores Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates.

Among Britains alumni are Australias Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who studied at Oxford

British universities have long been favoured by elite families around the world, with many willing to pay the high international student fees in return for a certificate from a prestigious institution.

In turn, universities aggressively recruit students from abroad  especially China and India  because they bring in much-needed funding as well as talent.

The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), which carried out the study, said the number of powerful leaders with connections with Britain could help our standing after Brexit.

THE TOP TEN Country Number of leaders UK 58 US 57 France 33 Russia 9 Australia 8 Switzerland 5 Canada 5 Portugal 4 Egypt 4 Germany 4 Advertisement

Nick Hillman, director of HEPI, said: These results show the UK punches massively above its weight in educating the leaders of the world.

This is of huge benefit to British influence, and could be especially useful as we negotiate Brexit.

Not only do these leaders have a British qualification that helped them reach the top, they have also spent time here creating a strong sense of loyalty to the UK.

Its a source of real soft power, and a fantastic testament to the quality of our universities.

He added that any action to limit international student numbers as part of a crackdown on immigration may backfire if it meant fewer future world leaders being educated in the UK.

This survey proves that would be catastrophic to our influence around the world, he said.

Other leaders educated in the UK include Burmese state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who took degrees at Oxford and SOAS during the 1960s and 1980s.

There is also recently-elected Gambian President Adama Barrow, who worked as an Argos security guard while studying property management in London.

Singapores Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (pictured) and Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates studied in Britain

The HEPI study said: All of the leaders in the analysis came to study in the UK before the current migration target came in and, like the majority of international students, they returned to their country of origin after their studies.

However, there were several leaders with UK qualifications we might not be so proud of, including Zimbabwes president Robert Mugabe, who has a British distance-learning certificate.

Meanwhile Syrias president, Bashar al-Assad, carried out postgraduate training at the Western Eye Hospital.
Meal-kit company Blue Apron is closing a facility in New Jersey and said that about 1,270 workers may lose their jobs if they don't chose to transfer to another facility in the state.

The potential cuts were disclosed in a public notice required by law, and will be effective October 6, trimming the companys headcount by 24% to 3,995.

The corporation, which became a public company about a month ago, said Friday that it offered the workers at a Jersey City, New Jersey, facility the option to transfer to a new factory in Linden, New Jersey.

470 employees at Blue Apron may lose their jobs after the company says it wants to close a New Jersey facility (Pictured Blue Apron founders: Ilia Papas , Matt Salzberg and Matt Wadiak)

The company said that they offered all the workers an opportunity to transfer (Pictured: CEO Matt Salzberg)

'Weve been letting staff in Jersey City know for a few months that they can transfer to the new facility,' Blue Aprons Head of Communications, Nisha Devarajan, told Business Insider.

'A majority decided to transfer over and our hope is that everyone stays with the company,' Devarajan added.

Blue Apron said about 800 workers asked to transfer and that it expects more to do so before the October deadline.

The company had more than 5,200 employees at the end of March.

The company said in February that it expects to employ about 2,000 people in the new Linden facility when it opens.

On Friday, Blue Apron Holdings Inc.'s stock fell 6 percent to close at $5.83.

The New York company's shares are down 42 percent since they first began trading on the stock market at the end of June.

The Jersey City, New Jersey facility (pictured) will be shut down in October, and a new facility will be opened in Linden, New Jersey at the beginning of next year.

The company was first established in 2012 Matt Salzberg (CEO), Ilia Papas and Matt Wadiak, packing and shipping the first 30 orders themselves from a commercial kitchen based Long Island City, New York.

On June 29, the company went public and sold off 30 million shares at $10 dollars a share.

But in less than three weeks since the public offering, 'Blue Apron's stock has lost nearly 40% in value,' leading to attorneys at the law firm of Harwood Feffer LLP to open an investigation, according to PR Newswire citing a July 18 statement by the firm.

The law firm is looking into whether the meal kit company's 'board breached its fiduciary duty to investors, grossly mismanaged the Company, and/or committed abuses of control.'

That devaluation also came on news that internet retail giant Amazon filed a July 6 trademark application for 'prepared food kits composed of meat, poultry, fish, seafood, fruit and/or vegetables . . . ready for cooking and assembly as a meal.'

As a result, Blue Apron stock tumbled as investors scurried away from having to potentially compete with Amazon, who had just purchased the Whole Foods supermarket chain for $13.7 billion days before Blue Apron went public.

An email to Blue Apron seeking comment was not immediately answered.

Blue Apron says it expects to employ 2,000 workers at the new Linden, New Jersey facility
An 18-year-old cheerleader has been indicted on charges of aggravated murder and other offenses after her newborn infant's remains were found buried outside her home in Ohio, a prosecutor says.

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell says a grand jury Friday also indicted Brooke Skylar Richardson on charges of involuntary manslaughter, child endangering, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in the May death.

Fornshell says the cause of death hasn't been determined.

He alleges the baby was alive when it was born about 38 to 40 weeks in the pregnancy and Richardson 'purposely caused' the death, then burned and buried the baby.

Brooke Skylar Richardson (pictured in court in July), 18, was charged with aggravated murder on Friday after her child's remains were found buried in the backyard of her Ohio home

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell alleges the baby was alive when it was born about 38 to 40 weeks in the pregnancy and Richardson (pictured) 'purposely caused' the death, then burned and buried the baby. The remains were found July 14 in Carlisle

The remains were found July 14 in Carlisle, about 40 miles north of Cincinnati.

Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Brandi Carter wrote in the complaint that 'on or about May 7, 2017' Richardson 'did recklessly cause the death of another, or the unlawful termination of another's pregnancy'.

Authorities determined the infant died more than three months ago and only found the child's remains because of a tip from a doctor's office.

Fornshell did not provide a motive but said 'it was a perception issue and the teen's mother was concerned about appearances.'

The infant's remains were discovered July 14 in the backyard of Richardson's home in Carlisle, Ohio. Authorities are seen carrying a bucket of evidence from the home's backyard

He added that about half of the town knew the 18-year-old girl was pregnant prior to her giving birth.

The prosecutor said they are still investigating if others were involved in the crime.

'There are a lot of questions our office still has,' Fornshell said.

Fornshell said they believe they know who the baby's father is, but would not reveal any further details.

Richardson, who remains in Warren County Jail, could face 20 years to life in prison if convicted on the aggravated murder charge.



Officials are still waiting for the final report from the coroner regarding the death of the baby. Authorities revealed they only found the child's remains at the home (above) because of a tip from a doctor's office

Last month, Rittgers praised Richardson for being a good student who just graduated high school and is planning to go to college at the University of Cincinnati.

'She didn't drink. She wasn't a partier or a smoker. By all measures a very good girl who helped children She's by all means a very good person,' Rittgers told the Dayton Daily News.

Rittgers also said Richardson helped children with disabilities at a cheer camp and worked at the YMCA with kids.
Pictured: Terrorist Ciaran Maxwell, who was jailed for 18 years this week

A terrorist who infiltrated the Royal Marines and built bombs for dissident Republicans will have his military pension taken away from him under plans being examined by defence ministers.

Ciaran Maxwell, 31, was sentenced to 18 years in prison this week after he plotted a deadly campaign across Northern Ireland.

His 300 targets included military bases, high-profile Unionists and top police officers.

Defence ministers were infuriated when it emerged he was still eligible to draw a taxpayer-funded Armed Forces pension potentially worth thousands of pounds a year, plus a lump sum of 5,000.

They have ordered officials to draw up options to cancel the pension.

It is understood ministers believe he should not be allowed to walk out of jail and be handed hard-earned taxpayers cash.

Last night a senior defence source said: It would be wrong for Ciaran Maxwell to be rewarded for his actions against the UK when he should have been training to defend the country.

Maxwell also grew cannabis. Police released this image of him posing with his crop

This balaclava was recovered by investigators from a hide near Teignbridge, Devon

An MOD spokesperson said: We are reviewing the implications of the verdict, including for any future pension entitlement.

The young father exploited lax security to smuggle an arsenal of weapons into Northern Ireland from his home in Exminster, Devon, over five years.

He buried pipe bombs, guns, ammunition, chemicals and 100kg of high explosives at 43 woodland locations in England and Northern Ireland.

Police chiefs admit it is likely that some of his bombs are still in the hands of Continuity IRA members.

Maxwell with his partner Kerry O'Callaghan, 29 (right). A picture on Ms O'Callaghan's Facebook profile shows their baby proudly wearing his father's green beret (left)

Four of the devices have been used in Maxwells hometown of Larne, Northern Ireland, but no one has been killed or injured.

MPs on both sides yesterday welcomed the move to have his pension taken away from him.

Luke Pollard, MP for the naval constituency of Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, said: When you join the armed forces you promise to protect our nation.' Pictured: Maxwell in the woods

Former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth said people would be scandalised if a terrorist could retire on a taxpayer-funded nest egg.

The Tory grandee told the Standard: I believe this man was guilty of promoting premeditated destruction of life.

He used his position in the Royal Marines to promote actions that would have killed and maimed innocent people.

The public would be scandalised if he was to receive a penny more from public funds.

Luke Pollard, MP for the naval constituency of Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, said: When you join the armed forces you promise to protect our nation.

Ciaran Maxwell betrayed that trust. As a convicted terrorist who made pipebombs with the intent of killing and maiming he forfeited his right to a military pension.

He added: He shouldnt enjoy the same pension as brave men and women who risk their lives honouring their promise to protect our country.
Theresa May is the 'victim of sexism' according to her former right-hand man who says he is still in contact with the Prime Minister despite leaving his job following the election disaster.

Nick Timothy, 36, was a key adviser to Mrs May in the lead up to the general election as co-chief of staff alongside Fiona Hill, but the pair were widely blamed for mistakes that led to the Tories losing their majority in Parliament.

He said he resents the suggestion he was 'her brain' in Westminster and said Mrs May was a more then capable leader, suggesting she was underestimated by some because of her gender.

Mr Timothy, who quit as Mrs Mays joint chief-of-staff in the aftermath of the June election, also warned that the Tories were in danger of handing the next election to Jeremy Corbyn by retreating into their comfort zone.

Nick Timothy, who quit as Mrs Mays joint chief-of-staff in the aftermath of the June election. Here he is pictured with May and political adviser Fiona Hill celebrating her becoming the Prime Minister July 11th 2017

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: 'She [Mrs May] has done a very good job stabilising things since the election which disproves that theory [that he is her 'brain'] anyway, but I do think there's more than a hint of sexism to be honest, there's a sort of implication that even having become Prime Minister she somehow doesn't have a set of beliefs and a programme of her own and she obviously does.

'Suggesting I'm the creator of those ideas is absurd and insulting to her.'

Mr Timothy was dubbed the Brummie Rasputin during his time in office because of his flowing beard and alleged influence over the Prime Minister.

But, appearing clean-shaven for the first time in years, he said claims that he and other male aides were the brains behind Mrs May were the result of Westminster sexism.

Mr Timothy was the subject of criticism from Tory MPs after writing a manifesto described by one minister as the worst in living memory.

In the interview with the Telegraph, he defended the document  including the social care reforms dubbed the dementia tax.

He described the proposal, which has since been ditched, as strong and fair.

And he warned ministers against retreat on issues like social care and the pledge to cap energy bills, which looks set to be watered down.

If the party retreats into a comfort zone that we dont find very challenging, I worry that we will not only fail to address the challenges the country faces but we will also increase the chances of a hard left government in five years time, he said.

Mr Timothy said the Tories key election error was to present itself as the continuity option, abandoning Mrs Mays original pledge to act as an agent of change.

He said he was confident the PM would deliver a full-blooded Brexit, saying: The country can trust her to get the job done.

But he said that parliamentary arithmetic now meant that Mrs Mays plan to reverse the legal ban on grammar schools was impossible.

Mr Timothy warned that the Tories were in danger of handing the next election to Jeremy Corbyn by retreating into their comfort zone

Mr Timothy and his fellow chief of staff Fiona Hill faced a Tory backlash after the election, when they were accused of imposing too much central control on the campaign.

But yesterday he suggested that the decision to run a presidential-style campaign, in which other ministers were shut out, had been taken by outside advisers such as elections guru Sir Lynton Crosby.

Mr Timothy, who clashed repeatedly with Philip Hammond during his time in office, also claimed that Mrs May had never planned to sack her Chancellor after the election, despite widespread rumours that he faced the axe.

He claimed Mrs May had refused to even talk about post-election reshuffles, and insisted she had a decent relationship with the Chancellor.

Mr Timothy also recounted for the first time his dramatic decision to resign the day after the election.

Mr Timothy defended the Tory manifesto  including the social care reforms dubbed the dementia tax

Nobody told me I had to go, but it became inevitable, he said.

Mr Timothy, a long-time Eurosceptic, said it would be a bad thing for both sides if the Brexit talks ended without a deal, but added: There are circumstances where Britain would have to be prepared to walk away. No deal is better than a bad deal isnt just a slogan, it means something.

He insisted Mrs May would not countenance any backsliding on Brexit and would deliver a deal that ends free movement and EU membership fees and removes the influence of European judges from British life.
A mother has been arrested after a neighborhood watch captain filmed her shooting up heroin in broad daylight in front of her four-year-old son.

Lauren Story, 29, was arrested Thursday in Cincinnati on charges of child endangerment and possessing drug paraphernalia and drug abuse instruments. She has reportedly denied the charges.

Her son has been placed with child protective services and an unidentified male who was with her on the video has also been arrested.

The shocking incident unfolded Wednesday in broad daylight in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, a once-charming historic district that residents say has become overrun by heroin junkies and dealers.

The man and the woman squat in the alley and appear to shoot up injection drugs into their arms as the boy plays with a smartphone feet away

John Donaldson, an organizer with the Grant Park Block Watch, videoed a man and a woman wandering down an alley with a blond boy in tow.

Lauren Story, 29, was arrested Thursday in Cincinnati in connection with the video

The man and the woman squat in the alley and appear to shoot up injection drugs into their arms as the boy plays with a smartphone feet away.

'He was just well-behaved and sitting there watching it. He was leaning against the wall and it's really just a sad sight,' Donaldson told WKRC.

Donaldson called the police, but by the time they arrived the man and woman were gone.

He handed over a copy of the video, which cops circulated in hopes of finding the boy.

The next day, an officer at the Hamilton County Courthouse recognized Story and her son at a bus stop outside the building and arrested her.

Story had four syringes in her purse when she was arrested, according to police.

The boy was hungry and dirty but otherwise in good health, police said.

John Donaldson, an organizer with the Grant Park Block Watch, shot the video and shared it with police out of concern for the boy's wellbeing

Story denied to police that the video showed her using heroin.

But her sister has spoken out about the woman's slide from drinking, to prescription pain killers after a back injury, and finally to heroin abuse.

'She changed,' sister Morgan Story told WCPO. 'It was just a gradual descent. I don't even think she saw herself going down that road until she was gone.'

'I just want her to get help and realize she is better than that, because everybody is better than that and there is help,' Morgan said.

'I hope this is rock bottom,' the sister added.

Story's sister has spoken out about the woman's slide from drinking, to prescription pain killers after a back injury, and finally to heroin abuse

Cincinnati has been hard-hit by the lethal wave of opioid abuse and accompanying crime that has swept across the nation in recent years.

Donaldson, the neighborhood watch organizer, said his group had gotten together just a few months ago after the once-quiet area was hit with nine shootings and four gun deaths this year alone.

The local activist called on federal authorities to declare a national emergency.

'I think this problem is bigger than Cincinnati,' Donaldson told Fox19. 'I do think that we need President Trump to declare this a national emergency and put funding and process in place to get these people off the street.'
EU citizens aged under 30 could be offered automatic two-year visas to come and work in the UK after Brexit.

The idea was floated yesterday by the Migration Advisory Committee, which has been commissioned by Home Secretary Amber Rudd to review the economic costs and benefits of EU migration and examine potential border controls.

The independent body used a call for evidence yesterday to suggest that a similar scheme for young people from New Zealand, Australia and Canada could be extended to the EU once free movement ends in 2019.

EU citizens aged under 30 could be offered automatic two-year visas to come and work in the UK after Brexit (file picture)

It said: There are a number of reasons for this - younger migrants have a longer working life ahead of them so have a higher chance of making a net positive contribution to the public finances, and they are perhaps considered to assimilate more successfully.

The report does not affect the rights of the 3.2 million EU citizens already living in the UK, who have already been told they will be allowed to stay.

But it suggests that, in future, younger migrants interested in coming here could be prioritised, either by giving them more points in a new visa scheme or by setting a lower salary threshold they need to clear before being allowed to settle in the UK.

The idea to allow young EU citizens to work in the UK after Brexit was floated by the Migration Advisory Committee, which has been commissioned by Home Secretary Amber Rudd

The scheme would offer young people similar rights to free movement, although migrants could not necessarily use it to settle permanently in the UK.

The review also considers other changes such as regional schemes, which would offer migrants who want to live and work outside London a lower salary threshold to take into account regional variations in living costs and pay.

Other measures considered by the committee include sectoral schemes, where limits would be placed on the number of workers allowed to come to the UK in different industries, a seasonal worker schemes.
Shocking footage has emerged of the moment a man was stabbed with scissors as a wild brawl spilled out into the middle of a busy road.

Three men were caught on camera swearing and trading punches outside the Rose Hotel in Bunbury, south of Perth, on Thursday.

One of the combatants was wielding a pair of scissors but ended up being hospitalised for cuts to his shoulder when the fight moved into the road.

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When a wild brawl on Thursday afternoon moved into the middle of a busy road (pictured) in Bunbury's CBD the fight turned bloody and one man was allegedly stabbed

A 23-year-old (pictured) man was treated for cuts to his shoulder and taken to hospital after the alleged stabbing

The three men involved in the bloody fracas were known to each other and had planned to meet in front of the hotel, The West Australian reported.

'They were throwing punches at each other, yelling, swearing and carrying on,' said a witness who asked to remain anonymous.

The disturbing video filmed by horrified onlookers from inside a passing vehicle shows the violence erupt as wild punches are thrown.

When the melee moves into the busy street the man with the scissors ends up being allegedly stabbed in the shoulder.

A 23-year-old man was treated for lacerations to his shoulder in hospital, and police charged two other men, aged 38 and 45, with assault over the incident.
Treachery. Back-biting. Accusations of lies. These, sadly, have been the background to the Battle for Brexit 2017.

It was as if the EU referendum of 2016 had never happened, with Remainers and Leavers still fighting each other over Britain's future. Central to all this anti-democratic skulduggery has been Chancellor Philip Hammond.

The reluctant convert to the Brexit cause has been making mischief everywhere  from the pages of the achingly Europhile Financial Times, where he called for Britain's withdrawal from the EU to be transitional, to an uninspiring interview with the French Establishment newspaper Le Monde.

Indeed, most unhelpful to the cause of Brexit have been his comments that he won't reduce British taxes and undercut EU countries as part of a bold, post-EU membership drive to attract the most successful foreign businesses to Britain.

Treachery. Back-biting. Accusations of lies. These have been the background to the Battle for Brexit 2017. Central to this skulduggery has been Chancellor Philip Hammond (above)

Not only did this signal weaken the hand of British officials negotiating in Brussels, but he was brazenly contradicting comments he himself made in January.

Also, the Saboteur-in-Chief was given the prime slot on Radio 4's Today programme to promote his provocative soft Brexit agenda.

Without any liaison with the holidaying Prime Minister, Hammond claimed there was 'broadly' Cabinet agreement on a three-year transition deal.

Colleagues of 'Spreadsheet Phil' were taken by surprise. For example, International Development Secretary Liam Fox, a long-time Eurosceptic, was astonished.

He rejected the idea of a 'consensus' on free movement continuing for three years. 'If there have been discussions on that, I have not been party to them,' he said.

So, apart from indulging in shameless disloyalty  which seems to be Hammond's favourite Tory pastime  what is this one-time used car seller's motivation?

First, he is ferociously ambitious and sees himself as a future Tory leader  an opinion, it must be said, that is seen by many of his colleagues as evidence of his ability for self-delusion.

He clearly thinks this goal can best be achieved as the Cabinet cheerleader for a soft Brexit. Also, he seems bent on revenge after it was widely said he'd be sacked by Theresa May if she won a big majority in June.

But there is another, fascinating, factor. It is the role of the Treasury's most senior mandarin, Sir Tom Scholar.

The Treasury, even more than the overtly Europhile Foreign Office, is dominated by civil servants who are wedded to ever deeper political and monetary union with the EU.

But what has surprised even seasoned Whitehall watchers is how easily Sir Tom and his officials have hijacked comprehensive school-educated Hammond with their soft Brexit strategy.

The Chancellor, it seems, has forged an unhealthily close relationship with Sir Tom.

An ardent Europhile, the 48- year-old mandarin has a poor track record when it comes to negotiating with Brussels.

There is another, fascinating, factor. It is the role of the Treasury's most senior mandarin, Sir Tom Scholar (pictured)

Notoriously, in his previous post, as Principal Adviser on the EU to Prime Minister Cameron, he was seen as a push-over who failed to stand up for Britain.

He was head of Cameron's negotiating team that tried  and dismally failed  to secure a better deal for Britain from the EU in the run-up to the referendum. Despite Cameron saying that the EU needed 'fundamental, far-reaching change' and asking his negotiating team to wrest reforms from other member states, he and Sir Tom came back empty-handed.

Sir Tom, it emerged, never even asked for any changes to freedom of movement rules  which, with mass illegal immigration, were universally seen as flawed  or demanded the repatriation of a few sovereign powers to the UK.

Mats Persson, a Downing Street adviser on Europe until the referendum, criticised Sir Tom, saying the negotiation 'was neither transformative, nor referendum-winning'.

Others said Cameron had promised to secure half a loaf but didn't even manage to come back with any crumbs.

Sir Tom, significantly, was also one of the architects of Project Fear which was cynically designed to terrify people into voting to stay in the EU.

In retrospect, it was a disastrous strategy. Its dishonesty was a significant factor in many middle of the road voters backing Brexit.

But such is the arrogance of the Whitehall ruling class that failure is rewarded by promotion.

So is the case with Sir Tom Scholar. How telling to that, in this cosy world of mutual back-scratching, following Project Fear co-driver George Osborne's fall from grace and decision to cash in by taking a series of fat-cat jobs, Sir Tom said he had 'no concerns' about Osborne taking a lucrative part-time job with a finance giant.

The mandarin had given his advice to the shamefully weak watchdog, which decides if there might be a conflict of interest should an ex-minister takes a job with a business in the same area he or she had ministerial responsibility.

Osborne, who, in one of his portfolio of jobs, as editor of the London Evening Standard, is trying to sabotage Brexit, is still on good terms with Sir Tom.

With a new Chancellor to groom, Tory Remainers believe that Sir Tom moved quickly to turn Philip Hammond into his puppet.

So who is this soft Brexit puppet-master?

Sir Tom joined the Treasury in 1992, embarking on a classic fast track mandarin's career. Within five years, he had become Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown's first principal private secretary.

In 2001 he took time out from Whitehall to be British representative on the boards of the International Money Fund and the World Bank. That was followed by a six-year spell as economic minister in the British Embassy in Washington. There, however, he became embroiled in an embarrassing story about his private life.

The respected financial newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, published a leaked email in 2007 which it said had been sent to World Bank bank bosses by an unnamed colleague of Scholar.

It said that the Cambridge-educated Briton had abused his position by helping his girlfriend get a better job.

The email was alleged to have said: 'This woman has been given preferential treatment in (the department) because of her relationship with (Scholar).

Sir Tom has form for being able to exert a powerful influence over politicians. This was demonstrated by Baroness Vadera (pictured), who was a business minister in the Labour government and went on to be chair of the giant Spanish-run bank Santander UK

'This affair is well-known and is in violation of the bank staff rules and the board's standards of conduct.'

In sum, the email accused Scholar of exploiting his 'privileged position' to get his lover a better job, despite her 'limited professional qualification'.

It added: 'Several staff members have reported these facts . . . these complaints have been ignored.'

Scholar denied he had helped the unnamed woman, who is understood to be Fabiola Altimari, whom he later married.

He said in a statement: 'There is no conflict of interest. As an executive director, representing my government at the World Bank, I do not have any supervisory responsibility for bank staff beyond the five in my immediate office. I am not the supervisor of my partner, either directly or indirectly.

'We have never come into professional contact and I have made arrangements to avoid any possibility of professional contact.'

The couple are said to have married in Virginia, now have three daughters, and live in a 1.8 million house in south-east London.

Sir Tom has form for being able to exert a powerful influence over politicians.

This was demonstrated by Baroness Vadera, who was a business minister in the Labour government and went on to be chair of the giant Spanish-run bank Santander UK.

She said: 'When I joined the government, I found the place bewildering. But he [Sir Tom Scholar] was somebody who had complete command and control.'

She added: 'My job was more of an advisory/policy role. His was in making it happen.'

Another ally of Sir Tom is Sir Ivan Rogers, a former top mandarin to Tony Blair who went on to become Britain's ambassador to the EU.

He enraged Mrs May's government last December when he spoke out of turn and gloomily suggested it could take a decade to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with Europe  and even that could still collapse.

Praising Sir Tom, his fellow hapless EU negotiator with Cameron, Sir Ivan has said: 'He wears his intellect lightly  he doesn't lecture people and isn't pompous and po-faced.'

Maybe. But one thing is certain: Philip Hammond is the latest politician to fall under the unelected, and very Europhile, mandarin's spell.
Lord Mountbatten was killed while on a wooden fishing boat in 1979

The daughter of murdered Lord Mountbatten used the teachings of Gandhi to forgive her fathers IRA killers.

Lady Pamela Hicks, 88, met Gandhi when her father was serving as Indias last viceroy.

Lord Mountbatten was killed while on a wooden fishing boat in 1979 along with young boys and the dowager Lady Brabourne.

Irish republican Thomas McMahon was convicted for the killings after he slipped onto the unguarded boat at night to attach a 23kg bomb.

Asked if she had forgiven the IRA, Lady Pamela said yes, that is essential.

She told the BBC: I mean, we loved the Irish. Wed lived there for so much of our lives. You absolutely have to go forward.

Asked if she had forgiven the IRA, Lady Pamela said yes, that is essential

Gandhi had such good teaching always; he would say to us, Religion is a strong tree and it has many branches and each branch has almost equal importance.

Lady Pamela was a lady in waiting for the Queen as well as a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Philip.

Recalling identifying her fathers body when he died aged 79, she said: I honestly thought I am not going to be able to do this, which is ridiculous because in fact every next of kin has to identify a murdered family member.

But I found that a horrible idea. Luckily James (Duke of) Abercorn arrived at that moment and I said James, I cant do this. Will you identify him? I felt slightly wimpish doing it.

The bomb killed Lord Mountbatten, his grandson Nicholas Knatchbull, 14, a young crew member Paul Maxwell, 15, and the dowager Lady Brabourne, 83.

Also on board was his eldest daughter Patricia, her husband John and their other son Timothy Knatchbull.

The IRA claimed responsibility for the killings.
The Clintons all went their separate ways on Friday as Hillary took a trip a New York salon, Chelsea promoted her book in the Hamptons, and Bill visited Colorado.

Hillary Clinton was spotted heading into the Bergdorf Goodman before arriving at the Chatwal Hotel in New York.

She stepped out in a cobalt blue pant suit and was all smiles as she entered the hotel flanked by three secret service vehicles.

The Clintons all went their separate ways on Friday as Hillary took a trip a New York salon, Chelsea promoted her book in the Hamptons, and Bill visited Colorado

Hillary Clinton was spotted heading into the Bergdorf Goodman before arriving at the Chatwal Hotel in New York

She stepped out in a cobalt blue pant suit and was all smiles as she entered the hotel flanked by three secret service vehicles

Clinton also stopped at the Lowell Hotel. A new assistant was seen carrying another outfit as the doorman carried her suitcase

Clinton also made a stop by the Lowell Hotel, where a new assistant was seen carrying another outfit as the doorman carried her suitcase inside.

Last week, Clinton announced to her fans that her new memoir What Happened was available for preorder on Amazon for $22.

'I'll be honest: Writing What Happened wasnt easy. Neither is witnessing what we see in the news every day. Its never been more important to fight back and stand up for what we believe. I hope this book inspires you to keep going,' she at the time.

The book won't be available until September 12.

Meanwhile, her daughter, Chelsea, looked delighted to sign copies of her book, She Persisted, in the Hamptons on Friday.

The former first daughter flashed a huge smile as she walked into BookHampton in East Hampton, New York, for her book signing.

Meanwhile, her daughter, Chelsea, looked delighted to sign copies of her book, She Persisted, in the Hamptons on Friday

The former first daughter flashed a huge smile as she walked in to BookHampton in East Hampton, New York

Photos showed her chatting with small children who were excited to get a signed copy of her book

Photos showed her chatting with small children who were excited to get a signed copy of her book.

And last but certainly not least, former president Bill Clinton was spotted in Basalt, Colorado, earlier on Friday.

The 70-year-old posed for photos outside of the Rocky Mountain Institute Innovation Center.

He was pictured with the organization's senior leadership team, including the co-founder and chief scientist Amory Lovins, and Managing Director Marty Pickett.

'We were honored to welcome President Clinton to the net-zero energy Innovation Center in Basalt, Colorado as RMI celebrates our 35th anniversary and recognizes global climate leaders!' the institute wrote in one of their captions.

And last but certainly not least, former president Bill Clinton was spotted in Basalt, Colorado, earlier on Friday
Self-styled paedophile hunters were yesterday told by police to leave it to the professionals.

Senior officers said vigilante groups such as Dark Justice or The Hunted One could put child abuse investigations at risk.

Their warning came as Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced a 20million grant to extend an initiative where undercover detectives infiltrate internet chat rooms and forums used by suspected offenders.

Forty-three people were arrested and 19 charged during a year-long pilot scheme. Norfolk Police believe they have protected at least 25 children as a result.

Detective Superintendent Steven Woollett, of the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate, said bringing the scheme to the rest of England and Wales would help to catch more suspects.

Guilty: Paedophiles Gareth Walters (left) and Anthony Morgan (right) were caught by hunters

He declined to be drawn on how police work in an online realm that has increasingly seen members of the public take action to trap child abusers themselves.

Tyneside-based duo Dark Justice claim on their website to have helped snare 104 sex crime suspects, leading to 50 convictions. A sting operation by The Hunted One descended into violence when they ambushed a man who sent sexual messages to a decoy account.

Their target, Mirza Beg, 29, was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court last month for 40 months after he turned up with condoms at the Bluewater Shopping Centre near Dartford, Kent, believing he was meeting a 14-year-old girl. Much as they may be well intended, there is the potential to hinder police investigations, said Mr Woollett.

My message to them would be we are professional law enforcement  leave it to the professionals. I would have to admit theyve had some success  we need to balance that success against the potential harm by heightening the awareness of individuals.

With all strands of criminality, those people responsible become more aware and more cute around their business.

But he added: I would not be able to say vigilante groups have increased that.

Cases of paedophiles being caught by vigilante groups have hit the headlines, however. Gareth Walters, 38, from Gateshead, sent explicit messages to what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. But the recipient was actually a member of the Dark Justice group, which had set up a fake social media account to catch him.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced a 20million grant to extend an initiative where undercover detectives infiltrate internet chat rooms and forums used by suspected offenders

The group also snared married father Anthony Morgan, 51, after he sexually groomed what he thought was a 13-year-old girl and tried to meet her in Newcastle city centre.

But the police warning was delivered as a judge in a sex offender trial ordered that a defendant should go free and said the evidence of the paedophile hunter who accused him was at best inaccurate and at worst a lie. At Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Thomas Crowther QC criticised vigilante David Poole and warned against paedophile hunting.

Mr Poole, 38, had founded vigilante group H-Division and set up a fake profile on dating website Plenty of Fish claiming to be a 14-year-old virgin called Chloe. He used it to ensnare the defendant.

The judge ordered a not guilty verdict and criticised the vigilante group, saying this case underlines why criminal investigations should be conducted carefully, meticulously, and by those who are trained and qualified to do so.

He added: When you are talking about a conviction, especially a sexual offence conviction, a high degree of reliability is needed in the evidence.
Prince Harry could be ready to propose to girlfriend Meghan Markle, as he whisks her away on a romantic holiday to mark her 36th birthday.

The loved-up pair were spotted boarding an aeroplane as they set off for an African adventure, and the romantic location has set the rumour mill on fire.

They looked casual as they strolled across the runway to jump onto the jet, with Harry in a checked shirt and cap, and Meghan in tight jeans and sandals.

Prince Harry cuddles up to girlfriend Meghan Markle at the polo in Coworth, Berkshire, earlier this year

Meghan, left, watches Harry in a polo match in Berkshire in May, and right, the pair head out in London on a date

She was pictured clutching a present from her boyfriend, that appeared to be a large frame in bubble wrap.

A royal source told the Sun: 'Harry has been planning this holiday for a long time.

'Who knows what will happen when theyre watching a sensational African sunset together? Maybe hell get down on one knee.

'Harrys done a lot of conservation work in Africa with endangered elephants and black rhinos and hell show them to the woman he wants to marry.'

The actress has been married once before, but the pair are thought to be very serious, with lots of conversations about the future

Left, Meghan in New York before appearing on the Today show. She is celebrating her 36th birthday in southern Africa with Harry. Right, Harry during a visit to a StreetGames 'Fit and Fed' summer holiday activity session in Central Park, East Ham

After wrapping filming for Suits, Meghan flew to London, where the pair then went onto southern Africa for their adventure.

They were spotted kissing on the tarmac before continuing their journey.

Harry and Meghan are said to be very serious, having dated for more than a year.

The prince, 32, took Chelsy Davy to South Africa with him on a number on holidays before they split.
Summer holidays are in full swing and our airports are packed  rather too packed, in fact  with travellers. We have always been a nation of explorers, yet never before have we ventured abroad in greater numbers.

Yet I wonder whether, in the rush to the Mediterranean sun, we are in danger of forgetting the very best place of all  our own native land.

Few places in the world are at once so familiar and so unknown. With more than 55 million people, England is by far the largest country in our United Kingdom, yet it has no parliament or assembly of its own.

In England we are a nation of explorers yet never before have gone abroad in greater numbers. In the rush to the Mediterranean, we are in danger of forgetting our native land (file pic)

No other people on earth can match the contribution of English men and women to world civilisation, from William Shakespeare and Sir Isaac Newton to Jane Austen and Charles Darwin.

Our forefathers invented everything from the steam engine and the postage stamp to the railway and the vaccine. Englishness itself has become one of the world's great brands, a unique blend of nostalgia and prestige, cutting-edge fashion and timeless tradition.

And with Britain poised to leave the EU, the question of what is England  its politics, its economy, even its very identity  seems more pressing than at any time in living memory.

The strange thing about Englishness, though, is that it is both very familiar and frustratingly elusive. The most famous of all descriptions was written by George Orwell during the Blitz of 1941. 'When you come back to England from any foreign country, you have immediately the sensation of breathing a different air,' Orwell wrote.

That remains as true today as ever.

Few places in the world are at once so familiar and so unknown. With more than 55 million people, England is by far the largest country in our United Kingdom, yet it has no parliament or assembly of its own. Pictured: Sheep grazing near the outskirts of Manchester

A couple of lines later, Orwell painted an evocative portrait of different kinds of Englishness: 'The clatter of clogs in the Lancashire mill towns, the to-and-fro of the lorries on the Great North Road, the queues outside the Labour Exchanges, the rattle of pin tables in the Soho pubs, old maids biking to Holy Communion through the mists of the autumn mornings.'

As a pen-picture of our national identity at that time, this has probably never been bettered. Yet there is no getting away from the fact that almost all these things are now completely out-of-date.

Only a few decades ago, people might have talked about the Beatles, Sunday roasts and red phone boxes. To today's teenagers, though, the Beatles are ancient history, red phone boxes are largely obsolete and even the Sunday roast has began to fall by the wayside.

What, then, is Englishness?

In an age defined by global culture and mass immigration, is it really anything at all?

In his new book, The Last Wolf, the writer Robert Winder thinks he has the answer. But he begins with a very unlikely person indeed.

No other people on earth can match the contribution of English men and women to world civilisation, from Sir Isaac Newton (pictured) to Jane Austen

The real father of Englishness, suggests Winder, was not that Dark Ages chronicler the Venerable Bede, Alfred the Great, Henry VIII or William Shakespeare, but an obscure Shropshire knight called Peter Corbet, who lived in the second half of the 13th century. In 1281, Corbet was commissioned by Edward I to 'take and destroy wolves with his men, dogs and devices, in all ways in which he shall deem expedient'? And for the next nine years, accompanied by a pack of hounds, Corbet and his men roamed the forests of the Midlands, seeking out and killing any wolves they found.

Corbet's exploits earned him the nickname 'the Mighty Hunter'. And at the end of 1290, it seemed that he had finished the job. Earlier that year, there had been one last report of wolves attacking deer in the Forest of Dean, 'but since then...nothing'.

To all intents and purposes, the wolf had been destroyed. And in that moment, Winder says, Englishness was born.

That last line probably sounds like a gigantic stretch. But Winder's argument, which seems pretty persuasive to me, is that when we talk about Englishness, we often forget the most important thing of all  England itself.

At the heart of Englishness, he says, is a place: our familiar, beloved landscape of rain and wind, oak and beech, wheat and apples, coal and iron, coast and rivers  and perhaps above all, sheep. And this is why Peter Corbet mattered.

Making tracks: Our forefathers invented everything from the steam engine (pictured on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway) and the postage stamp to the railway and the vaccine

When he and his fellow knights eliminated the last wolves, England lost its wildness. It could now be turned into what Winder calls 'the biggest sheep farm in the world': a gigantic engine for making money. Sheep gave us wool, and wool made us rich.

Without the sheep, we would never have had the wealthy wool villages of the Cotswolds and East Anglia.

There would be no Lavenham, no Broadway, no Chipping Campden. There would be none of those magnificent rural churches that seem so unmistakably English; there would be no pastoral idyll to decorate all those tea towels and biscuit tins.

There would be no cult of the English village. There would be none of the melancholy longing for a lost rural paradise that you see in everything from, say, William Wordsworth's poetry to The Archers. And, in a sense, there would be no England  or at least not as we know it.

To some extent, this is an England that exists only in our heads. Today, most of us live in cities and suburbs; we are one of the most urbanised and densely populated countries in Europe. But as Winder notes, it is precisely because England was the first urban industrial country that we made such a cult of pastoral nostalgia.

Indeed, even in World War II, when the vast majority of British servicemen came from our great industrial cities, the Government's patriotic posters emphasised the rural England created in the Middle Ages.

Produced by the Ministry of Information, the posters lovingly depicted church spires and village greens, gentle hills and rolling fields. Tellingly, one showed a shepherd striding over the South Downs, his dog at his side, his flock cresting the horizon, a farm nestled in the distance.

'Your Britain,' read the caption. 'Fight For It Now.'

The irony, of course, is that this was not the kind of landscape in which most of our fighting men lived. Yet almost instinctively, they knew it and loved it as their own  as so many of us do today.

So is Englishness just a nostalgic fantasy, then, as self-styled 'post-national' intellectuals who disdain borders and patriotism claim? Not a bit of it. For England, like so many great old nations, is a place defined by geography as well as history, stones as well as stories.

We are, for example, a supremely industrious people: a nation of artisans and craftsmen, inventors and entrepreneurs, miners and manufacturers.

Yet none of that would have been possible without the good fortune of sitting on some of Europe's richest coal deposits. Similarly, would England still be England without the sea? We are, of course, an island  or more accurately, the southernmost and richest part of an island.

But as Winder explains, the sea has often acted not as a moat, but as a huge 'marine ring road', linking the different parts of England with each other and with the rest of the world.

Our orderliness is that of a nation used to the immutable timetables of the tides; our stoicism is that of sailors buffeted by the winds; our pugnacity reflects centuries of dockyard punch-ups.

And what about our famous fields, the 'green and pleasant land' celebrated in William Blake's stirring poem And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time (now best-known as the anthem Jerusalem)?

We are a people, says Winder, defined not just by sheep, but by wheat, a land of bakers and millers who for centuries stuffed themselves with pies, cakes, tarts and puddings.

Our everyday phrases tell the story. We earn a crust; we reap what we sow; we shake our heads at half-baked plans; we know that half a loaf is better than no bread.

What was the naughtiest thing Theresa May has admitted ever doing? Run through a field of wheat, of course.

And then, as every holidaymaker knows, there is the rain. No summer's day would be truly English without it. Where would we be without drizzly afternoons, soggy sandwiches, childhood memories of splashing happily in the puddles? But the rain, says Winder, matters even more than we think.

Indeed, in some ways it is the rain that really defines us. Rain made generations of farmers and peasants wary of the weather and fatalistic about what life might bring.

Rain gave us easily navigable rivers such as the Severn and the Trent, and a dense network of inland ports. Later, rain gave us the world's first canal network, teaching the skills our engineers used for the world's first railways.

Rain is there in the stories we tell, from the first line of Geoffrey Chaucer's medieval Canterbury Tales  'Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote' (When that April with his showers sweet)  to the final lines of T.S. Eliot's great modernist poem The Waste Land, when thunder brings rain to the parched landscape.

Indeed, Winder even thinks rain explains why we love our bacon sandwiches. Rain powered the water-mills for all that bread; rain made it impossible for our ancestors to dry-cure their pork, as the French, Spanish and Italians do, so they used salt and smoke to make bacon instead.

Of course, it is unfashionable today to talk of national character. Self-consciously liberal, intellectual types sneer at the very idea of national identity.

They think themselves citizens of the world, floating above the allegiances that the rest of us hold so dear. But as George Orwell knew, there is indeed such a thing as Englishness. Robert Winder defines it  very persuasively, I think  as a 'knack' for negotiating between extremes.

To be English is to steer between land and sea, city and countryside, earnest and frivolous, new and old. To be English is to flirt with excess, but always to return to the 'sensible middle ground'.

Ever since the Brexit vote, the air has been thick with the howls of Remainers lamenting that we are now terribly divided. But this, too, is part of our national character.

We have always swung between wild boasting and morbid self-flagellating, talking ourselves up one moment, sunk in gloom the next.

And like all families, we have always loved a quarrel, from the Wars of the Roses and the Reformation, to the great struggles between Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, or those Victorian giants William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli.

And there is something more.

We English have always believed ourselves a nation apart. We have always seen ourselves as islanders, not Continentals.

As Orwell wrote, you have only to set foot on English soil to feel the difference. 'The beer is bitterer, the coins are heavier, the grass is greener, the advertisements are more blatant.'

Many of us drink Continental lager now, of course. The coins are lighter than they were. Even the fields are no longer as green as they were, thanks to farmers' enthusiasm for lurid yellow rapeseed.

Yet England is still England, a country shaped by the rain and the sea, its people at once cheerful and fatalistic, polite and pugnacious, dreamy and inventive, architects of the future who can never stop looking back to a past that never was.

Of course we live in anxious times. Even so, to be born in a country with such a glorious history and such rich cultural traditions still strikes me as being one of life's great privileges.

It is not very fashionable these days  especially among those on the Left  to quote the controversial empire-builder Cecil Rhodes, but nobody put it better than he did. To have been born an Englishman, he once said, was to have 'drawn the greatest prize in the lottery of life'.

It seems very un-English to say so, but he was, of course, quite right.
A vegan cafe charges men more than women and gives female customers priority seating, claiming the measures address the gender pay gap.

Handsome Her, located in Brunswick in Melbourne's inner north, is the brainchild of self-styled 'big greenie' Alex O'Brien who calls her cafe 'for women, by women.'

The unique establishment aims to address the gender wage gap with the 18 per cent man tax and start a conversation on the issue.

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The proceeds from the premium go to women's services, and Ms O'Brien (pictured) plans to rotate charities four times a year

House rules (pictured) at Handsome Her detail the cafe's 18 per cent premium for male customers

Women are given priority seating at the cafe (pictured) in Brunswick in Melbourne's inner north

Whether men pay the 18 per cent premium is up to them, but so far none have failed to cough up, Seven News reported.

'If men don't want to pay it, we're not going to kick them out the door. It's just an opportunity to do some good,' says Ms O'Brien.

Customers at the '100% plant based' cafe - which also refuses to use disposable coffee cups, handing out mugs instead - were enthusiastic about the rule.

'I think it's fair if you think about the world and the gender inequality that we have,' said one female customer.

The owner of Handsome Her, Alex O'Brien (pictured) is a self-styled 'big greenie' and feminist and wants to start a conversation about the wage gap

'If men don't want to pay it, we're not going to kick them out the door. It's just an opportunity to do some good,' says Ms O'Brien (pictured)

'I think it's a brilliant idea because I don't think many people actually know the actual gap,' said another.

Ms O'Brien, who describes herself as 'feminist, not the fun kind,' says she just wants to start a conversation and raise awareness, Broadsheet reported.

'Were bringing it [the gender pay gap] to the forefront of people's minds. I like that it is making men stop and question their privilege a little bit,' she said.

'One of my friends who works for a not-for-profit women's service was talking about the pay gap and I thought it was a good idea, so we decided that one week every month we would charge men an 18 per cent premium, which we will donate.'

'Were bringing it [the gender pay gap] to the forefront of people's minds. I like that it is making men stop and question their privilege a little bit,' said Ms O'Brien (pictured)

The cafe also features a wall of inspirational women (pictured) and refuses to use disposable cups

The proceeds from the premium go to women's services, and Ms O'Brien plans to rotate charities four times a year.

August's gender pay gap premium will go to Elizabeth Morgan House, which helps Aboriginal women and children.

The initiative has provoked a mixed reaction on social media, with some applauding the issue and others accusing the cafe of sexism.

'Well and truly discrimination. All female staff. Well and truly illegal if you discriminate against a gender when hiring!' wrote one Twitter user.

Handsome Her describes itself as '100% plant based) and offers vegan and vegetarian food (pictured)

Female customers (pictured) reacted very positively, with one saying 'I think it's a brilliant idea'

'I hope Handsome Her becomes the most successful cafe in Brunswick,' wrote another.

A signboard at the cafe displaying the house rules notes that the 18 per cent surcharge reflects the gender pay gap in 2016.

A report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in 2016 states that the full-time gender pay gap is around 18 per cent, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

This means that women earn only 82 per cent as much as men on average, and would need to work an extra 65 days per year to make as much as men.

Other were more positive (pictured) and hoped Handsome Her would be a great success in the area

The reaction on social media was more mixed with some (pictured) accusing the cafe of discrimination

Critics of the concept of the gender pay gap call it a myth, saying the figure is skewed as it averages all salaries across all occupations.

Recent data shows a UK pay gap of 28.6 per cent for all jobs shrinking to only 0.8 per cent for jobs at the same level, company and function, the Economist reported.

Australia's Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 makes it unlawful to provide goods or services or make facilities available to discriminate against another person based on their sex.
A Western Australian father has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years after sexually abusing his teenage daughter when his partner left him.

The 44-year-old, who cannot be identified to protect the victim's identity, was sentenced in Perth's District Court for offences that took place between 2013 and last year in Kununurra, 40 kilometres from the Northern Territory border.

The man was arrested after being found naked in the same bed as his daughter last year, Perth Now reported.

A Western Australian father has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years after sexually abusing his teenage daughter after his partner left him (stock image)

Details of their relationship emerged, as it was revealed the pair began having sex in 2013 when his partner and other children had left their home.

The man would also often film their sexual encounters.

He was charged with a range of offences including multiple counts of sexual penetration of a child and the possession of child exploitation material and pleaded guilty to 10.

In court, Judge Philip Eaton brandished the man's offending as being of a 'high order of seriousness'.

Judge Eaton suggested his liking of pornography had left his daughter on the receiving end of to his own sexual desires.

'In doing so you completely disregarded your obligations to her as a parent and subjected her to conduct which will, I have no doubt, have a lasting impact upon her,' he said.

The 44-year-old was sentenced in Perth 's District Court for offences that took place between 2013 and last year in Kununurra

'In complete derogation of your role as the father of a teenage girl who had been neglected and abused as a child before going into your care, from about mid-2013, you began to treat your daughter as your sexual partner.'

Judge Eaton also pointed out that the fact that no physical force was used to coerce his daughter into sexual activity was irrelevant.

He made reference to the psychological report which suggested the man was looking for excuses for his behaviour or was confused as what was expected of him as a parent.

The man will be eligible for parole in 2029, while the sentence was backdated to August 2016.
Officials working for US special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, have asked the White House for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The document request is not a formal subpoena, but it is the first known instance of Mueller's team asking the White House to hand over records, according to the New York Times, which cited unnamed people close to the investigation.

Investigators questioned witnesses about whether Flynn was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the 2016 campaign, according to the newspaper.

Officials working for US special counsel Robert Mueller (left), who is investigating whether President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, have asked the White House for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn (right)

Robert Kelner, the White House and Flynn's lawyer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Times quoted Ty Cobb, special counsel to Trump, as saying: 'We've said before we're collaborating with the special counsel on an ongoing basis.'

Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and called the investigation a witch hunt.

The Republican president fired Flynn in February after it became clear that he had falsely characterized the nature of phone conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to Washington in December.

According to a subpoena, federal prosecutors in Virginia were investigating a deal between Flynn and Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin as part of a grand jury criminal probe, Reuters reported in June.

Alptekins company, Netherlands-based Inovo BV, paid the now-inactive Flynn Intel Group $530,000 between September and November 2016 to produce a documentary and research on Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric living in the United States.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen for a failed coup last year.
Disney has been accused of illegally tracking children while they are playing on popular online apps, a lawsuit claims.

San Francisco mother Amanda Rushing filed a lawsuit on behalf of her child on Thursday accusing Disney of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

The proposed class action, filed in California Federal Court, claims Rushing's child was illegally tracked while using the Disney Princess Palace Pets app.

San Francisco mother Amanda Rushing filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing Disney of illegally tracking her child while using the Princess Palace Pets app

Rushing claims the app contains an ad-specific software kit embedded in the code, which allows Disney to collect personal information and track online behavior.

The lawsuit alleges that the information collected is then sold to various third-parties who sell targeted online advertising.

Rushing says her child was tracked using the princess pets app but claims the technology is also used in dozens of other apps, including Cars Lightning League, Disney Build It Frozen and Zootopia.

Rushing's attorney, Michael Sobol, said the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act was brought in to protect from this very behavior.

'Disney has failed to safeguard children's personal information and ensure that third-parties' collection of data from children is lawful,' Sobol wrote in the lawsuit.

Rushing claims the app contains an ad-specific software kit embedded in the code, which allows Disney to collect personal information and track online behavior

'Congress enacted the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act for very good reasons.

'As a company long-engaged in the practice of engaging  and profiting from  children, Disney needs to make sure its games and apps comply with the law.

'They and the companies they work with always have to obtain verifiable parental consent before extracting kids' data from their mobile devices when kids play Disney's mobile apps.'

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act places restrictions on online sites directed at children under 13. It provides parents the means to halt developers and third-party advertisers from snooping on and profiting from their children.

Disney has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
A famed British hacker accused of advertising and selling malicious code used to pilfer banking and credit card information had his bail set at $30,000 on Friday.

Marcus Hutchins, 23, was arrested by the FBI at Las Vegas Airport on Wednesday as he was about ready to board his flight back to the UK after attending the Black Hat and Def Con cyber-security conference.

He has been charged in a six-count federal indictment where he is accused of creating a malicious software known as Kronos which is used to steal login information from victim's computers.

Wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit with DETAINEE writing on the back and orange sandals, Hutchins faced Federal Court in Las Vegas on Friday for a detention hearing.

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Marcus Hutchins, 23, had been partying at a hackers' convention in Las Vegas when he was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday

Judge Nancy J Koppe heard arguments from the Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Cowhig to keep the young Brit locked up pending trial.

Cowhig argued that Hutchins was a flight risk with no ties to Las Vegas and was also a danger to the community citing the young Brit tweeted that he went to a shooting range just days before his arrest, which he claimed was a violation of federal law.

He also said Hutchins admitted to authorities that he created the Kronos program. Cowhig also told the court, the Kronos malware is still out there and if let out on bail, he could gain access which could help him derail his the case against him.

Defense Attorney Adrian Lobo cited to the court that Hutchins was not a danger to the community, does not have a criminal record in England or the United States and submitted to the court 12-15 letters from family, friends and people of the community in support of her client.

Judge Koppe questioned why the US Government took more than two years to indict him since his most recent charge against him in July 2015 and also disagreed with the Assistant US Attorney that Hutchins violated a federal law when he went to a gun range.

During his time in the US Mr Hutchins Tweeted that he rented this bright orange Lamborghini worth 200,000

The 23-year-old filmed himself swimming in the largest private pool in Vegas and also decided to fire machine guns at a Nevada range

Court documents accuse him of being responsible for creating the Kronos banking Trojan - but this tweet from the time shows he asks for a sample, with his friends questioning why he would do that when he was supposed to have created it

Adrian M. Lobo, lawyer for Hutchins, leaves the courthouse in Las Vegas

Judge Koppe granted Hutchins bail imposing several restrictive conditions, including home detention and surrendering his passport. He is also banned from using an device that can access the internet.

Defense attorney Adrian Lobo said that her client didn't get the necessary funds in time to be released on bail on Friday and now will have to wait until Monday for his release.

The indictment was filed in Wisconsin federal court last month.

His mother Janet Hutchins said it was 'hugely unlikely' that her son was involved because he has spent 'enormous amounts of time' combating such attacks.

Jake Williams, a respected US cybersecurity researcher, said they have worked on various projects, including training material, and the Briton always refused payment.

He said: 'He's a stand-up guy. I can't reconcile the charges with what I know about him. I don't doubt that some of his code found its way into malware. He might have even helped criminals posing as researchers.'

Friend Andrew Mabbitt, a British digital security specialist who had been staying in a 5million rented Las Vegas mansion with Hutchins, said: 'I refuse to believe the charges. He spent his career stopping malware, not writing it.'

Hutchins was held after a week partying at a hacking conference in Vegas where he took over a $7 million mansion with the city's biggest private pool and rented a $280k Lamborghini Huracan to race around in.

The so-called malware, called Kronos, has reportedly been used to steal money from bank accounts in France and Hutchins is accused of writing the virus, known as malware, in 2014.

Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com show that an indictment was issued on July 12 - weeks before his arrest - and claims that he was involved in a conspiracy that saw Kronos Malware he allegedly created then sold for up to $3,000 a pop. The final documents shows he is due back in court today at 3pm Las Vegas time

Hutchins now faces months battling the American courts and could be jailed for 40 years if found guilty of taking part in a hacking conspiracy to steal bank details.

The Devon-born computer expert, who lives with his mom and dad, was held as he tried to leave the US on a first class Virgin Atlantic flight two days ago.

He faces six hacking charges that each carry a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence meaning he could face decades in a US jail if convicted.

His friends and supporters say that he has been set up.

They have found tweets where he asks for samples of the malware he is accused of creating.

Some have said that the way he killed off the WannaCry 'ransomware' that swept across the globe embarrassed America's own security services.

NSA security researchers initially developed the tool to hack into the computers of suspected terrorists and spies, but it was taken on by criminals who then used it to take over computers and extort cash from victims if they wanted control back.

Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com show that a second defendant, not yet named by the FBI, is accused of selling it on dark web marketplace AlphaBay, which was shut down by the US government last month, and creating a YouTube video showing how it worked.

The six charges Mr Hutchins faces relate to an alleged conspiracy between July 2014 and July 2015.

It is not known why his co-defendant's name has been redacted in court documents - it could be because he has not been arrested or is helping the FBI with their investigation.

The IT star was grabbed by the FBI in a first class airport lounge and stopped from flying back to the UK where he lives with his parents in Devon (pictured)

Federal officers were able to see he entered the country by matching his name and date of birth with flight rosters and were waiting for him as arrived to fly home from Nevada.

Marcus' supporters including his mother say Mr Hutchins, who is known online by the name MalwareTech, is innocent and claim a tweet from July 2014 proves he could not have written the software.

Janety Hutchins added that she is 'outraged' by the charges and has been 'frantically calling America' trying to contact her son from Devon.

What is the Kronos virus Marcus Hutchins is accused of creating in his bedroom? Marcus Hutchins is accused of creating the malware known as the Kronos banking Trojan, according to the federal court indictment. It infects web browsers, then captures usernames and passwords when an unsuspecting user visits a bank or other trusted location, enabling cybertheft. Kronos first appeared for sale on a Russian cybercrime forum in 2014 for a $7,000. For that money you get the software and a developer to help you update and improve it. The malware appears on a victim's desktop as a harmless programme while grabbing sensitive details including usernames, passwords and other details from banking websites. Advertisement

Some are using the hashtag #freemalwaretech and say he was arrested in America to avoid extradition proceedings in the UK.

His work to end the WannaCry 'ransomware' crisis embarrassed America's own security services because they created it first but lost control and it was used by criminals to extort cash, friends say.

Andrew Mabbitt, a British digital security specialist who had been staying in Las Vegas with Hutchins, said he and his friends grew worried when they got 'radio silence' from Hutchins for hours.

The worries deepened when Hutchins' mother called to tell him the young researcher hadn't made his flight home.

Mabbitt said he eventually found Hutchins' name on a detention center website. News of his indictment Thursday left colleagues scrambling to understand what happened.

He also says that they were staying together in the 5million mansion and Hutchins' did not have to pay.

'We don't know the evidence the FBI has against him, however we do have some circumstantial evidence that he was involved in that community at the time,' said computer security expert Rob Graham.

Before his arrest Mr Hutchins had been in Las Vegas for Def Con, one of the largest hacking conventions in the world.

He had been 'partying' before his arrest and staying at a $2800 a-night mansion worth 5million having rented it with seven friends.

The Airbnb five minutes from 'The Strip' has the largest private pool in all of Las Vegas and Mr Hutchins used his iPhone 7 to film himself swimming around it.

According to the website 'it is the epitome of modern luxury real estate, offering all the amenities of a five-star luxury hotel with the privacy and security of a private estate.'

On the drive was Marcus rented bright orange Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4 Spyder, which cost at 200,000 to buy.

The mansion he rented with friends is described as 'the epitome of modern luxury real estate'

The computer expert rented one of the most luxurious properties in Vegas, which has ten bedrooms like this

He posted a picture of the car online and wrote: 'Is there any tracks or anything in Vegas where we can drive this car properly without being arrested?'

According to The Outline he wasn't even planning to attend the the DEF CON hacking conference and instead partied at a nightclub where his wallet was stolen.

Other delegates asked him to pose for pictures calling him the 'WannaCrySlayer' and he also tweeted about getting drunk and eating lobster.

Describing one event he said: 'They pick you up in a bus and take you to an undisclosed location with activities and loads of free food trucks'.

And in another message about visiting the Grand Canyon he said: 'Apparently I can get a 5 person helicopter tour for $1600 and we get to land at the bottom of the canyon'.

The 23-year-old also went to a shooting range and fired a range of weapons including a number of machine guns, which he filmed.

Marcus stayed on in Vegas for a few days after the conference but was then stopped by the FBI in Virgin's Upper Class lounger as he was about to board a flight back to the UK on Wednesday when he was arrested.

Hutchins discovered a 'kill-switch' for the virus after it paralysed thousands of NHS computers and claimed hundreds of thousands of victims around the world - including US courier service FedEx and German rail company Deutsche Bahn - in May.

His mother Janet said she was trying to find out what had happened to her son. She said: 'I think I'm going to be rather busy tonight.'

Her son's supporters said on social media that his activities could have been 'white hat' hacking in which hackers expose security flaws for good ends.

Mr Hutchins' friend Andrew Mabbit said he was 'in the Las Vegas FBI field office' and appealed for lawyers to help him.

He said on Twitter that he refused to believe the charges. 'He spent his career stopping malware, not writing it,' Mabbit said.

Hutchins next court appearance is August 8 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
A young man has been charged after allegedly breaking into the Russian Embassy in an attempt to steal a BMX while 'high on ice'.

Luke Gray, 26, from Griffith in Canberra, was arrested at 6am on Saturday.

Officers found bolt cutters and a screwdriver in his backpack, ABC News reported.

A young man 'high on ice' has been charged after breaking into Australia's Russian Embassy in an attempt to steal a BMX (embassy pictured)

He broke into the secure embassy grounds and tried to steal a child's BMX, prosecutors alleged in court.

In ACT Magistrates Court prosecutors said the 26-year-old was high on methamphetamine at the time.

Gray cried and appeared to be agitated during his appearance in court.

He said he could not remember going to the embassy.

Gray was remanded in custody and is due to appear in court again next week.
The Northwestern University professor and Oxford University employee wanted in connection with the brutal murder of a hair stylist in Chicago have been captured in California.

American professor Wyndham Lathem, 42, surrendered at a federal courthouse in Oakland and Oxford finance worker Andrew Warren, 56, was arrested in San Francisco late on Friday, nine days after the horrifying slaying.

They were apprehended more than 2,000 miles away from the lavish Windy City apartment where they allegedly stabbed and mutilated Trenton Cornell-Duranleau.

Chief Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said they were taken into custody 'without incident'.

'Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today's arrest brings some comfort for the victim's family,' Guglielmi said in a statement.

'We are also thankful that this did not end in further tragedy.'

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Northwestern University professor Wyndham Lathem, 42, (left) and finance worker at Oxford University Andrew Warren, 56, (right) were taken into custody in California late on Friday, 2,100 miles away from the Windy City apartment where they allegedly stabbed and mutilated Trenton Cornell-Duranleau

Cornell-Duranleau was found dead in a luxury Chicago apartment block about 8.30pm on July 27 after police received a mysterious call from an unidentified man telling them 'there may have been a crime committed in Room 1004' of the Near North Side high-rise

It was not immediately clear how they traveled to California. Both men are slated to appear in court in California, where authorities will seek to have them transferred to Chicago.

Cornell-Duranleau was found dead in a luxury Chicago apartment block about 8.30pm on July 27 after police received a mysterious call from an unidentified man telling them 'there may have been a crime committed in Room 1004' of the Near North Side high-rise.

Officers got into the apartment using a master key. Once inside, they followed a trail of blood into the bathroom where the 26-year-old was lying face down, with stab wounds to his back.

Police found a knife with a broken blade in the trash can and another knife near the sink.

Reports claim two knives were found in the apartment on the 10th floor of the Grand Plaza Apartments, where Lathem resides. One was near the sink, and another with a broken handle was in a trashcan

A source told the Chicago Sun Times: 'The victim was savagely killed. The crime scene was covered in blood.

'The body was mutilated. His genitals were cut, mutilated. It was so savage it broke the knife found at the crime scene.'

Police believe Cornell-Duranleau was killed in Lathem's apartment in the 500 block of North State Street around 5am.

But officers were not alerted until an anonymous caller reached the front desk of the building around 8.30pm, more than 15 hours later, the Tribune reported.

Andrew Warren is a British national who had once worked as a bus driver and cashier - he is on his first trip to the United States

Chicago police on Friday revealed that Lathem sent a 'video message' apologizing to his loved ones and describing the killing as 'the biggest mistake of my life.'

Investigators say they have spoken to several people who have received the video from Lathem in the wake of the murder.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi would not go into the specific contents of the video, only saying that Lathem apologized in the video for his involvement in the slaying and called it 'the biggest mistake of my life.'

It also emerged on Friday that the two suspects drove to Wisconsin after the killing and made a $1,000 donation to a library in the dead man's name before his body was found inside Lathem's apartment.

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, police Lt. Ed Grittzner says a person handed a library worker $1,000 in cash.

Warren, a former bus driver and train buff who works in payroll at Oxford's Somerville College in the UK, is believed to have been just days into his first trip to the US when the murder took place.

Lathem is an associate professor of microbiology at Northwestern, where he is an expert in immunizing against bubonic plague.

Cornell-Duranleau, a native of Michigan, worked as a hair stylist and loved video games, cars and cartoons, according to his obituary shared on Facebook by his mother.

Cornell-Duranleau, a native of Michigan, worked as a hair stylist and loved video games, cars and cartoons, according to his obituary shared on Facebook by his mother

Cornell-Duranleau and Lathem were friends on Facebook, although it's not clear when and how the two had first crossed paths.

His mother, Charlotte Cornell, released a statement on Wednesday morning the family does not know Warren or Lathem.

Cornell's statement said: 'Our Family is deeply saddened by the death of our son. It is our hope that the person or persons responsible for his death are brought to justice.

'We are asking that you allow our family to process and grieve this tragedy privately.

'We are asking all media outlets to not contact our family, friends or associates. When we have had sufficient time to morn our child's passing, we will release a more in depth statement if we believe it is appropriate to do so.

'She declined to say whether she or other family members had ever heard of them before her son was killed because the two suspects 'are at large and there's an ongoing investigation.'

She said she hoped her written statement would provide some relief for relatives who have been inundated with calls from reporters around the world.
President Donald Trump's son Eric has accused Twitter of censoring his tweets.

Eric had tweeted on Friday about the latest jobs report from the Labor Department with the caption 'Jobs Jobs Jobs!!!' and included three American flag emojis.

The tweet included another Twitter user's post that included Drudge Report link about the unemployment data.

But the 33-year-old's tweet was hidden for some viewers behind a Twitter warning.

President Donald Trump's son Eric has accused Twitter of censoring his tweets after he tweeted on Friday about the latest jobs report

'This tweet is not available because it includes potentially sensitive content,' the warning read.

Eric, the president's third child, posted a screenshot of his earlier tweet demanding to know why he was being censored.

'@Twitter Why are my tweets about jobs and the economy being censored? #Interesting,' he tweeted.

Twitter declined to comment about Eric's claims, according to The Hill.

Eric was quickly mocked online with one Twitter user saying it was because his tweets weren't 'accurate'.

Twitter recently introduced new safety features to combat abuse, which means some accounts are now deemed 'sensitive'.

Their content is sometimes blocked to some users unless they click through to view the entire tweet.

Drudge Report, the account that Eric had retweeted, is marked as a sensitive account. Twitter users can update their settings to ensure they can see all tweets. It explains why some users could see Eric's tweets without any issues and others could not.

Eric, the president's third child, posted a screenshot of his earlier tweet demanding to know why he was being censored

His tweet included another Twitter user's post that included Drudge Report link about the unemployment data (pictured right). The tweet was hidden for some viewers behind a Twitter warning (pictured left)

Eric was quickly mocked online with one Twitter user saying it was because his tweets weren't 'accurate'

Eric had also re-tweeted one of his father's tweets that read: 'Excellent Jobs Numbers just released - and I have only just begun. Many job stifling regulations continue to fall. Movement back to USA!'

Trump took a victory lap on Friday following the release of new jobs numbers that showed US unemployment at a recent record low of just 4.3 per cent.

The overall unemployment rate has been on a downward slide since the end of Barack Obama's first year in office - eight years ago - when it peaked at 10 per cent.

Trump claimed during his campaign, with that number hovering around 5.5 per cent, that there were millions of 'hidden' unemployed Americans whom the government doesn't consider unemployed because they dropped out of the job market entirely.

The government measures those potential workers as part of a separate index that also includes people who are working part-time although they are looking for full-time employment.

That number hit 10.1 per cent on Friday, a 1.2 per cent increase from just a month ago.
A sinkhole in Florida that swallowed up two homes last month has now unexpectedly grown larger after the banks surrounding it collapsed.

An 80 by 10-foot-wide section of the sinkhole's banks collapsed overnight on Friday.

The sinkhole at Lake Padgett Estates in Tampa had previously been 235 feet wide and 50 feet deep.

Cleanup was expected to begin on Friday but had to be postponed after the banks collapsed.

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An 80 by 10-foot-wide section of the sinkhole's banks collapsed overnight on Friday (above). The sinkhole at Lake Padgett Estates in Tampa swallowed two homes back on July 14

Pasco County officials say they were working to stabilize the edges so could start to remove debris from the sinkhole.

Earth has been brought in to stabilize the banks.

County spokesman Doug Tobin said officials were reluctant to say the sinkhole was growing wider without a geological survey.

He said the banks aren't considered a part of the sinkhole.

The sinkhole swallowed two homes and a boat back on July 14. No one was injured in the collapse.

The sinkhole, pictured above on July 14, swallowed two homes and a boat. No one was injured in the collapse

Cleanup on the sinkhole (above on July 14) was expected to begin on Friday but had to be postponed after the banks collapsed

Besides the two swallowed homes, residents in three other nearby homes were displaced because of the risk.

The edges of the sinkhole started caving in because there was no support for the sandy soil as it started to dry out, officials said last month.

As the water in the sinkhole recedes, the sand on the right-angled banks can't support the weight of the ground and it's giving away.

Engineers believe the solution lies in quickly getting dirt into the area to create a sloping bank that can keep the edges of the sinkhole from falling in.

Pasco County's risk manager told officials that the response to the sinkhole could cost at least $1.5 million but it will be likely much more
The two men accused of trying to blow up an Etihad plane were allegedly planning a chemical attack on Sydney's public transport network.

Police say Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat discussed a gas attack after their alleged attempt to use a bomb hidden in a meat mincer failed.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said the men planned to release the toxic gas hydrogen sulphide using a purpose-built device.

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Khaled (pictured) and Mahmoud Khayat allegedly hatched a second plot to carry out a gas attack on Sydney's public transport network

Khaled Khayat (pictured) and his brother allegedly turned to gas after their first alleged plot to bomb a plane failed

Public transport (pictured, stock image) is a tempting target for terrorists due to lack of security and the potential to cause mass panic

Their alleged target is believed to have been crowded public areas and public transport but the plot was in its early stages, the Daily Telegraph reported.

'The second plot related to the building of an improved chemical dispersion device. We will allege these individuals attempted to create an improvised dispersion device [to] release a highly toxic hydrogen sulphide,' Mr Phelan said.

'They were talking about crowded enclosed spaces, potentially public transport and so on ... I want to make it quite clear that while it may have been a hypothetical plot for the people ... we were a long way from having a functional device.'

Charles Sturt University counter-terrorism Associate Professor Nick O'Brien said Sydney's public transport network could be a tempting target for terrorists.

'Public transport is a good target for terrorists because it can put large portions of the population in fear and when the strike is in a capital city it can paralyse transport systems,' he said.

Hydrogen sulphide is a colourless gas that smells like rotten-egg. It is flammable, and fatal if high levels are inhaled.

Police (pictured) stood guard as the terror suspects made their first court appearance since being charged with two counts of acting in preparation for or planning a terrorist act

It can be produced from common household items, and cannot be detected by airport scanners.

Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat were allegedly put in contact with ISIS heavyweight 'The Controller' by their older brother Tarek Khayat, the Daily Telegraph reports.

They were allegedly planning to sacrifice their own brother in the attack - by planting the bomb which was disguised as a meat mincer in his luggage.

Police believe Tarek Khayat, the eldest of the three brothers allegedly involved in the terror plans, had never even met the younger brother who was to be sacrificed.

It has also been revealed that Tarek had fought in Syria alongside other extremists before ISIS established a caliphate there.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan (right) with NSW Deputy Commissioner David Hudson

The alleged meat-mincer bomb is believed to have been made with 'military-grade explosives' sent from Turkey after exchanging messages with 'The Controller'.

Khaled Khayat, 49, accompanied his unwitting brother to Sydney airport ahead of his flight to Abu Dhabi, allegedly knowing his luggage contained an explosive hidden in a kitchen meat mincer.

Mr Phelan revealed that the luggage never make it on the plane and Khayat took it from the airport.

'There is a little bit of conjecture as to why it didn't go ahead,' Mr Phelan told reporters on Friday. 'It did not get through security.'

The beginnings of the alleged plot to bring down the Etihad Airways EY 451 was hatched on April 14 when Khaled Khayat allegedly contacted a senior Islamic State operative in Syria, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Khayat is alleged to have kept in contact with the commander leading to bomb components being sent from Turkey to Sydney by air cargo.

Following information being sent through on chemical reactions, Mr Khayat responded in a message with: 'Thanks be to God', according to the publication.

Police allege Mr Khayat and his younger brother Mahmoud worked on the bomb for three months.

But upon arriving at Sydney Airport the bag never made it through check-in and was taken back to Mr Khayat's Lakemba home.

'This is one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil,' Police Commissioner Mike Phelan said.

Police patrolling Parramatta Court ahead of the appearance of two alleged terrorists alleged to be behind a plane bombing plot

After the bomb returned to Lakemba, it is alleged an IS member contacted Mr Khayat on how to create an 'improvised chemical dispersion device'.

Messages allege the IS member and Mr Khayat had talked about placing the gas device in a crowded place, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Authorities allege a second attack was planned after the first plot failed.

'It was designed to release the highly toxic hydrogen sulfide,' Mr Phelan said, but he stressed the alleged conspirators 'were a mile-and-a-half from having a functioning chemical dispersion device'.

Khayat, 49, of Lakemba and another brother, Mahmoud Khayat, 32, of Punchbowl had their first court mention at Parramatta Local Court on Friday.

Each have been charged with two counts of acting in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.

An alleged ISIS-inspired terror plot to smuggle an improvised explosive device onto an Etihad Airways flight out of Sydney could have killed more than 400 people. File photo

Their lawyer, Michael Coroneos, said his clients were 'entitled to the presumption of innocence'.

'Once the brief of evidence is served we can assess their legal position,' Mr Coroneos told reporters outside court.

The men, who were refused bail ahead of another hearing on November 14, face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

A third man remains behind bars held under special anti-terror laws. He can be detained until the weekend.

Mr Phelan said the aborted July 15 plot involved a high-end explosive being concealed in a meat grinder.

The brother who flew to Abu Dhabi has not returned to Australia and is not facing charges.
Andre Jackson (Pictured), 32, was charged with capital murder on Friday

An Arkansas man was charged Friday in the fatal shooting of an Italian tourist who was found dead in a rental car last week, police said.

Andre Jackson, 32, was charged with capital murder in the shooting death of 31-year-old Carlo Marigliano, a Naples taxi driver who was driving through Arkansas on his way to Arizona.

Marigliano, a married father of two, had been traveling with friends in the US for about a month before he left the group to visit other areas, his family told Little Rock television station KTHV

He was found dead on July 28, in a car that had crashed into an apartment complex in Little Rock.

Police believe Marigliano was shot and then crashed the rented vehicle into the side of one of the apartment buildings.

Police said it's unclear how the two crossed paths or what may have led to the shooting.

Carlo Marigliano, 31, was shot and killed in Little Rock, Arkansas while traveling through the US over the past month

Marigliano was considering moving his young family to America before being gunned down on July 28, 2017

Marigliano was hoping to make the US his new home, according to Gianni Sulmonte, a cousin of Marigliano's father.

'It's a shame the place where he wanted to build his family, bring his wife with his children, is the place where it comes to an end,' Sulmonte told KTHV.

Police have also issued a warrant for 31-year-old Charina Fort (pictured) in connection with Marigliano's homicide

Jackson is jailed without bond. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Little Rock police spokesman Steve Moore told The Associated Press that Jackson wasn't a resident of the Berkley Apartments complex where Marigliano was found dead.

A woman who answered the phone at the complex said management wouldn't be commenting on the case.

Police say they have also issued an active warrant on capital murder charges for 31-year-old Charina Fort in connection with Marigliano's homicide.

'Anyone in contact with Ms. Fort should call 911 immediately,' the warrant says, adding: 'Charina Fort should be considered ARMED AND DANGEROUS.'

Moore also said that Fort doesn't live at the apartment complex.
A former UW-Madison student who was cleared of sexual assault decided to use a photo himself that was snapped by a reporter in court as his Tinder profile picture.

Nicholas Ralston, 21, was expelled from the university in 2015, after the victim reported he initiated non-consensual oral sex with her while she was sleeping with her boyfriend in his dorm room, according to The Daily Cardinal.

Last week, Ralston was found not guilty of third-degree sexual assault charge after a two-day trial in Dane County Circuit Court.

Nicholas Ralston, 21, a former UW-Madison student who was cleared of sexual assault, decided to use a photo himself that was snapped by a reporter in court as his Tinder profile picture (pictured)

During his trial last week, reporter Gina Heeb, snapped a photo of him walking into the court room (above). Heeb tweeted on Sunday that it appeared Ralston seemed 'to be using the photo on Tinder'. She said his Tinder account was 'verified'

During the trial, reporter Gina Heeb, snapped a photo of him walking into the court room with his hands shoved into his pockets.

Heeb tweeted on Sunday that it appeared Ralston seemed 'to be using the photo on Tinder'.

'The trial outcome received a lot of backlash last week, so it's not surprising the news isn't sitting well with the public,' she added.

Ralston's Tinder profile says he's 'just looking to have kids and parent trap them'.

'Looking for a partner that is willing to split up as soon as our kids are born,' the profile says.

Ralston (pictured) reportedly told police the next day, he did not remember assaulting the victim, but if she said he did then it 'must be true'

Ralston was acquitted after the defense claimed he only admitted to the assault because the victim convinced him it happened.

According to the defense, there was also a lack of physical evidence, and the possibility that the victim thought Ralston was her boyfriend because she was drunk and couldn't 'coherently piece together' the evening.

The victim and her boyfriend fell asleep on a futon in the dorm room after returning from a party around 1am, according to the Cardinal.

She reportedly woke up around 3am to find Ralston 'putting his penis in her mouth,' the complaint stated.

Ralston also placed the victim's hand on his penis during the assault, which she testified lasted between five and 10 minutes.

He reportedly told police the next day, that he did not remember assaulting the victim, but if she said he did then it 'must be true'.

But the defense said Ralston only made the admission to the assault because the victim convinced him it happened, according to the Cardinal.

'Nick trusted [the victim] and believed her,' said attorney Adam Welch. 'That's not a confession. It's good character.'
Less than a day after the death of their baby son, Catherine and Greg Hughes became the target of vicious anti-vaccination activists.

Even though Riley died of whooping cough and was not vaccinated against the disease, they were called 'baby-killers' and accused of being responsible.

Now the couple is speaking out, determined not to let the cult-like Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network silence them.

After their baby son Riley (pictured) died, Catherine and Greg Hughes were attacked by anti-vaxxers

Catherine Hughes (pictured) says she is still being harassed more than two years after her son's tragic death

Greg (pictured) and Catherine Hughes are now speaking out about the cult-like Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network which has been trying to silence them

Ms Hughes says the notorious anti-vaxxer group often targets grieving parents, and says they are still being harassed more than two years on, The Herald Sun reported.

'We were accused of being employees of pharmaceutical companies, we were told that our child didn't ever exist, and we were even accused of killing Riley ourselves,' she said.

'They don't want to acknowledge the fact that these diseases can be fatal, and kill innocent children.'

The Hughes family are not the only ones to fall victim to AVN's alleged harassment campaigns.

Riley (pictured) died of whooping cough and was not vaccinated, but anti-vax warriors called his parents 'baby killers'

Alison Gaylard has been abused for years after encouraging people to vaccinate their children on social media after her daughters suffered from the disease.

Despite having the two girls vaccinated, they fell ill due to their community's low vaccination level.

'I wanted to show people who were possibly being swayed not to vaccinate their kids how sick my girls got, and how much worse it could be if they weren't vaccinated,' she said.

Before she knew it Ms Gaylard was the subject of a nasty blog post and memes were even made at her expense.

Her daughter Alice was even allegedly stalked and approached in a supermarket.

AVN has been compared to a cult by doctors, and it has been investigated by government groups.
Two murals believed to be painted by by Australian graffiti artist Lushsux showing US President Donald Trump have appeared on Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

The murals showing an oversized President Donald Trump appeared on Friday, ABC News reported.

The new drawings popped up on the edge of Bethlehem, the Palestinian city where the barrier largely consists of a wall of towering slabs of concrete.

Trump is depicted wearing a Jewish skullcap and placing a hand a wall - a scene taken from the U.S. president's May visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray

In one scene, Trump is shown hugging and kissing a real Israeli army watchtower built into the wall, as his left arm reaches around the tower. Little pink hearts flutter from Trump's mouth.

In another drawing, Trump is depicted wearing a Jewish skullcap and placing a hand a wall - a scene taken from the U.S. president's May visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray.

A cartoon 'thought bubble' next to him says, 'I'm going to build you a brother,' a possible reference to Trump's plans to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Lushsux has painted a provocative mural of US Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as Donald Trump's his former model wife Melania.

In one scene, Trump is shown hugging and kissing a real Israeli army watchtower built into the wall

Lushsux has painted a number of provocative murals of Donald Trump in the past

The Australian artist has depicted the billionaire in a number of high-profile artworks

Israel began building the barrier a decade ago, at the height of an armed Palestinian uprising, saying the divider is needed to keep suicide bombers and gunmen from entering Israel.

Palestinians say the barrier, which slices off about 10 percent of the West Bank, amounts to a land grab.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967. Several U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian attempts to negotiate the terms of a Palestinian state on these lands have failed.

Trump said early on in his term that he would try to broker a deal, but has not offered a way forward.
A colleague of two Adelaide doctors has claimed in emails tendered at an inquest the stroke specialists delayed procedures to in a bid to bolster their wages with overtime pay.

Royal Adelaide Hospital's two interventional neuro-radiologists (INR), Dr Rebecca Scroop and Dr James Taylor, often put back operations so they would end up being out-of-hours, according to the emails as obtained by Nine News.

Dr Susan McKeen sent the emails between 2015 and 2016 and was a colleague of Dr Scroop and Dr Taylor.

A colleague of two Adelaide doctors has claimed in emails tendered at an inquest that the stroke specialists delayed procedures to in a bid to bolster their wages with overtime pay

She claimed in the emails their actions were in turn affecting the care given to patients.

'Clearly the system is being manipulated by some proceduralists to ensure maximum remuneration,' Dr McKeen wrote.

'Money is being splurged on these two crooks... clearly that is not in the department's best interests.'

The inquest heard through extra earnings the pair earned $1.1million a year each - quadruple their normal pay packets.

The emails were being used as evidence for an inquest at Adelaide's Coroners Court led by Coroner Mark Johns into the deaths of two stroke victims, who died while both doctors were handed annual leave at the same time.

Michael John Russell, 60, and Leslie Robert Graham, 87, died in April this year during their period of holiday while there was no other qualified member of staff to deal with their emergencies.

The inquest heard the men were instead sent to Flinders Medical Centre on April 18, where Dr Steve Chryssidis gave the patients emergency treatment but both men later died of complications.

Head of radiology Dr Jim Buckley has since admitted in the inquest his mistake at allowing both doctors to take leave at the same time.

During an inquest into the death of two patients who required the doctors' care, Head of radiology Dr Jim Buckley (right) has since admitted his mistake at allowing both doctors to take leave at the same time

The emails were being used as evidence for an inquest at Adelaide's Coroners Court led by Coroner Mark Johns (pictured) into the deaths of two stroke victims

'It was an error, I inadvertently signed [the second leave form], I didn't recall Dr Taylor was on leave at that time,' he said.

It was also revealed to the court that the unit had been advised by an internal review to hire a third INR specialist, but had opposed doing so.

The inquest heard that Dr Buckley however denied the two doctors were acting with a view to significantly increase their wages, suggesting Dr McKeen had fabricated the information within her emails due to 'a grudge' with Dr Taylor.

The SA coroner is looking into whether a misunderstanding as to who was covering for the two specialists led to the patients' deaths.

Daily Mail Australia have contacted Royal Adelaide Hospital regarding the matter, who refrained from commenting on the ongoing matter.

The inquest into the deaths continues.

Michael Russell's relatives depart the inquest into his death at the Coroner's Court in Adelaide
A British hacker hailed a hero for shutting down a global cyber attack will remain locked up this weekend after being unable to pay $30,000 bail fees set by an American judge.

Marcus Hutchins, 23, was arrested by the FBI in the first class lounge at Las Vegas Airport on Wednesday as he was about to fly back to the UK. He was charged with creating a malicious malware which steals bank details.

The Devon-born resident, who faces up to 40 years in jail if convicted, pleaded not guilty during his first hearing in court on Friday.

Wearing yellow overalls with the word DETAINEE written on the back, Hutchins was told his bail conditions were set at $30,000 (23,000). After being unable to pay, the 23-year-old was told he would remain in custody until his next hearing.

As he left the courtroom, Mr Hutchins was ordered to walk with his hands behind his back. No members of his family were present in court but defence lawyer Adrian Lobo presented the judge with a bundle of letters.

She said they were from friends and relatives showing support for a client who had never been in trouble with the law in the US or the UK.

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Marcus Hutchins, 23, had been partying at a hackers' convention in Las Vegas when he was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday

Pictured: Marcus Hutchins' lawyer Adrian Lobo leaving the courthouse in Las Vegas on Friday

Hutchins could face up to 40 years in prison if found guilty of creating and distributing malware that attacks bank accounts. Pictured: Lloyd D. George Courthouse' in Las Vegas, Nevada

Judge Nancy J Koppe heard arguments from the Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Cowhig to keep the Brit locked up pending trial.

Cowhig argued that Hutchins was a flight risk with no ties to Las Vegas and was also a danger to the community citing the young Brit tweeted that he went to a shooting range just days before his arrest, which he claimed was a violation of federal law.

He also said Hutchins admitted to authorities that he created the Kronos program. Cowhig also told the court, the Kronos malware is still out there and if let out on bail, he could gain access which could help him derail his the case against him.

Defense Attorney Adrian Lobo told the court Hutchins was not a danger to the community, does not have a criminal record in England or the United States and submitted to the court 12-15 letters from family, friends and people of the community in support of her client.

Judge Koppe questioned why the US Government took more than two years to indict him since his most recent charge against him in July 2015 and also disagreed with the Assistant US Attorney that Hutchins violated a federal law when he went to a gun range.

During his time in the US Mr Hutchins Tweeted that he rented this bright orange Lamborghini worth 200,000

The 23-year-old filmed himself swimming in the largest private pool in Vegas and also decided to fire machine guns at a Nevada range

Court documents accuse him of being responsible for creating the Kronos banking Trojan - but this tweet from the time shows he asks for a sample, with his friends questioning why he would do that when he was supposed to have created it

Judge Koppe granted Hutchins bail imposing several restrictive conditions, including home detention and surrendering his passport. He is also banned from using an device that can access the internet.

Defense attorney Adrian Lobo said that her client didn't get the necessary funds in time to be released on bail on Friday and now will have to wait until Monday for his release.

The indictment was filed in Wisconsin federal court last month.

His mother Janet Hutchins said it was 'hugely unlikely' that her son was involved because he has spent 'enormous amounts of time' combating such attacks.

Jake Williams, a respected US cybersecurity researcher, said they have worked on various projects, including training material, and the Briton always refused payment.

He said: 'He's a stand-up guy. I can't reconcile the charges with what I know about him. I don't doubt that some of his code found its way into malware. He might have even helped criminals posing as researchers.'

Friend Andrew Mabbitt, a British digital security specialist who had been staying in a 5million rented Las Vegas mansion with Hutchins, said: 'I refuse to believe the charges. He spent his career stopping malware, not writing it.'

Hutchins was held after a week partying at a hacking conference in Vegas where he took over a $7 million mansion with the city's biggest private pool and rented a $280k Lamborghini Huracan to race around in.

The so-called malware, called Kronos, has reportedly been used to steal money from bank accounts in France and Hutchins is accused of writing the virus, known as malware, in 2014.

Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com show that an indictment was issued on July 12 - weeks before his arrest - and claims that he was involved in a conspiracy that saw Kronos Malware he allegedly created then sold for up to $3,000 a pop. The final documents shows he is due back in court today at 3pm Las Vegas time

Hutchins now faces months battling the American courts and could be jailed for 40 years if found guilty of taking part in a hacking conspiracy to steal bank details.

The Devon-born computer expert, who lives with his mom and dad, was held as he tried to leave the US on a first class Virgin Atlantic flight two days ago.

He faces six hacking charges that each carry a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence meaning he could face decades in a US jail if convicted.

His friends and supporters say that he has been set up.

They have found tweets where he asks for samples of the malware he is accused of creating.

Some have said that the way he killed off the WannaCry 'ransomware' that swept across the globe embarrassed America's own security services.

NSA security researchers initially developed the tool to hack into the computers of suspected terrorists and spies, but it was taken on by criminals who then used it to take over computers and extort cash from victims if they wanted control back.

Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com show that a second defendant, not yet named by the FBI, is accused of selling it on dark web marketplace AlphaBay, which was shut down by the US government last month, and creating a YouTube video showing how it worked.

The six charges Mr Hutchins faces relate to an alleged conspiracy between July 2014 and July 2015.

It is not known why his co-defendant's name has been redacted in court documents - it could be because he has not been arrested or is helping the FBI with their investigation.

The IT star was grabbed by the FBI in a first class airport lounge and stopped from flying back to the UK where he lives with his parents in Devon (pictured)

Federal officers were able to see he entered the country by matching his name and date of birth with flight rosters and were waiting for him as arrived to fly home from Nevada.

Marcus' supporters including his mother say Mr Hutchins, who is known online by the name MalwareTech, is innocent and claim a tweet from July 2014 proves he could not have written the software.

Janety Hutchins added that she is 'outraged' by the charges and has been 'frantically calling America' trying to contact her son from Devon.

What is the Kronos virus Marcus Hutchins is accused of creating in his bedroom? Marcus Hutchins is accused of creating the malware known as the Kronos banking Trojan, according to the federal court indictment. It infects web browsers, then captures usernames and passwords when an unsuspecting user visits a bank or other trusted location, enabling cybertheft. Kronos first appeared for sale on a Russian cybercrime forum in 2014 for a $7,000. For that money you get the software and a developer to help you update and improve it. The malware appears on a victim's desktop as a harmless programme while grabbing sensitive details including usernames, passwords and other details from banking websites. Advertisement

Some are using the hashtag #freemalwaretech and say he was arrested in America to avoid extradition proceedings in the UK.

His work to end the WannaCry 'ransomware' crisis embarrassed America's own security services because they created it first but lost control and it was used by criminals to extort cash, friends say.

Andrew Mabbitt, a British digital security specialist who had been staying in Las Vegas with Hutchins, said he and his friends grew worried when they got 'radio silence' from Hutchins for hours.

The worries deepened when Hutchins' mother called to tell him the young researcher hadn't made his flight home.

Mabbitt said he eventually found Hutchins' name on a detention center website. News of his indictment Thursday left colleagues scrambling to understand what happened.

He also says that they were staying together in the 5million mansion and Hutchins' did not have to pay.

'We don't know the evidence the FBI has against him, however we do have some circumstantial evidence that he was involved in that community at the time,' said computer security expert Rob Graham.

Before his arrest Mr Hutchins had been in Las Vegas for Def Con, one of the largest hacking conventions in the world.

He had been 'partying' before his arrest and staying at a 1,950-a-night mansion worth 5million having rented it with seven friends.

The Airbnb five minutes from 'The Strip' has the largest private pool in all of Las Vegas and Mr Hutchins used his iPhone 7 to film himself swimming around it.

According to the website 'it is the epitome of modern luxury real estate, offering all the amenities of a five-star luxury hotel with the privacy and security of a private estate.'

On the drive was Marcus rented bright orange Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4 Spyder, which cost at 200,000 to buy.

The mansion he rented with friends is described as 'the epitome of modern luxury real estate'

The computer expert rented one of the most luxurious properties in Vegas, which has ten bedrooms like this

He posted a picture of the car online and wrote: 'Is there any tracks or anything in Vegas where we can drive this car properly without being arrested?'

According to The Outline he wasn't even planning to attend the the DEF CON hacking conference and instead partied at a nightclub where his wallet was stolen.

Other delegates asked him to pose for pictures calling him the 'WannaCrySlayer' and he also tweeted about getting drunk and eating lobster.

Describing one event he said: 'They pick you up in a bus and take you to an undisclosed location with activities and loads of free food trucks'.

And in another message about visiting the Grand Canyon he said: 'Apparently I can get a 5 person helicopter tour for $1600 and we get to land at the bottom of the canyon'.

The 23-year-old also went to a shooting range and fired a range of weapons including a number of machine guns, which he filmed.

Marcus stayed on in Vegas for a few days after the conference but was then stopped by the FBI in Virgin's Upper Class lounger as he was about to board a flight back to the UK on Wednesday when he was arrested.

Marcus stayed on in Vegas for a few days after the conference but was then stopped by the FBI in Virgin's Upper Class lounger as he was about to board a flight back to the UK on Wednesday when he was arrested.

Hutchins discovered a 'kill-switch' for the virus after it paralysed thousands of NHS computers and claimed hundreds of thousands of victims around the world - including US courier service FedEx and German rail company Deutsche Bahn - in May.

His mother Janet said she was trying to find out what had happened to her son. She said: 'I think I'm going to be rather busy tonight.'

Her son's supporters said on social media that his activities could have been 'white hat' hacking in which hackers expose security flaws for good ends.

Mr Hutchins' friend Andrew Mabbit said he was 'in the Las Vegas FBI field office' and appealed for lawyers to help him.

He said on Twitter that he refused to believe the charges. 'He spent his career stopping malware, not writing it,' Mabbit said.

Hutchins will next appear in court on Tuesday, August 8 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
A fresh wave of anarchist attacks looks set to cause misery to tourists in Europe, amid warnings separatists could target holidaymakers in a summer of angry protest.

It follows a terrifying demonstration in Majorca which saw radicals carrying flares descend on a marina-front restaurant while brandishing anti-tourism banners.

A fresh pledge by Arran Paisos Catalans, the group behind the protest, has prompted warnings that holidaymakers could be hurt in a summer of protests.

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The group also held up huge posters with various messages, including 'Tourism kills Majorca' and attacking what they describe as 'the elite classes'

Majorca is being hit by anti-tourism attacks with protesters carrying flares invading a marina-front restaurant (pictured) and throwing confetti towards terrified customers

Warning: Ominous graffiti written in English in Barcelona warns that tourists are 'not welcome'

It comes as another affiliated group, Endavant Ciutat Vella, released a video showing supporters carrying out acts of vandalism across Barcelona, including spray painting a sign saying: 'Tourism kills the city. Tourists go home. You are not welcome.'

Speaking to The Times, one of Arran's leaders, Laura Flores, said further attacks are being planned.

The 24-year-old said: 'Tourism is making the city too expensive to live in as people rent out their flats to tourists and residents are forced out.

'It is forcing people to work in an industry where they are exploited with low wages for long hours.'

The four men wrote 'tourism kills neighbourhoods' in Catalan on the front of a bus in Barcelona

Following the warning Salli Felton, chief executive of the Travel Foundation - a charity supporting sustainable tourism - told The Times: 'The risk is that these protests escalate and someone is hurt.'

Ms Felton said that at the moment anger is being directed at the authorities rather than tourists, but warned the backlash has been brewing for a couple of years and is likely to escalate.

And Noel Josephides, who chairs tour operators' association Abta, described the protests as a 'wake-up call' and said anarchists were using 'dangerous tactics'.

He urged tourists to be vigilant to the threat when travelling abroad.

Two weeks ago a tourist bus was attacked in Barcelona, with tyres slashed and slogans painted on the vehicle.

Terrified British tourist Andrew Carey told The Telegraph: 'I really thought it was a terrorist attack and my number was up.'

On Wednesday Arran posted a video of the protest on its social network sites encouraging 'paralysing the mass tourism that destroys Majorca.'

Following the warning Salli Felton, chief executive of the Travel Foundation - a charity supporting sustainable tourism - told The Times: 'The risk is that these protests escalate and someone is hurt'

The campaign group Arran Paisos Catalans has claimed responsibility for the incident in Palma and has promised more demonstrations of a similar nature

About 20 protestors wearing Arran shirts burst into the Mar de Nudos restaurant in the Majorcan capital of Palma at about 8.30pm in the evening.

They then threw confetti at customers, many of them foreigners who were said to be visibly upset.

The group also held up huge posters with various messages, including 'Tourism kills Majorca' and attacking what they describe as 'the elite classes'.

Flares were let off in front of the restaurant as part of the demonstration.

The manager of the restaurant Mar de Nudos, Carmen Sanchez told Spanish newspaper Ultima Hora that the attack occurred 'around 8.30pm. About twenty young people in Arran t-shirts got into the restaurant and customers, many of them foreigners, were very upset. '

About 20 protestors wearing Arran shirts burst into the Mar de Nudos restaurant in the Majorcan capital of Palma at about 8.30pm in the evening

Police were called in but it is understood no arrests were made.

The restaurant is just yards away from luxury yachts and towards the end of the video, at least one of the campaigners can be seen jumping across the boats concealed by the pink smoke in order to avoid detection.

The group says mass tourism in Majorca is not only spoiling the island but 'making life a misery' for the working classes who are unable to afford apartment rentals because they are being pushed out by holidaymakers and inflated prices.

Over the past month, anti-tourism banners had been posted in other parts of the island, including the tourism department and hotels.

Those who support the actions of Arran say they are right to protest and they agree that the needs of tourists are outweighing those of local people.

'They are telling the truth,' said one. 'The Government is doing nothing about it.'

The group says mass tourism in Majorca is not only spoiling the island but 'making life a misery' for the working classes who are unable to afford apartment rentals because they are being pushed out by holidaymakers and inflated prices.

Others say such protests are not needed, pointing out that most of the jobs on Majorca are created by tourism and a family restaurant is not the right place for such a demonstration.

Tourism chiefs said they respected the right of people to protest but 'there are other procedures to express criticism, but not intimidating people or causing material damages.'

Protest: A video posted on Twitter shows members of anti-tourism group 'Arran' slashing the tyres of rental bicycles in Barcelona, Spain.

Four masked men were involved in the hold-up of the tourist bus on which British holidaymakers were travelling.

They feared they were being attacked by terrorists as the group daubed slogans over the side of the open-top vehicle as it it pulled up outside FC Barcelona's famous Nou Camp stadium.

The men daubed the words 'El Turisme Mata Els Barris' in Catalan across the windscreen of the bus, which in English translates as 'Tourism Kills Neighbourhoods.'

Arran claims the incident was completely justified and was not violence but 'a legitimate defence against mass tourism.'

The group says it has no intention of paying for damage caused to the tourist bus or to bikes and has not ruled out further demonstrations.

A fresh warning has been made to tourists travelling to Spain over a series of protests by Arran Paisos Catalans (pictured here blocking a road in Barcelona during a protest in February)
A Hong Kong teenager and a pilot remain clinging to life after their plane plunged into a paddock in Melbourne.

Student pilot Nicholas Cheung, 19, and his instructor John Dwyer, in his 30s, were trapped in the wreckage for hours at Clyde North on Thursday.

A spokesperson from Royal Melbourne Hospital confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the pilot remained in a critical condition.

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Nicholas Cheung, 19, remains clinging to life after the crash in Melbourne

Mr Cheung was critical in The Alfred Hospital with facial, chest and spinal injuries.

However a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia his condition has been upgraded to serious.

The aircraft was registered to Learn to Fly Melbourne based at Moorabbin Airport.

Recreational Aviation Australia will be investigating the crash as the governing body for ultralight aircraft and pilots.

'We will have two investigators on scene this afternoon and all day tomorrow,' Mr Linke said on Thursday.

It was too early to comment on the cause of the crash but investigators would look at environmental, human and mechanical factors to determine the cause, he said.

Mr Cheung, 19,was trapped in the wreckage for hours after the aircraft crashed

The aircraft was registered to Learn to Fly Melbourne based at Moorabbin Airport.

Recreational Aviation Australia will be investigating the crash

Witness Kane Loveday who was driving in the area, told the Seven Network he suspected a lack of poweer caused the crash.

'It sounded like a lack of power basically and before I could see anything it was below the tree line.'

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said the ultralight was on a training flight.
British holidaymakers face more misery at Barcelona airport this weekend after negotiations between security staff and their bosses broke down.

Workers at border controls at the city's El Prat airport carried out a series of mini hour-long strikes yesterday which caused queues of up to eight hours.

And they are set to repeat the industrial action tomorrow after talks over working conditions broke down last night.

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Mayhem: Staff at Barcelona airport are have gone on strike in a protest over working conditions

The partial strikes have led to queues of around three hours for tourists at El Prat Airport

The partial strikes are due to run at regular hours on Sundays, Mondays and Fridays until August 14 - when the workers will go on all-out strike if no agreement is reached.

Staff at private security company Eulen are demanding better conditions and more colleagues - saying they work up to 16 hours a day.

The chair of their strike committee was recorded this week saying the queues strengthened their bargaining position.

Shots fired: A note put up by striking staff at the space where bag trolleys would be found explains that they have been locked away as part of the dispute

In a recording obtained by Spanish media, Genoveva Sierra, told her colleagues: 'If there are no queues, everything is lost. If there are queues, everything is won. It's that simple. We call the shots.

'The media, the passengers and Aena (the Spanish airports authority) only care about the queues.'

One British holidaymaker yesterday described the situation at the airport as 'security mayhem.'

One Eulen staff member told Barcelona-based newspaper El Periodico: 'What did they (the company bosses) expect? We're in August, peak holiday season, with an airport which is growing and growing, but they did not respond with extra resources.'

Long lines of tourists were pictured queuing ahead of their departure from Malaga Airport today

Two young children wait with their luggage at Malaga Airport, where tourists have faced lengthy queues today

The workers's strike committee met with Eulen bosses, the Spanish airports authority Aena and the managers of El Prat airport in a bid to resolve the dispute. The talks lasted for eight hours yesterday but ended in failure.

More than 1,000 travellers have missed flights as a result of the industrial action.

Holidaymakers heading to Europe have faced lengthy queues at airports including Palma and Malaga this summer, due to new EU regulations tightening border controls with non-Schengen countries.

Today long queues were seen at Malaga Airport, with long lines of holidaymakers waiting to check in ahead of their flights.

It follows warnings for tourists to make sure they arrive at airports early.
New evidence has emerged in the search for a Disney cruise worker who went missing six years ago.

Rebecca Coriam, 24, had been working as a childminder when she disappeared from the Disney Wonder vessel in March 2011 as it sailed near Puerto Vallarta in Mexico.

Her family fear she was murdered after being sexually assaulted while Disney said it was more likely she was swept overboard by a freak wave'.

Now it has been claimed she had a threesome with colleagues on the ship which left her 'traumatised' just hours before she was last seen.

Rebecca Coriam, pictured with parents Ann and Mike, disappeared from a Disney cruise ship she was working as a childminder on in March 2011

Friends on board claim she was left distraught after 'having a threesome' with colleagues Tracie Medley, left, and Deven Hyde, right. It was also claimed she was in an 'intense and passionate' relationship with Miss Medley. There is no suggestion either Miss Medley or Mr Hyde were involved in any wrongdoing

She was last seen in CCTV footage on the ship, pictured, wearing men's clothing and looking distressed, holding her head in her hands

According to The Sun, Miss Coriam had a sexual encounter with American Tracie Medley and Honduran national Deven Hyde.

Private investigators told the paper the alleged threesome took place in the married fathers cabin and it was the first time Miss Coriam had sex with a man, leaving her distraught and traumatised.

Miss Coriam was said to be in an intense and passionate relationship with Miss Medley and became upset when she became close to Mr Hyde, according to staff on the ship.

Ship head of security Mark Rotherham said Miss Coriam was told the only way to be with her girlfriend was to have a threesome by Mr Hyde.

He told The Sun: Rebecca was very, very uncomfortable with it but she did it anyway. I think it was her first time sleeping with a man.

She was last seen on CCTV wearing mens clothing at around 6am on the day of her disappearance and was pictured holding her head and looking distressed.

According to The Sun, she was talking to colleague Tracy OBrien, from Liverpool, via the intercom system.

Miss OBrien told investigators: Bex called me crying. She said theyd asked her to do a threesome. I told her not to go back to them and to go to bed.

Her parents, pictured with her sister Rachael, believe their daughter may have been sexually assaulted and murdered

The parents of the 24-year-old student, pictured left and right, say they do not believe she would have killed herself because she was 'looking forward to the future'

Disney have maintained Miss Coriam was swept overboard from the Wonder cruise ship, pictured, by 'a freak wave'

She stopped crying. I told her Id talk to Tracie about it in the morning as I always had to talk to her when they were arguing with each other.

Her body was never found and although suicide has been suggested as a theory, her parents Mike and Ann Coriam say they do not believe she killed herself as she had bought them tickets to go to Disneyland Paris, which they say is evidence she was 'looking forward to the future'.

Staff on the ship said relationships between crew members were common because people could be who they wanted to be but that many of them were kept secret over fear they could lose their jobs.

As previously reported, her parents, from Chester, along with maritime expert and family spokesman Bill Anderson, strongly suspect Rebecca was murdered following a sex attack.

Two of the Liverpool student's best friends visited the Coriam parents after she went missing, and said their friend had voiced fears of being raped or sexually attacked while on the ship.

Police in the Bahamas ruled Miss Coriam's disappearance was 'not suspicious'

Mr Anderson said: 'What her best friends said to the Coriams sent a shiver down their spines.

The family have the support of many senior politicians including ex-deputy Labour leader John Prescott who has previously alleged Rebecca was 'thrown overboard'.

Earlier this year the Coriams, Mr Anderson, and Roy Ramm - the former Commander of Specialist Operations at Scotland Yard, and the family's private detective, visited policing minister Brandon Lewis at his Home Office HQ in London.

The family left the meeting optimistic, after being assured that the Tory politician would examine a dossier of new evidence about the case, handed to him by the Coriam campaigners.

After nine months, the investigating Bahamas police department declared the 24-year-old's disappearance as 'not suspicious', although only six of the 950 crew were interviewed and none of the 2,000 passengers were questioned.

Last November private investigators disclosed their belief that 'criminal activity' was behind her vanishing.

Chester MP Chris Matheson, who is coordinating the investigation, believes there is a real possibility that Rebecca was murdered.

And that train of events is supported by the allegations of rape or sexual assault, campaigners added.

In 2015 Mr Matheson said: 'I believe there's sufficient evidence to indicate a crime may well have taken place.

'Whatever the circumstance, there's an obligation to investigate. My worst fear is Rebecca Coriam was murdered.'

Disney Cruises has always maintained the student was swept overboard.
Rapist: Derrick Mutambuka assaulted two women in Sunderland

Women's rights activists have savaged a lawyer for playing down the crime of his client who inflicted a 'prolonged and sustained' rape on a woman in an alleyway.

Derrick Mutambuka assaulted a woman in the street after becoming 'sexually aroused' in a Sunderland nightclub.

He then grabbed another woman and raped her in an alleyway giving her 34 injuries as she screamed for help. He paused only to kick and spit blood at passers-by who tried to stop him.

Defending him at Newcastle Crown Court, Mr Ekwall Tiwana said of his crime: 'Although it is very serious, it is not in fact the most serious.'

His comments have outraged women's rights activists who say they play down the horrendous crime of rape.

Women's activist Aisha Ali-Khan told MailOnline: 'This is a sickening case - the defending counsels stance beggars belief.

'This was an appalling, premeditated attack that has left two women with life-long psychological scars. For the defence to downplay the impact and seriousness of the attacks shows a complete lack of empathy and compassion for what the victims had to endure.

'It also goes a long way in explaining why so many women would rather suffer in silence than report their sexual assaults to the authorities.'

She added: 'I am dismayed at the system that allows defence lawyers to make such irresponsible comments without any challenge'.

Mutambuka, originally from Rwanda, left the bar in Sunderland on 20 December 2015 and began talking to a woman on the street.

After she appeared disinterested in him, he pushed her against some shop shutters and proceeded to force his hand down her trousers.

The terrifying sexual assault came to an end when a passer-by intervened and walked the woman home.

But Mutambuka, who was 17 at the time, followed them back to her address and peered through her letterbox.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how just a short while later, the defendant then saw another woman in the street and dragged her into an alleyway before raping her.

A member of the public attempted to stop the rape after hearing the victim's terrified screams, but was forced to back off after Mutambuka kicked him.

The assault carried on for minutes - only to come to an end when a second man came to her rescue.

Prosecutor Andrew Espley said: 'This was a prolonged and sustained attack.

'There was a significant degree of planning. He wanted it to happen and took steps to make sure that it did.

'He was a man that would not be deterred. Others were present and witnessed the victim's ordeal. The victims were alone and vulnerable.'

Mutambuka, now 18, of Gateshead, was found guilty of rape and sexual assault following a trial - with what a judge described as 'overwhelming evidence.'

Newcastle Crown Court heard how the defendant then saw a woman in the street and dragged her into an alleyway before raping her

He was also found guilty of counts of assault, relating to the first man who he kicked and the second who he spat on, with spittle containing blood on 20 December 2015.

Mr Ekwall Tiwana, defending, said that his client was very drunk at the time of the offence and had only been drunk once before in his life.

He said: 'The general nature of this case is that it is a very serious offence. Although it is very serious, it is not in fact the most serious.

'This defendant was 17 at the time and had no previous convictions.

'This young man was passed from pillar to post and country to country essentially. He has been subject to a very unsatisfactory life until he moved to Newcastle and studied in Gateshead.

'He has admitted that what he did was disgraceful and disgusting. He has recognised what he did.'

The court heard how the defendant studied English, Maths and IT at Gateshead College. The rape victim suffered 34 injuries during the attack, including reddening, abrasion and tenderness on her head, face, neck, legs and chest as well as on her genitals.

She was also punched and 'manhandled' during the attack. Sentencing him to nine year and nine months imprisonment, Judge Robert Adams said: 'This was a persistent course of conduct.

'You were sexually aroused dancing in the club and that continued when you were going home until you committed the offence.

'You were determined to have sex with a woman regardless of her views or who she was or whatever her circumstance.

'You used violence, judging by the numerous injuries that the victim sustained.

'It is a start that you are experiencing some remorse although it is now too late in the day. Only a lengthy custodial sentence is appropriate.'
Australia's wild winter weather is set to continue over the next few days with huge dumps of snow and strong blizzards expected to hit.

While the Snowy Mountains are expected to be battered with about 40 and 50cm of snow, there are strong blizzard warnings in place for most of the alpine regions of New South Wales and Victoria.

Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior forecaster Jake Phillips told Daily Mail Australia winds in New South Wales alpine regions could exceed 100km/hr on Sunday and Monday.

The dangerous conditions will lash Victoria and New South Wales while the rest of Sydney can enjoy warm winter sunshine for the rest of the week.

Perisher, New South Wales, has copped more than 40cm of snow since Thursday (pictured)

The huge dumping of snow is set to continue over the weekend with about 50cm expected

Wild blizzards are also expected for the alpine regions of New South Wales and Victoria

Blizzards with winds of about 111km/hr are expected to lash the alpine regions (pictured)

Snow lovers are making the most of the heavy dumps of snow before dangerous blizzards

'Today we saw wind gusts of 111km/hr and we could see similar gusts tomorrow,' Mr Phillips said.

'There are blizzard conditions in the high parts and alpine peaks, there's a severe weather warning for damaging winds.

'It'll be pretty windy, not the greatest conditions for getting out there.'

Sky fields in the western ranges will also see a generous dump of snow especially at the higher peaks.

While the alpine regions will be battered with blizzards, sunshine and tops of 21 degrees is expected for the rest of Sydney Sunday and Monday.

Mr Phillips said the city would see wind over the next two days with the cold mornings and frost expected in the western suburbs.

Huge dumping of snow is set to continue although blizzard conditions make skiing dangerous

Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior forecaster Jake Phillips warns skiers of bad conditions expected for Sunday and Monday

While the snow dump has been huge, it is not abnormal for the region at this time of year

Experts warn of snow lovers to avoid the dangerous blizzard conditions expected for Sunday

Sky fields (pictured) at western ranges will see generous dump of snow at the higher peaks

'Some parts of Tablelands, north to the south of the state will get up to -6 and -8 in higher areas, even out in the central west, some places will see -1 and -2,' he said.

'Wednesday will be a pretty chilly morning.'

Mr Phillips said the later end of the week would be the warmest for Sydney, with the mercury expected to soar to the mid 20s.

Melbourne continues to be lashed with wild weather across most of the state at the weekend

Gale force winds of about 90km/hr will continue to lash most of Victoria Sunday and Monday

Most of Australia's major cities will gets hit with wild winter weather including heavy rain

While most of Sydney is enjoy the winter sunshine, the senior forecaster said the weather was warmer than average.

'It's a couple of degrees above average and we'll start to see the odd, warmer days,' Mr Phillips said.

'Cooler days haven't left (Sydney) behind quite yet but they're starting to be phased out and the weeks are noticeably warming.'

Blizzards will also hit Victoria's alpine region Sunday, similar to those in Perisher (pictured)

The icy weather at the alpine ranges (pictured) is stark contrast to the sunny weather in Sydney

Damaging winds will hit most of Victoria (pictured) with strong weather warnings in place

Further south of the country, Melbourne is battling strong weather warnings with damaging winds lashing most of the state.

A strong cold front will move over western Victoria Saturday night with northerly winds averaging about 50 and 60km/hr with peak gusts about 90km/hr hitting south to southwest Victoria and mountain districts.

Blizzard conditions and heavy snow fall will hit the Victorian alpine regions at about 110km/hr Saturday night and are expected to continue until Sunday afternoon.

Affected areas include Warrnambool, Maryborough, Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne where some parts of the state will shiver through minus temperatures overnight.

Damaging winds are also expected to lash much of South Australia at the weekend with gusts of 85 and 90km/hr winds recorded at Port Lincoln and Cape Borda Saturday afternoon.

Winds of up to 125km/hr are expected to hit coastal parts of South Australia, according to BoM.
A cyclist was left unable to speak after sustaining life changing injuries when he was attacked by thugs who pushed him off his bike.

Colin Flett, 52, bought a blue Reebik bike from a man he had never met before while drinking with his brother in a pub in Camden, north London at 11.30pm on July 7.

He cycled off but only turned the corner when three men attacked him, pushing him off his bike.

Colin Flett (left and right after the attack), 52, bought a blue Reebok bike from a man he had never met before in Camden, north London at 11.30pm on July 7

He was found unconscious by paramedics and says he can't remember any further details.

Mr Flett suffered a spinal injury and was unable to speak for days after the attack.

Doctors said he needed a long period of recovery in hospital.

His sister told the Metropolitan Police he had been drinking at the pub.

Detective Sergeant Richard Greenwood said: 'This was a vicious attack that has left Colin with life-changing injuries, in a very vulnerable state, and has had a devastating effect on his family.

'We would urgently ask any person with information, however inconsequential they may think it is, to come forward and pass this to us directly or via a third party.

'They will be treated in complete confidence.'

The suspects are described as being white and aged between 20 and 30.
Mr Justice Mostyn, pictured, has called for the law around child support payments to be changed so fathers' with valuable homes contribute more to their children's upbringing

One of Britain's top judges has called for estranged fathers with expensive homes to pay more towards the upbringing of their children.

The current child support system sees payments calculated on parents' taxable income and does not take their assets into account.

But Mr Justice Mostyn said more generous 'lump sum' payments should be ordered if wives are left at a disadvantage.

It came as he ruled on a case where a woman was awarded just 7 per week from her former partner, who is a multi-millionaire.

The law as it stands means fathers who have relatively low incomes but own valuable property can end up paying very low sums.

It was changed in 2012 amid fears parents were being penalised because they had assets that did not make them any money.

Mr Justice Mostyn branded the 7 payments 'pitiful' in the High Court case, in which the father, 65, had assets of more than 5million but was accused of using a 'clever accountant' to hide his riches.

The couple were never married but have a 16-year-old son.

Mr Justice Mostyn said the father  who has six properties and a pension fund worth a total of 5.2million  was only required to pay the 'pitiful minimum sum of 7 a week' because his sole source of income was a state pension.

The Family Division judge said the evidence given by the estranged father  who cannot be named for legal reasons  had been 'highly evasive', and said he had used 'all-too-familiar manoeuvres' to try to 'insulate' his resources from his son's mother and the court.

He said the father had 'very substantial' assets and his 'parsimonious approach to the support of his son is little short of scandalous'.

While the boy's mother earns 500 a month working part-time, the court heard his father spends most of his time with his parents, who pay for his day-to-day living costs in exchange for him taking care of them.

It came as the judge was hearing a case where a millionaire father was paying just 7-a-week in child support

According to the Daily Telegraph, the judge criticised 'dispiriting' Government policy and said the courts could intervene to 'redress the balance'.

He said: 'If the ground is not reinstated, then I foresee more cases seeking singular awards of capital, such as the one I have determined, coming before the family court, and the family court taking an ever more expansive view of what does constitute singular expenditure.'

Courts are usually unable to interfere with regular child support payments but can decide the value of lump sums paid for a specific purpose, such as holidays or cars.

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said: 'In most cases, the simplest and fairest way to calculate a child maintenance payment is to look at the non-resident parent's income.

'We can take into account a broad range of unearned income and other assets which generate funds, at the request of a parent.'
London council planners have told developers that a new block of flats must include a gay bar - and they will send inspectors to check it's gay enough.

Tower Hamlets bosses will only let the site of closed gay bar the Joiners Arms be built on if the developers promise to include a pub that will 'remain a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-focused venue for a minimum of 12 years'.

London's culture at risk officer Ed Bayes will make sure the person running the bar is 'sufficiently LGBT'.

Tower Hamlets bosses will only let the site of closed gay bay the Joiners Arms (pictured) be built on if the developers promise to include a gay pub

Council chiefs issued the diktat because Tower Hamlets has lost seven of its 10 LGBT venues since 2006, as meet-up apps such as Grindr and Tinder replace nights out.

Some 58 per cent of London's gay bars have closed in the last ten years.

Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs said: 'Tower Hamlets council is committed to celebrating our great diversity, which includes serving the needs of our LGBTQ+ community. I am delighted that as a council we are leading the way in using innovative ways to protect spaces such as the Joiners Arms site.'

Developer Regal Homes, which wants to build offices and nine luxury flats on the site which it bought in 2014, is on board with the idea.

A spokesman said: 'The development on Hackney Road will re-provide a public house at ground-floor level with the same floor space as the previous Joiners Arms pub.

'We are committed to keeping this space within our development in Tower Hamlets as a LGBT+ venue and have offered a right of first refusal on the lease to LGBT+ interested parties, including the Friends of the Joiners Arms and the New Joiners Arms.

'If the lease is taken up by an interested party then the venue will be secured for at least 12 years for LGBT+ use. We have also agreed a rent-free period for the first year.

'We have met on numerous occasions with the Friends of the Joiners Arms, the New Joiners Arms and with the mayor's night tsar, Amy Lame, to discuss the future of an LGBT+ venue at our development and fully endorse the LGBT+ venues charter.'
A Melbourne mother-of-four who built her multi-million breakfast empire is expanding her brand to a country where no one eats the cereal.

Carolyn Creswell, 43, started working at Carman's muesli part time before eventually owning the whole business, turning over more than $100 million a year.

The muesli magnate's newest challenge is to export the popular breakfast cereal to China, a country that prefers warm dishes in the morning, Fairfax Media reports.

Carolyn Creswell, 43, (pictured) started working at Carman's muesli part time before eventually owning the whole business, turning over more than $100 million a year

The mother-of-four is taking the opportunity to expand the brand (left) into Chinese market 25 years after she bought her first share of the brand for $1000. The Chinese prefer to eat traditional, warm rice breakfast meals like Congee (right)

The country favours warm breakfast options including traditional Congee, a warm rice porridge often topped with pickles, peanuts or meat.

Carman's healthy muesli options are a far cry from the popular Chinese breakfast choices, but Ms Creswell, who was worth $57 million in 2015, told the publication China was the most exciting opportunity for her business.

'For me, success would be that Carman's business in China is bigger than in Australia,' she said.

While Carman's has a seven per cent share of Australia's nutritious snack market and five per cent of the breakfast cereal market, it is thought the healthy breakfast option could have a huge appeal on the Chinese market.

Starting from buying a $1000 share in the business when she was 18-years-old, Ms Creswell is facing new challenges with China, where some Chinese competitors are suggesting muesli is used as a topping for burgers, salad and steaks.

'We're not just testing the waters,' Ms Creswell told Fairfax Media.

'We've got a major distributor and we're going into the big retailers in the tier-one markets.'

Warm savoury breakfast dishes are popular in China, making muesli a challenge to market

Ms Creswell said weren't testing waters in China, they were serious about major distribution

Ms Creswell said success for her would be if Carman's is bigger in China than in Australia, giving the Chinese an alternative breakfast to their warm rice puddings (pictured)
A man has faced court with cuts on his forehead and a bruised eye after he allegedly drove at speed on a footpath near a school, narrowly avoiding children.

Tyson Anthony Vidal, 34, is accused of driving a stolen car on the wrong side of the road at the Mornington Peninsula on Friday afternoon before a dramatic arrest at a petrol station in Clayton.

Vidal faced Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Saturday charged with seven offences, including driving on a footpath while children were in the area, endangering their lives.

Fresh CCTV footage shows the the moment the driver pulled up at a petrol station in Huntingdale before his arrest, reports 9News.

This is the dramatic moment where a car mounted the pavement in Victoria, forcing several school girls to jump out the way

The court heard he is addicted to heroin and ice, and was on bail at the time of the offences.

Vidal was allegedly spotted driving erratically in Mt Eliza before police tracked him speeding along the Eastlink toll road towards Melbourne. He reportedly reached speeds of up to 200km/h.

Police moved in to arrest him when he stopped to fill up with petrol in Clayton.

He did not apply for bail when he faced court with a gauze pad on his head and a noticeably swollen cheek.

'He has sustained some bruising on his eye and abrasions on his forehead,' defence lawyer Therese Wattis said.

'He has withdrawal from alcohol, heroin and ice.'

Video from the scene shows the car speeding along the footpath, with the girls in the background heard sobbing after they narrowly avoided being hit

Victorian Police confirmed a 45-year-old man was arrested over the incident and was charged with a string of offences including reckless conduct endangering life

After his arrest Vidal was taken to Monash Hospital where he spent more than six hours while three police officers were treated at the scene.

He's charged with reckless conduct endangering lives and injury, stealing a car, stealing petrol, driving without a licence and resisting police.

Vidal was remanded in custody and is expected to return to court on August 16.
Fear of a lightning pre-dawn eviction has spread among the homeless residents of Sydney's Martin Place as authorities remain locked in a stand-off over who should tear down the tent camp.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller and NSW Social Housing Minister Pru Goward urged Sydney City Lord Mayor Clover Moore to resolve the issue at crisis talks on Friday.

But Ms Moore said the camp won't be dismantled until she's assured there's a long-term housing solution for the residents.

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Authorities are in a stand-off over who should tear down the Martin Place tent camp

Mr Fuller said he wanted a resolution by the end of the weekend.

A NSW Police spokeswoman said as of Saturday night, there were still no official plans to enter the camp.

Regardless, Mr Fuller's alluded the deadline had triggered a wave of fear among the tent city's approximately 60 residents.

The tent camp is run by Lanz Priestly, 72 and dubbed the Mayor of Martin Place, who welcomed his 12th child into the world last month.

Mr Priestly told Daily Mail Australia the camp would continue to exist until the government provided an alternative.

'We can't be swept aside,' he said.

Sydney City Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the camp won't be dismantled until she's assured of a long-term housing solution for the residents

'We will continue to provide these people with their basic human rights until someone else does.

'We won't stop until that happens.'

Police Commissioner Mick Fuller (pictured) wants Sydney City Lord Mayor to resolve the issue at a crisis talk held on Friday

Situated outside the Reserve Bank of Australia in one of the city's major financial sectors the camp is seen by thousands of people every day.

'We were tucked away before and barely took up any space - but now we can't be under the eaves of the buildings we will set up in the middle of the square,' he said.

A NSW Police spokeswoman said as of Saturday, there were still no official plans on the camp

'Now everybody can see us.'

There were reports that temporary housing had been offered to those living in the camp but a resident said many had refused because there was no guarantee of a long term accommodation.
The former Russian ambassador to the US strongly denied the accusations of meddling in the US presidential election on Saturday.

Sergei Kislyak, who has just returned from Washington, DC, said on Russian state Rossiya 24 television that he was merely doing his job as a diplomat when he met with members of President Donald Trump's team.

He said he also had met with representatives of Hillary Clinton's campaign, but didn't give any names.

Kislyak described the US accusations against him as absurd and 'shameful' for the country, adding that the official acknowledgement that his phone conversations were bugged was 'unhealthy'.

Sergei Kislyak (pictured, July 2017), the former Russian ambassador to the US, strongly denied the accusations of meddling in the US presidential election on Saturday. He called the accusations against him as absurd and 'shameful'

Asked about his contact with Michael Flynn (pictured, July 2012), Trump's national security adviser until he was fired in February, Kislyak said that they didn't discuss any secrets

'Any diplomat, Russian or not, works to better understand the policy of a country he's posted to, figure out what the new administration's course is and understand where cooperation is possible,' Kislyak said.

Kislyak's contact with members of Trump's team have been part of both congressional and FBI investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Moscow has denied any interference in the US election and has repeatedly called on the US to stop the 'bullying' campaign against Kislyak.

Asked about his contact with Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser until being fired in February, Kislyak said that they didn't discuss any secrets.

'We talked about very basic things,' he said. 'There are a few subjects important for Russia-US cooperation, primarily terrorism, and it was one of the subjects we talked about. Our conversations were legitimate, calm and absolutely transparent.'

Kislyak said he was merely doing his job as a diplomat when he met with members of President Donald Trump's team. He said he also met with representatives of Hillary Clinton's campaign, but didn't give any names (Trump, left, and Clinton, right, debate during the third US presidential debate on October 19, 2016)

Flynn (pictured, February 2017) was fired after officials said he misled Vice President Mike Pence about whether he and the ambassador had discussed Washington's sanctions against Russia in a phone call. Kislyak insisted that they didn't talk about the Obama administration's sanctions for election meddling and that he had specific orders not to discuss them

Flynn was fired after officials said he misled Vice President Mike Pence about whether he and the ambassador had discussed Washington's sanctions against Russia in a phone call.

Kislyak insisted that they didn't talk about the Obama administration's sanctions for election meddling, which included seizing two Russian compounds in the US, adding that he had specific orders from Moscow not to chat the restrictive measures.

'I had instructions not to discuss sanctions,' he said.

'We haven't been involved in any discussions or bargaining over sanctions, because we believe that they have been introduced unlawfully.'
US President Donald Trump has been briefed at his New Jersey golf club on the search for three missing US Marines off the Queensland coast after their military heli-plane crashed into the sea.

The MV-22 Osprey, carrying 26 personnel, was involved in what was described as a 'mishap' on Saturday afternoon during a military exercise with Australian forces at Shoalwater Bay.

The US Marines Corps said 23 personnel aboard were rescued and the search and rescue mission continues off the coast of Shoalwater Bay for the missing three.

The MV-22 Osprey, carrying 26 personnel, was involved in what was described as a 'mishap' on Saturday afternoon during a military exercise with Australian forces at Shoalwater Bay (stock image)

The helicopter crashed off the coast of north Queensland near Shoalwater Bay on Saturday afternoon

The Australian Department of Defence confirmed no Australian personnel were on board

Mr Trump, on the first day of his planned 17-day 'working vacation' at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, had been briefed on the incident by his new chief-of-staff John Kelly, a White House official told reporters.

'The President will be having meetings with chief-of-staff General Kelly, other White House advisers and lawmakers while at Bedminster over the next two weeks,' the official said.

Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said she has briefed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and spoken with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to offer Australia's support in anyway that can be of assistance.

'I can confirm no Australian Defence Force personnel were on board the aircraft,' Ms Payne said in a statement.

'The United States are leading the search and recovery effort.'

The MV-22 aircraft is reported to have attempted to land on the U.S.S Ronald Reagan before the incident on Saturday

MV-22 aircraft is pictured flying over the horizon in Australia the day before the incident

The U.S. Military confirmed in a statement there was an active search and rescue operation for members involved in the MV-22 mishap

The U.S. Military aircraft MV-22 Osprey is reported to have crashed off the coast of Rockhampton in Queensland (Stock Image)

The Osprey had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when the aircraft entered the water.

The Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft with helicopter and plane capabilities.

Small boats and aircraft from the Bonhomme Richard immediately began search and rescue efforts.

The circumstances of the mishap are under investigation.

'I have briefed Prime Minister Turnbull and spoken with Secretary Mattis this evening to offer Australia's support in anyway that can be of assistance,' Ms Payne said.

'Our thoughts are with the crew and families affected.'
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At least five people have died in the deadly heatwave engulfing southern Europe, it has been confirmed, with temperatures rising above 109F in several countries, including Italy, Spain and Croatia.

The deaths in Italy and Romania have been attributed to the extreme conditions in the past five days, and the heatwave has been christened 'Lucifer' in Italy.

In the Italian island Sardinia, the mercury hit a huge 110F this afternoon.

The latest victim was a woman whose car was swept away overnight by an avalanche of water and mud as humid conditions near the Alpine ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo broke into torrential rain.

A man refreshes himself as he plays in a fountain in Piazza Castello, Turin today. High humidity in the north and hot winds from Africa in the south are making the perceived temperatures seem even hotter on beaches across the Mediterranean

Thirsty: A child plays in a public fountain and stops for a drink in Bucharest, Romania as temperatures reach 110F

In Italy, humidity and other factors are making it feel much hotter with the so-called 'perceived' temperature in Campania, the region around Naples, estimated at a broiling 131F yesterday. Pictured: A man and his dog in Turin today

Southern Europe has sweltered in heats which have reached up to 110F today, in conditions which have claimed five lives so far this month

Keeping cool: A woman swims on a air bed in Ciuffenna river during a hot day in, Arezzo, Italy

Nap time: A man lays on a bench in the shadow under trees in front the Altare della Patria (the Unknown Soldier monument), in central Rome

Splash! A child plays in a public fountain in Bucharest, Romania on Saturday afternoon as temperatures continue to rise across Devon

Cooling down: People fill their bottles with water from a fountain in front the Altare della Patria in central Rome

Found some shade! A girl shelters from the harsh sun in the shadow of the Pantheon shelter in Rome this afternoon

Filling up: A tourist makes use of the free water at a fountain in Rome today

Europe on fire: A forest fire rages in Ourense, Galicia, northwestern Spain on Friday as southern Europe braces itself for days of temperatures above 104F

Battle: This wildfire in Vilardevos, northwestern Spain is one of dozens sweeping across southern Europe yesterday

MEANWHILE IN WALES, DAD AND SON GET HYPOTHERMIA A dad and his toddler son were found suffering from hypothermia after getting lost on a wet and windy British beach. The father and two-year-old son were out for a holiday walk dressed in shorts and T shirts when the weather turned. The pair were eventually rescued by firefighters 'soaked and shivering' after going missing on sand dunes at Merthyr Mawr, near Bridgend. The two holidaymakers from Aldershot, Hampshire, were spending their summer break in rainy south Wales instead of southern Europe - which is sweltering in a killer 40C heatwave. And a spokesman for Bridgend Fire Station said they were unprepared for the bad British summertime weather. He said: 'If you're going anywhere in Wales don't underestimate the weather. 'They were underprepared for the bad weather. They were found soaked and shivering and the boy was suffering from mild hypothermia. 'It wouldn't have been long for that boy to take a turn for the worse.' The pair who were on a caravan holiday but went out for a walk dressed in just T shirt and shorts. Firefighters wrapped them in blankets and called paramedics who treated the pair at the scene. Advertisement

That tragedy follows the deaths on Thursday of two pensioners, a 79-year-old woman and an 82-year-old man, who were caught up in wildfires in, respectively, the central region of Abruzzo and near Matera in the south of the country.

In Romania, two deaths were linked to the weather, including a farmworker who collapsed after working in fields in the heat at Mogosesti in the northeast of the country.

The heatwave has caused billions of euros worth of crop damage, with Italy hit heavily by wildfires.

Hospital admissions have spiked by 15 to 20 percent in Italy, and people who travel to the affected countries have been urged to show extreme caution.

In Italy, humidity and other factors are making it feel much hotter with the so-called 'perceived' temperature in Campania, the region around Naples, estimated at a broiling 131F yesterday.

In Rome, tourists have been risking recently-introduced fines for splashing in the Eternal City's fountains to cool off.

But there has yet to be any sign of visitors to southern Europe's summer hotspots being deterred by the rising trend in temperatures.

Tourists were queueing once more Saturday outside Florence's Uffizi museum, which was forced to close Friday after its air conditioning broke down because of a lack of water from the dried up River Arno.

Health authorities in France have warned citizens to be particularly aware of the risks faced by the sick and the elderly.

Scientists meanwhile warned that deaths due to extreme weather in Europe could increase fifty-fold from an estimated 3,000 per year recently to 152,000 by the end of this century - if global warming is not reined in.

Southern Europe will suffer most and heatwaves would account for 99 percent of the deaths, according to research conducted for the European Commission and published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

The conclusions were questioned by Korean peers of the researchers who suggested humans would become less vulnerable to extreme weather with experience of it.

Scorchio: Two men claim fountainside seats in the centre of Bordeaux, France, as temperatures across Europe soar

High spirits: A bride dressed in her wedding dress walks in a fountain in Kiev, Ukraine on Friday as temperatures rose about 104F in several European cities

Hot dog: This pooch, struggling in the blazing heat, jumped around in the oasis of the Water Mirror fountain in Bordeaux as a way of keeping cool

Meteo France forecaster Frederic Nathan said he was sure recent heatwaves reflected global warning.

'We have always had them but their length and intensity has notched up since the 1950s and 60s and they are increasingly coming earlier or later.

'If you look at records for France, the vast majority of new records being set are for high temperatures. Record cold is becoming increasingly rare.'

Scientist warned last week that large parts of South Asia, home to a fifth of the world's population, could become unbearably hot by the end of this century.

The other side: Members of an emergency military unit battles one of several of wildfires currently causing devestation in northwestern Spain in the extreme heat

Boiling in Balkan: A young boy cools off at a river in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Friday

Spain's national weather service today issued an emergency warning for high temperatures in 31 of the country's 50 provinces.

Weather warning website MeteoAlarm has issued warnings of 'dangerous' conditions in 11 countries in Europe, including - as well as Italy, Spain and Croatia - parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Montenegro.

With peak temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius in much of Italy, a total of 26 major towns and cities were on the health ministry's maximum heat alert.

Today, Seville in Spain and some areas of the Italian island of Sardinia can expect temperatures around 109F, while Novska in Croatia is predicted an afternoon high of 104F.

Have a good look at yourself: The Water Mirror fountain in Bordeaux proved to be a prime location for wanderers boiling under the hot sun

The Italian city of Florence saw temperatures were exceeding 104F, however 'perceived temperature' - determined by temperature, humidity and wind and has been reported at more than 122F.

In Romania, 'red alerts' have been issued after meteorologists have forecast 108F in western parts of the country.

Earlier this week, Split airport in Croatia recorded 108F, not far from the country's highest ever temperature of 109F in 1981.

High humidity in the north and hot winds from Africa in the south are making the perceived temperatures seem even hotter on beaches across the Mediterranean.

Met Office forecaster Emma Sharples said: 'This extreme heat will have caught some holidaymakers out and they are advised to stay out of the midday sun abroad from 10am to 2pm.

'They should stay hydrated and would be advised to stay close to the coast and swimming pools to cool down.'

Earlier this week a wildfire claimed the life of a 79-year-old woman, found dead in a field beside her home in Sant'Omero in the central region of Abruzzo of Italy, who had been overcome by flames that engulfed two hectares of surrounding farmland.

Holiday makers and locals alike have taken to Twitter to make lighthearted complaints about the high temperatures.

User @_ggina_ wrote 'picked Corsica cus I wanted a bit of sun but didn't realise that meant a 43 degree heatwave called lucifer, call me g the crisp in a week :)'

Pictured: French locals and tourists wander barefoot through the Water Fountain in Bordeaux in a bid to cool off

Another Twitter user, @EvitaGrazia, seemingly based in Austria, posted a picture of a paddling pool, captioned: 'It's soooooo hot, even the water in the pool was far too warm. #heatwave'

'So, the one year I decide to go on holiday to Italy, its the one year they have a heatwave and it's nice and cool in England,' @asianspice__ wrote.

Another tourist, Mats Karlsson from Stockholm, said it's 'too hot to be outside' in Brela, Croatia.

He added: 'Got AC at 29 and it feels cold in comparison to the balcony.'

'Too hot': A woman based in Malta posted on her Instagram about having to sleep on the floor

Lucifer is here: Others took to Twitter to share their heatwave experiences across Europe

Enjoying the heat: A girl cools off in a fountain at Tasmajdan park in Belgrade, Serbia on Friday, as a heatwave hits most of southern and eastern Europe

Feeling the heat: Kaputas Beach, located between Kalkan and Kas districts in southwest of Turkey, is packed with visitors in the hot weather

Tourists cool off in Florence, Italy, where 'perceived temperature' - determined by temperature, humidity and wind and has been reported at more than 122F

Warning: Cities across Italy, like the capital Rome, pictured here on Thursday, have been subjected to the highest possible level of heat alert with tourists and residents alike warned to take action to protect themselves against the sun and carry water bottles

Dog's life: A dog shakes water off after his bath in the Lake of Zurich, Switzerland

Don't forget to drink: People their bottles in a fountain on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy

Play time: Children in Kiev, Ukraine, take advantage of the hot weather to play in a fountain

A helicopter spreads water over a forest fire started a day before close to the village of Segura de la Sierra, Jaen, southern Spain

Sweltering: Temperatures reached dangerous levels across Europe yesterday, with forecasters warning the heatwave is set to last for several more days

While temperatures are expected to stay high to the weekend, many of the worst affected areas can expect a drop in the next fortnight.

Florence, Italy will remain hot, but is predicted to be around 90-93F from Wendesday and onwards.

Seville, in Spain, will stay around 100-104F over the weekend, but will then rest steady at 36 for the following week, according to theweathernetwork.com

Zagreb, Croatia will see a drop in temperatures by Wednesday with the mercury dipping below 86F by Friday.

The spike in temperature has also caused wildfires in Italy, Spain and Croatia this week.

In Italy's central region of Abruzzo, the fires has claimed the life of at least one person and forced the closure of a major highway.

A 79-year-old woman was found dead in a field next to her home in Sant'Omero, Abruzzo, having apparently been overcome by flames that engulfed two hectares of surrounding farmland.

A section of the Via Aurelia coastal motorway that runs northwards from Rome to the Riviera had to be closed for several hours because of a major fire near Grosseto in Tuscany.

'Lucifer': A heatwave has hit the Mediterranean, with several southern European countries, including Spain, pictured is a busy Benidorm beach on Monday

Cooling off: Children play with a ball in a water fountain in Pamplona, Spain, yesterday

Too hot: Tourists walk past the Barcaccia fountain in downtown Rome, Italy, on Thursday

Shaded: A tourist uses an umbrella to stay protected from the sun while taking a picture of gondolas in the Venice lagoon near St. Mark's square in Venice, Italy on Thursday

The region's celebrated landscape is usually baked to a rich golden colour by the end of the summer: this year it resembles burnt toast with August barely underway.

HEAT FORCES EARLY WINE HARVEST Italy's annual wine harvest, the biggest in the world, is off to its earliest start in a decade as the country swelters in a heatwave following months of drought. Winemakers have also had to contend with spring frosts and hailstorms this year and the country's agri-food agency Coldiretti is anticipating a 10-15 per cent fall in volumes. But producers say a good year for drinkers is still on the cards at the start of a harvest that will not be completed until around the end of October. Traditionally, the start of the Italian harvest is celebrated in the north of the country, where the first chardonnay grapes were picked Friday at the Faccoli family winery in the Franciacorta region near Milan. But the acclaimed sparkling wine area was beaten to the punch this year with picking already underway in Sicily and at least one producer in neighbouring Piedmont having started bringing in his early-ripening grapes on July 29. Across the country, harvest start dates were expected to be, on average, around ten days earlier than usual. But the pattern is uneven and the impact of the current broiling conditions on Italy's top wines remains to be seen. Advertisement

Olive yields in parts of the country are forecast to be 50 per cent lower than normal this autumn and the scarcity of water has cut sheep's milk production by 30 pe rcent in others, with knock-on effects for the production of one of Italy's most popular cheeses; pecorino.

The heatwave has come on the back of a prolonged drought that is set to cost Italy's large agricultural sector billions with 11 regions facing critical water shortages.

In Romania, authorities told people not to go outside during the heatwave, and urged adults not to leave children in cars due in the scorching weather.

Meteorologists issued a 'red code' heat alert for 12 counties in western Romania, with 108F forecast for the next two days, with soaring temperatures expected to subside only after sunset.

An 'amber code' was issued for the rest of the country, forecasting temperatures up to 102F.

Police said there will be restrictions for heavy traffic on major roads during the weekend due to the heatwave.

In Greece local authorities yesterday issued an evacuation order for residents near a seaside town south of Athens as a wildfire threatens homes in high winds.

About 100 people were initially affected by the order for homes near Kalyvia, some 25 miles) south of Athens, officials from the local mayor's office said.

Winds up to 37 mph were hampering the firefighting effort, while temperatures in the area reached 95F.

A firefighter hoses water on bushes and trees to extinguish a wild fire in Mount Dajti, east of the Albanian capital Tirana

On fire: People look on a forest fire as smoke rises above trees in the locality of Verin in Ourense, Galicia, Spain on Thursday

Residents of Vilardevos village observe a forest fire in Verin where authorities activated 'situation 2' alert due to the closeness to population centers and main roads

Everyday heroes: Firefighters try to extinguish the Galician fire on Friday morning

The forest fire in Verin, pictured on Friday, reportedly broke out on Thursday

At work: Helicopters spread water over a forest fire as smoke rises above trees and A-52 highway in the locality of Verin in Ourense

Meanwhile, Albanian authorities have asked for assistance from the European Union to fight some 20 wildfires in the Vlora district along the country's Riviera.

In southwestern Albania, wildfires were threatening the Llogara National Park as the firefighters were unable to extinguish the blaze in the region's steep mountains.

In Corsica, a forest fire has been raging for three days, leading to French authorities ferrying firefighters and trucks from the mainland to help.

The regional authority for southern Corsica warned Friday that the fire has spread north and it could take several days to extinguish the blaze on the Mediterranean island.

Some 70 new firefighters and 15 vehicles were sent Friday from the mainland, but the regional authority said rough terrain and exceptionally hot, dry weather is complicating efforts.

The fire broke out Wednesday in the Palneca forest, forced evacuations on a celebrated hiking route and threatened nearby towns at the height of vacation season. No one has been hurt.
Despised 'pharma bro' Martin Shkreli lived up to his don't-give-a-damn image on Friday when he celebrated the conclusion of his fraud trial by showing off his wealth.

Shkreli, 34, was convicted on three of the eight charges leveled against him - enough of a victory for the former hedge fund manager and Turing Pharmaceutical CEO to declare victory.

His accompaniment for the 'win'? A public airing of the Wu-Tang Clan album he purchased for $2 million in 2015, the New York Post reported.

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LP for Victory: Martin Shkreli claimed victory on Friday after being found guilty of three out of eight fraud charges made against him, then celebrated by playing his Wu-Tang Clan album

Clanned goods: Only one copy of the album was produced, and came in a metal case with a bound book (being held by, l-r, Wu-Tang members Cilvaringz and RZA; with Alexander Gilkes, founder of Paddle8, which auctioned the album in 2015)

Shkreli reportedly played 10 minutes of the album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, to a reporter in his apartment in the Murray Hill area of Manhattan before switching to something else.

It's not clear whether the section of the album he played included the same two tracks he played to celebrate Donald Trump's inauguration in January.

Shkreli, who made a fortune as a hedge fund manager before opening Turing, where he became widely despised for his price-gouging of the drug Daraprim, bought the album in 2015.

Only one copy was produced, and sold at auction to Shkreli for $2 million on the auction website Paddle8.

Under the terms of the purchase, it can't be released commercially until 2103, but can be played for free or at parties.

Since then, Shrkeli has become synonymous with exploitation, thanks to his Daraprim controversy and his recent trial for fraud.

Locked up: Shkreli cannot release the album commercially for 88 years, but can play it for free- as he did on Friday, playing 10 minutes to a journalist to celebrate his verdict

That trial ended Friday after four and a half days of deliberation by the jury, who acquitted him of five charges, but found him guilty of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Prosecutors accused Shkreli of repeatedly misleading investors about what he was doing with their money.

Mostly, he was blowing it with horrible stock picks, forcing him to cook up a scheme to recover millions in losses, they said.

Skhreli could now face up to 20 years in prison, but his lawyer believes that being acquitted of five charges may lead to a more lenient sentence.

And Shkreli certainly seems unconcerned about his future.

'I'm one of the richest New Yorkers there is, and after today's outcome it's going to stay that way,' Shkreli said in a post-court livestream from his Manhattan apartment.

He taunted prosecutors and predicted his odds of not getting prison time were pretty good.

'But hey, if the government wants to spend tens of millions of dollars and that's all I get ...' he said, adding that the prosecutor's case was a 'pretty pitiful performance'.
President Donald Trump has issued a defense of his national security adviser, HR McMaster, after a letter emerged that McMaster sent to his Obama-era predecessor, Susan Rice, giving her continued access to classified information.

Supporters said the letter was routine - but critics said it implied that the Army lieutenant general was helping Trump's enemies.

Other criticisms of McMaster have been that he is not supportive enough of Israel and that he is stifling conservative viewpoints.

In a statement issued on Friday night, Trump said: 'General McMaster and I are working very well together. He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country.'

President Donald Trump has issued a defense of his national security adviser, HR McMaster (pictured on Monday), after a letter emerged that McMaster sent to predecessor Susan Rice, giving her continued access to classified information. Other criticisms of McMaster have been that he is not supportive enough of Israel and is stifling conservative viewpoints

In a statement issued on Friday night, Trump (pictured on Friday) said: 'General McMaster and I are working very well together. He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country'

The undated and unclassified letter McMaster sent to Rice (pictured, September 2015) waived her 'need-to-know' requirement on anything she viewed or received during her tenure. The news comes weeks after her alleged role was disclosed in unmasking identities of Trump associates in intelligence reports

Fights between McMaster and other White House camps have been well-documented as well as a recent number of firings.

Recently, McMaster came under attack after the firing of senior director of intelligence on the National Security Council, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who was a protege of Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Critics say the move is proof that McMaster is trying to remove conservative voices from Trump's national security team.

Tensions were further heightened after Circa reported on the existence of the undated and unclassified letter McMaster sent to Rice, which waived her 'need-to-know' requirement on anything she viewed or received during her tenure.

Allegedly sent to Rice's home in the last week of April, the news comes weeks after her alleged role was disclosed in unmasking identities of Trump associates in intelligence reports.

However, members of the National Security Council say the letter is similar to those sent out to every living former national security adviser and former president - and that McMaster was required to send it.

Critics says the letter implied that the Army lieutenant general was helping Trump's enemies. But members of the National Security Council say the letter is similar to those sent out to every living former national security adviser and former president - and that McMaster was required to send it (Pictured, Rice in July 2015)

Recently, McMaster (pictured, May 2017( came under attack after the firing of White House intelligence adviser Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who was a protege of Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Critics have accused McMaster of trying to remove conservative voices from Trump's national security team

The lieutenant general was also the subject of a widely circulated Facebook post by Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, who called him 'deeply hostile to Israel'.

Trump's statement of support comes after a turbulent period at the White House and a major reshuffling of top staff. In addition to Cohen-Watnicks's departure came the appointment of a new White House chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general.

McMaster had sought to remove Cohen-Watnick in March when CIA leaders raised concerns about him. But Cohen-Watnick reportedly appealed to Trump's top advisers, Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, who got Trump to intervene to save his job.

On Friday, Kushner also offered support for McMaster. Speaking to The New York Times, Kushner called McMaster 'a true public servant and a tremendous asset.'
A six-year-old special needs boy has been found dead in a retention pond just 50 feet from his home in Lakeland, Florida.

Adam Roach's parents reported him missing around Friday at 3.30pm after they were unable to find him when he wandered off.

Roach had hearing issues and was non-verbal, furthering concerns about where he could go.

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Adam Roach, six (left and right), who has special needs was found dead in a retention pond just 50 feet from his home in Lakeland, Florida. His parents reported him missing after they were unable to find him when he wandered off

Roach was found in the pond (above) directly behind his home at 10.40pm by the Polk County Sheriff's Office dive team, assisted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

'They actually heard the door open and close, and though it was one of the other children,' Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told WFLA.

'It was just a matter of minutes. Of course, then they scrambled outside and looked for him.'

The search for Roach lasted almost seven hours, with sheriff K9 units, a helicopter and community volunteers are taking part.

Sheriff Judd said there were four ponds on the apartment complex's property, one as deep as 11 feet and all were searched with special equipment.

Sheriff Judd says police believe Roach may have been trying to go to the pool. His grandmother took him there on Thursday to play and the path passes by the retention pond (pictured)

Roach was found in the pond directly behind his home at 10.40pm by the Polk County Sheriff's Office dive team, assisted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Sheriff Judd says police believe Roach may have been trying to go to the pool. His grandmother took him there on Thursday to play and the path passes by the retention pond.

An investigation in the six-year-old's death will take place.
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Brighton was awash in a riot of rainbow colours as people dressed up and took to the streets to celebrate LGBTQ+ pride.

Approximately 300,000 people descended on the seaside city for one of the UK's biggest annual summer Pride celebrations today.

The Pet Shop Boys are to headline the event in Brighton and Hove in what will be the duo's first Pride performance in 20 years, organisers said.

Other acts include Years & Years, Louisa Johnson, David Morales and KStewart while a carnival parade entertained crowds at Hove Lawns from 11am.

Pride director Paul Kemp said: 'As we celebrate the milestone of the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, this year's Pride is all set to be one of the best ever.'

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Reality TV star Lydia Bright (centre) at The Brighton Pride Community Parade in East Sussex today as the vibrant seaside town exploded in a riot of rainbow colours as people took to the streets to celebrate equal rights and LGBTQ+ pride

Colourful crowds: Floats make their way along the promenade at The Brighton Pride Community Parade in East Sussex today

Brighton beauties: Lydia Bright (centre) onboard the blu float, in support of their Something Better campaign at The Brighton Pride Community Parade in East Sussex today

Bottoms up! Revellers make their way along the promenade at The Brighton Pride Community Parade in East Sussex

Michaella McCollum spotted at the Gay Pride parade in Brighton. She came dressed for the sun but had to borrow a hoodie when they got caught in the downpour

Michaella holds hands with a male friend as the pair made their way through the pride parade in Brighton, left. Right, she swigs a beer as she checks out the stalls

Michaella McCollum was also spotted at the Gay Pride parade in Brighton. The 24-year-old was accompanied by a male friend and the pair walked hand in hand and looking at flags in the gay pride colours at a stall on the route.

They were both caught in a down pour and she had to borrow a hoodie from her friend. The two were seen talking to two police officers asking for directions.

The first Brighton and Hove gay Pride march was staged in 1973 but its return was not seen until 1991 amid political anger over Section 28's ban on the promotion of homosexuality.

As the years passed, the event grew but it hit financial trouble in 2010 despite that year's Brighton and Hove Pride attracting 160,000 revellers.

It underwent a revival with new management in 2012, and organisers say that over the years it has helped change attitudes and promote acceptance and equality.

Sing me a rainbow: Artist KStewart performs at Brighton Pride festival at Preston Park today wearing an appropriately multi-coloured top to celebrate gay pride - the symbol for which is a rainbow

Smiling faces: Lydia Bright wears a green hat and sunglasses onboard the blu float, in support of the Something Better campaign at The Brighton Pride Community Parade in East Sussex today as crowds took to the streets in a riot of colour

The beautiful people: Lydia Bright (second left) onboard the blu float, in support of their Something Better campaign at The Brighton Pride Community Parade

Even funerals get the rainbow treatment at Brighton Pride today as Co-Operative Funeralcare unveiled a new rainbow hearse with Richard Miller (left) and Chris Sarson pictured here

Michaella and her friend asked a police officer for directions as they made their way through the crowds and the carnival streets

Beautiful People: Jess, Ellie and Luis enjoying Brighton Pride. The Pet Shop Boys are to headline the event in Brighton and Hove in what will be the duo's first Pride performance in 20 years

Fun with mum: Andy Southern and his mother Michelle (together centre) enjoy a sunny Pride in Brighton with friends

'We are taking all reasonable steps to ensure the well-being of those attending as well as minimising disruption to those going about their daily business.

'Similarly to last year, we will have a number of armed officers working across the city over the weekend and we will again be making use of other safety measures such as road barriers in some parts of the city.'

But Brighton was not the only city to celebrate equality and LGTBQ+ rights as pride festivals took place in cities internationally this weekend, including Amsterdam,Belfast and Stockholm.

People dance during the Canal Parade which is part of the Amsterdam Gay Pride celebration on Amsterdam's canals today

Party people: People dress up in white to celebrate Amsterdam's annual Pride celebration today

Boats of the Canal Parade float through the canals of Amsterdam, the Netherlands today as part of the city's Pride celebration

People wave Dutch and rainbow flags as they celebrate in Amsterdam today as part of the city's annual Pride celebrations

On his first State visit to Northern Ireland since becoming prime minister, the new Taoisieach Leo Varadkar has said it is 'only a matter of time' before same-sex marriage is introduced in Northern Ireland, as he attended a gay Pride event in Belfast.

Mr Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay leader, attended a Belfast Pride breakfast on Saturday morning.

He said he was attending the event to express solidarity and support for individual freedom and equality.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the British Isles where same-sex marriage remains outlawed after the Republic voted to change the law in a watershed 2015 referendum.

Pretty in pink: Drag queen Lady Portia Di'Monte waves as she takes part in the Belfast Gay Pride march today

Smiling happy people: Participants wave to the large crowd of spectators as Belfast Gay Pride today

Symbol of equality: A drag queen wears a wedding dress in Belfast Gay Pride today. The province is the only part of the United Kingdom which does not recognise same sex marriage

Even the animals were in on the action in Belfast as a horse dressed as a unicorn donned glitter hooves in Belfast Pride parade

A spectator wearing an elaborate feather and flower headdress poses for the camera at Belfast Gay Pride parade today

Mr Varadkar said: 'It is of course a decision for the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course.'

Police Service of Northern Ireland and Garda officers also joined Mr Varadkar at the event, arriving in a PSNI Land Rover.

For the first time uniformed officers will march in the Pride parade through the city centre.

Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said the PSNI's participation in the breakfast and parade 'is about inclusion and representation'.

A force for good: PSNI and Garda officers representative of the gay community take a selfie before taking part in Belfast Pride

Symbol of hope: Participants dressed in traditional marital garb laugh as they take part in Belfast Gay Pride. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom which does not recognise same sex marriage

Even the cars were dressed for the occassion. This black beauty sported a custiomised number plate for the day which promted the Belfast Pride event while well-dressed drag queens waved to the crowd

'We represent all sections of society. Members of the LGBT community are a marginalised community in Northern Ireland,' she said.

Mrs Gray added that the PSNI's presence at the events might encourage victims of hate crime to come forward and report them.

Same-sex marriage has been one of the sticking points preventing the return of a devolved powersharing administration at Stormont, with Sinn Fein demanding the Democratic Unionists (DUP) stop blocking changes to the law.

But despite the happy faces and colourful costumes, one man in Belfast had a less happy outlook and a very different interpretation of freedom to the majority on Belfast's streets

The DUP, Prime Minister Theresa May's partner in government, has used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism to prevent the legalisation of same-sex marriage, despite most Assembly members supporting the move at the last vote.

The DUP rejects any suggestion it is homophobic, insisting it is protecting the 'traditional' definition of marriage, and has called for tolerance of what are increasingly minority views.

It does not have enough members in the new Assembly to veto an equal marriage vote on its own, but there is no immediate prospect of the deeply divided administration being restored.

Mr Varadkar is not staying for the Pride parade because of other commitments.

A total of 8,000 people are expected to march from Custom House Square in the city centre and about 15,000 additional supporters are anticipated, said the Parades Commission, which rules on marches. Sixty bands are due to take part.

A rainbow Pride flag has been raised at a UK Government building at Stormont for the first time.

The flag was raised beside Stormont House on Friday morning to mark the Pride festival.

LGBT+ Conservatives patron, Stuart Andrew MP, will take part in the Pride march along with thousands of local demonstrators.

And Sweden celebrated equality today too as people marched during the annual Gay Pride parade in central Stockholm

Rainbow nation: People don face paint, wave rainbow flags and dance amid multi-colour balloons to celebrate equality during the annual Gay Pride parade in central Stockholm, Sweden today
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The UK will suffer yet another washout week with wind, frost and temperatures as low as 2C while Europe sweats in a 40C killer heatwave.

Temperatures on the continent will be comfortably 30C higher than the UK, which is on the 'unsettled' side of the jet stream.

As at least five people died from the heat in Italy and Romania, a father and son in Wales caught hypothermia after getting lost on a wet and windy beach.

Dismal: The UK will suffer yet another washout week with wind, frost and temperatures as low as 2C while Europe sweats in a 40C killer heatwave. Pictured: Tourists in London

Braving it: Temperatures on the continent will be comfortably 30C higher than the UK, which is on the 'unsettled' side of the jet stream

Pouring: The owner of this venue had no customers as deck chairs languished empty during a downpour at Southbank

Keep dry and carry on: This couple didn't let their picnic get ruined by the rain by putting a waterproof over their heads

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Met Office forecasters predict heavy showers in the north and west of the UK with lows of 2C and even frost in Scotland overnight

Met Office forecasters predict heavy showers tonight in the north and west of the UK with lows of 2C and even frost in Scotland overnight.

The south east will see fine and dry weather on Sunday but temperatures will be in the late teens, well below the August average of 23C. The north and west will endure heavy rain.

On Monday the weather across the nation will be changeable with sunshine and showers more akin to April than late summer.

It wasn't all doom and gloom in Britain today. Racegoers at Glorious Goodwood enjoyed some sunshine during the meeting

Racegoers on the champagne lawn pictured enjoying the sun during day five of the Qatar Goodwood Festival

The south east will see fine and dry weather on Sunday, but temperatures will be in the late teens, well below the August average of 23C. The north and west will endure heavy rain

On Monday the weather across the nation will be changeable with sunshine and showers more akin to April than mid summer

Grey: A young couple with their two children tried to escape a sudden and heavy downpour in London this afternoon

On Monday the weather across the nation will be changeable with sunshine and showers more akin to April than mid summer

There she goes: A woman could barely hold her umbrella as the wind blew hard and the rain drove into her next to the Thames

Bristol: The south west saw patches of sun with scattered showers on Saturday morning. Pictured: A couple looking over the Clifton Suspension Bridge

Umbrellas up: There could again be rain on Tuesday concentrated in the south east with scattered showers up north and west

Wednesday and Thursday are expected to be unsettled as the cool spell continues. Pictured: Tourists shelter from the rain in Westminster

FATHER AND SON GET HYPOTHERMIA IN WALES A father and his toddler son were found suffering from hypothermia after getting lost on a wet and windy British beach. The father and two-year-old son were out for a holiday walk dressed in shorts and T shirts when the weather turned. The pair were eventually rescued by firefighters 'soaked and shivering' after going missing on sand dunes at Merthyr Mawr, near Bridgend. The two holidaymakers from Aldershot, Hampshire, were spending their summer break in rainy south Wales instead of southern Europe - which is sweltering in a killer 40C heatwave. And a spokesman for Bridgend Fire Station said they were unprepared for the bad British summertime weather. He said: 'If you're going anywhere in Wales don't underestimate the weather. 'They were underprepared for the bad weather. They were found soaked and shivering and the boy was suffering from mild hypothermia. 'It wouldn't have been long for that boy to take a turn for the worse.' The pair who were on a caravan holiday but went out for a walk dressed in just T shirt and shorts. Firefighters wrapped them in blankets and called paramedics who treated the pair at the scene. Advertisement

Wet: A woman shelters under her umbrella from a rain shower at the Southbank, London, as the wet summer weather continues

Optimistic: A man wears a Hawaian T-shirt while people shelter under umbrellas from a rain shower at the Southbank, London

There could again be rain on Tuesday concentrated in the south east with scattered showers up north and west.

Wednesday and Thursday are expected to be unsettled as the cool spell continues.

Today temperatures in Europe rose above 109F in several countries, including Italy, Spain and Croatia.

Five deaths in Italy and Romania have been attributed to the extreme conditions in the past five days, and the heatwave has been christened 'Lucifer' in Italy.

In the Italian island Sardinia, the mercury hit a huge 110F this afternoon.

The latest victim was a woman whose car was swept away overnight by an avalanche of water and mud as humid conditions near the Alpine ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo broke into torrential rain.

Europe on fire: A forest fire rages in Ourense, Galicia, northwestern Spain on Friday as southern Europe braces itself for days of temperatures above 104F

Battle: This wildfire in Vilardevos, northwestern Spain is one of dozens sweeping across southern Europe yesterday

Hot, hot, hot: This weather graphic shows the extraordinary highs that southern Europe is experiencing

That tragedy follows the deaths on Thursday of two pensioners, a 79-year-old woman and an 82-year-old man, who were caught up in wildfires in, respectively, the central region of Abruzzo and near Matera in the south of the country.

In Romania, two deaths were linked to the weather, including a farmworker who collapsed after working in fields in the heat at Mogosesti in the northeast of the country.

The heatwave has caused billions of euros worth of crop damage, with Italy hit heavily by wildfires.

Hospital admissions have spiked by 15 to 20 percent in Italy, and people who travel to the affected countries have been urged to show extreme caution.

In Italy, humidity and other factors are making it feel much hotter with the so-called 'perceived' temperature in Campania, the region around Naples, estimated at a broiling 131F yesterday.

In Rome, tourists have been risking recently-introduced fines for splashing in the Eternal City's fountains to cool off.

But there has yet to be any sign of visitors to southern Europe's summer hotspots being deterred by the rising trend in temperatures.

Tourists were queueing once more Saturday outside Florence's Uffizi museum, which was forced to close Friday after its air conditioning broke down because of a lack of water from the dried up River Arno.

Health authorities in France have warned citizens to be particularly aware of the risks faced by the sick and the elderly.

Scientists meanwhile warned that deaths due to extreme weather in Europe could increase fifty-fold from an estimated 3,000 per year recently to 152,000 by the end of this century - if global warming is not reined in.

Southern Europe will suffer most and heatwaves would account for 99 percent of the deaths, according to research conducted for the European Commission and published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

The conclusions were questioned by Korean peers of the researchers who suggested humans would become less vulnerable to extreme weather with experience of it.

Scorchio: Two men claim fountainside seats in the centre of Bordeaux, France, as temperatures across Europe soar

High spirits: A bride dressed in her wedding dress walks in a fountain in Kiev, Ukraine on Friday as temperatures rose about 104F in several European cities

Hot dog: This pooch, struggling in the blazing heat, jumped around in the oasis of the Water Mirror fountain in Bordeaux as a way of keeping cool

Meteo France forecaster Frederic Nathan said he was sure recent heatwaves reflected global warning.

'We have always had them but their length and intensity has notched up since the 1950s and 60s and they are increasingly coming earlier or later.

'If you look at records for France, the vast majority of new records being set are for high temperatures. Record cold is becoming increasingly rare.'

Scientist warned last week that large parts of South Asia, home to a fifth of the world's population, could become unbearably hot by the end of this century.

The other side: Members of an emergency military unit battles one of several of wildfires currently causing devestation in northwestern Spain in the extreme heat

Boiling in Balkan: A young boy cools off at a river in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Friday

Spain's national weather service today issued an emergency warning for high temperatures in 31 of the country's 50 provinces.

Weather warning website MeteoAlarm has issued warnings of 'dangerous' conditions in 11 countries in Europe, including - as well as Italy, Spain and Croatia - parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Montenegro.

With peak temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius in much of Italy, a total of 26 major towns and cities were on the health ministry's maximum heat alert.

Today, Seville in Spain and some areas of the Italian island of Sardinia can expect temperatures around 109F, while Novska in Croatia is predicted an afternoon high of 104F.

Have a good look at yourself: The Water Mirror fountain in Bordeaux proved to be a prime location for wanderers boiling under the hot sun

The Italian city of Florence saw temperatures were exceeding 104F, however 'perceived temperature' - determined by temperature, humidity and wind and has been reported at more than 122F.

In Romania, 'red alerts' have been issued after meteorologists have forecast 108F in western parts of the country.

Earlier this week, Split airport in Croatia recorded 108F, not far from the country's highest ever temperature of 109F in 1981.

High humidity in the north and hot winds from Africa in the south are making the perceived temperatures seem even hotter on beaches across the Mediterranean.

Met Office forecaster Emma Sharples said: 'This extreme heat will have caught some holidaymakers out and they are advised to stay out of the midday sun abroad from 10am to 2pm.

'They should stay hydrated and would be advised to stay close to the coast and swimming pools to cool down.'

Earlier this week a wildfire claimed the life of a 79-year-old woman, found dead in a field beside her home in Sant'Omero in the central region of Abruzzo of Italy, who had been overcome by flames that engulfed two hectares of surrounding farmland.

Holiday makers and locals alike have taken to Twitter to make lighthearted complaints about the high temperatures.

User @_ggina_ wrote 'picked Corsica cus I wanted a bit of sun but didn't realise that meant a 43 degree heatwave called lucifer, call me g the crisp in a week :)'

Pictured: French locals and tourists wander barefoot through the Water Fountain in Bordeaux in a bid to cool off

Another Twitter user, @EvitaGrazia, seemingly based in Austria, posted a picture of a paddling pool, captioned: 'It's soooooo hot, even the water in the pool was far too warm. #heatwave'

'So, the one year I decide to go on holiday to Italy, its the one year they have a heatwave and it's nice and cool in England,' @asianspice__ wrote.

Another tourist, Mats Karlsson from Stockholm, said it's 'too hot to be outside' in Brela, Croatia.

He added: 'Got AC at 29 and it feels cold in comparison to the balcony.'

'Too hot': A woman based in Malta posted on her Instagram about having to sleep on the floor

Lucifer is here: Others took to Twitter to share their heatwave experiences across Europe

Enjoying the heat: A girl cools off in a fountain at Tasmajdan park in Belgrade, Serbia on Friday, as a heatwave hits most of southern and eastern Europe

Feeling the heat: Kaputas Beach, located between Kalkan and Kas districts in southwest of Turkey, is packed with visitors in the hot weather

Tourists cool off in Florence, Italy, where 'perceived temperature' - determined by temperature, humidity and wind and has been reported at more than 122F

Warning: Cities across Italy, like the capital Rome, pictured here on Thursday, have been subjected to the highest possible level of heat alert with tourists and residents alike warned to take action to protect themselves against the sun and carry water bottles

Dog's life: A dog shakes water off after his bath in the Lake of Zurich, Switzerland

Don't forget to drink: People their bottles in a fountain on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy

Play time: Children in Kiev, Ukraine, take advantage of the hot weather to play in a fountain

A helicopter spreads water over a forest fire started a day before close to the village of Segura de la Sierra, Jaen, southern Spain

Sweltering: Temperatures reached dangerous levels across Europe yesterday, with forecasters warning the heatwave is set to last for several more days

While temperatures are expected to stay high to the weekend, many of the worst affected areas can expect a drop in the next fortnight.

Florence, Italy will remain hot, but is predicted to be around 90-93F from Wendesday and onwards.

Seville, in Spain, will stay around 100-104F over the weekend, but will then rest steady at 36 for the following week, according to theweathernetwork.com

Zagreb, Croatia will see a drop in temperatures by Wednesday with the mercury dipping below 86F by Friday.

The spike in temperature has also caused wildfires in Italy, Spain and Croatia this week.

In Italy's central region of Abruzzo, the fires has claimed the life of at least one person and forced the closure of a major highway.

A 79-year-old woman was found dead in a field next to her home in Sant'Omero, Abruzzo, having apparently been overcome by flames that engulfed two hectares of surrounding farmland.

A section of the Via Aurelia coastal motorway that runs northwards from Rome to the Riviera had to be closed for several hours because of a major fire near Grosseto in Tuscany.

'Lucifer': A heatwave has hit the Mediterranean, with several southern European countries, including Spain, pictured is a busy Benidorm beach on Monday

Cooling off: Children play with a ball in a water fountain in Pamplona, Spain, yesterday

Too hot: Tourists walk past the Barcaccia fountain in downtown Rome, Italy, on Thursday

Shaded: A tourist uses an umbrella to stay protected from the sun while taking a picture of gondolas in the Venice lagoon near St. Mark's square in Venice, Italy on Thursday

HEAT FORCES EARLY WINE HARVEST Italy's annual wine harvest, the biggest in the world, is off to its earliest start in a decade as the country swelters in a heatwave following months of drought. Winemakers have also had to contend with spring frosts and hailstorms this year and the country's agri-food agency Coldiretti is anticipating a 10-15 per cent fall in volumes. But producers say a good year for drinkers is still on the cards at the start of a harvest that will not be completed until around the end of October. Traditionally, the start of the Italian harvest is celebrated in the north of the country, where the first chardonnay grapes were picked Friday at the Faccoli family winery in the Franciacorta region near Milan. But the acclaimed sparkling wine area was beaten to the punch this year with picking already underway in Sicily and at least one producer in neighbouring Piedmont having started bringing in his early-ripening grapes on July 29. Advertisement

The region's celebrated landscape is usually baked to a rich golden colour by the end of the summer: this year it resembles burnt toast with August barely underway.

Olive yields in parts of the country are forecast to be 50 per cent lower than normal this autumn and the scarcity of water has cut sheep's milk production by 30 pe rcent in others, with knock-on effects for the production of one of Italy's most popular cheeses; pecorino.

The heatwave has come on the back of a prolonged drought that is set to cost Italy's large agricultural sector billions with 11 regions facing critical water shortages.

In Romania, authorities told people not to go outside during the heatwave, and urged adults not to leave children in cars due in the scorching weather.

Meteorologists issued a 'red code' heat alert for 12 counties in western Romania, with 108F forecast for the next two days, with soaring temperatures expected to subside only after sunset.

An 'amber code' was issued for the rest of the country, forecasting temperatures up to 102F.

Police said there will be restrictions for heavy traffic on major roads during the weekend due to the heatwave.

In Greece local authorities yesterday issued an evacuation order for residents near a seaside town south of Athens as a wildfire threatens homes in high winds.

About 100 people were initially affected by the order for homes near Kalyvia, some 25 miles) south of Athens, officials from the local mayor's office said.

Winds up to 37 mph were hampering the firefighting effort, while temperatures in the area reached 95F.

A firefighter hoses water on bushes and trees to extinguish a wild fire in Mount Dajti, east of the Albanian capital Tirana

On fire: People look on a forest fire as smoke rises above trees in the locality of Verin in Ourense, Galicia, Spain on Thursday

Residents of Vilardevos village observe a forest fire in Verin where authorities activated 'situation 2' alert due to the closeness to population centers and main roads

Everyday heroes: Firefighters try to extinguish the Galician fire on Friday morning

The forest fire in Verin, pictured on Friday, reportedly broke out on Thursday

At work: Helicopters spread water over a forest fire as smoke rises above trees and A-52 highway in the locality of Verin in Ourense

Meanwhile, Albanian authorities have asked for assistance from the European Union to fight some 20 wildfires in the Vlora district along the country's Riviera.

In southwestern Albania, wildfires were threatening the Llogara National Park as the firefighters were unable to extinguish the blaze in the region's steep mountains.

In Corsica, a forest fire has been raging for three days, leading to French authorities ferrying firefighters and trucks from the mainland to help.

The regional authority for southern Corsica warned Friday that the fire has spread north and it could take several days to extinguish the blaze on the Mediterranean island.

Some 70 new firefighters and 15 vehicles were sent Friday from the mainland, but the regional authority said rough terrain and exceptionally hot, dry weather is complicating efforts.

The fire broke out Wednesday in the Palneca forest, forced evacuations on a celebrated hiking route and threatened nearby towns at the height of vacation season. No one has been hurt.
Comedian Pauly Shore has parodied Trump aide Stephen Miller's recent argument with CNN's Jim Acosta over the meaning of the Statue of Liberty in a hilarious new sketch.

On Wednesday Miller told Acosta that the Statue of Liberty was not symbolic of the US's openness to immigration, in a much-derided 'history lesson'.

Two days later Funny Or Die released a parody of the argument, in which Shore plays Miller as a tightly wound moron whose grasp of history is based entirely on movies.

Scroll down for video

Miller time: Pauly Shore (left) took on the role of Stephen Miller (right) in a parody of Miller's Wednesday argument with CNN's Jim Acosta over the Statue of Liberty's meaning

Shore, 49, best known as an MTV VJ from 1988-1994, and for his roles as frizzy-haired slackers in the movies Encino Man and Bio Dome, donned a shiny bald cap to portray Miller, 31.

He was then shown 'speaking' to footage of Acosta from Wednesday's press conference.

In that footage, Acosta addressed Donald Trump's demand that immigrants be able to speak English, saying that the poem on the Statue of Liberty called for other countries to send its 'huddled masses yearning to breathe free' to the US.

In real life, Miller told Acosta that the poem was added later - which is true - and said the Statue of Liberty was never meant to be a beacon to immigrants, something that is highly disputed.

In the Funny Or Die version, 'Miller' adds: 'And the whole reason why we put the Statue of Liberty here is to show the rest of the world we got some beautiful babes.'

Acosta - again, via footage - then chimes in with a long speech about Miller's 'national park revisionism' while Miller screeches 'Jim, shut the f**k up!'

Park it: In real life, Miller's claimed the famous 'huddled masses' poem was added to the statue later, so doesn't represent its true spirit. Acosta dismissed that as 'revisionism'

A Shore thing: Shore (seen left during his 1990s heyday, and right as Miller) parodied the Trump aide as confusing history with cinema, citing movies where the statue appeared

The real-life Miller held it together better than that, but not much, as he bickered and talked over Acosta's questions.

'Jim, I love your little speech and all, but let's talk a little history,' Shore's version of Miller says.

'In the year 2000, did you know a mutant known as Wolverine scaled the Statue of Liberty in a climactic showdown with Sabertooth?

'Or in the f**king 1980s, when the Ghostbusters brought the Lady Liberty to life with the power of ectoplasm - was that violating, in your opinion, Jim Acosta, the Statue of Liberty law of the land?

'What about when her head was bowled down Broadway by a gojira [the Japanese name for Godzilla] in an incident codenamed Cloverfield? What about that s**t?'

As well as those references to the movies X-Men, Ghostbusters 2 and Cloverfield, 'Miller' mentions David Copperfield's 1983 magic trick in which he made the statue 'vanish'.

'Look at me directly in my forehead and tell me I'm lying,' he adds.

He then segues through a reference to the original Planet of the Apes movie - with its ruined Statue of Liberty - and ends with a clip of the statue screaming from Home Alone 2.

Feeling green: Shore's Miller name-checked a string of films, ending with the intro sequence to Home Alone 2 (pictured). The real Miller was derided for his claims

Having words: The poem was added to the statue in 1903, 17 years after it opened, as Miller said - but it was written in 1883, in order to fund the building of the statue's pedestal

The real-life Miller came under fire after saying that the Statue of Liberty represented America lighting up the world, and that the connection with immigration was added later.

He pointed out that the poem 'The New Colossus' - from which the lines about 'huddled masses' spring - was added to the statue's base in 1903, 17 years after the statue first opened.

But the poem was written by Emma Lazarus in 1883 to raise money for the construction of the statue's pedestal, and remained associated with a fund-raising exhibit until the pedestal was funded in 1885. The statue opened the next year.

After Miller's comments, Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, wrote: 'Stephen Miller has turned himself simultaneously into a Statue of Arrogance and a National Monument of Ignorance.

'His subpar knowledge of American history, as reflected in Emma Lazarus' poem, means he couldn't pass President Trump's new immigration test. Therefore, Stephen, please leave.'

The National Park Service says Lazarus' sonnet depicts the statue 'as the 'Mother of Exiles' - a symbol of immigration and opportunity - symbols associated with the Statue of Liberty today.'
They are the mysterious online crime syndicate that claims to be able to offer 'services' including assassinations, bombings, arms dealing and trafficking.

But Black Death has come under the spotlight after it was linked to the kidnapping of a British model, 20, in Milan and even gave her a note explaining why she was being released.

It is unclear whether police found a physical copy of the letter or whether it was on a computer, but it said the model had been captured 'by mistake' and should 'under no circumstances' have been kidnapped, adding one of its 'well respected' members pleaded her case.

Black Death offers the sexual services of women for auction on the dark web and are very hostile to people asking questions.

Technology writer Joseph Cox previously tried to investigate Black Death in 2015 when he attempted to enter a human trafficking auction to discover how the syndicate worked and whether they were legitimate.

After finding them through a link on Reddit, he posed as a customer and asked to be involved in the auction, sending an encrypted email stating 'I'm interested in the girl, want to see more photos first'.

But the aggressive response that came back was 'Who are you, how do you know about us? Who recommended us?'

An image supposedly uploaded to the dark web by Black Death shows a woman alongside details including measurements and nationality, although the picture is believed to be fake

Black Death is said to have been set up in 1994 and operates in a range of criminal activities including 'assassinations, arms dealing and trafficking'. It uses images of black plague doctors from the 1300s who wore masks with hooked noses to protect them from 'putrid air' thought to carry the disease

Writing for Motherboard, he revealed a girl called 'Nicole' was put up for auction starting at 115,000 alongside pictures of a blonde woman who was topless and tied up to a wire frame by ropes with her arms behind her back.

Another woman was put on auction with bids starting at 140,000, Mr Cox wrote to them claiming he was a middleman acting for another business.

Their response was 'Nice try Europol' and after several more emails in which he claimed to possess hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin, they still rejected him, emailing him 'Do not bother us again', before the link to the site stopped working.

The pictures of the women have since been revealed to be fake and from pornography, but they were accompanied by details including the girl's age, breast size, weight and a note saying she was free from sexually transmitted diseases.

Eventually he was able to engage with Black Death and began negotiating his involvement in an auction.

He wrote: 'For a brief few moments, I managed to grab the attention of someone who actually claimed to be selling people on this part of the internetwhether they really were or not.

'"We don't invite strangers to auctions," Black Death told me in one email. "We don't want popularity. No Europol. No people just looking around. No journalists or bloggers. Just serious business."'

He was offered a place in the auction as long as he paid a deposit

The group ran this picture on the dark web and said it was of a woman put up for auction, although it has since been discovered to be from pornography

A note to the model, left, was found when police searched Herba and the properties along with a list of services it claims to provide, right

There has been some debate as to whether Black Death is a real organisation or an online scam and National Crime Agency advisers told Mr Cox that the pictures on the site were 'probably staged' and customers were 'unlikely to see their money again'.

Mr Cox added: 'Conclusively proving that Black Death is legitimate or fake is impossible without more information. If it was a scam site, they made it difficult for me to give them any money. If it was the real deal, then why do it on the dark web, when the trade already functions pretty well in the open?'

Black Death is said to have been set up during the early days of the internet in 1994 and are involved in various crimes.

The syndicate is based in eastern Europe that claims to be able to offer 'services' including assassinations, bombings, arms dealing and trafficking.

Italian police arrested Lukasz Herba, 30, when he was bringing the model to the Italian Consulate in Milan and said he had links to the organisation after he confessed to the kidnapping.

After searching him and the properties in Milan and Turin, they found leaflets associated with the group which said they operate in 'disturbing' areas including bombing, drug dealing, human trafficking and arms dealing.

Another note found by police revealed how Black Death finds its targets and how auctions are arranged and run

A note was also found addressed to the victim saying she was being released due to the 'huge generosity' of the group.

It went on to say one of their members 'made a case' to release her which was granted due to her 'status as a young mother', with her kidnapping branded 'a mistake'.

But it came with a warning not to tell authorities about the kidnapping and she was told 'never to talk about us in bad language and without respect'.

The note said the model had been 'treated fairly and with respect' and the group expected the same treatment.

A picture also showed a cartoon of doctors from the mid 1300s wearing 'plague masks' with hooked noses which they believed would protect them from 'putrid air' which was thought to carry the disease.
A woman whose children were abducted by their father and taken to live with his relatives in the Middle East says it feels like they have died.

Usama Al Barwani, from Portsmouth, was jailed on Tuesday for defying court orders by taking his children to Oman and repeatedly refusing to return them to he UK.

He is currently serving a one-year prison sentence in the UK. The conditions of his sentence means all he has to do to walk free is return the children but he refuses and they remain in the care of his extended family.

Now his former partner has spoken out about the anguish and heartache of being thousands of miles away from her children. Lacey Plato, 34, told The Times: 'It feels like they have died and I'm grieving but they're not dead.'

Former bank clerk Usama Al Barwani (left) served half of a four-year sentence for abduction after taking the children following the breakdown of his relationship with Lacey Plato (right)

She said daughter Aishah, 12, and son Faris, nine, used to say 'love you' but now call her a 'liar' in rare phone calls home.

Speaking to the paper, she said: 'They used to say, 'We miss you, we love you.' Now it's, ''You're a liar. Why are you putting Daddy in court? You hate us. We don't want to be with you.''

She said: 'I have to remember they're not speaking from their heart. They are relaying a message they have been told.

'It's bad enough they have been gone so long, but to know they're being told I don't want them and this is all my fault is too much. It's like they have forgotten they were taken from me. That's a bitter pill to swallow.'

They are currently living with their aunt in Muscat, the capital of Oman.

Ms Plato said Barwani's father told her: 'My son can rot in jail. Those children are never coming back.'

The former bank clerk took his daughter and son to Oman in July 2012 following the breakdown of his relationship with their mother.

Lacey Plato (centre) with her children Aishah (left) and Faris (right) who were taken to Oman by their father in 2012. He repeatedly defied court orders to return his children to Britain

Desperate Ms Plato has been fighting a lengthy legal battle since in a bid to be re-united with her children.

She said in the past year she had only spoken to them six times.

Al Barwani was sentenced at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London to immediate imprisonment for 12 months for contempt of court.

The judge described it as a 'tragic and sad case' and told him: 'It is perhaps difficult to imagine a more damaging and harmful act for a parent to do to his children.'

Mrs Justice Theis ruled that Al Barwani had committed 'serious' and deliberate breaches of orders relating to the return of his children to England.

She rejected his claim that it was not within his power to return the children as he was 'controlled by his own father in relation to that'.

Al Barwani has already served a term in prison after being convicted of abduction.

He was released last November after serving half of a four-year jail term imposed by a crown court judge.

His latest prison sentence follows a successful application by Miss Plato at the High Court for Al Barwani, who is also in his 30s, to be committed to prison for contempt.

The father his daughter Aishah and son Faris (pictured) to live with his relatives in Oman

Her barrister, Jacqueline Renton, told Mrs Justice Theis that the father's actions were 'cruel and heartless', had deprived the children of their mother for five years and would have life-long consequences.

Ruling in favour of Miss Plato on Monday, the judge said: 'The breaches could not be more serious and are part of a course of conduct of repeated breaches of court orders.

'I am quite satisfied that these breaches are so serious that they require and demand an immediate custodial sentence.'

It is open to Al Barwani to seek his release by 'purging' his contempt, but the judge emphasised that he would have to show that there were 'concrete plans' for the return of the children.

During previous hearings of the litigation, other High Court judges have described Al Barwani as a 'shameless liar' who has let his children down 'appallingly'.

One said it was rare that a court was faced with a father who could behave so 'wickedly'.
Australian universities are set to lose $1.2 billion in funding cuts under Prime Minister's Malcolm Turnbull's proposed higher education changes.

Figures compiled by Universities Australia estimate that a total of 18 New South Wales and Victorian universities would lose $632 million collectively in base funding between 2018 and 2021.

Eight Victorian universities are set to lose $294 million in base funding while another ten higher education institution in NSW would lose $341 million over the next four years, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Monash University in Melbourne which is set to have its funding slashed by $57.4 million (stock image)

Western Sydney University will lose $54.1 million in funding over the next four years (stock image)

Universities Australia told the publication the figures were the first breakdown of how each university would be affected if the government's proposed cuts pass the Senate.

The reduced funding would hit the overall system hard from disadvantaged students, universities operating in the red as well elite universities located in Sydney and Melbourne.

The university to be hit the hardest would be Monash University in Melbourne which is set to have its funding slashed by $57.4 million followed by Western Sydney University at $54.1 million, University of Sydney at $51.7 million and Deakin University at $50.3 million.

'A billion-dollar cut to universities is at the heart of the higher education legislation,' Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson told the publication.

'As our economy changes and old industries face new threats, Australia needs to keep  not cut  our investment in universities to create new jobs, new industries and new sources of income for Australia.

'And funding cuts that erode quality risk undermining the $24 billion in export earnings that our universities help to bring into Australia by educating international students.'

Deakin University is set to lose $50.3 million over the next four years (stock image)

University of Sydney set to lose $51.7 million over the next four years (stock image)




Australian serial killer Ivan Milat has opened up to his burlesque dancer pen pal on how he holds more sympathy for cats than his victims.

Ruth Hodkinson has traded affectionate letters for half a decade with Ivan Milat, who was convicted of murdering seven young backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney.

The letters open a window into the mind of the killer, who has been locked up in Goulburn Supermax jail for almost 20 years, reports Daily Telegraph.

Australia's most twisted killer Ivan Milat has been trading bizarrely affectionate letters with a NSW burlesque dancer

The letters open a window into the mind of the killer

In one letter, the 72-year-old boasts of shelling out over $1100 a year on his beloved cat Gizmo and sends his heartfelt condolences over the death of her own cat.

'It is with much sadness that I read of the loss of your ( kangaroo  bird) favourite cat, your grief cannot be dismissed at that unfortunate happening, the passing of a family pet is the same sad feeling as if it was one of the family.'

Known as the Backpacker Murderer, Milat slayed and buried the bodies of seven people in the Belanglo State Forest in NSW.

His victims were kidnapped, raped, shot, and decapitated alive  earning him the title of Australia's most prolific serial killer.

But it seems he feels his imprisonment is too harsh a penalty, revealing he wouldn't wish his fate upon a gold fish.

'This place would send a cat screaming insane, it would shred its poor little claws to the bone in its madnessI wouldn't put a blind gold fish in here it would be too cruel.'

Milat is behind bars after infamously being convicted of butchering seven young backpackers

Milat slayed and buried the bodies of seven people in the Belango State Forest in NSW.

Milat also used the Brady Bunch to demonstrate his apparently inclusive views towards sexuality.

'The Brady Bunch  husband was gay in real life and so was Alice the housekeeper In those days alternative was not regarded as properEach to their own is how I look at it.'

Ms Hodkinson, a NSW erotic dancer, has exchanged dozens of letters with Milat by way of offering him 'spiritual healing.'

Astonishingly, she is not alone. Daily Mail Australia previously spoke with a US man who makes a living selling letters for the world's most sadistic killers, including Milat.

Milat sadistically murdered seven victims, including (from left) James Gibson, Caroline Clarke, Joanne Walters

This letter from Ivan Milats was sold for about $US350 each on a truce crime collectibles site

There is said to be a huge demand for letters from Milat in the US

Eric Holler's Serial Killer Ink is billed as a 'true crime collectibles' site, selling the belongings and art of 'mass shooters, cannibals and necrophiles.'

Mr Holler said there's a huge demand for letters from Milat and John Bunting, known respectively for Belanglo backpacker and Snowtown massacres.

'There is a real interest in those guys. They're very popular in the US especially after the films about them.'

He said he sold about five Milats and one Bunting letters, which fetched about $US350 each.




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Thousands of Haitians every year flock to the ancient city of Saut d'Eau to bathe in its waterfalls and pay pilgrimage to a Voodoo Goddess of Love.

The Saut d'Eau waterfalls, which are located just 68km north of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, are believed to have healing powers, which hold significance for both Catholic and Voodoo practitioners.

It is thought that the Virgin Mary appeared on a palm tree in the area in the 19th century - the Virgin Mary is often associated with the Voudou spirit Erzulie Dantor.

The festival, officially called Our Lady of Carmel, runs annually from July 14 to July 16.

A man bathes under the Saut d'Eau waterfall in the annual Our Lady of Camel festival in Haiti, pictured. The ancient festival sees thousands of Haitians paying pilgrimage, bathing in the waters that are said to have healing powers in both Catholic and Voodoo traditions

A man bathes under the Saut d'Eau waterfall in the annual Our Lady of Camel festival in Haiti, pictured. The ancient festival sees thousands of Haitians paying pilgrimage, bathing in the waters that are said to have healing powers in both Catholic and Voodoo traditions

A group of people bathe under the Saut d'Eau waterfall in the annual Our Lady of Camel festival in Haiti, pictured. The ancient festival sees thousands of Haitians paying pilgrimage, bathing in the waters that are said to have healing powers in both Catholic and Voodoo traditions

The falls have become an important religious destination and right of passage for Haitians.

People gather under the 100-foot waterfall and scrub their bodies with aromatic leaves and soap.

After bathing, participants are said to throw out the clothes that they were wearing for good luck - putting on new ones.

People bathe under the Saut d'Eau waterfall in the annual Our Lady of Camel festival in Haiti, pictured. The ancient festival sees thousands of Haitians paying pilgrimage, bathing in the waters that are said to have healing powers in both Catholic and Voodoo traditions

People bathe under the Saut d'Eau waterfall in the annual Our Lady of Camel festival in Haiti, pictured. The ancient festival sees thousands of Haitians paying pilgrimage, bathing in the waters that are said to have healing powers in both Catholic and Voodoo traditions

People bathe under the Saut d'Eau waterfall in the annual Our Lady of Camel festival in Haiti, pictured. The ancient festival sees thousands of Haitians paying pilgrimage, bathing in the waters that are said to have healing powers in both Catholic and Voodoo traditions

Spiritual and religious rituals like these now perhaps retain more significance as Haiti continues to feel the effects from its 2010 earthquake, which killed hundreds of thousands of people and left the small island nation's economy in disarray.

Approximately 50,000 Haitians left for the United States following the earthquake, claiming a temporary protected status, which they now look to lose under the Trump Administration.

People bathe under the Saut d'Eau waterfall in the annual Our Lady of Camel festival in Haiti, pictured. The ancient festival sees thousands of Haitians paying pilgrimage, bathing in the waters that are said to have healing powers in both Catholic and Voodoo traditions

People bathe under the Saut d'Eau waterfall in the annual Our Lady of Camel festival in Haiti, pictured. The ancient festival sees thousands of Haitians paying pilgrimage, bathing in the waters that are said to have healing powers in both Catholic and Voodoo traditions
A man was rushed to hospital with eye and face injuries after a suspected acid attack robbery.

Greater Manchester Police were called to reports of an attack in Pendlebury, Salford, just after 2pm on Friday.

A man in his 20s was grabbed from behind as he walked alone along a pathway in Silverdale Country Park near City Walk.

A man was rushed to hospital with eye and face injuries after a suspected acid attack near City Walk, Pendlebury

He had suffered injuries to his eyes and face in City Walk and his rucksack was stolen.

He was taken to hospital for treatment. A force spokesman said inquiries into the circumstances are ongoing.

The attack follows a spate of robberies in London in which corrosive substances were thrown at the victim and comes as new, tougher guidelines were announced by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting incident number 1118 of 04/08/17, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Theodore Gunderson Jr stormed into an Earl Township, Pennsylvania, Wendy's on Sunday and went on a tirade about the lack of cucumbers in his salad

A bitter Wendy's customer in Pennsylvania threatened the life of an employee because he felt he had been cheated out of cucumber in his salad.

Theodore Gunderson Jr stormed into an Earl Township, Pennsylvania, Wendy's on Sunday and went on a tirade about how more cucumbers could have been put in his salad.

'If I had a gun or knife you would be the first to go,' Gunderson said to an employee.

The irate man then threw his salad in the employee's face.

Officers from the New Holland police arrived on the scene where they said they found Gunderson sitting in his vehicle and refusing to get out.

Officer Michael Specht said the man eventually rolled his window down where he was told he was under arrest.

'If I had a gun or knife you would be the first to go,' Gunderson said to an employee

But when they tried to detain his keys, Gunderson started driving away.

'The officer 'had to take multiple steps' to extract his arm in order to keep himself from tripping and possible falling under the car,' said an arrest report.

Gunderson faces charges for assaulting an officer, making terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.
Three police officers in Chelsea, Massachusetts, were responding to an overdose Friday when they became exposed to high quantities of the deadly narcotic Fentanyl.

Deputies and a fire team arrived to the scene on Williams Street, where they discovered three men passed out inside a van on the side of the road, according to CBS Boston.

Police were initially informed of the matter after one of the men driving the vehicle crashed into a car in front of him and the other driver noticed something suspicious.

When the other driver got out of the car to examine the accident, she found all of the men, appearing to be in their 20s or 30s, unresponsive inside.

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Three police officers in Massachusetts were taken to the hospital Friday after they were exposed to fentanyl while responding to an overdose

Police say there was a fender bender after a driver passed out behind the wheel. When emergency responders arrived, they say they found three men who had overdosed on fentanyl

Officials found a white, powder substance on the seats after the men got out of the van

The men required doses of Narcan. 'In the process of treating them, they administered Narcan, well over 10 doses of Narcan between the three of them'

'In the process of treating them, they administered Narcan, well over 10 doses of Narcan between the three of them,' Deputy Fire Chief John Quatieri told Boston 25 News about the extent of the process.

One of the men was able to be revived without administration of Narcan, while another required six doses of the drug. All three men were transported to the Whidden Hospital in Everett.

Responders uncovered the drugs inside the van, which included a white powder substance spread across the seats.

After finding the substance, the fire team called a hazardous materials crew to sterilize the area. The powder later tested positive for Fentanyl.

The policemen were taken into the Mass General Hospital in Boston to be examined after the stop. The officers were released from the hospital Friday night and are said to be doing well.

Chelsea fire then called in a hazmat team to decontaminate the scene

The three men in the van were taken to the hospital

Officers were also taken to the hospital as a precaution after they reported feeling light-headed

Exposure to fentanyl has become a constant concern for emergency responders

The startling event is just one of several instances to take place in recent months across the nation.

Back in May, officer Chris Green of East Liverpool, Ohio was responding to a traffic call involving a driver named Justin Buckel, when he came across the substance in the vehicle he was inspecting.

'When I got to the scene, he was covered in it. I patted him down, and that was the only time I didn't wear gloves. Otherwise, I followed protocol,' Green told the Morning Journal News in an interview.

Green said when he got back to the police station, he lost consciousness.

'I started talking weird. I slowly felt my body shutting down. I could hear them talking, but I couldn't respond. I was in total shock. 'No way I'm overdosing,' I thought.'

Green admitted to being 'in denial' when fellow officers offered him Narcan as they waiting for the ambulance to arrive to send him to the hospital.

'God was surely looking over me,' Green said, while adding that 911 responders saved his life.

In June, a young boy from Miami died after coming into contact with the drug while swimming in a public pool in Overtown.

Miami's Assistant Fire Chief Pete Gomez told the Associated Press he noticed a rise in overdoses in recent months inside the deteriorated neighborhood, which he described as a low-income area with a high crime rate.

'There is an epidemic,' Gomez said. 'Overtown seems to have the highest percentage of where these incidents are occurring.'

Fentanyl continues to be an escalating issue in part of the ongoing opioid overdose epidemic in the United States.
A mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota, was rocked by an explosion during the first prayers of the day on Saturday in what worshipers say was an arson attack.

Police say they still haven't worked out the cause of the explosion at the imam's office in the Al-Farooq Youth and Family Center, or determined whether it was a hate crime.

But Asad Zaman, the executive director of Muslim American Sociey of Minnesota, said that witnesses saw a man standing next to the office's window before the explosion occurred, and then saw a truck speeding from the scene.

Fire: Police investigate a mosque in Bloomington that was the subject of an alleged arson attack at 5am Saturday morning

Worshipers put out the fire after an explosion at around 5am. The area was sealed off, above

Fire: The explosion occurred here, at the window to the imam's office of the window of the Al-Farooq Youth & Family Center; witnesses say they saw someone here, and a truck fleeing later

The office window appeared to have been broken, and a possible firebomb tossed inside at around 5am, Zaman said.

One room was damaged and the mosque flooded with smoke, but the fire was put out before first responders arrived.

The 15-20 worshipers in the building escaped unscathed.

The Star Tribune reports that Mohamed Omar, executive director of the Dar al Farooq Mosque, in Bloomington, says the center occasionally receives threatening calls and emails.

The mosque was previously known as the Al-Farooq Youth & Family Center. It serves the Somali community in the town.

Bloomington police Chief Jeff Potts said Saturday that investigators are trying to determine the cause of the blast.

In a statement outside the mosque, Rev Curtiss Deyoung commented that he and others in his congregation had visited during Ramadan, and that they stand by the worshipers there.

'An attack on a mosque is an attack on a synagogue, is an attack on a church - it's an attack on all faith communities,' he said, surrounded by people holding 'We (heart) our neighbors' signs.

'So we stand with you, a million protestants,' he added, to applause.

Zaman added that a $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are involved in the investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call Bloomington Police on 952-563-4900.

No fatalities: No-one was injured or hurt as a result of the blaze. The center has been a source of contention among some locals since it was established in 2011

Criticism: Some localts have accused the center of being a nuisance and operating improperly, though the city says the complaints mostly come from two particular women

The mosque has been the subject of consternation among some members of the local community since it opened in 2011.

On August 1 last year, a group represented by lawyer Larry Frost called on the city to lean on the mosque, which they say is a nuisance.

Frost said that during Ramadan the mosque crowds out with 2,000 worshipers - 1,500 more than its maximum capacity, City Pages reported.

He also accused it of attracting bad drivers.

'I dont know if this is true of Somalis,' said Frost, who served in the Army in Egypt. 'I'm familiar with Arabs, but in Egypt the drivers ignore the traffic law all the time.

'Kind of a cultural thing. I dont know if its a cultural thing in Somalia, but the neighbors are saying theyre driving through there a lot faster than 25 miles per hour.'

He also accused the mosque of opening a full-use restaurant and university without receiving permission from the local government.

Local officials told City Pages at the time that most of the complaints about the mosque come from two individuals, ally Ness and Violet Rozek, both of whom were named in Frost's petition.

A city manager told the paper that he has not seen any evidence of 2,000 people gathering at the site. He added that while it does hold seminars and have a canteen, it does not act as a university or restaurant.
Jason Meyers was arrested in 2016 on sexual battery charges

A Florida high school teacher sexually abused at least eight students at his school according to a lawsuit filed by one of his victims.

Jason Meyers, 41, is accused of abusing and molesting female students throughout his 14 year career as an English and creative writing teacher at two different schools in Miami.

The suit alleges it was such common knowledge at the Miami Palmetto High School where he worked that the girls he molested were nicknamed 'Jason's Girls'.

Meyers, a father-of-triplets, was arrested in 2016 on sexual battery charges, but the suit says the school knew about the relationships before that, yet failed to act.

Disturbing details were revealed in the claim where the victim, who was 16 at the time, says he forcibly kissed her and 'spread her legs apart, positioned his groin between her thighs, pressed his body against hers, forced his hands underneath (her) clothes, and fondled (her) body.'

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Jason Meyers stares blankly during his court appearance after his arrest

The plaintiff references another student who he bought provocative clothes for her to wear to his class, and asked the girl to write a poem titled 'Come Inside Me'.

It also says he instructed the victim in the suit to read sexually explicit material including 'Lolita,' 'Lawns,' and 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented,' according to the Miami Herald.

Meyers photo from the Palmetto High School website

He would emphasize passages about the molestation of a young girl by her father and rape, according to the suit.

The plaintiff says he would send notes to her in class that said 'I've been thinking about you,' and 'I want to kiss you'.

She says he asked her to take naked photos of herself for him and pressured her to have sex with him at school or at her home when her parents were away,

The victim claims she was also pressured to have sex with him at his own home, that he shared with his wife, who is also a teacher at the school.

Meyers and his wife, Kimberly Meyers, have triplets.

When he was arrested detectives say the three children were 'running around inside the house naked and touching their own genitals'. Law enforcement notified the Florida Department of Children & Families.

The suit says Meyers worked at the Dr. Michael M. Krop High School (left) and was transferred to Miami Palmetto High School (right) after the principal at Krop was notified about his abuses

According to the suit, the principal at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School, where he worked before Palmetto, was emailed in 2008 about the teacher sleeping with girls in his class.

'In response, (the school system) transferred Meyers to Palmetto High School, where he continued to have unfettered access to female students,' the suit states.

Meyers' wife reportedly confronted him on school grounds during the 2015-2016 school year about his relationship with a minor.

Meyers was fired after his arrest according to a district spokesman.
Pictured: Michaella McCollum, one half of the Peru Two drugs mule duo, wearing a bikini-style top as she enjoys Pride in Brighton today

Peru Two drugs mule Michaella McCollum has been spotted swigging beers and celebrating in the rain as she attended Brighton Pride today.

The 24-year-old ex-convict, who was jailed in Peru alongside Melissa Reid in 2013 for trying to smuggle 1.5million's worth of cocaine into Europe, was one of about 300,000 revellers in the South Coast city.

She was pictured holding hands with a mystery male friend as crowds gathered to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities on the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.

Though she started her day in Brighton wearing a bikini-style top, a sudden downpour forced her to borrow a raincoat from a friend.

She also asked a couple of bobbies for directions as she wandered around the seaside city with her companion.

Michaella was pictured holding hands with a mystery male friend as crowds gathered to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities on the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales

Though she started her day in Brighton wearing a bikini-style top (pictured right), a sudden downpour forced her to borrow a raincoat from a friend (left)

Michaella and her friend asked a police officer for directions as they made their way through the crowds and the carnival streets

In spring, Michaella - from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland - was spotted living it up in the party centres of Ibiza and Marbella enjoying sun, sea and cocktails.

How the former drugs smuggler has funded her holidays is unclear, but she has been linked to a number of potentially lucrative opportunities.

It has been reported that she has been offered a 250,000 tell all book deal detailing her criminal exploits and time behind bars in Lima.

She and Reid - dubbed the 'Peru Two'  had each been sentenced to six years and eight months in jail after admitting to trying to smuggle cocaine out of the country.

Michaella (right) was found with cocaine hidden in food packets in her luggage, along with Glasgow born Mellissa Reid (left), as they prepared to board a flight from Lima to Madrid

Pictured: Michaella McCollum (left) with Melissa Reid in a cage during their trial at Sarita Colonia prison in Callao, Lima, 2013

The pair, who initially protested their innocence, were found in possession of 11kg of cocaine hidden inside food packets in their luggage as they prepared to board a flight from Lima to Madrid.

McCollum was released on parole in March 2016 after serving less than half of her sentence but was initially required to stay in Peru, where she carried out voluntary work.

Reid was released from prison in June last year, flying back to Scotland shortly afterwards.

The Pet Shop Boys are headlining the event in Brighton and Hove in what will be the duo's first Pride performance in 20 years, organisers said.

Other acts include Years & Years, Louisa Johnson, David Morales and KStewart while a carnival parade entertained crowds at Hove Lawns from 11am.

Colourful crowds: Floats make their way along the promenade at The Brighton Pride Community Parade in East Sussex today
A New York woman suffered serious injuries when the sidewalk collapsed beneath her feet on Saturday.

The woman - who is not being identified by authorities - was walking down 158th St, near Broadway in Washington Heights, Harlem, when the accident occurred, Pix 11 reported.

She tumbled six feet to the ground, suffering a broken leg and other injuries.

A woman was injured when she fell into a hole (left) that opened up under her for unknown reasons on Saturday. The accident occurred on 158th St (right) in Washington Heights, Harlem

The woman was rushed to Harlem Hospital by medics; she is listed as being in a serious condition.

Photos appear to show a thin section of concrete broke away over a cavernous pit located next to a building, and adjacent to a stairwell leading into a basement area.

Other details - such as whether the woman was carrying any heavy objects, or whether there was a grating on the section that collapsed - were unavailable.

City officials are now probing the collapse to find out what happened.

A spokesman for the NYPD's 33rd Precinct said that officers responded and that it was being listed as an aided case.

He said that he thought the case was unusual, and that he hadn't heard of similar incidents new in the area.
NYPD cops were boycotting Dunkin' Donuts on Friday to protest the treatment of two officers who were allegedly refused service by an employee in one of the chain's stores.

On Sunday, two plain clothed cops who were working the 73rd Precinct's detective squad went into a Brooklyn, New York, Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin-Robbins to buy ice cream. But they claimed that a store clerk ignored them.

'I don't serve cops,' he said, according to a law-enforcement source who spoke with the New York Post.

On Sunday, two plain clothed cops went into a Brooklyn, New York, Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin-Robbins to buy ice cream. But they claimed that a store clerk ignored them. File picture of NYPD officers above

In response, the detectives union called for an NYPD boycott and an apology from the chain

In response, the detectives union called for an NYPD boycott and an apology from the chain.

At locations across the city, employees have made note of the shift in their sales to law enforcement.

The location on West 48th Street and Seventh Avenue told the Post it normally sells donuts and coffee to about 20 officers, daily.

The store's (pictured) manager claims that he has video showing that the officers were not standing in line at all and just waited at the pickup register

'[There were] actually none today,' the worker said.

A Dunkin' Donuts on West 40th Street near Seventh Avenue experienced similar set backs.

'Today I did not see [them],' said store worker Setu Mallick.

'There are usually maybe four or five.'

The union has demanded that the shop's corporate parents issue an apology for the alleged incident.

'Since the story was reported, the union office received a lot of feedback from active and retired members supporting the boycott,' said Michael Palladino, head of the Detectives Endowment Association.

'I know that Dunkin Donuts supports law enforcement, which is why I am disappointed that their official statements are weak and suggest denial.'

At locations across the city, employees have made note of the shift in their sales to law enforcement

On Thursday, a manager at the store spoke with the New York Post, discrediting the account shared by the officers and their source.

He said: 'These two men in shirts and ties  who I later found out were police  must have never come to this Dunkin' Donuts before, because instead of waiting in the line where you order, they waited at the counter where you pick up your order.

'You can see on the security tape: they stand here for five minutes, while other customers were being served.

A Dunkin' Donuts on West 40th Street near Seventh Avenue experienced similar set backs

'One customer even ordered ice cream, and they must've not like that because they left the store.'

While the manager wouldn't share the video, he did say that the store was receiving calls from people claiming to be police and asking, 'Why didn't you serve these officers?'

The manager added: 'And I kept trying to explain that we serve everyone, we have nothing but respect for the police, and that they were standing at the wrong counter.

'It was busy at the time, and we were busy serving customers.'

An email from an executive at the popular chain blasted an email to New York franchise owners, telling them not to speak with press.

'By now you are probably aware of a news situation concerning two New York City police detective who feel they were denied service by a Dunkin' Donuts crew member,' Bob Wiggins, a regional vice president, said in the e-mail obtained by The Post.
Dozens of people have been fined for having sex or being nude in public in the Spanish party resort of Magaluf, it's emerged.

Authorities have cracked down on public decency and anti-social behaviour by tourists and since June, have fined 22 people fined for having sex in public, and another 52 for nudity.

According to the Mirror, 46 people have been fined for breaching public security.

The resort of Magaluf has a reputation as a party spot and is regularly visited by British tourists

Police said: 'Were taking a zero-tolerance approach to this kind of anti-social behaviour, which is unacceptable and ruins holidays for decent people.'

In June, authorities announced a new set of 64 rules for the resort, including a ban on using shower gel in public showers, and walking the streets topless.

Anyone caught breaking one of the 64 rules will face hefty fines ranging from 100 to 3,000 Euros.

The clampdown comes as the authorities desperately try to clean-up the image of Magaluf that has long been a magnet for debaucherous Brits enjoying the cheap booze on offer.

Police in Magaluf are cracking down on streakers and other displaying public nudity in a bid to clean up the resort

But police and authorities want to change the resort's image and are cracking down on anti-social behaviour

It includes fines for people engaging in public sex and walking the streets topless, and fines can go up to 3,000 Euros

Fines, which start at 100 Euros for 'minor' offences such as climbing a tree, are 50 per cent off if paid within ten days.

The resort has long attracted negative headlines, most famously in 2014 when an 18-year-old British girl was filmed performing a sex act on 24 men in two minutes at Magaluf bar to win a 4 cocktail.

In addition to the new rules that will be imposed for the first time this summer, the number of police officers in the resort will be doubled during the busy months.

There will be 2,639 officers compared with 1,227 in 2016.

Police in Magaluf have a reputation for being strict and heavy-handed, particularly with British tourists.
A hard Brexit will mean Swedish stilton, Polish pork pies and Belgian black pudding pushing out British favourites, Ministers were warned last night.

Food producers fear cheap foreign imposters masquerading as much-loved classics such as Melton Mowbray pork pies and Cornish clotted cream will dominate the UK market.

They warn EU rules that ban imitations passing themselves off as famous British foods will disappear if Theresa Mays threat to walk away from Brussels becomes a reality. More than 70 brands, including beers, worth about 1 billion are protected.

Representatives of British brands last night urged the Environment Secretary Michael Gove to make sure EU-style rules continue after 2019.

Matthew OCallaghan, chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, said: We must make sure politicians ensure another scheme is put in place thats compatible with the EU one. Pictured: A Melton Mowbray pork pie

Pictured: Stilton cheese, which could be ripped off by Swedes if Theresa Mays threat to walk away from Brussels becomes a reality

They told the fiercely pro-Brexit Mr Gove that must happen, even if it meant agreeing to continue protecting European brands such as Champagne and Parmesan.

Matthew OCallaghan, chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, said: We must make sure politicians ensure another scheme is put in place thats compatible with the EU one.

Alison Lea-Wilson, founder of the Anglesey Sea Salt Company, said it was vital EU schemes survived to keep out inferior imitations.

Representatives of British brands last night urged the Environment Secretary Michael Gove (pictured) to make sure EU-style rules continue after 2019

In a letter to Mr Gove, Labour MP Mary Creagh, a leading supporter of the Open Britain campaign, warned: Leaving the EU with no deal could see our businesses undercut, their wares replaced on supermarket shelves by imitation products.

While Swedish stilton, Polish pork pies and Belgian black pudding would come to dominate, British producers would be left behind.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna said it beggars belief that one year on from the Brexit vote, Ministers still had no plan for protecting British regional food producers. We are now staring down the barrel of a Brexit that gives much-loved foods from cheddar cheese to pork pies no protection at all from cheap imitations, he said.

Michael Gove needs to stop briefing against his Cabinet colleagues and get on with the day job of fighting for our farmers and food producers.

A spokesman for Mr Gove said: Products with protected food names are extremely important to our reputation as a great food nation. We will work to ensure they continue to benefit from protection.
With classes at Harvard starting in just a few short weeks, Malia Obama is making sure to end her gap year in style.

The former First Daughter was caught on video letting her hair down and dancing up a storm while The Killers performed at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.

Video obtained by TMZ shows Malia and a gal pal dancing wildly as the Las Vegas rock band played its hits during the headlining set on Friday night.

This isn't the first time Malia has been spotted enjoying herself while out in public with her friends.

The 19-year-old was videotaped last year at the festival twerking and grinding while listening to rapper Bryson Tiller.

Malia Obama was caught on video letting her hair down and dancing up a storm while the killers performed at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago

Footage later captured Malia writhing and rolling on the grass as she danced to the music

Malia was seen rocking out during a guitar and drum session during The Killers' headlining set

Malias friend throws herself to the ground while Obamas daughter jokingly pretends to play the drums, matching her moves with the music.

She then helps her friend up before they turn to watch the rest of the show, but the party was far from over.

Footage later captured Malia taking her turn to writhe and roll on the grass, thrashing around before headbanging and pounding the ground during a guitar riff.

Malia and her friends reportedly spent most of their time backstage during The Killers set, before going to the grassy area to dance.

Social media has been quick to defend the teenager for letting loose and having fun with her friends.

She was happily thrashing about and putting on a show for her friends during the performance

Malia and her friends were reportedly backstage for most of the set but then decided to go to the grass area to dance

The Las Vegas rock band put on an epic performance at the festival, with lead vocals by frontman Brandon Flowers (pictured)

Twitter user @Blvck_Picvsso wrote: 'Malia Obama is doing what you supposed to do at an concert: HAVE FUN.'

Another said: 'This Malia Obama thing is being taken way out of context. She's dancing to The KILLERS! I would still be rolling on that floor...'

Some called for people to stop secretly filming the former first daughter in order to profit off of her.

@JassyBravo tweeted: 'Malia Obama having a great time like normal people but the problem is she will always be recorded but who is her friends tho ?'

Another user added: 'Malia Obama is living her best life. people need to stop recording & making money off her and let that girl live.'

Social media was quick to defend the teenager for letting loose and having fun with her friends

Malia is starting at Harvard University in the fall after taking a gap year following her high school graduation

This isn't the first time Malia's moves at Lollapalooza have landed her in the headlines.

Last year a video popped up of Malia twerking with friends during a performance at the festival.

The high school graduate was criticized for skipping Hillary Clinton's historic speech at the Democratic National Convention to attend the event in her hometown.

Another video allegedly showed Obama's eldest puffing on a suspicious cigarette during the festival.

The brief clip, published by Radar, shows the teenager mingling with crowds as she takes a drag.

An eyewitness insisted she was smoking marijuana, the tabloid site reported.

Dancing queen: Last year at the festival, she was spotted twerking and grinding with friends (above) while they listened to rapper Bryson Tiller

Footage also showed Malia dancing with one of her friends, who took their own moves to the ground during the show

Malia then pretended to play the drums on her friend, matching her hands to the music

She then helped lift her friend off the ground so that they could continue to dance

Right-wing pundits had a field day with the videos, hitting out at everything from Malia's character to Obama's parenting skills.

But the Ivy League student had the last laugh a month later, trolling her critics by wearing a homemade shirt with 'Smoking Kills' written across the front in marker.

Malia has been enjoying her last few months before starting at Harvard, including wrapping up a internship with producer Harvey Weinstein in New York.

She apparently made quite a good impression at her job because Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry had nothing but good things to say about her.

Malia worked as one of the production assistants on the 50-year-old's CBS sci-fi TV show Extant.

'She was fantastic,' Halle said of Malia Obama this week on Watch What Happens Live. 'She was amazing. She is such a smart, beautiful young woman.'

'She was amazing': Halle Berry said on Watch What Happens Live this week that Malia Obama 'was fantastic' when she was a production assistant on Halle's CBS show Extant

They turned to the stage to continue watching the headlining set on Friday night

Halle told host Andy Cohen to 'look who her mother and her father are, so, duh,' meaning then-President Barack Obama and then-First Lady Michelle Obama.

Andy asked: 'Was that kinda wild?' to which Halle said: 'It was kinda wild,' and Andy prodded: 'Were you like: '"Will you get me a coffee?"', putting on a timid voice.

Halle got in on the joke as well, saying in a similar sheepish voice: '"Could we call your dad or your mom?"' before, now in regular voice, adding: 'Yeah, I was such a huge fan of hers. She was amazing,' said Halle of the now 19-year-old Malia.

Toni Collette, sitting next to Halle, inquired: 'So, she pulled her weight on set?' and Halle replied: 'Yeah, she was down to do whatever a PA is asked to do, and I had wild respect for her for that,' with Toni concurring: 'Yeah, I think that's amazing.'

Halle did recall that 'everybody couldn't really see her as a PA. Although she tried and tried to be one, we just couldn't really see her as one, but to her credit, she tried very hard to be one,' the Kidnap star explained before the subject changed.

This Twitter user claims that his father was seated nearby the former first daughter as she was flying to Chicago for the festival

When Malia heads off to Harvard, she'll be following in her parents' footsteps for enrolling at the Ivy League university.

Malia visited at least a dozen public and private colleges during her search, mostly on the East Coast. Six of the eight Ivies were among them, including her parents' alma maters.

Although it is not yet known what she plans to study in school, Malia is an aspiring filmmaker, with several internships under her belt already.

The president is a 1983 graduate of Columbia University, and Mrs Obama graduated from Princeton in 1985.

They both earned law degrees at Harvard.

Obama entered Harvard Law School in the fall of 1988 and was there for two years.

Michelle Robinson, as she was then known, went on to earn her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.

Obama has spoken publicly about dreading the day when Malia leaves for college, and the decision for Malia to take a gap year kept her closer to home as her family prepares for the major transition.
Buckingham Palace is in a state of disarray following a wave of senior resignations and departures, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Queen herself has ordered a shake-up of courtiers at the royal palaces as she prepares for a future in which she allows Prince Charles to take the lead.

But palace sources are concerned that the firm has been plunged into uncertainty following last weeks shock resignation of the Queens right hand man, Sir Christopher Geidt, as revealed by the MoS, along with several other leading figures.

You could described it as a right royal shambles,  said one courtier.

Going: Prince Harry's Private Secretary Edward Lane Fox, left, and Prince William's Private Secretary Miguel Head

Those preparing to leave include Prince Harrys Private Secretary, Edward Lane Fox, while Prince Williams highly-regarded Private Secretary, Miguel Head is expected to be gone by Christmas  although his spokesman has denied this.

The Duchess of Cambridges Private Secretary, newly-married Rebecca Deacon has already announced her departure, as has Keeper of the Privy Purse, Sir Alan Reid. And last week it emerged that a second aide to the Queen, Samantha Cohen, Assistant Private Secretary, has tendered her resignation.

The shake-up comes at a key time for the Royal Household, as the Queen, 91, and Prince Philip, 96, step back from frontline duties, leaving younger royals to take up the slack  or Operation Handover, as it is known.

The shake-up is also seen as a response to the increasingly chaotic rivalry between the separate households  Kensington Palace, run by the young royals, Clarence House, home to Charles and Buckingham Palace itself. Consultation and co-ordination are felt to be in short supply.

There was, for example, consternation at Harrys furious attack on the media earlier this year over its coverage of his girlfriend Meghan Markle because it overshadowed  without warning  an official tour of the Middle East by Charles and Camilla. More recently, it is understood that Buckingham Palace courtiers did not feel fully informed over William and Harrys ITV documentary about Diana, which again generated huge publicity. And there is said to be concern among senior royals that the stream of emotive statements issued by the princes about their mental well-being has got out of hand.

With Sir Christopher falling on his sword, many have been wondering who has been advising Her Majesty on the current changes. Dont forget that the Queen is still the boss and will always take her own decisions, no matter what the advice, said a royal insider.

Moreover, it seems her views have been echoed by Prince Charles. The Queen is said to have been irritated by the running of the junior households and feels that William and Harry have been given poor advice and left exposed to criticism.

Gone: Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen Samantha Coen and Her Majesty's right hand man Sir Christopher Geidt

It is notable that the one household to remain stable has been Charless Clarence House, despite the significant departure of experienced PR expert Kristina Kyriacou. She resigned last year, and was replaced by former BBC PR man Julian Payne.

Royal watchers have noted how smoothly the Duchess of Cornwalls 70th birthday was handled, despite clashing with the anniversary of Dianas death.

Part of the current uncertainty lies in an earlier but failed attempt to bring the royal households under one umbrella, a plan masterminded by Sir Christopher.

This was most notably played out in the media operation, overseen by Sally Osman, currently Director of Royal Communications and a former Daily Mail reporter. But the plan was held to have been a chaotic failure. Ordered to work under one roof at Buckingham Palace, the various press officers eventually decided to stay put in their respective offices.

Buckingham Palace made no comment last night but a source said it would notify appointments in the appropriate way.
A Navy vet in Florida is at war with his homeowners association because he refuses to take the American flag decal off his mailbox.

Former officer John Ackert of Tallahassee says he received a letter from his Southwood Residential Community Association saying that the flag needs to be removed.

The request said it was an issue of 'aesthetic appeal and property values' in the neighborhood.

John Ackert, a Navy veteran, got a letter saying he has to remove the American flag decal off his mailbox, or he could be fined

Ackert says he even diligently replaced the decal when it faded over the years

Ackert says he thinks he is being bulled by the homeowners association and has appealed their removal request

'As the holiday season has come to a close, please remove the American flag mailbox wrap. Decorations may be displayed 30 days prior to the associated holiday and must be taken down within 15 days after the holiday,' the letter read.

'If somebody had complained about it four years ago, it wouldn't be such an issue,' Ackert said, telling WCTV it's been on the mailbox all that time.

He even diligently replaced it when the original faded over the years.

'I view this as a form of bullying, to be honest. And I think people should stand up to bullying of any form, and particularly this.'

Ackert says he's been previously asked to remove a Navy sticker along with 'Support Leon County Sheriff's Office' and Special Olympics stickers as well.

Ackert says the decal has been on there for four years, and he is refusing to remove it

He says he is taking a stand on this one, and appealed the request to remove the American flag from his mailbox.

This Thursday the association said it will present it to the Covenants Committee for a decision on August 8.

If he is not granted permission to keep it, he faces fines if he continues to use the mailbox as it is.
They have brought mayhem to Britains streets in a growing epidemic of robbery and violence to which there seems no end.

And now moped gang members are boasting of their crimes and taunting the police in shameless posts on social media. One message accompanying a video of gang members swearing at police reads: We smoked the Feds.

And a caption on a pair of bolt-cutters jokes darkly: Prepared for the night shift.

The posts are on accounts on Instagram, owned by Facebook, and are the latest instance of internet giants allegedly failing to stop criminals using the web.

Masked: Two gang members display a security device seemingly removed from a stolen bike

A post apparently showing a gang member concealing a weapon

A post on the gang's Instagram page offering to supply buyers with stolen bikes

Most shocking of all is video footage of a man being attacked with a fire extinguisher by two laughing thugs on a moped.

Some of the worst material was posted on locked accounts linked to the notorious East London Chordie Gang.

Masked teenage thugs  some as young as 13  ride two to a moped and often work in packs, driving up to pedestrians in broad daylight and snatching mobile phones.

There were 50,000 crimes committed by robbers on mopeds and bicycles last year in London alone, most of which were mobile phone thefts. Yet, according to the Met, in the past 12 months the number of people charged with theft of a mobile was just 1,080.

The gangs have also stolen motorbikes from riders they have threatened with hammers and knives.

Footage of the gangs' increasingly brazen attacks is being posted on Facebook by a group of outraged bikers known as The UK Motorcycle Theft Protest which is pushing for a tougher police response.

There has been an increasing number of incidents featuring violence, including the use of acid. Last week a man had a suspected corrosive liquid thrown in his face by two moped thieves during an attempted robbery in Londons Knightsbridge.

Boasts: A 'Chordie Gang' post showing a gang member wielding a machete

A post showing a pair of bolt cutters 'prepared for the night shift'

The Chordie Gang boasts that its members are certified bike getters. The gang has posted pictures of mopeds and motorbikes being offered for sale at a fraction of their true price, and even apparently offer to steal to order, saying: DM [direct message] what bikes yous want??

Last night, 12 moped gang accounts were closed by Instagram after the firm was contacted by The Mail on Sunday. However, almost immediately one had gone back up under a slightly different name.

Critics say police are reluctant to tackle the moped criminals because of their young age and health-and-safety fears that make them wary of pursuing riders who are not wearing helmets.

Former Met police officer David Videcette blames guidelines introduced in 2014. He said: This problem didnt exist two years ago. Its come out of nowhere and the reason is the College of Policing pursuit framework and the overzealous Independent Police Complaints Commission prosecuting police officers for not complying with [it].

However, Detective Superintendent Stuart Ryan, leading the Met Police investigations into moped-enabled crime, insisted officers are carrying out more pursuits than ever and that just because theyve taken their helmet off, it wont stop the pursuit.

Last night, a spokesman for Instagram said: Illegal activity, including the support or praise of it, is not allowed. Our global team of reviewers check reports 24 hours a day and move quickly to remove any violating content or accounts.
By anyones standards, it has been a tumultuous few months for computer genius Marcus Hutchins, now languishing in an FBI holding cell in Las Vegas.

First, the 23-year-old was dragged reluctantly into the spotlight after stopping a worldwide cyber attack. Hailed a hero, he worked his magic from his small bedroom, strewn with pizza boxes, at his parents home in the seaside town of Ilfracombe, Devon.

But in a dizzying fall from grace, the so-called ethical hacker, who breaks into systems to improve security, now stands accused of criminal hacking himself  and could face up to 40 years in a US jail.

Pictured: Marcus Hutchins. Hailed a hero, he worked his magic from his small bedroom, strewn with pizza boxes, at his parents home in the seaside town of Ilfracombe, Devon

Along with a few pals, Hutchins  known online by the name MalwareTech  stayed in a sprawling 1,500-a-night villa (pictured), said to boast the largest private pool in town, with sand flown in from Malibu beach

So has Hutchins, a keen surfer, who occasionally helps the British security services, really switched sides? His friends and colleagues doubt it very much.

Whatever the truth, one thing is for sure: he doesnt appear to be a typical hacker.

Normally preferring life in the shadows, if they leave footprints at all its normally the online kind. But having complained about being unmasked after his heroics in May, Hutchins flew earlier this month to Vegas for a security convention, where, in his downtime, he appeared to enjoy the kind of fast-living far removed from geekery.

Whats more, he flaunted his bling-filled sojourn on social media. Where in Nevada, he asked his Twitter followers, could he put a rented 500,000 Lamborghini through its paces without risking arrest?

Pictured: Hutchins is now languishing in an FBI holding cell in Las Vegas

Along with a few pals, Hutchins  known online by the name MalwareTech  stayed in a sprawling 1,500-a-night villa, said to boast the largest private pool in town, with sand flown in from Malibu beach.

Theres also a champagne-filled Jacuzzi known as the Bubbly Tub. At one point during his break, Hutchins posted a picture of a pair of loafers, a gift from his boss that, he said, cost more than his entire wardrobe.

Online footage also showed him firing a powerful machine gun at a Nevada firing range.

Cyber security expert Kevin Collier, who had dinner with Hutchins in Vegas, told The Mail on Sunday he came across as a sweet young guy who was having a rare weekend away from home and was squeezing in as much partying as he could.

But then the fun stopped.

News broke last week that Hutchins had been arrested in an FBI swoop. He was accused of creating software used to raid bank accounts that was sold online.

Computer security experts believe that a co-defendant in the conspiracy between July 2014 and July 2015, whose name has been redacted from the six-count indictment, may have framed Hutchins.

Others simply stress he is one of the good guys: one of the much sought-after white hats who defend networks from so-called black hats or criminal hackers.

The Mail on Sunday has been told that Hutchins, though UK-based, works for a US firm called Kryptos Logic and is paid a six-figure salary.

The 23-year-old filmed himself swimming in the largest private pool in Vegas and also decided to fire machine guns at a Nevada range

While he awaits the chance to mount his defence, he remains in his cell, seven miles north of the famous Vegas Strip, clad in a prison-issued yellow jumpsuit with detainee stamped on the back, orange Crocs on his feet and a GPS tag around his ankle.

Yesterday he appeared in court where further details of the case against him began to emerge. He is accused of creating and transmitting the program called Kronos.

His co-defendant is accused of advertising and selling it on the dark web marketplace AlphaBay, which was shut down last month.

Dan Cowhig, prosecuting, said the evidence against him included an alleged confession during a police interview. He admitted he was the author of the code of Kronos malware and indicated he sold it, Mr Cowhig said.

After the hearing Hutchinss lawyer Adrian Lobo said he plans to plead not guilty to all charges.

WILL 'THE WOLF' WIN HIM FREEDOM? Pictured: The 'Wolf' Adrian Lobo The lawyer representing Marcus Hutchins is known as The Wolf for her tenacity in the courtroom. Adrian Lobo boasts of helping clients who think their odds are slim to none. Yesterday, she won her first battle with prosecutors by winning bail for Hutchins. She called claims that he was a danger garbage. Advertisement

Although she managed to win bail for him yesterday, he will remain in a cell until tomorrow.

She said: He has dedicated his life to researching malware, not trying to harm people. Use the internet for good is what he has done. He was completely shocked, this isnt something he anticipated. He came here for a work-related conference and he was fully anticipating to go back home and had no reason to be fearful of coming or going from the United States.

Robin Edgar, an ethical computer hacker who knows Hutchins, said: We are fairly upset because it looks like he has been picked up off the airport, almost kidnapped by the FBI. He disappeared completely off the radar for about a day with no way of finding him.

Another friend, Andrew Mabbitt, said: [Marcus] did not have a lawyer for the first 48 hours, and had no outside contact with friends or family. He still has not had contact with his parents.

The charges follow an FBI sting operation in which agents posed as criminals looking to buy Kronos. According to prosecutors Hutchins and an unnamed co-defendant discussed the virus in an online chat.

But Mr Edgar said: If you look at his Twitter account, he posted a piece of code in January 2015 showing a vulnerability in some software. In February, a version of Kronos came out and the...day after he posted a Tweet saying look this Kronos thing has stolen my code and used it...

So he was very unhappy that his code had been stolen and used within Kronos. He did not write Kronos, it looks like, but he wrote a little piece of code that was used in the malware.

Next week Hutchins will appear in court in Milwaukee in the Midwest state of Wisconsin to face trial.

A British cyber security expert said: He has a close relationship with law enforcement through his work, including the FBI. He makes an absolute fortune on legitimate work, its a complete surprise.

Hutchinss mother Janet Hutchins has said her sons involvement was hugely unlikely because he has spent enormous amounts of time and even his free time combating malware.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accidentally fell into the water while kayaking in British Columbia on Saturday, just moments before he eagerly posed for a selfie with newlyweds.

Trudeau was visiting the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve when he found himself in a pickle after falling out of his kayak as he attempted to climb in.

'Making a splash at @GulfIslandNPR,' Truduea tweeted in the caption of his photo after he plunged into the water.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accidentally fell into the water as he tried to get into his kayak in British Columbia just moments before he eagerly posed for a selfie with newlyweds

Trudeau was visiting the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve when he found himself in a pickle after falling out of his kayak. 'Making a splash at @GulfIslandNPR,' Truduea tweeted in the caption of his photo after he plunged into the water

Moments later, newlyweds Michelle Gruetzner, who was still wearing her wedding dress, and Heiner Gruetzner (pictured), approached his kayak

The pair, who were holding their wedding reception nearby on Sidney Spit, appeared shocked to see the prime minister and quickly made sure to take a selfie before chatting with the Canadian leader. Photos showed Trudeau (pictured) even planting a kiss on the bride's cheek

His second attempt at getting into the kayak was successful as staff members looked a bit concerned. Trudeau joked that he was 'happy the national media was there to capture that', according to the Canadian Press.

Despite the fall, the prime minister kept a huge smile on his face as he continued his day of fun.

Moments later, newlyweds Michelle Gruetzner, who was still wearing her wedding dress, and Heiner Gruetzner, approached his kayak.

The pair, who were holding their wedding reception nearby on Sidney Spit, appeared shocked to see the prime minister and quickly made sure to take a selfie before chatting with the Canadian leader.

Photos showed Trudeau even planting a kiss on the bride's cheek and shaking her husband's hand before paddling away.

Trudeau is in Tofino this evening to take part in a roundtable with Indigenous leaders.

He has spent several days this week in B.C., making stops in Revelstoke, Williams Lake, Vancouver and Victoria.

Trudeau spoke on Friday night to about 100 people gathered for a Liberal party event at a hotel in Victoria saying the party must continue to bring forward new ideas that make Canada stronger.

He also got a chance to shake Heiner Gruetzner's hand before paddling away

Trudeau is in Tofino this evening to take part in a roundtable with Indigenous leaders. He has spent several days this week in B.C., making stops in Revelstoke, Williams Lake, Vancouver and Victoria
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Malagas red light district has been shown a red card.

And in its place? Well, take your pick from the Pompidou Centre, the first European branch of the State Russian Museum, the Carmen Thyssen Museum and the Picasso Museum, in honour of Malagas most famous son.

Which means Southern Spains costa conduit has been radically transformed; its now a destination in its own right, a sought-after weekend escape  and a complete joy.

Iconic: The Spanish port city of Malaga is a joy, with its cathedral, City Hall and the Alcazaba citadel puncturing the skyline

English guide Vivienne, long-time resident and aspiring flamenco dancer, stomps us up the cobbles to the Alcazaba fortress, where we gaze out over the glitzy new harbour.

She tells me about the annual swimming race around it, in which she competes  and wins! She suggests I should enter. Apparently, Id be up against the mayor, the architect of all this urban upheaval.

In the Picasso Museum, we see some of the maestros earliest works. It may not contain his most famous pieces, but the place does resonate as an insight into the man and his genius.

Here, were invited into the temporary exhibition, Bacon, Freud and the School of London (ends September 17).

A short stroll through carless streets bathed in sunshine brings us to the Carmen Thyssen Museum, a gorgeous old villa where the former Miss Spain 1961 and fifth wife of avid art collector Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza has housed her own collection since 2011.

Check in: Andrew stayed at the four-star Mariposa Hotel. Its 52 chic, ultra-modern rooms offer excellent value for money

Then we head for the permanent galleries, including a fabulous collection of 18th and 19th-century Andalusian paintings.

Its a mesmerising insight into the past: the drawn daggers of highwaymen, Seville beauties sultry stares piercing the canvas, and bullfighters using carts to block off the village square.

But its after sundown that this transformed town puffs out its chest in anticipation of that most Spanish of practices  eating dinner just in time for breakfast.

We saunter through a labyrinth of marble-paved squares and illuminated side streets, Malagas burgeoning reputation for go-to gastronomy laid out around us like a sprawling Spanish smorgasbord, until we reach Los Patios de Beatas, housed in a former convent.

A brush with young wonder: 'In the Picasso Museum, we see some of the maestros earliest works,' Andrew writes. 'It may not contain his most famous pieces, but the place does resonate as an insight into the man and his genius'

We are welcomed in by the effusively friendly Julian Sanjuan, an expert on local wines, who immediately sets about an evening of furthering our understanding of Andalusian cuisine.

Stylish hotels have sprung up all around, and most are well connected to the local station and its incredible 11-minute journey from the airport straight into the extensively pedestrianised city centre.

A further two-minute walk brings you to the four-star Mariposa Hotel. Its 52 chic, ultra-modern rooms superbly combine accessibility and value for money.

With more sunshine hours than anywhere else in Spain, cheap flights, and its newfound cultural identity, the Costa del Sols capital is a proper destination, not just a handy jumping-off point.
Look at a map of Croatias Dalmatian Coast and there must be as many islands as there are spots on its canine namesake.

With the Adriatic nation enjoying a surge in British holiday traffic this summer  thanks to Croatia being outside the even-pricier-than-usual Eurozone  many people will have been wondering which island to choose from in the waters between Spilt and Dubrovnik.

The best-known are Brac, with its world-famous beach (a delicious spit of sand called Zlatni Rat) and Hvar, famed for its nightclubs and beautiful people. But if you havent made up your mind, why not try a selection?

Glorious: Robert chartered a yacht to carry nine guests and toured Croatias Dalmatian Coast, with stop-offs including Spilt (pictured) the island of Solta and Stari Grad in Hvar

You certainly do not need to be a sailor to charter a decent family-sized yacht for a week.

With a skipper costing between 100 and 130 a day, you can leave him (or her) to do all the work and enjoy a waterfront holiday home for less than the cost of a hotel  and no need for a hire car, either.

We found our boat through Zizoo, the online yacht broker. Type in your budget, the number of people, dates and your preferred boat (sail or motor), and it works just like a property search company.

We were a group of four adults and five children under the age of ten, and we wanted to sail to and from somewhere with regular UK flights.

We settled on a Bavaria 45, a well-equipped, German-built yacht based in the port of Trogir, a short taxi ride from Split Airport.

It sleeps up to ten people in four cabins and has three loos (each with a shower), a big galley and two huge water tanks that we only needed to refill once all week.

Nine's company: Robert's party included four adults and five children. All were entertained

Our first destination was just a couple of hours away. Often eclipsed by neighbouring Brac, the island of Solta is crenelated with pretty inlets, perfect for dropping anchor before a leisurely lunch.

A short hop further on (everything is a short hop), we reached Brac for the night and parked in a snug cove at Lucice. Every boat comes with a dinghy  we buzzed ashore for piles of barbecued meat at a jolly, family-run restaurant.

And that was very much the pattern all the way around the Dalmatian Islands, cruising at a leisurely pace, never more than a few hours at a time and giving everyone a turn at the wheel.

Some nights, we slept at anchor in little bays. Yet perhaps the prettiest view was when we tied up by the quayside at Stari Grad, a Venetian gem on Hvar.

But there was no doubting the highlight of the week. Sailing away from Vis, Croatias most remote island, we found ourselves racing against an entire pod of dolphins. Funnily enough, they won.
Everybody in Cambrai seems to know Deborah.

Youve come to see Deborah, the Flesquieres tank? guessed the excited young woman at the check-in of the towns Ibis hotel. Formidable!

Like a combatant of Arthurian myth, it feels as if First World War Mark IV tank Deborah (the tanks were male and female and named accordingly) has woken ready to tackle a modern challenge to Britain.

Deborah (pictured) is a World War I tank which was struck and buried during the battle of Cambrai 100 years ago, and was dug up to be displayed 19 years ago

Stopped in her tracks by a shell during the battle of Cambrai 100 years ago, for unknown reasons Deborah was buried rather than being cut up for scrap.

After painstaking research, war enthusiast and local hotelier Philippe Gorczynski located Deborah 19 years ago.

She was carefully excavated and found to be in surprisingly good condition. For much of the past two decades, Philippe has been busy raising funds to create Deborahs very own museum in Flesquieres, the village a few miles from Cambrai where she was shelled and subsequently buried.

Frank Gustav Heap (pictured), the tanks commander, managed to escape when Deborah was stopped in her tracks by a shell during the battle of Cambrai 100 years ago

Last week the tank attracted a large crowd as she began her final journey from her temporary refuge in an old barn to the site of the 1 million new museum that will take shape around her over the next four months before it opens in November.

As a key location in German defences, the Cambrai area has a wealth of First World War attractions and memorials.

The new museum is adjacent to the British War Cemetery where four of Deborahs crew who died in the battle are buried.

Frank Gustav Heap, the tanks commander, managed to escape. Franks grandson Tim  and Tims son and grandson  were present at last weeks event.

On the first day of the Battle of Cambrai the tanks pushed through German lines  and delighted top brass ordered the ringing of church bells in England.

They rang too soon: the enemy recovered and regained most of the lost territory.

I look forward to returning to Flesquieres in November to renew my acquaintance with Deborah in her new museum.
To an observer, NZL 68 must be flitting across Waitemata Harbour with effortless ease. But on board, the crew are grinding hard.

Four teams of eight are assembled round what are essentially hand-powered bikes, furiously spinning them to generate enough power to shift the sail and catch the wind.

And theyre kidding themselves that theyre doing it fast enough to compete with the best.

Majestic: NZL 68s sister yacht, NZL 41, which is moored in Aucklands Viaduct Harbour, sails past the city's Sky Tower

NZL 68 was built for a German yachting club that was going to challenge for the Americas Cup, but then dropped out. It then passed into the hands of the New Zealand team competing in the 2007 Americas Cup and was used as a training vessel.

Nowadays, it finds itself, along with another identical Americas Cup-class yacht, NZL 41, moored in Aucklands Viaduct Harbour, manhandled on a daily basis by amateurs who are probably not going to be any threat to New Zealands newly crowned Americas Cup-winning team.

Herded along by four remarkably patient professional crew, bumbling novices are allowed to learn the ropes and sail the precision-designed racing yacht.

In practice, of course, this means grinding. Arm muscles get a thorough workout, and bad backs are put to the test. But it doesnt take long for people to get into it, powering away with relish. The rewards, of course, come when theres no need to tack or jibe and the yacht charges across the water.

Its a magnificent beast, 80ft long and with a 113ft-tall mast, but with no fripperies that get in the way of speed and manoeuvrability.

It generally glides along at between nine and 12 knots  thats getting up to just under 14mph, or roughly the speed of the ferry ploughing between Auckland city centre and beach suburb Devonport.

David (pictured) underwent a strenuous training session on board the vessel, which glides along at between nine and 12 knots

For those more accustomed to a leisurely sail, there are some unnerving facets of proper yachting to get used to.

Firstly, we can forget about comfy seats  everyone has to park themselves along the edges of the boat and hope not to get splashed by a rogue wave. Secondly, those edges dont stay neatly on a level.

The initial lurches as the yacht tips almost on its side are more than a little terrifying  especially when the skipper idly says its not supposed to go over that far. Nobodys sure if hes joking.

But after ten minutes or so, it becomes the new normal.

Commands (Grind forwards!) and barked motivation (A flappy sail is an unhappy sail!) become part of a life on the ocean wave.

But when the winds behind you, Aucklands Sky Tower to one side and volcanic island to the other, any thoughts about issuing a serious challenge to the world yachting champions happily drift away.
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The archaeologists had no reason to suspect foul play when they first unearthed the human skull.

It looked much like all the others extracted from the clay soil at Jamestown in the US state of Virginia. But when they examined it more closely, they noticed something deeply disturbing.

Knife cuts had been deliberately scored on the front of the skull and the rear had been brutally smashed open with a heavy object. It was clear that Jane  for that's the name the archaeologists gave to this unknown English adolescent  had been butchered and eaten by her fellow settlers.

It's a story that doesn't make it into Universal Pictures' epic new series Jamestown.

Giles Milton toured the archaeological site of Jamestown (pictured) in the state of Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas

This gripping drama follows the adventures of the first settlers in the New World. Among them is a feisty band of women who arrived in Virginia in 1619.

But it tells only half the story. Archaeologists working at Jamestown have pieced together the dramatic true story of the first settlers in America  a tale of starvation, murder and cannibalism.

Jamestown is one of the world's most exhilarating archaeological sites, and one of few open to visitors. You can also visit the adjacent reconstructed settlement, complete with 'interpreters' acting out the roles of those first settlers.

I start my visit by meeting Bill Kelso, the Indiana Jones of American archaeology. He has put this forgotten corner of Virginia firmly on the tourist circuit. He not only found the lost city of Jamestown  America's very own Machu Picchu  but has spent the past quarter-century excavating it.

'I was boating on the James River when I noticed a strange dark band in the riverbank,' he says. 'I suddenly realised it might contain the remains of the first colony.'

Kelso explains that Jamestown was for years the holy grail of American archaeology. The fortified town was long believed to have been washed away by the James River. But when he dug a trial trench, he found himself unearthing muskets, pots and bones of the very first settlers.

In 2012, the ancient human skull of a young female (left) revealed she had been likely been eaten by her fellow settlers. Excavators named her Jane, and pictured (right) is a reconstruction of her face

He has since become something of a celebrity. When the Queen came here in 2007  for the 400th anniversary of Jamestown's founding  it was Kelso who showed her around.

'I was worried she'd ask for everything back,' he jokes. 'If so, I was going to tell her, "Finders, keepers." '

The Jamestown TV series depicts the colony as it first begins to flourish, with the arrival of the first women and a dynamic new governor, Sir George Yeardley.

We know the first settlers ran out of food and it was a period known as the starving time, when the settlers ate rats and mice

'We think we've located his skeleton,' says Kelso. This coming autumn, forensic scientists from the Smithsonian will be conducting tests on the newly discovered bones.

But it is Jane's fractured skull that caused the biggest stir.

'We know the first settlers ran out of food,' says Kelso, 'and it was a period known as the starving time, when the settlers ate rats and mice.'

The discovery of Jane showed they also ate each other. 'We never really believed the stories of cannibalism until we found her skull,' says Kelso.

At the archaeological site you can witness the terrible birth pangs of colonial America, the recently identified skeletons, along with the finest of the two million artefacts unearthed by Kelso and his team.

At the settlement there is a world-class museum, three reconstructed galleons and dozens of actor-interpreters in period costume to help you make sense of the place

Jamestown is one of the world's most exhilarating archaeological sites, and one of few open to visitors. You can also visit the adjacent reconstructed settlement, complete with 'interpreters' acting out the roles of those first settlers

At the settlement there is a world-class museum, three reconstructed galleons and dozens of actor-interpreters in period costume to help you make sense of the place.

There is also a great deal more to see in the Historic Triangle of coastal Virginia.

Nearby Williamsburg remains little changed from the early 1700s. It is a near-perfectly preserved Georgian town that's been turned into a living museum. Actor-inhabitants play out the lives of the colonial inhabitants who once lived here, all dressed in period costume.

Just a few miles along the Colonial Parkway is Yorktown, a miniature Regency town complete with clapperboard houses, a battlefield and an excellent American Revolution Museum.

Yorktown was the setting for one of the most momentous battles in British and American history. It was here that Charles Cornwallis's army was trounced by the Americans, thereby paving the way for independence.

The new Jamestown TV series (pictured) depicts the colony as it first begins to flourish, with the arrival of the first women

The battlefield is immense and best visited on rented bikes. As you cycle a trail that winds through forests, swamps and meadows, a series of historic panels guide you through the unfolding drama.

This is Virginia at its most bucolic: a stunning slice of pristine wilderness. This trio of places lie just a three-hour drive from Washington DC, yet attract few British tourists. It's hard to fathom why.

It's not for a lack of amenities: the region has a string of superb restaurants. My favourite was the Williamsburg Winery. The food scores particularly highly, especially the clams, oysters and crabs from Chesapeake Bay.

Universal Pictures' depiction of Jamestown shows a colonial town with a crowd of dastardly men and headstrong women. It's tempting to wonder what they would make of modern-day Virginia.

One thing is sure. They'd have loved the fast-food outlets and the array of locally brewed beers. And they would certainly have preferred dining a la carte at the Williamsburg Winery than munching their way through poor old Jane.

Giles Milton's latest book, Churchill's Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is now available in paperback. Jamestown Series 1 is available on DVD from 14.99.
With its Viennese-style coffee houses and shadowy Cold War atmosphere, its not surprising to discover that Trieste was once a thriving Austro-Hapsburg port.

Germanic influence survives in the clockwork eating habits and the double-headed eagle motifs on buildings in the Austrian Quarter.

After the First World War, Trieste was ceded to Italy. The old town, the Citta Vecchia, is where Mitteleuropa meets the Mediterranean in twisted, cobbled streets hung with laundry.

Trieste's chief tourist attraction is Miramare Castle, built in the early 19th Century by Franz Josephs ill-fated younger brother, Archduke Maximilian

On my last visit in 1991, those streets teemed with refugees from Slovenia and Croatia. Yugoslavia was breaking up and Trieste exuded a shabby, Vienna-on-the-Sea atmosphere.

Triste Trieste, Italians called it  sad Trieste. That was then.

A quarter of a century later, the city is transformed. The neoclassical seafront buildings have been refurbished, the Austro-Hapsburg cafes restored.

Trieste is ideally situated for day trips to Venice and former Yugoslav nations. And its a gourmets delight. Cafes serve Germanic pork and sauerkraut soup spiced with grated horseradish. The ubiquitous Illy coffee brand, with its Italo-Hungarian origins, is a bonus.

Nostalgia for imperial Vienna can be felt in the dark-panelled cafes off Piazza Unita dItalia and in the magnificence of the Savoia Excelsior Palace, built in 1911 by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.

In 1914, his nephew and heir, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist. The equilibrium of Europe was shattered as the First World War broke out.

A statue of Irish novelist James Joyce, who spent 15 years in Trieste, stands on a bridge over the Italian city's Grand Canal

Following the Second World War, Trieste became a pawn in the tussle between East and West when Yugoslav partisans claimed it, occupying the city for 40 blood-soaked days in 1945. After nine years being governed by the British and American military, the city was re-annexed to Italy in 1954.

From my hotel balcony, the Adriatic appeared a wonderful Pernod-green. The liquid softness of the autumn afternoon worked on me like a soporific. Across the Gulf of Trieste shimmered the snowy Julian Alps.

In its heyday under Austria, Trieste attracted a diversity of peoples. This cosmopolitan tradition is maintained in the Caffe degli Specchi, where Harry Lime-type zither music tinkles atmospherically as waiters with Franz Joseph moustaches serve slices of Viennese strudel cake.

In many ways, Trieste is a city where a high bourgeois tradition survives. But thats not the whole picture. On my way to the opera, I stopped at a champagneria where young Triestini were enjoying tapas to house music provided by DJ Atomic Cat.

Cafes serve the ubiquitous Illy coffee brand (left), with its Italo-Hungarian origins; and its Viennese strudel (right) is a reminder of Triestes Austrian heritage

A blaze of gold and red plush, the grand Teatro Verdi was as I remembered it from a quarter of a century ago. Opera-goers wore fedora hats, sable stoles and loden overcoats.

At the Hostaria Malcanton next door, I was served that most delicious of Adriatic seafood dishes: soar  sardine fillets marinated in lemon juice, onions and pine nuts. Diners chatted in their Triestino dialect infused with Venetian and Slovenian words.

The citys chief tourist attraction is Miramare Castle, built in the early 19th Century by Franz Josephs ill-fated younger brother, Archduke Maximilian.

Triestes most famous writer, Italo Svevo, fattish, bald and melancholy, was born in 1861 to an assimilated German-Jewish family. Austrian by citizenship but Italian by cultural preference, he was a whole casebook of Austrian-Adriatic neuroses.

A blaze of gold and red plush, the grand Teatro Verdi was as I remembered it from a quarter of a century ago

His writing went almost unnoticed until James Joyce became his private English tutor in Trieste in 1907. Joyce spent 15 years in Trieste. When not teaching English, he drank in the Caffe San Marco behind the synagogue. A statue of him stands on a bridge over the Grand Canal.

In addition to Croats and Slovenes, some 7,000 Serbs live in Trieste today. At the Serb Orthodox church near Joyces statue, candles flickered while head-scarved women crossed themselves. The gold interior is like a Westerners fantasy of the Eastern Byzantine Orient.

The priest told me I should go to Slovenia and explore the Carso Plateau. A 15-minute drive took me to the giant obelisk marking the Slovenian border high above Trieste.

The Carsic Plain, some 60 miles wide, stretches east into a beautiful rolling landscape dotted with orange-yellow fern. The Carsos hushed atmosphere was emphasised by limestone sink-holes in which Jugoslav partisans reportedly disposed of Italian anti-communists at the wars end. In the hazy distance, the Istrian plateau was a violet-blue line.

I stopped at an osmiza, a farmhouse-cum-eating-place, in the hamlet of Praprot. It belonged to Slovenian wine producer Benjamin Zidarich, whose Vitovska and Malvasia whites are reckoned to be among the best in Europe. The osmiza enjoyed dramatic views over the Adriatic and Venice in the distance.

The osmize of the Carso are an essential part of any visit to Trieste, this most melancholy and beautiful of cities.
Megan Marx was sharing wild, scantily-cald Instagram updates from her holiday in Bali, Indonesia last month, apparently enjoying the single life.

But the former Bachelor star may have a secret travel companion she is keeping away from the spotlight, a source tells Daily Mail Australia.

The 28-year-old Geraldton native is said to be discreetly enjoying the company of handsome travel blogger and 'influencer' Tom Grond.

New couple alert? Former Bachelor star Megan Marx (pictured) may have a secret travel companion she is keeping away from the spotlight, a source tells Daily Mail Australia

Both Megan and Tom have shared Instagram photos from similar picturesque locations, even checking into the same luxury accommodation in Bali.

But despite posing separately against remarkably familiar backdrops, the rumoured travel companions have apparently taken care not to be pictured together.

In a statement, Megan acknowledged she knew Tom but denied they were in an intimate relationship.

It's a match! The 28-year-old is said to be discreetly enjoying the company of travel blogger and 'influencer' Tom Grond (right). Pictured at the Bulgari Resort in Bali on the same day

'Tom is just a friend and we are definitely not dating,' Megan said.

In a brief response, Tom also told Daily Mail Australia: 'Sorry ask Megan, not me.'

Tom, who appears to hail from the Netherlands, is known for visiting 78 countries and documenting his travels in shirtless Instagram photos.

'Tom is just a friend and we are definitely not dating': Megan acknowledged she knew Tom but denied they were in an intimate relationship. Pictured: Megan (left) and Tom's (right) Instagram photos from Villa Infinity in Bali, posted on the same day last month

What's going on? In a brief response, Tom told Daily Mail Australia: 'Sorry ask Megan, not me'

Pecs appeal! Tom, who appears to hail from the Netherlands, is known for visiting 78 countries and documenting his travels in shirtless Instagram snaps

Megan briefly dated Tiffany Scanlon after meeting on The Bachelor Australia, starring Richie Strahan, last year.

Tiffany previously told Daily Mail Australia they became friends on set, but fell in love months later while on holiday in Indonesia.

Their romance appeared to be going well and they even made plans to live together in Bali - but in March, Megan confirmed they had split.

Former lovers: Megan was previously in a relationship with Tiffany Scanlon (right), who she met while filming The Bachelor Australia last year
She wrapped Season 14 of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance on July 31.

So Vanessa Hudgens treated herself to some pamper time at a spa in Beverly Hills on Friday.

The 28-year-old, who is a judge on the reality show, showed off her cleavage and her long legs in an itty-bitty army green romper.

Looking good: Vanessa Hudgens showed off her cleavage and her long legs in a green romper when she treated herself to some pamper time at a spa in Beverly Hills on Friday

The High School Musical star teamed it with comfy Gucci slides and threw a pricey E. Goyard tote - that retails for $2,275 - over her shoulder.

Pulling a black cap over her brunette tresses, Vanessa walked up the steps to the spa carrying an iced drink and her cell phone.

Vanessa rose to fame as Gabriella Montez in Disney's 2006 TV movie, High School Musical and its sequels.

Casual chic: The 28-year-old So You Think You Can Dance judge teamed the revealing romper with comfy Gucci slides and threw a E. Goyard tote - that retails for $2,275 - over her shoulder

She also showcased her talents as Betty Rizzo in Fox's Grease Live! that aired in January 2016.

The California native's dance skills helped her land her role as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, which has yet to reveal the panel for its upcoming 15th season.

However, NBC cancelled her sitcom Powerless after just 12 episodes in May.

Staying hydrated: The actress, who found fame as one of the stars of the High School Musical TV movie franchise, carried a cold drink and her phone as she went on her way

Vanessa played a member of staff at an insurance company specializing in products to protect defenseless bystanders from the collateral damage of superheroes and supervillains.

Meanwhile, her love life is still going strong after six years.

She and boyfriend Austin Butler were first spotted getting romantic in 2011 and have been together ever since, despite his long absences filming MTVs The Shannara Chronicles in New Zealand.
EastEnders star Danny Dyer has dismissed claims that he is poised to turn his back on the show when his current contract expires in November.

The British actor, 40, originally hinted that his long-term future on the BBC soap was unclear while chatting to fans on a location shoot in Hornchurch, east London.

Dressed in character as lively pub landlord Mick Carter, Dyer revealed he was unable to take on other projects because the show, which airs four times a week, fills up most of his time  and suggested he may well refuse an extension to his existing contract.

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Not happening: EastEnders star Danny Dyer has dismissed claims that he is poised to turn his back on the show when his current contract expires in November

Caught on camera as he passed the time during a break between scenes, he said: 'This takes up my life this does. I aint signed yet. Im meant to sign in October but I might elbow it.'

Representatives have since denied the actor, who has been a huge hit with fans following his introduction to show in 2013, plans to leave.

A spokesperson told MailOnline: 'The deal is agreed - he is staying at EastEnders.'

Naughty: The British actor, 40, originally hinted that his long-term future on the BBC soap was unclear while chatting to fans on a location shoot in Hornchurch, east London

Camera footage obtained by The Sun also appears to show Dyer expressing frustration after a fan asks him when he is releasing another film, replying: 'F*****g tell me about it.'

His popular character has returned to the series after the actor was supposedly encouraged to take a break from work, due to 'personal issues'.

After a prolonged absence he is back at work and seemingly in good spirits, despite private issues that involve alleged bouts of anger on-set and a newly-uncovered affair with former Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding.

Opening up: Dressed in character as lively pub landlord Mick Carter, Dyer revealed he was unable to take on other projects because the show, which airs four times a week, fills up most of his time  and suggested he may well refuse an extension to his existing contract

The reported fling was said to have happened after they worked together on the 2012 film Run for Your Wife.

A source told The Sun: 'For a while they were head over heels and had a wild sexual relationship. He fell in lust with her.'

The insider, and so-called friend of Sarah, further claimed: 'She was flattered by him and soon they had become an item.

Nonsense: Representatives have since denied the actor, who has been a huge hit with fans following his introduction to show in 2013, plans to leave

'She's really not the kind of girl to get involved with someone with a partner. Things would never have gone so far.'

The revelation came just days after it emerged he was living in a hotel after his wife Joanne, 40, 'sent him packing' from their home.

A source told the Mirror: 'Jo looked at his phone and found he was back in touch with a group of pals who were not a good influence.

'She was furious and sent him packing. It's the people that hang around him which cause him problems.'

Danny previously stayed at the same hotel alone in 2015 after claiming the show had 'rinsed the life out of him'.
Hilary Duff was snapped looking amazing on her summer vacation in Maui, Hawaii Friday, after taking to social media earlier in the day to fire back at body shamers.

The Younger actress, 29, wore a white tank top in the Pacific Ocean on the outing, with a $108 L'Port 'Ricah' cut-out cheeky bikini.

The 5ft2 beauty accessorized with a dark blue mesh trucker cap, multiple bracelets and necklaces and dark sunglasses as she spent time with her five-year-old son, Luca.

Answering back: Hilary Duff, 29, was snapped on her summer vacation in Maui, Hawaii Friday, after taking to social media earlier in the day to fire back at outlets she feels have body shamed her

The Houston native rounded things out with a spruce blue patterned beach cover-up as she relaxed with Luca both in the water and on the shore.

The mom-of-one looked confident just hours after she took to social media to fire back at critics who have scrutinized her figure amid her Hawaiian getaway, as she attached a shot of her in a one-piece bathing suit taken earlier in the week.

In a post she said she wrote 'on behalf of young girls, women, and mothers of all ages,' Duff vented her frustration over the ongoing analysis of her figure.

Undaunted: The beauty stepped out in the sunshine after striking back at those who scrutinize her figure

Speaking out: Duff - wearing a $108 L'Port 'Ricah' cut-out cheeky bikini - said her anti-body shaming statement came 'on behalf of young girls, women, and mothers of all ages'

Circle of life: Duff reminded her critics that her figure gave her 'the greatest gift of [her] life,' her son Luca

Fun in the sun: Duff looked overjoyed as she chat with her young son on the outing

'My body has given me the greatest gift of my life: Luca, 5 years ago. I'm turning 30 in September and my body is healthy and gets me where I need to go,' she wrote.

The star shared an empowering message to her female fans with a message of self-esteem over confirming to the unrealistic standards promoted by some in society.

'Ladies, lets be proud of what we've got and stop wasting precious time in the day wishing we were different, better, and unflawed,' she wrote.

Leaving no doubt: The outspoken celebrity made clear she has no love for body shamers, writing '#kissmy**' to end her post

Family time: The Younger actress shared a loving moment with her son Luca on the shore

Keeping cool: The TV beauty looked amazing in a selfie she shared to her Twitter

While she didn't call out who she was upset at by name, the actress let those who irritated her know where they stood.

'You guys (you know who you are!) already know how to ruin a good time and now you are body shamers as well,' adding the hashtag, '#kissmya**.'

Younger airs Wednesdays on TV Land at 10/9c.
Bosses of TVs Countryfile have been considering a feature on the issue of dogging.

Tom Heap, who presents the BBC rural affairs show, said its mantra was nothing is off limits and a discussion of the problems caused by people having sex in public might soon be covered.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail about rumours that producers had vetoed the idea, the 52-year-old said: It is true that it was suggested but it is not true that it was vetoed by producers.

Tom Heap (pictured) said: The reason we havent done it is  quite how serious is it and quite how would you tackle it for a seven oclock audience?'

The reason we havent done it is  quite how serious is it and quite how would you tackle it for a seven oclock audience?

We have done things that are challenging, we have done farmer depression and suicide. We have done the issues over halal slaughter, weve touched those issues and it is very good that we do.

The programme should reflect the beauty and joy and innocent happiness of the countryside but it should also reflect the serious issues out there. Even if people think Oh God, Toms bit, thats a bit depressing  overall it gives an umbrella of reality to the show because people think its not just an advert.

Viewers were shocked when the presenters used a number of innuendos about dogging in a programme last September.

In a tribute to One Man and His Dog, presenter Anita Rani (pictured) said: Dick and his dogging could be tested to their limit'

In a tribute to One Man and His Dog, presenter Anita Rani said: Dick and his dogging could be tested to their limit.

Despite Heaps comments, a BBC spokesman said last night: There are absolutely no plans to cover this topic on the programme.

A few days ago it emerged that dogging blocks had been installed in a national park to try to stop late-night sexual encounters.

Welsh Water, which owns Llwyn Onn Reservoir in the Brecon Beacons, has spent 50,000 blocking up car parks at the beauty spot.

Chris Davies, the areas Tory MP, said: This is an issue not often discussed in the media or in wider society. I am appalled this sort of activity happens.
They both work together on Channel Nine's hit drama Doctor Doctor.

And actor Ryan Johnson and his screenwriter wife Tamara Asmar has lifted the lid on what it is like working on the same show.

Speaking to Good Weekend, Ryan revealed his wife has never written a sex scene for him, joking other screenwriters would have had him and on-screen wife Charlie, played by Nicole de Silva, 'jumping into bed'.

'Other writers would have had us jumping into bed!' Doctor Doctor star Ryan Johnson reveals screenwriter wife Tamara Asmar has never written a sex scene for his character

Ryan said it was by pure luck they both ended up working on Doctor Doctor together.

Now in its second season, Ryan plays Matt Knight, the younger brother of hedonistic doctor Hugh Knight, played by Rodger Corser.

'Tamara has never written me a sex scene in the show, usually the scene will end with my on-screen wife Charlie [Nicole de Silva] resting her head on my shoulder,' Ryan said.

Coincidence: Ryan said it was by pure luck they both ended up working on Doctor Doctor together

'Other writers would have had us jumping into bed!'

The actor also revealed Tamara had found his kissing scenes 'a bit confronting' at first and forced him to tell her the smooches were 'horrible'.

Tamara said she had gotten past seeing Ryan's kissing scenes as confronting and now accepted it as just part of the job.

Doesn't like them: The actor also revealed Tamara had found his kissing scenes 'a bit confronting' at first and forced him to tell her the smooches were 'horrible'

'Over the years I've got to see it as a fairly unromantic, technical thing, with 20 people standing around watching,' she said.

But it was a long-running joke on set that Tara didn't write sex scenes for her husband and on-screen wife.

Besides Doctor Doctor, Ryan's previous credits include Fairly Legal, House Husbands and Love Child.
It's the upcoming film everyone's talking about.

And cultural rom-com Ali's Wedding couldn't have come at a better time, according to its star Helana Sawires.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday, the 23-year-old said the first Muslim romantic comedy will resonate well with all Australian cultures.

Changing views: On Saturday, star of Ali's Wedding Helana Sawires said the cultural rom-com couldn't have come at a better time

'The thing with Ali's wedding is it's universal,' she said to the Sydney Morning Herald.

'It's timeless....but it's come at such a crucial point in time given what's going on in the world today.'

'It's positive and it's light and it's a love story, but it's also an insight into a Muslim individual's life in modern-day Australia,' continued the actress who plays Dianne.

Cultural: 'It's positive and it's light and it's a love story, but it's also an insight into a Muslim individual's life in modern-day Australia', she said

The true story of Osmah Sami's real very short-lived marriage, recreates his path of succumbing to his parents orthodox values whilst trying to follow his heart and marry the girl of his dreams.

The son of a respected cleric was expected to succeed in school, become a doctor and then marry a girl from the local mosque through an arranged setup.

Wanting to please his parents, Osmah faked a great high school score, attended University of Melbourne classes although he was never enrolled, and went on to marry his promised girl only to run away one-and-a-half hours later to chase his true love Dianne.

Doing his own thing: Wanting to please his parents, Osmah faked a great high school score, attended University of Melbourne classes although he was never enrolled, and went on to marry his promised girl only to run away one-and-a-half hours later

Speaking to Sydney Morning Herald last year, Osmah said he wanted to represent a positive and comedic side to Muslim-Australian life.

'A couple of Muslims stopped us [on day two of filming] and asked, "Is this bringing a bad name to Muslims again?", that just shows how much they are fed up with the negative stereotype that we consume in the media,' he said.

'It's great that those stories are now finally being told. They've been part of the Australian landscape for a long, long time so it's really refreshing to see these stories come to the screen.'

Ali's Wedding will open in cinemas on August 31.
She slips into the role of the Animal Farm writer's wife with ease in new London play Mrs Orwell.

And Cressida Bonas looked every inch the leading lady when she attended the play's after party at the Old Red Lion Pub and Theatre in London on Friday evening.

Prince Harry's former flame, 28, showcased her svelte figure in the form-fitting floral jumpsuit for the showbiz bash.

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A royal performance: Cressida Bonas looked every inch the leading lady when she attended the play's after party at the Old Red Lion Pub and Theatre in London on Friday evening

Keeping it casual, the royal's ex lover slipped into a comfortable pair of trainers not needing to boost her petite frame.

The golden-haired beauty styled her locks in a noticeably shorter fashion for the play and let it tumble down to the fringes of her shoulders in loosely-tousled curls.

Showing off her natural beauty, Cressida opted for a light dusting of make-up to complete her look for the party.

The play brings to life the last months of George Orwell's life as he lay dying in a hospital bed from tuberculosis.

Leading lady: She slips into the role of the Animal Farm writer's wife with ease in new London play Mrs Orwell

It will tell the story of when the 1984 writer asked his friend and assistant magazine editor Sonia Brownell, 30, to marry him.

Sonia spent the rest of her days trying to protect Orwell's legacy before dying from a brain tumour in 1980.

Cressida is set to take to the big screen in Tom Stoppard's upcoming movie Tulip Fever.

The actress will star alongside Cara Delevingne and Judi Dench in the film which has finally been given a US release date.

Fit for a princess: Prince Harry's former flame, 28, showcased her svelte figure in the form-fitting floral jumpsuit for the showbiz bash

Storytelling: The play brings to life the last months of George Orwell's life as he lay dying in a hospital bed from tuberculosis (pictured with cast members)

The golden-haired beauty hopes her acting career will fruition as she has set her sights on Hollywood.

'I'm a real home person and close to my family, but would love to go out to Los Angeles if the right opportunity came along,' she told the Evening Standard.

'I do feel more at home in theatre so perhaps even New York.'

Ambition: The golden-haired beauty hopes her acting career will fruition as she has set her sights on Hollywood

She's previously starred in a short film for Burberry as well as taking on the role of Daisy in a play version of The Great Gatsby.

But she's perhaps best known for her connections to royalty.

A close friend of Princess Eugenie and her sister Beatrice, she was introduced to Prince Harry by his cousins.

The couple were madly in love for two years before they parted for good in 2014.

Harry is now in a high-profile relationship with Suits star Meghan Markle.

Meanwhile, Cressida has reunited with Harry Wentworth-Stanley who was born in Hampshire but now lives in London.
He's the outspoken former Oasis frontman who had previously said he would never release a solo album.

But Liam Gallagher has announced that he would be embarking on a a career sans band, eight years after Oasis called it a day cockily proclaiming that he was the 'f***ing bol***ks.'

In an expletive-laden interview with the Good Weekend magazine, the 44-year-old rocker revealed that he had been working on a new crop of songs, albeit written by a crop of different songwriters including Greg Kurstin who co-wrote Adele's Hello.

Career change: Liam Gallagher has announced that he would be embarking on a a career sans band, eight years after Oasis called it a day cockily proclaiming that he was the 'f***ing bol***ks'

Liam also bemoaned the current 'sameness' of popular music, adding that he hoped his new music would be an antidote to what he viewed as mediocrity.

'You can't tell a guitar and from a pop band these days,' he said. No one's cranking it up and having a bit of aggro. They're all going to the same parties ...and, dare I say it, they all look the same and dress the same. Someone needs to counteract that. And I'm here to do that.'

He told the publication that he had resisted the idea to go solo before now as he didn't want to be perceived as having broke up Oasis, in a subtle dig at brother Noel.

New music: In an expletive-laden interview with the Good Weekend magazine, the 44-year-old rocker revealed that he had been working on a new crop of songs, albeit written by a crop of different songwriters including Greg Kurstin who co-wrote Adele's Hello

'I just don't want to to be tarred with that brush,' he said. 'There's people that are great in bands that have always got their eye on going solo - who we won't mention, because he'll get enough f***ing mentions - and they break up great bands,' he said.

'But I weren't one of them people that broke up a band to go solo.'

Liam revealed that as the a solo project was 'coming together' at the end of 2016, the Oasis documentary, Supersonic was released and he recalled a conversation with comedian Ricky Gervais about the film.

Rock saviour: You can't tell a guitar and from a pop band these days,' he said. No one's cranking it up and having a bit of aggro. Someone needs to counteract that. And I'm here to do that.' Liam (r) is pictured with former Oasis bandmate and brother Noel

'I met Ricky Gervais the other day and he went, 'Oh I saw Supersonic. I thought you came across really well,' and I went, 'As opposed to what, you f***ing little c***? I am the f***ing bol***ks, get with it! And he walked away,' he revealed.

Oasis, who were responsible for such chart-topping hits as Wonderwall Champagne Supernova and Don't Look Back In Anger called it a day in 2009 after tensions between Liam and Noel reached breaking point.

After a fight broke out backstage in Paris between the two brothers, Noel posted a statement on the band's website that read: 'It is with some sadness and great relief to tell youI quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.'
He was recently spotted soaking up the sun during an idyllic holiday in France with his six-year-old son Flynn.

But it was back to reality for Orlando Bloom on Friday, as he cut a casual figure while arriving in Los Angeles, California.

The Pirates of the Caribbean hunk, 40, looked every inch the leading man as he strode through the airport in a stylish printed jacket.

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The daily grind: It was back to reality for Orlando Bloom on Friday, as he cut a casual figure while arriving in Los Angeles, California

The Troy star kept things casual in the yellow jacket, which he teamed with simple black skinny jeans.

Boasting a subtle tan from his exotic getaway, the British actor shielded his eyes behind a pair of simple square-frame shades.

He opted for comfort in his footwear for the long-haul flight and rocked some hi-top trainers, as well as layering a blue shirt under his outerwear.

Taking centre-stage: The Pirates of the Caribbean hunk, 40, looked every inch the leading man as he strode through the airport in a stylish printed jacket

Dapper guy: Boasting a subtle tan from his exotic getaway, the British actor shielded his eyes behind a pair of simple square-frame shades

Orlando was most recently seen on holiday with his son Flynn, who he shares with his ex-wife Miranda Kerr.

As for romance, the hunk has been flying solo since his high-profile romance with songstress Katy Perry came to an end in March earlier this year.

Their relationship courted a lot of attention when he was seen paddle-boarding naked on holiday with the I Kissed A Girl hitmaker in Sardinia in August last year.

Star-studded: While in France, Orlando is taking some well-earned time off from promoting Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (pictured in Los Angeles in 2017)

Describing their relationship now, he told Elle UK: 'Were friends, its good. Were all grown up. She happens to be someone who is very visible, but I dont think anybody cares about what Im up to.

'Nor should they. Its between us. Its better to set an example for kids and show that breakups dont have to be about hate.'

Since their amicable split, he has been throwing himself into his high-flying acting career.

While in France, Orlando is taking some well-earned time off from promoting the fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales.

The actor is set to return to the big screen again in the action film S.M.A.R.T. Chase, due out for release this year.
Jafar is one of the most popular villains in Disney history.

And actor Marwan Kenzari is in negotiations to play the character for the upcoming live action Aladdin film, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Former Saturday Night Live star Nasim Pedrad has joined the cast of the movie; she will play Mara - Jasmine's friend and handmaiden, the website reports.

Surprise! Marwan Kenzari is in negotiations to play the character for the upcoming live action Aladdin film, according to the Hollywood Reporter ; pictured in April at The Promise premiere

Marwan, a 34-year-old Dutch-Tunisian, has previously starred in The Mummy, Ben-Hur and The Promise.

The Netherlands-born actor's newest film, Murder On The Orient Express, is set to hit theaters this November.

Jafar is the Grand Vizier of the Sultan; he has a sidekick in the form of a parrot called Iago.

The live action version of Aladdin will be directed by Guy Ritchie.

Classic: Former Saturday Night Live star Nasim Pedrad was also cast in the movie, as Mara - Jasmine's friend and handmaiden; seen in May at Turner Upfronts in New York City

Perfect: Marwan, a 34-year-old Dutch-Tunisian, will play Jafar in the Disney film

The film is based on the animated version by Disney that was originally released in 1992.

Nasim, 35, will play Jasmine's friend and handmaiden; the actress was born in Tehran, Iran but raised in the US.

Besides her five-year stint on Saturday Night Live, Nasim has also starred on Scream Queens, New Girl and Mulaney.

Gorgeous lady: Nasim, 35, will play Jasmine's friend and handmaiden; the Iranian-American actress was born in Tehran, Iran

Disney revealed their casting choices for Jasmine, Aladdin and Genie during the D23 Expo earlier this month.

Naomi Scott, who is of British and Indian descent, will play Princess Jasmine while Mena Massoud was announced as Aladdin.

Mena was born in Cairo, Egypt but raised in Canada; he is set to star in the new series Jack Ryan as Tarek Kassar.

Will Smith will bring the star power to the film as the beloved Genie.

Aladdin will start shooting this month.

Here we go: Naomi Scott, who is of British and Indian descent, will play Princess Jasmine while Mena Massoud was announced as Aladdin

Blast from the past: The film is based on the animated version by Disney that was originally released in 1992; Aladdin and Jasmine

A whole new world: Will Smith will bring the star power to the film as the beloved Genie




They're handsome, stunning, beloved, and famous.

And their Australian celebrity owners aren't too shabby either!

So with Chris Hemsworth's barkin' bud, Hugh Jackman's fetching French Bulldog, and countless others celeb pets, who owns the most aPAWable pet in show business?

The paw report: When it comes to pets in show business, every man and their dog has one, but which Australian celeb owns the most aPAWable pet? (pictured Dali with Hugh Jackman)

The look of love! Chris Hemsworth, 33, isn't afraid to show his softer side, or should that be softer sidekick? Regularly sharing pictures of his fluffy white pooch on Instagram

Chris Hemsworth to the rescue

He may be the hunky Thor star, but Chris Hemsworth isn't afraid to show his softer side.

Or should that be softer sidekick? With the 33-year-old regularly sharing pictures of his fluffy white rescue pooch on Instagram.

Perhaps the most heart-melting is the 2016 snap that saw the bearded duo staring longingly into each-other's eyes.

'Had an epic 'stare off' with this vicious beast today, both (of us) refused to back down, it went for 7 hrs and then she passed out,' he wrote in the caption.

'We both have major respect for one another now but I'm pretty sure I'm top dog round these parts from here on.'

'Had an epic 'stare off' with this vicious beast today': Perhaps the most heart-melting is the 2016 snap that saw the bearded duo staring longingly into each-other's eyes

Quadruple threat! Hugh Jackman is a singing, dancing and acting triple threat, with his busy schedule seeing him jetting-off across the globe on a daily basis

Hugh Jackman's barkin' bud

Hugh Jackman is a singing, dancing and acting triple threat, with his busy schedule seeing him jetting-off across the globe on a daily basis.

Nobody is more aware of the fact than Dali, the Wolverine actor's affection-craving French Bulldog.

The star's feline friend tries his best to keep his owner all to himself, recently seen holding a silent protest atop Hugh's luggage bag.

'A not so subtle hint by Dali,' the 48-year-old captioned the snap, with his pooch flaunting some of the cutest 'please don't go' puppy dog eyes of all time.

'A not so subtle hint by Dali': Nobody is more aware of the fact than Dali, the Wolverine actor's affection-craving French Bulldog

Teddy bear! She's an International supermodel and former Victoria's Secret angel, but you won't see Miranda Kerr, 34, feline finer than when she's in the company of her dog Teddy

Miranda Kerr's life-size Teddy

She's an International supermodel and former Victoria's Secret angel, but you won't see Miranda Kerr feline finer than when she's in the company of her Teddy.

The 34-year-old Australian glamour's Instagram rarely sees a week go by without an update on her fluffy golden pooch, believed to be a pricey poodle cross-breed.

In an image captioned 'Tea for one with my Teddy love', from back in March, Teddy proved he took after his mum, snuggling into her lap and posing like a true model.

Victoria's fluffy secret! In a snap captioned 'Tea for one with my Teddy love,' from March, Teddy proved he took after his mum, snuggling into her lap and posing like a true model

Dogwalk! Naomi Watts, 48, is the Hollywood stunner who could easily trade a career in movies for a turn on the catwalk

Naomi Watts and her barkin' Bob

Naomi Watts is the Hollywood stunner who could easily trade a career in movies for a turn on the catwalk.

The same couldn't be said for her adorable Yorkshire Terrier, Bob, who prefers to be carried.

The 48-year-old has been seen out-and-about in Los Angeles with her pampered pooch for years, and the duo are still going strong.

Pampered! The same couldn't be said for her adorable Yorkshire Terrier, Bob, who prefers to be carried

Rescue me! Liam Hemsworth takes after his brother Chris, preferring to adopt pups in need than indulging in expensive 'designer' breeds

Liam Hemsworth to the rescue

Liam Hemsworth takes after his brother Chris, preferring to adopt pups in need than indulging in expensive 'designer' breeds.

But along with his fiancee Miley Cyrus, the Hunger Games and Neighbours alum puts his older sibling to shame with his vicious pooch pack.

Together, the couple share at least SIX rescue pups, with Miley's four re-uniting with Liam's pups Tani and Dora when their owners re-kindled their love last year.

They rarely share updates on Instagram, but when they do, it's a safe bet to assume one of their ever-expanding ruff and ready brood will star.

Just bein' Miley! But along with his fiancee Miley Cyrus, the Hunger Games and Neighbours alum puts his older sibling to shame with his vicious pooch pack

Puppy Mafia! Together, the couple share at least SIX rescue pups, with Miley's four re-uniting with Liam's pups Tani and Dora when their owners re-kindled their love last year

Same-same! Four-time Grammy winner Olivia Newton-John and her socialite daughter Chloe Lattanzi are two peas in a pod when it comes to their love for animals

Chloe Lattanzi and Olivia Newton-John are hopelessly devoted to dogs!

Four-time Grammy winner Olivia Newton-John and her socialite daughter Chloe Lattanzi are two peas in a pod when it comes to their love for animals.

Chloe, 31, regularly flaunts her voluptuous bust alongside her pet pooch Peanut on Instagram, who is proudly au naturel.

Olivia, 68, is bravely battling cancer for a second time, sharing a touching video of the cute kittens from the healing centre where she'd been receiving treatment.

Her daughter shared the video to Instagram last month, adding the caption: 'Mama sent me this! She is doing great! At a healing center with lots of wild kittens!'

Family outing! Chloe, 31, regularly flaunts her voluptuous bust alongside her pet pooch Peanut on Instagram, who is proudly au naturel (pictured on family outing with mum Olivia)

Healing! Olivia, 68, is bravely battling cancer for a second time, sharing a touching video of the cute kittens from the healing centre where she'd been receiving treatment

Horsing around! With every man (and woman) and their dog seemingly an animal lover, there's simply too many Australian celebs to mention (pictured Iggy Azalea with a horse friend)

Honourable Mentions: Lisa Wilkinson, Iggy Azalea, Georgia Love, Imogen Anthony

With every man (and woman) and their dog seemingly an animal lover, there's simply too many Australian celebs to mention.

But deserving a mention is Today Host Lisa Wilkinson's chirpy chocolate-coloured boxer Maggie, who is currently helping Lisa from the arm injury she suffered in Italy.

Mending with Maggie! Deserving a mention is Today Host Lisa Wilkinson's chirpy chocolate-coloured boxer Maggie, who is currently helping Lisa from the arm injury she suffered in Italy

Ridin' and Rappin': Rapper Iggy Azalea is a known dog lover, but her true passion lies in horses, who reportedly fell in love with horseback riding after a fan suggested she try it

Rapper Iggy Azalea is a known dog lover, but her true passion lies in horses, who reportedly fell in love with horseback riding after a fan suggested she try it.

Former Bachelorette star Georgia Love's passion for puns clearly influenced her name-choice for her kitten, Pawdrew Hepburn.

Meanwhile, Kyle Sandiland's girlfriend Imogen Anthony expressed her love of all-things bizarre when she bought her hairless Chinese crest pooch.

Puns and Paws! Former Bachelorette star Georgia Love's passion for puns clearly influenced her name-choice for her kitten, Pawdrew Hepburn
She's the single hopeful looking to win Matty J Johnson's heart on the current season of The Bachelor.

And it seems that Tara Pavlovic may have the perfect person in her corner after she revealed she is the daughter of Debbie Newsome, co-host of the 1980s dating game show Perfect Match.

Speaking to Woman's Day about her famous mum, Tara revealed that, as a child, she had no inkling of her mother's fame.

Famous mum: It seems that Bachelor hopeful Tara Pavlovic may have the perfect person in her corner after she revealed she is the daughter of Debbie Newsome, co-host of the 1980s dating game show Perfect Match

'Growing up I didn't think she was any different to any other mothers,' the Gold Coast-based nanny told the publication.

'Maybe a little bit more out there because shes an entertainer  shes loud, fun and super cool.'

'Id say I have her personality, Im very bubbly like her.

Debbie co-hosted the popular dating show alongside Greg Evans from 1984 to 1985.

Flashback: Debbie co-hosted the popular dating show alongside Greg Evans from 1984 to 1985

The show saw contestants ask three potential suitors of the opposite sex a series of questions that were often answered with subtle innuendo.

Based on the answers the contestant would pick the most compatible and the pair would jet off on a holiday.

It also scored plenty of kitsch points for the inclusion of Dexter - a computerised love robot who would calculate the partner with the highest compatibility score.

Debbie, who also nabbed a role in the 1981 Bond film for Your Eyes Only, has since bowed out of television, instead taking to the stage to perform in a Janis Joplin tribute show.

Full circle: 'She said they will need to bring back Perfect Match and I could be the hostess,' Tara told Woman's Day, while adding that Debbie was always 'pestering' her for Bachie gossip

Tara also revealed to the publication that Debbie had been nothing but supportive of her decision to find love on The Bachelor, jokingly suggesting her time on the reality show could spark a revival of Perfect Match.

'She said they will need to bring back Perfect Match and I could be the hostess,' she laughed while adding that Debbie was always 'pestering' her for Bachie gossip.

The Bachelor returns to Channel ten next Wednesday at 7.30pm.
She revealed this week that she consulted a divorce lawyer over her 'challenging' five year marriage to Oliver Curtis.

And after her second proposal last month Roxy Jacenko couldn't hide her smile as she hung out at Bondi Beach with children Pixie, five, and Hunter, three.

The PR maven's Saturday outing with her kids comes after she candidly revealed her marriage struggles to Oliver.

Can't hide her smile! Roxy Jacenko flashes her $450,000 engagement ring as she spends her Saturday at the beach with Hunter and Pixie

In a series of photos shared to Instagram, Roxy flaunts her slim figure in skinny leather pants, Chanel ballet flats and a black sweater.

Hard to miss was her is $450,000 diamond engagement ring, gifted to her by husband Oliver in a second proposal last month.

In the cute snaps, Roxy dotes on Hunter and Pixie as the two youngsters devour ice cream at the beach.

Cute: The doting mother looked lovingly at son Hunter, three, who was about to tuck into an ice cream

Yum: In the cute snaps, Roxy dotes on Hunter and Pixie as the two youngsters devour ice cream at the beach

Roxy's day at Bondi beach comes after she finally broke her silence over pictures of her and ex-boyfriend Nabil Gazal kissing in April.

In an candid interview with news.com.au on Thursday, the PR queen said the pair were 'drunk and stupid and mucking around' when they locked lips at a party.

Claiming that her marriage to Oliver Curtis was not 'intact' at the time, Roxy revealed she had 'spoken to a lawyer about divorce' while her husband was serving a 12 month prison sentence for insider trading.

Reunited: Roxy and Oliver are planning for a second wedding after reconciling last month

Unexpected: The PR maven said Oliver's second proposal last month was the surprise of her life

The PR maven said Oliver's second proposal last month was the surprise of her life and her husband had been 'unsure' as to whether she would say yes.

Meanwhile, Sources close to Nabil told The Sydney Morning Herald's Private Sydney on Saturday that he ended things because 'he wanted out', but Roxy's insiders claim she was the one to call it quits.

It's claimed Nabil split with Roxy weeks before Oliver's release from prison, with the mother of two returning a $50,000 eternity ring to her ex.
She just returned from a romantic honeymoon with her husband Dr. Robert Gerner.

And Janice Dickinson certainly looked relaxed and happy as she enjoyed a spot of shopping with actress Katey Sagal in Beverly Hills on Friday.

The 62-year-old kept it sporty in leggings and a polka dot tank top.

Gal pals: On Sunday, Janice Dickinson, 62, was shopping with Katey Sagal, 63, in Beverly Hills

The former super model kept casual in a pair of slides and accessorized with minimal jewelry and a pair of shades.

The America's Next Top Model panelist threw her brunette locks into a loose bun.

Katey, 63, looked lovely in a maroon tank dress.

The Superior Donuts star layered a denim button-down over her frock and accessorized with a matching dark bag.

Reading for fitness: The America's Next Top Model panelist wore a polka dot tank top and patterned blue leggings

The Married With Children actress wore her brunette hair in a half updo.

Janice recently came back from a honeymoon in France.

The four-times-married star wed psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Gerner last December.

Janice, who married Robert 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.

Keeping it simple: The America's Next Top Model panelist threw her brunette locks into a bun

'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,' she told Dailymail.com.

'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.'

'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.'

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.
Baby Miller is growing up fast.

Twelve weeks after former Hi-5 star Lauren Brant, 28, and Barry Hall, 40, welcomed their son, the adorable bub is already hitting the gym.

In a video shared to Instagram this week, the former Sydney Swans star is seen holding his adorable, confused newborn on an exercise bike.

'Go miller': In a video shared to Instagram, the former Sydney Swans star Barry Hall is seen holding his adorable, confused newborn on an exercise bike

Behind the camera: Miller's mum, former Hi-5 entertainer Lauren Brant, was filming the scene, later sharing it to her Instagram story

Captioned 'GOOOO MILLER,' their son wears a cute beanie and long-sleeve white top with a smiley face emoji print.

As blaring, intense music blasts from the gym in the background, Barry clutches Miller's wrists and pushes him back-and-forth on the bike's seat.

At just three-months old, he doesn't appear to see any humour in the situation, unlike his loving parents.

Lauren also tagged the F45 Gym in the Brisbane city of Labrador in the clip, indicating that it was part of a paid sponsorship deal.

Needs a push: As blaring, intense music blasts from the gym in the background, Barry, 40, clutches Miller's wrists and pushes him back-and-forth on the bike's seat

Sponpo? Lauren also tagged the F45 Gym in the Brisbane city of Labrador in the clip, indicating that it was part of a paid sponsorship deal

On Monday, the AFL legend took to his own Instagram to gush over Little Miller.

Appearing shirtless, the 40-year-old held the young tot in his arms while he gazed at him.

'So Miller has it all sorted!' he began his caption.

In love: On Monday, the AFL legend took to his own Instagram to gush over little Miller, appearing shirtless in a doting snap

'I carry him around like this most of the time and he uses my thumbs as arm rests! Smarter than his Dad. Sorry about the old man nudity.'

Merely wearing a pair of chinos, Barry showcased his incredibly bulging biceps.

Looking unimpressed, Miller was all rugged up in a full length jumpsuit and blue socks.

12-weeks-old: Sharing a black and white picture of Miller surrounded by stuffed animals, Lauren also dotted over her son while speaking about how motherhood's changed her

And it seems Barry wasn't the only one to gush over the adorable baby.

Sharing a black and white picture of Miller surrounded by stuffed animals, Lauren also doted over her son while speaking about how motherhood's changed her.

'I couldn't resist. 'I just thought my little giraffe looked so cute with all his furry friends. 12 weeks young!' she said.

'On another note, I'm posting photos of my baby now on a Saturday night, instead of me at some event....AND I LOVE IT!!!'

'I couldn't resist': I just thought my little giraffe looked so cute with all his furry friends. 12 weeks young!' she said
She's the Australian transgender model who rarely makes a fashion faux pas on the red carpet.

And Andreja Pejic, formerly Andrej, paraded her enviable physique in a matching metallic number at the Domino x American Express Platinum event in New York on Friday.

The 25-year-old Serbian-born, Melbourne-raised model, flashed her taut torso in a glittery dark maroon crop top.

Check her out! Transgender model Andreja Pejic flashes toned midriff in coordinated metallic crop top and high-waisted trousers at the Domino x American Express Platinum event in New York on Friday

Her slender waist was also on show in tight high-waisted trousers, as she placed her hands in the shallow navy blue pockets.

Andreja's fair skin was glowing, as she gave a seductive pout to the cameras with a flawless application of makeup.

She sported a dramatic eye shadow palette, a dusting of blush and a pink pout to complete her beauty look.

Work it! Her slender waist was also on show in the glitter-soaked tight high-waisted trousers

The statuesque beauty flaunted her trim pins in the shiny trousers, but chose to ditch the heels for comofrtable loafers.

Her short blonde locks were worn down in messy waves to frame her face.

Andreja accessorised her look with a gold cross necklace and an edgy chain-strap black clutch.

She also posed with CEO of Domino Media Group Nathan Coyle, who looked smart in chino trousers, a patterned button-up and suit jacket.

Blonde beauty! Andreja's fair skin was glowing, as she gave a seductive pout to the cameras with a flawless application of makeup

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph in 2015, the model revealed that she waited ten years to have her gender reassignment procedure to fulfill her dream of becoming a woman.

'I found out that transition was a possibility at the age of 13, every day since then was a waiting period,' she said.

In an interview with Style.com in 2014, she said 'androgyny became a way of expressing my femininity without having to explain myself to people too much', before it was possible to complete her transition.
She's usually busy doting on her four children.

But on Saturday, Bec Judd proved that she's an expert at balancing motherhood and business as she spent the day working on a 'fun project' with husband Chris Judd.

Posing with Chris for an Instagram snap, the 34-year-old wrote: 'Working from home with the hubby on a fun project today with @samsungau and their QLED TV.'

All work, no play! Bec Judd spent the weekend working on a new project with husband Chris

She later shared another photo, this time solo, which she used to flaunt her flawless appearance.

'Hair and makeup today for @samsungau by the #Ateam,' wrote the multi-tasking mum.

The professional WAG made headlines last month after opening up about daughter Billie's body image issues.

She does it all! The multi-tasking mum took some time out of her busy day to snap a selfie

Speaking to Today Extra, Bec said that she believes the cause of Billie's self-consciousness could be from a fictional character - Elsa from Disney's Frozen.

The AFL WAG, who signed up the youngster to be the face of Mattel's Barbie campaign earlier this year, at first said she had 'no idea' why Billie has insecurities before blaming the fictional character.

'I have no idea ... Do you know what, it might be Elsa from Frozen,' Bec said.

'... Because [Elsa] has this long pony in a plait and Billie's got this curly hair. She's brushing it trying to make it straight like Elsa and every time she brushes it she looks in the mirror and says 'urgh when am I going to have Elsa hair?'

Won't let it go? Last month, the-34-year told Today Extra she believes the cause of daughter Billie's self-consciousness could be a fictional character - Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen

She continued: 'At home we talk about how important it is to be brave, strong and kind and intelligent and we don't make appearance important. It is going to be tricky moving forward, raising girls. Yeah, it is just something to be aware of.'

Her comments came one day after she revealed, during her radio show, KIIS network's The 3PM Pick Up, that Billie 'screams at the mirror' because she hates her hair.

The Postcards presenter said: 'Billie all of a sudden has started caring about her appearance so much. It's actually scary, and I don't know where it's come from.
They're the reality TV couple who sent fans into a meltdown when they announced their engagement in May.

And it seems Anna Heinrich, 30, and Tim Robards, 35, have finally started planning for their big day.

The bride-to-be took to Instagram on Saturday to inform her followers she and Tim had spent a productive day reading up on wedding advice.

Making plans: Anna Heinrich, 30, shared excited fans on Saturday when she announced she's spent the day reading up on wedding advice in preparation for her big day

Anna shared a snap of her laptop with wedding planning website After The Rock up on screen.

'Saturday well spent...Wedding planning with my No.1,' she wrote in the caption.

Anna added in the hashtags '#lettheweddingplanningbegin' and '#weddingfun.'

Exciting: 'Saturday well spent...Wedding planning with my No.1,' Anna wrote in the caption

But while she hinted she had been making headway, Tim wasn't convinced she knew what she was doing.

'Don't pretend like you've got this under control,' he wrote in the comments section, followed by a face with a stuck out tongue and winking face emoji.

Tim previously hinted he wanted a long engagement, saying he wasn't going to 'just jump into' a marriage.

Skeptical: 'Don't pretend like you've got this under control' Tim wrote in the comments section

She filled her work space with wedding themed inspiration, which included a copy of Cosmopolitan's July issue that she features on the cover of.

A red velvet cupcake also made an appearance, along with some artwork from fashion illustrator Aaron Favaloro.

The blonde beauty flashed her impressive rock as she rested a hand on the keyboard of the computer.

Getting ideas: Anna filled her work space with wedding themed inspiration, which included a copy of Cosmopolitan's July issue that she features on the cover of

Despite Tim saying wedding plans were coming along 'slowly', there had still been rumours of a possible venue.

It has been speculated they were planning to tie the knot at The Residences in Centennial Park.

Back in February, they celebrated Valentine's Day at the famous wedding venue.
She's been 'using portable showers and toilets full of mud and grot' while competing on Channel Nine's reality renovation show The Block.

But Elyse Knowles appears most comfortable when stripped down from her hard hat, work boots and tool belt.

The model, 24, flaunted a carefree vibe in a recent sizzling swimsuit photoshoot for label Strait Swim at the beach.

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In her element! The Block's Elyse Knowles flaunts ample assets and perky posterior during SIZZLING beachside swimwear photoshoot

Wearing a figure-hugging one piece, Elyse frolicked along the water's edge as she paraded her toned frame.

The plunging number provided a glimpse of her ample assets as she bent down to scoop and splash water at the camera.

Elyse, wearing the $180 frangipani-print swimsuit, appeared in high spirits during the clip as she wet her blonde locks in the sunshine.

Stunning! The plunging number provided a glimpse of her ample assets as she bent down to scoop and splash water at the camera

Running along the shoreline, her pert derriere was highlighted in the cheeky high-cut design.

Elyse, who regularly posts about her fitness routine online, showcased her trim pins and sculptured arms as she danced and skipped throughout the video.

She previously admitted 'fitness is the key to a healthy mind for me' on her ElyseKnowles.com blog and has praised reformer Pilates, weight training and high heart rate workouts for her figure.

Cheeky! Running along the shoreline, her pert derriere was highlighted in the high-cut design

'Fitness is the key to a healthy mind for me': Elyse has praised reformer Pilates, weight training and high heart rate workouts for her enviable figure

The glamorous model is currently competing on The Block with boyfriend Josh Barker and is the show's first celebrity contestant.

She admitted on the show that although she didn't care what how she looked on the work site, her tradesman boyfriend, 28, urged her not to let herself go.

The blonde beauty said he made her shave her legs and underarms, as she hadn't in a while.

Speaking to News.com.au, she also dished on her less-than-luxe experience: 'On the first few episodes of The Block, it shows we are using portable showers and toilets full of mud and grot.'

The Block returning to Channel Nine on Sunday from 7pm
She shot to fame in the MTV reality series 16 And Pregnant in 2009, before starring in the spin off show Teen Mom.

And Farrah Abraham, 26, put her best-known assets on display in a daring sheer jumpsuit at the VIP Back Door Key Party at Crazy Horse III in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Flaunting her surgically enhanced chest in the jumpsuit, the reality star exposed her tan lines and bronzed chest.

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Glamorous: Farrah Abraham, 26, put her best-known assets on display in a daring sheer jumpsuit at the VIP Back Door Key Party at Crazy Horse III in Las Vegas on Saturday

Farrah's raunchy jumpsuit featured a plunging neckline which finished at her sternum, while its see-through material flaunted her toned midriff.

She preserved her modesty with a pair of black briefs, but still ensured that she amped up the sex appeal by flaunting her long, slender pins under the gauzy lace of her trousers.

Adding height to her frame with a pair of nude strappy heels, the mother-of-one turned to cheekily reveal her pert derriere.

Cheeky: She preserved her modesty with a pair of black briefs, but still ensured that she amped up the sex appeal by flaunting her long, slender pins under the gauzy lace of her trousers

You missed a spot! Flaunting her surgically enhanced chest in the jumpsuit, the reality star exposed her tan lines and bronzed chest

Dolled up: She worked her red tinged tresses into curls, and sported perfectly applied make up, with lashings of bronzer and false eyelashes to make her brown eyes flutter

She worked her red tinged tresses into curls, and sported perfectly applied make up, with lashings of bronzer and false eyelashes to make her brown eyes flutter.

The beauty arrived in Sydney, Australia last month to film new MTV series Single AF, where she will travel the world looking for her Mr. Right.

Describing her ideal man on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show, Farrah said she'd like someone who's kid friendly with no tattoos and has 'some Christianity' who will: 'Embrace what I'm about... I just want to be happy.'

Pert posterior: Adding height to her frame with a pair of nude strappy heels, the mother-of-one turned to cheekily reveal her pert derriere

Miss moneybags! Farrah posed with wads of cash, demonstrating her financial prowess

Strike a pose! Farrah held the notes up to her heaving assets, and pouted seductively

New venture: Farrah is now looking for love on the MTV show Single AF

'I just want to see if theyre family friendly,' she said. 'I have a daughter thats super important to me. Id really love somebody who can travel the world and run businesses like myself, so I just want someone who can reciprocate what I give.

Farrah will co-star with Jedward, Elliott Crawford, Casey Johnson and Marnie Simpson in Single AF.

When Kyle asked the star why she was single she replied: 'It's just been really hard to find someone who's compatible, as driven as I am and maybe worldly.'

Her past as a porn star may not help her search for a wholesome life partner. The starlet split from her on-again, off-again boyfriend, businessman Simon Saran, 28, in April.

Boy bye: The sassy star posed with a banner emblazoned with a dismissal of malekind

Feeling free: Farrah appeared to be in high spirits as she posed with a group of scantily clad women

Biggest fans: The women surrounding Farrah appeared to adore her so much they had created masks of her face
She's the British model who briefly dated sex-addict Scott Disick.

And Ella Ross, 21, showed exactly why she caught the attention of the father-of-three - as she went braless under a sheer black top after leaving Mahiki nightclub in London on Friday.

Accompanied by Lottie Moss, who was caught up in a scandal when her friend Jessica Woodley was pictured with a suspicious-looking white substance recently, the model had dressed to impress for a night in the capital.

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She's not shy! Ella Ross, 21, showed exactly why she caught the attention of father-of-three Scott Disick - as she went braless under a sheer black top after leaving Mahiki nightclub in London on Friday

Ella styled her blonde locks into a sleek centre parting, and sported perfectly applied make up to accentuate her bronzed skin.

She emphasised her tiny waist with a large silver buckle belt, and clad her lean pins in a pair of skintight skinny jeans.

Lottie opted for casual attire, with a pair of tracksuit bottoms and white vest top.

Quite a pair: Accompanied by Lottie Moss, who was caught up in a scandal when her friend Jessica Woodley was pictured with a suspicious-looking white substance recently, the model had dressed to impress for a night in the capital

Last month, Ella was said to be shocked after spotting her 'boyfriend' on a dinner date with Bella Thorne, 19, at Catch in Hollywood.

E! News reported that the British model had plans with the father-of-three for that evening, and after he cancelled on her, she then arrived at the same restaurant he was in with Bella.

Scott and Ella reportedly 'didn't interact' at all during the evening, amid claims Scott has been 'hanging out with a few girls' in recent months, but has kept things 'casual'.

He then travelled to Cannes for the Film Festival, where he was pictured cavorting with nine ladies in one week.

Scott's recently confessed he is a sex addict.

The TV star - who has children Mason, seven, Penelope, four, and Reign, two, with ex-girlfriend Kourtney announced on Keeping Up with the Kardashians: 'I'm a sex addict. I'm a f***ed up, horrible sex addict.'

The revelation came as Scott explained his decision to bring another woman with him on a family holiday they had taken to Costa Rica at the beginning of the year.

At the time, rumours had been doing the rounds that he and Kourtney were rekindling their romance - they had initially split in 2015.
She has spent the last few months away from home as she filmed in South Africa for the third series of BBC drama Our Girl.

But Michelle Keegan has finally been reunited with her husband Mark Wright and pals on holiday in Mallorca on Friday to celebrate her 30th birthday.

Pulling out all the stops on the lavish affair, Mark teamed up with Michelle's pals to throw the actress, 30, a surprise bash to mark the milestone.

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Feeling fabulous: Michelle Keegan celebrated turning 30 in style with her husband Mark Wright and her girl pals on a sun-soaked trip to Mallorca

Michelle had turned 30 back in June but had been away filming at the time of her special day and was forced to go without seeing her loved ones.

She had marked the occasion while on set, after being gifted a bevy of balloons and a huge chocolate cake, with Michelle admitting the Our Girl cast and crew had made her birthday 'so special'.

But hoping to top their efforts and keen to make up for lost time, her group of girlfriends decided to plan a huge affair for the brunette beauty.

It is said to have included a wild night in Magaluf as well as a sophisticated dinner party at Tahini Sushi Bar & Restaurant in Mallorca, according to The Mirror.

Reunion! Mark looked pleased as punch to be reunited with his wife

'TODAY!!' The Take Me Out: The Gossip host shared sun-soaked selfies from his trip as he was unable to contain his excitement

Surprise! Michelle, 30, turned 30 earlier in June but had been filming in South Africa

'All the sneaking about was worth it': Michelle's girlfriends were determined to mark the occasion

Michelle had documented some of the celebrations on social media, sharing plenty of video clips to her Instagram story.

She was seen downing shots with her best friends and enjoying a bevy of drinks, before dancing the night away in front of a saxophonist.

Her close pals, meanwhile, documented Michelle's birthday trip on the photo-sharing app, revealing it had all been a surprise.

Fun-filled: Michelle had documented some of the celebrations on social media, sharing plenty of video clips to her Instagram story

It's party time! The girls danced the night away as they enjoyed soaking up the buzzing atmosphere in the club

Michelle's cousin Katie Fearnehough - who was a bridesmaid at the starlet's wedding to husband Mark Wright - shared a selfie and penned alongside it: 'Golden hour for my golden girl  late 30th birthday surprises for this one... god I have missed her.'

In the snap, Michelle stunned in a white mini dress that featured a stylish pleated overlay and pinned her locks back into a slick low ponytail.

Another of Michelle's pals shared a fun-loving clip of the former soap star fanning herself while poolside in a bardot floral printed swimsuit and remarked: 'All the sneaking about was worth it! Supriseee @michkeegan.'

Celebrations: She was seen downing shots with her best friends and enjoying a bevy of drinks, before dancing the night away in front of a saxophonist

She then added a group shot of Michelle and her pals all dolled up for their evening of fun, before posing with the birthday girl herself.

Mark also shared clips from the group's wild night out during their weekend away in Mallorca as he was unable to contain his excitement about being reunited with her.

The girls and Mark were also joined by a slew of male companions that were captured on camera singing happy birthday to Michelle.

Prior to jetting out to Mallorca, Michelle had enjoyed a long overdue reunion with her spouse in their hometown of Essex.

The pair appeared relaxed and content as they stepped out in each other's company once more and put on a very affectionate display.

Girl pal: Michelle's jaunt overseas saw her leave her beau Mark Wright behind as he didn't appear to get an invite to the surprise bash

Stunning: The brunette beauty looked sensational for the festivities in a white mini dress that featured a pleated overlay, as she posed alongside a pal

Michelle flew to South Africa in May to film BBC war drama Our Girl for the second time after starring on the show last year as army medic Georgie Lane.

Despite Mark making a solid effort to visit her on occasion, she has spent much of the time out there alone.

Take Me Out: The Gossip host Mark has been busy with his own working commitments and has spent the last few months travelling back and forth as he juggled jobs in London, Los Angeles and Mallorca, along with DJ appearances in Marbella.

Mark appeared to lament travelling constantly and while taking his last flight in a while, he was caught pining after his wife.

Sweet: Prior to jetting out to Mallorca, Michelle had enjoyed a long overdue reunion with her spouse in their hometown of Essex

Smitten: Mark was seen pining after his wife on Instagram as he penned ahead of their reunion: 'OMG how this moment is going to be cherished, I'm more excited that you can imagine'

The former reality star had shared a selfie on board his flight, penning alongside it: 'The main thing I'm thinking about is the fact I have two more flights to go in 24 hours.

'And I will be back in the arms of the person who means more than anything to me.'

'OMG how this moment is going to be cherished,' he gushed. 'It's been well overdue and I'm more excited than you can imagine.' (sic)

He and Michelle have been together for almost five years, after first meeting in December 2012 while both were holidaying in Dubai.

'So special': Michelle had marked her birthday on set, after being gifted a bevy of balloons and a huge chocolate cake by the Our Girl cast and crew

Nine months later, the duo had returned to the Middle Eastern resort where Mark had proposed and they went on to tie the knot in a lavish ceremony at St Mary's Church in Bury St Edmonds in May 2015.

Michelle, meanwhile, has previously spoken of how she struggles when forced to work away from home.

During a Facebook Live Q&A with Revlon, the former Coronation Street star had said: 'The hardest part [of my job] is probably not seeing my family and friends for the time that Im away filming.

'Although we FaceTime all the time, Im in a lucky position I know that, but you miss home a little bit.'

Our Girl's third series is expected to air later this year.
It was hot and humid in New York's Manhattan on Friday.

But Ryan Seacrest and his girlfriend, Shayna Taylor, looked chilled out when they were spotted strolling in the SoHo neighborhood.

Beating the head, the 38-year-old fitness model opted not to wear a bra under her light blue cropped vest, showing off her assets.

Chilling out: Ryan Seacrest and girlfriend Shayna Taylor were spotted strolling in the SoHo district of New York's Manhattan on a hot and humid Friday

She teamed the top with distressed Daisy Dukes that made the most of her legs and gave a glimpse of her toned and tanned tummy.

Shayna smoothed her blonde hair back into a half up, half down style and hid her eyes behind a large pair of shades.

Ryan smiled as he walked beside his beautiful lady love, wearing complimentary colors.

The 42-year-old TV host donned a dark blue polo shirt and light blue distressed skinny jeans with white sneakers. He, too, wore sunglasses on the bright day.

Revealing ensemble: The the 38-year-old fitness model went braless under her light blue cropped vest and showed off a glimpse of her tummy and perfect pins in ripped Daisy Dukes

They recently returned from a romantic trip to Europe that took in France and Italy.

And it's obviously still on Shayna's mind as on Wednesday she posted a snap taken on a balcony as she cuddled up to Ryan with Italy's beautiful Amalfi Coast in the background.

She captioned it: 'I wuv you ! We took a picture in this same spot over 3 years ago, & here we are again . . Happier then ever #willalwaysbeourspecialplace.'

Color coding: Ryan, 42, donned a dark blue polo shirt and light blue distressed skinny jeans with white sneakers

Meanwhile, it's just as well Ryan took the break as he will be busier than ever in coming months.

The Live With Kelly And Ryan host is returning to front ABC's newly-revived American Idol.

He served as host during its 15-season run on Fox before its farewell season in 2016 and will reportedly receive around $12 million for his new role.

Aside from Live and Idol, Ryan also has a regular radio gig, On Air With Ryan Seacrest.
She'll soon be swapping Brentwood for the Spanish coast when the latest series of The Only Way Is Essex relocates to spiritual home Marbella for its traditional series curtain-raiser.

And Amber Turner wasted no time making sure she was beach-ready by heading to the gym on Saturday morning.

The divisive reality star, who made an explosive entrance to the popular show earlier this year, courted attention by exhibiting her impeccably toned abs in a tiny hot pink crop top.

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Shape of you: Amber Turner wasted no time on heading to the gym to make sure she was in perfect shape when she was back on home turf in Essex on Saturday

Gearing herself up for the gym, Amber added to her look with a pair of skintight black leggings.

The blonde star gave a look a splash of colour by sporting a pair of luminous tangerine trainers.

Keeping her accessories to a minimum, she wore a pair of mirrored sunglasses, while a small embellished handbag rounded things off.

Wow: The reality star, who made an explosive entrance to TOWIE this year, courted attention again as she flaunted her impeccably toned abs in a tiny hot pink crop top

Despite heading out for an intense workout, it is no surprise the TV queen looked as glamorous as ever completing her look with heavy touches of make-up.

The TOWIE cast are going to swap the Essex cobbles for the hot white sands of Marbella.

Amber will soon join the rest of the crew in Spain to film the latest series of the show which will air in September.

She made a memorable entrance on the show when she cheated on her boyfriend of four years Jamie Reed, 34, with co-star Dan Edgar, 26.

The passionate liaison brought Amber and Jamie's long-term relationship to an abrupt end.

Gearing herself up for the gym: The Only Way Is Essex sensation cut a casual figure in skintight cut off leggings perfect for her workout

Jamie, who made a comeback to the show after leaving in 2012, put his heartache behind him when he moved on with stunning model Jade Lewis.

He recently confessed it was hard being around his former flame following their dramatic break-up and would even like her to move to Australia for some time.

Speaking on The Showbiz Show, he said: 'Its all kind of settling down now. With my ex girlfriend and what she did - the Twitter response has been so nice.

'The people on the streets have been so nice. I dont want to say that it has wasted four years...I just hope that she is happy.

'But I would like Amber to spend a couple of years in Australia. In the nicest possible way!

'So in a couple of years time we could meet and say what happened.'
She was recently pictured smooching her rumoured boyfriend, model and actor Andrew Grey outside a pub.

But Lara Stone was flying solo on Saturday, as she stepped out in London to walk her beloved Border Terrier pooch, Bert.

The Dutch supermodel, 33, showcased her enviably lean legs in a thigh-grazing black denim mini skirt from Frame as she enjoyed a relaxed stroll.

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Looking good: Lara Stone was flying solo on Saturday, as she stepped out in London to walk her beloved Border Terrier pooch, Bert

The Vogue covergirl kept her look chic and monochrome as she rocked a pair of quirky fur-covered black Birkenstocks.

Sweeping her trademark frosty-blonde hair into a low-maintenance ponytail, she shielded her eyes behind a pair of black square-frame shades.

She completed her look with a simple black T-shirt and added glamour with a quilted Chanel chain-trim handbag.

Natural beauty: Sweeping her trademark frosty-blonde hair into a low-maintenance ponytail, she shielded her eyes behind a pair of black square-frame shades

Legs for days: The Dutch supermodel, 33, showcased her enviably lean legs in a thigh-grazing black denim mini skirt from Frame as she enjoyed a relaxed stroll

Killer footwear: The Vogue covergirl kept her look chic and monochrome as she rocked a pair of quirky fur-covered black Birkenstocks

Lara's relaxed outing comes after she was seen kissing her rumoured boyfriend Andrew Grey in London.

Lara was seen locking lips with the handsome hunk during an al-fresco meal in the sunshine - before they headed off to continue their day together in the city.

The blonde and her mystery companion have been spotted together on multiple occasions, having first been romantically linked back in April.

Public: She was seen clasping hands with Spanish model Jon Kortajarena, 32, as they made their way out of the Vogue bash during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week

The alleged romance comes after she was reportedly linked to fellow model Jordan Barrett, 20 - who were seen putting on an amorous display at the Cannes Film Festival.

She has been previously married to Britain's Got Talent judge David Walliams, whom she shares three-year-old son Alfred with.

They had married back in 2010 at London's Claridge's, but confirmed their split five years later.

Party girl: She stunned in a plunging sequin silver dress at the amfAR gala in Cannes

Three's a crowd: She was reportedly linked to fellow model Jordan Barrett, 20 - who were seen putting on an amorous display at the Cannes Film Festival

The blonde shot to fame as a model at the age of 12 when she was scouted in Paris, and has gone on to score a number of contracts all over the globe.

Known for her seemingly stern expression, Lara recently admitted that the look was just her natural face - and causes many to think she is constantly angry.

She explained of her pout: 'That's just the way my face looks. I haven't got a naturally smiley face.

'But then there are some people who have really friendly faces, even when they're pissed off, and I imagine that would be more annoying.'
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Their romance has sparked controversy since they were spotted kissing on a yacht last month.

But Chloe Green shrugged off the criticism over her relationship with 'Hot Felon' Jeremy Meeks to enjoy a romantic jetski ride with her beau in Barbados on Saturday.

The billionaire Topshop heiress and convict-turned-model flaunted their new romance as Chloe, 26, clung onto Jeremy's muscular shoulders aboard their speedy ride.

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Still going strong: Chloe Green shrugged off the criticism over her relationship with 'Hot Felon' Jeremy Meeks to enjoy a romantic jetski ride with her beau in Barbados on Saturday

The bikini-clad socialite, looked relaxed and happy as she lovingly cradled her new boyfriend, 33, aboard the jetski, placed her head on his shoulder and slicked her waist length locks back.

She wore a geometric print bikini under her life vest which showed off her tanned and toned pins and showcased her natural beauty by going make-up free.

Hunky Jeremy shot a pensive look, no doubt honed from his modelling, as he stared into the distance.

Let me take a selfie: The muscular clotheshorse later gave into selfie temptation as he was spotted taking yet another snap of himself while pulling a quizzical look on the beach

Sizzling: The bikini-clad socialite, looked relaxed and happy as she lovingly cradled her new boyfriend, 33, aboard the jetski, placed her head on his shoulder and slicked her waist length locks back

Protective: She wore a geometric print bikini under her life vest which showed off her tanned and toned pins and showcased her natural beauty by going make-up free

Laugh out loud: Chloe looked to be in the first flush of love as she laughed and held onto her man

Hold me: Chloe looked serene as she clung on her ex convict beau and stared into the distance

Idyllic:He showed off his strapping and heavily inked physique in a pair of tiger embellished swimshorts which were slung low on his hips.

He showed off his strapping and heavily inked physique in a pair of tiger embellished swimshorts which were slung low on his hips.

The muscular clotheshorse later gave into selfie temptation as he was spotted taking yet another snap of himself while pulling a quizzical look on the beach.

He flaunted his many inkings as he flaunted his strapping frame on the white sand.

Couple of jet(ski)setters: Chloe looked over the moon as the pair took to the water for a quick jetski session

Pucker up: Jeremy Meeks and Chloe Green seemed determined to put the public scrutiny to one side as they passionately kissed Jeremy in the sea

Making a splash: Chloe looked every inch the beach babe in her strapless Mara Hoffman bikini, which she teamed with a subtle gold body chain

Chloe looked utterly body-confident as she paraded her stunning toned frame on the beach.

Her envy inducing abs and pert bust were on full display as she enjoyed the sandy stroll.

The couple are in Barbados to attend the raucous Crop Over festival - which is much-loved by A-listers like Rihanna - where Jeremy is making a public appearance.

Pucker up: The 26-year-old showcased her toned figure as she wrapped her arms around American model Jeremy

Packing on the PDA: The couple beamed as they strolled hand in hand down the idyllic white beach

Still going strong: Jeremy and Chloe seemed determined to put the public scrutiny to one side, as they paraded their controversial romance with a trip to the beach on Saturday

Their PDA comes just two days after Chloe proved she was feeling proud of their budding romance as she shared a sweet selfie with the 'hot felon', 33, enjoying a day out in the sunshine on Friday.

With the couple scantily-clad and cosied up to one another, they looked in great spirits as they smiled for the camera.

The Topshop heiress captioned the snap: 'Life is to short not to laugh and smile and that's all we do... @jmeeks official. #nohatejustlove #everyonedeservestobehappy [sic].'

Having a whale of a time! Jeremy, who shot to fame when his hunky mug shot went viral in 2014, grinned as Chloe affectionately cupped his face while frolicking in the sea

Natural look: Scraping her long dark hair back into a glossy topknot, the British beauty appeared to go make-up free for the beachside outing

Making waves: A beaming Chloe seemed happy to give her new love interest a piggyback in the water, before holding his hand as they waded out

Meeks and Chloe, who is heir to her father Sir Philip's billions, were pictured sharing an intimate kiss last month and snuggling up together as they waited to be taken back to their 112,000-a-week yacht in Bodrum.

Last week Jeremy filed for legal separation from mother-of-three Melissa, who he shares her youngest son with and stayed with him through his eight year prison stint.

He was married to the nurse, who stayed with him throughout his stint in prison, for eight years. His heartbroken estranged wife Melissa, mother to his seven-year-old son, removed reference to him on her social media bio.

Man of the moment: Model Jeremy, who was dubbed the world's 'hottest felon', opted for a pair of tiger-print Gucci board shorts

Public scrutiny: Chloe and Jeremy seemed to be in good spirits, despite photos of them kissing on a boat in Turkey sending shockwaves through the web last month, prompting his 'heartbroken' wife Melissa to brand their actions 'unforgivable

I've got your back: The new couple were inseparable as they strolled across the beach in Barbados on Saturday

Beach-ready: Chloe arrived at the beach in white polka-dot print playsuit with delicate lace-edging, which she seemed keen to peel off so she could hit the water

Going from strength to strength: The couple stuck close to each other as they soaked up the sun on a bright pink lounger

She later told the Mail of her devastation, claiming her husband had been seduced by the glamour of his newfound modelling career.

I know it takes two to tango but she knew he was married. To me, thats unforgivable. My whole world has been torn apart by this. What do I tell our children? My heart is broken.

What sort of woman would do something like this to another woman? My marriage wasnt perfect but I thought it could be saved, until this happened.

Getting steamy: They later washed the sea salt off them with a cooling shower outside

Well inked: Jeremy's tattoo's were on full display as they waded into the ocean on Saturday

Soaking up the sun: The couple jetted into Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados on Friday afternoon for the exotic holiday

Tactile display: They seemed inseparable as they held hands while wading out of the crystal-clear waters

Of course Im angry at her. What she did is unforgivable. And Im angry at him too. What they did destroyed my entire world.

Did either of them think about the children and how this will affect them? Theyre the innocent victims in this. And so am I.

Melissa is mother to his biological child Jeremy Jr, seven, and Robert, 11, Melissas son from a previous relationship. She also has a daughter, 16-year-old Ellie, and says both stepchildren consider Meeks a father figure.

Good looking couple: Chloe rocked a white lace-up one-piece, while Jeremy covered up in a black Tshirt as they left the beach

But first, let me take a selfie: Jeremy, who has a seven-year-old son Jeremy Jnr with his estranged wife, Melissa, chuckled as he snapped away on his phone

Loved-up: Chloe proved she was feeling proud of their budding romance as she shared a sweet selfie with the 'hot felon', 33, enjoying a day out in the sunshine on Friday. Pictured, right, his 'heartbroken' estranged wife of eight years Melissa

Unexpected: Billionaire heiress Chloe's sudden romance with former convict Jeremy has come as a surprise to many fans

Chloe was soon forced to delete her Instagram following the shocking images, after followers trolled a gloating post she shared as she snuggled up to married Jeremy.

She then returned to the social media site, changing her settings to private - but has since deleted the account.

While Meek also edited his account at the time, deleting all photographs of him and estranged wife Melissa, he has now gone one step further by giving other Instagram users the inability to comment under his snaps.

Larking around: Chloe seemed to be in a playful mood as she pulled a mock-grimace at her love-interest while lounging around on a pink sunbed

Make yourself comfortable: The billionaire heiress jumped onto her sunlounger, as Jeremy adjusted the incline

Going private: Chloe deleted her Instagram after followers trolled a gloating post she shared as she snuggled up to married Jeremy

Cautious: While Meeks also edited his account at the time, deleting all photographs of him and estranged wife Melissa, he has now gone one step further by giving other Instagram users the inability to comment under his snaps
She has enjoyed a stellar acting career spanning more than 50-years.

But Helen Mirren, 72, was taking a well deserved break as she relaxed in Vernole, just a stone's throw away from her holiday home in the Italian province of Lecce, on Saturday.

Getting into the holiday spirit, the Oscar award winning actress sported a seasonal striped midi-dress for her appearance in the sleepy Italian town.

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Leggy lady: Helen Mirren, 72, put her pins on parade when she relaxed in the town of Vernole in Lecce, Italy, a stone's throw away from her holiday home on Saturday

Helen threw on a lace crocheted cardigan and wrapped up snug with a canary yellow scarf, complete with a green patterned design.

The Woman In Gold star sheltered her face with a funky fedora sun hat and held a giant parasol.

Accentuating her features, the BAFTA winner wore shimmery eye-shadow and a slick of lipstick to plump out her pout.

Helen appeared to be without director husband Taylor Hackford during her trip to Vernole.

Feeling hot, hot, hot: The Woman In Gold star sheltered her face with a funky fedora sun hat

But usually the Hollywood beauty is in the company of her husband Taylor Hackford, also 72, as the pair love to escape to Italy as often as possible.

The couple, who have been married for almost 20 years, loved the country so much they invested in a lovely holiday home in Tiggiano.

Speaking about their hideaway, she told OK magazine in April last year: 'We were driving through the region and suddenly saw this lovely ruin in Tiggiano which we fell in love with at first sight. It's taken a lot of work to renovate it and get the farm up and running.

'But my husband has kept encouraging me over many years and now I'm very proud of our home there.

Sizzling: The Oscar award winning actress was getting in the holiday mood as she posed in a striped midi dress

She's got style: Helen threw on a lace crocheted cardigan over her striped dress

'We build houses together. If anything's going to make you divorce it'll be building a house together, if you get through that, that's a huge triumph.'

In a recent interview, Helen revealed she would have relished in the role of James Bond in her younger acting days if the opportunity had arisen.

She made the remark in response to Hollywood actress and former Bond Girl Halle Berry's claims that the role of Bond is best left to a man.

Helen told The Daily Telegraph: 'I'm too old. In my youth that would have been great of course.

'But that time was different; we could never even have imagined a woman playing that role.'

Keeping off the heat! She kept cool in the blistering heat by fanning herself

Eye-catching accessories: The BAFTA winner wrapped up snug with a canary yellow scarf, complete with a green patterned design

Utterly relaxed: Helen carried a blossoming bouquet of flowers in her hand

Going it alone: Helen appeared to be flying solo on her trip to the Italian town

Must be love: But usually the Hollywood beauty is in the company of her husband Taylor Hackford, also 72

Revealed: The pair love to escape to Italy as often as possible

Blossoming sunshine: The couple loved the country so much they invested in a lovely holiday home in Tiggiano
Courteney Cox looks cool for the summer.

The 53-year-old actress kept her look simple yet chic while out and about in Los Angeles on Friday night.

She sported a black long-sleeved top along with a pair of rolled up blue jeans.

Keeping cool: Courteney Cox kept her look simple yet chic while out and about in Los Angeles on Friday night

The former star of Friends accessorized with a large fedora, black leather designer bag, and shades for the occassion.

Her raven-colored tresses were worn down into waves flowing over her shoulder.

Courteney let her natural looks shine by wearing complimentary make-up topped off with a swipe of shiny pink lip.

The stunner seems to be enjoying life as a mother as she has not starred in any acting projects since last year.

Chill mode: The 53-year-old actress sported a black long-sleeved top along with a pair of rolled up blue jeans

Making moves: Her raven-colored tresses were worn down into waves flowing over her shoulder

Earlier this year her 13-year-old daughter Coco followed in her mother's footsteps by starring in a music video.

The teenager featured in a promo from the Los Angeles-based indie star MONOGEM.

The project paralleled Courteney's burst on the scene when Bruce Springsteen famously summoned her up on stage with a 'Hey baby!' in a concert video for his 1984 classic, Dancing in the Dark.

On-screen debut: Courteney's daughter Coco Arquette recently made her first major on-screen debut, starring in indie pop artist MONOGEM's music video for her single Wild

The video beings with Coco meeting up with her best friend and giving him a quick hug

The video was Springsteen's first to get heavy airplay on MTV and introduced him to a new, mostly younger audience.

It also helped Courteney's career, with the actress going on to land a part in Family Ties shortly after.

She went on to become one of the biggest TV stars in the 90s playing Monica Gellar on Friends. Courteney and Coco's father David Arquette married in 1999 and had Coco in 2004.

Famous! Coco's mom Courteney got her big break in a music video as well, starring as an audience member who gets pulled up on stage in Bruce Springsteen's classic hit Dancing in the Dark in 1984

The popular video was Springsteen's first to get heavy airplay on MTV, and it introduced him to a new, mostly younger audience
The Duke of Marlborough let slip the most surprising secret of his rackety past during the time he was banged-up in prison: he became a Muslim to make sure he got enough to eat.

His change of faith apparently allowed him extra rations while he was behind bars.

Answering questions at the China Exchange from provocateur Sir David Tang, who prides himself on giving society guests a tough grilling, the former Marquess of Blandford confessed: I changed religion when I went to jail. I became a Muslim because you got more food. It wasnt the time of Ramadan. I luckily hit it just right  just afterwards!

The Duke of Marlborough let slip the most surprising secret of his rackety past during the time he was banged-up in prison: he became a Muslim to make sure he got enough to eat

Jamie Spencer-Churchill also explained how he gave up hard drugs a decade ago  a habit which had led to his first spell as a guest at Her Majestys pleasure more than 30 years ago and various run-ins with the law down the years.

I dont know whether it was age or something in my brain, or my wife, but it was around that time when I just felt enough is enough.

His late father, the 11th Duke, he said, had come to understand better his eldest sons addiction as he lay dying. I remember I said to my wife, Im afraid this is the last night.

I put the mobile phone by my bed that night and said to her, This is going to go off at 5am.

Jamie Spencer-Churchill also explained how he gave up hard drugs a decade ago. He is pictured being arrested in 1993

The phone went off at 5.03. The precursor to that was, Dad, do you want me to come in and see you? and he said, No, no. I have just had a very large dose of morphine and I am enjoying it. I can quite understand why you had a problem.

Tang cheekily asked: So he was finally on your side?

To which the Duke replied: Yeah, he crossed the road. I said, Enjoy it while you can.

On his fathers death in 2014, Jamie took over Blenheim Palace, which he values less than the love of his wife Edla.

Actually I would be very happy in a wigwam as long as my dear wife is next to me.

But it is a great privilege to be at Blenheim. I waited long enough for it, as I am 62, and I am doing the best I can to be custodian so I can pass it on to my son George.

I would like to think I have broken the mould of the stiff British upper lip. Well, yes, Jamie, you can say that again!

You won't BELIEVE what they tell me!

We all try on each others costumes. But not Scarlett Johanssons  Im a married man.

Benedict Cumberbatch reveals he enjoys outfit-swapping on the set of the Marvel films  but there are some things a chap wont do.

My biggest regret? I would keep cameras out of the bedroom.

Baywatch star Pamela Anderson gives me her verdict on that infamous sex tape

Baywatch star Pamela Anderson gives me her verdict on that infamous sex tape.

I think that pole dancing is a good way for any working mother to make money.

Kerry Katona stuns me with her unorthodox parenting advice at the launch for Ester Dees All About The Beach swimwear range.

Im not giving up cigars. Im killing myself!

Horse racing pundit John McCririck gleefully assures me he wont give up smoking when I bumped into him on Ladies Day at Qatar Goodwood Festival.

I love grime music. In America they smoke an inordinate amount of dope before they go into the studio.

Elton John sings the praises of the British music style  and has a dig at dopey US rap stars.

Walt Disney are trying to buy the rights for Kane And Abel to do it as a television series. I wouldnt want to play the lead, but Brad Pitt would be great.

Jeffrey Archer tells me he has high hopes for one of his best-loved books at the Evita musical premiere this week.

James Bond would have been a pretty easy part for me to fall into, but it never happened.

Tom Jones is so modest about his chances of playing James Bond in his heyday.
My film mole tells me that Cara, 24, is a strong contender for a role in the next Bond movie

Actresses normally leap at the chance to be a Bond girl. But feisty Cara Delevingne has said that shes not interested  if she has to wear a bikini.

My film mole tells me that Cara, 24, is a strong contender for a role in the next Bond movie but has told friends shell appear only if she is not scantily clad.

She doesnt want to have an affair with James Bond, said my insider. She wants it to be a powerful role where she does not wear a bikini.

Caras demands were met with raised eyebrows her own trademark  given the tradition of Bond having a glossy love interest in his films, and current Bond Daniel Craigs famous swimming shorts scene  but Cara might yet get her own way.

The source added: Producers think she could bring in a young audience, so she might play a mad scientist with tight outfits but no bikini.

I was disappointed not to see Dragons Den judge Deborah Meaden presenting gongs at the Savoys National Cat Awards on Thursday.

Sadly, Deborahs own moggy, Friday, had an asthma attack and she stayed at home to nurse him, tweeting: My poorly boy needed me. Hope Fridays feline better now.
Actress Amber Heard has been unlucky in love yet again

Her marriage to Pirates Of The Caribbean star Johnny Depp infamously imploded when she accused him of beating her up.

And it appears actress Amber Heard has been unlucky in love yet again, after being dumped by her billionaire boyfriend.

Heard, 31, is devastated after tech tycoon Elon Musk ended their year-long romance. Last night a source told The Mail on Sunday: Its all over between Amber and Elon and shes devastated

'Amber can be very manipulative and selfish. Elons back in LA while shes licking her wounds in Australia.

Musk, 46, worth a reported 12 billion, made his first fortune as co-founder of online service PayPal.

Heard, 31, is devastated after tech tycoon Elon Musk (pictured together) ended their year-long romance

The creator of electric car giant Tesla and private space company SpaceX, he was spotted with Heard in Australia in April where she is filming the 100 million superhero movie Aquaman and was said to have put his private jet at her disposal.

Their romance began shortly after South African-born Musk divorced British actress Talulah Riley for a second time last year.

Heard was still recovering from what she called a toxic split with Depp.

Heard's marriage to Pirates Of The Caribbean star Johnny Depp infamously imploded when she accused him of beating her up

Her lawyers accused the actor of hitting her and subjecting her to repeated abuse throughout their 15-month marriage, claims he denied.

Heard received 5.3 million from the divorce which she vowed to give to charity.

A spokesman for Musk, who has five sons from his first marriage to Canadian writer Justine Musk, said: We dont have any comment on this story.
The deadly assault was the latest blow to the international coalition in the war-torn country and came at the peak of the Taliban summer fighting season

A Georgian soldier was killed in a Taliban suicide bomb attack on a convoy of foreign forces near Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, NATO said Friday.

At least two civilians also died in the attack in Qarabagh district of Kabul province late Thursday while two US service personnel, three Georgian soldiers and a Afghan interpreter were wounded.

"They are all in stable condition at the Bagram Airfield military hospital," NATO said in a statement, referring to the largest American airbase in Afghanistan, which lies around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the capital Kabul.

The attack happened around 8:00 pm (1530 GMT) on Thursday when a suicide bomber on foot targeted the joint convoy of foreign and Afghan troops, Mohammad Salim Almas, the police chief of Kabul city, told AFP.

He added that three civilians died in the attack, while NATO said two had been killed and seven wounded.

The deadly assault was the latest blow to the international coalition in the war-torn country and came at the peak of the Taliban summer fighting season.

NATO forces ended their more than a decade-long combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, but since then Afghan troops and police, beset by soaring casualties, have struggled to beat back the resurgent Taliban.

The attack came a day after two US soldiers died when a Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into a convoy of foreign forces in Kandahar province.

There are around 13,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan, the majority of which are American. There are 900 Georgian soldiers.
Working conditions have generally improved in China but many labourers are still victimised by employers

A Chinese blogger who meticulously documented public protests around the country was sentenced to four years in prison Friday as Beijing continues a crackdown on civil rights defenders.

Lu Yuyu was found guilty of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" by a court in the southwest city of Dali, Yunnan province, his lawyer Xiao Yunyang told AFP.

The same charge has been used to prosecute dozens of activists and political dissidents since Chinese President Xi Jinping took office in 2012.

A former migrant worker, Lu and his girlfriend, Li Tingyu, undertook the demanding task of cataloguing labour strikes and other workers' demonstrations across China.

The couple published an exhaustive compilation of these incidents under the alias "Not the News", offering a rare, comprehensive record of how labour tensions were rising.

Lu and Li were arrested in June 2016. Months later, they were awarded the Reporters Without Borders-TV5Monde Press Freedom Prize in the "citizen journalists" category.

AFP was not able to confirm whether Li is still being held in custody.

Xiao told AFP that Lu, who pleaded not guilty, has already filed to appeal his sentence.

"He maintains his innocence," Xiao said, noting that Lu's current mental state was "not bad."

"The four-year sentence of Lu Yuyu is very worrying since he did nothing but compile information that was already publicly available," William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty International, told AFP.

"Although, ironically, the Chinese government still brands itself as socialist and pro-worker, this harsh sentencing probably indicates that the authorities are willing to crack down on labour rights activists and their supporters."

Working conditions have generally improved over China's more than three-decade economic boom. But many labourers, who often leave their rural homes for menial factory jobs, are still victimised by employers.

According to the Hong Kong-based nonprofit China Labor Bulletin (CLB), there were nearly 2,800 strikes and protests in China in 2015 -- more than in the previous four years combined.

Many of the protests erupted over unpaid wages.

"Lu's sentence is deeply troubling," Keegan Elmer, a CLB researcher, told AFP. "(Lu and Li) provided all of China, officials included, with a glimpse into the reality on the ground."

But "targeting Lu has had absolutely no effect on the ability of workers across the country to do what they have been doing constantly in recent years -- organising online."

Three prominent labour rights lawyers were handed suspended prison sentences in September for "disturbing the social order."
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the number of leak investigations has tripled since the Trump administration took office

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday vowed to crack down on government employees who leak classified or sensitive information, after a spate of revelations in the media -- many of them unfavorable -- about the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly fumed about "illegal leaks" and even lashed out publicly at Sessions for taking what he called a "very weak" position on the issue.

Under pressure, and with some saying his job could be on the line, Sessions responded.

"I strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country," Sessions told a press conference.

Four people have already been charged with "unlawfully disclosing" classified material or concealing contacts with federal officers, he said.

Active leak investigations this year have tripled compared with the number before Trump took office, Sessions added.

"We are taking a stand. This culture of leaking must stop," he said, adding that "we will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country."

- 'Media subpoenas' under review -

Moves to crack down on damaging leaks did not originate with Trump's administration.

Under his predecessor Barack Obama, whistleblowers and leakers who talked to journalists were prosecuted, and the Justice Department issued subpoenas to reporters to compel them to reveal their sources.

In what could signal an ominous turn, Sessions said his Justice Department was reviewing policies affecting "media subpoenas."

While the administration has respect for the press, "it is not unlimited," he said.

"They cannot place lives at risk with impunity," he added. "We must balance the press's role with protecting our national security."

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said there would be a new, dedicated unit at the Federal Bureau of Investigation "focused on media leaks"

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein fleshed out some details, telling reporters there would be a new, dedicated unit at the Federal Bureau of Investigation that would be "focused on media leaks."

Asked if the Justice Department would rule out prosecuting reporters "for doing their job," Rosenstein said he was not going to comment on "hypotheticals."

Changes to policies concerning the media would only be taken following consultations with representatives of news outlets, he said.

The flexing of judiciary muscle came just hours after yet another stunning revelation leaked to the media: a report by The Wall Street Journal that special counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury to investigate Russia's interference with the 2016 presidential election.

Grand jury proceedings are typically secret, and the exposure only highlighted the leaky sieve that Washington has become.

- 'We will find you' -

A prominent civil rights group warned that clamping down on leakers signaled a crackdown against democracy itself.

"Every American should be concerned about the Trump administration's threat to step up its efforts against whistleblowers and journalists," said Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who addressed the media with Sessions, issued his own tough warning to would-be leakers and described such revelations as betraying the American people.

"If you improperly disclose classified information, we will find you," he said. "We will investigate you, we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law."

The announcement follows a torrent of damaging revelations to the media, following six months of political intrigue and open feuding in the White House.

It comes after a leak that was unusual even by the standards of this administration -- the publication by The Washington Post of the contents of private phone calls between Trump and foreign leaders.

The transcript of a conversation between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (L) and US President Donald Trump was leaked to The Washington Post

The newspaper published the full transcripts Thursday of conversations the Republican billionaire leader held in January with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Sessions signaled his anger over the revelations, which apparently came from inside the White House.

Disclosure of the transcripts rocked Washington, with lawmakers across the political spectrum strongly denouncing the leaks of presidential conversations with world leaders.

"Somebody needs to go to jail," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stressed Friday on Fox News.

"You don't have the right if you work in the White House or you're a holdover from the Obama administration... to take the law in your own hands," Graham said, adding that the leaks were "hurting the presidency itself."
National Super Alliance candidate Raila Odinga in a dead heat with longtime rival President Uhuru Kenyatta for Kenya's August 8 elections and tensions are rising

Kenya's main opposition coalition said Friday that one of its offices in a Nairobi suburb was raided by police who made off with dozens of computers, servers and surveillance equipment.

The incident comes as the country is on a knife edge just days ahead of general elections next Tuesday.

An AFP reporter at the scene of the raid at the office in the Westlands suburb saw dismantled cables, a broken door and chairs and tables turned upside down.

"What we are witnessing is a very unusual situation in the sense that one of our centres, our tallying centres was raided in the course of the evening," Musalia Mudavadi, one of the leaders of the National Super Alliance (NASA) told reporters at the scene.

"They damaged the place and disappeared ... with all the desktops, some laptops as well."

Earlier a NASA statement said "police in hoods and armed with AK47 and machine guns raided different offices" belonging to the coalition.

However no other raid at any other office belonging to the coalition could be confirmed.

A senior police officer denied any knowledge of the raid.

A guard at the affected building, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "They were all armed and when they walked in they introduced themselves as policemen and were brandishing guns, others were left outside while others went in.

"They had covered their faces and from the way they spoke they were very confident and were not in a hurry."

Musavadi said "we have no doubt this is the work of the government. It is unfortunate they have resorted to this but I can assure you that this will not deter us at all."

Polls show NASA's flagbearer Raila Odinga in a dead heat with longtime rival President Uhuru Kenyatta and tensions are rising.

Odinga says that the only way he will lose is if the poll is rigged. It is his fourth shot at the presidency and he claims elections in 2007 and 2013 were stolen from him.

NASA has locked horns with the national election commission (IEBC) with its plans to set up a parallel tallying centre to announce its own results.

Kenyatta's ruling Jubilee party denounced this as a plot to dispute the results.

The IEBC eventually agreed to the opposition plan, as long as it did not announce its own final result.

The country was also stunned by the murder and torture of a top IT official at the national election commission, who oversaw an electronic voting system seen as crucial to the success of the poll.

He was found strangled in a forest on the outskirts of Nairobi last weekend.

While 2013 polls were largely peaceful, it is a decade since a disputed 2007 presidential election led to two months of violence, leaving 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.
Palestinian and Israeli Jewish girls spend time together at the 'Creativity for Peace' camp in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Twenty-one-year-old Liza had learned as a young girl during the bloodiest days of the second intifada to fear the soldiers patrolling her neighborhood in the besieged West Bank city of Nablus.

But it wasn't until after the uprising that her mistrust was most shockingly vindicated as she witnessed Israeli troops shooting dead her Palestinian neighbor as he smoked a cigarette on his balcony.

"It's flashbacks I can remember... the ambulance, the way they took him down the building," she tells AFP, as if the intervening decade has suddenly melted away.

"We weren't allowed into the streets. We were afraid they would kill us. It's something I will always remember -- it's so painful."

Some years later, her neighbor's bereaved daughter introduced Liza to "Creativity for Peace," an organization in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that brings together Palestinian and Jewish Israeli girls in a bid to bridge the emotional fault lines created by 70 years of conflict.

Half a world away from the corridors of the United Nations, they get together at a ranch in the timbered foothills of the southern Rocky Mountains to hear for the first time the stories of enemies they have grown up learning to hate.

Since 2003 more than 200 girls of ages 15 to 17 have participated in the Creativity for Peace camp, where Liza has returned this year as a "young leader" after taking part in 2013.

It was at the camp that she befriended Naama, a Jewish Israeli who lives some 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Nablus, on the border with Gaza.

- Trauma -

Naama was three years old when her home town of Sderot was targeted by Hamas's Qassam artillery rockets, the first of an estimated 8-10,000 to rain down on Israel from Gaza since 2002.

Artwork at the 'Creativity for Peace' camp which brings up to 20 girls, half Jewish Israelis and half Palestinians from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza to Santa Fe, New Mexico

Fewer than 30 Israeli civilians have been killed but the psychological trauma has been profound.

Almost half of Sderot middle schoolers surveyed for the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2008 showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, while high levels of miscarriage and depression are a fact of daily life.

"It's horrible, I can't describe it. It's a trauma that's in me. I'll need to deal with it for the rest of my life," Naama, 19, tells AFP at an open day as the three-week summer camp.

When Hamas launches a rocket, an alarm sounds and the people of Sderot know they have 15 seconds to get to the nearest shelter, day or night.

"Each time you need to drop everything and go to the shelter. It's just so stressful to keep worrying about your family all the time, and yourself," says Naama.

Every year up to 20 girls -- half Jewish Israelis and half Palestinians from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza -- are invited to New Mexico by Creativity for Peace, which is funded privately, notwithstanding a 2015 US government grant.

The girls share their experiences of the Arab-Israeli conflict as part of a total of 40 hours of dialogue founded on the notion that "an enemy is a person whose story you haven't heard."

Using English as their common language, they go shopping, visit the movies, divvy up chores, share bedrooms and attend art therapy classes together.

Almost all have lost family and friends to violence and most will never have spoken to members of the opposite side before.

- 'Baby steps' -

"We teach our young women that both sides are right and both sides are wrong. Their job is not to debate politics or go over history, but more to understand one another and find common ground," says Dottie Indyke, executive director for the last 11 years.

The fact that both sides have suffered often comes as a revelation to the girls, although resentment can still run deep.

Liza points to the 400,000 illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and the numerous checkpoints that have choked Nablus, a thriving trading post since the days of the seventh century Umayyad Caliphate that now finds itself in penury.

"I understand that we both suffered. It didn't change my mind towards the other side. I feel them, understand their stories, but that doesn't mean I should change my perspective, that they are not doing something wrong to my country," she tells AFP.

But she is persevering in the process -- even turning around her initially unsupportive family -- because she believes in the intrinsic value of dialogue as driver of change.

"Maybe we are not resolving the conflict but it's a long process, it's about trust," she says. "As long as we trust the other side many things will start to happen."

Perhaps the toughest part comes after the camp, when the girls are asked to go back to their communities as "peacemakers" who can be an example of compassion, friendship, and courage.

"Each girl can go to her family and change the way they see things, then they can change their communities," says Sana, 17, another young leader who first came to the camp in 2015.

"It's like baby steps. But they all lead to this amazing big step."
President Aziz dismissed the referendum boycott movement as existing 'only on paper and social media'

Counting began on Saturday in Mauritania after a referendum on constitutional changes sought by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who derided the efforts of a boycott movement that has galvanised mass protests during the campaign.

Aziz is pushing to abolish the country's Senate and several other state bodies and to make a small alteration to the national flag, measures that have galvanised boycotters hoping to sap the vote's credibility by forcing a low turnout.

Polling stations closed at 7:00 pm (1900 GMT) after peaceful voting, with no repeat of the violent clashes seen in the final week of campaigning.

After voting in the morning, Aziz said the changes would bring Mauritania "peace, security, stability and development", and dismissed the boycott movement as existing "only on paper and social media".

The boycott movement draws broad political support from figures as diverse as religious conservatives and anti-slavery activists.

They have held several protests attracting thousands of supporters, but have also been prevented from demonstrating by the security forces, who on Thursday shut down several planned rallies close to the capital with tear gas and beat protesters back with batons.

Bedenna Ould Sidi, the head of operations for the country's electoral commission, said the referendum had been a success but turnout was not available.

Mauritanians are also voting on a new flag that would honour those killed in the struggle for independence from France

A source close to the electoral commission told AFP around 1400 GMT that turnout was around 20 percent in Nouakchott and 40 percent in the country's interior.

Around 1.4 million Mauritanians were eligible to vote, and results could be available as early as Sunday if counting proceeds quickly.

- Third mandate? -

While Aziz and his supporters are seeking a "Yes" vote, one moderate opposition party is seeking a "No", while the rest have joined civil society groups to call for a total boycott for amendments they consider unconstitutional.

The Forum for Unity and Democracy (FNDU), a coalition of parties spearheading the boycott, thanked the Mauritanian people for their "positive response" on Saturday night and said they believed turnout had not broken 15 percent.

The electoral commission hailed the poll a success, though turnout was still unclear

They repeated earlier claims that Aziz's supporters would arrange for a "vast fraud" to win the vote and promised to reveal tactics aimed at pushing through what they termed an "anticonstitutional farce".

The UN Human Rights Office said Thursday that "protest leaders were reportedly beaten up and a number of them were arrested" during campaign rallies in the last few weeks, urging the government to ensure fair and credible elections.

The opposition also fears that despite Aziz's claims to the contrary, he is laying the groundwork for a third term in power, as his own prime minister said back in July he supported the idea.

Aziz himself fuelled speculation on Saturday by saying that "in two years, or even 10 years other amendments could arise to adapt our constitution to reality," without elaborating.

He also said journalists questioning why European Union observers were not present had a "colonial mentality", describing the EU as "not a barometer for the truth."

Sidi, the polling chief, said foreign observers were present but would not be drawn on where they had come from.

- Aziz vs Senate -

The proposal to modify the constitution, in force since 1991, was rejected by the Senate in March, leading Aziz to call the referendum to push through the changes.

Results could come as soon as Sunday if counting goes smoothly

The most contentious measure remains the abolition of the Senate and its replacement with elected regional councils, and senators have held a sit-in this week and demanded apologies from Aziz for accusing them of corruption.

Unrepentant, Aziz said at a final rally on Thursday the Senate "costs a lot, has no use and does nothing", and vowed to launch legal action against several senators.

The president came to power in a coup in 2008 and was elected in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term.

Under the proposed change to the flag, red bands would be added to the current green flag with yellow Islamic crescent and star, to honour those who fought for freedom from colonial master France.
President Uhuru Kenyatta hails from the elite but has a reputation for the common touch

The son of Kenya's founding president and a man who epitomises the country's elite, Uhuru Kenyatta hopes to win a second and final five-year term in elections on August 8.

The 55-year-old US-educated multi-millionaire, whose family owns an array of businesses, properties and tracts of land, followed in his father's footsteps when he defeated his rival Raila Odinga in 2013.

Kenyatta won that poll despite being indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) along with his running mate, William Ruto, for alleged roles in orchestrating violence that left over 1,100 dead after the previous election in 2007.

Foreign powers, including Britain and the US, warned at the time that Kenya, under an ICC-indicted president, would be a pariah, but the threats proved empty.

In 2014 the ICC dropped charges against Kenyatta -- and Ruto later -- citing the disappearance of witnesses and lack of evidence.

Since then Kenya has welcomed President Barack Obama, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Pope Francis and hosted a string of international gatherings and conferences.

- Privilege and wealth -

Kenyatta's first term has been defined by big spending on eye-catching infrastructure and impressive economic growth in a tough climate.

But this has gone hand-in-hand with spiralling debt and widening inequality.

Terrorism has also been a consistent threat during his presidency with Kenyatta being forced to address the nation in doleful terms on numerous occasions, notably after the 2013 Westgate mall attack and the 2015 Garissa university attack.

Kenyan presidents: from father to son

The former finance minister and deputy prime minister was born in 1961, shortly after his father Jomo Kenyatta was released from nearly a decade in British jails and before becoming Kenya's first president in 1964. His first name means "freedom" in Kiswahili.

Educated at a private school in Nairobi and at Amherst College in the US, Kenyatta is regarded as a leader of the Kikuyu people, the country's single largest ethnic group.

He is married with three children and regularly attends Catholic church.

In 2011 Forbes magazine estimated Kenyatta's wealth at $500 million (423 million euros). Despite his elite background Kenyatta has a common touch. He easily mixes it up with ordinary Kenyans, eagerly gets down on the dance floor and joshes in the local youth slang and, in his younger years, earned a persistent reputation for partying hard.

A leaked 2009 US diplomatic cable described him as "bright and charming, even charismatic" but warned that "Kenyatta's liabilities are at least as important as his strengths. He drinks too much and is not a hard worker."

- Dynastic politics -

Kenyatta's political career is a case study in pragmatism.

In the 1990s, he joined with the sons of other independence heroes to call for democratic reforms but then became a close ally of autocratic former president Daniel arap Moi who had him nominated as the ruling party's candidate for the presidency in 2002.

Kenyatta lost to fellow Kikuyu politician Mwai Kibaki but then backed Kibaki's successful re-election bid in 2007, against Odinga who, at the time was allied with Ruto.

The violent fall-out from the disputed result led to a power-sharing government in which Kibaki was president, Odinga prime minister and Kenyatta one of his deputies.

In 2013 the two ICC indictees, Kenyatta and Ruto, joined forces to defeat Odinga in a close and controversial election. Kenyatta won in the first round with a wafer-thin margin of 50.03 percent -- a result Odinga disputed, unsuccessfully but peacefully this time, in court.

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The upcoming vote is a re-run of 2013 except that this time the opposition has united behind Odinga posing a serious challenge to Kenyatta's ruling Jubilee Party.

Opinion polls put the two neck and neck.

The election will most likely be the final act in a multi-generational political rivalry stretching back half a century to when Jomo Kenyatta and Odinga's father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, vied for control of the nation.

If he wins, Kenyatta must stand down after one more term and, at 72, Odinga is regarded as too old to make another bid for the presidency in five years time. Both men's children are still inexperienced in politics.
The captain, a 53-year-old Englishman from Devon, had "an exceptionally high" breath alcohol reading, police said in a statement

The British captain of a cargo ship found himself in hot water on Saturday as he appeared in court accused of being drunk while trying to berth the vessel at a New Zealand port.

The captain, a 53-year-old Englishman from Devon, had "an exceptionally high" breath alcohol reading, police said in a statement.

The police were called after the pilot assisting with the docking of the 40,000 tonne Shansi became concerned that the captain was under the influence of alcohol.

The limit for a "seafarer" is 250 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath and any breach carries a 12-month jail term or an NZ$10,000 (US$7,400) fine.

The man made a brief appearance in the Whangarei District Court on Saturday and was remanded on bail to reappear on Monday.

The vesselfinder.com website lists the Shansi as 200 metres (656 foot) long with a 28 metre beam and is sailing under the flag of Singapore.
A Turkish-backed Syrian rebel sits in a vehicle in the northwestern border town of Al-Bab on February 23, 2017 after its capture from the Islamic State group

From special forces officer to brigade-hopping rebel, Abu Jaafar has seen Syria's uprising from all angles. But after years of setbacks, culminating in cuts to US support, he feels disillusioned.

The 31-year-old spent three years in a Syrian prison and once counted himself among his US trainers' most admired fighters.

But now with more than 330,000 dead and millions displaced, Abu Jaafar expressed exhaustion and anger.

"I fall apart, I get annoyed and I want to leave but I say no -- if I leave and others do too, the country will be even more destroyed than it is now," Abu Jaafar told AFP in interviews via a messaging app.

In some ways, his trajectory has tracked Washington's shifting policy, which originally backed anti-regime factions but is now focused on battling the Islamic State group.

President Donald Trump's administration last month announced it was ending Washington's four-year programme to back rebels.

Abu Jaafar, who worked with two groups supported by that programme but now receives separate Pentagon backing, was left convinced opposition groups were pawns in a proxy war between outside powers.

"Rebel factions were pieces on a chessboard. The board is in Turkey, Trump is on one side, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is on the other," he said ruefully.

Originally from the central province of Homs, Abu Jaafar -- born Khaled Karzoun -- enrolled in the special forces' officers school at the age of 17.

A satellite image of Syria's notorious Saydnaya prison released by the US State Department on May 15, 2017

When protests erupted in 2011, he was stationed on Syria's Mediterranean coast and ordered to fire on the few demonstrations in the regime stronghold.

"The oppression was brutal in a way I cannot describe," he recalled.

In September 2011, he was accused of liaising with rebels and sentenced to 15 years in the notorious Saydnaya prison, where his wife was able to visit him only twice a year.

"Three hours before the visit, I would be taken out to be tortured and beaten so that I would come out for the visit covered in blood," he said.

Abu Jaafar was released on June 14, 2014 after a string of amnesties cut his sentence to three years.

- Revolution as a business -

Within a week, he joined the rebel Hazm Movement, at a time when the opposition still controlled swathes of Syria, including half of second city Aleppo.

Washington and its allies were training and arming rebel groups, including Hazm, through a Turkey-based operations room known by its Turkish acronym MOM.

Abu Jaafar spent a month training in Saudi Arabia but returned to Syria disillusioned by what he perceived as corruption among Hazm members.

"I missed the most amazing years of the revolution because I was in jail. By then, I saw the revolution had been turned into a business.

Abu Jaafar (R) and fellow Turkish-backed rebels pose with an Islamic State group flag as they advance towards the then jihadist-held city of Al-Bab on February 20, 2017

"I rebelled for honour, someone else was against injustice, another because his brother was in jail," he said.

"That's why we were with the revolution. But now, everyone is rushing to expand his faction for his own personal interests."

In September 2014, Abu Jaafar left Hazm as it lost territory and weapons to Al-Qaeda before folding the following year.

For several months, he worked as a schoolbus driver outside second city Aleppo. His wife, who taught at the school, gave birth to a boy.

"He lived 21 days. There was an air strike and he died."

In early 2016, Abu Jaafar was recruited by the Fastaqim Union, a rebel faction in Aleppo.

"We got weapons on a monthly basis, as well as salaries, medical equipment, vehicles, and relief materials" from the MOM, he said.

He led month-long training courses for Fastaqim members in Turkey and Qatar in 2016.

"I had a great relationship with the Americans. They liked me a lot," Abu Jaafar said.

- Seen enough for a lifetime -

The devastation in Aleppo's Old City on January 22, 2017 a month after its recapture by the Syrian army

But the group was weakening as it and other rebel groups lost their hold on urban Aleppo.

In mid-2016, Abu Jaafar transferred to the Pentagon-backed Mutasem Brigades.

The move meant Abu Jaafar was now fighting the Islamic State group instead of the army -- a shift already months in the making in Washington.

But with the end of US support for the MOM, Abu Jaafar wonders if his latest brigade will be around much longer.

"Maybe soon it'll be our turn."

US military support in Syria is now centred on the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance which is on the brink of ousting IS from its Syrian bastion Raqa.

From Azaz, a rebel enclave on the Turkish border, where he lives with his wife and six-year-old daughter, Abu Jaafar wonders what's next.

"Aleppo is over, Raqa belongs to the SDF," he says.

"Things are hard. After the regime, we got (IS chief) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. After Baghdadi, we got Mohammad Jolani," the head of Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

"I know I'm only 31, but I've seen more than someone who has lived to 90."
For more than a month, Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a standoff on a remote but strategically important Himalayan plateau near where Tibet, India and Bhutan meet

China has stepped up its rhetoric in an increasingly tense border row with India, hinting at the possibility of military action in a propaganda push that analysts are calling "genuinely troubling."

For more than a month, Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a standoff on a remote but strategically important Himalayan plateau near where Tibet, India and Bhutan meet.

On Thursday, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang warned that Beijing had shown restraint but had a "bottom line."

"No country should underestimate the Chinese forces'... resolve and willpower to defend national sovereignty," he said in a post on the ministry website.

It is a line that has been echoed almost word for word this week by the foreign ministry, the official Xinhua news agency, the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, the official military news website of the Chinese armed forces, and other outlets.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministry released a 15-page document of "facts" about the border dispute, which included a map of alleged intrusions and photographs of what it stated were Indian troops and military vehicles on China's side of the frontier.

Calling for the "immediate and unconditional" withdrawal of Indian troops, it warned Beijing would "take all necessary measures" to safeguard its interests.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Thursday that India was building roads, hoarding supplies and deploying a large number of troops in the area.

"This is by no means for peace," Geng said.

- 'Genuinely troubling' -

Mistrust between the giant neighbours goes back centuries and the pair fought a brief war in 1962 in India's border state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The recent escalation of China's rhetoric was "genuinely troubling," Rory Medcalf, head of Australian National University's National Security College, told AFP.

"It suggests that diplomatic conversations, including among high-level national security advisers, are failing to find a face-saving way for the two powers to withdraw their forces," he said.

The plateau is strategically significant as it gives China access to the so-called "chicken neck" -- a thin strip of land connecting India's northeastern states with the rest of the country.

Despite the heated war of words, other analysts played down the possibility of an armed clash.

"The point of these statements isn't that war is imminent; rather, they're an attempt to figure out how to not go to war without losing face," Shen Dingli, vice dean of Fudan University's Institute of International Studies, told AFP.

"Neither side wants to go to war, but China and India are acting like two unhappy little children."

China has rolled out a massive new global infrastructure programme known as the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which it presents as a peaceful development policy to connect Chinese companies to new markets around the world.

Critics see it as a geopolitical powerplay.

President Xi Jinping is set to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a summit of BRICS nations in the Chinese city of Xiamen in early September and has said he hopes for greater cooperation within the bloc.

But he is also gearing up for a key party congress later this year, at which he is expected to further consolidate his grip on power -- making him unwilling to appear weak by backing down in the current dispute, said politics professor Yvonne Chiu, who researches China's military at Hong Kong University.

Chiu said China was testing "how much they can get away with, in a region that is unlikely to draw the involvement of other major powers such as the US."
The gathering of ASEAN foreign ministers is expected to see a fiery few days of diplomacy, with the top diplomats from China, the United States, Russia and North Korea set to join their ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific counterparts for security talks

Vietnam urged other Southeast Asian nations to take a stronger stand against Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea on Saturday, as a tense regional security forum began with North Korea also under fire over its nuclear programme.

Ahead of the launch of the annual gathering of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam made a bold play against China with a raft of suggested changes to a planned joint communique.

It set the stage for a fiery few days of diplomacy in the Philippine capital, with the top diplomats from China, the United States, Russia and North Korea to join their ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific counterparts for security talks from Sunday.

The meetings will take place as the United Nations Security Council votes this weekend on a US-drafted resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea to punish the isolated regime for its missile tests.

The United States said it would also seek to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event -- known as the ASEAN Regional Forum.

After their own day of meetings on Saturday, ASEAN foreign ministers released a joint statement expressing "grave concerns" over the North's first two intercontinental ballistic missile tests that were conducted last month.

"These developments seriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world," the statement said.

But on the South China Sea dispute -- one of Asia's other top powder keg issues -- there was far less consensus with the Philippines seeking to placate Beijing, and Vietnam leading the resistance, diplomats told AFP.

Vietnam on Friday night sought to insert tough language against China in an ASEAN statement that was scheduled to be released after the Southeast Asian ministers wrapped up their own talks on Saturday.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

According to a copy of a draft obtained by AFP, Vietnam lobbied for ASEAN to express serious concern over "construction" in the sea, a reference to China's ramped up building of artificial islands in the disputed waters in recent years.

Vietnam also wanted ASEAN to insist in the statement that a planned code of conduct for the sea with China be "legally binding", which Beijing opposes.

Malaysia also pushed for some tougher language, including with a reference to "military assets" in the contested waters, according to the draft and discussions with diplomats involved in the discussions.

- Tense talks -

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, including waters approaching the coasts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

China has in recent years expanded its presence in the sea by building the artificial islands, which are capable of holding military bases.

The Philippines used to be the most vocal critic of Beijing's expansionism.

But, since President Rodrigo Duterte was elected last year, the Philippines has sought to downplay the dispute with China in return for billions of dollars in Chinese investments and aid.

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea, including waters approaching the coasts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei

China has in recent years also successfully lobbied other ASEAN nations, particularly Cambodia, to support its diplomatic manoeuvring in the dispute.

The joint statement that was scheduled to be released after the ASEAN ministers was delayed because of the dispute over the wording on the sea issue, one diplomat told AFP.

"There is no consensus yet," the diplomat said, adding the drafting committee was tasked with continuing the negotiations on Saturday night.

ASEAN is on Sunday set to adopt a framework with China for a code of conduct, which is meant to pave the way for more concrete action.

But security analysts point out that the framework comes 15 years after negotiations on the issue first began, and China has used that time to cement its claims with the artificial islands.

Another pressing issue in Manila will be the growing terrorism threat in the region.

The event is taking place as Philippine security forces battle Islamic State-aligned gunmen who have since May been occupying parts of Marawi, the nation's main Muslim city about 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the south of Manila.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also set to meet Duterte on the sidelines of the event, with those talks expected to cover the Philippine president's controversial drug war that has claimed thousands of lives.
Members of the sweeping federal investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller requested the White House submit documents linked to Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to the the New York Times

Investigators probing President Donald Trump's team for possible connections to Russia have asked the White House to hand over records for what is believed to be the first time, the New York Times said Friday.

Members of the sweeping federal investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller requested the White House submit documents linked to Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to the paper, citing authorities close to the investigation.

The document request, while not a formal subpoena, was the latest signal that the probe is gathering pace.

The news came one day after reports revealed that Mueller -- a former FBI director -- has impaneled a grand jury to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Flynn -- who was ousted mere weeks after being named Trump's national security adviser over mischaracterizing contacts with Russian officials -- is at the center of the Russia controversy plaguing the White House.

Asked for comment on the story presidential lawyer Ty Cobb said the White House would not discuss "specific communications" with Mueller but would "continue to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel."

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations of collusion, saying he is the victim of a political "witch hunt" and "fake news."

Investigators had also questioned witnesses over whether Flynn received secret payments from the Turkish government at the end of the 2016 presidential campaign -- suggesting the probe's scope has widened to examine Flynn's financial dealings.

US media has reported that Mueller is also said to be investigating Trump's financial records unrelated to Russia or the election.

Trump has publicly warned Mueller that his financial dealings should be out of bounds and investigating them would cross a red line.
An aerial view of Chicago

US authorities have arrested employees of two prestigious universities accused in the grisly stabbing death of a Chicago hairstylist, following Friday's nationwide manhunt.

Wyndham Lathem, 42, of Northwestern University in Chicago and Andrew Warren, 56, of Oxford University in England, were in police custody in Oakland, California, according to a tweet from a Chicago police spokesman.

The pair had been named as suspects in the attack that was so brutal the blade of the knife used in the murder had broken off, police said.

Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, a 26-year-old hairstylist, was found dead in a Chicago apartment last week with multiple stab wounds.

Authorities revealed Friday that Lathem had sent a video message to friends and family members apologizing for the crime.

Officials have not disclosed the connection between the two suspects or their relationship with the victim.

Lathem is a medical researcher and associate professor at Northwestern University's downtown Chicago campus. He has been employed by the university for 10 years.

Northwestern said in a statement that Lathem was "placed on administrative leave and banned from entering the Northwestern University campuses."

On a university web page that has since been deleted, Warren was listed as a senior treasury assistant at Oxford's Somerville College.

Among the unanswered questions was why Warren suddenly left Britain for his first trip to Chicago on July 24, according to the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

Another mystery is a $1,000 donation to a library in the neighboring state of Wisconsin made after the attack in the victim's name, according to the newspaper.
Rahul Gandhi has been seeking to revive the Congress Party's fortunes after the BJP ousted it from power in 2014 general elections

India's main opposition Congress Party staged angry nationwide protests Saturday, blaming supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for pelting stones at the car of its leader Rahul Gandhi.

Congress workers shouted slogans outside the headquarters of Modi's ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi and held street protests in other states.

Gandhi was travelling to a flood-hit area in western Gujarat state Friday when a mob carrying black flags pelted stones at his convoy.

Although Gandhi was unhurt in the attack, the windows of his car were smashed, television channels showed.

"BJP workers threw stones at me, it hit my PSO (personal security officer). It is their style of politics, what can I say," said Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that ruled India for decades through the Congress party.

Gandhi, 47, has been seeking to revive the party's fortunes after the BJP ousted it from power in 2014 general elections.

Gujarat, Modi's home state, goes to the polls in December with the BJP seeking to retain power.

"Windowpanes of Cong VP's car broken in an organised attack by goons, security staff injured. BJP must know truth can't be silenced," tweeted Randeep Surjewla, a Congress spokesman.

The Congress also lodged a police complaint of "murderous assault" against four BJP workers.

Police have detained one man and are investigating the incident, the Press Trust of India reported.

Gandhi said he was undeterred by the attack.

"Narendra Modi ji, slogans, black flags and stones will not deter us... We will put in all our might into the service of people," he tweeted Friday.

Gandhi later met flood victims in Banaskantha district of Gujarat where severe monsoon flooding has killed more than 200 people so far.
Iranian President Hasan Rouhani (R) speaks with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his swearing-in on August 3, 2017

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani warned the US against tearing up the nuclear deal as he was inaugurated for a second term Saturday, but he also faces challenges closer to home amid accusations he is rolling over to conservatives.

Rouhani met with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini before the ceremony and called for greater efforts to safeguard the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in the face of new US sanctions.

"Iran will not be the first to violate the nuclear deal... but nor will it stay silent when the United States fails to respect its commitments," he told the packed parliament hall.

"Iran has proved that it will respond to respect with respect, and to sanctions and threats with an appropriate response and with resistance," he added.

Some of Iran's older friends, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, also attended the ceremony which came two days after Rouhani was officially sworn in by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The emir of Qatar, which has fallen out with its Gulf allies in part over ties to Iran, was notably absent, despite attending Rouhani's last inauguration in 2013.

- Reformist criticism -

But among Iranians, the real attention was on who would be named to Rouhani's new cabinet.

He has already been barraged with criticism over indications that women would again be entirely absent and that his reformist allies would barely be represented.

Rouhani's last government had three women among a large cohort of vice-presidents, but they lacked ministerial roles that would require approval by parliament.

"It was the reformists that allowed him to win the elections in 2013 and 2017... he must listen to those who supported him," Rassoul Montajabnia of the reformist National Confidence party told the Arman newspaper.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani greets EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini in Tehran on August 5, 2017

Rouhani won a convincing victory over hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi in the May presidential election, vowing to continue rebuilding ties with the West and easing social restrictions at home.

That helped win over the reformists -- whose candidates dropped out of the last two elections to ensure his victory.

"Rouhani created a lot of expectation and now there is a sense that he is retreating from his promises," said Ali Shakourirad, head of the reformist People's Unity Party.

The absence of women was down to pressure from religious conservatives behind the scenes, Shakourirad said.

"Rouhani didn't want to make his task any more complicated than it already is," he told AFP.

The final line-up is due to be announced in coming days, and must then be approved by parliament.

- Backroom bargaining -

Despite the furore, the reshuffle is not expected to touch big names such as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Oil Minister Bijan Namadar Zanganeh.

"The main ministers are very likely to stay in place," said Henry Smith, Iran analyst with consultancy Control Risks.

"Rouhani will have a fairly smooth time getting parliament to approve his appointees. He's been doing back and forth consultations with the necessary power centres -- the parliament speaker, supreme leader, the Revolutionary Guards -- and I don't think you'll see a significant change in economic or indeed social policy," he added.

Despite his efforts to build backroom consensus, hardliners have given Rouhani a rough ride since his election, perhaps worried at the growing strength of the reformists.

The arrest of his brother on corruption charges was interpreted by some as a shot across the bow by the hardline judiciary.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards attack a naval vessel during an exercise in the Strait of Hormuz on February 25, 2015

Rouhani also triggered a war of words with the Revolutionary Guards after criticising their outsized role in the economy, although analysts say this is part of a cautious realignment of Iran's policies to balance its security priorities with the need to attract investment.

"Rouhani has no interest in pushing the Revolutionary Guards totally out of the economy. It's about creating enough space so Iran can get the foreign investment and technology it needs," said Smith.

Investment has belatedly started to arrive in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal that eased sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear programme, notably through last month's billion-dollar gas deal with France's Total and China's CNPC.

Billions more are needed to jump-start the stagnant economy and tackle a jobless rate of 12.7 percent.

But with Washington imposing yet more sanctions this week, Iran's re-engagement with the world remains largely stalled.

"The problem is Iran feels the need to react to these moves by the US, which just give the US fuel," said Smith.

Mogherini held a meeting ahead of the inauguration with Zarif, who criticised European governments for their support of US calls for UN action in response to an Iranian satellite launch on July 27.

"This is the wrong path," Zarif said.
South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha (centre) says she is open to talks with her North Korean counterpart

South Korea's foreign minister said Saturday she was open to rare discussions with her North Korean counterpart at a security forum in the Philippines in a bid to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

The diplomatic olive branch came as the isolated regime faces increasing global pressure following its second intercontinental ballistic missile test on July 28, with the United Nations Security Council set to vote this weekend on new sanctions.

"If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Kang Kyung-Wha told reporters as she landed in Manila on Saturday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

North Korea's top diplomat, Ri Hong-Yo, is also attending the regional summit, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Kang, South Korea's first female foreign minister, said any meeting with Ri would be an opportunity "to deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers (for talks) aimed at establishing a peace regime".

Seoul last month proposed military talks with Pyongyang but the North refused to respond. Had they gone ahead, they would have been the first official inter-Korean talks since 2015.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has defied international pressure to accelerate his country's nuclear weapons capabilities, and boasted after the second intercontinental ballistic missile test that he could strike any target in the United States.

In response, Washington drafted the planned UN resolution to toughen sanctions against Pyongyang.

The United States also said it hoped to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event, known as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is attending.

- 'Seriously threaten' peace -

In the run up to this year's gathering, Washington lobbied to have Pyongyang kicked out of the ARF. But there is limited appetite among Asian countries to shut North Korea out of one of the few diplomatic gatherings it attends.

The newly elected South Korean government of President Moon Jae-In is also more open to negotiations than the previous administration of conservative Park Geun-Hye.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula often dominate the ARF because it is one of the few annual diplomatic gatherings attended by the key stakeholders: South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

On Saturday ASEAN released a joint statement following a meeting of its own foreign ministers saying the North's missile tests "seriously threaten" global peace, but they stopped short of any moves to isolate Pyongyang.

The UN resolution proposes a ban on certain exports that could deprive Pyongyang of $1 billion in annual revenue.

It comes after a month of negotiations with China, the North's main trading partner and ally, to shore up their support for fresh punitive measures.

The draft resolution calls for a ban on all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state, according to the text seen by AFP.

The new raft of measures would be the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006, but these have failed to compel Pyongyang to give up its missile programme.

China and Russia have insisted that sanctions alone will not change Pyongyang's behaviour and that talks are needed to address the crisis.
The incident comes just weeks after seven American sailors were killed when their Navy destroyer collided with a Philippine-flagged cargo ship in a busy shipping channel off Japan's coast

US naval forces have suspended their search for an American sailor who went missing during a joint drill in the South China Sea with Japan on Tuesday.

"After more than three days of continuous search efforts, the US Navy suspended operations to locate a Sailor assigned to guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem" on Friday, the US 7th Fleet said in a statement.

The missing sailor was identified as Lieutenant Steven D. Hopkins, a Texas native, according to the US 7th Fleet.

On Thursday, China said it helped the US search for the sailor, a rare cooperative gesture in the disputed waters.

The US, Japan and China "spent 79 hours in a comprehensive search that covered roughly 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometres)," the US 7th Fleet said.

But they were "unable to locate" the sailor after an extensive search, Captain Jeffrey Bennett, commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, said in the statement.

The incident comes just weeks after seven American sailors were killed when their Navy destroyer collided with a Philippine-flagged cargo ship in a busy shipping channel off Japan's coast.

Aged 19 to 37, the seamen were found by divers in flooded sleeping berths a day after the collision tore a huge gash in the side of the USS Fitzgerald.

Japanese and US naval forces have been holding drills in the contested South China Sea in the face of Beijing's increasing assertiveness over its maritime claims in the region.

Beijing has pursued claims on nearly the entire territory of the South China Sea by building military facilities and conducting naval exercises -- despite partial counter-claims from nations such as the Philippines and Vietnam.

China is also involved in a simmering territorial row with Tokyo over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

Iran criticised the position adopted by European governments against its missile tests, during a visit by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Saturday.

Mogherini met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ahead of an inauguration ceremony for President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.

Iran's missile tests and a satellite launch on July 27 were "not in contradiction" with UN resolutions, Zarif's office said in a statement after the meeting.

Britain, France and Germany last week joined the United States in calling for UN action in response to the satellite launch, saying the technology could be used for ballistic missiles and was "threatening and provocative".

"This is the wrong path," Zarif said in the statement.

UN Resolution 2231 was implemented alongside a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, urging Iran to refrain from testing missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon and says the missile tests are part of its legitimate defence programme.
Organisers of the annual event said they aimed to encourage Filipina mothers to breastfeed their babies entirely for the first six months to lower the country's high infant mortality rate

Some 2,000 mothers in the Philippines breastfed their babies in public on Saturday in a gathering aimed at cutting infant deaths and dispelling taboos over the practice.

To the upbeat sounds of local pop songs, hundreds of mothers suckled their babies inside a cavernous Manila stadium, some of them multitasking by feeding two children at the same time.

Organisers of the annual event said they aimed to encourage Filipina mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first six months to lower the country's high infant mortality rate.

"In the Philippines we still have a very low infant breastfeeding rate," Ros Macachor, an organiser for the non-government advocacy group Breastfeeding Pinays told AFP.

Macachor said Filipina mothers typically breastfeed their newborns only for the first 24 days, then switch to commercial infant formula which is ubiquitous and heavily marketed by powerful conglomerates.

A WHO study published in 2013 found only 34 percent of Filipino infants younger than six months were exclusively breastfed, and an "alarming" 36 percent were fed infant formula.

This was due to "aggressive marketing by milk companies" to counter laws designed to encourage breastfeeding, the country report added.

The UN Children's Fund said 28 out of every 1,000 Filipinos die under the age of five.

While that marks a significant improvement from the 56 per 1000 deaths recorded in 1990 it remains above the country's stated goal of lowering infant mortality rates to 19 per 1,000.

Macachor said similar mass breastfeeding events would help combat stereotypes and encourage mothers to exercise their right and shrug off taboos against nursing babies in public.

"They should not be intimidated by people telling them to go breastfeed in the toilets, which is unsanitary," she added.
The MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor is the primary assault support aircraft for the Marines, with two engines positioned on fixed wing tips that allow it to land and take off vertically

The US Marine Corps said Saturday that a major search and rescue operation was underway for three missing service members following a "mishap" involving an American military aircraft off the Australian coast.

US Marines based in Japan said "search and rescue operations continue for three U.S. Marines that were aboard an MV-22 Osprey involved in a mishap off of the east coast of Australia".

"Twenty-three of 26 personnel aboard have been rescued," they added in a statement.

The MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor is the primary assault support aircraft for the Marines, with two engines positioned on fixed wing tips that allow it to land and take off vertically. It also has the ability to travel much faster than a helicopter.

"The aircraft involved in the mishap had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when the aircraft entered the water," the statement said.

The ship's small boats and aircraft are involved in the search off Shoalwater Bay in Queensland state.

"The circumstances of the mishap are currently under investigation," it added.

Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said she had spoken to Pentagon chief Jim Mattis to offer help.

"I can confirm no Australian Defence Force Personnel were on board the aircraft," she said.

"The United States are leading the search and recovery effort.

"I have briefed Prime Minister (Malcolm) Turnbull and spoken with Secretary Mattis this evening to offer Australia's support in any way that can be of assistance."

The Osprey was in the region as part of the Australian-US joint military exercise Talisman Sabre, which has just concluded in Queensland.

In December last year an MV-22 Osprey made what the Marines called a "controlled landing" just off the coast of Okinawa during a night training flight that left the aircraft in pieces. No one was killed but the accident sparked anger on the Japanese island -- a strategic outpost of US military power.

A series of deadly accidents, mostly in the United States, prompted frequent protests in Okinawa against the deployment of the aircraft to the island.

In April 2000, 19 people were killed in the crash of one in the US.
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- India signed a loan agreement with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for providing loan of 329 million U.S. dollars to improve rural road connectivity in western state of Gujarat, officials said Saturday.

"The loan and project agreements for AIIB lending of 329 million U.S. dollars for Gujarat rural roads project have been signed between the government of India, government of Gujarat and the AIIB yesterday in New Delhi," a finance ministry official said. "The objective of the project is to improve the rural road connectivity and accessibility in rural areas of Gujarat.

According to officials the project would benefit about 8 million people in the state by providing all weather road connectivity to 1,060 villages in 33 districts.

The project would envisage constructions and up-gradation of non-plan roads (NPRs), besides up-gradation of planned roads.
Nepali transgender woman Monika Shahi Nath (L) pose for a picture with her husband Ramesh Nath (R) after announcing the registration of their marriage at a press conference in Kathmandu on August 5, 2017

A Nepali transgender woman and a man registered their marriage, a first in the country, the couple said Saturday, despite an absence of laws legalising same-sex or transgender unions.

Monika Shahi Nath, 40, who legally identifies as a third gender, married Ramesh Nath Yogi, 22, in May and was able to register it in their home district Dadeldhura in western Nepal last month.

"I have successfully registered my marriage with my husband," Nath said at a press conference, where she showed her marriage certificate.

"This is also my attempt to awaken our government to make legal changes. Others like me should also have the right to marry the person they love," she told AFP.

Nepal's law is silent on same-sex or transgender marriages despite a 2015 expert committee recommendation to legalise same-sex marriages following a Supreme Court order to enshrine the rights of sexual minorities.

Pinky Gurung, president of the Blue Diamond Society which works on behalf of sexual minorities in Nepal, said that the wedding was an achievement for their movement.

Nepali transgender woman Monika Shahi Nath (L) walks along her husband Ramesh Nath after announcing the registration of their marriage in a press conference in Kathmandu on August 5, 2017

"This is a beginning. But we need to see the government take action to legalise marriages for our community and enact the necessary laws," said Gurung.

However, a lack of legal clarity on the issue could jeopardise the marriage.

"Validity of the same-sex or third-sex marriage can be questioned even after marriage registration if it is against the existing laws," said Deepak Kafle, Home Ministry spokesman.

Legal experts said that the couple could also face allegations of polygamy -- which is illegal in Nepal -- as Yogi has an existing wife, and two children, prior to this marriage.

Nepal already has some of the most progressive policies on homosexuality in South Asia.

In 2013 Nepal introduced citizenships with a third gender option and began issuing passports reflecting the same in 2015.
Huan Huan is a very protective mother, says Baptiste Mulot the chief vet at Beauval Zoo

The first baby panda born in France is in good health and feeding from its mother, staff at Beauval Zoo said Saturday, as they came to terms with losing its twin.

Zookeepers were on alert to ensure that the surviving panda cub of twins born on Friday makes it through the touchy first week of its life.

"The first week is the most difficult because it is still very fragile," the zoo's chief vet Baptiste Mulot said on Saturday.

But the early signs appeared to be good.

"He is breastfeeding from his mother, we'll see if we have to supplement that with milk brought by the two Chinese carers..." he added.

The Chinese team, from the centre for breeding pandas in Chengdu southwest China, had already given the panda three bottle feeds, giving it somewhere between 1-1.3 millilitres of milk.

Huan Huan "is a very protective mother, which is very good, but that complicates the work of the Chinese carers a bit when it comes to taking the cub away every two hours," said Mulot.

There was joy and pain Friday as the zoo's only female panda gave birth to twins, but one died soon afterwards.

Huan Huan, on loan to Beauval zoo in central France from China, delivered the first cub at 10:18 pm (2018 GMT) and the second at 10:32.

But soon after birth, the first, which weighed just 121 grams (4.2 ounces), began having problems breathing and died despite the best efforts of zoo staff.

- 'Too weak to survive' -

What's so special about the giant panda?

"It was too weak to survive. The Chinese experts, who have experience of this, saw it straight away," zoo director Rodolphe Delord said.

"Our veterinary teams did everything they could to save it, but it was too small, too weak."

But he said the second twin, which weighed in at a healthier 142.4 grams, was in "perfect health".

Just as pandas do in the wild, the mother quickly focussed her interest on the second cub, as if instinctively aware that its chances of survival were best.

The cub stayed mainly with his mother, but whenever it was taken away from her it was immediately put in an incubator, said chief vet Mulot.

That allowed the Chinese carers to weigh it and wash it and supplement the mother's feeding with milk from a bottle.

Mulot welcomed the presence of the Chinese team, who had travelled over specially for the birth. Their "eye and experience are very important," he said.

For the moment, the cub is known simply has "Mini Yuan Zi", after its father.

Visitors to the zoo were delighted at the news of the birth.

"I'm so happy that a baby panda was born here because later, I want to work here," said 13-year-old Marion, who made a special trip with her parents from the southern city of Avignon.

Visitors will have to wait three months to see the family in their enclosure, when the baby panda will have opened its eyes and be covered in hair. In the meantime, visitors can watch a film of the pandas on giant screens.

Nine-year-old Huan Huan and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived at Beauval zoo in January 2012 on a 10-year loan from China after intense negotiations between Paris and Beijing.

Breeding pandas is notoriously difficult and this is the first time a cub has been born in France.

The female panda is only in heat once a year for about 48 hours. The gestation period for pandas is a mere 50 days.

Huan Huan (meaning "happy") and Yuan Zi ("chubby") are the only giant pandas living in France.

The pair were brought together in February, in the hope they would mate, but it didn't happen. In the end, the zoo performed an artificial insemination.

If all goes well with the birth, the surviving cub will leave Beauval in the next two to three years to be returned to China.

As a measure of how important the event is, France's first lady Brigitte Macron has been named -- along with her Chinese counterpart -- the baby panda's godmother.

In a statement, she was "very happy" to take on the role. The zoo said she would be visiting the new arrival in the coming months.
Hekmatyar, a two-time prime minister, is one of the most notorious warlords in Afghanistan's history and is accused of killing thousands of people during the bloody 1992-1996 civil war

Infamous Afghan warlord and ex-prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar rejected any increase in US troops Saturday as he said elections were the only way to bring stability to the war-torn country.

The 70-year-old, known widely in the international press as the "Butcher of Kabul", told reporters that Afghanistan desperately needed "a strong central government led by a powerful president".

"Without this it is impossible to bring peace and stability to the country," he said, in his first press conference with foreign media since returning to Afghanistan after more than twenty years in exile.

Hekmatyar, a two-time prime minister, is one of the most notorious warlords in Afghanistan's history and is accused of killing thousands of people during the bloody 1992-1996 civil war.

He is back in the political mainstream after returning to Afghan public life in April due to a landmark, but hugely controversial, peace deal he signed with the Kabul government.

"Hezb-i-Islami is ready to co-operate with the government and bring in security and stability unconditionally," Hekmatyar said, referring to the largely dormant militant group he heads.

"We accept that elections should be the only way to get to power and the participation of political parties in elections is the only way forward," he added.

Hekmatyar, white-bearded and wearing his trademark black turban, also said that Donald Trump would be wrong to send more American troops to Afghanistan, something the United States president is believed to be considering.

America has about 8,400 soldiers in the country, well below their presence of more than 100,000 six years ago.

"The current war cannot be won by increasing the number of foreign troops," said Hekmatyar.

"We want the international community to help Afghans stop foreigners and neighbours from interfering," he added.

Hekmatyar is one of several controversial figures that Kabul has sought to reintegrate in the post-Taliban era. General Abdul Rashid Dostum, another warlord, is Afghanistan's first vice president.

The peace deal Hekmatyar signed with Kabul in September, in return for judicial immunity, was Afghanistan's first such agreement since the Taliban launched their insurgency in 2001.

It marked a symbolic victory for President Ashraf Ghani, who has struggled to revive peace talks with the more powerful Taliban.

But it has angered human rights groups and Kabul residents who survived the civil war.

Hekmatyar, a prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s, fled Afghanistan as the Taliban took power in 1996. During his exile he was believed to be in hiding in Iran and perhaps Pakistan, but his group claimed he remained in Afghanistan.

Afghan civilian deaths are at their worst since records began in 2009 as the country's beleaguered security forces battle the Taliban and the Islamic State group.

Hekmatyar dismissed fears that IS fighters, on the back foot in Iraq and Syria, were arriving in Afghanistan.

"The Daesh (IS) fighters in Afghanistan used to be with the Taliban," he claimed, adding that they had just changed the flag they were fighting under.
"Green-on-blue" attacks have been a major problem during NATO's long years fighting alongside Afghan forces

Two Afghan police officers were killed and a NATO soldier was wounded in an apparent insider attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said.

The so called "green on blue" attack happened at Kandahar airfield when NATO advisors, who had completed a training session with their Afghan counterparts, were returning to their base, NATO said.

"Romanian soldiers... returned fire in self-defence and killed the gunman," the statement said, adding that the attacker was a member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police.

A Romanian soldier was wounded in the attack," NATO said.

Police spokesman Abdul Hamid Mubarez told AFP that foreign troops opened fire on their forces after a "verbal clash" with them.

He said one police officer was killed at the scene and another who was wounded died later in hospital.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Western officials say most insider attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than insurgent plots.

The incident comes as the United States ponders sending more American troops to Afghanistan and it came at the end of a difficult week for foreign forces in the war-torn country.

Two US soldiers died when a Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into their convoy in Kandahar on Wednesday.

The next day a Georgian soldier was killed in a Taliban suicide bomb attack on a convoy of foreign forces near Bagram Airbase.

In June, three US troops were killed and another wounded in an insider attack during a joint operation in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province.
Kagame, 59, returned to the helm of the east African nation which he has ruled with an iron fist since the end of the 1994 genocide with 98.63 percent -- outdoing his tallies of 95 percent in 2003 and 93 percent in 2010

The United States said Saturday it was "disturbed by irregularities" in Rwanda's presidential election which saw Paul Kagame celebrate a third consecutive victory with nearly 99 percent of the vote.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US "congratulates the people of Rwanda on their active and peaceful participation" in the poll but added: "We are disturbed by irregularities observed during voting and reiterate long-standing concerns over the integrity of the vote-tabulation process."

Kagame, 59, returned to the helm of the east African nation which he has ruled with an iron fist since the end of the 1994 genocide with 98.63 percent of ballots cast -- outdoing his tallies of 95 percent in 2003 and 93 percent in 2010.

Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party -- the only permitted critical opposition party -- won just 0.45 percent of votes, beaten into third place by the little-known independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana with 0.72.

Nauert, who pointedly did not mention Kagame by name in her statement, said a particular concern was the lack of transparency in determining the eligibility criteria.

"We hope the new electoral law to be debated in the next session of Parliament will clarify that process well before the 2018 parliamentary elections," she said.

Kagame is credited with a remarkable turnaround in the shattered nation, which boasts annual economic growth of about seven percent, is safe, clean and has little corruption. Rwanda also has the highest number of female lawmakers in the world.

However rights groups accuse Kagame of ruling through fear, relying on systematic repression of the opposition, free speech and the media.

Kagame's critics have ended up jailed, forced into exile or assassinated. Few Rwandans would dare to openly speak against him.
LONDON (AP) - Avon's CEO will leave the company in March as the struggling beauty products maker continues a turnaround campaign.

Sheri McCoy has led the company for five years and sits on the board, but there has been some external pressure from activist investors for a change in leadership.

Avon said Thursday that it has hired an executive search firm to help find McCoy's successor.

This Tuesday, June 20, 2017, photo shows Avon body products displayed at a store in Hialeah, Fla. Avon CEO Sheri McCoy will leave the company in March 2018 as the struggling beauty products maker continues a turnaround campaign. Avon said Thursday, Aug. 3, that it has hired an executive search firm to help find McCoy's successor. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

"The platform is in place for a new CEO to continue accelerating the pace of change and take Avon to sustainable profitable growth," McCoy said in a company release.

Barrington Capital Group had been pushing for significant action at Avon since 2015, when it sent a letter saying that, "significant, immediate changes in leadership and strategic direction are needed."

In March 2016 Avon announced that it was cutting 2,500 jobs.

Avon Products Inc. launched a three-year transformation plan last year and so far it has sold its North American business to private investment firm Cerberus Capital Management and realized $180 million in cost savings. But those efforts have been arduous.

The company on Thursday swung to a surprise loss of $45.5 million in the second quarter.

Shopping habits have shifted dramatically, enough to jolt the iconic American brand dating back to 1886, which moved its headquarters from New York to the U.K. last year.

Sales have declined every year since 2012, and fell 8 percent in 2016. The company has fewer "Avon Ladies" going door-to-door every quarter.

It has been beset by software problems, a commission system that it's been trying to improve under McCoy, and a delayed entry into e-commerce that put it behind competitors.

Industry analysts who follow the company did not see many signs of the turnaround effort now underway.

"Overall we believe challenges are accelerating, with visibility lacking," wrote Mark Astrachan, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. "We believe Avon continues to lose share and consumer relevance in a number of key markets, increasing the difficulty in achieving a sustainable improvement in sales growth and operating margin, particularly given worsening sales trends while reinvestment increases."

Shares slumped 10 percent in midday trading Thursday to trade near three-year lows.

This Tuesday, June 20, 2017, photo shows Avon body products displayed at a store in Hialeah, Fla. Avon CEO Sheri McCoy will leave the company in March 2018 as the struggling beauty products maker continues a turnaround campaign. Avon said Thursday, Aug. 3, that it has hired an executive search firm to help find McCoy's successor. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Mexican army says soldiers have seized 37 gallons (140 liters) of liquid morphine and 96 pounds (43.4 kilograms of opium paste in a rural area of the northern state of Sinaloa.

Opium paste is extracted from poppy bulbs, and later process into morphine and then heroin. Much of it is shipped to the United States by drug cartels.

The army said Wednesday the drugs were seized on July 31, after an army patrol saw a group of men flee. The drugs were found in plastic jugs hidden under a tarp.

The seizure occurred in the township of Badiraguato, the hometown of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The army estimated the raw materials would have produced about 309 pounds (140 kilograms) of heroin.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police say Justin Bieber will not be charged for accidentally hitting a celebrity photographer with his pickup truck last month.

Beverly Hills police Lt. Elisabeth Albanese said Thursday that investigators had determined there were no violations by either Bieber or the photographer and no citations will be issued.

Bieber accidentally struck the 57-year-old paparazzo in Beverly Hills, California, after leaving an event on July 26.

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2015 file photo, Justin Bieber arrives at the Cannes festival palace in Cannes, southeastern France. Beverly Hills police said Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017, that Bieber will not face any criminal penalties after he accidentally struck a paparazzo with his pickup truck after leaving an event on July 26. They also say Bieber will not face any traffic citations. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)

Police have said Bieber was cooperative after the incident. It occurred days after Bieber canceled his Purpose World tour before wrapping it up with several performances in Asia.

The 23-year-old wrote a lengthy Instagram post late Wednesday saying he was grateful to his fans but also wanted his life and career to be sustainable. The post didn't directly mention the July 26 accident.

"Me taking this time right now is saying I want to be SUSTAINABLE. I want my career to be sustainable, but I also want my mind heart and soul to be sustainable. So that I can be the man I want to be, the husband I eventually want to be and the father I want to be," he wrote.

Bieber, who has sold millions of albums, released hit songs and won a Grammy Award, has had troubles throughout his eight-year music career. He wrote that he's not perfect, but trying to do his best.

"Im VERY aware I'm never going to be perfect, and I'm gonna keep making mistakes but what I'm not gonna do is let my past dictate my future," he wrote. "What I'm not gonna do is be ashamed of my mistakes. I wanna be a man that learns from them and grows from them!"
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Marcus Hutchins, a young British researcher credited with derailing a global cyberattack in May, was arrested for allegedly creating and distributing malicious software designed to collect bank-account passwords, U.S. authorities said Thursday.

News of Hutchins' detention came as a shock to the cybersecurity community. Many had rallied behind the researcher whose quick thinking helped control the spread of the WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled thousands of computers.

Hutchins was detained in Las Vegas on his way back to Britain from an annual gathering of hackers and information security gurus. A grand jury indictment charged Hutchins with creating and distributing malware known as the Kronos banking Trojan.

FILE - In this Monday, May 15, 2017, file photo, British IT expert Marcus Hutchins speaks during an interview in Ilfracombe, England. Hutchins, a young British researcher credited with derailing a global cyberattack in May, has been arrested for allegedly creating and distributing banking malware, U.S. authorities say. Hutchins was detained in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017, while flying back to Britain from Defcon, an annual gathering of hackers of IT security gurus. A grand jury indictment charges Hutchins with "creating and distributing" malware known as the Kronos banking Trojan. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

Such malware infects web browsers, then captures usernames and passwords when an unsuspecting user visits a bank or other trusted location, enabling cybertheft.

The indictment, filed in a Wisconsin federal court last month, alleges that Hutchins and another defendant - whose name was redacted - conspired between July 2014 and July 2015 to advertise the availability of the Kronos malware on internet forums, sell the malware and profit from it. The indictment also accuses Hutchins of creating the malware.

Authorities said the malware was first made available in early 2014, and "marketed and distributed through AlphaBay, a hidden service on the Tor network." The U.S. Department of Justice announced in July that the AlphaBay "darknet" marketplace was shut down after an international law enforcement effort.

Hutchins' arraignment was postponed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas by a magistrate judge who gave him until Friday afternoon to determine if he wants to hire his own lawyer.

Hutchins was in Las Vegas for Def Con, an annual cybersecurity conference that ended Sunday. On Wednesday, Hutchins madecomments on Twitter that suggested he was at an airport getting ready to board a plane for a flight home. He never left Nevada.

Jake Williams, a respected cybersecurity researcher, said he found it difficult to believe Hutchins is guilty. The two men have worked on various projects, including training material for higher education for which the Briton declined payment.

"He's a stand-up guy," Williams said in a text chat. "I can't reconcile the charges with what I know about him."

A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the 22-year-old Hutchins was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas. Officer Rodrigo Pena, a police spokesman in Henderson, near Las Vegas, said Hutchins spent the night in federal custody in the city lockup.

Andrew Mabbitt, a British digital security specialist who had been staying in Las Vegas with Hutchins, said he and his friends grew worried when they got "radio silence" from Hutchins for hours. The worries deepened when Hutchins' mother called to tell him the young researcher hadn't made his flight home.

Mabbitt said he eventually found Hutchins' name on a detention center website. News of his indictment Thursday left colleagues scrambling to understand what happened.

"We don't know the evidence the FBI has against him, however we do have some circumstantial evidence that he was involved in that community at the time," said computer security expert Rob Graham.

The big question is the identity of the co-defendant in the case, whose name is redacted in the indictment. Why was it blacked out? "Maybe the other guy testified against him," said Graham.

The co-defendant allegedly advertised the malware online. Hutchins is accused of creating and transmitting the program.

Williams, the president of Rendition Infosec, speculated that the co-defendant might have been caught up in the takedown of AlphaBay and framed Hutchins in exchange for a plea deal.

The problem with software creation is that often a program includes code written by multiple programmers. Prosecutors might need to prove that Hutchins wrote code with specific targets.

Williams pointed to a July 13, 2014 tweet by Hutchins, whose moniker is @MalwareTechBlog, asking if anyone had a sample of Kronos to share.

"I've written code that other people have injected malware into," said Graham. "We know that large parts of Kronos were written by other people."

One legal scholar who specializes in studying computer crime said it's unusual, and problematic, for prosecutors to go after someone simply for writing or selling malware - as opposed to using it to further a crime.

"This is the first case I know of where the government is prosecuting someone for creating or selling malware but not actually using it," said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University. Kerr said it will be difficult to prove criminal intent.

"It's a constant issue in criminal law - the helping of people who are committing a crime," Kerr said. "When is that itself a crime?"

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O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Associated Press writers Raphael Satter in Paris and Frank Bajak in Houston contributed to this report.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A NATO soldier from the country of Georgia and two Afghan civilians were killed when a Taliban suicide bomber dressed in a woman's burqa rammed his motorcycle into an international convoy, an Afghan official and the U.S. military said Friday.

The attack took place on Thursday evening and hit the NATO patrol near the town of Qarabagh, barely 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Kabul, the Afghan capital.

It was the second suicide bombing in as many days that targeted NATO. On Wednesday, a suicide attacker hit a convoy on the edge of the southern city of Kandahar, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding another four. Both attacks were claimed by the Taliban.

An Afghan policeman stands guard near to the site of a suicide bomber struck at a NATO convoy in Kandahar southern of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. A suicide bomber struck a NATO convoy near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, causing casualties, the U.S. military said. (AP Photo)

According to the U.S. military, three other Georgian soldiers were wounded in Thursday's bombing, as well as two U.S. service members and an Afghan interpreter. The military said the wounded are in stable condition receiving treatment at the U.S. military hospital at Bagram Air Base, also north of Kabul.

The district governor in Qarabagh, Abdul Sami Sharifi, said the attacker concealed his explosives beneath the all-enveloping women's garment known as burqa. He rammed his motorcycle into the NATO patrol, setting off his explosives, Sharifi said.

In a statement, U.S. Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, praised the contribution of the nearly 900 Georgian military personnel serving in Afghanistan.

"The commitment of Georgia as our largest non-NATO contributor is vital to our mission and we are honored to stand beside them under these difficult circumstances," Nicholson said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The Associated Press over the phone on Friday that one of its fighters from Takhar province carried out the attack at 8 p.m. in Qarabagh. He claimed 11 Americans were killed, but the insurgents routinely exaggerate their claims.

Meanwhile, in southern Helmand province, the Taliban stormed a market on Friday in the Gareshk district and fired at a nearby police station, according to district police chief Ismail Khan Khopalwaq. The market was closed because of the Muslim weekend and no casualties were reported in the attack.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police outpost in Gareshk, killing two policemen and wounding another two.

The district has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent weeks between Afghan security forces, backed by U.S. air support, and the Taliban, who now control roughly 80 percent of Helmand province.

Gareshk district is also where the Pentagon confirmed that an errant U.S. bomb last month destroyed a police outpost, killing 12 officers and wounding another 11. The incident is still under investigation and a joint U.S. and Afghan delegation earlier visited the area.

In recent days, the Taliban have stepped up their attacks on Afghan security forces across the country's south.

A Taliban attack early on Friday on a police outpost in southern Zabul province, on the border with Pakistan, killed four policemen. And three policemen were killed on Thursday when the Taliban attacked an outpost in southern Kandahar province, police spokesman Zia Durrani said.

In a separate attack near Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, the Taliban killed another five policemen in an attack on a checkpoint outside the city on Thursday, according to Zahir Gull Maqbol, an Afghan army commander.

And earlier this week, a horrific militant attack on a Shiite mosque in the western city of Herat left 32 people were dead and 66 wounded.

The audacity of Tuesday evening's attack, barely 50 meters (150 feet) from a police station, set off protests the following day. The suicide bomber first sprayed gunfire at the private guards who were protecting the mosque, before running inside firing until his rifle jammed, according to witnesses. He then detonated the explosives strapped to his body.

The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan took responsibility for that attack, saying they had deployed two suicide bombers. Witnesses reported a second explosion 10 minutes after the first bomber blew himself up.

IS considers Shiite Muslims as apostates and frequently targets them in attacks.

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Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan in Kandahar, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
PARIS (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for mediation efforts in Venezuela and condemning violence amid the president's efforts to consolidate power through a new assembly.

In a statement Friday Macron decried the arrest of two top opposition members and said France will "support any mediation that would allow the resumption of credible, sincere and serious dialogue ... and to end the spiral of violence."

Macron recently sent a letter to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro proposing mediation, and French Ambassador Romain Nadal has been meeting with Venezuelan government and opposition members.

In this Sunday, July 30, 2017 photo, Bolivarian National Guards move away from the flames after an explosion in Altamira Plaza during clashes with anti-government demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela. The explosion injured several officers and damaged several of their motorcycles. The officers were then seen throwing several privately owned motorcycles into the remaining fire in reprisal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

While some are calling for sanctions, France is hoping for a negotiated solution to the political crisis around Maduro's leadership.

Macron arranged peace talks last week between Libya's rival leaders and has sought to raise France's diplomatic profile since his election in May.
BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese court sentenced the ex-Communist Party chief of a rust-belt province that had been hit by massive electoral fraud to life imprisonment for accepting bribes worth more than $22 million.

A court in the central city of Luoyang on Friday handed down the sentence to Wang Min, the former party leader of Liaoning province, after convicting him of bribery, corruption and negligence of duty, the official People's Daily newspaper said.

Wang was accused of accepted money and valuables worth more than 146 million yuan ($22 million) and abusing his power when he served as a senior official in Jilin and Liaoning provinces between 2004 and 2016, state media reported.

In this Friday, Aug. 4, 2017, photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Wang Min, the former Communist Party leader of Liaoning Province, appears in court in Luoyang in central China's Henan Province. A Chinese court on Friday sentenced Wang, the ex-Communist Party chief of a rust-belt province that had been hit by massive electoral fraud, to life imprisonment for accepting bribes worth more than $22 million. (Xinhua via AP)

He was also found guilty of negligence that was "responsible for serious election fraud including vote buying."

Allegations of electoral fraud led to the removal of many of the Liaoning legislature's nearly 600 members in September last year. The legislature nominally oversees the province, though all key decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party.

President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a hallmark of his administration in an effort to bolster his legitimacy. In 2016 alone, prosecutions were reportedly launched against 48 officials at the provincial level and above.

In June, the former head of China's statistics bureau was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of taking bribes equivalent to more than $22 million over more than two decades.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A European Union official says more than 850,000 people are now benefiting from a EU-funded project that provides cash assistance to the most vulnerable refugee families in Turkey.

The program, billed as the EU's largest humanitarian program, provides debit cards to the most disadvantaged families allowing them to buy food and meet other needs.

It was launched last year following an agreement in which the EU pledged 3 billion euros to help Syrian migrants in Turkey in return for Turkish assistance in curbing illegal migration to Europe.

A refugee woman shows her debit card at a Turkish government social aid center in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. A European Union official says more than 850,000 people are now benefiting from a EU-funded project that provides cash assistance to the most vulnerable refugee families in Turkey.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

Jane Lewis, head of the EU humanitarian aid office in Turkey, said Friday that the program aims to assist 1.3 million refugees by the end of the year.

Turkey hosts more than 3 million mostly-Syrian refugees.

Refugees wait at a Turkish government social aid center in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. A European Union official says more than 850,000 people are now benefiting from a EU-funded project that provides cash assistance to the most vulnerable refugee families in Turkey.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

A refugee woman shows her debit card at a Turkish government social aid center in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. A European Union official says more than 850,000 people are now benefiting from a EU-funded project that provides cash assistance to the most vulnerable refugee families in Turkey.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

Jane Lewis, head of the EU humanitarian aid office in Turkey, speaks to the media at a Turkish government social aid center in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. A European Union official says more than 850,000 people are now benefiting from a EU-funded project that provides cash assistance to the most vulnerable refugee families in Turkey.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
PLANO, Texas (AP) - Prosecutors say a Texas man has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he smuggled circuits abroad for use by space programs in China and Russia.

Sixty-two-year-old Peter Zuccarelli of Plano, north of Dallas, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that include conspiring to smuggle and illegally export from the U.S.

Prosecutors say that starting in 2015, Zuccarelli used his company to place orders with U.S. suppliers for the circuits, known as radiation-hardened integrated circuits. He repackaged them as "touch screen parts" and shipped them out of the U.S.

The circuits have space and military applications so their export is strictly controlled by federal law.

Authorities say he created fake paperwork and made false statements to regulators in an attempt to conceal the smuggling.

Zuccarelli faces up to five years in prison.
NEW YORK (AP) - Activist investor Bill Ackman has opened a fight for control of the payroll processing company ADP and the ouster of its chief executive officer.

ADP said Friday that Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management informed the company that it wants Ackman nominated to the 10-member board, along with four others, and it wants to push back the Aug. 10 deadline for nominating directors. It also wants Carlos Rodriguez, who has been ADP's CEO for nearly six years, out.

Pershing owns 8 percent of ADP, a company with a market value of $50 billion which processes checks for about 20 percent of the U.S. work force.

FILE - In this April 27, 2016 file photo, William Ackman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Ackman is initiating a fight for control of the payroll processing company ADP and the ouster of its chief executive officer. ADP said Friday, Aug. 4, 2017 that Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management informed the company that it wants Ackman nominated to the 10-member board, along with four others, and it wants to push back the Aug. 10 deadline for nominating directors.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

ADP, based in Roseland, New Jersey, rejected the proposals by Pershing Square request, saying it's not in the best interest of shareholders. The company also said that the deadline has been publicly known for almost a year.

Ackman has been one of the most visible big investors on Wall Street in recent years. Pershing was a huge backer of the embattled drug company Valeant Pharmaceuticals. He has also had a long and very public campaign against Herbalife, a company that he has called a pyramid scheme.

He has forced changes, cheered by investors, at companies like Canadian Pacific Railway, as well as Air Products and Chemicals Inc.

Shares of Automatic Data Processing Inc. rose nearly 3 percent in premarket trading.
DETROIT (AP) - The Latest on a German Volkswagen executive accused in a scheme to cheat emission rules (all times local):

10:30 a.m.

A former German Volkswagen executive has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges in Detroit in a scheme to cheat emission rules on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles.

Oliver Schmidt pleaded guilty to both charges Friday.

Schmidt is a former manager of a VW engineering office in suburban Detroit. He was arrested in January.

VW admits using software to get around emission standards. It pleaded guilty in March and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties, on top of billions more to buy back cars.

Schmidt is accused of telling regulators technical problems were to blame for the difference in emissions in road and lab tests.

Most of the VW employees charged in a scheme are in Germany and out of reach of U.S. authorities.

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1:10 a.m.

A German Volkswagen executive is scheduled to plead guilty in Detroit in a scheme to cheat emission rules on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles.

Oliver Schmidt is due in U.S. District Court on Friday. He is charged with conspiracy and fraud.

Schmidt is a former manager of a VW engineering office in suburban Detroit. He was arrested in January.

VW admits using software to get around emission standards. The company pleaded guilty in March and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties, on top of billions more to buy back cars.

Schmidt is accused of telling regulators technical problems were to blame for the difference in emissions in road and lab tests.

Most of the VW employees charged in a scheme are in Germany and out of reach of U.S. authorities.
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A court in Myanmar granted bail Friday to a newspaper editor who is being tried under a controversial defamation statute in a telecommunications law.

Kyaw Min Swe, chief editor of The Voice Daily, was arrested in June for publishing online a satirical article that allegedly mocked the efforts of the military to reach a peace agreement with ethnic minority groups.

His previous requests for bail had been rejected, but during his ninth appearance in court, the judge granted his release on bail of 10 million kyats ($7,000).

Kyaw Min Swe, chief editor of The Voice Daily local newspaper, talks to media during a press briefing, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017, in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar's court granted bail to Min Swe on Friday after he was arrested in June along with the columnist Kyaw Zwa Naing on June 2 for publishing a satirical printed article, that allegedly mocked and questioned the country's military on its efforts to reach a peace agreement with ethnic minority groups. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

He was charged under Article 66(D) of the Telecommunications Law, which broadly defines defamation and carries a penalty of up to three years' imprisonment.

Rights groups decry the article as a restriction on freedom of expression, but the country's parliament this week turned down a bid to drop the article and decriminalize the offense.

One of the newspaper's columnists, Kyaw Zwa Naing, was also arrested on June 2 under Article 66(D), but the charge against him was dropped last month.

In this photo taken June 30, 2017, journalists and activists standing behind banners as they rally for press freedom in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar's court granted bail to Min Swe on Friday after he was arrested in June along with columnist Zwa Naing on June 2, 2017, for publishing a satirical printed article that allegedly mocked the country's military on its efforts to reach a peace agreement with ethnic minority groups. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities say a construction worker was buried alive when a concrete and dirt wall collapsed on him at a commercial and residential development site in New York.

Poughkeepsie fire officials tell the Poughkeepsie Journal (http://pojonews.co/2wrmdMf ) that the wall collapsed Thursday afternoon in the Hudson Valley.

Emergency crews found one worker trapped under debris and a second man injured nearby.

Officials say the trapped worker was dead by the time rescue crews reached him 30 minutes later.

The other worker was treated at a hospital.

Officials say the 15-acre (6-hectare) construction site has been shut down as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigates the fatality.

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Information from: Poughkeepsie Journal, http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - An Arkansas man was charged Friday in the fatal shooting of an Italian tourist who was found dead in a rental car last week, police said.

Andre Jackson, 32, was charged with capital murder in the shooting death of 31-year-old Carlo Marigliano, a Naples taxi driver who was driving through Arkansas on his way to Arizona.

Marigliano, a married father of two, had been traveling with friends in the U.S. for about a month before he left the group to visit other areas, his family told Little Rock television station KTHV

This undated photo provided by the Little Rock Police Department shows Andre Jackson. Jackson was charged with capital murder Friday, Aug. 4, 2017, in the shooting death of 31-year-old Carlo Marigliano an Italian tourist who was found dead July 28, 2017, in a rental car that had crashed into an apartment complex in Little Rock, Ark. (Little Rock Police Department via AP)

He was found dead on July 28, in a car that had crashed into an apartment complex in Little Rock. Police believe Marigliano was shot and then crashed the rented vehicle into the side of one of the apartment buildings. Police said it's unclear how the two crossed paths or what may have led to the shooting.

Marigliano was hoping to make the U.S. his new home, according to Gianni Sulmonte, a cousin of Marigliano's father

"It's a shame the place where he wanted to build his family, bring his wife with his children, is the place where it comes to an end," Sulmonte told KTHV.

Jackson is jailed without bond. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Little Rock police spokesman Steve Moore told The Associated Press that Jackson wasn't a resident of the Berkley Apartments complex where Marigliano was found dead. A woman who answered the phone at the complex said management wouldn't be commenting on the case.

Investigators said they're also looking for a second suspect, a 31-year-old woman. Moore said the woman also doesn't live at the apartment complex.
MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) - A deputy responding to a disturbance call in Mississippi has shot an armed suspect, killing him.

The Meridian Star reports the shooting happened about 1 p.m. Friday at what is believed to be the victim's family home.

The newspaper quotes Coroner Clayton Cobler (KAH-bler) as saying the deputy fired at least two shots at the suspect. Authorities have not released the name of either the suspect or the deputy.

Cobler says the suspect died at a hospital.

Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie says the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the investigation. A telephone call seeking comment was not immediately returned.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the sheriff's first name is spelled Billy, not Billie and that the coroner, not the sheriff, said the deputy fired at least two shots.

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Information from: The Meridian Star, http://www.meridianstar.com
A complaint documented that the vaccines, stored in Egypts Beheira governorate, were kept in damp cardboard boxes, which allowed black fungus to develop around the vaccine vials

Egypts administrative prosecution referred Saturday 18 officials of the health ministry to trial over negligence in 2015 that led to the spoiling of $443,000 of children's vaccines stored incorrectly.

The officials include the head of the pharmacists medical supply at the health ministry, 13 pharmacists employed at the vaccination centres storage unit, and four officials responsible for the vaccines storage at the health ministry.

The prosecution received a complaint from the health ministers financial aide that over 155,000 Pentavalent vaccines, part of a grant by Saudi Arabias government to the Egyptian health ministry, were spoiled due to bad storage, an administrative prosecution statement said.

The complaint outlined that the vaccines, stored in Egypts Beheira governorate, were kept in damp cardboard boxes, which allowed black fungus to develop around the vaccine vials.

Prosecution investigations into the complaint also revealed that 83 thermometers shipped alongside the vaccines, to determine their storage temperature, were missing.

The administrative prosecution also asked the general prosecution to start prosecution procedures against the chairman of the Egyptian Company for Vaccines and Medicines for possible gross neglicence.

The chairman, according to the administrative prosecution's investigations, forged a backdated report that said the vaccines were stored at an optimum temperature.

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SYDNEY (AP) - Uncapped legspinner Mitchell Swepson has been added to Australia's squad for the two-test tour to Bangladesh beginning later this month.

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc has withdrawn because of a foot injury and the Australia selectors have decided to add variety to their spin contingent.

Chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said "we are comfortable with the fast-bowling stocks we have in the squad so have opted to add an additional spinner given the conditions we are likely to face in Bangladesh. Mitchell is a very exciting young legspinner who we think will benefit immensely from further experience in the sub-continent."

Swepson, 23, toured India in March but did not play a test.
TOKYO (AP) - The U.S. Navy has ended a three-day search for a sailor who is believed to have gone overboard during operations in the South China Sea.

A statement on Friday said that U.S., Japanese and Chinese navy vessels and aircraft spent 79 hours combing roughly 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) of the South China Sea west of the Philippines, demonstrating what it called "the common bond shared by all mariners to render assistance at sea."

The sailor from the guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem, based in Yokosuka, Japan, was reported missing and assumed overboard Aug. 1. His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the Navy said.

FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2015, file photo, a member of Chinese Navy stands watch as the guided missile destroyer USS Stethem arrives at the Shanghai International Passenger Quay for a scheduled port visit in Shanghai, China. The U.S. Navy has ended a three-day search for a sailor who is believed to have gone overboard during operations aboard the USS Stethem in the South China Sea. A statement on Friday, Aug. 4, 2017, said that U.S., Japanese and Chinese navy vessels and aircraft spent 79 hours combing roughly 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) of the South China Sea west of the Philippines, demonstrating what it called "the common bond shared by all mariners to render assistance at sea." (AP Photo/Paul Traynor, File)

Rear Adm. Charles Williams, the commander of Task Force 70, offered his prayers for the sailor's loss and thanked all those who participated in the search, which included aircraft from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Ship JS Izumo, JS Sazanami and two People's Liberation Army Navy frigates, in addition to U.S. assets.

China, which claims virtually all of the South China Sea, accused the U.S. in July of trespassing in its waters when the Stethem sailed within 12 nautical miles (32 kilometers) of Triton Island in the Paracel islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

The operation was aimed at affirming the right to passage and challenging what the U.S. considers China's excessive territorial claims in the area. China sent ships to intercept the destroyer.

China has strongly objected to repeated freedom of navigation missions by the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea, where Beijing has rattled neighbors by constructing seven made-man islands in the disputed waters and fortifying them with radars and missiles.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times EDT):

11:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump is giving his stamp of approval to national security adviser H.R. McMaster after criticism in conservative media.

President Donald Trump waves after arriving at Morristown Municipal Airport with his grandchildren, Arabella Kushner, right, and Joseph Kushner to begin his summer vacation at his Bedminster golf club, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017, in Morristown, N.J. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The White House issued a statement Friday in which Trump says, "General McMaster and I are working very well together."

After the firing Wednesday of intelligence adviser of Ezra Cohen-Watnick - a protege of Trump's initial national security adviser, Michael Flynn - right-wing critics said McMaster is trying to remove conservative voices from the White House national security team.

Trump also says McMaster "is a good man and very pro-Israel." That remark is apparently in rebuttal to a widely circulated Facebook post by Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, who called McMaster "deeply hostile to Israel."

The president says, "I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country."

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6:20 p.m.

The White House says President Donald Trump has discussed with France's president ways to increase cooperation on addressing the crises in Syria and Iraq and countering the influence of Iran.

In a statement, the White House says Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France spoke on the phone.

The two leaders also talked about forging a political resolution in Libya and countering terrorist activity in the Sahel region of Africa.

According to the White House, Trump and Macron agreed that the Maduro regime in Venezuela must restore the rights of the Venezuelan people. They also reaffirmed the importance of all sides implementing the Minsk agreements to reach a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.

They also discussed mutual interests regarding North Korea.

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10:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump says he hopes for a "truly honest" outcome from the Russia investigation that has consumed the opening months of his presidency.

At a boisterous rally in Trump-friendly West Virginia on Thursday, he also challenged Democrats to either continue their "obsession with a hoax" or begin serving the interests of the American people.

Trump slammed the investigation as a "fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most of all demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution." He commented hours after news broke that Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation, had empaneled a grand jury in the case.

Added Trump: "I just hope the final determination is a truly honest one."
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is trying to turn the Russia investigation into a rallying cry.

Far from avoiding talk of the accelerating probe into his campaign's ties to Moscow, Trump is instead using it to stoke the outrage felt by his most loyal supporters.

The investigation, he argues, is an outgrowth of the bias and resentment media elites and Democrats hold against his white, working-class base. He casts the investigation as a nefarious attempt to undo the results of the election and seize power from the voters who have been marginalized.

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump listens in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. In populist tones, President Donald Trump is trying to turn the investigation into his campaign's ties to Russia into a rallying cry, labeling it as an existential threat to the loyal base that fueled his surprise 2016 election triumph. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

"They can't beat us at the voting booths so they are trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want," Trump said during a Thursday night rally in Huntington, West Virginia. "They are trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most importantly, demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution."

The message falls in line with Trump's long-standing appeal to the voters he has called the "forgotten men and women of our country" who lack a voice in government. Trump portrays himself as the voice of the aggrieved who understands their troubles.

But this heavy reliance on his loyal base, which comprise far short of an electoral majority, carries risks. Long term, it's unclear how his message will appeal to mainstream Republicans, some of whom are conducting investigations into his Russia ties in Congress and are unlikely to see special counsel Robert Mueller, the by-the-book former FBI director and decorated Vietnam War veteran, as the face of a witch hunt.

The message also obscures the issue his base cares most deeply about: the economy.

For now, Trump appears to be on solid ground on that front. He has presided over a strong economy during his first six months in office. He repeatedly noted this week that the stock market had risen to new heights. He pointed Friday to the latest job report, which showed more than 200,000 new jobs in July and an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, matching a 16-year low.

But a slip in the nation's economic fortunes before the 2020 election, especially in states key to Trump's victory like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, could make it harder for Trump to hold onto his base.

In some respects, Trump is taking a page from his favorite scapegoats: Bill and Hillary Clinton. During the late 1990s, Bill Clinton assailed House Republicans and independent counsel Ken Starr as fierce partisans for pushing investigations into his affair with a White House intern and his role in an Arkansas land deal. Hillary Clinton famously called it a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Two decades later, when Republicans pursued a lengthy investigation into her handling of the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, she said it was a partisan attempt to hurt her 2016 campaign.

This time, Trump has taken the partisan argument to a new degree, parlaying it with his longstanding indictment of the Washington "swamp" of insiders whom he says hurt many Americans.

"He's not just doing the partisan playbook, but he's making it about the system in some ways going after him and going after what the voters wanted," said presidential historian Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University.

Zelizer said the reliance on base politics carries risks for Trump, who has already sustained cracks in his support, embodied by strained relations with Republican leadership, Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake's book criticizing Trump's leadership, and three GOP senators' unwillingness to go along on repealing the Affordable Care Act.

"That could be a dangerous path. Just the base can't protect him," Zelizer said.

Most Americans don't seem to share Trump's views on the investigation. Nearly 60 percent of Americans say they don't think Trump is taking the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election seriously enough and roughly the same percentage think he's tried to derail the probe, according to a Quinnipiac poll published this week.

Still, in West Virginia, the president called the Russia story "a total fabrication" and an excuse promulgated by Democrats for their 2016 defeat.

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Ken Thomas has covered the White House and national politics for The Associated Press since 2011.

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On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC
ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkish news agencies say the country has increased its military presence along its southern border against threats from Kurdish militants in war-torn northern Syria.

The official Anadolu news agency said Saturday that Turkey dispatched artillery to Kilis province to reinforce units there.

The six-vehicle convoy included tanks and howitzers to be positioned across from the Kurdish-controlled Syrian region of Afrin, according to the private Dogan news agency.

Turkey has been vehemently opposed to the presence of the People's Protection Units, or YPG, in northern Syria. The country considers the YPG, a key U.S. ally in fighting the Islamic State group in Syria, a terror group and an extension of Kurdish militants operating inside Turkey.

In late April, Turkey relocated military units to Sanliurfa province across from another YPG-controlled area.
SYDNEY (AP) - U.S. military officials called off a search and rescue operation on Sunday for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia while trying to land.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps suspended the rescue operation and launched a recovery effort instead, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement, essentially confirming the military does not expect to find the missing Marines alive.

The Marines' next of kin had been notified, and Australia's defense force was assisting the Americans with the recovery effort, the statement said.

FILE - In this April 22, 2015 file photo, a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey comes in for a landing at Miami International Airport before a presidential visit, in Miami. Search and rescue operations were underway for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017 while trying to land. Twenty-three of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft have been rescued, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

The MV-22 Osprey had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard and was conducting regularly scheduled operations on Saturday when it crashed into the water, Camp Butler said. The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts, and 23 of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft were rescued.

"Recovery and salvage operations can take several months to complete, but can be extended based on several environmental factors," Camp Butler's statement said. "The circumstances of the mishap are currently under investigation, and there is no additional information available at this time."

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an airplane. They have been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.

The aircraft was in Australia for a joint military training exercise held by the U.S. and Australia last month in Shoalwater Bay in Queensland state. The Talisman Sabre exercise, a biennial event between the two nations, involved more than 30,000 troops and 200 aircraft.

Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said Saturday's incident occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay.

"I can confirm no Australian Defence Force personnel were on board the aircraft," Payne said in a statement.

Payne said she had spoken with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis "to offer Australia's support in any way that can be of assistance."

A White House official said President Donald Trump had been briefed by chief of staff John Kelly on the mishap of an aircraft off the east coast of Australia.

In 2015, a U.S. Osprey crashed during a training exercise in Hawaii, killing two Marines. Last December, a U.S. military Osprey crash-landed off Japan's southern island of Okinawa. Its five crew members were rescued safely. And in January, three U.S. soldiers were wounded in the "hard landing" of an Osprey in Yemen.

FILE - In this June 29, 2017 file photo U.S. Marine MV-22B Osprey aircraft land on the deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship off the coast from Sydney during events marking the start of Talisman Saber 2017, a biennial joint military exercise between the United States and Australia. A MV-22 Osprey that had launched from the USS Bonhomme was conducting regularly scheduled operations when it crashed into the water off Australia's east coast, Saturday, Aug. 5. (Jason Reed/Pool Photo via AP, File)
ROME (AP) - A Polish man has been jailed in the kidnapping of a British model held captive in northern Italy for six days last month, police said Saturday.

Milan police said the man, who holds British residence, was arrested on a charge of suspected kidnapping for extortion purposes. They didn't release his identity.

Police official Lorenzo Bucossi told reporters the 20-year-old woman had come to Milan for a photo shoot, apparently a phony setup, and was abducted on July 11.

Based on court documents, Corriere della Sera reported the woman was drugged by her abductor and held in a small town in the northwestern Piedmont region of Italy. At one point, the newspaper said, the woman was told she could be freed upon payment of 50,000 euros (around $60,000).

The report said investigators also are exploring the possibility the woman was abducted so she could be auctioned off online as a sex slave.

Corriere said the suspect discovered she had a young child and considered her unsuitable for sex trafficking. Bucossi said the suspect dropped her off near the British Consulate in Milan on July 17, but it wasn't clear why the kidnapping ended.

Whether the suspect had accomplices is also under investigation.
LONDON (AP) - Ireland's prime minister says it is "only a matter of time" before same-sex marriage is legalized in Northern Ireland - the only part of the United Kingdom where it still is banned.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay leader, made the comments at a gay pride event on Saturday in Belfast.

Northern Ireland remains the only part of the British Isles where same-sex marriages are not allowed. A 2015 voter referendum legalized them in the republic of Ireland.

Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar arrives for a Gay Pride breakfast meeting at the Northern Whig bar in Belfast, Saturday Aug. 5, 2017. Ireland's prime minister says it is "only a matter of time" before same-sex marriage is legalized in Northern Ireland - the only part of the United Kingdom where it still is banned. Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay leader, made the comments at a gay pride event on Saturday in Belfast. (Peter Morrison/PA via AP)

The issue has been one of the sticking points preventing the restoration of the Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

The Democratic Unionists, Northern Ireland's biggest British Protestant party and a key partner to British Prime Minister Theresa May's government, has opposed same-sex marriage.

The Catholic nationalist Sinn Fein supports it.
Egypt will experience hot temperatures on Sunday, with Cairo expected to see highs of 36 degrees Celsius and lows of 26, Egypts Meteorological Authority said on Saturday.

The coastal city of Alexandria is expected to see highs of 32 and lows of 23.

The Red Sea resort city of Hurghada will see highs 40 and lows of 29, while temperatures in Sharm El-Sheikh in South Sinai will range from 40 highs to 30 lows.

The Mediterranean and Red seas are expected to see moderate waves 1.5 to 2 meters in height.

The Meteorological Authority advises citizens to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun in the summer, especially between 12pm and 3pm.

The authority also advises people to drink plenty of fluids and to do any swimming in the early morning hours or a little before sunset to avoid intense sunlight.

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MUNICH (AP) - Bayern Munich's technical director, Michael Reschke, is leaving to join promoted Stuttgart as sporting director.

Bayern says that the 59-year-old Reschke, who joined the club in 2014 after 10 years at Bayer Leverkusen, asked for his contract to be terminated on Friday. It had had another year to run. Reschke informed both president Uli Hoeness and chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in July that he had received offers from other clubs.

On Monday, Bayern appointed Hasan Salihamidzic in a role with duties that may have overlapped with Reschke's, but the Stuttgart-bound director says, "It's a shame I won't have the opportunity to work together with (him)."

Rummenigge thanked Reschke for "the tremendous work he's done for FC Bayern over the last three years. He's made an important contribution to our success."
SYDNEY (AP) - The Latest on the crash of a U.S. Marine Osprey aircraft off Australia's coast (all times local):

11:50 a.m.

U.S. military officials have called off a search and rescue operation for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia while trying to land.

FILE - In this June 29, 2017 file photo U.S. Marine MV-22B Osprey aircraft land on the deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship off the coast from Sydney during events marking the start of Talisman Saber 2017, a biennial joint military exercise between the United States and Australia. A MV-22 Osprey that had launched from the USS Bonhomme was conducting regularly scheduled operations when it crashed into the water off Australia's east coast, Saturday, Aug. 5. (Jason Reed/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The U.S. Marine base Camp Butler in Japan says in a statement the rescue operation was suspended on Sunday morning. The military has launched a recovery effort instead and the missing Marines' next of kin had been notified.

The MV-22 Osprey had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard and was conducting regularly scheduled operations on Saturday when it crashed into the water. Twenty-three of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft were rescued.

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1 a.m.

Search and rescue operations are underway for three U.S. Marines who are missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia while trying to land.

The Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said that 23 of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft have been rescued after Saturday's crash.

The MV-22 Osprey involved in the mishap was conducting regularly scheduled operations when it crashed into the water. The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts, according to the statement.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an airplane. They have been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.

The aircraft was in Australia for a joint military training exercise held by the U.S. and Australia last month.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) - The FBI was searching for suspects after an explosive device tore through part of a suburban Minneapolis mosque on Saturday as people were preparing for morning prayers, damaging a room but not causing any injuries, authorities and witnesses said.

The blast happened at around 5 a.m. at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, according to Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts. Windows of the imam's office were shattered, either by the blast or by an object thrown through them, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported .

One worshipper saw a pickup truck speeding away shortly after the explosion, said Mohamed Omar, the center's executive director. He said the mosque, which primarily serves people from the area's large Somali community, occasionally receives threatening calls and emails.

Law enforcement officials investigate an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017. Bloomington police Chief Jeff Potts said Saturday that investigators are trying to determine the cause of the blast. Authorities say the explosion damaged one room but it didn't hurt anyone. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

"We came to this country for the same reason everyone else came here: freedom to worship," Yasir Abdalrahman, a worshipper at the mosque, told the newspaper. "And that freedom is under threat. Every other American should be insulted by this."

Asad Zaman, director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, described the attack as a firebombing.

Investigators will try to determine whether the incident was a hate crime and who may have been behind it, according to Richard Thornton, special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis Division.

Thornton said during an afternoon news conference that the explosion was caused by an "improvised explosive device," and that investigators have recovered components of the device to figure out how it was put together.

But he didn't take questions and declined to provide details about the device, citing the ongoing investigation, which is being led by the FBI.

Saturday's bombing comes amid a rise in reports of anti-Muslim incidents in the U.S., including arson attacks and vandalism at mosques, harassment of women wearing Muslim head coverings and bullying of Muslim schoolchildren. Just recently in Minnesota, an Islamic cemetery in Castle Rock Township reported it had been vandalized with spray painted profanities and swastikas.

The mosque in Bloomington, just south of Minneapolis, serves as a religious center and community organizing platform for Muslim activists and leaders in the area, according to the society. The group is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction.

A $10,000 reward also is being offered by the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The group said its national office is urging Islamic centers and mosques to step up security.

"If a bias motive is proven, this attack would represent another in a long list of hate incidents targeting Islamic institutions nationwide in recent months," said Amir Malik, the local chapter's civil rights director.

Along with a mosque, the building houses a community center that hosts computer classes, a basketball league, religious classes, lectures and other events.

Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the U.S., roughly 57,000 people, according to the latest census figures. The immigrants have been coming to Minnesota from their war-torn homeland since the 1990s, drawn by generous social services and the sense of community among the diaspora.

Law enforcement officials investigate an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017. Bloomington police Chief Jeff Potts said Saturday that investigators are trying to determine the cause of the blast. Authorities say the explosion damaged one room but it didn't hurt anyone. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

People make phone calls as law enforcement investigate an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017. Bloomington police Chief Jeff Potts said Saturday that investigators are trying to determine the cause of the blast. Authorities say the explosion damaged one room but it didn't hurt anyone. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

Law enforcement officials investigate an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017. Bloomington police Chief Jeff Potts said Saturday that investigators are trying to determine the cause of the blast. Authorities say the explosion damaged one room but it didn't hurt anyone. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - The Latest on the heat wave in much of Europe (all times local):

8:25 p.m.

Authorities say a wildfire in the southern Greek island of Kythira, southwest of Athens, has led to the evacuation of a village and power cuts.

A girl uses an umbrella to shield herself from the sun in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. Romanian meteorologists issued an extreme temperatures warning, with 42 Celsius (107.6 F) forecast for parts of western Romania and placing 12 counties under a "red code" heat alert for the next two days. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

The fire first erupted Friday morning and had been contained before it resumed Saturday as the wind picked up.

No homes have been reported damaged so far. A fire service spokeswoman said there were no estimates yet of how much land had burned..

Wildfires are common during Greece's dry summer season and several have erupted as Greece goes through its second major heatwave of the year. Temperatures are forecast to reach 42 Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) in parts of mainland Greece over the weekend.

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6:50 p.m.

Although southern Europe is used to scorching summers, meteorologists have warned that dayslong hot spells like the one gripping the continent this week aren't common.

In Romania, police banned heavy traffic on major roads in daylight hours during the weekend because of the heat wave, while trains slowed down.

The state railway company in neighboring Hungary said it would distribute water at busy terminals.

Croatian health authorities have reported a surge in emergency calls over the past week.

Animal rights groups in Serbia's capital urged citizens to place plastic bowls with water outside their buildings and in parks for the many stray dogs in Belgrade.

Much of western and northern Europe, by contrast, was experiencing cool and wet weather.

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12:10 p.m.

A relentless heat wave gripping parts of Europe has sent temperatures soaring to record highs for several days, causing at least two deaths and prompting authorities to issue weather alerts.

Extreme heat in Serbia, Romania and parts of Spain, France and Italy has damaged crops and fueled wildfires. Authorities in some areas banned work outdoors during the hottest part of the day as temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Spain's national weather service on Saturday issued an emergency warning for 31 of the country's 50 provinces as forecasts predicted temperatures of up to 44 C (111.2 F.)

The public health institute in Serbia's capital, Belgrade, offered instructions for beating the heat. It advised people to keep wet towels on windows if they didn't have air conditioning and to avoid physical exertion and alcohol.

A woman uses a fan to cool herself and a child wile ridding on a tram in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. Romanian meteorologists issued an extreme temperatures warning, with 42 Celsius (107.6 F) forecast for parts of western Romania and placing 12 counties under a "red code" heat alert for the next two days. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

People lie on concrete near a lake in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. Romanian meteorologists issued an extreme temperatures warning, with 42 Celsius (107.6 F) forecast for parts of western Romania placing 12 counties under a "red code" heat alert for the next two days. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A man poses for photo as he stands over a medieval forest near the Bosnian town of Srebrenik, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Sarajevo, on Wednesday, Aug. 2 2017. A heatwave with temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) is affecting Bosnia, causing forest fires and discomfort. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - When Randy Gamel and his husband were looking for a retirement home, a six-bedroom fixer upper in the tiny western Oklahoma town of Hitchcock caught their eye.

They bought it in 2014, and Gamel moved to the quiet community from Fort Worth, Texas, to start upgrades. He set out to make himself a part of the agricultural community of a little more than 100 residents. He befriended neighbors, took an interest in town politics and soon became the town clerk.

But it wasn't long before Gamel began feuding with longtime locals over how the town should be run. Many town leaders and employees are related, and Gamel says he has a reputation for speaking up, vociferously, when he sees a problem. The local sheriff from the nearby county seat of Watonga was soon being called to the town routinely to settle disputes involving Gamel and other townsfolk.

Tension erupted in flames in May when a suspicious fire ripped through Gamel's home, burning the two-story structure to the ground.

Gamel, 59, suggests in a federal lawsuit filed this week in Oklahoma City that community leaders tried to force him out because he was gay and because he and his partner brought a black child into the nearly all-white town. Others, including a sheriff's official named in the lawsuit, say it was Gamel's behavior, not homophobia or racism, that led to problems. A criminal investigation into the fire is pending.

The civil rights lawsuit names Blaine County Sheriff Tony Almaguer, Undersheriff David Robertson and seven residents of Hitchcock, alleging that they conspired to drive him from his town office and denied him equal protection under the law. The lawsuit lays out allegations of death threats against Gamel and his son, physical assaults, an anti-gay sign posted in town and local law enforcement refusing to take any action. When the fire broke out, Gamel said firefighters from the volunteer force with whom he had feuded dragged their feet and that some townspeople sat in lawn chairs to watch it burn.

"I think once I became clerk, and they found out they had a queer clerk with a black kid running the city, it just drove them crazy and they couldn't take it. They tried everything to get me to quit. Once the house was burned ... I just couldn't put my son through any more of it," said Gamel, who now lives in El Paso, Texas.

Gamel acknowledges that before moving to Oklahoma, his criticism of staff and teachers at his son's Fort Worth elementary school became so heated that district officials prohibited him last year from visiting the school.

Phone messages left Friday for the fire chief, mayor and several defendants were not immediately returned. But Robertson, the undersheriff, strongly disputed Gamel's allegations. He said the feuds were real, but described Gamel as a "bully" who sought to impose his will on the town and was constantly alleging wrongdoing by town officers.

"I got to know him very well from all the complaints and allegations that he made, and I cannot find one person who made any racist statements against his child or against him for being a homosexual," Robertson said. "We don't take too kindly to being called racist and homophobic, because we're not."

Robertson said separate investigations into the fire are being conducted by his office, an insurance company and the state fire marshal's office, but that Gamel's story about the blaze is inconsistent with the evidence. Gamel claims he heard a window break and that the fire started in the garage, but Robertson said evidence suggests it started in the living quarters while Gamel was the only one in the home.

No charges have been filed in connection with the fire, and Gamel says any suggestion he is involved is outrageous.

"We lost everything from 27 years," said Gamel. "Everything that we had is gone."

___

Follow Sean Murphy at https://twitter.com/apseanmurphy
The UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously approved tough new sanctions on North Korea including an estimated $1billion export ban - a huge bite out of its total exports, valued at $3billion last year.

The US-drafted measure, negotiated with North Korea's neighbor and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.

President Donald Trump praised the new sanctions on Saturday afternoon, tweeting: 'The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!

'United Nations Resolution is the single largest economic sanctions package ever on North Korea. Over one billion dollars in cost to N.K.'

The tough sanction bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood, together worth an estimated $1billion.

President Donald Trump praised the UN Security Council for deciding to sanction North Korea on Saturday afternoon

The tough new sanctions on North Korea included an estimated $1billion export ban - a huge bite out of its total exports, which was valued at $3billion last year

UK Ambassador to the United Nations Matthew Rycroft, left, and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley vote in favor of new economic sanctions against North Korea on Saturday

The sanction also prohibits countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.

The United States negotiated with China for a month on the latest resolution, before expanding negotiations to the full 15-member council on Friday.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called the resolution 'the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against the North Korean regime" and "the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.'

But she warned that it is not enough and 'we should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem - not even close.'

'The threat of an outlaw nuclearized North Korean dictatorship remains ... (and) is rapidly growing more dangerous,' Haley told council members after the vote.

Trump's administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea. Washington has threatened to exert trade pressure on Beijing and impose sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang.

The Security Council has already imposed six rounds of sanctions that have failed to halt North Korea's drive to improve its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.

The new sanctions come in response to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's (right) two long range missile tests in July

WHAT EXPORTS ARE NOW BANNED? The latest round of UN sanctions on North Korea bans exports of: Coal (previously capped at $400M)

Seafood (worth estimated $295M)

Iron and iron ore (estimated $251M)

Lead and lead ore (estimated $113M) Advertisement

The resolution's adoption follows North Korea's first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States on July 3 and July 27.

'All of this ICBM and nuclear irresponsibility has to stop,' Haley told reporters as she headed to the council to vote.

The resolution condemns the launches 'in the strongest terms' and reiterates previous calls for North Korea to suspend all ballistic missile launches and abandon its nuclear weapons and nuclear program 'in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.'

It also adds nine North Koreans, mainly officials or representatives of companies and banks, to the U.N. sanctions blacklist, banning their travel and freezing their assets. It also imposes an asset freeze on two companies and two banks.

A Security Council diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity, called the newly sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank 'a very critical clearing house for foreign exchange.'

The United Nations Security Council voted on a new sanctions resolution against North Korea

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasilly Nebenzia votes on the sanctions. Some feared tensions between the US and Russia would derail the vote but it went ahead

The Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies, which was also added to the blacklist, is described in the resolution as engaged in exporting workers for construction, including of monuments, in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The resolution asks the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea to ban the import of many more so-called dual-use items, which have commercial purposes but can also be used in conventional, biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

It also gives the committee a green light to designate specific vessels that are breaking sanctions from entering ports all over the world and to work with Interpol to enforce travel bans on North Koreans on the sanctions blacklist.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (right) speaks to South Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Cho Tae-yul before the Security Council vote

The resolution expresses regret at North Korea's 'massive diversion of its scarce resources toward its development of nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programs' - a point stressed by Haley.

It notes UN findings that well over half the population lacks sufficient food and medical care, while a quarter suffers from chronic malnutrition.

Though the economic sanctions have teeth, Washington didn't get everything it wanted.

In early July, Haley told the Security Council that if it was united, the international community could cut off major sources of hard currency to North Korea, restrict oil to its military and weapons programs, increase air and maritime restrictions and hold senior officials accountable.

Neither oil nor new air restrictions are included in the resolution.

Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Liu Jieyi voted for the resolution after a month of negotiations with the US. The measure is not as harsh as the one the US initially sought

North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear arsenal, which it sees as a guarantee of its security

Its adoption follows US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's comments Wednesday reassuring North Korea that Washington is not seeking regime change or an accelerated reunification of the Korean Peninsula - comments welcomed by China's foreign minister.

Tillerson also said the United States wants to talk eventually with North Korea but thinks discussions would not be productive if the Pyongyang comes with the intention of maintaining its nuclear weapons.

North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear arsenal, which it sees as a guarantee of its security.

The resolution reiterates language from previous ones supporting a return to six-party talks with the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula; expressing the Security Council's commitment 'to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation'; and stressing the importance of maintaining peace and stability in northeast Asia.
FANCY FARM, Ky. (AP) - A week after an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he'd consider a bipartisan effort to continue payments to insurers to avert a costly rattling of health insurance markets.

McConnell told reporters Saturday there is "still a chance" the Senate could revive the measure to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but he acknowledged the window for that is rapidly closing.

The Kentucky senator noted Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is working on "some kind of bipartisan approach" that would involve subsidies for insurance companies.
LODGE GRASS, Mont. (AP) - Three people were killed and two others were injured in a shooting at a residence on the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. The tribe has instituted an emergency curfew.

The FBI said Saturday that three people were shot and killed Friday afternoon in Lodge Grass. Big Horn County Coroner Terry Bullis said autopsies were planned Saturday.

Officials have not released the names and ages of the victims or the conditions of the injured. No arrests have been made.

The tribe announced a curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. until further notice. All vehicles traveling on the reservation while the curfew is in effect are subject to being stopped, and all occupants being ordered to present valid identification.

The FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Montana Highway Patrol and the Big Horn County sheriff's office are investigating.
BOSTON (AP) - A contingent of firefighters from Massachusetts is joining the battle against raging wildfires in British Columbia.

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation says the 16 firefighters representing the Bureau of Forestry and Fire Control and the Department of Fish and Game left on Thursday, stopping first in New Hampshire to meet up with four wildland firefighters from that state.

The crew planned to join an international team helping Canadian forces working to contain the flames, build fire breaks and protect buildings. They will sleep in tents or remote fire camps.

Officials in British Columbia reported more than 130 wildfires burning in the province earlier this week.

Since April 1, more than 850 fires had consumed 4,730 square kilometers of land and forced thousands of residents to evacuate.
Vernon Philander has encountered yet another fitness issue which puts South Africa in a selection quandary for the must-win Old Trafford Test.

The linchpin seamer has recovered from the mystery stomach upset which compromised his contribution as the tourists stumbled to a 239-run defeat against England at The Oval.

But as they try to hit back and earn a 2-2 series draw in the final match of four in Manchester, they may again have to take a last-minute gamble on the well-being of Philander - who has this time succumbed to an untimely back spasm.

Vernon Philander

WICKET Jennings caught at slip off Philander for 0



12/1 #ENGvSAhttps://t.co/a0qhO1p3jy pic.twitter.com/KMh3oFkeEZ  England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 27, 2017

It continues a spate of various physical ailments to have afflicted him all summer, beginning with an ankle problem which pre-dates South Africas arrival in mid-May, taking in a badly-bruised finger in the first Investec Test at Lords - before the tummy troubles which left him on a hospital drip overnight mid-match last week.

Captain Faf du Plessis confirmed Philander is once again in discomfort - and although the tourists are hoping he will recover in time on Friday morning, the uncertainty has left them grappling with an awkward contingency.

Vernon is going to go through a fitness test today - hes got a tight back, but he should be okay, said Du Plessis, who reasons that if Philander is even marginally inconvenienced the balance of South Africas team may well have to change.

FIVE! @tobyrj21s wraps up the South Africa innings to complete his five-for on debut!



SA 175 all out #ENGvSAhttps://t.co/a0qhO1p3jy pic.twitter.com/6lMwBOsYyO  England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 29, 2017

Vernon 100 per cent fit means a lot of things - it means we can look at playing three seamers.

Vernon at 90 per cent doesnt mean you can do that, because you dont want to be in a position where you have a seamer break down and then you only have two - that basically is the Test match over right there and then.

So if hes not 100 per cent fit, its important to maybe have a look at having four seamers.

WICKET Philander takes return catch to dismiss Stokes for 18



126/7 #ENGvSA



Match centre: https://t.co/RyVdFp0gNg pic.twitter.com/yWU0T1OfpY  England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 17, 2017

That would bring Duanne Olivier back into contention, after being dropped following South Africas second-Test success at Trent Bridge in order to accommodate the return at The Oval of Kagiso Rabada from his one-match ban.

Whatever the personnel, South Africa will be forthright rather than cagey as they try to snatch a share of the series spoils on a ground Du Plessis once called home as Lancashires overseas player.

Well do everything we can to try to win this Test match - were not going to try to draw it, he said.

The way England play, they put pressure on you as opposition, but they (also) give you an opportunity.
The Egyptian government and the National Electoral Commission (NEC) are set to begin preparing for Egypt's upcoming presidential elections, which are set for May 2018.

On 28 July, Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail held a meeting with the ministers of justice and parliamentary affairs as well as a representative of the finance ministry to review the measures to be implemented for the NEC to supervise the elections in accordance with articles 208, 209 and 210 of the constitution, according to a cabinet statement.

"After the NEC law was approved by parliament on 21 June, it was necessary for the meeting to be held to review preparations for next year's presidential elections," said the statement.

"The NEC headquarters will be selected very soon, as well as the financial resources and administrative facilities necessary for the NEC to do its job as early as possible."

Rami Mohsen, head of the independent National Centre for Parliamentary Consultancies, told Ahram Online that "the NEC law, passed on 21 June, is yet to be ratified by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi."

"The ratification is necessary for the NEC to do its job very soon, as the constitution (Article 230) states that the NEC should begin preparing for the presidential polls as early as possible," said Mohsen.

Mohsen said that the NEC's board will be headed by the Chairman of the Court of Cassation and include senior judges affiliated with the Court of Cassation, the Court of Appeals, the State Council, the State Cases Authority and the Administrative Prosecution Authority.

"Board members will be selected by the Higher Council for Judges and endorsed by the president," said Mohsen, adding that "this step should be completed as soon as possible so as to prepare for the polls very early."

Informed sources told Ahram Online that the ministers of justice and parliamentary affairs began meeting at the end of last week to discuss all the logistical and financial support necessary for the NEC to do its job as soon as President El-Sisi ratifies the NEC law.

A number of political parties announced last week that they would support El-Sisi for a second term in office, though El-Sisi has not yet given a definite answer on whether he would run for a second four-year term.

On 25 July at the Fourth National Conference, El-Sisi said that the "presidential elections in Egypt in 2018 will be very important," and urged the public to go out and vote.

"Voting day will be the day on which we decide the future of Egypt," El-Sisi said.

"My message to all Egyptians is that even if you have to stand in line for long hours you should cast your vote. This sends the world a message that you have freely exercised your will."

El-Sisi's comments have been interpreted by some political parties as confirmation that he would stand for elections.

The Free Egyptians Party (FEP), the largest party in parliament with 65 MPs, said in a statement on 27 July that if El-Sisi runs for a second term, the party would support him.

FEP head Essam Khalil said in a statement that the party had organised a celebration near the Giza Pyramids to mark "the fourth anniversary of the people's decision on 26 July 2013 to give El-Sisi a popular mandate to confront terrorism."

"It was on that day the majority of Egyptians chose El-Sisi to save Egypt from extremists."

Khalil said that after three years in office, El-Sisi has changed Egypt's image for the future.

"A new Suez Canal was built, foreign exchange reserves in the Central Bank grew from $14 billion to $35 billion, and Egypt escaped the spectre of bankruptcy."

The FEP also said in a statement on 27 July that "the party wants El-Sisi to stay in office for four more years to consolidate the achievements on national security level and to see his economic reforms pay off."

In a statement issued on 29 July, the Wafd Party  the oldest party in Egypt  also announced it was backing El-Sisi for a second term.

Wafd party head El-Sayed El-Badawi told reporters the party would not be fielding a candidate in the presidential elections.

"The Wafd Party promotes the nation's interest and we support El-Sisi, with the stipulation that he maintains a firm stand against Islamist parties in his second term. I also hope President El-Sisi will promote civil society in terms of showing greater respect for human rights, press freedoms and opening up the political arena."

Several small political parties  the Conference Party, the Free Constitutional Party, the Conservatives Party, the Guardians of the Future, the Freedom Party and the Future of a Nation  have also announced their support for El-Sisi.

Ashraf Rashad, head of the Future of a Nation party  told Al-Ahram on 28 July that "El-Sisi is the best option for the coming period and we support his re-election very strongly."

Left-leaning political parties have not stated whether they would be fielding candidates in the elections.

The Tagammu Party, which supports El-Sisi's anti-political Islam programme, has reservations about his IMF-inspired economic reforms.

Rifaat El-Saeed, the former head of El-Tagammu, said in a press interview that the IMF-backed policies, which have been implemented since November, have left millions of Egyptians under the poverty line. El-Saeed also described Prime Minister Ismail as Egypt's "worst prime minister."

However, El-Saeed praised El-Sisi's cooperation with three Arab Gulf countries  Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain  for cutting diplomatic relations with "the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Qatar."

He also praised El-Sisi's open dialogues with young people in several national youth conferences.

The Karama Party and the Popular Socialist Alliance are considering how best to agree on a single consensus candidate in next year's elections.

Former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi told journalists last May that "there should be one opposition candidate against El-Sisi next yearmore than one will split the vote and guarantee that El-Sisi is re-elected."

Karama Party secretary-general Mohamed Bassiouny said in a press interview last week that the Democratic Current Alliance, which includes the Dostour Party, the Popular Socialist Alliance Party, and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, are coordinating to select an opposition candidate.

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Severe weather warnings have been issued for European destinations popular with UK holidaymakers due to scorching conditions.

Temperatures are forecast to exceed 40C (104F) as a heatwave sweeps across the south of the continent

A graphic of heart alerts around Europe

Meteoalarm, which is a network of national meteorological services in Europe, issued alerts for very dangerous weather due high temperatures in 11 countries such as Italy, Switzerland, Poland and Croatia.

It urged people to follow orders and any advice given by your authorities, adding that extraordinary measures could be introduced.

A woman sits near the Fountain of the Adriatic Sea in Rome

Temperatures are expected to reach 41C (106F) in Seville, Spain, 39C (102F) in Rome, Italy, and 38C (100F) in Athens, Greece.

A spokeswoman for UK travel trade organisation Abta told the Press Association: With very high temperatures being recorded across Europe, holidaymakers are being advised to make sure they take sensible precautions to avoid sunstroke and other serious problems that can result from over-exposure to heat and powerful sunshine.

Holidaymakers should ensure they stay hydrated by drinking plenty of bottled water, particularly the young or elderly.

Abta would also advise that British travellers follow the lead of the locals in their destination by staying out of the sun at the middle of the day when it is at its peak, and follow any advice issued by health authorities in specific destinations.

People cool off in a fountain in Pamplona

Italian authorities told people in affected regions to only travel if your journey is essential, while Polish officials said: Protect yourself and support vulnerable people. Expect possible infrastructural breakdowns.

A number of Britons were among 10,000 people evacuated after forest fires in the French Riviera last week.

Tourists also had to be rescued from the Italian island of Sicily because of wildfires.

Sunbathers are evacuated from the beach in Le Lavandou, French Riviera

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised UK visitors to Italy that forest fires are dangerous and unpredictable, adding that the risk of further blazes will remain throughout the summer.

Conditions are considerably cooler for holidaymakers staying in the UK, with sunshine and showers and a maximum temperature of around 20C forecast for Saturday.
Further tragedies were prevented after an Oxford University employee and a US professor who spent more than a week on the run as murder suspects handed themselves in to police, officers believe.

Somerville College senior treasury assistant Andrew Warren, 56, and Professor Wyndham Lathem, 42, gave themselves up to police at similar times on Friday evening at separate sites in California, more than 2,000 miles from the crime scene.

They triggered a nationwide manhunt after allegedly stabbing Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, multiple times in an attack in Lathems apartment in Chicago on July 27.

Andrew Warren and Wyndham Lathem (Chicago Police/PA)

BREAKING: CPD has gotten word that Prof. Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren are both in police custody in Oakland, CA via @USMarshalsGov pic.twitter.com/BrXufzsaUA  Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) August 5, 2017

Chicago Police said officers were relieved to hear of the peaceful surrenders after fears grew when Lathem had sent a worrying video to family and friends apologising for his role in the murder.

Force spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: Once we got word that Dr Lathem had sent that video to friends and family we began getting concerned that perhaps he would harm himself or this could end up more tragically for both of them, so we are relieved that both of them are safe.

He said the victim and Lathem had been in a personal relationship and detectives believe the attack was domestically-motivated, but their connection to Warren is less clear.

Warren was dealing with personal hardships, had been reported missing from the UK days before the attack and was not on Oxford business, he said.

But Mr Guglielmi added that detectives have unearthed some online material that suggests they met on the internet.

They separated at an unknown point as they travelled the US in a vehicle before Warren handed himself into a police station in San Francisco and Lathem gave himself up in Oakland.

Everything was peaceful. Andrew Warren walked into a police station and just said simply, Im Andrew Warren, Im wanted and they took him right away, Mr Guglielmi said.

He added that the suspect was in good health.

Wanted for Homicide



Wyndham Lathem, 42 Andrew Warren, 56 pic.twitter.com/IcCf4Y1NhI  Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) August 2, 2017

Mr Guglielmi dismissed reports of genital mutilation being involved in Mr Cornell-Duranleaus death, but described a very violent scene during which the body was certainly mutilated.

A broken blade was recovered and officers have CCTV footage tying the men to the 10th floor apartment, he said.

Warren, who says on Facebook he lives in Swindon, and Lathem, a microbiology professor at Northwestern University, now face extradition hearings to determine whether they can be sent to Chicago for questioning.
US president Donald Trumps national security adviser HR McMaster has stressed that it is impossible to overstate the danger posed by North Korea.

In an interview with MSNBCs Hugh Hewitt, Mr McMaster said Mr Trump has been deeply briefed on the strategy on North Korea.

Tensions have mounted with Pyongyangs two recent successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

National Security Adviser HR McMaster. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Mr McMaster reiterated the administrations position that all options, including a targeted military strike, are on the table.

Still, he acknowledged this would be a very costly war, in terms of  the suffering of mainly the South Korean people.

McMaster continued: So what we have to do is . everything we can to pressure this regime, to pressure Kim Jong Un and those around him such that they conclude it is in their interest to denuclearise.

The comments came as US secretary of state Rex Tillerson arrived in the Philippines for a regional summit expected to focus heavily on concerns with North Korea.

Welcome to the Philippines, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson! Mabuhay! #SecTillersonPH #USASEAN40 pic.twitter.com/Ze7L78GDjT  U.S. Embassy in the Philippines (@USEmbassyPH) August 5, 2017

Mr Tillerson has no plans to sit down with North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho at the event.

Mr Tillersons reluctance to meet his North Korean counterpart is despite his growing push for Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table with the US.

The US secretary of state said this week that such talks would have to be predicated on the North giving up its nuclear weapons aspirations and that the conditions for such talks have not yet been met by North Koreas government.

.@NikkiHaley: The full #UNSC has come together to put the #DPRK dictator on notice & this time the Council has matched its words & actions. pic.twitter.com/TG4Hf2uzkR  Department of State (@StateDept) August 5, 2017

The UN Security Council has unanimously approved new sanctions on North Korea, including banning exports worth over one billion dollars.
A relentless heatwave dubbed Lucifer which gripped parts of Europe this week has sent temperatures soaring to record highs, causing at least two deaths and prompting authorities to issue severe weather warnings.

The extreme heat stifling Serbia, Romania, Croatia and parts of Spain, France and Italy has fuelled wildfires, damaged crops and strained energy and water supplies.

Authorities in some areas issued traffic restrictions and banned outdoor work during the hottest part of the day.

Heading to southern or central #Europe? The #heat continues as temperatures are still well above average, perhaps reaching over 40 C inland pic.twitter.com/hIAOd4FMOH  Met Office (@metoffice) August 5, 2017

Spains national weather service issued an emergency warning for high temperatures in 31 of the countrys 50 provinces as forecasts predicted temperatures of up to 44C (111.2F).

Western and northern Europe, in contrast, was experiencing colder and wetter weather.

Although southern Europe is used to scorching summers, meteorologists have warned that hot spells lasting several days are not that common.

The public health institute in Belgrade issued heat instructions, telling people to keep wet towels on windows if there is no air conditioning, and avoid physical strain and alcohol.

Crowds enjoy a cool-down in Bosnia. (AP)

It is just too much, real estate agent Sasa Jovanovic, 52, said during an early morning walk in the Serbian capital, where the temperature was forecast to hit 39C (102.2F) on Saturday.

Sometimes it feels as if I cannot breathe.

Thousands of residents sought refuge from the heat at the citys recreation area, swimming in the local lake and the Danube or the Sava rivers.

Animal rights groups urged citizens to place plastic bowls with water outside their buildings and in parks for the citys many stray dogs.

In Croatia, health authorities have reported a surge in emergency calls over the past week. They appealed to the thousands of tourists in the countrys Adriatic coast to be careful on the beaches and while travelling.

A girl uses an umbrella to shield herself from the sun. (AP)

In Romania, police banned heavy traffic on major roads in daylight hours during the weekend because of the heatwave, while trains slowed down.

A train service in southern Serbia also was delayed earlier this week after tracks buckled in the heat.

Romania reported two heat-related deaths  a 45-year-old man collapsed and died on Friday while working in a field in the north-east, while a 60-year-old man died of a heart attack in the street in an eastern port on Thursday.

Beach life near Athens. (AP)

The state railway company in neighbouring Hungary said it would distribute water at busy terminals.

At the Budapest Zoo, Beliy and Seriy, a pair of two-year-old polar bear cubs, were given huge chunks of ice and freezing-cold watermelons to help them withstand the weather.

Some 15 wildfires have been reported in Albania, and dozens of others throughout the region.

Hot and dry weather has scorched crops amid fears of water shortages in Italy and Serbia as authorities appealed for care in consumption.

In the Alpine nation of Slovenia, authorities reported earlier this week the first-ever tropical night at 1,500 meters (4,920ft) in the mountains, meaning temperatures were higher than 20C (68F) during the night.
Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful the ankle injury suffered by Kieran Trippier on the eve of the new Premier League season is not serious.

The full-back lasted only 41 minutes of Tottenhams 2-0 friendly win over Juventus after twice being hurt in tackles with Alex Sandro.

Trippier left the ground on crutches, but Pochettino told a press conferences: We need to assess him on Monday and then we will see.

Kieran Trippier

 Mauricio was a happy man as we ended our pre-season campaign with an impressive victory against @juventusfc. #COYS pic.twitter.com/C6Mh33Po7F  Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 5, 2017

Now the feeling is good. Its true that he has crutches, but its good. We hope that it is not a big issue.

Spurs sold Kyle Walker to Manchester City this summer knowing they had a high-class right-back option in Trippier, signed from Burnley two years ago.

Trippier first needed treatment after only four minutes but was able to continue and set up the opening goal for Harry Kane.

But he went down again five minutes before half-time and this time was forced to leave the pitch for good, with Kyle Walker-Peters, a 20-year-old with no Premier League experience, replacing him.

It was a sour note on an otherwise uplifting afternoon for Spurs, with Christian Eriksen also netting in a 2-0 victory.

Spurs have not made a signing yet this summer, and Pochettino insisted Trippiers injury would not change his recruitment plans.

 @ChrisEriksen8: "We played a very strong game today. We've been happy with our pre-season, we are in really good shape." #COYS pic.twitter.com/kb4jBisjUw  Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 5, 2017

He said: We are working, trying to add some players to the squad. But that does not change our idea.

Our idea was, the same as before, to try to provide the team with more strength and try to sign a few players before the end of the transfer window.
A British model who was kidnapped in Milan and detained for six days while her captor tried to auction her online has reportedly returned to the UK.

The 20-year-old woman, named in reports as Chloe Ayling, was attacked on July 11 by two men as she attended an arranged photo shoot.

She is believed to have been drugged and transported in a bag to Borgial, an isolated village near Turin, before being released on July 17, Italian Police said.

Ms Ayling has now flown back to the UK and returned to her home in Coulsdon, south London, according to reports.

Speaking on her doorstep she told how she had feared for her life throughout the terrifying experience.

The place where a man held a young British model, according to police. (AP)

A Polish man, who lives in Britain, was arrested on July 18 on suspicion of kidnap and extortion, state police said.

Officials have released a mugshot of the suspect, named as 30-year-old Lukasz Pawel Herba.

It is alleged two men tried to sell Ms Ayling online for more than 300,000 dollars (230,000) and demanded the models agent pay to secure her safe release.

She was kept handcuffed to furniture but was freed after six days and taken to the British consulate in Milan, despite the ransom not being paid.

Police photo of a man identified as identified as Lukasz Pawel. (AP)

It has been reported the captor demanded 50,000 upon her release and threatened to kill her if she told police about the incident.

Milan police officer Lorenzo Bucossi told reporters the group the suspect was allegedly working for offered mercenary services on the dark web.

According to a translation on Sky News, Mr Bucossi said: Certainly the author of this very serious crime is a dangerous person, dont forget he was also ready to carry out a final solution, as he called it.

He was a killer and was working for an organisation on the deep web that is offering mercenary services such as bombing attacks, kidnapping and the selling of girls on the dark web.

The inside of the alleged location. (AP)

Italian police said they are working with officials in Britain and Poland as they continue to investigate.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said an address in Sampson Close in Oldbury was raided on July 18 in connection with the investigation.
Kim Jong Uns nuclear ambitions could be catastrophic for the world, the UK warned, as the United Nations Security Council backed an escalation of sanctions against Pyongyang.

The UK ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, said North Koreas development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) had significantly extended the threat posed by the secretive regime.

Calling on North Korea to halt and reverse its nuclear and missile development programmes, Mr Rycroft said the country should forgo the path of provocation.

British Ambassador to the United Nations Matthew Rycroft. (AP)

He said: North Korea bears full responsibility for the measures we have enacted today. By acting in flagrant violation of its legal obligations, by going against the will of the Security Council expressed in countless resolutions, North Korea has chosen the path it now finds itself on.

It is a path that, at a minimum, will lead to further suffering for its own people and at most could prove to be catastrophic for the whole world.

It does not have to be this way. North Korea should forgo the path of provocation, forgo the path of further escalation.

Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Liu Jieyi. (AP)

At a meeting in New York the Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions including banning exports worth over a billion US dollars (770 million).

The resolution also bans countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean workers  a crucial source of foreign currency for the regime but a situation labelled a form of modern slavery by Mr Rycroft.

The sanctions follow North Koreas first successful tests of ICBMs capable of reaching the United States last month.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasilly Nebenzia votes. (AP)

The resolution bans North Korea from exporting coal, iron ore, lead and seafood products  the lifeline exports that sustain Kim Jong Uns deadly aspirations, Mr Rycroft said.

He added: North Korea is no longer a threat faced by a single country or a single region. It is instead a threat that confronts us all.

He said as the regimes missile capabilities advanced so too does their contempt and disregard for this Security Council.

We must meet this belligerence with clear, unequivocal condemnation and with clear, unequivocal consequences.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. (AP)

The resolution, drafted by the US but negotiated with North Koreas neighbour and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programmes.

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said: The price the North Korean leadership will pay for its continued nuclear and missile development will be the loss of one third of its export and hard currency.

This is the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.

Lord Ahmad. (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said: The UK and our international partners are united in opposing and standing firm against the threat posed by North Korea.

This resolution will cut the resources that North Korea is abusing to fund its reckless and illegal pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

North Korea has chosen this extremely dangerous and destabilising path. The regime is prioritising the pursuit of these weapons over and above its people, peace and stability in the region.

The North Korean regime needs to change its course immediately and the UK calls on all countries to implement these new measures fully and robustly.
By Nick Carey

CINCINNATI, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Workers at Nissan Motor Co Ltd's plant in Canton, Mississippi, voted nearly two to one against union representation, the company and the United Auto Workers (UAW) said late on Friday.

The vote at the end of a bitterly contested campaign extended a decades-long record of failure by the union to organize a major automaker's plant in the U.S. South.

The vote at the Canton plant could leave the UAW weakened ahead of contract negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers in 2019, when many analysts are predicting a cyclical slump for U.S. auto sales.

The last failed UAW vote in the U.S. South, at a Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga in 2014, was far closer than the tally in Mississippi.

Pro-union workers say the Nissan plant - which builds Nissan Murano sport utility vehicles, commercial vans, and Titan and Frontier pickup trucks - has a poor safety record and the automaker moved them to a 401(k) defined retirement plan from a traditional pension fund.

The UAW had put 10 years of groundwork into the vote at the Japanese automaker's Mississippi facility, after two unsuccessful attempts at a Nissan plant in Tennessee, only to fall well short in a bitterly contested campaign that the union maintained was a continuation of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.

Nissan said the tally of votes, which was overseen by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), was 2,244 votes against unionization to 1,307 in favor.

"With this vote, the voice of Nissan employees has been heard," Nissan said in a statement. "They have rejected the UAW and chosen to self-represent, continuing the direct relationship they enjoy with the company."

The UAW has maintained that Nissan has illegally threatened workers with the closure of their plant or the loss of their jobs if they voted in favor of unionization, a claim Nissan hotly denies. That claim has been backed by a number of complaints lodged by the NLRB.

The union said in a statement it is asking the NLRB to proceed with a trial to "stop Nissan's serial commission of unfair labor practices in Mississippi."

The union claims in fresh charges filed with the NLRB that Nissan "conducted repeated captive audience meetings" and played "virtually non-stop anti-union videos" ahead of the vote.

"The result of the election was a setback for these workers, the UAW and working Americans everywhere, but in no way should it be considered a defeat," UAW president Dennis Williams said in a statement. (Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Paul Tait and Tom Hogue)
BEIRUT, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Lebanese army will not coordinate with the Syrian army to fight against Islamic State in the Lebanese-Syrian border zone, a military source told Reuters on Saturday, rejecting a local media report of direct military cooperation between the two.

The source said the Lebanese army had the military capability to confront and defeat the group without any regional or international support.

The presence of Islamic State and Nusra Front militants in pockets on Lebanon's border is the biggest military spillover into the country from Syria's civil war.

An offensive launched last month by Lebanon's Hezbollah - a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - forced Nusra Front militants to leave for a rebel-held area in northwest Syria under an evacuation deal.

The Lebanese army did not take part in that offensive, but has been widely expected to lead an attack against the Islamic State pocket.

On Friday Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said an assault on Islamic State militants in the border zone would begin in a few days.

He said the Lebanese army would attack Islamic State from the Lebanese side of the border while Hezbollah and the Syrian army would simultaneously attack from the Syrian side.

Hezbollah has been fighting alongside the Syrian army against rebels including hardline Sunni Islamists in Syria.

On Saturday Lebanese newspaper al-Joumhouria reported from sources that direct military coordination had occurred between the Syrian and Lebanese armies regarding the upcoming offensive against Islamic State.

The military source said the Lebanese army had been attacking Islamic State for some time, by preventing it spreading further and cutting supply routes.

Lebanese state news agency NNA and a Hezbollah media unit said on Saturday the Lebanese army had shelled Islamic State positions in the Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa areas of northeast Lebanon. (Reporting by Jamal Saidi and Lisa Barrington; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
DAKAR, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Senegal's ruling party has won a large parliamentary majority, according to official provisional results, following an election last Sunday that opposition leaders say was tainted by fraud.

President Macky Sall's ruling coalition took 125 seats in the 165-seat National Assembly after winning nearly 50 percent of the vote, according to the results announced on national television late on Friday.

The coalition of 91-year-old former president Abdoulaye Wade, whom Sall defeated in a 2012 presidential election that cemented Senegal's reputation as one of West Africa's most stable democracies, won 19 seats. A coalition led by jailed Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall won seven seats.

Last Sunday's vote was marred by delays in issuing biometric identity cards that prevented hundreds of voters from casting their ballots, part of what opposition leaders said was an intensifying clampdown on political opposition. (Reporting By Diadie Ba, writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Mufakirat Tifla fi Al-Khamisa wa Al-Thamaneen (A Notebook of an 85-year-old Girl) by Nawal El-Saadawi, Roznameh Publishing, Cairo, 2017 pp.213.

Throughout Nawal El-Saadawis 85 years of life, she has never lost her mental brilliance or her ability to start intellectual debates and stay engaged in them until the last breath.

The renowned Egyptian feminist has authored more than 60 books including novels, plays, short stories, feminist cririques and has been translated to many languages.

El-Saadawi is still capable of adding new contributions to her influential and lasting legacy.

Her latest book is based on excerpts from her journal, where she addresses issues faced by women like herself as well as the general concerns of a country experiencing a series of crises and tribulations.

El-Saadawi lets her pen lead her, riding a stream of consciousness with no interest in either completing her idea and or in maintaining cohesion in what she writes.

She is content with breaks between paragraphs, starting each paragraph with another idea, viewpoint or thought unconnected to the previous one.

El-Saadawi says she does not fear death, although she hates it, and does not suffer from loneliness despite living alone after her life-long partner Sherif Hatata, the renowned left-wing writer and activist, passed away in May.

She speaks a lot, not only about the past, but also the present.

Although she has won all the Hisbah (the right of any citizen to bring violators of public mores to court) cases filed against her, the experience has left her drained.

Her latest book takes the form of a diary; where she substitutes titles with dates and writes in an unstructured manner.

For instance, she starts her entries with "Thursday Morning 1 September 2016" or "Summer 2016."

There are other entries where she excludes the date completely, choosing a proper title instead.

What is astonishing is that after 85 years, El-Saadawi is still defending the same issues.

She starts her book with the personal freedom issue, which she tackles from a perspective that is completely different from the socially predominant one.

They say that the Hijab, the Niqab, the Burkini, female circumcision, make-up and cosmetic surgery all emanate from freedom of choice and democracy, for in their point of view, women are free to uncover or cover themselves. Is this not a deception?

It is high time to reveal the falsity of freedom and democracy in patriarchal, class-stratified countries. Are children permitted to choose their religion, their ideas, their clothes or their food? Does a seven-year-old girl choose to wear hijab or to be circumcised?

Despite the rationality of raising these questions, many intellectuals and writers who do so risk heavy consequences, including Hisbah cases.

What is worse is that some courts rule against these intellectuals, such as the court verdict in the mid-1990s declaring the late writer Nasr Hamed Abu Zayd an apostate, thereby separating him from his wife Dr Ibtihal Younis.

After the last Hisbah case was filed against El-Saadawi  where an Islamist lawyer unsuccessfully filed a case to have her forcefully separated from her husband by having her declared an apostate  Salafist televangelists called for her to be stoned to death in Tahrir Square, according to a statement issued by the Nawal El-Saadawi Forum in August 2016 and published in this book.

The Nawal El-Saadawi Forum, which began holding monthly meetings two years ago, is an important cultural intellectual phenomenon that discusses several books in the intellectual, literary and scientific fields, according to El-Saadawis book.

Another Hisbah case was filed against her for defending the constitutions prohibition on founding religious parties.

El-Saadawy advocates the amendment of laws that contradict the 2014 constitution and discriminate between Egyptians on the basis of gender or religion. She calls for a civil personal statute law for all Egyptians; Muslims and non-Muslims, men and women.

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By Ian Graham

BELFAST, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar attended a gay rights event on Saturday during his first official visit to Northern Ireland, upsetting some social conservatives in the only region of the United Kingdom where same-sex marriage is still illegal.

Varadkar, who became Ireland's first openly gay leader when he took office in June, joined activists preparing for Northern Ireland's largest gay pride parade for a "Pride Breakfast" in a Belfast pub.

He said he was unable to attend the actual parade due to a prior commitment in Dublin.

His attendance was criticised by some members of Northern Ireland's largest party, the socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 seats in the British parliament prop up the government of Prime Minister Theresa May.

The DUP has repeatedly blocked attempts to allow same-sex marriage despite opinion polls that indicate it is supported by a significant majority in Northern Ireland.

"I am not here to unsettle anyone, but I am here to show my support and the support of my government for equality before the law for all citizens no matter where they reside," Varadkar told journalists on his way in to the event.

Asked about the prospects for legalising same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, Varadkar said: "It is only a matter of time."

SHIFT IN IRISH ATTITUDES

Varadkar announced publicly that he was gay in a radio interview during Ireland's same-sex referendum campaign in 2015. Same-sex marriage was legalised after two-thirds of voters in what was once one of Europe's most socially conservative countries backed the change.

Saturday's breakfast, in the The Northern Whig pub in central Belfast, was also attended by Michelle O'Neill, the regional leader of Northern Ireland's largest nationalist party Sinn Fein, and by a number of gay rights activists from the Irish and Northern Irish police forces.

Several DUP members last week voiced concern about Varadkar's plan to attend the event, with some suggesting it was inappropriate interference in the politics of a neighbouring country.

"Many unionists ... will find it odd if he starts to interfere, as in some ways he already has done, in what is a social issue in Northern Ireland around the redefinition of marriage," Nelson McCausland, a senior DUP party member and former minister in the Northern Ireland executive, told the Irish News newspaper last week.

There was no official statement from any senior DUP member on Saturday and the party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Varadkar's visit comes a day after the British government for the first time ordered a rainbow gay rights flag to be flown above its main office in Belfast - Stormont House - to coincide with the Belfast Pride Festival. (Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday that could slash by a third the Asian state's $3 billion annual export revenue over its two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July.

The U.S.-drafted resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It also prohibits countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.

"We should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem. Not even close. The North Korean threat has not left us, it is rapidly growing more dangerous," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council.

"Further action is required. The United States is taking and will continue to take prudent defensive measures to protect ourselves and our allies," she said. Washington would continue annual joint military exercises with South Korea, Haley said.

North Korea has accused the United States and South Korea of escalating tensions by conducting military drills.

China and Russia slammed U.S. deployment of the THAAD anti-missile defense system in South Korea. China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi called for a halt to the deployment and for any equipment in place to be dismantled.

Liu also urged North Korea to "cease taking actions that might further escalate tensions."

U.S. President Donald Trump hailed the vote in a Twitter message on Saturday evening.

"The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!" Trump wrote.

Trump "appreciates China's and Russia's cooperation in securing passage" of the resolution, the White House said in a later statement. The U.S. president "will continue to work with allies and partners to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to ends its threatening and destabilizing behavior," it said.

U.S. PRESSURE ON CHINA

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said he hoped recent remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "were sincere - that the U.S. is not seeking to dismantle the existing situation or to forcibly unite the peninsula or to militarily intervene in the country."

While the Security Council has been divided on how to deal with other international crises like Syria, the 15-member body has remained relatively united on North Korea. Still, negotiating new measures typically takes months, not weeks.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. The new measures came in response to five nuclear weapons tests and four long-range missile launches.

The United States negotiated with China for a month on the resolution, then expanded negotiations to the full council on Friday.

Washington, frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea, has threatened to exert trade pressure on Beijing and impose sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang.

"We had tough negotiations this week," Haley told reporters. "I think that the Chinese realized that the United States was going to push, but they responded and we appreciate how they cooperated with us during these negotiations."

Liu, asked about U.S. negotiating pressure, said China has been consistent on trying to achieve denuclearization, peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and "to re-launch negotiations to achieve this end."

He told reporters China was "opposed to any unilateral sanctions outside the agreed framework set by the U.N. Security Council resolutions."

RUSSIA/U.S. COOPERATION

It had been unclear whether strained U.S.-Russia relations would hamper negotiations on North Korean sanctions. On Wednesday, Washington imposed unilateral sanctions on Moscow to punish Russia over accusations of interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.

"We are not hostages to our relations when we have to work together on issues which are far more important," Russia's Nebenzia told Reuters.

The new U.N. resolution adds nine individuals and four entities to the U.N. blacklist, including North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank, subjecting them to a global asset freeze and travel ban.

"I would think China and Russia signed on the sanctions hoping that they would force North Korea back to the negotiating table," said Thomas Byrne, president of the New York-based Korea Society. "However, North Korea will try to evade the new sanctions."

The new resolution completely bans North Korean exports of coal. In November, the Security Council capped the North's coal exports at $400 million annually. China, its largest buyer, halted imports in February.

A U.N. diplomat said North Korea had been expected to earn an estimated $251 million from iron and iron ore in 2017, $113 million from lead and lead ore, and $295 million from seafood. The diplomat said it was difficult to estimate how much North Korea was earning from sending workers abroad.

A United Nations human rights investigator said in 2015 that North Korea had forced more than 50,000 people to work abroad, mainly in Russia and China, earning between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion a year for the government.

Joseph DeThomas, a former State Department official who worked as an adviser on Iran sanctions and on previous rounds of North Korea sanctions, said freezing foreign labor would be difficult to enforce.

"Overall I doubt that $1 billion number. I doubt it will hit that hard in terms of economic damage," he said. "You cannot expect North Korea to buckle for anything less than the sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990."

These sanctions, he said, remain "a very long way" from there. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols,; addtional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by David Gregorio and Paul Tait)
The Skills Development and Vocational Training Ministry yesterday said it would take stern disciplinary action against the Ceylon-German Technical Training Institute (CGTTI) Principal Shantha Karunaratne over an alleged incident of soliciting sexual favours to pass the students.

Ministry Secretary P. Ranepura said the ministry would take legal action against the CGTTIs Principal over the incident as soon as possible.

A video footage went viral recently in social media depicting the Principal soliciting sexual bribes to pass the students.

A student who went to meet the principal along with a Spy video cam reportedly recorded his shameless and vile conduct had later lodged a complaint with the Mount Lavinia Police and the Bribery and Corruption Commission.

The principal who was arrested by the police over the incident was later released on bail after being produced before the Moratuwa Magistrate.

It was reported that many complaints had been received to the institutes authorities over similar incidents involving the principal before this complaint was lodged to the police however no action had been taken against him.

It was also reported that he is still continuing as German Tech principal and the authorities have not taken action to suspend him.

The institute which was originally established in 1959 is recognized as one of the leading Automotive Training Institute in South Asia. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)
Nestle Lanka hands over the cheque as Diamond sponsor to the Chefs Guild of Lanka for Culinary Art 2017. From left: Chefs Guild of Lanka President Chef Dimuthu Kumarasinghe, Nestle Professional AVP Roshan Perera, Chefs Guild of Lanka Chairman Chef Gerard Mendis, Nestle Lanka Managing Director Shivani Hegde, Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs Minister John Amaratunga, Culinary Art 2017 Organizing Committee Chairman Chef Madhawa Weerabaddana and Chefs Guild of Lanka Board Member Chef Sunil Edirisinghe

Nestle Professional, Nestles out-of-home food and beverage solutions provider, joined hands with the Chefs Guild of Lanka to become the Diamond sponsor for Culinary Art Food Expo 2017. The partnership marks Nestle Professionals strong long-standing commitment to help develop the local culinary professionals.



Thousands of Sri Lankan Chefs participate in Culinary Art Food Expo, which is organised by the Chefs Guild of Lanka every other year. The chefs compete across a range of categories including Nescafe Creative Coffee, Live Desserts, Hot Cooking, Plated Appetizers, Contemporary Sri Lankan Cuisine, Wedding Cake Structures and Artistic Chocolate Showpieces. They are judged and awarded by an elite panel of Chefs from the World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS), who fly in to the event from all over the world.



Culinary Art Food Expo has not just become an internationally modelled forum to showcase and promote the best of local culinary talent, but also one that uncovers the hottest trends in food and beverage, the latest product launches and the industrys vision for the future.



Nestle Lanka Managing Director Shivani Hegde said, We pride ourselves on a long-standing relationship with the Chefs Guild of Lanka. We have worked together over the years to uplift the local culinary industry, supporting local teams at global events such as the World Culinary Olympics and creating local opportunities to develop talent. This year, I am proud to say that we have strengthened our association with Culinary Art, an ideal platform for chefs to showcase their talent and skills and learn from world-renowned culinary judges. Partnering events such as these, upholds our commitment to enhance lives and support the industry in its growth and development.



Nestle Professional has placed a strong focus on developing and recognising talent in the local chef community since its inception in 2008. Its many initiatives include live competitions like New Sri Lankan Cuisine with Maggi and Nescafe Creative Coffee and holding felicitation events for culinary professionals with Nestle Professional Signature Night. It also launched Nutripro, a nutrition awareness programme to help chefs make balanced meals that are both delicious and healthy.

Nestle Professional Assistant Vice President Roshan Perera said, With tourism on the rise, forums such as Culinary Art are the need of the hour. A memorable gastronomic experience is a huge part of the overall tourist experience today. By supporting events such as this, we are continuing to develop local culinary professionals and help them meet new trends. With the right kind of support and opportunities, we believe our culinary professionals can play a vital role in developing Sri Lankas economy.



Chefs Guild of Lanka Chairman Chef Gerard Mendis said, The growth and development of chefs is key to securing the future of the industry. Were thankful to Nestle for their strong and constant support in helping us equip chefs with the enhanced culinary skills and industry knowledge they need to excel in their profession, as well as for the opportunities to participate in international competitions.
President Maithripala Sirisena has asked Foreign Affairs Minister and former finance minister Ravi Karunanayake to resign from his portfolio in the face of the allegations levelled against him in connection with the Central Bank bond sale, government sources said yesterday.

They said the President had told the minister that if he continued to function as a Cabinet minister, it would create serious issues not only to the government but also to the minister himself and as such the President had pointed out that the best solution available to the minister is to resign from his ministerial portfolio.

President Sirisena is reported to have conveyed this to the minister during a dinner held on Thursday night at Temple Trees to celebrate Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's completion of 40 years as a Member of Parliament.

Minister Karunanayake was also summoned to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to testify with regard to the evidence submitted to it. (Ajantha Kumara Agalakada)
I had heard faint murmurings from the grapevine about a young, first-time Danish director Asgar Leth and his purportedly excruciating and devastating cinematic excursion into the depths of depravity; the slums of Cite Soleil or "City of the Sun" in Haiti. The film was called The Ghosts of Cite Soleil, named after "the most dangerous place on Earth" by the UN and in less polite company as the "asshole of the world".

On a balmy Thursday evening, I set out to the Laemmle theatre on Sunset Boulevard to witness this underground phenomenon for myself. The film opened with an establishing shot of a gorgeous, seductive Caribbean sunset, the kind that you watch silently and longingly with one arm around your woman, the other one resting on the sand and later spend the rest of the night making up for all that silence and longing.

So far so good, I said to myself, nothing too painful about that. My senses were lulled into a dreamy post lunch torpor accentuated by Wyclef Jean's lilting melodies. It was a good life. And then the whole world turned to shit. The next second I was unapologetically hurled into a sea of loud, angry, half naked African bodies, cacophonic patois French voices and aggressive, obnoxious, in-your-face gangsta hip-hop. The camera weaved around this schizoid tapestry like a crazed black mamba on a huge dose of angel dust. And from that point on did not let me go.

It was a waterfall, an avalanche of visceral sensations, a deep tongue kiss with Medusa at the very bowels of humanity, a place where Satan only goes after a hundred hits of crack cocaine. I soon realized I had been flung into the largest slum in Port-au-Prince, "Cite Soleil", a volatile community of half a million tormented souls.

That beautiful Caribbean sunset had been wiped off the face of the earth for good. Director Leth has been able to go where no man, angel or demigod would dare to. His camera is at times a lover and at times a friend to that which has been shunned, forbidden, forgotten and left for dead at the very fringes of the human condition. To that where even the vultures shudder to venture for fear of being preyed upon themselves.

We are taken into the world of two brothers, Tupac and Bily who are gun waving, doped up gang lords or "Chimeres" (ghosts) in the "City of the Sun". They are called ghosts since it is taken for granted that they will not be around too long and in a sense are already dead.

It is the time when the largely corrupt and exploitative Jean Bertrand Aristide is in power and arms the Chimeres to enforce his own brand of power. Indeed they are creations of a beast that feeds off its own offspring, the monstrous European colonial machinery that was responsible for dumping African slaves in Haiti in the first place.

The whole film takes place in real time, everything that we see and almost smell, touch, and feel unfolds before our eyes; the battles with rival gangs, manipulation by corrupt officials, the love affair between French nurse Lele and one of the protagonists Tupac (named after the murdered American rapper) and feverish telephonic pitch sessions with famous fellow Haitian Wyclef Jean (the gang lords also happen to be aspiring and highly talented hip hop artistes). We are invited to witness births, deaths, anger, lust, jealousy and at times, miraculous laughter.

It is not just access we are talking about here, the inhabitants of this universe open up to the filmmaker like their most intimate companion, their soul mate in a world that does not acknowledge the existence of one. He documents their bonding and camaraderie as well as hatred for each other, their celebrations and mourning, their deepest despair and their fondest hopes, their most depraved moments and their loftiest ideals. He is ONE with their universe and we wonder how he managed to get out in one piece.

The camerawork is jarring and disorienting with no importance given to aesthetic conventions, rather it externalizes the internal state of our protagonists by deliberately agitating the viewers through the use of extensive handheld work, close ups, jump cuts and constant, hyper-caffeinated movement in all directions. The format is grainy, low res, and cheap, shot in natural light, for both day and night and sometimes in pitch darkness with just the use of a flashlight, and clearly has the desired effect.

We are told towards the end that both brothers were killed in 2004 and their lover, the French nurse Lele went back to Paris. Needless to say, even though Jean Bertrand Aristide is no longer in power, Haiti and the Cite Soleil continue to be ravaged and torn apart by wanton violence, yet another casualty in the name of "progress", another bloody bookmark in the annals of recent human history.

The day an Indian filmmaker can achieve a cinematic feat of this magnitude will be a watershed moment for Indian cinema. With mawkish bilge like "When Harry Met Sejal" being churned out on a regular basis, and censor chief Pahlaj Nihalani banning films that do not meet his regressive, Hindutva-inflected sensibility, that day seems far away.

I urge the reader to go and watch this devastating visual document of the catastrophic state of the human condition. As Bily would say "F*ck God and F*ck Hope, I only believe in this" (crooks his trigger finger).
"You shall be unswervingly loyal to the absolute leadership that the party has over the army, heed the call of the party, follow the party, asserted chairman Xi Jinping, while officiating a mega parade at the Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base in Inner Mongolia on the 90th anniversary of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA).

Images showed a martial Chinese President, also chairman of the Central Military Commission  the most powerful organisation in the Middle Kingdom  dressed in combat fatigues, driving in an open jeep and inspecting around 12,000 combat troops.

Xi told the PLA to be prepared for the battle and to defeat "all enemies that dare to offend" China. Was India, who had dared to challenge the mighty PLA when Beijing tried to change the status-quo at the tri-junction between Tibet, Bhutan and Sikkim, the target? According to The South China Morning Post, Xi didnt specify any target, though the defence ministry spokesperson Ren Guoqiang stated that the parade was not targeted at Chinas "surrounding situation", it was in accordance with the yearly training schedule.

Military

Zhurihe is Chinas largest and most advanced military base. It was the first time that such a military parade was held outside Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It differed from previous events in its heavy emphasis on combat and field operations, noted the Hong Kong newspaper. It was indeed a huge display of military power; Xinhua reported that 40 per cent of the weapons on show had never before been seen by the public.

Xi told the troops: You shall extend the battleground to wherever the party points. The world under heaven is not at peace, and peace needs safeguarding. He added: We are closer than ever to realising Chinas great dream of national revitalisation and building a strong peoples army. There is a contradiction here, which might become a problem for Xi. Can Xi speak of a "Chinese Dream" and a "Peaceful Rise" while threatening to go to war against those who dare oppose China?

A war would undoubtedly take China 50 years back in development. The PLA, in the meantime, continues to take giant steps towards the future. At the beginning of 2016, Beijing under took in-depth reforms of its defence forces, aiming at a far wider "integration".

Apart from the traditional three "services"  the PLAs Army, Navy and Air Force  the PLA now has a Rocket Force (formerly, the second artillery) and a Strategic Support Force (SSF), which could be game changing. It could be a critical organisation for dominance in space, cyber and electromagnetic domains. China is looking into the future.

Missile

Chinas military modernisation will include the ability to attack at long ranges and adversary forces that may deploy or operate within the Western Pacific Ocean. An array of weapons, like different types of missiles such as the new HQ-19 missile  which are specifically used to intercept ballistic missiles mid-course  are being developed. China is also working on an unmanned combat aerial vehicle named the "Black Sword", which could compete with the best US drones. But there are other aspects that one cant ignore. Not all is rosy in China today.

According to a blog on the Peoples Daily website, on July 26 and 27, the days before Xi met the National Security Advisors of the BRICS, a seminar was held in Beijing and the purpose was to "unify the understanding among Party members".

Chinascope, a website which publishes translations and analysis of the Chinese media, pointed out that the meeting was different this year: First, the seminar location was changed from the Party School to the Jing Xi Hotel. This hotel, closed to foreigners, is located near the Military Museum and Defence Ministry and is run by the PLAs General Staff Department. Why was the venue changed? Is Xi more "secure" under the PLA wings?

Challenges

It was also different due to the large participation of party cadres; it included the seven members of the Political Standing Committee, provincial party bosses, top leaders from central government, representatives of the Peoples Congress, the judiciary and of course, the PLA. A telling detail: No paper and no pens were seen on the tables.

In his speech, Xi said he was "aware of the challenges": The world is undergoing a dramatic change while China is facing serious challenges. How do we deal with the complexity of the world and gain control on the international stage? How can we seize the opportunity and break through conflicts and risks as China enters a critical development stage? How can the party overcome the tests and risks and continue to be the leading party of the country? These are the important questions the party members should answer.

In the next few days, the leadership will move to the seaside resort of Behaide. It doesnt mean things will be less steamy. The battle for the 19th Congress seems to have started.

The PLA is bound to play a crucial role in the power struggle at the top of the party. Well have to wait for a few months to see which way the smoke blows. Meanwhile, the PLA, 90 years after its foundation, seems much behind its chairman. The confrontation in Dokalam should be seen in this perspective.
The dust over a Rs 600 crore scam in the state-run Annabhau Sathe Development Corporation (ASDC), a body established to assist the Dalits financially, is not likely to settle even a year after the scam came into light. The then chairman of ASDC, Ramesh Kadam, an MLA belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), is behind bars for siphoning off funds released by the state government. However, the never-ending tales of his tactics have kept the officers with the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) busy.

An investigation by the CID had already established that Kadam had fraudulently splurged the money meant for buying rickshaws and taxis for eligible members of the Dalit community to buy 59 luxury cars for NCP office-bearers and workers. Now, it has come into light that he had paid those workers Rs 50,000 each for petty expenses.

In some cases, the amount for two months was released lump sum. "Kadam was so blunt that he transferred the money from the corporation's bank account to the workers' account," minister of state for social justice Dilip Kamble told MAIL TODAY.

The CID has found that Kadam had accompanied the managing director of the corporation to a nationalised bank to withdraw an amount of Rs 10 crore in cash. Kadam had insisted that a cheque of Rs 10 crore should be drawn with his signature as he was heading the corporation.

He forced the MD to take his signature on the cheque but the bank refused to pay, saying the cheque had become invalid since the chairman was not supposed to sign on it. A furious Kadam accompanied the MD and the bank released the amount without any objection. Kadam also duped his two sisters to the tune of Rs 3 crore each.

He produced dummies in the bank, transferred the amount to their bank accounts and later made them withdraw the amount. When the police reached out to his sisters, they found that they were struggling to feed themselves because of poverty. "His sisters are illiterate but the money transaction that took place in the banks have their signatures," Kamble said.

The beneficiary NCP workers abandoned the luxury cars near Pune, Satara and Sangli fearing action from the CID. They have claimed that they were unaware that the "gifts" were actually an outcome of a scam. The CID, however, is not in a mood to accept their claims.
Every person has a dream and I am no different.

To do what no one has done yet is every journalists dream. Again, I am no different.

TV journalists normally travel with a camera crew and this is where I am different from the rest.

In my 15-year career, this was perhaps the biggest risk I was taking by travelling alone to a location where the entry of journalists is strictly prohibited.

The country was Bhutan and the target to be achieved was [to reach] Doklam.

Indians have been hearing about Doklam so much of late but only those deployed along the borders had seen it. So, how does the terrain look like or how arduous is the travel for both civilians and the Army?

For an Army personnel deployed there, it is his duty but access is now being given to civilians as well.

The last stretch you can reach out to is Haa district - the last on the border of Bhutan that shares the boundary with Tibet.

It is impossible for foreign nationals to reach even up to Haa Valley because movement beyond Thimphu or Paro is not permitted.

And thats where the challenge lied. Travelling in an unknown area, taking such risks to reach out to places that have not been visited by any other Indian journalist.

We journalists perhaps dont realise but we often tend to give away our identity with our body language. And that happened with me too.

An immigration officer instantly ruled out that Im a normal tourist and started interrogating me.

What are you doing in Bhutan?

Does anyone in the country know that you are visiting Bhutan?

Do you know anyone in Bhutan?

He and his colleagues kept questioning me to the extent that he even threatened to send his department officials to check my luggage, and if he could prove that my intentions were different (they were, indeed) he could get me arrested with immediate effect.

Okay officer, thank you, I calmly said and gave a humble smile.

To my surprise, the officer screamed at me and asked why I was smiling.

Do not smile. This is not your country. You are entering a different country now and the law of our land prevails.

For the first time in many years I realised that even a humble smile with a thank you could lead to your arrest.

I finally managed a vehicle (by paying double the normal fare) to take me to Haa. But I was issued a permit only to Paro and Thimpu.

There are two immigration check gates between Phuentsholing and Paro and with every check gate and the barrage of questions by the officials my heart started skipping beats. I was terrified what if they find out my real identity.

As luck would have it, there were sudden speed-check patrolling and random scanning of luggage on the way to Paro.

I finally reached Paro late night and crashed on the hotel bed after the hectic journey. I calmed myself down since a single alarm raised by my driver or the hotel authorities would have landed me in the police custody of the Royal Government of Bhutan.

The next morning at 6am, I was ready to leave for Chelela, the highest motorable road in the region and then from there to Haa.

(It is like travelling from Kolkata to Delhi in Rajdhani Express with ticket only up to Kanpur.)

Here I was travelling from Paro to Haa  a stretch of almost 150 km to and from - without any permit and the authorities conducting checks at regular distances.

It was a bright morning and I could not thank God enough for it was not raining. The usual dense fog too was missing.

The moment I started to record the journey on camera with Paro Airport in the background, my driver freaked out. He wanted to know what exactly I was up to?

I tried my best not to lose my composure.

I had heard stories about single travellers facing harrowing times in Bhutan. More so if its a woman. You might have to keep on explaining at each stop not just about your single status but also why did you have to come alone.

Driving through the meandering roads I finally reached Chelela. At an altitude of 3,988 km, it is simply pristine.

Chelala is the last tourist spot but it has been closed since the Doklam standoff began in June this year.

And from Chelela, just a few kilometers away is Haa. But it was almost impossible to enter Haa.

With Army vehicles passing by every five minutes and some even stopping with suspicion, it became an even bigger challenge for me to attempt that.

Haa is the last district and the region around is controlled by the Indian Army along with the Royal Bhutan Army at various places. Haa also has a strategic training centre where Indian Army trains the personnel of Royal Bhutan Army.

Most importantly, Haa is the last point of habitation along the international border.

The smallest district of Bhutan, access to the region is given only to the residents or their relatives with prior permission.

But I did make till there.

Standing in Haa with India on one side and Tibet on the other, and right next to Doklam. The high and lofty mountains gave the region a unique beauty as well as an eerie silence, perhaps an indication that you are being closely watched.

A handful of houses, a few hundred residents, a few thousand armymen, a few lakh people monitoring the condition and crores reading/watching the developments.

So, that was Doklam.

From clicking photos to recording videos, all I had was a few minutes before my driver again started questioning and staring at me.

The risk that I had taken could also have put the chauffeur in trouble. (If caught, he would lose his driving licence for driving into prohibited zones, that too with a foreign national.)

Within minutes I had to move out of the restricted zone and back uphill to Chelela.

At Chelala, it was drizzling.

A vehicle selling food was parked and just as he opened the door, the aroma of freshly steamed momos, ginger tea and Maggi greeted me.

I dont remember feeling so relieved after having food (I had Maggi) ever in my life.

The hot cup of tea and a bowl of Maggi (bought at 20 times more than the market price) tasted divine.

As I sipped on my tea, I wondered how would it feel to be back home.

The drive downhill felt never-ending. More so because I was scared of being caught with my camera.
The story of the Panama Papers starts with the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which "using a collaboration of more than 300 reporters on six continents exposed the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens." The ICIJ and its media partners began publishing the Panama Papers investigation on April 3, 2016, after which almost no country was untouched by its revelations.

(The ICIJ is an initiative of the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), an American non-profit organisation for investigative journalism. The CPI was set up by Charles Lewis, a leading US investigative reporter for the past 30 years. Both the CPI and ICIJ are financed by donations, one of the leading donors being the famous and influential George Soros.)

Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca has been charged with alleged money-laundering. During the ICIJ's investigation, documents revealed that the well-known law firm had "a separate department for illegal funds and that Mossack Fonseca offers solutions for withholding tax on payments of interest in Europe. Within some months, the ICIJ found out that the founder of the law firm was Jurgen Mossack, a German.

Mossack, his brother Peter and father Erhard Mossack left Germany in the early 1960s. The father returned to Germany and died near Munich, in 1993.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi experimented with demonetisation to extract black money from the system, but the actual amount of black money is stashed abroad.

Yet Jurgen Mossack, whose profile says, born in Furth, Bavaria, Germany, is a completely unknown entity in Germany, where not a single article has appeared in the German press, even though he is the head of a company linked to some very shady characters. His brother Peter Mossack, in an interview to a German newspaper, Frankfurter Rundshau, stated that he goes back to visit his brother every couple of years or so". His brother has a law firm in Panama and is "well-connected".

The Mossack brothers are also politically well-connected. When the dictator, Manuel Noriega, came to power in 1983, (he who later turned out to be in the pay rolls of drug dealers), Panama became the preferred banking centre of the legendary Colombian Medellin cartel led by drug baron Pablo Escobar.

The Mexican drug lord Caro Quintero, who ordered the execution of US United States Drug Enforcement Administration agent Kiki Camarena Salazar in February 1985, was arrested in Costa Rica in April 1985. Just a few days earlier, a middleman had used Jurgen Mossacks law firm to set up a company into which Caro Quinteros assets could flow unchecked. This was followed by a second company which owns a villa in Costa Rica.

When a few years ago, Costa Ricos National Olympic Committee (NOC) officially requested Mossack Fonseca to hand over the villa, Jurgen Mossack refused. He wrote back to the NOC that even the feared drug baron Pablo Escobar is a baby compared to Caro Quintero and he did not under any circumstances want "to be among those Quintero visits after he is released". So the Mossack brothers have substantial contacts with the drug lords. The fact that extreme wealthy industrialists, drug barons, actors, politicians invested in Mossack Fonseca is extremely serious. It is also important to note that Mossack Fonseca is only one of the several banks laundering tax evaded money in Panama.

The Panama Papers also exposes the alleged role of Sergei Roldugin in Russia. Roldugin, a virtuoso cellist and businessman, is part of President Vladimir Putins circle of friends from St Petersburg since the 1970s. Roldugin states in one document that he is the sole owner of a company named "International Media Overseas S.A" that is based in Panama. He declares in an answer to a questionnaire that the companys assets run into billions of rubles, and he expects a long-term income of over 1 million Swiss francs every year.

The Panama Papers, compiled and written by two investigative journalists: Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier, has nothing on Indian capital. But it is unlikely that no Indian capitalist is involved going by earlier reports on the alleged holdings of KP Singh of DLF, Gautam Adani's older brother, Vinod Shantilal Shah Adani, Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, etc.

According to the investigation conducted by a chain of media outlets, including The Indian Express, more than 500 Indians figure on the Panama Paperss list of offshore companies. After all, there are several banks in Panama that launder illegal money, not just Mossack Fonseca. The fact that this legal firm was involved with drug barons and that a prominent Russian citizen who is a musician controls a company expected to generate an annual income of over 1 million francs every year, is also a warning for India.

Incidentally, a famous actor with massive assets like Bachchan could also be a capitalist. Although there are relatively fewer Indian names, a similar situation in Pakistan didn't stop its Supreme Court from removing Nawaz Sharif from the post of PM.

There is a lesson for India. It has been rumoured for more than a year that 500 investors from India have invested tax-evaded income in Panama. But there are several banks in Panama investing illicit funds. There are also other banks in other parts of Central and South America, not to speak of Europe.

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi experimented with demonetisation to extract black money from the system. But the actual amount of black money is stashed abroad. Hardly any significant amount of black money has been exposed. After the Panama Papers expose, many expected a substantial amount of black money to be repatriated.

That has not happened. Who has suppressed the truth. And why?
Related Britain lifts warning against travel to Tunisia

Britain on Thursday applauded Tunisia's "patient hard work" to boost security following the 2015 jihadist attacks that killed dozens of tourists, including 30 Britons at a beach resort.

"We know that these days there can never be a situation when there is no risk at all but we are being very pleased to advise our citizens that returning to Tunis, returning to the resort areas, is something that we would like them to do," said Britain's junior foreign minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, on a visit to Tunis.

Gunman Seifeddine Rezgui killed 38 people, including 30 British tourists and three Irish citizens, in a shooting spree in June 2015 at the Riu Imperial Marhaba hotel on Tunisia's Mediterranean coast in Sousse.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.

"The United Kingdom is very conscious that following the tragic events of 2015, the change in the nature of our travel advice, which was necessary to protect all our citizens, has had a significant impact," he said.

"The reason our travel advice has been changed is because of the patient hard work done by the Tunisian government and the security services to respond to the needs of those who visit this country for tourism or any other purpose."

Burt told a news conference: "Hard work has been done in terms of aviation security, maritime security, response to terrorist attack, and the United Kingdom has worked in partnership with security officials here."

Britain's advisory against travel to Tunisia was lifted last week, although it continues to caution its nationals against visits to remote areas and near the borders with Libya and Algeria.

A British inquest criticised the Tunisian police response to the massacre as "at best shambolic, at worst cowardly".

Tunisia's economy is heavily dependent on tourism and authorities had repeatedly asked for the British travel advisory to be lifted.

Before the beach attack, more than 400,000 British tourists visited Tunisia annually. But last year just 20,000 British visitors were recorded, official Tunisian figures show.

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India's main opposition Congress Party staged angry nationwide protests Saturday, blaming supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for pelting stones at the car of its leader Rahul Gandhi.

Congress workers shouted slogans outside the headquarters of Modi's ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi and held street protests in other states.

Gandhi was travelling to a flood-hit area in western Gujarat state Friday when a mob carrying black flags pelted stones at his convoy.

Although Gandhi was unhurt in the attack, the windows of his car were smashed, television channels showed.

"BJP workers threw stones at me, it hit my PSO (personal security officer). It is their style of politics, what can I say," said Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that ruled India for decades through the Congress party.

Gandhi, 47, has been seeking to revive the party's fortunes after BJP ousted it from power in 2014 general elections.

Gujarat, Modi's home state, goes to the polls in December with the BJP seeking to retain power.

"Windowpanes of Cong VP's car broken in an organised attack by goons, security staff injured. BJP must know truth can't be silenced," tweeted Randeep Surjewla, a Congress spokesman.

The Congress also lodged a police complaint of "murderous assault" against four BJP workers.

Police have detained one man and are investigating the incident, the Press Trust of India reported.

Gandhi said he was undeterred by the attack.

"Narendra Modi ji, slogans, black flags and stones will not deter us... We will put in all our might into the service of people," he tweeted Friday.

Gandhi later met flood victims in Banaskantha district of Gujarat where severe monsoon flooding has killed more than 200 people so far.

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A new report from a local public policy organization shows that between 2001 and 2016, Albemarle County received $277 million in local tax revenue from area of land that in the 1980s was eyed for annexation by the City of Charlottesville, and sent $212.9 million in revenue sharing payments to the city.

The Hindsight Report from the Free Enterprise Forum, which looks at Geographic Information System data to calculate tax revenue generation from the revenue sharing agreement area, shows that Albemarle received about $65 million more in local tax revenues than it paid to the city during those years.

The revenue sharing agreement was approved in 1982 in a deal to prevent the city from annexing valuable county land, but required the county to share some of the revenue generated by that land with Charlottesville.

The report shows that if Charlottesville been allowed to annex swaths of land along U.S. 29 and on Pantops Mountain, the city would have received $304.7 million in tax revenue between 2001 and 2016, more than $91 million more than the $212.9 million it received in revenue sharing payments.

Neil Williamson, president of the Free Enterprise Forum and co-author of the report, said he refrained from making a conclusion on the report because he wanted to present the data to let people decide for themselves whether or not it was a good deal.

I think it adds to the discussion, it adds to the conversation, he said.

In the late 1970s, with a moratorium on annexation almost up, the city started discussing new annexation possibilities. The area of focus later became a 10 square mile area of Albemarle around the city that included the area that is now Stonefield shopping center, U.S. 29 North, Pantops Mountain, the area of the Fifth Street Station shopping center and other areas in the county.

Charlottesville and Albemarle eventually began negotiations which ended in the revenue sharing agreement and referendum on the agreement.

In May 1982, 63 percent of voters in Albemarle voted in favor of the agreement. The first payment was made to the city in 1983.

According to county documents, from 1983 through Fiscal Year 2018, the county will have has transferred $311,803,547 to the city.

The payment amount varies and is derived from a formula that looks at the populations of the city and the county, the value of locally assessed taxable real property, and the true real property tax rates of the city and the county, as determined by the Virginia Department of Taxation.

A cap on the amount of revenue transferred prevents the transfer from exceeding 0.1 percent of the locally assessed value of taxable real estate.

The state in 1987 imposed a moratorium on land annexation from counties by cities. The state legislature has renewed the moratorium each time it has been set to expire. In 2016 the moratorium was extended until 2024.

The agreement is written such that it will remain in place until the city and county are consolidated into a single political subdivision, the concept for independent cities in Virginia is altered in such a manner that real property in the city becomes part of the countys tax base or the city and county mutually agree to cancel or change the agreement.

Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones said that it was obvious that the Free Enterprise Forum did extensive research and analysis on the report.

The city continues to feel that the annexation/revenue sharing agreement has benefited both the city and the county for over three decades, Jones said It was negotiated at a time when the city could have annexed parts of Albemarle County along the urban ring that have become major income generators for the county.

Del. David Toscano, who served on Charlottesville City Council from 1990 to 2002 and as Mayor 1994 to 1996, said that an argument was made at the time that if the city had annexed, it would have made more money in taxes than it would through revenue sharing.

Nobody ever quantified the argument, he said. This shows that the city would have probably gotten more money.

If the city had annexed the land, Toscano said, it could have forced the county to grow into its rural areas, which now are protected from development.

The county wouldnt have the commercial base it has now, and they would have had to create one, he said.

What does that mean? That means you would have to grow in the rural areas, Toscano said. The people who value the rural area of Albemarle County ought to love the revenue sharing agreement because if it had not occurred, you would have destroyed a lot of the character that people value now.

According to the report, study area property owners paid $72 million less in real estate taxes by being in Albemarle instead of Charlottesville.

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to have an informational work session about the revenue sharing agreement at its Aug. 9 meeting.

Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Diantha McKeel asked at the boards April 12 meeting if county staff could have a discussion with the board about factual information regarding the agreement.

That came about because over the last year, and even going back as long as Ive been an elected official in this community, weve had residents in Albemarle county that have questioned the revenue sharing agreement, she said. It would seem like over the last year, as issues have arisen within our community, weve certainly had more questions about it and certainly there have been some Albemarle county residents that have expressed frustration about the revenue sharing agreement.

McKeel said that there has not been a community discussion in a number of years about revenue sharing and about how the county and city got here, why its in place and what it actually means.

Think about all the new people that have moved in that really havent had the benefit of a discussion, certainly in the last five to 10 years we have lots of residents whove moved from out of state and arent familiar with our revenue sharing agreement, she said.

Out of the discussion, she said she hopes the board and the community will all be better informed.

I was living in this community and I voted in favor of the revenue sharing agreement because at time we really were faced with financial uncertainty in our communities, McKeel said. This agreement, at the time, was a thoughtful, rational compromise that brought stability to both the county and the city regarding their budgets and their financial picture.

Albemarle resident Phillip Fassieux, who has spoken out against the revenue sharing agreement, said that its great to look and say that maybe the agreement did help the county up until 1987.

To me, that should be the cut-off point, is that 1987 date when the general assembly passed the moratorium on annexation, he said. That was the end of the insurance, if we were to view this RSA as an insurance policy.

If the countys willing to sue the city over whether or not bikes can be in a park, then they should be willing to take the city to task over an unfair contract that was signed 30 years ago, that no longer helps or supports the interests of Albemarle residents, he said.
One month after the election, President-elect Donald Trump made a "victory tour" of states that had helped deliver his surprise win.

In Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trump introduced his choice for secretary of defense, Gen. James Mattis, and pledged the following: "We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn't be involved with. Instead, our focus must be on defeating terrorism and destroying ISIS, and we will."

He appears to be fulfilling the second part of that pledge, less so the first. Think North Korea, Iran, Russia, and now even Venezuela, which has had new sanctions placed on it following fraudulent elections giving dictatorial power to President Nicolas Maduro.

While Venezuela is no threat to America and Russia is a major headache, North Korea and Iran are clear and present dangers. These two rogue regimes are committed to developing nuclear weapons capable of reaching U.S. cities no matter what we do.

Clearly this cannot be allowed to happen, but the question is how to stop them short of all-out war that has the potential to kill millions and create a doomsday scenario reminiscent of Cold War movies like "Fail Safe," "Dr. Strangelove" and "On the Beach."

The best offense really is a good defense. When Ronald Reagan proposed his Strategic Defense Initiative in a nationally televised address on March 23, 1983, many on the left mocked him. They called his proposal science fiction and unworkable, derisively labeling it "Star Wars."

They're not mocking that proposal now. The Defense Department has had several successes with its Terminal High Altitude Defense anti-missile system, but only at targets that represent medium-range missiles. In May, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency also " 'successfully intercepted an intercontinental ballistic missile during the first test of its ground-based intercept system." That's not science fiction.

Readers should revisit Reagan's speech as a template for dealing with modern threats. In that address from the Oval Office, Reagan said the risk of war is lessened when the U.S. has a strong deterrence, which he defined as "making sure any adversary who thinks about attacking the United States, or our allies, or our vital interests, concludes that the risks to him outweigh any potential gains. Once he understands that, he won't attack. We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression."

Reagan said the strategy of deterrence had not changed, but what it takes to deter had changed. While acknowledging it might take decades to achieve his Strategic Defense Initiative, Reagan said he wanted to take the first step.

He concluded his address: "I am directing a comprehensive and intensive effort to define a long-term research and development program to begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles. This could pave the way for arms control measures to eliminate the weapons themselves. We seek neither military superiority nor political advantage. Our only purpose  one all people share  is to search for ways to reduce the danger of nuclear war.

My fellow Americans, tonight we're launching an effort which holds the promise of changing the course of human history. There will be risks, and results take time. But I believe we can do it. As we cross this threshold, I ask for your prayers and your support."

President Trump should emulate his predecessor, making his first televised address from the Oval Office during which he explains to Americans why North Korea and Iran pose an immediate, or ultimate, threat to the United States. He should announce a fast-track effort to escalate THAAD so it can destroy ICBMs. A space-based, anti-missile system should then complement our defenses in order to protect America and our allies from nuclear attack.

As Reagan noted, weakness encourages tyrants. Tehran and Pyongyang must be encouraged at what appears to be instability in the Trump administration. A credible missile defense system would send them a message more powerful than words.

Cal Thomas is a columnist syndicated by the Tribune Content Agency. Email him at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.
The Honda WRV has turned out to be a blockbuster for the Japanese automaker and is topping the sales chart. Honda sold 4894 units of the WRV in July which is 40 more than the companys bread and butter model, the City. The recent implementation of GST (Goods and Services Tax) from July 1, 2017, has also helped automakers reduce the prices of most of the cars slightly and is thus helping boost the sales.

The recent arrangements to increase the compact SUVs production capacity from 3,500 units a month to 5,000, have certainly helped it garner such sales figures last month. In total, Honda has received over 23,000 bookings for the WRV, out of which only 16,000 units were delivered due to production constraints. Nevertheless, Honda is looking to ready itself for the festive season by slashing the long waiting period of two months for the WRV (via production increase).

After fumbling with the Mobilio and the BR-V, Honda is looking to settle with decent sales of its City, Jazz, Amaze and the WR-V in the first quarter of FY 2017-18. The automaker is confident that the demand of its cars will further spike thanks to GST, good monsoon and the beginning of the festive season from August in many regions.

Honda car sales in July, 2017

Competition Check

Despite the WR-V being the most volume garnering product for Honda in July, it hasnt been able to bother the sales of the segment leader Maruti Vitara Brezza. Reasons could be many  its subjective style, space, price or the demand-supply quotient. The next couple of months will give us a clearer picture of where the new Honda kid stands. Have a look at the sales of its rivals since April. If you wish to know how it stacks up against its competition with respect to specs, tap here - Honda WRV vs Maruti Vitara Brezza Vs Ford EcoSport.

Among the trio  Brezza, EcoSport and the WRV  which one is your favourite? Let us know your answers in the comments section below.

Source: CarDekho.com
Contract to L&T has been awarded for electrification in two railway sections.

New Delhi: The Indian Railways today awarded a Rs 1,050-crore contract for electrification of 781-km rail tracks to multinational conglomerate Larsen & Toubro Limited. This is the first engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract of the Indian Railways under its Mission Electrification.

"The Indian Railways has given higher thrust on infrastructure creation, electrification. During last four years, total 103 railway electrification projects consisting of 16,815 route kilometres at an estimated cost of Rs 17,615 crore have been sanctioned," Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said at an event to exchange the contract of agreement.

The contract to L&T has been awarded for electrification in two sections -- the Delhi-Sarai Rohilla-Rewari and Alwar-Bandikui-Jaipur-Phulera-Ajmer section (353-route-km at a cost of Rs 594 crore) and the Roha-Verna section of Konkan Railway (428-route-km at a cost of Rs 456 crore).

This is for the first time that the railways has entrusted new electrification works not only to its PSUs including Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), Indian Railway

Construction Company (IRCON) and Rail India Techno Economic Service (RITES) but also to Power Grid Corporation India Limited (PGCIL), a transmission sector PSU under the Ministry of Power.

At the event, additionally eight agreements were exchanged between railway zones and Public Sector Undertakings for 1,735 rkm of electrification projects at a cost of Rs 1,746 crore.

"The cumulative saving due to electric traction bill will be about Rs 26,000 crore in a decade which will be in addition to saving of Rs 41,000 crore planned to be achieved due to reduction in cost of power to the railways. The Mission Electrification will also make the Indian Railways more environment friendly," Prabhu said.
Snapdeal on Tuesday witnessed exit from many senior members from technology, product and engineering division.

New Delhi: Amid severe administrative turmoil, two more senior executives submitted their resignation from e-commerce player Snapdeal, expressing their displeasure with the top management.

Rahul Ganjoo, Vice President, Programme Management and Arvind Heda, Vice President, Technology (Data Platform) resigned, according to sources.

While founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal said the workforce and investors were supportive of their ' Snapdeal 2.0' strategy, the latter have openly expressed their dissent, and are inclining more towards taking the exit.

"Leadership is set by example not by blatant lies coming in from dubious founders," a senior employee of Snapdeal said.

After the announcement of major layoff with an agenda to cut down 80 per cent of its employee strength in the company, Snapdeal on Tuesday witnessed exit from many senior members from technology, product and engineering division.

Vice President product, Pradeep Desai; Vice President, engineering, Viraj Chatterjee and head of IT, Gaurav Gupta are some of the first names to have exited the company.

Yesterday, Business head of FMCG, Digvijay Ghosh and Business head of general merchandise, Rahul Jain of Snapdeal had resigned. It is contemplated that many more from the product, IT and engineering division are to follow.

Earlier, Snapdeal revealed that it is facilitating a major layoff in the company. It reported the departure of 1000 out of 1200 employees from the company after the merger deal failed with Flipkart.
The government is hopeful that the strategic Chabahar Port will be operational by 2018, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

New Delhi: The government is hopeful that the strategic Chabahar Port will be operational by 2018, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

The Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari was in Tehran on Saturday to represent India at the oath taking ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier congratulated Rouhani on his re-election as the President of Iran and affirmed India's commitment to strengthen the special relations between the countries.

"India and Iran have been historically sharing special ties ... We are keen on developing Chabahar Port and are hopeful of starting operations in 12 to 18 months," Gadkari told PTI.

Gakdari is keen on expediting development of the Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nation's southern coast that can be easily accessed from India's west coast, bypassing Pakistan.

The visit assumes significance as India has accelerated work at the Chabahar port and finalised some tenders for installation of key equipment at Chabahar Port.

"Civil construction work has started there. We have finalised tenders worth Rs 380 crore for equipment out of Rs 600 crore and once the port becomes operational it will become a growth engine," the minister has said.

The minister has said that he was also hopeful of certain approvals from the Iranian government for expediting work and added that once Chabahar becomes operational the trade and business between both the nations would see a boost.

For greater trade and investment flow with Iran and neighbouring countries, the Cabinet last year cleared proposals for development of Chabahar port including through a USD 150 million credit from Exim Bank.

It also authorised the Shipping Ministry to form a company in Iran for implementing the Chabahar Port Development Project and related activities.

As per the MoU signed between the two nations in May last year, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease.

Ownership of equipment will be transferred to Iranian side on completion of 10 years or for an extended period, based on mutual agreement. The Iranian side had requested for provision of a credit of USD 150 million in accordance with the MoU.

As per the pact, operations of two berths are to commence within a period of maximum 18 months after the signing of the contract.

Besides the bilateral pact to develop the Chabahar port, for which India will invest USD 500 million, a trilateral Agreement on Transport and Transit Corridor has also been signed by India, Afghanistan and Iran.
Aishwarya, Abhishek with daughter Aaradhya at Sangam in Allahabad.

Mumbai: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, along with husband Abhishek Bachchan and daughter Aaradhya visited the holy river of Sangam in Allahabad to immerse her fathers ashes.

Aishwaryas mother Vrinda Rai, too, was present there.

According to a portal, with the help of a boat-club, they spent around one hour amidst the river and performed the holy ritual for his fathers soul to rest in peace. The Bachchan family later departed for Varanasi.

Aishwaryas father Krishnaraj Rai breathed his last on March 18, 2017.
Legendary actor Dilip Kumar has acted in more than 65 films in his career.

Mumbai: Yesteryear actor Dilip Kumar, who was rushed to Lilavati hospital on Wednesday morning, is battling kidney failure.

However, on Saturday, the doctor said that there have been no improvements yet.

Lilavati doctors informed saying, "Functioning of his kidneys still affected, there have been no improvements."

He is currently recuperating in the hospitals Intensive Care Unit (ICU). According to the doctors, his creatinine and potassium both are on rise in the body.

Creatinine is a chemical waste product in the blood that passes through the kidneys to be filtered and eliminated in urine while potassium is an essential electrolyte. High potassium causes kidney ailment.

On Thursday evening, the doctors treating Mr Kumar had said that his creatinine levels are rising, and he is going into renal failure. The situation remained the same on Friday.

Dr Jalil Parker, who treating the veteran actor said, Kumar is not good. His creatinine and potassium is increasing, while his haemoglobin is decreasing. He will need dialysis but is not kept on ventilator. Dr Parker said that Mr Kumars creatinine level is bad as compare to yesterday.

His kidney is not functioning well. He has been shifted into the ICU. He is responding well with the treatments, Dr Parker added.

The actor was hospitalised after complaining of dehydration and kidney problem.

This is the third time Mr Kumar was admitted to the hospital. On December 7, he had swelling in his right leg. On April 15, he had taken ill with pneumonia.

Mr Kumar had trouble breathing and his white blood cells had shot up. However, he recovered in two days. His wife and veteran actor, Saira Banu told via Twitter that the actor was doing well after the treatment.

During his six-decade long career, the legendary actor, whose real name is Mohammad Yusuf Khan, acted in several superhit films like 'Madhumati,' 'Devdas,' 'Mughal-e-Azam,' 'Ganga Jamuna,' 'Ram Aur Shyam' and Karma.

He was last seen in the film 'Qila' in 1998. Kumar was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015.
Local advocate Narinder Adiya had filed the complaint against Sawant on July 9, 2016.

Mumbai: A court here today granted anticipatory bail to actress Rakhi Sawant but ordered her to surrender before it on August 7 in a case related to "objectionable" remarks by her against Valmiki, the author of the epic Ramayana.

Granting her anticipatory bail, Sessions Judge Gururbir Singh directed her to surrender before the court of Judicial Magistrate Vishav Gupta on August 7.

The judicial magistrate's court had cancelled the bail of the actress after she failed to appear before it on July 7 despite directions.

While granting her bail on July 6, Judicial Magistrate Vishav Gupta had directed her to attend the hearing on July 7.

Local advocate Narinder Adiya had filed the complaint against Sawant on July 9 last year, claiming her comments - allegedly made on a private television channel - had hurt the sentiments of the Valmiki community.

The actress had tendered "an unconditional apology" to the Valmiki community after its members voiced outrage over her alleged remarks.
Rating:

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Aru Krishansh Verma, Chandan Roy Sanyal

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Imtiaz Ali, like my long deceased Dadi, tells the same story again and again.

Like her, he too throws a new tangent, adds a new character, a talisman, a tiny de tour to break the weary monotony. A boy and a girl meet. One is betrothed to someone, while the other is free but hurting and not looking for love. Either because of someones stupidity or necessity, they set off on a journey togetherSocha Na Tha, Jab We Met, Rockstar, Highway, Tamasha And thats where it happens  ishq-walla love. The boy usually feels it first, and, slowly, so does she. But theres a hitch. A minor bump in the road, really, thats to be crossed at the end, after a few mandatory tense moments. Its the same story here. Except that the differentiator in writer-director Imtiaz Alis Jab Harry Met Sejal s Shah Rukh Khan. SRKs character here is not powered by dazzling writing or traits, like Kareena Kapoors delightful Geet was. Fresh, distinct, peculiar and adorable, Geet was written with care and in detail. Thats not the case with SRKs Harry. JHMS is made compelling and memorable by that magic which makes SRK the boss of romance.

Shah Rukh Khan invests Jab Harry Met Sejal  a fairly enjoyable, fairly mediocre film  with a warm heart and an aching soul. He first creates a slow-burn love and then keeps increasing its intensity over the span of the film. That it happens with a girl so ordinary and annoying, makes you think you must have it too. Of course, the writing is done keeping that in mind. But, as you leave the hall, carrying this template of intense, passionate romance, the image of SRK, screaming or simmering, lingers. As does the feeling that what you have is not enough. That you need a Harry, too. Damn you, Shah Rukh Khan. We learn critical things about Harinder Singh Nehra (Shah Rukh Khan), a Canadian-Indian, in the first two-three minutes of the film. Harry is a tour guide in Europe who is good at his job. But he is also listless, lonely in these pretty but cold landscapes.

As he keeps returning to the same places, to say the same things, images of Punjabi khet, a Phulkari dupatta and his home flit about in his head.

Harry, the guide to exotic lands, is lost to himself. Hes just going through the motions of living. Hes just deposited a Gujarati group at the airport, mumbling good-riddance while smiling and waving goodbye, when Sejal (Anushka Sharma) accosts him. Shes supposed to be on the plane, but has had a fight with her fiance, also on the tour with her, because she lost her engagement ring  his family heirloom. And now, she says, Harry must take her to the restaurant where she thinks she dropped it. Its an annoying inconvenience for Harry, who drinks a lot, dates a lot and then dumps without the last courtesy call. So he insults her, tries to shake her off. She offers to pay. He rejects the offer. She says she will complain.

Harrys already had trouble with female tourists and cant afford to have another woman complaining. So he relents. But theres no ring at the restaurant where the romantic engagement took place. So Sejal, an LLB who handles legal matters of her diamond merchant family back home, says she must return to all the places she visited, and that she will pay him. Harry explains himself to her  I am a ganda aadmi, a womaniser who has often been caught with lady clients doing gandi-gandi things. I am basically out of control around women, and youll fall for me, he says. But Sejal is adamant. She wants him to accompany her, and says she is not interested in him. I am in control, she says. And so it begins, a reluctant guide and an annoying Gujju chicks journey across Europe to retrieve a ring.

Since hes irritated, Harry keeps throwing tantrums we approve of because, a) Sejal is an idiot who lost her engagement ring, and; b) A bigger idiot to now go looking for it. Its a waste of time, and really flimsy premise to create a two-and-a-half hour film around. Yet, as they hop from Netherlands to Berlin, Dresden to Prague  since it all looks the same, we are informed about venue change by a map  Harry tells Sejal shes cute and sweet, not sexy. Hes right, but shes offended. The mandatory malevolent-goondas-after-heroines-izzat scene follows, and she is duly saved by him. But then they find themselves in the den of a Bengali don, Gas (Chandan Roy Sanyal). This is the films most bizarre scene that is somewhat redeemed by what Sejal discovers at Gas den. Over seven films, Imtiaz Ali has created an impressive oeuvre and his own world of cliches. He has a rather limited, puerile view of men, women and romance.

In his films, romance only happens on journeys. His heroines are always full of life and virginal, while his heroes are hurting, lonesome and in need of rescuing.

The girls, with their affecting innocence, make this corrupt, convoluted world a liveable place for the boys who had sort of checked out of life. The men are mostly silent types, the women chatter boxes wanting to add to the cacophony of life. Mostly, the girls are en route to getting married. So the penny first drops for him, and then her. Its perhaps unfair to expect something new here since the title itself suggests that the film is going to be a bit of Jab We Met and When Harry Met Sally. Thankfully, Ali creates an interesting power equation. But, he doesnt do anything with it.

Harry is employed by Sejal and though she talks about money, we never see her pay the hero. That would be too much, I guess. Heroine paying the hero. He is after all a man, even if he needs rescuing. Like he did in Rockstar, Alis gone phoren here, and his film resembles, in looks, stride and sound, films of Karan Johar & Co. Jab Harry Met Sejal is a happy, silly, goodlooking film with nice songs which begins on a stiff, stilted note. But then it takes off, with Anushkas animated hamming and SRKs edgy, intense self breaking out and making routine scenes enjoyable. The film remains uneven throughout, rising when SRK increases the temperature, and dipping when he doesnt. Though Anushkas Gujju Sejal is made up of two-three speaking ticks, she invests the ordinary with intelligence, making it rather special and cool. But Jab Harry Met Sejal really works because of Shah Rukh Khan. Its disgusting how much power SRK has over our imagination, scenarios of romance. And here hes gone thoda-sa physical as well. SRK has mostly romanced women in exotic locales by singing songs or in brief, intense moments where he holds their face, bores his burning eyes into them and says his piece. But in a brief scene in Jab Harry Met Sejal sparks fly off the screen when, in his edgy, intense mode, he caresses a woman. I swooned, and I think a spark hit me in the eye.
According to psychologists, having too many friends might not be a good idea either and rather one or two close friends is what matters most (Photo: Pixabay)

For most of our lives, we are in constant search for companionship. Our friends often become our necessity and getting more likes on Facebook or Instagram becomes an unacknowledged goal.

With Friendship Day being right around the corner, many of us might be planning to celebrate the camaraderie that we share, but one does tend to wonder, what are the psychological implications of having or wanting friends?

A 10-year study of people over the age of 70 in Australia had suggested that friends are more important than family in conferring longevity, and that people with good friends outlive those with the fewest by 22 percent.

Psychologist Harsheen Arora is of the opinion that friendship is part of the human psyches innate need to be felt needed.

Friendship makes us feel accepted. It helps improve our self-esteem, assures us that we are not alone and also functions as an emotional outlet.

Dr. Hardeep Singh, MD Psychiatry, Consultant - Fortis Hospital, Mohali says that while within a family one tends to be very watchful about what they speak, one can afford to share all among friends and if they are sincere this can help cope with most situations.

Nayamat Bawa, Head Psychologist, IWill furthers that idea when she says that having friends is an integral part of a persons emotional wellbeing in the modern world.

Friendships enhances our social support system and gives us a space to share our emotional distress.

According to the psychologist we feel much stronger emotionally when we know that we have people around us who we can trust and will always watch our back.

She further adds that research indicates people who enjoy good friendships are more resilient and also have better problem-solving capacities in life.

Mousumi Kar, a prolific traveller and psychologist from Kolkata believes that while the human behaviour refers to the full range of physical and emotional behaviours that humans engage in, friendship or friends are a cushion in life where a person can enable his or her life skills and cope with any situations.

Nayamat however adds that there are friends who are important in life and then there are those people who actually drag you down. In a way more than having friends, what kind of friends one has becomes very important.

Friends who share constructive criticism hold you up. They tell you when you need to make amends while also giving you enough confidence in tough times. Either too sugary or too bitter friends can drag you down. Someone who only thinks you want to hear is not helping you and someone who sees everything wrong will harm your self-confidence.

Dr Hardeep Singh adds, A friend has to be sensitive enough, matured in thinking and stable psychologically to be able to guide us. So someone who has these characteristics will always lead us to good.

A discernible concern raised by Mousumi is that somewhere the true essence of companionship is perhaps being lost in the digital mesh everyone is so much into.

The youth are connected with the digital media where they can share each other's life's events. But are these friends who are on your social media real friends? Who are your real friends? When you are going through a crisis - may be emotional, social, physical, economical - how many friends are with you?

According to Moususmi, the urban youth has seemingly a large number of friends on social media but they are unable to share their innate feelings with anyone.

Everything is measured by number of 'likes' and 'comments' on social media. It's very superficial.

Harsheen feels that while friendship is important, realising what kind of friend you have makes all the different.

A true friend will accept you for who you are. The person will be someone who will understand you as a person  what you think, how you feel, things that affect you, how you would react without judging you for any of it. Any of your mistakes will not make you a smaller person for them.

Mousumi furthers that idea, A real friend can guide you, counsel you with unbiased feedback and give you an emotional cushion. What is important is to have a space where you can freely share your inner thoughts and feelings with your close friends. In any friendship, bonding is really necessary, which is missing.

However, she warns that having too many friends might not be a good idea either. Having one or two close friends is what matters most.

Dr. Hardeep Singh concludes, A man is known by the company one keeps. And good friends generally climb the ladder together.
Puducherry: Jawaharlal institute of postgraduate medical education and research (Jipmer) director S. C. Parija said tobacco kills nearly 6 million people a year worldwide who suffer from lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses. He was speaking at the four-day capacity building workshop on tobacco control that concluded on Friday.

Health professionals from other medical colleges in Puducherry, other parts of India and Nepal attended the workshop.
People have been going freaky inside their bedrooms for centuries. Look at temple carvings and books on lovemaking, it seems that there were times when the bizarre in sex was celebrated. But do you think that it has long since been forgotten in the pages of history? Think again.

We list to you ten of the most shocking sexual practices from around the world.

Girls of Trobriander Tribe in Papua engage in sexual acts from age six: The people from a remote tribe seem to be extremely active sexually. Kids start having sex at a very early age with girls engaging in sexual acts as young as 6-8 years and guys between 10-12 years of age. This happens with no social stigma, but wait! There is more. While having sex at a young age is just another walk-in-the-park for them, premarital meal-sharing is a big no-no until you are married. Sexual revolution anyone?

The Sambians, Papua, New Guinea, the semen-drinking tribe: Another one from New Guinea, boys are removed from the presence of all females at the age of seven and are made to live in bachelor tribes for ten years. During this time their skinis repeatedly pierced to remove any contamination brought about by women. But that is not all; they are also made to incur nosebleeding and vomiting by consuming large amount of sugarcane for the same reason. And to top it off, they are required to ingest the semen of their elders, which is thought to sustain growth and strength.

Older women have sex with young boys in Mangaia: An island in the South Pacific Ocean, boys here when they reach the age of around 13, have sex with older women who teach them the intricacies of the act and how best to please their partners. Anyone up for a trip?

Intimate cutting rituals to achieve manhood in Mardudjara: One of the most barbaric practices ever, the first portion of this Aboriginal rite involves a barbaric circumcision following which the male has to eat his own foreskin. After he heals up, his manhood is cut up till his scrotum so that he is purified and urinates from the underside of his penis.

Women feed armpit-flavoured apples to their suitor in rural Australia: It seems that chocolates and other treats do not do the trick here. Young women do a ritual dance with apple slices lodged in their armpits. After the dance, each gives her slice to the man of her choice, and he then eats it.

In Kreung Tribe, parents builds love huts where teenage girls can have sex with different men till they find their soulmate: Talk about sexual revolution, this one in Cambodia sees parents building love huts for their teenage daughters so that she can spend the nights with different boys until she finds the partner she wants to spend her life with. Promiscuous much?

Brothers share wife in Nepali tribe: The term is polyandry. Mythically it was practiced by the Pandavas in Mahabharata and it turns out that some Nepali tribes in the Himalayas still follow it. Basically, all the brothers share one woman, so that they don't have too many children who might fight later for their limited farmland. Smart thinking.

Wife stealing festival is held every year in the Wodaabe Tribe of Africa: This tribe in West Africa sees children being married off in their infancy, however, during the yearly Gerewol festival, Wodaabe men adorn themselves in elaborate makeup and try and steal another mans wife. If they succeed, it becomes a recognised union. We wonder if some men just allow it to happen.

Pon celebration in Indonedia sees sex outside marriage: Another ritual where you get to have a night of guilt free fun. During the celebration of Pon in Indonesia, participants have to spend the night and have intercourse with someone other than their wife or husband. It is said that their wishes of good luck will only come true if they have sex with the same person at all seven celebrations throughout the year.

Inis Beag, a place where people make sweet love, in their underwears: Yes, you heard it right. People here, on an island off the coast of Ireland keep their underwear on even during sex.
Made by Queens jeweller Garrard & Co, it is about three inches tall and weighs 323.6 grams. (Photo: Facebook)

In 1983, Cadbury had commissioned 12 golden eggs for a competition that saw thousands of treasure hunters digging up the countryside in their search for gold.

Now, 34 years later, a retired couple are geared up to celebrate their wee days as they sell their one-of-a kind 22 carat gold egg for 20,000.

The 1983 treasure hunt saw a dozen certificates entitling whoever found one of the 250-gm decorative eggs to keep them, from the dozen locations across Britains countryside through cryptic clues and secret locations.

However, complaints from people whose private properties gold diggers were turning upside down forced the chocolate company to call off the competition.

Six of the 12 golden eggs were claimed by the time the contest was scrapped.

Or so they thought!

Now one of the treasure hunters from the time has finally got their hands on one of the eggs, and it is not even one of the 12 which were hidden!

The decorative egg is actually a 13th larger egg that was produced by Cadbury's and awarded to one of its retailers in a prize draw as a thank you for helping with the competition.

The couple, who live on the south coast of England, did not put their prize on display or tell friends or family about it but kept it squirreled away knowing it would be a valuable nest egg for their retirement.

Made by Queens jeweller Garrard & Co, it is about three inches tall and weighs 323.6 grams.

While it was estimated to fetch 10,000, it got sold for 17,200 and was bought by a man aged in his 50s and from the Midlands.

Greg Bateman, from Batemans Auctioneers in Stamford, Lincs, said that the 13th egg was never known about by the public.
US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi both will receive rakhis from (Photo: AP)

Gurgaon: He may have not heard of rakhi, but women and girls of a remote Muslim-dominated village symbolically named by an NGO after US President Donald Trump will send him 1001 sacred threads on the Hindu festival that celebrates the brother-sister bond.

The gesture by the residents of Marora village in the backward Mewat region represents the wish of the people that ties are further strengthened between India and the US, says the NGO which has adopted the village.

The village came into limelight after Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO) head Bindeshwar Pathak had announced to name it Trumps village.

The district administration had later said the move to rename the village was illegal, forcing the organisation members to remove boards mentioning the new name.

They said signage boards and banners carrying the new name of the village and image of Trump had been removed by the organisation.

The village, with a population of 1,800 people, lies under Punhana Tehshil, some 60 km from Gurgaon.

The NGO has been conducting many welfare programs for women and girls in the village, Monica Jain, vice president of the NGO, said.

These students have made 1001 rakhis with photos of Donald Trump and 501 rakhis for Narendra Modi. Women and girls of the village consider them their elder brothers, she said.

The consignment of rakhis was sent on August 4 through cargo so that it reached the US president on Raksha Bandhan on August 7. The villagers are also sending invitations to the two leaders to visit the village.

Widows of the village have also expressed a desire to meet Modi on Raksha Bandhan at his residence in the national capital and tie rakhis.

I have made 150 rakhis within three days for Trump bhaiyaa. I also written in a letter to be sent to the White House that the girls of your village want you to visit it with PM Modi, said 15-year-old Rekha Rani, a resident of the village.

Sulabh had recently constructed 95 toilets in Marora to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship program to make every village in the country open defecation free.

The village has 140 houses and only 45 of them were equipped with toilet facility. Sulabh constructed the remaining 95 toilets, Jain said.
wo persons have been arrested in UP for allegedly spreading rumours about braid chopping. (Representational image)

Lucknow: A 17-year-old girls family cut off her hair after a relative said the government was giving Rs 1 lakh compensation to victims of braid cutting incidents.

The incident was reported on Saturday from Laru village in Pratapgarh district. According to police reports, the family raised an alarm and admitted the unconscious girl to a local hospital. However, police became suspicious when doctors said that the girl was not in a state of shock as claimed by the family.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Anti Terror Squad (ATS) suspects that sleeper agents of Pakistans ISI may have infiltrated the collectorate office in Jhansi and sensitive information about the Cantonment in Babina may have been leaked.

On a tip-off, an ATS team from Lucknow detained a clerk and two other employees posted at the Sadar sub-divisional magistrates office on Friday. They are being questioned on their possible involvement in espionage activities. The Babina Cantonment Board comes under the purview of this revenue office.

Soon after landing at the office, the cops, in plainclothes, took away computers and other electronic devices including a pen drive and hard disk.

According to sources, the local unit had kept a steno posted in the SDM office under surveillance for a few days and was keeping an eye on is movements.

The Babina Cantonment has a massive field firing range and the Indian Army often carries out bilateral exercises with military personnel of other countries at Babina.
The Congress vice president said the attack on his convoy was carried out by the BJP and RSS workers and this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the BJP's way of politics. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rastriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) of being behind the "murderous attack" on Rahul Gandhi's car in Gujarat and said it was done as part of a "pre-planned" conspiracy.

The Congress vice president said the attack on his convoy was carried out by the BJP and RSS workers and this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the BJP's way of politics.

Gandhi on Friday faced protests in flood-hit Gujarat where a cement brick was hurled at his car allegedly by BJP supporters, breaking the window planes of his car.

He was also shown black flags that forced him to cut short his address at a gathering in Dhanera town of Banaskantha district and had to leave in a huff.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad condemned the incident, saying it was a "murderous attack" by the BJP and the RSS carried out under a "pre-planned conspiracy".

He accused the BJP government led by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gujarat of failing to provide security to Gandhi, who is a SPG protector.

"In yesterday's incident, the BJP workers hit a big stone at me that hit my PSO. This is Modi ji, BJP's and RSS's way of politics. What else can we say," Gandhi said outside Parliament.

When asked that the prime minister and the BJP have not condemned the incident so far, Gandhi said, "When they themselves do such a thing, how will they condemn it. It is done by their people so why would they condemn it." Azad, accompanied by Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and AICC media incharge Randeep Surjewala strongly condemned the attack on Gandhi, saying such things cannot stop the Congress party or its vice president from meeting people and hearing their grievances.

"We strongly condemn the attack on Gandhi as it has also brought forward the real face of the BJP, which is known for doing this since independence," Azad said.

He said the concrete boulder weighing 1.5 kg was aimed at Gandhi who was seated on the front seat with his window pane lowered and had it hit him on the head it could have proved fatal.

Azad said that with elections round the corner, it was the responsibility of the state and central government to ensure safety and security of SPG protectees as they are to be "most protected" under an act of Parliament.

"If it happens again, I think the people of the country will not tolerate this," he said.

Asked why Gandhi did not accept the bullet proof car provided by the state government, Azad said sometimes one has to use a non-bullet proof car and be sensitive to the public.

Kharge said, "What is happening is not good for the country and for the democracy. If people are in distress, meeting them is not an offence and giving this treatment to those who meet the people is not good."

Anand Sharma said, "What happened in Gujarat is unacceptable in any civilised society and democracy."

"It is also an exposure of the intent, ideology and character of the BJP and the RSS, which believes in violence, intimidation and physical assaults on political opponents and leaders," he claimed.

He said the BJP was using every possible means to capture power everywhere.

Sharma said that there are elections in Gujarat and it was the duty and responsibility of Rahul Gandhi to stand with the people suffering due to floods and no one can stop him.

"The Congress has seen challenges, ups and downs, neither Rahul Gandhi or the Congress leaders can ever be intimidated or suppressed and we will fight the BJP agenda and protect democracy," he said.

Surjewala said the Congress party has demanded that a case of attempt to murder be registered after identifying four persons who have been named in the complaint.

"But the puppet police has not yet registered any case, even after our people standing on a dharna outside the police station there since last night. There is abject failure on the part of CM Vijay Rupani and his government," he said.

Noting that the Congress struggle will continue despite such violence, Surjewala said, "Will Godse-waad be converted into Modi-waad...both are the same as they promote violence, fear and give physical harm which has been continuing since 1948 and is continuing even in 2017.

"But Godse-waad did not succeed in 1948 and neither will Modi-waad... neither Gandhi nor the Congress will bow to their pressure."
Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram further tweeted asking why has national leadership of BJP not condemned the attack on Rahul Gandhi's car. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not succeed in making Congress free India (Congress-mukt Bharat).

While reacting on attack on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat, Chidambaram tweeted, "Abuse, false charges, suppression of protests and now violence: nevertheless, BJP will not succeed in making Congress-mukt Bharat."

Abuse, false charges, suppression of protests and now violence: nevertheless, BJP will not succeed in making Congress-mukt Bharat  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 5, 2017

"Why has national leadership of BJP not condemned the attack on Rahul Gandhi's car?" he further tweeted.

Why has national leadership of BJP not condemned the attack on Rahul Gandhi's car?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 5, 2017

The Congress Party on Saturday said that the attack on Rahul Gandhi was a murderous attack by BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and both the parties believes in violence, intimidation and physical assaults on political opponents or leaders.

Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said during the press conference, "I termed such attempt as a murderous attack by BJP and RSS on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. The Central Government and the state government are answerable to this. They are responsible for Rahul Gandhi's security in upcoming election campaigning. Rahul Gandhi was under SPG protection when he was attacked by boulder."

The Congress Party on Saturday staged protests across the nation over attack on party vice president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat on Friday.

The Congress workers staged protests in Gujarat's Ahmedabad , Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal and Maharashtra's capital Mumbai.

In Ghatkopar, the Mumbai Youth Congress workers threw flowers inside Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office and shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat.

Earlier on Friday, Rahul cornered Prime Minister Modi and said it was BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs (RSS) way of politics.

"In yesterday's incident, BJP workers threw a stone at me which hit my personal security officer (PSO). This is Prime Minister Modi and BJP- RSS's way of politics. What can I say?" Rahul said.

Indirectly referring to Prime Minister, Rahul said, "Why the one, who has done this, would condemn the incident?"

Following the attack, Rahul took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

Condemning the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident and assured that strict action will be taken against the guilty.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict actions against those responsible. Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will tk strict action against those found responsible (sic)," Rupani tweeted.
Earlier in the day, the Congress workers staged protests across the nation against the attack. (Photo: ANI)

Ahmedabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker Jayesh Darji was on Saturday detained by police in Dhanera for attacking Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's convoy on Friday.

Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat's Dhanera.

Earlier in the day, the Congress workers staged protests across the nation against the attack.

Rahul, however, urged party workers to call off their protests and divert their energies in helping the flood affected people in Gujarat.

"Respect the sentiments of Congress workers in #Gujarat protesting against admin not filing an FIR against the stone pelting. But I urge them to divert their energy in helping the people affected by floods in the state (sic)," he said in a tweet.

Respect the sentiments of Congress workers in Gujarat protesting against the administration not filing an FIR against the stone pelting(1/2)  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 5, 2017

but I urge them to divert their energy in helping the people affected by floods in the state  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 5, 2017

Rahul blamed the BJP for the attack and said, "In yesterday's incident, BJP workers threw a stone at me which hit my personal security officer (PSO). This is Prime Minister Modi and BJP-RSS's way of politics. What can I say?" Rahul said.

Earlier on Friday, Rahul took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

     ,            ,            Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 4, 2017

Condemning the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that a senior officer were appointed to investigate into the incident and assured that strict action will be taken against the guilty.
Ahmedabad: The Congress Party on Saturday staged protests across the nation over attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat on Friday.

The Congress workers staged protests in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal and Maharashtra's capital Mumbai.

In Ghatkopar, the Mumbai Youth Congress workers threw flowers inside Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office and shouted slogan against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.

Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat.

Earlier on Saturday, Rahul cornered Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said it was BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) way of politics.

"In yesterday's incident, BJP workers threw a stone at me which hit my personal security officer (PSO). This is Prime Minister Modis and BJP-RSS' way of politics. What can I say?" Rahul said.

Indirectly referring to the Prime Minister, Rahul said, "Why the one, who has done this, would condemn the incident?"

After Rahul's car was attacked, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that BJP goons pelted heavy stones at Rahul's car when he was on his way to the helipad after meeting flood victims at Gujarat's Dhanera.

Following the attack, Rahul took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

Condemning the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident and assured that strict action will be taken against the guilty.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible. Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail and will take strict action against those found responsible," Rupani tweeted.

I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible.  Vijay Rupani (@vijayrupanibjp) August 4, 2017
Madikeri MLA Mr Appachchu Ranjan on Friday offered Bagina to River Cauvery at Harangi reservoir in Kodagu which reached its maximum level on July 23. Harangi is the only reservoir which has reached its maximum capacity in the Cauvery basin during the South-West Monsoon this year.

Ballari: With the monsoon failing for the third successive year, the fish, crocodiles and other aquatic life of the Tungabhadra river are having a hard time surviving. Stroll downstream of the dam in Hosapete and you see shells of dead tortoises and remains of fish scattered in the fast drying river.

The lifeline of drought-prone Ballari, Koppal and Raichur, the river has so little water now that its fish and crocodiles are dying. "Also under threat are the smooth-coated otters and four varieties of tortoises," says Mr Samad Kottur, a wildlife activist and researcher.

With the water level receding fast, crocodile burrows in marshy areas near Kenchanagudda, where the Vijayanagar kings built a barrage, have become exposed, he reveals.

"You can see shells of dead tortoises too," he adds regretfully. With fish becoming scarce crocodiles and otters that feed on them starve to death, he explains. Besides lack of water, pollutants and uncontrolled growth of hyacinth in the river is threatening the river's aquatic life.

"The 35-km Tungabhadra Otter Conservation Reserve (TOCR), stretching from the Tungabhadra Dam to Kampli, once harboured a good number of smooth-coated otters, mugger crocodiles, four species of rare turtles and hundreds of species of fish, some of which are listed as vulnerable and endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). But today most pools in the TOCR area are covered by water hyacinth that kill the micro ecosystem," Mr Samad observes, suggesting that water should be released from the Tungabhadra reservoir at Hosapete to save the river's aquatic life .

"The Tungabhadra river has been running dry for a long time, keeping mammals and reptiles inside their burrows for longer than usual. If the water does not reach them within a couple of days, the entire population could be wiped out" warns Mr Santosh Martin, a naturalist.
Shivakumar is hosting 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs at a resort on Bengaluru's outskirts to forestall alleged attempts by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to poach on them ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls. (Photo: PTI)

Bengaluru: After being grilled by the Income Tax sleuths for three consecutive days in connection with an alleged tax evasion case, Karnataka Minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday said he has not violated the law and the truth will eventually come out.

In a swoop down that raised a political storm, the IT department on Wednesday began its searches on various properties linked to Shivakumar, who is hosting 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs at a resort on city outskirts to forestall alleged attempts by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to poach on them ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.

Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is locked in a bitter fight in the election.

"I'm not the kind of person that violates the law and the Constitution...the truth will come out," he said after emerging from his residence at a posh locality in Bengaluru.

Without divulging any details on the searches conducted at various properties linked to him, the power minister said, "Only after I get the entire panchnama and the documentation will I speak to you."

During the searches at about 66 places across the country in connection with a case of alleged tax evasion, IT officials said they have seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 15 crore so far.

Shivakumar, who hails from the Vokkaliga community, has considerable influence in Bengaluru Rural and neighbouring Ramanagara districts.

He is also the Congress' propaganda committee chief ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls.

The 55-year-old minister, considered a resourceful trouble shooter for the Congress with proximity to the party high command, is a six-time MLA.

Thanking the party and its leadership for backing him, Shivakumar said, "All my leaders across the country have stood by me in the crisis...I don't want to embarrass my party and I will not."

"At no point of time I will let down my leaders and my party," he added.

Despite repeated queries from the media persons about the raids, Shivakumar said he would discuss it in detail later. "I will speak to you later.. I'm going to a temple, then I'm going to the resort where MLAs are lodged," he said.

"Things have been discussed, deliberated at various levels...I don't want to tell anything now," he added.

When asked whether the IT searches were complete, Shivakumar said, "You saw the officials walking out." "I don't know," he said when asked about the raids in other places.

"I have got to know that it (raids) has happened at 70 or 80 places only through you...Please find out yourself," he said.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a statement had alleged that the IT department action was an attempt to silence the voice against the BJP.

He had on Friday termed the IT raids against Shivakumar a "politically motivated" move on part of the Centre.

The Karnataka government has expressed its "strong protest" to the Centre over the use of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel during searches, saying it cast aspersion on the state police.

The raids at the resort, had on August 2 sparked a huge political row with Parliament getting disrupted and the Congress terming it an "unprecedented witch-hunt" to win one Rajya Sabha seat.
Dujana alias Hafiz who carried a cash reward of Rs 1.5 million on his head had refused to surrender saying that God will decide his fate when trapped inside a private house in Pulwamas Harkipora village along with Lalhari. (Photo: Screengrab)

Srinagar: Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, the Kashmiri militant named as the head of al-Qaidas recently launched India cell Ansar Ghuzwat-Ul-Hind has owned Abu Dujana as being its first martyr.

Dujana, a Pakistani national, who figured at number one in the list of 12 most wanted terrorists released by the Army in June 2017, was along with another Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Arif Nabi Dar alias Rehan alias Arif Lalhari, a local Kashmiri, killed during a fire fight with the security forces in southern Pulwama district on August 1.

In the making of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, they played a key role and became first martyrs of this jihad movement, Musa said in an audio message which has gone viral on social media platforms.

Meanwhile, three gunmen believed to be LeT cadres were killed in a gun battle with the security forces in Sopore area of north-western Baramulla district overnight, officials in Srinagar said on Saturday.

Musa while confirming his affiliation with Ansar Ghuzwat-Ul-Hind claimed that Dujana and Lalhari were its founding members. He paid glowing tributes to the slain duo and said in the 2-minute audio When Dujana joined us, the so-called bosses of jihad in Pakistan placed a number of hurdles for him. He termed Dujana and Lalhari as Mardan-e-Hur (the brave free men).

Musa, a close associate of slain Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, had declared in April 2017 that Kashmiris should not fall for nationalism, the traditional goal of the separatists. He had threatened to chop off the heads of separatist leaders over their calling the struggle a political movement.

The separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik who are part of an issue-based alliance named by them as Joint Resistance Leadership had earlier in a joint statement said that the ongoing freedom movement in Kashmir had nothing to do with ISIS and Al-Qaeda-like organizations. They had also said that there is no role for these groups in our movement which was indigenous and seeks freedom for 15 million people of the State and that the same is not driven by religion.

However, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the outfit Musa was affiliated to, quickly distanced itself from his statement and the ideology he was seeking to propagate. Musa reacted sharply to it and announced that he is not associated with the Hizb anymore. He said he stood by his earlier statement.

Dujana alias Hafiz who carried a cash reward of Rs 1.5 million on his head had refused to surrender saying that God will decide his fate when trapped inside a private house in Pulwamas Harkipora village along with Lalhari.

Aaj bhi marna hai, kal bhi marna hai (one has to die either today or tomorrow), he had responded to the plea of a security forces officer made during a phone call before the duo was shot dead on August 1.

Meanwhile, the police said on Saturday that three LeT militants were killed in an encounter with the security forces in Amarghad area of Sopore, 50-km northwest of Srinagar, overnight.

A police spokesman in Srinagar said that acting on specific information about the presence of militants in Jamia Mohalla of Amargarh, the troops from Armys 52 Rashtriya Rifles, J&K polices counterinsurgency Special Operations Groups (SOG) and the 92, 177 and 179 battallions of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched a cordon-and-search operation in the area during the intervening night of August 4 and 5.

The militants hiding in the area opened fire on the joint search party, triggering an encounter. During the encounter, three militants of LeT were eliminated. Their identity is being ascertained, the spokesman said. He added that three AK 74 rifles with magazines were found on the slain men.

The police also said that one of its men was injured during the encounter but added that his condition is stable.

As tensions are running high in the area after the killing of militants, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Baramulla announced the closure of all government and private schools and colleges in Sopore. The Internet services were withdrawn in the area earlier.
Vice-president elect Venkaiah Naidu with wife Usha shows victory certificate after being elected as the Vice President of India, in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Venkaiah Naidu has been elected as the 13th Vice President of India.

Out of 760 valid votes, Naidu got 516 votes and UPA's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got 244 votes.

Naidu will succeed outgoing Vice President Hamid Ansari who served on the post for 10 years. Ansari completes his term on 10 August.

After winning the Vice Presidential election, Naidu took to Twitter to express his gratitude.

"With all humility, I express gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines," Vice President elect V Naidu tweeted.

With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

"I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors," he added.

I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

Honor for me to become VP from a family of an ordinary farmer. This speaks for the beauty & strength of our democracy, he added.

It's an honour for me to become Vice President from a family of an ordinary farmer.This Speaks for the beauty & strength of our democracy  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

With Naidu's win, NDA now has reserved both the top constitutional positions - President and Vice President.

Born on 1 July 1949, Venkaiah Naidu was a swayamsevak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and joined Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), students' wing of BJP, during his college days.

His political career started as a student in 1973 as the president of the students union in Andhra University.

Venkaiah Naidu served as the President of the youth wing of Janta Party in Andhra Pradesh from 1977 to 1980.

He also served as the member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 1978 to 1985.



Venkaiah Naidu served as the leader of BJP Legislative party from 1980 to 1985 and became General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh State BJP in 1985.

After having served in various organisational posts of the BJP at the state and national level, Venkaiah Naidu 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.

After NDA's victory in the 1999 general elections, Venkaiah Naidu 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 the period such as the 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.'

Following the thumping victory of the BJP in 2014 with a thumping majority, Venkaiah Naidu was sworn in as the Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs.

From 2016 to till his nomination as the NDA's Vice Presidential candidate, Venkaiah Naidu held a profile of Information and Broadcasting minister.
aidu has come a long way since his previous days of political obscurity. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: From pasting party posters to an epitome of political and ideological loyalty who rose to become one of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) most visible leaders and now India's vice president-elect, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu has come a long way.

Born to a humble agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, the 68-year-old has served as BJP president, minister in various portfolios and a long-time Rajya Sabha member.

This remarkable career in politics has been more than four decades in the making.

It began in the 1970s when BJP's precursor Jana Sangh was a marginal player with little clout in the south and a young party worker kept himself busy putting up posters of stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani.

Naidu has come a long way since those days of political obscurity.

"Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity," India's vice president-elect said.

"I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the Prime Minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and uphold the dignity of the Upper House," he added.

Naidu is known for his oratory. A two-term member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha three times from Karnataka. He represented Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament before he was nominated to the vice president's post by the NDA.

Once an Advani protege, Naidu vigorously backed Modi for the prime minister's post before the 2014 elections.

He was minister for Information and Broadcasting and Housing and Urban Affairs in the Modi government and earlier also held the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

In the previous NDA government led by Vajpayee, he had served as Rural Development Minister.

The veteran party leader also served as the BJP national president from July 2002 to October 2004 for two consecutive terms.

He quit the post after the party's defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Naidu was an ABVP activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.

As the first minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the Modi government, Naidu defended the prime minister and the government whenever the opposition targeted them in Parliament.

He had also ensured high political outreach by meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when there was a standoff between the government and the opposition in Parliament.

Several major legislations were cleared by Parliament when he was Parliamentary Affairs Minister, including the historic Real Estate Act and fast forwarding of the GST Bill.

Known for coining acronyms, Naidu termed the mission of the Modi Government as 'MODI- Making of Developed India' which had become the official line of the Centre in its public outreach campaign on the occasion of three years of being in office.

As the minister for Information and Broadcasting, he was always quick to present issues in perspective with effective repartee as and when required.

As Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, which was recently merged as Housing and Urban Affairs, Naidu pioneered the launch of several new urban missions, including the Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All.

As Rural Development Minister, Naidu was instrumental in launching the hugely popular 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana'.

When the Congress swept the polls in Andhra Pradesh in 1978, Naidu got elected as MLA from Udayagiri constituency as a Janata Party candidate.

He was re-elected on a BJP ticket when NT Rama Rao swept the polls in the state. But all that has receded into the past.

"There is no my party or your party. Now I am a non-party man," Naidu said this morning as the election for the vice president got underway.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has fielded former union minister M Venkaiah Naidu as its candidate for the post, while Oppositions nominee is former governor of West Bengal Gopalkrishna Gandhi. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: 96.94 per cent polling was recorded till 3 pm in the Vice Presidential election, Assistant Returning Officer Mukul Pandey said.

761 of 785 electors had voted by 3 pm.

"Earlier in the morning, the first hour recorded a sizeable turnout of MPs waiting to cast their vote," Mukul Pandey, the assistant returning officer of the vice presidential polls said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and M Venkaiah Naidu, the NDA's Vice Presidential nominee and a Rajya Sabha member, as well as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, a Lok Sabha member, were among the first to cast their ballot.

In fact, the prime minister was standing in queue even before the voting hall opened at 10 am.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, his party MPs Jyotiraditya Scindia, Deepender Singh Hooda and Sushmita Dev also voted to elect the next vice president.

Voting for the 15th Vice President of India began at 10 am on Saturday. MPs can cast their vote till 5 in the evening.

The name of the next Vice President will be known by Saturday evening after MPs cast their ballot during the day in Parliament House.

Ruling NDAs candidate M Venkaiah Naidu is tipped to be the next Vice President.

MPs will use special pens for marking their choice in the election.

The counting of votes will commence after polling and the results will be declared by 7 pm, Election Commission officials said quoting precedents. No whip can be issued by political parties as the election is through a secret ballot.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast his vote. (Photo: Twitter | @PMOIndia)

Before the voting began, Venkaiah Naidu said, "I am a non-party man. Majority of parties in India are supporting my candidature, confident that they all will vote in election."

NDA's Vice Presidential candidate said he is not contesting against anybody, individual or party adding that he is contesting for Vice President of India.

Naidu also exuded confidence saying, "I have written a polite letter to everybody, response is very good. Confident that they all will support me."

Meanwhile, Opposition candidate GopalKrishna Gandhi called Venkaiah Naidu an experienced person and said, "No competition as such between us, only technically there is."

He further added, "It is a fight based on constitutional principles, where I maintained complete civility and same has been done from other side too."

The term of the present incumbent Hamid Ansari, who has held the post for two consecutive terms, is coming to an end on 10 August. The electoral college which elects the vice president, who is also the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha, consists of elected and nominated members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

The total strength of the two Houses is 790, but there are two vacancies in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha.

BJP MP in Lok Sabha Chhedi Paswan is barred from casting vote following a judicial pronouncement.

In the 545-member Lok Sabha, the BJP has 281 members. The NDA led by BJP, has 338 members.

In the 243-member Rajya Sabha, the BJP as of now has 56 members, while the Congress with 59 is the single largest party.

With its wins in the recent Assembly polls, the BJP is set to emerge as the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha too next year and the NDAs tally would be close to 100. It would, however, still be short of a majority in the upper house. The one who bags 50 per cent plus one votes of the total valid votes cast will win the poll.
Venkaiah Naidu with his wife Usha after being elected as the Vice-President in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Famous for his witty one-liners and affable nature, former BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu, 68, elected as the next Vice-President, will take oath on August 11.

Coming from a humble background, Mr Naidus association with the BJP goes back to its former avatar, Jana Sangh. In those days Mr Naidu used to put up posters of leaders like Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani. As an ABVP activist during the Emergency, Mr Naidu was arrested and jailed.

A prominent political figure in national politics from the south, Mr Naidu is among a few Indian politicians who has friendships cutting across party lines. Perhaps this virtue of his was a consideration when the BJP decided to name him as its V-P candidate. Known for his oratory skills, Mr Naidu had vigorously backed Narendra Modi for the Prime Ministers post before the 2014 elections, describing the latter as Gods gift to India and a Messiah of the poor.

Born in an agricultural family in Andhra Pradeshs Nellore, Mr Naidu has served as BJP president, Central minister in-charge of various portfolios and he has been a long-time Rajya Sabha member.
Kaushalya Maa, sister of Venkaiah Naidu, puts a tilak on his forehead as his wife Usha looks on after Venkaiah was elected as the Vice-President, in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Backed by two-third members of Parliament, senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday defeated the Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Hamid Ansaris term as V-P ends on August 10.

Mr Naidu was elected from the state for three terms in the Rajya Sabha. In fact, sources said that his first visit after becoming Vice-President elect will be to Bengaluru, on Sunday.

Mr Naidu will also visit Tirupati to offer prayers. Upon winning the election, Mr Naidu said he was humbled by the honour bestowed on him and promised to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors.

He also thanked the people, the MPs who voted for him, Mr Modi, Mr Shah and leaders of the non-NDA outfits.

Mr Naidu said the election result was an important milestone in Indias democratic journey, one that speaks for the beauty and strength of our parliamentary democracy where a farmers son can reach the top office.

He also said that ever since his candidature was announced, he became a non-party man and would try to take everybody along.

Mr Naidu also said that he would endeavour to enable every member in Rajya Sabha to make a meaningful contribution.
Patna: A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar accused long time ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav of being smothered in corruption, the latter on Tuesday hit back asserting that his long time friend turned foe is a 'turncoat' and Nitish is known for his dubious character.

Speaking at a press conference in Patna, Lalu said, "I know Nitish Kumar from the beginning as I'm senior to him. He is one big 'Palturam' (turncoat) whose true colours will soon show. From the very beginning, he is known for his dubious character. Nitish has forgotten the days when he used to take my blessing and go for any political debate or talks".

Further lashing out at Nitish, Lalu stated that only because of Mulayam Singh, he allowed the Chief Minister in his alliance.

"Yesterday when he accused me and my family; I knew it was coming. As he is not a man of his words. He has also forgotten the day when I made him rule the state and join my alliance with open arms. It was only because of Mulayam Singh that I agreed to accept him in my party. But today I regret of the time spent and the moment lost," he said.

Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lalu said that Nitish used to speak ill of BJP and on Tuesday he is singing their glory.

"Till yesterday Nitish was accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi now suddenly he is singing his praises and calling him the "biggest leader" in the country. This comes as a shock to me! He also added that there is no one who can defeat him.. (Smile). I know Nitish's intentions as he wants to sacrifice my children for his glory and name," Lalu added.

On Monday, Nitish, while addressing his first press conference after joining hands with the BJP, declared that no one is capable to face and beat Prime Minister Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

He praised Prime Minister Modi, calling him the "biggest leader" in the country and added that "there is no one who can defeat him."

Nitish also explained that he had given his long time friend Lalu Yadav ample opportunities to explain the charges of corruption against him, but to no avail.

If Lalu had explained himself over the corruption allegations, then situation could have been different in Bihar, Nitish said.

"I had asked Lalu to clarify the allegations of corruption against him and put the facts forward. It will send a positive impact on the public and which is also good for 'mahagathbandhan. I have tolerated everything, thought this happens in alliance as I didn't have a choice. I continued my work for the betterment of people," he added.

Meanwhile, Lalu has invited the Janata Dal (United) co-founder Sharad Yadav to lead the fight against BJP and Nitish , who, according to him, joined hands with "communal and fascist forces and betrayed the people's mandate".

"Nitish has tarnished the image of Ambedkar. I urge Sharad Yadav, whom we consider the true leader, to travel to every corner of the country and come to Bihar and join our fight against the BJP and Nitish Kumar," Lalu said.

On July 26, Nitish resigned as the chief minister and ended two-year alliance with RJD and Congress over corruption charges against his deputy and Prasad's son Tejaswi Yadav.
(Above) Congress workers led by KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar and working president Dinesh Gundurao stage a protest at AR Circle in the city against the I-T raids on Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar.

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress party in Karnataka has decided to stoutly defend its embattled Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who has by now undergone 72 hours of continuous grilling by Income Tax sleuths, who have raided his houses and properties across the nation in an attempt to unearth hidden wealth of the Vokkaliga community strongman.

Interestingly, none in the party feel its appropriate to seek his resignation till he comes clean in the entire episode even as the BJP upped the ante demanding the resignation of the minister for the deep corruption he is involved in. With the party backing him to the hilt, there are enough indications that Mr Shivakumar will have the Congress defending him in future legal battles pertaining to the raids, which continued till late Friday night.

Usha, wife of Mr Shivakumar and their daughter at their residence.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader in the ruling party confided that Mr Shivakumar was in a way lucky to be raided by the IT department at this juncture. No doubt, he and his business deals may not be so clean. But sometimes, timing matters a lot in politics.

Even as the Income Tax raids at properties linked to Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar continued for the third consecutive day, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah called it a "politically motivated" move on the part of the central government.

Raking up the issue of IT sleuths using CRPF during the searches, he also hit out at the BJP for calling it a fight against corruption, saying most of its own leaders were facing graft charges. In a swoopdown that has raised a political storm, the IT department on Wednesday began its searches on various properties linked to Shivakumar, who is hosting 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs at a resort on city outskirts to forestall alleged attempts by BJP to poach on them ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls. Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, is locked in a bitter fight in the election.

During the searches at about 66 places across the country in connection with a case of alleged tax evasion, IT officials said they have seized cash and jewellery worth over Rs 15 crore so far. "This is a politically motivated raid; the timing also clearly shows that it is politically motivated," Siddaramaiah told reporters here. He said "I'm not against the raid or search on any house, but the time that they have selected and the intention of the central government and the IT department..." On Wednesday, Siddaramaiah in a statement had charged that the IT department action was an attempt to silence voices against BJP. Asked whether he feels that Shivakumar will come out clean, the CM said "let us see, we do not know what has happened, what they have found during the searches, but according to me it is a politically motivated."

"He is a Minister. Taking reserve police to his house and other places is not fair," he said.

Questioning the motive behind IT sleuths going to the resort where MLAs are lodged, Siddaramaiah objected to the use of CRPF without keeping the state police in the loop. Also, hitting back at the BJP for terming raids as fight against corruption, he said, "there are corruption charges against (union minister) Ananth Kumar, inquiry is still going on." "There are corruption charges against so many BJP leaders in Karnataka. Is Yeddyurappa (state BJP chief) not facing corruption charges?" he asked.
Bengaluru: All seven rebel Janata Dal (S) legislators including B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan and Magadi Balakrishna called on the 42 Gujarat MLAs who are camping in a plush resort in the outskirts of the city.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader disclosed that these rebel leaders had come to the resort only to drive home a point that they are eagerly waiting to join the Congress party. "With knives already out in the JD(S) against these legislators with JD(S) patriarch H. D. Deve Gowda and his son, H. D. Kumarswamy targeting them, the MLAs will not let go any opportunity to send across a message that they are not afraid of the father and son," the source explained.

The legislators spent time with the Gujarat legislators along with Bengaluru Rural MP, D.K. Suresh.

Earlier in the day, two of the Gujarat MLAs who are Muslims, chose to offer Friday prayers at a nearby mosque along with local Congress leaders.

Speaking to reporters, Gayasuddin Sheikh (a Gujarat MLA) told reporters that they went out to perform Namaz as it was a Friday. "All is well inside. Be it health wise or otherwise we are all ok," the Gujarat MLA said.

Mr Sheikh added that most of the legislators felt bad that when AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi was visiting flood affected areas in Gujarat, they had to be away from their people, in Bengaluru.

"We are concerned about our people who are suffering there but the BJP created this situation and therefore we had to come to this safe place," he asserted.

He added that KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar along with KPCC working president, Dinesh Gundu Rao had visited them and also encouraged them by extending full support in their fight to save democracy in Gujarat.

"We discussed the issues with him in a very cordial atmosphere. The news that some MLAs expressed their desire to go back to Gujarat was planted by someone, no one spoke in that manner. We are all united and firm in our resolve to ensure the victory of our leader Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha polls," he reiterated.
Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday held BJP and RSS workers responsible for the attack on his car in Gujarat, saying the incident was a pre-planned conspiracy.

In Fridays incident, BJP workers threw such a huge stone that my personal security officer was injured. This is how they and Modi conduct politics, he said.

He urged Congress party workers in Gujarat to use their energy to help those affected by floods rather than to protest the attack on him. Congress leaders have described the incident as a murderous attack.

Meanwhile, one person was on Saturday arrested for allegedly throwing a stone on Rahul Gandhis car.
NDA's vice-presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu being greeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he filed his nomination papers at Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Reaching out to parties across the political divide, NDA vice presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday 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 LK 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.
In the course of my work over the years, I have spoken to hundreds of audiences to tens of thousands and possibly lakhs of people. Often these are young people from the middle class in college. The usual way in which the intercourse happens is that I speak for a half hour or 40 minutes on some subject and then the audience offers its comments or asks questions. In the last few months I have made a series of trips where I spoke to large groups in a few states and I was reflecting on the common things I find in the audiences. The first thing has to do with their perspective. It is clear to me based on the large sample size that I have encountered that Indian children are not rebellious, they are conventional. This extends to authority figures, whether in their classroom or in politics or journalists and celebrities. They are reverential, unquestioningly so for the most part. This I think is unusual because college students are not respectful of authority in most parts of the world, certainly the western world. In Indian students, there is little or no intellectual rebellion and this is worrying.

The second thing is that, broadly speaking, our young women are more open to considering some ideas that are unconventional than our young men. For example, if I question the idea of nationalism, the women are more likely to nod their heads, less likely to ask angry questions at the end. The third thing is that both sexes are uniformly unaware of the idea of social justice. For example, let us look at reservations. The audience members I have encountered are almost never sympathetic to the plight of the dalit and the adivasi. Even after it is established that there are almost no dalits and adivasis in the audience, because they have been excluded thoroughly from the system, the view does not change. I have often said that I wish comments against reservations are preceded by an acceptance of the reality that these two communities face discrimination. This never happens. The only thing that the youngsters are angry about is that they want merit to triumph over reservations.

The fourth thing is that Kashmir has become, because of the media, the single biggest issue agitating them. I have pointed out to them that we have three areas in India where there is what the government calls terrorism. The most violent of these in the last 10 years has been the Naxal area, where 6,080 people have died. The second most violent of these is the Northeast, where 5,050 people have died. The third most violent is Jammu and Kashmir where 3,378 people have died. However, I never get questions about either the Northeast or about the Naxal violence. Kashmir and stone pelters greatly agitate our youngsters. And this agitation of theirs is not accompanied by any particular knowledge of the history of Article 370 and the behaviour of the Indian state. Because they are students, this is surprising. They hold the black and white view of national and anti-national that is shown on our channels.

Fifth, there are exceptions to the observations made above and generally speaking these come in colleges of fine arts and literature and that sort of field. Engineering and commerce and science students are more likely to be the norm.

Sixth, prime minister Narendra Modi is very popular with students. He is thought to mean well and they like what they see in him. The students can easily dismiss objections about either his past or his performance. Seventh, while they are uncomfortable with the lynchings linked to cattle slaughter and beef, they do not hold the government responsible for the violence. Eighth, they never speak unprompted about their future or the jobs market in India. They seem to be either unaware of the debate about employment being one of the big issues or they are confident that their own future is sorted. Ninth, I should say that the quality of questioning is basic and weak. We are not producing good students who are examining the issue independently of what they are being fed either by the media or their educators. The last thing is that the quality of language of those who use English is poor. The higher education system is throwing out graduates who are not equipped for proper white collar work and many if not most of them lack basic communication skills that are required for high end work.
Image of the letter wrote by a 9-year-old Jack Davis to NASA for the role of planetary protection officer.

A 9-year-old boy has written an adorable job letter for the post of 'Planetary Protection Officer' to NASA hoping to defend planet Earth from aliens.

Jack Davis  a fourth-grader  wrote the letter to the US space agency classifying himself as Guardian of the Galaxy, following NASAs announcement for the post.

The little boy do believe that his age could be an obstacle for such a big post, but also thinks he is fit for it as his sister says he is an alien, and since he is young, he can learn to think like an alien.

The full text of Davis's letter, which NASA shared, reads:

Dear NASA, My name is Jack Davis and I would like to apply for the planetary protection officer job. I may be nine but I think I would be fit for the job. One of the reasons is my sister says I am an alien. Also, I have seen almost all the space movies and alien movies I can see. I have also seen the show Marvel Agents of Shield and hope to see the movie Men in Black. I am great at vidieo [sic] games. I am young, so I can learn to think like an alien. Sincerely, Jack Davis Guardian of the Galaxy Fourth Grade"

Jack Davis's job letter to NASA (left); NASA's reply to his letter (right) (photo: NASA)

In response to his application, Jonathan Rall - NASA's planetary research director  appreciated Davis's interest in the position and wrote him a letter, which reads:

Dear Jack, I hear you are a 'Guardian of the Galaxy' and that you're interested in being a NASA Plantary Protection Officer. That's great! Our Plantary Protection Officer position is really cool and is very important work. It's about protecting Earth from tiny microbes when we bring back samples from the Moon, asteroids and Mars. It's also about protecting other planets and moons from our germs as we responsibly explore the Solar System. We are always looking for bright future scientists and engineers to help us, so I hope you will study hard and do well in school. We hope to see you here at NASA one of these days! Sincerely, Dr. James L. Green Director, Planetary Science Division"

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Phone manufacturers in the Android universe have lately understood that going for un-modified software in their range of smartphones makes for faster updates to the latest software version. Motorola started the trend and quickly found favour in a market like India where consumers look for the latest software in their smartphones. Its parent company  Lenovo  has also grasped the trend and has decided to offer Lenovo branded smartphones in India with stock Android.

The company made an official announcement lately about their new decision. The first smartphone that will benefit from this decision will be the upcoming Lenovo K8 Note due for launch in the upcoming week. All other smartphones launched under the K-series moniker will get Android O updates as well. Lenovo-exclusive software features like Dolby Atmos and TheatreMax will be the only addition to the absolutely stock-Android interface on Lenovo smartphones.

In an interview to Gadgets360, Anuj Sharma, Head of Product Marketing, Smartphones, Lenovo MBG India said that "What we have done in last 11 months is we looked at what we had in terms of software perspective. We have been close to the consumers and we saw what they were asking for. There was a certain trend and we have now decided to cut the Vibe Pure UI off from our phones. So you will now get the stock Android which consumers have been asking for. There's no more Vibe UI going forward and we are moving to complete stock Android for all our future Lenovo phones. This is a huge transition for our business perspective.

The move to offer stock Android on their smartphones could boost sales of the Lenovo-branded smartphones in India. Lenovo had initially announced that India will be the only country to see Lenovo smartphones as the company will internationally promote their glamorous Motorola brand for the smartphone segment.

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Police also said that by the time they found the body on the night of July 27, Cornell-Duranleau had been dead for 12-15 hours. (Photo: Representational/ File)

Chicago: A Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford employee wanted in the brutal stabbing death of a Chicago man surrendered peacefully in California and will be returned to Chicago for interrogation, federal and local authorities said.

Wyndham Lathem, 42, gave himself up late Friday at the Oakland federal building and Andrew Warren, 56, surrendered at about the same time to the San Francisco Police Department, according to Michael McCloud, fugitive taskforce commander with the US Marshals Service.

McCloud said the surrender of the two suspects was "negotiated," although he declined to say how that happened. "We were not in contact with them directly," during the negotiations, he said.

Lathem, an associate microbiology professor at Northwestern, was booked into the Alameda County jail. Warren, a Somerville College resident at Oxford University in England, was taken to the San Francisco County Jail. They will appear separately in court before being extradited to Illinois. It was not immediately clear when that would happen.

A manhunt had been underway since shortly after the body of 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found riddled with stab wounds on July 27 in the Chicago apartment where Lathem lived.

"Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today's arrest brings some comfort for the victim's family," a Chicago police statement said.

Police said Lathem had sent a video to friends and relatives apologizing for his involvement in the crime, which he called the "biggest mistake of my life." The video raised concern among investigators that Lathem might kill himself.

"We are also thankful both men are safely in custody and this did not end in further tragedy," the police statement said.

Warren had arrived in the United States three days before the death of Cornell-Duranleau and was seen in surveillance video leaving the building with Lathem the day of the stabbing.

McCloud said the US Marshals Service learned on Wednesday that the two men might be in the San Francisco Bay area. About noon Friday, he said they received further information that they were still in the area. The suspects both surrendered at about 7:30 p.m. local time, he said.

Police said Lathem had a personal relationship with Cornell-Duranleau, who moved to Chicago from the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area after receiving his cosmetology license. They are not sure how Cornell-Duranleau or Lathem knew Warren, or if Warren knew them before he flew to the United States before the stabbing.

In a bizarre twist, police said that on the day of the slaying, but before the body had been discovered, Lathem and Warren drove about 80 miles (128 kilometers) northwest to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where one of them made a $1,000 cash donation to the public library there in Cornell-Duranleau's name. Lake Geneva police said the man making the donation did not give his name.

"I've never seen where suspects in a homicide would make a donation in the victim's name," said Lake Geneva police Lt. Edward Gritzner.

On the night of the slaying, police said the front desk of the high-rise building where Lathem lived in Chicago's trendy River North neighborhood received an anonymous call from a person who said that a crime had been committed in Lathem's 10th floor apartment.

When police opened the door they found Cornell-Duranleau's body. He had been stabbed several times in an attack so brutal that police said the knife broke.

Police also said that by the time they found the body on the night of July 27, Cornell-Duranleau had been dead for 12-15 hours.
North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear arsenal, which it sees as a guarantee of its security. (Photo: File)

United Nations: A proposed new UN sanctions resolution would significantly increase economic pressure on North Korea to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs by banning mineral and seafood exports worth over $1 billion a third of its total exports last year, a Security Council diplomat said Friday.

The draft resolution would also ban countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean laborers another source of money for Kim Jong Un's regime. And it would prohibit all new joint ventures with North Korean companies, and ban new foreign investment in existing joint ventures.

The council is scheduled to vote on the draft resolution at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, diplomats said. The proposed new sanctions follow North Korea's first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States on July 3 and July 27.

The Security Council has already imposed six rounds of sanctions that have failed to halt North Korea's drive to improve its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.

The draft resolution condemns the launches "in the strongest terms" and reiterates previous calls for North Korea to suspend all ballistic missile launches and abandon its nuclear weapons and nuclear program "in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner."

The United States spent weeks following the initial ICBM launch negotiating the text with China, North Korea's neighbor and ally.

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, called it the "most impactful and expansive set of sanctions to date" and said the resolution is expected to be approved unanimously.

Agreement on the draft to be put to a vote followed US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's comments Wednesday reassuring North Korea that Washington isn't seeking regime change or an accelerated reunification of the Korean Peninsula comments welcomed by China's foreign minister.

Tillerson also said the US wants to talk eventually with North Korea, but doesn't think discussions would be productive if the North comes with the intention of maintaining its nuclear weapons.

North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear arsenal, which it sees as a guarantee of its security.

The draft resolution reiterates language in previous Security Council resolutions supporting a return to six-party talks with the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, expressing the Security Council's commitment "to a peaceful, diplomatic, and political solution to the situation," and reiterating the importance of maintaining peace and stability in northeast Asia.

It also expresses regret at North Korea's "massive diversion of its scarce resources toward its development of nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programs" noting UN findings that well over half the population lacks sufficient food and medical care and a quarter of the population suffers from chronic malnutrition.

While the draft resolution would impose biting economic sanctions, the US didn't get everything it wanted. In early July, US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council that if it was united, the international community could cut off major sources of hard currency to North Korea, restrict oil to its military and weapons programs, increase air and maritime restrictions, and hold senior officials accountable.

Oil was not included in the draft resolution and neither are new air restrictions. But the draft resolution would ban all exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood.

According to the diplomat, coal has been North Korea's largest export, earning $1.2 billion last year which was then restricted by the Security Council to a maximum $400 million.

This year, Pyongyang was estimated to earn $251 million from iron and iron ore exports, $113 million from lead and lead ore exports, and $295 million from seafood exports, the diplomat said.

That total's over $1 billion. It's unclear exactly how much money North Korea earns from sending workers overseas but in 2015 the UN special investigator on human rights in North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, estimated it was earning between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion annually.

Under the draft, countries would be unable to hire any new North Korean workers. The proposed resolution would also add nine North Koreans, mainly officials or representatives of companies and banks, to the UN sanctions blacklist, banning their travel and freezing their assets. It would also impose an asset freeze on two companies and two banks.

The diplomat called the Foreign Trade Bank "a very critical clearing house for foreign exchange." The Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies, which was also added to the list, is described in the draft resolution as engaged in exporting workers for construction, including of monuments, in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The draft resolution asks the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea to ban the import of many more so-called "dual-use items" that have commercial use but can also be used in conventional weapons or biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

It would also give a green light for the committee to designate specific vessels that are breaking sanctions from entering ports all over the world, and to work with INTERPOL to enforce travel bans on North Koreans on the sanctions blacklist.
US President Donald Trump's maiden face-off with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at G20 summit in Hamburg, Germnay (Photo: AP)

Washington: Investigators working for US special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, have asked the White House for documents related to his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the New York Times reported on Friday.

"Though not a formal subpoena, the document request is the first known instance of Mr. Muellers team asking the White House to hand over records," said the Times, which cited unnamed people close to the investigation for the report.

The Times also said the investigators had questioned witnesses about whether Flynn was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the 2016 campaign.

The White House and Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.

The Times quoted Ty Cobb, special counsel to Trump, as saying Weve said before were collaborating with the special counsel on an ongoing basis.

Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and called the investigation a witch hunt.

The Republican president fired Flynn in February after it became clear that he had falsely characterized the nature of phone conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to Washington in December.

Reuters reported in June that according to a subpoena, federal prosecutors in Virginia were investigating a deal between Flynn and Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin as part of a grand jury criminal probe.

Alptekins company, Netherlands-based Inovo BV, paid the now-inactive Flynn Intel Group $530,000 between September and November 2016 to produce a documentary and research on Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric living in the United States. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen for a failed coup last year.
The two leaders, US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, also spoke about 'countering Iranian malign influence,' according to a read-out of the call provided by the White House. (Photo: AP)

Washington: US President Donald Trump discussed increasing cooperation in the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq over a telephone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Friday.

The two leaders also spoke about "countering Iranian malign influence," according to a read-out of the call provided by the White House.

On the issue of Venezuela, Trump and Macron agreed that the regime of President Nicolas Maduro must "restore the rights of the Venezuelan people," the statement added.

Venezuela's controversial new Constituent Assembly, packed with allies of the unpopular Maduro, held its inaugural session on Friday amid widespread international criticism of its legitimacy.

Trump and Macron also discussed matters of mutual interest on North Korea, and "reaffirmed the importance of all sides implementing the Minsk agreements to reach a peaceful settlement in Ukraine," the statement said.
DJI said in a statement that it was "surprised and disappointed" at the Army's "unprompted restriction on DJI drones (Photo: dji.com)

New York: The US Army has ordered its members to stop using drones made by Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd because of "cyber vulnerabilities" in the products.

An August 2 Army memo posted online and verified by Reuters applies to all DJI drones and systems that use DJI components or software. It requires service members to "cease all use, uninstall all DJI applications, remove all batteries/storage media and secure equipment for follow-on direction."

The memo says DJI drones are the most widely used by the Army among off-the-shelf equipment of that type.

DJI said in a statement that it was "surprised and disappointed" at the Army's "unprompted restriction on DJI drones as we were not consulted during their decision."

The privately held company said it would contact the Army to determine what it means by "cyber vulnerabilities" and was willing to work with the Pentagon to address concerns.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs and Oppenheimer estimated in 2016 that DJI had about 70 percent share of the global commercial and consumer drone market. Goldman analysts estimated the market, including military, to be worth more than $100 billion over the next five years.

The Army was considering issuing a statement about the policy, said Army spokesman Dov Schwartz.

The move appears to follow studies conducted by the Army Research Laboratory and the Navy that said there were risks and vulnerabilities in DJI products.

The memo cites a classified Army Research Laboratory report and a Navy memo, both from May as references for the order to cease use of DJI drones and related equipment.
Beijing: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said on Saturday.

According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.

The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader to cut short his visit to Beijing.

The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.

The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."

"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.

Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India (Supporting India)."
The 14 face execution for protests and violence against security forces. Rights group Reprieve says the initial judgment came from a secretive counter terrorism court. (Photo: Representational/ File)

Riyadh: Saudi Arabias government, facing mounting criticism for the planned execution of 14 Shia Muslims, has issued a rare statement defending its judicial system.

Ministry of Justice spokesman Mansour al-Qafari says all defendants facing trial in Saudi Arabia receive due process.

In a statement published Friday in the Saudi Press Agency, al-Qafari says terrorism-related cases and death penalty verdicts are reviewed by an appeals court and the supreme court, with a total of 13 judges reviewing the case before an execution is carried out.

The 14 face execution for protests and violence against security forces. Rights group Reprieve says the initial judgment came from a secretive counterterrorism court.

Ultraconservative Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia have in the past referred to Shiites as apostates, and Shiite protesters have been accused of being allied with the kingdoms rival, Iran.
The ongoing Doklam standoff between India and China has to be seen in the larger context.

Beijing: As the standoff between two neighbouring countries enters its third month, the Chinese expert on Saturday said Beijing may conduct a small-scale military operation to expel Indian troops within two weeks after six ministries and institutions made remarks on the incident within the past 24 hours.

According to a report in Chinese state-run, Global Times, two ministries and four institutions, including the Chinese foreign ministry, the defence ministry, the Chinese Embassy in India and the People's Daily, released statements on the military standoff between China and India in Doklam.

The report quotes Chinese expert, Hu Zhiyong, saying, The series of remarks from the Chinese side within a 24-hour period sends a signal to India that there is no way China will tolerate the Indian troops' incursion into Chinese territory for too long.

Hu, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said, If India refuses to withdraw, China may conduct a small-scale military operation within two weeks".

Hu also said the military operation would aim to seize Indian personnel illegally lingering in Chinese territory or to expel them adding that the Chinese side will inform the Indian Foreign Ministry before its operation.

Blaming New Delhi for the border tensions between India and China, Hu said, "India should bear all the consequences. And no matter how the standoff ends, Sino-Indian ties have been severely damaged and strategic distrust will linger.

Mentioning the earlier military drills of Peoples Liberation Army in the Tibetan Region near the standoff area, the expert also drew a point that the drill was to warn Indian side that China is ready to give a befitting reply if needed.

Another expert, Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said, The exercises are a sign that China could use military means to end the standoff and the chances of doing so are increasing as the Indian side is still saying one thing and doing another.

Stating that the patience of China and its public is wearing thin, Zhao said, China does not want dispute to impact the upcoming BRICS summit in September which will be attended by India in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province.

Highlighting that the war would worsen the relations between the two neighbouring countries, Zhao said, If current standoff ends in a military clash, bilateral ties would suffer for at least five years, and India may stir up troubles with China, which may cause tensions among China's other neighbours.

The report also cited External Affairs minister Sushma Swarajs Thursday remarks in parliament over standoff that war was not a solution and wisdom is to resolve issues diplomatically, However, report said, she refrained from saying that military readiness is always there as the military is meant to fight wars.

The end for the Sikkim standoff is not seen on cards as China is in complete denial for dialogue over the border issues unless India withdraws troop from the region which Beijing claims to be its territory.

The spat worsened when China tried to build a road at the strategically important Chickens Neck area, also called as Doklam, which interestingly falls under disputed tri-junction land between India-Bhutan-China.
Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, another banned organisation and a US declared terrorist group. (File Photo)

Lahore: Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief and the mastermind of Mumbai terrorist attack Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has reportedly decided to launch his own political party in Pakistan by renaming his terror outfit JuD as Milli Muslim League Pakistan.

According to reports, he would be registering his political party with the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Saeed is likely to launch his political outfit on Pakistan's Independence Day at a function in Lahore.

This is being seen as a major happening as Pakistan recently elected its new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi after Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court over the Panama Papers scandal.

He is also said to have close relations with the Pakistani Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Recently the government of Pakistans Punjab province extended the house arrest of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his four aides for 60 more days for their activities that were detrimental to peace and security, The Express Tribune reported.

Saeed is a wanted terrorist by India and the United States for his alleged role in masterminding the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai that claimed 166 lives.

He even carries a bounty of 10 million USD (approx. Rs 66 crore) on his head for his role in the attack.

He is an internationally designated terrorist but continues to be an influential person in Pakistans certain religious groups.

Pakistan claims to have banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), but following the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2002, it re-emerged as Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD). The United States has designated the JuD as a front for the LeT.
The ongoing Doklam standoff between India and China has to be seen in the larger context. (File Photo)

Beijing: Lashing out a strong warning at the Modi government, China on Saturday asked India to be aware of its armys overwhelming firepower and logistics. The neighbouring country, China has been holding India responsible for Sikkim standoff.

Boasting about its superiority, Chinese state-run Global Times in an editorial said, India is publicly challenging a country that is far superior in strength. India's recklessness has shocked Chinese.

It further said, Maybe its regional hegemonism in South Asia and the Western media comments have blinded New Delhi into believing that it can treat a giant to its north in the way it bullies other South Asian countries.

Stating that it is a war with an obvious result in favour of China, the editorial said, Indian border troops are no rival to People's Liberation Army field forces. But, if a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region.

The Sikkim standoff, which has entered into its third month in August, started with Indias opposition to a road construction by China at the strategically important Chickens Neck region which falls under tri-junction point between India-Bhutan-China.

The editorial, known for its hard hitting stance on India, said, The Indian governments move is irresponsible to regional security and is gambling against India's destiny and its people's well-being.

As China already blames India for the border spat, the editorial said, If the Modi government refuses to stop, it will push its country into a war that India has no power to control.

Urging Chinas Peoples Liberation Army to be prepared for war like situation, the Global Times said, We believe that the PLA has made sufficient preparation for military confrontation.

The editorial added, India is concerned that the road China was building in Doklam might threaten the security of the Siliguri Corridor, however, it questioned that how does that justify Indian troops' incursion into another country in utter disregard of international treaties?

Stressing that the PLA did not strike in the past month when Indian troops trespassed into alleged Chinese territory, the Global Times said, If the Modi government takes China's goodwill for weakness, its recklessness will only lead to devastation.

It also urged Modi government to stop lying to its people that "India in 2017 is different from India in 1962, adding that the gap in national strength between the two countries is the largest in the past 50 years.

Earlier on Thursday, the Chinese foreign and defence ministries have released statements on the illegal trespass of Indian troops into Chinese territory, vowing to take all necessary measures to make India withdraw its troops unconditionally.
Earlier, Naidu in an emotional speech said he was "humbled and obliged" to the party and leadership for giving him a chance to become the VP. He, however, reiterated that he would no longer belong to the BJP after the election but urged the lawmakers to strengthen the hands of Modi who wants to the country to realise its "full potential".



If he is elected, the BJP politician from Andhra Pradesh would be second party leader after Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, to occupy the constitutional position.



Vice President Hamid Ansari retires on August 10 to end his ten years in office.

NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu is tipped to succeed in the vice president election to be held on Saturday since numbers are in his favour in the electoral college.The result of the contest between Naidu and opposition's Gopalkrishna Gandhi will be announced around 7 in the evening after members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha cast their vote in Parliament house.The NDA with its strength of 425 in both the Houses enjoys majority in an electoral college that has total 790 votes. In Lok Sabha alone, there are 340 NDA MPs while their number in Rajya Sabha is 85.The polling trend this time, said BJP sources, would be much like what happened during President's election as AIADMK, TRS and YSR Congress have pledged their support for Naidu as they did for Ram Nath Kovind. Except that, the BJD and the JDU, which has subsequently joined the NDA to rule Bihar, have stated that they would cast their ballot for Congress leader Gandhi. The opposition candidate is expected to get around 270 votes from 18 parties such as Congress, SP, TMC, CPM, DMK, RJD and BSP.The MPs will use special pens to ink their individual choice during the polling. To avoid mistakes committed by the NDA lawmakers during presidential elections that had led to the cancellation of about two dozen votes, the ruling coalition held a dummy drill for its MPs on Friday evening in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other leaders. After it was over, Shah noticed that 16 MPs had still erred in putting a mark against the name of Naidu during the mock exercise and he cautioned them not to repeat it on Saturday.Modi who addressed the gathering, urged the parliamentarians to evolve themselves to become more "responsible" to restore "dignity" of Rajya Sabha which he insisted was more important than establishing "parliament supremacy". "The changes leaders should undergo post reaching parliament should be akin to that of daughters who get more matured and responsible after becoming daughter-in-law," the PM narrated while expressing his anguish over the conduct of members in the Upper House these days.The Vice president is also chairman of Rajya Sabha.Modi also urged the MPs not to treat Naidu like a BJP leader after he dons the hat of VP but give all the respect and honour that a constitutional post deserved.
Parliamentarians queued up in Parliament House on Saturday to cast their votes to elect the next vice president.



NDA nominee and former union minister M Venkaiah Naidu is in a direct contest with joint opposition candidate and former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naidu and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were among the first voters to exercise their franchise as polling began at 10:00 a.m. The polling will continue till 5:00 p.m. and the counting of votes will be taken up at 6:00 p.m.



As many as 785 members of parliament are eligible to cast their vote in the vice presidential election. NDA poll managers are confident of getting 487 votes for Naidu.



Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi were also among the early voters.



In the presidential election, Ram Nath Kovind had polled 522 votes of Parliamentarians, while opposition nominee Meira Kumar could manage only 225. However, with JD(U) and BJD  who had voted for Kovind  declaring support to Gopalkrishna Gandhi the NDA numbers are expected to shrink from the 522 it had got in the presidential election.



As many as 21 votes of Parliamentarians were declared invalid due to the incorrect marking of preference in the presidential election.



Keen to avoid a repeat, the NDA had conducted a mock poll for its members on Friday with Modi giving a pep talk to them on exercising their franchise carefully.



The electoral college which elects the vice president, who is also the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, consists of elected and nominated members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.



The total strength of the two Houses is 790, but there are two vacancies each in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.



A BJP MP in Lok Sabha is barred from casting vote following a judicial pronouncement.
Three persons were today injured when Army personnel allegedly opened fire at a group of stone- pelting youths in Bandipora district of Kashmir, police said.



A group of youths pelted stones on Army vehicles which were passing through S K Bala locality in Sumbol area of Bandipora this morning, a police official said.



He said the Army personnel allegedly opened fire to disperse the mob, resulting in injuries to three persons.

The injured have been referred to a hospital here for treatment, he added.



A similar incident took place at Harnag in Anantnag district but there were no casualties in the alleged Army firing there, the official said.
Four Spanish Nationals and the driver of the van they were travelling were killed in a road accident on the Punganur-Madanapalle road in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday.



In all thirteen men and women from Spain who are on a visit to Rural Development Trust (RDT) at Bathalapalli were in the Tempo traveller when the accident occurred around 9m at an accident prone curve on the highway.

According to Mr Rajasekhara Babu, Chittoor Superintendent of police a speeding container Truck which was on the right side of the road at the time of the collision lost control and hit the Tempo Traveler head on at the blind spot, killing three members on the spot. Two more succumbed to injuries later at the Madanapalle Government hospital.

All the nine injured Spaniards some with broken limbs and concussion have been given first aid and were shifted to Columbia-Asia Hospital in Bengaluru, the SP said. He added that the unfortunate incident took place at a time when the district police were making all out efforts to clear bushes and power lines at the dark spot with the help of NHAI.

The deceased were identified as Vincent Prez, Josefa Moran, Francisco Pedrosa and Nieves Lopez. The bus driver, a local resident, was yet to be identified. Police are on the lookout for the driver of the container truck. The spot where the accident occurred presented a gory look with the luggage of the visitors strewn all over the highway and the shocked foreign nationals stuck in the van. The local villagers who have high regards of the RDT close to the highway ran to help the victims and also in shifting them into the waiting ambulances.

The group who were on their way to Pondicherry has actually come to visit RDT Hospital founded by Spanish national Father Vincente Ferrer. He started the Trust in 1969 in Bathalapalli in Anantapur district to serve the poor of Anantapur, Srisailam and Kurnool areas of Rayalaseema region.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu in a statement expressed grief over the incident. He directed the district collector to get in touch with the Spanish embassy in New Delhi for obtaining details of the victims and also arranging transportation to shift the bodies to their native country.
The UN chief today urged the US to re-engage with the 2015 Paris climate agreement even after America submitted its formal communication indicating its intention to withdraw from the historic pact as soon as possible.



UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has received a notification from the US expressing the country's intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, his spokesman said.



The notification received yesterday was communicated by US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley.



"The Secretary-General received, in his capacity as Depositary of the Paris Agreement, a communication from the Permanent Representative of the US expressing the intention of the US to exercise its right to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as soon as it is eligible to do so under the Agreement, unless it identifies suitable terms for reengagement," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.



The Paris climate deal aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 2C since the start of the industrial age.



The spokesperson added that the secretary-general "welcomes any effort to reengage in the Paris Agreement by the United States".



The notification came two months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the accord.



Under article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a party may withdraw at any time after three years from the date on which the agreement has entered into force for that party, and such withdrawal takes effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the depositary of the notification of withdrawal.



The US accepted the Paris Agreement on September 3, 2016 and the agreement entered into force for the US on November 4, 2016. This means that the US must stay in the pact until at least 2019.



The note referred to the June statement by the secretary-general in which he had said that the decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a "major disappointment" for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security.



"It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on climate and sustainable development. Climate change is impacting now," Dujarric said, adding that the UN Chief looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future for our children and future generations.
Nigeria is adamant that the sailors should be tried in court. The charges against them will be slapped once they reach the country.
NDA's nominee Venkaiah Naidu today said he is now a "non-party man" and exuded confidence in getting support from Members of Parliament (MPs) casting their vote to elect the Vice-President of the country.



"There is no my party or your party. Now I am a non-party man. Majority of political parties in India are supporting my candidature. I am confident that they will all vote in the election," he told reporters here.



Naidu said he is known to all his MPs in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. "That is why I am not campaigning also or canvassing also. I have written a polite letter to everybody. The response is very good. People are appreciative of my letter. I am confident they will all support me," he said.



Naidu is pitted gainst the Opposition candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi in the election.

"I don't want to make any comments against anybody. I am not contesting against any body. I am contesting for the vice-president of India nominated by a number of political parties. My contest is not against any individual or any party," Naidu said.



He said it is better to avoid talking of politics on this election as this was not a party election but for the "august post of vice-president of India". Naidu, who is a Rajya Sabha member, also cast his vote.

The opposition's candidate Gandhi said the most important issue before the country is of social cohesion and growing intolerance.



"There is a growing intolerance amongst people. And it is not their own intolerance because our people are a very tolerant people. Our people do not want any friction. They want to live in peace and harmony," he said.
Since British voters endorsed leaving the European Union, politicians and pundits have ruminated on which of the bloc's remaining 27 nations could be next.



"Grexit" and "Frexit," for Greece and France, were two subjects of speculation. Now, months of open conflict between Poland's conservative nationalist government and the rest of the EU has some Poles wondering if their leaders are putting the country on a path that could take it out of the union.



"There is a question mark over Poland's European future today," European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who is a critic of the ruling Law and Justice party, said Thursday.



The EU is widely popular in Poland, so the idea of the country abandoning the bloc strikes many people here as farfetched. Several surveys have shown public support for the EU standing at over 70 per cent, approval stemming from the economic boom and freedom of travel that came with membership in 2004.

But members of the opposition in Poland increasingly are voicing fears that the conflicts between Warsaw and Brussels could eventually lead to a parting of ways.



They point to the defiant stance Law and Justice and its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, adopted when the EU raised concerns about changes to Poland's justice system and the extensive logging the government has ordered in a primeval forest that has been classified as a UNESCO world heritage site.



Government spokesman Rafal Bochenek insisted that Polish leaders intend to keep Poland in the bloc.

"Poland is a member of EU and is going to be a leading partner to other member states within the structure," Bochenek told The Associated Press yesterday. "We have got many ambitious projects and challenges to realise in the EU. We will cooperate with our European partners."



Law and Justice has never publicly advocated leaving the bloc, but criticises what it views as unnecessary EU bureaucracy and infringements on the authority of member countries to make their own decisions.

In that vein, Poland's government aggressively pushed through legislation to put the court system under the ruling party's control. The EU's executive arm has said the moves violate democratic norms by reducing judicial independence.



With Warsaw refusing to give in to the bloc's calls for it to respect the separation of powers, the European Commission is threatening steps that could lead to Poland losing its EU voting rights.



The government also has continued logging in the Bialowieza Forest even though the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ordered it last week to stop felling trees immediately. If it continues, Poland could be hit with massive fines.



Katarzyna Lubnauer, a lawmaker with the opposition Modern party, said recently that because Poles are such "Euro- enthusiasts," nobody in the ruling Law and Justice party would admit that leaving the bloc is their aim.
One person was arrested from Dhanera in North Gujarat district of Banaskantha district on Saturday in connection with the incident of stone throwing at the car of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday.



The car in which Rahul was travelling during his visit to the flood-affected region was attacked with stone.



We have arrested one person named Jayesh Darji for allegedly throwing a stone at the vehicle in which Gandhi was travelling, Niraj Badgujar, SP, Banaskantha, has been quoted as saying.



The person accused is said to be an office bearer of BJPs local youth outfit in the area and several of his pictures with senior BJP leaders too started doing rounds on some social media platforms. However, another police official A K Jadeja, IG, Border range, was quoted to have said that they were yet to ascertain whether the person detained had any political affiliations.



Other than Jayesh, three more persons have been named in the complaint filed by Congress with the police. These include Dhanera city BJP president Modhsinh Rao and chairman of Dhanera Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Bhagwanbhai Patel.



While Congress leaders sought inclusion of Section 307 of IPC, which include attempt to murder, Section 332 of IPC for pertaining to voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant from doing his duty, Section 337 of IPC involving causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others and Section 427 of IPC for mischief causing damage. These provisions involve a financial penalty of up to Rs 50,000 and jail term of up to three years.



Meanwhile, Congress organized protests across the state to corner BJP for the attack on their party vice president. As many as 25 Congress were detained in Rajkot as they gathered for the protest. Some persons were also detained from outside chief minister Vijay Rupanis house in Rajkot as they had gathered there to protest.



Reports of similar protests and road blocks came in from Gandhinagar and Mahisagar districts too.


Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said today.



According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.



The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing.



The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.



The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."



"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.



Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India]."



He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run news agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement.



Khrushchev also told Mao that he was "outraged" by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union "time-servers".



"Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth. We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody... If you consider us time-servers, comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it," Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting.



After that visit, relations between China and then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the US.
A court here today granted anticipatory bail to actress Rakhi Sawant but ordered her to surrender before it on August 7 in a case related to "objectionable" remarks by her against Valmiki, the author of the epic Ramayana.



Granting her anticipatory bail, Sessions Judge Gururbir Singh directed her to surrender before the court of Judicial Magistrate Vishav Gupta on August 7.



The judicial magistrate's court had cancelled the bail of the actress after she failed to appear before it on July 7 despite directions.



While granting her bail on July 6, Judicial Magistrate Vishav Gupta had directed her to attend the hearing on July 7.



Local advocate Narinder Adiya had filed the complaint against Sawant on July 9 last year, claiming her comments - allegedly made on a private television channel - had hurt the sentiments of the Valmiki community.



The actress had tendered "an unconditional apology" to the Valmiki community after its members voiced outrage over her alleged remarks.


Ireland's first Indian-origin and openly gay Prime Minister Leo Varadkar today said that it is "only a matter of time" before same sex marriage is legalised in Northern Ireland.



Varadkar, 38, at the end of his two-day visit to Northern Ireland, attended a gay Pride breakfast at the Northern Whig pub in central Belfast ahead of the main Pride parade.



Northern Ireland is the only place in the UK where a ban on same-sex marriage still exists.



"I am not here to unsettle anyone but I am here to show my support and the support of my government for equality before the law for all citizens no matter where they reside," Varadkar said.



Asked whether he believed same sex marriage would be legalised, he said: "I do, I think it is only a matter of time. Of course, the decision is for the Northern Ireland Assembly. But I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course".



He also met Garda -- the Police Service of Northern Ireland and some gay officers from England who were parading in uniform at the Pride parade.



Varadkar said he did not raise the issue with Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader (Arlene Foster) when he met her yesterday, but that previously he advised her of his views.



He said that he knew Northern Ireland "well enough" and believed that public opinion on gay marriage had "moved on a long time ago".



"My reason really for being here is just to express solidarity, to express my support and that of my government, for individual freedom and equality before the law for all citizens. We would do this in any part of the world," Varadkar added.


According to the sources in the state BJP here, Adityanath could get elected to the state legislative council on one of the seats vacated by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP MLCs recently.





Currently five BJP ministers, including Adityanath and the two deputy chief ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, were neither member of the vidhan sabha nor the council. They must become member of either of the houses by September 19.





Sources said that Sharma and two other ministers, including Mohsin Raza and Swatantra Dev Singh, would opt for council. It is not yet clear if Maurya, who was yet to resign from the Lok Sabha, will also follow Adityanath.

''Though many MLAs, including those of the opposition parties, have approached the party and expressed their willingness to vacate their seats to pave the way for Adityanath to contest the by-poll, it is better if he takes the safer council route,'' said a senior UP BJP leader.



SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav has dared Adityanath and Maurya to contest by-polls to the assembly instead of taking the council route.

''BJP is engineering defections in our rank only to ensure that Adityanath and Maurya may not have to contest the polls...they (BJP) are not not sure of a smooth sailing,'' said an SP leader, who was considered to be close to Akhilesh.



The leader said that the saffron party did not want to take on a possible consensus candidate from the opposition parties.



Akhilesh had also asked his MLCs, who had quit their membership and joined BJP, not ensure safe passage to the BJP ministers.



So far three SP and one BSP member of the Uttar Pradesh legislative council have resigned from the house and joined the BJP.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who resigned from the Lok Sabha on Saturday, is likely to take the council route to the house rather than contesting the assembly by-poll.


In a 3:39 audio visual message posted on social networking sites by Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), propaganda channel affiliated to the outfit, Musa said the slain duo played an important role in formation of 'Ansar Ghazwatul Hind', which is believed to be an Al Qaeda affiliate group.



Dujana and Arif were those two associates who after spotting righteous flag decided to ally with it. They played an important role in formation of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind and they had an honour to be among first martyrs of this Jihadi movement, Musa said in the statement, his first since named as Kashmirs al-Qaeda chief.



Deccan Herald could not independently verify the authenticity of the video message but police sources said the voice matched earlier audio clips released by Musa, who succeeded slain Burhan Wani last July as commander of Hizbul. He disassociated himself from the outfit after developing serious ideological differences with its leadership based in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in May this year.



State police chief Shesh Pal Vaid said there was no way of authenticating the audio clips but 'there were reports suggesting Musa and Dujana were close."



On Friday, a purported phone recording of Dujana and Arif surfaced online wherein the duo reiterated their allegiance to Musa minutes before they were gunned down by the security forces. In the audio, Arif purportedly says that flags of Pakistan shouldnt be waved on his funeral and instead flag of Tawheed should be waved. He also repeatedly states that we are with Al Qaeda. Pertinently, Lashkar-e-Toiba did not issue any obituary statement for Dujana and Arif.



Training guns at militant leaders in Pakistan, Musa alleged: When Dujana joined us after identifying truth, the so-called godfathers of Jihad based in Pakistan created lots of difficulties for him. Arif was also subjected to unprecedented difficulties after he joined us.



"Those who were calling Dujana and Arif agents till yesterday are now paying them tributes. They dont even feel ashamed, Musa rued.



In the beginning of the audio visual message, Zakir and Dujana are seen together in several frames. May Allah help us in taking forward in their (Dujana and Arif) mission, the engineering college dropout-turned al-Qaeda commander added.





Global terror outfit al Qaeda's Kashmir chief Zakir Musa has claimed that slain commander of Lashker-e-Toiba Abu Dujana and his aide Arif Lilhari were affiliated to his outfit and are its first martyrs" in the Valley.Musa, who was recently named as head of 'Ansar Ghazwatul Hind' (the Islamic name of the local al-Qaeda group), said in a purported statement on Friday that Dujana and Lilhari, both of whom were killed by security forces on August 1 in Pulwama, had left the LeT to join the al Qaeda, a global Sunni Islamist terror organisation once led by Pakistan-based Osama bin-Laden.
Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday claimed to have arrested three overground workers (OGWs) of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit in south Kashmir's Shopian district.



"Acting on a tip-off, a joint 'naka' (checkpost) of the state police and Army's 62 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) unit was set up near Nagbal, in the Zainapora area of Shopian," a police spokesperson said and added during the checking, three LeT OGWs - Showkat Ahmad Mir, Waseem Ahmad and Junaid Ali Bhat - were apprehended and three hand grenades were seized from their possession.



"During the questioning, the three men confessed that they were working at the behest of LeT operative Wasim Shah and were tasked with hurling grenades at police establishments and snatching the weapons of the securitymen in Shopian," he claimed. "The trio had also carried out reconnaissance of a few police pickets with a design to carry out attacks."



According to official data, over 1800 OGWs are active in different parts of the State with maximum presence in Sopore, Awantipora, Handwara and Pulwama areas of the valley.



"For every active militant in Kashmir, there are 10 OGWs lined up by their mentors. OGWs are sustaining militancy and militants act on the advice and orders of their mentors and OGWs. If OGWs withdraw their support, militants will be sitting ducks. OGWs have been line up in such a manner that they help and guide the militants to our disadvantage," a senior police officer said.






He said the members who voted for him did what they thought was for nation's good, which was the affirmation of the right to free thought, free speech, the right to hold a different opinion and the duty to serve cause of pluralism and secularism in India.



Gandhi said he saw two victories in Saturday's election  one of Naidu and another of free speech. The second victory belongs to all the people of India, he said.



Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury thanked Gandhi for contesting the vice presidential election as the joint opposition nominee.



Azad said the increase in the vote share of the opposition was a positive development.



In the presidential election, we had got 225 votes of Parliamentarians. This time it was 244, he told reporters.



However, the number was much less that the 270 votes the joint opposition had hoped to poll.



To questions on cross-voting, Azad said the opposition parties in their individual capacity will enquire into reports of cross-voting.



Naidu polled at least 14 votes more than what the BJP had expected.



Accepting defeat, Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Saturday congratulated M Venkaiah Naidu on his election as the 13th Vice President.Gandhi, the joint opposition nominee, polled 244 votes against the 516 secured by Naidu to win the election by more than two-third majority.Speaking to the media soon after the election results were declared, Gandhi said the number of votes polled by him was beyond certain calculations.He thanked the MPs, who comprise the electoral college of the vice-presidential election, and the parties who had nominated him as their candidate.I believe the numbers voted for me are beyond expectation of certain calculations. They represent different political persuasions, they come from different political parties of India, Gandhi said.
China has told India that the two nation's interlocutors, who are negotiating a settlement of the boundary dispute, have no role in resolving the current military face-off in Doklam Plateau.



Beijing also declined to acknowledge the recent meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi as the one between the Special Representatives of the two nations for boundary negotiations.



The metting between Doval and Yang was held in Beijing on July 28 on the sideline of a multilateral meeting.



Beijing conveyed to New Delhi that the current stand-off in Doklam Plateau was out of the purview of the Special Representatives appointed by China and India to negotiate a settlement of the disputed boundary. It argued that since the boundary between the two neighbours at Sikkim Sector had already been delimited by the 1890 convention between UK and China, the bilateral mechanism led by the Special Representatives had no scope to discuss the current face-off.



New Delhi, however, did not buy the argument and pointed it out that while the status of Sikkim as an integral part of India had been settled, India-China boundary in Sikkim Sector still remained unsettled and a matter of negotiation between the Special Representatives of the two nations, sources told the DH.



The ongoing diplomatic communication between China and India on the stand-off has nothing to do with existing mechanisms concerning the boundary, including the one involving the Special Representatives, Liu Jinsong, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of People's Republic of China in New Delhi, said.



Doval is at present India's Special Representative for boundary talks with China. His counterpart is Yang.



During their recent meeting on the sideline of a conclave of the BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa) High Representatives for National Security in Beijing, Doval and Yang discussed the face-off between the soldiers of Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army in Doklam Plateau along the disputed territory along China-Bhutan border.



Liu said that Yang had met Doval at the capacity of State Councillor of China, not as the Special Representative for boundary negotiations with India. He claimed that New Delhi had also agreed to regard the meeting as the one that Doval had at the capacity of National Security Advisor to Prime Minister of India.



The nature of the Sikkim sector is totally different from other parts of the boundary. This is settled, defined boundary. Other parts are unsettled, said the senior diplomat of Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.



The Special Representatives of India and China in 2003 started negotiations to resolve the long-pending boundary dispute between the two nations.



They reached an agreement in 2005 on the political parameters and guiding principles for settlement of the dispute. They have since been engaged in talks on a framework for boundary settlement, which will be followed by actual demarcation of the border.



Brajesh Mishra, the National Security Advisor to the then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, was the first Special Representative of India for boundary negotiations with China. He was succeeded by J N Dixit, M K Narayanan and Shivshankar Menon between 2004 and 2014. Their counterpart was Dai Binguo, who was Yang's predecessor in the office of the State Councillor of China. Dai had in 15 rounds of negotiations with successive Special Representatives of India till 2013. Yang had the 16th and 17th rounds of negotiations with Menon and the 18th and 19th rounds with Doval.



During the 19th round of negotiations in Beijing in April 2016, Doval and Yang had agreed that the 20th round would take place in New Delhi this year.



Liu, however, said that the dates for the 20th round of boundary negotiations between Special Representatives of India and China had not yet been finalized.


Heavy rain lashed several parts of the country on Saturday, triggering landslides in Himachal Pradesh, where three persons died, while two deaths were reported from Uttarakhand.



Odisha also received widespread rain and there is a warning of more downpour.



In Himachal Pradesh, landslides blocked about 170 roads, including the Shimla-Kalka National Highway, and resulted in the death of three people  one in Mandi and two in Theog.



About 20 houses, three shops and 15 cowsheds were badly damaged due to heavy rain in Bilaspur, Kangra, Chamba and Mandi, according to the state Emergency Response Control Room.



A 30-year-old woman and her son (8) were killed in their sleep when slush from an adjoining field gushed into their home following heavy rain in the early hours of Saturday in Uttarakhands Lansdowne area. Heavy rain over the past two days in Pauri district have claimed several lives with five people killed in separate rain-related incidents near Kotdwar on Saturday.



It was a sultry day in Delhi with the maximum and the minimum temperature settling at 34.9 and 27.1 degrees Celsius, respectively. The humidity oscillated between 81 and 55%. Most of the places over north and interior Odisha have received heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours. The chief amounts of rainfall recorded are Jagatsinghpur (11 cm), Baripada (10 cm) and Jaipur (9 cm).



Monsoon remained normal in Bihar during the past 24 hours, with light to moderate rainfall occurring in many places in the state.



Gaya recorded the highest rainfall at 30 mm among the major cities, followed by 3 mm rainfall in Bhagalpur and 1.4 mm in Patna in the past 24 hours (recorded between 8.30 am on Friday to 8.30 am on Saturday). The absence of rainfall in Patna increased the maximum temperature from Friday's 30.2 degrees Celsius to 35 degrees Celsius on Saturday with the humidity level at around 80% both in the morning and evening.



Chandigarh recorded maximum temperature of 34.5 degrees Celsius. In Haryana, Ambala and Karnal recorded their respective maximums at 35.5 and 33.4 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Gorkha Jamnmukti Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading the shutdown in Darjeeling demanding a separate state, said it would launch quit Darjeeling movement against the Bengal government.



GJM president Bimal Gurung said on Saturday that his party would observe the 75th anniversary of Quit India Movement by launching a series of rallies called Bengal Darjeeling Choro (Bengal quit Darjeeling) from August 9 to August 15.



Participants in the rallies would chant Jai Gorkhaland and We want Gorkhaland slogans, besides Vande Mataram.



The Bengal government has forced the people of Gorkhaland to live like slaves just the way the British had tortured and exploited us, Gurung said. In the rallies from August 9, we will demand Independence from Bengal while paying homage to the countrys freedom fighters.



In the continuing demonstrations on Saturday, members of All Buddhist Community held a peace march praying for the creation of a separate Gorkhaland.



A prayer meet was also held for the well-being of 12 Morcha supporters, who are on a hunger strike for the past 15 days.



Party sources said painters, musicians and poets in Darjeeling will form a human chain on Sunday pressing for a separate state.



Meanwhile, the CID raided a place in Bhaktinagar in Siliguri late on Friday and arrested GJM central committee member Norbu G Lama, also an elected member of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) from the Tagda Cantonment Teesta Valley constituency.



Lama recently resigned from the GTA with fellow GJM leaders.



He was accused of inciting violence outside Bhanu Bhavan on June 8, when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was in the hills to hold a Cabinet meeting.



CID sources said Lama has been charged with rioting, inciting violence and ferrying people from Kalimpong and elsewhere to Darjeeling to participate in the clashes with the police.



GJM supporters clashed with the police on June 8, in which more than 45 security personnel were injured. A police booth, along with 15 police vehicles and a state government bus, were set on fire.


The ongoing face-off in Dokalam between India and China has cast a shadow on the 2017 edition of the Sino-Indian Hand-in-Hand army exercise, scheduled to be held later in the year in China.



The first planning meeting for the annual exercise has not been held so far. When queried by the Indian officials about the meeting, the Chinese officials didnt respond, sources said.



As per the practice followed so far, the two countries first hold an initial planning meeting around June-July in the host nation (China in 2017). The initial parleys are followed by a final planning meeting in the visiting country (India).



The fact that the initial planning meeting has not been held so far has cast aspersions on the conduct of the Hand-in-Hand exercise this year.



Officials from the defence ministry and the Indian Army refused to answer queries. The 2016 edition was held in Pune while the 2015 drill took place in Kunming, the capital of south western Chinas Yunnan province.



The exercise began in 2007 as a confidence building measure. But the annual drill was suspended for four years after the first two editions in Kunming (2007) and Belagavi (2008), because of a raging diplomatic row on multiple visa issues, compounded by border frictions.
The railway helpline for children in Bengaluru has rescued 5,259 children in the last two years who were at the risk of being pushed into child labour.



Childline, run by Bangalore Oniyavara Seva Coota (Bosco), has counselled 4,153 children and convinced them to return to their homes. The remaining 1,106 children have been referred to child care institutions through the child welfare committee.



Bosco said the rescued children included those who ran away from homes, were trafficked, abused or exploited by employers and those who tried to escape poverty and came to the city in search of work.

Children came from as far as Nepal and Bangladesh as well as some remote corners of India. People can call 1098 and report a child in distress at railway stations.




As chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Naidus task will be two- fold.





He will have to ensure the smooth functioning of the House for the government to conduct its legislative business.





Secondly, Naidu has the herculean task of letting the Oppositions voice be heard by ensuring opportunity for its leaders to speak.





If Prime Minister Narendra Modis tweets after his victory indicated what the government expected from him, Congress chief Sonia Gandhis response underscored Naidu's task.





House of Elders is an important determinant of our democratic functioning to address appropriate checks and balances, she said.





Her party's leader in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad made it clear that Naidu will have an onerous responsibility, as the Opposition will never compromise on ideology whether we face defeat or victory.





With an overwhelming vote in his favour, Vice President-elect Venkaiah Naidu has embarked on a new political journey that will test him constantly as a guardian of Indias Upper House.
In a rare geographical phenomenon, sweet water aquifers have coexisted alongside the rumbling salt waters of Bay of Bengal in Puri, a popular beachside tourist destination in Odisha.



But, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) feels that unregulated extraction is now threatening the aquifers.



The Eastern Zone bench of the NGT in Kolkata, in an order, asked the Odisha government to protect the natural groundwater recharge zones of Chakratirtha and Balipanda in the town of Puri.



The order came after environmentalist Subhash Datta filed a petition before the NGT seeking immediate intervention and stoppage on the loot of sweet water along the Puri sea beach.



Sweet water is found barely within 50 feet of the Bay of Bengal in Puri. In 1931, the Britishers had declared Chakratirtha and Balipanda zones as protected areas. In 2000, the Odisha government declared the two zones as protected. In June 2016, the Central Ground Water Board had declared the areas as protected and some prohibitions had been imposed.Datta told DH.



The tribunal, in its order, said, Protection of the sweet water zonesis of grave relevance, which calls for the state government and municipality as well as the Central Ground Water Board to give special attention in view of constant threat of encroachment of the area in the sea beach.




Bollywood actor Dimple Kapadia has refuted before the Supreme Court a charge made by Anita Advani, a Mumbai resident, that she has ever deserted her superstar-husband Rajesh Khanna.



Anita claimed herself to be the live-in partner of Khanna till her eviction from suburban bungalow Aashirvad just before his death on July 18, 2012. She sought a right of residence under the Domestic Violence Act and monthly maintenance from Dimple, her daughter Twinkle and son-in-law Akshay Kumar.



Dimple married Khanna in 1973 at the age of 16, months before the hit movie Bobby with the title role was released.



Claiming that she stood by Khanna at all times, Dimple denied she left the marital home in 1982 or was living separately or her relationship with Khanna was estranged or there was no marital relationship between her and Khanna till his demise.



It is denied that Anita has at all been a soulmate at any time either during the alleged dark or lonely period or in the evening of his life, as alleged or at all, she said, in an affidavit.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday dubbed the I-T raids on Energy Minister D K Shivakumar as politically motivated.



Speaking to reporters, Siddaramaiah said the raids point to the autocratic face of the fascist forces. Warning the Centre, Siddaramaiah said, We will launch a nationwide campaign against the totalitarianism prevailing in the country.



Describing the raids as an interference into the states affairs, the chief minister called the Centre anti-democratic.



He questioned why the Centre was blind to the charges of corruption against many BJP leaders in the state, including Eshwarappa and BJP state president Yeddyurappa. He warned the Centre of responding to the politically motivated raids with equal force.



The chief minister condemned the pelting of stones on Rahul Gandhis car in Dhanera town of Banaskantha district, Gujarat. He said the Gujarat government failed to provide security to Gandhi, resulting in the attack.




Student leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Saturday demanded a uniform education policy for India.



We have a uniform tax policy. Why dont we have a uniform education policy? he said at an all-India convention of students, teachers and activists.



Delegates from many states are in the city for what the hosts describe as the first-ever national convention on student struggles.



Organised by the Delhi-based All India Forum for Right to Education, the two-day convention opened on Saturday with a procession to the city railway station.



Nidumamidi Swamiji, an outspoken critic of obscurantism, and Kanhaiya Kumar, former president, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union, addressed the gathering.



The governments neglect of education is weakening our democracy and those affected the most by it are the marginalised, Kumar said.



The gathering then moved to Shikshakara Bhavan, where Dr Anil Sadgopal, well-known academician, slammed the widespread privatisation of education.

He said the current political atmosphere was encouraging the solidarity of the Left and groups following Jyotirao Phule, Ambedkar and Periyar.



This unity will be the foundation through which we can save our Constitution and republic from corporate attacks, he said.



Madhu Prasad, member-Presidium, All India Forum for Right to Education, described his organisation as a platform to discuss and resist casteist, racist, gender-related discrimination and violence in the university space.

"Privatisation and saffronisation of education will be discussed during the convention," explained Prasad, who has taught at Delhi University for 36 years.




San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU) Classroom Heroes recently recognized Laura Stuber, who teaches sixth grade students at Carmel Valleys Solana Pacific Elementary School, which is in the Solana Beach School District.

Her nomination for SDCCU Classroom Heroes read: Some things that make an educator great are dedication, respect and empathy. Mrs. Laura Stuber possesses all those aspects and moreshe has dedicated her life to teaching. She is any students left hand and a leader. Also, Mrs. Stuber puts students before herself. Not only is Mrs. Stuber a teacher to me, she is my mentor, a role model and my inspiration.

On behalf of everyone at SDCCU, we congratulate Mrs. Stuber on this wonderful achievement. As a dedicated community partner, SDCCU is proud to acknowledge teachers who are doing tremendous work in shaping our future generations, said SDCCU President and CEO Teresa Halleck.

Stuber received a $500 SDCCU Visa gift card, plus she was recognized as a Classroom Hero on a billboard in her community.

San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU) and iHeartMedia San Diego are recognizing Classroom Heroes throughout 2017, according to a press release.

SDCCU is committed to helping teachers, parents and students make educated financial decisions by delivering the best financial education, products and services, according to a press release. SDCCU is engaged in several philanthropic efforts aimed at improving overall economic well-being and making a positive difference in local schools. For more information visit sdccu.com/classroomheroes.
Stuntman Serge Crozon-Cazin Talks About His Role In 'Vivegam'
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The Devon cybersecurity researcher charged with creating and sharing software that steals banking details has received backing from his MP who praised him for thwarting a world-wide ransomware attack that crippled the NHS.

North Devon MP Peter Heaton-Jones said he shares local "shock" at the allegations brought in the US against his North Devon constituent, 23-year-old Marcus Hutchins.

The Conservative has written to Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan to seek assurance that Hutchins, who is expected to plead not guilty to all charges on Tuesday, is receiving adequate consular assistance.

He acknowledged the UK cannot interfere with the American proceedings and said he has made no judgement about the guilt of Hutchins, who is from Ilfracombe.

"However, people who know him in Ilfracombe, and in the wider cyber-community, are astounded at the allegations against him," he said.

"This is particularly so given his role in helping to protect the NHS and many other institutions from what could have been a devastating cyber-attack just a few months ago.

"I will continue to monitor his case carefully and to seek the necessary assurances from the Government that the UK is doing everything in its power to assist Marcus and his family at this very difficult time."

Hutchins, also known as MalwareTech, appeared in court in Las Vegas on Friday where the judge had been handed around 15 letters of support from family, friends and members of the tech community.

His mother, Janet Hutchins, has said her son's involvement was "hugely unlikely" because he has spent "enormous amounts of time and even his free time" combating malware.

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it was "deeply concerned" with his arrest, a statement echoed by Naomi Colvin from civil liberties campaign group Courage.

She said: "In May this year, WannaCry malware closed hospitals in the UK, becoming the first ransomware attack to represent an actual threat to life.

"In halting the spread of WannaCry before the US woke up, MalwareTech did the world an enormous service - and to American businesses in particular."
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The captain of a cargo ship appeared in court in New Zealand today accused of being drunk while trying to berth a huge cargo vessel at a New Zealand port.

The captain, a 53-year-old man from Devon who has not been named, had "an exceptionally high" breath alcohol reading, according to local police.

They were called after the pilot assisting with the docking of the 40,000 tonne ship became concerned that the captain was under the influence of alcohol.

The limit for a person in charge of a ship is 250 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath and any breach carries a 12-month jail term or a fine of 10,000 New Zealand dollars, which converts to around 5,700.

According to the MailOnline, the man made a brief appearance in the Whangarei District Court and was remanded on bail to reappear on Monday.
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Paul Tisdale praised Exeter City's performance as being worthy of the win in their opening-day victory at home to Cambridge United.

Reuben Reid's early goal gave the Grecians victory, although they spurned other chances to make the win more comfortable before coming under pressure late on.

Tisdale was impressed with what he saw at both ends of the pitch from his side and felt they were good value for three points.

He said: "The three points come first, the performance was certainly in a bracket that would warrant the result.

"I thought we were very, very committed, quick to the ball and aggressive in our approach. Our play was really purposeful.

"I'm a little bit out of breath, actually, starting to talk, it was one of those afternoons.

"It was full-blooded and I'd like to think we could have got a second, there were chances we missed where we were thinking you'd like to get two up when you get the chance.

"But we expected the onslaught, they rallied at 1-0 down but there were some big defensive performances out there.

"Right across the board it was a really good day for us."

Liam McAlinden started on the left-wing for City and impressed, but Tisdale played down the idea of the former Wolverhampton Wanderers player being a direct replacement for Ollie Watkins, who departed the club for Brentford in the summer.

He said: "I hadn't considered it in that vein, it's 11 players out there and it's hard to know who's filling Ollie's shoes  in fact, nobody, they're different.

"Everyone will be their own player and I've made the point of saying that in the last month or so.

"We're not filling that position, we've got other players who have other abilities and the front three players played really well today.

"They upset the back four of Cambridge and Lloyd James also got in there and missed probably the best chance, with David also hitting the post with a header from a corner.

"In the second half, Liam and Reuben had chances, so you just thought I hope it won't be one of those days where you rue the miss and get caught out but fortunately Pierce Sweeney put in a really good challenge in the six-yard box to clear the ball."

The Grecians now host Charlton in the EFL Cup on Tuesday night and Tisdale is undecided on whether he will stick with the same team.

He said: "I don't know yet, I'll have to consider that, Charlton will be a different type of proposition and we've got a few bruised players in there today.

"So we'll see what happens on Monday and it's one game at a time."
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A dad who was left disfigured and on death's door after a horrific acid attack at his home has spoken out about the length of time in jail that attackers should be given.

Former Plymouth University student Andreas Christopheros, 32, said he could feel his face melting when he was attacked in a tragic case of mistaken identity.

With his attacker facing release from jail in just five years, Mr Christopheros has spoken out in an interview with the Daily Mirror to call for longer sentences for anyone involved in acid attacks.

As a rise in the number of acid attacks continues across the country, numerous people, including Home Secretary Amber Rudd, have called for a review of such incidents, including relabeling acid and other corrosive substances as dangerous weapons.

In the interview, which can be seen in the video above, Mr Christopheros said he believed attackers should be given minimum sentences of 20-plus years.

He also raised concerns about how easy it was to purchase corrosive and dangerous substances in the UK.

Mr Christopheros said: "Given how readily available corrosive substances are in our daily lives anyone can get their hands on them.

"Not every person in the UK can get a gun. The majority of people can't.

"For that reason, I strongly believe that the sentencing for anyone who carries out any form of acid attack, whether their intended victim is injured badly or not, anyone who carries out an acid attack should serve a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 plus years."

The matter was made even more personal for Mr Christopheros after news that his attacker, David Phillips, could be back on the streets earlier than previously anticipated following an appeal last year.

At the time of the trial in October 2015, Mr Phillips, who had carried out the horrific revenge attack on the wrong man, was jailed for life. But in April 2016, the Court of Appeal cut the sentence to 16 years and he will be eligible for parole after serving just eight for the attack in December 2014.

Phillips had wrongly believed that a person he suspected of sexually assaulting a family member lived at Mr Christopheros' address.

Phillips drove 300 miles from his home to Truro, knocked on the door and threw acid in the face of Mr Christopheros.

In the interview with the Mirror, Mr Christopheros explained the terrifying moment he was attacked saying: "There was a knock on the door, I went to open it as I would normally, expecting it to be yet another courier delivering yet another parcel prior to Christmas, and instantly received a beaker of sulphuric acid to the face. Without this guy checking who I was, without anything. The only thing he said to me was, 'this is for you mate'."

After the incident Mr Christopheros was rushed to hospital where he was put on "death watch" with doctors unsure whether he would be able to pull through due to the severity of his injuries.

He has been left blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other. He no longer has eyelids and has had to undergo a number of operations and painful skin grafts, with more still to come.

Mr Christopheros said: "Not having eyelids is probably the most torturous thing I've been through. You can't hide from the light, you can't shut your eyes. Obviously sleeping is difficult. But also the risk of infection is a lot higher."
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A BBC Spotlight segment championing the Sidmouth Folk Festival highlighted the perils of live television, after a young woman flashed the camera during an interview.

During the 6.30pm bulletin last night, an interview with one of the performing acts at Britain's oldest festival, a passer-by unexpectedly bared all.

None of the crew or those being interviewed appeared to spot the naughty act which was broadcast across the Westcountry.

One viewer who spotted the gaffe, Jamie Reeves, wasn't offended by the unexpected nudity - and found the whole thing hilarious.

The live report marked the launch of the 63rd Folk Week at the East Devon seaside town, running until August 11.

Popular with the locals and tourists alike, the event was awarded a prestigious blue plaque earlier this year for its contribution to music.

It involves more than 700 events from headline and intimate live gigs, dance parties, children's activities, dance displays and local food and drink.
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Marcus Hutchins, the cyber expert hailed a hero for helping to halt a world-wide ransomware attack, has been charged in the US with creating a separate malware called Kronos . But what is Kronos ?

The malicious software can harvest usernames and passwords as they are entered on banking websites on infected computers.

It acts as a Trojan, meaning it presents itself as legitimate software to gain access to machines.

Kronos first came to light in July 2014 when a Russian-speaker touted it on an online message-board for 7,000 dollars (5,328).

On the 13th of that month, Hutchins posted to Twitter a request to test the software, writing: "Anyone got a kronos sample?"

The charges brought against 23-year-old Hutchins, from Ilfracombe, Devon, span between July 2014 and July 2015, and accuse him of creating and distributing the malware.

A second defendant, whose name has been redacted from the indictment, is accused of touting Kronos online on July 13 2014, using a video to explain its capabilities.

Kronos's seller boasted that it could sneak past anti-virus systems and worked on all major internet browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox.

IBM researchers reported in October 2015 that after a lull in activity Kronos had returned and appeared to have changed its settings to focus on targeting UK banks.

Prosecutors also warned it had been honed to target banking systems in countries including the UK, Germany, France, Poland and Canada.

It was largely marketed through AlphaBay, a darknet marketplace which was shut down last month in an international effort led by the US.

After Hutchins was charged, a US Department of Justice spokesman warned that Kronos remained an "ongoing threat to privacy and security".
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M&M reports 20% drop in Q1 net profit at Rs768 cr

Mahindra & Mahindra reported a 20 per cent drop in its fiscal first quarter net profit at Rs768 crore against a net profit of Rs961.3 crore in the year-ago quarter, pulled down by Rs144 crore provisioning on account of transition loss to GST regime.

Mahindra said its performance in the tractor segment with a record high market share of 45.8 per cent during Q1, helped company overcome the fall in volumes in passenger vehicle space and grow net revenues in Q1 by 5.4 per cent to Rs11,094 crore.

Earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortisation (EBIDTA) for Q1 declined 110 basis points to 14.2 per cent.

Net profit was impacted to the extent of Rs91 crore during the quarter due to a provision of Rs144 crore made by the company for dealer support.

Also, Mahindra said, the government ban on BS-III vehicles impacted the company's revenues as it had to sell off inventories at lower margins.

''The unavailability of input credit for certain taxes paid, as well as due to tractors being exempt from excise duty in the earlier regime, the company had to ensure minimum impact for customers,'' the company said in a statement.

Net sales during the period was moderately up by about 5 per cent to Rs11,575.71 crore, while the operating margins remained under pressure. The company reported EBIDTA of R1,266.56 crore, a fall of nearly 2 percent, while the EBDITA margins contracted by 78 basis points to 10.94 per cent.

Speaking to newspersons at the earnings conference, Pawan Goenka, managing director, M&M said, ''This was an eventful quarter. It started with BS III ban, which came in like a bombshell for the auto industry and it was followed by the GST transition. The industry though has managed these disruptions quite well.''

The company saw a moderate increase in the domestic vehicles volumes which grew by 1.2 per cent to a total of 1.12 lakh vehicles, which was led by a smart increase in the LCV goods segment to 43,009 vehicles. VS Parathasarathy, chief financial officer, M&M said, ''The company's LCV segment grew by a strong 20.7 per cent in the quarter, but we degrew in most other segments, especially in the Utility Vehicle (UV) sector. Our volumes in the farm equipment space rose by 13.5 per cent, better than the industry. This helped us achieve a market share of 45.8 per cent in the segment, which is the highest share for M&M in a single quarter.''

Barring LCV, all other vehicle categories saw a decline in volumes during the quarter. The sharpest fall came in vans and passenger car volumes, which were lower by nearly 22 per cent to 2,703 units, while the utility vehicles (UV) fell by over 5 per cent to 53,082 units.

However, Goenka said that the company is working towards turning around its UV business. ''We are putting in all efforts to turn around our UV business. Expect a series of new launches and refreshes in the UV space in the coming next 6-9 months,'' he said. To regain market share in the UV segment, the company plans to launch an SUV, codenamed the U321 in the current fiscal. Apart from this, the company will also launch a compact SUV (codename S201) next year, which will compete with the segment's favourites, the Maruti Vitara Brezza and the Ford Ecosport. Going forward, Goenka said there are no signs of subdued demand.

''With more stability, we expect a robust growth. Especially in the tractor segment, which can grow by around 10-12 per cent with an upward bias. Also, the passenger vehicle sector can grow by around 10-12 per cent with the UVs growing faster at around 13-15 per cent. Although heavy commercial vehicle sales may remain flat due to the ban on the BS III (Bharat Stage 3) vehicles.''

Meanwhile, the sales of heavy commercial vehicle goods segment showed a dip as a result of pre-buying of BS3 vehicles, saturation of replacement demand and production constraints of BS4 models. The tractor industry too witnessed a de-growth of 1.7 per cent owing to the uncertainty with regard to transition to a GST regime. Overall the domestic tractor industry witnessed a growth of 8.5 per cent in Q1FY18.
In a fresh salvo on the Doklam standoff near the Sikkim border, an article in China's state-run Global Times has said that China will not let the issue fester for too long and could take up a small military operation to oust the Indian soldiers from the region within two weeks. India and China have been locked in a standoff over the Doklam plateau for over a month now, after Indian troops stopped the Chinese from building a road there. While India has repeatedly said that war wasn't an option to solve the crisis, China has frequently though unofficially warned of using the military option. The Chinese foreign ministry, the defence ministry, the Chinese embassy in India and the People's Daily have time and again urged India to withdraw its troops, failing which the People's Liberation Army would be forced to take action. "The series of remarks from the Chinese side within a 24-hour period sends a signal to India that there is no way China will tolerate the Indian troops' incursion into Chinese territory for too long. If India refuses to withdraw, China may conduct a small-scale military operation within two weeks," says Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, according to the International Business Times. He also said that Beijing would inform New Delhi before the Chinese side takes up an armed operation. The Tibet military region has also reportedly conducted exercises in the region, which Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, believes is a hint that China could use military means to end the ongoing standoff. "The chances of doing so are increasing as the Indian side is still saying one thing and doing another," he told the Global Times. Speaking of the standoff and the prior warnings that China had given India, Hu said, "India, which has stirred up the incident, should bear all the consequences. And no matter how the standoff ends, Sino-Indian ties have been severely damaged and strategic distrust will linger." 'India will be annihilated'

Another editorial in the Global Times also blamed the Narendra Modi government of taking the issue lightly. It said that the Modi government should be aware of China's military power and should not put India in a situation where has no choice but to "annihilate all Indian troops in the border region". "The Modi government's hard-line stance is sustained by neither laws nor strength. This administration is recklessly breaking international norms and jeopardising India's national pride and peaceful development," the article said. The article goes on to say that the Indian government is being irresponsible when it comes to national security and is taking the well-being of its citizens for granted. "The Modi government should stop lying to its people that 'India in 2017 is different from India in 1962.' The gap in national strength between the two countries is the largest in the past 50 years. If the Modi government wants to start a war, at least it should tell its people the truth," the article observed. India's minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj on Thursday ruled out war over the Doklam standoff, and said that the two countries are negotiating on the issue. "We are not negotiating only on Doklam, we are talking about bilateral relations in entirety. And a solution will also emerge from it ... as far as economic strength is concerned, China is one of the leading countries among major contributors and economic partners. That's why Doklam is not the lone issue. So, a solution will definitely emerge if we engage in dialogue on bilateral relations," Swaraj said in Rajya Sabha. While Beijing maintains that the 1890 pact between Great Britain and China on Sikkim and Tibet has 'delimited' or settled the boundary along Sikkim, India refers to a 2012 written understanding between special representatives on India-China boundary alignment in the Sikkim sector, and says the 1890 pact is the basis for future agreement for final demarcation of boundary in this region, The Economic Times points out. India's concerns emanate from Chinese action on the ground, which have implications for the determination of the tri-junction boundary point between India, China and Bhutan and the alignment of India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector. Both these aspects of tri-junction points and India-China boundary alignment in the Sikkim sector had been earlier addressed in a written common understanding reached between the SRs of India and China on the boundary question in December 2012, when then national security advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon was India's SR.








A man dived into the river Erne in Ballyshannon to try and evade capture by gardai early last Tuesday week morning.

It is believed that he and another man had fled across the border from Belleek after a series of thefts were reported to police in the Belleek area, in the early hours of Tuesday week morning.

The incident began in Ballyshannon between 8.30 am and 9 am, when some members of the public saw two men acting suspiciously in the town.

One man seemed to take a package from another man before running down the street.



Gardai alerted

Gardai were alerted and the man dived into the river and seemed to be holding a package above his head.

He managed to reach the far shore on the Market Yard side of the river, but was later caught by gardai at the Shiel Hospital.

He was arrested and taken into custody.

Another man, believed to be an accomplice, escaped and is still at large.

A few hours earlier the PSNI were alerted following reports of a series of robberies in the Corry area of Belleek.

A helicopter was dispatched in an attempt to capture two men.

Two men entered a house in Belleek and got away with a sum of cash.

They were driving a BMW car that broke down.

It is believed they then stole a tractor from another residence to try and get the BMW to function.

When this was not successful they stole a motorbike and some cash from another house in the area before making their way to Ballyshannon.

In water for 15 minutes

A garda source confirmed that a man who was taken from the River Erne was arrested after he had been in the water for almost 15 minutes.

He was also was described as being "a person of interest" in a PSNI investigation into an incident across the border prior to his arrest.

A garda spokesman at Ballyshannon garda station said that one man had been arrested on a circuit court bench warrant. He had been brought to court and was remanded in custody.
Ahead of the 60th anniversary commemoration of the last train to leave Bundoran in September, the annual Fr Paddy Gallagher lecture this August will have a railway theme.

Renowned railway historian Charles Friel of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland will deliver an illustrated talk entitled The Railways of South Donegal on Monday August 21st at Bundoran Community Library.

Charles will show photos from his extensive collection - indeed he has been collecting pictures and negatives of Irish railways for some time so that they will not be lost to future generations. He will also talk about the two railways which served south Donegal - the Bundoran branch of the Great Northern Railway which opened in 1866 and the County Donegal Railway Joint Committee's Ballyshannon branch which opened in 1905.

He will also talk about the starting of the railways in 1896 right up to the closure in 1957. He recalls The two lines were of different gauges. The line into Bundoran was the Irish standard gauge of 5 foot 3 inches while the Donegal to Ballyshannon line was narrow gauge, with the rails set just three feet apart. The two lines did not meet up in Ballyshannon - geography and the mighty river Erne kept them over a mile apart. The talk will illustrate life along each of the lines until their closure - the Bundoran line on 30 September 1957 and the Ballyshannon branch on the last day of 1959.

Michael Travers, Chairperson of Magh Ene Historical Society says the group are very much looking forward to the annual lecture we are delighted to have Charles deliver this years Fr Paddy Gallagher lecture. Indeed it is all the more apt as Fr Paddy himself lived on Station Road. The railway played a hugely important part in the development of Bundoran as a tourist destination and its right that they should be remembered as we approach this important anniversary in September. We are confident that Charles will deliver an informative and entertaining talk on the subject of the railways of South Donegal on the night.

Admission to the event is free and is a pre-cursor to the Railway Heritage Festival that will take place in September to mark the departure of the last train from Bundoran on September 30th. More details on the event can be found on www.discoverbundoran.com/ railwayheritage with a full programme of events being launched in the coming weeks.

There will also be an exhibition of railway artefacts courtesy of Ballyshannon and District Museum taking place at Bundoran Community Library during Heritage Week and will be on display on the night of the lecture.

About Fr Paddy Gallagher

Fr Paddy Gallagher was born in Bundoran in 1919. He was the first president of the Credit Union League of Ireland and a distinguished local historian. He published over 100 works throughout his lifetime including the parish histories of Magh Ene, Dromore and Botha. He was educated at St Macartans College, Monaghan and St Patricks College, Maynooth. He was ordained in 1945 and ministered in California, Clones, Dromore and Botha until he retired in 1988. He died peacefully, aged 77, on March 30, 1996. (Source: Clogher Record, Vol 15, No. 3 (1996), pp. 160-163) via Dancing by the Sea by Marc Geagan.
Fine Gael Councillor Bernard McGuinness has welcomed approval for an extension to a school in Inishowen. Scoil Mhuire National School in Dristeran, Gleneely, is to get a new classroom with assisted user toilets.

The school will also get a Special Education Teacher support room as part of the develeopment, said McGuinness.

I am delighted for the staff, parents and the children at Scoil Mhuire in Gleneely, said Cllr McGuinness.

This is the latest in a series of developments at the school and Im delighted that Minister Richard Bruton has approved these new rooms for the school."

As part of the announcement from the Department of Education School Buildings Unit, two other schools in the county have been given the go-ahead for emergency mechanical works.

Scoil Adhamhnain, An Luinnigh, Derrybeg and St Patricks National School in Murlog, Lifford, will be informed of work there in coming days.

Fine Gael East Donegal rep Bert Galbraith welcomed a decision by the Department at St Patricks.

The original request was refused but Im delighted that decision has been overturned on appeal and the works at the school can now go ahead, said Galbraith.

Donegal TD Joe McHugh added: I want to thank Minister Bruton and the Department for agreeing to these requests which are important for all three schools.

No details are given of the amount of funding approved by the School Building Unit, as the publication of the amount of grant aid sanctioned could prejudice the tendering process for an individual project.

The School Building Unit will issue detailed letters on the relevant projects directly to the school authorities and these letters will inform the school authorities of the amount of grant aid sanctioned by the Department.
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 123 Heath St., Enterprise, will host a program for those interested in learning the teachings of the Catholic Church. The series, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, starts on Aug. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the church. For more information, call 334-347-6751 or 334-464-1930.

Rocky Mount Baptist Church, 457 County Road 42 W., Abbeville, will hold its annual revival services Aug. 9-11 at 7 p.m. each day. Evangelist will be the Rev. Irvin Stallworth of Unity Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Naples, Florida. The theme is Gods Restoration Planned.

The St. Mary District Congress of Christian Education will hold a Christian Education Conference on Saturday, Aug. 12, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the St. Mary District Baptist Association building, 1840 N. Range St., Dothan. The conference is free, and the theme is Sustaining and Growing the Church. Registration will be 8:30-8:45 a.m. For information, call 334-792-2795 or 334-796-6847.

Grimes Gospel Lighthouse, 1512 County Road 25, Grimes, will host The Giles Family of Ozark, Aug. 12; local talent, Aug. 19; Gerry Koch of Dothan, Aug. 26. Music starts at 7 p.m. A love offering will be taken. Call 334-983-4654 or 334-714-4658 for more information.

Klondyke Gospel Music Center, located between Newton and Ozark at 3885 Highway 123 S., will host: 2 Blessed of Blakely, Georgia, Aug. 12; Byrd Family Bluegrass of Newville, Aug. 19; Dale Giles Family of Ozark, Aug. 26. Music starts at 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, contact Ron Jeffers, president and concert coordinator, at 334-797-9862.

Cherry Street AME Church, 308 N. Cherry St., Dothan, will hold a fellowship service on Aug. 13 at 3 p.m. Special guests will be Pastor Aaron Barnes and New Life in Jesus Ministries.

Stringer Street AME Church, 1900 Stringer St., Dothan, will hold a church celebration on Aug. 13 at 3 p.m. The theme will be A Century of Believing, Trusting and Fulfilling Gods Promise and Purpose. Guest preacher will be Bishop Harry Seawright, presiding prelate for the Ninth Episcopal District AME Church.

Grace Community Church will celebrate the 16th appreciation service of Pastor Henry L. Small on Sunday, Aug. 13, at 2:30 p.m. at Wiregrass Park, 620 Sixth Ave., in Dothan. The Rev. Norman Fryer of New Mount Zion Baptist Church will be the messenger.

Chancellor Assembly of God Church in Chancellor will hold a Homecoming service on Sunday, Aug. 13, beginning at 10 a.m. with singing. Fresh Anointing from Andalusia will perform. There will be no Sunday school. The morning message will be presented by the Rev. Ray Layton. Food will be served after the service, around 12:30 p.m.

Roeton Baptist Church, 5977 County Road 105, Brundidge, will hold revival services Aug. 13-16. Service times will be 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday and 7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday. Guest evangelist will be Dr. Sammy Gilbreath of the State Board of Missions Evangelism Department. Music minister will be the Rev. Ron Hendrickson, the minister of music and associate pastor at Old Zion Baptist Church in Abbeville. For more information, call 334-596-1277.

Burdeshaw Street Missionary Baptist Church, 714 E. Burdeshaw St., Dothan, will hold its annual revival services Aug. 14-18 at 7 p.m. each day. Guest pastor will be Pastor Eddie Farmer of First Baptist Church of Columbia.

The Dothan Evening Community Lighthouse of Aglow International will meet at Shoney's Restaurant located at 3054 Ross Clark Circle in Dothan on Thursday, Aug. 17, at 5:30 p.m. The guest speaker is Evangelist Blanche Siler. All are invited to attend.

The St. Peter Missionary Baptist Church will hold its annual Mens Day Celebration on Sunday, Aug. 20, beginning with an all men staff teaching and reviewing the Sunday school lesson at 9:30 a.m. Included in the 11 a.m. morning worship service will be the ordination of Ronnie Frank Dennis as deacon. Pastor Pierre Harvey will preach. Our special guests for the 2:30 p.m. Mens Day Program will be the Rev. Kummel Fleming and the Center Baptist Church family. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Balkum Chapel Missionary Baptist Church will hold its annual revival Aug. 23-25 with services at 7 p.m. nightly. Evangelist for the week will be the Rev. C.A. Hammond, pastor of Greater New Life Missionary Baptist Church in Enterprise. All churches, pastors and choirs are invited.

Lively Stones Ministries Worship Center and Multi-Cultural Center in Ozark will host Impact 2017 conference, Gathering of the Churches, Aug. 24-26. An awards banquet will be held Aug. 24 at 6:30 p.m.; workshops will be held Aug. 25, 4:30-6:15 p.m. with evening services at 7:15 p.m.; and additional sessions will be held Aug. 26, 8:15 a.m.-2:45 p.m. Registration for the conference is free, however, tickets for the Aug. 24 banquet are $20. Call 334-774-1039 to purchase banquet tickets.

Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, 4850 County Road 73, Newville, will host a luncheon honoring pastors and ministers wives on Saturday, Sept. 9, at noon. For more information, call Annie Morris at 334-693-3048; Doris Lewis at 334-441-5601; or Mary Kincey at 334-632-0184.

New Maranda Baptist Church, 1221 WAGF Road, Dothan, will celebrate its 125th anniversary with a service on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 2:30 p.m. Guest speaker will be the Rev. Leroy McLeroy, pastor of St. Peter Community Church in Bay Springs.
Lockers, no problem. Changing classes, no problem. Jackayln Anderson has this middle school thing down.

I feel pretty good about it, Anderson, who started sixth grade at Ashford High School Friday, said. You do have to do a lot more walking, though.

Anderson and other rising sixth-graders made the move from Ashford Elementary School to Ashford High School this year. Sixth grade in the Ashford school district was previously housed at the elementary school, but the Houston County Schools moved the grade level to the high school. The move is part of an eventual plan to establish a middle school campus in a section of the high school. Friday was the first day of school for all Houston County Schools.

The relocation of the countys career tech program to the new Houston County Career Center campus in Dothan made moving sixth grade to Ashford High possible, principal Bubba Odom said. Odom said about four teachers and more than 100 students transferred to Ashford High.

Misty Sheffield, a sixth-grade teacher who moved to Ashford High, said the relocation did pose a few challenges. Sheffield said she had to get used to a new facility, and because she went from teaching fourth grade to sixth grade, she had to make a few adjustments.

I used to teach several subjects, but now I teach one, so I had to get rid of some things, she said.

Sharon LeRoy, assistant principal of Ashford High, said the major challenge of the relocation was dealing with an influx of students new to the school. New students previously entered the seventh grade every year, but this year the school is getting new sixth- and seventh-graders. That means more students are having to get used to navigating the facility and dealing with things like changing classes and lockers.

Its going to take a little while to get everyone on the same page, she said.

Emma Helms is loving the move to the new school. Helms mother is a teacher at the high school.

I dont have to ride the bus anymore, she said.
As I begin writing this column, the national debt, according to the National Debt Clock, is $19,969,716,623,833.

I decided to look this up because the White House indicated recently that it would seek a clean increase of the debt ceiling, which means it and Congress will allow the country to incur more debt without drawing a hard line on spending.

I cant see how this will come to any good end.

Granted, I am no economist. Some economists argue that the national debt is not that big of a deal, at least compared to other potential triggers. I have a hard time buying that. Nor do I buy the notion that printing money will help the country ease out of its debt issue.

At some point in time (such as about 10 years ago), we have to come to two conclusions.

One, we have to reduce spending.

Two, thats going to hurt.

The interesting thing is that most people know this. What keeps this from happening is that we want to argue about who should get hurt. Some people want to protect entitlement programs because it is believed cutting those would disproportionately affect low income families. Some want to protect defense spending because it is believed more money is needed to keep America safe from all threats. No one wants to deal with Social Security because of its impact, of course, on seniors.

No to cutting farm subsidies. No to cutting corporate incentives. No to cutting foreign aid.

Elected officials cant back spending cuts that would affect their district and hope to get re-elected. So, we end up with clean increases of the debt ceiling, no matter who is in charge.

There is only one real solution, and I believe we will never agree to do this, but 

We have to cut across the board. If we cant agree to cut spending anywhere, we should cut spending everywhere.

If you believe we waste money on welfare by spending it on people who can afford to work, can you also agree that we have some waste in defense that can be rooted out? If corporate welfare makes you angry, can you also agree that Social Security can't be sustained in the long run?

Yes, this will be painful. Yes, it could send us into a recession. Somehow, we need a reset to make all of us understand that we really can do OK with less. That means every government agency prioritizing all of their programs and determining the best way to cut 10 percent.

Families do it all the time, and it is often painful. This is something we should all share in, not just a few of us.

The way I see it, we can all take some pain in the short term, or deal with cataclysm down the road.

Im through writing. The National Debt has increased another $6 million.

- -

What Im reading:

- Lance Griffins column appears Saturdays in the Dothan Eagle.
Hundreds of volunteers showed up Friday to show their support and demonstrate their dedication through the Wiregrass United Way pacesetter kickoff.

The agency has set a fundraising goal of $2,840,000, which will help fund various non-profit agencies throughout the Wiregrass. If the organization reaches the goal, the Wiregrass Foundation will contribute an additional $400,000 grant.

According to Walter Hill, chief executive officer of the Wiregrass United Way, last years goal was set at $2.811 million and he believes the pacesetters will see this years goal reached.

Pacesetters are businesses and organizations that conduct United Way campaigns between Aug. 1 and Sept. 15, and set the pace for the fundraising effort.

This year we have 102 pacesetters so far, Hill said. Of course that number will increase because there is still time available to participate as a pacesetter. The funds raised during this campaign will help fund 44 partnering agencies that operate in Barbour, Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry and Houston counties.

This years campaign chairman is Rich Merrell.

This event is about fundraising, Merrell said. But, this event is also about celebrating and thanking our volunteers. The volunteers are the ones getting out in the communities working towards the goal.

Merrell was approached by former chairman Mark Saliba about being the 2017 campaign chairman. He gladly accepted.

I have been a volunteer for the Wiregrass United Way for some time, Merrell said. During this time, I have actually learned just how much the Wiregrass United Way does help those who cant help themselves. I also know the purpose God has for me. My purpose is to make a difference, help people and help others be able to help people. I made a promise to myself a while back whatever I was asked to do for the Wiregrass United Way, I would do it."

Merrell said his participation in this years campaign is a way for him to show his dedication to his faith by serving God and serving others.

Miss Alabama 2017 Jessica Procter also attended this years event.

I know after this, we will prepare 20,000 meals, Procter said. That is amazing and that will go so far to help so many. If we can provide a meal for one person, that is one person who will have a meal and not be hungry. It starts with one and it is time to be the one to make a difference.

Following the kickoff, those in attendance helped package 20,000 meals, which will be provided to those in need throughout the Wiregrass.
The ECO-warriors 15 start-ups in Africa contributing to a greener economy

They are young and restless to make real improvements in poverty eradication and environmental sustainability. These locally led green start-ups across Africa are not just promising but also innovative in their approach. From providing clean energy to ensuring safe sanitation and reducing carbon emission to improving public health, the activities of these 15 start-ups in Africa are guided by a common objective: sustainable management of natural resources.
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Padraig Donlon, who has lived in Dundalk for more than thirty years, will take centre stage at this year's Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Ennis when he's awarded the Ard Ollamh na Fleadh accolade at a gala dinner in the West County Hotel on Wednesday night (August 16th).

The Ard Ollamh, or High Professor award, is one of the highest accolades granted by Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann - the primary organisation promoting traditional Irish music, song and dance in Ireland and around the world.

An All-Ireland uilleann pipes and tin whistle champion, Padraig receives the honour in recognition of the special contribution he has made to the on-going development of traditional music. A member of Louth County Councils technical staff, he has lived in Dundalk for more than thirty years, but maintains strong links with his Lanesborough roots in Longford.

He comes from a well-known musical family in South Longford. Both his mother Veronica, and his late Father Jim Donlon played the fiddle, and his sisters Teresa and Nuala are well-known musicians in the region.

He learned to play music from his father, and grew up playing music alongside local musicians such as Pat Shea, Peter Carberry, James Hanley, Dan Kelly, Paddy Kearney, Jimmy Fallon and Mickey Flynn. He spent much of his younger life playing in junior ceili bands organised by Fr. John Quinn, a curate for many years in Lanesborough. In addition to the All-Ireland titles he won on pipes and whistle, Padraig also holds an All Ireland trio title as well as five All-Ireland senior ceili band medals. He was a founder-member of the highly regarded Tain Ceili Band which won three All-Ireland titles in a row 1998-2000.

His contribution to the promotion of Irish music both at home and abroad is significant, and he is indeed a deserving recipient of this prestigious award. The Leinster representative to the Ard Comhairle of Comhaltas, Padraig is involved in organising and adjudicating at Fleadhanna Ceoil the length and breadth of Ireland, Britain and the USA. He was very much involved in organizing the recent Leinster Fleadh in Ballymahon where his daughter Fionnuala won the senior harp title and was also a member of the winning senior trio.

For more than three decades, he has taught music to young people in Dundalk and the surrounding areas, and indeed a number of his students have gone on to win All-Ireland titles on pipes and whistle.

As a member of Comhaltas tour groups, he has brought Irish music to audiences all over Europe, North America, Asia and Africa, and has performed at three World Expos. He introduced Bill Clinton to uileann pipe music during one of the former US President's visits here and has performed several times in Aras an Uachtarain for the current and previous presidents.

Married to Irish dancer Valerie Leech, Padraig has four children, all of whom have followed in their father's musical footsteps. They, along with the members of the Tain Ceili Band who are re-forming especially for the occasion will pay a musical tribute to the Longford man who has spent a lifetime selflessly promoting and passing on traditional music.
Verizon, the largest wireless phone company in the U.S., last week confirmed that data belonging to about six million of its wireless customers was exposed after the information mistakenly was allowed to remain unprotected on an Amazon cloud server.

The disclosure follows reports that an engineer at Nice Systems, which provides workforce management technology to track call center performance, allowed the data of 14 million Verizon customers to reside on an Amazon Web Services S3 bucket.

The Verizon data was part of a larger data exposure, according to UpGuard, the firm that discovered the problem.

Data from Orange, a Paris-based telecom, was exposed as well, it said.

Of greatest concern were the Verizon personal identification numbers that were left exposed, along with customers names, addresses and account information, said Chris Vickery, director of cyber risk research at UpGuard.

With that detail, a fraudster could have master access to a Verizon customers account control, he told the E-Commerce Times. It would be theoretically possible to order new hardware or issue a new SIM card for a phone.

Getting a new SIM card would allow a fraudulent actor to overcome two-factor authentication requirements, Vickery said.

Upguard disclosed the information to Verizon on June 13 and the breach was closed on June 22.

Nice Systems technology is used around the world for government surveillance, according to UpGuard.

Nice officials confirmed the Verizon exposure, but denied the error was indicative of any larger problem within the company. The company did not comment on the reported Orange data exposure.

A human error that is not related to any of our products or our production environments, nor their level of security, but rather to an isolated staging area with limited information on a specific project, allowed a customers data to be made public for a limited period of time, Nice said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Ilana Hart.

Disputed Impact

Data belonging to six million customers was exposed, Verizon confirmed.

The company is committed to customer security and privacy, it said, and it apologized for the incident.

The number of exposed accounts reported in the original media report was overstated, Verizon said.

A vendors employee put the data onto a cloud storage area and incorrectly set the storage to allow external access, Verizon explained, emphasizing that there was no loss or theft of Verizon customers information.

The only party  besides the vendor and Verizon  to gain access to the customers information was the researcher who discovered the exposure, Verizon said.

It was Chris Vickery, director of cyber risk research at UpGuard, who discovered the exposed data, an UpGuard spokesperson confirmed to the E-Commerce Times.

The back story to the incident is that the vendor was supporting an approved initiative to help Verizon improve a residential and small business wireline self-service call center portal and required certain data for the project, Verizon explained.

The overwhelming majority of the exposed data had no external value, the company said, but it confirmed that it included a limited amount of personal information.

The data supported a wireline portal, Verizon said, and it included a limited number of cellphone numbers for customer contact purposes.

To the extent that PINs were included in the data set, they were used to authenticate a customer calling into Verizons wireline call center, but they did not provide online access to customer accounts, according to the company.

Repeated Pattern

The Verizon data exposure is eerily similar to the breach of 198 million voter records at Deep Root Analytics, which also was sitting on Amazon S3 servers and was discovered by the same UpGuard researcher, noted Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president of cloud research at Trend Micro.

Although Upguard hasnt discussed how it discovered the exposed data, its likely the researcher scanned the S3 namespace  a unique root folder where users store their data  looking for misconfigured buckets, Nunnikhoven told the E-Commerce Times.

Amazon should not be blamed entirely for the incident, he said, noting that the S3 buckets are secure by default.

All AWS servers operated on a shared responsibility model for operations and security, he said. That means that both AWS and the user have responsibilities for securing data.

S3 customers have to decide which data to store and who can access it, Nunnikhoven noted.

It appears that in both of the recent cases, the customers took explicit steps to configure the policies to allow unauthorized access.

The pattern that is emerging, Vectra Networks CTO Oliver Tavakoli told the E-Commerce Times, is that the impact of a single, sloppy misconfiguration in the cloud is likely to have a much bigger effect than the same misconfiguration inside the companys own data center.
Staff engagement is a key component in a telcos ability to positively impact customers, based on new data from InMoment.

The company recently conducted a survey of 11,000 North American customers of Internet, mobile and TV services and found that telecommunications companies customers just plain hate them.

Telcos are turning to self-service, automation and artificial intelligence applications like chatbots, but these tools are appropriate only in some scenarios, InMoment suggested.

In many parts of the telco customer journey, positive human interactions are essential and contribute to a good user experience, the company maintained.

Telcos should emphasize emotional IQ, or EQ, in hiring and training personnel with high emotional intelligence for all client-facing roles, the study recommends.

This holds true especially for physical locations where elevated support issues likely will be handled.

Ideal Support Staff Traits

A huge indicator of whether support staff have what it takes for successful customer interactions is whether they really listen to and understand the issue, said Andrew Park, director of CX strategy at InMoment.

Support staff must be creative problem solvers, looking at each opportunity as an interesting puzzle to solve rather than a problem to get through, he told CRM Buyer. They should also be comfortable making smart, timely, yet empathetic decisions.

Telcos should pay greater attention to emotional trends and related areas of weakness, the study suggests.

We recommend [telcos] hire for connection, train for skills, Park said. Its much easier to train personnel on facts than [instill] emotional and personality traits that may not come naturally to everyone.

Telco Customers Disgust

Customer satisfaction fell at the one-year mark, no matter which service was used, as did the likelihood of a customer recommending the service provider to others, according to the survey.

Satisfaction over support staff knowledge, ability, efficiency, friendliness and helpfulness fell significantly at the one-year anniversary mark, and fluctuated throughout the term of a customers contract with the provider.

For many lines of service, the metrics showed no recovery of satisfaction.

Bill payment frustrations also peaked at the one-year anniversary mark. Both the ease of understanding a bill and the ease of paying it posed problems.

Customers who had switched providers in the previous year rated key areas of the user experience lower than those who had not switched, but they still were more likely to recommend their second provider.

Most major telcos have proactive outreach programs in the first year of their relationship with customers, but the outreach diminishes over time, the study found.

Many promotional offers expire at the one-year mark and a customers bill after that may differ from expectations. Customers were less willing to tolerate frustrations after the promotional period.

How Telcos Can Resolve the Problem

Telcos can invest in new technologies, such as remote diagnostic tools with video capabilities, the study suggests. That said, customer resolution strategies should include the option of human intervention with automated self-service solutions.

Automation works well for simple and known issues, InMoments Park pointed out. Humans always perform better in more complex and emotionally charged situations.

Sophisticated automation technology, such as AI chatbots, can understand what customers are saying in real time and trigger relevant follow-up questions to better understand what the next best action might be, Park observed.

For instance, if an AI chatbot detects a customers experiencing escalating frustration based on their word choice and sentiment, it can ask whether the customer would like to be immediately routed to a human for more personalized care, Park said.

Service reps who work well with people are hard to find and command a higher wage than traditional service reps, who are often hired because theyre cheap, observed Michael Jude, a research manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

Rather than treating customer service as an unavoidable overhead, operators should view it as the point of it all, he told CRM Buyer. A good customer service rep can upsell and reduce churn simply by being facilitative.
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(Photo: FAO)Pope Francis with FAO conference delegates during his June 11, 2015 audience.

Pope Francis has told the Food and Agricultural Organization that hunger is not just a natural phenomenon, but rather is the result of selfishness and wars.

The Pope on July 3 said that the FAO - must always be in a position to intervene when people do not have enough to eat.

Francis was addressing staff and employees of the Rome-based United Nations food agency gathered for their 40th general conference.

The Pope reminded the international community of its duty of solidarity.

He said malnutrition is the "result of a more complex condition of underdevelopment caused by the indifference of many or the selfishness of a few."

At the same time he noted, "All of us realize that the intention to provide everyone with his or her daily bread is not enough. Rather, there is a need to recognize that all have a right to it and they must therefore benefit from it."

Francis' message was read out by Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

In it the Pope wrote, "The Holy See closely follows the work of the international community and wishes to assist its efforts to promote not mere progress or development goals in theory, but rather the actual elimination of hunger and malnutrition.

"All of us realize that the intention to provide everyone with his or her daily bread is not enough."

"Rather," he said, "there is a need to recognize that all have a right to it and they must therefore benefit from it.

"If the goals we continue to propose still remain distant, that is largely dependent on the lack of a culture of solidarity, which fails to make headway amid other international activities, which often remain bound only to the pragmatism of statistics or the desire for efficiency that lacks the idea of sharing."

Pope Francis reminded humanity of the commitment asked of it by the 2030 Development Agenda, which restates the idea that food security as a goal that can no longer be put off.
(UN Photo: Jess Hoffman)Nicolas Maduro Moros, Venezuelan president, addresses the a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Nov. 12, 2015

The Vatican issued an unheeded urgent appeal to Venezuela's leaders to suspend its new Constituent Assembly which, it says, is threatening the future of the South American nation.

The strongly worded statement, issued by the Vatican's Secretariat of State, said Pope Francis is following closely the situation in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro accelerated a showdown with the opposition, as he inaugurated his bitterly-opposed new assembly.

The message came as the body's 545 delegates were installed at the legislative palace in Caracas, close to the chamber where the opposition-controlled National Assembly meets.

The Vatican had joined dozens of States in rejecting the new assembly, which it said "creates a climate of tension and conflict" in the overwhelmingly Catholic country, The Guardian reported.

The United States said will not recognise the consituent assembly, the State Department had said on Aug. 3, calling it "the illegitimate product of a flawed process," Reuters reported.

Despite the Vatican's strongly-worded statement, a Catholic priest gave his blessing at the inauguration on Friday of the body which will have the power to rewrite the constitution and dissolve State institutions.

Maduro wants the new Constituent Assembly to rewrite the country's constitution and holds powers that override all other government branches.

Opposition leaders have denounced the erosion of democracy and pledged they will only be removed by force.

More than 125 people have already been killed in over three months of violent anti-government protests.

The statement expresses "profound concern for the radicalisation and worsening of the crisis," including the increase in deaths, injuries and arrests of protesters.

It called on all of Venezuela's politicians, in particular, the government, to guarantee "full respect for human rights and basic freedoms, as well as for the existing Constitution."

The Vatican said the new Constituent Assembly should be "avoided or suspended" since its "foments a climate of tension and conflict" which "mortgages the future" of the country, rather than fostering reconciliation and peace.

The statement calls for a negotiated solution, along the lines already indicated in a previous letter from the Secretary of State on December 1, 2016.

These solutions must take into account "the serious suffering of the people", due to a lack of security, as well as the shortages of food and medicine.
To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.


The United States administration has unveiled a new immigration plan based on programmes currently in place in Australia and Canada which has already been criticised as favouring professional people who can speak English well.A new Bill, called the Raise Act, sets out an immigration policy focussing on skilled professionals which would cut the overall number of people moving to the US by 50% over the next 10 years.President Donald Trump introduced the plan at the White House and said it is partly based on the Australian and Canadian immigration models. He did not hide the fact that it aims to attract professional English speaking people with the ability to earn a high wage.The competitive application process will favour applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy, Trump told reporters.It aims to be tougher than the current system and crackdown on immigrants being able to claim benefits. The Raise Act prevents new migrants and new immigrants from collecting welfare, and protects US workers from being displaced, Trump added.Officials explained that parts of both the Australian and Canadian visa systems which they think work well have been incorporated in the new legislation. They were impressed by the way that the Australian system makes sure that immigrants are self-sufficient and able to pay for their own health care.The points based system in Canada was used as a basis for the new US policy while some new aspects have been added in terms of making the new visa application system in American highly competitive.The draft bill appears to reflect Trumps promises during his election campaign to be tougher on immigration. Currently more than a million people from abroad are granted green cards to live permanently in the US and officials said that the new rules would cut that figure in half.They added that such a tough stance will stop low paid, unskilled foreign workers depressing the wages of Americans and save taxpayers billions of dollars in immigrant welfare claims.This legislation will not only restore our competitive edge in the 21st century but it will restore the sacred bonds of trust between America and its citizens, Trump added.However, immigration experts have already criticised the proposals. According to Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, the bill would cut overall immigration levels and not increase employment based green cards.The immigration systems in Canada and Australia do emphasise skilled immigrants over family members, but their immigration systems allow in far more immigrants, as a percentage of the population in both countries, than the United States, he said.Republican Senator for South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, said that while he supports a merit-based immigration system to attract the best and brightest, the cuts to numbers could hurt agriculture and tourism states like South Carolina that rely on immigrant labour.
ofwinUAE said: Hello! My company filed a criminal case against me, they accused me that I took 20,000 dirhams. I already have my court hearing on September 18.



But last week my company withdrew the case that they filed. They gave me the original copy of the notarized withdrawal paper of the case and stamped by the judicial department. Does it means that the case is already closed? Or do i still have the court hearing on September? Because I check the online system using my case number the case status is referred to court and still stated my court hearing on September, but they already withdraw the case against me. Im so confused!! Click to expand...

That's good news, I'm gad it worked out this way for you. In this case, I suggest you visit the courthouse and ask about the status in-person. You can even ask them to print the details of the case and they will give you a copy of the related paperwork so you can keep a record.I say this from experience. Even if everything seems well, it doesn't hurt to go and verify. It will cost you nothing but give you peace of mind.There is a counter in the middle of the round hall at the courthouse, there's usually a couple of ladies staffing it. Also the service to print the papers should be free.
Hi expat forums.

I have applied my EOI on march for 190 visa which I have 60 points.

And before the last invitation round I have added 489 to the EOI which I have 65 points.

Is it normal to take that long to get the invitation?





Thanks in advance for the help
My father wants to visit us in Australia. I am preparing the documents for him to apply the Visitor visa 600 (under tourist stream).



I want him to stay here for 3 months to spend some time with us.



The online application asks for "Planned tourism activities, Evidence of".



What is this evidence and what can be used to show that he will be spending some time with us. And we will be going to sight seeing on and off.



Any suggestion or example on how to deal with this requirement, would be helpful.



I am a PR and mainly he will stay with us, but he will also go to my brother who is not PR and lives at another place.
ravi.nidadavolu said: Hey thank you Zaback. I come from a proper tropical dry weather place where I grew up all my life and now staying in a cool weather zone which is also mostly dry. I am OK with the Sydney weather as I have experienced the heat, the rain and the cold there during my stay for a week. So :fingerscrossed: Click to expand...

Apart from weather and jobs, you need to also take into account the housing costs. Due to high demand, buying a house in Sydney is next to impossible. Sometime back there was a news that even a businessman can't buy house in Sydney as average cost is above 1.5 to 2 million dollars. Melbourne too is has expensive suburbs but you can still buy a house in certain pockets under 500k.Jobwise, I believe Sydney has edge only if you have finance background because Sydney has finance plus IT jobs whereas Melbourne has good IT job market but not many jobs in finance industry.As a plus, Sydney has plenty of nice beaches. Melbourne on the other hand is the sports capital of the world, so it hosts plenty of sports events like Australian open, football, cricket etc.Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
Glad you're safe, but still a scary experience. I can't imagine my reaction had I lived in the building.



Might want to look at the Greens before rents soar. I've lived in both high rises and low rises and now I'm in a low rise apartment overlooking the lake in the Greens and while I miss the views of the towers I have no regrets. The risk of fire was always in the back of my mind when I lived in the high rises and now I'm only two floors down to safety!



By the way, what will you do? What happens to the tenants of the apartments affected? Rental demand for the building must be utterly gone now.
Local officials wasted no time in launching a bid Friday for the new $1.6 billion factory Toyota said it plans to build with Mazda in the U.S.  hours after the companies made the announcement.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff immediately pounced on the news, announcing the city and county will work with state officials to win over Toyota, which already builds Tacoma and Tundra pickups at its San Antonio plant.

We know the competition to win the plant will be fierce. Still, this team has been successful before, and we look forward to the challenge, Nirenberg said in a statement.

He said the local Toyota plant, which opened in 2006, is an asset to the community.

The new U.S. plant will employ about 4,000 workers, Toyota said.

The automotive manufacturing industry has long been targeted by local economic development officials. Weve built a decadeslong relationship with Japan and have an experienced workforce, Nirenberg said.

Wolff echoed Nirenbergs sentiment, saying, Toyota and Mazda are not going to find a better site than ours.

Toyota said Friday it was moving production of some of its Tacoma trucks  which are made in San Antonio and Baja California  to a new plant in Mexico as part of the joint venture with Japanese manufacturer Mazda.

The change came about after the company decided to shift production of its popular Corolla sedan from its facility in Guanajuato, Mexico, which is still under construction, to a new assembly plant to be built in the U.S. by 2020 as part of the deal. The plant, the location of which hasnt been announced, will also build an unnamed Mazda compact utility vehicle, Toyota said.

The Guanajuato plant wont affect jobs at the Texas and Baja California, Mexico, facilities that currently produce the Tacomas, said Toyota spokesman Aaron Fowles.

Company executives hope the new plant in Mexico will ease the workload in San Antonio and Baja California, where Toyota has had to add shifts and pay overtime to keep up with demand for the popular midsize pickup.

Were not having enough time to maintain our equipment because its just running continuously, Mario Lozoya, spokesman for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas, the San Antonio plant, said. This announcement, what it does is allow for more capacity for the Tacoma and our goal here, locally, is to try to bring (San Antonio)  back to a normal production schedule that we have been doing in the past.

The San Antonio plant  which is the sole producer of Tundra full-size pickups, in addition to Tacomas  has been running an extra Saturday shift in addition to overtime to keep up with demand since April 2015. The plant, which was constructed with a production capacity of 200,000 vehicles a year, has been producing more than 230,000 for at least the past two years.

Its just really a way to alleviate some of the overtime and alternative work schedule stuff thats going on at those plants right now, Fowles said.

Lozoya estimated that customers wanted 50,000 more Tacomas last year than the company could deliver. Toyota sold 191,631 Tacomas and 115,489 Tundras in 2016.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The Baja California plant, which builds only Tacomas, has a production capacity of roughly 100,000 vehicles a year and is undergoing a $150 million upgrade to boost production by 60,000 Tacomas by 2018. Fowles said that investment wont be affected by the new plant in Mexico.

President Donald Trump had singled out the Guanajuato investment in January for scrutiny. In a tweet on Jan. 6 Trump said: Toyota Motor said (it) will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax. The tweet confused the Baja California plant with the Guanajuato facility.

Fowles said the plans for the joint venture were announced in May 2015 but that the U.S. investment is in line with the administrations objective. Toyota is taking a 5 percent stake in Mazda as part of the deal.

The $1 billion plant in Guanajuato, Mexico  which broke ground in November  will be retooled to build Tacomas, Toyota said. The switch to Tacomas will push back the plants start-of-operations date from 2019 to mid-2020, Fowles said.

While there is no production estimate for the new facility, Fowles said it is an increase of what we have in production capacity both in Texas and in Baja.

It will start production earlier than the new U.S. plant that were going to be building with Mazda, so we can pull forward the supply of trucks to meet the growing customers need and production capacity four years earlier than we had originally planned, Fowles said.

rdruzin@express-news.net

@druz_journo
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There is something special about the venue where filmmaker Marcella Ochoa is showing her new short film My Name is Maria de Jesus: Her parents graduated there.

Sal and Mary Jessie Ochoa, both 70, went to Fox Tech High School, and their graduation ceremony was at Municipal Auditorium. The renovated auditorium, now the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, is the site of the San Antonio Film Festival, where Ochoas short drama will be screened Saturday.

Ochoa, 36, said her parents experience in school inspired her to make My Name is Maria de Jesus.

In 1950s San Antonio, she said, Sal and Mary Jessies teachers taught them to bottle up their Hispanic heritage, even belittling them for speaking Spanish in public. Sal, a second-generation Mexican-American, and Mary Jessie, whose parents were Mexican and Spanish, would be considered American  nothing else.

The mindset was youre embarrassed about your language, Sal said. Youre embarrassed about your language and embarrassed about your culture.

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The assimilation was especially difficult for Mary Jessie, who had to change her name in grade school to be like the other kids around her. Thats reflected in the movies title, and its tag line: To defeat a people, take away their language.

Because of their experience, the Ochoas didnt teach their daughters to speak Spanish, though they subsequently learned the language. In fact, Marcella Ochoa said, when she moved to Los Angeles and went to work in the film industry, she often was asked why she wasnt fluent in Spanish  a fun-house mirror inversion of what had happened to her parents.

She said she made the movie to try to reconnect with her roots.

My Name is Maria de Jesus is set during the 1950s and the late 1980s, when Ochoa was a child. The director plays her mother in late 1980s suburbia, while a young actress named Jasmine Linares is adolescent Mary Jessie in the 1950s.

The short begins with young Mary Jessie being disciplined by her teacher, who wields a ruler and a stone-cold glare, telling the girl to forget her name is Maria de Jesus. It will now be Mary Jessie.

Mary Jessie said its an accurate reflection of what happened to her at Beacon Hill Elementary School, a scene, she and her husband added, that happened frequently across Texas at the time.

The final minutes include a candid, documentary-style interview with Mary Jessie about her childhood.

Marcella Ochoa said her goal was to illustrate the need to take pride in your family heritage.

Im trying to create content that is not stereotypical, not racist, but (has) really good roles, she said.

RELATED: Historic Monte Vista home gets contemporary update

Ochoa and her parents now live in California. Ochoa grew up in San Diego after moving with her family from San Antonio at the age of 6.

She returned to San Antonio this week to watch My Name is Maria de Jesus alongside her extended family. About 80 relatives will come to support her, she said, limo, Casa Rio dinner and all.

The journey for Ochoa and her family has come full circle now that they are showing their pasts on the big screen.

Its an honor and a privilege. We are proud of her, Sal Ochoa said. She was very passionate about her culture and her language. She pushed us to do something about it.

My Name is Maria de Jesus will screen at 3:30 p.m. Saturday the Tobin Center. For full festival listings and ticket information, go online to safilm.com

osanchez@express-news.net

Twitter: @OhMySanchez
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Summer vacations are a thing for San Antonio taquerias. And for the ones without websites or Facebook pages, the vacations always happening the day you show up.

Fortunately, on Commercial Drive theres inevitably another taqueria you didnt know about just a few blocks down. Thats how Don Tonys hit my radar, by accident, on the rebound from a vacation no-show.

Dont get me wrong, Don Tonys is hard to miss, a bold study in yellow and orange with Don Tony spelled out against the sky in a bold deco font. Its just as electrified inside, with walls as orange as The Thing from the Fantastic Four, Mexican blankets for tablecloths and a bandoliered bandita muraled across the back of the room.

Don Tonys menu includes more than 20 tacos, but Ill have to take their word about the burgers y mas part. Taco troubles sapped my spirit of discovery.

Tacos: A country ranchero taco usually suggests smoked sausage and a sweet-crunchy-hot trifecta of grilled pico de gallo. It was all there at Don Tonys, in name anyway. Except the sausage had some bone-hard gristle, the onions had gone sour and the whole thing tasted like a burnt offering to the grill-oil gods ($1.59 on flour, $1.49 on corn).

Sour onions also fouled Don Tonys al pastor, which was already on the ropes with tough pork that tasted like vinegar and Dorito dust ($1.99 on corn, $2.25 on flour). Even a simple weenie and egg taco carried acrid debris from an overworked grill in need of a scrapedown ($1.59 on flour, $1.49 on corn).

Tortillas: Don Tonys handmade corn and flour tortillas were the best part of a failed lunch. They kept their shape, strength and softness through it all.

Salsa: It was a bad onion day at Don Tonys, and the sourness spread to a thick salsa fresca that came with the chip basket. Squeeze bottles of blistering chile de arbol and cool jalapeno verde were decent salsas looking for better places to land.

Location: 3202 Commercial Ave., 210-667-4768, no web presence

Rating: Once was enough

Follow the complete 365 Days of Tacos series at ExpressNews.com/Tacos. Get 365 Days of Tacos sent to your inbox. Sign up here.

msutter@express-news.net

Twitter: @fedmanwalking
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City and county officials have begun a long-awaited flood-control project on the near North Side, starting the first of phase of work to improve an area where dozens of homes were badly damaged in a torrential Memorial Day weekend deluge north of Olmos Basin four years ago.

Councilman Roberto Trevino said the $6.2 million Barbara Drive Drainage Phase 1 Project will widen and reconstruct an existing drainage system, providing a 150-foot-wide earthen channel with the capacity to collect more surface water runoff than the existing drainage structures in the area of a 100-year floodplain. Improvements from McCullough Avenue to Basin Drive will expand the the capacity of the underground storm system from Barbara Drive to Oblate Drive, replace box culverts and realign Basin Drive from Shannon Lee Drive to the alley north of Sharon Drive.

Engineers believe that replacing an existing culvert with the open earthen channel will be instrumental in preventing future flash flooding between North Star Mall and Alamo Quarry Market.

City officials also mentioned the addition of walking paths and safety lighting in an effort to create a parklike aesthetic with landscape restoration as part of the project.

At least 23 homes in the Ridgeview-Shearer Hills neighborhood were heavily damaged in a May 2013 flood event that caused three deaths in Bexar County. Nearly 60 other homes there incurred minor damage.

Even before the 2013 storm, which dumped up to 14 inches of rain in the area, the neighborhood had regularly incurred flooding problems in heavy rain.

Safety is our No. 1 priority, and this project will address residents concerns as well as provide green space for the neighborhood to exercise and play, Trevino told residents who attended a groundbreaking ceremony Friday morning.

The project, managed by the citys Transportation & Capital Improvements, was designed by Civil Engineering Consultants and will be handled by SB Contractors LLC. It will be funded through the citys Storm Water Regional Facilities Program and an interlocal agreement with Bexar County. The project is set to be completed in September 2018.

City officials have said the project, part of a larger multiphase effort in the area, will force partial street closures on Shannon Lee, Barbara and Oblate drives, resulting in temporary detours.

Since the 2013 flood, 34 homes in the neighborhood, mostly located near a stormwater channel and in the 200 block of Barbara and 300 block of Shannon Lee, were demolished through city-funded buyouts. In 2015, the county committed $8.5 million for drainage upgrades. Engineers determined that the homes were in an area that needed to be cleared in order to provide a practical flood-control solution.

According to a 2014 San Antonio Express-News article, Diego Bernal, who preceded Trevino as councilman and now is a state legislator, said the buyout plan was one of the most difficult issues he had faced. He decided to encourage residents to consider selling their property for their own sense of security and best interests of the neighborhood.

shuddleston@express-news.net

Twitter: @shuddlestonSA
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A House committee on Friday agreed to expand protections for military bases in a bill that gives homeowners the right to vote on whether they will be annexed by a city.

The House Land and Resource Management Committee unanimously approved changes to Senate Bill 6 that increase the proposed buffer zone around military installations from a quarter-mile to 5 miles, in line with requests from San Antonio city officials and others.

The change, however, sets up a potential showdown with the Senate, which has preferred a smaller buffer zone. The buffer is meant to help cities control development around military installations to protect the military mission.

The bills sponsor, Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, was unavailable for comment Friday. Her chief of staff, Jon Oliver, declined to say whether Campbell supports the new version.

We trust the House to move the best version of the bill forward and she will let that process play out, he said. The bill cleared the Senate last month.

Democratic Rep. Abel Herrero of Corpus Christi, chairman of the Land and Resource Management Committee, said the expanded buffer is important to protecting military bases and their associated economic benefits. He didnt talk to Campbell about the changes before the committee adopted them, he said.

It was important for us to make sure we provided those recommendations that not only help allow the military installations to continue their operations, but also, most importantly, to maintain the jobs and the growth these communities depend on, he said.

The 5-mile distance represents a recommendation from the Joint Land Use Study of San Antonio military bases. Any other number would be arbitrary, said Jeff Coyle, director of government and public affairs for San Antonio.

We are glad that the committee recognizes the importance of providing a buffer to ensure compatible development near our military bases, he said in a statement.

Annexation has been used to manage development around military installations because cities have power that counties dont to regulate noise, light and building height, among other factors.

During the regular session, Democrat Sen. Jose Menendez of San Antonio used a filibuster to kill a similar annexation bill after language letting cities regulate land use around military installations was removed.

He called the committees expansion of the buffer zone Friday a step in the right direction and said the Senate is generally open to the idea.

Annexation is one of several issues lawmakers are considering during the special session. Supporters of the bill argue homeowners should have a say in whether they become part of a city and have to pay associated taxes. Critics, including many municipal officials, worry the measure will hamper their ability to annex new land and manage city growth.

The bill now goes to the Calendars Committee, where it will wait for scheduling to be taken up by the full House.

amorris@express-news.net
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When the first automobiles  or horseless carriages as they were called  arrived in San Antonio, the citys residents were more than ready.

San Antonio literally stank, especially during the heat of summers, because of the animal-drawn buggies, carriages, streetcars, omnibuses and delivery vehicles.

The arrival of the automobile got rid of all the horses, mules and oxen, making San Antonio more sanitary. The blight of manure on the streets, the disease and the flies, went away, said Hugh Hemphill, Texas Transportation Museum manager and author of San Antonio on Wheels.

As in other cities, too, the automobile transformed San Antonio in many other ways, guiding its daily life, growth and commerce.

Hemphill cannot fully document it, but he believes the first horseless carriage to make a San Antonio appearance came in 1897.

The Montgomery Ward company that year purchased two electric-powered cars and conducted a tour in Texas to show them off. San Antonio staged a large international fair each year in those days, and Montgomery Ward was a main participant. It is documented that the two Montgomery Ward-owned autos were seen in Houston and Dallas in 1897, and they almost certainly came to San Antonio, too, Hemphill said, because San Antonio was the second-largest city in Texas after Galveston at the time.

A San Antonian named George Lutz built a prototype steam-powered vehicle the next year, in 1898. He started a firm called the Lutz Steam Co. to build and sell the vehicle, but it was gone by 1899. No photo of the vehicle exists. Lutz re-appeared in 1917 in Buffalo, N.Y., still trying to build steam-powered autos, but production never materialized beyond a possible second prototype.

In 1899, though, another electric vehicle arrived, announced by an advertisement in San Antonios The Daily Light newspaper placed by Staacke Bros., a livery company that sold and serviced buggies and carriages. The electric car was probably a Studebaker, since Staacke Bros. sold Studebaker wagons.

The newspaper ad, dated Oct. 20, 1899, reported that the batteries had not arrived with the vehicle. The wheels have wooden spokes and rubber tires. The lights on either side of the dashboard are lighted by electricity, the ad stated.

We dont know what happened to it, Hemphill said. Without the batteries, there was no article about its performance. We dont know if it was sold, and how the batteries were charged.

A San Antonio banker, J.D. Anderson, purchased the first gasoline-powered car in San Antonio in 1901, Hemphill said. It was a Haynes-Apperson model. Anderson in 1903 became one of the 13 original members of the San Antonio Automobile Club.

But 1902 was a big year for autos in San Antonio, thanks to downtown bicycle stores. The Roach & Barnes store at 218 W. Commerce St. in February put on display a steam-powered Locomobile built in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

A few months later, during the summer of 1902, the Crothers & Birdsong bicycle store purchased the gasoline-powered Curved Dash Oldsmobile, the nations first mass-produced car.

Lewis Birdsong and Frank Crothers were young men in their early 20s who had read magazine accounts of autos but had never seen one. They assembled the Curved Dash Oldsmobile in a backyard at 708 Marshall St. after it arrived by a horse-drawn wagon in a crate. They added oil and fuel and used a handcrank to start the one-cylinder engine under the seat.

They drove around in the yard before taking it onto the few paved streets at the time, including South Alamo Street, going 12 mph. They made it to a horse racetrack on McDonald Street, now Riverside Park, and raced the vehicle up to 30 mph.

Birdsong and Crothers had a great day. On the way back to the house, they were stopped by someone who offered to buy it. In one day, these young men had built it, learned to drive it and sold it, in the process becoming San Antonios first automobile dealer. They then ordered another one, Hemphill said.

The San Antonio Automobile Club formed in 1903 and scheduled activities that helped popularize the auto for a still-skeptical public. Members organized group excursions. The first involved 12 vehicles that traveled to the Medina River and back on a road toward Corpus Christi.

A second club task was to bring election results from outlying counties to the San Antonio Express newspaper. The third excursion, with only three cars, went from downtown San Antonio to New Braunfels, the main difficulty crossing the dry, boulder-strewn Cibolo Creek bed.

In later years, club members went on to establish the first road maps and advocated with San Antonios local governments for better roads and for driving rules. The first locally issued regulations in 1910, Hemphill said, included the rule to drive on the right side of the road. These early motorists took over the mantle from the cyclists to improve the roads, Hemphill observed.

In 1904, Birdsong and friend Welcome Smith embarked on a promotion tour throughout Texas with a Curved Dash Oldsmobile, sending reports to newspapers along the way. Their car was the first view for many Texans in smaller towns of a horseless carriage, Hemphill said.

The first asphalt in San Antonio, which came from a mine near Uvalde, was put down on the downtown corner of St. Marys and Market streets as a test section, Hemphill said.

The first recorded San Antonio auto accident occurred after a San Antonio lawyer, T.T. VanderHoeven, purchased a 1906 Woods Electric Victoria for his wife, Eva. On her first try at driving the car, Eva somehow dragged a man by his suitcoat across Alamo Plaza. She never drove the vehicle again, according to Hemphill. The settlement: a new suit for the victim.

Year-by-year in the first decade of the 1900s, carmakers nationally struggled to dominate the burgeoning industry, a competition famously won by Henry Ford.

Ford found success across the nation and in San Antonio first with the still-pricey Ford Model N. The Ford company opened an agency in San Antonio in 1908 with the Model N, the same year the more affordable Model T was introduced.

Heres the interesting thing. The (agency) building was literally in the shadow of the Alamo, at 720 E. Houston St., Hemphill said. The first Model Ts were sold and serviced in San Antonio there.

The introduction of the Model T democratized vehicle ownership. A middle-class person could reasonably expect to own an automobile, Hemphill said. The Model T was not only a low-budget car, it was made of steel, not wood.

The automobile revolution was on, accelerating the pace of change in San Antonio.

The automobile didnt just make it easier to get around town, it made San Antonio less isolated from the rest of the country once the Old Spanish Trail Highway and other roads, predecessors of the interstate highway system, began linking San Antonio with other cities in the 1920s, said historian and author Lewis Fisher.

Earlier, the automobile changed the face of the city as increased traffic caused the city to widen the narrow Spanish streets. It was usually done by forcing property owners on one side to shear off their facades and build new ones farther back, making old landmarks unrecognizable. A rare downtown exception was Losoya Street, which for one block has surviving landmarks that still give a sense of what streets were like a century ago, and, by necessity, is one way, Fisher added.

The automobile helped accelerate the development of suburbs, the wealthy suburbs and the less wealthy suburbs, Hemphill said. It also allowed for zoning, with heavy industry, warehousing and manufacturing moving from the city center. Before trucks, these businesses had to be downtown because thats where the railroads were. So automobiles made the city cleaner.

A cleaner San Antonio also had a more mobile citizenry, freeing the city to grow as never before. The San Antonio of the 1800s and its smells were gone forever.
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The Internet had been brought to its knees. In 1988, a computer program written by a graduate student named Robert Morris snaked its way across much of the early Internet. The so-called Morris Worm infected and crashed anywhere from one-sixth to one-third of all computers connected to the Internet, according to a Government Accountability Office report from the time.

Shortly after the worms demise, a young Air Force officer named Lee Sutterfield left San Antonio for a closed council in California on lessons from the attack. The virus had been defeated, but the response had been piecemeal. Sutterfield, along with his boss, Greg White, listened as experts from across the country spoke of the need to work together on cybersecurity.

Sutterfield and White returned to San Antonios Security Hill believing that the Air Force needed a team of its own to take on hackers and other threats. What happened next at Security Hill gave birth to the Air Force Computer Emergency Response Team, revolutionized how the military saw cybersecurity and led to an intrusion detection system that shaped the growing Internet.

The Internet in the late 80s was like the Wild West, with tech-savvy pioneers rewriting rules as they went. This held true even in the Air Force. Sutterfield, called a free agent by those nominally in charge of him, was someone known as an evangelist for change. He and White spent hours talking about how the Air Force needed to change its cyberstrategy.

It was really only just a few of us here, Sutterfield said. We were tasked with writing the next generations policies for the Air Force. What was in place was not working well.

If we owned the world, how would we construct this? White recalled being asked. If we were in charge, how would we do it?

The problem: Air Force cybersecurity remained analog. Regulations focused on keeping doors locked to the computer room, not on protecting the actual data on those computers.

Invariably, something is going to happen, White said. And when that happens, you need to detect when prevention failed, and you need to be able to respond to that in real time.

Fred Ramirez, one of many Hispanic administrators on Security Hill at the time, likened the Internet to an apartment complex attacked by robbers. He said asking each resident to lock their own doors was wishful thinking. Instead, the Internet needed alarm systems and security guards.

The Air Force Community Emergency Response Team, created in the wake of the Morris Worm, would be the services Internet security response, its A-Team, its Avengers. The team aimed to monitor anomalies, track patterns and then deploy and destroy threats. Young officers such as Toney Jennings, who was slated for a tour at a missile silo, were instead sent to Security Hill to develop Air Force cybersecurity.

There was nothing to go by, said Raul Salas, one of Sutterfields bosses. We knew we had responsibility over the entire Air Force, to protect its systems. How are we going to do that?

AFCERT found its first test in the summer of 1990, when Sutterfield got a call from the FBI. As the Gulf War loomed, hackers had attacked Army and Air Force computers. The FBI called the AFCERT in San Antonio and asked for help in its investigation.

The hackers, according to the FBI, followed certain patterns. The attacks began in April 1990 and ended in May 1991, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The hackers used university and government sites as platforms to enter military systems.

They found computers with easily guessed passwords or no passwords. In some cases, they found computers with hidden accounts used by contractors to maintain the computers. Once they were in, they created bogus accounts with administrator privileges.

The FBI told Sutterfield that the hackers attacked a certain type of operating system. The Internet was smaller then, just 5,000 networks used by the government and universities. Sutterfield searched for all Air Force computers using that particular operating system and connected to the Internet. There were 73.

Sutterfield wanted to know how many of these 73 computers had been attacked. He and others at the AFCERT began calling administrators at each of the systems to check for bogus accounts, according to an oral history recorded by an Air Force historian.

We would ask them these questions and ask them to do one of two things: You either need to block this, or you  leave the accounts open and let us work with you to monitor them, Sutterfield said.

In essence, Sutterfield was asking system administrators to run a very crude honeypot operation. Instead of shutting down the hackers activity, the AFCERT could watch what the hackers were doing and what they were after  two key pieces of information. Sutterfield said such an operation would be among the first of its kind.

There was no precedent set for this, said Todd Schell, an Air Force officer who worked on the case with Sutterfield. We hadnt detected attacks against our networks where we were watching people live.

The risk, Schell said, was that letting a hacker run free could lead to the attack slipping out of control. What Sutterfield wanted was a big request for an organization  the AFCERT  that few in the Air Force knew about.

Of course, we actually  literally and technically  had no authority to do this, Sutterfield said. No one had really authorized this.

We were improvising, no doubt about it at the time, Schell said.

System after system rejected the AFCERTs plea. When organizations found that they had been hacked, they would rather shut the attack down than let it run for data. Then, at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, two system administrators decided to give the experiment a chance. They put their commander on the line with Sutterfield, who explained what the AFCERT wanted to do.

He was a really smart guy, Sutterfield recalled. He heard us out, then he asked, Who are you guys again?

The commander said the AFCERT could monitor the hackers on Kirtlands systems, but if anything went awry, the whole thing would get shut down immediately. Sutterfield reassured him by saying other bases would do the same thing, which was a bluff.

We got lucky at this one facility, Sutterfield said. That was our source of data.

The two system administrators at Kirkland monitored what the hackers were doing over the next three days. They sent information, which included IP addresses and domain names, to the AFCERT, which forwarded it to the FBI.

The hacks were eventually traced to Geldrop, Holland. Investigators found that the hackers had accessed information on the Patriot missile launching system and the Tomahawk cruise missile. They learned about the mobilization of military reserves for the Gulf War. They had also entered systems at the Kennedy Space Center and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

No arrests occurred as a result of the hacks, as the Netherlands had no laws barring unauthorized computer access, according to a 1991 New York Times article.

Today, each branch of the military has its own version of AFCERT. San Antonio has the nations second-largest concentration of cybersecurity experts, according to Port San Antonio. It boasts the 24th Air Force, also known as Air Forces Cyber, and the Texas branch of the National Security Agency. It is also home to the University of Texas at San Antonio, which has one of the nations top cybersecurity programs and where White currently teaches as a professor.

This needed to be done  this idea that we have to have an organization dedicated to cybersecurity and cyberincident response, said Col. Brad Pyburn, commander of the 67th Cyberspace Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

Many of the early Air Force cyberpioneers went on to form their own company, the WheelGroup. There, they developed a product that would shape the publics growing use of the Internet: NetRanger.

During the Dutch hacker case, the system administrators at Kirtland had to manually search for evidence of hacking. NetRanger aimed to observe attacks or suspicious activity automatically as they passed through the network.

How can you automate that so that a computer security system would automatically catch the bad guys without a lot of human involvement? said Jennings, the young officer who helped develop Air Force cybersecurity. We took the experience and everything we learned from our time in the Air Force and rolled that into a commercial product.

In 1998, Cisco bought WheelGroup, and NetRanger became the backbone of the networking giants intrusion prevention systems, which bolstered firewalls across the growing Internet of the early 2000s. Today, cybersecurity measures are more sophisticated, but they follow in the footsteps of NetRanger.

I just think it was a seed that has grown into a lot of things you see in the world, said Sutterfield, who with White was elected to San Antonios Cyber Hall of Honor in 2016. He called it a seed that grew into a beautiful, big oak tree.

COMING SUNDAY: San Antonios first autos and how they changed the city.
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MANHEIM, Pa.  Kreider Farms, one of Pennsylvanias largest egg and dairy farms, has helped to honor an 18th-century Native American couple that lived and were buried on Kreider property more than two centuries ago. The couple is documented as the last Conestoga Indians living in Lancaster County, and the story of their escaping massacres that wiped out the remaining Conestoga Indians in the county is a harrowing tale.

Michael and Mary were residents of Conestoga Indian Town near present-day Millersville, Pa. Well before the massacres, they left the town and moved to the farm of Christian and Anna Hershey, ancestors of the founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company. When a Hershey married a Kreider, the Hershey property eventually became a part of Kreider Farms.

Local historian and Kreider Farms honor Michael and Mary

Ron Kreider, president of Kreider Farms, had been working with a local historian on the Hershey-Kreider family history and was aware of Michael and Marys graves. He had the grave site cleared of debris and, in 2016, met Arthur Young, a local man who had an interest in American Indian history. Young expressed interest in Michael and Marys story. He offered to create a permanent memorial for the couple, and he has maintained the site ever since.

In July 2017, Kreider Farms unveiled a sign on the railing of its 100-ft.-tall observation tower, which is located within view of the memorial. The sign tells the story of Michael and Mary and points out the location of their graves. The Kreider observation tower was built from an old grain silo that was moved in May 2016 to its current location from another section of the farm approximately 300 yards away.

Kreider Farms car and bus tours and observation tower tours are available Monday through Saturday, and advance reservations are required. For reservations, call Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to noon, at 717-665-5039, or email at farmtour@kreiderfarms.com. Tours should be scheduled at least three days in advance.

Conestoga Indian massacres

In late 1763, six Native American residents of Conestoga Town were massacred by a vigilante group known as the Paxton Rangers from Dauphin County, Pa. Two weeks later, the Paxton Boys, as they also were known, killed 14 Conestoga Indians who had been moved to a Lancaster workhouse for their protection. When the Paxtons went to the Hersey farm looking for Michael and Mary  the last of the Conestoga tribe  Christian and Anna hid the couple in the cellar under their farm house. When the danger passed, the couple remained on the farm and lived there until their deaths in their late 80s. They were buried on the property near the site of their home.

About Kreider Farms

Founded in 1935, Kreider Farms is one of Pennsylvanias largest dairy farms, supplying fresh, high-quality eggs, milk, drinks and premium batch-churned ice cream. Headquartered in Manheim, Pa., this third-generation, family-owned and operated company includes more than 2,800 acres with six million egg-laying chickens, 1,600 cows and a milk bottling and ice cream plant.

Kreider Farms mission is to achieve excellence in delivering low-cost, high-quality products and services to its customers; to be good neighbors and stewards of the land; to operate efficient, state-of-the-art facilities and create an innovative work environment of openness, honesty and personal satisfaction.

Kreider Farms offers farm tours as part of its effort to educate the public about sustainable farming. In 2016, Kreider Farms converted one of its silos into a 100-ft.-tall observation tower, which is now open to the public. For more information, please visit KreiderFarms.com or Facebook.com/kreiderfarms.
Emily Blunt had "so much fun" voicing 'Animal Crackers' with her husband.

Emily Blunt

The 'Girl on the Train' actress - who has daughters Hazel, three, and Violet, 13 months, with spouse John Krasinski - admits she and the 37-year-old actor had told producers they were able to record their parts in the animated adventure together because it made things a lot easier for their family life.

She said: "It was so much fun. What was also lucky was John and I got to be in the sound booth together, which is very rare.

"We specifically requested that because it made it very easy for us to drive to the studio together and so there was no problem coordinating our schedules. We also got to do a lot of improvising together, which was great."

And the 34-year-old star is keen to work on another film with her husband, if they can find the right project.

She said: "It's sometimes hard to find a good project where you feel you would both be right for it. But we would love to do a film together one day if it's something very good."

The couple believe it is vital to "support" one another's careers because it is the only way to juggle their work and raising a young family smoothly.

She told OK! magazine: "We try to support each other in everything we do. It's not always easy to lead a Hollywood career when you're raising two young children, but we are very supportive of each other and have a strong bond between us."
Brandi Glanville has branded her 'Celebrity Big Brother' co-star Chad Johnson a "chauvinistic pig".

Brandi Glanville

The 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star has not been impressed with the former 'Bachelorette' contestant during their time on the Channel 5 show together and she slammed him during an interview in the Diary Room.

She said: "Clearly Chad is an idiot, and he's a male chauvinistic pig. And he's highly entertaining because of it. But he's also highly offensive.

"He's just a tool. He checks his abs in the mirror the whole time!"

And Brandi later repeated her remarks to Chad's face.

She said: "I did say some things about you. I said you were highly offensive, in an entertaining way. But I said I wasn't sure if it was an act."

Meanwhile, 'Made In Chelsea' star Sam Thompson, 25, has revealed his crush on Brandi, 44.

He said: "Brandi's a f**king legend. Brandi is the girl.

"She's sexy. I've got a massive crush on her. I'm not going to lie.

"I know it can never go anywhere. I know I'm 'just like a son' or whatever. But a son can dream."
Amazon has decided to open its first warehouse in Australia with a view to establish its retail presence in the country. Spread over an area of 24,000 square metres, the fulfilment centre will be situated in Dandenong South, Melbourne. The e-commerce giant has already announced a German executive as the country manager and will soon start recruiting staff.

Amazon had announced its plans to launch its business in Australia in April. Until now, only Amazon Web Services and Kindle business were available in the country.

The fulfilment centre will stock up on hundreds of thousands of products and they will be available for delivery across Australia, said Amazon in a statement.

Amazon has decided to open its first warehouse in Australia with a view to establish its retail presence in the country. Spread over an area of 24,000 square metres, the fulfilment centre will be situated in Dandenong South, Melbourne. The e-commerce giant has already announced a German executive as the country manager and will soon start recruiting staff.#

The marketplace will allow third party retailers to sell their products on the website. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
At its 20meeting today, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has agreed to job works on entire value chain in the textile sector will only invite 5 per cent GST. This effectively means that job work on wearing apparel would attract 5 per cent GST instead of 18 per cent tax earlier. Industry bodies like the Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) and Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA) have welcomed the announcement.

On behalf of ITF, our sincere thanks to Finance Minister and the GST Council for this decision. This shows the care from government on the industry feedback and ground reality to adjust the GST rates, said ITF secretary Prabhu Damodaran.

This decision will help thousands of SMEs in the textile sector and improve the efficiency in whole textile manufacturing chain, he added.

At its 20th meeting today, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has agreed to job works on entire value chain in the textile sector will only invite 5 per cent GST. This effectively means that job work on wearing apparel would attract 5 per cent GST instead of 18 per cent tax earlier. Industry representatives have welcomed the decision.#

TEA president Raja M Shanmugham too thanked the GST Council for considering the requisition of garment sssociations, particularly from Tiruppur cluster and noted that the decision is a big relief to the micro and small job working units in Tiruppur cluster.

He said 5 per cent GST slab will help for the seamless credit flow and fulfill the objective of GST.

West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra said that the decision will help many poor people.

Originally, the GST rates for job work on textiles and apparel was kept at 18 per cent. It was subsequently revised downward to 5 per cent during the meeting of the GST Council held on June 11. However, the revision of rates was made applicable only for job work on cotton yarn and textile fabrics, while the job work made on wearing apparel was excluded from this rate reduction. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
HON PM BAINIMARAMA SPEECH AT FUNDRAISER FOR REDEVELOPMENT OF THE SHREE SANATAN DHARAM PRATINIDHI SABHA REWA BRANCH





Bula vinaka and a very good evening to you all.Im delighted to be here this evening, not only because we have such a wonderful performance lined up, but because we are all here to support such a great cause  to raise funds for the redevelopment of the Rewa Branch of the Shree Sanatan Dharam Pratinidhi Sabha.I dont want to take up too much of our time tonight, but I do want to speak briefly on my admiration and appreciation for our Sanatan community in Fiji. And give my full support for this redevelopment project so that this property can better serve our Sanatan community and help continue their good work to build a stronger, smarter and more caring Fiji.Any young person in Fiji who has attended a Sanatan educational institution or spent time within your community knows full well that your contributions to Fiji have made our nation a better place to call home. Youve worked alongside my Government to help us create a more knowledge based society, and youve showed time and time again that your community shares our belief that our work in education is what will truly define our future as a society and as a nation.As your Prime Minister, I believe that the opportunities we provide our young people are the ultimate measure of our success. I believe that expanding access to high quality education is the greatest possible legacy we can leave for our children. And I believe that the policies that shape our development benefit our people on the basis of merit  on their positive contributions to our society. And I believe that every Fijian  regardless of our background, our beliefs, our status, where we live  deserves an equal role in the progress of our nation and an equal share in the prosperity we bring to our shores. It also means that as Fijians we should not discriminate against any of our fellow Fijians on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, race, province or social status. And we should all work together so that we appoint the best people irrespective of their background to deliver the best service to our people. Thats what my Government stands for. My Government under my leadership appoints people to positions whether as Ministers, CEO, board members or civil servants on merit. When we appoint people on merit, we will get the job done well. We will also ensure that all Fijians get the best outcome.I know that belief  that vision for Fiji  is shared by your community. It can be seen in the good work you carry out all across our islands, and it can be seen in the comradery and compassion that you show each one of our people.In the years to come, I look forward to continue working side by side with our Sanatnis in Fiji as we bring knowledge and opportunity into the lives of young Fijians. And I look forward to this redevelopment project, which will become a critical part of that mission.Ive looked over the plans you have in store for this Rewa branch, including the new temple, multipurpose hall, and Ashram. And I was particularly glad to see that you will also be constructing a museum that will tell the stories and the history of the Girmitya in Fiji. That story is one that I do not believe is told often enough. But I was very proud that last year we were able to give the history of the Girmitya the recognition it deserved when we commemorated the centennial of the arrival of the last Girmit ship, the Sutlej Five, from British India. My Government will ensure that the Girmitya story and the contribution of the Girmityas will be mainstreamed into our school curriculum and overall in our countrys history.It was an emotional moment, and one that we will not forget. So Im very glad that this property will soon be home to a museum that will honour the experience of the Girmitya in Fiji and enshrine such an important chapter in Fijian history.Tonight Id also like to give a very warm welcome to the talented Vishek Sharma and the Kirtan Group that are visiting us from California, and commend them for putting on this performance in support of this important redevelopment project.Mr Sharma: welcome back home. Your being here speaks to the strength of the bonds that hold us together as Fijians  one nation and one people united in our effort to build a better Fiji.We may be spread out across the world, but no distance  no matter how great  can diminish the love we have for this nation and for its people. Nor does that distance make us any less proud of Fiji or our shared identity as Fijians.I cant wait to see the performance Mr Sharma has in store for all of us. And I thank everyone here this evening for being here in support of this wonderful cause.Vinaka vakalevu. Thank you.
Two of Chinas largest state-owned energy companies have submitted a merger proposal to Chinas State Council, as the country pushes consolidation among state-owned power generators to cut industrial overcapacity.

In an energy conference on Wednesday, an executive at China Guodian confirmed the long-expected merger proposal between Guodian and Shenhua Group. If approved by the State Council, the resulting company, National Energy Investment Corporation, will become the worlds largest power utility firm with 226 gigawatts of total installed capacity, according to a note from research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Guodian is one of the big five electricity producers in China, while Shenhua is the countrys largest coal miner that serves as a major supplier to the electricity industry. Combining the two would enforce vertical integration, helping Guodian mitigate risk from fluctuating coal prices and securing Shenhuas contracts.

Meanwhile, Shenhua would reduce its reliance on coal by diversifying into clean energy such as hydropower, wind power and solar, where Guodian is a heavy investor.

Shenhuas cash reserves would ease the heavy debt burden that Guodian currently bears. According to local media citing the company, the debt ratio of the combined entity will be over 60%, much lower than Guodians debt level of 81.7%.

Both Shenhua and Guodian will benefit from the merger, Frank Yu, a consultant at Wood Mackenzie, wrote in a research note. The biggest question is whether the newly created Titans can well manage the shock of reorganisation, improve their decision-making process and work towards synergies.

With over Rmb1.8 trillion ($267 billion) of total assets, the combined company would enjoy a stronger negotiation advantage among state-owned power groups, putting pressure on the others and trigger further shakeout in the electricity sector.

The mega deal shows a strategic shift for the energy sector by the central government, who split a state-controlled electricity tian into five power companies and two grid opeartors to promote competition in 2002. But as China pivots its economy to the service-led sector, electricity demand from heavy industrial sectors has slowed, creating a need for the government to consolidate the fragmented market to address problems such as overcapacity.

Chinas State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission named the coal power sector one of the focuses for SOE restructuring earlier this year, along with steel and heavy equipment.

According to local media Caixin, the government body plans to reduce the number of government-run enterprises from 101 to 80. That suggests a broader wave of mergers for SOEs - a move that would fit into president Xi Jinping's bigger agenda to increase Chinese companies' influence in the international market.

Some mergers, like the $26 billion union between the countrys two major train manufacturers and the mega-merger between Cosco and China Shipping, also served as critical steps for Xis infrastructure initiative of Belt and Road.

At the same time, the government is trying to introduce more private capital into SOEs. China Unicom, the countrys number two phone operator, may serve as a test case of a mixed-ownership scheme in the telecom industry, as a number of private tech giants, including Baidu and Tencent, are lining up to invest $12 billion into the firm, according to Reuters.

Trading of GD Power Development, a listed subsidiary of China Guodian has been suspended in Shanghai, while shares of China Shenhua Energy, a listed unit under Shenhua Group were down 1.3% on Friday.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition To Counter Islamic State has said that the dreaded terrorist group is fighting for their own survival. 'About six months ago, ISIS was planning major attacks in Raqqa. They were planning major attacks against the United States, against our partners, and they were doing it in Raqqa using infrastructure of a major city. Today in Raqqa, ISIS is fighting for every last block, and trying to defend blocks that they are about to lose,' Brett McGurk said in a special briefing Friday. It is a fundamentally transformed situation, according to him. When ISIS arrived on the international scene in 2014, ISIS had 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries around the world pouring into Syria and Iraq. They controlled what was effectively a quasi-state. They were able to mass and maneuver force all around Iraq and Syria, taking entire cities, controlling millions of people under their domain. Since that time, they have lost about 70,000 square kilometers of territory in Iraq and Syria. About 78 percent of the territory they used to hold in Iraq, they can no longer operate in, and about 58 percent of the territory they used to hold in Syria, they can no longer operate in. McGurk noted that importantly, of all that territory that they have lost, they have not regained. ISIS have never been able to retake any of this ground and we're going to make sure that that continues, he told reporters.Almost 5 million people who had been living under ISIS are no longer living under ISIS. They have been liberated by coalition-enabled operations on the ground. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Post-demonetization India has leapfrogged three years in digital payments as reported by SBI research. Further dispelling fears of slump in digital payments, NITI Aayog has said that digital payments rose 55 percent in 2016-17 against a 28 percent growth in the five-year period ending 2016.

Essentially the future for digital payments is very bright through mobile wallets, even more so through United Payment Interface (UPI). As India transitions from a cash based society to less cash society, digital applications such as mobile wallets and UPI become indispensable.

The government's initiatives around Jan Dhan accounts and cash transfer of benefits allowed the un-banked to be banked.

The number of accounts that have been opened and the money deposited has surprised everyone, on the last count the Jan Dhan Yojana accounts has topped Rs 64,000 crore!

The implication is immense not only for the banking and financial industry but also for industries supporting this segment such as telecom, technology and IT.

The two large impacts on the banking industry are:

Coverage or geographical reach to serve these millions of accounts, some of them with zero balance

Semi-urban and rural communities still rely on cash which puts pressure on last mile access (ATM) to be provisioned.

Both the above factors increase cost and margin pressure on banks which also impacts their more profitable urban operations leading to under investment

Telecommunication and technology which has changed the face of India is the panacea and a means of serving customers across the length and breadth of this country. India is now accounting for almost 100 percent telecom penetration and contrary to expectation on technology adoption, people have taken to it like fish to water.

This has not only created a telecommunication boom but also provided impetus to our citizens dreams of achieving prosperity. The telecom and technology industry has enabled key digital payment solutions such as:

Mobile wallets for paying bills or buying goods

UPI has allowed safe and secure transfers between anyone who has a phone

Micro-ATMs have proved a viable option to deploying full scale ATMs

All these have made universal banking possible besides reducing cost and margin pressures on banks. This has been made possible not by magic but by the behind the scenes enabler, telecommunications.

Telecom has allowed for seamless connectivity and inter-operability between banks, financial institutions and clearing houses. It has allowed for the successful implementation of all the apps that power digital payments and banking. The governments initiatives around Bharatnet, smart cities and WiFiing villages will be the catalyst in empowering Indian citizens to transact digitally.

Technology is the disruptive force which is powering the digital revolution.

(The writer is head of sales, Telecom & Technology business for NCR Corporation India)
New Delhi-based Vistara has launched a Woman Flyer service in an attempt to help solo-flying female passengers deal with the sexual harassment issues while travelling.

The complementary service provides an escort during the ground transportation and also ensures the middle seats are not allocated to such passengers, said a recent report by Bloomberg.

Sanjiv Kapoor, Vistaras chief strategy and commercial officer, has termed it a "sincere attempt to ensure peace of mind of our women customers.

"Our staff is equipped to help women travelling alone with the booking of airport-authorized taxis, as well as escort them to the airport taxi stand upon their request, Kapoor has been quoted as saying in the report.

The airline says about 100 women already avail of the service each day.

Sexual harassment during travel in public transport is rampant in India and most of the cases go unreported as women passengers do not complain either due to the stigma or because they just find it too long winding a process.

However, internationally too the situation is no too different. A report in The Washington Post recently said a 16-year-old was dropped on a United Airlines flight to New Jersey. The teen's family has filed a complaint against the airline for allowing the assaulter to go despite the girl complaining about the incident.
A lawyer has filed a complaint against the makers of Bigg Boss Tamil and the show host, Kamal Haasan, for allegedly driving Oviya, a contestant, to attempt suicide. According to Indian Express, SS Balaji has stated in his complaint that the actress has suffered emotionally, due to the rules and regulations of the house.

The lawyer has sought action against Haasan and the makers of the show for abetment to suicide and conspiracy to injure.

As per the Indian Express report, the complainant stated that the tasks that each contestant is supposed to partake in inflicted immense mental pain on Oviya, due to which she tried to commit suicide by "immersing herself in to the pool" inside the house.

Here is a copy of the complaint that has been lodged:

Copy of complaint filed against #BigBossTamil following Oviya's suicide bid !! pic.twitter.com/gF5cLtWhdu  bharathnt (@bharath1) August 5, 2017

After she was rescued, Oviya told the makers of the show that she was not in a position to continue her stint in the show due to emotional stress. She even stated that she required professional help to overcome the disturbing situations that she had been exposed to in the last few days.

Oviya is a model and actress who has become a sensation among the public due to her bold and carefree attitude on Bigg Boss. She has a huge fan following who like to call themselves 'Oviya Army'.

It is not confirmed whether Oviya will be back on the show, as she was spotted leaving the premises in a car.
The film fraternity has been chronically suffering from censorship controversies, with films being at the mercy of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and being subjected to its whimsical decisions for a long time now. In the wake of a fresh controversy, wherein the Board ordered a whopping 48 cuts, including the removal of certain 'bold' scenes and cuss words for Nawazuddin Siddiquis new film Babumoshai Bandookbaaz despite giving it an 'A' certificate, veteran director and screen writer, Shyam Benegal has turned proactive. The producer of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, who is a woman, had to listen to not just the cuts ordered but she was also subjected to shockingly misogynistic comments after she had submitted the film to the CBFC.

It seems that Benegal doesnt want to leave the matter to the bureaucracy and politicians. He has been making a continual effort by calling and following up with the Secretary, Information and Broadcasting (Minsitry of I & B) to figure out the status of the report on the Cinematograph Act/ Rules that he and his committee members had submitted last year in April. We had submitted the first part in April 2016 and the second part in October. I called the I & B ministry 10 days ago, and they said that they would let me know. I will call them again today, Benegal told Firstpost.

A committee with members such as Kamal Haasan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Piyush Pandey, and Goutam Ghose, among others, was set up under the chairmanship of Benegal to lay down guidelines and norms for film certification, to ensure that there is adequate space for artistic and creative expression. The report states that the CBFC should only be a film certification body, whose power should be restricted to categorising the suitability of the film for audience groups, on the basis of age and maturity. I am totally against censorship. The CBFC cant censor a film; it has to classify and grade on the basis of age and maturity, taking into consideration education. I have already given my report, they have taken my opinion and they cant have another view now, asserted Benegal.

When the matter concerning Babumoshai Bandoobaaz was raised a few days ago, Aamir Khan echoed Benegal's sentiment. When asked if censorship curbs a filmmaker's creativity, he said, "I don't know how relevant censorship is today. As far as my knowledge goes, the CBFC in any case isn't supposed to censor; it is supposed to certify and grade. That's how we should proceed. That is also Mr Shyam Benegal's recommendation, if I am not mistaken. So hopefully things will get better soon."

Another factor which could have triggered this movement is a report in a noted English daily few days ago, which contained speculations that Pahlaj Nihalani might be asked to quit as the chairman of the CBFC, as well as the names of potential successors, such as filmmakers Prakash Jha and Madhur Bhandarkar, and actor-director-writer, Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi. However, talking to Firstpost, Jha said, I have no idea about this. I have only read it in the newspapers.

Also read on Firstpost: Subramaniam Swamy wants Pahlaj Nihalani to 'keep at' censoring: Here are our sanskaari recommendations

Incidentally, his latest film Lipstick Under My Burkha locked horns with the CBFC for almost six months, as Nihalani refused to certify the film, terming it lady oriented. The film finally saw the light of day on 21 July. Dwivedi, who is currently a member of the CBFC, showed total disinterest in the Board's matters. These are unfounded reports, but I have had enough of the CBFC and I want to stay away from it, said Dwivedi, whose tenure with the Board ends in early 2018. Bhandarkar first accepted that he was approached, but later dismissed these reports saying, I have absolutely no idea. Im an active filmmaker and I am busy with my films. Also, Im not sure if Id want to take the post, because it would be conflict of interest.

The talks about Nihalani being replaced have been fueled further ever since actor-turned-politician Smriti Irani became the I&B minister. Technically, his three-year tenure ends in January 2018. And this writer was shunted from one department to another when she called the office of the Ministry of I & B in Delhi. After waiting for a response for four days, Iranis assistant called to say that the Director General (DG) of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) should be addressing the media. If the work is in progress and the formulation of of policy is on in Parliament, to comment about the issue will be breach of law, said the assistant. However, DG, PIB expressed complete ignorance about this matter.

Agreeing with Bhandarkar, Benegal, too, felt that a filmmaker shouldnt be heading the CBFC. Ideally, a filmmaker cant hold that post, as its not correct to judge the work of other filmmakers. And as it is, films have to certified, and the guidelines are based on the constitutional provisions because our views are subjective, we cannot cloud our judgement. After watching a film, the first thought that comes to our mind is whether we liked the film or not. Films cannot be judged even on the basis of aesthetic principles. The CBFCs job is to see that a film should not transgress the guidelines and it should not go against the spirit of the Constitution. There cant be a casual approach to this, as the film medium is quite influential  it educates, informs and entertains. Its not an easy job, said Benegal.

Sudhir Mishra, who is supporting Kushan Nandy, the director of Babumoshai... in his battle against the CBFC, feels that the person heading CBFC should be knowledgeable about the subject. It can be a Supreme Court judge, because more than judging a piece of art, its an act of Parliament. It is about passing an opinion over the matter of State, it is about the freedom of expression leading to law and order situations (sic), said Mishra, further adding, The film industry needs an assurance. Filmmakers are already stressed out by the process of getting their films funded, then making the film for the world to see, and then they have to face this arbitrariness, tyranny and lord/master versus praja system. But I am glad that there is solidarity among the directors with the Directors Association stepping in support of young directors like Kushan and Alankrita [Shrivastava] (sic).

Meanwhile, the makers of Nawazuddin's film have appealed against the CBFCs decision. "We have appealed to the FCAT (Film Certification Appellate Tribunal) and the orders are reserved. We are hopeful and positive that they will see the film the way we have made it," said Nandy, who believes that once the guidelines of Benegals committee report are studied and implemented and the films are certified rather than censored, then who heads the CBFC is not of much consequence.
By Sharanya Gopinathan

Do you know how sometimes, when youre watching a Bollywood movie, you wonder what on earth the female actor is doing in it? Its usually a movie where the strong male characters have interesting stories and carry the entire plot, while the female lead has no specific role but to break out in dance, look aesthetically pleasing and marry the hero at the end.

You get a similar feeling about Jab Harry Met Sejal, except you feel it about Shah Rukh Khan.

Now, of course, this is a pretty weird feeling to have about a SRK movie. Imtiaz Ali has done everything he can to stop you from feeling this. SRKs Harry  despite having no discernible problem in life but being attracted so much to women that it scares (only) him  is supposed to be deep. Youre told again and again, mostly by Harry himself, that hes a bad guy. Hes weary. Hes got trauma. One flashback early in the movie leads you to believe theres some mysterious backstory from India thats left Harry the tour guide scarred in Europe. Turns out nope, there isnt.

Because despite all the drama that the film tries to create around Harry, hes fine. Nothing wrong with him. No trauma. No backstory. Hes just a dude, single in his forties. And thats okay.

Jab Harry Met Sejal almost belonged to Sejal (Anushka Sharma). The movie is about her, after all  about the ring she lost and the things that happen to her as she goes from city to European city looking for it. Sejal moves the plot along: in fact, you often get the feeling that she was supposed to be the plot. Sharmas deliberate Gujju accent may have been a bit much sometimes, but she makes up for it with her spectacular comic timing. Sejal is a lawyer, plays a role in her familys business, is clear and decisive about what she wants, kicks the shit out of numerous bad guys and breaks off her own marriage. Harry is mostly justthere, a consequence more than a character, along for the ride Ali is taking us all on.

This movie should have been called Jab Sejal Met Dude.

In the run-up to this movie there was some talk of Imtiaz Alis repetitiveness: that most of his films feature people who go off on a journey in which they find themselves, and find love. This is true of Jab Sejal Met Dude too. It is practically the only thing that happens: the pair travel to different cities in search of a lost ring, get into really mild adventures in each city, find the ring and get together. You get the feeling that travel didn't really need to be so central to the plot but was blackmailed into it, since everything travel was supposed to invoke could have been done without having gone on a journey at all. They could have found similar adventures just chasing each other around Mumbai  getting into fights in clubs, meeting spurned ex lovers, taking train rides, fighting thugs, throwing wedding parties for friends and singing impromptu songs.

Somebody somewhere convinced Imtiaz Ali early on that a journey is an integral part of films, so he feels the need to make all his movies fit that formula. The idea of a journey in Alis movies always leads to one person finding themselves. And barring few exceptions, that one person is usually a boy  from Jab We Met to Tamasha to Jab Sejal Met Dude.

Even more repetitive than the theme of travel are Alis precious male leads and all the bhaav they get from him. You get the feeling that men in Imtiaz Alis movies are a lot like Gayatri Jayaramans urban millennial poor  whether its Shahid Kapoors man-child who couldn't deal with his mothers romantic relationship in Jab We Met, or Ranbir Kapoor whose biggest problem in Tamasha was that he couldnt figure out if hes a fun or boring guy to hang out with, or Kapoor in Rockstar where he cant write songs until he feels sad about something, and now SRKs spectacularly unremarkable Harry convincing himself hes the blandest devil incarnate. Alis men break into sobs over their bad dating records and boring at-home personalities, probably to add some darkness thats supposed to add glamour to their souls in the filmmakers formula. I feel like telling the men in his movies to suck it up and go do their homework when they complain about how sad they are.

It isnt like Ali doesnt know how to give characters real problems. Part of the reason why Alia Bhatts Veera in Highway gets so chilled out about being kidnapped is that shes dealing with the trauma of being sexually abused by her uncle as a child. Deepika Padukones Veronica in Cocktail is so traumatised by her breakup with Saif Ali Khan that she turns to excessive drinking and gets into a terrible road accident. Will someone please ask Ali, why do women need to go through so much trauma while the men get to just worry about themselves?

I found it strange that before the release of Jab Sejal Met Dude, Anushka Sharma claimed in an interview that her character was very superficial and had no depth. The trailer made it seem like she had plenty going on for her. But now, having watched the movie, I think I understand what she meant. It isnt that Sejal has no depth, but that her role doesnt allow her to show it no matter how much the plot depends on her. How can Sejal unfold all of her own complexity and depth when so much space is being taken up by SRK unnecessarily crying over his tour-guide status and imagined evilness towards women?

Ali wont give us the satisfaction of a truly evil SRK, and he wont give us the satisfaction of a truly realised Anushka. He just wants to hit the road again with a Dude.

The Ladies Finger (TLF) is a leading online womens magazine
Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma recently visited Varanasi to promote their film Jab Harry Met Sejal, which released on 4 August. According to reports, Shah Rukh Khan has been issued a recovery notice of Rs 5.59 lakh by the Varanasi police for using police security during his visit in the city.

The promotional event required the deployment of a Superintendent of police as well as 224 personnel for Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and director Imtiaz Ali. BJP MP and Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari was also present. This security was provided to them at the venue of the event, as well as the airport and other places they visited.

The venue Ashoka Institute of Technology and Management had paid only Rs 51,132, confirmed SSP RK Bhardwaj, while the total costs amounted to Rs 6.11 lakhs. This was cited as the reason why the Varanasi police department sent a recovery notice.

The organisers of the event claim that it was held only for an hour and that they paid Rs 51,132 as quoted by the department. "We have requested the police department to recover the remaining amount from Shah Rukh Khan and his team for providing them security for their other program in the city," said organiser Ankit Maurya. He added that only a few of the personnel were present at the venue, while a majority were deployed for Khan's personal excursions in the city.

Also read on Firstpost: Jab Harry Met Sejal movie review: Shah Rukh Khan-Anushka Sharma are too hot for this pakau disaster
Five years ago, Bidyut Kotoky returned home to Assam from Mumbai, with the intention of documenting and telling the story of a people shrouded in the mist of war, rage and rebellion, through a musical travelogue called Guns and Guitars.

The title of the film is a bit of a giveaway. The history of almost all the seven states has been associated (and in some cases continues to be so) with violence of some kind of the other. Even greater is the sense of alienation  of trying to find and hold on to ones roots. The question of identity, therefore, becomes central to any story coming out of the states. To account for that identity, Bidyut chose music.

I didnt really choose the stories of my film  the stories chose me, to be honest. It is very important for me to be inspired to attempt a film on a subject. Guess that encounter with Lou triggered something within me, he says, referring to a meeting with Lou Majaw, a legend from the region, who for more than 40 years has been celebrating Bob Dylans birthday with an annual concert in Shillong.

In 2016, seven bands from each of the seven states performed at the concert. Through their lives and music, Bidyut weaves a narrative born out of love and compassion.

Guns and Guitars begins in Bidyuts home, Assam. Aside from the bands that he talks to in the film, a great amount of time is devoted to the problems that plague the states. For Assam it is the insurgency, for Tripura it is the migration of people from Bangladesh, for Arunachal it is its uneasy relationship with China and so on. As Bidyut travels from state to state, attempting to tell what is crucial, and what is often overlooked, he manages to mix together both history, politics and art to some extent.

With no mention or focus on the positive energies in the region, the default focus has been on the negative energies, although nothing could be further away from the truth. For years, I have been troubled by this and have tried to bring out various, lesser known aspects of the region through my films, he says.

There are some genuine Oppenheimer-ish moments in the film where people talk about violence and conflict with ease. But in general, there is an underlying despondence, a sense of farce in the way people interact, both with Bidyut and his camera. People, including the likes of artist Zubeen Garg and Adil Hussain (most recently seen in Mukti Bhawan) talk with calm that seems out of place. And herein lies the obtrusive nature of narratives we are most familiar with in regard to the region; narratives that send us into the viewing room with guns and bodies on our mind. While that is a significant peg, is it any different from where we live?

The importance of music, both to Bidyuts film and the region in general cannot be underlined enough. So much so that the government of Nagaland has a Ministry for Music, Meghalayas chief minister can take to the stage with aplomb, and a number of local languages are built around the idea of sound and music.

But none of these unique stories are easy to tell, or understand. Like visiting the village in the midst of nowhere in Meghalaya that practices a wonderful custom of dedicating an individual tune to every child instead of giving them a pet name Yes, certain things in life cant be described adequately in words  you need to experience it, Bidyut says. His film could merely be a call for the need to uncover and experience these stories. Not remain forebodingly hinged to the medias tribunal that more often than not, tilts its lens based on the politics it wants the people to identify with.

Bidyut travels to each state, meets its people, the bands. It is safe to say, his hand is guided out of love rather than objectivity. He narrates his own personal experiences of having lived in places. In a couple of scenes, he almost steps out of the documentary, and mingles as he would in real life. Perhaps, that is what the people, and their mystified existences need. A loving inquiry. Bidyuts film may fail to be objective or cinematic in places, but there is something deeply moving and charming about the heartfelt letter of love that converges, in the end, in a sort of cathartic musical soiree. I am a die-hard optimist and like to look at the glass as half full. I guess now the ball is in the court of people from mainland India to rise to the challenge and educate themselves about Northeast, he says. As for all the wrongs mainland India has done to them, Bidyut, in the film says An apology would be a nice way to have the last say.

For now, though, let there be music.
The month of August and September is going to witness a 'release rush hour' in Kollywood. As per trade sources, over about nine weekends  4 August to 29 September  roughly 40-45 Tamil releases, big and small, will hit the screens. It will be total chaos at the box-office as everybody fights for screen space.

One of the most popular Tamil actors, Thala Ajith's Vivegam was due for release on 11 August, the Independence Day weekend. But due to late certification and plans to release it simultaneously in Telugu, its theatrical release has now been pushed to 24 August. This is the Vinayaka Chaturthi (Ganesh Chaturthi) weekend, and other producers in Kollywood will not release their film their films in the same week as a biggie (read Rajinikanth, Vijay or Ajith films).

So with Vivegam pushing its release date from 11 to 24 August, the Independence Day weekend opened up. Dhanushs VIP 2 which was originally slated for release on 28 July to coincide with his birthday got postponed (also due to certification delays) and wished to avoid a clash with Ajith's film. On the sidelines, eight small and medium films were eyeing the ID weekend, including Udhayanidhi Stalins Podhuvaga En Manasu Thangam, Rana Daggubatis bilingual Naan Aanaiyittal, Jyothikas Magalir Mattum, Sibi Sathyarajs Sathya, the Ram directed Taramani, and a few others.

Suddenly, the entire release schedule changed when Dhanush tweeted the release date of VIP 2 as 11 August. The idea was that he could dominate the holiday weekend, which resulted in lot of other films dropping out. Now, 11 August  as per trade sources  will only have four releases: Dhanushs VIP 2, marketed by Kalaipuli S Thanu (producer of Kabali) will get maximum screens, followed by Udhayanidhi Stalins Podhuvaga En Manasu Thangam, distributed by the market leader Thenandal Films; Rana Daggubatis bilingual Naan Aanaiyittal; and Rams offbeat Taramani. There will also be a couple of little-known films waiting for a limited theatrical release. Some of the remaining films will go for the 18 August weekend.

Meanwhile, with Vivegam locking up the Vinayaka Chathurthi weekend on 24 August, the others will keep away for a week. Vijay Sethupathi has his long overdue Puriyatha Puthir coming up for a 1 September release. Also scheduled for the same date is producer CV Kumars directorial debut, Maayavan. On 8 September, four movies have announced their release: Vikram Prabhus Neruppada, Vijay Sethupathis Karuppan, Vishnu Vishals Katha Nayagan and Santhanams Server Sundaram. A week later, on 15 September, director Selvaraghavans long overdue Nenjam Marappathillai and Sasikumars Kodi Veeran are scheduled.

Two weeks later, on 27-28 September, the puja weekend will start with a bang as Mahesh Babus AR Murgadoss-directed bilingual Spyder is slated for release. And Sivakarthikeyan-Nayanthara starrer Velaikkaran has also announced a 28 September release date.

Abirami Ramanathan, president of Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association asked: Where are the screens to release so many films? Most of them will eat into each others collections and the opening will get divided except in the case of a biggie like Ajiths Vivegam. Far too many films are getting released in Tamil along with other language films, leading to a fight for screens.

Till 4 August 2017, 121 Tamil films have already released, and the way it is going, the number of films to release this year will have crossed 200. The market has been buoyed by the success of the Madhavan-Vijay Sethupathi thriller Vikram Vedha and music director Hip Hop Aadhis debut as hero and director, Meesaya Murukku. Both these films are super hits and have turned profitable from Tamil Nadu theatrical rights alone for their producers. This has created positive energy in an industry going through a drought of hits and post-GST and ticket rate increase.

The major reason for the August/September rush is that these two months have maximum extended weekends this year. 7 August is Raksha Bandhan, 14 August is Janmashtami and 15 August (a Tuesday) is Independence Day. And the biggest of them all, 25 August, a Friday, is Vinayaka Chaturthi. Come September, there are more holidays: 1 September  Bakri Eid, 4 September  Onam, with the puja holidays starting on 29 September. The ideal time to release films is during the festival holidays, which brings in the family audiences; hence the big rush to release films.
Condemning the "potentially fatal" attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's cavalcade in Gujarat, the Congress on Saturday said it won't be cowed down by the "cult of violence and intimidation" that the followers of Nathuram Godse espouse, referring to the RSS and BJP.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said that theirs was a 130 year old party that has seen many ups and downs and its leaders won't be scared by such tactics.

"This stone could kill a human. What was the police doing... Let me say that Rahul Gandhi and Congress party won't be intimidated by such tactics," Sharma said as he showed a piece of concrete boulder, that was allegedly hurled at the car of Gandhi in Gujarat on Friday.

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala accused the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani of shielding the goons who perpetrated the attack.

"We have lodged a complaint of 'murderous assault' against four BJP workers, but the police has not registered an FIR so far," Surjewala said.

He alleged that the BJP-led Gujarat administration deliberately ignored the protocol that is followed in case of an SPG protectee, as Rahul Gandhi is.

"Let's tell them that Godsewaad did not succeed in 1948, and it would neither succeed now. It is Gandhiwaad that has prevailed and will prevail," he said.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi faced hostile black-flag waving crowds shouting slogans in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tour of flood hit Dhanera town in Gujarat's Banaskantha district, forcing him to beat a retreat. His car was also pelted with stones, shattering some windows.

Rahul Gandhi has also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party for the attack on his convoy in Gujarat, saying that it was "the style of politics pursued by the BJP and RSS".

Nathuram Godse, a Hindu Mahasabha member and perceived close to RSS founder Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday condemned the protest against Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi in flood-hit Gujarat where alleged BJP supporters hurled a cement brick at his car and showed him black flags.

"Shocked to hear about attack on your car Rahul ji..highly condemnable. Relieved to hear you are safe and sound," he tweeted.

Shocked to hear about attack on your car Rahul ji @OfficeOfRG. Highly condemnable. Relieved to hear you are safe and sound.  Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) August 4, 2017

Gandhi on Friday faced protests in flood-hit Gujarat where alleged BJP supporters hurled a cement brick at his car and showed him black flags, forcing him to cut short his address at a gathering and leave in a huff. The glass pane at the rear of his car was shattered as a brick smashed through it. The incident occurred when Gandhi was on his way to the helipad in Dhanera from Lal Chowk in flood-hit Banaskantha district. The Congress vice-president, however, escaped unhurt and proceeded to the next place on his itinerary Runi village in Thara taluka where he asserted he would not get cowed down by such protests. Senior Congress leader and MLA from Kaithal in Haryana Randeep Singh Surjewala also described the incident as highly condemnable "History is a witness that they similarly attacked Indiraji. It didn't deter her and nor will it deter Rahulji-to speak & fight for people," Surjewala tweeted.
Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh): A mini bus collided with a container truck in Chittoor district on Saturday, killing four Spanish nationals, two of them women, and their driver, police said.

Six others, also Spanish nationals, were injured, one of them critically, in the accident. One of the passengers suffered fractures, while the others escaped with minor injuries, they said.

The Spanish nationals had come to see development activities, initiated by the Rural Development Trust run by a group from Spain, in villages in Anantapuramu district.

The deceased were identified as Vincent Prez, Josefa Moran, Francisco Pedrosa and Nieves Lopez. The bus driver, a local resident, was yet to be identified, police said.

The foreign nationals were on their way to Puducherry from Anantapuramu district when the collision took place at a curve on the Madanapalle-Punganuru road, Rajasekhara Babu, district superintendent of police, told PTI over phone.

"There were 11 people, including the driver, in the mini bus. The driver of the container truck lost control while negotiating the curve and collided head-on with the mini bus. While five were killed on the spot, one was critically injured and another suffered fractures," the SP said.

"The injured were shifted to Columbia-Asia Hospital in Bengaluru for treatment," the police officer said.

The passengers who suffered minor injuries were initially treated at the area hospital in Madanapalle.

District Collector PS Paradyumna visited the accident spot along with the SP.

Expressing grief over the incident, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu directed the collector to get in touch with the Spanish embassy in New Delhi for obtaining details of the victims.

The chief minister also directed the officials to make necessary arrangements to shift the bodies.
A PIL has been filed to stop popular Tamil reality show Bigg Boss in Madras High Court. Filed by Saravanan alias cine Saravanan. The PIL states that the show projects women in a pejorative manner and is hurtful towards the downtrodden, as per Deccan Chronicle. It also claims that the reality show, hosted by Kamal Haasan, denigrates women by playing with their emotions.

Saravanan told Deccan Chronicle that his family feels embarrassed while watching the show due to the obscene dress code followed by the women in the house.

Additionally, some remarks of the made by the inmates have also hurt the sentiments of the underprivileged, according to the complainant.

Inspired by american reality TV series Big Brother, Bigg Boss brings together celebrities under one roof. All channels of communication with the outside world are barred.

The mental and physical strength of the house members are tested in weekly tasks, which usually results in erratic behaviour and endless scuffles.

Although the show has been securing high TRPs ever since its premiere, critics have constantly slammed the show for depraving Tamil culture. Saravanan had initially sent a representation to the channel. However, he filed a litigation after not hearing from the channel. The matter will reportedly be taken up in Court on Monday, 7 August.
Tired of waiting for the amount promised under government sponsored Open Defecation Free scheme (ODF), many villagers of Rekhasundar in Bihars West Champaran district destroyed their toilets on Saturday morning.

Ironically Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, like other dream projects, started his Lohia Swachhata Mission from Pakadiya Panchayat under Nautan block of the district last year. He promised to provide piped waters supply and toilet to every household under Saat Nischay (seven point agenda) scheme from here.

Three months back, authorities declared Pakadiya panchayat as open defecation-free but forgot to transfer Rs 12 thousand each into the accounts of those who, after being persuaded from block officers, built toilets in their houses.

After waiting for nine months, they decided to destroy their toilets together. It was an unusual scene on Saturday morning when villagers helped each other in destroying their toilets. Within half an hour, seven of them were reduced to rubble.

Under the government scheme, authorities have adopted two pronged strategy to meet the target of ensuring toilet in every household. One way is to help the needy build toilets directly from contractors hired by authorities. The other way is to encourage villagers build it from their own resources and credit the fixed amount into their bank accounts at a later stage.

Villagers are saying that while contractors got their money from the government, those who opted to build toilets from their own resources are still waiting for the amount.

Some of us took loans. My neighbour bought bricks and cement on credit. Now lenders and shopkeepers are pressing us to return their dues. When we go to block officer, we are sent back with promises. How long can we wait? At least we can sell the bricks after destroying it, a villager Naval Pathak argues in favour of destroying toilets.



Another villager Rameshwar Mukhia alleged that Block officer Jyoti Kumari demanded bribe to release funds. We were told to give Rs 1000 in return for crediting the amount under ODF scheme. We complained to higher authorities but no one listens.
Given the heightened tensions on the borders, a plan to provide upgraded technology to Indias forces on the border couldnt have come at a more opportune moment.

After a nod from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Border Security Force (BSF) has kick-started installation of a unique, indigenously designed virtual fencing system  Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS)  at two places in Jammu. The system is expected to go operational by March 2018.

Our main thrust is to bring a sea change in guarding our borders by integrating latest technology and equipment. Were putting up two pilot projects under CIBMS in Jammu, which is unique in the world for guarding borders. Work order has been awarded and its expected to go operational by March 2018, the director general of BSF, KK Sharma, told Firstpost.

CIBMS is an integration of highly sophisticated equipment  like handheld thermal imager (HHTI), night vision devices (NVD), long-range radars, battlefield surveillance radars, etc  with manpower. Its a virtual fencing system.

It will be a shot in the arm of the Border Security Force (BSF)  the worlds largest border force  that is engaged in guarding India's land border, with challenges such as infiltration of terrorists across the border into Kashmir and eastern states like West Bengal and Assam, and drug and cattle smuggling, among others.

How will CIBMS function?

 Thermal imager indicates body heat signatures of any living being that moves towards Indian boundaries in the dark of the night at a distance of 3 km.

 NVD, long-range radars, battlefield surveillance radars, etc catch slightest of vibrations at shorter distances.

 Indigenously-developed infra-red intruder alarm, not visible through naked eye, alerts the BSF personnel. Anyone crossing the invisible infra-red wall within 700-metre range will get caught.

 Analytical tools identify suspicious movements and distinguish between man and animal from the shadow.

 Finally, based on inputs received, intruders (infiltrators or terrorists) will be eliminated.

 Motion sensors have been included in CIBMS to save power and reduce electricity bill of Rs 90-100 crore (due to flood lights on borders).

Under the pilot project, two CIBMS will be installed for a length of 5 km each. Once its successfully implemented, a similar system will be replicated at other places to protect the border.

At present, some of these equipments are in the hands of jawans posted on the borders and the possibility of human error cant be ruled out. But once this system becomes operational, it will be the latest in India on border-guarding, with the least human error. Israel was the first to have this system in place. Weve the proposal to install CIBMS along Jammu and Punjab bordering Pakistan. Our emphasis is also to plug the riverine gaps and theres a proposal to have this system installed at Dhubri district in Assam, Sharma said.

Besides thwarting Pakistans constant attempt to push militants through the border into India, like it did last at Nagrota in Jammu and Kashmir on 29 November 2016, countering narcotics and cattle smugglers is another big challenge for the BSF.

Not known to many, the terrorists across the border attacked the army base camp at Nagrota and killed seven army personnel. On the same night at a distance, when three other terrorists were making their way through a tunnel, the BSF tracked and neutralised them.

Despite severe constraints, the cattle smuggling, which is a complex issue due to geopolitical reasons, has declined from 20 lakh per annum in 2013 to less than 6 lakh in 2017 (as on date), with record seizure of animals in 2016.

Bangladesh border is 4,096 km long, out of which about 950 km is unfenced due to riverine belt. Its humanly not possible to cover this unfenced stretch. Smuggling takes place through this porous stretch, despite our patrolling and floodlights. Population on both the sides is economically dependent on cattle trade. Local politicians have their own compulsions in a democracy. While, tackling this menace, the BSF has lost many men and hundreds have been injured in clashes with smugglers. These clashes are on the rise because were using non-lethal weapns like pump action guns, which has emboldened the smugglers, the DG pointed out.

Despite several constraints, BSF has been successful in bringing down smuggling and fatalities of Bangladeshi smugglers since 2013, he mentioned.

Besides, surveillance, BSF has initiated welfare measures like medical check up camps, distribution of books and stationery to children in the villages bordering Bangladesh.

BSF is also providing training to boys for recruitment in para-military and police security guards. Weve signed an MoU with Skill Development ministry so that vocational training can be provided to youth of these areas, added Sharma.
The Congress on Friday demanded that the government announce a relief package of Rs 3,888 crore for the floods in Assam and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be more "serious, sympathetic and proactive" about the state.

The party also said the government was showing "step-motherly" attitude towards Assam at a time when Gujarat was given a relief package of Rs 2,000 crore.

"The Prime Minister visited Assam only after the flood situation in state improved. When Assam was reeling under floods, 25,42,000 people were affected and 4,084 villages in 29 districts of Assam were also hit," said Congress MP from Assam Bhubaneswar Kalita.

"He declared a relief package of Rs. 2,000 crore for the entire northeastern region. But how much Assam will get from this that is not clear. The demand for Assam was Rs. 3,888 crore for the entire relief and rehabilitation work," he added.

This amount was nothing in comparison to the unprecedented floods in Assam, he said, adding that the Prime Minister only took a review meeting in Guwahati without going to the flood-affected areas.

"The Prime Minister should have been more serious, sympathetic and proactive on Assam as northeastern states have been neglected compared to other states," Kalita said.
Economist Dr Rajiv Kumar was appointed the new vice-chairman of NITI Aayog on Saturday, reports said. This comes five days after the incumbent vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya announced he was quitting the government think tank on 31 August to return to Columbia University.

Vinod Paul, a doctor by professsion, has been appointed as a member of the NITI Aayog. Paul is a paediatrician at AIIMS, and is known to have done substantial work in public health.

Kumar, a senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research (CPR), is also chancellor of the the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune, and is the founding director of Pahle India Foundation, an organisation that specialises in policy-oriented research and analysis.

He has openly supported two of the present government's most significant economic moves: implementing demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Kumar, in an editorial piece in April, has supported the government's move to demonetise high-value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, and condemned criticism against the move as "politically motivated".

In a piece titled 'Demonetisation and its outcomes', Kumar had written, "On 11 April, finance minister Arun Jaitley informed the Rajya Sabha that Rs 5,400 crore of undisclosed income had been detected since the 8 November announcement that demonetised 86 percent of the currency in circulation. Critics will surely latch on to this rather measly figure to declare that demonetisation has palpably failed in expropriating owners of 'illegal money'. Such criticism would only further display the inherent ideological bias and politically motivated opposition by these critics."

Kumar also hailed the government's move to implement the GST, terming it as a "transformational fiscal reform". He wrote:

"GST will help neutralise the centrifugal forces that are constantly in operation in this continental sized economy, with its unparalleled diversity and heterogeneity across multiple dimensions. This critical politically and socially unifying role of GST has been consistently underplayed and not received due attention in the hullabaloo of assessing its significant impact on economic activity."

Before joining CPR, Kumar was Secretary-General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

He has also served as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), and chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). Kumar has also held several government positions; he was an economic advisor in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and senior consultant at the Bureau of Costs and Prices. He was a member of the Indian government's National Security Advisory Board between 2006 and 2008.

He presently sits on the boards of several international and national institutions, including the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and Asia in Jakarta, the State Bank of India, and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

With input from agencies
Two persons, including the son of Haryana's BJP chief, were arrested and released on bail soon after for allegedly stalking a girl here, police said.

BJP Haryana Pres' son Vikas Barala & his friend detained by Police for stalking a girl; Police says accused followed girl's car & were drunk pic.twitter.com/eqlF9amy0L  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

The girl had accused Vikas Barala, son of Haryana BJP Chief Subhash Barala, and his friend Ashish Kumar of stalking her after which they were arrested, the police said.

The two LLB students, as per Tribune India, were following the woman, a daughter of an IAS officer, in their car on Friday night. A medical examination later revealed both were reportedly drunk.

The woman was on her way home in a car at 12.30 am from Sector 9 in Chandigarh to Panchkula when a Tata Safari began following her from Sector 26. Barala and Kumar were arrested from Manimjara, on the border of Panchkula district in Haryana, reported Hindustan Times. She then called up the police control room (PCR) who swung into action and arrested the duo.

The case has been registered at the Sector-26 police station against both accused under Section 354 D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 185 (Motor Vehicle Act) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Satish Kumar, DSP (East) said the victim's statements were being recorder under Section 164 (recording confessions and statements) of the CrPC before a local magistrate, reported The Indian Express.

Subhash Barala was re-elected as the state BJP president for the second time in three years in January 2016. The 48-year-old Jat leader is an MLA from Tohana. He was earlier the BJP appointed chief of the state unit in November 2014.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is planning to provide legal assistance to families of lynching victims, the Islamic body said on Saturday.

Mob lynching incidents can be best tackled through building public opinion and put "pressure" on the government through it to curb such incidents, a JIH statement said quoting its president Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umri.

"We support public initiatives against communalism and for putting an end to mob lynching. No government can ignore popular and widespread public opinion," Umri said at a monthly press conference at the organisation's headquarters here.

JIH secretary general Muhammad Salim Engineer said the organisation has identified certain states where mob lynching incidents have taken place. A plan is being prepared to tackle the issue.

"We will be meeting the heads of different religions in these states along with social organisations to promote communal harmony," he said.

Formation of a 'Sadbhavna Manch' and activation of the legal cell of JIH for aiding victims of mob lynchings and their families will be part of the initiative, Engineer added.

Incidents of lynching and attacks on members of the minority community by cow vigilantes, resulting in some deaths, have been reported from different states of the country in recent months.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attacked by the Opposition over his silence on lynchings by cow vigilantes, had warned in June that killing in the name of cow protection would not be tolerated. "Killing people in the name of 'gau bhakti' (cow worship) is not acceptable," he had said.

Umri said although the prime minister has condemned mob lynchings, the ground reality has not changed much. He demanded that the Centre and states take stern measures to check such incidents.
Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly YS Jaganmohan Reddy and several other leaders today congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the Vice-President.

"Congratulations to Sri @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected as the Vice-President of India. A very well-deserved victory indeed," the chief minister said in a tweet.

Wish Sri @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu a successful journey as he embarks upon his new duties. He will surely lead the nation with wisdom & grace.  N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) August 5, 2017

"Wishing Sri Venkaiah Naidu a successful journey as he embarks upon his new duties. He will surely lead the nation with wisdom and grace," he said in another tweet.

YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy referred to Naidu's Telugu identity. Venkaiah Naidu was born in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

He said it is a proud moment to see a Telugu man as the (next) Chairman of the Upper House of Parliament.

"The YSR Congress party wholeheartedly supported Venkaiah Naidu and it is a proud moment to see a Telugu man as Chairman of the Upper House," he said in a statement.

Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishna Murthy, finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and other ministers also congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on his victory.

The NDA nominee was elected as the next Vice-President of India by securing over two-thirds of votes, leaving opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi far behind.
Srinagar: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed on Saturday in an encounter with security forces in the Sopore area of Baramulla district in Kashmir, police said.

Three LeT terrorists have been killed by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore, 3 AK-47 rifles recovered from them(Visuals deferred) pic.twitter.com/H6nE6uIWzY  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Security forces launched an operation following information about the presence of militants in Amargarh area of Sopore, a police official said.

He said militants opened firing on the security forces, who retaliated.

Three LeT militants were killed in the ensuing gunbattle. Three weapons have been recovered from them, he said.

Internet services have been discontinued in Baramulla after the incident, ANI reported. All Government and private educational institutions in Sopore will remain closed on Saturday, a police official said.

With inputs from PTI
Srinagar: A CRFP Jawan was injured when militants on Saturday attacked a police vehicle in Nougam area of Srinagar, causing panic among the residents and passers by.

"Militants fired upon a bunker vehicle of Police at Nougam at 8.45 pm, resulting in injuries to a CRPF head constable who has been shifted to Army hospital for treatment," a police official said.

#Visuals: 2 bike-borne terrorists attacked party of CRPF & J&K Police near Nowgam Bypass & fled. A CRPF personnel got injured in the attack. pic.twitter.com/Qd7FDeLlyi  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

He said the firing caused panic among the residents of Nowgam and adjoining areas as passers by at the busy city intersection ran towards safety.

Traffic was briefly suspended on the Parimpora-Pantha Chowk bypass road following the attack, he added.
Beijing: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said on Saturday.

According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.

The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing.

The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.

The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."

"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.

Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union, they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India]."

He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run news agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement.

Khrushchev also told Mao that he was "outraged" by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union "time-servers".

"Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth. We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody...If you consider us time-servers, Comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it," Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting.

After that visit, relations between China and the then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the US.
Dehradun: A 23-year-old man was arrested for allegedly having sex with a cow at Pauri district's Satpuli town in Uttarakhand where tension prevailed as right-wing outfits forced a shutdown of the market and staged a protest at the local police station.

Police said swab samples are being tested in Pauri to confirm the incident. The report is still awaited.

ABVP and Bajrang Dal activists hit the streets as the news about the arrest of the man spread through the hill town on Wednesday, Pauri SSP Jagat Ram Joshi told PTI.

They forced a shutdown of Satpuli market and also vandalised a furniture shop owned by the accused, he said.

Later the protesters gheraoed the Satpuli police station demanding action against the accused.

Additional forces had to be deployed in the town to restore peace and maintain vigil.

A case under Section 377 (unnatural sexual offences) of the IPC has been registered against the accused and he has been sent to Pauri jail, Joshi said.

The market shutdown is continuing in the town amid heavy deployment of forces, he said, adding that the situation is tense but under control.
As the festival of Raksha Bandhan draws close, millions in India are planning to celebrate the relationship between a brother and a sister on Monday with pomp and show. While many are employing creative props, others are using the occasion to put across social messages.

In Amethi, over 800 men have planned unique gifts for their sisters this Raksha Bandhan- toilets, as part of a campaign to to raise awareness about sanitation. In another campaign about road safety, women in Telangana are gifting their brother motorcycle helmets.

Women from Muslim community in Lucknow to send Rakhis for PM Narendra Modi & CM Yogi Adityanath, hail their efforts over triple talaq issue. pic.twitter.com/jgW7OlAd92  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 5, 2017

But in a rather unexpected move, the government of Manipur issued a circular on Friday, asking all government employees to attend office in "traditional attire" on Monday to observe Raksha Bandhan. The circular goes on to ask all female staff members to tie Rakhis to their male colleagues on the occasion.

"It has been decided to celebrate the festival of Raksha Bandhan on Monday, the 7th August, 2017. In this connection, all offices/ departments shall remain open and celebrate the festival collectively at a suitable time wherein all the ladt staff shall tie Rakhis to their male colleagues," the letter signed by Ph Bhavandanda Sharma, under secretary in the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, said.

The circular, addressed to all government departments, was also copied to the governor and chief minister of Manipur.

A festival which has already been used this year as an attempt to both promote brotherhood among communities and to make a point in international politics, it remains to be seen how government workers in Manipur receive this circular which forces them to socialise on what would otherwise have been a holiday.
Editor's note: As chairman of the US Senates Arms Control Subcommittee, Larry Pressler advocated the now-famous Pressler Amendment, enforced in 1990 when President George HW Bush could not certify that Pakistan was not developing a nuclear weapon. Aid and military sales to Pakistan were blocked, including a consignment of F-16 fighter aircraft, changing forever the tenor of the United States relationships with Pakistan and India, and making Pressler a temporary hero throughout India and a devil in Pakistan. In a new book, Neighbours in Arms, Senator Larry Pressler reveals what went on behind the scenes in the years when the Pressler Amendment was in force, through a cast of characters that includes presidents, prime ministers, senators and generals in the US, India and Pakistan. The following excerpt is from a chapter titled 'The Enforcement of the Pressler Amendment', reproduced here with permission from Penguin Random House.

It was the most dangerous nuclear situation we have ever faced since Ive been in the US government. It may be as close as weve come to a nuclear exchange. It was far more frightening than the Cuban missile crisis.

 Richard J Kerr, former deputy director of the CIA, in an interview with reporter Seymour Hersh, describing the 1990 nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan.

In June 1989, Pakistans new prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, addressed a joint session of Congress in the US, where she said, Speaking for Pakistan, I can declare that we do not possess, nor do we intend to make, a nuclear device. I was present when she made that public testimony. It was an outright lie to Congress. But she just did not know it. When she was accused of lying, I came to her defence. She did not know about the nuclear weapons because the ISI never told her. They had developed a bomb without the approval or the knowledge of the prime minister and Parliament. Incredible!

The incident testifies to the power that the ISI wields in the Pakistani political system. When I spoke privately with her at a prayer breakfast during that same visit, she told me how hopeless she felt trying to govern when the ISI, with American generals coaxing them on, controlled everything in Pakistan. Consequently, I was disappointed when President Bush followed Reagans lead and, once again, issued a certification that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear weapon, in October 1989. An exasperated Senator Glenn took to the floor of the Senate in November of that year to protest this certification, asserting that:

'I must conclude that the President had to make the most narrow possible interpretation of law to conclude that Pakistan does not possess the bomb  a statement I find very difficult to accept and really believe. To me, the Presidents action represents both bad policy and a disservice to a good law.'

Almost a year after the Soviet Army had withdrawn from Afghanistan, why did we feel the need to continue to funnel aid to Pakistan? I could not understand it. In October 1990, five years after the Pressler Amendment became law, President Bush finally invoked it. Why did President Bush enforce the law when President Reagan did not? Maybe it had something to do with the nuclear face-off between India and Pakistan in May 1990, a nuclear catastrophe narrowly avoided but kept largely under wraps by the US government until journalist Seymour Hersh revealed the details in an article in the New Yorker magazine on 29 March 1993.

Hersh was a controversial journalist, but on matters of Pakistan and the South Asia region, he was dead on. In this article, Hersh described how the American intelligence community witnessed in horror the fast-rising tensions between India and Pakistan in the spring of 1990, originating where it always seemed to, in Kashmir. Protests, rioting and an Indian police crackdown resulted in hundreds of Kashmiri civilian deaths. The Pakistanis reaction was frightening: intelligence analysts believed that Pakistan was training Muslim Kashmiri freedom fighters on the border and outfitting a nuclear bomb that could be placed under the wing of an F-16.

The National Security Agency (NSA) had intercepted an order from the Pakistan Armys chief of staff, General Mirza Aslam Baig, to actually assemble a nuclear weapon. The situation quickly escalated as India prepared an offensive ground strike into Pakistan and Pakistan planned to preempt this ground invasion with a nuclear hit on New Delhi. A quick intervention by American diplomats, including Robert Gates (who later served as President George W Bushs and President Obamas secretary of defense), was planned. Gates and his team were dispatched to the region to meet with the leaders of both India and Pakistan. They convinced both countries to stand down and move their troops away from the border. India agreed to improve the human rights conditions in Kashmir, and Pakistan agreed to shut down insurgent training camps in Kashmir. All sides agreed and war was averted, but many involved in the event consider it to be the closest the world has come to a nuclear exchange since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Everyone in Washington who was involved in non-proliferation knew about this crisis before Hershs article was published a few years later, but no one talked about it publicly. After this crisis, making the certification required under the Pressler Amendment was going to be very difficult and the State Department knew it. In August 1990, the department sent a Top Secret memorandum to Brent Scowcroft, the Presidents national security adviser. In it were recommendations that President Bush send letters to both Pakistans Prime Minister Bhutto and President Ghulam Ishaque Khan. The memo and draft letters, recently declassified and released, outlined a proposed diplomatic strategy that would allow President Bush to rationalise the Pressler Amendment annual certification. We believe that non-certification would spark an accelerated Indo-Pak nuclear race, putting the pronuclear elements in both governments under highly public and emotional pressure to move ahead full tilt. Werent they already moving ahead full tilt  with American taxpayers support?

The memo went on to recommend asking Pakistan,

to demonstrate tangibly that it is complying with the three steps we had earlier told them are essential for certification (cease production of highly enriched uranium, refrain from production of highly enriched uranium metal, ensure that Pakistan does not possess any highly enriched uranium metal in the form of nuclear device components).

The State Department made it clear they believed that Pakistan would never allow US officials to inspect its nuclear facilities:

Demanding inspection of all Pakistans HEU [highly enriched uranium] has almost no chance of acceptance. In these circumstances, if we believe the Pressler standard can be met with less than [an] inspection of HEU, we should not limit the Presidents ability to certify by setting our standards at an unrealistically high level.

Essentially, the State Department was arguing that President Bush should be satisfied with Pakistans stated intentions. I could not understand how we could ever be satisfied by Pakistans promises. They were empty. President Bush obviously agreed. Two months later, he finally invoked the Pressler Amendment and refused to certify to Congress that Pakistan did not have a nuclear weapon. He bucked the State Department. How could he ever have made any other choice? Bushs action stunned the world  and particularly the Octopus*. I was so happy and proud that Bush took this bold action. It was risky, because he might have incurred the wrath of all those who stood to gain from arms sales to Pakistan, including the delivery of numerous fighter jets with a nuclear delivery capability.

*By the Octopus, what is being referred to, is Washington, or the Military Industrial State. Andrew J Bacevich Sr, a professor at Boston University, and respected American military historian, wrote about the 'Octopus' in his book titled 'American Rules':

As used here, Washington (the Military Industrial State) is less geographic expression than a set of interlocking institutions headed by people, who, whether acting officially or unofficially, are able to put a thumb on the helm of state. Washington (the Military Industrial State), in this sense, includes the upper echelons of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the federal government. It encompasses the principal components of the national security state  the Departments of Defense, State, and more recently, Homeland Security, along with various agencies comprising the intelligence and law enforcement communities. Its rank extends to select think tanks and interest groups. Lawyers, lobbyists, fixers, former officials, and retired military officers who still enjoy access are members in good standing. Yet Washington (the Military Industrial State) also reaches beyond the Washington Beltway to include big banks and other financial institutions, defense contractors, and major corporations, and television networks . . . With rare exceptions, acceptance of the Washington (the Military Industrial State) rules forms a prerequisite for entry into this world.
Kochi: A 47-year-old activist of a radical Muslim group was arrested in Kochi on Saturday by the NIA for alleged involvement in the chopping off of the palm of a college professor seven years ago.

According to the NIA, Manzoor was the lone absconding accused in the case. He was produced before the NIA court in Kochi.

Activists of the Popular Front of India had chopped off the right palm of Professor TJ Joseph on 4 July, 2010, when he was returning along with his family members from the Sunday mass near his home in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district.

The case was transferred to the NIA which arrested those behind the crime. In 2015, the NIA court in Kochi found 13 guilty and acquitted 18.

PFI, a radical Muslim group, was upset after Joseph  a Malayalam teacher at New Man College Thodupuzha  in the Malayalam question paper that he had prepared for an internal examination at his college, had inflammatory remarks on Prophet Mohammed. The PFI chopped off his right palm in retaliation.
Coimbatore: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) was questioning two more persons from the city, believed to be 'close friends' of the duo who were interrogated two days ago in connection with an Islamic State module busted in Kannur district last year.

A team of officials, led by a DSP from Kerala arrived in Coimbatore and took the youths to a police station for "questioning" about the movement of their friends from Karumbukadai and Ukkadam in the city.

According to police sources, one youth is running a shop that sells second-hand books and the other a shoe outlet in the city. They would either be released after questioning or taken to Kochi, they said.

In the past few days, NIA has questioned "a few persons" from Coimbatore and Alappuzha in Kerala as part of its probe in connection with an Islamic State module busted in Kannur district last year.

The NIA sleuths had taken two persons from the city to Kochi two days ago for interrogation, after carrying out searches at their houses, following their alleged posts on the social media, supporting the activities of the Islamic State.

A posse of police personnel has been deployed near the police station, since a large number of people had gathered during the searches carried out here two days ago.

Based on posts on some social media platforms, NIA officials have zeroed in on the duo, who allegedly posted content on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, supporting the activities of the Islamic State.
New Delhi: The government is hopeful that the strategic Chabahar Port will be operational by 2018, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

The Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari is in Tehran on Saturday to represent India at the oath taking ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier congratulated Rouhani on his re-election as the President of Iran and affirmed India's commitment to strengthen the special relations between the countries.

"India and Iran have been historically sharing special ties... We are keen on developing Chabahar Port and are hopeful of starting operations in 12 to 18 months," Gadkari told PTI.

Gakdari is keen on expediting development of the Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nation's southern coast that can be easily accessed from India's west coast, bypassing Pakistan.

The visit assumes significance as India has accelerated work at the port and finalised some tenders for installation of key equipment at Chabahar Port.

"Civil construction work has started there. We have finalised tenders worth Rs 380 crore for equipment out of Rs 600 crore and once the port becomes operational it will become a growth engine," the minister has said.

The minister has said that he was also hopeful of certain approvals from the Iranian government for expediting work and added that once Chabahar becomes operational the trade and business between both the nations would see a boost.

For greater trade and investment flow with Iran and neighbouring countries, the Cabinet last year cleared proposals for the development of Chabahar port including through a $150 million credit from Exim Bank.

It also authorised the shipping ministry to form a company in Iran for implementing the Chabahar Port Development Project and related activities.

As per the MoU signed between the two nations in May last year, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with a capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million on a 10-year lease.

Ownership of equipment will be transferred to Iranian side on completion of 10 years or for an extended period, based on mutual agreement. The Iranian side had requested for provision of a credit of $150 million in accordance with the MoU.

As per the pact, operations of two berths are to commence within a period of maximum 18 months after the signing of the contract.

Besides the bilateral pact to develop the Chabahar port, for which India will invest $500 million, a trilateral agreement on Transport and Transit Corridor has also been signed by India, Afghanistan and Iran.
New Delhi: In a first, President Ram Nath Kovind Saturday called a separate meeting of officers of the president's military wing within days of assuming office to acquaint himself with them, a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said.

Underlining that the entire country looks at Rashtrapati Bhavan with great hope, Kovind urged the officers and staff to rise to these expectations by fulfilling their respective responsibilities.

He said they should focus more on duties rather than rights and develop the values of sacrifice and discipline, the statement from the president's press secretary Ashok Malik said.

During the meeting, military secretary to the president, Major General Anil Khosla introduced the military wing of Rashtrapati Bhavan to Kovind, comprising the DMSP, ADCs, the Ceremonial Section, Invitation Section, Tour Section, Visitor's Management Cell, Household Section, Sanitation Section, the President's Bodyguard, and the Ceremonial Guard Battalion.

"This is for the first time that within just a few days of assuming office, the President of India has called a separate meeting to acquaint himself with the President's military staff," the statement said.

It said the president told the staff that they should all be involved in the progress of the country and work together with honesty and dedication.
The growing animosity between the Arnab Goswami-led-Republic TV and Shashi Tharoor has reached a fever-pitch in the past week. New footage has emerged of Republic TV journalists interrupting Tharoor during a press conference about Congress party policy and asking him to answer their questions regarding the death of Sunanda Pushkar. On choosing to ignore questions not pertaining to the conference, Republic TV journalists, hounded the Congress leader in a way which can only be described as sheer harassment.

Armed with microphones and a camera, Republic TV journalists surrounded Shashi Tharoor outside the press conference. With repeated chants of 'Mr. Tharoor' echoing throughout the video, a mental flashback of Arnab Goswami is unavoidable. The reporters, in the video, are seen following Tharoor as he tries to exit the press conference, with chants of 'Why are you running away like a coward, Mr.Tharoor?'

The 'onslaught' of questions, as the channel itself chose to call it, forced a response from Shashi Tharoor who called Republic TV 'the digital equivalent of a toilet roll. As the video progresses, it is clear that this comment was not taken lightly by the channel and was deemed 'abrasive' and 'condemnable' language.

The reporters are seen in the video asking the politician,Why are you running, Mr Tharoor?, while another shouts, We will keep asking our questions. Why arent you answering our questions? Why are you trying to run away? A third voice calls the former Union minister a coward and "killer" for dodging questions on the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

If comparisons drawn to toilets are called abrasive, then unsubstantially calling a person a 'killer' and a 'coward' also seem unnecessary, to say the least.

Congress leader Divya Spandana tweeted a video of the incident highlighting a Republic TV reporter shoving Shashi Tharoor in quest for the mythical 'answer' we associate with Arnab.

The death they were referring to is still being investigated by the police. Shashi Tharoor has previously taken part in police investigations regarding the death of Sunanda Pushkar. Even though the case hasn't been solved, Republic TV started their 'onslaught' in May and went after Shashi Tharoor with a Goswami-fuelled vengeance.

According to PTI, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on 26 May had filed a civil defamation suit against Arnab Goswami and newly-launched news channel Republic TV in the Delhi High Court claiming damages and compensation of Rs 2 crore for allegedly making defamatory remarks towards him while airing news relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

The Delhi High Court had later observed that the news channel can air stories by stating the facts related to the investigation into the death of Pushkar, but cannot call the MP a 'criminal', according to the report.

The Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram had also sought a direction from the high court to restrain the TV channel from broadcasting any show relating to the death of his wife till the investigation is completed by the Delhi police. According to the report, the Congress leader, in his lawsuit, made Goswami and Arg Outlier Media Asianet News Private Limited, the company which owns Republic TV, as parties.

As the issue moved on though, the channel seemed reluctant to let it go. Appearing more like paparazzi, the channel continued to pester the leader on his views on the case. The Delhi High Court on Friday sought a response from journalist Arnab Goswami and his channel Republic TV on Tharoor's plea to refrain from 'misreporting' his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death and asked them to respect his 'right to silence'.

This development came after this video was shot. Justice Manmohan issued notice to Goswami and Republic TV after Tharoor alleged that they continued to engage in "defaming and maligning" him despite an assurance given in the court on 29 May by their counsel, according to a PTI report.

Taking note of this, the bench said, "You (Goswami and the channel) have to respect Tharoor's right to silence."

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Tharoor, submitted that the court must direct Goswami and the channel to not mention the expression "murder of Sunanda Pushkar", as it is yet to be established by a competent court that her death was "murder", to ensure the trial was not prejudiced.

Maybe now, Republic TV will understand the obvious and big difference between dedicated journalism and harassment.
Speculations are rife that the Sarbananda Sonowal ministry in Assam will soon see an expansion. This will be the first expansion of the state cabinet since BJP wrested power from Congress winning 60 seats in the 2016 Assam Assembly election.

Its alliance partners Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) had won 14 and Bodoland People's Front (BPF) 12 seats respectively.

The Sonowal ministry so far has eight Cabinet ministers and two ministers of state with independent charge.

According to informed sources, the chief minister along with state health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have flown to New Delhi to consult with BJP president Amit Shah on the probable names to be inducted into the Sonowal ministry.

The possible names include a mix of veteran BJP members and those who have become first-time legislators.

"The chief minister has gone to Delhi on Friday. Discussion on ministry expansion is on his agenda. The chief minister has indicated that the expansion would happen by 8 August. It would definitely not go beyond 15 August as the plan is to send the new ministers to different districts for flag hoisting," a source who is privy to the development told Firstpost.

Among those BJP MLAs whose entry into the Sonowal ministry is more or less confirmed are former All Assam Students' Union president and Charaideo legislator Topon Kumar Gogoi, former state party president and East Guwahati MLA Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Sonai MLA Aminul Haque Laskar and Jagiroad legislator Pijush Hazarika.

This round of expansion is likely to see the entry of eight new ministers with six from the BJP and one each from the two allies.

"I believe in my work. I am still working sincerely in my capacity as an MLA. Just now I have returned reviewing the flood control efforts in Dhekiajuli as part of an MLA panel where we saw large-scale corruption by the contractor. It is a Rs 55 crore project to protect the Missamari cantonment from the raging waters of the Jiagabharu river where the contractor issued a bill of Rs 8 crore but hardly did work for Rs 8 lakh. For me, a field trip of this kind is more important. But yes, I have my fingers crossed," said Bhattacharya.

There was astonishment from different corners when the East Guwahati MLA didn't make it to Sonowal's core team last year.

Gogoi's entry into the ministry, besides adding the Ahom factor, will be another helping hand to Sonowal who like the Charaideo MLA also headed the student organisation before entering active politics.

Laskar, besides being a Muslim  an entity which the BJP cannot afford to ignore  also comes from the Barak Valley where there is already high resentment among people for their minuscule representation in the state ministry. So far, PWD, fisheries and excise minister Parimal Suklabaidya is the only face in the ministry from the region.

Jagiroad MLA Hazarika has a strong backing from Sarma, the most important face in the state cabinet after the chief minister.

However, another Sarma confidant and Sipajhar MLA Binanda Kumar Saikia cannot be ruled out completely. His induction might just cause a scare to Hazarika.

"From the allies, it would be Bongaigaon AGP MLA Phani Bhusan Choudhury and BPF chief and Sidli MLA Chandan Brahma," the source said.

When contacted, Choudhury chose to avoid the matter saying, "I have no information about it. The chief minister might go to Delhi for some other work."

Apart from the names above, there are other names doing the rounds. Prominent among them are Dibrugarh MLA Prasanta Phukan and Batadroba MLA Angoorlata Deka.

"I have no idea. I have not been informed yet. It is the prerogative of the chief minister. I don't know if any date has been fixed. I know nothing more than you do. But it has to be noted that I am the only BJP MLA who has won three times consecutively since 2006. Even the ministers in the present government have not done so. If I don't get any ministry I will confine myself to my constituency and the party. Yes, if I get a ministry I will like it," said Phukan.

Deka stands a chance because she would then be the second woman minister after forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma, who is from BPF.

Sootea BJP MLA Padma Hazarika, who has a good rapport with the people in his constituency, also stands a chance.

"The chief minister has not said anything. We don't have any say. I think it won't be right to comment on it at this juncture," Padma told Firstpost.

While there is a talk that BJP's newest joinee among MLAs Ranoj Pegu also might make it to the ministry, it cannot be confirmed yet. Pegu earlier functioned as the chief executive councilor of the Mising Autonomous Council and represents the Dhemaji constituency in the state Assembly.

"Inducting Pegu would mean that Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Naba Kumar Doley would have to be dropped as there won't be two representatives from the Mising community. But the catch is Doley has been doing good work so far. There is no such obvious ground to drop him," said the source.

The uncertainty was palpable when Pegu did not wish to say further except "I don't know anything" when contacted.

First-time Tinsukia MLA Sanjay Kishan might make it to the ministry as well as he represents the state's considerable tea community.

Dhekiajuli MLA Ashok Anand Singhal, who is cash rich and from the Hindi-speaking community, also has the possibility of entering the ministry while Golakganj MLA Ashwini Ray Sarkar would probably make the cut as a member of the Bengali-speaking community.

Among those who might face the axe are power minister Pallab Lochan Das and irrigation minister Ranjit Dutta.

Das' style of functioning has been under tremendous media scanner as nearly 50 people died at various places in Assam due to electrocution since June this year, and the minister gave scant regard to the grave issue forcing Sonowal to form a one-man inquiry committee headed by a retired Gauhati High Court judge to probe into these incidents.

Dutta's days are probably numbered in the ministry because in March this year the vigilance wing of the state police had recovered over Rs 50 lakh from the irrigation minister's secretary Kujendra Doley putting a question mark on the anti-corruption narrative of the state government. Dutta, however, vehemently denied any involvement with the whole episode then.

The expansion would give some respite to Sonowal and Sarma, who handle a bulk of the ministries between each other.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday questioned the timing of the Income Tax (IT) raids, which continued the third day on the state Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar, his relatives and aides in the city, state and Delhi.

"I am not against raids per se but look at their timing and the use of central (para-military) forces for it, which undermines our federal structure," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

Dubbing again the raids 'politically motivated' by the central government, the Chief Minister alleged that the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had no moral right to say the searches were a fight against corruption when so many of its leaders were facing serious graft charges.

Asked if Shivakumar would be able to come clean on the charges of tax evasion and amassing benami properties worth crores of rupees, Siddaramaiah said he was not aware what was happening at the places where raids were underway to react.

"We do not know anything about the raids, what they (tax sleuths) found during the searches and his interrogation," reiterated the official.

Though the IT Department remained mum on the raids at several locations, informed sources said the searches led to recovery of many incriminating documents, property records, cash, gold and jewellery valued at Rs 15 crore.

"As raids are being carried simultaneously by about 100-150 officers in the city, across state and elsewhere (Delhi), we cannot divulge or share any information now. Our higher authorities will decide when to do," an IT official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

Defending the deployment of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) for the raids, the official said under section 132 of the Income Tax Act, the IT department was empowered to use them (CRPF) for the protection of the search teams.

"This is not the first time their (CRPF) services are used for such raids at multiple locations as they involve risk from those being searched or their people," reiterated the official but declined to be identified, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

"He is a Minister. Taking reserve police to his house and other places is not fair," he quipped.
Beijing: Raising the rhetoric, a Chinese expert has claimed that China might launch a military offensive against Indian troops in Doka La within two weeks and that New Delhi will be told about the operation in advance.

The expert at a Chinese think tank said the Indian soldiers deployed at Doka La, in the Sikkim sector, will either be captured or expelled from the area.

Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing's patience was wearing thin as India has not withdrawn troops from Doka La despite repeatedly being told to by the Chinese government and think tanks.

"If India refuses to withdraw, China may conduct a small-scale military operation within two weeks," he said.

"The series of remarks from the Chinese side within a 24-hour period sends a signal to India that there is no way China will tolerate the Indian troops' incursion into Chinese territory for too long," Hu was quoted as saying by state-run Global Times.

China has stepped up its anti-India tirade over Doka La with its state media warning of baneful consequences.

India wants to resolve the dispute over the standoff between their armies in the Sikkim sector diplomatically, but China says it won't talk unless India withdraws troops from Doka La.

He said the military operation would aim to seize Indian personnel "illegally" lingering in Chinese territory or expel them.

"The Chinese side will inform the Indian Foreign Ministry before its operation," Hu said.

Doka La is a disputed region between China and Bhutan. The dispute arose after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the region in mid-June.

The expert's view comes as the Chinese Defence Ministry said on Thursday that India should not test its patience over Doka La and that "restraint has a bottom line".

The Ministry told India to "give up the illusion of its delaying tactic, as no country should underestimate the Chinese forces' confidence and capability".

While China continues to raise the ante over the Doka La standoff, India says it will engage with Beijing diplomatically to resolve the border standoff and that war is not a solution.

"Our stand is that we maintain restraint in language and keep patience and engage in diplomacy. No solution will be gained out of the war because even after the war, talks are required. A solution cannot be derived out of the war," India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament on Thursday.

"Times are changing and it is an economic power and not strategic power that decides the strength of a nation...If there is a dialogue there will be a solution," she said.
Colombo: An Indian-built Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) has been commissioned by the Sri Lankan navy at a ceremony in Colombo harbour.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena launched the country's newest acquisition  "SLNS Sayurala" earlier this week at the ceremony at the Eastern Container Terminal of the Port of Colombo. Flag Officer Commander in Chief Southern Naval Command-Indian Navy, Vice Admiral AR Karve, attended the event.

Constructed by the Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) in India, it is the first-ever brand new AOPV purchased from a foreign ship builder, custom-made for the specific requirements of the Sri Lankan Navy. A Ministry of Defence release said that it is the largest vessel of its kind to be acquired by the Navy.

With a length of 105.7 metre and width of 13.6 metre, the vessel has a displacement of 2,350 tonnes. The GSL built the AOPV under an agreement signed on February 2014 and it was handed over to the Sri Lankan Navy on 22 July.

In addition to SLNS Sayurala, Sri Lanka intends to acquire three more OPVs in accordance with SLN maritime strategy 2025, the Island newspaper reported.

The Goa Shipyard Limited is also building a second AOPV for Sri Lanka and it will be joining the country's fleet next year.

SLNS Sayurala will go on its first mission later this month.
Srinagar: The police on Saturday arrested three overground workers (OGWs) of militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Shopian district of south Kashmir.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint 'naka' (checkpost) of the state police and army's 62 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) unit was set up near Nagbal, in the Zainapora area of Shopian, said a police spokesman.

He added that during checking, the three LeT OGWs  Showkat Ahmad Mir, Waseem Ahmad and Junaid Ali Bhat  were apprehended and three hand grenades were seized from their possession.

During questioning, the three men confessed that they were working at the behest of LeT operative Wasim Shah and were tasked with hurling grenades at police establishments and snatching the weapons of the securitymen in Shopian, said the spokesman.

The trio had also carried out reconnaissance of a few police pickets with a design to carry out terror attacks, he added.

A case was registered in this regard and a probe was on, said the spokesman.

Earlier on Saturday, three LeT militants were killed in an encounter with the security forces in the Sopore area of Baramulla district in Kashmir.
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Even after this, 16 votes were found to be invalid.

In the workshop, the MPs were explained the way in which one is supposed to vote with a special pen.

In a hilarious incident, NDA leaders conducted a 'dummy vote' workshop to ensure that there are no goof-ups when the MPs cast their final vote in the vice-presidential polls, according to India Today .

NDA leaders had conducted a 'dummy vote' workshop, in which 16 votes were found to be invalid

According to ANI, a total of 771 votes out of 785 were polled in Saturday's Vice-Presidential Election. 98.21 is the recorded poll percentage.

The Indian Express reported that two Muslim League MPs, PK Kunhalikutty and Abdul Wahab, were barred from voting in the Vice-Presidential Election because they arrived 10 minutes after the polls had closed.

The government enjoys an absolute majority in the Lower House and is in line to take a majority in the Rajya Sabha given the recent electoral victories in the States. This means that the government could effectively control both houses of the Parliament should its candidate be elected, not only when it concerns legislation but also debates.

Polls crucial for Oppn and govt as BJP eyes control of both Houses

BJP MPs Sanwarlal Jat and Vijay Goel could not vote in the Vice-Presidential Election because they are hospitalised, reported PTI.

In fact, with Naidu's nomination, BJP has got the regional balance right  presidential nominee from north India and vice-president from south.

Naidu, one of the senior most BJP leader and the Union minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, is from Andhra Pradesh and had been based in Hyderabad. His elevation can emotionally appeal to people in both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Venkaiah Naidu's nomination was in sync with what was being discussed in the power corridors  that the ruling BJP wants a leader from south India for the vice-president's post. The party is trying hard to make inroads in regions beyond Karnataka.

"I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the prime minister and all party leaders for their support," Venkaiah Naidu told PTI.

Venkaiah Naidu to take oath as 15th Vice-President of India on 11 August

"I will seek to utilise the vice-presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and uphold the dignity of the Upper House," Venkaiah Naidu told PTI.

Venkaiah Naidu will be the 13th person to hold the second highest Constitutional post

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the nation is changing and it is a great day for the democracy of India. He also said that Naidu has a heart for the poor and he is a leader of great eminence, who knows the Constitution.

In the 2007 vice-presidential poll, incumbent Hamid Ansari had polled 456 votes, Najma Heptullah 222 votes and Rashid Masood 075 votes. In the 2012 polls, Ansari had bagged 490 and NDA nominee Jaswant Singh 238 votes.

Born to a humble agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, the 68-year-old has served as BJP president, a minister in various portfolios and a long-time Rajya Sabha member. This remarkable career in politics has been more than four decades in the making.

From pasting party posters to an epitome of political and ideological loyalty who rose to become one of BJP's most visible leaders and now India's vice president-elect, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu has come a long way.

"The position of the Vice-President of India has the crucial challenge of assuming a non-partisan role in running the House of Elders, which acts as a storehouse of wisdom and sage advice for the government," Sonia Gandhi said in a statement. - IANS

Sonia Gandhi greeted M Venkaiah Naidu and said "his position has the crucial challenge of assuming a non-partisan role" in running the Rajya Sabha.

"We have seen one thing that earlier in the presidential election, the opposition candidate got 225 votes, this time it was 244 votes."

Ghulam Nabi Azad said the votes in favour of Gopalkrishna Gandhi increased by 19 in the vice-presidential election compared to the President's election, which according to him was a positive thing.

The former West Bengal governor said that the MPs voted for him to affirm "the right to free thought and speech and the duty to serve pluralism and secularism". - PTI

Gopalkrishna Gandhi said that the votes he secured were an affirmation of "the right to free thought and speech". Thanking the MPs and the parties that backed him in the election, he said they voted for what they felt was "national good". He said the number of votes he received was "beyond expectation".

Gopalkrishna Gandhi says the votes he secured were an affirmation of right to free thought

In a telephonic conversation after the results were declared, President Hamid Ansari wished Venkaiah Naidu the very best for his future role as the Vice-President of India and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday congratulated M Venkaiah Naidu on being elected the next vice-president of the country. In her congratulatory message to the vice-president-elect, she said his win marked the victory of the common people, whose struggle and aspirations he represented throughout his political life.

Venkaiah Naidu being greeted and his wife Usha after daughter Deepa Venkat after being elected as the Vice President of India

Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das said in his statement on the vice-presidential elections that the nation would get the benefit of Naidu's experience, an official release said.

Heartfelt congratulation to #VenkaiahNaidu . He is an experienced politician, wish him great success: AP CM Chandrababu Naidu pic.twitter.com/FPFT9CblmY

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers sweets to Vice President elect Venkaiah Naidu at his residence in New Delhi

. @MVenkaiahNaidu like never before! This mash-up with definitely lift your Tuesday spirits. Check it out. pic.twitter.com/yOhwCIXDZc

Delhi: EAM Sushma Swaraj met #VicePresident elect #VenkaiahNaidu at his residence after he won the election. pic.twitter.com/9aRCUgGvcF

Met @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu and congratulated him on his impressive victory in the Vice Presidential elections. pic.twitter.com/j61PVzskiG

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah paid a visit to Naidu at his residence after he won the polls. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also commemorated the occasion.

We are feeling very very happy and proud of him: Sushma, #VenkaiahNaidu 's grand daughter on his win. pic.twitter.com/pGk7Xt4NWM

He believes politics is based on ideology nothing else,no personal enemies,this made him victorious: Deepa Venkat, #VenkaiahNaidu 's daughter pic.twitter.com/G3ugIhWWox

Venkaiah Naidu's daughter Deepa Venkat said that the reason why Naidu was victorious was that he believes that politics is based on ideology and has no personal enemies.

. @MVenkaiahNaidu Congratulations sir for being elected as next Vice President. Your election will enhance the dignity of this high office

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said that Venkaiah Naidu's election will "enhance the dignity of this high office." He also commended opposition's vice-presidential candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi, saying that he fought the election with grace and upheld the high principles and ideas of democracy.

What should cause concern among the opposition, including the Congress, the Left and the TMC, is that their candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got only 19 votes more than their presidential nominee Meira Kumar even though 40 more MPs had pledged support to him.

Nearly two dozen MPs of opposition parties defied their leadership and voted for the NDA's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu, BJP sources said on Saturday. 

Ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate M Venkaiah Naidu is tipped to be India's next vice-president as members of Parliament gear up to cast their ballot on Saturday.

The name of the next vice-president of India will be known on Saturday evening after the voting takes place during the day in Parliament House.

The ruling NDA, which has a majority in the Lok Sabha, is likely to find it easy to place its candidate as the next vice-president.

The Opposition has fielded Gopalkrishna Gandhi against Naidu as its candidate.

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Janata Dal (United), which had supported NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind for the post of president, have decided to back Opposition nominee Gandhi this time around.

Perhaps the most significant aspect about the vice-presidential nomination of Gandhi was that his name was first suggested by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose party JD(U) is now in alliance with the BJP in the state.

Members of Parliament will use special pens to mark their choice in the election scheduled to be held between 10 am and 5 pm on Saturday. The counting of votes will commence after polling and the results will be declared by 7 pm, Election Commission officials said.

No whip can be issued by political parties as the election is through a secret ballot.

The term of Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who has held the post for two consecutive terms, is coming to an end on 10 August.

The electoral college, which elects the vice-president (who is also the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha), consists of elected and nominated members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

The total strength of the two Houses is 790, but there are two vacancies in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha. Lok Sabha BJP MP Chhedi Paswan is barred from casting a vote following a judicial pronouncement.

In the 545-member Lok Sabha, the BJP has 281 members. The NDA, which is led by BJP, has 338 members.

In the 243-member Rajya Sabha, the BJP on Thursday overtook Congress to become the largest political party in the Rajya Sabha, where it now has 58 members against 57 of the main Opposition party.

Despite the expected outcome of the vice-presidential election, the polls are still relevant because BJP leader and key member of the Cabinet Venkaiah Naidu will be contesting against Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson and an acclaimed civil servant, diplomat and former governor, who is a strong votary of secular ethos, and has clear and independent views.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: National Democratic Alliance's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said he was "a non-party man" and that majority of the parties supported his candidature.

"I am confident that they all will vote today (Saturday)," Naidu told the media after leaving his residence for the Parliament to participate in the voting process.

Naidu said he was not contesting against anybody- individual or party. "I am contesting for the post of vice-president."

The 68-year-old said he was known to all members of the Parliament, and this was the reason that he did not campaign.

The former Union Minister was on 17 July fielded against Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the post of vice-president.

The voting to choose the next vice-president of India began in the Parliament at 10 am, and will go on until 5 pm.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday congratulated M Venkaiah Naidu on being elected the next vice-president of the country.

In her congratulatory message to the vice-president-elect, she said his win marked the victory of the common people, whose struggle and aspirations he represented throughout his political life.

Wishing him well for his tenure, Mehbooba hoped that as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha also, Naidu would take the proceedings of the House to new heights of propriety, consensus and respect for each other's point of view.

NDA nominee Naidu was on Saturday declared the winner in the vice-presidential poll.

The former Union minister bagged 516 of the total of 771 votes cast, as against the 244 votes garnered by opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government is likely to write a letter to the Centre to declare the recent floods in West Bengal a national disaster.

According to a senior state government official, a review meeting on the flood situation in 14 districts of the state is likely be held at the state secretariat on Saturday in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

After that a letter is likely to be sent to the BJP-led Central government to declare the current flood situation in West Bengal as a national disaster and release funds, the official said.

"The Central government has released funds for Gujarat but it's almost the same situation here in our state. So we will also demand from the Centre to declare it as a national disaster and release funds," he said.

The Centre has already declared funds for flood-hit states of Gujarat and north east including Assam but nothing has been declared for West Bengal.

"West Bengal has been neglected. Despite so many districts flooded the Centre is not doing anything. We demand for our people," he said.

Incessant rain along with water released from different barrages of the Damodar Valley Corporation flooded around 14 districts in West Bengal in which 50 people lost their lives and nearly four lakh hectare of agricultural land was inundated.
Anantnag: When the bullet-riddled body of Yawar Nisar was brought to his home in Sherpora locality of south Kashmir's Anantnag district, a commotion broke out. Young mourners jostled to touch the 'martyr' while elders, on the wrong side of age, tried to keep them at bay. In a corner, nearly two dozen women wailed endlessly; some pulled their hair or beat their chests.

On 18 July evening, Yawar left home for the last time. From that evening onwards, Nisar Sheergujri, Yawar's father who works as a storekeeper in the civil supplies department started searching for his son. It was a race against the time which he lost on Thursday evening.

"Whenever I pulled a bag of rice for the consumers in these two weeks, Yawar's face would suddenly come up in front of my eyes," Sheergujri said, as people prepared for the last journey of the 22-year-old on Friday.

"I would go to the town, search him in the market, glance at passing vehicles, visit the bus stand and come home like a gambler who has lost everything," he said.

Yawar studied till 12th class. He was active on social media and friends who Firstpost spoke with, described him as a "pious and noble soul" of the locality. "I had only two sons, one is gone and I will live for the other one. But Yawar's passing has dug a hole in my heart which will remain there forever," Sheergujri said.

He said boys are being harassed day in and day out by the police for participating in stone pelting.

"Their lives become miserable after that. My son's too had become miserable. People who can afford, bribe the police and those who cant are left at the mercy of God. That is why some of these children take guns in their hands. This has to stop. Someone has to stop this death and destruction," Sheergujri said.

Although Yawar was previously suspected of involvement in some cases, no one in his family knew he was going to join militancy. His friends, though, had some idea. Apart from noticing changes in his personality, Yawar was turning increasingly religious after spending time in police custody on multiple occasions, charged with being a chronic stone pelter.

His joining militancy follows an eerily similar pattern of part harassment by forces and part influence of religion which has delivered dozens of young boys into the hands of the insurgency. Before joining militancy, Yawar was booked under various cases by Jammu and Kashmir Police and subsequently faced alleged harassment at the hands of the forces.

Yawar was the first militant from the main town of Anantnag to have joined militancy after the new age militancy gripped the Kashmir valley. In fact, he was the first militant from Anantnag since 2005, but he only survived for 16 days.

On Thursday evening, a joint team of forces launched a cordon and search operation in Herpora Kanelwan in Dochnipora belt of Bijbehara area after receiving information about the presence of three militants in the locality. The militants were hiding in one of the houses and when the troops closed in, they came out and fired on the search party, resulting in injuries to a soldier.

While two militants managed to flee through orchards, one of them, Yawar, was injured. Witnesses saw him scaling a wall around one of the houses and rushing to take shelter but all he could find was a dingy washroom located in the compound of the house.

"He was hit in the shoulder. As the forces intensified searches in the area, they zeroed in on the washroom where Yawar had locked himself from inside. He was not carrying any weapon," a resident of Kanelwan told Firstpost on the condition of anonymity.

Police, however, rebutted the claim, saying that an SLR, perhaps snatched from one of the policemen during the events of post-Burhan violence in Kashmir, was recovered from his possession.

When the dust settled in Kanelwan, more than a hundred bullets had pockmarked the wooden gate of the washroom where the fortnight-old militant tried to hide. Even in his death, Yawar acted like a child playing hide and seek who locks himself in a room, and prays, pretends, that his secret place will never be discovered.

As the rain of bullets stopped and the door of the washroom was opened by wary army men, Yawar was lying inside, motionless, in a prostrated state; his face was disfigured and his body was dripping blood.

Meanwhile, three militants were killed by forces in an overnight gun battle that raged in Amargarh area of Sopore in north Kashmirs Baramulla district. A police man and an army soldier were also injured. A police official said that the house in which they were staying did not suffer damage as the militants were killed in the lawn.

One of the killed militants is from Khanpora area of Baramulla town, which has remained largely peaceful since an unrest began last year. Police said the slain militant had joined the LeT few months back, family members said he too was arrested and harassed by police before he joined militancy.
More than ten days after former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa was announced by Al-Qaeda as the head of its Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind cell in Kashmir, he released an audio message slamming leaders who are promoting false ideals of jihad in Pakistan and putting roadblocks in the way of people's struggle.

Musa has accepted that both Abu Dujana and Arif Lelhari, who were killed in a recent encounter with government forces at Hakripora in Pulwama, are a part of his outfit. "Our two beloved friends Abu Dujana and Arif bhai became martyrs at Pulwama's Hakripora village. May Allah accept their martyrdom and make us victorious in carrying forward their mission," Musa said in an audio message that bears the insignia of Roshan Kashmir and Al-Hurr.

Earlier, Al-Qaeda had announced that it will inform people about its operations in Kashmir through the media platform Al-Hurr. The terror organisation had also said that the official media of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind is amedd Al-Hurr, which translates to "free and independent."

In the audio message, Musa said that Abu Dujana had played a key role in the formation of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. "Allah creates such avenues for the prosperity of his religion that a person remains bewildered. Martyr Abu Dujana bhai and martyr Arif bhai were two such companions, who associated with righteousness. In the formation of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, they played an important role. They have been rewarded by becoming the first martyrs of this jihadi struggle," he said in the message.

Interestingly, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudddin had also paid tributes to Abu Dujana and Arif Lelhari. He said in a statement that "their separation is really painful and unbearable." Salahuddin had said that the death of Abu Dujana would leave a vacuum. The Hizbul chief had also said that their sacrifice has further strengthened the foundation of the Kashmir freedom struggle. This betrays the rift among the militant outfits in Kashmir.

While referring to Abu Dujana, Salahuddin said that he was a "military expert" and was not only popular among militants but was also a cause of worry for the armed forces. Describing his death as a setback in the struggle, Salahuddin however, said that history is a witness that "every drop of blood of a martyr has produced thousands of others."

Both the militant outfits and separatists reacted sharply to the creation of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. The joint leadership of Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and JKLF chairman Yaseen Malik, described the Al-Qaeda in Kashmir as a handiwork of "Indian agencies".

In a joint statement, they said that New Delhi was desperate to malign the Kashmiri "freedom movement and it was under a well-thought-out plan that policies are being devised" to defame the freedom fighters. They said groups like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda are "nonexistent" in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. They also pointed out that such "groups have no role in our freedom movement."

Describing Kashmir's freedom movement as local in nature and indigenous in character, they said that "terrorism and the freedom movement are poles apart." Slamming both Al- Qaeda and the Islamic State over their merciless killings, the Hurriyat leaders said that they are neither fighting against tyrant forces nor have become successful in realising the goal of Islamic jurisprudence in any part of the world. Rather, they said that their activities have "proven disadvantageous and detrimental for Muslim Ummah." "Wherever Muslim communities are fighting for their rights, these organisations have resorted to killing the very suppressed nations."

About the role of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the countries of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, the Hurriyat said that they have carried out brutal killings and destroyed properties.

Following the stance taken by Hurriyat, Hizbul Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naikoo said at the funeral of a slain militant that all those who are holding the flag of Islam "are not necessarily our own". Naikoo said that the Pakistan flag is their own flag and linking the Kashmiri freedom struggle with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State is a ploy to defame the movement.

However, in a recent interview to Firstpost, Director General of Police, SP Vaid, said that India does't believe in propagating "terrorism". "We are a peace loving country. We are not the ISI to create terrorist organisations." He further said that the Indian state has always believed in peace and in the ethos of non-violence as preached by Mahatma Gandhi.

However, Musa paid tributes to both Abu Dujana and Arif Lelhari. "We congratulate their families for their great martyrdom. Shaheed Abu Dujana bhai and shaheed Arif bhai were like a strong wall who would accompany each other. When Dujana understood the right path and joined our ranks, there were some self-styled leaders of jihad in Pakistan who caused many difficulties in their way. Martyr Arif, also had to go through a number of difficulties, but they both fought till their last breath in the way of Allah. These two were among the most truthful people who came out from the stranglehold of infidels and associated with the struggle for monotheism," Musa said in the audio message.
Rohtak: BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday asked party workers in Haryana to make the party "invincible" by turning every booth into its stronghold.

Addressing a gathering of BJP office-bearers here on the last day of his visit to the state, Shah asked party activists not to be complacent or rest till "every person gets food, every child gets education and every field gets water".

He asked them to work towards making India "the world's leader".

The BJP believes that the last man standing in the queue has to benefit from various schemes, Shah said.

He exhorted them to make "the party invincible and turn every booth in Haryana into its stronghold".

With an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Shah is travelling across states to strategise and find ways to strengthen the party at the grass-root level.
The EVM machines are back in their boxes. Those charged men in Gandhi caps seem to have dispersed on one long snack break somewhere, or an endless siesta in the shade. Stickers of brooms have peeled and fallen off the capital's green and yellow auto rickshaws, and the mics that once animated war cries like Jhaadu chalaao, beimaan bhagaao, have been muted.

Where is the chief minister of Delhi? One would have expected at least a comment from him on BJP fielding Ram Nath Kovind as their presidential candidate or, people expected him to chime in along with the Opposition chorus about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on China. While the prime minister condemned the recent incidents of mob lynching in a tweet, he didn't say anything about the 'Not In My Name' protest march against lynchings of Muslims and Dalits at Jantar Mantar.

Killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 29, 2017

Once a darling of trolls, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal now lazily goes about just retweeting his deputy Manish Sisodia. He even retweets pictures of people taking selfies with Sisodia. Kejriwal seems to have resisted the urge to react to the political earthquake in Bihar last month. More so because Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had backed Kejriwal earlier this year by terming the allegations by rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra as BJP's doing.

Forget political bickering, Kejriwal isn't even sharing movie recommendations on social media anymore. Where has Kejriwal's politics of activism, drama and noise vanished?

Firstpost walked into his residence in North Delhi's Civil Lines to ask him what he has been up to since 26 April, the day his party lost the capital's municipal body elections to the BJP.

Thrice a week, the chief minister hosts janata samvad at his residence and it will likely become a daily exercise. This is an open house for anybody who wants his or her civic grievance heard through public engagements with the chief minister or, with representatives from 17 departments including social welfare, education, health, urban-shelter, revenue, transport and the Jal board (depending on the gravity of the situation).

Kejriwal looked composed as the last complainant exited his room. Firstpost asked him the reason for his long absence from the limelight. "Ab kaam karna hai," he replied. "Politics is not for an individual. Its function lies in solving the grievances of the common man, who should be guaranteed security, justice and development," Kejriwal said.

He explained that he isn't away from public life, but is in fact right in the centre of it. "Politicians are duty-bound to meet the janata directly, that very janta which grapples with government offices to have their demands heard. At the janata samvad, we offer them a simple and direct solution to their problem. Those whose cases have not been heard, this is the last place where they should get justice," Kejriwal told Firstpost.

Between 9 and 11 am about 70 to 90 petitions are accepted but people mostly come in groups of three to four. At times, organised groups from mandis, anganwadis, and home guards also show up for the janata samvad.

While a 41-year-old patient undergoing dialysis treatment at Lok Nayak hospital complained of outdated equipment, a 30-year-old widow living in a Wazirpur slum cluster shared the story of irrigation and flood department officials smashing down her tiny dwelling and rendering her homeless. A couple from Paharganj has been paying double their electricity bill to BSES for last one year because of an administrative glitch of assigning two electricity metres to one address.

Interestingly, people from states like Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab also come to the janata samvad with their problems, Kerjriwal's staff told Firstpost. Under such circumstances, the chief minister forwards the complaints to the chief ministers of their respective states. "We also receive complaints regarding the MCD, DDA and the Delhi Police (which are outside the control of the Delhi government). It is easier for us to push Delhi agencies. For grave police cases, I personally follow up with the Lieutenant Governor. We can also inform MCD commissioners about peoples grievances. As the chief minister, I can hope that other departments within the state will take my word seriously," said Kejriwal.

The entire system is insensitive to the concerns of the people, he said. There are multiple reasons for this, as Kejriwal said. "Firstly, there is a lot of work and fewer people to do that work. Recruitments haven't taken place in years, as a result of which many posts have remained vacant. Therefore, fewer people are taking on huge amounts of work. Second, governance is now specialised and the government lacks experts and expertise. Third, there is insensitivity, which is reflected in the apathy among those government employees who feel that there's no need to help people as long as they're getting salaries on time or have permanent jobs," he said.

Kejriwal further said that while the bigger parties are focusing only on politics, he wants to engage with the people.

Today, a day in the life of Arvind Kejriwal begins at the janata samvad. His next stop is the office of the chief minister at the Delhi Secretariat, where meetings go on all afternoon. Meetings with the Lieutenant Governor happen every other day and visits to constituencies like Bawana, Narela, Azadpur and Najhafgarh have also taken place in the last two weeks. Every Sunday, between 10 am and 2 pm, he visits his constituency of New Delhi.

When an aam aadmi steps inside the system, he can either still burn time by being mad at it or seek to change it. Seems, Kejriwal has shifted gear to the latter for now.
Days after the Income Tax department raided the residence of Karnataka power minister DK Shivakumar, Gujarat Congress MLAs on Saturday met Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala in Bengaluru and demonstrated their unity at the Raj Bhavan, reported ANI.

Gujarat Congress MLA Shaktisinh Gohil, after meeting Vala, who also hails from Gujarat, alleged that BJP was spreading lies about party lawmakers being held captive by high-command. He alleged that Congress MLAs were offered Rs 15 crore from BJP to break from the party but they rejected the offer as they "stood to defend the democracy".

Vajubhai has been a member of #Gujarat assembly, he knows everyone, all 44 MLAs met him individually: Shaktisinh Gohil, Congress MLA pic.twitter.com/JKwAQX0ZIo  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Our MLAs helped people who are affected by floods: Shaktisinh Gohil, Congress pic.twitter.com/h7CiwqpMIv  News18 (@CNNnews18) August 5, 2017

The Congress has holed up its Gujarat MLAs in the Eagleton resort to prevent defection and horse-trading ahead of the Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls. The Congress had alleged that the BJP was using CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to target MLAs from their party. On 31 July, Shaktisinh Gohil had said, "BJP is using CBI and ED to target Congress MLAs. BJP threatened our families back in Gujarat, and that is why we came to Bengaluru of our own accord." On Saturday, Gohil said the BJP was ''playing dirty politics'' and added that if a national leader like Rahul Gandhi gets attacked in Gujarat, ''what would have happened with us if we would have stayed back?'' He said the party legislators are planning to return to Gujarat as soon as possible, but added that nothing has been decided yet.

We want to go back as soon as possible, nothing planned yet, a meeting scheduled for tomorrow: Shaktisinh Gohil, Congress MLA #Gujarat pic.twitter.com/yEiAgl6lCt  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Dismissing some media reports and BJP's accusations that Congress MLAs were having fun at the Bengaluru resort while people in their constituencies in Gujarat were suffering due to floods, Gohil said, "If we would have been here to enjoy, we would have accepted the Rs 15 crore offer from BJP and would have stayed at some fancy resort".

On 30 July, BJP had launched a protest against the Congress MLAs in Bengaluru and said that while flood was wrecking havoc in Gujarat, the legislators were sitting in a resort far away.

Countering this, Gohil had said that the MLAs were brought to the southern state after party leaders learnt about BJP's attempt to poach their MLAs using "money and muscle" power. He had added that the legislators would be shifted back if there were no threats from the BJP.

Attacking BJP over "false accusations'', Gohil on Saturday said when people in Gujarat were facing hardships due to the deluge, Congress MLAs were helping people but BJP was busy in trying to "buy" Congress MLAs.

In the run up to Assembly polls, which are due in Gujarat later this year, Congress' main leaders Shankarsinh Vaghela and Balwantsinh Rajput have left the party, creating a power vacuum.

With inputs from PTI
Congress leaders never doubted the power of moneybags. They believed that you could "order" an election victory like you call up Pizza Hut and ask for chicken pepperoni. Karnatakas Congress minister DK Shivakumar, who is being raided by IT officials for the fourth day on Saturday, is one of them.

Thats not a big surprise. The Congress, which presided over India for 55 of the 70 years since Independence, not only institutionalised corruption but even invented, nurtured and depended upon moneybag politics for perpetuating itself in power.

It goes without saying  but it still needs to be said  that though the Congress copyrighted moneybag politics in India, other parties aped it in good measure with the specious logic of fighting corruption with corruption. Yet the Congress remains the mother of it.

Everybody knows the potent power of money in politics. Congress knows it better. Money buys posters, banners and buntings for election meetings. Money buys the trucks and tractors to ferry crowds that turn into what newspapers call "massive" rallies. Money buys the guys who throw tomatoes or stones at speakers. Money buys musclemen. Money buys saris, nose-studs, dhotis, television sets, whiskey and sundry things, edible or otherwise, to bribe voters before polling.

If you fall short of numbers after elections, money can buy loyalties. After elections, if the numbers dont add up enough for forming a government, money buys new arithmetic. A no-confidence motion? Thats easy. Money can buy confidences.

In the Congress, few have mastered the art of translating money into power better than Shivakumar, who is the "Picasso" of the art of moneybags.

At the very root of moneybag politics is a business principle, which is as plain as the sun rising in the east: you get into politics with money, and you use politics to make more money because no other organised sector offers as high returns on relatively low investments as politics. There is no mutual fund or stock on the planet that pays off as many tax-free dividends as politics.

Hang democracy, money is what oils the political machine, and it is corruption that fills the moneybags.

Elementary, my dear Watson.

Shivakumars wealth grew three-fold in five years

You could accuse the NDA government of political designs in fixing Shivakumar at an opportune time. The raids came just when he was keeping Gujarats Congress MLAs in a Bengaluru resort in to stop them from defecting to the BJP. Yet, you cannot deny the money power Shivakumar possesses and has often used to turn political equations upside down.

In the early 1980s, I watched Shivakumar lurk in the shadows of power corridors of the Vidhana Soudha or outside ministers bungalows. A young and bashful Youth Congress general secretary waiting for a chance to talk to the media or have a word with a leader. The man who was shy of entering power corridors soon owned them. Those of us who noticed his shift from the sidelines to the centre stage had some kind of an idea about his wealth but no clue to the immense size of the financial empire he was building around himself.

I heard senior journalists and Congress leaders joke with Shivakumar more than once about his sudden affluence, to which the man would rig up a coy smile and say "Illa, sir (No, sir)" and then ask with great hospitality: "Want some tea, sir?"

Like in most such stories, his origins were humble. From a nobody born into a farmers family in Kanakapura, 50 kilometres south of Bengaluru, Shivakumar grew to become one of Indias richest politicians, with his business interests ranging from mining to education, and from agriculture to real estate. From 2008 to 2013, his declared assets alone rose more than three-fold to Rs 251 crore.

Belonging to the dominant Vokkaliga caste, the Congress heavyweight hit headlines for the first time when he contested against the communitys strongman, HD Deve Gowda, in the 1985 Assembly election. Though he lost, he fought the awesome Gowda family head on for many years, often with success. Shivakumar has won the assembly election six times, and he got his brother a Lok Sabha seat.

As it turned out, his political clout rose in proportion to his money power. Everybody made money, but Shivakumar made more, maybe more than what was good for him and his party  as he is no doubt finding now.

Shivakumars recipe for success

Shivakumar had understood early on how politics worked, more specifically how the Congress machine worked. He found that, in politics, you dont talk. You let the money talk because money is the best persuader. A suitcase-full of money can be exchanged for political loyalty in a hotel or a resort with not a word spoken.

All along, Shivakumar had endeared himself to senior leaders with his skills in "organising" from crowds at rallies to MLAs to back a chief minister. The rustle of crisp, mint-fresh currency is music to most Congress ears. He was the master of ceremonies, fair and foul, usually foul.

Only those who failed to understand the economics of politics were surprised why, in 1991, S Bangarappa made him a minister. Bangarappa was grateful for the support Shivakumar mustered for him in the race for the chief minister's post. Then he caught the eye of then chief minister SM Krishna, who made him an important minister in 1999, and then he made himself indispensable to a variety of leaders, including those in the Congress high command.

Money buys everything, does it?

And if its the slush money of scams that packs moneybags, corruption is what the Congress nurtured like a baby. That baby imp is now an adult monster.

Corruption is no longer a malignant tumour that can be sliced off body politic with a surgeons knife. Its a banyan that has spread its roots so deep into the political soil that it cant be uprooted in one fell sweep. Even a raid a day cant keep corruption away.

Okay, money can buy everything. Or maybe not everything. For starters, it cant buy a man with unswerving dedication to the eradication of corruption. But intentions dont, and cant, always produce desired results.

Can Narendra Modi bring an end to moneybag politics? I am not ready to bet my money on it  not as yet. Ill wait.

The author tweets @sprasadindia
Mumbai: Maharashtra housing minister Prakash Mehta on Friday faced a fresh allegation, of incorporating the names of his family members as the beneficiaries of a slum redevelopment project in his constituency, which the Congress said amounted to a "conflict of interest".

Mehta, an MLA from Ghatkopar (East), is already facing an inquiry ordered by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for allegedly violating norms in a slum redevelopment project in south Mumbai.

He denied all charges, later in the evening.

Raising the issue in the Assembly, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Congress) said, "Mehta's company Shri Sai Nidhi Pvt Ltd. had undertaken an SRA (Slum

Rehabilitation Authority) project in Ghatkopar. The beneficiaries of the project are yet to get flats in the building, which was constructed last year.

"In the meantime, names of Mehta's son Harsh and his relatives were inserted there as tenants. Mehta used his influence to get flats for his relatives. This is a conflict of interest."

However, the Congress leader couldn't complete his speech as BJP MLAs started shouting slogans raising an objection to the allegation.

Senior BJP leader and finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said, "He (Vikhe Patil) did not issue a notice to Mehta before raising the issue in the House today. Hence, the entire conversation should be expunged from the house record."

However, the Speaker didn't expunge the remarks.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Girish Bapat said the chief minister would discuss the issue with the Opposition before setting up any inquiry against Mehta.

Raising the pitch for Mehta's removal from the cabinet, NCP leader Jayant Patil said there are fresh allegations against the minister every day and hence he should resign.

"The government is not giving any assurance about the inquiry but is protecting the tainted minister. This is a serious issue when the government keeps boasting about the corruption-free governance," Patil said.

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said, "Another matter of corruption has come up against Mehta. The chief minister had assured that he would discuss with the Opposition leaders the inquiry in the corruption matter. But he did not invite anyone."

"The minister has admitted that he has committed the mistake. If Radheshyam Mopalwar is removed from the post (of the managing director of the state-undertaking MSRDC), then why not the minister?" he said.

"....Even Eknath Khadse (senior BJP leader) had resigned from the (Revenue) ministry after he was accused of corruption. Mehta should be removed from his post," Pawar said.

Mehta has been under fire ever since he allegedly allowed unauthorised transfer of extra building rights in the SRA project in south Mumbai, originally granted to slum dwellers, to project-affected people, apparently to favour a developer.

He had wrongly mentioned on the file of the project that he had kept chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in the loop about the transfer. Fadnavis denied later that he had been informed about the issue.

Vikhe Patil on 2 August also alleged that Mehta allotted a plot in suburban Ghatkopar to Nirmal Holdings this year. This plot had been taken back from the developer in 2016 by the state government for not using it for the intended purpose.

The ongoing monsoon session of the state legislature has been witnessing vociferous protests by the Congress and the NCP demanding Mehta's ouster.

In the Legislative Council, where the opposition has an upper hand numerically, the Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde (NCP) had warned the government of not letting the House function unless Mehta is removed from his post.

However, the chief minister has defended the minister.

He yesterday told the Council that Mehta cannot be accused of corruption merely on the basis of the file noting made by him and that the allegations are "politically motivated".

Vikhe Patil today also alleged that Mehta forced police to change the name of his wife in an FIR lodged in Pantnagar police station in the city in connection with a dispute with a builder.

"Kishori Mehta, minister Prakash Mehta's wife, owns a flat in Samyak Darshan in Kirol area of Ghatkopar. Manish Shah, who lives in the same building, is the owner of the building. After some dispute, Mehta, through a junior engineer in BMC (civic body) lodged an FIR against Shah.

"Later, Mehta forced the police to change the name of his wife in the FIR. The name was changed to Kishor," the Congress leader alleged.

Mehta denied all the charges in the Assembly late in the evening.

"Though I was director of Sai Siddhi Pvt Ltd, I left the post before becoming the minister. Also, my son Harsh is an official tenant in that building. Allegations that my wife's name was changed (in FIR) is also wrong. The flat belongs to my wife but my brother Kishor stays there," Mehta said.
Rahul Gandhi has reacted to the attack on his car in Gujarat on Friday. Talking to reporters, the Congress vice-president on Saturday said that a BJP worker flung stones at his convoy. He also said that the stone hit his PSO, according to a series of tweets by ANI.

Kal ki ghatna mein itna bada patthar BJP ke worker ne meri or maara, mere PSO ko laga: Rahul Gandhi on attack on his convoy in Gujarat pic.twitter.com/5Hnvh7KLBt  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Rahul Gandhi also said that this is the way the BJP-RSS government functions and they cannot be questioned. He also said that a lack of reaction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected.

Jo apne aap kaam karta hai, wo condemn kaise karega?: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on being asked about no condemnation from PM pic.twitter.com/R0aC367VA4  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

The Congress vice-president later also tweeted, asking Congress leaders to focus on helping the people affected by floods in Gujarat.

but I urge them to divert their energy in helping the people affected by floods in the state  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 5, 2017

Rahul Gandhi on Friday was forced to leave the stage in a huff after making a brief speech in Lal Chowk area of the town in Banaskantha district after protesters showed black flags to him. People gathered at the spot also raised slogans hailing Narendra Modi, according to a PTI report.

A cement brick was hurled at Gandhi's car by a man, suspected to be a BJP supporter, smashing a glass-pane at the rear end, during a tour of flood-hit Banaskantha district of

Gujarat, police had said in the report.

"We have detained the person who threw stones on the vehicle of Rahul Gandhi," Banaskantha superintendent of police Neeraj Badgujar had said.

Gandhi, however, escaped unhurt and proceeded to the next place on his itinerary  Runi village in Thara taluka  where he asserted he would not get cowed down by such protests, he added.

On Saturday, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, accompanied by leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and AICC media in-charge Randeep Surjewala, strongly condemned the attack on Gandhi, saying such things cannot stop the Congress party or its vice president from meeting people and hearing their grievances.

"We strongly condemn the attack on Gandhi as it has also brought forward the real face of the BJP, which is known for doing this since independence," Azad was quoted as saying in a PTI wire.

He said the concrete boulder weighing 1.5 kg was aimed at Gandhi who was seated on the front seat with his window pane lowered and had it hit him on the head it could have proved fatal.

Azad said that with elections round the corner, it was the responsibility of the state and central government to ensure safety and security of SPG protectees as they are to be "most protected" under an act of Parliament.

"If it happens again, I think the people of the country will not tolerate this," he said.

Asked why Gandhi did not accept the bullet proof car provided by the state government, Azad, in the report, said that sometimes one has to use a non-bullet proof car and be sensitive to the public.

Kharge said, "What is happening is not good for the country and for the democracy. If people are in distress, meeting them is not an offence and giving this treatment to those who meet the people is not good."

Anand Sharma in the PTI report said, "What happened in Gujarat is unacceptable in any civilised society and democracy."

"It is also an exposure of the intent, ideology and character of the BJP and the RSS, which believes in violence, intimidation and physical assaults on political opponents and leaders," he claimed.

"The Congress has seen challenges, ups and downs, neither Rahul Gandhi or the Congress leaders can ever be intimidatedor suppressed and we will fight the BJP agenda and protect

democracy," he said.

Surjewala said the Congress party has demanded that a case of attempt to murder be registered after identifying four persons who have been named in the complaint.

"But the puppet police has not yet registered any case, even after our people standing on a dharna outside the police station there since last night. There is abject failure on the part of CM Vijay Rupani and his government," he said.

Noting that the Congress struggle will continue despite such violence, Surjewala said, "Will Godse-waad be converted into Modi-waad...both are the same as they promote violence, fear and give physical harm which has been continuing since 1948 and is continuing even in 2017.

"But Godse-waad did not succeed in 1948 and neither will Modi-waad... neither Gandhi nor the Congress will bow to their pressure."

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi had accused the BJP "goons" of carrying out the "dastardly" attack.

He had said that several cars in the convoy were damaged, their window panes smashed and an SPG man suffered minor injury.

"All this because, the Congress vice president went to a flood affected area," he was quoted as saying in the report.
Thiruvananthapuram: Congress in Kerala on Saturday flayed BJP and RSS for the attack against party vice president Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not prepared to even condemn it.

Speaking at a function in Thiruvananthapuram, former chief minister Oommen Chandy said BJP and RSS cannot shirk from the responsibility of the attack against Gandhi while he was visiting the flood affected areas in Gujarat on Friday.

Gandhi had faced protests in flood-hit Dhanera town of Banaskantha district in Gujarat where alleged BJP supporters hurled a cement brick at his car and showed him black flags, but he escaped unhurt.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not even prepared to condemn the attack. The BJP leadership should take the responsiblity of the attack and apologise to the nation," Chandy said.

The former chief minister claimed that the foundation for all developments in the country had been laid by the Congress party and added that the Gandhi family's contribution to the freedom movement and post Independence era was immense.

KPCC president MM Hassan said that the BJP leadership instead of condemning the attack on Congress vice president, was 'justifying' it.

BJP had on Friday attacked the Congress leader, terming his visit to Gujarat as an example of his "photo opportunity" politics, and downplayed the protests against him.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had said in the national capital that the opposition party should not "abuse" people who are "angry" over the floods and "tired" of Rahul Gandhi's politics.
Janata Dal(United) leader Sharad Yadavs recent standoff with Bihar chief minister and party chief Nitish Kumar raises a relevant question in the political circles: What is Yadav up to? The rift, which came to light after Yadav called Nitishs decision to go with the NDA as "unfortunate", is unlikely to help lift his political position from what it is now.

The Deccan Herald quoted the JD(U) Rajya Sabha member as saying, I dont agree with the decision in Bihar, its unfortunate. The mandate by the people was not for this." Yadav also met senior leaders of the Congress, Samajwadi Party and former ally Rashtriya Janata Dal after Nitish joined the BJP-led NDA, the report said.

The rift has given rise to a myriad of speculations as to what Yadav is going to achieve with this new episode.

He has hinted his disagreement with the Bihar chief ministers decision to break away from the grand alliance and subsequent tie-up with the NDA. As a co-founder of the JD(U), it was only normal for Yadav to expect Nitish to count on his opinion before taking decisions as important as forming or breaking an alliance.

Nitishs high-handedness in deciding upon crucial policy matters is seen as one of the reasons for Yadav to revolt against him. Yet, it is still not seen as a sufficient one. Also there is hardly any possibility of the tussle yielding any dividend for the Rajya Sabha MP.

Yadav has also ruled out the speculation of him forming another party. There is no question of forming another party, The Times of India quoted him as saying.

This was a predictable statement from him. It is highly unlikely that he would be able to garner enough support from within or outside the JD(U) to effectively form a new party. It is to be noted that Yadav hails from Madhya Pradesh, but his politics is based in Bihar. Hence his mass appeal is limited to a few sections of the society.

Moreover, it seems too late for the 70-year-old Yadav to start a new political party. A new party would require him to be in active leadership to reach out to the masses, which may not be possible for him.

Another speculation that Yadav may garner support from MLAs to expel Nitish as the chief minister also does not hold merit. JD(U) has only about 20 MLAs, who belong to the social grouping, which forms the core of Yadavs political base. This figure is not even one-sixth of the partys strength in the Assembly. Even if he decides to desert the JD(U) to form an anti-BJP secular alliance, as speculated by many, it is unlikely to politically benefit him.

The possible major players of such an anti-BJP alliance would be the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the RJD. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party are in shambles after BJP's historic win in Uttar Pradesh. The RJD is discredited after Lalu Prasad Yadav's conviction in the fodder scam. In such a scenario, an exercise to rally an anti-BJP front may turn out to be futile one for the Rajya Sabha MP.

Speculations are rife in the national media that Yadav would participate in RJDs 'BJP Hatao Desh Bachao' rally on 27 August  without resigning from the party. But that may attract disciplinary action against him. In such a situation, Yadav is likely to lose the present support base he has within the party.

At present, the only path which seems to be convenient and practically viable for Yadav is to reconcile with Nitish's decision to join NDA. But doesn't a veteran leader like Yadav know about this possibility? Doesn't he know that he would achieve nothing through his dissent?

Yadav has been the president of the JD(U), a seven-term Lok Sabha MP, two-time Rajya Sabha member and a Union Cabinet minister thrice. Yadav, though a spent force now, is a Delhi-based politician, whose stance over various national issues is noted by the media. Thanks to his prominence in the media, BJP may also offer him a berth in the Union Cabinet or any other position of equivalent nature, as a measure to keep the constant bickering within the ruling alliance at bay.

This might finally resolve the rift. But is this what Yadav is aiming at?
Chennai: The AIADMK faction led by general secretary VK Sasikala and deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran on Saturday suffered a setback when three MLAs declined to accept party posts offered by them.

On Friday night, Dinakaran announced the appointment of over 60 party cadres to various party posts, stating that it was done with the consent of their jailed leader Sasikala.

The appointees included 20 MLAs.

Those who accepted the posts met Dinakaran at his residence in Chennai and greeted him.

However, three MLAs declined to accept the posts - an incident said to be happening perhaps for the first time in the party's history.

Speaking to reporters, K Palani representing the Sriperumbudur Assembly constituency, said he was satisfied with the legislator post offered by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and did not need any new post.

Similarly two other AIADMK legislators, AK Bose and P Sathya, also declined the new party posts offered.

Tamil Nadu finance minister D Jayakumar questioned the appointment of office bearers by Dinakaran as the election of Sasikala as General Secretary is in itself disputed and was yet to be decided by the courts and the Election Commission.

On the other hand, Dinakaran's camp lawmaker P Vetrivel wondered whether Jayakumar and others would resign their posts as they were appointed by Sasikala.

Couple of months ago, Jayakumar announced that Dinakaran would be kept out of party affairs so that talks for merger with the faction led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam could progress.

Dinakaran said he would wait for 60 days and then would enter active politics. The 60 day deadline ended on Friday and he appointed party members to various party posts.

Dinkaran had earlier announced that he would be going to the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai but later changed his plans and announced that he would tour the state.

Following the death of Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK had split into different factions.

One faction is led by Panneerselvam, who rebelled against the leadership of VK Sasikala. The other two factions are led by Chief Minister E Palaniswamy and Sasikala, respectively.

Panneerselvam had on Friday announced protests against Palaniswamy's government across the state on 10 August.
Washington: An overseas group affiliated to the ruling BJP has begun galvanising support among the strong Indian-American community for the upcoming polls and recently organised an event to mark three years of the government.

The Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) organised the event of music and poetry in Tampa, Florida, where diaspora Indians were told about ways they can participate in the 2019 General Elections and the Gujarat Assembly polls later this year.

The event comes in the backdrop of the Indian government clearing a proposal to amend the country's electoral law to allow overseas Indians to vote in elections through their proxies. Chandrakant Patel, a former OFBJP (USA) president and Tampa resident, welcomed the decision by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

"This is great news for NRIs," Patel told the audience. "India today is being recognised in the global arena. Even the Indian diaspora is feeling very proud and positive". At the event, Sudhir Shah, a national council member of OFBJP, asked the participants to "stop forwarding" negative emails and messages about India and the party.

The participants at the event  where the birth centenary of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh icon Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya was also celebrated  were asked to call "five or 10 of your relatives" in India during the elections to vote.

Shah also urged Indian Americans to be a part of a 'telethon', which OFBJP is planning before each of the upcoming polls.

"We will give you 10 to 15 (phone) numbers of people in India. You, call them and ask them to vote for Modi Sarkar. This is what we did three years ago... When someone calls fro America, it makes a big impact on the people of India," he said.
New Delhi: Veteran BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, who had humble origins in an agriculturist family in Andhra Pradesh, was on Saturday elected as the Vice-President of India, completing the quartet of top four constitutional posts  president, vice-president, prime minister and Lok Sabha Speaker  going to persons from BJP with RSS background for the first time in 70 years.

Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, 68, who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later the Narendra Modi governments, defeated the combined Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by a huge margin of 272 votes in a straight contest, whose outcome was already predictable.

At the end of two-hour counting process in the 15th vice-presidential election, Returning Officer Shamsher K Sherif announced the election of Naidu, who secured 516 votes against 244 by Gandhi. In all, 771 votes were cast out of a total of 785 MPs eligible to vote. Eleven votes were declared invalid. Of this, seven were voters backing Gandhi.

A seasoned politician, Naidu, who had his political teeth cut in the RSS and later Bharatiya Jana Sangh, had been president of the BJP. Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, is a bureaucrat-turned-diplomat, who was governor of West Bengal. He was fielded by the Congress-led Opposition with backing from parties, including Trinamool Congress, Left, BJD and the Janata Dal (U).

Soon after his election, Naidu said he as chairman of the Rajya Sabha, would steer the functioning of the House "without fear or favour" and uphold its dignity and decorum with the cooperation of all members by acting in accordance with the rules and conventions of the House.

In his reaction, Gandhi congratulated Naidu on his victory and wished him all the best in his new office. He hoped Naidu would be vice-president of all sections of India.

Gandhi thanked all the parties that supported him and said that the voting figures showed that the numbers that voted for him were "beyond expectations".

He said the fight in the election was for free thought, free speech, pluralism and secularism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Naidu on his victory and expressed confidence that he will serve the nation "as a diligent and dedicated vice-president, committed to the goal of nation building".

"My mind is filled with memories of working with Venkaiah Naidu in the party and the government. Will cherish this aspect of our association. My best wishes for a fruitful and motivating tenure," Modi tweeted.

My mind is filled with memories of working with @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu, in the Party & Government. Will cherish this aspect of our association  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 5, 2017

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also congratulated Naidu and said he was sure that he would give time and opportunities to all leaders and parties to express their views in the way the outgoing Chairman Hamid Ansari conducted the House.

Azad and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said the fight was between two political trends. One wanted to strengthen the constitutional order. Both of them thanked Gandhi for agreeing to be the Opposition candidate and for putting up a dignified fight.

Azad and Yechury claimed that the Opposition has got 19 votes more than what it got in the recent presidential election. They said they would go into issues like how many of their voters were absent or invalid and the reasons for that and take actions internally.

Born in 1949 in Chavatapalem in Nellore district, Naidu acquired law degree from Andhra University College of Law Visakhapatnam. He was a "swayamsevak" in the RSS and joined ABVP during his college days. He came to the spotlight for his role in "Jai Andhra" movement of 1972 and became the convenor of the anti-corruption Jayaprakash Chhatra Samiti in 1974. He held street protests against the Emergency.

He served three terms in the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka from 1998 and was elected for his fourth term from Rajasthan last year. He was a member of the Andhra Pradesh assembly twice in the 1980s.

Naidu was rural development minister in the Vajpayee government between 2000-2002. In Modi's government, first he was parliamentary affairs minister as well as the housing and urban development minister. From parliamentary affairs, he was shifted to information and broadcasting minister which portfolio he held till he was nominated as the vice-presidential candidate.

Soon after his election, a string of leaders of the BJP and allied parties and ministers went to Naidu's residence and greeted him on his victory.
New Delhi: Nearly 97 per cent of the members of Parliament exercised their franchise till 3 pm in the vice presidential poll on Saturday.

Assistant Returning Officer Mukul Pandey told reporters that 96.94 percent (761 out of 785) members eligible to cast vote have exercised their franchise till 3 pm.

NDA's M Venkaiah Naidu is pitted against Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

The strength of the electoral college comprising both elected and nominated MPs of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha is 790. There are two vacancies in each House.

One BJP Lok Sabha MP is barred from voting following a judicial pronouncement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and M Venkaiah Naidu, as well as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, a Lok Sabha member, were among the first to cast their ballot.

In fact, the prime minister was standing in queue even before the voting hall opened at 10 am.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, his party MPs Jyotiraditya Scindia, Deepender Singh Hooda and Sushmita Dev also voted to elect the next vice president.

MPs are using special pens for marking their choice in the election which will conclude at 5 pm.

The counting of votes will commence after polling and the results will be declared by 7 pm, Election Commission officials said.

The electoral college which elects the vice president, who is also the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, consists of elected and nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.
Chandigarh: Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday congratulated M Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the next vice-president of India.

In a statement issued in Chandigarh, Badal hailed the former Union minister as "one of the most outstanding public figures", whose contributions to the causes of nation-building, peace and communal harmony were substantial.

The veteran Akali leader said Naidu's vast experience at the highest level, in various capacities, would be an asset to the country.

In his congratulatory message, Sukhbir hailed Naidu as a "champion of peace and communal harmony" and said his commitment to strengthening the economic foundations of the society would be of immense help to the country in becoming a superpower.

The SAD chief also described Naidu as a "friend of Punjab and Punjabis."
Today, India will elect its 13th vice-president. The Vice-President of India is first in the presidential line of succession. But apart from that the vice president is also the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Like the president, the vice-president also plays a key role in India's democratic system, in particular, with reference to the powers that the Rajya Sabha has in Indian democracy.

However, unlike the president who is elected via an electoral college of the houses of the Parliament and the members of the state legislatures, the vice-president is elected only by the central legislature  the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The election is different from other elections as it is done via a system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. Members do not just have to select their preferred candidate as is done during the general election, but they also have to rank all candidates in order of their preference. This system was envisaged by the Constitution to ensure that in the event there were many political parties having differing views, the election of the vice president would still be one that was done via a consensus. The NDA on Friday held a dummy vote to explain to its members how this system works and to ensure that there were as few invalid ballots as possible.

The vice-president also holds a key role as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha since the position is akin to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. The chairman presides over the sittings of the Upper House. Unlike the Lok Sabha though, the Rajya Sabha actually never dissolves with only one-third of its members retiring every two years. This makes the Rajya Sabha powerful politically as it ensures that there is always one house of the Parliament that can be summoned when the need arises. While under the Constitution only the President of India can call Parliament into session and prorogue Parliament, the president does not have the power to dissolve the Rajya Sabha.

Prorogation is the end of a session of the Rajya Sabha. Though the Rajya Sabha may sit any time while it is in session and is constitutionally required to hold a sitting once every six months, the chairman has the power to call a sitting of the Rajya Sabha. What this means is, while there is no Lok Sabha, if the Rajya Sabha has not been prorogued yet, the chairman may call the Upper House into session to discuss any matter the chairman sees fit.

Further, the chairman also has the power to control the debate in the Rajya Sabha, and this may be the key function that the office provides. Also, being the Upper House of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha is a house that is always in session. This creates a situation where the power to control the debate becomes powerful. The chairman may decide on the admissibility of questions, resolutions or motions in terms of the rules of the Rajya Sabha and no decision of the chairman may be called into question by any court as it would breach Parliamentary privilege. Therefore, tomorrow if a certain set of MPs wish to debate a matter, and the government would rather not have it debated, the chairman may decide that the House will not take up the matter for debate. This is why the election of the vice president is strongly contested right now.

The government enjoys an absolute majority in the Lower House and is in line to take a majority in the Rajya Sabha given the recent electoral victories in the States. This means that the government could effectively control both houses of the Parliament should its candidate be elected, not only when it concerns legislation but also debates. A control over both houses, however, has its own implications, which could push the current govt's allies to vote against the ruling party's candidate. For example, today, the government's allies may agree to vote in favour of their candidate, but tomorrow the same allies may find that there is no wiggle room to debate issues that they consider important as the chairman may scuttle debate.

Another thing that is of concern is Article 249 of the Constitution which gives the Rajya Sabha a unique power. If two-thirds of the members of the Rajya Sabha are of the opinion that there needs to be a central law on a matter within the jurisdiction of the states, upon passing of such a resolution, the Parliament would be empowered to make such a law. The resolution has to be renewed annually.

Laws on cow slaughter laws are within the ambit of a state, but if the government can get a resolution in the Rajya Sabha, it becomes competent to enact a nationwide law on cow slaughter. The resolution will have to be renewed annually, but politically it will not be expedient for any political party to call for the repeal of such a law by refusing to renew that resolution. And this is something the country needs to be concerned about as very clearly a ban on cow slaughter is on the government's agenda, and the Rajya Sabha may just be key to securing an all-India ban. So, to ensure that the resolution is passed the government will need the good offices of the Rajya Sabha chairman.

The vice-president enjoys a lot of power in our constitutional scheme of things. The vote is via a secret ballot, therefore, members may choose to vote based on their conscience on the matter and ignore their party whips. It will be interesting to see how their conscience is exercised when they vote during the current vice presidential election.
NDA vice-presidential candidate nominee M Venkaiah Naidu was elected as the next vice-president of India on Saturday, defeating opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by a margin of 272 votes.

The BJP veteran secured 516 votes while Gandhi got 244 votes. Of the 771 votes polled, 11 votes were declared invalid. "As M Venkaiah Naidu secured greater than the requisite quota of votes, I declare him as duly elected to the office of the Vice President of India," Secretary General of Rajya Sabha and Returning Officer, Shumsher K Sheriff, told reporters.

A slew of wishes also streamed in on social media as soon as the results were announced. Here are some of the reactions to Naidu's victory.

One of the first congratulations came from the prime minister himself, with Narendra Modi tweeting, "I am confident M Venkaiah Naidu will serve the nation as a diligent and dedicated vice-president, committed to the the goal of nation building." He added that he will cherish this aspect of their association.

Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected Indias Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 5, 2017

I am confident @MVenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 5, 2017

My mind is filled with memories of working with @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu, in the Party & Government. Will cherish this aspect of our association  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 5, 2017

Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi also spoke after Naidu's victory. He wished Naidu all the best in his new office and thanked those who voted for him. "The election saw 2 victories  one of Naidu, another of free speech; the second victory belongs to all of India," he added.

Congratulate Venkaiah Ji. Wish him all the best in his new office. I thank those who voted for me: Gopal Krishna Gandhi pic.twitter.com/XxEGgsOu5j  News18 (@CNNnews18) August 5, 2017

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee also conveyed her wishes to the newly elected vice-president.

Congratulations to Venkaiah Naidu Ji, who will be our next Vice President. We wish him well  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 5, 2017

Congratulate V.Naidu Ji, our next VP; wish him well. In tradition of democracy, GK Gandhi Ji fought with dignity for certain ideals: WB CM pic.twitter.com/2BgFUKHFI1  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan aso congratulate the vice-president on Twitter.

My heartfelt Congratulations to Sh Venkaiah Naidu ji for the historical victory in the Elections for 15th Vice President of India! pic.twitter.com/FtCTJtw6b5  Ram Vilas Paswan (@irvpaswan) August 5, 2017

Rajyavardhan Rathore called the vice-presidential elections 'free and fair' while greeting Naidu.

In a contest free and fair #VenkaiahNaidu Garu chosen for the chair #VicePresidentialElections pic.twitter.com/LAKJF0jq2d  Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) August 5, 2017

Chandrababu Naidu celebrated the announcement, with celebrations already beginning in Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu congratulates Venkaiah Naidu for being elected as new Vice President of India.  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar also sent their regards to Venkaiah Naidu.

The journey of Naidu ji, a farmer' son, to the office of Vice President is the victory of every small farmer contributing to nations growth.  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 5, 2017

Sonia Gandhi also extended her party's support to further strengthen the Rajya Sabha.

Cong Pres Sonia Gandhi extends best wishes to VP elect Venkaiah Naidu, offers party's support in further strengthening Upper House(File Pic) pic.twitter.com/7BScQuQZ5c  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

DMK president MK Stalin commended Naidu's "vast experience in parliamentary procedures."

With vast experience in Parliamentary procedures, I am quite confident that he will protect the plurality of our great Nation.  M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) August 5, 2017

According to PTI, here's what Naidu had to say about the announcement, "I'm very humbled, thankful to prime minister & all party leaders for their support." "I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and uphold the dignity of the Upper House," he added.

With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed

predecessors.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

Naidu will be the 13th person to hold the second highest constitutional post.

With inputs from agencies.
Gurgaon: He may not have heard of Raksha Bandhan, but the women and girls of a remote Muslim-dominated village "symbolically" named by an NGO after US president Donald Trump will send him 1001 sacred threads on the Hindu festival that celebrates the brother-sister bond.

The gesture by the residents of Marora village in the backward Mewat region represents the "wish of the people that ties are further strengthened between India and the US", says the NGO which has adopted the village.

The village had come into limelight after Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO) chief Bindeshwar Pathak had announced to name it 'Trump's village'.

The district administration had later said the move to rename the village was "illegal", forcing the organisation members to remove boards mentioning the new name.

They said signage boards and banners carrying the new name of the village and image of Trump had been removed by the organisation.

The village, with a population of 1,800 people, lies under Punhana tehshil, some 60 km from Gurgaon.

"The NGO has been conducting many welfare programs for women and girls in the village," Monica Jain, vice president of the NGO, said.

"These students have made 1,001 rakhis with photos of Donald Trump and 501 rakhis for Narendra Modi. Women and girls of the village consider them their elder brothers," she said.

The consignment of rakhis was sent yesterday through cargo so that it reached the US president on Raksha Bandhan on 7 August. The villagers are also sending invitations to the two leaders to visit the village.

Widows of the village have also expressed a desire to meet Modi on Raksha Bandhan at his residence in the national capital and tie rakhis.

"I have made 150 rakhis within three days for Trump bhaiyaa. I have also written a letter to be sent to the White House that the girls of your village want you to visit it with prime minister Modi," said 15-year-old Rekha Rani, a resident of the village.

Sulabh had recently constructed 95 toilets in Marora to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship program to make every village in the country open defecation free.

The village has 140 houses and only 45 of them were equipped with toilet facility. Sulabh constructed the remaining 95 toilets, Jain said.
Washington: US president Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have discussed various global issues, including mutual interests regarding North Korea, crisis in Syria and Iraq, the White House has said.

Trump and Macron spoke on the phone, the White House said in a statement on Friday.

"Trump spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France to explore how to increase cooperation in addressing the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq and countering Iranian malign influence," it said.

They also spoke about forging a political resolution in Libya and countering terror activity in the Sahel region of Africa, it added.

"They agreed that the Maduro regime in Venezuela must restore the rights of the Venezuelan people," the White House said.

" Also, they reaffirmed the importance of all sides implementing the Minsk agreements to reach a peaceful settlement in Ukraine," the White House added.

"Finally, they discussed mutual interests regarding North Korea," it said.
Tehran: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was set to be inaugurated in front of foreign guests on Saturday, but already faces criticism for reportedly bowing to conservatives in forming a new government.

Rouhani, a 68-year-old cleric considered a political moderate, began his second term on Thursday when he was sworn in by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But Saturday's ceremony in parliament is the glitzier affair, with guests including EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who has vowed to continue building ties with Iran despite mounting pressure from the United States to keep the Islamic republic isolated.

Some of Iran's older friends also arrived in Tehran, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

The emir of Qatar, which has fallen out with its Gulf allies in part over ties to Iran, was notably absent despite attending Rouhani's last inauguration in 2013.

But among Iranians, the real attention was on who would be named to Rouhani's new cabinet.

He has already been barraged with criticism over indications that women would again be entirely absent and that his reformist allies would barely be represented.

His last government had three women among a large cohort of vice-presidents, but they lacked ministerial roles that would require approval by parliament.

"It was the reformists that allowed him to win the elections in 2013 and 2017... he must listen to those who supported him," Rassoul Montajabnia, of the reformist National Confidence party, told the Arman newspaper.

Rouhani won a convincing victory over hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi in the May presidential election, vowing to continue rebuilding ties with the West and easing social restrictions at home.

That helped win over the reformists whose candidates dropped out of the last two elections to ensure his victory.

"Rouhani created a lot of expectation and now there is a sense that he is retreating from his promises," Ali Shakourirad, head of the reformist People's Unity Party.

The absence of women was down to pressure from religious conservatives behind the scenes, Shakourirad added.

"Rouhani didn't want to make his task any more complicated than it already is," he told AFP.

The final line-up is due to be announced in the coming days, and must then be approved by parliament.

Despite the furore, the reshuffle is not expected to touch big names such as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Oil Minister Bijan Namadar Zanganeh.

"The main ministers are very likely to stay in place," said Henry Smith, Iran analyst with consultancy Control Risks.

"Rouhani will have a fairly smooth time getting parliament to approve his appointees. He's been doing back and forth consultations with the necessary power centres the parliament speaker, supreme leader, the Revolutionary Guards and I don't think you'll see a significant change in economic or indeed social policy," he added.

Despite his efforts to build backroom consensus, hardliners have given Rouhani a rough ride since his election, perhaps worried at the growing strength of the reformists.

The arrest of his brother on corruption charges was interpreted by some as a shot across the bow by the hardline judiciary.

Rouhani also triggered a war of words with the Revolutionary Guards after criticising their outsized role in the economy, although analysts say this is part of a cautious realignment of Iran's policies to balance its security priorities with the need to attract investment.

"Rouhani has no interest in pushing the Revolutionary Guards totally out of the economy. It's about creating enough space so Iran can get the foreign investment and technology it needs," said Smith.

Investment has belatedly started to arrive in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal that eased sanctions, notably through last month's billion-dollar gas deal with France's Total and China's CNPC.

Billions more are needed to jumpstart the stagnant economy and tackle a jobless rate of 12.7 percent.

But with Washington imposing yet more sanctions, Iran's re-engagement with the world remains largely stalled.

"The problem is Iran feels the need to react to these moves by the US, which just gives the US fuel," said Smith.

"What cooler heads would suggest is not to respond in kind and try to present themselves as the more rational party, but politically that is very difficult to do."
Yangon: Security forces in Myanmar fired warning shots to disperse Muslim villagers while they were arresting four suspected insurgents in a western region where government troops have been accused of human rights violations against Rohingya minority, officials said on Saturday.

About 600 villagers surrounded troops in Rathedaung township in Rakhine state yesterday while they were searching for six men suspected of financing a "terrorist" group, said police officer Zaw Win Aung.

He said the villagers carried slingshots, sticks and machetes as they approached the troops, who responded by firing 40-50 warning shots. They managed to arrest four suspects, he said.

On Thursday, the government said that six Buddhists were killed and two other villagers are missing in Kaigyi village in Maungdaw township, also in Rakhine state.

It wasn't clear who was responsible, but Major Zayar of the border guard police headquarters in Maungdaw said they were searching for culprits.

The government has shut down northern Rakhine to independent journalists, rights experts and humanitarian workers for almost nine months except for organised media trips.

The military has launched operations in the northern part of Rakhine since last October, when suspected Rohingya militants killed nine police officers along the border with Bangladesh.

Rights groups said that during the crackdown, more than 1,000 houses have been burned down, an unknown number of civilians killed and hundreds of Rohingya men and boys arrested. The government said that the operation had ended in February.

Last month, the UN human rights envoy to Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, expressed disappointment over a lack of government effort to tackle problems behind the violence between Buddhists and Muslims. She said she saw little improvement in the situation for Rohingya and that the government prevented her from visiting several areas there.
Warsaw: Since British voters endorsed leaving the European Union, politicians and pundits have ruminated on which of the bloc's remaining 27 nations could be next.

"Grexit" and "Frexit," for Greece and France, were two subjects of speculation.

Now, months of open conflict between Poland's conservative nationalist government and the rest of the European Union has some Poles wondering if their leaders are putting the country on a path that could take it out of the union.

"There is a question mark over Poland's European future today," European Council president Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who is a critic of the ruling Law and Justice party, said Thursday.

The European Union is widely popular in Poland, so the idea of the country abandoning the bloc strikes many people here as far-fetched. Several surveys have shown public support for the European Union standing at over 70 per cent, approval stemming from the economic boom and freedom of travel that came with membership in 2004.

But members of the opposition in Poland increasingly are voicing fears that the conflicts between Warsaw and Brussels could eventually lead to a parting of ways.

They point to the defiant stance Law and Justice and its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, adopted when the European Union raised concerns about changes to Poland's justice system and the extensive logging the government has ordered in a primeval forest that has been classified as a UNESCO world heritage site.

Government spokesman Rafal Bochenek insisted that Polish leaders intend to keep Poland in the bloc.

"Poland is a member of European Union and is going to be a leading partner to other member states within the structure," Bochenek told The Associated Press on Friday. "We have got many ambitious projects and challenges to realise in the European Union. We will cooperate with our European partners."

Law and Justice has never publicly advocated leaving the bloc, but criticises what it views as unnecessary European Union bureaucracy and infringements on the authority of member countries to make their own decisions.

In that vein, Poland's government aggressively pushed through legislation to put the court system under the ruling party's control. The European Union's executive arm has said the moves violate democratic norms by reducing judicial independence.

With Warsaw refusing to give in to the bloc's calls for it to respect the separation of powers, the European Commission is threatening steps that could lead to Poland losing its European Union voting rights.

The government also has continued logging in the Bialowieza Forest even though the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ordered it last week to stop felling trees immediately. If it continues, Poland could be hit with massive fines. Katarzyna Lubnauer, a lawmaker with the opposition Modern party, said recently that because Poles are such "Euro-enthusiasts," nobody in the ruling Law and Justice party would admit that leaving the bloc is their aim.
Manila: South Korea's new foreign minister said on Saturday she was open to rare discussions with her North Korean counterpart on the sidelines of a security summit in the Philippines.

"If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Kang Kyung-Wha told reporters as she landed in Manila on Saturday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

North Korea's top diplomat, Ri Hong-Yo, is also attending the regional summit, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The potential meetings come as the North faces intense international pressure to curtail its nuclear weapons programme.

The United Nations Security Council will vote this weekend on a US-drafted resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea following its second intercontinental ballistic missile test on 28 July.

The United States said it would also seek to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event, known as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which US secretary of state Rex Tillerson is attending.

But the newly elected South Korean government of President Moon Jae-In is also much more open to negotiations than the previous administration run by Park Geun-Hye.

Kang, South Korea's first female foreign minister, said any meeting with Ri would be an opportunity "to deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers (for talks) aimed at establishing a peace regime".

In July, Seoul proposed military talks with Pyongyang but the North refused to respond. Had they gone ahead, they would have been the first official inter-Korean talks since 2015.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula often dominate the ARF because it is one of the few annual diplomatic gatherings attended by the key stakeholders: South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

In the run up to this year's summit, Washington had lobbied to have Pyongyang kicked out of the ARF but there is limited appetite among Asian countries to shut North Korea out of one of the few diplomatic gatherings it attends.

Washington is determined to ratchet up pressure on the North after a series of missile tests that Pyongyang has declared puts American cities within their reach.
Manila: Southeast Asia's top diplomats slammed North Korea with a sharp rebuke on Saturday over its intercontinental ballistic missile tests and admonished Pyongyang to comply with its duty of helping avert conflicts as a member of Asia's biggest security forum.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers, however, were split on an American proposal to suspend Pyongyang from the ASEAN Regional Forum, a 27-nation bloc that includes North Korea and its bitter adversaries the US, South Korea and Japan.

The ASEAN ministers reiterated in a joint statement their grave concerns over the escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula due to the North's two ICBM tests last month, saying the launches threaten world stability.

The ministers traditionally issue a communique containing their diverse concerns, and their issuance of a separate statement on North Korea's missile tests and nuclear weapons program reflects their deep worries about the issue.

"These developments seriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world," the ministers said in their statement.

They urged the North to immediately and fully comply with its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions.

They also backed efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas and said their 10-nation bloc was ready "to play a constructive role in contributing to peace and stability" on the Korean Peninsula.

Philippine foreign secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the ministers were divided over a US proposal to suspend the North from the ASEAN Regional Forum, which will hold its annual meeting on Monday.

North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho will attend Monday's meeting. With the US, Japan and South Korea expected to push for stronger actions against the North, a verbal showdown looms at the Manila forum.

"There were views that, 'How can we hear them out or confront them if they're not there?' But there's also a view that we should give them an ultimatum," Cayetano said late on Friday after discussing the issue with other foreign ministers.

The ministers "strongly call upon" North Korea, as a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum, to help "maintain the Asia Pacific as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity," the ministers said in their statement.
Istanbul: Turkish news agencies say the country has increased its military presence along its southern border against threats from Kurdish militants in war-torn northern Syria.

The official Anadolu news agency said on Saturday that Turkey dispatched artillery to Kilis province to reinforce units there.

The six-vehicle convoy included tanks and howitzers to be positioned across Kurdish-controlled Syrian region of Afrin, according to the private Dogan news agency.

Turkey has been vehemently opposed to the presence of the People's Protection Units, or YPG, in northern Syria. The country considers the YPG, a key US ally in fighting the Islamic State group in Syria, a terror group and an extension of Kurdish militants operating inside Turkey.

In late April, Turkey relocated military units to Sanliurfa province across from another YPG-controlled area.
United Nations: The UN chief on Saturday urged the US to re-engage with the 2015 Paris climate agreement even after America submitted its formal communication indicating its intention to withdraw from the historic pact as soon as possible.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has received a notification from the US expressing the country's intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, his spokesman said.

The notification received on Friday was communicated by US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley.

"The Secretary-General received, in his capacity as Depositary of the Paris Agreement, a communication from the Permanent Representative of the US expressing the intention of the US to exercise its right to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as soon as it is eligible to do so under the Agreement, unless it identifies suitable terms for reengagement," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The Paris climate deal aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 2C since the start of the industrial age.

The spokesperson added that the secretary-general "welcomes any effort to reengage in the Paris Agreement by the United States".

The notification came two months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the accord.

Under article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a party may withdraw at any time after three years from the date on which the agreement has entered into force for that party, and such withdrawal takes effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the depositary of the notification of withdrawal.

The US accepted the Paris Agreement on September 3, 2016 and the agreement entered into force for the US on November 4, 2016. This means that the US must stay in the pact until at least 2019.

The note referred to the June statement by the secretary-general in which he had said that the decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a

"major disappointment" for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security.

"It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on climate and sustainable development. Climate change is impacting now," Dujarric said, adding that the UN Chief looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future for our children and future generations
Caracas: A controversial new Venezuelan assembly packed with allies of unpopular president Nicolas Maduro held its first session, deepening a rift with the opposition and in the teeth of international criticism from the US, the EU and major Latin American nations calling it illegitimate.

The Constituent Assembly has supreme powers over all branches of government as it takes on its principal task of rewriting the 1999 constitution. It was elected last weekend in balloting marred by violence and allegations of fraud.

Its 500-plus members, who include Maduro's wife and son, are led by Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's former foreign minister.

They took their seats in an ornate oval chamber under a golden dome in the 145-year-old Legislative Palace  in the same building where the opposition-dominated national Assembly is located, albeit in a different room.

"Today is a magnificent day," Rodriguez, 48, said to applause. "I want to thank Maduro for having stirred the wise powers of the Venezuelan people."

She rejected what she called "foreign interference" in the new assembly's creation.

The Constituent Assembly has discretion to dissolve the National Assembly. Such a move, however, would fuel criticism of it as a rubber-stamp body for Maduro, who critics say is building a "dictatorship."

The assembly's members were accompanied to the palace by Maduro and thousands of supporters carrying portraits of late president Hugo Chavez.

"The people today are going back to the assembly building and will never leave," said one supporter, 72-year-old Euclides Vivas.

The opposition staged protests in the capital on Saturday, but there were no signs of the street violence of the past four months that has left a death toll of more than 125.

The Vatican today had urged the assembly's session not be held, saying it contributed to "a climate of tension" in Venezuela.

Just hours ahead of the assembly's inaugural session, Venezuela's intelligence service unexpectedly transferred a high-profile opposition figure, Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, from jail back to house arrest, his family said.

Ledezma and another opposition figure, Leopoldo Lopez, had been taken from their homes to military prison on Tuesday, reversing earlier home detentions.

Lopez remains incarcerated, one of hundreds of people who the opposition says are political prisoners.

The Constituent Assembly marks a new stage in Venezuela's rule.

Maduro claims the revised charter will yank Venezuela out of its political and economic crisis, though he has not detailed how. Nor has he given an end date for the Constituent Assembly, which he said would operate for years.

The body is being challenged on several fronts.

Backing opposition allegations of fraud, Smartmatic, a British-based company involved in the vote technology behind the election last Sunday, said the official turnout figure had been tampered with and exaggerated by at least a million voters.

Although brushed off by Maduro as part of a plot by "the international enemy," Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega  a thorn in the president's side -- ordered an investigation.

She said prosecutors had lodged court cases seeking to have the Constituent Assembly annulled, though few in Venezuela believed that would happen -- and the new assembly could also fire her as one of its first actions.
Manila: Vietnam urged other Southeast Asian nations to take a stronger stand against Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, as a tense regional security forum began Saturday with North Korea also under fire over its nuclear programme.

Ahead of the launch of the annual gathering of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam made a bold play against China with a raft of suggested changes to a planned joint communique.

It set the stage for what was expected to be a fiery few days of diplomacy in the Philippine capital, with the top diplomats from China, the United States, Russia and North Korea set to join their ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific counterparts for security talks from Sunday.

The meetings will take place as the United Nations Security Council votes this weekend on a US-drafted resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea to punish the isolated regime for its missile and nuclear tests.

The United States said it would also seek to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event -- known as the ASEAN Regional Forum -- and Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said Pyongyang would receive a strong message.

But on the South China Sea dispute  one of Asia's other top powder keg issues  there was far less consensus with Vietnam resisting efforts by the Philippines to placate Beijing, diplomats told AFP.

Vietnam on Friday night sought to insert tough language against China in an ASEAN statement that was scheduled to be released after the Southeast Asian ministers wrapped up their own talks on Saturday.

According to a copy of a draft obtained by AFP, Vietnam lobbied for ASEAN to express serious concern over "construction" in the sea, in reference to China's ramped up artificial island building in the disputed waters in recent years.

Vietnam also wanted ASEAN to insist in the statement that a planned code of conduct for the sea with China be "legally binding", which Beijing opposes.

The lobbying occurred when the ASEAN foreign ministers held unscheduled and informal talks late on Friday night.

"The discussions were really hard. Vietnam is on its own to have stronger language on the South China Sea. Cambodia and Philippines are not keen to reflect that," one diplomat involved in the talks told AFP.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, including waters approaching the coasts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
Supporters of the United Auto Workers say they're not giving up their fight to unionize a Nissan auto assembly plant in Mississippi after a stinging defeat, even as UAW opponents say Friday's loss proves workers don't want the union.

More than 62 percent of workers voting in a two-day election at Nissan Motor Co.'s Canton plant voted against the UAW, with 2,244 ballots against the union according to the National Labor Relations Board. Voting for union representation were 1,307 workers, or 38 percent.

"They know we didn't need it," said Nissan worker Kim Barber, an outspoken union opponent who said she was celebrating Friday's result. "We didn't need outside interference coming into our plant."

Amid tears at a union office near the plant just north of Jackson, UAW supporters voiced defiance, with some calling for the election to be rerun after the minimum six-month wait. The union filed charges moments before the polls closed Friday night making new allegations that Nissan had broken federal labor law and intimidated workers into voting "no." If the labor board agrees, it could order a new election at the plant.

"It hurts," said union supporter Phillip White. "We ran against a machine; we ran against a monster; we ran against all the lies."

The UAW has never fully organized an international automaker in the traditionally anti-union South, although it did persuade some maintenance workers to join at a Volkswagen AG plant in Tennessee. The UAW's lack of influence among southern auto workers has reduced its bargaining power when Detroit automakers lose market share and close plants. After pouring resources into the organizing drive at Nissan, this loss could leave UAW leaders with tough decisions.

"The result of the election was a setback for these workers, the UAW and working Americans everywhere, but in no way should it be considered a defeat," UAW President Dennis Williams said in a statement.

Kristen Dziczek of the Center for Automotive Research said that although the UAW was the underdog, odds were unlikely to improve soon, as President Donald Trump's appointees take over the National Labor Relations Board. A corruption scandal involving union employees allegedly taking bribes from a former Fiat Chrysler executive also threatened to spread.

Company spokeswoman Parul Bajaj said employees' voice has been heard.

"They have rejected the UAW and chosen to self-represent, continuing the direct relationship they enjoy with the company," she said in a statement. "Our expectation is that the UAW will respect and abide by their decision and cease their efforts to divide our Nissan family."

UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel had telegraphed the likelihood of new charges Monday, when he alleged illegal activity by the company. Among the claims: Nissan provided a faulty contact list to the union, it caused a contract worker to be filed because of his union support, and a manager told workers July 28 that they would lose benefits it they voted for a union.

"Despite claiming for years to be neutral on the question of a union, Nissan waged one of the most illegal and unethical anti-union campaigns that I've seen in my lifetime," Casteel said in a statement Friday.

Bajaj said Nissan lived up to its obligations in providing the list. She generally denied the other charges.

"The UAW is again launching baseless and unsubstantiated allegations against Nissan Canton in a desperate, last-minute attempt to undermine the integrity of the secret ballot voting process," Bajaj said in a statement.

The labor board has already issued a complaint against Nissan alleging other labor law violations that predate the election, but a judge has yet to rule on those. A decision on the new charges could be months or years away.

The union also could try to encourage a backlash against Nissan outside the United States, where it has tried to build pressure on the company through unions at other plants and supporters in the French government, which owns nearly 20 percent of the Renault Group, Nissan's business partner. The union said it would "educate" the French government about Nissan's anti-union campaign.

Nissan has sought to finesse its position against unions in the U.S. while defending its work with organized labor in the rest of the world. Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, told French lawmakers last year that the alliance "has no tradition of not cooperating with unions."

Rodney Francis, the plant's human resources director, said the company has a right to make its case to workers that unionization would hurt management flexibility and make the plant less competitive economically. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and anti-union workers blamed the UAW for layoffs and plant closings by Detroit's major automakers.

"The UAW, everything they touched  layoff or closed," said anti-union worker Kinoy Brown.

For years, union organizers reached out to the majority African-American workforce at the Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant, arguing that workers' rights are civil rights. They pointed to reduced retirement and health benefits for longtime workers, and lower pay scales for 1,500 Nissan workers who began as contract laborers in recent years. White and other union supporters said after the vote they felt those newer employees, in particular, had been intimidated.

A 2015 study by the Center for Automotive Research found that Nissan paid an average of $44 an hour in pay and benefits, toward the low end of all automakers. Nissan has given pay raises since then.

Workers at Nissan's plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, voted against UAW representation in 1989 and 2001, but this was the first election at the Mississippi plant. The UAW also lost a 2014 vote among all workers at Volkswagen in 2014 before winning a second vote among 160 maintenance workers.

The UAW's failed campaign could leave scars. Pro-UAW worker Earnestine Meeks said a co-worker flashed a gun at her, demanding she leave his property during a home visit by union backers recently.

"Nissan will focus on bringing all employees back together as one team, building great vehicles and writing our next chapter in Mississippi," Bajaj said.

___

Follow Jeff Amy at: http://twitter.com/jeffamy . Read his work at https://www.apnews.com/search/Jeff_Amy .
Vegan extremists have bullied a mom-and-pop butcher shop in Californias most liberal city into hanging an animal rights sign in the window that the shop owners say amounts to ethical extortion.

The Local Butcher Shop, of Berkeley, had been targeted for months by nearly naked protesters dripping in fake blood. The protests had been organized by the vegan group Direct Action Everywhere, or DXE, which said they would continue if the shops owners, Monica and Aaron Rocchino, didnt cave in to their demands.

To be threatened and forced to abide by their beliefs just makes me sad, Monica Rocchino told The Guardian Wednesday. Their tactics are really extremist  This is ethical extortion.

The paper quoted Matt Johnson, a Direct Action Everywhere organizer, as saying that he and his group challenge places that market their businesses as humane to animals.

People are paying a lot more for these dead animals, he told the paper. They have some notion that these animals are being treated well.

The group contends that there is no ethical way to kill animals for food and are campaigning to make Berkeley the first city free of violence toward animals, meaning banning the sale of meat, The Guardian reported.

The group initially demanded that the Rocchinos turn their shop into a vegan butcher that did not sell meat in exchange for ending the protests. The Rocchinos rejected that demand.

The sign says killing animals is violent and unjust, no matter how its done.

The Washington Post reported that Mimi Stein of Certified Humane, an organization that certifies farms with the highest standards for painless slaughter, had denounced Direct Action Everywheres actions.

DXE is attempting to undermine consumer confidence in products which are, in fact, ethically produced and businesses working in good faith to reinvigorate a very desirable traditional business model, Stein told the paper in an email. Shame on DXE!

In recent weeks, neighborhood residents held protests in support of the Local Butcher Shop, not necessarily because they were customers but because they were tired of the disruption, Monica Rocchino told the San Francisco Chronicle.

She told the paper that so far, business has not been affected by the sign.

If anything, (customers) say this is ridiculous and were sorry that youre being extorted that way. Its not going to change anyones mind, she said. Theyve put a lot of thought into where theyre getting their meat.
Slavery ended in America, or so we assume. We accept that slavery continues to exist around the world, but we seldom stop to think that this monster is quietly growing stronger here in the beacon of freedom. The term slavery reminds us of our darkest hour as a nation and makes us uncomfortable, so we prefer the term human trafficking in polite conversation. Regardless, victims of human trafficking are still slaves, and it is time that we, America, once again answer the call to end slavery.

Human trafficking is often thought of as a problem over there, in Cambodia, Thailand, Pakistan, India and Vietnam. But while we discuss the slavery problem overseas, a slave is being sold in that run-down massage parlor you pass every day on your way to work, or in the seedy hotel by the interstate here in America.

Just as the old-world slave trade took advantage of market forces to scale their business, today, human traffickers use technology to scale theirs. Modern technology platforms host open slave markets that make it as easy for traffickers to sell women and children as it is for you to order a pizza. These technology platforms, like backpage.com, have expanded, outpacing legislation. Human trafficking is universally despised and an uncontroversial unifier, so then why does the problem continue to grow? Despite all the enthusiasm from politicians and pop stars, few law enforcement resources have been allocated toward combating human trafficking. There is no national strategy to fight human trafficking, nor a centralized or coordinated effort among law enforcement, enthusiasm is not translating into capability.

This year in New Mexico, a human trafficking ring kept women in dog crates when they were not selling access to their bodies (rape) in 15 minute increments. Traffickers worked under law enforcements radar for a decade, until they murdered one of their victims, leaving her body in a park that drew law enforcements attention. Most frustratingly, it was revealed that this trafficker was already on law enforcements radar in other states, but with no coordinated national effort, New Mexicos Authorities had no information beyond their own.

Where the government has fallen short, DeliverFund has stepped in. Founded by former CIA Operatives and a Navy SEAL, DeliverFund facilitates the arrest and prosecution of human traffickers here in the United States. In the first few months of operations, with nothing but our savings and a high level of expertise, we assisted law enforcement in bringing to justice 3 human traffickers. Now, over two years later, DeliverFund is operational in multiple cities across the US and we are running operations in tandem with law enforcement around the clock. Using state-of-the-art technology and intelligence on trafficking activities DeliverFund has provided to law enforcement a national network beyond their capabilities. The DeliverFund strategy borrows from widely used counterterrorism methodologies and has proven to be the most cost effective and scalable solution. It was DeliverFund intelligence that informed law enforcement and took down the trafficking ring in New Mexico, and DeliverFund resources that helped the victims receive the restoration they desperately needed.

DeliverFund takes a market-based approach; viewing trafficking markets as a shelf in a store. There is limited space for products and because space is limited, product capacity and sales are limited. If you remove products from the shelf (in this case trafficking victims) without also limiting the shelf space (arresting the trafficker), then you create room for new products and therefore make the problem worse by increasing the overall sales volume. It is essential to realize that victims of human trafficking are illicit commodities that are sold on black markets, so any effective strategy to combat trafficking must define the arrest and prosecution of the trafficker as the central goal. While it is possible to free victims of trafficking without also arresting the trafficker, arresting the trafficker almost always frees all the victims. The common denominator here is the trafficker, not the victim and as such should be the primary focus of any strategy.

Such as companies like Google do for their ad campaigns, data modeling traffickers is very effective. With few law enforcement officers allocated to fighting human trafficking every day, their efforts would be scalable with minimal resources and training. Proper resource allocation should be a true reflection of our national priorities and expenditures should signal our resolve on this issue. The abolition of human trafficking is fundamentally aligned with the core values of America, and it is time we make it a national priority. Until this happens not only in words, but in appropriate allocation of personnel and budgets dedicated to the fight, NGOs, like DeliverFund will continue to stand in the gap and scale the efforts of the valiant law enforcement officers doing this work.
Democratic politicians are giddily celebrating that the Affordable Care Act  more commonly known as ObamaCare  will remain in place for now, even though it continues to wreak havoc on U.S. health care. As they toast each others success at blocking reforms, lets consider what they are celebrating:

? An explosion of health insurance premiums caused specifically by ObamaCare regulations. From the laws implementation until this year, average health insurance premiums have doubled on individuals and increased 140 percent on families. At the same time, deductibles have also increased by about one-third for individuals and doubled for families, according to eHealth.

? A ten-fold increase in the projected number of people kicked off their chosen health plan, as compared to the initial estimates by the Congressional Budget Office when the law passed.

? A shrinking number of doctors and hospitals accepting ObamaCare insurance, with 32 to 42 percent fewer doctors than those who accept insurance off ObamaCare exchanges  and sometimes down to zero specialists available for stroke and other critical care.

Voters must not allow our elected officials to blindly ignore the dismal projections about the unsustainable fiscal burden of taxpayer-funded health care, particularly as the impending explosion of demand for costly medical care that our society faces comes into play in the years ahead.

? A drastic loss of insurance choices for those dependent on ObamaCare exchanges, with about one-third of counties now having only one insurance choice and another third having only two. Thats down from 2015, when 65 percent had three or more choices, according to Kaiser Foundation data.

? A taxpayer burden of $1 trillion for an expansion of Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poorest Americans. Medicaid is only accepted by half of doctors, and data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed that half of doctors signed up to accept Medicaid patients actually do not do so. Studies show that Medicaid delivers worse outcomes than private insurance covering medically similar patients. These worse outcomes include more in-hospital deaths and adverse events, more complications from surgery, shorter survival after treatment and longer hospital stays. This proves once again that giving someone insurance is not the same as access to quality health care.

? An unprecedented, harmful consolidation of doctor practices and hospitals accelerated by ObamaCare regulations, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. This consolidation creates monopolies, thereby eliminating choice and competition. Reducing the cost of health care itself is the critical pathway to broader access to quality medical care, lower insurance premiums and ultimately better health. Consolidation does the opposite and raises prices for patients by over 20 percent, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Consolidation raises prices by 34 percent for specialist care, as reported by Cory Capps and others in a study for the Northwestern Institute for Policy Research. This amounts to an extra $1,200 to $1,700 per patient per year, according to a study for the Journal of American Medicine Network by James. C. Robinson and Kelly Miller,

Meanwhile, Americans, not politicians, continue to be the victims of the imploding Affordable Care Act. Many of these same politicians insist that yet more government control is the solution, even pushing for a single-payer system.

Advocates of single-payer government health insurance ignore the overwhelming body of peer-reviewed facts that proves U.S. health care has been superior to every centralized system in the world. That means better access to care in our country than in single-payer systems, even for those needing urgent treatment.

For example, for people already diagnosed with cancer, 18 percent wait more than two months for physician-requested urgent treatment in England through the National Health Service. Britains National Health Service also reports that when brain surgery is recommended for patients, 17 percent wait more than 18 weeks.

In America we also benefit by faster availability of medications. In addition, there are factually superior outcomes for Americans from virtually all serious diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Voters must not allow our elected officials to blindly ignore the dismal projections about the unsustainable fiscal burden of taxpayer-funded health care, particularly as the impending explosion of demand for costly medical care that our society faces comes into play in the years ahead.

We must not allow politicians to deny virtually all the fundamentals of basic economics  that incentives, competition, and consumer power drive prices lower.

And finally, we must not allow our government to disregard all the historical proof that free market competition actually works to lower medical care prices without harming patients.

The way to bring down health care prices while maintaining quality and without limiting access is clear-cut. It requires facilitating competition among providers, and incentivizing consumers to seek value. Without recognizing those facts, the worlds best health care will soon be simply a distant memory and all Americans will suffer.
Tisha BAv  Judaisms holy day of mourning for the ancient destruction of the First and Second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem  was last Tuesday, and had special relevance for todays conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Both Jewish temples  located on what is now known as the Temple Mount  were destroyed; the first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. and the second by the Romans in the year 70. The Western Wall, erected as part of the expansion of the Second Temple, still stands and is the holiest site in Judaism.

Violence in recent days around the Temple Mount reminds us that this continues to be a hotly contested location. On July 14, three Muslims on the Temple Mount shot and killed two Israeli policemen. The gunmen were themselves then shot and killed.

Angry that they, like everyone else, had to pass through metal detectors (since removed) to enter the Temple Mount, other Muslims murdered a Jewish family eating the Sabbath supper and attacked the Israeli embassy in Jordan.

Underlying the anger that led to the murders is the irrational belief held by many Muslims that there never really were Jewish temples on the Temple Mount  and that therefore, Jews should have no access to the holy site and should not restrict Muslim access to it, regardless of security concerns

The archaeological and literary evidence for the existence of the two temples on the Temple Mount is simply overwhelming  and a lot of it continues to be unearthed. Ancient Greeks and Romans refer to one or both of the temples. And of course, there are countless references to the two temples in ancient Jewish and Christian writings.

We ourselves have visited several of the excavation sites around the Jewish temples in Jerusalem and have viewed most of the relevant artifacts on display in the Israel Museum and other museums around the world. There is no doubt whatsoever that two Jewish temples in succession stood atop the Temple Mount.

In fact, the denial of the existence of Jewish temples on the Temple Mount is what today could be called fake news. Two Muslim holy sites  the Dome of the Rock shrine and the Al-Aqsa mosque  are now on the site where the temples once stood. But the temples were there first.

At the Camp David Summit in 2000, Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat made the absurd assertion that that the Jewish temples had existed in the nearby city of Nablus, not in Jerusalem.

And in 2015, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, claimed that a Jewish temple never existed on the Temple Mount. He said an Islamic mosque stood on the Temple Mount since the world was created, adding that there was never anything other than a mosque. A number of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel media outlets continue to voice this nonsense.

The blatant lies denying the existence of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem are plainly designed to delegitimize the deep historical claim the Jewish people have to their holiest city.

Such lies are part of a larger denial of the very history of the Jewish people. Everything we know of ancient Israel, whether from ancient written sources or from archaeology, is cast aside. Israels ancient story is turned inside out and upside down. This includes what Muhammad said and what is written in the Koran. The older stories and the confirmation of archaeology count for nothing.

Saying that the Jewish temples were not in Jerusalem makes as much as much sense as saying the capital of the Roman Empire was in Australia or the Egyptian pyramids were built in Cleveland.

It is bad enough that such inflammatory deceit continues to be voiced in the Islamic media, but when something like it finds its way into a major Western newspaper there is simply no excuse.

An article published by the New York Times on Oct, 8, 2015 claimed that it has not been definitely proven that the Jewish temples were located on the Temple Mount. The article was headlined: Historical Certainty Proves Elusive at Jerusalems Holiest Place.

This is what makes the quest for peace in the Middle East so elusive.

Israel and its Arab neighbors do need to sit down and find a solution  a solution that will work for them and for the Palestinians.

The Palestinians have rights. But negotiations will get nowhere when one side refuses to recognize the history of the other side and so continues to argue that Israel has no right to exist and no valid claim to the land.

The stories of the Bible might be old and strangely quaint to many, but these stories provide us with Israels history and go a great way to legitimating the Jewish peoples claim to the land.
Alabamans head to the voting booth today and will come one step closer to electing a new U.S. senator.

Republican Jeff Sessions vacated his seat in February after he was confirmed as the U.S. attorney general. Former state Attorney General Luther Strange was picked by the governor to finish Sessions' term.

The special election primary was scheduled for Aug. 15. However, if no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election will occur at the end of September.

The general election is set for Dec. 12.

Heres a look at the nine Republicans and seven Democrats who are running to become the next U.S. senator from Alabama.

James Beretta, Republican

Dr. James Beretta, a pain management specialist just south of Birmingham, moved to Alabama 25 years ago to raise his family in a community-oriented area, according to AL.com.

Beretta said he is disillusioned with Washington  which is why he is running for office.

"I'm tired of the corruption," he told AL.com. "I'm tired of the purpose of me being in office is to promote my own ideology and not what's being voted on and passed."

Beretta said he would like to see immigration reform done correctly and thinks there should be a law against texting and driving, AL.com reported. He also thinks the state of health care today is another disaster and said former Gov. Robert Bentley should have expanded Medicaid in Alabama.

Beretta supports President Donald Trump and thinks Trump presents himself to the world in a much better light than the previous administration.

Will Boyd, Democrat

The Rev. Will Boyd is a Democrat, but he doesnt support gun control or abortion.

Im not somebody who wants to take guns away. Im not somebody who wants to kill babies, Boyd told AL.com.

He said he grew up in South Carolina around guns and would just want to enforce existing laws regarding who can purchase a firearm. As for abortion, Boyd described himself as a man of the cloth and emphasized the importance of adoption.

As a U.S. senator, Boyd would support a realistic path to citizenship plan for undocumented immigrants who are living and working peaceably in the U.S., according to his campaign website.

He also opposes the privatization of Social Security, supports legislation that helps fill the health care/Medicaid coverage gap that exists for women in Alabama, opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership and wishes to increase the minimum wage to $14 by 2018.

Joseph Breault, Republican

Despite running for office, Joseph Breault is keeping a low profile. So low, in fact, that the Alabama GOP wasnt even aware of who he is, according to AL.com.

And as the newspaper discovered, Breault doesnt like to speak to reporters, either.

Breault, a chaplain based at the Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, was also the Republican nominee in a Utah House race last year, his LinkedIn page says.

He previously served as chaplain at a VA hospital in Salt Lake City and at the Buckley Air Force base in Aurora, Colo.

Randy Brinson, Republican

A lay minister and former university trustee, Randy Brinson also received a medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and served as the chief of gastroenterology at Maxwell Air Force Base.

Aside from his professional accomplishments, Brinson also notes his Christian activism on his campaign website. He said he brought WAY-FM, a Christian music station, to Montgomery and headed the nonprofit Christian Coalition of Alabama.

He also founded the conservative organization Redeem the Vote, which seeks to increase voter registration and participation of Christians. Brinson stepped down from the organization to run for Senate, AL.com reported.

Now, Randy continues to advocate strongly for America and Israels interests across the globe, and he values to protect us from the threat of radical jihadists and historical adversaries such as China and Russia, as they seek world domination and threaten our way of life, his website states.

As a senator, Brinson would push to end Common Core, repeal and replace ObamaCare and protect gun rights and the freedom of religion.

Mo Brooks, Republican

Like some of his opponents, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., was born in South Carolina but moved to Alabama as a child.

But in Alabama, Brooks has been influential in politics and law. He graduated from the University of Alabama Law School, worked as a prosecutor in the Tuscaloosa District Attorneys office and clerked for Circuit Court Judge John David Snodgrass, according to his campaign website.

He was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1982, appointed Madison County district attorney in 1991 and served as the special assistant attorney general for Sessions in 1995 when Sessions was the states attorney general.

Brooks became a U.S. congressman in 2011 and is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

As a senator, Brooks said he would defend gun rights, support Trumps promise to build a border wall and push for sanctions against hostile nations.

With growing tension between Sessions and Trump  and rumors that Sessions could be next to leave the administration  Brooks offered to band together with the other GOP Senate candidates and drop out of the race to allow Sessions to have his seat back.

Brooks said last month that while he supports Trumps policies, he does not support the public waterboarding of Sessions.

I recognize that President Trump is popular in Alabama. My closest friends and political advisers have told me to not side with Jeff Sessions, that it will cost me politically to do so, Brooks said. My response is simple: I dont care. If this costs me politically, thats fine but I am going to do the right thing for Alabama and America. I stand with Jeff Sessions.

Strange, one of Brooks Republican opponents, said Brooks plan proved he is desperate to get attention.

The pair has also reportedly clashed over whether to keep the filibuster in the Senate.

Vann Caldwell, Democrat

Vann Caldwell is the constable in Talladega County  near the center of the state.

He has worked on a farm and for the public safety division of the University of Alabama, according to his website. After that, he developed his own security business.

"I have experience with working with a diversity of people. Caldwell, 33, told AL.com. I have developed [an] understanding as well as a plan for all of the people. I will give my [very] best in the betterment and growth of this state and nation. It's not magic; it will take hard work and passion, which I have.

He said that as a senator, he would focus on the economy, which in turn would help other issues  education, the military and homeland security.

As for health care policy, Caldwell told AL.com that by virtue of the Democratic beliefs and by virtue of the Republicans beliefs, only Democrats can make a health care law.

Republicans can only outlaw a health care law, he said.

Jason Fisher, Democrat

Jason Fisher is a longtime resident of Alabamas Gulf Coast, but the 45-year-old Democrat grew up working on farms in Eastern Iowa, according to his campaign website.

For Fisher, health care is a top issue  and it hits close to home for him.

Fishers wife unexpectedly died from a blood clot just before her 31st birthday, AL.com reported. He is now the single father of a 2-year-old girl who has special needs, the report said.

"I have had no shortage of bad luck over the last six or seven years when it comes to my personal life," Fisher said. "But there is a gift that comes from that and it is the perspective of understanding what is truly important and how to work with people in a different way to get a better result.

He said he hopes Congress would work to improve the current health care law to make it better for Americans.

Fisher is a vice president and senior consultant at a marketing firm, but he has worked as a business manager, consultant and nonprofit executive, his website states.

Michael Hansen, Democrat

Michael Hansen, 35, said his Senate bid is a long shot  but its a shot hes willing to take anyway.

Hansen, executive director of the health advocacy group Gasp, is openly gay and a Democrat.

In a Medium blog post announcing his run, Hansen noted that folks are sick and tired. He specifically noted the stereotypes that liberals, conservatives, Christians, people of color, men and white people face.

Our list of grievances with one another goes on and on, and its unsustainable, he said.

In the Senate, Hansen said he would fight for a federal law to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination, fight against policies that would systematically oppress people of color and advocate for funding family planning services, including Planned Parenthood.

Doug Jones, Democrat

A former federal prosecutor, Doug Jones said he hope[s] to return to public office.

On his campaign website, Jones criticized Trump for withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate change agreement. He also said he supports a womans right to choose and supports Planned Parenthood.

The shenanigans around the 2016 campaign must be pushed aside and full equality for women made the law and the norm in America, he said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden endorsed the candidate this week and joined in on a robocall to voters.

Doug Jones will make a great U.S. Senator so please make sure you get out and vote on Tuesday - and Im hoping youll vote for my friend, Doug Jones, Biden said.

Thus far, Jones has raised more than $158,000 for his campaign, AL.com reported. Thats only about half as much as some of the top GOP candidates, but its most likely more than any of his fellow Democrats, according to the newspaper.

Robert Kennedy Jr., Democrat

No, hes not related to the famous political family. But Robert Kennedy Jr., does hope to become a lawmaker.

Kennedy attended Duke Universitys Fuqua School of Business and was stationed in Japan with the Navy. He spent nine years on active duty.

AL.com reported that Kennedy, 47, remained fairly private during an interview and declined to reveal certain personal details about his life, including his job.

His campaign website simply said Kennedy launched his civilian career in the casino industry, and subsequently transitioned into retail.

Im a fiscally responsible Democrat who leads with faith, Kennedy said on his website. He told AL.com that he considers himself to be a conservative Democrat who supports gun rights.

But he also supports keeping and fixing ObamaCare and abortion rights, according to his website.

Despite staying fairly private about certain details, Kennedy led the field of Democrats in a recent WBRC-TV poll with 49 percent. Jones trailed with 28 percent.

Mary Maxwell, Republican

Mary Maxwell specifically moved to Alabama to run for the open Senate seat  all the way from Australia.

She told AL.com that she learned about the election from a Yahoo News article and decided that, after spending several decades in Australia, it was time for a move. In June, Maxwell became an Alabama resident.

Maxwell, 70, is a unique candidate  she travels the state by Greyhound bus because she doesnt want to drive on the right-hand side of the road, shes written about mind control and teen etiquette and she sued former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over the administration attacking Iran and Syria without a declaration of war.

Maxwell was born in Massachusetts where she lived until she moved to Australia with her late-husband in 1980.

"I don't mind admitting that as a Northerner, the South wasn't there for me," she told AL.com. "We don't see it, we don't think about it. I was never thinking about Alabama, I'll admit."

Maxwell said she hang[s] out in front of Walmarts when [she] can, distributing copies of the Bill of Rights, usually warmly received, according to her campaign website.

She said she is against war, mandatory vaccinations and privatizing prisons. She also would like to audit the Federal Reserve System and would look into government bullying as a senator.

Roy Moore, Republican

If Chuck Norris had his way, Judge Roy Moore would be the next senator.

The "Walker, Texas Ranger" star endorsed Moore as he is "the real deal," Norris said.

Alabama needs Judge Moore there doing what hes always done: fighting to protect our constitutional rights to life, religious liberty and the freedom to protect ourselves and our families. And he will always put principle over politics, Norris said.

Moore recently served as the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court but was suspended in September 2016 from chief justice for violating the canons of judicial ethics.

Prosecutors said Moore told probate judges to defy the Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage nationwide. Moore said on his Senate campaign website that he retired to seek the office in 2017 and addressed the controversy by saying that he was suspended for upholding the sanctity of marriage as between one man and one woman.

Moore advocated for using the military to protect the countrys southern border, immediately repealing ObamaCare and making homosexuality against military policy on his campaign website.

He is also opposed to abortion, federal funding to Planned Parenthood, same-sex marriage, civil unions and all other threats to the traditional family order.

Bryan Peeples, Republican

Bryan Peeples is young, has never held an elected office and doesnt have a campaign chairman, according to AL.com.

Im doing this by myself, the 37-year-old said.

As a consultant for small- and medium-sized hotels and restaurants, Peeples is focused on middle-income families and mid-sized businesses, he told AL.com.

He is also focused on tax reform and term limits. He would like to donate a portion of his Senate salary to charity, according to a contract on his campaign website states.

Trip Pittman, Republican

State Sen. Trip Pittman is the natural successor to Jeff Sessions in the U.S. Senate, his campaign website states. He would also be the first non-lawyer in more than 100 years to represent Alabama in the Senate, it said.

Pittman ran for state Senate after he survived a plane crash in 2007, according to his campaign website.

Pittman is anti-abortion and supports Trumps call for a border wall. He also supports Trumps call to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.

Luther Strange, Republican

Strange currently holds Sessions old seat, as he was appointed by the governor to finish out Sessions' term. But Strange hopes to keep the office he was given.

Before his Senate appointment, Strange was Alabamas attorney general and joined a lawsuit against the Obama administration that challenged Obama's executive order on amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

Strange said he stands with President Trump and looks forward to working with the new administration to achieve landmark conservative success, on his campaign website. He also supports repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act and calls for immediate deportation of criminal undocumented immigrants and the construction of a border wall.

And his loyalty to Trump appears to have paid off. The president endorsed Strange in a tweet on August 8.

Senator Luther Strange has done a great job representing the people of the Great State of Alabama. He has my complete and total endorsement! Trump said.

Strange said he was honored to receive the endorsement.

Strange raised $1.8 million in just three months, AL.com reported in July. Hes endorsed by the National Rifle Association and Perry Hooper Jr., the Alabama Trump Victory chairman.

Charles Nana, Democrat

Businessman Charles Nana immigrated to the U.S. from Cameroon in West Africa, and he splits his time between his job in Nashville and his home in Birmingham, AL.com reported.

He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Senate last year.

[Nana] is deeply troubled by the way faith is being used by some to serve hate, racism and greed, his campaign website states.

Nana advocates for a new fresh wind, which includes free education through college.

If we can contemplate building a wall with Mexico, we can surely afford giving our children free education from Pre-K to college, he said on his website.

Nana considers himself a Berniecrat and a conservative Democrat, according to AL.com.

Withdrew

- Dominic Gentile, Republican

- Ed Henry, Republican

- Karen Jackson, Republican

- Brian McGee, Democrat
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the city plans to sue the U.S. Department of Justice over President Donald Trumps immigration policies, specifically over the so-called sanctuary cities program.

Emanuel made the disclosure Friday, while being interviewed for a Chicago radio program. The full interview is scheduled to air Sunday evening on WLS radio in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The mayor, a Democrat who previously served as a congressman and as White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama, said the federal lawsuit will be filed Monday.

The suit will claim that its illegal for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to withhold federal Byrne grants from cities the Trump administration believes arent cooperating enough with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the mayor said.

Chicago this year expects to receive $3.2 million from the Byrne grant program, money mostly used to buy police vehicles and other equipment, the Tribune reported. The grants are named for Edward Byrne, a New York City police officer who was murdered in 1988.

We are not going to be between picking our values of who we are as a welcoming city, and strengthening our police department, Emanuel said in the interview.

In filing the suit, Emanuel is likely trying to court support from Chicagos Latinos, who are wary of the Trump administrations immigration policies, as well as gain clout among other big-city Democratic mayors as they try to block Trump initiatives, the newspaper reported.

The Justice Department declined to comment on Emanuels comments Friday.

On Thursday, Fox News reported that Sessions threatened to withhold anti-crime funding from four cities  Baltimore; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Stockton and San Bernardino, California  if they did not begin to cooperate more thoroughly with federal immigration officers.
Congress has left Washington for the summer with a trail of unfinished business and several immediate concerns when they return in September -- increasing the federal debt limit and passing a temporary spending bill to avert a government shutdown.

The effort by the Republican-led Congress to repeal and replace ObamaCare appears dead for now, despite President Trump goading leaders to try again to give him a major legislative victory.

"We've pivoted to tax reform and I think we've got to stay on that," Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday.

GOP House leaders passed their ObamaCare overhaul bill in May. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried and failed several times since early July to present a bill that at least 50 of his 52 GOP senators could support and pass.

With passage appearing at least possible last month, the Kentucky Republican boldly required senators to stay on Capitol Hill for the first two weeks of their August recess.

But after a series of repeal and-or replace measures failed in recent weeks, lawmakers returned to their home states, with some taking overseas trips as part of congressional delegations.

Congress must increase the debt limit to prevent a jarring federal default.

Though many Republicans cannot bring themselves to back a debt increase, since they run the government it's their responsibility to deliver those votes. Democratic support also will be required, and some hope they'll win concessions in exchange.

A stopgap measure will be needed because the 12 annual spending bills are behind schedule. There's no agreement on their overall price tag, which will be in the $1 trillion-plus range.

One wild card is whether Trump will press to fund the U.S.-Mexico border wall he has pledged. That could spark a nasty confrontation with Democrats.

Republicans have had few major successes in their first seven months of controlling the White House and Capitol Hill.

Among their victories, the Senate sent Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and Congress passed bills bolstering veterans' health programs and financing the Food and Drug Administration.

Members also approved another sanctioning Russia for its 2016 election meddling, which Trump resentfully signed knowing Congress would lopsidedly override a veto.

Passing tax reform upon returning to Capitol Hill after Labor Day would give congressional Republicans a big win -- as next years midterm elections, with all 435 House seats on the line, fast approach.

The White House and Republicans promise to revamp the loophole-choked tax code and lower rates for corporations and individuals. Along with repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama's signature health care law, this is the Holy Grail for the GOP.

But core principles remain unresolved, including whether the effort would further bloat the budget deficit. Crucial details must be settled, among them how far to lower rates and which tax credits and deductions would be erased. The last time those problems were reconciled and the tax code broadly reshaped was 1986.

The Senate aims to approve the annual defense policy bill in September. That's when Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., expects to return to Washington after starting brain cancer treatment. He and McConnell wanted to pass the bill last month. But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., thwarted that plan. Paul wants votes on amendments on indefinite detention and war authorization.

McCain has warned he'll use the bill to map a strategy for Afghanistan if Trump fails to develop a plan.

The House and Senate intelligence committees are investigating whether Russia worked with Trump's presidential campaign to try to help him win the election. The FBI and Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller are also investigating.

Trump has repeatedly denigrated the issue as "fake news" and a "witch hunt."

Lawmakers from both parties seem determined to press on. Senators introduced bipartisan bills last week creating judicial review procedures that could shield Mueller from firing by Trump.

They hope to approve a bipartisan bill speeding federal approval of projects to export liquified natural gas and boosting energy sources and efficiency.

Republicans also want to roll back the Endangered Species Act, saying it hinders drilling and logging.

In addition, several programs expire Sept. 30, including the Children's Health Insurance Program, a Democratic favorite.

Also facing expiration are federal flood insurance and programs run by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Conservatives chafe at renewing flood insurance, which is $25 billion in debt. FAA renewal is stuck over a plan to transfer the agency's air traffic control system to a private non-profit organization.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trumps campaign promise to build a border wall is again starting to galvanize Washington after months of taking a back seat to ObamaCare and the investigation into Russian election meddling.

The Republican-led Congress in recent days has introduced bills that would put tens of billions of dollars toward completing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Then critics outrage over the wall plan intensified Thursday when The Washington Post published a leaked transcript of a call between Trump and Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto earlier this year discussing the divisive issue.

"You cannot say that to the press," Trump told Pena Nieto in response to him saying Mexico would not pay for the wall. "The press is going to go with that and I cannot live with that. You cannot say that to the press because I cannot negotiate under those circumstances."

On Thursday, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the chambers No. 2 Republican, introduced a bill that would include spending $15 billion over roughly four years on border security and a proposed wall.

The wall would combine a physical structure and technology to stop or at least slow the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. And the bill would help pay for thousands of new judges, immigration officials and border agents that Trump wants to hire.

The bill also calls for a massive increase in resources at U.S. ports of entry and a national system for tracking people entering and exiting the country, according to Cornyns office.

For too long law enforcement on the front lines havent had the tools they need to stop the flow of illegal immigration, and this bill will provide both the resources and plan to finally secure the border, Cornyn said.

The bill is co-authored by fellow GOP Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. They, like Cornyn, suggest the wall concept predates Trump and say the intent of the bill is to secure the border as a first step toward comprehensive immigration reform.

Until our borders are fully secure, the current system will continue to reward people who enter our country illegally over those who follow the law, Barrasso said.

Last week, Texas GOP Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, introduced a bill with an estimated cost of at least $15 billion that includes a physical wall, thousands more border agents and deploying the so-called Biometric Entry-Exit System.

Securing our borders is first and foremost a national security issue, said McCaul, who reportedly worked with Cornyn on the legislation. Illegal immigrants, smugglers, and drug cartels continue to infiltrate our country. So we must quickly secure the homeland through infrastructure, technology and personnel.

And like Cornyns bill, the House legislation addresses the issues of human trafficking and increases resources at ports of entry and for local law enforcement agencies.

For months Trumps agenda has been slowed by the GOP-controlled Congress failed efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare and investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential race.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has already seized on the border wall issue as part of her 2018 reelection bid.

President Donald Trump and Paul Ryan are moving forward with their border wall, the California Democrat said in a fundraising letter Saturday. They want to break ground on construction as soon as possible so that we wont be able to stop them. And, of course, they expect you to pick up the tab.

The House and Senate measures also were introduced within days of Trump saying he supports a revised plan by GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia for a merit-based system for foreigners seeking legal permanent residence, or green cards, through employers.

The issue sparked an acrid exchange Thursday between Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller and CNN White House reporter Jim Acosta.
Dozens of protesters gathered Saturday outside the Florida museum where Snooty, the oldest manatee in captivity, recently drowned to demand the dismissal of its CEO and COO.

Snooty, 69, died July 23 after becoming trapped in a maintenance tube at the South Florida Museums Parker Manatee Aquarium. The day before, the museum had held a party to celebrate his 69th birthday.

According to the Bradenton Herald, approximately 30 protesters held a "Justice for Snooty" demonstration outside the museum, blaming negligence for the manatee's death.

Organizer Denise Anderson told the paper that Snooty should have passed away peacefully of old age, rather than by a "horrifying death by drowning."

"Snooty is not here to get [justice] himself, but we want to get it for him," Anderson added.

After Snooty's death, museum officials confirmed that a 30-inch by 30-inch panel in his tank had become dislodged, allowing the manatee to enter the compartment, where he became trapped.

"[The museum's] COO [Jeff Rodgers] after Snooty died went on live television and said that the panel that Snooty swam through where he died was checked by divers on a daily basis, Anderson told the Herald. "The media-released photos taken two days before showed that same panel holding on by one screw."

The museum says that a review, which includes outside experts, is underway to collect all the facts surrounding Snootys death.

"Without facts, it is not appropriate to speculate or make any allegations," the museum said, in a statement emailed to Fox News Friday. "When the review is complete and action steps are determined, the Museum is committed to sharing the information publicly."

Snooty was born in 1948 at the Miami Aquarium and Tackle Company, in what has been described as the first recorded birth of a manatee in human care. He moved to Bradenton in 1949, greeting more than a million visitors in his lifetime.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from the Bradenton Herald.
A 73-year-old Florida man has been banned from several Florida beaches after a parent complained about business cards he was handing out that read, "Sugardaddy seeking his sugarbaby."

Volusia County Beach Safety Capt. Tammy Maris confirmed Saturday that Richard Basaraba has been told to stay off all the county's beaches and walkovers for six months for violating an ordinance that prohibits soliciting on the beach.

Basaraba told The Daytona Beach News-Journal he's "devastated" by what he considers an overreaction by officials. He said he wasn't trying to entice anyone into doing anything illegal when he handed a business card out to a group of girls on Daytona Beach on Saturday.

But the mother of a 16-year-old girl complained to authorities after her daughter told her about the incident. The girl told officials the man handed her 18-year-old friend the business card while they were at the beach. It featured a picture of a younger woman sitting on the lap of an older man wearing a business suit. Printed on the card were an email address and the accompanying text: "Ask me about your monthly allowance."

Basaraba told the newspaper he's been careful not to hand the cards, which he recently ordered, to anyone under 18.

A beach patrol report says Basaraba told the 16-year-old that she should contact him when she's 18.

The ban is a trespass order and Marris said someone who violates such an order can be arrested for trespassing. Basaraba wasn't arrested because police didn't see him handing out the business cards.

"I'm really upset about it," Basaraba said. "This really knocked me for a loop." He said recently bought a T-shirt that reads "Accepting application 4A sugar baby," which has also proved to be a "conversation starter."

"I've had women stop me and say, 'I want to take a picture with you in this shirt.' They want to put them on Facebook."

Basaraba was also putting the pictures on Facebook, but he says he's now deleted the account. "Anything I've ever posted gets only gets three or four likes," he said, adding that he got 78 likes when he posted a photo posing with the woman in a bikini.

He said 95 percent of the women "found it hilarious."

"Maybe the younger ones didn't as much but the older ones did," he said.

The retired engineer said he's embarrassed and would like to apologize to the teenager and her mother.

"I engaged (the younger girl) before I knew she was 16 because of her bust size," he said. "I did make the mistake of saying, 'You're the cutest one here. Call me when you're 18."

He said his wife died in 2003, he's never remarried and he has a daughter and granddaughter who live out of town.

"I read in the paper about men who have sex with underage women and their life is gone," he said. "I can show you my bank account. I don't have any assets. I don't have money, just enough to live. I don't have money for a sugar baby."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The family of an 8-year-old California transgender student has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the girl's private school.

Parents Priya Shah and Jaspret Brar are suing Heritage Oak Private Education and its parent company, alleging that the school refused to call daughter Nikki Brar by her name.

According to The Mercury News, the suit says the Yorba Linda school made Nikki wear a boy's uniform and use the boy's bathroom, and that teachers were not allowed to protect her from bullying.

TRANSGENDER STUDENTS WANTS COURT RULING BEFORE GRADUATION

The school told The Mercury News that it notified the family that it had decided to use an outside consultant to accommodate transgender students.

According to Heritage Oak's website, it has been in Orange County for more than 50 years and serves students from preschool through middle school.

TRANSGENDER STUDENT NAMED KING OF HIGH SCHOOL DANCE

The family's attorneys said Nikki's parents tried to work with the school to help their daughter, but they eventually pulled Nikki out of the school.

The lawsuit is asking for school policy changes and unspecified damages, according to the OC Register.
Leaked transcripts of presidential calls aren't just embarrassing to Donald Trump. They could undermine faith in Washington's ability to protect confidential conversations and intelligence, and have a chilling effect on American diplomacy.

In the latest and perhaps most egregious sign of a U.S. administration that can't keep a lid on its private deliberations, The Washington Post this week published a written record of phone conversations between Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Australia. The talks took place soon after Trump's January inauguration.

Such leaks have enraged Trump. On Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged to rein in government leaks that he blamed for jeopardizing American security, after being called weak on leaks by Trump. And White House adviser Kellyanne Conway raised the possibility of lie detector tests for the small number of people in the West Wing and elsewhere with access to transcripts of Trump's phone calls.

Experts and former U.S. officials also warn the leaks could add to mistrust among international partners grappling with Trump's unconventional approach to foreign policy, which includes at least one high-profile case of the U.S. president sharing the sensitive intelligence from a foreign ally. The cumulative effect may be to hurt Washington's leadership in world affairs.

"The risk is that our foreign counterparts no longer believe we are capable of keeping conversations, or even their intelligence, private," said Jon Finer, who was Secretary of State John Kerry's chief of staff during President Barack Obama's second term. "This is not just embarrassing to the president. It is bad for the country, since cooperation on issues like terrorism is essential to our security."

The transcripts broadly confirm what was reported at the time about Trump's tough conversations with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. But they offered new detail and laid bare the U.S. president's preoccupation about how he is viewed at home, even when speaking to the leader of a foreign government.

Trump urged Pena Nieto to stop saying his country won't pay for the wall along the southern U.S. border, which Trump promised would happen during his maverick campaign for the presidency. The two leaders agreed to stop talking about the subject in public.

With Turnbull, Trump objected strongly to a refugee deal he inherited for the U.S. to accept asylum seekers who had been trying to reach Australia. Trump complained the deal made him look bad and reported having had a more pleasant conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The comment was particularly stark given the depth of U.S.-Australian cooperation on diplomacy, defense and intelligence matters, compared with severe distrust between Washington and Moscow.

Mark Fitzpatrick at the International Institute for Strategic Studies noted that WikiLeaks' mass publication of U.S. cables "already blew away the presumption that diplomatic conversations would be held in confidence. But this latest episode makes the problem worse."

The leaked calls were "not catastrophic," said Kathleen Hicks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. But if repeated, she said, such leaks could erode foreign leaders' trust in the U.S.

"If you need to talk about something highly sensitive, have an in-person conversation with minimal amount of folks in the room," said Anthony Clark Arend, professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University.

"Do not have a phone conversation with the president," he said.

The public appearance of such transcripts is extremely rare, though not unprecedented. A transcript of an April call between Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, in which the U.S. leader praised the Asian nation's deadly war on drugs, leaked a month later. Yet that was a Philippine document.

The U.S. leak could add to anxiety among U.S. allies already concerned about Trump's ambivalence about NATO and unusual embrace of authoritarian leaders in Russia and China. There also have been several intelligence leaks during his presidency.

In May, British Prime Minister Theresa May protested to Trump after U.S. officials leaked information about a deadly bombing in Manchester. Photos showing crime scene evidence appeared in U.S. media; the bombing suspect's name was revealed while British officials were still withholding it. Trump said May was "very angry" over the leaks.

Around that time, the president himself came under fire for reportedly disclosing classified material gathered by close ally Israel. Trump shared the information with Russian officials in an Oval Office meeting.

Georgetown's Arend said foreign governments are likely to compartmentalize how they share information with the U.S. They'll likely maintain confidence in U.S. intelligence and military chiefs, and top American diplomats, he said, but will be more reticent with the White House.

"There really is a fear that anything you would say to the president would get spun around or disclosed in a way one would not have expected," Arend said.

____

Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper contributed to this report.
Authorities are investigating an explosion at a mosque in suburban Minneapolis Saturday that damaged the imam's office as congregants were preparing for morning prayers.

The blast happened at around 5 a.m. at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. No injuries were reported.



Mohamed Omar, the center's executive director, told Fox 9 the congregation saw smoke billowing out of a broken window leading to the imam's office and called police.

"I was sad, and I was surprised," Omar told the station. "I was shocked. It was first prayer, it was 5 a.m. and the whole neighborhood was calm, people were supposed to be sleeping. That's how peaceful it should be."



Asad Zaman, director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, said at a news conference that a witness saw something being thrown at the imam's office window from a "van or truck" before the blast. Omar said a worshipper saw a pickup truck speeding away afterward.

There were 15 to 20 people inside the mosque when the blast happened. Worshippers managed to extinguish the blaze before firefighters arrived, the society said in a news release.



Omar said the mosque, which primarily serves people from the area's large Somali community, has received threatening phone calls and emails in the past.

The mosque serves as a religious center and community organizing platform for Muslim activists and leaders in the area, said the society, which is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction.

Trevin Miller, who lives across the street, told the Star Tribune that the explosion woke him up, saying that he felt it on his "insides."

Yasir Abdalrahman, a worshipper at the mosque, said the explosion was "unimaginable."

"We came to this country for the same reason everyone else came here: freedom to worship," Abdalrahman said. "And that freedom is under threat. Every other American should be insulted by this."

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are involved in the investigation.

Click for more from Fox9.com.
President Donald Trump has issued a defense of his national security adviser H.R. McMaster against criticism he's not supportive enough of Israel and is stifling conservative viewpoints.

Trump came out with a public endorsement late Friday. In a statement, Trump said: "General McMaster and I are working very well together. He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country."

McMaster, an Army lieutenant general, came under attack after the recent firing of White House intelligence adviser Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who was a protege of Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Critics have accused McMaster of trying to remove conservative voices from Trump's national security team.

McMaster was also the subject of a widely circulated Facebook post by a Jerusalem Post columnist that called him "deeply hostile to Israel."

Trump's statement of support comes after a turbulent period at the White House and a major reshuffling of top staff. New White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, is now seeking to impose order on a chaotic West Wing.

Cohen-Watnick's departure came as part of a string of shake-ups at the White House and National Security Council. McMaster had sought to remove Cohen-Watnick in March when CIA leaders raised concerns about him. But Cohen-Watnick appealed to Trump's top advisers, Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, who got Trump to intervene to save his job.

On Friday, Kushner also offered support for McMaster. Speaking to The New York Times, Kushner called McMaster "a true public servant and a tremendous asset."

Trump had recently pondered a different role for McMaster. In a recent Situation Room meeting, the president  who is frustrated by his options in Afghanistan  raised the idea of firing the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and replacing him with McMaster, according to officials with knowledge of the discussion.
Police say a gunbattle between Indian troops and Kashmiri rebels has killed three insurgents in the disputed Himalayan region and triggered a new round of anti-India protests and clashes.

Police Inspector-General Muneer Ahmed Khan says the fighting began after government forces raided a cluster of homes on a tip that rebels were hiding in northwestern Sopore area and came under fire from militants.

Khan says one police official was injured.

As the news of the killings spread, protests and clashes broke out in several parts of the region. Soldiers fired at rock-throwing protesters in Bandipora area and wounded at least three civilians.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both countries claim it in its entirety. Rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 against Indian rule.
British model Chloe Ayling spoke out for the first time Sunday about her kidnapping ordeal.

A 30-year-old Polish man lured the glamourous model to a fake photo shoot in Milan last month before drugging her and holding her so that she could be auctioned off online, investigators said.

Speaking from her London home Sunday, Ayling told The Sun: Ive been through a terrifying experience. Ive feared for my life, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour."

Lukasz Pawel Herba, who has British residency, was arrested July 18 and jailed for investigation of suspected kidnapping for extortion purposes.

Ayling said she was grateful to the Italian and British authorities for all of their assistance in securing her release.

Ayling said that during her kidnapping she was told that all girls are for the Arab market, and when the buyer gets fed up of a girl bought at auction, he can gift her to other people, and when of no interest anymore, feed her to tigers.

The woman had arrived in the city on July 10 and was supposed to do the photography session the next day. A photographer had booked the session through the model's agent, but as soon as Ayling stepped inside the Milan apartment for the appointment, she said she was attacked by two men.

A person with black gloves placed a hand over my mouth from behind while a second person wearing a balaclava gave me an injection in my right arm," said Ayling.

WOMAN GETS LIFE FOR ROLE IN KIDNAPPING OF ASSISTANT DA

I believe I lost consciousness because when I woke up, I was wearing just my pink undershirt made of chenille, and the socks I am now wearing, and I realized I was in the coffin of a car, my ankles and wrists in handcuffs, with a black tape covering my mouth, inside a bag where there was just a small hole in the zipper that allowed me to breathe," the model told The Sun.

Police suspect Herba advertised the "sale" of the woman online, while at the same time demanding ransom from the woman's agent of more than $300,000.

The suspect was arrested the day after he allegedly released the woman and dropped her off at the British consulate in Milan.

Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported the kidnapper let her go because he discovered she had a child and considered her unsuitable for the sex trade. But police spokesman Lorenzo Bucossi told reporters it was unclear why the woman was released.

Authorities said as far as they know, no ransom was paid. An investigation is being conducted in Poland and Britain as well as in Italy. Investigators are trying to determine if the suspect had accomplices and was mainly after ransom, or was trying to defraud someone who might have been willing to pay money online for the woman, police said.

They didn't identify the model's agent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Their fathers were allies in the struggle for Kenya's independence from British colonial rule, and then became adversaries. Now President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga are extending the family rivalry in a tightly contested election dogged by ethnic allegiances and personality politics.

The two men, who also faced off in a 2013 election marred by opposition allegations of vote-rigging, are vying for power in an East African economic hub that plays a key role in the Western-backed fight against neighboring Somalia's Islamic extremists. Ahead of Tuesday's vote, Kenya is a relatively open society and a top spot for wildlife-seeking tourists ("Karibu Kenya," or "Welcome to Kenya" in Swahili, is a common refrain).

Yet for many observers, the historical divisions embodied in the competition between the Kenyatta and Odinga dynasties and the ethnic groups they represent overshadow the promise of Kenyan democracy.

Unlike Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta wasn't a candidate in a flawed 2007 vote, but ethnic-fueled animosity erupted into post-electoral violence that killed more than 1,000 people and forced 600,000 from their homes in a blow to the country's image as a regional beacon of stability.

The two candidates held final campaign rallies Saturday amid worries that the upcoming vote could also be violent, though well over 100,000 security officers have deployed to voting centers. Some in the nation of 44 million people have left the capital, Nairobi, because of the threat of chaos, while many simply went home to vote.

In the past week, the country's two main polling organizations indicated a narrow race, with one saying Odinga was ahead by a percentage point and the other saying Kenyatta was ahead by three percentage points.

This could be the last big political push for both the 55-year-old Kenyatta, who by law cannot run for a third term if he wins next week, and Odinga, who at 72 has failed to win the top post in three previous tries dating to 1997. Their personalities overshadow the groups they lead, Kenyatta's Jubilee Party and Odinga's National Super Alliance.

Although Kenya has a diversified and sophisticated economy, "its politics now remain really in the grip of a few ethnic, oligarchic families that essentially practice 'machine' politics," said Murithi Mutiga, a Nairobi-based senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. He said the phenomenon creates a "very issue-free kind of politics" in which candidates rely on ethnic voting blocs and secure loyalty by bestowing on supporters the material perks of power.

Ethnic-based politics have been perpetuated in independent Kenya since the days of British rule, when colonists crafted ethnically homogenous districts as part of their "divide and rule tactics," Mutiga said.

Jomo Kenyatta, an ethnic Kikuyu and father of the current president, was a distinctive figure with his salt-and-pepper beard and fly whisk, a symbol of authority. He led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978. His first vice president was Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, an ethnic Luo who later fell out with Kenya's first leader. In 1969, the two men sparred verbally at a public event; presidential security guards opened fire on a hostile crowd, leaving at least 11 people dead and injuring hundreds.

Like their fathers, the younger Odinga and the junior Kenyatta also have allied politically from time to time before splitting for good.

The rivals grew up as family friends, Ruth Odinga, Raila's sister, said several years ago.

"There is no bad relationship between Uhuru and Raila as people put it; the two have a long history," she said in a Daily Nation interview. Raila used to carry Uhuru and her on his back in their childhood, she said.

Now, though, the pull of ethnic loyalty limits their political platforms in a country that nevertheless has a private media that is fairly independent, a judiciary that doesn't always agree with the state and a 2010 constitution that is considered to be among the most progressive in Africa. Kenyatta's tenure has been tainted by endemic graft  Kenya is ranked 145th out of 176 countries in Transparency International's index of the world's most corrupt countries.

"I want to be very clear here  a politics that's based solely on tribe and ethnicity is a politics that's doomed to tear a country apart," Barack Obama said as U.S. president during a 2015 visit to Kenya, the land where his father was from. "It is a failure  a failure of imagination."

___

Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/torchiachris
A search and rescue is under way Saturday for 3 Marines missing after an aircraft crashed while trying to land off the east coast of Australia, military officials said.

A US defense officer told Fox News that 23 of the 26 service members on board an MV-22 Osprey were recovered safely.

Ships, small boats and aircraft from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group were conducting the operations following the incident, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement.

The crash is under investigation.

The MV-22, assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor was in the area conducting scheduled operations when the aircraft entered the water, the statement continued. The aircraft, in addtion to four crew members, can hold up to 24 Marines when fully-loaded.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an airplane. They have been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.

Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said the incident occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay in Queensland state.

"I can confirm no Australian Defense Force personnel were on board the aircraft," Payne said. "The United States are leading the search and recovery effort."

Payne said she had spoken with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis "to offer Australia's support in any way that can be of assistance."

The Osprey aircraft were in Australia for a joint military training exercise held by the U.S. and Australian military last month in Shoalwater Bay. The Talisman Sabre exercise, a biennial event between the two nations, involved more than 30,000 troops and 200 military aircraft.

The crash comes just weeks after a Marine Corps cargo plane spiraled out of the sky and into the Mississippi Delta, killing 15 Marines and a Navy Corpsman.

About 70% of the Marine Corps fighter jets can't fly due to a shortage of spare parts, and reduced flights hours after years of budget cuts, officials say. U.S. military non-combat aviation crashes have totaled 12 in 2017, campared to 8 during the same period in 2016.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Turkish news agencies say the country has increased its military presence along its southern border against threats from Kurdish militants in war-torn northern Syria.

The official Anadolu news agency said Saturday that Turkey dispatched artillery to Kilis province to reinforce units there.

The six-vehicle convoy included tanks and howitzers to be positioned across Kurdish-controlled Syrian region of Afrin, according to the private Dogan news agency.

Turkey has been vehemently opposed to the presence of the People's Protection Units, or YPG, in northern Syria. The country considers the YPG, a key U.S. ally in fighting the Islamic State group in Syria, a terror group and an extension of Kurdish militants operating inside Turkey.

In late April, Turkey relocated military units to Sanliurfa province across from another YPG-controlled area.
DETROIT (R)

3.25 STARS

Decades ago, three black men were found dead in the Algiers motel in the midst of racially motivated rioting that destroyed much of the city of Detroit.

Using interviews with people who were there and a raft of documentary footage, this film is director Kathryn Bigelows take on what happened there: the young men getting gunned down by a trio of young, racist policemen.

Theres a note that appears at the end of the film that notes that no authority or agency has ever been able to establish exactly what happened there.

Using statements from individuals who were there, along with police and evidence at trials that followed the deaths, Bigelow creates a terrifying version of those deaths with this movie.

Things dont jump to that immediately in the film, as the director uses documentary footage and the introductions of various participants in the horrifying evening to set the stage.

Detroits burning, with the movie noting that both police and rioters have crossed lines that add to the mayhem.

All the action leads to the Algiers, where in this telling of the story police are drawn when an angry young black man fires a toy gun to scare police and members of the National Guard nearby.

This draws police to the house, including an angry and confused policeman named Krauss seen earlier in the film shooting an unarmed man stealing groceries from a market.

Soon enough, Krauss (Will Poulter) and two like-minded patrolmen have a string of black men and two white women with them lined up against the wall in the hotel.

For what feels like forever, the trio beat, insult, terrorize and eventually, do serious harm to several of the young men.

While much of this is supposition, and may or may not be a true retelling of the event, the extended scene is one of the more powerful youll ever see on the big screen. The fact that it would well have happened like this in the midst of a violent time makes it all the more gut-wrenching and terrifying.

The cast, which will surely be recognized at Oscar time, delivers performances that make the film even more powerful.

Poulter makes his deranged young policeman both hateful and confused, while Anthony Mackie and Algee Smith stand out as two of the young men terrorized.

John Boyega also is strong as a young security guard named Dismukes who sees whats happening and tries to defuse the situation.

While some will say that this is just another example of a filmmaker trying to paint white policemen as the enemy of the black community, it must be pointed out that the film shows good and bad in both the police and the black community in the midst of the riot.

And it also makes clear that Krauss and his compatriots were charged in the case and despised by detectives who found out what they had done.

The film follows the events of that fateful night through trials where the policemen are found not guilty.

Whether this is an accurate telling of history or just an overly dramatized account, this is a powerful drama that includes enough documentary footage to bring a focus to a troubling time in the countrys history. The inclusion of all that footage does extend the film a tad longer than it needs to be.

But if nothing else, Bigelow, who also directed The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, once again has people talking.

Rated R for strong violence and pervasive language. 143 min. Playing locally at Marquee Southpoint 9, Paragon Village 12 and Regal Fredericksburg
It may not be the worst World War II movie ever made, but Dunkirk is the worst I have ever seen.

I went to see it with great anticipation, with my father having been a veteran of the European theater. I have always liked WWII movies.

In fact, I have a DVD collection of everything from The Longest Day to Midway.

And, having studied World War II at great lengths, I attended Dunkirk with a solid background about what happened there.

Good thing, because I would never have learned much from the movie other than the fact that small private boats crossed the English Channel and helped evacuate many of the stranded and imperiled British soldiers from the French beaches in 1940.

Other than that, the viewer gets no background information about the overall situation or how the soldiers became stranded on the beaches. Someone who didnt know much about WW II would leave the theater asking, What was that all about?

But the most striking part of the whole movie is a fact that didnt occur to me until I left the theater. Dunkirk never tells its audience who the enemy is.

The fact that the British are fighting the Germans may be obvious to older generations, but there are college-educated Americans under 40 who are so historically challenged (ignorant) that they believe the United States gained its independence from France and that we fought the British in the Civil War.

Not one German soldier is shown and not one Nazi insignia appears anywhere in the movie. Only once are the Germans mentioned, during a scene where a Dutch boy is accused of being a spy.

How can you possibly make a movie about Dunkirk without showing Germans or Nazi insignia? The advancing German army was the reason the British soldiers were stranded there in the first place.

Is this political correctness, not mentioning Germans for fear of hurting the feelings of GermanAmericans?

A few months ago, I wrote a column about the removal of Confederate statues where I theorized that at some point we would probably stop teaching American children that Germany and Japan were the bad guys during World War II.

Have we reached that point? Do we now hesitate to mention Nazis for fear of offending GermanAmericans? We want to rewrite the history of the Civil War; do we now want to rewrite the history of World War II. Thats the take I got from this movie.

The night after I went to see Dunkirk the movie Patton with George C. Scott was on TV. Talk about a contrast! It was like night and day.

Without explaining what is going on to a younger generation that doesnt have a clue, Dunkirk fails miserably, at least in my book. It tried to interject two personal stories into this mishmash of rough seas and drawn-out fighter plane sequences, but they dont work.

In fact, the final aerial scene is so long and improbable that this viewer just wanted to shoot the plane down and go home.

There is one scene where an enemy plane is strafing soldiers on the beach and not one of those guys being shot at utters a word.

In real life, those soldiers would have jumped up after the plane passed, pumped their fists in the air and screamed, You bloody kraut!

Aw, but in this day of political correctness, you cant do that. Any such scene ends up on the cutting room floor.

I can understand the movie being bad. Some always are. But to not identify the Germans as the enemy? Thats pathetic.

If you like World War II movies, pass this one up. It is slow and politically correct.

But if you do go see it, you might want to spend a few hours refreshing your memory on Dunkirk because if you dont, youll never know what is going on.
A future trivia question and historical footnote, the spectacular 10-day flameout of Anthony Scaramucci qualifies as the most entertaining episode yet of the ongoing reality show that is the Trump presidency. (Working title: The Pompadours of 1600 Pennsylvania.) But even as the cocksure sycophants gobsmacking spectacle stole the show, something of real importance took place a bit lower on the radar.

At five separate junctures, the sinews of our democracy held against the careening recklessness of this presidency. Consequently, Donald Trumps worst week proved a particularly fine hour for American democracy:

(1) The military says no to Trump on the transgender ban.

Well, not directlythats insubordinationbut with rather elegant circumspection. The president tweeted out a total ban on transgender people serving in the military. It came practically out of nowhere. The military brass, not consulted, was not amused. Defense Secretary James Mattis, in the middle of a six-month review of the issue, was reportedly appalled.

What was done? Nothing. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs simply declared that a tweet is not an order. Until he receives a formal command and develops new guidelines, the tweet will be ignored.

In other words, the military told the commander in chief to go jump in a lake. Generally speaking, this is not a healthy state of affairs in a nation of civilian control. It does carry a whiff of insubordination. But under a president so uniquely impulsive and chronically irrational, a certain vigilance, even prickliness, on the part of the military is to be welcomed.

The brass framed their inaction as a matter of procedure. But the refusal carried with it a reminder of institutional prerogatives. In this case, the military offered resistance to mere whimsy. Next time, it could be resistance to unlawfulness.

(2) The Senate saves Sessions.

Trumps relentless public humiliation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions was clearly intended to get him to resign. He didnt, in part because of increasing support from Congress. Sessions former colleagues came out strongly in his defense and some openly criticized the presidents shabby treatment of his first and most fervent senatorial supporter.

Indeed, Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, warned Trump not to fire Sessions because he wouldnt get another attorney generalthe committees entire 2017 schedule was set and there would be no hearings to approve a new AG. That was a finger to the eye of the president. Every once in a while, the Senate seems to remember that it is a coequal branch.

(3) Senate Republicans reject the Obamacare repeal.

The causes here are multiple, most having nothing to do with Trump. Republicans are deeply divided on the proper role of government in health care. This division is compounded by the sea change in public opinion as, over seven years, Obamacare has become part of the fabric of American medicine, and health care has come to be seen as a right rather than a commodity.

Nonetheless, the stunning Senate rejection of repeal was also a pointed rejection of Trumps health care hectoring. And a show of senatorial disdain for Trump craving a personal legislative win on an issue about whose policy choices he knew nothing and cared less.

(4) The Boy Scouts protest.

In a rebuke not as earthshaking but still telling, the chief executive of the Boy Scouts found it necessary to apologize for the presidents speech last week to their quadrennial jamboree. It was a wildly inappropriate confection, at once whining, self-referential, partisan and political.

How do you blow a speech to Boy Scouts? No merit badge for the big guy.

(5) The police chiefs chide.

In an address to law enforcement officials, Trump gave a wink and a nod to cops roughing up suspects. Several police chiefs subsequently reprimanded Trump for encouraging police brutalitya mild form, perhaps, but brutality still.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was all a joke. Nonsense. It was an ugly sentiment, expressed coyly enough to be waved away as humor but with the thuggish undertone of a man who, heckled at a campaign rally, once said approvingly that in the old days guys like that would be carried out on a stretcher.

Whatever your substantive position on the various issues involved above, we should all be grateful that from the generals to the Scouts, from the senators to the cops, the institutions of both political and civil society are holding up well.

Trump is a systemic stress test. The results are good, thus far.

Charles Krauthammer writes for the Washington Post. His email address is letters@charleskrauthammer.com.
When James Comey became the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he was heralded as a friend to whistleblowers. Recent reports have echoed the same.

From our experience, nothing could be further from the truth. When my husband reported serious wrongdoing and discrimination within the FBI we were retaliated against, denied due process and ultimately fired in 2014. Since then we have been harassed and surveilled in our private lives.

The FBI, by its own admission, has hindered my husbands employment and intimidated potential lawyers, while our family languishes in poverty. Once an FBI agent even arrived at my husbands work without cause in a police vehicle. Where are the whistleblowers that Comey has helped or is that more fake news?

Comey and (special counsel Robert) Mueller have made no significant changes to address the corruption within the FBI administration or to support the many honest and hardworking people who are not content to deny justice by covering up illegal actions.

We reported a lack of due process and illegal actions to Comey. He never answered, never acknowledged, never investigated. But when my husband was illegally interrogated, it is mentioned. When allegations for dismissal were proven wrong, new invented allegations were added with no opportunity to respond. All that remains on the page is the charge of malicious allegations. Reporting the truth supported by facts seems malicious to those comfortable with corruption as usual.

I hope for the best in the new director Chris Wray. Corruption at the top of the FBI impedes justice from not only agents, analysts and other FBI employees but ultimately denies justice from all Americans.

V. Tweed

Stafford
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Bahai consultation is a collaborative, group problem-solving and decision-making model and is a primary reason why I became a Bahai.

Long ago, as a young Bahai, I had just landed a coveted professional job in Washington, D.C., which meant finding an apartment and a roommate. I found both, but the Maryland apartment that we could afford was in a dingy basement with no air conditioning and flimsily screened windows at eye level.

One night, shortly after moving in, someone broke in after easily removing one of those screens. After the culprit fled, I knew that this place was not safe for two single women, so I packed up and left. My roommate had not yet arrived and still owed me her portion of the security deposit. She, on the other hand, said I needed to pay half of her moving expenses, as we had agreed. We were each adamant and angry.

As we were both Bahais, we agreed to take our dispute to the local Bahai governing body, the nine-member Local Spiritual Assembly, and abide by its decision.

At its next meeting, the Assembly in our community consulted with the two of us together, then separately, and then without us  they asked us to leave so that they could discuss our situation frankly. This group of men and women had welcomed us earlier in a respectful, loving, nonjudgmental manner, and set the meetings tone with a prayer. Their task was finding the spiritual principle involved in our dispute and arriving at justice.

The would-be roommate and I waited in icy silence. Eventually the Assembly called us back in and said that their decision was that neither of us owed the other anything materially, and that we should try to be cordial and move on. Both of us felt slighted, but we had agreed to honor the decision, and we did.

Differing opinions are a necessary part of the process. In fact, the Bahai Writings state that the shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions. The aim is to arrive at the truth, and not to rant, opine, criticize, or obstruct. Key to this process is that the participants exhibit love and respect for each other. In fact, love and fellowship is a prerequisite for all consultation.

In the usual consensus model, a group must typically choose between agreement and truth and people in opposition reluctantly cave in to the majority. In Bahai consultation, silent assent is not an option; minority views are actively sought. Say a group in the United States consulting about an issue comprises five whites, one Native person, and one African-American. According to Bahai law, the five in the majority must carefully listen to, honor, and even defer to the Native and African-American viewpoints. And then all those present agree that supporting a decision, even when some disagree, results in the best outcome. If the decision is a wrong one, that unanimous support brings the flaws to light far more quickly than if opponents form coalitions to undermine the group decision. Support for a poor option makes it clear much faster that a fresh decision is needed.

Since that early experience, I have myself served on local Bahai assemblies in several states, participating in consultation on everything from which refreshments to serve at a holy day observance, to maintenance plans for a center, to property division in divorces. On every occasion, we all welcome the clash of differing opinions, knowing that this clash will indeed produce the spark of truth.
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.
Spy Agency Used 'Psychological Warfare' to Help Disgraced South Korea President

Sputnik News

14:40 04.08.2017(updated 14:42 04.08.2017)

South Korea's spy agency has admitted it conducted a behind-the-scenes campaign which helped Park Geun-hye win the 2012 presidential election. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) used psychological warfare techniques to boost support for Park, who was ousted earlier this year after becoming embroiled in a corruption scandal.

In 2012, she gained 15.7 million votes, beating her liberal rival, who was backed by 14.7 million people.

Moon won most votes in the capital, Seoul, and in the traditionally liberal Jeolla region, in the south-west, but Park won the rest of the country and got huge support in the conservative Gyeongsang region, in the south-east.

In May, Moon was finally elected president.

The NIS, which was founded as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) and has close links with the CIA in the United States, has a history of supporting right-wing candidates in Korea.

In the fall of 2012 Park's predecessor, the NIS, under the conservative President Lee Myung-bak, apparently threw its support behind efforts to get Park elected.

Park is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, a military dictator who became President in the 1960s and helped kick off South Korea's phenomenal economic success.

He was assassinated by the then head of the KCIA in 1979, but remains the most popular president in the history of South Korea.

His daughter is currently on trial for corruption and abuse of power stemming from her close relationship with Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of Choi Tae-min, a pseudo-Christian leader who set up a cult called The Church of Eternal Life and claimed he had been visited by the soul of Park's mother, who was murdered by a North Korean agent in 1974.

Several Korean conglomerates, or chaebol, allegedly donated money to the Church of Eternal Life or other causes supported by Choi Soon-sil as a favor to President Park.

Park finally resigned and left the Blue House in March, after months of protests.

The NIS has been under investigation by the Korean police and its former chief, Won Sei-hoon, is on trial on multiple charges of election fraud.

The NIS, in a bid to head off Moon's reforms, launched its own in-house investigation and released a report on the last day of Won's trial.

The report says it has discovered dozens of agents in its cyberwarfare unit had posted bogus messages of support for Park and criticism of Moon on social media and news websites during the 2012 campaign.

"The teams were charged with spreading pro-government opinions and suppressing anti-government views, branding them as attempts by pro-North Korean forces to disrupt state affairs," said an NIS internal report.

Park's Liberty Korea party has claimed the NIS inquiry is politically motivated.

"The NIS says it will dissociate itself from politics but it is meddling in politics again by starting this probe," said Liberty Korea spokesman Kang Hyo-sang.

Won, who could go to prison for up to four years if found guilty, allegedly urged senior NIS officials to intervene in the election, telling the battle was on a par with the cyber war with North Korea.

"Our psychological warfare against North Korea is important, but our psychological warfare against the South Korean public is pretty important, too," Won allegedly said during a meeting in April 2012.

Moon has pledged to reform the NIS to prevent it influencing future elections.

But the agency has been reformed twice already.

In 1979 the KCIA was renamed the Agency For National Security Planning and lost much of its power, following the assassination of Park Chung-hee.

Then, in 1999 it was reformed again in an effort to remove ultra-conservative elements and was renamed the NIS by President Kim Dae-jung.

 Sputnik

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Top US Intelligence Officials Wary as Ever of Russia

By Jeff Seldin August 04, 2017

Top U.S. intelligence officials are refusing to back down over concerns about Russia, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian officials lament what they describe as deteriorating relations between the two countries.

"Our values and our interests are not aligned naturally," Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a small group of reporters this week.

"Russia desires to be the center of influence in the European theater," Stewart said. "There will be a perpetual contest between us and the Russian state for either regional or global dominance."

Stewart, who spoke before the latest public sparring between Trump and Congress over Washington's approach to Russia, also warned of Moscow's ability to interfere and shape the playing field.

"They've got their heads wrapped around the idea that 21st-century warfare is as much cognitive as it is kinetic," Stewart said.

This is not the first time Stewart, who has led the DIA since July 2015, has warned about Russia's intentions.

In the DIA's "Russia Military Power" report, released in late June, Stewart cautioned that Russia "is manipulating the global information environment" and was especially successful in Crimea and in Syria at "shaping the information environment to suit its interests."

Despite such warnings from Stewart and other high-ranking intelligence officials, Trump has pushed for improving ties with Russia.

This past week, the president signed legislation authorizing new, tough sanctions against Russia but took to Twitter, warning of the consequences.

"Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low," President Trump tweeted, adding, "You can thank Congress."

Trump has also dismissed concerns about multiple investigations into allegations of possible collusion between his presidential campaign and the Russians, telling a rally in West Virginia on Thursday, "The Russia story is a total fabrication."

Russian officials have been quick to echo Trump's sentiments.

"We fully share this opinion," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Friday, when asked about ties between the U.S. and Russia being at a "very dangerous low."

A tweet from Russia's embassy in South Africa said the U.S. was using "primitive Cold War era cliches."

Those themes were also picked up and disseminated by Russian disinformation networks on Twitter, according to a new online dashboard from the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Hashtags with "trumprally" and "westvirginia" were used with heavy or increased frequency during the course of Thursday and Friday based on the dashboard's look at about 600 Twitter accounts with links to Russia's propaganda efforts.

In addition to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency director, other top U.S. intelligence officials have warned about Russia's influence activities.

"They're trying to undermine Western democracy," Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Aspen Security Forum late last month, admitting Russia's influence efforts are "quite a bit more sophisticated than they used to be."

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who like Coats was nominated by Trump, told the same forum there was no doubt in his mind Russia would continue efforts to meddle in U.S. elections.

"They have been at this a hell of a long time," Pompeo said. "And I don't think they have any intention of backing off."

Still, Pompeo refused to rule out working with Russia in areas where Moscow and Washington could find common ground, such as counterterrorism.

He said that "if Russia has information that can help us fight the CT [counterterror] fight around the world, it's my duty" to work with them and "the right thing to do."

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Trump Administration Cracks Down on Leakers

By VOA News August 04, 2017

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters Friday that he has tripled the number of "active leak" investigations over the tally during the Obama administration, in an effort to stem the tide of classified information being released to the media by people in the Trump administration, intelligence community and other government entities.

Sessions said he and President Donald Trump "condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country."

He added, "No one is entitled to surreptitiously fight their battles in the media by revealing sensitive government information."

Friday's news briefing came a day after transcripts were released of the president's telephone conversations with foreign leaders in his first few days of the Trump administration.

In those conversations, the president cajoles Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto not to refuse publicly to pay for the wall Trump wants to build along the U.S. border with Mexico. He also has a heated argument with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on refugees, complaining that the situation is going to make him look bad.

'Major' security threat

Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence, described the leaks as "some of the worst compromises of classified information in our nation's history."

"These disclosures have resulted in a major threat to our national security," he warned.

Friday's news briefing came a day after transcripts were released of the president's telephone conversations with foreign leaders in his first few days of the Trump administration.

In those conversations, the president cajoles Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto not to refuse publicly to pay for the wall Trump wants to build along the U.S. border with Mexico. He also has a heated argument with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on refugees, complaining that the situation is going to make him look bad.

'Major' security threat

Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence, described the leaks as "some of the worst compromises of classified information in our nation's history."

"These disclosures have resulted in a major threat to our national security," he warned.

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Government of Nigeria - A-29 Super Tucano Aircraft, Weapons, and Associated Support

Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov

Transmittal No: 16-55

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2017 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Nigeria of twelve (12) A-29 Super Tucano aircraft and weapons, including all associated training, spare parts, aviation and ground support equipment, and hangar, facilities, and infrastructure required to support the program. The estimated total case value is $593 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on August 2, 2017.

These aircraft will support Nigerian military operations against terrorist organizations Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa, and Nigerian efforts to counter illicit trafficking in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea. The Super Tucano is a sustainable platform for counterterrorism, counter-insurgency, border surveillance, and illicit trade interdiction operations. Nigeria is an important partner in the U.S. national security goal to defeat ISIS, including its branches in Africa, and this sale is part of the U.S. commitment to help Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin countries in that fight. The proposed sale, and associated training and engagement, is one piece of broader U.S. security cooperation to help professionalize, modernize, and build the capacity of Nigeria's armed forces and strengthen the U.S. security relationship with Africa's largest democracy. Nigeria will have no difficulty absorbing these aircraft into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support does not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The prime contractor is the Sierra Nevada Corporation, headquartered in Centennial, Colorado. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will require the assignment of U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Nigeria for mobile training teams and contract logistic support. The case will include special training on the law of armed conflict and human rights, and air-to-ground integration to minimize civilian harm in air operations.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov.

-30-



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In South Sudan, UN peacekeeping chief pledges support to displaced civilians in Malakal

3 August 2017  Having witnessed first-hand various security challenges and humanitarian efforts in South Sudan, the United Nations peacekeeping chief has wrapped up his three-day mission to the country, which included a visit to the UN Protection of Civilians site in Malakal, where he expressed the Organization's resolve to support the return to stability.

"We are determined to continue doing our best to help the population," said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations said after visiting Malakal.

Continued civil conflict has plagued South Sudan, since December 2013. A brokered peace deal signed in August 2015 has not completely taken hold, causing hundreds of thousands to flee amidst burgeoning humanitarian challenges.

Mr. Lacroix visited the UN Protection of Civilians (PoC) site in Malakal, where 30,000 people struggle to survive. Since its formation, the internally displaced persons (IDPs) site has offered refuge to countless South Sudanese escaping conflict around their homes.

Troops on the ground briefed him on various security concerns, obstacles and humanitarian efforts underway to assist the local population.

"My visit to Malakal was quite informative on the efforts that are being made to support the population there  the IDPs  but also the population as a whole, irrespective of their affiliation," he maintained.

Through a translator, one IDP living there since December 2013 said, "in this camp we are secure," adding "but still we need more security and peace in this country."

Accompanied by Special Representative of the Secretary-General David Shearer, Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the UN peacekeeping chief spoke with local authorities, as well as the UNMISS team and representatives of UN agencies, both on the humanitarian and development sides.

"We had a good meeting with local authorities in Malakal and we agreed that we should continue to work together and increase our cooperation in order to help the return of stability and also generate better opportunities for the population there," elaborated Mr. Lacroix.

During the meeting, Peter Col Wal, speaker of the Upper Nile state assembly, urged UNMISS to support peace activities in his state.

Briefing the press in Juba

Today in the capital, Juba, after wrapping up his three-day visit to the country, Mr. Lacroix reiterated, at his final press conference, the importance of the initiative led by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) aimed to revitalize the peace agreement.

"Clearly it is a very important and positive thing that the countries in the region are being more engaged in helping South Sudan return to peace," he said. "The UN has welcomed and supported this new engagement by the IGAD and looks forward to that process moving forward."

He noted that the UN would continue to closely follow the national dialogue process to ensure that it is conducted in an inclusive and transparent manner, saying that it "can be a helpful instrument in bringing together stakeholders and helping them resolve their differences especially at the local level."

The peacekeeping chief also called on all parties to stop fighting and to make all efforts towards a cessation of hostilities.

Finally, Mr. Lacroix expressed concern about the dire humanitarian situation and reiterated that the UN is working impartially to help everyone in South Sudan, irrespective of ethnic and religious affiliation.

"The UN is acting impartially in helping everyone in South Sudan, irrespective of their ethnic or religious or any other affiliations. I really appreciate that this impartiality was recognized by the leadership during my meetings with them. So we are determined to continue doing our best to help the population," he said.

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Trump Rallies Supporters Hours After Report of Grand Jury in Russia Probe

By Steve Herman August 03, 2017

President Donald Trump, in a defiant speech at a West Virginia rally Thursday night, called stories about his campaign's alleged ties to Russia "a total fabrication" that makes his political opponents feel better about themselves after their loss of last year's election.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has seated a grand jury, The Wall Street Journal reported hours earlier, significantly stepping up his probe into Russian interference in the election.

"They're trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story," Trump said to cheers in Huntington. "That is demeaning to all of us."

Trump said of the investigations by the special counsel: "I just hope the final determination is a truly honest one."

The president added that what "the prosecutors should be looking at are Hillary Clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails."

Clinton, the Democratic nominee, won the popular vote, but Republican Trump prevailed in the presidential election by capturing enough electoral votes.

Seriousness of issue

The president's remarks came as analysts and political commentators emphasized the seriousness of the special counsel putting in place a grand jury in the nation's capital.

"If, in fact, Mueller has impaneled a grand jury, it likely signals that he has significant evidence that would point in the direction of a crime having been committed," Professor Anthony Clark Arend, who is the senior associate dean of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, told VOA.

Reuters news agency reports the grand jury has already issued subpoenas in connection with the June 2016 meeting involving a Russian lawyer and others held with the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., and other top campaign officials. Some have asserted the meeting indicates possible collusion between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign.

Reports indicate the younger Trump jumped at the idea of a meeting when the lawyer told him, through an intermediary, that she had incriminating evidence against Clinton.

Trump has cast doubt on whether the Russians tried to interfere in the election, despite intelligence reports that the Kremlin sought to manipulate the election in the Republican nominee's favor.

Russia has denied any meddling and Trump has consistently denied any collusion. He has called Mueller's probe "a witch hunt" and there has recently been speculation in Washington the president may try to fire the special counsel.

White House response

The president's special counsel, Ty Cobb, in a statement released by the White House on Thursday, said he is unaware of a grand jury probe, but "the White House favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly ... the White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mr. Mueller."

Now that a grand jury has reportedly been seated, it could seek to subpoena Trump family financial records. The president has warned Mueller to stay away from his finances.

CNN reported Thursday that Mueller's probe had crossed that red line, expanding to examine "possible financial crimes, some unconnected to the 2016 election."

The president did not respond, as he walked from the Marine One helicopter to the South Portico late Thursday, when VOA asked him, "Did Mueller cross the red line?"

Mueller, a former FBI director took over the Russia probe after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May when Comey apparently refused the president's request to back down from the investigation.

Bill to protect special counsel

Two U.S. senators on Thursday introduced a bill to make it difficult to fire a special counsel.

The proposal, by Democrat Chris Coons and Republican Thom Tillis, would prohibit a president from firing the investigator except for misconduct, conflict of interest, severe illness or another good cause.

A three-judge panel would determine if the firing was justified.

The law is apparently an effort to protect Mueller from any attempt by Trump to remove him. Some analysts had said that if the president wanted to fire Mueller, the proposed legislation might have prompted him to do it before the Senate had a chance to vote on the new law.

Pro forma sessions

The Senate, which began its August recess Thursday evening, blocked Trump from making any appointments during the summer break by agreeing to a series of pro forma sessions  brief meetings that technically keep the Senate in session. Lawmakers are due back in Washington in early September.

Senators took the action after Trump's recent criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions sparked speculation that he might fire Sessions during the summer recess.

Trump sent several tweets last week lambasting his attorney general, who had recused himself from the ongoing Russia investigation. The president, who cannot fire the special counsel himself, could have then appointed a replacement who could then have fired Mueller.

Pro forma sessions have been used for decades to block recess action, including last year when the Senate used the brief meetings to prevent former President Barack Obama from filling a vacant seat on the Supreme Court.

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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, Aug. 4, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 21 strikes consisting of 26 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 16 strikes consisting of 19 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed five oil stills, two vehicles, and an improvised-bomb facility.

-- Near Shadaddi, a strike destroyed an ISIS weapon cache.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed a ISIS financial headquarters.

-- Near Raqqa, 11 strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units and destroyed six fighting positions, a mortar system, a vehicle, a vehicle-borne bomb and a supply route.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of seven engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Kirkuk, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit.

-- Near Kisik, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a command-and-control node, a vehicle, an artillery system and a recoilless rifle.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes destroyed three ISIS fighting positions, an improvised-bomb facility and a weapons cache.

Other Recent Strikes

Officials also provided details today on 40 other recent strikes consisting of 48 engagements for which the information was unavailable in time to be included in previous reports.

-- On Aug. 1 near Raqqa, 17 strikes engaged 13 ISIS tactical units, destroyed two staging areas and an ISIS headquarters, and damaged a vehicle-borne-bomb factory.

-- On Aug. 2 near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed an ISIS improvised-bomb factory and two oil stills.

-- On Aug. 2 near Raqqa, 20 strikes engaged 11 ISIS tactical units and destroyed six fighting positions, two supply caches, a tactical vehicle, a tunnel, a vehicle-borne-bomb factory and a command-and-control node.

-- On Aug. 2 near Kisik, a strike illuminated an area.

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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Pentagon Provides Updates on Support for Operations in Yemen, Somalia

By Cheryl Pellerin DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2017  Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis updated the press here today on U.S. operations with local partners in Yemen against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and in Somalia against al-Shabab.

In Yemen's Shabwah Governorate yesterday, according to the United Arab Emirates' Ambassador to the United States, Yemeni government armed forces launched a major operation against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula with support from UAE and U.S. forces.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula

Today, Davis said, a small number of U.S. forces "are supporting our regional counterterrorism partners in ongoing operations in Yemen against [al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula] to degrade the group's ability to coordinate external terrorist operations and to use Yemen territory as a safe place for terror plotting."

Shabwah Governorate has a heavy al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula presence, he added.

U.S. support in this part of Yemen is a continuation of what U.S. forces have been doing there since Jan. 29, when a raid by U.S. forces killed an estimated 14 al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula terrorists.

According to a U.S. Central Command news release at the time, "the raid is one in a series of aggressive moves against terrorist planners in Yemen and worldwide," and that similar operations have produced intelligence on al-Qaida logistics, recruiting and financing efforts.

U.S. support to the Yemeni people enhances stabilization efforts in the region, he added, noting that eliminating the influence of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the region "will significantly degrade extremist activity in the area and set conditions for stabilization efforts in Yemen."

Davis said U.S. forces continue to conduct air strikes in Yemen against terrorist targets.

"Since Feb. 28 we've conducted more than 80 strikes against [al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula] militants, infrastructure, fighting positions and equipment, and this is based upon the authorities granted in the operation that began" with the January raid, he said.

Al-Shabab in Somalia

On July 30, U.S. forces took part in a raid near Tortoroow in southern Somalia that targeted a senior member of al-Shabab.

"We can now confirm," Davis said, "that the strike killed one of al-Shabab's senior leaders, Ali Mohammed Hussein, also known as Ali Jabal."

The senior al-Shabab terrorist was one of the organization's leaders, he added, responsible for leading al-Shabab forces operating in the Mogadishu and Banadir regions, and planning and executing attacks against the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Hussein used the Lower Shabelle region, a known al-Shabab safe haven, as a hub for these activities, Davis said, adding that his removal disrupts al-Shabab's ability to plan and conduct attacks in Mogadishu and to coordinate efforts among al-Shabab regional commanders.

"We continue to work there in Somalia in coordination with our partners with the Somali Defense Forces and other allies," he said, "to systematically dismantle al-Shabab and to help achieve and bring stability and security throughout the region."

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'In order to win the fight:' Army tests new communications gear for speed, efficiency

By Mr. Michael M Novogradac (Hood) August 4, 2017

McGREGOR BASE CAMP, N.M. -- During the Network Integration Evaluation 17.2 exercise here, July 11 - 30, Soldiers tested smaller, lighter communications gear that could be easily moved from one battlefield location to another by sling loaded CH-47 helicopter. If fielded, this gear would increase the speed and efficiency of Soldier operations in the field.

The Soldier-led NIE 17.2 exercise, which is the test bed for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2, involved over 2,000 Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

The light brigade is integrating the rapidly progressing Army battlefield communications network, testing its functions and air transportability.

"Air transportability translates to mission success," said Lt. Col. Richard E. Michael, senior test officer for WIN-T Increment 2 at the U.S. Army Operational Test Command's Mission Command Test Directorate.

Michael explained how the larger Tactical Communications Node (TCN) and Network Operations and Security Center (NOSC) are already fielded in heavy versions on five-ton Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), which are big and heavy 8-wheeled vehicles -- difficult to drive through small towns, unable to be sling-loaded by helicopter, and needing some disassembly for C-17 air transport.

He said the lighter WIN-T Increment 2 TCN-Lite and NOSC-Lite versions mount to a Humvee, which can be easily sling-loaded by helicopter for rapid mobility when a unit jumps locations on the battlefield.

"Light combat brigades need the ability to transport everything they own via helicopter, so they can perform fast insertion, and fast extraction," said Michael. "When they need to, they have to move and have their mission go now."

Operational testing of new equipment always involves real Soldiers, fighting against a real and capable opposing force.

"The battleground should never be the testing ground," said Michael. "We have to prove the reliability, suitability and effectiveness of every system we test -- including this backbone of communications -- before it gets into the hands of Soldiers.

"WIN-T Increment 2 is not supposed to create a burden to them for mission execution, so the operational test puts them in an operationally realistic environment," he continued.

"Our military leaders at the highest levels are discussing this very piece of equipment that the 101st is out here testing," he said. "And the 101st has done a superb job."

To that end, Army leaders need to see data that either supports or does not support systems under test. The data comes in many forms, like Soldier interviews on what works and what does not; direct observation of Soldiers working with any new system; and instrumented data that is reduced to the "ones and zeros" digits needed to prepare a test report.

One test unit Soldier -- a network operations transmission NCO for 12 years with three deployments to Afghanistan under his belt -- said he was interviewed by generals and other distinguished visitors during NIE 17.2.

"A good amount of them have asked me what I wanted to change," said Staff Sgt. Shaun M. Lavigne of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 39th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

"I felt like they took what I said to heart. If changes are made, this will be a fantastic system for Soldiers that didn't get the chance to test it, but will get it in a few generations and will be able to use it."

Lavigne said his NIE 17.2 experience was eye-opening.

"I wasn't prepared for the NIE testing. I'm used to field environments," he said, "but not the amount of tasks that we had to complete to make sure this equipment was tested.

"We had to do certain tasks every day to make sure the new equipment was tested correctly," he continued. "Not just day-to-day operations. We had to make sure it was stressed out more than it would normally be."

During NIE, Lavigne's equipment was air-lifted by a CH-47 helicopter.

"The equipment -- other than it being smaller and taking up less space -- there's not a lot of difference with the setup and tear down," he explained. "The procedures are basically the same, but the equipment is a lot more maneuverable than the previous equipment, and we didn't have to worry about trying to find a big enough spot in order to set it up again, so it made it faster to get our site set up."

The communications NCO also said being in the New Mexico desert didn't affect him, and he was glad to be part of an operational test.

"The Army is keeping up with the communications we need to have in order to win the fight," he said. "That's what I see here -- we're trying to find new ways of having constant communication in order to communicate across the battlefield, and that's the way we need to go."

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Georgia National Guard Engineers train half a world away

By Capt. William Carraway August 4, 2017

VAZIANI, Georgia -- Less than one year ago, Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the Swainsboro-based 810th Engineer Company (Sapper) were conducting debris clearance operations in the coastal counties of the State of Georgia in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. Now, those same engineers are half a world away supporting the armed forces of the Country of Georgia with combat engineer training as part of Exercise Noble Partner 17.

"We will be at this location for several days conducting blank and live fire," said Capt. Christopher Butler, commander of the 810th. "Our training will progress into (demolitions)."

For nearly 10 days, the combat engineers will live in tents pitched on the dry grassy side of a mountain in a remote rocky section of the Vaziani Training Area. During that time, the engineers will train with a company of Engineers from the Georgian Armed Forces on tasks such as range operations, obstacle emplacement and removal.

Noble Partner 2017 is the third iteration of Noble Partner. The exercise will be held in Vaziani and Camp Norio training areas in Georgia for the first two weeks of August. The purpose of the exercise is to support Georgia's training of a second light infantry company contribution to the NATO Response Force.

For many Soldiers, like Sgt. Maurice Taylor of Waycross and Pfc. Jalin Anderson of Augusta. this is their first experience as part of an overseas mission.

"It has been a lot of good training," said Taylor. Anderson agreed, citing the opportunity to travel and experience new cultures while training in a new environment.

Brigadier General Tom Blackstock, commander of the 78th Troop Command, visited the combat engineers at Vaziani as they began construction of a small arms range. A sapper himself, Blackstock shared memories of past mobilizations and exercises as commander of the 265th Engineer Group and 648th Engineer Battalion (Sapper).

Blackstock also recognized two Soldiers with challenge coins for excellent service. Cpl. Andrew Fergine and Sgt. Caleb Taylor were recommended by Capt. Butler for their contributions to the unit.

"Sgt. Andrew Fergine was on the advanced party," said Butler. "He was a game changer."

Butler noted that Taylor was an outstanding NCO who had gone above and beyond expectations.

In addition to the engineers of the 810th, Georgia Army National Guard members of the Marietta-based Company H, 121st Infantry (Long Range Surveillance) and 165th Quartermaster are participating in Noble Partner 2017 along with aviators and crews of the Savannah-based 165th Airlift Wing, Georgia Air National Guard. They are part of a multinational involvement that includes units from U.S. Army Europe as well as service members and equipment from Germany, Armenia, United Kingdom, Turkey and Slovenia. Nearly 3,000 Soldiers will contribute to the exercise.

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100 years ago: Entire National Guard drafted for World War I

By National Guard Bureau Historical Services August 4, 2017

ARLINGTON, Va. -- On this date 100 years ago, August 5, 1917, the entire National Guard was drafted into U.S. Army service for World War I. This represented the culmination of several steps declared by President Woodrow Wilson that would mobilize the National Guard into the "Great War" and which sent troops into Europe for the first time.

This act stands among a series of laws and military decisions in the early 20th century that resulted in the transformation of the National Guard from a traditionally local military organization into professional military force. A little over a year earlier, the National Defense Act of 1916 introduced the modern integration of National Guard Soldiers as an element of the United States Army. It required that Guard members in federal service would serve in the U.S. Army uniform and train to federal standards, in addition to other measures designed to improve readiness and efficiency.

However, the 1916 Act did not authorize the transportation of federalized National Guard troops to a foreign country. The Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army ruled that the Guard could only be used domestically, owing to the Militia Clause of the U.S. Constitution that only allowed the National Guard in federal status to "execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrection and repel invasions." This phrase alone deemed necessary the draft action.

The mobilization order of June 18, 1916, that ordered the Guard to the Mexican border represented the second milestone among the changes in national defense strategy. It demonstrated the power of the National Guard as the country's principal reserve force for the U.S. Army to be mobilized in a declared national emergency. This gradual evolution of legal precedents allowed the Army ample opportunity to make corrective action and improve the deployment process. Heightened national security concerns earlier in 1917 allowed the National Guard's mobilization to move forward after the draft order of August 5.

The draft's impact was immediate. On June 30, 1917, the Regular Army consisted of 250,357 officers and enlisted men. By August 5, 1917, through means of incremental federalization of state National Guards and the draft order, 379,323 officers and enlisted men of the National Guard were drafted into the federal service.

With one pen's stroke, the Operations Department within the Office of the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army more than doubled the size of the Army. The National Guard's presence proved essential to raise the significantly larger fighting force, and it added the element of experience through its training completed in the four Southwest Border States during 1916-1917.

Legal considerations remained paramount in this time of war. Statutes and laws regulated the operations of the militia from its very beginning in colonial New England. Thus, the draft order only continued the tradition of commitment to rightful principles administered under these conditions.

On July 18, 1917, War Department General Order 95 established the first 16 National Guard divisions. A few weeks later after the draft order, the 42nd "Rainbow" Division mustered. From August 5th throughout the remainder of 1917, these units traveled to their respective training across the country to prepare for the voyage to Europe and the fight against the Central Powers.

The settlement of legal and administrative matters allowed the federal government to assemble and accelerate the development of a National Army, and federal priorities turned to the training and the assembly of a highly effective fighting force. The German Empire proved every bit a formidable opponent, but the presence of the National Guard and the cumulative services proved decisive for the Allies. After the war's combat phase ended on Nov. 11, 1918, the German High Command's appraisal of American combat divisions assessed that eight divisions' effectiveness earned ratings of "superior to excellent." Among those eight, six were National Guard divisions.

The Guard's highly effective success proved critical in the victory of Allied forces in their grueling months in the "War to End All Wars."

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Versatile JSTARS to be utilized during Camp Grayling's Northern Strike

By Staff Sgt. Brandon Ames August 4, 2017

GRAYLING , Mich -- "The very realistic training scenarios during Northern Strike 2017 have presented Team JSTARS with abundant opportunities to hone our wartime capabilities, while incorporating our joint and multinational partners," said Lt. Col. Kenneth Billings, mission crew commander with the 128th Airborne Command and Control Squadron, 116th Air Control Wing, Georgia Air National Guard.

For the last five years, the Michigan National Guard has hosted Northern Strike, a National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise uniting approximately 5,000 service members from 13 states and five coalition countries at Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center in Northern Michigan. This year, the exercise features one of the most advanced and versatile pieces of technology in the country in the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), an advanced ground surveillance and battle management system.

The E-8C Joint STARS is a modified Boeing 707, an aircraft that was originally manufactured in the 1960's. Internally, the aircraft is equipped with 22 radios, 7 data links, 2 internet's, secure telephone, all operated by 21 personnel. Team JSTARS, consisting of the Georgia Air National Guard 116th Air Control Wing, active duty 461st Air Control Wing, and Army JSTARS, provides simultaneous wide-area joint airborne command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support over land and water from a manned platform to combatant commanders around the globe.

The Total Force Integration and joint force unit operates the world's only Joint STARS weapon system based out of Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. Its role during Exercise Northern Strike 2017 is to provide battle management command and control as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data.

"The very realistic training scenarios during Northern Strike 2017 have presented Team JSTARS with abundant opportunities to hone our wartime capabilities, while incorporating our joint and multinational partners," said Lt. Col. Kenneth Billings, mission crew commander with the 128th Airborne Command and Control Squadron, 116th Air Control Wing, Georgia Air National Guard.

The newly accredited Northern Strike 2017 demonstrates the Michigan National Guard's ability to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for military units from all service branches to achieve and sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground maneuver integration, together with the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action environment.

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Chinese defense ministry demands immediate withdrawal of Indian troops

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 08:15, August 04, 2017

Chinese defense ministry has urged India to immediately pull back the trespassing troops to the Indian side of the boundary.

Ren Guoqiang, a spokesperson of the ministry, made the remarks in a statement released by the ministry's website late Thursday night.

Ren called on the Indian side to swiftly address the situation in a proper manner to restore peace and tranquility in the border region.

Since the incident occurred, China has shown utmost goodwill and sought to communicate with India through diplomatic channels to resolve the incident. Chinese armed forces have also shown a high level of restraint with an eye to the general bilateral relations and the regional peace and stability, said Ren.

However, goodwill has its principles and restraint has its bottom line, said Ren.

Ren urged the Indian side to give up the illusion of its delaying tactic, as no country should underestimate the Chinese forces' confidence and capability to safeguard peace and their resolve and willpower to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests.

Chinese armed forces will resolutely protect the country's territorial sovereignty and security interests, said Ren.

Indian border troops illegally crossed the border into Chinese territory on June 18, and obstructed China's road construction work on the Chinese side.

As of Thursday, there are still Indian border troops illegally staying in the Chinese territory.

On Wednesday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a document titled "The Facts and China's Position Concerning the Indian Border Troops' Crossing of the China-India Boundary in the Sikkim Sector into the Chinese Territory."

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UN investigation details DR Congo 'ethnic cleansing'

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 4:40PM

United Nations investigators have documented reports of "ethnic cleansing" and "extrajudicial or targeted killings" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Kasai region, prompting the UN to call for urgent action to stop spreading violence.

Based on accounts from people who fled from Kasai between mid-March to mid-June, there were 251 extrajudicial killings, including 62 children, UN human rights investigators warned on Friday.

"Between March and June of this year our team documented a large number of killings, two hundred and fifty one killings of individuals, a large number of them children, sixty two were children who were killed in the context of a crisis and attacks going out on an ethnic basis but with government complicity," UN investigators reported.

The UN investigators based their new report, included with photos of survivors with dismembered limbs and deep scars, on interviews with 96 people who had fled from Congo to neighboring Angola over the past three months.

The report provides a snapshot of the violence that erupted in the once-calm region a year ago.

The UN has estimated the existence of 80 mass graves there.

At least 1.3 million people have been internally displaced, and at least 40,000 have fled to Angola.

"The nature and the scope of what's taken place ... could constitute crimes against humanity under international law," according to Scott Campbell, chief of the UN human rights office in central and west Africa.

In a statement, the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein pointed to accounts of "the screams of people being burned alive" and others who were "cut down."

Hussein urged Congo's government to "act now to prevent such violence from tipping into wider ethnic cleansing."

His office also called on militia groups to lay down their weapons.

Violence in Kasai by the Kamwina Nsapu militia began last August with the killing of a regional tribal leader who had defied the government of President Joseph Kabila.

Access for UN investigators to the region has been difficult, and security concerns skyrocketed after the murder of two UN experts in Kasai earlier this year.

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Taliban attack kills foreign trooper in Afghanistan

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 8:22AM

Afghan Taliban militants have killed a foreign soldier and wounded six others in an attack on a NATO patrol north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, the military coalition has confirmed.

The incident occurred in Qarabagh district in Kabul Province at about 0800 pm local time (1630 GMT) on Thursday.

The NATO said in a statement that the wounded were being treated at a military hospital in the Bagram airfield and were in stable condition.

The nationality of the soldier killed, whose identity was not being released until family members could be notified, was not clear.

However, a US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the soldier killed appeared not to be American, citing initial reports, but provided no further details and said that information could change as more details came in.

The Associated Press had earlier cited Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, as claiming responsibility for the attack.

The attack came a day after Taliban killed two American troops as they were traveling in a convoy near the airport in the southern city of Kandahar.

Father of captain of all-girl robotics team killed

Meanwhile, the father of the captain of a team of Afghan schoolgirls who won global fame competing in a robotics competition in the United States has died of wounds suffered in an attack on a Shia mosque in Herat.

Mohammad Asif Qaderyan, the father of Captain Fatemah Qaderyan, had been wounded in a Tuesday blast in the western city of Herat and died later, said Farhad Jelani, the provincial governor's spokesman.

The attack was claimed by the Takifiri Daesh terrorist group, which is mainly active in Iraq and Syria.

The number of Daesh terrorist attacks in Afghanistan has recently increased following the group's huge battle losses in the Middle East.

Last year, two bombers blew explosive belts during a rally in Kabul, killing at least 80 Shias.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan was launched in 2001, and there are currently about 13,000 foreign soldiers from 39 countries on the ground in the Asian country.

The troops, who are mostly American, are part of a mission to train, advise, and assist Afghan soldiers during special operations.

US generals have described the Afghan conflict as a "stalemate" and have requested additional forces, while US President Donald Trump remains undecided on what to do.

"We are losing" in Afghanistan, Trump complained to top officials at a White House meeting last month.

Pentagon chief, Jim Mattis, told lawmakers back in June that he would present a detailed Afghanistan plan by mid-July, a deadline that came and went without a plan being offered.

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Russia ties most difficult since Cold War: NATO

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 4:21AM

NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says relations between the Western military alliance and Russia are experiencing their most difficult times since the Cold War.

"I think [it] is correct to say that NATO's relationship with Russia is more difficult than it has been any time since the end of the Cold War," Stoltenberg told CNN on Thursday, suggesting that the strain in relations had been due to Russia's "destabilization" of Ukraine.

Eastern Ukraine has been the site of a conflict since 2014, when the government in Kiev started a crackdown on pro-Russia protests in the country. That same year, the then-Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula voted in a referendum to separate from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Western countries have branded that unification as an "annexation" of the territory by Russia, and Ukraine soon confronted pro-Russia protests elsewhere, in its eastern Donbass region, with a heavy hand.

The crisis soon turned into an armed conflict. Western countries have blamed Russia, which denies any involvement.

Stoltenberg said, "At the end of the Cold War, we hoped to develop a close partnership with Russia. But especially after the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the continued Russian destabilization of eastern Ukraine, the relationship between NATO and Russia has deteriorated considerably."

The NATO secretary general's claim about trying to forge partnership with Russia came as the Western military bloc  originally founded to contain Russia following the Second World War  has been vexing Moscow all along by engaging in military activity near Russian borders. While such activity has increased since the Ukrainian conflict erupted, it was by no means been a feature of the recent past only.

NATO has also been attempting to co-opt countries near Russia, a move that together with the military activities is considered as a serious provocation by Moscow.

But Stoltenberg also claimed that NATO was committed to avoiding a further spike in tensions and was pursuing a twin-track approach of "defense deterrence and dialog."

"As long as we are strong, as long as we are predictable, we can also engage in political dialog with Russia to try to avoid escalation and avoid a new Cold War," he said.

Just on Wednesday, US Vice President Mike Pence suggested in a visit to Montenegro that Russia was seeking to take over territory from countries in Eastern Europe.

"As you all know, Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force and, here in the Western Balkans," Pence told a summit attended by leaders of NATO members Montenegro, Croatia, Albania, and Slovenia, as well as Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Kosovo.

A day later, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the US was practicing the "primitive ideology of the Cold War era" by making the defamatory statements against Russia.

The US and the former Soviet Union emerged as the world's only superpowers following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, and, up until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, they engaged in a geopolitical and military competition that came to be known as the Cold War.

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One of the twin cubs delivered by female panda Huan Huan is put into an incubator.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Only one cub survived and "is still doing well" after Chinese panda Huan Huan gave birth to twins on Friday night, according to ZooParc de Beauval, which is about 200 kilometers from Paris in central France.

"After these emotional moments, Huan Huan and her baby are still doing well," the zoo told China Daily via email on Saturday morning.

The zoo said the full-term male cub, the second born, weighs 142.4 grams. "The first born unfortunately died soon after his birth," the zoo said in its email.

Huan Huan, 9, became pregnant following artificial insemination. The cub and Huan Huan have been receiving intensive care from a team of experts at ZooParc de Beauval.

The zoo said the veterinary teams and French and Chinese caretakers are "totally dedicated to pandas," and a video of the birth will be visible on screens at ZooParc.

The zoo said the first born cub unfortunately died, despite all the care provided by its teams, who were helped by Chinese caretakers. Fortunately, Huan Huan is still very busy with her surviving cub.

"Huan Huan takes care of the second baby, licks it and takes it in her arms, but leaves out the first born, as is often the case in nature," the zoo said.

Zoo director Delphine Delord told China Daily in a previous interview that a team of 10 people, including French and two Chinese experts, were involved in the panda birth.

After delivery, Delord said her team prepared panda milk, which is brought from China, for the cub.

Delord said the cub is not named yet and traditionally, the name will be given by the Chinese.

The team will make a report to French first lady Brigitte Macron, who, according to Delord, will become the panda's "godmother".

"I feel very excited because it is Huan Huan"s first baby and the first panda baby birth in France. It is a very important birth," Delord said.

Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, also aged 9, arrived in France in 2012 but they failed to mate during the 2-3 days a year a female panda can conceive,

Delord said she felt proud that Huan Huan and Yuan Zi have already helped boost the relationship between China and France.

This year, China and Europe have intensified panda diplomacy. Two pandas arrived in the Netherlands in April and in Berlin in June, while agreements have been signed between China and Finland and Denmark, in April and May, respectively.

Apart from France, the Netherlands and Germany, pandas have settled down in Belgium, the UK, Austria and Spain.

Xiang Chen contributed to the story in Brussels
Mueller impanels grand jury in Russia investigation: Report

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 12:37AM

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller tasked with investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election has reportedly impaneled a grand jury.

The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday the jury started its work several weeks ago. According to the paper, the probe is intensifying and could stretch for months.

Mueller is also reportedly investigating financial records of President Donald Trump's associates.

The establishment of the grand jury will allow Mueller to subpoena officials and get sworn testimony which may lead to criminal indictments.

White House special counsel Ty Cobb claimed that he was unaware of the development.

"Grand jury matters are typically secret. The White House favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly," Cobb said in a statement. "The White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mr. Mueller."

The grand jury is located in Washington, DC. It follows a separate grand jury previously convened in Alexandria, Virginia, by federal prosecutors probing Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The White House has maintained its belief that Trump is not likely the subject of an investigation.

"Former FBI Director Jim Comey said three times the president is not under investigation and we have no reason to believe that has changed," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders when asked about the grand jury.

Meanwhile senators have introduced two bipartisan bills aimed at protecting Mueller from being fired by the president. The Special Counsel has recently come under pressure from Trump.

"Our bill allows judicial review of any decision to terminate a special counsel to make sure it's done for the reasons cited in the regulation rather than political motivation. I think this will serve the country well," Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement.

The US intelligence community has raised alarm about Russia's cyberattacks, describing them as a "major threat" to the US voting system, and continues to brief the president about the issue. Russia has rejected these claims as baseless.

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Trump Says Russia Didn't Help Him Win Election, As Probe Intensifies

RFE/RL August 04, 2017

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump said that Russia did not help him win the 2016 election, speaking as media reports said the Justice Department has convened a grand jury to investigate allegations of Russian efforts to influence the election.

"Most people know there were no Russians in our campaign. We didn't win because of Russia. We won because of you," Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters on a visit to the state of West Virginia late on August 3.

Trump, a Republican, accused Democrats of pushing what he asserted was a "hoax" and "totally made-up Russia story."

The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported that Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller impaneled a grand jury in Washington to investigate whether Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow

Trump said the idea that Russia helped him get elected is "demeaning to all of us and most of all demeaning to our country and demeaning to our constitution."

Trump and other White House officials said they hope the convening of a grand jury will speed up the conclusion of the Russia investigation, which has dogged his presidency since the outset.

"I just hope the final determination is a truly honest one, which is what the millions of people who gave us our big win in November deserve and what all Americans who want a better future want and deserve," Trump said.

The establishment of a grand jury likely will speed the investigation by allowing Mueller, a former FBI director, to subpoena documents and get sworn testimony. But it also could lead to criminal indictments.

Trump's lawyers asserted that the president himself has nothing to fear from the involvement of a grand jury, as there is no indication the president himself is under investigation.

"Former FBI Director Jim Comey said three times the president is not under investigation, and we have no reason to believe that has changed," said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

Reuters reported that the grand jury has issued subpoenas in connection with a June 2016 meeting between a group of Russians who had promised damaging information on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and Trump's son Donald Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Donald Trump Jr. was told before the meeting that the Russians had promised damaging information on Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

CNN, meanwhile, reported that the investigation was focusing on potential financial crimes.

A grand jury is empowered to determine whether criminal charges should be filed in a matter, and it operates in secrecy. It is made up of ordinary citizens.

It does not necessarily mean criminal charges are imminent or that they will ever be filed, experts say.

Ty Cobb, special counsel to Trump, said he wasn't aware that Mueller had started using a new grand jury.

"Grand jury matters are typically secret," Cobb said. "The White House favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly...The White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mr. Mueller."

Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department to investigate Russia's alleged interference into the 2016 election and any possible links with the Trump campaign or transition team. He is also investigating potential obstruction of justice.

Separate congressional panels are also investigating matters related to allegations that Russia interfered in the election.

Moscow has repeatedly denied it, despite substantial evidence.

With reporting by The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNN, AP, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-election-russia- probe-grand-jury/28657629.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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In New Russian Sanctions Law, A U.S. Warning Of Things To Come

Mike Eckel August 04, 2017

WASHINGTON -- Legislation signed into law this week by a reluctant U.S. President Donald Trump hits hard at Russia, cementing existing sanctions and adding on a few more for good measure to punish Moscow for its actions in Ukraine, Syria, and allegedly cyberspace.

Buried in the bill's dry legislative language, however, is arguably something more important: a road map, and a signal, for what might follow if Moscow doesn't change its behavior more toward Washington's liking.

"I think you could call this a threat," said Peter Harrell, who worked on Russia and Iran sanctions while at the State Department between 2012 and 2014.

One section focuses on Russian sovereign debt, which the Kremlin has used to stabilize strategically important companies since sanctions were first imposed by the United States and European Union in 2014, following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

The measure, which received overwhelming support in Congress calls on the Treasury and State Departments, along with intelligence officials, to analyze the "potential effects of expanding sanctions...to include sovereign debt and the full range of derivative products."

"This would be a significant escalation of economic pressure on Russia and would be a significant statement about the toughness of U.S. sanctions on Russia," Harrell told RFE/RL.

Though the measure only orders a report on the issue, Harrell said it signals that U.S. sanctions officials and congressional leaders might close off a Russian workaround to the 2014 sanctions.

Those sanctions cut off from the international credit markets several major companies either controlled by, or closely linked to, the Russian government.

The Kremlin was forced to bail out those companies to the tune of tens of billions of dollars since they were unable to roll over existing debt, Harrell said, and ended up drawing down some of its rainy-day investment funds.

But the U.S. and EU sanctions didn't prevent the Russian government from raising capital on its own. Last year, it sold around $3 billion in new Eurobonds.

"If the Russian sovereign government can keep borrowing on international markets, it kind of becomes a workaround for theses sanctions against the big Russian state-owned companies," Harrell said. "Because while Sberbank and Rosneft can't borrow on international markets, the Russian sovereign can, and then they can turn around and simply relend the money to Rosneft and Sberbank."

The Russian government holds a controlling stake in Rosneft, the country's largest oil company. Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, is also state controlled.

"Congress is signaling to the Russians and U.S. allies and the Trump administration that sovereign-debt sanctions may be coming down the pike," Harrell said.

Daniel Fried, a veteran diplomat who was the State Department's sanctions coordinator in 2014, said the law was smartly crafted because it hints at the direction Congress will go in the event of an escalation.

"For example, in response to the Russians giving us an August surprise, as they did in 2008," he said, pointing to Russia's invasion of Georgia that year.

Fried said the reports mandated by the new legislation will also help the administration and Congress focus on punitive measures that can actually be implemented without causing other problems.

"It does no good, and it is in fact a fool's game, to start bellowing and shouting and bragging and you're going to do this, that, and the other thing that you will actually never do because you haven't actually thought through the consequences," he said.

Another key section could pack a similar punch. It orders administration agencies to identify "the most significant senior foreign political figures and oligarchs in the Russian Federation, as determined by their closeness to the Russian regime and their net worth."

The report should also focus on "the estimated net worth and known sources of income of those individuals and their family members (including spouses, children, parents, and siblings), including assets, investments, other business interests, and relevant beneficial ownership information."

What this indicates, said Ilya Zaslavskiy, a Russian-born activist who has investigated Russian business tycoons and their investments and lobbying, is that U.S. officials have a more sophisticated read on how Russia's politics and business sectors are intertwined.

"It shows that now there is a much better understanding of what is going on in Russia," said Zaslavskiy, who is now affiliated with the U.S.-based Free Russia Foundation. "They understand that it's both political figures and oligarchs, that it's not only their network but their closeness to the regime that matters more."

Earlier sanctions targeted a small group of well-connected businessmen and oligarchs. That included Gennady Timchenko, who allegedly ran an oil-trading business holding exclusive exports contracts that netted billions over many years; Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, construction magnates who have built massive state-funded projects such as the Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea; and Yury Kovalchuk, whose Bank Rossia has lasting ties to Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg.

Expanding the sanctions to target relatives of individuals with close ties to the Kremlin or government power centers -- for example, keeping the daughter of a government minister from studying at a U.S. university -- would be a clear escalation, Fried said.

"That would be an escalation, but quite frankly, what do you expect?" he said. "[If] you buy into that sort of government, you enrich yourselves with that kind of government, you're asking for trouble."

In contrast to Congress's strong support for the sanctions, Trump's position has been lukewarm at best. In signing the bill into law on August 2, he called it flawed but said he was doing it "for the sake of national unity."

Trump's first seven months in office have been dogged by questions about interactions between Trump associates and Russian officials, along with the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Multiple investigations have been launched in Congress into alleged Russian meddling, and the Justice Department in May appointed former FBI chief Robert Mueller as special counsel to probe whether Moscow attempted to interfere in the U.S. voting and whether Trump associates colluded with Russians.

Trump has called accusations of improper ties to Russia a "hoax" aimed at undermining his presidency.

On the eve of the sanctions bill becoming law, Moscow ordered the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia to sharply cut its staffing.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-sanctions-law- us-warning-things-to-come/28659405.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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Yemeni gov deploys new military forces in oil-rich Shabwa province

Saudi Press Agency

Friday 1438/11/12 - 2017/08/04

Aden, Dhu-AlQa'dah 11, 1438, August 03, 2017, SPA -- The government of Yemen has deployed new military forces in oil-rich Shabwa province, south east Yemen, a step aiming at enhancing the naturalization of the situations in the liberated areas and restoration of stability, it was reported here today.

The Security Committee of Shabwa welcomed the deployment of the forces stationed in the coastal areas of Shabwa, regions of Weomefaa, Waazan, Al-Rowdah, and Haban and oil companies sites.

The committee urged for more cooperation among all security and military bodies in the service of security and protection of the public and private interests in the province.

--SPA

02:12 LOCAL TIME 23:12 GMT

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New F-16, Rocket Launcher Buy to Help Fill Romania's NATO Spending Commitments

Sputnik News

22:15 04.08.2017(updated 00:05 05.08.2017)

The government of Romania is taking concrete steps to reach its requirement to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense, a measure that helps equally distribute the financial burden of maintaining the alliance across NATO members, by announcing plans to acquire three dozen F-16 aircraft and transportable artillery rockets.

The beneficiaries of the new spending would be Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control and BAE Systems, which make the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and surprise, surprise, Lockheed Martin proper, which bought the right to manufacture F-16 Fighting Falcons from General Dynamics in 1993.

The purchase is "in the interest of safeguarding the security needs of Romania" and demonstrates Bucharest's "commitments in relation to NATO's structures," Defense Minister Adrian Tutuianu told local media outlets.

The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which relays information regarding foreign military sales and financing to Congress, has yet to notify lawmakers of the potential deal for F-16s and HIMARS rocket systems. Bucharest hopes the deal will be completed by 2022.

The Romanian Air Force bought 12 F-16s in 2013 for $457 million, according to Pentagon data.

In July, the DSCA announced that Romania had requested seven Patriot missile fire units and 168 PAC-3 missiles, along with related training and support, in a deal worth up to $3.9 billion. Lockheed and Massachusetts-headquartered Raytheon Corporation would be the primary contractors for the deal, which has yet to reach a conclusion.

 Sputnik

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US Military Supports Yemeni Troops Offensive Against al-Qaeda

Sputnik News

20:30 04.08.2017(updated 20:36 04.08.2017)

The US military is supporting Yemeni Troops in their operation against fighters from the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terror group (banned in Russia), US Department of Defense spokesperson Capt. Jeff Davis said in a briefing on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  United Arab Emirates media reported on Thursday that the US military is backing the Yemeni troops advance against AQAP in Shabwa.

"Our role in this includes ISR, close air support, airstrikes, aerial refueling and a small number of people on the ground facilitating the flow of information," Davis told reporters.

The spokesperson noted that since February 28, the United States conducted more than 80 strikes against AQAP targets in Yemen.

Yemen has been engulfed in military conflict between the government troops headed by Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi rebels, the country's main opposition force, who are backed by army units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The crisis has had the result of a rise in terror organizations in the country, with al-Qaeda being the most notorious.

 Sputnik

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New National Constituent Assembly Holds 1st Session in Venezuela

Sputnik News

20:08 04.08.2017(updated 21:03 04.08.2017)

The newly-elected National Constituent Assembly, which is expected to prepare changes to the constitution and the country's governance system, began work on Friday in Venezuelan capital, Caracas, according to Venezuela's state television.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik)  The newly-elected National Constituent Assembly, which is expected to prepare changes to the constitution and the country's governance system, began work on Friday in Venezuelan capital, Caracas, according to Venezuela's state television.

According to the real-time broadcast, the opening of the first session takes place in the building of the National Assembly. In the hands of the 545 members of the assembly are portraits of former president Hugo Chavez and Venezuelan national hero Simon Bolivar.

Thousands of government supporters gathered around the parliament building, welcoming the opening of the assembly. The opposition, which does not agree with its convocation, is expected to start soon a wide-spread protest action.

Venezuelan ex-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez was appointed the Constituent Assembly's president, whereas the state's former vice presidents Aristobulo Isturiz and Isaias Rodriguez were designated the first and the second vice presidents of the Assembly, respectively, according to Las Ultimas Noticias newspaper.

Earlier in the day, the Vatican called on the Venezuelan government to refrain from convening the Constituent Assembly as it was escalating the crisis in the Latin American country.

The Constituent Assembly was elected Sunday to rewrite the constitution of the country, which has been mired in deadly protests for four months. Venezuelan opposition, as well as the European Union and the United States, among other countries, refuse to recognize its legitimacy.

On Wednesday, the Smartmatic company which provided electronic voting technology for elections in Venezuela said that the results of last week's Constituent Assembly vote were manipulated. On Thursday, two prosecutors were appointed to investigate the allegations.

 Sputnik

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Free Movement of Troops: NATO 'Demands Military Schengen Zone' in Europe

Sputnik News

17:06 04.08.2017

NATO Commanders and European Defense Ministers have called for the creation of a "military Schengen zone" that would allow NATO forces to move in and around Europe without restriction - despite no real bureaucratic barriers actually existing in the event of a fully-fledged conflict.

The initiative is being led by Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who in a June statement said troops and materiel must be able to "move quickly to any place where there is a threat."

NATO leaders, who have long called for their own freedom of movement in Europe, proved a highly receptive audience to the call, using the opportunity to create a sense of urgency on the issue. Constituent lobbying efforts have since been stepped up significantly, in the hope such a structure could be achieved before the end of 2017.

The desperate dash for a "military Schengen zone"  so-called in reference to the 1985 agreement between 26 European states that ensures border-free travel for most Europeans  is a seemingly odd one.

Over the years, the European Union has made substantial efforts to remove internal legal hurdles to cross-border military operations. Moreover, General Curtis Scaparrotti, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe has acknowledged in the event of war, he would simply warn allies and deploy forces accordingly, without seeking approval.

What few obstacles remain, such as passport checks and customs regimes, are only ever apparent during peacetime exercises and planning, but officials claim NATO's deterrence objectives require the alliance to constantly demonstrate its capabilities outside theaters of actual conflict, so even these must be removed. In particular, chiefs have cited their annoyance at it taking five days to move US forces from Germany to Poland due to notice period requirements  in an ideal world, NATO would "move across Europe as quickly as migrants do."

In essence, national governments retaining authority over their own border regulations is too much for the US-led coalition to bear. Even routine and not hugely time-consuming obligations will have to be sacrificed, in order to boost military speed and efficiency  apparently a pressing need in peacetime.

Such aspirations may fall at the first hurdle, however. For one, despite its long history of conflict, Europe's geography and infrastructure is not particularly facilitative of mass movements of troops and military equipment  many roads, bridges and rail lines are simply too weak to bear the weight, and low-ceilinged tunnels are similarly prohibitive of large vehicles.

Moreover, public opposition to the plans is likely to be high, if the plan is publicized in advance of its passing, which is not certain. The presence of US bases and missile sites not just in Europe, but the world over, has been opposed by host nations ever since their construction. The prospect of NATO troops, mainly of US origin, walking boldly and easily wherever they wish in Europe is certain to create even greater resentment.

Moreover, the contradiction at the heart of the proposal  NATO forces need wartime freedom of movement in peacetime in order to counter potential threats  is not logically resolvable, and will likely raise questions over why this need is so pressing if it purely for maneuvers and training programs, questions which may be potentially unanswerable, at least officially.

While freedom of movement for citizens is a right treasured by many Europeans, as the migrant crisis demonstrates, the public are generally largely opposed to a totally borderless world, and the retention of sovereignty over their peripheries. Imperial Germany's notorious 1914 refusal to recognize Belgium's right to forbid foreign troops from passing through its territory en route to a conflict with another country provoked such public outrage that support for the First World War rocketed skyward literally overnight.

Many, perhaps rightly, will surely associate armed troops and vehicles of war thundering through city streets with military dictatorships, or infamous foreign occupations of decades past.

 Sputnik

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Indonesian Envoy Calls Establishing Russian Military Base in Country Impossible

Sputnik News

10:51 04.08.2017(updated 13:42 04.08.2017)

The establishment of a Russian military base in Indonesia is not being considered, since the move would go against the nation's constitution, Indonesia's Ambassador to Russia Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia has no military base in Southeast Asia, but the Russian Navy's ships have been increasingly active in the region, since they can enter the ports of the region's countries. However, a number of the Southeast Asian countries are the US allies. In late June, Ambassador of the Philippines in Moscow Carlos Sorreta told Sputnik that Russian warships were welcome to enter the Philippine territorial waters, but there had been no discussions of hosting Russian troops at the country's bases.

"No, in my opinion, this  deployment of a military base  cannot happen," Supriyadi said, explaining that it run counter the country's constitution.

The ambassador added that Indonesia was seeking to maintain a partnership with all countries as well as intensify military cooperation with other nations in the region, especially given the increased terrorist threats.

"We are concerned with the existing situation and fear that after the defeat of [government] forces in the Middle East countries a part of militants will decide to relocate to our region. As a result, something, like what had happened in the Philippine city of Marawi, may happen," Supriyadi explained.

According to the senior diplomat, the Indonesian authorities were currently cooperating closely with Malaysia and the Philippines in order to ensure that a similar situation would not happen again in Southeast Asia.

In May, the Maute jihadist group, which is affiliated with the Daesh terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), attempted to storm the Philippine city of Marawi on the Mindanao island. The clashes have already led to the deaths of 100 people. On July 22, Philippine lawmakers approved an extension of martial law in the southern Mindanao region until December 31, 2017.

On Wednesday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called on the country's lawmakers to support budgetary funding for an additional 20,000 soldiers in order to combat the terrorist threat posed by Daesh.

 Sputnik

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Indonesia Intends to Buy From Russia 8 Su-35 Fighters

Sputnik News

10:07 04.08.2017(updated 13:25 04.08.2017)

Indonesia intends to purchase from Russia eight new Su-35 multirole air superiority fighters, later their number could increase to 16, Indonesia's ambassador to Russia Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi told Sputnik in an interview.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia and Indonesia have been negotiating over the past two years the supply of a batch of Su-35 modern fighters. As Rostec State Corporation Director for International Cooperation and Regional Policy Department Viktor Kladov earlier told Sputnik, Moscow and Jakarta had reached principled decisions on the purchase of the aircraft.

Su-35 is a multi-purpose super-maneuverable fighter of the 4++ generation, equipped with thrust-vectoring engines, ensuring the aircraft's superiority over other jets of the same type.

"We only have in plans the purchase of eight aircraft so far, however, possibly, with time, we will increase their number to 16. We already have one squadron of Russian Su-25s," Supriyadi said.

He added that the Russian-Indonesian talks on Su-35 supplies are in their final stage, with 'technical moments' being coordinated.

Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita expressed hope for prompt completion of talks with the Russian side on the purchase of Su-35 fighters.

"[The final agreement will be ready] as soon as possible, cross your fingers. There are some documents that have to be finalized for both countries, the seller and the buyer. And also some technical details that both of them have to solve to finalize. It depends on Russia and also the minister of Defense. Only technical details [are left to solve], it's done already actually," Lukita told reporters at a Russian-Indonesian business forum in Moscow.

Russia and Indonesia have been negotiating over the past two years the supply of a batch of Su-35 modern fighters. As Rostec State Corporation Director for International Cooperation and Regional Policy Department Viktor Kladov earlier told Sputnik, Moscow and Jakarta had reached principled decisions on the purchase of the aircraft.

Jakarta is also thoroughly considering the purchase of Russian air defense systems, but the country does not plan on acquiring S-300 or S-400 air defense systems in the near future, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Wahid Supriyadi added.

"We have not yet considered the possibility of purchasing these particular systems, but our Defense Ministry is really interested in acquiring new technologies. Russian air defense systems are the focus of our interest, but I cannot say anything particular about these systems [S-300, S-400]," the ambassador said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo agreed in May 2016 to strengthen the defense industry cooperation between their countries.

In June, Russia's Rostec state corporation finalized a contract on the delivery of Su-35 multirole fighters to Indonesia. CEO of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheev told Sputnik in July that the sides were in talks over providing loans to Jakarta for the delivery of the jets.

The S-300 is Russia's long range surface-to-air missile system, developed to defend against aircraft and cruise missiles. The S-400 is the next-generation of air defense system with three different types of missiles capable of destroying aerial targets at a short-to-extremely-long range.

 Sputnik

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DR Congo: UN report indicates Government participation in ethnic massacres in Kasai

4 August 2017  Violence in the Kasai provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) appears to be taking on an increasingly disturbing ethnic dimension, a United Nations human rights wing has warned, citing testimonies that Government forces have led ethnicity-based attacks.

"Survivors have spoken of hearing the screams of people being burned alive, of seeing loved ones chased and cut down, of themselves fleeing in terror. Such bloodletting is all the more horrifying because we found indications that people are increasingly being targeted because of their ethnic group," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Rafad Al Hussein in a news release from his Office (OHCHR).

"Their accounts should serve as a grave warning to the Government of the DRC to act now to prevent such violence from tipping into wider ethnic cleansing," he added, calling on the Government to take all necessary measures to fulfil its primary obligation to protect people from all ethnic backgrounds in the greater Kasai area.

The report is based on interviews with 96 people who had fled to neighbouring Angola to escape the violence in Kamonia territory in Kasai.

The UN team was able to confirm that between 12 March and 19 June, some 251 people became the victims of extrajudicial and targeted killings, including 62 children, of which 30 were aged under eight.

Interviewees indicated that local security forces and other officials actively fomented, fueled, and occasionally led, attacks on the basis of ethnicity.

The UN Mission in the DRC has identified at least 80 mass graves in the Kasais.

The fighting between the Kamuina Nsapu militia and the Government began in August 2016. The UN team was able to confirm that another militia, called the Bana Mura, was formed around March/April 2017 by individuals from the Tshokwe, Pende and Tetela ethnic groups. It was allegedly armed and supported by local traditional leaders and security officials, including from the army and the police, to attack the Luba and Lulua communities who are accused of being accomplices of the Kamuina Nsapu.

According to the report, the Bana Mura allegedly undertook a campaign aimed at eliminating the entire Luba and Lulua populations in the villages they attacked. In many of the incidents reported to the team, soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known by its French acronym FARDC, were seen leading groups of Bana Mura militia during attacks on villages.

Given the situation in the Kasais, the report highlights the need for the team of international experts on the situation in the Kasais, established in June by the UN Human Rights Council, to be granted safe and unrestricted access to information, sites and individuals deemed necessary for their work.

This report will be put at the disposal of the international experts, as well as any other judicial institution addressing the human rights situation in the Kasais, in an effort to advance accountability efforts in this regard.

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Congressman Calls for US Military Partnership with Eritrea

By Salem Solomon August 04, 2017

A Republican congressman says he believes it is time for the U.S. to reach out to Eritrea and forge a partnership to fight terrorism.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California submitted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would encourage the U.S. secretary of defense to negotiate with his Eritrean counterpart to cooperate on the war on terror, security in the Red Sea region, confronting Iranian proxies in Yemen and other U.S. security priorities.

The amendment was rejected, but Rohrabacher said he may try to push for cooperation with either a future amendment or standalone bill.

"I think it's time for us to reach out to Eritrea and take them up on some of their offers, and do things that would be good for us and good for the order of the world in a sense they would be opposing radical Islamic terrorists," Rohrabacher told VOA in an interview this week.

Human rights abuses and authoritarian rule have long made Eritrea an international pariah. The U.S. currently has no military-to-military cooperation with the country and, although there is an embassy in the capital, Asmara, there is no U.S. ambassador.

Eritrea and many members of its ruling regime are subject to U.N. sanctions, imposed for an unresolved border dispute with Djibouti and the country's alleged support for Islamist militants in Somalia.

But Rohrabacher believes U.S. policy needs to change. He says it is colored by Eritrea's larger, more powerful neighbor and longtime enemy, Ethiopia.

"We should not be just hanging our hats on the side of someone like the Ethiopians and just letting them direct what our policy is," he said. "Eritrea is in a very strategic location, and it is working with people that I think are very responsible people in terms of the war against terrorists."

Eritrea hosts a military base operated by the United Arab Emirates at the port city of Assab, from which the UAE conducts missions in its war against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Question of human rights

Eritrea's government has been subject to strong criticism for its domestic policies. A U.N. commission of inquiry found that Eritrea has a "wholesale disregard for the liberty" of its citizens. The commission concluded that the country imprisons dissidents without trial and forces its citizens to serve indefinite national service. Thousands of Eritreans have risked their lives at sea to flee the country.

But Rohrabacher believes the U.S. will have very few African allies if it allows concerns about human rights to dictate its partnerships on the continent.

"Very few of them have a human rights record and a record of [an] honest government that would be acceptable for the United States," he said. "So we should be basically figuring out what is in the interests of our country, and does that government even meet the minimum standards of being in a relationship with us."

The U.S. does have historical military links with Eritrea. From 1943 to 1977, the U.S. Army operated Kagnew Station in Asmara. There, the army intercepted radio messages from other countries during the Cold War.

Additionally, the U.S. considered partnering with Eritrea in 2002 when then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited the country and met with President Isaias Afwerki.

But after the meeting, Afwerki said "we are not offering anything to get anything from the United States," and a partnership on combating terrorism fell through.

Arguments against partnership

Khaled Beshir, a board member of the Awate Foundation, a group that works to counter what it calls Eritrean propaganda, recently told the U.S. House of Representatives that a U.S.-Eritrea partnership is unlikely. Eritrea has never accepted responsibility for playing a destabilizing role in the region by arming the Somali extremist group al-Shabab, he said, and the Eritrean government continues to blame the U.S. for many of its woes.

"They think the U.S. is behind pretty much everything, including people leaving the country, the sanctions, the border demarcation," he said. "I think the Eritrean government has not learned to take responsibility."

Beshir believes allying itself with Eritrea would put the U.S. at odds with much of the rest of the world, who are demanding the country improve its behavior.

"It's very simple. This is contrary to U.S. interests, what [Rohrabacher] is proposing, because it will go against the international community that has put sanctions on Eritrea for the last seven years," he said. "The role that Eritrea has been playing as a spoiler, as a destabilizing force in the region, I don't know how that will serve the U.S. interest, even from the security point of view."

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UN Peacekeeping Chief: South Sudan Warring Parties Unwilling to End Violence

By Waakhe Simon Wudu August 04, 2017

A top United Nations official visiting South Sudan this week called on the nation's warring parties to engage in a meaningful political process to end the fighting.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the new U.N. under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, said the continuing violence is causing the South Sudanese people to suffer needlessly.

Lacroix arrived in Juba on Tuesday to assess security and meet with South Sudan's leaders, including President Salva Kiir. Lacroix called a Thursday news conference in Juba to say both warring parties appear unwilling to end the violence.

"In spite of the unilateral cease-fire which was decided by the authorities, fighting is continuing in different areas of the country. And it is a matter of concern because the continuation of fighting seems an obstacle in the political track and it is also a matter of concern because this fighting obviously has a very serious impact on [the] population," Lacroix said.

He said the fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes, worsening the humanitarian situation across the country.

"The U.N. as a whole and the agencies and those that work with them are doing their best to help as many people as possible under difficult, sometimes dangerous situations," Lacroix added.

It is Lacroix's second visit to Juba. The U.N. peacekeeping chief met with Kiir, First Vice President Taban Deng Gai, and other senior officials to press them to restore peace and stability in South Sudan, revitalize the 2015 peace agreement, and deploy the Regional Protection Force.

Lacroix said 150 peacekeepers from Bangladesh have been deployed in recent months as part of the regional protection force aimed at protecting major installations across the country, including Juba International Airport.

"Things are now accelerating, which is a good thing. A number of units now have been deployed in Juba," Lacroix said, adding that more units will be deployed in the coming months, including four battalions from Rwanda.

Lacroix also visited Malakal, capital of the former Upper Nile State, which is one of several areas that has seen stepped-up fighting over the past year.

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Al-Shabab Militants Retake Town 120 KM From Mogadishu

By Harun Maruf August 04, 2017

Al-Shabab militants have retaken a strategic town linking Somalia's capital to the western regions of the country.

Residents in Leego, 120 kilometers from Mogadishu, said they saw militants enter and seize the town early Friday morning after Ugandan troops stationed there completed their withdrawal.

Residents reported that the troops, who are part of the African Union mission AMISOM, had been loading military equipment and personal belongings onto military trucks since Thursday. The convoy departed the town early Friday, allowing al-Shabab militants to reoccupy the town.

The governor of Lower Shabelle region, Ibrahim Adam Najah, confirmed the fall of Leego to VOA Somali.

"I can confirm to you that the anti-peace element, the enemy of Somalia, has taken over the town without a fight, and that AMISOM troops have withdrawn," he said.

Najah said militants using five battle wagons entered the town from different directions.

Leego is just 30 kilometers west of Ballidogle airport, where U.S. advisers and instructors train several hundred elite Somali commandos.

Najah said he was disappointed that AU troops left the town without informing his administration.

"I have contacted AMISOM on why they had to suddenly withdraw from an area so strategic. They said they will comment later on about the reason and what caused the move," Najah said.

AMISOM has yet to comment on the Leego withdrawal. It's the latest pullback from the so-called forward operating bases which have been come under heavy al-Shabab attacks.

Leego in particular was the scene of a deadly assault by the militants on June 26, 2015, when 54 Burundian soldiers were killed.

The Ugandan troops have been deployed there ever since to secure a key western route linking Mogadishu to the Bay and Bakool regions.

Al-Shabab's capture of Leego effectively cuts off the Mogadishu from these regions making air travel the only means to travel there.

Najah said he wants either government troops or other AMISOM troops to return to the town and retake it from Al-Shabab.

The withdrawal comes just five days after Al-Shabab carried out one of the deadliest ambushes on Ugandan troops. The attack on a supply convoy in Golweyn village on July 30 killed as many as 23 Ugandan soldiers according to Somali government officials. Uganda said it lost only 12 soldiers.

Military sources told VOA Somali that the troops who were pulled from Leego today will be deployed at Golweyn village to secure the southern route linking Mogadishu to the port town of Barawe.

Al-Shabab, which is allied with al-Qaida, has been fighting since 2006 to overthrow the Somali government and turn the country into a strict Islamic state.

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UN Accuses Congolese Government of Ethnic-based Massacres

By Lisa Schlein August 04, 2017

A new U.N. report accuses the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo of instigating ethnic-based massacres in the diamond-rich Kasai province. The findings are based on interviews with 96 people who fled to neighboring Angola to escape the violence.

A U.N. investigative team was deployed to Angola for several days in June after the government of President Joseph Kabila rejected a call by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights for a credible, transparent investigation into the Kasai crisis involving the Kamuina Nsapu militia.

The chief of the high commissioner's Central and West Africa section, Scott Campbell, says investigators heard accounts of atrocities on a massive scale. He says many of the people interviewed bore visible traces of violent abuse, including amputated limbs, scars, mutilations and disfigurement caused by machetes.

"Over a three-month period between March and June of this year, what our team found was that at least 251 people were killed in a fairly limited part of the Kasai region of the Kamonia territory, including a large number of children," Campbell said. "There were 62 children killed among the 251 that our team was able to document ... many of them were under 8 years old."

Witnesses say they increasingly are being targeted because of their ethnic group. Campbell warns that ethnic cleansing, possibly on a large scale, appears to be taking place. Investigators have received credible evidence about the government's complicity in these acts, he told VOA.

"We have noted  and what we think is very important  is that the testimonies that we have gotten we find are very credible, and point to a nature and a scale of acts that could amount to crimes against humanity," Campbell said.

The Kamuina Nsapu militia instigated a rebellion against the state following the killing of their traditional chief last year by Congolese forces. Campbell says the militia has committed many serious crimes, including targeted killings, and uses boys and girls as young as seven as fighters against the state. He says these violations could constitute crimes against humanity.

Campbell tells VOA he fears the chaos, disruption and insecurity in Kasai could be used as an excuse for postponing elections that are to be held this year. "Our concern is that this could be manipulated for a postponement of elections, which could then lead to further human rights violations," he said.

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Rwanda Votes in Presidential Election

By Zack Baddorf August 04, 2017

Rwandans voted Friday in a presidential election widely expected to give President Paul Kagame a third term in office.

"We need a good leader in our country now to continue to secure the country, to help the people of Rwanda and to continue to develop the country for the next seven years," said Kagame supporter Joseph Zorondera after he cast his ballot at the Mbandazi Primary School primary school outside Kigali.

Voting was calm as people slowly trickled into the school nestled in the hilly outskirts of the sprawling capital city, casting ballots in different classrooms.

"Everything is going well in each room," said Valerian Musengamana, the polling station chief. "The people are very happy with the activities of the election. They are really satisfied."

The East African Community has international observers monitoring the polls. The European Union decided not to send a team of observers. At mid-day, representatives of local observer missions told VOA they hadn't encountered any significant issues and that the voting appeared to be progressing smoothly.

Opposition presidential candidate Frank Habineza, of the Green Party, told VOA that some of his party's observers had been denied access to polling stations but, after informing the National Election Commission, 95 percent of them were permitted to monitor the voting process.

Habineza is one of two challengers President Paul Kagame faces in Kagame's bid for a third term. Independent Philippe Mpayimana is also on the ballot.

Few of their supporters would accept to be interviewed at the polls.

"I chose [the Green] party simply because of its good platform," said voter Charles Ndamage, with electoral commission officials watching nearby. "The manifesto presented by Habineza was very interesting to me. For instance, the fact that he wants to develop the country by reducing the step between rich people and poor people."

Nine of the 11 political parties permitted to register in Rwanda have endorsed Kagame. Four other presidential hopefuls were disqualified by the electoral commission. The government and ruling party have brushed off allegations from human rights groups that authorities have restricted freedom of expression and stifled political opposition.

Kagame has been in power for 17 years. He is widely credited with stabilizing the country after a 1994 genocide.

"They [the opposition candidates] are good but I don't think any of them will do better than Paul Kagame. Because we have seen for the last few years that he has been on, the changes. It's really a big change. It's obvious," said voter Imelda Batamoliza.

His supporters point to developments like improved roads, more communities connected to clean water, and recently built schools. A 2015 constitutional referendum, approved by 98 percent of voters, could allow Kagame to remain in power until 2034.

His supporters told VOA they aren't looking for a president for life.

"At the end of the [new] seven-year term of his excellency Paul Kagame, someone will continue after him," voter Zorondera said.

Rwanda's electoral commission is expected to release official poll results over the weekend.

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Al-Shabab Militants Kill Provincial Governor in Mogadishu

By Harun Maruf, Abdulaziz Osman August 04, 2017

Al-Shabab militants have shot dead a provincial governor and his brother in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Mohamed Ali Elmi, the governor of Galgadud region in central Somalia, and his brother were gunned down in Mogadishu's Yaaqshid neighborhood Friday night, witnesses said.

The governor was visiting relatives when gunmen who trailed him opened fire. Witnesses said the gunmen fled before security forces arrived.

"Our mujahedeen unit carried [out] an operation to kill the governor," al-Shabab said in a statement posted on a website affiliated with the group.

The incident occurred less than three hours after a car packed with explosives blew up in the center of the capital, killing at least three civilians.

Al-Shabab retakes town

Early Friday, al-Shabab militants retook a strategic town in Lower Shabelle, after African Union (AU) forces stationed there retreated. The militants entered Leego town, 120 kilometers from Mogadishu, minutes after AU convoys left.

The governor of Lower Shabelle region, Ibrahim Adam Najah, confirmed the fall of Leego to VOA Somali.

"I can confirm to you that the anti-peace element, the enemy of Somalia, has taken over the town without a fight, and that AMISOM troops have withdrawn," he said.

Najah said militants using five battle wagons entered the town from different directions.

Leego is 30 kilometers west of Ballidogle airport, where U.S. advisers and instructors have been training several hundred elite Somali commandos.

Najah said he was disappointed that AU troops left town without informing his administration.

"I have contacted AMISOM on why they had to suddenly withdraw from an area so strategic," Najah said.

AMISOM has yet to comment on the Leego withdrawal.

Mogadishu cut off

Al-Shabab's capture of Leego effectively cuts off Mogadishu from these regions, making air travel the only means to get there.

Najah said he wants either government troops or other AMISOM troops to retake Leego from al-Shabab.

The withdrawal came five days after al-Shabab carried out one of the deadliest ambushes on Ugandan troops. The attack on a supply convoy in Golweyn village July 30 killed as many as 23 Ugandan soldiers, according to Somali government officials. Uganda said it lost 12 soldiers.

Military sources told VOA Somali that the troops who were pulled from Leego Friday would be deployed at Golweyn village to secure the southern route linking Mogadishu to the port town of Barawe.

Al-Shabab, which is allied with al-Qaida, has been fighting since 2006 to overthrow the Somali government and turn the country into a strict Islamic state.

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Coalition Strikes Continue Against ISIS in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 5, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 12 strikes consisting of 16 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted four strikes consisting of four engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed an ISIS headquarters.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed four ISIS oil stills.

-- Near Shadaddi, two strikes suppressed two ISIS mortar teams.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted six strikes consisting of seven engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Huwayjah, two strikes destroyed an ISIS-held building and an ISIS headquarters.

-- Near Kisik, a strike illuminated an area.

-- Near Rawah, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building, a vehicle-borne bomb and a vehicle-borne-bomb storage facility.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes destroyed five VBIED facilities.

Aug. 3 Strikes

Additionally, 27 strikes consisting of 33 engagements were conducted in Syria and Iraq on Aug. 3 that closed within the last 24 hours.

-- Near Abu Kamal, Syria, a strike destroyed 11 ISIS oil stills.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIS financial headquarters.

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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Military clashes possible as border standoff drags on: expert

Global Times

By Liu Xin Source:Global Times Published: 2017/8/4 23:08:40 Last Updated: 2017/8/5 7:50:15

China will not allow the military standoff between China and India in Doklam to last for too long, and there may be a small-scale military operation to expel Indian troops within two weeks, Chinese experts said after six ministries and institutions made remarks on the incident within the past 24 hours.

From Thursday to Friday, two ministries and four institutions, including the Chinese foreign ministry, the defense ministry, the Chinese Embassy in India and the People's Daily, released statements or commentary on the military standoff between China and India in Doklam, Tibet Autonomous Region. The standoff has lasted for almost two months now, and there is still no end in sight.

China urged India to immediately pull back the trespassing troops to the Indian side of the boundary and called on them to swiftly address the situation in a proper manner to restore peace and tranquility in the border region, Ren Guoqiang, a spokesperson for the defense ministry said in a statement posted on its website late Thursday night.

"The series of remarks from the Chinese side within a 24-hour period sends a signal to India that there is no way China will tolerate the Indian troops' incursion into Chinese territory for too long. If India refuses to withdraw, China may conduct a small-scale military operation within two weeks," said Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Hu said that the military operation would aim to seize Indian personnel illegally lingering in Chinese territory or to expel them. "The Chinese side will inform the Indian Foreign Ministry before its operation," Hu said.

China Central Television reported Friday that the Tibet military region conducted live fire exercises in recent days in Tibet. "The exercise began at 4 am. A group swiftly took ground and loaded ammunition. The firing began just after dawn  the army used different ways to attack the same target," CCTV reported.

"The exercises are a sign that China could use military means to end the standoff and the chances of doing so are increasing as the Indian side is still saying one thing and doing another," Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times.

Indian External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said Thursday that war was not a solution and wisdom is to resolve issues diplomatically, but she also noted that "military readiness is always there as the military is meant to fight wars," the Indian Express reported.

The patience of China and its public is wearing thin, Zhao said, and China does not want the dispute to impact the upcoming BRICS summit, which India will attend. The summit is to be held in September in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province.

Bearing all the consequences

"India, which has stirred up the incident, should bear all the consequences. And no matter how the standoff ends, Sino-Indian ties have been severely damaged and strategic distrust will linger," Hu said.

On Wednesday, China's foreign ministry issued a document titled "The Facts and China's Position Concerning the Indian Border Troops' Crossing of the China-India Boundary in the Sikkim Sector into the Chinese Territory." It says that road building in the Doklam area aims to improve local transportation, help local herders and facilitate border patrols.

China notified India about the road works through the border meeting mechanism on May 18 and June 8, but it did not respond, the Chinese foreign ministry said Thursday.

"Road building in Chinese territory is to facilitate border patrols and the lives of herders. But the Indian side has over-interpreted it as a threat to its northeast side. And India, which considers South Asia as its own sphere of influence, dislikes Chinese involvement in the area," Hu said.

Zhao said that if the current standoff ends in a military clash, bilateral ties would suffer for at least five years, and India may stir up troubles with China, which may cause tensions among China's other neighbors.

"India has adopted an immature policy toward China in recent years. Its development is not at the same level as China's. It only wants to seek disputes in an area which originally has no disputes to gain bargaining chips," Hu said.

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Patience has 'bottom line', India told

People's Daily Online

By WANG QINGYUN (China Daily) 09:50, August 05, 2017

New Delhi warned to 'not mistake restraint for weakness' over border

India must not expect China to concede its violation of China's territory, analysts said, after a spokesman from the Ministry of National Defense issued a statement warning India to abandon illusions.

There is a "bottom line" to the Chinese military's restraint in solving the incident caused by India's trespass, spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in the statement issued late on Thursday.

Ren said the Chinese military "has remained highly restrained", but "the restraint is not without a bottom line".

Urging Indian troops to withdraw immediately, Ren said India should "abandon any illusion" of delaying tactics, and not underestimate the Chinese military's confidence in and ability to defend peace.

Zhao Xiaozhuo, a researcher at the PLA Academy of Military Science, said India "should not mistake restraint for weakness", as China's restraint doesn't mean it will accept a violation of its territory.

"It doesn't mean there will be no further measures by China," Zhao said, adding that India "is approaching the bottom line" by having its troops remain in the Donglang area (Doklam).

Indian troops illegally crossed the China-India boundary in the Sikkim Sector on June 18 to obstruct China's road building in Donglang.

The Sikkim Sector is the only delimited part of the China-India boundary, and was defined in the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet signed in 1890.

According to the convention, the Donglang area is located on the Chinese side of the boundary.

Governments of both the People's Republic of China and post-independence India inherited the convention.

In letters to former premier Zhou Enlai in 1959, former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said the sector of the boundary was defined by the convention.

The Foreign Ministry has lodged repeated representations to India over its trespass across this defined sector of the boundary, but Indian troops have remained in the Donglang area.

Lan Jianxue, a researcher in South Asian studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said the statement made by Ren is a serious warning for India that asks it to withdraw its troops.

"China has tried its best to practice restraint. It has been asking through diplomatic channels for the Indian troops to withdraw. But India doesn't seem to understand," Lan said, adding that there are "various possibilities" if India keeps ignoring China's diplomatic efforts.

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Indian troops kill three Kashmiri militants in gunbattle

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 5, 2017 9:19AM

At least three militants have been killed in a gunfight with Indian forces in the disputed Himalayan region, triggering new protests against the Indian rule.

India's Police Inspector-General Muneer Ahmed Khan announced on Saturday that the gun battle broke out after government troops raided a cluster of homes in the northwestern Sopore district, acting on a tip that the militants were hiding in the area, AP reported.

According to Khan, one police official was wounded after the militants returned fire.

A new wave of protest rallies and clashes with police forces erupted in several parts of the region as the news of the killings by Indian soldiers spread.

The government troops began targeting rock-throwing protesters in the Bandipora neighborhood with live fire, leaving at least three civilians wounded.

The latest fighting came two days after Indian officials reported the killing of two government soldiers as well as two Kashmiri militants in armed clashes across the India-controlled Himalayan valley.

The restive region has witnessed a major escalation in mass protests and violence since early July 2016 when Burhan Wani, a top figure in a pro-independence group, was killed in a shootout with Indian troops.

Over 100 people have been killed and more than 12,000 others injured in the ensuing crackdown.

New Delhi has deployed nearly 500,000 soldiers to the disputed region to suppress pro-independence protest rallies in its part of Kashmir, where about 70,000 people have been killed since 1989.

India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in entirety and have fought three wars over the region. India accuses Pakistan of funding and training militants in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad has persistently rejected.

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Yemen's Ansarullah warns of repercussions of support for Saudi crimes

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 5, 2017 6:18AM

The Yemeni Houthi Ansarullah movement has cautioned the international community against providing a cover for Saudi Arabia's atrocities in Yemen, as the death toll from the Saudi-led war on the impoverished country increases by the day.

Ansarullah spokesman Mohammad Abdulsalam wrote on his Facebook page on Friday that more Saudi crimes would only lead to greater steadfastness on the part of the Yemenis in support of their dignity and the sovereignty of their homeland.

Abdulsalam further called on the Popular Committees and allied army soldiers to step up their operations against the Saudi military and mercenaries.

The remarks came hours after three women and six children from the same family were killed and three others injured in a Saudi-led airstrike on the Mahda district of northwestern Yemeni city of Sa'ada.

Abdel-Ilah al-Azzi, the head of the local health department, said, "We are recording all the crimes of the enemy and we will not forget them. All the criminals will be put on trial soon, God willing."

The deadly air raid took place at dawn on Friday while the family was asleep.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a brutal military campaign against Yemen for more than two years to eliminate the Houthis and reinstall a Riyadh-friendly former president. The Saudi military campaign, however, has failed to achieve either of the goals.

The protracted war has already killed over 12,000 Yemenis, with the US and the UK providing the bulk of weapons used by Saudi forces and giving coordinates for the airstrikes, which have killed many civilians.

The Saudi-led offensive has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen's infrastructure and led to a humanitarian crisis and a cholera epidemic.

The number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen has exceeded 419,800 while almost 2,000 people have died since the outbreak of the epidemic in April, according to the latest figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Russia's Kislyak Denies Inappropriate Contacts With Trump Adviser

RFE/RL August 05, 2017

Former Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak has said that his discussions with former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn were "completely appropriate, calm, and absolutely transparent."

Speaking on Russian state television on August 5, Kislyak added that he would not be willing to testify about his contacts with Flynn before the U.S. Congress or a U.S. grand jury.

"We spoke about the most elementary things," Kislyak said. "There are several issues that are important for Russian relations with the United States -- first and foremost, terrorism. That was one of the topics we touched upon. On the whole, our interaction was absolutely proper, calm, and completely transparent. There have been no secrets [about it], certainly not on our part."

Flynn was forced to resign from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump after it came out that he had failed to reveal his contacts with Kislyak during the period between the November 2016 U.S. presidential election and Trump's inauguration in January.

Kislyak specifically said he had been instructed by Moscow not to discuss U.S. sanctions against Russia.

He added that he had made rebuffed attempts to establish contacts with the campaign of Trump's Democratic Party rival, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I could give you a long list of people from Clinton's campaign I wanted to pay a visit to, but they all walked away from [my attempts]," he said.

Kislyak ended his tenure as ambassador last month.

The U.S. Justice Department and committees in both houses of Congress are investigating possibly illegal contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign.

The U.S. intelligence community issued an assessment in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an "influence campaign" targeting the U.S. election, with goals that included undermining trust in the U.S. electoral process, denigrating Clinton, and helping Trump. Russia denies meddling, despite what critics say is strong evidence, and Trump denies any collusion.

With reporting by TASS, Interfax, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-trump-kislyak- flynn-relations-collusion/28660358.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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Indian Security Forces Eliminate Three Terrorists in Kashmir

Sputnik News

09:51 05.08.2017

Indian security forces eliminated three militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group (banned in Russia) in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, one police officer was injured during the operation, local media reported on Saturday.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik)  According to the Hindustan Times newspaper, citing the police, the operation was carried out in the village of Amargarh in Jammu and Kashmir state. The police cordoned off the area at around midnight local time (18:30 GMT on Friday), and the gunfire started around 02:00 a.m. local time and lasted for some four hours, the media added.

The security forces requested the terrorists to surrender, but the militants responded with fire, the newspaper added, citing Rajeshwar Jamwal, an army officer.

Two of the militants killed in the operation were already identified as residents of Baramulla and Bandipora districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

On Tuesday, two more Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in the district of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, including the group's senior commander Abu Dujana.

The Jammu and Kashmir region has been disputed by India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. Following several armed conflicts, the two countries agreed to a ceasefire in 2003. Since then, both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce. The unstable situation in the region led to the emergence of extremist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Established in 1987, Lashkar-e-Taiba has become one of the largest militant groups operating in the disputed region. It is considered responsible for the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that claimed the lives of 166 people.

 Sputnik

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Australian police charge two men over plane bomb, gas device plots

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 4:50AM

Police in Australia have charged two men with plotting to bomb a plane and conduct a chemical attack in the country.

Police said on Friday that two men had been charged with planning to build and plant an improvised explosive device on a passenger jet, and to build a device to release poisonous gas.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan told reporters that the men had been "inspired and directed" by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

Phelan said the terrorists had planned to blow up an Etihad Airways plane flying out of Sydney. The explosive device had been taken to Sydney's airport to be planted in the plane, but the plan was aborted and the bomb did not breach airport security, he said.

Phelan said that in a separate event, the same men had attempted to create an improvised chemical gas device.

The terrorist plot to down an aircraft with explosives was first announced last week. On Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that four people had been arrested across Sydney in relation to the "elaborate" plot.

One man has been released while another is being held without charge under special counter-terror laws.

Turnbull said the terror alert level, which was elevated on September 2014 amid rising concerns over attacks by Daesh and similar organizations, would stay at probable.

Turnbull said the primary threat to Australia came from "lone actors."

"But there's still the ability for people to have sophisticated plots and sophisticated attacks still remain a real threat," he warned.

Australia has been on alert for attacks by home-grown terrorists since last year.

A large number of Europeans and Westerners have gone to Syria to fight against the Damascus government. There have been fears that the militants may return home battle-hardened and carry out singular terrorist attacks.

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Poland May Sign Deal on First Patriot Missile Systems Delivery by 2018

Sputnik News

20:52 04.08.2017(updated 20:56 04.08.2017)

Warsaw and Washington may sign an agreement on the delivery of the first US Patriot missile systems to Poland by the end of 2017, Bartosz Kownacki, the Polish deputy defense minister, said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On July 6, Poland and the United States signed a memorandum on the Patriot missile systems deliveries. The protocol stipulates a two-phased process of the delivery, namely, during the first stage, the US side is set to send Poland two Patriot missile batteries, consisting of four launchers.

"We should strive to sign the contract by the end of the year," Kownacki told Radio Poland, referring to the first phase of deliveries.

Kownacki noted that on Wednesday the Polish side adopted revised provisions on the two stages of the Patriot systems' purchase and the rules had already been sent to the US side.

Poland plans to strike a $7.5-billion deal with the United States to buy eight Patriot batteries. Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz expressed hope to receive the missile systems by 2022 and to see them in operation readiness by 2023.

Patriot is a long-range, all-altitude, air defense system capable of countering tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and advanced aircraft.

Following the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, NATO has been boosting its military presence in in Eastern European states, citing Russia's alleged interference in that conflict as justification for the move. A decision of the alliance to deploy four multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland was announced by Stoltenberg after the NATO summit in July 2016.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that amassing troops and military equipment on its borders is provocative, violates past NATO pledges, and can lead to regional and global destabilization.

 Sputnik

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Part of Yellow Sea to seal off for military purposes for 2nd time

People's Daily Online

(Global Times) 20:10, August 04, 2017

China's navy will temporarily seal off a part of the Yellow Sea for approximately four days to maritime traffic for "large-scale" military purposes, authorities announced for the second time in the past two weeks.

The area, which stretches from Qingdao, Shandong Province to Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province - two major shipping ports, will be closed to all vessels from 6 am on Saturday until 6 pm on Tuesday, qingdaonews.com, a local news site in Shandong reported on Friday.

A map illustrating the restricted area - which covers approximately 57,000 square kilometers - was included in the report, which was attributed to a PLA troop codenamed 91208, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration, the Jiangsu Maritime Safety Administration and armed police authorities of Shandong's Qingdao, Rizhao and Jiangsu's Lianyungang.

This is the second time in the past two weeks the authorities have planned to seal off the region in the Yellow Sea, with both claiming it is for "large-scale" military purposes.

Restriction was previously imposed on activities in the area for three days, from July 27 to 29.

No further details on the "large scale military operation" were released in the report.

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China will never seek aggression or expansion

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 08:20, August 04, 2017

China is an architect of world peace, a stalwart of global development, and a staunch upholder of the international order, President Xi Jinping told a rally marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Tuesday.

On Army Day, China, once again, chose to highlight peace, an eternal theme of mankind, and reaffirmed that the nation will never seek to expand beyond its established borders.

Deeds speak louder than words. Of all permanent members of the UN Security Council, none has done more than China, with 35,000 personnel dispatched across the globe to defend basic human rights. In the line of this sacred duty, 13 Chinese peacekeepers have lost their lives.

With their passion and with their blood, China's military has actively fulfilled the nation's commitment to its own peaceful development and to a peaceful world.

Since 2008, over 80 vessels of the PLA Navy have patrolled the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, ensuring the safety of more than 6,000 domestic and foreign ships.

Chinese servicemen and women led the search for missing flight MH370. Chinese forces stood their ground in the fight to contain the Ebola virus. The water crisis in Male, capital of the Maldives, was resolved with the help of the PLA.

China's contribution to world peace has been widely applauded by the international community, said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations.

Peaceful development is neither an expediency nor diplomatic rhetoric, but a choice China has made on analysis of historical facts, the present reality and future opportunities. China's interests are inextricably intertwined with the interests of the planet.

From the Opium War of 1840 until the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, China suffered at the hand of the Western powers. Through that, respect for independence and peace have become what the Chinese people cherish most.

"Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you," the foundation of Confucianism, means the Chinese will never inflict on others the agony we have gone through ourselves.

Confucius also said that the virtuous always find friends -- wisdom that should guide international relations as much as it does interpersonal interactions.

Since the 1960s, through negotiation and consultation, China has delimited 20,000 kilometers of land boundary and is in complete accord with 12 out of its 14 land neighbors. A sincere good neighbor, China's commitment to mutual benefit has been a concrete contribution to stability in Asia and beyond.

Of the wars fought in the seven decades since the founding of the PRC, China has never made the first move. Not once has China been the aggressor.

The path of peaceful development means China will never be the one to stir up trouble or invade other sovereign states.

"A belligerent nation is doomed to perish," goes an ancient Chinese saying. The iron law of history is that countries which expanded by invading others are doomed to failure.

Our epoch must be one of win-win cooperation and shared development.

"The Chinese people love peace. We will never seek aggression or expansion, but we have the confidence to defeat all invasions. We will never allow any people, organization or political party to split any part of Chinese territory away from the country at any time, in any form," Xi said.

Peace is bliss for the people. Protecting peace is the duty of the people's army. To fulfill that timeless duty, China's armed forces must be a world-class military, ready to fight if it must, and ready to win. The country will never compromise on its sovereignty.

The latest military reform focuses on structural reforms, aiming to build forces true to the Party, with exemplary conduct. Should the PLA ever be forced into a fight, it will fight to win.

Xi announced cuts of 300,000 troops in 2015, a process which is expected to be completed by the end of this year, according to the Ministry of National Defense. This is a sincere commitment to world peace and prosperity.

With 90 years of service behind them, the common pursuit of peaceful development, benefiting all people from all countries, is the PLA's sincere hope for the next 90 years and beyond.

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China seals off parts of Yellow Sea for 'large-scale' naval drills

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 5, 2017 5:48AM

China has temporarily sealed off a part of the Yellow Sea for what it described as "large-scale" military exercises, the second drill off the coast of the Korean Peninsula in the past two weeks.

The area, which covers approximately 57,000 square kilometers from Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province to Lianyungang in Jiangsu province, will be off-limits to all vessels from 6 a.m. local time on Saturday until 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Chinese navy provided no further details on the four-day "large-scale military operations" in the restricted area.

The earlier round was conducted for three days between July 27 and July 29.

The drills come at a time of flare-ups between Beijing and Washington over Pyongyang's latest missile test, aiming to reassert China's regional power and to send a message of deterrence, according to analysts.

Malcolm Davis, an expert in Chinese defense at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told the South China Morning Post the latest military exercise was about deterring North Korea while serving as a show of force for the US and Japan.

"It's basically a warning to Pyongyang," he said. "The Chinese would really like to get the North Koreans to back down, but it largely depends on whether [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un is ready to do that."

Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, also told the daily that the drills could also be seen as a "call for peace" in the Yellow Sea and a signal to countries such as the US that they should "not even entertain the thought of military action against North Korea."

"This is a very normal part of diplomacy  there are talks and negotiations, but there is always in the background some sort of drum-beating," he said. "The danger here is, we'll never know...These countries are all quite heavily armed and are operating in quite a constricted space."

Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on all parties to avoid taking "any actions that will lead to an escalation in tensions" on the Korean Peninsula after Pyongyang launched another ballistic missile on July 28, the second in less than a month.

North Korea boasted that the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) could now reach the entirety of the US mainland, while Russian military said it was only of intermediate range.

North Korea's nuclear and missile tests have met with international condemnation.

The United Nations has slapped harsh sanctions on the country over its numerous tests. North Korea, however, says its nuclear and missile development programs act as a deterrent to defend the nation in the face of the US and its regional allies' hegemony.

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ASEAN ministers to hold discussions on DPRK

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 19:11, August 04, 2017

ASEAN foreign ministers will discuss on Friday ways to deal with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which has continued its nuclear program despite international condemnation, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.

Cayetano told reporters that he planned to consult his counterparts on the Korean Peninsula issue again to explore how to engage the DPRK in the future, at an informal dinner on Friday night in preparation for the ASEAN ministerial meeting scheduled for Saturday.

"We feel as strongly as they feel that this testing of missiles does nothing but destabilize the region and also creates an atmosphere that's not conducive to resuming talks," Cayetano said.

The DPRK's behavior "courts accidents that can lead to armed conflict," Cayetano said. "We've been consistent in pointing out to North Korea what we feel is wrong."

Cayetano said the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is a good venue to engage Pyangyang.

"You can talk harshly in front of your colleagues in ASEAN engagements like what we have, because we will have retreats and we will have areas that will be closed door. But the less we talk, the more grave the situation can become," Cayetano said.

Acting Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Robespierre Bolivar said earlier that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was "very much concerned" about the developments in the DPRK.

"All of us surrounding the region are very much concerned about the potential escalation of this issue," Bolivar told a news conference on Thursday.

The DPRK is attending the ARF on Monday, which is a forum for security in Asia established in 1994. It draws together 27 members which have a bearing on the security of the Asia Pacific.

Bolivar said the ARF is the only venue outside of the UN, where the DPRK participates in a roundtable discussions on security matters with South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, the United States, the European Union and ASEAN.

"It is the only venue thus far that we have to promote candid and free flow dialogue and to actually express our concerns to the DPRK side in a face-to-face manner," Bolivar said.

The ARF is a forum for dialogue where all the parties discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula. "There is an opportunity for them to exchange views on (security) issues of concern, including the Korean Peninsula," Bolivar said.

He expressed hope that the ARF participants this weekend would "try to find some sort of grounds for proceeding to more productive, cooperative dialogue."

The ARF comprises the 10 members of ASEAN - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, plus ASEAN dialogue partners - Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Pakistan, the DPRK, Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Bangladesh.

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Apart from hosting and possible maintenance costs, there are not exactly downsides to having your own website. Even if its just a personal blog it can always become more useful down the line, if you utilize it in the right manner. In other words, more
DPRK says leaving its door open to U.S. visitors

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 16:42, August 04, 2017

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday slammed the United States for issuing a travel ban on the country, adding that U.S. visitors "of good will" are welcome to the country, state-run media reported.

"Regardless of any government's policy towards the DPRK, we encourage various forms of exchanges and contacts including visits by people from all over the world," a Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency as saying.

"We will always leave our door wide open to any U.S. citizen who would like to visit our country out of good will and to see the realities with their own eyes," he said.

The spokesman stressed that the DPRK is safe enough for foreign visitors where foreigners will feel no threat at all because of its "stable and strong state system."

As for a few U.S citizens punished for their hostile acts against the DPRK, the spokesman said "there is no country in the world that will ignore the foreigners who committed hostile acts within its territory." He added that "it is a legitimate right of a sovereign state to punish criminals as required by law."

The spokesman also slammed the travel ban as a "childish" and "vile" measure to limit the people-to-to people contact. He said its purpose is to prevent U.S. citizens from seeing "the true picture of the DPRK that has achieved victory after victory."

"It is also a reflection of the U.S. administration's perception which regards the DPRK as an enemy," said the spokesman.

The spokesman called on the Donald Trump administration to abandon its hostile policy towards the DPRK.

On Aug. 2, the U.S. Department of State announced a travel to the DPRK, which will come into effect next month.

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You're 'Hopeless': North Korea Calls New US Sanctions a Waste of Energy

Sputnik News

22:07 04.08.2017(updated 00:04 05.08.2017)

North Korea said Thursday that the US was "wasting its energy" by adopting unilateral sanctions against them, saying the move only increases Pyongyang's "stamina" and further justifies their nuclear weapons development.

An article in the state-run Korean Central News Agency written by an unnamed spokesman from the Foreign Affairs Ministry said that sanctions by the "hooligan" US have "only worked to redouble the indomitable spirit of our army and people, united as one following their leader and increase the DPRK's self-defensive capability."

"DPRK" is an abbreviation of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The spokesman said that the North's possible intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test in late July  its second in less than a month  was "meant to send a stern warning to the US [for] being reckless and frantic, having suffered only crushing defeats in the all-out showdown" with Pyongyang, according to Korea JoonGang Daily.

Pyongyang advised the US to focus concern on its own security and stop "wasting its energy on the hopeless sanctions racket."

This is the DPRK's first response to Washington since US President Donald Trump signed the "Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act" into law on Wednesday.

The legislation contains the "Korean Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act," which blocks the transfer of gemstones, petroleum, petroleum byproducts and other natural gas resources, precious metals and bulk cash to and from North Korea.

It also addresses North Korea-linked digital commercial activity like online gambling.

The legislation was part of a sanctions passage that included Russia and Iran. Signing it seemingly contradicting Trump's past statements about improving relations with Moscow, and has infuriated Iran, which says the new sanctions violate the terms of the historic 2015 nuclear agreement reached between Tehran and world powers.

The sanctions against Russia are based on its alleged interference in the 2016 US elections and for Moscow's presence in Ukraine, targeting its oil and mining industry.

After signing the measure, Trump said, "I also support making clear that America will not tolerate interference in our democratic process and that we will side with our allies and friends against Russian subversion and destabilization."

He called the bill "seriously flawed," however, chiefly because it doesn't allow him to roll back sanctions without involving Congress.

The bill also comes as the US announces a travel ban to North Korea starting on September 1. It is set to last for one year unless revoked by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

A separate KCNA story published the same day warned South Korea that they will only "invite the disaster of a nuclear war" by "dancing to the tune of psychopath-like Trump."

It also accused South Korean "puppet authorities" of considering unilateral sanctions of their own, and saying,"even their master, the US, is finding itself in a dilemma as its sanctions and military pressure do not work on the DPRK."

The North has still not responded to Seoul's proposal for a reunion between families separated by the Korean War and has also not responded to an offer for inter-military talks meant to soothe tensions at the military border.

There hasn't been a family reunion across the Koreas since October 2015, and there haven't been government talks on the peninsula since December 2015.

 Sputnik

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China on Possible US Sanctions: Beijing Didn't Trigger North Korea Problem

Sputnik News

16:23 04.08.2017(updated 18:32 04.08.2017)

All concerned parties have to join efforts to alleviate the Korean Peninsula crisis as China alone is not responsible for aggravating the conflict, the Chinese Foreign Ministry told Sputnik, commenting on reports of the US working on a set of trade restrictions against Beijing allegedly turning a blind eye to Pyongyang amassing military force.

BEIJING (Sputnik)  On Monday, Politico reported citing sources in the White House that Washington is secretly preparing a set of anti-China trade measures partially over Beijing's alleged reluctance to put severe pressure on North Korea. US President Donald Trump's administration is also reportedly investigating China's alleged violations of US intellectual property, something which can also hinder China-US commercial relations.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea problem was not triggered by China, and the present issues have to be resolved conjointly by all the parties involved, and all of them have to understand it," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

The statement added that China has consistently advocated for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula for many years. Beijing has done everything possible to secure peace and stability, as well as attempted to resolve the crisis through talks, and these efforts have been recognized by the international community, the ministry said.

"As for China-US bilateral trade relations, they, in reality, are mutually beneficial. Facts show that securing steady and reliable trade cooperation between China and the United States comply with the interests of both sides," the statement added.

Recently, US President Donald Trump stepped up criticism of China amid numerous Pyongyang's ballistic missile launches claiming that Beijing is to blame for the issue.

On Sunday, two days after the latest DPRK's missile launch, Trump said on his Twitter he was "very disappointed in China" as "they do nothing for us with North Korea," adding that former US leaders had made it possible for Beijing to make "hundreds of billions of dollars in trade."

According to the US Department of Commerce, the total value of exports from and imports to China amounted to $115.6 and $462.6 billion in 2016, respectively.

 Sputnik

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N Korean Foreign Ministry Slams New US Travel Ban for Pyongyang

Sputnik News

09:32 04.08.2017

The North Korean Foreign Ministry condemns to severe criticism the US travel ban.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The North Korean Foreign Ministry criticized on Friday a new ban preventing US citizens from traveling to North Korea and accused Washington of a "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang.

"The move is a dirty scheme aimed at limiting human exchanges to prevent U.S. citizens from seeing North Korea as it is and a failure of its hostile policy. This reflects Washington's view that it regards us as an enemy," a ministry spokesperson said as quoted by the Korean Central News Agency.

On Thursday, the US State Department said that the new measure would go into effect on September 1. Under the ban, US citizens who wish to travel to North Korea will be required to obtain a special passport validation from the State Department, which will grant this permission only in very limited circumstances.

The United States decided to prohibit citizens from traveling to North Korea after the death of a US student Otto Warmbier following his detention in the country.

After he was held in captivity for 17 months, Warmbier was released in a coma in June, evacuated to the United States and died in Ohio a few days later.

 Sputnik

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US Leads Move to Impose New UN Sanctions on North Korea

By Margaret Besheer August 04, 2017

The United States is seeking the quick adoption of a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would deprive North Korea of $1 billion a year in revenue that helps fuel its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile program.

The move for additional sanctions is in response to Pyongyang's two intercontinental ballistic missile launches on July 3 and 28, which showed that the rogue nation may now have the capacity to bring the U.S. mainland and much of Europe into its cross hairs.

Diplomats say that after weeks of negotiations between the United States and China, the Security Council is moving closer to a vote, as all 15 members have now seen and discussed the U.S.-drafted text.

According to a Security Council diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations, the provisions  if adopted and implemented  would effectively deny Pyongyang of a third of its annual $3 billion in exports. Four export sectors are targeted in the resolution  coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, and seafood.

In two council resolutions adopted in March and November of last year, the council imposed export caps on coal, which is North Korea's single largest export.

"In this resolution, there is no cap; there is no allowable coal. All coal exports will stop, will be banned from export from North Korea," the council diplomat said.

Immediate $400M drop

By removing that cap, the diplomat said there would immediately be a decrease of $400 million a year in North Korea's export revenue.

Estimations for 2017 revenue from the export of iron and lead are about $364 million, while the seafood industry was expected to bring in nearly $300 million in export revenue.

The diplomat said the draft resolution would also prohibit countries from accepting additional guest workers from North Korea. Pyongyang is notorious for sending its citizens to other countries to work and then confiscating much or all of their salaries, effectively making them slave labor.

The draft text also tightens the enforcement of existing sanctions. The council has imposed several rounds of increasingly tougher targeted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 for its nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches.

It is not clear whether a vote could come as early as Saturday or after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets separately on the sidelines of the ASEAN conference Sunday in Manila with both the Chinese and Russian foreign ministers.

The diplomat said consultations are still ongoing with Russia and China, but that there is "high confidence" that the two North Korean allies would be brought on board with the measures in the resolution.

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No Early Delivery of Rafale Jets for India

Sputnik News

19:33 04.08.2017

Contrary to India's desire, France has not made any commitment for before-the-schedule delivery of the first batch of Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Indian Air Force will not be getting Rafale fighter jets before schedule despite several requests by the Indian government to France to speed up the delivery.

"The delivery of the aircraft will commence from September 2019 and will be completed by April 2022. There is no anticipation of any delay in the scheduled delivery of the aircraft," Arun Jaitley, India's Minister of Defense informed the Parliament on Friday.

On July 18 this year, Chief of Indian Air Force, B S Dhanoa visited the production facility of Dassault Aviation in France where Rafale jets meant for India were being manufactured and had reviewed the expected delivery time for the first batch of aircraft. Last year, India had sent a formal request to France to expedite the delivery of Rafale jets.

"As per terms of the deal it is 36 months (during which the delivery has to start), but it may come slightly earlier. We have requested them to (deliver it) as fast as possible," Manohar Parrikar, the then Defense Minister of India had said in a statement.

However, Dassault Aviation's half yearly report released on July 26 indicated a grim possibility of early delivery of Rafale to India. The report said that the company could complete manufacturing only four fighter jets in the first half of the current year as compared to seven aircraft in the same time period last year and the deliveries were made to armed forces of Egypt and France.

"The defense export backlog includes, in particular, 15 Rafale to Egypt (compared to 18 as of December 31, 2016), 24 Rafale to Qatar and 36 Rafale to India," said the report.

Nevertheless, Dassault Aviation was upbeat about receiving an additional order of about 700 combat aircraft from the Indian Air Force over the next decade perceiving the threat from neighbors. Dassault Chief Executive Eric Trappier said on July 26 that the company was considering substantial technology transfer to expand the existing Rafale deal with India. "We are building a long-term relationship and I am prepared to study any future for our involvement there (India), whatever it is," Trappier said.

However, the Indian Defense Minister has made it clear that purchase of additional combat aircraft cannot be accommodated in the original deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets. He said future deals would be governed by the new defense procurement policy that has a completely different set of guidelines.

i

"Procurement for the further requirements of fighter aircraft for the IAF will be pursued through the extent procurement procedures," Jaitley added.

The deal between India and France to provide 36 Rafale jets to the Indian Air Force for meetings its critical operational necessity was finalized on September 23, 2016, for a whopping $8.8 billion after numerous hiccups.

 Sputnik

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Indian Military Suggests Continuation of 5th-Generation Jet Project With Russia

Sputnik News

18:00 04.08.2017

The special four-member panel established by the Indian Defense Ministry to examine various aspects of the joint Russia-India fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) project strongly recommended the Indian government to continue cooperating with Russia in this direction, the local media reported Friday, citing Indian Air Force sources.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik)  According to the sources, cited by Hindustan Times media outlet, the committee, headed by retired Air Marshal Simhakutty Varthaman, has examined all aspects of the project for five months. The committee has also reportedly submitted a report to the government, strongly recommending the continuation the FGFA project's implementation. Moreover, India would significantly benefit from the project, according to the media outlet.

Varthaman has refused to comment on the report.

"We were given a task and we have submitted our report to the government. That's all I can tell you," Varthaman said, as quoted by the Hindustan Times.

Sputnik has reached out to the Indian Defense Ministry for comment on the matter.

In March, local media reported that the project was under question because of alleged contradictions between Russia and India on the issue of technology transfer. The Russian authorities have refuted the allegations, saying that there was no dispute on the issue, and that the bilateral agreement on the separation of research and development works on the FGFA was in its final stage.

The FGFA project is a part of the "Make in India" initiative launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. Within the project, the Russian side is represented by the Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer and the Indian side by the Hindustan Aeronautics. Under the agreement on research and development works, which will be conducted for six years, Russia and India will reportedly invest $4 billion each at the developmental stage, while the total cost of constructing 127 fighter jets is estimated to amount to $25 billion.

In late July, Sergei Chemezov, the general director of Russia's Rostec state corporation, said that the contract on creation of a Russia-India fifth-generation FGFA fighter will be signed shortly.

 Sputnik

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Zarif warns Europe of US effort to eliminate JCPOA

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Aug 5, IRNA -- Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif said Europe should be vigilant of the US President Donald Trump's efforts to remove the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Zarif made the remarks in a meeting with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, who is here to attend President Hassan Rouhani's swearing-in ceremony.

He said, 'Mr. Trump, the US President, tries to remove the JCPOA at Iran cost; so, Europe should be vigilant in that connection.'

He went on to say that the new US administration seeks to avoid Iran benefit from the JCPOA, which is in violation of the accord's spirit.

Also referring to Iran's missile test and launching of Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier into the space and non-contradiction of the measures with the resolution 2231, Zarif criticized recent statement of the three European countries, issued along with the US, and said it is a move in wrong direction.

Mogherini in turn expressed pleasure with presence in Iran to attend the oath-taking ceremony and said international community shares common interests with Iran in the JCPOA implementation.

'The EU categorically supports the JCPOA and it is the joint stance of all European states,' she added.

The EU envoy said, 'The EU stance on the issue is well clear and we try to have the US join us in connection with the JCPOA. All of us need taking wise and proportionate measures.'

The two sides discussed Iran-EU cooperation in various domains, including economic fields.

They exchanged views on regional issues, Syria, Astana talks, Persian Gulf developments, conditions in Yemen, campaign against Daesh Takfiri terrorism and the need to probe into deplorable conditions of the people of Yemen, Bahrain and Iraq.

1420

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Iran's President Rohani Sworn In For His Second Term In Office

RFE/RL August 05, 2017

Iranian President Hassan Rohani has been sworn in for his second term in an open parliament session in Tehran.

Speaking at a lavish ceremony attended by more than 100 foreign dignitaries on August 5, Rohani promised that his country will pursue a "path of coexistence and interaction with the world."

Among the guests was EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who held a meeting with Rohani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif before the ceremony.

Rohani, 68, a moderate cleric who secured reelection on May 19, was formally endorsed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on August 3.

Rohani called the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers one of the greatest achievements of his government in the past four years. The landmark nuclear deal led to the lifting of most sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

Rohani warned the United States against undermining the nuclear deal and said "Iran will not be the first to violate the nuclear deal, but nor will it stay silent when the United States fails to respect its commitments."

Last month, Washington announced new sanctions over Iran's missile program and alleged support for terrorist groups. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the nuclear deal as "bad" and during his election campaign vowed to dismantle it.

Rohani was first elected in 2013 with nearly 51 percent of the vote. He won 57 percent of the vote in May's election after promising to build bridges with the outside world and create more jobs.

Iran's state media reported that more than 130 high-ranking officials from various countries and international organizations attended the swearing-in ceremony, a significant achievement for Iran, which has been largely isolated since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Top European officials present at the ceremony included French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, State Secretary at the German Foreign Ministry Michael Roth, and British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt.

Some of Iran's oldest allies, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, also attended the ceremony.

Under Iranian law, Rohani will have two weeks to submit his cabinet to parliament for approval.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, TASS and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-rohani-oath-of- office-presidency-khamenei/28660203.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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The Challenges Iranian President Rohani Faces In His New Term

Golnaz Esfandiari August 05, 2017

As Iranian President Hassan Rohani enters his second term in office, he faces a number of challenges both at home and from abroad.

U.S. Pressure And The Nuclear Deal

Hassan Rohani began his second term on August 5 amid an intensification of pressure from Washington, which has accused Tehran of noncompliance with international obligations following recent missile tests and has characterized the 2015 nuclear accord as a bad deal.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has twice (in April and July) certified Iran's compliance with the deal, under which Iran limited its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. But he has reportedly asked White House staffers to begin making a case to deny certification of the deal, worked out with five other world powers under the administration of President Barack Obama, when the next review comes up in October.

Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in July, when he last certified Iranian compliance following a 90-day review period, that if it were up to him he would have declared Iran noncompliant 180 days ago.

"I think they'll be noncompliant. I think they're taking advantage of this country. They've taken advantage of a president, named Barack Obama, who didn't know what the hell he was doing. And I do not expect that they will be compliant."

The United States had earlier imposed new, unilateral economic sanctions on Iran over its ballistic-missile program, in both May and July. On July 18, Trump expressed concern over Iran's "malign activities across the Middle East" and said that while Iran was complying with the deal, it was in default of "the spirit" of the accord.

Rohani, who won election in 2013 on the promise of ending Iran's international isolation, dedicated the first years of his presidency to negotiating the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In his second term, he will have to work to defend it in the face of criticism from not only abroad but at home, as well.

Sanctions Piling Up

Rohani enters his second term just as more new U.S. sanctions, signed into law by Trump on August 2, target Iran for human rights violations and support for terrorism. The sanctions also single out companies and individuals that aid Iran's ballistic-missile program.

Iran was barred under a 2010 UN Security Council resolution (1929) from conducting ballistic-missile tests. But that resolution was terminated with the signing of the JCPOA worked out with the United States and other world powers. The postdeal resolution (2231) says that "Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons."

Tehran has said that its most recent missile tests, involving the Simorgh rocket, are intended to launch satellites.

Pressure From Hard-Liners

Hard-line pressure on Rohani could increase in the next four years. Hard-liners who control key institutions have targeted Rohani's outreach to the West and also his efforts at home to expand civil liberties and lessen censorship. They have also targeted his brother Hossein Fereidoun, who was briefly detained last month and released on bail over unspecified allegations of financial impropriety.

Rohani, who has in past weeks launched verbal attacks on his hard-line rivals, including on the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), called for unity during his August 3 endorsement ceremony.

Reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh said earlier this week that Rohani has faced unprecedented pressure.

"Even [former reformist President Mohammad Khatami] didn't face the kind of problems Rohani has faced in the past two months since his [reelection]," Tajzadeh said.

"The atmosphere has been so intense against Rohani that some were asking me whether there would be an endorsement and inauguration ceremony," he added.

And the attacks are likely to continue.

"To weaken Rohani, they will try all possible ways, from provoking hawks in Washington to imposing more political limitations at home...and isolating Iran economically," an unidentified senior official told Reuters in June.

The Economy

Rohani is also under pressure to translate the nuclear deal into a better economy for Iranians who are frustrated with the slow results of the accord. During the election campaign, Rohani's rivals accused him of having failed to revive the economy, claiming that the gap between rich and poor has widened.

Hard-line conservatives, who have consistently attacked Rohani for the deal, have said existing U.S. sanctions scare potential foreign investors away and cite them as evidence that Washington, too, is not in compliance with the spirit of the JCPOA.

Political Prisoners

The release of Iran's political prisoners, particularly opposition figures Mir Hossein Musavi, his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, and fellow reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi has been among the main demands of Rohani's supporters.

Rohani has failed to push for their release despite promises made in his 2013 and 2017 election campaigns.

The head of the powerful judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, recently criticized the Iranian president for promising to release the opposition figures.

"Who are you to end the house arrest?" Larijani said in May, without naming the president.

The three main opposition figures, who have been under house arrest since 2011 and denied adequate medical care, are in poor health, according to their families.

There are concerns particularly over the health of 79-year-old Karrubi, who was hospitalized this month at a Tehran hospital due to a heart condition.

Rohani could face a backlash if anything happens to the opposition leaders.

Rohani is also under increased pressure over jailed dual U.S. nationals, including businessman Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father, Bagher Namazi, who are said to have been detained by the IRGC.

The White House has threatened the Islamic republic with "serious consequences" if it does not release all American citizens it is holding.

Political And Social Reforms

Many of the pro-reform supporters of Rohani are expecting the president to follow up on his promises to give them more social and political freedoms. But the Iranian president doesn't have the last say. It is also not clear whether he's ready to pick a fight with powerful hard-liners who oppose political liberalization.

Some have expressed disappointment in reports that Rohani's future cabinet is not likely to include women as ministers.

"We supported him during the campaign, but now there is no place for us," women's rights advocate and journalist Jila Baniyaghoob told The New York Times.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/challenges- iran-rohani-new-term-sanctions- hard-liners-trump/28660225.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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Iranian President Vows Response to Any Nuke Deal Violation Amid New US Sanctions

Sputnik News

19:24 05.08.2017(updated 21:04 05.08.2017)

Tehran will take countermeasures responding to any potential breaches of the Iran nuclear deal, however it will never be the first party to violate the agreement, reelected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Iranian politician added that Tehran would not take steps to violate the agreement, but at the same time the country's authorities would not look at the potential violations of the accord by other parties to it without any reaction.

"The world should know that any breach of obligations under this international agreement would face a united response of the Iranian nation and the government," Rouhani said after the swearing-in event as broadcast by the IRIB TV channel.

On July 14, 2015, Iran and China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Tehran's nuclear program. The 2015 accord stipulated a gradual lifting of anti-Iran sanctions in exchange for Tehran's ensuring the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.

Rouhani's speech took place soon after US President Donald Trump signed the bill passed by Congress on new sanctions against three countries, including Iran.

Earlier in the day, the inauguration ceremony of Rouhani, who won the presidential election in May, took place in Tehran. Officials from over 90 countries attended the event. Rouhani was reelected for a second term, gaining 57 percent of the votes  more than 50 percent necessary to secure the victory, at a May 19 presidential election.

"The constructive contacts with other countries, the enhancement of ties with the neighbors and the regional states, the increase of the level of cooperation with the friendly states, is not only the conscious choice but the necessity, related to ensuring the international security," Rouhani said in a public address after being sworn-in as Iran's president.

Taking about the situation in the Middle East, Rouhani pointed out that stability in the region could be reached only through dialogue. Iran prefers peace but is always ready to protect its people, Rouhani noted adding that the people's voice and not weapons was the main instrument of defense.

 Sputnik

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Inauguration Ceremony of Iranian President Rouhani Held in Tehran

Sputnik News

17:23 05.08.2017

The inauguration ceremony of reelected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was held in Tehran on Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The ceremony was broadcast by the IRIB TV channel.

On Thursday, the first part of the inauguration took place, as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the results of the elections, held on May 19, and confirmed Rouhani as the country's president.

Earlier on Saturday, the second part of the ceremony was held at the Iranian Parliament the swearing-in of the president. The ceremony started at 05:30 p.m. local time (12:30 GMT), with an orchestra playing the the national anthem. Several verses from the Quran were read as well, and then speaker of the country's Parliament Ali Larijani and head of the country's judiciary Sadeq Amoli Larijani addressed the guests of the ceremony.

After that, Rouhani read and signed the text of the oath, and promised to use all his powers to protect the religion, order in the country and the constitution.

According to official data, guests from 92 countries attended the ceremony.

The presidential election in Iran took place on May 19. Rouhani was reelected for a second term in office by gaining 57 percent of votes with the turnout amounting to 70 percent. Rouhani's key opponent ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi, the country's former Prosecutor General, came second with 38 percent of votes.

 Sputnik

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Rouhani Sworn in for 2nd Term Amid Heightened Tensions With US

By VOA News August 05, 2017

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was sworn in for his second term Saturday after easily winning the presidential election in May.

Rouhani, who is seen by some as a moderate leader, led Iran from relative global isolation when he signed a nuclear deal in 2015 with several world powers in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against the country.

Earlier this week, though, the United States confirmed new sanctions against Iran, leading the country to accuse the U.S. of violating the deal.

Iranian deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on state television that the country would "react appropriately" to the new sanctions.

"We will certainly not fall into the trap of U.S. policy and Trump, and our reaction will be very carefully considered," he said.

The new sanctions against Iran came as part of a package that also put new sanctions on Russia and North Korea. The bill aims to stop anyone who's dealt with the Iranian ballistic missile program from entering the U.S., and blocks those associated with the program from buying or selling property held in the U.S.

President Donald Trump, during his campaign for the presidency, called the nuclear agreement "the worst deal ever." He also criticized his predecessor, Barack Obama, for signing the deal, which Trump said doesn't do enough to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley on Wednesday condemned Iran's reported launch of a satellite-carrying rocket, technology that possibly could be used for a ballistic missile.

"The world must not allow Iran to act in defiance of the Security Council and its resolutions. The United States will be vigilant in ensuring that Iran is held accountable for such behavior," she said, calling on other U.N. nations to join the U.S. in calling out Iran's "destructive and threatening actions."

The increasing tension could create a problem for Rouhani as he enters his second term, which he won based on his willingness to work with western nations.

"We will never accept isolation," Rouhani said earlier this week after receiving the blessing of Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "The nuclear deal is a sign of Iran's goodwill on the international stage."

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Iraqi troops unearth dozens of bodies in Anbar mass grave

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 2:50PM

Iraqi security officials say government forces have found a mass grave in the troubled western province of Anbar, containing the bodies of at least 40 people, who are believed to have been executed by Takfiri Daesh terrorists in 2015 when they were in control of the terrain.

An army lieutenant colonel, requesting anonymity, said troops made the grisly find during a sweep of the al-Tash area on the southern outskirts of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, located about 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of the capital Baghdad.

He added that Daesh extremists had put a bullet in the head of each one of the victims, noting that the corpses were heavily decomposed.

Director of Martyrs Committee for Anbar Province, Ammar Nuri al-Dulaimi, said the bodies had bullet wounds to the head, suggesting they were executed by Daesh militants.

In May, Iraqi authorities announced the discovery of three mass graves in three separate areas, one of them in the center of Ramadi, containing the remains of civilians and soldiers killed at the hands of Daesh Takfiris.

Iraqi army forces and fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha'abi, retook Ramadi in December 2015.

Genocide of Izadi Kurds still ongoing, unaddressed: UN

Meanwhile, a UN human rights Commission of Inquiry says Daesh terror group is still committing genocide against the Izadi minority group.

"The genocide is on-going and remains largely unaddressed, despite the obligation of states...to prevent and to punish the crime," the commission said on Thursday.

It added, "Thousands of Izadi men and boys remain missing and the terrorist group continues to subject some 3,000 women and girls in Syria to horrific violence including brutal daily rapes and beatings."

The Endowments and Religious Affairs Ministry of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) also announced on Thursday that Daesh's genocide against Izadis has forced nearly 360,000 members of the minority to flee their hometowns, and another 90,000 have left Iraq and taken refuge in others countries.

It added that Daesh militants have kidnapped 6,417 Izadi Kurds, including 1,102 women and 1,655 children, since 2014.

Additionally, 2,645 children have lost their first line of protection, and the number includes 220 kids whose parents are still being held captive in Daesh-held areas.

Back in August 2014, Daesh terrorists overran Sinjar, killing, raping, and enslaving large numbers of Izadis. The town was recaptured on November 13, 2015, during a two-day operation by Peshmerga forces and Izadi fighters.

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Leading Iraqi Clerics Call For Dismantling Iran-Backed Shi'ite Militias

August 05, 2017

Leading Iraqi Shi'ite clerics are calling for the disbandment of powerful Iran-backed Shi'ite militias now that the nation has retaken its second-largest city, Mosul, from the Islamic State extremist group.

Muqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American firebrand with a large following among Baghdad's urban poor, on August 4 called for the disbandment of Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary organization with an estimated 122,000 troops dominated by Iran-backed Shi'ite militias.

Sadr was speaking to thousands of supporters in Baghdad after a rare visit over the weekend to Iran's archrival Saudi Arabia, where he met with the Saudi crown prince.

In a speech broadcast on huge screens, Sadr urged Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to dismantle the Hashed militias, or Popular Mobilization Forces, and "integrate into the army the disciplined members," AFP reported.

Sadr also called on the authorities to "seize the arsenal of all armed groups."

Sadr himself led a militia that fought against the U.S. occupation of Iraq in the last decade. But he is now seen as a nationalist who has repeatedly called for protests against corruption in the Iraqi government.

Another leading cleric calling for the disbandment of the Iran-backed militias is Shi'ite Sheikh Fadil al-Bidayr, who was one of the religious leaders who issued an urgent call to arms answered by the militias in 2014 when IS swept through northern and western Iraq and captured Mosul amid a collapse in the Iraqi Army.

"We always knew that Iran would use this [call to arms] to increase its own power in Iraq, but we had no other choice" at the time, Bidayri told AP.

Bidayri said that now that Mosul has been retaken and the Iraqi military has been partially rebuilt, he believes the Shi'ite militias should be disbanded, to curb Iranian influence in Iraq and reduce sectarian tensions.

The elderly sheikh, like much of Iraq's religious establishment in Najaf, is a staunch nationalist and wary of Iran's growing influence.

"From the very beginning...Iran used every opportunity to get involved in Iraq," he told AP. "Each time they used the protection of the Shi'ite people as an excuse."

The Hashed al-Shaabi is the largest Shi'ite paramilitary group and is nominally under Abadi's command. But some of its components have for years been sending fighters to support Syria in its six-year civil war with rebel groups.

The paramilitary force took part in the battle to liberate Mosu, and could join future operations aimed at routing the militants from areas of the country they still hold. IS still controls parts of western Iraq, including much of the desert province of Anbar.

While Sadr, Bidayri, and some other Iraqi political, religious, and military leaders say the Shi'ite militias must go, militia leaders say their sacrifices on the battlefield have earned them a permanent place in Iraq's security forces.

Although the Shi'ite militias did not play a central role in the battle to retake Mosul, they moved into the deserts held by IS west of the city, massing around the town of Tal Afar and retaking a border crossing between Iraq and Syria.

They also took control of highways bisecting the Sunni heartland in western Iraq and used as vital military and civilian supply lines.

In past fights against IS, including the operation to retake the cities of Tikrit and Fallujah, the Shi'ite militias were accused of sectarian killings and other abuses against minority Sunnis. Militia leaders acknowledged some abuses occurred but said those responsible have been disciplined.

"The Hashed will remain...and our relationship with Iran will remain," Hadi al-Amiri, a senior leader of the Badr Brigade, one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite militias, told AP.

Amiri said IS's insurgent capabilities will pose a long-term security threat to Iraq and his forces will have a continuing mission.

Iraq's prime minister has also repeatedly said he backs the Popular Mobilization Forces, telling reporters at a press conference last week that they "must remain at least for years, as the terrorism threat still exists."

Moreover, analysts say it's unlikely Iraqi security forces would be able to absorb all the militia factions.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ leading-iraqi-shiite-clerics-sadr-bidayri- call-for-dismantling-iran-backed- shiite-militias-popular-mobilization-forces hashed-al-shaabi/28660078.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 denies military presence in Libya

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 1:39AM

Russia says it has deployed no military specialists to Libya, denying media reports that claimed otherwise.

"There are no Russian military specialists in Libya. All talks and publications on the matter are not true," Lev Dengov, the head of the Russian contact group on intra-Libyan settlement, told Russia's Kommersant newspaper on Thursday.

The European Council on Foreign Relations published an article on its website on Wednesday, implying that not only Russian forces were deployed to the country but also there were Russian militiamen fighting in the battle.

The report referred to a particular Reuters report in mid-March, which claimed Russian special forces had been deployed to an Egyptian airbase on the border with Libya.

Dengov said in his statement that there were no individuals from Russia or other former Soviet states fighting in Libya.

"I met with a representative of the Libyan committee for state security who said that today there were no people coming from Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union," the official noted.

Supervised by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and State Duma member Adam Delimkhanov, the Russian contact group is tasked with analyzing the situation in Libya, identifying key actors and players and engaging in dialogue with all parties to the conflict, according to Dengov.

Libya has been in a state of chaos since a US-led NATO military intervention in 2011, which led to a power vacuum after the death of the country's longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Today, the country's west is controlled by the UN-backed Government of National Accord, headquartered in the capital Tripoli.

The eastern part of the country, meanwhile, is governed by the Libyan parliament with its headquarters in the city of Tobruk.

The parliament is backed by the Libyan National Army headed by General Khalifa Haftar, one of Gaddafi's senior commanders who switched sides during an uprising against the former dictator in 2011.

In December last year, Haftar went to Moscow to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks over the situation in the North African country.

Back then, the general said he was visiting Moscow to seek Russia's help in the fight against extremists.

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Pakistan's New Cabinet Takes Oath

By Ayaz Gul August 04, 2017

Pakistan's new cabinet took oath Friday, concluding a democratic leadership transition process that was set in motion a week ago when a judicial order ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for concealing assets and plunged the nuclear-armed nation into political uncertainty.

Sharif's ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which dominates the parliament together with its allied parties, swiftly nominated and elected Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the country's new chief executive.

Abbasi, 58, is a close associate of Sharif and was serving as oil minister in the ousted government.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain administered the oath of office to more than 40 cabinet members, mostly known as staunch Sharif allies.

Diplomats, lawmakers and top military officials were among the attendees at the special ceremony. Later, Prime Minister Abbasi chaired the inaugural meeting of his cabinet.

Khawaja Mohammad Asif, who headed the defense and water ministries in the previous cabinet, has become the full-time foreign minister of Pakistan.

Sharif had faced criticism for not appointing a full-time foreign minister and relying on advisers to run external policy matters since he came to power in 2013 for a record third time.

US policies

The political uncertainty gripped the country at a time when the United States is reviewing its Afghan policy amid prevailing concerns and allegations that covert support by the Pakistan military has enabled the Taliban to sustain and intensify its violent campaign in Afghanistan.

"We will certainly look forward to working with [Abbasi] on areas of mutual cooperation," said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert on Thursday, while congratulating Abbasi on his election.

"As you all know, we have very strong people-to-people ties with the government of Pakistan and we'll look forward to working with Pakistan, and we'll look forward to working with him [Prime Minister Abbasi] as well," she added.

It is being widely reported that President Donald Trump's administration is expected to take a tougher stance on Pakistan in the proposed new strategy to pressure it to do more against militant sanctuaries on Pakistani soil.

Islamabad denies charges it is supporting or sheltering insurgents involved in terrorist activities in Afghanistan, and insists Pakistan is working for peace and stability in the neighboring country in its own national interest and stability.

Counterterrorism efforts

Pakistani officials routinely denounce terrorist attacks against Afghan civilians and forces. In a rare move, Pakistan's military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, on Thursday condemned as terrorism this weeks' Taliban attack in Afghanistan, in which two U.S. troops were killed and four others wounded.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria maintains that Pakistan has taken significant steps to counter cross-border terrorism and supports Afghan peace-building efforts.

"We have undertaken various measures that include plugging of gaps, infrastructure development of crossing points and other measures. Our efforts for border management are aimed at facilitating movement of people, trade and transit and curb the movement of undesired elements," Zakaria added.

Officials say that a visiting U.S. delegation headed by an acting special representative for the region, Ambassador Alice Wells, also has been briefed on Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts.

Wells arrived Thursday in Islamabad, and Afghanistan appeared to have dominated her discussions with Pakistani interlocutors.

She met with Asif and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Zubair Hayat, among others, before concluding her two-day visit on Friday, according to a U.S. embassy statement.

"She stressed that Pakistani soil must not be used to plan or conduct terrorist attacks against its neighbors," the statement added.

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South Korean FM says open to meeting North Korean counterpart

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 5, 2017 10:1AM

South Korea's new foreign minister has expressed readiness to meet and discuss inter-Korean issues with her North Korean counterpart on the sidelines of a security summit in the Philippines.

"If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Kang Kyung-wha told reporters as she landed in Manila on Saturday, according to the official Yonhap news agency.

Kang noted that any meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Hong-Yo would be an opportunity "to deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers (for talks) aimed at establishing a peace regime."

The two senior officials are attending the regional summit, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The meeting in Manila comes at a time when Pyongyang is facing intense international pressure to curb its nuclear weapons program.

Last month, Seoul proposed military talks with Pyongyang, but the North declined to respond.

The Manila event -- known as the ASEAN Regional Forum  comes as the United Nations Security Council will vote later in the day on a US-drafted resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea for its numerous missile and nuclear tests.

North Korea, however, says its nuclear and missile development programs act as a deterrent to defend the nation in the face of the US and its regional allies' hegemony.

Seoul and Washington reached an agreement over the deployment of a controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in July last year, declaring that the objective is to protect South Korea against North Korea's alleged missile threats.

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Russia agrees with US that bilateral ties at 'very dangerous low'

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 1:33PM

The Kremlin says it agrees with US President Donald Trump's view posted on Twitter on Thursday that relations between Washington and Moscow were at a very dangerous low.

"We fully share this opinion," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Trump's view.

Peskov added that the danger facing the countries "may lie in a deficit of interaction and cooperation in those matters which are vitally important for our two countries and peoples."

On Thursday, President Trump warned on Twitter that Washington's ties with Moscow were at "an all-time & very dangerous low," and blamed Congress for the situation, a day after he reluctantly signed into law a sanctions bill against Russia.

Russia said the fresh US sanctions were tantamount to a "full-scale trade war" and destroy prospects for better relations with Washington.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that the new sanctions showed that the Trump administration was completely powerless. "The Trump administration has shown its total weakness by handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way."

Peskov also censured on Friday the ongoing investigation into Trump's alleged "collusion" with Russia to beat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during the 2016 US presidential race, calling it "Russiagate," a reference to the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, a former president of the United States.

"We have many times talked about the complete absurdity and lack of basis for so-called Russiagate," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman added.

Trump's desire for better ties with Moscow has been hampered by accusations from US intelligence agencies that Russia operated a series of high-profile cyber attacks to change the outcome of the November 8 presidential election in favor of Trump.

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Kremlin Echoes Trump's Assessment Of Bilateral Ties

RFE/RL August 04, 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says the Kremlin agrees with President Donald Trump's statement that the U.S. "relationship with Russia is at an all-time and very dangerous low."

"We fully share this opinion," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a regular conference call on August 4.

"The danger may lie in a deficit of interaction and cooperation in those matters which are vitally important for our two countries and peoples," he said.

Trump made the remark on Twitter on August 3.

He blamed the state of ties between Moscow and Washington on the U.S. Congress, which adopted a bill last week imposing new sanctions on Russia and preventing the president from easing the punitive measures without its consent."You can thank Congress, the same people that can't even give us HCare!" Trump said in the tweet, referring to a defeat in the Senate for his plans for health-care legislation.

Trump signed the sanctions legislation -- which was passed with veto-proof majorities in both houses of Congress -- on August 2.

U.S. lawmakers said the legislation is a response to Russia's occupation and illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, its support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, and its alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election that Trump won.

U.S. Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona), a prominent advocate of a tough stance toward Russia, took issue with Trump's assertion that Congress is to blame for the strained ties with Russia.

"Our relationship w/ Russia is at dangerous low. You can thank Putin for attacking our democracy, invading neighbors & threatening our allies," McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted on August 3.

The U.S. Justice Department and congressional panels are investigating alleged Russian interference and also seeking to determine whether there was any collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Trump's criticism of Congress came as several media outlets reported that Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury as part of the investigation. A grand jury is empowered to determine whether criminal charges should be filed in a matter, and it operates in secrecy. It is made up of ordinary citizens.

The U.S. intelligence community issued an assessment in January that Putin ordered an "influence campaign" targeting the U.S. election, with goals that included undermining trust in the U.S. electoral process, denigrating Clinton, and helping Trump. Russia denies meddling, despite what critics say is strong evidence, and Trump denies any collusion.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, Interfax, and RIA

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kremlin-echoes-trumps- assessment-bilateral-ties/28659203.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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Saudi bulldozers reduce Awamiyah to rubble as residents flee violence

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 4, 2017 5:50AM

Saudi military bulldozers have almost razed Awamiyah to the ground amid the deadly crackdown on the besieged Shia town, forcing hundreds of its residents to flee their homes.

The Middle East Eye news portal cited activists as saying that authorities have resorted to compulsory evictions in and around the historic al-Mosara district of Awamyiah.

The residents, according to the activists, have been driven out of their homes, while their property has been confiscated by private development firms.

The report also published an image showing a requisition order pinned to a house in the district of al-Shweikah, close to al-Mosara, which was issued by a private company with the authorization of the so-called National Joint Counterterrorism Command (NJCC).

Reports coming out of the town say Saudi military forces have been firing randomly at homes and cars in Awamiyah, destroying or setting fire to several houses and shops.

Amateur videos circulating on the Internet shows the city has been reduced to rubble, with activists saying those left inside are suffering from a lack of electricity, water, rubbish collection or fire services.

"There is a plan for forced displacement," said Ameen Nemer, a Saudi activist originally from Awamiya. "It doesn't matter where these people will end up."

Awamiyah, located in the eastern Qatif region, has been under military lockdown since May, when Saudi troops began destroying al-Mosara.

Riyadh claims al-Mosara has become a hideout for "militants," who are behind attacks on security forces in Eastern Province, but locals and the United Nations say the regime is after erasing cultural heritage in the Shia town and redeveloping the area.

Some eight people have been killed by the Saudi military in the town over the past days.

On Wednesday, Saudi police opened fire on a bus transporting people who were trying to flee the town, killing a civilian.

Nemer further said the regime is pursuing a politically-motivated project to depopulate and destroy the Shia town.

"It has nothing to do with al-Mosara and development, it has to do with punishing this town for being vocal for calling for rights, calling for reforms since 2011."

Since 2011, Eastern Province has been the scene of anti-regime demonstrations, with the protesters calling for freedom of speech, the release of political prisoners, and an end to economic and religious discrimination exercise by authorities.

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Syrian Army Eliminates Militants, Tanks, Ammunition Depots Near Raqqa

Sputnik News

15:35 04.08.2017(updated 17:09 04.08.2017)

A military source told Sputnik that the Syrian Army is regaining control of large territories south of Raqqa and eliminating terrorists along the way.

"The Syrian Army has conducted a successful military operation in a desert area and regained control of the villages of Huweja Shanan, al-Rahba, al Sabka, al Jaraih oil district and a 30 km long section on the southern bank of the Euphrates River," the source said.

The source also noted that the operation in this area of the desert began on July 14.

"At the moment, it is possible to talk about the destruction of a large number of terrorists. In addition, hundreds of militants were wounded, 330 vehicles, 12 leaders' headquarters, three tanks, two combat vehicles, three ammunition depots, 11 different guns and five machine guns were completely destroyed," the source said.

The source said that among the eliminated terrorists there were citizens of Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.

Raqqa has remained under control of the Daesh terrorist group since 2013 and is considered its de facto capital. The operation to liberate the city was launched by the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces supported by the US-led international coalition, in early June.

On Thursday, a spokesman for Syria's Tomorrow Movement, a national opposition party, told Sputnik that the city would hopefully be completely liberated within three months.

 Sputnik

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Russian Support to Promote Settling Crisis in Syria - Syrian Opposition Figure

Sputnik News

20:41 05.08.2017

According to the leader of the Syrian opposition group, the establishment of contacts with Russia is the most effective way to handle Syrian conflict.

CAIRO (Sputnik)  The leader of the Syrian opposition group Syria's Tomorrow on Saturday called the establishment of contacts with Russia the shortest and the most effective way of the Syrian conflict settlement.

"We have realized that the shortest and the most effective way [of resolving the Syrian conflict] is establishing contact with the Russian side for reaching the needed result. This is, as everyone knows, the only way available now," Ahmad Jarba said during the group's press conference in Cairo.

On Thursday, Syria's Tomorrow said in a statement that the group had acted as a mediator in the negotiations on establishment of a de-escalation zone in the northern part of the Syrian Homs province. The statement added that the agreement on the zone establishment was signed under the patronage of the Egyptian government and with the Russian Defense Ministry serving as a guarantor and called on the conflicting sides to adhere to the deal.

Also on Thursday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the representatives of the ministry and moderate Syrian opposition had reached an agreement on Monday on the third de-escalation zone in Syria, north of Homs. The spokesman added that 84 settlements with a population of more than 147,000 people were included in the zone.

The memorandum of the de-escalation zones establishment was signed at the May round of the Syrian settlement talks in Astana by Iran, Russia and Turkey, the three guarantor states of the Syrian ceasefire regime.

 Sputnik

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Under Erdogan, Turkey's Secular Traditions Recede

By Paul Alexander August 04, 2017

Turkey, once considered the model of an open, secular democracy in the Muslim world, now seems to be stuck in reverse. The government is cracking down on dissidents and erasing the line between religion and state in a country that has served as the bridge between East and West.

Founded nearly a century ago, the overwhelmingly Muslim republic incorporated Western thought and philosophy and focused on science. It became an early member of NATO and aimed for European Union membership.

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, riding a wave of domestic conservatism, is turning toward increasingly authoritarian rule. The once-vibrant news media have been the target of mass arrests since a failed coup attempt a year ago, with journalists joining opposition legislators in jail on terrorism charges.

Thousands of workers have been culled from the civil service and school system. The education curriculum was revamped to eliminate the theory of evolution from most classrooms. Proposed legislation would allow local religious leaders to register and conduct marriages.

Fears of extremism

Critics inside and outside the country see a steady assault on the secular system, along with marginalization of minorities, which they fear could feed extremism.

"Basically, President Erdogan is destroying Turkey's secular education system," said Soner Cagaptay, Turkey program director at the Washington Institute policy organization. "That is the key reason why Turkey worked as a democratic society, which did not produce violent jihadist radicalization.

"The replacement of secular education with a nonsecular curriculum will inevitably expose Turkey to jihadist recruitment as well as radicalization efforts by groups such as ISIS and al-Qaida, both of which thrive across Turkey's border in Iraq and Syria."

The Education Ministry announced July 18 that the new national curriculum dropped the theory of evolution and added the concept of jihad. The ministry said evolution is above the level of students and was not directly relevant. It also said jihad was an element of Islam and had to be taught correctly.

Mustafa Balbay, of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), questioned the changes.

"We have to look at this issue as a whole," Balbay said. "If you do that, you will see that new steps by the government will move our students away from science and scientific knowledge. Science is the basis of the modern Turkish republic. An 18-year-old person is old enough to be elected to public office, but you tell him he can't understand the theory of evolution. It makes no sense."

But the change mirrors the sentiments of much of Erdogan's conservative supporters.

"Evolution is monkey theory. I don't believe in monkey theory. Allah created us," said Kemal, a cab driver in Erzurum. "In Turkey, we as a society have to become more religious. I support the government's moves. I am a Muslim. I want our country to produce more religious and more ethical generations."

Rushed legislation

The proposal to open the marriage system to clerics emerged from the Cabinet Erdogan installed after a recent referendum. Opposition and women's rights groups say the changes could open the door to underage marriages and could be used to force Islamic traditions on other religions.

They don't see the need to rush the legislation through, pointing out there are higher priorities, given that the current civil marriage bureaus aren't overworked.

"It is not a surprise that the first action undertaken by the Cabinet ... is an initiative that will inflict another blow to secularism," said Candan Yuceer, deputy chair of parliament's committee on gender equality and a member of the opposition CHP. "This is not a regulation that emerged out of need, but instead is the government's arbitrariness."

Parliament lost much of its clout in the referendum, which despite a clearly split electorate, gave Erdogan the ability to revamp the judiciary and other government organizations to suit his agenda. More regressive legislation is in the works, and there has been talk of restoring the death penalty, which has drawn protests from Germany and other European nations.

The CHP says it will try to stop the marriage bill in parliament, although opponents are finding themselves off balance in fighting the government's moves. Last year's attempted coup has significantly weakened the opposition. The government has shackled most of the media and critics of Erdogan's more conservative policies find themselves labeled as terrorists.

Reporters Kasim Cindemir in Washington and Yildiz Yazicioglu in Ankara contributed to this report.

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Turkish military sends more munitions to Syrian border over alleged threats from YPG

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 5, 2017 1:59PM

The Turkish military has reinforced its presence in the other side of the barbed wire border with Syria amid perceived threats from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a major component of the US-backed militiamen from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Turkey deployed a six-vehicle convoy that included tanks and howitzers to the southern province of Kilis to be positioned across from the Kurdish-controlled Syrian region of Afrin.

Turkey has been vehemently opposed to the YPG's presence in northern Syria.

Ankara views the People's Protection Units as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group, which has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.

On June 6, the SDF said it had launched an operation aimed at pushing the Daesh terrorist group out of Raqqah.

The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by the Daesh terrorists in March 2013, and was proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiris' administrative and control tasks the following year.

Turkish officials have frequently voiced strong opposition to the involvement of the Kurdish People's Protection Units in the US-led offensive to retake Raqqah.

Speaking to reporters while on a visit to Montenegro on May 10, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated that Washington knows Ankara's position on the YPG very well so it should not take wrong steps in Syria.

The top Turkish diplomat added that the United States needed to distinguish between the YPG and their Arab allies in the SDF, and that the Arabs should be the ones to enter Raqqah.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also set out Turkey's objections at a White House meeting with his counterpart Donald Trump in mid-May.

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DPR Deputy Commander Accuses US, NATO of Unofficially Supplying Arms to Kiev

Sputnik News

21:31 04.08.2017(updated 21:34 04.08.2017)

Deputy Commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Operational Command Eduard Basurin accused the US and NATO of illegally supplying the Ukrainian forces with arms.

DONETSK (Sputnik)  On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported citing US diplomats and military officials that the US state and defense departments had devised a plan to supply Ukraine with anti-tank missiles and other weaponry. According to the media outlet, the Pentagon and the State Department are seeking the approval of the White House on the issue.

"Unofficial deliveries of arms and ammunition from the United States and NATO have been underway for a long time. One of the recent evidences are the fragmentation grenades for the Bulgarian-made RPG-7, which were used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the night of July 30-31 in the shelling of a district near the town of Yasynuvata from the positions in Avdiivka," Basurin told reporters.

Basurin showed a photo of one of such unexploded grenades as an evidence and pointed out that Bulgaria was a NATO member state, adding that the possession of such ammunition by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was an evidence of illegal weapons deliveries.

Commenting on possible US and NATO weapons supplies to Kiev, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that all the states, especially those engaged in settling the Ukrainian conflicts, should avoid actions leading to further escalations.

In September 2016, the US House of Representatives approved legislation to allow the supply of lethal "defensive" weapons to Ukraine, but the law still needs to be approved by the US Senate and signed by the US President.

Russian officials have repeatedly warned against arms deliveries to Ukraine, stressing that it would only escalate the situation in the eastern part of the country.

Different European politicians, including former OSCE Chairman and German President-elect Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as well as NATO Military Committee Chairman Peter Pavel have also spoken against arms deliveries to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation in the country's eastern regions since April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new government in Kiev. In February 2015, Kiev and the Donbass militias signed a ceasefire deal. Despite the agreement, both sides have been reporting violations of the ceasefire.

 Sputnik

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Pentagon Reportedly Recommends Lethal Aid Package For Ukraine

August 05, 2017 10:08 GMT

The U.S. Defense Department has recommended sending a package of lethal military aid to Ukraine worth about $50 million, the U.S. NBC television network has reported.

NBC published the report on August 4, citing three unnamed officials who said the recommendation has been forwarded to the White House for consideration.

A Pentagon spokesperson refused to confirm the report, but told NBC that "we haven't ruled anything out."

The reported weapons package purportedly would include Javelin shoulder-launched antitank missiles.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in early 2014 and has provided extensive military, economic, and political to separatist militants in eastern Ukraine.

During a visit to Kyiv last month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg asserted that Russia has "thousands" of troops on Ukrainian soil.

Although Russia denies military involvement in the conflict, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

Based on reporting by NBC, The Wall Street Journal, and Stars And Stripes

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pentagon-lethal-aid- ukraine-russia-crimea/28660304.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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For three weeks in June, Averett associate professor of religion Ralph Hawkins woke up at 4 a.m. and made the short drive from Jerusalem to Khirbet el-Mastarah  an archaeological dig site near the banks of the Jordan River in Israel.

There, Hawkins and around a dozen other team members pulled from the dirt graying shards of pottery handles  remnants from the world of the Bibles Old Testament.

We saw a snapshot of the development of the Israelite society, he said.

In the book of Joshua and other scriptures, the early Israelites were described as crossing Canaan from the east to the west, Hawkins noted. Close examination of the village site, along with the excavated pottery, seems to show this Biblical description to be true.

Khirbet el-Mastarah is a 2.5-acre village site consisting of about a dozen structures, each 100-131 feet wide. Originally, the team thought the area was a residential village, but soon realized the larger remains found couldnt have been buildings, but instead were fences.

We decided that these enclosures were used to corral animals, Hawkins said.

As Hawkins hoped, the group found pottery dating back to the middle Bronze Age, or about 1,200 B.C. The archeologists believe the people who lived there stayed for hundreds of years

It shows us that those who inherited the site were not just nomads, Hawkins said.

The dig group also found evidence of a farming technique  called terracing farming  for growing crops on hilly terrain, another indication that the Israelites had started to settle down and advance as a civilization. Most of the settlers most likely grew wheat and barley, Hawkins added.

At a nearby site called Ouja al-Fouqa, Hawkins said the Israelites could have observed other settler groups from a large fortified town, just as described in the Bible.

Connecting the dig sites to each other allowed them to grasp the larger regional picture of civilization taking hold.

Its really amazing, Hawkins said. We are literally touching history.

With Hawkins on the archeological dig was his rising eight-grade daughter, Mary.

It was really special to find them and hold them in your hand, she said.

Rising Averett senior Rosie Anderson, the only school student to travel there with Hawkins, loved exploring some of the tunnels underneath Jerusalem and David by lamplight.

I loved meeting the people there and I loved experiencing the culture there, Anderson said.

Hawkins hopes to return to the region for another archaeological dig in about two years.
Update: Simons Run in Campbell County soon will boast a new hotel and, eventually, a health care facility from Centra.

In a news release issued Thursday, Campbell County officials announced an 82-room Tru by Hilton hotel would be built in the Wards Crossing West development on a 4.1-acre parcel of land on Simons Run, across from CarMax.

Centra, meanwhile, expects to complete the purchase of an adjacent 48 acres of land on Simons Run for about $7.7 million early next week so it can build a health care facility on the site. According to Centra, its too early to say when it will be built or exactly what kind of facility it might be, but financing already is available.

Developer J&N Hotels LLC would not disclose the purchase price of the property it bought for the new hotel, but according to online county records, the land was valued at $822,400 in January 2015.

In Campbell County, over the past three to four years, weve been very successful with hotels coming in, and that certainly helped diversify the economy, Mike Davidson, Campbell Countys economic development director, said Thursday. I think hotels are very, very important to us.

Campbell County provided incentives to J&N in the form of water and sewer connections, and the county will get a return on its investment with real estate and lodging taxes, Davidson said. Because the Campbell County Board of Supervisors has not voted on the proffers, he could not provide specifics. The matter is expected to come before the board in October.

Davidson said he thinks the hotel will be another catalyst that will help Simons Run develop and predicted because it is zoned for commercial use, any number of retailers, restaurants, hotels, offices and even medical providers are likely to come to the area. Simons Run is away from the traffic congestion of Wards Road, he said, yet has close proximity to the corridors retail, business and restaurant amenities.

Nirav Mehta, a partner with J&N Hotels LLC, said construction will begin this fall, and the hotel will open in the fall of 2018. Mehta said the Tru by Hilton hotel is a new concept  there are only two or three open in the United States  and the Simons Run hotel is one of a couple hundred in the pipeline.

Its designed to appeal to millennials, Mehta said, with amenities that include lobby iPads, a juice bar, and a fitness center with TRX bands, free weights and cardio and flexibility gear.

The hotel will create 20 full-time jobs and up to $9 million in new capital investment, according to the news release. Mehta said front desk jobs will pay about $50,000 annually while other jobs will pay $10 to $12 hourly.

Mehta said J&N chose the property because of its proximity to Liberty University, shopping and food outlets.

Davidson said the county is in talks with other developers about additional hotels in and around the area and is hopeful those come to fruition as well, but he would not provide specifics.

During the planning process, Mehta said he and his partner discovered Centra planned to purchase the neighboring land to house a health care center, which motivated them to push the deal through. J&N now is completing a green energy loan from the government to finance the project, which will require solar panels, water conservation efforts and other energy-efficiency measures.

We feel thats not the end of it; we think this area is growing tremendously, Mehta said, adding J&N wants the hotel open before Centra breaks ground so it can serve those building the health care center and its clients.

Centra confirmed Thursday it is in the process of purchasing 48 acres of land for about $7.7 million. Centra has the land under contract and expects to close on the deal early next week, according to Joe Archambeault, Centras vice president of facilities and support services. The land stretches from Leesville Road to Airport Road to Simons Run and faces U.S. 460.

Its our plan to develop this location for future medical facilities, and we are still in the very early planning stages so I cant say its going to be this or going to be that, Archambeault said Thursday.

We see this as an opportunity to improve access to health care, he said, adding high-quality facilities help attract health care providers.

Archambeault said although Centra has not determined what kind of facility it will build or what kind of services will be available there, nothing is off the table. A decision will be made based on residents needs and what works best in the location.

Focus groups held with residents in the area six to nine months ago revealed a desire for primary care, green space and diabetes care, among other things.

This is part of our long-range plan, and its one of a number of [ongoing] projects, he said. Once Centra acquires the property, it must still receive approvals from Campbell Countys Technical Review Committee and obtain permits for site work and building permits. A 1.5-acre portion of the property, which falls within the city, may also require Centra to obtain Conditional Use Permits and approvals from Lynchburg City Council.

We were looking for a location in the U.S. 29/U.S. 460 corridor. Thats a pretty important road and intersection within the city of Lynchburg, Archambeault said. Its readily accessible and close to other areas that are growing quickly.

He said the location shortens travel times and, in many cases, is easier to access than the Lynchburg General and Virginia Baptist hospital campuses. The other appeal is its proximity to Liberty University and its College of Osteopathic Medicine, which Centra has an affiliation agreement with, agreeing to provide residencies, clerkships, job shadowing and more to LUCOM students.

We see a lot of benefits for all those reasons, Archambeault said.

Once the sale of the property has closed, Centra plans to do some utility work in the area, extending Simons Run to Airport Road. A $280 million bond refinancing earlier this year will enable Centra to pay for the land acquisition and other future projects.
Serco maintains vehicles for Colorado Springs Utilities (pictured) and the City of Colorado Springs. File photo

After filing a second lawsuit against the City of Colorado Springs, Colo., fleet maintenance provider Serco now says its working with the city on an amendment to its fleet services contract.

In a written statement to Government Fleet, the company stated: Serco and the City of Colorado Springs reached an agreement and are in the process of finalizing it for the remaining years of the base contract.

Serco filed the lawsuit after losing its case before a city review panel over contract payments for its last two years of its five-year contract, the Colorado Springs Independent reported. Serco had asked for a significant price increase for its fourth year, more than allowed by the contract terms. Sercos lawsuit says the review panel exceeded its jurisdiction and abused its discretion.

Serco has been providing fleet maintenance services for the city and Colorado Springs Utilities 3,500 vehicles since 2014. The outsourcing agreement was expected to save the city more than $4 million over the life of the contract.

Serco's statement also emphasized the company's high service levels during the first three years of the contract:

We increased fleet availability, averaging 80 more vehicles available daily despite increased age of the fleet. We reduced scheduled maintenance turnaround time from 35 hours in 2013 before the Serco contract to 16 hours in 2016 under the Serco contract. We reduced unscheduled maintenance turnaround time from 130 hours in 2013 before the Serco contract to 57 hours in 2016 under the Serco contract. We look forward to serving the City and Utility of Colorado Springs for many years to come.

If the city and Serco come to an agreement, the company will withdraw legal action.

The city's communications office declined to comment.
State, county and local agencies werent on a Top 10 list of early adopters in a recent Internet of Things (IoT) survey, but government officials and a dean at the university behind the report identified several issues implicit to public-sector adoption of IoT , which is already changing how it operates.The findings, released July 25 in the joint Northeastern University-Silicon Valley and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) survey about the Internet of Things , were compiled by researchers through questioning more than 500 IEEE members.Three questions in particular illustrated where the public sector currently finds itself on the path to implementing IoT, P.K. Agarwal, Northeasterns dean and CEO, and Californias chief technology officer from 2005-2010, toldFirst, despite obvious examples that show local agencies innovating around everything from tracking garbage to intelligent traffic control devices , public sector didnt crack the top 10. The survey ranked the defense and military industry as the largest adopters of IoT technology, with a nearly 55 percent adoption rate, followed by security/access control at nearly 49 percent and health care at nearly 42 percent.The reason public sector isnt on that list is simple, Agarwal said: money.Military always has money. The problem with smart cities and IoT is that its a very capital-intensive proposition, noting that governments, especially California, continue to be recovering from the Great Recession.His solution? Public-private partnerships (P3s)  private financing for public ventures  which he sees as coming back with a vengeance, possibly within the next couple of years.Eric Pethtel, public works director for the city of Fishers, Ind., an Indianapolis suburb where officials are working to automate and modernize the agencys internal processes, said funding is probably the biggest issue underlying his city's quest to adopt IoT and become smarter.To do that it takes a lot of capital and sometimes that isnt always as fast coming as you would wish. Part of kicking the can is trying to be more efficient, more effective and doing more with less, Pethtel said.Ann Dunkin, CIO of Santa Clara County, Calif., and former CIO of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said that federal agencies like EPA and the Department of Transportation both have strong reasons to get into IoT, but other agencies may not.That said, Dunkin  who characterized her countys efforts as nascent  acknowledged municipalities, especially larger ones, are finding opportunities in IoT driven by density and the kind of work they do.And the bigger the city, the more densely populated, the more urgency they feel to it, Dunkin said.Second on Agarwal's list of relevant government takeaways, nearly 38 percent of respondents said data aggregation is their biggest challenge in IoT adoption  not skill levels, second-ranked by nearly 26 percent of those surveyed, or security concerns, picked by more than 18 percent.Agarwals only surprise here, he said, was that the often-taken-for-granted soft skills ranked so high. In reality, he said, points of presence will be the single biggest technical issue in the business of IoT and smart cities, and theres no cloud big enough to entertain all this data anyway.Samir Saini, CIO of Atlanta and one of's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers of 2017 , said data aggregation is not an issue for the city, which recently adopted a cloud-based enterprise data platform and can ingest IoT data at scale.Rather, Saini sees identifying high-value use cases as the top challenge to IoT deployment in cities. Its crucial, he said, to ensure proper deployment of expensive devices that may be difficult to properly exploit.Clearly define your problem. Then, its not an IoT project. Its a project and IoT is just one element, Saini said.Third, while more than half of those surveyed, or nearly 54 percent, said they were most interested in acquiring design- and integration-centered technical skills, nearly two-thirds, or roughly 59 percent, indicated communications was the career strength most relevant to IoT success. Less than 20 percent of respondents picked knowledge as the next most relevant career strength.Agarwal said this is yet another example of IoT people constantly being told and constantly striving to become better and better change agents with each new wave of technology.This time, however, he said its no longer about taking some back office or something and turning it into just a little bit smarter.This is an issue thats no longer a federal issue. The president and states might throw it some money, but the action is all going to be at the local level. Thats really what I think the result of all this is, Agarwal said.Still, skills are key, Dunkin said, noting, If you dont have the skills, youre not going to do it. But the CIO said she would think about security concerns before aggregating data.The downside, the risk in the public sector of a security breach, far exceeds the potential, Dunkin said. In the private sector, you can say, At least we made a lot of money.
The 2017 Honda Clarity Electric sedan arrived at the beginning of August in select dealerships in California and Oregon. With an introductory lease price of $269 (plus tax) a month for 36 months, the lease terms include an allowance of 20,000 miles per year and 24/7 roadside assistance. ( Earlier post .)

The lease, which reflects a federal tax credit built in, requires $1,730 down plus the first months lease payment due at signing (not including tax, registration or official fees). In addition, if they apply, California and Oregon customers may qualify for their states rebates of $2,500 once they become available.

The Clarity Electric sedan is powered by a 120kW electric motor producing 221 lb-ft of torque and drawing power from a 25.5-kWh lithium-ion battery pack. The vehicle can be fully charged in just over three hours at 240 volts and when using DC fast charging with the SAE Combined Charging System, it can achieve an 80% charge in 30 minutes. The Clarity Electric has an EPA fuel economy rating of 126/103/114 MPGe (city/highway/combined)3 and an EPA range rating of 89 miles on a full charge.

The Clarity Electric is part of Hondas Clarity series, which includes the Clarity Fuel Cell, launched in December 2016, and the Clarity Plug-in Hybrid, launching nationally later this year.

The Clarity series is part of the Honda Electrification Initiative that sees Honda expand the number and types of electrified vehicles in its product lineup. This initiative also includes a new dedicated hybrid car launching next year and the expanded application of Hondas two-motor hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains to multiple car and light truck models in the future. This initiative contributes to Hondas intention to have two-thirds of its global automobile sales come from electrified vehicles by 2030.
The state of Minnesota will implement a new biodiesel standard next spring, as Minnesota moves to a 20% biodiesel blend (B20) at pumps across the state. This new standard builds on Minnesotas national leadershipin 2005, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to require all diesel fuel to have a blend of at least 2% biodiesel (B2).

Beginning in May 2018, B20 will be sold at filling stations across Minnesota during summer months, when higher biodiesel blends can be used reliably. In October, the biodiesel blend will drop back to B5 to ensure cold-weather reliability. Beginning in 2019, B20 will be available from April through September every year.

A large portion of Minnesotas biodiesel is made from homegrown soybeans, which are one of the states leading cash crops. The Minnesota biodiesel industry annually contributes more than $1.7 billion to the economy. The state currently has three biodiesel plants located in Albert Lea, Brewster and Isanti, which combined, produce about 74 million gallons of biodiesel annually.

According to the American Lung Association in Minnesota, the use of biodiesel significantly reduces tail pipe emissions. B20 is expected to reduce 130 tons of particulate emissions and approximately 1 million tons of CO next year.
The incentive is currently being prepared by the Groups Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, SKODA, Porsche and Volkswagen Commercial vehicles brands and will be on offer soon.

Embracing the outcome of the German National Diesel Forum earlier this week ( earlier post ), the Volkswagen Group announced that it will offer a trade-in incentive for Euro 1 - Euro 4 diesel models which will apply across all brands in the Group. In addition, the software update for Euro 5 and some Euro 6 diesel vehicles will be available throughout Europe and not just in Germany.

With the incentive to trade in their vehicles we are giving our customers strong motivation to switch to a modern, more environmentally compatible vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine or an alternative drivetrain technology. This incentive can be implemented quickly and will have a swift, quantifiable and sustained effect on significantly reducing NO x emissions and significantly improving air quality. Matthias Muller, Volkswagen AG CEO

In Germany, the Volkswagen Group will install a software update on approximately four million Euro 5 and some Euro 6 diesel vehicles in total as agreed in order to reduce NO x emission levels. This figure also includes the approximately 2.5 million vehicles already being recalled, of which more than 70% have already been refitted.

In addition, the Volkswagen Group will be offering the software update to its diesel customers throughout Europe. As a result, NO x emissions from Euro 5 and some Euro 6 diesel vehicles currently on the market can be reduced by an average 25 to 30%.

Furthermore, the Volkswagen Group will contribute to the 500 million sustainable mobility fund for cities. The auto industry and the Federal government will each contribute 250 million. The Volkswagen Groups contribution to the fund will be proportionate to its market share in Germany and will therefore represent a substantial amount.
Under the Master Agreement, Aemetis has predominant exclusive rights to use the InEnTec Plasma Enhanced Melter (PEM) gasification equipment and technology for cellulosic ethanol production until 2024. The gasification technology complements Aemetis current license with LanzaTech for syngas-to-ethanol conversion, providing Aemetis with a complete technology solution to produce locally-sourced, low-carbon cellulosic ethanol.

Aemetis has signed a Master Agreement with key exclusive rights for the use of an advanced gasification technology from InEnTec to produce cellulosic ethanol. The InEnTec gasification technology agreement is a key part of Aemetis strategy to produce high-value, low-carbon cellulosic ethanol from locally sourced biomass by integrating InEnTecs patented advanced gasification technology with Lanzatechs patented microbial fermentation technology.

The PEM system uses heating from electrically conducting gas (a plasma) to convert the feedstock (usually waste) to valuable products. The PEM system is environmentally attractive based on its minimal environmental impact and ability to provide near-total destruction of organic materials (providing large volume and weight reduction).

InEnTec has successfully installed 13 units worldwide since 1995. More than $130 million was invested in the development of the InEnTec gasification technology. InEnTecs technology was developed at MIT and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with the support of the US Department of Energy.

The high quality syngas produced by the InEnTec advanced gasifier feeds LanzaTechs patented microbe and reactor system to generate high yields of low cost cellulosic ethanol. This combination of technologies provides Aemetis with exclusive technology rights to a patent-protected and high value production process. Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis

Cellulosic ethanol significantly reduces transportation carbon emissions and under Californias Low Carbon Fuel Standard will qualify Aemetis for a far lower carbon intensity score than conventional ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 80% compared to gasoline.

Under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard that was enacted in 2007, the cellulosic ethanol production mandate limit increases each year to up to 16 billion gallons per year by 2022. The current market price of cellulosic ethanol sold in California is estimated to be $4.50 per gallon, about $3.00 more per gallon than conventional ethanol.

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Aemetis is an advanced renewable fuels and biochemicals company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of innovative technologies that replace traditional petroleum-based products by the conversion of second-generation ethanol and biodiesel plants into advanced biorefineries.

Founded in 2006, Aemetis owns and operates a 60 million gallon per year ethanol production facility in Californias Central Valley, near Modesto. Aemetis also owns and operates a 50 million gallon per year renewable chemical and advanced fuel production facility on the East Coast of India producing high quality distilled biodiesel and refined glycerin for customers in India, the US and Europe.

Aemetis holds a portfolio of patents and related technology licenses for the production of renewable fuels and biochemicals.
HATTERAS ISLAND  Hatteras Island will be open to visitors again on Friday at noon after being shut down for more than a week, according to Da
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And they all lived happily ever after

OK, that may be an overstatement. But in a dispute as prolonged and contentious as the one that ensued over the Rich Fork Preserve in High Point, the ultimate resolution probably came as close as anything could to satisfying both parties.

As with any compromise, neither side got everything it wanted, but neither was totally denied.

Mountain bikers will have new trails on the county-owned property, and the historic farmstead there will be preserved as an educational, architectural and cultural attraction.

Thursday evening, Guilford County commissioners approved trail plans for Rich Fork Preserve and a Memorandum of Understanding with the High Point Preservation Society to oversee the Hedgecock Farm buildings on the property.

Their action came a year  almost to the day  from a work session that settled a two-year dispute about whether mountain-bike trails would be allowed on the nature preserve.

The inclusion of mountain bikes was a bitter defeat for members of the Rich Fork Preserve/Hedgecock Farm Committee, a citizens group dedicated to saving the historic farm buildings on the property. Formed in 2012 after the county purchased the property, its members made hands-on improvements and raised $50,000 in grants and donations to preserve the buildings.

They feared the mountain-bike trails and their users would degrade the property, along with neighboring property owners who had long seen trespassers do just that. The inclusion of mountain bikes also ran counter to the guidelines that had governed the properties for 15 years and to the understanding of people who had sold property to the county for the preserve, according to former members of the Guilford County Open Space Committee, under whose guidance the preserves had been evaluated, purchased and developed.

Changes in how the master-plan process was handled, as well as several major missteps along the way, fostered deep distrust of some county commissioners and of the county parks staff under new director Robert McNiece.

Faced with defeat and open skepticism by commissioners of their preservation plan for the farmstead, some members of the Rich Fork Committee felt like giving up.

Instead, they moved past the biking debate and rededicated themselves to the task that brought them to the preserve in the first place  saving the historic structures that tell the story of 20th century tobacco farming in North Carolina.

A meeting in September with county commissioners Chairman Jeff Phillips was a turning point, said Marie Poteat, a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Rich Fork Preserve Committee who has worked tirelessly on a preservation plan.

He was receptive, Poteat said. We had gotten such hard pushback. Jeff actually sat and listened and was impressed with what wed done. That was the turning point, when we really believed we could make it happen. And after that, the county staff really turned around. We rebuilt a relationship of trust.

The committee sought the help of Preservation Greensboro Executive Director Benjamin Briggs, who brought a wealth of expertise and credibility to the project.

Briggs, who is also president of the High Point Preservation Society, approached that group about taking stewardship of the historic properties.

The buildings that can be saved will be repaired, sealed, maintained and insured by the Preservation Society, using donations and foundation grants at no cost to the county.

McNiece and parks staff members Matt Wallace and John Gladstone walked the property with members of all the constituent groups to determine changes that would accommodate everyone.

Redesigns on some mountain-biking trails and closures of others will result in safer, more environmentally sound bike trails that provide setbacks for homeowners adjacent to the property.

I want to thank John, Matt and Robert, said Julie Sanders, a homeowner adjacent to the preserve who spoke in the public comment period of Thursdays meeting. I would still like larger setbacks, but I thank you for your efforts.

Thanks to the collaboration of all the parties, county residents  especially those from High Point  soon will be able to enjoy a beautiful natural retreat in the middle of the city.

This is the right thing to do and the right way to do it, Commissioner Kay Cashion said, referring specifically to the stewardship plan for the farm buildings. But her remarks also describe the process that unfolded over the last year.

All the parties put aside past disagreements to work together for the best outcome. Because that, in the end, is the only way to move forward.

We took the time to really listen to people, Commissioner Hank Henning said.

Thats the way it works in real life. No flick of a wand; no magical transformation. It takes hard work, open minds and the willingness to compromise.

At a time when our leaders in Washington and Raleigh appear intractable, thats a model worth following.
WENTWORTH  Thats it! Carol Highsmith says as she points to two rustic log cabins along a rural roadside.

The scene takes Highsmith back.

Back to childhood summers spent in Rockingham County at the Madison farm of her granny, Betty Carter.

Back to the expansive Carter family reunions, long held at these cabins near Wentworth where her grandfather and great-grandfather were born in the 1800s.

And now Im back, photographing it again, Highsmith says as she totes cameras from the car.

She feels fortunate  and sad.

Fortunate that the cabins still stand after nearly 200 years, even though the family sold them years ago.

Sad that they have been altered over time.

I thought they would last forever, but they didnt, she says. Things dont.

Highsmith, 71, makes it her mission to capture such 21st-century scenes that likely wont look the same years from now  if they exist at all.

For 37 years, she has photographed Americas architecture, landscapes, and rural and urban places and people.

I love all of it, she said. Big-city neighborhoods, teeny-tiny towns, our national parks, quirky roadside attractions, Route 66, Old U.S. Route 11 from Canada to New Orleans, Lincoln Highway, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean beaches, the Great Lakes, state parks. ... I consider myself the luckiest person on Earth to travel our country eight months of the year.

She photographs ranches, rodeos and cowboys, parades and particularly people at work  scenes that make each state unique.

She donates her images to the Carol M. Highsmith Archive at the Library of Congress, the countrys national library in Washington.

Anyone can download them from the library website, free of charge and without copyright.

Shot with top equipment, her photos have been featured in more than 50 coffee-table books, many created in collaboration with award-winning writer Ted Landphair, her husband of 29 years. They have sold more than 1.5 million copies.

They have been published by a division of Random House, by her own Chelsea Publishing and by Preservation Press, the publishing arm of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

She has been featured on CBS This Morning and in The Washington Post.

Over the years, Highsmith has photographed in every state.

Now she is on a more intensive state-by-state study as a time stamp of early 21st-century America. She has completed nearly half of them.

I wouldnt use the word job with her, Landphair said. Its a calling. Carols record of late 20th- and early 21st-century America will be the reference point for future generations to study life in our times.

Landphair plans trips and writes meticulous documentation that the Library of Congress will need.

They drive their SUV about 40,000 miles each year, Ted at the wheel and Carol working on images in the back seat.

Theres a lot of America out there, Highsmith said. Why would I want to fly over it, unless Im doing aerials?

She did just that when she photographed the World Trade Center from the air, two months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Their travels this summer brought her to Greensboro and home to Rockingham County. From here, they left for photo shoots in South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

After a brief stop at home in Takoma Park, Md., they will head to New Jersey, New England and back down south by fall.

To finance their travels and work, she obtains private and public grants and commissions with Library of Congress help.

The U.S. General Services Administration commissions her to photograph the nations federal courthouses.

She formed the This is America! Foundation to accept tax-deductible contributions.

So far, Highsmith has donated about 42,000 photographs to the Library of Congress. She aims to donate 100,000 images before shes done.

Its my legacy, she said. But its our legacy.

The librarys prints and photographs division houses more than 15 million photographs, prints, drawings and posters. It has been called the most historic collection of American images because of its quantity, range of time periods and subjects, and types of photography.

Because they are frequently sought by the public, Highsmiths photographs join six collections featured at the top of the divisions online catalog  along with Dorothea Langes photos of the Great Depression and her famous Migrant Mother, Civil War photographs, posters from the Works Projects Administration and photos by Frances Benjamin Johnston, the late pioneering photographer whose footsteps Highsmith follows.

Division Chief Helena Zinkham praises Highsmith for her talent and her energy.

A neon cowboy in Las Vegas, the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the costumed mummers in Philadelphia and national park scenes are among Highsmiths most popular photographs, Zinkham said.

Classroom teachers download her photos for lessons in history, science, photography and critical thinking.

She has a great ability to work with people from all backgrounds and circumstances, Zinkham said. Its a very wide-ranging look at everyday American life. She has a special fondness for historic sites, and her love for America comes through.

***

Back in 1946, Ruth Ragsdale Carter McKinney and Luther Carlton McKinney lived in Fort Worth, Texas.

But when it came time to deliver their second daughter, Ruth McKinney traveled back home to the Rockingham County town of Madison. She wanted to be close to her mother and her 13 siblings.

On May 18, 1946, she gave birth to daughter Carol at what was then Leaksville Hospital.

The McKinneys moved to Black Mountain, then to Minneapolis.

But each summer, Ruth McKinney drove daughters Sara and Carol to Rockingham County and Atlanta, where her mother-in-law lived.

I saw America out the back window for years, Highsmith recalled.

She remembers fondly the Rockingham County relatives, the fun  and the food.

Granny would make fried pies and blueberry cobbler, Highsmith said. I remember her churning butter. ... We couldnt wait to have our first Dr Pepper.

Among the cousins she joined in play was Benny Carter, who would become one of the nations hottest folk artists.

Paul Carter of Greensboro, who grew up in Madison, remembers his cousin Carol from childhood.

She was a live wire, a very vivacious, fun-loving girl, said Carter, now 67 and a commercial real estate appraiser.

There were lots of cousins around there, Paul Carter said. We climbed trees, rode bicycles, played with cats and dogs. Sometimes we would ride a pony. It was a fun-loving, worry-free summer.

Now her cousins follow her career.

Jane Manley of Greensboro, whose grandmother was Highsmiths great aunt, has collected several of Highsmiths books. What I like about what she does is that she is preserving history, Manley said.

She has found her calling, Paul Carter said.

***

Highsmith didnt find that calling until her mid-30s, after years in broadcast sales and marketing in New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

She attended college in Iowa, where she met artist and future husband Mark Highsmith. After he enlisted in the Army and went to Vietnam, Carol moved to New York.

When her husband returned, they moved to Philadelphia. But Mark Highsmith suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. In 1969, he committed suicide.

Carol Highsmith moved to Washington, where she worked in radio advertising.

Through the station, she won a trip to China and the Soviet Union. A client gave her a camera to photograph her travels.

I came home, and I was so hooked on how fascinating all of it was that I thought, I need to do this, she said.

She took night classes in photography at Corcoran College of the Arts and Design, then decided to pursue a photography degree at American University.

One assignment at Corcoran in 1980 took her to the historic but then-dilapidated Willard Hotel, which a friend was restoring.

The project led her to the photographs of Frances Benjamin Johnston in the Library of Congress. Johnston had photographed the hotel during a 1901 expansion project.

Johnston had become known for her portraits of Washingtons elite, images of Southern architecture and photographs of African-Americans and Native Americans at the turn of the century.

I told them that day that I was going to do what she did in my lifetime, Highsmith recalled. The Library of Congress didnt know whether I was serious or not. But I was very serious.

Highsmith documented the restoration of the Willard and other Pennsylvania Avenue structures. Building owners and the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corp. paid her.

She quit her radio job for her dream career.

Random House wanted to publish books on American cities, states and regions, and asked whether she and Landphair would be interested. From 1984 to 1987, they traveled the country for the New York publisher. It opened doors to more travel assignments and to their own publishing business.

Her career path hasnt been without bumps.

Last year, Highsmith filed a $1.35 billion lawsuit against two stock photography organizations, Getty Images and Alamy, and their agents.

According to news accounts, she sued over their attempts to assert copyright over  and charge fees for the use of  18,755 of her images. Getty had billed her for one of the images, which she used on her own website.

A judge dismissed much of her case on grounds that she had relinquished her copyright claim when she donated much of her work to the Library of Congress.

The rest of the lawsuit was settled out of court, and Highsmith declines to discuss it.

***

In March, Highsmith and Landphair packed their Lincoln Navigator with photographic equipment and suitcases at their Maryland home and hit the road.

By summer, they had arrived in North Carolina.

Her first stop in Greensboro: the downtown International Civil Rights Center & Museum, former home to the F.W. Woolworth store.

Highsmith wants to photograph the lunch counter where the sit-in on Feb. 1, 1960, garnered national attention and spread across the South.

I cant get over this, she says as she contemplates its significance. I am floored.

She walks a block down South Elm Street to photograph the Kress Building.

Then its off to Rockingham County.

The car pulls in front of the Towne Apartments on Henry Street in Eden.

In 1946, this was Leaksville Hospital, before Leaksville, Spray and Draper consolidated into Eden.

Its another journey in my life, to go back in time, she says as she snaps photos.

She suggests heading to the old log cabins 20 minutes away.

She remembers the family reunion photograph she took decades ago. It appeared in a 1986 issue of Mid-Atlantic County magazine.

Now those reunions are held at a park.

She recalls photographing her Aunt Kate Carter on her 90th birthday in one cabin, sitting on the side of a brass bed.

That photograph will be among Library of Congress images displayed next year at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.

Back in the town of Wentworth, she views an exhibit about her family at the Museum & Archives of Rockingham County. Highsmith donated images and tells her story in the accompanying film.

She walks across the road, to photograph the Wright Tavern that dates from 1816.

Johnston took this very same shot in the 1930s.

She put her feet where I just put mine, Highsmith said. Wow!
Thanks to Susan Ladd for reviewing Democracy in Chains (July 27). This book reveals how ordinary Americans have to live with the super-rich controlling most of our money and our society, including how we see ourselves.

Ladd reports the political far right has been working to gain control of government and permanently change the rules that give all people a voice in democracy. They want to control the country for themselves. Knowing that no one wants to be dominated, and that they will never win as long as they are honest about what they are doing, this astonishingly rich group tells careful lies.

Seeing themselves as so superior they deserve to run the lives of the rest of us, the super-rich are only part of the problem. Some ordinary folks who make little more than minimum wage have been convinced to view the super-rich as virtuous, above the rest of us, and to admire and support them.

These citizens have been taken in by the careful lies. Often impoverished themselves, they look up to the rich and see freedom and virtue there.

The super-rich have the gall to claim they are preserving freedom. When very few people have massive money and power, and most of us have little, that is tyranny, not freedom. The 1 percent controlling us may be their freedom; it is not ours.

When we support the controlling ways of billionaires, it puts our democracy in grave danger.

Today the super-rich rig our economy and laws so they can legally steal even more from the middle class and poor. Recently, many of us have become so discouraged we just try to make do, pay our bills and be resigned to what is happening.

It doesnt have to be this way. In Greensboro, there is at least one organization putting forth genuinely new approaches and ideas. Democracy Greensboro is a grass-roots group that defies the liberal/conservative stagnation. It has sought from many citizens input into a platform to serve everyone in our community.

Democracy Greensboro (democracygreensboro.org) is open to everyone who cherishes participation in our democracy. On Sept. 16, it will hold a community forum where citizens can question candidates for City Council in the upcoming 2017 elections.

Those attending will learn which candidates support a community-based, genuinely democratic city government.

Instead of criticizing, the platform spells out positive policies, describing what we need to do to have a genuine democracy and community.

Reading this platform  which increasingly can be found around town  you can see the many vital issues that Greensboro has been ignoring. There arent just a few being hurt, but many. As you move around town, find the platform and read it. You will like it.
Has the Donald relinquished his slender grasp on leadership? Has Jared Kushner become too big for his britches? It appears that the Trumps (including Jared) love meeting with the Russians. Could it be tit-for-tat for the Russian money that poured into the Trump bank account in the recent past? Dont look for anyone in the Trump atmosphere to accept responsibility for Russian meddling in our election. Truth be told, the emperors new clothes (think January) are quickly becoming nonexistent! To put it bluntly, Mr. Trump has been trumped by Putin. The emperor is naked! He is sub-standard in the exquisite atmosphere of global politics.
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Since 2006, the nation's largest police departments have fired at least 1,881 officers for misconduct that betrayed the public's trust, from cheating on overtime to unjustified shootings. But The Washington Post has found that departments have been forced to reinstate more than 450 officers after appeals required by union contracts.

Most of the officers regained their jobs when police chiefs were overruled by arbitrators, typically lawyers hired to review the process. In many cases, the underlying misconduct was undisputed, but arbitrators often concluded that the firings were unjustified because departments had been too harsh, missed deadlines, lacked sufficient evidence or failed to interview witnesses.

A San Antonio police officer caught on a dash cam challenging a handcuffed man to fight him for the chance to be released was reinstated in February. In the District, an officer convicted of sexually abusing a young woman in his patrol car was ordered returned to the force in 2015. And in Boston, an officer was returned to work in 2012 despite being accused of lying, drunkenness and driving a suspected gunman from the scene of a nightclub killing.

The chiefs say the appeals process leaves little margin for error. Yet police agencies sometimes sabotage their own attempts to shed troubled officers by making procedural mistakes. The result is that police chiefs have booted hundreds of officers they have deemed unfit to be in their ranks, only to be compelled to take them back and send them back to the streets with guns and badges.

"It's demoralizing, but not just to the chief," said Charles H. Ramsey, former police commissioner in Philadelphia and chief in the District. Philadelphia and the District together have had to rehire 80 fired officers since 2006, three of them twice.

"It's demoralizing to the rank and file who really don't want to have those kinds of people in their ranks," Ramsey said. "It causes a tremendous amount of anxiety in the public. Our credibility is shot whenever these things happen."

The Post's findings illustrate the obstacles local police agencies face in holding their own accountable at a critical moment for policing: President Trump's administration has indicated that the federal government will curtail the strategy of federal intervention in departments confronted with allegations of systemic officer misconduct, even as controversial police shootings continue to undermine public confidence.

Nationwide, the reinstatement of fired officers has not been studied or comprehensively tracked. No national database logs terminations. Some firings receive local publicity, but many go unreported. Some states shield police personnel records - including firings - from public disclosure.

To investigate how often fired officers were returned to their jobs, The Post filed open records requests with the nation's 55 largest municipal and county police forces. Thirty-seven departments complied with the request, disclosing that they had fired a combined 1,881 officers since 2006. Of those officers, 451 successfully appealed and won their jobs back.

The officers' names and details were available in about half of the reinstatement cases: 151 of the officers had been fired for conduct unbecoming, and 88 had been terminated for dishonesty, according to a review of internal police documents, appeals records, court files and news reports.

At least 33 of the officers had been charged with crimes. Of these, 17 had been convicted, most of misdemeanors.

Eight officers were fired and rehired by their departments more than once.

"To overturn a police chief's decision, except in cases of fact errors, is a disservice to the good order of the department," said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, who in February was ordered to reinstate Officer Matthew Belver for a second time. "It also undermines a chief's authority and ignores the chief's understanding of what serves the best interest of the community and the department."

In the District, arbitrators have ordered the city to rehire 39 officers since 2006, more than half of them because arbitrators concluded that the department missed deadlines to complete its internal investigations. One officer, convicted of assault after he was caught on video attacking a shoe store employee, was fired in 2015 and reinstated in 2016 after an arbitrator concluded that police had missed the deadline by seven days, arbitration records show.

D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said he disagreed with the arbitrators' conclusions on when the clock started in those cases. "The public has to suffer because somebody violated an administrative rule," Newsham said, adding that two-thirds of the officers reinstated because of missed investigative deadlines are no longer on the D.C. force.

Police unions argue that the right to appeal terminations through arbitration protects officers from arbitrary punishment or being second-guessed for their split-second decisions. Unions contend that police chiefs are prone to overreach, especially when there is public or political pressure to fire officers. In interviews, local and national union officials said some of the 451 reinstated officers should never have been fired in the first place.

"They're held to a higher standard," said James Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of Police. "Their work is constantly scrutinized to a far higher degree. You very seldom see any phone-cam indictments of trash collectors or utility workers."

Local police departments have often been criticized in recent years as not holding their officers accountable in fatal shootings, or in cases of brutality and corruption. To address the outcry from the public, the Department of Justice has employed its authority to investigate police departments for civil rights violations and to force reforms. Under President Barack Obama, Justice launched dozens of these investigations. The tactic was used, for example, in the aftermath of the 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

The Trump administration, however, has indicated that local officials should take the lead in policing their own departments. "I think there's concern that good police officers and good departments can be sued by the Department of Justice when you just have individuals within a department who have done wrong," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said during his Senate confirmation hearing this year.

Justice Department officials recently told The Post that the department will be more judicious in launching civil rights investigations.

"The Attorney General has explicitly said that 'police officers who abuse their sacred trust are made to answer for their misconduct' and that 'the Department of Justice will hold accountable any law enforcement officer who violates the civil rights of our citizens by using excessive force.' Any assertion to the contrary is flat out wrong and incredibly irresponsible," said Ian D. Prior, a Department of Justice spokesman, in a written statement.

"What the Attorney General does not believe, however, is that the unconstitutional actions of one police officer should result in onerous and ineffective agreements between the Department of Justice and local police departments that prevent law enforcement from reducing violent crime and protecting the public,' " Prior said in the statement.

But in a speech to law enforcement officers last week, President Trump made comments that were widely interpreted as condoning police violence against "thugs" who are taken into custody. He told officers: "[P]lease don't be too nice."

"When you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head. ... I said, you can take the hand away, okay?" Trump said.

The White House later said the president had been joking.

The 37 departments that complied with the The Post's request for records employ nearly 91,000 officers. The nearly 1,900 firings and the 451 rehirings show both how rare it is for departments to fire officers and how difficult it is to keep many of those from returning.

"It's the frustrating part of my job," said Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans, who has been compelled to rehire four officers. "Most of the people we terminate [it] is clearly for good reason."

Firings undone

In case after case, arbitrators have required police chiefs to take back officers the chiefs no longer want in their ranks.

In the District, police were told to rehire an officer who allegedly forged prosecutors' signatures on court documents. In Texas, police had to reinstate an officer who was investigated for shooting up the car of his ex-girlfriend's new man. In Philadelphia, police were compelled to reinstate an officer despite viral video of him striking a woman in the face. In Florida, police were ordered to reinstate an officer fired for fatally shooting an unarmed man.

"He is being paid to protect and serve us as citizens. But he takes my child's life," Sheila McNeil, the mother of the man who was killed by the officer in Florida, said at a public meeting in 2015. "I don't understand how he can still be out here on the street. What fairness is that?"

The 37 departments that reported rehiring officers have one commonality: a police union contract that guarantees an appeal of disciplinary measures.

Police unionization began around the turn of the 20th century and spread rapidly in the 1960s and '70s as states passed laws allowing collective bargaining by public workers. Today, most public employees, including police officers, have some form of collective-bargaining rights.

On most police forces, officers accused of wrongdoing are subject to internal affairs investigations to determine whether they violated department policies. If the officers are found to have breached department policies, police chiefs, superintendents or police boards can discipline them.

The multiyear contracts negotiated by police unions ensure that any discipline may be appealed - typically through arbitration, a process that brings in outside parties, often lawyers who specialize in labor law, to review the punishments and rule on the appeals.

That is how police Sgt. John Blumenthal returned to work in Oklahoma City.

On July 7, 2007, a man was lying handcuffed on the ground when Blumenthal ran up and kicked him in the head, according to several other officers. Blumenthal's fellow officers reported the incident to internal affairs, and months later Blumenthal was fired and convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery.

Two years later, an arbitrator ordered the department to return Blumenthal to work. The reasons are unclear, because the records of the proceedings are not public. Today, Blumenthal, who did not respond to requests for comment, is a motorcycle officer.

"The message is huge," said Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty, who said he loses about 80 percent of arbitration cases. "Officers know all they have to do is grieve it, arbitrate it and get their jobs back."

One of the primary determinations an arbitrator makes is whether a department adhered to the rules when disciplining an officer.

"Were all of the correct investigative steps followed?" said Arnold Zack, a former president of the National Academy of Arbitrators who teaches labor law at Harvard University. "And was there a violation of any policy, and if so, what should the discipline be?"

Zack said that police chiefs often bemoan arbitration but that many cases fall apart because the departments fail to properly investigate the allegations. In one Florida case, a sheriff's deputy who was fired after being accused by prosecutors of trafficking in pain pills was reinstated because the arbitrator found that the department did not adequately investigate the allegations before firing him.

Many of the arbitrators who handled the cases examined by The Post declined to be interviewed about their decisions, saying that they do not discuss their rulings.

In Chicago, union officials say the appeals process saved the job of an officer who was unfairly fired for failing to pay his parking tickets.

In October 2015, Bill Caro, at the time an officer with 28 years' service in the Chicago Police Department, was terminated after he failed to pay nine parking tickets totaling $1,471. The department had warned him to pay the unpaid fines and had given him a deadline that he missed.

Caro eventually paid the tickets, but the department fired him anyway, records show.

He appealed, and in August 2016, a local judge who served as arbitrator in the case deemed the punishment "excessive" and ordered that Caro be returned to the force. His firing was reduced to a five-year suspension without pay, meaning he will not report to work until 2020. Caro could not be reached for comment.

For 239 officers in The Post's study whose firings were made public, the majority had their terminations reduced to suspensions; at least 43 received no discipline at all. Most of the reinstated officers were awarded back pay for the time they were off the force, which can stretch to several years.

"The arbitrator is bound by the contract language just as much as the department," Zack said. "If the contract says you have five days to investigate, and you take six days, then the firing has to be overturned.

"Does that mean some bad guys will get away with some things? Yes."

Getaway driver: His cousin is a fugitive. He's patrolling Boston.

In 2012, the Boston Police Department was forced to rehire Baltazar "Tate" DaRosa two years after stripping him of his police powers for what the department said was his role in a murder.

One year after he joined the department, DaRosa was asked to help investigate the 2003 killing of his cousin, who had been ambushed by a masked gunman as he sat in a car with his girlfriend. DaRosa, then 25, and his cousin had relatives in Cape Verde, a group of islands off the coast of West Africa. Frustrated at their inability to generate leads in the tightknit Cape Verdean community, detectives asked DaRosa to help.

"[The detective] sent me around asking family members and Cape Verdeans, but being a police officer, no one really told me" anything about the case, DaRosa later told investigators, according to internal affairs records and arbitration documents.

On a cold night in January 2005, DaRosa was off-duty at the Copa Grande Oasis, a nightclub outside Boston, records show.

DaRosa was supposed to have been working but had called in sick from his overnight police shift. He and Carlos DePina - the brother of DaRosa's murdered cousin - were at the club together. Also at the club that night was a man named Jose Lopes, a known gang member who eventually would be identified as a suspect in the killing of DaRosa's cousin.

The officer, his cousin DePina and two friends drank and danced until the club lights came on about 1:45 a.m., signaling closing time. DaRosa headed out to his car and popped in a CD as he waited for DePina to return.

But when DePina arrived at the car, he turned and walked back toward a group of people in the parking lot, according to DaRosa's account.

About five minutes later, his cousin ran back to the car "out of breath," saying he had heard gunshots, DaRosa said.

" 'Let's get out of here,' " DePina said, according to DaRosa.

DaRosa, with DePina as a passenger, drove away, passing a police cruiser with flashing lights speeding toward the club.

Back in the parking lot, Lopes was dying from numerous gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

Several witnesses told police they saw people run to DaRosa's car, records show. Another witness told police of seeing DaRosa driving from the scene with the shooting suspect in the car.

The department placed DaRosa on paid administrative leave and opened an internal investigation. But DaRosa refused to cooperate, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination, records show.

In July 2005, five months after the killing, DaRosa was arrested, charged with being an accessory to murder and placed on unpaid administrative leave by the department. His cousin, who is still at large, was charged with murder.

In September 2006, a jury acquitted DaRosa.

Once his trial was complete, DaRosa agreed to cooperate with internal affairs investigators, telling them he thought his cousin was mistaking some other sound when he said he heard shots. He also expressed regret for not stopping to help police. "I assumed that if something did happen that the cruisers were there for it," he said.

Detectives later learned that DaRosa and his cousin DePina had been arrested at the club during a Cape Verdean-themed night three months before the shooting. Police said that DaRosa's cousin had been drunk and causing a disturbance and that DaRosa had bloodshot eyes and reeked of alcohol. At the station, police eventually let the men go.

The internal investigation of DaRosa's possible role the night of the shooting was completed in 2007, and in December 2010, the department fired DaRosa, saying both events at the nightclub had violated department policies - abuse of alcohol, neglect of duty, and a lack of truthfulness, records show.

DaRosa appealed the firing. His union attorney argued that there was no prove DaRosa used his influence to interfere with his cousin's arrest months before the shooting or that DaRosa knew Lopes was at the club the night of the shooting or that he had suspected his cousin was the shooter.

In July 2012, after a three-day, closed-door hearing at City Hall, arbitrator Richard G. Boulanger, a Boston-area lawyer, sided with the union. He concluded that DaRosa "was not poised as a get-away driver or that he had knowledge that Carlos was involved in Jose's shooting."

Nearly two years after his firing, and seven years after the shooting, DaRosa was reinstated and awarded $50,111 in lost pay and overtime, records show.

DaRosa, a union attorney, and former Boston police commissioner Kathleen O'Toole, who led the department at the time of the shooting, did not respond to requests for comment.

"I feel very happy for Baltazar," Bryan Decker, a lawyer who handled the case for the police union on DaRosa's behalf, told a local reporter at the time. "He's an upstanding member of the community, and I think that he is just excited to get back to work helping the people of Boston."

Today, DePina is a fugitive, believed to have fled the country. His cousin DaRosa is a bike patrol officer.

The drive-by shooting:A truck was shot up, and a limo was pulled over.

Early New Year's Day, 2007, Fort Worth police officer Jesus "Jesse" Banda Jr. sat in his car outside an all-night party where his ex-girlfriend was with another man. Banda called a dispatcher and ran a check of the license plate of the truck the man was driving to determine his address. Days later, the truck was found blasted with nearly a dozen rounds from a shotgun.

Banda, who had seven years' service at the time, told investigators he knew nothing about the damage to the truck, according to internal affairs and arbitration documents. In the end, police could not tie Banda to the shooting, but the department concluded that he had lied about why he had called in the license plate.

Then-Police Chief Ralph Mendoza put the officer on restricted duty, ultimately suspending him indefinitely - the same as firing him - in June 2007 for being untruthful and violating the department's ethical standards. Banda was told not to represent himself as a police officer while internal affairs investigated the matter.

During that time, Banda was a passenger in a limousine pulled over by a Fort Worth officer. The officer said he saw the vehicle and, as he watched, the driver passed a Bud Light to passengers in the back. The officer said that when he asked Banda to get out of the vehicle, Banda handed the officer his police credentials.

The department opened a second internal affairs investigation.

An arbitrator ruled in August 2008 on Banda's firing over the check of the license plate. He said Banda had clearly used department resources to run the license tags "for personal reasons" - but also said that firing him was too harsh, compared with punishments given to other officers. The arbitrator ordered him reinstated, reduced his firing to a 90-day suspension and awarded nearly a year of back pay, records show.

Banda was back on the force only one month when he was fired a second time, this time by new Police Chief Patricia Kneblick for misrepresenting himself as an officer during the traffic stop.

Again, Banda appealed.

This time, Banda's union attorney argued that there was no proof that Banda had showed his work ID during the traffic stop and that the department's investigation had been shoddy and incomplete. Bill Detwiler, who was the hearing examiner, agreed: "The hearing examiner finds the investigative process used in this case to be fatally flawed."

Detectives had followed up with just three of eight potential witnesses and had done "little or nothing to source such information" including tracing the license plate of the limo and interviewing the driver, Detwiler said in his ruling. And, Detwiler noted, the detective investigating possible criminal charges lacked formal training and experience.

Seven months after Banda's second firing, in April 2009, Detwiler reinstated the officer with partial back pay.

Banda, through the police department, declined to comment.

"The hearing examiner took issue with the same problems that we took issue with," Terry Daffron Hickey, Banda's attorney, told a local TV station at the time. "I think when you're in a situation where you're investigating a police officer and it's a serious accusation and their job is on the line, there's a duty out there to do a thorough, fair and complete investigation."

In 2015, Banda, 45, was promoted to detective, records show. Current Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald declined to comment.

The eight-year firing:The officer was convicted of sexually abusing a young woman.

In the District, the Metropolitan Police Department fired officer Michael Blaise Sugg-Edwards after he was convicted of misdemeanor sex abuse over an incident with a teenager in his police car.

Eight years later, the department is still fighting to keep the 35-year-old off the force after the agency in 2015 was ordered to rehire him.

Sugg-Edwards, who was born and raised in the District, joined the department in 2005. He was nominated to be rookie officer of the year and to receive an achievement medal for stopping an armed rape.

On Nov. 16, 2007, Sugg-Edwards was on patrol when he saw a 19-year-old woman dressed in full white walking alone near Love, a now-closed warehouse nightclub off New York Avenue in Northeast, court records show.

The woman was there to celebrate her 19th birthday with friends but had to go back to a friend's car because she needed her identification to enter the club.

Sugg-Edwards pulled up in his marked patrol car. He allegedly told the woman that a club supervisor had sent him to escort her safely to her friend's car and invited her to get into the patrol car, according to court records.

She said that once she was in his vehicle, he drove to a gas station and parked between two tractor trailers. Sugg-Edwards asked her, "What are you trying to do to get into the club?" she told police, adding that he began touching her thigh, genitals and breasts.

She said she pushed him away, got out of the car and reported the sexual assault to two off-duty officers at the nightclub. She was seen on video from outside the club getting out of the squad car, and officers reported that she was crying when she approached them.

Sugg-Edwards was the only uniformed officer in the area who fit the description that she gave to police. A police official called Sugg-Edwards and asked whether he had "picked up a female near the Club 'Love'?" according to an affidavit for his arrest. " 'Yes, I did,' " he said.

Sugg-Edwards said he drove her to a gas station to use the bathroom but denied assaulting her, according to court records.

"The official reminded the defendant that he had been warned in the past about talking to female patrons near the night club," the affidavit said.

The department put Sugg-Edwards on unpaid leave, and records show that he began working at a toy store in Maryland.

In June 2008, Sugg-Edwards was convicted at a bench trial of misdemeanor sexual abuse. He was sentenced to a 100-day suspended sentence, one year supervised probation and $1,000 in court fees.

Then-D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier recommended to the trial board - a group of three officers - that Sugg-Edwards be fired.

The trial board, however, concluded that firing Sugg-Edwards was too harsh a penalty and recommended a reprimand. Fellow officers testified that Sugg-Edwards had an otherwise clean record, a reputation as a "nice guy" and that the sexual assault was "totally out of Officer Sugg-Edwards' character," records show.

On Sept. 14, 2009, the department's human resources director decided to fire Sugg-Edwards anyway, saying that the trial board "ignored evidence proving the grievant was guilty" of the misconduct.

The police union filed an appeal arguing that the D.C. code and municipal regulations barred the department from imposing discipline harsher than what the trial board recommends.

That appeal was not decided until January 2015, more than five years later. Attorneys for the union and the police department blamed the delay on a backlog of arbitration cases.

Arbitrator Sean J. Rogers ruled that although there was enough evidence to prove Sugg-Edwards's misconduct, the union's contention was correct. Rogers ordered Sugg-Edwards reinstated with back pay and benefits.

City officials tried again to keep him off the force: They appealed the arbitrator's ruling to the Public Employee Relations Board, which resolves disputes between the District and labor organizations. The department argued that it had the authority to fire the officer, even if the trial board disagreed.

The review board upheld the arbitrator's original ruling in April 2015.

The police department then appealed the review board's decision in court. The case is pending.

For now, Sugg-Edwards remains off the force, and the city has yet to pay him as ordered by the arbitrator. His annual salary was $58,759 when he left the department eight years ago.

Sugg-Edwards did not respond to calls and emails from The Washington Post seeking comment.

Police union attorney Marc L. Wilhite said that Sugg-Edwards wants to go back to policing and that the department needs to "follow the law" and reinstate him.

Police officials, citing union rules and local privacy laws, declined to discuss the case. Police Chief Peter Newsham said that in general he is frustrated that the department has been compelled to reinstate officers with histories of misconduct. Since 2006, the department has had to rehire at least 39 officers, records show.

"Police officers go into people's homes . . . and they have the authority to take people's freedom," Newsham told The Post. "And you're going to return somebody into that role, somebody who has that responsibility and authority, who's been involved in extreme misconduct? I don't think anybody is comfortable with that."

A challenge to fightAn officer is fired twice and put back on the force twice.

On Dec. 3, 2015, an official with the criminal division of the Bexar County District Attorney's Office in Texas was concerned about the dashboard-camera video of a recent arrest by a San Antonio police officer.

"Can you take a look at this video?" the official asked in an email to the city attorney's office. "The officer has the suspect handcuffed, in custody and challenges him to fight while unhandcuffing him."

Soon, the police department's internal affairs unit launched an investigation into the officer involved: Matthew Belver, then 43 and with nine years' service in the department. Belver also worked part-time as a security guard at a local church. The video was eventually made public under pressure from the local media.

The video depicted the August 2015 arrest of then-48-year-old Eloy Leal, who told internal affairs investigators that he had gone outside to investigate after someone had been injured during a shooting in his neighborhood. Leal said that he saw bullet casings on the street near the scene and that he pointed them out to Belver, who was one of the responding officers, according to internal affairs and arbitration documents.

Then, Leal said, he criticized Belver for missing the casings and announced that he was walking home to get a camera to document the evidence. As Leal began walking away, Belver arrested him, records show.

The next 17 minutes were captured on the camera mounted on Belver's dashboard. Belver was recorded telling Leal, who was handcuffed in the back seat of the squad car, that he could go free if he was willing to fight.

"If you beat my ass, don't f****** kill me," Leal pleaded as Belver uncuffed him.

"Naw, as soon as they come off, I'm going to beat your ass," Belver responded.

The officer ordered Leal to get out of the squad car and run or fight, but Leal refused.

Belver recuffed Leal, who asked what he was being charged with.

"I'll think of something," Belver responded, driving away with Leal in the back seat. Leal was charged with interfering with the duties of a public official, a charge that prosecutors later dropped. Leal could not be reached for comment.

The incident was not the first time that Belver had been accused of misconduct by people he arrested. The department had fired Belver in 2010 after two other allegations that led to separate investigations by internal affairs.

In the first incident, Belver was accused of unlawfully entering a home and roughing up two men who were accused of threatening neighbors with a gun.

In the second, two weeks later, Belver arrested Carlos Flores, a San Antonio mechanic, on suspicion of drunken driving. Then, according to a complaint from Flores, Belver challenged him to a fight.

Belver "told me that if I could kick his ass, he would let me go," Flores said in his complaint. By the time Flores reached the police detention center, he had a bruised left eye, injuries to his back and neck, and a large bruise across his face, an internal affairs investigation would later determine. Flores, who could not be reached for comment, was fined for driving while intoxicated, and a separate charge of assault on a public servant was dropped.

But Belver and his union attorneys won the officer's job back after his 2010 firing, negotiating a "last chance agreement" that allowed Belver to return to work as long as he had no further misconduct and agreed that he would not patrol alone.

After the 2015 video surfaced of Belver challenging Leal to a fight, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus fired Belver again - writing on Feb. 12, 2016, that the officer had violated several department policies as well as his last-chance agreement.

Once again, Belver appealed his firing.

During the two-day hearing last September, Belver's attorney argued that because the last-chance agreement was limited to two years, it had expired eight months before the Leal encounter. The attorney also noted that the union contract prohibited the department from considering discipline for matters older than 180 days, which would exclude the prior two allegations of assault made against Belver.

Arbitrator Lynne M. Gomez, a labor lawyer, agreed with the union and said that the union contract and wording of the last-chance agreement meant the department had to treat the Leal incident as a first offense. In the revised circumstances, a firing was too harsh, she ruled.

"While the Chief testified that he thinks the Grievant is a 'disaster waiting to happen' . . . just cause generally requires that discipline be applied progressively to achieve a corrective goal," Gomez said in her ruling.

Gomez in February issued Belver a 45-day suspension and ordered that he be returned to work with back pay, which city officials said will be $66,662.

Reached by email, Belver declined to be interviewed, referring questions to the head of the police union, who he said would be "familiar with both this incident and the arbitration process that followed."

Mike Helle of the San Antonio Police Officers Association said in an interview with The Washington Post that Belver was in the wrong because he had placed himself, his fellow officers and the public at risk. But Helle, the president of the officers association, said he supports the arbitrator's decision because not every infraction merits termination.

"Arbitration creates an environment in which the final say-so of whether the termination is justifiable or not is in the hands of a third party," Helle said. "It creates a bit of fairness. It takes the emotion out of the argument."

McManus, the police chief, declined to be interviewed about the Belver case or the other 29 officers whom the San Antonio Police Department has been compelled to rehire since 2006.

"I'm sure many police chiefs across the country share the same frustrations that I do when an arbitrator overturns a termination," McManus said in a statement.

Fatal forceAn officer is fired twice and put back on the force twice.

On Feb. 10, 2011, in Miami, police detective Reynaldo Goyos was working with a dozen undercover officers taking part in a sting at a local strip club known to be frequented by gang members.

Shortly after 11 p.m., one of the undercover officers spotted what she described as two intoxicated men being ejected from the club. Travis McNeil and his cousin Kareem Williams stumbled across the parking lot and climbed into a burgundy Kia Sorrento. As they drove off, a half-dozen officers, including Goyos, followed them, worried that the men would come back and cause a disturbance, according to an arbitrator's account that was based on witness statements and internal police files.

"We get three or four blocks from the club, and all of a sudden police was surrounding us," Williams told The Washington Post.

Goyos drew his gun and got out of the passenger seat of an unmarked Chevrolet Suburban. "Show me your hands!" he yelled.

"I looked at the driver," Goyos would later tell police internal affairs investigators. "He was staring right at me. He looked like he wasn't paying attention, like he's very incoherent. [He] was disobeying my . . . commands."

Goyos told internal affairs that as he approached the driver's side door he could see that both men had their hands in their laps. But then McNeil, in the driver's seat, reached toward his waistband and then toward the floorboard of the vehicle, according to the officer.

Standing about two feet from the Kia's open driver's side window, Goyos fired his weapon three times - striking McNeil in the chest and Williams in the wrist and hip. McNeil was dead at the scene.

On the driver's side floorboard, investigators found two cellphones. There were no weapons in the vehicle.

None of the five other officers surrounding the car, who also had drawn their weapons, had fired. They would all later tell internal affairs investigators that Goyos was the only officer with a clear view into the car. The shooting quickly drew local media scrutiny.

The department completed its internal investigation in November 2012. The next month, the city's Firearms Review Board - made up of three assistant chiefs, a police major, and a police attorney - concluded that the shooting was not justified. The board said that neither Goyos nor anyone else had been in imminent danger and questioned whether the physical evidence supported Goyos's version of events.

Police officials concluded that the location of McNeil's fatal wound was inconsistent with Goyos's assertion that he saw a black object in McNeil's hand.

In January 2013, then-Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa fired Goyos, who had been with the department since 2005, arguing that he should have sought cover instead of approaching the vehicle.

Goyos appealed, prompting a four-day arbitration hearing in late 2013. Goyos and his union attorney argued that Goyos did not violate the department's use-of-force policy and reasserted Goyos's claim that he had seen a black object in McNeil's hand.

"There was no misconduct on the part of officer Goyos," said Eugene Gibbons, Goyos's attorney, who has defended many police officers accused of wrongdoing. "He was simply doing his job to the best of his ability that evening."

In a text message to The Post, Goyos declined to be interviewed and added, "It was all political."

In August 2014, arbitrator Martin Soll, a labor lawyer, sided with Goyos's legal team, writing that the physical evidence supported Goyos's account and that there was no evidence that his actions had violated department policy.

"Just or proper cause did not exist to discharge or otherwise discipline City of Miami Detective Reynaldo Goyos," Soll wrote.

Soll ordered that Goyos be reinstated and awarded him $74,400 in back pay, an outcome that made local headlines.

"It's been frustrating, but there is no other option," said current Miami Police Chief Rodolfo Llanes. "I have no other choice but to have a conversation with the person that's being brought back and tell them that I expect nothing but excellent work from now on."

In 2015, the city settled a federal civil rights suit with McNeil's family, agreeing to pay them nearly $1 million.

Missed deadlineD.C. police took six days too long to fire an officer.

The nine-year effort to fire D.C. police officer Daxzaneous Banks began in March 2008 when a court employee asked why the undercover officer had signed in as having attended a criminal trial that had been rescheduled. Banks had been paid for being available to testify, although the trial had not occurred.

Internal affairs began to investigate and found that on at least 10 occasions, he had allegedly forged the signatures of several prosecutors on his time sheets, records show.

"You affixed these signatures knowing them to be improper and fraudulent," according to an account of the case filed in court by the D.C. Attorney General's Office.

Banks's conduct forced prosecutors to abandon charges against a suspected cocaine dealer because the officer was the sole witness to the alleged drug transaction, according to the records. The accusations of forgery, prosecutors told internal affairs, raised "serious veracity issues" about his potential testimony in criminal cases, according to their account.

Police investigators concluded that Banks had violated four policies: being involved in the commission of an act that would constitute a crime; conduct unbecoming an officer; inefficiency; and fraud.

On Sept. 9, 2008, then-Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier recommended to the trial board, a three-member panel that oversees officer discipline, that Banks be fired. After a two-day hearing in March 2009, the board found Banks guilty of violating three of the four policies, and in June 2009, he was fired.

Shortly thereafter, the union appealed Banks's firing, arguing that the department had missed its deadline to discipline the officer.

Marc L. Wilhite, the union attorney who represents Banks, said the officer denies forging the signatures. Banks "expressed repeatedly he believed he had a case scheduled that day," according to the District's summary of the case.

In the appeal, the union argued that the citybegan its investigation in April 2008 and was required by law to discipline Banks within 90 business days of starting the investigation. Wilhite said Lanier's September 2008 recommendation to fire Banks was made at the end of 96 days - six dayspast the 90-day deadline set by District code.

The department argued that its investigation did not truly begin until May 2008 and that it had met the 90-day deadline.

Because of a backlog of union arbitration cases, Banks's appeal languished until 2016, according to Wilhite. He said Banks, meanwhile, worked as a lifeguard and at other jobs.

Finally, in September of last year, arbitrator Homer C. La Rue sided with Banks.

"It is clear that the department failed to meet its obligation to bring charges against Ofc. Banks within 90 days of the incident," wrote La Rue, a local labor attorney.

La Rue ordered that Banks - after seven years off the force - be reinstated with full back pay and lost benefits, and that his personnel record be expunged of the termination. At the time of his firing, Banks was earning $68,023 annually.

The District appealed the decision to the Public Employee Relations Board, which reviews disputes between the District and unions, but the reinstatement was upheld.

In January, the D.C. Attorney General's Office appealed the case in D.C. Superior Court, arguing that any harm caused to Banks by missing the deadline is outweighed by the police department's interest. The appeal is pending. To date, the Metropolitan Police Department has not returned Banks to active status.

Wilhite said that Banks, the son of a District police officer, wants his job back and has been under pressure from his family to return to policing.

Banks is one of 26 officers nationwide ordered reinstated since 2006 because arbitrators ruled that police officials had missed deadlines as outlined in local laws or union contracts. Of those, 23 were from The District. Six of those officers were ordered reinstated in the past two years, records show.

The deadline issue has troubled the department for decades, and has been documented in stories in The Washington Post and in the Washington City Paper.

Many departments have time limits under union contracts or local laws to complete internal investigations to prevent cases from dragging on. The District's deadlines are among the shortest: A survey last year of 81 major police departments found that at least 21 departments imposed deadlines, ranging from 30 days to three years, according to Campaign Zero, a police accountability group.

For many years, the District code imposed a 45-day deadline for a city employee accused of wrongdoing to be investigated and discipline recommended, said Mark Viehmeyer, an attorney for the police department and acting director of its labor relations branch.

The City Council repealed the rule in 1998, calling the deadline arbitrary. In 2004, the City Council took the issue up again because the police and fire unions were complaining that officials were taking too long to pursue disciplinary cases, Viehmeyer said. The council then imposed a 90-day deadline for the police and fire departments, he said.

Separately, he said, the police union contract since the early 1980shas imposed a second deadline: Police officials have 55 days to fire an officer once they decide to do so.

District officials said in interviews that they are meeting the deadlines and that cases are overturned because arbitrators misinterpret when the clock begins.

D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said the department in the past two years has taken steps to eliminate the ambiguity about when the internal affairs investigation begins so that authorities can meet arbitrators' interpretation of the 90-day deadline.

"That was our main point of contention with the arbitrators," Newsham said. "They were continually changing when the 90-day clock started ticking."

Viehmeyer said that in many of the cases in which the department was ordered to rehire officers, the underlying misconduct was never in dispute.

"There are a lot of cases where the arbitrator's analysis I think is sort of belied by some of the facts in the case," he said.

Wilhite, who has represented many of the officers who were reinstated, said the rules are clear.

"There are lots of other angles that MPD has been using to try and avoid the reality, which is once the 90 days has been violated, that case must be dismissed," Wilhite said

No due processA department fails to investigate an officer's arrest.

Broward Sheriff's Sgt. John Goodbread was in his doctor's office in Florida for a routine physical sometime in 2003 or 2004 when he felt the pain in his lower back.

"He had me do one of these exercises as part of the physical, bend over type of thing, touch your toes, see what your range of motion," Goodbread would later tell police. "As I was bending over, I stopped because the lower back just seized up."

The doctor issued Goodbread a prescription for hydrocodone. It was the first of multiple pain-medication prescriptions from several doctors that would ultimately result in criminal charges against Goodbread.

In March 2011, a detective in Palm Beach County got a tip suggesting that Goodbread and his wife "may be involved in doctor shopping" - a practice in which someone seeks the same or similar prescriptions from multiple doctors, according to a summary of the case later included in the arbitrator's ruling.

Criminal investigators began looking into the allegations that Goodbread and his wife had obtained prescriptions for the pain medications from four doctors' offices, according to court records.

On April 8, 2011, Goodbread and his wife were arrested and eventually charged in state court with trafficking Oxycodone and withholding information from a practitioner, both felonies. The couple's arrest made local headlines, and the Broward County Sheriff's Office suspended Goodbread without pay.

"I was completely caught off guard," Goodbread, a former narcotics officer who has consistently maintained his innocence, said in an interview with The Washington Post. "Somebody else had used my name to get those 'scripts. I had nothing to do with anything."

In April 2012, his then-wife, Heather Goodbread, pleaded guilty to withholding information from a practitioner and was put on probation under an agreement that withheld an adjudication of guilt. She would later testify during her husband's arbitration hearing that she was the one who had called in prescriptions in her husband's name and that he had not been aware of her scheme. She eventually completed her probation, court records show. Neither she nor her attorney could be reached for comment.

In January 2013, Goodbread pleaded no contest to one count of withholding information from a practitioner under an agreement that deferred criminal prosecution. He was ordered into a pretrial intervention program, which he completed in a matter of months, and the case was dismissed.

The Broward Sheriff's office fired him.

The local police union appealed. The union argued that the department had not conducted a full internal affairs investigation but instead had relied on evidence gathered during the criminal probe. Therefore, the union argued, Goodbread's firing had been based on "hearsay."

"His wife had admitted to misrepresenting herself to get the medication," said Michael Braverman, the attorney who represented Goodbread. "But the department didn't give [Goodbread] even the most minimal amount of due process."

In a Dec. 20, 2013, ruling, arbitrator Robert Hoffman sided with the union. He concluded that there had not been an adequate internal investigation by police and that Goodbread had been denied due process.

Hoffman acknowledged that Goodbread's participation in a diversion program could be considered conduct unbecoming an officer, but the arbitrator questioned whether it merited his firing, given the inadequate internal affairs probe.

"Lesser discipline could result if the record did not contain serious due process concerns," he wrote.

Hoffman ordered that Goodbread be reinstated in his job and receive back pay.

In a video posted on Facebook, Goodbread thanked the police union for helping him get his job back.

Broward Sheriff's Col. Jack Dale, who currently oversees officer discipline, said the department had handled the case poorly, because firing Goodbread while criminal charges were pending had impeded its ability to investigate fully.

"If a criminal case is ongoing, your best move is to wait until the criminal case is done before you terminate them," Dale said.

Goodbread told The Post that without arbitration, he would still be out of a job for something he did not do.

"Have I seen it where the arbitration process may not work perfectly? Sure," Goodbread conceded. "But it's there to protect the rank and file. . . . Basically, it's our union looking out for us to make sure that we don't [get] wrongly terminated."

A rush to judgmentAn officer is fired quickly after a punch goes viral.

In Philadelphia, Aida Guzman cradled a bottle of beer in one hand and clutched a can of Silly String in the other as she bounced along with the music playing after the city's annual Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sept. 30, 2012.

A few feet away, Lt. Jonathan Josey of the Philadelphia Police Department's highway patrol unit was one of more than a dozen officers dealing with a vehicle doing doughnut turns nearby.

In the next few seconds, what transpired between Josey and Guzman would become a criminal matter. One thing is undisputed: Josey's hand connected with Guzman's face.

A bystander captured the encounter on video. Guzman was walking from the street toward the sidewalk, and then Josey approached. The officer swung with an open hand - striking Guzman in the face and knocking her to the ground. Guzman, bleeding from the mouth, was arrested and cited for disorderly conduct.

Josey would later tell investigators that he felt himself get hit with liquid and Silly String, prompting him to turn around, see Guzman and approach her.

The video of Josey's smacking Guzman quickly went viral, and then-Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey acted quickly. He reviewed the video and the use-of-force report filled out by Josey, in which the officer said he had been trying to knock the beer out of Guzman's hand and accidentally hit her in the face, according to a summary of the case later compiled by the city.

Four days later, on Oct. 4, Ramsey suspended Josey, concluding that he had falsified his use-of-force report by claiming he had personally seen Guzman throw beer on him and several other officers. On Nov. 1, 2012, Ramsey fired Josey for conduct unbecoming an officer and for use of excessive force.

Prosecutors charged Josey with simple assault, a second-degree misdemeanor.

The charges and Josey's firing outraged the police union and fellow officers, who packed the courtroom during the 2013 trial, according to news reports at the time. The union argued in the local news media that department leadership and prosecutors were bending to political pressure.

Other officers present that day told the judge that they heard Josey instruct Guzman to drop her beer. Josey testified at trial that he was trying to swat the beer bottle from Guzman's hand and that at that very moment Guzman slipped on a can on the ground, according to local coverage of the trial. As she stumbled, the officer said, the swat intended for her beer bottle instead struck her face.

"The video looks disturbing but, obviously, it's not what it appears to be," Josey said in court. "I was kind of shocked when I saw her go to the ground. I didn't expect to come into contact with her face."

Judge Patrick F. Dugan ultimately concluded that Josey was not guilty.

"It was a complete joke," Guzman attorney Enrique Latoison said in an interview with The Washington Post. "A mockery of a trial."

Josey then appealed his firing. Arbitrator David J. Reilly held a two-day hearing in June 2013 and concluded that Josey should not have been fired.

His decision letter is not subject to public records laws, but The Post obtained a 2014 report on arbitration from the city's Police Advisory Commission that summarized Reilly's rationale.

According to the report, Reilly wrote that after viewing the video frame by frame, he believed Josey's account and concluded that his use of force was reasonable. Reilly also decided that although Josey incorrectly claimed he had seen Guzman throw beer on him, that was insufficient grounds to fire him.

Reilly ordered that Josey be rehired and that all references to his firing be removed from his personnel file.

Guzman, a mother of three, sued over the incident. In May 2013, the city paid her a $75,000 settlement. Latoison said he remains outraged at Josey's acquittal and reinstatement.

"If you accidentally hit somebody, if you accidentally step on your puppy or accidentally swat your child, everybody, universally has the same reaction, 'Oh, I'm sorry!' " Latoison said. "His immediate reaction was to rough her up, put her in handcuffs, throw her in a police van and charge her with disorderly conduct."

Josey and the union that represents Philadelphia officers did not respond to multiple requests for comment. When Josey was reinstated, his criminal defense attorney told local reporters that "Jon didn't do anything wrong that day other than do his job."

"I've said before and I'll say again," Fortunato Perri, the attorney, added in a recent interview with The Post. "The people of Philadelphia are very fortunate to have someone like Jon Josey working for the Philadelphia PD."

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Video embed coding:

Rehire loop

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How an officer fired for killing an unarmed man got his job back.

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Sgt. John Goodbread, Broward County, Florida:

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Lt. Jonathan Josey of the Philadelphia Police Department's highway patrol unit

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A San Antonio police officer offered to let a handcuffed man go, but there was one catch

This article was produced in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University. Students Teaganne Finn, Josephine Peterson, Matt Hanan, Taylor Hartz, Jordan Houston and Shaun Courtney contributed reporting to this article.

Dalton Bennett and Alice Crites also contributed to this report.
Netflix has added support for HDR streaming on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. The device has now been listed on Netflix support page for HDR enabled mobile devices, alongside LG G6.

The Xperia XZ Premium was launched earlier this year with a 4K HDR display. At launch, it only had support for Amazon Prime Video HDR support but Netflix support was absent. That is, until now. The XZ Premium is the only mobile device on the market now that has HDR support on both services as all the other devices only support one or the other.

The LG G6 was previously the only mobile device with HDR support for Netflix. The G6 is actually compatible with Dolby Vision and not the standard HDR-10 content that the XZ Premium, although the difference on these mobile devices is really negligible.

We are not sure if Netflix is also serving the UHD version along with HDR on the XZ Premium like Amazon. The G6 only has a 1080p stream with Dolby Vision. We don't have a device right now to confirm and Netflix hasn't specified on its website.

Source
Philips has been keeping a rather low profile on the smartphone scene lately. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, the Dutch company's last Android handset release dates back to the end on 2015. This might change soon, as a mysterious Philips S310X recently passed through the TENAA Chinese certification authority.

Typically, this is indicative of an imminent release, however, the published information has a few confusing points. For one, it appears the device or devices that TENAA received run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow - a rather unorthodox and outdated choice for a still unannounced device.



Philips S310X TENAA shots

There is also the small matter of the memory configurations, listed for the Philips S310X. The RAM field reads: "1GB, 2GB, 3GB" and the storage one has: "8GB, 16GB, 32GB". While this could hint at three distinct variants for the smartphone, the more likely scenario seems to be that Philips still hasn't made up its mind on which configuration to use and is testing a few.

As for other specs, as per reported by TENAA, the Philips S310X will have a 5-inch HD display, 2,000 mAh battery and an undisclosed quad-core chipset, running at 1.25 GHz. The 8MP primary camera, backed up by a 2MP selfie one, with support for non-HD video capture are another indication of the low-end nature of the device. On a more positive note, though, the listing does mention a microSD expansion slot, for up to 32GB of extra storage and 4G LTE support on bands 38,39,40,1 and 3, even complete with VoLTE.

Source (in Chinese) | Via
Do you remember the SHARP AQUOS Crystal? It was a smartphone made by the Japanese electronics maker in 2014 which incorporated a display that cut really close to the edges of the phone itself. The phone would make it to Sprint and Boost Mobile in the US with mid-range specs. Since 2013, Sharp has made a total of 28 full-screen smartphones, mostly in markets outside of the US.

SHARP AQUOS Crystal for Sprint

Sharps newest full-screen smartphone is going to be officially unveiled on August 8 for a release to the Chinese market on August 14. The upcoming phone is called the SHARP AQUOS S2 and will feature the highest screen to body ratio of any smartphone: 84.95%, the remaining area will be dedicated to a front facing camera. Sharp says this will make a 5.5-inch smartphone feel like a 5-incher.

Sharp aims to eventually make a smartphone that is 100% display. The challenge here is finding where to place the front-facing camera, earpiece, and fingerprint sensor, which we are assuming will be on the back of the AQUOS S2. Additionally, Sharp aims to achieve a breakthrough in anti-dropping technologies.

The AQUOS S2 marks SHARPs re-entry into the Chinese smartphone after four years. Ever since Foxconns acquisition of SHARP, the Taiwanese manufacturer has been aggressive about SHARPs return to the smartphone business.

This invite confirms a previously leaked version of the invitation in Chinese. The same post also cites a rumor that says the phone will feature a fingerprint scanner under the display.

Source | Via




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Passing of Daniel Fouchard

"The Ministry of Tourism (MDT) has learned with consternation the sad news of the death of Mr. Daniel Fouchard, Former Executive and Director General of the Ministry, which occurred on Sunday, July 30 in Port-au-Prince."



"[...] Mr. Fouchard served professionally, loyally and efficiently in the Public Service for several years at the Ministry. The Ministry will retain for a long time the memory of this servant of the State. The funeral of Mr. Daniel Fouchard will be announced later."



Week 5 of the Clerks' Strike

After 5 week strike of lerks paralyzing the judiciary, Heidi Fortune, the Minister of Justice without solution has set up a Commission to study the causes and claims of clerks and make recommendations https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21528-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21424-haiti-news-zapping.html



Petit-Goave : Demonstration at least 2 injured

On Tuesday, agents of the Departmental Unit of Maintenance of the Order (UDMO) dispersed with tear gas the residents of the Digue, Provence, Rue Benoit who were demonstrating on the national road #2. The demonstrators demanded the clearing and the gabionage of the rivers. One found two wounded. However, protesters have reported other victims of police brutality. HL/ HaitiLibre / Guyto Mathieu (Correspondant Petit-Goave)



Minister Fortune convened

Daniel Letang, Vice-President of the Lower House's Justice and Public Security Commission, announces that Heidi Fortune, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, will be convened to the Chamber on 8 August to explain to the deputies the strategies he intends to put in place to resolve the crisis in the justice system with the clerks' strike that has paralyzed the justice system since early July... https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21528-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21490-haiti-news-zapping.html



Nathalie Mondesir, winner of the NGL competition

On Tuesday 1st August the Office of the First Lady, Martine Moise, paid tribute to Nathalie Mondesir, winner of the McCain Institute's Next Generation Leader program (NGL) with the support of the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Nathalie Mondesir is the first winner of the NGL competition in the Caribbean. Several personalities, including the First Lady and the United States Charge d'Affaires in Haiti, Brian Shukan, spoke at the cocktail reception to the residence of the American Ambassador.



The Cap Prison, overcrowded

Like all prisons in Haiti, the Cap-Haitien prison center is overcrowded. There are now 912 detainees, almost double of the prison capacity planned to accommodate 500 prisoners. Of the 912 detainees, 457 were sentenced and serving their sentences and 455 persons are in prolonged pre-trial detention, including 16 women and 26 minors.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Health : Relaunch of the Community Reference Hospital Project in Ouanaminthe





Aviol Fleurant, the Minister of Planning and External Cooperation and Marie Greta Roy Clement, the Minister of Public Health held a working meeting on the relaunch of the construction file of the Community Reference Hospital (HCR) of Ouanaminthe.



Following this meeting, a request for disbursement of 20 million gourdes was sent to the Minister of the Economy and Finance for the implementation work.



Note that this ultramodern hospital estimated at $8 million, is co-financed by the Mexican State to the tune of 6 million and for 2 million by the Haitian Public Treasury https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17449-haiti-mexico-$7m-hospital-project-in-ouanaminthe.html







It should be noted that this project is included in the public investment program 2016-2017 rectified as well as in the draft budget law 2017-2018. In the framework of the latter, a budget line "Development of the border strip" has been entered for the financing of major infrastructure projects.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Moise at the Saut-Mathurine Hydroelectric Power Plant

Friday, President Moise undertook an assessment visit to the Dam and the Saut-Mathurine Hydroelectric Power Plant in the commune of Camp Perrin. Which feed the town of Les Cayes and several other communes. The visit provided an opportunity for the President to meet with the technicians in charge of these facilities and asked them to take all the measures deemed useful in order to operate the plant at full capacity.



TV at the Cabaret prison

Friday, a team from the office of First Lady Martine Moise, installed televisions, at the women's prison of Cabaret. This initiative of the First Lady aims to contribute to the development of these women prisoners https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-21686-icihaiti-justice-cabaret-women-s-civil-prison-urgency-to-act.html



$200,000 for thepost-prison reintegration of minors

Friday at the Peguy-Ville Park was held the launching ceremony of the 2nd phase of the project "Awareness of non-violence and post-incarceration of minors" financed to the tune of 200,000 US dollars by the Reduction of Community Minustah Violence Project, this projet aimoing to support the post-incarceration of minors in the Port-au-Prince jurisdiction, was implemented in partnership with the Institute of Social Welfare and Research (IBESR) and the local Enpak organization.



Work is progressing to Ravine du Sud

Friday, President Moise, accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Carmel Andre Beliard, visited several sites in at Ravine du sud where works of clearing and construction of banks are being carried out within the framework of the Caravan of Change to assess the state of progress of the work.



Haiti at the World Ecotourism Fair

Haiti will participate in the second edition of the World Ecotourism and Production Fair in the Dominican Republic next November. The Ministry of Tourism made the announcement on Thursday.



Moise in sites evaluation visit

Thursday, President Moise undertook an evaluation visit of the road infrastructure works being carried out in the Camperrin commune to facilitate a better circulation of the population of the region. The construction of this stretch of road which connects the departments of the South and the Grand'Anse, is already at a very advanced stage.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2017/08/05 | Source

Added final episode 20 captures for the Korean drama "Queen for 7 Days" (2017)

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Directed by Lee Jung-seob

Written by Choi Jin-yeong

Network : KBS

With Park Min-young, Yeon Woo-jin, Lee Dong-gun, Jang Hyun-sung, Kang Shin-il, Son Eun-seo,...

20 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00

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A period drama about Queen Dangyeong who was on the throne for 7 days before she was disposed.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/05/31

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has told an audience in Belfast that Brexit is the challenge of a generation and that "unique solutions" will be needed to prevent it causing major damage.

Mr Varadkar said a so-called "hard Brexit", in which Britain leaves the EU single market and customs union, would mean "barriers to commerce and trade" between the Republic and the North.

Britain voted last year to quit the 28-nation bloc and is due to formally leave the EU in March 2019.

The decision has huge implications here, not least as Ireland is the only EU country to share a land border with the UK.

Barriers

Mr Varadkar said there will have to be "unique solutions if we are to preserve all that we've gained" since the peace process was cemented two decades ago and Border barriers were dismantled.

The Taoiseach said he did not want to see a return to a hard Border.

He said the onus was on supporters of Brexit "to come up with proposals for such a Border" and persuade people it was a good idea.

"They've already had 14 months to do so," he said. "If they cannot - and I believe they cannot - we can then talk meaningfully about solutions that might work for all of us."

Divorce talks between Britain and the bloc are underway, but EU officials say progress must be made on resolving issues around the Border, the size of Britain's exit bill and the status of EU nationals in the UK before the two sides can start hammering out their future economic relationship.

Mr Varadkar said he hopes EU leaders will see enough progress by a summit in October, "but I do not underestimate for a second the enormity of the challenges that we face".

Mr Varadkar also said he and British Prime Minister Theresa May are prepared to get directly involved in the Stormont talks, stressing the need for devolution ahead of crucial Brexit negotiations.

He said the restoration of a power-sharing government in the North was necessary to try and achieve the best post- Brexit outcome for the island of Ireland.

He said he is "willing to drop everything" to help end the political deadlock - but only if he believes it will make a difference.

Visit

Mr Varadkar arrived in Belfast yesterday for his first visit since becoming Taoiseach.

He said that his meetings with political parties will focus on Brexit and the political crisis at Stormont.

He described the gulf between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party as "wide and deep", but said he did not believe the differences between the two parties were insurmountable.

He said that, having spoken to Mrs May on the phone, they have both agreed to become directly involved in negotiations to restore the executive if they believe it will make a difference.

"If the main parties, Sinn Fein and the DUP, come to a point where an agreement can be sealed, we are willing and able to do what we can to get the executive up and running again and have the assembly meeting," said Mr Varadkar.

"If there is a point at which an intervention would make a difference, we are absolutely willing to drop everything and deal with that."
Gardai are investigating if a Dublin man who was shot multiple times in an attempted murder was targeted because of his friendship with a woman.

Tony O'Connor (34), who has no involvement in crime, was recovering from his injuries after he was ambushed in the driveway of his home in Stamullen, Co Meath on Thursday evening.

It emerged last night that Clonsilla man Mr O'Connor had previously been threatened by gangland criminals linked to the so-called 'Taliban' brothers because of his friendship with a woman known to them.

It is understood that they threatened him last month at his home.

Shots

Mr O'Connor remained in a serious but stable condition in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, last night.

Eight shots were fired at the victim who was hit at least three times in the elbow and abdomen, but he was conscious when the emergency services arrived. Mr O'Connor is expected to survive.

Speaking to reporters at Ashbourne Garda Station yesterday, Superintendent Jim Cannon revealed that a car believed to have been used by the gunman to get to and from the scene has been found.

"There was an attempt made to burn the car," he said, adding that a gun had been found inside the vehicle. Both the car and handgun are being examined. Supt Cannon said the gunman was wearing a balaclava and dark overalls when he approached the victim.

The car, a blue Seat Leon with the registration 151 DL, turned left towards Stamullen village as the gunman fled the scene. It was found on the Bellewstown Road.

Detectives believe a white BMW is also relevant to the investigation. The scene of what is the third shooting in less than a year in the housing estate was sealed off yesterday pending a forensic examination.

Gardai earlier confirmed that the incident was not linked to the brutal Hutch/Kinahan feud.

"This is a very quiet area, the victim is not known to gardai and this is what we would describe as a despicable act, where there were children present and there were other people present and this man is obviously an innocent victim," the superintendent said.

"You can take it that people were at risk from the firing of these shots. "It is very clear that the gunman in this case has no regard whatsoever to the safety of the residents of the area."

Armed

Sources confirmed last night that gardai are investigating if the highly feared 'Taliban' brothers ordered the botched murder attempt.

The brothers, aged 34 and 32, are wanted for questioning in relation to a spate of killings including two double murders.

This includes the murders of north inner city Dublin cousins Glen Murphy (19) and Mark Noonan (23), who were shot in Finglas in November 2010.

The brothers grew up in the Coolock area and were heavily involved in organised burglaries and armed robberies even when they were teenagers.

The feared siblings then progressed onto contract killings and became the main hitmen for the 'Mr Big' drugs organisation.
Daniel Kinahan and his cartel have links to strangled Joe Packie Moore (pictured) who may have been in Colombia on behalf of the gang

A Dublin man who was strangled with bubble wrap and dumped naked in a river in Colombia may have been in the country on behalf of the Kinahan cartel.

The body of Ballyfermot man Joe 'Packie' Moore (55) was discovered in a river close to the drugs hotspot city of Medellin in May.

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It has now emerged that gardai are probing reports Moore had been in Colombia to "smooth things over" for the Kinahan cartel, who are understood to owe millions of euro to their Colombian suppliers of cocaine.

Smooth

"Packie Moore was considered to be a 'Mr Fix-it' type of individual," a source said last night. "He was heavily linked to organised crime in this country for well over two decades. The question is, why was he in Colombia?

"He was trying to smooth things over for the cartel because they have cash-flow issues as a result of all the seizures gardai have made against them since the feud began.

"However, no one knows exactly what Packie was doing in Colombia when he was murdered."

What is known is that the Ballyfermot man left Ireland for Spain around 20 years ago but continued to be involved with characters involved in serious crime.

He was considered a close associate of fellow Ballyfermot man and notorious international drugs trafficker George 'The Penguin' Mitchell.

However, in recent years, he had been in contact with a dangerous Ballyfermot mob whose henchman was raided by the Criminal Assets Bureau only last month.

The gang is suspected of importing millions of euro worth of drugs every month into the capital in second-hand cars imported from north-west England.

Moore was recently photographed with a 33-year-old Ballyfermot criminal who was heavily involved in a bitter feud in the region which led to four murders almost a decade ago.

Sources have also revealed that Moore was a key associate of murdered gangland criminal PJ Judge.

Death

PJ 'Psycho' Judge, a ruthless henchman connected with a number of gangland murders, was himself killed in a gun attack in the car park of the Royal Oak pub in Finglas in December, 1996.

Judge was a major suspect in at least three gangland deaths, was a big player in Dublin's heroin trade and suspected of dealing in ecstasy and cannabis.

Moore was considered one of Judge's closest pals before he left Ballyfermot for Spain around two decades ago after a garda crackdown on crime.

Earlier this week it emerged that Moore had been strangled with bubble wrap and his dead body dumped naked in a Colombian river.

His body was repatriated and he was cremated last month, with the aid of the Kevin Bell Trust.

He was a very popular figure in his native Ballyfermot and dozens of tributes have been posted online by friends and family.
North Dublin locals are at loggerheads with Dublin City Council (DCC) over plans to fell 62 trees to facilitate a new cycle path.

More than 2,300 people have signed a petition against the council's intention to cut down the 100-year-old trees along the path outside Fairview Park.

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Whatsapp Independent Councillor Nial Rin, who is co-ordinating the campaign, said he is determined to prevent the council from removing the trees

Earlier this year, DCC said any trees removed would be replaced by new trees.

Its proposed 2.5km cycle route would run from Clontarf to Amiens Street and provide a connection for cyclists from Sutton to the city centre.

However, local residents and public representatives are now battling to save the trees because of their historical significance.

Fairview resident Edel Leahy, who set up the petition, told the Herald that the campaigners won't back down.

"I use Fairview Park with my children all the time and the trees are such a nice feature," she said.

"When I first found out about DCC's intentions I immediately contacted my local councillors and highlighted the issue on Facebook.

"I was amazed and very grateful that so many of my neighbours signed the petition and were willing to show their support.

"These are very beautiful trees and have been alive longer than any one of us.

"We're certainly not going to let them get cut down without putting up a fight," she said.

The first six trees in Fairview date back to 1908 and were planted by the Irish Forestry Society.

They were named after the six city boroughs of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Derry, Belfast and Waterford.

Independent Councillor Nial Rin, who is co-ordinating the campaign, said he is determined to prevent the council from removing the trees.

"The fact that there is already a cycle path going through the park further adds to the questioning of DCC's rationale to proposing the removal of these trees. Everyone is in favour of more cycle paths, but not at this price," he said.

Cllr Ring added that he is sure "people power" will result in the 62 trees being saved.

In response, DCC said these trees are struggling to cope with their surroundings.

Restricted

"The trees growing closest to the carriageway are restricted in terms of space. These trees are mostly situated extremely close to the edge of the pavement and many are struggling to cope with competition for light," said a spokesperson.

"It is this row of struggling trees that is proposed to be replaced."
At least three Dublin hospitals have not been affected by the HSE software glitch that could see thousands of patients needing new scans and tests.

However, the situation at dozens of other hospitals nationwide remains unclear as the HSE continues to investigate the implications of a flaw in the system that has raised concerns over the recording of more than 20,000 patient scans.

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Last night it emerged that HSE boss Tony O'Brien has said that a company that deals with the software for the health service knew about the fault as far back as January 2016.

In a letter to other senior officials, he wrote that it is "of grave concern to me" that the company, Change Healthcare, did not inform the HSE of the issue at the time.

The problem with the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (Nimis) software was spotted by a consultant radiologist in a regional hospital last week.

The software was introduced in 2011 and is used to archive scans such as MRIs and ultrasounds.

The flaw saw the computer programme omit the "less than" symbol in reports when scans like MRIs and ultrasounds were being archived so, for example, if an artery was recorded as narrowing by "less than 50pc", the file would have wrongly said the narrowing was 50pc.

Reassure

The Herald has established that the hospitals of the St Vincent's Healthcare Group in Dublin do not use the software affected by the glitch.

A spokesperson said that includes St Vincent's University Hospital and the Private Hospital in Ballsbridge as well as St Michael's Hospital in Dun Laoghaire.

The HSE also last night confirmed University Hospital Galway doesn't use the software.

Cork University Hospital and Mercy University Hospital previously moved quickly to reassure their patients that their scans weren't affected.

The HSE last night did not say how many of its other hospitals have been hit by the software problem.

Meanwhile, according to reports, HSE director general Mr O'Brien said that US-based Change Healthcare sent the HSE a software update last August to resolve the problem with the "less than" symbol.

But the HSE wasn't made aware that the "patch" was for this purpose.

Risk

The company did not respond to attempts to contact it for comment.

Patients face an anxious wait to find out if their scans have been affected and whether they need to be retested or referred for further treatment.

The HSE has stressed that the expert advice is that there is "a relatively low clinical risk to patients" but it will contact patients if concerns arise about their cases.

While the HSE investigation - which may take up to two months - continues, any patients with concerns have been advised to contact their doctor.
The final lot in the property portfolio built up by former gangland boss John Gilligan on the Kildare-Meath border will go on the market after the bank holiday weekend.

Gilligan's dreams of becoming a country squire were shattered after his ill-gotten gains from years of drug trafficking were seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).

In June, the Supreme Court rejected the thug's final attempt to hold onto the remaining houses in his portfolio, including a bungalow beside the Jessbrook equestrian centre at Mucklon, Enfield.

Seized

The equestrian centre, built by Gilligan, had already been seized and sold off by the bureau.

Last night, Fiachra McGrath, of Lucan auctioneers REA McDonald, said it had received instructions from the CAB to put the bungalow on the market in the coming week.

The detached property is on 5.6 acres and has a conservative guide price of 120,000.

It has seven bedrooms, four bathrooms and oil-fired central heating and, according to Mr McGrath, it offers "extensive views of rural landscape".

The property is expected to attract a lot of interest for viewing from potential buyers and sightseers, as the sale marks the end of a 20-year battle by Gilligan in the courts to prevent the bureau from seizing the assets.

The bungalow is currently the property of Finance and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe, and the proceeds of the sale will be deposited in State coffers.

Another house seized from Gilligan, at Corduff, Blanchardstown, is expected to be sold to Dublin County Council, while a third house in Lucan, also under the control of the CAB, is currently being let to tenants.

Gilligan's wife, Geraldine, and daughter, Tracey, had lived at the Jessbrook bungalow, while his son, Darren, lived in the Blanchardstown house.

After the initial Supreme Court rejection in February, Gilligan asked for a two-year stay on the confiscation order, claiming he had no income and would be left homeless.

The 65-year-old said he was engaging with local authorities in an attempt to secure accommodation.

Murder

However, the court only granted him a three-month stay, which means he had to vacate the properties by early June.

Gilligan, who served 17 years for drug trafficking, has been hiding out at the Jessbrook house, as well as addresses in the UK, following two attempts to murder him since he was released from jail in 2013.

He served his jail sentence at Portlaoise prison and is believed to have been the leader of the gang responsible for the murder of Sunday Independent investigative journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996.
As long as there have been chase scenes  think the Keystone Kops or Indiana Jones  movie heroes have been caught straddling danger while trying to get from one vehicle to another.

Inevitably, the road splits and the hero has to make a decision.

Religious believers now face a similar challenge after decades of bitter conflict in the postmodern world, said Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, in a recent lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York State.

For a long time, we were able to have our feet in society and our head in religion, or the other way around. ... But today, the two cars are diverging and they cant be held together any longer, said Sacks, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2005 and made a life peer in the House of Lords.

Its an agonizing dilemma that reminded the rabbi of a classic Woody Allen quote: More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness; the other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

Truth is, theres no way to escape the internet, which Sacks called the greatest economic, political and social revolution since the invention of the printing press.

I sum it up in a single phrase  cultural climate change, said Sacks, who from 1991-2013 led the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. Its not so much a matter of more religion or less religion, because the truth is that both are happening at once. ... The result is a series of storms in the West and even more elsewhere in the Middle East, in Asia and Africa.

For four centuries, European and American elites wrongly assumed the world would get more and more secular. They assumed the rest of the world would embrace Western ideas about culture, economics, morality and truth. But leaders in China, India, Russia and the Islamic world now believe that tomorrow belongs to them, not the West, said Sacks.

Why? In Europe and America, birthrates are falling and millions of adults, young and old, are shunning marriage and family altogether. Meanwhile, traditional forms of religion  those with children and converts  continue to grow.

What we are seeing, and what we havent seen for four centuries, is not religion as accommodation, but religion as resistance. Its not religion making its peace with the world, but religion opposing the world, challenging the world or simply withdrawing from the world, said Sacks.

The rabbi stated his thesis again: Half of the world is getting less religious and half of the world is getting more religious and the tension between them is growing day by day.

This crisis can be seen, he said, in renewed debates about moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyres 1981 book After Virtue, and new works linked to it  such as The Benedict Option by journalist Rod Dreher and Strangers in a Strange Land, by Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.

Rabbi Sacks, who won the 2016 Templeton Prize, is convinced that religious leaders face three options in an age in which mere reason and materialism have failed to inspire citizens to make sacrifices on behalf of future generations.

First, he said religious believers could try to conquer society, a path that  as demonstrated by radicalized forms of Islam  leads straight to the Dark Ages. Then again, believers could withdraw, which will allow them to survive, while deepening the Wests current cultural crisis. Finally, religious groups could attempt to reinspire society by making a case for faith remaining a positive, necessary force in the future.

At some point, Sacks said, people may tire of Bowling Alone  a nod to scholar Robert Putnams classic book  and realize that one of the best places to find social capital and fellowship is in faith communities.

What the modern world needs, he concluded, is faith that pro-vides a consecration of the bonds that connect us. ... Religion as covenant and commitment. Religion that consecrates marriage, that sustains community and helps reweave the torn fabric of society.

That kind of religion is content to be a minority. ... Religion can be a minority, but it can be a huge influence. It doesnt seek power, it seeks influence.
There have been changes in our countrys loyalties, since the Mayflower landed. We started with a more specific Christian commitment than most of us have been taught in the last three or four generations. We have been shaped in striking ways by very deep evangelical, Calvinistic roots: work ethic, biblical morality, form of government, honest capitalism, among other things. These have been ignored or reinterpreted in these recent years by those who have purposes opposed to Gods will. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Ps.33:12).

Columbus had his problems with greed and lack of leadership later in his life. But his sailing journals and most private letters give evidence of his biblical knowledge and his devout love for Jesus Christ. His motivation for his New World journey was to obey the Lord Jesus and to spread the gospel.

Near the end of the journey the Mayflower was blown off course to land at Cape Cod and discovered Plymouth. They had landed just three years after a plague had wiped out the fiercest native tribe in the territory.

Was that landing coincidence? Well, Who guided their way and Who controls the wind?

The Mayflowers company established a covenant for the new country for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith. They agreed to join in this covenant in Gods presence.

William Bradford, first governor of Plymouth Colony stated the evangelical motivation of the colonists. He hoped to lay a foundation for advancing the gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in remote parts of the world. Bradford related how the earliest settlers had trouble making ends meet when they had to send a larger portion of their profits to the sponsoring English company. But when they started selling and trading more with each other, this type of capitalism enabled them to do much better.

So many incidents in our early history showed Gods hand in making this country. Many of them depend on whether you view history as in Gods hand or a lot of coincidences. God leaves us with enough uncertainty that we must trust him or not. Trusting and thanking him make all the difference in how you view your life as well as this nations life.

George Washingtons Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, Oct. 3,1789  It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits, & humbly to implore his protection & favor. . .
BRISTOL, Tenn.  CarMax Bristol  which is slated to open the second phase of its car dealership in November  is taking applications to fill 80 positions.

The 10-acre retail car property off Interstate 81s Exit 74 in The Pinnacle opened last August with about 20 employees.

Company spokeswoman Lindsey Duke said the production center  which will recondition cars for resale  needs mechanics, painters and auto body repair personnel.

Currently, we are able to do oil changes and things of that nature at the Bristol location, Duke said Friday. When the production center is open, we will be able to recondition the cars we take in on trade and determine if we want to resell them or send them to auction.

She added that the production center will be inside the retail center.

The Bristol location was built to be a cross-functional store, Duke said. So we wont be doing any additional construction.

Duke added that the company is excited about the opening of the production center.

And were especially excited to be able to employ 80 more people in Northeast Tennessee.

Applications are now being accepted online at www.jobs.carmax.com and interviews will begin this month.

The company has more than 160 stores in the U.S., including eight in Tennessee.
The existence of the Virginia Creeper Trail is an important reminder of a different kind of political climate and a different kind of congressional representation in Southwest Virginia, one focused more directly on the common good.

In the 1980s, Representative Rick Boucher secured federal money for Southwest Virginia. This represented a significant achievement for the 9th District. One element of the funds focused on recreational development.

The Creeper Trail is an excellent example of how that public funding was spent. It stretches 34 miles from Whitetop to Abingdon. Supporting local activists, Boucher secured $2 million to preserve the Creeper Trail as a National Recreation Trail and to improve its safety and usability.

This federal grant money for the Creeper Trail in 1982 helped transform the land into a major tourist asset today.

Travel to Damascus on most any spring, summer or fall day, and the tourist activity will be visible at local shops like Mojos, Mt. Rogers Outfitters, the Blue Blaze bicycle shuttle service and The Damascus Brewery. Over 250,000 people use the Creeper Trail every year, and Damascus, Abingdon and Washington County generate an estimated annual $25 million in tourism revenue. That kind of money is not small change. Growing tourism has inspired entrepreneurs and job seekers (mostly seasonal) and cultivated greater demand for the rich variety of crafts, artisans, scenic sights and festivals. According to the Virginia Tourism Corp.s 2014 Economic Impact Report, Southwest Virginia generated nearly $971 million in tourism expenditures. The Creeper is no doubt one of the shiny gems in this substantial and growing industry.

Republicans and Democrats both used earmarks for decades to invest in their home districts and to persuade reluctant colleagues to vote for bills. For example, according to Freedom Works, the GOP-led House and Senate approved a total of 14,000 earmarks in 2005. This earmarked money accounted for half of one percent of federal spending, which is a relatively tiny portion. The Creeper was made possible by one comparatively tiny federal investment over three decades ago, and that investment has paid off many times over.

This tiny federal investment in Southwest Virginia should be remembered, for sometimes government can positively create local opportunities for business and development. The Creeper Trail is an example of a smart bet by committed local activists and federal representatives that benefits the common good.

Sometimes federal money is wasted. Two decades of continuous war in Iraq, Afghanistan and several other countries testifies to this. The notorious bridge to nowhere in Alaska came to popularly define wasteful pork spending.

But lets not pretend that all investments are a waste; some turn out to be very profitable. I bet that most everyone around Damascus, Whitetop, Taylors Valley and Abingdon would agree that the Creeper Trail is a benefit to the local economy. Those residents would likely reflect that it was a good federal investment in 1982.

The political times have definitely changed, and we definitely have a different kind of political leadership. Barack Obama was elected as president in 2009, and the Tea Party emerged as staunch political opponents at the same time. Earmarked money became a taboo topic for congressional representatives, and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-9th, rode into elected office on that political sentiment.

Griffith is part of a new political climate and a new kind of political leadership. Today, no federal money is available to revamp the Creeper Trail. Congress opposes earmarks as wasteful spending that only adds to the national debt. Congress does not see public and private value in some federal investments, like the Creeper Trail. Griffith talks about the very real and useful grant money that Boucher used to secure as if it were a childs fantasy.

The success of the Creeper Trail today symbolizes a different kind of political environment and a different kind of political leadership of the past. Remembering how the Creeper Trail was made can help point to a different future, one where local activists and elected representatives work together to create economic opportunities that benefit the common good.
Maryland cross country: Hubs' Stine, Leopards girls each finish second

North Hagerstown sophomore Lauren Stine had the top performance by a Washington County athlete, placing second in the Class 3A girls race.
CALDWELL COUNTY  When James Wright first purchased a home along U.S. Highway 321 in Caldwell County in December 2005, he felt he was at the place God wanted him to be.

Now, with the possibility the home being taken due to the widening of U.S. Highway 321, Wright said he is again looking to God for guidance on where he should proceed if that possibility becomes a reality.

When he was first looking for a house, Wright said he had taken an interest in that particular home, and kept coming back to the property after it went through a few different realtors and the asking price dropped.

Wright said he asked God for a sign the house was the right fit for him, specifically, a single, large white flower sitting separate and prominent somewhere in the property.

One day, Wright said he went to meet with the owner and found himself impressed by the house, particularly the brick floors and the marble that reminded him of mission trips he had taken to Argentina.

However, Wright said he became concerned he had not seen the sign.

When the owner left to retrieve the contract, Wright saw a white flower in a traffic island.

So God knew everything, you know, in advance and had everything prepared in advance, so I felt even more so moved that God put me here for a reason, Wright said.

In the years since he has owned the home, Wright said he made many fond memories.

Wright's nieces and nephews would come to play in the front yard.

The property gives an excellent view of the fireworks from L.P. Frans Stadium, and in the past, Wright said he has invited family over for picnics on the Fourth of July.

The house also was closely situated to Merchant Distributors Inc., where Wright works as a truck driver.

Since he has been living in the home, Wright has been continually making improvements to both the interior of the house and the property itself.

Some of the improvements were made with the idea the property could be made into a good site for a business, like a dentist office, something that would increase the value should he need to sell it.

In total, the renovations have cost about $24,600, Wright said.

Around 2014, Wright said he saw plans for the U.S. 321 expansion that would come about 50 feet onto his property.

Under the recently-proposed maps, which call for an interchange from Alex Lee Boulevard, the entire property would be taken.

While Wright has not received official notice from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, his research has shown his home would be taken if the proposal is adopted.

Wright said, based on his experiences living at the home and in the area, he understood the need for the expansion based on the traffic.

As a truck driver, Wright believes the proposed changes would be better for accommodating truck traffic.

In terms of the effect on his own life, Wright said he is asking friends to pray that Gods will and his way is done in all of this."

Though he loves the home and the property, Wright said it could open up the possibility for him to pursue some other goals.

Wright, the son of a service member and a veteran himself, said the experience of having to move and "being uprooted" is not new for him.

If he were forced to leave the property, and could receive "decent money" for the property, it could offer an opportunity for a new direction in his life by attending seminary or taking online classes.

Regardless of the outcome, Wright said he believes God is in control.

If the plan doesnt go through, and I keep my house, well, praise God, Wright said.

If the plan goes through, and I lose the house, and I have the opportunity to go to seminary, well, praise God.
Two and half years ago, the UNC Board of Governors voted to fire widely respected UNC President Tom Ross.

The move by the handpicked board of the Republican legislative majorities came with no public notice and there was no reason given for forcing Ross to resign.

The board chair said after the meeting that Ross had been doing a wonderful job. But everybody in Raleigh knew the reason.

Ross firing was the beginning of the Republican assault on the university system with most of the focus on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, long derided by forces on the Right as a key center of progressive thought in the state.

This week brought another stage of that assault as a committee of the Board voted to forbid the UNC Center for Civil Rights from going to court to protect peoples rights, which is the core mission of the center founded 15 years ago by the late legendary civil rights lawyer Julius Chambers, a UNC Law School graduate.

The crusade to stop the privately funded center from protecting the fundamental rights of low-income people and poor communities was spearheaded by board member Steven Long, a former member of the board of the right-wing Civitas Institute, a group that supplies the foot soldiers and faux justifications for the ideological crusades being waged in Raleigh these days.

Long is a typical BOG member elected by the Republican General Assembly. He co-founded a group that has been instrumental in convincing the General Assembly to create a school voucher scheme to funnel public money to unaccountable private schools and religious academies. The head of the pro-voucher group is also a member of the board.

Long also led the charge to abolish the Center for Poverty, Work and Opportunity run by UNC Law Professor Gene Nichol, an outspoken critic of Republican rule in Raleigh. Part of the current crusade is that criticism is not be allowed, especially from a university campus.

The News & Observer story about the committee vote to ban the Center for Civil Rights from litigating includes a picture of Long after the meeting with another board member holding his armTom Fetzer, the former chair of the NC Republican Party.

The current board of governors is now as much an ideological body as it is a governing one.

And legislative leaders will not tolerate dissent even within their own ranks.

It is no secret that Senate leaders had their own candidate in mind to replace Ross as president but the board chose instead to hire former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Several members of the search committee that chose Spellings were not reelected to the board by the General Assembly this year.

The board is also a rich source of political contributions and fundraising for legislators campaigns. One board member, James Holmes, even hired Rep. David Lewis, the powerful House Rule Chair, to work at his risk management firm.

It is quite a cozy club indeed and united in its efforts to remake the university system. Spellings issued a statement after this weeks committee vote to cripple the civil rights center but declined to take a definitive statement on the decision.

She also recently penned an op-ed praising the funding of the UNC system by the General Assembly but neglected to mention the $660 million in flexibility cuts in the last six years or the $500,000 cut to the UNC Law School this session made just for spite in a year with a budget surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars.

This weeks committee vote to prevent the Center for Civil Rights from helping people across North Carolina is a travesty and as the Centers staff attorney Elizabeth Haddix recently put it in a powerful column in the News & Observer, the ban on helping communities and families directly contradicts the public service mission of the University.

Now it is up to the full board to decide the fate of the Center but there is little doubt about the outcome. Never mind the universitys mission. This is not a reasonable debate. It is a crusade remember.

The vote to limit public services from a public university comes the same week that the New York Times reports that the Trump Administration is considering going after universities that could be discriminating against white students.

Expect that to be next on the UNC Boards agenda as the dismantling of a great institution continues.

One thing is not hard to figure outwhat Julius Chambers would think of what is happening at the university he loved.

Chris Fitzsimon is the founder and executive director of N.C. Policy Watch.
LENOIR  The Caldwell County Sheriffs Office charged a Hudson man with selling methamphetamine to undercover deputies after a prolonged sheriffs office investigation, according to a press release.

Billy Ray Potter, 50, was charged with one felony count of possession with intent to sell or deliver methamphetamine and one felony count of maintaining a dwelling to keep or store a controlled substance.

SWAT executed an Ice Unit drug related search warrant into Potters home after undercover purchases of methamphetamine were conducted at his residence, according to the release.

Upon searching the premises, narcotic agents located and seized 26 grams of methamphetamine, digital weighing scales, and other items of assorted drug paraphernalia, according to the release.

We have suspected him of supplying a lot of people with meth in our County, Caldwell County Sheriff Alan C. Jones said via the release. Today he is exactly where he belongs, in our jail.

The methamphetamine has a street value of $3,900, according to North Carolina State Guidelines.

Potter was issued a $250,000 secured bond, and is due in Caldwell County District Court on Monday.

The Caldwell County Sheriff's Office is always in search of any information involving the use and distribution of illegal controlled substances.

A concerned citizens information and assistance will be kept confidential.

If you have any information concerning illegal drug activity in Caldwell County, contact the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office I.C.E. Unit at 828-757-1178, Lenoir Police Departments Narcotics Division at 828-757-2145, Hudson Police Department at 828-728-5021, Granite Falls Police Department at 828-396-3358, or Caldwell County Crimestoppers at 828-758-8300.
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What do cooking a four-course meal and acting in a film have in common? The two dont appear that different when the actor in question is Pankaj Tripathi, who played the butcher-henchman Sultan Qureshi from Gangs of Wasseypur (GOW) to perfection. While cooking, I imagine the end product, its texture and look. Acting is quite similar. I visualise how the character would look on the screen, his diction, body language and gestures, says 42-year-old Tripathi who once worked as a chef at a five-star hotel in Patna for two years.

That was in 1993, after his father, a farmer in Bihars Gopalganj district, made peace with the fact that he was not going to study medicine; and that Pankaj, a sprinter and minor player in Patnas college politics, would find his calling in acting after hed watched the play Andha Kuan. It made me realise the potential of theatre, says Pankaj.

After doing theatre and street plays in Patna for seven years, he joined Delhis National School of Drama.

Multi-layered film

Critics have described his latest release, Gurgaon, as mean, dystopic and loaded with toxic masculinity.

Pankaj plays Kehri Singh, a builder in New Delhis satellite town. The kidnapping of Singhs daughter (Ragini Khanna) triggers a chain of events that forms the backdrop of the film. We named the film Gurgaon because people can instantly connect to it but the story can be set in New Mumbai or Spain, says Tripathi, insisting that the film is not about a social issue specific to the region. It is a multi-layered film. The more you dwell on it, the more you will get out of it.

It is a multi-layered film. The more you dwell on it, the more you will get out of it, says the actor. (Photo: JAR pictures )

In 2004, the year Tripathi landed in Mumbai, the Hindi film audience was not yet attuned to indie films that would go on to propel actors such as Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanjay Mishra, Piyush Mishra and Deepak Dobriyal into the limelight.

During that phase, Tripathi did ad films, corporate films, TV serials (Gulaal, Powder) and spent hours at director Ram Gopal Varmas office. My friends familiar with the film industry suggested I approach Ramu because he was giving work to non-stars. He even considered me as a lead for one of his projects but it didnt work out, he recalls.

A major reason why actors like him have it easier now is because the audience is evolving, particularly with platforms such as Netflix and Amazon. Solid content does not depend on star power, believes Tripathi. This is a wonderful phase. A film like Kick is a perfect example of the significance of someone like Nawaz bhai. Filmmakers are now offering combinations of a star and an actor, he says.

We would not have seen him playing Sultan in Wasseypur, if it wasnt for a stroke of luck.

Fitting the part

Anurag (Kashyap) did not like my audition but casting director Mukesh Chhabra insisted that I fit the part perfectly. Then Anurag made all his assistant directors see the audition. They liked it and I got the part.

Eventually, Kashyap was so impressed with Tripathis talent that the part was developed during the shoot.

Gangs of Wasseypur was followed by Masaan and Anaarkali of Aarah. Post GOW, I got around 50 scripts, all of which wanted me to play a killer. I had to be very cautious in choosing my roles, he says.

Having worked with Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan, the actor is not averse to playing a part in an out-and-out masala film. Why not? I am a halvaai who has a good range to offer, right from samosa to gulaab jamun, he says.

Tripathi believes that he must give commercial films the respect they deserve because these films put the money in the market that is then used to make indie films. They give us recognition and money.

The only flip side, he says is that occasionally filmmakers dont know what to do with character actors, how to use them best. Why are you buying an elephant if you cannot manage it? he quips.

Early in his career, he would think of a neighbour, relative or friend from his hometown, to take inspiration for a role. He played parts he could resonate with. I come from a very grounded family. My village got electricity only a few years ago. My ethos and values used to reflect in whatever role I played, he says.

But having lived in Mumbai for more than a decade, how does he ensure that the learning process continues? Who is the inspiration now? I am a keen observer of the world around me. I keep absorbing. I dont wear shades. I dont travel in vehicles which have tinted glass. I try to travel to a new town after every film, he says.

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Early last year, Scaachi Koul put out a thread on Twitter, asking for pitches on Canada-centric reporting and essays for the media company she works at. She added that they would prefer hearing from people who were not white and not male, a statement that spiralled out of control. Koul was sent threatening tweets, subjected to vitriol and driven to deactivate her account. However, she was back two weeks later and announced her arrival rather humorously, posting a string of GIFs of The Undertaker, the renowned wrestler. These included him popping out of a casket; running towards a large white man; and hanging his arms over the ropes, his face bloodied, declaring: This is my yard.

It was a fitting way for the Toronto-based writer to get back at her trolls, who she had previously tried engaging with logic and reason. The incident is mentioned in the essay Mute, one of many in Kouls recently released debut anthology, One Day Well All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter. It comprises stories of her many experiences growing up as a first-generation Indian in Canada, tackling themes like physical appearances, Indian traditions, racism, rape culture among others, many of these veiled in subtle humour.

I wanted to write a collection that felt representative. Most of the non-fiction books I read when I was younger were often from the perspective of men, or white women. I didnt see a lot of themes that spoke to me, like the dynamic I was having with my parents or how my particular brown body was changing or how difficult I found it to fit in this world, says Koul.

The immigrant narrative

One Day...has been picked up for adaptation into a comedy TV series

Born in a predominantly Caucasian neighbourhood in Calgary, the 26-year-old was frequently picked on in school, with boys getting her a deodorant to mask her natural curry scent. She was even called Osama Bin Ladens cousin. While she grew up shrugging off things that would mark her as an other, including hiding all the pieces of gold jewellery she received, Koul says shes more comfortable with her identity now and even wears several pieces of jewellery at once.

Born in a predominantly Caucasian neighbourhood , Koul was frequently picked on in school, with boys getting her a deodorant to mask her natural curry scent. She was even called Osama Bin Ladens cousin.

Many children of immigrants go through phases where they think they can hide something about themselves thats really intrinsic. But you come to a point where you look at yourself and realise youre not fooling anybody. Everybody knows youre brown; youre not going to change anybodys mind. The older I get, the less I care about others opinions of my culture.

An interesting essay tackles the politics of body hair, the pains and insecurities women  especially women of colour  endure to look well-groomed. This is quite personal to Koul, who confesses shaving her face a few times a week. Theres a misconception, at least in white-dominated countries like where I live, that Indians have a beautiful mane of hair. But we also live with a juxtaposition of how ugly our body hair is. Were not supposed to be hairy on our legs or faces, she says.

Appreciating culture

She also touches upon cultural appropriation in the book, discussing how descriptions of India revolve around bright colours and charming poverty. Koul says its become hard to identify the line between appropriation and appreciation. I dont mind it when white people do yoga. What bothers me is when they align themselves with Hinduism on a larger scale, giving themselves Hindu names or start adopting Hindi in a way that I find commercialising and frustrating. And thats true of brown people as well, we think were minorities but weve done it too. There are ways to engage with a culture...travel, talk to people, read books or watch documentaries.

I dont mind it when white people do yoga. What bothers me is when they align themselves with Hinduism ... giving themselves Hindu names or start adopting Hindi ...

Kouls father, a native of Kashmir, appears frequently in the book, particularly at the beginning of every chapter where Koul reproduces the hilarious transcripts of the emails she exchanges with him. In one, she wonders if her dad is sick as she hasnt received any vaguely racist email from him, and he replies: Better minds and intellects have always been wrongly interpreted by the great unwashed.

Hes also famous on Twitter, with Koul frequently posting updates for her 21.5K followers on the platform. Hes a menace. He emails me a lot and I wanted to break the essays up so they dont feel too heavy. He hasnt read the book because he knows it has themes that would make him uneasy, but hes really enjoying everybody telling him how great he is.

One Day...has been picked up for adaptation into a comedy TV series but Koul says theres still a long way to go. For now, Im going to sit around and sip wine.

From HT Brunch, August 6, 2017

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Here are some things you may not know about almonds. I certainly did not know many of them till I sat down to research this piece.

One: Almonds are now among the worlds trendiest foods. According to health food faddists (and a few doctors) they are good for your heart, they help in weight reduction and they fill you with energy.

You may or may not believe all this (and I am vaguely sceptical) but theres no denying that almonds have benefited from the two great food scares of our times. Because so many people are giving up gluten (and therefore, most wheat products), desserts and sweets from almond flour have rocketed in popularity, chief among them the macaroon (or macaron, if you want to get all Frenchy). And because lactose intolerance has became so fashionable, almond milk has become the trendy alternative.

Two: Do not ever say that almonds are your favourite nut. Why? Well, because they may or may not be your favourite, but they arent nuts at all. They are the seeds of a fruit.

Three: Of course, almonds are a vegetarian food. And all the health food stores which describe them as vegan are not wrong. But you cant get an almond until an insect  in this case, a bee  has sex with a flower.

Even though almonds seem to be part of the Indian tradition, they are actually a Middle Eastern import

Yup. I am not kidding. The almond tree will not produce a fruit until a bee comes and pollinates (lovely euphemism) it. And if there are no bees of the chosen kind to be found, you wont get any almonds.

The textbooks will tell you what kind of climate and soil (terroir) are required for almond growing, but they will gloss over the carnal requirement. And yet, the main reason why almonds only grow in certain parts of the world is not because the terroir is so hard to find, it is because of this simple equation: no bee = no almond.

And three: Almonds are not Indian. They never were and they probably never will be. Attempts to grow the almond in most of the Indian peninsula have usually failed. We depend on Kashmir for our limited domestic supply of almonds. There is a kind of almond in Himachal but it is not the badam that we recognise.

So, even though almonds seem to be part of the Indian tradition, they have always been an imported food. And they never became popular in our country till the Middle Ages or the medieval area.

Much of this stuff astonished me when I came across it. Like most Indians I have grown up with the idea that the almond is as Indian as the mango. Otherwise why would we have badam barfi, badam halwa, badam kheer, badami garnish on pulaos and other dishes, or even Roghan Badam oil (relieves tension, strengthens brain power etc.)?

But the almond is actually a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean ingredient. It is mentioned in the Bible and the Romans knew it well, believing that, like all good things in that era, it came from ancient Greece. It turns up throughout history in the Western parts of the Mediterranean region, especially Spain, Italy and Southern France.

Marzipan, a staple in dessert cooking, is made from ground almond flour. (Shutterstock)

The French were probably the first to recognise its potential, making it a staple of their dessert cooking. Marzipan is made from ground almonds. Macarons are made from almond flour. And almond milk was used in early versions of such desserts as blancmange. The Spanish took this tradition forward and now have an extensive range of almond biscuits and cakes.

Whats intriguing is how completely we failed to cultivate the almond in India. However, India never wanted for almonds because supplies were easy to obtain from Afghanistan where almonds were plentiful. The legend of the Kabuliwallah who came from Afghanistan to sell products to the Indian mainland is based in fact. And the Kabuliwallahs usually brought almonds with them. But because they came from such a long way away, almonds always had a premium image (and price) in India.

Of late, however, Afghanistan is more famous for the Taliban than for the Kabuliwallahs, so imports from there have dwindled. But no matter, a new supplier has entered the global market and more or less taken it over.

There have been almonds in California from the middle of the 18th century when they first planted Spanish almond trees. But it is only over the last few decades that production picked up. Americans were the first customers. The US now consumes 10 times as many almonds as it did in 1965. Then, the California industry set its sights on the global market, which it conquered with ease. California now controls around 85 per cent of the worlds sale of almonds.

After the French recognised the potential of the almond, the Spanish took the tradition forward and now have an extensive range of almond cakes and biscuits. (Shutterstock)

The secret of the almond boom in California is the bee. Almond production all over the world is restricted by the number of bees required to pollinate the trees. For every acre of an almond orchard, you need two whole hives of bees. Because these are staggering odds, and because most producers elsewhere in the world depend on nature and wild bees to do their dirty work for them, almond harvests are rarely massive.

In California, they have got around that hurdle by importing bees. So vast is the acreage devoted to almond trees that California needs around 1.7 million hives if the trees are to produce almonds. No one state has that many bees. So during February each year when the mating season is on and the almond blossom is in full bloom, 80 billion (you read that right, 80 billion!) bees are let loose in the orchards. The vast majority (85 per cent or more) of those bees are driven in from outside the state for that February orgy of pollination.

The Indian market is now being taken over by California almonds, though you can still buy other varieties. The Mamra almonds from Afghanistan (they also grow in Iran and the Middle East but their market share is now down to four per cent of world sales) are still available and are preferred by purists because they are natural and organic. (All California almonds are treated with chemicals or heat, no matter what it says on the packet.) But Mamras are often the most expensive almonds in the market. Gurbandi almonds, also from Afghanistan (and Kashmir) are smaller than Mamra and often tend to be bitter.

Which almond you like is largely a matter of personal preference but be careful when you buy them. If you soak California almonds overnight in water, you will find that the water changes colour by the morning. I am told that this is because of our customs duty structure, believe it or not!

If wholesalers import the almonds after they have been machine-extracted from their shells, they pay a high rate of duty. But if they import them whole and then do the extracting themselves, they pay a lower duty. So some Indian suppliers who do not have Californian machinery hire labour to do the extracting. This is an imperfect process and the outside of the almond is often scarred or damaged.

So, incredibly enough, a few suppliers hire people to sit with paint brushes and touch up the almonds to make them look good again. Its the paint (harmless, by the way) that comes off when you soak the almonds.

Meeta Madhok, owner of Drupe, says that almond milk should not be bought in tetra paks.

One way of getting the goodness of almonds without recourse to paint is to drink almond milk. Though this is an ancient product, it has found favour again as a health drink. Drupe, an artisanal Indian manufacturer, makes my favourite brand of almond milk. Meeta Madhok, who owns the company, sells it as a perfect pre-workout drink and argues that you should not buy it from tetra paks or other kinds of packaging if you want a chemical and preservative-free product.

Drupe comes in little bottles and because I am not the kind of guy who has much need for a pre-workout drink, I use the Drupe almond milk in the old-fashioned way  as a substitute for cows milk.You can use it in place of milk in tea and coffee without really noticing. And you can use it in such desserts as kheer or even bread pudding, and youll find that the slight almond taste adds another layer of flavour.

Drupe, an artisanal manufacturer, sells almond milk as a pre-workout drink.

Drupe also makes almond butter which, I guess, you can slather on toast though personally, I am not wild about gluten. But the butter does work as an instant energy snack. Take one spoonful and you wont need to eat anything else. (I am guessing that this is because almonds are rich in unsaturated fat.)

Which takes us back to where we started: almonds as the worlds trendiest food, recommended for all kinds of health reasons. I guess thats true. But speaking for myself, I like them for the taste alone. How can you not love something that is the product of so much wild passion from billions of bees?

From HT Brunch, August 6, 2017

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Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday urged businesses to pass on the benefits of the goods and services tax (GST) to consumers.

Underlining that many businesses have not been passing on the input credit benefit to the consumers, Jaitley said state screening committees will be set up in the next 15 days to monitor the situation and act as deterrents.

We hope we are not pushed to constitute the authority immediately, the minister said after chairing the 20th GST Council meeting, the first one after the rollout of the new tax structure in the country.

The GST council gave its in-principle approval for the e-way bill that mandates pre-registration for movement of goods for more than 10 km for sale.

The bill, which will be generated electronically, will be applicable for consignments of over ~50,000 only, but not for exempt goods.

Jaitley said that there will be no check posts and the process will be technology driven. Human interface will be minimised, he said, adding that the date of application of the e-way bill will be notified soon.

Currently, taxpayers are facing difficulty in the absence of centralised e-way bill, as every state has made its own rules. But after e-way bill rules are notified, there will be common procedure all over India, Vishal Raheja, senior consultant, Taxmann said.

He said the major relief was that dealers engaged in supply of only exempted goods would not be required to pre-register movement of their goods.

The council also decided to reduce the tax slab of a few tractor parts to 18% from 28%. The rate on job works throughout the textile chain which includes carpets and shawls has been reduced to 5% instead of 18% fixed earlier.

The minister said that about 86 lakh registrations  including more than 15 lakh new tax payers and over 71 lakh migrations  have been made under GST.

The new tax structure was rolled out on July 1. There are four main tax slabs under the new structure  5%, 12%, 18%, 28%, but there are many items which attract nil tax rate while other items like tobacco and aerated drinks attract the highest tax rate of 28% along with cess.

The next GST council meeting will be held in Hyderabad on September 5.
Amid a debate over incidents of lynching, noted economist Kaushik Basu has warned that social damages could have a long-lasting impact on the economy than some wrong policy moves, such as demonetisation.

Delivering the 23rd Lalit Doshi memorial lecture in Mumbai on Friday, he stressed on the need to have open debates and discussions on issues facing the country.

I have a concern on the social side in our country. It does worry me. The lynching news... is of the kind that disappoints me while sitting in America, Basu, the C Marks professor of economics at Cornell University of the US, said.

Social damages to an economy can take much longer to correct than demonetisation or a wrong economic move that can be corrected, he said.

India is a society that is poor, but is respected for its scientific temper and research, and we should not backtrack on that, the former World Bank chief economist said.

The former chief economic advisor said in every society there will be people who destabilise its harmony while talking about the culture and make efforts to go back to that culture.

We should be proud of our heritage, but we do not want to retreat (to the past). If we do so, that can have a long- lasting effect, not only on the quality of social life, but even on the economy, he said.

He said one should take pride in ones literature and culture, but at the same time, should also be pragmatic.

One example that hurts me as a Bengali from Kolkata is a 1983 decision on easing out English from primary school and making Bengali the primary language of teaching.

This cultural attempt to reclaim your history by not picking up an instrument, which is a vital instrument for engagement with the modern world, has done huge damages to Bengals economy, Basu said.

He said people at the top level of the government are concerned about this but there is a need to make an effort to translate these concerns into policy on the ground.

Stressing the need to have open debates and discussions on issues, he said, Its very important that in a country like ours, you can do serious debates and discuss. You can say that these two policies are good policies and these two are bad.

If you do not get into these discussions, you will make mistakes and that would really be very unfortunate for the country and the economy in the long run. I just like to believe that we will keep it open.

About demonetisation, he said it was a very big mistake and has huge negative fallouts.

He welcomed the GST rollout, saying the new tax regime has some teething trouble but it was the right thing to do.

Hailing the bankruptcy law, he said this is an excellent piece of legislation that can improve the countrys ranking in the ease of doing business list that the World Bank releases annually.
When the BJP and the Peoples Democratic Party joined hands in March 2015 to form a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, some had seen it as an alliance that could possibly transform the future of the violence-wracked state.

These were the same elements who thought the move amounted to the BJP diluting its core ideology and moving towards greater pragmatism in order to broaden its base across the country.

After more than two years, the unnatural relationship between the two parties remains riven by mutual suspicions. Thus, one wasnt very surprised when Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti made an impassioned call for retaining the special rights and privileges of the state by not tinkering with Article 35A of the Constitution.

Muftis remarks  that there would be no one to hold aloft the Indian tricolour in Kashmir if Article 35A is challenged  immediately triggered a debate on nationalism and patriotism. That wasnt unexpected in these times of ultra-nationalism driven by hyper-ventilating TV channels that are constantly on the lookout for such divisive issues.

But beyond all the heat and dust, I feel there was a lot of sense in what Mufti said  that challenging Article 35A weakens those who trust India and join elections in Kashmir to live honourably in the state, and that it doesnt target the separatists who are totally secessionist.

The BJP should really focus on the core of Muftis remarks, and not the debate on nationalism and patriotism triggered by them, as it fashions its next steps in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mufti has, once again, shown courage by talking about her partys commitment to the Indian union  albeit in a roundabout manner. It may not be easy for politicians sitting in the comfort of Delhi to realise how difficult it is for a Kashmiri politician to make such a commitment in the current circumstances. Therefore, all this talk by some BJP leaders and even the Congress of Mufti showing disrespect to the flag should be treated as what it really is  humbug.

Several other developments, both at the national level and in Jammu and Kashmir, have also created the right atmosphere for a bold move by the BJP to address the Kashmir issue.

The security forces have scored a string of successes against militant groups in the state, the latest being the killing of Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Dujana, who had given security agencies the slip on several occasions. The activities of the militant groups have been controlled to a large extent though they continue to pose a threat.

At the national level, the BJP is in virtually an unassailable position, thanks to a weak and ineffectual opposition. The recent formation of a coalition government in Bihar will only strengthen the party for the next round of polls, including the general election of 2019.

Pakistan, which has always had a central, and negative, role in the Kashmir issue, is currently grappling with domestic political uncertainty following the ouster of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister by a populist and activist Supreme Court.

After failing to make headway in his efforts to normalise relations with India and after constant run-ins with the Pakistan Army, Sharif had taken to raking up the Kashmir issue  the favourite bugbear of Pakistani politicians  at international forums and had even referred to Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani as a freedom fighter.

But with Sharif now more focused on ensuring that his PML-N party retains power in Pakistans general election next year and on sorting out his legal problems, there could be less scope for the government to meddle in the Kashmir issue.

All these factors could work to the BJPs advantage if it showed the courage of framing a new approach towards Jammu and Kashmir, the entire state and not just the parts where the party has a support base. The timing is just right for the central government to start a real and meaningful dialogue with the state government and all Kashmiri stakeholders to find a way out.

This process could be accompanied by a result-oriented package for Jammu and Kashmir that, once again, should benefit all regions of the state that we are so fond of referring to as an atoot ang (inseparable part). This package should also be realistic and have a realistic timeframe for deliverables.

Much attention is focussed on the separatists, especially the Hurriyat, whenever the issue of a new approach for Kashmir comes up. It has been proven over time, especially in recent years, that such leaders may no longer be relevant  some are content to toe the Pakistani line, others are just out of touch with modern day realities and still others are considered influential but do not actually shape the discourse.

If the separatists are unwilling to join any new move in Kashmir, so be it. The government and the BJP should be willing to move without them.

At the same time, even if such a new approach were to meet with a modicum of success, the government and security agencies should not let down their guard in any way.

Recent developments have shown that both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda have their eyes on Kashmir at a time when their so-called jihad is showing signs of fatigue in other parts of the world.

The Islamic State has created a new cell  Ansarul Khilafah Jammu Kashmir  that is focused on the state and has urged supporters on the ground to prepare for attacks. Al-Qaeda recently named former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa as the head of its cell in Kashmir, the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.

It is easy to scoff at such developments, given that security officials insist both groups have no actual presence in Jammu and Kashmir. The bigger problem is that both have their eyes on the Kashmir issue. Also, given that the Islamic State doesnt function like other terror groups while recruiting and creating cells, there can be no room for complacency that will allow such terror organisations to capitalise on the disaffection and frustration among Kashmiri youngsters.

Furthermore, the Pakistani military is known to step up meddling in Kashmir, especially in supporting terrorists, whenever there is a weak government in Islamabad or when it wants to divert attention from domestic issues. This too is something that security planners must guard against and the BJP must factor into its plans for Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown his capacity for out-of-the-box and bold initiatives, though the results from such moves have not always lived up to everyones expectations. There is no time to lose, given the current circumstances in Jammu and Kashmir, and the prime minister must respond to chief minister Mehbooba Muftis overtures, brushing aside whatever reservations there may be within his party.

While doing so, the prime minister should not be fettered by the outcomes of past initiatives on Kashmir, whether by the BJP or the Congress, for the prize is his for the taking.

chanakya@hindustantimes.com

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DEHRADUN: Heavy rains have not stopped serious tourists from reaching out to some remote areas in Uttarakhand to relish the monsoon.

Known for its picturesque snow-capped Himalayan ranges and lush meadows with colourful flowers, the Valley of Flowers is receiving a great response from tourists. The trek to the UNESCO world heritage site opened on July 1.

This is the flowering season when the valley is covered in green foliage and bright flowers. Its the time of trekkers. Despite all odds, tourists are coming and enjoying the serenity of the spot, Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve and Valley of Flowers director Mann Singh told Hindustan Times.

We do not allow plastic inside the protected area. If tourists have some plastic material, it is surrendered at the gate and returned later. So far, no case has been registered where the visitors was caught with plastic which results in an instant penalty of Rs 5,000.

Last year, the park management earned a whopping Rs 20 lakh which, it expects, to surpass within two months.

The beauty is beyond some common tourist places like Mussoorie and Nainital. I have had a wonderful experience coming to the Valley of Flowers. This time too, I am going to witness the most majestic place on the Earth, Sabita Parekar, a trekker from Maharashtra, told HT over the phone.

I have just returned from a trek at the Valley of Flowers trek. It looked most beautiful. Uttarakhand forests become rich during this season and I am glad people are coming to our state, chief wildlife warden Digvijay Singh Khati said.

The other renowned monsoon destinations are Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary and Naina Devi Himalayan Bird Conservation Reserve. While tourists look arrive for both flora and fauna at Nandhaur, the latter is known for its wonderful array of birds.

There arent many tourists unlike the three summer months of May, June and July, but, yes, there are tourists coming to enjoy the monsoon, trekking, wild animals and green foliage, Nainital divisional forest officer (DFO) Dharam Singh Meena said.

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A decomposed body of a man, chopped into pieces and stuffed in two travel bags, was found in an open field behind a temple in outer Delhis Najafgarh on Saturday morning.

One of the bags contained the torso of the victims body.

The other body parts, including private parts, were found wrapped in a plastic polythene and stuffed in the other bag, said police. The identity of the man could not be established till late on Saturday night. Senior police officers said they found OM tattooed on the hands of the man, the one clue that could help them establish his identity.

Police suspect that the man, possibly in his mid 30s, was murdered somewhere else and his body was later cut into pieces, stuffed into two bags and then dumped in an open field near a wall on the backside of Sai Temple in Najafgarh. A case of murder has been registered at the Najafgarh police station.

MN Tiwari, deputy commissioner of police (outer), said the matter came to light when a passerby spotted two red travel bags lying near a wall behind the temple and raised an alarm. Some locals reached there and opened the bags. The locals panicked after seeing the mans body and one of them called the police control room.

A police team arrived and cordoned off the area immediately. Officials said that no blood stains were found around the spot where the bags were dumped. It means that the man was murdered somewhere else, said Tiwari.

The body has been preserved in the mortuary of a government hospital in west Delhi.

Police suspect the man was first drugged and then murdered by his killers. The role of someone known to the victim has not been ruled out. The police were probing the case from revenge angle as well.

We have informed other police stations across Delhi-NCR about the matter. Efforts are on to prepare a list of complaints about missing men made in the last one week in the police stations, said an investigator.
Four teenagers, who stole motorbikes for joyrides with their girlfriends, were arrested by the Delhi Police. A juvenile was apprehended in the case. Fourteen stolen motorbikes were recovered from five youths. Police have pinned their involvement in 24 cases of bike theft reported in areas of Hauz Khas, Neb Sarai and Malviya Nagar.

Police said the five were arrested in two separate cases by officers of the Neb Sarai and Hauz Khas police stations. Police said the teenagers were addicted to drugs, and lifted the bikes to buy drugs and take their girlfriends out.

JOYRIDE GONE WRONG

The 19-year-old school dropouts Sagar and Sonu decided to take a stolen motorbike for a joyride with their juvenile accomplice on Friday night. They were stopped by a police team near Devli village. Police said the three tried to flee when they noticed the cops, piquing the police officers suspicions and they were soon apprehended.

It was found that the boys were unable to furnish papers of the bike and had allegedly stolen it.

Police recovered five stolen motorcycles from them. All the bikes had been lifted within the past month and were recovered within an hour, said a police officer.

Police said that the teenagers stole bikes that their girlfriends liked. They used to lift fancy bikes, which had raised pillion seats, said a police officer.

Two other youths Dhruv Kumar and Vishal, were arrested on Thursday night when one of them was caught on a CCTV camera stealing a motorcycle. Police said Dhruv was identified by a police mitra.

Delhi Police recently deployed civilians as police mitra to help voluntarily in their work. The police mitra act as informers and tip off police in cases reported from their areas.

Police mitra, Rajiv Bhalla, identified Dhruv Kumar based on an image that the cops had recovered from CCTV camera footage in the area. On questioning Kumar led the cops to Vishal as his accomplice, and eight stolen vehicles.
Five more cases of braid chopping were reported from the city on Saturday, even as Delhi Police trashed rumours of a mysterious entity at work and attributed the cases to rumours and pranks.

On Saturday, women from Uttam Nagar, Nangloi, Bindapore, Palam and Dwarka alleged that they fell unconscious and later found that their braids had been chopped off. Till now, over 24 such complaints have been received by the police in the matter.

These complaints do not have any basis. We have investigated these complaints and have established that it is nothing but mass hysteria. None of the women saw anyone entering or exiting the house. Our investigation also did not lead to any person who may be involved in these cases. There were no clues that were left behind. It is all psychological and people are just getting swayed by these rumours and panicking, Delhi Police spokesperson Madhur Verma said.

Police have also found cases where women have been pranked by their siblings.

Many of these cases, cops aid, were found to be fake. None of these complaints have a basis and it appears that the women are chopping their hair off themselves. Some women even came to us with hair extensions and fake hair claiming that their braids that had been chopped off, a police officer said.

In Dwarka, the wife of an inspector complained that she fell unconscious just before lunch and when she woke, she found her braid on the floor. Similarly, a 35-year-old woman from Palam alleged that her hair had been chopped twice in the last three days. She complained that someone chopped her strands on August 2 and then again on August 5. Both times, she complained, she had fallen unconscious after a severe headache before the incident.

A woman from Uttam Nagar oN Saturday complained that her hair was chopped off by a black image in Ram Park. Another woman from Bindapore blamed a strange animal for cutting her braid.

To stop the panic from spreading further, the police have deployed patrolling teams in areas to started awareness drives to tell people that the stories being shared were mere rumours. We have deployed teams who are educating people on the issue. They are telling them that there is no supernatural power at work here and it is all in their head. The staff are doing their best to convince people that the incidents are just rumours, Verma said.

The police have also said that anyone who is found spreading runours will be punished. Strict action will be taken againstanyone spreading rumours to create panic, Verma said.
Ten-year-old Jhanvi never sits next to the window in her classroom. Her classmates also avoid the seats near the windows.

A student of Class 6 at Government Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Jaunapur, Jhanvi recounts incidents when monkeys entered her classroom through the windows and snatched books, lunch boxes and bottles.

Though the school is located nearly three kilometres from the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary (only place in city identified for relocating monkeys), menace of monkeys is increasing everyday in the neighbouring areas.

Locals blame the government authorities for shifting the problem of monkey menace from the city to its fringes. The simians, which were relocated to the sanctuary, are moving to nearby residential areas and schools because the sanctuary has crossed its carrying capacity and has no space to accommodate more monkeys, said Saraswati Kumar, resident of Sangam Vihar.

At Asola Village, around 28 kilometres from India Gate, the animals enter. Scared, the residents have covered their roofs with thorny branches to prevent the small simians from jumping onto it.

Children carrying food items are particularly vulnerable thats why they run after seeing them and get injured. Why should we bear the burden of the entire city and let our children become victims of the monkeys, said Champa Singh, resident of Asola Village.

At the government school in Jaunapur, the problem was brought under control for a few days when the school authorities hired a langoor. But we cant afford to hire a langoor for the whole year. It is important that the concerned authorities help us is getting a permanent solution, said the school teacher.

On July 27, area councillor Vedpal wrote to the deputy chief minister and Directorate of Education. If no timely action is taken than it can risk the lives of students. We have requested the Delhi government to arrange for at least two langoors to keep away the simians from schools. Fences should be put up around the place immediately, said Vedpal.

Blame game

The problem is shared by other areas close to the boundary of the Asola Wildlife Sanctuary such as Chandan Hola, Maidan Garhi, Sainik Farm and Deoli village.

Although the fence is meant to stop monkeys from entering the village, it doesnt prevent them from doing what they do best. They scale it with ease. It is important that the municipal corporation makes arrangements to catch the simians at regular intervals, said a forest official, Delhi Government.

However, the veterinary officials who work for the municipal corporation said that they cant deal with problem alone.

The Delhi government is not doing enough to preserve the natural habitat and plant more fruit bearing trees in the sanctuary. Not just that, residents have also become habitual of offering food to monkey near parks, religious and other public places. But once the simians invade urban areas, they tend to come back again and again in search of food. They barge into neighbouring villages when they cannot find food, said the veterinary official working with North MCD.

A government school in Aya Nagar where monkeys enter frequently and snatch food, books and bottles from students. (Arun Sharma/HT Photo)

MCD officials said that the Forest Department needs to step in to control the problem. As per the Wildlife Protection Act, catching wild animals is not our job. It is the responsibility of the Forest Department. They have the staff trained for this purpose, said a veterinary department official.

The agency had also asked the Forest Department to provide trained monkey catchers.

A senior official from forest department said there is no specific training given for catching monkey. Even our staff are not trained as such. Its just that they do it again and again to attain expertise. Moreover, monkey menace in city is a civic issue and only MCD can deal with the problem. From our side, we provide all assistance to deal with problem. We never stop MCD from leaving monkeys in the sanctuary and provide cages regularly, as per their requisitions, said the official.
A decade has passed since Delhi planned to shift its monkey-problem to the citys fringes. Hundreds of monkeys were captured every year from the capital only to be relocated to the 4,000-acre Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. But the problem seems to be far from over.

Experts suggest that the only permanent solution to contain the monkey population lies in sterilising the animals and not relocating them. They claimed that relocation has just ended up in shifting the problem to newer areas without solving it.

It was in 2007 that the authorities started relocating the animals on the orders of the Delhi High Court following the death of then deputy mayor SS Bajwa. He had fallen from the terrace trying to fight off monkeys. Since then about 19,674 monkeys have been relocated.

The state Forest Department claims that on the one hand, fruit bearing trees are planted regularly in the sanctuary, on the hand, monkeys are provided with about 2,500 kilos of fruits every day. But one can hardly find any fruit bearing trees in the sanctuary.

It is because most of the trees die as it is a rocky area and those, which manage to survive, have a stunted growth with hardly any fruits. Monkeys and nilgai also destroy the saplings, said AK Shukla, chief wildlife warden of Delhi.

Former chief of the state forest department GN Sinha recalls that the court order was to carry out the relocation process within a period of three months. A timeframe was set to prevent the growth of monkey population in residential areas.

However, the work was not carried out in a time-bound manner which resulted into partial removal with simultaneous addition to monkey population in the residential areas. This aggravated the problem, said Sinha.

Sources also pointed out that the amount of fruits has not been increased in the last few years even though about 200-300 monkeys have added to the sanctuary over the past few years. This results in monkeys straying out of the forest into nearby localities in search of food.

So what is the solution?

Experts claimed that relocation of monkeys is just shifting Delhis problem to the fringes without any permanent solution. Neither can keeping langoors to ward off the monkeys be a solution.

The only permanent solution lies in sterilising the animals and not relocating them. In Agra, a NGO has been successfully carrying out sterilisation camps for long and the population has

been somewhat contained, said Sonya Ghosh, member of the state advisory board for animal welfare and also a member of

the monkey translocation committee.

Earlier this year, a NGO working on wildlife gave a presentation to the forest department top brass on sterilisation of monkeys. But nothing moved thereafter.

Delhi needs to come up with a permanent solution instead of fiddling with short-cut measures to address the problem. The only solution is sterilisation as is being done in the case of dogs. We need to come up with a standard operating procedure, said Sinha.
The Maharashtra governments education department has reminded schools across the state not to allow students to take part in competitive exams and talent searches conducted by private companies.

This ban is an attempt to reduce the burden of exams and reduce stress on the students. The education department said that children can only participate in government-approved and internal tests.

The ban was first imposed by the primary education directorate in January, this year. But the government says many schools openly flouted the rules, forcing the department to issue the circular once again seeking stricter compliance.

Despite the earlier circular, we observed that schools continue to hold multiple tests for students, so we have sent reminders to schools, said a senior education official. Such exams increase the exam stress on students and parents have to pay hefty charges.

Read more: Optional maths in class 10 will benefit students, say Mumbai teachers

Many Mumbai schools ask students to take 10 to 12 additional tests, in addition to the regular exams, putting tremendous pressure on them.

The circular asks education officials to ensure schools do not take private tests, without permission from the state government.

There is no provision for conducting such exams in the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, states the circular.

Schools are competing with each other to see who offers most tests. It has become a status symbol or USP for them, said Father Francis Swamy, principal, St Marys School (ICSE), Mazgaon.

Students are often asked to attend classes before or after schools and on weekends, which tires them, said experts. A childs brain gets exhausted after processing too much information. It leads to fatigue and burn out, said Dr Harish Shetty, psychiatrist.

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In the past, it was a given that if youre not a size zero, you wont find fashionable outfits in stories. Thats changing now. Indian fashion designers are taking notice of the plus size segment and adding oodles of style to it. Plus size cannot be ignored, say designers like Falguni and Shane Peacock, Payal Singhal and Monisha Jaising.

Falguni and Shane Peacock, who are participating in the fifth edition of the Vogue Wedding Show 2017 luxury bridal exhibition, say that at times, it seems that the fashion industry really believes all women are the size of those skinny models on the runways. But that is changing now. Almost half the women in this country are size 12 or larger, and finally, the clothing industry is taking note. On runways, in stores, even in the pages of magazines, the plus size woman is finally getting some fashion respect - not because the industry has decided its okay to be big, but because it can no longer afford to ignore her, the duo told IANS.

Plus size models walk the ramp. (Arijit Sen/HT photo)

Payal Singhal says the industry is finally acknowledging that the demand for larger sizes - just like the frame - is big. Singhal, known for her celebrity clientele, asserts that it is not only about business. The fashion industry as a community is coming out to endorse body positive images and thats great as its time we take some responsibility and help women accept themselves the way they are versus the stick thin photoshopped model images they see in magazines, she explained.

Ace designer Wendell Rodricks has collaborated with aLL, The Plus Size Store, to design a new autumn winter collection, which will be showcased at the forthcoming Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Winter/Festive 2017. Fashion should be for everyone; no matter the age, colour, size or shape. At the LFW, I intend to break all myths about colours and shapes for voluptuous figures, Rodricks said. Monisha Jaising, who is also part of the fifth edition of Vogue Wedding Show, which is being held from August 4 to 6 at the Taj Palace here, feels the fashion world is increasingly counting on plus-size customers, a demographic that it has long ignored to fuel growth. Plus size fashion bloggers too are driving this transformation. Around the world, they are the new face of the future of fashion, she said.

Gaurav Gupta, known for his edgy garments, took healthy note of the trend, saying: In general, women are becoming much more aware about fitness and a lot more girls are now fitter than before. Having said that, there is a parallel trend of easy shaped couture, with silhouettes which work on many more body types.

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New research from Canada suggests that over-60s should eat protein at all three daily meals to help stave off age-related muscle decline, which can contribute to loss of independence and falls.

Researchers at McGill University in Canada studied the effects of protein consumption on muscle strength in senior citizens.

Older adults tend to get most of their protein from just one of their daily meals -- dinner -- whereas to help preserve their physical strength, protein consumption should be spread out throughout the day, the researchers conclude.

Current recommendations to ensure sufficient protein intake are 1.2g of protein per kilogram of weight for adults of all ages. (iStock.com)

For the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the scientists tracked more than 1,700 healthy adults aged between 67 and 84 for three years. Participants underwent yearly hand, arm and leg strength testing, as well as mobility tests.

Over the three years, the researchers found that overall physical performance worsened in both men and women, with muscle strength fading more significantly than mobility.

However, participants who consumed protein more evenly throughout the day appeared to retain greater muscle strength -- although not greater mobility -- than those who consumed most of their protein late in the day.

Current recommendations to ensure sufficient protein intake are 1.2g of protein per kilogram of weight for adults of all ages. For example, a man weighing 75kg should eat 90g of protein per day.

For older individuals, this may need to be increased by between 50% and 90%, depending on individuals lifestyles. In general, one portion of protein is equivalent to 30g of meat, chicken or fish, one egg, one tablespoon of peanut butter, one-quarter cup of cooked beans or one-half ounce of nuts or seeds, according to the US Department of Agriculture, which recommends that over-50s eat five to seven portions of protein per day, or 150g to 200g.

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Several homebuyers, not aligned to any forums, have voiced their resentment over the bodies not coming together and pledging a united fight to avoid dilution of rules drafted under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) and ensure enforcement of regulations laid down by the Centre.

The Haryana government notified the RERA rules for the state on July 28. While homebuyers have voiced misgivings over the rules claiming they dont address their concerns or issues put forward by them, not a single forum espousing the cause of homebuyers has yet considered moving court, seeking implementation of RERA rules drafted by the Centre.

DV Singh (67), who is yet to get possession of the flat he booked seven years ago, said, I am not associated with any forum for home buyers, but feel that the time is ripe for all such bodies to make common cause and put up a strong fight against the Haryana government to ensure implementation of RERA rules drafted by the central government.

Fight for RERA, Federation of Apartments Owners Association (FAOA), #UnDilutedRERA, Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC), Dwarka Expressway Welfare Association are forums that have been holding separate protests seeking enforcement of strong RERA rules.

SN Yadav, another homebuyer, said, The forums for homebuyers are not united in their quest to enforce strong, undiluted RERA rules. The longer it gets for such groups to join hands and pledge a united fight, the easier it will be for the developers to get away. As a homebuyer, I am not happy with the RERA rules notified by the Haryana government and I am sure there are more like me. Across states, homebuyers have voiced resentment over soft RERA rules and I believe all the forums should seize this moment and come together to fight for strong real estate rules.

Abhay Upadhyay, national president, Fight for RERA, said, We wrote letters to state governments and the Centre over dilution of (RERA) rules in favour of developers. We have not received any response from neither the states nor the Centre yet. We are keeping track of how homebuyers, across states, are reacting to notified RERA rules and our legal cell is also in the process of examining the regulations. I cant comment on whether all forums should come together, but homebuyers have contributed to the movement pan-India. Our effort will bear fruit very soon.

Read I Gurgaon will have its own RERA authority

Homebuyers in Gurgaon are considering filing a petition in the high court or Supreme Court and holding protests at Delhis Jantar Mantar.

We admit that all homebuyers forums are not united, but they will be very soon. We will intensify our protests and also move court and the consumers forum. We are seeking advice from experts on our future course of action," Yashesh Yadav, member of #UnDilutedRERA, said.
Two more people tested positive for dengue on Saturday, taking the total number of cases reported this year in Gurgaon to five.

While a 2-year-old boy from Rewari was diagnosed with dengue by a private hospital in the city, a 23-year-old man residing in Sector 21 also tested positive for the disease.

The number of suspected dengue cases in the city, too, has risen to 58, setting off alarm bells in the corridors of the health department and leading to hospitals in the district stepping up effort to prevent an outbreak.

We have already issued guidelines to all hospitals and are in the process of ensuring that they are being followed. All patients are currently under treatment. We do not want the disease to spread, SS Saroha, deputy civil surgeon, civil hospital, Gugaon, said.

All hospitals have arranged for screening, isolation ward and case management capability with ventilator support in a bid to meet any emergency.

Wary of an outbreak, the health department has already deputed officials to carry out fogging at several areas of the city, including sectors 21, 45, 46,10, 9, 5, 44, 50, 38, Jharsa village, DLF U block and Wazirabad, as most of those who tested positive for the disease are residents of these areas.

On Wednesday, a 26-year-old resident of Jacobpura tested positive for dengue at the civil hospital. A Hisar hospital, too, reported a confirmed dengue case to the health department. The 30-year-old patient was found to be a Gurgaon resident.

The city reported its first dengue case this year on July 28. The patient was identified as a 22-year-old resident of Sector 45.

We have asked the patients and their family members not to panic. We are in the process of spreading awareness among the residents on dos and donts with regard to malaria, dengue and chikungunya. People should not wear sleeveless and should avoid visiting parks in the evening, as the mosquitoes, especially the ones that are considered to be the carriers of such diseases, are more active at that time, BK Rajora, the chief medical officer, Gurgaon civil hospital, said.

Read I Two more confirmed dengue cases in Gurgaon, fogging intensified in various sectors

Private hospitals in the city also advised residents to use mosquito repellents. Dengue is a disease that rapidly spreads during the monsoon season. Dengue virus is transmitted by female mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and, to a lesser extent, Ae. albopictus. They are also considered to be the carriers of chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika infection. If the disease is diagnosed early, dengue patients could be cured easily, Dr. Mayank Goel, consultant, pediatrics & neonatology, Paras Hospitals Gurgaon, said.

Last year, the city had hit a four-year high with regard to the number of confirmed dengue cases. The district health department recorded as many as 401 dengue cases. In 2013, 175 cases were reported, up from 375 cases reported in 2012. Again, 86 and 381 cases were reported in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

In 2016, the city reported 38 malaria cases, down from 67 in 2015, 79 in 2014 and 212 in 2013.

Dengue details

Year---------------Number of cases

2011--------------------469 (1 death)

2012-----------------375 (3 deaths)

2013---------------------175 (3 deaths)

2014-------------------86 (0 deaths)

2015------------------381 (0 deaths)

2016-----------------401 (0 deaths)

2017------------------5 so far (0 deaths)

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Rekha Chhaidwal was at Udaipurs Rabindranath Tagore Medical College to get her daughter vaccinated in 2013 when she saw a signboard for the Divya Mother Milk Bank.

Curious, the 27-year-old walked in, and manager Bhawna Joshi told her about how some mothers donate breast milk so that babies whose moms werent lactating could benefit. Chhaidwal decided immediately to become a donor.

After the initial tests, she found herself holding a pump and expressing excess milk into a bottle. She donated 100 ml and left knowing that her milk could save the life of a newborn in the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

That thought excited her so much that she returned to the milk bank 299 times over the next two-and-a-half years and donated a total of 30 litres of breast milk. Chhaidwal is now planning a third child, and will once again continue donating as long as she lactates.

Women like Chhaidwal are good news for non-lactating mothers, malnourished new moms and those with premature babies.

Early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding can prevent deaths due to diarrhoea and pneumonia. Five countries  China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria  alone account for over 236,000 child death every year because of inadequate breast feeding.

In India, the breastfeeding rate is improving and the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 findings showed that 41.6% of children under 3 were breastfed within an hour of birth in 2015-16 as compared to 23.4% in 2005-06.

Close to 55% of countrys children are exclusively breastfed, a number that stood at 46% till about a decade ago.

Gayatri Nagda with her husband Lokesh and their elder child. Gayatri read about the Divya milk bank in Udaipur 14 days after delivering their second child, and has donated 25 litres over the past year.

Milk banks are helping bridge the gap. The Divya bank was set up in 2013 by Devendra Agarwal, who ran a neonatal care centre in Udaipur and wanted to ensure that as many newborns were breastfed as possible.

The 74-year-old did some research and discovered that Mewar had a history of dhais or nursemaids, chosen from the pastoral Gujjar community to breastfeed the kings babies for additional nutrition. Panna Dhai, one such nursemaid from the 16th century, is famous for feeding Maharana Udai Singh II, who founded Udaipur as the new capital of the Mewar kingdom after Mughal emperor Akbar conquered Chittorgarh Fort.

This gave Agarwal the idea of setting up a bank of donated milk. Even back then, there was a strict selection process for nursemaids, he says. The royals did a kind of background health check before she was allowed to feed the prince.

At the Divya bank, donors must undergo blood tests before they donate, to rule out any transmittable diseases or infections. The donated milk is pasteurised and kept at -20 degrees Celsius.

Treated correctly, mothers milk can be stored for six months, says Dr BL Meghwal, the banks nodal officer. At room temperature, mothers milk can be used for six hours.

Agarwal, meanwhile, has gone on to set up 10 other human milk banks, and is now adviser to the Rajasthan government on its mother milk bank project. Seven more are in the process of being set up.

RETURNING THE FAVOUR

There are now milk banks across the country, from Udaipur to Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. Among the grateful beneficiaries are Singapore-based management consultant Rakhi Saini, 36.

My second child was born premature, at 29 weeks. For about two weeks, I had no milk. I was so worried, Saini says. Then my doctor at Fortis La Femme told me about human milk banking and that eased my mind. Fortis La Femme opened its milk bank last year and is already collecting enough milk to help sick babies in other hospitals.

Ours is a public milk bank as we not only feed our own babies but also send milk to other hospitals. Its easy to open a bank but difficult to sustain donations, says Dr Raghuram Mallaiah, head of neonatology and founder of the Amaara milk bank. There is a shortage. The milk can stay viable for six months but our stock is exhausted within three or four days.

Among the regular donors right now is Saini, who returned to the hospital as a donor after her child stabilised and she started lactating. I thought of my premature baby and how some woman helped her, and I wanted to do the same for someone elses child, she says.

SAVING LIVES

Its easy to open a bank but difficult to sustain donations, says Dr Raghuram Mallaiah, head of neonatology at the Fortis La Femme hospital in New Delhi, and founder of its Amaara milk bank.

With preterm birth complications being the leading cause of death among children under 5  1 million premature babies die globally every year  donated breast milk becomes a vital lifeline.

Of Indias 26 million births, 3.5 million are preterm, of which 300,000 die of associated complications. Breast milk can save an estimated 156,000 of these children each year.

Breast milk is 88% water and the rest is protein, vitamins, minerals, hormones, living cells [stem cells], bacteria etc. that helps in developing a childs immunity, brain, gut health and also maintains hydration for the baby, says Dr Bernd Stahl, R&D director of human milk research at Nutricia Research in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

The first human milk bank in Asia opened in Mumbai, in 1989, the brainchild of neonatologist Dr Armida Fernandez. The bank operates out of the citys government-run Sion hospital and is now one of six government-recognised human milk banks across Mumbai and Thane.

At the Sion hospital, we explain to lactating mothers that they can help other babies if they donate excess milk, and most readily agree to do so, says current head of neonatology Dr Jayshree Mondkar, who now runs the milk bank.

There are also mothers whose babies are in the neonatal intensive care unit and need to express milk frequently to ensure the output doesnt drop by the time their babies are ready for it. All this goes into our bank, for free access by premature babies or newborns whose mothers are malnourished or not lactating.

REACHING OUT

With donations falling short across milk banks, Dr Sandhya Khadse, dean of the Rajiv Gandhi Medical College in Thane, suggests bringing the concept of human milk vans to Mumbai, might help ease low supply to banks.

She had helped BJ Medical College start one of Punes first human milk vans, which began door-to-door collection of milk from lactating mothers in August last year.

These vans are fully furnished with electro pumps and sterilised milk storage devices and usually have a resident doctor, nurse and social worker on board. They go to the houses of women who have been recently discharged from neonatal care and have had the necessary screening tests, she says.

Within months, the van had helped double the amount of milk donated to the bank. Collections within the hospital are just not enough, she says.

At Rajiv Gandhi Medical College, anyone can be a donor, as long as you are willing to get a screening test done.

There is also the concept of informal milk sharing among mothers, but we do not recommend it at all, says Dr Fernandez. The mother has to get screening tests done which include an antigen test for Hepatitis B, an HIV test, a test for sexually transmitted and other communicable diseases. The risk of contamination when expressing the milk has to be eliminated. The milk has to be pasteurised and cultured and stored in sterilised stainless steel or glass bottles at -20 degrees Celsius. Unless all these conditions are adequately met, the milk is just not safe for a vulnerable newborn.
Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner says she has been asked to lose weight for her work in the past, even when her size was irrelevant to the part.

In an interview to Porter magazine, the star said it was f***ed up that film bosses often wanted her to alter her already-slim frame for the role, reports dailymail.co.uk.

The 21-year-old actor added that she has learned to keep her mouth shut over her years in the spotlight, after shooting to fame at an age of 15.

There are often times when I have done jobs and theyve told me that I have to lose weight, even when it has nothing to do with the character. It is so f***ed up, she said.

Sophie Turner as Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse.

The X-Men: Apocalypse actor came into the spotlight after playing Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones.

She initially struggled to adapt to life in the public eye, so tried to carry on her life as normal.

It was so gradual that I still treated my life and my social media like I wasnt in the public eye. I was a 15-year-old girl writing rash political stuff that would get a negative reaction and my team would tell me to take it down. Now I am learning to keep my mouth shut.

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The police on Saturday arrested three overground workers (OGWs) of militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Shopian district of south Kashmir.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint naka (checkpost) of the state police and Armys 62 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) unit was set up near Nagbal, in the Zainapora area of Shopian, said a police spokesman.

He added that during checking, the three LeT OGWs -- Showkat Ahmad Mir, Waseem Ahmad and Junaid Ali Bhat -- were apprehended and three hand grenades were seized from their possession.

During questioning, the three men confessed that they were working at the behest of LeT operative Wasim Shah and were tasked with hurling grenades at police establishments and snatching the weapons of the securitymen in Shopian, said the spokesman.

The trio had also carried out reconnaissance of a few police pickets with a design to carry out terror attacks, he added.

A case was registered in this regard and a probe was on, said the spokesman.

Earlier in the day, three LeT militants were killed in an encounter with the security forces in the Sopore area of Baramulla district in Kashmir.
Slain militant commander Abu Dujana was the first martyr in the war for an Islamic Kashmir and helped set up an al Qaeda cell in India, the global terror outfits valley chief Zakir Musa has allegedly claimed.

Musa, a hardline militant, said in a purported statement on Friday that Dujana and Arif Lelhari, both of whom were killed by security forces on August 1, had left the Lashkar-e-Taiba to join the al Qaeda, once led by Pakistan-based terrorist leader Osama bin-Laden.

Hindustan Times could not verify the authenticity of the video message but officials said the voice matched earlier audio clips released by Musa, who left the Hizbul Mujahideen this year.

The al Qaedas claims of making inroads in Kashmir could potentially open a new front in the valley, which is witnessing a spurt in militant activities and civilian protests since the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani last year.

State director general of police SP Vaid said there was no way of authenticating the audio clips but added there were reports suggesting Musa and Dujana were close.

They had made similar claims about al Qaeda presence in valley in 2003 as well. We need to see what kind of backing they have, but for us a terrorist is a terrorist, no matter which organisation he belongs to, Vaid told HT.

Dujana, a 27-year-old from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, led the LeT in Kashmir before he fell out with the outfit for allegedly marrying a local girl.

Musa, however, said Dujanas differences with his Pakistan-based handlers arose after he decided to join the al-Qaeda.

They decided to join the cause of Islam the moment they heard about it and played a major role in formation of Ansar Ghawzat-Ul-Hind (the Islamic name of the local al-Qaeda group), Musa said in the video statement juxtaposed with photographs of Dujana, Musa and Lelhari.

Those who used to call them traitors are shamelessly paying homage to them, Musa said in the statement, his first since named as Kashmirs al-Qaeda chief by a propaganda channel affiliated to the outfit.

On Friday, social media in Kashmir was abuzz with news about another widely-circulated audio clip, said to be the last message from Dujana and Arif.

Though it was claimed to have been recorded during the encounter with security forces, no gunfire is heard in the background.

Two voices in the clip claim their allegiance to al-Qaeda and ask people not to unfurl Pakistani flags during their funeral.

Only use the flag of tawheed (a flag with islamic inscriptions about Allah being the only God), the voices can be heard saying. Hindustan Times doesnt claim authenticity of the audio.

Dujanas killing has been termed a huge achievement by state police battling hardened militants including Musa.

After the killing of Dujana and Hizbul chief Sabzar Bhat, Musa is among a few of the longest surviving militants in the valley.

Musa is also the first militant commander who claims the separatist movement in Kashmir is for establishment of an Islamic state and not a political struggle.

A BTech student, Musa joined Hizbul Mujahideen after leaving his studies midway and was a close associate of Wani.

Musa fell out with Hizbul Mujahideen on May 14, after threatening to publicly behead Hurriyat leaders, who insist that the movement is Kashmir is political.

...Our intention should be that, we have to achieve azadi to establish Islamic rule and not for secular state. If we are fighting for secular state then my blood wont be spilled for that purpose, he said in an earlier statement.

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BJP national president Amit Shah on Friday had lunch at a Dalit party workers house apparently in a bid to woo the community ahead of Gujarat and Rajasthan assembly elections.

Shah, along with chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and state BJP president Subhash Barala reached the house of party worker Tarawati Chahar in Hanuman Colony where they sat on the floor to have what they called a simple lunch.

The party leaders were served roti, cauliflower and fenugreek vegetable, rice, curd and states monsoon delicacy ghevar. The BJP claimed Chahar was informed only two hours before the lunchtime that Shah would be coming at her residence. The party said it was his way of telling the country that the BJP treats all its party workers equally irrespective of their caste. Party sources said 10 Dalit workers from Rohtak had given their names for inviting Shah for lunch.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged that the lunch served to Shah and other BJP leaders was cooked at Tilyar Lake by professional chefs and was checked by a team of doctors before being taken to the Dalit party workers house. Party convener Naveen Jaihind said Shah had disrespected Dalits by doing this.

The BJP, however, rubbished his claim.
Confidential information related to the army has been allegedly leaked out from Jhansi Sadar SDMs office to foreign agents. The UP Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) officials suspect the role of some insiders in the leak and interrogated some employees of the SDM office on Friday. The sleuths also seized some documents, computers and pen drives in this connection.



Inspector general (IG) of police, ATS, Asim Arun said the probe so far revealed that details related to movement of troops in and from Jhansi Cantonment area have been leaked. The IG said they were sure that some employees of the SDM office leaked the information. It is, however, yet to be ascertained whether they leaked it unknowingly or intentionally for profit, he added.

Arun said the employees leaked the information to unknown persons who made Internet calls to them from abroad. He said it is yet to be confirmed whether any of the recipients of information visited the office or not. He said required action will be taken on the basis of evidence after the probe.



So far no arrest has been made in the matter, he added.
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing leader was arrested while investigation was started against three other persons on Saturday in connection with the Fridays attack on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhis car, police said.

The attack generated a political storm with Gandhi holding the states ruling BJP and its ideological fountainhead, the RSS, responsible for the attack.

The Congress also accused the Centre and state government of failing to provide security to the party vice president guarded by the SPG.

Several state Congress leaders also went on a night-long dharna and organised demonstrations condemning the incident and demanding immediate arrest of the perpetrators.

The stone was hurled by a man from a hostile crowd at Dhanera town when Gandhi was visiting flood-affected Banaskantha district in north Gujarat. Black flags were also waved at him.

The stone broke the rear window of the car. But Gandhi, who was on his way to helipad, escaped unhurt as he was sitting in the front seat.

Rahul's Gandhis car was pelted with stones on Friday. (HT Photo)

The arrested Banaskantha district president of the BJPs youth wing Jayesh Darji was named in the police complaint Congress lodged after the attack.

Bhagwanbhai Patel, chairman of the Dhanera Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), was among the three against whom police have initiated inquiry.

Agitating Congress leaders, including its former Gujarat unit president Arjun Modhwadia, ended their stir after Darjis arrest.

The Gujarat government on Friday handed over the probe into the incident to additional director general of police Mohan Jha.

The BJP also condemned the incident

``The government was quick to order a probe by a senior police officer and action has also been taken over the incident. We condemned what happened, said BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya.

But he was quick to add that Gandhis visit to the flood-affected areas was part of Congress propaganda to hide the party legislators failure to be with the displaced people during this crisis.

He was referring to a group of Congress MLAs staying in a resort on the outskirt of Karnataka capital Bengaluru. The Congress took them out of the state to prevent them from being poached by the BJP ahead of Rajya Sabha elections on August 8.
Britain has announced plans to scrap landing cards for Indians and other non-EU citizens as part of measures to ease passenger experience as well as save costs. Passengers arriving at Heathrow and other ports have filled out these cards since 1971.

Scrapping the cards  considered outdated in the digital age  is expected to free immigration personnel for other duties while saving nearly 3.6 million every year. The move will also shorten queue lengths and improve passenger flow.

Officials said the withdrawal of landing cards will not result in the loss of any data used for security checks. Indian and other non-EU passengers will continue to be checked against police, security and immigration watch lists to verify the identity and confirm the status of every passenger.

Indians are among the largest number of visitors to the United Kingdom for purposes that include tourism, work, studies and family visits.

This change will also be an improvement to the border process  landing cards will no longer have to be purchased and distributed by carriers; there will be no burden on passengers to complete these cards; and it will reduce the administrative costs to the taxpayer by freeing up Immigration Officers time related to the processing of landing cards, a home office statement said.

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: In post-Brexit Britain, it will be even more important to show we are open for business and make sure that we give investors, tourists and students a great welcome to our country.

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Chhattisgarh police have turned to 32 women to protect their reputation and also take the fight to Maoists lording over pockets of Bastar region.

The 32 are constables who underwent rigorous training as commandos in Bijapur district, about 422km south of state capital Raipur, in Bastar.

They will be the first batch of woman commandos of Chhattisgarh police to be deployed for operations in Bastar, where security forces have lost hundreds of personnel to Maoist ambushes and also faced accusations of rights violations, including sexual violence.

Incidentally, allegations of brutal rights violations in Bijapur district two years ago earned security forces the wrath of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

The rights body stated in a report there was prima facie evidence that security forces raped and sexually assaulted 16 tribal women during a five-day operation in October 2015. The operation was reportedly carried out by state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

The primary motive for this womens unit in Bastar is to protect the security forces from Maoist propaganda of rape charges, DM Awasthi, Chhattisgarhs special director general of police (Naxal operations), told HT.

Bijapur will be the first district to have women commandos for anti-Maoist operations. Soon, such teams will be formed in all seven districts of Bastar, he added.

Awasthi said many of the 32 commandos knew the local dialects of tribals and their presence will be reassuring for women of villages during operations.

Police insisted this was not a mere public relations exercise in the fight against Maoists, who are known for letting their women guerrillas lead reconnaissance missions and even ambush operations.

Sunderraj P, deputy inspector general of police, Bastar, said, This is the first time state police will send women commandos inside jungles to fight Maoists and we are hoping for positive results. I believe it will strengthen our operations in Bastar.

Though the women commandos for Bastar will be a novelty for the state police, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) stamped its presence in this respect in 2016 when it posted assistant commandant Usha Kiran in the Maoist hotbed.

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Facing an anti-incumbency factor and rough weather due to resentment among farmers in particular chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hopes to tide over the crisis by replicating Prime Minister Narendra Modis Mann ki baat with his own a radio programme - Dil se.

The first episode of the monthly programme will be broadcast by every centre of All India Radio (AIR) in Madhya Pradesh at 6 pm on August 13, according to the state governments official spokesperson.

CM will express his views on various issues concerning people and spell out his priorities. He will also share with people the state governments policies, programmes, schemes and future action plan. He will connect with youth, women, farmers, labourers, traders and other sections of society through this programme, said an official communique.

Though it has not been disclosed officially, sources say Chouhan has chosen August 13 to reach out to people through the radio as the day happens to be Balram Jayanti which is celebrated by farmers in North India in particular.

Madhya Pradesh which is mainly an agrarian state, has about 98 lakh farmers and 1.20 crore farm labourers. Farmers can make or mar prospects of any political party.

Read more: Bhopal: 17,400 quintal onion goes missing, inquiry ordered

The Chouhan government has been jittery since it mishandled the recent farmers agitation leading to death of five farmers in police firing in Mandsaur district on June 6. Since then, Chouhan has announced a slew of measures for farmers welfare but the government once again mishandled the procurement of onion from farmers and its sale which too saw a scam.

Earlier, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejariwal too have used the radio to send out their messages to people in their respective states.

Expectedly, the Congress ridiculed Chouhans upcoming radio address. State Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said, CM has been trying to imitate Prime Minister Narendra Modi right from day 1. When Modi talked of Make in India Chouhan talked of Make in Madhya Pradesh, when Modi talked of dropping red beacon lights Chouhan was the first to follow it. Similarly, he is now trying to follow Modis Mann ki baat. It is sheer a propaganda method when he is facing a crisis in the state.

However, state BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat said, Its a wise decision on the CMs part to use radio to send out his messages to people up to the grassroots level. Radio happens to be an effective method and any government should use all the technology to deliver good governance to people.

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Former Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu broke records on his way to getting elected Indias 13th Vice President on Saturday evening, defeating Mahatma Gandhis grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi by 272 votes amidst cross-voting and highest ever polling in VP election.

Naidu got 516 votes while Gandhi secured only 244, ensuring the NDA candidate the highest victory margin in 30 years.

BJP sources maintained that Naidu was expecting 502 votes but benefitted by about 20 votes due to cross-voting.

The late alignment of Nitish Kumars JD(U) with the BJP in Bihar may have swelled Naidus margin while cross-voting, absent voters and invalid voters ate away Gandhis base. JDU had announced its support for Gandhi even after dumping the Congress and RJD in Bihar.

The former BJP veterans victory to the countrys second-highest Constitutional office was predicted to be a cakewalk, but he will face a bigger challenge as the chairman of Rajya Sabha, where the Congress-led Opposition, enjoying majority, has often forced adjournments, delaying the governments legislative agenda.

Naidu struck a humble chord after the final result and highlighted agriculture  a much-debated issue in current politics. Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity, he said.

He added that as Rajya Sabha chairman, he will sincerely try to steer the functioning of the House to enable it to effectively further the larger interests of the nation.

He also promised to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by his predecessors.

#WATCH: #VicePresident elect #VenkaiahNaidu with his wife Usha at their residence in Delhi after winning the elections. pic.twitter.com/fSeqAuW0uw  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

The VP election result comes days after Ramnath Kovinds victory in the Presidential election, signifying the stupendous growth of the BJP in electoral politics across states.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that Naidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the goal of nation-building.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Gopalkrishna Gandhi, too, congratulated Naidu.

Of the 786 votes in the electoral college, 771 or 98.21% votes were cast, the highest ever for VP polls. Fifteen MPs did not cast their votes and 11 others were declared invalid.

Among the 15 MPs who didnt vote, 3 belonged to the NDA while 11 were seen as Opposition supporters. Sources said an Independent MP, two IUML MPs, four Trinamool Congress and two Congress members and an NCP MP were among those who didnt vote.

BJPs Vijay Goel and Sanwarlal Jat were in hospital while Chedi Paswan was not allowed to vote due to an ongoing litigation. PMKs Anbumani Ramdoss skipped voting.

There were four vacancies arising out of Vinod Khanna and P Govardhan Reddys death, countermanding of election in Anantnag and BSP chief Mayawatis resignation.

BJP sources pointed out that while Ramnath Kovind got 522 votes, Naidu got 516 even after two big regional parties, JDU and BJD, switched sides.

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In the first four months of 2017, a nugget of information went by unnoticed: While jobs for men increased by 0.9 million, 2.4 million women fell off the employment map, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a think tank.

Only women suffer when theres an employment problem, said Mahesh Vyas, CMIE managing director and CEO.

The trend for this year points to a continuing story of Indian women increasingly clocking out of the workplace.

It might not seem like it at first glance. You see women employed everywhere, in ad agencies and start-ups, on construction sites and in fields, in shops and restaurants, in schools and anganwadis, flying airplanes and driving taxis.

Yet, if the number of women who quit jobs in India between 2004-05 and 2011-12 (the last year for which census data is available), was a city, it would, at 19.6 million, be the third-most populated in the world after Shanghai and Beijing.

Only 27% Indian women are currently in the labour force. Among G-20 countries, only Saudi Arabia is worse, IndiaSpend reported on April 9, 2016. Within South Asia in 2013, India had the lowest rate of female employment after Pakistan. In over two decades preceding 2013, female labour force participation in India fell from 34.8% to 27%, according to an April 2017 World Bank report.

Source: World Bank (2015)

Indias female labour force participation (FLFP) rate is highest among illiterates and college graduates in both rural and urban areas, according to this March 2017 World Bank report, which analysed government data from 2004-05 to 2011-12. These two groups, illiterates and those with college education, are also the groups that experienced the largest drops in FLFP rates over this period.

There are no indications that its getting better.

Much of this slide has come in the post liberalisation years, when you would imagine that a growing economy would fling open doors of opportunity. At roughly the same time that women were quitting jobs, an additional 24.3 million men went to work, according to an April 2017 World Bank report, Precarious Drop: Reassessing Patterns of Female Labour Force Participation in India.

Even more inexplicably, women went missing from the workplace at precisely the same time that girls were making massive advances in education. The enrolment rate of girls in elementary education is nearly 100%. In higher education, its nudged up from just 7.5% in 2002-03 to 20% in 2012-13.

Over the next few months IndiaSpend will track declining female labour force participation through on-the-ground reports that seek to understand the various constraints that inhibit their employment and participation in the workforce.

Education should lead to jobs, but thats not happening in India

The logical link that education should lead to jobs is broken in India. In rural India, 67% of girls who are graduates do not work. In towns and cities, 68.3% of women who graduate dont have paid jobs, says a 2015 report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Womens Voices, Employment and Entrepreneurship in India.

More girls are being educated than boys, said Pronab Sen, country head for the International Growth Centres (IGC) India Central Programme and the countrys first chief statistician. You have to ask, where are they going and what are they doing?

Why should we care?

If women participated in the economy at par with men, India could increase GDP by up to 60%, or $2.9 trillion, by 2025, according to a 2015 study by the McKinsey Global Institute, a think tank. At present, women contribute a mere 17% to the countrys GDP, well below the global average of 37%.

Womens earnings are also linked to their personal well-being. Quite simply, a woman who brings money into the house is likely to have greater clout and status in that family. Improved labour market prospects for daughters and daughters-in-law could lead to greater investment in their education and health.

But perhaps, most important, it matters because women want paid jobs. The 2011 National Sample Survey found that over a third of women in urban India and half in rural areas who engage mainly in housework want a paying job.

So, if women want jobs, why are they quitting? Whats holding them back?

The power of choice, the shame of a working wife: Complex reasons

Ongoing research and IndiaSpends own on-the-ground reporting suggests a complex web of constraints that keep women away from the workplace.

Chief among these is the issue of womens agency.

A man is expected to have a paid job. When he seeks one, he needs nobodys permission. Girls and women, on the other hand, almost without exception must have the permission of their fathers, brothers, husbands and in some cases even village panchayats in order to work or even learn skills that will make them employable.

In Haryanas Jhajjar district, Jyoti Kadian, currently employed in a steel factory, will be getting married in November to a navy man who has told her he has no objections to her working  but only in a government job. Im trying to get one, but its not easy, said Kadian, conscious that time is running out.

In Mumbai, Naseema Sheikh, the daughter of a plumber, joined a four-month beauty training course after completing 12th grade in school. When she received a job offer from a beauty salon, her brother said there was no need for her to work. He says, I am providing for you so what need is there for you to go so far to work? she said.

In an Aurangabad slum, a truck driver tells me why he refused permission to let his 19-year-old daughter work in a restaurant after she completed a two-month hospitality course with Pratham Institute. Next thing you know, she will be running off to have a love marriage, and I will not be able to show my face anywhere, he said. In the small one-room house where he lives with five daughters and a son, his wife said not a word. Asked what she felt about a working daughter, she shrugged her shoulders and then got up to make tea.

When her husband got transferred to Mizoram, patent attorney Priyadarshini Gauri found herself without a job after working for nine years. I would have liked some remote working opportunities in my field but there were none, she said. While she waits for his three-year posting to end, she has had a baby, enrolled in a masters in history and is learning to play the guitar.

I miss those good old days when you know youve done terrific work, she said in an email interview. Being employed gives you a validation that no amount of home-making can.

Patriarchy, cultural and social attitudes exist all over India. But in many states in the north, theres a feeling of shame if a mans wife works, said Pronab Sen. Unsurprisingly, Bihar, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab report the lowest rates of female labour force participation, whereas hill states such as Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh where men have historically migrated out for work, leaving women in charge of village economies, female labour force participation or FLFP to use a brief acronym for a distressing trend, is high

Family and responsibility for household work are other serious constraints. Women either dont accept jobs, or quit because of family reasons found a 2016 study of young, single women by Evidence for Policy Design, a team of Harvard faculty researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School.

In the end, its difficult to find a job if you cant leave home alone

Social norms about appropriate behaviour for women and the enforcement of these norms by parents, in-laws and husbands dictates their ability to seek employment. The 2011 Indian Human Development Survey finds that a sizeable number of women need to take permission from a family member to even go to the market or health centre, said Rohini Pande of Harvard Kennedy School. In the end, its pretty difficult to look for a job if you cant leave the house alone, she said.

Even when women are allowed to work, there are conditions that must be met. Is the job close to home? Are there fixed working hours that will allow her to be back in time to cook the dinner and put the kids to bed? Is safe and inexpensive public transportation available?

Safety is emerging as a key concern, said Farzana Afridi, associate professor with the Indian Statistical Institute. Public spaces are dominated by men. Moreover, theres a dire shortage of infrastructure that would enable womens participation in the workplace  hostels for working women and creches for their children, for instance.

Managements will often tell you how women make for very reliable employees with low absenteeism and attrition rates, said Afridi. But not many are prepared to provide the infrastructure that would enable their fuller participation.

Medha Uniyal, programme director of the Pratham Institute was more blunt: When you have women on the payroll, you are legally required to provide facilities like a creche. So, a lot of employers have a clear mandate of not hiring women.

The role of companies in nurturing gender diversity certainly calls for scrutiny. After women manage to convince their families to allow them work, they often encounter yet another hurdle: companies that dont want to hire them. There is a clear case of discrimination by companies that give women a raw deal, said CMIEs Mahesh Vyas.

Finally, women themselves seem inclined to choose trades that are traditionally women oriented: beauty and healthcare for instance. Social norms and a lack of information often limit womens opportunities to so-called traditional jobs, closely linked to typical ideas of what women can and cannot do, said Clement Chauvet, chief of skills and business development, UNDP.

Sectors with fastest growth, most jobs are dominated by men

Unfortunately, sectors with the fastest growth and maximum hiring  telecom, banking and the core sectors  are dominated by men. In telecom, 83.84% of all employees are men; 78.79% in banking, financial services and insurance and 74.75% in core sectors like oil and gas, power, steel and minerals, according to the India Skills Report 2017. Women themselves show a clear preference for trades that are traditionally women oriented: beauty and healthcare for instance, said Clement Chauvet, UNDPs chief of skills and development.

An obvious solution is skilling. The Prime Ministers Skill India Mission is targeted to train over 400 million people by 2022.

Women cops in New Delhi. It may seem as if women are working everywhere but 2.4 million women fell off the employment map in the first four months of this year. (Arun Sharma/HT File Photo/Representative image)

But theres a mismatch between vocational skills programmes, aspiration and the job market. Its important that we make sure we skill young people to meet what industry demands, said Chauvet.

Moreover, existing skilling programmes are simply too small to count, said IGCs Sen. The bulk of skilling programmes take place as apprenticeships with ustads or in small-scale industries that are male dominated and where fathers and husbands do not like sending their girls and wives.

Another solution would be to make it incumbent upon companies to disclose gender diversity in hiring employees. Im not suggesting there should be reservation. But companies that function on shareholder money and bank loans should be made to disclose the gender breakup of their employees, said Vyas.

All women work. Much of it  fetching firewood and water, cooking and cleaning, taking care of children and the elderly in India  is unpaid and unrecognised.

Very often, women seek employment when there is poverty and they must contribute to the household income just to survive. But when household incomes increase, they might consider the option of quitting paid work. Typically, when economies expand and the services sector grows, they get back into the workforce.

This upswing of what economists call the U-curve hasnt happened yet. When it will  or even if  is the big question.

This is the first of a series of stories that will investigate, over the next few months, why Indian women are dropping out of the workplace.

(Namita Bhandare is a Delhi-based journalist who writes frequently on gender issues confronting India. This article was published in arrangement with IndiaSpend.)

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Wearing jeans, checked shirt or a colorful printed sari to a courtroom can undermine the majesty of law and land one in trouble.

More so, if the person is a government official.

High court of Himachal Pradesh in Shimla recently laid down the dress code for litigants, especially government officials, after taking exception to a woman officer appearing before it wearing jeans and checked shirt.

The high court directed the states chief secretary to issue necessary directions to all government officials to dress appropriately while appearing in courts or office.

A division bench of the court comprising justices Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Ajay Mohan Goel said, Every litigant appearing before the court is expected to be dressed in a modest manner so as to maintain decorum. After all being appropriately dressed only induces a seriousness of purpose and a sense of decorum which is highly conducive for the dispensation of justice.

Ruing that people were dressing in a casual fashion while attending the court, it said, Of late there has been lamentable slackness in matters of litigants attire, more particularly, government officers and officials appearing before this court and precipitates sartorial inelegance and judicial indecorum and undermines the majesty of law.

This order was passed by the court after a junior engineer wore a jeans and multi colored checked shirt to the court.

The court termed her dressing appalling after she informed that she wore those dresses even to work.

Emphasising the importance of correct dressing in its order, the court added: Judges and magistrates play a pivotal role in the administration of justice and that is why they wear specific dress prescribed by the rules framed by the high court. This dress is worn compulsorily in order to maintain the dignity and decorum of the court and, therefore, we see no reason why any litigant, more particularly, government officers and officials should be improperly or inappropriately dressed while appearing before the court.

This is, however, not the first instance of the dress code being imposed by a high court.

In April, this year the Jharkhand high court too had disapproved of the colourful printed sari worn to court by the state chief secretary.

The court not only pulled up the officer but also asked the government to frame a dress code for government officials.

Subsequently, the Jharkhand government came out with a notification that bans government servants from wearing jeans, fancy shirt, T-shirt or any other colorful dress to courts.
The government on Saturday appointed economist Rajiv Kumar as the new vice chairman of the NITI Aayog, replacing Arvind Panagariya who had resigned on August 1. Kumar is expected to take charge after August 31 when Panagariya vacates the position.

Official sources also said Dr Vinod Paul, professor and chair of the department of paediatrics of neonatology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at New Delhi, has been appointed a member of the governments policy think tank. Apart from the Vice-chairman and the CEO, the Aayog has positions for four full time members in the rank of ministers of state. One of these positions is lying vacant.

Look forward to serve the nation with my role @nitiayog @pmoindia  Rajiv Kumar (@RajivKumar1) August 5, 2017

A DPhil in economics from Oxford University and an author of books on economics and national security, Kumar is currently a senior fellow at the Centre for Poicy Research at Delhi. He has served as Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). He has also served on the Asian Development Bank and in the ministries of industries and finance.

Kumar was also on the National Security Advisory Board from 2006 to 2008 when the Congress-led UPA was in power.

Panagariya, 64, surprised many when said last week he was returning to academics and would resume teaching at Columbia University abruptly ending his tenure at the government policy think tank. He had joined the government policy think tank headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2015. After coming to power in May 2014, the Modi government had disbanded the Nehruvian-era Planning Commission and replaced it with the Aayog.

Dr Paul is credited with developing the maternal and child health strategy of the government and also served at the headquarters of the WHO.

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The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday raided the premises of a Gujarat-based company which allegedly defaulted on an estimated Rs 1,700 crore loan from public sector banks during the previous Congress-led UPA governments tenure.

The groups flagship company Sterling Biotech is one of the top 10 defaulters of public sector (PSU) banks and the loan was declared non-performing asset (NPA) in 2012.

Though the loan default is cited as the official reason for the raids, multiple sources said the government suspects the group of mobilising funds for the August 8 Rajya Sabha elections.

Sandesara group siphoned off substantial amount of bank money through bogus exports and parked in offshore companies in Nigeria, US and Dubai. This is part of governments crack down on wilful defaulter, a source in the EDs Gujarat unit told HT on the condition of anonymity. The ED is yet to make an official statement.

Nitin Sandesara, chairman and managing director of the group, did not respond to text messages and phone calls from HT.

In the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, a close aide of party party president Sonia Gandhi, is the opposition candidate

and is pitted against a former party leader who joined the BJP recently along with two other MLAs.

The Congress has accused the BJP of using money and muscle power to lure its MLAs ahead of the polls. BJP president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani are also in the fray.

The Congress flew 42 of its Gujarat MLAs last week to a resort in Bengaluru to prevent the BJP from poaching them.

Three days ago, Income Tax officials raided properties of a Karnataka minister who is hosting the Gujarat MLAs at the resort. The Congress termed the raids a witch hunt.

A bank employees union, which had first raised the issue of NPAs on PSU banks, had cited the Sandesara group as an instance of poor loan assessment. The group was allegedly given loan with significantly insufficient collateral.

Analysis | What one Rajya Sabha election says about Indian politics

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Five persons, including four Spanish nationals, were killed and nine other Spaniards received grievous injuries when the van in which they were travelling collided head-on with a speeding truck in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday morning, officials said.

The accident took place around 10 am at Yetlavanka village of Punganur block, when a group of 13 Spaniards working for NGO Rural Development Trust -- based at Bathalapalli village in Anantapur district -- were travelling to Puducherry.

As they reached Yetlavanka village, a container lorry coming at high speed from the opposite direction lost control and rammed into their van.

The impact of the collision was so severe that the front portion of the van was completely crushed and the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.

Passers-by immediately alerted police on highway patrol who managed to retrieve the bodies after a lot of effort.

Two Spanish nationals and the driver of the van died on the spot, while two others died en route to a hospital.

The nine injured were immediately rushed to Bengaluru in a special ambulance.

The four deceased were identified as Vicente Perez, Francisco Pedrosa, Joseph Moran and Nieves Lopez. The driver was yet to be identified.

Chittoor collector Pradyumna and superintendent of police Rajasekhar reached the spot to look into the rescue operations.

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PATNA By the looks of it, Katrisarai in Nalanda district of south central Bihar, about 120 kilometres south east of state capital, Patna, is your usual, non-descript hamlet, like any other in the region. It has just one primary school for a population of around 20,000 and a decrepit, apology of a road.

But that is just one part of the story.

Katrisarai is also one of the biggest hubs of cyber crime in the country. It used to offer, online, cure to all kinds of ailments and afflictions - ranging from sex related limitations,baldness and leucoderma to even cancer and vitiligo. The claim was a sham and thousands across the country ended up receiving capsules filled with flour!

Now, the scamsters have graduated to other forms of cyber crime such as asking the gullible through phone calls and WhatsApp messages, to deposit sums of money in supplied bank accounts to claim their lottery winnings and other such financial windfalls..

If its a cyber crime, all investigations will point unerringly to this place, says a top police officer.

It is not easy to reach Katrisarai, passing through a treacherous stretch, with the lone road-dotted with potholes and craters, branching off the highway for over 2 kms, at the end of which shanties, often one roomed, sporting huge banners offering various concoctions to the world.

Local police admit that it is tough to reach the village, but the locals do not want the road to be repaired.

The dilapidated road deters the police from swooping down fast and gives time to law breakers to flee, the officer adds.

Till 2012, Katrisarai was infamous for all kinds of sex-related fake medicines or aphrodisiacs, which were supplied to all parts of the country. This generated good revenue for local quacks masquerading as doctors, with the Katrisarai post office doing business worth nearly Rs 1-crore per month.

Says Arvind Mathur, 52, a senior Ayurvedic doctor, the racket in sex-medicines involved people from many states, who lured prospective customers by talking to them over phone in their own language.

Another Ayurvedic doctor Lalit Kumar Gupta says, when police from across the country started raiding the hamlets , the racket stopped for a while. This also affected the locals. Later, while the locals continued to suffer, anti-socials got into cybercrime and started cheating unsuspecting people through online frauds, he adds.

One striking thing about cyber frauds of Katrisarai was that they never targeted locals, but only cheated people of other states by obtaining their PIN through online transactions.

SHO of Katrisarai police station Alok Kumar told HT that the police received several complaints that in the name of supplying Ayurvedic medicines, the manufacturers were using suspicious material, which they had been marketing across the country for curing sex-related complications for years.

He added that the scamsters had a network of agents covering almost all states of the country, who trapped innocent people through advertisements in newspapers and supplied them fake material at exorbitant prices.

The gang had a call centre managed by 12 customer care executives to lure innocent persons in the name of winning lotteries, including cars or other items against each online purchase.

The executives could speak many Indian and foreign languages. Once the customer was convinced, they provided them bank account numbers to deposit the money.

On April 14, the Nalanda police busted a gang of tele-callers which had duped a senior IAS officer of Rajasthan (additional chief secretary of Rajasthan, J C Mohanty).by calling him up, posing as bank executives and seeking information about his ATM card(s).

The accused then made him transfer money into bank accounts opened on fake identities.

Police recovered 14 cell phones, 56 SIM cards, six ATM cards, three cheque books, two PAN cards, a driving licence, beside Rs 2.22 lakh cash from the racketeers.

Kumar Ashish, Nalanda SP till recently, said since 2016, over 100 persons have been arrested from Katrisarai and sent to jail in connection with various cases of cyber fraud. The nexus has been broken and now the anti-socials might be operating from some other area, he added.

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Parts of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab are gripped by fear after dozens of women reported that they have had their hair mysteriously chopped off while unconscious.

Many of the women have complained of being dazzled by a sudden flash of light, following which they fell unconscious. Once they gained their senses, they found their braids missing.

The reports have left many scared and paranoid. In Agra, a 62-year-old widow was beaten to death after locals suspected her to be behind the incidents. At many other places, residents are staying awake overnight to keep vigil.

Call it ignorance or superstition, instances of similar mass hysteria are not rare. The most celebrated of them was when idols of Lord Ganesha were said to be drinking milk in the 1990s, prompting devotees to throng temples across the country. HT looks back at examples of public frenzy, both past and present:

Odisha: Panic has been sweeping villages of Cuttack districts Niali block since June this year with people complaining of mysterious deaths of sheep. The liver and other internal organs of the dead sheep were found missing and locals blamed the killings on a mystery creature.

Some said a dog-like creature with long nails was on the prowl. To douse the panic, the state forest department initiated night patrolling. A team from the Simlipal National Park was also deployed with tranquilizer guns and drones. But nothing came out of the patrolling efforts.

Experts say a pack of wolves could be the culprit. For the time being, the hysteria has subsided a bit. But parts of Niali are still in panic.

West Bengal: In January 2017, social media was flooded with messages of aliens from the outer space kidnapping children from Hoogly, Burdwan, North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts.

Soon, panic took hold and led to at least two lynchings by vigilante groups. A dozen other people were assaulted by angry villagers. The West Bengal government took note after an elderly NRI woman visiting the state was beaten up in Hoogly.

The hysteria died down just as suddenly as it started. Some 25 people were arrested either for spreading rumours or attacking innocent people.

Uttar Pradesh: An idol of Lord Hanuman was reported to be shedding tears at a temple in Meerganj of Allahabad in March, 2017.

Scientists attributed the tears to the presence of mercuric oxide in vermillion applied by devotees on the idol. But devotees saw it as a bad omen and claimed the God was unhappy with the state of affairs in the world.

Sometime later, the idol stopped shedding tears, ending the hysteria over the phenomenon.

Punjab: Thousands of people thronged the Chamatkari Nalka, a magical handpump, in Fatehgarh Sahib district in 2016 with the belief that its water can cure all their ills and end all grief. At times, the queues went up to a kilometre.

It all began after an old woman suffering from joint pain claimed of a cure on drinking water from the pump. The hand pump overnight became a pilgrimage site.

It all ended abruptly after local villagers got fed up with the rush of people. One night, the hand pump was uprooted. No one knows who did it.

Madhya Pradesh: Residents of Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur and Bhind of Madhya Pradesh began spotting mysterious scratches surfacing on their mortar and pestle (Sil-Batta) and grinding stone (Chakki) in 2015. Similar phenomenon was also reported from Jhansi and Mahoba of Uttar Pradesh.

It led to consternation and locals claimed supernatural powers were behind the scratches. Entomologists  those who study insects  disagreed. They said the scratches were caused by aggressive beetle species and their caustic excreta resulting in the whitish abrasive marks on stone. The panic subsided after it had raged for weeks.

Uttar Pradesh: Lucknow and other parts were swept by rumours in 2012 that people would turn into stone if they slept tonight.

None knew who started it all, but the rumours caused immense disquiet. Neighbourhoods stayed awake overnight and many took out noisy processions after midnight to keep people awake.

The rumours ran out of steam after a few weeks. No one turned into stone and there were no arrests.

Assam: Hundreds of men, mostly belonging to Hindu families of four districts in western Assam, complained of their genital shrinking in 1982.

The complaints caused panic, though doctors blamed it on genital infections leading to a psychological epidemic called Koro. Those who suffered from it felt their penis disappearing into their abdomen.

The psychiatry department of Gauhati Medical College intervened and a mass awareness campaign helped display the fear after it had a free run between July and September of that year.

(With inputs from Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Guwahati, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar)
The centre on Friday approved a proposal to rename the Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, a home ministry official said.

The proposal was given by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh in a bid to revive the legacy of Upadhyaya, who died in 1968 at the junction itself.

Minister of state for home affairs Hansraj Ahir cleared the proposal on Friday, the home ministry official said.

The move led to an uproar in Parliament after several MPs including Samajwadi Partys Naresh Agarwal protested against the Centres decision to give nod to renaming the junction after Upadhyay.

The junction, the fourth busiest railway station in the country, is located on the main Howrah-Delhi Grand Chord line. The Uttar Pradesh government, headed by Yogi Adityanath, had in June approved the proposal of renaming the station and forwarded it to the Ministry of Railways for final approval.

The station contains the largest railway marshaling yard in Asia. It is 12.5 km long and handles around 1,500 wagons daily. The largest wagon repair workshop of the Indian Railways is also located here. PTI
The government on Friday decided to deploy dedicated teams of security personnel to target the top Maoist leadership and also launch offensive operations in the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to contain the Red rebels.

Chaired by Union home minister Rajnath Singh, the meeting also reviewed the status of development projects and security related issues in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected states.

Formation of dedicated teams for targeting top militants in Jammu and Kashmir has shown results. Similar tactic will be employed in the LWE areas to go after the top leadership of Maoists, said a home ministry official following the meeting.

During the meeting, the ministry also took stock of increasing Maoist activities in the bordering areas of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

It has been decided to launch more offensive operations in the area to contain their activities, said the official.

Read more: Chhattisgarh: CRPF to enhance strength, firepower in Maoist-hit Bastar for area domination

According to a home ministry spokesman, Rajnath Singh instructed that the multipronged strategy comprising of security, development, ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities should be vigorously pursued.

The home minister was informed that central security forces have increased intelligence-led operations with better coordination with the state police after three dozen security personnel were killed in two deadly Maoist attacks in March and April in Chhattisgarh.

But the central forces want at least 33% component should consist of state police personnel in any team that is employed in anti-Maoist operation. But the Chhattisgarh police has said although it is providing more personnel for operations, taking it to 33% is not possible as of now, added the official.

On improving the air connectivity in the LWE areas, the home minister was informed that the Jagdalpur airport in Chhattisgarh will be operational shortly under Regional Connectivity Scheme. The government is also intends to connect Jeypore airstrip in Odisha under this scheme, said the spokesman.

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Police on Friday detained leaders of major opposition parties when they tried to show black flags to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah on the last day of his three-day visit that ended on a stormy note.

The police registered an FIR (first information report) against 20 AAP protesters for blocking the route of Shahs cavalcade. The day started with Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Tanwar taking out a protest march to show black flags to Shah and CM Manohar Lal Khattar, demanding release of cow activist Sant Gopal Das from jail. Das, who has been sitting on a hunger strike for the past 65 days, was on Thursday arrested for dumping a dead bull at the venue of BJPs event to draw Shahs attention to his demands.

As Tanwar and his supporters reached Ashoka Mod in the city, heavy police force stopped them by putting up barricades. When they tried to cross the barricades, the police detained them. Tanwar, former home minister Subhas Batra and nearly 100 Congress supporters were taken to Sunaria in two Haryana Roadways buses. In all, 135 party workers were detained, the police said.

As many as 60 activists of INSO, the student wing of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), were detained from Maharshi Dayanand University when they reached in large numbers to show black flags to Shah ahead of his address at the university auditorium. INSO president Pradeep Deswal said they hold Shah and BJP leaders responsible for the killing of youths during the 2016 Jat agitation in Haryana, and demanded an apology from him for making defamatory remark against veteran INLD leader former Haryana CM Devi Lal.

Later in the day, a group of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers trying to show black flags to Shah outside an event venue were detained for creating ruckus and shouting anti-government slogans. Another group of AAP workers led by state convener Naveen Jaihind started marching towards Shahs venue to show him black flags. They, too, were detained from outside their office and taken to the Urban Estate police station. In all, 75 AAP activists were detained.

The AAP also demanded release of Gopal Das and loan waiver for Haryana farmers. The activists of all the parties were released in the evening after Shah left for Delhi. The 20 workers booked for blocking the route of Shahs cavalcade were yet to be arrested, said Rohtak superintendent of police (SP) Pankaj Nain.

6 cops suspended for dereliction in duty

Rohtak SP Pankaj Nain on Friday placed under suspension six cops for dereliction in duty during the three-day visit of BJP national president Amit Shah. Besides the protests of the opposition parties that rocked the district on Friday, two major events highlighted lapses in security of the police. These incidents include cow activists dodging security to dump a dead bull at the venue where Shah was present and two drunk men breaching security and entering the venue pretending to be part of a BJP workers delegation.
A suave man with a well-groomed beard and hair brushed back arrives at the counter of a private airline in Nagpur airport, says he is Union road minister Nitin Gadkaris officer on special duty (OSD) and demands front-row seats.

He gets what he asked for, leaves a visiting card at the GoAir counter and walks off with his wife to the VIP lounge.

Minutes later, his boss walks in to catch a flight from his hometown to New Delhi to attend Parliaments monsoon session. The lounge manager informs Gadkaris personal assistant that the OSD, 31-year-old Jesus Waghade, is there too.

What? Who? The bluff was called.

The lounge manager was suspicious and asked the ministers PA if he knows the OSD. Security was called when the PA said he doesnt know the man, an officer with the CISF said.

Waghade is a physician impersonating the ministers OSD  perhaps for the VIP frills, if not for anything else, which is under investigation.

Airports and airlines offer lounge access and priority at check-in counters and security queues to VIPs.

They also get loaders to assist them with their luggage.

The incident happened on July 31.

It was around 8am, the man got his boarding pass without standing in the queue as he introduced himself as the OSD to Gadkari. Around the same time Gadkari reached the lounge to catch his Indigo flight to Delhi, the CISF officer said.

Waghade and his wife were booked for a flight to Mumbai.

We filed a police complaint in Nagpur. It is not clear if he misused any official document or letterhead, but that is for police to investigate, said an official with the minister.

When airport security confronted Waghade, he admitted his mistake. The impersonator was allowed to fly but he might be arrested after his return to Nagpur. A formal complaint was lodged by Gadkaris PA on Friday, said police inspector Sanjiv Pandey.

(With inputs from Pradip Kumar Maitra in Nagpur)

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Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar ordered on Friday an inquiry against a 49-year-old government junior engineer, who is a self-styled anti-corruption campaigner and has exposed dishonest deals linked to politicians.

The vigilance probe was ordered against whistleblower Kashinath Shetye after BJP legislator Nilesh Cabral accused him of stealing documents from the state assembly. The lawmaker also moved a privilege motion.

He has filed 195 cases in the past five years and has taken a lot of leave. I wonder whether he is working for the government or not, the chief minister said while announcing a vigilance inquiry against him.

The remarks came from a man who had used the right to information act (RTI)  the main weapon of Shetye in his crusade  to expose the Congress government of Digambar Kamat about a decade ago.

Shetyes RTI applications allegedly exposed illegal sale and purchase of land by the Goa Tourism Development Corporation that lawmaker Cabral heads.

In my recent petition I had challenged the procedure used by the GTDC to bring private players to acres of land in Vagator. It has perhaps irked Cabral, a close aide of Parrikar, he said.

I am not afraid of anything as I have documents to prove I am right.

Cases exposed by Kashinath Shetye Illegal Mining- His RTI applications led to filing of cases against 151 people including former ministers, MLAs and government servants on court orders. He moved to the court after in his complaint with police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against those indicted by the Justice Shah Commission failed to evoke any response. Dual Citizenship- His RTI led to registration of cases against around 500 people including law-makers and bureaucrats who have obtained Portuguese nationality wrongly. Many more were forced to surrender dual citizenship after his expose. Sand Mafia: After being attacked by sand mafia for petitions against illegal mining, a local NCP leader Jitendra Deshprabhu was arrested in 2012 for illegal bauxite mining. Coastal Zone violations: His RTI application led to notices to casinos stations near Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary but was withdrawn as the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) said temporary structures does not amount to violation of ecological norms. Foreign funding to parties: A case was lodged against the Goa units of Congress and BJP for allegedly accepting donation from a foreign registered mining company Vedanta. He has also accused leaders of both BJP and Congress of receiving money from foreign companies which is prohibited under Representation of Peoples Act.

Like many anti-graft campaigners in India, Shetye has been threatened, assaulted and transferred to the remotest corners of Goa. But he has continued with his crusade against corruption.

His fight cuts across party lines. He exposed an illegal mining scam in 2013 in which former Congress chief ministers Kamat and Pratapsingh Rane were charged.

Cabrals allegation and demand for action against Shetye found support from legislators across the spectrum because the junior engineer for 27 years have been a bugbear for every government, irrespective of the party in power.

The legislators accuse Shetye of violating the civil service conduct rules as he had filed RTI applications and cases in the national green tribunal, high court and the Supreme Court.

There were days when the phone would not stop ringing with threats to harm me and my family, said the engineer who began his fight against corruption when a bribe was sought from his wife about 20 years ago.

More than 50 RTI activists have been killed and another 257 assaulted in 12 years since the law was enacted. A bill introduced by the previous UPA government to protect whistleblowers is pending in Parliament. The Centre now proposes to change rules that could make RTI applicants more vulnerable to threats.

As Parrikar forms a committee to probe his assets, Shetye said he will remain a whistleblower, no matter what the government does.

I have always asked for information under the RTI act as a citizen not as a government servant trying to benefit from it, he said.

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A Myanmarese was arrested in Kakching district of Manipur on the charge of entering India illegally, police said today.

The foreigner, identified as Mohammad Abdul Hussain, was apprehended while he was at Pallel check post of Kakching district on Friday night.

He was travelling without valid travel documents.

A sum of Myanmarese currency equivalent to Rs 47,000 was seized from him, police said.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Friday only India could rescue the world from the clutches of capitalism.

The whole world is in the clutches of capitalism. Only India can rescue the world from this calamity, he said.

As long as even an iota of religion (dharma) is surviving in India, no power on the earth can harm India. But unfortunately, if the religion vanishes from India completely, then no power would be able to save India, he said.

Bhagwat was speaking at the valedictory function of a residential course for men and women volunteers of Hindu Swaysmsevak Sangh (HSS) at Nagpur from various countries.

Quoting RSS founder Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar that the British or the Mughals could not be blamed for the countrys unfortunate situation.

The only problem of the Hindu community is Hindus themselves and since Hindus are our own, we will not let them live in unfortunate situation, Bhagwat quoted Hedgewar as saying.

He said, We need to build a Hindu community not because it is in problem, but because it is our own, and also for the conservation of the holy Hindu religion, culture and Hindu rashtra.

Renowned economist and member of Niti Aayog Bibek Debroy, who was present on the occasion, said that in the ancient times, the king had only limited responsibility of defence, internal security and ensuring the rule of the law, while everything else was done by the community.

Unfortunately, because of the British legacy and what happened after 1947 as a citizen, we have become pampered and continuously look towards the government to do this and that. The government and the different levels of the government cannot solve the problem of India. The countrys problems can be solved by its community, he said.

He also appreciated the initiative of promotion of Indian heritage and culture by HSS.

Total 65 participants from various countries took part in different activities like yoga, traditional Indian games and discourses on Hindu culture and heritage during the HSS residential course.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the 13th Vice President of India and expressed confidence that he will serve the nation with dedication and diligence, committed to the goal of nation-building.

The Prime Ministers message came immediately after Naidu, the ruling National Democratic Alliances candidate, was declared winner in the vice presidential polls, bagging 516 votes out of total 771 votes cast.

The oppositions candidate and Mahatma Gandhis grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi only managed 244 votes. (HIGHLIGHTS)

Congratulations to M VenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected Indias Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure, the Prime Minister tweeted, adding, I am confident M Venkaiah Naidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the goal of nation-building.

Talking about their association, Modi said, My mind is filled with memories of working with M Venkaiah Naidu Garu, in the party & government. Will cherish this aspect of our association.

Naidu was the NDAs minister for urban development and information and broadcasting before he stepped down to become a vice presindetial candidate. Before Modi became Prime Minister, Naidu was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

A student of law in college, Naidu is the second BJP leader, after Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, to occupy the post of the vice president. He became the BJPs president in 2003 at an early age of 54.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Naidu was associated with the RSSs student wing in his early days, and served as the president of Andhra University Students Union. He was elected to the legislative assembly of Andhra Pradesh in 1978 and, again, in 1983.
Several pro-Jammu organisations including Team Jammu and activists of Jammu Justice Secular Forum (JJSF) staged a protest here on Friday against imposition of Kashmiri language in Jammu colleges.

While raising anti-government and anti-BJP slogans, the protesting students warned that imposition of Kashmiri language and cultural aggression on the land of secular Dogras will not be tolerated at any cost.

They even lashed out at the latest government order wherein it reserved some posts for Dogri and Punjabi languages.

It was mere eyewash. Why the government has reserved some seats for Dogri and Punjabi languages but has not rescinded its previous order of imposing Kashmiri language in Jammu colleges, they said.

They demanded immediate roll back of governments earlier order of introducing Kashmir language in Jammu province.

The government courted a controversy when it recently reserved 49 seats for Kashmiri language that too in degree colleges of Jammu province where people largely speak Dogri, Punjabi, followed by Gojri, Pahari, Sheena, Giddi and Sippi languages.

Following uproar and protests the state government on Thursday had came out with a cosmetic exercise reserving 49 seats for Dogri language and 25 seats for Punjabi language for the posts of assistant professors.

Coming down heavily on BJP ministers, the student leaders pointed out that people of Jammu will not forgive the incumbent ministers from this region for their complete surrender before Kashmir just to enjoy the loaves of power.
The BJP has asked its elected representatives in Rajasthan to use a logo featuring a photograph of RSS icon Deendayal Upadhyay on their letterheads for all official correspondence, senior party leaders and officials told HT on Saturday.

The move drew an angry reaction from the opposition Congress which accuses the BJP government at the Centre of trying to impose Hindutva ideology in the country.

BJP national joint secretary and Rajasthan in-charge V Satish gave instructions for using the logo during a party meeting in Jaipur on Friday, a senior BJP leader said.

The meeting was attended by the heads of various municipal corporations, commissions and boards. The logo will also be used by ministers on their letterheads.

We were shown a sample of the logo with photos of Pt Deendayal Upadhyay and other senior BJP leaders. We have been directed to print the logo on letterheads within two or three days, Bharatpur mayor Shiv Singh Bhont told HT.

Upadhyay was a founding member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a political party formed by the RSS, the idealogical fountainhead of the BJP. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was the forerunner of the BJP.

The Narendra Modi-led government has named several programmes and schemes after Upadhyay.

Another senior BJP leader based in Jaipur also confirmed the move.

We have been asked to use the logo and will soon comply with the party directive, he said, requesting anonymity.

The Congress objected to the proposed move.

The heads of local bodies are representatives of the government and not that of the party. By asking them to include a logo of Deendayal Upadhayay on their letterheads, the BJP is trying to promote a person who has not made any contribution to the nation, Rajasthan Congress spokesperson Archana Sharma told HT.

Its a misuse of official machinery to push forward their ideology, she added.

State BJP president Ashok Parnami could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

As as part of Deendayal Upadhyays birth centenary celebrations last year, the BJP had asked party spokespersons to use the logo in all the partys official correspondence and press notes.

Over the past few years, several BJP-ruled states including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra have faced allegation of saffronising education by changing schoolbooks.

HT has earlier reported that from the current academic session, RSS icons such as Veer Savarkar, Upadhyay and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, have been given prominently featured in revised textbooks published by the Rajasthan education board.

State education minister Vasudev Devnani, an electrical engineer associated with the RSS since college, has called the process a cultural reform.

(With inputs from Suresh Foujdar in Bharatpur)

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The BJPs West Bengal unit will adopt a new slogan Save Bengal from becoming Kashmir in the run-up to the rural polls in the state in an attempt to step up its campaign against the Trinamool Congress government.

The new line of campaign will try to exploit the post-Basirhat situation in the state.

We will cite the example of these riots and tell the people that unless the TMC is resisted, the future of Bengal would be like that of Kashmir where terrorist activities from across the border is a regular feature, said a BJP Yuva Morcha leader.

The idea of the new slogan mentioning Kashmir came from a comment made by BJP leader and MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who came to Bengal to visit Basirhat. Commenting on the communal flare-up on July 9, she said Bengal was on the verge of becoming Kashmir and people are not safe there.

The BJP has also highlighted the 2014 Burdwan blast that killed two persons and exposed a flourishing network of Bangladeshi jihadi elements in at least four Bengal districts, where they made IEDs and indoctrinated youth.

Over the past few years, BJP leaders have repeatedly alleged that Mamata Banerjees party has connived at infiltration from across the Bangladesh border that has posed a danger to both the law and order and economy of the region.

According to BJPs national secretary and former state president Rahul Sinha, it is the duty of BJP to highlight that TMC is the root cause an alarming law and order situation in the state.

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A Google study found that the cost of the smartphones is the biggest barrier for rural Indian women from accessing the internet.

On an average, 25% women continue to use the internet after being trained in various techniques, it said.

The study conducted in five states, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Jharkhand, showed that at 35%, Gujarat has the highest percentage of women continuing to use the internet after attending the programme. At 17%, Rajasthan ranked the lowest in the list.

Almost 90% of the women who attended the training now have a better understanding of internet, according to Google.

However, after training was over, half of the women could not afford to buy the phone yet, the study found.

Google has been holding learning courses for women in 10 states, the other five being Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

The women learned from switching the smartphone on to searching for design of Bollywood actresss blouse and selling the same at premium to rural folks, hiring a car on e-commerce portal for her husband for taxi usage, purchasing a TV online, taking and sharing photos on social media, learning micro-farming techniques and searching for the nearest hospital.

As many as 25,000 Internet Saathis (companions) trained by Google are working across one lakh villages in 10 states to help women and children become familiar with the benefits of using internet in their daily lives, Google officials said.

From being afraid to touch a smartphone, worried that they will spoil it, to now demanding services that can help them get more from the Internet  women in rural India have come a long way, Sapna Chadha, director (marketing), South East Asia and India, Google, said adding that rural India is 70% of Indias population, so it is not a community that you can just ignore.

Even as India has taken the lead to become the fastest growing internet user market in the world, Indias Internet is still dominated by male users with 1:10 ratio.

The digital gender divide is even wider in rural India where digital literacy amongst women continues to be a challenge, this combined with socio-economic challenges are the major barriers that prevent women from using the internet, Chadha said.
The 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat, shifted to Bengaluru to avoid break in ranks ahead of Rajya Sabha elections, visited the Raj Bhavan on Saturday and met Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala, who hails from their state.

The legislators, who have been confined in a resort near the state capital to ensure the RS re-election of senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel from Gujarat, told Vala about the BJPs alleged attempts to lure them with bribes of Rs 15 crore, said Shaktisinh Gohil, spokesperson of the party.

On why they met Vala, a former BJP leader and Gujarat assembly speaker, Gohil said the governor is above party politics, and is a protector of the Constitution.

After Raj Bhavan, the MLAs visited the assembly here, in the company of state energy minister D K Shivakumar, hours after income tax raids at his residence came to an end.

Gujarat Congress MLAs and Karnataka energy minister D K Shivakumar stage a protest in front of the statue of Mahatama Gandhi at Karnataka assembly in Bengaluru on Saturday. (PTI)

The legislators held a protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue there against the raids on Shivakumars properties, calling it a BJP ploy to threaten them.

There have been many attempts to spread false information, Gohil said. Some news organisations have said that the MLAs are being kept at the resort against their will, that some have expressed a desire to leave. But there is no such thing, Gohil said.

The legislator said the MLAs had come to state with the only aim of protecting democracy. The BJP wants to spread an atmosphere of fear, he added.

I-T Raids End at Ministers House

Earlier in the day, Shivakumar, who came out of his house after the four-day long raid, thanked party leaders for their support.

I will speak as soon as the I-T department releases its report on the raids, he said, adding that he would head to the resort where the Gujarat MLAs are staying.

Karnataka energy minister D K Shivakumar speaks to media after income tax sleuths completed a four-day long raid at his residence in Bengaluru, on Saturday. (Arijit Sen/HT Photo)

Later in the day, the minister also apologised for adverse remarks made by his mother against chief minister Siddarmaiah on Thursday. Shivakumars mother had accused Siddarmaiah of targeting her son.

In a letter, Shivakumar apologised on behalf of his uneducated mother, saying she was unaware about whose jurisdiction the I-T department came under.

I would like to tender my apology to the chief minister and the people of the state for the remarks made by my mother, Shivakumars letter says. Some media organisations used my mothers innocence to make her say these things, he alleged.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah criticised the BJP over the raids, saying they were politically motivated. The Central Reserve Police Force being used for raids at the house of our cabinet minister is against the Constitution. This should have been done only if there was a collapse of the law and order situation in the state, he said.

Siddarmaiah said the I-T department was free to raid anybody. Let them also raid BJP leaders. Are there no cases against [BJP state president] BS Yeddyurappa, [Union ministers] DV Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar? he asked.

We will politically oppose moves done with a political vendetta, the chief minister said.

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Three militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were killed in an encounter with security forces in Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

A police personnel was also injured in the operation in Amargarh.

Police said that after receiving specific inputs, the Amargarh area was cordoned around midnight. The militants were hiding inside a house, and the security forces asked them to surrender. When they refused, a gun battle began around 2am and ended at 5.55am, officials said.

We requested the terrorists to surrender but they opened fire, we responded in the same way then, Rajeshwar Jamwal,commanding officer of the Indian Armys 52 Rashtriya Rifles, told the media.

Though the fire fight ended, security forces launched a search operation, officials said.

The bodies of all the three militants were recovered. Two of them were identified as Javid Ahmad Dar, a resident of Khanpora in Baramulla, and Abid Hamid Mir, a resident of Hajin in Bandipora district. The third militant was yet to be identified.

Three AK-47 rifles were recovered from the slain militants.

Saturdays gun battle took place just days after security forces killed top Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Abu Dujana and his accomplice in an encounter at Hakripora village in Pulwama district on August 1.

Meanwhile, internet services were cut off after the encounter in Baramulla district, where Sopore is located.

All government and private schools and colleges in Sopore would be closed on Saturday following the encounter, the additional deputy commissioner said.

(With agency inputs)
Former Union minister Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu was elected Indias 13th Vice President on Saturday evening after defeating Mahatma Gandhis grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi by more than 270 votes amidst the highest turnover in a VP election. (HIGHLIGHTS)

Naidu got 516 votes while Gandhi secured only 244  25 votes less than what he was slated to get in the high-profile poll, dubbed as an ideological battle by the Opposition camp. Both Congress and the BJP, however, claimed to have benefited from cross-voting.

The Electoral College comprised of 786 votes. Fifteen MPs did not cast their votes and 11 other were declared invalid, reducing the margin of victory to 386. Among the 14 MPs who didnt vote, three were from the ruling National Democratic Alliance while 12 were from the Opposition.

Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity, the vice president-elect told PTI shortly after being declared victor.

I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the Prime Minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and secondly uphold the dignity of the Upper House, he added.

Read | Will steer Rajya Sabha without fear or favour, says Indias vice president-elect Venkaiah Naidu

Naidu will be the 13th person to hold the second highest Constitutional post, which also makes him the Chiarman of the Upper House.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his congratulations to Naidu for a fruitful & motivating tenure.

I am confident M VenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the goal of nation building.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi also wished Naidu, offering her partys support in further strengthening the Rajya Sabha for effective scrutiny of legislation and government policies.

House of Elders (Rajya Sabha) is an important determinant of our democratic functioning to address appropriate checks and balances, she added.

Naidus victory to the countrys second-highest Constitutional office was predicted to be a cakewalk, but as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Naidu may face more intense challenge from the Opposition in the House.

Read | Nellore to New Delhi, NDAs vice president candidate Venkaiah Naidus journey

In the 2007 VP poll, incumbent Hamid Ansari had polled 456 votes, Najma Heptullah 222 votes and Rashid Masood 075 votes.

In the 2012 polls, Ansari had bagged 490 and NDA nominee Jaswant Singh 238 votes.

(With inputs from agencies)

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From pasting party posters to an epitome of political and ideological loyalty who rose to become one of BJPs most visible leaders and now Indias vice president-elect, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu has come a long way.

Born to a humble agricultural family in Andhra Pradeshs Nellore district, the 68-year-old has served as BJP president, minister in various portfolios and a long-time Rajya Sabha member.

This remarkable career in politics has been more than four decades in the making.

It began in the 1970s when BJPs precursor Jana Sangh was a marginal player with little clout in the south and a young party worker kept himself busy putting up posters of stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani.

Naidu has come a long way since those days of political obscurity.

Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity, Indias vice president-elect told PTI.

I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the Prime Minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and uphold the dignity of the Upper House, he added.

Naidu is known for his oratory. A two-term member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha three times from Karnataka. He represented Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament before he was nominated to the vice presidents post by the NDA.

Once an Advani protege, Naidu vigorously backed Modi for the prime ministers post before the 2014 elections.

He was minister for Information and Broadcasting and Housing and Urban Affairs in the Modi government and earlier also held the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

In the previous NDA government led by Vajpayee, he had served as Rural Development Minister.

The veteran party leader also served as the BJP national president from July 2002 to October 2004 for two consecutive terms.

He quit the post after the partys defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Naidu was an ABVP activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.

As the first minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the Modi government, Naidu defended the prime minister and the government whenever the opposition targeted them in Parliament.

He had also ensured high political outreach by meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when there was a standoff between the government and the opposition in Parliament.

Several major legislations were cleared by Parliament when he was Parliamentary Affairs Minister, including the historic Real Estate Act and fast forwarding of the GST Bill.

Known for coining acronyms, Naidu termed the mission of the Modi Government as MODI- Making of Developed India which had become the official line of the Centre in its public outreach campaign on the occasion of three years of being in office.

As the minister for Information and Broadcasting, he was always quick to present issues in perspective with effective repartee as and when required.

As Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, which was recently merged as Housing and Urban Affairs, Naidu pioneered the launch of several new urban missions, including the Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All.

As Rural Development Minister, Naidu was instrumental in launching the hugely popular Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

When the Congress swept the polls in Andhra Pradesh in 1978, Naidu got elected as MLA from Udayagiri constituency as a Janata Party candidate.

He was re-elected on a BJP ticket when NT Rama Rao swept the polls in the state.

But all that has receded into the past.

There is no my party or your party. Now I am a non-party man, Naidu told reporters this morning as the election for the vice president got underway.
When was the last time you saw a rhinoceros running, let alone on a busy street?

If your answer is never, your quest ends here.

A video posted on Facebook by North-East Of India captured a rhino charging onto a road in Assam for a full two minutes and 40 seconds.

It got widely shared, leading to several users questioning its authenticity  some said it was fake and edited, but the page admin were quick to respond.

In rainy seasons, its a regular view in Assam. GO to near by areas of Kaziranga national park and other national park of Assam , u will get this kind of scenario, they commented.

The couple filming the video have a running commentary throughout. Damn. Look at the size of the thing. I thought I only saw this on bloody African movies. Im doing it today myself, says the driver.

The video garnered 13 million views so far and was shared almost 2 lakh times.

The same video was shared on Twitter by @sarm0161 and has since been retweeted over 18,000 times.

Social media reactions alternated between rage and hilarity. A few users were concerned about the safety of the rhino, while others were amused at the unusual sight:

HahaHahahahahahaha! I was waiting to hear him say 'and now to take you through till lunch here's Michael Atherton'  Ste.A (@sarm0161) August 4, 2017

The music makes it. I wonder what the Rhino was pissed about??  The Last Turkey (@paldinowolf) August 4, 2017

Maybe its mum told it to go and play in traffic ??  The Last Turkey (@paldinowolf) August 4, 2017

I was most impressed with his ongoing pace though. He kept a pretty good gallop and seemed light on his feet.  In Search Of Truth (@JasonSamfield) August 4, 2017
Vice President-elect M Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha he would sincerely try to steer the functioning of the House without fear or favour and uphold its dignity and decorum with cooperation of all members.

As Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, I will sincerely try to steer the functioning of the House without fear or favour. I will uphold the dignity and decorum of the House with the cooperation of all the Members by acting as per the rules of business and the conventions of the House, Naidu said shortly after he was elected as the new Vice President.

He said he would make an endeavour to enable every member of the Upper House make meaningful contribution towards addressing the issues being faced by the country.

I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed

predecessors.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

Naidu, who will succeed Hamid Ansari on August 10, said he was humbled by the honour bestowed on me by electing me to the office of the Vice President of India by virtue of which he also becomes the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

The former BJP leader said he was particularly grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and leaders of several other parties for considering me for this important responsibility.

I am grateful to the honourable Members of Parliament for reposing faith in me and entrusting me this responsibility.

He said he felt overwhelmed as a commoner to be conferred with the honour given my roots in the family of an ordinary farmer.

This speaks for the beauty and strength of our parliamentary democracy. Parliament is the highest forum of our democratic polity which is to enable socio-economic development of our country through necessary legislative measures for bettering the lives of the people.
With numbers heavily tilted in favour of NDA candidate M Venkaiah Naidu, he is set to be elected as Indias 15th vice-president on Saturday in the electoral battle against Oppositions Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

If he wins, Naidu will be the second leader from the BJP background, after Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, to assume the countrys second-highest office, days after Ram Nath Kovind, the first President with BJP legacy, entered Rashtrapati Bhavan.

According to the calculations by both sides, Venkaiah Naidu is likely to get 514 votes, while Gopalkrishna Gandhi (Opposition) may get around 271 votes.

The V-P election assumes significance as the NDA nominee is set to win and assume the role of the chairman of the Rajya Sabha  the House where the Opposition has outnumbered the ruling dispensation in the past three years. The BJP hopes that Naidu, with his vast legislative experience, may bring back peace in the House.

While the numbers are heavily tilted in favour of Naidu in the poll, some drama is expected during the polling as many MPs may be in a hurry to finish voting before catching the return flight to their constituencies.

TMC has decided that all 44 MPs will vote together in the first hour after the voting starts. All 44 Trinamool MPs will come together to vote. You can imagine what will happen, said Derek OBrien, the partys Rajya Sabha floor leader.

The Prime Minister is set to vote during the first half. Unlike the presidential election, the electoral college of the vice-presidential election comprises only MPs. The results will be out on Saturday afternoon after counting of the ballot papers in the ParliamXent building.

Both factions of the AIADMK, BJPs new ally JDU, YSR Congress, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and some other parties are expected to vote for Naidu. The Opposition has managed to rope in BJD to its side.

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The Jaipur police on Saturday celebrated Raksha Bandhan by tying rakhis to students of different educational institutions across the city as part of the police commissionerates community outreach programme.

City police commissioner Sanjay Agarwal along with other top city police officials visited the Seth Anandi Lal Poddar School for the deaf and mute and tied rakhis to the students.

Speaking on the occasion, Agarwal promised students that the Jaipur police will always be there for their safety.

Much like the bond between a brother and a sister, the Jaipur police too protect women in the city. Whenever you face problems, the Jaipur police will always be there for your assistance, he said.

Last year too, the Jaipur police organsied a similar programme and reached out to thousands of youngsters in the city to spread awareness about the different initiatives undertaken by the police.

Children will be taken to a tour of historic places in Amer in Jaipur by the city police to increase their knowledge about the rich history and heritage of the city.

The children organized a cultural programme on the occasion which included a dance performance.

A number of top city police officials, including additional commissioner of police (crime) Prafulla Kumar, additional commissioner of police (law and order) Nitin Deep Blaggan, deputy commissioner of police (east) Kunwar Rashtradeep were among those present during the celebration.

Officials said personnel from police stations under the Jaipur commissionerate, will also tie rakhis to students in educational institutions in their neighbourhood to promote better police-public relations.
Government and private schools will compete with each other in new India, union human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar said on Saturday.

In a few years time, parents will face a choice between government and private schools regarding where to send their children. That is the picture of new India, Javadekar said here on the opening day of the Festival of Education.

The Centre has increased enrolment in government schools and will now focus on improving the quality of education and learning outcomes, he said at the festival, modelled on the Resurgent Rajasthan summit and Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet.

The no-detention policy under Right to Education Act will be undone to introduce examinations in Class 5 and Class 8, and 24 states have given consent for this, he said.

The two-day festival is being organised by the Rajasthan government and GEMS Education, an international education company based in the UAE.

Every child is different and blessed with different abilities. A good teachers job is to understand the childs abilities and accordingly give opportunities to him or her, Javadekar said.

Out of the four ways for a country to grow rich  colonising, utilising natural resources, cost competitiveness and innovation  the most desirable and sustainable way for prosperity is through innovations, he said.

Javadekar lauded the state government for school education reforms, such as consolidation of schools. Other states are following the way paved by Rajasthan, he said.

The festival, chief minister Vasundhara Raje said, is a celebration of knowledge and only a precursor of what is going to be done by the state in the field of education.

She said, While we need doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc., we also need to give students the opportunity to pursue the subject they genuinely love.

The state government, she said, is equipping teachers with new ways of pedagogy to develop their capacities and keep them updated.

The chief minister launched the Gyan Sankalp Portal that will allow corporate houses and donors to support government schools in Rajasthan.

UAE minister of culture and knowledge development Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan said wellbeing of society depends on education. Relations between India and UAE are firmly rooted in common values and aspirations, confidence and trust. My presence here is an affirmation of the strong ties between the two countries, he said.

One tends to view the unknown as threatening and hostile because of ignorance. Education is one of the most efficient ways of eliminating fear and mistrust from the world, he said.

Human capital created through education and training is the engine of economic growth, he said. Calling disparity in educational resources disappointing, he said urban students cant be favoured over rural, or men over women, or rich over poor.

Amreesh Chandra, group president of GEMS Education, India, said the purpose of the festival is to define schools, students, and teachers of tomorrow.

State school education minister Vasudev Devnani, higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari and HRD secretary Anil Swarup were present on the occasion.

Apart from policy makers, innovators and experts, teachers, students and parents from all parts of the country are participating in the event.

The objective of the festival is to showcase the states innovations in the education sector to educationists as well as to expose officials, academicians and students of the state to advancements in education.
With 101 passengers onboard, first direct flight between Varanasi and Colombo took off from Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport here on Friday. Chairman-cum-managing director (CMD), Air India (AI), Ashwini Lohani and airport director Anil Kumar Rai flagged off the flight.

Now, Varanasi has a direct flight to Colombo. The direct air connectivity between the two cities will strengthen relationship between India and Sri Lanka further. As many as 101 passengers were onboard when we flagged off the flight, Rai told HT.

He expressed his joy for fulfilling the promise Prime Minister Narendra Modi made during his last visit to Sri Lanka in May this year. Varanasi is the parliamentary constituency of Modi who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from here.

Rai said the flight will increase tourism in Varanasi Buddhist circuitVaranasi (Sarnath), Kushinagar, Piparva (Kapilvastu, Shravasti, Sankisa), Bodhgaya (Nalanda, Rajgir, Barabar caves, Pragbodhi Hill, Gaya), Patna (Vaishali, Lauriya Nandangarh, Lauriya Areraj, Kesariya, Patna Museum).

Brand new Air Bus 320 neo has been deployed in this route. The flight is biweekly on Fridays and Sundays. The air bus has 180 seats. All seats are economy. The flight departed from Varanasi at 12.35pm and reached Colombo at 15.20pm. The returning flight landed at 8.20pm with 175 passengers onboard.

This is a great moment as the national carrier Air India today connected two historical destinations that are oldest living cities Varanasi and Colombo, Lohani said after flagging off the inaugural flight.
The investigations into the 1,500 kg heroin haul off the Gujarat coast on July 29 hinges on the sailor from Uttar Pradesh, Vishal Yadav.

Agencies believe that this Mumbai-based-Bijnor-born sailor holds crucial information about people he intended to sell off the contraband in India.

Vishal hails from Chandpur area of Bijnor district in western Uttar Pradesh.

As he becomes a central figure in the investigation, the focus is entirely on the background of Vishal and his contacts in Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh, said the sources working on the case.

Teams are likely to visit his native place for a better understanding of his past and his activities, said sources.

UP Anti-Terror Squad (UPATS) and Special Task Force (STF) were likely to help the probe teams in finding out details about his background and contacts.

Vishal, it has emerged, had coaxed captain Supreet Tiwary of vessel  Hennry (Prine-II)  carrying the heroin, worth Rs 3,500 crore to change course and head to Mumbai. The ship was on its way to Eygpt where the contraband was to be delivered as per the directions of Syed Al Morani, a Dubai-based businessman of Iranian origin.

Morani had promised Tiwary Rs 5 crore for the successful delivery but Vishal had reportedly offered Rs 50 crore if he navigates the heroin to Mumbai.

Vishal spoke to Tiwary on satellite phone mid-seas and told him that the heroin would be sold locally for Rs 150 crore. He promised him to give him one-third of it, which would be ten times more to what he would make with the trip to Eygpt.

Tiwary brought in his brother Surjeet Tiwary, an engineering graduate, to collect the money in Mumbai. On the way to Mumbai, Tiwary found the ship running on low fuel. It was then decided that the ship would head to Alang where it would be broke down and drug would be secretly transported to Mumbai.

Read more: Coast Guard makes record 1,500 kg heroin haul from vessel off Gujarat coast

Vishal helped Tiwary in building a contact with a ship-breaking agent through his accomplice Irfan Sheikh who finalised the deal for Rs 15 lakh, said the sources. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) intercepted the ship in Gulf of Khambhat on inputs from the intelligence.

The Narcotics Control Bureau, which has taken over the investigation, is working to unravel the Vishals supply line within India and the people running it.

This haul is the biggest perhaps in the entire South Asia; Vishal couldnt have had handled the sale of contraband of this magnitude; it is essential to find out people he has worked or working with, said the source.
Rae Bareli and Amethi, pocket boroughs of the Congresss first family, are now struggling to draw attention to their problems after change of governments at the centre in 2014 and in Uttar Pradesh this year, those associated with the party say.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is the Rae Bareli MP. Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi represents Amethi in the Lok Sabha. When the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power, they initiated a number of projects for the two VVIP constituencies.

Any problem in the two constituencies caught the attention of the Congresss top leadership who ensured an early solution.

With the situation having changed, the Congress held a dharna (sit-in) in Rae Bareli on Thursday, demanding that the outpatient department (OPD) be made functional at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) set up in Sonia Gandhis constituency at her instance.

As for Amethi, Rahul Gandhi flew down to Lucknow for a brief visit early this week to request the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to resolve issues concerning the farmers of the constituency.

A major agitation at both the places is not ruled out if the situation on the ground does not change.

Sonia Gandhis Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency representative KL Sharma, who led the dharna on Thursday, said: Yes, we organised a daydong dharna at Shahid Chowk in Rae Bareli on Thursday to demand that the OPD at AIIMS be made functional. The OPD building (has reached) completion. Rae Bareli is not getting power supply as promised. The Yogi government has promised 24-hour power supply at the district headquarters and 18 hours in the rural areas. Undeclared rostering (load shedding) is being enforced in Rae Bareli now. Rae Bareli city does not get the promised 24 hours of power. The rural areas do not get power for 18 hours.

Sharma said many other projects were also lying incomplete and the condition of roads had become bad. We often hear rumours that the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) may be shifted from Rae Bareli to Varanasi. The City Resource Centre set up in Rae Bareli has not been started. Not much progress has been made on the rail wheel factory of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam. Rahul Gandhi had announced setting up of Aviation University at Rae Bareli in 2013 and its building is nearing completion. Work on four- laning of the Rae Bareli-Allahabad highway is not going on at the desired pace. A number of other projects too are moving at a slower pace, said Sharma.

The situation in Amethi is similar. Rahul Gandhi visited Lucknow this week to handover a memorandum focusing on the problems of farmers to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

He met the NHAIs chief general manager and demanded that provisions of the land acquisition law enacted by the UPA government at his instance should be followed in paying compensation to farmers. We will launch an agitation if the problems of farmers are not resolved as promised by the NHAI. Many projects launched during the UPAs regime have been already shelved, said Rahul Gandhis Lok Sabha representative Chandrakant Dubey.

In 2015, Rahul Gandhi had led a padyatra to the site of Shaktiman Food Park project in Jagdishpur (Amethi) to protest the shelving of the project.

Another major project, Hindustan Paper Mill, that was supposed to provide 10,000 jobs has also been shelved. The Amethi campus of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Allahabad was also shifted from the district after the NDA came to power.

Instead, a satellite campus of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University was announced in Amethi.

When contacted, UP government spokesman and minister for medical and health Siddharth Nath Singh said: Rahul Gandhi lacks conviction when his party raises issues of power supply and AIIMS OPD. His party supported the SP government that was to give power supply and the Congress was at the centre which was responsible for executing OPD at AIIMS. None he could execute and now finding excuses to blame a government which is four months old. Therefore, a man who lacks conviction can never lead. That is the case of Rahul Gandhi.

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University of Mumbai is set to miss its second deadline to announce the results of exams it held in the last academic year. After managing to release only 160 results by July 31, which was the deadline set by governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, the university sought time until August 5 to release the remaining results. However, as of August 4, only 260 of the 477 results have been declared.

It looks difficult to announce all the results by August 5. Our aim is to not extend the August 15 deadline, said an official from MU. He said while the extra five days were sought assuming the pace of assessment between August 1 and 5 will be similar to what it was during the non-instructional days, the assessment figures have been dismal. During the non-instructional days, almost 4,000-5,000 teachers were logging on for online assessment and clearing a lakh and more answer booklets on a daily basis. Now the pace of assessment has dipped, affecting the overall process, he said.

As of August 4, close to 54% results are yet to be declared with almost 2.44 lakh answer booklets pending to be assessed in the commerce faculty alone. In the days leading up to the July 31 deadline to declare results, the varsity was able to evaluate and moderate more than one lakh papers every day. However, since Monday, the figure dropped drastically, with just 25,000 papers evaluated and moderated on Friday.

This is because the varsity has more or less completed the assessment work of all the faculties except commerce and law, so the overall number of teachers reporting for assessment has gone down. It is a task to balance regular lectures and assessment on a daily basis; the work just doesnt seem to end, said a professor, on condition of anonymity.

In a meeting with student representatives earlier this week, MU vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh had mentioned that the university hopes to clear all results by August 15.

Following complaints by students, the university decided to set up a help desk at the ground floor of the Examination House in Kalina, to look into urgent problems of students. Students who need urgent confidential statement of marks for submission to universities abroad or those wanting to appear for competitive tests or for job opportunities, we will extend our help to all, said a statement released by MU late on Wednesday evening.

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The Bombay high court directed the state government to sensitise its police officers on the effective implementation on the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

A bench of justices RM Savant and Sadhana Jadhav directed the state to ensure that police personnel dealing with survivors of sexual assault, and other crimes under the act, are sensitive, and receptive to the survivors, and to ensure there are adequate number of policewomen to record the survivors statements.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by an activist from Pune, seeking the courts intervention in a case where the Pune police had flouted norms of POCSO and let off an accused person, who had been charged of having raped three minor specially-abled girls, on bail.

On the previous hearing, the bench had directed the state government to inform the court of the safeguards of the POCSO Act implemented while probing cases of child abuse. It had also directed the state to enlist the steps that it takes to protect children residing in government as well as private shelter homes from all forms forms of abuse.

On the last hearing earlier this week, the state told the court that it ensured that the statement of the survivors were recorded only by policewomen or any other special woman officer.

It said the victims statements are recorded at their residence or at a place suitable to them and their guardians.

The bench directed the state to file a detailed reply by August 24, the next date of hearing.
Four years after the Mumbra building collapse, the Bombay high court rapped the state government, the Thane police and the civic administration for their shoddy probe into the case.

Terming the police probe report an eyewash, a bench of justice RM Savant and justice Sadhana Jadhav said the authorities should show some sensitivity towards the victims.

The high court bench also asked, Why is it that so many buildings keep collapsing in and around Mumbai? What do the authorities do?

The bench noted that since the last hearing in the case on July 14 this year, the Thane police had done nothing except record statements of four men who had supplied material for construction of the building.

The court said if this was the polices conduct in a case that was being heard in court, it wondered what the police and the administrative authorities do in the maters that do not reach the court.

The bench was hearing a PIL seeking an expedited probe into the collapse of the seven-storey building that killed 44 people and injured 62 others. In 2014, another bench of the high court had granted bail to four builders who were accused in the case.

On the last hearing, the HC had directed the commissioner of police, Thane, to submit a probe report.

For the past four years, you have done nothing and now after the PIL has been filed, and the court has issued directions, then you are going to record statements of material suppliers. These suppliers will say they havent supplied any material so will that be the end of the matter? Given the fact that all accused are out on bail and they can easily tamper with the evidence, they can influence all the witnesses, what are you going to do? the bench asked.

There is really no sensitivity on part of the probe team. This is certainly not the way to proceed with a case. We fail to understand why are you even proceeding with the trial, it said.

The HC has now directed the Thane police to submit a detailed progress report within four weeks.
Hindustan Times #BESTBachao campaign, which highlighted the plight of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses and how the services can be revived, has created buzz in the city.

Now, BEST employees unions are using HTs four-part series to appeal to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and prominent citizens for intervention. Union workers are planning a strike from August 7.

The Sanyukta Kamgar Kriti Samiti, an action committee of various BEST unions, put out posters, at all 27 bus depots, featuring HTs suggestions and illustration on them.

The posters also announced the strike from August 7, which is BESTs Foundation Day.

BEST employees have threatened a strike if the undertaking fails to timely disburse salaries to its staff.

Facing its worst financial crisis, BEST has been unable to pay the employees salaries on time.

After the BMC and the state government failed to act on their demands, the BEST Sanyukta Kamgar Kriti Samiti has announced the strike, which would inconvenience commuters.

Our demands are very simple: treat BEST workers at par with those of BMC. We have not received anything in written from the municipal body or the government. We are planning to go ahead with the strike. said, Shashank Rao, leader, BEST Workers Union.

Ironically, August 7 is also the BEST Day on which Marathi actors become BEST brand ambassadors and will be coming forward and asking the Mumbaikars to commute by its buses.
BEST buses have recorded an increase in weekend ridership and revenues after it launched a marketing campaign through loudspeakers on various routes in Mumbai.

The campaign, which was started in July, is being run only on weekends at Churchgate station, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Dadar station, Crawford market, Kurla, Andheri, Wadala and Govandi.

On the Churchgate route, after the campaign, the ridership has gone up to 82,614 from 61,668, while the income has shot to Rs 7.84 lakh from Rs 5.83 lakh.

At Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the ridership has increased by 4.89% and the income by 5.68%. When HT visited Churchgate station, it found Sanjay Kalambaste, bus inspector of Backbay depot busy, promoting the Churchgate to Gate Way of India bus route using his loudspeaker on a Sunday afternoon. The location is infamous for illegally parking by taxis.

Advertisement through loud speakers is working out very well. We have managed to get nearly 40,000 passengers during the weekend. This is also a tourist spot, share taxis overcharge passengers. We clearly tell them say our fare is Rs10  much cheaper than share taxis. said Kalambaste. The share taxi drivers were clearly restless seeing the passengers choosing the BEST buses. The drivers were trying to damage the loudspeaker and were also trying to divert Kalambastes attention. We visit the Gate Way of India with family on weekends. We had no clue that the BEST bus fare was this cheaper. The management should expand the campaign to other areas. said Anjali Kumar, a Borivli resident.
Even as housing minister Prakash Mehta on Friday denied his decision to expand the scope of a transit camp project at Pant Nagar into a larger slum rehabilitation scheme was to benefit any developer, on the ground HT found that at least one real estate company, Nirmal Properties and Holding Company Private Limited, had started gathering the requisite consent from residents of the Pant Nagar slums to bag the deal.

Hindustan Times found boards of the company at the Pant Nagar transit camp location and two other adjoining slum pockets. HT repeatedly tried to contact Nirmal on Friday, but did not get a response to phone calls or text messages. A spokesperson of the company said she was unable to provide a comment.

The same group of builders had been allotted an 18,902-sq-metre Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) plot in 1999 to develop a transit camp with 672 tenements. The developers had failed to build these tenements after which the allotment had been revoked by the state government in 2012.

HT in its exclusive report on Friday showed how Mehta went out of his way to revive this defunct project and expand it to include adjoining six slum pockets. Mehta held a meeting for this on January 6 and a government order to the effect was also issued on the same day.

We were first told about clubbing of the transit camp project with a larger slum redevelopment scheme in August 2016. A meeting was organised by the Pant Nagar Sankraman Shibir Rahivashi Sangh, a society formed of transit camp residents where the chairman of Nirmal was present, said Vijay Sukali, who was a member of this society, but had a falling out after this meeting.

Speaking to HT, several residents of Pant Nagar are opposed to clubbing the two different projects. Supriya Adam, a resident of the transit camp said, We dont want the transit camp redevelopment to be clubbed with slum redevelopment. We are the original residents of Pant Nagar, and this land is rightfully ours, given to us by Mhada over 40 years ago. The slums encroached upon this land. We will give our consent for redevelopment of the transit camp only if it is not with the slum redevelopment. Sukali told HT, The government is favouring the same builders who made us wait for over 12 years for the redevelopment of our transit camps.

Work to get the mandatory 70 per cent consent has already begun in the six slum pockets proposed to be redeveloped under the SRA project. These pockets include the Saidham, Panchaganga, Maleshwar, Siddharameshwar, Sai Sauli, and the Sai Darshan slums. Radhika Ayre, who owns a house in the Sai Sauli slum, said about 85 households in her society had given their consent for rehabilitation. Her societys residents committee was acquiring consent from the rest. Nirmal had approached them, proposing redevelopment of their slums, according to Ayre.

She said, We are part of Sai Sauli society, and the builder asked us if we are okay with giving up our houses and living in high-rises. First the builder proposed that our new house will be constructed near the transit camp. We opposed that proposal. So now we have been promised our new homes will be in the same place as at present.

Subhash Tawde, who is the president of the Sai Sauli society, said, We have given our redevelopment work to Nirmal. They have our consent along with nine other societies.

Read

Maharashtra housing scam: How Prakash Mehta tried to ensure windfall for builder
Aarey residents and environmentalists have opposed the construction work that the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has begun at Aarey colony for the Metro-3 project.

While MMRC told HT that they had begun construction, Aarey residents filed a complaint with the Aarey police and the Mumbai suburban collector on Friday opposing the work, alleging that the matter was being heard by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The MMRC has begun construction for a metro car shed at a 30-hectare plot without submitting any permission from the state pollution board, the civic body or producing documents to prove the change in land use, to either NGT or residents, said Biju Augustine, Aarey resident who filed the complaint. We have requested the police and the collector to stop this illegal work at the earliest before the green lung is damaged further.

On Friday, an excavator machine, a large container, 50 labourers along with MMRC officials and its contractors were present at the proposed site.

MMRC officials said it conducts its activities conforming to the appropriate legal framework. The state government has handed over this land for car depot. The Metro-3 project is being implemented under the Metro Act. As the metro rail administration, the MMRC is empowered to take up necessary construction activities for Metro project, said a spokesperson from MMRC.

Acting on the complaint from residents, the suburban collector asked for a site inspection report. We have taken cognisance of the complaint and a site-inspection report from our sub-divisional officer will reveal whether the land has been handed over by the state and whether permissions have been obtained, said Deependra Singh Kushwa, Mumbai suburban collector. Officials from the Mumbai police said they will be calling both parties (residents and MMRC officials) for further investigation. We have asked them to submit all documents that have been presented in court and permissions obtained to start work at Aarey. Once we have these, we will be investigating the entire issue, said Dnyaneshwar Jawalkar, assistant commissioner of police, Dindoshi division.

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Reversing BMCs decision, Maharashtra to reserve land in Aarey Colony for Metro car shed

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There may be more trouble in store for state housing minister Prakash Mehta, who stands accused of favouring builders in two different slum redevelopment projects.

On Friday in the Assembly, a fresh allegation was levelled against him over another real estate redevelopment scheme at Ghatkopar. It was alleged Mehtas younger son Harsh and other relatives benefitted from the revamp even as the original tenants were kept waiting. The revamp was done by a real estate firm in which Mehta was additional director till October 2014.

In another significant development, the residents of Mhada transit camp and slumdwellers at Pant Nagar in Ghatkopar told HT that a developer, Nirmal Properties and Holding Company Private Limited, was seeking consent from them for a redevelopment project. Mehta has been accused of clubbing the transit camp redevelopment with a slum rehabilitation project, which could mean a windfall for the developer who gets it. Mehta has denied allegations he was favouring Nirmal.

A spokesperson of the firm said she was unable to provide a comment. HT also found the state housing department, the SRA, and Mhada that owned the plot had opposed Mehtas directive to expand the scope of the Pant Nagar project by clubbing transit camp redevelopment and slum rehabilitation.

The housing department had clearly said that the two schemes could not be clubbed under Mumbais development control rules (DCR). Documents with Hindustan Times show the housing department said, The project is not feasible as there is a sewer line and slums exist on the plot reserved for a recreational ground. Further, as per the High Court order issued in 2002, while redeveloping slums, the actual size of the reserved plot has to be set aside. Considering this, the in-situ redevelopment of the slums cannot be possible.

When asked by the housing department, Mhada had said that it had already approved a contractors (BG Shirke) proposal for redeveloping the transit camp. However, on the insistence of Mehta to reconsider, the housing department agreed to proceed if Mhada and SRA had no objection. Finally, a government resolution (GR) was issued on January 6, 2017.

As the Opposition continued to demand Mehtas resignation on Friday, opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil came up with a fresh allegation and said in the assembly that two buildings, Laxmi Bhuvan and Gopal Bhuvan in Kirol area of Ghatkopar, were redeveloped by Sai Nidhi Realtors under the slum rehabilitation scheme by adding slums in nearby areas. While the original tenants were yet to get tenements, Mehtas son Harsh and other relatives got flats in the new buildings as tenants, Vikhe-Patil alleged, making this the third housing scam charge against Mehta.

He said that while the minister was no more working as director of the firm, his close friend, Mukesh Doshi, still headed the company.

Clarifying his position, Mehta said, The company was formed in April 2006 and I was appointed director in November 2008. Before being appointed minister, I resigned from the directors post on October 20, 2014. We have done nothing wrong in any project, Mehta told HT. He also said his son Harsh was a legal tenant of two buildings.

In a statement in the assembly on Friday, Mehta denied the allegations levelled against him in connection with the Pant Nagar project as well as Sai Nidhi Realtors redevelopment project.

Mehta said the Mhada transit camp plot at Ghatkopar has not been allotted to any developer, neither had any developer been appointed for slum rehabilitation. The GR of January 6, 2017, clarified this and also stated that if a developer did not come forward, Mhada is free to take up the project, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, sources said the BJP leadership had sought details of the allegations against Mehta and his response. Mehta had a long meeting with Chief Minister Fadnavis on Thursday night. Party sources said Fadnavis was deliberating on what action should be taken. The effect was visible on Friday as Mehta said that he would resign from the post or relinquish charge of the housing department if Fadnavis directed him to do so.
Ten days after a Ghatkopar building collapsed, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to hold disaster management training sessions for Ganesh mandals across the city.

The first session will be held on August 11 at the F/South ward of Parel for 100 volunteers (including those from famous Ganesh mandals like Lalbaugh cha Raja and Mumbai cha Raja, Ganesh galli). Senior civic officials said two more sessions will be held for mandals in the eastern and western regions of the city before the festival commences. The 10-day festival, that begins on August 25, attracts huge gatherings across the city making it essential for volunteers to know basic disaster-management techniques.

A civic official said the volunteers will undergo a comprehensive one-day training to handle mutiple emergencies from fire to floods and even bomb blasts.

The BMC aims to train at least 300 volunteers before the festival. The parent body of Ganesh mandals in the city, the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti had demanded that the volunteers be trained in disaster-management in a meeting held with Mumbai mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar last week.

We think that mandals must be equipped to handle any sort of emergency instead of being heavily dependent on BMC or the Mumbai police. This sort of training will also help them throughout the year and not only during the festival, said Naresh Dahibavkar, president of the Samanvay Samiti, while referring to the building collapse in Ghatkopar that killed 17 people on July 25.

The civic official from the disaster management department of BMC said, Apart from prevention techniques, they will be trained to mobilise resources, trained for lifting and carrying techniques in case of an emergency and the dos and donts during a fire. Once few volunteers are trained, we will expect them to teach others in their team.

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Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis congratulated Mumbai and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after the city was certified open-defecation free (ODF) by the Quality Council of India (QCI), a government regulator.

The CM congratulated Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta for the achievement.

Great news for Mumbai !

Congratulations to all Mumbaikars!

Mumbai becomes Open Defacation Free (ODF).

Good job BMC and Shri Ajoy Mehta ! pic.twitter.com/WfIQJQmeSs  Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) July 7, 2017

An IndiaSpend photographer investigated the claim and found that people defecating in the open was common in many areas administered by the BMC.

IndiaSpend contacted the offices of chief minister Fadnavis and commissioner Mehta, asking for reactions. No comment was forthcoming.

A city/ward can be declared ODF if, at any point of the day, no person is found defecating in the open, according to the definition laid down by the QCI.

Based on the methodology and guidelines they follow, a city will need to achieve the following infrastructure and regulatory guidelines to be declared ODF by the QCI:

Facts All households that have space to construct a toilet must have constructed a toilet. All occupants of households that do not have space to construct toilets have access to a community toilet within a distance of 500 meters. All commercial areas have public toilets within a distance of 1 km. City has a mechanism in place through which fines are imposed on people found defecating in the open

The QCI officially revalidated Greater Mumbaian area of 437.7 sq km with over 12 million peopleas ODF on July 6, 2017. The area includes the old island city, the western and the eastern suburbs of Mumbai, all administered by the BMC.

The Swacch Bharat (Urban) initiative, which is part of the Swacch Bharat Mission (SBM, Clean India Mission), has no recorded information of these areas being declared ODF.

The protocol followed by the SBM to declare any city ODF is the same as the QCIs. The SBM has not declared Mumbai or suburban Mumbai ODF.

(Published in arrangement with IndiaSpend)
More than 9,000 students have been left without a first year junior college (FYJC) seat after four scheduled rounds of admissions. The states school education department plans to conduct more rounds in the upcoming days for these students, and will announce the dates this week. Students allotted seats can finalise their admissions by August 9; they get a day extra on account of Raksha Bandhan on Monday.

Allocations in the fourth merit list were done on Saturday evening, a day earlier than scheduled, but the merit list containing college cut-offs  the minimum marks required for admissions  was announced at night. Of 55,509 applicants, only 46, 128 were allotted seats in this list.

Technically this was the last admissions round but as many students are left without a seat, the government rules require us to plan a special round, said BB Chavan, deputy director of education, Mumbai region. The admissions core committee will meet with (education minister) Vinod Tawde on Monday to decide how to conduct the special rounds and fix the dates, said Chavan.

Chavan added that many students were not allotted a seat even once in any round. We have asked the technical agency to find out how many students were not allotted a single seat. We will need to give them a seat at least once, said Chavan.

The fate of nearly 10,000 students who did not take up admission even though they were allotted seats in their first-choice colleges also will be decided at the meeting. They were disqualified because it under the new rules, it was mandatory all for students to confirm seats allotted in their most-preferred college.

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A 35-year-old man was recently arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two brothers in Vile Parle (East).

According to the police, the boys, aged 10 and 12, lived with their parents at Vile Parle while the accused,a vehicle cleaner, was their neighbour.

The incident came to light on Friday when the boys were at their Santacruz (west) school. The police said they confided in one of their teachers after which a case was registered at Santacruz police station.

As the incident took place in Vile Parle jurisdiction, the case was transferred there, said Laxman Chavan, senior inspector at the Vile Parle police station.

The police said the cleaner sexually assaulted them at his home after he lured them with chocolates. The boys did not confide in their parents, said police. The accused would often visit their house and the boys also used to visit his house.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused lured the boys by giving them chocolates and took them to his house. It has been learnt that the accused targeted one boy and then after a while started abusing the other, said another officer.

The police have registered a case under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code along with sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

On Thursday, the crime branch held a 31-year-old driver from Telangana after he sexually assaulted two boys in Kandivli at a knifepoint in June.

Another incident came to light on August 2, when a 16-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by 15 boys at a deserted under-construction site in Andheri (West).

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Mumbai police still clueless about Powai sodomy case, form special enquiry team
With the University of Mumbai (MU) unlikely to declare all the results anytime soon, the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) may push the deadline to seek admission in B-schools by few weeks across the state.

The DTE had directed management aspirants to secure admission to seats allotted through centralised admission process (CAP) by Friday, while August 14 was set as the cut-off date for all type of admissions to MBA and MMS courses.

However, many aspirants from MU-affiliated colleges are unable to complete the admission process, as the varsity is yet to declare the results of 223 out of 477 examinations, including final year BCom, BA and BE. "We are mulling postponing the cut-off date for admissions to MBA and MMS," said Dayanand Meshram, joint director, DTE.

This year, MU adopted an on-screen marking process for the assessment process, replacing the traditional pen-and-paper evaluation. The decision caused a huge delay in results as MU couldn't appoint an agency for a long time and the technical glitches continue to plague the system.

Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who also serves as chancellor of the university, asked the varsity administration to declare all the results by July 31. However, MU was unable to meet the deadline.

The delay affected admissions to various post-graduation courses. Earlier, the state CET cell had to stretch the admission process for law courses to accommodate MU graduates. With admissions facing uncertainty, the B-schools are staring at an incomplete first term. Late results delay admission process, which in turn affect examination schedule. Its a vicious cycle, said Kalim Khan, director, Rizvi Institute of Management Studies and Research. The DTE also must share the blame. Even if varsity hadnt delayed the results, the classess wouldnt have begun before August, he added.

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Worried that their building would see the same fate as Sai Darshan in Ghatkopar, which collapsed last week killing 17 people, residents of Jai Mahal on Linking Road in Bandra have complained against shops which altered parts of the building illegally.

The residents said that the buildings owner had made changes to the structure while renovating his store on the ground floor. Chief minister Fadnavis said that the residents of the Ghatkopar building had not complained about the irregularities but we have been approaching Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) every now and then. The authorities have turned a blind eye to our problems, said Gurpreet Singh Sahni, resident of Jai Mahal.

The three-storeyed building had 16 flats when it was constructed nearly six decades ago. Two families stay there  eight people in all, including three senior citizens. The rest of the flats have been converted into shops and storerooms. In their complaint to the BMC, residents said that floors on the upper storeys had been cut to expand shops. The garages had also not been spared. They said access to the terrace, that could serve as a refuge area in case of a fire, had been barricaded before. In January, the board of a saree shop caught fire, when the fire officer intimated the residents about the lack of a fire access track (an escape route in case of a fire) in their building, which was dangerous. After they complained, residents were provided with an escape through the terrace but the getaway is almost the size of a window for air conditioners, which senior citizens will find difficult to go through.

It is a 57-year-old building, but no structural audit has been conducted for this society despite repeated requests. To add to it, there is hardly any escape route for us in case of an emergency, said Sunil Wagh, a marketing personnel.

Building co-owner Suresh Jain said that the tenants were complaining for no reason. He said that his business was legal and he owned the property. About the terrace flat that was being used as workshop, he said that it was closed and he had a stay order from the court against the proceedings that the BMC would undertake, on the residents complaint. He refused to be quoted during the discussion, and subsequent calls to him were unanswered.

According to the BMC, a show cause notice has been issued to the owners of the plot. However, the officials are awaiting directives from the court to proceed further. BMC authorities handling the issue did not respond to our calls or messages.

Apart from the commercial activity on the ground and first floor of the society, the residents have also raised the issue of illegal encroachment of open spaces and garages, commercial use of water meant for residential consumption and no structural and fire audit of the structure.
As a preventive measure against swine flu and other communicable diseases, pilots operating commercial flights have been asked to report sick passengers to the Air Traffic Control (ATC).

A circular issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked airlines to inform the ATC about passengers who appear to be sick or are suffering from communicable diseases so that they get medical help as soon as they land at an airport and public health risk is minimised. All scheduled/non-scheduled and private airline operators have been asked to include the provision in their operations manual by December 31.

In India, air traffic grows at annual rate of 16%-18%. With Indian airlines beginning to fly to more international locations, the risk of them bringing in communicable diseases increases. There have been an increase in number of H1N1 (swine flu) and other communicable diseases in the country.

The circular issued on Wednesday said after the detection of passengers suspected to be suffering from communicable diseases  show symptoms like appearing unwell, continuous coughing, impaired breathing, prolong diarrhoea, persistent vomiting, skin rash or bleeding without previous history  the details need to be sent to the ATC. This data should include the aircraft type, departure aerodrome, destination aerodrome, estimated time of arrival, number of people on board, number of suspected case or cases on board and nature of public health risk (if known).

Some senior pilots are sceptical about the circulars effectiveness in preventing the spread of communicable diseases. Former Indian Air Force pilot and aviation expert Vipul Saxena said it was a good health initiative by the regulator, but the step sounds more reactive than proactive. As India is one the countries that handles highest passenger traffic there is a need to consider making H1N1 vaccine essential for all passengers as preventive measure for any epidemic outburst like yellow fever vaccine is necessary to travel to African countries, said Saxena. However, identification of such patients should be done at check in/security points and the staff should be trained accordingly. Passengers should also be made to sign a declaration that they dont have any such infection. If any passenger is found with communicable diseases, the airline should be given the right to deboard them.

The aviation regulator has also asked the operators to follow health related legal requirements of countries as mentioned in the Aeronautical Information Publication, which has guidelines for the crew to and from the aircraft for the airport.

Air India said it had not received the circular yet. We will take appropriate steps once we receive it, said Dhananjay Kumar, Air India spokesperson. However, attempts to reach the DGCA failed when they did not answer HTs calls.
State housing minister Prakash Mehta, who is facing allegations of favouring builders in slum rehabilitation projects, allegedly forced a decision to rehabilitate slum dwellers in his constituency of Ghatkopar in tenements meant for people affected by the airport makeover. The state government recently overturned its decision to allot the tenements meant for airport revamp project-affected people (PAP) to slum dwellers after the Bombay high court intervened.

According to an official, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), while making it an exception, rehabilitated 425 slum dwellers living next toTansa pipeline at Vidyavihar into tenements built on land earlier owned by Premier Automobiles, Kurla. This was meant for the airport makeover PAP. The SRA handed over the tenements to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) despite knowing that such a transfer was against the rules. The keys of the flats at Kurla were handed over to 425 slum dwellers by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on December 28, just a couple of weeks ahead of the code of conduct of the civic body elections came into force.

Months after the elections and the slum dwellers settled down at Kurla, the Bombay high court while hearing a writ by the slum dwellers slammed the state government for discrimination. The court asked that why, out of 13,000-odd slum dwellers at Tansa, most were shifted to smaller flats of 225 sq ft at Mahul Gaon in Govandi, while 424 shifted to Kurla in the bigger houses of 269 sq ft. It asked the government to clear its stand on the disparity. The government then reverted its earlier decision and asked the 425 tenants to shift to Mahul. It also told the court that it was an one-off decision, which was being corrected by evacuating the 425 tenants from Kurla. When the tenants moved court against the revised decision, the court again slammed the government, staying the evacuation order on Friday.

According to officials from the SRA, the decision of shifting only 425 slum dwellers was after housing minister Mehta forced them to.

It was a surprising decision at the behest of Mehta by the then SRA CEO Vishwas Patil. The SRA official did not even make a negative noting on the file. After the court rapped the government, Patil went to CM to revise the decision of evacuating the slum dwellers from Kurla.

It was a huge embarrassment for government and personally for CM as the court has slammed the government on both its decisions. The CM, while admitting to have taken a wrong decision took SRA officials to task , an official from housing department said.

Mehta refused to comment on the issue.

Local Congress MLA Arif Naseem Khan alleged that the BJP played vote-bank politics during the civic election.

Read

Maharashtra housing scam: How Prakash Mehta tried to ensure windfall for builder
Forty-eight-year-old Aruna Tyagi has taken up an arduous journey of travelling nearly 500 kilometres on foot, from Ghaziabad to Lucknow, to meet Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Rakshabandhan and seek justice for her brothers murder.

She alleged that those who murdered her brother, Praveen Tyagi, are roaming free. She said she started her journey as she failed to get help from the police.

Aruna and her son Ankit are midway, near Shahjahanpur, and are speeding up their journey to reach Lucknow on the day of the festival.

It was an instantaneous decision and I started the next day. I approached every police officer with a complaint but no arrest has been made till date. The killers murdered my brother and even defaced the body so that it could not be identified. I have faith that CM Yogiji will understand the pain of a sister who has lost her brother, Aruna said.

My brother was brutally murdered and a wire was found around his throat. There were multiple injury marks and the body was in such a condition that it could not be identified. The torture inflicted on him keeps haunting me, she said.

Praveen, 35, went missing on the night of May 22 while he was returning home from Modi Nagar to Khindoda. His body was found in a decomposed state on May 24 in a jungle area.

The assailants tried to mask his identity and had poured acid on the body. We identified him through a surgery mark on his leg and another surgery mark on his abdomen, which he sustained after an operation. My uncle was loved by all six sisters, including Aruna, the eldest of them. After their fathers death, Praveen remained unmarried and got two of his sisters married. He was preparing for the marriage of his third sister, said Nitin Tyagi, Praveens nephew.

Nitin said that an FIR was lodged by Praveens elder brother, Arvind, who was not on talking terms with his brother for years. The FIR named several persons who were Praveens friends but none of them emerged as culprits in the police investigation and repeated questioning, he said.

Initially, the victims brother lodged an FIR but the persons he named did not emerge accused as yet. After that, Aruna also gave us a complaint, suspecting the role of her elder brother. We have now handed over the case to the crime branch for a detailed inquiry, AK Maurya, superintendent of police (rural), said.

Braving rains, blisters on her feet and deteriorating health, Aruna is still continuing the gruelling Pad Yatra.

She is consuming only fluids and her health is deteriorating. Whenever we rest, she breaks down thinking of uncle Praveen. However, she is adamant on reaching Lucknow on the festival. We rest under trees, in temples or dharamshalas during the night. Walking alone at night is not safe in isolated stretches, Ankit, Arunas son, said.

When all efforts to nab the culprits failed, I started the journey on July 25. The culprit could be anyone. It is my belief that CM Yogi will help me and get those responsible arrested, be it be a family member, my brother or an outsider. I simply want justice and the killers should be hanged, Aruna said.

In a late development on Saturday, the crime branch arrested two persons, Gaurav and Pankaj.

Electronic surveillance confirmed their suspicious activity around the scene of crime. Once Aruna returns, we will seek her help in the case, said Brijesh Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (crime).

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A cash collection agent working with a finance distributor in Indirapuram was allegedly robbed of Rs76,000 and other possessions by three unidentified armed robbers on NH-24 in Ghaziabad on Saturday afternoon.

According to the victim, Nitish Kumar Sinha, he had gone to collect cash for business transactions and was heading back to Indirapuram when the three bikers cornered his bike near AKG engineering college adjacent to the Dasna flyover.

One of them pointed a gun at me and also restrained me. The other two were busy snatching my bag, two mobile phones and Rs2,000 I was carrying. They also took the bag containing Rs76,000 which I was taking to my office, Sinha said.

In all, the victim said, the trio robbed him of Rs78,000 and also fled the spot soon after.

One of them was wearing a helmet while the other two covered their faces with a handkerchief. The incident took place around 2pm. They also took both my mobile phones and I could not call anyone for help. Later, locals helped me alert the police, he said.

The police have registered an FIR for robbery at Masuri police station.

A complaint was given by the victim after the incident. He also told me that the robbers had fired a shot in the air when they fled the spot. It could be to prevent a chase by locals. A majority of the police force was at a demolition drive in another place under our police station. However, we reached the spot and have formed teams to trace the accused, Atish Kumar Singh, circle officer (Masuri), said.

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It has been nearly six days since class 4 student Arman Sehgal died in unexplained circumstances at GD Goenka School in Indirapuram and police are yet to make any arrest in the case.

His grieving mother, Swati, also led a candlelight march on streets of Vaishali and Indirapuram on Friday and said she will sit on a protest outside the school from Tuesday.

In a long interaction with Ghaziabad senior superintendent of police on Friday, the Sehgals got an assurance that some headway will be made in the case by Monday. Sehgals have lodged an FIR for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence against school officials.

We got an assurance from the SSP that arrests will be made by Monday. I will wait till Monday, failing which I will sit on an indefinite protest outside the school. I have lost my 10-year-old son and police are making no headway in the case. They say they are collecting evidence, but they are giving time to school officials to seek legal remedy and also tamper with evidence. We have already highlighted the evidence part in our FIR, Swati said.

The incident has shattered my family. The school and authorities are acting as if they have no responsibility towards students. Tomorrow, it could be another Arman in some school. I will not let that happen, she said.

The school officials on August 1 maintained that Arman just fell on the second floor corridor while he was heading to another classroom to appear for his weekly unit test. For now, the school is also closed and their website shut.

On Saturday, the Sehgals got in touch with Amitabh Thakur, inspector general (Rules & Manuals), seeking his help in the case.

We have assured the family of our full support. The incident is tragic. We have asked them to send the case documents to us. In case they dont come to Lucknow, we can also meet them in Ghaziabad, Thakur said.

A magisterial probe, ordered by the district magistrate, is under way but no one from the school appeared before additional district magistrate Rajesh Kumar Yadav, who is the inquiry officer.

No one has come to record their statement as yet. We have also issued a public notice that anyone can come and record their statement in the case by August 11. On Tuesday, I will be going to the school for inspecting the spot where the incident took place. The inquiry will be directed to find out lapses, negligence and improper handling, if any, on the part of school authorities, Yadav said.

Arman was declared brought dead at Shanti Gopal Hospital after he allegedly fell inside the school. His parents alleged that there was water on the floor and that made him slip. School principal Dr Kavita Sharma had denied there was any water in the corridor.

We are still investigating the incident and trying to find out concrete evidence against the school officials before making an arrest. We also roped in a forensic team and the results will take time to come as samples have been sent to the forensic lab, said Rakesh Kumar, circle officer, Indirapuram.

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Farmers, whose land has been acquired for the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, surrounded on Saturday the residence of Dadri MLA Tejpal Nagar. The farmers are angry with the state government for acquiring land forcefully for the 135km Eastern Peripheral Expressway project that is aimed at decongesting Delhi roads.

Around 400 farmers, including women, reached Nagars residence in Gurjar colony in Greater Noidas Dadri around 1pm and expressed their anger over the forceful land acquisition for the expressway project. They protested till 3pm and dispersed only after Nagar assured them of help on their demands.

I will take up all issues raised by the farmers with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. I will also try to take a farmer delegation to the CM for addressing their issues related to land compensation, Nagar said.

We demand that our land be acquired for the project by implementing the provisions of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act that assures each farmer adequate compensation. If our demands of hiked compensation are not met, we will continue with our protest, said Amit Bhati, a farmer leader from Bil Akbarpur village.

In Bil Abkarpur village, located along NH-91, many farmers are giving up their land for the project.

Farmers have been protesting for the last four months demanding increased compensation for their agricultural land earmarked for expressway. They blocked the Delhi-Howrah line railway line in Bodaki village on July 28 after the administration forcibly removed them from the expressway site. The police had filed FIR against 20 farmers for blocking trains.

Farmers say compensation awarded for land acquired for the expressway should be uniform. They demanded 7,000 per square metre (sqm) in place of 3,640 per sqm.

Read more: G Noida: Farmers block trains, demand hiked land compensation

If the state government will not give us compensation that is four times the circle rate, then we will continue our protest. All landless Dalits should get residential plots, men over 25 years should get government jobs and all cases filed against farmers should be dropped, said Pappu Thakur, a farmer from Samadhipur village.

If the state government will not drop cases then we will stage bigger protest ahead, said Balraj Bhati, a farmer of Chithera village.

The expressway is meant to decongest Delhi with an aim to reduce air pollution in Delhi-NCR. The Supreme Court, in 2006, had directed the Centre to build the expressway as soon as possible. The National Highways Authority of India said 17km of the expressway falls in 39 villages of Greater Noida.

In 2006, the district administration had paid Rs 1,700 per sqm to farmers, who willingly gave their land for the project. Later, in 2016, then district magistrate NP Singh increased the compensation to Rs 3,500 per sqm. Now, DM BN Singh has decided to award Rs 3,640 per sqm, including Rs 5 lakh to each farmer family.

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Homebuyers in Noida and Greater Noida areas are upset with the Uttar Pradesh government for not executing registration of flats based on carpet area, as per the Real Estate Regulatory Act, 2016 (RERA).

Buyers said that the Uttar Pradesh stamps and registration department is still executing registration of properties on the basis of super area, instead of carpet area, which is not in compliance with RERA and is also burdening buyers.

Carpet area is the space contained among the inner faces of the walls. The super area includes spaces outside the walls, such as balcony, and other common areas such as clubs, shafts and elevator area.

Homebuyers said that builders cheat buyers on the basis of super area and charge them extra money, for the space reserved for lifts, balcony, passageways and clubs in the building.

For example, if one buys a 1,200 sq ft apartment at the rate of Rs5,000 per sq ft (Rs 60lakh), the actual area or the size of the apartment would be just 900 sq ft, with no exact specification of the super area, for which one paid Rs15 lakh. As per RERA, a builder cannot use the super area now. If the state government continues to flout the law, we will protest, said SK Nagrath, a retired army official and the president of Jaypee Aman flat owners welfare association.

A delegation of homebuyers from NCR on Friday met with Kamini Chauhan Ratan, inspector general of registration and the commissioner stamps, Uttar Pradesh, in Lucknow, and sought her intervention.

We demanded that the Uttar Pradesh stamps and registration department should immediately start executing registration of flats on the basis of carpet area without further delay. Why should a buyer pay stamp duty on common areas? Why is the UP government imposing unnecessary stamp duty in the guise of the super area when the Central government has approved RERA and the state has adopted the same, Rajesh Purohit, a member of NCR homebuyers association, who met with Ratan in Lucknow, said.

Officials of the Gautam Budh Nagar stamps and registration department said they will allow registration of flats on the basis of carpet area instead of super area, once they get the necessary approvals from the state government.

Our meeting with senior officials, including Kamini Chauhan Ratan, on this issue is scheduled for July 9 in Lucknow. We hope for a clear direction to be given in the meeting. Once we get the nod from top officials to execute registration on the basis of carpet area, we will implement the same, said GP Singh, deputy inspector general (DIG), stamps and registration department, Gautam Budh Nagar district.

Many homebuyers are waiting for clarity on the issue to execute the registration of flats.

My brother got the registration of his flat executed on the basis of the super area only last week. It is unfair that the UP government is levying unwanted stamp duty on buyers, in violation of the law, Nagrath said.

If implemented, the move is expected to benefit around three lakh homebuyers in Noida and around two lakh buyers in Greater Noida.

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Residents of Gautam Budh Nagar are rejecting rakhis of Chinese make, reflecting the prevailing tension between the two countries in the backdrop of the Doklam standoff.

People are opting for rakhis made in India, which has resulted in a massive dip in the demand and sale of Chinese ones ahead of Rakshabandhan, sellers said.

I have come to buy rakhis for my family members. I was told by my brother not to buy Chinese rakhis. The quality of Indian rakhis has improved but the price remains high. Last year, I had bought a few Chinese made rakhis but not this time, said Garima Dubey of Sector 18.

Retailers at markets said that the fall in the demand for Chinese rakhis might be a result of patriotic feelings. This year, we imported fewer Chinese rakhis as the demand for Indian ones has gone up. Most customers are taking a conscious decision to not buy Chinese products these days, Sundar lal, rakhi seller at Atta market, Sector 18, said.

There are also a number of social media campaigns urging people to boycott Chinese products. The Chinese are becoming rich and powerful by selling their products in our country. I will spend money on products made in India, said Rakesh Sharma of Sector 6.

A resident of Sector 56, Sunita Agarwal, said that she has been watching the news carefully of late, to know about the tiff between India and China.

I have decided that we will not use Chinese products in our house. I have got Indian rakhis this time. Till last year, we used to get Chinese ones because of good quality but our products are also getting better with time, said Sunita.

Another rakhi seller in Noida said that Chinese rakhis are not available in the market following prevailing sentiments against products of Chinese make. When people are interested in buying Indian rakhis, why should we invest our money in Chinese products? said Raghav, a wholesale dealer.

Rakshabandhan is one of the most popularly celebrated festivals in India, on which day sisters tie rakhis on their brothers wrists.
Although the Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar has claimed that he has cancelled the Rs3,300 crore tenders to gain from cost reduction due to GST, opposition parties and some BJP leaders have alleged bid rigging at work through a cartel.

Congress leader Arvind Shinde, NCP leader Chetan Tupe and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Bhosale said that the municipal administration framed the terms and condition for the 24x7 water scheme project in such way that only few companies could be qualified for submission.

Prominent bidders for the project included L&T, Suez Environment India Private Limited and Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited.

Opposition leaders charged that the bids filed were around 26 % above the estimated cost of the tenders.

Shinde said that even the CBI had written to the municipal corporation raising doubts about the existence of a cartel in the tendering process.

He said that the BJP and the municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar were keen to approve the tenders received but as the CBIs letter got exposed and opposition parties began raising a hue and cry, the ruling party decided to scrap the existing tender process and call fresh tender.

BJP MP Sanjay Kakade, who also objected to the tender process, told journalists that there was no relation between GST and the cancellation of the tender. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis directed the scrapping of the tenders as it was above the estimated cost.

In a corrective step, Kunal Kumar said that while calling for fresh tenders, terms and conditions would be framed in such a way that more players participate in the tendering process and it becomes more competitive.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Bhosale blamed BJP and said that while the party was claiming transparency, it had remained silent over the last few days when the media and opposition parties raised an alarm above the inflated tenders. It was at the last moment that they decided to cancel it while knowing the facts all along, he said.
As the Union health minister JP Nadda on Friday told the Lok Sabha that one in two babies were delivered through caesarian section (C-section) in CGHS-empanelled private hospitals across the country during 2016-17, it was pointed out that Chandigarh topped the list with highest rate of such deliveries.

Among the top five cities, Chandigarh had the most astonishing figure of 98.35% C-section deliveries in CGHS-empanelled private hospitals. As HT spoke to city gynacecologists to understand the reason behind this trend, it emerged that lack of physical activity, inability to bear labour pain, late marriage and growing urban population were responsible for making C-section option popular among local women.

Dr Mangla Dogra, a prominent gynaecologist with almost 40 years experience, feels the sedentary lifestyle is responsible to a huge extent. If we tell youngsters these days to go for a walk, theyll make a face. But if we tell them to go to the Elante (mall), theyll jump out of their beds, Dr Dogra said while talking to HT.

She said Chandigarh is the preferred destination for deliveries among residents of adjoining cities such as Shimla and Ambala, and even people from Rajasthan where the health facilities are not up to the mark.

Dr Seema Wadhwa of Max Hospital, Mohali, said that since government hospitals are overburdened, a lot of pregnant women opt for deliveries at private hospitals. The new generation is reluctant to bear labour pain. They feel C-section is a convenient option, she added. Chandigarhs growing urban population, according to doctors, is also responsible for this trend. One doesnt see a sweeper or a village woman go in for C-section unless it is absolutely crucial as they are agile. But the modern educated 29-year old straightway asks for a C-section when they come to us, said Dr Dogra.

Dr Gulpreet Bedi, another gynaecologist, said, Chandigarh is a highly educated city and average marriage age of a girl here is much higher than that of a village girl. This, in turn, creates complications, leading to higher C-section deliveries. The rate of infertility cases is also very high here.

According to Dr Alka Sehgal, head, gynaecology department, GMCH-32, high risk pregnancies have become very common in the last couple of years. The level of stress among todays youth is very high which, in turn, reduces the chance for natural delivery. This trend is more common in cities than in smaller towns or villages.

Dr Umesh Jindal, a former PGI gynaecologist who now runs a private centre, has seen the change for herself. From what I have observed, women who have already had C-section deliveries for the first time, automatically end up having C-section the second time too. It is rare that there is a normal delivery after a C-section since scars remain, she added.

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Police have arrested two persons, including the son of Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief, for allegedly stalking a senior IAS officers daughter.

Vikas Barala, the 23-year-old son of BJPs Subhash Barala, and his friend Ashish Kumar, 27, were arrested from the Housing Board light point late on Friday night. They were later released on bail.

While Baralas son is a law student at a Kurukshetra college, Ashish is a law graduate. The SUV is registered in the name of Jaideep, a relative of Barala, said the police.

The girl, a disc jockey, who was driving from Sector 9, Chandigarh, towards Panchkula at 12.35am, alleged that two men followed her in their Tata Safari Storm (HR-23G-1008) from the Sector 26 Grain Market area. Both were drunk, she alleged, adding that the SUV pulled up close to her car several times and even tried to block her way to force her to other routes.

She claimed that at one point, the SUV blocked her way and the person in the co-drivers seat got down and started walking towards her vehicle. She reversed the vehicle to evade them, but they continued to follow her. The girl then called up the 100 helpline and gave the number details of the SUV and her location.

We have registered a case against Vikas, a resident of Fatehabad, and Bhiwani resident Ashish, under Sections 354-D (stalking a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act (drink driving) at the Sector 26 police station. They both are putting up in Sector 7, Chandigarh, said deputy superintendent of police (DSP east) Satish Kumar.

After their arrest, they were taken for medical examination, which confirmed that they were drunk, said the DSP, adding that after recording the girls statement before a magistrate, Section 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC was added to the first information report (FIR).

Barala is BJP MLA from Tohana in Fatehabad. A Jat leader, he was appointed BJP chief in November 2014, months after the party formed the government in Haryana.

Though Barala could not be contacted, Jawahar Yadav, chairman, Haryana Housing Board, read out his statement to the media stating that he respects law. Let the police hold a fair investigation so that truth can come out, Baralas statement read.

Facebook posts

Hours after the incident, the 29-year-old woman took to Facebook and shared her harrowing experience of being almost kidnapped.

If this is what women deal with in one of the safer cities in the country, where are we going? she questioned.

Im lucky, it seems, to not be the daughter of a common man, because what chance would they have against such VIPs? Im also lucky, because Im not lying raped and murdered in a ditch somewhere. If this can happen in Chd, it can happen anywhere.

Her father, an IAS officer posted with the Haryana government, wrote on Facebook: I will be failing in my duty as a father to my daughter if I did not stand with her completely in this matter.

...The goons must be punished, and the law must take its course. As would be expected, the goons are from influential families. We all know most such cases of harassment go unpunished and even unreported. We know its not going to be an easy struggle.
Soon after a 29-year-old woman stalked by two men  one of them is Haryana BJP presidents son  took to Facebook and shared her harrowing experience of being almost kidnapped in Chandigarh, a cross-section of people were quick to react.

Most people on social media hailed her for being brave. Her post, put up around 2pm, had received more than 1,000 reactions and was shared more than 700 times by 9.30 pm. Many users expressed shock that such an incident could take place in Chandigarh, while others praised her presence of mind too.

More power to you and your family! wrote one of the Facebook users in the comments, also writing about possible pressures since the main accused is the Haryana BJP chiefs son, While I expect the incumbent [BJP] government to give you a hard time over this, Im sure youre well equipped to come out on top. This is not the city a lot of us grew up in and good on you for ensuring it stays that way.

The drunk stalker son of Haryana BJP Chief was arrested only because the girl is the daughter of senior IAS officer https://t.co/wpL8dDRArS  Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) August 5, 2017

Another user wrote, I do have goosebumps after reading this but i do want to let you know that we are all really proud of you. It wasnt an easy situation to handle but i m glad you used your presence of mind and kept yourself together. Hats off!

Many on Twitter also expressed their anguish over the incident and praised the woman. There were many users who applauded the Chandigarh police for the timely action, as did the woman herself. Thank God it was Chandigarh. Had it been Haryana, she would have not found a cop even she searched 3 days flat, tweeted a user.

Her fathers Facebook post received overwhelmed reactions too. Thank you very much for being very logical and reasonable [...] whole Haryana Punjab will stand with you. I am father of two daughters i can realise the gravity of situation. I will stand with you, wrote a user.

The drunk stalker son of Haryana BJP Chief was arrested only because the girl is the daughter of senior IAS officer, tweeted lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan.

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In a control room at a police headquarters on Chicagos South Side, officers scan digital maps on big screens to see where a computer algorithm predicts crime will happen next.

Thrust into a national debate over violent crime and the use of force by officers, police in the third-largest US city are using technology to try to rein in a surging murder rate.

And while commanders recognize the new tools can only ever be part of the solution, the number of shootings in the 7th District from January through July fell 39% compared with the same period last year. The number of murders dropped by 33% to 34. Citywide, the number of murders is up 3% at 402.

Three other districts where the technology is fully operational have also seen between 15 percent and 29 percent fewer shootings, and 9 percent to 18 percent fewer homicides, according to the departments data.

The community is starting to see real change in regards to violence, said Kenneth Johnson, the 7th District commander.

Cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Denver, Tacoma, Washington, and Lincoln, Nebraska have tested the same or similar technologies.

The techniques being used in Chicagos 7th Districts control room, one of six such centers opened since January as part of a roughly $6 million experiment, are aimed at complimenting traditional police work and are part of a broader effort to overhaul the force of some 12,500 officers.We are not saying we can predict where the next shooting is going to occur, said Jonathan Lewin, chief of the Chicago Police Departments Bureau of Technical Services. These are just tools. They are not going to replace (officers).

The departments efforts come after a Justice Department investigation published in January found officers engaged in racial discrimination and routinely violated residents civil rights.

That probe followed street protests triggered by the late 2015 release of a video showing a white police officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald a year earlier.

Some critics of the department fear the technology could prove a distraction from confronting what they say are the underlying issues driving violence in the city of 2.7 million.

Real answers are hard, said Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia who has written a book on police technology. They involve better education, better economic opportunity, dealing with poverty and mental illness.

Killing fields

Chicagos recent rash of shootings - 101 people were shot over the Independence Day weekend alone - prompted President Donald Trump to bemoan the response of city leaders to the bloodshed, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to describe some of its areas as killing fields.

One of the technologies being used in the 7th District is HunchLab, a predictive policing program made by Philadelphia-based company Azavea. It combines crime data with factors including the location of local businesses, the weather and socioeconomic information to forecast where crime might occur. The results help officers decide how to deploy resources.

Another is the Strategic Subjects List, a database of individuals likely to be involved in shootings that was developed by the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Police are tight-lipped about how it is compiled, saying only that the algorithm looks at eight factors including gang affiliation and prior drug arrests to assign people a number between 0 and 500. A higher number reflects higher risk.

They are also using the gunfire detection system made by ShotSpotter Inc, which uses sensors to locate the source of gunshots. Police officials declined, however, to say how many such devices were installed in the 7th District.

We cant give away the kitchen sink and tell them all of our secrets, district commander Johnson said.
Dubai-based teenager Rashed Belhasa, the 15-year-old son of a rich businessman, has a taste for something extraordinary.

The Instagrammer has posted pictures flaunting a Ferrari that is apparently owned by him. But theres a catch: he has wrapped the car in the logos of two famous luxury brands --- Supreme and Louis Vuitton.

While Supreme is a well-known clothing brand from New York, Louis Vuitton is a France-based designer bag retail chain.

Stay tuned. Im about the paint the streets Red, the teenager says on his Instagram account.

The teenager has also posted a video on his YouTube Channel where he could be seen in an expensive car store, waiting for his Ferrari to get ready in its logo-clad avatar.

Son of businessman Saif Ahmed Belhasa, the teenager may afford to own the lavish car but he surely will not be able to drive it on the UAE roads until he turns 18, the legal age for driving there.

Apart from the Ferrari, Belhasa also owns milkshake brand called MoneyKicks milkshake, reportedly available at Alison Nelsons Chocolate Bar store, which is a part of his dads business.

No wonder he is known by the name of Money Kicks on his verified Instagram account.

Thats not all. The teenager is known for his luxurious lifestyle. He pets a tiger at his home and enjoys time with cine stars and celebrities.

The Real King of the Jungle!! #mydubai #lion #dubai #supreme A post shared by Rashed Belhasa Aka-Money Kicks (@rsbelhasa) on Jul 31, 2017 at 7:02am PDT

His Instagram photographs show Belhasa with big names such as Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Mariah Carey.

In Dubai with the man @beingsalmankhan #mydubai#india#moneykicks A post shared by Rashed Belhasa Aka-Money Kicks (@rsbelhasa) on May 15, 2017 at 10:52am PDT

TB WITH THE LEGEND @mariahcarey #mydubai#mariahcarey#moneykicks A post shared by Rashed Belhasa Aka-Money Kicks (@rsbelhasa) on Mar 7, 2017 at 9:38am PST
NASA has sent an inspiring letter to a nine-year-old who expressed interest in being a Planetary Protection Officer after the US space agency recently announced opening for the position.

Nine-year-old Jack Davis from New Jersey is a self-proclaimed Guardian of the Galaxy and he reached out to NASA in a letter to express his interest in serving as the agencys Planetary Protection Officer.

My name is Jack Davis and I would like to apply for the planetary protection officer job. I may be nine but I think I would be fit for the job. One of the reasons is my sister says I am an alien also I have seen all the space and alien movies I can see..., Davis wrote in his letter signing it off as Jack Davis, Guardian of the Galaxy, Fourth Grade.

In response, NASAs Planetary Science Director Jim Green wrote back to him.

I hear that you are a Guardian of the Galaxy and that youre interested in being a NASA Planetary Protection Officer. Thats great! Green said.

Although the Planetary Protection Officer position may not be in real-life what the title conjures up, it does play an important role in promoting the responsible exploration of our solar system by preventing microbial contamination of other planets and our own.

Our Planetary Protection Officer position is really cool and is very important work. Its about protecting Earth from tine microbes when we bring back samples from the Moon, asteroids and Mars. Its also about protecting other planets and moons from our germs as we responsible explore the Solar System.

We are always looking for bright future scientists and engineers to help us, so I hope you will study hard and do well in school. We hope to see you here at NASA one of these days! Green said in his letter to Davis.

He also received a phone call from NASAs Planetary Research Director, Jonathan Rall at NASA Headquarters in Washington, to congratulate him on his interest in the position.

The US governments official employment site advertised the job which is open to US citizens and nationals for applications until August 14.

The person who lands the job will draw a six figure salary -- $124,406 to $187,000 per year.

Candidates must have broad engineering expertise, and should be an expert in planetary protection.

This includes demonstrated technical expertise to independently form technically sound judgments and evaluations in considerably complex situations, according to the advert.
Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed has reportedly decided to launch his own political party in Pakistan, aiming to rebrand the Jamaat-ud-Dawa as the Milli Muslim League Pakistan, news reports have said.

Saeed  accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people  will reportedly register his party with the Election Commission of Pakistan, with an eye on the 2018 general elections. The party will be formally launched on August 14  the countrys independence day  in Lahore.

Saeed already runs the popular Falahi Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), the JuDs social welfare arm which runs clinics, hospitals, schools and an ambulance service. The JuD has also started a series of informal courts in Lahore, in which personal and commercial disputes of residents and local businessmen are settled.

Insiders say the name Milli Muslim League is yet to be formalised, but the party has already received the blessings of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Political observers say that Saeeds party will counter mainstream political parties in Punjab province and may cut into the vote bank of Nawaz Sharifs PML-N party. Given the FIFs welfare work in Sindh, the party may even secure votes in some rural areas of the province, including the Hindu majority division of Tharparkar.

It is too early to say what happens but a number of seats may be affected by this, analyst Farrukh Pitafi said.

India has reacted sharply to reports emerging of the Milli Muslim League. External affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said, It appears that a person whose hands are stained with blood of innocent lives... such an individual is wanting to hide his blood stained hands behind the ballot ink. The person who traded in bullets to take lives, is he trying to hide behind ballot?

Saeed was put under house arrest in January after years of living freely in Pakistan, one of the sore points in the countrys fraying relationship with the US. The Punjab government recently extended the house arrest for 60 more days.

(With inputs from agencies)
The leader of Lebanons Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said the Shia group would fight in the coming assault on an Islamic State pocket on the countrys border with Syria, which he said would begin within a few days.

The Lebanese army will attack Islamic State from the Lebanese side of the border while Hezbollah and the Syrian army will simultaneously attack it from the Syrian side, Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on television.

The Syrian front line against Daesh will be opened, and the Syrian army and Hezbollah will be there, he said.

He said Islamic State fighters in the enclave, who hold Lebanese captives, still had a door open for negotiations and could avoid a battle.

Hezbollah has been a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the six-year conflict, fighting alongside the Syrian army against rebels including hardline Sunni Islamists.

A Hezbollah offensive last month forced Nusra Front militants in an adjacent enclave on the border to depart under an evacuation deal for a rebel-held area in northwest Syria.

The Lebanese army did not take part in that offensive, but has been widely expected to lead the attack against the Islamic State pocket. Nasrallah emphasised that the assault inside Lebanon will be the armys responsibility.

The presence of the militant enclaves on its border has represented the biggest military spillover of Syrias civil war into Lebanon.

More than a million Syrians have also sought refuge in Lebanon, putting strains on the economy and services, and in his speech Nasrallah said it was time for Beirut to discuss their situation with Damascus.

Thousands of refugees travelled to rebel-held northwest Syria alongside the Nusra fighters who left the border area after Hezbollahs assault.
Rana Sarkar, an Indo-Canadian who was till recently national director for high growth markets at the Toronto-based multi-national KPMG, has been named by Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal government as Canadas Consul-General to San Francisco.

Simultaneously, Sarkar has also been named a member of the high-profile Canadian official team for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the US and Mexico.

The Indo-Canadian community is elated over this very high profile appointment:

Rana Sarkar (previously President of Canada-India Business Council) brings an impressive array of skills to his new position as Consul General in San Francisco, says Kasi Rao, currently President of Canada-India Business Council and Vice-President of Asia-Pacific Foundation. First, Rana is a global Canadian and has operated in multiple geographies - Canada, UK and India. Second, he has brought individual networks and made them into institutional ones.

Rana has maintained an abiding interest in the ideas and innovation space and therefore will be adept at positioning the Canadian advantage in a critically important global city of San Francisco.

Gary Comerford, who till recently was President of C-IBC, says in an interview that Sarkar will be a very strong addition to the Canadian-US trade team. His knowledge and considerable expertise in the areas of international trade will be invaluable as the NAFTA agreement is modernized.

Sarkar was also a Liberal Party candidate for the federal riding of Don Valley North (in Toronto) in 2014 but was not successful and he later became a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus team of advisers.

Sarkar was earlier visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science and more recently Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

Appointment of Sarkar in this high profile position is amongst a series of appointments of Indo-Canadians made by the Justin Trudeau government. They include four Indo-Canadian federal ministers: Amarjeet Sohi (Minister for Infrastructure and Communities); Bardish Chagger (Minister for Small Business and Tourism and House Leader); Harjit Singh Sajjan (Minister for National Defense); and Navdeep Bains (Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development).

More recently Trudeau named Anil Arora as Canadas Chief Statistician.

Two other high profile appointments include Sabi Marwah and Ratna Omidvar as Senators.

There are 19 Indo-Canadian Members of the House of Commons, 18 of whom are Liberals.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was sworn-in for a second term on Saturday, has accused the United States of trying to undermine Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers, telling President Donald Trump that it will be his political suicide.

Rouhani, who was decisively re-elected in May after promising to open Iran to the world, took the oath of office before Parliament in Tehran in the presence of foreign dignitaries, including senior European figures.

The US lack of commitment to implementation of the nuclear deal ... proved it to be an unreliable partner to the world and even to its longtime allies, Rouhani said in a ceremony broadcast live on state television.

The deal he championed with the United States and five other major powers in 2015 led to the lifting of most sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Rouhani has intensified efforts to protect the deal  the biggest achievement of his first term  against Washingtons return to an aggressive Iran policy.

In comments aimed at Trump, Rouhani said: Those who want to tear up the nuclear deal should know that they will be ripping up their own political life.

The US Senate voted in late July to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missiles programme and human rights issues.

Iran would not be the first to pull out of the nuclear deal, but it will not remain silent about the U.S. repeated violations of the accord, Rouhani said.

Praise for European presence

In a meeting with European foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Tehran before the ceremony, Rouhani said the US stance could hamper implementation of the nuclear deal.

Praising the presence of senior European dignitaries at the ceremony, Rouhani said it showed Europe was determined to expand ties with Tehran.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was also quoted as saying by state media in his meeting with Mogherini: Mr Trump is trying to destroy the nuclear accord at Irans expense, and Europe should be conscious of this.

Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, Iraq President Fuad Masum, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe were also present at swearing-in ceremony.

Among the Western officials present were French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, state secretary at the German foreign ministry Michael Roth, and British minister of state Alistair Burt.

Security in Tehran was increased to the highest level, the police said, two months after gunmen linked to the Islamic State group attacked parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing 17 people.

Rouhanis deputy said on Wednesday that Rouhani would keep on two important ministers for his second term  oil minister Bijan Zanganeh and foreign minister Zarif.

The powers of the elected president are limited by those of the unelected Supreme Leader who outranks him, but the scale of Rouhanis victory can give the pragmatist president a strong mandate.

However, analysts say Rouhani may struggle to make a significant impact given sharpening divisions in the dual clerical-republican power structure in Iran, and Trumps aggressive policy against Tehran.
The chances of Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif becoming prime minister seemed to have dimmed over the past few days, with ousted premier Nawaz Sharif reportedly unhappy with his younger brother.

Initial reports had pointed towards Shahid Khaqan Abbasi  who was sworn in as prime minister earlier this week  serving as an interim premier for around 45 days, till Shahbaz could contest Nawazs vacated national assembly seat. However, political analysts say Shahbazs decision to nominate his son Hamza Shahbaz as the next chief minister of Punjab may have turned his brother against him  Nawaz was reportedly looking at his daughter Maryam Nawaz or his wife Kulsoom Nawaz to head Punjab.

A report in the influential daily Dawn suggested that a number of PML-N leaders in Punjab believe Nawaz smartly deprived his younger brother of an opportunity to become prime minister and at the same time, shattered the dreams of nephew Hamza to take up the reins in Punjab. According to the report, Shahabaz has missed or was made to miss a golden opportunity to succeed his elder brother.

Some analysts say Nawaz Sharif is playing family politics, but others insist that it was a purely political decision taken in the interests of the party. Shahbaz is by far the strongest candidate the party has in Punjab and there are many within the party old guard who have urged Nawaz Sharif to not weaken the PML-N power base.

Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif and ousted premier Nawaz Sharif at the Prime Minister's Office in Islamabad. (Reuters File Photo)

A federal minister told a local newspaper that the decision to retain Shahbaz as Punjab chief minister had been finalised. The extended cabinet of Mr Abbasi is a proof of it, he said, adding the current arrangement suited the leadership as Nawaz would see to matters at the Centre and Shahbaz Sharif in Punjab.

Other ministers, including foreign minister Khawaja Asif and defence minister Khurram Dastgir Khan confirmed that the party wants Shahbaz in Punjab. Since Shahbaz has good equation with all MPAs in Punjab and all ongoing development projects are on his finger tips, a larger section of the party is of the view that he should continue delivering in Punjab, Khurram Dastgir told a private TV channel.

Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah said: The decision that Shahbaz Sharif will continue serving in Punjab is almost certain. Punjab government spokesman Malik Ahmad Khan told the media on Friday that the parliamentary party headed by Nawaz Sharif was authorised to announce a reversal of its earlier decision to nominate Shahbaz for the prime ministers post.

However, PML-N is yet to make an announcement about Shahbaz withdrawing from the race for the national assembly seat.

The bigger question, of course, is whether this decision has been taken in the interests of the party or in the interests of Nawaz Sharif. So far, differences between the two brothers have not surfaced but some party leaders have warned that if not done amicably, this decision could cost the party its next election.
Quebecs mayor announced Friday that the citys Muslim community will have their own cemetery, despite objections from right-wing groups and rising anti-Muslim sentiment.

The city had promised a separate Muslim graveyard after a shooting attack by a white supremacist at a mosque in January that left six people dead.

The Muslim cemetery will be set up on land adjoining one of the citys main cemeteries.

The city of Quebec has accepted, subject to the approval by City Council, an offer submitted by the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec to purchase municipal land that will allow the construction of a cemetery for the Muslim community in the greater Quebec City region, City Hall said in a statement.

For over 400 years, Quebec has been a welcoming city for all cultures, languages and religions, said Quebecs mayor Regis Labeaume.

Negotiations over a possible Muslim cemetery had been dragging on for more than a decade, but the debate became more heated after the mosque shooting. The Muslim community was outraged that the remains of some of the victims had to be to be taken to Montreal, 150 miles away, to be buried in a Muslim cemetery.

Last month, plans to build a Muslim graveyard in a small town just outside the city had to be scrapped when local residents rejected the idea in a referendum. Local media said far-right groups had lobbied in favor of a no vote.

Several days after that local poll, the Quebec Muslim center received a package containing a desecrated Koran and a hate message.

Anti-immigration and anti-Muslim messages have been on the rise in towns across Quebec province and on nationalist websites.

A spokesman for a right-wing nationalist group, The Federation of Native Quebecers (FQS), in July called on the airwaves of Radio-Canada for a poster campaign against what he called massive immigration which he said Quebecers did not want.
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Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Saturday that it was only a matter of time before Northern Ireland legalises same-sex marriage, as he attended a gay pride event in Belfast.

It is of course a decision for the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course, said Varadkar, Irelands first openly gay leader who took office in June.

Northern Ireland is the only part of Britain where same-sex marriage remains illegal, and the largest political party in the province, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has strong Protestant Christian fundamentalist roots, has consistently blocked the measure in the devolved assembly in Belfast.

However, the party has been relatively restrained about Varadkars participation in the Pride event, with DUP leader Arlene Foster saying it was his own business.

The Republic of Ireland, a traditionally Catholic country, voted to allow same-sex marriage in a historic referendum in 2015.

Varadkar attended a Pride breakfast in Belfast although other commitments prevented him from staying for the parade through the city centre, which this year will include uniformed police officers for the first time.
Saudi Arabias government, facing mounting criticism for the planned execution of 14 Shia Muslims, has issued a rare statement defending its judicial system.

Ministry of Justice spokesman Mansour al-Qafari says all defendants facing trial in Saudi Arabia receive due process.

In a statement published Friday in the Saudi Press Agency, al-Qafari says terrorism-related cases and death penalty verdicts are reviewed by an appeals court and the supreme court, with a total of 13 judges reviewing the case before an execution is carried out.

The 14 face execution for protests and violence against security forces. Rights group Reprieve says the initial judgment came from a secretive counterterrorism court.

Ultraconservative Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia have in the past referred to Shiites as apostates, and Shiite protesters have been accused of being allied with the kingdoms rival, Iran.
The investigators of special prosecutor Robert Mueller  probing US President Donald Trumps team for possible connections to Russia  are reported to be looking into former national security adviser Michael Flynns contacts with the Turkish government during the final stages of the 2016 presidential campaign, and whether he secretly accepted payments from it.

They have sought related documents from the White House and have asked related information from witnesses during interviews, a significant development in the Russia investigation.

The New York Times, which first reported this development, said that though the documents were not sought through a subpoena, this was the first instance of records being sought from the White House.

What it also indicated was that Mueller was not focussed only on Flynns contacts with Russians or his lying about them but was at his financial dealings.

Flynns consulting business Flynn Intel Group is alleged to have received $530,000 from a Turkish American businessman to run a campaign maligning an opponent of the Turkish government, said to have been behind last years failed coup in Ankara.

The New York Times report said investigators want to know if that money was paid on behalf of the Turkish government, and whether payments were made to the businessman to keep secret the source of said money.
The United States on Friday formally communicated to the UN its intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate as soon as it is eligible to do so but left the door open for re-joining if and when terms were more favorable to it.

President Donald Trump announced in June he was pulling the US out of the accord alleging it unfairly favoured countries such as India and China at the expense of America, but had said he was open to re-negotiating the deal.

His offer was was rejected by most signatories, who vowed to press ahead with the Paris deal that aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 2 degrees Celsius since the start of the industrial age.

A state department statement, however, said the US will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings, including the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP-23) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The US will be sending delegations to COP-23 in Bonn, Germany in November and such other conferences and meetings, according to a state department official who spoke on the background.

As the President indicated in his June 1 announcement and subsequently, he is open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favourable to it, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers, the statement said.

The president had then insisted that leaving the accord would not diminish Americas commitment to protecting the environment but the series of measures ordered by him rolling back some of President Barack Obamas green regulations  such as those pertaining to mining of coal, for instance  would have severely limited the ability of the US to fulfill its commitments.

Underlining Trumps position, the statement said the US supports a balanced approach to climate policy that lowers emissions while promoting economic growth and ensuring energy security.

The US is on a very short list of countries with Syria and Nicaragua that are not a part of the global pact signed by 195 countries in 2015 and that came into effect last November, the month Trump was elected president running on the promise of ending Americas association with it.

The impact of the US exit on global warming will be severe. Climate Interactive, which tracks global emissions and pledges, estimates that if the US doesnt reach its Paris Agreement goal an additional 0.3 degrees Celsius will be added to global warming by the end of the century.

Climate Action Tracker, another outfit, expects lesser impact  additional 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Associateed Press said the earliest the US can be out of the climate agreement is November 4, 2020 -- the day after the next presidential election.

The state department is telling the UN what the president already told the world on June 1 and it has no legal effect, said Nigel Purvis, who directed US climate diplomacy during the Bill Clinton and George W Bush administrations.

Purvis said countries cant withdraw from new international agreements, including the Paris climate one, until three years after they go into effect. Then the process takes a year.

The state department cited the same timeline, saying it can officially start withdrawing as soon as November, 2019.

Under Obama, the US agreed to reduce polluting emissions more than a quarter from 2005 levels by the year 2025. There is no climate court. All thats required in the agreement is a plan and reporting on progress toward reaching self-set goals.

(With agency inputs)
Vietnam urged other Southeast Asian nations to take a stronger stand against Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea on Saturday, as a tense regional security forum began with North Korea also under fire over its nuclear programme.

Ahead of the launch of the annual gathering of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam made a bold play against China with a raft of suggested changes to a planned joint communique.

It set the stage for a fiery few days of diplomacy in the Philippine capital, with the top diplomats from China, the United States, Russia and North Korea to join their ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific counterparts for security talks from Sunday.

The meetings will take place as the United Nations Security Council votes this weekend on a US-drafted resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea to punish the isolated regime for its missile tests.

The United States said it would also seek to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event  known as the ASEAN Regional Forum.

After their own day of meetings on Saturday, ASEAN foreign ministers released a joint statement expressing grave concerns over the Norths first two intercontinental ballistic missile tests that were conducted last month.

These developments seriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world, the statement said.

But on the South China Sea dispute  one of Asias other top powder keg issues  there was far less consensus with the Philippines seeking to placate Beijing, and Vietnam leading the resistance, diplomats told AFP.

Vietnam on Friday night sought to insert tough language against China in an ASEAN statement that was scheduled to be released after the Southeast Asian ministers wrapped up their own talks on Saturday.

According to a copy of a draft obtained by AFP, Vietnam lobbied for ASEAN to express serious concern over construction in the sea, a reference to Chinas ramped up building of artificial islands in the disputed waters in recent years.

Vietnam also wanted ASEAN to insist in the statement that a planned code of conduct for the sea with China be legally binding, which Beijing opposes.

Malaysia also pushed for some tougher language, including with a reference to military assets in the contested waters, according to the draft and discussions with diplomats involved in the discussions.

Tense talks

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, including waters approaching the coasts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

China has in recent years expanded its presence in the sea by building the artificial islands, which are capable of holding military bases.

The Philippines used to be the most vocal critic of Beijings expansionism.

But, since President Rodrigo Duterte was elected last year, the Philippines has sought to downplay the dispute with China in return for billions of dollars in Chinese investments and aid.

China has in recent years also successfully lobbied other ASEAN nations, particularly Cambodia, to support its diplomatic manoeuvring in the dispute.

The joint statement that was scheduled to be released after the ASEAN ministers was delayed because of the dispute over the wording on the sea issue, one diplomat told AFP.

There is no consensus yet, the diplomat said, adding the drafting committee was tasked with continuing the negotiations on Saturday night.

ASEAN is on Sunday set to adopt a framework with China for a code of conduct, which is meant to pave the way for more concrete action.

But security analysts point out that the framework comes 15 years after negotiations on the issue first began, and China has used that time to cement its claims with the artificial islands.

Another pressing issue in Manila will be the growing terrorism threat in the region.

The event is taking place as Philippine security forces battle Islamic State-aligned gunmen who have since May been occupying parts of Marawi, the nations main Muslim city about 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the south of Manila.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also set to meet Duterte on the sidelines of the event, with those talks expected to cover the Philippine presidents controversial drug war that has claimed thousands of lives.
Three women and six children from the same family were killed in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on their home in northern Yemen on Friday, a local health official said, the latest in a series of attacks since 2015.

Yemen has been torn by a civil war in which the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is trying to roll back gains made by the Iran-aligned Houthi group which controls most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

The head of the local health department, Dr Abdel-Ilah al-Azzi, said the attack at dawn on the family home of Taha al-Dharafi in Mahda district on the south-western outskirts of Saada city, also injured three other people.

We are recording all the crimes of the enemy and we will not forget them, Azzi said. All the criminals will be put on trial soon, God willing, he added.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not respond to a request for a comment.

It was not immediately clear if the house was hit by mistake, but the coalition says it does not target civilians.

A family relative, who declined to be identified, said the attack happened before dawn while the family slept. He said the bodies were taken to the morgue while rescue workers continued to search for a missing woman in the rubble of the house.

Pictures from the scene showed the house completely destroyed by the strike. Residents who rushed to the scene were afraid to start rescue work while aircraft hovered overhead.

Saada, a stronghold of the Houthi group, which hails from the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam, has been repeatedly hit by air strikes since the coalition of Arab states joined the civil war in March 2015. They see the war as an attempt by Iran to expand its influence in Yemen.

At least 25 Yemenis were killed in June when Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a market in the Saada province.

And in March, another coalition air strike killed 22 people and wounded dozens in a market in western Yemen near the Red Sea fishing town of Khoukha.

Khoukha and the nearby city of Hodeidah are controlled by the Houthis who overran Sanaa in 2014 and moved south to Aden in 2015 forcing Hadi and his administration to flee into exile.

The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than three million and ruined much of the impoverished countrys infrastructure.

The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 to fight the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who have fired missiles into neighboring Saudi Arabia.

In December, the coalition acknowledged it had made limited use of British-made cluster bombs, but said it had stopped using them.

Nearly half of Yemens 22 provinces are on the verge of famine, according to the U.N. World Food Programme.
Half Moon Bay, CA (94019)

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 43F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph..

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 43F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in June as exports hit the highest level in 2  years.

The Commerce Department said Friday that the trade gap slid 5.9 percent in June to $43.6 billion.

Exports of goods and services rose 1.2 percent to $194.4 billion, the highest amount since December 2014 on higher foreign demand for American soybeans, computer accessories and other products. Services exports reached a record $65.4 billion.

U.S. exports may be getting a lift from a pickup in global economic growth and a drop in the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies. A weaker dollar makes American products a better bargain in foreign markets.

Overall imports slipped 0.2 percent to $238 billion on a drop in demand for cellphones and other household goods.

So far this year, the trade deficit is up 10.7 percent to $276.6 billion.

The deficit means the United States is buying more goods and services from other countries than it is selling them. A shrinking trade gap boosts U.S. economic growth.

President Donald Trump has vowed to bring down America's trade deficits, saying they are caused by bad trade deals and abusive practices by China and other U.S. trading partners.

The deficit in goods with China rose 3.1 percent in June to $32.6 billion and is up 6.1 percent to $170.7 billion so far this year.

The goods deficit with Mexico slid 18.3 percent in June to $6 billion.

The Trump administration is preparing to re-negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. Trump has complained that NAFTA encourages U.S. manufacturers |to move to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor.
Houston pipeline startup Permico Energia hopes to build a $2 billion natural gas liquids pipeline across Texas from the booming Permian Basin to refining and port access near Corpus Christi.

The pipeline project includes building a fractionator near Corpus Christi to separate the NGLs into individual products - ethane, propane and butane - as well as products pipelines to carry the ethane and more to Houston-area markets like Mont Belvieu. The products typically are exported sold to the petrochemical sector and heating markets.

READ ALSO: Energy Transfer sells $1.6 billion stake in Rover Pipeline

For a privately owned startup without projects under its belt and a massive price tag, full financing could still be quite a ways off. However, Permico co-founder and CEO Jeff Beicker said the company has funding commitments from unnamed South Korean investment banks and pension fund institutions. The company said it has about $800 million committed by Korean pension funds, but Permico isn't naming the funds.

He indicated Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Corp. is the lead bank providing loans.

"We have enjoyed a positive reception from both sides of the pipe and are currently negotiating long term producer and industrial partner contracts," Beicker added.

READ ALSO: Pipeline study underestimated forest fragmentation, report says

Permico isn't proving further financial details at this time.

The company's name is Spanish for "Permian." The proposed 510-mile pipeline system also would connect to South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale as it makes its way to Corpus Christi. The fractionator would be built to process 300,000 barrels a day.

Despite the lack of details on the financing plans, Permico said construction is tentatively slated to start by the end of June 2018 and go into service in 2020.

READ ALSO: Houston's Layne Christensen finishes water pipeline

Permico is attempting to add to the bevy of proposed pipeline projects moving from west to east Texas to capitalize off of the Permian's ongoing oil boom. The oil fields also have associated natural gas liquids that are produced from most of the wells.

Houston pipeline giant Kinder Morgan already is planning to build a massive natural gas network from Permian to Corpus Christi. Likewise, Houston's Enterprise Products Partners is constructing a huge NGL pipeline from the Permian to Houston.

Beicker is a longtime energy veteran of companies like Marlin Midstream and Royal Dutch Shell. One of his co-founders, John Porter, was the global head of energy infrastructure for the CBRE commercial real estate firm.
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Jack Hanks wants to build the first new U.S. refinery in 40 years.

He knows its a challenging prospect: He has a lot of money to raise  he figures it will cost about $450 million to build a 10,000 barrel-per-day distillation plant and 50,000 barrel-per-day refinery. His company, MMEX Resources Corp., has had some money troubles in its past.

And hes never before built a refinery. So he knows he has critics.

But hed like a little bit of patience, please.

RELATED: Raven Petroleum aims to build first new Texas refinery in decades

Weve had a lot of people ask the same question, Hanks told the Chronicle recently. Well, wait a minute, how are you going to build a $500 million project when you dont have any money?

The answer, says Hanks: Project financing, where construction debt and equity are paid back via project revenues.

Were making great progress, said Hanks. But Ive got to put the pieces in place. Its not like flipping the switch.

With all of that light, sweet crude coming out of the Permian  oil that Gulf Coast refineries arent calibrated to process well  robust diesel demand, and a southern neighbor hungry for gasoline, Hanks thinks the market is ready.

Nobodys covering Western Mexico, Hanks said. Everything is trucked and barged out of Eastern refineries.

On Monday, MMEX announced it had closed on land near Fort Stockton, in West Texas, for the distillation unit, the first phase of construction and production.

If successful, this will be the third plant run by Hanks. His private company, Maple Resources, bought and overhauled a refinery in Peru and also built a natural gas processing center there.
The darkened gym once frequented by 2,100 ConocoPhillips employees sits locked and empty, its idled workout machines a testament to mounting trouble for commercial office space in Houston.

The workers here left two years ago as plunging oil prices forced downsizing throughout the energy industry. Their neighbors working for BP soon followed. Today, entire floors of Two Westlake Park are deserted, and ConocoPhillips struggles to find a tenant to sublease the space as it continues to pay rent until its own lease ends in 2019.

The pattern is particularly familiar in the westside Energy Corridor, but the damage is not confined there. More than a fifth of Houston office space, about 46.7 million square feet, sits empty - the highest rate among the nation's 20 biggest cities. Vacancy rates have reached levels not seen since the epic 1980s oil bust.

More than 10.5 million square feet of offices remain under lease but are not used by an original tenant. More than 2 million square feet of this sublease space is slated to be returned to property owners in the next two years, according to NAI Partners, portending financial problems for landlords who have loan payments to make.

"Right now, sublease is the tenant's problem," said Leta Wauson, director of research. "Once that lease expires, then the owner has to worry about it."

RELATED: Houston leads the nation in office sublease space

Continued weakness in the office-space market has led Morningstar Credit Ratings to put drastically more commercial property loans on its watch list because of their risk of default. Between 2014 and 2016, Morningstar added about $219 million in loans to its watch list. In the first seven months of 2017, it added more than $1.1 billion.

"So far, Houston has been able to skirt by with a below-average delinquency rate, but we foresee it picking up," said Steve Jellinek, a vice president at Morningstar. The high-and-climbing vacancy rate in Houston office buildings, he said, "has to translate into a higher delinquency rate sooner or later."

The ratings agency on Tuesday announced its latest addition to the watch list, a $91 million loan taken in 2014 at the height of the shale boom against the 17-story Two Westlake Park.

Morningstar's analysis showed that a weak market has pushed down the value of the 450,154-square-foot building - including the gym, a perk to the office workers there - by about 34 percent since the loan was issued. The building value fell to $82 million, down from $124 million, putting the collateral value below the value of the loan.

It's the 51st loan on Morningstar's Houston watch list, which includes loans taken out against 21 office buildings, 12 hotels, eight apartment buildings, seven retail centers, two self-storage facilities and one industrial property.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency put Two Westlake Park atop its list of largest projected losses, estimating the loan will default with more than $30 million in losses. Next on the list is Three Westlake Park, a neighboring building with an $80 million loan for which Kroll forecasts a $27 million loss.

"The main thing we're looking at in Houston is the Energy Corridor," Morningstar's Jellinek said.

More Information Available Office vacancy rates in the 10 largest U.S. cities: New York: 10.6% Los Angeles: 14.9% Chicago: 15.4% HOUSTON: 22.4% Atlanta: 17.5% Phoenix: 19.6% Philadelphia: 11% SAN ANTONIO: 15% San Diego: 12.4% DALLAS: 19.4% Source: JLL See More Collapse

On Thursday afternoon, energy and finance company employees milled about the sleepy 1980s-era business park in West Houston. Inside Two Westlake Park, a ground-floor suite sat empty. Vacant offices dot many levels, and the whole sixth floor is tidy and unused. Some levels up, epic images of oil field hardware adorn quiet, empty hallways under spotlights that are turned off.

Pat Hicks, CEO of Houston-based Hicks Ventures, which bought the property in 2014, sounded an optimistic note. He cited Houston's job and population growth as well as positive energy sector earnings reports as indicators that the market would pick up.

"There is no question we are off the bottom," he wrote in an email. "Like the previous four recoveries I've been through, once it really takes hold it'll be better and steeper than anyone thought possible."

Hicks did not respond to requests for a follow-up interview.

RELATED: Oil and gas, manufacturing continue turnaround in Houston

Morningstar has also cited concern for the neighboring Three Westlake Park, which is about $10 million underwater on an $80 million loan with cash flow down by half thanks to vacancy.

If those properties miss loan payments, they will become delinquent. Houston's office market has a 3 percent delinquency rate for office buildings, and that could rise.

In June, Kroll Bond Rating Agency reported a 120 percent increase over 15 months in the number of local energy-related loans in default or facing risk of default.

"Overall, the commercial real estate slide (particularly the office sector) is expected to persist over the next one to two years as office leases for oil companies expire," the ratings group analysis of Houston concluded.

Kroll projects $139.5 million in losses for office properties in Greater Houston.

"We're seeing cracks in the (Houston) office market," said Marc McDevitt, an associate director over commercial mortgage-backed securities at Kroll. "We see more of it coming."

Still, McDevitt said Houston's situation is neither "dire" nor "catastrophic," but rather typical for an energy slump in an oil town.

NAI Partners reports that more than a quarter of Houston's office space, including office space that is sitting vacant, is on the market.

"If it's not vacant this month, it'll be vacant shortly," Wauson said.

FROM 2016: Office market woes to last a while

Commercial real estate tends to lag the general market because large tenants sign long-term leases. Those leases will continue to expire through coming years.

At Two Westlake Park, occupancy fell to 68 percent from 89 percent in March as one of BP North America's two leases expired. ConocoPhillips and BP will also see large leases expire in 2019. Without replacement tenants, occupancy in Two Westlake Park could tumble to 43 percent.

Jellinek cited concern for delinquency risk throughout the Energy Corridor, an area particularly tied to the oil industry. He said that unless oil creeps back above $50 per barrel and big companies start signing big leases again, "it's going to have consequences for these office buildings."
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A former Cypress-Fairbanks math teacher was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison, almost a week after admitting to having sex with a 16-year-old student in his class.

Alfredo Campos, 31, pleaded guilty Tuesday as his trial was about to start on two felony counts of sexual assault of a child under 17.

He admitted they had sex at least two times in his car, and elected to have a jury decide his punishment, which could have ranged from probation to 20 years in prison.

After the verdict was handed down late Friday, the teenage girl took the witness stand for a victim impact statement.

MORE CHARGES: Police say ex-teacher had sex with four special ed students

"This guy is the scum of the earth," she shouted at Campos. "He used his power to manipulate students and young girls for sex."

Story continues below ...

During the statement, a handful of former students who continue to support Campos wept on one side of the courtroom.

The victim testified earlier in the week that he pressured her into having sex after driving her to Bear Creek Park during her junior year in the fall of 2015.

Campos pleaded guilty and testified in his own defense. He told jurors that the teen was "always in control" of their relationship and painted a picture of a lovelorn teen who seduced the "cool teacher."

Defense attorneys Don Nguyen and James Kan pointed out during the trial that the teen stayed close to Campos after the encounters ended, enrolling in another semester of classes with him and continuing to sit next to him during lunchtime tutorials. She also messaged the teacher after the encounters ended.

"I would have liked to see a more lenient verdict," Kan said. "Was justice done? It depends on who you ask, but close."

TEEN TAKES STAND: She tells her side of the case

Prosecutor Ashley Guice was quick to note Campos picked the girl up from her parents home and drove her to Bear Creek Park in northwest Houston where they had sex at least twice.

She noted that several students testified that Campos was well-known at the school for rubbing student's shoulders, sitting "too close" to the female students and messaging students on social media.

She also said the jury heard that the married teacher told the teen he was having problems with his wife and that he claimed he was suicidal to manipulate her emotions.

"It's just another facet of why we viewed him as a danger to society," Guice said after the verdict. "It just shows the deep level of manipulation that this defendant used on these young, impressionable individuals."

Jurors returned their verdict for the two charges after deliberating more than three hours. In one case, they sentenced him to eight years in prison. In the second case, they sentenced him to 10 years probation, with the intent that he stay under the court's supervision for a decade after he gets out.

Cy-Fair ISD officials started investigating the Cypress Ridge High School math teacher in November 2016, a year after the sexual acts began, because of an anonymous tip. Campos was arrested days later after he admitted to the sex and said it was consensual.

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A new ad to be released next week by one of America's biggest household products company has drawn outrage - and praise - for addressing racial bias.

"The Talk," a two-minute video by Procter & Gamble, depicts black mothers of different generations, talking to their children about racism.

"It's an ugly, nasty word, and you are going to hear it, nothing I can do about that," a mother tells her young son in an apparent reference to a racial slur. "But you are not going to let that word hurt you, you hear me?"

"Now, when you get pulled over . . ." another mother tells her teenage daughter.

"Ma, I'm a good driver don't worry, OK?" the daughter answers.

"Baby, this is not about you getting a ticket. This is about you not coming home."

The new ad builds on the company's ten-year-old "My Black is Beautiful" campaign, which has produced audio interviews about bias. The company, which makes a wide array of products from laundry detergent to tampons to cough drops, says the stories they tell are meant to reflect the real-world experiences of many of their customers. It has also produced videos about gender bias, such as the Always #LikeAGirl and Ariel #ShareTheLoad ads.

"The Talk," which appeared online two weeks ago, sparked a heated public reaction on social media, with some commending the company for addressing a difficult topic, and others accusing it of race-baiting and vowing to stop buying their products.

"Let the boycott begin on P & G!!! Cannot believe they would cut their noses off, to spite their faces," a commenter wrote on a YouTube page showing the ad.

"To all the people offended by this commercial .. not every ad is target toward you," another commenter wrote. "What's wrong with a mother trying to protect her children and prepare them for a world that is not always (accepting)."

A website called Conservative101.com said the commercial attacked whites, adding, "In a cynical attempt to sell more soap and household cleaning products to the African-American community, consumer giant Procter & Gamble decided to produce a commercial pandering to what they believe African-Americans think."

While the advertising industry has been criticized in the past for a lack of diverse perspectives, in the past six months corporations have been bolder about supporting minorities, immigrants, and LGBTQ people, said Lee Ann Kahlor, associate director of the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations at the University of Texas, Austin.

"Companies are entering into public conversations about topics they shied away from in past," she said. "I think it is because some organizations want their voice and brand to be distinguishable and apart from the current views espoused by our President and some members of the House and Senate that dominate the media right now."

Procter & Gamble has seen backlash about its "My Black is Beautiful" campaign in the past, but this video, coming at a time of extreme political and social polarization in the U.S., has struck a deeper nerve than usual, said Damon Jones, the company's communications director. He said the ad was not meant as a political statement.

"It's unfortunate that in the current environment everything becomes politicized, because the talk between a mother and a daughter isn't politicized at all; it's just reality," he said, adding that the goal of the campaign is to spark a constructive dialogue about race. "It would be great if we lived in a society where we didn't need the Talk."

Jones said he has personally spoken to people who have called in to complain.

"I try to help them understand the concept of the campaign," he said. "I don't think race has ever been an easy subject for us to tackle in this country, but avoiding it doesn't push us forward, and part of this campaign is about getting people to have these difficult discussions so we can get to a better place."

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Video: Consumer products company Procter & Gamble released an online ad showing how black parents have discussed racism with their children over several decades. (Protcter & Gamble).

URL: http://wapo.st/2vxO7IZ
CAIRO -- Saudi Arabia is defending its decision to execute 14 minority Shiites - whose verdicts sparked criticism in the United States and Europe - declaring in a rare public statement that their trials were conducted fairly.

The men were arrested for their involvement in demonstrations in 2011 and 2012 during the Arab Spring revolts and were later sentenced to death in a secretive counterterrorism court, according to human rights activists and the men's relatives, who also say that some of the men were tortured and forced into making false confessions.

The group included a teenager who was arrested at the airport before boarding a flight to visit a university in Michigan, and a youth who is half-deaf and nearly blind, activists said.

Shiites in the Sunni-majority kingdom have long complained of discrimination and harassment by authorities.

Last month, the kingdom's highest court upheld the death sentences, clearing the way for the executions to take place any day now.

A spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Justice, Mansour al-Ghafari, said in a statement released Friday that the trials met international standards for fairness and due process and that the "defendants enjoy full legal rights." All of them had access to lawyers and all court hearings were in the presence of the media and human rights observers, Ghafari said.

In a response Saturday, a prominent human rights group said the Saudi government's statement made several false claims and was "at odds with assessments by the U.N. and rights groups."

"Saudi Arabia's attempts to justify these 14 unlawful executions are appalling," said Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, an advocacy group based in Britain. "This statement is a serious mischaracterization of the trial process against the 14 men."

At least one defendant was never permitted to see a lawyer, and in another defendant's case, no evidence against him was presented at trial, said Reprieve.

Officials with the United Nations last year said the secretive counterterrorism court "raises serious concerns about its lack of independence and due procedure." Its judges, they said, often refused to act on claims by defendants that "they had been subjected to torture."

Ghafari said the death sentences were handed down only "for the most dangerous crimes." Saudi officials in state media have claimed that the 14 men were arrested on terrorism-related charges. But activists say the Saudi government continues to conduct executions for alleged nonviolent crimes.

Some of the 14 men were convicted of using cellphones to organize protests and of using social media, according to Reprieve.

"Governments close to Saudi Arabia - including the Trump administration and the U.K. - must urgently call on the Kingdom to halt these executions," Foa said.

---

Sheikha Aldosary in Riyadh contributed to this report.
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Big businesses and commercial building owners in Harris County have unleashed a growing number of lawsuits in recent years to knock millions of dollars off their property tax bills.

It's a good bet: filing a lawsuit to challenge the appraised property value results in a reduction, on average, of more than 10 percent, according to the Harris County Appraisal District. For property valued in the millions, that decrease in value could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars less in property taxes per year.

The trend toward litigation - a departure from cheaper informal or administrative negotiations of the past - has raised alarm bells among public officials whose governing entities rely on property taxes to serve Harris County's rapidly growing populace.

They are seeing larger and larger sums of tax revenue carved out of budgets as well-resourced property owners take their challenges to court. The practice means budget officers increasingly are uncertain about how much money they will have to spend on services.

READ ALSO: Municipal Utility Districts in Texas have sweeping power to sell bonds, levy taxes

For Harris County, which typically keeps a robust fund balance, that uncertainty usually can be absorbed. For an entity like the city of Houston, already looking at a budget deficit of more than $100 million next year, the consequences can be more dire.

Such was the case in February 2016 when the city, already looking at a $126 million budget gap in the following fiscal year, learned it would have $16 million less to work with following a spate of successful lawsuits from business owners protesting their property values.

"The reality is, that $16 million is a real hit to the city's budget," Mayor Sylvester Turner said then.

More lawsuits

One agency definitely put in a pinch by the growing litigation is HCAD itself, which has had to shell out more money to defend against the lawsuits.

The number of lawsuits against appraisers grew from an average of 2,600 filed annually from 2010 to 2012, to more than 4,100 a year from 2014 to 2016.

Successful lawsuits cut property tax collections for Harris County, Houston, and Houston ISD by an estimated $60 million in 2016.

Refunds to property owners this year could be the highest ever seen, officials said, potentially reaching $70 million. Meanwhile, the appraisal district, funded by local governments, must use public dollars to defend its valuations in court.

"You're having to spend money on legal fees and refunds," said Jim Robinson, director of special projects in Harris County's budget office who previously headed HCAD for more than two decades. "Resources are finite. That's services that the public needs that go undone."

More Information By the numbers $60 million Reduction in property tax collections in 2016 after successful lawsuits. 4,100 Average annual number of lawsuits filed against appraisers in 2014-16. 66 percent Increase in HCAD's cost of litigation from 2012-16 - $9.4 million to $15.6 million. See More Collapse

Explanations for the trend vary.

HCAD officials say the increasing litigation has been spurred by a rise in property values brought on by the recovering economy. The lawsuits, they said, are buoyed by a niche industry of lawyers and tax consultants.

Robinson and other county officials say the district is not trying hard enough to resolve appraisal challenges out of court.

Meanwhile, downtown business representatives say HCAD is too aggressive when valuing properties. And tax consultants blame a cultural unwillingness to settle cases out of court.

The finger-pointing reflects the complex, high-stakes game of property tax collection in Texas, where public and private entities perennially jockey over tens of billions of dollars that are collected to pay for schools, roads and public safety.

RELATED: MUDs sell bonds, levy taxes for developers who court conservative politicians with campaign cash

Bolstered by a unique provision in Texas law, some say the trend also reflects a system that benefits the wealthy while homeowners carry some of the highest property tax burdens in the country.

"When they game the system, hard-working homeowners get stuck with the bill and it becomes more difficult to pay for our schools, first responders, hospitals, roads, parks, flood control and other county services," Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said.

The basic premise of property tax collection: HCAD appraises each of the 1.7 million parcels of land in Harris County every year, aiming to get as close to the market value as possible under certain restraints, including limits on how much an appraisal can increase in a year.

The property owner can challenge that appraisal. The majority of these challenges are resolved informally with HCAD appraisers or through a three-member Appraisal Review Board.

Property values

Property owners who have exhausted those processes can take their challenges to court, a method rarely utilized by residential property owners.

In the commercial property world, however, the tactic is on the rise.

Robinson said the trend has hampered the county's ability to budget. The county must set its budget, according to state law, well before it knows how much it could lose in the lawsuits. Without a hike in the tax rate, that has led to more conservative budgeting - a particular pinch for county officials trying to provide for a region that has grown by nearly 1.3 million people since 2000.

The city, mayoral spokesman Alan Bernstein said, has other streams of revenue, such as sales tax, to help compensate for money that may not materialize because of lawsuits over property tax appraisals. He said the city projects out how much it expects to lose based on averaging the prior three years' losses and direction from the appraisal district.

HCAD Chief Appraiser Roland Altinger, who took the helm of the agency last year, said he understands the concern but calls the rise in lawsuits a problem without a fix.

There are a number of reasons behind the rise in litigation, Altinger said. First, he said, is that in the aftermath of the recession, HCAD began raising property values amid news reports of commercial buildings and properties - one of the main drivers of litigation - being sold for millions of dollars.

In 2013, for example, HCAD raised property values downtown roughly 50 percent. The next year, they were raised almost 18 percent, according to HCAD.

"When you do that, clearly there is going to be some pushback by the property owners on that," HCAD spokesman Jack Barnett said.

Compounding this, Altinger said, is that attorneys and tax consultants, both of whom benefit financially from taking cases to court and getting property values lowered, have figured out how to wield state law in property owners' favor, particularly a provision that allows properties to be valued similar to comparable properties.

That creates an incentive for the property owners to sue and drag out the challenge process as long as possible. Meanwhile, those comparable property values are being knocked down through challenges of their own.

"They know what they are doing," Altinger said. "This is better than going to Vegas."

Tammy Betancourt, CEO and executive vice president of the Downtown Building Owners and Managers Association, disputed Altinger's characterization. She said the rise in lawsuits is due to "unreasonable increases in values over a number of years, as well as the inability to find any middle ground through the (Appraisal Review Board) process."

Other resolutions

Robinson said he also believed that HCAD was not prioritizing more informal measures to resolve property tax disputes.

Altinger said, however, that tax consultants and commercial property owners increasingly are breezing through those informal or administrative processes in order to get to court.

He pointed to the growing number of informal meetings for which the property owners or their agents did not show up, from 48 percent in 2012 to almost 52 percent in 2016. He said agents, many whom are former employees of HCAD, are savvy to the process and that lawsuits save their clients much more money.

"They make a bunch more in the litigation process," Altinger said. "It's like a little game that's being played."

Patrick O'Connor, president of O'Connor and Associates, a tax consulting firm that represents roughly 120,000 property owners across the state every year in tax appeals, disputed Altinger's claims, noting that the vast majority of cases are settled and do not go to trial.

"So, when they say people can get more in district court, what they're saying is, 'We won't negotiate in good faith until you file a lawsuit,' " O'Connor said.

He said he preferred resolving cases informally.

The increase in the number of lawsuits also has another, more direct, cost: defending the appraisal district. HCAD is funded by Houston, Harris County, Houston ISD and other jurisdictions in the Houston area.

When the cost of litigation goes up, that cost is passed onto all the taxpayers. HCAD's litigation load has grown from roughly $9.4 million in 2012 to $15.6 million in 2016 - from 15 percent of the district's budget to more than 20 percent. Much of that money goes to outside counsel to help defend the suits.

Altinger said he does not expect to have to raise the budget on outside counsel, further. Barring a fix, he said, lawsuits will be a perennial concern.

"This is not going away," he said.
With just over a week to go before it ends, the special legislative session is still so very special.

After nearly three weeks' work, Gov. Greg Abbott has exactly this many of his 20 must-pass bills on his desk ready to be signed into law: Zero.

That's right. Zip. Nada.

While the state Senate approved all of his priority bills in just seven days, the House is taking a more deliberative approach, debating the issues in more detail and tweaking many of the issues Abbott wanted them to address in ways that the governor may not like.

And they're considering a number of other issues he did not include on the special-session agenda, things like ethics reform and sweeping school-financing changes and restoring cuts to children's therapy programs.

They've also moved to tap the state's Rainy Day Fund to pay for lowering benefits costs for retired teachers.

And the controversial bathroom bill? While it roared through the Senate, it appears to have hit a brick wall in the House that's named Joe Straus, the speaker who opposes it -- and has hinted, not so discreetly, that it will not get a vote in his chamber.

In the Senate, which is doing the legislative equivalent of running in place while the House takes its time, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick continues to gin up support for the bathroom bill, which stirred new controversy in the past week -- even if most Texans thought that was not possible.

For those Texans who are just ready for all this hair-pulling to end, this week's show offers an up-to-date rundown on what bills appear likely to pass and which ones probably won't.

The good news: One that appears headed for approval to get to Abbott's desk to be signed into law involves reforming Texas' hated property-tax system, giving voters more of a say in stopping big increases.

We've got the lowdown on all the political action under the Pink Dome, as the Austin statehouse is called, in this week's Texas Take. That's where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand.

From Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics
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I recently read an article by the BBC's Economics editor, Kamal Ahmed, about the fall in UK productivity and its subsequent impact on the economy. In the piece, Ahmed comprehensively outlined the issue, citing a fall of 0.5% in the first three months of 2017 putting the UK economy's ability to create wealth below that of 2007, when the financial crisis started. Unfortunately, the piece only really served to leave readers feeling a little despondent, concluding that "until [the problem of very low paid jobs] is solved, our productivity problem, our wealth problem, will continue".

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In the current, economically uncertain environment, it's easy to see how the problem of falling productivity, fuelled by the growth of low paid jobs, will become more serious. Kamal Ahmed's article is a wake up call but pointing out the issue is only the beginning. We need to look at tackling the underlying problems, one of which is an increasingly demotivated workforce. This diminishing motivation leads to an incremental fall in productivity and tighter restrictions on incomes, which inevitably further undermines motivation. It's a spiralling cycle of decline that opens up the possibility of the UK falling behind its global competitors.

In looking for the causes of this phenomenon, it's impossible to ignore the impact of Brexit, particularly since it's becoming more readily apparent that the likelihood of getting, what many would consider to be, a good deal is fading fast. Add to that the slightly surreal, snap election, which saw the government lose its Commons majority and with it any sense of a 'strong and stable' hand on the country's macro-economic tiller. These are both strong drivers of the uncertainty that is progressively impacting the UK business landscape.

All of this is leaving UK business leaders, regardless of company size or sector, in a dilemma as they try to offset these negative effects when they themselves often know little more than their workforce. In today's challenging economic environment, it can be easy for business leaders to be so focused on the top and bottom line that this sometimes overshadows other demands and needs in the business. In our quest to deliver success and results. I believe the focus must be on squeezing every ounce of value out of the business and the key lies in the motivation and subsequent performance of employees.

And there's the rub! In our experience, when it comes to performance management too much emphasis is placed on traditional techniques to tackle the underlying problem. Instead, the focus should be on enabling people to deal with the human complexities present across the business environment. Arguably, today, this is more important than resolving the technical and business challenges that many performance management techniques seek to address.

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During times of economic uncertainty, it becomes even more necessary for people and teams to be aligned to what the business wants to achieve. This then enables the organisation to build on all the technical requirements, best practice and structured frameworks that can be brought to bear, as well as any classroom-based training. It involves harnessing an individual's specific abilities and helping them to develop their behaviour to not only meet their own objectives, but also achieve the desired results for the business.

We only need to look to millennials to find support for this. Millennial is the term given to those born between 1980 and 1999, and is the largest age group to emerge since the baby boom generation - a group that accountancy firm Deloitte predicts will make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025, so the ones that arguably require the most support. Countless articles proclaim that these younger workers aren't motivated by the same factors as previous generations, suggesting they are solely motivated by the ability to work from the comfort of their own beds or to repurpose their office as an American style 'frat-house' the moment it turns half-past three. What these articles neglect to mention, however, is that as a group millennials highly value feedback based on outcomes and deliverables when it comes to motivating factors, something that is inarguably conducive to creating a more productive workforce.

In addition to having clear goals, millennials' career choices are strongly affected by whether or not an organisation has a compelling vision of what it or the team is contributing to society. Cast yourself back to the general election last month and the unusually high turnout of young voters. One of the main turnoffs for younger people is the perception that politics is an exclusive club, but many were furious about austerity and generational injustice, annoyed at what they saw as patronising media coverage of their concerns, and disillusioned with the political status quo. Whilst this is an example from the political stage, it provides a strong insight into the key motivational drivers of our future workforce and something that business leaders must embrace in their performance management approach, if we are to address underlying problems of motivation and productivity.
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Amelia Earhart's life was touched by genius, inspiration, adventure and tragedy. As the first female aviator to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, she remains a figure of awe for women and adventurers the world over. But Amelia was so much more than an aviator: she was an active promoter of women's rights, a best-selling author and will forever be the archetypal trailblazer for female pilots.

It is eighty years since she set off on her fateful final flight: a circumnavigation of the globe that she never returned from after disappearing over the Pacific Ocean. Amelia broke boundaries and left a legacy that nobody had imagined as being possible. The term is often overused but she was - to all intent and purposes - ground-breaking in her approach, her drive and her achievements.

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But what now remains of that legacy? Her disappearance is, sadly, the most appropriate place to start, as despite eighty years having passed women are largely absent from cockpits: accounting for a mere 3% of pilots worldwide.

This gender discrepancy is even more glaring at a time when the global pilot shortage continues to mount. Last week Boeing announced that the commercial aviation industry will require 637,000 more pilots by 2036. I simply do not see a way of solving this without more female pilots entering the cockpit. We need the spirit of Earhart now more than ever.

What is most galling is the fact that women are so eminently capable of filling the gap. There are success stories from around the world: Last year Royal Brunei Airlines' first all-female pilot crew sent a powerful message about what Muslim women can achieve, EasyJet's Kate McWilliams became the world's youngest commercial airline captain at the age of just 26, and Air India became the first airline to fly around the world with an all-female crew earlier this year.

But do these very specific examples really do much more than paper over the cracks? Progress is stalling, and the numbers back this up. Aside from the exceptional cases mentioned, the gap continues to widen. It is hard to fathom how, despite holding such an illustrious aviation history, women remain such a minority. The talent is out there, but for various educational and social reasons women are is not being championed and encouraged, and their talent is not being nurtured.

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I was fortunate that my training school, Alpha Aviation Group, works hard to encourage more women to move into aviation - and the numbers of female trainees was significantly above the global average. When I was ready to graduate, Alpha's relationship with Air Arabia meant that I was able to move into a role there seamlessly.

EasyJet also deserve credit, as they launched the Amy Johnson initiative in 2015 - aimed at doubling the number of female new entrant pilots to 12% over two years. They have since updated this to a target of 20% of new entrant cadet pilots being female by 2020.

These are the kind of attitudes that can make a difference, but if the rest of the industry does not follow the example of Alpha Aviation, Air Arabia and EasyJet then we will continue to fight a losing battle.
CHESHIRE, Mass.  The Volunteer Fire Department is in need of new members, especially during the day shift.

Fire Chief Thomas Francesconi told the Selectmen on Tuesday that the department is down to five volunteers who are available during the day.

"It is becoming an issue for us and I think we need to collaborate and put our heads together and see if we can come up with some solutions," he said. "It's not getting any easier."

He said this is mostly an issue on the emergency medical services side of the department because Cheshire has mutual aid agreements with other fire departments.

When General Electric was still in operation in Pittsfield, it was easy to cover daytime with volunteers who worked the night shift, Francesconi said, but with most people working 9 to 5 jobs, it is hard to fill out this block of time.

"In the days of GE there was second shift and third shift so we had people around during the day before work," he said. "Right now, we rely on basically the Highway Department because many of our members work for the town. We have relied on some of the retired members but even that is getting scarce."

Francesconi said he has thought of a few options so far, such as removing the residency requirement. Currently, you have to be a Cheshire resident of six months to volunteer.

"I have received some interest from people who live on our side of Pittsfield who want to give back and be on the fire department but have too many commitments to be full time in the city," he said. "But even this brings logistical issues like response times and insurance."

Francesconi said another option would be to have a private ambulance service use the garage.

"That would cost Cheshire nothing except the cost of lighting the garage and heating it during the winter," he said. "There would be no salary from us they would just use the building."

He said a local organization offered this some years ago and he would see if the offer still stands as well as reach out to other organizations.

Francesconi said volunteer department membership numbers are down everywhere.

"It is not specifically a Cheshire problem and I don't want you to think we are doing anything wrong because it is a nationwide problem," he said. "I have spoken to a number of my brother and sister chiefs around the county and neighboring communities and they are going through the same thing."

He added that with all of the training that goes along with firefighting, it is a larger commitment than it was in the past.

"Gone are the days I hand you a helmet, a rubber coat and some gloves and tell you to jump in the fire truck," he said. "There are guidelines and certifications and people just don't have time for it anymore."

Selectman Robert Ciskowski said the decline in population is, in general, causing issues for the town.

"We need 500 younger families to move to Cheshire and what we saw in the Master Plan is that Cheshire is going gray," he said. "In 15 years, barring something unforeseen, it's only going to escalate. We are getting older."
When its 90+ degrees outside and you just CANT EVEN with turning on the stove or oven to make dinner, its time to fire up the grill and make some ice cold mojitos amirite? Heres a collection of over one hundred of the best keto grilling recipes I could find to get you through the dog days of Summer!

Holy heat wave, Batman! Record breaking temperatures are hitting all over the place, and hopefully you guys all have either air conditioning, a pool, or a bathtub full of ice cubes to stay cool in! Welcome to my life 365 days a year here in Belize! It. Is. Hot.

If youre reading this and sweating in the summer heat like its your job right now, you might argue that the last thing you want to do at dinner time is stand over a hot grill outside when its like this. I guess you just have to weigh whats worse  grilling outside for a few minutes and returning to a relatively cool house for the rest of the evening vs. cooking inside and living with the heat for hours afterwards.

If youre leaning towards opting for the grill, I promise it will be worth it when you see this amazing collection of Keto grilling recipes that youll have to choose from. And you can always grill up several of these recipes at a time and then eat the leftovers cold in a salad for the next few days  no further cooking required!

Theres an idea I can get behind now that I think of it!

So I grouped these recipes by category for proteins, and also added some great How to Grill tutorial posts at the end in case your grilling game needs a little help. If youre not (yet) a grill master, dont be discouraged  a few minutes of reading and a little practice will have you executing these Keto grilling recipes like a boss. Youve got this!

One last note, just a few of these grilling recipes contain a very small amount of honey or sugar, simply replace it with the sugar free sweetener of your choice and youre good to go!

101 Best Keto Grilling Recipes

Best Beef Keto Grilling Recipes

Asparagus & Steak Fajita Rollups  Eat Well 101

Tuscan Style Grilled Ribeye Steaks  Carries Experimental Kitchen

Balsamic Jalapeno Grilled Tri Tip  Mama Maggies Kitchen

Hibachi Steakhouse Meatball Kebabs  I Breathe Im Hungry

Grilled Carne Asada  Pinch and Swirl

Korean Steak Kebabs  Gimme Some Oven

Steak Fajita Skewers with Cilantro Chimichurri  Recipe Runner

Grilled Zucchini Boats with Beef  Step Away From the Carbs

Steak & Mushroom Kebabs  Kalyns Kitchen

Grilled Tri Tip with Onions & Peppers  Butter Your Biscuit

Easy Mexican Beef Skewers  Isabel Eats

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Mushroom & Swiss Meatloaf  Loving Low Carb

Keto Teriyaki Beef on a Stick  I Breathe Im Hungry

Grilled Flank Steak with Avocado Chimichurri  Joyful Healthy Eats

Grilled Steak Lettuce Wraps  Stay Snatched

Easy Grilled Steakhouse Kebabs  The Chunky Chef

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Thai Beef Satay Skewers  Low Carb Maven

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Marinated Skirt Steak with Chimichurri  Grandbaby Cakes

Best Chicken Keto Grilling Recipes

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Chicken Tikka Wings  Low Carb Maven

Lemon Oregano Grilled Chicken Skewers  Yummy Healthy Easy

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Chicken Prosciutto Spiadini  I Breathe Im Hungry

Grilled Stuffed Chicken Italiano  Mom Foodie

Lemon Basil Grilled Chicken  Holistically Engineered

Grilled Chicken Fajita Packets  Well Plated

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Grilled Chicken Thighs with Chimichurri Sauce  Yay for Food

Chili Lime Cream Grilled Chicken  Beauty and the Foodie

Easy Pesto Lemon Chicken Kebabs  Kalyns Kitchen

Grilled Chicken Souvlaki with Yogurt Sauce  I Breathe Im Hungry

Best Pork Keto Grilling Recipes

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Lime Butter Salmon in Foil  The Recipe Critic

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Grilled Asparagus with Sriracha & Toasted Pecan Vinaigrette  I Breathe Im Hungry

Grilled Portobellos with Spinach & Cheese  Rachel Cooks

Grilled Parmesan Garlic Asparagus  The Recipe Critic

Grilled Zucchini with Tomato & Feta  The Mediterranean Dish

Easy Grilled Vegetables  Kalyns Kitchen

Zucchini Parmesan Foil Packets  Damn Delicious

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Bonus Best How to Grill Tutorials

How to Grill Fathead Pizza Dough  Joy Filled Eats

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Haiti - China : End of mandate in Haiti of Ling Jun





Aviol Fleurant, the Minister of Planning received this week a a courtesy visit from Ling Jun, the Permanent Representative of the Business Development Bureau of the People's Republic of China in Haiti, before his departure at the end of his term of office in late August.



During their meeting , Ling Jun reiterated the interest of the People's Republic of China to cooperate with the Haitian government in a mutually beneficial policy. He informed that he has worked with the heads of the investment Facilitation Center (CFI) on a guide that would allow Chinese investors to better explore the windows of opportunity in Haiti.



Minister Fleurant, for his part, welcomed the work done by Ling Jun in Haiti over the last two years. He said that today Haiti has a duty to make a choice between assistantship and development, stressing that the Republic of China is not only a worthy cooperant but also a friend.



IH/ iciHaiti


















A big issue in the Brexit debate is what will happen to the City of London.



Listening to some people talk, you could be forgiven for thinking all our banks were about to shut down and move overseas.



They arent and they wont...



GERARD LYONS City of London is Brexit-proof and will still lead Europe even after we leave the EU, says Economic expert







CommentBy Dr Gerard Lyons, Economic expert2nd August 2017The SunA BIG issue in the Brexit debate is what will happen to the City of London.Listening to some people talk, you could be forgiven for thinking all our banks were about to shut down and move overseas.They arent and they wont.Our financial sector has two parts to it: the domestic part serving people and firms in the UK and the international component, known as The City.The City is important for our economy. It creates jobs and business here and also attracts talent and investment from around the world.The league table ranking financial centres has London as number one in the world. In second place is New York, closely followed by Singapore and then Hong Kong.This is where Londons future competition is, not in Europe.In fact, the next highest-ranked centres in Europe are Zurich at 11th and Geneva at 20th. Remember, Switzerland is not in the EU.The cities that hope to grab some of Londons jobs are low down the list: Frankfurt is 23rd, Paris 29th, Dublin 33rd and Amsterdam 40th.While rankings can change, the reality is they will not move much.Thus, it is no surprise why the widespread view across the City is that London will remain Europes leading financial centre  even after Brexit.In fact, the current mood in the City is good. Hiring is up. More jobs are being created in London. Business looks solid.In the past, London has been seen as the place to both do business in and from.So the current recovery in the world economy is positive for us.This is a big change from a year ago. Then, in the aftermath of the referendum, there was much uncertainty.Since then, of course, we did not have the financial armageddon forecast by the then Chancellor George Osborne The economy has held up well, receiving huge inward investment from overseas. But there is no denying that some financial business will move to the EU.This is hard to quantify but it is not expected to be large.Some banks service their EU clients out of London, using a financial passport.In case this passport is withdrawn, they are setting up on the ground in other EU centres and are moving business now  Nomura and Morgan Stanley are both examples.It is not a necessity for this to happen.Yet, because they have to plan well ahead and the outcome of the Brexit negotiations is unclear, they are thinking better safe than sorry.This is understandable.But even if some jobs move, the bulk of operations will stay in London.One way to think of it is that the financial cake is getting bigger with a slice of the action going elsewhere but the bulk of the cake is remaining here.Of course, it is important never to be complacent. One in eight people who work in the City are from the EU. The Citys biggest concern currently is uncertainty over the future rights of EU citizens.Also, many banks would like a temporary transition agreement after we have left the EU in March 2019 to allow them time to make plans with certainty, rather than rushing into things now.Despite these challenges, we should be positive. The City of London has a history of reinventing itself.In the last year, London has cemented its position in some new growing business areas, including trading of the offshore Chinese currency, Islamic finance and green bonds.Also, many small firms are excited about the ability to break free from the unnecessary regulations of the EU.Perhaps, more importantly, London is establishing itself as the financial technology or fintech centre of the world.The future of international finance is becoming more interlinked with technology.For many in the City, one of the most important events of the last year was when Google confirmed it was proceeding with its new technology hub in Kings Cross, housing around 2,500 staff, many of whom will be tech engineers.Other firms in the tech sector have followed this lead.This reinforces one of Londons key selling points.Not only is it an exciting place to live, it also benefits from agglomeration effects as it has everything needed for a successful financial centre.It has the combination of skills, knowledge and experience of people and also an infrastructure of banks, consultants, lawyers and technology experts that is difficult to rival.So the factors that make London and the City strong are Brexit-proof.
captain morgan said: I feel bad for those homeless dudes having no option other than eating those geese.... Damn, they are awful Click to expand...

FTA is what we signed with the US, NAFTA is more a US deal with Mexico than it is a Canada/Mexico deal.CDN goose sausage fixes that. Snow geese are disgusting and all the smoke and garlic in the world won't change that but the dogs love them.
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More than 150,000 people could die as a result of climate change each year in Europe by the end of the century, shocking new research has found.

The number of deaths caused by extreme weather events will increase 50-fold and two in three people on the continent will be affected by disasters, the study  that serves as a stark warning of the deadly impact of global warming  found.

The research by European Commission scientists lays out a future where hundreds of thousands of people die from heatstroke, heart and breathing problems, and flash flooding. It describes a world where droughts bring food shortages, people are at an increased risk of being killed by disease and infection, and the countryside is ravaged by wildfires.

It used historical records of extreme weather events and combined them with projections of the damage of climate change and changes in the population to project how, where and who will die from the effects of global warming.

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

In what they say is a much needed wake-up call to governments across the continent, campaign groups insisted that action is needed now to avoid being responsible for deaths across the world.

This is a stark warning showing why we need greater action on climate change fast, said Friends of the Earth campaigner Donna Hume. People across the globe are already dying due to extreme weather events and without concerted action this will get worse, including right here in Europe.

This fate can be avoided but only if governments get serious about making the switch away from dirty fossil fuels. Three quarters of existing coal, oil and gas has to remain unused if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change  so why is the UK Government intent on digging and drilling for more across the British countryside?

Its time to ditch plans for fracking and new coal mines and instead invest in the renewable energy revolution.

The report is a dire warning that worldwide policy needs to change to address the dangers  and effects  of climate change, said the World Wildlife Fund.

The evidence keeps on stacking up  climate change should be one of our top public policy concerns, said Gareth Redmond-King, head of climate and energy at WWF. This report reinforces what we know about the impacts and unless we tackle the problem, that will put strain on our health and welfare systems, and ultimately cost lives.

However this future is not inevitable. We know the causes of climate change, and we understand the solutions to climate change. It is in our power to keep the global rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees  but only if we act now and embrace a low carbon future. That means governments, including the UK, being bold  taking action to grow low-carbon industries, to support technological solutions, and to cut our greenhouse gas emissions. This is essential for the health, wellbeing and prosperity of people and the protection of nature the whole world over.

The Green Party warned that people who deny climate change exists are putting future generations in danger.

Our planet is being destroyed and this report lays bare the devastating impact of climate change, said deputy leader Amelia Womack. There are people alive today who will witness thousands of deaths every year due to extreme weather events. Every second we waste denying climate change exists and ignoring its deadly impact is time we steal from the next generation who will suffer the terrible consequences.

This report makes for grim reading but it should also serve as a much needed wake-up call for governments across Europe that we cannot continue to tinker around the edges and hope for a miracle cure to climate change  we have to pull up our boots and get on with it now and do so with vigour. The UK and Europe needs to kick start a renewables revolution to create clean and stable energy for all and reclaim green spaces in the heart of our towns and cities.

The researchers who conducted the paper said that the commitments in the Paris accord must be upheld and that global warming must be addressed as a matter of urgency or that people will soon start dying in huge numbers.

Climate change is one of the biggest global threats to human health of the 21st century, and its peril to society will be increasingly connected to weather-driven hazards, said lead author Dr Giovanni Forzieri, from the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Italy. Unless global warming is curbed as a matter of urgency and appropriate measures are taken, about 350 million Europeans could be exposed to harmful climate extremes on an annual basis by the end of the century.

The scientists behind the paper said that it served as a clear warning that the world needs to address climate change, working to do less damage to the environment and make the world more resilient. They said that it is necessary for governments to ensure better land use and city planning  including the reduction of urban sprawl and car use, and fitting buildings with better air conditioning, insulation and floodproofing.

This study contributes to the ongoing debate about the need to urgently curb climate change and minimise its consequences, said Dr Forzieri. The substantial projected rise in risk of weather-related hazards to human beings due to global warming, population growth, and urbanisation highlights the need for stringent climate mitigation policies and adaptation and risk reduction measures to minimise the future effect of weather-related extremes on human lives.

Yearly deaths could soar 50 times from 3,000 between 1981 and 2010 to 152,000 between 2071 and 2100, the research published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health found.

Most of those people will die from heatwaves, which could cause 99 per cent of all weather-related deaths. Fatalities will surge from 2,700 per year now to 151,500 each year by 2071.

 Donald Trump says something could happen on the Paris Climate Agreement

Such catastrophic global warming will hit the UK too, killing people at a similar rate. By 2080, up to 7,500 Britons could be dead from heatwaves, cold snaps and flooding.

With a one-in-three chance of record rainfall in England and Wales each winter, flooding is the most significant impact of climate change in the UK, said Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven. And yet the Governments own advisers have warned that ministers have no coherent plan to deal with this threat.

The most important way we can prevent the risk of serious floods is by using nature, especially tree planting, to slow water flow. Additional measures should also include paying farmers to store water in fields and ensuring housebuilders make new homes resilient to flooding.

While natural flood management is key, the Government will need to guarantee long-term funding for flood defence as storms like Desmond, that caused 5bn in damages, will become more frequent. When it comes to floods, prevention is far cheaper than cure, and the Government should demonstrate theyve learned that lesson.

But much of the danger will come in southern Europe, where almost everyone will be affected by weather-related disasters.

The study looked at the impact of the seven most dangerous forms of extreme weather events: heatwaves, cold snaps, wildfires, droughts, river and coastal floods and windstorms, in the 28 EU member states as well as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. Researchers analysed 2,300 disasters records from between 1981 and 2010 and combined them with projections of how climate change will progress and what it will do to populations.

Scientists found one reduction in deaths: the number of people killed by cold snaps. But that was only a small reduction and was clearly not enough to outweigh any of the other dangers.

And they said that 10 per cent of the risk would come from developments other than climate change, such as population growth, migration and urbanisation.

The caution comes as a deadly heatwave dubbed Lucifer spreads across Europe. Authorities in several countries have issued health warnings and temperatures have been registered as high as 47C, fanning dozens of forest fires in Italy, France, Spain, Macedonia and Albania.

And it follows a run of stark warnings about the state of the environment by the end of the century. This week, scientists said that by 2100, temperatures would be so high in south Asia that simply going outside could be deadly, and that there was only a 10 per cent chance that we would be available to avoid the 2C rise that scientists see as a tipping point by that year.

Scientists noted that the research assumed that humans would not adapt to the extreme weather events. But they said that it was an urgent warning that the world should look to halt the advance of climate change and limit the worlds vulnerability to its now inevitable effects.

The research assumed that there would be no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and that there would be no improvements in the policies used to reduce the effects of the extreme weather events it studied. Those might include medical technology or the introduction of new kinds of air conditioning, for instance.

While the analysis only considered extreme events, and assumed no reduction in human vulnerability over time from adaptation, it is yet another reminder of the exposures to extreme weather and possible human impacts that might occur if emissions of greenhouse gases continue unabated, said Paul Wilkinson, professor environmental epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It adds further weight to the powerful argument for accelerating mitigation actions to protect population health.

Researchers added that as well as the fact that the study could be underestimating the effect of climate change by not considering changes to populations, it could actually be far higher than projected. The paper does not account for the fact that weather-related disasters could combine and then amplify each other.
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According to a new study, Americas cats and dogs are having a hugely detrimental effect on the planet.

Due to the millions of meat products consumed by the four-legged furry companions, carbon emissions are notably excessive.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, reveals that there are 163 million dogs and cats in the US regularly consuming animal products.

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Subsequently, the popular pets are responsible for releasing large amounts of powerful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Americans own the most pets in the world and the upkeep for pet care is considerably expensive. Reducing the rate of dog and cat ownership will significantly reduce the impact on the environment, the study explains.

Equally, efforts to reduce waste, overfeeding and making use of vegetarian protein sources would make a substantial difference to lowering an animals carbon paw print.

The harmful environmental effects of meat production are widely known.

A 2013 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences unveiled the quantities of greenhouse gases released after producing one kilogram of different animal proteins.

Researchers found that producing just one kilogram of chicken releases 3.7 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

For pork, on the other hand, the impact is far greater with 24 kilograms of carbon dioxide released per kilogram.

Recommended Vegetarian farmer saves cow herd from abattoir

However, the worst offender is beef, which can release up to 1,000 kilograms, excluding the animals water usage.

Gregory Orkin, a UCLA geography professor, calculated the amount of meat likely to be consumed by Americas pet cats and dogs and found that their overall caloric consumption was roughly 19 per cent of what humans consume.

Orkin explained that the figure correlates to the total number of calories consumed by France. Yes, the entire country.

He concluded that US pet cats and dogs account for 64 million tons of nitrous oxide and methane.
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There are fresh concerns that not enough young people are learning foreign languages, as figures show a slump in applications to study the subject area at university.

The numbers of applications for degree courses linked to European languages have fallen by almost a quarter in the past five years, while the numbers for other language courses have dropped by almost a fifth, according to an analysis by the Press Association.

At the same time, there has been a decline in the numbers studying languages traditionally offered by schools, such as French and German, to GCSE and A-level.

The analysis does indicate that Spanish has grown in popularity in recent times along with other courses, such as Arabic and Chinese.

The British Council, which specialises in international cultural relations, warned that if the UK is to remain globally competitive in the wake of Brexit it needs more young people to be learning languages.

The Press Association's analysis of Ucas figures shows that as of 30 June this year, there had been 15,140 applications from UK applicants to study European languages courses at university, down from 19,620 at the same point in 2012  a drop of 22.8 per cent.

In addition, the number of UK applications to study degree courses related to non-European languages fell by 17.5 per cent over the same five-year period, from 5,720 in 2012 to 4,720 this year.

Further analysis of A-level data published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) shows the numbers of entries for French and German A-level dropped by more than a quarter between 2011 and 2016 (French down 26.7 per cent and German down 25.6 per cent).

There has been an 11.2 per cent rise in the numbers taking Spanish over this period, while entries for other modern languages rose 2.9 per cent.

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the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty

Available figures shows increases in languages such as Arabic and Italian at A-level in the last three years.

At GCSE, the analysis again shows falls in French and German entries, and rises for Spanish and other modern languages, over the last five years, with breakdowns from 2013 onwards showing languages such as Chinese and Arabic growing in popularity.

Vicky Gough, schools adviser at the British Council, said: As the UK comes to reposition itself on the world stage, language skills matter now more than ever. And with the country already facing a languages shortfall, we must do everything we can to encourage more people to acquire these vital skills.

The reality is that speaking another language not only boosts job prospects but also enables you to connect with another culture.

If the UK is to remain internationally competitive  particularly as we prepare to leave the EU  we need far more young people, not fewer, to be learning languages in schools and beyond. It's not enough to rely on English alone.

 Sir Billy Connolly: The closest I got to university was delivering coal

She said it was particularly worrying that French and German numbers continue to decline, despite being valued by employers.

The main silver lining is that Spanish  the language seen as most important for the UK's future prosperity  continues to buck the general downturn, Ms Gough said.

There are also welcome increases in less traditional languages such as Mandarin Chinese  the most widely spoken language in the world.

While it is positive that these languages are becoming more accessible to schools  and more popular amongst pupils  these modest gains sadly cannot compensate for the decline in language learning overall.

Pippa Morgan, CBI head of education and skills, said: Language skills are often a valuable asset to businesses operating in a global marketplace and for those young people equipped with modern languages, it can open up real opportunities.

Improving careers advice and growing business-engagement with schools can help students see what they learn in the context of a future career  and could help reverse this trend.

The figures come just weeks before teenagers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their A-level and GCSE results.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: Having the opportunity to study a language is an important part of the core academic education that will help young people gain the knowledge and understanding they need to compete in an increasingly global workplace.

As part of our work to address the historic decline in study of modern foreign languages, we have made it a compulsory part of the primary curriculum and introduced the English Baccalaureate, which includes the study of a [foreign language] GCSE. We hope to see 75 per cent of pupils studying it by 2022.

PA
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Two suspected acid attacks in Manchester and Kent were reported to police this weekend, following the recent spate of assaults involving corrosive substances in London.

A man, aged in his late 20s, was left with injuries to his eyes and face in what police are treating as a suspected acid attack.

Officers found the victim after being called to City Walk in Salford at around 2pm on Saturday afternoon.

The man was taken to hospital but the severity of his injuries is not yet known.

Recommended Acid attackers will get life sentence even if they miss their targets

Anyone with information on the Salford incident is asked to call police on 101, quoting incident number 1118 of 04/08/17, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

In another attack, a man was injured at a fish and chip shop in a seaside town in Kent, where he reportedly worked.

Kent Police said the attack occurred shortly before 9am, when a substance was thrown at the victim at Ian's Plaice, off Thanet Way in Whitstable.

There were unconfirmed reports that the attack happened during a robbery.

The man was taken to hospital with facial injuries following the attack. His condition is not yet known.

No arrests have been made, a police spokesman said.

Recommended Acid attackers will get life sentence even if they miss their targets

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) this week issued new tough interim guidelines on sentencing following the recent surge in acid attacks.

Anyone caught carrying acid could face up to four years in prison or risk a life sentence if they use it to attack somebody.

Carrying acid should now be treated as possession of an offensive weapon or threatening a person with an offensive weapon, which both carry a maximum four-year sentence, the CPS said.

Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders told the London Evening Standard: You can't just expect to carry acid around without an excuse. It counts as an offensive weapon, just as much as a knife or a screwdriver could be.

We are very conscious of the impact of this crime and how there has been a recent spate of it so we are very keen to make sure that we do prosecute it and the court has the right sentencing powers.

Life sentences could be given to those who carry out acid attacks, even if they miss their target or their victim escapes serious injury, Ms Saunders said.

We are giving the courts the widest possible sentencing power they could possibly want, which is up to life, she said.

This is the first time the CPS has issued guidelines specifically referring to acid or other corrosive substances following calls for tougher laws around the crime.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has pledged to review the Poisons Act of 1972 to ensure it covers enough chemicals following concerns that acid is too easy to buy.

Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims Show all 5 1 /5 Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621029.bin Department for International Development Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621030.bin Department for International Development Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621031.bin Department for International Development Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621034.bin Department for International Development Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621035.bin Department for International Development

In a wave of attacks last month, five male victims  all on mopeds and including a fast-food delivery driver  were targeted one-by-one by two moped-riding assailants in north-east London.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey told the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee there were 455 acid offences recorded in London last year. The rate has increased by 65 per cent in 2017.

Officers are looking at links between London gang activity and the rise in acid attacks, although they have cautioned the evidence is limited.
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A man who shot a woman in the vagina while enacting a sex fantasy has been jailed for 10 years.

The victim suffered life-changing internal injuries and has undergone extensive surgery since being shot by David Andrew Jeffers in Stockport.

Police were called to the Britannia Hotel to reports a woman had been shot at 2.20am on 31 January.

When officers arrived at the scene they found a 46-year-old woman with serious abdominal injuries after being shot in her vagina, said a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

She was rushed to hospital requiring extensive surgery but has since recovered.

The woman, who was too unwell to be fully interviewed at the time, told officers from her hospital bed that Jeffers was a bad man.

The woman was shot at the Britannia Hotel in Stockport on 31 January (Google Streetview)

Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Jeffers, 47, had not meant to open fire while enacting what the Crown Prosecution Service described as a sex fantasy.

After apparently attempting to dial 999, he called the hotels reception desk in his panic and told them urgent medical assistance was needed.

Jeffers then fled the room, leaving his victim naked and bleeding on the bed with no regard for her life.

He later claimed to have found the gun in the toilet in a Wetherspoon's pub at Leeds railway station and took it to Manchester to dispose of it.

Police tracked him leaving the hotel and travelling to Piccadilly Station before catching a train back to Leeds on CCTV.

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 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Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. 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

Armed officers raided a house in Leeds two days later and arrested Jeffers, with searches of his home finding a partially scrawled note denying knowledge of the incident.

Detective Inspector Roger Edwards, from GMPs Stockport division, said: This was a horrifying incident that has left a woman with life changing injuries that will affect her for the rest of her life.

It is one of the most shocking sets of circumstances that I have encountered and I hope that this sentence can help offer some closure.

Jeffers left the victim badly bleeding in a hotel room, showing no regard for her life.

I know that this has been a traumatic time for this woman, having to relive the horror of that day, but I hope that this sentence can help her get her life back on track.

Jeffers, of Berkley Terrace in Leeds, was jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty to possessing of a firearm with intent to endanger life at Minshull Street Crown Court.
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A video has been released showing the moment an alligator was spotted hissing at passersby on the banks of a reservoir in Somerset in an area popular with local families.

Water officials were surprised when they stumbled upon the two-foot long baby reptile, which can grow up to 11 feet, "bathing in the sun" at Chew Valley Lake.

They filmed the small creature trying to make its escape back into the water but the workers followed it creeping along a concrete area before they captured it in a net.

Recommended Crocodile shot dead after killing man crossing river

The officials stored the alligator in a box and phoned the RSPCA - which collected the small animal and sent it to an expert reptile handler.

Mystery surrounds how it came to be in the water in the area popular with outdoor enthusiasts such as swimmers and sailors.

John Harris, fisheries and recreation officer with Bristol Water, told the Mirror: One of our engineers spotted it bathing in the sun.

We went down there and caught it and put it in a container. We think it's an alligator.

Its mouth was open and it was hissing but I don't think it was dangerous.

We've found terrapins in the past, but to see a reptile like this is very surprising.

Bristol Water confirmed the alligator had been captured with a net. "It is on its way to London where a licensed handler re-homes reptiles of this nature, Bristol Water later tweeted.

The surprise find comes after police were inundated with alleged sightings of a crocodile in Bristol and Somerset in 2014.

Several people spotted what they believed was the creature lurking in the River Avon. One jogger even took a photo of the suspected reptile after he saw it surfacing in the muddy water.

Officers launched a search for the alleged crocodile which left locals worried - but nothing was ever found.
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A member of the 200-strong team who helped treated terminally baby Charlie Gard at Great Ormond Street Hospital has criticised the political and religious leaders who stirred up emotions during the court battle.

Eleven-month-old Charlie Gard died just days before his first birthday last week after a five-month battle through the courts over his treatment.

Charlie was born with a rare genetic disorder called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome which causes progressive brain damage and muscle decay.

His parents fought a five-month legal battle with the hospital to take him to the US for an untested treatment that they said could help him but Great Ormond Street said was not likely to make any difference and may cause unnecessary suffering.

The courts agreed but the attention the case led to both Donald Trump and Pope Francis offering to intervene in the case, calling on the courts to let him have the treatment and granting Charlie residency and free treatment in the US.

This led to some of the parents supporters, who called themselves Charlies Army, to launch a vicious campaign against the medical team culminating in some of them receiving death threats.

Now a health worker involved with the case has spoken out about the soap opera which they said prolonged the agony of Charlies parents.

In an anonymous opinion piece for the Guardian they said they believed Charlie was effectively kept alive for longer because of people like Mr Trump and the Pope who were interfering with their own agendas and without any understanding of the sciencewho suddenly knew more about mitochondrial diseases than our expert consultants.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA 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 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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

They said: We didnt want to lose him, and we didnt want his mum and dad to be without him, but its our job, our legal and moral obligation, to stand up for Charlie and say when we think that enough is enough.

My colleagues and I worked our hardest, tried everything, fought so hard for this family but there was nowhere else to go. It was obvious to all those people who treated him.

We gave him drugs and fluids, we did everything that we could, even though we thought he should be allowed to slip away in his parents arms, peacefully, loved.

They asked whether the keyboard warriors who attacked them had seriously ever really met a nurse or doctor who wants a child to die?

They said the case has had a knock on effect on morale at the hospital with other families becoming nervous about what would happen to their children in a similar situation.

Parents are nervous, they worry that we might not do the right thing for their child. That worry is not based on the care we are giving; its based on what you have been saying about medical staff you have never met, they explained.

Charlie Gard died days before his first birthday (Entreprise) (Enterprise)

They said that they used to be proud to say they worked at Great Ormond Street but now even their friends were asking Why are you trying to kill this child?

Doctors had previously urged social media users to refrain from commenting on the case and instead read in full the ruling of senior judges.

The nuance of their written judgments had been lost in the furore over Charlie's illness, they said.

Dr Ranj Singh, an NHS doctor, told The Independent: These are not judgments that have been taken lightly, or reached easily. Their job is to provide an objective assessment and decision on complicated areas like this, when mutually agreeable decisions cant be reached.

It will naturally get peoples emotions and opinions up, and many people will take to social media to get their information and express themselves. Unfortunately that means its jumping on a bandwagon.

People have formed opinions already. Theres a huge distrust of the medical profession around cases like this.
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A bogus MI5 agent caught on camera as he smothered a loner with clingfilm and set fire to his bungalow murdered a second victim and tried to kill a third while he was on the run in Italy, a court heard.

"Fantasist" Jason Marshall, 28, bound, gagged and suffocated Peter Fasoli, 58, while Classic FM played on the radio in his one-bed bungalow on 7 January 2013.

Marshall, who was posing as an undercover agent who specialised in "dirty work", then set fire to the computer repairman's home in Northolt, west London, and fled to Rome, Italy, four days later on an EasyJet flight booked using the alleged victim's bank details.

Within a month the former road sweeper strangled 67-year-old Vincenzo Iale to death with an electrical cord and tried to murder Umberto Gismondi, 54, with a pillow at their respective flats in the Italian capital.

Marshall, who seduced all three men on the dating site Badoo, was convicted of murdering Mr Iale and attempting to murder Mr Gismondi by an Italian court in 2014.

During the Italian proceedings the former sex worker claimed a male prostitute called Michael murdered Mr Iale in front of him on 27 January 2013.

He also said he attacked Mr Gismondi in self-defence after being "sexually abused" by him on 2 February that year.

But during his Old Bailey murder trial, Marshall has said he has no memory of any of the attacks because he was in the grip of an alcohol-fuelled depression.

Marshall claims he came up with his defence case in the Italian trial by using stories from a "dream diary" he made with a psychiatrist.

He told the jury he lied because his Italian lawyers advised him that saying he couldn't remember the attacks was not a good defence and he should come up with "something better".

But prosecutors claim he is using amnesia as an excuse after the video emerged of him suffocating Mr Fasoli, who unwittingly filmed his own death with a laptop camera.

Jurors have watched the video, which shows the computer repair expert struggling and begging for mercy as Marshall gags and handcuffs him before torturing him with a syringe and a large hunting knife while classical music by composers including Wagner and Strauss plays on the radio.

The footage was discovered by the alleged victim's nephew Christopher Murgatroyd, who thought his uncle had died in an accidental fire until he examined his hard drive and found the harrowing film nearly two years later.

When Marshall took to the witness stand, prosecutor Ed Brown, QC, asked: "Why didn't you tell the Italian authorities or the Italian court that you couldn't remember?"

The defendant said: "Under the guidance from my lawyer that wasn't a reasonable defence so coming from my dream diary I used that.

 Amber Rudd unveils new crackdown on knife crime

"I wasn't under oath in the Italian court, and when I swear an oath to God I will never lie, I would rather die."

Judge Nicholas Hilliard, QC, asked: "You didn't tell the truth?"

Marshall replied: "My lawyers said that's not a good defence, you have to come up with something better."

The murder suspect insisted "I told a lie in the court in Italy but I'm not lying now".

He said Mr Fasoli may have "had the desire to be dominated".

Earlier Marshall told how he grew up in foster care in Southend-On-Sea, Essex, after his heroin-addicted parents were jailed when he was 10.

He claimed he used to dress up as a police officer to hunt for people committing crimes, and posed as a British Transport Police officer on the London tube network.

The convicted killer, who claimed he used to think he was an alien and an incarnation of the angel Gabriel, told jurors: "Im thinking very logically at the moment."

Marshall, previously of Monega Road, Forest Gate, east London, claims he blacked out during the alleged murder and the other attacks because he was downing up to eight cans of Stella Artois, half a bottle of Jack Daniels and anti-psychotic medicine every day.

He denies one count of murder.

The trial continues at the Old Bailey on Monday.
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The British IT expert hailed a hero for foiling the biggest ransomware offensive in history has appeared in a US court over allegations that he confessed to creating an illegal computer code to harvest peoples bank details.

23-year-old Marcus Hutchins won global fame in May, after working from a room in the house he shares with his parents in Devon to defeat the WannaCry ransomware attack, which had crippled the NHS and spread to computers in 150 countries.

But on Friday, he was led into a Las Vegas courtroom wearing a prison-issue jumpsuit to hear claims he created another form of malware called Kronos, and then conspired between July 2014 and July 2015 to advertise and sell it on internet forums.

If convicted, he could face up to 40 years in a US jail.

Recommended Man who accidentally saved the world from NHS hack failed his IT GCSE

Alleging that Hutchins had confessed during a police interview, prosecutor Dan Cowhig told the court: He admitted he was the author of the code of Kronos malware, and indicated he sold it.

Mr Cowhig claimed that Hutchins  known in cybersecurity circles as MalwareTech  and his unnamed co-defendant, thought to be still at large, were found out in a sting operation involving undercover officers buying the code.

Prosecutors claim the software was sold for 2,000 dollars (1,522) in digital currency in June 2015.

Other evidence came from chat logs where Hutchins complained to the co-defendant that he did not receive a fair share of the money, Mr Cowhig said.

Hutchins, however, is expected to deny all six charges against him.

He retains widespread support among the cybersecurity and IT community, some of whom have expressed serious concerns about what is thought to have been a two-year FBI operation against him.

Speaking outside court, computer law expert Tor Ekeland said: This is a very, very problematic prosecution, and I think its bizarre that the United States government has chosen to prosecute somebody whos arguably their hero in the WannaCry malware attack, and whos potentially saved lives and thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars over the sale of alleged malware.

Claiming the prosecution had only offered flimsy evidence so far, Mr Ekeland said he found it striking that the indictment didnt allege any financial loss to any victims  or in any way identify them.

The only money mentioned in this indictment is ... for the sale of the software, he said.

His concerns were echoed by Kurt Opsahl, deputy executive director of digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is helping Hutchins with his defence case.

Mr Opsahl said outside court: Security researchers are vital to protecting the computers we rely upon every day. Mr Hutchins arrest has unfortunately deepened the divide between the research community and the government.

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

Hutchins was arrested on Wednesday as he prepared to return home from Las Vegas, after attending the Def Con convention for computer security professionals.

He smiled to the press packing the public gallery as he was led into the court on Friday, dressed in bright orange Crocs shoes and a yellow jumpsuit with the word detainee stamped on the back.

He spoke softly as he answered procedural questions and confirmed his identity.

District Judge Nancy Koppe ordered his release on bail, saying he has no criminal history and the allegations date back two years.

She was also impressed by letters from cybersecurity colleagues.

Despite being granted bail, Hutchins will not be released until Monday because his supporters and family were unable to raise the 30,000 dollars (23,000) bond money in the brief period between the hearing ending and the court closing on Friday afternoon.

The conditions of his bail are that he cannot access the internet, must be monitored by GPS, surrender his passport and only reside in Clark County, Nevada, or within the Eastern District of Wisconsin where he will appear in court on Tuesday.

Hutchins, who works for Los Angeles-based computer security firm Kryptos Logic, is expected to formally enter his pleas at Tuesdays hearing.

After Fridays court appearance, Hutchins lawyer Adrian Lobo said her client was innocent.

He has dedicated his life to researching malware, not trying to harm people, she said. What he has done is use the internet for good.

He was completely shocked [by his arrest]. He came here for a work-related conference. He was fully anticipating to go back home and had no reason to be fearful of coming or going from the US.

Hutchins mother Janet has said she was outraged by the arrest, stressing that it was hugely unlikely her son was involved because he spends much of his time combating malware attacks.

Hutchins has also been backed by his local MP. Peter Heaton-Jones, the Conservative MP for North Devon, has written to Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan to seek assurance that Hutchins is receiving adequate consular assistance.

He acknowledged the UK cannot interfere with the American proceedings and said he has made no judgement about the guilt of Hutchins, but added: People who know him in Ilfracombe, and in the wider cyber-community, are astounded at the allegations against him.

This is particularly so given his role in helping to protect the NHS, and many other institutions, from what could have been a devastating cyber-attack just a few months ago.
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The Prime Minister must ditch her baffling decision to leave the EUs nuclear agency as it risks derailing the UKs push to ban petrol and diesel cars, one of Britains leading nuclear physicists has warned.

Writing exclusively for The Independent, Professor Martin Freer said quitting Euratom will hit the UKs nuclear-driven power supply, just as demand for electricity explodes due to a soaring number of battery-powered cars.

The award-winning academic said pulling out of the agency is short-sighted, counterproductive and dangerous as he implored the Prime Minister to rethink the move in favour of a sensible position.

Recommended Britain expected to ban all new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040

The position that leaving Euratom could damage plans to electrify Britains roads  a flagship green policy announced amid fanfare in July  follows claims that quitting the agency also risks the supply of life-saving cancer treatments.

In his article today, Professor Freer concurs with other experts who say the announcement to ban all new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 is set to put a huge strain on the UKs power grid, with increasing numbers of new electric cars needing charging.

He then writes: We will need to meet this huge increase in electricity demand with a range of low-carbon technologies: wind-power, solar, tidal, batteries and crucially nuclear power.

Nuclear has provided about 20 per cent of the UKs electricity supply for several decades and it has done so reliably and without producing any CO2 emissions.

The academic, who has won a series of international prizes for his work on nuclear matter, adds: If we leave Euratom without the necessary arrangements in place, then we will be unable to import the material to power our nuclear power stations.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA 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 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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 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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

The decision to leave Euratom is believed to be largely driven by Ms Mays desire to remove the UK from all areas of jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, which oversees the nuclear agency.

But Professor Freer said leaving is completely unnecessary and has zero benefits and claims that there is not a single advocate for doing so beyond Government lawyers.

Professor Freer writes: Leaving Euratom without a viable alternative will only worsen our security of supply position, which is already challenging.

Rapid role out of electric vehicles over the next decade and beyond will further worsen this situation if we dont have the policies and investment in place to meet demand, and the government risks creating a major challenge to delivering reliable, affordable and low-carbon energy.

The Governments position remains that the UK will leave the nuclear oversight body and set up its own regime after Brexit.

But under pressure from MPs, including enough on the Conservative benches to cause an upset in the Commons, it has signalled a potential softening, emphasising a strong, mutual interest in ensuring the UK work closely with Euratom.

 No other countries will follow Britain in leaving the EU, says David Davis

Brexit Secretary David Davis has said that an association agreement may even be possible, but has been clear the UK will not sign up to any mechanism which gives the ECJ oversight over UK affairs.

A Government spokesperson said: The nuclear industry is of key strategic importance to the whole of the UK and the Government remains absolutely committed to the highest standards of nuclear safety, safeguards and support for the sector.

We are working to ensure that the UK is prepared for our withdrawal from Euratom which is why we will bring forward a Nuclear Safeguards Bill in the first session and why we want to maintain our mutually successful civil nuclear co-operation with the EU.

Euratom is also responsible for coordinating and regulating the transport, use and disposal of nuclear materials in Europe, including many of the isotopes used in radiotherapy and some kinds of body scans.

Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned last month that quitting would make it harder for the UK to access the isotopes for cancer treatments and medical imaging, adding: Ministers have no excuse for failing to anticipate this controversy.

Labour Shadow Brexit minister Paul Blomfield said: From delaying access to cancer treatments, to threatening our green energy supply, the Governments decision to quit Euratom is clearly not in the national interest.

The Government must drop their unhelpful and unnecessary red line on the future role of the European Court of Justice, which is becoming a barrier to a successful outcome on this and other critical issues. Their stubbornness on the ECJ is reckless and irresponsible.
ALVO  An Iowa company will begin working on a Cass County highway improvement project valued at more than $11 million later this month.

Construction work is scheduled to begin Aug. 14 on Nebraska Highway 63 between Alvo and Interstate 80. The project will affect several miles of road on Highway 63. The Nebraska Department of Transportation has awarded the $11,758,926 contract to Knife River, LLC, of Sioux City, Iowa.

The project will include realigning portions of the existing highway. Workers will also remove and replace culverts along the highway and will complete a wetland mitigation project. Knife River, LLC, is planning to complete the job in two phases.

The first construction phase will begin Aug. 14 along a stretch of road from Reference Post 9+68 to Reference Post 11+49. Highway 63 will be closed to traffic along this portion of road. There will be a marked detour for traffic. Workers are planning to finish the first phase by December 2017.

The second phase is expected to begin in March 2018. Highway 63 will be closed to traffic from Reference Post 4+20 to Reference Post 9+68 for much of the year. There will be a marked detour for traffic. NDOT officials said they are anticipating the second phase of the project to be completed by November 2018.
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The UK is under-prepared to leave the European Union without a Brexit deal, a former Bank of England Governor has said.

Mervyn King argued that the Government had wasted a year and should be much "further along the road" of planning what to do if negotiations with Brussels fail.

His words come as early talks with the EU stalled over the issue of citizens' rights and with UK businesses calling on the Government to extend the negotiating period to avoid a chaotic Brexit in March 2019.

Theresa May has insisted "no deal is better than a bad deal", indicating the UK would leave the EU and rely on World Trade Organisation rules after Brexit if what is on offer from Brussels proves unacceptable.

But crossbench peer Lord King of Lothbury - who led the Bank for a decade until 2013 - said the UK needs to be better prepared for a "no deal" Brexit to show Brussels there is a "credible" alternative should negotiations fail.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This ought to be something that people ought to be able to agree on, irrespective of whether they are in favour of Brexit or not, because we are where we are, and we are in a negotiation and it's important that the negotiation succeeds.

"But it cannot succeed without a credible fallback position and that is something which I think is a practical thing that the civil service ought to be taking a lead on.

"It's a do-able proposition if we start now. We've probably wasted a year, but we need to be much further along the road to making that a credible fallback position."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA 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

He added that failing to agree a deal with Brussels was "not the first preference of anybody", but more work needed to be done if the EU was to be convinced the UK was serious about walking away.

Brexit minister Steve Baker has confirmed the Government is preparing for all outcomes of the Brexit talks, including the "unlikely" scenario of failing to strike a deal with Brussels.

Divorce discussions are due to restart within weeks but progress so far has been slow with Brussels demanding concessions from Downing Street on the issue of EU citizens' rights in the UK after Brexit.

Earlier this week, the Institute of Directors called on the Government to consider extending the two-year Article 50 negotiating period to avoid a chaotic Brexit the country is unprepared for.

The body said it is the "simplest solution" to ensure there are no cliff edges for businesses to deal with as the UK moves to new trading arrangements with the European Union.
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Irelands prime minister has predicted it is only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is introduced in Northern Ireland.

Leo Varadkar spoke out in what he called a support for equality after he attended a Belfast Pride breakfast in the second day of his first official visit there.

Mr Varadkar  who is the Republics first openly gay leader  championed the LGBT cause just days after Sir Jeffrey Donaldson of the Democratic Unionist Party warned him not to interfere in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland.

Recommended Gay Pride organisers apologise for offensive posters

Same-sex marriage is outlawed in Northern Ireland  unlike in the Republic and the rest of the UK where it is legal.

Mr Varadkar said change to the law in Northern Ireland was on the horizon while he put in his show of support for the LGBT community at Pride Breakfast event at the Northern Whig pub in central Belfast.

He said: I think its only a matter of time although it is of course a decision for the Northern Ireland assembly to take, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course.

The Taoiseach added that he had turned up at the event to state my support, my governments support for equality before the law and individual freedom for all citizens no matter where they happen to reside.

Police Service of Northern Ireland and Garda officers also joined Mr Varadkar at the event, arriving in a police Land Rover.

For the first time uniformed officers marched in the Pride parade through the city centre. They were greeted with massive cheers from the crowds who lined the citys streets to watch the colourful annual event.

Around 40 uniformed officers from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and other UK police forces were amongst the 8,000 people who marched from Custom House Square in the city centre, watched by an estimated 15,000 supporters.

It was the biggest parade to take place in the region this year.

The PSNI has come under some criticism for allowing officers to join the parade, with accusations their participation will undermine the organisations stated neutrality in the region.

However, the PSNI has insisted that participation in the event is about inclusion and representation.

We represent all sections of society. Members of the LGBT community are a marginalised community in Northern Ireland, said Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray.

She added that the PSNIs presence at the events might encourage victims of hate crime to come forward and report them.

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 the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty

Same-sex marriage has been one of the sticking points preventing the return of a devolved powersharing administration at Stormont, with Sinn Fein demanding the DUP stop blocking changes to the law.

The DUP, Prime Minister Theresa Mays partner in government, has used a controversial Stormont voting mechanism to prevent the legalisation of same-sex marriage, despite most Assembly members supporting the move at the last vote.

The DUP rejects any suggestion it is homophobic, insisting it is protecting the traditional definition of marriage, and has called for tolerance of what are increasingly minority views.

It does not have enough members in the new Assembly to veto an equal marriage vote on its own, but there is no immediate prospect of the deeply divided administration being restored.

Mr Varadkar did not stay for the Pride parade because of other commitments.

On Friday a rainbow Pride flag was raised at a UK Government building at Stormont for the first time. The flag was raised beside Stormont House on Friday morning to mark the Pride festival.

Additional reporting by agencies
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A Conservative MP has revealed he is organising a 'Tory Glastonbury' following the boost given to Jeremy Corbyn at the music festival this year.

George Freeman wants to establish the event for party activists and their families as way to bolster the Conservatives' dwindling grassroots support.

He told the Financial Times he had already raised 25,000 for an idea which he said had "struck a chord" with those he asked for help.

Labour leader Mr Corbyn was given a huge reception from thousands of revellers at Glastonbury chanting "ooooh, Jeremy Corbyn" to the tune of the White Stripes hit 'Seven Nation Army'.

But the centrist Norfolk MP Mr Freeman said: "Why is it the left who have all the fun in politics?"

His plan for a "Conservative Ideas Festival", a one-day event to be held in September, would be less grand and is unlikely to attract titans of rock like The Foo Fighters and Radiohead.

Instead, Mr Freeman who said he envisions the Conservative Ideas Festival as a "cross between Hay-on-Wye and the Latitude festival".

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA

A project team of more than 20 people, including 10 MPs, is working on Mr Freeman's event, which will be invitation-only with between 150 and 200 attendees, some of whom will camp.

It will take place at a rural venue, with the location kept secret so the festival is not disrupted by the pro-Corbyn group Momentum, or other political opponents.

Mr Freeman said he hoped it would become an annual fixture, adding that this years festival would be like a first rave, youll remember who you brought.

The partys membership has fallen to somewhere below 150,000  less than one-third that of Labours and not far ahead of the Scottish National party and the Liberal Democrats.

 Jeremy Corbyn's first Glastonbury in 60 seconds

The Conservatives has also fallen behind Labour in opinion polls, while Mrs Mays personal ratings are below those of Mr Corbyn, who was once seen as unelectable.

Mr Freeman believes the event could help kickstart interest in Tory activism, describing it as a one-day "friends and family event" that will be "relaxed" and unlike the "increasingly corporate, expensive, exclusive [political party] conferences"  which he says are no longer a forum for "grassroots renewal".

The Conservatives will hold their annual party conference in Manchester at the start of October, charging companies 32,500 for a 6m by 6m exhibition stand.

One sympathetic Conservative MP told the FT the idea was "very trendy" but would need "a lot of expensive booze" for him to attend.
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Amanda Knox, the American exchange student who was convicted and subsequently cleared of murdering her British roommate, has defended the young woman found guilty of encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself.

Michelle Carter was this week sentenced to 15 months in jail after she was convicted of the manslaughter of her teenage boyfriend, by sending him text messages in which she encouraged him to take his own life. At one point, she sent a message telling him to get back in a truck where he was poisoning himself with carbon monoxide fumes.

Ms Knox said that Carter, who remains free on bail while her appeal is pending, deserved sympathy and help, and not a jail sentence. Carter was 17 when she encouraged her 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy III, to take his own life; she is now 20.

Defence lawyer Joseph Cataldo talks to his client, Michelle Carter, (AP) (Faith Ninivaggi/The Boston Herald/AP)

By holding her accountable for Roys death, we increase the tally of victims in this case, we ignore the mental health factors that lead to suicide, and we learn nothing about how to prevent it, Ms Knox wrote in an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Conrad Roy III needed our sympathy and our help and didnt get it in time. Michelle Carter deserves the same sympathy and help now.

 Knox cleared of murder

Ms Knox, 30, was convicted along with her Italian boyfriend in the 2007 killing of her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy. Ms Knox spent four years in jail but was exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court in 2015.

The Associated Press said Ms Knox said she felt a sickening sense of deja vu as she watched prosecutors try to depict Carter as a femme fatale, the way she said the media tried to portray her during her trial.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. 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Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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Ms Knox said it was difficult to feel sympathy for Carter, who sent Mr Roy dozens of text messages urging him to follow through on his plan to kill himself.

But Ms Knox pointed out that for months leading up to Mr Roys death, Carter had tried to talk the 18-year-old out of it and urged him to seek mental health counselling. She also wrote that Carter - who herself struggled with depression, bulimia and anorexia - was ill-equipped to help the young man, who also suffered from depression.

Relatives of Mr Roy have condemned the sentence handed to Carter and the decision to let her out on bail. The family is pursuing a civil action against Carter.

I was just sick, just sick to my stomach [over] the fact that she can be free, and my cousin, hes not here, Mr Roys cousin, Makenna ODonnell, told ABC News. She should be behind bars.
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A US court is set to reconsider the decision to overturn the murder conviction of one of the cases chronicled in Netflix documentary Making a Murderer.

Brendan Dasseys conviction was overturned last August after a judge found he gave a coerced confession when interviewed as a then 16-year-old with learning disabilities.

But Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimels appeal for the case to be reheard has been granted by the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to present new oral arguments.

The now 27-year-old has never been released and will be kept behind bars during the appeals process.

Dassey and his uncle Steven Avery were convicted in separate trials for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005.

Her charred remains were found in a burn pit on Averys property, roughly 80 miles north of Milwaukee.

The case drew international attention after the story of Steven Averys life featured in the Emmy-winning documentary.

Avery had previously served 18 years in prison for an unrelated rape in 1985 but was exonerated by DNA evidence.

Recommended Everything we know about Making a Murderer season 2

Months later he filed a $36 million (27m) lawsuit against the county but the next year, he and Dassey were accused of Ms Halbachs murder.

Producers of the 10-part series focused on the alleged mishandling of the case and heavily implied authorities planted evidence in order to achieve a conviction, a claim vehemently denied by the Sheriffs office.

Dasseys new case will be heard by the full 12-member circuit court on 26 September.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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It wasn't until the media started asking questions that the White House's introduction of a law curtailing legal immigration got contentious. During the daily press briefing, CNN's Jim Acosta, himself a son of Cuban immigrants, challenged senior adviser Stephen Miller on a component of the proposed bill which would grant English-speakers more favor in gaining admission to the United States.

"Aren't you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming into this country if you're telling them you have to speak English?" Acosta asked. "Can't people learn how to speak English when they get here?"

The answer is, of course, that they can. As President Trump's grandfather did. As Stephen Miller's great-grandparents did. And as a member of Trump's own Cabinet did.

The policy, the Raise Act, would introduce a point-based system for new applicants to enter the U.S. In addition to speaking English, points would be awarded based on these other answers that Miller mentioned: "Can they support themselves and their families financially? Do they have a skill that will add to the U.S. economy? Are they being paid a high wage?

 Donald Trump encourages law enforcement officials to not be too nice when arresting suspects

Were that policy in place in 1885, Friedrich Trumpf would likely not have gained entry to the United States. The immigration record for his arrival that year indicates that he arrived without an identifiable "calling": The word "none" sits next to his name in that column.

A biographer of Trumpf - father of Fred Trump, who was the father of the president - told Deutsche Welle that Donald Trump's grandfather didn't speak English when he got here.

"He came to New York," Gwenda Blair said, "and, after he learnt English, he went to the West Coast, ran restaurants, amassed a nest egg, then went back to Kallstadt, married the girl next door and brought her to New York." It was on the West Coast that Trumpf (now just Trump) became a citizen and registered to vote in the 1892 election.

But: No skills, no English. Would he have gotten in?

Donald Trump's mother, Mary McLoed, would have had more luck. An immigrant from Scotland, she is listed on Census documents as speaking English, though a Politico profile of her from last year notes that "she spoke almost exclusively in Scots Gaelic before leaving for a new life in the United States at age 18."

Were Friedrich Trumpf barred entry, there might not be a President Trump. But if this law had been in effect a century ago, there also may not have been a senior adviser Stephen Miller.

Reporter Jennifer Mendelsohn tracked down Miller's genealogy. She discovered that Miller's father's father's mother - his great-grandmother, Sarah Miller - was identified in the 1910 Census as speaking only Yiddish.

What's more, the Los Angeles Times obituary for Miller's grandmother Freya makes special mention of how her parents, Nathan and Frannie Baker, "epitomized the American Dream."

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

"Teaching each other English, working together to build a nest egg, the two immigrants eventually bought a small grocery store," it reads. "The Baker Family lived upstairs and all the family worked in the store. Freya, and her two brothers, were educated in the superb public school system."

Other senior Trump officials have family trees that suggest ancestors who may have been barred entry at Ellis Island.

Kellyanne Conway's great-grandfather was named Pasquale Lombardo, and was born in Naples, Italy. A man of that name and the proper age is identified in the 1910 Census as living in Pennsylvania and working as a blast furnace laborer who spoke only Italian.

Stephen K. Bannon's great-great-grandfather was a man named Mattias Herr, who was born in Bavaria in 1836 before moving to Maryland. It's not clear whether he spoke English or knew a skilled trade.

Mike Pence - like most Americans - is also the grandchild of an immigrant. His mother's father, Richard Michael Crawley, immigrated from Ireland to work as a bus driver. He did speak English, though, and likely would have cleared admission under the Raise Act.

As mentioned above, though, at least one member of Trump's Cabinet didn't. Elaine Chao, Trump's secretary of transportation (and wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell), was born in Taiwan and came to the United States in 1961, when she was 8.

She described that transition in a CNN interview last month.

"I remember how tough it was to try to learn a new culture, a new language and just to adapt to, like, ordinary daily stuff like the food. Like, most Chinese don't eat meat between breads," she said. As she tried to learn the language, "the kids were mean to me," she said.

Her father, who spoke English, was already in the U.S. when Chao and her mother and sisters arrived, working in the maritime industry. Would that have been enough to warrant admission? To bring over his family?

This, it seems, was Acosta's point: Doesn't two centuries of experience show that people who arrive in America without the ability to speak English or a highly skilled trade can have a significant impact on the future of the country?

Washington Post
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Investigators probing Donald Trump's alleged links to Russia have asked the White House to hand over documents relating to his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to sources close to the inquiry.

Prosecutors suspect that Mr Flynn may have received secret payments from the Turkish government during the presidential campaign, it is claimed.

They are said to have questioned witnesses about his dealings with Turkish-American lobbyist Ekim Alptekin, who paid his consulting firm Flynn Intel Group $530,000 during the US election last year.

Mr Alptekin has publicly denied that there was anything untoward about the payments, which funded a campaign to discredit Fetullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric said to be behind a failed coup in Turkey in July 2016.

But the investigation team led by special counsel Robert Mueller want to know if the Turkish government was behind the payments or if Mr Alptekin was bribed to conceal the source of the money, according to the New York Times.

Although receiving money from foreign governments is legal, failing to register as a foreign agent if you have done so is a crime.

Mr Flynn, a former lieutenant general in the US army, failed to register as a foreign agent when Flynn Intel Group signed a $600,000 contract with Mr Alptekin's Dutch company Inovo BV in August 2016.

He told the Justice Department about the deal and retroactively registered as a foreign agent in March this year, one month after he was forced out of the White House for lying about his contact with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before President Trump's inauguration.

A transcript of intercepted calls between Mr Flynn and Mr Kislyak revealed they had discussed US sanctions imposed when former President Barack Obama concluded that Moscow had interfered in the US election campaign.

The Pentagon launched an investigation that will scrutinise Mr Flynn's financial arrangements to determine whether he has failed to disclose payments from Russian and Turkish lobbyists.

 Michael Flynn once said anyone seeking immunity 'probably committed a crime'

His work includes lucrative speaking engagements with Russian businesses.

Mr Mueller's investigators have recently requested records relating to Mr Flynn from the White House, though it is not a formal subpoena.

Inovo BV signed the $600,000 contract with Flynn Intel Group to fund a propaganda campaign against Mr Gulen, but in the end only paid $530,000 when it failed to produce a negative video about the Turkish exile and carried out unsatisfactory research.

Witnesses interviewed by Mr Mueller's team claim two $40,000 payments from Flynn Intel Group to Inovo are being investigated as suspected bribes to Mr Alptekin.

The lobbyist's spokeswoman Molly Toomey insisted they were refunds for unfulfilled work, telling the New York Times: "They were legal, ethical and above board.

President Trump sacked FBI director James Comey in May after asking him to drop the investigation into Mr Flynn's links with Russia.

Mr Mueller was then appointed to look into whether the Kremlin had tried to meddle in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with them in doing so.

He will investigate whether the former Apprentice star tried to obstruct the course of justice by pushing for an end into the inquiry into his former national security adviser.
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A Fox News host has been accused of sending unsolicited sex texts to female colleagues at the scandal-hit network.

Eric Bolling, 54, allegedly sent pictures of male genitalia to two women working at Fox Business and another at Fox News several years ago.

The women, who wish to remain anonymous, claimed they recognised Mr Bolling's number when they received the "deeply upsetting" images after meeting him at work.

One of them said she replied to the married father-of-one and told him to never send her photos again, but he didn't respond.

Mr Bolling denies the allegations, and his attorney Michael Bowe told Huffington Post he "will vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made.

Huff Post said they had spoken to 14 sources linked to Fox News and Fox Business to verify the story, but all of them wanted to remain anonymous because they either work at the network or are at risk of breaching confidentiality agreements.

Four sources said they had seen the pictures sent to the three women, and eight people said the women had spoken to them about the messages.

The allegations follow a series of sexual harassment scandals involving senior Fox News executives and on-air stars.

 Even Fox News commentators can't support Donald Trump Jr

In July 2016 the channel's chairman and CEO Roger Ailes resigned when former host Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him.

Former Fox anchors Megyn Kelly and Andrea Tantaros also accused Mr Ailes, who died aged 77 in May, of sexual harassment following his shock departure.

Bill O'Reilly, once described as "the biggest star in the 20 year history at Fox News", was forced to leave the network in April after a New York Times investigation revealed $13m had been spent to settle five sexual harassment lawsuits against him.

Fox News are said to be investigating the allegations against Mr Bolling, who has worked at the network since 2007.

The former trader branded Anthony Weiner a "sick human being" after the disgraced New York congressman pleaded guilty to sending lewd messages to an underage girl in May.

He previously became embroiled in a Twitter spat with Mr Weiner when it emerged that the politician had sent several sex texts to women while he was still married.

Mr Bolling once likening a bombing campaign against Isis to having "boobs on the ground" because it was lead by the United Arab Emirate's first female fighter pilot.

The host, known for his aggressive support for Donald Trump, apologised for the comments on air in September 2014.

His Fox contract was extended in June, ending rumours that he would join the Trump administration as commerce secretary or as a senior adviser.

A spokesperson from Fox News said: "Eric Bolling has been suspended pending the results of an investigation, which is currently underway."

The network said they are "investigating this matter and all claims will be taken into account".
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A four-month-old infant was found dead after she was left inside a vehicle for most of the day in Oklahoma. Her grandmother had thought she had left the girl at a daycare centre before going to work.

"She apparently had thought that she dropped off the child this morning, which she had not," Mark Opgrande, a spokesman with the Oklahoma County sheriff's office told KFOR news channel.

"After she got off work, she drove back to Luther to stop by the child care centre.

"They informed her that she did not drop off the child and they went, proceeded to look for the child inside the daycare. They couldnt find her. Thats when they went out to the vehicle, and then discovered her outside in the back of the car. She was deceased."

The fire department was called to Apple Creek Learning Centre in Luther at around 5.30pm on Friday. The four-month-old was found still inside the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

The grandmother, whose name has not yet been released, is being interviewed by police investigators at the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office who will prepare a report and send it on to the attorneys office.

"Shes being questioned, shes obviously distraught, this is a tragic situation and thats why we remind parents all the time. Its hot out and things like this arent supposed to happen, but they do.

The grandmother has custody of the baby. No charges have so far been filed.

A Facebook post by the daycare announced news of the babys death: We have some very very sad news from Apple Creek. A tragic accident with one of our beloved babies. I ask everyone to pray for this precious family. Please. Nothing happened AT Apple Creek but it did occur in our parking lot.

Every year, around 37 children die in the US after being left in a car, according to Kids and Cars. The safety organisation said that the month of July was a record high for hot car deaths. This year, 29 children died of heatstroke in the US after being left in a car.

This represented "the highest weve ever had, said Jan Null a meteorologist with the Department of Meteorology & Climate Science at San Jose State University. He has logged the statistics on the No Heatstroke website.The previous record as of 31 July was 28 deaths in 2010. Null explained it was a year where we ended up with 49 deaths for the year.

Figures were taken from media reports, finding that of the 700 child vehicular heatstroke deaths for a 19-year period (1998 through October 2016), 54 per cent were because a child had been "forgotten" by a caregiver.
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A University of Oxford employee and a US microbiology professor suspected of murdering a man in Chicago have handed themselves in after more than a week on the run.

Andrew Warren, 56, a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College - whose famous alumni include former chemistry student Margaret Thatcher - was taken into custody in California, as was Professor Wyndham Lathem, 42.

The two men triggered a nationwide manhunt after allegedly stabbing Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, multiple times in Lathem's apartment on 27 July.

Warren handed himself into a police station in San Francisco, more than 2,000 miles from the alleged crime scene, on Friday evening, while Lathem gave himself up at 7.30pm in Oakland.

Recommended Oxford Uni urges murder suspect to contact police as hunt intensifies

Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Frank Conroy said he was unable to give details of Warren's state, but added: "Wyndham surrendered peacefully and seemed to be in good condition.

"They refused to speak to anybody on the advice of counsel."

Mr Conroy said the the men will appear in separate courts in the coming days to face extradition hearings in Chicago where they will face detectives.

Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: "Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today's arrest brings some comfort for the victim's family. We are also thankful that this did not end in further tragedy."

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

Oxford University had urged Warren to hand himself in and a spokesman said his colleagues were "shocked" to hear of the case.

Warren, who says on Facebook he lives in Swindon, and Lathem, a microbiology professor at Northwestern University, are accused of repeatedly stabbing the victim in the 10th-floor apartment before fleeing.

Mr Cornell-Duranleau was a hairstylist originally from Corunna, Michigan, but was living in Chicago at the time of his death.

Lathem has worked at Northwestern University since 2007 and specialises in the bacteria that caused the bubonic plague.
To Chris Madsen, its a way to honor the nations veterans.

And something thats long overdue.

Madsen, who is chairman of the Avenue of Flags, is spearheading efforts with local veterans groups to raise funds to construct a veterans memorial in Fremont.

Were going to call it Veterans Memorial Park, said Madsen, adding that it will be for Dodge County as a whole.

The park memorial, which at this time is estimated to cost more than $250,000, will be situated in front of Sidner Ice Arena where the old Memorial Park was located. It will be an extension of the Eternal Flame Memorial on East Military Avenue.

Funding for the project will come from donations from businesses, organizations and private individuals as well as from the sales of veterans tiles.

A hexagon monument will be in the center of the memorials concrete oval-shaped base. The monument will include pictures and information about conflicts and wars in which the United States has been involved.

The photographs and graphics will be etched into the black granite monument with a laser, said Earl Boston, who with his wife, Mary, co-owns West Point Monument, which is constructing the memorial.

The memorial also will include six monoliths. Each monolith will represent a branch of the military and will include pictures and symbols, Madsen said.

Theres still a lot to be decided as far as the finalization of graphics on all of the granite (monoliths), Madsen added.

The memorial also will include an American flag and benches.

A statue  to be lighted at night  will be situated at the front part of the oval-shaped memorial.

Boston said the statue will depict a soldier holding a folded American flag and kneeling at whats called a Battle Cross  a cross with a fallen soldiers boots, helmet and rifle.

The oval-shaped memorial will be west of the Eternal Flame, which is on a concrete island. Flags representing each of the six branches of the military will be placed on that island.

This memorial also has an American flag. Memory tiles will be displayed at the base of this flag and in an area between the flag and the Eternal Flame.

On the opposite end of the Eternal Flame, near Military Avenue, will be what Boston describes as Liberty Island. It will include a granite-shaped star coming out of the ground. Behind that will be one monolith featuring a laser-etched depiction of the Statue of Liberty. Near that will be a monolith with a depiction of the Liberty Bell.

Madsen said Boston will be the overall project designer and contractor.

Hell be the project lead, but at the same time were going to use local contractors as well, Madsen added.

Madsen hopes to see the project completed by Memorial Day 2018.

Thats a lofty goal and thats our hope, but thats all going to depend on funding, he said.

Three types of veterans tiles will be available for purchase. Veterans need not be deceased to have a tile purchased in their honor. Current military personnel can purchase a tile, too. When their end date occurs, it can be added later.

One type of tile will include the service persons name, branch of service, years served, which conflict/war they served in, if they were a prisoner of war and/or if the person was killed in action.

The second type will include this information, plus the veterans photo.

A third type  the website tile  will have the information and photograph along with a scan-able quick reference (QR) barcode that will link to the veterans own personal webpage, which can be updated with information and photographs for years to come.

Its basically a living tribute, Madsen said.

Tiles range in price from $100 to $200. Order forms can be found on the City of Fremonts website at www.fremontne.gov. Paper copies can be found on the second floor of the city municipal building on Military Avenue or by emailing Madsen at fremontavenueofflags@yahoo.com.

Donations for construction of the Veterans Memorial Park are being accepted. Checks should be made payable to Fremont Avenue of Flags, in care of Veterans Park. The checks can be mailed to: Fremont Avenue of Flags, Attn: Veterans Memorial Park, P.O. Box 532, Fremont, NE 68025.

Madsen believes its time for Fremont to have this veterans memorial.

Its long overdue because there are many cities and towns around us such as Wahoo, North Bend and Dodge that have done memorials such as this, he said. We want to make sure we represent all veterans from all service branches and that everyone is represented  past, present and future. This is a living tribute. Its going to be ever-evolving as time progresses.
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A butcher has been forced to hang a window sign saying killing animals is violent and unjust to stop animal rights activists from staging gruesome protests in front of the shop.

Owners of the Local Butcher Shop in California agreed to hang the sign after protesters staged weekly rallies outside the Berkeley store front, lying nearly nude on the pavement, painted in fake blood and wrapped in plastic.

Protesters from Direct Action Everywhere told owners Monica and Aaron Rocchino they would stop the rallies if they hung a sign condemning the killing of animals, according to The Guardian.

But despite the owners' acceptance of the controversial offer, the activists retained the right to two protests a year and insisted the agreement was "temporary".

Ms Rocchino, who has owned the shop with her husband since 2011, criticised the agreement as a form of "blackmail".

"To be threatened and forced to abide by their beliefs just makes me sad," she said. "Their tactics are really extremist  This is ethical extortion."

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said the activists pressure was "harassment - plain and simple."

The sign reads: 'Attention: animals' lives are their right. Killing them is violent and unjust, no matter how it's done.' (Facebook/Direct Action Everywhere)

"Demanding that the store hang a sign stating the group's views in exchange for an end to protests is coercive, improper and not the way to treat a much-loved local business. Our independent stores are the lifeline of our community and should not be harassed for simply doing their jobs," he wrote on Facebook.

"I support Monica and Aaron Rocchino, owners of The Local Butcher Shop, who are doing more than many other grocers to buy locally sourced animals raised in humane conditions. If you're against eating meat, don't eat it, but don't impose your beliefs on others either."

But Direct Action Everywhere said the move was a big victory for the group, who want to see Berkeley become a meat-free city by 2025.

"Following over a dozen investigations showing horrific cruelty even on so-called 'humane' farms, activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) recently negotiated the posting of a sign at a 'humane' butcher shop which publicly criticises the inherent violence and injustice of killing animals," the group wrote.

"This groundbreaking victory is the first of DxEs Facing the Truth initiative, which empowers us, as individuals and communities, to unveil the long-suppressed truth of animal exploitation and demand transparency and integrity in our food system. It paves the way for additional animal-friendly progress, including an end goal of a meat-free Berkeley by 2025."
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A new constitutional assembly has ousted Venezuela's defiant chief prosecutor during its first day of work, deepening the political crisis in the country and signalling that President Nicolas Maduro's embattled government intends to move swiftly to try and consolidate power.

Cries of traitor erupted as the 545 pro-government delegates voted unanimously to remove Luisa Ortega from her post as the nation's top law official and replace her with a staunch government supporter.

Ms Ortega had become Mr Maduro's main challenger from within the ruling socialist movement since the opposition started a round of protests in April. Many of the street marches turned violent, leaving more than 120 dead as protesters clashed with police.

The new assembly  which Mr Maduro said was required to help bring peace  said it was acting in response to a ruling by the loyalist Supreme Court, which banned Ms Ortega from leaving the country and freezing her bank accounts while it weighs criminal charges against her for alleged irregularities.

Ms Ortega, a longtime government supporter who broke with the socialist government in April, refused to recognise the decision and vowed to continue defending the rights of Venezuelans from Mr Maduro's coup against the constitution with my last breath.

This is just a tiny example of what's coming for everyone that dares to oppose this totalitarian form of government, Ms Ortega said in the statement she signed as chief prosecutor. If they're doing this to the chief prosecutor, imagine the helpless state all Venezuelans live in.

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

Ms Ortega had opposed the inauguration of the new assembly citing allegations of voting fraud during last weekend's election of the new body. The results have come under mounting scrutiny after the international company that provided the electronic voting machines said that without any doubt the official turnout had been tampered with  a charge dismissed by Mr Maduro and the National Electoral Council.

The new constitutional assembly can override the traditional National Assembly, which the opposition has been in control of since elections in 2015. The opposition boycott of the vote for the new assembly guaranteed that all candidates for the new body would be Maduro allies.

Earlier on Saturday, Ms Ortega was pushed and barred from entering her office by dozens of national guardsmen in riot gear who took control of the entrance to the building. Ms Ortega labelled the move a siege, tweeting photos of dozens of troops outside her office. I denounce this arbitrary act before the national and international community, one tweet read.

Assembly delegates later swore in as her replacement Ombudsman Tarek William Saab, who was recently sanctioned by the administration of Donald Trump for failing to protect protesters from abuses in his role as the nation's top human rights official.

 Opposition protesters clash with security forces in Venezuela

Members of the all-powerful constitutional assembly had pledged in their first meeting to move quickly against Mr Maduro's opponents.

Don't think we're going to wait weeks, months or years, former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said on Friday after she was chosen to lead the assembly. Tomorrow we start to act. The violent fascists, those who wage economic war on the people, those who wage psychological war, justice is coming for you.

The constitutional assembly was seated despite strong criticism from the United States, other countries and the Venezuelan opposition, which fear the it will be a tool for imposing dictatorship.

President Juan Manuel Santos of neighbouring Colombia called the removal of Ms Ortega the first dictatorial act of an illegitimate assembly and vows solidarity with the Venezuelan people.

But Bolivian President Evo Morales was full of praise for the assembly, tweeting that democracy is guaranteed through the votes of the people and not through bullets or hatred or violence".

Mr Maduro also wants the assembly to strip opposition lawmakers of their constitutional immunity from prosecution, saying their constant conspiring to oust him should not be protected.

While members of congress say they will only be removed by force, the opposition is struggling to regain its footing in the face of the government's strong-arm tactics and the re-emergence of old, internal divisions. Several opposition activists have been jailed in recent days, others are rumoured to be seeking exile and one leader has broken ranks from the opposition alliance to say his party will field candidates in regional elections despite widespread distrust of the electoral system.

 Venezuela Supreme Court attacked with grenade thrown from police helicopter

Only a few hundred demonstrators showed up for a Friday protest against the constitutional assembly, one of the smallest turnouts in months. Those who did turn out said fear of arrest  rights groups claim there are more than 600 political prisoners jailed during the protests  may be keeping people at home but urged Venezuelans to remain mobilised.

This is what the constitutional assembly will bring: more repression, opposition legislator Miguel Pizarro said.

On Saturday, the South American trade bloc Mercosur moved to suspend Venezuela for failing to follow democratic norms.

Venezuela was previously suspended in December for failing to uphold commitments it made when it joined the group in 2012. The new decision will make it harder for the country to return to good standing since the new suspension can be lifted only when the bloc is satisfied that Venezuela has restored democratic order.

Today in Venezuela there is no democracy, Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said. Essentially what Mercosur is saying is: Without democracy, no, you cannot be a part of Mercosur.

The constitutional assembly is made up of delegates from an array of pro-government sectors such as trade unionists, students and even representatives of Venezuelans with physical disabilities. But the agenda is expected to be set by bigger-name loyalists, including Mr Maduro's wife, son and several cabinet ministers who resigned to join the body.

It will have sweeping powers to upend institutions and in theory could even remove Mr Maduro, a fact held up by government supporters as a sign of its independence. 

Associated Press
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A US-based campaign data company has said that its CEO faces deportation from Kenya after working on the oppositions campaign ahead of a tightly contested presidential election.

The detention of the CEO of Aristotle, Inc has raised concerns about the upcoming vote just days after a top Kenyan election official responsible for the electronic voting system was found tortured and killed.

An Aristotle representative said CEO John Aristotle Phillips, an American, and Canadian staffer Andreas Katsouris were detained on Friday night and faced deportation later Saturday. Mr Phillips is at the US Embassy in Nairobi.

Recommended Threat of another violent Kenyan election looms

The two men were assisting opposition candidate Raila Odinga with issues including strategy and data analysis and had chosen to get involved in the Kenyan election because they thought it had the potential for irregularities, Brandi Travis of Aristotle told The Associated Press.

We pick our international campaigns very carefully, Ms Travis said. Odinga was a candidate they really believed in.

Both Mr Odinga and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta were in their final day of campaigning on Saturday as some in the East African nation worried that the vote could turn violent, as it did a decade ago. Kenyatta is the son of Kenyas first president; Mr Odinga is the son of the countrys first vice president and has run in vain for the top post in three previous contests.

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

Recent elections in the East African high-tech and commercial hub have been hotly contested, and more than 1,000 people were killed in post-election violence in 2007. Mr Kenyatta prevailed over Mr Odinga in a 2013 vote that was mostly peaceful but tainted by opposition allegations of vote-rigging. Former US Secretary of State John Kerry is among the thousands of expected election observers this time around.

Some in the nation of 44 million people have been leaving the capital because of the threat of chaos, while many are simply going home to vote.

The torture and killing in recent days of an election official, Christopher Msando, in charge of the electronic voting system, has some concerned about the possibility of vote tampering. No arrests have been reported.

On Saturday, Kenyas main opposition party said the American and Canadian who were assisting its campaign were taken from their homes on Friday. James Orengo, a senior member of the opposition National Super Alliance, identified the American as Mr Phillips.

Mr Orengo told reporters that Mr Phillips was very adamant about his rights under the constitution, civic rights, was molested, thrown into the boot, and taken away with his colleague.

The US Embassy in Kenya said on Twitter that the American and Canadian, without identifying them, were safe and departing the country. The embassy said US and Canadian officials had been in touch with their detained citizens as well as the Kenyan government.

The detentions occurred at around the same time that armed and masked police raided an opposition vote counting centre, intimidating workers and seizing equipment, Orengo said. He also said two Ghanaians working on the opposition campaign have been deported.

Kenyan police denied allegations that officers broke into political party offices on Friday, saying no report of a burglary has been made to any police station.

Associated Press
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Rwanda's long-time President Paul Kagame has easily won a third term in office in a vote he had called "a formality".

The result gives him another seven years leading the small east African nation praised for its economic performance but criticised for its silencing of opponents.

Electoral authorities overnight said Mr Kagame had won more than 98 per cent of the vote with 80 per cent of ballots counted, with no major change expected when final results are announced later on Saturday.

He addressed jubilant supporters at party headquarters and urged Rwandans, including those who did not support him, to work together.

"This election was criticised so much due to me continuing to be your leader, especially people from outside the country because they oppose the will of Rwandans," he told supporters. "But Rwandans have shown that it was not manipulated by anyone but their own will."

Mr Kagame has led the country of 12 million people since his rebels helped to end its genocide in 1994 during which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by Hutu extremists.

The 59-year-old has been praised for the country's economic growth, but human rights groups accuse his government of using state powers to silence opposition. Rwandan authorities, including the president, deny it.

A constitutional amendment in 2015 allows him to stay in power until 2034 if he pursues it.

Mr Kagame was running against Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda - the only permitted opposition party - and independent candidate and former journalist Philippe Mpayimana.

Three potential candidates were disqualified for allegedly failing to fulfil requirements including collecting enough signatures.

With 80 per cent of votes counted, Mr Mpayimana had just 0.72 per cent and conceded defeat and congratulated Mr Kagame. Mr Habineza had 0.45 per cent.

More than 80 per cent of Rwanda's 6.9 million registered voters cast their ballots, according to Charles Munyaneza, executive secretary of the Rwanda Electoral Commission.

In Rwanda's capital Kigali, there had been little hint of the coming vote. Candidates had been barred from putting campaign posters in most public places, including schools and hospitals.

The electoral commission vetted candidates' campaign messages, warning that their social media accounts could be blocked otherwise.

Two decades of often deadly attacks on political opponents, journalists and rights activists created a "climate of fear" ahead of Rwanda's election, Amnesty International said in a report last month.

In 2010, Mr Kagame won with 93 per cent of the vote.

In July, he told a campaign rally that "the day of the presidential elections will just be a formality".

AP
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A US appeals court has thrown out the murder conviction of one Blackwater guard and overturned the sentences of three others in connection with the killing of 14 Iraqis in 2007.

Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Dustin Heard and Evan Liberty  former guards for Blackwater, a private military company contracted by the US State Department  were sentenced in 2015 for their involvement in the killings.

Mr Slough, Mr Heard, and Mr Liberty were sentenced to 30 years in prison for multiple counts of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and using firearms while committing a felony. Mr Slatten was sentenced to life in prison for murder.

Recommended Blackwater security guards given heavy prison sentences

Now, a US appeals court has thrown out Mr Slattens murder conviction, saying he should have been tried separately from his colleagues. The three-judge panel ordered a retrial, where Mr Slatten will be allowed to present previously inadmissable evidence.

The court also overturned the three other guards' sentences, saying their length constituted "cruel and unusual punishment.

The four guards formed part of a Blackwater convoy that travelled through Baghdads Nisour Square in 2007. In an effort to clear the square, the guards opened machine gun fire on the civilians gathered there. Witnesses described the scene as "awful" and "like a horror movie". Fourteen Iraqis were killed, and 17 were injured.

The guards argue they were under fire from insurgents. No witness has supported this claim in trial.

The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Show all 20 1 /20 The most iconic images from the war in Iraq The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq, March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes March 21, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman watches U.N. weapons inspectors leave Saddam airport in Baghdad March 18, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother (R) to bring over food bought in Basra March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marine Corp Assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, April 9, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A soldier of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) searches through dense vegetation around the Diala river where Iraqi militants are hiding outside Baquba early November 13, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi detainee gestures toward U.S. soldiers through bars of his cell at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad May 17, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Mays, a young Iraqi Shi'ite girl, cries after a mortar shell which landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle August 18, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marines carry an injured colleague to a helicopter near the city of Falluja, November 10, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the U.S army near Baquba, Iraq, October 15, 2005 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A wounded Iraqi woman is helped after several bomb attacks in central Baghdad, July 27, 2006 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A man runs down a street warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her family house in Baquba early June 30, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman tries to explain that she has nothing to do with illegal fuel as soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade patrol search for illegal fuel sellers in Baghdad August 6, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks in front of Humvees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (C) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following remarks to the press after nightfall at Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province September 3, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with U.S. soldiers of 1/8 Bravo Company searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in a neighbourhood of Mosul June 26, 2008 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Policemen cry during a funeral of their colleague a day after a bomb attack in Baghdad's Jihad district November 3, 2010 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Staff Sgt. Keith Fidler kisses his wife Cynthia, as their son Kolin looks on, during a homecoming ceremony in New York, April 8, 2011 for the New York Army National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company's return from Iraq Reuters

Mr Slatten was convicted for the murder of a man driving a white Kia that pulled into the square. The government maintains that Mr Slattens shots ignited the chaos that ensued.

The court, however, pointed to testimony from Mr Slattens co-defendant saying he was not the one to fire the first shots. The testimony had been inadmissible at trial.

The co-defendants statements ... strike at the heart of that theory and instead point to the co-defendant, not Slatten, as the Blackwater convoy member who first engaged and hit the driver, the court wrote.

The decision renews a years-long court battle over the incident, which raised serious questions about the military's accountability in Iraq.

The four guards were originally charged in 2008, but their convictions were overthrown after a judge ruled that prosecutors had used evidence inadmissible in court. The case was renewed by a federal appeal in 2013, and the men were sentenced in 2014.

Blackwater Worldwide, which had been awarded more than $1bn in government contracts, became the subject of scrutiny during the case. In 2007, Congress passed a bill that would make all military contractors subject to prosecution by US courts. In 2009, the State Department elected not to renew its contract with the private security company.

Founder Erik Prince sold the company in 2009, after which it changed its name to Xe Services, and then Academi. Mr Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, recently submitted a proposal to the Afghan government develop a private air force.
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Immigration enforcement agents have been banned from labor offices amid fears undocumented migrants are being put off pursuing wages owed to them.

And state workers have been ordered not to reveal workers' whereabouts as lawyers and campaigners have warned migrants could have reason to fear attending labor dispute hearings under Donald Trump's presidency.

Multiple reported cases of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents appearing at immigrants hearings prompted California Labor Commissioner Julie Su to release a memo to employees instructing them to refuse immigration agents entry to labor commission offices or to provide information on the location of workers.

A spokeswoman for ICE, Virginia Kice, said in an email that the agency had guidelines to prevent employees from becoming involved in labor disputes. She disputed the assertion that ICE agents had appeared at labor commission offices seeking particular people, writing that ICE has canvassed its enforcement personnel in the greater Los Angeles area and has obtained no information to corroborate those claims.

But the reports were credible enough to prod Ms Su into action, and now advocates worry the fallout could mean more exploitation of vulnerable workers.

California law already prohibits employers from using employees immigration status to retaliate in labor disputes. In keeping with California politicians' backlash against the Trump administrations hardline immigration stance, labor officials have vowed to maintain those safeguards.

Just because the federal administration has changed, our laws and policies have not, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary David Lanier said earlier this year. We will not tolerate the use of immigration status as a tool of retaliation against workers who are pursuing their rights under California law.

Immigration in Israel: African outcasts in the promised land Show all 2 1 /2 Immigration in Israel: African outcasts in the promised land Immigration in Israel: African outcasts in the promised land Pg-28-outcasts1-quique.jpg Quique Kierszenbaum Immigration in Israel: African outcasts in the promised land Pg-28-outcasts-quique.jpg Quique Kierszenbaum

But the California Labor Commission has seen a spike in immigration-related cases of employers retaliating against workers, from 14 last year to 58 already in 2017. And with the appearance of ICE agents at hearings spurring official action, attorneys who work on labor conflicts warned that undocumented immigrants will be more likely to forfeit money theyre owed than seek redress if they perceive bringing a labor case could get them deported.

Theres huge concern among the advocates about the specter of ICE showing up at the labor commission, Christopher Ho, a staff attorney for the organization Legal Aid at Work, told The Independent. If its not calculated to have a chilling effect on people bringing wage claims its certainly having that effect.

In the 2015-16 fiscal year, the California Labor Commission reported leveling $43m worth of penalties for labor violations, with the restaurant and construction industries incurring the most citations. A report detailing those numbers pegged wage theft in particular at staggering levels.

Advocates say the issue is especially rampant in low-wage industries that rely on immigrant labor, where it can be exceedingly difficult to convince people the merits of pursuing lost pay outweigh the risks. But as it stands, many immigrants already avoid going to authorities for fear of deportation.

A lot of people do decide to go forward with cases because a lot of them are just sick of being exploited, but a lot of people quite reasonably say I've got a family here, I'm risking my deportation, Mr Ho said.

 Trump promises immigrants won't be able to access welfare for five years- a law which already exists

Those fears have intensified since a nativist platform propelled Mr Trump to the presidency, Carl Soto, workers' rights coordinator at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told The Independent.

I have seen more folks who would have pursued claims not move forward with it because theyre afraid to file official documents with the state, Soto said. Theyre afraid it makes them more vulnerable to immigration action.

And while Mr Soto praised Ms Su for taking swift action to reassure immigrant workers, he said the reassurance might not be enough.

You can repeat day after day, 'Were not going to collaborate, were not going to do this,' and one story or rumor of a raid near an office will undermine that, he said. I really am seeing a lot of people say, You know what? Id rather not.
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A Chinese female blogger who posed as a mans Lunar New Year girlfriend says her experience illustrates the generational tensions over finding a marriage partner in China.

Zhao Yuqing, a recent law graduate, says she was intrigued by the websites and mobile apps aimed at single people looking to hire an instant partner whom they can present to relatives during the holiday period.

During this time, single men and women are often subjected to lectures from family members keen on reinforcing the importance of marriage and securing the family bloodline.

Some singles resort to hiring fake girlfriends and boyfriends through date-for-hire apps and websites.

Educated and attractive twentysomethings can command fees of 3,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan (340 to 1,130) a day over the busy festive period.

Yuqing said in her online advertisement that she wanted the experience of being a holiday companion and would only charge for transport to the persons home town.

Out of a pool of 700 respondents, Yuqing chose Wang Quanming, a website operator in his early thirties from the rural south.

He is being pressured to find a wife and his need to rent a girlfriend is real, Yuqing says.

Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Show all 15 1 /15 Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Yuqing takes a goodbye selfie with her dogs before sending them to a pet care centre in Beijing and leaving for Quanmings hometown Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend A poster in the elevator of Yuqings apartment bears the Chinese character Fu, which means good fortune Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Yuqing prepares to leave the city behind as she rides to Beijing airport Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Yuqing writes down her conditions for posing as a girlfriend Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Quanming poses near the family home where he lived until he was 15 Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Wangs mother greets the couple as they arrive in Anxi Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend The word love is carved into the headboard of Quanmings bed in the family home Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend The couple pick bean pods in Anxi. Before the visit, Yuqing had never been to a rural area Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend A fireworks display on the eve of the Spring Festival Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend The couple enjoy the Spring Festival celebrations Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Yuqing waits for the Spring Festival ritual hosted by Quanmings family to begin Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend The couple walk together in Anxi on the day of the festival Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend The couple drink tea as the rest of Quanmings family play cards Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend Quanmings mother gives a pack of tea leaves to Yuqing as a gift before she leaves Anxi Reuters Hopes and expectations: the journey of a fake girlfriend A red blanket offered by Quanmings mother in hope that it would be used by the couple. The colour symbolises celebration and joy during the New Year festive season Reuters

Before setting off in January for Quanmings family home in the hills of Fujian, the pair hammered out details of the false long-distance relationship to tell his parents, and set ground rules for the home visit.

There was to be no kissing, sleeping together or drinking alcohol, but she was ready to help with household chores, Yuqing and Quanming agreed in a handwritten contract.

When the couple arrived, Quanmings mother, Nong Xiurong, tried to make Yuqing feel at home and respected her sons request to leave the two alone and not ask questions about their relationship.

After the visit, Yuqing returned to Beijing and wrote a blog post on the social media app WeChat, saying she had a wonderful experience at Quanmings home.

Quanming says he decided to end the deception because he feared it could make the situation worse with his mother. He sent Yuqings blog to Xiurong.

In a telephone interview, Xiurong says she is not upset by what happened and she is moved by Yuqings blog.

At the start, I didnt know they were cheating me, she says. Im over 50. I dont understand what these young people get up to, but I wasnt angry.

Nevertheless, Xiurong says she still worries about her son finding a partner.

My mothers core demand for me to marry early still exists, Quanming adds.

For Yuqing, the experience highlights how hard it is to resolve the generational tensions over marriage in China, where traditional notions remain strong in rural areas.

The special situation in the village magnifies everything, Yuqing says. They face a greater urgency to marry, so that makes it much harder to find a truly suitable other half.

Reporting by Christian Shepherd

Reuters
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A Hindu politician has been ushered into the highest level of government in Pakistan for the first time in more than two decades in the predominantly Islamic country.

Darshan Lal landed a place at the top table in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party after a cabinet reshuffle by new prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

The former doctor rose up the ranks after being elected to the national assembly for the second time in the south Asian county in 2013, running for a seat reserved for minorities.

Mr Lal will head coordination between four Pakistani provinces, a government official said.

He landed his ministerial role as Mr Abbasi pulled together his new cabinet in a bid to bolster support for the ruling PML-N party ahead of general elections set for next year.

Mr Abbasi was sworn in as Pakistans new prime minister on Wednesday after former leader Nawaz Sharif was toppled last week following a corruption scandal.

The new PML-N leader has doubled the size of the cabinet in the re-shuffle on Friday to 47 ministers and filled the roles with aides and allies of Mr Sharif to boost the clout of his government.

Its a massive cabinet. It shows that its all about the next election, Pakistani writer and analyst Zahid Hussain said, according to a report in the Indian Express.

Mr Sharif was ousted last week by the countrys Supreme Court amid allegations he and his family had hidden vast amounts of cash in offshore accounts. The claims first came to light thanks to the Panama Papers.

Mr Lal was named as the first Hindu minister in Pakistan since the late politician Rana Chandra Singh served in the government of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

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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Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. 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Hindus form just over 2 per cent of the population of some 200 million people in Pakistan  a largely Islamic country which was carved out of mainly Muslim areas during the partition of India.

More than 1,000 have fled into neighbouring India in the past five years, figures show, with many on the run from what they say is religious and cultural persecution.

Islamabad says the claims, including that Hindu women are sexually harrassed, are exaggerated and says the minority community is safe.
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A Russian gay rights activist is living in the "shadow of death" as authorities threaten to deport him to Uzbekistan, where homosexuality is illegal.

Ali Feruz, 30, was detained and allegedly tortured for two days by the Uzbek National Security Service in 2009 and fled the country two years later.

Mr Feruz sought asylum in Russia in 2011 and began working for the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, reporting on refugees and discrimination against women.

But his asylum claim ran into trouble when his passport was stolen a year later, Buzzfeed News reported.

The Russian-born refugee was left without documentation and was unable to seek help at the Uzbekistan embassy because he had recently escaped from the country.

Mr Feruz, also known as Khodoberdi Nurmatov, was arrested on 1 August this year and hauled before a judge at Moscow's Basmanniy Court, who ruled that he should be deported to Uzbekistan because he had been living in the country "illegally".

The journalist reportedly attempted suicide after the judgement, but was stopped by security guards.

His Novaya Gazeta colleague Lena Kostyuchenko told Buzzfeed News: "He said it is better to die than to go back to Uzbekistan. He is in the shadow of death."

 Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov: 'We don't have any gays here. Such people are subhuman'

Amnesty International (AI) has raised concerns that Russian courts are colluding with Uzbekistan's notorious security services to deport hundreds of people to the Asian country, where sex between men is a criminal offence with a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

The deportation order is "as close to a death sentence as it can be", AI's Europe and Central Asia deputy director, Denis Krivosheev, told the site.

The European Court of Human Rights postponed the deportation order on Friday, according to Mr Feruz's lawyer Kirill Koroteyev.

It is understood that the journalist now has until September to submit a new asylum claim in Russia.

A spokesman from the Kremlin revealed that Vladimir Putin was aware of the case, which has caught the attention of the EU's Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks.

Mr Muiznieks said states have "a duty to ensure a safe and enabling environment for the work of human rights defenders and journalists" in a Facebook post a day after the Russian court ruling.

"It should be recalled that international law prohibits sending a person to a country where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person may be subjected to torture or ill-treatment," he added.

Russian journalists are using the hashtag #, which means "Hands Off Ali", to draw attention to the case, and a Change.org petition against the deportation ruling has attracted more than 52,000 signatures.

Ms Kostyuchenko, who writes about LGBT persecution in Chechnya, added: "There are people disappearing in silence.

"If [Mr Feruz] went back there we will never know what happens to him. He does not deserve what is happening to him.
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Women and girls are joining Isis after being seduced by the terrorist groups offer of a twisted version of empowerment for Muslims, a new report has found.

The research, by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), said the reasons that drove hundreds of women to journey from Europe to Isis territories were complex.

Emily Winterbotham, the reports co-author, said the use of the term jihadi bride to describe all female Isis members was reductive.

Our research shows that narrative has influenced peoples perceptions of female radicalisation, she told The Independent.

Most people we interviewed believed women had been lured over to Isis by men, social media and marriage, with the men being the bad ones.

Theres an implied rationality around male radicalisation and passivity around women  but the decision-making process of these individuals isnt only about being manipulated and brainwashed  theres a clear rationale.

Possible draws were found to include a rejection of Western feminism, online contact with recruiters who offer marriage and adventure, peer or family influence, adherence to Isis ideology, naivety and romantic optimism, and the chance to be part of something new, exciting and illicit.

 'They killed my brother in front of me' - Nine-year-old girl talks of life under ISIS

Ms Winterbotham, a senior research fellow at RUSI, and co-author Elizabeth Pearson, a RUSI associate fellow and a PhD candidate in war studies at Kings College London, conducted their research in the UK, Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

After speaking to men and women who knew female Isis supporters or worked in de-radicalisation programmes, they found that some women saw the so-called Islamic State as a source of empowerment despite its subjugation of women, violent enforcement of its interpretation of Sharia law and genocide against the Yazidis.

Some respondents told researchers women who joined Isis were deliberately seeking to challenge both traditional and Western-imposed gender norms, by seeking a new identity for themselves.

Communities said the urge was partly being driven by exclusion from wider society, particularly in countries with burqa bans, such as the Netherlands and France, where they felt they could not express their religion how they wished.

Like recent research focused on returned male foreign fighters, the report found that radicalisation was also driven by grievances including Islamophobic attacks, economic disadvantage, a perceived lack of belonging and failed integration.

A lack of acceptance from within Muslim communities, particularly divides with family members not thought to be pious enough, was also believed to enable women to find a sense of belonging and empowerment with Daesh [Isis].

Ms Winterbotham said that those living in highly conservative religious families could also be made vulnerable to Isis propaganda by having less freedom to travel outside and spending more time with radical influences online.

Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP

We talked to women who hadnt been radicalised but could understand why some of these girls might have gone to Syria and Iraq so they could live as good Muslims, she said.

Isis has been successful at selling that image to women. Its not just about the naive vulnerable jihadi bride, its women saying: This is in line with my religion, my political beliefs, the fact I want to live how I want.

The author said the concept of empowerment differed from what would be shared by most non-Muslim Western women, being seen through a dominantly religious lens.

Women are saying this is empowering for me but the irony is thats not going to happen once they get there, she added.

Isis has directly targeted female recruits to migrate to its territories as part of its aspiration to build a functioning caliphate needing wives and mothers to bear children trained to become the next generation of terrorists.

Women have been stoned, whipped and murdered for offences under Sharia law, while at least one jihadi bride  Austrian teenager Samra Kesinovic  is known to have been beaten to death while trying to escape.

While the role of women is strictly restricted in Isis territories, with dress, movement and marriage all strictly controlled, fanaticism is rewarded with limited freedoms such as being allowed into female-only Sharia police forces or permitted to go online to bring sisters back home into the fold.

A picture of Isis-controlled Raqqa in Syria shared on Aqsa Mahmood's tumblr account (tumblr)

British women are among some of the most prominent online radicalisers and propagandists, including the White Widow Sally Jones, who is reportedly attempting to flee Raqqa, Khadijah Dare Aqsa Mahmood, a former Scottish university student, who has been put under international sanctions for her role as an online recruiter.

Under the online pseudonym Umm Layth, she operated now-deleted social media accounts and blogs calling for terror attacks, romanticising life under Isis and issuing detailed instructions for women wishing to travel to its territories.

We are created to be mothers and wives - as much as the western society has warped your views on this with a hidden feminist mentality, she wrote.

The narrative is typical of Isis own propaganda, which portrays women as valued supporters with agency within their families, who gain status from their husbands perceived glory.

A recent article instructing women to Be a Supporter, Not a Demoraliser as the groups territory wanes, concluded: Such is the condition of the believing wife with her husband, and such is the condition of the believing mother with her son, letting him go forth on his way to wage jihad against the enemies of Allah, doing what Allah commanded him to do, and by Allahs permission, she will receive a portion of his deed.

The number of foreign women living in the so-called Islamic State is uncertain. A 2014 report estimated that 18 per cent all European Isis members were female and the total number is now believed to be more than 550.

Aqsa Mahmood and another woman in Syria in a picture tweeted in 2014. (Twitter)

The Metropolitan Police suggested that more than 56 women and girls had travelled to Iraq and Syria from the UK by early 2015 and the number is believed to have risen considerably since.

A global crackdown on travel to Isis territory and increasing preventative arrests have brought the exodus to a halt but a growing number of women are becoming involved in terror plots on home soil.

A 17-year-old girl from London who attempted to travel to Syria has been charged with colluding with Isis to plan an atrocity in the UK.

After she was prevented from reaching Syria in August last year, she allegedly married an Isis fighter in the country over the online messaging service Skype and arranged to receive weapons training, hand grenades and a gun for the attack.

RUSIs report noted that women were involved in Isis Paris attacks in 2016 and a number of recently disrupted plots, warning that assumptions about womens passivity in radicalisation could be making the process more difficult to spot.

Among the signs seen in the report were changes to clothing and appearance, relationships, hobbies, a fresh interest in politics and foreign affairs, justifying Isis and attempts to convert relatives or censor them for un-Islamic behaviour.

Isis has Muslim heritage communities in its sights, the report warned. The findings from the research clearly show the significance of gender in radicalisation, and the dangers in arguing that everything is equal between men and women.
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An anarchist group protesting against mass tourism in Spain has threatened further attacks after targeting Barcelona and Mallorca.

British tourists on board a sightseeing bus in the Catalan capital feared they were being attacked by Islamist terrorists when masked members of Arran slashed its tyres and daubed it with slogans.

The group published a video of the attack online with the caption mass tourism kills the neighbourhoods, destroys the territory and condemns the working class to misery, sparking a police investigation.

Arran later vandalised bicycles hired out to tourists in Barcelona, while a faction in Mallorca rampaged through waterside restaurants in Palma and ran over yachts, while protesting with a banner and smoke bombs.

On its official Twitter account, the group claimed it wanted to stop the mass tourism that is destroying Mallorca and condemning the working classes of the Catalan Countries to misery.

Laura Flores, one of Arrans leaders, told The Times: We cannot rule out more attacks. There have been assaults in the past and there will be more in the future.

Noel Josephides, the chairman of Abta, said he feared more attacks using dangerous tactics that shouldnt be happening.

But reason it is happening is because the local governments havent been listening or taking the overcrowding seriously, he added.

The advice to tourists is use your common sense. Be vigilant and dont go where there might be a risk.

Founded in 2012, Arran has expanded through Spain and says it struggles for Catalan independence, the end of the capitalist system and global injustice and feminism.

It has gained support from far-left Spanish political parties and disaffected locals, with particular ire being aimed at companies including Airbnb that are blamed for shutting local residents out of the property market.

Arrans supporters deny allegations of tourist-phobia but claims to resist a market that capitalises on collective assets like the natural or social environment for nothing in return.

It is a general movement of citizens against an uncontrolled and predatory tourist model, one supporter wrote on Twitter, while Arrans chapter in Mallorca said: Tourism has too many private interests, which are not the interests of the majority.

Similar grievances have been rising to the surface at other popular destinations in Europe, seeing thousands protest in Venice over the damage caused by millions of visitors and radical measures aiming to reduce overcrowding by local authorities.

Ada Colau, the left-wing mayor of Barcelona who rose to prominence because of her campaigning over the Spanish housing crisis, announced Arrans violent tactics.

The most expensive holiday destinations in the world Show all 19 1 /19 The most expensive holiday destinations in the world The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 19. Shanghai 131.90 ($186.18) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 18. Moscow 133.45 ($188.37) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 17. Paphos, Cyprus 135.73 ($191.59) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 16. Malta 138.25 ($197.19) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 15. Los Angeles 138.91 ($198.13) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 14. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 139.78 ($199.38) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 13. Rome 152.14 ($217) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 12. Paris 153.38 ($218.77) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 11. Dublin 156.15 ($222.72) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 10. Lima, Peru 158.90 ($226.65) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 9. Cancun, Mexico 172.79 ($246.46) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 8. Caracas, Venezuela 172.79 ($246.46) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 7. Singapore 183.87 ($262.26) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 6. London 191.50 ($273.15) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 5. Sydney 203.06 ($289.63) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 4. Marrakesh, Morocco 223.44 ($318.70) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 3. Botswana, Africa 225.07 ($321.03) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 2. New York City 256.80 ($366.29) The most expensive holiday destinations in the world 1. Dubai, United Arab Emirates 278.92 ($397.84)

We denounce the attack on a tourist bus, she wrote on Twitter. "Protesting over tourism should never mean intimidating people.

Alvaro Nadal, Spains tourism minister, promised an inquiry into Arrans attacks.

Were not going to tolerate this situation a single day longer, he said. A minority cant ruin the decades of prestige for our tourist industry, which is the most competitive in the world.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not updated its travel advice for Spain, which advises British nationals to stay away from demonstrations.

We are monitoring the situation and in contact with local authorities, a spokesperson said.

Ti unrest came amid chaos at Barcelona Airport as security workers started partial strikes, causing lengthy queues for security during peak holiday season.

The workers' union called the periodic stoppages for Friday, Sunday and Monday after talks failed to end the dispute with the private company, Eulen, which runs the service at El Prat airport.

Staff demanding bolstered numbers and better salaries, have called an indefinite strike to start on 14 August if their demands are not met.
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At least 2,000 Isis militants are still holed up in the Syrian city of Raqqa fighting for their lives as a US-led coalition closes in on the city, according to US intelligence officials.

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have made consistent gains in the extremists' de facto capital and are on the verge of seizing full control of the southern neighbourhoods of the Isis-held zone.

But US counter-terror special envoy Brett McGurk said thousands of fighters still remain in the city and are using the estimated 25,000 civilians on the ground as human shields.

We think theres about 2,000 ISIS fighters left in Raqqa, and they will  they most likely will die in Raqqa, he said.

And whats really happening in Raqqa  similar to what we saw in Mosul but on a smaller scale  the Isis fighters on the ground are using these civilians as their own shields, as their own hostages. They are using snipers to kill civilians who are trying to escape.

Theyre trying to put suicide bombers in columns of displaced people as they try to get out  the similar tactics weve seen from this barbaric terrorist organisation in other cities.

Speaking at a special briefing in Washington, Mr McGurk said the US-coalition had already finalised a day-after-liberation plan for the city.

He said authorities had made plans for 50,000 people for the very worst case, despite believing the number of civilians trapped in the city to be much lower.

In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Show all 30 1 /30 In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian family arrives at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, at the al-Hawoz street roundabout, after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian woman, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, reacts as she stands with her children in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-regime fighters, gesture as they drive past resident fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood , after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-regime fighters, gesture as they drive past residents fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian pro-regime fighter speaks with a child, as residents flee violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood. Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops AFP/Getty Images In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Smoke rises as seen from a governement-held area of Aleppo, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian soldiers targeting rebels-held areas in the eastern neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria. According to media reports, the army is now holding on 99 percent of Aleppois eastern neighborhoods EPA In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-government forces patrol Aleppo's eastern al-Salihin neighbourhood after troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian soldiers rest following the battle at al-Sheik Saeed neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria EPA In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian pro-government fighter walking past closed shops in the Bab al-Nasr district of Aleppo's Old City. Once renowned for its bustling souks, grand citadel and historic gates, Aleppo's Old City has been rendered virtually unrecognisable by some of the worst violence of Syria's war Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria The crucial battle for Aleppo entered its 'final phase' after Syrian rebels retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The retreat leaves opposition fighters confined to just a handful of neighbourhoods in southeast Aleppo, the largest of them Sukkari and Mashhad Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian civilans arrive at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, at the al-Hawoz street roundabout, after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods. Syria's government has retaken at least 85 percent of east Aleppo, which fell to rebels in 2012, since beginning its operation Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian civilians flee the Sukkari neighbourhood towards safer rebel-held areas in southeastern Aleppo Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrians celebrate in the government-held Mogambo neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, after rebel fighters retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrians celebrate in the government-held Mogambo neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, after rebel fighters retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The fall of Aleppo would be the worst rebel defeat since Syria's conflict began in 2011, and leave the government in control of the country's five major cities Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian refugee Aliya inside the tent where she lives with her husband and ten children in a camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian refugee women and children outside the entrance to their tents in the refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA Wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA Wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee woman outside the entrance to the tent where her family live, in the refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A vehicle drives past a mosque at night in Idlib, Syria. Picture taken with a long exposure Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Damaged buildings stand in the rebel-controlled town of Binnish in Idlib province, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria The night sky is seen through damaged windows in the rebel-controlled town of Binnish in Idlib province, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Damaged buildings stand in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, Syria Reuters

As I mentioned, the UN has now gained road access, so theyre delivering a fairly large number of supplies, he said.

Weve pre-positioned supplies so were ready for the day after Isis in Raqqa. And just to give you what  to tell you what that means, we have food ready for about 447,000 people.

We have tents and shelters for an additional 50,000 people. We have medical treatment facilities for about over 200,000 people. Water sanitation, hygiene  all these things are getting pre-positioned to be ready for the day after ISIS.

Isis has lost large expanses of territory in Syria over the last year to separate campaigns waged by the SDF, the Russian-backed Syrian military, and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels.

Taking control of the southern districts of the city would sever Isis's last remaining path to the Euphrates River which is to the south of the city.

In 2014, Isis had 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries across Syria and Iraq, according to US officials.

Since then, they are believed to have lost 70,000 square kilometers of territory - 78 per cent of the territory they used to hold in Iraq, and 58 per cent of the territory they used to hold in Syria.
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A Saudi-led air strike has killed nine members of the same family in Yemen, local officials said.

Three women and six children died after their house was hit during a dawn offensive on the outskirts of the northern city of Saada.

The attack on the family home of Taha al-Dharafi in Mahda district also injured three other people, according to the head of the local health department Dr Abdel-Ilah al-Azzi.

"We are recording all the crimes of the enemy and we will not forget them," Dr Azzi said. "All the criminals will be put on trial soon, God willing."

Yemen has been torn apart by a brutal civil war since 2015 when President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's exiled government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, tried to roll back gains made by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, which controls most of northern Yemen - including the capital Sanaa.

A spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition did not respond to a request for a comment.

It was not immediately clear if the house was hit by mistake, but the coalition says it does not target civilians.

The situation in Yemen Show all 14 1 /14 The situation in Yemen The situation in Yemen Houthi supporters trample on a US flag during a gathering mobilizing more fighters into several Yemeni battlefronts, in Sana'a, Yemen EPA The situation in Yemen People carry the coffins of men, who were killed in the recent Saudi-led airstrikes during their funeral, in the Old City of Sanaa, Yemen AP The situation in Yemen Pro-government fighters give food to Yemeni children on the road leading to the southwestern port city of Mokha. Yemeni rebels are putting up fierce resistance in a key Red Sea port city where they are encircled by pro-government force Getty Images The situation in Yemen A Yemeni stands in front of a graffiti protesting US military operations in war-affected Yemen, in Sana'a, Yemen. According to reports, US Special Forces troops allegedly disembarked from US helicopters in the Yemeni town of Yakla and attacked several houses belonging to members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, killing three high-ranking Al-Qaeda members and nine civilians, six women and three children. One American serviceman has been killed and three injured in the attack EPA The situation in Yemen US Special Forces troops allegedly disembarked from US helicopters in the Yemeni town of Yakla and attacked several houses belonging to members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, killing three high-ranking Al-Qaeda members and nine civilians, six women and three children. One American serviceman has been killed and three injured in the attack EPA The situation in Yemen A Yemeni female fighter supporting the Shiite Huthi rebels, and carrying weapons used for ceremonial purposes, takes part in an anti-Saudi rally in the capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen Yemeni female fighters supporting the Shiite Huthi rebels, and carrying weapons used for ceremonial purposes, take part in an anti-Saudi rally in the capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen A boy shouts slogans next to pro-Houthi fighters, who have been injured during recent fighting, during a rally held to honour those injured or maimed while fighting in Houthi ranks in Sanaa, Yemen Reuters The situation in Yemen Balls of fire and smoke rise from a Houthi-held military camp following alleged Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sana'a, Yemen EPA The situation in Yemen Yemenis search under the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa Getty Images The situation in Yemen A Yemeni boy looks on as Yemenis search under the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa Getty The situation in Yemen A Yemeni boy sits amidst the rubble of damaged houses following reported Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa AFP/Getty The situation in Yemen Marine One with US President Donald Trump flies with a decoy and support helicopters to Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, for the dignified transfer of Navy Seal Chief Petty Officer William 'Ryan' Owens who was killed in Yemen Getty Images The situation in Yemen US President Donald Trump aboard the Marine One to greet the remains of a US military commando killed during a raid on the al Qaeda militant group in southern Yemen on Sunday, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, US Reuters

A family relative, who declined to be identified, said the attack happened while the family slept. He said the bodies were taken to the morgue while rescue workers continued to search for a missing woman in the rubble of the house.

Pictures from the scene showed the house completely destroyed by the strike. Residents who rushed to help were reportedly afraid to start rescue work while planes continued to hover overhead.

Saada, a stronghold of the Houthi group, which hails from the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam, has been repeatedly hit by air strikes since the coalition of Arab states joined the civil war in March 2015. They see the war as an attempt by Iran to expand its influence in Yemen.

The war has sparked one of the biggest humanitarian crises in history, displacing more than three million people.

An estimated 600,000 people - or one in every 45 - could contract cholera before the end of the year, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
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It was always going to be a state ceremony of grandeur and pomp, but the current turbulence in Middle East politics ensured that Hassan Rouhanis inauguration as President of Iran became an occasion of significant resonance.

Iran, its adversaries Saudi Arabia and the Donald Trump administration have demanded, should once again be shunned as a pariah state. The US has imposed tough new sanctions and President Trump is threatening to pull the plug on the nuclear deal between the country and international powers which has been achieved through years of painstaking negotiations. Hawks in his team have talked about instigating regime change in Tehran.

In the event representatives from a hundred countries turned up in Tehran. The likes of Robert Mugabe and Kim Yong Nam, the President of the Supreme Peoples Assembly of North Korea, may be ignored by Washington and Riyadh. But the presence of senior figures from most Western European countries, including Britain's Minister of State for the Middle East Alistair Burt, the European Unions foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and ministers from from Russia, China and India was a clear sign that the attempt to isolate Iran was failing for the time-being.

Recommended Iran election and Qatar crisis set the Middle East on edge

At his swearing-in ceremony Mr Rouhani warned those present that America was trying to sabotage the nuclear accord. Mr Trumps aggression, said the President, may come to a sticky end: Those who want to tear up the nuclear deal should know that they will be ripping up their own political life.

The USs repeated violations of its commitments and the new sanctions it imposed on Iran have left a negative impact on public opinion here and this will put the nuclear agreement at risk. Iran would not be the first to pull out of the nuclear deal, but it will not remain silent about the US violations, he said.

Earlier, in a meeting with Ms Mogherini, the Iranian President praised the high European representation saying that it showed many Western states were prepared to build bridges with his country despite American pressure. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also reportedly said in the meeting: Mr Trump is trying to destroy the nuclear accord at Irans expense, and Europe should be conscious of this.

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

Tehran milked the attendance: the names of all attending countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe were read out at the ceremony in Parliament. While some of these countries too were keen to use the stage to stress their agenda. Qatar, engaged in a bitter confrontation with a Saudi led alliance, sent a delegation headed by the Emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Russia, another recipient of tough new American sanctions, announced that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and senior military officers will hold an important meeting with ministers from Iran and Turkey on Syria following the inauguration.

The three countries are guarantors of a series of truces in the civil war. Iranian officials said that one of the key issues under discussion would be the takeover of Syrias Idlib province, one of the areas currently covered by a ceasefire, by extremist jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al Sham and the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, which now calls itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

The US warned of the grave consequences of Idlib being taken over by al-Qaeda affiliates. But the Americans have drastically scaled down backing for the rebels they sponsored and any recapture of territory would be carried out by the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies.

It was, however, Mr Rouhanis agenda of domestic reform, rather than further foreign military commitment abroad, which gave him a landslide victory over his conservative opponent in the election earlier this year. And many of the delegations here are, however, looking at trade possibilities with the Iranian market opening up following the relaxing of sanctions. Lord Lamont of Lerwick, a long-time campaigner for improving relations with Tehran and now the UKs trade envoy to Iran, has arrived along with the MP Richard Bacon, the vice-chairman of the Britain-Iran Parliamentary Friendship Group.

The US manufacturer Boeing has signed an $8bn (6.1bn) deal to sell 80 jets to Iran Air and 30 more to another carrier, Aseman Airlines while its European rival Airbus has an agreement to supply another 100 planes to Iran. Frances Total is in a $2bn agreement to develop a gas field and Britains General Electric is considering a number of highly lucrative business options.

But the shadow of Donald Trump remains as Iran strives to open up for business. The US stipulation on the nuclear deal means the President has to certify that Tehran is complying with the agreement every 90 days. Mr Trump, who had promised to tear up the agreement during his election campaign, grudgingly signed off the first certification after the State Department failed to find any breaches but he complained that the Iranians are not living up to the spirit of the agreement while failing to explain what this actually means. His administration, he says, is carrying out a comprehensive review of Iran policy.

That is still under way as the US administration was again forced to issue the second certification last week that Iran was still complying with its commitments. But, at the same time, Mr Trump said in an interview: If it was up to me, I would have had them non-compliant 180 days ago. Asked whether he expected Iran to be non-compliant next time, he declared: Yes, personally I do.

The agreement remains, theoretically, even if the US pulls out, with the five other signatories, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain, all saying that they would continue with it. But companies and financial institutions are acutely wary of falling foul of US sanctions and incurring swingeing financial penalties.

I dont see how the agreement can really survive if the US really does say it is no longer part of it was the view of Professor Mohammad Marandi, a Tehran University academic influential in Iranian government circles. "The odds will be stacked against it. While Robert Emerson, a security analyst, said: This is not something which is going to go away from Washington politics; the issue of the nuclear deal and Iran sanctions will be revisited many times in the future by the hardliners led by the US President.

The hundred-strong attendance at the Rouhani inauguration does not mean that Donald Trumps crusade to isolate Iran and push it back into international political wilderness is over.
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The Governments announcement last week that the UK will ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040, and redouble its efforts to promote the uptake of electric vehicles, is a positive step in the UKs decarbonisation journey.

It will help us reduce our CO2 emissions, a huge proportion of which come from transport, and support the roll out of new technologies. However, the electrification of our transport over the next decades will place enormous stresses and strains on our electricity infrastructure.

In decades past, we would have built cheap coal power stations  but this would somewhat defeat the point of low-emissions vehicles. Instead, we will need to meet this huge increase in electricity demand with a range of low-carbon technologies: wind-power, solar, tidal, batteries and crucially nuclear power. Nuclear has provided about 20 per cent of the UKs electricity supply for several decades, and it has done so reliably and without producing any CO2 emissions.

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

The Government recognises this, which is why it plans to incentivise a new fleet of nuclear power stations. But that simply replaces our existing ageing power stations and doesnt factor in this new source of demand that will come from transport.

National Grid have estimated that electric vehicles could create as much as 18 gigawatts of extra demand for electricity  equivalent to six Hinkley Point power stations.

That makes the UKs decision to withdraw from the Euratom treaty, which has become a high-profile issue in the last few weeks, even more concerning. Euratom ensures we can access the nuclear materials that we need to power our existing, and future, nuclear power stations. It ensures all the proper safeguards and inspections take place in a way that is consistent with international rules and regulations.

Euratom has operated quietly and effectively from the day we joined in 1973. It has also supported closer collaboration with our European allies in areas such as Fusion, which could revolutionise the way we generate electricity.

Over time, the UK will likely be able to closely replicate the relationship that currently exists with Euratom; however, we will have to leave Euratom in March 2019, giving us just 20 months to replicate something that has taken decades to create.

Many experts think it will take at least five years to put in place all the necessary arrangements, and that is generous given the Government is struggling over issues such as chlorinated chicken.

The reason every single expert in the civil nuclear industry, the nuclear medicine industry and scientists alike are so baffled by the Governments decision is that it is completely unnecessary and has zero benefits. The best case scenario is that we spend an enormous amount of money, time and resources to create the same situation we have now. No one is calling for anything other than close scientific cooperation with our allies.

However, the risks are immense.

If we leave Euratom without the necessary arrangements in place, then we will be unable to import the material to power our nuclear power stations. Our scientific collaboration will be hindered, and funding may dry up.

 Greenpeace activists unfurl banner at Chicago's Trump Tower targeting Trump's climate change stance

The Government has been clear about the need to decarbonise our electricity supply and that our transport should be powered by ever-greener electricity. This requires investment, policy certainty and a pragmatic and sensible approach to how we shape our energy policy.

Our decision to leave Euratom delivers none of these things. It is short-sighted, counter-productive and dangerous. That is why there is not a single advocate for our leaving Euratom  other than the Governments lawyers.

Leaving Euratom without a viable alternative will only worsen our security of supply position, which is already challenging. Rapid roll-out of electric vehicles over the next decade and beyond will further worsen this situation if we dont have the policies and investment in place to meet demand, and the Government risks creating a major challenge to delivering reliable, affordable and low-carbon energy.

Theresa May and her team must stop and rethink this policy, and identify and pursue a sensible position that has the faith of industry and experts alike.

Professor Martin Freer is Head of Nuclear Physics and Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute at the University of Birmingham
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On the same day news leaked that special prosecutor Robert Mueller had convened a grand jury to help get to the bottom of allegations of collusion between Russia and Donald Trumps campaign, the man himself lashed out at an event in West Virginia, calling them a total fabrication and made up by Democrats still sulking over their losses.

That would be bad. People in Washington, people with power, are not meant to make stuff up. Those responsible for smearing Trump would have some explaining to do, because regardless of how this all turns out, so much damage to his presidency will already have been done.

But will he deserve an apology? Maybe not. Because fabrication and spinning fables is his favourite form of communication. He is himself intimately acquainted with mendacity. The country sees this. A new Quinnipiac poll says 62 per cent of Americans think that Trump is not honest.

These bad habits have been festering inside him for years. Recall his musings about the usefulness of embellishment in his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal.

People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular, he wrote. I call it truthful hyperbole. Its an innocent form of exaggeration  and a very effective form of promotion.

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

This helps explain that first very big  if not very consequential  lie of the administration, perpetrated by the now-binned Sean Spicer. Thats the one about more people being on the National Mall to witness the inauguration than for any president in history. Any rabbit nibbling the wildernesses of empty lawn that day could have called BS on that.

Last week was a jewel box of fresh little fibs tumbling into the light. On Monday, Trump said hed received a phone call from President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico congratulating him on improved immigration interdiction.

Even the president of Mexico called me, he told his own cabinet. They said their southern border  very few people are coming because they know theyre not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.

He similarly claimed in an off-the-record interview with the The Wall Street Journal that his widely panned speech to the Boy Scouts Jamboree had been a great hit with Scout leaders, because they too had phoned him to tell him so.

Neither claim was true, as the new press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was forced to admit. But you know, he was sort of telling the truth. He had spoken to Pena Nieto about borders in Germany at the G20. The Scout leaders had spoken to him at the jamboree itself. There were never any phone calls, thats all.

I wouldnt say it was a lie. Thats a pretty bold accusation, Sanders struggled under quizzing by reporters about her and Trumps record of veracity. The conversations took place; they just simply didnt take place over a phone call. Sanders, whose father Mike Huckabee was a Christian minister before a presidential candidate, went on: I don't think it's appropriate to lie from the podium or any other place ... my job is to communicate the president's agenda.

He did speak by phone, shortly after the inauguration, with Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian leader. At the time he raged at the media for suggesting it hadnt gone well, calling it fake news. Now we have the transcript and, well, it was a car crash of a call. Even Fox News called him out.

The media did not lie. We reported the truth, top anchor Shepherd Smith told viewers. Then President Trump misrepresented the truth, and not for the first time.

Donald Trump says he hopes Russia probe finding will be "truly honest"

A busy president can get confused. But what about that other bombshell last week from The Washington Post, that the statement released by Donald Jr after revelations of his meeting with a Russian lawyer had been dictated by pops  a statement that later turned out to be misleading?

It was left to Sanders to push back, but hardly effectively. There's no inaccuracy in the statement, she attempted, before adding: The President weighed in as any father would, based on the limited information he had; this is all discussion of frankly no consequence.

I wanted to see how that would play out to the rest of America on the main network evening news bulletins, as opposed to the endless of loop of bloviation on cable channels like CNN. The approach taken by CBS was especially harsh. First, viewers saw a clip of Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow flatly stating last month that the prez didn't sign off on anything and wasn't involved in the drafting of Juniors statement.

Then the clip of Sanders saying that, well, yes, he had been involved. That was followed by a still picture of an especially gruff-looking Mueller, and the supposition that he would find the days developments most interesting.

Trumps rise to political favour in the first place was fuelled by the most offensive fable of all  that President Barack Obama was hiding a birth certificate that proved he wasnt an American. Meanwhile, his campaign was powered in part by assertions that Clinton hadnt been careless but had knowingly committed a crime using her personal email server for government business  his supporters were still crying lock her up in West Virginia  and that she was personally culpable for the sacking of an American consular complex in Libya that left four Americans dead.

Trump has since tacked every which way on Clinton, depending on what suits the moment. Going after his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, recently Trump used his alleged failure to reopen an investigation into Clinton as a pretext for eventually firing him. Yet upon his election last November, he played grand magnanimity. I dont want to hurt the Clintons, I really dont, Trump told The New York Times. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways, and I am not looking to hurt them at all. The campaign was vicious.

After all this time, including months of investigation by the FBI, no evidence has come to light to warrant criminal prosecution of Clinton. And maybe nothing will come of Muellers Russia probe either, and Trump will turn out to have been a victim of total fabrications and made-up canards as he contends.

But he should know a thing or two about that, which is why not very many of us will feel sorry for him even then. Chickens coming home to roost, and all that.
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The hardest battle I have ever fought as a feminist campaigner against male violence is against the expansion and normalisation of prostitution. During research for my book, in which I seek to expose the truth about the sex trade, I encountered a twisted version of reality  propagated by the so-called sex workers rights movement  that rebrands and sanitises the sex trade as a harmless service industry.

During two years I travelled 164,000 miles, interviewing 250 people around the world. The biggest obstacle I faced was the well-oiled propaganda machine that takes the truth about the sex trade and represents it to the world in the form of sanitised sop.

By closely analysing the reams of pro-prostitution academic research; looking at funders and supporters of the sex trade; asking questions about the so-called benefits of blanket decriminalisation; and listening closely to survivors of the sex trade, I uncovered the real story of what happens when the buying, selling and renting of female flesh is legally and culturally sanctioned.

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

New Zealand is regularly held up as the gold standard model of how to eradicate problems inherent to prostitution. In 2003 its government voted (by a majority of one) to decriminalise pimping, brothel owning and sex buying. The argument, led by the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC), was as persuasive as it was misleading: removing all criminal laws from all aspects of the trade would lead to workers rights and safety for the women. Handily for sex trade entrepreneurs, this resulted in pimps and brothel owners being rebranded as businessmen. I heard a legal pimp in Nevada refer to his business as similar to that of McDonalds. Except in the case of prostitution, human beings, not dead flesh, are the product for sale.

Alongside other countries and states that have removed criminal penalties against sex trade exploiters, such as Holland, Germany, Nevada (US), and some states in Australia, New Zealand helped to make selling sex as respectable and devoid of red tape as selling cars. The application form for opening a brothel in New Zealand is just two pages long: three pages shorter than the form needed to adopt a dog or cat from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

One of the many survivors of the sex trade I met during my research is Sabrinna Valisce, who volunteered with the NZPC over a 25-year period. Valisce campaigned alongside her colleagues for blanket decriminalisation, but now regrets doing so. I thought it would give more power and rights to the women, she told me, but I soon realised the opposite was true.

According to Valisce, decriminalisation benefitted the punters and brothel owners rather than those selling sex within them.

Brothel owners could choose their prices, they say all-inclusive [which means the punter can have sex with the woman he has paid for as many times as he wishes], says Valisce. So clients would go into the room, see a girl and she would have to deal with them wanting to do anything and everything.

Under legalised and decriminalisation regimes, abuse suffered by the women is now considered an occupational hazard, like a stone dropped on a builders toe. In Amsterdam, which boasts window brothels where women are displayed in order that sex buyers can choose a woman to pay to penetrate, sex tourism is so normalised that even Thomas Cook used to offer guided tours around the red light areas of the city, during which children under three years old could go for free.

Across Holland, women have been imported by traffickers from Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia to meet the increased demand. There has been little or no support for women to exit prostitution, and the innate murkiness of the sex trade has not been washed away by legal benediction. As in Germany and Nevada, the close links between organised crime and prostitution has not been disrupted, and women are still being murdered by pimps and punters at an alarming rate.

A 2012 article in the journal World Development reported that countries with legalised prostitution have a statistically significantly larger reported incidence of human trafficking inflows.

Decriminalisation of the sex trade does nothing to protect those selling sex. I am one of many feminist abolitionists actively campaigning for an end to the criminalisation of prostituted people, and for the onus to be shifted onto the consumers. During the time I spent in legal brothels in Australia, Holland, Nevada and Germany, and so-called street tolerance zones, I found that the most pernicious effect of removing criminal sanctions from pimps and profiteers is the way it reframes prostitution as a straightforward commercial transaction, which, in turn, serves to hide the truth about the harm and abuse at the heart of the global sex trade.

Julie Bindels book The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth will be published by Palgrave Macmillan on 27 September 2017
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In most countries organising an illegal demonstration on Facebook might get you a fine or, if youre unlucky, a short jail sentence.

But there is one place where it can actually help get you the death penalty.

In Saudi Arabia today there are 14 pro-democracy demonstrators who face execution after being caught up in protests against the royal family which turned violent.

One of them, Mujtaba al Sweikat, was on his way to take up a place at the University of Western Michigan when he was arrested at one of the countrys airports.

On his charge sheet the teenager, who was just 17 at the time, was accused of supervising a group on Facebook and photographing the demonstrations, which is punishable according to the cybercrime bill.

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

So he wasnt exactly arrested at the scene, Molotov cocktail in hand.

Another death row juvenile, Ali al Nimr, was convicted of: Setting up a page on his Blackberry with over 800 people, naming it The Liberals, with the goal of inciting demonstrations by way of sending pictures of the demonstrations , their time/locations and inviting people to participate.

Hardly storming the barricades but, again, enough to appear on his charge sheet.

Its a bit like the famous Not the Nine OClock News comedy sketch from the time of the Brixton riots when the racist police officer is berated by his sergeant for his over exuberance in arresting black people.

Offences include wearing a loud shirt in a built-up area, walking on the cracks in the pavement and loitering with intent to use a pedestrian crossing.

Funny if, as in this case, it wasnt so serious.

For not only were these mens, sorry childrens, confessions of violence made after prolonged torture but they were also denied access to lawyers and a fair trial.

Whats even more disturbing is the fact that British police may have directly helped arrest them.

 May denies suppressing report into Saudi Arabia's funding of extremism to protect arms deals

The human rights group, Reprieve, has warned that training from British officers was equipping Saudi police with skills that could be used to identify individuals who later go on to be tortured or subjected to other human rights abuses.

Britains secretive training of foreign regimes with dubious human rights records was heavily criticised in a parliamentary report last year.

The Home Affairs Select Committee found that the College of Policing had generated more than 8.5m in revenue through international work which included training in forensics, child abuse investigations and counter-terrorism.

The trouble is, as we all know, that one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist.

So those swept along by the Arab Spring who took to the streets of Saudi Arabia in 2011 may seem like romantic musketeers to some of us, but to the authorities there they are terrorists, pure and simple.

MPs were told that hundreds of Saudi Arabian police officers had been trained by the UK, but specific areas were not gone into so as not to identify Saudi areas of weakness.

However, according to the BBC, there were plans to widen the training from forensics to cybersecurity, mobile phone analysis and CCTV systems.

Does this mean that people like young Mujtaba and 20-year-old Munir al-Adam who was born disabled with an eye and hearing defect, are being spied on through social media with the help of British police?

Munirs charge sheet included the accusation that he had saved messages from rioters onto his mobile phone.

In essence, the Saudi authorities claim the protests turned violent and the men are being executed for attacks on police.

But the families and campaigners claim confessions were extracted under torture and so are not safe.

As Munirs mother, Um, 50, put it: Even if we suppose that, hypothetically, Munir is guilty as charged, is it fair and just that he receive a death sentence? Has he shed blood or killed someone?

Saudi Arabia wasnt the only place to have riots in 2011. We did as well, following a police shooting in Tottenham, North London.

But even the man who went on Facebook urging rioters to put Manchester on the map only got three years, much the same as those who actually did the looting.

The families of both Munir and Mujtaba dont deny that they were at the protests. But they do deny that they acted violently.

The United Nations and Human Rights Watch have said the demonstrations at the time were generally peaceful but often erupted into violence when Saudi forces used excessive force against the demonstrators.

Now a group of MPs, including former Labour leader Ed Miliband, have written to Theresa May calling on her to personally urge Saudi Arabias King Salman to halt the executions.

Their letter went on: We also ask that you take urgent steps to confirm that UK assistance played no role in these individuals conviction under Saudi Arabias anti-cybercrime law.

Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, was a bit more blunt when she condemned the Prime Ministers deafening silence on the issue.

When 14 young men face imminent beheading for protest-related offences, simply raising the cases in private doesnt cut it, she said.

Lets hope the PM does something to make a difference before any royal assent to the executions is given. It's currently down to crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, because his father, King Salman, is on holiday.

The things they delegate when they go on a break.

Anthony Harwood is former foreign editor of the Daily Mail
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks during a press conference at Queen's University in Belfast on his first visit to Northern Ireland: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has laid out his "practical solutions" aimed at ensuring that there is no hard border on the island. Options include the formation of a customs union between the UK and the EU or the UK rejoining the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

However, he warned Britain that these solutions would not be offered. The UK would have to come asking, he said.

The Taoiseach said the UK was growing increasingly aware of the negative consequences of Brexit.

In a speech at Queen's University in Belfast - his first visit to the North since he took office - Mr Varadkar said the onus was on those advocating a hard border to state how it would work and then convince the public that new economic barriers are in their interests.

"They've already had 14 months to do so," he said. "If they cannot - and I believe they cannot - we can then talk meaningfully about solutions that might work for all of us."

These include the possibility of an EU-UK customs union, akin to what currently exists between Turkey and the EU, he said.

If the UK doesn't want to be in the single market, it could enter into a "deep" free trade agreement with the EU and rejoin EFTA.

While these are being worked out, a transitional period, in which the UK remains in the customs union and single market, could be put in place, he added.

"These are the practical solutions I am proposing."

However, he warned: "These solutions will not be offered, they will have to be asked for. And this can happen only after sufficient progress is made on an agreement on the financial settlement, protecting citizens' rights and key issues relating to Ireland, such as the Common Travel Area."

Mr Varadkar's visit to Belfast came after speculation that Dublin was pushing for the economic border to be in the Irish Sea, rankling unionists. Arlene Foster accused Mr Varadkar of disrespecting the will of the British people by publicly admitting that he hoped Brexit would never happen.

However, the Taoiseach moved to dispel the suggestion that the Government favoured making the Irish Sea the EU/UK border and claimed that a "soft" Brexit could strengthen Northern Ireland's place within the UK.

Mrs Foster, who met Mr Varadkar yesterday, as did the other political leaders in the North, said options for Brexit were "not binary", dismissing the characterisation of 'hard' and 'soft' exits.

Mr Varadkar's address at Queen's was well received by a diverse audience, which gave him a standing ovation as he left.

The solutions he put forward will be seen as an attempt to encourage London to follow suit. But a free trade agreement would take several years to thrash out, thereby requiring, as he stated, a transition period in which the UK remains in the customs union and single market if a hard border is to be avoided.

Persuading the British to back the latter will be difficult, if not politically impossible for Theresa May.

She has already ruled out allowing free movement of people from March 2019 onwards - a key requirement for continued single market membership.

Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar revealed that he is planning the abortion referendum by the back end of next year.
More than 300m worth of rental apartment blocks and portfolios are expected to be sold in the second half of this year according to the latest investment property report from estate agents Lisney.

Among them could be about 200 units at the Grange apartment scheme, near Stillorgan, which was developed by Ray Grehan at the height of the boom and which are expected to come to the market.

Lisney reports that strong demand for apartment blocks has seen the sector become the strongest investment performer in the 12 months to June.

Despite rising rents, prices being paid for private rental sector (PRS) investments are rising even more rapidly and this is reflected in the reduced yields from this sector.

Over the second quarter of the year, PRS yields dropped by 25 basis points and over the 12 months by 75 basis points.

Nevertheless, at 5.75pc gross, they are still higher than the yields from prime retail and offices. The latter saw yields increase by 10bps during the 12 months to 4.5pc, according to Chris Belton of Lisney.

The key reason for the upsurge in PRS demand has been the hype around the housing shortage, says Richard O'Neill of Allsop.

"Earlier in the year some agents were concerned that the 4pc cap on rents in the rental pressure zones might deter investors, but investors appear to have shrugged off those concerns," he adds.

Not all agents are assured. Ross Harris of Cushman & Wakefield says that he would like to see the sector's performance over the next quarter at least before he can be assured on the cap. Yet he also believes that yields could harden by a further 25bps in the coming months.

"We have seen demand coming from US, British and European investors who are not yet in the Irish market. Some of them are institutional and so they can adopt a long-term view and accommodate lower yields," he adds. Among the deals which are expected to complete this year is German fund Patrizia's advance purchase of two blocks at Cosgrave's Honeypark development in Dun Laoghaire comprising 319 apartments. The Hooke and MacDonald-brokered deal is believed to have secured 132m.

In addition,Dublin Artisan Development Fund - backed by the Irish Strategic Investment Fund -has bought 131 apartments at New Bancroft Hall, Tallaght, from Park Developments for more than 30m. But the 300m could be more than doubled if Pat Crean's Marlet succeeds in getting forward funding for his planned 1,800 apartments on six Dublin sites whose combined value alone could top 500m.
A team of daredevil pigs will attempt the impossible at this year's Tullow Agricultural Show when they will bounce around a small obstacle course.

The pigs, a mix of Tamworth, Duroc, Oxford Sandy and Black and Pietrain breeds, will strut their stuff as part of the show's first ever pig agility demonstrations.

Up to 10,000 spectators are expected to turn out for the Carlow county show, celebrating it's 69th birthday, on the vast Coppenagh site on Sunday, Aug 20.

Local rugby hero and farmer Sean O'Brien, aka "The Tullow Tank" will also be on hand to help out with traffic management.

Other top attractions include All-Ireland tug of war competitions, a tractor pulling contest, cattle and sheep showing, vintage machinery display, goat and donkey classes and miniature horse novelty show jumping.

Mariea O'Toole, Tullow Agricultural Show pro said the talented porkies are sure to be a fan favourite.

"The pigs will be put through their paces, Mariea said. The pigs will jump through fake hoops of fire, as the tinsel flaps to make it appear like real flames, and complete a small little obstacle course.

"Members of the audience will be able to get involved when two mammies or two daddies compete against each other with the pigs around the course. It will be a bit of fun for everyone."

Mariea said the tractor pulling always generates a crowd as does the art work exhibitions from school children in the area which will be judged at the show.

Cookery demonstrations and cocktail making classes will also feature inside the food pavilion hall.

Sean O'Brien volunteers to work at the show every year.

"He has always helped out even as a youngster growing up. For anyone with children in sport he is their hero and it means a lot to us that he still gets involved every year," she said.

The Tullow Agricultural Show is a trade show that helps promote local business and in turn, helps build a stronger local economy.

"A lot of people travel home and have their holidays around it so it's an important date in the calendar.

"It's great for the local economy and every year we give a new business in the area a free stand and that has been really important for us.

"All food served on the day comes from local supermarkets and the local pub will do a bar on site too so it is very community and county based," she said.
Six out of nine directors of troubled Conroy Gold and Natural Resources have been removed from their position.

The six directors were removed yesterday following an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin convened at the behest of minority shareholder Patrick O'Sullivan.

In addition to the removals, it was proposed that Mr Paul Johnson, Mr Gervaise Heddle and Mr O'Sullivan be appointed to the board with immediate effect.

However, resolutions to appoint new directors did not pass at this time.

Shares in Conroy Gold, whose share price has fallen by more than 99pc since 2000 - from a 13 high to a low of 0.10 - closed yesterday at 0.31.

Prof Conroy, an exploration industry veteran, will remain on the board alongside Maureen Jones and Professor Garth Earls.

The six directors removed are C David Wathen, Michael E Power, Louis J Maguire, Dr Sorca Conroy, Seamus Fitzpatrick and James Jones.

The EGM follows a High Court action earlier this week in which Mr O'Sullivan informed the court he had concerns about corporate governance and remuneration of board members.

The company is currently looking to develop a commercial gold mine at Clontibret in Co Monaghan.

The company last year said it had found five new gold zones at Clontibret following a drilling programme.

However, some shareholders have grown impatient at what they believe is a very slow and cautious approach to development of the mine and bringing gold to market.
Topaz brand ambassador Alan Quinlan with Wendy Griffin, her son Eric (4), Eric has a rare form of epilepsy and is a patient of the Jack and Jill Foundation, and Sinead Moriarty, Marketing Manager, Topaz

Topaz will this weekend Raise a Teacup to the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation by donating 50c of the Add a pastry for 1 offer in its Re.Store retail outlets to the childrens charity from Saturday to Monday.

The campaign is part of the 20 anniversary celebrations of the Jack & Jill Foundation, which involve Afternoon Teas being held throughout the country to raise money for essential services.

As part of the campaign to raise awareness Topaz will be hosting tea mornings at participating sites on Saturday 5 August from 10am-12pm, attended by local Jack & Jill families.

The tea parties will be taking place in a number of locations around the country including Topazs Carlow M9 service station, Topaz Cashel, Topaz Ballacolla in Laois, Topaz Kill in Kildare, Topaz Clonshaugh in Dublin, Topaz City Avenue, also in Dublin, Topaz Ballysimon, Limerick, and Topaz Tuam, in Galway.

This campaign also marks 200,000 raised to date by Topaz for the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation, through various campaigns including Small Change for Big Change, and their recent LEGO Exchange drive, where customers could donate loose LEGO to Topaz stores to raise money for Jack & Jill.

These campaigns undertaken by Topaz have resulted in the provision of 12,500 hours of home care nursing to date for the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation.

The Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation, which was founded in 1997, provides direct funding to families of children up to the age of four years old suffering from severe intellectual and physical developmental delay as a result of brain damage, enabling them to purchase home nursing and respite care.

While parenting for most is about feeding, changing, teething, and wishing for a good nights sleep, parenting for the families supported by Jack & Jill involves coping with seizures, feeding tubes and pain, alongside medication, physio appointments and hospital visits.

"I would like to extend my thanks to all Topaz staff, who have been invaluable in these fundraising efforts, and also to Topaz customers for their continued support of our worthy cause," Hugo Jellett, CEO of the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation, said.
'It was in the interests of all the affected parties that he confirm Mr Hughes as examiner, the judge added.' Photo: Reuters

There have been seven expressions in interest in acquiring companies involved in specialised sales and marketing and in publishing the Golden Pages directory, the High Court has heard.

Last month the High Court appointed Mr Neil Hughes as interim examiner to Dublin based FCR Media Ltd which publishes the golden Pages directory and related firm FCR Tech UAB. FCR Tech UAB is incorporated in Lithuania, is the Irish based company's sole shareholder and holds the intellectual property rights to Golden Pages.

Both companies form part of the FCR media group which provides search and advertising services in 10 countries in Europe and has more than 1000 employees across its operations.

The decision to seek the protection of courts was made after FCR media group withdrew its interests in the Irish market meaning the firms could no longer pay their debts as they fell due.

In a ruling yesterday afternoon, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said that on balance he was satisfied to continue the examinership and confirm the "experienced and accredited," Mr Hughes as examiner.

It was in the interests of all the affected parties that he confirm Mr Hughes as examiner, the judge added.

The decision gives the firms up to 100 days to come up with an arrangement with its creditors, which if approved by the High Court, would allow the business to continue to trade as a going concern.

The judge, who noted that time was of the essence in the examinership process, confirmed the appointment after Ross Gorman Bl for Mr Hughes told the court that following the close of the deadline seven parties had indicated to Mr Hughes their interest in the undertaking.

Counsel said that several of the interested parties, whose identity are confidential, are "well known brands" in the marketing and advertising sectors.

Mr Gorman said that Mr Hughes had prepared a report stating his belief the firms have a reasonable prospect of survival if a scheme is approved.

The matter will return before the High Court later this month.
What cover do you have if you fall ill abroad? PA Photo/thinkstockphotos.

Having a health insurance policy may not be enough to cover you if you fall ill abroad  or even ensure that you are given private care in an emergency situation.

People who disclose that they have private health insurance when they attend A&E are charged for private cover even if they are getting public care, according to Irelands leading health insurance expert.

"Someone will approach you and ask you to sign a form to say you have private health insurance. It may be the same public bed and you may see the same doctor, nothing will change except your insurance will be paying for it," Dermot Goode told independent.ie

In 2014, then minister for health James Reilly introduced a measure whereby health insurers would be liable for the full costs of their patients while they attended public hospitals.

A private patient in a public hospital can pay 813 a night for a bed in a ward (up to 180 nights) or 1000 for a private room. This is in contrast to public patients costs of 75 a night, capped at 750 over a twelve month period.

Patients with private health insurance admitted to hospital via A&E are asked to sign a form declaring where they are a public patient, although they are not obliged to declare as private.

Declaring as private wont necessarily mean that the patient will get a different level of service than in the public sector. It does mean that your insurer will be charged considerably more, though, a cost that has been suggested as putting more pressure on premiums.

"Every patient is entitled to get public treatment at 80; this hospital charge does have a direct impact on the health insurance industry," Mr Goode said.

Unfortunately, if you want to make sure you get the accommodation of your choice, you have to go to a private hospital. So if you are private, you are best off going to see a GP and getting referred to a private hospital. You'll get seen properly in a few days.

With insurers obliged to pay the costs of patients who declare, public hospitals are also more likely to keep a patient in for longer than is necessary, according to Mr Goode; another factor that could be impacting rising insurance premiums.

"In the case of the private hospitals, the insurance companies are actually quite strict, with 65pc of procedures carried out as day cases," he said.

"If a private hospital, in comparison to a public hospital, keeps the patient in for longer than is necessary, they will not be paid in full."

What cover do you have if you fall ill abroad?

While there is some debate about whether you should declare as private in an emergency situation at home, having a health insurance policy might not be cover enough if you are unlucky enough to fall ill abroad.

Some holiday makers prefer to opt for a travel insurance policy or the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) while travelling abroad and some believe that their private policy will provide the essential cover. However, Mr Goode believes that all three types of cover are required.

"Most plans have emergency medical cover while you are travelling abroad but it is important that you are admitted as the plans cover admissions only, he said.

Most insurance policies cover up to a value of 55,000 - 100,000 following an accident or emergency, which may not be adequate if the patient requires treatment in a hospital in the US, for example.

Thus, carrying the EHIC card - designed to cover public hospital treatment in the EU - and taking out a travel insurance policy is also advised. But Mr Goode warns that the devil is in the detail here.

"Be careful when you are purchasing a travel insurance policy; one of the questions they will ask is if you have private health insurance. If you say yes, it will bring the premium down, but they will only cover the excess after the health insurer pays out, they will only cover the costs after that."

Those travelling in a matter of weeks are advised to check with both the health insurer and the travel insurer that will be providing cover.

"Call and ask them about the length of cover while abroad, tell them where exactly you are going, how long you will be staying and what activities you plan to do  and what excesses there are.

"At least if one of you gets sick on the holiday, you will then know exactly what to do."

'We would love to be able to help... but it is just not possible'

The Kevin Bell Foundation aims to alleviate the financial hardship of bereaved families repatriating the body of a loved one who has died abroad in sudden or tragic circumstances back to Ireland.

The group's Colin Bell has come across cases of people who are facing financial difficulties due to high medical bills while abroad.

"We only repatriate bodies but we get an awful lot of requests from people who are in hospitals facing big bills and we are unable to help because it is outside our remit," he said.

"We get a lot of requests from people who have had an accident and they are not covered by insurance."

On average the Kevin Bell Foundation gets about one to two calls a month from people requesting assistance on their medical bills - but there is nothing that they can do, said Mr Bell.

"Its annoying that you cant do something but we are the only charity that repatriates, we would love to be able to help in the other cases but it is just not possible."

Mr Bell warned that in the US or Canada, especially, people who are ill and want to get home and have no health insurance cover can face massive bills.
Anti-EU slogans in Athens at the height of the financial crisis. The country remains split about how the economy is faring. Photo: Bloomberg

The continuing legal troubles of Andreas Georgiou, the former head of Elstat, Greece's official statistical agency, show how economic statistics, far from being a boring matter of interest only to geeks, can be an intensely political matter.

Different interpretations of accounting rules can lead to sharply different political decisions, and these, in turn, can affect public trust in the official numbers in unpredictable ways.

Georgiou has been in trouble with Greek prosecutors since 2011, a year after Elstat was formed following a long confrontation between the old Greek statistical agencies and Eurostat, which compiles statistics for the European Union.

Eurostat had produced two damning reports on the quality of Greek statistics, in 2004 and early 2010. Both discussed the Greek government's persistent under-reporting of debt and deficit levels, which had to do both with the low quality of the underlying data and, according to Eurostat, with deliberate misreporting.

Greek statisticians were reluctant to fully account for various indirect government obligations, such as guarantees on state companies' debt, and they tended to be over-optimistic when estimating tax collection levels. Greece was allowed to adopt the euro on the basis of inaccurate statistics.

Georgiou, a former International Monetary Fund employee, was called in to set up a statistical service that could work with the IMF and Greece's EU partners, which had just agreed to participate in the first Greek bailout.

The creditors needed accurate numbers to put forward conditions and monitor progress.

Georgiou went to work; in November, 2010, he revised Greece's 2009 budget deficit to 15.4pc of gross domestic product from 13.6pc.

But he hadn't taken into account the seriousness of his conflict with much of Elstat's seven-member board and with many staff veterans who objected to his attempts to recognise as much economic distress as possible.

In 2011, econometrics professor Zoe Georganta, one of Georgiou's board opponents, accused him of inflating the 2009 deficit number so that the IMF and the EU could issue "unnecessary loans" to Greece and take over its economic governance, imposing austerity on the country.

According to Georganta, who wants Greece to leave the euro area, the idea was "to save the French and German banks by loading debt upon debt on the Greek people".

She claimed that under EU accounting rules, Greece's actual deficit was less than 4pc of GDP and Georgiou shouldn't have incorporated 17 public enterprises into the general government budget.

Eurostat has since repeatedly validated Georgiou's methods and results, and the international statistical community has been on his side, too, even shouldering his legal expenses.

Besides, the 13.6pc number agreed before Georgiou arrived at Elstat was already high enough to justify a bailout. But to Georganta, and to the prosecutors who have followed up on her claims and charged Georgiou with various offences, including working against Greece's interests, that's irrelevant.

If this were just a dispute about accounting methods, it would have died long ago, both in the courts and in public discourse. It would have been enough for authorities in the field, and especially Eurostat, to validate Georgiou's approach.

The case drags on because it's about two conflicting versions of Greece: one that depicts it as a profligate, unfortunate, mismanaged country that is now the EU's ward; the other as a victim of international bankers and their IMF and EU lackeys, which could have escaped their clutches but was betrayed by the likes of Georgiou.

It doesn't matter that not recognising the state entities' debts was not an option, that the international creditors were forced to take a hefty haircut and that the governments of creditor nations faced political revolts over the size of the bailout, which was mainly an effort to save the euro rather than German and French banks.

Many Greeks appear to share Georganta's view, which is more consistent with national pride - and that shows in their attitude to government statistics.

Though both the EU and Elstat's authoritative Good Practice Advisory Committee have lauded the changes in Greece's approach to economic statistics, brought about under Georgiou, a 2015 Eurobarometer survey registered a growing distrust of official statistics in Greece.

In 2009, when Eurostat considered the data supplied by Greece to be inaccurate, a majority trusted the statistics; in 2015, when Eurostat was happy, a majority mistrusted them.

Even today, Greek economic statistics may be inaccurate: Elstat has only 70pc of the staff it employed in 2010, because it has been unable to replace retiring civil servants.

According to the Good Practice Advisory Committee, it doesn't have enough people to meet European standards of reporting and analysis. But that's not why public trust has plummeted: People hate what they see in the statistical mirror.

Eurostat regularly questions the data members share with it; there is plenty of scrutiny and pressure to comply with standards.

But the Greek case shows how easy, and how tempting, it can be for a government that isn't continually challenged in this way to tweak the numbers.

Often, it may want a happier picture, sometimes a more sympathy-inducing one.

Hence the persistent doubts about China's economic data, dissent about the Russian government's numbers, partisan debates about the validity of the methods used in the US to measure unemployment.

Independent validation of government statistics and, ideally, common accounting standards are necessary for a clearer picture of what's going on in the global economy. (Bloomberg View)
In 1950s Britain, the Montagu case was breathlessly described as "the biggest gay sex scandal since Oscar Wilde". Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and his friend Peter Wildeblood, then a journalist with the Daily Mail, were arrested after a sustained effort by police to punish them for homosexual 'offences'.

Yet their trial and subsequent conviction would go on to mark a change in public opinion, sparking a chain of events that would, within a decade, lead to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain.

While in Wormwood Scrubs, Wildeblood underwent a harrowing amount of psychiatric treatments, from aversion therapy to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). A year later, he was determined to square up to the draconian laws surrounding homosexuality and testified before the Wolfenden Committee about the brutality of being a gay man at the time.

Growing up in Waterford and attending boarding school in Cork in the late 70s and early 80s, a young teenager, Fergus O'Brien, would read about Peter Wildeblood's experience.

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"It was a heavily Catholic boarding school in Castlemartyr and I remember having to send off to the UK for the book as it wasn't one you were likely to find in Easons," he notes wryly.

"When I read the book it was terrifying in a way, because even though I knew we were living in different times, in some ways things weren't that different for gay people. You wouldn't go to jail, but attitudes hadn't changed that much."

Little did O'Brien know at the time that he would go on to direct a critically acclaimed docudrama about the Montagu case, screening this weekend at the GAZE LGBT film festival in Dublin. Starring Daniel Mays, Mark Gatiss and Charlie Creed-Miles, Against The Law is a dramatisation of Wildeblood's romance with Eddie McNally, and McNally's subsequent betrayal in a bid to save himself from the authorities.

"I thought very carefully about how to portray (the romance), the magic of falling in love and meeting someone significant, and how Wildeblood took a chance on falling in love knowing it was illegal. Falling in love is a moment you want to tell everyone about."

Mays in particular is a revelation as Wildeblood, and working with a group of young actors was a novel experience for O'Brien, primarily a documentary maker.

"Doing drama appealed to a controlling part of my personality," he smiles. "When it came to filming the sex scene with one actor who was straight and another who was bisexual, I decided it would be the last thing that we shot. The boys were like, 'can we not just get it out of the way?', but I wanted them to have a connection. That afternoon, we went up to the bedroom and we joked around, and I showed them how they would need to move, or roll around. It was so silly and hilarious that it took the fear out of doing the scene for us.

"We had a good laugh in the end, mainly because I'd bought some champagne for us in the lunch break." Yet what gives Against The Law its true emotional heft is the interspersion of interviews with real life British men who underwent similar experiences to Wildeblood's before homosexuality was decriminalised.

"We wanted to make something that was more than just a period drama, and these men represent thousands of men," notes O'Brien. "I had known about the ECT based on Pavlovian experiments and I didn't really know before I met these men that the psychiatric profession at the time saw themselves as gods that could 'cure' the condition of being gay. It was a privilege, and very humbling, to talk to those men.

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"Making the film, there was a bit of a concern - will it all seem like a very long time ago?" he adds. "When I met these men, you could still see the impact the law had on them, and how scared they were at the time."

Born in 1967, O'Brien moved from Ireland to London in the late 80s, where he "gingerly" came out of the closet. Homosexuality was still a crime in Ireland and would remain so until 1993.

"Like many people who moved to bigger cities, I thought even if things were not necessarily better, they were places where one could be anonymous and everyone wouldn't know your business," explains O'Brien. "It was only much later, in 2007, that I would encounter a real experience of negativity and homophobia in London, being singled out on the street and beaten up.

"Even then, the LGBT thing was quite political: to go on a Pride march was a real political statement, where other people would stand on the side of the road and sneer. These days, the politics have been slightly forgotten and there's something good and positive in the idea that the younger generations don't feel they need to make a big political statement, but it's important not to lose sight of the politics. As we've seen in places like Eastern Europe, and even the US with transgender people in the armed forces, what can be given can be taken away."

In Ireland, of course, the LGBT community has rarely been far from the political agenda: thanks to their activism, the gender recognition bill was passed in 2015, as was the marriage equality referendum.

O'Brien watched the latter from a geographical remove, but it was still a hugely emotional time. "When I heard the news, I definitely shed a tear," he says. "I was just so proud of Ireland that day."

Ireland's LGBT community have moved inexorably towards social equality, but O'Brien notes that there is still an important place in society for LGBT spaces, and festivals like GAZE, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

"It's important that people can have a place where their particular culture is celebrated and they can see their own experiences reflected back at them in the same way that heterosexual people see every day," he says. "Gay culture has infused with broader culture, whether in pop or art or film, but weekends like this allow people to express themselves, and reminds them of their history."

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Against The Law screens on Sunday at 4.30pm in the Light House Cinema as part of the GAZE Film Festival. The festival runs until August 7, see gaze.ie.

GAZE 2017 highlights

1. A retrospective screening of Neil Jordan's quietly seismic The Crying Game (tonight, 10.30pm), released 25 years ago, marks one of the first portrayals of LGBT characters in Irish film.

2. Following up on her recent documentary exploring her mother's Irish birth family, After The Dance director Daisy Asquith returns to Ireland for the Irish premiere of Queerama (Sunday, 8.30pm). A century of British gay experience is brought to life, selected from the extensive BFI Archive.

3. German filmmaker Tristan Ferland Milewski brings us aboard a seven-day gay cruise with passengers from 89 nations in his documentary Dreamboat (tonight, 8.30pm). It's a trip of liberation that, against a thumping soundtrack, lays bare intricacies of modern gay life.

4. A taut and terrifying psychological thriller, The Dark Mile (tonight, 8.30pm) sees a London lesbian couple take a boat trip to reconnect after a personal tragedy. Their idyllic journey into the Scottish Highlands soon turns into a horrifying ordeal. Director Gary Love will take part in a Q&A.

5. Tom Of Finland (Saturday, 8.30pm) is the beautiful and thrilling true story of cult Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen and his journey to international success.
At least six hospitals have not been affected by the HSE software glitch that could see thousands of patients needing new scans and tests.

However, the situation at dozens of other hospitals remains unclear as the HSE continues to investigate the implications of a flaw in the system that has raised concerns over the recording of more than 20,000 patient scans.

Last night, it emerged that HSE boss Tony O'Brien has said that a company that deals with the software for the health service knew about the fault as far back as January 2016.

In a letter to other senior officials, he wrote that it is "of grave concern to me" that the company, Change Healthcare, didn't inform the HSE of the issue at the time.

The problem with the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (Nimis) software was spotted by a consultant radiologist in a regional hospital last week.

The software was introduced in 2011 and is used to archive scans such as MRIs and ultrasounds.

The flaw saw the computer programme omit the 'less than' symbol in reports when scans like MRIs and ultrasounds were being archived so, for example, if an artery was recorded as narrowing by 'less than 50pc', the file would have wrongly said the narrowing was 50pc.

The Irish Independent has established that the hospitals of the St Vincent's Healthcare Group in Dublin do not use the software affected by the glitch. A spokesperson said that includes St Vincent's University Hospital and the Private Hospital in Ballsbridge, as well as St Michael's Hospital in Dun Laoghaire. The HSE also last night confirmed University Hospital Galway did not use the software.

Cork University Hospital and Mercy University Hospital previously moved quickly to reassure their patients that their scans were not affected.

The HSE last night did not say how many of its other hospitals had been hit by the software problem. According to reports last night, HSE director general Mr O'Brien said that US-based Change Healthcare sent the HSE a software update last August to resolve the problem with the 'less than' symbol but the HSE wasn't made aware that the 'patch' was for this purpose.

A statement from Change Healthcare said patient safety drives all of the company's work.

It added: "we are working hard to understand exactly what happened in this case.

"We are working with the HSE to address the issue.

"An internal investigation is currently underway in Change Healthcare to establish exactly what happened.

"When our internal investigation is complete we will provide further formation as soon as possible thereafter."

Patients face an anxious wait to find out if their scans have been affected and whether they need to be retested or referred for further treatment.

The HSE has stressed that the expert advice is that there is "a relatively low clinical risk to patients" but it will contact patients if concerns arise about their cases.

While the HSE investigation - which may take up to two months - continues, any patients with concerns have been advised to contact their doctor.
When historians review Donald Trumps presidency, they may look back at two events this past week as pivotal: unprecedented Republican and institutional resistance to the president from Capitol Hill to the Pentagon, followed by his installation of a tough new chief of staff.

At this point, its hard to say which of these will prevail. Increasingly wary Senate Republicans make clear they wont readily follow Trumps lead. And new staff chief John Kelly faces a tough job in bringing order to White House chaos, because the central problem in Trumps unpopular, ineffectual presidency is Trump.

It took several days in which his administration seemed to be imploding for the president to trigger the long-rumored shake-up. Normally, any of these would be seen as signifying major trouble:

Trumps open and covert warfare against his own attorney general, the first senator to back his long-shot candidacy, produced a sharp reaction from Jeff Sessions former colleagues. They told the president in no uncertain terms they would not consider a successor if he was fired.

A directive to reverse former President Barack Obamas acceptance of transgender people in the military, issued with minimal discussion and consultation in Trumps unconventional manner with a series of tweets, drew bipartisan condemnation. The nations top military officer refused to implement it, pending receipt of a more formal order.

Trumps new communications director, another political neophyte who boasted he loves the president, set off an unprecedented spectacle by trashing Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in vulgar and scatological language to a reporter who promptly his conversation with Anthony Scaramucci public.

And Trump began the week with another one of his embarrassingly un-presidential performances, turning a speech to the Boy Scout Jamboree that should have been focused on broadly acceptable subjects like American values into yet another political paean to himself.

The climax of the disastrous week came when a stripped-down version of the long-promised bill to repeal and replace Obamacare collapsed in a dramatic early morning Senate vote on which three GOP senators provided the crucial votes for the years biggest Republican legislative disaster.

Though that defeat was no orphan but had many parents, Trump reacted with a barrage of tweets threatening further efforts to undermine Obamacare. He then fired Priebus, the former Republican national chairman who had seemed over-his-head in trying to manage Trump and his White House.

His successor, a Marine general widely respected among his peers, has succeeded as secretary of homeland security in cracking down on illegal immigration, making it one of the administrations more effective parts. Such staff changes are not uncommon in new administrations; Bill Clinton replaced his initial, overmatched chief of staff with a more experienced Washington hand.

But Clintons choice, Leon Panetta, was a former congressman with two decades of political and governmental experience. By contrast, Kelly is a career military officer without political experience, who only met Trump months ago. He takes over a White House in which several top aides, plus members of Trumps family, are not used to taking orders from a chief of staff. But Kelly immediately showed his clout by firing Scaramucci.

In one sense, last week was the inevitable result of a president with neither governmental experience nor much interest in learning the ropes. But it also reflected the impact of Trumps preoccupation with the simmering investigations into whether his campaign improperly colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election campaign.

His clash with Sessions stems directly from his view the attorney general acted improperly in recusing himself from the Russia probe because of his role in the Trump campaign. That and Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey, also because of the Russia probe, led to appointment of Independent Counsel Robert Mueller.

And all indications are that Mueller has taken a broad view of his responsibilities that includes looking at Trumps business ties to the Russians, a subject the president has sought to keep off limits.

Many GOP senators who reacted so strongly against Trumps threats to fire Sessions were motivated by their belief his real target was Mueller. If he tries to fire the independent counsel, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned, it could be the beginning of the end of Trumps presidency.

That may be an exaggeration at this stage, given the fact that Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, which would launch any impeachment proceedings, made clear last week they are more interested in investigating 2016 loser Hillary Clinton than Trump.

Still, if Gen. Kelly cant cope with the loose cannon in the Oval Office, last weeks institutional resistance to the neophyte president will be only the beginning of his problems.
Gardai are looking to have further charges brought against a 24-year-old man accused of rape and false imprisonment of a Spanish student in Dublin, a court has heard.

The young woman, aged 18, had just come to Ireland in recent months to live with a host family.

She had been in Dublin on July 15 when she was allegedly brought to waste ground in the city's south side and raped.

The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with rape, false imprisonment and threat to kill or cause serious harm to the woman at the Irish Glass Bottle site, in Ringsend.

The man, who was described by his lawyer as having a significant history of mental problems, made no bail application at his first hearing on July 21 last.

At that hearing, Detective Garda Bryan Hunt said: "The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has directed trial on indictment on all three matters."

The accused faced his third hearing yesterday when he appeared before Judge Kathryn Hutton, at Cloverhill District Court. Det Gda Hunt asked for the case to be adjourned for four weeks "for further charges" and he added that a file is to be submitted to the DPP.

Defence barrister Aoife O'Halloran took instructions from her client in court and then told the judge that there was consent to the four-week adjournment.

The man, who was wearing a grey tracksuit, spoke once during the hearing to confirm that he wanted to appear in person rather than via videolink at his next hearing.

Judge Hutton was told that the man "is in custody by consent".

At his first hearing last month, the court directed a psychiatric assessment following a request by his solicitor.

The basis for the application was concerns raised by the defence for his mental well-being. His solicitor had said the man "does have a significant history" and had medical reports on him.

The defence solicitor had said given the seriousness of the charge, and the fact his client is in receipt of a social welfare payment, he was making an application for legal aid, which was also granted.

The accused had been originally arrested on July 17, two days after the alleged rape, but he was released without charge the following day. However, he was re-arrested for the purpose of being charged on July 21 last and has been in custody on remand since then.
An Irish man has appeared in court charged with murdering his estranged wife.

Paul Martin Jordan (54) is accused of murdering Elizabeth Mary Jordan (53) last Monday, July 31.

Mr Jordan, who is living in Bangor but is originally from Castleiney, Co Tipperary, was brought before Caernarfon Magistrates court on Thursday.

According to local media Mr Jordan was remanded in custody by Judge Eleri Rees after he spoke only to confirm his address and date of birth and that he preferred proceedings in English.

The judge fixed a plea hearing for October 4.

His trial, which is expected to take two weeks, is scheduled to take place in January.

Nursing home worker Elizabeth was discovered with fatal knife injuries at a property in Bangor, North Wales on Monday, July 31 and later died in hospital.

On Thursday, Mrs Jordans children released a touching tribute to their mother, saying she was naturally caring, kind and selfless.

They said: We as her children knew how much she doted on the two of us. Nothing was ever too much for Mum to help anyone in need and she always refused any gesture in return. She never passed judgement and treated everyone as her own.

"She was truly loved by family, friends, work colleagues and all who had the pleasure and privilege of meeting her. We are so very proud to be able to call her our mother, best friend and biggest role model in our lives. She will live on in our hearts forever and we will ensure that our memories of her will live on for as long as we live.

"To our beloved Mam, we adore you, we treasure you and we appreciate all that you did to ensure that we had the best in life. You made a massively brave decision at such a young age to move over to Wales to ensure that we had the best in life and we will forever be grateful for all that you did for us.

"We also want to extend our sincere appreciation to the emergency services who attended the scene with such urgency and have treated us all with the utmost respects and courtesy in our time of need, for that no words can ever describe our gratitude for all involved."

The children thanked the people who had sent them kind messages. "We will be forever grateful for the community support."

In a statement, DCI Brian Kearney of North Wales Police said: Despite an individual being charged with murder the increased Police presence in Maesgeirchen will continue for community reassurance and a point of contact for anyone to provide further information.

Detectives from the Investigation Team will also continue to conduct inquiries locally.

I am very grateful to our local community for the help we have received and Id reiterate my appeal that should anyone have any information that will help us fully understand the sequence of events that led to the death of Mrs Jordans to contact the police.
A US multinational sacked a worker here after he washed his feet in a container used for serving food in the factory canteen.

Martin Conroy sued for unfair dismissal against Baxter Healthcare and now the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) has found that it was reasonable for Baxter to conclude that Mr Conroys actions amounted to gross misconduct and that the firm was justified in sacking the long serving employee.

The EAT stated that what Mr Conroy did in washing his feet in the stainless steel container used for serving food represented unacceptable behaviour in the workplace.

A union shop steward, BOK gave evidence at the hearing and under cross examination, BOK said he had only heard about the feet incident after it had occurred and told the tribunal that he could not believe it.

Mr Conroy commenced working with the firm in 1977 and was promoted and moved to the Swinford base of the company in Co Mayo in 1989 and was employed as an electrical craftsman.

The unfair dismissal case was heard on eight separate days in Castlebar between April 25th 2016 and June 14th last and Mr Conroy told the tribunal that the decision to sack him in May 2014 was too harsh in the circumstances.

Mr Conroy said that around the time of the incident, he was very stressed and was suffering with diabetes.

He said that his doctor had advised him to look after himself and his feet as they could be susceptible to burning and sores due to the illness.

Mr Conroy told the Tribunal that he had taken to bathing his feet while working but only for medical purposes.

He agreed he had bathed his feet on the occasion in question and when he had been questioned about it he had admitted to using a steel receptacle to bathe his feet but had cleaned it thoroughly with anti bacterial soap when he was finished before returning it.

Under cross examination, Mr Conroy stated that, in hindsight, it had been the wrong to do using the utensil from the canteen to bathe his feet but again stated that he had only used it for medical purposes and had cleaned it thoroughly afterwards.

When put to him that he had never apologised for what he had done, he replied that I would now.

When put to him that he had given different versions of what had occurred regarding the steel container he replied that he could not recall.

Mr Conroy told the tribunal that he had not been in a good place at the time and felt that Baxter had had no compassion.

At a meeting with Baxter before his dismissal, Mr Conroy claimed that other staff were using canteen utensils for other things on the factory floor. He was asked for examples and who these people were but Mr Conroy would not offer up any names.

The company interviewed 25 employees in relation to the matter and the issues raised by Mr Conroy regarding other staff using canteen utensils on the factory floor and a final investigation repot was issued to Mr Conroy.

Baxter wrote to Mr Conroy that to tell him that his employment would be terminated as the bond of trust and confidence that form the foundation of our relationship with you has been irretrievably broken and we are left with no option other than to terminate your contract of employment effective as of today May 29th 2014.

Mr Conroy claimed that the decision to dismiss him was motivated by mala fides on the part of Baxter towards him and that effectively he was a marked man.

Mr Conroy also complained that Baxter had not taken into his account his attendance record and previous good conduct.

The tribunal found that Mr Conroy had washed his feet in a stainless steel container which was used for serving food and was of the view that this is unacceptable behaviour in the workplace.

The Tribunal also found that Mr Conroy gave inconsistent evidence regarding the container used and attempted to deflect responsibility

The EAT found that the decision to sack Mr Conroy was reasonable.

The EAT concluded: In this case, the Tribunal cannot accept that the mitigating factors referred to by the claimant (Mr Conroy) such as his work record could change the respondents (Baxter's) decision in relation to sanction. The Tribunal is of the opinion that the respondent dealt with the issue fairly and that it was not motivated by any other agenda.
Gardai at the scene near Ballyboughal in north Co. Dublin where the remains of a man were discovered in a ditch at the side of the road. Picture; Gerry Mooney

Gardai at the scene near Ballyboughal in north Co. Dublin where the remains of a man were discovered in a ditch at the side of the road. Picture; Gerry Mooney

Gardai at the scene near Ballyboughal in north Co. Dublin where the remains of a man were discovered in a ditch at the side of the road. Picture; Gerry Mooney

Gardai at the scene near Ballyboughal in north Co. Dublin where the remains of a man were discovered in a ditch at the side of the road. Picture; Gerry Mooney

Supt Noel Carolan, Balbriggan Garda station, at the scene near Ballyboughal in north Co. Dublin where the remains of a man were discovered in a ditch at the side of the road. Picture; Gerry Mooney

Gardai at the scene near Ballyboughal in north Co. Dublin where the remains of a man were discovered in a ditch at the side of the road. Picture; Gerry Mooney

Gardai are confident of making arrests in the case of a man who was stabbed about 40 times before his body was dumped in a ditch.

Last night, officers identified the victim as a national of an Eastern European country, and said they were satisfied that he was not killed where his body was dumped.

The grim discovery was made by a member of the public in north Dublin at about 10.40am yesterday morning.

The man's remains were discovered in a laneway off the R129 Ballyboughal to Oldtown Road, about a kilometre outside Ballyboughal, Co Dublin.

The victim is believed to be aged in his 30s.

The murder is not being investigated as part of the capital's bitter gangland feud.

Detectives from Balbriggan Garda Station are leading the detailed probe into the capital's latest murder.

No arrests have been made so far.

Gardai are investigating whether the victim had been dumped from a car.

As part of their investigations, they are understood to be trawling through CCTV to identify the vehicle and route taken by the man's killers.

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"We're appealing to anybody who might have been in the area [Friday] morning or [Thursday] evening," said Superintendent Noel Carolan, from Balbriggan Garda Station, at a media briefing yesterday afternoon.

"We're not entirely sure how far back this man's body actually came to the scene here.

"Anyone who was here over the last day or two who saw anything suspicious, or unusual vehicles, or people in the area, to get in contact with us at Balbriggan Garda Station.

"We'd like anyone who was his family, his work colleagues, to be in a position to come forward and let us know when they last saw him."

He said investigating officers are certain the man met a violent end.

"We are satisfied it is violent, and we are at a stage where we have commenced a murder investigation," said Supt Carolan.

"We don't have any reports of anyone missing in the area or locality.

"It looks as if he could have been there overnight, or maybe even a couple of days before that."

They do not believe the area the body was recovered was where the stabbing took place.

"In all probability, we are probably looking at a situation where the fatal injuries did not take place here," he said.

"It probably means there is more than just one scene."
Brave mother Abbie Finn has welcomed a plan for better street lighting, following the horrific collision in which she broke her neck and lost her heroic father.

Abbie (18) was walking with her dad Martin (60) on the dark Newcastle to Lucan Road in west Dublin when they were hit by an SUV on the night of January 17.

She has undergone two surgeries on her spine in recent months, in an effort to give her use of her left arm.

Abbie said that she welcomes plans to upgrade the site to include footpaths and street lighting.

Mr Finn was killed in the impact and Abbie was flung up in the air and across the road after her dad pushed her aside before being hit.

She was fitted with a 10lb metal halo frame to stabilise her injury after her neck was broken.

Now, more than six months later, Abbie has had the halo frame removed and had two painful surgeries on her neck to try and regain movement in her left arm.

There is still no footpath or street lights on that stretch of road at present.

But South Dublin County Council said that a 20m upgrade on the Newcastle Road is being put out to tender at present and it is hoped that work on the project may start this year.

Abbie welcomed the news.

"At least if they do put the footpath and lights down it might prevent anything like that happening again," she said.

"There are more and more people using that road now because more houses have been built and there is a real need for it to be upgraded."

Separately, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has warned motorists to be vigilant ahead of this bank holiday weekend.

At the August bank holiday weekend last year, there were 17 people seriously injured in crashes and two people were killed.

Moyagh Murdoch, CEO with the RSA, said that "summer is always a big worry for us".

She added: "We do traditionally see an increase in deaths, especially in July and August and then particularly at the bank holiday."
A 24-year-old Irish man has told of how he shocked his friends when he announced his decision to leave the hotel business - and join a Christian mission in Africa.

Eoin Waters, from Carron in Co Clare, will travel to Jinja, Uganda in early August to join the Camillian Mission.

He will undergo a year of training for the order, while also working in local clinics and hospitals.

Speaking to Independent.ie, Eoin said his friends were initially shocked by his decision.

"One of my friends said to me: 'Eoin have you lost it?' He thought I was mad but he was very understanding and there's been a lot of goodwill toward me. There's been very little negativity."

A former History and Economics student at the University of Limerick, Eoin says his volunteering with St Vincent de Paul during his time at the university was one of the reason's he wanted to join the St Camillus Mission.

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"It was a real eye opener for me as it was the time of the economic crash and so many were in poverty or had lost their jobs,"he said.

"Even from my own family when a close relation of mine was sick and in hospital and not looking his best, a nurse turned to me and said 'He's a beautiful man'. She was caring and saw he was still human. It really stood out for me."

Eoin said he knows that not many young people are interested in attending Mass but is hopeful for the future of Catholicism.

"It's important to get young people active. A lot of the time young people will only go into a church if they've a funeral to go to but I think helping those in need in organisations like St Vincent de Paul is a good introduction to the Church for them," he said.

The Clare man's eventual aim when he returns from Uganda is to study as a priest with the aim of becoming a hospital chaplain.

While he knows that becoming a priest will rule out him having a wife and children of his own, he believes he will be better able to help the community in his role as a priest.

"Obviously having a family is the most wonderful thing in the world but I'll get to help people in the community that I wouldn't normally be able to help if I had a family of my own," he explained.

Eoin will be following in the footsteps of Kerry man, Fr Tom O' Connor, who began his work in the St Camillus Order in Uganda in 2000 to help with the AIDS crisis. According to Eoin, since then the level of AIDS in Uganda has decreased but there is still a huge amount of work to be done.

"There's been a huge progression since 2000, but there's still so much poverty. It's still one of the world's poorest countries."

Apart from the poverty crisis, Eoin said that there will be more trivial things for him to get accustomed to when he arrives in the east African country.

He said: "I'll have to brace myself for the heat.

"The official language is English but there's a local dialect that I'll have to get my head around.

"There's eight or nine of us heading over there but most are from Uganda or India. I'm the only Irish man but that won't phase me. I've worked with so many different nationalities in the hotel business over the years."
An Irish man who was strangled with bubble wrap and dumped naked in a river in Colombia may have been in the country on behalf of the Kinahan cartel.

The body of Ballyfermot man Joe 'Packie' Moore (55) was discovered in a river close to the drugs hotspot city of Medellin in May.

It has now emerged that gardai are probing reports Moore had been in Colombia to "smooth things over" for the Kinahan cartel, who are understood to owe millions of euro to their Colombian suppliers of cocaine.

Smooth

"Packie Moore was considered to be a 'Mr Fix-it' type of individual," a source said on Friday night. "He was heavily linked to organised crime in this country for well over two decades. The question is, why was he in Colombia?

"He was trying to smooth things over for the cartel because they have cash-flow issues as a result of all the seizures gardai have made against them since the feud began.

"However, no one knows exactly what Packie was doing in Colombia when he was murdered."

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What is known is that the Ballyfermot man left Ireland for Spain around 20 years ago but continued to be involved with characters involved in serious crime.

He was considered a close associate of fellow Ballyfermot man and notorious international drugs trafficker George 'The Penguin' Mitchell.

However, in recent years, he had been in contact with a dangerous Ballyfermot mob whose henchman was raided by the Criminal Assets Bureau only last month.

The gang is suspected of importing millions of euro worth of drugs every month into the capital in second-hand cars imported from north-west England.

Moore was recently photographed with a 33-year-old Ballyfermot criminal who was heavily involved in a bitter feud in the region which led to four murders almost a decade ago.

Sources have also revealed that Moore was a key associate of murdered gangland criminal PJ Judge.

Death

PJ 'Psycho' Judge, a ruthless henchman connected with a number of gangland murders, was himself killed in a gun attack in the car park of the Royal Oak pub in Finglas in December, 1996.

Judge was a major suspect in at least three gangland deaths, was a big player in Dublin's heroin trade and suspected of dealing in ecstasy and cannabis.

Moore was considered one of Judge's closest pals before he left Ballyfermot for Spain around two decades ago after a garda crackdown on crime.

Earlier this week it emerged that Moore had been strangled with bubble wrap and his dead body dumped naked in a Colombian river.

His body was repatriated and he was cremated last month, with the aid of the Kevin Bell Trust.

He was a very popular figure in his native Ballyfermot and dozens of tributes have been posted online by friends and family.
The desire to punish or silence unfavorable press knows no party lines, according to a new survey released recently by The Economist and YouGov.

Nearly half of Republicans, a quarter of independents and one-fifth of Democrats favored permitting the courts to shut down media outlets for publishing or broadcasting stories that are biased or inaccurate. A majority of Republicans supported fines to punish such reporting.

Weaponizing the judicial system against the constitutionally protected freedom of the press is the work of a dictatorship, not the democracy prized by Americans for 241 years. This troubling report indicates the long-simmering feud between the politicians and journalists whose job it is to keep elected officials accountable is boiling over  and rapidly.

Democracy, as its often said, inherently carries the seeds that can be sowed to create its own demise. Following through on these authoritarian impulses would lead to real threats against the American experiment taking root.

Journalists arent perfect, as much as they try. Still, they own their mistakes with corrections. Legitimate news agencies have high standards for accuracy, professionalism and objectivity.

But facts are not biased, though they can be twisted to suit an opinion. Reporting and news are sometimes inconvenient to elected officials, but coverage isnt inaccurate simply because someone in a position of power says it is.

Furthermore, the press is guaranteed freedom under the U.S. Constitution, the seminal document for modern democracy  which should be cherished by all Americans. Instead, across the political spectrum, many surveyed seemed to think that freedom should be curtailed.

For proof, look no further than the White House. After all, its possible that Donald Trump wouldnt be president if it werent for the mass media to whom hes threatened opening up libel laws.

Cable news excessively covered his every move on the campaign trail  a benefit some industry experts estimated was worth more than $2 billion in free advertising for Trump. The New York Times expose on Hillary Clintons private email server gave Republicans an effective weapon the president still cites.

All the while, Trump bristles at  or sometimes is illustrated body slamming  what hes deemed fake news. Despite the popularity of this oxymoronic term, journalism and media will always serve a critical role in American democracy, holding those in power accountable.

Any nation without such a check on its government, no matter what its people wish, is hurtling toward  or already in  a dictatorship.
An Irish couple who were delayed 44 hours when their Belfast to London flight was cancelled were shocked to learn that they won't be entitled to compensation.

Patrick O'Brien (32) and his girlfriend Gillian Byrne, from Armagh and Dublin, were due to return to London on Sunday July 30 with easyJet after visiting home for a wedding.

However on arrival at the airport they were notified that their flight was delayed - and eventually cancelled.

"We queued for two hours and then were told 'we can't get you onto another flight until Tuesday'," Patrick told Independent.ie.

"They wouldn't compensate us if we were to book with another airline so they said they would get us a hotel. It was 1am by the time we got to our hotel," he said.

The couple weren't given any food vouchers, which is standard practise, and on Monday were asked to return to the airport to collect them but refused. In the end the airline organised that their hotel would supply them with food.

"On Monday they offered to put us on a flight to Bristol and get us a taxi to London but we had to get our car in Gatwick so that would have just been more hassle," he said.

Eventually the couple boarded a flight bound for Gatwick on Tuesday afternoon - a full 44 hours after they were due to start the one hour and 20 minute journey.

In that time the couple could have travelled to Australia (aprox 22 hours journey time), Japan (aprox 17 hours journey time) or Argentina (aprox 20 hours).

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"It's OK for me because I'm a teacher but my partner had to miss two days of work," Padraig said.

He said the airline explained pilot guidelines and airlines operating at almost 100pc capacity were behind the delay.

"They said that delays meant the pilots were over their allowed flying time and that because airlines are operating at capacity they expect it will be happening more over the next few weeks," he said.

Other passengers on the flight were forced to get taxis to Dublin and buy a new flight from there in order to make their connecting flight from London he said.

According to information released by the airline there were 541 cancellations in July 2017 compared to 350 in the same month last year.

The increase is due to external factors such as the London Gatwick runway closure on 17 July which caused around 100 cancellations as well as Air traffic control restrictions and weather which account for around 150 altogether according to the airline.

A spokesperson for easyJet said the company is sorry for the experience that these passengers had with their recent booking to London Gatwick. "Flights EZY841 and EZY842 between Belfast and London Gatwick on 30 July were cancelled due to air traffic control restrictions which meant crew reached their maximum working hours.

Unfortunately as it is the peak summer season flights to London were very full. This meant that we were unable to accommodate these passengers until 1 August.

easyJet adheres to its obligations under EU261 and is in touch with the family to discuss this.

The safety of its passengers and crew is the airlines highest priority.
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What will it take to unite Ireland? Opinions are divided

There are those for whom Northern Ireland is a geographical fragment of the UK holding true to empire on its western flanks, and those for whom partition is a century-old wrong that must be overturned. Somewhere in the middle are the persuadables  people willing to accept either unity or union, so long as the justification is logical. One way or another, the unity conversation is in the air.
The Boyne Music Festival, which takes place at Townley Hall, Drogheda, this Bank Holiday weekend, is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

The Festival was established in 2012 by sisters Aisling and Julie-Anne Manning of Ravensdale and their cousin Deirdre Brenner of the United States, and they have put together a programme featuring internationally acclaimed artists in a wide range of events, including concerts, tours, workshops, talks and more.

The festival has developed a sterling reputation for world-class chamber music. This year, two evening concert programmes, on Friday and Sunday, will offer guests the opportunity to hear masterworks by Brahms, Schubert, Mahler, Ravel, Faure and Rossini.

Saturday evening's concert combines greats of the classical and jazz worlds. Famed mathematician Marcus du Sautoy will give a talk on symmetry in Bach's Goldberg Variations on Sunday afternoon.

The talk will be interspersed with excerpts of the piece played by pianist Sholto Kynoch, and will be followed by a performance of the Dmitri Sitkovetsky string trio arrangement of the work by violinist Rita Manning, violist Paul Cassidy and cellist Jacqueline Thomas.

For further information about the weekend and booking visit, www.boynemusicfestival.com or phone 087 4396040.
The award winning Dundalk film maker Colm Mullen has a film being screened at the 2017 Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival, taking place in Kells, Co Meath next weekend from August 4 to 7.

'In 'Anima', visual artist Marie Brett explores questions relating to our understanding of death and dying in contemporary Ireland,' explains Colm. 'Through personal accounts and interviews with scholars and healthcare professionals - the conversations span medical, philosophical, folkloric and legal perspectives, offering an insight into the intimate and privileged moments of the artist/participant encounter.'

The film, which was funded through the 2016 artsandhealth.ie Documentation Bursary, is based on Marie Brett's research project Whispers? which saw her collaborating with St Francis Hospice, Raheny, UCD School of Social Sciences and Law and The National Folklore Collection.

Anima will also be screened as part of the Short Lens Documentary Competition on Monday August 7 12pm in the Hangar Cinema.
A charge of stealing almost 5,000 from the Bank of Ireland in Dundalk has been brought against a 20-year-old and will be heard at the circuit court after the district court judge in Dundalk refused to accept jurisdiction.

Patrick Obunike Ifeanyi, 11 Castlegrange Square, Castaheaney, Dublin 15, was charged with the alleged theft of 4899, belonging to the Bank of Ireland, at the AIB, Clanbrassil Street on December 16 2015.

Judge John Coughlan was told that the alleged victim, a woman, had checked an account she shared with her husband and saw that amount had been paid out without authorisation.

She contacted the bank and it is alleged the money, in cheque form, was paid into the accused's account. Judge Coughlan said he would not deal with it at district court level and wanted to know where the defendant was from.

Solicitor Peter Lavery said his client is originally from Nigeria, but has an Irish passport, works part-time and his family live here. He is a former DkIT student, the court was told and the solicitor added Ifeanyi has been in Ireland for 16 years.

Judge Coughlan wanted to know if the defendant had a Nigerian passport as well. He said he wanted the Irish and Nigerian passports handed over to Gardai as part of Ifeanyi's bail conditions. Mr Lavery said his client doesn't have a Nigerian one, but the judge said he didn't accept that.

The solicitor clarified that Ifeanyi's Nigerian passport is out of date and Judge Coughlan said he wanted it handed in anyway. The case was adjourned for a short time, with the defendant taken into custody, while his father brought the expired passport to court.

After a short adjournment, Gardai said they accepted the Nigerian passport was out of date and the Irish one had been handed over to them. The case was adjourned to November 11 for a book of evidence to be served.
A Louth man who had sex with a 15-year-old schoolgirl told her he could get her a fake passport if she wanted to come away with him to Northern Ireland, a court has heard.

The 29-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, warned the girl she would have to dye her hair and live as the name on the fake passport if she wanted to stay with him.

The girl later told Gardai that she had consensual sex once with the then 25-year-old man as they stayed at various hotel accommodation over a few nights while waiting for the passport.

Sergeant Louise McHugh testified that the teenager said she hadn't planned to leave home but that it 'just happened' after she missed a bus and didn't want to get into trouble with her mother.

The man pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last week to sexual intercourse with a minor at a hotel in Co. Dublin between November 28 and December 6, 2013.

He has 38 previous convictions including assault, burglary, criminal damage and theft.

Sgt McHugh told barrister Dara Hayes, prosecuting, that the man met the schoolgirl outside a pub the previous summer and the two had kept in phone contact.

They met twice to play pool together and on another date the girl stayed with the man in a hotel after spending a night out drinking with him.

On each of these occasions, the man purchased all her food and drinks but they had no sexual encounters.

Sgt McHugh told Mr Hayes that the girl had a half day from school when she met the man at a shopping centre on November 28, while still in her uniform.

He bought her a 60 phone and they spent the day drinking together at the centre before she agreed to stay with him when she missed her bus home.

Over the next few nights, the man booked them into hotel and B&B accommodation and organised a change of clothing for the schoolgirl from his female friend.

He told the 15-year-old that they would stay at the final hotel a bit longer while they waited for the passport.

He assured her he knew what he was doing as he had previously arranged a passport for a 16-year-old and nobody had ever found that teenager.

The girl told Gardai that the man had sex with her once and that she had been happy to run away with him.

She said that another couple joined them in the hotel room for the last few nights and she described spending the daytime with the female while the men went out to work.

Sgt McHugh said Gardai tracked the girl down to an internet cafe on December 6, after stopping the man and his male friend on a different street.

The girl told officers that the ten year age gap between her and the man didn't bother either of them and that while he never said he loved her, she felt there was something there.

She declined to make a Victim Impact Statement. Sgt McHugh agreed with barrister Dominic McGinn, defending, that his client has a history of self harm and had made serious attempts to take his own life. She also agreed that the man had co-operated with Gardai fully.

Mc McGinn submitted to Judge Cormac Quinn that it was the disparity in age that made the case against his client as there was no evidence of coercion or violence.

Referring to a psychologist's report, Mr McGinn submitted that some of the tragic elements of his client's background had been the catalyst for drug abuse and antisocial behaviour.

The barrister added that the man had tried to take his own life three weeks before the incident with the girl and that he was at a place in his life where he was looking for support.

Mr McGinn said being in prison awaiting sentence had given his client stability and structure and that he wants to deal with his drugs issue.

Judge Quinn ordered a probation services report about the defendant and adjourned the matter to October for sentence.
A Dundalk man accused of harassing a local businessman whom he claimed owned him money for cheques cashed at his store had the case against him adjourned once more after the judge found the businessman had in fact paid the defendant.

Thomas Maguire 77 Doolargy Avenue, Muirhevnamor, was charged which harassing Colin Fee on dates between November 15 2013 and February 2 2014, and of public order offences at Castletown Road on November 15 and 16 2013.

The court had earlier been told that the charges arose out of the accused's belief that he was owed 15,000 for cheques which he had cashed at Mr Fee's business and it was alleged he had left phone messages and threats.

Barrister Irene Sands had said Maguire was contesting the case as he has been wronged and was conned out of 15,000.

Mr Fee previously gave evidence that he and his brother have a petrol station in town and would cash cheques for people. They often cashed cheques for Maguire but he had gone into their premises and said they hadn't given him money. 'He kept harassing us and pursuing us'.

The case had been adjourned to last week after Judge Coughlan said he wanted to see proof that Mr Fee had handed over the money to Maguire.

Inspector Martin Beggy said significant efforts had been made by Mr Fee to get the proofs required, and he had been in touch with his bank who provided him with copies of the cheques to show they had been cashed. He said Maguire had continued to cash cheques with Mr Fee for two years following the alleged incident where money wasn't paid.

Maguire tried to represent himself in court last week, telling the judge he was insisting that he hadn't received the money.

Inspector Beggy said the matter had been in court for three years and Maguire had engaged six solicitors in that time. He said Mr Fee had been in court seven times, with a further witness having to come on one occasion from the United States.

Judge Coughlan said he accepted the evidence that Mr Fee had paid the money and told Maguire to get himself a solicitor. The defendant spent some moments trying to argue with Judge Coughlan that he hadn't been paid, but the judge ended it by saying: 'I will put you in the cells if you don't get a solicitor'.

The case was adjourned for a short time. After it was recalled. the judge said he was 'totally satisfied that the money has been paid to him' but he would agree to 'one final adjournment'.

The judge told Maguire: 'Get yourself a solicitor because win, lose or draw, it's going on on September 29'.
A new mediation service which aims to resolve conflict between members of the community and people or groups who operate outside the criminal justice system is setting up in Dundalk and wants to hear from people who have been affected by drugs dealers looking for money or loan sharks.

The service, which can be found at Conflict Resolution and Addiction Services Eire on Facebook, is made up of voluntary workers from a wide variety of backgrounds right across Ireland. They also work extensively in the area of cross and intercultural conflict.

One of the local workers involved, Michael Quinn McDonagh, explained: 'We try to prevent people from being bullied, threatened or physically harmed in any way by arranging for those in dispute to meet in a safe and neutral environment where, hopefully, they can reach a mutual and peaceful solution to their disagreement.

'Our role is to mediate, not to blame anyone, or take sides. We stay totally impartial at all times. We also work with the homeless and those sleeping rough and we can provide them with food, water, sleeping bags, clothes and a wide range of holistic therapies.

'We also try to link them in with local services to try to have their overall needs addressed. We try to arrange safe and suitable accommodation for them, but with bullying and active drugs use in some hostels, some people feel safer sleeping on the streets'.

Mental health and addiction is also being tackled by the new group. Michael said: 'We work in the areas of addiction or ritualised compulsive comfort seeking and mental health or issues of the mind.

'We provide a 26 week residential treatment programme for men over 18 and the programme is individually tailored to each person's needs, addressing all aspects of their lives'.

Addiction, he says, not only affects the person suffering from it, but also their families, friends and the wider community. He said: 'We work with everyone concerned to try to address any negative issues and to ensure the person's return to a safe and healthy environment.

'After completion of the treatment programme, we link people with the relevant services to ensure aftercare and continued support. There is also an outreach service for those who feel unable to enter or go on waiting list for treatment'. Some people have been referred for aftercare by the Peter McVerry Trust.

Prisoners are also being offered help, whether that be conflict or addressing any addiction or mental health issues. The group offers support to prisoners' families.

Michael said: 'We will be highlighting and addressing any social issues affecting people in our communities. We will take part in peaceful and dignified protest with any group that genuinely wants to help local communities. Conflict Resolution and Addiction Services Eire is not aligned or affiliated to any group or organisation. If you know someone whom we could help, don't hesitate to contact us.

'People selling or taking drugs are none of our business, but we have an issue with the face that some families barely have enough food to eat and are being forced to get loans, or hand over their social welfare books, to get money to pay off their kid's drug debt because they think they will be harmed. Other people are being intimidated on a daily basis in Dundalk, with some leaving the town completely.

'We don't take sides, and we are here to resolve conflict. Anyone who would like to volunteer can contact us'. Michael can be contacted through the Facebook page or at 085 2056884.
Dundalk stylist Niamh McKeever is searching for the next Miss Louth to represent the Wee County in Miss Ireland 2017.

Niamh, who has modelled since she was 14, represented Dublin in the Miss Ireland 2012 finals when she was placed in the top seven.

She has since decided to concentrate on developing a career as a stylist and has had her work featured on UTV, TV3's Expose as well as national newspapers.

Having directed and styled the Miss Ireland final in Dublin last year, she also styled the Miss Ireland fashion show for the Dublin Fashion Festival which was featured on UTV Ireland.

With this valuable experience under her belt, Niamh is now on the look out for someone to represent Louth in the Miss Ireland final which takes place in Dublin in October.

'This year I am looking for a girl who can win Miss Ireland,' she says. 'I know Louth has what it takes. I have worked with many aspiring models in the Dundalk area alone. However, the winner for me is the girl who puts herself forward rather than one who is asked to take part.'

The Miss Louth contest will take place in the Four Seasons Hotel, Carlingford on Tuesday August 22 and Niamh will be interviewing contestants on Saturday August 5. The judges will include Miss Ireland 2015 Sacha Liviningstone and actress Amilia Stewart from Fair city along with Niamh.

Niamh is also organising a fashion show for the night of the Miss Louth contest.

The contest is open to ladies aged 17 to 27 and anyone interested in taking part should contact Niamh at niamhmckeevernyc@gmail.com
There was great excitement for Lorraine Watters last week when she picked up her brand new Ford Fiesta ST Line from Fitzpatrick Motors, Bray.

Lorraine was the June car draw winner at Bray Credit Union and was delighted to pick up the keys to her new car.

Any member of Bray Credit Union Ltd, aged 18 years or over, can join the Bray Credit Union Ltd Monthly Car Draw for less than 1 per week. Application forms are available in the office of Bray Credit Union or can be downloaded from our website at www.braycu.ie.

Membership of Bray Credit Union Ltd is open to those living or working in their Common Bond which extends from Kilternan to Ashford inclusive and includes Enniskerry, the Sallygap, Roundwood and Glendalough.
A total of 197 buildings were under construction in Wicklow last month.

That's according to figures published by GeoDirectory in the latest edition of GeoView which tracks housing construction figures, residential dwelling numbers and property prices.

On average, construction in Ireland is up 36 per cent on June 2016 and it outlines that Wicklow house prices are above average at 316,057. The average property price in the country, excluding Dublin, is now in the region of 175,782.

Dublin (0.89 per cent of the Dublin total stock) and the surrounding counties including Wicklow (2.65 per cent) had the lowest percentages of vacant units by county in the state.

The gulf between the housing market in Dublin and the rest of the country can be seen clearly when the average national property price is examined.

The national average house price for the year was 250,188, an increase of almost 23,739 since last year.

When Dublin is removed from the figures, the national average property price falls to 175,782.

The average residential property price in Dublin now stands at 404,911, this is 40,628 above the price this time last year.

This is well above the averages for the rest of the country with the next highest average price recorded in Wicklow at 316,057, an increase of 13,428 since the June 2016.
Greystones gardai are investigating a stabbing in the town on Tuesday night.

The victim who is believed to be in his 20s was jogging in the Blacklion area of Greystones, at around 9.30 p.m. on Tuesday when he was set upon by a number of men in balaclavas.

He suffered serious but non life-threatening injuries and was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital.

While the victim refused to make a statement, it is understood officers are probing whether he was targeted by the gang who left his with serious injuries to his chest and shoulders.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Greystones gardai.
An innovative idea to help homeless people was mass produced on Sunday as 104 volunteers turned out to fill Dignity Packs.

Dignity Packs Ireland was started in 2016 by Loreto Bray student Molly Comish, who wanted to do something to help people who were experiencing homelessness.

The idea first came to Molly, who hails from Church Terrace in Bray, on Christmas Eve 2015 when she was in Dublin and saw how many homeless people there were and felt that it just wasn't right that the following day she'd be at home, surrounded by all her family and getting presents whilst the people she was seeing wouldn't get to do that.

It was only in March 2016, when she started her first part time job the Martello in Bray that she had the means to put her plan into action. She thought about what dignity meant to her and how important it is to everyone and she came up with her Dignity Packs idea.

Molly started saving her tip money up from her part time job so she could start to set her idea in motion.

Her idea was to create 30 Dignity Packs and distribute them to homeless people the week of Christmas. However, in October 2016, she became the Bray Lions Club Youth Ambassador and things just snowballed from there as the idea got national attention.

Molly said that last Sunday's production line had been a major success with 900 Dignity Packs being packed by an army of 104 volunteers.

'This was the first time we organised a production line and it went really well. We spent 3,000 getting products and we also got some donated. We will be distributing the Dignity Packs nationwide and hope to team up with homeless charities around the country to help with the distribution.'

Molly said the Martello had also been very generous and provided refreshments and sandwiches to all the volunteers.

'I was amazed to see so many people volunteering on the day', said Molly. 'There was a great mix of people, family, friends and people I didn't even know but who had heard about what we were doing and wanted to help. It was amazing.'

Molly, who sat her Leaving Cert in June, is currently anxiously awaiting her results with a view to studying sociology or community and youth development.

She said she hopes to organise another production line once the 900 packs have been distributed.

The Dignity Packs contains: toothbrush, toothpaste, sponge, face cloth, soap, deodorant, wet wipes, tissues, hat, socks, gloves, plasters, cotton buds, nail files, brush or comb, toilet roll, water, sweet treat, cereal bar, lip balm, hand cream, travel shampoo/conditioner/shower gel, sanitary towels/tampons.
An Post has issued a stamp commemorating the centenary of the death of soldier, poet Francis Ledwidge, often referred to as 'The Poet of the Blackbird'.

Designed by Detail, a Dublin design firm, the stamp features a portrait of the Irish poet and incorporates a photograph of a blackbird by nature photographer Lewis Bates. The stamp (1) along with a special First Day Cover (FDC) is available at leading post offices, the stamp counters at Dublin's GPO or may be viewed and purchased online at www.irishstamps.ie

Ledwidge was born in Slane, County Meath in 1887. He began his working life as a young road labourer and in 1912 won the patronage of Lord Dunsany after sending him copybooks filled with his poetry. His first works were published in the Drogheda Independent.

At the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914, Ledwidge enlisted in the 5th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, part of the 10th Irish Division, and was killed at the third battle of Ypres in July 1917, just seventeen days before his thirtieth birthday.

Ledwidge had continued writing poetry throughout his time in the army and his first volume of poetry was published in 1915. A second volume 'Songs of Peace' appeared just three months after his death. Ledwidge's complete poems were published in 1919 and his reputation as a poet, and particularly as a leading war poet, has continued to grow.
Fr. Hickey pictured with locals after his final mass in Monasterboice

There was a packed house in Tenure Church on Monday morning as much loved local priest Fr Michael Hickey said his final Mass before moving out of the area as he has been recalled to his order.

Locals in the area are devastated to see the popular curate leave the parish he has served in for almost two decades and said he will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Fr Hickey has been described as a 'wonderful man' and a 'tireless worker' in the local area.

Others paid tribute describing him as a great gentleman and a wonderful asset to the area.

Fr Hickey, who has been in Monasterboice parish for 17 years, said his final Mass at 9.30am in Tenure on Monday morning and he admitted the day was a 'very emotional' one for him but said the time had come to move on.

Following the Mass there was an opportunity for parishioners to say goodbye and express their thanks to him for his dedicated service throughout the years.

Originally from County Tipperary, The Holy Ghost priest was ordained in June 1969 and back in 2009, the parish held a special celebration to mark his ruby anniversary in the priesthood.

After his ordination, Fr Hickey spent one year in Ireland and then went to Sierra Leone in West Africa where he worked for 30 years.

While in Sierra Leone he experienced and endured the rigours of a terrible civil war.

To mark his departure from Monasterboice, local woman Emily Halpin has honoured Fr Hickey with a poem and the piece has received a warm response locally.

It ends with the lines: 'They say he has to go now, after all these years; Even the church walls seem to be in tears.

It's sad news indeed, no one wants him to go; It really does feel like a terrible blow.'

'To say goodbye then, there will be big queues; Will anyone ever fill this good mans big shoes?'
The water is flowing again in parts of Louth and East Meath thanks in large part to an engineering company in Balbriggan and a Fingal County Council engineer.

The Drogheda Independent has uncovered the story behind the restoration of water to homes in Drogheda and Ashbourne and neighbouring areas which began when Fingal County Council was asked if they had a spare part in store to address the burst pipe.

Because of the unique shape the old pipe had assumed after decades of pressure on it, there was no spare part to be had and Chief Executive Engineer at Fingal County Council, Chris Rooney approached an engineering firm in Balbriggan he had worked with before, for help.

That company was Elstan Engineering, run by Anthony O'Connell who knew there was an emergency when he got a call from Chris on a Saturday and so it proved but the Balbriggan company which employs 10 people, stepped into the breach and put its staff to work around the clock from Saturday to Wednesday to put the bespoke pipe fitting together.

'We manage these special bespoke fittings for a number of local authorities and this time, they had a problem and no solutions to it. I called in a lot of favours and we got stuff rolled for the part in Galway and Belfast. There were four different parts to the bespoke fitting and we put it all together here,' Anthony stated.

'It was an unusual problem because we had no parts that would do the job and we had to manufacture the parts from scratch,' the Elstan boss said.

Anthony said that he and his employees waited for the testing of the new part with bated breath. He said: 'Everyone was holding their breath waiting for the water to come back on. We had a feeling it would work but you still hold your breath.'

Thankfully, the job was a successful one and Anthony said he and his staff took great satisfaction out of being involved in restoring water to the tens of thousands Irish Water customers affected by the pipe failure.

Particularly relived were two of his employees who live in Drogheda and had lost their own water supply at home for the week.

Ironically, the company moved to Balbriggan 15 years ago from Greenhills in Drogheda because of an abundance of water when the firm was forced out because of flood damage!
There's not too many businesses out there that can boast 135 years trading, but one of them is Dunbars in Ferns who celebrated reaching the milestone by raising funds for Our Lady's Children's Hospital.

The popular Ferns haunt has managed to last through six generations and is still going strong and they decided that a celebration was in order back last month as they marked the occasion.

While perhaps 135 years in business is enough of an excuse for a party, it was also decided that they would raise money for a great cause and a fundraising committee was set up among the customers to try and ensure as much money was raised from the event as possible. In the end, they were blown away with the result and were able to hand over a cheque for 3,357 to Crumlin Children's Hospital.

'It was a fantastic weekend here,' said owner Tom Dunbar. 'The weather was beautiful. It was like being in Spain or something! We had a big draw; we had buckets out and we even had a pig on a spit one of the nights. A grandchild of mine had some problems and was up in Crumlin at one stage, so we saw first hand the great work they do and that's why we wanted to give something back. We are absolutely delighted with the reaction we got and we'd like to thank everyone who contributed in any way.'

Tom particularly thanked Martin Murphy, Michael O'Brien, Seamus Redmond and the rest of the organising committee for all their hard work and hopes that the money can be put to good use to help children from right across the country.
Long-serving staff at two Peter Mark branches in Swords are quite literally a cut above the rest.

The employees from the Main Street and Pavilions outlets were recognised at a special awards ceremony in Dublin for their long-standing service and contribution to the company.

The Peter Mark Long Service Awards took place at Smock Alley Theatre and recognised employees in the Leinster region who have worked at Peter Mark for 10 years or more.

Of the 300 honoured today, the average length of service was 17 years but many were celebrating several years more! Four employees have reached their ruby anniversary with the company having spent 40 years with Ireland's best known hairdressing brand, three celebrated 45 years, while for two employees it was their golden anniversary having been with the company for a staggering 50 years!

Collectively those honoured today have over 5,095 years of experience in the hairdressing world ranging from stylists to support staff.

The first Peter Mark salon was opened by brothers Peter and Mark Keaveney in 1961 on Grafton St. Their second salon in 1964 and their third in Stillorgan in 1966.

Their first unisex salon opened on North Earl St in 1970 and the following year they opened their first training centre at the same location.

Today there are 71 salons across the island of Ireland and the company employs more 1,700 people.

Commenting Peter O'Rourke, CEO Peter Mark said: 'As a business built on people, today is a really special day for us. We are delighted to celebrate our loyal employees and recognise those who have been with us for over a decade to those who have been with our business for 40 years or more. Of everyone in the room, the average length of service is 17 years which is a massive achievement in today's world.'

'We place huge importance on attracting and retaining top talent and we have an excellent track record in this area. What makes us unique in the industry is the emphasis we put on training and continued career development.

'In a creative industry, such as ours, it's important to never stand still.

'We run a world class training programme which ensures our team are continuously learning and upskilling throughout their career.'

'We have a wealth of talent and experience within our company who are now training the next generation of professional hair stylists coming through our doors. I would personally like to congratulate everyone who was honoured in our ceremony today and look forward to celebrating with them again at the next milestone.'
The Pavilions in Swords is set to host a visit of the BUMBLEance as part of nursery store Mothercare's partnership with the charity organisation.

Mothercare will implement a long-term, multi-platform fundraising campaign that will see support for BUMBLEance across all stores in Ireland, online and across social media platforms.

BUMBLEance is the world's first fully interactive Children's National Ambulance Service, specifically designed for and tailored to children. It ensures the safe transportation of sick children between their home and paediatric hospitals, hospices, national treatment centres and respite centres nationwide.

They also provide a unique and vital service through their Angel Trips, the final journey a child takes on earth before he or she grows their Angel Wings.

It will visit Swords on Saturday, August 19 to give customers and their families the chance to experience the interactive children's ambulance first-hand and see the wonderful service they provide.

Founder and CEO of the Saoirse Foundation, Tony Heffernan said: 'We are delighted to partner with such a respectful and child-focused business as Mothercare and we look forward to transporting many children over the next few years with their support.

'We are very excited to announce that Mothercare will not only be fundraising for BUMBLEance through a variety of excellent initiatives, but they will also be kitting out our entire BUMBLEance fleet with Mothercare booster seats, car seats and select toys. This will ensure that Ireland's seriously and critically ill children will continue to have the most comfortable journey possible in a safe and fun environment.'

BUMBLEance was created by Tony and Mary Heffernan whose two children Saoirse and Liam suffered from Battens Disease and required regular treatment at hospital.

They created the organisation so that no other family would have to deal with the hardships of transporting sick, critically ill and children with life limiting/threatening conditions.

Mothercare Ambassador Anna Daly said: 'As a mother I am blown away by the work BUMBLEance does.'
A Lithuanian man who knocked a 'peacemaker' to the ground with one punch leaving him with a serious head injury has been sentenced to three and half years in prison.

The court heard when Julian Matiunin (34) punched Jan Wielgus to the jaw, one witness described the victim as 'falling down like a tree' while another person said they could hear 'the crack of his head off the pavement'.

It was accepted that the injuries to the victim were caused from his head hitting the ground.

Mr Wielgus (46) was later treated in hospital in intensive care for bleeding around the brain, between the brain and his skull. He was put into an induced coma and was discharged over three weeks later.

He returned to hospital the following week because of problems with his stomach from being intubated.

He continues to suffer from strong headaches and vomiting.

Matiunin of Holywell Way, Swords, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Mr Wielgus at St Stephen's Green West on June 21, 2015.

He has two previous convictions for public order offences. The men had been drinking earlier in the Dandelion Bar and Night Club on St Stephen's Green.

Judge Karen O'Connor suspended the last 12 months of the three and half year term after saying that she had 'no alternative but to impose a custodial sentence'.

She said it was 'violent attack on a person walking away' having earlier described the victim as 'a peace maker who was trying to calm a difficult situation'.

Garda Darren Reid told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting that Matiunin had been drinking earlier in the evening with Mr Wielgus and his friends having met them for the first time that night in the pub attached to Dandelion Night Club.

He said the atmosphere changed when Matiunin began to dance around a number of women in the nightclub in a way that made them feel uncomfortable.

Mr Wielgus intervened and suggested to the accused that he maybe should lay off the women and leave them alone.

Matiunin's demeanour soured and a row broke out between the two men outside the club which Gda Reid accepted was 'fairly harmless' with punches thrown from both sides.

Other people tried to break it up and Mr Wielgus started to walk away before Matiunin followed him and threw a closed fisted punch hitting the victim in the jaw, the court heard.

Gda Reid agreed with Pieter Le Vert BL, defending that the women in the nightclub took issue with Matiunin's behaviour towards them.

Mr Wielgus stepped into to try and diffuse the situation after another man got involved.

Counsel said the victim even invited Matiunin over for a drink but a row broke out between them outside and 'my client wouldn't let it go'.

'If he hadn't been drinking this would never have happened,' Mr Le Vert told Judge O'Connor having earlier outlined that Matiunin had been drinking heavily that evening, firstly with his wife over dinner, before in the pub and continuing in the nightclub.

Counsel submitted that Matiunin's behaviour on the night was 'entirely out of character' but said he seemed to have learned a very hard lesson and had expressed his regret and sorrow for what he did to the victim.

'He is very aware of the possible outcomes of proceedings today,' Mr Le Vert said.
A former chemistry student who set fire to a 34,000 BMW car at a luxury motor dealership while he was on drugs has received a two and half year sentence.

Talavs Riekstins (23) had been deemed unfit for work by concerned colleagues and sent home earlier in the day that he turned up at Harford Motor Company to look at Ferrari cars.

He moved on when the dealership staff told him to leave but returned with a filled petrol can. He poured the petrol over a BMW parked outside the dealership and used a lighter to set it alight.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Riekstins, a Latvian national with an address at Kelly's Bay Moorings, Skerries, Dublin, had been under the influence of a substance he had purchased.

He pleaded guilty to arson at Harford Motor Company, Balbriggan on November 24, 2016. He has no previous convictions.

Riekstins later told gardai that he wanted to burn a Ferrari because it was 'lovely and red', Asked why, he replied 'because there's no money, no police'. 'I did it because I had no money, no job, no friends, and I couldn't control my anger anymore,' he said. He told gardai that he hadn't had a good night's sleep in five days.

The court heard that there pedestrians, included a woman pushing a buggy, were close to the scene. Riekstins told gardai that he was concerned that he had put people in danger.

Judge Karen O'Connor noted that the company was out of pocket 35,000 from the destroyed car and the owner has since had to make changes in the way the public can access the showroom.

She said one of the main aggravating factors in this case was that fire was impossible to control.

She also noted that Riekstins did not meet the criteria for a mental disorder and that he had taken a substance at the time.

The judge acknowledged Riekstins's guilty plea, his 'impressive employment history' at Ballymaguire Foods and his clean record as mitigating factors.

She accepted that Riekstins had family support in Latvia and wanted to go back to university to complete his undergraduate degree in chemistry.

The judge suspended the final 18 months of the two and a half year sentence and backdated the term to when he entered custody.

At the sentence hearing, defence counsel Tom Neville BL submitted to Judge O'Connor that it was a 'bizarre' incident and that his client apologised fulsomely to the injured party.

Mr Neville asked the judge to take into account that Riekstins's employer had described the incident as completely out of character for the young man.

A former employer of Riekstins said he was 'one of the betters ones' and a reliable and likeable worker who was loved by all his colleagues.

He said Riekstins was 'a real gentle soul' and a 'really good bloke'.

He said that ten days before the arson, his production manager noticed he was acting a little strange and thought that maybe he had taken some hallucinogens.

On the night of October 20 his supervisor sent Riekstins home and asked him to return to work four days later to discuss the situation. He said during the follow up meeting he was behaving extremely strange on that occasion too.

'One second he was compos mentis, the next second he was not with us at all,' the witness told Mr Neville, defending.

His employer then brought Riekstins to the doctor. Riekstins told the doctor he had previously used cocaine, MDMA and other hallucinogens but denied any recent use.

The doctor said he was suffering from acute psychosis. Riekstins returned home and his strange behaviour continued, causing his friend to call an ambulance.

Riekstins refused to get into the ambulance and ended up at the dealership later that day.
A man who head butted a prison officer after complaining his new cell did not have a television has had his time in jail extended by 18 months.

Glen Conroy (29) is currently serving an six year sentence for aggravated burglary and had been due for release in January 2018. This new sentence will begin then.

He has 57 previous convictions including seven for assault causing harm, five for burglary, three for robbery, one for false imprisonment as well as public order and road traffic offences.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Conroy has spent just two and a half years in total at liberty in the last 15 years.

Conroy, of The Kybe, Skerries, was convicted last month by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury following a three day trial of assaulting the prison officer causing him harm at Mountjoy Prison on March 20, 2013.

Garda Barry Brennan told Eilis Brennan BL, prosecuting, that Conroy was being transferred from another landing and on reaching the new cell complained that there was no television.

Prison officer Paul Brady told Conroy that he would look into it and organise one.

The court heard Conroy lunged towards the prison officer launching an unprovoked attack. He head butted Officer Brady before punching him in the face.

Conroy violently resisted attempts by other prison officers to restrain him and was brought to the ground in the cell by three prison officer using control and restraint techniques.

Officer Brady sustained facial injuries and was out of work for one month.

During the trial Assistant-Governor Malcolm O'Sullivan gave evidence that there had been a disciplinary hearing and on admitting the assault Conroy lost some privileges for a time.

Aidan McCarthy BL, defending, said Conroy's situation was 'truly tragic'. He said he had gone into care at the age of five years old and began serving sentences at the age of 14.

He said Conroy, a father of two, has spent a total of two and a half years at liberty in the 15 years since then. He said Conroy was one of 14 siblings and had an identical twin in prison in the UK.

Counsel handed in a letter of apology from Conroy.
Kerry Fianna Fail TD John Brassil has lashed the HSE over the executives failure to provide up-to-date waiting list figures for scans.

The Kerry TD was also highly critical of the repetitive excuses and explanations the executive has given for its failure to provide the figures his party is seeking.

"Every year for the past three years, Fianna Fail has sought this information and every year the HSE has avoided providing it. Our party has still not received these statistics, despite persistent questioning so we are now in a situation where there is no up-to-date national data available for the numbers waiting for MRI scans, CT scans and bone scans", explained Deputy Brassil.

"In summer 2015, my party's health spokesperson, Billy Kelleher was told that the HSE is 'continually working to improve, expand and learn from those Key Performance Indicators on which hospitals report' and that it was planning to begin national collection of standardised and compatible data from 2016," said Deputy Brassil.

"The following year, the HSE claimed that it is 'continually working to improve and monitor performance' and was 'working to establish a system to track waiting lists for a range of diagnostic procedures'. However, it qualified the lack of progress to date by suggesting that "such a system requires significant testing and validation which, in time, will facilitate the production of national data reports  for diagnostic waiting times," said Deputy Brassil.

"This summer, Fianna Fail submitted a further Parliamentary Question requesting an update on the situation at University Hospital Kerry and we were again told that the HSE is 'continually working to improve and monitor performance' and was 'working to establish a system to track waiting lists for a range of diagnostic procedures," he said.

"Remarkably this time the response from the HSE was that 'such a system requires significant testing and validation which, in time, will facilitate the production of national data reports  for diagnostic waiting times'."

Deputy Brassil said it is "ludicrous" that the HSE cannot provide information on waiting lists as a matter of routine and he called for the National Treatment Purchase Fund - which publishes regular updates on in-patient, out-patient and day case waiting lists - to be given responsibility for compiling and releasing information on HSE waiting lists.
Pauline Bewick and Gerardine Sheridan pictured with author Jerry Mulvihill at the launch of The Truth Behind The Irish Famine in The Red Fox Inn, Glenbeigh

Minister Brendan Griffin who spoke at the launch of The Truth Behind The Irish Famine at The Red Fox Inn

Over 300 people gathered at The Red Fox Inn last Friday evening for the launch of Jerry Mulvihill's new book: 'The Truth Behind the Irish Famine: 1845-1852'. The Glenbeigh author felt compelled to capture the horror of the Irish famine in an entirely new context which was achieved by 64 paintings, specially commissioned by four artists, based on 430 heart-rending eyewitness accounts researched by Jerry.

Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin launched the book and he narrated some of the bleakest examples of what was unquestionably Ireland's darkest hour. Minister Griffin described the book as 'exposing a nerve of what really happened during the famine'. Jerry's former school teacher, Noreen Ahern quoted extracts from the book in Irish, while the Red Fox was transformed into a gallery on the night with various depictions of the famine.

The book is an accessible and visually stimulating account of the famine which Jerry believes is a subject frequently laden with political and minute book references that overlook the human misery endured.

Jerry's publication also provides an interesting historical context on the prelude to famine.

"I was thrilled and overwhelmed with how the night went. Minister Griffin referenced the book from cover to cover quoting memorised passages from it. People who read it said they felt it broke the history of the famine down to an accessible one. People were actually quite emotional looking at the paintings as they were so moving," said Jerry.

The book will be in shops in the coming weeks and anyone looking for a copy can order online at jerrymulvihill.com or just pop into The Red Fox Inn for a copy.
US Senator John McCain cut a noble figure last Tuesday when he returned to Washington to vote in the Senate on a health bill. The 80-year-old Republican Senator from Arizona made some powerful remarks on the floor of the US Senate just a few short days from surgery having been diagnosed with a brain tumour.

At the end of his talk he quipped that he was going home for a while to treat his illness but that he had every intention of returning to the Senate and 'giving many of you cause to regret all the nice things you said about me'. The thrust of his speech was on the importance of cooperating and trusting one another, no matter what one's politics or beliefs are.

'I hope we can again rely on humility, on our need to cooperate, on our dependence on each other to learn how to trust each other again and by so doing better serve the people who elected us. Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the internet. To hell with them. They don't want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood.

'Let's trust each other. Let's return to regular order. We've 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. That's an approach that's been employed by both sides, mandating legislation from the top down, without any support from the other side, with all the parliamentary manoeuvres that requires.'

I'm sure I stated it here before that I bought myself an internet radio and came across a US station called 'Patriot Radio'. It is almost impossible to describe it. It is wall-to-wall screaming and roaring. A non-stop barrage at everyone and everything that is not in agreement with its right-wing philosophy. The night that Trump won the US presidential election I stopped listening to it but just last week I tuned in again.

According to 'Patriot Radio' everything that Trump says is correct and everyone who disagrees with him is a source of ridicule, laughter and fun. It is shocking stuff and exactly the sort of 'bombastic radio' that John McCain criticised last week. It is sneering and nasty and has some weird ability of giving the impression that it is taking the moral high ground. It really is crazy radio but it has high listenership ratings in the US.

There seems to be something about the ultra right-wing that gives people the impression that they are talking in the name of justice and right, that they are actually the mouthpiece of all that is correct. Alas, nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe I am being somewhat biased but I can't help but believe that extreme right-wing politics and religion express the nastiest and most insidious ideas that plague the earth. It's a philosophy or way of thinking that is merciless.

It is a mood or a trend that is currently gaining ascendancy within different belief systems, including the Christian churches. At the best of times churches tend to be right-wing. God protect us from further lurches to the right. It would be interesting to know exactly what Pope Francis thinks of so much of the right-wing thinking and practices that go on within the Catholic Church.
Wexford brothers Brendan and John Staples are doing without the demon drink for the year to raise mental health awareness and funds for Pieta House.

The booze-free year is part of a 'Don't Bottle It' campaign which has included head and beard shaves, a darts night, a fancy dress car wash and on Saturday (August 5) the brothers are planning a 24-mile run wearing weighted vests, 'symbolic of the additional weight we carry on our shoulders when we suffer with mental health problems'.

'Our family has a history of problems with mental health so it has always been something I've wanted to help out with in some way,' said Brendan, a son of former Wexford Mayor Frank Staples, from Ballycogley.

'It's been amazing to see the level of support family and friends are willing to give when you put yourself out there and take part in something like this. There are some great people out there and thankfully they only live up the road,' said Brendan, who lives in Wellintonbridge.

'Myself and John gave up drinking any alcohol on new year's night at midnight and are staying sober until the end of the year.

'I think the social aspect of Irish society is far too dependent on alcohol. We wish our working days away so it can be the weekend. We get stressed at work, with our kids or with our partners and we can't wait for a pint or glass of wine at the end of the day. It's not healthy!' said personal trainer Brendan.

'Alcohol is the worst but food, cigarettes and even drugs are now a common crutch we lean on from day to day to cope with the stresses in our lives. It's important that we adjust our mindsets, we shouldn't struggle from weekend to weekend in a sad and depressed state.

'If we have problems with our job, our partner or our family then address the problem. Take action and find a solution. Then use alcohol or food or whatever it is as a treat every now and then,' said John.

John, who is planning to become a social care worker, said that since giving up drink, both he and Brendan, are 'new men'.

'Our Moods are much better, very few low days, much more energy and far more driven. Our physical and mental health has improved dramatically which makes me think that I may never drink again,' said Brendan. 'It does me good to know there are groups out there like Pieta House that give us an outlet for our problems. Pieta House isn't just for people with suicidal thoughts, it's for anyone who is feeling out of sorts or under pressure.'

The run begins at the SuperValu car park in New Ross at 8 a.m. on Saturday and will follow the main road to Wexford town, finishing at the boardwalk on the Quays.

For more information, see the boys' facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Dont-bottle-it-My-mental-health-challenge-1742366449416347/#
The New Ross Chamber Business and Community Awards were launched last week at the chamber's annual barbecue which was held at Creacon Lodge.

President of the chamber, John McSweeney, wearing the chamber's first chain of office, said New Ross is undergoing 'significant change' adding that improved transport links were already yielding a surge in business opportunities.

Mr McSweeney thanked Wexford County Council and New Ross Municipal Council for their sponsorship of the awards which will take place in the Brandon House Hotel on November 4.

This year there will be 12 categories and the closing date for applications is on September 22.

He said that the awards recognise businesses and community groups who work tirelessly to promote Ross.

'Recognition by business and community of their own business and community activities is a significant and important element of building this town and district for the future. Before we can ever be recognised by outsiders we must, I believe, call out those who already have their shoulders to the wheel in driving business and community success.

'I'm sure those nominated and those who will ultimately be successful in the 2017 awards will like past winners continue to display this strong work ethic.

He said that the chamber will continue to work with the council 'in supporting the delivery of business and community activities for the betterment of New Ross & District. So much improvements have taken place and continue everyday if you take the time to look around the district. Whilst many people have their own views on what New Ross meant to them in the past, as a town with a future we must be sure that the view remains positive at all times and challenge those who may think otherwise.'

Attending the launch was Ann O'Connor from Secret Valley Wildlife Park which was named Business of the Year at last year's awards. Ann told the crowd how her business has thrived over the past year.

Mr McSweeney also thanked individual award sponsors, Lake Region Medical Ltd, Molloy's Supervalue, Guardian Fire & Safety, Wexford Local Enterprise Office, JFK Trust, AIB Bank and Fred Curtis who sponsored the awards trophies this year.

He concluded by saying he hoped that the energy of all the businesses and community groups in the district would be reflected at the awards.
Zoe Kazan and Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick

Just when it seemed that heartfelt romantic comedies might be in terminal decline and doomed to labour on life support, along comes director Michael Showalter's uplifting and bittersweet tale of cross-cultural love.

Based on the real-life courtship of Pakistani-American stand-up comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V Gordon, who co-wrote the script, The Big Sick is a small, perfectly formed gem, which is polished to a dazzling glister by a superb ensemble cast.

Nanjiani plays himself to deadpan perfection and he catalyses molten screen chemistry with co-star Zoe Kazan as the luminous object of his awkward affections.

Their fledgling romance is sketched in delicate strokes and when this amour fou hits an almighty speed bump that compels Emily to tearfully confide 'You make me sad inside my heart,' we are devastated like her paramour.

The two-hour running time allows Nanjiani and Kazan to populate each unfussy frame with flawed, believable and endearing characters, who don't always know what to say to ease the pain of the people they adore.

Trickles of saltwater tears are mopped up with swathes of sincere, warm-hearted humour.

If laughter is the best medicine then a spoonful of Showalter's film is a tonic that leaves the sweetest feeling.

In 2006, Kumail (Nanjiani) hones his craft on the Chicago comedy scene with fellow stand-ups CJ (Bo Burnham), Mary (Aidy Bryant) and Chris (Kurt Braunohler).

To pay the rent, Kumail works as a taxi driver and he enjoys precious family time with his father Azmat (Anupam Kher), brother Naveed (Adeel Akhtar) and mother Sharmeen (Zenobia Shroff), who invites a different Pakistani Muslim woman to the dinner table each night as a potential love match.

After one comedy gig, Kumail meets spunky audience member Emily (Kazan) and there is a palpable spark of attraction.

Kumail keeps the relationship secret from his family, then Emily discovers a cigar box filled with photographs of women hand-picked by his mother.

'Are you judging Pakistan's next top model?' she inquires jokingly.

When Kumail nervously explains his parents' presumption of arranged marriage, Emily feels betrayed and tearfully asks 'Can you imagine a world in which we end up together?'

'I don't know,' he replies.

Soon after, Emily contracts a serious infection and doctors induce a medical coma.

It's left to Kumail to contact Emily's parents, Beth (Holly Hunter) and Terry (Ray Romano), and the trio bond awkwardly in the hospital waiting room and cafeteria.

The Big Sick wears its easily broken heart on its sleeve and elicits roaring belly laughs from the central duo's predicament.

The script generously distributes the best lines between the cast, including Hunter and Romano as delightfully protective parents with their own relationship woes.

Director Showalter nimbly sidesteps genre cliches, allowing the pithy and occasionally withering words to speak louder than his actions.
There are moments in time that make the hair stand on the back of your neck, when magic happens.

Several young Sligo jazz musicians will look back in years to come and remember one such moment during Sligo Jazz Project 2017.

They were taking part in one of their nightly jamming session when LA-based Australian drummer Virgil Donati sat down and joined them.

"It was an incredible gig. He sat in with some of our Youth Academy guys. It was a magical moment," said SJP founder Eddie Lee.

"To see him playing with youngsters from Sligo. They might not appreciate it now but in years to come they'll remember playing with Virgil Donati. It was really special," he said.

The annual jazz festival attracted over 125 participants, 23 tutors and 17 ensembles who played in the final concert at the festival hub in the Riverside Hotel last Sunday night.

The highlights were many over the course of the week-long festival which has an annual budget of 90,000. There were sessions daily at Hargadon's, Tricky's and various Sligo cafes.

Local pianist Kieran Quinn's theme night at the Hawk's Well last Wednesday was described as "sensational altogether", as were the SJP All Stars on the Friday night.

The summer school has grown exponentially year-on-year, with three tutors this year, from Ireland and overseas: Kieran Quinn, Cathal Roche and Ciaran Wilde.

For two hours every afternoon the youngsters would work on ensembles, culminating in the all-day Sunday gig at the Riverside which is always one of the highlights of the festival.

Lee says this year they accommodated their "biggest Youth Academy yet" thanks to the support from Music Generation Sligo.

"The one thing that struck us is the number of young musicians under the age of 18 years in Sligo," said Eddie.

"We had a lot of them in the Summer School and one of the highlights for me was watching them perform. They'd melt anyone's heart," he told this newspaper.

"We had people from the USA, Israel, Ukraine, Sweden, the UK, France, Germany and Sweden to name but a few," said Eddie.

"On a Tuesday afternoon at 4.30pm you couldn't get into Hargadons," he said.

The SJP was wrapped up in style by Strandhill native and lead vocalist Joan Shields.

Her six-piece band The Sophisticats brought all the exuberance and glamour of the Jazz Age to McGarrigles on Saturday night and the Riverside at the Festival Wrap Party on Sunday night.
Supercar spectacle CANNONBALL will roar into town again this September, Saturday 9th at 6.30pm where spectators can get up close and personal with 190 of the finest cars on the planet.

The nationwide tour from September 8th to 10th will see more than 160,000 people line the streets all over Ireland. Sligo was a firm favourite of CANNONBALLERS in 2015 and is now back by popular demand in 2017. Now in its ninth year, CANNONBALL has raised almost 900,000 for Irish Charities and this year, proceeds will go to Make-a-Wish Ireland.

Top mark cars including McLaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Masseratti, Rolls Royce and Bentley will blaze a trail through Dublin, Kinsale, Limerick, Galway Plaza, Claremorris, Sligo, Mullingar, the Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall Co Offaly with a dramatic finish line in Kilkenny.

CANNONBALL is the largest organised road trip in Europe and plans are underway in Sligo for a fantastic FREE familyday out.

The start line of CANNONBALL 2017 will be at the Point Village, Dublin on Friday September 8th from 9am. The gleaming convoy of 190 supercars and novelty cars worth an estimated 32million will drive through almost 1000 kilometers of Irish open roads.

40 percent of Cannonball entries come from outside of Ireland and this year an exciting team with 10 supercars are coming in from Dubai. Each start and finish line at each host town will have Las Vegas Show Girls, live music, DJs, Audionetworks Transformers and Robots, family fun, the Cannonball Grid Girls, The Monster Energy JAM Truck, local entertainers and dignitaries, CANNONBALL official merchandise and, of course, the unmistakable roar of 190 supercars.

All Proceeds will go to Make a Wish Ireland, a children's charity that grants magical wishes to children between the ages of 3 - 17 years with life-threatening medical conditions.
An 82-year-old man jailed for indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl 50 years ago has had his jail term cut on appeal.

Jack Donohue (82), of Holdenstown, Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, had pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl in the county on dates between September 1, 1968 and September 11, 1969.

He was sentenced at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court to two years' imprisonment with the final six months suspended by Judge Michael O'Shea on April 7, 2017.

Donohue successfully appealed his sentence on Monday, with the Court of Appeal holding that a greater portion of his two-year term ought to have been suspended given the 82-year-old's poor health and frailty.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the victim came into contact with Donohue through his work and he was also known to her family.

When the victim was aged eight, Donohue began indecently assaulting her. The abuse took the form of digital penetration and on other occasions, he would take her hand, place it in the pocket of his pants where there was a hole, and onto his penis.

The offending took place when the victim was aged eight and Donohue would have been in his early thirties.

The abuse has had a very serious and lifelong impact on the victim, the judge said.

Donohue had no previous convictions and was otherwise of good character. He lived a quiet, isolated life and never married.

Mr Justice Birmingham said a medical report from his GP indicated that he did not enjoy good health. He has chronic obstructive airways disease, irregular heartbeat, enlarged prostate, a hernia, anxiety and depression.

Counsel for Donohue, Philip Sheahan SC, submitted that his client's sentence was inappropriately long, that it did not reflect the fact that the offending occurred 50 years ago and, furthermore, that for an 82-year-old an 18-month jail term was a 'very long sentence'. The maximum sentence for indecent assault at the time was two years, the court heard.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the Court of Appeal was in no doubt about the seriousness of the offending and that the impact on the victim had been 'really, very, very serious indeed'.

He said there had to be custody and the court did not disagree with the selection of two years as the headline sentence.

In so far as the judge was required to sentence an 82-year-old in poor health, the balance between the portion to be actually served and suspended was 'inappropriate'.

Given Donohue's poor health and frailty, Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Hedigan, said a greater portion fo the sentence should have been suspended.

The court resentenced him to two years' imprisonment with the final 15 months suspended.
Residents of a north Wicklow housing development have taken a pro-active approach to fighting crime by installing their own estate-wide CCTV system.

Season's Park in Newtownmountkennedy is believed to be the first non-property-managed estate in the country to install a CCTV system totally funded by its residents.

Cameras are strategically installed on the estate to give it an outer and inner firewall. HIK vision infra red cameras (to detect motion in darkness and brightness) as well as ANPR cameras (to record car number plates entering and exiting the estate) have been erected in a bid to prevent and detect crime.

'An estate CCTV system is an ideal system to help support smart modern policing,' said Season's Park Residents Committee member, John Larkin. 'It's a no brainer today that CCTV systems are the future in preventing and detecting crime.'

The estate consists of 199 houses and all agreed to provide funding for the installation of the camera system. Residents decided on a zero-tolerance policy on crime after a few of break-ins in the area.

'We want to 100 per cent cut down on break-ins. It has a big impact on the person whose home is broken into, and also on their neighbours. This is the best CCTV system on the market. It also has an export system so gardai can analyse any data that may be required. We wanted to be pro-active and take action against crime,' said Mr Larkin.

The stakeholders involved in the project were Season Park residents, who funded the CCTV system; the committee, who organised it; and Dublin CCTV Installations.
Bride Suzanne Jackson and bridesmaids before entering the church. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

5 Aug 2017; Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor leave in the Rolls Royce Car. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

Bride Suzanne Jackson and bridesmaids before entering the church. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

5 Aug 2017; General view of Rolls Royce Car. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

5 Aug 2017; Bride Suzanne Jackson and bridesmaids before entering the church. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

Bride Suzanne Jackson arrives at the church. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

Bride Suzanne Jackson arrives at the church. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

5 Aug 2017; Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

5 Aug 2017; Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

5 Aug 2017; Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

5 Aug 2017; Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

5 Aug 2017; Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

Top Irish blogger Suzanne Jackson has tied the knot.

The Skerries native wed her long-term love Dylan O'Connor in her local church surrounded by family and friends on Saturday.

The bride stunned in a full-skirted gown, custom-designed by Hayley Paige, with a plunging sweetheart neckline and lace sleeves, wearing her hair in loose Hollywood waves.

Her five bridesmaids wore pale pink, full-length dresses with a lace bodice, while her three flower girls wore white dresses.

Expand Close Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn / Facebook

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Whatsapp Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

Luckily for the wedding party, the rain held off as she arrived at the church in a Rolls Royce just a few minutes late. The luxury transport featured a customised license plate, reading 'Suzanne & Dylan'.

Prior to her arrival, a crowd gathered at the church to catch a glimpse of Suzanne's highly-anticipated wedding dress.

Suzanne (32) entered the church under a floral arch, with her husband-to-be waiting patiently at the altar.

The groom wore a dark grey-toned three-piece sit with a grey waistcoat and white tie.

Expand Close Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn / Facebook

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Whatsapp Newlyweds Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

The happy couple posed for cameras and the waiting crowd as they exited the church shortly before 4pm.

The newlyweds will travel to Powerscourt Estate, Co Wicklow for their five-star reception.

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Dylan, who works alongside Suzanne in running her blog and beauty empire, popped the question in the Maldives in December 2015.

Suzanne entered the blogging scene in 2010 and has established herself as one of Ireland's most prominent influencers and businesswomen, with a best-selling lash line, nail varnish range and contour palette on the market.

Expand Close Bride Suzanne Jackson and bridesmaids before entering the church. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn / Facebook

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Whatsapp Bride Suzanne Jackson and bridesmaids before entering the church. Wedding of Suzanne Jackson and Dylan O'Connor. St. Patrick's Church, Skerries, Co. Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn
Kim Jong-un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the Korean Peoples Army earlier this year. Photo: Reuters

Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions could be "catastrophic for the world", the UK warned, as the United Nations Security Council backed an escalation of sanctions against Pyongyang.

The UK ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, said North Korea's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) had significantly extended the threat posed by the secretive regime.

Calling on North Korea to "halt and reverse" its nuclear and missile development programmes, Mr Rycroft said the country should "forgo the path of provocation".

He said: "North Korea bears full responsibility for the measures we have enacted today. By acting in flagrant violation of its legal obligations, by going against the will of the Security Council expressed in countless resolutions, North Korea has chosen the path it now finds itself on.

"It is a path that, at a minimum, will lead to further suffering for its own people and at most could prove to be catastrophic for the whole world.

"It does not have to be this way. North Korea should forgo the path of provocation, forgo the path of further escalation."

At a meeting in New York the Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions including banning exports worth over a billion US dollars (770 million).

The resolution also bans countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean workers - a crucial source of foreign currency for the regime but a situation labelled "a form of modern slavery" by Mr Rycroft.

The sanctions follow North Korea's first successful tests of ICBMs capable of reaching the United States last month.

The resolution bans North Korea from exporting coal, iron ore, lead and seafood products - the "lifeline exports that sustain Kim Jong Un's deadly aspirations", Mr Rycroft said.

He added: "North Korea is no longer a threat faced by a single country or a single region. It is instead a threat that confronts us all."

He said as the regime's missile capabilities advanced "so too does their contempt and disregard for this Security Council".

"We must meet this belligerence with clear, unequivocal condemnation and with clear, unequivocal consequences."

The resolution, drafted by the US but negotiated with North Korea's neighbour and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programmes.

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said: "The price the North Korean leadership will pay for its continued nuclear and missile development will be the loss of one third of its export and hard currency.

"This is the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation."
US attorney general Jeff Sessions has pledged to rein in government leaks that he said undermine American security, taking an aggressive public stand after being called weak on the matter by President Donald Trump.

The nation's top law enforcement official cited no current investigations in which disclosures of information had jeopardised the country.

His announcement, made with other security officials at the Justice Department, followed a series of news reports involving the Trump campaign and White House that have relied on classified information.

In prepared remarks, Mr Sessions said: "No-one is entitled to surreptitiously fight their battles in the media by revealing sensitive government information.

"No government can be effective when its leaders cannot discuss sensitive matters in confidence or to talk freely in confidence with foreign leaders."

Meanwhile, a White House adviser raised the possibility of lie detector tests for the small number of people in the West Wing and elsewhere with access to transcripts of Mr Trump's phone calls.

The Washington Post has published transcripts of his conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox & Friends that "it's easier to figure out who's leaking than the leakers may realise".

When asked if lie detectors might be used, she said: "Well, they may, they may not."

Mr Trump's outbursts against media organisations he derides as "fake news" have led to predictions that his administration will more aggressively try to root out leaks.

Mr Trump complained on Twitter last week that Mr Sessions was weak in cracking down on leaks, saying: "Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!"

Mr Sessions said in his remarks that his department has more than tripled the number of active leaks investigations compared with the number pending when President Barack Obama left office.

He said the department is reviewing guidelines related to subpoenas of journalists.

"This nation must end the culture of leaks. We will investigate and seek to bring criminals to justice. We will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country any longer," Mr Sessions said in his remarks.

Media organisations also had an often-tense relationship with the Obama administration, whose Justice Department brought more leaks cases than all his predecessors combined and was criticised for manoeuvres seen as needlessly aggressive and intrusive.

AP
On December 17, 2011, as peaceful protests across Syria were being brutally snuffed out by the Assad regime, a young activist in Damascus posted a tweet which read: "They can't stop us".

The then-30-year-old campaigner was named Bassel Khartabil Safadi, born to a Syrian mother and Palestinian father. In the years before the 2011 uprising began, he had worked tirelessly to open his long-repressed homeland to the outside world through the internet.

Expand Close Bassel Safadi and his wife Noura. / Facebook

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This week his wife Noura said she had received confirmation of what she had long feared: that Safadi had been secretly executed in a regime prison shortly after she lost contact with him almost two years ago.

Six years after the anti-regime protests that later quickened into civil war began, it is easy to forget people like Bassel Khartabil Safadi in the midst of a multi-faceted conflict that many now reduce simplistically to Assad versus extremists. The Assad regime - which pushed the narrative its opponents were all jihadists from the outset - would prefer it that way.

But there were and are many like Safadi among Syria's dead, its imprisoned, and its exiled. The UN puts the overall death toll from the grinding Syrian war at more than 400,000. According to human rights groups, more than 100,00 have vanished into the regime's notorious prisons where detainees are subjected to unspeakable horrors in what Human Rights Watch calls "a web of facilities amounting to a torture archipelago". Some five million Syrians have been forced to flee their country.

Trained as a computer engineer, Safadi later became a successful internet entrepreneur in Syria, driven by a belief in technology as a force for change. A 2014 European Parliament report described him as being "credited with opening up the internet in Syria and vastly extending online access and knowledge to the Syrian people".

He worked on open software projects with Wikipedia and Creative Commons, bringing together like-minded Syrians who shared his passion. In 2011, he lent his skills and expertise to the ad hoc peaceful protest movement then inspired by what was happening elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, where people power in the form of mass demonstrations had led to the ousting of dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Safadi's activism brought him to the attention of regime security forces and he was forced to go underground. In March 2012, he was arrested and held in an unofficial detention facility run by Syria's feared military intelligence. That December he was transferred to Adra prison in Damascus where his wife Noura was able to visit him.

They were told he would be tried in a military field court - where proceedings are secret and defendants have no legal representation or right to appeal - for his activism. Safadi appeared before a field court in December 2012 but never heard a verdict. He remained in Adra until October 2015 when he was apparently moved to an undisclosed location. His family was kept in the dark about his fate until this week when Noura learned he had been killed soon after.

"Words are difficult to come by while I am about to announce, on behalf of Bassel's family and mine, the confirmation of the death sentence and execution of my husband," Noura wrote in a Facebook post this week. "This is the end that suits a hero like him. This is a loss for Syria. This is a loss for Palestine. This is my loss."

Safadi had been lauded internationally: 'Foreign Policy' magazine named him one of its Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2012, praising him "for insisting, against all odds, on a peaceful Syrian revolution" and the following year the Index on Censorship awarded him its Digital Freedom Award. He had been working on the New Palmyra Project, in which he used open source information to digitally recreate the storied ancient city of Palmyra, later taken over and partly destroyed by Isil. The MIT Media Lab had offered him a position as research scientist. Many of those organisations paid tribute to Safadi this week. "Bassel lived and died for his belief in transparency and a free internet," said the Index on Censorship. "His death is a terrible reminder of what many individuals and families risk in order to make a better society," said Creative Commons.

There are many like Safadi still languishing in the dank prisons and unofficial detention facilities of the Assad regime. Several anti-regime activists who shared Safadi's zeal for peaceful change point out the irony that at the same time the Assad regime was rounding up such activists, it was also releasing hundreds of hardline Islamists, including several notorious jihadists, from Syria's jails, many of whom later became prominent in the war. One of the many ironies in a conflict that has changed Syria, and the wider region, forever.
Masked anti-government demonstrators during a protest against the installation of a constitutional assembly in Caracas (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

National Guard officers line up outside the chief prosecutor's headquarters in Caraca (AP)

Venezuelan general prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz, third left, is surrounded by loyal employees as she was barred from entering her office by security forces (AP)

A newly-installed constitutional assembly has ousted Venezuela's chief prosecutor in a sign that President Nicolas Maduro's government intends to move swiftly against critics amid a fast-moving political crisis.

A total of 545 pro-government delegates voted unanimously to remove Luisa Ortega from her post as the nation's top law enforcement official and replace her with a staunch government supporter.

They said they were acting in response to a ruling by the government-stacked supreme court, which banned Ms Ortega from leaving the country and freezing her bank accounts while it weighs criminal charges against her for alleged irregularities.

Ms Ortega, a long-time loyalist who broke with the socialist government in April, refused to recognise the decision and vowed to continue defending the rights of Venezuelans from Mr Maduro's "coup" against the constitution "with my last breath".

She said: "This is just a tiny example of what's coming for everyone that dares to oppose this totalitarian form of government.

"If they're doing this to the chief prosecutor, imagine the helpless state all Venezuelans live in."

Earlier, Ms Ortega was pushed and barred from entering her office by dozens of national guardsmen in riot gear who took control of the entrance to the building.

She alleged that authorities were desperate to get their hands on dossiers containing information on dirty dealings by high-level officials, including sensitive details about millions of dollars in bribes paid by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Assembly delegates later swore in as her replacement Ombudsman Tarek William Saab, who was recently sanctioned by the Trump administration for failing to protect protesters from abuses in his role as the nation's top human rights official.

Members of the all-powerful constitutional assembly had pledged in their first meeting to move quickly against Mr Maduro's opponents.

Former foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez said on Friday after she was chosen to lead the assembly: "Don't think we're going to wait weeks, months or years.

"Tomorrow we start to act. The violent fascists, those who wage economic war on the people, those who wage psychological war: justice is coming for you."

The constitutional assembly was seated despite strong criticism from the United States, other countries and the Venezuelan opposition, which fear the it will be a tool for imposing dictatorship. Supporters say it will pacify a country rocked by violent protests.

Its installation is virtually certain to intensify a political crisis that has brought four months of protests in which at least 120 people have died and hundreds more have been jailed.

Mr Maduro also wants the assembly to strip opposition MPs of their constitutional immunity from prosecution, saying their constant conspiring to oust him should not be protected.

While members of congress say they will only be removed by force, the opposition is struggling to regain its footing in the face of the government's strong-arm tactics and the re-emergence of old, internal divisions.

Several opposition activists have been jailed in recent days, others are rumoured to be seeking exile and one leader has broken ranks from the opposition alliance to say his party will field candidates in regional elections despite widespread distrust of the electoral system.

In a sign of its demoralised state, only a few hundred demonstrators showed up for a Friday protest against the constitutional assembly, one of the smallest turnouts in months.

Also on Saturday, the South American trade bloc Mercosur moved to suspend Venezuela for failing to follow democratic norms.

Venezuela was previously suspended in December for failing to uphold commitments it made when it joined the group in 2012.

The new decision will make it harder for the country to return to good standing since the new suspension can be lifted only when the bloc is satisfied that Venezuela has restored democratic order.

Argentine foreign minister Jorge Faurie said: "Today in Venezuela there is no democracy.

"Essentially what Mercosur is saying is: Without democracy, no, you cannot be a part of Mercosur."

Mr Maduro responded by calling the move part of a dirty campaign led by the Trump administration to discredit Venezuela and get its hands on its vast oil reserves.

AP
Oxford University employee Andrew Warren, who was detained in California on suspicion of murdering a 26-year-old man in Chicago (Chicago Police Department/PA)

An Oxford University employee has been arrested alongside a US professor following a nationwide manhunt for the murder suspects, police have said.

Somerville College senior treasury assistant Andrew Warren, 56, and Professor Wyndham Lathem, 42, were in custody on Friday in Oakland, California, more than 2,000 miles from the crime scene.

They have been accused of fatally stabbing Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, in Lathem's apartment in Chicago on July 27.

Warren was arrested in San Francisco while Lathem was arrested in Oakland, US Marshals inspector Ed Farrel told the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: "Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren have both been arrested in California.

"We got word within the hour that they have both been captured and are in police custody.

"Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today's arrest brings some comfort for the victim's family. We are also thankful that this did not end in further tragedy."

The men will appear in court in Oakland before being returned to Chicago where they will be interrogated by detectives, the spokesman added.

Expand Close Wyndham Lathem, a microbiology professor at Northwestern University, was detained in California (Chicago Police Department/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Wyndham Lathem, a microbiology professor at Northwestern University, was detained in California (Chicago Police Department/PA)

Oxford University had urged Warren to hand himself in and a spokesman said his colleagues were "shocked" to have heard of the case.

Warren, who says on Facebook he lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, and Lathem, a microbiology professor at Northwestern University, are accused of repeatedly stabbing the victim in the 10th floor apartment before fleeing.

Detectives said they believed they knew their whereabouts but wanted to end the situation calmly without another "tragedy".

Mr Cornell-Duranleau is a hairstylist originally from Corunna, Michigan, but was living in Chicago at the time of his death.
Southeast Asia's top diplomats have criticised North Korea over its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests.

The envoys urged Pyongyang to comply with its duty of helping avert conflicts as a member of Asia's biggest security forum.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers however were split on an American proposal to suspend Pyongyang from the ASEAN Regional Forum, a 27-nation bloc that includes North Korea, the US, South Korea and Japan.

Ministers reiterated in a joint statement their grave concerns over the escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula due to the North's two ICBM tests last month, saying the launches threaten world stability.

The ministers traditionally issue a communique containing their diverse concerns, and their issuance of a separate statement on North Korea's missile tests and nuclear weapons programme reflects their deep worries about the issue.

"These developments seriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world," the ministers said in their statement. They urged the North to immediately and fully comply with its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions.

They also backed efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas and said their 10-nation bloc was ready "to play a constructive role in contributing to peace and stability" on the Korean Peninsula.

Philippine foreign secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the ministers were divided over a US proposal to suspend the North from the ASEAN Regional Forum, which will hold its annual meeting on Monday.

North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho will attend Monday's meeting with the US, Japan and South Korea expected to push for stronger actions against the North.

"There were views that, 'How can we hear them out or confront them if they're not there?' But there's also a view that we should give them an ultimatum," Mr Cayetano said on Friday after discussing the issue with other foreign ministers.

The ministers "strongly call upon" North Korea, as a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum, to help "maintain the Asia Pacific as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity," the ministers added in their statement.
The personnel were aboard an MV-22 Osprey aircraft

Three US marines are missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia.

Twenty-three of the 26 personnel on board were rescued after the aircraft crashed as it came in to land, a spokesman for Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said.

The MV-22 Osprey had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when it crashed into the water.

The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like a plane. The Osprey has been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.

The aircraft was in Australia for a joint military training exercise held by the US and Australia last month in Shoalwater Bay.

The Talisman Sabre exercise, a biennial event between the two nations, involved more than 30,000 troops and 200 aircraft.

Australian defence minister Marise Payne said the incident occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay in Queensland state.

"I can confirm no Australian Defence Force personnel were on board the aircraft," Ms Payne said in a statement.

"The United States are leading the search and recovery effort."

Ms Payne said she had spoken with US defence secretary Jim Mattis "to offer Australia's support in any way that can be of assistance".

The White House said that Donald Trump had been briefed on the matter by his chief of staff, John Kelly.

In 2015, a US Osprey crashed during a training exercise in Hawaii, killing two Marines.

Last December, a US military Osprey crash-landed off Japan's southern island of Okinawa. Its five crew members were rescued safely.

In January, three US soldiers were wounded in the "hard landing" of an Osprey in Yemen.

AP
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Starting October 1, death certificates will need to have the person's Aadhaar number "for the purpose of establishing the identity of the deceased."

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This comes as more than 1.16 billion people, and nearly every adult, has been enrolled in Aadhaar, the subject of a vigorous debate on privacy. The Registrar General of India (RGI) has sent a notification regarding the death certification to all states apart from Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Meghalaya.

If the deceased's family is not aware of the Aadhaar number of the deceased, a certificate has to be furnished by the applicant that this is the case "to the best of his/her knowledge." Officials said this will allay any concerns about death certificates not being given if there's no Aadhaar.

Top officials said the step has been taken to avoid benefits or subsidies being claimed in the name of dead people. More than 300 schemes involving a subsidy or a benefit have been linked to Aadhaar with nearly Rs 6,600 crore being paid out every month through direct benefit transfers (DBT).

Currently, any identity proof of the deceased can be furnished while applying for a death certificate.

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"The use of Aadhaar for the applicants of death certificate will result in ensuring accuracy of the details provided by the relatives/dependants of the deceased," said the notification issued by the government Friday.

"It will provide an effective method to prevent identity fraud. It will also help in recording the identity of the deceased person. Further, it will obviate the need for producing multiple documents to prove the identity of the deceased person."

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False declarations will be treated as offences under the Aadhaar Act and the Registration of Birth and Death Act. "Of course, any false declaration to conceal Aadhaar number would mean attempt towards a fraud and will be acted against as per law," an official said. The person applying for the death certificate for a family member would have to furnish his or her own Aadhaar ID as well as that of the deceased. Government sources also said that in the US the social security number has to be furnished for a death certificate.

"Here too, furnishing an Aadhaar number is for benefit of the deceased's family to avoid any disputes. All bank accounts are being linked to Aadhaar  in this event, furnishing the deceased's Aadhaar would enable the bank to close the account of the correct person who passed away and the legal heirs can claim the amount," a source said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been running a campaign for the last six months to enrol seniors in Aadhaar, with teams even being sent to their homes. UIDAI had appealed to all states last year to enrol newborns in hospital itself so that the information is entered into government records when the birth certificate is given.

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"Nearly every adult in the country has an Aadhaar right now  out of 82.89 crore adults in India, 82.75 crore have an Aadhaar as on date. The rest without an Aadhaar are mainly in Assam and Meghalaya where a separate National Population Register (NPR) exercise is on rather than Aadhaar," a top official said, explaining why the notification should not lead to any disruption.
Two days before National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Beijing, Chinese soldiers transgressed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti and came into as much as one kilometre of Indian territory, reported Times Now on Monday.

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This is the second transgression, coming a little over a month after the June 16 incursion by Chinese troops in Doklam in the Sikkim sector of the India-China border. They violated the border and began construction on a road in the area.

Also Read: Amid Standoff With India In Sikkim, China Puts Its Military Might On Display To Mark PLA's 90th Anniversary

The incursion into Uttarakhand occurred on July 25 at about 9 am. Chinese soldiers transgressed into between 800 metres to 1 kilometer of Indian territory, sources told ANI.

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Last year, also in July, two soldiers from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered 200 metres into the Barholi area of Uttarakhand. At the time, then defence minister Manohar Parrikar said the border has not been demarcated and the two sides have a "different perception" about it.Therefore, India called the incident one of "transgression" and not " incursion.

Also Read: With An Eye On China, India Has Already Constructed 27 Of The 73 Roads Along The Border

Still, this latest report of a transgression doesn't bode well for Sino-Indian relations, coming so close on the heels of Doklam. And National security advisor Doval's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping did not yield any breakthrough that could end the current standoff.

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Relations between New Delhi and Beijing are fraught. China has refused to acknowledge it violated the border. It claims that Indian border troops crossed the boundary line in the Sikkim sector of the China-India boundary. Its intransigence has extended to Beijing insisting on Indian troops withdrawing before the possibility of any talks with New Delhi.

Also Read: Amid Standoff, Govt Planning Two Tunnels Through Arunachal's Sela Pass Up To China Border

On its part, India has been unyielding in insisting that China is the aggressor. It points to a clear 2012 understanding that China has violated. On June 30, India told China that its attempt to construct a road in the Doklam area in Bhutan will cause a "significant change of status quo", is a "violation of a 2012 understanding", and will lead to "serious security implications."

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"On 16 June, a PLA (People's Liberation Army) construction party entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct a road. It is our understanding that a Royal Bhutan Army patrol attempted to dissuade them from this unilateral activity," said India on June 30.

Also Read: China Looks To Settle Doklam Standoff As Indian Security Advisor Holds Talks In Beijing

Doval met Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials last Friday at the summit of Brics national security advisors in the Chinese capital. It was clear that both India and China want to keep the discussion on the Doklam stand-off restricted to the bilateral area instead of making it an issue requiring the attention of Brics.

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A Chinese analyst told TOI last week, there is little possibility of Xi going back on the demand that Indian troops must withdraw ahead of the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army on August 1.

"At best, the high level of belligerence can be allowed to taper off, giving leaders enough time to find a solution. But even this is not easy because there are hawkish voices on both sides," the Chinese analyst added, requesting anonymity.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has the people of India to boycott Chinese products.

His statement comes in the wake of ongoing standoff between India and China in the Doklam area of Sikkim.

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"China is openly supporting the terrorists of Pakistan. We need to give a befitting reply to Pakistan and for this firstly we have to merge Pakistan Occupied Kashmir ( PoK) with India and secondly every Indian should boycott China made products whether it be mobile, watches, cars, or toys," Ramdev told ANI.

He further appealed to the political parties to come together on this issue keeping aside the political rivalry.

This is not the first time Ramdev has made an appeal to boycott Chinese products. In October last year he had made similar boycott call accusing China of supporting Pakistan, which is spreading terrorism in India.

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But amid his boycott call, in March this year Patanjali had began works for a new production unit in Sahibganj, Jharkhand, with an ami to and export products to China, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev's Patanjali is one of the biggest brands in India now and has shown signs of growing even bigger.

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But it appears that the benefits of the sales worth Rs 10,561 crore in the last financial year is not reaching the people who made it possible.

According to former CEO of Patanjali, SK Patra, the company believes its employees are doing a 'seva' (voluntary service) and can work without being paid.

"Patanjali pay very little to the people who work for them. Babaji (Baba Ramdev) calls it seva. For instance, I was doing two jobs there  at Patanjali Ayurved and Patanjali Food Park. They had promised to pay for both. But he would announce to everyone that 'Patraji has come to do seva. Right now he is drawing salary, but soon, he wont even take that" Patra told Mint.

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Patra, an IT and IIM alumnus said he did not want to do 'seva' as Ramdev claimed and demanded money for the work he was doing.

"I used to respond, No, I want my money.... I said I dont need it for myself. I have a family. I need money for my family, to support them and my relatives. Then Babaji relented and gave me a salary for one of the two jobs that I was performing. But basically his argument was  I have to offer free seva to his host of companies."

Patra said he left the company due to the differences in their words and actions.

"I was also seeing the distance between their words and their actions and it troubled me. Eventually, it became too much. So I left."
At least 40 women who went through triple talaq and domestic violence have sent rakhis to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath demanding justice. These women claim to be "sisters of the nation" and say that the CM should fulfill the responsibility of a brother by ensuring speedy justice to them. They say that they have been suffering for years and want Yogi to help them urgently.

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Esha Khan, 22, who went through triple talaq sometime back, has sent a yellow-coloured rakhi to the CM. "Tired of facing harassment from my brother-in-law and sisters-in-law, I one day complained to my husband about them. However, instead of helping me, he got angry at me and uttered the three dreaded words. My two-and-a-half-year marriage ended abruptly," she said. "BJP had promised before elections that it would help women like me. Through my rakhi, I want to remind the CM about his promise," she added.

27-year-old Farhana (who goes by her first name) was given triple talaq in May 2015 after she gave birth to a daughter. "My husband wanted a boy. After I gave birth to a baby girl, he divorced me and moved to Saudi Arabia. His family threw me and my daughter out.

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When I approached them again, my mother-in-law asked me to do 'nikah halala' with my brother-in-law which was unacceptable to me. This Raksha Bandhan, I want Yogi to put an end to my sufferings," she said.

Nuzhat Kisa, who is a domestic violence victim, said that she has been waiting for justice since December 2016. "As my husband and his family were disappointed with me for not bringing dowry, they would often physically assault me.

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Even when I was pregnant, the thrashing continued and it resulted in my miscarriage. I somehow managed to survive and am now seeking action against them. As a sister of the nation, I have asked Yogi to ensure speedy justice to me. This will be my rakhi present."

With the help of a local NGO named Mera Haq Foundation, these women sent rakhis to the CM on Friday. "Most of these women have lodged an FIR with the local police, but are being pressured by their husbands or in-laws to take back their complaints. They have received numerous threats. They are scared for their lives as have not been provided security by police. Besides, most of them have nowhere to go. These women want justice and safety and that is why they have sent rakhis to Yogi," Farhat Naqvi, president of the NGO, said.
Pakistani high school student Noman Afzal knows traitorous Hindus are to blame for the bloodshed that erupted when British India split into two nations 70 years ago. His history textbook tells him so.

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Students across the border in India are taught a starkly different version of events, the result of a decades-long effort by the nuclear-armed rivals to shape and control history to their own nationalistic narrative.

The official unwillingness to confront the bitter legacy of Partition -- and the skewed portrayals being peddled in classrooms from New Delhi to Karachi -- is hindering any hope of reconciliation between the arch-rivals, experts say.

August marks 70 years since the subcontinent was divided into two independent states -- Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan -- and millions were uprooted in one of the largest mass migrations in history.

An untold number of people -- some estimates say up two million -- died in the savage violence that followed, as Hindus and Muslims fleeing for their new homelands turned on one another, raping and butchering in genocidal retribution.

The carnage sowed the seeds for the acrimony that prevails today between India and Pakistan, and generations later this defining moment in the subcontinents history is still polarised by nationalism and rancour.

Brookings Institution

In a government-approved grade five history textbook used in schools in Pakistans Baluchistan province, Hindus are described as thugs who massacred Muslims, confiscated their property, and forced them to leave India.

They looked down upon us, that is why we created Pakistan, said 17-year-old Afzal from Pakistans Punjab province, reeling off a stock answer from his history textbook.

On the other side of the border, Mumbai schoolboy Triaksh Mitra learned how Mahatma Gandhi fought for a unified India free from British subjugation while the Muslim League -- the political party led by Pakistans founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah -- sided with the colonial rulers to carve out their own nation.

But what they hadnt really told us was the Muslim side of it, the 15-year-old said of his Partition studies.

The chapters on Gandhi are a striking example of the gap between how Partition is portrayed on either side of the border. In Pakistan, his contribution to the struggle for independence is hardly mentioned, whereas in India he is hailed as an one-man army.

History teacher Aashish Dhakaan, who works in a high school in Indias Gujarat, acknowledged that the creation of the Muslim League was popularly upheld as self reliance and liberty in Pakistan, and the folly of gullible Muslims in India.

In our history we won the war, and in their history textbooks, they won the war, said Dhakaan.

While the government-sanctioned curriculum on both sides of the border appear largely ossified to their version of history, one Pakistan-based group has been using games and popular culture to challenge students to think critically about their past.

Qasim Aslams History Project runs sessions in schools in India and Pakistan, inviting students to compare how Partition accounts are presented in the two countries textbooks.

By the time they are 20, it is solidified and stays with them all their lives, Aslam said of the one-sided history lessons proffered in schools.

Mumbai-based student Mitra attended one of these sessions in April.

It helped me to take a different viewpoint into account and to form a more balanced notion, Mitra said.

If I know only one part, then its not the complete truth.

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Islamabad-based Pakistan studies professor Tariq Rehman said that correcting bias in the official syllabus would take a change in foreign policy between the two countries.

Authorities (in Pakistan) dont seem to be interested in making changes and question the antagonism against India, he added.

But there are small signs of progress. The latest revision of the state history textbook in India includes graphic first-hand accounts of atrocities committed by Hindus, and asks students if the violence could be considered a holocaust.

A book of testimonies titled 'The Other Side of Silence' by Indian writer and Partition historian Urvashi Butalia is now also part of the high school syllabus in India.

Butalia said she is pleased that more people are trying to understand Partition beyond a nationalistic prism.

It would have been impossible 20 years ago, she said.

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But outside the classroom, Butalia says there is little appetite for confronting hard truths about the past.

The author discovered a series of police reports of rapes and murders from 1947 that had been kept hidden because authorities feared opening up a can of worms if the horrifying accounts went public.

She also points to Humayans Tomb and Purana Qila -- two ancient monuments in New Delhi -- where thousands of Partition refugees sought sanctuary as the capital descended into chaos, noting there is no plaque at either site to remind the public of this troubled legacy.

I do not say that silence is broken, she added. We could learn so much, basically learn never to repeat that history, but we dont memorialise it in any way, she warned.
A team of scientists at ESSO-National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) is ready with a preliminary design for the country's first manned submersible that can accommodate a three-member crew.

Expected to be ready in five years at a cost of Rs 500 crore, it will be able to take scientists about six kilometres deep into the ocean to look for precious metals and lesser known life forms. Read more

1. As The Standoff In Sikkim Continues China May Go For 'Small Scale Military Operations' Against India

With the India-China standoff in Sikkim showing no signs of de-escalation Beijing is planning a "small scale military operation" to "expel" Indian troops from the Doklam area "within two weeks", an article in a state-run daily said.

India and China have been locked in a prolonged standoff in the area in the Sikkim sector since June 16 after Chinese troops began constructing a road near the Bhutan tri-junction. Read more

2. Amid Border Standoff Baba Ramdev Wants Indians To Boycott Chinese Goods

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has the people of India to boycott Chinese products. His statement comes in the wake of ongoing standoff between India and China in the Doklam area of Sikkim.

"China is openly supporting the terrorists of Pakistan. We need to give a befitting reply to Pakistan and for this firstly we have to merge Pakistan Occupied Kashmir ( PoK) with India and secondly every Indian should boycott China made products whether it be mobile, watches, cars, or toys," Ramdev said. Read more

3. Terrorist Hafiz Saeed Ventures Into Politics, Renames JuD As Milli Muslim League Pakistan To Contest Elections

One of India's most wanted terrorist, the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed seems to be changing his strategies.

Under house arrest in Pakistan and the administration there facing increasing international pressure to act against terror groups, Saeed the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the so-called charity organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) has reportedly transformed the latter into a political party. Read more

4. Mysterious Hair Chopping Incidents Continue In Delhi NCR, Four New Cases Reported In 12 Hours

Four new cases of women's hair being mysteriously chopped off while they were either asleep or unconscious have come up in the past 12 hours.

While two of the victims refused to register a police complaint, the other two have lodged an FIR at police stations in Rohini district. Read more

5. Haryana BJP State Chiefs Son Booked Under Molestation Charges For Stalking IAS Officer's Daughter

Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Subhash Baralas son Vikas has been arrested on charges of stalking daughter of an IAS officer.

A case was registered against Vikas and other youth under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code on the basis of a complaint filed by the IAS officer's daughter. Read more
Here's a look in pictures of all the important events and happenings from around the world.

1. Members of self-described patriot groups and militias run through shooting drills during United Patriots Field Training Exercise.

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Which they describe as the largest patriot event in the US.

2. African migrants react after crossing the border from Morocco to Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, Spain, early August 1, 2017.

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3. Britain's Prince Philip made his last public solo appearance.

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In his role as Captain General, Royal Marines, he attends a Parade to mark the finale of the 1664 Global Challenge, on the Buckingham Palace Forecourt, in central London, Britain August 2, 2017. The 96-year-old husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, made his final solo appearance at the official engagement on Wednesday, before retiring from active public life.

4. An F/A-18F Super Hornet jet flies over the latest American aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford.

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As the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier tests its EMALS magnetic launching system, which replaces the steam catapult, and new AAG arrested landing system in the Atlantic Ocean July 28, 2017.

5. A woman dives and pretends to ride a bike in Underwater Park in Pula, Croatia, August 1, 2017.

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6. A villager is seen following an eruption of Mount Sinabung volcano, in Beganding Village, Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia August 2, 2017.

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7. Elementary school sumo wrestlers compete in the sumo ring during the Wanpaku sumo-wrestling tournament in Tokyo, Japan July 30, 2017.

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8. The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft carrying the crew of Paolo Nespoli of Italy Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Randy Bresnik of the US blasts off.

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The launch to the International Space Station (ISS) took place from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan July 28, 2017.

9. Civil defense members safely detonate cluster bombs in the rebel-held area in Deraa, Syria July 26, 2017.

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10. White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci arrives to travel with U.S. President Donald Trump to Ronkonkoma, New York from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 28, 2017. He was removed 10 days into his new job.

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11. A man falls as Typhoon Nesat hits Taipei, Taiwan July 29, 2017.

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12. A yazidi boy holds his sister in a playground in Sinjar region, Iraq August 2, 2017.

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13. A woman enjoys the sun on a Croisette beach in Cannes, France August 1, 2017.

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14. Lorens Listo jumps from the Old Bridge during the 451st traditional diving competition in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 30, 2017.

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15. A worker, known as a "Tecchiaiolo", examines marble at the Cervaiole quarry on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy.

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16. A police officer opens fire at Muhammad al-Maghrabi, 41, who was convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl, in Sanaa, Yemen July 31, 2017.

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17. A Free Syrian Army fighter is seen at night in the rebel-held area, in the town of Dael, Syria July 29, 2017.

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18. Flames erupt as clashes break out while the Constituent Assembly election is being carried out in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2017.

reuters
We all know IITs are the pinnacle of technical education and research in the country.

So it's no surprise when you hear that IIT Bombay is experimenting with realizing the future of smart, digital classrooms in India. By slapping an in-house developed smart exam app with seamless wireless Internet connectivity throughout its classrooms and campus.

REUTERS

By collaborating with Mojo Networks, a service that offers cloud-based Wi-Fi management tools, IIT Bombay is now able to provide reliable W-iFi experience in halls to drive its smart classrooms initiative.

The wireless performance has helped in the successful deployment of SAFE (Smart Authenticated Fast Exams), a smartphone app-based system for conducting exams in classrooms, created by professors & student researchers of IIT Bombay.

SAFE leverages students' smart devices to conduct objective exams in a proctored setting.

IIT Bombay's SAFE app

SAFE is an outcome of over two years of R&D, and has gone through multiple rounds of refinements based on feedback from real deployment and use in classrooms.

SAFE is easy to operate and most importantly, it is safe: it employs a host of mechanisms to ensure the integrity of the exam, by restricting the use of the smart device for the intended purpose, for the duration of the SAFE exam. Another unique advantage of SAFE is that it's real time: after taking the quiz, the instructor is able to instantly view the consolidated marklist. This function enables students to get real-time feedback from the professor thereby helping them focus better on learning, especially in large classes.

On WiFi-enabled smart classrooms, Prof. Bhaskaran Raman of IIT Bombay opined: Students should be able to collaborate with one another, and teachers should be able to interact better with students, get feedback on their understanding, and also conduct exams easily. The vision of the smart classroom is critically dependent on availability of a highly reliable and high performance Wi-Fi solution.
A Nigeria Catholic Priest stunned his members while he was speaking on a radio when he announced on a live programme that he was quitting the Catholic Church.

Patrick Edet, who served under the Catholic Diocese of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has been a popular voice on radio in the state through his weekly live programme called Grace and Inspiration.

On Wednesday, on Planet 101.1FM, Uyo, instead of airing his usual inspirational message which has over the years endeared him to thousands within and outside the state, Mr. Edet dropped the shocking news.

On 31 of July, I resigned from my services, my duties and obligations as a Catholic priest, he said.

I ceased to be a Catholic priest in my thinking, in my spirit, in my soul, (and) in my body.

Yesterday, the 1st of August, was my first day outside the laws, the regulations, (and) the authority of the Catholic church.

In my mind, every law that bound me bound me because I submitted myself to the Catholic Church as an institution.

Having submitted my resignation letter to my authorities in the Catholic Church, in my spirit, soul and body, I am free from every law that guided me. I submit myself to one authority  God, he said.

Mr. Edet was a Catholic priest for more than 11 years.

Akwa Ibom, a predominantly Christian state, has a high Catholic population.

It is very rare in Nigeria to have a priest quit the Catholic Church.

He said he prayed and fasted for seven months before he took the decision to leave the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church in the state could not be reached immediately for their comment on the matter.

Apart from being a radio preacher, Mr. Edet runs a crowd-pulling fellowship in Uyo, outside the control of the Catholic Church, using his Grace Family Global Outreach.

Those who have attended the fellowship meetings before said things are done the Pentecostal style  like prophesying and speaking in tongue  which often brought the priest into conflict with the Catholic doctrine and leadership.

Mr. Edet, throughout the about 40 minutes broadcast on Wednesday, explained his experience with God, his personal philosophy of life, and his conflict with the Catholic Church.

He said he had gone through a lot of opposition, antagonism and blackmail for the years he has been running the fellowship.

All I hear every time is that I am not truly a Catholic priest.

It has been in conflict in my heart because why I actually accepted not to marry and have children was not just to be a Catholic priest, but to do the things that I do  be nutty on radio and shout and laugh and inspire somebody. And cry when I need to cry and console somebody who cries and to live my life out in my faith openly and in the process make mistake.

Peace has been taken away from me for years. I live in fear and in doubt. Sometimes I doubt myself  am I really right, am I in the right place, he said.

Mr. Edet praised the Catholic Church as being so organised and the best institution that has ever been built by man, but however said that the space given to him in the Catholic Church as a minister was so small.

A box is already made for you and you cannot go outside that box, he explained.

You cannot know God beyond that box. You cannot express God beyond that box. And any attempt for you to go beyond that box brings you label.

The God that I have discovered in life is a God that cannot be fully known. That God is a God that cannot be fully predicted and cannot be fully captured in human expression otherwise he will cease to be a mystery. That is a God I have come to accept as my God.

I have come to realise that serving that God you need freedom. When that freedom is limited you cannot fully serve that God.

Each time I tried to cross the line, the thing I meet crushes me on the inside and makes me feel guilty. But I cannot stop doing it. Theres a pull inside of me telling me there is more, and life was meant to be more and that more is found in freedom in God.

The priest said he was aware that his action would bring along some unpleasant consequences, like rejection, for instance, and that he was ready to face them.

He said God would judge him, not by the words or actions of the Catholic Pope, but by his own life on the earth, and therefore he accepted responsibility for his action.

The reason I am doing this is that I want to be right with God first. I want to go to heaven when I die.

For those who are broken, I have these words for you  I have been broken for years.

The cleric prayed for those who will condemn him for leaving the Catholic Church, adding that I dont even need to say I forgive you; you are right in your thinking, but just that you dont know everything  you dont know what has been in my life, you dont know my motive, you dont know why I leave, you dont know who called me, how I was called and the covenant I have had with God, you dont know where I am going to.

It is not the Church that called me, it is God who called me that is above the Church, and my interest is to be right with Him first and have peace with Him first.

Mr. Edet, who said he would continue to build his fellowship, promised never to ask or encourage people to leave the Catholic Church.
The United States has announced that it has withdrawn from Paris Climate Agreement, this was made known on Friday, with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealing to the U.S. to reconsider its action, in the interest of humanity.

President Donald Trump had announced on June 1, 2017, that the U.S. would leave the agreement.

The Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Mr Stephane Dujarric, confirmed that Guterres received, in his capacity as Depositary of the Paris Agreement, a communication from the Permanent Representative of the United States of America.

The Secretary General, however, welcomed any effort to re-engage in the Paris Agreement by the United States.

Dujarric said the communication expressed the intention of the United States to exercise its right to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as soon as it is eligible to do so under the Agreement unless it identifies suitable terms for re-engagement.

Guterres stressed his statement on June 1, 2017, that the decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security.

It is crucial that the United States remains a leader in climate and sustainable development. Climate change is impacting now.

He looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future for our children and future generations, Guterres said.

Under article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a Party may withdraw at any time after three years from the date on which the Agreement has entered into force for that Party, and such withdrawal takes effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the Depositary of the notification of withdrawal.

The United States accepted the Paris Agreement on Sept. 3, 2016, and the Agreement entered into force for the United States on Nov. 4, 2016.

The Secretary-General would circulate the text of this communication as a depositary notification, in English and French, early next week.

The U.S. Department of State, in a statement, confirmed the United States submitted a communication to the United Nations, in its capacity as depositary for the Paris Agreement, regarding the U.S. intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as it is eligible to do so, consistent with the terms of the Agreement.

As the President indicated in his June 1 announcement and subsequently, he is open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favourable to it, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers.

The United States supports a balanced approach to climate policy that lowers emissions while promoting economic growth and ensuring energy security.

We will continue to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through innovation and technology breakthroughs, and work with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently and deploy renewable and other clean energy sources, given the importance of energy access and security in many nationally determined contributions.

The United States will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings, including the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP-23) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to protect U.S. interests and ensure all future policy options remain open to the administration.

Such participation will include ongoing negotiations related to guidance for implementing the Paris Agreement, the department said.

Source: ( PM News )
A Nigerian identified as Mr. Sylvanus Amachukwu Godwin, with Nigerian with Passport Number A06011089 aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Flight 606 en-route Addis Ababa to Guangzhou, China allegedly slumped and died of high grams of drug in body.

Indications are that the late Godwin may have died of some drug in his body system but the airline authorities are yet to conclude investigations as to the proper cause of his death.

In a telephone conversation with Nigerian Consul General to China, Ambassador Wale Oloko, Godwins death was announced to the consulate when the aircraft landed at the Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, China.

The consulate was informed that the Nigerian collapsed while in the flight and though first-aid measures were administered on him, he unfortunately died before the aircraft could reach China.

It was also learnt that the corpse has been taken to the Aviation Hospitals mortuary within the Baiyun International Airport complex for expected post mortem to determine the cause of the sudden death.

Ambassador Oloko noted that the Mission is not restricting investigations on its part and has gone ahead to advise the management of Ethiopian airlines to use the information on the reservation system to reach the family of the deceased in Nigeria.

In light of the fresh development, Nigerians are urged to understand the dangers of drug trafficking and the negative impact on the countrys image.

Source:( Instablog )
An Eight year-old girl identified as Kiari Pope was confirmed dead in Florida after she was injured from drinking boiling water through a straw, she later complained to her mothers boyfriend that she couldnt breath on Sunday night.

Minutes later she was unresponsive. Pope was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead at 12.15am. Popes mother, Marquisia Bonner, says the little girl was dared to drink the boiling water by her cousin in March.

Kiari received a tracheotomy that left her deaf and with chronic respiratory problems, according to the Palm Beach Post. Florida Department of Children and Families records called her medically compromised.

State authorities investigated that March incident and at least nine other allegations of either abuse or neglect involving the girl since her birth.

Source: ( Instablog9ja )
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, paid a visit to President, Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, paid a visit to the ailing President Muhammadu Buhari in London, United Kingdom, where he has been receiving medical attention since May 7.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Friday.

Adesina said the Archbishop visited Buhari, who he described as his friend, at the Abuja House, London.

The presidential spokesman quoted Welby as saying during the visit that he was delighted to see the rapid recovery Buhari had made from his health challenges.

The Anglican priest was further quoted as describing the Presidents recovery as a testimony to the healing powers of God, and answer to prayers of millions of people around the world.

The statement read, The cleric pledged to continue praying for both President Buhari and Nigeria.

In his response, the Nigerian President thanked Archbishop Welby, whom he noted had always stood by him at critical times, and wished him Gods continued grace in his spiritual duty of leading the Anglican Communion worldwide.

It will be recalled that when former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, described Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt country ahead of an anti-corruption summit in London in 2016, Welby had retorted, But this particular President (Buhari) is actually not corrupt.

The Archbishop later personally received the Nigerian President at Lambert Palace, London, and had also paid a goodwill visit to Buhari in March, during his medical vacation

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
At least 15 rapes cases have occurred in June involving children and girls between the ages of two and seven were recorded in Benue State in July alone, according to leader of the Women Situation Room Nigerian, a civil society organisation, Magdalene Gbazua.

While speaking to Governor Samuel Ortom, represented by his Special Adviser on Security, Col. Edwin Jando, during their protest against defilement and rape, which are rampant in the country, Gbazua frowned on the rise in the incidence of rape, saying the situation had become worrisome and needed urgent attention.

She lamented that persons accused of raping women and children were not properly prosecuted.

Some of their placards read, Say No to Rape, and Stop rape and Child Abuse among others.

The group said rape and defilement had far-reaching effect on the survivors and victims families, urging the state government to domesticate the law against rape, which was passed by the Federal Government in 2015.

Gbazua said the Women Situation Room Nigeria in partnership with the Alliance Against Domestic Violence and Abuse facilitated the protest, adding that the black attire symbolised pain, hurt and grief of the violation of babies, children and women.

She noted that the recent defilement and death of a 14-year-old girl in Lagos State necessitated the protest, which according to her, took place in 10 states, including Benue, Bauchi, Kano and Kaduna.

Ortom, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Security, Col. Edwin Jando (retd.), commended the women for the peaceful protest, saying the state government in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force, on Thursday night, raided five brothels within the Makurdi metropolis and arrested 72 commercial sex workers.

The governor, however, told the protesters that they had embarked on a noble course, saying that he would press on the state House of Assembly and make sure that the bill was passed and assented to.

He stated that rape was a capital offence and whoever indulged in such an act must be punished.

We have decided to visit all the red spots in Makurdi to chase away sex workers and discourage people from engaging themselves in such ventures and we will arrest, persecute anyone found in that act because it is ungodly and a wicked means of living a life.
The Senator representing Bayelsa East, Ben Murray-Bruce on Friday, revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari was expected back in the country next week.

In an interview with Vanguard, he complained about the continued hardship in Nigeria and how the country was lagging behind in its development.

According to him,

Nigeria has not really made any progress in the last 2 years. I think we are in big trouble right now.

When the President gets back, we would need to sit down with him and have a conversation. There is no point having a conversation with anybody who is not a president.

I am thinking the Senate. We will have a conversation. A bipartisan team will go and meet with Mr. President and have a conversation with him. Not APC senators meeting the president but the Senate meeting him and have a conversation on the future of Nigeria.

Thats what I am gonna propose. That we sit down with him and discuss the issues. Hes the president and you cant change that and I respect constitutional authority. He is the President of Nigeria and we will sit down with him and discuss the problems facing the country.

In 2019 when there is another president, that will no another issue. But right now, he is the president and we need to sit down with him and discuss the issues. I understand he will be here next week.

Lets talk to the President directly. I think it is important to speak with the President Buhari.
A 28-year-old man, identified as Musibau Okunola, was arraigned before an Osogbo Chief Magistrates Court on Friday for alleged unlawful possession of 22 goats.

The prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police Mireti Wilson, told the court that the accused committed the offence on Nov. 28, 2016 at about 3:50am within Osogbo metropolis in Osun State.

Wilson said the accused was arrested while conveying the 22 goats in a bus with registration number KJA 178 XE, and was unable to give satisfactory explanation of the ownership of the animals.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the prosecutor said the offence contravened sections 517 and 430(1) of the criminal code cap 34 Vol.11 laws of Osun, 2003.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge and his counsel, Mr Ato Atobatele, prayed the court to grant him bail in liberal terms.

The Magistrate, Mrs. Olubukola Awodele granted the accused bail in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in like sum.

Awodele said the sureties must reside within the court jurisdiction, show evidence of tax payment, attach affidavit of means and provide two passport photographs. The case was adjourned to November 13 for hearing.

Meanwhile, the Police in Kano on Friday also arraigned a 25-year-old man, Ibrahim Musa, before a Kano Magistrates Court for allegedly raping a nine-year-old rice-cake (Masa) seller.

Musa, who resides at Saje Village in Bichi local government area of the state is being tried on a one-count charge of rape.

The Chief Magistrate, Muhammad Jibril, ordered the remand of the defendant in prison custody and adjourned the case to August 10 for mention.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Inspector Pogu Lale, had told the court that one Bashir Ado of the same address reported the case at Bichi police Division on July 27, 2017.

The defendant deceived and lured her into his shop situated at Saje Village and forcefully had unlawful sexual intercourse with her, he said.

Source: ( NAN )
While speaking during a working visit to The Nations corporate headquarters in Lagos on Friday, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, revealed why the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is yet to be re-arrested.

The Police IG also said the Arewa Youths were yet to be picked up, based on the decision of the National Security Council.

He said; We have the National Security Council in place chaired by the Acting President. We have been meeting and analyzing each of these threat messages from separatist groups.

We have to analyse the pros and cons. As you are aware, the police are on top of the situation.

As an organisation, what we take as paramount is the maintenance of law and order. There was a time we ordered the arrest of the leaders of groups making threat messages. Then, leaders of various ethnic nationalities came to the villa for a meeting with the Acting President.

The agreements reached at the meeting made the police to relax on the arrest order.

We believe there are certain situations needed to be managed very carefully, so that you dont bring up tension. We believe the security and safety of Nigerians is paramount.

We are assuring Nigerians that there is no person or group of persons that can deny them their rights to free movement in any part of the country, he said.
The Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC) Mr. Abdullahi Muhammadu, has pleaded to the Federal Government to further assist the corps with funds and logistics to enable it to perform effectively in tackling security challenges in the country.

Muhammadu made the appeal at the inauguration of the building projects on the premises of the headquarters of the Ondo State Command of the NSCDC in Akure, the capital.

He said, I wish to particularly appreciate Governor Rotimi Akeredolu for his tremendous support and assistance to the corps and for providing the enabling environment to enhance operational efficiency.

However, I am appealing for further assistance, especially in the area of capacity building and manpower development as well as the provision of logistics and modern equipment to further enhance our capacity to effectively deliver our mandate and tackle the present security challenges confronting us as a nation.

The CG, who was represented at the occasion by the Deputy Commandant-General, Mr. Kelechi Madu, commended the people of Ondo State for their support, promising that they would continue to work hard to protect lives and property.

The Commandant of the NSCDC in Ondo, Mr. Adeyinka Ayinla, said that the building project was funded by the people and corporate bodies in the state, noting that the development was an indication of a good partnership between citizens and the NSCDC.

Akeredolu, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Sunday Abegunde, commended the NSCDC and other security outfits in the state for their efforts in protecting lives and property, assuring them of his administrations continued support for them.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Copper Nears Important Area Taurus Trading LLC - Sat Nov 12, 11:33AM CST Watch price action between 3.9615 and 4.1167.

Elections, inflation and crop reports bring volatility Sidwell Strategies - Sat Nov 12, 11:28AM CST Black Sea Corridor Renewal ahead

Americans Are Saving Less. Heres How to Save More. Young & The Invested - Sat Nov 12, 6:00AM CST Several recent data studies show that Americans, after saving heavily during the pandemic, are starting to pull money from those savings. We discuss how to maintain healthy savings habits.

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%)
What Is a Bonus?

A bonus is a financial compensation that is above and beyond the normal payment expectations of its recipient. Companies may award bonuses to both entry-level employees and to senior-level executives. While bonuses are traditionally given to exceptional workers, employers sometimes dole out bonuses company-wide to stave off jealousy among staffers.

Bonuses may be dangled as incentives to prospective employees and they can be given to current employees to reward performance and increase employee retention. Companies can distribute bonuses to its existing shareholders through a bonus issue, which is an offer of free additional shares of the company's stock.

Key Takeaways A bonus is a financial compensation that is above and beyond the normal payment expectations of its recipient.

Bonuses may be awarded by a company as an incentive or to reward good performance.

Typical incentive bonuses a company can give employees include signing, referral, and retention bonuses.

Companies have various ways they can award employee bonuses, including cash, stock, and stock options.

Understanding Bonuses

In workplace settings, a bonus is a type of compensation an employer gives to an employee that complements their base pay or salary. A company may use bonuses to reward achievements, to show gratitude to employees who meet longevity milestones, or to entice not-yet employees to join a company's ranks.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers bonuses as taxable income, which means employees will need to report any bonuses they receive when filing their taxes.

Incentive Bonuses

Incentive bonuses include signing bonuses, referral bonuses, and retention bonuses. A signing bonus is a monetary offer that companies extend to top-talent candidates to entice them to accept a positionespecially if they are being aggressively pursued by rival firms. In theory, paying an initial bonus payment will result in greater company profits down the line. Signing bonuses are routinely offered by professional sports teams attempting to lure top-tier athletes away from competitive clubs.

Referral bonuses are presented to employees who recommend candidates for open positions, which ultimately leads to the hiring of said candidates. Referral bonuses incentivize employees to refer prospects with strong work ethics, sharp skills, and positive attitudes.

Companies offer retention bonuses to key employees, in an effort to encourage loyalty, especially in downward economies or periods of organizational changes. This financial incentive is an expression of gratitude that lets employees know their jobs are secure over the long haul.

Performance Bonuses

Performance bonuses reward employees for exceptional work. They are customarily offered after the completion of projects or at the end of fiscal quarters or years. Performance bonuses may be doled out to individuals, teams, departments, or to the company-wide staff. A reward bonus may be either a one-time offer or a periodic payment. While reward bonuses are usually given in cash, they sometimes take the form of stock compensation, gift cards, time off, holiday turkeys, or simple verbal expressions of appreciation.

Examples of reward bonuses include annual bonuses, spot bonus awards, and milestone bonuses. Spot bonuses, which reward employees who deserve special recognition, are micro-bonus payments, typically valued at around $50. Workers who reach longevity milestonesfor example, 10 years of employment with a given firmmay be recognized with additional compensation.

Some businesses build bonus structures into employee contracts, where any profits earned during a fiscal year will be shared amongst the employees. In most cases, C-suite executives are awarded larger bonuses than lower-level employees.

Bonus Inflation

While bonuses are traditionally issued to high-performing, profit-generating employees, some companies opt to issue bonuses to lower-performing employees as well, even though businesses that do this tend to grow more slowly and generate less money. Some businesses resort to distributing across-the-board bonuses in an effort to quell jealousies and employee backlash. After all, it's easier for management to pay bonuses to everyone than to explain to inadequate performers why they were denied.

Furthermore, it can be difficult for an employer to accurately assess their employees' performance success. For example, employees who fail to make their activity quotas may be very hard workers. However, their performance may be hampered by any number of conditions out of their control, such as unavoidable production delays or an economic downturn.

Bonuses in Lieu of Pay

Companies are increasingly replacing raises with bonusesa trend that vexes many employees. While employers can keep wage increases low by pledging to fill pay gaps with bonuses, they are under no obligation to follow through. Because employers pay bonuses on a discretionary basis, they may keep their fixed costs low by withholding bonuses during slow years or recessionary periods. This approach is much more viable than increasing salaries annually, only to cut wages during a recession.

Dividends and Bonus Shares

In addition to employees, shareholders may receive bonuses in the shape of dividends, which are carved from the profits realized by the company. In lieu of cash dividends, a company can issue bonus shares to investors. If the company is short on cash, the bonus shares of company stock provide a way for it to reward shareholders who expect a regular income from owning the company's stock. The shareholders may then sell the bonus shares to meet their cash needs or they can opt to hold onto the shares.
Update 12.27pm:The body of missing Jennifer Deysel Crosbie has been found, Gardai have said.

Gardai have said no further action is required and thanked the public for their assistance.

The 41-year-old went missing from the Ballsbridge area on Thursday.

Earlier:Gardai are continuing their appeal for a missing woman in Dublin whose family is concerned for her welfare.

Jennifer Deysel Crosbie (41), from the Ballsbridge area, has been missing since Thursday.

Jennifer is described as being 5ft 2" in height, of slim build with shoulder length blonde hair.

When last seen she was wearing green shorts, navy tights, black heeled boots and a navy jacket.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Gardai.
A man in his 20s has died in Co Mayo today after the car he was driving crashed.

The accident happened at Charlestown, Co Mayo, at around 3pm this afternoon.
Two university employees wanted over the stabbing death of a Chicago man have surrendered peacefully in California and will be returned to Chicago for interrogation, authorities said.

Wyndham Lathem, 42, gave himself up late on Friday at the Oakland federal building and Andrew Warren, 56, surrendered at about the same time to the San Francisco Police Department, according to Michael McCloud of the US Marshals Service.

Mr McCloud said the surrender of the two suspects was "negotiated", although he declined to say how it happened.

"We were not in contact with them directly," he said.

Lathem, an associate microbiology professor at Northwestern University, was booked into the Alameda County jail.

Warren, a Somerville College employee at Oxford University in England, was taken to San Francisco County Jail.

They will appear separately in court before being extradited to Illinois.

A manhunt had been under way since shortly after the body of 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found with stab wounds on July 27 in the Chicago apartment where Lathem lived.

"Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today's arrest brings some comfort for the victim's family," a Chicago police statement said.

Police said Lathem had sent a video to friends and relatives apologising for his involvement in the crime, which he called the "biggest mistake of my life". The video raised concern among investigators that Lathem might kill himself.

"We are also thankful both men are safely in custody and this did not end in further tragedy," the police statement said.

Warren had arrived in the US three days before the killing and was seen in surveillance video leaving the building with Lathem on the day of the stabbing.

Mr McCloud said the US Marshals Service learned on Wednesday that the two men might be in the San Francisco Bay area.

Police said Lathem had a personal relationship with Mr Cornell-Duranleau, who moved to Chicago from Michigan after receiving his cosmetology licence.

Detectives are not sure how they knew Warren, or if Warren knew them before he flew to the US.

In a bizarre twist, police said that on the day of the killing, but before the body had been discovered, Lathem and Warren drove about 80 miles north west to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where one of them made a 1,000 dollar cash donation to the public library there in Mr Cornell-Duranleau's name.

Lake Geneva police said the man making the donation did not give his name.

PA
Fiona Muldoon was speaking as FBD, which has evolved from being a farm insurer to the biggest domestic insurer, said it had posted a profit before tax of 11.9m in the first half of the year, in contrast to the 5.3m loss it had made in the corresponding period last year.

FBD said it had a combined operating ratio (COR) of 93% including a one-time 5.6m Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) provision release following the Supreme Court judgement of Setanta.

The COR is a calculation used in insurance to measure how well it is doing by taking losses and other expenses and dividing them by premiums earned. A rate below 100% is considered profitable.

In May, the Supreme Court overturned previous court findings that MIBI should pick up the bill as a result of the demise of the insurance company Setanta. The MIBI is funded by the insurance industry.

Law Society president Stuart Gilhooly said last month: The insurance industry scandalously used the entire debacle to excuse their egregious increase in premiums. Now that they no longer have this excuse, they will have to dip into their lucky bag for the next one. It wont be long in coming.

Ms Muldoon vehemently rejected Mr Gilhoolys comments, saying there was a multitude of factors for higher premiums, including legal fees.

MIBI was set up for uninsured drivers, and was never envisaged to be about insolvency and the Supreme Court said that. The Government response has been to put a levy on so the compensation fund will not have to make good the insolvency. One way or another, the cost ended up being paid by the motorist, she said.

She added the premiums of the many pay for the claims of the few and that legal costs are higher in any of our adjacent countries.

The Troika tried unsuccessfully to lower legal costs. If you go to court, part of the claimants award ends up being legal costs. The level of awards are far bigger here. There is a whole heap of issues, including the insurance industry overly competing the prices down. The product was being sold way below costs. So when the correction comes, it is much more sharp than needs to be. There is more than enough blame to go around.

She said urgent reforms were needed to assist customers who were understandably frustrated.

Its tough enough to be in business as an SME without your insurance company coming along and putting 10-20% onto your premium because the courts are awarding more money than they used to and fraudulent claims are on the up. Were a big enough company but small relative to the AXAs or Avivas. Were Irish and were local so we are not unaware of the environment we are in, she said.

Mr Muldoon said although FBD had returned to profit after a long road back from a difficult few years, it was too soon to pay a dividend.

It is more than two years and we are very conscious that paying a dividend is the last big sign of our return to health but it is too soon to be doing that now. I think its a conversation to have with the board next March or April, she said.
Advertising campaigns by the HSE have failed to attract a single offer for the post in the village, a National Tidy Towns winner.

Unfortunately, like many rural locations, running a GP practice is reportedly financially unattractive due to continuing cutbacks in the financial emergency measures programme. In recent years, many rural GP services have experienced cumulative reductions of 38% in their patients register.

Furthermore, there are registration restrictions for GPs not trained in Ireland.

Killarney-based doctor Gary Stack, a SouthDoc founder, suggested salaried positions should possibly be considered by the HSE for colleagues servicing the most isolated areas.

Meanwhile, a German-French couple, Jochen Gerz and his wife Laurence Vanpoulle, who live in Sneem (population 240), took the initiative to invite people to sign a petition. Having relocated from Paris 10 years ago, Mr Gerz, who come from Berlin, said: Without a doctor there will be no village.

Meanwhile, Dr Malone is appealing to the HSE to give serious consideration to an existing locum, Hernan Ganzo. The Spaniard is planning to apply for the position.

I wont be replaced unless people pressurise their TDs, said Dr Malone. He plans to hand over his surgery immediately when a replacement is sourced.

The area of coverage extends from Derrynane to Blackwater and includes the Parknasilla holiday village complex.

Dr Malone said he was aware of instances in other locations where eminently qualified foreign candidates were ruled out because of technicalities to do with registration  including an Irish doctor working in Scotland. He suggested the HSE needs to use its imagination and ease up on needless restrictions.

The petition describes Dr Malone as an outstanding, caring and deeply committed professional.

However, it emphasises: Everyone needs a doctor. Not only the elderly need a doctor; not only our pharmacy needs a doctor in order to stay open; not only the young families in the town and the many visitors we welcome each year, also the groceries and all the shops and businesses depend on the presence of a local doctor in Sneem.

Its two-and-a-half hours to the nearest hospital, and 40 minutes to a GP in Kenmare where the nearest doctor will be situated.

There is no bus service to get there, it is of vital importance that we have a doctor appointed for Sneem.

Dr Stack has been to the fore in warning about the crisis facing communities in Cork and Kerry. He said many GP practices are provided by just one doctor, and locum cover is extremely difficult to arrange in rural areas.

Up to nine other towns and villages in Co Kerry reportedly face similar crises in the near future.
However, this pales into insignificance compared to what it would lose if the McKinnon report was adopted.

McKinnon recommended the county council cede control of Ballincollig, Blarney, Cork Airport, Glanmire, Little Island, and Carrigtwohill to Cork City Council  an area nearly 35km wide.

Little Island and Carrigtwohill in particular, are industrial powerhouses where further substantial growth is likely and provide huge amounts of money in commercial rates for the county council.

It is estimated that ceding these areas would cost the county council around 50m in annual revenue through lost rates and LPT and even more in the years ahead as they are further developed.

The railway corridor to Midleton offers the overseeing local authority huge revenue in special development charges and LPT as thousands of acres of land are zoned there for housing development, especially around Carrigtwohill and Waterrock, Midleton.

Carrigtwohill is now the major focus for the IDA in terms of locating clean industries there. Ringaskiddy has become a less likely proposition for the IDA because it is in a cul-de-sac, whereas Carrigtwohill and the serviced site close-by, once earmarked for US biotech giant Amgen, are adjacent to a major road network and the railway line.

Little Island Business Association has estimated its sphere of influence has significant room for expansion. It has only been held up because of traffic congestion.

This could be rectified after a local farmer offered to provide land free of charge so Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the county council could build a slip road into the area from the eastern side, near Cobh Cross.

This would open up huge tracts of Little Island to further commercial and industrial development.

The county council estimates that its proposals to extend the city boundary into land it owns in Doughcloyne, Ardrostig, Frankfield, Grange, Castletreasure, and Oldcourt on the southside and Ballyvolane, Kilbarry, and Carhoo would initially provide the city council with a cash windfall of more than 16m a year in commercial rates and LPT.

However, it claims that the future income generation potential of this proposed boundary extension from new economic and residential development through commercial rates and LPT could provide the other local authority with an income of up to 60m per year.

County council bosses will tell the boundary adjustment Implementation Oversight Group that this is of major significance in terms of creating the conditions for the future growth and sustainability of services provided by the city council.

They maintain that, in proposing this alteration to the boundary, it provides a significant opportunity to grow a Cork that reflects the core principles of an urban city of high density of population that reflects urban city form and one that drives sustainable development.

The proposal will be sent to Planning Minister Eoghan Murphy, the city council, and TDs.

Council prepared to cede land for boundary extension

- Sean ORiordan

Cork County Council said it is prepared to cede territory for the extension of the city boundary, but nowhere near the scale proposed by the Mackinnon report.

At a behind-closed doors meeting, county councillors agreed to submit a new plan to the implementation oversight group appointed by Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy.

The plan will see them give up 1,060 hectares of greenfield land on the south and north edges of the city. This will include land in Doughcloyne, Ardrostig, Frankfield, Grange, Castletreasure, Oldcourt, Ballyvolane, Kilbarry, and Carhoo. This is much less than the what was recommended by the Mackinnon report, which suggested the city council be allowed to take control of Ballincollig, Blarney, Cork Airport, Glanmire, Little Island, and Carrigtwohill.

Cork Airport

County councillors have consistently rejected that plan, describing it as nothing more than a cash grab on big rates-generating areas.

The county council says its latest submission ceding the northern and southern environs, would provide for an immediate transfer of an additional 39,258 people into the city, boosting its population from 125,657 to 164,915  a 31.2% increase.

The proposal identifies additional greenfield reserves in these areas which could provide housing for a population of 43,700.

The county council will argue that, based on the likely outcome of the National Planning Framework (NPF), which is expected to provide for as much as a 60% increase in population growth in our principal cities, this will allow for a targeted increase in the existing city council area of up to 75,000 people.

County council officials say that under their new proposals, the extended city will have the capacity to grow to up to a population of 283,915 in line with a high-density urban city and will be supported by the NPF to achieve this growth level. They have also stated that arising from the proposed extension the density of population per sq km will increase from 3,323 per sq km to 4,069 per sq km.

The county council says that, under their plan, the extended Cork City will measure 69.76 sq km, comparing favourably to Dublin City Councils administrative area, which measures 115 sq km.

County councillors claim room for manoeuvre on city expansion

- Sean ORiordan

It is very unlikely Cork City councillors will accept the county councils proposals, but this may be the opening gambit in a game of compromise.

Independent Cllr Alan Coleman (Innishannon) maintained there was room for manoeuvre and both sides should be allowed to thrash out an agreement before the implementation group makes a decision.

Fine Gael Cllr Michael Hegarty (Ladysbridge) said he would be prepared to throw in Glanmire but nothing further, adding that the city council has not properly looked after what it already has.

Cork County Hall

Fine Gael Cllr John OSullivan (Courtmacherry) said having two local authorities pitted against each other was not good. In my view, the best way forward is a single authority with strong municipal districts, he said.

Conceding so much territory was a non-starter for Fianna Fail Cllr Bernard Moynihan (Duhallow).

He said peripheral areas relied on money derived from Metropolitan Cork to survive.

Independent Cllr Mary Linehan-Foley (Youghal) said she was afraid the McKinnon report was a done deal and maintained people living throughout the city and county should have the right to vote on the boundary extension.

Fianna Fail Cllr Pat Murphy (Bantry) said the county council had used statistics complied by its planning policy unit for the proposal.

We havent seen any stats in the McKinnon report. But if thats accepted there will be 800 people per sq ft in the city, compared to 4,200 per sq ft in Dublin. Thats not sustainable, he said.

Independent Cllr Marcia DAlton (Passage West) said the councils latest proposal made much more sense.

Sinn Fein Cllr Des OGrady (Macroom) saw the new proposal as opening negotiation.
The most recent inspection at Crobally House in Mogeely, Co Cork, was carried out in January on an unannounced basis.

The centres two houses can accommodate up to seven residents, including two full-time, four respite, and one who lives there three days a week.

It is run by Cork Association for Autism, whose proposed actions in response to this and the previous inspection by Health and Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) in September 2016 were deemed unsatisfactory. Hiqa is considering further regulatory action, which might include further inspections, as a result.

The issues also prompted the organisation to be called to two meetings at the Hiqa chief inspectors office to give reassurances on how matters would be handled.

Last Septembers inspection noted that a complaint from a relative that a staff member was heard addressing or shouting at a resident inappropriately had been discussed with the worker.

It was found that the centre did not follow its own procedures for investigating an alleged incident of abuse or report it to Hiqa as required.

The provider representative was requested to submit the appropriate notification as soon as possible, capturing how this matter was being investigated, the inspectors wrote.

The report, published yesterday, says this has not yet been submitted.

During the September 2016 inspection, it was also found that previous concerns about the management of complaints had not been addressed satisfactorily.

One complaint about a broken bed had taken four weeks to have addressed. Another related to the cancellation at short notice of a respite service for one regular resident a number of times in the previous months, which was due to staff shortages.

Hiqa found that a residents placement in one of the houses was inappropriate and negatively impacted the other residents safety. There were no records that the suitability of the persons placement there had been assessed, or whether the person should have their own accommodation.

Despite being raised after previous inspections, and recommendations from an external agency, one resident was kept separate from others because two of them did not get on. In January, Hiqa inspectors found that the two residents travelled in separate vehicles and one stayed in the centre while the other availed of a spacious dayroom in another building.

Also, eight staff had not attended training on the management of challenging behaviour, including de- escalation and intervention techniques.

A resident with a history of falls due to seizures had to access a shower in a different centre because one was not available at ground floor. That had been rectified, however, when Hiqa conducted its latest unannounced inspection last January, as an en-suite ground-floor bedroom was provided.

Elsewhere, the inspectors found that some bedroom doors had damaged fire seals, tiles in a bathroom were in a state of disrepair, and carpet was worn and threadbare in areas.

A previous commitment to put emergency evacuation plans in place for respite residents by the end of last November had not been fulfilled on January 4.
The man was aged in his 30s and thought to be a non-national.

Preliminary reports suggest the man was stabbed up to 40 times.

His remains were discovered near Ballyboughal, in north Co Dublin at 10.40am yesterday.

It is understood the body had been along a laneway and in or near a ditch.

Gardai believe there are other scenes that may need investigating as an initial examination indicated he was possibly killed elsewhere.

Superintendent Noel Carolan from Balbriggan Garda Station said investigating gardai are unsure as to when the mans body was left at the scene.

He said gardai are appealing to anybody who was in the area yesterday morning or Thursday evening.

The superintendent said: Were not entirely sure how far back this mans body actually came to the scene here.

Anyone who was here over the last day or two who saw anything suspicious or unusual like vehicles or people in the area, get in contact with us at Balbriggan Garda station.

There are no reports of missing people in the area in recent times.

Wed like anyone who was his family, his work colleagues, would be in a position to come forward and let us know when they last saw him, said Supt Carolan.

Gardai say the man met a violent end. We are satisfied it was violent and we are at a stage where we have commenced a murder investigation.

We dont have any reports of anyone missing in the area or locality. It looks as if he could have been there overnight or maybe even a couple of days before that.

In all probability, we are probably looking at a situation where the fatal injuries did not take place here.

It probably means there is more than just one scene.

Gardai are asking anyone with information to contact Balbriggan Garda Station on 01 8020510, the Garda Confidential Telephone Line, on 1800 666111, or any garda station.
Describing somewhere as out this world has never been so accurate when youre talking about West Kerry, and thats before we leave Portmagee to journey to a galaxy far, far away.

Arriving into the already stirring fishing village at 8.30am I couldnt help but feel that it was going to be a special day.

My destination, the Skellig Experience Visitor Centre on Valentia Island, and from there, to the home of the first Jedi temple on the planet Ahch-To, known to locals as Skellig Michael.

The 1,500-year-old monastic settlement, seven miles off the Irish coast was the location chosen by Disney and Lucasfilm to play a significant part in the latest instalments of the Star Wars trilogy.

The skipper of my boat for the day was Jamie Duff, and along with his trusted deckhand Liam, he took myself and 11 others across the Atlantic Ocean to the iconic rock sticking out of the sea.

The passengers on board my vessel were as diverse as a Mos Eisley cantina, with people travelling from Colorado and Los Angeles in the US, Essen in Germany, and even as close as Dublin and Cork.

On the hour-long journey I had plenty of time to ponder how far the Star Wars franchise has come since it began entertaining fans 40 years ago, and just how important it is, not only to cinema but to the people who have been following it since 1977.

Back in 1973, a young George Lucas introduced his original idea, The Journal of the Whills, to Universal Studios but when they canned his project, 20th Century Fox stepped in and, after a few rewrites, Star Wars was born.

The first film, A New Hope, was released in 1977 and starred three unknown actors: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo respectively.

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo

Lucas never believed it would go on to be successful, and made a bet with fellow director Steven Spielberg for 2.5% of the profits, that his Close Encounters film would be far more successful.

The movie was an instant hit, and it is estimated that Spielberg has earned over $40m from Star Wars, despite having nothing to do with the creation of the films.

As we made our way across relatively smooth seas to Skellig Michael I expected the Millennium Falcon to fly over our heads at any minute, such was the feeling on the boat that day.

After we landed and made our way across the narrow walkway to the beginning of the steps, the views were already spectacular.

What shocked me most is how warm it was on the island - 7.2 miles out into the Atlantic and it was far warmer than it was on the mainland.

When we reached the start of our climb, we were reminded by guides just how dangerous it could be on the way up and the way down.

If youre not sure whether or not you suffer from vertigo, youll find out as soon as you reach the first ledge. With this in mind, I started off on the climb of 618 steps to the top of the rock - turns out, I dont have vertigo.

All the way to the top, it was very easy to see why director JJ Abrams chose the location for the instantly iconic closing scene of The Force Awakens, which was released in 2015.

JJ Abrams directing the The Force Awakens on Skellig Michael

It didnt look like a place on Earth; it was almost like being on another world.

Abrams said, in a video release by the Irish Film Board, he was drawn to the UNESCO World Heritage site because he wanted to find somewhere that was authentic and looked out of this world.

I cant believe they let us shoot there. It was so beautiful.

Its sort of a miracle this place. We could not be more honoured to be here, or feel luckier. Despite being on screen for less than five minutes in The Force Awakens, director Rian Johnson made it very clear that Skellig Michael would play a significant part in The Last Jedi, due out in December.

The Force Awakens is the seventh movie in the Star Wars saga, a story that fans have been waiting for since the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983.

While George Lucas released his prequel trilogy, consisting of the Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith, it was beginning to look like we would never find out what happened after the original trilogy came to an end.

When Disney bought Lucasfilm for a whopping $4.6 billion in 2012 it made a promise to the fans - the story would continue and a new trilogy was commissioned, along with a number of spin-off stories.

Back on Skellig Michael, the peak is 714ft above sea level, and by the time I got to the monastery at the top my heavy breathing was reminiscent of Darth Vader with a faulty helmet.

Daisy Ridley as Rey on the island.

The buildings at the top were built by the early Christian settler monks and still stand to this day.

The sixth-century monastery was established to be as isolated as possible from the rest of civilisation at the time.

Ireland was once considered to sit at the very edge of the world. If thats the case, Skellig Michael was as far away from life as you could get.

We spent around an hour and a half taking in the scenery and views before it was time to make our way back to the bottom and onto our boats.

The climb back down can be as treacherous as the way up, and I was reminded again of the words of advice given to us by our guide.

A great way to get around Skellig Michael is on your bum. You can always wash your pants, but you cant wash away a broken leg. I managed the descent on my two feet, but this was my favourite part of the adventure.

On the climb, we were advised to keep our eyes on our feet due to the instability of the steps, and on the way down I took in everything that I missed.

The landscape was just dazzling to the eye. The island has been so well preserved over thousands of years; I was double taking at every turn of the path just to take it all in.

Our boat ride back to the mainland included a scenic detour around both Skellig Michael and Skellig Beag, the latter being home to the second largest gannet colony in the world - all 70,000 of them The seas were far rougher on the way home, but the passage was made easier by the in-flight service of teas and coffees.

At times you would be forgiven for thinking we were aboard the Millennium Falcon, diving our way through the asteroid field in Empire Strikes Back.

Once our tour of the islands finished, it was, thankfully, time to make our way straight back to Portmagee across the rising waves.

In my head, the sagas iconic theme music was playing as we headed back to shore.

The score for Star Wars has become one of the most recognised and best loved musical arrangements ever created, and that was down to one man: John Williams.

Williams wrote the music for every Star Wars movie and with each new story came a different sound. Every character had their own individual theme. The most significant of which is the Imperial March, written for the ultimate movie villain - Darth Vader, who was voted third greatest villain of all time by the American Film Institute.

Vader was played by 6ft 4in actor David Prowse and voiced by a man who, in my humble opinion, has a voice more impressive than Morgan Freeman: James Earl Jones.

Darth Vader with Princess Leia, played by the late Carrie Fisher.

Back on dry land at the Skellig Experience Visitor Centre, I sat down with manager John OSullivan to talk about the impact the filming of Star Wars has had in the area.

We are an organisation that relies on tourism, and since Skellig Michael appeared on the big screen, business has taken off, John told me.

The number of people going out to the island has remained the same, due to the strict licences issued by the OPW. These allow 15 boats to land every day carrying a maximum of 12 passengers.

There has however been a huge increase in demand and people coming to visit the centre where we have our exhibition, cafe and merchandise.

We have had to build a bigger car park to accommodate the sheer numbers of people coming to the centre. The following day in Portmagee I met up with Ger Kennedy, owner of the Moorings Guesthouse and Restaurant and Bridge Bar.

The Bridge Bar became the unofficial Star Wars hub when the cast and crew were filming in the area.

You might remember seeing a video on IrishExaminer.com of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) learning to pull a pint of Guinness and spending time with the locals.

I met Ger the morning of The Lions final game against the All-Blacks in July. The bar was busy so we found a separate lounge area, not before I was shown the special Star Wars themed corner with a free-standing Darth Vader and a Guinness tap.

Back in January 2014 I was approached by a group who said they would be coming down to film some footage on the Skelligs, making a documentary on the wildlife, he told me.

I assumed it would be for the BBC or similar and they said that they would be in contact to organise accommodation and transport to the island.

A few months later we got a call from the group saying they would be arriving with a crew of around 180 people, and I thought to myself thats some documentary.

When they arrived then there was a crowd from Disney and the Irish Film Board and they then told me that they were filming something big. When the crew were finishing up with shooting, they arrived at Gers pub for their wrap party and he told me about the night that he had a Jedi Master pulling pints downstairs.

He was in behind the bar, and I didnt know him at all. They were here and I didnt realise who they were.

We were quite busy that night and I said to the lads Were too busy to be showing people how to pull pints which is something we would normally do.

The barman was a real Star Wars fan and he told me it was Mark Hamill.

There was a great atmosphere in the bar. He was very generous with his time. Despite getting off the shoot late in the day, he stood for pictures and signed autographs for children.

Bit of a surreal moment to see the article I wrote about @HamillHimself pulling pints in Portmagee hanging in @MooringsBBar #SkelligWars pic.twitter.com/1vztxqbBUR  Greg Murphy  (@TheGregMurphy) July 7, 2017

Walking around the village, it was easy to get a sense that the locals enjoyed playing host to one of the biggest cinematic features in recent years. Merchandise was scattered throughout corner shops and local cafes, enticing fans in to sample the local wares and spend their money.

So far, Skellig Michael has featured in The Force Awakens, and is due to be a major location and plot device in the upcoming The Last Jedi, hitting cinemas later this year.

The next installment is expected to be a tribute to Princess Leia/General Organa actor Carrie Fisher, who sadly passed away in December, having completed the filming of her story in the franchise she loved so much.

Her passing was marked with world-wide mourning by fans who loved her for the character she played on screen, but also the character she was off of it.

As I left West Kerry, destined to return soon, 40-years of movie history hit me like a wave, just as it had this small area, which has now become a jewel in the crown of the Star Wars empire.

May The Force Be With You.

www.skelligexperience.com/

THE WONDERS OF WEST KERRY

Its impossible to see all the wonders of West Kerry in one day so an overnighter is a must.

I stayed in Quinlan and Cooke Boutique Townhouse in Cahersiveen.

My room was appropriately named the Skellig Suite and was a piece of heaven.

After rambling around a rock in the Atlantic Ocean all day, I was grateful for a huge bathtub, a enormous TV, and a giant bed.

QCs are well known for their grub and their seafood selection is spectacular.

I found myself in the bar tucking into traditional fish and chips.

It got quite busy so booking in advance is recommended, even if youre just stopping for a quick bite.

www.qc.ie
The sale  via agent Martin Kelleher in nearby Clon who guides at 250,000-plus  includes out buildings, workspace, a portacabin, store and a hay barn, plus field, and has two, verdant tree-lined quaint entrance avenues.

The house itself was renovated with partial underfloor oil heating (and featuring 27 paint shades), with requisite creatures comforts across its c 1,280 sq ft, with one of the two first floor bedrooms accessing an adjoining bathroom as a part-en suite.

Most of the ground floor is open plan, with modern kitchen and antique style wood-burning stove, plus theres a slender section at ground used as a office/studio and overhead the same narrow space could be a dressing room.

Blue Crow is attached to another, long-unlived in farmhouse in separate ownership, and also separately owned and unused for many years are a long row of sheds/farm building forming another part of this tranquil courtyard setting.

VERDICT: While it feels a world apart, it has CAT 5 ethernet cabling, wi-fi, heating and lots of lifestyle options, all a few miles from top beaches and walks.
A new device named "Unknown Heart" has been spotted featuring a Snapdragon835 chipset and 4GB RAM. The device is said to be running Android 8.0.0, which is yet to be launched. Everyone is eagerly looking forward to the both Nokia 8 and Android 8.0.0, as reported GSM Arena.

Going by its usual schedule, Android 8 O will be revealed within a month. Android O is slated to come firstly on Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and the Nexus Player devices. Therefore it looks highly unlikely that the Nokia 8 will run on Android O out-of-the-box. However, it does offer another possibility of HMD Global rolling out Android O update shortly after the Nokia 8 launch.

However, some reports show high possibility about the Nokia 8 to be the first smartphone to run Android Oreo/Octopus (aka 8.0.0). The chance of launching the device with Nougat on board and rolling out Android 8.0.0 update OTA cannot decline though, as reported by Android Hits.

According to leaks, the Nokia 8 is said to boast either a 5.3-inch or 5.7-inch display with full HD (1080p) resolution. On the memory side, the device could launch with 4GB of RAM or 6GB of RAM coupled with 64GB of onboard storage.

On the photography front, the Nokia 8 is expected to feature a Carl Zeiss-branded dual-camera setup at the back. HMD Global's recent partnership with Carl Zeiss is said to see its first fruit in the Nokia 8. The smartphone might also have the USB Type-C port, and a fingerprint sensor embedded in the home button.

For the release date, several reports suggest that HMD will take the wraps off the Nokia 8 on August 16, as the Android 8.0.0 will probably have been finalized by the time.
Snapchat, which is now officially called as Snap Inc., has filed for IPO early in this March. The company went public and would now have the capital of the public to lend financial support. However, a report coming from the reputed news organization claims that Google has verbally discussed the acquisition of Snapchat with Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel.

Google held informal talks with Snap Inc. and given an offer of $30 billion in 2016 before Snap's last funding round, and ahead of its IPO this year, according to Business Insider. The said offer was apparently an open secret inside Snap, and was on the table after the IPO, too.

Various reports do suggest that the offer was for $30 billion and the discussions have happened far before the company filed for IPO. Google's offer was still on the table even after Snap Inc. went public. And as expected, Spiegel did not budge, as he did not want to sell out. Actually, only he and Snap Inc. co-founder Bobby Murphy are the ones who can make decisions for the company so public backers have nothing to say about it, even if they wanted to.

However, Google has declined to comment to the Business Insider and Snap told TechCrunch that "these rumors are false." It's speculated by the several publications that Google's curiosity was very preliminary, and possibly never rose to Snap's higher ranks.

Still, Google's relationship with Snapchat remains close. As the Snap, which is one of the Google Cloud's largest customers, has vowed to spend $2 billion on Google Cloud. Cloud is the platform on which Snapchat runs. Together, both the companies could align their Google Glass and Snap Spectacles hardware efforts to build a powerful but appealing AR device. However, there is also a risk when Google's open, engineering-driven culture could clash with Snap's secretive, design-driven culture.
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MASON CITY | The Mason City Public Library will host a sculpture dedication at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 8, outside the Mason City Room near the "Little Red Riding Hood" sculpture.

The sculpture was recently donated to the library by Laura Weers in memory of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer B. Weers.

Rosaliand M. Weers was a librarian in the Young Adult Room for many years.

A reception hosted by the Friends of the Library will be held in the Mason City Room immediately following the dedication.

 John Skipper
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MASON CITY | Union Pacific has issued an apology for blocking a railroad crossing in southern Mason City for more than seven hours late last month, a company official said.

"We apologize very much to the community for blocking the crossing for so long," Justin Jacobs, director of media relations for Union Pacific, said in a voicemail message left for the Globe Gazette.

South Pierce Avenue, to the south of its intersection with 19th Street Southwest, was blocked by a train from around 9 a.m. to at least 4 p.m. on July 27.

Train blocking Mason City road due to break-down, railroad says MASON CITY | A train blocked a crossing in southern Mason City for more than seven hours.

The blocked crossing was initially blamed on a broken-down train, but Jacobs said it was due to replacing the train's crew, who had run out hours of service.

An email seeking additional details from Union Pacific Thursday wasn't returned.

The railroad had told police the crossing was blocked due to a breakdown, Police Chief Jeff Brinkley told the Globe Gazette July 27.

Iowa law prohibits a railroad from blocking a crossing for longer than 10 minutes, according to the Iowa DOT, but also includes several exceptions:

 When necessary to comply with signals affecting the safety of the movement of the trains.

 When necessary to avoid striking an object or person on the track.

 When the train is disabled.

 When necessary to comply with governmental safety regulations, including but not limited to speed ordinances and speed regulations.

However, the Federal Railroad Administration says it does not regulate the length of time a train can block a grade crossing.
GREENSBORO  A N.C. A&T sophomore has been arrested in the April 20 shooting death of a man.

Samad Rahim Dawson, 20, a mechanical engineering major, was taken into custody at his home in Philadelphia on Friday morning by U.S. marshals, according to a police news release. He has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Kimeko Dejuan James.

Tips provided through Crime Stoppers and information from the public helped police develop enough evidence to connect Dawson to the shooting, according to the release.

Police said Dawson's connection to James is unclear, and they do not have a motive in the killing.

Campus police found James with life-threatening injuries in a vehicle near Pride Hall on North Benbow Road about 11:30 p.m. on April 20. He was taken to Moses Cone Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Dawson's extradition to North Carolina is pending.
RALEIGH  North Carolina lawmakers should avoid partisan considerations when they redraw legislative district maps that were struck down by federal courts, a parade of speakers said Friday.

Nearly all of the 30 speakers at a joint House-Senate committee meeting on the map criteria asked GOP leaders to ignore data such as past election results, voter registration and where incumbents live when drawing the new boundaries later this month. Many pressed for a nonpartisan process handled by an outside commission.

I want to see the end of political gerrymandering. Districts cannot be drawn intentionally or unduly favoring any political party, unaffiliated voter Amy Porter from Alamance County told lawmakers. Remember that you work for us.

The current maps, approved by the General Assembly in 2011, contributed to helping Republican expand their majorities in the General Assembly and carry out their conservative agenda.

Three judges in August 2016 threw out 28 of the House and Senate districts as illegal racial gerrymanders, but the ruling wasnt finalized until a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June. Voters who sued accused GOP mapmakers of needlessly creating too many majority-black voters in the districts to make surrounding districts more white and Republican.

No independent redistricting commission will be created when the legislature reconvenes Aug. 18 to begin the remapping process before a Sept. 1 deadline by the three-judge panel to receive the approved maps. And past election results are likely to be among the criteria the committees agree to use when standards are finalized next week, Rep. David Lewis, senior chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, said after the meeting.

Lewis told reporters that the public comments would be reviewed, along with proposed criteria from Democratic legislators, and some could be incorporated. The requests from Fridays speakers for an open process also have been heard, he said.

I hope that we will be able to bridge that gap and to conduct a politically transparent process, Lewis said. I think that people will be pleased with the process.

Republicans say more than 100 of the legislatures 170 districts likely will have to be redrawn, but districts across wide swaths of western and southeastern North Carolina likely will remain unchanged because they arent near the districts that the courts rejected, according to documents presented in committee.

Courts have ruled on whether its unacceptable to use race in redistricting, but gerrymandering for partisan gains has not been struck down by courts as unlawful. A Wisconsin case on partisan gerrymandering will soon be considered by the Supreme Court.

Still, the speakers largely focused on minimizing politics in drawing the maps. Partisanship in redistricting, they said, has contributed to dozens of seats where incumbents run unopposed. Some speakers acknowledged that Democrats drew maps to benefit them politically when they were in charge in previous decades.

I want my vote to matter, said Ira Botvinick of Raleigh. Redistricting should foster, to the great extent possible, competition so as to provide better government for all North Carolinians.

North Carolina Republican Party Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse urged legislators to resist creating districts solely to favor Democrats in a state where Donald Trump carried 76 of 100 counties and other Republicans have been successful in statewide races.

It is not the job of the committee to make that party competitive when it cannot do so itself in huge areas of the state, Woodhouse said. He also urged lawmakers to leave out racial data from their deliberations.

Republicans said they didnt look at the racial composition of the electorate when a court ordered them to redraw congressional districts in February 2016. In fact, GOP lawmakers agreed then over Democratic objections to criteria for boundaries that would help Republicans keep a 10-3 seat advantage within the states congressional delegation.
One month after the election, President-elect Donald Trump made a victory tour of states that had helped deliver his surprise win.

In Fayetteville, N.C., Trump introduced his choice for Secretary of Defense, Gen. James Mattis, and pledged the following: We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldnt be involved with. Instead, our focus must be on defeating terrorism and destroying ISIS, and we will.

He appears to be fulfilling the second part of that pledge, less so the first. Think North Korea, Iran, Russia, and now even Venezuela, which has had new sanctions placed on it following fraudulent elections giving dictatorial power to President Nicolas Maduro.

While Venezuela is no threat to America and Russia is a major headache, North Korea and Iran are clear and present dangers. These two rogue regimes are committed to developing nuclear weapons capable of reaching U.S. cities no matter what we do.

Clearly this cannot be allowed to happen, but the question is how to stop them short of all-out war that has the potential to kill millions and create a doomsday scenario reminiscent of Cold War movies like Fail Safe, Dr. Strangelove and On the Beach.

The best offense really is a good defense. When Ronald Reagan proposed his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in a nationally televised address on March 23, 1983, many on the left mocked him. They called his proposal science fiction and unworkable, derisively labeling it Star Wars.

Theyre not mocking that proposal now. The Defense Department has had several successes with its Terminal High Altitude Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, but only at targets that represent medium-range missiles. In May, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency also  successfully intercepted an intercontinental ballistic missile during the first test of its ground-based intercept system. Thats not science fiction.

Readers should revisit Reagans speech as a template for dealing with modern threats. In that address from the Oval Office, Reagan said the risk of war is lessened when the U.S. has a strong deterrence, which he defined as making sure any adversary who thinks about attacking the United States, or our allies, or our vital interests, concludes that the risks to him outweigh any potential gains. Once he understands that, he wont attack. We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression.

Reagan said the strategy of deterrence had not changed, but what it takes to deter had changed. While acknowledging it might take decades to achieve his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), Reagan said he wanted to take the first step. He concluded his address: I am directing a comprehensive and intensive effort to define a long-term research and development program to begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles. This could pave the way for arms control measures to eliminate the weapons themselves. We seek neither military superiority nor political advantage. Our only purpose  one all people share  is to search for ways to reduce the danger of nuclear war.

My fellow Americans, tonight were launching an effort which holds the promise of changing the course of human history. There will be risks, and results take time. But I believe we can do it. As we cross this threshold, I ask for your prayers and your support.

President Trump should emulate his predecessor, making his first televised address from the Oval Office during which he explains to Americans why North Korea and Iran pose an immediate, or ultimate, threat to the United States. He should announce a fast-track effort to escalate THAAD so it can destroy ICBMs. A space-based, anti-missile system should then complement our defenses in order to protect America and our allies from nuclear attack.

As Reagan noted, weakness encourages tyrants. Tehran and Pyongyang must be encouraged at what appears to be instability in the Trump administration. A credible missile defense system would send them a message more powerful than words.
WASHINGTON  Heres a contrarian thought: President Trump had the right instinct to insist that China help resolve the nightmare problem of North Korea. A peaceful solution is impossible without help from the other great power in East Asia.

As Trump nears the threshold of a military crisis with North Korea, he needs to sustain this early intuition  and not be driven into actions that may look tough but would leave every player worse off. The template hasnt really changed from the first Korean War in 1950: The Norths aggressive actions bring an American response, and then a general war that devastates the Korean Peninsula. The conflict ends in stalemate, and at huge cost.

Trump in his first months saw the need for a negotiated halt in North Koreas program. But he has been pushed toward military options by Kim Jong Uns reckless continuation of his missile testing  despite Chinas efforts to restrain the impulsive young leader. War fever is growing, as in Sen. Lindsey Grahams comment Tuesday that conflict is inevitable unless Pyongyang stops testing weapons.

What is wise policy? Even as Trump ratchets up the pressure, he should quietly urge China to take the lead in a diplomatic solution. He should continue to make clear to Beijing that its economic and security interests would be severely harmed if the U.S. is forced to address the North Korea problem on its own, militarily.

Heres a suggestion for Beijing: China should invite the other key players  the U.S., Japan, South Korea, perhaps Russia  to gather in New York during the U.N. General Assembly meeting for talks about how to handle the North Korea problem. The model would be the P5+1 group that sponsored the Iran nuclear talks. China was an observer back then; this time it would be the convener. Xi Jinpings global status would be enhanced as he heads toward this falls big party congress that will shape his future as president.

Three months ago, Trump was ready for face-to-face diplomacy with Kim, under Chinese sponsorship. He seemed to be packing his bags back on May 1, when he said: If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it. Ingratiating language aside, that was the right instinct. But now, Trump feels burned that the Chinese couldnt stop Pyongyangs missile tests, and the White House wants Xi to take the lead.

There was a tone of personal betrayal in Trumps tweets last weekend: I am very disappointed in China ... they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk.

Because of Trumps pique toward Beijing, trade is back on the table. The U.S. is readying harsh trade sanctions against Chinese steel producers, and perhaps against several big internet companies, too. Sources tell me that a milder trade deal worked out by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last month was scuttled by the White House, humiliating the Chinese, and Ross too, but sending the message that Trump is serious in demanding Chinas help on North Korea as the price of trade flexibility.

The U.S. Pacific Command is readying military options. But Defense Secretary James Mattis knows better than anyone that a military conflict would be a catastrophe. A pre-emptive first-strike by the United States would risk the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Koreans and Japanese (and American residents of Seoul), albeit with little risk to the American homeland. That may appeal to some members of Congress, but it would outrage the rest of the world. It would also spin the problem of nuclear proliferation into a lawless zone of unilateral action, harming U.S. interests.

China knows that the road ahead is potentially ruinous. Chinas U.N. ambassador, Liu Jieyi, said last month: Currently tensions are high and we certainly would like to see a de-escalation. ... If tension only goes up ... then sooner or later it will get out of control and the consequences would be disastrous. Chinas state-run press also keeps hammering Pyongyang.

Russia, too, seems willing to be helpful on North Korea, as it was on Iran  because its interests are harmed by an erratic nuclear-weapons state.

Trump has the opportunity for a foreign policy reset, in the shadow of the North Korea crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin has overreached and been rebuffed by congressional sanctions. Kim has overreached with his relentless missile testing. Xi has overreached by offering more than he has delivered on curbing Pyongyang.ww

The world is beginning to worry that Trump could go to war. Maybe thats the moment when China helps to organize one of those win-win solutions that Xi is always talking about.
DERRICK G. HINSON SR., Walkertown

Personal responsibility

Empty bellies, empty minds, feed our children, it will save their lives chanted children from Winston-Salems Kimberley Park Freedom School as they marched to the Samaritan Ministries.

The Freedom School program is financed by the Childrens Defense Fund, created by Hillary Clinton mentor Marian Wright Edelman.

Children neglected to go hungry is abhorrent to the imagination of decent human beings, but seeing the picture with the story (Kids march to spotlight childhood hunger, July 20) made me wonder.

Is the U.S. now a Third-World country? Why are American kids hungry today? Finally, whose responsibility is it to feed kids, to put food on the table in the home?

Grocery and convenience stores are everywhere. Free breakfast and lunch programs exist in public schools. Welfare food-stamp programs are easier to apply for than ever before.

Edelmans father was a Baptist preacher; did he ever teach her, If anyone does not provide for his own relatives ... he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (infidel); and If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat?

It is not the childs fault he is hungry, but the parents. Biblical charity is good; but parents must become responsible for feeding their own family.

These Marxist organizations put the onus on the state to fulfill primary human needs at the expense of personal responsibility. To exploit children in such a publicized march is a wretched exercise to further erode the traditional family as the building block of human society.

DAVID M. MCMAHON, King

Problems with health care

In response to the latest failure of Republicans to move their health-care fiasco forward, a White House spokesman, declining to be identified by name, said, We look forward to Congress continuing to work toward a bill the president can sign to end the Obamacare nightmare and restore quality care at affordable prices.

We have never had quality care at affordable prices in this country. Rather than having the best health care in the world, we have the most expensive. We spend more per person on health care than any other country, yet among advanced nations we rank 37th in patient outcomes.

Republican efforts in the House and Senate do nothing to actually reduce costs. They simply aim to reduce expenditures by pushing millions of people, especially children, low income, disabled and the elderly off Medicaid and out of the insurance market. They also continue Republican policies that reward the rich for being rich and punish the poor for being poor, while leaving the broad middle in quicksand.

What too many fail to see, or refuse to acknowledge, is that having people uninsured means that they get no health care at all, or they use hospital emergency rooms as their health-care provider. Thinking we are a compassionate people by requiring hospitals to provide treatment to the indigent is false reasoning that ignores the simple fact that hospitals and other providers cover their costs for those patients by passing them on to the rest of us.

Please submit letters online to Letters@wsjournal.com or mail letters to: The Readers Forum, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102.
KENSETT | Edith Haenel of Northwood has epilepsy.

One of her battles in life is to keep it under control, to keep from having seizures that are one of the dreaded effects of the disease.

And she is afraid the presence of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) near her property could put her health at serious risk.

That's why she helped organize Worth County Against CAFOs, an organization whose title speaks for itself and which drew a crowd of about 60 at its meeting Thursday night.

Many of those attending also addressed the Worth County Board of Supervisors earlier in the week.

They know they have an uphill battle. Their concern is the possible construction of several CAFOs throughout the county. Because the CAFOs all meet state standards, there is little that can be done on the local level to stop them.

Haenel and other CAFO opponents hope public pressure will lead to a moratorium on construction of CAFOs until the State Legislature fixes loopholes in the state matrix that allows for easy approval of permits.

They are urging residents to sign petitions and contact their county supervisors, hoping supervisors will put pressure on state legislators to make the changes.

Regarding her epilepsy, Haenel says, "I have worked very hard and spent a lot of money out-of-pocket to balance my biochemistry and not have seizures. They are often triggered by chemical reactions."

She said one of the planned CAFOs is about a mile from her house.

"My brain struggles to deal with an influx of toxic chemicals," Haenel said. "I have had seizures in response to aromatic hydrocarbons, of which methane is one. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide, another CAFO byproduct, can also trigger seizures."

She said her concern is not only for herself but other families in the county, and especially children.

"Toxic chemicals tend to be heavier and accumulate lower down, closer to the ground  right where children breathe," Haenel said. "Children are outside more, expend more energy, drink more water, have thinner skin, so they ingest more chemicals than their bodies can handle."

Worth County residents rally opposition to CAFOs KENSETT | There was an unspoken yet prevailing theme Thursday night at a meeting of Worth Co

Paul Norland, also of Northwood, said he too has health issues with CAFOs.

"One of my primary concerns is the health of my wife and the children in my family," he said. "My wife has a long-standing seizure disorder. I fear she may have a seizure because of the pollutants  especially methane and hydrogen sulfide  that emanate from CAFOs."

He said her seizures cause her to fall to the floor and convulse, rolling her eyes, biting her tongue and often stops breathing momentarily.

"Air pollutants from hog CAFOs are much smaller than from cattle, meaning they are able to travel greater distances, get through the skin more easily and irritate the lungs, eyes and air passages. This is true of adults but especially true for children," Norland said.

Daryl Kothenbeutel, a former Franklin County supervisor, told the audience Thursday night a CAFO caused him to lose his home and his business years ago.

"I had an acreage and a prairie seed business. A CAFO was built next to me. The smell wasn't too bad but the flies were," he said. "It basically drove me out of my business and my home. I lost most of my acreage because nobody wanted to buy it."

Merlin Bartz, a Worth County supervisor and former state legislator, attended Thursday's meeting but did not speak.

An attempt to reach him Friday for comment was unsuccessful.

Haenel hopes public pressure will convince those planning to build CAFOs to change their minds.

Norland hopes also that their organization's efforts will send a clear signal to others: "Don't even think about building a CAFO in Worth County."
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] on Friday overturned [opinion, PDF] the murder conviction of a former Blackwater Worldwide security guard and ordered resentencing of three others for the killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007 [NYT report]. Nicholas Slatten, a former Army sniper, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report] for firing the first fatal shots. The other three men, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty and Paul Slough, were found guilty of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and use of a machine gun in a violent crime and sentenced to 30 years. The appeals court found that the trial court abused its discretion in not allowing Slatten to be tried separately from his co-defendants and also found that the 30-year sentences violated the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment:

We conclude the mandatory 30-year sentence imposed by Section 924(c) [text] based solely on the type of weapons Slough, Heard and Liberty used during the Nisur Square shooting is grossly disproportionate to their culpability for using government-issued weapons in a war zone. We therefore also conclude these sentences violate the Eighth Amendment and remand for resentencing.

It is unclear whether Slatten will be retried.

Blackwater [JURIST news archive] and its employees have faced legal controversy in recent years for activities during the Iraq war. In 2014 the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries urged [JURIST report] stronger global and regulation of private security companies. The call came on the heels of the guilty verdict [JURIST report] against the four ex-Blackwater security guards. In 2012 Blackwater agreed to settle [JURIST report] federal criminal charges dealing with export and firearm violations. Also in 2012 Blackwater reached a confidential settlement agreement [JURIST report] with survivors and families of victims in the 2007 shooting incident. Blackwater ceased operations in Baghdad [JURIST report] in May 2009 when its security contracts expired and were not renewed.
According to St. Paul, the whole of creation is waiting to become enlightened. For, if mental development and increased knowledge are not counterbalanced by a corresponding growth in consciousness, the probability for unhappiness and disaster is very great.

In the beginning, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however the timid join him, because then it costs nothing to be a patriot. The first rule of any group mind and its dynamics, is that it cannot adopt itself as an object of critical reflection.

To take the long view, American politics may be seen as the struggle between the idealistic secular democracy of self-renewing America and our great resident capacity to be in denial of what is intellectually and morally incumbent upon us to pursue.

There would be no tyranny and no wars if men did not ignore their conscience. Wealthy people are in large measure as ungrounded in the reality of their political beliefs as they are grounded in the reality of their fortunate financial condition. It is an opulent reality that shapes their belief system. Their brains have been become calcified by intolerance and indifference and they are unable to see beyond their own bias. They are involved in the lucre fest and in most cases their healthy pay checks and dividend distributions, demands holding the selfish positions that they do. When will the burden of their self-deception and their self-deceit become too great a burden for them to live with?

It seems today that we are to complain no louder than with muted regret and be just another part of a maniacal system of learned helplessness, as opposed to the enlightenment of learned empowerment. Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of the past, the world must remain in the infancy of knowledge.

For our society to temporize human affairs, to look not up for some divinely applied celestial accreditation, but forward at ground level, in the endless journey to resist any authoritarian restrictions on thought or suppression of knowledge that is the public good, and it remains the essence of our civic religion.

As William Parsons said in his book, Merchant of Probity, We all must be individuals with minds to improve, hearts to cultivate and a character to form.

We need men and women of infinite consciousness not rigid fundamentalists. We must move from ill knowledge to sublime understanding.
I was trying to think of the word for it as I watched Worth County residents at Thursday's "Worth County Against CAFOs" meeting.

With state standards overpowering anything local entities can do, CAFO permits are being routinely approved and opponents fear CAFOs will be springing up like dandelions throughout the county. The difference is you can dispose of dandelions.

Anyway, it seems like a lost cause, but the 60 people at the meeting Thursday night seemed to think the only way a cause is lost is if you give up.

And they're not about to give up. Edith Haenel and Paul Norland and the others believe it's a fight for public health and public values and public persistence.

And as I watched, I thought of the word to describe these folks.

Grit. That's what they have. True grit as in "it ain't over 'til it's over."

Their hope is to apply enough public pressure to prompt supervisors to lobby legislators to make changes in the state matrix to make it a little more difficult to get a permit for a CAFO.

At the same time, they want to educate the public on what they believe are the dangers of CAFOs, hopefully convincing prospective CAFO builders to back off and to others not to even consider building.

That's a tall order but Worth County people are accustomed to getting their ladders out when there's some climbing to do.

In October 2004, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a county ordinance regulating livestock confinement operations through local air and quality standards to confinement feeding operations.

Where did the ordinance originate? Worth County? Who fought the appeals all the way to the Supreme Court? Worth County.

Grit.

In 2013, a year before the CAFO court case, Worth County residents decided they wanted a casino. The state Racing and Gaming Commission was to name sites for new casinos  but only if county residents voted in favor of being considered.

They approved the idea overwhelmingly, 75 percent in favor with a 50 percent voter turnout. But that was just the first step. A citizens group put on an extraordinary lobbying effort to convince the powers-that-be that Worth County deserved the casino. Diamond Jo Casino, one of the jewels of the county, is thriving today, and exists, at least in part, because Worth County wouldn't take no for an answer.

Grit.

On a much more somber note, on May 5, 2011, seven-year-old Kadyn Halverson of rural Kensett was killed as she tried to board a school bus in rural Northwood. Her death was the result of a driver who attempted to pass the bus and struck her.

Worth County residents grieved the loss of the little girl and then set out to try to prevent future tragedies. One of the results of their efforts was passage by the State Legislature of what has come to be known as "Kadyn's Law"  mandating a fine of at least $250 and possible jail time of up to 30 days for first offenders for passing a bus illegally; and, for a second offense within five years, a possilble year in jail.

Nothing can bring Kadyn back but her memory in Worth County is assured  and prevention of future tragedies is at least possible.

Grit.

Who knows what will happen with the CAFOs. But what residents are trying to do reminds me of a talk given several years ago by Jim FitzPatrick, former CEO of Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa.

He said, "If you come across a task that seems impossible, think what your first step would be if it was possible. Then do it  and see what happens. And then repeat the process."

That's exactly what Worth County Against CAFOs is trying to do. And we'll see what happens.
When law and religion come into conflict, the results can get as murky as "graywater."

Take, for example, the case of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency versus members of the Swartzentruber Amish community in Fillmore County. Fifteen members of that community face possible contempt of court charges for ignoring repeated orders to bring their homes into compliance with state and county ordinances regarding so-called "graywater" sewage disposal.

Graywater, not to be confused with raw sewage, is indoor household water that has been used for cooking, laundry, cleaning and bathing.

In court last week, several of the defendants cited a Bible verse, Romans 12:2, in which the Apostle Paul says believers should "be not conformed to this world." Some members of the Amish community see septic systems as conforming to the modern world, so they steadfastly refuse.

Were we inclined to make a theological argument, we might point readers to Matthew 22:21, which says, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." That, at the very least, would seem to require the Amish pay whatever fines they have been assessed for failure to comply. Or, more directly, we'd note that in the very next chapter of Romans, Paul writes, "Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God."

That would seem like a tough verse for the Amish to get around.

But setting the Bible aside, we'd say the Fillmore County officials have been more than patient with the Amish community in this matter. For more than a decade, the county has nudged, pleaded and cajoled families to comply, and while some have complied, those who have refused have not been evicted.

Further complicating the legal tussle are at least two instances in which Amish families have built new homes without obtaining building permits  and without the wastewater systems that were mandated in all new dwellings as of December 2013. In one case, the family was ordered to cease construction. When building continued, the owners were hauled back into court, where they claimed not to have violated the order because they hadn't done the work themselves.

That crosses a line.

Speaking of lines, if you know Fillmore County, you know Amish farms aren't limited to one large, well-bordered area. They're scattered across the landscape, intermingled with properties occupied by non-Amish families  families who have the right to clean well water and, if they're lucky enough to have a stream, to have it free of untreated household wastewater.

Ultimately, the right to practice one's religion is not limitless; it generally ends at the point where those beliefs come into conflict with another's rights and/or the health and well-being of a community. The state has ruled that minimal standards of wastewater treatment are necessary to protect water quality across the state, and they apply to everyone.

That rule must be enforced because Amish farmers' beliefs won't stop contaminated water from seeping into Fillmore County's karst landscape and groundwater.

So what should happen now?

We wouldn't object to leaving as-is any Amish homes that were built before December 2013 when the new ordinance was approved but only for as long as the current owner  the one whose name is on the deed  is occupying that home. Before any sale or inheritance by another relative could take place, such homes would need to be brought into full compliance, as would any home that is expanded to add more living space.

Absolutely no new homes should be built without meeting the wastewater codes, and any construction without permits should be met with the same response that a non-Amish family would get. Construction should be halted, and if the owners refuse to comply, the new building should be condemned and taken down.

We hope it never comes to that.

This editorial appeared in the July 27 edition of the Post Bulletin of Rochester, Minnesota.
KEARNEY  On June 25, Just For Kix had its annual awards banquet in conjunction with a three-day training seminar.

Nebraska Program Director Sara Foulk of Kearney was given the Developing Director of the Year Award. This is award is given to deserving directors each year who stand out among the developing directors over their careers with Just For Kix, according to a press release from the organization. This award is given based on organization, dedication, participation, attitude and program quality.

Sara Foulk has been a huge part of the success of the Just For Kix program in Kearney, said Cindy Clough, founder and executive director of JFK. She is always looking to add more styles, classes, performance opportunities for her dance families. She is a fantastic representation of Just For Kix.
An injection of private cash is behind a compromise this week that will fund legal representation for all indigent immigrant New Yorkers at risk of deportation regardless of their criminal history, according to City Hall. Announced Monday, the anonymous $250,000 grant works around Mayor Bill de Blasio's insistence that tax payer dollars should not be directed towards immigrants with any of 170 convictions deemed "serious or violent."

Speaking on New York 1 Monday night, Mayor de Blasio described the anonymous grant source as a "foundation." He did not disclose the source; nor did City Hall.

The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, established in 2013, has historically provided legal counsel to all immigrants in detention who cannot afford a lawyer, regardless of their criminal history. The program fills a legal loophole, as the US Constitution does not guarantee legal representation in immigration court.

Since the mayor announced his $85 billion budget this spring, he's sparred with Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and a broad coalition of public defenders and immigration advocates who have insisted that carveouts for certain defendants would undermine the first-of-its-kind program and limit due process.

According to public defenders, immigrants with convictions on the list of 170including burglary and drug possession in the first and second degree as well as rape, murder and arsonhave particularly complex options for relief in immigration court, and don't stand a chance without representation.

"Working together, the Mayor and the City Council have agreed that city funds will continue this critical service by aiding in the defense of anyone not convicted of the 170 crimes deemed serious or violent by city law," said City Hall spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein and Speaker spokeswoman Robin Levine in a joint statement Tuesday. "In addition, we have secured private funding to ensure even those who are ineligible for city funded lawyers will have critical legal representation."

The City Council committed $10 million to NYIFUP this yearan increase over years pastin the midst of the City Hall stalemate. Mark-Viverito made an eleventh-hour budget tweak in June, adding language that eligibility for any immigrant defense funding "shall be based solely on income." That language has been rescinded, according to City Hall and the City Council. The $10 million from the City Council will go towards NYIFUP clients without convictions on the list of 170.

NYIFUP launched as a City Council pilot program, with $500,000 in funding. That funding has increased annually, totaling $6.23 million in FY 2017.

NYIFUP picked up 325 clients between December 2016 and May 10th of this year, according to data supplied by City Hall. Of these defendants, 63, or 19 percent, had convictions on the list of 170.

"We are grateful for Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the City Council's unwavering advocacy," stated Adriene Holder, Attorney-In-Charge of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society, a major critic of Mayor de Blasio's carveout proposal.

A 2011 New York Immigrant Representation study found that 67 percent of immigrants in detention faced judges without legal representation before NYIFUP. Of those defendants, only 3 percent won their cases. Legal representation increases defendants' chances of avoiding deportation tenfold, the group found.

Public-private partnerships funding legal defense are not unprecedented. Crain's recently reported that similar funds exist in Los Angeles and Chicago. Governor Andrew Cuomo also announced a public-private legal defense fund this spring, but was criticized when it became clear that the funding was entirely private, with public administration.
KEARNEY  On Aug. 27, the Nebraska Diplomats hosted Gov. Pete Ricketts, Department of Economic Development Director Courtney Dentlinger and area business leaders at the organizations second regional economic celebration in 2017 in Kearney.

This years events provided a unique opportunity for regional leaders to share economic strategies and success stories with the Nebraska Diplomats and Department of Economic Development.

The Economic Development Council of Buffalo County assisted in planning the discussion on regional workforce housing and was facilitated by local business leader Brenda Jensen of Miller and Associates Consulting Engineers. Members of DEDs housing team also participated in the panel discussion.

As Buffalo County business leaders, elected officials and community supporters continue to work on ways to grow our housing market, its important to learn about how the State of Nebraska can assist in this process, said Darren Robinson, Executive Director of Buffalo Countys Economic Development Council. The discussion provided an opportunity to build local knowledge about housing strategies that have worked in other Nebraska communities, and emphasized our need to develop infrastructure to grow our workforce.

Thirty-nine Nebraska communities have qualified for the Economic Development Certified Community (EDCC) program, which is sponsored by the Nebraska Diplomats and administered by DED. Qualifying communities in the central Nebraska region included Cozad, Elwood, Gothenburg, Holdrege, Kearney and Lexington. Qualifying communities must identify a well-defined economic development program that actively engages the existing business community that offers a supportive environment for welcoming new economic development projects.

This years central region businesses of the year include Chief Industries, Inc., in Grand Island and Macs Creek Vineyards and Winery in Lexington.

Chief Industries has been in business since 1954 and currently employs 1300 people with corporate offices in Grand Island and divisions and subsidiaries around the world. The company manufactures agricultural and construction products, commercial construction and factory built homes. Since 2001, the McFarland family has operated Macs Creek Vineyards and Winery near Lexington. The family also owns and operates Macs Creek Wine Bar in Kearney.

In addition, the Diplomats honored the City of Broken Bow as the central regions Community of the Year. Kearney Mayor Stan Clouse received the regions Diplomat of the Year award.
KEARNEY  Imagine a church without four walls. Without a pulpit or a podium. Without a choir, a band or an organ.

That church exists right here in Kearney. Its online, and its revolutionizing the ways that Tim Stratton, its founder and director, is spreading belief in the Gospel. Its called FreeThinking Ministries.

I never fail to be amazed at the capacity and velocity of social media to reach both church and unchurched members anywhere in the world. This goes beyond the physical walls and building of a traditional church, Stratton, 44, said. God is using this organization in ways beyond what I ever imagined to be possible, but since it is God I am talking about, I should not be surprised.

The basis of this new ministry is apologetics. Apologetics, a Greek-based word, uses Christian theology, natural theology and philosophy to present a rational basis for the Christian faith in order to defend it against objections and misrepresentation. His underlying mission is to spread and bolster belief in Christ.

Supported entirely by donations, he works online at home. Between March 2016 and March 2017, FreeThinkingministries.com website had an average of 8,500 hits a month. He has interacted with more than 100,000 people on Facebook and blogs. He writes and posts two or three new 1,500-word articles for the site each week.

He has spoken at high schools and colleges throughout the U.S. Stratton, who was the youth pastor for nine years at eFree, still preaches there on occasion, too. He has also started monthly Reasonable Faith UNK meetings at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. These will resume in September.

Not surprisingly, many of the people he hears from are between 20 and 40 years old. He cites surveys that claim that 70 percent of millennials are leaving the church and/or Christian beliefs. He knows that FreeThinking Ministry is reaching people like these and those who eschew traditional worship.

We lovingly challenge those who do not believe in the God of the Bible, and we desire to strengthen the faith of those within the church. What an unbelievable opportunity, Stratton, married and the father of a son, 15, said.

Strattons curiosity about Christian apologetics was kindled by Dave Oldham, now retired as pastor at Trinity eFree Church in Holdrege, where Stratton worshipped as a teenager. He was the one who got my feet wet in the waters of apologetics and theological philosophy, Stratton said.

Stratton took Oldhams Introduction to Apologetics course for masters degree credit in 2008. He also received a book from Oldham called Reasonable Faith by Dr. William Lane Craig. God used that book to change my life, Stratton said. Dave encouraged me to think deep about philosophy and theology. I never had another pastor encourage me to think like that.

Hungry for more, Stratton earned his masters degree at Biola University in La Miranda, Calif. There, he worked with William Lane Craig and learned about Craigs organization, Reasonable Faith. Stratton began posting on Facebook, something for people to read whether believers or aetheists, he said. Eventually, he had a following.

It was his tax man who suggested that Stratton leave eFree and go out on his own. I never really thought about it, Stratton said. The tax man told him, Do me a favor. Dream about it. A few days later, another friend made an identical suggestion.

Two weeks later, over breakfast, Strattons lawyer and several pastor friends urged him to step out in faith, leave youth ministry and serve a worldwide audience, he said. They promised to raise money for his venture and help launch a website. After much prayer, Stratton did. That was two years ago, and he hasnt looked back.

Studying online, he is working on a ph.D. in systematic theology, with a focus on metaphysics, from North-West University in South Africa. His doctoral dissertation was on Reconciling Divine Sovereignty with Libertarian Free Will: A Metaphysical and Theological Approach. In other words, If theres a God, why is there evil? Stratton said.

Oldham is on board, too. He works 15 hours a week for Stratton, usually on his laptop at McDonalds in Kearney from 5:30-9:30 a.m. each day. Stratton calls Oldham the brains behind this. Hes connected to area churches.

Oldham understands the appeal of apologists. He heard the questions often throughout his ministry. People ask, Why doesnt God ever answer my prayer? or How do I know theres a God? he said.

Oldham entered the ministry after earning a degree in English from the University of Illinois and working as a copy editor. After years in the ministry, he finds apologetics stimulating. Ive always been interested in why I believe what I do, he said. I know many Christians who never became sure theres a God.

Stratton added, Most Christians today have had access to the same stuff that Dave and I have, so the real question is, how do you know? We know because God has given us evidence. Scientific data gives us proof of the existence of God. Science, history and logic all independently point to the existence of God and Christ, theism in particular.

But Stratton knows questions remain. During his nine years on the eFree staff, he saw firsthand how the lies of new atheists were impacting his students.

He and Oldham are supported in this new ministry. FreeThinking Ministries is affiliated with Reasonable Faith, Craigs organization. Stratton posts in both English and Spanish on his website. He has four guest contributors, three from the U.S. and one from South Africa who leads a FreeThinking Ministries chapter there. The site carries about 16 posts at a time.

Stratton, who has played bass in Christian rock bands, said his online messages and dialogue are no substitute for joining a local church or group of people who can worship and explore spiritual issues together. A Christian community is so important, he said. Hes just laying the groundwork.
KEARNEY  The Central Community College Board of Governors will meet at 1 p.m. Aug. 17 at Central Community College Kearney Learning Center in its new location at 1215 30th Ave.

The meeting will include an opportunity for public participation, CCC said in a press release.

A work session will be at 11 a.m. at the same location.

Agendas for the board meeting and work session are available on the college website at http://cccneb.novusagenda.com/agendapublic. A live video stream of the board meeting can be viewed at www.cccneb.edu/boardmeeting.
KEARNEY  Visitors to the Buffalo County Historical Societys Trails and Rails Museum now have a more convenient way to enter the museums campus, complete with paved parking and a welcoming entrance.

The community is invited to join the society at a ribbon cutting and open house on Wednesday for the new Family History Center. The public is invited from 4:15-5:30 p.m. with a Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting at 4:30 p.m.

Phase one of the Family History Center project had a soft opening in July.

This phase provides 6,000 square feet for archives, offices, a conference room and the museum gift shop along with accessible bathrooms for the public. Inspired by structures from Buffalo Countys history, the building features red brick, large arched windows and an arched entry. It was designed and built by BD Construction.

The Family History Center is an extension of the societys Trails and Rails Museum and will be located on the museums campus at 710 W. 11th St. It is located to the west of the Union Pacific Depot and steam engine along 11th Street. Visitors will now enter the museum through the Family History Center.

Weve already seen an increase in traffic in the few weeks that weve been open, BCHS Executive Director Jennifer Murrish said. The entrance to the museum is much easier for our visitors and guests to find, especially those coming from out of town.

Being a featured stop on the 2017 Nebraska Passport program has helped with traffic as well.

This summer, weve had approximately 2,000 visitors, including both in-person and virtual stamps. We have seen a 25-percent increase in tours and a 15-percent increase in gift shop sales from the Passport program, Murrish said. Many guests are asking about what else there is to do in the area. They have commented on how nice Kearney folks are and how impressed they are with the cultural opportunities. The Nebraska Passport program has been an added bonus to announce our new facility to a wider audience.

Murrish is optimistic that the opening of phase one will bring forth donors to assist with the remaining $660,000 needed to complete phase two. Phase two will extend a west wing onto the building and provide multi-functional museum display space. Our collection grows daily with generous donations representing the entire county. We never know what will walk through the door, and its often like Christmastime.

Im hopeful this provides the momentum for donors to step forward to help us complete phase two. The pioneers who made Buffalo County what it is today entrusted todays generations with a rich legacy that we seek to preserve, Murrish said.
KEARNEY  A detached garage is a total loss after a fire near state Highway 10 and 175th Road early Friday afternoon.

The Kearney Volunteer Fire Department was called to a reported fire north of Kearney at 29610 175th Road at 12:47 p.m.

Fire Capt. Ric Pulliam said the cause of the fire was accidental. The renter of the property was doing lawn work near the garage and went in the house. When he returned, the garage was on fire, Pulliam said.

Twenty-eight firefighters arrived at the scene at about 1:06 p.m. with two pumpers, two tankers, one grass rig and one utility rig, Pulliam said. The firefighters had the fire under control at 1:12 p.m. and left the scene at about 1:46 p.m.

Dawson Public Power District was also on scene.

The property is owned by Michael Altmaier of Kearney.
Three decades after President Reagan signed the largest tax reform in our countrys history, our tax code is once again desperately in need of a pro-growth overhaul. The good news is tax reform is at the forefront of our agenda, and a framework is in place. It will still be a heavy lift, as it should be, but we need to get it done.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity we have been building toward for years. Since 2011, the Ways and Means Committee has held more than 40 hearings on tax reform. This years hearings have focused on specific aspects of our plan, from increasing U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace to growing small businesses.

Among other insights gleaned from these hearings, one theme has remained clear: We cannot afford to wait any longer to reform our tax code. This is why we are committed to enacting tax reform this year. In fact, leaders from the House, the Senate, and the Trump administration issued a statement at the end of July declaring a united front and shared vision for moving forward.

Our plan for tax reform will lower rates, decrease the number of tax brackets, and increase the standard deduction so Americans can keep more of their paychecks.

Due to the complexity of our current tax code, Americans spend 2.6 billion hours each year filing individual income tax returns, with an annual compliance cost of $99 billion. This is an enormous economic drain. Our plan would expand the standard deduction and simplify the filing process to allow about 90 percent of Americans to file their taxes on a form the size of a postcard.

Nebraskans have continually called for the elimination of the death tax, which threatens farmers, ranchers, and small business owners. These producers and entrepreneurs take pride in their hard work, and many want future generations to continue it. The government should encourage their efforts, not stand in their way, and our plan will end this damaging tax once and for all.

Tax reform will benefit Americans across the country, but it is especially important to the livelihood of our rural economy. As the American Farm Bureau Federation observed, Many of the provisions of the tax reform blueprint will be beneficial to farmers, including reduced income tax rates, reduced capital gains taxes, immediate expensing for all business inputs except land, and the elimination of the estate tax.

To reap the greatest economic benefits of revamping our tax code, we need to focus on bold, permanent reforms. The certainty achieved through permanent reforms has the potential to drive double the economic growth as short-term tax cuts  which means more jobs, higher wages, and a healthier economy.

It has been 31 years since the last significant tax reform. Throughout the 31 days of August, the Ways and Means Committee is highlighting 31 reasons why we need tax reform this year. Check out the list at WaysandMeans.house.gov/31Reasons, and please continue to share your thoughts with me as we work to create greater opportunity through a simplified tax code.

Rep. Adrian Smiths 3rd Congressional District encompasses 75 central and western Nebraska counties.
FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2017 file photo, then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington. Flynn is detailing previously undisclosed paid speaking engagements, business positions and income from the presidential transition that he left off his public financial disclosure. A person close to Flynn tells The Associated Press that the filing shows Flynn entered into a consulting agreement with the British parent company of data firm Cambridge Analytica, which aided the Trump campaign. The person says Flynn didnAot perform work or accept payment under the agreement. He terminated it after TrumpAos election victory. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Striking journalists walk outside the Chronicle Herald building in Halifax on Thursday, April 13, 2017. The Halifax Chronicle-Herald and the union representing the paper's striking newsroom workers have reached a tentative agreement to end their 18-month-old labour dispute. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
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A Parks Canada staff member, back, reacts after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fell into the water while trying to get into a kayak at Sidney Spit in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, east of Sidney, B.C., on Saturday August 5, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A supporter wears a cloth wrap showing Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, with writing in Swahili reading "President Uhuru, Five More" referring to the wish for another 5-year term, at an election rally in Uhuru Park in Nairobi, Kenya Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. Kenyans are due to go to the polls on Aug. 8. to vote in presidential elections after a tightly-fought race between incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta and main opposition leader Raila Odinga. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
FILE - In this Tuesday, April 18, 2017 file photo, Oprah Winfrey attends the premiere of HBO Films' "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" at the SVA Theatre in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
There is a fierce debate going on in our congress about health care and insurance, whether to continue, repeal or modify the Affordable Care Act. Theres a glimmer of hope that a bipartisan agreement can be reached, I pray it will happen.

Theres one question that I want Christians and other people of faith to consider: What about the children? Do we have an obligation to care for our children and provide health care coverage for them? Children make up about a quarter of the U.S. population, but about half of the Medicaid population. They constitute the single largest eligibility group in the Medicaid program and thus would be the largest population group affected by budget cuts that are currently being considered by Congress and advocated by President Trump.

Weve all heard the figure that 22 million people would lose health care coverage if the Affordable Health Care is repealed. What we dont hear about is the 11 million children and babies who would lose health care coverage. As a native Montanan, Ive been taught that Montanans protect children and we take care of our own. Montanans bend over backwards to generously help our neighbors in need, like were doing now, helping those suffering from the fires. The Montana Standard (6-17) reported 75,000 Montanans were at risk of losing health care coverage; that means 37,500 children and babies in our towns and neighborhoods would be at risk, amounting to $5 million dollars of federal aid to the poor children is eliminated.

So why do we shrug our shoulders and look the other way when children are at risk, like the Levite and priest did when they passed by the injured man in Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan. 37,500 children and babies will be lying helpless in the ditch on the side health care road if the Affordable Health Care Act is repealed. The outcast in the parable, the Samaritan, showed mercy. So, Jesus said, Say to yourself and your leaders, its not my problem or responsibility! Never raise my taxes to take care of someone in need! Of course not, Jesus said, Go and do likewise, be the good neighbor, show mercy to the one in need. Well, 37,500 children are in need and at risk now! We would not think twice about helping our own children or grandchildren, but for children who are poor or need health care assistance, we blame the parents and say, they should be responsible. But should children suffer because the parent(s) are neglectful or at fault? Should we add to their neglect by eliminating health care?

God always has a soft spot for children. Psalm 68:5 says The father of the fatherless (single mother?) and protector of the widows is God in his holy habitation. God passionately protects and favors the little ones, the widows and the poor.

Gods white hot judgment is against those who oppress children and widows. God says in Exodus 22:21-24 You shall not wrong a sojourner (temporary refugee) or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. Perhaps we and our leaders should fear Gods judgement for the neglect and oppression of our children rather constantly harping about our paying more taxes.

My church gives thousands of dollars to help Bobs Pantry at the Helena Middle School, Florence Crittenden Home, the Friendship Center, World Hunger and Helena Food Share. The Good Samaritan Store sponsored by our Catholic friends assists thousands of needy people each year. Our Redeemers Lutheran makes thousands of school bag food packs to send home with hungry kids after school .The Salvation Army and Family Promise have amazing compassionate ministries that help children and families. The churches and faith communities and its members do believe we are our little brothers keeper. But, Churches and ministries dont have the means to meet the massive needs we have in our society. When I in 7 people are hungry in the Helena community and 1 in 5 Helena children dont know where their next meal is coming from (Helena Food Share Website) theres something wrong. Why should children in Montana, known as the wheat and cattle basket of the US, ever go hungry? The cuts to the Medicaid program will create more hungry children, drastically cut funding for at risk kids in school and will significantly affect those with the most extensive health care needs. Does this bother you, fellow members, and people of faith here in the Helena area? It does me. It seems immoral and unconscionable.

God has established and ordained government to do Gods will (Romans 13). Paul says in Romans 14:5 For the government authority is Gods servant to do you good. God establishes our government to restrain evil and to do good. If citizens will not willingly and generously show mercy towards the neighbor, God uses the law to compel us to care for the neighbor. Paul says in Romans 13:10, Love does no harm to the neighbor. In my thinking, abandoning children who need health care does harm to the smallest neighbor. So Paul says, Pay your taxes to whom taxes is due. God will protect and do good to our littlest neighbor, either by the good will of compassionate people, or against our will through taxes which protect and help the most vulnerable.

If youre like me, youve been quiet and have never called your legislative representatives about vulnerable children and others affected by the massive health care cuts and proposed cuts to Medicaid. We may have called and complained about personal tax hikes, but isnt time to call on behalf of vulnerable children? For me it is. If we dont speak up for the children, who will? We churches in the mainline have been on the sideline as far as being advocates for vulnerable children. Its time to put our words into action. Here are some contact numbers if you would like to speak up for our children.

US Congressional Contacts: Steve Daines 202-224-2651

Jon Tester 202-224-8594, https://www.tester.senate.gov

Greg Gianforte 202-235-3211 https://gianforte.house.gov

In Mark 10:13-14 Jesus was ministering to his followers. From the King James Bible we read: And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.  Jesus welcome and received children and blessed them. Will we turn them away? The choice we face regarding the Affordable Care Act is a moral and spiritual choice that will affect the lives of thousands of children. Will we suffer the little children or will we make the children suffer? Its time to act, Gods children need us. Its Gods work, but its our hands and voices that God uses to protect the most vulnerable. For Gods sake, and for our childrens, lets do the right thing that God asks us to do!

The views expressed in this column are the personal reflections and theology of Pastor Brad Ulgenes, not St. Johns Lutheran Church as a whole. Pastor Ulgenes has served there for the past 5  years. Pastor Ulgenes is married to Elaine. They are parents to three grown children. He is a huge Minnesota Vikings fan and enjoys his Norwegian Culture, his church, and beautiful Helena.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, left, speaks to Egyptian Ambassador and current Security Council President Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta before a Security Council vote on a new sanctions resolution that would increase economic pressure on North Korea to return to negotiations on its missile program, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Inspired. Hopeful. Thankful.

Those were some of the words offered by people facing cancer during Fridays Relay for Life fundraiser for cancer research.

More than 1,000 patients, caregivers and medical professionals were set to participate in the 12-hour walk at the University of Wisconsin-Parksides outdoor track.

Kenosha has been No. 1 in the Midwest for the past six years, so thats something they hold near and dear to their hearts because they raise so much money, said American Cancer Society staffer Andrea Raykovich, who helped organize the 22nd annual event. Its a way to recognize the survivors, and its a way to honor those who have passed.

This years goal: $300,000.

The walkers

Raykovich, whose mother struggled with cancer, said everyone is affected by cancer in some form.

Derek Carlson, 31, walked with his girlfriend Kaley Haarbauer and wore a purple survivor T-shirt.

Ive been cancer-free for about a year-and-a-half now, said Carlson, who was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma. It feels great to be over it. I was pretty sick for a while. To get my life back and see other people beat it, its a great thing.

Carlsons advice for young people facing cancer: Keep your head up and keep fighting.

Jody Larabee participated in the walk in the past, but this year was extra special.

I was diagnosed back in November and this is my first year as a survivor, Larabee said, adding that chemo-friend Dawn Raabe encouraged her to sign up for it.

Its just amazing to me  the hope and encouragement that everybody provides each other, Larabee said.

Donning a bright pink T-shirt, 39-year-old Arpi Hamilton joined the relay with loved ones. Hamilton is going through treatment for breast cancer. She was diagnosed last December.

I had chemo the day after Christmas, Hamilton said. Still, Hamilton said 2017 has been hopeful.

God is good, Hamilton. Surround yourself with people who love you and people who care and stay hopeful. Its not a death sentence.

Ryan visit

U.S. Speaker Paul Ryan, the nations third-highest ranking Republican, spoke to the crowd Friday evening.

This is just wonderful to see how far Kenosha relay has come, said Ryan, who represents Wisconsins first congressional district, which includes Kenosha County. This is the prize of the Relay for Life in Wisconsin.

Ryan vowed to expand cancer research at a time when the fate of health care is uncertain.

In December we passed a big bi-partisan bill that we called 21st Century Cures, or some people called it the Cancer Moon Shot, Ryan said. Hope is on the horizon.

The law authorized more than $6 billion in funding for cancer research, mostly through the National Institutes of Health.
Details are beginning to emerge about a Friday shooting that left three dead and two injured in the town of Lodge Grass on the Crow Reservation.

"The investigation, though ongoing, has already determined that the incident was related to methamphetamine and gang-related activity," Crow Tribal Chairman Alvin "A.J." Not Afraid Jr. said in a media briefing Saturday night in front of the scene of the shooting. The incident serves as a reminder of the "devastating effect" drugs have on communities, he said.

"The coming days and weeks will prove the strength of the Crow community to find healing and hope," Not Afraid said. "We, today, we're feeling pain and loss."

The shooting took place at a home in Lodge Grass at around 4 p.m. An FBI press release, sent out on Saturday, stated that no arrests have been made and that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Not Afraid, who said he is from Lodge Grass, offered his condolences to the family and friends of all those involved and said that his own family had been affected.

"This area has produced a lot of well-educated people, a lot of good work ethic people and then, just the home-style life here," he said. "Right now it just hits home so hard."

Officials have not confirmed where the incident took place, but crime scene tape could be seen Saturday morning in Lodge Grass surrounding a house and yard on the northwest corner of the intersection of Helen Street and Second Avenue. Boards had been bolted into place over doors and windows of the house by the time Not Afraid's press briefing began.

Sandra Yi Barker, a public affairs specialist with the FBI, said in an email Saturday afternoon that she could not currently release any more information about the shooting, including details about victims and the suspect or suspects.

As a result of the shooting, Not Afraid Jr. issued an emergency curfew for the Crow Reservation beginning Friday night and extending until further notice.

Until it is lifted, the curfew is effective from from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The chairman said he expected the curfew to remain in place for three to four more days.

The curfew does not apply to travel along I-90 through the reservation, Not Afraid said.

Not Afraid's announcement stated that the emergency curfew was being instituted at the request of law enforcement. Saturday night he specified that BIA had asked for the curfew in order to inhibit meth-related activity and try to provide a sense of safety for residents of Lodge Grass.

Vehicles traveling on roadways within the "exterior boundaries," of the Crow Reservation during curfew hours are subject to being stopped and all occupants being ordered to present valid identification upon law enforcement request, according to the announcement.

Not Afraid said he was unaware of any previous instances of emergency curfews being instituted on the Crow Reservation.

One of the shooting victims was in critical condition Saturday, Not Afraid said. After the shooting, victims were taken to the hospital in Crow Agency for treatment, he said. Autopsies for two victims were scheduled for Saturday, according to Big Horn County Coroner Terry Bullis.

In his media address, Not Afraid Jr. noted the lack of adequate law enforcement and emergency health services on the reservation, citing the fact that half of local BIA law enforcement positions are currently vacant.

"They're stretched thin from this community all the way to Pryor, which is approximately an hour and a half from here," Not Afraid said. "That also includes the medical services."

He said budgetary changes had been made to enable the recent hiring of three new tribal law enforcement officers, to begin working this week. "This does not solve the problem in its entirety. We shall continue to amend our budget for emergency medical services and rehabilitation services," Not Afraid said. "We're going to do everything in our power to not only serve justice, but to be more proactive than reactive."

Additionally, Not Afraid said a lack of working opportunities has contributed to problems in communities like Lodge Grass. He said he planned to "help entrepreneurship to get the communities reactivated again."

The FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Montana Highway Patrol and Big Horn County Sheriff's Office are all involved in the investigation. Not Afraid thanked those agencies and affiliated medical services for their response to Friday's shooting.
A locally constructed website linking communities and attractions along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail  stretching more than 3,700 miles through 11 states, from St. Louis, Missouri, to Astoria, Oregon  is taking shape while organizers seek local experts to give travelers an authentic Western experience.

We want to provide a mechanism so folks can connect with local culture in the context of the historic route, Dan Wiley, the trails chief of integrated resources stewardship, told a small crowd of tourism and attraction officials gathered at the Billings Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. We want visitors to be able to relate to the Lewis and Clark experience and realize the cultures that are on the landscape since the time of Lewis and Clark.

Stewardship is important to us, said Wiley. The people who experience the trail are more likely to care about the trail.

The National Park Service has hired Solimar International of Washington, D.C., to build an interactive tool and help local economies, said Jim Dion, the firms vice president of partnership programs. His company has helped a number of regions to construct similar websites to help prospective visitors discover for themselves all you have to offer.

Were going to use social media to put your smiling face in front of people from Paris, Kentucky, or Paris, France, Dion said. Well give them enough information to be their own explorers.

As the website LewisandClark.travel is constructed, with completion planned for fall 2018, nominations are being sought from the owners of attractions or by people who know about, for example, a scenic roadway. The nomination process is handled online. Sites that are nominated are vetted and fact-checked before being approved for inclusion on the website.

The best travel advice comes from the people who live there, Dion said. Its going to be a living, breathing process. In a way, this project will never end.

Visitors  particularly international tourists  travel to the places that are marketed to them, Dion said. Travel and tourism is a $2 trillion enterprise globally and is responsible for 1 in 11 jobs.

International tourists who see travel within the U.S. as limited to Orlando, Los Angeles and New York tend to go there, he said. I think we can inspire people to get off the beaten path, he said.

Travel spending by international travelers coming to the U.S. was up 2.5 percent during the first four months of 2017 over the same period in 2016. That translates to more than $80 billion in travel spending in just those four months. Random incidents of terror in Europe and other places means the U.S. is seen as a safe place to go, he said. What a great opportunity to reach out to those markets.

Sitka, Alaska, is an example of a community that marketed its true character and benefited by it, he said. Sitka was once a port city where cruise vessels let people off to explore for a few hours  until cruise companies discovered other Alaska communities that offered the same amenities.

Sitka tourism leaders decided the towns authentic offering was its fishing boats and the colorful captains who piloted them and were willing to take people out on fishing expeditions.

Now people spend days in Sitka, not hours, he said. They had to understand what their product was to market it successfully. We are trying to find out those authentic aspects in the communities along the Lewis and Clark trail, he said.

Dion asked the group gathered Tuesday to list must-see attractions in and around Billings and explain their charm in an effort to begin the local nomination process. Nominations can be initiated at the LewisandClark.travel website.
Don't try to race up Mount Sentinel or Morrell Falls in this smoky air.

Friday morning, the air was so bad in Seeley Lake, even the healthiest people were advised to stay inside.

It was so bad, officials from the Missoula City-County Health Department thought an air monitor might be on the fritz.

"The smoke in Seeley Lake is thick enough this morning that our monitor thought it was seeing errors for a couple hours," said Sarah Coefield, air quality specialist for the department, in an email update Friday.

In fact, she said the air quality was "hazardous," and she advised the public in her note to go light on physical activity.

"When air quality is hazardous, all people should limit or avoid outdoor exertion and stay indoors when possible," Coefield said. "Anyone experiencing symptoms of heart (or) lung disease associated with smoke exposure should contact their health care provider."

Fire season has descended on western Montana, and blazes in the state and beyond are pushing smoke into Missoula, Alberton, Florence, Lolo, Condon, and other communities. Even in places it's not deemed hazardous, the thick air is troubling people with heart and lung problems.

Missoula pulmonologist Eric Stern said patients who are coming in for routine appointments to deal with chronic lung problems are more symptomatic as a result of the smoke. And he does many phone consultations to try to help those with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, emphysema, and asthma stay out of the smoke.

"Avoidance is the best approach when it comes to the environmental smoke, and staying indoors and having windows closed," Stern said.

Some patients wear masks to try to counter the smoke, but he said most masks he sees people wearing aren't actually effective against it. He said effective masks need to trap particulate matter  look for an N95 or N100 certification  and have two straps in the back for a good fit.

But masks can also make it difficult to breathe in general, so he doesn't recommend them for everyone. Stern said it's always appropriate to call a health care provider to answer breathing questions, and he anticipates the air will stay smoky for some time.

"It's probably going to get worse before it gets better," he said.

Friday morning, Seeley Lake marked the worst air in the county, according to the update from the Health Department. The health clinic in Seeley Lake would not comment on how patients have been affected and directed questions to headquarters Partnership Health Center; the center also would not provide information about whether more people are seeking help because of the air quality or how it's advising the public.

A St. Patrick Hospital spokeswoman said the emergency room in Missoula hasn't seen an uptick in visits related to the smoky air so far.

A Friday evening email update from Coefield noted air quality was "unhealthy for sensitive groups" in most of the county.

"When air quality is unhealthy for sensitive groups, people with heart or lung disease, children and the elderly should limit prolonged outdoor exertion," Coefield said.
UPDATE: Big Horn County Coroner Terry Bullis said Saturday that there are "two confirmed deaths," and the FBI is conducting an investigation. An autopsy on the two victims is scheduled for today. Check back for more details as they become available.

A shooting did take place Friday night in Lodge Grass, according to Levi Flinn, director of media for the Crow Tribe Executive Branch.

Officials have not confirmed where the incident Friday took place, but crime scene tape could be seen Saturday morning in Lodge Grass surrounding a house and yard on the northwest corner of the intersection of Helen Street and Second Avenue.

Law enforcement on the Crow Reservation are actively investigating what was described as a major incident in Lodge Grass and a notice of emergency curfew was issued Friday night for the Crow Reservation, according to an announcement from Crow Tribal Chairman Alvin A.J. Not Afraid Jr.

Not Afraids announcement states that the emergency curfew is being instituted at the request of law enforcement and was effective as of 9 p.m. Friday night. The curfew will extend until 5 a.m. each morning until further notice.

Vehicles traveling on roadways within the "exterior boundaries" of the Crow Reservation after 9 p.m. are subject to being stopped and all occupants being ordered to present valid identification upon law enforcement request, according to the announcement.

The announcement concludes by stating that questions about additional information should be directed to law enforcement at 406-638-2631.
This year marks the fourth year for the Miss Illinois Festival at the Decatur Celebration.

The pageant will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6, at the Decatur Civic Center. Admission is $7. Those attending the pageant only can enter through the main doors of the Civic Center without a wristband. The pageant coordinators will have a designated person located at the Decatur Celebration entrance near the pageant. They will be escorted to the front doors of the Civic Center.

Categories are queen, junior miss, preteen and princess. Eight women, ages 17 through 22, will be competing for queen. Junior Miss competition, ages 14 through 16, has five contestants. Young ladies ages 10 through 13 will be competing in the preteen division. Three princess, ages 5 through 9, will be given prizes for various categories, including prettiest smile, prettiest hair and most photogenic.

Queen, junior miss and preteen contestants will be judged on personal interviews, on stage presence and attire.

The pageant will give contestants experience in public speaking and interviewing skills, modeling and how to engage with adults.

As an extra bonus, this year, pageant organizers added a community service requirement for the winners. The queen as well as the preteen and junior miss recipients will be required to participate in one community event a month. Organizers stress the importance of volunteering for the contestants. Opportunities include the Special Olympics Polar Plunge,YMCA Backpack Attack, Santa House Helpers and WSOY Food Drive.

Meet this year's contestants.
Kim Ki-Duk arrives for the screening of "Moebius" presented out of competition at the 70th Venice Film Festival on Sept. 3, 2013 at Venice Lido. / Korea Times file



By Ko Dong-hwan

Influential filmmaker Kim Ki-duk is Korean prosecutors' latest target after an actress accused him of sexually abusing her while filming several years ago.

The actress, 41, whose name was withheld, but known to have worked in Kim's film "Moebius" (2013), recently sued him through the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office. Prosecutors then launched an investigation, according to reports Thursday.

The actress didn't sue until recently because she thought her career could be jeopardized. After she quit acting early this year, she told the Federation of Korea Movie Workers' Union of the incident and sued Kim.

She said Kim slapped her during the filming in March 2013 to "help her get in the mood" and forced her to perform a sex scene in a way that wasn't in the script. Embarrassed, she quit the role.













A scene from "Moebius"



The movie's production staff supported her claim. The union quoted the witnesses as saying Kim slapped the actress "three times" and demanded she grope her co-star's penis while shooting the scene. She originally believed a replica would be used. She argued with Kim over the scene but eventually gave in.

Kim responded to the accusation. His representative reportedly admitted the slapping, saying Kim "tried to teach her how to act in a physically violent scene." But he dismissed the sex scene charge.

Kim is one of Asia's top contemporary directors. He won a Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival for "Pieta" (2012), a Silver Lion for Best Director at the 61st Venice International Film Festival for "3-Iron" (2004) and a Silver Bear for Best Director at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival for "Samaria" (2004).


The U.N. Security Council will soon vote on a resolution imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea for its recent intercontinental ballistic missile tests, diplomats said Saturday.

The U.S.-drafted resolution aims to cut North Korea's export revenue by one-third to $1 billion a year, according to news reports.

"We tabled a U.N. Security Council Resolution and hope for adoption as soon as possible," a U.S. official told Yonhap on the condition of anonymity.

After lengthy negotiations, the U.S. reached a deal on related measures with China, the top trading partner and ally of the North, they said. Russia seems to have approved the proposal, a South Korean diplomatic source said.

The vote -- scheduled to start at 3 p.m. on Saturday (New York time), when it will be 4 a.m. on Sunday in Seoul -- is widely expected to pass the council as Washington struck an agreement with Beijing and probably Moscow.
In this Sep. 20, 2015, photo, 56 Nepalese workers  with tags containing company names and contact numbers  board a Korean Air flight bound for South Korea at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. / Korea Times file



By Ko Dong-hwan

Foreign workers who hold the E-9 non-professional employment visa will no longer be able to have unlimited extensions under new Korean government rules.

Applicants will only be able to extend the visa once, with a maximum stay of four years and 10 months, the Ministry of Justice said, according to Yonhap news agency Thursday. The ministry is working with the Ministry of Employment and Labor to shape the policy. No date was given for its introduction.

The existing rules allow foreign workers to live in Korea for up to four years and 10 months on their first E-9 visa. They could then return to their home country and do a Korean ability test. If they passed, they received a work permit and could renew the visa for another four years and 10 months. There was no limit to the number of renewals.

The new policy is designed to stop foreign workers taking the jobs of Koreans. Officials also considered there could be possible human rights violations when family members of E-9 applicants were refused entry to Korea.

The new rules will not apply to workers who have been in Korea for nine years and eight months and have applied for a visa renewal.

Those whose visas expire after policy's introduction must return to their home countries. They could then apply for a different visa if they have eligible professional skills.
By Arthur I. Cyr



"We are with you, we stand with you on behalf of freedom." Vice President Mike Pence spoke those words on July 30 in Estonia, the first stop on trip that includes Georgia and Montenegro. Given political turmoil and uncertainty in Washington, as well as Russia's military assertiveness, the visit of Karen and Mike Pence to Eastern Europe is extremely important as well as timely.



The Baltic States of Latvia and Lithuania as well as Estonia were forcibly occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. Exile groups from the Baltics become influential in the United States, and elsewhere. All three nations became NATO members in March 2004.



Montenegro became NATO's newest member in early March 2017. The tiny Baltic state had been campaigning for alliance membership for over a decade.



The rapid weakening and then collapse of the Soviet Union and communist regimes in Eastern Europe ended the Cold War, but also the relative stability of that era. President Vladimir Putin emphasizes nationalism, and has made military moves to expand Russia's territorial control.



In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the territory of Crimea. The overt invasion of Ukraine by Russia's army, after months of covert aid to rebel forces, generated the most serious crisis in Europe since the Balkan wars of the 1990s  and perhaps since World War II.



In 2008, Russian troops invaded a portion of Georgia, following an attack by Georgian troops on South Ossetia. This territory as well as Abkhazia had declared independence from Georgia. Russia encouraged and supported these breakaway efforts, though the international community has clearly rejected them.



The end of the Cold War was a great victory for the policy of restraint and deterrence, termed "Containment," supported by every United States president from Harry Truman when the Cold War commenced, to George H.W. Bush when the conflict ended.



NATO endures, for good reasons. Bureaucracies naturally seek self-perpetuation, but strategic realities provide persuasive justification. General war in Europe was avoided for a century between the final defeat of Napoleon and the outbreak of World War I. A Concert of European nations, brokered by Great Britain, helped keep the general peace.



NATO today arguably represents an approximate counterpart to the uncertain but generally effective Concert. The alliance has operated well beyond the nations of the North Atlantic region, including not only on the margins of Europe but in distant territory, including notably Afghanistan.



Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that an attack on one member amounts to an attack on all. The al Qaeda strikes on New York and Washington D.C., and in the sky over Pennsylvania, triggered this clause, for the first time.



Today's alliance leaders in Europe are articulate and effective, including in particular German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Chancellor Merkel is spearheading expansion of Germany's roles in international humanitarian relief. She has also provided arms to Kurds fighting Islamic extremists in Iraq.



Another outstanding leaders is David Cameron, Britain's Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016. He termed Russia's aggression "unacceptable and unjustified," and bluntly stated that any efforts to appease Putin would be a repetition of the same mistakes made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in accommodating Adolf Hitler in 1938. Britain and Germany have highly effective militaries.



Since 2002, NATO has renewed practical efforts to develop rapid reaction military capabilities. The credibility of the alliance is essential. The Pences' highly visible visit is a diplomatic complement to such efforts.





Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished professor at Carthage College and author of "After the Cold War." Contact acyr@carthage.edu.




DECATUR  This year's overwhelming winner of the annual Decatur Celebration taste test, with a rating of 5 out of 5, was the Addictive Creation's Deep Fried Cheesecake, located on the north side of Central Park.

It shouldn't be legal, said taster Tom Lisi.

Lisi along with four other new Herald & Review employees were selected to be a part of the coveted taste-testing team. Reporters Claire Hettinger, Joey Wagner, Lisi, and Executive Editor Chris Coates had never attended the annual festival. Jaylyn Cook, a Decatur native, had previous opportunities to try the Celebration food like the funnel cakes.

It was nice to step out of my comfort zone and try something different, he said. It was all good.

Runner-up was given to Mama Chan's. Along with serving Asian appetizers, it also served Thai iced tea and coffee. The vendor is a well-known restaurant in Moweaqua. The testers were amazed at the uniqueness of the Asian food.

This sauce is amazing, Hettinger said.

Several finicky eaters were part of the group. Both Hettinger and Wagner are admittedly picky when it comes to food. Both were surprised by the experience and happy with what they found.

The first food to be tested was the Crab Fritters. Wagner doesn't like seafood and was worried about trying the hush-puppy.

It was very good and didn't have an overwhelming seafood taste, he said. And it was easy to share.

The fried balls are made with real lump crab meat and fried. They are served with homemade remoulade, which is describe as tartar sauce with and attitude.

Cook was fond of seafood and was happy with the taste.

But I like how it was easy to carry around and you can eat it easily, he said. That is important to me.

The Taco Fries were one of the most anticipated foods for the group. For $7, the large helping is a meal that could easily feed a family of four. Coates has two small children. He thought of all the foods he tried, this was the most kid-friendly.

The kids would like these, he said.

Another one-dish meal was the Big Mac Daddy. The vendor has visited the Celebration in the past, but with different foods. The owner Randy Twyford decided to bring his mac and cheese dish and his cheesy potatoes. Each dish has meat and barbecue sauce layered on top.

Miss Piggy's pork chop was a surprise for the testers. Wagner, who is not a barbecue fan, was impressed with the savory meal.

It was just mellow enough that it was nice, but not overwhelming, he said.

Meats, such as pork chops, are a tricky food to cook at fairs and festivals. The group was happy with the texture as well as the taste.

I love how tender the meat was, Cook said. It was easy to eat. It fell apart nicely.

Coco Bongo not only had the tropical drinks ideal for the Celebration, they also had the atmosphere. A basic drink cost $5. However, the fruity drinks can be served in novelty cups ranging in prices up to $24. The vendor had a large television screen facing the customers, adding to the lounge image.

The TV is a nice touch, Wagner said.

Lobster Mac and Cheese was one of the priciest item at the festival this year. Customers are offered three choices ranging from $12 to $20.

They had big bowls for the food, Hettinger said. And the people are very nice.
Dear Dr. Roach: I had bilateral knee replacement two months ago, and I'm concerned about infections. My doctor wants me to take an antibiotic before any dental procedure, including cleaning, which I will do. I also have a dog that loves to lick any cuts, especially if there is some blood to lick. What are the chances of a prosthesis becoming infected? Can one's immune system fight off any bacteria that gets into the bloodstream?

-- S.S.

A: I often have heard that dogs' mouths are clean, but that is not the case. Bacteria from a dog's mouth can indeed cause an infection in any kind of open wound, even a small cut or scratch. Our immune system is normally very good at fighting them off, and I rarely see significant infections caused by the germs in a dog's mouth (cats, monkeys and humans tend to be much worse).

However, in an artificial joint, such as after a knee or hip replacement, the immune system can't effectively fight off infection, which is why your doctor recommended the antibiotic before a dental cleaning. They often cause some bacteria to transiently enter the bloodstream. Bacteria can enter the blood through an infected wound as well.

The chances of a joint infection after a dental cleaning or a cut, with or without a dog, are small, but the event is devastating. Keep the dog away: Cleanse any wound thoroughly with mild soap and water -- but no harsh disinfectants like peroxide, which do more harm than good. Apply some antibiotic ointment (such as triple antibiotic) and cover with a clean bandage.
Most hydro plants in Armenia fail to provide sustainable environmental outflows, says environmentalist

Telia Mining Ltd. has started construction on a mini-hydroelectric plant in Armenias Syunik Province even though it has yet to receive a water usage permit from the countrys Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC).

The company, founded in 2012, was owned until 2015 by Misak Hovsepyan, the son of Aghvan Hovsepyan (a former Prosecutor General of Armenia and now the president of the Investigative Committee).

The company wants to build the hydro plant along a section of the Geghi River that falls within the boundaries of the Nor Astghaberd and Geghi communities.

Nor Astghaberd Mayor Sourik Tevanyan told Hetq that company representatives showed up with documents and that preliminary blueprints for the location of the plant are being drawn up. Accepted practice is that the contractor must first meet with the community leader to receive a draft permit. Afterwards, the company drawing up the plan then must submit blueprints to the community head for final approval prior to ant construction work.

Mayor Tevanyan says he doesnt believe the company has committed any violation by leveling the road before a construction permit has been granted. He says the company needed to do so to haul in material.

Vasil Grigoryan, the mayor of Geghi, says that he issued a construction permit to the company months ago.

The 1,700-millimeter water pipes will stretch for five kilometers. The pipes are so big that cows have been photographed lounging inside, away from the afternoon heat.

Armen Parsadanyan, who heads the Kapans Sustainable Development NGO, says the Geghi River is already over utilized by another hydro plant built along its banks by a company called EremirEnergy Ltd.

Parsadanyan says that most hydro plants operating in Armenia dont allow for adequate environmental outflows to sustain the ecosystem of the river theyre built on.

He argues that since governmental monitoring of hydro plants is weak in Armenia, companies that have made huge expenditures in the sector will be tempted to seek faster returns on investment by using more water than permitted sustainable levels.

Trout, a good indicator of a rivers purity, once thrived in Geghi River. Nothing lives in the river today.

Levon Galstyan, a member of the Armenian Environmental Front, says that most rivers in Armenia have normal flows between March and June. Its possible to tap into the larger rivers to generate power during those four months, he says, without any negative impact to the environment. Using the rivers during the rest of the year, when their flows have decreased, will just destroy their ecosystems and the surrounding environment.

Galstyan adds that the governments specified outflow levels for hydro plants are meaningless since they are mere mathematical calculations based on an average of a given rivers lowest flow. No ecological factors are considered in the equation, he says.

Galstyan says that for the past five years the Front has been pressing for the installation of cameras at all hydro plants in Armenia, so that government monitors and residents can go online and see the state of specific rivers at any time.

No one in government seems interested.
ELKHORN  A former West Allis police officer pleaded guilty to leaving two bodies stuffed in suitcases on the side of a rural town of Geneva road in 2014 on Friday, Aug. 4.

In Walworth County, Steven Zelich, 55, faced two counts of hiding a corpse.

Zelich was originally scheduled for a plea and sentencing hearing in May 2016, but Judge David Reddy postponed that proceeding.

Ive got some concerns about this happening too quickly, Reddy said at the time. Im not willing to proceed to sentencing.

On April 24, roughly a year after Zelichs last Walworth County court appearance, Zelichs attorney Jonathan Smith told Judge Kristine Drettwan that his client was ready to move his case forward again.

And on Friday, Smith informed Drettwan that Zelich wanted to change his plea to guilty on both counts.

Zelich appeared in person to make his guilty plea, and he faces up to $25,000 in fines and 10 years imprisonment for each charge.

Zelichs homicide charge in Minnesota for the murder of 37-year-old Laura Simonson has been resolved, meaning that his Walworth County charges are the only ones still pending.

For Simonsons death, Zelich was sentenced Feb. 3 in Olmsted County to 25 years in prison.

Last year in Kenosha County, Zelich was sentenced to 35 years in prison for killing 19-year-old Jenny Gamez.

Zelichs sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 13 at 2:30 p.m.
This editorial is in the August 4, 2017 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

Crises Shake the German Economy, U.S. Sanctions Must Be Rejected!

[Print version of this editorial]

July 29Everything is happening at the same time: The emissions scandal in the German auto industry, the revelations of a decades-long cartel agreement in the same industry, a geopolitical economic war by the U.S. Congress against Germany and Russia, a threatened trade war between the United States and the European Union (EU), EU threats against the German government, the predictable realization that the shift away from nuclear energy is a disaster, and the growing signs that we are on the verge of a new crash, worse than that of 2008. Are these all distinct, separate processes and phenomena, or is there an inner connection among them? And more importantly, is there a solution which will not force the proverbial little people to bear the burdenthe consequences of these policies?

What we are currently experiencing are various symptoms of the collapse of the neoliberal trans-Atlantic system, of that economic and social model which replaced the vilified minor virtuessuch as hard work, honesty, conscientiousness, trustworthiness, and courtesywith the values of the shareholder and the IPOs, and of maximum profit, and in which the consensus of the elite is that the only crime is to get caught. Just as the taxpayers and depositors have had to pay for years now for the consequences of this shift in values due to the banking crisis, now it is the auto workers and their jobs, and the motorists, who are supposed to pay for the damage.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that many of the players think they can seize the opportunity to make a name for themselves. One example is Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks who, during her latest visit to the Volkswagen plant at Wolfsburg, blamed the entire auto industry for all manner of cheating and consumer fraud, up to and including criminal behavior.

In fact, the industrys manipulations could lead to in-depth criminal prosecution. And it really doesnt speak well for the intelligence of the auto industrys boards of directors and managers that they thought they could carry out such a wide-ranging swindlewhich of course required a large number of confidantsin secret for long. It has now been revealed that Audi technicians pointed to the fraudulent Volkswagen emissions manipulations in the United States as early as 2013 in an internal document, and strongly warned of possible punishments and payments for damages. Audi is a member of the Volkswagen Group.

But the root of the problem lies in the fact that the auto industry, as well as the entire German industrial elite, has given in to the various ecologically motivated policy guidelines, even though those industry leaders who have a clue about the natural sciences, know very well that behind the hypotheses of the connection between CO2 and climate change, lie very different interests and intentions than those arguments which are brought forward. Not the least of these interests is profit for the banks and hedge funds, which make a killing with solar installations, wind parks, and the CO2 emissions trade. Instead of fighting for scientific clarity on the climate controversy, they tolerate the suppression and ostracism of those scientists who question the calculations of the models that have constructed scenarios of the connection between anthropogenic CO2 and climate change.

The cowardice involved in capitulating to the dogma of anthropogenic climate change, almost inevitably led to the fact that the manipulation of auto emissions data posed no great ethical problem for them. The shift to a shareholder value society also unfortunately means that the boards of directors and the managers of the major companies lack scientific and technical competence, but have studied law. Volkswagen, by the way, had already created a sensation in 1987 with a foreign currency scandal.

Federal Transportation Minister Alexander Dobrindt, of the CSU, obviously wanted to seize the current opportunity as well, since, in the midst of the diesel scandal, he took the extraordinary measure of withdrawing certification of Porsches Cayenne model. Porsche is also a member of the Volkswagen Group. And he imposed a compulsory recall of the 22,000 vehicles which had already been delivered throughout Europe, the cost of which must be borne entirely by the manufacturersthis action could entail a loss of jobs. The engines were produced by Audi, which was already charged with fraud by the head of Porsches Works Council, which represents Porsches workers.

Another aspect of these skyrocketing crises is, according to media reports in late July, an ongoing investigation by the EU Commission into a possible, decades-long illegal arrangement between the five German automakersDaimler, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Volkswagenand automotive supplier Bosch and possibly other companies, which set up 60 taskforces to coordinate vehicle development, suppliers, and markets. That is a practice which, by the way, is commonplace in other countries. German industry considers this investigation to be an EU attack.

The Attack by the U.S. Congress

As if these scandals were not enough to ruin the image of the industrial elite of the auto sector and other sectors of German industry (after that of the banks), and therefore weaken the economy overall, now there are the new sanctions against Russia adopted by both houses of the U.S. Congress. These sanctions are the height of madness, and are an attack on all of European industry and whatever sovereignty the European nations have left.

The sanctions bill is based on a whole array of fabricated charges and made-up stories, according to which Russian President Putin allegedly manipulated the 2016 election in the United States, and intends to influence all elections in other countries in the same way, including those of U.S. allies. Furthermore, the power of the U.S. President to change American foreign policy is made subject to congressional approval. That would include, for example, his ability to lift the sanctions that Obama imposed by decree.

This is a blatant attempt by Wall Street, the secret intelligence apparatus called the deep state, and the mainstream media, to fence in the Presidentthat is, to rob him of his constitutional power to determine policy. President Trumps approval of this bill signifies a highly dangerous escalation, in response to which President Putin has already announced countermeasures. This also means that any company that does not abide by these regulations is itself the target of sanctions, whichin total violation of international lawsignifies the extraterritorial application of American law.

Gazprom

In Article 257, under the headline Ukrainian energy security, the bill states, among other things, that it is U.S. policy to continue to oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipelinefrom Russia to the European Union, through the Baltic Seagiven its detrimental impacts on the European Unions energy security, gas market development in Central and Eastern Europe, and energy reforms in Ukraine; and that the United States Government should prioritize the export of United States energy resources in order to create American jobs, help United States allies and partners, and strengthen United States foreign policy.

The arrogant imperial domination couldnt be more crass: Germany and the other European countries are supposed to renounce the security of their own energy requirements, which in light of the situation in the Near and Middle East, and the inadequate remaining deposits in the North Sea, can only come from Russiaand instead import liquefied natural gas from the totally over-indebted fracking operations in the United Statesfor which import Europe is absolutely not technically prepared. Thus its clear the real goal is to save the Wall Street banks, which are on the edge of implosion.

During his state visit to Finland, President Putin reacted promptly: This is an obvious, geopolitical attempt to impose the U.S.s own advantage at the expense of its allies. These allies reaction will show to what degree they still enjoy sovereignty. The first reactions, such as those from Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern and Michael Harms of the Eastern Committee of German Industry, charged that the sanctions imposed by the U.S. Congress were totally unacceptable.

Russia-Gate Debunked as a Fraud

The most important intervention against this ongoing coup against President Trumpwhich has seen the mainstream media, Wall Street, and the intelligence service holdovers from the Obama Administration succeed in creating an anti-Russian hysteria that dwarfs the worst excesses of the McCarthy periodcame from the group of former intelligence experts called the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). They have provided the expert forensic evidence that Russia did not hack the Democratic Party computers during the 2016 election campaign, but that insiders downloaded the data onto a storage device. Thus Trumps argument has been totally confirmed: Russian hackers did not try to manipulate the U.S. election, but those who are trying to annul the voters electoral choice with leaks of real news and fake news are the problem.

The analysis now provided by the VIPS is of the utmost strategic significance, because it proves that there is no basis for Russia-gate, that is, there is no basis for the assertion that Russia manipulated the American election. As VIPS member Ray McGovern pointed out in an interview with LaRouche PAC elsewhere in this issue of EIR, the line that Russia hacked the Democratic Party computers was given out by the party leadership in order to divert attention from the fact that the Hillary Clinton emails which Julian Assange of Wikileaks had published, proved that the party leadership had crushed Bernie Sanders chances of being elected. It is urgently necessary that members of the VIPS be invited to testify as expert witnesses at investigations not only by the U.S. Congress, but also by the Bundestag. Because part of Russia-gate is also the assertion contained in the U.S. Congress sanctions bill that Russia intends to influence elections all over the world, among them the upcoming Bundestag election in Germany.

The assertion of the supposed Russian influence in the election was kept up by the transatlantic Establishment after Trumps election. The artificially created hysteria was supposed to discourage the President from carrying out his election promise of putting the U.S. relationship with Russiawhich Obama had totally ruinedon a sound basis again. The Neo-Cons, the Obama intelligence apparat, Wall Street and the media it controls, saw in this scandal a good means of putting Trump on the defensive, so that he would not dare to seek a dialogue with Putin. The Hillary Clinton Democrats, for their part, found that Russia-gate provided a good way to rationalize their election defeat.

For Germany, opposing the Congresss sanctions by all means necessary, and realizing the new paradigm of the New Silk Road along with Russia and China, is a question of survival. The solution for the German economy lies in a new policy, which returns to a commitment to the general welfare, and sticks to innovation and the technologies of the future. Then it wont be necessary to use fraud to try to compete.
This article is in the August 4, 2017 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

Russia n  Hackin g Trut h versu s Lies

[Print version of this article]

The following is an edited version of the LaRouche PAC International Webcast from July 28. The host was Jason Ross of LaRouche PAC, and the webcast contained excerpts of an interview, by Ross, with Ray McGovern of the Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). Also speaking was Diane Sare of the LaRouche Policy Committee.

Jason Ross: My name is Jason Ross, and Im glad youre joining us for the Friday LaRouche PAC webcast. Were going to be covering an issue today thats of the greatest importance for the nation. I have on the show with me this week Diane Sare, whos joining us from our Manhattan Project in New York.

The issue that concerns us today is that of Russia-gate. We have heard so often, and there has been so much said, about the irrefutable supposed evidence that Donald Trump was placed in the White House by the machinations of Vladimir Putin, that its almost taken as a given. Everyone assumes it happened; in fact, it was written into the Russian sanctions bill that just passed the House and the Senate, as an assumption, that we know Vladimir Putin put Trump into office; that Putin ordered an influence campaign on the U.S. election. Its not true.

The VIPS Memo

This week, on Monday, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity released a memo called, Was the Russian Hack an Inside Job? In it, they demolish the central claim of the entire Russia-gate story. That central claim is that Russian hackers were involved in getting material from the Democratic National Committee, material that was very embarrassing towards Hillary Clinton, and releasing it via Wikileaks. This hinges on the central character of the Internet persona known as Guccifer 2.0, and the intelligence committee assessment which came out January 6, 2017 at the very end of the Obama administration. This is the report that everybody has been citing, that supposedly all of the intelligence agencies agree with this assessment. Its not true. Only a hand-picked group of intelligence agencies were involved in that assessment at all, and their assessment is not unanimous. That central evidence factor is what were going to be talking about today in terms of this VIPS memo.

We had the good fortune to be able to interview one of the founding members of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Ray McGovern, who is a former very top level analyst at the CIA, who during his career, had prepared Presidential daily briefs for the President. Last night we asked him if he could lay out what the implications are of the memo that they put forward, and heres what he had to say:

Ray McGovern: The 12th of June, 15th of June? As soon as they learned that Julian Assange had emails related to Hillary Clinton, What are you going to do? Well, as I reconstruct itWhat we do is, we say, Its from the Russians.  So, CrowdStrike, which was working for the DNC, announces, Theres malware, and we think it was the Russians. Then immediately, the same day, Guccifer says Yeah, yeah! We did it, and were working for Julian Assange.

Now, this is how we interpret it: the idea was since Julian Assange was going to come out with emails, God knows when, maybe right before the Democratic National Conventionmy God, that would be awful. So, well say he got it from the Russians, and that way we can divert attention from whats in the emails; because God knows how much hes got there, he might be able to show that we stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders! Its probably in there, you know? So, lets do this little pre-emptive movein June, before he ever gets this stuff out. Julian doesnt adulterate these things, what he does is array them in searchable form. Its going to take a while. So, we have a little time, about six weeks or so,they didnt know how longbut lets do it right away. So, when Julian Assange comes out with this, theyre all set to say, Ah ha! It was the Russians hacking.

A Magnificent Diversion

Now this was a magnificentI remember the old movie or book, Magnificent Obsession, this was magnificent diversion. Because as soon as Julian Assange outed the emails related to Hillary Clintonthat was on the 22nd of July, three days before the Democratic National Convention beganthey were prepared. They were prepared to say Ah ha! Russia did it! Russia did it! You can see them sort of sitting around a table. Heres Hillary saying My God! What are we going to do? What will Bernie say? Hes already said hed acquiesce, but what will he say now? Somebody says, I know what we do. Well blame the Russians. But it wasnt the Russians, it was Julian Assange. Thats all right. Well say that Julian Assange was working for the Russians. Yeah, but whats the rationale? Oh, come on! The Russians want Trump to win, because Trump has said nice things about Putin; this is going to be easy to prove. Anybody got any better ideas? OK, lets go with that. It worked beautifully. The mainstream media played the story.

Thank you for joining us. Im looking forward to your action to make this a reality.

wikimedia

Ross: Just to offer this chronology for our viewers, because this has become so shrouded in the mists of time that its sort of hard to take the pieces of it apart, to repeat, in June 2016, Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, announced that he had received material from the DNC and that he was going to be releasing it. Within a matter of days, the DNCs IT firm, CrowdStrike, announced that they had proof that Russia had hacked their computers. Also, an Internet hacker calling himself Guccifer 2.0 appeared out of nowhere, saying that he was the hacker, he got into the DNCs system, and he says, Ill prove it. Heres some of the material that I stole. In June, documents were released by this Guccifer person that included the most obvious ham-fisted fake clues youve ever seen. These documents were deliberately altered in order to incorporatein CyrillicFelix Edmundovich as the documents last editor. Now, Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky was the founder of the Soviet secret police. You might think that if Russian hackers are doing something, they might not be so obvious as to label themselves on their computers with that name; its just an obvious fake clue to be found. Additional proof supposedly came up in Guccifer 2.0 trying to hide his persona, pretending to be Romanian while not really speaking Romanian, so that people could say Ah ha! Hes hiding his identity. We found these total cluesreally red herringsof these Russian names inside the documents. The documents were set to the language of Russia. Ah ha! This is proof.

Now what it really means is that those documents were artificially altered. Thats what the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity go through in this memorandum called, Was the Russian Hack an Inside Job? So, as Mr. McGovern said, following this, a large release of documents came from Guccifer sometime in September. These documents, according to forensic analysis thats been reviewed by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, reveals that the documents were not hacked, but they were leaked, they were copied. The rate of data transmission, the rate of the file creation, indicates a speed that exceeds what you would possibly be able to get over the Internet if you had hacked into a computer and then pulled the files out. They reason, then, that this indicates that these files were simply copied, and then put out tainted with this Guccifer 2.0 persona to give a sense of Russian involvement in the hacking. The fact of the matter is that no evidence whatsoever has ever been presented that can show where Wikileaks got its material. The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, said this was a leak, it was not a hack. It didnt come from Russia, it didnt come from a Russian state actor. It was a leak. As Mr. McGovern said, there were plenty of people in the DNC who werent very happy about the way that the primary elections were handled. There is plenty of motive for a leak to put out the truth about how the DNC had operated.

Anti-Russia Hysteria

But on top of this fabricated evidence, we now have a situation where this anti-Russia hysteria is phenomenal. Just yesterday, we had the passage of an anti-Russia sanctions bill through the House and through the Senate. This bill, HR 3364, takes as a given that Russia hacked the U.S. elections, imposes very strong sanctions in a variety of cases, and forbids the President from changing them. In other words, it takes away the ability of the President, in this case President Trump, to initiate foreign policy, which is, frankly, part of the Presidents job. Thats the way we work in this country.

One of the most shocking things about all of this is that this supposed Russian hacking has been called an Act of War by numerous members of Congress. People say that because of this, Donald Trump should be impeached; this has been said by members of Congress. For something of this magnitude, an act of war leading to sanctions and the potential break-out of conflict with the worlds most powerful nuclear power besides ourselves, surely a good investigation would have been done. Well, it wasnt! As a matter of fact, after the DNC computers were supposedly hacked, who investigated them? Not the FBIbut a private firm, CrowdStrike, with political ties that make its findings very suspicious.

The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity ended their memo by questioning who Guccifer 2.0 is. They say, Maybe you should ask the FBI. So, I asked Ray McGovern, Why might we want to ask the FBI?

McGovern: After it was revealed that the DNC had been hacked, so to speak, normally what would happen in that case, unless Im sadly mistaken, would be that the FBI would be invited in to take a look and see who did this. Or, the DNC would say Would you please come in here and see who did this? But you know what? Neither seemed to be very interested in looking at that. So, with all due respect, and not much is due, really, James Comey is guilty of malfeasance, not just misfeasance. People crying that this is an act of war, and he sits back and says I dont want to send my technicians in there. Why? Well, I can tell you why. It seems to me that when youre an intelligence analyst, you have this kind of bent to connect dots; thats what we call an all-source analyst. You look not only at the technical details, the forensics, now that we have them, but what was going on outside, what you learn from the newspapers. And we know from that, that the CIA, with the help of the NSA, had developedit took them fifteen yearsan incredible capability.

Ross: That capability that McGovern is referring to, is what was revealed in March under the program of Vault 7, which was released from Wikileaks. One aspect of that was called the Marble Framework; something developed by the CIA that made it possible to obfuscate the origins of cyber attacks. In other words, the CIA had spent a tremendous amount of effortMr. McGovern estimates billions of dollars being spentto develop the ability to perform hacks, and then to be able to attribute them to other nations, to other actors. He says that this Marble Framework allowed the CIA to deliberately plant fake evidence of Russian involvement. They had Cyrillic text that could be inserted; in other words, it would be possible to make it look as though attackers were coming from Russia. Now the question would be, has this been investigated? Has Trump taken up with his intelligence agencies, an investigation to find out if these types of capabilities were used? Mr. McGovern says that it was revealed that they were used in 2016. Was this their use? An investigation would be able to show that.

This also raises the question, why the animosity towards Russia? Is this a cynical campaign ploy by the Democrats to get over an election that they lost and try to impeach Trump, to try and take back control of the country? Or what else is at play here? Why would this sanctions bill pass so unanimously, with only three House members voting against it, and only two Senators? Well, we asked Ray McGovern what he thought about this:

McGovern: Its coming mostly from the Democrats, curiously enough. And initially, as I tried to explain before, it was an attempt to blacken the Russians to help Hillary become elected. Then, when she wasnt elected, Whoops! We can still use this stuff. How can we use it? To show that Hillary didnt lose the election; it couldnt have been that she was not such a good candidate, or that nobody trusted her. Its the Russians! So, most Americans now believeaccording to the pollsthat this fellow Trump who we have as President now, is there because of Vladimir Putin helping him become elected. Thats bad! Thats really bad.

Whats the objective now? Well, the objective is not only to de-legitimize Trump, but to keep the tensions stoked with Russia so that there can be no real detente; so that we can blacken the Russians and say, Oh, look!

Ross: Now, the other objective, or the other incident that caused all of this Russia hysteria, was what occurred in Ukraine, where a coup carried out in 2014 overthrew the elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, and instituted a new government. United States involvement in this coup was as clear as day. Those of us who were watching, saw on YouTube the videos covering the audio recordings, with American officials planning out what the new Ukrainian government would be. We had [Assistant Secretary of State] Victoria Nuland involved in helping to set up a new government in Ukraine. In reaction to the coup, when the people of Crimea voted democratically to rejoin Russia, the same people said,We will never have peace with Russia until Russia returns Crimea to Ukraine; the sanctions will continue. Russia is everybodys enemy.

Keeping that in mind, that it was U.S. interference in Ukraine that created the destabilization in the Ukraine, leading eventually to Crimeas rejoining with Russia, we can ask ourselves, Where is this going if this process isnt stopped? Heres what Mr. McGovern had to say about that:

Where Is This Going?

McGovern: Put all this together, youve got a synthetic, youve got a kind of an artificial construct of Vladimir Putin as the Devil Incarnate. The whole press does this meme, and everybody catches on, especially the Democrats, and its the oddest thing Ive ever seen. So, heres Donald Trump; he wants to go and talk to Putin. Everybody says Oh, this is really bad. He does talk to Putin, and what happens? They get a cease-fire agreement! Its not the whole thing, but a little slice of Syria. Does that get reported in the press? No, maybe an inside page.

Ross: They say its giving in to Russia.

McGovern: So, if any of us have any interest in stopping the carnage in Syria, which we should, we should applaud Trump or any other effort to work with the other forces in play, not only the Russians, but the Syrians, the Turks, and the Iranians. If we dont have a common aim against ISIS, what do we have a common aim against?

Whats going to be interesting right nowTrump this week decided no more support, no more arms or money for the so-called moderate rebels, the rebels that the U.S. has supported in Syria. Thats big! Thats the CIAs bag; thats billions of dollars invested in that. Whats going to happen? Well, Trump has taken on the CIA on that issue. And what Im recalling now isnobodys been around in Washington as long as Senator Chuck Schumer, the ranking Democrat in the Senate, and in a recent interview [Jan. 3, 2017] with Rachel Maddow, this is what he said:

Rachel Maddow: Hes taking these shots and antagonisms

Chuck Schumer: Yup.

Maddow: taunting the intelligence agencies.

Schumer: Let me tell you; you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.

McGovern: Rachel Maddow says, Oh, were going to go to break. Give me a break! If it were you, wouldnt you say, Are you saying that the President of the United States should be afraid of the intelligence community? Of course, thats what he was saying. So, why do I refer to that? The jury is out. Hes taken them on a little bit. Whether hell take them on on the Russian hackwell I dont know. Maybe [CIA Director] Pompeo is afraid to ask these guys; or maybe hes afraid to ask. If hes afraid, well hes following the example of his predecessor [Obama], because Obama was deathly afraid of Brennan; thats why he defended him when Brennan hacked into the Senate computers. Thats why he tried to prevent the publication of the memo from the Senate on CIA torture; because it showed that Brennan and the others had been lying through their teeth about the effectiveness of torture techniques. So Obama was very much defending himself or defending them, ultimately to defend themselves. So, whether Schumer is right, were likely to see sooner rather than later.

Ross: Well find out sooner rather than later based on how the President and how the American population respond to this pressure. Think for a minute in your mind: What would it mean if Trump were thrown out of office based on what we know to be a fabrication, a lie created by the intelligence agencies, a lie saying that Vladimir Putin put him in office? If the President of the United States can be removed from office based on nonsense created by the intelligence agencies, do we have elected government in the United States? I think that thats the question that we need to take up in a very urgent way by getting out the explosive news about this memo coming from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Mobilizing to Break the Story

Diane Sare: We are going to ask everybody watching this program to mobilize to break this story. I first want to address some of the questions that people may raise: Of course we know the Russians didnt hack the election. I voted for Trump, and I wasnt told to vote for Trump by Vladimir Putin. So, whats new about this? Or people say, Were used to being lied to all the time. Why does this make a difference?

I want to say a little bit about who some of these people are. In case you missed it, Ray McGovern is a former U.S. Army and former CIA intelligence agent; I believe he is fluent in Russian and has a great deal of knowledge on this. Bill Binney, who is the co-author of this report, is the former NSA Technical Director for World Geopolitical and Military Analysis, the co-founder of the NSA Signals Intelligence Automation Research Centerthat is the data-mining. He designed, in part, the technology to be able to spy on everyone; he knows it very well. The expert who did the forensics on these so-called hacks, which turned out to be a leak, is someone named Skip Holden, whos a retired IBM Program Manager for Information Technology. Hes the one who looked at this, who came to the conclusion that there was no hack, that what happened was that 1,976 megabytes of data were copied in only 87 seconds, which cannot be done over the Internet. That cannot be done through cyberspace, but only by using some kind of thumb drive, USB port, some kind of storage device that is actually inserted into the computer to copy this data. And that this was done by someone operating in the Eastern U.S. time zone. Then this was blamed on Russia.

We have in hand, in this report, by a group of certified experts, proof, the documentation that this thing is a fraud from the beginning. That is extremely important. Yesterday four LaRouche organizers went to Congress to distribute about 1,000 copies of the VIPS report, and discovered that nobody there had heard anything about this; which is outrageous. You might remember, before the elections, that President Obama and others had promised there was going to be a classified briefing for the Congress, presenting the alleged proofs that the Russians were hacking into the Democratic Party and sabotaging the elections, and then such briefing never occurred. There never was any evidence presented.

LaRouches Assessment

I just want to take a step back for a second, because when Lyndon LaRouche heard about Comeys testimony and the story about Russia, he said, The people pushing this want thermonuclear war. If they succeed, were going to have thermonuclear war with Russia. Id like to remind people that what happened in Ukraine was a direct result of a deliberate policy, as Jason said. They violently overthrew the government with $5 billion, largely from George Soros, laundered through the U.S. State Department. Victoria Nuland was under Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. In other words, we were provoking war with Russia, deliberately moving NATO eastward, putting Nazisactual supporters of Hitler and Stepan Banderain power in Ukraine on Russias border. Why? Because the trans-Atlantic system is on the brink of total disintegration. The British Empire, this empire monarchy, is in its final agony; it will not survive. Theyve printed trillions of dollars, theyve bailed out the banks time and again, theyve created a gigantic bubble; its going down.

The same thing in Syria: People may remember, Hillary Clinton was proposing a no-fly zone over Syria so that we could shoot down Russian planes in defense of ISIS. As Ray McGovern mentioned in the interview, one of the positive developments of the Trump Presidency, a very significant one, is he met with Putin, got a cease-fire, and we are no longer arming the so-called moderate groups who are running around chopping peoples heads off and filming it. Its a huge breakthrough.

So, I just want to underscore the fact that we have in our hands, by a group of highly competent professionals, the proof that the entire story about Russia hacking the elections was a fraud. Russia did not start the violence in Ukraine; that was launched under Victoria Nuland with funding from George Soros and the State Department. Its a bunch of Nazis. Russia did not illegally annex Crimea. The people of Crimea, who are predominantly Russian and Russian speaking, held a referendum where they voted to leave Ukraine so they wouldnt be burned to death in buildings for speaking Russian, which is what these Nazis did to people in Odessa, for example. There was a legitimate vote in Crimea.

When Assanges evidence came out, Putin said, Why are people so concerned? You should be concerned that what was leaked was actually true, which was that the Hillary Clinton campaign had ripped off Bernie Sanders in every imaginable way, and there was nothing honest or up-front about the way she conducted her campaign. People suspected it, and that was then proven. People remember that Wasserman-Schultz had to resign.

What we are asking you to do is several things. One, the Congress should stop being a bunch of sold-out, gutless wonders, and they should hold hearings with the actual evidence. That is, Ray McGovern, Bill Binney, Skip Holdenthey should all be invited to testify in hearings in the Congress. You can call into the Congressional switchboard, which is (202) 224-3121. People can also sign and circulate the petition available on the LaRouche PAC website. As I mentioned, what we discovered in Washington is that no one had even heard of this report. We have to change the so-called narrative; thats one thing that weve run into in D.C. Everyone talks about narrative this, narrative that, as if theres no such thing as truth. Well, the narrative right now is that somehow Vladimir Putin is responsible for every evil thats occurred on the planet in the last ten years at least, and that therefore, we should impose sanctions on Russia and even risk a war with that nation. This is completely insane; it is not true. The truth of the matter is that there is a New Paradigm which is being led by China, in which the U.S. can join with China and Russia. It has the potential, as President Trump has expressed his intent, to make American great again. The way we make America great again is by collaborating with China, with Russia, to go back to a Hamiltonian system of political economy.

We have to get the truth out on this story. The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), have given us a weapon. What we want to do with this mobilization is break the back of this lie. The American people have been lied to for a very long time. We were lied to about the Kennedy assassination with devastating consequences to our republic. We were lied to about 9/11; we were lied to about the Saudi and British role in 9/11 explicitly. We are now being lied to about the election, and these lies could have the consequence of running a coup detat against a legitimately elected leader and putting us on a trajectory for World War III. We can break the back of this by circulating this report.

I would urge people to take the material from the LaRouche PAC website, get it out on your Facebook accounts, send it out through Twitter. Call the White House and urge President Trump to appoint special counsel to launch a Presidential investigation of what happened in the DNC computers. As Ray McGovern asked, What does the CIA know about this? What does Brennan know about this? What does the FBI know about this? Who was it who went into the DNC computer and tried to make it look like Russia had done this? President Trump, as President of the United States, has a legitimate right to demand such an investigation. You should call the White House and demand this. Call your Congressman and say, Have you read the report from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity? Have you read that report? Dont you think there should be hearings? We have to investigate this. Get this out to all of your friends; its absolutely urgent. Because when we break the back of this, then we can transform the nation.

It is very important that people take action. The LaRouche PAC website will be the center of this mobilization, giving you the ammunition that you need and the resources that you need to get to your elected officials.

Do You Want to Have a Government?

Ross: I just want to bring up one more aspect of this in terms of the coup. Diane brought up John Brennan. Well, John Brennan, at the Aspen Security Forum just a couple of days ago, said that if Trump fires Robert Mueller, the special investigator, that the intelligence agencies should refuse to go along with it. In essence, hes calling for a coup against the President, based on a political decision that he might make. So, ask yourself: Do you want to have a government? Or do you want to have John Brennan and other unelected people dictating and determining policy in a way that is to the absolute detriment of our nation? Get that memo out; make sure everybody you know reads it. Its absolutely dynamite, and it definitively puts to rest the whole Russia-gate nonsense. Itll be great to move on from that, wont it?

Thank you for joining us. Im looking forward to your action to make this a reality.
This editorial is in the August 4, 2017 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

Your Congressman Just Voted

for War with Russia

[Print version of this editorial]

July 31On July 25, in a flagrantly unconstitutional action, the United States House of Representatives voted 419 to 3 to impose harsh sanctions against the nation of Russia. This action was followed two days later when the United States Senate voted 98 to 2 for the sanctions bill. This legislation imposes new sanctions, codifies existing penalties into lawincluding the harsh sanctions imposed by Barack Obama in 2016and gives Congress veto power over any attempt by President Trump to remove or relax them. With these votes, the Congress has acted to effect an illegal seizure of the direction of foreign policy from the duly elected President. The primary argument that was utilized in justifying these anti-Russia measures was the lie that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, through hacking and other means.

The combined vote, in both houses, was 517 to 5. Such folly and lemming-like uniform cowardice has probably not been seen in the United States Congress since the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, a resolution which passed the Congress by a vote of 504 to 2. That vote, from fifty-three years ago, ushered in a decade of war, which killed tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese, and plunged the United States into a deep cultural and political despair. Today, the stakes for the United Statesand for all of humanityare much, much higher. The U.S. Congress, backed by the establishment media, has now acted to wreck the peace initiatives of the Trump administration and put the world back on a trajectory toward war.

There were five heroes who opposed this madness. They are: Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Representatives Justin Amash (R-Mich.), John Duncan (R-Tenn.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). Not a single Democrat voted against the sanctions bill!

This vote for a policy of war is the result of the decades-long penetration of the United States government by allies and servants of the British Empire. Recall that it was Tony Blair and his fake Dodgy Dossier which set the stage for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Recall that it was Britain which partnered with the Bush and Obama administrations in effecting a massive NATO military expansion, in the overthrow and murder of Libyas Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, in the 2014 Nazi coup detat in the Ukraine, and in continuing military confrontation with China in East Asia. It is the British System, and its legacy of geopolitics, which is behind all of this, and it is their corruption of U.S. intelligence agencies, the establishment news media and the leadership of both major political parties which has brought us to this moment of crisis.

Under Barack Obama, the United States, in alliance with Britain, implemented a policy of aggressive military confrontation with both Russia and Chinathis, accompanied by a parallel policy of illegal global regime changes, as well as support for ISIS terrorists. Donald Trump, in his election campaign, vowed to reverse these policies, and as President, he has taken steps to correct the worst of these crimes. These steps include, but are not limited to, his personal discussions with both Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, as well as his decision to end the CIAs covert program to arm and train Syrian rebels now battling the government of Bashar al-Assad.

The insane and cowardly U.S. Congress has now voted to sabotage these peace initiatives by the President and to revive the war drive of the Obama administration, a war drive fully endorsed by Hillary Clinton. This is not what the people of the United States voted for in 2016. Forty-three percent of Democratic Party voters cast their ballots for Bernie Sanders, stating emphatically their desire to overturn the neocon policies of the Obama regime. In the general election, Donald Trump won thirty states and defeated Hillary Clinton by almost eighty electoral votes. Congress has now acted, not only against the peace initiatives of President Trump, but in flagrant defiance of the wishes of the American people.

At the same time, this action occurs as Lyndon LaRouche and other economists are warning of a near-term eruption of a financial and banking crisis worse than 2007-2008. Such a monetary blow-out will unleash chaos in the United States and Europe, the repercussions of which can only heighten the strategic danger. The stakes for humanity have never been this high.

Lies, Lies, and More Lies

During the past week, three interventions have been made which utterly demolish all claims that the Russian government hacked Democratic National Committee (DNC) computers in an effort to influence the 2016 U.S. elections. The evidence presented in these interventions utterly demolishes the rationale put forward to justify the new anti-Russia sanctions.

On July 24, the Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (an organization comprised of former FBI, NSA, CIA and other intelligence experts) released a Memorandum for President Trump, wherein they demonstrate that the release of DNC files far more likely came from a leak, not a hack, and they also document, conclusively, that the allegations of Russian involvement are a fairy tale, a created narrative which has no evidence to support it. On July 27, Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, published his own review of the VIPS findings, titled Time to Reassess the Roles Played by Guccifer 2.0 and Russia in the DNC Hack. Although Ritter takes exception to a few of the details contained in the Memorandum, he emphatically states, To date there has been no examination worthy of the name regarding the facts that underpin the accusations at the center of the American argument against Russiathat the GRU hacked the DNC server and used Guccifer 2.0 as a conduit for the release of stolen documents in a manner designed to influence the American presidential election. The VIPS memorandum of July 24, 2017, questions the veracity of these claims. I believe these doubts are well founded. Then, on July 28, LaRouche PAC conducted a live interview with Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and former Chair of the National Intelligence Estimates, who was one of the signers of the VIPS Memorandum. In that interview, McGovern details the VIPS findings, including the computer forensic investigation of independent analyst Skip Folden, a retired IBM Program Manager for Information Technology. McGovern presents both the fraudulent nature of the Guccifer 2.0/Russian hacking narrative as well as the political motivations behind the lies. Further details of the evidence in this case will not be presented here. It is all available in the Internet links cited above.

It is important to recall that all of the current furor was kicked off with an announcement by Julian Assange on June 12, 2016, when he stated in a mass-circulation interview on Britains ITV, that we have emails related to Hillary Clinton which are awaiting publication. It is also important to emphasize that Assange has stated repeatedly that the documents he released came from a leak, not a hack. The documents posted by Assange proved conclusively that the DNC was covertly working with Hillary Clintons campaign to run dirty tricks against then Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. No one in the DNC or the Clinton entourage has ever denied the validity of the documents released by Assange; and the proof of DNC intervention into the primary process on behalf of Hillary Clinton, and against Bernie Sanders, was so strong that DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign. The subsequent, alleged Guccifer 2.0 hacks were all designed to both discredit Assange and to create the false flag allegations of Russian interference. It is precisely the fraudulent nature of the Guccifer 2.0 narrative that the VIPS Memorandum addresses.

The Coup dEtat Means War

Lyndon LaRouche has stated that if the coup detat against President Trump succeeds, we will have nuclear war.

With certainty, it can be stated that both Russia and China are paying very close attention to developments in the United States. And they are taking steps to protect themselves. In Russia, on July 30, a Main Naval Parade was held for the first time in modern Russias historyon Navy Day, in celebration of the creation of the Russian Navy by Peter the Great in 1696. For the first time it brought together ships from Russias Baltic, Black Sea, Northern, and Pacific Fleets, with its Caspian Flotilla, for a total of 5,000 sailorsand for the first time in modern Russian history, it was inspected by Russias President. Putins short address began by affirming that Russias history is inseparable from the victories of its courageous and fearless Navy. Our countrys status as a strong marine power has been achieved through the brave acts of sailors and officers, the inventive talent of our shipbuilders and the daring exploits of sea explorers.

At the same time, in China, the 90th anniversary of the Peoples Liberation Army was celebrated by a military parade, for the first time since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. It was held at Zhurihe, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, at Chinas biggest military base, which specializes in training in advanced technology. The Wall Street Journal reports that new, more-capable ICBMs were displayed with other new weapons, and 12,000 mechanized troops.

Chinas official news agency Xinhua reports that this was the first time President Xi Jinping has overseen such a large parade at a military base. It noted that Late leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping also inspected troops in the field at key moments in history.

In his address, Xi said, The world is not all at peace, and peace must be safeguarded.

At this point, the members of Congress who voted for the sanctions bill against Russia can only be described aswitting or unwitting  accomplices in this war drive. And those members of Congress who continue to retail the line that the Russians hacked the election, or that the Trump is in bed with the Russians, stand exposed as imbeciles, liars, or cowards. There is no fourth choice. The political establishmentincluding leading elements of both major partieswishes to overturn the election and to return the country to a policy of financial looting and a build-up for war.

It is clear that many members of Congress are terrified of the FBI, the CIA, and other parts of the Intelligence establishment, including such unofficial bodies as AIPAC. What many fail to see, is that behind these spook apparatchiks, lies the guiding hand of British geopolitics. We are dealing with a corrupted American political establishment. Last November, the American people did not vote for a policy of NATO expansion, nuclear weapons modernization, violent regime changes, military confrontation with China in Asia, and strategic confrontation with Russia.

The American people did not vote for war. Why did your Congressman?
PRESS RELEASE

More Denunciations of U.S. Sanctions by European Business Associations

Aug. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)Two European business groups denounced the new anti-Russian sanctions passed by Congress. A director of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) issued a statement denouncing the new sanctions.

"There is an impression that the American side places emphasis on its own economic interests. In this respect, the European Commissions decision to think about possible retaliatory measures comes as a logical reaction to extraterritorial sanctions, questionable from the point of view of the international law,"

said Volker Treier, Deputy Chief Executive and Managing Director of International Economic Affairs at the DIHK. "This would have a painful impact on the German economy in general," he said, reported TASS.

The Association of European Businesses also issued a statement, saying it
Eric Bolling, co-host of Fox News Channels Fox News Specialists, was suspended by the network on Saturday amid allegations that he used his cellphone to send lewd pictures to female colleagues.

Bolling, 54, becomes the third Fox News personality to be removed from the air this year due to allegations of inappropriate behavior in the workplace.

Fox News announced the suspension Saturday following a HuffPost report that Bolling had sent unsolicited photographs of his genitalia to former and current female colleagues at the company several years ago.

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Eric Bolling has been suspended pending the results of an investigation, which is currently underway, a Fox News spokesperson said.

Bolling has denied the allegations through his attorney Michael J. Bowe, according to the HuffPost. The website says it has 14 sources to corroborate the claims.

The potentially career-ending matter will be looked at by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the law firm that has investigated sexual harassment claims against Fox News since July 2016, when former anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against the companys late chief executive Roger Ailes.

Fox News has been besieged by sexual harassment lawsuits, settlements and complaints ever since Ailes ouster, many of them being handled quickly as parent firm 21st Century Fox is still attempting to take full ownership of European pay TV giant Sky. The deal requires the approval of British regulators who have to find the company fit and proper to take over.

Charles Payne, a host at Fox Business Network, has been suspended since July 6, following a complaint by a female political analyst who said she was coerced into having a sexual relationship with him to secure more on-air appearances and a paid contributors job. The complaint remains under investigation.

The networks star anchor, Bill OReilly, was pushed out in April after reports that he and Fox had paid out millions to settle harassment claims going back to 2004. Los Angeles radio personality Wendy Walsh alleged that OReilly promised her a position on his highly rated show, The OReilly Factor, if she would have sex with him.

Bolling is a rising star at Fox News. After a career as a commodities trader, he became a commentator at CNBC. He joined Fox Business Network in 2007 and eventually became part of the late afternoon roundtable show The Five on Fox News Channel.

After OReillys departure, The Five moved to prime time, but Bolling stayed in the late afternoon slot to head up a new program Fox News Specialists.

Rotating hosts will fill in for Bolling on Fox News Specialists during the suspension. Bolling also wont appear on his weekend financial show Cashin In.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio
QUESTION: Our common-interest development is in the middle of a busy area in Los Angeles but still off the beaten path. It faces a public street that the city maintains along with street lighting and sidewalks. Five years ago, our area was discovered by dog-walking services. We know they are paid because of their flyers and business cards. Their branded vehicles would take up all of our valuable parking spaces. Some professional walkers juggle eight canines at a time, four leashed on each arm.

Most of these walkers pick up their dogs mess but the urine still damages stucco, wood, brick fencing and vegetation closest to the sidewalks. It is costly and not always possible to remove the stains and odor left behind, prompting some property owners to replace gates and fences. Even though most walkers pick up their dog waste, vegetation in the area still dies and continues to smell and attract flies. Some owners have even found bags of waste apparently tossed onto their property.

We have incurred big expenses in landscape upkeep that we would not otherwise have. We contacted various pet companies asking them to share our landscape costs; they declined. Afterward, they sneakily parked many blocks away but continued to walk their dogs using our sidewalks. Now they use unmarked cars but still conduct their dog walking here.

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The walkers are a nuisance. They talk loudly, they use walkie-talkies and cell phones, and their dogs bark and growl at people and other animals. Some owners have approached them, asking for dog licenses and vaccination information  confrontations that have turned ugly. The walkers insist they are under no obligation to provide proof of business licenses, dog licenses or vaccination information.

Our board wont get involved because it only affects owners whose homes front the public street. Dont the dog walkers have to provide their business licenses, dog licenses and vaccination information if asked? Whats the law and what can we do about it?

ANSWER: Other than supporting your efforts to identify the wrongdoers, your board cannot do much because this isnt really an association problem.

Companies can conduct business on public property, such as streets and sidewalks, with the necessary permits. Even if additional licenses, permits or bonds are required, a private citizen cannot directly force a business operator to present proof of compliance.

And though it is possible some of the paid dog walkers do not have business licenses, there is a whole industry of law-abiding dog-walking services in Southern California that are licensed.

In Los Angeles, various animal-related businesses and activities, including dog grooming and mobile grooming, operate with permits. Individual cities have different ordinances, but typically there are requirements for obtaining a bond, dog licenses and leashes, a maximum number of dogs walked at one time, and properly caring for and cleaning up after animals in their care.

Still, the fact that a professional dog walker has a business license doesnt prevent residential neighborhoods from being overburdened by dog-walking services.

So what can neighbors in your community and property owners in your association do?

The Los Angeles Municipal Code specifically states that it is unlawful for the owner or person having custody of any dog to fail to immediately remove and dispose of in a sanitary manner . . . any feces deposited by such dog upon public or private property, without the consent of the public or private owner or person in lawful possession of the property, other than property owned or controlled by the owner or person having custody of such dog. (LAMC 53.49).

You might try posting signs reminding people to clean up after their pets so it will be clear there is no implied consent that anyone can leave droppings or waste on private property.

Owners can also start documenting the dog walkers activities, including photographing or videotaping those who violate the law and any damage they cause.

While it may be worth telling these dog walkers to clean up any mess they create, it is not worth getting into an aggressive confrontation.

The Los Angeles City Attorneys Dispute Resolution Program offers mediation and informal resolution assistance at no cost. Mediators are professional and trained in group facilitation with a goal of resolving difficult situations where there may be several people, even large groups, requiring assistance or intervention, such as in your neighborhood. Contact: (213) 978-1880.

If that is unsuccessful, start reporting violations to the proper authorities. These dog walkers may not be required to provide proof of compliance to property owners, but they are required to provide proof to law enforcement or other regulatory agencies. Let the authorities determine whether there was a violation of the law or if there is a business that should be shut down.

Shaphan Roberts, director of the City Attorneys Dispute Resolution Program, said neighborhood prosecutors in his office, as well as senior lead officers at the local LAPD station and the areas Community-Police Advisory Board, welcome the opportunity to interact with residents in resolving issues like these.

As with most legal issues, you can always improve your position by consistently documenting and reporting your complaints.

There is also strength in numbers, so band together with like-minded neighbors  even if they dont participate in the complaints, they will be less likely to patronize the services of companies that arent following the rules. Economic pressure is sometimes more efficient than legal action.

Zachary Levine, a partner at Wolk & Levine, a business and intellectual property law firm, co-wrote this column. Vanitzian is an arbitrator and mediator. Send questions to Donie Vanitzian, JD, P.O. Box 10490, Marina del Rey, CA 90295 ornoexit@mindspring.com
Ford Motor Co. and federal regulators are investigating concerns raised by police departments around the country about excessive carbon-monoxide levels and exhaust odors in their police Ford Explorers, causing officers to fall ill.

The Police Department in Austin, Texas, said it pulled nearly 400 Ford Explorers from its fleet after finding that 20 officers tested positive for elevated levels of carbon monoxide, including one who briefly blacked out behind the steering wheel.

And in Auburn, Mass., the Police Department said three of its officers had been sent to the hospital for high carbon-monoxide levels and that one officer was in a minor crash as a result.

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Ford said the problem might involve police-related alterations made to the vehicles after they leave the assembly plant, which can leave holes and unsealed spaces. Modifications to police cars can be made in-house or by third-party vendors.

The automaker said it does not believe the problem extends to non-police versions of the popular sport utility vehicle. In the U.S. last year, Ford sold 216,294 Explorers and 32,213 versions modified for police use, known as Police Interceptor Utility vehicles. Together, they accounted for 9.5% of the companys total U.S. sales.

Drivers of regular, non-police Ford Explorers have no reason to be concerned, Ford said. We have not found elevated levels of carbon monoxide in non-police Ford Explorers.

But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the complaints have extended to regular consumers. The agency said it had received reports of three crashes and symptoms such as loss of consciousness, nausea, headaches or lightheadedness.

The agency said it was probing the matter on model year 2011-2017 Ford Explorers  both police and non-police versions  to determine if this issue is related to a potential safety defect.

NHTSA said the problem with the police version might be cracks in the exhaust manifold that may explain the exhaust odor. The manifold collects exhaust gas from the engine and delivers it to the exhaust pipe.

But the agency said that so far, no substantive data or actual evidence ... has been obtained supporting a claim that any of the alleged injury or crash allegations were the result of carbon-monoxide poisoning, the alleged hazard.

Ford said it would investigate all the reports, including the exhaust-manifold issue cited by NHTSA.

Ford also said it would pay the costs of repairs in every Police Interceptor Utility that may have carbon-monoxide concerns, regardless of modifications made after leaving Fords factory.

The automaker noted that when a police department installs emergency lighting, radios and other equipment, they have to drill wiring-access holes into the rear of the vehicle. If the holes are not properly sealed, it creates an opening where exhaust could enter the cabin.

There are about 126,000 Police Interceptor Utility vehicles used throughout U.S. law enforcement, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the California Highway Patrol.

No LAPD officers have reported carbon-monoxide issues and none of the departments fleet of 1,003 Explorers has experienced toxic gases leaking into the vehicles cabins through holes in the trunk, said Vartan Yegiyan, assistant commanding officer of the LAPDs Administrative Services Bureau.

The department did have about 60 to 65 Explorers that required replacement of the exhaust manifolds, although the issue did not result in fumes in the vehicles cabins, he said.

The cars have all been repaired and returned to service with assistance from Ford engineers, Yegiyan said.

The CHP, with 1,700 Explorers in its fleet, said that occasionally complaints arise and that the CHP addresses them on a case-by-case basis. But the CHP said it had not installed so-called CO meters, which measure carbon-monoxide levels in the air, on its standard patrol vehicles.

Police in Manchester, N.H., and some departments in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have installed CO meters in their patrol Explorers until the issue is resolved.

We would urge other departments to have their cruisers tested and/or purchase detectors to ensure everyones safety, Auburn police said on Facebook.

The Explorer and other SUVs continue to be a bright spot in what has otherwise been a tough sales year for Ford. Explorer sales in July totaled 18,763, up 12.9% from the same month last year. The figures do not include police fleet sales.

Ford said that if any driver of an Explorer notices an exhaust odor, customers should take it to a Ford dealer or call 888-260-5575.

NHTSA also said any Explorer owner concerned about a safety issue can call 888-327-4236 or submit a complaint at NHTSA.gov.

The Associated Press was used in compiling this report.

james.peltz@latimes.com

Twitter: @PeltzLATimes

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CAMBRIA  Didion Milling announced Wednesday that nearly all its employees are back working after operations at its milling and ethanol plants were halted following a fatal explosion at the milling facility here on the last day of May.

Its a multi-week process to restart and return to full production, Derrick Clark, vice president of operations at Didion Milling, said in a statement. We are excited the (ethanol) plant is up and running. Its great to have the team back together and to see steam coming from the plant again.

Construction crews were still removing debris from the milling plant on Thursday. Jagged pipes and wire stuck out from the exposed walls where the explosion occurred at 11 p.m., May 31. Five workers died and a dozen more were transported to area hospitals.

After the explosion, ethanol operations stopped due to the damage and debris from the milling plant. The explosion damaged rail lines near the grain elevator and debris on the site prevented trucks from delivering corn. In July, the company began to slowly ramp up production and bring back employees. Milling operations remain shut down.

Riley Didion, company president, said almost all of Didions employees are back to work, but some employees are limited in what they can do. About 100 employees are back to work and those who worked in milling have been redistributed to two of Didions other facilities in Johnson Creek and Markesan. Didion said that the plant has been slowly bringing more and more employees back to work in the past few weeks.

Everyone has been grieving in different ways and Didion said that Wisconsin has some resilient people. Since nearly everyone is back at work, he said that employees are celebrating small achievements and moving forward. After the incident, he said the company has continued to provide on-site counseling.

According to a news release, some employees are working for different employers through Didions External Project Team. The employees still receive pay and benefits from Didion while, the release states, the employees work for another employer until Didion can build a new mill.

After the explosion, the company began to work early on with farmers and has slowly been ramping up contract work in order to not fall behind, Didion said. The release states that the plant is now accepting corn from local farmers at its grain elevator in Cambria.

A process to rebuild the milling portion of the Cambria facility is in the planning stages. Didion said he foresees more than a year of planning and engineering on the rebuilding efforts. Part of the rebuilding effort will include a memorial, Didion said.
After going on a real estate shopping spree over the last two years, Kylie Jenner of Keeping Up With the Kardashians has switched into sell mode.

The 19-year-old reality television star recently parted with a home in Calabasas for $3.15 million and now has one of her three homes in Hidden Hills on the market.

The house Jenner just sold was originally built in 2006 but was extensively updated during her two years of ownership.

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Ebony-stained floors, designer tile work and crystal hardware are among the new-look details. One of the six bedrooms was refashioned as a glam room. Separate walk-in and accessory closets highlight the redone master suite.

A covered loggia, a swimming pool and spa, and a cabana with a bar/barbecue make up the grounds.

In nearby Hidden Hills, a ranch-style house that Jenner bought last year for $4.5 million is now for sale at a $900,000 markup  $5.4 million.

Sitting on more than 3 acres, the 2012-built home has 5,154 square feet of living space. Wide-plank flooring, wainscoting and light hues give the single-story floor plan an East Coast vibe.

Other features include a center-island kitchen, a theater room and a great room with wet bar. There are four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.

Tomer Fridman of Compass is the agent of record for Jenners properties. April Lopez of RE/MAX Traditions represented the buyer in the Calabasas sale.

Jenner is largely known for her familys reality series, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which follows the lives of her siblings, in-laws and parents. Last year she launched the makeup line Kylie Cosmetics.

Swapping spots on the Westside

Matthew Perry has purchased a full-floor penthouse in Century City for $20 million, or about $2,146 per square foot, according to real estate sources with knowledge of the sale.

The actor, who is currently selling a home in Hollywood Hills West, purchased the 9,318-square-foot unit in July through a blind trust, records show. It had been listed for $26.5 million.

Found within the Robert A.M. Stern-designed Century building, the residence features floor-to-ceiling windows, a living room with two fireplaces and a center-island kitchen. The formal dining room can seat as many as 25 guests.

The open-space master suite has multiple sitting areas and a lavish bath for a total of four bedrooms, 7.25 bathrooms and a powder room. Views from the residence extend from downtown Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Mountains to the ocean.

Bachir Oueida of Douglas Elliman was the listing agent. Greg Holcomb of Partners Trust Beverly Hills represented the buyer.

Perry, 47, is known for his role as Chandler Bing on the long-running sitcom Friends. Last year he made his playwriting debut with The End of Longing in London. The play, in which he also stars, premiered stateside last month in an off-Broadway production from MCC Theater.

He is asking $13.5 million for his home in the Bird Streets section of Hollywood Hills West.

His series finale in Seal Beach

Producer-director Bill DElia and his wife, interior decorator Ellie DElia, have listed their longtime vacation home in Seal Beach for sale at $3.495 million.

Found within guard-gated Surfside Colony, the beachfront property had good bones but was in a state of disrepair when the couple bought it nearly two decades ago, according to listing agent Chuck Buscemi of Buscemi, Noonan & Associate Realtors.

Using Ellie DElias plans, the 1950s home was remodeled in a style reminiscent of the Cape Cod cottages the couple visited during their respective childhoods.

Shake siding, brickwork and a blue-hued shutters give a classic coastal look to the four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom.

Beyond the Dutch front door, roughly 2,250 square feet of living space includes a living room with a brick fireplace, a dining area and an updated kitchen. French doors bring in ocean views on two floors.

Outside, steppingstones lead directly from a fenced patio to the beach and shore.

Bill DElia has television credits that include the shows Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal and Boston Legal. More recently he served as an executive producer on the ABC series How to Get Away With Murder.

This beach is one billionaire short

Music and movie mogul David Geffen, fresh off the $85-million sale of his Malibu compound, has sold another home in the beach community for $8 million.

The oceanfront home, built in 1956, sits on Billionaires Beach, a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway known for wealthy homeowners such as Larry Ellison, Eli Broad and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Entered through a gated courtyard, the 1,473-square-foot house includes a living room with a fireplace, a kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Glass doors in the dining area open to a surf-facing deck that overlooks 45 feet of beach frontage.

James Rapf of Pritchett-Rapf & Associates and Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency were the co-listing agents. Chris Cortazzo of Coldwell Banker represented the buyer.

Geffen, creator of Geffen Records and co-founder of DreamWorks Studios, bought the property a decade ago for $9.8 million, records show. It had been listed for $8.995 million.

The 74-year-old has an estimated net worth of $7.7 billion, according to Forbes.

His home field is now in play

Yasiel Puig, slugging outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has put his home in Sherman Oaks on the market for $2.3 million.

The Mediterranean villa-style house, built in 2003, sits behind walls and gates and has a two-story entry. Interior appointments include stone and hardwood floors, skylights and ornate ironwork. The open-plan living and dining rooms share a wet bar.

The upstairs master suite is outfitted with a sitting room, a fireplace and French doors that lead to a balcony. The soaking tub in the master bath takes in a view of the backyard. A total of six bedrooms and six bathrooms lie within more than 4,600 square feet of living space.

Outside, ample patio space surrounds a swimming pool with a tiled spa. Next to the pool is a built-in barbecue.

Puig, 26, bought the property two years ago for $1.8 million. Alexis Nassif and Diana Diaz of Dilbeck Real Estate hold the current listing.

Her home was swept up in a hurry

The longtime Hollywood Hills home of late actress Doris Roberts has sold for $2 million.

Known as Casa de Glade, a nod to Roberts Clio Award-winning role in a Glade air freshener commercial, the Spanish Colonial-style house includes three bedrooms and five bathrooms in more than 3,700 square feet of space.

Living areas include an exposed-beam great room, a family room with a fireplace and a dining room that opens to the kitchen. The step-down den doubles as a speakeasy thanks to the wood-paneled wet bar. There are two walk-in closets in the master bedroom.

Outdoors, a swimming pool and spa sit within a walled courtyard. Views from the quarter-acre knoll take in the city and coastline.

Roberts bought the home, built in 1927 for film-noir producer Hal Wallis, more than four decades ago for $138,000, records show.

Roger Perry of Rodeo Realty was the listing agent. Roland Quino, also with Rodeo Realty, represented the buyer.

Roberts, who died in 2016 at 90, had a six-decade career appearing in talk and variety shows, on game show panels and in movies. In more recent years, she had an ongoing role on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

neal.leitereg@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATHotProperty
Like James Bond, wed all like to die another day  and intruder-proof safe rooms can help.

Also called panic rooms, safe rooms buy you time, said Al Corbi, founder of Strategically Armored and Fortified Environments, which builds the heavily reinforced and secure spaces inside clients homes.

On average, it takes from seven to 10 seconds for a bad guy to travel from the break-in point to the master bedroom, where cash and valuables are usually stashed, Corbi said. The estimate is based on test break-ins that his company has clocked.

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A homeowner jolted awake by a blaring alarm may not even make it to a nearby safe room, which is why Corbi suggests securing a bedroom itself, or better  transforming a master suite into a safe core. (Safe rooms are nearly always a room conversion; they are seldom add-on builds.)

You need to already be safe when you go to bed, said Corbi, whose company has headquarters in Los Angeles and Virginia.

Actress Sandra Bullock discovered just that in 2014 when a stalker broke into her Hollywood Hills home.

Im locked in my closet, a distraught Bullock told a 911 dispatcher after she saw a man prowling her corridor. I have a safe door in my bedroom, and Ive locked it.

Corbi said Bullock had the right idea: a bedroom that could be secured, and an apparent safe room within that room or suite. Alone-at-home Bullock bought some time as the intruder, who was apprehended by police without incident, freely roamed her estate.

Safe rooms are becoming very popular, especially as home prices go up, said Tomer Fridman, director of international markets for Compass. Fridman first spotted the trend about three years ago, especially among multimillion-dollar new builds in Los Angeles.

Although safe rooms differ, an ability to communicate with police and others is often key (beyond a cellphone). Such rooms often include an independently wired phone and surveillance system, through which property can be covertly monitored via hidden cameras.

Safe rooms security features are usually invisible: No reason to tip off the bad guys about what theyre up against, and seamless environments feel less like a prison.

Reinforcement plates (steel and other materials) are cloaked behind a doors wood facings, and steel window and door frames are painted to match existing trim. Steel-alloy panels (also Kevlar, woven fiberglass and other materials) can be embedded within walls that are made fire-resistant; UL and other ratings specify whether a mere pistol or a .50-caliber rifle can blast through.

Solid-core or reinforced doors made with steel and other materials, and secured with heavy-duty plates and locks (mechanical, electronically activated and electromagnetic) cant be sledgehammered or kicked-in.

Add-ons include reinforced walls and ballistic-grade glass to foil bullets, and air filtration systems in case of a chemical attack. Fridman has seen several with wet bars.

You may as well have a cappuccino while calling the police, said Fridman, who often agents Kardashian deals.

The price of securing a room may run from under $1,000 (for minimal work on a door) to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The famous, including government officials, favor the rooms.

Nick Paster, vice president of L.A. and Oregon-based Saferoom, outfitted a hallway and executive suites for the United Nations secretary-general and his deputy.

Its the last line of defense for them, said Paster, adding that he could say no more. (Saferooms Oregon facility includes a ballistic-testing range; the firm was consulted for the 2002 Jodie Foster thriller, Panic Room).

Corbi also routinely works for the rich and famous, with some jobs taking months, others years, such as the now-listed $17.5-million Atlanta Rice House, a fifth of which was designed by Corbi as a safe core (it includes a bat cave garage with receding waterfall fronting the entrance, and rooms that double as man traps, wherein intruders can be gassed and incapacitated.)

Homeowners who have safe rooms are, not surprisingly, tight-lipped about their features  except for Corbi, who is selling his 2001 James Bond-worthy Hollywood Hills home with helicopter access for $6 million. The Corbi-designed home includes two safe rooms and three safe cores.

hotproperty@latimes.com

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A classical farewell without the class, modern architecture on the movie screen, the loss and legacy of a theater legend. These scenes from the arts world kick off our weekly culture roundup. Im Craig Nakano, The Times arts editor, channeling the spirit of your usual newsletter host, Carolina A. Miranda, who has the day off but will be back soon. Lets dive in:

1 / 7 The staging takes the audience inside the mind of a young, accidental detective portrayed by Adam Langdon. Fifteen-year-old Christophers head is full of algorithms, drawings and graphs. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 7 Adam Langdon, center, finds himself with a mystery on his hands when a neighbors dog is killed. In his search for the culprit, he happens upon mundane but no less curious mysteries. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 7 The inventive staging, directed by Marianne Elliott, makes magic with technologies high and low. Here, Adam Langdon, as Christopher, is supported by other actors so that he can walk along a wall as his young character navigates an unfamiliar landscape. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 7 A family meltdown is almost more than young Christopher can bear, enacted by, from left, Adam Langdon, John Hemphill, Felicity Jones Latta, Brian Robert Burns and Gene Gillette. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 7 Christopher (Adam Langdon) makes a trip on Londons Underground. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 7 Adam Langdons Christopher, center, tries to settle into a new family situation with his mother, portrayed by Felicity Jones Latta and her boyfriend, played by John Hemphill. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 7 Adam Langdons Christopher, right, encounters a policeman, played by Geoffrey Wade, who tries to help. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

A most Curious Incident at the Ahmanson

Hamlet isnt an obvious parallel for 15-year-old Christopher Boone, the young protagonist of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, now at the Ahmanson Theatre. But in his review of Simon Stephens Tony-winning adaptation of Mark Haddons bestselling novel, Times theater critic Charles McNulty notes the similarities between Shakespeares Prince of Denmark and Haddons oft-misunderstood teen, who sets out to clear his name in the killing of a neighbors pet. The process reveals more truths than he  or anyone else  expects. Under the direction of Marianne Elliott, whos also at the helm of the acclaimed Angels in America production in London starring Andrew Garfield  Curious Incident paints a marvelously expressive portrait of a beautiful mind, McNulty says.

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In a separate review, our critic also explains why Shout Sister Shout! at Pasadena Playhouse probably would work better as a concert than a piece of theater. If you missed our earlier profile of the new leader of that stage, catch it here.

Out with a whimper

New York Philharmonic conductor Alan Gilbert ended his tenure as music director of what used to be Americas most heralded orchestra, and Times music critic Mark Swed wasnt sure which was the stranger sight: the New York leaders farewell unfolding on a makeshift stage at Santa Barbara Community College, or his own players barely acknowledging his departure.

Sam Shepard, experimental cowboy of a wild West

Buried Child, True West, Fool for Love. The Right Stuff, Steel Magnolias, Bloodline. You could hear titles being dropped all day long in our staff meetings and water cooler moments after news of Sam Shepards death early Monday. He may have looked like a rodeo star, but he was a natural avant-gardist with a deep existentialist streak, writes McNulty, noting the emotionally naked drama of The Tooth of Crime, Curse of the Starving Class and so much more. Film critic Justin Chang weighs in too, sifting through an acting career that reveals a magnificent distillation of all his ideas about American masculinity in crisis and the beautiful desolation of the open road.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard, pictured here in 2011, died last week at his home in Kentucky. (Charles Sykes / AP)

John & Parker & Eero & I.M.

Eero Saarinen and I.M. Pei practically earn their SAG cards for co-starring with John Cho, Parker Posey and rising actress Haley Lu Richardson in the new film Columbus. Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne notes how director Kogonada (yes, one name, like Adele and Madonna) uses the modern buildings of the Indiana city as a backdrop for characters feeling the push-pull of freedom versus obligation, big-city sophistication versus small-town comfort. (Can we just move into Saarinens Miller House right now?)

Eero Saarinens Miller House is a historical landmark in Columbus, Ind. (Elisha Christian / Superlative Films / Depth of Field)

California-Pacific Triennial

Architecture  and its impermanence as art  sits at the center of the Orange County Museum of Arts current exhibition. Though Times art critic Christopher Knight finds too much blandness, he does see some disarming work, including one piece by L.A. artist Olga Koumoundouros that actually undercuts the premise of the triennials theme. Nicely played, Olga.

Plant the seeds of arts leadership, and 25 years later ...

The Getty Foundations Multicultural Internship Program launched as a response to the Los Angeles riots in 1992. And though training programs for historically underrepresented groups can get written off as politically correct window dressing, Carolina Miranda opens the door to this particular effort and sees concrete results for the city, whether the arts leadership in the mayors office, at community institutions such as Self Help Graphics in Boyle Heights or at places beyond.

From left: Former intern Hanna Girma, assistant curator at the Mistake Room; Edgar Garcia, arts deputy for the city of L.A.; Letitia Fernandez Ivins, head of public art for Metro Los Angeles; John Tain, Getty assistant curator; and Betty Avila, co-director of Self Help Graphics. (Christina House / For The Times)

Russian diplomacy, Hollywood Bowl style

Ill let music critic Mark Swed set the scene: On Tuesday night, Vasily Petrenko walked onto the Hollywood Bowl stage and, as Ive never seen before at the Bowl, led the national anthem while standing among the Los Angeles Philharmonic players. That was just one of the surprises the Russian conductor delivered in two concerts, the first as a last-minute substitution for Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla and the second in a rare instance of the amphitheaters giant video screens actually translating into better music-making.

Conductor Vasily Petrenko and pianist Beatrice Rana appear at the Hollywood Bowl. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

More reviews, if you missed em:

An ABBA-licious Mamma Mia! at the Hollywood Bowl (but if only the crowd could loosen up!).

Tiler Peck and the radiant dancing of BalletNow at the Music Center.

King of the Yees at the Kirk Douglas in Culver City.

In other news 

George Lucas and Mark Bradford will be the honorees of the annual Art + Film Gala at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Wendie Malick will lead the cast announced for the world premiere of Paul Rudnicks Big Night, opening next month at the Kirk Douglas.

Harold Williams, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust during the construction of the Getty Center, died at 89.

After a bit of casting controversy, Mandy Patinkin bowed out of a future engagement with Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.

Sorry, fans of Ariel: ABC has postponed its live musical adaptation of The Little Mermaid.

Finally, the Kennedy Center Honors 2017 recipients included Norman Lear, who announced hes declining to appear at the reception hosted by President Trump. Another Kennedy Center honoree: L.A. native Carmen de Lavallade, whom we were lucky enough to interview last year. If you missed our follow-up story, Jessica Gelts fly-on-the-wall piece trailing de Lavallade as she gives an inspirational speech  or tries to  at her old South L.A. school, dont let a great read pass you by again.

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craig.nakano@latimes.com

Twitter: @cnakano
True Detective season three, starring Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, is officially confirmed at HBO By Sarah Rodman Mahershala Ali accepting his Oscar for Moonlight. The actor will star in the third season of the HBO drama True Detective (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) During the HBO executive session at the summer edition of the Television Critics Assn. press tour, programming president Casey Bloys confirmed reports that Moonlight Oscar winner Mahershala Ali would star in a third season of True Detective. Although he was mum at the time on when it might happen, he did say that he had read five scripts and thought they were terrific. Thursday night, the premium pay cabler released a statement officially confirming that the series will indeed return for a third installment. While no episode count or premiere date was included in the release, an enclosed synopsis stated that the next iteration of the show tells the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks, and a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods. Ali will star as Wayne Hays, a state police detective from northwest Arkansas. (Ali follows in the footsteps of season one stars, and continuing executive producers, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, and season twos Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn. No word yet on whether hell have a partner.) The show will once again be helmed by creator Nic Pizzolatto, who penned all the episodes of the upcoming series, save the fourth, which he co-wrote with David Milch (Deadwood, NYPD Blue). He will share directing duties with fellow executive producer Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin.) Im tremendously thrilled to be working with artists at the level of Mahershala and Jeremy, said Pizzolatto in a statement. I hope the material can do justice to their talents, and were all very excited to tell this story. Bloys noted that Nic has written truly remarkable scripts. With his ambitious vision and Mahershala Ali and Jeremy Saulnier aboard, we are excited to embark on the next installment of True Detective.  Facebook

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Newly reopened Angels Flight has long been a popular L.A. shooting location By Mark Olsen Its among the more unusual landmarks in Los Angeles, a short, steep railway that gets people up and down a single hill. So it makes sense that Angels Flight has been featured in many movies and television shows over the years. Angels Flight resumed regular service Thursday after being closed since 2013 (it did operate for one day of shooting on La La Land). It remains to be seen if it starts to appear again in movies and television shows. (Not that it ever really stopped.) Speaking to The Times at last years Toronto International Film Festival, La La Land star Ryan Gosling reflected on the use of historic locations in the movie. This was an opportunity to show an L.A. thats still there.... Youve got to squint your eyes a little, but there are still places in L.A. that are still part of the golden years of Los Angeles when Hollywood was in its heyday, Gosling said. I lived around the corner for a long time from Angels Flight and Grand Central Market, although I never got to ride Angels Flight because it had been shut down, Gosling added. Those places are still there... these gems that are there, and we were able to shoot them one by one. Angels Flight reopened on Thursday. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) The small piece of land next to the top of Angels Flight, known as Angels Knoll, was also prominently featured in (500) Days of Summer. The location has appeared in a wide variety of movies over the years, as early as 1916s Good Night, Nurse, 1918s Up She Goes and 1920s All Jazzed Up. It has also had high-profile cameos in Act of Violence (1949), M (1951), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Exiles (1961), The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1963) -- all the way up to to 2011s The Muppets and last years La La Land. And on television, Angels Flight has been seen on Perry Mason, Dragnet and the recent series Bosch. READ MORE: Angels Flight: How it works and what its been through in its 100-year history Facebook

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Jamie Foxx announces telethon for Harvey relief By Libby Hill (Andrew Krech / News & Record via Associated Press) A new stream of celebrity support for victims of Hurricane Harvey opened Wednesday, as Jamie Foxx announced that a telethon fundraiser is in the works. In an Instagram post where the actor revealed his own donation of $25,000 to GlobalGiving, Foxx also shared preliminary plans for the upcoming benefit. From a fellow Texan, my heart goes out. My prayers go out, Foxx, from Terrell east of Dallas, said. September 12 we have a telethon that were doing. Well give you more details, so we can raise as much money as we can for everybody down there. View Instagram post Scooter Braun, talent manager and mastermind of One Love Manchester, is helming the event along with rapper and Houston native Bun B. TMZ reported that Foxx, Reese Witherspoon, Blake Shelton, Hilary Duff and Michael Strahan are all involved with the project, with commitments from the four major broadcast networks to air the special for an hour on Sept. 12. In an interview with TMZ, Bun B said that fellow Houston natives Beyonce and Jim Parsons are high on his wish list for the telethon. The outlet also reported that Bun B would only want President Trumps presence if it was via a show of unity with other former presidents. Solange also announced Wednesday that she will be holding a benefit show at Bostons Orpheum Theatre on Sept. 28. Featuring the Sun Ra Arkestra, the performance is titled Orions Rise and all proceeds will go to Hurricane Harvey relief. View Instagram post Facebook

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Gwyneth Paltrows love life? Yeah, she admits shes screwed up plenty of relationships By Libby Hill Gwyneth Paltrow takes full responsibility for her romantic failings. She admitted as much in a recent interview with the podcast Girlboss Radio, during which Paltrow went deep on some of her lost loves. Oh, my god, Ive [screwed] up so many relationships, so many, Paltrow said. Im actually a pretty good friend and a good sister and a daughter and a mother, but I am at my potentially most vulnerable  in the romantic slice of the pie. So its taken me a lot of work to get to the place where I have a good romantic relationship. Paltrow consciously uncoupled from ex-husband Chris Martin in 2014 after 10 years of marriage and has been romantically linked to American Horror Story creator Brad Falchuk for the past three years. On Girlboss Radio, Paltrow sent a shout-out to former beau Brad Pitt, whom she dated from 1994 through 1997, and was at one point engaged to. I [screwed] that up, Brad, Paltrow said. Paltrow also delved into her experiences as founder and CEO of her lifestyle brand Goop, sharing that once shes in the boardroom with investors, no one cares if shes a celebrity. I go into the room, and for the first 90 seconds, Im Gwyneth Paltrow, she said. And theyre like, Oh, my god, my wife loves you .... And then, about 90 seconds later, Im just getting grilled like anyone else. But she doesnt get offended; she relishes the challenge. It was such a beautiful chapter of my life when I started raising [venture capital financing], because it knocked me down so many pegs. I was like, Oh, Im, like, no one. Im nothing. This [stuff] is real. I have to know the most granular aspects of my business and be able to defend it. The celebrity just completely drains out of the room. Its irrelevant, she said. Paltrows full conversation with Sophia Amoruso can be streamed at Girlboss. Facebook

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Longtime Simpsons composer Alf Clausen fired from the show after 27 years By Randall Roberts When the 29th season of The Simpsons premieres in the fall, it will, for the first time in decades, be doing so without its longtime musical contributor, Alf Clausen. Clausen, who composed the Fox animated shows incidental music, was told that the show was looking for a different kind of music moving forward, according to Variety. Clausen confirmed his firing via Twitter. Thank you for all of the support...unfortunately, the news is true... https://t.co/jBQH0b40cz  Alf Clausen (@TheAlfClausen) August 31, 2017 The composers orchestral scores supported the familys foibles since the shows primitively drawn early days. And although The Simpsons theme song was penned by Danny Elfman, the sonic feel of the series has been defined by Clausens grandiose, often epic productions. Hes responsible for scoring Mr. Burns breakout See My Vest moment and crafted the tunes for the Springfield musical theater companys A Streetcar Named Desire adaptation. Ditto The Planet of the Apes musical. In short, nearly every classic music moment of The Simpsons has featured Clausens fingerprints. On Twitter, fans thanked Clausen for his work while expressing outrage at the circumstances surrounding his departure. Fired over the phone, yet, wrote one user. Clausen quickly corrected him with a one-word reply: Email ... On Thursday, producers for The Simpsons issued a statement to Variety. It stressed that Clausen will continue to contribute to the series: We tremendously value Alf Clausens contributions to The Simpsons and he will continue to have an ongoing role in the show. We remain committed to the finest in music for The Simpsons, absolutely including orchestral. The statement concluded: This is the part where we would make a joke but neither Alfs work nor the music of The Simpsons is treated as anything but seriously by us. Update, 1:16 p.m.: This story was updated with a statement from The Simpsons. Facebook

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Instead of statues, Trevor Noah and Roy Wood Jr. have another idea for honoring Confederate history By Chris Barton With the country still reeling from the harrowing impact of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Wednesday nights Daily Show looked at one of the summers ongoing controversies: Confederate monuments. Occasionally setting aside the shows usual comedic tone, Trevor Noah enlisted correspondent Roy Wood Jr. to consider whether these statues honor Southern heritage, as their supporters claim, or the nations history and lingering problem with racism. After showing a montage of guests on network news shows who reminded viewers that these statues were erected during the Jim Crow era, decades after the Civil War, Wood equated slavery to another tragedy. Its like if a woman got out of an abusive relationship and then she had to keep pictures of her ex up in her house to remember the time, a straight-faced Wood explained. No, I dont need pictures to remember pain. People say, We want to remember the history of the Civil War, Noah added. Theres an easier way to remember what happened in the Civil War: Just walk around in the South. And if you see free black people, then you know what happened. Watch the segment above. Facebook

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Gloria Gaynor sings to Texas Harvey victims: You will survive By Christie DZurilla (Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images) Gloria Gaynor wants people affected by Harvey to know they will survive, and shes communicating that message through a new version of the song that has defined her career. Gaynor, whose I Will Survive became an anthem over the years, rewrote the 1978 disco hit to reach out to victims in Texas and posted her rendition on social media Wednesday. Hi, my neighbors in Texas, she said in a video shot while she sat at a piano she was about to play. This is Gloria Gaynor with a song that hopefully will cheer you up just a little bit. @SylvesterTurner @rashivats @SallyMacFox26 @TheRitaGarcia @kaitlinmonte @ChrisdyannUribe @MsCoCoDominguez @JMartinFOX26 TX WILL SURVIVE  pic.twitter.com/FCNOnDr85o  Gloria Gaynor (@gloriagaynor) August 30, 2017 Here are the tweaked lyrics, for those who dont want to hit play with the sound on. First we were afraid

We were petrified

Thinking Texas couldnt live

With floodwaters this high

We know you spent plenty of time

Preparing for this hurricane

Who couldve known that it would come

With so much devastating rain

But we will strive

And youll survive

With all our love and help and prayers

We will stay strongly by your side

We are your neighbors tried and true

Well do all we can for you

And youll survive

You will survive, you will survive Similarly on Monday night, Coldplay unleashed a new original song written after the band was forced to cancel its Friday show in Houston with Hurricane Harvey bearing down. This is a new song, and well never play it again, frontman Chris Martin told an audience in Miami. Its a once-off. Its called Houston. Were going to sing it in Miami for everybody here, and then were going to send it over there to everyone who missed the show. Facebook

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Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation donates $1 million to Harvey recovery By Christie DZurilla (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) Leonardo DiCaprio has stepped up with a $1-million donation to aid the victims of Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, which has dumped historic levels of rain on the Gulf Coast over the last several days. United Way Worldwide announced Wednesday that it has started the United Way Harvey Recovery Fund with a seven-figure donation from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. The money  100% of it, according to the charity  will go to help victims of flooding with mid- and long-term recovery over the coming years. There are 23 United Ways that operate in the path of the storm, which made landfall Aug. 24. We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of Leonardo DiCaprio and his foundation, United Way Worldwide President and CEO Brian Gallagher said in a statement. Responding to Hurricane Harvey requires the best of all of us  and thats what this gift represents. DiCaprio has been urging support of the United Way and American Red Cross this week on his Twitter account and retweeting stories talking about Harvey and climate change. Di Caprios foundation has been committed to climate-related issues and environmental projects since 1998, Terry Tamminen, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a statement. We support efforts to build climate resilient communities and protect vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems across the planet, and have supported disaster relief and victim funds in the past. We hope others will step up and support the United Way and other organizations. Earlier this week, Sandra Bullock, who has a home in Texas, gave $1 million to the American Red Cross, repeating the lump-sum generosity she showed after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Ellen DeGeneres was also in the seven-figure donation tier. The comic and talk-show host dropped $1 million in the relief bucket on Wednesday via J.J. Watts foundation. The effort by the Houston Texans star player topped $10 million on Thursday, with Watt chronicling its progress all week via videos on social media. Update, 8:50 a.m.: This post was updated with information about DeGeneres donation to Watts fund. Facebook

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A Star Is Born: Chris Tucker turns 45 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Iris Schneider / Los Angeles Times) I had a dream as a kid: I wanted to be big, big like Richard [Pryor] and Eddie [Murphy]. I imagined it. I studied it. I had a passion.  Chris Tucker, 2001 FROM THE ARCHIVES: In a Big Rush Facebook

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Springsteen on Broadway was born to run, is extended through February By Libby Hill Bruce Springsteens solo shows on Broadway have been extended through February, just hours after the original run sold out. (Greg Allen / Invision/Associated Press) Good news for Bruce Springsteen fans who were locked out of purchasing tickets Wednesday morning for his upcoming run of shows on Broadway. Ticketmaster announced that Springsteen on Broadway, an intimate stage experience that launches in October and features the rock legend performing solo, will be extending for 10 additional weeks. Originally scheduled to close in November, the show was extended through February after the original block of tickets sold out in a matter of minutes Wednesday. "#SpringsteenBroadway has been EXTENDED! the ticket outlet tweeted, with a follow-up tweet explaining that fans who had previously registered to purchase tickets will not have to register again. #SpringsteenBroadway has been EXTENDED!

More information coming today.

There will NOT be any additional codes released for today's onsale. pic.twitter.com/xGY3rj3Yrl  Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) August 30, 2017 #SpringsteenBroadway extended run information 

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REGISTER AGAIN!

NEW #VerifiedFan registration: https://t.co/2xNBBhcVES pic.twitter.com/FT3mLaTLPV  Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) August 30, 2017 Springsteen will be performing at New York Citys Walter Kerr Theater, which houses fewer than 1,000 seats. To curtail ticket scalping, Ticketmaster relied on its Verified Fan program. The program forces fans to register to even have an opportunity to purchase tickets and are limited to two tickets per purchase. For all of Ticketmasters efforts, resale sites already are flooded with Springsteen on Broadway tickets, with some reaching $10,000 apiece. Fans interested in trying their luck for the second batch of performance dates will need to register with Ticketmaster Verified Fan by Sept. 3 (at 7 p.m. Pacific). Tickets will be available for purchase 10 a.m. Pacific on Sept. 7. Facebook

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Sandra Bullock donates $1 million to Harvey relief efforts By Libby Hill Sandra Bullock donated $1 million to the American Red Cross for storm relief. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) With the Gulf Coast still battling the aftereffects of Tropical Storm Harvey, celebrities continue to come forward to help with relief efforts for the humanitarian crisis. Sandra Bullock, who has a home in Texas, donated $1 million to the American Red Cross emergency efforts, the organization confirmed to The Times on Wednesday. We are so thankful for the overwhelming and generous response from those who want to help those affected by this devastating storm, Elizabeth Penniman, vice president of communications for American Red Cross national headquarters, said in an email. Massive disasters like Hurricane Harvey create many critical and immediate needs, so we are heartened by donations like this  which allow us to provide immediate shelter, food and comfort to thousands in need, Penniman continued. The entertainment community has been so supportive to the Red Cross in response to this devastating disaster, and we are so grateful. Bullock is just the latest star who has donated to recovery efforts in Texas. The Kardashian family pledged $500,000 to the Salvation Army and Red Cross on Tuesday. Kevin Hart also spearheaded a celebrity-driven fundraising campaign on Crowdrise that has brought in more than $1 million for the Red Cross. Facebook

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Corinne Olympios wants DeMario Jackson to know she doesnt blame him for anything By Christie DZurilla Corinne Olympios doesnt have any hard feelings toward DeMario Jackson, the fellow Bachelor in Paradise cast member who was with her at the center of a scandal that shut down production on the reality TV series in June. I dont blame DeMario. I never pointed fingers at DeMario. I never said a bad word about DeMario, the 25-year-old told host Chris Harrison in an early-August taped interview that aired Tuesday night on ABC. She and Jackson havent spoken since production was halted after allegations of misconduct were made by a producer, leading to an investigation of what happened during a period when, Olympios now says, she was blacked out. I was almost a little bit nervous to talk to [DeMario], because he did run to the media and I didnt want to add fuel to the fire, she said. Before she had a chance to collect her thoughts, he was out there and so on the defensive, she said. He was doing his thing and I didnt want to get messed up in that. ... I cant help but feel like maybe he felt like I thought he did something to me. Jackson did not do anything bad, she insisted. Seeing him start crying in a clip from his own interview with Harrison, which had aired on the show last week, Olympios welled up a bit too. It was hard for me to go through something like that. I know exactly how he feels. The media wants to paint you a certain way that you know youre just not, she said. Olympios told Harrison the same things she had said in a Tuesday morning interview with Good Morning America about blacking out from drinking too much and mixing alcohol with medication. However, she didnt directly address her I am a victim statement that was released at the height of the scandal. On GMA, she said she meant she was a victim of the media. Regarding Bachelor in Paradise with Harrison, she simply talked about how awful it was to have so many people acting like they had been there or were suddenly experts on her life. To even get up and go get eggs at the grocery store ... my face was all over every magazine and I had to check out and everyones staring, Olympios said. Youre looking at them and its like, Im not what youre thinking right now. Then, near the end of the interview, she shared one big wish. Obviously hindsight is 20/20, she said, and I wish it could have been handled differently. Facebook

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Tomi Lahren finds new home at Fox News By Libby Hill Conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren is again gainfully employed after being fired from Glenn Becks The Blaze in March. On Wednesday, Lahren announced via her Facebook page that she is joining the Fox News team as a contributor. This exciting new step will allow me to give voice to all the America-loving patriots who have had my back since day one, Lahren wrote. I will remain a solid and passionate advocate for you. Though 25-year-old Lahren has made television appearances before -- including a contentious appearance on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah -- much of her career has been in digital media. She hosted On Point With Tomi Lahren for One America News Network, and her Final Thought videos have garnered her over 4.4 million Facebook followers. In addition to her role as a contributor, Lahren will also have a signature role on a Fox News digital product in development, according to a press release issued by the network. Lahren makes her debut on Wednesdays edition of Hannity at 7 p.m. PDT. Facebook

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Trevor Noah is shocked  shocked  by the latest revelations about Trump and Moscow By Robert Lloyd Even as the Earth offers humanity another taste of its weather future  and President Trump keeps Sheriff Joe Arpaio out of jail and North Korean missiles fly over Japan  late-night TV hosts have disappeared from their chairs as if it were August in France. Trevor Noah is on the job, though, hosting The Daily Show. Tuesday night, he had some mirthful words about the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaigns Russian affairs. Specifically, he reflected on the revelation of a letter of intent, signed by POTUS himself, to build a Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow  and make it the tallest building in the world  despite Trumps repeated claims to have no business, no interests, no nothing in Russia. How can one person lie so big? HOW? Noah asked, amazedly. Its like if your friend said he had never heard of Mumford and Sons and then one day you see the album cover and youre like, wait a minute, youre Mumford. Were those connections strictly business, or were they getting out on the votey-votey action? Thats not clear yet, he said. What was clear is that a typically dubious character was at the center of it  namely Felix Sater, a Russian-born real estate developer once convicted of stabbing a man in the neck and face with the stem of a broken margarita glass. Of all the glasses to stab someone with, a margarita glass is the worst, Noah said. Youre literally putting salt into the wounds. There was also a conviction for Saters involvement in a $40-million stock fraud, Noah added, which came as no surprise to the host. You never trust someone with a cat name. If a human goes by Felix or Whiskers or Mittens, you should probably just stay away. There were emails, of course; there are always emails. Buddy, our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, Sater wrote to Trumps personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen. This buddy boy email may not be the smoking gun for Trump, Noah concluded, but what it could end up being is the broken taillight  the thing that gives law enforcement the excuse they need to look into Trumps trunk. And we all know, he said, as a picture of the golfing presidents derriere appeared over his shoulder, hes got a lot of junk in that trunk. Facebook

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Jury president Annette Bening addresses lack of female representation at Venice Film Festival By Nardine Saad (Claudio Onorati / Associated Press) Though there arent as many women represented at this years Venice Film Festival as she would like, jury president Annette Bening believes things are changing. The four-time Oscar nominee, whose film credits include American Beauty, The Kids Are All Right, 20th Century Women and Bugsy, addressed the lack of female directors Wednesday during the 74th annual Venice Film Festivals opening press conference. (Only one of the 21 films in competition is directed by a woman this year.) As women, we have to be sharp, shrewd and creative in what we choose to make. Sexism does exist and there is no question about it. But things are changing, the actress said at the opening press conference, according to Variety. The more we can make films that speak to everybody, the more we will be regarded as filmmakers, she added. Bening, the first woman to chair the jury in more than a decade, said she knew of both veteran and rookie filmmakers struggling to get their movies made whether they are men or women. She said the industry has a long way to go, in terms of parity but was confident that the direction were going is positive. Facebook

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A Star Is Born: Lisa Ling turns 44 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) [People have said to me], When you were in the worlds largest slum [in India], you could almost smell what it was like by your expression.' Its not that Im trying to force myself on the viewer. Im just their eyes and ears. I think our work is quite pure.  Lisa Ling, 1997 FROM THE ARCHIVES: Taking news personally Facebook

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In wake of Charlottesville strife, Virginia Film Festival to host director Spike Lee as special guest By Josh Rottenberg Director Spike Lee photographed in 2015. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) As the city of Charlottesville, Va., and the nation as a whole continues to grapple with the violent racial strife that erupted earlier this month, the Virginia Film Festival announced on Tuesday that it will host filmmaker Spike Lee as a special guest at the upcoming festival as part of a program around the legacy of slavery. Lee, who has tackled thorny issues of race throughout his career, will present his Oscar-nominated documentary 4 Little Girls about the 1963 bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham, Ala., that claimed the lives of four African American girls, an act of white supremacist terrorism that marked a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. We have for many years been interested in bringing Spike Lee to the Virginia Film Festival as he remains one of the most talented, innovative, and socially conscious filmmakers in our world today, said Jody Kielbasa, director of the film festival and vice provost for the arts at the University of Virginia. We first reached out to Mr. Lee in the spring to include him in our upcoming collaboration with Montpelier, and of course, the recent events in Charlottesville have made his participation more compelling, relevant and vital. The festival program will also include a short film titled I Cant Breathe that combines footage of the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner during his arrest by a New York City police officer with footage of the death of Radio Raheem under similar circumstances in Lees 1989 film Do the Right Thing. The program is part of a larger collaboration with Montpelier, the Virginia plantation of President James Madison, who owned more than 100 slaves, that will explore both how the legacy of slavery continues to affect the lives of African Americans and how they are depicted in film and other media. The 30th annual Virginia Film Festival will run from Nov. 9 to 12 in Charlottesville. Facebook

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Jerry Seinfeld recaps childhood in Netflixs first Jerry Before Seinfeld trailer By Nardine Saad The first trailer for Netflixs stand-up special Jerry Before Seinfeld has arrived, and its a madcap recap of Jerry Seinfelds humble beginnings, quirky family dynamics and bits of everyday observations. The teaser opens with Johnny Carson introducing the iconic comic in 1981 during his debut on The Tonight Show. Then it showcases the sitcom star back at the mike at the Comic Strip, the famous New York comedy club where he launched his career. Throwback photos, videos and interviews with Seinfeld are woven throughout. Hes back where he began, the title reads, doing what he loves. The original comedy special is the first of two stand-up specials Seinfeld will deliver in his massive deal with the streaming giant. (The deal also includes the entirety of his Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee catalog and 24 new episodes of the Emmy-nominated talk show, which will launch later this year.) Seinfeld and Netflix teased to the special last week with several clips posted on Instagram and a close-up look at the numerous legal pads scrawled with handwritten jokes hes kept from the 1970s. Jerry Before Seinfeld begins streaming Sept. 19. Facebook

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Kermit the Frog finds his new voice in Matt Vogel By Nardine Saad The new Kermit the Frog has arrived and hes following his dreams -- literally. New Muppeteer Matt Vogel made his vocal debut as the iconic frog on Monday in a Muppet Thought of the Week video posted on YouTube. Dreams are how we figure out where we want to go. Life is how we get there, he says in the brief clip. Im headed this way. The veteran voice actor has worked on Sesame Street and also operates the Muppets Floyd, Constantine and Sweetums. He is only the third puppeteer to take on Kermit the Frog full time since the character was created in 1955. He replaced former puppeteer Steve Whitmire, who began work on The Muppet Show in 1978 and inherited the role of Kermit when creator Jim Henson died in 1990. Whitmire was dismissed over concerns about his repeated unacceptable business conduct over a period of many years and he consistently failed to address the feedback, the Muppets Studio said at the time. Whitmire claimed he was fired in October 2016 and kept quiet about it until Vogel was announced as his replacement in July. It was his opinionated communication style that earned him his walking papers, he said. Facebook

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Trevor Noah says Trumps pardon of Sheriff Arpaio renders courts powerless By Nardine Saad The Daily Show host Trevor Noah broke down former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaios presidential pardon on Monday, explaining how President Trumps decision undermines the judicial branch of government. The controversial Maricopa County lawman, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court for violating Latinos rights, earned himself a thuggish reputation as a sheriff, Noah said, citing his agencys use of tent cities, stun guns, jail overcrowding and numerous cases of inmate deaths and police brutality. But those were just his extracurriculars, Noah said. It turns out his full-time job is racism. The 85-year-old Arpaio was found guilty in July of defying a 2011 court order barring officers from stopping and detaining Latino motorists to check their immigration status. As much as Sheriff Arpaio presented himself as anti-illegal immigrants, it turned out really he was just anti being a decent human being, Noah said. When the president of the United States steps in and pardons someones contempt conviction, hes essentially rendering the courts powerless.  Daily Show host Trevor Noah His abuses hurt inmates and taxpayers, costing the state $142 million in legal fees, settlements and compliance costs, Noah said. Other things they could have spent that money on? Schools, roads or they could have just paid Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather to just punch Arpaio in the face. But Noah made the point that Trumps decision completely undercut the judiciary. Remember how the three branches of government are supposed to be equal? Well, convicting someone of contempt is the one and only way the judicial branch can put muscle behind its decisions. So when the president of the United States steps in and pardons someones contempt conviction, hes essentially rendering the courts powerless, he said. Watch the full segment above. Facebook

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Watch Coldplay dedicate new song to Harvey victims -- and vow never to play it again By Randall Roberts (Jens Meyer / Associated Press) On Monday night in Miami, Coldplays Chris Martin drew attention to the victims of Tropical Storm Harvey by unveiling a new song called Houston -- and then vowed never to play it again. The band, which was forced to cancel its Houston show days earlier due to the storm, wrote the song as the region was enduring historic flooding. After acknowledging that he and the band all grew up loving country music, and, of course, thats kind of what we think of when we go to Texas, Martin asked the crowd to bear with them. This is a new song, and well never play it again, Martin said. Its a once-off. Its called Houston. Were going to sing it in Miami for everybody here and then were going to send it over there to everyone who missed the show. Vowing to return to Houston, Martin and band huddled and tentatively started a twangy little number. Im dreaming of when I get back to Houston, sang Martin, replete with a touch of Johnny Cash-ian twang. Describing it as that city where they send you into space, Martin crooned of Corpus Christi, Harris County, Galveston, of a harmony that hums down there in Houston, and urged the region to keep on keeping on. Merle Haggard it wasnt (and everyones a critic), but the performance drew huge applause from fans and went viral on Tuesday morning. Coldplays quick-turnaround ditty is hardly the first to document such deluges. Johnny Cashs Three Feet High and Rising occurred in real time as a family struggled to keep dry. In Charley Pattons High Water Everywhere, the country blues singer recalled the lives lost in the Great Flood of 1927, which consumed the Mississippi Delta and spawned dozens of songs: Oh, Lordy, women is groaning down / Oh, Lordy, women and children sinking down, Patton sang. I couldnt see nobody home, and was no one to be found. Below is another song about the flood of 27: Bessie Smiths Backwater Blues. Facebook

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Corinne Olympios on Bachelor in Paradise scandal: I was really a victim of the media By Christie DZurilla (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images) Corinne Olympios says medication, the booze and the media were key players in Junes production-stopping Bachelor in Paradise scandal and its aftermath. Calling the situation just really unfortunate, she said Tuesday on Good Morning America that she doesnt remember anything that happened. Seeing video of what transpired on the first day of production on the looking-for-love reality show was like watching not-me, she said. Im watching someone else. On that day, Olympios and fellow cast member DeMario Jackson allegedly wound up in the pool or hot tub together in a situation that a producer thought went too far. Allegations of misconduct were made, and production shut down the next day for an investigation that ultimately determined nothing untoward had happened. The show, sans Corinne and DeMario, premiered its fourth season Aug. 14, a week later than originally planned. I did drink, too much, I definitely understand that, Olympios said. But I was also on a medication that severely blacks you out and impairs your judgment and messes with your balance, that I didnt know you were not supposed to not drink on, and so it really just caused a horrible, horrible blackout. It was like I went under like anesthesia and then just like woke up. Shes now weaning off the medication, she said, and cutting down on her drinking. But in explaining her provocative official statement that she was a victim living out her worst nightmare, Olympios revealed her specific definition of victimhood, which had little or nothing to do with consent, which was a hot topic throughout the scandal. I was really a victim of the media, Olympios said. It was just, all of a sudden people became an expert on the situation and on what happened, and it was like, Im still trying to figure out exactly what happened. It was just horrible to deal with. It got really, really bad. ..., she added. The things people say are just insane. When the remaining Paradise cast met as a whole on the first episode of the season, their sympathies seemed to lie with Jackson as they worried about the long-term effects the scandal would have on him and any future career opportunities, especially given the lingering racial issues of alleged misconduct between a white woman and a black man. However, they were quick to say they were not slut-shaming Olympios either. Jackson spoke last week on Bachelor in Paradise, sitting down with host Chris Harrison to give his take on what happened. Heres a taste of that, courtesy of GMA: Facebook

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Victorias Secret Fashion Show heads to Shanghai this year By Nardine Saad Angels will fly over the Great Wall of China in November as the Victorias Secret Fashion Show heads to Shanghai for the first time. Supermodels Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo, Candice Swanepoel, Lily Aldridge and more will strut their stuff for the annual lingerie extravaganza, Victorias Secret and CBS said in a statement on Tuesday. The iconic pre-holiday show  replete with teensy underwear and massive angel wings  is usually filmed in New York, but Miami, Los Angeles and London have also hosted the scantily clad runway walk. The broadcast will air on CBS on Nov. 28 and will be shown in more than 190 countries. Models Elsa Hosk, Jasmine Tookes, Josephine Skriver, Lais Ribeiro, Martha Hunt, Romee Strijd, Sara Sampaio, Stella Maxwell and Taylor Hill will also walk in this years show. Musical performers will be announced at a later date, the statement said. Ni hao, China! This year's #VSFashionShow is headed to Shanghai. Watch it Nov 28, 10/9C on @CBS. Learn more: https://t.co/AHWHWjKOCI pic.twitter.com/tgIVJs7Lsr  Victoria's Secret (@VictoriasSecret) August 29, 2017 Facebook

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A Star Is Born: William Friedkin turns 82 today By Los Angeles Times Staff (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) I love the experience of making films. I love the mud. I love the dirt. I love all the inconveniences. Thats why you do it. If you do it because youre looking to be the Great American film maker, youre liable to experience disappointment.  William Friedkin, 1989 FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Exorcisms of William Friedkin Facebook

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Taylor Swifts Look What You Made Me Do video bashes another YouTube record By Randy Lewis Taylor Swifts official video for her first new music in three years, Look What You Made Me Do, has blasted through the existing YouTube record for most views tallied during its first 24 hours of release. The clip logged 43.2 million views since the video was posted Sunday evening. That far surpasses the record set in 2013 by Korean pop star Psys Gentleman, which racked up 36 million views in its first day. It also hasnt slowed interest in Swifts previously released lyric video for the same song, which set a record for lyric video viewership by drawing 19 million views in the first 24 hours. That version has now surpassed 47 million views in less than four days. Both videos have generated flurries of debate and analysis among Swifts fans and her dissenters, the former seemingly outnumbering the latter by a margin of nearly 5 to 1. Likes have surpassed the 1 million mark, while dislikes stood at 232,000 at the 24-hour mark. The song is the first single from her forthcoming album Reputation, due Nov. 10. It will be Swifts sixth studio album. Each of her last three albums sold more than 1 million copies during the first week of release. Swift is the only artist with that achievement to her credit. Update Aug. 29, 10:30 a.m.: This post has been updated with the finalized 24-hour viewer total. Facebook

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Watch the Game of Thrones cast and crew break down some of Season 7s best scenes By Tracy Brown Game of Thrones Season 7 may have concluded Sunday, but there is still plenty left for fans to unpack before Thrones"-withdrawal sets in. Along with all the burning questions left in the wake of the season finale, HBO has left us with some behind-the-scenes videos from this seasons most epic moments. The production magic of Game of Thrones is undeniable and it extends to beyond special effects dragons. From Arya donning Walder Freys face to dole out her brand of vengeance to Daenerys walking into Dragonstone for the first time, there is plenty to explore from just the first episode alone. The video above dives deep into what it took to craft the Season 7 premiere, including how Cerseis fancy new giant map came to be. Of course, plenty of fans are probably still contemplating the latest episode and what Jon and Danys new level of intimacy means going into the final season. Can this be how the actual prince that was promised is conceived? And if you were a bit squicked out by the pairs developing relationship, youre not alone. Unlike Jon and Daenerys, Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington are definitely aware that they are both Targaryens. For us as actors its just weird, said Clarke in a video about the coupling. The reality of what they are to each other. In fact, the actors had more facial expressions and sound effects to convey their feelings about this union than words. Watch in the video below. Facebook

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Ed Skrein leaves Hellboy after whitewashing furor By Christie DZurilla (Jordan Strauss / Associated Press) Ed Skrein will not play Maj. Ben Daimio in a reboot of Hellboy, the English actor said Monday, noting that when he accepted the role he didnt know that in the comics the character was of mixed Asian descent. Just a week ago, Skrein had tweeted his excitement over taking on the role. Backlash  in the form of whitewashing allegations  ensued. It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people, and that to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voices in the Arts, the 34-year-old Deadpool actor said in a statement announcing that he had changed his mind about portraying Daimio. Calling it a moral decision, he said he was sad to leave the movie but hoped his action would make a difference in making equal representation in the arts a reality. David Harbour, the Stranger Things actor slated to play Hellboy, tweeted, Hey internet. Thank you for your voices. An injustice was done and will be corrected. Many thanks to @edskrein for doing what is right. Mike Mignola, who created the Hellboy comics, also thanked Skrein on Monday and said the move was very nicely done. Hey internet. Thank you for your voices.



An injustice was done and will be corrected.



Many thanks to @edskrein for doing what is right. https://t.co/tUvP6YibgG  David Harbour (@DavidKHarbour) August 28, 2017 In addition to Harbour, the 2018 version of the story so far stars Milla Jovovich as Nimue, Ian McShane as Professor Broom and Alice Monaghan as Sasha Lane, according to IMDb. Neil Marshall, who among other things has helmed episodes of Game of Thrones and Westworld, is set to direct. The Daimio character didnt appear in the 2004 or 2008 Guillermo del Toro films based on the Hellboy comics. Heres Skreins full explanation: pic.twitter.com/8WoSsHXDFO  Ed Skrein (@edskrein) August 28, 2017 Updated, 2:39 p.m.: This story was updated with comments from Harbour and Mignola. Facebook

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Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper are super-friends no more By Libby Hill Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin (Rob Kim / Getty Images) What began as a tasteless joke at the expense of President Trump continues to have real-life consequences for comedian Kathy Griffin. In an extensive interview with The Cut, Griffin admitted that her 17-year friendship with Anderson Cooper, with whom she co-hosted CNNs New Years Eve gig for a decade, ended in the wake of the Trump controversy. In May, Griffin publicized a photo shoot that featured her holding a bloodied imitation severed head bearing a strong resemblance to the president. The backlash was immediate and largely bipartisan, as many saw the images as glorifying violence and furthering political division. Griffin quickly apologized for the misstep but the damage had been done, with condemnation from the White House, investigation by the Secret Service and the loss of several jobs, including her CNN gig. On May 30, Cooper tweeted his disapproval of Griffins artistic expression, calling it disgusting and completely inappropriate, and Griffin admitted at a June 2 news conference that Coopers comments hurt her. For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate.  Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) May 31, 2017 In July, Cooper appeared on Bravos Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen and stated that he and Griffin were still friends. Yeah, were still friends, and look I said what I said about  I didnt think what she said was appropriate, but I wish her the best and I hope she bounces back, he stated. But Griffin claimed that at that point, nearly two months after the fact, she had yet to hear from Cooper privately. In reality, it wasnt until Aug. 10 that Cooper finally reached out to Griffin in a series of text messages, CNN confirmed to The Cut  at which point Griffin informed him that their friendship was over. Facebook

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In One Mississippi Season 2 trailer, Tig Notaro prays for the gay to stay By Christie DZurilla Tig Notaros One Mississippi is coming back for a second season, one in which her character is getting used to life back in her small Mississippi hometown. Season 1 of the Amazon Prime Video series took viewers through a fictionalized series of events that echoed Notaros own life: a potentially deadly intestinal illness, breast cancer, a double mastectomy, the unexpected death of her beloved mother and a romantic breakup. Yup, its a dark comedy. In Season 2, L.A. transplant Tig is navigating her new environs, including strategizing about how to proceed with a crush on Straight Kate and dealing with some well-meaning, pray-the-gay-away critics of her radio show. Plus, theres her stepfathers whole dishwasher drill to contend with, not to mention the story line that has to do with sexual assault. The new season of One Mississippi starts streaming Sept. 8. Facebook

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Watch Frank Oceans lyric video for new song Provider By Randall Roberts As is his wont these days, R&B superstar Frank Ocean unveiled a new song, Provider, his own way: during the newest installment of Blonded Radio, the Apple Music/Beats 1 radio show he hosts and curates. The ballads a meditation that name-checks Aphex Twin, shoegaze, Talking Heads, Jaws, Patagonia sportswear and Stanley Kubrick, and moves through verses without much regard for structure. Immediately following the Sunday premiere, Ocean dropped the lyric video on his website. Featuring a souped-up mini-boombox retrofitted with bigger speaker cones and a Velcro-attached machete, the clip suggests an owner getting ready to hunt prey while using Provider as the lure. Ocean hasnt uploaded the clip to YouTube, but you can listen and watch on his blonded.co website. Facebook

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Gone With the Wind, deemed insensitive, has been pulled from a Memphis theater By Christie DZurilla Gone With the Wind will not be shown in the future by a Tennessee theater that decided it was insensitive to many in the local community. The 1939 movie, which marked the first Oscar win by a black actor, depicts a romanticized view of slavery and life on a Southern plantation before, during and after the Civil War. Gone With the Wind, which won 10 Academy Awards in 1940, including for best picture, had been shown by the Orpheum Theatre Group for years as part of an annual Summer Movie Series, according to Memphis Commercial-Appeal. At times, it was screened more than once a year, the paper said. This year, however, a different climate prevailed. The recent screening of Gone With the Wind at the Orpheum on Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, generated numerous comments, Brett Batterson, president of the theater group, said Friday in a statement (via the New York Times). The Orpheum carefully reviewed all of them. As an organization whose stated mission is to entertain, educate and enlighten the communities it serves, the Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of its local population. The majority of Memphis residents are black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The screening happened, coincidentally, on the day before a rally of white nationalists that turned violent in Charlottesville, Va.  a rally that has been followed by a national conversation about whether to purge monuments to Civil War generals and soldiers from public spaces. In an interview with the Commercial-Appeal, Batterson said the appropriateness of screening Gone With the Wind had been discussed every year, but the social media storm this year really brought it home. By Monday, comments on social media, including on the Facebook post announcing the screening, had shifted in large part to defense of Gone With the Wind as a product of its time that, despite its romanticized portrayal of the Old South and of slavery, was still part of movie history and worth showing on a big screen. The Orpheum did not respond Monday to The Times requests for comment. Hattie McDaniels Oscar win for supporting actress was a significant first but was also loaded with a lot of political and racial issues given that the film was the classic archetype of the Mammy, said Adilifu Nama, associate professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University, speaking to The Times in 2014. McDaniels role of Mammy is fundamentally a subservient role and is part of a film that is a Southern racial fantasy, Nama said. Facebook

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Taylor Swift gets petty and Pink talks pretty in the must-see moments from MTVs Video Music Awards By Libby Hill Were you too busy watching [spoiler] revealed as [spoiler] on Sunday nights Game of Thrones finale to watch MTVs Video Music Awards? Fear not! Weve gathered up four must-see moments from the socially conscious affair (and one lackluster video debut from Taylor Swift) to keep you in the loop. Pinks PowerPoint presentation It was a banner night for singer Pink, who received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award for her body of work and used the occasion to share an anecdote about her daughter Willow. Recently, Pink stated, her daughter referred to herself as the ugliest person she knew and complained that she looked like a boy with long hair. At first, the Raise Your Glass singer was taken aback by her daughters words but soon swung into action, compiling an elaborate PowerPoint presentation about the history of androgynous rock stars, including Michael Jackson, David Bowie and Annie Lennox. Pink relayed a simple sentiment that most of us could learn a lot from: So, baby, girl, we dont change. We take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl. Logic talks emotions Plenty of artists used the VMAs stage to speak passionately about issues they care about, but few did so as extensively as rapper Logic. After his performance of 1-800-273-8255" with Khalid and Alessia Cara, the title of which is the phone number of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Logic talked about mental health and equality. Beginning at 3:50 in the above video, Logic first thanked the audience for giving him a platform to discuss the important issue of mental health. He then quickly pivoted to other pressing social issues including discrimination, sexism and domestic violence. I dont give a damn if youre black, white or any color in between, Logic said. I dont care if youre Christian, youre Muslim, youre gay, youre straight, I am gonna fight for your equality because I believe that we are all born equal, but we are not treated equally and that is why we must fight. Jared Leto honors Chester Bennington Logics performance and subsequent speech were particularly moving given the past years loss of two rock musicians to suicide  Linkin Parks Chester Bennington and Soundgardens Chris Cornell. Jared Leto, an Academy Award winner and frontman of Thirty Seconds to Mars, spoke about both men at Sundays ceremony. MTV asked me to come here to say a few words about Chester and the late, great, Chris Cornell, two artists I had the absolute pleasure of touring with, Leto said of the two singers who were also close friends. Chester said of Chris, Your voice was joy and pain and anger and forgiveness, love and heartache, all wrapped up into one, Leto recalled. Leto also recounted his own memories of Bennington. I think about his heart, Leto said. And I remember his voice. At once ferocious and delicate, that voice will live forever. Fifth Harmony gets shady Despite the pleas for equality and the heartfelt speeches, there was still plenty of time for pettiness at the VMAs, as evidenced by Fifth Harmonys performance. As the group took the stage to perform its latest single, Angel, a mystery fifth member appeared in the lineup before being unceremoniously yanked offstage as the song began. What appeared as an inexplicable stunt to the uninitiated was likely a shady reference to former Fifth Harmony frontwoman Camila Cabello, who exited the group in December to pursue a solo career. It wasnt so much that Cabellos departure stung her former colleagues but that she reportedly failed to inform them of her decision before announcing it to the world. Oops. Also Taylor Swift Unless you were in a coma for the whole of last week, you probably heard that Taylor Swift announced the release date for her upcoming album, Reputation, as well as releasing the first single, Look What You Made Me Do. Its fine. Sunday night, Swift debuted the video for Look What You Made Me Do. It is also fine. This has been your daily Taylor Swift update. Facebook

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Kevin Hart, Beyonce and Drake lead charge for Hurricane Harvey flood relief By Nardine Saad (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times) As Harvey lashed southeastern Texas over the weekend, celebrities rallied for the relief effort. Comedian Kevin Hart led the charge Sunday night, donating $25,000 and challenging his celebrity friends to donate to the Red Cross amid catastrophic flooding in the Lone Star State. I think weve participated in a lot of challenges on the Internet, some meaningful, some meaningless, but weve all done them. Ive been a person thats partaken in several of them, Hart said in an Instagram video. At this point, this is a serious matter, he continued. I think the people are in bad shape and they need help. Im going to lead the charge and step up in this way. The Jumanji star called on his co-star Dwayne Johnson, comics Steve Harvey, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Jerry Seinfeld, as well as musicians Jay-Z, Beyonce and Justin Timberlake to make donations and tag someone else to do the same. At that point, Houston native Beyonce and Kelly Rowland of Destinys Child had already posted notes about their hometown on Instagram, sending thoughts and prayers to the state that launched their careers. View Instagram post View Instagram post The deluge of support continued with country star Chris Young. The Man I Want to Be singer posted an emotional YouTube video about his certainty that his Texas home was destroyed and concern for his friends and family in the state. He donated $100,000 to relief efforts to a GoFundMe campaign to benefit the Red Cross. Harvey, one of the worst natural disasters in the states history, slammed onshore Friday as a Category 4 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm on Saturday, dropping up to 24 inches of rain on Houston in 24 hours. The National Weather Service reported that at least five people had died as of Sunday evening, but that number was expected to increase as the floodwaters recede. More than 30,000 people across the Gulf Coast are likely to seek temporary shelter as the tropical storm continues to drench southeastern Texas and Louisiana with heavy rains and surging floodwaters, The Times reported. Toronto native Drake, who has lived in Houston for the last eight years, said that he and DJ Future the Prince are working with local relief groups to aid and assist the people of Texas in anyway we can and in the most immediate way possible. I also want to thank all the men and women of service and volunteers for their courageous efforts to help people in need, the rapper said on Instagram. I encourage everyone to do what they can to assist the people of Texas knowing whatever effort you can make to help will go a long way. View Instagram post Also, during the MTV Video Music Awards Awards on Sunday, host Katy Perry touched upon the catastrophic event. She too urged viewers to donate to the Red Cross. All of us here at the VMAs are sending love to the people of southeastern Texas and everyone affected by Hurricane Harvey right now, Perry said onstage. Were praying for your safety in the days to come and we stand with you as you rebuild because were all in this together. According to the Houston Chronicle, more than 15 inches of rain could fall on several more southeastern Texas cities. Corpus Christi, where Harvey first made landfall, saw upward of 20 inches of rain in two days. By Monday morning, up to 40 inches of rain had fallen on northeast Houston. Another 20 inches were expected Monday before Tropical Storm Harvey travels farther east. Facebook

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Susan Bro, mother of slain Charlottesville protester Heather Heyer, announces anti-hate foundation at the MTV VMAs By Randall Roberts (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) During an evening filled with defiant messages against racism, homophobia and body shaming, the mother of Heather Heyer announced some concrete actions to further the cause. Susan Bro, whose daughter was killed two weeks ago during protests in Charlottesville, Va., has worked through her grief by speaking out against racism, and took a further step by creating the Heather Heyer Foundation. Describing it as a nonprofit organization that will provide scholarships to help more people to join Heathers fight against hatred, Bro requested that viewers visit the new site to help me make Heathers death count. Added Bro: Heather never marched alone. She was always joined by people from every race and every background in this country. Bro was introduced by Robert Lee IV -- a descendant of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee -- who said his ancestor has became of idol of white supremacy and hate. Lee went on to describe racism as Americas original sin. He went on to ask all of those with privilege to confront white supremacy and racism head-on. Watch his speech below. I call on all of us with privilege and power to confront racism and white supremacy head-on" - Robert Lee IV #VMAs pic.twitter.com/ko4SM9VnaU  MTV (@MTV) August 28, 2017 Facebook

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Watch Pinks inspiring MTV VMA speech to individuality By Randall Roberts In receiving her Video Vanguard award at the MTV VMAs on Sunday at the Forum -- the shows equivalent of a lifetime achievement trophy -- the pop star Pink told a story about a conversation shed recently had with her young daughter. They were driving to school and her daughter said, Mama, Im the ugliest girl I know. Pink replied, Huh? And she was like, Yeah, I look like a boy with long hair. Pink said that she immediately thought, My god, youre 6. Where is this coming from? The artist and mom didnt lecture her daughter. Instead, said Pink: I went home and made a PowerPoint presentation for her, and in that presentation were androgynous rock stars and artists that live their truth; are probably made fun of every day of their lives and carry on and wave their flag; and inspire the rest of us. These are artists like Michael Jackson and David Bowie and Freddie Mercury and Annie Lennox and Prince and Janis Joplin and George Michael, Elton John, so many artists. Pink said that her daughters eyes glazed over, but Pink pressed her about why she felt that way about herself. What do you think I look like? She said, Youre beautiful. The pop singer explained that she gets critiqued, too. They say I look like a boy or Im too masculine or Im too -- I have too many opinions. My body is too strong. I said to her, Do you see me growing my hair? She said No Mama. I said, Do you see me changing my body? She said, No Mama. Do you see me changing the way I present myself to the world? No Mama. Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world. Yes Mama. OK baby girl. We dont change. We take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl. And we help other people to change so that they can see more kinds of beauty. Added Pink in closing: To all the artists here, Im so inspired by you. Thank you for being your true selves and for lighting the way for us. Facebook

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Watch Jared Leto offer touching tribute to Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington at the MTV VMAs By Randall Roberts In a moving tribute to two fallen musicians, the actor and musician Jared Leto honored the lives of Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Chester Bennington of Linkin Park at the MTV VMAs on Sunday. Cornell and Bennington committed suicide in 2017, and Leto was friends with both. In 1976 in Phoenix, Ariz., a child was born. He was precocious, full of life, and determined, and grew up to become the singer of one of the greatest rock bands in the history of music, Leto said. His name was Chester Bennington, and the band is Linkin Park. Leto added that MTV asked him to say a few words about Bennington and Cornell, who he described as two artists that I had the absolute pleasure of touring with. They were close friends with one another -- Chester even singing the cover of the classic Hallelujah at Chris funeral. Recalling Benningtons words at Cornells funeral service, Leto said: Chester said of Chris, Your voice was joy and pain and anger and forgiveness, love and heartache all wrapped up into one. Just weeks later, Chester himself was gone. Chester was my friend. As he was to so many. Witnessing his life taught me important things -- especially about working relentlessly, pursuing dreams and being kind and caring while doing it. Facebook

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Kodak Black, Lil Uzi Vert and more steal the MTV VMA spotlight By Gerrick Kennedy Kodak Black arriving at the MTV VMAs. (Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press) The line near a concession stand inside the Forum minutes before the MTV VMAs kicked off on Sunday was lengthy, but no one was waiting on food or drinks. Instead, a dozen or so folks waited patiently to get a selfie with Kodak Black, who high-fived and posed with as fans fumbled with smartphones. The VMAs are typically rife with heavyweights (Kendrick Lamar, Katy Perry, etc.) but this years ceremony looked to tap into the wide scene of rising acts that have been dominating streaming services and social media all summer. Before the telecast even began Lil Uzi Vert clinched a major win, taking the trophy for song of summer for XO Tour Llif3" and he later joined Ed Sheeran for the tune, no doubt the nights most surprising collaboration. Meanwhile, Khalids pre-show medley could have easily anchored the main show while reality star turned breakout rap sensation Cardi B was another highlight of the pre-show festivities. Her viral hit Bodak Yellow rattled throughout the Forum during nearly every commercial break. Fifth Harmony later made its debut at the VMAs with an explosive main stage performance of Down, a song that also won the award for pop video. Facebook

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Jack Antonoff is living his best life at the MTV VMAs By Mikael Wood Jack Antonoff performs onstage during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards pre-show. (Joshua Blanchard / Getty Images) Has anyone at MTVs Video Music Awards had more screen time so far than Jack Antonoff? First the A-list producer and songwriter turned up on the nights pre-show ceremony for a performance with his band Bleachers. Then he introduced Lorde by noting that hed seen her eat gas-station sushi during the two years they spent together working on her album Melodrama. He also accepted the award for best collaboration  for Taylor Swift and Zayns I Dont Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker), which he helped create  because the singers couldnt be there. But Antonoffs best moment? Obviously the candid reaction shot in which he was shown casually eating a banana, as his girlfriend, Lena Dunham, described it on Twitter. My boyfriend just casually eating a banana at the VMAs is a good reminder of why we've been at it half a decade  Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) August 28, 2017 Facebook

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Watch Taylor Swifts bold Look What You Made Me Do video, which premiered during the MTV VMAs By Randall Roberts Taylor Swifts new video for Look What You Made Me Do, which premiered during the 2017 MTV VMAs on Sunday night, features her dressed as a zombie, a diamond-drenched queen, a red-dressed seductress, a car-crash victim, a bird in a cage, a kitty-masked thief with a baseball bat, a biker chick wearing studded leather and a whip-snapping dominatrix. As she poses and pretends, Swift makes a not-so-veiled reference to her ongoing feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, getting all combative behind the microphone as a feather-light melody jumps behind her. The video premiered during a ceremony hosted by pop star and avowed Swift nemesis Katy Perry. Perry didnt introduce the clip, a hint that the two probably still arent besties. Inside the Forum, the video premiered on multiple big screen TVs rose that from the stage, and Perry was nowhere in sight. As the clip seems to be winding down, the music fades. But Swift hasnt fully made her point. In its final moments arrive a dozen-odd versions of Swift standing in front of a black private jet with the name of her new album, Reputation, scrawled on it. The many Swifts start bickering and referencing the various criticisms that have been lobbied at her over the years. Stop making that face, its so annoying, the zombie Swift says, a nod to what some believe is the exaggerated excitement the artist shows when she wins awards. A young version of Swift interrupts with an innocent Yall! but is shot down by an embittered Swift: Oh stop acting like youre so nice. Youre so fake! Standing in the center of the line is Swift seemingly dressed as she was at the 2009 VMAs, when West interrupted her victory speech to decry Beyonce's loss. Holding her VMA trophy, she says, Id like very much to be excluded from this narrative, both a nod to to the musical Hamilton and a repeat of a phrase Swift posted on social media in wake of controversy resulting from Wests song Famous. In that 2016 tune, he he boasted that I made that [profanity] famous and, therefore, that he and Swift might still have sex. The other Swifts reply in unison: Oh shut up! Facebook

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Kendrick Lamar opens 2017 VMAs with fiery performances of DNA and Humble By Randall Roberts Wearing a red scarf on his head and a poofy winter coat onstage, Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar opened the 2017 MTV VMAs needing neither. Within a few minutes of launching with DNA a dancer center stage burst into flames. You could almost feel the heat simmering through the screen. I was born like this, since one like this, Lamar rapped. Immaculate conception/I transform like this, perform like this. Perform he did, moving into a second track, Humble, from his recent album Damn. Shedding the coat, he stood in front of a fiery backdrop grid that burned as dancers scaled it. As they did so, Lamar rapped, My left stroke just went viral/Right stroke put lil baby in a spiral. It was the opening shot of a VMAs in which politics and protest may end up taking center stage. Indeed, moments later presenter Paris Jackson drew a rousing applause when she denounced the racism and hatred propogated by white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Facebook

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Heidi Klum, Jack Antonoff and others stand in support of transgender military service members at VMAs By Randall Roberts View Instagram post As the 2017 Video Music Awards were approaching, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was out in full force at the Forum. Its president and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis, walked the red carpet along with her invited guests: six transgender members of the military. The action came in the wake of President Donald Trumps direction to the Pentagon on Friday, as reported in The Times, to return to the long-standing policy and practice barring military service by transgender individuals. Praising MTV as a pioneering advocate for the LGBTQ community, Ellis said in a statement, Throughout all the tweets, memos, and speculation, brave transgender Americans are still serving their country and defending the freedoms of this nation while meeting the same rigorous standards of their peers. We are proud to stand with them. Posing in support: musicians and celebrities including Jack Antonoff (Bleachers), supermodel Heidi Klum, actor-comedian Billy Eichner and others, who stood alongside transgender service members including Jennifer Peace, Logan Ireland, Sterling James Crutcher and Akira Wyatt, as well as trans veterans Laila Ireland and Brynn Tannehil. Also joining them was LGBTQ philanthropist August Getty, who in his other life is a fashion designer responsible for Miley Cyruss red carpet dress. Facebook

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MTV VMAs return to Southern California with an overwhelmingly impressive setup By Gerrick Kennedy Cardi B performing at the pre-show for the MTV VMAs. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press) After heading to the East Coast last year, the MTV VMAs have returned to Southern California. And tonight at the Forum in Inglewood, it was clear that the network decided to go big  huge really. Upon arrival to the venue it appeared that the scale of this years show was unlike anything MTV had done in recent history. A structure that looked like a space shuttle swallowed the lot in front of the venue, and stars such as Cardi B and Big Freedia could be seen pumping through the red carpet (its a deep shade of blue this year). Inside the Forum, the stage took up the entirety of the venues ground floor. The imprint of the stage was impressive, even overwhelming in size as a maze of catwalks and secondary stages traced the floor, all of which was outlined by hundreds of glowing triangles and projection screens. It made for a futuristic playground of geometric glowing shapes that show opener Kendrick Lamar put to use immediately as he emerged from the center of the venue for the explosive DNA, strutting through half of the venue before making it to the main stage. Facebook

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Taylor Swift breaks YouTube record with Look What You Made Me Do video By Randy Lewis Taylor Swift set a YouTube record with the lyric video for her new single Look What You Made Me Do, tallying 19 million views in just the first 24 hours. Thats more than double the previous first-day record for a lyric video, which was set in February by the lyric video for the Chainsmokers Something Just Like This featuring Coldplay, which registered 9 million views upon its release. Its also the best 24-hour figure Swift has logged, besting the first-day result for her 2015 official video for Bad Blood, which attracted 17 million views, and has since totaled more than 1.1 billion views. As of Sunday morning, the tally for Look What You Made Me Do had surpassed 35 million. It sets the stage for the premiere tonight of Swifts official video for the new single, which will be introduced during the MTV Video Music Awards Ceremony, taking place at the Forum in Inglewood. The overall record for viewership in the first 24 hours for any music video belongs to Adele, who registered 27.7 million views in 2015 at the premiere of the official video for her song Hello. Facebook

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Why William Friedkin called Tobe Hoopers Texas Chain Saw Massacre an Umami Burger of a movie By Mark Olsen Director Tobe Hooper, who died in Los Angeles on Saturday at age 74, created many movies and TV shows during his long career  including stepping to helm the filming of Poltergeist when Steven Spielberg was contractually banned from directing other films during the production of ET: The Extra Terrestrial. Hoopers most admired film, of course, was 1974s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In 2014, on the occasion of the films 40th anniversary, The Exorcist director William Friedkin interviewed Hooper before an overflow audience at Los Angeles Vista theater. During the engaging conversation, Friedkin called Hooper one of the sweetest, nicest guys Ive ever known. And then added, So I often wonder where this stuff comes from. Hooper talked about purposely pitting his actors against each other to keep the on-screen tension high, how an unlikely pair of albums  Elton Johns Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Lou Reeds Berlin  inspired him during the writing of the screenplay, and about how damn strong women are, referring to the resilent character played by Marilyn Burns. Shes just not going to die. At one point, Friedkin provocatively asked, Do you think this is a work of art? Hooper first asked, Should I be modest? before responding with a salty confirmation, Its a ... work of art. The Times Mark Olsen was there for the interview. At the end of his article, theres this affirmation of the film from Friedkin: No 3-D, no CGI, welcome to this Umami Burger of a movie. Read on to find his reasoning. Read More Facebook

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Cinefamily suspends all activities in wake of sexual misconduct allegations By Sonaiya Kelley The Cinefamily on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) Following the resignations Tuesday of two leadership figures at Cinefamily, the Los Angeles independent film venue has announced that it is temporarily suspending all activities to allow for the investigation and necessary restructure of management and the board. Recently, claims were made alleging improper behavior by one of more members of the organization, reads a release posted on the organizations website and social media pages. The Board of Directors of The Cinefamily has no tolerance for any form of behavior that does not conform to the high standards demanded by our members and staff and that of common human decency. The letter also says that Cinefamily is bringing on an independent third party, Giles Miller at Lynx Insights & Investigations, to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations. View Twitter post A spokesperson for the theater could not immediately be reached for comment. The announcement comes in the wake of two high profile exits: co-founder and executive creative director, Hadrian Belove, and vice president of its board of directors, Shadie Elnashai, resigned on Tuesday following allegations of sexual misconduct. The exits were announced in postings on Cinefamilys social media accounts. In light of recent events, Shadie Elnashai has resigned from Cinefamilys Board of Directors and Hadrian Belove has resigned as the Executive Creative Director of Cinefamily, read the statement. Addressing the anonymous allegations in a post to his personal Facebook account following his resignation, Belove described the emails contents as demonstrable lies and half-truths, and allegations without known victims. It is not clear whether screenings currently scheduled will still run, and there has been grumbling by monthly billed members as to whether or not automated charges will be suspended or cancelled. Facebook

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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper dies in Los Angeles at 74 By Associated Press Tobe Hooper, the horror-movie pioneer whose low-budget sensation The Texas Chain Saw Massacre took a buzz saw to audiences with its brutally frightful vision, has died. He was 74. The Los Angeles County coroners office says Hooper died Saturday in Sherman Oaks. It was reported as a natural death. Hooper and contemporaries like George Romero crafted some of the scariest nightmares that ever haunted moviegoers. He directed 1982s Poltergeist from a script by Steven Spielberg and was behind the 1979 miniseries Salems Lot, based on the Stephen King novel. Read More Facebook

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Is Taylor Swift trying to turn off her listeners? By Mikael Wood We can skip the rundown of Taylor Swifts feud with Kanye West, right? Less than 24 hours after the worlds biggest pop star unleashed her new single on a waiting commentariat, Im already exhausted by the idea of having to read (let alone write) yet another rehash of this deeply tiresome conflict. But you know whos not over it? Taylor Swift. In Look What You Made Me Do  released online Thursday night as the lead single from a new album, Reputation, due in November  the singer sounds positively fired up as she takes whack after brutal whack at the rapper who once interrupted her at an awards show. (Swift doesnt name West, to be clear, but with her reference to a tilted stage, she doesnt need to.) I dont like your perfect crime / How you laugh when you lie, she seethes over a throbbing electronic groove, You said the gun was mine / Isnt cool  no, I dont like you. Later in the tune, which Swift created with Jack Antonoff, she pretends to answer a phone call from someone evidently looking for the old Taylor  the sucker, you presume, who mightve let bygones be bygones. But she cant come to the phone, Swift tells the caller. Why? she adds. Oh, cause shes dead. Whats surprising about Look What You Made Me Do  beyond the harsh industrial production that makes it feel like Swifts response to her enemys Yeezus  is that it suggests the singer no longer cares (or is no longer able to tell) what pop fans want. Swift rose to superstardom by anticipating listeners desires; she knew just when to pivot from acoustic guitars to sleek synthesizers, from the fairy-tale romance of early hits like Love Story to the more grown-up depiction found on her last album, 2014s smash 1989. On tour behind that record, she spent a good portion of her show every night telling the members of her audience how closely shed been paying attention to them. But dredging up Taylor v. Kanye again? I mean, I cant be the only one whos sick of this topic  something Swift wouldve known a few years ago without even having to think about it. OK, so she hardly lacks for company among A-listers eager to cook expired beef. Earlier this summer Katy Perry revived her ancient tussle with Swift  I believe it had something to do with backup dancers?  for Swish Swish. But Perrys song takes delight in its own pettiness, whereas Look What You Made Me Do just makes me think of President Trump whining endlessly about fake news. (Crediting Right Said Fred for the songs supposed debt to Im Too Sexy is funny in writing, but the inspiration adds little humor to the dour music.) Maybe Swift isnt aiming for me, though. Maybe this polarizing song is meant to galvanize her base  which, sure enough, is rhapsodizing about the track on social media  even at the expense of the wider world shes dominated for much of the last decade. If thats her play, its a wild one, especially coming after her powerful testimony during the recent trial regarding her alleged sexual assault at the hands of a Denver radio DJ. In court, Swift appeared driven to speak with a voice loud enough for others. Now, just days later, she seems uninterested in that job. Have we ever seen a pop star so happily give up a portion of her following? Thats an idea Im not tired of considering. Maybe Reputation will take it up. Facebook

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Concerts by Coldplay, other acts canceled as Hurricane Harvey nears Texas By August Brown Coldplay performs at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in 2016. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times) As the potentially devastating Hurricane Harvey approaches the Texas coast, major acts including Coldplay, Lady Antebellum and Mary J. Blige have canceled or rescheduled their Houston-area concerts. Coldplay on Friday postponed a show scheduled for NRG Stadium in Houston. We really wanted to play tonight, but sitting here all together watching the news about the storm, we feel that we cant ask anyone to put their safety at risk. So, sadly, we will have to postpone, the band wrote. Live Nation Houston said ticket-holders would be updated when there was further information. We urge all fans in the area to stay safe, it said. A makeup date has not yet been scheduled. The country trio Lady Antebellum canceled its Sunday show at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands, citing the storm. Blige postponed her Friday show at the Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land. The venue announced that the concert had been rescheduled to Sept. 19. The Category 3 storm, which would be the first major hurricane to hit the United States since 2005, is expected to make landfall in coastal Texas on Saturday morning, bringing 100-mph winds and up to 35 inches of rain in some areas. Facebook

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Bachelor couple Nick Viall and Vanessa Grimaldi break off their engagement By Christie DZurilla (Leon Bennett / Getty Images) Nick Viall and Vanessa Grimaldi, who got engaged on the most recent season of The Bachelor, have  with a great amount of heartbreak  called the whole thing off. We gave this relationship our all and we are saddened that we did not get the fairytale ending we hoped for, they said Friday in a statement to E! News. The relationship lasted five months after the proposal aired on the Season 21 finale of The Bachelor in March. The two said in their statement that theyre parting with love and admiration for one another. The silver lining to what they called a difficult decision? This means Nick is potentially available for yet another TV stint in the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise. That as-yet-imaginary gig would be his fifth ride on the looking-for-love roller coaster. In Bachelor Nation, its always good to dream. Facebook

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Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher settle lawsuit over websites photos of their kids By Nardine Saad (Michael Nelson / EPA) Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis legal battle with British website MailOnline has been settled. The Two and a Half Men actor, the Bad Moms actress and the outlet have reached a satisfactory resolution of their legal action regarding the publication of photos of their children, their legal representatives said in a joint statement to The Times on Friday. The couple, who starred in That 70s Show together years before they began dating, took the websites publisher, Associated Newspapers, to Londons High Court in July 2015 over two articles featuring their daughter, who was 1 at the time. The U.K.'s MailOnline.com published images of Wyatt taken during a private family outing to the beach. A paparazzo used a long-lens camera to obtain the images, and the couple said they were unaware the photos were being taken. They claimed that the photos breached the Data Protection Act and were used for the unauthorized promotion of clothing on the website. [T]hey have reached a satisfactory resolution of their legal action, which includes an agreement to pixelate photographs of their daughter, Wyatt, their son, Dimitri, and any future children they should have together.  Joint statement from Kutcher, Kunis and the MailOnline announcing their lawsuit settlement Per the agreement announced Friday, the outlet will pixelate photographs of Kutchers and Kunis daughter, Wyatt, their son, Dimitri, and any future children they should have together. The settlement is the latest legal blow to MailOnline and its associated newspaper, the Daily Mail. (The U.S. version of the website, DailyMail.com, is run by a separate news team.) In April, the tabloids parent company settled a libel suit with First Lady Melania Trump over an article it ran in the paper and online that suggested she may have once worked as an escort. In July 2014, George Clooney lambasted the Daily Mail in a USA Today op-ed that accused it of making up stories in the wake of an article it published about his mother-in-law. He got an apology and an acknowledgement that the story was inaccurate. That same month, Angelina Jolie reportedly threatened to take legal action after it published a video that claimed to show her under the influence of heroin in the 1990s. Facebook

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Taylor Swifts Look What You Made Me Do lyrics: Let the analysis begin By Randy Lewis As if there were any doubt as to the level of interest in Taylor Swifts first new music in three years, her first single from her forthcoming album, Reputation, has been blowing up since it premiered Thursday night. The lyric video for Look What You Made Me Do had logged more than 7 million views as of 9:30 a.m. Friday. Additionally, Swift tweeted that the official video for the song will premiere Sunday during the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony. For those who want to dig in and attempt to decode what and to whom the I dont like you references might refer, here are the full lyrics to the song: Look What You Made Me Do FIRST VERSE I dont like your little games Dont like your tilted stage The role you made me play Of the fool, no, I dont like you I dont like your perfect crime How you laugh when you lie You said the gun was mine Isnt cool, no, I dont like you PRE-CHORUS But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time Ive got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined I check it once, then I check it twice, oh! CHORUS Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do Ooh, look what you made me do Look What you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do SECOND VERSE I dont like your kingdom keys They once belonged to me You ask for a place to sleep Locked me out and threw a feast (what?) The world goes on, another day, another drama, drama But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma And then the world moves on, but one things for sure Baby, I got mine, but youll all get yours PRE CHORUS REPEATS But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time Ive got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined I check it once, then I check it twice, oh! CHORUS REPEATS Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do THIRD VERSE I dont trust nobody and nobody trusts me Ill be the actress starring in your bad dreams I dont trust nobody and nobody trusts me Ill be the actress starring in your bad dreams I dont trust nobody and nobody trusts me Ill be the actress starring in your bad dreams I dont trust nobody and nobody trusts me Ill be the actress starring in your bad dreams (Look what you made me do) (Look what you made me do) ANSWERING MACHINE INTERLUDE Im sorry, the old Taylor cant come to the phone right now. Why? Oh cause shes dead! CHORUS REPEATS Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do Facebook

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Patty Jenkins isnt surprised James Cameron doesnt get Wonder Woman By Tracy Brown Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins has some words about James Camerons comments on the Amazonian warrior goddess: Of course he doesnt get it. Following the Avatar directors claims that Wonder Woman is a step backwards for women, Jenkins responded in a tweet that Camerons thoughts are unsurprising because he is not a woman. In an interview with the Guardian, Cameron threw some shade on Wonder Womans success by trying to compare Diana Prince to Sarah Connor from his Terminator franchise. "[Sarah Connor] was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit, Cameron said. Nothing like the objectified beauty icon he considers Wonder Woman to be. Jenkins points out that Camerons narrow qualifications for what makes a good female hero are restrictive and not at all progressive. If women have to always be hard, tough and troubled to be strong, and we arent free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we havent come very far have we, Jenkins wrote. Jenkins also insisted that there should be room for all types of female lead characters and that women themselves should be the judge of these icons of progress. There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman, she wrote. Read Jenkins full statement below. pic.twitter.com/8zkJXHLCJW  Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) August 25, 2017 Facebook

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James Cameron thinks Wonder Womans success is misguided: Shes an objectified icon By Nardine Saad (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) James Cameron isnt here for Wonder Womans blockbuster success. In fact, the moviemaker calls the much-loved superhero flick (Wonder Woman is currently at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes) a step back from the female heroes he created in the 80s and 90s. It appears that the Titanic and Terminator 2" director, whose films often put tough women at the center of the action, doesnt think that Gal Gadots character was complicated or groundbreaking enough to merit so much acclaim -- $800 million at the worldwide box office aside. All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywoods been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided. Shes an objectified icon, and its just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! Cameron said in an interview with the Guardian. All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywoods been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided. Shes an objectified icon, and its just male Hollywood doing the same old thing!  Filmmaker James Cameron on Wonder Woman The director, who was cast in the article as softened and evolved from his bone-crushing early movie-making days, believes that Wonder Woman was a step backwards. (Dont get him wrong, he did like Patty Jenkins summer blockbuster -- the first-ever feature-film incarnation of the DC Comics heroine and the highest-grossing live-action film directed by a woman -- just not enough to let it pass without throwing a little shade Diana Princes way.) Backwards in comparison with Camerons complex Sarah Connor character from the Terminator franchise. Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female! Cameron said. The three-time Oscar wi
If ever there were a time Liev Schreiber wished he could enlist the lawfully questionable problem-solving acumen of Ray Donovan, the titular Hollywood fixer he has portrayed with skillful intensity for multiple seasons on Showtime, the moment would be now.

Its a balmy Friday afternoon in Venice, Calif., and Schreiber has had little to no sleep. He wrapped production on Season 5 of Ray Donovan around 5 a.m. and now, slightly bleary-eyed, he must contend with packing up the beachside rental home hes been occupying for a few weeks before heading to New York.

God, I wish I could get [stuff] done, Im pathetic, Schreiber says with an understated smirk while seated in the patio. I have so much moving to do today. Wheres Ray? Id say: I dont need you to beat up anybody. I dont need you to go drinking. I dont need you to have sex. I just need you to pack this [damn] house, Ray.

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The truth of it is, Ray probably would prefer that chore over all that he endures in the upcoming fifth season of the drama.

While Schreibers stoic alter ego is no stranger to heartache and unrelenting lawlessness  not to mention the bruises and family chaos that result  the new season of the series (premiering Sunday) dials it up, to say the least. To say more about where the show picks up in the premiere would hamper the experience but we can say Susan Sarandon is playing a top studio head in a season-long guest star arc.

I think the wheels really come off this season, Schreiber says. [Executive producer] David [Hollander] and I talked about it; how do we initiate some change, some massive seismic shift in this character and in this world? And, well, you take the ground out from beneath them.

That hes even talking about this character five seasons in is only somewhat surprising to Schreiber.

In the course of his 20-plus-year-career, the actor  who has played roles ranging from a brawny mutant (Sabretooth in the Wolverine franchise) and a steadfast newspaper editor (Spotlight) to a scrupulous salesman (Broadways Glengarry Glen Ross)  had looked to television as a means of creating a home base for his family. (Schreiber has two sons  9-year-old Sasha and 8-year-old Kai  with Naomi Watts, from whom he split last fall after 11 years.)

Liev Schreiber poses for a portrait in Venice, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

I told my agents, Lets look for something in L.A. And they found this noir-y fixer show, and I was like, Not likely, but lets give it a shot,  the 49-year-old actor recalls with a raise of his eyebrow that suggests his foolishness. That shot has taken him through five seasons and three Emmy nominations for the role, including a nod this year.

Its the most intense thing Ive ever done, Schreiber says. To work on a character again and again and again and again. Ive never done more than a three-month run of a character. That your character is evolving and growing  you almost feel parental towards them.

Ive also never really, in my career, played the lead, he later adds. Im accustomed to figuring out what my piece of the puzzle is, how I serve the whole. Thats whats been really interesting with this character  figuring out what his job is in terms of moving the narrative forward.

During this momentary respite from packing, Schreiber, much like Ray, is soft-spoken and wears his exhaustion in his eyes but hes far more cheerful than the severe character hes inhabited on the series. He gets a kick out of Ziggy, who came with the house rental, as the dog mounts the outdoor sofa to lick his face. And he points to a few surfboards that line the fence, saying he tries to hit the water at least once a week to help wash off the emotional baggage of work.

Hollander, who serves as showrunner on Ray Donovan, says Schreibers extraordinarily exacting approach to his work makes embodying this kind of haunted character tough.

He digs for and pushes for more, Hollander says by phone. There are times I watch him from the monitors on set and go, Oh, you ... He brings this stuff out. I find it very powerful and really compelling. Hes always thinking about the character. A notion that is illustrated when Schreiber reveals that he thinks Ray might be disturbed right now by the political news cycle because he believes the character is Republican.

Others whove worked with Schreiber echo Hollanders sentiments. Philippe Falardeau, who directed Schreiber in the fight film Chuck  about heavyweight Chuck Wepner, the inspiration for Rocky Balboa  spoke of the actors curiosity.

His thought process is thorough, Falardeau says by email. Its a perpetual research of the characters persona in relation to his social environment, always in the light of the films meaning.  He likes to discuss the role over and over, formally or informally. We would talk for hours and then exchange pictures, songs, poems, films, anything that could spark a new idea, nourish the humanity of the character and bring traction to the story.

For Schreiber, when it comes to Ray, the motivation goes beyond making a brawl look realistic or hitting the right note of intensity during a family squabble. Its finding the truth in the demons that plague the character: His sister committed suicide, he and his two brothers endured sexual abuse from their priest, and his fathers actions have wreaked havoc on the family.

Its just pain, theres a tremendous amount of pain, Schreiber says. Theres a physicality to playing him that I dont know how to describe to people. Hes gone through a lot emotionally growing up. And he has an inherently kind of volatile nature, so in a lot of scenes, youre ramping up tension and then not expressing it because thats his problem, is expressing it. And, man, does it take a lot out of you.

Schreiber says having his kids around helps him detach from that mind-set at home. Just a couple of weeks prior, he was chaperoning them during an outing at Comic-Con. Schreiber was at the annual convention to promote his new film, My Little Pony: The Movie, a gig he took to add some family-friendly credits to his repertoire that his kids could watch,while Watts was there for her turn in the Twin Peaks reboot. But it was photos of Schreiber with his sons  one dressed as a Star Wars Jedi, the other as Harley Quinn  that quickly had the Internet talking: many praising him, others deriding him.

I had mixed feelings about it, Schreiber says of the chatter. Its hard being in the public eyes all the time. Its hard having your kids scrutinized. Its painful. But at the same time, you have to give them as normal a life as you possibly can. You have to allow them to be themselves and let them grow. Its just a kid playing dress-up, you know?  This is a tough gig sometimes. But I am incredibly fortunate, and so are my kids.

Its that kind of protectiveness for his kids that he shares with Ray, though his execution, hed like to think, is less harrowing.

With all the talk of how emotionally vexing playing Ray can be, does Schreiber think about the endgame? Only in terms of what he wants for his character when the credits roll, he says.

I want peace for him, thats really it, Schreiber says. He deserves it. Ive come to really love him as a character. I think there is something very Christ-like in many ways  that sense of he suffers for others and its noble, misguided, but noble. Theres something about him that I admire. Hes so lost and in so much pain. Hes in most every way not a role model, but theres something very sweet about him that makes me hope one day that he finds peace.

Then Schreiber gets to his current endgame as the interview wraps. He pulls out his phone, cues up Donny Hathaways rendition of John Lennons Jealous Guy to play over the homes sound system, and leans down to nuzzle his face against Ziggys.

Lets get to packing, he says.

------------

Ray Donovan

Where: Showtime

When: 9 p.m. Sunday

Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17)

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yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Twitter: @villarrealy
In Los Angeles, the traditional family home can have many configurations.

For 15 years, Jamie Klasfelds home base was the Sierra Towers high-rise condominium complex in West Hollywood.

Were from New York and liked apartment living, she says.

Still, she dreamed of a single-family home with a yard for her active family.

So when she and her family finally moved into a new 4,000-square-foot home in Studio City  their first  the artist was overcome with emotion.

Its like a dream, she says of the house she shares with her husband and their two children, Frankie, 11, and Duke, 7. When we lived in a tiny apartment in New York, we had a view of a wall.

After searching all over Los Angeles, the couple purchased a 1946 Tudor in desperate need of remodeling and hired designer Bryan Wark to draft something new.

Working with contractor Dana Benson, Wark proposed a simple and modern design based on Klasfelds vision board: A light-filled family compound influenced by the spare geometry of pioneering modernist architect Irving Gill.

The exterior of the house is classic Gill with smooth plaster walls, simple lines and a flat roof. But inside, Wark created an up-to-the-minute feel with 12-foot-high ceilings, warm woods, layers of white and board-form concrete walls.

Its a unique blend of a lot of different things that work seamlessly together, says Wark. Its a very Los Angeles house for right now.

Custom details include 8-foot-tall Hollywood Regency-style doors, delicate wallpaper based on Klasfelds artworks and custom steel windows and doors, powder-coated black and made in Tijuana. A floating wall, filled with firewood, doubles as a vestibule and niche, giving the crisp white walls of the living room a warm, organic feel.

In the kitchen, white walls blend with board-form concrete partitions, white porcelain tile and rustic wide-plank oak floors. At the expansive kitchen island, the kids can rest on bar stools and chat with Klasfeld as she cooks. And in a striking touch, the panel-ready refrigerator is covered in hand-scraped white oak panels that are installed in a chevron pattern.

"This is my dream kitchen," Klasfeld says.

Perhaps the biggest impression, though, comes from the colorful blue Moroccan tile that Klasfeld spotted in Elle Decor magazine.

I ripped the page out of the magazine years ago and saved it, she says. We searched the Internet and found the dealer in Belgium.

But not everything is custom. Whenever possible, Wark used thrifty furnishings: White laminate IKEA cabinets in the playroom, porcelain countertops in the kitchen instead of high-priced Carrara marble, bar stools from CB2 in the kitchen, and West Elm furnishings in Frankies room.

Relaxed yet refined, the finished project evokes a warmth that is undeniable.

Its a feeling that is not lost on Klasfeld, who anticipates that her first home may be her last.

I plan on hosting my grandkids here someday, she says with a smile.

With a careful eye to materials, finishes and color palette, designer Bryan Wark highlights what makes this house work so well:

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Warm woods

Jamie wanted the design to have an organic quality, to seamlessly integrate into its surroundings. The sense of indoor/outdoor California living was really important to her. We selected rustic wide-plank oak for the floors and hand-scraped Douglas fir for ceiling beams. The contrast of warm woods set against crisp white walls created balance and a serene setting for all of the furnishings.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Contrasting black and white

Contrasting black and white is prevalent throughout the home. Interior doors are tall Regency style and lacquered black. The exterior doors and windows are all custom made out of steel and powder coated in black. With the expanse of white walls, I really like the way black creates definition in an open floor plan, delineating and punctuating space. Its a timeless combination I never tire of using.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Shades of white

Every single wall in the house is white but a combination of different whites. Each was chosen based on the light of the room, a whisper of gray or a touch of pink. The house is so full of natural light that the walls change color depending on the time of day.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

A dazzling shot of blue

I designed the kitchen around the tiles. I hate the term bohemian chic but admit that cultural elements, whether Moroccan or East African, give a home an organic feel. If I had to call it something Id call it Modern Moroccan. One of the reasons I love the house is it is unadorned with white walls and simple black window frames. Thats what makes the tiles stand out. Its a pop of color that works.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Bold brass

Almost all of the plumbing fixtures and hardware are brass but finished differently. We used un-lacquered brass so some elements would patina over time and satin brass where we wanted the finish to remain static. It warms up the overall design.

lisa.boone@latimes.com

Twitter: @lisaboone19

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Amid recent speculation about the fate of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi, U.S. officials were quick to say they had no idea whether Baghdadi was dead or alive.

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, nevertheless, told reporters the deaths of such extremist leaders inevitably represent substantial blows against the groups.

To take out leaders of these kind of organizations always has an organizational impact, Mattis said during a July 14 news conference. It has an impact.  It always does in war.

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Killing leaders of terrorist groups has been a centerpiece of U.S. counter-terrorism strategy at least since President George W. Bush launched the war on terror in 2001.

The number of military strikes against terrorist leaders increased and expanded under President Obamas administration with the killing of both senior and junior terrorist leaders in places including Pakistan, Yemen and Iraq. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, for example, was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2011.

Analysts dont expect the policy of targeting militant leaders to change under the Trump administration.

But many analysts also say that while removing leaders may hurt militant groups, there are numerous examples of new leadership taking charge and continuing their missions. In some instances, analysts said, killing terrorist leaders fueled even more violence.

The prevailing wisdom has been for a long time that taking out terrorist leaders helps to destabilize their groups, said Jenna Jordan, assistant professor of International Affairs at Georgia Tech, who is writing a book on the subject. But its unlikely to diminish a large terrorist groups activities in the long run.

Many analysts say that even if Baghdadi were dead, Islamic State has shown an ability over the years to turn to different leaders and maintain a mission of extremism and sectarianism in Iraq and Syria.

Several groups have remained potent enough to recruit members and carry out attacks, experts said.

In Somalia and parts of Kenya, for instance, the Shabab, an Al Qaeda-linked extremist group, carried out attacks killing scores of people in 2016 despite having been hit by government strikes that resulted in a weakened leadership.

On Friday, the U.S. military confirmed that an airstrike killed Ali Mohamed Hussein, a high-level commander from the extremist group blamed for planning attacks in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

Al Qaeda has lost key leaders besides Bin Laden over the years. In 2006, the leader of Al Qaedas Iraq branch, Abu Musab Zarqawi, was killed in a targeted U.S. strike. This year, a U.S. drone strike killed the second-ranking Al Qaeda official in Syria, Abu Khayr Masri.

Nevertheless, the groups presence in the Arabian Peninsula continues to threaten Yemen, the Gulf region and U.S. forces, according to the State Departments 2016 country report on terrorism. Al Qaeda is a militant group largely based in Pakistan but with affiliated groups in Yemen, Somalia and Egypt. Its goal is to drive Western influence out of the Middle East and enforce a strict interpretation of sharia law.

The State Department report, released July 19, also found that despite losing key senior figures and a significant amount of territory in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State remains one of the most capable terrorist organizations in the world.

Although the U.S. has killed several Al Qaeda leaders throughout the years, the slayings dont appear to have significantly reduced the militant groups capabilities long-term, said Bruce Hoffman, director of security studies at Georgetown University and author of the book Inside Terrorism.

Hoffmans research focuses on the effectiveness of U.S. targeted killings of Al Qaeda leaders. His research suggests that while killing Al Qaeda leaders might have temporarily prevented the group from carrying out attacks, it continues to remain a threat.

Some analysts point to two main variables when determining the effectiveness of killing terrorist leaders: how much popular support the leaders group has from sympathizers or civilians living under its rule, and the groups bureaucratic organizational structure.

In some cases, analysts say, the death of an Al Qaeda or Islamic State leader could have a martyrdom effect, meaning it could inspire sympathy for the terrorist group and help recruit more members.

Jordan said the more a terrorist group operates like a bureaucracy, the more likely it is to withstand disruption to its leadership and experience a smooth succession.

Islamic State has standard operational procedures that makes it function like a state, Jordan said. If Baghdadi is dead they know who is going to step in, just like a firm has a succession mechanism in place.

In some cases, scholars say decapitation strikes can increase violence if the slain leader was an inspirational figure or if the targeted killing resulted in civilian deaths.

In the early 2000s, for example, Israeli officials led a targeted killing campaign against Hamas leaders, which resulted in public outcry and retaliatory attacks against Israelis. The killing of Hamas leaders also helped to decentralize the group. While that may disrupt another group from controlling its members, Jordan said it made defeating Hamas more difficult for Israel.

Jordan said religious terrorist groups tend to be the most resilient even after their senior leadership gets killed. She found that the odds of an Islamist terrorist group carrying out attacks the year after a senior leader was killed was more than two times higher than non-Islamist groups.

Religious terrorist groups are stable because the ideology of these groups are not dependent on a leader for reproduction, Jordan said. Osama bin Laden, for example, was successful at broadening Al Qaedas appeal because the groups belief went beyond any leader.

Brian Jenkins, a counter-terrorism expert and senior advisor to the president of Rand Corp., said targeted killings can be useful in some instances against smaller terrorist groups. Terrorist leaders bring skills and talents central to the groups ability to function, Jenkins said, which arent always easily replaceable.

Leadership is a precious commodity, and terrorist groups have limited talent unless its a gigantic movement, Jenkins said, So a group that doesnt have as charismatic or a skilled leader may not be able to operate at the same level of effectiveness.

Some experts say removing terrorist leaders has helped governments defeat insurgent organizations or smaller extremist groups. Still, history shows terrorist groups can avoid being fully dismantled by removal of its leaders.

For example, Perus Shining Path rebel group, which sought to overthrow the Peruvian government in the 1990s, was significantly weakened when its leader, Abimael Guzman, was captured in 1992 and sent to prison. The Peruvian government and some scholars praised the capture as an example of how taking out terrorist leaders could result in the end of the group, but in recent years Shining Path has made a comeback.

In some ways, Jenkins said, killing terrorist leaders provides governments with a low-risk and easily identifiable metric to demonstrate to the public what its doing to battle terrorist groups.

Theres the need to show the public that something can be done, Jenkins said. And it also sends a message to terrorists that they arent immune.

melissa.etehad@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad

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Good morning. Im Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017. July and the first few days of August have been miserable weather-wise in Los Angeles, but it could be worse  in fact, if you live in Death Valley, its much, much worse. Lets take a look back at the week in Opinion.

President Trump paints a lurid picture of life in minority-heavy communities. He famously called our inner cities a disaster during a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton , and at rallies attended mainly by white Americans, he has recklessly insinuated that daring to so much as walk through certain neighborhoods is too great a risk for his supporters to take.

But the numbers, according to crime researcher Mike Males, show the opposite to be true. In fact, the president would do his white supporters a favor if he told them to spend more time in places that have higher minority populations:

The white Americans who are safest from such deaths are those who live in racially diverse areas such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, where two-thirds of residents are nonwhite, where millions of immigrants live, and where voters favored Hillary Clinton in 2016. Nonwhites also are safer in these areas overall, though rates vary by location. White Americans are nearly eight times more likely to die from illicit-drug overdoses than murder, the CDC statistics show, a proportion that undoubtedly reflects the heroin and opiate epidemic. But according to FBI data for 2015, when whites are murdered anywhere in the country, the murderer is five times more likely to be white than nonwhite. (This ratio counts only murder cases in which information about the offender is known by law enforcement.) Overall, white Americans who live in predominantly white and Trump-voting counties are 50% more likely to die from murder, gun violence and drug overdoses than whites who live in the most diverse and Democratic-voting counties. The more white and Republican a county is, the greater the risk for white Americans. Whites are so much safer where there are fewer whites and Republicans, in fact, that it raises the question of what exactly underlies this strong correlation between white safety and voting patterns. ... California can serve as an illustrative example of how safety increases with greater diversity. Five out of six white Americans in California now live in counties where whites are a minority. (Nationwide, this is true of only one in six white Americans.) White residents of California are generally safer from murder, gun killings and illicit-drug overdoses than whites elsewhere. Overall, the states crime rate is near a historic low. California experienced political uproar over demographic change in the 1980s and 1990s, and the state generated the same anti-immigrant, tough-on-crime, racist panic that Trump and some Republican politicians are now fomenting. >> Click here to read more

Trump thinks Vladimir Putin is an admirable world leader. Thats Max Boots takeaway from the U.S. presidents refusal to push back against Moscows expulsion of more than 300 Americans in retaliation for the latest round of sanctions. Also from the dizzying week in Trumpland, editorial writer Michael McGough warns of the precedent set by leaking the presidents phone conversations with world leaders, The Times Editorial Board does not find much comfort in Trumps signing off on new Russia sanctions and law professor Anthony J. Colangelo has advice for any military officer who might need to disobey an order from the White House to use nuclear weapons.

Remember all those left-wing pundits drooling over socialism in Venezuela? James Kirchick does, and he has harsh words for those who praised the late Hugo Chavez when the going seemed good in the now-failing state: In the form of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the world has a petri dish in which to judge the sort of policies endorsed by [British journalist Owen] Jones, [Naomi] Klein, British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, homegrown socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and countless other deluded utopians. L.A. Times

Michelle Carter deserves help, not prison. Amanda Knox does not believe Carter deserved to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, a charge normally leveled at drunk drivers and, say, carnival ride operators whose recklessness leads to the death of innocents, not teens who encourage their mentally troubled ex-partners to commit suicide. Knox, who was cast as a femme fatale in her murder trial in Italy, also says she watched Carters trial with a sickening sense of deja vu. L.A. Times

Opioid addiction is ravaging West Virginia, and a Trump panels recommendations wont help. Cassady Rosemblum writes of the unnerving experience of visiting her childhood home in West Virginia, where many of the people she played with as children have since overdosed or grown up to find themselves dependent on opioids. She is not reassured by what the White House commission hopes to do for states like West Virginia: Drug em up, make big Pharma richer, and blame China. It certainly sounds like a Trump commission, but it doesnt sound like a plan. The people of West Virginia, and our country, deserve better. L.A. Times

Thanks, Grover Cleveland, for ruining the American cruise industry. Ever wonder why you can board a cruise ship in Long Beach and sail to Ensenada, Mexico, but not San Diego? A law signed in 1886 that required ships sailing between two American ports to be built in the United States was intended to help U.S. workers, but it has had the opposite effect. L.A. Times

Reach me: paul.thornton@latimes.com
Yibi Heras was standing at the sink of her modest East Oakland home one early morning in February when she noticed some cars driving slowly past. The neighbors raise chickens and ducks, which sometimes escape the yard. She figured the cars were slowing down for animals in the road.

A few minutes later, she saw seven men standing in front of her house, and just after that, she heard a knock on a kitchen window next to her refrigerator. Her partner, Maguiber Ramos, had just gotten into bed, having returned around 4 a.m. from his job cleaning restaurants.

I got scared, Heras told me Thursday morning. I thought it was a gang or robbers.

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We sat in her kitchen, as two of her three children scrambled around, looking for snacks, playing with their Chihuahua puppy Mena. Two alarmingly large turtles, Marta and Patricio, swam around a small fish tank next to the sink.

She woke Ramos, who thought the men were in the wrong place. They opened the kitchen door, and two men, who identified themselves as police, said Ramos car had been involved in a hit-and-run accident. Could he come outside?

Must be a mistake, Ramos told Heras. The car had been parked for three days. They beckoned him outside to show the registration.

I told him, If you didnt do anything, why dont you just go out and show them? Heras said.

OK, he told her, as he walked out the door. I put my life in the hands of God.

As soon as he showed the cars registration, he was handcuffed. Their fourth child is due Sept. 6, and Heras has not seen Ramos since.

Maguiber Ramos, the childrens father, is in jail awaiting a bond hearing in immigration court. (Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times)

The men who came for Ramos were not police. They were officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Its not clear why they targeted him.

His attorney thinks its because Ramos had recently finished a 10-day community service stint after pleading guilty to a reckless driving charge stemming from a traffic stop in July 2016.

Weve noticed a lot more people getting picked up by ICE who have been released from criminal custody on pending charges  something minor like DUI or petty theft, said Lisa Knox, his lawyer. She works at Centro Legal de la Raza, which provides services to low-income immigrants.

They get released from county jail, and immigration will pick them up, she said. We suspect the Sheriffs Department is sharing information with ICE about people  potential non-citizens  who are released from their custody.

(In February, the East Bay Express reported that the Alameda County Sheriffs Department routinely notifies ICE of release times for certain inmates. Knox suspects that ICE was alerted about Ramos even though his community service had been completed.)

Ramos only other brush with the law was in 2008, shortly after he had turned 18. He was arrested while sitting in a car with a friend in Santa Clara County, and pleaded guilty to being under the influence of cocaine. He was deported to Guatemala when Heras was pregnant with Kevin, their eldest child, who is 9, has cerebral palsy and cannot walk.

Two years later, in 2010, Ramos made his way back to Oakland. He reunited with Heras, and they had two more children, Gabriela, 5, and Christopher, 3.

For the last six months, Ramos, 27, who worked three jobs to support the family, has been held at Contra Costa County Jails West Detention Center. Because of his earlier deportation, he can be held for up to six months with no hearing. Knox told me he is scheduled to be in San Francisco immigration court on Aug. 24.

At that point, he will either be released (maybe unconditionally, maybe in exchange for bond, maybe with instructions to check in with immigration officials periodically, maybe with an ankle bracelet), or be kept in jail and allowed to request a bond hearing in another six months.

Eventually, he could be deported again to Guatemala, which he left, said Knox, to get away from violent gangs.

Knox is going to request that the government drop the case.

It is not a good use of government resources to keep prosecuting this father of three  soon to be four  with a minimum criminal record who has done nothing but contribute to the community since hes gotten here. It does not serve the public interest to tear that family apart.

No, it really doesnt. Scream all you like about illegal immigration, but honestly, removing a man like this from his family only costs taxpayers in the end. Its short sighted and counter-productive.

Yibi Heras with her three children on their porch in East Oakland. (Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times)

As Heras, 32, and I were talking, with the help of a translator, Kevin crawled into the kitchen. His mother lifted him into a little wheelchair. He is a first-generation child of impoverished immigrants, a U.S. citizen just like his siblings, and so far, the only bilingual member of his family. How many of you have parents or grandparents who started out just like Kevin?

You must feel exceptionally American, I told him. I thought maybe that was too sophisticated a concept for a kid going into fourth grade, but he considered it for a moment.

Ummm. I really dont think about that, he said. It doesnt matter which country you are from. It matters what kind of person you are.

The problem with our unforgiving immigration system  particularly in the era of President Trump, but under President Obama as well  is that there is so little room for compassion, for the idea of paying ones debt, being forgiven and moving on.

In the immigration context, Knox said, you are your worst mistake, even a minor mistake or a youthful mistake.

Snorting cocaine at 18, pleading guilty to reckless driving nine years later. Should a hard-working immigrant father of four American citizens be deported for that?

This is not who we are, people. We are better than this.

More columns 

For more on politics 

Get more of Robin Abcarians work and follow her on Twitter @AbcarianLAT

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When scientists confirmed their existence in the San Gabriel River in 2008, the green sea turtles were thought to be oddballs or lost wanderers.

The federally endangered species usually is found in tropical haunts  amid coral reefs or on the sandy beaches where they lay eggs. But this colony was cavorting in the southern end of the river, where the flood control channels tainted urban runoff mixes with tidal flows in the shadows of electric power plants and the 405 Freeway.

With each massive turtle that poked its grapefruit-size head above the murky water for a gulp of air came questions.

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How many were there? What were they eating? Were they adapting to the challenges the two-mile-long, 100-yard-wide channel between the cities of Long Beach and Seal Beach presented: fishing hooks, motorboats, illegal dumping and tons of garbage that washes in every time it rains?

After years of monitoring their behavior and tracking their movements, federal scientists  assisted by a small army of volunteers organized by the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority  are coming up with answers to some of the riddles the turtles pose.

AES power plant on Studebaker along the San Gabriel River in Long Beach. Sea turtles are attracted to warm discharge waters from the plant as well as from a LADWP generating station on the south bank of the river. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The green sea turtles in the San Gabriel River are thriving, said Dan Lawson, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. Over the past decade, weve seen about 100 of them in the river and in nearby Alamitos Bay, Anaheim Bay, Huntington Harbor and the Naval Weapons Station.

But theyd be a lot happier if our regulatory agencies did a better job of controlling trash in the river, he said.

The colony, according to experts, is composed of juveniles hatched off central Mexico, where the population is increasing thanks to nesting beach protections and a reduction in poaching. Exactly when they arrived, or if they traveled together or as individuals, remains unknown.

The turtles range in size from a sheet of notebook paper to 100-pounders and eat almost anything they can clamp their mouths on  including snails in the river and eel grass in the estuaries of the Naval Weapons Station.

An analysis of tissue and shell samples conducted by Arthur Barraza as part of his graduate work in marine biology at Cal State Long Beach showed relatively low levels of toxic heavy metals and carcinogenic substances.

These turtles are fairly healthy, at least right now, he said. Contaminants accumulate in their tissues over time, and their harmful effects can initially be subtle and hard to detect.

The good news about the turtles health is offset, however, by the sight of them having to navigate through rotting garbage, discarded shopping carts, tires, plastic bottles and bags.

Mike Kaspar, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, said the agency was in the process of cleaning up that portion of the river right now.

L.A. County Department of Public Works employees use a boat to collect trash from the San Gabriel River in Seal Beach. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Standing recently on a slanting concrete wall as sea turtles surfaced in the foamy current and county crews picked up trash onshore, Cassandra Davis of the aquariums San Gabriel River Sea Turtle Monitoring Project was hopeful.

We have the ability to transform this unlikely habitat into an urban oasis for wildlife, including Los Angeles resident sea turtles, she said. So we ought to do that, because they deserve better than this.

A sea turtle pokes his head above water in the San Gabriel River near the 405 Freeway overpass in Seal Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

@LouisSahagun

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Far from their prestigious campuses, a Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford finance officer were jailed in the San Francisco area Saturday after eight days as fugitives sought in the death of a young hairdresser in Chicago stabbed repeatedly, police said.

The Northwestern microbiologist, Wyndham Lathem, had a personal relationship with the victim, although the nature of it wasnt clear, police said.

Lathem, 42, was being held without bail in Alameda County and faced a court appearance in the city of Pleasanton. The other suspect, Andrew Warren, a treasury assistant at one of Oxfords residential colleges in England, was being held at the county jail in San Francisco.

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Both men surrendered separately and peacefully in the Bay Area on Friday evening.

They had been fugitives since the body of 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found in Lathems Chicago apartment on July 27.

Police said Lathem had a relationship with Cornell-Duranleau, who moved to Chicago from the Grand Rapids, Mich., area after receiving his cosmetology license. They have not elaborated on how Cornell-Duranleau or Lathem knew Warren, or if Warren knew them before he arrived in the United States.

Chicago police said Warren was 56; he was booked into jail as age 49.

A deputy U.S. marshal said Lathems surrender came after fast-paced negotiations through an attorney that led to the fugitive turning himself in at the federal courthouse in Oakland.

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Conroy told the Associated Press that the telephone negotiations began late Friday afternoon and that Lathem arrived by car at the courthouse that evening.

No guns were drawn, but Lathem was ordered to carefully step out of the vehicle and was taken into custody in a courtyard area, Conroy said.

According to Conroy, Lathem stated that he would not answer questions on the advice of a lawyer, and no questions were asked.

Police said Lathem had sent a video to friends and relatives apologizing for his involvement in the crime, which he called the biggest mistake of my life. The video raised concern among investigators that Lathem might kill himself.

We are also thankful both men are safely in custody and this did not end in further tragedy, a police statement said.

Warren arrived in the United States three days before Cornell-Duranleaus death. He and Lathem were seen in surveillance video leaving Lathems high-rise apartment building the day of the stabbing.

In a bizarre twist, police said that on that same day, before the body had been discovered, Lathem and Warren drove about 80 miles northwest to Lake Geneva, Wis., where one of them made a $1,000 cash donation to the public library in Cornell-Duranleaus name. Lake Geneva police said the man making the donation did not give his name.

Ive never seen where suspects in a homicide would make a donation in the victims name, said Lake Geneva police Lt. Edward Gritzner.

On the night of the slaying, police said the front desk of the building where Lathem lived in Chicagos trendy River North neighborhood received an anonymous call from a person who said that a crime had been committed in Lathems 10th-floor apartment. When police opened the door, they found Cornell-Duranleaus body.

Police also said that by the time they found the body on the night of July 27, Cornell-Duranleau had been dead for 12 to 15 hours.

Cornell-Duranleaus mother, Charlotte Cornell, didnt immediately reply to an email requesting comment on the arrests.
Two San Diego County sheriffs court services deputies fatally shot a man they were trying to evict from his apartment near downtown San Diego Friday morning, authorities said.

The 47-year-old man, who had told the deputies he would shoot them if they came inside, retrieved a replica handgun from his room when the deputies forced their way into the home, said San Diego Police Department homicide Lt. Mike Holden.

My impression is that it happened fairly quickly, Holden said of the violent confrontation.

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The mans name was not released.

He said San Diego Sheriffs Department deputies went to the two-story apartment building on Second Avenue, south of Hawthorn Street, about 7:50 a.m. to serve the eviction notice. Holden did not know why the man was being evicted.

Deputies knocked on the mans door, identified themselves and announced their intention to evict him, Holden said.

The man answered through a security door that if they entered, he would kill them, Holden said. The deputies pried open the locked door and went in anyway. The man ran into his bedroom and came out holding the replica handgun.

After he was shot, the man ran back into his bedroom, where deputies found him suffering from several gunshot wounds. They started first aid until paramedics arrived and took him to a hospital, Holden said.

Investigators later recovered either an airsoft or a BB air pistol in the bedroom, Holden said.

He said that in the early stages of the investigation, it appears the man did not fire the weapon.

No one else was in the apartment at the time.

Mike Minier, who lives several blocks away, said he was walking his dog when he noticed the flashing lights of a sheriffs patrol car and turned south on Second Avenue to take a closer look.

He said the deputies thought the weapon was a semi-automatic handgun.

Both deputies fired, striking the man several times. Medics took him to a trauma center, where he died. The deputies were not injured.

Repard writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Four people, including two children, were killed in a chain-reaction crash on the 10 Freeway in Fontana on Friday afternoon, and police are trying to determine if drunk driving was a factor, officials said.

A man driving a Nissan Frontier slammed into the rear of a Honda sedan that had pulled to the shoulder of the freeway near Cherry Avenue around 12:35 p.m., said Officer Jesus Garcia, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrols Rancho Cucamonga office.

Two children in the Honda were killed, Garcia said. A woman who was standing outside the vehicle and a man who had pulled over to help the people in the Honda, which had overheated, were also killed, according to Garcia.

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It was not clear if the Nissan struck all four victims, or if the force of the collision caused the Honda to strike the adults. The male victim, whom Garcia described as a good Samaritan, was hit with such force he was thrown over a wall at the edge of the highway.

Investigators found beer cans inside the Nissan and are investigating the crash as a possible drunken driving incident.

All four victims died at the scene, said Ryan Vaccaro, a public information officer with the San Bernardino County Fire Department. A female passenger from the Honda and the driver of the Nissan were taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton with minor injuries, Vaccaro said.

Officials were unable to provide the ages of the children who were killed. Investigators believe the woman who was killed was their grandmother.

The suspect was not identified, Garcia said.

james.queally@latimes.com

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A history professor at Fresno State University who tweeted that President Trump must hang will not be returning to teach in the fall.

University President Joseph Castro said in a statement Friday that Lars Maischak, an American history instructor, wouldnt be teaching when classes resume.

But Castro said two of Maischaks courses would be converted to an online format to fulfill a contractual obligation.

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Castro said Maischaks contractual assignment expires on December 20, 2017. Maischaks three-year contract runs through May 2018.

He had taken a voluntary leave of absence after apologizing for the tweet he wrote in April.

It said: To save American democracy, Trump must hang. The sooner and the higher, the better.

Far-right websites such as Breitbart News highlighted the tweet, sparking angry calls on social media for the professor to be fired.

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Los Angeles police detectives Saturday were investigating the fatal shooting of a Venice man by an officer responding to a domestic violence call.

LAPD officials said the man was armed with an assault rifle when officers confronted him at his Venice Boulevard residence Friday night.

The officer who fired the shot had gone to the home with a partner around 8:30 p.m. in response to a call to keep the peace, Sgt. Barry Montgomery told reporters at the scene of the shooting.

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Upon their arrival, they were met by a female outside who stated the suspect was in the residence destroying property, Montgomery said.

The officers approached the front door and saw the man inside with the weapon, and that is when the shooting occurred, he said.

Lt. Titus Tyler said the man, who was not identified, was taken by ambulance to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he died.

The rifle was recovered, Tyler said, and an investigation was underway.

In another Westside police shooting Friday, Santa Monica officers wounded a homicide suspect fleeing arrest.

The man fatally shot an acquaintance around 6:30 p.m. and then pointed his gun at officers pursuing him, according to a police spokesman.

The suspect fired several shots, and the officers returned fire, Santa Monica Police Lt. Saul Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the 47-year-old was hit once in the torso. After being treated at a hospital for his injuries, he was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and illegal gun possession.

Police did not identify the suspect or his alleged victim.

harriet.ryan@latimes.com

@latimesharriet

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The Boston Globe reported this week that for the first time in Harvard Universitys 381-year history, the majority of the students offered admission are not white.

The Washington Post and BBC published their own version of the story, which took off on social media.

The story is correct that 50.8% of the students admitted are minorities. But it is not the first time. In fact, the proportion is down slightly from 51.4% last year.

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The data are released each spring and published in the official Harvard Gazette.

Of the 2,056 candidates offered admission this year, Asian Americans comprise 22.2%, followed by African Americans at 14.6%, Latinos at 11.6%, Native Americans at 1.9% and Native Hawaiians at 0.5%.

Of the 2,037 admitted last year, the breakdown was 22.1% Asian American, 14% African American, 12.7% Latino, 2.2% Native American and 0.4% Native Hawaiian.

Harvard spokeswoman Rachael Dane said the numbers in the Gazette were accurate. She declined to comment on the various reports hailing Harvards minority admission numbers as record-setting this year.

At least some other Ivy League schools also made the majority of their admissions offers to non-white students, including Princeton and Cornell.

Staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.

ann.simmons@latimes.com

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melissa.etehad@latimes.com

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How soon they forget. In the months leading up to the March election, Los Angeles leaders were on the defensive. A slow-growth ballot measure was picking up steam, pay-to-play allegations were swirling around City Hall and several city council members were running for re-election against challengers who pledged to take no campaign cash from developers.

Five City Council members decided to make a bold pronouncement: They proposed to ban campaign contributions from developers seeking city approval for their projects.

The proposal, introduced in January, called for the city Ethics Commission to create an ordinance that would prohibit contributions from developers with projects currently or recently before city decision makers. If that wasnt possible because of free-speech protections, the council members asked for other ways to limit the opportunities for corruption, such as requiring elected officials to recuse themselves from a land-use decision if they have accepted donations from the developer.

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The best way to restore trust in government is to avoid even the appearance of a conflict, Councilman David Ryu said at the time. Ryu already rejects developer contributions voluntarily.

Since then, however, voters have rejected the slow-growth Neighborhood Integrity Initiative and re-elected council incumbents, while the proposal to ban developer contributions has gone nowhere. In fact, the proposal hasnt even had a single hearing at City Hall, the Times reported. Council President Herb Wesson might schedule a first discussion in his committee by the end of the year. Maybe.

Of course, many council members never wanted to move forward with such a ban anyway. Real estate interests are a reliable source of campaign contributions, and elected officials are loath to turn away money they could use not just on their re-election bids, but also on office expenses and trips. Besides, city politicians insist, they never let campaign contributions influence their vote on a development.

Even if you believe that the mayor and City Council manage to ignore political contributions when making decisions, the mere exchange of money between people seeking city approval and the people granting it creates the perception of a quid pro quo. That fuels community distrust with the entire land-use and development-approval process, and makes it harder to have a reasonable discussion on how and where to build more homes to address the citys housing shortage.

Faced with the threat of the draconian Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, which would have imposed a two-year moratorium on certain development projects, Mayor Eric Garcetti and the council committed to reforming the planning and land-use system. The city is starting to modernize its outdated General Plan, which is its vision for growth. The council voted to require community plans to be updated every six years, which should reduce the need to grant developers spot zoning exemptions from existing land-use rules. The council also voted to bar developers from picking their own consultants to produce traffic studies and environmental impact reports.

Those steps are necessary but not sufficient. The mayor and City Council need to take pay-to-play  perceived or otherwise  out of the citys development process.

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California has 58 county governments, each with its own payroll  and some of those payrolls are huge. Los Angeles County, for example, employs more than 100,000 people, which comes to about one county worker for every 100 residents.

Counties generally do a lot of contracting as well, usually for expertise or skill needed just for time-limited projects. Boards of supervisors ought to make decisions to hire or contract out based on what will best serve their constituents, but public employee unions and their rivals in the contracting sector try to influence those decisions by offering (or withholding) campaign contributions. Their relative power varies from county to county, but the unions generally have the more organized political clout. Ultimately it falls to voters to decide whether their elected supervisors are budgeting, hiring and contracting responsibly and to reelect them, or oust them, as the circumstances warrant. Its not a perfect system, but for the most part, it works.

Now public labor unions are trying to get a bigger slice of the pie by prevailing on their friends in Sacramento to carry legislation that would severely limit the power of counties to contract out for services. AB 1250, sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and authored by Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), easily passed in the Assembly in June and will come before the Senate when the Legislature reconvenes later this month. The bill, which ostensibly seeks to block counties from shifting work to contractors unless doing so really saves money, would effectively compel supervisors to pad county payrolls and would limit their options to contract with experts in particular fields.

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Sacramento lawmakers should not impose a one-size-fits all rule that strips local supervisors ... of their power to make their own staffing decisions.

It doesnt always make sense for county work to be done in-house. For example, L.A. County employs physicians, mental health experts and social workers to alleviate homelessness, but to be effective they must be supported by thousands of contract agencies that offer workers with expertise in housing and other services. The same is true of other human services, such as those for offenders newly released from jail, not to mention environmental, maintenance and data services.

SEIU and other public employee unions pushed similar bills in recent years to gain an unfair advantage over contractors at the University of California and the state courts. Those bills made it to Gov. Jerry Browns desk but fortunately were vetoed.

Instead of sending this one on to the governor, the Senate should note that there is even less of a contracting problem to solve in counties than there was at UC or in the courts, both of which are statewide systems in which the public has only marginal or indirect oversight. Each county, by contrast, is managed by a board of supervisors that answers directly to local voters. The payroll-contracting ratio is a function of local needs, as it should be. Sacramento lawmakers should not impose a one-size-fits all rule that strips local supervisors  and voters  of their power to make their own staffing decisions.

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To the editor: Two California imams have drawn criticism for fiery sermons calling on Allah to annihilate and destroy the Jews. (Riverside imam draws criticism for fiery sermons, July 31)

Although they apologized for the remarks after they were caught, I find it hard to believe that this is the first time they preached such fiery sermons.

Have any of the members of the mosque quit and sought a more moderate mosque with more moderate leadership? Has the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the remarks in no uncertain terms?

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It is time for moderate Muslims to join the Jews.

David Goodwin, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: I am outraged at the portrayal of Muslims hating people of the Jewish faith. That is neither my experience nor the experience of our Orange County community.

I am Jewish and a member of the American Muslim Womens Empowerment Council. Our goal is bringing together interfaith women. We work hand in hand with community/nation leaders, law enforcement and interfaith. We promote peace, building cultural bridges and embracing diversity.

That is the Muslim community I know; these imams language leads to anger, hate and violence. It does not represent the majority of the Muslim people.

Dinah Frieden, Irvine

..

To the editor: Unfortunately, many of us are no longer surprised that sermons such as Imam Mahmoud Harmoush delivered recently was filled with hate and anti-Semitism.

What seems missing in the two stories on this subject recently is the unstated response of the congregation to such spewed hatred.

Warren Larson, Sunland

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
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.
Trump promotes sons Justice with Judge Jeanine interview President Trump promoted via Twitter an interview with his son Eric Trump just before it aired Saturday night on Fox News Justice with Judge Jeanine. Eric Trump on @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews now!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 Eric Trump called into the show to defend his father from criticism prompted by the first government shutdown in more than four years, as well as a series of Womens March events that saw protesters in dozens of cities take to the streets to oppose the presidents policies. .@EricTrump joined me over the phone from Mar-a-Lago ! pic.twitter.com/Hro3TzUW52  Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) January 21, 2018 Speaking to host Jeannine Piro  who is reportedly an old friend of the presidents  Eric Trump offered effusive praise for his father, ticking off glowing statistics to illustrate the strength of the U.S. economy and gains against Islamic State fighters overseas. My fathers working like no ones ever worked before to bring back this country and to fulfill his promise to make America great again, said the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He also repeated a sentiment recently expressed on Twitter by his father: That Democratic lawmakers forced a government shutdown on the anniversary of the presidents inauguration in a bid to distract from his achievements. You look at this whole government shutdown, and the only reason they want to shut down government is to distract and to stop his momentum, Eric Trump said. I mean, my father has had incredible momentum. Hes gotten more done in one year than arguably any president in history. Facebook

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Trump tweets: a perfect day for all Women to March President Trump hailed the nationwide Womens March gatherings Saturday. On Twitter, the president called it a perfect day for all Women to March, seeming to imply that those taking part were celebrating his administrations accomplishments: Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Participants in the marches across the United States were actually seeking to deliver a powerful rebuke to Trumps policies and mount a crucial mobilization for this years midterm elections. But Trump continued to tout his administrations unprecedented success in tweets sent later in the day: Unprecedented success for our Country, in so many ways, since the Election. Record Stock Market, Strong on Military, Crime, Borders, & ISIS, Judicial Strength & Numbers, Lowest Unemployment for Women & ALL, Massive Tax Cuts, end of Individual Mandate - and so much more. Big 2018!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The Trump Administration has terminated more UNNECESSARY Regulation, in just twelve months, than any other Administration has terminated during their full term in office, no matter what the length. The good news is, THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 In addition to the roll call of major American cities where womens marches took place  including New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta  protesters also raised their voices in suburbs and small towns, reflecting the aim of coalescing a broad-based movement on the anniversary of Trumps inauguration to oppose the presidents stance on immigration, healthcare, racial divides and an array of other issues. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Trump calls shutdown a present from Democrats By Associated Press President Trump is blaming Democrats for the government shutdown  tweeting that they wanted to give him a nice present to mark the one-year anniversary of his inauguration: This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 That comes after Senate Democrats late Friday killed a GOP-written House-passed measure that would have kept agencies functioning for four weeks. Democrats were seeking a stopgap bill of just a few days in hopes that would build pressure on Republicans, and they were opposing a three-week alternative offered by GOP leaders. Democrats have insisted they would back legislation reopening the government once theres a bipartisan agreement to preserve protections against deporting about 700,000 immigrants  known as Dreamers  who arrived in the United States illegally as children. Trump on Saturday accused Democrats of holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration: Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Cant let that happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Democrats are laying fault for the shutdown on Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have struggled with building internal consensus. In a series of tweets hours after the shutdown began, the president tried to make the case for Americans to elect more Republicans to Congress in November in order to power through this mess: Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 He noted that there are 51 Republicans in the 100-member Senate, and it often takes 60 votes to advance legislation: For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 #AMERICA FIRST!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The stopgap spending measure won 50 votes in the Senate, including five from Democrats. Although the House and Senate were in session Saturday, it was unclear whether lawmakers would take any votes of consequence. Trump had been set to leave Friday afternoon for a fundraiser at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where he intended to mark the inauguration anniversary. But he remained in Washington and ended up scrapping his plans to attend the Saturday fundraiser. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet casts doubt on likelihood of averting shutdown President Trump appeared to cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown Friday night in a tweet. Trump also sought to blame Democrats for what would be the first shutdown since 2013. His message came just hours before the midnight deadline by which lawmakers must pass a measure to fund government agencies, or some operations will cease. Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Despite last-minute negotiations Friday between Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Congress remained deadlocked over a spending bill and the federal government was headed toward a shutdown at midnight. Senate Democrats  joined by some GOP deficit hawks and immigration allies  were set to filibuster a stopgap funding bill approved by the House on Thursday. A Senate vote was planned for 10 p.m. Eastern, and even White House officials predicted it would fail. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Lisa Mascaro. Facebook

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Trump signs surveillance law after confusing tweets By Associated Press President Trump on Friday signed a bill into law to renew a foreign intelligence surveillance program, announcing his action in the latest in a series of confusing tweets about the spy program: Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection. This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2018 Trumps tweet on Jan. 11 created chaos in the House just before it voted to reauthorize what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He linked the intelligence program to a dossier that alleges his presidential campaign had ties to Russia. That caused people to wonder if he didnt support the program that allows U.S. spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad. Trump and other Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials improperly shared the identities of Trump presidential transition team members mentioned in intelligence reports. Democrats say there is no evidence that happened. Shortly before the House vote, and after conferring with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump did an apparent about-face. This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land, he tweeted. We need it! Get smart! In his tweet announcing that he had just signed the bill, Trump wrote: This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first! There are no obvious links between the dossier Trump spoke of, which includes salacious but unsubstantiated allegations against him, and the reauthorization of the spying program, or between the program and Trumps oft-repeated claims that the Obama administration conducted surveillance on Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests that Pennsylvania trip is a political one The White House press office was once again forced to walk back a tweet from President Trump on Thursday morning after he described a trip to Pennsylvania later in the day as a political one  a statement that would force the Republican Party, not taxpayers, to pay for the journey. The White House had said Trump was going to an industrial equipment company outside of Pittsburgh to highlight the good economy and new tax cuts, making it an official, policy-oriented event. It was widely assumed that the trip had a political cast  the area is holding a special election to fill a congressional seat vacated by a Republican who resigned. Trump, by his tweet, seemed to confirm that politics was the whole purpose: Will be going to Pennsylvania today in order to give my total support to RICK SACCONE, running for Congress in a Special Election (March 13). Rick is a great guy. We need more Republicans to continue our already successful agenda!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 Trump later shared via Twitter a pair of video clips of his speech at H&K Equipment, in which he touted the tax cuts he signed into law just before Christmas and tried to turn the conversation back to his accomplishments after weeks dominated by distractions, including questions about his mental health and comments about immigration that some considered racist: Departing Pittsburgh now, where it was my great honor to stand with our incredible workers, and to show the world that AMERICA is back - and we are coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before! pic.twitter.com/kWPgylqFzj  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 AMERICA will once again be a NATION that thinks big, dreams bigger, and always reaches for the stars. YOU are the ones who will shape Americas destiny. YOU are the ones who will restore our prosperity. And YOU are the ones who are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/f2abNK47II  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 The Republican National Committee, rather than the White House, is supposed to pay for political travel so that taxpayers are not financing party activities; for trips that combine policy and politics, parties have split the cost under past presidents. Neither the RNC nor the White House responded to emails sent Thursday asking who would pay. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement later Thursday suggesting that taxpayers would foot the bill. She insisted that Trump would be conducting government business while in Pennsylvania. Read More This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump tweets praise of Bob Dole after awarding him Congressional Gold Medal By Associated Press Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole knew the art of the deal before President Trump published the 1987 book of the same name. The two shared a stage under the Capitol dome Wednesday as Dole, 94, accepted Congress highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, for his World War II service and decades of work in the House and Senate. Trump later praised Dole in a tweet, attaching to his message a video composed of clips from the ceremony: Today, we witnessed an incredible moment in history  the presentation of Congress highest civilian honor to our friend, and true AMERICAN HERO, Bob Dole. #CongressionalGoldMedal pic.twitter.com/qNQqDLRmCk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2018 At the ceremony, the president saluted Dole as a patriot and gave tribute to Doles struggle as a veteran who worked his way back from a grievous shoulder wound he suffered in Italy. He knows about grit, said Trump. But it was Doles penchant for working across the aisle that earned him his latest award, according to the legislation. Bob Dole was known for his ability to work across the aisle and embrace practical bipartisanship, reads the legislation Trump signed in September. Some of the awards 300 recipients include George Washington and Mother Teresa, according to the Congressional Research Service. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts report that seeks to link terrorism cases with immigration By Joseph Tanfani The Trump administration on Tuesday released a report attempting to link terrorism with migration, arguing that it was evidence of the need to dramatically reshape the nations immigration system. New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 ....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based. https://t.co/7PtoSFK1n2  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The report, ordered by President Trump in an executive order last year, said that 75% of the 549 people convicted of terrorism charges since 9/11 were born outside the U.S. Administration officials called that a sign that the U.S. needs to scrap its policy of family preferences for visas, which they call chain migration, and a diversity visa lottery program. But the report did not specify how many  if any  of the convicted terrorists entered the country through those means. It also did not detail how many of the convictions were related to attacks or plans in the U.S. versus overseas and how many involved people who went to fight overseas for the Islamic State or another terrorist group. Those details were not available, officials said. The report, due last year, is being released in a highly charged moment in the immigration debate, as Trump and some Republicans in Congress seek tough new border and immigration measures in return for a deal protecting the 690,000 people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump also fired off a pair of tweets on the topic earlier Tuesday: We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security. The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding Military, at a time we need it more than ever. We need a merit based system of immigration, and we need it now! No more dangerous Lottery.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The focus of our immigration system should be assimilation, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition that his name not be used. He said the nation should give priority to potential immigrants who speak English, who have an education and those who are committed to supporting our values  not family members of people already here. The official said the timing of the report was coincidental. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets welcome to president of Kazakhstan By Associated Press President Trump said Tuesday that he and the president of Kazakhstan are united in a shared determination to prevent North Korea from threatening the world with nuclear devastation. Trump and President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed North Korea along with other issues during meetings at the White House. Today, it was my honor to welcome President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the @WhiteHouse! pic.twitter.com/TerYFZViax  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 Trump said Kazakhstan, once part of the Soviet Union, is a valued partner in our efforts to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. Together we are determined to prevent the North Korean regime from threatening the world with nuclear devastation, he said, as both presidents addressed journalists between meetings. Nazarbayev noted that his country once had one of the worlds largest nuclear arsenals but voluntarily gave it up after the Soviet Union collapsed. He said his country is in talks with Iran, which was the focus of a global deal that lifted some economic sanctions in exchange for Irans curbing its nuclear program. Trump has sharply criticized the Iran nuclear deal and threatened last week to pull out soon unless other countries fix what he says are terrible flaws. Read More Facebook

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Trump falsely claims his approval rating among black Americans has doubled By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump lashed out at the news media Tuesday morning in a tweet denouncing the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion among members of his campaign team. Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative. The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the presidents tweet, but it appeared as though he was watching Fox & Friends. A short time later, Trump tweeted a headline from a report that aired during that mornings episode: 90% of Trump 2017 news coverage was negative -and much of it contrived!@foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The segment focused on the latest survey results from conservative watchdog Media Research Center, which purportedly analyzed the evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31 and found that 90% of the statements made about Trump were negative. Study: 90% of Trump media coverage in 2017 was negative pic.twitter.com/vbrwup4Drg  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 16, 2018 But believe it or not, through all this negative coverage, they did a survey of 600,000 people about how black America views this president, co-host Brian Kilmeade said. His numbers have actually doubled in approval. Trump highlighted the statement in another tweet: Unemployment for Black Americans is the lowest ever recorded. Trump approval ratings with Black Americans has doubled. Thank you, and it will get even (much) better! @FoxNews  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 But its not true. The claim appears to have originated from a misreading of data from the online polling firm SurveyMonkey, according to factcheck.org. The firm polled 600,000 Americans in 2017 and found that Trumps approval rating among blacks actually dropped from 23% early in his presidency to about 17%, as of the week ending Jan. 3. Some conservative outlets, including Breitbart, produced an average from those and other SurveyMonkey figures and compared them to the scores Trump received from black voters in the 2016 exit polls. That methodology is not sound. And since the statistics measure different things, the comparison is misleading. Facebook

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Trump goes after senator who surfaced his immigration remark By Associated Press President Trump turned his Twitter torment Monday on the Democrat in the room where immigration talks with lawmakers took a famously coarse turn, saying Sen. Richard J. Durbin misrepresented what he had said about African nations and Haiti and, in the process, undermined the trust needed to make a deal. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting, Trump tweeted, using a nickname to needle the Illinois senator. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 Trump was referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young people who came to the United States illegally as children. Members of Congress from both parties are trying to strike a deal that Trump would support to extend that protection. Trump also cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching an agreement in tweets sent earlier Monday: Statement by me last night in Florida: Honestly, I dont think the Democrats want to make a deal. They talk about DACA, but they dont want to help..We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they dont want to. They dont want security at the border, they dont want.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 ...to stop drugs, they want to take money away from our military which we cannot do. My standard is very simple, AMERICA FIRST & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 On a day of remembrance for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump spent time at his golf course with no public events, bypassing the acts of service that his predecessors staged in honor of the civil rights leader. Instead, Trump dedicated his weekly address to Kings memory, saying Kings dream and Americas are the same: A world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from. That message was a distinct counterpoint to words attributed to Trump by Durbin and others at a meeting last week, when the question of where immigrants come from seemed at the forefront of Trumps concerns. Some participants and others familiar with the conversation said Trump challenged immigration from shithole countries of Africa and disparaged Haiti as well. Without explicitly denying using that word, Trump lashed out at the Democratic senator, who said Trump uttered it on several occasions. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks pundit for laudatory Fox & Friends spot By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump thanked Fox News personality Stuart Varney after Varney praised Trump during an appearance on Fox & Friends. In a pair of tweets early Sunday, Trump quoted from Varneys commentary, in which he argued that Trump deserves more credit for the booming economy. The pundit, who also hosts a show on Fox Business Network, cited moves by some corporations to raise workers minimum wage or pay out one-time bonuses in response to the GOP tax cuts. President Trump is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that weve seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 ...big unnecessary regulation cuts made it all possible (among many other things). President Trump reversed the policies of President Obama, and reversed our economic decline. Thank you Stuart Varney. @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 Varney was reacting to a quote from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who on Thursday called the bonuses handed down to workers pathetic in comparison to the gains corporations are expected to see from the tax cuts. In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic, Pelosi told reporters. Its pathetic. Varney shot back Sunday that the bonuses, along with explosive stock market growth, are enriching all Americans. This is a huge shot in the arm, its the result of this tax cut deal and I think President Trump should get the credit for it, he said. .@Varneyco Sets the economic record straight after Nancy Pelosi calls U.S. mass bonuses crumbs pic.twitter.com/BvjIHGm3HE  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 14, 2018 The sweeping tax plan passed last month lowers the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and cuts personal income taxes. Analysts say the benefits will largely flow to corporations and the wealthy, as theyre more likely to be in positions to share in corporate profits. For instance, Wells Fargo & Co., which responded to news of the tax overhaul by announcing it will raise workers pay to at least $15 an hour, also reported that it expects to pay an effective tax rate of 19% this year, down from about 31% in previous years. That should amount to tax savings of more than $3 billion annually. On average, middle-class Americans are expected to see a very small tax cut in the near term and a tax increase after 2025, when all of the tax cuts for individuals expire. The tax cuts for corporations, however, are permanent.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer James Rufus Koren. Facebook

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Trump touts MLK proclamation in tweet, but ceremony is overshadowed by reports of racist remarks By Associated Press President Trump signed a proclamation Friday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, noting the contributions of a great American hero. Today, it was my great honor to proclaim January 15, 2018, as Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service activities in honor of Dr. King's life and legacy. pic.twitter.com/samlJsz1Nt  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Overshadowing the event was mounting backlash from Trumps comments during a private meeting with lawmakers the day before. A short time after the meeting, which was called to discuss a possible immigration deal, reports emerged that Trump had asked participants why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senates second-ranking Democrat, appeared to confirm those reports on Friday. Trump did not respond Friday to several questions about the incident, including whether he actually used vulgar language to describe African nations, or if he is racist. The president said at the White House that love was central to the slain civil rights leader. Trump said the nation celebrates King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or place of our birth, we are all created equal by God.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump criticizes Democrats in tweet calling for stricter immigration rules President Trump hit out at Democrats on Thursday night in a tweet calling for stricter immigration rules. Trump wrote that members of the party seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the border with Mexico: The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process. It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the tweet. Earlier Thursday, Trump rejected a bipartisan compromise to resolve the standoff over so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children but have temporary permits to work, attend school or serve in the military. The president drew widespread condemnation after reports emerged that he had asked participants in an Oval Office meeting about the proposal why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts bill aimed at improving border screening for fentanyl By Associated Press President Trump signed legislation Wednesday aimed at giving Customs and Border Protection agents additional screening devices and other tools to stop the flow of illicit drugs. Speaking at a surprise bill-signing ceremony while flanked by members of Congress from both parties in the Oval Office, Trump described the bill as a significant step forward in the fight against powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which he called our new big scourge. He echoed that language Thursday in a tweet: Yesterday, I signed the #INTERDICTAct (H.R. 2142) with bipartisan members of Congress to help end the flow of drugs into our country. Together, we are committed to doing everything we can to combat the deadly scourge of drug addiction and overdose in the United States! pic.twitter.com/ELZvFol5Lo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 The legislation will pay for new portable and fixed chemical screening devices to detect and intercept fentanyl at ports of entry and in the mail, along with other laboratory equipment and personnel, including scientists. Trump has made fighting the opioid epidemic a centerpiece of his administration, though critics say he hasnt dedicated nearly enough money or resources to make a difference. Trump suggested during his remarks on Wednesday that hed like to take a more aggressive approach to the drug crisis  but the countrys not ready for what he has in mind. So were going to sign this. And its a step. And it feels like a very giant step, but unfortunately, its not going to be a giant step, because no matter what you do, this is something that keeps pouring in, he said. And were going to find the answer. There is an answer. I think I actually know the answer, but Im not sure the countrys ready for it yet, he added. Does anybody know what I mean? I think so. Facebook

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Trump applauds news that Toyota-Mazda plant is slated for Alabama By Associated Press Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda on Wednesday announced plans to build a mammoth, $1.6-billion joint-venture plant in Alabama that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. President Trump lauded the news in a tweet: Cutting taxes and simplifying regulations makes America the place to invest! Great news as Toyota and Mazda announce they are bringing 4,000 JOBS and investing $1.6 BILLION in Alabama, helping to further grow our economy! pic.twitter.com/Kcg8IVH6iA  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Good news: Toyota and Mazda announce giant new Huntsville, Alabama, plant which will produce over 300,000 cars and SUVs a year and employ 4000 people. Companies are coming back to the U.S. in a very big way. Congratulations Alabama!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 Several states had competed for the project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and company executives held a news conference to announce that the facility is coming to the Huntsville area not far from the Tennessee line. Production is expected to begin by 2021. The decision to pick Alabama is another example of foreign-based automakers building U.S. factories in the South. To entice manufacturers, Southern states have used a combination of lucrative incentive packages, low-cost labor and a pro-business labor environment, because the United Auto Workers union is stronger in Northern states. Read More Facebook

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Trump highlights call for border wall in tweets on visit with Norways prime minister By Associated Press President Trump praised Norways prime minister in a tweet on Wednesday after Erna Solberg became the first foreign leader to visit with the president in 2018. Today, it was my great honor to welcome Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway to the @WhiteHouse - a great friend and ally of the United States! Joint press conference: https://t.co/qWR1BhfQZI pic.twitter.com/PJvwznjRCO  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Trump also shared via Twitter a video clip of a joint news conference he held with Solberg on Wednesday afternoon. In the clip, Trump responds to a question from a reporter by saying there can be no bipartisan immigration deal absent funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been seeking a solution for hundreds of thousands of so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the United States as children and are living here illegally. The United States needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval. The safety and security of our country is #1! pic.twitter.com/4CFzQXb5aS  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 We need the wall for security, we need the wall for safety, we need the wall for stopping the drugs from pouring in, Trump said Wednesday.  Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesnt work. On Tuesday, Trump drew widespread attention when he said during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers that he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. That contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill in subsequent tweets and public comments. Read More This post contains reporting from Los Angeles Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump praises Cabinet in tweet touting meeting By Associated Press President Trump promoted a meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday, sharing via Twitter a link to a video of the session posted on the White House YouTube account. In his tweet, Trump thanked his Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country and wrote that the last year has been one of monumental achievement. I want to thank my @Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country. 2017 was a year of monumental achievement and we look forward to the year ahead. Together, we are delivering results and MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! https://t.co/ptXa1hAPwW pic.twitter.com/yv6RALkQf3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The former reality television star continued to dispense accolades at the meeting Wednesday, greeting reporters in the Cabinet Room by saying: Welcome back to the studio. Then he proceeded to relive a Cabinet Room session from the prior day, when he had allowed reporters and TV cameras to stick around for much of his meeting with a bipartisan group of legislators on the thorny issue of immigration. It was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good. And my performance  you know, some of them called it a performance  I consider it work, Trump said. Trump went on to say he had received letters from news anchors calling it one of the greatest meetings theyve ever witnessed. He added that the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because theyre going to say, if Trump doesnt win in three years, theyre all out of business. Asked for examples of letters received from news anchors, the White House said it had received private communications. It also offered a series of positive on-air comments and tweets from journalists about the unusual access to the meeting. During his remarks, Trump swung from praising his own meeting coverage to telling journalists that they were dependent on his presidency for ratings to threatening a strong look at libel laws. Still, Trump thanked the journalists in front of him, joking: Youve gotten very familiar with this room. I appreciate your nice comments yesterday. Facebook

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Trump blasts DACA ruling in tweet calling courts broken and unfair By Lisa Mascaro President Trump denounced the federal courts Wednesday as broken and unfair after a district judge in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction keeping protections in place for so-called Dreamers. Trump tweeted: It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 On Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administrations decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which has protected from deportation some 700,000 people who came to the country illegally as children. Alsup granted a request by the state of California, the University of California and other plaintiffs to stop Trump from ending DACA on March 5. The administrations decision to end DACA, which was announced in September, was based on a flawed legal analysis, Alsup wrote in his decision. Dreamers would be irreparably harmed if their DACA protections, which allow them to live and work legally in the U.S., were stripped away before the courts had a chance to fully consider their claims, he ruled. The action is the mirror image of a ruling in 2015 by a federal judge in Texas who ruled in favor of that state when it sought to block President Obama from expanding DACA to include the parents of Dreamers. Trump administration officials praised that judicial ruling. By contrast, they sharply criticized Alsups decision. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks lawmakers for productive immigration meeting, says deal must include border wall President Trump thanked a bipartisan group of lawmakers for participating in a meeting on immigration legislation on Tuesday. Much of the discussion involved so-called Dreamers, an estimated 700,000 young people who were brought to the country illegally as children and are now facing deportation. In a tweet, Trump wrote that there was strong agreement to negotiate a bill to protect Dreamers, as well as put into place some of the reforms favored by Republicans. Thanks to all of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers for todays very productive meeting on immigration reform. There was strong agreement to negotiate a bill that deals with border security, chain migration, lottery and DACA. https://t.co/SdqAQ3aL3z pic.twitter.com/8DYHZHspAy  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 The most notable exchange of the meeting came when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the San Francisco Democrat, asked Trump whether he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. Yeah, I would like to do it, Trump responded. The statement drew widespread attention because it contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump later backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill, tweeting that a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico must be part of any deal: As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Pressure has been mounting for Congress to broker an immigration deal by Jan. 19 as part of a must-pass budget package to fund the government. This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump thanks officers and veterans in tweets President Trump doled out a slew of accolades Tuesday via Twitter. He thanked the nations law enforcement officers, including in his message a hashtag denoting a day of appreciation organized by a national support group for law enforcement families. On behalf of the American people, THANK YOU to our incredible law enforcement officers. As President of the United States - I will fight for you, and I will never, ever let you down. Now, more than ever, we must support the men and women in blue! #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/Qb4uxB4JRm  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trump later expressed gratitude for federal immigration agents, in particular: .@ICEgov HSI agents and ERO officers, on behalf of an entire Nation, THANK YOU for what you are doing 24/7/365 to keep fellow Americans SAFE. Everyone is so grateful!#LawEnforcementAppreciationDay

President @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/HXCpTlruVo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The president thanked veterans as he cited his administrations efforts to curb the number of veteran suicides by improving mental health treatment for the high-risk group: Today, it was my great honor to sign a new Executive Order to ensure Veterans have the resources they need as they transition back to civilian life. We must ensure that our HEROES are given the care and support they so richly deserve! https://t.co/0MdP9DDIAS pic.twitter.com/LP2a8KCBAp  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trumps tweet included photos of the president signing an executive order Tuesday directing the secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to develop a plan to provide seamless access to mental health and suicide prevention resources for 12 months for members leaving the armed forces. Also on Tuesday, Trump touted a law he signed the day before designating the birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a national historic park: It was my great honor to sign H.R. 267, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act, which redesignates the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site in the State of Georgia as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. https://t.co/Qe0b6HBFTY pic.twitter.com/QTgaqTawPT  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 And he thanked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) for sharing a video compilation comprised of clips of politicians and commentators praising the GOPs tax cut bill: Thank you @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy! Couldnt agree w/you more. TOGETHER, we are #MAGA https://t.co/QaxtqpyXTR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018  This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump hails tax bill in tweets recapping speech to farmers By Associated Press Connecting with rural Americans, President Trump on Monday hailed his tax overhaul as a victory for family farmers. Farm country is Gods country, Trump told the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Trump became the first president in a quarter-century to address the federations convention. His Southern swing also included a stop in Atlanta for the national college football championship game. Cant wait to be back in the amazing state of Tennessee to address the 99th American @FarmBureau Federations Annual Convention in Nashville! #AFBF18



On my way now - join me LIVE at 4:00pmE: https://t.co/QaljAqekdD. pic.twitter.com/Wm7Io0hYT8  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and a group of Tennessee lawmakers, Trump said most of the benefits of the tax legislation are going to working families, small businesses, and who  the family farmer. The package Trump signed into law last month provides generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families. In every decision we make, we are honoring Americas PROUD FARMING LEGACY. Years of crushing taxes, crippling regs, & corrupt politics left our communities hurting, our economy stagnant, & millions of hardworking Americans COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN. But they are not forgotten ANYMORE! pic.twitter.com/MdYS7xnukQ  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The president vastly inflated the value of the package in his speech, citing a total of $5.5 trillion in tax cuts, with most of those benefits going to working families, small businesses and who? The family farmer. The estimated value of the tax cuts is actually $1.5 trillion for families and businesses because of cuts in deductions and the use of other steps to generate offsetting tax revenue. We have been working every day to DELIVER for Americas Farmers just as they work every day to deliver FOR US. #AFBF18 pic.twitter.com/QDH7fvFkZ7  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 From Nashville, Trump traveled to Atlanta to watch Alabamas Crimson Tide and Georgias Bulldogs face off Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship. We are fighting for our farmers, for our country, and for our GREAT AMERICAN FLAG. We want our flag respected - and we want our NATIONAL ANTHEM respected also! pic.twitter.com/16eOLXg6Fi  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Before departing for the game, Trump referenced his ongoing defense of the American flag and the national anthem, saying there was enough space for people to express their views. We love our flag and we love our anthem, and we want to keep it that way, he said. Facebook

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Trump tweet hails drop in unemployment rate for African Americans By Associated Press President Trump touted a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans on Monday in a tweet. African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! #NeverForget @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The rate fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Trump also hailed the development via Twitter on Saturday. His latest tweet on the topic came about an hour after it was discussed during an episode of Fox & Friends, according to Mediaite. Facebook

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Trump talks up the economy and dresses down the media in Sunday tweets With President Trump cheering from the sidelines, the White House on Sunday pressed its defense of the presidents fitness to govern, as fired former aide Stephen K. Bannon reversed course and apologized for his role in a new books explosive portrait of Trump. The presidents critics, meanwhile, said Trumps stream of taunts and insults in response to the book  Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, released last week  served only to underscore the authors unsettling portrayal of Trumps year-old presidency, depicting a leader whose own aides consider him childish, ignorant and dangerously erratic. Trump provided more ammunition Sunday morning, as he continued to attack the book via Twitter while preparing to depart Camp David for the White House: Leaving Camp David for the White House. Great meetings with the Cabinet and Military on many very important subjects including Border Security & the desperately needed Wall, the ever increasing Drug and Opioid Problem, Infrastructure, Military, Budget, Trade and DACA.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Ive had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 The most vehement defense of Trump on Sunday came from senior advisor Stephen Miller, a onetime Bannon acolyte who distanced himself from his former mentor. In a combative appearance Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, Miller called the book grotesque and writer Michael Wolff the garbage author of a garbage book. Trump is known to closely monitor aides televised performances in putting forth his case, and he gleefully weighed in within moments of Millers televised clash with host Jake Tapper. CNN has long been a particular target of Trumps ire. Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trumps reaction, however, seemed to bolster Tappers on-air depiction of Miller as using his appearance on the show to play to the president rather than addressing questions put to him. I get it  theres one viewer that you care about, the host said exasperatedly after Miller turned the discussion repeatedly to negative news coverage of the president while deflecting specific queries. Later on Twitter, Trump took up two themes that have been prevalent on his social media feeds recently. The president again went after the news media, tweeting that the recipients of his self-proclaimed most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year, which he promised earlier in the week to announce on Monday, would actually be revealed the following Wednesday: The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trump later lauded a New York Post opinion piece that compared him favorably with his predecessor, President Obama, as well as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In quoting the op-ed, Trump initally misspelled consequential as consensual, but he deleted those tweets and re-sent the messages. His is turning out to be an enormously consequential presidency. So much so that, despite my own frustration over his missteps, there has never been a day when I wished Hillary Clinton were president. Not one. Indeed, as Trumps accomplishments accumulate, the mere thought of...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 ...Clinton in the WH, doubling down on Barack Obamas failed policies, washes away any doubts that America made the right choice. This was truly a change election  and the changes Trump is bringing are far-reaching & necessary. Thank you Michael Goodwin! https://t.co/4fHNcx2Ydg  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Trump also continued talking up the economy, which has been enjoying a period of strong gains. The Stock Market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country in the form of not only Record Setting Stock Prices, but present and future Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Seven TRILLION dollars of value created since our big election win!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 In addition to Miller, other senior administration officials made the rounds of Sunday news talk shows to decry the claims made in Wolffs book. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Wolffs characterization of Trump as averse to digesting classified briefing material was ludicrous, and the ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, insisted that that those around Trump love their country and respect their president. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Responding to book that mocks his intelligence, Trump tweets hes like, really smart By Tracy Wilkinson President Trump declared himself a very stable genius on Twitter on Saturday and later in a televised news conference called the author of a book that questioned his mental fitness a fraud. His comments came on a bone-cold day at Camp David during a weekend retreat with top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders strategizing on the years legislative agenda, including matters such as infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and national security. Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Still, Trumps explosive rebuttal to author Michael Wolffs claims not only opened the day, but it also ensured the presidents capability to fill the highest office in the land was a topic that would not go away. In his early-morning tweets, Trump said two of his greatest assets have been mental stability, and being, like, really smart. He noted that his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, played these cards [about competence] very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). Read More Facebook

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In morning tweets, Trump touts job numbers and takes digs at news media By Associated Press President Trump used Twitter on Saturday morning to tout a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans. He also used the tweets as an opportunity to take digs at media outlets whose past coverage he has found to be critical. The African American unemployment rate fell to 6.8%, the lowest rate in 45 years. I am so happy about this News! And, in the Washington Post (of all places), headline states, Trumps first year jobs numbers were very, very good.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The unemployment rate for African Americans fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Still, the rate for black workers remains well above those for whites and some other groups, something experts attribute in large part to decades of discrimination and disadvantages. Robust job creation has lowered unemployment for all Americans. U.S. employers added nearly 2.1 million jobs in 2017  the seventh straight year that hiring has topped 2 million. In his tweet, Trump praised a report that noted the numbers, touting the fact that it appeared in the Washington Post (of all places). Minutes later, Trump renewed his attack on an ABC News reporter who was suspended last month after filing an erroneous report on Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security advisor. Brian Ross, the reporter who made a fraudulent live newscast about me that drove the Stock Market down 350 points (billions of dollars), was suspended for a month but is now back at ABC NEWS in a lower capacity. He is no longer allowed to report on Trump. Should have been fired!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The reporter, Brian Ross, was reportedly reassigned within ABC News upon returning from his unpaid suspension. But on Saturday, Trump wrote that he should have been fired. Trumps tweets came hours before he was set to host congressional Republicans and administration officials at Camp David. The meeting scheduled to begin at midmorning Saturday was expected to touch on the budget, infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and the shape of the midterm election this fall. Facebook

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Trump commends Sen. Rand Paul after he proposes eliminating all U.S. aid to Pakistan President Trump commended Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican announced plans to introduce legislation that would eliminate all U.S. aid to Pakistan. Trump tweeted Friday night: Good idea Rand! https://t.co/55sqUDiC0s  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was suspending security assistance to Islamabad until the country moves aggressively against local militants who have attacked U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration at the apparent inability of Pakistani authorities to rein in militants who cross out of the countrys rugged tribal areas to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson. Facebook

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Trump continues to lash out at Sloppy Steve Bannon in tweets on tell-all book By Associated Press President Trump is praising a major Republican donor family for distancing themselves from his former advisor Steve Bannon. Trump tweeted Friday: The Mercer Family recently dumped the leaker known as Sloppy Steve Bannon. Smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trump has continued to lash out at Bannon over an explosive new book that quoted his former aide as questioning Trumps competence and describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower among Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as treasonous and unpatriotic. On Thursday, billionaire GOP donor Rebekah Mercer issued a statement distancing her family from Bannon. Mercer is a co-owner of Breitbart, the populist website Bannon helps run. I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected, Mercer said. My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements. The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, quickly shot atop Amazons best-seller list, and the publisher moved up its release date by four days, to Friday. Trump took up the topic again on Twitter on Friday night, denouncing both Bannon and the books author, Michael Wolff, in starkly personal terms: Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://t.co/mEeUhk5ZV9  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Trumps message linked to a meme depicting a parody book cover titled, Liar and Phony, that featured a photo of Wolff and disparaging quotes about the author. In a tweet sent earlier Friday morning, Trump suggested the book was intended to serve as a distraction from the FBIs investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which Trump wrote is proving to be a total hoax. Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try winning an election. Sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 That came amid reports that Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Departments Russia investigation. Trumps effort to keep Sessions, a vocal and loyal supporter of his election bid, in charge of an investigation into his campaign offers special counsel Robert Mueller yet another avenue to explore as his prosecutors work to untangle potential evidence of obstruction. Read More Facebook

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Trump praises the economy ahead of meetings at Camp David By Associated Press President Trump is praising the strength of the U.S. economy ahead of meetings at Camp David with congressional Republicans. Trump tweeted early Friday: Dow goes from 18,589 on November 9, 2016, to 25,075 today, for a new all-time Record. Jumped 1000 points in last 5 weeks, Record fastest 1000 point move in history. This is all about the Make America Great Again agenda! Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Six trillion dollars in value created!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The president also told reporters on the South Lawn that the tax cuts are really kicking in after Congress passed a package of tax cuts at the end of 2017. And the president praised the December jobs report, which found U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, the lowest level since 2000. The modest but steady pace of hiring is a reassuring sign for investors who have been buoyed by the just-passed Republican tax plan and have been sending stock market indexes roaring to uncharted heights. The president is meeting with Republican congressional leaders and members of his Cabinet on Friday and Saturday to discuss the 2018 agenda. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets as Dow crashes through 25,000 By Associated Press President Trump dispatched a congratulatory tweet as the Dow Jones industrial average rose above the 25,000-point mark Thursday, just five weeks after its first close above 24,000. Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 After the Dow closed above 25,000, Trump shared a graphic depicting the stock indexs record-setting rise. MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/iONbr1DkVk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Later in the day, the president was back on Twitter, complaining that news outlets had barely covered the stock market milestone. He suggested that the strength of the economy would be the biggest story on earth, had it unfolded during the presidency of his predecessor. The Fake News Media barely mentions the fact that the Stock Market just hit another New Record and that business in the U.S. is booming...but the people know! Can you imagine if O was president and had these numbers - would be biggest story on earth! Dow now over 25,000.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The Dow broke past 1,000-point barriers in 2017 on its way to a 25% gain for the year, as an eight-year rally since the Great Recession continued to confound skeptics. Strong global economic growth and good prospects for higher company earnings have analysts predicting more gains, although the market may not stay as calm as it has been recently. The Dow has made a rapid trip since it reached 24,000 points Nov. 30, partly on enthusiasm over passage of the Republican-backed tax package, which could boost company profits this year with across-the-board cuts to corporate taxes. Read More Facebook

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Trump reacts to Fire and Fury book in tweet lashing out at author and Sloppy Steve President Trump lashed out at the author of a soon-to-be-released book about the chaotic first year of his presidency Thursday night. In a tweet, Trump called Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a phony book and claimed that hed never spoken to its author, Michael Wolff. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve! Trump wrote. He appeared to be referring to former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, whose stunning criticisms of Trump and his circle figure prominently in the title. I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that dont exist. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trumps tweet came hours after he had his lawyer demand that Henry Holt & Co. and Wolff stop publication the book. Instead, the publisher expedited the books release to Friday, four days before it was slated to hit bookstore shelves, in response to unprecedented demand. Published excerpts on Wednesday and Thursday whetted that appetite and roiled Washington. Bannons comments, including that it was treasonous and unpatriotic for Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met in 2016 with Russians said to have dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, prompted Trump on Wednesday to rebuke his former advisor, saying Bannon had lost his mind. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Brian Bennett and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump thanks senators who attended meeting on immigration President Trump tweeted thanks to Republican senators who attended a meeting about possible immigration legislation on Thursday. In his message, Trump also listed his top priorities when it comes to any type of overhaul of the nations immigration system. Thank you to the great Republican Senators who showed up to our mtg on immigration reform. We must BUILD THE WALL, stop illegal immigration, end chain migration & cancel the visa lottery. The current system is unsafe & unfair to the great people of our country - time for change!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Trumps tweet echoed his remarks at the beginning of Thursdays meeting, when he insisted again that constructing a border wall and overhauling two legal immigration programs must be part of any deal with Democrats to protect the so-called Dreamers from deportation. Two-year deportation protections and work permits given under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program begin to expire March 6 under an executive order. Trump announced in September that he was ending the Obama-era program, but told Congress to draft a law to continue protections for people brought to the country illegally as children  a group that has widespread public support. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Brian Bennett. Facebook

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Trump resumes Twitter war against kneeling NFL players President Trump has resumed his Twitter war against NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest social injustice and racial inequality. In a tweet early Thursday, Trump replied to a supporter who shared a meme that appears to depict family members lying on the grave of a fallen soldier with the caption: This is why we stand. Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! Trump wrote. So beautiful....Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! https://t.co/tJLM1tvbvb  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The president has denounced players who kneel during the anthem in previous tweets. Hes also called for the firing of players who do so. His latest message came amid news that the NFL finished the regular season with TV ratings that fell nearly 10% below the previous season. Analysts attribute the drop to controversies facing the league, as well as changing viewing habits and a possible saturation point in the number of games available. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Stephen Battaglio and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump credits himself with facilitating talks between North and South Korea By Associated Press President Trump says his tough stance on nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula is helping push North Korea and South Korea to talk. Trump tweeted early Thursday: With all of the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 That assertion is in conflict with some of the presidents own statements. Last year, he ridiculed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for talking about negotiations with the North. This week, Trump seemed open to the possibility of an inter-Korean dialogue after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare overture toward South Korea in a New Years Day address. But Trumps ambassador to the United Nations insisted that talks wont be meaningful unless the North is getting rid of its nuclear weapons. The overture about talks came after Trump and Kim traded more bellicose claims about their nuclear weapons. In his New Years Day address, Kim repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Kim said he has a nuclear button on his office desk and warned that the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike. Trump mocked that assertion Tuesday evening in a tweet. Facebook

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After disbanding his vote fraud panel, Trump still says voting system is rigged By Brian Bennett One day after disbanding his troubled voter fraud commission without any findings of fraud, President Trump continued to call the U.S. voting system rigged and said states should require that Americans have voter-identification cards. In two tweets on Thursday morning, Trump blamed the commissions failure on the lack of cooperation from mostly Democrat States that refused to hand over voter rolls because they know that many people are voting illegally. However, voting supervisors in Republican-led states refused as well, objecting on privacy and other grounds. Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Despite Trumps assertions, analysts have not found evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May after alleging, without proof, that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump was elected after winning a majority in the electoral college, but the nationwide count showed Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes. The commission sought personal data on voters across the country and faced mounting lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts another good day for stocks, credits tax cut By Associated Press President Trump touted another good day for the stock market Wednesday in a tweet. Stock Market had another good day but, now that the Tax Cut Bill has passed, we have tremendous upward potential. Dow just short of 25,000, a number that few thought would be possible this soon into my administration. Also, unemployment went down to 4.1%. Only getting better!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Big gains for technology and healthcare stocks helped U.S. indexes set records again Wednesday. Some analysts attributed the surge to investor enthusiasm for Trumps $1.5-trillion tax cut. All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard & Poors 500 index by roughly 8% this year. Thats much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6% that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26% in support. Still, as Trump also noted on Twitter, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, dozens of companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees. Some 40 U.S. companies have responded to President Trumps tax cut and reform victory in Congress last year by handing out bonuses up to $2,000, increases in 401k matches and spending on charity, a much higher number than previously known. https://t.co/bmWrwWzxMR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economys long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees. Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the United States and overseas, havent always led to higher wages. For Wall Street, its all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Facebook

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Trump reacts to death of Mormon Church president By Associated Press President Trump mourned the death of Mormon Church leader Thomas S. Monson on Wednesday evening. Trump tweeted a link to a statement in which he said that Monson demonstrated wisdom, inspired leadership, and great compassion and delivered a message of optimism, forgiveness, and faith. Melania and I are deeply saddened by the death of Thomas S. Monson, a beloved President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...https://t.co/ETD3fWtfU3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 A church bishop at the age of 22, Monson became the youngest church apostle ever in 1963 at the age of 36. He served as a counselor for three church presidents before assuming the role of the top leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008. After a life of church service, Monson died Tuesday at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. He was 90. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets that Iranian protesters will see great U.S. support at the appropriate time By Associated Press President Trump continued to express support for Irans anti-government protesters on Wednesday. In a tweet, Trump commended the protesters and pledged that the United States will support them at the appropriate time. Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Trumps tweet Wednesday morning came as Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo sent a letter to United Nations officials complaining that Washington was intervening in a grotesque way in Irans internal affairs. The President and Vice-President of the United States, in their numerous absurd tweets, incited Iranians to engage in disruptive acts, the ambassador wrote to the U.N. Security Council president and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The U.S. didnt immediately respond to the letter, which maintains that Washington has crossed every limit in flouting rules and principles of international law governing the civilized conduct of international relations. At least 21 people have been killed and hundreds arrested in Iran during a week of anti-government protests and unrest over economic woes and official corruption. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people took part in counter-demonstrations Wednesday backing the clerically overseen government, which has said enemies of Iran are fomenting the protests. Trump has unleashed a series of tweets in recent days backing the protesters, saying Iran is failing at every level and declaring that it is time for change in the Islamic Republic. Facebook

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Trump congratulates Sen. Orrin Hatch upon news of his retirement By Associated Press President Trump congratulated Sen. Orrin Hatch for an absolutely incredible career upon news of Hatchs impending retirement. In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Trump called Hatch a tremendous supporter and wrote that he will be greatly missed in the Senate. Congratulations to Senator Orrin Hatch on an absolutely incredible career. He has been a tremendous supporter, and I will never forget the (beyond kind) statements he has made about me as President. He is my friend and he will be greatly missed in the U.S. Senate! pic.twitter.com/0VjzLEeHTl  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Hatchs decision to retire from the Senate after four decades lets the Utah Republican walk away at the height of his power after helping to push through an overhaul of the tax code and persuading Trump to downsize two national monuments. Retirement also preserves the 83-year-olds legacy by allowing him to avoid a bruising reelection battle that would have broken his promise not to seek an eighth term. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet exaggerates progress in improving veterans care By Associated Press President Trump played up tremendous progress in improving care for veterans in his first year on Tuesday in a tweet. His message linked to an Instagram video describing eight accomplishments that show Trump is fighting for our veterans. But it overstates the impact of these steps. We will not rest until all of Americas GREAT VETERANS can receive the care they so richly deserve. Tremendous progress has been made in a short period of time. Keep up the great work @SecShulkin @DeptVetAffairs! https://t.co/ir25vW15hx pic.twitter.com/OtuzIgxMn6  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Of the eight achievements cited, two are ceremonial proclamations recognizing National Veterans and Military Families Month and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Two are pieces of legislation that extended the troubled Veterans Choice program on a temporary basis. This became necessary because the Trump administration repeatedly miscalculated the amount of taxpayer dollars available to pay for care from private doctors outside the Veterans Affairs system when veterans had to endure long waits for treatment at VA medical centers. The departments poor budget planning caught lawmakers off guard. A fifth claim involves telehealth, a step letting doctors practice medicine across state lines using digital technology. Announced in August, it has yet to take full effect because a proposed VA regulation hasnt been completed. The VA wants authority to practice across state lines to come from legislation, not a regulation. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a telehealth measure that now goes to the House. A sixth claim refers to legislation that streamlines the appeals process for disability compensation claims within the VA. This step has had limited effect so far because it applies to new disability claims, not the 470,000 pending claims. The last two initiatives make it easier for the VA to discipline employees. The department has pointed to more than 1,300 employees who have been fired under Trumps watch. Because their infractions are not detailed in public documents, the effect on veterans care is not fully known. Facebook

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Trump unleashes his first tweetstorm of 2018 By Noah Bierman President Trump clearly didnt resolve to change his Twitter habits this year. With nine disparate tweets over three hours on Tuesday morning, the first working day of 2018, Trump continued to exploit social media to be the most aggressive commentator in chief in American history. For any other president, his posts would have made for a monumental day of (mis-)statements. Yet for Trump, the series  attacks on political foes and media, provocations of foreign leaders and self-praise for events he had nothing to do with  was all but unremarkable. His Twitter barrage  sent between 7:09 a.m. and 10:16 a.m.  reflected a familiar gamut after nearly a year in office: Attacks on political foes: Nearly 14 months after his election, Trump called for the jailing of Huma Abedin, Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid (his misspelling, another occasional feature of Trump tweets). Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 In the same tweet, he disparaged the Deep State Justice Dept, headed of course by his appointees, calling on it to act against James B. Comey, the FBI director he fired for investigating the Russia thing. Diplomatic provocations: Trump again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Rocket man, ridiculed the volatile nuclear-armed foe for recent military defections and openly speculated about potential talks between North and South Korea. Sanctions and other pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not  we will see! Trump wrote. Later Tuesday, Trump tweeted: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Also later Tuesday, Trump tweeted an attack on Pakistan, his second in as many days, and added a new one against Palestinians: It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They dont even want to negotiate a long overdue...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Undermining media: Trump offered Congratulations! to A.G. Sulzberger, who took over as publisher of the New York Times this week. The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved. Get...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent sources, and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you wont have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the two-part post was really yet another slam against a perceived media foe: Trump said the paper had a last chance to fulfill its journalistic mission, and accused it of relying on phony sources and substandard reporters  just days after he granted another exclusive interview to the paper. As a bonus, the tweet contained a recycled falsehood, that the paper apologized after the election for reporting on him unfairly. It didnt. Trump later said on Twitter that he would soon announce the most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year. Stay tuned! I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 oclock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 The president also tweeted a quote from Fox Business Networks Lou Dobbs Tonight, which aired a segment praising Trumps first-year accomplishments. Dobbs reportedly joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday for a gala to celebrate New Years Eve. President Trump has something now he didnt have a year ago, that is a set of accomplishments that nobody can deny. The accomplishments are there, look at his record, he has had a very significant first year. @LouDobbs Show,David Asman & Ed Rollins  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Taking credit: Trump congratulated himself for policing the border with Mexico, an area where his policies and anti-immigration rhetoric are believed to have had some effect on reducing illegal crossings. Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL! @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 He took credit for employee bonuses by companies after he signed Republican tax cuts into law last month. Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the jaw-dropper was Trump congratulating himself for planes not crashing. Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 It was the safest year on record worldwide, but the American streak without commercial jet passenger deaths goes back to 2009. Trump, who has promoted deregulation as one of his top accomplishments, has not signed off on any new airline safety regulations. The White House pointed to new security screening of passengers, to electronic devices to prevent terrorist attacks and to Trumps support for privatizing air traffic control  a proposal that has gotten nowhere in Congress. Falsehoods: Trump said President Obama, in brokering the 2015 nuclear arms limitation deal with Iran, foolishly gave money to the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. He didnt. The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 The nuclear deal, which included major U.S. allies as signators, released Irans own funds that had long been frozen. Trumps art of the deal: When Trump sees a big deal looming, he often blasts the other side  to gain leverage, as hes written. This week he resumes a showdown with Democratic lawmakers over funding the government and immigration protections for so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats are doing nothing for DACA - just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start falling in love with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Trump, who in September ordered a gradual end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sought to shift blame for the resulting controversy, saying Democrats are doing nothing for DACA and are just interested in politics. Trump has insisted that any help for Dreamers be paired with funding for a border wall and a crackdown on legal immigration. Democrats, and some Republicans, are opposed. Read More Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests U.S. will withdraw financial assistance to Pakistan By Shashank Bengali Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of lies & deceit and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism. It was the presidents latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018 U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the presidents statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest and asked for clarification about Trumps comments, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistans prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trumps New Years Day tweet. Read More Facebook

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Trump continues to tweet in support of Iranian protesters By Laura King President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday  and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size  were a signal that Iranians will not take it any longer. Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Trump has tweeted about the protests for three days straight as Iranians took to the streets despite a heavy police presence, tear gas and scores of arrests. The defiance gained urgency after two people were reported shot to death in the city of Dorud, about 200 miles southwest of Tehran. As the conflict escalated, Iranian authorities on Sunday slapped a temporary ban on Instagram and the messaging app Telegram, which were widely used to fan protest fervor. Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Irans leaders already are casting Trumps increasingly effusive expressions of support for the demonstrators as opportunistic meddling and are painting the demonstrators as foreign pawns, adopting a strategy that some analysts say could jeopardize the legitimacy of the nascent antigovernment protests. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets condolences after Colorado deputies are shot in ambush, one fatally By Associated Press A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriffs deputies in Colorado early Sunday, killing one and injuring four others, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Two civilians were also injured. President Trump expressed sorrow, writing on Twitter: My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @DCSheriff, and their families. We love our police and law enforcement - God Bless them all! #LESM  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said deputies came under fire almost
How many false statements did Trump make in his interview with the Wall Street Journal? We count at least five

(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

The Wall Street Journal didnt release the full transcript of the interview its reporters and editors had last week with President Trump, but when Politico obtained a copy and published it, the interview quickly drew attention for several false statements Trump made.

The one that immediately gained notoriety was Trumps claim that after his speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree last week, I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them.

On Wednesday, the Boy Scouts of America released a statement saying we are unaware of any such call. The Scouts specifically said that neither the organizations president, AT&T chairman Randall Stephenson, nor its chief executive, Mike Surbaugh, had made such a call.

In fact, Surbaugh last week issued an unprecedented apology for a presidential speech  Scouts have heard from presidents back to Franklin D. Roosevelt  saying he was sorry that some members of the scouting community had been offended by Trumps partisanship, language and tone.

In the daily White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that other Boy Scout leaders, whom she did not name, had complimented Trump after his speech.

That wasnt the only call to come into question recently. A few days after the Journal interview, Trump said that Mexicos president, Enrique Pena Nieto, had paid him the ultimate compliment by calling and telling him that their southern border, very few people are coming because they know theyre not going to get through our border.

The Mexican government press office issued a statement Wednesday denying that.

Pena Nieto has not had recent telephone communication with President Donald Trump, the statement said.

Sanders said that Pena Nieto did compliment Trump, but in a personal conversation, not a telephone call.

I wouldnt say it was a lie, she said of Trumps statements.

Other false statements involved broader factual matters.

Were the highest-taxed nation in the world, Trump said  a statement that he has repeatedly made and which has repeatedly been debunked. Whether measured by the top tax rate or the overall percentage of national income which is taxed, the U.S. has lower taxes than most of its chief economic competitors.

Trump may have been thinking about the U.S. corporate tax rate, which is higher than most developed countries, although not the highest. Yet few companies actually pay that top rate given various tax deductions, credits and exemptions.

Trump also said I honestly believe for six months, I have done more than just about any other president when you look at all of the bills that were passed, 42, 43.

Thats untrue. Many of Trumps predecessors had signed more legislation, and nearly all recent ones had signed more significant measures by this point in their tenures.

Jimmy Carter had signed 70 bills into law by this point, Bill Clinton 50. Franklin D. Roosevelt had 76 in just his first 100 days.

About one-third of the bills Trump has signed have been ceremonial measures, such as renaming courthouses.

Referring to his top economic advisor, Gary Cohn, Trump said Gary wrote a check for $200 million when he entered the government. He had to pay $200 million in tax.

Trump has said that before, including in a speech in June. Its false.

Cohn owned about $220 million in Goldman Sachs stock when he resigned as the banks president to become the head of Trumps National Economic Council. He sold the stock to minimize conflicts of interest, as most appointees do. But he certainly didnt have to pay $200 million in tax on that sale.

In fact, its likely Cohn hasnt paid any tax so far. He may never have to.

Federal law allows appointees to government positions to defer any tax they owe on assets that they sell to avoid conflicts. The law requires that they put the proceeds of the sale into neutral investments such as Treasury securities. If his securities go up in value, Cohn might have to pay tax on that gain. The top tax rate on capital gains is 20%.

Trump also repeated a false claim about his defeated rival from the election, Hillary Clinton.

Real crimes are what Hillary did with 33,000 emails, where she deleted them and bleached them after getting a subpoena.

Trump made that claim more than once during the campaign, and more recently on Twitter.

He is correct that Clinton deleted 33,000 emails from the private server she used for her messages while she was secretary of State. She says that all of those deleted emails were personal and that she had no obligation to keep them. No one has come up with evidence to the contrary.

The evidence from the FBIs investigation of the emails shows that in December 2014, after she turned over about 30,000 work-related emails to the State Department, Clintons aides told the company that managed the server to delete the rest of the emails. The emails were subpoenaed about three months later, on March 4.

The company didnt actually do the deletion until later in March, but theres been no evidence that Clinton knew about the delay at the time or that the company knew the messages were under subpoena.

In any case, the FBI declined to recommend prosecution, contrary to Trumps assertion that Clinton committed real crimes.

A poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University asked Americans if they believe Trump is honest. By 62% to 34%, a majority said no.

12:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
When Kristen Dees and Mercedes Curran made high school visits on behalf of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles to speak with adolescent students, many of the pupils seemed unsure about pursuing a future in the industry.

It was almost too late, like they were too scared to know if this was something they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, Dees said. Some parents wanted tutoring and mentoring geared toward the college-bound kids. But what about the age before that?

Dees and Curran decided to create Designer Camp, a Los Angeles-based company that held its first Orange County camp last month for students ages 11 to 17.

The weeklong Designer Camp 101 at SOCO in Costa Mesa exposed its participants to the elements of design, color theory, personal branding, trend hunting, sketching and draping.

On top of those building blocks, the camp aimed to teach the students life skills such as teamwork, public speaking and setting deadlines for projects, said the camps Orange County directors Anne-Marie Lockmyer and Rhonda McCaughey.

The 15 students took part in workshops with professionals in business, photography and fashion and interior design.

The designers are real with them, Dees said. Theyll talk about how hard it is, like how you need to know math for measurements and science so you know what materials wash well, what fades in the sun or what works well with ironing.

During the weeklong camp, the students broke into different teams to create their own benefit corporation, also known as b corp.

We highlighted b corp, a brand that is for profit but gives back to a social good, Dees said. The whole goal is for them to come up with a company that gives back to a social good and to have them brand that company.

The campers came up with ideas such as selling long socks to help donate pairs to families in colder countries like Mongolia and designing special water bottles to help install clean water pumps to third world countries.

The first Designer Camp 101 took place in Los Angeles in 2015. Since then, the programs in L.A. have grown to include three more camps focused on fashion and styling, interior design and photography.

Dees said she hopes more extended camps will be able to take place at SOCO in the future.

A lot of students [in the L.A. camp] were driving up from Orange County, Dees said. Different brands and companies were also encouraging us to expand.

A cozy nook within the Drifter storefront at SOCO served as the Orange County camp site for the week, where the students could find colored pencils on the table and fabrics hanging on a rack.

Fashion is what really interests me because of how you can express yourself through the clothing, said Jacob Aguilar, 15, a student in the camp who draws inspiration from designers like Jeremy Scott and Charles Jeffrey. I really want to pursue that in the future.

Carly Tawney, 13, attended the Fashion & Styling Camp in L.A. the week before she came to Designer Camp 101 in Orange County.

I would love to work in editorial or be a stylist for a magazine, said Carly. Meeting the different designers has really helped because its shown me that you can go from styling to being a buyer to then marketing. You dont have to narrow down your career to one specific thing in life.

Alexandra.Chan@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
Always hope.

Thats what Bethany Hamilton wrote into wet cement Friday morning as she was inducted into the Surfers Hall of Fame in front of Huntington Surf and Sport in Huntington Beach.

Hamilton, 27, overcame losing her left arm to a shark attack at age 13 to become a professional surfer whose story of determination became internationally known through the book Soul Surfer, which in 2011 was made into a film of the same name.

Michael Mick Fanning, a three-time world title holder nicknamed White Lightning for his speed, also was inducted during the hour-long ceremony.

Fanning, 36, gained widespread fame when he escaped unscathed after battling a great white shark in 2015 during a surfing competition in South Africa.

(Warning: Video contains some explicit language)

With the U.S. Open of Surfing ramping up for its final weekend at the nearby beach, hundreds of surfing fans crowded shoulder to shoulder to watch the induction ceremony.

Hamilton and Fanning had their names, hands and footprints impressed in cement in front of the store at 300 Pacific Coast Hwy. as big names in the surfing industry spoke to their character and determination.

Both of these people are great humans and have hearts of champions, famed surfer Peter PT Townend said.

You are the king and queen of modern surfing, said Aaron Pai, founder of the Surfers Hall of Fame.

Many of the speakers mentioned the struggles that Hamilton and Fanning had to overcome in their careers.

When Hamilton lost her arm, there were doubts as to whether shed be able to compete. But she claimed a national amateur title within two years after the attack, and she placed third in the 2016 Fiji Womens Pro.

Hamilton has used her injury as fuel for her foundation, Friends of Bethany, which helps amputees.

Fanning suffered a major setback in 2004 when his hamstring was ripped from the bone while surfing.

But he went on to claim world titles in 2007, 2009 and 2013.

Theres going to be peaks and valleys, he said during Fridays ceremony. Getting back to the top of the peak is the best part.

Fanning also expressed admiration for his fellow inductee, citing her willingness to charge the big waves at Pipeline and Jaws in Hawaii.

When it was Hamiltons turn to speak, she professed the virtues of hope and resilience in the face of struggle.

Hope is such a key thing you need in life to get past tough times, she said. Surfing has brought me a lot of hope. Its been a fun journey.

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter:@benbrazilpilot

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No wonder its been dubbed Lucifer. A relentless heat wave that gripped parts of Europe this week has sent temperatures soaring to record highs for several days, causing at least two deaths and prompting authorities to issue weather alerts.

Extreme heat in Italy, and parts of France and Spain and the Balkans, has led to dozens of wildfires, damaged crops and fueled power and water consumption. Authorities in some areas issued traffic restrictions and banned work in the open in the hottest part of the day as temperatures reached more than 104.

Spains national weather service on Saturday issued an emergency heat warning for 31 of the countrys 50 provinces as forecasts predicted temperatures of up to 111.

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Although this part of Europe is used to scorching summers, meteorologists have warned that such high temperatures lasting over several days arent that common. Serbian authorities have said the hot spell came from Africa.

It is just too much, said 52-year-old real estate agent Sasa Jovanovic, from Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Sometimes it feels as if I cannot breathe.

In the Alpine nation of Slovenia, authorities reported earlier this week the first tropical night at 4,920 feet in the mountains, meaning temperatures were higher than 68 during the night.

Authorities in other countries urged people to stay indoors and drink lots of water. The public health institute in Belgrade issued heat instructions, telling people to keep wet towels on windows if there is no air conditioning, and avoid physical strain and alcohol.

In Croatia, authorities have appealed to the thousands of tourists vacationing along the countrys Adriatic coast to be careful on the beaches and while traveling.

The streets of Montenegros capital, Podgorica, and other towns, were empty on the weekend, sending people flocking to the countrys Adriatic coast. Authorities there issued a fire alert because of dry weather.

Some 15 wildfires have been reported in Albania, and dozens of others have burned throughout the region. Hot and dry weather has scorched crops amid fears of water shortages in Italy and Serbia as authorities appealed for care in consumption.

In Romania, police banned heavy traffic on major roads in daylight hours during the weekend because of the heat wave, while trains slowed. A train service in southern Serbia also was delayed earlier this week after tracks buckled in the heat.

Romania reported two heat-related deaths  a 45-year-old man collapsed and died Friday while working in a field in the northeast, and a 60-year-old man died of a heart attack in the street in an eastern port Thursday.

In neighboring Hungary, the state railway company said it would distribute water at busy terminals. At the Budapest Zoo, Beliy and Seriy, a pair of 2-year-old polar bear cubs, were given huge chunks of ice and freezing-cold watermelons to help them withstand the weather conditions.

ALSO

In Turkeys sweeping purges, ordinary people are branded enemies of the state

Charlie Gard, child at center of court battle over his end-of-life treatment, dies in London

Facing the political might of its auto industry, Germany balks at stringent measures to curb pollution from diesels

UPDATES:

4:25 a.m.: This article was updated with reports from Croatia, Albania and Hungary.

This article was originally published at 3:45 a.m.
In a unanimous vote, Venezuelas newly installed constitutional assembly fired Atty. Gen. Luisa Ortega Diaz during its first official session on Saturday.

Ortega has criticized President Nicolas Maduro in recent weeks for calling the assembly, which she said was illegal.

In a letter to assembly president Delcy Rodriguez after the 545-0 vote, Venezuelas Supreme Court said it also has disqualified Ortega from holding any public office for an indefinite period and prohibited her from leaving the country, opening the way to her prosecution on charges of unspecified crimes.

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Ortega will be replaced as attorney general by Tarek William Saab, a Maduro loyalist, said assembly vice president Diosdado Cabello to reporters outside the Federal Palace where the vote took place. During the vote, some members shouted traitor and justice in reference to Ortega.

I propose that Luisa Ortega Diaz be removed from her duties, not suspended, Cabello said during the session prior to the vote.

Since Friday morning, police have restricted entry to the Public Ministry, where Ortega kept her offices. When Ortega arrived for work Saturday morning, she was barred from entering. She told TV reporters at the scene that she had been pushed and struck by police when she tried to enter.

The government is trying to hide proof of Oderbrecht, proof of corruption and the violation of human rights, Ortega told reporters before leaving on the back of a motorcycle. This is a dictatorship, what we are living in Venezuela. They arrest people arbitrarily, try them with military justice and now they are stopping the attorney general from entering [her] office.

The reference to Oderbrecht, a Brazilian construction company, was in regard to alleged bribes paid to government officials in exchange for preferential contracts.

Earlier, Ortega had accused the government over her social media account of mounting a siege of her office and included photos of a dozen police in riot gear standing sentry at the building.

Late Friday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, issued a statement demanding that the Maduro government guarantee the physical well-being of Ortega.

Maduro has described his convening of a new constitutional assembly as necessary to reestablish order in a country rocked by four months of protests that have left 130 dead and thousands injured and arrested. But critics say its true purpose is to circumvent the democratically elected and opposition-controlled National Assembly.

Once a fierce loyalist of late President Hugo Chavez, Ortega has become Maduros most prominent critic within the government, criticizing the assembly as illegitimate. The current 1999 constitution stipulates that any new constitution must first be authorized by the public in a nationwide referendum. Maduro called the new assembly on his own.

It remains to be seen whether Maduro will have Ortega arrested and on what charges. In speeches leading up to the election of assembly delegates on July 30, a vote that was boycotted by his opponents, Maduro said dissidents would be punished with possible jail terms.

In a speech to new assembly delegates at a swearing-in ceremony on Friday, Delcy Rodriguez told fascist opponents of Maduro that justice is coming.

Maduro warned the opposition that the new constitution would mean National Assembly members would lose their immunity from prosecution. He has singled out opposition legislator and former student leader Freddy Guevara as among the first he would have arrested.

Several governments in the region, including those of Colombia, Mexico and Peru, have criticized the new constitutional assembly as anti-democratic.

They were joined on Saturday by Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, which suspended Venezuela from the Mercosur trading block for rupture of democratic order.

The suspension of Venezuela was applied due to the actions of the Nicolas Maduro government and is a call for the immediate start of a process of political transition and restoration of democratic order, according to a statement issued in Sao Paulo, where foreign ministers of the four countries met on Saturday.

Venezeulas first lady, Cilia Flores, second row left, takes her place with members of the constitutional assembly for an official photo in Caracas on Aug. 4, 2017. (Ariana Cubillos / Associated Press)

Special correspondents Mogollon and Kraul reported from Caracas and Bogota, Colombia respectively.

MORE WORLD NEWS

Lucifer heat wave keeps parts of Europe on red alert

Celebration, sorrow and arrests at annual gay pride march in Jerusalem

Teachers, doctors, tax collectors: In Turkeys sweeping purges, ordinary people are branded enemies of the state

UPDATES:

11:40 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with Times staff reporting.

9:10 a.m.: This article was updated with the ouster of Atty. Gen. Luisa Ortega Diaz.

This article was originally published at 8:50 a.m.
In most democracies, a resounding win at the ballot box would put a president in a strong position to deliver promised changes. But Iran is only partly a democracy.

President Hassan Rouhani, who was officially sworn in for a second term Saturday, must contend with mounting opposition from religious hard-liners who keep losing elections but control key centers of power in the Islamic Republic.

The question is whether Rouhani can use his mandate to push through political reforms and social freedoms sought by his many young supporters  or whether he will need to appease conservative clerics and security commanders who are the custodians of Irans theocracy.

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History suggests that Rouhani has cause to be wary. His three immediate predecessors were reduced to the status of lame ducks in their second terms after clashing with the hard-line establishment, led by Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

There are clearly almost Soprano family-style moves to make him recognize how vulnerable he is, said Abbas Milani, a Tehran-born academic who directs the Iranian studies program at Stanford University, referring to the mob-themed U.S. television series.

Last month, Rouhanis brother, Hossein Fereydoun, was detained on charges of financial impropriety in what some experts describe as a shot across the bow by the conservative judiciary. Fereydoun was reportedly taken to a hospital the next day after appearing unwell at a court appearance and released on bail.

At his inauguration before parliament Saturday, Rouhani underscored the need for national cooperation and constructive relations with the world, familiar themes from his first term. Gone was the fiery rhetoric about freedom and civil rights that galvanized more reform-minded voters to his side during the election campaign.

We want to be a moderate government, Rouhani said before lawmakers, government insiders and foreign dignitaries, both in domestic and foreign policy.

Some of those who helped Rouhani increase his mandate by 5 million votes are now worried that the president wont fulfill campaign pledges to include women and reformist politicians in his 18-member Cabinet.

Tradition dictates that the president should consult the supreme leader about key appointments, such as the ministers of foreign affairs and intelligence. But Rouhani is said to also be running names for less sensitive posts by Khamenei.

One woman minister isnt a big deal. Why doesnt he try it? complained Siavash Ramesh, a 30-year-old political activist who until last week was an enthusiastic supporter of the president. We wanted more when we voted for him. Were unhappy, but what option did we have?

The presidents defenders say Rouhani has been consulting with the supreme leader about his Cabinet picks more than is customary so hard-liners wont mount a challenge when he presents the list to parliament for a confidence vote.

He already faces accusations of selling off the country to colonizing interests after the announcement of a multibillion-dollar deal with French oil giant Total and the China National Petroleum Corp. to develop part of a massive natural gas field.

And new sanctions imposed by the Trump administration are providing grist for the mill of opposition to the nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers, Rouhanis signature achievement.

Iran will not be the first to pull out of the nuclear deal, but it will not remain silent about Americas repeated violations  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Although many of the most crippling economic penalties imposed on Iran have been lifted since the Islamic Republic agreed to curb its nuclear activities in 2015, the country has not experienced as robust a recovery as officials had hoped.

Foreign banks and businesses are worried about the Trump administrations more aggressive approach to Iran and dont want to run afoul of sanctions imposed by the U.S. for other alleged transgressions. These include Irans ballistic missile program, support for U.S.-designated terrorist groups and human rights abuses.

Iranian officials accuse Trump of acting in bad faith and have threatened to take proportional retaliatory measures.

Iran will not be the first to pull out of the nuclear deal, but it will not remain silent about Americas repeated violations, Rouhani said.

The supreme leader, who gave his official endorsement Thursday for Rouhanis second term, said he supports extensive interaction with the world. But he advised Rouhani to be mindful of the plots of Irans enemies and reiterated the need for a resistance economy, or one that is not vulnerable to sanctions.

The cost of surrendering to aggressive powers is far greater than the cost of standing up to them, Khamenei was quoted as saying Thursday by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

The supreme leader has been increasingly critical of Rouhani for policies that Khamenei says fail to protect the dignity of the Islamic system against Westernizing influences.

Such remarks have emboldened hard-liners who surrounded Rouhani at a rally in June and shouted slogans likening the president to one of his predecessors who was forced into exile after falling out of favor with the Islamic Republics revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Embarrassing video of Rouhani being whisked away by his bodyguards was broadcast widely in Iran, including by state-run news outlets. Some saw this as payback for a bruising election campaign, in which Rouhani lashed out at conservative rivals for repressing dissent, accused the judiciary of breaking the law and demanded that the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard stay out of politics.

In office, however, the president has a reputation as a moderate pragmatist and consensus builder.

Rouhani hasnt gone rogue, said Reza Marashi, research director for the National Iranian American Council, which advocates for better U.S.-Iran relations. He hasnt approved a single thing without getting Khameneis approval.

Analysts expect Rouhani to focus on reviving Irans economy in his second term. Its an issue where he has a greater chance of avoiding real gridlock within the system itself, said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Its not nearly as dangerous as taking on issues of political prisoners or trying to open up the political space to those who feel marginalized.

Some experts believe Rouhani is trying to avoid a showdown with Khamenei in part because he is angling to succeed the 78-year-old supreme leader. If so, Milani said, the president could squander his political capital from the election and hurt his future prospects.

If he decides that the way for him to survive and win in the long run is to be more confrontational and rely on the power of the mandate, it will be a rough ride, but Im not sure he will lose, Milani added.

The presidents supporters have been pressing for the release of three opposition Green Movement leaders who have been under house arrest since 2011. But they arent optimistic.

There is a gap between what people voted for and what President Rouhani really can do, said Hossein Qayoumi, a reform-minded cleric and high-ranking member of Irans Democracy Party.

He thinks Rouhani might get some of the countrys rigid social and cultural restrictions eased. Satellite dishes that allow Iranians to watch foreign TV broadcasts have already become a common sight in Irans cities and towns, and the dress code for women has been somewhat relaxed.

But Qayoumi expects hard-liners to keep up the pressure on Rouhani.

For the countrys conservative clerics and Islamic Revolutionary Guard commanders, he said, its a fight for political survival: They know that if the winds of change blow, nothing can keep them in power.

Special correspondent Mostaghim reported from Tehran and Times staff writers Zavis and Etehad from Los Angeles.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

Twitter: @alexzavis

melissa.etehad@latimes.com

Twitter: @melissaetehad
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Ellen Fisher, 68, left, Doug Yanggen, 85, dress as polar bears to bring attention to global warming during Freakfest 2016 in Madison.
Bethlehem police found more than $10,000 worth of cocaine, $9,500 in cash and two drugs after a series of morning raids Thursday.

The raids came following investigations into drug sales dating back to May.

At 6 a.m. police found cocaine, a gun and $3,300 in cash in Apartment 1 at 1136 E. Third St. in Bethlehem. Police found 145 grams of cocaine, two ounces of marijuana a gun and $6,251 in cash at Apartment 2 at that address.

Later that morning, police found seven bags of cocaine, three bags of crack cocaine, an unspecified amount of heroin and syringes in an apartment at the Fred B. Rooney housing project at 4. E. Fourth St.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 3, 2017 CONTACT INFORMATION: Captain Anthony Leardi Division Commander Criminal... Posted by Bethlehem Police Department, Bethlehem, PA on Friday, August 4, 2017

Miguel Davila-Rivera, 33, was found in Apartment 1 on Third Street. He will be charged via summons with cocaine and drug paraphernalia possession.

Rafael J. Roque, 26, was found in Apartment 2. He was charged with possession with intent to deliver cocaine and marijuana, possession of cocaine and marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He was arraigned before District Judge Joseph Barner and sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Joel Colon, 37, was in the housing project. He will be charged via summons with possession of cocaine, heroin and drug paraphernalia.

Information provided anonymously by residents contributed to this investigation, police said.

"The Bethlehem Police Department will continue to partner with its citizenry to vigorously fight drug distribution and remove firearms from city streets," said Bethlehem police Captain Anthony Leardi in a news release.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
The message that music icon Carlos Santana brought with him to kick off this year's Musikfest was one of positivity.

Standing in front of a sold-out crowd of just over 6,500 fans assembled on Bethlehem's South Side, the guitarist preached ideas of love over fear and that each individual in attendance was glorious and divine.

"It's a real honor and a joy to be in your presence," 70-year-old Santana said as he addressed the crowd. "We are all connected with your light and you are divine."

A little deep for a fun musical night out, sure, but it was sincere and it helped shape the 2 hour and 15 minute set of songs that Santana brought with them to christen the first of the nightly headlining acts to take the Sands Steel Stage over the next 10 days.

The songs were really what it was all about. They conveyed the message of love through the vitality and joy they evoked.

It all started with a high-energy romp through the song trio of "O Paradiso," "Are You Ready?" and "Love Makes the World Go 'Round." The last two songs being from Santana's two most recent releases 2016's 'Santana IV' and 'Power of Peace,' released just last week.

Colorful swirling and flashing lights filled the air surrounding the 9-piece band on stage. Two male vocalists, Ray Greene and Andy Vargas, moved about the front of the stage and interacted with the audience. A keyboardist, bassist and a backing guitarist complimented three percussionists.

Carlos Santana, the bandleader, decked in black with a t-shirt promoting the album artwork from "Power of Peace" and a matching fedora. He spent time directing and interacting with all the players while simultaneously riffing on solos, either with a look or a raise of the arm while in mid-song.

"DJ Khaled and Rihanna have a song on the top of the charts," Santana told the crowd, "but we do it like this."

The band then launched into the 1999 smash hit "Maria Maria" which got everyone up and moving in a big way. The reference was to this year's collaboration between DJ Khaled and Rihanna on "Wild Night," which sampled basically all of the musicality to "Maria Maria." It currently has over 237 million views on YouTube.

But in keeping it positive, more songs from the new album such as "Higher Ground," "Total Destruction To Your Mind" and "I Remember" blended in seamlessly with the rest. The latter featured drummer Cindy Blackman, who is also wife of Carlos Santana, singing up at the front of the stage with her husband hanging on each word at her side.

Old favorites like "Oye Como Va" and "Evil Ways" really did fit in with the new material as the band truly made the music sound cohesive and fresh. Of course it all is guided by the unmistakable tones of Santana's guitar.

His playing is still exquisite to this day and it was highlighted on "Mona Lisa" as shifting painted faces of women moved on the screen behind him. Santana's command of the frets was also clear on as the extended intro to "Black Magic Woman" that left everyone hanging on every note before tearing into that legendary opening riff.

As songs bled from one into another, the musical journey was frenetic and timeless. In a strange way, by the time they got to "Smooth," the monster hit off 1999's 15-times platinum album "Supernatural," it kind of snuck up on everyone. There was a bit of a delayed reaction from the crowd before it reached it's peak on that one.

"Smooth" could very well go down as Santana's most-enduring recording. Among many reasons is that there is no other acceptable response when someone says "Man, it's a hot one" than the retort "like seven inches from the midday sun." And it is because of that song.

The final highlight of the night was Santana performing "Soul Sacrifice" on stage as a young Carlos is seen at Woodstock in footage from the 1969 festival played on the screens in the back of the stage. The juxtaposition of where it all began coupled with the clear evidence of love and endurance being delivered by an artist to his adoring disciples nearly five decades later.

Matt Smith is a contributing photographer. Follow him on Twitter @msmith_photo. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
TROPHIES

Easton Realtor

are joining forces with the Boys & Girls Club of Easton to provide backpacks and school supplies for club members participating in a "School is Cool" essay and art contest. Shaughnessy is encouraging people to join her in sponsoring a backpack for $30, hoping to outfit 25 children. Club members are putting together needs lists for school, looking for good values and then will go shopping with club workers to purchase back-to-school supplies. The backpacks and supplies will be delivered to kids on the Aug. 25, the last day of summer camp.

Easton native Dave Drinkhouse is assembling a history of Alpha Portland Cement Company, hoping to document the firm's impact on the Lehigh Valley. Drinkhouse, a retired engineer, grew up on Easton's College Hill and worked for the company in the 1950s. He figures he visited 170 cement plants during his career. He's now assembling news articles, photographs, maps and biographies of the presidents. The company was based in Alpha when it started 1895 and soon moved its headquarters to downtown Easton, eventually purchasing what became the nine-story Alpha Building on Centre Square. The history follows the company through its heyday, recovery from damaging floods and buyout in 1983.

An Easton-based nonprofit group, Restoring Hope Ministries, is on a mission to raise funds for victims of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bicyclists recently traveled 600 miles across parts of Michigan, Canada, Pennsylvania and New York to raise money and awareness. The public is invited to end a tour-ending picnic Sunday at Scott Park in Easton, which will feature games, food and a brief "Why We Ride" presentation. The group's Ride for Hope was its second fund-raiser this year. Money raised by the church-to-church partnership will help Congolese victims, particularly women subjected to rape by invading militias in an ongoing civil war. Sponsors of the bike tour included Stark Financial Group, Lifestyle Realty and Curt's Cyclery.

' latest project is a short film about the town of Phillipsburg, looking at its transition from an industrial powerhouse and transportation hub to modern times, up to the construction of a new Phillipsburg High School. The 19-minute documentary, underwritten by the town's Urban Enterprise Zone, will be used to attract new homeowners, businesses and investors, Mayor Stephen Ellis said. A premiere is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 14 at the high school.

TURKEYS



The unexpected closing of Alfred Angelo stores last month left many customers in the lurch -- notably brides-to-be and bridesmaids who had ordered and paid for gowns and accessories. The Florida-based company, which operated a store in Whitehall Township, abruptly ceased operations in mid-July. A sign on the Whitehall store said dresses that had been completed would be shipped, but offered no other help. The Washington Post reported this week that the company has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Company officials said they managed to send out some dresses, but would not be able to fill orders that haven't been delivered by now. Customers who lost money were told send in a form available online. A Trophy, however, to Oklahoma seamstress Rozetia Ellis, who despite losing her job, took home more than 80 dresses and has been altering and delivering them to relieved customers.

Those attending the Bethlehem NAACP's three-day "Mind, Body & Soul Camp" for kids at Saucon Park were shocked by someone's attempt at a racial insult -- a black doll's head impaled on a stake near a pavilion. Bethlehem police are treating the incident as an act of ethnic intimidation."This is something a true coward would do," Police Chief Mark DiLuzio said. He asked anyone with information about the incident to call police at 610-865-7187.
On Saturday, Phillipsburg's Democrats will open their headquarters at a historic site in town.

In the shadow of the Black Bridge on South Main Street, Union Station is a relic of transportation history. It falls within Phillipsburg's Commercial Historic District, on the National Register of Historic Places.

It is currently owned and restored by a non-profit group. And the property is exempt from taxes.

And that is one reason why the town's council president has a problem with Democrats moving in.

Union Station in Phillipsburg is at the center of a political fight. (lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

"I am appalled to see the grant-funded Union Station building be used for political gain," said Todd Tersigni, a Republican, in a statement read at a recent council meeting and provided in writing to lehighvalleylive.com. "Already, I have had many concerned residents come to me and ask if it's a correct and legal use of the building that is considered public, not private property."

With few exceptions, state law prevents public property from being leased for any political or religious purpose. However, the station at 178 S. Main St. is not owned by the town.

Joshua Davis, a town councilman and chairman of the Phillipsburg Democratic Committee, said his organization's signed lease with the building's owner, the Friends of the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center, is strictly a business transaction.

"Ultimately, we're paying them to use their building," Davis said.

Officials in the town's land use board office said the site has had several business uses in the past, including as office and retail space. Davis said it was the headquarters of New Jersey Gov. Robert Meyner's campaign in the 1950s.

Calls to the town's tax office for comment on permitted uses at the site were not returned Thursday or Friday.

Tersigni requested the town Democrats halt their use of the property pending a legal review of their lease. Davis said that will not happen.

An opening ceremony is planned for 3 p.m. Saturday at the station, and Mayor Stephen Ellis has said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker will help cut the ribbon.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Laois man has been sentenced to jail for robbing his own grandmothers house, in a frightening ordeal which has left the 80-year-old woman a virtual prisoner in her own home.

Judge Keenan Johnson said that the victims trust and sense of security have both been shattered, when he sentenced Gavin Fitzhenry to seven years in prison, with the last two years suspended.

The accused was sentenced at the recent Portlaoise Circuit Court, for burglary at Summerhill Lane, Portlaoise, on May 16, 2015.

At 2.15am, three males with their faces covered broke into the home of Kathleen Fitzhenry, an 80-year-old woman living alone. She suffers with osteoporosis and has a hospital bed in her home.

As she exited the bed in order to turn off the burglar alarm, she felt a cold metallic object to her neck. The raiders went through her medicine trolley and attempted to remove the rings from her fingers.

They exited the premises when she mentioned that her carer lived next door.

They stole a laptop, mobile phone, 32 TV, hedge trimmer, chainsaw and fishing rods to a total value of 1,355.

When arrested, the accused initially denied taking part in the burglary, but later said he knew about the burglary although he did not know that his grandmother would be targeted.

He said he remained in the car during the burglary, but got out of the car to take heroin when he realised that his grandmothers house was being burgled.

He said his brother had a debt for drugs and gambling and he was placed under pressure to pay the debt. He was offered 500 to act as driver for the burglars.

He refused to name his co-accused.

This was a shocking and terrifying crime as it involved the burglary of a private residence occupied by a vulnerable elderly lady, said Judge Johnson.

The victim impact statement indicated that she no longer feels comfortable in her home.

She has had lighting installed all around the house, and locks the doors of each room after her when she moves around the house.

She is using more electricity than ever as she has to keep the house lit and thus prevent further burglaries.

The whole experience has been upsetting for her. She wont go anywhere strange any more and wont answer the door unless the people ring in advance to say who they are.

She now is to some extent a prisoner in her own house due to fear of going out, said Judge Johnson.

People like Mrs Fitzhenry deserve to be left in peace and to feel safe in their own homes.

The actions of the accused and his accomplices have shattered Mrs Fitzhenrys sense of security.

Her trust and sense of security have both been shattered and this is a particularly serious matter for a person like Mrs Fitzhenry who is in their twilight years he said.

The accused has a serious criminal record with 48 previous convictions.

The judge said that it is very clear from the probation report that the accuseds offending stems from his chronic addiction to heroin. It is further clear that until he tackles that addiction once and for all he will continue to be in trouble and appearing before the court.

Judge Johnson imposed seven years, with the final two years suspended for five years on a number of conditions: the accused must enter into a peace bond and keep the peace for five years; he must remain under probation supervision for two years; he must remain drug and alcohol free for five years post-release, and remain drug free and engage with addiction services while in custody; and he must engage in offence focused and victim awareness work while in custody, and continue to do so for two years post release.
Crooked House Theatre Company in Newbridge will host 50 young people from all over Europe this week in a week-long theatre-making project called Visibly Vocal.

Teenagers from France, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Italy and Ireland will congregate in Newbridge for a programme of workshops and performances where they will work with professional artists to make short performances in public spaces around the town.

The project, a youth exchange, is funded by the EU Erasmus+ programme for Youth and Life-Long Learning, and is designed to bring European young people closer together to share their views and learn about issues facing Europe today.

Peter Hussey, Artistic Director of Crooked House, says organising such an event is a challenge, but they have hosted more than 20 such projects in the last 15 years.

Performing outside near the Acropolis last easter during the Indigo exchange to Athens.

This one will be different in that the young people will perform on the streets and in the park on Saturday, August 12 from 7pm onwards.

The public is invited to follow a trail of short performances around the town, free.

Visibly Vocal refers to young people becoming both visible in public and sharing their concerns to a wider audience.

We can expect short performances about climate change, about migration and refugees, and about any issue the young people feel is important to them.

The groups come from theatres with whom Crooked House has built strong relationships. We have been working with Theatre Le Grand Bleu in Lille, in France, for several years, Peter says, and we regularly bring young people to Lille for projects.

Our partners in Greece are Kinitiras Studio in Athens. This Easter we brought 15 Kildare young people there to work with 15 young Greeks on social issues relevant to the two countries.

Likewise, we have been to the beautiful island of Bornholm, Denmark, where we worked with our partner there (Cirkus Stjerneskud and Bornholms Dramaskole) on various projects over the years.

Our Italian and Spanish partners are new to us and we look forward to working closely with them.

The Irish young people are from Newbridge, Leixlip, Kilcock and Celbridge.

Charlie Hughes-Farrell, from Kildare Youth Theatre, says that taking part has brought huge learning to himself and to his friends.

Cian O' Nairigh and Charlie Hughes-Farrell performing in Athens during the Indigo youth exchange last Easter.

We get to really engage with people our own age from cultures different to ours: we find out how their education system works, how important or not family is, and what kinds of pressures face young people after school in terms of employment or college.

The Irish young people are busy preparing their studio space (above Johnsons) for the exchange. Lauren Kelly from Naas says we work hard to make them feel as welcome as possible. When english is not their first language it can be difficult to communicate, but with theatre, we find that we often dont need any verbal language to be understood.

The benefits of international exchanges are not just for young people, adds Veronica Bagnall, one of the volunteer youth workers .

We spend a lot of the project money on hiring local caterers, buying food and other supplies, and of course, the majority is spent on accommodation.

All the young people are staying in the Gables Guesthouse, which is ideal, says Peter. It doesnt have a bar, each room has an en suite, and is situated along the beautiful Liffey Park and Strand, a short walk from the town centre where we are based.

He also thanks the Patrician Secondary School, without whom we would never be able to run the project. Patrick OLeary, the Principal, and the staff, generously give us three rooms to use for workshops.

Doug Morrison and some of the international group performing a piece they made during our Spanish exchange in June.

Ana Rodriguez Asensio is a volunteer with Crooked House on an Erasmus Study Abroad programme, supported by her university in Spain. She has a background in street theatre and performing arts.

One of the activities she organised is a kind of treasure hunt, where the young people have to form small groups and visit places in the town (from Newbridge College to the Whitewater Shopping Centre) looking for clues and making short performances at each stop.

On the other days the young people get to work with internationally established theatre-makers, an opportunity that they would never otherwise have.

These include Gerrgina Kakoudaki from Athens who is a director, young Spanish up-and-coming director Juan Escalona Correll, who directs verbatim and site-specific projects in northern Spain, choreographer Antigone Gyra whose work is recognised all over Europe.

The project is free to participants. Crooked House organises three or four such exchanges a year.

Young people can join KYT in September and be eligible to take part in the next one in Lille in November. Visit kildareyouththeatre.com

If you see groups of young people behaving dramatically around the Main Street this week, dont be alarmed. Come and watch what they are doing.
Kildare County Council is to examine the deteriorating condition of St. Davids Castle, one of Naass oldest buildings.

The condition of the structure  which is over 800 years old  has inevitably been deteriorating for some time.

Labour councillor Anne Breen wants the building and the area immediately surrounding it to be properly maintained in keeping with its status as a listed building. She asked for KCC to contact the premises owner.

It is sad to say that one of the most iconic buildings in Naas is now in a continuous state of disrepair and decay, Cllr Breen told the Leader.

Situated in what was the centre of medieval Naas it is now in great danger of irreparable damage.

The castle and its curtilage are falling down. In fact the walls all along Church Lane are in a bad state of repair and could constitute a safety hazard to people using the lane as access to and from the town.

Historians say the castle is very much part of the towns history dating back to the original building in the time of King John of England when two parliaments were held there. It was a central feature during the 13th and 14th centuries as a Norman stronghold.

This very special building, that, I have argued all along, should have been preserved and developed as a tourist attraction for the benefit of the town and is now in real danger of being lost.

Cllr Breen added: Something must be done to stop this happening. I am urging the council to see what contact the present owners requesting that this historic building be properly maintained to a standard in keeping with its status as a listed building.

KCC says St. Davids Castle is a protected structure and it will contact the property owners as well as carrying out an on site inspection and appraisal. The Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs provides grants and matched funding to help owners/occupiers with the repair of a protected structure.
Its Straffan House in 1975 and Burgess Meredith, who plays Sylvester Stallones wily old trainer Mickey in the Rocky movies, is dressed up as a clown.

Hes performing beneath a huge Duffys Circus tent and alongside him are Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Shirley Maclaine. The music is provided by The Chieftains, the stellar movie man John Huston is the ring master and John McColgan, who went on to Riverdance, fame is directing the recording of the show for RTE television.

Sean Connery is part of this incredibly surreal scene too, and the reason hes there is because of the working relationship he enjoyed with then owner of Straffan House (now the K Club hotel), Kevin McClory.

I heard McClorys name for the first time at Christmas but long-time residents in Straffan are no doubt familiar with Mr McClory, who bought the estate in 1973 and split his time between there and a place in the Bahamas.

READ MORE: Kildare sights you won't find on a tourist guide

There are stories about Kevins love of animals and how he was known for walking a huge pig, on a lead, up to Sunday mass and tying the animal up outside before walking home again after service.

But these eccentricities only enhanced McClorys reputation for those who knew their neighbour as the man who created James Bond, which was the back story to why Connery was in Duffys tent that day dressed as a clown.

This story features in a recently released RTE Radio documentary by Thomas Black and when I first heard about the Production, I immediately defaulted to the biased conclusion that James Bond was a Straffan man!

But the bizarre thing about it is that theres substantive truth in the connection between Straffan and James Bond.

Kevin McClory was originally born in Dun Laoghaire, and long before he moved to Kildare he worked in the movie business beside John Huston, and on movies like Around the World in 80 Days.

Hed a reputation for being fearless, ambitious, charming and oh, he once dated Elizabeth Taylor.

Sound like anyone?

And, according to one story, he rescued the whale model of Moby Dick after a storm set it adrift in the seas around Youghal, during the filming of the movie with the same name in 1956.

READ MORE: The triumphs and disasters of Naas fashion in the 80s

Everyone watched helplessly, believing the whale to be lost, until McClory jumped into the sea and anchored the huge model with a chain.

McClorys early ascent in the movie business was rapid and he had a famed meeting with James Bond author, Ian Fleming, in Claridges Hotel, London, in 1958.

Fleming, at that point had written eight novels about 007, but in McClorys mind the secret agent Fleming created was cold, austere and nothing like the suave, Martini-drinking, quick witted character now accepted in popular culture as James Bond.

Fleming had yet to sell any movie rights and McClory, along with another man, Jack Whittingham, created a new version of the character and wrote the screenplay for the movie Thunderball, of which Fleming went on to claim ownership.

A long legal process followed as McClory fought Fleming and the studio backing him for the intellectual property rights of his James Bond. Thunderball was supposed to be the first big budget Bond movie, but because of the legal action taken by the one-time Straffan resident, the production was postponed and Dr No got rolled out first.

Eventually, Fleming and the studio settled with McClory, Thunderball got made, villains like Blofeld  created by McClory and Whittingham along, with the sinister Spectre organisation  entered the mainstream, and the Irishman became enormously wealthy.

But for the rest of his life, and during the Straffan years, he continued to fight for the property rights for James Bond. It wasnt until after his death in 2006 that his family did a deal with the studios and handed back the rights belonging to their father. This freed up the studio to make Spectre with Daniel Craig, and of course the production has become one of the biggest grossing Bond movies of all time.

I know we are quick as a nation to celebrate great deeds and exports of talent but I dont know if there is a blue plaque outside the K Club that celebrates the James Bond connection and its former owner.

If there is I apologise and make the excuse that Im out of the country. If there isnt, then there should be.

There will never be another circus act to match that which McClory created in 1975 but at the very least the bar would do a boon in Martinis.

Shaken, of course!

Robert Mulhern is a London based journalist contracted to RTE's The Documentary on One. To contact our columnist, email mulhernrobert@hotmail.com

The RTE radio documentary  007, The Irish Connection  is available on the RTE website.
The Little Way cancer support charity has now bought a premises in the centre of Clane.

The well-known group has been renting a house on the Kilcock road for some 14 years.

Some time ago the volunteer board of directors, who run the registered charity, decided that they would be better off putting the 10,000 a year rent they have been paying to a more permanent use.

Evelyn McKee said that, before she passed away, their late former director, Cathy Carr, told the group: Get roots. Inspired by those words ,they ventured into the property market with some trepidation and secured two side by side premises at The Village Centre, a short walk away from their current rented property.

Recently, Celine Daffy, the groups administrator, and Ms McKee told the Leader that it was hoped the new premises, now being refurbished, will be ready for use by September.

The group has been saving for this particular day but needs another 70,000. We would not be where we are but for the generosity of the people of Kildare, said Evelyn.

The plan to increase services, possibly bringing in courses on nutrition, wellbeing and holistic healing.

They also hope to increase opening hours, currently 10.30am to 1.30pm, to 10.30-4pm. The new premises will have five rooms, including three upstairs rooms and tea and kitchen facilities.

There will be sufficient space for lectures.

You can donate to the Little Way fund at www.idonate.ie/renovationcampaign.
Courtesy Photo From left, Lisa Lee, K. Lynn Walker and Mary-Jean Fickes pause for a photo on their medical mission trip to Eccuador.

Three Niwot residents have been taking their skills abroad to help those in need.

K. Lynn Walker, M.D., is a doctor in Longmont; Lisa Lee is a pediatric nurse practitioner; and Mary-Jean Fickes is an interpreter and translator. The three friends use their professional skills on medical mission trips to underdeveloped parts of the world.

While Lee is new to these trips, Walker and Fickes are s...
THE new human resource director at one of Limericks biggest employers has announced his firm is heading on another hiring ramp".

Regeneron pharmaceuticals already employs over 500 people in Limerick as its $600m investment here continues.

But speaking to Business Leader, Ivor Downey said the firm is on the cusp of yet further growth.

The biopharmaceutical firm took over the former Dell manufacturing plant in 2013. It researches and produces cholesterol drugs as well as drugs for a variety of eye diseases, which are exported globally from the Limerick plant.

While he did not go into specific numbers of further jobs, Mr Downey said: A huge goal is hiring and attracting people to Regeneron. Based on the strength of our pipeline of products, we have had a couple of products which have been approved by the Federal Drugs Administration (FDA) this year. To put that in context, there are probably only 20 drugs approved by the FDA this year, and of these, Regeneron has two.

We are currently in a phase where we are validating our operation here in Raheen. Based on our pipeline, we are going to build up our operation through the rest of this year and into next year.

In order to attract the next generation of scientists, Mr Downey  who comes from near Regenerons base in Raheen  said the firm is starting an apprenticeship programme aimed at Leaving Certificate students.

We will have a number of slots for people doing the Leaving Certificate to start with us in September, he confirmed, The second big thing is the whole engagement with colleges. We want to ramp up our engagement with local colleges, as we will need these graduates for many years to come.

An ultimate aim of Regenerons bosses, Mr Downey added is to develop a talent pipeline for biotech in the Mid-West region.

To do this, the firm will link in with secondary schools and encourage students to persevere with science and technology subjects.
INSTEAD of reading the Gospel during a Mass a County Limerick priest was forced to preach a message of crime awareness.

Fr Michael OShea, parish priest of Kilfinane, Glenroe/Ballyorgan and Ardpatrick, asked Mass-goers to leave the Our Lady of Ransom church in Glenroe church to bring in their mobiles phones if they had left them in their vehicles.

Last month, three cars were broken into during Saturday evening Mass. Laptops and iPhones were taken.

It is always a worry that you forget to put the phone on silent and it rings in the church. Many leave them in the glovebox for fear of embarrassment. Fr OShea advised members of his congregation to remove any personal belongings from their cars.

The crime, which proves nothing is sacred anymore, was raised by Bruff Superintendent William Duane during a presentation to councillors of the Cappamore-Kilmallock municipal district. He said there had been a big increase in thefts from vehicles in the district.

Cllr Bill ODonnell said there is an excellent system in place in Hospital. They set up a rota and one volunteer stays outside during Mass, said Cllr ODonnell.

Fr OShea said they havent had a pastoral council meeting since the crime but unfortunately they will have to consider putting a similar system in place in the future.

I know when they have gatherings in the hall they have someone look after the cars, said Fr OShea.

Local councillor, Lisa Marie Sheehy said: I think it's frankly disgusting that these criminals targeted our locals in prayer in church. People across the community were very angry that this happened and there is revulsion in the parish at the targeting of cars of Mass-goers. In a Mass shortly after the incident the local priest asked people to go out to their cars, if they had left valuable items outside, and a number of people went to bring in their items. It is very sad the priest had to say that.

Last April, the Easter dues believed to be in the region of 4,500 was stolen from the safe in Ballylanders church. Parish priest, Fr Thomas Breen said locals were very upset over what happened.

While in February there was outrage when the Leader reported a 93-year-old man living on his own in the Kilfinane/Ballylanders area was forced to bravely fire his shotgun to scare away intruders armed with a slash hook.

Cllr Sheehy initiated a Community Text Alert and the committee has been very busy signing up all the locals of Glenroe/Ballyorgan. She added that they will be discussing the possibility of patrolling the car-park while Mass is on at their next meeting to deter any more attacks on Mass-goers.

These crimes that have happened in recent months are the lowest of the low and I want the message to go out that our Community Alert team is active and we are not going to take this anymore, said Cllr Sheehy.
A Galesville farmer has won his five-year legal battle against Xcel Energy over stray voltage that he says harmed his cattle and could result in a record $13.5 million award.

A jury this week found that Xcel was negligent and failed to follow state regulations, causing more than $4 million in losses for Paul Halderson and his wife, Lyn, who operate a nearly 1,000-cow dairy.

The Haldersons claimed their herd suffered from illness and decreased milk production for more than a decade because of improperly grounded power lines.

In total, the Trempealeau County jury awarded the Haldersons about $4.5 million, which the court is required to triple in cases such as this where a jury finds willful, wanton or reckless violation of statutes.

That would be the largest stray voltage award in Wisconsin history and likely the second largest in the nation, said Haldersons attorney Barry Hammarback of River Falls.

It really was quite a vindication, Hammarback said, noting that the Haldersons had to endure accusations they were sub-standard farmers.

Paul Halderson, a longtime member of the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau school board, said he would rather have avoided the lawsuit but was relieved to get compensation for a problem that began as early as 1993.

It was a long struggle, he said. I wish that we didnt have to go through this to get this.

Xcel spokeswoman Christine Ouellette said the company was disappointed by the verdict and is evaluating the next steps.

The term stray voltage refers to current that leaks from neutral wires into the earth. Animals that come into contact with a grounded object  such as a watering trough  can receive small shocks. This can cause dairy cattle to avoid eating, become stressed and generally produce less milk, according to research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Wisconsins Public Service Commission established guidelines in 1996 for acceptable levels of stray voltage for utility service, although a farm or homes own wiring can also be the source, said Doug Reinemann, professor and chair of biological systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Its typically some of each, Reinemann said. Theres always some coming from each side.

According to the Haldersons suit, NSP found excessive voltage in one of their barns beginning in 1996 but failed to report it. In 2011, the Haldersons hired a consultant who found high levels of electricity and concluded it was coming from the utilitys distribution system.

The suit claimed this led to reduced milk production and the loss of $5.8 million in profits between 2004 and 2011 when Xcel installed equipment designed to reduce stray voltage.

Hammarback said after new equipment was installed, the cows reproduction rates nearly doubled, mortality plummeted and overall production increased by 5 million pounds of milk per year.

Its like night and day, Haldeson said in a statement released by his attorney. When we had stray voltage, we could never get the production we wanted and the cows were struggling with health problems. Now it seems effortless. Production is way up and the cows are doing great.

Also named in the suit was Star Blends LLC, which the Haldersons said provided bad feed in June 2011  shortly after Xcel installed equipment to address the stray voltage  that killed some of their cows and left others sick. The Sparta feed company settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Xcel countered that the Haldersons claim teeters on the false premise that their herd should have produced milk at levels exceeding state and local averages.

The utility claims no one detected harmful currents where cows were present and says Haldersons problems resulted from his expansion during difficult times for the dairy industry, bad feed, disease and inadequate veterinary care, and poor conditions for the cattle.

Arctic View expanded its operation in 2001 and 2005, growing the herd from around 200 cows to more than 900. Xcel says it tested for stray voltage each time new wiring was installed and did not find significant levels.

In 2010 a Grant County farmer won a record $5 million settlement against Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative, and last year the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a $9 million verdict against Crow Wing Cooperative Power & Light Co.

It was a long struggle. I wish that we didnt have to go through this to get this. Paul Halderson, farmer
A traffic stop near Dekorra on Monday resulted in a Chicago-area man being arrested for carrying thousands of dollars and pounds of marijuana.

Victor M. Johnson, 36, of Lynwood, Illinois, appeared in Columbia County Circuit Court on Wednesday charged with a single count of possession with intent to deliver marijuana.

I suggest a $15,000 cash bond, said District Attorney Jane Kohlwey in Johnsons initial appearance. This man has, to the best of my knowledge, no ties to the state of Wisconsin, except that he was traveling between the Twin Cities area and Illinois and was stopped by a trooper who discovered he had just under $11,000 in cash in his vehicle as well as over 8 pounds of marijuana in packages of one pound each in his trunk.

The case began with a traffic stop on east Interstate 90/94 on Monday night around 10:45 p.m. when a Wisconsin State Trooper pulled Johnson over for speeding in a construction zone where he appeared to be on track to either sideswipe a another vehicle or hit one of the orange barrels.

The suspects vehicle reportedly hit the brakes to merge behind a truck, but was stopped once he was outside the construction zone.

When the trooper asked Johnson about what happened, Johnson reportedly said that he had mistimed the situation and then when asked about a smell of marijuana, he pointed to a pile of clothes in the back of the vehicle.

The officer searched Johnson finding, according to court documents, a lot of cash, totaling, mostly in $20 bills with 11 $100 bills, four $50 bills, and four $10 bills, adding up to $10,940. When he searched the vehicle, the officer looked in the trunk, finding an orange suitcase with eight packages of marijuana weighing between one and a third and nearly one and a half pounds each.

While I note that the District Attorney is correct that he does not have any ties to Columbia County, he does live in the greater Chicago area, which is not very far away, said defense attorney Nicholas Rifelj. It is a simple car ride to get here and hes closer to Columbia County than a lot of residents of the state.

Johnson is solidly based in the Chicago area by way of work and family, Rifelj argued, and not likely to make a break for Mexico or Canada. While I think that some cash would be appropriate in the eyes of the court, $15,000 is excessive.

The allegations are serious and the maximum sentence is dramatic in many ways and there are several factors, not the least of which is the defendants address, which are working against him here, said Judge W. Andrew Voigt. I think everyone is correct that a significant cash bond is necessary given the circumstances to assure that Mr. Johnson return to court when he is supposed to.

Not agreeing entirely to Kohlweys recommendation, Voigt ordered Johnson to be held on $10,000 cash bond, scheduled to next appear in court for an Aug. 10 preliminary hearing.

If convicted, Johnson faces up to 12  years in prison.
The historic Julia Belle Swain, which last plied the Mississippi River under its own power in 2008, now may do so next year, after delays from previous target dates in 2013. And 2014. And 2015. And 2016. And this year.

Just when it looked as if the craft  one of just a few steam-powered stern-wheelers in the country  might meet its end as a rust bucket moored along the Black River in La Crosse, a group of paddle-wheel fans with a vision for a renewed future formed the nonprofit Save the Julia Belle Swain Committee and bought it from Bob Kalhagen for $250,000 in 2013.

Kalhagen had bought the vessel for $500,000 in 1994 and operated it out of La Crosse between 1995 and 2008 until the recession forced him to shut down the business.

The initial plan was to rehabilitate it during the winter of 2013-14 and launch its second life in 2014. Too much work remained, and the original plan to have the work done in the comfort of SkipperLiners indoor dry dock ran aground when that boat builder itself foundered.

In 2014, the Julia Belle was towed to Dubuque, Iowa, where it had been built and launched in 1971, for major dismantling and extensive iron work to restore its dilapidated infrastructure both below and above the waterline.

The committee, now named the Julia Belle Foundation, had the 108-by-26-foot Belle towed back to La Crosse in August 2015 to continue its facelift and renovations of everything inside, from stem to stern, port to starboard and below the waterline to the top of the pilot house.

The work has included a new paint job, new cabin walls bumped out a bit to increase the inside space, insulation it didnt have before, a new boiler and generators, as well as new aluminum windows with an antique appearance, LED lighting, air conditioning and other creature comforts it didnt have in its previous life.

This time last year, the 108-by-26-foot moored on the Black near Loggers Field at Copeland Park resembled a beehive, with metal workers, welders and other craftsmen swarming above and below decks. It recently has appeared more like a ghost ship to some, although work continues slowly, such as painting the walkway around the second deck, as Capt. Eric Dykman was doing Tuesday.

It was obvious that we had a substantial amount of work to do and little time to get it done for the 2017 season, JBS Foundation President John Desmond said in an email Wednesday in answer to a phone message. We made the decision to continue the restoration but at a more restrained pace.

Foundation board members originally had projected the project's total cost at $1 million, including the purchase price, but it has far surpassed $2 million.

Asked about indications that the foundation is strapped for cash, Desmond said with a laugh, "Money is always short  let me count the ways" but said it is experiencing "no problems worth mentioning."

Logistics Health Inc. founder and CEO Don Weber has been one of the major benefactors of the project, which also has received other substantial donations and is seeking grants as a nonprofit.

Costs ballooned at every bend in the river, such as instances in which workers trying to restore the walls found that coats of paint and putty over the years had covered irreparable flaws and weakened structure. They needed replacement instead of repairing, and the foundation opted for aluminum instead of wood.

The foundation has opted for top-notch materials throughout, a dedication Desmond has explained by saying, "We're fixing it for the next 50 years.

The Belle now has a new boiler, generator, electricity, insulation, support poles, air conditioning, new restrooms and filigree and made of metal rather than the wood that had rotted before it, the captain pointed out.

Dykman and Dillon Connor, who also has done yeoman work on the boat in both Dubuque and La Crosse and is expected to be the Belle's engineer, were able to dismantle and rebuild the original engines, which are more than 100 years old.

The paddle wheel, which was decrepit and had rotting planks as it gathered cobwebs and hosted insects and critters on shore, will have new metal spokes, awaiting assembly near the boat. Custom Fab and Machine in La Crosse crafted them in half-moon sections that will be joined and fastened to the axle, then be outfitted with new wood paddles.

Barry Blomquist, considered the architectural and nautical brain for the project, spent more than 400 hours restoring the old Belles calliope not only to its former glory but also beyond, including new pipes machined at Custom Fab and digital electronics.

Blomquist, who could not be reached for comment on the Julia Belle project, came by his mastery of boat building honestly  and by virtue of hard work. He founded Mid-City Steel Fabricating in 1971 as a one-man shop at the age of 26 and sold it in 2007, having built it into an employer of 80 or so workers. Mid-City was a subcontractor for SkipperLiner.

The calliope will return to the boat, in new surroundings, when the boat is ready to embark on its new role as a combination excursion boat and floating classroom, as an educational component is required for nonprofit status.

Of course, that wont happen until the U.S. Coast Guard pulls its oars from the water, after monitoring the work and condition of the craft from the beginning.

Since the restoration was so substantial we need a complete review by the Coast Guard, Desmond said.

The JBS Foundation is anxious to get this project completed and the JBS restored to service, Desmond said. We expect 2018 to be the year.
Former vice president Al Gore said he tried for months to persuade President Donald Trump to take climate change seriously - and thought there was a possibility he could come around, until Trump announced he would pull the United States out of the Paris agreement in June.

"I thought, actually, there was a chance he might come to his senses," Gore told late-night television host and comedian Bill Maher. "But I was wrong."
Have you ever tried to tell a whole story in 140 characters or less? That's how short a tweet on Twitter must be (with recent changes) if you want to leave room for others to share and comment.

Related: Without Twitter's 140 Character Limit Brevity Is No Longer the Soul of Wit

Now, I have no problem speaking for an hour with zero preparation, and when I do, I get rave reviews from audiences. But when I delivered a 15 minute TEDx talk, I spent two months preparing and still didn't deliver as well as I'd wanted. Delivering an effective message that will influence others in 140 characters is tough work. This is especially true when the products and services you offer are complicated. Take business accounting services, for example.

"Accounting is not known for its simplicity," Brad Hanks, VP of growth at accounting software startup, ZipBooks, told me. "Debits and credits can get messy, and content marketing is hard to master in general, let alone when [you're] trying to reach potential clients on Twitter."

For those of you trying to shrink your tweets, or tighten any other writing you do, here are some tips to help you get your point across in short order.

1. Say it once.

Redundancy in writing is a common problem, but it's easy to fix. Here's an example:

Original tweet: We put your data in the cloud, so you can access it online whenever you want.

Revised tweet: We put your data in the cloud, so you can access it whenever you want.

Comment: We already know the cloud is online, so remove "online" to conserve precious characters.

Related: Twitter Might Be Expanding Its 140 Character Limit - Sort Of

2. Get to the point.

Simplicity keeps your sentences short and clear. Here's how the former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, tweeted his support of the Paris Agreement.

Original tweet: So much for the idea that protecting the environment kills jobs. CA leads in job growth, pumping up the US economy.

Comment: For someone nicknamed "The Terminator,, this goes on far too long. He could have gotten the same point across faster and better:

Revised tweet: Protecting the environment creates job. CA leads growth in jobs AND regulations.

3. Get rid of intensifiers.

Adverbial intensifiers, like "very," add emphasis to an adjective. Stephen King (whose book On Writing is a must-read for writers, even if you don't like anything else King has written) said, "The road to hell is paved with adjectives," so let's get rid of those as well while we're at it. I admire the work of expert writer Darren Rowse over at @problogger, so I dug through Rowse's Twitter feed to test a hypothesis. As I suspected there was not an intensifier to be found.

4. Cut filler words.

Including such phrases as "it is," "there are," etc., adds no meaning. See how a small tweak can jazz up a tweet from @SteveKrak (formerly of CNN and TheBlaze):

Original tweet: BREAKING: Comey statement confirms whatever it is you personally believed about President Trump before the statement was released.

Revised tweet: BREAKING: Comey statement confirms what you believed about President Trump before the statement was released.

William Zinsser, the author of On Writing Well, wrote, "Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Be grateful for everything you can throw away."

5. Don't "think," don't "believe." Just say it.

Avoid phrases like "I think," "I believe," etc. These words are unnecessary. If you're saying it, people assume that you've thought about it and that you believe it, unless, of course, you're a politician.

6. Stay active.

Active voice keeps your tweets short and sweet because it's clear right away who's doing what. Keeping verbs active is a great way to communicate the same amount of information with fewer characters.

Original tweet: Customers with questions can be helped by Mary.

Revised tweet: Mary can help customers with questions.

In the second version, Mary is actively helping customers with questions. Mary is active. So, be like Mary.

7. Use contraction subtraction.

Even if you save only a couple of characters by using contractions, you'll have that much more room to respond and retweet your tweets. If it fits your brand, you can also use shorteners, like "w/" instead of "with" and "&" instead of "and."

Original tweet: The Cleveland Cavaliers are not out of the running yet!

Revised tweet: The Cleveland Cavaliers aren't out of the running yet!

Related: 10 Quick Tips for Better Business Writing

If you want to have an outsized influence on others, learn to be concise. Albert Einstein said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Brevity is difficult, yet with the limited space on social media, it's more important than ever that you hook your audience in the few seconds -- and characters -- you have.

Related:

Why is it too Early to Write off Prashant Kishor's Charisma

Having Trouble Saying What You Want to Say? 7 Ways to Cut Your Twitter Characters.

Discovery Responds To Tweeters Who Are Pissed That Michael Phelps Wasn't Eaten By a Shark



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


The number of Maryland deaths related to fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, surged in the first quarter of 2017, more than doubling from the first quarter of 2016, and making up the vast majority of drug-related overdose deaths in the state.

Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported Friday that fentanyl-overdose fatalities jumped to 372 from January through March, up from 157 during the same period in 2016. Fentanyl and a related additive, carfentanil, which are increasingly common nationwide, can be 50 or 100 times more powerful than heroin.

Many drug-users are unknowingly consuming the synthetic opioids, which are often mixed into other drugs to increase their potency, Health Secretary Dennis Schrader said.

"We implore Marylanders who are grappling with substance use disorder and are taking illicit substances to seek treatment immediately," Schrader said in a statement. The state has an online tool for locating treatment centers.

Use of fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that killed rock legend Prince in April, has spiked dramatically in recent years. There were eight fentanyl-related deaths in Maryland in the first quarter of 2013, which means since then the number has jumped more than 40-fold.

The marked increase is a key factor in the growing number of opioid-related overdoses - which are also tied to the use of heroin and prescription painkillers - in the state.

Deaths from heroin increased, but not as dramatically as deaths from fentanyl. There were 266 heroin-related deaths in the first quarter of 2017, up 21 percent from 2016.

The number of prescription opioid-related deaths was similar this quarter compared to last - 100 in 2017, compared to 99 in 2016.

Opioid-related deaths in the state have increased every year since 2012, with more pronounced upticks in 2016 and 2017.

Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who lost a cousin to a heroin overdose, has declared a state of emergency regarding opioid addiction. In June, Hogan issued a standing order that allowed the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, to be dispensed from licensed pharmacies without a prescription.

Hogan also received a waiver so beginning July 1, residents could be reimbursed by the federal Medicaid program for certain residential substance abuse treatment programs.

Health officials in Baltimore - which reported the most drug-related deaths and the most deaths because of fentanyl (132, compared to 46 the year before) - said in June that they were running low on naloxone, which has been used to save hundreds of lives in the city.

Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County reported the next highest figures for fentanyl-related deaths.

Prince George's County had the fourth-highest number of fentanyl-related deaths - with 27 in the first quarter of 2016, compared to four in 2016. Montgomery County reported 15 fentanyl-related deaths compared to five in 2016.
When American Matthew Monahan first visited New Zealand, the Silicon Valley software developer was struck by a sense of possibility.

Seven years later, the 33-year-old is helping the government lure other foreign entrepreneurs to the bottom of the world. It's not a tough sell: the country's strong economy, relative safety, political stability and famous natural beauty attracted a record 131,000 migrants in the year to June.

"It feels like you can do things in New Zealand you can't do anywhere else," said Monahan, who in 2012 sold the family history website he created with brother Brian for $100 million and today owns several properties near capital city Wellington.

Kiwis are divided about the unprecedented influx of foreigners. The government insists New Zealand needs to import labor to meet a skills shortage, but opposition parties say mass immigration is exacerbating a housing crisis and stretching schools, hospitals and roads to breaking point. The debate may have a significant influence on the Sept. 23 general election, which polls show is too close to call.

"The fundamental question is 'do you want New Zealand to grow or not?'" Finance Minister Steven Joyce said in an interview. "If we're not going to bring anyone in to do the work, then it won't get done. You will slow the rate of growth in the New Zealand economy and possibly stall it."

Immigration has helped fuel economic expansion, encouraging New Zealanders to stay at home and attracting even more workers from aboard. Permanent arrivals have outnumbered departures the past five years, hitting a record net intake of more than 72,000 in the past 12 months.

While the growing population is stoking consumption, it is also increasing demand for social services and housing. In largest city Auckland, the average house price has soared above NZ$1 million ($752,000), putting home ownership out of reach for many Kiwis.

"It just doesn't make sense to ignore that and keep inviting people in," Andrew Little, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said in an interview. "What we need to do is manage immigration more sensibly."

Labour is proposing to cut the inflow by up to 30,000 a year, mainly by reducing the number of foreign students that come to New Zealand to study and work. The populist New Zealand First Party, which Labour will need to form a coalition with if it's to lead the next government, is calling for steeper cuts.

New Zealand is not alone in grappling with how to balance the need for immigration against a potential voter backlash. In neighboring Australia, the government has tightened rules for migrants in a bid to boost its public support, while U.S. President Donald Trump won office on a pledge to prioritize jobs for Americans.

In New Zealand, opposition parties argue more should be done to fill jobs locally, and that immigration should be more targeted amid a continued shortage of skilled labor across the economy.

Fletcher Building Ltd., the country's largest builder, said last month that full-year earnings would be weaker than expected after cost overruns and delays at some major projects, which it partly blamed on a lack of resources. Phil King, chief financial officer at Fletcher's construction division, said the industry was "really struggling with so much work on."

"We'll always need immigration, but I want immigration focused on genuine skills shortages," said Little. "I'd go for the high-net worth individual with entrepreneurial skills who's got a commitment to generating wealth and jobs here above giving more work visas to supermarket shelf stackers."

It's the innovation space that Matthew and Brian Monahan are trying to fill.

The brothers are the driving force behind the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, a partnership with the immigration department that seeks to attract budding entrepreneurs and investors to New Zealand and help them develop their ideas.

Named after the New Zealander who became the first man to climb Mount Everest, the not-for-profit company selects up to 100 candidates a year for a specially designed, three-year visa that provides a path to permanent residence. Among the first recipients announced last month are a crypto-currency entrepreneur and the founder of an education center for unemployed youth.

The aim is to make New Zealand "a global innovation hub," said fellowship Chief Executive Yoseph Ayele, a friend of the Monahans who worked at their Silicon Valley software company Inflection. "Being a small country has become a huge advantage, because you can get government, talent, capital and different sectors in the same room and grow something new in a way large bureaucratic places can't."

He says the visa is the most entrepreneur-friendly in the world, and gives New Zealand the chance to produce the next big world-changing innovation. Entrepreneurs making the biggest impact today, such as Sergey Brin, Elon Musk or Richard Branson, could never have started out in New Zealand because they wouldn't have ticked the right boxes, Ayele said.

Still, local media have cast a wary eye over the group, wondering how rich young Americans could be in a position to determine who gets such visas. The program's first intake comes at a time when New Zealand is being touted as a bolthole for the ultra rich to escape to in an increasingly unsettled world.

For Matthew Monahan, New Zealand is a place to tackle global problems, not hide from them, and embracing talented immigrants is a good way to start.

"We want people who are ready to plug into society, who want to make a difference," he said. "The challenges in New Zealand like housing, rising inequality and the environment mirror what's happening in the rest of the world. It's an opportunity for New Zealand to be a leader and figure this stuff out."
WASHINGTON - Nearly a third of territory reclaimed from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014 has been won in the past six months, due to new policies adopted by the Trump administration, a senior State Department official said Friday.

Brett McGurk, the State Department's senior envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition, said that steps President Donald Trump has taken, including delegating decision-making authority down from the White House to commanders in the field, have "dramatically accelerated" gains against the militants.

Combined Islamic State losses in both countries since the group's peak control in early 2015 total about 27,000 square miles of territory - 78 percent of militant holdings in Iraq and 58 percent in Syria. About 8,000 square miles have been reclaimed under Trump, McGurk said in a briefing for reporters.

He said the Islamic State has been driven out of 45 percent of Raqqa, the group's de facto Syrian capital since the launch of an offensive by U.S.-backed local forces two months ago. U.S. and coalition airstrikes have been instrumental in the ground successes of the Syrian Democratic Forces, composed of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

Assessments by different sources of ground won and lost by the militants over the years have varied widely. Early this year, the defense consultant IHS Jane's put the total amount of territory controlled by the Islamic State in early 2015 at 35,000 square miles. After "unprecedented" losses for the militants in 2016, it said in January that the group occupied a remaining 23,000 square miles.

Although the Trump administration has yet to announce its new strategy for the campaign against the Islamic State, McGurk cited "key changes" under Trump. In addition to the delegation of decision-making authority, which he said has allowed much greater responsiveness to opportunities and changing circumstances, he cited a "campaign of annihilation" that has concentrated on surrounding cities held by the militants before launching offensives, to ensure that no militants will escape.

He said the 2,000 militants remaining in Raqqa "most likely will die in Raqqa." The United Nations has estimated that 25,000 civilians also remain in the city.

McGurk, who held the same job in the Obama administration, also cited renewed administration efforts to "increase burden sharing from the coalition" among what he said were 73 countries. Most of them do not contribute to the warfighting but are expected to help with stabilization efforts in cleared areas, including in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraq security forces declared victory over the Islamic State last month.

Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized what they have said is a lack of post-conflict plans, while others have said - as Trump emphasized during his presidential campaign - that the United States should not be involved in "nation-building" overseas.

McGurk described extensive preparations, while emphasizing that the United States is not interested in reconstruction or nation-building. Instead, he said, U.S. and partner nations are removing mines, clearing rubble and making sure that basic services - electricity, sewage and water - are operational to allow displaced residents to return under the leadership of local councils.

"People say, 'We want you to run the hospital, the schools.' We say, 'No, we're not very good at that.' It's not our responsibility," McGurk said.

Asked whether the current deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia has affected their cooperation in Syria, he said that "so far, we've not seen an effect on our engagement" there.

Last month, the two governments announced a cease-fire agreement in southwest Syria, where U.S.-backed opposition forces have battled the Russian-backed Syrian army of President Bashar Assad in an ongoing civil war.

Russia, on Assad's behalf, has also agreed to "deconfliction" lines south of Raqqa and along the Euphrates River, where Assad's forces threatened to clash with U.S.-backed fighters combating the Islamic State. McGurk described daily "military to military" contacts between Russia and the United States, and less-frequent diplomatic contacts.

Among the successes of the current policy, he said, are the near-cessation of civilian displacements inside Syria and Iraq, and the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians to their homes in places previously occupied by the Islamic State.
The State Department is reportedly considering a new mission statement that will make no mention of encouraging democracy abroad. A White House aide recently suggested similar thinking would guide the president's pending National Security Strategy statement.

If Trump administration officials move forward with these plans, they will be breaking sharply with decades of U.S. foreign policy. They may believe that democratization is a vague and ineffective goal with no place in a hard-bargaining approach that puts "America first." But that conclusion defies the experience of presidents Ronald Reagan and Harry S. Truman, two of the toughest and most effective guardians of American national interests.

When Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter, he promised a more hardheaded foreign policy. Some of his supporters thought this meant jettisoning Carter's emphasis on human rights, which they saw as a symptom of weakness. Alexander Haig, Reagan's first secretary of state, declared: "International terrorism will take the place of human rights in our concern." Accordingly, the Reagan administration proposed as assistant secretary for human rights someone who had declared flatly that human rights had no place in foreign policy.

When the Senate shot down that nomination, Reagan left the post vacant for months while his team deliberated more carefully over the issue. In the end, it repudiated Haig's view, declaring: "Human rights is at the core of our foreign policy." Other aides more sensitive to soft power than Haig, whose background was military, persuaded Reagan to overrule him.

Reagan, however, refined the policy to place more emphasis on democratization. There was often little to gain, he concluded, by merely criticizing or punishing autocrats for abuses here and there. The more meaningful goal was to erect systems of government in which abuses were rarer and subject to redress - in other words, democracy.

Thus, our government set to work more systematically than ever to foster democratization. The policies and mechanisms Reagan put into place furthered a global tide in which the world went from about one-third democratic to nearly two-thirds, according to Freedom House and various scholarly studies. Of course, U.S. actions alone did not cause this transition, but they contributed to this. U.S. support for Poland's Solidarity movement and dissidents elsewhere in the Soviet bloc helped bring down that empire, while American arm-twisting persuaded generals to abandon military rule in El Salvador and other Latin countries. More gentle pressure did much the same in South Korea and the Philippines.

This tide brought better life chances to millions. It also made the world more peaceful, prosperous and friendly to the United States. And it washed away the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War. That denouement was the greatest boon to American security since World War II.

Nor was this the first instance in which the spreading of democracy overseas redounded to America's profound benefit. Following World War II, President Truman faced the question of what to do with Japan and Germany, the defeated enemies that we now occupied.

Germany had experienced democracy only once, briefly, during the Weimar Republic. The closest Japan had come to democracy had been an era in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when political parties came to the fore. In both countries, these progressive experiments had collapsed, enjoying too little popular support. Thus, knowledgeable observers doubted that democracy could be implanted in either country. As the eminent anthropologist Ruth Benedict put it, the United States could not "create by fiat a free, democratic Japan."

Nonetheless, Truman decided on a policy of democratization, and it succeeded beyond expectation. As the scholar Robert Ward quipped about Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his aides who transformed Japan, "had they known more [about Japanese history and traditions] they would have accomplished less."

Aside from making it possible for generations of Japanese and Germans to live in freedom, their democratization turned them into cornerstones of America's security policies in Asia and Europe and of the post-World War prosperity on which America battened.

Needless to say, America's democracy-building efforts, whether during the occupations or the Reagan years or since, have been replete with failures and mistakes. Errors abounded even in the great success story of Japan, and they were even more abundant in the debacle of our more recent occupation of Iraq.

No formula explains adequately why democracy takes hold some places and not others. Some countries where conditions seem ripe - say, Russia or China with high education levels and growing economies - prove stubbornly resistant. Others where the odds seem daunting - say, India or Botswana - have long practiced democracy.

Nor is democracy promotion a science. Some approaches have proved fruitful in some places, not in others. We can all agree that, despite the brilliant success of the period immediately after World War II, America should not invade countries solely to impose democracy. Rather, this project must advance by peaceful means, and often in ways that will be constrained by other considerations, since democratization will rarely be our only objective.

Slogans aside, every American president has naturally put America first. But our wisest and most effective leaders have recognized that a more democratic world does not merely gratify our ideals but also admirably serves our national interests.

- - -

Muravchik is a distinguished fellow at the World Affairs Institute.
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A South Texas fishing team is celebrating after one of its members caught a 12-foot tiger shark off Padre Island on July 30.

Catch-and-release fisherman Kevin Karwedsky landed the massive beast, according to the fishing team Turn 'Em at the Knot on Facebook. The fish is 12 feet, 7 and half inches long.

Karwedsky called this "a catch of a lifetime."

Story continues below...

He said he had no idea how big the fish was at 5 a.m. when the shark picked up the bait, but could tell it was a good catch about two hours in.

The fishing team measured the shark and released it back to the Gulf of Mexico, and Karwedsy and his brother, Russell Karwedsky, stayed with the shark to make sure it could swim off safely.

WATCH: Shark chomps a fisherman's catch off Padre

Karwedsky said shark fishing is his passion. "We spend day and night on the sand, work hard for bait, getting crushed by waves; all to hear that screaming drag and spend a few seconds with these apex predators."

"Congrats bro on the jump to the 12' club," said a Facebook post from the team.

"Couldn't have been in a better place than having fun and fishing with you. Had a blast. 12' 7 1/2" tiger caught this morning by Kevin Karwedsky."

Click through the slideshow to see photos of the amazing catch.
Prosecutors will no longer hold all the cards when it comes to dealing with jailhouse snitches.

A new Texas law giving judges, juries and the defense access to information about jailhouse informants will increase transparency when it comes to deals that prosecutors work out with inmates to secure incriminating testimony.

The legislation, which goes into effect in September, enhances protections for the wrongly accused and will help maintain the integrity of the Texas criminal justice system.

In 2009, Texas became one of the first states to regulate testimony from jailhouse snitches by prohibiting the conviction of defendants based solely on their testimony without corroborating evidence. But that did not go far enough.

Legislation recently signed by Gov. Greg Abbott establishes stricter guidelines for jailhouse informant testimony. The measure was recently hailed in a New York Times editorial as the most comprehensive effort yet to rein the danger of transactional snitching.

The bill came from a list of recommendations presented to the 85th Texas Legislature by the Timothy Cole Exoneration Review Commission. The group was formed in 2015 to review cases in which convicted defendants were exonerated.

In a report released late last year, the commission noted 33 percent of the nondrug-related exonerations it reviewed had false accusations as a contributing factor leading to wrongful convictions.

Under the new law, prosecutors will have to disclose a jailhouse informants complete criminal history, including any dismissal or reduced charges as part of a plea bargain.

In addition, any leniency or special treatment given in exchange for the testimony also must be disclosed, along with information about other cases in which the informant has testified or offered to testify against another jailed defendant.

Illinois, Oklahoma and Nebraska have passed similar legislation.

In an appearance before the Cole Commission, Alexandra Natapoff, associate dean for research at Loyola Law School in Los Angles, stated that jailhouse informants are incentivized witnesses, making them highly unreliable. She testified it is important for judges, juries and the defense to have complete access to an informants situation so they can determine credibility.

Juries can only base their decisions on the information presented to them in court. Allowing for greater transparency when it comes to jailhouse informants will allow them to reach better informed decisions.

The Bexar County district attorneys staff did not respond to a request for an interview on the role jailhouse informants play in local cases and the impact of this legislation in our community.

We look forward to the policies and procedures that will help create a more level playing field in the criminal justice system when it comes to jailhouse snitches.

A criminal defendant is innocent until proven guilty, but it does not always work out that way in Texas. The state has earned a reputation for sending the wrong person to prison.

Laws such as the one just signed  measures to prevent wrongful conviction  wont solve all the problems, but they are moving the criminal justice system in the right direction.

Justice should never be about obtaining a conviction at any cost.
Toyota Ireland has launched its free Face It Down app for iPhone and Android which is designed to save lives on Irish Roads.



The app is launched in partnership with the RSA and Topaz. It will reward all drivers for putting their phone face down when driving, allowing them to redeem the points for a complimentary hot drink at Topaz Re Store outlets nationwide.

International research has shown that making a call while driving will make a driver four times more likely to crash while texting makes crashing a staggering twenty-three times more likely. As Irelands biggest car brand, Toyota Ireland felt a responsibility to solve this social issue by creating safer roads for everyone.

Use of mobile phones while driving is a big problem on Irish roads. Too many people still drive while on their phone to take a call, text, snap a selfie, update their social media channels or check an email. Even glancing at a phone when it lights up is a distraction.

So, as part of Toyota Irelands brand promise of being Built for a Better World, it has developed the app with the aim of changing driver behaviour and improving road safety for everyone. Users can download the Face It Down app from the Google Play Store or Apple Store for free.

The user launches the app before setting off on a journey and simply puts the phone face down. Points will be earned for every kilometre driven without picking up the phone. If the user turns over the phone while driving, all the points accumulated will be lost.

Points accrued can be redeemed against a complimentary hot drink for every 350 KMs travelled at 159 participating Topaz Re Store sites across Ireland. 250 bonus points will be awarded for a users first successful journey with bonus points also given at interim periods.

The app launch will be supported with a heavyweight communications campaign. Toyota brand ambassador Niall Breslin will act as spokesperson for the Face It Down campaign and it is something which he is truly passionate about, We all know the dangers of using a mobile phone while driving so its great that drivers will now get rewarded for not using their phone. This simple act can make such a difference to road safety in Ireland thats why I would encourage all drivers to use Toyotas Face It Down App."

Other well-known faces featuring in the campaign include RTE stars Blathnaid Treacy and Eoghan McDermott alongside media personalities Michelle Regazzoli-Stone and Triona McCarthy. Members of the Irish Road Victims Association have strongly backed use of the Face It Down app.

Commenting on the announcement of the Toyota Face It Down App, Steve Tormey, Chief Executive at Toyota Ireland said, In late 2016, we launched our new Built for a Better World brand platform and this latest initiative, designing and building an app that will encourage drivers not be distracted by their mobile phone while driving, is part of our brand promise to help make life better in Ireland by saving lives."

Topaz Retail Director, Derek Nolan echoed Steves thoughts: Topaz is delighted to be involved in this excellent road safety initiative which is very much in line with our own ethos of continuous improvement and commitment to change for the better. We encourage all motorists to download the app and pick up rewards in Topaz Re Store sites nationwide."

Ms Moyagh Murdock, Chief Executive, Road Safety Authority highlighted the danger of using a mobile phone while driving, Distracted driving could be a factor in as many 20-30% of all collisions in this country. However, the biggest distraction for drivers is the mobile. Despite the fact that using them when driving is killing people on Irish roads, rational, intelligent people continue to text, make phone calls, take selfies or update their social pages while driving. When you use your mobile behind the wheel, taking your mind and eyes off the road for just a split second can destroy everything forever. 

Thats why the RSA is fully supportive of the Face It Down campaign and commends Toyota for endeavouring to make a real difference to the lives of people in Ireland through safe, smart driving practices.
An Afghan policeman opened fire on Romanian soldiers and wounded one before being killed in return fire. The insider, or green-on-blue, attack took place near Kandahar Air Field, and is the fourth of its kind recorded so far this year.

Resolute Support, NATOs mission in Afghanistan, confirmed that a member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police opened fire on coalition advisors and their security detail after they had completed scheduled law enforcement training and were preparing to return to base.

Romanian soldiers, who were providing security, along with Train, Advise and Assist Command South advisors returned fire and killed the gunman, Resolute Support noted in its press release. Another Afghan policeman was wounded in the crossfire.

Number of insider attacks remain classified

Todays insider attack is the fourth recorded by FDDs Long War Journal so far this year. The last attack, on June 17, resulted in the wounding of seven US soldiers.

However, the true number of insider attacks may be larger as Resolute Support does not always release information on incidents in which its soldiers were wounded by Afghan security personnel, or incidents where there were no casualties.

In 2012, the International Security Assistance Force (the predecessor to Resolute Support) told FDDs Long War Journal that the overall statistics on insider attacks are classified, but that command was seeking to declassify the information.

[A]ttacks by ANSF on Coalition Forces  either resulting in non-injury, injury or death  these stats as a whole (the total # attacks) are what is classified and not releasable, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, then ISAFs Press Desk Chief, told FDDs Long War Journal. Cummings said that ISAF is looking to declassify this number.

Inquiries as to why the statistics are classified went unanswered. Five years year later, the data remains classified.

These incidents have decreased from 44 recorded in 2012 to just two in 2016 and four more so far this year. This is partially due to a dramatic decrease in coalition forces after the end of the surge in 2012 as well as improved security measures. [For in-depth information, see Green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan: the data.]

Insider attacks have ramped up as the Trump administration considers sending an additional 4,000 soldiers to Afghanistan in an effort to halt the Talibans gains over the past several years. The bulk of these forces are expected to partner with Afghan soldiers in the field in an attempt to improve their combat effectiveness.

Taliban views insider attacks as a key tactic to defeat US

So far, no group has claimed credit for todays incident in Kandahar that left one Romanian solider wounded. In the past, the Taliban has infiltrated Afghan security forces to carry out such strikes or convinced soldiers or policemen to turn their weapons on coalition personnel. In 2012, Mullah Omar, the founder and first emir of the Taliban, announced that he created the Call and Guidance, Luring and Integration department with branches  now operational all over the country, to encourage defections and strikes on coalition forces.

Since Omars announcement, the Taliban has said that insider operations are a key part of its military strategy when announcing the commencement of its annual spring offensive.

These operations will involve conventional attacks, guerrilla warfare, complex martyrdom attacks, insider attacks, and use of IEDs to achieve their objectives, the Taliban said in its statement on Operation Mansouri, the 2017 offensive.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) confirmed that the July 30 kinetic strike killed a Shabaab commander who led forces and conducted attacks in Mogadishu and the Banadir regions in southern Somalia for al Qaedas arm in East Africa.

Ali Muhammad Hussein, who is also known as Ali Jabal, was killed in the operation that took place near Tortoroow in southern Somalia. AFRICOM acknowledged the strike on July 31 and said that one Shabaab operative was killed, but could not confirm his identity. No civilians were killed in the attack, AFRICOM said.

AFRCOM described Jabal as a senior al-Shabaab terrorist who was responsible for leading al-Shabaab forces operating in the Mogadishu and Banadir regions in planning and executing attacks against the capital of Mogadishu.

He used the Lower Shabelle Region of Somalia, a known al-Shabaab safe haven, as a hub for these activities, the press release continued.

AFRICOM said his death would significantly degrade Shabaabs ability to coordinate attacks in the capital and in southern Somalia.

However, the US military has killed numerous Shabaab leaders, including its emir, and military leaders and intelligence officials, with little effect. The targeted killings of Shabaabs leadership has not prevented the al Qaeda branch from retaking towns and maintaining its safe haven in the south, nor has it stopped the group from viciously attacking Somali and African Union forces.

The US State Department, in its Country Reports on Terrorism 2016, said that al Qaedas branch in East Africa has prospered over the past year due largely to lapses in offensive counterterrorism operations during 2016. Additionally, State noted that Somali security forces remained incapable of securing and retaking towns from al-Shabaab independently, and while not explicitly stated, hinted that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is failing.

Shabaab recently took control of the city of Lego after Uganda forces withdrew, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. The Ugandan withdrawal from Lego was confirmed by CGTN News.

The abrupt withdrawal of the Ugandan forces from this city comes after they incurred painful strikes a few days [sic], where more than 51 of their soldiers were killed, including 7 officers, in a series of ambushes set for them by Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement fighters near the city of Bulu Marir, Shabaabs Shahada News Agency reported, according to SITE.

The US strike that targeted Jabal is part of an expanded effort to roll back Shabaabs recent gains. At the end of March, the Trump administration loosened the restrictions on the US military to use force against Shabaab after the Department of Defense noted that Shabaab has become more lethal and dangerous.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Need for Dange-line in Contemporary Politics

by Pratip Chattopadhyay

Contemporary Indian politics is under the siege of reactionary Rightist political forces exemplified by the rising electoral mandate for the BJP since 2014. At the same time efforts are there to conglomerate all Opposition political forces with one agendato dislodge the ruling party from power by halting the BJP wave. With the BJP candidate, Ramnath Kovind, becoming the President securing 74 per cent votes as against the Opposition candidate, Meira Kumar, securing 35 per cent votes, it is clear that the Opposition forces are trying hard to unite to the best of their ability. A correct political line is needed for the Opposition political parties to succeed in their agenda to ideologically fight the BJP wave across the country. To strengthen the anti-BJP political line, both theoretically and practically, this article underscores the historical necessity to follow the Dange-line in Indian politics with immediate effect.

In the political historiography of the Indian Left, the political line of Comrade Sripad Amrit Dange (S.A. Dange) is simply to prefer the Indian National Congress when there is an urgent need to pick and choose between the Congress and the Rightist political forces in Indiathe Jana Sangh and its contemporary incarnation, the BJP. It was in the aftermath of the Emergency period in mid- and late 1970s, disturbed by the chaotic ruckus and the rise of the Jana Sangh politics, that Comrade Dange placed his faith in the secular politics of the Indian National Congress and introduced his political line, later known as the Dange-line.

After the initiation of the Dange-line, he faced stern opposition from within his own partythe CPIand from other Communist Parties in the country and Comrade Dange was seen as an agent of the Indian National Congress and his political line was criticised as a line for making the Communists in India follow the Congress and turn them into stooges of the latter. As a result Comrade Dange was sidelined in the CPI and expelled from the party in 1981. Thereafter Comrade Dange himself formed the All India Communist Party (AICP) and was later associated with the United Communist Party of India (UCPI). Out of these two formations, the UCPI is still present only in some small quarters in Maharashtra and West Bengal to carry the baton of the Dange-line.

It can be said that from the very initiation of the Dange-line, the political line of high-lighting Congress-Communist unity in times of dire need for the country to resist the Right-wing fascist tendencies became quite unpopular. It was unpopular among the Communist Parties of the country because it was seen as under-mining the independent role of the Communists in shaping the future of the country. It was unpopular in the Congress circles as well because of the apprehension that this unity was a ploy to force the Congress to toe the Communist line in formulating domestic and foreign policies of the country. This article claims that though the basis of such unpopularity from both the quartersCongress and Communistwas a debatable issue in the 1980s, in the era of post-coalition BJP-centric national politics of 2017, such unpopularity of the Dange-line needs to be shrugged off in both the Communist and Congress political circles. Today the rationale behind such a reassessment of the Dange-line is an existential necessity in contemporary Indian politics.

This article argues that in the Indian political circles, particularly among the Left political parties led by the CPI-M, a historical blunder has been committed by denigrating the Dange-line. It must be asserted that Comrade Dange tried to make the Indian Left formations relevant in Indian politics across time. Comrade Dange was candid enough to make public his political choice without thinking of critical comments and image-tarnishing consequences. The Marxist political parties of the Left Front, led by the CPI-M, highly satisfied with their Bengal bastion in the 1980s, hardly went deep into the thoughts that were behind the Dange-line. Beyond face-value, the Dange-line is a commitment on the part of Left politics in India to make sure that the far Rightist forces like the BJP stay away from the political power-centre of the country.



Situated in the context of 2017 Indian politics, the Dange-line will mean a stage-wise strategic concentration of political effort by the Left forces. The first stage is to oppose and defeat the BJP at the Centre. The second is to oppose and defeat the Trinamul Congress in West Bengal. The third is to think of countering and cornering the Indian National Congress in the Indian political scenario. At every stage, alliances and combi-nations will change. In the first stage all Opposition political forces, including the Left, INC and TMC must come together. In the second, it is the Left and INC that must counter together the TMC and BJP in West Bengal. In both these stages the essentiality of the Left Front will make the task easy in the third stage: to begin an ideological struggle to change the bourgeois party structure of the society. The three-tier politics of the Dange-line may be overlapping but no opportunism and contradictions are involved. Contemporary politics and society is so complex that a stand-alone line of struggle may be exciting and adventurous but it is devoid of any result. The practical politics model of the Dange-line is to be flexible to change and adapt tactics and strategies as per a given political situation and political struggle.

Critical opinion from among the Left Front political parties and also from the SUCI and CPI-ML regarding the Dange-line highlights that with the end of the Emergency, the Dange-line has outlived its potential. Whenever there have been attempts to forge ties with the Congress, the recent being the State Assembly elections in West Bengal in 2016, it registered little or no electoral success at all. Thus the critical argu-ment is that the Dange-line is totally rejected by the electorate as it is against the party-line, against the Communists ideological roots and also against the national political-line. This article humbly states that the Dange-line has never been taken seriously by the official mainstream Left political parties and their leaders in India and as such knowledge on the Dange-line is also very limited among the Left party cadres and supporters. In their hysteria to single-handedly win over the masses based on their revolutionary rhetorical slogans, the Left Front political parties were at cloud nine during their 34-year rule in West Bengal. The SUCI and CPI-ML, in their commitment to the revolutionary struggle against the bourgeois state structure, agitated against the Left Front Government in West Bengal as well as the governments at the Centre during the last four decades and continue in the same spirit even today. Thus for both the Left Front and non-Left Front Marxist political parties in India, the Dange-line was never necessary to direct their political course of action in Indian politics.

Even in the 2015 municipal elections and 2016 State Assembly elections in West Bengal, the alliance of the Left Front and Congress was half-hearted, halting and engineered at the last moment without any theoretical basis and hence the alliance was seen as a mere electoral oppor-tunist face-saving strategy and thus rejected by the electorate of West Bengal. Hence it was not a rejection of the Dange-line but a rejection of the laid-back attitude of the CPI-M-led Left Front.

In 2014, Indian politics entered its third political phaseafter the Congress system and the coalition politics era it is the beginning of a new single party era in the form of the BJP. A new political era requires new political strategies and tactics. The Left Front political parties, led by the CPI-M, urgently need to follow the Dange-line of preferential politics which is different from alliance politics. Preferential politics is a temporary tactical line without losing the independent voice and identity whereas alliance politics is an issue-based permanent coalition. For example, the Left Front is a reflection of alliance politics whereas the UPA-I was an example of preferential politics.

After 2011 the Left Front, led by the CPI-M, started to begin its career as an Opposition coalition in West Bengal politics after nearly four decades but till now no new alternative policies and alternative vision have emerged from the communist leadership to counter the Trinamul Congress Government. After 2014 in Indian politics and after 2016 in West Bengal politics, the rise of the BJP only added to the problems for the Left Front, led by CPI-M, to search for alternative strategies in the pre-vailing situation in contemporary Indian politics in general and West Bengal politics in particular.

In contemporary Indian politics, the re-reading of the Dange-line can serve as a new formative idea of alliances to defeat the Right reactionary forces in the country in the form of the BJP. The Dange-line must be brought out from the ashes of political historiography of Left politics in India by the CPI-M-led Left Front parties to save the secular socialist democratic tolerant fabric of the country which is a historical necessity today. Reviving the Dange-line without uttering the name of Dange would probably help the soul of Comrade Dange to whisper one line of a song of Rabindranath Tagore  Aami bohu basonay pranpone chai....bonchito kore bachale amay (I eagerly pray and wish several times with all my heart....by depriving, me, you have relieved myself!) Long Live Comrade Dange!

Pratip Chattopadhyay is an Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Kalyani, Nadia (West Bengal), and can be reached by e-mail: chatterjee23_pratip[at]yahoo.co.in
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Reverse Agenda-setting: Politics in the Time of Facebook

by Pradeep Nair and Sandeep Sharma

In the wake of the social media, the political-public sphere is broadening. The scope of feedback from the public directly to their representatives has set a new phase in public opinion and policy formations. Social media platforms have arguably enabled the public to set the agenda for their representatives by pressing like button on their facebook updates, sharing and commenting on these updates. Communication scholars and political scientists have termed this phenomenon as reverse agenda-setting. This commentary attempts to explore and analyse how the politicians and policy-makers are managing their social media platforms, especially facebook, and what importance they attach to the feedback which they receive in the form of likes, share and comments.

Social Media and Agenda Setting

The medias agenda-setting effect on the public is the most celebrated of the theories in communication studies. It explains the correlation between media and public opinion and advocates that mass media has a significant impact on shaping the agenda for political campaigns by making people aware of important political issues. But the proliferation and expansion of the social media has challenged the role of conventional mass media in setting the public agenda by coming out with a new approach that it is no longer the media but the public which propose issues on the agenda and reversely that agenda is accepted by the conventional media as public agenda. This approach is popularly accepted as reverse agenda-setting which urges that the opinion of people, disseminated through various social media platforms, influences news converges and sets the media agenda. This is one of the reasons which has attracted politicians all over the world to explore the benefit of the social media by increasing their understanding of its usage.

Through the use of the social media networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, millions can share information, spread news of their lives and distribute news stories from all over the world. Information on internet further allows for a constant conversation of news to occur 24x7, constantly updating with opinions and commentaries. With millions joining the conversation from all over the world, social media sites, especially Facebook, is an effective way for politicians to reach their constituents. After the 2014 general elections, the Indian politicians have started using the social media to engage and empower the people of their constituencies. They have started realising that engaging people through social media can help them to showcase their work (development work) which may be further transformed into actual votes. In a country like India, where professional fund raising for political cause is still not very much in practice, the social media like Facebook and Twitter offers a cost-effective alternative to conventional mainstream media like television, radio and print, to communicate campaign messages to the constituents.

The Usage Pattern

While interviewing with some of the politicians in Himachal Pradesh who are active on Facebook and other social media platforms, we observed that the interaction of the politicians with people is mainly categorised into three formstext, pictures and videos. Graphics and animations are less used by the surveyed politicians as it requires a technical understanding and a support from the bandwidth to send them quickly. Videos are the most preferred one as they can be easily compressed if they are large in size. Most of the videos shared by the politicians whom we interviewed are related to public speeches and press conferences. The pictures are more diverse in nature which includes profile pictures of the politicians, pictures with other politicians, pictures of banners, meetings, public gatherings, newspaper cuttings, events of religious importance etc. The texts, besides complementing pictures and videos, are mostly used in a routine manner giving those a monotonous appearance. The supporting staff of the politicians who look after the management of the social media confirmed that most of the comments are praising in nature which makes the comment boxes monotonous.

Further, many of the politicians surveyed for the study do not have a specific team devoted to manage their facebook pages like in Europe and the United States. In most cases, the private secretaries of the politicians had been given these additional responsibilities of looking after the social media interactions of the politicians. The politicians hardly get time to hover through their facebook pages although the secretaries of the politicians well inform them about the status of their facebook page and also gave suggestions to develop some strategies to manage the pages. Since most of the updates coming from the public end are monotonous in nature, there is no such diversity which may create an enthusiasm among the politician to immediately respond or reach on public comments. The reason given was that the politicians, who are Ministers or holding some other public posts, have no time to go through each and every message.

How Social Media makes a Difference

For a politician what difference does it make when he/she chooses to interact with the people over Facebook? The politicians surveyed for this study answered that with a Facebook account one can have a personal chat with every individual who is enlisted as a friend, a follower and even with those who are outsiders. One can like, share, comment on his/her friends and followers updates with more personal touch. It is an informal way to connect with the people. In political communication personal and informal elements are more influential than public and formal ways of communication. While interacting on facebook, the users are aware of the fact that they are responsible for every update and response. If used in a right perspective, it could be an influential medium to connect to the young populace of ones constituency.

The myth that old people are serious and committed voters is now over. Even though young people mostly avoid direct contacts with the politicians, they can be easily contacted through the social media. Thus, the social media is a key linkage between the people and policy-makers. It provides a free exchange of ideas, information and opinions which keeps one engaged in the political discourse. Even if mainstream media decides not to talk about certain issues (agenda-cutting), people have a scope to receive information through social media platforms.

After a brief examination of the comments received on the facebook pages analysed by the author(s), it was found that most of the comments are positive and decent in nature and are received well. Hardly one per cent of the comments are objectionable or derogatory in nature. The respondents of the study, except one or two instances, never blocked any person on their facebook pages and normally preferred to chat with the critics in their personal inbox to persuade them to change their negative attitude. On the issues of the authenticity or fake profiles on social networking websites, the respondents of the study said that they came across such situations several times when people asked them to produce their credentials. People used to inbox them and ask to prove their identity as politicians by taking the names of prominent people of that area who can endorse them further. Personal mobile numbers are also asked by people to verify the authenticity of the facebook account.

In political communication, importance of public opinion is beyond doubt. Thus, it is necessary for a politician, who is active on the social media, to keep a constant eye on peoples behaviour by categorising them as selective, regular and neutral. Sometime people, who are affiliated with other political parties and ideologies, also like to interact on public issues in the form of likes, comments and shares. People respond because they wish to be part of a political discourse.

Further, every communication medium has its weakness and strength. The strength and weakness can be evaluated by keeping in view the specific applications of a medium to a particular field. In political discourse, which medium should be considered as most suitable for a politician is a big question which requires more elaborate scientific investigation. Adding an iota to this exploration we have found in our study that the social media certainly have some added advantages over traditional media when it comes to the field of politics.

The medium has an edge over others due to some of its distinct characteristicsflexibility, immediacy, convenience, personal and inter-active in comparison with conventional media. The medium has the potential to save politicians from becoming victim and scapegoat of the media agenda and propaganda. On social media platforms, a politician can tell his/her story without any curtailment. One can give a personal touch to every update with language and pictures of his/her choice.

Thus, familiarity with the new media literacy is essential for both the politicians and public to survive in an internet-mediated political democracy which will further help the conventional societies to become informed societies.

References

George C. Edwards, Robert L. Lineberry, and Martin, P. Wattenberg (2014), Government in America: People, Politics and Policy, New York: Longman.

Jiang, Ying (2014), Reversed Agenda-setting Effects in China Case Studies of Weibo Trending topics and the effects on State-owned Media in China, The Journal of International Communication, 20 (2): 168-183. DOI: 10.1080/13216597.2014.908785

McCombs, M. (2014), Setting the agenda: Mass media and public opinion, John Wiley & Sons.

OConnor, B., Balasubramanyan, R., Routledge, B. R., and Smith, N. A. (2010), From tweets to polls: Linking text sentiment to public opinion time series, ICWSM, 11(122-129), 1-2.

Protess, D., and McCombs, M. E. (eds.). (2016), Agenda-setting: Readings on media, public opinion, and policymaking. New York: Routledge.

Shaw, D.L., and Weaver, D.H. (eds.). (1997), Communication and democracy: Exploring the intellectual frontiers in agenda-setting theory, Denmark: Psychology Press.

Shirky, C. (2011), The political power of social media: Technology, the public sphere, and political change, Foreign affairs, 28-41.

Pradeep Nair, Ph.D, is an Associate Professor and Dean, School of Journalism, Mass Communication and New Media, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala. E-mail: nairdevcom[at]yahoo.co.in.

Sandeep Sharma is a Research Scholar, Department of Mass Communication and Electronic Media, School of Journalism, Mass Communication and New Media, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Challenges before Right to Information

BOOK REVIEW

by JAYANTA DEBNATH

Right to Information: Empowerment and Good Governance by Rajeev Kumar Singh; New Delhi: Mewar University Press; 2016; pp. xx + 284; Rs 550.

We are living in a post-industrialist society. Daniel Bell argued that post-industrialism would be information-led and service-oriented. When we talk about services, then two different parts regarding service delivery system comes to our attention, namely, the service provider and the one at the receiving end. Here, service receivers are the common people; on the other hand, the providers of services are often referred to as being either in the private sector or in the public sector. In general, when we go to explore the relationships of state and its citizens, then it is the public authority which aims at providing better services to its own citizens. If the government at different levels is able to provide all the necessary services which are fundamental to the people for living a quality life, then it is considered to be a mirror of Good Governance, but if it fails to do so, it represents Poor Governance or Bad Governance. Hence, how the citizen could realise good governance, especially from the public authorities, is a much-debated issue. In this context, the book, Right to Information: Empowerment and Good Governance, provides an avenue for our critical discussion.

The book has been divided into seven chapters. The first chapter deals with general meanings of right to information, freedom of information and the constitutional background of right to information in the Western countries as well as in India. Professor Singh also explores freedom of information as a global movement in chapter 2. He further highlights country-wise approaches in regard to right to information. Interestingly, he has shown in his study that other rights may emerge from right to information. An effective presentation of consti-tutional and judicial roots of RTI in India is also presented in chapter 3. Chapter 4 discusses Right to Information in India, 2005 where he outlines some landmark judgements of the Central Information Commission in interpreting the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005. The last section of this chapter brings out the fundamental challenges before the Right to Information Act, India. How the common people would benefit with the help of RTI and how RTI can empower the citizen is sufficiently explained in chapter 5. Chapter 6 maintains that right to information could be a highway to good governance. At the same time, in this chapter the author discusses some recent developments in India regarding the issue and the civil society movement which ultimately led to the enactment of the Lokpal Act, 2013. The last and final chapter of this volume contains some constructive suggestions and comments of the author to overcome the deficiencies of the existing RTI provisions and what should be done to turn the RTI Act into an effective tool for a vibrant democracy and national advancement.

RTI as a Global Movement

Right to Information can be seen as a global movement. Here, in this book the author has shown that more than 50 countries of the globe have already enacted national legislations for disclosure of information and 30 more countries are in the process of enacting such laws. Actually, right to information comes from the right to freedom of information. The United Nations as an international organisation for promoting human rights and creating a democratic environment across the globe recognised the necessity of right to information both within the state territory and outside. In 1946 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which stated that freedom of information is a fundamental human right. In 1993, the United Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and declared that Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) imposed a positive obligation on the states to give access to information. Even the Charter of the African Union recognised the right of people to seek and receive information. In 2008, the Council of Europes Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH) adopted the Convention on Access to Official Documents at Strasbourg. The UNESCO also displayed its commitment towards removing obstacles on the free flow of information.

If we go by a country-specific approach in relation to right to information, it will be noticed that the Swedish Parliament passed the worlds first freedom of information law. The South African Constitution also guarantees that everyone has the right to access information held by the state or another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any right. The United Kingdom enacted the Freedom of Information Act in 2000. Earlier in British politics, there were some secrecy laws contained in the Official Secret Acts of 1919, 1920 and 1939. Because of these Secret Acts, it was very difficult for the common people to get access to information. In fact, this kind of secrecy was first minimised when the Local Government (Access to Information) Act, 1985 provided a legal right to information against local govern-ments. It did not end here; some Common-wealth countries also took similar initiatives in this regard like the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Uganda. The countries of the West such as the USA, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand and even Japan have already enacted the Right to Information Act. The author in chapter 2 succinctly presents all these important aspects. He also talks about the Indian experience comprehensively in chapters 3 and 4.

We know as a matter of fact how social activist Aruna Roy contributed to enacting the Right to Information Act in India. Actually, RTI in India is the fruit of a long struggle of Ms Roy and her team against corruption. But it is unfortunate that her role is not highlighted in this book. She founded the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghthan (MKSS) to fight bribery and stood for open access to information as an issue of public interest. She led several campaigns from the front for the rights of the poor and marginalised. Aruna Roy along with Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh fought for ensuring social justice through the right to information movement. The MKSS campaigned for fair and equal wages for the workers and that ultimately led to the enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005. The Right to Information Act, 2005, does not cover whole territory of India. It cannot be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir, something not mentioned in the book.

Nevertheless, right to information could be viewed as a global movement. It is often observed that no government takes deliberate action to make laws for openness in adminis-tration. The government passes laws in this area only because social activists and civil society organisations force the government and decision-makers to ensure a responsive and transparent administration. In the real sense, the political executive lacks willingness in this regard. Actually, to make a corruption-free country and society right to information has a critical role. In India, it has been seen recently that black money has become a major problem. In this circumstance, the peoples utmost desire is the disclosure of black money account holders by the government, but the government has little interest in revealing that. In spite of having RTI provision in the administrative set-up of the country, it is not being used properly due to the absolute apathy at the government level.

Illiteracy as Democratic Deficit

Merely making laws or provisions is not enough for the success of democracy. Democracy focuses upon inclusive development and such develop-ment, no doubt, rests absolutely on how the people of a particular country are free from the veil of ignorance. To overcome this we need mass education. Education is the best solution of every problem. It makes the people empowered. Only through proper education, people would be more critical of every policy and decision taken by the government at different times. In the real sense literacy is the key for socio-economic progress. At present, the literacy rate of India is 74.04 per cent, according to the 2011 data, though field studies may give a different picture. Thus, it signifies that over 30 crore people have remained illiterate till date in the country. As India is a country of nearly 130 crore people, the significance of this fact must be fully realised. As many as 30 crore people, meaning the total population of the United States, are illiterate in India. As huge numbers of people are not getting the taste of primary education in this country, how is it possible to use RTI effectively as an instrument for the redressal of citizens grievances? This crucial question has not been dealt with by the author in this volume.

Will Empowered Citizens bring Good Governance in Administration?

Professor Singh has rightly observed that there is a cause-effect relationship between right to information and good governance. In fact, he asserts that right to information is the key to strengthening participatory democracy. He also emphasises on the need for the whistle-blowers protection for ensuring transparency, accounta-bility, openness and flexibility in administration. Some notable examples of good usage of RTI are also brought to our attention. He mentions in chapter 6 that proper use of right to information can provide good governance. For example, the applications filled by RTI activists Yogacharya Anandji and Simpreet Singh in 2008 were instrumental in bringing out the Adarsh Society scam in public by exposing the close nexus between politicians and State officials, thereby ultimately leading to the resignation of then Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan.

The author in this book offered various means through instances by which one can boost the confidence to use RTI effectively. There is no doubt that if we utilise RTI in an efficient way, then people will surely be empowered. In the words of David Osborne, we dont need more government, we need better government. Thus only a good government can provide us good governance. So the government should take sufficient measures so that people can use RTI positively to make the administration more open, dynamic and participatory. If people succeed to achieve this with the help of the administration, then the hope of good governance will gradually emerge. All these perspectives are brilliantly spelt out in this chapter.

Conclusion

In the last chapter of this volume the author critically evaluates the gaps which even now exist within the RTI Act especially in India. He gives importance to increasing awareness in rural areas about RTI, as he aptly notes that mostly the urban educated people use this Act to enjoy their basic rights. He also points out that to make information official the local language, in which the application is made, is most important. Another interesting idea offered by Prof Rajeev Kumar Singh is the incorporation of the private sector within the ambit of the Right to Information Act, as todays age is the era of privatisation due to the immense impact of globalisation.

However, in reviewing this book, a few gaps and errors have been noticed. Page 2 of chapter 1 refers to Right to Information and Good Governance, but the cover page of the volume reveals something different. Also anyone can argue with the author when he says on page 215 that predictability is one of the major elements of good governance. Last but not the least, nowhere in the book has Singh raised the question which is in fact extremely crucial for the largest democracy of the world and that is: why did the government take 58 years to enact the Right to Information Act? The Indian Constitution guarantees peoples rights in Article 19(1) and it is said that people will enjoy freedom of speech and expression, but in spite of that the government delayed to make laws on this basis. Yet, overall the book is a valuable contribution in this area of research. Moreover, it is a dynamic volume, as it incorporates recent developments regarding RTI in India. Actually, Professor Singh is right to convey that Right to Information would be a highway to Good Governance if it is harnessed properly.

References

Arora, Ramesh K. and Rajni Goyal (1995, Third Edition 2013), Indian Public Administration Institutions and Issues, New Delhi: New Age International (P) Limited Publishers.

Basu, Rumki (1994, Reprint 2014), Public Administration: Concept and Theories, New Delhi: Sterling.

Bhattachraya, Mohit (2000, Sixth Revised Edition 2011). New Horizons of Public Administration, New Delhi: Jawahar Publishers and Distributors.

Maheshwari, S.R. (1968), Indian Administration, New Delhi: Orient Longman Private Limited.

National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information http://www.rightiinformation.info. Retrieved on 9.02.2017.

Pylee, M.V. (1994, Reprint 2014), Indias Constitution, New Delhi: S. Chand & Company Pvt. Ltd.

Jayanta Debnath is an Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Mrinalini Datta Mahavidyapith, Kolkata.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > India-Israel Relations

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel from July 4 to 6. Modi is the first ever Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. Indo-Israeli relations have witnessed a sharp upswing since the present government came to power and there has been an unprecedented level of bilateral visits by senior Ministers from India to Israel and vice-versa.

The Israel-Palestine conflict is an unresolved issue of international politics dating from the end of the First World War. Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire. During the First World War the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany and was defeated. It was then dissolved. Its successor, the Republic of Turkey, transferred Palestine to the British Empire. In 1917, British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour issued what is known as the Balfour Declaration for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a plan to partition the Palestinian land and proposed a Jewish state and an Arab state on that land. The Arab state of Palestine included the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and some other territories. The Jewish state of Israel was established in 1948 and several wars between the Israelis and Arabs followed.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote in the Harijan: The cry for a national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. Why should they not, like other peoples on earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood? Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be delivered to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French.

This is the 50th year of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It has been 50 years since Israel annexed the Palestinian territories of West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip following the six-day Arab-Israel war of June 1967. In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israelis captured and occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Thereafter, Israel tightened its hold over these territories, crushed Palestinian resistance and created hundreds of thousands of refugees. Its discriminating policies affecting every area of Palestinian life have invited comparison with the South African apartheid regime.

The United Nations Security Council has condemned repeatedly Israeli depredations in the occupied territories. Last year, a United Nations Security Council resolution directed Israel to immediately and completely cease all settlements in the occupied territories including East Jerusalem. Amnesty International has held Israel guilty of war crimes and murder of thousands of innocent Palestinians and demolition of their homes.

India was the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestinian Liberation Organi-sation as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. A PLO office was set up in New Delhi in 1975 and full diplomatic relations were established in 1980.

In 1991, during my tenure in the Ministry of External Affairs, I was asked by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to ensure the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel so that India could assist the Palestinian cause in a more efficient manner. I met with the PLO Chairman, Yasser Arafat, at his headquarters in Tunis. Chairman Arafat told me that he was confident that India would not vacillate on its commitment to the legitimate demand for an independent Palestine and that he had no objection if we established diplomatic relations with Israel. I then held a meeting with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, at the United Nations in New York and diplomatic relations with Israel followed. India continued its unstinted support to the Palestinian people in their quest for a strong and viable state and provided material as well as technical support to the Palestinian Government in their efforts at nation-building. At present, most countries of the world recognise the state of Palestine with the exception of the United States and some of its Western allies. Even in the West support for the Palestinian cause is increasing. It is ironical that while the West, the architect of the Palestinian plight, is finally trying to reach out to the Palestinians, India, the old supporter, has almost vanished from the scene.

The international community has been closely observing the growing defence and strategic cooperation between India and Israel, especially since the present government assumed office. In the last four years, Israel has emerged as the second biggest supplier of arms to India. It is doing more than a billion dollars of business annually. Indian officials say that they are particularly obliged to Tel Aviv for rushing in urgently needed military equipment during the brief Kargil conflict. They claim that Israel is a reliable supplier though the prices it charges are exorbitant, even by the standards of the international arms bazaar. Israel has in the last couple of years provided the Indian armed forces with radar and border monitoring systems. Israeli companies have been making millions of dollars upgrading MiG-21s and other Soviet-era aircraft. They have recently bagged a contract to provide the avionics for the Indian Air Force MiG-27s.

For the first time in 2015, India abstained on a UNHRC resolution calling for a probe by the International Criminal Court into war crimes by Israel. It continued to abstain on this resolution in 2016 and 2017 as well.

Israel ought to comply with international law and the United Nations resolutions and vacate the occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. All future agreements between India and Israel should explicitly exclude Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

The relationship between India and Israel should be sustained but not at the expense of our traditional loyalty to the Palestinian cause. India should not dither on its long standing and unequivocal support to the struggle of the Palestinian people for national liberation and an independent state.

The author is a former Union Minister.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Indo-Israel Strategic Relations within the framework of Hindutva (...)

by Arun Srivastava

Two remarks by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, are yet to make any significant sense: First, the marriage between Israel and India was made in heaven. Benjamin did not elaborate the nature of the marriage, which is the male partner, and whether it could be consummated. His second remark was more hilarious but important. Exhilarated to have Narendra Modi amidst his people, Netanyahu said; Weve waited for you 70 years.

Undoubtedly Modi has been the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. But it was certainly not of such a magnitude for Netanyahu to come out with these remarks. It implied more than what meets the eye. Usually a Prime Ministers visit is not the guarantee to have strong bilateral relations between the two countries. But in case of Israel the nuance was quite different.

Netanyahu, the second longest serving Israeli Prime Minister after David Ben-Gurion, is a Right-wing hardliner. He built his political career by portraying Palestinians as an existential threat to the Jewish state of Israel. He has thrived on playing the politics of fear and demonising Muslims. Modi too has been pursuing far-Right politics in India.

His nursing of anti-Muslim views has been an open secret. From refusing to wear the skullcap to denying ticket of his party to even a single Muslim in the UP electionsthese are some of the glaring examples. While the Muslims were being lynched on the plea of carrying and eating beef, he had been maintaining a reflexive silence. He cautioned criminals but did not warn his saffron friends. The increasing tempo of attacks and lynchings shows the Prime Ministers inadequate response to rising communalism. What could be a better exposure than befriending Israel for the BJP to show the way to suppress minorities and all those who do not accept the diktats of the NDA?

Netanyahu was obviously thrilled on receiving an Indian Prime Minister who is the champion of Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra. Though India had fraternal relations with Israel, the intensity of the love and concern for each other could be gauged from the simple fact that Modi agreed to elevate Indias relationship with Israel to one of strategic partnership after negotiations and last-minute changes in the joint statement.

India and Israel have never before referred to each other as strategic partners. India has strategic relations with only a handful of countries. The nomenclature emerged in a post-Cold War world when India tried to diversify its partnerships. France in 1998 and Russia in 2000 were its earliest strategic partners. The US, the UK, Japan and Australia are among the countrys major strategic partners of late.

The idea, officials from both sides suggested, was to broaden and deepen India-Israel ties so much so that unravelling the partnership becomes difficult for future governments in either country. The two leaders had made clear, they said, that they wanted to insulate the relationship from any future upheavals in the Middle East.

Interestingly, Netanyahu had referred to the bilateral relationship as I square T square Israeli technology and Indian talent. Modi was more candid. Modi told the Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin: It means India for Israel. They agreed, in a joint statement, to not only condemn terrorism in all forms and manifes-tations but to take strong measures against those who encourage, support and finance terrorism, or provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups.

Netanyahu made it explicitly known to the world that he felt happy only with Modi. One thing is certain: that Benjamin was trying to convey his and his countrymens feeling towards saffron India. Modi, ignoring the basic tenet to say even hello to Palestine, while on visit to Israel, has embedded the feeling in the Israeli people that Hindu India was closer to them than any other country.

It is a known fact Hindu nationalists in India admire Israel for domination on its Muslim neighbour. They also dream of turning India into an aggressive state like Israel. The Sanghs passion for Israel is almost legendary. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who coined the term Hindutva, had hailed the creation of Israel as a joyous moment. He had even publicly clashed with Mahatma Gandhi and other nationalist leaders for opposing the forced displacement of Palestinians to carve out a Jewish homeland.

True enough it would have been a major surprise if Modi, who had a widely publicised meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu in New York sometime back, had not emphasised to deepen and develop closer relations with Israel. And to achieve the mission it was quite necessary and essential that he diluted the principled stand on the Palestinians right to an independent statehood. The previous Indian governments, which supported the cause of Palestine, had achieved a strong defence, intelligence and security relationship with Israel. The relations blossomed even when both the countries did not have full diplomatic relations. Obviously in this backdrop Modi skipping the Palestine question needs to be understood in the proper perspective.

The Prime Minister is free to enter into relationship with any country he likes. Look at the way he brought India closer to America even at the peril of risking the defence needs of the country! In spite of serious protests and even objections from the defence experts, he has made India virtually an ally of America. In its quest to have strong relations the government preferred to ignore the anti-India rhetoric and remarks of the US President, Donald Trump. In fact 2017 has already become a record year of Israeli weapons sales to India.

It is worth mentioning that at a time when Netanyahu is facing growing isolation inter-nationally and even its traditional patrons have started to lose patience, he desperately needed India on his side. It is Israel that is looking for new international partners now that it is under pressure. Benjamins agony also got its manifes-tation in his two remarks.

The more Netanyahu tried to wrap up things, the more those got exposed. His euphoria was evidently much in the form of coming together of anti-Muslim countries and forces. No doubt that Israel in order to give a concrete shape to its new-found relations would do its best to help India. The government can expect to get Mossad help in fighting terrorists. Israeli tenacity ought to be appreciated. A report carried by the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, underlines the inhumanity, illegality and difficulty in the Israeli attempt to convert Jerusalem, the eastern half of which was captured by Israel in 1967, into a homogeneous Jewish city.

Paradoxically, Modi, who was the first Indian leader to give Palestine a miss while visiting the area, refrained from saying that India would recognise Jerusalem as an exclusively Israeli or Jewish city, for centuries sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is significant that the momentum for Palestinian campaign for statehood has gained in recent weeks. Several European states, including Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, have already recognised Palestine as a state. But the question arises: amid all this, where is India, one of the Palestinians oldest friends? Unfortunately, the Indian Parliament failed even to adopt a resolution against Israels disproportionate use of force in Gaza to punish Hamas for its admittedly short-sighted and foolish strategy of firing missiles at Israel.

There is a mood change even in America. With the Palestinian campaigns growing momentum and the diminishing clout of Israel, around 138 countries voted to give Palestine the enhanced status of a non-member observer state at the UN General Assembly in 2012. Even Britain chose to abstain rather than vote with Israel.

In April 2016, India joined 32 other countries on the UNESCO General Board to condemn Israel for its excavation and exclusion policies around the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Al-Haram Al-Sharif area, much to the anger of the Israeli Government. But when a similar resolution was put to vote on October 18, the Indian delegate abstained. Obviously by this time the Modi Government had made up its mind.

Indias change of stand on a resolution that called out Israel for its violations of the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and a raft of other treaties is bizarre. But this is the reality. The Modi Govern-ment has changed the track to bring about consolidation of the anti-Muslim forces. Reports indicate that the BJP-RSS-VHP supporters, especially in America and the UK, have been clamouring for a Zionist-Hindu alliance and are striving hard to develop it.

Their argument is: India should recognise that Israel is a Hindu-friendly nation. Common to both Hindutva and Zionism is the belief that true democracy is majoritarian and must protect Hindus/Hinduism and Jews/Judaism. The most weird argument has been that India and Israel must not confer full citizenship rights to other ethnic/religious groupings such as Muslims and Christians in India or to the Palestinians or Israeli Arabs as they are called in Israel.

Modi, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel, twice referred to his trip as path-breaking, and called his unprecedented flight into a country, which New Delhi considered a pariah till 25 years back, a singular honour. The Israeli euphoria could be understood from the fact that they described Modis approach and action as tearing down of the final walls dividing India and Israel. His full-throated public embrace of the relationship underlined a complete shift in Indias West Asia policy that began in 1992. With four bear hugs, personal references and an unconcealed thrill, Modi and Netanyahu praised each other and their nations.

In Israel Modi identified himself more as an ideological friend of Benjamin than merely performing the role of the Indian Prime Minister. Modi took another theatrical step towards dismantling Indias complicated legacy with Israel. He agreed to Netanyahus on-the-spot proposal to visit the tomb of Theodor Herzl, considered the founding father of Zionism. India had voted in 1975 to declare Zionism racism at the UN Security Council.. Modis visit to Herzls tomb amounted to a formal endorsement of Zionism. Modi provided a visibility to the relationship that Israel has long sought. Apart from September 2014, Modi and Netanyahu also met in Paris in December 2015 on the margins of the climate change conference there. The two leaders are known to have spoken on the telephone on multiple occasions.

Historically, India framed its relationship with Israel based on a priority accorded to Palestine. In 1936, Jawaharlal Nehru informed the Zionist emissary, Immanuel Olsvanger, that he could not tolerate imperialism in India or Palestine. P.R. Kumaraswamy, Professor of West Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, writes that while anti-colonialism was an important aspect of India backing Palestine, supporting Palestine was also a method of leveraging Indias interests in the Middle East. Undoubtedly, there is markedly more visible warmth between the two countries since 2014, once Modi became the Prime Minister. It is worth mentioning that for the first time a senior Indian Minister, L.K. Advani, had visited Israel in the year 2000, when the BJP was in power. Israel had been sending its Presidents and Prime Ministers to India since 1993. The Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, visited India in November 2016.

India and Israel view each other as victims of Islamist terror which matches Modis Hindutva background. India having strategic relationship with Israel is the culmination of a long-held dream of the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS. For the RSS, Israel is much more than just another nation. Israel is everything that the RSS wants India to be.

It all started with RSS chief M.S. Gowalkars support for the creation of Israel at a time when the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had outright rejected the appeal from Nobel Laureate Albert Einstein seeking support for Jews and the creation of Israel. All these pracharaks believe that Israel is the antithesis to global Islam or international Islamic brotherhood. Bhaurao Deoras continued his engagements with Jews with roots in Mumbai, Kerala and other parts of the country, and pressed the idea of bridging with Israel. In late 1991, he along with the then Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, met the then PM, Narasimha Rao, and pushed for diplomatic relations with Israel.

Nevertheless, this visit has boosted Israels defence trade with India. This is the largest area of cooperation. Israels defence industry bagged its biggest security contract in April 2017 with the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries being awarded contracts worth $ 2 billion for providing medium range surface-to-air missile systems to the Indian Army. It is no secret that India is currently the biggest importer of arms in the world while Israel is its second largest foreign supplier.

Israel is now the second largest supplier of military equipment to India (after Russia, which might well be permanently overtaken in due course by both Israel and the US) and India is now Israels biggest arms purchaser. In New Delhi, Israel is seen as a key conduit for influencing the US Government which, while seeking to consolidate its strategic partnership with India, alsoto the irritation of India feels the need to sustain its strategic ties with Pakistan.

The author is a senior journalist and can be contacted at sriv52[at]gmail.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Global Times Lashes out at India: Doval visit wont sway China over border (...)

The following is a recent editorial that appeared in Chinas official organ, Global Times (July 25, 2017), bringing out its no-holds-barred attack on India over the Doklam standoff.

Indias National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is to visit China for the annual BRICS National Security Advisers meeting this week. As Doval is believed to be one of the main schemers behind the current border standoff between Chinese and Indian troops, the Indian media is pinning high hopes on the trip to settle the ongoing dispute.

Beijing is firm that Indias withdrawal from Chinese territory is a precondition and basis for any meaningful dialogue between the two sides. The Chinese side will not talk with India on the issue before the Indian troops uncondi-tional withdrawal from Chinese territory. New Delhi should give up its illusions, and Dovals Beijing visit is most certainly not an opportunity to settle the standoff in accordance with Indias will.

The BRICS National Security Advisers meeting is a routine conference held in preparation for the BRICS summit, and is not a platform to address Sino-Indian border skirmishes.

Doval will inevitably be disappointed if he attempts to bargain with Beijing over the border disputes. Indias unconditional withdrawal is Chinas bottom-line. The Chinese Governments strong determination requesting Indian troops withdrawal is backed by all the Chinese people who are firm that we cant lose one inch of Chinese territory.

The Indian media outlets are exploring dignified ways to pull back its troops. We believe that if India complies with international laws, then the withdrawal will display dignity. Beijing has no obligation to coordinate with New Delhi to withdraw its troops or suspend its road construction.

India is wrong by brazenly crossing the Sino-Indian border in the Sikkim sector, and must correct its mistakes. China will neither jeer nor express gratitude for Indias retreat.

New Delhi must give up all its illusions. The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) forces are being deployed to the border area, and will take effective countermeasures if India refuses to pull back voluntarily. The PLA is capable enough to take actions that neither Indian troops nor the government can afford.

We dont believe India is willing and deter-mined to have an all-out military showdown with China. If it chooses this path, Beijing will fight to the end to safeguard its territory and resist being deterred or hijacked by any force. New Delhi will have to pay a heavy price.

Indias voluntary withdrawal will incur the least cost to it. If Beijing takes countermeasures, New Delhi will be mired in a more passive political and military situation, and face its most serious strategic setback since 1962.

Chinas GDP is five times and its defence budget four times that of Indias, but this is not the only source of our strength. Justice is on Chinas side, and Beijing is righteous and resolute to require New Delhi to unconditionally withdraw its troops.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Nazism and Corporate Power

by Arup Kumar Sen

Very recently, I chanced upon a book, IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and Americas Most Powerful Corporation, written by Edwin Black (Crown Books, New York, 2001). The book tells the story of IBMs conscious involvement...in the Holocaust, as well as its involvement in the Nazi war machine that murdered millions of others throughout Europe. The book was born out of a moral quest. The authors parents were Holocaust survivors, uprooted from their homes in Poland. One of the relevant questions that propelled the authors journey is: The Nazis had my parents names. How?

The author reminds us that when Hitler came to power in Germany, a central Nazi goal was to identify and destroy Germanys 600,000-member Jewish community. There was no existence of computer in 1933. But, how did the Nazis fulfil their goal of identifying and executing the Jews? To put it in the words of Edwin Black,

However, another invention did exist: the IBM punch card and card sorting system- a precursor to the computer. IBM, primarily through its German subsidiary, made Hitlers program of Jewish destruction a technologic mission the company pursued with chilling success. IBM Germany, using its own staff and equipment, designed, executed, and supplied the indispensable technologic assistance Hitlers Third Reich needed to accomplish...the automation of human destruction.

In his introduction to the book, the author shared with the readers his valuable self-realisation: Many of us have become enraptured by the Age of Computerisation and the Age of Information. I know I have. But now I am consumed with a new awareness that, for me, as the son of Holocaust survivors, brings me to a whole new consciousness. I call it the Age of Realisation, as we look back and examine technologys wake. Unless we understand how the Nazis acquired the names, more lists will be compiled against more people.

The above story warns us about the impending dangers of corporate power and technology fetishism in the 21st century.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Hindi Spread requires Patience

Whenever a State language wants to spread itself to the national sphere, it naturally meets with some resistance. The limits of both are delineated. One is confined to the State while the other has the entire country for its spread.

The chauvinists in States have not understood it or at least not in the manner it should be. There is no competition. One is regional and the other is national. That Hindi is the national language was decided by the Constituent Assembly. The Parliamentary Committeerepresentatives from the non-Hindi speaking States participatedonce again made it clear that Hindi was the national language and what has been left to the future was the switchover from English to Hindi.

What is happening now is that an effort is being made to reopen the language issue. Some are challenging the very idea of India and making territorial demands. This is unfortunate. Hindi was adopted to be Indias language by the Constituent Assembly and there is a wrong impression spread that it was done by the majority of one. The controversy was over the adoption of numerals, not the language.

Today, the official business and most other work are conducted in Hindi, much to the difficulty of non-Hindi speaking people. In fact, during the framing of the Constitution, the issue of language was one of the most debated topics and the decision to declare a national language resulted in two prominent camps. One, the North Indians who advocated Hindi as the national language and, two, the South Indians who did not want it to be imposed upon them.

While the Hindi camp tried to push Hindi due to its numerical superiority, the Tamil camp rejected it outright and one of the Tamil leaders even went on to mock them by pointing out that if numerical superiority was the criteria, then the crow had to be chosen as the national bird instead of the peacock. After several brainstorming debates, the Constituent Assembly decided to finalise on Hindi with Devanagari script as the official language of the Union, along with a special clause that English would continue to remain in use for all official purposes for the next 15 years.

But within a few years, the committees set up to implement it began to face the ground realities. It came as a hard realisation that 15 years would not be a sufficient period as the process of developing Hindi to a stage where it could be used as a single national language would take more time. Even C. Rajagopalachari, who had always been in favour of Hindi as the national language and had imposed Hindi in 1937 when he had formed the Government of Madras, began to air his concerns about how Hindi was yet to develop to be acceptable as the single national language.

I was present at the discussion by the Parliamentary Committee when Govind Ballabh Pant was the Home Minister. I was his Information Officer then. When he started the business, he found that the non-Hindi-speaking members were up in arms and vehemently opposed to the use of the language in official business. Slowly and gradually, Pant brought around all members to reiterate that the Union language, as enunciated in the Constitution, would be Hindi. He left the matter of switchover to sometime in the future.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave an assurance to the non-Hindi-speaking people that the switchover would take place only when they would be ready for it. His successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, brought a bill in Parliament to that effect. Parliament gave an assurance to the country that the non-Hindi-speaking people would not be put to inconvenience or handi-capped.

Parliament is very sensitive on the subject and does not want to take any action until the non-Hindi-speaking members endorse it. But a recent move by the BJP Government to promote Hindi had opened up a can of worms and scratched old scars. Social media was abuzz with debates over linguistics. While there seemed to be a general consensus among citizens that no language must be imposed upon by anybody against their wishes, most States in the South, Tamil Nadu in particular, had vehemently opposed any such move.

With the spread of soft-Hindutva in the country, Hindi is coming in its wake. Prime Minister Narendra Modi feels at home with the language. So do the other members from the majority of Hindi-speaking States. That is the reason why a non-Hindi-speaking State jealously guards its regional language and even challenges Hindi whenever the particular State feels that the rightful space of its own language has been taken by the national language.

Since the country has adopted a three-language formulaEnglish, Hindi and the regionalthe Hindi-speaking States are happy because it is their regional language. Non-Hindi-speaking States are also happy because they have English and this fits into the dictates of the Union which is primarily conducting its business in English.

Hindi chauvinists, who showed no patience earlier, are now quiet because they find that Hindi is a compulsory subject all over the country. If not today, but tomorrow Hindi would have been learnt by the generations to come. Even the people in South India have realised that there is no go from the national language and their children are learning Hindi. Probably, the Modi Government feels that it has to be only patient.

The noting on files is already in Hindi. Those who do so have the dictates of the Union in mind and give the English translation of the noting as well. It serves everybodys purpose and hence there is no reason for the government to take any extreme measures that will be looked down upon as an imposition. It would be better if things are left as they prevail today. Hindi is already there. Only a bit of patience is needed from the chauvinists. The RSS is doing that. Modis occasional visits to the RSS headquarters at Nagpur testify to that.

The author is a veteran journalist renowned not only in this country but also in our neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh where his columns are widely read. His website is www.kuldipnayar.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Laloo is a Natural Target in the Fight against Corruption, but the Problem (...)

IMPRESSIONS

Mention corruption, and the names of some politicians jump out like registered trademarks. Laloo Prasad Yadav is right when he says that the BJP Government is hunting him for political reasons. The government has indeed been using the CBI to hunt its opponents on a selective basis. But it is able to play politics of revenge because facts are there to exploit. Laloo has been a synonym for corruption in unique waysthe only leader who breaks laws with defiance and daring.

When his second daughter, Rohini, got married in 2002, arrangements had to be made on a grand scale which meant dozens of cars for guests, comfortable sofas and chairs for use in the pandal, dry fruits, provisions, garlands and so on. Organising them was no problem for Laloo. Musclemen walked into car showrooms in Patna and just took away all the models there. Others went to furniture storerooms, cake-shops, grocery shops, fruit and dry-fruit stalls and flower shops and just took things away. What an original idea! The press published reports but didnt quote shop-owners who were so scared that they pleaded for anonymity. But Rohini got happily married. Those were also the days when kidnapping for ransom flourished. Wellknown doctors were among those who lived in fear.

No Indian politician has so openly misused power. Nor has any other leader pushed the family into power with the same I-am-the-proprietor attitude. When the courts disqualified Laloo following the fodder scam (fraudulent payments for non-existent cattle feed), he unashamedly put his illiterate wife, Rabri, in the Chief Ministers chair. In the United Front with Nitish Kumar, he got two of his sons into the Cabinet, one as Deputy Chief Minister. His daughter, Misa, inheritor of many of her fathers special talents, is in Parliament.

Left to himself, Laloo Prasad would think it perfectly natural for Rabri Devi to become the President of the country, Misa to become the Prime Minister, Tejaswi the Home Minister with additional charge of Industries, Finance and Information, Tej Pratap the Chief Minister of Bihar, and daughters Rohini, Ragini, Chanda, Hema, Rajalakshmi and Dhannu to be named

ambassadors to the worlds big powers. He would want nothing for himself except his formal portrait to hang in all government offices as the most loving husband and father in Indian history.

How nasty of the CBI to get going suddenly and shatter all the dreams. It filed charges with unusual promptness, claiming that the family had acquired nearly a thousand crore rupees worth of benami properties in a decade. Contracts for the maintenance of railway hotels and licence for a liquor factory were the kind of favours given in return for prime properties. There was a gift of land even by Rabri Devis cattle-shed owner. Some unkindly opponents referred to Laloo as the Robert Vadra of Bihar.

Laloos operations were wide and his attitude reckless. Therefore he made himself easy prey to his opponents. But deeper is the corruption that goes on at the grassroots. There has been a drop, since Narendra Modis rise, in big-ticket scandals in Delhi like the Commonwealth Games or the Spectrum sale. But that does not lighten the burden of everyday corruption that continues as before. The last Transparency International report put the total bribe Indians paid to access routine government services at Rs 21,000 crores. (How? Go and register a trust or a will at any sub-registrars office and you will know.)

All parties contribute to this shame despite the BJPs holier-than-thou posture. A former Gujarat Chief Ministers daughter faced charges of getting 422 acres of land from the State Government at Rs 15 per square metre when the governments own prevailing rate was Rs 180 per square metre. The long-running Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh rocked Parliament again recently but is yet to be fully investigated. Lalit Modi, with friends in the BJP, is not trawled the way Vijay Mallya is though both are absconders of the same kind. Most importantly, some BJP leaders in Kerala have been found to have taken money to help start new medical colleges in the State.

Prime Minister Modi made yet another call for a corruption-free India when he said, at the all-party meet on the eve of Parliaments current session, that it was the responsibility of all political parties to take action against corrupt leaders. All parties? That sounds like an instruction to the Karnataka BJP to find a clean candidate as the Chief Minister instead of one who was jailed for corruption the first time around.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Lynching of Psyches!

MUSINGS

A few years back, when I had first heard a well-known Delhi University professor talk in an open forum of the twisted history taught in the RSS-run schools, it was more than shocking as she had actually read out several of the communally provocative passages from those books... poison dripping from each one of those sentences, enough to inculcate hatred in young minds for the otherthe Muslims of the country.

Now, of course, there seems a well-planned strategy to change the very course of history. Not just in the RSS schools but also in the average schools which our children attend. Not to overlook the very distortion of words and their meanings. Just last week there were news reports of textbooks of Gujarat coming up with the wrong meaning of the word Roza (Muslims fast during the month of Ramzan). It was not just incorrect but slanted and planted!

How vicious can the going get under the RSS rulers can be well judged from some of the latest developments. The RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, headed by Dina Nath Batra, has sent a list of recommendations to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) demanding a host of changes in its textbooks. News reports state that Batra has asked the NCERT to remove English, Urdu, and Arabic words, a poem by the revolutionary poet Pash and a couplet by Mirza Ghalib, the thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore, extracts from painter M.F. Husains autobiography... Batra also wants references to the Mughal emperors as benevolent, the BJP as a Hindu party, the National Conference as secular, an apology tendered by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the 1984 riots, and a sentence that nearly 2000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat in 2002 to be removed.

News reports also state that the Nyas objected to the facts that the Class 11 political science textbook mentions the massive majority of Congress in 1984 but does not present the 1977 election details, the Class 12 political science textbook terms National Conference of J&K a secular organisation, and the Class 10 English textbook places nationalism against other ideals as an attempt... to show a rift between nationality and humanity by citing the thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore. It also wants that the Hindi textbooks must mention that the medieval Sufi mystic Amir Khusrau increased the rift between Hindus and Muslims.

It is relevant to mention that the Nyas had on earlier occasions demanded the removal of A.K. Ramanujans essay Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation from the undergraduate syllabus of the University of Delhi, and had gone to court demanding that Wendy Donigers The Hindus not be sold in India. Sadly and unfortunately, their demands were fulfilled! Ramanujans essay was removed from the DUs reading list, and Penguin India, the publisher of Donigers book, pulled it from circulation.

And, perhaps, it would be more than relevant to mention here that in 2014, government schools in Gujarat were given six textbooks written by Batra as supplementary literature that claimed cars were invented in ancient India and told children to draw an enlarged nation to include in it such countries as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

RSS Complex Aversion for the Mughals!

There seems to be no end to the ongoing efforts to twist history and implant nothing but communally-twisted facts. School students in Rajasthan will soon be taught that Rajput warrior Maharana Pratap defeated the army of Mughal emperor Akbar in the Battle of Haldighati some 450 years ago.

Eminent historians have refuted this twisted tale spun by the RSS men, with this one-liner: This is factually and historically incorrect as historical evidence shows that Maharana Pratap, ruler of the Mewar region, had fled the battlefield, although in the later years he continued his guerilla war against the Mughals.

In fact, the RSS hatred for the Mughals can be judged from the fact that not just the suffix Great was dropped from the name of the Mughal emperor Akbar from textbooks in the State of Rajasthan but the Rajasthan Government has even renamed the well-known Ajmer Fortfrom Akbar Ka Qila to Ajmer ka Qila and Sangrahalaya. Nah, no expert committee of historians and academics was involved in the decision. Just by the order of the Rajasthan Education Minister, Vasudev Devnani, the name of a historical monument stood changed. No questions or queries were hurled! After all, who can veto the States might! This fort built by Akbar in 1570 was left untouched even when the Rathors, Marathas and the British ruled the state.The original name of the Ajmer Fort was sanctioned legally by a Gazette notification in December, 1968. It was named as Akbar ka Qila or Daulat Khana and this name continued till, of course, the RSS rulers came to the centre-stage.

And UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths hatred for the Mughals and their monumental wonders is writ large, and he doesnt give a damn to dilute his venomthis years annual Budget for 2017-2018 makes no mention of Taj Mahal in the special section Hamari Sanskritik Virasat (Our Cultural Heritage) incorporated in the Finance Ministers 63-page speech. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has on earlier occasions pointed out that the Taj Mahal, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, did not reflect Indias ancient culture... In fact, in one of his recent speeches he made it amply clear that no replicas of the Taj Mahal will be given to the foreign dignitaries visiting Uttar Pradesh, instead copies of the Hindu scriptures.

This aversion for the upkeep of the Taj Mahal when its one of the seven wonders of the world an Unesco world heritage site that draws thousands of tourists and earns crores in terms of revenue for the government.

Are we living in a so-called democracy or in a Hindu Rashtra where the Hindu Taliban will force their dictates down my head and throat and psyche!

And pray, which tourists will set foot in Uttar Pradesh where the Hindu Vahini Sena men and women attack to hound and kill if they see you walking with a friend or if they hear you whisper three-letter or four-letter words!

My countrymen, dont be too shocked if you see the beautiful Taj Mahal turned into a gau-shalaya!

I know the long dead Mughal emperors will be turning in their graves and cursing the times that we, the not-so-dead, are living in ...rather are trying to survive in!
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Appeasement of Minorities is a Myth

by Ram Puniyani

The turmoil in Kashmir has worsened since the encounter of Burhan Wani last year (2016). The ceaseless protests, the handling of protests leading to deaths and blinding of many is very disturbing. To cap this negative development the attack on Amaranth pilgrims has added salt to the wounds of the nation. (July 2017)

Tragedy struck when one of the buses was attacked. The bus driver, Salim, in a brave gesture, kept driving despite being wounded, and that prevented a wholesale massacre.

The Amarnath yatra is among the most pious of pilgrimages undertaken by scores of Hindus. In Amarnath there is an ice Shiva Linga located in a cave deep in the valley. This was discovered by a Muslim shepherd, way back in the 1850s, and since then it is a regular pilgrimage-stop for devotees. The yatra is managed mostly by Muslims on the way and reflects the deep imprint of Indias syncretic culture.

It is also a manifestation of Kashmiriyat, the culture of Kashmir, which is a synthesis of Buddhism, Vedant and Sufi tradition. Despite the rising militancy in Kashmir, the yatra has mostly been going on, though under heavy security cover. There are instances earlier also when the yatra was attacked in 2001, 2002 and in 2003. Incidentally those were also the years when the NDA was ruling. What the corre-lation is between the muscular nationalism practised by the BJP-led NDA and such acts is a matter of conjecture.

While there is communalisation of the Kashmir issue by the Pakistan-inspired mili-tants and Al-Qaeda type elements who have infiltrated into the area, by and large the deep syncretism of the area has prevailed and the local Muslim population has been of great help to the tourists (yatris) in their hours of crisis, in matters of supply of food when the yatris have got trapped due to natural calamities. Kashmir and the nation condemned the attack in one voice. The nation was pained to no end. The Prime Minister, who takes a long time to speak or tweet when a Pahlu Khan or a Juniad is mob-lynched, was prompt with a series of tweets in condemning, rightly, the Amarnath incident.

The other part of this was the Hindu nationalists who have been on the job to run down and humiliate the liberal and democratic voices in the country. The BJP spokesperson, G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, carrying on with his usual mocking at the democratic liberal elements, tweeted: "On Amarnath killings, is Not In My Name gang protesting or are protests only for Akhlaqs, Junaids, Pehlu Khans and Not4Lord Shiva devotees?"

This was in the aftermath of the massive turn-out on Jantar Mantar after the killing of Junaid in the train. The general impression being spread is that liberal activists-thinkers protest only after the atrocities against Muslims. This started being propagated more so after the award wapsi (returning honours) following the mass lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq. As such if we see, even the award wapsi occurred once there was a qualitative change in the persecution of minorities with the coming to power of the Modi Sarkar. Akhlaqs lynching was shocking. Similarly Junaids murder in a train also was an event where the basic foundations of democratic liberties got shaken.

The spontaneous mass protests after Junaids murder occurred in different cities of the country and did register the resentment all around. As a matter of fact the Not In My Name protest picked up and on similar lines thousands collected to grieve the death of Amarnath pilgrims. So what does the propaganda by BJP spokespersons aim to achieve?

Currently this tribe wants to spread the impression that the Hindu majority is suffering; and is being persecuted while the Muslims are being appeased-pampered in this country. Hindu nationalist politics draws strength from the propaganda first against Muslims and then partly against Christians. Currently it wants to defame all those who defend the human rights of minorities. Thats the reason that protests of this kind have occurred more often and have drawn more attention. The idea behind this criticism of liberal democratic elements is to muzzle the voice of protests, so that the BJP-type politics, based on intolerance of liberal values and violation of minority rights, has an easy go in society. Its main plank so far has been that minorities have been appeased and now it is entering the next stage where the majority Hindu community is supposed to be suffering discrimination. This is a very shrewd move and without a shred of truth.

While their propaganda did sink into the social understanding, the truth is far from that. In our country, the economic condition of Muslims is well reflected in the Sachar Committee report, how over the last seven decades their condition has been deteriorating abysmally. In matters of security and being victims of violence, over 80 per cent of violence- victims are Muslims, while they constitute 14.1 per cent in the population as per the 2011 Census. In most of the acts of terrorist violence also, it is the Muslim youth who have been arrested and most of them have had to be released for the lack of any evidence. Their political representation is falling continuously as reflected in the number of Muslim Lok Sabha MPs.

The perception being created about the threat to the majority community is the bedrock of the communal campagin and a clever political move to further strengthen the polarising politics of the principal party in power at the Centre.

(Courtesy: www.thecitizen.in)

The author, a retired Professor at the IIT-Bombay, is currently associated with the Centre for the Study of Secularism and Society, Mumbai.
Kochi: The police team probing the sensational attack on actress case on Saturday summoned actor cum director Nadirsha's brother Samad to Aluva police club.

As per the reports, the cops will take Samad's statements in connection with the case. Earlier police had questioned Dileep's close aide Nadirsha. He was questioned along with Dileep for almost 13 hours in the police club.

Meanwhile, there were also reports that the police might make two arrests in the coming days.
Monona is getting ready to begin its biggest development in 20 years, a riverfront project that will convert run-down or vacant buildings surrounded by unruly weeds to a park, shops, restaurants and apartments.

Galway Cos. will begin construction on the project in December, the first leg of a $36 million, 7-acre project at Bridge Road and West Broadway thats expected to be complete by early 2023. The redevelopment, called Yahara Commons, eventually will add valuable tax base to the city, which is landlocked by Madison on one side and Lake Monona on the other.

The first phase  scheduled to be completed by spring 2019  will focus on the construction of a five-story, mixed-use building that will include 96 apartments, a large anchor restaurant, a coffee shop and several service-based retail shops, such as a wine store, said Galways principal, Steve Doran. Leases will be finalized in the coming months.

It also will add over 250 above- and below-ground parking spaces and a park in the center of the area, abutting the Yahara River, according to the plan. A new road through the development will provide entry from both Bridge Road and West Broadway.

The community has been buzzing about the project, said Sonja Reichertz, Monona city planner and economic development director. Theres a demand for a destination space in Monona, where residents can grab a drink on the water or stop their bikes for a snack, since the Lake Loop path will be at the doorstep of the development, she said. There will also be a kayak launch for residents.

When the entire project is complete, the city will consider using the park for farmers markets, yoga in the park, Christmas tree-lighting events and an ice-skating rink, Reichertz said, giving the city a downtown feel it hasnt had.

The second phase will create 140 more residential units, which may include a senior living component, according to the plans. The last phase will add a three-story commercial office building.

Before construction can begin, one significant obstacle must be addressed: A sewer line under the Chase Bank building must be moved, at an estimated cost of $1.6 million.

Most of the current businesses in the triangular redevelopment area will be razed for Yahara Commons, including Chase Bank, Inland Boat Works, Global Presence Ministries and the Bridge Lounge. Monona State Bank, the Breakwater restaurant, and the Four Lakes Yacht Club will remain in the area.

The owner of the Bridge Lounge, Billy Noltner, said that when the city first approached him about the new development in 2014, he wasnt interested. The bar has been on the site for over 50 years; he has owned it since 1980, and his father owned it since 1962.

But after spending a few more years in the space as the city searched for the right developer, he came to terms with the impending move.

I knew this was going to eventually come true, he said, adding that redevelopment would help generate tax revenue for the city, which he refers to as a special place.

Thats a way we can keep the city vital, he said.

Noltner, 62, said he plans to make repairs to other properties he owns, and perhaps manage a different bar in the future.

Monona is kicking in a $2 million tax-increment financing (TIF) grant at the end of the first phase of the project. The city also will pay $5.1 million in demolition costs and infrastructure improvements such as streets, the park and utility work.

Mayor Mary OConnor is looking forward to a transformed, more attractive space  and the tax base that will eventually come with it after the TIF district expires in 2042.

The only way we can have new developments is by developing current areas of the city that might be blighted, because were totally surrounded by Madison, OConnor said.

Yahara Commons is the largest project the city has worked with since Pier 37 on Monona Drive between West Broadway and the Beltline, OConnor said. That project was developed nearly 20 years ago.

Were excited to see it finally coming to fruition, OConnor said.

Its Galways second development in the area, following the 2015 completion of the property that currently houses Qdoba Mexican Grill and Mr. Brews Taphouse a few blocks east on West Broadway near Monona Drive.

Yahara Commons was initially pushed by former Mayor Bob Miller in 2012, said Reichertz. Miller had noticed that multiple properties in the area were for sale, and was looking for a way to achieve the best use of the space, given its location on the river.We (had) the opportunity to create a commercial destination on the waterfront and open up public access on the water where there currently is none, Reichertz said.
Berbatov: Do not underestimate Fulham

Article

The ex-Red says United will have 'a problem' if they take another of his former clubs lightly on Sunday.
STUART-A North Carolina man will serve two years out of a 10-year sentence, after being convicted of grand larceny of an automobile.

On Friday, Patrick County Circuit Court Judge Martin F. Clark Jr. suspended eight years of Jeremy Brent Harvey's sentence on conditions including five years of probation, five years of good behavior, payment of $250 restitution and a $250 fine, as well as obtaining any mental health treatment or counseling directed by his probation officer.

Harvey's lawyer, Charles Hale of the Public Defender's Office, had asked Judge Clark to consider the 26-year-old Mount Airy, North Carolina native's difficult childhood, adding that he has a mental issue, a work history and is not lazy.

Prosecutor Dayna Kendrick, however, argued that Harvey has a pretty extensive criminal record and that jail is the structure he needs.

Judge Clark acknowledged that Harvey has had some hardships, but Clark said Harvey created hardships for others when he stole a car.

"A car is critical, fundamental and integral" to a person, Clark said.

The judge told Harvey, "You can't keep stealing," and added that Harvey "has stolen before."

Harvey asked if the judge would send him to a rescue mission instead of prison.

Judge Clark declined the request and said Harvey can go the rescue mission on his own time if he chooses after he gets out of prison.

"This is two years of punishment for stealing someone's car," Clark said.

The offense happened on Feb. 15, and the car was recovered.

PATRICK COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT

In another case, Judge Clark revoked the bond of William Grady Adkins of Ararat, who had pleaded no contest to carnal knowledge of a 14-year-old girl. As a result, Adkins will serve nine months and 15 days of incarceration.

Then Adkins will come back to court, at which time a judge will take the carnal knowledge charge under advisement for a year, during which time Adkins will have to fulfill certain conditions that have not yet been determined. If he successfully completes those conditions, after the year is up, the charge will be reduced to misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The carnal knowledge offense allegedly happened May 2, 2016.

In another case, Ricky Lane Howell, 53, of Stuart, pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing methamphetamine. According to the prosecution's evidence, Howell sold a total of about 0.69 gram of methamphetamine to a confidential informant in an undercover drug investigation on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19, 2016.

Judge Clark found Howell guilty of both charges and set sentencing for Nov. 30.

In another case, Bridget Jeanne Cromer, 37, of Danbury, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing imitation controlled substance.

According to the prosecution's evidence, Cromer sold what was purported to be methamphetamine to a confidential informant in an undercover durg investigation on Jan. 21, Jan. 25 and Jan. 27, 2016. Each time, a state forensics lab found no controlled substance.

Judge Clark found Cromer guilty of all three charges. Clark ordered a presentence report and set sentencing for Nov. 30.

In Patrick County District Court recently, a judge sent to Circuit Court a charge against Roger Lee Craig of aggravated sexual battery through use of the victim's mental incapacity or physical helplessness.

Various court documents list the address of 67-year-old Craig as Stuart and Bassett.

An arrest warrant and criminal complaint by Investigator Terry Mikels of the Patirick County Sheriff's Office allege that Craig grabbed and fondled a 47-year-old woman on June 15 while she was semi-conscious on medication from surgery. The woman's caretaker allegedly observed this.

Craig and the alleged victim had been in a relationship until several weeks ago and lived together during the relationship. The assault allegedly occurred the same day the alleged victim was released from surgery.
BOSTON - Police arrested a Dorchester man on Friday in connection to a 2015 murder at a Jamaica Plain psychiatric hospital.

The Boston Police Fugitive Apprehension Unit arrested Hameen R. Edwards, 41, on a warrant for murder out of Suffolk Superior Court.

On July 2, 2015, police say staff members at the Arbour Hospital on Robinwood Avenue found Edwards kneeling over John Duggie, 50, of Framingham, who was suffering from a head injury.

Duggie died one month later, police said.

Edwards was arrested "after an extensive investigation," police said in a news release.

"This shows that my detectives never forget a single victim," said Police Commissioner William Evans. "Whether it takes two days or two years, they work extremely hard every day to bring justice for the victims and their families."

Police released few details about the case. A representative of the department referred questions to Dorchester District Court officials, who could not be reached outside regular business hours.

Edwards will be arraigned on Monday.
WASHINGTON -- Dozens of convicts serving time in U.S. prisons for terrorism-related offenses are due to be released in the next several years, raising the question whether that's something Americans should fear.



There's no easy answer.



Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has worked aggressively to foil attacks and has imprisoned hundreds of people who joined or helped militant groups. Experts say less attention has been paid to what happens once those prisoners complete their sentences.



Among the incarcerated, according to the Bureau of Prisons, are 380 linked to international terrorism and 83 tied to domestic terrorism. A Congressional Research Service report said 50 "homegrown violent jihadists" were to be released between last January and the end of 2026.



And more are entering prison.



Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump in May, had told Congress that the bureau had more than 900 active investigations related to Islamic State and other extremist activity in all 50 states.



Most of those convicted of terrorism-related crimes are held at the high-security U.S. penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, and federal prisons in Terre Haute, Indiana, and Marion, Illinois. Some are in for life, but the average sentence is 13 years. That means most will walk out of prison with years of freedom ahead.



"There were people I was with in prison who you'd be happy to have as a neighbor because they were normal, reasonable people," said Ismail Royer. He was released last December after serving more than 13 years on firearms charges connected to his work helping others get to a militant training camp in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory claimed by India and Pakistan.



"The guys that I'm really, really concerned about are the loose cannons," Royer said.



Royer grew up in a Catholic family in suburban St. Louis. By the time he was 21, he had converted to Islam and was fighting alongside fellow Muslims in Bosnia. At 31, he was serving a 20-year sentence.



Today, he lives in the Washington, D.C., area, works for the Center for Islam and Religious Freedom and wants to help nonextremist Muslim-Americans find their footing in American society.



Behind bars, Royer got to know inmates arrested for only loose ties to terrorism. But he also met Richard Reid, the al-Qaida "shoe bomber," and John Walker Lindh, an American captured in Afghanistan while fighting with the Taliban.



Some were ensnared in sting operations, Royer said, or were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Others were up to no good; Royer said he was happy the FBI arrested them.



"At any time, the loose cannon might go to the convenience store and cut off somebody's head. You just don't know. These guys are very problematic," Royer said while eating grilled cheese at a hotel not far from the White House. "I don't want them as my neighbor. You can't sit there and talk to them and tell them that their views are mistaken."



Eric Rosand, who directs a program at the Global Center on Cooperative Security that's aimed at combating violent extremism, said not enough is known about the mindset of the prisoners being released. Experts say there's been no comprehensive research to determine recidivism rates for these individuals.



Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University's School of Law, doesn't think the public should panic. Those released will face months to years of supervision. Phone calls and online communications are monitored. Travel can be restricted. Weekly meetings with counselors can be required.



"We're not talking about 9/11 perpetrators," Greenberg said.



While the State Department has spent more than $10 million since 2012 to help other countries deal with an increase in suspected terrorists, Rosand lamented that no similar effort is taking place here.



"People have to go back to some community once they are released," said Rosand, a former senior counterterrorism official at the State Department. "Are we preparing communities for their release? Where are they going to go? Is the community that they came from going to accept them back?"



Patrick James, a researcher at National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland said the U.S. lags behind European and Middle Eastern countries in finding ways to address paths to radicalization or ease the return of released individuals.



"There's no net to catch them. There is no way to make sure they don't re-engage in extremism," James said.



At least 128 individuals have been charged in the United States with crimes related specifically to the Islamic State group since March 2014, when the first arrests were made, according to George Washington University's Program on Extremism.



Justice Department officials declined comment.



But the department's internal watchdog is auditing the Bureau of Prisons' procedures, policies and practices for monitoring inmates with known or suspected terrorist ties, and efforts to prevent further radicalization among inmates.



The issue also is being addressed in pockets of the country.



Last year, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis in Minneapolis announced a new program to assess the risks posed by terrorism defendants and devise plans to help them re-evaluate their extremist ideals so they don't engage in similar activities again.



Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the U.S. and has been a target for extremist recruiters. About a dozen Minnesota residents have traveled to Syria to join militant groups in recent years. At least 22 men from Minnesota's Somali community have join al-Shabab in Somalia in the past decade.



Davis' program enlists the help of Daniel Koehler, who runs an institute devoted to "de-radicalization" in Germany. Koehler will conduct risk assessments on terror offenders to give Davis more information as he determines sentences. Koehler will then train U.S. probation and pretrial officers, who will be responsible for supervising defendants.



"I am not aware that any other court has tried something like that," Koehler said.



Royer, who served time in Terre Haute and elsewhere, offered some examples of those in line for release and their place on the terrorism spectrum.



One inmate, he said, was a former computer programmer from Yemen who was arrested for stealing proprietary software and trying to market it as his own. The inmate claimed he told U.S. officials he would give them the names of al-Qaida followers if they let him go.



"He lied to them. He didn't know anyone from al-Qaida. He just told them some names and very quickly they found out that he was full of crap," Royer said. "He went to prison for lying to the FBI and they put him in the terrorism unit."



A second inmate was picked up selling night vision equipment to a U.S. law enforcement official posing as a member of Lebanon's Hezbollah. Royer said the inmate was trying to make a buck. He was charged with attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group and ended up in the terrorism unit at Terre Haute.



"The only concern with him is that he's a hustler," Royer said. "That's not to say that it's not a crime."





By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press
EASTHAM -- Fire officials are investigating a grill fire that critically injured a 33-year-old man on Thursday night.

Eastham Fire Captain Charles Frazier told the Cape Cod Times that the 9 p.m. incident at 25 Oakwood Road left the victim with life-threatening burns over his upper body, face and extremities.

The victim, whose name was not provided, was taken to Barnstable Municipal Airport to be flown to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

The incident is under investigation.
SPRINGFIELD - A lawyer for one of three teenagers charged in a fatal shooting in Springfield's North End last year wants a judge to dismiss a murder charge against his client.

In a motion filed in Hampden Superior Court, the attorney representing Eddy Agramonte said his client did not shoot a Ludlow man during a botched drug deal in March 2016 and should not be charged with his murder.

Citing grand jury testimony, defense lawyer Edward Fogarty said Agramonte agreed to participate in the robbery that ended with the fatal shooting of Jeffrey Freitas. But Agramonte never realized that his accomplice, Charles Sierra, was carrying a firearm, much less that he would use it to shoot Freitas, the motion states.

"There is no evidence that the defendant shot the victim or even touched the gun," Fogarty wrote.

Two passengers in Freitas's vehicle also identified Sierra as the shooter, and Sierra later admitted to firing the fatal shot during a conversation with the third defendant, Mathew Hastings, Fogarty wrote. A later statement by Sierra claiming Agramonte was the shooter has been "discounted by evidence," Fogarty wrote.

Agramonte and Sierra, both 17 and from Springfield, and Hastings, 18, of Ludlow, pleaded not guilty to murder during their arraignments in Springfield District Court. The case was later transferred to superior court, and a trial date was set for Sept. 12.

All three defendants are being tried as adults.

The murder charge against Agramonte is based on his participation in the underlying felony -- in this case, the planned robbery of Freitas -- that led to the murder, Fogarty states. But applying the so-called felony murder doctrine, long controversial in adult cases, to juveniles such as Agramonte represents a violation of state and federal law, Fogarty wrote.

Juvenile defendants lack the mental and social capacity of adults, and scientific research has increasingly highlighted the disparity between juvenile and adult brains, Fogarty said.

"The court should abandon the now anachronistic view that juveniles and adults share the same ability to make decisions and align the law with the scientific consensus about the juvenile brain," he wrote.

To back up his argument, Fogarty submitted an affidavit Robert Kinscherff, an expert in law and neuroscience affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Aug. 29.

All three defendants are being held without right to bail.

Hastings is represented by Jennifer E. Cox, and Sierra by William O'Neil; Assistant District Attorney Henry L. Rigali is prosecuting the case.
SHINE Medical Technologies, a former Monona company that plans to manufacture a safer, more affordable version of a key element in diagnostic medical procedures, broke ground this week on the first building on its new campus in the Janesville area.

Building One will house SHINEs first fully integrated production system for molybdenum-99, a radioactive isotope that decays into technetium-99m, which is used in millions of medical imaging scans for cancer and heart problems each year.

Building One also will be a technological genesis building, said SHINE founder and CEO Greg Piefer. Its intended to be a laboratory in which were going to continue to develop new technologies to keep SHINE at the forefront of not just medical isotope production, but to go beyond that.

We couldnt be more thrilled to start construction, said SHINE vice president of business development Katrina Pitas.

Pitas said SHINEs campus, just south of Janesville, eventually will consist of four or five buildings. Building One will be 11,000 square feet, most of it laboratory space, and will be used for technology development, equipment testing and employee training.

Construction is expected to begin on the main manufacturing building in early 2018, Pitas said.

SHINE is an offshoot of UW-Madison research that Piefer began as a graduate student in the lab of Gerald Kulcinski, now professor emeritus of engineering physics and director of the UWs Fusion Technology Institute.

SHINE does not use a nuclear reactor or highly enriched uranium to make molybdenum-99, as most current suppliers do.

SHINE is a great success story, Ian Robertson, dean of the UW College of Engineering, said at the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday. It started with basic research that turned into a solution to provide  in a safe, clean, affordable manner  medical tracers and cancer treatment elements.

SHINE was based in Monona and continues to house its prototype there. Company headquarters moved to Janesville last December. SHINE has 57 employees and expects to employ about 150 when manufacturing begins.

The company has raised about $75 million so far from investors and through federal grants, Pitas said. She declined to say how much more is needed, but Piefer, in an interview in February 2016, said the estimated cost to build the plant, hire staff and begin operating is more than $100 million.
Available workers include 1,251 underemployed,

1,566 unemployed, and 13,318 adults out of the workforce

The Great Falls, Montana MSA (Cascade County) has an underutilized labor supply of 16,134 individuals, according to a report issued today by the Great Falls Development Authority (GFDA).

The Labor Supply Report of Great Falls Montana MSA http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001K6JTm3M7CaDHMxzCSQsQMwrT97jRO929dCV_zBBXk4XtF8ujADJv2DHFPuMECFYvDv1ePbjhgrfJhWSkvjRWNmrgGPuZUeAaLBGAPD4hEZiFERGHJv4LcTcnGp_VhydhDtqlq3I67lvmE-4uuMVNhskeVHnll85Mf1-cDaG485z6yVgrWckECabhO99mQBcIecN591SynAD_FP7WKKcUlI1wM6o7quLCP2HCfiuT00_vZFcrzcBoYd5tsn49IChy&c=50CrHwGW14XGwuhMHA9lfAQ8dGD7CwpRQYLn9bkVqUmTzNkJhLEqAA==&ch=DXD4ZXzVHIE2jJCpe7fc2RbkPv8kEhJtYOBIFvrCBI6u3VCsG82JmA== is based on 502 completed household surveys conducted in May and June. Chmura Economics & Analytics prepared the report. Funding was provided by the City of Great Falls using Community Development Block Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

GFDA will use the labor supply data in our work with businesses to create new, higher-wage career opportunities, particularly for low- and moderate-income community residents. Similar surveys GFDA commissioned in 2003 and 2009 proved to be effective in helping win job-creating investments from companies such as Centene and Blue Cross Blue Shield. We use household surveys to fill gaps in data of what is collected from available public and private sources.

The Labor Supply Report compliments a Labor Demand Certification http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001K6JTm3M7CaDHMxzCSQsQMwrT97jRO929dCV_zBBXk4XtF8ujADJv2DHFPuMECFYvX8IaEXrrGTi9GlkmR_Cf9YYi6aX-08E1wZHzdlVv0DV_KpxBt3TwCAzhYrOnqWf86RNuzch4nan24l2GbZurV0kgQK0PFpyKiaMkloGz-iq429kF6s1oVvMiIE5hcRDg_qJrSNW_n2G_zgFtCtUdN-Lo1O_THGnkF9naqTXeIo3hzku5IwTfJykWMgZO_D62&c=50CrHwGW14XGwuhMHA9lfAQ8dGD7CwpRQYLn9bkVqUmTzNkJhLEqAA==&ch=DXD4ZXzVHIE2jJCpe7fc2RbkPv8kEhJtYOBIFvrCBI6u3VCsG82JmA== that GFDA commissioned in 2015. The two reports provide useful information for existing employers to use to develop effective strategies for retaining and attracting skilled employees.

The Labor Supply Survey documents that Great Falls offers a mature, experienced, and skilled workforce. On average, employed workers have 23.6 years of experience and the unemployed have 18.4 years of work experience.

The Great Falls region is highly educated, with over 60% of the regions labor force attaining post-secondary education.

Over 1,200 workers in the Great Falls MSA currently in part-time jobs are willing and able to work full-time jobs.

Underutilized workers in the region have a wide variety of valuable workforce skills and experience.

On average, employed workers in the Great Falls region have been working in their current occupation for over 13 years, compared with less than 5 years nationally.

Nearly one-quarter of currently employed workers consider themselves overqualified for their current job.

One-third of currently employed workers in the region are interested in changing jobs, most commonly citing an increase in pay as their primary reason.

"We will immediately put this report to work with companies considering creating new higher-wage career opportunities in the Great Falls region," stated Brett Doney, President & CEO of GFDA. "We have businesses who have been waiting for this data to make decisions on where to start and expand. We will also use the data to target our economic development priorities to generate more successes, and work with our education, workforce training and human resource partners to address gaps identified in the report. Thank you to the City of Great Falls for funding the survey!"

In addition to the household survey, GFDA subscribes to Chmuras powerful JobsEQ online labor and economics data system. We use these tools to help entrepreneurs, companies of all sizes and industries, and real estate developers to make informed decisions to drive business investment and job creation in our market.

Contact us today to learn more about the wide variety of tools we can put to work to help you succeed, [email protected].

Vision

Hungry to Grow the Great Falls region

Mission

Grow and diversify the Great Falls regional economy.

Create higher wage career opportunities.

Improve market competitiveness.

The first economic development organization in the Rocky Mountain West to earn accreditation from the International Economic Development Council.

GFDA is a certified Community Development Financial Institution and a 501(c)3 charitable organization. High Plains Financial is a certified Community Development Corporation that offers SBA 504 loans statewide. GFDA and High Plains Financial are Equal Opportunity Lenders.

GFDA is proud to host a Montana Small Business Development Center

and a Montana Procurement Technical Assistance Center.

For more info, click to our website. http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001K6JTm3M7CaDHMxzCSQsQMwrT97jRO929dCV_zBBXk4XtF8ujADJv2HIP15ttK2g8vykHXEAu39LwUdJ0bRVd9cp3FGWlcwczLef3pRwANKa6L2I9_AVHVVzttoT0PftwNUFJRJE5a_FNEyAmvzaBl9Zx929QbWjMMoG9KRsiBa6wQt0EwnG4pg==&c=50CrHwGW14XGwuhMHA9lfAQ8dGD7CwpRQYLn9bkVqUmTzNkJhLEqAA==&ch=DXD4ZXzVHIE2jJCpe7fc2RbkPv8kEhJtYOBIFvrCBI6u3VCsG82JmA==

Great Falls Development Authority, Inc., 300 Central Avenue, Suite 406, Great Falls, MT 59401, Mailing Address: PO Box 949, Great Falls, MT 59403
Frontier Angels http://www.frontierangels.com/ is re-launching as a group of 100+ individual angel investors across the state of MT who gather 6-8x annually in Bozeman, Missoula, and Billings to see emerging technology companies pitch and consider making investments. This group also invests time and money in strategic program initiatives to help accelerate the growth of the tech ecosystem in Montana. They are in the forefront of the future economic growth of Montana.

Investment Focus:

The group concentrates on emerging technology companies in software, devices, biotech, ag-tech, energy tech, and other sectors providing technology-leveraged gross margins. Seed and A-round capital stage will be the primary focus. Companies will initially be sourced from the greater PacNW and Rockies region, with particular emphasis on Montana firms. Over time, the group hopes to see quality Montana companies become 100% of the focus.

How it Works

Individual members pick and choose the opportunities they wish to invest in  as little as $5k or as much as $500k, and are free to form advisory or Board relationships with companies they meet. Individuals can also diversify their investments more broadly by participating in an optional Matching Fund which will programmatically invest in 30-50 early-stage companies over approximately 3 years.

Community Focus

The group concentrates both capital and experience around a focused set of foundational programs designed to help accelerate the commercial viability of quality technology companies in Montana. The primary mission is to help to create clean, high-paying jobs in our Montana communities while making smart investments. They are also making a very concerted effort to attract more women to angel investing in Montana since studies have consistently shown that the presence of women as investors leads to more female entrepreneurs coming forward for investment.

Partnerships

Frontier Angels works with MSU and UM, TechLink, the Department of Commerce, The Governors Office of Economic Development, Montech, and Blackstone Launchpads, to continue to conceive and commercialize technology in Montana. They also partner closely with Next Frontier Capital to ensure emerging companies have a clear path to continue their access to growth capital.

Membership

Membership is open to Accredited Investors https://www.sec.gov/files/ib_accreditedinvestors.pdf For more information, contact Pat LaPointe [email protected] or see the new Frontier Angels website http://www.frontierangels.com/

Stay tunes for stories from current Angels about the community of investors and how its contributing to a more successful Montana.

________________________
It is well documented: Women are starting businesses at record levels, with the ideas, skills and talents to build great companies. But like all early-stage entrepreneurs, they need capital to fuel their growth. Golden Seeds, one of the nations largest and most active investment groups, focuses squarely on this high-potential segment.

Our investment thesis rests on the extensive research that concludes that gender diverse teams produce better return on equity. By seeking companies where women hold leadership positions and own substantial equity, we are funding companies that are likely to have diverse perspectives that will contribute to ultimate success.

More: http://www.goldenseeds.com/
Paid parental leave may soon be available for Helenas city employees following discussion and spoken support from the city commissioners on Wednesday.

Commissioner Rob Farris-Olsen instigated research into the initiative which could provide paid time off for new parents in a variety of situations. Based on preliminary cost estimates provided by the human resources department, the plan gained support from all four commissioners and Mayor Jim Smith.

MATT NEUMAN [email protected]

Full Story: http://helenair.com/news/local/helena-considers-paid-family-leave-for-city-employees/article_29e71dd4-b67f-5c50-a330-97f8d564cb8f.html
Lieutenant Governor Mike Cooney and Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote Thursday joined the Small Business Administration (SBA), southeastern Montana economic development organizations, and higher education communities to celebrate the grand opening of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Miles Community College (MCC).

"Southeastern Montana is a great place to do business, and the partnership between the Small Business Development Center and Miles Community College ensures the region will continue to support our states entrepreneurs as the start and grow businesses and create more jobs," said Lt. Governor Cooney

Full Story: http://commerce.mt.gov/News/PressReleases/lt-governor-cooney-commerce-director-celebrate-grand-opening-of-the-miles-community-college-small-business-development-center
For three years, a team of highly trained volunteers from the public and private sector has been standing by in Michigan, ready to spring into action and provide technical assistance if the state gets hit by a massive cyberattack.

By Jenni Bergal

Full Story: http://www.governing.com/topics/mgmt/sl-cybersecurity-volunteers.html
A Madison man has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for creating false income tax returns that netted him nearly a half-million dollars over about five years.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson on Thursday sentenced Juan Tamez Diaz, 41, to a two-year sentence for tax fraud, followed by another two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft for a scheme that prosecutors said Tamez Diaz carried out January 2009 and May 2015.

Prosecutors said that during that time, Tamez Diaz used names, Social Security numbers and Individual Taxpayer Identification numbers, along with employer information from six companies, to create fake W-2 forms, then prepared and filed false income tax returns using tax preparation software.

Some of the returns were filed in his own name, while others were filed using stolen identities, prosecutors said.

He filed about 130 tax returns seeking refunds of about $588,000, and received $462,038 of that. Peterson ordered him to pay that money back.

Conspiracy claimed

According to a defense sentencing memorandum, Tamez Diaz told investigators that he worked with others as part of a conspiracy, but investigators were not able to find any of those people or verify much of the information that Tamez Diaz had provided.

His lawyer, Mark Maciolek, pointed out that most of the money was wired to a place in Mexico, where he said there must have been someone to receive it.

If he had access to the $460,000 stolen from the government, it would make logical sense for him to leave Wisconsin and relocate to wherever that money is stored, Maciolek wrote, adding that Tamez Diaz has instead remained in the state.

In a news release about the sentencing, prosecutors noted that Peterson didnt believe Tamez Diazs claim that he was a minor player in a criminal scheme.

Tamez Diaz, who has been free while the case was pending and has been receiving treatments for a kidney condition, was ordered to report to prison on Aug. 31.
North Korea recently launched a missile that appears to be capable of hitting targets in the U.S. mainland, including Chicago. Pyongyang says that Washington should regard the launch as a grave warning.

No argument there.

This sobering development comes years earlier than many experts had predicted. The upshot: The U.S. policy of strategic patience  waiting for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to come to his senses and the bargaining table  is officially over.

President Donald Trump needs a far more muscular policy than his predecessors, pronto. What will that be?

So far, theres been talk of shooting down North Korean test missiles as a warning. But that could provoke Pyongyang to rain massive conventional retaliation on Seoul. Bad sequence. Theres been smarter talk of amping up the U.S. cyber campaign to send the North Korean missile program into a tailspin, much as the United States did against Irans nascent nuclear program. But we hope that effort is already happening.

And the United States also is moving to impose economic sanctions against Chinese banks and businesses for trading with North Korea. Lets hope there is much more of that to come.

What hasnt worked yet: haranguing China, Pyongyangs major trading partner and ally, to do more to rein in the outlaw Kim regime. As President Trump rightly tweeted about China, they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk.

Cut to Americas recent display of military prowess: Two supersonic B-1 bombers streaked over the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japan and South Korea. U.S. forces also demonstrated the effectiveness of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), which detected, tracked and intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile launched from Alaska.

All this posturing is directed not only at Kim Jong Un, but also the leaders of China and their What, us worry? attitude.

The last thing China wants is U.S. supersonic bombers roaring close to its borders. The last thing China wants is a potent demonstration of how the United States can knock down missiles before they reach the American mainland.

The last thing China wants is Japan and South Korea seriously mulling whether they should go nuclear to defend themselves. Both countries are believed to be capable of jump-starting a nuclear program on short notice. But at the moment, both countries rely on U.S. nuclear deterrence for their security.

The big question: Can North Korea be deterred, just as the Soviet Union and China were? In other words, do the North Koreans believe the United States will retaliate, possibly with nukes, if North Korea attacks Japan or Seoul? The greater the doubt, the greater the risk that North Korea will make a first strike.

All of this is unsettling and happening in Chinas neighborhood. And as any businessman will tell you, rising tensions and threats of war arent good for business.

China has a choice. It can help defuse the situation by choking off its energy trade with North Korea. It can make Kim Jong Un and his elites go without their favorite cognac and fancy cars. China can yank hard on the Norths economic lifeline and help inform average North Korean citizens that they could live far better lives without the Kim regime and its brand of leader-take-all communism. Just look south.

Beijing, the choice is yours. Every North Korean missile launch brings confrontation closer.
Saturday marked five years since a white supremacist walked into a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek and murdered six innocent people who were preparing food. The shooters history made clear that while he probably hated the victims for simply having brown skin, he was also motivated to kill what he thought were Muslims.

The fear and anger he felt stemmed from ignorance of the communities he targeted. Its a natural human reaction: unfamiliar things tend to provoke basic caution, and that caution can eventually morph into outright hatred. This is excellent programming for our ancestors avoiding sharp-toothed predators on the savannah a million years ago; less so for a fast-paced, globalized world where we encounter unfamiliarity on a daily basis.

Such deadly ignorance is far from unique, unfortunately. Balbir Singh Sodhi, another Sikh American, was shot to death days after the 9/11 attacks by a man who mistook him for the monsters who knocked down the World Trade Center. Khalid Jabara was murdered last August by his next-door neighbor, a man who missed no chance to refer to the Jabaras as filthy Mooslems. But Khalid Jabara was a Lebanese Christian. And on the eve of Passover in 2014, a well-known white supremacist and anti-Semite traveled to two Jewish community centers in Kansas on a mission to murder Jews. He killed three people  a Catholic and two Methodists, one of whom was only 14 years old.

We appear to be in an era where ignorance of the world outside our immediate experience can be claimed as a badge of courage and wielded like a cudgel to craft bad policy. It affects our society deeply. In the past year, ignorance of the other has led to Jewish cemetery desecrations, mosque vandalism, assaults on Sikhs, and a host of other dangerously xenophobic reactions.

But xenophobia isnt exactly the right word here. The prefix xeno comes from the Greek denoting something foreign. Khalid Jabara wasnt foreign. His parents fled a civil war to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the early 1980s and open a catering business. Balbir Singh Sodhi drove taxis for years before saving enough pennies to buy a gas station, and he was shot while planting flowers to beautify the property. The Sikhs in Oak Creek were preparing the equivalent of a soup kitchen: langar, a communal vegetarian meal that is served to anyone regardless of their religion. All those people were doing normal things integral to the American Dream.

The irrational phobias that we carry of non-white or non-Christian people are predicated on ignorance of our history. The United States has had diversity baked into its DNA from the get-go. We havent always been good at embracing pluralism, but the vision of a melting pot, in which diverse peoples and cultures each make unique contributions to the whole, has guided middle school social studies classes for a long time. Its why dozens of civil society organizations have spent the past year and a half extending the Know Your Neighbor Campaign to every state in the country to build or strengthen basic relationships.

When we give up on learning about those outside our bubble, we do ourselves a great disservice. When we neglect to reach across lines of difference, we weaken the already taut social fabric of our country. When we let ignorance dictate our interactions, we doom ourselves to repeat the same mistakes.

Its been five years since Oak Creek. Sixteen since the global war on terror. Seventy-five since Japanese internment. One hundred and thirty-five since the Chinese Exclusion Act. One hundred and eighty-seven since the Trail of Tears. Four hundred since Europe tore itself to shreds over which kind of Christian had a monopoly on divine truth.

And only half a year since we banned refugees from our shores, as if to say, Your situation is impossible for me to understand. Please stay in a war zone. Fear kills. Ignorance feeds it.

So visit a Sikh gurdwara in your community. Say hello. Ask questions. Experience the unfamiliar and find out that its not so different after all. And be sure to bring an empty stomach because theyre going to pack you full of food  and if your heart is open, theyll fill that too. #America.
Marcus Gunn pupil is a rare condition that affects the eyes, causing each to respond differently when a light is shone into them. This response indicates that there is dysfunction or disease in the optic nerve or retina. It is a type of relative afferent pupil defect (RAPD). After being exposed to a bright light, a normal pupil will constrict or become smaller. A Marcus Gunn pupil, on the other hand, continues to dilate, and a persons two pupils become different sizes. A person with Marcus Gunn pupil on its own is not at any risk, but the condition can signal other eye problems that may need to be treated.

Symptoms and types Share on Pinterest With Marcus Gunn pupil, the pupils may not react as expected to light or in the same way as one another. Marcus Gunn pupil is named after Robert Marcus Gunn, a Scottish ophthalmologist from the 1800s. Someone with Marcus Gunn pupil may complain of visual impairment in one eye. A doctor will need to determine whether the discrepancy is caused by Marcus Gunn pupil or by a cataract or other non-RAPD related condition. There are different types of RAPD, as well as non-RAPD conditions that can cause symptoms of Marcus Gunn pupil: No RAPD : There are some other conditions , such as hippus (fluctuation in pupil size) and non-reactive pupils, that can make spotting RAPD difficult.

: There are some , such as hippus (fluctuation in pupil size) and non-reactive pupils, that can make spotting RAPD difficult. Mild RAPD : The affected pupil shows a weak initial constriction, before dilating to a larger size.

: The affected pupil shows a weak initial constriction, before dilating to a larger size. Moderate RAPD : The affected pupil shows a stable or unchanged level of constriction, before dilating to a larger size.

: The affected pupil shows a stable or unchanged level of constriction, before dilating to a larger size. Severe RAPD: The affected pupil dilates to a larger size immediately.

Causes Share on Pinterest An affected pupil that dilates immediately when exposed to bright light may indicate severe RAPD. There are many causes of Marcus Gunn pupil, including: unilateral optic neuropathy, usually causing loss of vision

optic neuritis

severe glaucoma, which can damage the optic nerve

traumatic optic neuropathy, including direct ocular trauma, orbital trauma, and head injuries that damage the optic nerve

an optic nerve tumor, which is rare

orbital diseases, such as compressive damage to the optic nerve from thyroid-related orbitopathy, orbital tumors, or vascular malformations

optic atrophy, or degeneration of the optic nerve

optic nerve infections or inflammation

severe ischemic retinal disease, such as ischemic central retinal vein occlusion, central retinal artery occlusion, or sickle-cell retinopathy

retinal detachment

severe unilateral macular degeneration

retinal infection

severe lazy eye, otherwise called amblyopia

Diagnosis When a light is shone into a normal functioning eye, both the left and right eyes should constrict equally, as they are linked. This is called consensual light reflex, and the test is commonly known as the Marcus Gunn test, or the swinging flashlight test. Pupils react to light being shone into them in this way because of the light reflex pathway, which is split into two parts : The afferent pathway : The pupil sends messages to the brain along the optic nerve.

: The pupil sends messages to the brain along the optic nerve. The efferent pathway: The message is sent back from the brain to the pupils via nerves, which causes the pupils to constrict. The light test involves an eye doctor shining a bright and narrow beam of light into the eyes in a semi-darkened room. The doctor will hold the light in front of one eye for about 3 seconds and then move it to the other eye. When a light is shone into an eye that has Marcus Gunn pupil, it will not constrict as much as an unaffected eye, signaling that there is a problem. A person is often unaware they have Marcus Gunn pupil until a doctor performs the swinging flashlight test. The discovery can alert the doctor to an underlying condition.
New research from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom investigates the way in which cancer takes over certain cell types and uses them as a life support. Finding a way to target these turncoat cells could help to reduce a tumors success. Share on Pinterest Fibroblasts (shown here) may offer a new way to approach cancer treatment. One of the many reasons that cancer is so difficult to treat is its ability to hijack normal cellular components and switch them from useful to deadly. Cancer can therefore turn vital, natural cell types against the body. As Dr. Aine McCarthy, Cancer Research UKs senior science information officer, says, Some cancers are incredibly difficult to treat and can use the bodys own cells to help them grow, evade treatment, and spread around the body. Researchers have been trying to unlock the secrets behind this for many years. The findings of the most recent study in this field, carried out by researchers at the University of Southampton, are published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. An example of the repurposing of the bodys biological mechanisms involves fibroblasts. Normally, these cells make a range of products, such as collagen and elastic fibers, helping to fix organs and cells together. However, cancer can utilize these cells for its own purpose, turning them into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs).

Investigating cancer-associated fibroblasts CAFs support a tumor as it grows and can help it spread. Earlier studies carried out at the University of Southampton have demonstrated that increased CAF levels are associated with poorer survival rates in a number of cancers, including bowel and head and neck cancers. They have also shown that CAFs protect cancer cells from chemotherapy and suppress the immune systems anti-cancer response. The relationship between CAF levels and survival could make them a potential target for pharmacological intervention. To date, however, attempts to interact with them have been unsuccessful. Medical News Today spoke with lead researcher Prof. Gareth Thomas, who is chair of experimental pathology at the University of Southampton. He told us about his previous research into CAFs in a range of cancer types. I think what surprised us was the fact that there is a common mechanism that regulates the formation of CAFs in multiple cancer types. [] This common mechanism suggests that we can adopt a similar strategy for targeting the cells in different types of cancer.

Interrupting CAFs Recently, Prof. Thomas and his team embarked on a new project looking at the potential of a specific enzyme, called NOX4, to interrupt CAFs. This enzyme is essential for the conversion of fibroblasts into CAFs. The team demonstrated that by blocking NOX4, the size of tumors in mice was reduced by up to 50 percent . The drug that blocks NOX4 is currently being developed to treat organ fibrosis, which is a condition characterized by the formation of excessive fibrous connective tissue. If follow-up studies go well, it might be a useful medication to be taken alongside existing cancer treatments. By looking at many types of cancer, we have identified a common mechanism responsible for CAF formation in tumors. These cells make cancers aggressive and difficult to treat, and we can see exciting possibilities for targeting CAFs in many patients who dont respond well to existing therapies. Prof. Gareth Thomas
Spotify Could Be Forced To Pay Songwriters $345 Million

Spotify was recently hit with a lawsuit for $345 million plus after its failure to fork over cash on mechanical licenses for the Bluewater Music Services Corp. This is, however, by no means the first time Spotify has been hit with such a suit.

________________________________

Erin M. Jacobson Esq. of Guest post byof The Music Industry Lawyer

This article was previously published on Forbes.com

When you stream music on Spotify, are you aware that as you are enjoying your favorite song, Spotify might not be paying the person who wrote that song?

Spotify has been sued for upwards of $345 million by Bob Gaudio and Bluewater Music Services Corporation for failure to pay mechanical licenses when their compositions are streamed on Spotify. Gaudio, a former member of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, wrote and publishes some of the groups biggest hits including Sherry, Big Girls Dont Cry, and Walk Like a Man, as well as Vallis solo hit Cant Take My Eyes Off of You. Bluewater administers the publishing for compositions like Player's Baby Come Back, Miranda Lamberts White Liar, and Guns N Roses Yesterdays.

Streaming requires several licenses sound recording licenses from the record labels; performance licenses for the compositions from performance rights organizations such as ASCAP and BMI; and mechanical licenses for the reproduction of the compositions. While Spotify has deals with the major labels, and blanket licenses with ASCAP and BMI, Spotify has not complied with the requirements for mechanical licenses and payments for all compositions streamed on its platform. Obtaining a mechanical license in the United States is compulsory, meaning that a person or company wishing to reproduce a composition must follow the guidelines in Section 115 of the United States Copyright Act to serve a Notice of Intent on the copyright owner and pay said owner the compulsory license fee. Spotify has followed this procedure for compositions affiliated with the Harry Fox Agency (the closest body the United States has to a mechanical rights society), but there are many compositions not affiliated with the Harry Fox Agency that Spotify would need to contact and pay directly  and Spotify largely has not done so.

This is not the first time Spotify has come under fire for its inadequate licensing practices. In 2016, Spotify reached a $30 million dollar settlement with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) for unpaid mechanical royalties, and Spotify just settled another class action suit for $43.4 million dollars. While maximum statutory damages rates are $150,000 per infringed composition, Bluewater claims that Spotify will only have to pay songwriters $4 per infringed composition after litigation fees are paid. Per the previous settlements, Spotify must also implement a better system to properly track and pay mechanical royalties, and Bluewater asserts this has not yet happened.

The attorney for both Gaudio and Bluewater is Richard S. Busch, most recently in the news for his representation of Marvin Gayes estate in the Blurred Lines case. Echoing my previous sentiments, a press release citing Buschs complaint sums up the issue in a single sentence: Songwriters and publishers should not have to work this hard to get paid or have their lifes work properly licensed, and companies should not be allowed to build businessesmuch less billion-dollar businesseson the concept of infringe now and ask questions later.

*This article does not constitute legal advice.

Erin M. Jacobson is a music attorney whose clients include Grammy and Emmy Award winners, legacy clients and catalogs, songwriters, music publishers, record labels, and independent artists and companies. She is based in Los Angeles where she handles a wide variety of music agreements and negotiations, in addition to owning and overseeing all operations for Indie Artist Resource, the independent musicians resource for legal and business protection. Ms. Jacobson also serves on the boards of the California Copyright Conference (CCC) and Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP).

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Lindsey Hopkins et al. American Psychological Association (APA). "Yoga effective at reducing symptoms of depression." August (2017).

Hatha yoga is a branch of yoga, which emphasizes on physical exercises, along with meditative and breathing exercises to enhance overall well-being of the individual. The acceptability and antidepressant effects of hatha yoga have been observed by Hopkins' research team.About 23 male veterans participated in this study and attended yoga classes twice a week for eight weeks. On a scale of 1-10, the average enjoyment rating for the yoga classes was found to be 9.4 for these veterans.More importantly, participants with elevated depression scores before the yoga program had a significant reduction in depression symptoms after the eight weeks.Veterans who had elevated depression scores before starting the yoga program, showed signs of reduction in depression symptoms at the end of eight weeks.Another version of hatha yoga that is commonly practiced in the West is Bikram yoga or Heated yoga. About 52 women in the age group of 25 and 45 who practice Bikram yoga were investigated by Sarah Shallit, MA, of Alliant University in San Francisco.More than half veterans who participated in the study were asked to take part in the yoga program twice a week for eight weeks and the rest were wait-listed and were included in the control group.At the very beginning of this study, all the participants were tested for depression levels and later after three weeks, then six and nine.The symptoms of depression were found to reduce in participants who practiced Bikram yoga for eight weeks, when compared with the control group, revealed Shallit and her co-author Hopkins.In the same session, the data from a pilot study was presented by Maren Nyer, PhD, and Maya Nauphal, BA, of Massachusetts General Hospital. In this pilot study, 29 adults have also showed that practicing Bikram yoga twice a week for eight weeks significantly reduced depression symptoms. It was also found that it improved quality of life, optimism, and cognitive and physical functioning.Nyer, who currently has funding from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health to conduct a randomized controlled trial of Bikram yoga for individuals with depression said that as the number of participants who attended yoga classes increased, the symptoms of depression lowered in the participants at the end of the study.The data from two studies were presented at a meeting elsewhere on the potential for yoga to address chronic and/or treatment-resistant depression by Nina Vollbehr, MS, of the Center for Integrative Psychiatry in the Netherlands.In the first study, 12 patients participated in nine weekly yoga sessions for about 2.5 hours each. These patients who took part in the study have experienced depression for an average of 11 years.The levels of depression, anxiety, stress, rumination and worry were measured by the research team in all the participants before the yoga sessions, directly after nine weeks and later after four months.Throughout the program, the scores for depression, anxiety and stress have significantly decreased, which is a benefit that lasted even after four months of training.Two things that did not change immediately after treatment were rumination and worry. However, at follow up session it was found that rumination and worry were decreased significantly in the participants.In another study, yoga has been controlled to a relaxation technique, where 74 mildly depressed university students were involved lead by Vollbehr and her colleagues.Participants received 30 minutes of live instruction on either yoga or on the relaxation technique. They were asked to repeat the same exercise for eight days at home, using a 15-minute instructional video.The results taken immediately after the treatment showed that yoga and relaxation technique used were equally effective at reducing symptoms. But two months later, it was found that the participants in the yoga group had lower scores for depression, anxiety and stress, when compared with the relaxation group.Vollbehr said that all these studies show that the yoga-based interventions have promising results for reducing symptoms of depression and is also feasible for patients with chronic, treatment-resistant depression.U.S. military is investigating the creation of its own treatment programs on the concept of yoga as complementary or alternative mental health treatment.Outlining a standardized, six-week yoga treatment for U.S. military veterans enrolled in behavioral health services at the university-run clinic was presented by Jacob Hyde, PsyD, of the University of Denver.The results found could be expanded for use by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.The research on yoga as a treatment for depression is still in the preliminary stage, noted Hopkins.Hopkins said: "At this time, we can only recommend yoga as a complementary approach, likely most effective in conjunction with standard approaches delivered by a licensed therapist. Clearly, yoga is not a cure-all. However, based on empirical evidence, there seems to be a lot of potential."Source: Medindia
Kangana Ranaut's nepotism remark had hit a raw nerve among the who's who of Bollywood. It's an open secret in the film industry that hasn't exactly been too kind to outsiders. Yet, the blue blood of Bollywood refused to let the remark go down with grace. What followed was outright denial, then petty ridicule (in the form of punny jokes at the IIFA awards) and later an open letter justifying nepotism as natural selection.

 Youtube

Just when we thought there was no one in the industry who would own up to it and call a spade a spade, actor Emraan Hashmi spoke up. The actor who is the nephew of Mahesh Bhatt, has always been forthright and honest in an industry where diplomacy is taken as a morning pill. We have always admired Emraan for his lack of pretence and his transparent interviews.

In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, the actor confessed that nepotism exists in the industry and was the reason why he could get his first break in Bollywood, thanks to his uncle Mahesh Bhatt. Yes, nepotism exists in our industry, and I got a break because of it. If my uncle, who is a producer and director hadn't been there, I wouldn't have been an actor.

 Hotstar

The actor had no qualms in accepting that having godfathers in the industry makes it a lot easier to penetrate the cold hard fabric of the close-knit industry, I wouldn't push my seven-year-old son, Ayaan, now into Bollywood. But tomorrow, if he wants to become an actor, it will be a lot easier for him because his father is an actor and producer.

And, of course, there's a downside to it too and Emraan is well aware of that. The industry will try to box my son into an image that his father had and completely snatch away his individuality. They won't let him start afresh, like an outsider.

 Instagram

Finally, someone who had the guts to face the truth and say it out loud, without being self-defensive or dismissive, and without jumping to justifications about how hard work is necessary too. It takes a person who is confident in his own skin to own up to something like that. Emraan is an immensely talented actor and has given us some real powerful roles. Grounded and brutally honest, that's the Emraan we look up to, just like most of his roles.
CASS CITY -- The Cass City Village Council called a special meeting this week regarding the recent hire of a new city manager.

"The meeting was to rescind their conditional offer to hire Ted Andrzejewski," said Cass City Interim Manager Lou LaPonsie. "The vote was unanimous."

During the last village meeting, several audience members and Trustee Tom Heron spoke against hiring Andrzejewski after some negative newspaper articles were found.

In July, the council approved hiring Andrzejewski, pending a background check by the Michigan Municipal League (MML), which was the agency hired to assist with the search.

The background check was completed by MML and submitted to the council's personnel committee.

Although the village attorney extended the timeline to respond to a Freedom on Information Act (FOIA) request from the Huron Daily Tribune to receive the background check document, several sections of the document check were read during a village meeting earlier this week. Most of what was read in public was positive.

"After they rescinded their offer, they set a special meeting for Monday, 7 p.m., about seeking another manager," said LaPonsie. "I'm not sure if they will go back to the candidates they had interviewed before or not. A representative from MML will be at the meeting."
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...
Three Marines are missing after a Marine Corps V-22 Osprey experienced a mishap off the East Coast of Australia, officials with III Marine Expeditionary Force said Saturday morning in a news release.

A spokesman for III MEF, Capt. Eric Flanagan, said the mishap took place around 4 p.m. local time Saturday, or about 2 a.m. East Coast time. There were 26 personnel aboard the Osprey; 23 so far have been rescued, and a search-and-rescue effort continues for three Marines who have not been located.

The aircraft was assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 (reinforced), out of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Japan. In April, VMM-265 became the aviation combat element of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is continuously deployed in the Pacific.

"The aircraft involved in the mishap had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when the aircraft entered the water," Flanagan said in a statement.

"The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts. The 31st MEU is currently operating with the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group as part of a regularly-scheduled deployment in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region," he said.

The mishap is under investigation, Flanagan said, and search operations are ongoing.

The Marine Corps also participates in rotational unit training deployments to Australia, known as Marine Rotational Force-Darwin, or MRF-D. However, in a message posted to the unit's Facebook account Saturday, MRF-D officials said no troops assigned to the rotation were involved in the V-22 incident.

For the Marine Corps, this is the second major aviation mishap of the summer. In July, a KC-130T transport aircraft crashed in Mississippi, resulting in the deaths of the plane's nine crew members and seven troops assigned to Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

The last time a Marine Corps V-22 Osprey experienced a mishap was in December 2016, when a V-22 attempted a precautionary emergency landing off the coast of Okinawa, but crash-landed in shallow water instead. Members of the five-person crew were injured, but all survived the mishap.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
[August 04, 2017] Canadians deserve affordable, high-quality wireless service with dependable coverage in town and out

Consultation launched for 600 MHz spectrum auction to support high-quality networks and business opportunities for all regions OTTAWA, Aug. 4, 2017 /CNW/ - The surging popularity of smart phones is fuelling increased consumer demand for quality wireless mobile services from telecommunication service providers. In remarks delivered at the Canadian Telecom Summit in early June, the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, highlighted the Government of Canada's commitment to encouraging the advancement of telecommunication services by focusing on the three things that matter most to Canadian families and businesses: high-quality networks, broad-reaching coverage and affordable prices. The Government is following up with the launch of a consultation on proposals to auction spectrum. The 600 MHz auction will improve wireless mobile services in both rural communities and urban centres. Minister Bains announced the consultation today, signalling that the Government looks forward to hearing from interested Canadians, as well as telecommunication service providers and consumer groups. He added that Canadians need improved wireless service to participte in the digital economy, expand their businesses and learn new skills, which create new opportunities and build stronger communities.



Low band spectrum, such as the 600 MHz band, is well suited to carrying signals over long distances. It is also less affected by building structures than higher frequency bands, making it ideal for next-generation wireless services in both urban and rural settings. By increasing access to spectrum for mobile services, the Government is also supporting future economic and creative breakthroughs that will position Canada as a global centre for innovation and create more jobs and business opportunities.

Quote "When it comes to telecommunications, Canadian consumers deserve the very best. At a time when middle-class Canadians are concerned about both the availability and the rising cost of these services, our government will encourage more private sector competition and investment in services that have become essential in a digital economy. Making this spectrum available for commercial mobile services has the potential to benefit millions of Canadians in both urban and rural areas. Canadians deserve improved coverage, service quality and affordability, as well as the economic benefits and opportunities for all regions of the country provided by increased access to wireless spectrum for mobile services."

 The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Quick facts Through this consultation, the Government is proposing measures to support competition and encourage investment in wireless services.

Interested parties will have until October 2, 2017 , to comment on the proposals outlined in the Government of Canada's consultation paper.

, to comment on the proposals outlined in the Government of consultation paper. Canada's networks rank second among those of G7 countries for average wireless connection speeds. Follow Minister Bains on Twitter: @MinisterISED SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

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On August 25, 2003, an Air Deccan plane made the short flight from Bangalore to Mangalore. It was the christening of Indias first low-cost airline.

Until then, travelling by air was a privilege enjoyed by the elite. But Air Deccan opened up the skies to a new set of travellers  Indias burgeoning middle class.

Among other operational tweaks, its "no-frills" service helped the airline price tickets more than 25 percent cheaper than the competition and only a tad more than the most expensive train ticket. As a result, even the aam aadmi could think about spreading his wings and an entire generation of Indians experienced flying for the first time.

Air Deccan eventually crashed and burned, but 14 years on, the concept of low-cost air travel is still flourishing in India. Budget carrier SpiceJet is currently the worlds best aviation stock, while rival IndiGo earlier this week posted the highest-ever quarterly profit by an Indian airline.

While these airlines have certainly charted their own routes to success, they learnt many of the tricks of the trade from an unlikely source: Iceland.

And decades before middle-class Indian families took flight for the first time, another set of unlikely fliers felt butterflies in their stomachs as they lifted off the tarmac.

The hippies of America were predominantly middle-class youth who lived off little money in shabby apartments. They had no savings or steady jobs, but still managed to travel east to Europe, the Middle East and even to India, where they made bell-bottoms fashionable and inspired Bollywood to produce songs such as Dum Maaro Dum.

But how did these flower children from America manage to cross the Atlantic?

In the 1960s, high operational costs and regulations made flying  especially across the Atlantic Ocean  an expensive affair. In 1965, eight out of ten Americans had never sat on a plane. But despite their relatively empty pockets, the hippies found an airline to ferry them across to Europe and beyond.

Enter Loftleioir (pronounced Loftlader).

A tiny airline from tiny Iceland with just four aircraft, Loftleioir was only flying 5,000 passengers a year in 1953. But then genius struck.

Airfares were heavily regulated by the International Air Transport Association. Most airlines in the world were members of this body, but Loftleioir was not. It took advantage of this position and offered flights to Europe at fares that were 35 percent less than the competition, making it the worlds first low-cost airline in 1955.

Apart from cheaper fares, the airline also creatively cut costs. Their rivals flew jets while Loftleioir used older turbo-prop engines. Their rivals divided their passengers between business and economy while Loftleioir put passengers into a single class, which meant they could fit more seats (just like Air Deccan). The luggage racks were used as beds for children (unlike Air Deccan).

But service was one area where Loftleioir, unlike their modern counterparts, did not compromise. Passengers received full-course meals, along with wine, coffee and cognac. Even after running into rough weather on the financial front, the airline continued to pride itself on its service.

The airline dodged regulations by essentially operating one route from the US to Europe: New York  Reykjavik  Luxembourg (the heart of Europe). The transatlantic service started with a sole aircraft. But soon, Loftleioir was flying that route three times a week and eventually three times a day.

A perfect match

The airline was known as the grandmother of low fares. The nickname was not only because they were the first airline to offer cheap transatlantic fares, but also because their flights were considerably slower and rarely punctual, taking 10-12 hours to reach Europe. And the company embraced that fact, according to Hans Indridason, the airlines head of marketing in the 1960s.  Were slow but were low , was the airlines advertised slogan.

Business grew steadily and the airline carried 40,000 passengers  mostly middle-class families - in 1960 alone. And then came the boom.

As it turned out, Loftleioirs cheap fares and chosen route was the perfect match for the bohemian generation of the decade that was eager to explore the world on a budget. Over time, Loftleioir became known as the Hippie Express.

The airline not only flew hippies but also appropriated their culture. While smoking was allowed on planes in those days, the staff recall the whiff of marijuana interspersed with the smell of tobacco. Some of the passengers even took out their guitars, triggering an impromptu concert in the sky.

At its peak in the early 1970s, Loftleioir was flying nearly 72,000 passengers a year. An energy crisis forced Icelands government to merge it with another airline, eventually renaming it Icelandair. But Loftleioir had made its mark. It spawned several other low-cost carriers across the world such as Laker Airways, Southwest and Ryanair, making low-cost travel mainstream. And then at the start of the new millennium, Captain Gopinath got India to join the club.
Source: CPR website

Rajiv Kumar, a leading economist and former secretary general of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), will take over as the new Vice-Chairman of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, the governments go-to policy think tank.

Kumar, a former CEO of Delhi-based think-tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), will replace Arvind Panagariya, who will return to teaching at Columbia University after his term ends later this month.

Kumar is currently the founding director of Pahle India Foundation, a non-profit research organisation that specialises in policy-oriented research and analysis. He is also chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune.

Until January this year, he was a senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research (CPR), and is widely regarded for his work in the areas of Indias economy and national security.

He has a D.Phil. in Economics from Oxford University and a Ph.D from Lucknow University.

Before coming to CPR, he was Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He has also served as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), as well as in positions with the Asian Development Bank, the Indian Ministry of Industries, and the Ministry of Finance.

His latest books are: Modi & His Challenges (2016), Resurgent India: Ideas and Priorities (2015) and Exploding Aspirations: Unlocking India's Future (2014).

Kumar will take over as the second Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog. Panagariya will demit office on August 31 at the nascent institution that was set up in January 2015 replacing the erstwhile Planning Commission, bringing the curtains down on the 64-year old institution founded on the former Soviet Union's command-style development model.

The NITI Aayog is currently drafting a 15-year long-term plan, which will replace the practice of five-year plans. The five-year plan system will be discontinued after the end of the 12th five year plan in 2017, ending six-decade old policy framework inspired by the Gosplan-aided industrialisation of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Kumar will also likely head the NITI Aayog panel that is modernising Indias labour data to give a more realistic picture about the jobs market in an economy characterised by a large informal sector.

Kumar concurrently serves as a government-nominated independent director on Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India, a member of the International Board of Management of King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Riyadh; director, Institute of Human Development, Delhi; director, Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow; independent director on the Board of DHFL; and member, Advisory Board of CISCO, India.

In the past, he served as the Indian governments nominee on the boards of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and Asia (ERIA) Jakarta; Central Board of the State Bank of India (SBI), Mumbai; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi; Part Time Member, National Security Advisory Board (2006-2008); and Part Time Member Economics, TRAI, New Delhi (2007-2010).
If you are among those who habitually file your income tax returns on the last day, here is a reminder: the deadline for e-filing tax returns (ITR) expires on August 5, 2017.

If you have all the necessary documents, including your Form-16 with you, dont dither this time around and take advantage of the 5-day extension given by the government. Try to efile your returns well within the stipulated deadline to avoid penalties and future problems with the tax department. In our story, we tell you the adverse fallouts of not filing your ITR on time.

During the week the Reserve Bank of India decided to reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6 per cent. The move is likely to lead to a further cut in the lending rates, especially home and car loans, by banks.

As we tell you in our story the impact of the rate cut, financial sector experts believe that consumers are in for a good time with EMIs likely to come down and lenders likely to come up with festive season offers on loan rates in the ensuing months.

Home loan rates could come down to around 8.2 percent per annum on an average. So, the new borrowers can expect EMIs to come down and which would also cut down the interest outgo over the loan tenure. Banks may come also up with promotional offers till festival season to attract more customers, Rishi Mehra, CEO of Wishfin.com said.

On the investment front, stock markets are at their all-time high and it is best to take exposure through mutual funds to reduce risk in your portfolio. Also, investing in mutual funds is one of the best ways to create wealth over a period of time.

However, mutual funds come in various types and categories that suit different investment needs. In case you are unsure of which type of fund to choose from the vast array available, read our story.

If you are a young investor in mutual fund, the perspective should be different from the rest of the investors. Young investors in their 20s or 30s can take the benefit of rolling returns while investing money for a longer period of time in mutual fund schemes.

We tell you here the five things which young investors should keep in mind before investing in mutual fund schemes. From young to those nearing retirement.

If you are close to retirement, your investment choices also need to change with time. In our story we tell you the main asset classes in which you should invest your corpus to ensure safety along with decent monthly returns that would replace your income.

To sum up, let us see a procedural but important tip. Here is how you can get your consolidated mutual fund statement.
Investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala poses for a picture at a balcony overlooking Mumbai's financial district June 8, 2012. India's best known stock investor, billionaire Jhunjhunwala, doesn't much like the moniker of 'India's Warren Buffett'. Much like the famed Omaha investor, Jhunjhunwala has made a fortune from some savvy investments - Forbes magazine puts his net worth at $1.1 billion, ranking him 41st on India's rich list - but the similarities end there. Picture taken June 8, 2012. Image: REUTERS

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The big bull of D-Street, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala of Rare Enterprises is well known for his skills to pick hidden gems. The billionaire investor who is often referred as the Warren Buffett of India is the 53rd richest person in India, with a net worth of USD 2.4 billion (as on August 2017), according to Forbes.

The buy or sell moves by market mavens such as Jhunjhunwala is tracked by investor community very closely. A close look at the stocks with more than 1 percent holding held in his portfolio under the name of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and his family members rose up to 200 percent in the year 2017.

A Chartered Accountant by qualification, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala started his journey as an investor back in the year 1985 with a capital of $100 when the BSE Sensex was at 150 which has now risen to 32,000.

Top stocks which are part of his portfolio include names like ION Exchange, Prakash Industries, Escorts, VIP Industries, Titan Company, Anant Raj Industries, Crisil, Delta Corp, Aurobindo Pharma etc. among others.

Among the top performing companies of 2017, Geojit Financial Services rose 206 percent, Jaiprakash Industries which is the new entrant rose 213 percent, Edelweiss Services rallied 126 percent, and Escorts gained 108 percent in the same period.

The big bull of D-Street who has been a firm believer in the India story is of the view that bull market corrections are severe and short-lived - sharp, severe, and short-lived.

The Nifty50 index after rallying nearly 1,900 points, or over 23 percent so far in the year 2017 witnessed profit booking decline this past week. However, intermediate corrections are part of any bull markets and investors should not get swayed by their emotions because the peak is still far away.

In his recent interview with CNBC-TV18 earlier in the year, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said that investors should not get worried about one day of correction as "we are far away from the peak". Nifty is more likely to double in the next 4-5 years, he said.

The bull market will only eclipse when three factors are present  valuation froth, commitment froth and when there is bad news, he explained

Elaborating on them, Jhunjhunwala said just by valuation froth, bull markets will not end. By commitment froth, it means that there is a lot of leverage buying, which is still not there. The third factor is bad news and when investors sell on the bad news, there is no buyer.

Top Holdings:

Top holdings of the big bull are placed in stocks like Mandhana Retail in which he holds a little over 12 percent, according to Capitaline data, followed by Viceroy Hotels in which Jhunjhunwala has invested by about 12.2 percent, and in Escorts he holds 9.1 percent.

Stocks in which he holds less than 2 percent include names like Geojit Financial Services, Karur Vysya Bank, Agro Tech Foods, Titan Company, ION Exchange, Aurobindo Pharma, Edelweiss Financial Services, Prakash Industries, Man Infra, TV18 Broadcast, and Viceroy Hotel.

Entrants & Exits:

Jhunjhunwala picked up 1.26 percent in Jubilant Lifesciences in the quarter and increased his holding to 1.12 percent and in Aurobindo Pharma from 1.08 percent.

The stocks where he cut holdings include Geojit Financial Services, Delta Corp, Federal Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Titan Company, Tata Motors DVR, TV Broadcast, Aurobindo Pharma, Edelweiss Financial Services, and Prakash Industries, Capitaline data showed.
India will elect its 15th vice-president today. The results will be known by evening, and the voting will take place from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Both the houses of the Parliament will vote to elect the vice president.

The Opposition has chosen former Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi as its candidate for the post of Vice President of India.

He was also in rounds for the presidential candidate, as initially, the Opposition had reached a consensus over two leaders  former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and former governor and diplomat, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Playing all the cards right, and maintaining his own legacy, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former administrator, also said that commenting his election to be the vice-presidential candidate would be speculative.

So, who is Gopakrishna Gandhi?

Born to Mahatma Gandhis youngest son, Devdas Gandhi and C Rajgopalcharis youngest daughter, Lakshmi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi went to the New Delhis legacy college St. Stephens College to pursue Masters in English Literature.

He served as an IAS officer in different capacities in Tamil Nadu till 1985. He has also been the Secretary to the Vice President from 1985 to 1987, Joint Secretary to President from 1987 to 1992, finally serving as a Secretary to President in 1997. He retired voluntarily from the administrative service in 1992.

He was also a reputed diplomat, having served as the Minister (Culture) in the High Commission of India, UK. He also served as High Commissioner to South Africa in 1996, where he earned a popular repute, as reported by the Outlook.
A Pakistani national was apprehended by the BSF today in Rajasthan's Bikaner sector on the India- Pakistan border here, an official said.

The person, who identified himself as Javed Iqbal (34), is a resident of Bahawalpur district of Pakistan and was caught this morning from pillar number 418, a BSF spokesperson said.

A Saudi Arabia driving license, an identity card issued by Pakistan authorities and a knife among other things were seized from him, the spokesperson said, adding that he is being questioned.
* NDA candidate Venkaiah Naidu elected India's next Vice-President* Naidu won 516 of the 771 votes polled in the election* Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi managed 244 votes* Voter turnout was 98.21%

* Naidu will replace Hamid Ansari, whose second term ends on August 10

20:55 Naidu makes a short speech. Says he is humbled by the honour bestowed on him. Insists he is a non-party man and will try to take everyone along.

As the new Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Naidu says he will try ensure that all MPs make a meaningful contribution.

20:50 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah have felicitated Naidu on his election as Vice-President.

20:45 MoS in the Prime Minister's Office, Jitendra Singh, says Naidu's election is the beginning of a "new political culture".

20:34 Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu: Just now met to congratulate @MVenkaiahNaidu garu for his spectacular victory in #VicePresidentialElections Wishing him all the best.

20:21 Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad: Venkaiah ji has been an elder brother to all of us. He knows the politics of India and he knows parliamentary etiquette.

20:07 The Prime Minister is now on his way to Naidu's residence.

20:03 Congress President Sonia Gandhi says she hopes the Upper House will run in a smooth manner. Naidu, as Vice-President, will also be the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

19:47 Venkaiah Naidu has just made his first comments as Vice-President. His tweets read: "With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines. I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors."

19:43 As we wait for Naidu to speak, here's a profile of him: A seasoned politician and a skilled orator: Meet India's new Vice-President

19:39 Naidu is expected to address the press shortly.

19:33 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu have both congratulated the new Vice-President.

19:25 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated the new Vice-President. He tweeted: "I am confident @MVenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building."

19:18 "Opposition will never compromise on ideology whether we face defeat or victory. Thank all those who voted against NDA," says senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.

19:15 Gopalkrishna Gandhi has congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on his victory. Says it is a victory of the ballot and of free speech.

19:09 Venkaiah Naidu received 516 votes, way ahead of the 244 votes polled for Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

19:05 BREAKING: Venkaiah Naidu elected India's 13th Vice-President

18:52 The returning officer is expected to make an announcement about the results shortly.

18:25 Two BJP leaders - Sanwarlal Jat and Vijay Goel - are hospitalised and could not vote, BJP leaders said.

18:01 Counting has begun and the results are expected within the next hour.

17:57 Fourteen MPs did not vote today: 2 from BJP, 2 from INC, 2 from IUML, 4 from TMC, 1 from NCP, 1 from PMK & 2 Independents.

17:48 Assistant returning officer Mukul Pandey says that counting will begin at 6pm.

17:35 After casting her vote, BJP MP Hema Malini says that Venkaiah Naidu is most capable and loved by everyone.

17:13 In all, 771 out of 785 votes were cast, a turnout of 98.21 percent.

17:02 Polling has ended and the counting is set to begin.

16:28 Voting will end in about half an hour from now. Counting will not take more than two hours after that.

15:55 As voting got underway, Naidu said he is known to all his MPs in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. "That is why I am not campaigning also or canvassing also. I have written a polite letter to everybody. The response is very good. People are appreciative of my letter. I am confident they will all support me," he said.

15:40 ANI now reporting that 761 out of 785 votes were polled till 3pm.

The final results are expected in a couple of hours. Unlike the Presidential elections, no leads are announced while counting is underway.

2:30 713 of 785 electors had voted by 1 pm, recording 90.83 per cent voting, according to Mukul Pandey, the assistant returning officer of the vice presidential polls. "Earlier in the morning, the first hour recorded a sizeable turnout of MPs waiting to cast their vote.", reports PTI.

1:45 90.83 percent voting till 1 pm in vice presidential elections, said Assistant Returning Officer Mukul Pandey, reports PTI

1:20 Everybody loves him (Venkaiah Naidu) a lot, he is most capable, he knows entire Parliament, the whole politics: BJP MP Hema Malini, reports ANI

01:00 Congress candidate Gopalkrishna is not a member of any House of Parliament, and cannot vote in the election, whereas, Naidu is a member of the Rajya Sabha.

12:30 NDA Naidu said he is a non-party man and that majority of the parties will support him. I am confident that they all will vote today (Saturday).: IANS

11:45 Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, his party MPs Jyotiraditya Scindia, Deepender Singh Hooda, Sushmita Dev also cast their votes to elect the next chairman of the Rajya Sabha, reports PTI

11:15 Former Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi was also in rounds for the presidential candidate. Born to Mahatma Gandhis youngest son, Devdas Gandhi and C Rajgopalcharis youngest daughter, Lakshmi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi went to the New Delhis legacy college St. Stephens College to pursue Masters in English Literature.

He served as an IAS officer in different capacities in Tamil Nadu till 1985. He has also been the Secretary to the Vice President from 1985 to 1987, Joint Secretary to President from 1987 to 1992, finally serving as a Secretary to President in 1997. He retired voluntarily from the administrative service in 1992.

11:00 "I think we will miss him (Venkaiah Naidu) in one place, but you will see more action in another place," says Manohar Parrikar, reports CNN News 18

11:00 A political veteran, Venkaiah Naidu was serving as a Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation as well as the Information and Broadcasting Minister. He has also held the portfolio of a Union Minister for rural development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between September 2000 and June 2002.

Naidu is also a fourth-term Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan, being first elected in the Upper House in 1998. He was re-elected in 2004, 2010 and 2016. His extensive experience in the Rajya Sabha makes him a suitable pick for the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

10:30 While polling is underway, it's advantage Venkaiah Naidu

10:15 NDA candidate Venkaiah Naidu casts his vote

10:00 Polling begins, PM Modi arrives for voting

09:30 Voting will begin at 10am and the winner will be announced before 5pm.

Good morning and welcome to live-coverage of the Vice-Presidential elections. MPs from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will choose between the National Democratic Alliance candidate Venkaiah Naidu and Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
BJP chief Amit Shah today asked party workers in Haryana to make the party "invincible" by turning every booth into its stronghold.

Addressing a gathering of BJP office-bearers here on the last day of his visit to the state, Shah asked party activists not to be complacent or rest till "every person gets food, every child gets education and every field gets water".

He asked them to work towards making India "the world's leader". The BJP believes that the last man standing in the queue has to benefit from various schemes, Shah said.

He exhorted them to make "the party invincible and turn every booth in Haryana into its stronghold".

With an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Shah is travelling across states to strategise and find ways to strengthen the party at the grass-root level.
NDA candidate Venkaiah Naidu was on Saturday elected India's 13th Vice-President after a comprehensive victory over Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

A political veteran, Venkaiah Naidu was serving as a Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation as well as the Information and Broadcasting Minister. He has also held the portfolio of a Union Minister for rural development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between September 2000 and June 2002.

Naidu is also a fourth-term Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan, being first elected in the Upper House in 1998. He was re-elected in 2004, 2010 and 2016. His extensive experience in the Rajya Sabha makes him a suitable pick for the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

While NDA's Presidential nominee, Ramnath Kovind hails from north India, Venkaiah Naidu belongs to Andhra Pradesh in the south India.

His association with politics dates back to his student years in VR College where he completed his bachelor's degree in politics and diplomatic studies. He was a swayamsevak for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and joined BJP's youth wing ABVP in college.

Later when he acquired a degree in law from the Andhra University, he was made the President of the ABVP union of all colleges under Andhra University. His initial fame is accredited to his involvement in the Jai Andhra Movement in 1972.

Naidu was put behind bars under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MIS) during the Emergency rule of Indira Gandhi from 1975-1977. He stepped into mainstream politics when he was elected as an MLA in Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 1978.

After being the state president for BJP's Andhra Pradesh unit from 1988 to 1993, he became the national general secretary of the party from 1993 to 2000.

Naidu is also a two-time BJP national party president, the first time between July-December in 2002 and the second time between January-December in 2004. He was also BJP's national spokesperson from 1996 till 2000.

He was a member of BJP's Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee since January 2006. He also served as a BJP vice president from April 2005 to January 2006.
One person was arrested on Saturday for allegedly throwing a stone on the car of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in Banaskantha district's Dhanera town, when he was on a visit to the flood-hit areas of Gujarat.

Banaskantha Superintendent of Police Niraj Badgujar identified the accused as Jayesh Darji alias Anil Rathod.

Congress leaders claimed that he was a local office bearer of the BJP's youth outfit.

"We have arrested one person named Jayesh Darji alias Anil Rathod for allegedly throwing a stone at the vehicle in which Gandhi was travelling," Badgujar told PTI.

"We arrested Darji after his name was given by Congress members during the course of investigation," Badgujar said.

The Congress claimed that Darji was a BJP worker and was behind incident yesterday.

"Jayesh Darji is the secretary of Banaskantha district BJP Yuva Morcha. He is the man who threw the stone at Rahul Gandhi. We have also submitted names of three more persons who conspired along with Darji to throw the stone at Gandhi's vehicle," said district Congress general secretary, Prithviraj Kathwadia.

Gandhi escaped unhurt after some unidentified persons threw a stone at the car in which he was travelling, breaking the glass pane of the rear window of the vehicle.
Banaskantha: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi arrives to visit the flood affected areas of Runi village in Banaskantha district on Friday. PTI Photo (PTI8_4_2017_000158B)

In a 'Gandhigiri' style of protest against Friday's attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat, Youth Congress workers in the city on Saturday showered flowers on the BJP office at suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai.

Hundreds of Youth Congress workers gathered outside the BJP office in Ghatkopar and showered flowers on the office and also on some office-bearers of the saffron party.

"We want to shame the BJP and its people and hence, we decided to do through 'Gandhigiri'. We showered flowers on the BJP people, who have shown their true colours by lowering the level of politics and attacking on our party leader in such a way," Suraj Singh Thakur, former office-bearer of National Students Union of India (NSUI), who led the protest, said.

"We not only showered flowers on them, but also wished them 'get well soon'. We hope the BJP would recover from their mental sickness," Thakur added.

Gandhi, who was on a visit to the flood-affected Banaskantha town in Gujarat yesterday, escaped unhurt after some unidentified persons threw a stone at his car in which he was travelling, breaking the glass pane of the rear window of the vehicle.
The Modi government has taken its plan to make smartphones an agent for self-verification through Aadhaar a notch down, with major smartphone players being slow to bring out devices that provide the capability to authenticate fingerprints or iris scans.

A little over a year ago, the Unique Identification Authority of India, the agency that administers Aadhaar, had met executives of top smartphone firms to discuss ways to make smartphones an instrument for identity authentication that could allow people to receive all government services that work on the Aadhaar platform.

The plan required a chip level encryption of the smartphones with a UIDAI key and the phones would be connected to the Aadhaar server to authenticate a persons identity using fingerprint or iris scans.

A year later, the situation, according to Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the chief executive of UIDAI, is really evolving.

The Aadhaar enabled capability is there today also...Like for example, on your smartphone, you have iris and thumbprint. These things have already come out. Now it is for the market to decide. If there is a market, then every company will bring it. Now supposing the market moves in some different direction like some more innovative product comes, then the market will go there, Pandey told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interaction.

The response from the companies last year was at best lukewarm, even though some came out with handsets that allow iris scan authentication through Aadhaar. According to several people Moneycontrol spoke to, who were part of the initial meetings, there has not been much discussion on the subject since the idea was floated.

There was never a mandate to have Aadhaar-enabled phones, it was always market driven, said one of the industry executives who were a part of the initial discussions, who did not wish to be identified. It was too mammoth a task, and cant be done, he added.

The resistance also stemmed from issues of security and data protection.

The idea, in its original form, envisaged opening up Aadhaar authentication to third party apps, and biometric and iris scan authentication could become one of the permissions a user grants to different third party apps, such as access to camera, contacts, phone book and so on.

The technology (for using biometrics through self-authentication) has been established clearly, with some manufacturers already bringing out devices that support it. However, it is market demand that will drive market adoption, said Ajay Kumar, additional secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Pandey also toed a similar line. For example the registered devices that we talked about, we have spoken to various manufacturers, so they are also working with us, so this is a continuous exercise. Aadhaar has to (be) delivered through devices. So all these devices are part of our ecosystem and we have to be continuously in talks with these manufacturers who are part of our hardware ecosystem, he said.
ELMHURST - Illinois conservatives are plentiful, but they're just not well-organized, and the Leftist media so rarely includes conservative perspectives that many are misled to believe conservatives are extinct in the Land of Lincoln.

But conservatives are really not that rare in Illinois, they just need to know who each other are and meet up to encourage one another, says Carol Davis - the co-founder of West Suburban Patriots. That's why she and Janet Shaw started the ball rolling on a long overdue gathering of Illinois conservatives.

The event, "Strategy 2017: From Outrage to Action," will be held August 18 and 19th at the Diplomat West Banquet Hall in Elmhurst, IL.
RALEIGH  If you believe the political debate in North Carolina and the rest of the country has grown coarse, predictable, and unproductive, youre not alone. Most of your fellow citizens agree, though they may blame different causes.

The existence of political disagreement isnt itself the issue. It is a given. There has never been a moment in any society in which all or nearly all people had exactly the same ideas about what government should do and how it should be done.

Politics is a process of understanding and managing disputes among individuals with differing values and interests. In a free society, the assumption is not that all disputes are entirely resolvable, but rather that most should be handled by voluntary exchanges of goods and services, some should be handled by coercive legislation or regulation, and the remainder simply cant be resolved at present and will have to be lived with.

Politics is a serious matter that often provokes strong passions. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that political debates need not devolve into personal attacks, dishonest demagoguery, and the rhetorical equivalent of total war.

Some three dozen state leaders, at least, share the same view. Over the past two years, they have met under the auspices of a new program, the North Carolina Leadership Forum (NCLF), to discuss big issues, advance their own views, and learn about why the views of others may be diametrically opposed to theirs.

Housed at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, NCLF spans the ideological spectrum. As president of the John William Pope Foundation, which among other things provides financial support to conservative and libertarian policy groups in North Carolina and around the country, I serve as co-chair of NCLF with Leslie Winner, formerly the executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, which among other things provides financial support to progressive groups and causes. In addition to Pope and Reynolds funding, NCLF receives support from the Duke Endowment.

The first cohort of forum participants included current and former public officials, business and nonprofit executives, educators, professionals, and other community leaders. It included Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Its members came from the mountains, the coast and everywhere in between.

Our initial topic was a challenging one: How can we enable more North Carolinians to earn enough to support their families? The discussion wasnt entirely centered on public policy. Most participants agreed that personal choices matter, for example, embracing the idea of the success sequence  that young people who finish school, get a full-time job, and marry before having children are very unlikely to be chronically poor in later life. Most participants also agreed that such tasks as helping workers retrain for higher-paying jobs will require action by a range of institutions such as industry, churches and community groups, not just government.

Still, we spent a lot of time talking about public policy. As you might expect, some ideas, such raising the minimum wage, generated passionate debate. But others drew a level of consensus that you might find more surprising. For example, nearly all the participating leaders believe that North Carolina should find ways to ease the transition of convicted criminals into the job market, lift regulations that block workers from changing careers or starting their own businesses, and offer more apprenticeships to fill jobs that pay fairly well but often stay vacant for lack of skilled workers.

The most important outcome of the North Carolina Leadership Forum so far hasnt been policy consensus, however. Its been to set an example of substance, maturity and respect. Much of the richest dialogue came out of the conflicts within the group, not the commonalities. Still, participants learned that those with whom they disagreed often had similar goals, and could even come to embrace similar facts, yet draw different conclusions about what to do.

You can learn more about the program at https://sanford.duke.edu/nclf. And if youd like to replicate something like the North Carolina Leadership Forum in your own community, just let us know.

John Hood is chairman of the John Locke Foundation and appears on the talk show NC SPIN. You can follow him @JohnHoodNC.
CofCs ballooning team has been preparing for the eclipse for more than a year. Last summer Logan Avera 17 and senior Sam Fink, both geology majors, traveled to Montana State University to attend a week-long training seminar through the Montana Space Grant Consortium where they learned how to launch high altitude balloons, as well as operate GPS software and remote video equipment.
Texas Department of Public Safety has released the name of the man who died Friday night in a crash at the intersection of Business I-20 service road and North County Road 1140.

Forty-one year-old Midlander Larry Barr, who was driving a Toyota pickup, died at the scene, according to a press release from DPS.
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 []
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The Plainview/Hale County Crime Stoppers Committee will pay a reward of up to $350 to anyone with information that will lead to the arrest and indictment of the person or persons responsible for the following crimes:

--On Aug. 3, someone entered two buildings at 1709 W. 10th and took miscellaneous collectible items.
HALE CENTER -- A great opportunity to support the men and women in blue is coming up as an area police department is raising funds for much needed equipment.

On Aug. 19, the Hale Center Police Department will host a community party starting at 10 a.m. at the Cleveland and Main Street Park in Hale Center.
GreenSpace Holdings, a Houston-based self-storage developer, has launched its first project using recycled shipping containers to save money and help the environment.

The company has broken ground on a 1,017-unit facility to be operated by CubeSmart at 2515 Westminister Road in Pearland. Site work is just getting underway on a two-acre parcel in a growing area with new shopping centers near Pearland Parkway north of FM 518.

In the coming weeks, some 325 used shipping containers will arrive on site as the main building component of the climate-controlled facility. The containers will be arranged in a way that renders much of the concrete and structural steel typically used in such a project unnecessary. The building will be dressed up with stone, concrete masonry, glass and stucco.

GreenSpace Holdings co-owners Rick Stockton and David Ledoux came up with the concept more than two years ago, and have been working with TMS Contractors to hammer out details. They now have a patent pending for their design.

"We went to his house, thought through it and brainstormed, and just came up with this idea," Stockton said. "We actually sketched it on a napkin. We've got that napkin framed in our office."

Getting the containers won't be a problem because the U.S. imports more containerized goods than it exports. The company's local supplier has 14,000 containers on the yard at any given time. GreenSpace Holdings will pay about $1,500 a pop, or $480,000, for materials for the Pearland facility.

"It costs too much to move them back to China to fill them up with goods again, so they just stay here," Stockton said.

The process shaves four to six months off the typical construction time of 10 to 12 months, according to Stockton. The design cuts multi-story self-storage construction costs by up to 50 percent.

GreenSpace Holdings hopes to duplicate the process at 50 self-storage facilities across major cities in the U.S. over the next seven years. The company plans to retain some of the buildings, which generate cash flow, and sell some to investors.

Chris Bergmann of JLL represented the company in the land purchase in Pearland, as well as a second location on two acres at 1050 Brittmoore Road near Interstate 10 in west Houston.

TMS Contractors will also build the west Houston project. The 132,967-square-foot facility, also to be operated by CubeSmart, will have 1,401 units.

Even though a lot of self-storage projects have been going up in the Houston area, the buildings are staying relatively full.

The vacancy rate has fallen to 10 percent from 21.2 percent in 2011, according to Marcus & Millichap. Average rents for climate-controlled space inched up to $1.30 per square foot this year.

The Pearland site fit the formula of being in a high-growth area where people have enough disposable income to buy stuff, and also store it, Stockton said. The property will have 24-hour surveillance and electronic-access control.

Pearland's population doubled from 2000 to 2015, according to JLL. During that period, there was little construction of climate-controlled storage facilities.
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A Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford employee, both wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 26-year-old man in Chicago, turned themselves in to San Francisco and Oakland law enforcement officials late Friday, authorities said.

Chicago police said the suspects will appear in court in the Bay Area before returning to Chicago for questioning by homicide detectives.

The two suspects came to the Bay Area because they had friends and colleagues in the area, who helped them surrender to authorities, Frank Conroy, a supervising deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service, said Saturday.

These guys ... have had no criminal history, Conroy said. People panic when they were in a situation like they were in, and they reach out to people they might not have reached out to in years, just to try to hide.

Wyndham Lathem, 43, surrendered to authorities in Oakland about 7 p.m. and was booked into the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on felony fugitive charges at 11:40 p.m., according to jail records. He is under intensive observation at the jail, said Sgt. Ray Kelly with the Alameda County Sheriffs Office.

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Lathem is scheduled to appear in court in Pleasanton at 9 a.m. Monday for an arraignment.

He arrived at the Oakland courthouse by car and was told to get out of the car, which is when authorities placed him in handcuffs, Conroy said. No guns were drawn.

I dont know anybody who wouldnt look distraught or worried, Conroy said. He wasnt happy. He wasnt crying, but he wasnt giving everybody high-fives and telling jokes either. He looked solemn.

Andrew Warren, who jail records list as 49, turned himself in at the San Francisco Police Departments Park Station about the same time, said police Officer Grace Gatpandan.

He knew he was next, Conroy said.

Warren was booked at the San Francisco County Jail on felony fugitive charges about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. A court date was not immediately scheduled, but Conroy said he expects Warren will also appear Monday.

Both men are being held without bail.

Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions, and we hope (Fridays) arrest brings some comfort for the victims family. We are also thankful that this did not end in further tragedy, the Chicago Police Department said in a statement.

The two men were being sought by authorities after the body of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found in Lathems Chicago apartment on July 27. Cornell-Duranleau had been stabbed multiple times in a brutal attack that caused the knife to break, Chicago police said.

The front desk receptionist at Lathems apartment, in the River North neighborhood, received an anonymous call that a crime had been committed in Lathems 10th-floor apartment, said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department.

When police arrived, Cornell-Duranleau had already been dead for about 15 hours. Surveillance video shows Lathem and Warren leaving the Lathems apartment building on the day of the stabbing, Guglielmi said.

Shortly after the stabbing, Lathem, an associate microbiology professor at Northwestern, sent a video to friends and relatives apologizing for his involvement in Cornell-Duranleaus slaying, Guglielmi said.

In the video, Lathem was apologetic and said that the crime was the biggest mistake of my life, Guglielmi said.

The content of the video concerned police that Lathem could harm himself, Guglielmi said.

It was through their friends and colleagues that Chicago police received tips that the two men were in the Bay Area, Conroy said.

Lathem obtained an attorney in the Bay Area, who was not identified, to negotiate his safe surrender, Conroy said.

Warren did not negotiate with the Marshals Service on his surrender, Conroy added.

Neither suspect made a statement upon arrest.

The information (Chicago police) had on Mr. Lathem was more actionable than they had on Mr. Warren, Conroy said, explaining why negotiations were not made with Warren. They knew more about Mr. Lathem. The victims body was found in his apartment.

There is no information on whether Lathem has retained the Bay Area attorney to represent him in court on the first-degree murder charges hes facing.

On Monday, the defendants can choose to fight the extradition, which Conroy said would be unusual. If they are ordered back to Chicago, officials will have 10 business days to pick up the two men and return them to Illinois.

Lathem has worked at Northwestern University since 2007 but was recently placed on administrative leave, Alan Cubbage, a spokesman for the university, said Saturday. Cubbage did not elaborate on why Lathem was placed on leave.

On the day of slaying, Lathem and Warren drove 80 miles northwest of Lake Geneva, Wis., and made a $1,000 donation to the public library there in Cornell-Duranleaus name, Guglielmi said. The man making the donation did not give his name, but police suspect it was Lathem, Guglielmi added.

Cornell-Duranleau moved to Chicago from Grand Rapids, Mich., after receiving his cosmetology license. He had a personal relationship with Lathem, Guglielmi said.

Cornell-Duranleaus family posted a statement on Facebook after his death. Our family is deeply saddened by the death of our son. It is our hope that the person or persons responsible for his death are brought to justice, they said.

Warren, a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College at Oxford University in England, arrived in the United States three days before the killing. It is unclear how Warren knew Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau and why he was in the United States, Guglielmi said.

Police contacted the university and determined that Warren was not in the country on university business, Guglielmi said.

Neither the College nor the university were aware of the case, which is clearly extremely worrying, Alice Prochaska of Somerville College said in a statement. We and the university authorities will liaise with the investigating authorities and provide any assistance that is required. This comes as upsetting news to all of us.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
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STAMFORD  Mary was 8 years old when she stepped off a plane from Haiti with her older sister to visit their ailing grandmother in Stamford.

What was meant to be a short trip with their mother was unexpectedly extended after Marys 10-year-old sister wound up hospitalized for four months with a bacterial infection. After the girls recovery, doctors advised the family that she not return to Haiti.

That was the summer of 2005, six years before a magnitude 7.0 earthquake would devastate the island nation, killing 220,000 people and displacing 1.5 million.

The disaster prompted the U.S. government to extend whats known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians without permanent legal residency. The designation is afforded to immigrants who are unable to return to their home countries because of humanitarian emergencies.

Along with her family, Mary, who did not want her real name used because of her immigration status, ended up staying in Stamford while her mother petitioned for legal status. They were ultimately denied, but then came TPS, which has enabled them to remain in the U.S. for the past six years.

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This may change under new orders from the Trump administration that could put an end to TPS for Haitians and send 58,000 immigrants  including up to 150 in Stamford and 750 statewide, according to one attorneys estimate  back to an impoverished country still reeling from one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory. The move is yet another example of the immigration upheaval set into motion under President Donald Trump.

For someone like Mary, a lot has changed since leaving Haiti, a country the 21-year-old can now barely recall. She went on to enroll in Stamford public schools and excelled academically, landing a scholarship to study civil engineering at a Manhattan college. Her sister became a registered nurse.

More Information Deportation fight 58,000 Haitians nationwide with protected status 5,000 Haitian citizens and non-citizens in Stamford up to 150 Haitians with protected status in Stamford See More Collapse

With a year left in school, Mary worries about being ordered back to Haiti before she can graduate. At this point, she has no family in Haiti  her father disappeared after they left for the U.S.  and says she wouldnt know where to stay or how to navigate life there.

All I remember is that it wasnt particularly safe, said Mary, who lived an hour outside the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. We stayed inside our house and went to school and came back.

Mary and her family could be ordered to leave the country as soon as Jan. 22, when the most recent extension of Haitian TPS expires. TPS for Haiti and 12 other nations, including El Salvador, Honduras, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and Nepal, is re-evaluated for continuation every 18 months.

In May, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would extend Haitian TPS for just six months, and encouraged recipients like Mary to prepare for their return. At the time, then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said the agency would announce 60 days before the January deadline whether it may extend Haitian TPS again. Thousands of Haitians are anxiously awaiting the decision.

Activists like Angelucci Manigat, editor and publisher of The Haitian Voice, a monthly newspaper once based in Stamford, have called for TPS to be extended for the standard 18-month period. Meanwhile, he said, Haitians have begun fleeing over the Canadian border to seek asylum in anticipation of a canceled TPS.

Manigat said Haitians, who make up at least 4 percent of Stamfords population, are frightened of attracting attention. They are avoiding churches and community centers that were once well attended, and fear doing everyday things like picking up their children from day care or paying a parking fine, he said.

People are really, really scared, said Manigat, who now runs his publication out of Bridgeport. Community leaders are trying to prepare them for the worst. It doesnt look good, but were waiting to see what happens. A lot of people are in denial.

Mayor David Martin in May joined a coalition of city leaders from across the country who signed a letter to Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urging a longer extension of Haitian TPS, which would have ended on July 22 without the six-month continuation.

Philip Berns, a Stamford immigration attorney who has about 30 clients with Haitian TPS  and estimates there could be up to 150 with the designation citywide  said he is preparing clients for what comes next.

For many TPS Haitians who have lived peaceful and productive lives in the U.S., what it will feel like is not deportation, but exile, said Berns, who added that Haiti has still not recovered from the 2010 earthquake. Many say Hurricane Matthew last year undid much of the progress made since the earthquake.

Things have not seriously changed in Haiti, Manigat said. The government still doesnt do much for the people.

People like Mary have been in the U.S. for so long they dont know a life back in Haiti, Berns said.

This young lady is basically, in her heart and soul, an American, he said. She would be sent a to a country where shes barely familiar with the culture and language, and completely out of her element.

Mary said she understands the challenge the U.S. government faces managing a program like TPS, and deciding which undocumented immigrants out of many get a reprieve from deportation.

Its a temporary solution, she said. Its not a status thats made for assimilation.

In the meantime, life for people like Mary is a high-stakes game of wait-and-see.

The thing that makes me worry is that I dont know will happen, she said. But its also my calming factor  that I dont know what will happen.

eskalka@stamfordadvocate.com
There is a story in the Hebrew Bible that tells of God's call for the annihilation of the Canaanites, a people who lived in what are now Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the Palestinian territories thousands of years ago.

"You shall not leave alive anything that breathes," God said in the passage. "But you shall utterly destroy them."

But a genetic analysis published Thursday has found that the ancient population survived that divine call for their extinction, and their descendants live in modern Lebanon.

"We can see the present-day Lebanese can trace most of their ancestry to the Canaanites or a genetically equivalent population," said Chris Tyler-Smith, a geneticist with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in England and an author of the paper. "They derive just over 90 percent of their ancestry from the Canaanites."

Dr. Tyler-Smith and an international team of geneticists and archaeologists recovered ancient DNA from bones belonging to five Canaanites retrieved from an excavation site in Sidon, Lebanon, that were 3,650 to 3,750 years old. The team then compared the ancient DNA with the genomes of 99 living people from Lebanon that the group had sequenced. It found that the modern Lebanese people shared about 93 percent of their ancestry with the Bronze Age Sidon samples.

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The Sidon excavation site in Lebanon. Archaeologists retrieved bones from five Canaanites that were 3,650 to 3,750 years old. Credit Claude Doumet-Serhal/Sidon Excavation

The team published its results in The American Journal of Human Genetics.

"The conclusion is clear," said Iosif Lazaridis, a geneticist at Harvard who was not involved in the study. "Based on this study it turns out that people who lived in Lebanon almost 4,000 years ago were quite similar to people who lived there today, to the modern Lebanese."

Marc Haber, a postdoctoral fellow at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in England and lead author on the study, said that compared with other Bronze Age civilizations, not much is known about the Canaanites.

"We know about ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks, but we know very little about the ancient Canaanites because their records didn't survive," he said. Their writings may have been kept on papyrus, which did not stand the test of time as clay did. What is known about the Canaanites is that they lived and traded along the eastern coast of the present-day Mediterranean, a region that was known as the Levant.

"What we see is that since the Bronze Age, this ancestry, or the genetics of the people there, didn't change much," Dr. Haber said. "It changed a little, but it didn't change much and that is what surprised me."

At first the team was not sure if it would be able to retrieve DNA from the ancient skeletons, which were recovered from the hot and humid excavation site within the last 19 years. Dr. Haber had chosen more than two dozen bones from the site that looked promising and had them investigated for genetic material. It turned out that only five contained ancient DNA. All of those came from the petrous part of the temporal bone, which is the tough part of the skull behind the ear, from five different individuals.

After extracting that DNA, the team members compared it with a database that contained genetic information from hundreds of human populations. They then further compared their results with the genomes of the modern-day Lebanese population sample, which revealed what happened to the ancient Canaanite population.

"Genetics has the power to answer questions that historical records or archaeology are not able to answer," Dr. Haber said.

He said researchers thought that migrations, conquests and the intermixing of Eurasian people  like the Assyrians, Persians or Macedonians  with the Canaanites 3,800 to 2,200 years ago might have contributed to the slight genetic changes seen in modern Lebanese populations. Still, the Lebanese retain most of their ancestral DNA from the Canaanites.

"It confirms the continuity of occupation and rooted tradition we have seen on-site, which was occupied from the 4th millennium B.C. right to the Crusader period," Claude Doumet-Serhal, an archaeologist and director of the Sidon Excavation who is a co-author on the paper, said in an email.

She said that the archaeologists had found about 160 burials to date at their excavation site, which is in the heart of modern Sidon. They include graves and burials where a person was placed in a large jar, and they date to between 1900 and 1550 B.C. The genetic results further support the archaeological findings.

"We were delighted by the findings," Dr. Doumet-Serhal said. "We are looking at the Canaanite society through 160 burials and at the same time uncovering a common past for all the people of Lebanon, whatever religion they belong to."
On this date in ...

1917: Ernest Tarbell, son of Betha Winne of Benson Street in Albany, visited his mother on a 48-hour leave of absence from his duties as a gun pointer for the Navy, and told the story of how his leave came to be. He was on board the transport steamer Saratoga, along with 41 other gun pointers, 1,400 troops and 75 Red Cross nurses, bound for the war in France in late July when the ship was accidentally rammed outside "an Atlantic port" by the steamer Panama of the Panama railway line, causing the Saratoga to beach itself in a sinking condition.

1967: Negotiations were stalled in New York City over issues which could result in a statewide strike of 27,000 telephone operators by Aug. 7. The union president called the situation "hopeless" and that an expanded strike looked inevitable. A spokesman for the New York Telephone Co. said the company was willing to continue negotiations over the weekend. The controversy involved protection for installers and repairmen in areas of high crime incidence and disciplinary action over alleged violation of the contract.

1992: In the hours and days after Ross Perot ended his White House ruminations, President Bush and Bill Clinton included some message to woo his supporters in almost every speech. But since those symbolic gestures, both campaigns had made almost no attempt to bring to their camp the Perot backers in New York. During the same period, though, candidates for Congress, the state Legislature and a host of local offices had been working the phones to solicit the disgruntled Perot supporters now looking for a political home.

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Want to read more about the Capital Region's past? Have any memories or thoughts about how our history relates to today's events? See http://blog.timesunion.com/history/.
A simple turn of the page in your Bible and you go from the Old Testament to the New.

In between there have been 400 years of silence from God. You will find that the first chapter of Matthew re-acquaints you with people you have come to admire: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and more. Yet a new person whom you love enters and indeed this person turns out to be the main theme of the entire Bible and especially in your own life. In Matthew is our Lord Jesus Christ. The world that Jesus travels in bears little resemblance to the world left behind in the Book of Malachi. The Eastern empires of the Israelites captivity--Babylon, Assyria, and Persia-- no longer dominate the region. A new power has risen in the West, the empire of Rome. Its ruler in Palestine, a cruel and self-serving king named Herod, sits enthroned over the Jews. In Matthew, we find the Jews are settled and secure under the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. They no longer worship in the Temple alone but also in dozens of synagogues scattered throughout the country and the villages. Priests continue to provide leadership, but the people now look to a new school of religious authorities including the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of religious law, also known as scribes. Over this body of authorities governs a new high council called the Sanhedrin, which functions like a religious Supreme Court. Most noticeable is the lack of prophets. Malachi had followed a procession of prophets going back hundreds of years, but not a divine person appeared before the nation God loved during the years between the Old and New Testaments. For more than 400 years, the heavens seemed to be closed to the nation of Israel. Nothing but silence. Then, one ordinary night in the tiny village of Bethlehem, Jesus our Lord and Savior was born. With His first cries, God's voice once again graced the land. For Jews with eyes to see and ears to hear, it became clear throughout Jesus' life He was the Son of God, the Savior for whom they had been waiting. God had been at work using these years of silence to prepare the perfect time and place for Jesus' arrival. During the years between the Testaments--years of war and upheaval, flawed heroes and unfulfilled hopes--our God had set the stage for the final era of salvation history, an era of Good News for Jews and Gentiles alike and like Paul wrote in Galatians 4:4; "When the right time came, God sent His Son." God's timing is perfect. When we ask the question why there are 400 years of silence in the Bible, the unspoken question I think we may be asking is "Why does it seem like God is silent in my life right now?" Remember, God is always active, is always speaking through His written Word, is always involved, and is always working to accomplish His will in the worldeven when He is not having people write about it or when it seems like He is silent. The things God has recorded in scripture are enough for us to go on. We neither need more or less. What is written is what is needed to know and to believe and know what God is like, what God is doing, and how we are to live and function in this world. Through God's Word it takes our eyes of faith to believe and then to speak His written Word out of our mouths. Then we watch as He hastens to perform His perfect will in our lives.
After more than eight years, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and countless man hours put in by three different panels, First Selectman Peter Teseis administration still has not delivered a state-approved Harbor Management Plan.

But throughout this long, unfinished process, the first selectmans priority has never really been a scheme to manage, govern, keep safe and improve the Greenwich waterfront and the busy waters of Long Island Sound. His real plan was to get rid of the incumbent state harbormaster for Greenwich, Ian Macmillan.

Tesei came so, so close to realizing his dream. Macmillans second, three-year term ended June 30. The Harbor Management Commission started recruiting candidates on monster.com. But then, like a sudden summer squall, Governor Dannel Malloy swooped in to re-appoint Macmillan. The position is filled until June 30, 2020. Teseis long local nightmare continues.

Macmillans record since becoming harbormaster in December, 2011, earned him another term. Many people, including several flag officers from area yacht clubs, wrote Malloy urging him to let Macmillan continue his job.

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In the summer of 2011, the last before Macmillan took over, there was a waiting list of a least a year for moorings. Macmillan cleared out the list and there has not been once since. Compare that to town managed facilities, such as the dock at Grass Island or the kayak racks at Tods Point. Parks and Recreation told one boater this week that the waiting list for the docks was seven to nine years. And even though there were dozens of empty spots for kayak storage, owners routinely waited a year or more for approval.

The harbormaster also significantly increased the size of the Greenwich Cove mooring field, alleviating a serious backlog and helping Old Greenwich Yacht Club attract new members. He settled mooring location disputes among shoreline neighbors. He protected shellfish beds from encroachment by boaters who wanted to moor in what was essentially someones work place. He supervised the safe rafting of dozens of boats during the Greenwich Town Party. He helped boaters prepare their vessels for hurricanes and major storms. And, working with volunteer professional surveyors, Macmillan created a very accurate mooring grid to define the exact GPS location of each permitted mooring.

While the harbormaster was tending to business, three different commissions advised Tesei and his fellow selectmen on harbor issues. The initial group was the First Selectmans Coastal Resources Advisory Committee, known appropriately by its apt acronym, CRAC. The CRAC group focused mostly on money. Not just the $100 charged anyone applying for a mooring, but also their own. CRAC controlled the online mooring system and, miracles of miracles, some used the opportunity not to pay the fee themselves. One member not only did not pay the fee, but he did not register his boat with the state, saving himself thousands of dollars in sales taxes.

When CRAC became too much of a political embarrassment, Tesei disbanded it and created the Harbor Management Advisory Committee. It continued collecting mooring fees without a plan for how to use the growing pot of money. Macmillan submitted various requests for improving boating safety, such as removing a sunken commercial ship that frequently snagged boats in the popular Great Captains Island anchorage. All such requests were ignored. The only reliable annual expenditure of harbor money was $15,000 to pay part of the annual salary of an assistant to the First Selectman.

After retiring the HMAC, Tesei created the towns first Harbor Management Commission. They added layers to the mooring application process and created confusion about permits. The HMC sent boaters who paid their fee small stickers to affix to their mooring buoys. Many boaters thought the sticker was the required mooring permit. Except it wasnt.

The HMC also hired a consultant to help it create a formal harbor management plan that would win approval from the state and set specific parameters for its role in town government and how mooring fees would be spent to improve Greenwichs harbors and its waterfront activities. Several years earlier the same consultant had developed a Vision of the Harbor under a $35,000 contract from the Parks and Recreation Department.

Plan development should have taken six months at the most; almost every waterfront town in the state has such a plan, and its elements are well known. However, Tesei, and some of the HMC members, wanted to exert so-called home rule, meaning Greenwich would have ultimate say over how state waters off Greenwich are governed. Members who disagreed with Tesei and HMC leadership said that the plan had to be consistent with state laws. They were not reappointed when their terms expired. State officials continue to ask for specific language in the Greenwich plan that recognizes, among other things, that the state harbormaster works for the state, and not the Harbor Management Commission. The town can exert control over the harbormaster by creating an approved plan that the harbormaster is then tasked with executing. But that is not what Tesei and his HMC want.

The HMC has also spent its three years or so of existence harassing Macmillan. The most egregious example came from now HMC Chairman Bruce Angiolillo. He is condescending and dismissive when he speaks to Macmillan at HMC meetings. But that is not the egregious part. Angiolillo used a photograph of the harbormasters boat to strongly imply that Macmillan drinks on the job and does not maintaint the boat properly. The photo showed a mud-caked boat and an unopened can of beer. Angiolillo, a retired litigator for a major New York law firm, directed attention to the beer can (it was barely visible in the photo) and the condition of the boat. Had he bothered to ask Macmillan for an explanation, he would have known that it had been used that day to search for a lost mooring in the very muddy Greenwich Harbor. It is a messy job. Macmillan and his volunteer returned late to the dock and he returned the next day to clean it. As for the beer, it was an unopened can that was pulled from the muck, dirty and dented. When I asked Angiolillo why he used the photo to demean Macmillan, he said the photo was given to him with that explanation. You have to love a litigator doing his civic duty.

Ive wondered why Macmillan stays in his job year after year. He gets next to no money from the state. Tesei and his commissioners heap abuse on him, ignore his plans for improving water safety and nickel and dime him over reimbursement for phone expenses. Macmillans motive cannot be political; he registered to vote in 2007 so he could cast his ballot for Tesei because the then candidate told Ian he was committed to improving the waterfront and boater safety.

Sure, Macmillan was appointed by Malloy over Teseis preferred candidate, a Stamford cop. But at some point Tesei should have recovered from this political slight and tried to work with Macmillan. If he had, he could have campaigned this year on all the great things he had accomplished for the towns harbors. Instead, we get the same old big bad state government song.

Bob Horton can be reached at bobhorton@yahoo.com.
Jose Montano, a 17-year-old youth in Maryland accused and then cleared of sex assault charges in a high-profile case over allegations of a brutal rape in a high school bathroom, admitted to a far less serious offense Friday of having a lewd video of a juvenile in his phone.

The resolution of the state criminal case - in Montgomery County Juvenile Court - clears the way for another battle: whether Montano, a native of El Salvador who entered the country illegally last year, will be granted residency status or deported.

"There's a lot of work to be done," said one of his attorneys, Jose Canto, "but I think he has a chance to get a green card."

The plea represented a quiet resolution to a story that attracted national attention and mention in a White House press briefing as it became part of the larger debate over illegal immigration.

Montano pleaded "involvement," a juvenile court term, to possessing a pornographic video of the girl at the center of the rape case. She made the video, which was about 10-seconds long, and sent it to Montano the night before the purported rape, according to Montano's attorneys.

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Montano's immediate future is not clear. He is being held at a juvenile detention center in Virginia. A Montgomery judge on Friday scheduled a hearing for Aug. 16, and he may ultimately release Montano to his relatives.

The original case surfaced in mid-March, after Montgomery County detectives were called to Rockville High School. They met the 14-year-old student, who told them that Montano and his friend, 18-year-old Henry Sanchez Milian, had repeatedly raped her in a bathroom stall.

The detectives questioned Sanchez Milian, who acknowledged he and Montano had sex with the girl. Detectives questioned Montano, who said they'd gone into the bathroom merely to tell jokes, according to a police affidavit. Detectives charged both teens with two counts of first-degree sex offense and one count of first-degree rape. Montano, a juvenile, was charged as an adult.

News accounts revealed the teens' immigration histories. Sanchez Milian also had entered the country illegally a year earlier, from Guatemala. Both teens had been detained at the border then allowed to continue on to Montgomery County, where they enrolled at Rockville High as ninth graders while awaiting possible immigration court proceedings.

In the rape case, defense lawyers for the two asserted the sex acts in the bathroom were consensual.

Prosecutors at the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office reviewed the case and eventually determined there were too many inconsistencies and the evidence didn't support the original charges. In May, they dropped all sex-assault charges against the teens.

But as they did, prosecutors then filed child pornography charges against Montano and Sanchez Milian over two images - a video and a photo - on the teens' phones of the girl. The images, according to the teens' attorneys, had been sent by the girl to Montano, who shared them with Sanchez Milian.

Prosecutors pursued the new case against Sanchez Milian in adult court, charging him with two counts of possession of child pornography. That case is pending, a trial date set for Oct. 30. Sanchez Milian remains held in the Montgomery jail, where immigration agents have lodged a detainer against him - and indication they could eventually move to try to deport him.

The new case against Montano went into juvenile court, where he was charged with two counts of possession of child pornography, and two counts of distribution of child pornography because he sent the images to Sanchez Milian and possibly others.

Juvenile court proceedings, including charges, often are kept confidential and The Washington Post generally does not identify juvenile defendants who are not charged as adults. But Montano's attorneys had wanted the hearings open, and did not object to a reporter being present.

Attorneys for the two teenagers have long said the pornography charges were too harsh and amounted to a stretch of child pornography laws designed to go after adults. The attorneys also noted that the images being used against their clients had been part of communications that had helped lead to the rape case being dropped.

At a half-hour hearing Friday, Assistant State's Attorney Mary Herdman told Circuit Judge Cynthia Callahan the parties had reached a resolution, and she would no longer be pursuing a recent effort to move the pornography case against Montano to adult court.

Under his plea, Montano pleaded involvement to one of the child pornography possession counts, and prosecutors dropped the other possession count and the two distribution counts.

Montano, wearing a blue polo shirt and listening over a headset to a Spanish translator, answered questions designed to establish he wanted to accept the plea deal.

Herdman read a brief summary of what prosecutors would have presented had the case gone to trial and said police found the images on Montano's Instagram account.

Outside of court, David Wooten, an attorney for Montano, said his client has learned he "needs to respect girls more" and that consensual sex in a high school bathroom is bad behavior. "He understands that was a horrible decision," Wooten said.

He said given Montano's background in El Salvador - he was abandoned by his parents, he fled the country to get away from gangs trying to recruit him, his attorneys said - he has a case to make for being allowed to stay in the United States.
An explosion shook a Minneapolis-area mosque during morning prayers Saturday, and an FBI official said it was caused by an "improvised explosive device."

No one was injured in the blast at Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., which took place as a small number of worshipers gathered shortly after 5 a.m. Mohamed Omar, the center's executive director, said in an interview that he was inside the mosque preparing for morning prayers when he felt a "huge explosion" that quickly caused smoke and flames. Omar said another person present later told him he had heard the sound of a window breaking and then a pickup truck fleeing outside.

"The sprinkler system went off and immediately water came down," Omar said. "We didn't know what was happening but it was scary."

Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said 15 to 20 worshipers are typically present for morning prayers. The explosion took place inside the imam's office, which was next to a prayer area in the mosque, Hussein said. Another "overflow" prayer area behind the imam's office was also empty, he added.

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"If it was Ramadan or one of the busier times, all of the space would be used," Hussein said in an interview.

Rick Potts, the FBI's special agent in charge of the investigation, told reporters Saturday afternoon that the blast was caused by an "improvised explosive device" but offered no further details about its composition or possible suspects. Neither the FBI nor the Bloomington Police Department, which initially responded to the explosion, speculated on a motive for the incident.

"At this point, our focus is to determine who and why," Potts said at a news conference. "Is it a hate crime? Is it an act of terror?. . .Again, that's what the investigation is going to determine."

The attack was quickly condemned by religious leaders and politicians. Hussein said a "standing opposition group" has regularly protested against the mosque - and sometimes its mere existence - since it opened in 2011.

"Hate is not okay," Asad Zaman, executive director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, told reporters, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "We need an America where people are safe with their neighbors."

If the attack was motivated by anti-Muslim bias, it would represent "another in a long list of hate incidents targeting Islamic institutions nationwide in recent months," CAIR-MN civil rights director Amir Malik said. CAIR said in a report last month that anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States nearly doubled in the first half of this year over the same period in 2016. At least 35 anti-mosque acts - including vandalism and arson - were reported during the first three months of this year, the organization has said.

Last week, vandals spray-painted swastikas and hateful graffiti at the Al Magfirah cemetery in Castle Rock Township, just outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, the Associated Press reported. Other messages at the Muslim cemetery read "666" and "leave you R Dead," according to photos published by the KSTP News.

Since the morning attack at the mosque, the area has been shut down as an active crime scene, but it has also attracted well-wishers, from neighbors to other members of the faith community.

"The churches around and synagogues . . . almost all of them came down and showed their support," Omar said. "We are strong and we don't want to lose hope because of things that happen."

CAIR's Minnesota chapter and the Muslim American Society each offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a perpetrator in the Dar Al-Farooq attack. The society urged "the community to be calm and remain safe."

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said on Twitter that he was "horrified" by the incident.

Ilham Omar, a Somali American state representative who is Muslim, called on Minnesotans to "stand together in opposition to hate."

"This building is more than a religious symbol," she said in a statement. "It's a place where Minnesotans are gathering to create community, to talk to their neighbors, to learn about our world and each other, and to help care for children."
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A 38-year-old San Antonio man was jailed Thursday after being accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, according to jail records.

Police arrested Ronald Christopher Hernandez Thursday night on a charge of sexual assault of a child. He is being held on a $70,000 bond.

The girl told police that on July 17 Hernandez asked her if she wanted to "party" with him when he picked her up on his bicycle from an emergency shelter.

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The two got on a city bus, according to an affidavit, and picked up crystal meth before going to Hernandez's house.

After the two consumed the narcotics, Hernandez allegedly told the girl to take her clothes off. The girl told police she had sex with him that night because she didn't want to upset him, according to the affidavit.

The next day, according to records, they allegedly did more drugs and Hernandez asked her again to take her clothes off.

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READ ALSO: 20-year-old arrested after teen killed in early-morning shooting

The girl told Hernandez she didn't want to have sex because she wasn't feeling well, when Hernandez sexually assaulted her, according to the affidavit.

When police arrested Hernandez, he allegedly admitted to meeting up with the girl, providing drugs and having sex with her despite knowing she was underage, the affidavit states.
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A Houston man is seeking $200,000 from a former Tinder date he claims defamed him online and cost him his job.

Joseph Lazarus, 32, broke up with the woman he matched with on Tinder in 2014 and since then, he claims the woman has spread lies about him online and to two former employers, according to Harris County District Court documents filed Wednesday by Lazarus' attorney Joseph Mathew.

The name of the woman is being withheld because she had not been notified of the lawsuit against her at the time of publication. A request for comment has been made with the woman.

Story continues below...

VINDICATED: Houston teacher cleared in revenge porn case

Lazarus' relationship with the woman lasted about three months after the two matched on Tinder. During that brief time, he called their interactions normal. The two would go out to dinner and even attended a Houston startup convention together since Lazarus was working at an oil startup at the time and she was an aspiring entrepreneur.

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Lazarus claims the two just didn't hit it off, so he decided to break up with her in person. She wanted to remain friends; he did not. Within a few months after the breakup, Lazarus said he started receiving threatening messages from her. At one point he received a message from her demanding $10,000 from him or she would tell people he raped her.

The threats became even more real in the fall of 2016. That's when Lazarus was called into his bosses office. Lazarus was working for a high end automobile broker in Houston at the time. The boss had seen posts about Lazarus on thedirty.com, a user-submitted gossip site, and couldn't risk his company's reputation.

READ MORE: Katy teen charged with blackmailing woman with sex video in 'revenge porn' case

The posts called Lazarus "creepy" and someone who "would have sex/rape fat chicks just to amuse his friends."

Lazarus was fired that day.

"I feel terrible. I feel like I'm living in a nightmare I can't escape," Lazarus told Chron.com.

One of the first things he did was retain legal counsel. The court documents filed Wednesday include text messages the woman allegedly sent to one of Lazarus' friends. The messages claim that Lazarus would buy her dildos instead of flowers and that he was a "rapist, liar, cheater."

"I don't know what she's talking about. I certainly didn't mail her any sex toys," Lazarus said.

READ MORE: Woman successfully sues ex-boyfriend for posting 'revenge porn' online

Mathew has taken on more than a dozen revenge porn cases in his six-year career. This is the first he's had where the alleged victim was a man.

"There's no way Joe Lazarus can defend himself against these baseless allegations," Mathew told Chron.com. ""If anybody finds themselves in a similar situation and I encourage them to speak out and find legal representation. Everybody has the right to be left alone. That's all Joe Lazarus is asking, it to be left alone."
More than 75 people waved blue flags and neon-colored signs trumpeting transgender rights on the Capitol steps, but the focus of Fridays protest against the so-called bathroom bill centered on the people who were absent.

Isa Noyola read the name of each of the 16 transgender women killed since the start of the year. As she read each name, the crowd yelled back presente.

The reasoning they are wanting to pass this legislation is the same reason why transwomen experience violent murders. It is the stigma, it is the hatred against who we are as people, said Noyola, director at the Transgender Law Center in California who traveled to Austin for the rally. In fighting against this legislation, it is fighting for our lives.

The protest caps off a week marked by near-daily rallies on the Capitol steps  most of which focused on the bill that would require people to use public bathrooms that align with the gender on their birth certificate. The bill sailed through the Senate, but remains stalled in the House with less than two weeks left in the special session.

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Monica Roberts, who wore a bright yellow skirt-suit, said Republican lawmakers pursued the bill with the idea of getting an easy win, but should expect a big fight.

When you have people like the trans community who have had to fight tooth and nail just to exist, were not going to roll over for legislative repression, she said to whistles from the crowd.

The rally, organized by immigrant and transgender activist groups, called on lawmakers to abandon Senate Bill 3, which critics say discriminates against transgender people. A day earlier, pastors led a rally in the same spot pushing passage of the bill. They argued men could take advantage of the change to go into womens restrooms and locker rooms.

Noyola said the issues of immigration and transgender rights often intersect. That was expressed Friday, as the group also protested a measure Gov. Greg Abbott already signed into law against so-called sanctuary cities. Critics contend the law, which ensures local police officers have power to question detainees about their immigration status, will lead to racial profiling and an erosion of trust among the immigrant and law enforcement communities. Abbott said the change is needed to keep Texans safe.
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SAN ANTONIO - A man is in San Antonio police custody after attempting to flee a collision that set off a chain of auto crashes involving five vehicles Saturday afternoon on the West Side.

According to Officer Ervey Banda, the suspect, who appears to be in his mid-20s, now faces a charge of failure to stop and render aid.

The initial collision occurred at about 1 p.m. in the 1700 block of Culebra Road when witnesses said a man, in a red car, started driving into the opposite lane.

Investigators said the suspect driver tried to drive between a white car and a pickup. Instead he hit them both, Banda said.

After the collision, a black car following the pickup and white car attempted to avoid the wreck but instead collided head-on with a second pickup, police said.

Witnesses told authorities the driver of the red car tried running away from the accident.

Passersby chased down the driver and police apprehend him at a nearby bus stop.

A woman who had been traveling with the driver was questioned but released soon after.

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Two people in the truck hit in the initial wreck were taken to University Hospital as a precaution.

Noemi Coreas, the owner of Kayla's Salon, said she heard a loud bang as the accidents unfolded outside her business.

"We heard the noise and we ran out to help them," she said, noting that there was a lot of confusion caused by the wreck.

Police said no one else was injured in the incident. Culebra Road was shut down on both sides for almost three hours during the investigation.

jbeltran@express-news.net

Twitter: @JBfromSA
Back in May, a parking ticket landed on my windshield.

I didnt think much of it at the time and paid the $35 fine. But something nagged at me. I didnt remember seeing any signage where I parked. Curious, I went back to the scene of the crime.

This was down on Jones Avenue near the San Antonio Museum of Art. A hip part of town where I fit like a saguaro in a yoga class.

Much to my surprise there was a sign. But it wasnt a city sign, and it wasnt all that visible. It was a private sign slung to a tree in front of The Luxury, a mellow little spot along the river. The sign warned drivers if they parked there, they would get ticketed or towed. It always pays to look at trees for guidance.

Now, I would never write a column about my own ticket, which is paid. But the experience did make me wonder how often this happens to San Antonians (and visitors) downtown. It seems if the city is going to ticket drivers, there should at least be a sign letting them know they are breaking the rules. My curiosity really piqued when I noticed tickets on vehicles downtown, especially at Sixth Street and Avenue E, at spots without signage.

Lillie Gonzales, who works at the front desk at the marketing and ad agency Creative Civilization, has a front-row view of that corner, and shes watched driver after driver get tickets there. She warns drivers when she can, but I am not always up at the front.

Right. Thats because shes not a sign.

Shes also received a ticket.

I said, How was I supposed to know, if there is no sign there? Gonzales said. He said we should have known that.

Not surprisingly, downtown parking tickets have surged. In fiscal 2015, 44,372 downtown parking tickets were written, city records show. In fiscal 2016, it was almost 49,000 such tickets. And between October and April of this fiscal year, there were more than 35,000 tickets, putting the city on pace for 60,000 for the year.

It used to be rare for there to be more than 5,000 tickets in a given month. From January 2014 through August of 2016 it happened once. Its happened four times since then (through April).

City officials said the sharp increase is because there are more meter maids to annoy drivers and more events downtown to attract people.

Theres more people coming downtown, said John P. Jacks, director of Center City Development & Operations Department.

Jacks wasnt particularly moved when I mentioned the lack of signage.

There are a lot of laws and ordinances where theres not signage, he said, arguing you wouldnt want to put a sign everywhere warning people not to park within 20 feet of a corner.

OK, but walk around downtown and you will see no shortage of signs  and plenty of inconsistency. At Sixth Street and Avenue E, on one side of the street there is a sign telling people not to park close to the corner, but not on the other. At other locations, there are plenty of meters and former meters within 20 feet of a corner.

A source at San Antonio Municipal Court, who asked to stay anonymous, said the top complaint for tickets is a lack of signage. To make it even more arbitrary, there is no consistency in fines. Some hearing officers reduce the fines, and some dont, the source said.

So, maybe you will be ticketed at a spot without a sign, and maybe you wont. Maybe you will get charged the full fine, and maybe you wont.

Tickets are a small thing, but this is the stuff that drives folks crazy and takes on bigger symbolism.

Sure, $35 isnt much, unless, of course, it is. Not everyone has the time or resources to make it down to City Hall to file an appeal. How does San Antonio square that with its progressive image? And for a city that is yearning for a revitalized downtown, ticketing drivers in spaces lacking any signage is pretty darn unwelcoming. Dont come back now.

Fair or not, it all feeds a narrative that no hassle is too small for a city whose appetite for revenue is too big.

JBrodesky@express-news.net
Remarkable news reports that have focused on foreign meddling in the U.S. 2016 presidential election  with nearly daily investigative scoops  are producing comparisons of President Richard Nixon and Watergate to President Donald Trump and the Russians.

The two cases may not fully compare, yet 

For those of us who worked in Congress at the time, the Watergate nightmare imprinted on us the phases of scandal  the five Cs.

Today, they may help answer: Where are we now, and what can we expect? The five Cs are cover-up, cracks, crackup, cleanse and quick collapse.

Watergate and Nixon

From Watergate, I learned:

Cover-up: It began in May and June 1972, with discovery that ex-CIA personnel, directed through Nixons White House, serially burglarized the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. Although the Washington Post had reported the main points of the scandal, by Election Day, six months later, theyd not been absorbed by the public. Nixon trounced Democrat George McGovern, 62 percent to 38 percent, and in the Electoral College, 520-17.

Nixon won the sixth-largest margin in U.S. history and secured peak power  just as his political unraveling began.

Cracks: Secret campaign money corrupted the Nixon campaign and the U.S. government. Campaign funds financed the Watergate burglaries, break-ins and political dirty tricks. The five burglars pleaded guilty and kept silent until March 23, when Judge John Sirica read aloud in court a letter from Watergate burglar James McCord, who said political pressure silenced the burglars while higher-ups went free. Ultimately, more cracks appeared, and they led right to the top.

Crackup: The cover-up and cracks led to a public reckoning  in the press (June 1972), in federal courts (January 1973), and in appointment of a special prosecutor and hearings of the Senate Select Watergate Committee (beginning May 1973). Through those institutions, the corruption gained focus.

A pivot point came Oct. 20, 1973, when Nixon ordered the firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was about to subpoena Nixons White House tapes. Rather than obey Nixon and fire Cox, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned. When the next official in line, Solicitor General Robert Bork, complied and fired Cox, Washington erupted. Nixons support withered from 40 percent the previous week to 23.5 percent overnight.

Cleanse: The Senate Watergate committee hearings exposed the crimes of Nixon and his men. The issues then moved to the House Judiciary Committee.

On July 27, 1974, the committee voted 27-11  moderate Republicans joining Democrats  to impeach Nixon for obstruction of justice. On July 30, the committee, on a 28-10 vote, approved Article 2, which was abuse of power. This was for misusing the IRS, the FBI, the Secret Service, the Department of Justice and the CIA. The same day, the committee, 21-17, adopted Article 3, alleging that Nixon and associates disobeyed subpoenas and requests for documents.

Quick collapse: On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered Nixon to turn over the White House tapes. On Aug. 5, the White House released a previously unknown tape from June 23, 1972. It revealed Nixon and aide H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office planning to block the investigations by having the CIA falsely claim to the FBI that national security was at stake. That tape destroyed Nixon politically.

Two days later, 1964 Republican presidential nominee Sen. Barry Goldwater, House Minority Leader John Rhodes and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott met Nixon in the Old Executive Office Building to tell him that his political support had collapsed. The next day, Nixon announced he would resign.

The Watergate clock, with Nixon starting at peak political power, ran 15 months. From the Supreme Court ruling through the House Judiciary votes to his resignation Aug. 9, Nixons political collapse took 16 days.

Russia and Trump

Now, lets compare the Trump case through the lenses of the five Cs.

Cover-up: The Trump camp has so utterly denied connection to the Russians that its striking compared to what we know:

Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, Vice President-elect Mike Pence and President-elect Trump variously were asked: Are there any ties between you or the campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putin and his regime? Any contact with Russians trying to meddle with the election? Contact between Trump or associates and the Kremlin or cut-outs? During the election?

All five denied this repeatedly.

But we know, thanks to investigative reporting, that top Trump officials met with Russians during the campaign. At least 20 members of the team had contact with 23 Russia-connected individuals or agencies, from Putin to hackers and businessmen. Many connections date from before Trump declared his candidacy. Investigators are asking if Team Trump coordinated with the Russians to elect the Trump-Pence ticket.

Four years ago, Trump told potential investors in Moscow  recorded by Real Estate Weekly  I have a great relationship with many Russians, and almost all of the oligarchs were in the room.

Five years earlier, Donald Trump Jr. told Russian journalists in Moscow, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets in Dubai, Trump SoHo and around New York. New York City real estate broker Dolly Lenz said she sold 65 condos in Trump World, at 845 U.N. Plaza in Manhattan, to Russian investors, many of whom sought meetings with Trump.

Many of those meetings took place in Trump Tower or at sales events, she said.

In 2013, Trump brought the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow, paid for by $20 million from Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov, now central to the investigations. Trump and his company were connected over decades to at least 10 wealthy former Soviet businessmen with suspected ties to organized crime or money laundering, USA Today reported in March.

In March 2016, lobbyist Manafort joined Trump as campaign chairman but left in August after it became clear he had ties to Ukrainian political figure Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych is strongly tied to the Kremlin, which is conducting armed warfare and propaganda campaigns to topple the independent government of Ukraine.

Manafort was a political consultant to Yanukovych until a popular revolt forced Yanukovych to flee to Russia. Manafort failed to file a report showing hed received $17 million over two years for his work. Investigative reports forced him to confirm hed done so  in the U.S., on behalf of a foreign power  without reporting it as the law requires.

In March 2016, the same month, Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign began.

Three months later, on June 9, 2016, Don Jr., his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner and Manafort met in Trump Tower with four Russians they understood would provide damaging information about Clinton as part of Russian government support for Trump.

Thirteen days after the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians, on June 22, 2016, Wikileaks, apparently acting as intermediary for the Russians, released its first batch of DNC emails. On July 27, 2016, candidate Trump in a campaign speech sought help to find the 30,000 emails that are missing from Clintons personal server.

Now, Trump said, if Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean to be honest with you, Id love to see them.

Beginning in July, reports of Russian meddling in the campaign were linked to senior Trump adviser former Army Gen. Michael Flynn, whod met with Russian officials. The FBI and the Obama administration suspected Russian leaking of classified or embarrassing information about Clinton through Wikileaks. An FBI counterintelligence investigation opened in late July 2016.

In August 2016, Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page stepped down after reports that U.S. officials were investigating if Page, like Flynn, was communicating with Russians about lifting U.S. sanctions if Trump became president.

Then, a Sept. 7 document indicated that GOP operative Peter Smith sought Russian help to find Hillary Clintons emails, with the knowledge of Trump campaign officials Flynn, Conway, Steve Bannon, and Sam Clovis, UK security consultant Matt Tait wrote in Lawfare.

On Feb. 12, Flynn was dismissed for phone conversations late last year with Russian ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, in one of which the two discussed sanctions President Barack Obama had imposed on Russia for meddling in the presidential election. Although he fired Flynn, Trump told FBI Director James Comey that he hoped Comey would let the Flynn matter go.

Cracks: Before Trump, on Jan. 30, fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates, she repeatedly warned the Trump White House that the Russians had compromised National Security Adviser Flynn, whod discussed with them the potential for easing Obamas sanctions. Yates warned that Flynn was subject to Russian blackmail. Yet Trump, at about the same time, tweeted: The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?

On Feb. 24, the Washington Post reported the White House had the two Republican chairs of the congressional intelligence committees call reporters off the record to indicate there was nothing to the stories of Trump collusion with the Russians  and the chairs did so.

On March 30, the Wall Street Journal reported Flynns attorney offered that Flynn would testify if granted immunity from prosecution.

On May 15, Trump, apparently compromising a foreign intelligence source without permission, revealed highly classified material to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador meeting Trump in the Oval Office.

On May 16, after Comeys firing, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced he had appointed Robert Mueller, a former prosecutor who served as the FBI director from 2001 to 2013, as special counsel to oversee the Russia probe.

On May 18, the New York Times reported Trump wanted Comey to put out word that Trump was not under investigation

On June 29, the Wall Street Journal reported that GOP opposition researcher Peter W. Smith had sought during the campaign to acquire emails he believed were stolen from Clintons private server, likely by Russian hackers. Smith told the Journal: We knew the people who had these were probably around the Russian government. So Smith sought with a team to search hacker forums for people who might access them.

Ten days after his Wall Street Journal interview, Smith, 81, died, a reported suicide,

Crack-up: On Dec. 9, the Washington Post reported that the CIA concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Trump win the presidency  rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system.

Intelligence agencies identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

On Jan. 6, the declassified Intelligence Community Assessment of 16 agencies asserting Russian meddling said that Putin ordered an information campaign to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Clinton, harm her electability and potential presidency, and help Trumps election chances.

On May 9, Trump fired FBI Director Comey, two days later telling NBCS Lester Holt: Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. I had decided to just do it. I said to myself, I said Yknow, this Russia thing with Trump is a made-up story.

But after a year of denying it, the Trump White House admitted that on June 9, the top echelon of the campaign  Manafort, Kushner and Don Jr.  met with four Russians connected to their government and intelligence operations on the understanding the Russians would provide information to damage Clinton and help Trump. Trump said anybody else would do the same thing: Thats politics.

Cleanse: Investigations are underway through the press, four congressional committees, the special counsel and a variety of lawsuits. Trump, having fired Yates and Comey, has since undercut Sessions, Rosenstein, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Mueller  potentially setting up another Saturday Night Massacre. Trump has also reportedly asserted wide powers to pardon  his aides, his family members, potentially even himself.

The difference, now, however, is that there is a division on the right. In the media, Trump backers Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones of InfoWars have supported Trump despite the Russia revelations. On the other side, U.S. Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio have all raised concerns about evidence linking Trumps team with Russia. And a phalanx of Republican-leaning journalists, from conservative to moderate, have been increasingly critical of Trump and the Russians.

Collapse: Too soon to evaluate. Trump, consumed by his Russia problem, has had much of his agenda stalled.

And his family members, working in the White House and out, are increasingly part of the story  not only for nepotism but conflicts of interest. They are lawyering up or passing the blame, as Trump has in virtually every failure.

Whats different from Watergate, however, are wild cards that are tougher to predict.

Watergate reporting, at first, was slow, politically risky and limited to the Washington Post. Respect for the institution of the presidency was high. Few wanted to believe the allegations until they became inescapable, and this drew more investigative reporters.

In the Trump case, the pace of investigative reporting was strong early and is still surging. Absent something similar to the Senate Watergate Committee, the ritual airing grounds have become cable news, late-night TV and the internet.

Further speeding the pace is a news cycle that is no longer daily  as during Watergate  but moment to moment, worldwide, with competing news outlets, cable TV and the internet vying for breaking stories. Theyve revolutionized communication and vastly accelerated the cycles of news and debate.

The polls for both presidents are now comparable: Nixon registered a 40 percent approval rating the week of Oct.13, 1973. A week later, after the Saturday Night Massacre, that fell to 23.5 percent. Six months into his term, Trumps approval has shrunk below 40 percent, and now he appears to be setting the stage for firing the special prosecutor and others.

Impeaching or indicting a president are serious matters. They impose a conservatizing influence that favors caution and agreement on process. But Trumps emoluments problems, selling houses to Russian and Chinese buyers at a premium, and his failure to settle finance and tax issues or conflicts of interest threaten to accelerate his Russia problems.

When Republicans, coordinated in part by Karl Rove, learned to control elections by mastering the dark arts of redistricting, and campaign and deception craft, the United States became, as I wrote in my book, A Nation Seized. Now that it seems the Russians may have tipped our presidency in their favor, it may be time to revisit that title to apply to another book: A Nation Seized  by Russia.

The array of denials from the Trump team recalls the adage: Denial is not just a river in Egypt; its the first stage in Kubler-Ross model of dealing with death and dying.

Trump is not down for the count, but if the current pace intensifies and quickens, as it seems to be, we may anticipate a dramatic turn in this story by Dec. 1.

Bill Israel, Ph.D., worked in Washington as press secretary to U.S. Sen. Harold E. Hughes, D-Iowa, during Watergate. He is an associate professor of journalism and political communication at St. Marys University in San Antonio.
A legal squabble between a probate court judge and Bexar County commissioners over who appoints the judge presiding over the mental health docket has left taxpayers with a $133,000 tab. Thats what it cost to settle the case and pay legal expenses.

The turf battle also resulted in a yearlong vacancy in an important judicial post.

The dispute should have been resolved without the filing of a lawsuit. The parties should have settled this by themselves. Instead, it became a drawn-out power struggle.

County commissioners spent $113,000 in attorney fees to defend themselves against allegations they had overstepped their statutory powers and were abusing their budgetary authority. The case was settled late last month, with $20,000 going to Probate Judge Kelly M. Cross.

Cross filed suit against Bexar County commissioners after the two parties got crossways over who had the authority to fill the associate probate judge position responsible for handling the countys mental health cases.

Cross ignited a firestorm last summer when she fired Oscar Kazen, a popular judge who had been hired by the commissioners in 2007 to handle the cases. The situation grew worse for Cross, who was in her first year on the bench, when she named Kazens replacement without consulting commissioners.

County commissioners countered by eliminating the probate judge position from the budget, leaving the new appointee without a job. They created a new associate judge position to handle the mental health docket.

When Cross made an appointment to the new post  again, without consulting Commissioners Court  commissioners unfunded the new position.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in April issued an opinion stating a court would likely conclude Cross had the authority to appoint the mental health associate judge. That prompted commissioners to restore funding for the position, and Cross made her appointment in June. But the lawsuit persisted.

One of the issues in that lawsuit was resolved in favor of the county commissioners this summer. However, a request by Cross for a declaratory judgment on whether the presiding judge of Probate Court No. 1 had the sole authority to appoint the mental health judge remained pending.

Perhaps now that the political grandstanding and turf battles have been resolved, attention can finally refocus on the countys growing mental health docket.
Re: 2 tragedies in Texas: Its time to be honest with ourselves, Gilbert Garcia, July 27:

Certainly, others have wondered why the trailer carrying the migrants to their deaths wasnt examined more carefully at the checkpoint before it reached San Antonio. And many wondered, years earlier, why another trailer, carrying other migrants to their deaths near Victoria, wasnt scrutinized.

The Department of Homeland Security always asks for more and more in its budget. Maybe it should get those funds if it results in better checkpoint vigilance. Slower lines, longer lines?

Worth the wait if lives are saved.

Eugene Gene Novogrodsky, Brownsville

Such good Taste

Kudos to your food editors for the pleasant tone of their writing and smart commentary about various aspects of food and restaurants.

Thanks!

Julie Norton

Happy comedians

Saturday Night Live writers are champing at the bit to get back to work.

Imagine Melissa McCarthy taking over the Sarah Huckabee Sanders role. Imagine Joe Pesci coming out of retirement to play Anthony The Mooch Scaramucci.

By the way, the Mooch is not a Queens kid (like me). He went to high school in a high-end area of Nassau County, Long Island. That is NOT a part of New York City!

Gerald Geraci

Sessions now safe

Attorney General Jeff Sessions isnt going anywhere. The man whom the Democrats railed against in editorials across the nation are now defending him. President Donald Trumps besmirching of Sessions made that possible.

Well done, Mr. President.

Leo Q. Gomez

A sitting duck

Re: Trump: USS Ford is 100,000-ton message to the world, Nation & World, July 23:

President Donald Trump commissioned the USS Gerald R. Ford recently.

Big deal. The U.S. has another aircraft carrier. Today, with the new generation of missiles that can pinpoint a target within inches, all these floating ships are nothing more than sitting ducks on a pond.

Joe Remling

Wall devastating

I agree with Sen. John Cornyn that non-wall options may be appropriate for eco-sensitive border areas such as Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge. A wall would disrupt the migratory patterns of endangered ocelots and jaguar, and it could block public access to the popular birding trails.

More than 165,000 nature tourists visit the refuge each year, injecting $34 million into the economies of the small city of Alamo and nearby communities, according to newspaper reports. A wall cutting off Santa Ana would be devastating to the economy and employment of the area.

The wall construction would bring dollars and jobs, but it would last only as long as the construction. The construction workers could come for jobs, then leave flimsy housing built for them unoccupied upon departing. Large equipment could damage roads, requiring county repair.

Sen. Cornyn, continue to push back against federal moves to build the border wall in the eco-tourist areas in South Texas.

Martha Rogers

Church-state facts

Re: U.S. founded on freedom, not Christianity, Eric Lane, Other Views, July 27:

The only addition I would make to this very well-stated commentary is that in 1797, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved, and President John Adams signed, a treaty that stated the following: The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or Mohammedan nation.

The alt-right can keep their alternative facts to themselves; the rest of us will simply go with the facts.

Jason Chapel, Spring Branch

Legacies tarnished

What a trashy White House. Imagine what previous presidents must think. It makes one think of the old line spinning in their graves.

Lord help us.

Jimmy Gonzales

Disgracing fine city

As a San Antonio native, I have always been proud of our historical diversity. Our city has been under six flags. We have statues and memorials throughout the city representing the various events and people that are part of that history, including Vietnam and Korean War memorials, as well as statues honoring the Alamo.

Unfortunately, there are those, such as Councilman Robert Trevino, who want San Antonio to join cities like New Orleans and St Louis in removing part of our history. He is spearheading the removal of the Confederate statue in Travis Park. He is like other liberals, arrogant enough to think he can change history by removing a piece of granite. The statue memorializes Confederate soldiers who were also citizens of San Antonio. They fought for a cause they thought worth dying for.

Lets pretend those of us with family members in the Civil War never existed. Lets pretend the Alamo never existed because it offends some Hispanics. Lets remove the quadrangle at Fort Sam Houston because it once unfairly held captive Geronimo, the great Native American chief.

The efforts of revisionist historians like Trevino go beyond logic. Its a travesty, a disgrace to what makes San Antonio the most unique historical city in the U.S. But lets not be a unique city. Lets pretend to be an ordinary city.

Dale Hart
Civil society organisations have said members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) must return to the barracks, further calling for the setting up of an independent body to investigate reports of civilian abuse by soldiers.

Soldiers are still in the streets following a takeover of government last month, which saw the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe, leading to president Emmerson Mnangagwas appointment.

However, there have been reports of human rights abuses, as videos of soldiers beating civilians have emerged on social media.

The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), said this must come to an end and be investigated.

The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) is alarmed by increasing reports of military officers violently attacking members of the public that have surfaced on social media.

There have been alleged cases of military officers beating up members of the public with some cases being captured on camera.

Military officers made up 24,4 percent of perpetrators of recorded cases in the ZPP November monthly monitoring report that records human rights violations compared to only 0,6 percent in the previous month, the organisation said.

It further said, The ZPP is challenging the ZDF to immediately investigate these cases of human rights violations that are not acceptable at any stage.

If any members of the military are found perpetrating these incidents, the ZDF is encouraged to take action and make this information readily available to the citizens who are now instilled with fear.

The ZPP feels that the military should be in the barracks in line with the fact that they are the last line of defence.

The organisation said the issue of the soldiers must be addressed without delay, as the military is not equipped to deal with civilians.

Another human rights organisation Heal Zimbabwe, also expressed concern over the continued presence of the military on the streets.

Heal Zimbabwe wishes to register its dismay at recent reports that allege gross human rights abuse by members of the security services. Reports of soldiers abusing innocent civilians have been reported in many parts of the country with the most recent ones in Kwekwe, the organisation said.

Heal Zimbabwe described the situation as deplorable, adding that it goes against every grain of the constitutional provisions.

Government must also with immediate effect set up an independent complaints mechanism as provided for in Section 210 of the Constitution.

The role of the complaints mechanism is to receive and investigate complaints from members of the public about misconduct on the part of members of the security services and for remedying any harm by such misconduct.

There is an urgent need for soldiers to return to the barracks and allow people to go about their business without fear of being harassed and attacked by members of the uniformed forces, Heal Zimbabwe said.

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MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday said his political nemesis President Emmerson Mnangagwa had pressed the panic button which has seen him deploy heavily armed security forces in most urban centres to clamp down on opposition activists to thwart imminent change of government.

Speaking at a birthday party for slain footballer Kelvin Tinashe Chotos two-year-old daughter in Chitungwiza, Chamisa vowed a new Zimbabwe is coming.

Choto was one of the 17 people fatally shot by State security agents during the January 2019 fuel price hike protests.

A new Zimbabwe is coming, it will come without you expecting, but it is near, we can see it coming soon, Chamisa said.

You can tell from their behaviour. It shows they know something is about to happen. Change is near and they know it.

In a new government, all these people affected by the behaviour of this government should be compensated. What happened in August 2018 and January 2019, government must apologise to families affected. I am here representing real leadership and as president of the new government to say that I am sorry for what happened and victims should be compensated, that we will do in our new government, he said.

The only way to appease avenging spirits is to compensate and apologise. Just like Gukurahundi, it cant be swept under the carpet.

The youthful opposition leader said he would ensure the needs of the orphaned children were catered for.

At 21, he (the late Choto) was a very young family man who had nothing to do with politics. He was just an innocent young man minding his own business and was killed. It is sad. This must end. We have a problem in this country where we have leaders who think use of force is leadership. Use of violence should not define leadership. Leadership is being with the people, listening to the needs of the people and addressing them, Chamisa said.

He blasted Mnangagwa for abusing the COVID-19 national lockdown to fight and decimate the opposition and said the use of the army and police to take over his party headquarters, Harvest House and hand it over to his rival Thokozani Khupe, was unfortunate.

Chamisa described Khupes seizure of his party offices as childs play, adding that it would not take his party two minutes to reclaim the party headquarters if it so wished.

He (Mnangagwa) is busy fighting people, ignoring calls to unite and defeat COVID-19. He is now sending our army to take over Harvest House, how is it a security issue? Are there weapons at Harvest House?

After the birthday party, Chamisa took time to interact with residents in the dormitory town to appreciate their concerns.

 NewsDay

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CIVIL servants have expressed elation at President Emmerson Mnangagwas responsiveness to their concerns saying signs are there for all to see that the new political administration is sensitive and determined to better their welfare and remuneration.

This was after the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) last week promised to look into the deductions from civil servants salaries by loan sharks.

This was in response to the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) that had sought President Mnangagwas intervention on the deductions.

PTUZ sits on the Apex Council, a body that represents civil servants and has previously been critical of the previous political administration that was marshalled by former President, Cde Robert Mugabe.

Last weeks swift response to PTUZs concerns by the Presidents Office appears to have enamoured the union.

Over 30 000 civil servants have reportedly had money deducted from their salaries by loan sharks ostensibly to service non-existent loans.

One of the loan sharks that have been fingered in the alleged scam is McDowells International (Pvt) Limited, which has since been liquidated.

Some of the affected workers claim they have been left with as little as $0,73 after deductions.

In a letter to PTUZ on Tuesday last week, Principal Director in President Mnangagwas Office Mr Christopher Gwatidzo said the matter would be looked into with the gravity and urgency it deserves.

PTUZ secretary general Mr Raymond Majongwe posted the letter on his official twitter account on Friday last week.

ED has responded to our letter concerning fleecing of civil servants by bogus companies.

This is the first time the Office of the President has done so since our birth, an excited Mr Majongwe posted.

Part of the letter written by Mr Gwatidzo reads, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe . . . has noted the unions great concern on the welfare of as well as deductions from teachers salaries.

The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) in consultation with the line Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education will look into the matter with the gravity and urgency it deserves.

PTUZ president Dr Takavafira Zhou said the response from President Mnangagwas office was positive and encouraging.

He said as civil servants representatives, they welcomed the Presidents commitment to address the welfare of Government workers.

I think this is a positive and encouraging move. We hope that the line ministry that was officially informed by the OPC will act accordingly, he said.

Dr Zhou added, We are quite happy and hope that the issue will be dealt with to its logical conclusion.

We are encouraged by the concern over our welfare. We hope for an improvement and to be paid reasonable salaries, he said.

Earlier this year PTUZ had their demonstration against the deductions blocked by police and the union insisted that it would continue engaging the police to be allowed to protest.

The union had planned to march to the SSB and Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare in Harare where they would deliver petitions over the continued deduction.

Dr Zhou said the union had shelved the plans and was giving President Mnangagwa an opportunity to deal with the matter.

There is a new administration now and it has promised to look into the issue. Lets give them a chance to pursue the issue to its logical conclusion, he said.

Last year the High Court appointed a provisional liquidator to collect money owed to McDowels by its debtors, among them some civil servants who had taken loans.

However, some civil servants, mostly teachers, claim they have been made to pay monthly premiums to service loans from McDowells which they did not take.

Those that took loans from the company claim that the loan shark continues to deduct money from their salaries despite them having finished paying off.

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Sightsavers is an international organisation that changes lives for the long term. We work in more than 30 countries to eliminate avoidable blindness and support people with visual impairments to live independently.We are recruiting to fill the position belowThis role will support the mass administration of medicines and other initiatives in the national trachoma elimination programme working directly with the Federal Ministry of Health.Key Accountabilities and ResponsibilitiesProgramme Management:Support the national eye health coordinator in the overall coordination of distribution of antibiotics towards the elimination of trachoma in NigeriaParticipates in state micro planning for distribution of antibiotics towards the elimination of trachoma in NigeriaSupport coordination of implementation of mass administration of medicines and ensure adherence to work plans and budgets for the achievement of planned project outputs and targets in each stateCoordinate capacity building initiatives as required at the state and LGAs levelsSupport the state and LGAs programme teams to identify and develop innovative approaches for the implementation of mass administration medicines to ensure delivery of programme targets.Support collaboration with relevant governmental, non-governmental agencies and stakeholders where necessary for the effective implementation of project activitiesMonitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (50% of time):Support the national eye health coordinator in monitoring and supervision of distribution of antibiotics and adherence to preferred practices.Conduct monthly programme site visits and follow up on outstanding issues as an integral part of the position.The person will be responsible for guiding the overall Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E) strategy, managing the interventions and use of M & E methodology/approaches to meet proposed goals.Collate and review all treatment data from the states and report to national eye health coordinator and trachoma technical action committeeInvestigate all reports of all adverse experiences and submit findings to National Eye Health Coordinator. Also take appropriate actions to address all confirmed adverse effectsWork closely with all partners to ensure proper inventory of all medicines supplied as part of the supply chain management of the programme.Prepare report for National Coordinator at the end of distribution of antibiotics including final treatment figures within 60 days of completion for submission to relevant partners and donorsAssist National Coordinator in completing the dossier for the elimination of elimination of trachoma in NigeriaRepresent the programme office on monitoring and evaluation issues at relevant state ministries and other agenciesEnsure NTDs data is updated as required and shared with relevant agenciesCoordinate the preparation of quarterly and annual reports to trachoma technical action committee as requiredTechnical knowledge of one or more of the five leading NTDsExperience in managing an integrated NTD programme.A demonstrated record of accomplishment in developing and managing public health programmes.Experience in Monitoring and Evaluation.Minimum of 5-6 years working experience, ideally in an INGO setting.Experience in the management of donors supported programmesExcellent analytical skills.Ability to build strong working relationships to enable effective management of partnerships and work collaboratively as part of a global team.Proven ability to think strategically and translate concepts into effective action plans.Excellent networking and advocacy skills.Excellent presentation skills.Ability to deliver group training sessions.People management skills with a strong understanding of culturally and ethnically sensitive issues.Able to travel regularly on project visitsAn understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity for disabled people.15th August, 2017.Sightsavers is partnering with the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure wards the elimination of trachoma in Nigeria.The technical advisers are being engaged to support the oversight of the quality assurance of trichiasis surgeries support to the trichiasis surgeons and their supervisors across the country.They will be members of the Trachoma Technical Action Committee and report to the technical lead of the project in Nigeria and would be on par-time.The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust Trachoma Initiative is expanding its support to the trachoma elimination programme in Nigeria from August 2017 to March 2019.As part of the project two consultant Ophthalmologists will be engaged and will be responsible for the technical management of TT surgeons and their supervisors across the country.They will support the oversight of the quality assurance of: trichiasis surgeries and the training of TT surgeons to meet minimum requirements.They will monitor, assess and advise on the performance of lid surgeons and TT surgeon supervisors and provide general technical advice on project implementation to the Trachoma Technical Advisory Committee.Their remit will cover the all trachoma endemic states in the country and they will report to the Technical Lead  Nigeria Trachoma Elimination Programme - Prof Caleb Mpyet.They are expected to work part-time and will be on a retainer with daily rates for days worked.Their work will be based on an agreed project requirement with their line manager.Strategic Programme Planning and Development:Participate in strategic planning processes to successfully drive the direction and delivery of trichiasis surgeries and ensure objectives are met in line with national trachoma elimination programme in Nigeria supporting the National Trachoma Manager.In collaboration with the Trachoma Technical Advisory Committee develop guidelines and country level action and implementation plans for clearing of trichiasis backlog in Nigeria.Provide technical leadership and guidance to the programme to ensure that TT backlog trends are effectively tracked and the data collected is used to develop dossier for the elimination of trachoma in Nigeria with special attention to trichiasis.Monitoring, Evaluation and Quality Assurance:Support the national elimination programme in developing a system for monitoring and evaluating programme performance.Provide effective monitoring of and guidance to TT surgeons and their supervisors in the implementation of the trachoma elimination programme in Nigeria.Support the state supervisors in carrying out routine supervisionReview and analyse reports of supervisory visits and provide technical advice to the state supervisorsMonitor all ongoing TT surgery programmes for adherence to preferred practicesDraw up schedule for surgical audits in all TT surgical programmes for quality assuranceConduct TT audits according to guidelines and report to Technical Lead - Nigeria Trachoma Elimination ProgrammeAnalyse report of audits and schedule frequency of further audits or supervisory visitsEnsure appropriate actions are taken based on audit findings and, where appropriate, surgeon refresher trainings are properly conductedConsultant Ophthalmologist with at least five years experience on trichiasis surgeryHaving a M.Sc in Community Eye Health would be an added advantageMinimum of 3 years experience of working and/or collaborating with INGOs on eye healthTechnical knowledge on programme support for trachoma control in Nigeria.Understanding of the health system in Nigeria.Experience of monitoring and evaluation of eye health programmesExcellent analytical skills.Ability to build strong working relationships to enable effective management of partnerships and work collaboratively as part of a global team.Proven ability to think strategically and translate concepts into effective action plans.Excellent networking and advocacy skills.Excellent presentation skills.Ability to deliver group training sessions.People management skills with a strong diplomatic understanding of culturally and ethnically sensitive issues.Able to travel regularly on a national and international basis.An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity for disabled peopleNetworking and influencing both within and outside the organisationChange and improvement - Seeks continuous improvement in own and teams performance. Assists and encourages others to adapt to change and implement new ideas.Communicating and influencing - Identifies the needs of others, uses effective approaches and styles to persuade and communicates to groups in an interesting and effective way.Decision making - Consults and listens to take clear and timely decisions.Planning and organisation - Develops plans considering all the resources necessary to achieve objectives. Monitors objectives and measurement systems on a regular basis, identifying trends and key messages in data.Delivery and implementation - Continues to perform objectives positively in the face of pressures from various sources.Ensure the team has a can do attitude and customer service mentality.Team working - Encourages and supports team members to ensure contributions are recognised, delegates effectively and encourages working in collaboration.Key Relationships (Internal):National Coordinator Neglected Tropical Diseases Federal Ministry of HealthNational Eye Health Coordinator, Federal Ministry of HealthState Ministries of Health in NigeriaNon-Governmental OrganisationsKey Relationships (External - Sightsavers):Implementation partners - NGDOsSightsavers - Director of NTDsSightsavers NTDs department, including the global disease advisorsTechnical Lead - Nigeria Trachoma Elimination ProgrammeProject Director Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust Trachoma Initiative in SightsaversSightsavers Regional Directors, West AfricaTechnical Lead - DFID and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, TrachomaCountry Director - Sightsavers NigeriaProgramme Manager Trachoma - Sightsavers NigeriaUse the email(s) below to apply.Coordinator - Mass Administration of Medicines, Trachoma Elimination Programme - jobs@sightsavers.org Technical Adviser, Trachoma Elimination Programme - jobs@sightsavers.org Applicants should please download the Application form below and return the completed Application form and Equal Opportunities form as two separate documents to: jobs@sightsavers.org We will be contacting shortlisted candidates for interview, shortly after the closing dates.We very much regret that in view of the large number of applications we receive, we are unable to respond if you are unsuccessful. I am sure that you will understand the need to concentrate resources towards our work.Please attach Application and Equal Opportunities form only. No CVs acceptedWere an equal opportunities employer, and we particularly encourage qualified people living with a disability to apply.15 August, 2017
My name is Sarah Ryan and Im 20 years old. Im a student from Donohill near Tipperary Town, doing a Bachelor of Arts in English and New Media in UL. I will be teaching English abroad in Spain until the end of June and writing about my adventures for The Nationalist.

Part 6

When faced with the reality of living in Spain for five months, the time seemed infinite. Endless amounts of work days followed by endless weekends. It was easy to put off adventures for the next weekend.

Suddenly four months fly by and I realise all those next weekends were now limited to just four. What was I going to do with this time? How should I spend my last few weekends?

Together with two friends, we devised a four-week plan in which we filled our final weekends with everything we could possibly fit from water parks to scuba-diving, cable cars to art museums, and aquariums to festivals on the beach.

The first weekend trip involved, which turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life, scuba-diving.

We were given a tutorial on how to use the diving equipment and techniques such as how to clear your goggles of water if they began to leak. Nothing though could have prepared me for the utter silence that hits once youre several metres under the sea. It was so strange but completely mesmerizing at the same time. We swam among what could only have been thousands of fish and even found a baby octopus. The whole experience was just magical. I couldnt recommend it enough.

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

The second trip was to a water park. Honestly, this was the activity I was most apprehensive about but loved all the same. I even went on one of those slides where you climb all the way to the top, stand into a tube and wait for the attendant to press a button which drops the floor out from under you, sending you down on an almost vertical drop. I was terrified to do it but I always wanted to and Im so glad I did. There was even this giant pool where they made artificial waves. The pool was so deep and the waves so high it was crazy. We spent hours there and could have spent much more if it wasnt for the fact we got hungry and went on the quest for food.

The third trip was to the cable cars in Barcelona and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Both experiences were incredible. The trip in the cable cars gave a new and intriguing view of Barcelona, one which is not achievable through merely wandering the streets. Not to mention the art museum in all its glory with high ceilings, domed roofing and vast amounts of art.

Taking the Barcelona cable car.

The fourth and final trip involved an aquarium and our final nights in Spain. We travelled into Barcelona and spent almost two hours trying to find the aquarium thanks to my awful directions which caused us to get a more expanded tour of Barcelona. We spent our final day and night together first at work, then at our final meal (all twenty something of us). From there we headed to the beach in the village were the locals were having a festival. They burned all the old fire wood in giant bonfires and then launched fireworks from the beach. It was a truly beautiful way to end our time there.

The following day however, began the goodbyes to people whom I had been living and working with for the past five months and it was a lot harder than I could have imagined. I had to say goodbye to people whom Id become so close to in those short months. Not to mention saying goodbye to my new closest friend and roommate who ended up leaving on an earlier flight to me. That separation was heartbreaking.

However, no matter how hard it was to say goodbye, that whole experience was worth it. I would leave in a moments notice if I could. Im sitting here at home writing this reminiscing about my five months abroad, looking out into the rain and realizing that I cannot wait to leave again.

A view over Barcelona

Leaving Ireland was the best thing I could have ever done. It opened my mind and heart to new experiences and challenges and has made me hungry for more. I now crave new experience, new cultures.

The count down for me to finish my degree and leave Ireland is on and I cannot wait to finally grab that piece of paper, book the first flight out and just go.
Don't miss the rare opportunity to experience one of Germany's finest ensembles when Chamber Philharmonia Cologne perform on Tuesday, 8th August at 8 pm in Old St. Marys Church in Clonmel.

This will be a diverse programme ranging from Antonio Vivaldi and his tremendously famous "Four Seasons" to Handel, Peter Tchaikovsky and Niccolo Paganini

Bookings: The Book Market, Market Place, Clonmel, Tel. 052 / 6129236

Adults:  20; Seniors / Pensioners:  17; Students / Children:  12.

Classical music the world over  this is the motto of the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne.

It is irrelevant for the musicians whether they are playing in a little village church, in the open air, in Cologne Cathedral or in the Sydney Opera House  their enthusiasm to play music is the same every time.

The objective is simple  they want to inspire as many people as possible across all generations to enjoy classical music.

The popularity of their ensemble is reflected in the fact that the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne gives around 300 concerts a year around the globe and listeners throughout the world look forward to a musical encounter with the exceptionally talented group of musicians.
(Natural News) Ben & Jerrys  an iconic ice cream brand famous for its Fairtrade and eco-friendly practices  is under fire after lab tests uncovered traces of a controversial herbicide in most of its products. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) recently reported that the worlds most widely used herbicide sold under the brand name Roundup was found in several varieties of the popular ice cream brand.

[Editors note: The concentration of glyphosate found in the ice cream is so low that it may be meaningless. As a lab scientist who is very familiar with the analytical methods for quantitation of glyphosate, Im skeptical that quant data at this low of a concentration is statistically reliable. It is also possible that 1 ppb of glyphosate could be found in almost all ice cream or dairy products, as contamination is so widespread. More analysis coming soon.  Mike]

Glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA, glyphosates main metabolite) were found in 10 out of 11 samples of the companys ice cream. The flavors tested included Peanut Butter Cup, Peanut Butter Cookie, Vanilla (2 samples), Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, The Tonight Dough, Half Baked, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Americone Dream, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Cherry Garcia was the only flavor that tested negative for both glyphosate and AMPA.

OCA has called for the company to make an immediate transition to organic ingredients or face a national and international consumer boycott. Furthermore, the Association also called on natural and organic food stores to remove Ben & Jerrys products from their stores if the company fails to transition to organic ingredients only.

OCA International Director Ronnie Cummins said that Ben & Jerrys falsely brands its products as natural, sustainable, and socially responsible. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Ben & Jerrys profits are built on the back of an industrial dairy system that poisons the environment and produces pesticide-contaminated food products. Ben & Jerrys sales, driven in large part by its deceitful claims, damage the organic industry by cutting into the sales of authentic natural, grass-fed, and organic producers, he said.

Rob Michalak, global director of social mission at Ben & Jerrys, told The New York Times that the company is working to ensure all ingredients in its supply chain come from non-GMO sources. He noted that none of the plant-based ingredients come from GMO crops, such as corn or soy, where glyphosate is commonly used. Additionally, the company is trying to find more cost-effective ways for the dairy farms that supply its milk to use non-GMO feed for their animals.

We need to better understand where the glyphosate theyre finding is coming from, said Mr. Michalak. Maybe its from something thats not even in our supply chain, and so were missing it.

There are NO safe levels of glyphosate

Though the levels of glyphosate found in the companys products do not violate the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, many consumers are reluctant to purchase foods that contain traces of glyphosate because of its evident link to cancer and other diseases.

Ben and Jerrys Chocolate Fudge Brownie was found to have the highest levels of glyphosate (1.74 parts per billion) and glyphosate byproduct AMPA (0.91 parts per billion). In 2015, the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. Earlier this summer, the state of California has declared that glyphosate weed killer is a known carcinogen that will be added to the scope of Proposition 65.

Furthermore, the journal Nature recently published a report that linked low doses of glyphosate to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Their results indicated that the EPA and other regulatory agencies have been wrong all along. There are no safe levels of glyphosate.

Monsanto and other companies that produce glyphosate-containing products, however, dispute any of these claims and remain positive that low levels of glyphosate or its metabolites are not harmful to humans. They labeled the Nature study as bad science. Whats worse, governments and other regulators side with these criminal and money-greedy corporations.

Not everyone agrees with the acceptable levels governments have set, Ronnie Cummins said. And, anyway, would you want to be eating this stuff at all?

Sources include:

NYTimes.com

OrganicConsumers.org

Nature.com
(Natural News) Your days of saying hello to people via your smartphone in the Aloha state are numbered  that is, if you are crossing the street at the same time.

Pedestrians who are looking down at their smartphones or their other gadgets or texting while crossing the street will soon face fines in Honolulu, Hawaii in late October, as the area becomes one of the first major cities in the United States to pass legislation aimed at reducing instances of injuries and deaths due to inattentive road movement or distracted walking.

The measure is the states answer to the accidents that a smartphone zombie usually encounters, which include stepping into oncoming traffic or coming into face-first contact with a stationary object.

Starting Wednesday, October 25, pedestrians in Honolulu can face fines from $15 to $35 and up to $99 for recurrent violations based on how many times they were caught looking at a phone or swiping a tablet device while crossing the street, Honolulu Mayor Kirk William Caldwell said in an interview with reporters as they converged near one of the citys busiest intersections on Thursday, July 27.

We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks, paritcularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the country, Mayor Caldwell said, after signing the bill that was passed in a 7-2 vote by the city council earlier this July.

Sometimes I wish there were laws that we didnt have to pass  that perhaps common sense would prevail, but sometimes we lack common sense, Caldwell added.

For his part, Honolulu City Councilman Brandon Elefante said there is growing concern for people who were using electronic devices and not really paying attention while crossing the street in a major highway section. This issue has been a growing concern as technology has advanced and the main driving point is safety. Having a law like this will help people become more aware.

The new legislation exempts people who are making emergency calls, for instance, to 911. The measure also puts a $130 fine for people who will be caught jaywalking, whether or not they did it because they were distracted by their phone.

According to a University of Maryland study that was published in 2015, over 11,000 injuries were caused by phone-related distraction while walking in the U.S. between 2000 and 2011. Because of these findings, Itasca, Illinois-based non-profit organization National Safety Council added distracted walking to its yearly report of the biggest risks for unintentional accidents, injuries, and fatalities in America.

Cell phones are not just pervading our roadways but pervading our sidewalks too, council spokeswoman Maureen Vogel said in a phone interview on Friday, July 28. (Related: NY lawmaker wants to ban use of cell phones and iPods in crosswalks.)

The campaign to deter the prevalence of accidents involving phone-obsessed people has already been in place in Europe before this major announcement. For instance, London authorities have placed padding around their lampposts to soften the blow for distracted pedestrians who might bump into them.

Last year, the city of Augsburg in Germany placed traffic signals into the ground near tram tracks to aid people who are looking down while crossing the street  presumably those who are doing something with their mobile gadgets while at the same time trying to get to the other side of the road  and helping them avoid injury.

Critics of the new legislation said it curtails personal freedoms and can be considered as government overreach, with private citizen Ben Robinson saying in a written testimony to the council: Scrap this intrusive bill, provide more education to citizens about responsible electronics usage, and allow law enforcement to focus on larger issues.

For his part, City Councilman Ernie Martin said, Given the issues that Honolulu faces, such as homelessness and our rail project having a $3 billion deficit, there are more pressing matters that Id prefer for us to focus on. Ive always been very careful not to include legislation for issues that could be addressed through other means.

According to data from the Governors Highway Safety Association, Hawaii ranked in the number 17th state for pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people in 2015.

Read up on more stories such as this one at NewsTarget.com.

Sources include:

Reuters.com

Honolulu.gov

DailyMail.co.uk

GHSA.org
(Natural News) Single mother-of-three, Leeanne Ericson, survived a shark attack by gouging out the animals eyes until it let her go. The attack left Ericson in critical condition, with a massive piece of her right thigh missing. She was placed in a medically-induced coma but has since recovered and stabilized.

Despite the generally good prognosis given by her doctors, Ericson would still need several surgeries in order to gain full mobility. Her mother, Christine McKnerney, started a GoFundMe page to raise money for her daughters growing hospital bills. The campaign has already generated $126,222 of its intended goal of $200,000.

The 35-year-old mom was vacationing with her family and friends at the San Onofre Beach in the northern San Diego County in California. She was paddling out into the ocean to where her boyfriend, Dusty Phillips was surfing. As she was swimming, she felt something bite her leg and pull her down.

Phillips remembered shooing Ericson away from his board to catch a new set of waves. I absolutely regret that, he said in an exclusive interview with Surfline. As I was paddling, I heard the scream. It was a piercing scream Id never heard. And it disappeared, mid-scream. I turned around as quick as I could and there wasnt even a ripple. Where the f*** did she go?

What Philipps couldnt see was that a nine to 11-foot great white shark had taken hold of Ericson and was pulling her deeper into the water. Ericson recalled that she began to feel her brain shut down as she struggled against the tremendous pressure. Instinctively, she fought back, pushing and clawing her way from the shark. In desperation, her fingers found the eye sockets of the great white and she began digging against it. After what seemed like hours of incessant scraping, the shark let go.

Meanwhile, Philipps was trying to find Ericson. He saw the shark thrashing and swam straight to it without giving much thought. Im going to dance with this thing, too. It looked like a feeding frenzy, he stated.

However, Philipps stopped mid-course when he saw that Ericson was nowhere near the shark. Apparently, the animal had swum in the opposite direction. Frantic, Philipps began his search again and finally saw Ericson floating almost peacefully amidst the waves. He pulled her onto his board when he finally noticed her leg. The wound started from her hip and ended at her knee, with remnants of flesh remaining at the side. Philipps had lost a great deal of blood and was not breathing. Medical doctors later said that Philipps lungs were inundated with water and pieces of her own flesh which she accidentally inhaled. Her condition is known as dry drowning, which is a form of non-fatal respiratory impairment.

Philipps and Ericson were met by a team of responders who tied a tourniquet to the wound. It took a desperate 15 minutes from the beach to reach the parking lot where EMTs were waiting. Ericson was stripped off of her wetsuit and placed in a medically-induced coma.

Sharks are losing prey

This is but one of the recent incidents of shark attacks happening along the Californian coastline. Biologists and sea experts say that this is indicative of an ever-reducing number of prey for big marine animals. They believe that Ericsons attack was a case of mistaken identity. (Related: Man-made ocean pollution has severely affected the immune systems of wild dolphins, researchers claim)

Philipps explains: It was an attack bite. [The shark] was hunting [a] sea lion in the water with us. And in the murky water, the shark wasnt able to identify between surfer or sea lion. It wasnt a test bite. It wasnt out of curiosity. This was an attack bite to kill.

With water pollution becoming a very real threat to the ecosystem, experts say that bigger marine animals (such as sharks) are forced to swim in areas they would not normally go, even where it would take them into close proximity to humans.

Sources include:

GoFundMe.com

TheSun.co.uk

SurfLine.com

Telegraph.co.uk
(Natural News) Science can be used as a manipulative tool to distort nature for material gain, or science can help us unlcok secrets of consciousness, interconnectivity, and the intelligent design existing throughout nature. In a stunning new discovery, scientists reveal that parasitic dodder plants communicate with host plants to provide self defense against insects.

There are reasons why some plants grow well together and why some do not. Every component of nature, even parasites, plays a vital role in the ecology of life. The US Department of Agriculture has listed parasitic dodder as a federal noxious weed. Current agricultural systems go to great lengths to apply carcinogenic glyphosate and other herbicide mixtures to kill off dodder.

However, a team of scientists from Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology found that parasitic dodder plants of the genus Cuscuta do more than just take nutrients from host plants. Dodder give back to neighboring plants by engaging in social media-like information sharing that warns host plants about insect threats. Dodder plants act as a parasite, but are a valuable warning system that sends crucial signals to neighboring plants.

Dodder does not contain roots or leaves. As a parasite, it grows on host plants, never touching the soil. It does damage to weak crops that do not have enough nutrients to share. Dodder uses their unique haustoria to penetrate host plants so they can take water and nutrients. Scientists are now learning that this relationship isnt one-sided. The dodder are latching on, connecting their vascular systems, and getting nutrients, but they are also sharing crucial information with their hosts. Are plants conscious? (Related: Stunned scientists discover that plants learn like humans and can intelligently adapt to their environments.)

The warning signals help host plants prepare their defenses in advance to take on insects. Scientists have found that plants communicate underground using mycorrhizal networks. For the first time, scientists from Max Planck and Kunming Institute of Botany in China came together to study how parasitic plants communicate important insect feeding signals. For their experiment, they used soybean plants, tobacco, wild tomato and thale cress and paired the plants with the dodder. Then they unleashed Spodoptera litura caterpillars, a common pest, onto the plants.

Using RNA sequencing, the scientists analyzed the transcriptome for all active genes in the leaves of all host plants. Dodder that was wounded by the caterpillars transferred defense signals through dodder bridges that connected the parasite with the host plants.

Signal transfer was revealed in the major changes we found in the transcriptomes of the attacked leaves as well as the unattacked leaves of the same plant and  which was most important  of neighboring plants, said study author Christian Hettenhausen, a former co-worker of the Max Planck Institute in Jena.

After the insects started feeding on the dodder, defense signals traveled rapidly from plant to plant via the dodder network, even over large distances said Jianqiang Wu from the Kunming Institute of Botany. A plant hormone called jasmonic acid played an important role in the signaling between the host plant and the dodder. The alarm system even traveled between different plants.

Dodder proves to be less of a greedy parasite and more of an extension of plant consciousness to see, feel, and hear the world around. Study author Ian Baldwin confirms the change in mindset about dodder. Ecological interactions in nature are extremely complex. A parasite steals valuable nutrients from its host, but at the same time functions as an important link to warn neighbors. Whether this warning is unselfish after all needs further studies to clarify.

For now, dodder will be targeted as a noxious weed, as carcinogenic herbicides are applied to preserve crop yields. If agricultural systems improved the integrity of the soil, then plants could share more nutrients with parasitic communication networks such as dodder, so that the plants could protect themselves naturally, long term, and without toxic suppressive chemicals.

The plant kingdom adapts in profound ways and passes these naturally synthesized medicines on to humans. For more information on plant-based medicines helping humans adapt, visit Herbs.News.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

NaturalNews.com

Ice.mpg.de
(Natural News) Its not exactly a secret that advertisers have been getting increasingly creative with how they promote products to consumers in recent years. Most movies and television shows today are replete with product placement from companies that are willing to spend millions just to get their product seen by more people, even if that product is only on the screen for a few seconds. If you do a Google search for a particular product you are looking to purchase, chances are that same product will show up on social media as an advertisement just moments later. Now, advertisers appear to have found a brand new way to get consumers to buy whatever it is that theyre trying to sell, and ironically, it involves something that is as old as Earth itself  the weather.

According to a recent study published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, certain weather conditions have a significant effect on how consumers respond after seeing an advertisement. For example, the study found that on sunny days, consumers respond to mobile promotions 73 percent faster and at a rate 1.2 times higher than they normally do. By contrast, response to mobile promotions during raining conditions was .9 times lower and 59 percent slower than the response to advertisements during cloudy weather.

Strangely enough, the consumer response to advertisements on cloudy days with isolated moments of sunshine was extremely positive. People were far more likely to interact with an ad when there were a few bursts of sunshine scattered throughout the day than they were when the weather was dark, gloomy and rainy.

Based on the results of this study, its obvious that there is a positive correlation between nice weather and the frequency at which consumers interact with mobile advertisements. Sunshine makes people happy, and when they are happy, they are more likely to spend money. This is a trend that advertising companies and corporations are quickly catching onto, are taking advantage of right now, and will continue to take advantage of even more in the future.

Obviously, although brand managers cannot control the mother-nature weather, our findings are non-trivial because they suggest that brands can leverage the relevant, local weather information in mobile promotions, explained one of the studys authors, Chenxi Li of Beihang University. Firms should use the prevention-tone ad copy on rainy days and the simple neutral-tone ad copy on sunny days to attain greater bang for the buck.

Another one of the studys authors, Xueming Luo of Temple University, further explained the impact that their findings could have on the advertising world. Given that consumers nowadays are inundated with and annoyed by irrelevant ads on their personal mobile devices and small screens, for marketers, these findings imply new opportunities of customer data analytics for more effective weather-based mobile targeting, he said.

In order to carry out the study, which is officially titled Sunny, Rainy, and Cloudy with a Chance of Mobile Promotion Effectiveness, the authors recorded and analyzed the responses to advertisements from more than six million mobile users in 344 cities across China. At the same time, the authors recorded the daily and hourly weather conditions in these 344 cities, with a focus on sunny, cloudy and rainy weather.

While today advertisers are taking advantage of the weather to target consumers, tomorrow it may be something entirely different. Advancements in technology will allow businesses and corporations to show their products to more people in ways that were previously unimaginable. Perhaps our mobile devices will be able to tell us when we are low on laundry detergent, for example, and automatically recommend a brand for us to purchase. Or maybe advertisers will start to take advantage of the growing popularity of augmented reality or virtual reality and sell us their products that way.

While the future of advertising is still unknown, one thing we know for a fact is that theres only going to be more of it in the years ahead.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

ListVerse.com
Crew members for an Alcatraz Island ferry are being hailed as heroes after rescuing 10 people on board a sinking boat in the San Francisco Bay.

The crew late Thursday had just picked up about 400 passengers from Alcatraz Island and heard the distress call from the sinking boat.

"I looked at the side of the boat and noticed their boat was going down pretty quick," Alcatraz Clipper Capt. Erik Anfinson said.

Video of the rescue recorded by a French Canadian tourist showed the boat was quickly sinking. Anfinson in the video can be heard yelling "Get 'em on the boat! Get 'em on! Get them on the boat now!"

The private boat ran aground on a rock formation known as "Little Alcatraz" usually seen at low tide.

"They were fine, they were all wearing life jackets," Anfinson said.

Once all 10 people on the sinking boat were aboard the ferry, the tourists who were on their way back to shore from their Alcatraz tour erupted into applause.

The rescue was a highlight of an Alcatraz tour on Friday.

"I wish I could have been there to see those guys jump in and save them," tourist Austin Pool said.

A salvage company will start searching Saturday morning for the sunken boat.

Jennifer Gonzalez-Arias contributed to this report.
One of the largest school districts in California plans to put in all-gender bathrooms at all of its campuses.

The movement began San Jose Unified School District's Lincoln High School more than a year ago. The district now said it is time for the rest of its schools to catch up.

"I just hope that all school districts would be as open as San Jose Unified is in making sure they have gender neutral bathrooms for students to be able to use," said Ken Yeager, a Santa Clara County supervisor.

Yeager has been a champion of the LGBT community and he applauds the move.



Students said there have been no issues since all-gender restrooms went up at Lincoln High School.

"I go into the all-gender bathrooms and every time I go in there's boys and girls, sort of like it's always been happening," student Camillo Cervantes said.

A sign on every bathroom alerts students to text any complaints to the administration.

"If students see inappropriate behavior or bullying or harassing comments in any bathroom, they can report it via text," Lincoln High Principal Matt Hewitson said.

Hewitson said said there have been zero complaints so far.

The district's goal is to have gender-neutral restrooms on every campus by the end of the calendar year.

The only cost for the change is signage -- no remodeling is needed in the all-gender restrooms. Lincoln High also still has a few boys-only and girls-only facilities.
Police across Northern California are on the lookout for two men accused of robbing a Sonoma County medical marijuana distribution center at gunpoint Thursday evening, sheriff's officials said.

A female employee of the distribution center north of Santa Rosa noticed a red Honda Accord approach her as she walked to her car around 7 p.m., Sonoma County sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

The employee got in her car, locked and started it, but a man wearing black clothing and gloves blocked her car with the Honda to prevent her from leaving, Crum said.

The suspect approached the employee's car door with a handgun and demanded the employee take him inside the distribution center, Crum said.

Once inside, another man entered the business and both suspects ordered the female employee to show them the distribution center's vault and open it, Crum said.

The suspects bound the woman's wrists and ankles with zip ties, forced her to get onto the ground and not look at them. The pair left in the Honda with an undisclosed amount of cash and marijuana from the vault, Crum said.

The victim was able to free herself and called for help, Crum said.

The suspects' vehicle was described as a newer, dark red Honda with paper plates and tinted windows, Crum said.

Crum said marijuana was not being grown in the distribution center warehouse which he described as "well established and sophisticated." He said the sheriff's office is investigating whether the distribution center is legal under the state's medical marijuana laws.

Crum said the marijuana robbery is one reason why Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas, who retired Tuesday, was opposed to the voter approved Proposition 64 that legalizes marijuana for adults in California.

There are rules requiring security personnel at dispensaries, and distribution sites are required to present security plans when applying for permits. State law, however, doesnt give any specific requirements about on-site guards  just recommendations.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office says businesses should use more than one employee at closing time each night so that workers are not left so vulnerable to robberies.

NBC Bay Area's Thom Jensen contributed to this report.
The man who says he was the videotaped victim of police brutality in January was arrested Friday on unrelated hate crime-related assault charges, San Francisco authorities say.

Sean Moore, 43, recently filed a police brutality claim against the city, after being shot by one of two officers who confronted him Jan. 6 at his Ocean View home over a restraining order violation.

On Friday morning, officers went back to Moores house and arrested him again. He is accused of a hate crime targeting a Latino jogger just minutes earlier, police say.

Moore was being held Friday on $250,000 bail for assault with a great bodily injury and two counts of criminal threats. Each charge carries a hate crime related sentencing enhancement.

Back in January, Moore was charged with assaulting police officers before he was shot twice. He allegedly punched and kicked one officer, before the other opened fire.

After a police body-worn camera video came to light, Moore's defense attorney accused the police of going too far and escalating the confrontation.

A judge agreed and threw out most of the charges in May, ruling that the two officers should not have stayed on Moores property after he refused to talk to them.

As for his latest brush with the law, his civil attorney, John Burris, told NBC Bay Area that he was not aware of his clients arrest and would investigate further.

If there is something we can do to help him, we will, Burris said.

Everyone knows he has mental illness, Burris said, adding that in the case of the January shooting: The officers escalated the confrontation needlessly.
Far from their prestigious campuses, a Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford finance officer were jailed in the San Francisco area Saturday after eight days as fugitives sought in the death of a young hairdresser in Chicago stabbed repeatedly until the knife broke, police said.

The Northwestern microbiologist, Wyndham Lathem, had a personal relationship with the victim, although the nature of it wasn't clear, and had made a video apologizing for what he called "the worst mistake of my life," police said.

Lathem, 42, was being held without bail in Alameda County, and faced a court appearance in the town of Pleasanton. The other suspect, Andrew Warren, a treasury assistant at one of Oxford's residential colleges in England, was being held at the county jail in San Francisco. Both men surrendered separately and peacefully in the Bay Area on Friday evening.

They had been fugitives since the body of 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found in Lathem's Chicago apartment on July 27.

Police said Lathem had a relationship with Cornell-Duranleau, who moved to Chicago from the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area after receiving his cosmetology license. They have not elaborated on how Cornell-Duranleau or Lathem knew Warren, or if Warren knew them before he arrived in the United States.

Chicago police said Warren was 56; he was booked into jail as age 49.

A deputy U.S. marshal said Lathem's surrender came after fast-paced negotiations through an attorney that led to the fugitive turning himself in at the federal courthouse in Oakland.

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Conroy told The Associated Press that the telephone negotiations began late Friday afternoon and by evening, Lathem arrived by car at the courthouse.

No guns were drawn, but Lathem was ordered to carefully step out of the vehicle and was taken into custody in a courtyard area, Conroy said.

According to Conroy, Lathem stated that he would not answer questions on the advice of a lawyer, and no questions were asked.

Police said Lathem had sent a video to friends and relatives apologizing for his involvement in the crime, which he called the "biggest mistake of my life." The video raised concern among investigators that Lathem might kill himself.

"We are also thankful both men are safely in custody and this did not end in further tragedy," a police statement said.

Warren arrived in the United States three days before Cornell-Duranleau's death. He and Lathem were seen in surveillance video leaving Lathem's high-rise apartment building the day of the stabbing.

In a bizarre twist, police said that on that same day, before the body had been discovered, Lathem and Warren drove about 80 miles (128 kilometers) northwest to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where one of them made a $1,000 cash donation to the public library there in Cornell-Duranleau's name. Lake Geneva police said the man making the donation did not give his name.

"I've never seen where suspects in a homicide would make a donation in the victim's name," said Lake Geneva police Lt. Edward Gritzner.

On the night of the slaying, police said the front desk of the building where Lathem lived in Chicago's trendy River North neighborhood received an anonymous call from a person who said that a crime had been committed in Lathem's 10th floor apartment. When police opened the door they found Cornell-Duranleau's body.

Police also said that by the time they found the body on the night of July 27, Cornell-Duranleau had been dead for 12-15 hours

Cornell-Duranleau's mother, Charlotte Cornell, didn't immediately reply to an email requesting comment on the arrests.

Associated Press writer John Antczak contributed to this report from Los Angeles.


The Northwestern University professor and Oxford employee wanted for the "gruesome" stabbing death of a Chicago man late last month were arrested in California Friday, authorities said.

Wyndham Lathem, 42, and Andrew Warren, 56, were both in police custody in Oakland, California, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, citing the U.S. Marshals Service.

"They will now go to an Oakland Court and be returned to Chicago where they will be interrogated by CPD homicide detectives," Guglielmi said in an email.

"Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today's arrest brings some comfort for the victim's family," he added. "We are also thankful that this did not end in further tragedy."

Ed Ferrell, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals office, said Warren was arrested in San Francisco, while Lathem surrendered at the federal courthouse in Oakland after communicating with authorities. The men remained in Marshal custody in Oakland, he said.

Both were wanted in connection with the killing of 26-year-old Trenton H. James Cornell-Duranleau, who was found dead on July 27 inside an apartment building in Chicago's River North neighborhood.

Officials said Cornell-Duranleau was discovered stabbed to death around 8:30 p.m. on the tenth floor of the Grand Plaza Apartments on State Street, where police said Lathem lives.

Lathem is an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Northwestern University's medical school, where he has worked for 10 years. He was placed on administrative leave and banned from entering Northwestern campuses, university spokesman Alan Cubbage said Wednesday after warrants were issued for his and Warren's arrest.

Warren is a senior treasury assistant at the University of Oxford in Great Britain, according to the universitys website.

Both men disappeared after Cornell-Duranleau, a hairstylist and Michigan native, was found dead, authorities said. Guglielmi said the crime scene was "gruesome and the victim was savagely murdered."

The Chicago Tribune reported that blood was found on a bedroom door in the apartment where Cornell-Duranleau was found dead from stab wounds. The report, citing law enforcement sources, also said a knife with a broken blade was found in the trash in the kitchen, and another knife was located near the sink.

The pair of suspects was spotted on surveillance video leaving the property after the incident, authorities said. Police said the men later drove to Lake Geneva and donated $1,000 to the Lake Geneva Public Library in the victim's name.

Lathem also sent a video message to family members and friends after the killing, according to police, allegedly apologizing for his involvement in the crime.

Police did not release the video footage, saying it was "integral to any future interrogation efforts," adding that the people who received the video had been interviewed by U.S. Marshals.

Lathem was booked in the Alameda County Jail in Oakland, California, and Warren was booked into the San Francisco County Jail, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

They are awaiting extradition to Illinois, but will each have an initial appearance in the California county courts, likely to occur on Monday, according to Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Conroy.
When Sallie B. lectures to her weekend class about marijuana, she likes to make her spiel as accessible as possible. The chef starts by explaining the effects of cannabis-infused butter, and then she demonstrates how to cook with it.

"You want to make sure you're making it correctly so that you don't get sick," Sallie begins the lecture, hoisting up a jar of green-tinted butter for the class to see. "And its important that you know your dosage..."

Roughly 25 students soon start cooking in the Cannabis Creatives warehouse in Oakland, tossing heaping pats of canna-butter into sizzling saucepans.

Meanwhile, Sallie, the proprietor of edibles company Slims Baked Goodies, bounces from table to table to answer a litany of questions. Heavy smoke floats in the air throughout the two-hour course, but most isnt coming from the cooking stations; there are, at any given time, multiple joints, bongs and vape pens circulating around the room.

So goes the structure of every Puff, Pass, and Pastry class, which is run by Colorado-based company Cannabis Tours. By the end, participants will have made a hodgepodge of cannabis-infused treats, including frittatas, sweet cakes and french toast.

The Sunday cooking class is just one of many pot-centered workshops that have cropped up in the Bay Area following Californias legalization of the once-taboo plant in November. There are yoga, painting and pottery classes, even glass blowing classes, and they all aim to do something similar: combine the novelty of legally consuming cannabis in public spaces with traditional pay-to-play activities.

Heidi Keyes, the co-founder of Cannabis Tours, runs sister workshops in Oregon, Las Vegas and Colorado and advocated for pot's legalization in California. A longtime pot consumer, she said she entered the industry because she wanted to normalize cannabis use and stop it from being relegated to doctors offices and back-alley deals.

Gillian Edevane

"We want to encourage people to just relax in a way that they havent been able to before, especially before it was legal here and other places," Keyes said. "It's about providing a safe space for cannabis consumption, meeting new people, passing joints. Just being able to smoke weed if you want to.

Sallie, who began incorporating cannabis into her recipes after a cancer diagnosis, attached herself to the course in an attempt to educate others about the plant.

The biggest misconception about edibles is that people think, if I eat an edible, Im going to be asleep for days, she said. I think people dont understand cannabis as much as they consume it, so this class gives me an opportunity to teach them about the different strains, and how to get a good effect."

Gillian Edevane

The business venture has been undeniably profitable for Keyes, Sallie and other so-called cannapreneurs, a portmanteau referring to the business owners who have capitalized on pots legalization. Tickets to the cooking class cost $69 each, and the painting and pottery classes arent much cheaper. All told, the profits help contribute to a booming California industry valued at over $7 billion.

Keyes attributes the success of the courses to a previously-untapped niche market. In short, she believes that a group of people  mostly longtime pot enthusiasts  had been waiting for these types of communal spaces, and are now ready to open up their wallets for the experience.

"There hasnt really been anything like this before, she said. I think people have really been looking for opportunities to consume legally and make friends at the same time. A lot of people who come to our classes aren't big drinkers, but they still want to go out and do something social. Thats where our classes come into play.

Nadia Ibanez, 32, said she falls into both categories. But the San Francisco woman chose to attend the cooking class in lieu of the alternatives because it advertised a learning opportunity.

Ive never cooked with cannabis, never made edibles, said Ibanez, who has been smoking pot for about a year. So I wanted to come and see what skills I could take to my own kitchen.

Gillian Edevane

Despite support from attendees, people within the medical community have taken issue with the rise in cannabis-themed courses.

The specter of novices making edibles at home is what worries Dr. Rachna Patel, who owns a medical practice in Walnut Creek and studies marijuana use. Shes seen the horror stories of people overdosing on edibles, and theyre not the comical situations that YouTube videos would lead one to believe.

"Edibles are tricky," Patel said. "A part of me is very much in favor of patients making their own products because they know exactly what goes into them. But the downside of it is, it's going to be difficult to figure out how much is too much.

Patel notes that the side effects can include extreme paranoia and impaired body movement. If someone wants to learn about edibles, they should see a doctor, not attend a cooking class, she quipped.

That warning doesn't discourage Keyes, who believes legalization signaled a cultural shift in the way cannabis is perceived by non-users. Making the plant palatable  or merely acceptable  will help make it safer, she opined.

"People are beginning to realize that there is no typical stoner; there's no typical cannabis consumer," Keyes said. "A lot of people have had to hide their cannabis use their entire lives...so what were seeing now is people coming forward and being more open about it.

And I think, going forward, were going to be seeing more of that, she continued. Its just not something people feel they have to hide anymore.
$15 million more. That's how much San Francisco and Los Angeles prosecutors say Uber needs to pay for violating a prior legal settlement.

The two counties made their case before a judge in San Francisco Friday. This all stems from a case settled last year when Uber already paid the two counties $10 million.

In that settlement, Uber also agreed to fix violations, including misleading advertising on driver background checks and charging airport service fees.

The District Attorney's Office on Friday argued Uber violated that settlement by failing to submit a certification of compliance by an April deadline. Records also show drivers were making unauthorized trips to the airport, the DA's Office said.

Uber's attorney admits the company did miss the compliance date because of changes that occurred at the company during that time, but asked the judge to separate any possible late penalty from the issue of compliance.

If the judge finds them guilty, the ride-share company would have to fork over another $15 million to the counties.

The judge is expected to make a ruling next Friday.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is using a grand jury in Washington as part of an investigation into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, a person familiar with the probe says.

The use of a grand jury, a standard prosecution tool in criminal investigations, suggests that Mueller and his team of investigators are likely to hear from witnesses and demand documents in the coming weeks and months.

The person who confirmed to The Associated Press that Mueller had turned to a grand jury was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the use of a grand jury.

Grand juries are common vehicles to subpoena witnesses and records and to present evidence, though they do not suggest any criminal charges are near or will necessarily be sought. It was not immediately clear how or whether the Washington grand jury was connected to the work of a separate one in Alexandria, Virginia. That panel has been used to gather information on Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser.

A spokesman for Mueller's team did not return an email seeking comment.

Mueller's reliance on a grand jury is the "logical next step in this investigation" given that it's the traditional method for prosecutors to gather evidence, said Washington defense lawyer Jacob Frenkel.

"The use of the grand jury neither escalates, nor establishes a timeline for, the investigation," he added.

President Donald Trump, during an appearance Thursday evening at a rally in Huntington, W.Va., challenged Democrats to either continue their "obsession with a hoax" or begin serving the interests of the American people.

"I just hope the final determination is a truly honest one," he said, "which is what the millions of people who gave us our big win in November deserve and what all Americans who want a better future want and deserve."

Lawyers for Trump said earlier they were unaware of the existence of a grand jury and had no information to suggest the president himself was under federal investigation.

"With respect to the news of the federal grand jury, I have no reason to believe that the president is under investigation," defense attorney John Dowd told the AP.

Ty Cobb, special counsel to the president, said he wasn't aware Mueller had started using a new grand jury.

"Grand jury matters are typically secret," Cobb said. "The White House favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly. ... The White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mr. Mueller."

It was not clear what witnesses might appear before the grand jury or what evidence it might be accumulating or presented with.

Though there is "considerable deference to the prosecutors and their recommendations" when it comes to a grand jury, "the mere fact of presenting evidence to the grand jury does not obligate prosecutors in any way to ask them to return an indictment," Frenkel said.

Mueller, who worked as a prosecutor in Washington before becoming FBI director, was appointed special counsel in May by the Justice Department following the firing by Trump of FBI Director James Comey. He has since assembled a team of more than a dozen investigators, including current and former Justice Department prosecutors with experience in international bribery, organized crime and financial fraud.

News of the grand jury came as senators introduced two bipartisan bills aimed at protecting Mueller from being fired by Trump, with both parties signaling resistance to any White House effort to derail the investigation into Russian meddling in last year's election.

Trump's defense team has been looking into potential conflicts of interest among members of Mueller's team, such as past political contributions to Democrats including Hillary Clinton, and Trump has warned that any effort by Mueller to look into his finances would fall outside the scope of Mueller's appointment.

Under the regulations, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is the government official empowered to fire Mueller under limited circumstances, such as conflict of interest and dereliction of duty. Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, has publicly said he has seen no basis for firing him.

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told Fox News on Thursday that "the president is not thinking about firing Robert Mueller so the speculation that's out there is just incorrect."

He also downplayed the significance of the grand jury, calling it "a standard operating procedure when you've got a situation like this."

Associated Press writer Stephen Braun and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
Former President Barack Obama got a special treat for his birthday this year - his very own holiday.

Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law Friday a measure to designate Aug. 4 as "Barack Obama Day" across Illinois.

The newest state holiday will be celebrated each year on the 44th president's birthday, beginning in 2018.

The holiday will be "observed throughout the State as a day set apart to honor the 44th President of the United States of America who began his career serving the People of Illinois in both the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate, and dedicated his life to protecting the rights of Americans and building bridges across communities," Senate Bill 55 reads. [[409507185, C]]

While several lawmakers abstained from voting on the measure, it passed both houses earlier this year without a single vote against.

SB 55 was introduced by Sen. Emil Jones III, the son of former Senate President Emil Jones, Jr., who played a major role in launching then-state Senator Obama to the U.S. Senate in 2004 and considers himself to be the former presidents political "godfather."

"Barack Obama Day" joins other commemorative holidays like Adlai Stevenson Day, Ronald Reagan Day and Jane Addams Day, for which workplaces do not close. [[427533613, C]]

Democrats' efforts to make Obamas birthday a legal state holiday  during which schools and state offices would close, while banks and businesses could, but would not be required to close  stalled after some lawmakers voiced concern that other Illinois presidents, like Reagan, do not have similar holidays.

Republicans, including Rauner, also noted the economic cost of closing state buildings on the holiday, and the impact of workers having the day off.

"It's incredibly proud for Illinois that the president came from Illinois. I think it's awesome, and I think we should celebrate it," Rauner told reporters in February. "I don't think it should be a formal holiday with paid, forced time off, but I think it should be a day of acknowledgment and celebration."

Legislators also voted in July to rename part of a Chicago-area highway after their former colleague, designating the stretch of Interstate 55 from the Tri-State Tollway south to mile marker 202 near Pontiac as the "Barack Obama Presidential Expressway."
Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Friday he's chosen Sam Pfister to lead his Washington DC team.

Pfister replaces Kathy Lydon, who had served Illinois in DC for years dating back to Sen. Charles Percy. Lydon quit three weeks ago as the governor overhauled his staff and more than two dozen of his inner circle were either fired or quit in protest.

Pfister will be paid $75,000.



Pfister' most event job is four years as the associate director of state outreach for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The think tank was founded by Richard Fink, who heads the Koch Industries lobbying group in Washington, DC.

Charles Koch is also a board member of the Center. The Wall Street Journal has called the Mercatus Center "the most important think tank you've never head of."

The Koch brothers have given more than 100 million to conservative and libertarian policy and advocacy groups.

Rauner has also hired a deputy director of communications Beth Tomev. She started earlier this week, but no announcement was made.

She will be paid $117,000. Tomev has been a public affairs consultant, worked at Fox News Chicago, as Walter Jacobson's producer, and taught communications and journalism classes at Columbia College and Loyola University.

"I did not know what I was getting into when I took Tomev's class," accordginareview of Tomev on Rate My Professor. "Her lectures are nonsensical, she takes up class time with irrelevant stories, grades unreasonably tough without providing clear expectations for assignments, and has purposely ambiguous exam questions that can tank your grade. All for an intro course. Would not recommend to anyone."
A statewide Amber Alert in Indiana for four children who were believed to have been abducted was canceled Saturday morning.

Authorities canceled the alert roughly 12 hours after it was issued around 10:50 p.m. CST Friday night, saying the four children were last seen in West Lafayette on Thursday.

Azzura Ballard is a 7-year-old black female, 4 feet tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

Akira Ballard is a 3-year-old black female, 3 feet tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

Ahleiryah Ballard is a 1-year-old black female.

Anthony Ballard Jr. is an 8-year-old black male, 4 feet tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

West Lafayette police said the children were likely abducted by their mother, Victoria Dominique Whorton, and were "believed to be in extreme danger."

Further details on the incident were not immediately available and it was unclear if any charges would be filed in the case.
There will be no fall camping at any state park in Connecticut as budget issues persist.

Without a state budget, the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) said there are no plans to have fall camping this year.

Dennis Schain, director at DEEP, said the department has not been taking any camping reservations after Labor Day.

Schain said the elimination of fall camping could change depending on what happens with the state budget.

Usually, camping at state grounds goes until Columbus Day.

Last year, DEEP had to cut back fall camping to two state parks.
It has been one year since a home explosion on East Street in Vernon and impacted the Kerstetter family.

On Thursday, NBC Connecticut obtained exclusive video from first responders who filmed footage right in the midst of all the rubble on Aug. 4, 2016.

The house was completely leveled and the three adults and four children inside the home suffered serious injuries but survived.

The first responders video shows up close images of the shocking aftermath after a liquid propane gas explosion destroyed the Vernon home.

A lifetime of memories vanished after the propane gas explosion. It is a day that neighbors wont soon forget,

"We did see the house collapse," one neighbor told NBC Connecticut back in August. "People came running up to us, saying, 'There's people trapped inside'."

The footage was filmed by the Connecticut State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit and shows crushed cars, clothes, furniture and memorabilia tossed around like trash. The front door was blown across the street.

The videos also show where it all started: a dryer, according to investigators. The gas was leaking from a quarter-inch hole connected to a propane line in the basement.

Troopers later closed out and cleared the investigation. No one will ever know what actually ignited the explosion and investigators previously reported there weren't any issues with any of the propane tanks.

Last month, the Kerstetter family, through an attorney, told the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters they disagreed with the state poli findings, and were doing their own investigation. They also wanted NBC Connecticut to remind viewers of their gratitude and thanks to the community for all they've done for them.

On the one year anniversary, NBC Connecticut was told, understandably, that the family is still not ready to share their story.
Police are investigating after an untimely death was reported in Vernon on Friday night.

State police said the Connecticut State Police Major Crimes unit, troopers and Vernon police are investigating the death on Windsorville Road.

No other information was immediately available.

Please check back for updates on this developing story.
President Donald Trump sought to have the leaders of Australia and Mexico make concessions on immigration, at least publicly, to improve Trump's image on the issue early in his presidency, according to what The Washington Post reported are transcripts of those conversations.

Trump had calls with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about a week after he was inaugurated. Trump asked Pena Nieto to consider dropping his public insistence that Mexico will not pay for the wall along its border during negotiations, while he argued with Turnbull that upholding a prior agreement to accept 1,250 Syrian refugees being watched over by Australia would "kill me" politically, according to the transcripts the Post published.

And Trump allegedly chalked up his primary victory in New Hampshire to the fact that it is a "drug-infested den," a characterization that prompted backlash from the state's Republican governor and two senators.

A White House representative could not confirm or deny the authenticity of the leaked classified documents, which the Post published in full, to NBC News. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the backlash.

The White House declined to comment to the Post, which reported that an official familiar with the conversations said, "The president is a tough negotiator" who is "direct and forceful in his determination to put America and Americans first."

Both leaders visited the U.S. after their phone conversations in late January, and immigration continues to be an important issue for Trump, whose executive order to limit immigration from several Muslim-majority countries partially went into effect in June after stiff legal challenges.

Talk of the border wall took up most of the discussion with Mexico's president, even though it became clear the two leaders would not agree on what to say after Trump insisted its funding "will work out in the formula somehow."

In one exchange, Pena Nieto said: "My position has been and will continue to be very firm saying that Mexico cannot pay for that wall."

Trump replied: "But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that and I cannot live with that. You cannot say that to the press because I cannot negotiate under those circumstances."

When Trump told his counterpart that he wanted to balance the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico, Pena Nieto said he intended to have his administration work to find mutual benefit.

They agreed to work together to combat drug cartels, and during that conversation, Trump said as an aside that he "won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den."

Both of the state's U.S. senators criticized his comments in statements on Twitter, while Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement that Trump was wrong.

"Its disappointing his mischaracterization of this epidemic ignores the great things this state has to offer," he said.

It was previously reported that Trump's call with Turnbull was contentious  Sen. John McCain called Turnbull later to reiterate the United States' commitment to the alliance with Australia  but the White House staff-produced transcripts the newspaper obtained show how the conversation unfolded.

"Why is this so important? I do not understand. This is going to kill me. I am the world's greatest person that does not want to let people into the country," Trump said after Turnbull said it is important to Australia that the deal be upheld.

Trump grudgingly accepted that he was obliged to follow the "embarrassing" deal, but he said before ending the call that the call was more unpleasant than one he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day. It's not clear when the refugees will be resettled.

"I have had it," Trump said. "I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous."

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, an occasional critic of the president's, said it was unfair that the leaked transcripts were being shared.

"Whether you like President Trump or not, no president can do business if their phone calls are going to be leaked to The Washington Post," he told NBC News. "I hope (Attorney General) Jeff Sessions can do something about the leaking because it's really hurting the president."
Politicians and leaders have issued statements remembering Texas' 43rd Governor, Mark White, who died on Saturday at the age of 77.

Current Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered flags to half-staff in honor of White. He said White "cared deeply about Texas, and he devoted his life to making our state even better, particularly when it came to educating our children. My personal relationship and friendship with Governor White dates to when I was a young lawyer in Houston and we shared an elevator bank.

Marks impact on Texas will not soon be forgotten, and his legacy will live on through all that he achieved as Governor. Cecilia and I extend our deepest condolences to Linda Gale White and family during this difficult time, and I ask that all Texans join us in praying for the White family as they mourn the passing of a devoted husband, father and public servant."

Current Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said White "leaves a legacy of service and commitment to the state of Texas. He gave up time away from his family and his career to make the Lone Star State a better place. I met Mark White in the early 1990s at his office and knew him to be a Texas gentleman. We pray for his family during this time of loss."

President George W. Bush also issued a statement saying "Laura and I are saddened by the passing of Mark White, the 43rd Governor of Texas. Mark served the Lone Star State with enthusiasm and dedication. He cared deeply about all the citizens of our state and placed a special focus on Texas children and their education. We send our heartfelt sympathies to Linda Gale and their family as they mourn this good man."

Secretary of Energy, and former Texas Governor Rick Perry issued a statement as well saying "Texas lost a dedicated public servant today with the passing of Gov. Mark White. Anita and I extend our deepest sympathies to his family."

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa issued the following statement:

Governor Mark White was a Texas Democrat. He was driven to ensure every child reached their God-given potential and he built the foundation of an economy that could survive any storm.

"Mark White had the political courage to invest in our children and teachers. He did right by Texans and our great state.

"Texas Democrats mourn the loss of our dear friend and leader, Governor Mark White."
The two victims killed in a crash with a big rig on a La Mesa freeway were a mother and daughter, both of whom leave behind spouses and children.

According to Timothy Thompson, the son and brother of the victims, his mother, Nancy Bauerlein, 57, and sister, Jennifer Thompson-Campbell, 29, were killed Wednesday when a big rig plowed into their green Chevy Aveo on State Route 125 at Interstate 8.

Thompson described Bauerlein as a loving wife and mother of three children and two step-children. She was a grandmother of nine, with one more grandchild on the way.

A 6-year-old girl was seriously injured in the crash, two adults also suffered major injuries and three others were injured in a deadly crash in La Mesa. NBC 7s Ashley Matthews reports.

Thompson told NBC 7 his sister was also wife and mother of two, an 8-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl. She was one week shy of her 30th birthday, which wouldve been on Aug. 10.

"My sister was just starting to get back into her faith, going back to church, getting her kids involved, and really trying to show them what kind of morals they should be brought up with," he said.



Thompson said both his mother and sister worked as civilian employees at the Fleet Readiness Center Southwest on Naval Air Station North Island.

The mother-daughter duo, both from Ramona, had been carpooling to and from work for years.

"My sister and her were best friends," he added. "My mom and my sister  kid of two of the same. They had so much love to give."

Thompson said both women "will be extremely missed" by their family and friends.

"They were the core of the family," he explained. "Both of them always got us together, always bringing laughter to our lives. They were amazing people."

He said his mother loved hosting get-togethers for her family at her home.

"That was her life; she loved it. She loved being around us; she loved being around her grandkids, and she loved to take care of us," he added.

Bauerlein and Thompson-Campbell were in a Chevy Aveo traveling on the northbound SR-125 transition ramp to eastbound I-8 at around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday when a big rig plowed into their car.

Timothy Thompson

According to the California Highway Patrol, the driver of the big rig lost control moments before slamming into the Chevy Aveo, as she got onto the southbound SR-125 transition from westbound Interstate 8. The big rig driver smashed through the metal guardrail on the freeway, crossing lanes onto northbound SR-125 before crashing into a concrete divider wall and slamming into the womens vehicle.

The front end of the jackknifed big rig wound up pressed up against the back end of Bauerlein's green Chevy Aveo. The car was mangled, and its rear window blown out and its front windshield shattered.

The big rig also crashed into a family inside a black Kia Sorrento: two adults and two little girls, ages 4 and 6.

The 6-year-old suffered a broken neck and was having trouble breathing. She was rushed to Rady Childrens Hospital where she continued to recover Thursday.

[GALLERY] 2 Killed, 6 Injured in La Mesa Big Rig Crash

The 4-year-old suffered minor injuries. In the chaos of the aftermath of the crash, a firefighter with the Heartland Fire & Rescue Department comforted the little girl, carrying her away from the wreckage.

News helicopter footage captured the tender moments between the firefighter and the girl. He carried her over to a fire engine and eventually put her down to give her a drink of water. The child was soon back in his arms, resting her head on the firefighters shoulder.

Raw news helicopter video of a firefighter comforting a little girl during a deadly big rig crash on State Route 125 in La Mesa on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old mother of the girls, of Santee, and another family member were inside the black SUV. The mother suffered minor injuries but was able to ride in the ambulance with her 6-year-old as that child was rushed to the hospital, paramedics told NBC 7.

CHP spokesman Kevin Pearlstein said the 4-year-old girl was in a car seat at the time of the collision, but the 6-year-old was not restrained in a booster seat.

The female driver of the big rig and a male passenger in the big rig suffered moderate injuries in the crash. In all, six people were hurt but survived: the two adults in the Kia, one of whom suffered a broken leg, the two girls in the Kia, and the two people in the big rig.

Ana Tijoux fans can get it in at Tropicoso's "Vengo" listening party before her upcoming concert in Tijuana.

The big rig had the Swift Transportation logo on its side. Swift Vice President of Marketing and Communications said their safety team is investigating the crash.

"Our Safety team is investigating everything as thoroughly and as quickly as they can, and Im told we will have someone on the scene as soon as possible," Cozette Phifer said in an email to NBC 7. "Our entire company is heartbroken whenever there is any kind of accident involving one of our Drivers."

Due to the ongoing investigation, CHP has not released the names of the woman and man in the big rig. According to an accident report filed by CHP officials, they are from Marrieta, Georgia; the driver is 34 years old, while the passenger is 41.

CHP Officer Ben Demarest said Thursday that the driver of the big rig was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the deadly accident.

There was a dashboard camera inside the big rig and authorities are hoping to be able to extract that footage to get more details on what happened in the moments leading to the collision.

Demarest said additional details are forthcoming, as investigators gather more information.

The CHP report states that the investigation "is expected to [last] several weeks to months to provide clear/thorough investigation."

The driver of the big rig told investigators that she felt the trailer wobbling right before the crash. An inspection is being performed on the big rig.

Raw news chopper video of the scene of a deadly crash on SR-125 in La Mesa involving a big rig and several vehicles. One person was killed and six people were hurt.

Thompson said he spoke with his mother on the day of the accident.

"I told her to be safe on the highway, and she told me shed be fine," he said, pausing. "Thats how we ended it."

He said Thompson-Campbells children will be cared for by their father, along with their huge family that has a lot of love to give.

Friends have established an online fundraising page to help support the family of the victims killed in the crash.
A man was injured Friday in an explosion and fire at a residence in the West Hills area where police found an illegal honey oil processing operation, police said.

Firefighters and police officers were sent to the 22200 block of Summit View Drive about 5 a.m., said Los Angeles police Capt. Paul Vernon.

"Firefighters arrived first and put out the fire quickly,'' Vernon said. "One man remained at the scene, with moderate burns. He is currently at the hospital, but is uncooperative with investigators."

Arson investigators from the Los Angeles Fire Department and "LA IMPACT,'' a countywide narcotics task force, were investigating the cause of the explosion and fire, Vernon said.

"Preliminary reports say occupants of the house were involved in an illicit honey oil manufacturing operation,'' Vernon said.

Honey oil is derived from processing marijuana to extract the concentrated THC from the plants, Vernon said.

"It's packaged and sold on the streets and in marijuana shops,'' Vernon said. "The processing involves the use of butane burners, making the operations volatile and subject to explosions and fire."

A common practice for operators of illicit drug labs is to rent homes, make their product, and leave, Vernon said.
Police were investigating a suspected road rage attack involving a driver and her passenger who assaulted a ride-share driver at a West Los Angeles gas station in an incident caught on camera.

Tenicia Bennett, who's a driver for Lyft, had just dropped off a customer and was getting gas Sunday at an Arco station at South La Brea Avenue and Olympic Boulevard when a driver and her passenger assaulted her, accusing Bennett of cutting them off.

A witness who shot cellphone video of the assault said two women suddenly throttled Bennet. One woman wearing dark clothing starts throwning punches and another woman in a red dress pulls Bennet by her hair.

Bennet is screaming as witnesses try to break up the fight. The women fight them off and take Bennet's phone, wallet and a cashier's check for thousands of dollars in rent.

"I am just so glad I am not dead," Bennet told NBC4 on Friday.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the incident, which they said appears to be a case of road rage that escalated into physical rage and robbery.

An Uber sticker could be seen on the women's car, but the company told NBC4 it was registered to a man whose account has been inactive for months.

Bennet was injured -- physically and emotionally -- after the ordeal.

"I can't work, I can't do Lyft. It traumatized me," she said. "They took my stuff, they have all my information. What do I do?"

Lyft spokesman Scott Coriell released a statement to NBC4 on Friday in response to the attack:

"This video is shocking and frightening. There is no place for such violence in our society. Our thoughts are with Tenicia as she recovers from this terrible ordeal. We stand ready to assist law enforcement in any investigation."
The Florida Department of Health and the Healthy Start Coalition of Miami-Dade teamed up for the 6th Annual Breastfeeding Awareness Walk to celebrate National Breastfeeding Month.

The event, held at Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah, aimed to bring breastfeeding awareness to Miamis community.

Around 98 women participated in the Big Latch On. The initiative is a global event where moms will work to earn the worldwide record for the most breastfeeding mothers at one time.

Last year, over 10,000 women breastfed their child at the same time around the globe.


Police say a fugitive wanted for downloading videos of child pornography has been arrested in Texas and extradited to New York.

Roberto Cardoza was arraigned Friday in Suffolk County on Long Island on 22 counts of possession of a sexual performance of a child.

Suffolk County police say they issued an arrest warrant for Cardoza in May of 2010 after they discovered child pornography on his computer. They say Cardoza fled to El Salvador during their investigation.

The 33-year-old Cardoza was arrested in Laredo, Texas, last month by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He was extradited to Suffolk County on Thursday.

Cardoza's attorney, Kevin Kearon, says his client is "an innocent man falsely accused of a crime he did not commit."
A man and a woman were found dead early Saturday after a report of gunshots in New Jersey, authorities said.

Police discovered the body of a 28-year-old woman outside The Highlands at Morris Plains Apartments on The Buckley Way in Morris Plains, the Morris County prosecutor said.

A 32-year-old man was found dead nearby in Morris Township, the prosecutor said.

Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp said it appears to be an isolated incident and there was no threat to the community.

The identities of the victims were withheld until their family could be notified. He said the medical examiner would determine their cause of death.
A New York City man was killed and another was seriously injured when their motorcycles crashed in New Jersey, authorities said Saturday.

Waldemar Aguilar, 34, of Brooklyn, was riding southbound on Routes 1&9 in Linden with a group of motorcyclists when he and another rider lost control of their bikes shortly before midnight Friday, Linden police said.

Aguilar's motorcycle then struck a car that was stopped at a traffic light. He was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead there a short time later.

The injured man, also a 34-year-old Brooklyn resident, remained hospitalized Saturday in serious but stable condition. But his name and further details on his injuries have not been disclosed.

No one in the car Aguilar struck was injured.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Across New York City, thieves have been snatching up a few particular dog breeds.

Brooklyn resident Ceritta Turner had her Yorkie, Senorita Wiggles, stolen earlier this week.

According to Turner, a man had called her dog over while she was working near Halsey and Lewis in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and when she looked up, she noticed that both had disappeared.

I looked down the road and I didnt see Wiggles, so I just took off and ran and ran, out of my shoes. I ran out of my hat, she explained.

Police have since been reviewing surveillance footage of the man, who stealthily whisked Wiggles away.

It was the worst thing that I ever could see. It hurt me so bad that Wiggles was taken, Turner said, who regarded her Yorkie as both a family member and therapy dog.

Sean Casey of the Animal Rescue has been rescuing animals for almost 20 years, and says that most thieves are driven by cash.

Its New York City, small apartments. The most popular dogs are small breeds, and thats what most people are looking for, Casey explained.

According to a 2016 study by the American Kennel Club, Yorkies are the most popular dog breed to be stolen, followed by Chihuahuas, bulldogs, Pomeranians and Shih Tzus.

A small breed Yorkie at a pet store can go upwards of $2,000, so when thieves see them, they think its an opportunity to make a buck, Casey said.

As police continue to search for Turner's Yorkie, Casey advises all pet owners to microchip their animals as the best way to keep them safe.

Fortunately for Turner, Wiggles is microchipped.

Turner says that shes not looking to prosecute the man who stole her dog. She just wants her Yorkie back, no questions asked.

I have no family here in New York so (Wiggles) just gives me all the affection, and love, and kisses I need, she said.
A recommendation to send high-tech tank-killing weapons to Ukraine to help in its fight against Russia is now at the White House, three U.S. officials told NBC News.

The officials said a proposed aid package includes Javelin anti-tank missiles with an estimated cost of about $50 million.

"It is the right move and I see the fingerprints of Secretary of Defense Mattis all over it," Ret. Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO commander told NBC News.

Russia invaded and annexed the Crimea in 2014 and continues to support pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. The proposal for providing weapons to Ukraine comes amid tension between the White House and Congress over how to respond to Russian interference in the 2016 election, and an investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. President Trump signed a bill imposing sanctions on Russia for its cyberhacking and its actions in Ukraine but complained that it harmed relations.

While the three officials said no final decision has been made on providing the weapons, they agreed that the Pentagon is in favor of the move.
By PTI: Kathmandu, Aug 5 (PTI) At least nine persons, including a woman, were killed and seven others injured when an overcrowded jeep skidded of a slippery road in Nepals Doti district.

The jeep, carrying 16 persons, skidded off the mountain road yesterday at Botagan area, while it was going to Chabara Chautara from Dipayal.

The deceased include eight men and one woman. All of them were residents of Simcghaur Chapartola situated in Bogtan Rural Municipality, District Police Office, Doti was quoted as saying by My Republica.

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The accident might have taken place since the jeep was carrying passengers beyond its carrying capacity, the police said.

The injured have been rushed to Dipayal-based Sujang Hospital for treatment. The condition of four of the injured is critical, the police said.

Poor condition of roads and ill-maintained vehicles are major reasons behind frequent road accidents in the Himalayan nation.

In April, At least three Indians were killed on the spot and another person was critically injured when a truck rammed their car at a highway in southwest Nepal. PTI AMS AKJ AMS

--- ENDS ---
President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, disclosed a brief advisory role with a firm related to a controversial data analysis company that aided the Trump campaign, according to a filing Flynn submitted to the White House.

The disclosure of Flynn's link to Cambridge Analytica came in an amended public financial filing in which the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general also discloses income that includes payments from the Trump transition team. The filing was made public by the White House on Friday in response to an Associated Press reporter's request.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Friday night that Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, has asked the White House for documents related to Flynn.

The newspaper says investigators on Mueller's team have asked witnesses whether the Turkish government made secret payments to Flynn during the 2016 presidential campaign. The Times cited anonymous sources close to Mueller's investigation.

Flynn's now-defunct consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, is under scrutiny by federal authorities and congressional investigators for its role in research and lobbying work for a Turkish businessman tied to the government of Turkey. The AP reported in May about inconsistencies in Flynn's disclosures about payments from the Turkish client, Ekim Alptekin.

The amended disclosure filed Friday by Flynn lists him as an adviser to SCL Group, a Virginia-based company related to Cambridge Analytica, the data mining and analysis firm that worked with Trump's campaign.

A person close to Flynn told the AP that just before the end of the campaign, Flynn agreed to do consulting for the firm, but he never performed any work or accepted any payment as part of the agreement with SCL Group. The person spoke to AP on condition of anonymity Thursday to describe details of the filing made to the White House.

The details of Flynn's role with SCL weren't fully laid out, the person said, noting that Flynn terminated his involvement shortly after Trump won the presidency.

Cambridge Analytica is backed by the family of Robert Mercer, a hedge fund manager who also supported the campaign and other conservative candidates and causes. Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon was a vice president of Cambridge Analytica before he joined the Trump campaign.

Media reports in Britain and some statements by leaders involved in the pro-Brexit campaign had linked Cambridge Analytica to the successful effort in 2016 to pull Britain out of the European Union. But the company said in a statement Friday that it did not work on the referendum campaign.

Democratic lawmakers and Trump critics have seized on Cambridge Analytica's role as they've pushed congressional investigators to scrutinize the Trump campaign's data operation as part of probes into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. But the Trump campaign has played down the firm's involvement. Campaign officials have said they used the company only for a short time for television advertising and paid some of the firm's talented data employees, as the AP previously reported .

Flynn's previous filing, submitted to the White House and Office of Government Ethics in March, listed at least $1.3 million in earnings, including between $50,000 and $100,000 from his consulting company, Flynn Intel Group Inc. The latest filing lists at least $1.8 million in income.

Flynn's amended filing comes some six months after he was ousted from the White House for misleading the vice president about conversations he had with the then-Russian ambassador to the U.S. It also comes as Special Counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees are scrutinizing Flynn's business deals and foreign connections.

The person close to Flynn said he disclosed the information in an amended filing to make sure the "public record is accurate and transparent." The person noted that Flynn and his legal team have spent months piecing together the information necessary for the filing without the assistance of the White House counsel's office or the Office of Government Ethics.

In the filing, Flynn reports earning about $28,000 from the Trump presidential transition and more than $5,000 as a consultant to an aborted plan to build nuclear power plants across the Middle East. The consulting connection with a group of companies involved in the power plant proposal had been disclosed in Flynn's previous filing, but it had not indicated that he had received payment.

Flynn's new filing also provided more details about his consulting work for NJK Holding Corporation, a firm headed by Iranian-American multi-millionaire Nasser Kazeminy. The filing shows that Flynn was paid more than $140,000 for his roles as adviser and consultant to Minneapolis-based NJK.

Flynn also served as vice chairman at GreenZone Systems, a tech firm funded by NJK and headed by Bijan Kian, who was Flynn's business partner in Flynn Intel.

In a statement to the AP, NJK said Flynn "played an advisory role to NJK Holding relative to its investment interests in security." The firm added that in his roles with NJK and GreenZone, Flynn "provided his counsel and guidance on public sector business opportunities for secure communications technology within the U.S. Department of Defense" and with other agencies.

NJK said Kian has no current involvement with NJK or GreenZone.

Earlier Thursday, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked Kian for documents detailing Flynn's foreign business contacts and travel. Flynn listed Kian as a personal reference in 2016 during his effort to renew his military security clearance. Kian told military investigators that Flynn had several foreign business contacts, but Flynn did not provide any of those contacts to investigators, Cummings said.
Authorities say a shooting at an intersection in a city near Philadelphia killed two people and wounded a third.

Police in Delaware County said a male opened fire at about 10:20 p.m. at a group standing on a corner in the Colwyn section of Darby Borough.

Police said at least 10 shots were fired. Three people were taken a local hospital where a 16-year-old and a 20-year-old later died. A 15-year-old youth was shot in the arm and is recovering.

The district attorney's office said the shooting may have involved a group of teenagers or young adults from southwest Philadelphia coming into the borough.

Officials said a nearby surveillance camera captured an image of the shooter, who is being sought.

Anyone with information shold contact Colwyn police at 484-494-4900 or Delaware County investigators at 610-891-4861.
The seventh arson in the last month inside a Center City apartment building broke out about midnight Friday on the fifth-floor of the high-rise, and now federal agents, Philadelphia police and the city fire marshal are investigating.

All of the fires at The Sterling, which encompasses the north side of John F. Kennedy Boulevard between 18th and 19th streets, have been started inside or near the trash rooms on the fifth, sixth or seventh floors, residents said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has announced a $5,000 reward. This reward will be matched for a total reward of $10,000 by the Sterling Apartment Homes management company, Aimco. The Sterling is 30 floors tall.

The ATF believes the arsonist is a resident.

"We do not have any reason to think this is an arsonist from outside the building," ATF spokeswoman Charlene Hennessy said Friday.

The first occurred July 13 when someone lit a shirt on fire in the hallway of the seventh floor. Another small fire was also set that night on the eighth floor, the ATF said. Resident Perry O'Hearn, who lives on the seventh floor, said another resident put out the seventh-floor fire before police arrived, but smoke set off the fire alarm.

The second and third arsons took place the following week, on July 20 and 21. On July 20, two small fires were set in trash rooms on the fifth and seventh floors. A fire on the sixth floor was set the following night.

O'Hearn blamed lax security at all of the buildings entrances and exits and said he believes a lack of cameras in the fire escapes and stairwells are thwarting investigators' efforts to find the firebug.

Another resident, Mayank Patel, who lives on the fifth floor, said the building feels secure.

"Actually, they have security and two people patrolling now," Patel said. "I don't know where they were tonight."

No one has been injured in any of the fires, but eight apartments have been damaged by water from sprinklers, the ATF said.

"We are committed to finding the perpetrators for these acts of arson, and grateful for the high level of cooperation we are receiving from the residents and management team at The Sterling," ATF Special Agent in Charge Sam Rabadi said in a statement. "Acts of arson are dangerous crimes and threaten the community."

Originally, a release from the ATF pointed to six fires, but officials confirmed at a news conference Friday afternoon that the early morning fire was number seven.

The ATF asks both Sterling residents and the public to provide any information they have.

The ATF tipline is (888)ATF-Fire.


Police say a 68-year-old motorcyclist suffered serious injuries after being hit by a DART bus.

Delaware State Police say the accident occurred about 7:30 p.m. Friday as the bus driver tried to pull into the DART bus yard in Georgetown.

According to police, the bus driver, 51-year-old Selena Cannon of Bridgeville, was making a left turn into the bus yard when she pulled into the motorcycle's path.

The motorcycle driver, a Georgetown resident, was thrown into the bus' windshield. He was flown to Christiana Hospital with serious injuries.

The bus was not carrying any passengers. Cannon was charged with failing to yield the right of way.
The 5-year-old boy from San Diego who was found in chains, beaten and starved by his aunt and uncle in Mexico may soon be reunited with his father.

The father, Pascual Castro, was deported for the tenth time on Tuesday. He departed Tijuana for Mexico City on Friday morning to retrieve his son.

The boy, Anthony, has a Mexican and U.S. dual citizenship and has been the center of an international custody battle since he was discovered by Mexican authorities in late June.

Castro said he had left his son with his sister and brother-in-law in Mexico and was sending over $500 a month while he was working in the U.S.

Anthony's mother, Dawn Sanderson, lost custody of him when he was 11-months old.

Castro was notified in June that his son was found in chains and abused at his familys house outside Mexico City, but said he was unable to return to Mexico to care for him because of his undocumented status in the U.S.

On Tuesday, Castro was intercepted by Border Patrol in San Diego County during a fugitive operation and deported. Now he is back in Mexico, attempting contact with his son.

"I hope to see him very soon," said Castro in Spanish to Telemundo 20. "I feel pure happiness right now. The important thing is the child."

The National System for Integral Family Development (DIF) said Pascual will have to prove he can care for Anthony.

"I feel satisfied I can do that," said Pascual. "I already fought it and on two previous occasions, I already showed that I can do that."

Castros son would require comprehensive care if Castro manages to gain custody, DIF said in a press conference.

Sanderson, who lives in Escondido, said she is also seeking custody.

"Im going to do what I have to do without stopping until the day I have him with me," Sanderson told NBC News in Spanish.

Castros sister and brother-in-law face charges of child abuse, according to Mexican authorities.
Deputies shot and killed a man who was armed with a fake gun, while they were serving an eviction notice Friday, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department (SDSO) confirmed.

San Diego police received a call at 7:53 a.m. from a home on Second Avenue between Hawthorne and Grape streets.

Deputies were serving an eviction notice moments before the shooting, according to SDSO Lt. Glisson.

San Diego Police Homicide Unit Lt. Mike Holden described the events that led up to the shooting.

"As they knocked on the door, the occupant who was the target of the eviction told them that if they entered he would arm himself with a handgun," Holden said.

Once the deputies entered the apartment's living room, the man ran into his bedroom and returned with what appeared to be a semi-automatic handgun. As he pointed the weapon at them, both deputies fired several rounds at the suspect, Holden said.

After he was shot, the man retreated back into his bedroom, Holden said. They followed him there and found the suspect with several gunshot wounds.

The suspect, identified as a 47-year-old man, was transported to Scripps Mercy Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Holden said.

Neither deputy was injured in this incident.

The man was the only person in the apartment at the time, Holden said. He said the man was supposed to be removed from the unit.

"I can't speak to what protocols would apply to this," Holden said. "We're here to investigate an officer-involved shooting."

San Diego police will conduct the homicide investigation.

While searching the apartment, homicide investigators found a semi-automatic handgun replica inside the suspect's bedroom, according to the SDPD. The weapon appears to be either a BB air pistol or an Airsoft pistol.

The deputies involved in the shooting included a 17-year veteran and a 9-year veteran of the SDSO, according to police.

Anyone with information related to this incident can call the SDPD Homicide Unit at (619)531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888)580-8477.
What to Know Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk says he has the go-ahead to build a Hyperloop system connecting NY to DC

The Hyperloop, an electromagnetic tube system, would transport people from city to city in 29 minutes

Musk first proposed the idea of an intercity Hyperloop in 2013

UPDATE: Elon Musk's NY-DC Hyperloop One Step Closer to Reality



New York to Washington in 29 minutes? Elon Musk says it's possible and he has the government's approval to do it (though it's anyone's guess how long it would take to build).

"Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins," the billionaire inventor and entrepreneur tweeted Thursday afternoon.

"City center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city," he said in another tweet. The Boring Company is Musk's tunneling venture.

"Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but am optimistic that will occur rapidly," Musk said about an hour later. He waited until Friday morning to acknowledge, again via Twitter, that the verbal approval was at the federal level only.

"Still a lot of work before formal, written approval, but this opens door for state & city discussions," he added.



In a statement to News 4 New York on Thursday, a Boring Company spokesperson said the company has had a number of promising conversations with local, state and federal government officials.

"With few exceptions, feedback has been very positive and we have received verbal support from key government decision-makers for tunneling plans, including a Hyperloop route from New York to Washington," the person said, adding the company hopes to "break ground later this year."

LEVITATING PODS

Passengers traveling via Hyperloop would board magnetically levitating pods moved by electric propulsion.



The U.S. Department of Transportation referred inquiries about the project to the White House. The Trump administration acknowledged Musk's tweet while not getting into any specifics about a possible project.

"We have had promising conversations to date, are committed to transformative infrastructure projects, and believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private sector," a White House spokesman said.

[NATL] The Many Handshakes of President Donald Trump

Representatives for both the New York City and Washington, D.C. mayors said they were unaware of approvals for the project.

"This is news to City Hall," tweeted Eric Phillips, a spokesman for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"This is the first weve heard of it, but we can't wait to hear more," said LaToya Foster, spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

The D.C. Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to an inquiry. The Federal Transit Administration deferred to the Transportation Department.

In February, Musk tweeted photos from a tunnel in D.C., sparking a flurry of speculation. NBC Washington learned he toured the 2 1/2-mile-long Anacostia River Tunnel and saw the tunnel-boring machine that created it. A spokesman for Musk declined to speak at the time about the purpose of the tour.

Baltimore officials, in statements to local media, said they supported the project and would not stand in its way.

SKEPTICS CHALLENGE

Skeptics wasted no time in challenging Musk on the details of his announcement Thursday, including the BBC's Silicon Valley reporter, who asked whether the CEO was announcing prematurely in a bid to drum up support.

"Support would be much appreciated!" he replied.

In a later response to an inquisitive follower, Musk did say the work on the New York-to-Washington tunnel would run in parallel to an existing project to build tunnels in Los Angeles.

"Then prob LA-SF and a TX loop," he tweeted. He gave no estimate for how long any of these projects would take or what they might cost.

He also indicated that adding Boston and Providence to the NY-DC route would be a "natural extension," and said his company had been approached by Chicago officials about an O'Hare-to-downtown tunnel as well.

Musk is best known for his electric car company Tesla and his space venture SpaceX, as well as co-founding PayPal.

The inventor first proposed the Hyperloop electromagnetic tube system in 2013. Earlier this year the California tech company Hyperloop One unveiled a plan for a NY-to-DC system.

Musk's system appeared to be different from theirs, though.

Technology company Hyperloop One has unveiled a plan for a high-speed tube that could take people from New York City to Washington, D.C. in just 23 minutes.

In April, former D.C. Department of Transportation head Gabe Klein said he thinks Hyperloop will happen.

"I think it's going to become a reality," he said. "I think it may take longer than people think to get through all the right-of-way clearances and the sort of government regulations. But I think we are in for a sea change in terms of long-haul transportation."
At the only hospital for veterans in the state of New Hampshire, disturbing allegations of sub-standard care and inadequate facilities. Friday, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary visited Manchester to address the concerns.

We are going to do better for the veterans of New Hampshire, said Secretary David Shulkin in an afternoon press conference.

He personally met with the doctors and patients who came forward in a July Boston Globe article that revealed shocking accusations of inadequate care at the Manchester VA.

Our interests were aligned, our hearts were together, Shulkin said.

The whistleblowers say issues range from outdated equipment, to rusty surgical tools, and a fly infestation in the operating room. Even worse, they say, is the treatment, or lack thereof. Veterans with life-threatening conditions, waiting months for an appointment.

A special thanks to the whistleblowers who brought their concerns forward with such determination and persistence, said Senator Maggie Hassan.

It was a sentiment echoed by the entire New Hampshire congressional delegation and Governor Chris Sununu.

Doctors Stewart Levenson and Ed Kois are two of those whistleblowers who met with Secretary Shulkin Friday.

We think its atrocious that we have a building falling down around us and that these guys gave their lives and their health to defend us, and we dont have something better, said Dr. Kois, the Head of the Manchester VAs Spinal Cord Clinic.

Theyre calling for a new full service hospital to be built in New Hampshire. For now, Shulkin says $12 million will be spent on facility upgrades and hes creating a task force to examine possible ways to bring full service care to veterans.

None of these are unsolvable problems, Shulkin said.

Both Levenson and Kois say theyre pleased to hear that a third top official has been fired from their post at the Manchester VA. Shulkin says hes making room for necessary change.

Its a nice first step, but thats all it is, Levenson said.

As for the specific allegations that came to light in the Glob article, Shulkin says his Departments top-to-bottom investigation is still underway.
A female pedestrian was killed after being run over by an MBTA swing-loader in Norwood, Massachusetts, on Friday, police confirmed.

The Norfolk District Attorney's Office identified the pedestrian, who was hit on Broadway and Central Street around 8:45 a.m., as 55-year-old Cheryl Ann McCarthy of Dedham.

Tragedy in Norwood: 55 year old Cheryl Ann McCarthy run over and killed by an MBTA swing loader. Family says she was always happy. pic.twitter.com/7cpRSzWF3d  Kathryn Sotnik NBC10 Boston (@KatNBCBoston) August 4, 2017

The driver of the swing-loader, a 10-year veteran of Keolis, was taken to the hospital to be treated for shock.

Keolis operates the MBTA's Commuter Rail and was in the area of the Central Street MBTA station working on a 3-month bridge project involving train tracks.

Police in Norwood, Massachusetts, are on scene on Broadway for a serious pedestrian accident.

Susan Eno, a manager at a nearby gas station, said the woman who was killed is a regular there. A Dunkin' Donuts clerk said the woman had ordered a coffee about a minute before the accident.

"I was standing outside having a cigarette and all of a sudden I heard someone leaning on their horn," Eno said. "I saw the traffic build up and I said, 'Somebody must have gotten hit.' I walked around and I saw her laying there. She was a mess."

"It's scary," she added. "You never know."

The matter remains under investigation by Norwood police, MBTA Transit Police and Massachusetts State Police. No charges have been filed at this time.
Police in Providence, Rhode Island, say they're investigating a drive-by shooting that injured a man and 16-year-old boy on Saturday morning.

According to WJAR-TV, officers responded to 278 Manton Ave. at about 3 a.m. where the teenager and a 30-year-old man were found shot in a rear driveway.

Both victims were said to have sustained minor injuries.

Police told WJAR-TV they are looking for a small silver sedan that may have been involved with the shooting.
Akshay Kumar was a part of the cleanliness drive conducted by Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.

By India Today Web Desk: Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar flew to Lucknow on Friday to be a part of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's cleanliness drive. Akshay took to Twitter to share a picture of himself with the CM and said that he was "honoured" to be a part of this awareness programme.

Honored to be part of Hon. Chief Minister of U.P. @myogiadityanath cleanliness drive in Lucknow today ????? pic.twitter.com/E5OakFqvDH- Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 4, 2017

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Akshay and Bhumi were there to promote their upcoming release, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, which revolves around the issue of sanitation and open defecation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan forms an integral part of the plot.

In fact, PM Modi was all praise for the film's trailer when it came out. "Good effort to further the message of cleanliness," he had written.

Good effort to further the message of cleanliness. 125 crore Indians have to continue working together to create a Swachh Bharat. https://t.co/C0XKPpguW7- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 12, 2017

CM Yogi Adityanath seemed to agree with him, and Toilet: Ek Prem Katha has been made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh.

After Lucknow, Akshay and Bhumi headed to Agra to spread the message of cleanliness as well as promote their film.

Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is slated to release on August 11.

(With inputs from Shivangi Thakur)

PHOTO: Akshay Kumar tells PM Modi about Toilet Ek Prem Katha, and his expression is priceless

OPINION: Toilet Ek Prem Katha and the charm of being Akshay Kumar in 2017

ALSO WATCH: Akshay Kumar wins National Award - How the actor became Sabse Bada Khiladi

--- ENDS ---
Vice President Mike Pence has turned over emails from private AOL.com accounts he used to conduct official business while he was Indiana's governor.

The state's public records law generally requires state officials to preserve and make available correspondence or documents related to state business, with some exemptions. But Pence waited months to hand over the records  and only did so after his use of the private accounts was widely reported.

Attorneys for the vice president notified current Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb's office in July that an electronic database containing the emails was handed over, Holcomb spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said.

"We delivered to you a complete electronic production of state records that were in the custody of Vice President Pence from during the time that he served as governor," attorney Karoline E. Jackson wrote in an email to the Republican governor's office. The email states that Pence's attorneys also provided guidance on emails and documents they believe could be withheld from release.

Pence has touted himself as a champion of a free press and the First Amendment, though he repeatedly stonewalled public records requests as governor, often delaying their release if not denying them outright.

Holcomb's office for months has been grappling with a backlog of roughly 50 public records requests from activists, political groups and news organizations, including The Associated Press. Some are more than a year old and most are seeking emails from Pence's private accounts.

Pence provided 13 boxes containing paper copies of the emails in March when news of his use of the AOL.com accounts first drew scrutiny. But Holcomb's office said at the time that there were more emails that had yet to be provided. And Holcomb's office also sought electronic access to the emails, so they could be searched and reviewed much more easily.

The state hired the Indiana law firm McNeely Stephenson in May to handle the crush of requests, entering a contract that could cost taxpayers as much as $100,000.

Pence's AOL account was subjected to a phishing scheme in spring 2016, before Trump chose him to join the Republican presidential ticket. Pence's contacts were sent an email falsely claiming that the governor and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and needed money.

The hacking of Pence's private emails have led some to raise questions of hypocrisy after he frequently attacked Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail over her own email use. He argued Clinton's use of a private server when she was secretary of state could have jeopardized national security if her emails got into the wrong hands.

But Pence spokesman Marc Lotter has said charges of hypocrisy are unfair because there is a big difference between the Secretary of State's correspondence about sensitive national matters and business conducted by a governor through a private emails address.
When word got out that President Donald Trump told Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in a January phone call, I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den," it prompted an immediate backlash in the Granite State.

Politicians and recovering addicts alike condemned his remarks, calling the president's remarks not only judgmental, but hurtful.

Many New Hampshire residents took to social media to condemn Trump's remarks in their own way - by sharing photos of some of the state's scenic areas, along with a healthy dose of sarcasm.
M Rajendran By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: From putting tiles in your house and painting walls to helping film producers shoot dangerous scenes in bollywood - Co-bots - human assisted robots, are entering the Indian market. The textile industry in Surat, top IITs and electronics manufacturers have all begun purchasing them.

Cobots are already helping the Real Estate sector in Singapore to enhance the quality of construction. In India, a few real estate firms are already in discussion with companies like Universal Robots.

Co-bots or collaborative robots work along human workers and help them with a variety of tasks. Since they are affordable and plug-and-play, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are eager to adopt this technology in India, says Pradeep S D PE, India representative of Bengaluru-based firm Universal Robots.

The global collaborative robots market is estimated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.88 percent to 2019, according to TechNavio, a British market research firm. Firms like Universal Robots are expanding business in South Asian countries. In India, they are emerging as a major player to help companies like TVS and Bajaj produce better quality two wheelers. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industries, along with Real Estate, Textiles and automobiles, are adopting the technology.

Pradeep says as against the popular belief that Co-bots take away human jobs, there are instance in India where jobs were created. Oro Labs, the contact lens makers in Madurai, installed Cobots to meet growing demand. But, they had to push for more jobs (sales executives, logistics people to be employed and also in ancillary services like transportation) that only humans can do, says Pradeep.

The cost of purchasing a cobot for SMEs is still prohibitive at Rs 15-25 Lakh, but the company is confident that it will come down, with fasters adoption by real estate and FMCG sectors.

NEW DELHI: From putting tiles in your house and painting walls to helping film producers shoot dangerous scenes in bollywood - Co-bots - human assisted robots, are entering the Indian market. The textile industry in Surat, top IITs and electronics manufacturers have all begun purchasing them. Cobots are already helping the Real Estate sector in Singapore to enhance the quality of construction. In India, a few real estate firms are already in discussion with companies like Universal Robots. Co-bots or collaborative robots work along human workers and help them with a variety of tasks. Since they are affordable and plug-and-play, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are eager to adopt this technology in India, says Pradeep S D PE, India representative of Bengaluru-based firm Universal Robots. The global collaborative robots market is estimated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.88 percent to 2019, according to TechNavio, a British market research firm. Firms like Universal Robots are expanding business in South Asian countries. In India, they are emerging as a major player to help companies like TVS and Bajaj produce better quality two wheelers. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industries, along with Real Estate, Textiles and automobiles, are adopting the technology. Pradeep says as against the popular belief that Co-bots take away human jobs, there are instance in India where jobs were created. Oro Labs, the contact lens makers in Madurai, installed Cobots to meet growing demand. But, they had to push for more jobs (sales executives, logistics people to be employed and also in ancillary services like transportation) that only humans can do, says Pradeep. The cost of purchasing a cobot for SMEs is still prohibitive at Rs 15-25 Lakh, but the company is confident that it will come down, with fasters adoption by real estate and FMCG sectors.
Sesa sen By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Are Korean brands having second thoughts on investment in India? After years of major investment, India has slipped to rank 16 in the list of investment destinations for Korean firms.

The FDI inflows factsheet by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) shows that, from April, 2000 to March, 2017, Korea ranked 14th with $2.26 billion in investment, 0.68 per cent of the cumulative inflows received. Between 2013 and 2016, when investors from all over the world made a beeline for India, there were only three instances of South Korean investors putting money into the country, according Tracxn.

However, the situation could change, according to analysts. Korean investors have so far focused more on neighbouring markets like Japan and China but now they are realising that these markets have become more saturated compared to India, Charlie Lee, CEO, True Balance said.

Recent investments by Korean VCs in the Indian market have become fruitful and hence the interest in investing in the Indian startup ecosystem has risen. If not tech startups, anything related to mobile business is what Korean companies are looking to invest in, said Lee, In addition the rapid increase in smartphone users, emerging markets have potential for further gains. India, in particular, stands out for its staggering growth in engagement on apps.

According to Institute of South Asian Studies, main investors from South Korea in India are large businesses rather than small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While India remains a bright spot with Hyundai, the countrys second biggest automaker by sales, South Koreas Kia Motors would infuse as much as $ 1.1 billion as one of the big ticket FDIs in India. The construction of the new facility in Andhra Pradesh, with an annual capacity of three lakh units, will begin in the final quarter of 2017.

CHENNAI: Are Korean brands having second thoughts on investment in India? After years of major investment, India has slipped to rank 16 in the list of investment destinations for Korean firms. The FDI inflows factsheet by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) shows that, from April, 2000 to March, 2017, Korea ranked 14th with $2.26 billion in investment, 0.68 per cent of the cumulative inflows received. Between 2013 and 2016, when investors from all over the world made a beeline for India, there were only three instances of South Korean investors putting money into the country, according Tracxn. However, the situation could change, according to analysts. Korean investors have so far focused more on neighbouring markets like Japan and China but now they are realising that these markets have become more saturated compared to India, Charlie Lee, CEO, True Balance said. Recent investments by Korean VCs in the Indian market have become fruitful and hence the interest in investing in the Indian startup ecosystem has risen. If not tech startups, anything related to mobile business is what Korean companies are looking to invest in, said Lee, In addition the rapid increase in smartphone users, emerging markets have potential for further gains. India, in particular, stands out for its staggering growth in engagement on apps. According to Institute of South Asian Studies, main investors from South Korea in India are large businesses rather than small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While India remains a bright spot with Hyundai, the countrys second biggest automaker by sales, South Koreas Kia Motors would infuse as much as $ 1.1 billion as one of the big ticket FDIs in India. The construction of the new facility in Andhra Pradesh, with an annual capacity of three lakh units, will begin in the final quarter of 2017.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Cambodia, two decades after the fall of the bloody Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, is what we are invited to see in IAS officer MP Josephs latest book My driver Tulong. It is interesting because it is a country still recovering from a genocide and, this fictional account, is told through the eyes of a UN staffer Joseph.

The book is an intimate sketch of a country and its people, and it weaves their history into this narrative seamlessly. For example, you meet the driver Tulong and know that his slowness in responding to answers could come from a cunning. He may not have forgotten that a wrong answer -- like confessing to having read a piece of stray paper or taking an extra serving of watery rice gruel -- once had resulted in days of lashing and being chained to a plank. But Tulongs kindness and capacity for affection have survived the horrors, and he like other Cambodians sees aid agencies as deliverers.

Cambodia was one of UNs success stories, says the author. The agency was key in transforming the country, after the Paris Peace Accords in 1991.

But Joseph does not deny the historic injustice done to the country by the very same agency, when it allowed Khmer Rouge to represent the country in the UN. The agencys policies where largely driven by the US, says Joseph, who served 20 years with the international agency. Since Cambodia was liberated from the Khmer Rouge by Vietnamese, arch enemies of US at that time, the UN sided with the genocidal group. As the saying goes, my enemys enemy is my friend.

One observation the author makes is that none of the people he spoke to, during his decade in Cambodia, ever admitted to being part of the Khmer Rouge regime. They always spoke as victims, he says. But I got the sense that few of them were actually perpetrators of the horrors.

There was a man who told Joseph about betraying friends to save yourself. They were served rice gruel twice every day and occasionally, like when there is an anniversary, they are given a piece of potato with it. A seven year old saw a piece of potato fall to the ground and picked it up. He was being watched and, before he could be caught, he dropped it into his neighours bowl. The other boy was locked up and beaten for a week. The author got the feeling that the narrator was the boy who betrayed the other.

Knowing that they might have been the perpetrators did not change my attitude to them, he says, it changed my attitude to me. I realised that even you and I are capable of such evil. If we are asked to arm ourselves, and control and abuse our fellow men, we might do it to.

The book is mostly written in a light-hearted tone and even has jokes about UN staffers making up mission reports even before boarding the flight to the destination. This is an exagerration, says Joseph, adding with a laugh, it does happen... but not as often.

Joseph, who wrote the book to get people to know Cambodia, says that the toughest thing about writing ficiton is to make it interesting. I also keep taking lanes and bye-lanes (turning away from the main narrative) and then I have to keep coming back to the main road, he says. He does this effectively, without breaking away from the central theme. oseph is the son-in-law of former Kerala minister KM Mani. He was reported to have been dismissed from government service while on one of UNs missions. But he vehemently denies this. I was not dismissed, but I was deemed to have resigned... there is a world of difference, says Joseph. He says that he had referred a dated IAS manual (printed in 1988) and believed that he had a leave extension. But the government informed him, much later and abruptly, that his resignation has been noted. In 1992, the leave rules had changed. I was shocked, a tragedy of circumstances, he says.

BENGALURU: Cambodia, two decades after the fall of the bloody Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, is what we are invited to see in IAS officer MP Josephs latest book My driver Tulong. It is interesting because it is a country still recovering from a genocide and, this fictional account, is told through the eyes of a UN staffer Joseph. The book is an intimate sketch of a country and its people, and it weaves their history into this narrative seamlessly. For example, you meet the driver Tulong and know that his slowness in responding to answers could come from a cunning. He may not have forgotten that a wrong answer -- like confessing to having read a piece of stray paper or taking an extra serving of watery rice gruel -- once had resulted in days of lashing and being chained to a plank. But Tulongs kindness and capacity for affection have survived the horrors, and he like other Cambodians sees aid agencies as deliverers. Cambodia was one of UNs success stories, says the author. The agency was key in transforming the country, after the Paris Peace Accords in 1991. But Joseph does not deny the historic injustice done to the country by the very same agency, when it allowed Khmer Rouge to represent the country in the UN. The agencys policies where largely driven by the US, says Joseph, who served 20 years with the international agency. Since Cambodia was liberated from the Khmer Rouge by Vietnamese, arch enemies of US at that time, the UN sided with the genocidal group. As the saying goes, my enemys enemy is my friend. One observation the author makes is that none of the people he spoke to, during his decade in Cambodia, ever admitted to being part of the Khmer Rouge regime. They always spoke as victims, he says. But I got the sense that few of them were actually perpetrators of the horrors. There was a man who told Joseph about betraying friends to save yourself. They were served rice gruel twice every day and occasionally, like when there is an anniversary, they are given a piece of potato with it. A seven year old saw a piece of potato fall to the ground and picked it up. He was being watched and, before he could be caught, he dropped it into his neighours bowl. The other boy was locked up and beaten for a week. The author got the feeling that the narrator was the boy who betrayed the other. Knowing that they might have been the perpetrators did not change my attitude to them, he says, it changed my attitude to me. I realised that even you and I are capable of such evil. If we are asked to arm ourselves, and control and abuse our fellow men, we might do it to. The book is mostly written in a light-hearted tone and even has jokes about UN staffers making up mission reports even before boarding the flight to the destination. This is an exagerration, says Joseph, adding with a laugh, it does happen... but not as often. Joseph, who wrote the book to get people to know Cambodia, says that the toughest thing about writing ficiton is to make it interesting. I also keep taking lanes and bye-lanes (turning away from the main narrative) and then I have to keep coming back to the main road, he says. He does this effectively, without breaking away from the central theme. oseph is the son-in-law of former Kerala minister KM Mani. He was reported to have been dismissed from government service while on one of UNs missions. But he vehemently denies this. I was not dismissed, but I was deemed to have resigned... there is a world of difference, says Joseph. He says that he had referred a dated IAS manual (printed in 1988) and believed that he had a leave extension. But the government informed him, much later and abruptly, that his resignation has been noted. In 1992, the leave rules had changed. I was shocked, a tragedy of circumstances, he says.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: In the first five days of August, customs sleuths of Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) cracked three cases of gold smuggling and seized more than 1.8 kg of gold worth more than Rs 50 lakhs.

In the first case, on Friday evening, customs sleuths foiled an attempt to smuggle gold to the tune of 800 grams valued at Rs 23,53,600.

The accused smuggler, Ashfaque Ahmed Kakde, 50, arrived at KIA from Dubai on Friday evening. Customs officials detained the passenger and on interrogation got contradictory statements from him. His baggage was then subjected to detailed examination. When his check-in luggage was searched, customs sleuths found gold rods hidden inside the hollow part of a fruit juicer.

Kakde, a native of Bhatkal, stated that he ran a trading business of fast-moving consumer goods in Dubai. Kakde's friend from Bhatkal allegedly requested him to deliver the goods to another friend of his at Bhatkal, for which his round-trip tickets were taken care of and Kakde was also assured of a commission upon his return to Dubai.

The accused has been arrested and further investigation into the case is on.

In another case, Farhana Begum, 35, was apprehended when she arrived from Bangkok on Thursday evening. She had 4 gold biscuits, 100 grams each, concealed in her undergarment. The value of the gold was Rs 11,80,000.

Farhana, hailing from Bengaluru and a Class X dropout, had earlier worked at a call centre and thereafter changed her profession as a baby sitter. A mother of two and a divorcee, Farhana was unable to make ends meet. At the behest of her friend, she left for Bangkok in search of a job. Her friend, however, couldn't get her a job immediately and instead asked Farhana to carry the gold back to Bengaluru for a reward of Rs. 10,000.

The third case involves one Inshaf Mohammed of Sri Lanka who was detained by Custom sleuths when he landed in KIA from Colombo.

Sleuth, after profiling and extensively searching Mohammed, found out that he had concealed 3 gold wires weighing 511 grams, in the inner lining of his suitcase. The value of the gold retrieved was Rs 15,15,115.

In Sri Lanka, the passenger was in the trading business of ready-made garments procured from India. In his statement, he mentioned that he was requested by a contact who had given him the gold to be handed over to a person waiting outside Bengaluru airport for an amount of Rs. 10,000.

BENGALURU: In the first five days of August, customs sleuths of Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) cracked three cases of gold smuggling and seized more than 1.8 kg of gold worth more than Rs 50 lakhs. In the first case, on Friday evening, customs sleuths foiled an attempt to smuggle gold to the tune of 800 grams valued at Rs 23,53,600. The accused smuggler, Ashfaque Ahmed Kakde, 50, arrived at KIA from Dubai on Friday evening. Customs officials detained the passenger and on interrogation got contradictory statements from him. His baggage was then subjected to detailed examination. When his check-in luggage was searched, customs sleuths found gold rods hidden inside the hollow part of a fruit juicer. Kakde, a native of Bhatkal, stated that he ran a trading business of fast-moving consumer goods in Dubai. Kakde's friend from Bhatkal allegedly requested him to deliver the goods to another friend of his at Bhatkal, for which his round-trip tickets were taken care of and Kakde was also assured of a commission upon his return to Dubai. The accused has been arrested and further investigation into the case is on. In another case, Farhana Begum, 35, was apprehended when she arrived from Bangkok on Thursday evening. She had 4 gold biscuits, 100 grams each, concealed in her undergarment. The value of the gold was Rs 11,80,000. Farhana, hailing from Bengaluru and a Class X dropout, had earlier worked at a call centre and thereafter changed her profession as a baby sitter. A mother of two and a divorcee, Farhana was unable to make ends meet. At the behest of her friend, she left for Bangkok in search of a job. Her friend, however, couldn't get her a job immediately and instead asked Farhana to carry the gold back to Bengaluru for a reward of Rs. 10,000. The third case involves one Inshaf Mohammed of Sri Lanka who was detained by Custom sleuths when he landed in KIA from Colombo. Sleuth, after profiling and extensively searching Mohammed, found out that he had concealed 3 gold wires weighing 511 grams, in the inner lining of his suitcase. The value of the gold retrieved was Rs 15,15,115. In Sri Lanka, the passenger was in the trading business of ready-made garments procured from India. In his statement, he mentioned that he was requested by a contact who had given him the gold to be handed over to a person waiting outside Bengaluru airport for an amount of Rs. 10,000.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been rather magnanimous with his Telugu Desam Party members, approving the withdrawal of prosecution of 23 leaders facing criminal cases, including his deputies KE Krishnamurthy and N Chinnarajappa. But the move might backfire as legal experts say it violates Supreme Court guidelines.

Chief ministers are known to allow the dropping of frivolous charges against leaders, such as for participating in political agitations while in the Opposition. The ruling TDP's earlier gesture of withdrawing prosecution of those who participated in the Samaikya Andhra agitation against the state's bifurcation is an example. But Naidu has approved closure of cases involving serious charges, such as murder, attempt to murder, molestation and cases lodged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. State HRD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, for instance, was booked in 2009 for attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt, causing grievous hurt, criminal trespass and unlawful assembly. K Atchannaidu, the minister for backward classes welfare and empowerment, was named in a 2008 case of molestation, causing hurt and criminal intimidation. Another notable case withdrawn was against law and justice minister K. Ravindra over creating public nuisance in 2014.

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While hearing a case in 2005, the Supreme Court had set guidelines for governments and public prosecutors on employing discretionary powers to withdraw cases. Ruling that this could only be allowed in the interest of justice, the court had asked all subordinate judiciary to consider the relevant circumstances, including whether withdrawal of prosecution would further the cause of justice.

Justifying the Naidu government's selective action, a home department official argues, "Many of the cases dropped were based on complaints filed in the heat of the moment or in political rivalry. Withdrawing these may be controversial but not consequential."

Legal experts say a case is fit for withdrawal only if it's likely to end in acquittal and its continuation is only causing harassment to the accused. While YSR Congress leader A Ramakrishna Reddy has filed a PIL in the high court challenging the state government's move, former high court judges P Lakshmana Reddy and Chandra Kumar, former AP RTI commissioner P Vijaya Babu and an NGO, the Forum for Good Governance, have demanded a white paper on the issue. "All details on a case by case basis should be published," says Reddy.

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By Express News Service

Film: Raju Vishnu

Cast: Sharan, Chikkanna, Srinivas Murthy, Vaibhavi Shandilya

Director: K Madesh

Rating: 

With Raj Vishnu, director Madesh aims to debunk the perception that a hit comedy film can not remade for the better. He says that if nativity isnt tampered with and popular sentiments are maintained, the protagonist and his sidekick are lovable and laughable, dialogues induce laughter, the flow is unaltered, then comedy movies can retain the freshness of its original, probably even surpass.

After Madesh saw the Tamil hit film, Rajini Murugan, he instantly realised that the film suited Kannada nativity. Just a tweak here and there, and the film was ready. Raj Vishnu follows the original to the hilt.

The romantic comedy is about Raj Vishnu, an unemployed youth with a close bonding with his landlord grandfather (Srinivas Murthy). His only occupation is to try and woo his childhood sweetheart Lavanya (Vaibhavi Shandilya) and takes the help of his is close friend Shankar Nag (Chikkanna). But her father, once a close friend of Raj Vishnus father, is strictly against the two meeting.

In parallel, his grandfather wants to see Raj settled and decides to divide the property. But a problem arises when the family of his, residing abroad, is not ready to visit their hometown and sign the property papers. Will Raj get his love and will his grandfather be able to divide the property ends with a relevant social message, which is strongly delivered by actor Sriimurali, who makes a cameo appearance.

Bringing freshness to the film is the combination of Sharan and Chikkanna, making for a laughter riot. Another plus is the comedy-laden dialogues.

However, owing to some sentimental drama, the second half becomes slow, but picks up towards the end.Vaibhavi Shandilyas debut shows promise in the required screen space, while she adds the glam quotient in a song sequence. Loki is seen as the young antagonist and has worked on enacting anger well. Senior actor Srinivas Murthy stands out in the role as the grandfather.

Overall, the film gets good support from Suchendra Prasad, Mimicry Gopi, Sadhu Kokila, among others.

The films peppy songs by Arjun Janya has the front benchers dance to the tunes, while cinematography by Rajesh Katta takes us browsing through the local environs. For a fun ride with Sharan and Chikkanna, this one is worth a watch.

Film: Raju Vishnu Cast: Sharan, Chikkanna, Srinivas Murthy, Vaibhavi Shandilya Director: K Madesh Rating:  With Raj Vishnu, director Madesh aims to debunk the perception that a hit comedy film can not remade for the better. He says that if nativity isnt tampered with and popular sentiments are maintained, the protagonist and his sidekick are lovable and laughable, dialogues induce laughter, the flow is unaltered, then comedy movies can retain the freshness of its original, probably even surpass. After Madesh saw the Tamil hit film, Rajini Murugan, he instantly realised that the film suited Kannada nativity. Just a tweak here and there, and the film was ready. Raj Vishnu follows the original to the hilt. The romantic comedy is about Raj Vishnu, an unemployed youth with a close bonding with his landlord grandfather (Srinivas Murthy). His only occupation is to try and woo his childhood sweetheart Lavanya (Vaibhavi Shandilya) and takes the help of his is close friend Shankar Nag (Chikkanna). But her father, once a close friend of Raj Vishnus father, is strictly against the two meeting. In parallel, his grandfather wants to see Raj settled and decides to divide the property. But a problem arises when the family of his, residing abroad, is not ready to visit their hometown and sign the property papers. Will Raj get his love and will his grandfather be able to divide the property ends with a relevant social message, which is strongly delivered by actor Sriimurali, who makes a cameo appearance. Bringing freshness to the film is the combination of Sharan and Chikkanna, making for a laughter riot. Another plus is the comedy-laden dialogues. However, owing to some sentimental drama, the second half becomes slow, but picks up towards the end.Vaibhavi Shandilyas debut shows promise in the required screen space, while she adds the glam quotient in a song sequence. Loki is seen as the young antagonist and has worked on enacting anger well. Senior actor Srinivas Murthy stands out in the role as the grandfather. Overall, the film gets good support from Suchendra Prasad, Mimicry Gopi, Sadhu Kokila, among others. The films peppy songs by Arjun Janya has the front benchers dance to the tunes, while cinematography by Rajesh Katta takes us browsing through the local environs. For a fun ride with Sharan and Chikkanna, this one is worth a watch.
By Express News Service

Word has it that AR Rahman may perform live at the much-awaited audio launch of Vijays Mersal, which will take place at Nehru Stadium on August 20.

Its going to be a grand audio launch and Rahman sir may perform. He is yet to give his final nod but the makers are hopeful that he will accept the invitation and at least perform briefly, says a source from the films unit.

Vijay plays a triple role in the big budget film, which is bankrolled by Sri Thenandal Studios. The three roles are that of a panchayat head, a doctor and a magician. In the poster, hes seen sporting a twirled moustache and this is said to be from the period portions of the film.

Directed by Atlee, the film also stars Nithya Menen, SJ Suryah, Kajal Aggarwal and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Mersal, which will have a simultaneous dubbed Telugu release, is set to hit the screens this Diwali.

Word has it that AR Rahman may perform live at the much-awaited audio launch of Vijays Mersal, which will take place at Nehru Stadium on August 20. Its going to be a grand audio launch and Rahman sir may perform. He is yet to give his final nod but the makers are hopeful that he will accept the invitation and at least perform briefly, says a source from the films unit. Vijay plays a triple role in the big budget film, which is bankrolled by Sri Thenandal Studios. The three roles are that of a panchayat head, a doctor and a magician. In the poster, hes seen sporting a twirled moustache and this is said to be from the period portions of the film. Directed by Atlee, the film also stars Nithya Menen, SJ Suryah, Kajal Aggarwal and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Mersal, which will have a simultaneous dubbed Telugu release, is set to hit the screens this Diwali.
Shevlin Sebastian By

As his name was called, Nitin Vasanth felt a shiver of excitement as he strode on stage at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on March 17. The 23-year-old received The Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award from Ramesh Mashelkar, former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Vasanths prize-winning entry was called NeuroBudsBrain Wave Mapping Smart Earphones. Apart from the award, Kozhikode-born Vasanth received a grant of Rs 15 lakh to do the research.

While doing his B.Tech in electronics from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Vasanth came up with the idea of tracking the mental state of people through an app.

With that in mind, he put electrodes inside an earphone. These electrodes are similar to what we use to measure the heartbeat, says Vasanth. But this machine is based on a different principle called the Electro-encephalography.

In this case, the electrodes help in tracking the mental state. For example, when you do meditation, the brain emits a particular frequency, which is different from when you are angry or sad, he says. These messages appear on the app in a smartphone.

When you find that your stress levels are too high, you can take steps to bring them down by taking deep breaths, going for a walk or listening to music, says Bengaluru-based Vasanth.

Vasanth is targeting stressed-out working professionals between the age group of 25 and 45. This device will make them realise that they need to ease up.

But Vasanth is not ready for mass production, as he wants to fine-tune it. For that he is getting help from companies such as Bosch and Intel. In February, he was selected for a five-month accelerator programme organised by Intel and the department of science and technology. So he and members of his firm Neuro Tech were able to access the Intel Lab in Bengaluru. But the turning point came when he was selected for the Rajeev Circle Fellowship to spend a month in Silicon Valley, California. I met a lot of entrepreneurs and investors, he says. Our group of 11 was allowed access to the R&D labs of Google and Facebook. It was a huge learning experience. Failure is not seen as a disaster here.

As his name was called, Nitin Vasanth felt a shiver of excitement as he strode on stage at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on March 17. The 23-year-old received The Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award from Ramesh Mashelkar, former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Vasanths prize-winning entry was called NeuroBudsBrain Wave Mapping Smart Earphones. Apart from the award, Kozhikode-born Vasanth received a grant of Rs 15 lakh to do the research. While doing his B.Tech in electronics from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Vasanth came up with the idea of tracking the mental state of people through an app. With that in mind, he put electrodes inside an earphone. These electrodes are similar to what we use to measure the heartbeat, says Vasanth. But this machine is based on a different principle called the Electro-encephalography. In this case, the electrodes help in tracking the mental state. For example, when you do meditation, the brain emits a particular frequency, which is different from when you are angry or sad, he says. These messages appear on the app in a smartphone. When you find that your stress levels are too high, you can take steps to bring them down by taking deep breaths, going for a walk or listening to music, says Bengaluru-based Vasanth. Vasanth is targeting stressed-out working professionals between the age group of 25 and 45. This device will make them realise that they need to ease up. But Vasanth is not ready for mass production, as he wants to fine-tune it. For that he is getting help from companies such as Bosch and Intel. In February, he was selected for a five-month accelerator programme organised by Intel and the department of science and technology. So he and members of his firm Neuro Tech were able to access the Intel Lab in Bengaluru. But the turning point came when he was selected for the Rajeev Circle Fellowship to spend a month in Silicon Valley, California. I met a lot of entrepreneurs and investors, he says. Our group of 11 was allowed access to the R&D labs of Google and Facebook. It was a huge learning experience. Failure is not seen as a disaster here.
Mohan Das Menon By

India, Pakistan and China share numerous links, including merging borders, legal and illicit trade along those and differing degrees of exposure to the vagaries of British colonial rule. But, ideologically, the three have distinct political characteristics. While India is largely a people-driven democracy open to the world, Pakistan tends to be a democracy under the thumb of the military establishment that overshadows popular mandates, and thereby calls the shots in governance and formulation of national strategy. On another plane, Chinas distinct political culture makes it a long-standing communistic state with perennially inward-looking Chinese characteristics. Historically, Beijing looks outward only for the certitude of profit. While the three countries do not constitute any Asian triumvirate, the impact of a sudden political transformation in one does often affect the other two distinctly if not materially or in similar proportion.

The recent developments in Pakistan also do so quite profoundly, impacting its intimate neighborhood. Commenting on the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for life by the Supreme Court, the New York Times has underlined that the countrys apex court had on earlier occasions legalised each one of Pakistans three successive military coups in 1958, 1977 and 1999, under the doctrine of necessity. While the existential evidence in the corruption case against Sharif in the so-called Panama Papers was reportedly weak and non-substantive, a parallel has been drawn with a near similar disqualification of another prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani in 2012 for contempt of court for disallowing a judicial order with a distinct political intonation.

It remains to be seen whether Sharif, a successful business magnet of Pakistan and a popular political figure with a fairly noticeable base amidst Pakistans emerging middle-class youth component, will go down into oblivion or re-emerge on the unpredictably slippery surfaces of democratic experimentation to convey a message to his detractors in times ahead. The attempt to designate and place Sharifs younger brother Shehbaz Sharif as the political successor, once the latter enters the National Assembly, could be the first step in such a process. But the uncertainties latent in the fluid waters of Islamabads political arenawherein military, judicial, political and human emotive currents coalescecould throw up surprises. Apart from these overriding forces, Sharif has to confront the political opposition on ground spearheaded, among others, by Imran Khan, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the domineering radical voices of more fundamentalist denominations in the run-up to the elections polls next year.

With Pakistans ties with Washington no longer on a sturdy even keel, as they once were, the main beneficiary of such immanent political instability would invariably be Beijingoften referred to, with a tinge of humour in certain higher diplomatic planes of the United Nations, as Islamabads AVM or the automated veto machine. Beijing and Rawalpindi, the military nerve centre of Pakistan over past years, have been minutely synergising their national energies and strategies to target India within the United Nations over matters linked to the classification of international terrorists and a likely placement of Delhi in the Nuclear Supplies Group. If ever Pakistans cardinal interests get impinged in the global fora, including the UN, India has to contend more with China, a constituent of the Permanent Five in the UN Security Council, than the affected party itself. Indias decision to keep out of the Chinese landmark programming of OBOR has visibly unnerved Beijing, while Pakistans plan to allow itself to be strategically surrounded by a series of futuristic Chinese schemes has shocked a prudent constituency within itself.

In this backdrop, it is surprising that Beijing did not extend even a fig leaf of assistance to the former prime minister, who played a major role in the conception of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).While Sharif was being cornered through highly-motivated selective leaks of documents and the trial processes, the ruling circles in Beijing were aware of Pak militarys subterranean agencies being used for mobilisation of evidence from numerous world capitals. It is noteworthy that Beijing, after Sharifs sudden ouster, has already announced that the $50 billion CPEC trade-corridor-pathway would have an uninterrupted run-up, marking an additional $4 billion provision over the initial cost estimate of $46 billion.

With Sino-Indian military stand-off along the Tri-junction area of Doklam showing no imminent sign of abating, a formally leaderless Islamabad could be exploited by interested quarters to heighten instability along the sensitive Indo-Pak border segments. Delhi has no other option but to reinforce its multi-dimensional border stolidity under such difficult circumstances.

Mohan Das Menon

Former additional secretary, Cabinet Secretariat

mdmenonconsulting@gmail.com

India, Pakistan and China share numerous links, including merging borders, legal and illicit trade along those and differing degrees of exposure to the vagaries of British colonial rule. But, ideologically, the three have distinct political characteristics. While India is largely a people-driven democracy open to the world, Pakistan tends to be a democracy under the thumb of the military establishment that overshadows popular mandates, and thereby calls the shots in governance and formulation of national strategy. On another plane, Chinas distinct political culture makes it a long-standing communistic state with perennially inward-looking Chinese characteristics. Historically, Beijing looks outward only for the certitude of profit. While the three countries do not constitute any Asian triumvirate, the impact of a sudden political transformation in one does often affect the other two distinctly if not materially or in similar proportion. The recent developments in Pakistan also do so quite profoundly, impacting its intimate neighborhood. Commenting on the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for life by the Supreme Court, the New York Times has underlined that the countrys apex court had on earlier occasions legalised each one of Pakistans three successive military coups in 1958, 1977 and 1999, under the doctrine of necessity. While the existential evidence in the corruption case against Sharif in the so-called Panama Papers was reportedly weak and non-substantive, a parallel has been drawn with a near similar disqualification of another prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani in 2012 for contempt of court for disallowing a judicial order with a distinct political intonation. It remains to be seen whether Sharif, a successful business magnet of Pakistan and a popular political figure with a fairly noticeable base amidst Pakistans emerging middle-class youth component, will go down into oblivion or re-emerge on the unpredictably slippery surfaces of democratic experimentation to convey a message to his detractors in times ahead. The attempt to designate and place Sharifs younger brother Shehbaz Sharif as the political successor, once the latter enters the National Assembly, could be the first step in such a process. But the uncertainties latent in the fluid waters of Islamabads political arenawherein military, judicial, political and human emotive currents coalescecould throw up surprises. Apart from these overriding forces, Sharif has to confront the political opposition on ground spearheaded, among others, by Imran Khan, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the domineering radical voices of more fundamentalist denominations in the run-up to the elections polls next year. With Pakistans ties with Washington no longer on a sturdy even keel, as they once were, the main beneficiary of such immanent political instability would invariably be Beijingoften referred to, with a tinge of humour in certain higher diplomatic planes of the United Nations, as Islamabads AVM or the automated veto machine. Beijing and Rawalpindi, the military nerve centre of Pakistan over past years, have been minutely synergising their national energies and strategies to target India within the United Nations over matters linked to the classification of international terrorists and a likely placement of Delhi in the Nuclear Supplies Group. If ever Pakistans cardinal interests get impinged in the global fora, including the UN, India has to contend more with China, a constituent of the Permanent Five in the UN Security Council, than the affected party itself. Indias decision to keep out of the Chinese landmark programming of OBOR has visibly unnerved Beijing, while Pakistans plan to allow itself to be strategically surrounded by a series of futuristic Chinese schemes has shocked a prudent constituency within itself. In this backdrop, it is surprising that Beijing did not extend even a fig leaf of assistance to the former prime minister, who played a major role in the conception of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).While Sharif was being cornered through highly-motivated selective leaks of documents and the trial processes, the ruling circles in Beijing were aware of Pak militarys subterranean agencies being used for mobilisation of evidence from numerous world capitals. It is noteworthy that Beijing, after Sharifs sudden ouster, has already announced that the $50 billion CPEC trade-corridor-pathway would have an uninterrupted run-up, marking an additional $4 billion provision over the initial cost estimate of $46 billion. With Sino-Indian military stand-off along the Tri-junction area of Doklam showing no imminent sign of abating, a formally leaderless Islamabad could be exploited by interested quarters to heighten instability along the sensitive Indo-Pak border segments. Delhi has no other option but to reinforce its multi-dimensional border stolidity under such difficult circumstances. Mohan Das Menon Former additional secretary, Cabinet Secretariat mdmenonconsulting@gmail.com
G Parthasarathy By

A few days before he was forced to resign by Pakistans Supreme Court, in the face of corruption charges, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif was busy visiting the Maldives. He visited the tropical nation as the chief guest in its Independence Day celebrations, amidst violence and political turmoil. The nations President Abdulla Yameen had forcibly locked out the countrys lawmakers from entering the Parliament. The Opposition had by then secured enough members to impeach the Speaker, who had taken partisan position to block moves in the Parliament, against the President.

India had militarily assisted to protect the elected government in the Maldives in 1988 from a takeover by foreign mercenaries. Relations with Maldives remained strong thereafter till recently. New Delhi has viewed, with deep concern, President Yameens recent efforts to scuttle democracy and increasingly take the countrys otherwise moderate population in the direction of authoritarian and radical Islam. These moves were combined with a crackdown on political rivals and the exile of Yameens predecessor Mohamed Nasheed to the UK, after he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges. The Commonwealth put the Maldives on notice. It was given six months to address concerns, including the detention and prosecution of Opposition leaders, meddling with the judiciary and undermining democratic institutions.

The Maldives, under Yameen, has increasingly embraced radical Wahhabi Islam. Saudi Wahhabi organisations are seeking to brainwash locals into adopting regressive Wahhabi practices. New Delhi has been concerned about the Islamist tendencies emanating from the Maldives, which show signs of radicalising Indian Muslim youths. There is also concern about the growing ties between the Maldives and China. After unilaterally terminating an Indian project for airport development, the Maldives provocatively approved a Chinese investment of $800 million for expanding airport runaways.

The Maldives move towards greater embrace of radical Islam has been accompanied by its growing dependence on Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, even as the Maldives moved closer to Saudi Arabia, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television network expanded its coverage of suppression of democratic rights in Maldives by the Yameen government. Maldives responded by openly backing the Saudis in their campaign against Qatar and their military intervention in Yemen.

All these developments are taking place when India has come to the conclusion that given Pakistani intransigence, SAARC will no longer be the primary grouping for expanding regional economic cooperation in South Asia and beyond. Despite Pakistani intransigence, India has expanded trade, investment, transportation and connectivity links with all its other neighbours, particularly to its East. Regionally, the primary organisation for expanding such cooperation is no longer SAARC, which brings together South Asian countries from Bangladesh to Afghanistan, but BIMSTEC, which brings together countries across the Bay of Bengal, along with landlocked Nepal and Bhutan.

It was for this reason that Modi invited leaders of BIMSTEC and not SAARC during the Goa Summit of BRICS leaders last year.While India has now developed new mechanisms for promoting cooperation across the Indian Ocean, Sharifs Maldives visit indicates a growing China-Pak nexus to erode Indian influence across its western shores. These are waters through which India gets around 75 per cent of its supplies of oil and natural gas. China is set to provide Pakistan eight frigates and eight submarines in coming years. New challenges lie ahead across our western shores, which will have to be met imaginatively and resolutely.

G Parthasarathy

Former diplomat

dadpartha@gmail.com

A few days before he was forced to resign by Pakistans Supreme Court, in the face of corruption charges, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif was busy visiting the Maldives. He visited the tropical nation as the chief guest in its Independence Day celebrations, amidst violence and political turmoil. The nations President Abdulla Yameen had forcibly locked out the countrys lawmakers from entering the Parliament. The Opposition had by then secured enough members to impeach the Speaker, who had taken partisan position to block moves in the Parliament, against the President. India had militarily assisted to protect the elected government in the Maldives in 1988 from a takeover by foreign mercenaries. Relations with Maldives remained strong thereafter till recently. New Delhi has viewed, with deep concern, President Yameens recent efforts to scuttle democracy and increasingly take the countrys otherwise moderate population in the direction of authoritarian and radical Islam. These moves were combined with a crackdown on political rivals and the exile of Yameens predecessor Mohamed Nasheed to the UK, after he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges. The Commonwealth put the Maldives on notice. It was given six months to address concerns, including the detention and prosecution of Opposition leaders, meddling with the judiciary and undermining democratic institutions. The Maldives, under Yameen, has increasingly embraced radical Wahhabi Islam. Saudi Wahhabi organisations are seeking to brainwash locals into adopting regressive Wahhabi practices. New Delhi has been concerned about the Islamist tendencies emanating from the Maldives, which show signs of radicalising Indian Muslim youths. There is also concern about the growing ties between the Maldives and China. After unilaterally terminating an Indian project for airport development, the Maldives provocatively approved a Chinese investment of $800 million for expanding airport runaways. The Maldives move towards greater embrace of radical Islam has been accompanied by its growing dependence on Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, even as the Maldives moved closer to Saudi Arabia, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television network expanded its coverage of suppression of democratic rights in Maldives by the Yameen government. Maldives responded by openly backing the Saudis in their campaign against Qatar and their military intervention in Yemen. All these developments are taking place when India has come to the conclusion that given Pakistani intransigence, SAARC will no longer be the primary grouping for expanding regional economic cooperation in South Asia and beyond. Despite Pakistani intransigence, India has expanded trade, investment, transportation and connectivity links with all its other neighbours, particularly to its East. Regionally, the primary organisation for expanding such cooperation is no longer SAARC, which brings together South Asian countries from Bangladesh to Afghanistan, but BIMSTEC, which brings together countries across the Bay of Bengal, along with landlocked Nepal and Bhutan. It was for this reason that Modi invited leaders of BIMSTEC and not SAARC during the Goa Summit of BRICS leaders last year.While India has now developed new mechanisms for promoting cooperation across the Indian Ocean, Sharifs Maldives visit indicates a growing China-Pak nexus to erode Indian influence across its western shores. These are waters through which India gets around 75 per cent of its supplies of oil and natural gas. China is set to provide Pakistan eight frigates and eight submarines in coming years. New challenges lie ahead across our western shores, which will have to be met imaginatively and resolutely. G Parthasarathy Former diplomat dadpartha@gmail.com
Anirban Ganguly By

"The communist strategy is simple, philosopher Ram Swarup wrote in his Communists under Communism (1955). It consists in serial liquidation of enemies, constituted of all the non-communist opposition and the non-proletarian sector of population. Blackmail, vilification, character assassination are the characteristic methods used to achieve this end. Enemies for communists have been those who have held opposing political views or have espoused, even intellectually, artistically and through literature, a world view which was diametrically opposite to the propaganda-induced utopia of communism. The method of physical liquidation has always been communists first preferred method for elimination of enemies, vilification, character assassination and the others have been applied where physical elimination has been difficult. The worlds history is littered with graveyards of those who became victims of communism because their politics was different.

Comrade Sitaram Yechury, who despite all his machinations with bourgeois parties could not get a third term in the Upper House, always speaks of Nazi Germany, Mussolinis Italy, but remains dutifully silent on Stalins Russia, Pol Pots Cambodia, Maos China or for that matter, Pinarayis Kerala. Such references would open the dungeon lock to their own past. This past was seen in a limited manner in West Bengal between 1977 and 2011, when thousands of political workers belonging to other political parties were mowed down, eliminated and torturedit is still seen in Kerala, where serial liquidation of enemies (in this context BJP and RSS workers) continues unabated.

The murder of 34-year-old Rajesh, a Karyavah of RSS at Vasati, in Thiruvananthapuram last week, was the latest in this serial liquidation process. He had 40 stab wounds, his hands were chopped off and legs nearly severed. His only mistake was he did not espouse the communist world view and had socially, culturally and ideologically pledged allegiance to Indian nationalism. Members of the #NotInMyName cartel and their vocal proponents and representatives in the national capital, across India and in TV studios have maintained a stoic silence. They feel Rajeshs death doesnt need a reaction, a statement, or a candlelight vigil because he was killed not in any of Narendra Modis BJP-ruled states, but in a state where their own ideological co-travellers rule. The question, therefore, that begs an answer: In whose name was Rajesh killed?

Swarup points out another dimension in the communists habit of resorting to violence. He talks of how the communists excel in mutual liquidation. Pointing at communist dispensations, he describes this mutual liquidation that communists have indulged in. Such a propensity for mutual liquidation only shows the abnormality and bestiality of the communists creed and of methods that it inspired. The leaders of communism of the early and mid-twenties in all countries were removed (after the Bolshevik Revolution), writes Swarup, adding, Practically everyone belonging to the local politbureaus of 1920-27 were eliminated, in many cases by murder. In Russia itself, of 13 or 14 Politbureau members, except for Lenin and Stalin, all had been removed by 1940 by a state-assisted death. Of 71 members of the Central Committee of 1934, only 21 were to be found at the end of 1938. Thirty-six disappeared, nine were officially shot, one was assassinated, one committed suicide.

The poisonous creed of communism still survives and corrodes the entrails of Indian democracy; it feeds on some of the bourgeois parties, especially the Congress. Both these parties, therefore, including their intellectual drum-beaters, need to be politically liquidated for Indian democracy to regain its full health and vigour.

Anirban Ganguly

Director, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation

Follow him on Twitter @anirbanganguly

"The communist strategy is simple, philosopher Ram Swarup wrote in his Communists under Communism (1955). It consists in serial liquidation of enemies, constituted of all the non-communist opposition and the non-proletarian sector of population. Blackmail, vilification, character assassination are the characteristic methods used to achieve this end. Enemies for communists have been those who have held opposing political views or have espoused, even intellectually, artistically and through literature, a world view which was diametrically opposite to the propaganda-induced utopia of communism. The method of physical liquidation has always been communists first preferred method for elimination of enemies, vilification, character assassination and the others have been applied where physical elimination has been difficult. The worlds history is littered with graveyards of those who became victims of communism because their politics was different. Comrade Sitaram Yechury, who despite all his machinations with bourgeois parties could not get a third term in the Upper House, always speaks of Nazi Germany, Mussolinis Italy, but remains dutifully silent on Stalins Russia, Pol Pots Cambodia, Maos China or for that matter, Pinarayis Kerala. Such references would open the dungeon lock to their own past. This past was seen in a limited manner in West Bengal between 1977 and 2011, when thousands of political workers belonging to other political parties were mowed down, eliminated and torturedit is still seen in Kerala, where serial liquidation of enemies (in this context BJP and RSS workers) continues unabated. The murder of 34-year-old Rajesh, a Karyavah of RSS at Vasati, in Thiruvananthapuram last week, was the latest in this serial liquidation process. He had 40 stab wounds, his hands were chopped off and legs nearly severed. His only mistake was he did not espouse the communist world view and had socially, culturally and ideologically pledged allegiance to Indian nationalism. Members of the #NotInMyName cartel and their vocal proponents and representatives in the national capital, across India and in TV studios have maintained a stoic silence. They feel Rajeshs death doesnt need a reaction, a statement, or a candlelight vigil because he was killed not in any of Narendra Modis BJP-ruled states, but in a state where their own ideological co-travellers rule. The question, therefore, that begs an answer: In whose name was Rajesh killed? Swarup points out another dimension in the communists habit of resorting to violence. He talks of how the communists excel in mutual liquidation. Pointing at communist dispensations, he describes this mutual liquidation that communists have indulged in. Such a propensity for mutual liquidation only shows the abnormality and bestiality of the communists creed and of methods that it inspired. The leaders of communism of the early and mid-twenties in all countries were removed (after the Bolshevik Revolution), writes Swarup, adding, Practically everyone belonging to the local politbureaus of 1920-27 were eliminated, in many cases by murder. In Russia itself, of 13 or 14 Politbureau members, except for Lenin and Stalin, all had been removed by 1940 by a state-assisted death. Of 71 members of the Central Committee of 1934, only 21 were to be found at the end of 1938. Thirty-six disappeared, nine were officially shot, one was assassinated, one committed suicide. The poisonous creed of communism still survives and corrodes the entrails of Indian democracy; it feeds on some of the bourgeois parties, especially the Congress. Both these parties, therefore, including their intellectual drum-beaters, need to be politically liquidated for Indian democracy to regain its full health and vigour. Anirban Ganguly Director, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation Follow him on Twitter @anirbanganguly
Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Contrary to Chinese claims, India has not reduced the number of its troops in Doklam, where the People Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian Army have been eyeball to eyeball for 50 days.

In a 15-page document released on Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that there are approximately 40 Indian soldiers standing up to the Chinese in Doklam presently, down from 400 that had been there at one point.

Sources in South Block insisted that the Indian Army has kept that number at 400. We have not reduced any troops. The information given out by the Chinese government is incorrect and misleading, said an officer.

Sources said a like number of Chinese troops are deployed at the site.

Beijing has been demanding withdrawal of Indian troops before a dialogue can begin on ending the Doklam confrontation. Indias foreign minister Sushma Swaraj has insisted that both sides should pull back for talking to begin.

Responding to the Chinese publication, the Ministry of External Affairs cited its June 30 statement on the issue that India considers that peace and tranquility in the India-China border is an important prerequisite for smooth development of our bilateral relations with China.

Its now clear that last weeks visit to Beijing by national security advisor Ajit Doval has not taken the standoff closer to a solution. The Chinese Foreign Ministry statement in Beijing said as much: Yang Jiechi, state councilor, expressed Chinas stern positions and explicit requirements on the trespass of Indian border troops into Chinas territory at the Sikkim section of China-India boundary.

Going further, China released a detailed statement stating that On 16 June 2017, the Chinese side was building a road in the Dong Lang (the Chinese name for Doklam) area. On 18 June, over 270 Indian border troops, carrying weapons and driving two bulldozers, crossed the boundary in the Sikkim sector at the Duo Ka La (Doka La) pass and advanced more than 100 meters into Chinese territory to obstruct the road building of the Chinese side, causing tension in the area.

In addition to the two bulldozers, the trespassing Indian border troops, reaching as many as over 400 people at one point, have put up three tents and advanced over 180 meters into Chinese territory. As of the end of July, there were still over 40 Indian border troops and one bulldozer

illegally staying in the Chinese territory.

The Chinese position on the present standoff is rooted in a convention signed between Britain and China back in 1890.

After the founding of the Peoples Republic of China and the independence of India, the governments of both countries inherited the 1890 Convention and delimited the India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector as established by the Convention.

This is evidenced by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehrus letters to Chinese Premier Chou En-lai, diplomatic notes from the Indian Embassy in China to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and documents provided by the Indian side in the Special Representatives Talks on the India-China Boundary Question, the publication said.

NEW DELHI: Contrary to Chinese claims, India has not reduced the number of its troops in Doklam, where the People Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian Army have been eyeball to eyeball for 50 days. In a 15-page document released on Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that there are approximately 40 Indian soldiers standing up to the Chinese in Doklam presently, down from 400 that had been there at one point. Sources in South Block insisted that the Indian Army has kept that number at 400. We have not reduced any troops. The information given out by the Chinese government is incorrect and misleading, said an officer. Sources said a like number of Chinese troops are deployed at the site. Beijing has been demanding withdrawal of Indian troops before a dialogue can begin on ending the Doklam confrontation. Indias foreign minister Sushma Swaraj has insisted that both sides should pull back for talking to begin. Responding to the Chinese publication, the Ministry of External Affairs cited its June 30 statement on the issue that India considers that peace and tranquility in the India-China border is an important prerequisite for smooth development of our bilateral relations with China. Its now clear that last weeks visit to Beijing by national security advisor Ajit Doval has not taken the standoff closer to a solution. The Chinese Foreign Ministry statement in Beijing said as much: Yang Jiechi, state councilor, expressed Chinas stern positions and explicit requirements on the trespass of Indian border troops into Chinas territory at the Sikkim section of China-India boundary. Going further, China released a detailed statement stating that On 16 June 2017, the Chinese side was building a road in the Dong Lang (the Chinese name for Doklam) area. On 18 June, over 270 Indian border troops, carrying weapons and driving two bulldozers, crossed the boundary in the Sikkim sector at the Duo Ka La (Doka La) pass and advanced more than 100 meters into Chinese territory to obstruct the road building of the Chinese side, causing tension in the area. In addition to the two bulldozers, the trespassing Indian border troops, reaching as many as over 400 people at one point, have put up three tents and advanced over 180 meters into Chinese territory. As of the end of July, there were still over 40 Indian border troops and one bulldozer illegally staying in the Chinese territory. The Chinese position on the present standoff is rooted in a convention signed between Britain and China back in 1890. After the founding of the Peoples Republic of China and the independence of India, the governments of both countries inherited the 1890 Convention and delimited the India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector as established by the Convention. This is evidenced by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehrus letters to Chinese Premier Chou En-lai, diplomatic notes from the Indian Embassy in China to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and documents provided by the Indian side in the Special Representatives Talks on the India-China Boundary Question, the publication said.
By Express News Service

BHOPALl: The indefinite fast by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar and 11 others in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh against the displacement of families in Dhar and Barwani districts by the Sardar Sarovar Project of Gujarat entered the ninth day on Friday.

The condition of 12 protesters, who have been on fast since July 27 at Chikilda village, started worsening on Thursday night.

A team of doctors which conducted a health check up of the fasting people found that their blood pressure was low and there was presence of life-threatening compound ketone in their body.

The doctors advised the protesting people, including Patkar to undergo a detailed health check up at the hospital, though Patkar and others have declined to do so.

They instead reiterated their resolve to fast till their last breath for the displaced families who are being inadequately rehabilitated by the state government.

Alarmed over the development, MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday urged Patkar and others to end their fast. The CM tweeted, Medhaji Im concerned about your and others health. I humbly request you to end your fast.

In another tweet, Chouhan stated, Its my duty to be concerned about the interests of every displaced individual. Me and the authorities stand by them fully.

According to top sources in the government, a team of senior officials of the state government is likely to meet Patkar and others at Chikilda village by Saturday.

In another significant development, a farmer outfit from Pakistan  the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC)  has expressed solidarity with the cause of the Sardar Sarovar Project-affected people.

Already, organisations and individuals from 29 countries, including eminent American linguist Noam Chomsky, have signed an online petition addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in support of the project-affected people.

The PKRC expressed written solidarity with those on hunger strike at the Narmada valley to save 40,000 families affected by the project in four districts of MP, including Alirajpur, Dhar, Barwani and Khargone.

The PKRC, a network of peasant organisations and a member of La Via Campisena, has demanded that Chouhan complete all rehabilitation processes in the Narmada valley before closing the gates of the Sardar Sarovar dam.

The organisations secretary Farooq Tariq, in a message to the hunger strikers, said that 40,000 families of the Narmada valley, millions of trees, their cattle, farm-barns, temple-mosques, schools, among others are precious assets of the country.

Tariq said the practice of sacrificing peoples interests in favour of another state would have devastating effects. Those affected must be fully rehabilitated.

He added, We in Pakistan often face a similar situation where those affected by a disaster are left on their own to become part of the growing river of poverty. However, like you, we also believe nothing can be achieved without struggle and sacrifice. We believe that your effort will bear fruit and the government would be forced to accept your demands.

BHOPALl: The indefinite fast by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar and 11 others in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh against the displacement of families in Dhar and Barwani districts by the Sardar Sarovar Project of Gujarat entered the ninth day on Friday. The condition of 12 protesters, who have been on fast since July 27 at Chikilda village, started worsening on Thursday night. A team of doctors which conducted a health check up of the fasting people found that their blood pressure was low and there was presence of life-threatening compound ketone in their body. The doctors advised the protesting people, including Patkar to undergo a detailed health check up at the hospital, though Patkar and others have declined to do so. They instead reiterated their resolve to fast till their last breath for the displaced families who are being inadequately rehabilitated by the state government. Alarmed over the development, MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday urged Patkar and others to end their fast. The CM tweeted, Medhaji Im concerned about your and others health. I humbly request you to end your fast. In another tweet, Chouhan stated, Its my duty to be concerned about the interests of every displaced individual. Me and the authorities stand by them fully. According to top sources in the government, a team of senior officials of the state government is likely to meet Patkar and others at Chikilda village by Saturday. In another significant development, a farmer outfit from Pakistan  the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC)  has expressed solidarity with the cause of the Sardar Sarovar Project-affected people. Already, organisations and individuals from 29 countries, including eminent American linguist Noam Chomsky, have signed an online petition addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in support of the project-affected people. The PKRC expressed written solidarity with those on hunger strike at the Narmada valley to save 40,000 families affected by the project in four districts of MP, including Alirajpur, Dhar, Barwani and Khargone. The PKRC, a network of peasant organisations and a member of La Via Campisena, has demanded that Chouhan complete all rehabilitation processes in the Narmada valley before closing the gates of the Sardar Sarovar dam. The organisations secretary Farooq Tariq, in a message to the hunger strikers, said that 40,000 families of the Narmada valley, millions of trees, their cattle, farm-barns, temple-mosques, schools, among others are precious assets of the country. Tariq said the practice of sacrificing peoples interests in favour of another state would have devastating effects. Those affected must be fully rehabilitated. He added, We in Pakistan often face a similar situation where those affected by a disaster are left on their own to become part of the growing river of poverty. However, like you, we also believe nothing can be achieved without struggle and sacrifice. We believe that your effort will bear fruit and the government would be forced to accept your demands.
By Express News Service

MUMBAI: A local BJP youth wing activist, Jayesh Darji, was arrested while two other BJP workers from Dhanera of Banaskantha district were interrogated on Saturday for pelting stones at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhis vehicles on Friday during his tour of the flood-affected area of the state.

We have arrested one person named Jayesh Darji alias Anil Rathod for allegedly throwing a stone at the vehicle in which Gandhi was travelling, Banaskantha superintendent of police Niraj Badgujar has said.

We arrested Darji after his name was given by Congress members during the course of investigation, he added.

The Congress, meanwhile, has blamed the BJP and its ideological fountainhead the RSS for the attack, with Rahul himself taking potshots at the PM for not condemning the attack.

It is obvious that those who attack others wont condemn such an act, Rahul said without naming Modi. The BJP workers hurled a huge stone at my car. My personal security officer was injured. This is the way of Modi and BJPs politics. What can one say about it, he said.

The incident in Gujarat cant be ignored. There are floods at various places across the country and Rahul Gandhi is trying to reach out to people affected by floods. At Dhanera, where local chief minister had reached after three days of the floods, Rahul Gandhi was addressing a gathering of 3,000. The government tried all ways to disrupt the meeting but Gandhi was undisturbed, said party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.

He also accused the central and the state government of failing in providing adequate security to the party vice president.

Stone was hurled at Gandhis car from a hostile crowd who had earlier waived black flags while Gandhi addressed a small meeting of flood affected people. The people who waved black flags at him also booed him out by chanting Modi-Modi slogans.

Several state Congress leaders had held protest demonstrations at the local police station demanding action against the attackers. Some of them went on a night-long dharna condemning the incident and demanding immediate arrest of the perpetrators.

MUMBAI: A local BJP youth wing activist, Jayesh Darji, was arrested while two other BJP workers from Dhanera of Banaskantha district were interrogated on Saturday for pelting stones at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhis vehicles on Friday during his tour of the flood-affected area of the state. We have arrested one person named Jayesh Darji alias Anil Rathod for allegedly throwing a stone at the vehicle in which Gandhi was travelling, Banaskantha superintendent of police Niraj Badgujar has said. We arrested Darji after his name was given by Congress members during the course of investigation, he added. The Congress, meanwhile, has blamed the BJP and its ideological fountainhead the RSS for the attack, with Rahul himself taking potshots at the PM for not condemning the attack. It is obvious that those who attack others wont condemn such an act, Rahul said without naming Modi. The BJP workers hurled a huge stone at my car. My personal security officer was injured. This is the way of Modi and BJPs politics. What can one say about it, he said. The incident in Gujarat cant be ignored. There are floods at various places across the country and Rahul Gandhi is trying to reach out to people affected by floods. At Dhanera, where local chief minister had reached after three days of the floods, Rahul Gandhi was addressing a gathering of 3,000. The government tried all ways to disrupt the meeting but Gandhi was undisturbed, said party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. He also accused the central and the state government of failing in providing adequate security to the party vice president. Stone was hurled at Gandhis car from a hostile crowd who had earlier waived black flags while Gandhi addressed a small meeting of flood affected people. The people who waved black flags at him also booed him out by chanting Modi-Modi slogans. Several state Congress leaders had held protest demonstrations at the local police station demanding action against the attackers. Some of them went on a night-long dharna condemning the incident and demanding immediate arrest of the perpetrators.
By ANI

BEIJING: Chinas state-run media has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to push India into a "reckless conflict" with China as Peoples Liberation Army, as the latter is sufficiently capable of annihilating Indian troops in the border region.

Describing Indias military strength as being far behind that of China, the Global Times asserted that that if the nearly two-month long tense stand-off was escalated to a military conflict then "It is a war with an obvious result, as PLA has made sufficient preparation for military confrontation. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be aware of the PLA's overwhelming firepower and logistics."

The editorial titled, Modi mustnt pull India into reckless conflict, has warned Indian border troops that there are no rivals to the PLA field forces. If a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region."

Chinese foreign and defence ministries have been issuing warnings and strong statements against India on a daily basis and termed the standoff as an "illegal trespass of Indian troops into Chinese territory" and vowed "to take all necessary measures to make India withdraw its troops unconditionally".

The editorial even ridiculed Defence Minister Arun Jaitleys recent remark that India of 2017 is different from what it was in 1962, in which China had defeated Indian forces. It said the Modi government should stop lying. The gap in national strength between the two countries is the largest in the past 50 years. If the Modi government wants to start a war, at least it should tell its people the truth, it said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has reiterated that India's road map is peace and talks are going on to resolve the issue diplomatically.

Our concerns emanate from Chinese action on the ground which have implications for the determination of the tri-junction boundary point between India, China and Bhutan and the alignment of India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector. Thus China is trying to change the status-quo of the disputed tri-junction boundary point.

The standoff started in June when Chinese soldiers tried to unilaterally change the status quo in the strategically important Doklam region of Bhutan by building a road in the area.

The editorial asserted that "India should shun its illusions of having the support of U.S. and Japan to treat China." The editorial explained that China is giving peace a chance So why hasnt the PLA started? China cherishes the decade-long peace on the border and wishes not to break it. We want to give peace a chance and allow India to recognize the grave consequences.

India has made its stance clear that it stands for peace the border question can be solved diplomatically, not by war.

Swaraj said, The tri-junction points and India-China boundary alignment in the Sikkim sector had been earlier addressed in a written common understanding reached between the Special Representatives of India and China on the boundary question in December 2012.i.e., the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalised in consultation with the concerned countries. Since 2012 we have not held any discussion on the tri-junction with Bhutan. The Chinese action in the Doklam area is therefore of concern."

BEIJING: Chinas state-run media has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to push India into a "reckless conflict" with China as Peoples Liberation Army, as the latter is sufficiently capable of annihilating Indian troops in the border region. Describing Indias military strength as being far behind that of China, the Global Times asserted that that if the nearly two-month long tense stand-off was escalated to a military conflict then "It is a war with an obvious result, as PLA has made sufficient preparation for military confrontation. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be aware of the PLA's overwhelming firepower and logistics." The editorial titled, Modi mustnt pull India into reckless conflict, has warned Indian border troops that there are no rivals to the PLA field forces. If a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region." Chinese foreign and defence ministries have been issuing warnings and strong statements against India on a daily basis and termed the standoff as an "illegal trespass of Indian troops into Chinese territory" and vowed "to take all necessary measures to make India withdraw its troops unconditionally". The editorial even ridiculed Defence Minister Arun Jaitleys recent remark that India of 2017 is different from what it was in 1962, in which China had defeated Indian forces. It said the Modi government should stop lying. The gap in national strength between the two countries is the largest in the past 50 years. If the Modi government wants to start a war, at least it should tell its people the truth, it said. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has reiterated that India's road map is peace and talks are going on to resolve the issue diplomatically. Our concerns emanate from Chinese action on the ground which have implications for the determination of the tri-junction boundary point between India, China and Bhutan and the alignment of India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector. Thus China is trying to change the status-quo of the disputed tri-junction boundary point. The standoff started in June when Chinese soldiers tried to unilaterally change the status quo in the strategically important Doklam region of Bhutan by building a road in the area. The editorial asserted that "India should shun its illusions of having the support of U.S. and Japan to treat China." The editorial explained that China is giving peace a chance So why hasnt the PLA started? China cherishes the decade-long peace on the border and wishes not to break it. We want to give peace a chance and allow India to recognize the grave consequences. India has made its stance clear that it stands for peace the border question can be solved diplomatically, not by war. Swaraj said, The tri-junction points and India-China boundary alignment in the Sikkim sector had been earlier addressed in a written common understanding reached between the Special Representatives of India and China on the boundary question in December 2012.i.e., the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalised in consultation with the concerned countries. Since 2012 we have not held any discussion on the tri-junction with Bhutan. The Chinese action in the Doklam area is therefore of concern."
Four Spanish nationals were killed in a road accident near Madanapalle of Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh today.

By Ashish Pandey: In a tragic road accident four Spanish nationals were killed near Madanapalle of Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh today.

The accident took place after the travel tempo in which the foreigners were travelling had a head-on collision with a container lorry.

The eleven member Spanish group were heading to Pondicherry. At around 9 am, the team visited a local missionary hospital at Madanapalle. The accident took place near Punganur when they were returning.

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The impact of the collision was so intense that the mini bus in which they were traveling got crushed.

While three of the foreigner including a woman died on spot once succumbed to injuries on his way to hospital.

Two women from the group who were critically injured were shifted to Madanapalle government hospital where they are undergoing treatment.

Police has arrested the driver of the container lorry and further investigation is on.

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--- ENDS ---
By ANI

AHMEDABAD: The Congress Party on Saturday staged protests across the nation over attack on party vice president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat on Friday.



The Congress workers staged protests in Gujarats Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradeshs capital Bhopal and Maharashtras capital Mumbai.

In Gatkopar, the Mumbai Youth Congress workers threw flowers inside Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office and shouted slogan against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.



Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat.



Earlier in the day, Rahul cornered Prime Minister Modi and said it was BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) way of politics.



In yesterdays incident, BJP workers threw a stone at me which hit my personal security officer (PSO). This is Prime Minister Modi and BJP-RSSs way of politics. What can I say? Rahul told media.



Indirectly referring to Prime Minister, Rahul said, Why the one, who has done this, would condemn the incident?



After Rahuls car was attacked, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that BJP goons pelted heavy stones at Rahul's car when he was on his way to the helipad after meeting flood victims at Gujarat's Dhanera.



Following the attack, Rahul took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."



Condemning the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident and assured that a strict action will be taken against the guilty.



I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible. Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will tk strict action agnst those found responsible (sic), Rupani tweeted.

AHMEDABAD: The Congress Party on Saturday staged protests across the nation over attack on party vice president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat on Friday. The Congress workers staged protests in Gujarats Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradeshs capital Bhopal and Maharashtras capital Mumbai. In Gatkopar, the Mumbai Youth Congress workers threw flowers inside Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office and shouted slogan against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. Rahul's car was attacked on Friday when he was on his way to the helipad after visiting the flood-hit areas in Gujarat. Earlier in the day, Rahul cornered Prime Minister Modi and said it was BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) way of politics. In yesterdays incident, BJP workers threw a stone at me which hit my personal security officer (PSO). This is Prime Minister Modi and BJP-RSSs way of politics. What can I say? Rahul told media. Indirectly referring to Prime Minister, Rahul said, Why the one, who has done this, would condemn the incident? After Rahuls car was attacked, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that BJP goons pelted heavy stones at Rahul's car when he was on his way to the helipad after meeting flood victims at Gujarat's Dhanera. Following the attack, Rahul took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people." Condemning the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident and assured that a strict action will be taken against the guilty. I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible. Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will tk strict action agnst those found responsible (sic), Rupani tweeted.
Ramananda Sengupta By

Express News Service

Continuing its unending pressure on India over the almost two-month standoff at Dokalam, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman late Thursday warned that while China had shown high level of restraint so far, even goodwill has its principles and restraint has its bottom line.

The Indian side must give up the illusion of its delaying tactic, as no country should underestimate the Chinese forces confidence and capability to safeguard peace and their resolve and willpower to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests, spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in a statement released by the ministrys website. Hours earlier, China once again vetoed the US, France and UK-backed proposal to list Pakistani terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a designated terrorist by the United Nations.

On August 2, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a 18-page document which cited historical facts to justify its claim to the region, insisted that Indian troops had intruded into Chinese territory and demanded they must be withdrawn from the area before any meaningful dialogue could take place.

Unwilling to exacerbate the situation in Doklam or engage in a hectoring match with Beijing, New Delhi has made it clear that diplomacy is its preferred choice.

Bhaskar Roy, a senior intelligence officer who retired after years of work on China, believes that part of the ramped-up rhetoric is due to Chinese President Xi Jinpings internal compulsions. This is all tied to their internal politics. Also, keep in mind that even while the harangue from Beijing continues, the Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Ma Zhanwu is singing nice tunes about improving cultural and other exchanges between the two nations, told Express.

Continuing its unending pressure on India over the almost two-month standoff at Dokalam, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman late Thursday warned that while China had shown high level of restraint so far, even goodwill has its principles and restraint has its bottom line. The Indian side must give up the illusion of its delaying tactic, as no country should underestimate the Chinese forces confidence and capability to safeguard peace and their resolve and willpower to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests, spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in a statement released by the ministrys website. Hours earlier, China once again vetoed the US, France and UK-backed proposal to list Pakistani terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a designated terrorist by the United Nations. On August 2, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a 18-page document which cited historical facts to justify its claim to the region, insisted that Indian troops had intruded into Chinese territory and demanded they must be withdrawn from the area before any meaningful dialogue could take place. Unwilling to exacerbate the situation in Doklam or engage in a hectoring match with Beijing, New Delhi has made it clear that diplomacy is its preferred choice. Bhaskar Roy, a senior intelligence officer who retired after years of work on China, believes that part of the ramped-up rhetoric is due to Chinese President Xi Jinpings internal compulsions. This is all tied to their internal politics. Also, keep in mind that even while the harangue from Beijing continues, the Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Ma Zhanwu is singing nice tunes about improving cultural and other exchanges between the two nations, told Express.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Hours after the Income Tax raids on state energy minister D K Shivakumar ended, the 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs holed up in the city met governor Vajubhai Vala on Saturday morning. They were accompanied by Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President Bharatsinh Solanki.

Speaking to the media, Gujarat MLA and spokesperson Shakthisinh Gohil said the governor had received them warmly and had assured them there was nothing to worry about.

Gohil said, "We have been subjected to much threat and pressure but we will not succumb to it. The BJP wants to spread an atmosphere of fear. A politician and businessman takes care of us and he is subjected to three days of raids and questioning. This is unheard of."

Gohil continued saying, "The message BJP is sending is that if even if you give a glass of water to these MLAs, we would coming after you. If the case is indeed old as they are claiming, then why could they not have waited for another three days?" he questioned.

Gohil further said the raids were not as innocent as being claimed. "If they were only interested in questioning him (Shivakumar), then why did they come to the resort and search. They could have asked him to step out and he could have been taken to his residence," he said.

Gohil continued, "The manner in which they entered the resort and searched the rooms tells us they are trying to scare us, but they will not succeed. Imagine what they would have done to us, if we had stayed in Gujarat," he added.

The MLAs were joined by embattled Karnataka energy minister D K Shivakumar, who had been sequestered in his house for the past three days by Income Tax officials who concluded the raids on Saturday morning.

After the officials left his residence, Shivakumar visited a temple and met a seer in Vijayangar area and came to Raj Bhavan to join the Gujarat legislators and was received with much cheer among the group. Shivakumar, who sported a nonchalant look refused to speak to the media about the raids.

The group led by Shivakumar later left for Vidhana Soudha and after visiting the Mahatma Gandhi statue and were taken on a tour of the seat of power.

BENGALURU: Hours after the Income Tax raids on state energy minister D K Shivakumar ended, the 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs holed up in the city met governor Vajubhai Vala on Saturday morning. They were accompanied by Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President Bharatsinh Solanki. Speaking to the media, Gujarat MLA and spokesperson Shakthisinh Gohil said the governor had received them warmly and had assured them there was nothing to worry about. Gohil said, "We have been subjected to much threat and pressure but we will not succumb to it. The BJP wants to spread an atmosphere of fear. A politician and businessman takes care of us and he is subjected to three days of raids and questioning. This is unheard of." Gohil continued saying, "The message BJP is sending is that if even if you give a glass of water to these MLAs, we would coming after you. If the case is indeed old as they are claiming, then why could they not have waited for another three days?" he questioned. Gohil further said the raids were not as innocent as being claimed. "If they were only interested in questioning him (Shivakumar), then why did they come to the resort and search. They could have asked him to step out and he could have been taken to his residence," he said. Gohil continued, "The manner in which they entered the resort and searched the rooms tells us they are trying to scare us, but they will not succeed. Imagine what they would have done to us, if we had stayed in Gujarat," he added. The MLAs were joined by embattled Karnataka energy minister D K Shivakumar, who had been sequestered in his house for the past three days by Income Tax officials who concluded the raids on Saturday morning. After the officials left his residence, Shivakumar visited a temple and met a seer in Vijayangar area and came to Raj Bhavan to join the Gujarat legislators and was received with much cheer among the group. Shivakumar, who sported a nonchalant look refused to speak to the media about the raids. The group led by Shivakumar later left for Vidhana Soudha and after visiting the Mahatma Gandhi statue and were taken on a tour of the seat of power.
By PTI

HISAR: The Haryana government today said it has decided to raise a women police battalion for which recruitment of 1,000 personnel will start soon.

The percentage of women personnel in the state police has increased from 6 to 9.3 per cent, and with the recruitment of 1,000 more personnel, this would increase to 11 per cent, an official release quoted Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar as saying.

Khattar made the announcement at the second Haryana Mahila Police Diwas programme here.

To train the personnel a centre will also be established in Hisar. There are three police training centres -- at Sunaria, Madhuban and Bhondsi -- in the state at present, the release said.

Reiterating his government's commitment towards empowerment and safety of women, Khattar said two years ago, on Raksha Bandhan, the Haryana government had decided to establish women police stations in all the districts of the state.

"These police stations have been established and approval has been given to establish such police stations in eight sub-divisions," the chief minister said.

Nearly 38 women help-desks are being operated at the sub-divisional level and these could be converted into fullfledged stations, if required, he said.

The government has also decided to provide an additional women police station at Gurugram and Faridabad, Khattar said.

Creches will also be provided at women police stations for children of police personnel and for those in custody. A counsellor will also be appointed at these stations, he said.

He said the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme was yielding positive results, with the sex ratio at birth in the state crossing the 950 females per 1,000 males mark.

HISAR: The Haryana government today said it has decided to raise a women police battalion for which recruitment of 1,000 personnel will start soon. The percentage of women personnel in the state police has increased from 6 to 9.3 per cent, and with the recruitment of 1,000 more personnel, this would increase to 11 per cent, an official release quoted Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar as saying. Khattar made the announcement at the second Haryana Mahila Police Diwas programme here. To train the personnel a centre will also be established in Hisar. There are three police training centres -- at Sunaria, Madhuban and Bhondsi -- in the state at present, the release said. Reiterating his government's commitment towards empowerment and safety of women, Khattar said two years ago, on Raksha Bandhan, the Haryana government had decided to establish women police stations in all the districts of the state. "These police stations have been established and approval has been given to establish such police stations in eight sub-divisions," the chief minister said. Nearly 38 women help-desks are being operated at the sub-divisional level and these could be converted into fullfledged stations, if required, he said. The government has also decided to provide an additional women police station at Gurugram and Faridabad, Khattar said. Creches will also be provided at women police stations for children of police personnel and for those in custody. A counsellor will also be appointed at these stations, he said. He said the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme was yielding positive results, with the sex ratio at birth in the state crossing the 950 females per 1,000 males mark.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

LAKHIMPUR: For most of his life Benudhar Bania had to cross one river to go to Lakhimpur from his village of Jurkhat Bania Gaon in northern Assam. Now he has to cross two. The second was created by the floods this year.

On July 9, the flooded Ronganadi washed away 200m of its north bank at Amtola Jainpur and an entirely new river was born. The flood waters gushed through the breach and swept away everything that stood in the way and turned vast swathes of agricultural land into wasteland. Lush green paddy fields, fisheries, houses, barns and cowsheds that once stood in the region have all disappeared. The new offshoot of the Ronganadi flows for 10 km through villages till its mingles in the Subansiri river.

The new offshoot of the Ronganadi flows for 10 km through villages till it mingles in the Subansiri river | Express

Benudhar Bania, 38, said it was a tragedy his people were not prepared for. That fateful night, we were repairing an embankment half a kilometre away. Suddenly, we got information that the river had breached a bank in our village and we all rushed there. When I reached home, I saw the Ronganadi gushing out through a small opening. Within minutes it become a torrent and we ran for our lives, Bania said.

The river washed away 11 concrete houses, livestock, two-wheelers and a tractor. The village has 107 households. Houses that survived the onslaught are weak and may collapse anytime.

Ramen Das, 24, said his nine-room concrete house was washed away in the floods. He and his two brothers, who work as security guards in Hyderabad, had pooled their savings to building the house and it was completed just a month previously.

Others in the village are looking for things they lost. School teacher Joydeep Das is looking for his tractor and Bimal Das for his two cows.

At government-run Indira Bharali LP School sand dunes left by the receding river are still piled up all around.

Visiting journalists with notebooks in hand are mistaken for officer of the administration, and shanghaied into visiting each household. Please have a look at my house, a woman demanded of this correspondent. The walls of her thatched house are substantially buried under sand.

Officials say the breached banks of the Ronganadi would be repaired soon but the locals are sceptical. The repair work will be carried out in winter and its doubtful if it will be completed before the next monsoon.

Everyone wants a good flood, one villager said, paraphrasing a famous saying about the droughts down south. This is the time to make money.

The district authorities hand out the numbers: 3.34 lakh people affected by floods in North Lakhimpur this year. Cropland affected: 2,800 hectares. Siltation: 3,800 hectares.

Over 1,000 paddy farms are still under water from the Ronganadi flood. At some places, the new flood channel is as deep as 10 feet and local people use boats to cross it. The new river will dry when the Ronganadi breach is banked again but North Lakhimpur deputy commissioner Barun Bhuyan told the New Indian Express it will be years before the land it flooded can be cultivated again.

To the locals, their land is as good as lost. Our land is under four to five feet of sand. We willnever be able to grow anything here, one villager said.

LAKHIMPUR: For most of his life Benudhar Bania had to cross one river to go to Lakhimpur from his village of Jurkhat Bania Gaon in northern Assam. Now he has to cross two. The second was created by the floods this year. On July 9, the flooded Ronganadi washed away 200m of its north bank at Amtola Jainpur and an entirely new river was born. The flood waters gushed through the breach and swept away everything that stood in the way and turned vast swathes of agricultural land into wasteland. Lush green paddy fields, fisheries, houses, barns and cowsheds that once stood in the region have all disappeared. The new offshoot of the Ronganadi flows for 10 km through villages till its mingles in the Subansiri river. The new offshoot of the Ronganadi flows for 10 km through villages till it mingles in the Subansiri river | ExpressBenudhar Bania, 38, said it was a tragedy his people were not prepared for. That fateful night, we were repairing an embankment half a kilometre away. Suddenly, we got information that the river had breached a bank in our village and we all rushed there. When I reached home, I saw the Ronganadi gushing out through a small opening. Within minutes it become a torrent and we ran for our lives, Bania said. The river washed away 11 concrete houses, livestock, two-wheelers and a tractor. The village has 107 households. Houses that survived the onslaught are weak and may collapse anytime. Ramen Das, 24, said his nine-room concrete house was washed away in the floods. He and his two brothers, who work as security guards in Hyderabad, had pooled their savings to building the house and it was completed just a month previously. Others in the village are looking for things they lost. School teacher Joydeep Das is looking for his tractor and Bimal Das for his two cows. At government-run Indira Bharali LP School sand dunes left by the receding river are still piled up all around. Visiting journalists with notebooks in hand are mistaken for officer of the administration, and shanghaied into visiting each household. Please have a look at my house, a woman demanded of this correspondent. The walls of her thatched house are substantially buried under sand. Officials say the breached banks of the Ronganadi would be repaired soon but the locals are sceptical. The repair work will be carried out in winter and its doubtful if it will be completed before the next monsoon. Everyone wants a good flood, one villager said, paraphrasing a famous saying about the droughts down south. This is the time to make money. The district authorities hand out the numbers: 3.34 lakh people affected by floods in North Lakhimpur this year. Cropland affected: 2,800 hectares. Siltation: 3,800 hectares. Over 1,000 paddy farms are still under water from the Ronganadi flood. At some places, the new flood channel is as deep as 10 feet and local people use boats to cross it. The new river will dry when the Ronganadi breach is banked again but North Lakhimpur deputy commissioner Barun Bhuyan told the New Indian Express it will be years before the land it flooded can be cultivated again. To the locals, their land is as good as lost. Our land is under four to five feet of sand. We willnever be able to grow anything here, one villager said.
Aishik Chanda By

Express News Service

DHUBRI: Residents of Brahmaputra's river islets in Assam's Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh have realised that they are counted only as votes.

Learning to live with the recurring floods, the islets' residents  many of whom are alleged to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh  believe that nothing is permanent in the river islets or 'chars' due to Brahmaputra's annual surge in monsoon.

Ahmed Sheikh of Birsingherchar islet south of Dhubri town, said, "In the chars, we build houses made of tin. It's very hot inside but cheap to rebuild after the floods. Being poor people, we can't afford to build strong structures. Also, heavy buildings will collapse in the soft soil."

The only things permanent in the islets are the boats, fishing nets, the plough and the spirit to carry on. Mostly engaged in fishing and farming for a livelihood, the residents of the islets take utmost care to repair their family boats which rescue them every year when flood water submerges their lands.

Delawar Hussain of Aminerchar islet southwest of Dhubri town said, "Almost every year we are rendered homeless during monsoon and have to either take shelter in the 'mainland' near Dhubri town or search for newer destinations in the islets. Many times we return to find our houses beyond repair after the floods. We either have to rebuild them or move to new areas."

"Ferrying humans is easy during floods but transporting livestock is difficult because of which many of us sell our cattle during Eid because of approaching monsoon," he added.

With Bangladesh at a stone's throw, where beef costs Rs 500-Rs 700 every kilogram, selling off cattle before monsoon also helps the residents sustain through the rains. With a porous riverine border, many of the islets' residents may also be involved in cattle smuggling.

According to the dominant narrative of temporary shelters in islets, elected representatives also don't think beyond giving temporary relief. "Char residents demand that something be done. But, we can't build RCC embankments in chars as the river changes its course every year. While the river submerges an area, it gives rise to another piece of land somewhere else. So, people who lost their houses move to that new land. Char residents don't think of living in one area for more than two years," said Mohoruddin Sheikh, president of Falimari Gram Panchayat which has around 10 villages with 35,000 population. Half of the 10 villages are revenue villages and the other half are river islets.

Sheikh, said, "Besides giving food for flood-affected people and their livestock, we attempt to divert the current of Brahmaputra away from the chars by establishing rows of bamboo embankments. But, we know that such temporary measures won't work."

What can possibly work in protecting from the annual deluge of Brahmaputra is strong continuous embankments. Sheikh said, "We had demanded a 20 kilometer-long road-cum-bund from Patharghat in Gauripur town to Zila Parishad office in Dhubri town. The bund would protect a lot of villages and prevent them from getting cut off. The project was estimated to be worth around Rs 56 crore but later estimation was hiked to Rs 100 crore. If the bund is not created, subsequent floods would break into Dhubri town as well."

However, many of the flood victims are vexed with verbal assurances and know where their power lies. Mohammad Atif Hussain of Dhubirchar islet said, "We hear assurances of politicians during elections but don't see them during floods. Hence, we have decided to boycott the next elections and will mobilise people in mosques to not vote. Probably then, administration would listen to us."

Residents of islets lying near the border of Bangladesh don't even have the option of boycotting votes in protest against government apathy. "Voters ID cards are the proof of our Indian nationality and voting during elections is like giving attendance of presence on Indian soil. We definitely have to vote in each and every election," said Mohammad Kader (name changed), a resident of Muthakhowa part II islet near the border.

Receiving no or scant relief, many want answers from the government. "We heard that Modi gave Rs 2,500 crore. But, we did not receive even plastic sheets. We got only some rice and husk for our cattle. Where is all the money going?" said Shoaib Ali of Moslabari islet.

DHUBRI: Residents of Brahmaputra's river islets in Assam's Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh have realised that they are counted only as votes. Learning to live with the recurring floods, the islets' residents  many of whom are alleged to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh  believe that nothing is permanent in the river islets or 'chars' due to Brahmaputra's annual surge in monsoon. Ahmed Sheikh of Birsingherchar islet south of Dhubri town, said, "In the chars, we build houses made of tin. It's very hot inside but cheap to rebuild after the floods. Being poor people, we can't afford to build strong structures. Also, heavy buildings will collapse in the soft soil." The only things permanent in the islets are the boats, fishing nets, the plough and the spirit to carry on. Mostly engaged in fishing and farming for a livelihood, the residents of the islets take utmost care to repair their family boats which rescue them every year when flood water submerges their lands. Delawar Hussain of Aminerchar islet southwest of Dhubri town said, "Almost every year we are rendered homeless during monsoon and have to either take shelter in the 'mainland' near Dhubri town or search for newer destinations in the islets. Many times we return to find our houses beyond repair after the floods. We either have to rebuild them or move to new areas." "Ferrying humans is easy during floods but transporting livestock is difficult because of which many of us sell our cattle during Eid because of approaching monsoon," he added. With Bangladesh at a stone's throw, where beef costs Rs 500-Rs 700 every kilogram, selling off cattle before monsoon also helps the residents sustain through the rains. With a porous riverine border, many of the islets' residents may also be involved in cattle smuggling. According to the dominant narrative of temporary shelters in islets, elected representatives also don't think beyond giving temporary relief. "Char residents demand that something be done. But, we can't build RCC embankments in chars as the river changes its course every year. While the river submerges an area, it gives rise to another piece of land somewhere else. So, people who lost their houses move to that new land. Char residents don't think of living in one area for more than two years," said Mohoruddin Sheikh, president of Falimari Gram Panchayat which has around 10 villages with 35,000 population. Half of the 10 villages are revenue villages and the other half are river islets. Sheikh, said, "Besides giving food for flood-affected people and their livestock, we attempt to divert the current of Brahmaputra away from the chars by establishing rows of bamboo embankments. But, we know that such temporary measures won't work." What can possibly work in protecting from the annual deluge of Brahmaputra is strong continuous embankments. Sheikh said, "We had demanded a 20 kilometer-long road-cum-bund from Patharghat in Gauripur town to Zila Parishad office in Dhubri town. The bund would protect a lot of villages and prevent them from getting cut off. The project was estimated to be worth around Rs 56 crore but later estimation was hiked to Rs 100 crore. If the bund is not created, subsequent floods would break into Dhubri town as well." However, many of the flood victims are vexed with verbal assurances and know where their power lies. Mohammad Atif Hussain of Dhubirchar islet said, "We hear assurances of politicians during elections but don't see them during floods. Hence, we have decided to boycott the next elections and will mobilise people in mosques to not vote. Probably then, administration would listen to us." Residents of islets lying near the border of Bangladesh don't even have the option of boycotting votes in protest against government apathy. "Voters ID cards are the proof of our Indian nationality and voting during elections is like giving attendance of presence on Indian soil. We definitely have to vote in each and every election," said Mohammad Kader (name changed), a resident of Muthakhowa part II islet near the border. Receiving no or scant relief, many want answers from the government. "We heard that Modi gave Rs 2,500 crore. But, we did not receive even plastic sheets. We got only some rice and husk for our cattle. Where is all the money going?" said Shoaib Ali of Moslabari islet.
By IANS

SRINAGAR: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed on Saturday in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore town, police said.

"The terrorists were killed in Amargarh area of Sopore in an encounter with police, army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)," police spokesman Manoj Pandita said here.

"Arms and ammunition have also been recovered from the slain terrorists. The exact identity of the terrorists is being established." he said

"One police constable was injured during the encounter. He was shifted to hospital where doctors have described his condition as stable," he added.

SRINAGAR: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed on Saturday in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore town, police said. "The terrorists were killed in Amargarh area of Sopore in an encounter with police, army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)," police spokesman Manoj Pandita said here. "Arms and ammunition have also been recovered from the slain terrorists. The exact identity of the terrorists is being established." he said "One police constable was injured during the encounter. He was shifted to hospital where doctors have described his condition as stable," he added.
Balbir Punj By

Rajesh, 34, was a Dalit, with usual aspirations, mixed with a tinge of idealism. Married, he was blessed with two small children. Self-respecting, conscious of his identity, he dreamed of an egalitarian, prosperous and strong India. He was not an armchair intellectual, but an activist working within the confines of the system.

Innocently pursuing his dreams, he had obviously upset the status quo in his neighbourhood and paid for his couragewith his life. He was hacked to death on July 29.

Rajesh was an RSS Swayamsevak in Sreekaryam, Thiruvananthapuram. On the fateful day, he was returning home from an RSS meeting. Suddenly a group of 15 odd armed men set upon him. His left arm was chopped off and thrown at a distance. In all, he received around 100 cuts.

After naming his killers, Rajesh succumbed to his grievous injuries. He just met a ghastly end a week ago. But his death is a just another statistic in the crime records of the country, the memory of his painful demise surviving only in the hearts of his immediate family and close comrades.

What had Rajesh done to deserve such a violent death? He had no police record. But Rajesh committed two crimes.

He was a Dalit, but refused to live a life of oppression and subjugation. He dared to have a mind of his own and had the audacity to nurse dreams about the country and the society and worked ceaselessly to turn them into reality. His persona represented an empowered Dalit, striving to break the mould and pursue the ideology of his choice. He was an affront to vested interests and an insecure establishment in the state that saw a threat in his existence.

Besides being an assertive Dalit, he chose to associate himself with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. To the ruling CPM dispensation in the state, any association with the RSS is sheer blasphemy. So Rajeshs crimes multiplied. In all fundamentalist creeds, blasphemy is punishable with death. And thats what Rajesh got, in the most gruesome manner.

Rajesh is not the first such victim. Over the last 13 months, 13 such innocent men and a woman in Kerala have met a violent end. They were connected with the RSS and their killers, with the ruling CPM.

Out of these 14, four, including Rajesh, were Dalits. Vishnu, 19, from Kannammoola (Thiruvananthapuram) was hacked to death on October 7, last year. Anil, 49, also from Thiruvanthapuram, too met a violent end on December 19, 2016 and so did Nirmal, 20, from Thrissur on February 12 last.

In September 2015, Mohammad Akhlaq, 50, was killed in mob violence at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. In January 2016, Rohith Vemula, a young student of University of Hyderabad committed suicide. While his caste status continues to be debated, social activists belonging to the Left declared him a Dalit and attributed his unfortunate death to his systematic persecution at the hands of the BJP government, ABVP and the Sangh Parivar.

While turning Vemulas sad death into a global propaganda tool, his suicide note, obviously the most credible document to know the reasons for his suicide, was ignored and swept under the carpet.

Rohith had said, I always wanted to be writer: A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write. Rohiths role model was Carl Sagan, an American scientist, and not Mao, Karl Marx or one of the naxal or CPM leaders.

A part of the suicide note which was mysteriously stuck off says, ASA, SFI, anything and everything exists for their own sake. Seldom the interest of a person and this organisation match. The note never became a part of public discourse that followed his unfortunate end because its contents did not fit into the narrative of the interested quarters.

In July last, Junaid Khan, 16, was stabbed to death by a mob while travelling back to his village in Haryanas Ballabhgarh. There are two versions of the unfortunate event. The much publicised version claims that Junaid and his companions were attacked after having been accused of carrying beef and because of their faith.

An official version, however, discounted the religious angle to the incident and attributed it to the usual altercation between passengers on account of overcrowding in the train. According to daily passengers, who were interviewed by various TV channels, the fight over seats is everyday business and many a time these fights end up in violence. In the absence of proper policing, lumpen elements hold sway.

Akhlaq, Vemula and Junaid are household names in India and abroad. The Left and secularists have succeeded in making these three names symbols of persecution of minorities and Dalits at the hands of the Sangh Parivar.

Facts have been twisted and the narrative distorted. The miserable end of these three hapless persons has been exploited to suit the ideological designs of the Left. In the process India has been painted as an intolerant nation.

Dalits like Rajesh, Nirmal, Anil and Vishnu who were hacked to pieces in the name of ideology, however, do not figure anywhere in public discourse. There are no candle marches, global seminars or high dramas of award wapsi for them.

When Akhlaq was killed, India was termed intolerant and many celebrities started feeling insecure while living in the country.

But these ruthless murders are routine and dont prick anybodys conscience. Forget the rest of India, they do not even disturb Gods own country in any way whatsoever. Are we not only an intolerant nation but also an insensitive one with double standards?

Balbir Punj

Former Rajya Sabha member and Delhi-based commentator on social and political issuesEmail:

punjbalbir@gmail.com

Rajesh, 34, was a Dalit, with usual aspirations, mixed with a tinge of idealism. Married, he was blessed with two small children. Self-respecting, conscious of his identity, he dreamed of an egalitarian, prosperous and strong India. He was not an armchair intellectual, but an activist working within the confines of the system. Innocently pursuing his dreams, he had obviously upset the status quo in his neighbourhood and paid for his couragewith his life. He was hacked to death on July 29. Rajesh was an RSS Swayamsevak in Sreekaryam, Thiruvananthapuram. On the fateful day, he was returning home from an RSS meeting. Suddenly a group of 15 odd armed men set upon him. His left arm was chopped off and thrown at a distance. In all, he received around 100 cuts. After naming his killers, Rajesh succumbed to his grievous injuries. He just met a ghastly end a week ago. But his death is a just another statistic in the crime records of the country, the memory of his painful demise surviving only in the hearts of his immediate family and close comrades. What had Rajesh done to deserve such a violent death? He had no police record. But Rajesh committed two crimes. He was a Dalit, but refused to live a life of oppression and subjugation. He dared to have a mind of his own and had the audacity to nurse dreams about the country and the society and worked ceaselessly to turn them into reality. His persona represented an empowered Dalit, striving to break the mould and pursue the ideology of his choice. He was an affront to vested interests and an insecure establishment in the state that saw a threat in his existence. Besides being an assertive Dalit, he chose to associate himself with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. To the ruling CPM dispensation in the state, any association with the RSS is sheer blasphemy. So Rajeshs crimes multiplied. In all fundamentalist creeds, blasphemy is punishable with death. And thats what Rajesh got, in the most gruesome manner. Rajesh is not the first such victim. Over the last 13 months, 13 such innocent men and a woman in Kerala have met a violent end. They were connected with the RSS and their killers, with the ruling CPM. Out of these 14, four, including Rajesh, were Dalits. Vishnu, 19, from Kannammoola (Thiruvananthapuram) was hacked to death on October 7, last year. Anil, 49, also from Thiruvanthapuram, too met a violent end on December 19, 2016 and so did Nirmal, 20, from Thrissur on February 12 last. In September 2015, Mohammad Akhlaq, 50, was killed in mob violence at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. In January 2016, Rohith Vemula, a young student of University of Hyderabad committed suicide. While his caste status continues to be debated, social activists belonging to the Left declared him a Dalit and attributed his unfortunate death to his systematic persecution at the hands of the BJP government, ABVP and the Sangh Parivar. While turning Vemulas sad death into a global propaganda tool, his suicide note, obviously the most credible document to know the reasons for his suicide, was ignored and swept under the carpet. Rohith had said, I always wanted to be writer: A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write. Rohiths role model was Carl Sagan, an American scientist, and not Mao, Karl Marx or one of the naxal or CPM leaders. A part of the suicide note which was mysteriously stuck off says, ASA, SFI, anything and everything exists for their own sake. Seldom the interest of a person and this organisation match. The note never became a part of public discourse that followed his unfortunate end because its contents did not fit into the narrative of the interested quarters. In July last, Junaid Khan, 16, was stabbed to death by a mob while travelling back to his village in Haryanas Ballabhgarh. There are two versions of the unfortunate event. The much publicised version claims that Junaid and his companions were attacked after having been accused of carrying beef and because of their faith. An official version, however, discounted the religious angle to the incident and attributed it to the usual altercation between passengers on account of overcrowding in the train. According to daily passengers, who were interviewed by various TV channels, the fight over seats is everyday business and many a time these fights end up in violence. In the absence of proper policing, lumpen elements hold sway. Akhlaq, Vemula and Junaid are household names in India and abroad. The Left and secularists have succeeded in making these three names symbols of persecution of minorities and Dalits at the hands of the Sangh Parivar. Facts have been twisted and the narrative distorted. The miserable end of these three hapless persons has been exploited to suit the ideological designs of the Left. In the process India has been painted as an intolerant nation. Dalits like Rajesh, Nirmal, Anil and Vishnu who were hacked to pieces in the name of ideology, however, do not figure anywhere in public discourse. There are no candle marches, global seminars or high dramas of award wapsi for them. When Akhlaq was killed, India was termed intolerant and many celebrities started feeling insecure while living in the country. But these ruthless murders are routine and dont prick anybodys conscience. Forget the rest of India, they do not even disturb Gods own country in any way whatsoever. Are we not only an intolerant nation but also an insensitive one with double standards? Balbir Punj Former Rajya Sabha member and Delhi-based commentator on social and political issuesEmail: punjbalbir@gmail.com
By Express News Service

KOCHI: The IS module at Kanakamala in Kannur district, busted last year, is apparently far from finished, with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) finding several persons linked with the module still subscribing to the IS ideology via online platforms. In the latest development, the NIA intercepted three youths - two hailing from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and one from Alappuzha - who were in touch with the IS module busted at Kanakamala and the 23-member group, which had left for Afghanistan last year.



The NIA team from Kochi had on Thursday interrogated Abdul Rahman, of Ukkadam, and S Abdullah, of Karumbukadai, at the Coimbatore Police Commissioners office. Basil Shihab, 25, a native of Kidangamparambu in Alappuzha, was grilled at the Alappuzha SP office.Basil Shihab is working at a computer shop at Vyttila and Abdul Rahman, who has a masters in computer science, is unemployed. Abdullah runs an internet cafe at Ukkadam, Coimbatore.

The trio were served with a notice to appear before the NIA office in Kochi on Friday for further interrogation. Based on this, Basil appeared before the NIA officers in Kochi and was quizzed by the sleuths till late night. Abdullah and Abdul Rahman also appeared before the NIA team in Kochi and the interrogation will continue on Saturday.



Besides, two more persons from Coimbatore and another from Tiruppur were questioned at the Coimbatore Police Commissioners office on Friday. These persons were also part of the group formed by Shajeer Mangalassery alias Abu Ayisha, who was reportedly killed in Afghanistan. They were members of the WhatsApp and Telegram groups, through which Shajeer coordinated their activities. These persons were operating online using fake names. They were continuing with the IS activities even after the module was busted in October last year, an NIA officer said.



One of the suspects from Coimbatore had been maintaining contacts with Abdul Rashid, who along with 23 Keralities had left for Afghanistan last year. We are interrogating them to ascertain the facts. As of now, none of them has been arraigned accused or has been arrested, the officer said

The NIA has decided to carry out the forensic examination of the mobile phones and laptops recovered from the suspects. We will quiz them till all facts are clearly ascertained. For this, we will have to obtain information from the seized mobile phones and laptops with the help of forensic experts. If crucial evidence is unearthed, we will record their arrest, the officer said.



The NIA teams are also stationed in Coimbatore and Tiruppur as part of the investigation.

In the raids conducted at the residences of these persons on Thursday, the NIA had recovered around 80 compact discs, three mobile phones, and laptops. The majority of CDs contained recordings of the speeches made by controversial religious leader Zakir Naik. These persons were following the IS ideology for over a year, the officer said.

KOCHI: The IS module at Kanakamala in Kannur district, busted last year, is apparently far from finished, with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) finding several persons linked with the module still subscribing to the IS ideology via online platforms. In the latest development, the NIA intercepted three youths - two hailing from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and one from Alappuzha - who were in touch with the IS module busted at Kanakamala and the 23-member group, which had left for Afghanistan last year. The NIA team from Kochi had on Thursday interrogated Abdul Rahman, of Ukkadam, and S Abdullah, of Karumbukadai, at the Coimbatore Police Commissioners office. Basil Shihab, 25, a native of Kidangamparambu in Alappuzha, was grilled at the Alappuzha SP office.Basil Shihab is working at a computer shop at Vyttila and Abdul Rahman, who has a masters in computer science, is unemployed. Abdullah runs an internet cafe at Ukkadam, Coimbatore. The trio were served with a notice to appear before the NIA office in Kochi on Friday for further interrogation. Based on this, Basil appeared before the NIA officers in Kochi and was quizzed by the sleuths till late night. Abdullah and Abdul Rahman also appeared before the NIA team in Kochi and the interrogation will continue on Saturday. Besides, two more persons from Coimbatore and another from Tiruppur were questioned at the Coimbatore Police Commissioners office on Friday. These persons were also part of the group formed by Shajeer Mangalassery alias Abu Ayisha, who was reportedly killed in Afghanistan. They were members of the WhatsApp and Telegram groups, through which Shajeer coordinated their activities. These persons were operating online using fake names. They were continuing with the IS activities even after the module was busted in October last year, an NIA officer said. One of the suspects from Coimbatore had been maintaining contacts with Abdul Rashid, who along with 23 Keralities had left for Afghanistan last year. We are interrogating them to ascertain the facts. As of now, none of them has been arraigned accused or has been arrested, the officer said The NIA has decided to carry out the forensic examination of the mobile phones and laptops recovered from the suspects. We will quiz them till all facts are clearly ascertained. For this, we will have to obtain information from the seized mobile phones and laptops with the help of forensic experts. If crucial evidence is unearthed, we will record their arrest, the officer said. The NIA teams are also stationed in Coimbatore and Tiruppur as part of the investigation. In the raids conducted at the residences of these persons on Thursday, the NIA had recovered around 80 compact discs, three mobile phones, and laptops. The majority of CDs contained recordings of the speeches made by controversial religious leader Zakir Naik. These persons were following the IS ideology for over a year, the officer said.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested former Ernakulam district secretary of Popular Front of India [PFI] who is an accused in the sensational palm chopping case. The accused Mansoor, 47, was arrested from his residence in Choornikkara near Aluva.

According to NIA officers, Mansoor was absconding since 2011. An NIA officer said, "There was an arrest warrant issued against Mansoor. He was hiding in different states and arrived recently at his native place. Due to strict monitoring in airports, he could not escape abroad. Recently, we received information about his arrival at home. We carried out a raid at his residence and he was arrested."

It was in June this year that, NIA filed the charge sheet against Mansoor at NIA court in Kochi. He was allegedly part of the conspiracy along with another accused M K Nasar to attack Professor T J Joseph. He also allegedly conspired to harbour the accused and extending financial assistance to families of the accused persons.

The charge sheet filed by NIA alleged that Mansoor willfully joined as a member of the group with full knowledge that it was constituted for terrorist activities.

Offences under section 341, 427, 324, 326, 506(ii), 201, 202, 212, 153(A), 307 and 120 of IPC, section 3 and 6 of Explosive Substances Act and sections 16(1)(b), 18 and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act have been slapped against him. He was remanded to judicial custody at Kakkanad District Jail till September 4.

On July 4, 2010, a gang chopped off the palm of T J Joseph of Newman College involved in a question paper row. Radical groups had alleged that one of the questions hurt the sentiments of the minority community and the accused took it upon themselves to 'punish' the professor.

T J Joseph and family were returning home after attending morning prayers at a church when the gang intercepted their vehicle and attacked them. The seven-member gang pulled T J Joseph out of the car and chopped off his right palm.

The NIA trial court in Kochi had sentenced 10 persons to eight years and three others to two years of imprisonment in May 2015.



KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested former Ernakulam district secretary of Popular Front of India [PFI] who is an accused in the sensational palm chopping case. The accused Mansoor, 47, was arrested from his residence in Choornikkara near Aluva. According to NIA officers, Mansoor was absconding since 2011. An NIA officer said, "There was an arrest warrant issued against Mansoor. He was hiding in different states and arrived recently at his native place. Due to strict monitoring in airports, he could not escape abroad. Recently, we received information about his arrival at home. We carried out a raid at his residence and he was arrested." It was in June this year that, NIA filed the charge sheet against Mansoor at NIA court in Kochi. He was allegedly part of the conspiracy along with another accused M K Nasar to attack Professor T J Joseph. He also allegedly conspired to harbour the accused and extending financial assistance to families of the accused persons. The charge sheet filed by NIA alleged that Mansoor willfully joined as a member of the group with full knowledge that it was constituted for terrorist activities. Offences under section 341, 427, 324, 326, 506(ii), 201, 202, 212, 153(A), 307 and 120 of IPC, section 3 and 6 of Explosive Substances Act and sections 16(1)(b), 18 and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act have been slapped against him. He was remanded to judicial custody at Kakkanad District Jail till September 4. On July 4, 2010, a gang chopped off the palm of T J Joseph of Newman College involved in a question paper row. Radical groups had alleged that one of the questions hurt the sentiments of the minority community and the accused took it upon themselves to 'punish' the professor. T J Joseph and family were returning home after attending morning prayers at a church when the gang intercepted their vehicle and attacked them. The seven-member gang pulled T J Joseph out of the car and chopped off his right palm. The NIA trial court in Kochi had sentenced 10 persons to eight years and three others to two years of imprisonment in May 2015.
A teacher in Assam, who has a history of molestation charges, posted obscene photos of himself with some of his students online. Police is being questioned for their inaction.

By India Today Web Desk: The small town of Katlicherra in Hailakandi district of Assam has witnessed an abominable act.

A male teacher, identified as Faizuddin Laskar, clicked obscene photos with some of his minor female students, and posted them online.

Photo: Twitter - rekha singh/@rekha_2011

Faizuddin is a teacher at Model High School, Katllicherra.

If local channel DY-365 is to be believed, Faizuddin is a "serial offender".

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Since the photos were posted on the internet, they have been shared across social media platforms.

Photo: Twitter - rekha singh/@rekha_2011

This incident might take a cue from the Bollywood movie, Haraamkhor. The film showed how Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who is a teacher in the movie, gets involved with one of his students.

Towards the end, things indeed get ugly, but not as ugly as this Assam incident.

Photo: Twitter - rekha singh/@rekha_2011

The local channel, which broke the news, reported that in the past, Faizuddin was roughed by a mob after he was caught molesting a woman.

Angered by the incident, the mob severed his finger.

After the photos went viral, parents of one of the girls filed an FIR against the teacher.

Photo: Twitter - rekha singh/@rekha_2011

Incidentally, police interrogated Faizuddin, but did not arrest him.

FYI || Master fail: Roorkee teacher undresses class 6 girl, beats her for scoring 1.5 in exam ||

FYI || Bull-dozed: Student clicks teacher sleeping in class, gets him suspended ||

--- ENDS ---
Dhinesh Kallungal By

Express News Service

KOCHI: The countrys skies are all set to welcome a host of newcomers, with seven companies, including Kochi-headquartered Air India Express (AIE), placing a cumulative order for 1,329 aircrafts. It is one of the largest-ever fleet expansion in India in recent history, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.The first lot of 122 aircrafts will take off this fiscal itself. A total of 139 aircrafts will be inducted in 2018-19, 123 in 2019-20 and the rest in subsequent years in a phased manner.

Among the airline companies, Indigo has placed order for the highest number of aircrafts, 609, followed by Spice Jet (255), GoAir (164), Air India including AIE and Alliance Air (162), Jet Airways (99), Tata SIA Airlines and Zexus Air Services (20 each). Furthermore, Air Asia (India) and Turbo Megha Airways have plans to add 19 and 14 aircrafts respectively to their fleet over the next three years.



Air India, which owns a fleet of 144 aircrafts, will induct 21 and seven aircraft into its fleet in current and next financial years respectively. Indigo, which has a fleet of 135, will add 42, 54 and 40 aircrafts in the next three years in that order.

The move is expected to create plenty of opportunities in the countrys aviation sector, which requires a large number of licensed work force including pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers and supporting crew. AIE CEO Shyam Sunder said the company had entrusted a consultancy firm with the task of preparing a 10-year vision document in order to expand its footprints beyond established markets. India is expected to be the third largest aviation market by 2020 and largest by 2030.

In this backdrop, the AIE looks to further expand its base beyond the established markets, according to Sundar.

The AIE officials said the airline would look to connect the three-tier and two-tier cities with international destinations. The vision document will focus on strengthening the airlines business interest without compromising on the parent companys commercial interest, which includes exploring the ways for tapping the domestic markets, brand-building and expanding routes beyond its traditional hub Dubai.

The union ministry also made it clear that countrys six top airports have handled 61 per cent of the domestic traffic in 2016-17.



Considering the delay in arrivals and departures, steps have been taken to augment the infrastructure capacity at six metro airports in the near future. In addition, runway addition as well as expansion, revision of master plan, construction and modernisation of airports, etc, are in the offing. The Cochin International Airport, which handled 8,941,198 travellers during 2016-17, is the fourth largest airport in the country in terms of international passengers and seventh in total.

KOCHI: The countrys skies are all set to welcome a host of newcomers, with seven companies, including Kochi-headquartered Air India Express (AIE), placing a cumulative order for 1,329 aircrafts. It is one of the largest-ever fleet expansion in India in recent history, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.The first lot of 122 aircrafts will take off this fiscal itself. A total of 139 aircrafts will be inducted in 2018-19, 123 in 2019-20 and the rest in subsequent years in a phased manner. Among the airline companies, Indigo has placed order for the highest number of aircrafts, 609, followed by Spice Jet (255), GoAir (164), Air India including AIE and Alliance Air (162), Jet Airways (99), Tata SIA Airlines and Zexus Air Services (20 each). Furthermore, Air Asia (India) and Turbo Megha Airways have plans to add 19 and 14 aircrafts respectively to their fleet over the next three years. Air India, which owns a fleet of 144 aircrafts, will induct 21 and seven aircraft into its fleet in current and next financial years respectively. Indigo, which has a fleet of 135, will add 42, 54 and 40 aircrafts in the next three years in that order. The move is expected to create plenty of opportunities in the countrys aviation sector, which requires a large number of licensed work force including pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers and supporting crew. AIE CEO Shyam Sunder said the company had entrusted a consultancy firm with the task of preparing a 10-year vision document in order to expand its footprints beyond established markets. India is expected to be the third largest aviation market by 2020 and largest by 2030. In this backdrop, the AIE looks to further expand its base beyond the established markets, according to Sundar. The AIE officials said the airline would look to connect the three-tier and two-tier cities with international destinations. The vision document will focus on strengthening the airlines business interest without compromising on the parent companys commercial interest, which includes exploring the ways for tapping the domestic markets, brand-building and expanding routes beyond its traditional hub Dubai. The union ministry also made it clear that countrys six top airports have handled 61 per cent of the domestic traffic in 2016-17. Considering the delay in arrivals and departures, steps have been taken to augment the infrastructure capacity at six metro airports in the near future. In addition, runway addition as well as expansion, revision of master plan, construction and modernisation of airports, etc, are in the offing. The Cochin International Airport, which handled 8,941,198 travellers during 2016-17, is the fourth largest airport in the country in terms of international passengers and seventh in total.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: The women's wing of the ruling BJD, on Friday, sought the intervention of President of India Ram Nath Kovind to impress on the Centre to roll back the decision on withdrawal of subsidy on LPG and increase in price of cylinders which has affected the poor people. The Biju Mahila Janata Dal (BMJD) has threatened to launch a State-wide agitation till the decision is withdrawn.

Activists of the BMJD demonstrated in front of the Raj Bhavan here and submitted a memorandum addressed to Kovind in this regard. The BMJD will hold demonstrations in front of the office of all district collectors on August 8 to demand withdrawal of the Centre's decision.

Referring to the decision of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry to hike LPG price by Rs 4 per cylinder every month starting from July 1 to withdraw subsidy by March, 2018, the memorandum said it will affect all consumers.Under the Ujjala scheme, around 14.5 lakh families in Odisha have been provided LPG connection, the memorandum said and added that with the Centre's decision to withdraw subsidy many families will not be able to purchase cooking at market price. Beneficiaries of Ujjala scheme will immensely suffer due to the hike in price of LPG cylinder after the withdrawal of subsidy, it said.

The State Government has abolished VAT on domestic LPG since June 28, 2011. However, the price of LPG cylinder has increased after imposition of 5 per cent GST, the memorandum said and alleged that the Centre has increased basic excise duty, additional excise duty on petrol and diesel by more than 100 per cent and 200 per cent for which the benefit of low international price has not reached the consumers.

The Centre on the pretext of welfare activities is putting extra burden on women LPG consumers by withdrawing subsidy which is against the basic principles of a welfare state, president of BMJD Pramila Mallik said.

Among others, Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera, Minister for Planning and Convergence Usha Devi, Minister of State for Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts Snehangini Chhuria, BJD MLAs Rasheswari Panigrahi, Bijay Kumar Mohanty and Priyadarshi Mishra and Mayor of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Anant Narayan Jena participated in the demonstration.

BHUBANESWAR: The women's wing of the ruling BJD, on Friday, sought the intervention of President of India Ram Nath Kovind to impress on the Centre to roll back the decision on withdrawal of subsidy on LPG and increase in price of cylinders which has affected the poor people. The Biju Mahila Janata Dal (BMJD) has threatened to launch a State-wide agitation till the decision is withdrawn. Activists of the BMJD demonstrated in front of the Raj Bhavan here and submitted a memorandum addressed to Kovind in this regard. The BMJD will hold demonstrations in front of the office of all district collectors on August 8 to demand withdrawal of the Centre's decision. Referring to the decision of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry to hike LPG price by Rs 4 per cylinder every month starting from July 1 to withdraw subsidy by March, 2018, the memorandum said it will affect all consumers.Under the Ujjala scheme, around 14.5 lakh families in Odisha have been provided LPG connection, the memorandum said and added that with the Centre's decision to withdraw subsidy many families will not be able to purchase cooking at market price. Beneficiaries of Ujjala scheme will immensely suffer due to the hike in price of LPG cylinder after the withdrawal of subsidy, it said. The State Government has abolished VAT on domestic LPG since June 28, 2011. However, the price of LPG cylinder has increased after imposition of 5 per cent GST, the memorandum said and alleged that the Centre has increased basic excise duty, additional excise duty on petrol and diesel by more than 100 per cent and 200 per cent for which the benefit of low international price has not reached the consumers. The Centre on the pretext of welfare activities is putting extra burden on women LPG consumers by withdrawing subsidy which is against the basic principles of a welfare state, president of BMJD Pramila Mallik said. Among others, Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera, Minister for Planning and Convergence Usha Devi, Minister of State for Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts Snehangini Chhuria, BJD MLAs Rasheswari Panigrahi, Bijay Kumar Mohanty and Priyadarshi Mishra and Mayor of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Anant Narayan Jena participated in the demonstration.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Even as the efforts to merge the two factions of AIADMK are going on, the smaller feud within the ruling AIADMK (Amma) went on unabated on Wednesday, while TTV Dhinakaran, still holding the post of deputy general secretary of the ruling faction, continued to flex muscles after meeting his aunt VK Sasikala at Parappana Agrahara prison.

I will perform the necessary operation at the right time and on the right person. I have been with the late CM Jayalalithaa for about 30 years. With Sasikalas advice, I will perform necessary surgery in the party and politics when and where it is necessary, Dhinakaran told mediapersons at Bengaluru. I will engage myself in activities to strengthen the party and to steer it to a big victory in the 2019 elections, which will include merging the factions of AIADMK, Dhinakaran said.

Responding to a query about the functioning of the government headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, he said, I will be addressing public meetings in all district headquarters where I will tell the people in detail how this government functions. Will also meet district level functionaries. Dhinakaran said none could stop him from entering party headquarters as deputy general secretary, but evaded the question when he would do it. He claimed support of 122 MLAs.

As per Sasikalas advice, the MPs of the AIADMK (Amma) would vote for NDA candidate for vice- presidential poll, Venkaiah Naidu, he added. Meanwhile, Dhinakaran loyalist and district secretary P Vetrivel and finance minister Jayakumar locked horns in Chennai.

When asked about Vetrivels warning that he would be stripped of party and government posts if he continued to launch barbs against Dhinakaran, Jayakumar retaliated, pointing out that Vetrivel was a late joinee of AIADMK from Congress. He should not try to infuse Congress culture in the AIADMK, said Jayakumar.

Will file case against DIG Roopa

Emerging from the meeting with Sasikala in Bengaluru, Dhinakaran denied that any special concessions were given to his aunt. The matter had become a controversy after, DIG D Roopa, alleged Sasikala was extended comforts in return for a hefty bribe. Dhinakaran said he would file a defamation case against Roopa for maligning Sasikala by spreading rumours.

CHENNAI: Even as the efforts to merge the two factions of AIADMK are going on, the smaller feud within the ruling AIADMK (Amma) went on unabated on Wednesday, while TTV Dhinakaran, still holding the post of deputy general secretary of the ruling faction, continued to flex muscles after meeting his aunt VK Sasikala at Parappana Agrahara prison. I will perform the necessary operation at the right time and on the right person. I have been with the late CM Jayalalithaa for about 30 years. With Sasikalas advice, I will perform necessary surgery in the party and politics when and where it is necessary, Dhinakaran told mediapersons at Bengaluru. I will engage myself in activities to strengthen the party and to steer it to a big victory in the 2019 elections, which will include merging the factions of AIADMK, Dhinakaran said. Responding to a query about the functioning of the government headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, he said, I will be addressing public meetings in all district headquarters where I will tell the people in detail how this government functions. Will also meet district level functionaries. Dhinakaran said none could stop him from entering party headquarters as deputy general secretary, but evaded the question when he would do it. He claimed support of 122 MLAs. As per Sasikalas advice, the MPs of the AIADMK (Amma) would vote for NDA candidate for vice- presidential poll, Venkaiah Naidu, he added. Meanwhile, Dhinakaran loyalist and district secretary P Vetrivel and finance minister Jayakumar locked horns in Chennai. When asked about Vetrivels warning that he would be stripped of party and government posts if he continued to launch barbs against Dhinakaran, Jayakumar retaliated, pointing out that Vetrivel was a late joinee of AIADMK from Congress. He should not try to infuse Congress culture in the AIADMK, said Jayakumar. Will file case against DIG Roopa Emerging from the meeting with Sasikala in Bengaluru, Dhinakaran denied that any special concessions were given to his aunt. The matter had become a controversy after, DIG D Roopa, alleged Sasikala was extended comforts in return for a hefty bribe. Dhinakaran said he would file a defamation case against Roopa for maligning Sasikala by spreading rumours.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday asked the government why it had not named six secretaries of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) if the 2007 clearance given to a media house for receiving foreign funds was wrong. The case involves his son Karti.

Chidambaram questioned the government's handling of the case on Twitter. Though the Congress leader did not name the case, it was obvious that he was referring to a CBI probe into the FIPB approval given to INX Media for allegedly receiving funds from Mauritius.

If FIPB approval in a particular case was wrong, why does CBI not name the six secretaries as accused?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 5, 2017

Is it because the six secretaries were persons of unimpeachable integrity?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 5, 2017

The CBI wants to question Karti in the case and has issued summons to him following allegations that a firm that was indirectly controlled by Chidambaram's son received money from the media house.

NEW DELHI: Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday asked the government why it had not named six secretaries of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) if the 2007 clearance given to a media house for receiving foreign funds was wrong. The case involves his son Karti. Chidambaram questioned the government's handling of the case on Twitter. Though the Congress leader did not name the case, it was obvious that he was referring to a CBI probe into the FIPB approval given to INX Media for allegedly receiving funds from Mauritius. If FIPB approval in a particular case was wrong, why does CBI not name the six secretaries as accused?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 5, 2017 Is it because the six secretaries were persons of unimpeachable integrity?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 5, 2017 The CBI wants to question Karti in the case and has issued summons to him following allegations that a firm that was indirectly controlled by Chidambaram's son received money from the media house.
By Online Desk

Donald Trump's tweets have become a part of our everyday lives, so much so that Amazon on Friday has begun offering toilet paper with the US Presidents tweets printed on it.

Toilet Tweets, the retailer on Amazon, describes the toilet paper as A collection of ten of Donald Trumps most flushable tweets printed throughout a roll of 2-ply toilet paper. No twitter feed is as deserving of being flushed, its tremendous. Im hearing other toilet papers dont even have words on them, SAD! This toilet paper has the best words.

Amazon ran out of the product on Friday but is working on re-stocking it soon.

We sold out this morning, but a new shipment was already on its way to Amazon and should be available in a few days.https://t.co/5nDZPQtO5h pic.twitter.com/9h7wT68Ugp  Toilet Tweets (@ToiletTweeet) August 4, 2017

Amazon also sells toilet paper with the Presidents face and a Donald Trump Toilet Roll Talker to fill your bathroom with Donald Trumps voice.



This is not the first time that the words "Trump" and "toilet paper" is used together. A corporate lawyer from Mexico, Antonio Battaglia, produced a toilet paper brand called "Trump toilet paper". The Mexican cleverly used taglines such as "Softness without borders and This is the wall that, yes, we will pay for.

An illustration of the toilet paper released by Antonio Battaglia. The product falls outside the sectors in which the Trump Organization has trademarked the name | AP

Donald Trump's tweets have become a part of our everyday lives, so much so that Amazon on Friday has begun offering toilet paper with the US Presidents tweets printed on it. Toilet Tweets, the retailer on Amazon, describes the toilet paper as A collection of ten of Donald Trumps most flushable tweets printed throughout a roll of 2-ply toilet paper. No twitter feed is as deserving of being flushed, its tremendous. Im hearing other toilet papers dont even have words on them, SAD! This toilet paper has the best words. Amazon ran out of the product on Friday but is working on re-stocking it soon. We sold out this morning, but a new shipment was already on its way to Amazon and should be available in a few days.https://t.co/5nDZPQtO5h pic.twitter.com/9h7wT68Ugp  Toilet Tweets (@ToiletTweeet) August 4, 2017 Amazon also sells toilet paper with the Presidents face and a Donald Trump Toilet Roll Talker to fill your bathroom with Donald Trumps voice. This is not the first time that the words "Trump" and "toilet paper" is used together. A corporate lawyer from Mexico, Antonio Battaglia, produced a toilet paper brand called "Trump toilet paper". The Mexican cleverly used taglines such as "Softness without borders and This is the wall that, yes, we will pay for. An illustration of the toilet paper released by Antonio Battaglia. The product falls outside the sectors in which the Trump Organization has trademarked the name | AP
By AFP

LOS ANGELES: Investigators discovered more than 2,000 snakes, parrots, chickens and other animals, around half of them dead, at an industrial park Friday as they responded to reports of a rotten smell.

"Almost 2,000 chickens, parakeets, lovebirds, and other exotic birds were rescued from an industrial warehouse this morning... dozens of exotic fish were found at the location," the Inland Valley Humane Society and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said in a statement.

Officers had shown up at the industrial building 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, as part of a separate investigation into the occupant and noticed a smell emanating from inside, police spokesman John Minook told AFP.

A search warrant was served and authorities entered to find more than a thousand chickens, baby chicks, parakeets, parrots, love birds, snakes and fish, in "appalling conditions," the Humane Society said.

It said there was little ventilation no food or water provided for the animals, as well as animal waste everywhere.

"It's the worst I've seen in nine years in the association," Silvia Lemos, a member of the Humane Society told ABC.

The owner of the animals was arrested earlier this week for charges unrelated to the incident and will now be subject to "several criminal charges of cruelty to animals," the society said.

LOS ANGELES: Investigators discovered more than 2,000 snakes, parrots, chickens and other animals, around half of them dead, at an industrial park Friday as they responded to reports of a rotten smell. "Almost 2,000 chickens, parakeets, lovebirds, and other exotic birds were rescued from an industrial warehouse this morning... dozens of exotic fish were found at the location," the Inland Valley Humane Society and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said in a statement. Officers had shown up at the industrial building 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, as part of a separate investigation into the occupant and noticed a smell emanating from inside, police spokesman John Minook told AFP. A search warrant was served and authorities entered to find more than a thousand chickens, baby chicks, parakeets, parrots, love birds, snakes and fish, in "appalling conditions," the Humane Society said. It said there was little ventilation no food or water provided for the animals, as well as animal waste everywhere. "It's the worst I've seen in nine years in the association," Silvia Lemos, a member of the Humane Society told ABC. The owner of the animals was arrested earlier this week for charges unrelated to the incident and will now be subject to "several criminal charges of cruelty to animals," the society said.
By AFP

LONDON: Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday that it was "only a matter of time" before Northern Ireland legalises same-sex marriage, as he attended a gay pride event in Belfast.

"It is, of course, a decision for the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course," said Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay leader who took office in June.

Northern Ireland is the only part of Britain where same-sex marriage remains illegal, and the largest political party in the province, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is deeply opposed.

The DUP, which has strong Protestant Christian fundamentalist roots, has consistently blocked the measure in the devolved assembly in Belfast.

However, the party has been relatively restrained about Varadkar's participation in the Pride event, with DUP leader Arlene Foster saying it was "his own business".

The Republic of Ireland, a traditionally Catholic country, voted to allow same-sex marriage in a historic referendum in 2015.

Varadkar attended a Pride breakfast in Belfast although other commitments prevented him from staying for the parade through the city centre, which this year will include uniformed police officers for the first time.

LONDON: Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday that it was "only a matter of time" before Northern Ireland legalises same-sex marriage, as he attended a gay pride event in Belfast. "It is, of course, a decision for the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course," said Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay leader who took office in June. Northern Ireland is the only part of Britain where same-sex marriage remains illegal, and the largest political party in the province, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is deeply opposed. The DUP, which has strong Protestant Christian fundamentalist roots, has consistently blocked the measure in the devolved assembly in Belfast. However, the party has been relatively restrained about Varadkar's participation in the Pride event, with DUP leader Arlene Foster saying it was "his own business". The Republic of Ireland, a traditionally Catholic country, voted to allow same-sex marriage in a historic referendum in 2015. Varadkar attended a Pride breakfast in Belfast although other commitments prevented him from staying for the parade through the city centre, which this year will include uniformed police officers for the first time.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today asked how could he have filed income tax returns on a salary he never received from his son's company in Dubai, referring to the Supreme Court's grounds for his disqualification in the Panama Papers case.

Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court last week in connection with the Panama Papers scandal. The 67-year-old veteran politician soon resigned from his position.

During an informal chat, Sharif said he has a lot to say on the subject of his disqualification, however, he prefers to stay silent for now. He added that he is starting to understand a lot (about what is going on), Geo news reported.

Sharif asked how could he have filed income tax returns on a salary he never received from his son's company, the report said.

"Whatever happened with me is in front of you all. Had there been any evidence of corruption, kickbacks or misuse of public funds there would have been logic [in the disqualification]," he said.

"I have not done anything which obstructed the countrys progress," he said, adding, "I have acted upon the [Supreme Court] verdict but didnt comment on it. I believe in the rule of law. I am not politically isolated," said Sharif during his informal discussion".

Taking a jibe at former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz said a dictator of the past said dictatorship is better than democracy.

"I dont know which world he is living in," he said, adding that, "he has no courage to come here and speak in public".

Sharif claimed Musharraf wanted to meet him in 2007 when he [Nawaz] was returning to the country.

The PML-N chief, along with family members and aides, vacated his residence in Changla Gali earlier and was greeted by scores of supporters in Bharakahu on his way to Punjab House.

The former premier's convoy was surrounded by PML-N supporters, prompting Nawaz to get out of his car at one point and greet the crowd.

Senior PML-N leaders and other politicians, including the prime minister and several cabinet members, are at the Punjab House for a consultative meeting chaired by Sharif.

Last Sunday, the former premier left the Prime Minister House and proceeded to Murree along with family members.

Since then, the country has seen a new prime minister  PML-N's Shahid Khaqan Abbasi  assume office.

Sharif has spent most of his time in Murree in hectic consultations over the formation of the new cabinet. The former premier chaired back-to-back meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, which finally led to the swearing-in of the new Cabinet yesterday.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment in the Panama Papers case, disqualified Sharif over his failure to disclose un- withdrawn receivables constituting assets from a UAE-based company.

The verdict stated that he was not "honest" and "truthful", as per the country's Constitution.

The PML-N has decided to file a review petition against the verdict. However, the party's troubles are not over as it gears up for the by-election in Sharifs Lahore constituency  NA-120  on September 17.

According to some reports, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to contest the by-poll and assume office of prime minister. However, there is a chance Abbasi could continue as the prime minister till the next general elections.

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today asked how could he have filed income tax returns on a salary he never received from his son's company in Dubai, referring to the Supreme Court's grounds for his disqualification in the Panama Papers case. Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court last week in connection with the Panama Papers scandal. The 67-year-old veteran politician soon resigned from his position. During an informal chat, Sharif said he has a lot to say on the subject of his disqualification, however, he prefers to stay silent for now. He added that he is starting to understand a lot (about what is going on), Geo news reported. Sharif asked how could he have filed income tax returns on a salary he never received from his son's company, the report said. "Whatever happened with me is in front of you all. Had there been any evidence of corruption, kickbacks or misuse of public funds there would have been logic [in the disqualification]," he said. "I have not done anything which obstructed the countrys progress," he said, adding, "I have acted upon the [Supreme Court] verdict but didnt comment on it. I believe in the rule of law. I am not politically isolated," said Sharif during his informal discussion". Taking a jibe at former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz said a dictator of the past said dictatorship is better than democracy. "I dont know which world he is living in," he said, adding that, "he has no courage to come here and speak in public". Sharif claimed Musharraf wanted to meet him in 2007 when he [Nawaz] was returning to the country. The PML-N chief, along with family members and aides, vacated his residence in Changla Gali earlier and was greeted by scores of supporters in Bharakahu on his way to Punjab House. The former premier's convoy was surrounded by PML-N supporters, prompting Nawaz to get out of his car at one point and greet the crowd. Senior PML-N leaders and other politicians, including the prime minister and several cabinet members, are at the Punjab House for a consultative meeting chaired by Sharif. Last Sunday, the former premier left the Prime Minister House and proceeded to Murree along with family members. Since then, the country has seen a new prime minister  PML-N's Shahid Khaqan Abbasi  assume office. Sharif has spent most of his time in Murree in hectic consultations over the formation of the new cabinet. The former premier chaired back-to-back meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, which finally led to the swearing-in of the new Cabinet yesterday. The Supreme Court, in its judgment in the Panama Papers case, disqualified Sharif over his failure to disclose un- withdrawn receivables constituting assets from a UAE-based company. The verdict stated that he was not "honest" and "truthful", as per the country's Constitution. The PML-N has decided to file a review petition against the verdict. However, the party's troubles are not over as it gears up for the by-election in Sharifs Lahore constituency  NA-120  on September 17. According to some reports, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to contest the by-poll and assume office of prime minister. However, there is a chance Abbasi could continue as the prime minister till the next general elections.
By AFP

KATHMANDU: A Nepali transgender woman and a man registered their marriage, a first in the country, the couple said Saturday, despite an absence of laws legalising same-sex or transgender unions.

Monika Shahi Nath, 40, who legally identifies as a third gender, married Ramesh Nath Yogi, 22, in May and was able to register it in their home district Dadeldhura in western Nepal last month.

"I have successfully registered my marriage with my husband," Nath said at a press conference, where she showed her marriage certificate.

"This is also my attempt to awaken our government to make legal changes. Others like me should also have the right to marry the person they love," she told AFP.

Nepal's law is silent on same-sex or transgender marriages despite a 2015 expert committee recommendation to legalise same-sex marriages following a Supreme Court order to enshrine the rights of sexual minorities.

Pinky Gurung, president of the Blue Diamond Society which works on behalf of sexual minorities in Nepal, said that the wedding was an achievement for their movement.

"This is a beginning. But we need to see the government take action to legalise marriages for our community and enact the necessary laws," said Gurung.

However, a lack of legal clarity on the issue could jeopardise the marriage.

"Validity of the same-sex or third-sex marriage can be questioned even after marriage registration if it is against the existing laws," said Deepak Kafle, Home Ministry spokesman.

Legal experts said that the couple could also face allegations of polygamy -- which is illegal in Nepal -- as Yogi has an existing wife, and two children, prior to this marriage.

Nepal already has some of the most progressive policies on homosexuality in South Asia.

In 2013 Nepal introduced citizenships with a third gender option and began issuing passports reflecting the same in 2015.

KATHMANDU: A Nepali transgender woman and a man registered their marriage, a first in the country, the couple said Saturday, despite an absence of laws legalising same-sex or transgender unions. Monika Shahi Nath, 40, who legally identifies as a third gender, married Ramesh Nath Yogi, 22, in May and was able to register it in their home district Dadeldhura in western Nepal last month. "I have successfully registered my marriage with my husband," Nath said at a press conference, where she showed her marriage certificate. "This is also my attempt to awaken our government to make legal changes. Others like me should also have the right to marry the person they love," she told AFP. Nepal's law is silent on same-sex or transgender marriages despite a 2015 expert committee recommendation to legalise same-sex marriages following a Supreme Court order to enshrine the rights of sexual minorities. Pinky Gurung, president of the Blue Diamond Society which works on behalf of sexual minorities in Nepal, said that the wedding was an achievement for their movement. "This is a beginning. But we need to see the government take action to legalise marriages for our community and enact the necessary laws," said Gurung. However, a lack of legal clarity on the issue could jeopardise the marriage. "Validity of the same-sex or third-sex marriage can be questioned even after marriage registration if it is against the existing laws," said Deepak Kafle, Home Ministry spokesman. Legal experts said that the couple could also face allegations of polygamy -- which is illegal in Nepal -- as Yogi has an existing wife, and two children, prior to this marriage. Nepal already has some of the most progressive policies on homosexuality in South Asia. In 2013 Nepal introduced citizenships with a third gender option and began issuing passports reflecting the same in 2015.
By Associated Press

CANTON: Workers at a Nissan assembly plant in Mississippi have voted against forming a union, adding to decades of futility by United Auto Workers organizers at foreign-owned auto plants in the American South.

Representatives of Nissan Motor Co. and the UAW said late Friday that 2,244 workers, or 62 percent, voted against the UAW, while 1,307, or 38 percent, favored the union.

Company spokeswoman Parul Bajaj said employees' voice has been heard.

"They have rejected the UAW and chosen to self-represent, continuing the direct relationship they enjoy with the company," she said in a statement. "Our expectation is that the UAW will respect and abide by their decision and cease their efforts to divide our Nissan family."

The UAW has never fully organized an international automaker in the traditionally anti-union South, although it did persuade some maintenance workers to join at a Volkswagen AG plant in Tennessee. The UAW's lack of influence among southern auto workers has reduced its bargaining power when Detroit automakers lose market share and close plants. After pouring resources into the organizing drive at Nissan, this loss could leave UAW leaders with tough decisions.

"The result of the election was a setback for these workers, the UAW and working Americans everywhere, but in no way should it be considered a defeat," UAW President Dennis Williams said in a statement.

Pro-union workers were defiant amid tears at a UAW office, with some calling for another election as soon possible.

"It hurts," said union supporter Phillip White. "We ran against a machine."

But some outspoken anti-union workers were celebrating, saying they had turned back an unwanted interloper.

"They know we didn't need it," said Kim Barber. "They know we didn't need outside interference coming in our plant."

The union filed seven new charges with the National Labor Relations Board just before polls closed Friday alleging that Nissan had broken federal labor laws during the campaign. If the labor board rules in favor of the charges, the board could order a fresh election. Among the claims: Nissan provided a faulty contact list to the union, it caused a contract worker to be filed because of his union support, and a manager told workers July 28 that they would lose benefits it they voted for a union.

UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel had telegraphed the move Monday, when he alleged illegal activity by the company.

"Despite claiming for years to be neutral on the question of a union, Nissan waged one of the most illegal and unethical anti-union campaigns that I've seen in my lifetime," Casteel said in a statement Friday.

Nissan spokeswoman Parul Bajaj said the company lived up to its obligations in providing the list. She generally denied the other charges.

"The UAW is again launching baseless and unsubstantiated allegations against Nissan Canton in a desperate, last-minute attempt to undermine the integrity of the secret ballot voting process," Bajaj said in a statement.

The labor board has already issued a complaint against Nissan alleging other labor law violations that predate the election, but a judge has yet to rule on those. A decision on the new charges could be months or years away.

The union also could try to encourage a backlash against Nissan outside the United States, where it has tried to build pressure on the company through unions at other plants and supporters in the French government, which owns nearly 20 percent of the Renault Group, Nissan's business partner. The union said it would "educate" the French government about Nissan's anti-union campaign.

Nissan has sought to finesse its position against unions in the U.S. while defending its work with organized labor in the rest of the world. Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, told French lawmakers last year that the alliance "has no tradition of not cooperating with unions."

Rodney Francis, the plant's human resources director, said the company has a right to make its case to workers that unionization would hurt management flexibility and make the plant less competitive economically. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and anti-union workers blamed the UAW for layoffs and plant closings by Detroit's major automakers.

"With the UAW, all you've got to do is look at their history," said Tony Hobson, a Nissan forklift driver and outspoken union opponent.

For years, union organizers reached out to the majority African-American workforce at the Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant, arguing that workers' rights are civil rights. They pointed to reduced retirement and health benefits for longtime workers, and lower pay scales for 1,500 Nissan workers who began as contract laborers in recent years. White and other union supporters said after the vote they felt those newer employees, in particular, had been intimidated.

A 2015 study by the Center for Automotive Research found that Nissan paid an average of $44 an hour in pay and benefits, toward the low end of all automakers. Nissan has given pay raises since then.

Workers at Nissan's plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, voted against UAW representation in 1989 and 2001, but this was the first election at the Mississippi plant. The UAW also lost a 2014 vote among all workers at Volkswagen in 2014 before winning a second vote among 160 maintenance workers.

Both sides shifted into a frenetic and highly visibly campaign mode after pro-UAW workers filed petitions seeking a vote in early July.

Kristen Dziczek of the Center for Automotive Research said that although the UAW was the underdog, odds were unlikely to improve soon, as President Donald Trump's appointees take over the National Labor Relations Board. A corruption scandal involving union employees allegedly taking bribes from a former Fiat Chrysler executive also threatened to spread.

The UAW's failed campaign could leave scars. Pro-UAW worker Earnestine Meeks said a co-worker flashed a gun at her, demanding she leave his property during a home visit by union backers recently.

"Nissan will focus on bringing all employees back together as one team, building great vehicles and writing our next chapter in Mississippi," Bajaj said.

CANTON: Workers at a Nissan assembly plant in Mississippi have voted against forming a union, adding to decades of futility by United Auto Workers organizers at foreign-owned auto plants in the American South. Representatives of Nissan Motor Co. and the UAW said late Friday that 2,244 workers, or 62 percent, voted against the UAW, while 1,307, or 38 percent, favored the union. Company spokeswoman Parul Bajaj said employees' voice has been heard. "They have rejected the UAW and chosen to self-represent, continuing the direct relationship they enjoy with the company," she said in a statement. "Our expectation is that the UAW will respect and abide by their decision and cease their efforts to divide our Nissan family." The UAW has never fully organized an international automaker in the traditionally anti-union South, although it did persuade some maintenance workers to join at a Volkswagen AG plant in Tennessee. The UAW's lack of influence among southern auto workers has reduced its bargaining power when Detroit automakers lose market share and close plants. After pouring resources into the organizing drive at Nissan, this loss could leave UAW leaders with tough decisions. "The result of the election was a setback for these workers, the UAW and working Americans everywhere, but in no way should it be considered a defeat," UAW President Dennis Williams said in a statement. Pro-union workers were defiant amid tears at a UAW office, with some calling for another election as soon possible. "It hurts," said union supporter Phillip White. "We ran against a machine." But some outspoken anti-union workers were celebrating, saying they had turned back an unwanted interloper. "They know we didn't need it," said Kim Barber. "They know we didn't need outside interference coming in our plant." The union filed seven new charges with the National Labor Relations Board just before polls closed Friday alleging that Nissan had broken federal labor laws during the campaign. If the labor board rules in favor of the charges, the board could order a fresh election. Among the claims: Nissan provided a faulty contact list to the union, it caused a contract worker to be filed because of his union support, and a manager told workers July 28 that they would lose benefits it they voted for a union. UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel had telegraphed the move Monday, when he alleged illegal activity by the company. "Despite claiming for years to be neutral on the question of a union, Nissan waged one of the most illegal and unethical anti-union campaigns that I've seen in my lifetime," Casteel said in a statement Friday. Nissan spokeswoman Parul Bajaj said the company lived up to its obligations in providing the list. She generally denied the other charges. "The UAW is again launching baseless and unsubstantiated allegations against Nissan Canton in a desperate, last-minute attempt to undermine the integrity of the secret ballot voting process," Bajaj said in a statement. The labor board has already issued a complaint against Nissan alleging other labor law violations that predate the election, but a judge has yet to rule on those. A decision on the new charges could be months or years away. The union also could try to encourage a backlash against Nissan outside the United States, where it has tried to build pressure on the company through unions at other plants and supporters in the French government, which owns nearly 20 percent of the Renault Group, Nissan's business partner. The union said it would "educate" the French government about Nissan's anti-union campaign. Nissan has sought to finesse its position against unions in the U.S. while defending its work with organized labor in the rest of the world. Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, told French lawmakers last year that the alliance "has no tradition of not cooperating with unions." Rodney Francis, the plant's human resources director, said the company has a right to make its case to workers that unionization would hurt management flexibility and make the plant less competitive economically. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and anti-union workers blamed the UAW for layoffs and plant closings by Detroit's major automakers. "With the UAW, all you've got to do is look at their history," said Tony Hobson, a Nissan forklift driver and outspoken union opponent. For years, union organizers reached out to the majority African-American workforce at the Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant, arguing that workers' rights are civil rights. They pointed to reduced retirement and health benefits for longtime workers, and lower pay scales for 1,500 Nissan workers who began as contract laborers in recent years. White and other union supporters said after the vote they felt those newer employees, in particular, had been intimidated. A 2015 study by the Center for Automotive Research found that Nissan paid an average of $44 an hour in pay and benefits, toward the low end of all automakers. Nissan has given pay raises since then. Workers at Nissan's plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, voted against UAW representation in 1989 and 2001, but this was the first election at the Mississippi plant. The UAW also lost a 2014 vote among all workers at Volkswagen in 2014 before winning a second vote among 160 maintenance workers. Both sides shifted into a frenetic and highly visibly campaign mode after pro-UAW workers filed petitions seeking a vote in early July. Kristen Dziczek of the Center for Automotive Research said that although the UAW was the underdog, odds were unlikely to improve soon, as President Donald Trump's appointees take over the National Labor Relations Board. A corruption scandal involving union employees allegedly taking bribes from a former Fiat Chrysler executive also threatened to spread. The UAW's failed campaign could leave scars. Pro-UAW worker Earnestine Meeks said a co-worker flashed a gun at her, demanding she leave his property during a home visit by union backers recently. "Nissan will focus on bringing all employees back together as one team, building great vehicles and writing our next chapter in Mississippi," Bajaj said.
Off the 300 crore, 100 crore belongs to Shivakumar and his family.

By India Today Web Desk: The I-T department has recovered undisclosed income worth Rs 300 crore during raids conducted on the premises of Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar. Off the 300 crore, 100 crore belongs to Shivakumar and his family.

The figures are likely to go up as investigation progresses and assessments are made. Cash and jewellery worth Rs 15 crore was seized during the searches. Incriminating documents have also been found.

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Raids have been conducted on Shivakumar and his families and the investment made by him in various companies such as Shoba developers, Davanam jewellers, Sharma transport among others.

The money so far confiscated is from different locations where the raids were conducted. The panchnama documents leaked to the media are of the places where cash was not recovered.

60 raids were conducted which included the residences of DK Shivkumar and DK Suresh. The raids got concluded on Saturday. The income tax department claims to have enough evidence and documents from other residents of DK brothers.

D K Shivakumar is overseeing the stay of the 44 Congress MLAs who have been flown to Bengaluru from Gujarat to prevent the BJP from allegedly "poaching" on them.

With inputs from Rohini Swamy

ALSO READ:

Bengaluru: I-T raid of DK Shivakumar's Sadashivnagar residence yields nothing

Income Tax raids on Karnataka minister, Rs 10 crore recovered: All you need to know in 10 points

WATCH: Police seize Rs 5 crore from Karnataka Minister Shivakumar's Safdarjung residence in Delhi

--- ENDS ---
By PTI

A 65-year-old doctor became the first Hindu minister in Pakistan in more than two decades after the cabinet of the country's new prime minister was sworn in.

Darshan Lal will coordinate between four Pakistani provinces as a minister of state in Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's cabinet, media reports said. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader won a National Assembly election in 2013 for the second time in a seat reserved for minorities.

He practises at the Pirbhoomal Memorial Children Hospital in Ghotki district of Sindh. The PML-N website lists as him as the president of the party's minority wing.

He told Pakistan's Dawn newspaper in 2009 that minorities in the country, including Sikh, Christians and Hindus, had equal rights and religious freedom, and the "propaganda" against the plight of minorities in Pakistan had no truth. His comments came after the Taliban razed 11 houses of the Sikh community in the Orakzai Agency, a tribal region, to the ground. The Sikhs had reportedly failed to pay "Jazia", a payment the Taliban demanded of non-Muslims.

Pakistan's new 47-member cabinet that was sworn in on Friday retained old names, but some new leaders were included as ministers and ministers of state, including Khawaja Asif appointed as the country's first full-time foreign minister since 2013. The new prime minister is an ally of Nawaz Sharif and was formerly the petroleum minister.

A 65-year-old doctor became the first Hindu minister in Pakistan in more than two decades after the cabinet of the country's new prime minister was sworn in. Darshan Lal will coordinate between four Pakistani provinces as a minister of state in Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's cabinet, media reports said. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader won a National Assembly election in 2013 for the second time in a seat reserved for minorities. He practises at the Pirbhoomal Memorial Children Hospital in Ghotki district of Sindh. The PML-N website lists as him as the president of the party's minority wing. He told Pakistan's Dawn newspaper in 2009 that minorities in the country, including Sikh, Christians and Hindus, had equal rights and religious freedom, and the "propaganda" against the plight of minorities in Pakistan had no truth. His comments came after the Taliban razed 11 houses of the Sikh community in the Orakzai Agency, a tribal region, to the ground. The Sikhs had reportedly failed to pay "Jazia", a payment the Taliban demanded of non-Muslims. Pakistan's new 47-member cabinet that was sworn in on Friday retained old names, but some new leaders were included as ministers and ministers of state, including Khawaja Asif appointed as the country's first full-time foreign minister since 2013. The new prime minister is an ally of Nawaz Sharif and was formerly the petroleum minister.
By ANI

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf worker has approached a police station in Peshawar to invoke section 499/500 of Pakistan Penal code to register an FIR against MNA Ayesha Gulalai for defaming the party and its chairman, Imran Khan.



On Friday, Muhammad Amir Khan, chairman of the PTIs Youth Revival Committee PTI has submitted an application to the SHO of Peshawars Hayatabad police station, requesting him to lodge an FIR against Gulalai. Khan claimed that Gulalai made allegations against Imran at Muqam and Rehams behest.



The SHO Hayatabad said they had received the application but it could not be entertained because it had no legal grounds. The PTI worker has submitted an application but the crime has not been taken place in my area so he should instead go to the court and file a writ petition, Dawn quoted him as saying. No FIR can be filed on the grounds provided in his application.



The application said Gulalai put him under immense mental agony as she lied through electronic and print media by making false allegations against my party chairman Imran Khan and my party PTI.



Gulalai on August 1 resigned from the PTI after accusing Imran and his gang of immoral behaviour against women. Gulalai had claimed that the PTI chief had been sending her obscene messages since 2013, a charge vehemently refuted by the PTI.



PTI Imran Khan has accused Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz of coordinating with media group to malign him over former PTI member Ayesha Gulalai harassment allegation.



He suspected the PML-N had used Gulalai and their old smear tactics to achieve their own ends.



Khan claimed he was taken by surprise by the MNAs allegations, especially because he had met her only 24 hours before her explosive press conference on Tuesday. She was there with the NA-1 delegation; we discussed the seat as she wanted a ticket and asked me to let her campaign there... [and] give a speech, the Dawn quoted Khan, as saying.



I told her that her performance in the assembly was not good and we had given her a reserved seat. I thought she had a lot of potential...; she performed very well in the beginning.... I dont know what happened to her, the PTI chief said.

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf worker has approached a police station in Peshawar to invoke section 499/500 of Pakistan Penal code to register an FIR against MNA Ayesha Gulalai for defaming the party and its chairman, Imran Khan. On Friday, Muhammad Amir Khan, chairman of the PTIs Youth Revival Committee PTI has submitted an application to the SHO of Peshawars Hayatabad police station, requesting him to lodge an FIR against Gulalai. Khan claimed that Gulalai made allegations against Imran at Muqam and Rehams behest. The SHO Hayatabad said they had received the application but it could not be entertained because it had no legal grounds. The PTI worker has submitted an application but the crime has not been taken place in my area so he should instead go to the court and file a writ petition, Dawn quoted him as saying. No FIR can be filed on the grounds provided in his application. The application said Gulalai put him under immense mental agony as she lied through electronic and print media by making false allegations against my party chairman Imran Khan and my party PTI. Gulalai on August 1 resigned from the PTI after accusing Imran and his gang of immoral behaviour against women. Gulalai had claimed that the PTI chief had been sending her obscene messages since 2013, a charge vehemently refuted by the PTI. PTI Imran Khan has accused Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz of coordinating with media group to malign him over former PTI member Ayesha Gulalai harassment allegation. He suspected the PML-N had used Gulalai and their old smear tactics to achieve their own ends. Khan claimed he was taken by surprise by the MNAs allegations, especially because he had met her only 24 hours before her explosive press conference on Tuesday. She was there with the NA-1 delegation; we discussed the seat as she wanted a ticket and asked me to let her campaign there... [and] give a speech, the Dawn quoted Khan, as saying. I told her that her performance in the assembly was not good and we had given her a reserved seat. I thought she had a lot of potential...; she performed very well in the beginning.... I dont know what happened to her, the PTI chief said.
By AFP

MANILA, PHILIPPINES: South Korea's new foreign minister said Saturday she was open to rare discussions with her North Korean counterpart on the sidelines of a security summit in the Philippines.

"If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Kang Kyung-Wha told reporters as she landed in Manila on Saturday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

North Korea's top diplomat, Ri Hong-Yo, is also attending the regional summit, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The potential meetings come as the North faces intense international pressure to curtail its nuclear weapons programme.

The United Nations Security Council will vote this weekend on a US-drafted resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea following its second intercontinental ballistic missile test on July 28.

The United States said it would also seek to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event, known as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is attending.

But the newly elected South Korean government of President Moon Jae-In is also much more open to negotiations than the previous administration run by Park Geun-Hye.

Kang, South Korea's first female foreign minister, said any meeting with Ri would be an opportunity "to deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers (for talks) aimed at establishing a peace regime".

In July Seoul proposed military talks with Pyongyang but the North refused to respond. Had they gone ahead, they would have been the first official inter-Korean talks since 2015.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula often dominate the ARF because it is one of the few annual diplomatic gatherings attended by the key stakeholders: South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

In the run up to this year's summit, Washington had lobbied to have Pyongyang kicked out of the ARF but there is limited appetite among Asian countries to shut North Korea out of one of the few diplomatic gatherings it attends.

Washington is determined to ratchet up pressure on the North after a series of missile tests that Pyongyang has declared puts American cities within their reach.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES: South Korea's new foreign minister said Saturday she was open to rare discussions with her North Korean counterpart on the sidelines of a security summit in the Philippines. "If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Kang Kyung-Wha told reporters as she landed in Manila on Saturday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. North Korea's top diplomat, Ri Hong-Yo, is also attending the regional summit, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The potential meetings come as the North faces intense international pressure to curtail its nuclear weapons programme. The United Nations Security Council will vote this weekend on a US-drafted resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea following its second intercontinental ballistic missile test on July 28. The United States said it would also seek to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event, known as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is attending. But the newly elected South Korean government of President Moon Jae-In is also much more open to negotiations than the previous administration run by Park Geun-Hye. Kang, South Korea's first female foreign minister, said any meeting with Ri would be an opportunity "to deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers (for talks) aimed at establishing a peace regime". In July Seoul proposed military talks with Pyongyang but the North refused to respond. Had they gone ahead, they would have been the first official inter-Korean talks since 2015. Tensions on the Korean peninsula often dominate the ARF because it is one of the few annual diplomatic gatherings attended by the key stakeholders: South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan. In the run up to this year's summit, Washington had lobbied to have Pyongyang kicked out of the ARF but there is limited appetite among Asian countries to shut North Korea out of one of the few diplomatic gatherings it attends. Washington is determined to ratchet up pressure on the North after a series of missile tests that Pyongyang has declared puts American cities within their reach.
By PTI

BEIJING: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said today.

According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.

The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing.

The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.

The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."

"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.

Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India]."

He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run news agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement.

Khrushchev also told Mao that he was "outraged" by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union "time-servers".

"Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth. We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody... If you consider us time-servers, comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it," Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting.

After that visit, relations between China and then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the US.

BEIJING: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said today. According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India. The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing. The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript. The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position." "If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao. Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India]." He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run news agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement. Khrushchev also told Mao that he was "outraged" by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union "time-servers". "Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth. We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody... If you consider us time-servers, comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it," Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting. After that visit, relations between China and then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the US.
By AFP

SAINT-AIGNAN-SUR-CHER: The first baby panda born in France is in good health and feeding from its mother, staff at Beauval Zoo said Saturday, as they came to terms with losing its twin.

Zookeepers were on alert to ensure that the surviving panda cub of twins born on Friday makes it through the crucial first week of its life.

"The first week is the most difficult because it is still very fragile," the zoo's chief vet Baptiste Mulot said on Saturday morning.

But the early signs appeared to be good.

"He is breastfeeding from his mother, we'll see if we have to supplement that with milk brought by the two Chinese carers,..." he added.

The Chinese team, from the centre for breeding pandas in Chengdu, Sichuan province, southwest China, had already given the panda three bottle feeds, giving it somewhere between 1-1.3 millimetres of milk.

Huan Huan "is a very protective mother, which is very good, but that complicates the work of the Chinese carers a bit when it comes to taking the cub away every two hours," said Mulot.

There was joy and pain Friday as the zoo's only female panda gave birth to twins, but one died soon afterwards.

Huan Huan, on loan to Beauval zoo in central France from China, delivered the first cub at 10:18 pm (2018 GMT) and the second at 10:32.

But soon after birth, the first, which weighed just 121 grams (4.2 ounces), began having problems breathing and died despite the best efforts of zoo staff.

- 'Too weak to survive' -

"It was too weak to survive. The Chinese experts, who have experience of this, saw it straight away," zoo director Rodolphe Delord said.

"Our veterinary teams did everything they could to save it, but it was too small, too weak."

But he said the second twin, which weighed in at a healthier 142.4 grams, was in "perfect health".

The cub stayed mainly with his mother, but whenever it was taken away from her it was immediately put in an incubator, said chief vet Mulot.

That allowed the Chinese carers to weigh it and wash it and supplement the mother's feeding with milk from a bottle.

For the moment, the cub is known simply has "Mini Yuan Zi", after its father.

Visitors to the zoo were delighted at the news of the birth.

"I'm so happy that a baby panda was born here because later, I want to work here," said 13-year-old Marion, who made a special trip with her parents from the southern city of Avignon.

Visitors will have to wait three months to see the family in their enclosure, when the baby panda will have opened its eyes and be covered in hair. In the meantime, visitors can watch a film of the pandas on giant screens.

Nine-year-old Huan Huan and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived at Beauval zoo in January 2012 on a 10-year loan from China after intense negotiations between Paris and Beijing.

Breeding pandas is notoriously difficult and this is the first time a cub has been born in France.

The female panda is only in heat once a year for about 48 hours. The gestation period for pandas is a mere 50 days.

Huan Huan (meaning "happy") and Yuan Zi ("chubby") are the only giant pandas living in France.

The pair were brought together in February, in the hope they would mate, but it didn't happen. In the end, the zoo performed an artificial insemination.

If all goes well with the birth, the surviving cub will leave Beauval in the next two to three years to be returned to China.

SAINT-AIGNAN-SUR-CHER: The first baby panda born in France is in good health and feeding from its mother, staff at Beauval Zoo said Saturday, as they came to terms with losing its twin. Zookeepers were on alert to ensure that the surviving panda cub of twins born on Friday makes it through the crucial first week of its life. "The first week is the most difficult because it is still very fragile," the zoo's chief vet Baptiste Mulot said on Saturday morning. But the early signs appeared to be good. "He is breastfeeding from his mother, we'll see if we have to supplement that with milk brought by the two Chinese carers,..." he added. The Chinese team, from the centre for breeding pandas in Chengdu, Sichuan province, southwest China, had already given the panda three bottle feeds, giving it somewhere between 1-1.3 millimetres of milk. Huan Huan "is a very protective mother, which is very good, but that complicates the work of the Chinese carers a bit when it comes to taking the cub away every two hours," said Mulot. There was joy and pain Friday as the zoo's only female panda gave birth to twins, but one died soon afterwards. Huan Huan, on loan to Beauval zoo in central France from China, delivered the first cub at 10:18 pm (2018 GMT) and the second at 10:32. But soon after birth, the first, which weighed just 121 grams (4.2 ounces), began having problems breathing and died despite the best efforts of zoo staff. - 'Too weak to survive' - "It was too weak to survive. The Chinese experts, who have experience of this, saw it straight away," zoo director Rodolphe Delord said. "Our veterinary teams did everything they could to save it, but it was too small, too weak." But he said the second twin, which weighed in at a healthier 142.4 grams, was in "perfect health". The cub stayed mainly with his mother, but whenever it was taken away from her it was immediately put in an incubator, said chief vet Mulot. That allowed the Chinese carers to weigh it and wash it and supplement the mother's feeding with milk from a bottle. For the moment, the cub is known simply has "Mini Yuan Zi", after its father. Visitors to the zoo were delighted at the news of the birth. "I'm so happy that a baby panda was born here because later, I want to work here," said 13-year-old Marion, who made a special trip with her parents from the southern city of Avignon. Visitors will have to wait three months to see the family in their enclosure, when the baby panda will have opened its eyes and be covered in hair. In the meantime, visitors can watch a film of the pandas on giant screens. Nine-year-old Huan Huan and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived at Beauval zoo in January 2012 on a 10-year loan from China after intense negotiations between Paris and Beijing. Breeding pandas is notoriously difficult and this is the first time a cub has been born in France. The female panda is only in heat once a year for about 48 hours. The gestation period for pandas is a mere 50 days. Huan Huan (meaning "happy") and Yuan Zi ("chubby") are the only giant pandas living in France. The pair were brought together in February, in the hope they would mate, but it didn't happen. In the end, the zoo performed an artificial insemination. If all goes well with the birth, the surviving cub will leave Beauval in the next two to three years to be returned to China.
By ANI

LAHORE: Malik Jalal Khan Wazir, a member of grand tribal jirga from North Waziristan Agency to which Ayesha Gulalai belongs, has asked her to produce relevant evidence about the allegations she has levelled against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan.



Tribesmen have warned that they will besiege the house of MNA Ayesha Gulalai. "Gulalai neither belonged to Waziristan nor was she a tribal woman, because whatever she had done during last four days was against the norms of tribal people, "the Dawn quoted Wazir, as saying.



We cannot expect a tribal woman to adopt such lifestyle. The woman is unaware of the South and North Waziristan Agencies because she is not a resident of the tribal region, Wazir claimed.



The tribal elder asked Gulalai to present her Blackberry to any relevant forum to clear her position. He said her allegations against Imran had earned her disrespect in the hearts of people.



He asserted that according to their tribal tradition,daughters are not allowed to show up before media or irrelevant people. But, he said Shamsul Qayyum, the father of Gulalai, used her for the sake of money only.



Jalal Wazir demanded an inquiry against Qayyum for bringing a bad name to the tribal people for his own personal interests. The tribal people want to know as to how much money Gulalai has taken for levelling such allegations, he demanded.



Wazir claimed that Gulalai's statement about Imran Khan sending her inappropriate messages on her mobile had not only insulted the Pakhtuns but also disgraced a large number of women workers affiliated with PTI.

LAHORE: Malik Jalal Khan Wazir, a member of grand tribal jirga from North Waziristan Agency to which Ayesha Gulalai belongs, has asked her to produce relevant evidence about the allegations she has levelled against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan. Tribesmen have warned that they will besiege the house of MNA Ayesha Gulalai. "Gulalai neither belonged to Waziristan nor was she a tribal woman, because whatever she had done during last four days was against the norms of tribal people, "the Dawn quoted Wazir, as saying. We cannot expect a tribal woman to adopt such lifestyle. The woman is unaware of the South and North Waziristan Agencies because she is not a resident of the tribal region, Wazir claimed. The tribal elder asked Gulalai to present her Blackberry to any relevant forum to clear her position. He said her allegations against Imran had earned her disrespect in the hearts of people. He asserted that according to their tribal tradition,daughters are not allowed to show up before media or irrelevant people. But, he said Shamsul Qayyum, the father of Gulalai, used her for the sake of money only. Jalal Wazir demanded an inquiry against Qayyum for bringing a bad name to the tribal people for his own personal interests. The tribal people want to know as to how much money Gulalai has taken for levelling such allegations, he demanded. Wazir claimed that Gulalai's statement about Imran Khan sending her inappropriate messages on her mobile had not only insulted the Pakhtuns but also disgraced a large number of women workers affiliated with PTI.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday pushed back against pressure to oust National Security Advisor HR McMaster, stressing their solid working relationship.

In a volley of attacks from right-wing media, McMaster has been accused of being anti-Israel, having a short temper and collaborating with Obama-era officials.

"General McMaster and I are working very well together. He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country," Trump said in a statement.

The barrage of unflattering portrayals emerged as McMaster worked with new chief of staff John Kelly to purge the White House national security council of staffers from the nationalist wing of Trump's base.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday pushed back against pressure to oust National Security Advisor HR McMaster, stressing their solid working relationship. In a volley of attacks from right-wing media, McMaster has been accused of being anti-Israel, having a short temper and collaborating with Obama-era officials. "General McMaster and I are working very well together. He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country," Trump said in a statement. The barrage of unflattering portrayals emerged as McMaster worked with new chief of staff John Kelly to purge the White House national security council of staffers from the nationalist wing of Trump's base.
By Associated Press

JERUSALEM: Israel's justice minister says even if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted on corruption charges he is not compelled to resign.

Ayelet Shaked tells Israel's Channel 2 TV on Saturday that ministers have to, but not necessarily prime ministers. She said coalition partners will have to discuss the ethical ramifications of such a development but it was still premature.

Shaked is the most high-profile official to respond to news that Israeli police suspect Netanyahu of being involved in bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a pair of cases. Netanyahu's former chief of staff and long-time confidante has agreed to turn state witness and testify against his former mentor. This has raised speculation that Netanyahu could be indicted shortly.

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and calls the accusations a witch hunt.

JERUSALEM: Israel's justice minister says even if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted on corruption charges he is not compelled to resign. Ayelet Shaked tells Israel's Channel 2 TV on Saturday that ministers have to, but not necessarily prime ministers. She said coalition partners will have to discuss the ethical ramifications of such a development but it was still premature. Shaked is the most high-profile official to respond to news that Israeli police suspect Netanyahu of being involved in bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a pair of cases. Netanyahu's former chief of staff and long-time confidante has agreed to turn state witness and testify against his former mentor. This has raised speculation that Netanyahu could be indicted shortly. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and calls the accusations a witch hunt.
The police are now suspecting the role of tantriks or a gang performing black magic - who could have asked the superstitious people to chop off random braids.

By Chayyanika Nigam: The mystery of women's hair being chopped in their asleep has deepened. The police is now suspecting the role of tantriks or a gang performing black magic - who could have asked the superstitious people to chop off random braids.

Lately, women from several states - Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi - have been reporting incidents of their braids being chopped when they are asleep or unconscious.

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CASES REPORTED FROM SEVERAL STATES

In Delhi, cases have been reported from Najafgarh, Ranhola, Aman Vihar, Mangolpuri and Mundka. Sources told Mail Today that during the recent two meetings and exchange of words with top honchos, the possible role of tantriks has come to light.

Requesting anonymity, a source said: "There have been many incidents in which unusual demands are made by the tantriks to the superstitious people who fall prey to them."

"It is possible that a gang of tantriks asked some superstitious people to chop off braids to achieve a desired result. And these people must have roped in others to help them achieve the target. Usually, in such cases, the number that is to be achieved is very high so if any tantrik or a group is behind it then the incidents might go up," said another source.

With such incidents on an alarming rise in the national Capital, Delhi Police has made an appeal to people to not spread rumours related to ghosts or bogeyman.

VICTIMS CHANGING STATEMENTS

Police officials told Mail Today that so far the number of complaints received do not mention the exact sequence of events. In fact, some victims are changing their statements now. Senior officials said they are "not ruling out" the possibility of a foul play.

As the delirium spreads with the supernatural dominating the discussion, the police and psychologists are weighing in with their theories. With more such incidents being reported every day, officials said they are still searching for clues and awaiting results from forensic experts.

Kanganheri, a village in South-West Delhi spooked after three of its women reported that their braids had been chopped while they were sleeping. Bogeyman, black magic or good ol' thievery ... the theories are many as the hysteria spreads, blurring the boundaries between superstition and crime in a largely rural belt.

On Friday, two fresh cases of chopped braids were reported but no official complaint was made. One incident was reported from Mayapuri, while another was from South-East Delhi's Ambedkar Nagar. This is not the first time crimes related to black magic have made headlines.

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In June, a 35-year-old man from Shahdara chopped the ears of his three-year-old daughter, claiming that a supernatural power had asked him to do so. Similarly, a three-year-old girl who had gone missing on July 11, was thrown into a canal by her father to become a tantrik, police said. The child's body was recovered from the canal in Faridabad the next day.

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Agra: Suspected of being a hair-chopping witch, 62-year-old widow beaten to death

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--- ENDS ---
Newport Art Museum wraps up fall with variety of programs

Though it hasnt always felt like fall these past few weeks, the museum is in high gear hosting fall events and planning for winter.
By Santosh Chaubey: It is consensus in India that China backstabbed first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in spite of his friendly stand that believed the Indian and the Chinese were brothers (Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai). The 1962 Sino-Indian war is the biggest symbol of China's betrayal in spite of Nehru's sacrifice that allowed China to have permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

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Mao Zedong, China's supreme leader, in fact wanted to crush Nehru alleging India of interference in Tibet, a document released by the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars shows. It is a transcription of meeting between Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong and Chinese Premier and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai on October 2, 1959. It was a heated conversation where the Soviet Premier blamed China for Tibet unrest, defending India and Nehru, and blasted the hostile Chinese action at the Sino-Indian border.

THE TASS DECLARATION

Before Nikita Khrushchev arrived in China, the USSR had passed a resolution, known as the TASS Declaration, taking a public stand in order to be seen neutral and 'not anti-Nehru' in the ongoing India-China conflict. This stand by one communist nation on another offended China and in fact laid the foundation of cold-war Sino-Soviet split that continued till late 1980s.

By this time, the expansionist Chinese tentacles had become clearly visibly. China had killed and detained Indian soldiers in Ladakh and had forcefully occupied an Indian post at Longju at Assam-China border resulting in casualties on the Indian side and was increasingly sounding belligerent, especially after the Dalai Lama and countless Tibetans, who were given moral support and shelter by India, had to flee the Chinese oppression, a development that brought China a bad name.

CHINA WAS HELL-BENT ON PROVING INDIA WRONG

The transcript of the meeting shows how China was hell-bent on proving India and Nehru wrong even if it was not able to convince Nikita Khrushchev of its words, motives and action.

Nikita Khrushchev: We....do not understand in particular your conflict with India. You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as result of which [Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal] Nehru found himself in a very difficult position.....If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet, you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama.

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Mao Zedong: Nehru also says that the events in Tibet occurred on our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India.

Nikita Khrushchev: Do you really want us to approve of your conflict with India? It would be stupid on our part. The TASS declaration was necessary. You still seem to be able to see some difference between Nehru and me. If we had not issued the TASS declaration, there could have been an impression that there was a united front of socialist countries against Nehru. The TASS declaration turned this issue into one between you and India.

Mao Zedong: Our mistake was that we did not disarm the Dalai Lama right away. But at that time we had no contact with the popular masses of Tibet.

Nikita Khrushchev: You have no contact even now with the population of Tibet.

Mao Zedong: We have a different understanding of this issue.

Though sounding harsh on the Dalai Lama, Khrushchev goes on to vindicate India's stand on giving shelter to the Dalai Lama pinning the blame squarely on the Chinese Communist Party, "It's not a matter of arrest; I am just saying that you were wrong to let him go. If you allow him an opportunity to flee to India, then what has Nehru to do with it? We believe that the events in Tibet are the fault of the Communist Party of China, not Nehru's fault."

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Mao Zedong: No, this is Nehru's fault.... We also support Nehru, but in the question of Tibet we should crush him.

Nikita Khrushchev: Why did you have to kill people on the border with India?

Mao Zedong: They attacked us first, crossed the border and continued firing for 12 hours.

Zhou Enlai: What data do you trust more, Indian or ours?

Nikita Khrushchev: Although the Hindus attacked first, nobody was killed among the Chinese, and only among the Hindus.

Zhou Enlai: But what we are supposed to do if they attack us first. We cannot fire in the air.... In my letter of 9 September to Nehru we provided detailed explanations of all that had occurred between India and us.

Nikita Khrushchev: Comrade Zhou Enlai. You have been Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PRC for many years and know better than me how one can resolve disputed issues without [spilling] blood. In this particular case I do not touch at all the issue of the border, for if the Chinese and the Hindus do not know where the borderline goes between them, it is not for me, a Russian, to meddle. I am only against the methods that have been used.

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Zhou Enlai: We did not know until recently about the border incident, and local authorities undertook all the measures there, without authorization from the centre.

Nikita Khrushchev: That the centre knew nothing about the incident is news to me.

Like China is sounding obstinate today, in the ongoing Doklam standoff, it was the same behaviour on display even then. They kept on repeating their falsities that finally frustrated Khrushchev, "There are three of us here, and nine of you, and you keep repeating the same line. I think this is to no use. I only wanted to express our position. It is your business to accept it or not."

CHINA'S OTHER PLANS

Though Mao Zedong assured Nikita Khrushchev that the border clash with India was a marginal issue and would be resolved peacefully, the Chinese had other designs and it becomes clear from the letter that Zhou Enlai wrote to India in the aftermath where he blamed India for escalating tension by indulging in border aggression, anti-China propaganda and Tibet unrest.

China, in fact, was preparing to betray India all along 1950s, clandestinely intruding into the Indian territories to forcefully acquire them and the Tibetan uprising of 1959 was just a pretext to impose its sinister designs of grabbing thousands of kilometres of Indian Territory in Jammu & Kashmir's Ladakh, i.e., Aksai Chin that the whole world saw after the 1962 war. Prime Minister Nehru, in fact, detailed these Chinese designs in response to Zhou Enlai's letter that how Chinese were intruding into the Indian territory since 1954, that how they had built a road in Ladakh, that how China arrested Indian security forces personnel in Aksai Chin in 1958 and so on. Nehru also added in the letter that India did not make public these because it was still hoping for their peaceful resolution.

The streak of the Chinese betrayal has continued ever since, resulting in China usurping India's territory and claiming for more, ignoring India's sovereignty by developing an economic corridor in Pak-occupied-Kashmir that is legally India's, its persistent belligerence on Sino-Indian border, its attempts to encircle India by having military presence in India's neighbouring countries and its anti-India stand on global multilateral platforms that exhibits itself in its moves like blocking India's entry in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) or vetoing India's and world community resolution to ban Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Masood Azhar.

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--- ENDS ---
Germany's BMW has told its top managers that regulators probing reports of collusion among German carmakers will find the allegations hard to justify, two sources familiar with the matter said.German magazine Der Spiegel reported last month that BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, and Volkswagen may have used industry committee meetings to fix the size of tanks for AdBlue, a liquid used to treat nitrogen oxide in diesel emissions.The article was discussed at a closed-door "OFK" BMW leadership meeting in Munich last week, two sources familiar with the meeting told Reuters.OFK is an acronym to describe the company's top leaders, referred to in German as "Obere Fuehrungskraefte."BMW's top managers expressed surprise at the impact on share prices and the level of media attention received by the Spiegel article, the sources said.BMW's top lawyer said regulators investigating the allegation that carmakers had colluded to standardise the size of Adblue tanks would quickly realise that the tank sizes were all different, they said.A survey of the biggest selling cars at Audi, BMW and Mercedes by Reuters shows that the vehicles do not have identically sized AdBlue tanks.The AdBlue tank in the current BMW 3 series has a capacity of 18.4 litres, while the Audi A4's has 12 litres. Mercedes C-Class models can be fitted with tanks that are 25 litres or 8.5 litres in size. A variety of tank sizes is also evident in larger and smaller cars sold by BMW, Audi and Mercedes."As a result, there was no doomsday mood," a person familiar with the discussions said. BMW's lawyer, however, cautioned that an ongoing investigation may throw up further facts, this person said.BMW said it rejected accusations that current diesel vehicles do not provide adequate exhaust gas treatment due to AdBlue tanks which are "too small".By combining an AdBlue and an NOx-storage catalytic converter together with exhaust-gas recirculation systems, BMW cars are able to fulfil all legal emissions requirements, the company said.BMW has admitted that carmakers had sat down together to talk about AdBlue technology."From a BMW Group perspective, the objective of discussions with other manufacturers concerning AdBlue tanks was the installation of the required tanking infrastructure in Europe," the carmaker said.German rival Daimler also defended the custom of manufacturers' meeting in industry committees on Friday."Daimler is convinced that an exchange of opinions on technical issues between various manufacturers in the automotive industry is useful and that it accelerates many innovations or actually makes them possible," the carmaker said in a statement to Reuters."With due consideration of legal restrictions, this also applies to cooperation and joint initiatives, especially in the areas of safety, environmental compatibility and comfort."Daimler declined to comment on the allegations raised in the article, but voiced concern at public and media discussion of the issue, saying "generalised pre judgements and dubious legal assessments" were premature and damaging.Daimler said it had a certified antitrust compliance programme, which fulfilled the highest requirements and was continually being further developed."Insofar as violations of the antitrust law might have occurred, as a matter of principle Daimler cooperates openly and transparently with the responsible authorities," Daimler added.Carmakers have said they have not received formal notice of an infringement procedure. The European Commission said it was looking into the matter."The Commission and the Bundeskartellamt (German cartel office) have received information, which is currently being assessed under the leadership of the Commission as a matter of priority," it said."It is premature to speculate on any potential competition concerns raised by the specific information received or on possible further steps."
Ride-hailing app Uber said it could have done more to pull unsafe cars off the road in Singapore, amid allegations it rented out faulty vehicles to drivers, the media reported. The statement comes a day after a Wall Street Journal report said that Uber was aware of an April 2016 Honda Vezel recall when it purchased more than 1,000 Vezels that were then leased to drivers through its Singapore affiliate car-leasing company, Lion City Rental. One of these cars caught fire in January, the report said.In the statement to the BBC, Uber said: "As soon as we learned of a Honda Vezel from the Lion City Rental fleet catching fire, we took swift action to fix the problem." It did not provide details of what action was taken. However, the firm said "we could have done more" to deal with the issue.Uber said it had responded to six vehicle recalls since the beginning of the year. The company has introduced "robust protocols and hired three dedicated experts in-house at Lion City Rental whose sole job is to ensure we are fully responsive to safety recalls", according to the statement.Uber told the BBC that it has worked with Singapore's transport authorities to rectify the problem. The San Francisco-based company has faced a string of controversies. It continues to face legal challenges as it fights to repair a corporate image badly bruised by sexism and misconduct allegations. Chief Executive Travis Kalanick resigned in June, bowing to pressure from shareholders in the wake of a series of sexual harassment complaints.Uber has also breached local transport regulations in countries including South Korea and India.
Volkswagen AG executive Oliver Schmidt pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Detroit in connection with a massive diesel emissions scandal that has cost the German automaker as much as $25 billion. Under a plea agreement, Schmidt will face up to seven years in prison and a fine of between $40,000 and $400,000 after admitting to conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violating clean air laws. Schmidt will be sentenced on Dec. 6.In March, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three felony counts under a plea agreement to resolve U.S. charges that it installed secret software in vehicles in order to elude emissions tests. U.S. prosecutors have charged eight current and former Volkswagen executives so far."Schmidt participated in a fraudulent VW scam that prioritized corporate sales at the expense of the honesty of emissions tests and trust of the American purchasers," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jean Williams. "Schmidt, along with each and every official involved in this emissions scandal, will be held fully accountable for their actions by the Department of Justice as this investigation continues."Earlier this year, Schmidt was charged with 11 felony counts and federal prosecutors said he could have faced a maximum of up to 169 years in prison. As part of his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop most of the counts and Schmidt consented to be deported at the end of his prison sentence.Schmidt was in charge of the companys environmental and engineering office in Auburn Hills until February 2015, where he oversaw emissions issues.After being informed of the existence of the emissions software in the summer of 2015, according to the agreement, Schmidt conspired with other executives to avoid disclosing "intentional cheating" by the automaker in a bid to seek regulatory approval for its model 2016 VW 2.0-litre diesel vehicles.During the period in question, Schmidt was working at the companys Wolfsburg, Germany, headquarters as "one of three subordinates to the head of engine development. He was arrested when he travelled to the United States in early January.Volkswagen said on Friday it "continues to cooperate with investigations by the Department of Justice into the conduct of individuals. It would not be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigations or to discuss personnel matters."As part of the agreement, Volkswagen agreed to spend as much as $25 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners and regulators over polluting diesel vehicles and offered to buy back about 500,000 vehicles.James Liang, a VW employee who pleaded guilty to misleading regulators, is cooperating with prosecutors and will be sentenced on Aug. 25.Among those indicted earlier were Heinz-Jakob Neusser, former head of development for VW Brand and two former heads of engine development, Jens Hadler and Richard Dorenkamp.Most of the Volkswagen executives charged are in Germany and may not travel to the United States since Germany typically does not extradite its citizens.Last month, the Justice Department charged former Audi AG manager Giovanni Pamio with directing employees to design software enabling thousands of Audi diesel cars to beat U.S. emissions tests. He was arrested in Germany. Audi is a unit of VW.
Originally published on August 5, 2017, News18 is republishing the story after a Delhi court lifted an ex-parte injunction restraining the sale and publication of journalist Priyanka Pathak-Narain's book, "Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev," published by Juggernaut Books.Journalist Priyanka Pathak-Narain has been covering Patanjali and Baba Ramdev for about a decade. As her book titled Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev clears past roadblocks, Narain shares some behind-the-scenes stories. Ramdevs successful transition from a Baba who taught Yoga on TV to the man behind worlds fastest growing FMCG company calls for a deeper analysis. At heart, like most showmen, Baba Ramdev likes to be liked," says Narain.Edited excerpts:Former Patanjali CEO SK Patra told me that it is Baba Ramdev who is running the organisation. He has hired people with required degrees, but he is a fast learner and retains a lot of decision-making powers. He tends to make these decisions based on instinct, without much market research. He is personally involved in pricing. He doesnt seem to care about market prices and margins as his aim is to sell.He peddled natural products full of ancient wisdom and kept the prices low. He appealed to the Indian sense of patriotism to woo the buyers. It was a magic formula bound to succeed in these times.Baba Ramdev has thrived in all kinds of political climates and has been close to all kinds of political leanings and parties, whether its the Congress or the BJP. From his early days, befriending the people in power was a part of his growth strategy.I would say his story is more reflective of how our country works  the nexus between money, power, religion, and politics.Shankar Dev provided him with an ashram, a small one but an important one because it provided a base to begin the work. Karamveer taught him how to teach yoga to groups of people. Rajeev Dixit shaped his economic and political messaging, while Acharya Balkrishna has been his loyal deputy throughout the journey.No one can accuse Baba Ramdev of not having a sense of humour.From the start, being on television every day, teaching yoga to millions of viewers, has forced him to be creative with his content and be willing to laugh at others and himself.A lot of the satire comes from the inherent contradiction of being a swami as well as a business tycoon. People find it hard to comprehend how these two roles can coexist. The startling pace of Patanjalis success combined with Ramdevs polarising personality make him a natural subject of such ridicule.Well, I first covered him as a reporter at Mint about 10 years ago. Its been quite a ride since then for him  full of ups and downs.I think it would be impossible for anyone to say they truly know Ramdev. Every time I met him, I found him earthy and self-deprecating, generous with his time and also very good at steering conversations to what he wanted to say. But I never felt that I had really got to know him. Beyond his carefully cultivated public persona lies a masterfully guarded person of tremendous will.At heart, like most showmen, I think Baba Ramdev likes to be liked.He has definitely made a lasting contribution to Yoga and Ayurveda in this country. While interest in Yoga was already reviving at the turn of the century, there were not enough yoga teachers around.Baba Ramdev took the stage and made Yoga accessible to millions of people who could not find or afford yoga teachers. He reminded Indians that their heritage offered health solutions that were cheap and gave lasting benefits.What Baba Ramdev has done to remind Indians of their heritage in a country with appalling healthcare is quite phenomenal. Some of the deep, diaphragmatic breathing, for instance, is being hailed by researchers as the powerful new tool to manage and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes and blood pressure.I dont think what he did was as much religious posturing as it was harnessing his expertise in healthcare methods drawn from ancient India. Millions of families who could not afford to hire a personal yoga trainer and did not even possibly know where to find one woke up early to greet Baba Ramdev  the swami who came to teach them at home on the television.He made ancient teachings accessible again. He steered clear of religious controversy or recommendations and focused instead on the power of a healthy body. Such healthcare positioning naturally plays well into the business of organic, natural, healthful food products.In a world where nationalism is on the rise, well-placed and well-priced products appeal not only to middle-class Indias wallets but also to their sense of patriotism.He has all the ingredients to propel his brand into a lasting company. But with Baba Ramdev, you can never know anything for certain.Other godmen have now recognized the opportunity that only Baba Ramdev saw earlier. They are already moving in, following his lead. Whether they will succeed as spectacularly as he is something that remains to be seen.
New Delhi: A local BJP leader was arrested on Saturday over an attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhis convoy in Gujarats flood-hit Dhanera town a day earlier.



Jayesh Darji, the general secretary of the BJPs youth wing in Banaskantha district, was taken into custody hours after Rahul Gandhi and the Congress blamed the BJP and the RSS for the attack.



A BJP worker flung a big stone in my direction. It hit my PSO (Personal Security Officer). Its the Modi, BJP and RSS way of doing politics. Why more can I say.... Why would they condemn it when they are behind it, Gandhi said.



On Friday, the Congress leader had to cut short his address to a gathering at Lal Chowk area of Dhanera in Banaskantha district as black flags were waved at him by some of those who turned up for the meeting.



The glass pane at the rear of the car, in which Rahul was seated on his way to the helipad in Dhanera from Lal Chowk, was shattered in the attack, a police official said. However, Rahul did not suffer any injury and moved on to his next venue, Runi village in Thara taluka, where he said his party will not be cowed down by stone-pelting.



"Right from the helipad, police had offered him a bullet proof vehicle. After getting down from the helicopter, he took a bullet-proof vehicle. Later, he got down from that vehicle and took a car of a Congress party worker," PTI had quoted Banaskantha Superintendent of Police Neeraj Badgujar as saying.



"Police, convoy marshal, and SPG urged him repeatedly to take a bullet-proof car for sake of security, but he instead took the vehicle provided by the party," he further said.



"Police had provided all the security, but he (Rahul Gandhi) was repeatedly stopping the car, even at some sensitive places. He even met unknown people on the way," Badgujar said, indicating that he broke all security protocol.



The incident sparked immediate protest from the Congress with the party spokesman spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi in New Delhi saying BJP "goons" carried out the "dastardly" attack.



Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who is facing a tough fight in Rajya Sabha elections in the state, said he was pained at the development. "I have no words to express my anguish. It appears that administration and government has completely failed. This proves how bad the law and order situation is. Strong action should be taken against officers who are responsible to provide security, they should be suspended," said Patel.




Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh): A mini bus collided with a container truck in Chittoor district on Saturday, killing four Spanish nationals, two of them women, and their driver.



Six others, also Spanish nationals, were injured, one of them critically, in the accident. One of the passengers suffered fractures, while the others escaped with minor injuries, police said.



The Spanish nationals had come to see development activities, initiated by the Rural Development Trust run by a group from Spain, in villages in Anantapuramu district.



The deceased were identified as Vincent Prez, Josefa Moran, Francisco Pedrosa and Nieves Lopez. The bus driver, a local resident, was yet to be identified, police added.



The foreign nationals were on their way to Puducherry from Anantapuramu district when the collision took place at a curve on the Madanapalle-Punganuru road, Rajasekhara Babu, district superintendent of police, told PTI over the phone.



"There were 11 people, including the driver, in the mini bus. The driver of the container truck lost control while negotiating the curve and collided head-on with the mini bus. While five were killed on the spot, one was critically injured and another suffered fractures," the SP said.



"The injured were shifted to Columbia-Asia Hospital in Bengaluru for treatment," the police officer said. The passengers who suffered minor injuries were initially treated at the area hospital in Madanapalle.



District Collector P S Paradyumna visited the accident spot along with the SP.



Expressing grief over the incident, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu directed the collector to get in touch with the Spanish embassy in New Delhi for obtaining details of the victims.



The chief minister also directed the officials to make necessary arrangements to shift the bodies.


Dressed in army fatigues and a People's Liberation Army (PLA) cap, Xi Jinping emerged out of the dust in a military jeep. Gathered in front of him on the windswept plains of Zhurihe, Asia's biggest military base that sits in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, were 12,000 elite combat troops of the PLA. As Xi's jeep approached, the troops yelled, "Hail to you, chairman!" "You've worked hard, comrades," Xi responded. The troops continued, "Follow the Party! Fight to win!"

The show of strength on July 30, to mark the 90th anniversary of the PLA, was much more than a military parade. With China for the first time displaying a range of new hardware, including its fifth-generation J-20 stealth fighter, it was a loud message for its neighbours. In recent weeks, the PLA has issued a number of warnings to India amid the standoff at the Doklam plateau near the India-China-Bhutan trijunction, while China's military strategists have also been nervously looking east at the sabre-rattling between North Korea and the United States.

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But beyond the signalling overseas, Beijing insiders say the real message of the parade was, in fact, aimed at a domestic audience. In November, China's ruling Communist Party will host a once-in-five-years leadership meet. The 19th CPC National Congress will choose the next politburo and central committee for Xi's second five-year term. As rival groups jockey to instal their favoured candidates and promote their patronage networks in the party, Xi is saying clearly that "the PLA is with him", says one party academic. As the official Xinhua news agency put it in a widely-circulated commentary, "Late leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping also inspected troops in the field at key moments in history." Left unsaid was the fact that Xi's predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, did not. The message ahead of the 19th party congress is that Xi is in command.

Firing the first shot

How has Xi managed this power grab? Two key events before the parade have underlined how he has tightened the grip over the party, and positioned himself advantageously as a new party leadership takes shape ahead of his second five-year term. First, on July 15, two weeks ahead of the PLA parade, Xi removed a key figure in the next generation of the leadership. Sun Zhengcai, seen as one of two favourites to succeed Xi in 2022, was placed under investigation for "violating party discipline". In his place in Chongqing, a key municipality that is represented in the politburo, Xi appointed his long-time protege and the other next-generation candidate, Guizhou party secretary Chen Min'er. Then, on July 26, Xi summoned all the provincial party leaders to Beijing for a 'workshop' on the 19th congress.

With these moves, Xi "has sent a powerful signal", says Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, who points out that before Sun's removal, only three other serving politburo members have been similarly removed. "If you look at the leadership changes in several provinces," adds Bo Zhiyue, a leading expert on Chinese politics at the Bo Zhiyue China Institute, "there is already a strong sign that the next politburo will have a Xi Jinping flavour. Besides Chongqing, leaders elsewhere are now in key positions because of their connections to Xi," he says. The five provincial units represented in the politburo-Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing and Xinjiang-are all now being headed by Xi associates.

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Tightening his grip

The defining campaign of Xi's first five-year term was a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown, targeting the party's 'tigers' and 'flies', referring to top officials and lower-ranking cadre. For Xi, the campaign served two goals. It eliminated rival power centres, and to some extent succeeded in assuaging public anger against the rampant graft in officialdom. On taking over in November 2012, Xi identified corruption as the biggest threat to the party's legitimacy. Since then, he has purged more high-ranked officials than any other leader since Mao. Among those were Zhou Yongkang, the former security czar; Bo Xilai, the former Chongqing party boss; and, for the first time, two top-ranking PLA generals-Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong. The campaign also enabled him to tighten his grip over the party. As Xi put it at the July 26 workshop, the corruption fight had "gained crushing momentum". He called for "unswerving adherence" to the party leadership.

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The two other major reforms in his five-year term were the massive overhaul of the PLA -- more departments are now directly under the Central Military Commission, which Xi heads -- and changes in government, where he has concentrated more administrative power in the hands of the party, at the expense of the government, whose functioning generally has more oversight. This has reversed a two-decade-long shift that saw a somewhat diminished role for party bodies. Xi has done so by setting up secretive 'leading small groups' (LSGs) that now decide policy on everything, from national security to economic reforms (see graphic: The Party Nerve Centre). Qiao Mu, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said in an earlier interview that this has further concentrated power and led to greater opacity. Even the composition of some LSGs is not known. In the past, economic affairs was under the premier who heads the state council or cabinet, but now decision-making is by the president. Xi heads the LSG for 'comprehensively deepening reform', now the most important body in setting policy, as well as those for defence and internet security. Unconfirmed reports say Xi even heads an LSG on South China Sea matters, underlining how he is now dictating policy directly.

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Dealing with a new China

This has ramifications for foreign policy. Xi has taken more direct control, and experts say this means a stronger stand on issues such as territorial disputes. For instance, Xi has 'personally made decisions' to expand China's control over the South China Sea, reported one influential Beijing newspaper, Study Times, on July 21. It said Xi had 'personally steered a series of measures', such as controversial island-building moves that have seen China fortify contested reefs and instal infrastructure, including military equipment. Study Times said, Xi 'personally made decisions on building islands and consolidating the reefs, and setting up the city of Sansha, which fundamentally changed the strategic situation of the South China Sea'.

The editorial didn't refer to the Doklam standoff -- and whether or not Xi might have had a say in the road-building there that triggered the dispute -- but it did add that while China 'faces tremendous risks of being surrounded by tigers and wolves and suffering even more intense strategic encirclement, clashes and meddling', under Xi, 'the lion of the east has woken'. Steve Tsang, of SOAS, says that Xi's political power play may be tied to the unprecedented reaction by China to Doklam, with near-daily statements aimed at India and invocations on the 'lessons of history'. "Xi cannot appear to be weak in the run-up to the 19th congress and therefore will not take action that may present him as such," he says. "He is unlikely to soften China's approach to border issues with India or, for that matter, with any of China's neighbours."

The overwhelming focus now is on the 19th party congress, says Bo Zhiyue. Xi's priority in his second term will be pushing long-pending reforms that he himself had signed off on but has failed to implement, showing there are limits to even his power. This includes an ambitious 60-reform blueprint for the economy as it deals with slowing growth, excess capacity and vast state-owned enterprises that are resisting change. "We have not seen much progress in any of these areas," says Bo. "Change in China is very incremental, so sometimes it takes a long time to see the clear trajectories of reform." The first step, for Xi, is ensuring his men are in place (there are few women in the party's upper hierarchy) before the congress convenes. So far, signs are he has all but ensured that, come November, there will only be one tiger on the mountain.

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The IIFT MBA (IB) Entrance Exam 2017 has been rescheduled by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), and will now take place on 3rd of December, 2017 instead of 26th of November, 2017 as declared earlier. The decision came in the wake of IIFT MBA (IB) entrance exam clashing with CAT 2017.Candidates aspiring to take admission in Full Time IIFT MBA (IB) 2018-20 can register via the application form available online on IIFTs official website - iift.ac.in , the last date for which has been extended to 15th of September, 2017.The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade offers 2 years full-time degree program in MBA (International Business) at its New Delhi, Kolkata and Kakinada Centres. The admissions to IIFT MBA (IB) 2018-20 will be based on the scores of Written Test, Group Discussion, Writing Skill Assessment and Interview.The IIFT MBA (IB) Entrance Exam or Written Test will be conducted from 10 AM to 12Noon on 3rd December 2017 in over 20 Examination centres across India in Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur and Visakhapatnam.The candidates who will rank high in the entrance exam will then be called for the second phase of admission process that includes Group Discussion, Writing Skill Assessment, and Interview.#1: Candidates with recognized Bachelors Degree in minimum 3-Year programs in any discipline can apply#2: Minimum pass percentage in the above said Bachelors degree should be 50% for General Category and 45% for SC/ST/PWD.#3: Final year students can also apply for IIFT MBA (IB) Written Test#4: There is no age limit for applying for IIFT MBA (IB) Written TestCandidates interested in applying for Full Time IIFT MBA (IB) for the session 2018-20 can read the complete admission guidelines published by IIFT on its official website by following the link given below:
New Delhi: Amid a face-off with China in Doklam, India has involved good friend Japan for a major infrastructure push in the sensitive northeast region.



To take forward the initiative, both sides announced the formation of a India-Japan Coordination Forum for Development of North East.



The coordination forum was announced on Thursday at an event in New Delhi, by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and the Embassy of Japan. It was attended by Japan's Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu and Naveen Verma, secretary in the Ministry for Development of the North-Eastern Region.



Development of India's northeast is a priority for India and a key to promote its Act East Policy. Japan has also placed a special emphasis on cooperation in the northeast for its geographical importance connecting India to Southeast Asia and historical ties.



Japan has cooperated with a variety of development projects in the northeast, ranging from connectivity infrastructure such as roads and electricity, water supply and sewage, to forest resource management and biodiversity. Furthermore, there is a great potential for people-to-people and cultural exchanges between Japan and the northeast, with Japan's historical connection with the region, a statement from the Japanese Embassy said.



The Coordination Forum would explore and expand cooperation in the Northeastern Region, and help strengthen the relationship between Japan and North East as well as that between Japan and India, it said.



The launch of the coordination forum comes in the backdrop of Chinese troops making incursions into Indian territory in the northeast, and currently in the Sikkim sector.



Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is slated to visit India in September, when he is likely to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the high-speed rail corridor.



In April 2017, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed an agreement with the Indian government to provide over 67 billion yen ($610 million) for Phase I of the North East Road Network Connectivity Improvement Project.



Phase 1 will see the development of National Highway 54 and National Highway 51 in Mizoram and Meghalaya.
New Delhi: BJP sources said on Saturday that nearly two dozen Opposition MPs voted for the NDA's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.



Naidu secured 516 votes against the pledged support of around 495.



The former Union minister secured over 68 per cent of valid votes while Gopalkrishna Gandhi got 32 per cent. Indeed, the margin between two contestants  272  was more than the votes garnered by Gandhi, 244.



Outgoing Vice-President Hamid Ansari had prevailed over his rivals by 252 and 233 votes in 2012 and 2007 polls, respectively.



The fact that their candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got only 19 votes more than their presidential nominee Meira Kumar should be a matter of concern for the Opposition parties.



Kumar had received votes of 225 MPs, while Gandhi was supported by 244. President Ram Nath Kovind got the support of 522 MPs.



The BJD, which has 28 members in Parliament, and the JD (U) with 12 MPs had switched over to the opposition camp after supporting the NDA in the presidential poll.



Despite desertion by 40 MPs, the NDA's vote count went down by only six, underlining major cross-voting in its favour.



In an electoral college of 785 eligible members, 771 votes were cast out of which 11 were declared invalid, according to officials.



Among the 14 members who could not cast their votes for a variety of reasons, four belonged to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, two each to the BJP, Congress and the IUML, and one each to the NCP and PMK. One nominated and one Independent member also could not cast their votes.



Polling officials said this was the highest turnout in the vice-presidential election. Before it, the highest number of votes in the poll was 759 in 2002 when BJP candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had won the election.



(with PTI inputs)
Beijing: China's unprecedented attack on India in 1959 didn't go well with ally USSR. During the Soviet era, both India and the Soviet Union enjoyed a close relationship and for the sake of this friendship, the erstwhile USSR criticised China for invading India.



Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said on Saturday.



According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsi ble for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India. The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing.



The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript. The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."



"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.



Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India]."



He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run news agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement.



Khrushchev also told Mao that he was "outraged" by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union "time-servers".



"Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth. We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody... If you consider us time-servers, comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it," Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting.



After that visit, relations between China and then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the US.



- With inputs from PTI
#indianarmy Three terrorist killed by security forces in Sopore. Arms & amn recovered @adgpi  NorthernComd.IA (@NorthernComd_IA) August 5, 2017

Three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were gunned down by security forces during an encounter in Sopore town of Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir early on Saturday.Security forces launched an operation following information about the presence of militants in Amargarh area of Sopore, a police official said. He said militants opened firing on the security forces, who retaliated.Three AK-47 rifles were recovered from the bodies of the terrorists.One security personnel was injured during the operation and internet services in Baramulla were blocked following the operation.Three militants of LeT outfit were killed in an encounter with police and security forces in Sopore, a statement released to the press by the Jammu and Kashmir police said.Acting on a specific information about the presence of militants in Jamia Mohalla, Amargarh locality of Police jurisdiction Tarzoo in Sopore, Police Sopore along with 52 RR, 92, 177, 179 BN CRPF cordoned off the area and launched the search operation (sic), it added.The hiding militants opened fire on the joint search party, triggering an encounter. During encounter, three militants of LeT were eliminated. Their identity is being ascertained. Three AK 74 rifles and magazines recovered from the encounter site.The Sopore encounter comes a day after security forces eliminated a newly recruited local militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Anantnag district.On Thursday, a gunbattle had broken out between militants and security forces in Shopian district during which two Army men, including a Major, were martyred.
New Delhi: M Venkaiah Naidu, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate, was elected as the 15th Vice-President of India, securing over two-thirds of votes leaving opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi far behind.



The NDA completed a treble of victories, with the top three constitutional posts - President, Vice-President, and Prime Minister - under its kitty.



Naidu got 516 votes out of total 771 votes cast while Gandhi could manage only 244. Of the 771 votes polled, 11 were found to be invalid. Although 785 MPs are there in both the Houses of Parliament, 14 MPs could not vote.



"Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity," India's vice president-elect told PTI.



"I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the Prime Minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and secondly uphold the dignity of the Upper House," he added.



Naidu will be the 15th Vice-President and 13th person to hold the second highest Constitutional post.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first people to congratulate the newly elected leader, saying,"Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected Indias Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure."



In another tweet, PM Modi said that he is confident Vinkaiah will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, "committed to the goal of nation building."



Congratulatory messages flew thick and fast, with Venkaiah Naidu's opponent Gopalkrishna Gandhi saying, "He will be the Vice-President of all of India." However, Gandhi also took potshots at the BJP and said that the election saw two victories - one of Naidu, another of free speech; "the second victory belongs to all the people of India."



Congress President Sonia Gandhi also extended her best wishes to Venkaiah Naidu and offered Congress' support "for effective scrutiny of legislations, government policy in the Rajya Sabha."



Minister of State PMO Jitendra Singh said that Indian politics is taking a new turn. "He is the best choice, a fair person, and a pan-India personality," he said.



Last month, Ramnath Kovind became the first BJP leader to win presidential poll defeating opposition's Meira Kumar. Naidu will be the second BJP leader to become vice- president after Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (2002-2007).



The strength of the electoral college consisting both elected and nominated MPs of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha is 790.



While there are two vacancies in the LS, three seats are vacant in the RS also.



One BJP Lok Sabha MP is barred from voting following a judicial pronouncement.



In the 2007 VP poll, incumbent Hamid Ansari had polled 456 votes, Najma Heptullah 222 votes and Rashid Masood 075 votes.



In the 2012 polls, Ansari had bagged 490 and NDA nominee Jaswant Singh 238 votes.




NDAs nominee Venkaiah Naidu was on Saturday elected as the Vice-President of India. Naidu defeated Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the Oppositions candidate. Naidu got 516 votes, while Gandhi secured 244 votes. Around 98.21% polling was recorded in the V-P elections.

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Imagine swimming in a vast pool of tomatoes and getting smashed left, right and centre with tomato pulp. Oh yes, you guessed it right, we are talking about La Tomatina  Spains tomato throwing festival. So where and how did this festival begin? While its origins are unclear, there are a whole lot of theories that have been floating around. Some say it started after an altercation between two young men that led to an impromptu battle of tomatoes, others say it is a tribute to the patron saints, Luis Bertran and the Mare de Deu dels Desemparat. Whatever the origins may be, this wacky festival draws people from the world over.



The last Wednesday of every August, the tiny Mediterranean town of Bunol turns into a juicy battleground. For the carnage to begin, a participant is required to scale a nearly 2-storey high, greasy pole and drop a slice of ham tied to its top. A siren is then sounded, water cannons are fired and sheer madness ensues. Trucks stocked with fully-ripe tomatoes make their way to the venue and the tomatoes are then splattered by a 20-thousand plus crowd. The ruthless squishing, squashing and smashing goes on for close to an hour post which a siren is sounded to indicate it is goodbye time. After the hour-long tomato-bathing session, revellers head for a dip in the Bunol river to wash away their saucy sins.



Those heading for this years fruitful fiesta do bear these things in mind:



. Squash the tomatoes before pelting them as this will not only make it juicier it will also reduce the impact

. A tomato-proof phone/camera is a must - if it is a phone make sure it is wrapped in a waterproof case

. No matter how excited you are - keep a safe distance from the lorries

. Be a stickler for rules - stop the pelting once the second siren is sounded

. If you are travelling via bus make sure to take note of where it is parked since most buses are similar, and in the mad rush after the festival it can become impossible to find yours

. Make sure your shirt is tucked in so you have at least some dry portion to wipe your eyes

. Those who wear contact lenses must carry two pairs of goggles because a back-up is always a good idea

. Flip-flops must surely be avoided as they would only increase the chance of getting hurt. Closed shoes are advisable

. Make sure you make all your travel, stay bookings in advance.



Happy tomatoing!!! Spread the tomatoes and the joy!






The suave Ali Fazal is making his mark in a grand way in Hollywood with his next film, Victoria and Abdul The actor was recently seen socialising with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and with our very own talented beauty Sridevi at annual Hollywood Foreign Press Association dinner.



It was a fan boy moment for Ali who meet Sridevi in LA while promoting Victoria and Abdul. Actor Ali Fazal and Sridevi were the only actors from Bollywood who were part of this grand event. They both were seen walking the red carpet, interacting on films. Ali was seen brushing shoulder with some of the best names in Hollywood including Sir Patrick Stewart, Chelsea Handler, Elizabeth Moss, Chadwick Boseman, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Chambers and Armie Hammer, Chrissy Metz, Dylan Minnette amongst many others.



Speaking about his experience, Ali said, " It was indeed a pleasant surprise to meet Sridevi there. It was a great evening, well spent with some of The biggest names from Hollywood. I told her how much I admire her as an actress and how till date is an inspiration for so many.



'We spoke about Victoria and Abdul and she was excited to know about it. She even expressed her desire to see the film soon."



Adding further to be a part of the evening, Ali said, "The HFPA is such a respected body of such dignified personnel. Then the icing on the cake was meeting legends like Dustin Hoffman. It was a first of its kind experience for me. The members of HFPA were really excited ahead of our world Premiere and festival rounds next month".


By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 5 (PTI) Scores of Congress workers today held a protest outside Maharashtra Housing Minister Prakash Mehtas residence here demanding his resignation in the wake of corruption allegations against him.

The workers, led by Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam, shouted slogans against the BJP minister outside his residence in suburban Ghatkopar and sought his ouster from the Devendra Fadnavis-led Cabinet.

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The opposition party vowed to step up its campaign against Mehta and said it will explore all available options, including legal, to ensure his removal.

Mehta had yesterday accused the Opposition of levelling unsubstantiated allegations against him

"New charges of corruption are coming up against Mehta every single day. The last two weeks of the state Assembly have been washed out on this issue," Nirupam said, addressing his party workers at the protest site.

Seeking to dent the transparency plank of the BJP-led coalition, the former Lok Sabha MP said how can Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis claim to run a clean government when he is not taking action against a "corrupt" member of his Cabinet?

Fadnavis is "defending the indefensible", Nirupam alleged and said the CM should reveal under whose pressure he is not asking Mehta to resign.

"We held a protest outside his house today. I myself went there with a copy of resignation letter drafted by me. I wanted him to sign on that. But before we could reach there, he left home knowing he did not have the courage to face truth," the Congress leader said.

If Mehta does not resign before the end of the ongoing monsoon session of Assembly (August 11), the Congress will pursue other methods to seek his ouster, Nirupam said.

"We are ready to move the court to seek a direction to the state government to sack him. We are also exploring the possibility of approaching the Governor or even the President with all proof against Mehta if needed."

"Our Prime Minister Modiji has given a slogan - Na Khaunga, Na Khaane dunga (will not engage in corruption myself, nor allow others). But we fail to understand why Mehta has not been sacked so far when he is facing a series of corruption allegations," Nirupam said.

The MLA from Ghatkopar (East) came under fire when it emerged he allegedly allowed unauthorised transfer of extra building rights to a slum redevelopment project in south Mumbai.

Yesterday, the minister faced a fresh allegation of incorporating the names of his family members as beneficiaries of a slum redevelopment project in his constituency, which the Congress said amounted to a "conflict of interest." PTI MM/APM RSY RT

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Mumbai: Legendary actor Dilip Kumar, 94, who is being treated at a hospital here for kidney problems, is not doing good and may need dialysis, a doctor said on Friday.



"(His condition is) Not good. His creatinine is rising, haemoglobin is decreasing and potassium levels are increasing. He will need dialysis, but he is not on a ventilator," said Jalal D. Parker, one of the attending team of doctors.



Dilip Kumar was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here on Wednesday evening after he suffered dehydration and a urinary tract infection.



Earlier on Friday, a family friend of Dilip Kumar and his wife Saira Banu, said that the ailing thespian is being monitored carefully in the ICU due to his age-related complications.



Last seen on the big screen in Qila in 1998, the actor was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015. He is known for films like Devdas, Mughal-e-Azam and Karma.


Hyderabad: The Election Commission has issued show cause notice to YSR Congress Party president, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for violating Model Code of Conduct during a byelection in the state.



Reddy has been asked by the EC to explain as to why action should not be initiated against him. He has been given 48 hours to respond.



The notice was issued after nodal officer who inquired into the incident submitted a report, with video evidence, stating Reddy used provocative and objectionable language against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu.



The officer found that Reddy made objectionable statements like, "If Chandrababu Naidu is shot in middle of road for his misdeeds, there is nothing wrong" and "should he be called a thief or Chief Minister".



The returning officer of the Nandyal constituency byelection had received a complaint on August 4 that during election campaign speech on August 3rd, Reddy made an objectionable and provocative speech, after which an inquiry was initiated in the incident.



According to the EC, provocative and inflammatory statements calculated to cause mutual hatred or disharmony, use of abusive language transgressing the limits of decency, and/ or an attack on personal character is in violation of model code of conduct.


Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday blamed the BJP and the RSS for an attack on his convoy a day earlier in Gujarats flood-hit Dhanera town.A BJP worker flung a big stone in my direction. It hit my PSO (Personal Security Officer). Its the Modi, BJP and RSS way of doing politics. Why more can I say. Why would they condemn it when they are behind it, Gandhi said.On Friday, the Congress leader had to cut short his address to a gathering at Lal Chowk area of Dhanera in Banaskantha district as black flags were waved at him by some of those who turned up for the meeting.The glass pane at the rear of the car, in which Rahul was seated on his way to the helipad in Dhanera from Lal Chowk, was shattered in the attack, a police official said. However, Rahul did not suffer any injury and moved on to his next venue, Runi village in Thara taluka, where he said his party will not be cowed down by stone-pelting."Won't step back because of black flags, Narendra Modi slogans or stones," he had said."We have detained the man who threw the stone on the vehicle of Rahul Gandhi," Banaskantha Superintendent of Police Neeraj Badgujar said."Right from the helipad, police had offered him a bullet proof vehicle. After getting down from the helicopter, he took a bullet-proof vehicle. Later, he got down from that vehicle and took a car of a Congress party worker," the official said."Police, convoy marshal, and SPG urged him repeatedly to take a bullet-proof car for sake of security, but he instead took the vehicle provided by the party," he further said. "Police had provided all the security, but he (Rahul Gandhi) was repeatedly stopping the car, even at some sensitive places. He even met unknown people on the way," Badgujar said, indicating that he broke all security protocol."We will register an FIR and investigate the case," he said, adding, none was injured in the attack.The incident sparked immediate protest from the Congress with the party spokesman spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi in New Delhi saying BJP "goons" carried out the "dastardly" attack.Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki also accused the BJP of carrying out the attack. "Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel says that Rahulji should have traveled in bullet proof car. Which means that if such a tall leader is not safe in Gujarat, then it is for us to understand what will happen to common people," he said.Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who is facing a tough fight in Rajya Sabha elections in the state, said he was pained at the development. "I have no words to express my anguish. It appears that administration and government has completely failed. This proves how bad is the law and order situation. Strong action should be taken against officers who are responsible to provide security, they should be suspended," said Patel.The Congress MLA from the area Joitabhai Patel is in Bengaluru as part of the 44 party legislators who have been flown to the southern city apparently to avoid being "poached" by the BJP ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha polls.The politics in poll-bound Gujarat has been on the boil for quite some time with a section in the Congress led by rebel leader Shankarsinh Vaghela breaking ranks with the party and resignation of half a dozen party MLAs.The situation heated up after the process for election for three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat got underway.The Congress has fielded Ahmed Patel as its candidate, while the BJP has nominated its president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani. The ruling party has also put up a Congress rebel as a third candidate.
Mumbai: In a series of accusations, the Maharashtra Opposition has accused Housing Minister Prakash Mehta of corruption in a slum rehabilitation camp of MP Mill Compound in Tardeo and favouring a builder in Ghatkopar for land allotment.



According to a report in a newspaper last month, Mehta allowed transfer of land rights at MP Mills compound in Tardeo, despite administrative red flag, and despite being told that it does not fit into DC rules (Development Control rules). It was alleged that this favour would have generated additional building rights worth Rs 500 Crore for the developer.



Now, the opposition has levelled charges of favouring a builder in Ghatkopar for reallocation of land for an SRA project (Slum Redevelopment Authority). The opposition parties have pegged the scam at Rs 800 Crore. They have alleged that Mehta reallocated an MHADA plot in Pantnagar area of Ghatkopar to a developer whose allotment had been cancelled by the previous government. Mehta allegedly held a meeting of housing department officials this Januar, asking them to revive this project.



Both the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress party stalled the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly session several times, demanding Mehtas resignation. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered a probe into the matter.



Meanwhile, Prakash Mehta said he was ready to face any inquiry, and that the charges against him are baseless.



Prakash Mehta is considered a prominent minister, representing the Gujarati community. This community has backed the BJP strongly through the elections.



"Why is the government shielding him? If Mopalwar can be removed, why not him? asked Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, the opposition leader.



But Prakash Mehta claimed that the oppositions charges were baseless. I will accept whatever decision seniors in the party take. I am willing to face any inquiry, he told reporters.


Bengaluru: Gujarat Congress legislators on Saturday ventured out for the first time from a private resort on the city outskirts where they have been camping for about a week and met the Karnataka Governor, besides visiting the state secretariat here.



The Congress had sent its 44 legislators here on July 29 to fend off what it alleged were "poaching" attempts by the BJP ahead of Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat in which Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, was contesting.



The MLAs were driven from the luxurious resort to Raj Bhavan in a state transport bus, where they met Governor Vajubhai Vala.



Congress sources said it was a courtesy visit, as Vala also hails from Gujarat and had served as Assembly Speaker and Finance Minister there. He enjoyed good rapport with the MLAs, they said.



"#Karnataka Guv hon Vajubhai Vala meet each of us, the 44 #GujaratCongressMLA s individually. This is #samvad and spirit of #Democracy," Congress' national spokesman and Gujarat MLA Shaktisinh Gohil said in a tweet.



From Rajbhavan, the MLAs were taken to Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, where they were joined by Karnataka Minister D K Shivakumar, who is facing the Income Tax department heat with searches at multiple locations in the state and his house here. Shivakumar, who is overseeing the arrangements to keep the flock together, emerged out of his house on after undergoing grilling by the Income Tax officials for three consecutive days.



During the first ever outing from the resort, the MLAs along with Shivakumar visited Mahatma Gandhi statue, next to the Vidhana Soudha, and staged a symbolic protest against what they alleged were "attempts to poach them by the BJP" and sang "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram".



After this, the MLAs were escorted inside Vidhana Soudha by Shivakumar. "All the MLAs are happy and together...," Shivakaumar told reporters. Shivakumar was at the resort when the search began on Wednesday.



IT sleuths even visited the resort to escort the Minister to his residence for questioning, which the Congress has alleged was an attempt to threaten Gujarat Congress MLAs.



The legislators in the last couple of days took part in "orientation classes" on a host of topics including the "party's achievements in the last 60 years" and the "BJP's lies and the truth" among others, conducted by Dr Suresh Sharma and Naushad Paramar of Jawaharalal Nehru Leadership Institute, New Delhi.



Earlier, the itinerary of MLAs during their stay here included visit to some tourist destinations and religious places, but it was scrapped following accusations against the lawmakers of "abandoning" voters when their constituencies were affected by floods.



Six of the 57 Congress MLAs in Gujarat have resigned from the party recently with three joining the BJP on July 28.



The party has apprehensions about Patel's election to the Rajya Sabha, if more MLAs defect.
New Delhi: House No. 6 on Maulana Azad Road in New Delhi, official residence of the Vice-president of India, has had many illustrious residents  freedom fighters, academicians, bureaucrats and politicians. Six of them became President of India after the end of their term.



The palatial bungalow is being decked up for its new resident. Soon, Venkaiah Naidu, a lifelong politician, will move in here with his family.



Starting as a student leader, Naidus rise to become the 15th vice-president of India is a culmination of 46-year-long political journey.



From ABVP to RSS to BJP: The Quintessential Karyakarta



Naidus association with politics started off during his college years where he graduated in politics and diplomatic studies. He was part of BJPs student wing, ABVP, during his college days and was a swayamsevak for RSS.



Later, when he went on to study in Andhra University, he was made ABVP president of all colleges under the university. It was in 1972 that he came into the spotlight with Jai Andhra Movement. The agitation led to the resignation of the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister PV Narasimha Rao and Presidents Rule was imposed in the state.



Naidus rise was, however, cut short temporarily when he was jailed during the Emergency, under Maintenance of Internal Security Act. Soon after being released, he moved on to becoming an MLA in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 1978.



He was made the partys Andhra unit president in 1988, and he served in that capacity until 1993, post which he was elevated to the post of the partys general secretary. He was the secretary till 2000. He was also the national spokesperson from 1996-2000.



The veteran was also the partys president for two terms in 2002 and 2004.



During the Atal Behari Vajpayee government, he was the rural development minister. In Modi government, he has held the portfolio of housing, urban poverty alleviation as well as information and broadcasting.



Master of Acronyms and a Leader With Reach Across Parties



Despite BJP losing power in 2004, Naidu won a seat in the Rajya Sabha with ease. He has been known for having a good rapport with leaders across parties.



I didnt campaign because everyone knows me. I have just written a polite letter to everyone and the response has been good. I am confident they will support me, Naidu had said before voting on Saturday.



He is also known as a master of Acronyms. Hes the one who coined Every Vote Modi (EVM), Maker of Developed India (MODI), You Owe U and Nation Greatness (YOUNG), Anything is Possible with Just Attitude and Karma (APJ Abdul Kalam), and many more.



One of the prime reasons for the ruling party to get Naidu into the VP fray was his popularity. Despite thumping victories in Uttar Pradesh and Assam, BJP has had a struggle with Rajya Sabha numbers. Naidu can be of great help to the government in the Upper House.



A South Indian who Loves Hindi



Naidu biggest criticism came during the time he supported the idea of having Hindi as the national language. While learning English, we have trained our minds like English. Its not in the interest of the nation, he had said, in Hindi.



Another controversy that was raked by the Opposition was a 13-year-old allegation of land grab. He was accused of being the kingpin of a trust that was illegally allotted a plot in Bhopal by the Babulal Gaur government in 2004. The matter did go to Supreme Court, where the land allotted to Kushabhau Thakre Memorial Trust was cancelled.



Naidu also came under fire for his over-the-top praises for Modi. He had called the PM Gods gift to India, which soon came under attack by the Congress. The Opposition took a dig wondering whether Naidus flattery was any different than Dev Kant Baruahs India is Indira and Indira is India comment, for which he was reprimanded.



Modis Trusted Minister and Valued Colleague



When Naidus name was being cleared by the party, PM Modi is said to have said that he was letting go to a valued colleague in the Cabinet for the larger cause.



Handling some of the key portfolios like urban development, housing, information and broadcasting, Naidu was known for spearheading many crucial projects like the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA), Housing for All, Smart Cities, Swachh Sarvekshan, AMRUT and many more.



Many stakeholders from housing industry said Naidus contribution as housing minister was far more than many of his predecessors.



Under Smart Cities Mission, Naidu envisaged a project to develop 100 cities in India with the help of technology.



For a man who had not plans of becoming Rashtrapati (president) but was happy being Ushas (his wifes) pati (husband), the election as up-rashtrapati (vice president) is a moment of celebration for the BJP, particularly in the southern states.
The stage is set for the vice-presidential election on Saturday, with numbers in favour of NDA candidate M Venkaiah Naidu over Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.The election will take place in Parliament House with the Electoral College comprising 790 members of both Houses.Members of Parliament will use special pens to mark their choice in the election to be held between 10 am and 5 pm. The counting of votes will commence after polling and the results will be declared by 7 pm. No whip can be issued by political parties as the election is through a secret ballot.The Lok Sabha currently has 543 members and the Rajya Sabha 244. The Lok Sabha has two vacancies, while the Rajya Sabha has one vacancy.Apart from the NDA's 93 Rajya Sabha members and 396 Lok Sabha members, the AIADMK (50), YSR Congress (10) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (14) will also vote in favour of Naidu.With around support of 489 members, Naidu is all set to cross the magic figure of 394. The BJP leaders are hopeful of crossing the mark of 500.
Riding on the success of its "Honor" sub-brand, the time is ripe for the Chinese smartphone maker Huawei to ramp up its offline presence in India, especially in tier II and III cities, says a top company executive. Xiaomi already has two exclusive retail stores Mi Home in Bengaluru while Lenovo-owned Motorola on August 3 launched six Moto Hubs in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. "Since the skew is heavily in favour of going offline, we are working on strengthening this channel. Given the growing 4G penetration, we are set to serve tier II and III markets and working towards this on a priority basis," P. Sanjeev, Vice President, Sales, Huawei India-Consumer Business Group, told IANS. Chinese brands are not only strengthening their positions on home turf but fast expanding beyond mainland China, and India is among their top destinations for registering big numbers.While overall global smartphone shipments grew three percent Year-over-Year (YoY), reaching 365 million units in the second quarter of 2017, Chinese smartphone brands marked a record 48 percent market share worldwide, with India remaining a key focus geography, says market research firm Counterpoint Research. With 20 percent overseas smartphones shipments (YoY), Huawei is one of the fastest-growing Chinese brands. In India, it recorded 1.5 percent market share in the second quarter this year. Keeping an eye on the upcoming festive season, Honor is focused on enhancing engagement with its customers which goes beyond transactional offers to that of more enduring value.In a bid to enhance after-sale device support, smartphone manufacturer Huawei last month launched 17 exclusive service centres across the country. According to Sanjeev, with the launch of these service centres, Huawei can now assure best in class after-sale services to its consumers. In the coming months, Honor plans to unleash a host of products, in various segments and categories. In the hot-selling Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 category in India, Honor has three of its best-selling products -- Honor 6X, Honor Holly 3 and 3 Plus.
New Delhi: Pakistan got a Hindu minister for the time in two decades when interim prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi formed his cabinet this week. Darshal Lal, 65, will reportedly head coordination between the four provinces of Pakistan.



This is Lals second stint in the National Assembly, Pakistans Lower House, after being elected in 2013 on a PML-N ticket under reservation for minorities.



According to reports, Lal used to practice medicine in Ghotki district of Sindh province.



Lal is now part of the cabinet which was filled with allies of toppled leader Nawaz Sharif after a reshuffle that appears aimed at bolstering support ahead of general elections due in mid-2018.



Ishaq Dar, a powerful finance minister, returned in the same role, despite a criminal investigation ordered against him by the Pakistans supreme court.



Another staunch Sharif ally, Khawaja Asif, was made the foreign minister after having simultaneously run the ministries of defence and power.



The cabinet has almost doubled in size to 47 members. "It's a massive cabinet," Reuters quoted Pakistani writer and analyst Zahid Hussain as saying. "It shows that it's all about the next election."



But no decision appears to have yet been made by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party over whether Abbasi will stay as premier or step down after a brief period to make way for Sharif's brother Shehbaz, as outlined previously.



Nawaz Sharif resigned last week after the supreme court disqualified him for not declaring a source of income he denies receiving. But he retains control of PML-N and put forward Abbasi as temporary prime minister until Shehbaz becomes eligible to take over by winning a parliamentary by-election.
Islamabad: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday asked how could he have filed income tax returns on a salary he never received from his son's company in Dubai, referring to the Supreme Court's grounds for his disqualification in the Panama Papers case.



Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court last week in connection with the Panama Papers scandal. The 67-year-old veteran politician soon resigned from his position.



During an informal chat with journalists here, Sharif said he has a lot to say on the subject of his disqualification, however, he prefers to stay silent for now.



He added that he is starting to understand a lot (about what is going on), Geo news reported.



He warned that he "wont stay silent forever". He did not give details but his party has been talking about the conspiracy to dislodge him.



Sharif asked how could he have filed income tax returns on a salary he never received from his son's company, the report said.



"Whatever happened with me is in front of you all. Had there been any evidence of corruption, kickbacks or misuse of public funds there would have been logic [in the disqualification]," he said.



"I have not done anything which obstructed the countrys progress," he said, adding, "I have acted upon the (Supreme Court) verdict but didn't comment on it. I believe in the rule of law. I am not politically isolated," said Sharif during the informal discussion.



Sharif returned to Islamabad from hill resort of Murree where he was staying since his ouster last week. Taking a jibe at former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, Sharif said a dictator of the past said dictatorship is better than democracy.



"I dont know which world he is living in," he said, adding that, "he has no courage to come here and speak in public".



Sharif claimed that Musharraf wanted to meet him in 2007 when he (Sharif) was returning to the country, but he refused to see the dictator.



He asked if the judiciary could ever hold a dictator accountable for his actions.



He said no one has been held responsible for the murder of Baloch tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, killed in a military action under Musharraf in 2005.



The PML-N chief, along with family members and aides, vacated his residence in Changla Gali earlier and was greeted by scores of supporters in Bharakahu on his way to Punjab House.



The former premier's convoy was surrounded by PML-N supporters, prompting Nawaz to get out of his car at one point and greet the crowd.



Senior PML-N leaders and other politicians, including the prime minister and several cabinet members, are at the Punjab House for a consultative meeting chaired by Sharif.



Last Sunday, the former premier left the Prime Minister House and proceeded to Murree along with family members.



Since then, the country has seen a new prime minister PML-N's Shahid Khaqan Abbasi assume office.



Sharif has spent most of his time in Murree in hectic consultations over the formation of the new cabinet. The former premier chaired back-to-back meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, which finally led to the swearing-in of the new Cabinet yesterday.



The Supreme Court, in its judgment in the Panama Papers case, disqualified Sharif over his failure to disclose un- withdrawn receivables constituting assets from a UAE-based company.



The verdict stated that he was not "honest" and "truthful", as per the country's Constitution.



The PML-N has decided to file a review petition against the verdict. However, the party's troubles are not over as it gears up for the by-election in Sharifs Lahore constituency NA-120 on September 17.



According to some reports, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to contest the by-poll and assume office of prime minister. However, there is a chance Abbasi could continue as the prime minister till the next general elections.


The Congress Party is now forced to do what the Bharatiya Janata Party had to in 1995 - resisting poaching of MLAs.

In 1995, Shankersinh Vaghela, then in the BJP, shepherded 47 party MLAs to a resort in Khajuraho, allegedly with the assistance of the then Congress chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijaya Singh. In a turnabout last week, it's the Congress that was crying foul after six of its 57 MLAs in Gujarat suddenly resigned. Fearing further attrition ahead of the polling for three Rajya Sabha seats on August 8, the party removed 44 of its remaining 51 MLAs to a resort in Karnataka.

After all, the future of Sonia Gandhi's all-powerful political advisor, Ahmed Patel, is at stake. His bid to retain his Rajya Sabha berth has been challenged by Balwant Singh Rajput, the Congress's whip in the state assembly, who has been nominated by the BJP. This while BJP president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani are assured of winning the other two seats without contest.

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Upsetting Patel's political applecart is only a short-term objective for the BJP. Shah has his eye on the Gujarat assembly polls in December, by when he is looking to make significant inroads into the Congress's base. Three of the MLAs who quit the Congress, including Rajput, are OBC Kshatriyas. The remaining three are Patels-a community somewhat estranged from the BJP in the wake of the quota protests. The two communities constitute over 35 per cent of the state electorate.

Vaghela's exit, too, is certain to hurt the Congress. Analysts point to his following amid OBC Kshatriyas. Its back to the wall, the Congress accused the BJP of trying to buy its MLAs. Party spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil insists the BJP's "shameful attempts at horse-trading" won't work. "Ahmed-bhai will win," he says.

The BJP is doing exactly what it had pulled off ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when it enticed the Congress's Patel strongman Vitthal Radadiya and made his son Jayesh a minister. Political observers say Vaghela's son Mahindrasinh could be similarly 'accommodated'. There is speculation already that Vaghela might revive his Rashtriya Janata Party to make things sticky for the Congress (and help the BJP) in the central and north Gujarat and Saurashtra constituencies.

For now, all eyes are on the Rajya Sabha polls. Ahmed Patel needs 45 votes in the 176-member assembly. He has got 44 MLAs kept safe in Karnataka, but the remaining seven Congress leaders, who didn't travel south, belong to Vaghela's group. Also, three in the Karnataka lot are viewed as pro-Vaghela. Patel never had to cut things so fine. He is now banking on three non-Congress MLAs, including two from the Nationalist Congress Party.

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Washington: Islamic State terror group which once had 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries is now fighting for its survival and has lost control in many parts of Iraq and Syria, the US has said.



"When ISIS really arrived on the international scene back in 2014, they had 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries around the world pouring into Syria and Iraq. They controlled what was effectively a quasi-state," said Brett McGurk, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the ISIS.



"They were able to mass and manoeuvre force all Iraq and Syria, taking entire cities, controlling millions under their domain," Brett said.



"Since that time, they have lost about 70,000 square kilometres of territory in Iraq and Syria; about 78% of the territory they used to hold in Iraq they can no longer operate in, and about 58% of the territory they used to hold in Syria they can no longer operate in," he told reporters on Friday.



Importantly, of all that territory that they have lost, they have not regained, he said.



"When US-led coalition supports elements on the ground to retake territory from ISIS, they have never been able to reclaim that territory," he added.



"We are going to make sure that continues," he said adding that almost five million people who had been living under ISIS are no longer living under them.



They have been liberated by coalition enabled operations on the ground, Brett said.



He said that in the last six months, the US-led international coalition has turned the table against ISIS.



"About six months ago, ISIS was planning major attacks in Raqqa. They were planning major attacks against US, against our partners, and they were doing it in Raqqa, using infrastructure of a major city. Today, in Raqqa, ISIS is fighting for every last block and trying to defend blocks that they are about to lose. They're fighting for their own survival. It is a fundamentally transformed situation," he said.



According to him, currently there are 2,000 ISIS fighters left in Raqqa, with 25,000 civilians on the ground.



"What's really happening, similar to what we saw in Mosul, but on a smaller scale, the ISIS fighters on the ground are using these civilians as their own shields, as their own hostages. They are using snipers to kill civilians who are trying to escape," he alleged.



"They're trying to put suicide bombers in columns of displaced people as they're trying to get out. The similar tactics we've seen from this barbaric terrorist organisation in other cities," he said.



Brett said the next phase of the ISIS campaign would be in Tal Afar.



"That will probably be the next battle. It will happen at a time of the choosing of the government of Iraq," he said.



"We estimate there's about 1,000 ISIS fighters or so in Tal Afar, among 20,000 to 40,000 civilians, so somewhat similar to Raqqa  a little bit smaller," he added.



"But it'll be very difficult. This has been a hub for ISIS for three years. It has been the home for many of their leaders. It has been a place where terrible atrocities were committed against not only Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Yezidis, in this terrible kind of fulcrum of ISIS atrocities.



Many of them happened in Tal Afar," he said.



"This will be very, very hard. The Iraqis are committed to liberating the people of Tal Afar, and we are committed to supporting them at a time of their choosing," Brett said.
New York: A US jury returned a guilty verdict on Friday on three out of eight counts in the securities fraud trial of former hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, once dubbed "The Most Hated Man in America."



The 34-year-old was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud by a 12-member jury who deliberated five days at a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.



But he was acquitted on more than half the charges, including the most serious crime of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in three alleged inter-related schemes to defraud investors and misappropriate assets.



Shkreli, who remains on bail at least until his sentencing, is best known for jacking up the price of HIV drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 overnight in 2015.



Although that incident had nothing to do with his trial, so great was his notoriety that it was initially difficult to find an impartial jury.



An upbeat Shkreli hailed the verdict.



"I'm delighted that the jury did their job," he told reporters outside court, dressed in a dark polo shirt and thanking his star defence attorney Ben Brafman, calling him the "greatest lawyer on the planet."



"This was a witch hunt of epic proportions. Maybe they found one or two broomsticks, but at the end of the day we've been acquitted of the most important charges in this case," he added.



Shkreli faced an eight-count indictment for allegedly stealing $11 million in stock from his first pharmaceutical company Retrophin to pay off investors who lost money in two of his hedge funds.



He had faced up to 20 years in prison.



On Friday, Brafman  whose famous clients have included disgraced IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn  suggested that Shkreli could even avoid jail time.



"It allows for a sentence that doesn't even have to include a period of incarceration and if it does, to be honest with you, a much, much lower period of incarceration than the government ever contemplated," he said.



'Lies upon lies'



Wrapping up their month-long case, government prosecutors had told jurors the evidence against Shkreli was overwhelming, arguing that he told "lies upon lies" to investors for years in running a Ponzi-like scheme.



"Rest assured we will continue to investigate and prosecute those who engage in schemes to defraud such as this one," a senior prosecutor told reporters Friday after the verdict was returned.



But the defence maintained that Shkreli's wealthy investors ultimately made money rather than incurred losses.



Allegations otherwise were "rich people's BS," Brafman, one of the most celebrated criminal defense lawyers of his generation, told jurors last week.



Shkreli declined to testify and the defense called no witnesses.



Instead Brafman portrayed Shkreli as a troubled genius who camped out in his office in a sleeping bag for two years to build single handedly a successful pharmaceutical to ultimately repay wealthy investors.



Working at a super-human pace, he may have made mistakes but he was "not a Ponzi guy" who took other people's money to lead an extravagant lifestyle.

Instead, he conceded that his client had "impossible" people skills and routinely aggravated associates.



He quoted one witness who compared Shkreli to the Dustin Hoffman character in Oscar-winning 1988 movie Rain Man, and said he battled depression and anxiety.



The ex-boss of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Shkreli earned the label "most hated man in America" for his price hike of Daraprim.



He smirked through a congressional hearing that scrutinised his actions and has since earned a reputation for an extravagant, self-publicising lifestyle.



He resigned from Turing shortly after his indictment in December 2015, after which he was released from prison on bond.
Washington: Investigators probing President Donald Trump's team for possible connections to Russia have asked the White House to hand over records for what is believed to be the first time, the New York Times said Friday.



Members of the sweeping federal investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller requested the White House submit documents linked to Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to the paper, citing authorities close to the investigation.



The document request, while not a formal subpoena, was the latest signal that the probe is gathering pace.



The news came one day after reports revealed that Mueller  a former FBI director  has impaneled a grand jury to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.



Flynn  who was ousted mere weeks after being named Trump's national security adviser over mischaracterizing contacts with Russian officials  is at the center of the Russia controversy plaguing the White House.



Asked for comment on the story presidential lawyer Ty Cobb said the White House would not discuss "specific communications" with Mueller but would "continue to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel."



Trump has repeatedly denied allegations of collusion, saying he is the victim of a political "witch hunt" and "fake news."



Investigators had also questioned witnesses over whether Flynn received secret payments from the Turkish government at the end of the 2016 presidential campaign  suggesting the probe's scope has widened to examine Flynn's financial dealings.



US media has reported that Mueller is also said to be investigating Trump's financial records unrelated to Russia or the election.



Trump has publicly warned Mueller that his financial dealings should be out of bounds and investigating them would cross a red line.
Singapore: Singapore said on Friday it had cancelled the permanent residence status of a professor at a prominent postgraduate school whom it identified as a US citizen, and accused him of being an agent of influence for a foreign country.



The Ministry of Home Affairs said Huang Jing, a professor of US-China relations at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, "knowingly interacted with intelligence organisations and agents of the foreign country" with the aim of bringing about a change in the direction of Singapore's foreign policy.



The ruling, which also applied to Huang's wife, Shirley Yang Xiuping, means that if they leave Singapore, they will not be readmitted.



The ministry identified the couple as US citizens, but did not identify the country that Huang was alleged to have been working for.



A spokeswoman for the US State Department said it was aware of the Singapore announcement but declined further comment, citing privacy concerns.



China's foreign ministry said Beijing had no knowledge of Huang's case. "We don't understand the relevant situation," the ministry told Reuters in a statement



Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper quoted Huang as denying the allegations.



"Its nonsense to identify me as an agent of influence for a foreign country, he said. And why didnt they identify which foreign country theyre referring to? Is it the US or China?



Huang said he would seek help from his lawyer and the US embassy in Singapore.



My family and my home are all here. I have property in Singapore, too. How can they treat me like this? If they have evidence, they should take me to court, said Huang, who was not given a deadline to leave the island state.



'PRIVILEGED INFORMATION'



The home affairs ministry charged that Huang had used his position at the Lee Kwan Yew school "to deliberately and covertly advance the agenda of a foreign country at Singapores expense."



"He did this in collaboration with foreign intelligence agents," it added.



The ministry said Huang and his wife could appeal, but if unsuccessful, would have to leave Singapore within a grace period.



The university said it had suspended Huang without pay while it worked with the ministry on the matter.



"As these permits have been cancelled, we would not be able to continue with his employment," it said in a statement, adding that it could not comment on the specifics of the case.



The ministry said Huang had engaged with prominent and influential Singaporeans, giving them what he claimed to be "privileged information" about the foreign country with which he was interacting.



Such information was passed to a senior member of the Lee Kuan Yew School, who conveyed it to the Singapore government, which declined to act on it, the ministry said.



Huang's wife was aware of her husband's actions and that he recruited others for his operations, it said.



Huang's biography on the school's website said he was previously a senior fellow at the John Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution and had advised exiled Tibetan leaders on China affairs.



He is author of the books, "Factionalism in Chinese Communist Politics" and "Crisis and Challenges in US-China Relations."



An opinion piece by Huang published in China's Global Times this year titled "US domestic woes have global implications" said US President Donald Trump's administration had eroded US power and soured relations with allies.



The column also said Chinese President Xi Jinping's stress on economic globalisation and multilateralism "shows China's sense of reasonability as an emerging major power".
Manila: Southeast Asian foreign ministers expressed grave concern on Saturday about rising tensions on the Korean peninsula stemming from long-range missile tests by North Korea that "seriously threaten" global peace and security.



Taking a stronger tone than it has previously on the standoff, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) called for North Korea to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions on its nuclear programme, and make a positive contribution to regional peace.



The statement was issued separately, rather than included in ASEAN's customary communique at the end of the foreign ministers meeting.



Following the foreign ministers meeting is Monday's annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which gathers 27 foreign ministers -- including those of Russia, Japan, South Korea, the United States, China and North Korea -- to discuss Asian security issues.



"We strongly call upon (North Korea) as a participant of the ASEAN Regional Forum, to positively contribute to realise the ARF vision to maintain the Asia-Pacific as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity," said the ASEAN ministers meeting in Manila.



North Korea is determined to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and officials in Washington say its latest test a week ago showed it may be able to reach most of the country.



China has urged calm and restraint from all countries involved in the standoff.



The ASEAN position is short of the tougher line on North Korea urged by the United States, which wants Southeast Asian countries to downgrade their relations with the already isolated nation.



ASEAN countries have argued that is difficult since its members do not have substantive ties with North Korea.



Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, who is chairing the Manila meetings, said on Friday ASEAN would not consider expelling North Korea from the ARF. He argued it is better to have dialogue and utilise a rare opportunity where parties involved in the issue are meeting together.



"There were views that, how can we hear them out or confront them (North Korea) if they're not there?" he told reporters after a late-night discussion with his ASEAN counterparts.



Some Asian countries, including South Korea, are hoping to have bilateral talks with North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho. He left Pyongyang on Saturday and was en route to Manila, the North's official KCNA news agency reported.



"If there is a chance, I would tell him that we must have dialogue and that the North must stop the continuous provocations," South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha told reporters upon arrival in Manila.



"Moreover, I will tell him that to build a peace system, North Korea must respond to the two proposals we recently suggested."



U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to attend the Manila meeting and will press China and other Asian countries to take tougher action against North Korea.



The United Nations Security Council was set to vote on Saturday on a U.S.-drafted resolution that aims to slash by a third North Korea's $3 billion annual export revenue over Pyongyang's two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in July.



North Korea briefed diplomats of Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia in Pyongyang on Tuesday about the "resounding success" of its latest ICBM test, its foreign ministry said on its website.



In the posting on Saturday, it said diplomats were told the U.S. "trumpeting" about war and its threat of sanctions only increased Pyongyang's "vigilance and courage", and justification for its tests.
United Nations: United Nations: The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on Saturday on a US-drafted resolution that aims to slash by a third North Korea's $3 billion annual export revenue over Pyongyang's two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in July.



A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a "high confidence" that North Korea ally China and Russia would support the draft resolution, which was circulated to the 15 Security Council members on Friday.



The council is due to vote at 3 pm EDT (1900 GMT). A resolution needs nine votes in favour, and no vetoes by the United States, China, Russia, France or Britain, to be adopted.



The draft resolution would ban North Korea's exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It would also prohibit countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean labourers working abroad, ban new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.



"These are export sectors where this money is viewed as a critical, critical source of hard currency that the North immediately turns around into its fantastically expensive war machine and these just amazingly expensive ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs," the diplomat said.



"These sanctions are not targeted at the people of North Korea," the diplomat said.



US PRESSURE ON CHINA



The draft resolution would also add nine individuals and four entities to the U.N. blacklist, including North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank, subjecting them to a global asset freeze and travel ban.



The United States and China have been negotiating the draft text for the past month. Typically, they agree sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members.



U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and Washington has threatened to impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang.



"The Trump administration should issue new sanctions against China at the same time the new resolution is adopted as Beijing is still violating U.S. law by allowing its companies, individuals, and banks to facilitate North Korea's sanctions evasion," said Anthony Ruggiero, a Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior fellow and former U.S. Treasury official.



China has also been upset by possible moves by the Trump administration to exert trade pressure on Beijing.



"(The draft) appears to reflect a compromise between the U.S. and China in several areas," Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said. "It notably does not include any reduction in Chinese crude oil shipments to North Korea."



While supportive of new U.N. action, Security Council member Sweden said sanctions alone could not solve the problem.



"More creative diplomacy is urgently needed. A long-term solution can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations," said Sweden's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Carl Skau.



US VS RUSSIA



The United States had been informally keeping Britain and France in the loop on the bilateral negotiations, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said China had been sharing the draft and negotiating with Russia.



It has not been clear if poor relations between Russia and the United States, which imposed new unilateral sanctions on Moscow on Wednesday, would hamper negotiations.



Moscow has disagreed with assessments by Western powers that Pyongyang launched two long-range missiles, saying they were mid-range. Diplomats say China and Russia only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible U.N. sanctions.



North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches.



The U.N. diplomat said North Korea has been estimated to earn in 2017 $400 million from coal, $251 million from iron and iron ore, $113 million from lead and lead ore and $295 million from seafood. The diplomat said it was difficult to estimate how much North Korea was earning from sending workers abroad.



A United Nations human rights investigator said in 2015 that North Korea has forced more than 50,000 people to work abroad, mainly in Russia and China, earning the country between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion a year for the government.
United Nation: The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on Saturday on a U.S.-drafted resolution that aims to slash by a third North Korea's $3 billion annual export revenue over Pyongyang's two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) tests in July.



A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a "high confidence" that North Korea ally China and Russia would support the draft resolution, which was circulated to the 15 Security Council members on Friday.



The council is due to vote at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT). A resolution needs nine votes in favour, and no vetoes by the United States, China, Russia, France or Britain, to be adopted.



The draft resolution would ban North Korea's exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It would also prohibit countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean labourers working abroad, ban new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.



"These are export sectors where this money is viewed as a critical, critical source of hard currency that the North immediately turns around into its fantastically expensive war machine and these just amazingly expensive ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs," the diplomat said.



"These sanctions are not targeted at the people of North Korea," the diplomat said.



US PRESSURE ON CHINA



The draft resolution would also add nine individuals and four entities to the U.N. blacklist, including North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank, subjecting them to a global asset freeze and travel ban.



The United States and China have been negotiating the draft text for the past month. Typically, they agree with sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members.



US President Donald Trump's administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and Washington has threatened to impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang.



"The Trump administration should issue new sanctions against China at the same time the new resolution is adopted as Beijing is still violating US law by allowing its companies, individuals, and banks to facilitate North Korea's sanctions evasion," said Anthony Ruggiero, a Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior fellow and former U.S. Treasury official.



China has also been upset by possible moves by the Trump administration to exert trade pressure on Beijing.



"(The draft) appears to reflect a compromise between the U.S. and China in several areas," Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said. "It notably does not include any reduction in Chinese crude oil shipments to North Korea."



While supportive of new UN action, Security Council member Sweden said sanctions alone could not solve the problem.



"More creative diplomacy is urgently needed. A long-term solution can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations," said Sweden's Deputy UN Ambassador Carl Skau.



US VS RUSSIA



The United States had been informally keeping Britain and France in the loop on the bilateral negotiations, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said China had been sharing the draft and negotiating with Russia.



It has not been clear if poor relations between Russia and the United States, which imposed new unilateral sanctions on Moscow on Wednesday, would hamper negotiations.



Moscow has disagreed with assessments by Western powers that Pyongyang launched two long-range missiles, saying they were mid-range. Diplomats say China and Russia only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible U.N. sanctions.



North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches.



The UN diplomat said North Korea has been estimated to earn in 2017 $400 million from coal, $251 million from iron and iron ore, $113 million from lead and lead ore and $295 million from seafood. The diplomat said it was difficult to estimate how much North Korea was earning from sending workers abroad.



A United Nations human rights investigator said in 2015 that North Korea has forced more than 50,000 people to work abroad, mainly in Russia and China, earning the country between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion a year for the government.
Sydney/Singapore: The US Marine Corps said on Saturday a search and rescue operation was underway for three service members involved in an aviation mishap off the east coast of Australia, with 23 others rescued.



The incident involved an MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, the III Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa, Japan said in a statement.



The aircraft involved in the mishap had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when the aircraft entered the water," the statement said.



"The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts."

Australia's defence minister said in a statement that no Australian Defence Force personnel were on board. The incident occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay, in the state of Queensland, the statement said.



Michael Augustus, a spokesman for Queensland Ambulance, said one person had been taken to Rockhampton hospital, but he gave no further details of the circumstances and no details of the person's condition.

The defence minister, Marise Payne, said she had briefed the US defense secretary and the Australian prime minister.



The US Marine Corps said the incident was under investigation but gave no additional information.

More than 33,000 U.S. and Australian military personnel, including the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group, participated in the recent Talisman Saber joint military exercise in Australia which ended on July 25, according to a statement from the U.S. Army Public Affairs Office.



The exercise included participation from MV-22 Osprey practicing the deployment of U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance teams.



Australia is a military ally of the United States.
By India Today Web Desk: As National Democratic Alliance candidate, Venkaiah Naidu won the vice-presidential election with over 500 votes, Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi expresses gratitude for all those who voted for him.

Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi got 244 out of the 717 votes to his credit. He said that he is more than satisfied with the number of votes he has got.

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"Thank those who voted for me. And the number that voted for me is beyond the expectations fo certain calculations. They represent different political persuasions, come from different parts of India," he said.

He congratulated the new vice-president Venkaiah Naidu and said that this is the victory of free speech.

Gandhi also spoke about the importance of voting for the vice-president, saying, "Today everyone came together to vote for what they thought was the national good. It is the affirmation of the right of free thought, free speech. The right to hold different opinion, the right to serve the cause of pluralism and secularism in India."

He also sent across a message for the parliamentarians of our country, "Across the party divide, you (parliamentarians) carry a great responsibility on your shoulders and may you discharge your responsibilities with great diligence and courage."

Gopal Gandhi, a former IAS officer and reputed diplomat, was also being considered as the Opposition's candidate for the post of President, but Meira Kumar was the final choice.

CONGRESS CONGRATULATES NAIDU

Congress President Sonia Gandhi also congratulated vice-president Venkaiah Naidu.

"The position of the Vice President of India has the crucial challenge of assuming a non-partisan role in running 'The House of Elders', which acts as a store house of wisdom and sage advice for the government. House of Elders is an important determinant of our democratic functioning to address appropriate checks and balances. Gandhi offered Congress party's support in further strengthening the 'Upper House' for effective scrutiny of legislations and Government policies," Congress said in their statement.

Also read

Venkaiah Naidu expectedly wins vice-presidential election, bags over 500 votes

Video Credits: Rajya Sabha TV

--- ENDS ---
Thumbs up to the more than 150 alumnae and friends of Sweet Briar College who began descending on the campus early last week for whats become an annual event: Sweet Work Weeks.

The event began in the summer of 2015, just after the all-womens college fended off a board of directors that wanted to close the 115-year-old institution. An interim president  Phillip Stone of Rockbridge County who would go on to become the fulltime leader of the school  had just been named and was in the process of reaching out to students whod transfered to other schools and faculty members who had left for jobs elsewhere. The campus had to be ready to receive its new class on an extremely short notice, but little work had been done to prepare.

Thats when the alumnae and supporters who had saved Sweet Briar sprang into action, converging on the Amherst County campus from all across the United States, armed with paint brushes, power washers, vacuums and whatever else was needed. Believe it or not, the school was ready for the arrival of that first class of young women who put their faith in Sweet Briar 2.0.

Since then, Sweet Work Weeks has become an annual event, a way to connect the college with its many alumnae and supporters. The near-closure of the school, which had meant so much to so many women in their formative years, drove home a powerful message for them: Never, ever take Sweet Briar College for granted.

Sweet Work Weeks runs through Aug. 18, and theres still time to sign up for tasks on campus. You may sign up online at sbc.edu/alumnae-development/sweet-work-weeks. If you have questions, contact the Alumnae Relations and Development Office at (434) 381-6131 or contact Priscilla Carrol at pcarroll@sbc.edu.

* * *

Thumbs up to Bob Heghmann of Virginia Beach for a federal suit he recently filed against the Republican Party of Virginia.

Why a thumbs up? you might be wondering.

Well, the retired attorney, who recently moved to the commonwealth from New Hampshire, claims the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Virginia defrauded supporters over the course of seven years during the administration of Barack Obama when they solicited more than $755 million on the promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare.

Late last month, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told the Washingtonian magazine that GOP legislators knew their efforts to repeal Obamacare likely were doomed, but they knew a good fundraising and voter motivational tool when they saw one.

Thus Heghmanns lawsuit. When he lived in New Hampshire, he donated $875 to the state party and volunteered with the Trump campaign.

If elections wont hold politicians accountable, perhaps hitting them in their wallets will.
A CRPF jawan was injured after two bike-borne terrorists shot at him at Nowgam sector in Srinagar.

By Ashraf Wani: One CRPF jawan was injured as two bike borne terrorists attacked a patrol party in Nowgam sector of Srinagar.

A party of Jammu and Kashmir police officers and CRPF officers, who were a part of road opening opening deployment, were on the way to their camp, when the terrorists launched an attack.

The injured CRPF officer was hit by a bullet on his thigh. He is stable condition now.

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The area has been nabbed and a search operation has been launched.

(With inputs from ANI)

Also Read

Sukma attack: How CRPF jawans walked into 'kill zone' set up by Naxals

--- ENDS ---
Two men shot dead in Caroni

The mini mart was supposed to be the start of a legacy for Seepersad and Jordans sixyear- old daughter, Isabella, and their unborn baby.

But on Thursday night, gunmen shot dead Jordan and 20-year-old Dillon Samuel, of Rabindranath Trace, Kelly Village, Caroni, in the same mini mart.

At the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday, Seepersad said the business has to continue operating so Jordans dream of providing for his children could live on.

That was always his goal in everything he did, Seepersad said. Even if today or tomorrow something happened to him, his children would have something. He was always set on making something for his children. Seepersad said they had been buying goods and stockpiling the shelves of the mini mart since last weekend. Up to Thursday, hours before he was killed, Jordan and Seepersad were sourcing goods.

He took pride and wanted everything to be in the mini mart. As fast as we got money, we would turn it over and get goods. He was the kind of person that believed if he was going to do something, he would do it to his best ability. Reports are that Jordan and Dillon were sitting in the shop when, at about 9.30 pm, a Nissan Tiida car stopped at the parlour and gunmen emerged.

They opened fire on the two, killing them on the spot before escaping in their vehicle.

Up to press time yesterday, police were trying to ascertain a motive for the killings. Seepersad said her husband was someone who always stood up for what was right, and that may have been the cause of his death.

He has a lot of partners that would be there for him, but there are others that found his presence was too strong.

He always stood up for what was right, and some people did not like that. They wanted him to conform and he did not conform. He would stand his ground. Other than that, he was respected in the village. There were falling outs with one or two people in the village, but I dont know if those falling outs had anything to do with his death. Relatives of Samuel, who worked at Car Search in St Augustine, believe he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. They described him as a quiet person who mostly kept to himself.

Samuel, they said, was accustomed to visiting Jordan to lime.

He went there last night and was sitting in front and eating KFC when they pulled up and started shooting, said one relative.

He wasnt involved in anything.

He never gave that kind of trouble. I used to have to talk to him, the same as any other young boy, but he was never disrespectful or anything like that.
Malcolm Jones has died

Remarkable, isnt it? said one family member. He was on dialysis for 18 years and that alone speaks to the mettle of the man. Jones passed away at about 5.30 am at Petrotrins Augustus Long Hospital in Pointe-a- Pierre. He was surrounded by family members who described his passing as peaceful. Speaking with Newsday from Jones St Joseph Village, San Fernando home yesterday, family members - who asked to remain anonymous - did not yet have a death certificate, but said Jones most likely died as a result of kidney complications.

He had been ailing for some time now, but death always comes as a shock, said one family member who said Jones was taken to the hospital three days ago.

It was not a routine visit, but it also was not an emergency.

When a person is on dialysis, it is normal for their bodies to go through changes that require visits to the hospital ever so often.

But he died peacefully.

Still lucid and still very talkative. Up to last night (Thursday night) he had been making phone calls and sending emails. Asked what they believed Jones would consider his legacy, the relative said, His contributions to the energy industry in Trinidad and Tobago. Born and raised on Drayton Street, San Fernando, Jones attended Presentation College, San Fernando before graduating from the University of the West Indies with a B.Sc in Chemical Engineering in 1965. His first job was as a process engineer at Texaco Trinidad in 1965 where he worked for three years before taking up leadership positions as president, general manager, and chief executive officer in several privately owned energy companies.

His leadership skills were sought after to handle public affairs under the Patrick Manning-led PNM government. According to a Petrotrin release, From 2002 to 2003 and 2009 to 2010 he served as chairman at Petrotrin and from 2003 to 2009 as executive chairman. From 2009 to 2010 he served as chairman of the National Gas Company. Jones resigned from his position as chairman in 2010 after allegations arose of him breaching his fiduciary duty in his management of the construction of the Gas to Liquids plant at Petrotrins Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.

The $2.7 billion plant was constructed but failed to begin producing diesel by the contracted date despite massive overruns.

Petrotrins board filed a US$1.09 million lawsuit against him for his role in the plants failure in 2013. The lawsuit was dropped under the PNM Government in 2016 after Petrotrins attorneys were given access to witness statements they believed made the States case against Jones futile.

In 2016, he was appointed to the governments standing committee on energy, but resigned three months after fervent calls by the OWTU and the UNC for his removal. He remained out of the public eye until yesterday.

He lived the conventional retiree life after his time at Petrotrin, said a relative. He spent his time at home watching the news on TV, because he loved watching foreign news, and playing with his three grandchildren. Jones was awarded the Chaconia Medal (Gold) and a Samaan Tree Award from the UWI Alumni Association (Trinidad and Tobago Chapter) in 2004.

He was also awarded an honourary doctorate in 2007 by the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

He is survived by his wife, Brenda Jones, his five children and three grandchildren.
I will have an ailment here and there. I go to the doctors like anyone else, but body-wise, all my organs, my heart, my liver, inside here, very firm, very strong! And recently, doctors were amazed saying, you were born so strong, your bone system, and I said its through Gods grace, the Zanu PF leader said.
Zanu-PF has set an ambitious target to mobilise over five million supporters to register to vote and seal emphatic victory for the party in the 2018 harmonised elections.



The party has already activated its expansive mobilisation systems, with a nationwide headcount of members from cell to national levels underway.



Each provincial executive has been mandated to gather 500 000 supporters to bring the ultimate tally of potential Zanu-PF votes to five million-plus.



The party is also ramping up campaigns in urban areas, particularly Harare and Bulawayo  the beleaguered opposition MDC-Ts perceived strongholds.

In addition, district and provincial structures are being organised and attuned to the envisaged grand ballot harvest.



Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Ignatius Chombo last week confirmed that the party was oiling its election machinery, before referring further enquiries to the Commissariat.



National Political Commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere told The Sunday Mail, We have started our mobilisation campaign, and all provinces are hard at work; restructuring our structures from cell level. From a national perspective, we are targeting to have more votes than those we had in 2013.



We had 2,1 million voters then, so the target is to beat that number. It is public knowledge that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has announced its plan to register seven million

prospective voters for the polls.



Therefore, what we have said is that if seven million people are registering, then five million of those people should be our supporters. Initially, we were looking at figures like three million, but we are not taking anything to chance.



Cde Kasukuwere continued: We are not taking anything to chance, so we are schooling all our structures so that they understand what polling station-based voting is all about.

So, look at it this way: In every ward, we should know our supporters. This is a comprehensive exercise. Our plan is that by the time voter registration starts, we will have our figures at hand.



On demographic dynamics, Cde Kasukuwere said, We feel that youths are going to be crucial in next years elections, and we need to speak to their aspirations. We have our traditional voters, but we need to do more to woo youths because previous elections have witnessed a lot of voter apathy from young people.



I want to warn the opposition on urban areas: We have made a lot of headway there. The opposition did themselves a great disservice when they decided not to take part in by-elections. The party has vowed not to lose any urban seat that it is holding now. The electorate is not stupid. People have seen that they are getting nothing from sitting MDC legislators in urban areas.



Political analyst Mr Godwine Mureriwa said, If Zec is saying it will register seven million, then I venture to say that 60 percent of that figure will go to Zanu-PF. The numbers show that since 2008, Zanu-PF has been exponentially growing its voter population.



(This is because) the opposition, really, has nothing to sell to the electorate apart from looking forward to a protest vote. The protest vote worked in 2008, but it looks unlikely that it will work again 10 years later.



Mr Mureriwa added, The youthful voters are going to be the catch in 2018, and this will obviously contribute the biggest chunk of the new voters that political parties need to capture. With its empowerment programmes aimed at freeing up sectors of the economy such as small scale mining and agriculture, Zanu-PF is better-positioned.



A scholar who preferred anonymity said: The voter demographics are not likely to change in 2018. We are going to see the rural population being the majority of the voters because they constitute the bulk of voters anyway.



So, on that basis, I see Zanu-PF having the upper hand because the opposition has totally failed to make any headway in these crucial rural areas.



Regarding the opposition coalition, the scholar said: What the coalition means is that you are going to see new faces from different political parties and these characters may not be known to the electorate.



Zimbabwe goes to harmonised polls in 2018, with the main political players already gearing up. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will roll out Biometric Voter Registration in late 2017 using technology that can capture details of up to 16 million prospective voters.



Figures from the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency and the United Nations indicate the countrys population has leapt from 13, 061 239 in 2012 to between 14 to 16 million.



About 5 874 115 people registered to vote in the 2013 plebiscite. Of these, 3 480 047 cast ballots in the Presidential poll, while 3 377, 276 participated in parliamentary elections.



The number of registered voters in 2008 was 5,934,768. sunday mail
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And you thought your workday was long. Six years after a rule change limited first-year medical residents from working shifts longer than 16 hours, the rule has been changed back, KQED reports. According to NPR, as of July, first-year doctors could once again work shifts lasting up to 28 hours without a break. Shifts for first-year residents were cut to 16 hours by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2011 after studies showed that human performance starts to decline and medical errors go up after 16 hours. But the ACGME reversed its decision in March, arguing the shorter shifts didn't improve patient outcomes and created a new set of problems.

Veteran doctors argued the shorter shifts made first-year residents focus on handing off patients rather than seeing them through treatment, prevented residents from observing treatments and surgeries from beginning to end, and gave them less time to teach residents. One doctor tells Forbes that patients want to know "you are the doctor taking care of them" and won't be replaced by someone else. But not everyone wanted to see the return of longer shifts, which was opposed by both resident and patient groups. The director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group accuses the ACGME of letting "their misguided wishes trump public health." And one first-year resident says veteran doctors only want 28-hour shifts because they feel that "I went through it, so therefore you have to." (Swedish city's six-hour workday didn't work.)
The Trump administration on Friday officially told the United Nations that the US intends to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate pact. But the State Department's announcement doesn't formally start the process of the US getting out of the voluntary agreement. That's still to come. Still, the department described its communication as a "strong message" to the world, following President Trump's decision in June to leave the accord. Nigel Purvis, who directed US climate diplomacy during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, tells the AP countries can't withdraw from new international agreements, including the Paris climate one, until three years after they go into effect. The Paris agreement went into effect on Nov. 4, 2016. Then the process takes a year.

The State Department cited the same timeline, saying it can officially start withdrawing as soon as November 2019. That means the earliest the US can be out of the climate agreement is Nov. 4, 2020the day after the next presidential election. In a statement, the State Department said the US will continue to participate in international meetings and negotiations on current and future climate change deals. The next meeting is in Bonn, Germany, in November. Trump is "open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favorable to it, its business, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers," the department said. (Read more Paris Agreement stories.)
A former kindergarten teacher last heard from more than two weeks ago has been found in Central California, and she told authorities she survived by eating two grasshoppers and a fly and drinking water from a dirty cattle trough, the AP reports. Rescuers who found Jamie Tull emaciated, dehydrated, and severely sunburned on Friday morning called it a "miracle" they spotted the 33-year-old lying in a field, too weak to walk. "That girl has a will to live," Robert Carpenter tells the Modesto Bee. "Anyone who can survive out here for 17 days is an amazing gal, to me." Friends and family had been searching for the Modesto woman in a desolate cattle ranching area near Le Grand since her car was found in a ditch; she called her husband while driving on July 17 and then reportedly crashed. Her car was found shortly after.

Searchers were set to scale back the effort when they spotted her less than a mile from the crash site in tall grass. Lynn Garber was one of the searchers who found Tull, and says Tull told them she had been praying throughout her ordeal and was glad to be found. Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke tells things differently, saying Tull asked for food and water but then told searchers to leave her. "She hunkered down. She didn't want to be found," says Warnke. Tull's family tells Fox40 she suffers from bipolar disorder but stopped taking her medication at the urging of a pastor and his wife, who associated the pills with demons. Tull is recovering at a burn unit at a Fresno hospital. (Dramatic rescue saves stranded cable car passengers.)
A manhunt for two university employees wanted in the murder of a Chicago hairstylist ended Friday in California. Wyndham Lathem, 42, a bubonic plague expert who has been an associate professor at Northwestern University since 2007, turned himself in "peacefully" to police in Oakland on Friday evening, NBC News reports. Andrew Warren, 56, a treasury assistant at Oxford University in Britain, surrendered to cops in San Francisco in connection with the death of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, who was found dead in Lathem's apartment on July 27. The victim died of multiple stab wounds, police said. The men are awaiting extradition to Illinois on first-degree murder charges, CNN reports.

On Friday, Chicago police said Lathem sent family and friends a video message apologizing for "his involvement" in the brutal slaying, calling it "the biggest mistake" of his life, per the Chicago Tribune. Police have not released a motive or many details about the murder, but a high-ranking police source tells CNN the "victim was savagely ... mutilated" in Lathem's upscale apartment. Police recovered a broken blade believed to be the murder weapon. They said it was unclear if Warren knew the victim; the Brit was just three days into his first trip to the US when the murder occurred. An odd twist: On the day of the killing, one of the suspects walked into the public library in Lake Geneva, a Wisconsin resort town about 90 minutes northwest of Chicago, and made a $1,000 cash donation in Cornell-Duranleau's name, the Tribune reports. (Read more murder stories.)
Lilavati Hospital issued a statement saying Dilip Kumar is conscious and is having food.

By India Today Web Desk: Three days after veteran actor Dilip Kumar was admitted to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, the hospital issued a statement assuring that he is well.

The 94-year-old actor was admitted in the hospital for a severe case of dehydration and kidney problems on Wednesday. There were also reports that he was put on a ventilator.

The hospital today said that his condition has improved. "Dilip Saheb is conscious. He had food today. No breathlessness, no fever but his creatinine level is comparatively low. Urine output is also better. These are signs of improvement," his doctors said.

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"Due to his age, he is under observation and will be in the ICU for two-three days depending on how his body responds," the doctors added.

Dilip Kumar is being looked after by Dr Nitin Ghokhale (Cardiologist ), Dr Arun Shah (Nephrologist) at Lilavati Hospital.

(With inputs from Shivangi Thakur) ALSO READ: Dilip Kumar's condition is 'not good', says doctor

ALSO READ: Dilip Kumar health update: Stable, not on ventilator

ALSO WATCH: Mimicking Dilip Kumar was difficult, says Shah Rukh Khan

--- ENDS ---
Michael Flynn made a flurry of headlines Friday and Saturday, the most pressing of which was a New York Times report that investigators working for Robert Mueller asked the White House for documents related to the ex-national security adviser. Sources say investigators have also asked witnesses if Flynn was secretly paid by the Turkish government. Flynn's consulting business was paid $530,000 to handle a campaign against an opponent of the Turkish government. If that money actually came from the Turkish government itself, Flynn could face a felony charge for not declaring himself a foreign agent or other charges for trying to hide the source of the money. The document request is one more sign Mueller's team is expanding its investigation beyond Russia to the business dealings of Trump and his team.

On Friday, the White House released an updated version of Flynn's financial filing that shows he briefly had an advisory role with Cambridge Analytica, the AP reports. The "controversial" data mining and analysis company helped the Trump campaign during the election. It's unclear what, if anything, Flynn did for the company. According to USA Today, former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak gave an interview to Russian media Saturday in which he claimed he never discussed sanctions with Flynn, who was fired for lying when he told Vice President Pence the same thing. Kislyak says his conversations with Flynn were "absolutely correct, calm, absolutely transparent" and about "the simplest things." (Read more Michael Flynn stories.)
Vanity, thy name is Wayne. The BBC reports police in Wales arrested a man after he asked them to take down his mugshot because it wasn't a good photo of him. According to the Telegraph, 35-year-old Wayne Esmonde was wanted in connection with a July 18 assault, and the South Wales Police Department put Esmonde's mugshot on its Facebook page in the hopes of catching him. "I am him," Esmonde responded to the post. "Not a very flattering mugshot. I'd appreciate it if you'd take this post down. Innocent until proven guilty and all that." Esmonde then turned himself in to police Thursday.

The results of Esmonde's gambit were a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, since police were no longer looking for him, they took down the unflattering mugshot, the Independent reports. On the other hand, Esmonde's concern over his mugshot ensured it was shared on news sites around the world. (Esmonde is far from the only suspect to mix vanity and mugshots: an Australian woman and American man sent police better photos to replace bad mugshots, and another man liked his wanted poster so much he made it his Facebook profile pic.)
Three US Marines are missing after an MV-22 Osprey crashed into the waters off the coast of Queensland, Australia, Saturday afternoon, ABC reports. "The aircraft ... was conducting regularly scheduled operations when the aircraft entered the water," CNN quotes a Marine Corps statement as saying. There were 26 Marine personnel on board the Osprey when it crashed in what is being characterized as a "mishap." Twenty-three people have been pulled from the water.

Search-and-rescue operations are ongoing, and authorities are investigating the crash. NBC News reports President Trump has been briefed on the incident. The Osprey was in Australia for a joint training exercise between the US and Australia that ended July 25. Ospreys are a cross between a helicopter and plane and have been involved in a number of recent crashes. (Read more Marines stories.)
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By India Today Web Desk: Veteran actor Dilip Kumar has been admitted to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital since Wednesday. The 94-year-old actor, who came in for a case of severe dehydration, was also facing kidney problems. There were reports that he was put on ventilator, but one of his doctors told IANS that there was no truth to them. However, he admitted that Dilip Kumar's condition was "not good."

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"(His condition is) Not good. His creatinine is rising, haemoglobin is decreasing and potassium levels are increasing. He will need dialysis, but he is not on ventilator," Jalal D Parker, one of the attending team of doctors, said.

Dilip Kumar, who made his debut with Jwar Bhata in 1944, has acted in over 50 films in his career spanning more than five decades. The actor has given us iconic films like Devdas, Mughal-e-Azam and Naya Daur.

Last seen on the big screen in Qila in 1998, the actor was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015. The epithet 'Tragedy King' was given to the actor because of his poignant and emotional films.

ALSO READ: Hope Dilip Kumar recovers soon, says Saira Banu

ALSO READ: Dilip Kumar in ICU, kidneys not functioning properly

ALSO WATCH: Mimicking Dilip Kumar was difficult, says Shah Rukh Khan

--- ENDS ---
The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.
New Delhi:

In a fresh trouble for Aam Aadmi Party, its MLA from Delhi Cantonment Surender Commando was taken into custody for repeatedly not appearing in a case related to defacement of public property in 2014.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ashu Garg on Saturday ordered police to take Commando in the custody when he appeared before the court.

Despite the courts directions, he was not appearing before the court for the last few occasions despite orders.

The case relates to defacement of public property in Naraina area in south west Delhi, allegedly by putting up posters and hoardings.

Suggested Read: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah terms I-T raids politically motivated; Happy MLAs to return Gujarat soon
Allahabad:

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with her husband Abhishek Bachchan and daughter Aaradhya reached to Allahabad Ghat to immerse ashes of her late father Krishnaraj Rai.

When they arrived at the Sangam, the group was received by policemen and priests, who escorted them on to a boat.

Amid chants of hymns the actress immersed her father's ashes. "It was a personal visit by the Bachchans who had requested for a privacy and hence only bare minimum deployment of police personnel was bade. They left immediately after performing the rites at the Sangam," District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar said.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan reached Allahabad to immerse her late father's ashes, earlier today. Her mother, Abhishek Bachchan &Aaradhya present. pic.twitter.com/hg7n8K3oqG  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 5, 2017

Her father passed away earlier this year on March 18, 2017. He was suffering from Cancer and under intensive care at Lilavati hospital. Two days after Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's father passed away after a long stay in the hospital, the friends and family of the Bachchans were seen visiting them to pay their respects.

Incidentally, the last time Incidentally, the last time the Bachchans visited the city was a decade ago when they accompanied Abhishek's superstar father Amitabh Bachchan to immerse the ashes of the latter's mother Teji Bachchan.

Also Read: Cannes 2015: Aishwarya Rai to turn digital Bachchan for 24 hours

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New Delhi:

Nineteen mobile numbers in the city have been put under surveillance after the CBI informed that they were procured using fake documents and were being used for "anti-national" activities, the Delhi Police said on Saturday.



"The CBI informed the Special Cell that 19 mobile phone numbers were activated using fake identity proofs and certificates. It alleged that the numbers were being used for illegal and anti-national activities. An FIR was filed yesterday," the police said.



One of the numbers was procured by a person who identified himself as Jafar Ahmed Mir. The person claimed he belonged to the Jama Masjid area and had submitted a photocopy of a voter identity card issued in Jammu and Kashmir to get the number, the police said.



Both the addresses were "fake", they said.



All the numbers have been put under surveillance, the police said.

Also read: Man threatening to bomb Red Fort arrested by Delhi Police

Delhi police to induct 15 'Parakram' vans for Independence Day security

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Despite numerical inferiority, the Indian Army may give the People's Liberation Army of China a bloody nose if Doklam standoff leads to war.

By Prabhash K Dutta: The Doklam standoff between Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army started in June. In July, a CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report, tabled in Parliament, said that the Indian Army does not have ammunition to fight a war for more than 10 days.

And, now - in August - China's state media has said that Chinese PLA can "annihilate" Indian Army if war breaks out between the two nuclear-armed Asian neighbours.

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A Global Times - a hawkish Chinese government mouthpiece - article said, "If a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region."

The Global Times article described Indian Army as lying "far behind" in strength in comparison to PLA. It said, "It is a war with an obvious result, as PLA has made sufficient preparation for military confrontation. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be aware of the PLA's overwhelming firepower and logistics."

The claim of the Chinese state media calls for a look at how the armies of India and China stack up. According to Global Firepower website - which tracks military strengths of more than 100 countries- India and China are ranked 4 and 3 among 133 military powers of the world.

ARMIES

Chinese PLA is the biggest military power in terms of number of troops employed by it followed by the Indian Army. China has about 22.6 lakh soldiers in its army while Indian Army has 13.6 lakh active troops. This gives China a definite numerical edge over India but there are other factors at work.

If the reserve components of the army are taken into account, China's relative position weakens in comparison to India. Indian Army has about 28.44 lakh reserve soldiers while Chinese PLA has about 14.52 lakh troops under reserve components.

According to Global Firepower statistics, total military personnel under Indian Army is about 42.07 lakh while for Chinese PLA, the total strength stands at 37.12 lakh.Indian Army has 4,426 battle tanks while Chinese PLA has 6,457. This number looks bigger on paper but in reality, Chinese tanks have to be deployed over much larger border area compared to India's. Further, Indian Army possesses 6,704 armoured fighting vehicles while PLA has only 4,788.

China has numerical advantage in self-propelled artillery with 1,710 to 290 of India's. China also has 1,770 rocket projectors compared to 295 under Indian Army. But, in towed artillery, Indian Army is even numerically superior to Chinese PLA. Indian Army owns 7,414 towed artillery while PLA has 6,246 such vehicles.

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AIR FORCES

China has 1,271 fighter or interceptor aircraft while Indian Army has 676 such planes. Similarly, China has 1,385 attack aircraft while the Indian Air Force owns 809 such fighter planes. But, the critical point here is again that the area over which the China has to press its aircraft into service is almost three times that of India's.

Though Indian Air Force has less number of main fighter aircraft, its support system is far superior to Chinese. The IAF has 857 transport aircraft compared to 782 owned by China. India has 346 serviceable airports compared to China's 507.

In terms of helicopters, India may actually have relative advantage. The IAF has 666 helicopters while China has 912. However, while China has 206 attack helicopter, the IAF has only 16. China's geographical area is more than three times of India's.

In all, Indian Air Force has 2,102 compared to 2,955 of China. This is in no way inferior given the strategic dimensions the respective air forces have to look after.

NAVAL FORCES

Though the Indian Navy has three aircraft carriers while China has just one, Chinese naval force looks superior on paper in comparison to India's. China has 68 submarines compared to 15 of the Indian Navy.

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India has 14 frigates while China has 51. Similarly, China has 35 destroyers while Indian Navy has 11. China has 31 mine warfare craft compared to six owned by the Indian Navy. But, the naval power superiority may not actually help China in the event of war.

China cannot afford to engage with the Indian Army so far from its supply base. Its submarines and destroyers may easily be trapped in the Indian Ocean where Indian Navy is a formidable power.

GROUND REALITY

Further, China has too much at stake along its eastern borders for its army and air force to divert its full resources to Indian borders. In contrast, India's maritime borders are peaceful.

India has a shared border of 13,888 km while Chinese frontline extends upto 22,457 km. India doesn't have favourable equation on borders Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal. But, China is in border tussle with not only in the Himalayas but also in the South China Sea and East China. Its central Asian border is also a worry for Beijing.

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Under such security and geostrategic circumstances, the claim of the Chinese state media looks totally misplaced and hyperbole. Chinese government is feeling domestic pressure as India resisted its attempt to alter trijunction in Doklam plateau while it went overboard with provocative and war-mongering statements.

There are signs that diplomatic channels are working and progress is being made especially after National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's Beijing visit when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping among others. Over the past two days, both India and China have said that diplomatic solution is being worked out. With this in backdrop, it seems the Chinese state media is only playing to the gallery in that country.

ALSO READ |

Modi govt being reckless over Doklam stand-off, pushing India to war: Chinese editorial

The last Sikkim stand-off: When India gave China a bloody nose in 1967

India doesn't have ammunition for a long war, key concerns in CAG report explained

ALSO WATCH | Modi govt pushing India into war: Chinese paper blames 'reckless' leadership for Doklam standoff

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi:

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday said that no power on earth can harm Indian until an iota of religion is surviving in the nation.

As long as even an iota of religion (dharma) is surviving in India, no power on the earth can harm India. But unfortunately, if the religion vanishes from India completely, then no power would be able to save India, he said.

Speaking at the valedictory function of a residential course for men and women volunteers of Hindu Swaysmsevak Sangh (HSS) at Nagpur Bhagwat said, The whole world is in the clutches of capitalism. Only India can rescue the world from this calamity.

Quoting RSS founder Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar that the British or the Mughals could not be blamed for the countrys unfortunate situation.

The only problem of the Hindu community is Hindus themselves and since Hindus are our own, we will not let them live in unfortunate situation, Bhagwat quoted Hedgewar as saying.

Suggested Read: In a Dragon vs Tiger clash, who holds the edge? Indian military's strength check

We need to build a Hindu community not because it is the problem, but because it is our own, and also for the conservation of the holy Hindu religion, culture and Hindu Rashtra, he added.

Renowned economist and a member of Niti Aayog Bibek Debroy, who was present on the occasion, said that in the ancient times, the king had only limited responsibility for defence, internal security and ensuring the rule of the law, while everything else was done by the community.

(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi:

Congress workers on Saturday protested at several parts of the country against attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat on Friday. In Delhi, party workers protested outside the BJP headquarters. In Mumbai, several workers were taken into custody following protests. Besides Delhi and Mumbai, workers also protested in Chandigarh and Gujarat.

Following protests and arrests, Rahul Gandhi said Respect the sentiments of Congress workers in Gujarat protesting against admin not filing an FIR against the stone pelting.

But I urge them to divert their energy in helping the people affected by floods in the state, he further added.

but I urge them to divert their energy in helping the people affected by floods in the state  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 5, 2017

ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi accuses BJP-RSS people of attacking his car

Earlier on Friday, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's car was pelted with stones during his visit to this flood-affected town but he escaped unhurt.

Reacting to the attack, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked, Are we reaching a space in our democracy where political opponents are not going to be allowed to practice democratic politics?

It is a pre-planned conspiracy. It is a murderous attack by BJP, RSS, senior Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad said.

BJP playing down the attack on Rahul Gandhi termed his visit to flood-hit areas in Gujarat a Photo opportunity.

ALSO READ | Rahul's vehicle attacked in Gujarat: Congress blames 'BJP goons', says opponents not allowed to practice democratic politics

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New Delhi:

BJP Haryana president Subhash Barala's son Vikas was detained by Chandigarh police on charges of stalking a girl on Saturday.



According to reports, Vikas was arrested along with a friend for allegedly following a girl's car late on Friday night. The medical test later confirmed that the both accused were drunk.A



The woman was on her way home in a car at 12.30 am from Sector 9 in Chandigarh to Panchkula when a Tata Safari began following her from Sector 26. She then called up the police control room (PCR) who swung into action and arrested the duo.

BJP Haryana Pres' son Vikas Barala & his friend detained by Police for stalking a girl; Police says accused followed girl's car & were drunk pic.twitter.com/eqlF9amy0L a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

The case has been registered at the Sector-26 police station against both accused under Section 354 D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 185 (Motor Vehicle Act) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Satish Kumar, DSP (East) said the victim's statements were being recorder under Section 164 A (recording confessions and statements) of the CrPC before a local magistrate, reported The Indian Express.



Subhash Barala was re-elected as the state BJP president for the second time in three years in January 2016. The 48-year-old Jat leader is an MLA from Tohana. He was earlier the BJP appointed chief of the state unit in November 2014.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed by security forces in an encounter in Sopore area of Jammu and Kashmirs of Baramulla district, police said.

Following an intelligence about the presence of militants, Security forces launched a massive search operation in Amargarh area of Sopore.

During the search in, militants opened indiscriminate firing on the forces personnel who retaliated.

Three LeT militants were neutralized in the gun battle and weapons have been recovered from them. Internet services have been suspended in Baramulla after the encounter. A police personnel also received serious injuries and was shifted to nearby hospital.

Earlier on Friday, a newly recruited Hizbul Mujahideen militant was gunned down in an overnight encounter with security forces that also resulted in the death of an unidentified person in the ensuing crossfire in south Kashmir's Anantnag district.

The encounter broke late on Thursday night at Kanibal in Bijbehara of Anantnag district, 55 kms from Srinagar, when the police along with Army and CRPF cordoned off a village following an intelligence input about the presence of militants, they said.

Vice Presidential elections LIVE: Voting underway in Parliament, close contest between Venkaiah Naidu and Gopalkrishna Gandhi

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New Delhi:

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday termed the I-T raids on DK Shivakumar politically motivated and said this shows BJPas mentality.

aIf they have info about irregularities, they have the right. But they are doing with political intention, it is a political vendetta,a Siddaramaiah said.

aAs per rule they canat bring CRPF, it is purely a politically motivated move, shows the mentality of BJP,a Karnataka CM added.

IT department on Wednesday began its searches on various properties linked to Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar, who is hosting 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs at a resort to forestall alleged attempts by the BJP to poach on them ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.

During the searches at about 66 places across the country in connection with a case of alleged tax evasion, IT officials said they have seized cash and jewelry worth over Rs 15 crore so far.

However, D K Shivakumar said he has not violated the law and the truth will eventually come out.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Congress MLAs who were staying in Bengaluru on Saturday met Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala at Raj Bhavan. After the meeting, MLAs said the want to go back to their state as soon as possible, however, no date is fixed yet.

aWe want to go back as soon as possible, nothing planned yet, a meeting scheduled for tomorrow,a Shaktisinh Gohil, Congress Gujarat MLA said.

The MLAs also went to Mahatma Gandhi statue in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru: #Gujarat Congress MLAs meet Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala at Raj Bhavan. pic.twitter.com/PS6yRBswIp a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

(With PTI inputs)

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Anantnag (JK):

A family from south Kashmir claimed that LeT terrorist Abu Dujana, killed by security forces this week, was their lost son Muzafar but beat a hasty retreat when asked to give their DNA samples, officials said on Friday.

The family from Kokernag, 64 km from Pulwama where Dujana was gunned down on Tuesday, reached here on Thursday with a few others. They approached local police saying he was their son who had gone missing in 1999 and wanted to claim his body.

Given that Dujana is believed to be from Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir police had said they would ask the Pakistan High Commission to take his body, this came as a surprise, officials said.

Narrating the incident, officials in the know said the visibly agitated group demanded to know where Dujana had been buried. They wanted to claim his body and offer fresh 'Namaz-e-Jinaza' (last prayers). They insisted on burying him afresh in their ancestral graveyard, officials said.

Read more: J&K: 3 LeT militants killed, cop injured in encounter in Sopore

The 'family' claimed Dujana was actually Mohammed Muzafar Magrey, son of Ghulam Mohammed Magrey, from Checki Danibatlocality of Kokernag. He had fled in 1999 and never returned. But the family was unable to provide any documentary proof to back their claim, the officials said.

Faced with what could be a tricky situation, the group was asked to sit down and ready for a DNA test. Faced with the ultimatum, the group quietened down and started leaving one by one.

They were not seen after that, officials said, adding that the DNA sample of Dujana, buried in north Kashmir, has been preserved.

Dujana was identified by the family where he was staying with in Pulwama. They had told police that Abu Dujana had claimed his family lived in Karachi.

Read more: Dokalam standoff: India says 'engaging' with China diplomatically

Dujana, whose actual identity was not known, was killed in an encounter with a joint team of police, army and para-military forces on August 2.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court of India on a petition filed by a Muslim man has agreed to hear the matter of alleged Love Jihad on August 16. The Court has also sought the responses from NIA and Kerala government.

26-year-old Shafin Jahan has filed a petition in the Supreme Court for the production of his wife, whom his father-in-law took away after Kerala HC declared their wedding invalid.

Jahan has sought a stay on the divorce order of Kerala high court which had ruled that he married his wife after she was being radicalized by people associated with Islamic State and other terrorist organizations.

But Jahan in his petition to SC claimed that his Wife Akhila alias Hadiya was 24 years old at the time of marriage and she converted on her own and court cannot interfere in the matter.

Shafin Jahans case is being advocated by senior lawyer Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaisingh. Calling the incident unfortunate, they say a court has stopped a husband to meet his wife. 

Jaisingh demanding Hadiyas father to produce her in 24 hours asked the apex court, Why police have cordoned her house. Why is no one allowed to meet her? 

"We don't know whether she is alive. Let them (the father) produce her before the court," she said.

The court told Madhavi Divan, lawyer of Hadiyas father to be ready to produce her before the court on 24 hours' notice.

In counter, Divan said Hadiya is the only child of her parents and she was forced to convert to Islam as part of a big conspiracy. She said if the court wants her to be produced even after seeing the evidence, her parents dont have any problem with that.

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New Delhi:

More than two dozen Ministers of Parliament from the opposition parties defyied the diktat of their leadership and voted for NDAs vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu, BJP sources claimed.

The former union minister secured 516 votes against the pledged support of around 495 to become the vice-president elect.

With Naidu securing over 68 percent of valid votes against 32 percent of the opposition's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who received 244 votes.

The cause of concern among the opposition, including the Congress, the Left and the TMC, is that their candidate Gandhi got only 19 votes more than their presidential nominee Meira Kumar even though 40 more MPs had pledged support to him.

Kumar had received votes of 225 MPs, while Gandhi was supported by 244. President Ram Nath Kovind had received support of 522 MPs.

The BJD, which has 28 members in Parliament, and the JD (U) with 12 MPs had switched over to the opposition camp after supporting the NDA in the presidential poll.

Despite desertion by 40 MPs, the NDA's vote count went down by only six, underlining major cross-voting in its favour.

In an electoral college of 785 eligible members, 771 votes were cast out of which 11 were declared invalid, according to officials.

Among the 14 members who could not cast their votes for a variety of reasons, four belonged to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, two each to the BJP, Congress and the IUML, and one each to the NCP and PMK. One nominated and one Independent member also could not cast their votes.

Polling officials said this was the highest turnout in the vice-presidential election. Before it, the highest number of votes in the poll was 759 in 2002 when BJP candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had won the election.

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Bhopal:

Voters in Madhya Pradesh will be able to check the details of candidates fighting the elections in 37 local bodies in the state, at every pooling booth. Various details like criminal cases (if any), assets and liabilities will be displayed at the pooling booths. This will assist the voters in taking an informed and balanced decision.

Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) has released a circular which directs the officials who are conducting the election process, to display the details of the candidate highlighting their educational qualifications, assets & liabilities and criminal cases in case of any.

The Commission has asked the officials to display the details mentioned in the candidate's affidavits at the pooling booths in the form of large f;ex hoardings.

The hoardings, to be put up outside every booth, will display the affidavits of the contestants vying for the posts of president and councillor in the August 11 polls, said a public relations department officer.

This arrangement has been made for the polls in 37 local bodies - 14 municipalities and 23 Nagar Parishads  on an experimental basis, he said.

The SEC has taken the decision to empower voters and allow them to check antecedents of candidates before they cast their ballot, the officer said.

"This way, voters would be able to see the relevant details of candidates before exercising their franchise." Activists fighting for voter rights welcomed the move. "We welcome the move as it will allow voters to take an informed decision. Voters will now be able to check antecedents of candidates before entering the polling station," said Rolly Shivhare, Madhya Pradesh convener of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Shivhare said a delegation of the ADR, an NGO fighting for poll reforms, had earlier called on State Election Commissioner R Parsuram in this regard and he promised to come with this initiative. "It would be better if this practice is adopted in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections as well," she added.

Shivhare said Madhya Pradesh is the second state, after Maharashtra, to adopt this practice.





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New Delhi:

Veteran BJP leader Venkiaha Naidu was elected as the Vice President of India on Saturday by the Members of Parliament. Naidu received 516 out of electoral college of 785 votes, while his opponent Gopal Krishna Gandhi got 244 votes, 14 MPs abstained from voting.A

Here are the live updates:

#8:50 PMA Venkaiah Naidu elected as next Vice President of India: 'Humbled by honor bestowed on me'

-Humbled by honor bestowed on me: Naidu



-As chairman of Rajya Sabha I will uphold dignity and decorum of the house with cooperation of all members: Naidu



-Particulary over whelmed as the honor has been conferred on a common man like me with a background of agriculture: Naidu

#WATCH: #VicePresident elect #VenkaiahNaidu with his wife Usha at their residence in Delhi after winning the elections. pic.twitter.com/fSeqAuW0uw a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Delhi: PM Modi & BJP President Amit Shah felicitate Vice President elect #VenkaiahNaidu on winning election #VicePresidentialElection pic.twitter.com/xtnaC8xGep a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017



#8:00 PM: Honor for me to become VP from a family of an ordinary farmer.This speaks for the beauty & strength of our democracy, tweets Venkaiah Naidu



#8:00 PM: Congratulate Shri #VenkaiahNaidu on his election as VP of India. I wish him success in future endeavors, tweets HM Rajnath Singh



#8:00 PM: Great symbol of cross party acceptance of leadership & wisdom. Future of Rajya Sabha is safe in his (V Naidu) hands: Union Min Piyush Goyal

With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines. a M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed

predecessors. a M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

#7:45 PM:A Venkaiah Naidu to go to Bengaluru tomorrow, then to Tirupati for darshan. Swearing-In as VP in August 10th: Sources

#7:45 PM: Congratulate Venkaiah Naidu ji on being elected VP of India. My best wishes for success in your new responsibilities, tweets Odisha CM

#7:44 PM:A Congratulate V.Naidu Ji, our next VP; wish him well. In tradition of democracy, GK Gandhi Ji fought with dignity for certain ideals: WB CM

#7:20 PM: Congratulations to Venkaiah Naidu Garu on being elected Indiaas Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure, tweets PM



#7:20 PM: I am confident Venkaiah Naidu will serve nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building: PM



#7:20 PM: Thank those who voted for me;was expecting handsome performance by united vote of opposition parties & I'm more than satisfied: GK Gandhi

Congratulate #VenkaiahNaidu Garu on his victory, wish him all the best for his new office: Gopalkrishna Gandhi #VicePresidentialElection pic.twitter.com/MiBx12O3J4 a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Opposition will never compromise on ideology whether we face defeat or victory. Thank all those who voted against NDA: GN Azad, Congress pic.twitter.com/ucCN3ZvLjC a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#7:10 PM:A NDA's Venkaiah Naidu is India's new Vice-President, wins with over 500 votes; Gandhi gets 240+ votes

#6:10 PM: Vice Presidential elections: Vote counting begins, NDA's Venkaiah Naidu poised to winA

#6:00 PM:14 MPs absent from voting; 2 from BJP, 2 from INC, 2 from IUML, 4 from TMC, 1 from NCP; 1 from PMK & 2 Independent

#5:20 PM:A Counting for Vice Presidential Election to begin at 6 pm.

#5:00 PM:A Voting for Vice Presidential Election ends. Total 771 out of 785 votes polled, 98.21% poll percentage recorded.

#761 out of 785 votes polled till 3 PM

#A 713 votes polled till now. the results will be out by today evening.

# The picture will be clear by this evening,A A Home Minister Rajnath Singh said after casting his vote.

Picture will be clear by this evening: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on #VicePresidentialElection pic.twitter.com/zosdCdQZ4s a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

# Not only here but whenever voting takes place, every citizen should vote: Sachin Tendulkar, RS MP

Not only here but whenever voting takes place, every citizen should vote:Sachin Tendulkar,RS MP after casting vote #VicePresidentialElection pic.twitter.com/6vJm7yPpLV a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#A Rajya Sabha MP Rekha and Lok Sabha MP Dimple Yadav cast their vote for Vice Presidential Election at the Parliament.

#Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Rekha and Lok Sabha MP Dimple Yadav after casting their vote for #VicePresidentialElection at the Parliament. pic.twitter.com/TaAOutDyjb a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#A Delhi: Voting underway for Vice Presidential Election in Parliament; Congress president Sonia Gandhi cast her vote.

Delhi: Voting underway for #VicePresidentialElection in Parliament; Congress president Sonia Gandhi cast her vote. pic.twitter.com/yoHuVM3EBO a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#A Former PM Manmohan Singh, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi, former deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani at Parliament

#VicePresidentialElection: Former PM Manmohan Singh, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi, former deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani at Parliament. pic.twitter.com/7WokgSGHd3 a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#A I think we will miss him (Venkaiah Naidu) in one place, but you will see more in action in another place: Goa CM & RS MP Manohar Parrikar

I think we will miss him (#VenkaiahNaidu) in one place, but you will see more in action in another place: Goa CM & RS MP #ManoharParrikar. pic.twitter.com/MFOC3hHHqd a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#A Voting underway for Vice Presidential Election in Parliament; MPs cast their vote.

#A Voting underway for A Vice Presidential Election in Parliament, PM Narendra Modi cast his vote.

Voting underway for #VicePresidentialElection in Parliament, PM Narendra Modi cast his vote. pic.twitter.com/EkndDuBQK0 a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#A Can't call it 1 sided as there were 2 candidates, Meiraji got a lot of votes but only one emerges as winner: Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Pres polls

Can't call it 1 sided as there were 2 candidates,Meiraji got a lot of votes but only one emerges as winner:Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Pres polls pic.twitter.com/xLHN0X9PBl a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#A It is a fight based on constitutional principles, where I maintained complete civility & same has been done from another side too: G Gandhi

#A NDA's candidate is an experienced person, no competition as such between us, only technically there is: Opposition VP candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi

#A MPs have started arriving to cast their votes in Parliament.

#VicePresidentialElection: MPs arrive to cast their votes in Parliament. pic.twitter.com/BwYbFBQEEy a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

# NDAas candidate M Venkaiah Naidu reached Parliament to cast his vote.

#Delhi: NDA's Vice Presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu reached Parliament to cast vote #VicePresidentialElection pic.twitter.com/CeqGzi2zs3 a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

#A Voting to elect Indiaas next vice-president begins in Parliament: TV reports

#A I am not contesting against anybody, individual or party; I'm contesting for Vice President of India: Venkaiah Naidu

# Delhi: NDA's Vice Presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu reached Parliament to cast vote

#A I am a non-party man. Majority of parties in India are supporting my candidature, confident that they all will vote in election: Venkaiah

I have written a polite letter to everybody, response is very good.Confident that they all will support me:NDA's VP candidate Venkaiah Naidu pic.twitter.com/2Iwjt8AftO a ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

# Voting yet to take place, I am going to cast my vote: Venkaiah Naidu, NDA's Vice Presidential candidate

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By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Aug 5 (PTI) The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha today moved the state finance department for attachment of Rs 63.55 crore deposited by Hi-Tech group of companies as per the orders of the Supreme Court as condition for granting bail.

Hi-Tech Groups senior functionaries Tirupati Panigrahi, Tirupati Choudhury and Madhusudan Panigrahi have deposited the amount in the apex court for getting bail in connection.

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They were arrested in connection with massive land fraud case through ponzi scheme and the EOW had registered cases against the group on the basis of allegeations.

After deposition of the amount by the group, Odisha government had moved the apex court seeking permission for attaching of the money for equitable distribution among the duped investors.

The Supreme Court had on July 25 allowed the state government to attach the amount deposited by Hi-Tech group.

The EOW has therefore moved the government for issuing ad-interim attachment order in respect of the amount so that it can be equitably distributed among duped investors. PTI AAM KK LNS

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi:

Former Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu is set to contest with former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the post of Vice-President of India today. Members of Parliament will use special pens for marking their choice in the election to be held between 10 AM and 5 PM.

The counting of votes will commence after polling and the results will be declared by 7:00 PM. Venkaiah Naidu appears to have an edge over Gopal Krishna Gandhi in the polls as the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has majority in the 545-member Lok Sabha.

Know all about Gopal Krishna Gandhi

Gopal Krishna Devdas Gandhi, the opposition's candidate for the Vice-Presidential elections, is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.

The weight of the surname notwithstanding, the former bureaucrat and diplomat has sought to emerge in recent times as the nations conscience keeper.

ALSO READ: Vice Presidential Poll 2017: Know all about M Venkaiah Naidu

The retired IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, who served as Indias high commissioner to South Africa, Lesotho and Sri Lanka and as ambassador to Norway and Iceland, has held academic and titular posts in bodies such as the Indian Institute for Advanced Study in Shimla.

More recently, he joined the privately-run Ashoka University on the outskirts of Delhi as guest faculty.

Married to Tara Gandhi and father of two daughters, he was earlier secretary to the Governor of Tamil Nadu, to the Vice President and to the President of India. Fond of Carnatic classical and popular Hindi music, the soft-spoken and mild-mannered retired bureaucrat, whose editor father Devdas was the Mahatmas youngest son, studied at Delhis Modern School and graduated in English from St Stephens College.

READ: Vice Presidential Poll 2017| NDAs Naidu to face Oppns Gandhi

Gandhi had almost emerged as the Oppositions Presidential candidate choice but the NDAs nomination of Ramnath Kovind, a Dalit, had forced the joint front of the Congress-led parties to field another prominent Dalit face, Meira Kumar.

He is also a prolific writer and has penned several volumes on Gandhi, a play in verse on Dara Shukoh and a Hindi translation of Vikram Seths - A Suitable Boy. Further, Gandhi has also been a columnist in newspapers.

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New Delhi:

When US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), offered the job opening for a 'Planetary Protection Officer', liitle did they know that it would cross all the age barriers and receive a zealous letter from a 9-year-old.

Jack Davis, a fourth-grader in New Jersey wrote a hand-written letter to NASA asking if he could apply for the position. Describing himself as a Guardian of the Galaxy, Jack asserted that despite his young age, he thinks he would be "fit for the job".

Adding up to his abilities he stated that he has great video game skills and has seen many space movies, that would make him perfect for the position.

Seeing a streak in this young space enthusiast, Dr. James L. Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, responded to Jack's letter, writing that the I hear you are a Guardian of the Galaxy and that youre interested in being a NASA Planetary Protection Officer. Thats great!

Although the Planetary Protection Officer position may not be in real-life what the title conjures up, it does play an important role in promoting the responsible exploration of our solar system by preventing microbial contamination of other planets and our own, NASA writes in the press release.

Jonathan Rall - NASA's planetary research director - also rang up Davis "to congratulate him on his interest in the position", the press release further added.

The job opening for a 'Planetary Protection Officer' has created a lot of excitement among the public as it will pay whopping $187,000 (141,000) to the selected candidate for this role.

However, the job is not easy and comes with a lot of complications which is why NASA is giving away a hefty salary for the post.

Read more: Gigantic storm about the size of Earth observed on Neptune

While the title of the job suggests that the 'Planetary Protection Officer' is supposed to prevent the destruction of the Earth, but the job requires a broader focus. The officer will actually be responsible for helping to prevent NASA from destroying other worlds just as much as they are protecting the Earth.

When 4th grader and self-proclaimed Guardian of the Galaxy, Jack, wrote to us about applying for a job, we replied https://t.co/932pj3Q50B pic.twitter.com/RhcGdnzGAw  NASA (@NASA) August 4, 2017

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Beijing:

China is planning a "small scale military operation" to "expel" Indian troops from the Doklam area "within two weeks", an article in a state-run daily here said today.



India and China have been locked in a prolonged standoff in the area in the Sikkim sector since June 16 after Chinese troops began constructing a road near the Bhutan trijunction.



Bhutan has protested to China, saying the area belonged to it and accused Beijing of violating agreements that aim to maintain the status quo until the boundary dispute is resolved.



India says the Chinese action to construct the road was unilateral and changes the status quo. It fears the road would allow China to cut off India's access to its northeastern states.



"China will not allow the military standoff between China and India in Doklam to last for too long, and there may be a small-scale military operation to expel Indian troops within two weeks," Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences was quoted by the Global Times.



The "expert" wrote in the daily that the "Chinese side will inform the Indian foreign ministry before its operation."

Also read: In a Dragon vs Tiger clash, who holds the edge? Indian military's strength check



To peacefully resolve the impasse, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said that both the sides should first pull back their troops and hold dialogue.



Swaraj on Thursday again asserted that war cannot resolve anything. She said India was engaged with China to resolve differences and advocated patience.



Her ministry's spokesman Gopal Baglay yesterday said India was in close coordination with Bhutan over the Dokal issue.



But the Chinese media, particularly the Global Times tabloid, has unleashed a barrage of anti-India rhetoric in recent weeks amid tensions between the two countries.



In Saturday's article, the researcher also cited a state-run CCTV report about live fire exercises in Tibet recently.



Hu continued: "India has adopted an immature policy toward China in recent years. Its development is not at the same level as China's. It only wants to seek disputes in an area which originally has no disputes to gain bargaining chips."



The military standoff comes ahead of the BRICS Summit in the Chinese city of Xiamen early next month, where leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will meet.

Suggested Read: China's claims on Arunachal Pradesh meaningless: Chinese scholar

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Tehran:

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has inaugurated for a second term. Rouhani warned the US against tearing up the nuclear deal. He is also facing challenges closer to home amid accusations he is rolling over to conservatives.



Before the ceremony, Rouhani met with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and called for greater efforts to safeguard the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in the face of new US sanctions.

"Iran will not be the first to violate the nuclear deal... but nor will it stay silent when the US fails to respect its commitments," he told the packed parliament hall. "Iran has proved that it will respond to respect with respect, and to sanctions and threats with an appropriate response and with resistance," he added.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe also attended the ceremony which came two days after Rouhani was officially sworn in by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The emir of Qatar, which has fallen out with its Gulf allies in part over ties to Iran, was notably absent, despite attending Rouhani's last inauguration in 2013.

But among Iranians, the real attention was on who would be named to Rouhani's new cabinet. He has already been barraged with criticism over indications that women would again be entirely absent and that this reformist allies would barely be represented.

Rouhani's last government had three women among a large cohort of vice-presidents, but they lacked ministerial rolesthat would require approval by parliament.

Also Read: Donald Trump signs bill imposing sanctions on Russia, Iran, North Korea

"It was the reformists that allowed him to win the elections in 2013 and 2017... he must listen to those who supported him," Rassoul Montajabnia of the reformist National Confidence party told the Arman newspaper. Rouhani won a convincing victory over hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi in the May presidential election, vowing to continue rebuilding ties with the West and easing social restrictions at home. That helped win over the reformists -- whose candidates dropped out of the last two elections to ensure his victory.

"Rouhani created a lot of expectation and now there is a sense that he is retreating from his promises," said AliShakourirad, head of the reformist People's Unity Party. The absence of women was down to pressure from religious conservatives behind the scenes, Shakourirad said. "Rouhani didn't want to make his task any more complicated than it already is," he told AFP.

The final line-up is due to be announced in coming days, and must then be approved by parliament. Despite the furore, the reshuffle is not expected to touch big names such as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh. "The main ministers are very likely to stay in place," said Henry Smith, Iran analyst with consultancy Control Risks.

"Rouhani will have a fairly smooth time getting parliament to approve his appointees. He's been doing back and forth consultations with the necessary power centres -- the parliament speaker, supreme leader, the Revolutionary Guards-- and I don't think you'll see a significant change in economic or indeed the social policy," he added.

Despite his efforts to build backroom consensus, hardliners have given Rouhani a rough ride since his election, perhaps worried at the growing strength of the reformists. The arrest of his brother on corruption charges was interpreted by some as a shot across the bow by the hardline judiciary.

Also Read:UN Council to vote on US-drafted tougher North Korean sanctions

Rouhani also triggered a war of words with the Revolutionary Guards after criticising their outsized role in the economy, although analysts say this is part of a cautious realignment of Iran's policies to balance its security priorities with the need to attract investment.

"Rouhani has no interest in pushing the Revolutionary Guards totally out of the economy. It's about creating enough space so Iran can get the foreign investment and technology it needs," said Smith. Investment has belatedly started to arrive in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal that eased sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear programme, notably through last month's billion-dollar gas deal with France's Total and China's CNPC. Billions more are needed to jump-start the stagnant economy and tackle a jobless rate of 12.7 per cent.

But with Washington imposing yet more sanctions this week, Iran's re-engagement with the world remains largely stalled. "The problem is Iran feels the need to react to these moves by the US, which just gives the US fuel," said Smith. Mogherini held a meeting ahead of the inauguration with Zarif, who criticised European governments for their support of US calls for UN action in response to an Iranian satellite launch on July 27. "This is the wrong path," Zarif said.

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Islamabad:

Pakistan on Friday said that it is committed to peacefully resolving the Kashmir issue and will extend its political and diplomatic support to the people of the Valley.



Pakistans Foreign Office, in a statement, accused the Indian security forces of using live ammunition and pellet guns against Kashmiris.



It said the deteriorating human rights situation in the Valley has serious implications for the regional peace and security.



Pakistan remains committed to peacefully resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and will continue to extend its moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, it said amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC).



It called upon the international community to take notice of the grave human rights crisis in the Valley.

Suggested read: Pakistan has increased attempts to push terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir, says Arun Jaitley

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Istanbul:

Turkish news agencies say the country has increased its military presence along its southern border against threats from Kurdish militants in war-torn northern Syria.



The official Anadolu news agency said on Saturday that Turkey dispatched artillery to Kilis province to reinforce units there.



The six-vehicle convoy included tanks and howitzers to be positioned across Kurdish-controlled Syrian region of Afrin, according to the private Dogan news agency.



Turkey has been vehemently opposed to the presence of the People's Protection Units, or YPG, in northern Syria. Turkey considers the YPG, a key US ally in fighting the ISIS in Syria, a terror group and an extension of Kurdish militants operating inside Turkey.



In late April, Turkey relocated military units to Sanliurfa province across from another YPG-controlled area.

Also read: Turkey detains 44 people over Istanbul terror attacks

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New Delhi:

The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-drafted resolution that aims to slash one-third of $ 3 billion annual export of North Korea on Saturday over Pyongyangs two inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in July.

The draft was circulated to 15 Security Council members on Friday. The resolution needs nine votes and no vetoes by the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China.

The US-drafted resolution aims to ban North Koreas export of coal, iron, iron ore, lead ore and seafood. The resolution will also ban countries from increasing the numbers of North Korean labourers working, ban new joint ventures and any new investment with country.

A Reuters report quoting one of its source from the council diplomat wrote, These are export sectors where this money is viewed as a critical source of hard money.

The article further read, The North immediately turns around into its fantastically expensive war machine and these just amazingly expensive ballastic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

The article further read quoting the diplomat that the sanctions are not targeted at the people of North Korean.

The diplomat further told the news agency that there was a high confidence that China and Russia, who are allies of North Korean would support the US-drafted resolution.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. According the the report published in the agency North Korea has been estimated to earn $400 million from coal, $251 million from iron and iron ore, $113 million from lead and lead ore and $295 million from seafood in 2017.

According to United Nations human rights investigator North Korea has forced more than 50,000 people to work abroad, earning the country between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion a year for the Korean government.

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By India Today Web Desk: India-born UK economist and politician Meghnad Desai predicted this week that India and China, currently engaged a high-stakes military standoff on the Doklam plateau near the Sikkim border, could soon come to a full-scale war.

Desai, a member of the British House of Lords (UK's equivalent of the Rajya Sabha) and a known commentator on south Asian affairs, linked the Doklam standoff to events in the South China Sea and predicted that the war would be fought in multiple theatres and would involve the United States, which, Desai said, would be on India's side.

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Desai's comments came in an interview that he gave to news agency IANS's Saket Sharma. "Even today, nobody is contemplating that the whole Doklam thing could break anytime. We could be in a full scale war with China within a month. At that stage it will not be controllable. It may come as a surprise, but that is when the defence co-operation of India (with various countries) will bear fruit," Desai says in the interview.

Saying that he cannot exactly predict when and where a full-scale military conflict may break out, Desai pictured a war that would be fought on multiple fronts - from the mountains of the Himalayas to the waters of South China Sea.

"I am not a jyotisi (astrologer). I cannot say what day or date but I think at this time it is very likely that we will be in a state of full-scale war with China very soon. And mind you, on several fronts, not just Doklam. It is just one frontier, they will start from all places, across the northern Himalayas," Desai said.

THE AMERICA ANGLE

Desai, notably, said that the current standoff in Doklam should not be viewed merely as a Indo-Sino face off. He went on to say that how the Doklam standoff would ultimately get resolved depends not just on negotiations between New Delhi and Beijing but on "what happens in the South China Sea".

"All things that follow now will have a lot to do with what happens in the South China Sea. The US has sent out enough signals. If there is war, it will be a US-China war, with India on the US side, in the South China Sea and in the Himalayas. This trio (India, China and the US) is a very combustible mixture right now," Desai told IANS.

Desai was also asked separately and directly whether the United States would stand with India in case a war does break out between the two nuclear-armed Asian countries. "Absolutely," the Padma Bhushan recipient said. "Ultimately, you have to understand that India cannot stand up to China without American help and support. America cannot stand up to China without Indian help. That is the symmetry in this relationship."

'BE WARY OF CHINA'

Expounding his assertion that India and China would soon go to war, Desai cautioned New Delhi against being complacent with judging Beijing's military capabilities, warning that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is not the Pakistani Army.

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"I think, from past experience, we always assume that we are well prepared but you will be fighting one of the finest armies in the world. It is a very powerful army and I think they also have (much) training in mountain warfare," Desai said.

"So, according to me, it will be a very tough fight for India. Don't be mistaken that this will be easy. It is not Pakistan. The Pakistani Army is the same set of people. They come from the same army traditions and they have the same thinking but the Chinese are very different."

Noting that China has been unusually "nationalistic, militaristic and aggressive" over the Doklam standoff, the noted economist went on to add, "I am sure we are not told everything that is going on. But my worry is even though India will not openly become militaristic but have we got the preparedness for it? We may have things in place. I just wish and hope that we are prepared for a very tough war which may last for a long time."

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DOKLAM STANDOFF

For nearly 50 days now, soldiers from the Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army have been positioned on the Doklam plateau, reportedly just 150 feet away from each other.

The standoff began in mid-June when Bhutanese soldiers, objecting to the PLA construction a metal road near the India-China-Bhutan trijuntion point, sought India's help to keep the Chinese at bay.

Indian soldiers responded by physically blocking the Chinese troops from proceeding with their construction. Since then, soldiers from the two armies have stayed put near the trijunction point, engaged a high-stakes but non-violent face off.

Beijing has responded belligerently to the issue, accusing India of entering Chinese territory (the area where the standoff is taking place is in fact disputed between China and Bhutan) and demanding a non-conditional withdrawal of Indian troops.

Chinese media, particularly the hawkish Global Times, have been even more hostile, sometimes bringing up India's 1962 loss to China and at other times, saying that the PLA can 'annihilate' the Indian Army.

New Delhi, on the other hand, has largely been silent except to issue firm, carefully worded statements on the issue and there is no indication of how and when the unusual standoff might end.

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ALSO READ | Doklam border standoff: Will there be an India-China war?

ALSO READ | Doklam: What China stands to lose if it goes to war with India

ALSO WATCH | Doklam standoff: Will conflict with India be disastrous for China?

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Manohar Parrikar knows he must win the August 23 Panaji by-election to remain chief minister of Goa. It had all seemed a big challenge until July 25, when Atanasio Monserrate, the opposition Congress's most likely choice against Parrikar, joined the Goa Forward Party, an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Panaji had been abuzz that Parrikar would have a tough time if challenged by Monserrate, particularly owing to the chief minister's vacillation over the shifting of offshore casinos, illegal mining and the Vishva Hindu Parishad's call for a ban on beef consumption in the state. Monserrate, known for his politicking skills, is very popular. His wife Jennifer is a Congress MLA from neighbouring Taligaon, and a front he heads is in power in the Panaji Municipal Corporation. But an astute Parrikar used his personal rapport with Monserrate to cajole him into the NDA fold.

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Stumped by the development, Goa Congress chief Shantaram Naik had proposed former Panaji mayor Ashok Naik as a candidate against Parrikar. Naik, who is known for his clean image, quit the BJP in November 2016 to join the Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM), an outfit floated by RSS workers and sympathisers to make Konkani mandatory in primary education in Goa. After Naik turned down the Congress's offer, the party has finalised its state spokesperson, Girish Chodankar, as its candidate against Parrikar.

But the GSM, which claims sizeable support in Panaji and would like to see Parrikar lose, isn't sure about fielding Naik. While its president Anand Shirodkar says anyone who can defeat Parrikar will be fielded, vice-president Kiran Nayak wants the Congress to withdraw from the contest and support the GSM nominee.

It's all music to the BJP's ears. "We are eagerly waiting for the by-poll," says state BJP chief Vinay Tendulkar, confident of victory. Some of his confidence is based on the fact that Parrikar has been winning the Panaji seat since 1994, except for the brief hiatus when he moved to Delhi as Union defence minister.

There's a second by-election at Valpoi, where state health minister Vishwajit Rane, who defected from the Congress within a week of being elected in March, is the BJP candidate. He faces a stiff challenge from a younger rival, Roy Naik, fielded by the Congress. Notably, even if it wins both Panaji and Valpoi, the BJP, which has 12 seats, will remain eight short of a simple majority and dependent on its allies.

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About 1,700 acres in northwestern Connecticut area already protected under the federal Highlands Conservation Act, and this week a bill was introduced to reinstate and preserve federal funds to protect more land until 2021.

Though the act expired in 2014, Congress has allocated millions of dollars each year since to continue to protect land in the highlands region, which covers 3.5 million acres in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. About 28 towns make up Connecticuts region, including Danbury, Brookfield, Sherman, New Fairfield, New Milford, Kent and Washington.

Since the act was passed in 2004, Connecticut has received about $5.5 million in federal funds, said Graham Stevens, of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which administers the program locally for the federal government.

Its the single most important source of federal land protection money for Connecticut outside of the Farm Bill, said Tim Abbott, the greenprint director for the

Housatonic Valley Association, which spearheads the highlands conservation effort in the state. Its indispensable.

The act was used to protect former Girl Scout Camp Francis and the West Aspetuck Preserve, both in Kent, as well as Towner Hill and Eastman, both in Sherman.

However, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., one of the legislators who introduced the bill, said no money is allocated this year in President Donald Trumps budget.

Thats why we need to mount a full-court press, Blumenthal said.

The bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Bob Casey, D-Penn.

Blumenthal said the lack of funding and the threat of development facing the region prompted them to submit the bill. Losing the natural landscape of the highlands would threaten the native species as well as the water quality.

The creep of commercial and residential construction is heading north towards our Massachusetts border, he said. Our highlands are in jeopardy.

Blumenthal said the program has a lot of congressional support.

Abbott has seen the evidence of this with the continued allocations. He said Connecticut has received more since the program expired than in the 10 years it was active. Last year, Congress authorized up to $10 million for the program  the maximum annual amount awarding Connecticut about $2.4 million.

Even with this support, he said the bill is needed to ensure continued funding and reinforce a policy to administer the program.

He said the Highlands Conservation Act has been well received because its a public-private partnership.

The act requires a matching local donation for every federal dollar. For many, the states open-space grants help meet that figure and towns, land trusts and other organizations close the gap. For every highlands dollar spent, another $3.70 was generated.

Another benefactor, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R,-N.J., chairs the House Committee on Appropriations and has been supportive of the highlands, which runs through his district, Abbott said.

Connie Mane, the executive director for the Kent Land Trust, said public-private partnerships are crucial for land trusts in Connecticut, where land values are so high and too expensive for a trust to purchase by itself. She said acquiring the former Girl Scout camp in 2014 wouldnt have been possible without the highlands money.

Its absolutely critical that this program continue, she said. Its having its intended effect and the return has been great.

Blumenthal said preserving the land translates to economic development.

Environmental treasures also have economic value, he said. They attract tourists and other kinds of resources that preserve and use the beauty of the land in a wise way.

Stevens said most of the protected land is used for outdoor recreation, such as hiking.

It certainly is a benefit to the community to protect the land in perpetuity, he said.

Stevens said 800 or 900 acres are in line to be preserved if funding is approved.

Weve made great progress so far preserving the Highlands, but we have more work to do, Murphy said in a statement. This bill will go a long way in helping protect this critical ecosystem for centuries.
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DANBURY - After Sam Marino took his own life more than seven years ago, his friend Robert King attended the memorial service and set up a Facebook page in his honor. Marinos parents were grateful for Kings support and compassion, because he had always seemed to be a good influence on their 26-year-old son, who struggled for years to overcome a drug addiction.

As time passed, Lin and Michael Marino came to terms with their grief, and Lin believed Sams spirit was always hovering nearby.

But that hard-won peace was shattered one morning last spring, when she looked at the front page of her local paper. King had been charged with running a sex-trafficking ring he built by getting troubled young men hooked on drugs and maneuvering them into prostitution.

One of the victims had committed suicide after writing a note to King, the story said, and the note was quoted in the story.

Sam had been diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and spent years in special education classes, and Marino said she instantly recognized his writing.

I felt so angry at Bob at myself guilty ashamed and discusted, it read. What hapend was an act of survival I was minibilated and taken advantage of. It wasnt my falt. It wasnt my falt. it wasnt my falt. I love my self for who I am and were I am going.

As Lin read, she realized with horror that King had been prostituting her son.

I began to scream, she recalled. My legs fell out from underneath me.

Compounding the horror was a feeling of guilt, because Lin and her family had known and trusted King. Each time Sam had come of out rehab, King was there to greet him, and the Marinos thought he was doing what he could to keep Sam on the straight path.

But what once looked like compassion and concern now looked more sinister  an effort on Kings part to ensure that Sam would not get free of him.

Fearless

Marino said her son had been a challenge to raise, because he had no fear.

Academics hadnt been his strength, but he excelled in every sport he tried, from diving to wakeboarding to BMX racing. By the time he became a teenager, he had already broken his collarbone four times.

After high school, Sam decided to move to Hawaii - a place he had never been and where he had no friends.

He was just so brave, his mother said. He would find work at different plantations, go cliff diving, things like that.

Upon his return, Sam began working in the construction trade.

He would complain that he was in pain every night after work, Marino said. He began to take Oxycontin to help with the pain. When that wasnt enough, we believe thats when he moved on to heroin.

Marino said her son was determined to kick his drug habit, because he checked himself into rehab facilities several times. She believes he met King at one of these facilities, and Kings concern for him seemed genuine.

Every time Sam was released from a rehab facility, King would be waiting for him at the front door.

I know that Sam wanted to be clean and be part of our family, Lin Marino said. Now I know he never had a chance.

King does seem to have been attached to Sams memory. According to his arrest warrant affidavit, he kept a shrine to Sam inside the mobile home on Danburys West Side that was the headquarters of the sex ring.

Authorities have said that King ran the ring for more than two decades, and more than a dozen victims are listed in the affidavit. But Joel Faxon, an attorney representing the Marinos and other families in a civil case against King, said there might be hundreds of victims - most of whom have yet to come forward.

The day that Marino read about the prostitution ring, she got a phone call from the FBI. She knew what it was about.

The agent told me that there was no way we could have know what was happening, because they were extremely sophisticated in how they operated the ring, Marino said. But as parents the guilt is insurmountable. Its the responsibility of a parent to protect their children.

These monsters were in our home, she continued. They infiltrated our family. We were totally fooled. We thought King was a good guy.

King was arrested in March by Danbury police on a charge of human trafficking. Two of his purported clients, William Trefzger, a previously convicted sex offender from Westport, and Bruce J. Bemer, a businessman from Glastonbury, were also arrested on charges of patronizing a trafficked person.

Criminal cases are still pending against Trefzger and King, who are each being held on $500,000 bond. Bemer, the owner of the Waterford Speedbowl and several other businesses, posted a $500,000 bond shortly after his arrest.

The Marinos also knew Trefzger, who Sam had lived with a short time before his death.

He told me he was a former Green Beret and that he liked to take in kids like Sam in and help them out, said Michael Marino, Sams father. We were all pretty shocked when the news came out. It was real hard to bring it all back again and reading it in the paper and not knowing what was happening. It was tough.

These guys are monsters, he continued. King even came to our house for Thanksgiving dinner and told us how much of a good kid Sam was. And the whole time they were just lying to us and playing some game. These guys are snakes.

Earlier this year, Lin Marino had decided to have some old home movies of Sam transferred to DVD. She hadnt watched them for years  the pain of seeing him as a baby was too great  but she had finally reached a point where she felt ready to see them again.

Then came the revelations from the newspaper.

It was more or less equal to Sam dying all over again, Marino said. This nightmare has taken us back so many steps. I still have nightmares every night of Sam being abused.

Shortly after the news broke Marino went for a hike in the woods to clear her head. She found a broken and bent piece of plastic that she thought looked much like an angels wing.

I like to think it was a sign from my son, that he is still with me, Marino said. Since then Ive found other similar wings while taking walks and have given them to some of Sams friends and relatives.

Marino now regularly sees a therapist to help her with the grief, and she hopes other families and victims do the same.

I just hope that other victims and their families are seeking the help they need to recover from this, she said.

As for King and the others accused of exploiting Sam and others, I really hope they never see the light of day again.

DPerrefort@newstimes.com
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) The government may introduce a bill to amend the no detention policy provision in the Right to Education (RTE) Act that does not allow children to be failed till class VIII, in the current session of Parliament itself, officials said today.

The government may bring a bill in this session that would allow states the liberty to decide whether they want to detain children, in class V and VIII, after holding an exam, an official said, two days after the Union Cabinet gave a nod to such a proposal.

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However, the students will be given a second chance to improve by conducting another examination before they are detained, the official said.

It is expected that in the winter session of Parliament the bill would be cleared, he added.

According to an official, over 20 states had wanted a change in the policy as it was felt that it had resulted in a dip in educational standards.

It was observed that the drop-out rate after class IX suddenly went up, the official said.

At present, Class IX is when exams in which students can be failed are held, the official added.

However, some states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were not too keen as they felt that the system of continuous evaluation was working out fine, the official said.

He added that after the amendment a choice would be left to the states as to whether they want to detain students or not.

The official said that modalities like from which session the provision could be taken up would also be discussed in a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). PTI ADS KUN

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Congress workers took out a protest rally outside Prakash Mehta's residence in Ghatkopar area of Mumbai demanding his resignation over graft charges against him.

By Mayuresh Ganapatye: Mumbai Congress today took out a protest rally outside Housing Minister Prakash Mehta's residence in Ghatkopar area demanding his resignation over graft charges against him. This time, Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam had come with a resignation application of Prakash Mehta and demanded he should sign that.

"His involvement is clear in corruption of SAR scheme. If CM can remove IAS Mopalwar for graft charges and initiate inquiry against SAR chief Mr Patil, then why he is not removing Prakash Mehta from his ministerial berth. We want his resignation and that is why we are protesting outside his residence," said Sanjay Nirupam.

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From past two days, united Opposition is stalling the Maharashstra state Assembly over the corruption charges against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta. Though, CM has initiated an inquiry in the matter, but have not removed Mehta from ministerial berth.

If Mehta had to go then it will be embarrassing situation for Fadnavis govt as they will be losing their another cabinet minister after Eknath Khadse over graft charges.

While speaking with media on Friday, minister Prakah Mehta said, "I will resign only if CM asks me."

In a fresh attack, LOP Radhakrishna Vikhepatil alleged that Mehta's son Harsh and some other relatives had been wrongly shown as tenants on two parcels of land in Ghatkopar and made beneficiaries of flats under the slum rehabilitation scheme.

ALSO READ:

Clamour grows for Maharashtra housing minister Prakash Mehta's resignation

Now, Congress wants no mention of Bofors, Emergency in Maharashtra Board's Class 9 books

--- ENDS ---
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SEYMOUR >> Dreams really do come true  just ask entrepreneur Larry Janesky, founder and CEO of Basement Systems Inc.

Janeskys humble beginnings date back to 1987 when he began a business to fix leaky basements based out his 900-square-foot home on Clayton Street in Devon. Fast-forward 30 years, and Janeskys determination and innovative spirit has evolved into a 356,000-square-foot empire that dominates the Silvermine Industrial Park off Route 67.

Basement Systems was born out of Janeskys desire to fix a crack in a foundation he found while working as a carpenter, renovating an old Colonial home. The company has grown into one of the worlds largest networks of water-proofing, basement finishing and crawlspace repair groups.

And as companies continue to downsize or leave Connecticut, Janesky, 52, is defying a dry spell through his tradition of expansion and growth. He celebrated the 30th anniversary of Basement Systems last week, with the grand opening of yet another major expansion.

The 77,000-square-foot, high-tech gem is a dream come true for Janesky. This latest expansion brings Basement Systems total number of buildings at the Seymour world headquarters to nine.

This is the most incredible home improvement contractor building in the world, said Janesky. Its been three years in the making and its a great symbol of our belief in growth.

The three-story building features a state-of-the-art auditorium for training and entertaining up to 350 people, 48 bays that hold up to 100 trucks, and a sleek, modern design that connects workers from across the company. It also serves as the main training center for the Contractor Nation School of Entrepreneurship, which provides live leadership training as well as an online program for contractors so they can reach an even greater level of success, according to Janesky.

A cafe on the lower level is named Leslies Place, for Janeskys mother, who passed away last year; it boasts vintage wooden tables and old schoolhouse-style chairs.

Janesky, a father of three, owns nearly 30 patents on basement and crawlspace products, has authored five books and received numerous awards and accolades. In addition, Basement Systems is Seymours largest employer, with 315 employees, and one of the towns top 10 taxpayers.

Basement Systems has expanded into several sister companies, including Connecticut Basement Systems Inc., CleanSpace, Total Basement Finishing Inc., Relia-Serve Corp., Foundation Supportworks Inc. and Dr. Energy Saver Inc. The company has more than 350 dealers and franchises in six countries.

Growing the company didnt come easy for Janesky, who didnt go to college. Through reading motivational books on business, personal growth and related topics, Janesky learned to believe in himself. His entrepreneurial roots are steeped in everything from a newspaper delivery route to his own carpentry business.

My dream existed in courage and determination and survived through persistence and bold action, Janesky told an audience of more than 100 people during this weeks grand opening. He became emotional as he shared slides of the small home in which he began the business, alongside the massive complex the business has grown into.

Janesky has designed each of his buildings, all boasting themed areas, such as the Internet Marketing Department that operates out of a treehouse; the International Call Space area reminiscent of an old mining town; and the video team that works in a room resembling a space station.

Janesky thrives on sharing his success with others. Last year, he reached out to the Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center, and before long a brand-new, state-of-the-art wooden playground  with airplanes, swings and more  emerged thanks to Janesky and his employees, who volunteered their time for thousands of Valley kids.

Bill Purcell, president of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, lauded Janeskys continued investment here.

This state-of-the art facility is a strong symbol of the companys continued growth and diversification and speaks volumes about the economic vitality of our Valley region, Purcell said. Larry Janesky is an extraordinary entrepreneur and visionary, and we are truly grateful for this substantial real estate investment in our community.
WEST HAVEN >> Kevin Gilbert was just 12 when his oldest brother, James W. Gilbert Jr., was declared missing in action while fighting in Europe.

That was back on Feb. 8, 1946. World War II had just ended.

But James Gilbert never came home. He never returned to West Haven, where he grew up on Kelsey Avenue. He never resumed his life, never got married or had kids, never got to watch his siblings children grow up and get married, never went to work at Armstrong Rubber, where his father, James Sr., was an executive and several of his family members worked.

Hes the only known veteran from West Haven to be officially declared missing in action in World War II.

His family, including his youngest brother  now 82 and living in Orange  did their best to live their lives and move on without him.

But his story doesnt stop there.

Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media

Kevin Gilbert was too emotional to speak publicly Wednesday or to stand up in front of a bunch of TV cameras to accept the American flag that U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., presented to the Gilbert family at the West Haven Veterans Museum and Learning Center on behalf of a grateful nation.

He left that to his nephew Terrance Gilbert Jr. of West Haven.

But he shared his feelings afterward.

Because he was so young when his brother went off to war, I dont know enough about him, but I think about him all the time, Kevin Gilbert said. Im very proud, very proud to see the family so honored, and Im very proud of my nephew for doing what he did to arrange it, he said.

The road that led to Terrance Gilbert Jr.  whose late father, Terrance R. Gilbert Sr., also was Kevin Gilberts older brother  receiving the flag began when Terrance Jr. started going through old boxes of belongings, including things having to do with his late uncle, after Terrances grandparents (Kevin Gilberts parents) passed away.

Terrance Gilbert Jr.  whose father came home the same year his uncle was declared MIA  compiled medals honoring his uncles heroic service, as well as one of his military uniforms, which are now on display at the West Haven Veterans Museum, 30 Hood Terrace. The one thing missing from the public exhibit has been a United States flag, which the family never received after James Gilbert was declared missing.

The flag that Blumenthal presented to the family as a host of veterans and officials, including Mayor Ed OBrien and state Rep. Charles Ferraro, R-West Haven, looked on is certified to have flown over the U.S. Capitol, the senator said.

We will never know what James Gilbert would have done with his life, just as we will never know what might have been done  families raised, the days unseen, the 4th of July uncelebrated, by the countless men and women who sacrificed their lives during the Second World War, Blumenthal said.

But we know for sure that they inspired us  both James and Terrance and the Greatest Generation  inspired us to serve, inspired our sons and daughters, includding my two sons who have served in the military, he said. Their example led us. They led by example. They never asked for medals. ... They did it because they believed in America.

The heritage and legacy of these great men and women who gave their lives for America  and who then came back, many of them, and built America ... built the interstates, they desegregated the schools, they put a man on the moon, literally, Blumenthal said. They gave to America in war and in peace.

Blumenthal had praise for the city of West Haven, which he said is a community that truly honors and respects veterans.

I cant tell you how many veterans ceremonies I have been to in West Haven, he said. This community really believes in our veterans, not only on Veterans Day, not only on the 4th of July, but every day of the year.

Wednesdays ceremony also honored a living veteran, Korean War veteran Ed Kiczyinski Sr., who Blumenthal and Ferraro presented with South Koreas Ambassador for Peace Medal for his service during that war.

After receiving the flag, Terrance Gilbert Jr., who volunteers at the museum, thanked the senator and his staff on behalf of his family for helping honor our familys heroes.

After 71 years, this brings final closure to our family, he said. This also serves as a symbol for all men and women who have served this great country.

Gilbert encouraged the public to visit the museum and see how what its staff has built and have they have honored the nations veterans.

After the ceremony, Kevin Gilbert said it felt good to see his uncle recognized.

You know, I was born in this town. I knew Bill Soderman, Kevin Gilbert said, referring to West Havens only Medal of Honor winner, a bona fide war hero who passed away in 1980. I knew Bill Sodermans mother.

But in all of his years growing up in West Haven and living in Greater New Haven, Kevin Gilbert doesnt recall any previous public recognition of the sacrifice athat James Gilbert  and his entire family  made, he said.

Im terribly happy, Kevin Gilbert said.
NEW HAVEN >> When Ralph Miliones painting finally received the framing he sought, he couldnt really see what became of his work.

Milione, 91, remembers what his vibrant rendition of Michaelangelos Pieta looks like, but seeing the new frame is another task entirely. His eyesight is fading, so he held up his hands to use them as eyes. The World War II veteran dragged his hands along the golden frame to feel the tiny ridges and determine the fit was right.

I touched it. I touched the frame and know what its like, Milione said. Its a spiral then a straight edge then spirals.

The work was completed by Framed in Hamden, with the frame itself paid for by donations received by Milione following a Register story on his effort to get his painting framed. Two donations from East Haven attorneys Patricia Cofrancesco and Andrew Amendola helped pay for the frame, though Milione said he received donations from others, as well.

Milione would like to have the painting, which now hangs in a bedroom in his home, hung in local churches. Liz Hellwig, owner at Framed, said it took just a few days to frame the painting. Hellwig had previously helped Milione stretch the canvas to prepare it for framing.

It was an important piece for him and we wanted to make sure that it was framed to look its best, Hellwig said. The piece was 57 (inches) by 65 (inches), it was huge.

After reading the Register story, Cofrancesco said Miliones name sounded familiar. She wasnt immediately aware that she already owned a piece by Milione, who grew up with Cofrancescos father, Anthony, in New Haven.

I think hes hugely talented, Cofrancesco said. I didnt realize it until I talked to him, but he had already presented me with one of his paintings, which now hangs in my living room.

Cofrancesco first met Milione during a ceremony honoring veterans at Conte-West Hills Magnet School. A few days after the ceremony, whose honorees included Milione and Anthony Cofrancesco, Cofrancesco said Milione showed up to her office to give her the painting.

Its obvious that he loves what he does and thats keeping him active, Cofrancesco said. That seems to be the ticket for everybody.

As Memorial Day nears, Milione, who served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, has some other gifts he wishes to share. Some advice, the kind only a man thats lived as long as he has can share. For Milione, and surely thousands of other veterans, Memorial Day is an opportunity to join citizens in remembering the sacrifice made by their friends.

When I get up in the morning Memorial Day, I kneel down and I pray the good Lord to protect and I pray for all the boys that passed away in all the wars, Milione said. I pray for their souls and say that not only for the boys that have passed away in the present ... Middle East conflict.

His advice for others is to visit a veteran on that day, to ask them about their experiences.

Go talk to him. Spend a couple hours with a veteran, Milione said. A lot of them are waiting to tell their stories, but nobody has asked them.

Milione said that recognizing Memorial Day doesnt necessarily require expressing faith. He doesnt expect everyone to follow his example. He said when he prays, he does so for the buried servicemen and women interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and in Pearl Harbor, and in foreign places like London and Paris.

I believe they are heroes, that me, myself, I owe them so much (of) my life, Milione said. Without them giving their life, I wouldnt be here alive today. And I thank God and I thank all the faithful veterans who passed away giving up their youth, at 18, 17 years of age. Their entire life so I could survive.

Reach Esteban L. Hernandez at 203-680-9901.
ANSONIA >> When Fat Tuesday rolls around next year, there may or may not be a 20th Annual paczki-eating contest at 317 Main St. in Ansonia  and if there is, the joint hosting the celebration of the giant, jelly-filled Polish pastries may or may not still be called Eddys Bake Shop.

But either way, the Ciocca family, which has built Eddys Bake Shop, which it took over 53 years ago, into one of the longest-running and most celebrated baking juggernauts in the Valley  and for that matter the state of Connecticut  will be gone.

Twin brothers Paul and Mike Ciocca, who have been part of the heart and soul of the place since their parents, Americo and Janine Ciocca, took it over in 1967 when the guys were both 7 years old, will retire effective Aug. 27.

Why?

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Were tired of working 70-to-80 hours a week, said Paul Ciocca as a steady steam of customers came in Saturday afternoon for their doughnuts, chocolate drop cookies, cannolis and more elaborate cakes and such  not to mention the rye bread, with or without seeds, that Eddys is famous for.

I dont hate what I did. But I dont like the hours, Ciocca said.

Its been a long time. Ive been here since my dad took over, Paul Ciocca said. I was 7 years old.

Five decades later, Im still here, he said.

Word has been filtering out to Eddys legion of customers for about a month now, he said, and a large percentage of the customers know at this point, Paul Ciocca said.

But some still dont  and a couple of them just learned Saturday when they were asked about it by a reporter as they visited the bakery, located at 317 Main St.

Where will I go every Easter? one patron who had heard rumors but hadnt yet confirmed them asked in a July 16 post on the Eddys Bake Shop Facebook page. I love their raisin cookies, peanut butter bars, chocolate mousse cakes, etc!!!! The best rye bread! Please address the awful rumors!!!

While the rumors are basically true in that the brothers are retiring, its important to know that Eddys didnt begin and may not end with the Cioccas. It had two owners before them  Joe Weber and the original Eddy, who owned it before Weber.

And there is still hope that someone else may step in and take it over, Paul Ciocca said.

But asked whether any of his or his brothers kids ever considered taking the business over, Ciocca responded, I wouldnt let them.

He doesnt want his kids to work those kinds of hours, either, he said.

And his son Casey Ciocca, 26, said hes not interested in taking it over.

I never wanted it, Casey said. Im just here to help him out.

Im happy for him, he said of his father. Hes here almost every day  and we barely see him at home.

Will Casey miss the place?

No, Im ready... he said. Im ready for my dad to finally have a life...

The good news is that while the Ciocca brothers are retiring, its not a done deal that the bakery will close, Paul Ciocca said.

We have a woman whos interested in buying the place, Ciocca said, revealing what no doubt will be welcome news to many. Its close. So were hoping Eddys wont die.

Ciocca said hes hoping to be able to make an announcement soon.

If the woman does buy it, they will pass on all the recipes and work with her to get her up to speed on how they do what they do, he said.

But either way, he said, the place will be fully stocked until the day theyre done  and will have some enticing specials on rye bread and other goods during their last week.

Meanwhile, Casey Ciocca is starting to transition into a new career, He recently got a job at the Starbucks in Seymour, he said.

Its a bittersweet thing, Casey Ciocca said. Some of these people have been coming here for so long ... Some of them have known me since I was a little kid.

Sophie Kuczynski is one of them.

Theres not another bakery like Eddys, said Kuczynski, who grew up in Ansonia, now lives in Prospect and comes in every Saturday  no doubt passing another bakery or two on the way  to get some big, tasty Eddys Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies for her husband.

Ive been coming here since I was a little kid... Kuczynski said. Its sure a staple in Ansonia. Its one of the few businesses in Ansonia that has lasted through the years.

One key to Eddys success is that in a very diverse and VERY ethnic area, Eddys  located on a block that also includes a Polish restaurant and a Polish deli, an upscale Italian restaurant, a sushi and Asian food restaurant and a new restaurant that specializes in chicken sandwiches  Eddys has always covered the needs of multiple ethnicities.

In the Valley, they have to, Paul Ciocca said.

You want your seasonal paczkis (pronounced punch-keys)  a Polish treat, sort of like an oversized jelly doughnut, thats only available in the weeks leading up to Easter? Eddys has you covered.

Fresh, crunchy Italian cannolis? Check!

Some nice Eastern European babka or Jewish challah bread or hamantaschen? How many?

And crossing a few ethnic boundaries, theres that rye bread that Eddys has become pretty legendary for.

Im going to miss it  its the only (bakery) left in town, said longtime Ansonia resident Mac McKenzie, who has been coming in to Eddys off and on for 30 years or so. On Saturday, he left with a neatly-sealed white box containing four cannolis.

John, who prefered not to give his last name, has been swinging through Ansonia from his home in Naugatuck and bringing Eddys cakes to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting he runs in Orange for years now. The last Saturday of each month is always an anniversary party  celebrating another month sober  and Eddys cakes are always part of the celebration, he said.

Ive been doing business with these guys for years  and they do great service here, John said. In addition to offering tasty baked goods, theyre always polite. They treat you with courtesy.

Signs of the esteem Eddys is held in by its customers are all over the place.

A bulletin board on one wall  right next to the mouth-watering layer cakes, cheesecakes and parfaits slowly turning around in a triple-decker glass display case  is festooned with Christmas cards and thank you notes from happy customers who appreciate the role Eddys played in their own life-event celebrations.

The backside of Eddys front display window has a copy of a past Connecticut Magazine Best of Connecticut cover taped to it, with a blurb celebrating Eddys as the best-loved bakery in Connecticut that year taped just below it.

Paul Ciocca said he hopes lots of his long-time customers will stop by during the days they have left at 317 Main St. to say hi, shoot the breeze and say goodbye.

Needless to say, there will be plenty of snack options available.
Gwadar port, which was formally operationalised last year, might not yet have begun to deliver the promised economic benefits to Pakistan, but it is already overflowing with narcotics for drug traffickers of the Golden Crescent, the landlocked poppy fields of Afghanistan.

In the early hours of July 29, an Indian coast guard ship, the ICGS Samudra Pavak, intercepted a suspicious vessel about 300 km off the coast of Porbandar. The coast guard had been tracking it -- a merchant vessel registered in Panama as the MV Henry -- from as early as July 27 because of inputs received from security agencies about 'suspicious chatter'. The suspicious chatter from the OSV -- a vessel used to run supplies to drilling sites on the high seas -- had piqued the interest of an Indian intelligence agency monitoring communications on the Arabian Sea. It passed the intelligence on to the coast guard on July 27, which tracked the ship for nearly two days before boarding it on the morning of July 29. The Henry was heading to its final port of call -- the shipbreaking yard at Alang in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district -- where it was to have been met by members of an Indian drug cartel.

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When the Henry was searched, authorities found a staggering 1.5 tonnes of pure Afghan heroin packed into a hollow steel pipe aboard the ship. Believed to be the largest drug bust by any Indian agency to date, the street value of the seized drugs is estimated to be in the region of Rs 1,200 crore (over $200 million). To put it in context, that amount could have bought all the assets the coast guard employed to make the bust - two helicopters, a patrol aircraft and the ICGS Samudra Pavak itself. Authorities say that the Henry had received the drugs from three smaller vessels operating off the Gwadar coast. After taking aboard 1,500 brick-sized plastic-wrapped packets of heroin, the ship then sailed to Abu Dhabi, where the drugs were packed into a hollow pipe which was welded shut. Then, the Henry set course for India.

The siezed drugs

With an annual production of 3,300 tonnes, Afghanistan accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the world's supply of opium, which is used to produce opiates like heroin. Indian intelligence officials believe that drug sales finance not only the Taliban, which controls the districts in southern Afghanistan where illegal poppy cultivation is rife, but also sustains Pakistan's deep state, the ISI. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime believes that heroin is transported from Afghanistan via three major routes. The northern route, via the republics of the former Soviet Union, heads into Russia. The majority travels the 'Balkan route' via Iran and Iraq. The third, southern route, travels to India, and via the Arabian Sea, into Africa, Europe and the US. Nearly eight tonnes of heroin is transported out of Afghanistan every year through the southern route. Earlier this year, in June, Turkish authorities seized one tonne of heroin -- Ankara's largest drug bust -- from a Congolese-flagged merchant ship in the Suez canal.

The seizure from the Henry is significant not only for its size but also for the information that will likely be recovered. As BB Mishra, former deputy director general of the Narcotics Control Bureau, says, "This has the potential to uncover the larger heroin trafficking network of suppliers and financiers."

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Vikas Barala, the son of Haryana BJP unit chief Subhash Barala, was today released on bail after being booked for stalking and harassing a woman in a drunken state in Chandigarh last night.

By India Today Web Desk: Vikas Barala, the son of Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala, was granted bail today afternoon.

He was arrested earlier today on charges of harassment and stalking, after a 29-year-old woman alleged that Vikas and one other friend followed her and harassed her in drunken state.

The alleged incident took place last night in Chandigarh and a complaint was registered with a police station in the city's Sector 26 area.

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The complainant, who is the daughter of a bureaucrat, claimed that Vikas and his friend first tried to block her car and then followed her.

The two men were charged under Section 354 D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 185 (Motor Vehicle Act) of the CrPC.

The girl today also authored a Facebook post, detailing the entire incident. She said that she was driving home late at night when her car was accosted by a White SUV.

Vikas and his friend were in the SUV, but it wasn't clear from the girl's Facebook post who was driving the car. The woman goes on to write that the two men tried to force her to stop by tailing her and often swerving in front of her.

She writes that she called the police helpline number 100 and was promised help. However, she had to drive for a few kilometers, before cops could come to her rescue.

She drove for around 5-6 kilometers on Chandigarh's Madhya Marg and the whole while, "the SUV stayed alongside my car, trying to bully me into stopping every 10-15 seconds", the girl wrote.

At one point, one of the two men (it isn't clear who) allegedly reached out, banged on the woman's car window and tried to open the door.

Her ordeal finally came to an end when a PCR van pulled up a traffic signal. Policemen jumped out from the van, ran towards the SUV and nabbed Vikas and his friend.

"I'd like to take a moment to commend and thank Chandigarh Police for unparalleled efficiency and attention to a distress call from me. They almost restore my faith in the system," the woman also said.

(With inputs from Manjeet Sehgal in Chandigarh)

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Californias leaders this month expanded the nations most significant operating climate policy, the states groundbreaking greenhouse-gas cap-and-trade program.

The state could have departed from its market-based climate plan in favor of much worse ideas. Instead, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and two-thirds of the legislature, with the support of several Republicans, crafted a grand compromise to tighten it up. In so doing, they have ensured the policy will be at the center of the states effort to slash planet-warming emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. This achievement will not be immediately replicable many other places in the country. But it could provide guidance when more states come around to dealing with climate change.

The biggest lesson is that greenhouse-gas policies do not have to be dictated by left-wing activists who want to curb market forces. Emissions can be cut with proper sensitivity to the economic consequences - and that becomes much easier when industry and Republicans accept that emissions must go down.

Californias system involves setting a statewide emissions limit - the cap - which is enforced by requiring businesses to buy permits in order to pollute a certain amount inside the limit. There are only as many permits as there is space under the cap. Businesses can buy and sell the permits, creating a market price on greenhouse-gas emissions. Those for whom it is easy to cut back on emissions do so, and those for whom it is harder buy permits.

Some environmentalists balked at Californias bill, charging that lawmakers covered themselves in an oily sheen. Indeed, big players in the electricity industry backed the measure publicly, and the oil industry did so informally, according to the Los Angeles Times. But these businesses had a point. Climate policy is better when it is consistent, predictable and flexible, allowing for industry to plan ahead and reduce its carbon footprint in a variety of ways. A cap-and-trade program forces industry to reduce emissions with a clear schedule but without dictating exactly how.

Some environmentalists want more micromanagement. But the goal should be to cut emissions at minimal cost - not in exactly the way those environmentalists would prefer. Maybe it would be cheaper for two factories to each cut their emissions in half. Maybe it would be cheaper for one factory to keep operating as usual and for the other to shut down. As long as emissions decline, California should leave these decisions to the market.

To the extent Californias climate policies are deficient, it is because the state does not leave enough of them to private actors, instead supplementing the cap-and-trade program with other superfluous regulations requiring emissions cuts in specific sectors and in specific ways. After restraining this instinct in their latest move, state lawmakers might make this mistake if they follow up their cap-and-trade bill with one requiring 100 percent renewable electricity by 2045, an expensive mandate that Californias cap-and-trade program renders unnecessary.

Editorial courtesy of The Washington Post.
Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL) will soon offer a helicopter shuttle service between the city and airport at the cost of luxury cab fare.

By India Today Web Desk: The Bengaluru International Airport will soon offer a helicopter shuttle service - HeliTaxi.

The Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL) at Devanahalli is about 40 km from the city centre and 60-70 km away from the Electronic City in south and the IT corridors in southeast and southwest.

The Electronic City is home to hundreds of technology firms and mulitnational companies. A 5-7 seat luxury cab fare is Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 between the airport and the city's far end.

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The Bengaluru International Airport Ltd is all set to put forward shuttle service -- HelitTaxi -- using helicopters between the city and airport at the cost of a luxury cab fare.

"The aerial service will ferry air passengers to and from the airport to the city faster than private cars, cabs or buses can through dense vehicular traffic on both ways," according to BIAL Managing Director Harsha Raghavan.

HELITAXI

The operator has tied up with leading helicopter service provider Thumby Aviation Ltd to ferry passengers between the airport and the city in the choppers on demand.

"We will seek regulatory approvals to offer soon an integrated transfer service between the airport and the city as part of our passenger-friendly initiatives," Harsha said.

"The new service will be convenient for executives with faster access to the thriving city, expanding and extending all-around in view of its rapid economic development," Thumby Chairman Group Captain KNG Nair at a pre-launch event said.

INDIA - A TRUE GLOBAL AVIATION HUB

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, who announced the launch of the seamless service said the HeliTaxi service would ensure quick transfers to and from airports at a cost similar to a luxury taxi fare.

"While the Udan scheme focuses on regional connectivity, the HeliTaxi service will ensure quick transfers to and from airport. Efficient last-mile connectivity is key to ensuring India as a true global aviation hub," he said.

UDAN SCHEME

The NDA government launched the Udan (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) regional connectivity scheme early this year with fares capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour flights.

"The government has worked to make the convenience of air travel accessible to as many citizens as possible. As Bengaluru has been an important city for launching innovative aviation services, we would like to see similar air taxi service at other airports across the country for the convenience and comfort of the passengers," Jayant Sinha said.

BUSIEST AIRPORTS

As the country's third busiest airport after New Delhi and Mumbai, Bengaluru has about 60,000 fliers landing or taking off on working days.

Karnataka Industries Minister RV Deshpande, consortium's Chairman SC Kuntia and other dignitaries were present at the event.

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FYI || Would you like to catch a plane at this airport-themed crematorium in Gujarat? ||

FYI || Man arrested for masturbating midair on Bengaluru-Mumbai flight ||

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BRANFORD >> In the spring of 1945, Antoinette Toni Coleman noiselessly marched through the pitch-black San Diego night, one hand on the shoulder of the Army Air Corps nurse ahead of her. None of the group of 25 nurses knew they were headed for the USS General H.B. Freeman which would take them into the thick of the Pacific theater in World War II.

You couldnt put on any lights because there were Japanese submarines prowling the waters off the coast that would spot them on the shore, said the lively, no-nonsense 96-year-old on a recent afternoon in the screened-in back room of her airy Bradley Avenue home, her legs propped up on an easy chair.

Coleman broke her femur in March 2015. That has limited her mobility. But not her treasure chest of life experiences. Or her storytelling acumen.

They were memorable, said retired Army Air Corps Sgt. Bill Brody, 96, of the stories she would share with Branford High School students each year at Veterans Appreciation Day. When she spoke, everyone got quiet.

Ask her about the porpoises that followed the H.B. Freeman on the 39-day voyage across the Pacific. Or the fish. If the moon was shining, you could see their iridescence, she said. Later, Japanese warships took the place of the porpoises, with her ship zigzagging through the waters to avoid them, she said.

To cut the tension and pass the time, we played cards from morning til night, every kind of game imaginable, she said, as Zella, her adopted Shih Tzu, settled at her feet.

Then there was her arrival in British-ruled India. She was flown to a primitive hospital in a jungle. Unknown to her at the time, she was among a group replacing 19 nurses killed in a plane crash at the base of the Himalayas.

At the dirt-floored hospital, she treated Chinese patients with tuberculosis amid suffocating heat and humidity, had a native Indian assistant who appeared the first day with two shrunken heads tied to his waistband, and contended with a biting monkey.

One of the Indian doctors had brought him to the hospital, she said matter-of-factly.

In other words, that didnt faze her. None of it did. Shed grown up on Block Island. With its tempestuous weather, fortitude and adaptability were essential. Island life is not for the faint-hearted, she said.

Its tiny population, detached as it was from the mainland, instilled in her a deep sense of community. And service. Nine out of 10 people on Block Island were involved in active service during World War II, she said.

Then there was her grandmother, a nurse. By the age of 10, I knew thats what I wanted to be, she said, speaking in the precise diction imparted to her by her schoolteacher mother. There was never any question.

No doubt all of that prepared her for readying ground forces for overseas service at Fort Jackson in South Carolina after she enlisted in November 1942, then taking care of amputees and servicemen with spinal cord injuries at Kennedy General Hospital in Memphis.

The work was grueling, you were on your feet for the entire 12-hour shift, running the whole time, said Coleman, her eyes squeezed shut as if she were back at the hospital as Zella stretched out on the floor beside her Quilt of Valor-covered day bed. You were so tired, you could barely eat. The first month I lost 15 pounds.

Then there was her post-war life, which reads like a history of latter 20th century Branford.

In 1947, she settled on Montowese Street next to the Wilson Ford dealership, now Carons Corner, with her husband George Coleman. She had met him on Block Island while on leave after her return from the Pacific. Georges father worked at the Malleable Iron Fittings Company (MIF) on Meadow Street.

George had a summer job with the Indian Neck Ritzingers, she said, referring to the family that owned the Vail Hotel on the bluffs of Block Island. He had met my mother. He was pre-approved, she added with a giggle.

When her three children were small, she worked part-time in the MIF nursing office. The pipefitters would get bad burns on their hands from the hot pipes, she said. When George died suddenly in 1962, she took a job as the nurse at Branford High School. There she would remain, treating skinned knees and stomach aches, for 10 years.

Even as she worked as the night charge nurse at Branford Hills until she was 78, she was always reading, said her daughter Marie Crouch. She read everything. And she was always pursuing her education, she added, including a bachelors in political science when she had four grandchildren.

Even as she traveled around the world five times and once went on an expedition to Antarctica, she was advocating for her fellow veterans  and not just at the annual Veterans Appreciation Day. Each year she served on the committees for the Memorial and Veterans Day parades, putting together elaborate lists and sending out invitations, according to Crouch.

On Colemans living room wall is a Certificate of Continuous Membership from American Legion Post 83, marking her 50 years of involvement. There were a few other women, but she was a leader among all of us in providing veterans with hardship assistance, said Brody, also a member.

So many who gave so much have fallen through the cracks. Toni helped pull them to their feet.

For Coleman, its quite simple. They risked their lives for our country, she said. If they cant speak for themselves, we need to be their voice. We need to ensure they get the recognition they deserve and the care they deserve.

And thats only scratching the surface of what Toni Coleman has to share.
BENUE PRISONS COMMAND BURY KILLED INMATE WITHOUT FAMILY'S CONSENT



.Family Cries Out, Seeks Legal Redress



In a desperate move to cover up their negligence of duty, authorities of Nigeria Prisons Service, Benue State Command early in the week secretly buried an inmate, Mr. Tersoo Agidi at the premises of Nigeria Prisons Farm Centre, Jato Aka without consent of the deceased family.



Inmate Agidi Tersoo, 25, an indigene of Iyon in Turan of Kwande local government area of Benue state who was serving a jail term at the Nigeria Prison Farm Centre, Jato Aka was killed by Fulani militia who had attacked Turan land with just a few months left on his sentence.



Available records shows that the remains of the deceased inmate, Tersoo Agidi were deposited at the NKST Hospital Jato Aka mortuary on 25th March, 2017 by an officer of the Prisons Service, Mr. Thomas Wua PIP 11.



According to Mr. Agidi Denen, the deceased inmate's immediate elder brother, the family only received the news of the demise of their beloved one some three months later by Chief Timothy Aloko, district head of Yaav ward of Turan via a letter dated 21st June 2017 addressed to Mr. Gber Agidi, their family member.



The letter by the district head Chief Aloko confirmed that the inmate was killed while serving a jail term in custody by Fulani militia and requested the family to come over and discuss with the Prisons authority for burial arrangement.



But before the family could show, a non family member, one Pastor Abachi James, a Kwande local government council staff believed to have connived with the Prisons officials to cover up the offence of negligence against them without the consent of the family wrote to the Benue State Command Controller seeking permission to bury the killed convict.



The fraudulent letter titled: Application/Permission to Bury A Convict Agidi Tersoo by the imposter pastor James Abachi was addressed to The Controller of Prisons, Benue State Command through The Officer Incharge Nigeria Prisons Service Farm Centre, Jato Aka dated 22nd July 2017 and signed by same pastor Abachi one month earlier on 22nd June 2017.



According to records, the Benue Command of Nigeria Prisons Service granted the imposter pastor Abachi's request via a letter with reference no. NPS/BNS/SHQ 128/VOL.IV/153 dated 29th June 2017 and signed by Adike Patience (DCP/MED) for Controller of Prisons, Benue State Command.



Investigation shows a disparity in dates which suggest criminality.



Whereas the imposter pastor Abachi's letter was written on 22 July, 2017 and signed by him on the 22 June 2017, one month earlier, the reply of the Controller of the Benue Command to the said suspicion letter was conveyed on 29th June, 2017 clearly more than twenty days before the said letter was written.



Dissatisfied with the foregoing conspiracy, the Agidi Tor family had contacted Chief EK Ashiekaa SAN for legal action against the Prisons Service.



It was gathered that in swift compliance with the family brief, Chief Ashiekaa SAN via JT Injuwa had written the Prisons Authority demanding the cause of the death of inmate Agidi Tersoo, a development which is believed to have angered the Prisons authority resulting to their decision to ignore the family and bury the deceased inmate in the prison yard.
India May Dump Nigerias Crude for US Oil

Indias Hindustan Petroleum Corporation plans to buy low-sulphur oil and is considering taking the United States oil in place of Nigerias sweet crude.The US stopped the purchase of Nigerian crude about three years ago, a development that made Nigeria to turn to Asia, partularly India and China for the sale of the commodity.Reuters reported that the state-owned corporation said it planned to buy low-sulphur oil from the United States in the next few months for its 166,000 barrel per day Vizag refinery in southern India.We are also going to buy in the near future, in some months. There are certain grades, which we found suitable for us, the Chairman, M.K. Surana, was quoted to have said at a news conference.We should have a wider basket and more options. The US crude is an additional option for us.India is the latest Asian country to buy the US crude, following South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Taiwan, after OPEC cuts drove up prices of Middle East heavy-sour crude, or grades with a high sulphur content.Should India shift its bulk oil purchase from Nigeria to the US, the zero oil revenue days that was predicted by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo late last month as being around the corner, might be approaching faster than envisaged.Osinbajo had told operators in Nigeria and other oil producing countries that zero oil revenue days were fast approaching, stressing that it was time to start looking for other sustainable means of generating revenue.Almost every major oil importing country today has embarked on an aggressive non-fossil fuel alternative programme. China, Japan and some Scandinavian states have already set dates within the next 10 to 15 years to produce and use only electric vehicles. The zero oil days are clearly around the corner, Osinbajo had said.Reuters reported that Indian refiners stepped up purchases of the US oil after Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the Washington in June when President Donald Trump said the United States looked forward to exporting more energy products to the worlds third-biggest oil buyer.Since then, state-run Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp have bought the US oil, as Indian refiners seek to diversify their crude import sources as arbitrage opens due to global oil supply cuts.The HPCLs Finance Chief, J. Ramaswamy, said the company was evaluating if Nigerian sweet oil could be replaced with the US oil.He added that HPCL had the appetite to import a very large crude carrier containing two million barrels of the US oil every month.HPCL reported a 56 per cent drop in net profit for the fiscal first quarter on Friday, as inventory losses dragged down its refining margins.
By PTI: (Eds: Correcting dateline)

New Delhi, Aug 5 (PTI) The government is hopeful that the strategic Chabahar Port will be operational by 2018, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

The Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari is in Tehran today to represent India at the oath taking ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier congratulated Rouhani on his re-election as the President of Iran and affirmed Indias commitment to strengthen the special relations between the countries. "India and Iran have been historically sharing special ties ... We are keen on developing Chabahar Port and are hopeful of starting operations in 12 to 18 months," Gadkari told PTI. Gakdari is keen on expediting development of the Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nations southern coast that can be easily accessed from Indias west coast, bypassing Pakistan. The visit assumes significance as India has accelerated work at the Chabahar port and finalised some tenders for installation of key equipment at Chabahar Port. "Civil construction work has started there. We have finalised tenders worth Rs 380 crore for equipment out of Rs 600 crore and once the port becomes operational it will become a growth engine," the minister has said. The minister has said that he was also hopeful of certain approvals from the Iranian government for expediting work and added that once Chabahar becomes operational the trade and business between both the nations would see a boost. For greater trade and investment flow with Iran and neighbouring countries, the Cabinet last year cleared proposals for development of Chabahar port including through a USD 150 million credit from Exim Bank.

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It also authorised the Shipping Ministry to form a company in Iran for implementing the Chabahar Port Development Project and related activities.

As per the MoU signed between the two nations in May last year, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease.

Ownership of equipment will be transferred to Iranian side on completion of 10 years or for an extended period, based on mutual agreement. The Iranian side had requested for provision of a credit of USD 150 million in accordance with the MoU.

As per the pact, operations of two berths are to commence within a period of maximum 18 months after the signing of the contract. Besides the bilateral pact to develop the Chabahar port, for which India will invest USD 500 million, a trilateral Agreement on Transport and Transit Corridor has also been signed by India, Afghanistan and Iran. PTI NAM MR ABM

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Nigerians on social media, particularly Facebook, have reacted to Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welbys visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Abuja house in London.The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina had earlier issued a statement announcing the visit. DAILY POST, however, observed that the visit of Britains top cleric to Buhari generated mixed reactions from Nigerians on social media.While many Nigerians were happy that his health condition has improved, many are of the opinion that that the President has no business in London no matter his health condition.Some also called on the Archbishop to prevail on him to resign due to his ill health.Below are some of the reactions from Nigerians:Egbe Ebirien in his reaction to the visit said: God Almighty has healed our president PMB. In the Bible, the king after Gods heart David was Ill to the point of death and God healed him. See the reason for Psalm 41.Most of the persons expressing negative wishes now, who profess the Christian faith are doing same with their likes in Davids time. But God will put them to shame and deliver PMB for the sake of the righteous.On his part, Jude Ekwedike noted that: Thank God that he is recovering. He does look very frail. Again, I would strongly urge him to resign and focus on his health. Is it really worth it? Is power more valuable than life?The burden of leading a complicated and cantankerous country like Nigeria can kill a man, let alone, a sickly and fragile old man. It is not fair to him, it is not fair to Nigerians.Whats the point of his continued leadership under this situation if not to satisfy some ethnic/tribal interests and the cabal that holds sway? It nullifies and contradicts the mantra of One Nigeria and the so touted unity we are all supposed to embrace, he said.Opeoluwa Elisha Ademoyegun said: Nauseating,idiotic and gibberish write-up! Look at how you just descended so low because of money and position.Cant believe this is the same Femi Adesina I use to read his write-up at the back of the Sun Newspaper.You have turn yourself to be a political tool in the hands of Hausa/Fulani hegemony. Shame on you,Right Ndom Uchechukwu: No wonder Islam is taking over the world gradually, with these crooks called Deacon Femi Adesina, Pastor Osinbajo, and Archbishop of Canterbury etc. people who play politics with their fate, will people doubt the music when the question the authenticity of the Christian fate?Samuel Samigee: Who are all these educated illiterates when the vice President visited Mr President in London that is supposed to be one of the most important visit and yet there was no video evidence, when governors and other top officials visited no video evidence now archbishop Welby no video evidence a President that seems to be looking very strong on photos and cannot receive guest on videos and no message for Nigerians.Honestly, the greatest mistake that was ever made is to marry us together with all these animals call Fulanis or Hausas who begs to be giving considerations in primary schools leaving certificates and other examination levels and yet they say they are the most qualified and must be ruling by Force when in the real sense they are the lowest in intellectual were tired of all this and the opera in the country now says it all.Ifeanyi Maduako: The So-called Archbishop is Partisan; and, has been playing politics with Buhari for many years.If he is really a man of God, he should advice his friend to resign so that he can relax in UK for even 2yrs to attend to his health. Life is the most important thing.The pressure of the office of the President sf Nigeria complicates and compounds his health challenges. General Buhari was relatively healthy compared to President Buhari. Health is wealth..Engr George Odede: When will you stop#Deceiving Nigerians? Your believe one day will be judged one day by God or is it pictures your people want to eat. #Buhariis a divisionism.Fagbemi Ebenezer Dele: Buhari will survive this trial period in his life every evil tides shall fail, nobody has authority over his life, hence all that wish him dead shall go before him.Stanley Obinna Nwajeri: Can the Arc bishop advice a British sick premierminister to remain in power? If truly they are friends I know he would have advice this sick man to return to nursing home.We play politics with everything thats why Nigeria is still sick. I pray for your recovery Mr president but its time for you to let go.
A former Governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Friday, warned that Nigeria might be heading towards extinction if the country is not urgently restructured.He said the northern region stands to feel the pain if the nation eventually breaks apart.He made this remark in Benin City at the 20th Professor Wole Soyinka annual lecture series organized by the National Association of Seadogs on Friday.Ezeife noted that only restructuring would free Nigeria from the plot by the British government to keep the country underdeveloped.He urged Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to convoke a conference that would discuss the country.Every honest Nigerian knows we are at the brink of extinction. Nigeria will cease to exist if we do not restructure. It is a joke for people to think we should not restructure.Northerners will loose most from the disintegration of Nigeria. We need to go back to the agreed Nigeria. Make the six zones federating units. Allow states in the zones to develop their own constitution.Osibanjo should make sure the issue of restructuring is complete by the middle of 2018. Make sure the zones control their security.
Oba of Lagos, Akiolu

The Oba of Lagos has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of killing the efficiency of the Nigeria Police during his era as a military dictator. While speaking at a public lecture on security organised by the Police High Command, held at the Grand Ballroom of Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island in Lagos on Friday, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, accused President Muhammadu Buhari of killing the efficiency of the Nigeria Police during his era as a military dictator in 1984.

According to The Guardian, the influential Yoruba monarch who spoke with the theme, Providing Strategic Solutions To Emergent Security Challenges: The Essentials of Synergy Among Security Agencies and the Civil Populace, alleged that the problem of the present day Police began with Buhari when he seized all the vehicles under the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), the late Sunday Adewusi, on the suspicion that Adewusi wanted to take over the government then.

While wishing the President a speedy recovery, Akiolu, however, urged him to correct all that he had done in the past now that he is back as a democratic leader. He urged Buhari to aggressively fund the Police, adding: The military in this country killed the efficiency of the Nigeria Police.

"The only thing saving us right now is that only a serving a policeman can become an IGP. If not, a retired army officer would have become an IGP. We all need to support the Police as the issue of security is not only a problem of the police.

While commending the efforts of the present IGP, Ibrahim Idris, in looking after the welfare of his men, Akiolu charged him to be open-minded and always tell his officers the truth and not what they want to hear.

On the issue of insecurity, especially on highways, he called on the Federal Government and the IGP to establish 10 Police stations within one kilometre on the highways to aid speedy response.

Earlier in his speech, Idris said he was entreating the Federal Government for special courts to facilitate speedy trial of suspected kidnappers currently in Police custody nationwide.

He said: We are building more area commands to bring us closer to the people. We are building more Police Mobile Squadron units in various parts of the country to take care of violent crimes and we believe with the support of the National Assembly in passing the Police Trust Fund Bill, the Police will be well positioned to tackle whatever challenges we are going to have any time in the country.





Like I suggested at various fora, what we need to address in this issue of kidnapping is to have a change in legislation, probably creating a special court for kidnapping.

Another thing is limiting the period of trial for suspects, which should be shortened, so that within one or two months, the accused persons are sentenced, because I believe with those changes, things would take their normal shape.





As I speak now, we have over 1,000 kidnappers in Police stations nationwide. So, if we can have this innovation attached to the issue of kidnapping, I believe it will come to an end very soon.
Three suicide bombers have hit Maiduguri in a fresh attack on the Borno State capital.

Three suicide bombers have hit Maiduguri in a fresh attack on the Borno State capital.

The attack which occurred Friday night had the suicide bombers detonating explosives at Simari area of Maiduguri, killing themselves and wounding three members of the civilian joint task force.





Confirming the incident to newsmen, the Chairman of Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Satomi Ahmad, said it happened around 9:30pm yesterday.





No casualty has been recorded; three suicide bombers died. May almighty Allah continue to protect our dear state.

Unfortunately, two CJTF members sustained injury and were evacuated successfully for treatment, he said.





It could be recalled that in the early hours of the same day four persons were reportedly injured at the Molai General hospital, Maiduguri following suicide attack at the hospital.
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Friday, paid a personal visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at Abuja House, London.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Friday, paid a personal visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at Abuja House, London.

This was revealed in a statement issued by the Presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.





According the statement, the Archbishop and President Buhari are friends, who share deep respect for each other.





Archbishop Welby said he was delighted to see the rapid recovery President Buhari has made from his health challenges, noting that it was a testimony to the healing powers of God, and answer to prayers of millions of people round the world.





The cleric pledged to continue praying for both President Buhari and Nigeria.





In his response, the Nigerian President thanked Archbishop Welby, whom he noted had always stood by him at critical times, and wished him Gods continued grace in his spiritual duty of leading the Anglican Communion worldwide.





It will be recalled that when former British Prime Minister, David Cameron described Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt country ahead of an anti-corruption summit in London in 2016, Archbishop Welby had retorted: But this particular President (Buhari) is actually not corrupt.





The Archbishop later personally received the Nigerian President at Lambeth Palace, London, and had also paid a goodwill visit to President Buhari in March this year, during his medical vacation.





President Buhari has met with the Archbishop twice between 2016 and 2017. Archbishop Welby is said to be a long time friend of the President.
The Presidency has disclosed that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on Friday, paid a visit to the ailing President Muhammadu B...

The Presidency has disclosed that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on Friday, paid a visit to the ailing President Muhammadu Buhari in London, United Kingdom, where he has been receiving medical attention since May 7.The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Friday.Adesina said the Archbishop visited Buhari, who he described as his friend, at the Abuja House, London.The presidential spokesman quoted Welby as saying during the visit that he was delighted to see the rapid recovery Buhari had made from his health challenges.The Anglican priest was further quoted as describing the Presidents recovery as a testimony to the healing powers of God, and answer to prayers of millions of people around the world.The statement read, The cleric pledged to continue praying for both President Buhari and Nigeria.In his response, the Nigerian President thanked Archbishop Welby, whom he noted had always stood by him at critical times, and wished him Gods continued grace in his spiritual duty of leading the Anglican Communion worldwide.It will be recalled that when former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, described Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt country ahead of an anti-corruption summit in London in 2016, Welby had retorted, But this particular President (Buhari) is actually not corrupt.The Archbishop later personally received the Nigerian President at Lambert Palace, London, and had also paid a goodwill visit to Buhari in March, during his medical vacation.
Two dogs Friday foiled an attempt by two suicide bombers to detonate bombs at the Moloi General Hospital in Maiduguri, the News Agency of...

Two dogs Friday foiled an attempt by two suicide bombers to detonate bombs at the Moloi General Hospital in Maiduguri, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported.The foiled attack is the latest in a string of deadly attacks on soft targets by the Boko Haram group in the northeast, the hotbed of the Islamic insurgency.The Chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Fatomi Ahmed, said that the agency had deployed a rescue team to evacuate debris at the scene of the foiled attack.Spokesman of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), Malam Bello Danbatta, who also confirmed the incident, said that the dogs and the bombers died instantly in the attack but that no other life was lost.An eye-witness, Mr Rilwan Isah, told NAN that persistent barking by the two dogs prevented the suicide bombers from gaining entry into the hospital premises.He explained that the insurgents, a male and female, were attacked by the dogs, forcing them to detonate the explosives strapped to their bodies.Isah said that the dogs belonged to members of the CJTF and had been deployed to the area for rescue operations.The eye-witness said further that the dogs attacked the suicide bombers when the animals sensed that the two persons were strangers.Isah said that the explosion blew the suicide bombers to pieces and killed the dogs.We heard the male suicide bomber shouting in his dialect and the dogs barking and going after them.Only the suicide bombers and the dogs were killed in the attack, he stressed.Insurgents have been packing bloody punches in Maiduguri and other northeast cities in recent weeks, although the military authorities had said that the group had been degraded.Thousands of lives have been lost in several communities in northern Nigeria since the insurgency started more than eight years ago.
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, has stated that had President Muhammadu Buhari not put in pla...

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, has stated that had President Muhammadu Buhari not put in place various diversification efforts upon his assuming office in 2015, Nigeria would have collapsed.

He said the present administration was building a new economic model which will be sustainable, production-based and will diversify from oil to agriculture, solid minerals and other viable sectors.





Odigie-Oyegun said this at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja when he received political leaders from Delta Central Senatorial district, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.





The decampees were led by Johnson Boro, former Commissioner in the Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC).

Other decampees are: Immediate-past PDP Chairman, Ughelli South LGA, Francis Aguonigho; Sleek Oshare; Isaiah Kekeje; Mathew Kwode; Robert Ojo; Sunny Ogbududu; David Edonor; Comrade Saturday Nukueye and Charles Otaiye.





The APC National Chairman stated that with the globally decrease in the demand for oil, Nigerias economic mainstay, the need to diversify the Nigerian economy has become increasingly imperative.

He added that the efforts of the Buhari administration will be evident in a few years as the country will be counted as one of the industrial power houses in Africa.





Odigie-Oyegun said: Economically, things are difficult, there is no question about it. But in spite of that people of your quality sat down and still want to join the boat, because you have seen the future and you know the future belong to a changed country. A country that produces, not only consumes.

In the last sixteen years of previous administrations, we just consumed. Thank God this nation brought President Buhari at the point it was about to collapse and all we are doing today is putting the pieces back together again. It is a difficult experience and as a result of that our people are going through some hardship. But there is no question at all, that you can see the silver lining that is on the way.





By the end of this year, we will be net exporters of rice, today we have started to export formally yam. Today we are about certain that all the grains in this country can be produce locally. These are all part of the building blocks towards the Nigeria that we foresee in another year or two. So, tremendous is progress is being made to reverse the road at which we were travelling, to build a new economy, an economy based on what we can produce. An economy based on agriculture, based on our solid minerals.

It is clear today that oil is gone. Britain has declared that in 40 years vehicles that consume fossil fuel will be phased out. The United States of America and other countries of Europe have made similar declarations. So it is fortunate that President Buhari is today in office taking us painfully through the process of change such that this nation will be counted in another few years as one of the industrial power houses of the African continent..

While welcoming the new entrants to the APC, Odigie-Oyegun said one of the resolutions of the Partys National Leadership was to bring the South-South back into the mainstream of Nigerian politics. The APC National Chairman described the zone as one of the strongest pillar for unity in the country.

I cannot resist but speak like somebody from the South-South on this very special occasion even though I belong to the nation as APC National Chairman.

The point about us is that we are not tribal. The South-South is perhaps the strongest pillar for unity in this nation. The reality about the South-South is because we believe in the unity and oneness of this nation so strongly, we are ready to work with anybody who stands for one nation and one Nigeria.

Today, two years now we have a new regime of change. Unfortunately to a large extent, we missed the boat. We have only one state in the entire South-South, Edo State. It is our resolve here at national headquarters to bring the South-South back into the mainstream of Nigerian politics. Because at the greatest point of danger for this country, it was the South-Southerners that stood firm at risk to themselves, at risk to their lives that this nation must remain one, the APC national Chairman said.

He said with the new entrants from Delta Central, another solid block had been added to the APCs aspiration to bring Delta State and indeed the South-South into the Progressives fold.

I know how crucial central is in Delta state and with your entry into the Party, we have firmed up the central and can project from there to take Delta State and eventually take the entire South-South. Today we are adding one more solid block towards the unity, development and great of this country.

I am aware there are scores of you, but because the ceremony is taking place at the National Secretariat, we had to limit the number of persons who could come, I know that at the appropriate time we will have a great big unity rally in Delta state where all those who have joined us in the recent past will be formally received and where we will also formally launch the movement for the recovery of Delta state, the APC National Chairman said.

Speaking earlier, the APC National Vice Chairman (South-South), Prince Hilliard Eta said the defection of the PDP leaders from Delta Central to the APC was testimony of the paradigm shift being witnessed in the South-South.

Eta: As you are aware, the other Party hitherto was in domination of our zone but because of the good work of this government, because of the leadership of this Party, there has been a paradigm shift. Our people are moving from the other party to the progressive family to actualise the development of the South-South, the Niger Delta and indeed Nigeria. It is in that line that we have distinguished sons of Delta State who have come to add value to our Party in Delta state, in the South-South region and in Nigeria.

Chief Johnson Boro who led the decampees thanked the APC leadership, particularly the National Chairman for the reception. We are extremely delighted with the reception you have accorded us today. We now believe that we are coming to a home where we will be accepted. He said.





Other APC National Working Committee (NWC) members at the meeting included: National Secretary, Hon. Mai Mala Buni; Deputy National Chairman (North), Sen. Lawal Shuaibu; Deputy National Chairman (South), Engr, Segun Oni and Deputy National Secretary, Hon. Tombari Giadom.




Lagos State government has filed a motion on notice for interlocutory injunction before the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos to r...

Lagos State government has filed a motion on notice for interlocutory injunction before the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos to restrain the staff unions of Lagos State Polytechnic (Laspotech) from embarking on another strike action.

The state government also directed the striking workers to return to work immediately.





Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, in a statement on Friday, said the originating processes and motion on notice for interlocutory injunction have been served on the three unions including the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU).





He said the government, since October 2016, has actively engaged and held discussions with the three unions based on their request that the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS) 15 Migration Scheme, developed in 2009 by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), be implemented with payment of the accruing 87 months arrears, computed to the tune of N1.7billion.





According to him, in the intervening months since the matter was first brought to the attention of the government, deliberations have been carried out through the Governing Council of the school and related MDAs specifically Ministries of Establishment, Training & Pension, Public Service Office (PSO), and Economic Planning & Budget in order to ensure that the matter was properly addressed.





Bank-Olemoh added that the States Ministry of Education also reached out to the NBTE to ascertain the exact provisions and mandate of the CONTISS 15 SALARY Migration Scheme noting that the response was that the demands of the unions were not in line with the provisions set out by the NBTE in 2009.

He wondered that despite the fact that a copy of the report, dated July 14th, 2017, was sent to the Governing Council of Lagos State Polytechnic and circulated among the three Staff Unions, they had maintained their stance in asking for payment in arrears from 2009, called for a strike called for a strike.





Besides, Bank-Olemoh said the government was committed to entrenching stability in the States tertiary institutions and that regardless of the ongoing economic challenges across the country, the it has continued to prioritize the funding and carrying out major infrastructural projects at State tertiary institutions in the past year, and recently increasing monthly subventions of all State institutions, with no arrears owed.

He however appealed to the three Staff Unions of Lagos State Polytechnic to apply fair judgment and consider the students of the institution, particularly those in their final year who would be adversely affected if they are not allowed to take their final exams.





All members of Staff and Students are further advised to continue with their lawful activities on and off campus, as the State Government will continue to pursue all necessary steps to ensure peace, stability and security in the Polytechnic.

In this regard, all staff are hereby directed to resume work without further delay, while the management should monitor compliance and report same to the Ministry of Education, Bank-Olemoh said.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami (SAN), yesterday waved aside speculations about a rift b...

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami (SAN), yesterday waved aside speculations about a rift between him and Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu, on the handling of high profile criminal cases.A recent letter from the office of the AGF directed the EFCC to forward files on about 35 high profile cases, involving ex-governors and other prominent individuals to his office for vetting and further directive.The directive ignited speculation about a possible rift between the AGF and Magu, with many expressing doubt about the AGF true intention. Some even claimed the directive was a prelude to the AGFs offices eventual take over of the cases.Speaking in Abuja yesterday, Malami said there was no rift between his office and the EFCC leadership.Malami, who was reacting to questions after an event held in his office, said he did not believe the letter to the EFCC was an evidence of a right between his office and the EFCC or that his office intended to take over the cases.Malami spoke on a forthcoming national summit on justice, slated for August 8 and 10 in Abuja. He also unveiled the upgraded Federal Ministry of Justices website and Freedom of Information (FOI) Compliance portal.Malami said the summit, to be attended by stakeholders in the justice sector, was intended to consider, adopt and validate the draft National Policy on Justice (NPJ), developed by a technical committee constituted by the Federal Ministry of Justice in 2016.On the need for a national justice policy, the AGF said: Given the challenges militating against an effective administration of justice and the peculiarity of our federal system, there is the need to harmonize and integrate the various reforms initiatives into a clearly articulated National Justice Policy.The policy is expected to clearly define Nigerias political philosophy with respect to justice delivery and provide a common direction for the justice sector stakeholders across the nation.The policy, in broad term, is expected to set out a common vision and provide the guidelines for promoting an effective justice system that guarantees the freedom of the people and socio-economic development of the nation.This policy will therefore, serve as a policy framework upon which relevant institutions can situate regulations and legislation in line with best practices and principles, Malami said.
Louise, a yacht sailing from Port Victoria in Seychelles to Abu Dhabi with two crew members on board, was rescued by Indian Coast Guard ship Samarth off Kavaratti island in Lakshadweep on Friday.

By Manjeet Negi: Louise, a yacht sailing from Port Victoria in Seychelles to Abu Dhabi on its maiden voyage with two crew members, was rescued by Indian Coast Guard ship Samarth off Kavaratti island in Lakshadweep in the early hours on Friday.

On investigation by the Indian Coast Guard ship, it was revealed that 38-feet-long yacht "Lousie", on its maiden voyage from Port Victoria, Seychelles to Abu Dhabi, had suffered total power failure on board and had been drifting on the Arabian Sea since August 2.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW Coast Guard ship Samarth located the yacht at around 0130 hours on August 4, about 25 km south-east of Kavaratti Island. The yacht had no communication and propulsion system to assess the power failure and the crew braved rough seas for almost 48 hours awaiting help. Strong winds of 35 knots and a heavy swell of 4-5 meters made the rescue operations very difficult. Efforts to take the yacht under tow proved futile. The ship braving the rough seas, however, managed to pick up the 2 crew members - both South African nationals on board. Master Gavin Stephen, 25, and Marnu Christoff, 21, are safe onboard. The owner of the yacht is Mr. Gregory Pecker, who lives in Abu Dhabi. The ship is presently in the area to undertake towing operation at the first available opportunity. This is the second such operation this monsoon. It was on June 17 when 3 lives on board Yacht "Lady Thuraya" were saved almost 1100 km from the coast on the fringes of Indian Search and Rescue Region (ISRR).

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The immediate past governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole; Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay; and a former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, on Friday, gave differing views on the ongoing calls for restructuring in Nigeria.Oshiomhole expressed concern that the attention of Nigerians had been diverted from the real issues, like leadership, poverty and the distribution of wealth affecting Nigeria to the divisibility of the country, which he said was not viable.His view was shared by the state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, who noted that the continued existence of the country was not in doubt.The former governor stated this while speaking on the topic, Nigerian State in the Aftermath of Centenary: Prospects for its Indivisibility, as the keynote speaker at a lecture organised by the National Association of Seadogs.He, therefore, called on Nigerians to restructure their attitudes.But Sagay disagreed with Oshiomholes submission, arguing that restructuring, with the autonomy for the federating units, would promote good governance and discourage wastage by elected officials, especially in the legislature.The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said that the consequence of the current political structure had been devastating to the country, by enriching a few to the detriment of others.This, he said, had made the states to progressively decline.Sagay noted that contrary to the views of some people, the North would be the greatest beneficiary of restructuring due to the abundance of livestock and some by-products in the area.He also stated that it was imperative to return to the 1963 Constitution and modify it to suit the present demands in order to address the current challenges.On his part, Ezeife said that Nigeria had failed woefully and comprehensively and could face extinction if not restructured.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has dismissed four policemen for their involvement in the theft of property belonging...

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has dismissed four policemen for their involvement in the theft of property belonging to former President Goodluck Jonathan.The policemen, who were on guard duty at the Gwarinpa residence of Jonathan, allegedly stole movable items, including furniture sets, beds, electronics, toilet electrical fittings and internal doors and frames.The affected men were dismissed after an Orderly Room trial.The dismissed policemen are: F/No. 436691 Sgt Musa Musa, F/No. 235422 Sgt John Nanpak, F/No. 261898 Sgt Ogah Audu and F/No. 425210 Sgt Gabriel Ugah.The police said the case of two other policemen  AP/No.141199 Inspector Lengs Satlakau and AP/No. 150566 Inspr Usman Wuduki  involved in theft has been forwarded to AIG Zone 7 for further action.The command spokesman, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, said this in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday.The command explained that their dismissal was in compliance with the vision of IGP Ibrahim Idris to rid the Police of criminal elements.The statement reads: In fulfilment of the promise by the FCT Police Command to make public its findings on the investigation of the case of theft at the Gwarimpa residence of former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the command wishes to state that in line with first schedule of Police Act and Regulation 370 Cap 19, the policemen guarding the house have been tried in an orderly room proceeding and found culpable of the offence.Sequel to the outcome of the orderly room proceeding, the Commissioner of Police FCT, CP Musa Kimo, has approved the immediate dismissal of the policemen.The command, while stating that the main culprit, Sgt. Musa would be charged to court upon completion of investigation, added that efforts are being intensified to arrest his accomplice, Mallam Shuaibu, who is at large.
The Senate Friday made good its threat to get the chief executive officers of 30 companies arrested for allegedly failing to appear befo...

The Senate Friday made good its threat to get the chief executive officers of 30 companies arrested for allegedly failing to appear before it.The arrest order was issued by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport Hope Uzodinma, at the committees meeting in Abuja yesterday.The committee accuses the companies including mobile giant Globacom, Crown Flour Mills, British American Tobacco, CCECC, Dana Group, Olam Int. Ltd., Hong Xing Steel Co. Ltd., Visafone, African Wire, Star Comments and Allied Ltd. and Aarti Steel Nig. Ltd of involvement in Nigerias loss of N30 trillion-revenue in the maritime sector.Others are Abyem-Diva Int. Ltd., Gagasel Int., Friesland Campina, Etco Nig., Edic Chemicals and Allied Distributors, De United Foods makers of popular Indomie noodles, Don Climax Group, Skill G Nig. Ltd., Premium Seafood and La Rauf Nig. Ltd.Also involved are Standard Metallurgical Co. Ltd., Kam Industries, IBG Investment Ltd., Orazulike Trading Co. Ltd., Popular Foods Ltd., A-Kelnal Integrated & Logistics Services, African Industries, African Tiles & Ceramics and ZTE Nigeria.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that only 33 of the 63 firms invited by the Senate Joint Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport, handling the investigation honoured the invitation.Uzodinma said yesterday that the refusal of the officials to honour the invitation in spite of several reminders was disrespectful to the National Assembly.He warned that the 8th Senate would not tolerate such behaviour from anyone or institution, particularly in the present situation involving Federal Government funds.He said investigations carried out by the joint committee showed several forms of infractions that have cost the country huge amount of money in revenue loss.He said such development in a country currently in recession was a disservice to it.It is no longer going to be business as usual, he said.We have directed the Nigeria Police to arrest the heads of the firms and bring them before us.If we can suspend our recess as lawmakers to see to the end of this investigation, I see no reason why the firms that have been indicted will not come to defend themselves, he said.The chairman asked the firms that honoured the invitation to go through the documents given to them and return next week for defence.The Senate had mandated the joint committee to carry out extensive investigation into alleged N30 trillion revenue leakages in the import and export value chain between 2006 and 2017.The committee had already interfaced with commercial banks indicted in the matter as well as relevant government agencies.The committee had on Wednesday threatened to issue the arrest warrants; but on Thursday, it said it was extending the appearance till next week.
The National Union of Local Government Employees, Bayelsa State chapter, has asked the state government to stop infrastructural projects in the council areas in the state in order to concentrate on clearing salary backlogs of council workers.It noted that it was high time the government started taking responsibility for clearing the arrears owed the workers at the third tier of government.The council workers in the state had since on Monday, July 24, 2017, commenced an indefinite strike in all the LGAs to protest months of unpaid salaries and allowances.The State Chairman, NULGE, Akpos Ekeigha, who spoke in an interview in Yenagoa on Friday, claimed that some council workers were owed up to 15-month salary arrears.He said Ogbia LGA, for instance, which is the highest indebted council, would find it difficult to offset its backlogs if the state government failed to come to its rescue.Ekiegha, who faulted some states in the country that operate without the Local Government Commission, advocated the autonomy of the LGAs particularly in the areas of finance, politics and administration.He called on the State Houses of Assembly to vote and support the move for local government autonomy to be passed into law, adding that the development would further strengthen democracy in Nigeria and make the LG system more effective and productive.He disclosed that the state government released N919m with additional N300m from the second tranche of the Paris/London refund for the singular purpose of settling the arrears of salaries owed workers.He appealed to the Federal Government to send LGA allocations directly to their accounts to enable them to manage whatever comes to the council without the interference of state government.He added that if the payment process was also adopted on teachers salaries, the issue of unnecessary arrears would be prevented.Ekiegha said, What we are saying is that let the money come to the local government accounts as it is also being sent to the state governments accounts so that government at every level will manage their funds.The money may not be enough to pay salaries but we know how to manage it. You can recall that last year, the states allocations were not even enough to pay salaries but they negotiated with labour to pay half salaries, the same thing should be done with the local government instead of the long arrears.There is autonomy at the federal and state governments level, so the same should be at the local government to make the 3rd tier of governmen have a feel of governance.
Nigeria has got the green light to acquire some American attack planes to fight Boko Haram, officials of the Trump administration have s...

Nigeria has got the green light to acquire some American attack planes to fight Boko Haram, officials of the Trump administration have said.The deal, which is about $600 million, will strengthen Nigerias fire power against Boko Haram and other extremists, AP reported.The approval is despite U.S. concerns about human rights abuses by Nigerian security forces. The military has denied such abuses, which have been a subject of big rows with Amnesty International.Specifically, Nigeria plans to buy up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp, according to officials who were briefed on the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the development publicly. The aircraft come with sophisticated targeting equipment that the U.S says will help Nigeria fight terrorism, trafficking, insurgency and illicit trade.In his final days in office, former President Barack Obama put the sale on hold after a Nigerian fighter jet repeatedly bombed a camp near the Cameroon border housing civilians who had fled Boko Haram. Local officials have said more than 230 people were killed. The incident brought new attention to alleged abuses by Nigerias forces.A few weeks later, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump said he supported the sale. He told President Muhammadu Buhari that it would increase American exports and help Nigeria fight terrorists, according to officials.The move is Trumps latest to arm countries despite their questionable rights records, a report said. On his first trip abroad as president, Trump announced a $110 billion sale of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, including precision-guided munitions that Obama had cut off over concerns about high rates of civilian casualties in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is at war with Iranian-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen.Despite approving the sale to Nigeria, the U.S. is keeping up the pressure on Buhari administration to improve its forces human rights practices and ensure accountability for violators, a U.S. official said. The aim of the sale is to help Nigeria and its neighbours strengthen their ability to fight Boko Haram and an Islamic State group affiliate in West Africa. Other countries in the region fighting similar threats already have the Super Tucano, the official noted.ABOUT THE AIRCRAFTThe Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano, also named ALX or A-29, is a turboprop light attack aircraft designed for counter-insurgency, close air support, and aerial reconnaissance missions in low-threat environments, as well as providing pilot training. Its features include Top speed: 593 km/h,Range: 4,820 km, Cruise speed: 520 km/h, Engine type: Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6, Manufacturer: EmbraerThe State Department notified Congress late Wednesday of its plans to approve the sale. That triggered a 30-day review period in which lawmakers can try to block the sale. While several Democrats in particular have raised concerns, Congress is unlikely to stop the administration from proceeding.John Campbell, a Nigeria scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations said concerns had receded somewhat as Nigeria has taken steps to address shortcomings, including granting the International Committee of the Red Cross access to some Nigerian detention facilities.There are signs of some progress, Campbell said. Still, he said Nigeria had a long way to go.If the sale goes forward, the U.S. will have to send employees or contractors to Nigeria to provide logistical support and train teams on how to use the aircraft. They also would provide guidance on international laws for protecting civilians, officials said.The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has been accused of bombing civilian targets several times in recent years. The State Department said in report last year that the Nigerian government has taken few steps to investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government.Nigeria is Africas largest consumer market, with 170 million people, and the continents second-largest oil producer. It is strategically located on the edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless semi-desert region bridging north and sub-Saharan Africa where experts warn of Islamic extremists expanding their reach. More than 20,000 have been killed and about 3 million displaced in Boko Harams insurgency since 2009, in which the extremist group has sought to enforce strict Islamic rule.
The Nigerian Air Force on Friday said the Israeli security experts, who were brought in to train 450 personnel, were engaged due to the insurgents attacks on military bases in the North-East, among other reasons.The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent, adding that the costs of the training could not yet be obtained.The Air Force, on Tuesday, had said it commenced the training of 450 carefully selected regiment personnel as Special Forces.The training, which was organised in three batches at the NAF Regiment Training Centre in Kaduna State, had been said to be handled by FOUR-TROOP, described as an Israeli military training organisation.Adesanya said on Friday that the training was to fortify the NAF personnel against attacks on military bases in the country, noting that the training would have cost more if the personnel had been sent to Israel.He said, Of course, the training given to our personnel by the Israelis will ultimately impact on the war against the Boko Haram insurgents. Do not forget that a part of the challenges we had in the past was the attacks on air force bases in Maiduguri, Borno State. As of that time, our base defence structure was not as strong as it is now.The NAF before now was trained to fight a conventional warfare. But the war against the insurgents is an unconventional warfare, also known as an asymmetric warfare. The training being given to the personnel therefore is to make our troops fight an unconventional warfare. It will also enable the air force to be able to protect its bases adequately.It is just that the expertise needed is domiciled in Israel. It could have been domiciled in any other country. The hired Israelis are a private organisation. The areas of training are the defence of our critical national assets.
Police Inspector General Ibrahim Idris during a working visit to The Nations corporate headquarters in Lagos on Friday explicated why he has not arrested Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu and Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) leaders Shettima Yerima for inciting and for inflammatory comments.The IGP also vowed that kidnapping and similar crimes would be eliminated within a year said police officers have been strengthened and their morale boosted to combat crimes.He said We have strengthened our officers and boosted their morale in combating crimes, he said.Hailng Nigerians for assisting the police in combatting crimes he said: Evans terrorized people in this country for many years but now we have the notorious kidnapper in our custody.The police deserve some credit from the public. Give me up to a year, I assure you that Nigerians would see a different police working to ensure their safety in every nook and cranny of this country.When this kidnapping crime was unbearable on Kaduna-Abuja highway, I went to the National Assembly and I told the lawmakers to give me a week. Within five days, our men arrested 58 suspects, who confessed to the crimes.More of the suspects were arrested and paraded on Thursday, bringing the total to 77. All we want from the public is support. The police require support and encouragement, because we are human beings too.He went further to say: We cannot blame the police for the causes of crime. As I speak to you now, I can confirm that we have over a thousand suspects in detention for kidnapping and ritual killings.Then, we should ask why we still have these crimes when we have dozens of suspects? I think we should focus on the causes of crimes and its symptoms, not the agents of reaction.We have plans to develop the marine police. We are going to dominate the riverine areas.When I became the IGP, the first state I visited was Delta State, precisely Tompolos hometown. I discovered that our presence on the creeks was minimal. I believe we can succeed in dominating the creeks if we have certain things put in place.We need to train more marine police officers with modern techniques and gadgets. We need to buy more patrol gunboats and we are making progress in this respect. Already, we got offer to train about 100 policemen in marine security and a promise of 10 gunboats.By the time we get this done, we are going to start deployment from Lagos because of the rate of crime in riverine communities.We have been making efforts to secure these riverine communities from militants. This progress is achieved due to the activities of the marine police. We are training the marine police to perform better. We are liaising with the Navy in the training of our marine officers. We are going to train more officers in continuous succession.On why Biafra agitator, Nnamdi Kanu and the President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) Shettima Yerima have not being arrested he said: We have the National Security Council in place chaired by the Acting President. We have been meeting and analyzing each of these threat messages from separatist groups. We have to analyse the pros and cons. As you are aware, the police are on top of the situation.As an organisation, what we take as paramount is the maintenance of law and order. There was a time we ordered the arrest of the leaders of groups making threat messages. Then, leaders of various ethnic nationalities came to the villa for a meeting with the Acting President.The agreements reached at the meeting made the police to relax on the arrest order. We believe there are certain situations needed to be managed very carefully, so that you dont bring up tension. We believe the security and safety of Nigerians is paramount. We are assuring Nigerians that there is no person or group of persons that can deny them their rights to free movement in any part of the country.
A member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, and former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has revealed t...

A member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, and former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has revealed those responsible for late Head of State, General Sani Abachas failure to release late MKO Abiola from prison.

In an interview with Sun, Babatope, who served as a minister in the Abachas authoritarian government, said some Yoruba leaders told Abiola not to accept freedom.

According to Babatope, him and other Southwestern cabinet members had pleaded with Abacha and all arrangements were made to get Abiola out of prison but the NADECO leader told him not to accept the release offer.

He said, I have no regret serving Abacha, neither do I have apology to offer anybody. Nigerians have been very unfair to Abacha.

Abacha was ready to release Abiola, but it was these NADECO leaders that told Abiola not to accept the release offer.

Those of us that were ministers from the South West including myself, Mrs Mobolaji Osomo, late Dr Olu Onagoruwa and Elder Wole Oyelese, went to plead with Abacha to release Abiola.

Even around that time, former President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings was in Nigeria and he also pleaded for Abiolas release.

Abacha agreed and everything was being done to facilitate Abiolas early release. The then Chief of General Staff, Lt-General Oladipo Diya even sent an executive jet to Benin to go and bring the judge, who was to handle the matter.

But what eventually happened, NADECO leaders told Abiola not to accept the bail offered him.

So, Abacha had no blame over the continued incarceration of Abiola, it was NADECO leaders that should be held responsible.
The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on Friday explained why the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, ...

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on Friday explained why the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is yet to be re-arrested.

Idris, who spoke during a working visit to The Nations corporate headquarters in Lagos, also said the Arewa Youths were yet to be picked up, based on the decision of the National Security Council.





We have the National Security Council in place chaired by the Acting President. We have been meeting and analyzing each of these threat messages from separatist groups.

We have to analyse the pros and cons. As you are aware, the police are on top of the situation.

As an organisation, what we take as paramount is the maintenance of law and order. There was a time we ordered the arrest of the leaders of groups making threat messages. Then, leaders of various ethnic nationalities came to the villa for a meeting with the Acting President.

The agreements reached at the meeting made the police to relax on the arrest order.

We believe there are certain situations needed to be managed very carefully, so that you dont bring up tension. We believe the security and safety of Nigerians is paramount. We are assuring Nigerians that there is no person or group of persons that can deny them their rights to free movement in any part of the country, he said.
PHILADELPHIA-- The former chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization will have to serve a nearly three-year prison term after a federal appeals court upheld his sentence for taking part in a racketeering scheme, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey said Friday.

The court rejected all of 60-year-old Joseph Ferriero's arguments, including his claim that there was insufficient evidence to prove he accepted payments from a software services company in exchange for recommending the company to a number of Bergen County towns.

The court also found there was enough evidence to show that Ferriero hid his own financial interest in the company, resulting in a charge of fraud.

The judges likewise dismissed Ferriero's argument that his actions constituted "legitimate First Amendment activity."

Ferriero, who served as the Democratic chair from 1998 to 2009, accepted the bribes through shell companies he used to conceal the scheme he engaged in with John Carrino, of Nutley, an attorney who also worked as a software developer and who agreed to pay Ferriero a quarter to a third of the money he received with Ferriero's help.
Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Sopore town of Baramulla district in Kashmir early today morning. Three AK-74 rifles were recovered from them.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Sopore town of Baramulla district in Kashmir early today morning.

Three AK-74 rifles were recovered from them.

Based on inputs from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, a joint operation was launched by 179 battalion of the CRPF, 52 RR and SOG Sopore in Amargarh at approximately 0100 hours, which is 3 km south of Sopore. Initial contact took place at 0415 hours and three terrorists were neutralised by around 5.20 am.

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Two of the 3 slain terrorists have been identified as Javid Ahmad Dar, a resident of Khanpora in Baramullah and Abid Hamid Mir, a native of Hajin in Bandipore. Javid Dar is a C category terrorist, while Hamid Mir belongs to the A category. The third terrorist is yet to be identified.

AK-74 RIFLES RECOVERED FOR THE FIRST TIME

It is for the first time that AK-74 rifles have been recovered. AK-74 is a short gun. This shows that new weapons are being sent into Indian territory by Pakistan.

The entire area in Sopore has been cordoned off by the security forces and combing operations are on.

All government and private schools and colleges in Sopore have been closed for today, said Additional Deputy Commissioner post the encounter. Internet services have also been suspended in Baramulla.

A total of 122 terrorists have been killed this year. Last year till December 31, the count of terrorists killed was 119.

Also read |

Kashmir: Army major, jawan martyred in Shopian; 2 terrorists killed in Kulgam

Terror funding probe: 80 properties of separatists now under NIA radar

After Abu Dujana, security forces prepare new hitlist of most wanted terrorists

WATCH VIDEO | Kashmir: 3 LeT terrorists gunned down in Baramulla's Sopore town

--- ENDS ---
A man claims in court papers he lost his job as a laboratory director after he complained repeatedly that the wrong containers were being used to collect urine samples.

Lloyd Castillo, who worked for Spectra East in Rockleigh, complained the mistakes violated federal and state regulations with regard to testing bodily fluid specimens, according to the suit filed July 25 in Bergen County Superior Court.

The problems began when Spectra East acquired Shiel Medical Laboratory of Brooklyn into its Rockleigh operation in late 2015 or early 2016, according to the suit.

Shiel workers were responsible for monitoring collection samples, the suit states.

Castillo said he told Shiel supervisors the tubes where urine was stored did not have the appropriate preservative to ensure the integrity of each sample. He also complained that samples of other bodily fluids were under filled and often resulted in specimen rejection and redraws, according to the suit.

Spectra East did not return a call seeking comment.

Castillo also complained that Shiel's sales practices were in violation of anti-kickback laws.

After the complaints were made, Shiel's medical director, who is not named in the suit, became verbally abusive toward Castillo and his staff, according to court documents.

Castillo claims he was demoted to "a nominal paper position having insignificant job responsibilities," the suit states.

On March 15, Castillo emailed human resources, claiming harassment and retaliation, the suit states.

Castillo was then terminated, according to the suit.

The suit accuses Spectra East of wrongful termination, infliction of emotional distress and of violating the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act.

Castillo is seeking past and future pay, along with unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CAMDEN -- A Salem man is facing federal charges alleging he sold guns to an informant in a convenience store parking lot over five months.

The informant was working for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

Corey Moore, 31, was arrested Thursday on a criminal complaint from U.S. District Court in Camden. He faces a dozen charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The complaint, authored by ATF Special Agent Joseph S. Daly, alleges Moore sold a confidential informant 15 handguns from July to December of 2016.

The transactions stopped Dec. 22 when Moore allegedly double-crossed the double-crosser, selling the informant what turned out to be BB guns and a firearm box that contained only lotion, Daly wrote in his criminal complaint.

The ATF bankrolled the thousands of dollars in purchases, court records show, and paid $1,500 in debts that the informant owed to Moore.

The ATF has been interested in Moore for at least two years, court records show.

In 2015, the informant told agents that Moore had a gun for sale, but attempts to set up a purchase using the informant fell through because Moore couldn't get the gun, Daly wrote.

In July of 2016, the informant contacted the ATF again because he owed $1,100 to Moore and he believed Moore was threatening violence. He said Moore texted him a picture of a handgun and said he "was not afraid to use the firearm to get his money back," Daly wrote.

The ATF gave him $1,100 in cash and the informant set up a meeting with Moore to pay him back. At that time, while wearing a wire, he asked Moore if he had any guns for sale, Daly wrote. The pair allegedly discussed three guns.

On July 20, 2016, after arranging a purchase and a time and place to meet via a recorded phone call, the informant met Moore in the parking lot of a convenience store in Gloucester County. As with each transaction, Moore got into the informant's car to make the deal, Daly said.

However, Moore only had one of three guns he had promised to sell the informant, and he struck the informant when he refused to pay up front for the absent weapons.

In the following months, Moore allegedly sold the informant guns in meetings in the parking lot that they set up by text message or phone calls that the ATF listened in on, Daly wrote.

He noted that one of the guns, a Ruger Model Security Six, had been reported missing in 2014 by New Jersey State Police at the Woodstown station.

Daly said Moore swindled the informant in their final sale Dec. 22, 2016, when he was supposed to sell the informant three handguns for a total of $2,250.

It wasn't until the informant met with ATF agents after leaving the meeting that they realized Moore had actually given him two realistic-looking BB guns, 10 rounds of ammunition and a Smith & Wesson firearm box that contained a bottle of hand lotion, Daly wrote.

The informant called Moore twice and texted him, but never heard from him again, according to Daly's account.

Moore was arrested Aug. 3 and remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing Tuesday.

Moore's public defender, Lisa Evans Lewis, was not immediately available for comment Saturday.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
BRIDGETON -- A Milmay man has been indicted for allegedly inappropriately touching a girl who was at the time six-years-old girl and under his supervision.

Joseph Rowland, 32, of Milmay was indicted by a grand jury on first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

According to a complaint warrant filed in the Maurice River Municipal Court, Rowland was arrested back on June 17, 2016, after he allegedly took down the six-year-old's pants and underwear and allegedly inappropriately touched her. Rowland was babysitting the girl.

Rowland was arrested taken into custody by the New Jersey State Police. Milmay is currently out on bail and awaiting a post-indictment arraignment.

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook
Fox News host and New Jersey transplant Eric Bolling has been suspended from the network as it investigates allegations that he sent lewd text messages to three female colleagues.

Bolling was suspended Saturday after The Huffington Post revealed the longtime host sent "an unsolicited photo of male genitalia via text message to at least two colleagues at Fox Business and one colleague at Fox News," according to the Huffington Post story.

A Fox News spokesperson said in a statement Saturday that Bolling was suspended "pending the results of an investigation, which is currently underway."

Bolling's attorney Michael J. Bowe responded to Huffington Post's allegations telling the media outlet that "Mr. Bolling recalls no such inappropriate communications, does not believe he sent any such communications, and will vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made."

The moves comes months after popular host Bill O'Reilly was ousted amid a series of sexual harassment claims against him. Network executive Roger Ailes, who died in May, was also forced out after another sexual harassment scandal.

Bolling moved with his wife to Livingston in 1999 but the family now divides its time between Demarest and Long Beach Island. He was most recently co-hosting "The Fox News Specialists."

Substitute hosts will rotate for the Specialists show and his others show, "Cashing In'," Fox confirmed.

He was one of Fox News' earliest and most vocal supporters and an original co-host of "The Five," before moving up the ranks.

Bolling was asked by a NJ Advance Media reporter in June about the network's controversies and the impression that Fox News's corporate culture is not friendly to women.



"It's something I've never seen and experienced -- obviously, I'm a male," Bolling said at the time. "It comes as a shock to me."

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.
NEWARK -- Authorities on Saturday asked for the public's help to find a man wanted on charges he stabbed his wife to death at their home in the city's North Ward.

Steven Damon, 47 (Photo: ECPO)

Steven Damon, 47, of Newark, is accused of attacking Tanya Y. Morris, 46, around 8 a.m. Friday at the residence on Sylvan Avenue, near Broadway, according to authorities. Morris died at the scene about 40 minutes later.

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office charged Damon with murder and weapons offenses in the slaying.

Damon fled the murder scene and was possibly headed south or to New York state, Acting Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino and Newark Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose announced in a statement.

He is considered "armed and dangerous," the officials said.

The couple has two young children, who are with family members, officials said.

The prosecutor's office did not provide information on a possible motive for the slaying.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts was urged to call the prosecutor's Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force tips line at: 1-877-TIPS-4EC or 1-877-847-7432.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc and on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Kannur has witnessed many political killings since 1969. Cadre from the RSS-BJP and the CPI(M) both losing lives for only one reason -- vendetta.

By Shalini Lobo: Monsoons, have hit the Malabar coast with everything looking green, serene and beautiful. God's own country looked at peace, but unfortunately, the inhabitants of northern Kerala have a different story to tell.

60-year-old Narayani lives in the quaint town of Pinarayi. She lives in a small house by the main road all alone. She underwent three operations on her hip and finds it difficult to do things on her own. Narayani's husband Uthaman was a BJP worker. He was active in party politics and that is why he was targeted and murdered in 2002 allegedly by CPI(M) workers, she says. Little did she know that in 2016, 14 years after her husband's death, the bloody party politics would claim her son's life as well.

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"I don't have anyone. They murdered my husband and my son. They hacked him to death right in front of my house. My daughter and I witnessed the incident. He was someone who did not even vote. He was murdered just because his father was active with the BJP and he believed in their ideology," said Narayani.

26-year-old Remith gave up his job in Saudi and settled in Pinarayi to help his mother. He was 12 when his father died.

"Whatever little I could get from tailoring I used up to raise my children. Remith knew we were going through difficult times which is why he took up odd jobs to help. He would deliver the newspaper in the area and would also help a nearby grocer with delivering goods," said his mother.

Narayani lives all alone in her house. She talks to her husband and her son as the day goes by. Whenever she looks out of the door or window, she tells us that she can see a boy or two who stabbed her son.

'MY SON WILL NOT GET JUSTICE TILL PINARAYI IS CM'

"The murder took place at 10:30 am. He was hacked to death on the main road by a group of CPM workers and the person responsible is CM Pinarayi Vijayan. As long as he remains the CM, my son will not get justice. If I ever meet him, I want to ask him why did he murder my son," said Narayani.

Hardly a kilometre and half down Narayani's house stands a big white house. This house belongs to none other than Pinarayi Vijayan. "He lives here, he passes by but not once has he come in and met me," she added.

A little away from Pinarayi is a small village named Andalloor. Earlier this year on January 18th, another BJP worker was hacked to death. Santosh Kumar was 52 years of age and is survived by his wife Baby, and teenage children Sarang and Vismaya.

Baby starts her day at 5am. She looks after the chickens at home and is trying to find a job now. She kept a brave front while talking to India today. But, when narrating what happened that night, Baby broke down.

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"My husband dropped me off to my house and returned home. He was sleeping when workers from the CPI(M) broke open the house and hacked him to death. They thought he was dead and they fled. But after they left, he reached out for his phone and called me saying members of the CPI(M) have attacked me. Please get me to a hospital," narrated Baby.

She called the police immediately after that phone call. But, Santosh never made it on time to the hospital. Even today, blood stains remain on the wall of the that house, the bed on which Santosh was hacked remains covered.

8 people allegedly from the CPI(M) attacked Santosh and today all 8 are free.

NOT MUCH VIOLENCE DURING CONGRESS TENURE

"When the Congress was in power there was not much of political violence. It has risen over the last two years. The police work only according to the CPI(M) and no one else. My husband was a daily wage labourer who believed in a certain ideology. He did not have to be hacked to death over a difference of political ideology," said Baby.

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Kannur has witnessed many political killings since 1969. Looking at years, 2016-17 (till now), Kannur has witnessed 10 political murders. Cadre from the RSS -BJP and the CPI(M) both losing lives for only one reason -- vendetta.

Payyanoor is a village in Kannur district which has witnessed much violence in recent times. 11th July 2016, CV Dhanaraj, an active member of the CPI(M), was hacked to death before his family. His mother Madhavi tried saving him from the minute he received the first stab till he breathed his last. She did not leave his side even for a minute.

"It is the worst to witness your son die before you and it was such a gruesome end that he met. Masked men came on three vehicles and the minute he entered the yard they attacked him. He was slashed first on his leg, that was why he could not escape. He ran into the backyard, but they managed to catch hold of him and stabbed him repeatedly until they were sure he was dead," recounts his mother.

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Sajini, his 34-year-old wife is an active member of the CPI(M). They fell in love and decided to get married. She encouraged him to actively take part in politics and work towards the betterment of society.

'NOW, SCARED OF LOSING MY CHILDREN'

Sajini and Dhanaraj have two sons. The older one is 11 and the younger one 3. Dhanaraj's elder son witnessed his murder. "He saw his father brutally hacked and lying in a pool of blood. Every night before going to bed he talks about it. The only thing that scares me is losing my children to the murder politics taking place here. I will not be able to stand it if my child grows up thinking he has to take revenge or even worse if others do anything to my children," said Sajini.

Dhanaraj was hacked to death at around 9:30 pm and within the next three hours, the score was settled.

Payyanoor witnessed another murder, and this time it was a Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh member CK Ramachandran who was hacked to death before his family.

"Around 10 people attacked the house at 12:30 am. The windows were broken and the men started banging the door. They broke open the door, entered the house and stabbed my husband to death right in the middle of our living room. They did it in front of me and my children. My 13-year-old son is a witness to his father's death. No one came to help us. I identified most of the men as CPI(M) workers and one of them is even related to us," said 41-year-old Ranjini.

Ramachandran was an autodriver and an active member of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a wing of the BJP. He contested the municipal elections. Around two years back the family received threats from the CPI(M) is what Ranjini tells us. "Our auto was set on fire and there was a wreath kept at the doorstep with a message saying, next time we will behead you. I never thought they would actually enter the house and kill him."

Ranjini and Sajjni both victims of political vendetta reiterate the same fact. The accused walked away scot-free after the murders. People are not scared of the law in Kannur and there is not going to be an end to it anytime soon.

On July 11th 2017, the memorial gathering held for CV Dhanaraj was attacked. CPI(M) cadre were injured in the petrol bomb attack. They alleged that this was carried out by the BJP-RSS camps. Within no time, war was declared. BJP-RSS offices were vandalised and then cadre were attacked from both sides of the fence. The CPI(M) suffered losses and so did the BJP-RSS.

While the rules of Kannur politics is very simple --"one life for another". However, this has degraded the idea of politics. How many more people have to die? How many more families have to be orphaned? How many more mothers, sisters, wives, sons and daughters have to wail and cry until the message of peace is sent across to the state of Kerala?

ALSO READ:

RSS to move NHRC over killings of its cadre and activists in Kerala

Kerala government shielding goondas: RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale to India Today

Arun Jaitley to vist slain RSS worker's house on Aug 6

ALSO WATCH:

--- ENDS ---
A Muslim youth, 27-year-old Shafin Jahan, had moved the SC with the help of his lawyer Haris Beeran, challenging Kerala High Court order that quashed his marriage with a Akhila who converted to Islam- on a petition filed by her father.

By Harish V Nair: The hearing of the sensational "love jihad" case of Kerala began in the Supreme Court on Friday with judges posing several pointed queries to top lawyers Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaising who appeared for the couple seeking a re-union after separated by her Hindu father.

After hinting that it may summon the girl, a 24-year-old medical Akhila, who adopted the name Hadiya after conversion if required, the bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar also issued notice to the National Investigation Agency which had probed the case.

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COURT ORDER QUASHED MARRIAGE

A Muslim youth, 27-year-old Shafin Jahan, had moved the SC with the help of his lawyer Haris Beeran, challenging Kerala High Court order that quashed his marriage with a Akhila who converted to Islam- on a petition filed by her father.

HC had found merit in her father KM Ashokan's statement that his daughter had been recruited by Islamic State's mission in Syria and Shafin Jahan was "only a stooge who had been assigned to play the role of going through a marriage ceremony".

Admitting Jahan's petition, SC bench significantly asked the lawyers representing the girl's father to produce within two weeks all materials they had relied on to claim that his daughter had been a victim of love jihad and HC was right in quashing the marriage.

This is vital as otherwise it will be difficult to quash a consenting marriage between two educated adults who are mentally fit. "These are very serious facts. We need to examine them", the bench said.

GIRL GIVING INCOHERENT ANSWERS

The judges posed some pointed questions to the lawyers who represented the couple like why the girl was giving incoherent answers to the HC judge, Why she had three names, did not she know the boy before the marriage, did not the boy have criminal antecedents etc.

But Sibal and Jaising categorically said "there is nothing incriminating on record" and the SC may summon it. The father's lawyer Madhvi Divan argued that there are sufficient records that she was under the influence of a radical organisation for the conversion of religion.

Kerala HC bench of Justice K Surendra Mohan and Justice Abraham Mathew, noting that "national interest is at stake", on May 25 ordered Kerala's director general of police (DGP) to conduct "comprehensive" investigation into cases of "love jihad" and have incidents of forced conversion probed thoroughly.

ALSO READ:

Kerala High Court nullifies woman's marriage with Muslim man after bride's father raises Islamic State angle

Tamil Nadu, Kerala techies under NIA scanner for alleged links with ISIS

--- ENDS ---

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Loudly applauding crowds of people filled the gaily decorated streets of Des Moines on Sept. 29, 1875, as President Ulysses S. Grant arrived for the reunion of the Army of the Tennessee, according to the Union (Missouri) Record.

The Army of the Tennessee was a band of men during the Civil War under the command of then-Major General Grant and named for the Tennessee River. About 200 veterans filled the Hotel Savery the next night for the festivities.

In addition to the president, General William Tecumseh Sherman was on hand to take part in the annual reunion  this one honoring the 10th anniversary of the group.

The men were welcomed by several politicians who spoke on behalf of the people of Iowa. Next, toasts and responses were made.

The first was The Army of the Cumberland, with a response by Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America. The toast The March to the Sea  happy in its conception, fortunate in its leader, glorious in its results, was met with a response by Sherman. The toast made to honor the president The President of the United States, drank standing, elicited a response from the president himself.

It has always been understood that this toast was to be drank standing, and in silence, and no response was to be expected. But I thank the Society of the Army of the Tennessee very gratefully for the reception, which they have given to this toast, and I will beg of you to excuse me from making any further remarks, the president said.

After the toasts, the speeches began. They were to continue well past midnight.

Sherman talked at length about his march to the sea. Frequently referring to his book on the topic, the general said he wanted to give an account while his men were still alive and able to correct its errors  if any.

When it came time for the presidents speech, he started by telling the crowd that he had decided to disappoint those who had come in anticipation of hearing a short speech. And he embarked on a long talk that some said was simply a bid for the nomination for a third term.

The president hit on several topics. He assured those who had fought against the Union that they would continue to enjoy all the privileges we claim for ourselves.

However, he said that he was not prepared to apologize for the past.

He reminded his audience that it was important for everyone to continue to strengthen the foundation laid down by the nations forefathers.

He echoed their support of free thought, speech and press, as well as equal rights for all irrespective of nationality, color, or religion. The president emphasized the need for separation of church and state. He said no school should be appropriated one dollar for the support of any sectarian ideas.

Leave the matter of religious teachings to the family; keep the Church and State forever separate, he said.

Newspapers reported his words were greeted with applause, which was repeated again and again.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the nominations of the candidates for U.S. attorney roles in Iowa.

On Friday, the committee unanimously approved the nominations of Marc Krickbaum as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa and Peter Deegan Jr. for the Northern District of Iowa. The nominations now await a vote of the full Senate.

Both Pete Deegan and Marc Krickbaum are highly qualified and ready to lead the offices of U.S. attorneys in Iowa, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a release.

Grassley noted that Krickbaum has a wealth of experience in the Justice Department, first as counsel to the deputy attorney general, then as an assistant U.S. attorney with the Southern District in Des Moines and in Chicago. Krickbaum is currently an assistant U.S. attorney in the northern district of Illinois.

Grassley said Deegan has worked for almost 20 years in the U.S. Attorneys office for the Northern District, most recently as criminal chief.

Both men were nominated by President Donald Trump in April. Both were among a group jointly recommended by Grassley and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

Grassleys office said its unclear when the nomination vote will be scheduled on the Senate floor.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NEW YORK  Martin Shkreli, the eccentric former pharmaceutical CEO notorious for a price-gouging scandal and for his snide "Pharma Bro" persona on social media, was convicted Friday on federal charges he deceived investors in a pair of failed hedge funds.

A Brooklyn jury deliberated five days before finding Shkreli guilty on three of eight counts. He had been charged with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Prosecutors had accused Shkreli of repeatedly misleading investors about what he was doing with their money. Mostly, he was blowing it with horrible stock picks, forcing him to cook up a scheme to recover millions in losses, they said.

Shkreli, 34, told "lies upon lies," including claiming he had $40 million in one of his funds at a time when it only had about $300 in the bank, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alixandra Smith said in closing arguments. The trial "has exposed Martin Shkreli for who he really is  a con man who stole millions," added another prosecutor, Jacquelyn Kasulis.

But the case was tricky for the government because investors, some wealthy financiers from Texas, testified at the trial conceded that Shkreli's scheme actually succeeded in making them richer, in some cases doubling or even tripling their money on his company's stock when it went public. The defense portrayed them as spoiled "rich people" who were the ones doing the manipulating.

"Who lost anything? Nobody," defense attorney Ben Brafman said in his closing argument. Some investors had to admit on the witness stand that partnering with Shkreli was "the greatest investment I've ever made," he added.

For the boyish-looking Shkreli, one of the biggest problems was not part of the case - his purchase in 2014 of rights to a life-saving drug that he promptly raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Several potential jurors were kept off the panel after expressing distain for the defendant, with one calling him a "snake" and another "the face of corporate greed."

The defendant also came into the trial with a reputation for trolling his critics on social media to a degree that got him kicked off Twitter and for live-streaming himself giving math lessons or doing nothing more than petting his cat, named Trashy. Among his other antics: boasting about buying a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million.

During about a month of testimony, Shkreli appeared engaged at times, grinning when his lawyer described him as a misunderstood misfit. Other times he looked bored, staring into space and playing with his hair.

Shkreli, who comes from an Albanian family in Brooklyn, was arrested in 2015 on charges he looted another drug company he founded, Retrophin, of $11 million in stock and cash to pay back the hedge fund investors. Investors took the witness stand to accuse Shkreli of keeping them in the dark as his scheme unfolded.

"I don't think it mattered to him  it was just what he thought he could get away with," said Richard Kocher, a New Jersey construction company owner who invested $200,000 with Shkreli in 2012. "It was insulting."

Shkreli's lawyer agreed his client could be annoying, saying, "In terms of people skills, he's impossible," and referring to him as a "nerd" and a "mad scientist." But he said his hedge fund investors knew what they were getting.

"They found him strange. They found him weird. And they gave him money. Why? Because they recognized genius," Brafman said, adding that they had signed agreements that his client wasn't liable if they lost their money.

Jurors also heard odd vignettes befitting the quirky defendant: how Shkreli slept on the floor of his office in a sleeping bag for two years; how a drug company board member and former American Express executive wrote an email saying he'd meet with Shkreli "only if I can touch your soft skin"; how Shkreli wrote a letter to the wife of an employee threatening to make the family homeless if the man didn't settle a debt.

Shkreli didn't testify. But rather than lay low like his lawyers wanted, he got into the act by using Facebook to bash prosecutors and news organizations covering his case. In one recent post, he wrote, "My case is a silly witch hunt perpetrated by self-serving prosecutors. ... Drain the swamp. Drain the sewer that is the (Department of Justice.)"

The judge ordered Shkreli to keep his mouth shut in and around the courtroom after another rant to new reporters covering the trial.

Prosecutors "blame me for everything," he said. "They blame me for capitalism."
The Thane Forest Circle has come up with a list of 'dos and don't's' for the youth who often indulge in misadventures with these hurt turtles, trying to pick them up or throw them back into the sea.

By Baishali Adak: The Maharashtra Forest Department has given out a new directive to enthusiasts who take photographs with large turtles: Please do not use camera flash or take selfies with injured turtles.

When these turtles arrive on Mumbai's beaches, their limbs are often cut by fishing nets, leaving them on the verge of death. At least 25 such incidents have come to the fore since May 2017, involving rare and endangered turtles such as the Olive Ridley, Green Sea, Logger Head and Hawks Bill.

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TURTLES DESIGNATED 'VULNERABLE'

They were found to have lost direction and landed at the crowded Juhu, Worli, Mandva, Bordi and Arnara coasts. These are listed on Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act and designated 'vulnerable' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

But it's not just turtles; whales, dolphins and finless porpoises have also similarly found themselves among human beings at the maximum city's seashores recently.

So the Thane Forest Circle came up with a list of 'dos and don't's' for the youth who often indulge in misadventures with these hurt turtles, trying to pick them up or throw them back into the sea.

GENERATING AWARENESS

Sunil Limaye, Chief Conservator of Forest (Thane), said, "Awareness is growing among people, but frequently, they don't know how to help the poor marine animals. So we have had really funny but sad incidents where people tried to apply turmeric on them."

Dr. Dinesh J. Vinherkar, a veterinarian associated with the Dahanu Injured Sea Turtle Treatment and Transit Center, said, "Now, that can be dangerous. Often turtles are washed ashore with fractured shell cavities and torn flippers. If people apply turmeric or any substance without consulting a medic, it can percolate to their attached lungs and poison them or rupture their blood vessels."

Much to the distress of nature lovers, at least 14 Olive Ridley Turtles alone were found stranded in injured conditions along the west coast between Girgaum Chowpathy and Dahanu from June to July.

TURTLES ARE INJURED

A six-feet whale died after it got stranded at Rajodi beach near Vasai recently too. Already, the State Forest Department is running a toll-free number, 1926, for such queries.

Head of NGO RAWW, Pawan Sharma, who has rescued numerous such reptiles, said, "We believe most of these are victims of pollution, ghost fishing nets and illegal fishing activities on Mumbai's coasts. Almost 90 per cent of sea turtles found washed ashore had missing or injured flippers which would not have happened if it were a natural phenomenon."

Dr. Dinesh said, "A lot of people take photographs with these animals in pain and upload them on social media websites. They must understand that crowding around the turtles or using camera flashes in their vicinity can cause them a lot of stress. These are marine creatures who are not used to human touch or presence, and stress is a major killer for them."

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CCF Sunil Limaye said, "Though, we have had instances of good cooperation from the public too. Recently, a man called me after finding a turtle with a fishing hook around its nose. We reached there and helped it."

ALSO READS:

As Modi government clears development projects in a flurry, India's environmental future is at stake

UP: Sending elderly to forests as tiger prey for compensation from government is as savage as it can get

--- ENDS ---
Woman survives and testifies incident was an accident

A Colorado man will serve time on probation nearly a year after shooting his wife at Lake McConaughy.

Sean Long, 44, of Aurora, Colorado, was sentenced in Keith County District Court this week to 40 days in jail, with credit for 40 days served, and two years probation.

Earlier, Long had pleaded no contest to attempted terroristic threats, the lowest level of felony. He may transfer his probation to his home state of Colorado.

Long was charged after authorities said he shot his wife at Martin Bay in front of about a dozen witnesses. She was flown to a Colorado hospital and survived her injuries.

At Longs hearing, his wife testified that the shooting was accidental and said she would not have stood by him if she believed otherwise. Long apologized to the court and thanked his wife for her support, saying he wished he had quit drinking before the incident occurred.
There were two NRL match review committee charges to come out of the Round 22 Telstra Premiership games on Friday night.

St George Illawarra Dragons forward Jake Marketo was charged with grade one dangerous contact to the head/neck for an incident with South Sydney Rabbitohs hooker Damien Cook in the 58th minute of their clash at the SCG.

The base penalty for that charge is 100 points, and with his clean record Marketo can avoid suspension with an early guilty plea, reducing the charge to 75 points.

North Queensland Cowboys centre Kane Linnett copped the same charge and grading as Marketo for an incident with Melbourne Storm forward Kenny Bromwich.

Bromwich can also escape a ban by taking an early guilty plea.

Both players would have 75 carryover points if they take early guilty pleas for their respective charges.
The government's move comes on the heels of Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi directing all private hospitals to reveal the data of caesarean deliveries.

By Priyanka Sharma: The Centre has decided to snip the rates of caesarean deliveries at private hospitals, in a bid to reduce the skyrocketing rate of surgical births that are often preferred by institutes allegedly to bump up the bills.

According to health ministry data from empanelled private hospitals, a total of 17,450 C-section surgeries have been conducted this year out of 31,296 deliveries, which is about 55.75 per cent.

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Observers say doctors are often paid much more for a surgical procedure than a vaginal delivery, and institutions can rake in money for a patient's longer stay and medical attention in case of an operation.

The government's move comes on the heels of Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi directing all private hospitals to reveal the data of caesarean deliveries. She pointed at an alarming rise in C-section operations for delivery resulting in proportionate decline in normal delivery in the country.

Dr Jagdish Prasad, director general of health services (DGHS), has written a letter to union healthy minister JP Nadda and health secretary CK Mishra, asking to curb the unusual rise in caesarean operations for deliveries.

Mail Today has a copy of this letter. "As a primary move to discourage the caesarean sections operations for deliveries, it has been decided to make it mandatory for CGHS empanelled hospitals to display the data concerning caesarean and normal deliveries," it reads.

Caesarean delivery, or C-section, is the use of surgery to deliver one or more babies through incisions in a woman's abdomen and uterus, particularly when a vaginal delivery would put the child or mother at risk.

"If the trend is not curbed, this could become harmful for the health of women in the long run while posing a more serious challenge to tackle the same after a few years. This is primarily because of the fact that caesarean delivery requires less monitoring by qualified doctors, minimum occupation of labour room, relatively less stress on the gynaecologist in-charge and a source of additional earning by emapanlled hospitals," Dr Prasad told Mail Today that the only way to control the "unnecessary" practice of caesarean deliveries at private hospitals is by fixing similar rates for both C-section and normal deliveries.

"We have written to the union health minister and secretary suggesting the same. This proposal is still in the pipeline. Only Central Government Health Services (CGHS) patients would be beneficiaries."

On Friday, health minister Nadda informed Parliament that the number of caesarean deliveries or C-section surgeries have increased in the country.

"C-section (surgeries) have increased, especially in private institutes. It is a matter of concern for all of us." he said during Question Hour. Nadda said there were a number of reasons for this rise, including personal preference, risk factor, time constraint, among others.

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"But our efforts are on to bring down the number of C- sections. We are initiating the process of counselling," he said. The minister said the CGHS has already asked all empanelled hospitals to display the number of C-sections being conducted on a voluntary basis prominently near the reception of the institute.

He said for other patients, states have to take the initiative. "Until and unless state governments implement the Clinical Establishment Act, they would not be able to regulate private hospitals. Currently, state governments have just adopted it."

ALSO READ:

India Today impact: Centre orders probe into drug overpricing

How hospitals in collusion with pharma firms are burning a hole in your pocket

--- ENDS ---
Gold and silver streaming companies Franco Nevada Corporation (NYSE: FNV) and Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM) have very similar business models. Where they differ most is in their dividend policies. My preference here is Franco Nevada, but Wheaton Precious Metals could be the right choice for you. Here's what you need to know.

A little about streaming

The first thing to understand about this pair of precious metals companies is that they are not miners. Franco Nevada and Wheaton Precious Metals are streaming companies. That means they provide miners with cash up front for the right to buy gold and silver in the future at reduced rates. This allows them to avoid the risks of operating mines and lets them lock in low prices and high margins through the cycle.

For example, Wheaton Precious Metals pays around $4 an ounce for silver and $400 an ounce for gold, well below the prices the metals fetch today on the spot market. And EBITDA margins at both Wheaton and Franco Nevada remained solidly in positive territory during the commodity downturn when precious metals miners were watching their margins dip deep into the red.

Miners agree to these deals for several reasons. The most important being that they get access to cash when other sources, like the capital markets and banks, are more expensive. The recent commodity downturn was a great time for this pair. In 2015 alone Wheaton inked $1.8 billion in new deals and Franco Nevada a $600 million deal. Both had record production in 2016.

Some subtle difference

That said, there are a couple of subtle differences here. The first is diversification. Wheaton's portfolio of investments contains 29 mines, eight of which are development properties. Franco Nevada is much more diversified with 46 producing mines, 41 development projects, and 172 exploration investments. Both are diversified, but Franco Nevada is notably more diversified.

Franco Nevada also has exposure to oil and natural gas, which Silver Wheaton does not. Franco Nevada's portfolio includes around 80 investment in oil and gas projects with these fuels making up about 5% of revenues. That number should grow over the near term, too, since the company is using the energy downturn as an opportunity to expand its reach in these commodities. So if you want a pure play metals company Wheaton is the better choice, even though gold and silver are the most important part of Franco Nevada's business.

The really big difference

All of that said, the biggest difference between these two companies is going to come down to your dividend preference. Franco Nevada has increased its dividend every year for 10 consecutive years, including 2017 in that tally. Wheaton Precious Metals' dividend is pegged at 20% of the average cash generated by operating activities in the previous four quarters.

This difference is a big deal since precious metals prices will have a notable impact on the top and bottom lines of both companies. Franco Nevada's goal is clearly to provide a consistent stream of income. Wheaton's goal is to reward investors during the good years while asking them to share the pain during the bad years.

Don't instantly dismiss that as less desirable, however. Since gold and silver prices tend to go up when the broader market is going down, Wheaton's dividend is likely to be moving higher when your other investments are struggling and, perhaps, cutting their disbursements. Wheaton could be an interesting dividend portfolio diversification option.

In the end, I favor dividends that slowly grow over time. So when looking at this pair I lean toward Franco Nevada. If your goal is diversification Wheaton's variable dividend might actually work more to your advantage. You just have to understand the dynamics before you jump aboard.

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The number of at-grade road crossings along the South Shore Line will be reduced by more than one-fourth if the planned double-tracking and South Bend realignment projects are completed as planned.

And an Indiana Department of Transportation program will add gates to 20 crossings now regulated only by signs and flashing lights.

"We should see a dramatic improvement in grade-crossing safety," Chief Engineering Officer Victor Babin told the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District Board of Trustees at its recent meeting.

Babin said the South Shore currently has 138 grade-level crossings, 49 with flashers and gates, 34 with flashers only and 55 marked only by the traditional crossbuck "Railroad Crossing" signs.

The INDOT project has a cost of about $1.4 million funded through a federal grant program administered by the state agency. Babin said the railroad's decision a decade ago to pre-wire crossings during another project enabled the South Shore to increase INDOT's initial work proposal to 20 crossings from 12, and to reduce the cost to just more than one-third the original estimate.

Reducing the number of crossings comes from the two proposed upgrades to the existing line, and include:

Removing 21 track crossings in Michigan City, and adding gates to 10 others, as part of Double Track NWI.

Reducing South Bend road crossings by 16, and adding gates to two, as part of the project rerouting the railroad into the South Bend International Airport.

The changes would leave the South Shore with 101 grade-level crossings, 81 of them with gates and flashing lights. Babin said the non-gated crossings will be predominantly pedestrian and farm crossings.

Downtown Michigan City

The South Shore in Michigan City runs down the middle of 10th Street from Sheridan Avenue to Huron, then shifts to 11th Street, where it runs down the middle of the road to Michigan Boulevard.

The new tracks will run along the south side of 10th Street, then the north edge of 11th, making the latter a one-way eastbound street.

The 21 crossings that will be eliminated are at Hayes, Greeley, Hancock, Seymour, Douglas, Carlon, Grant, Donnelly, Clair, 10th and Huron, Kentucky, Tennessee, Elston, Manhattan, Buffalo, Pine, Spring, Cedar, York, Maple and Phillips.

The first five, plus Grant and Huron, run north from 10th Street; the track relocation will allow traffic to enter and exit 10th Street without crossing the tracks. Carlon, Donnelly and Clair run south from 10th; they will be closed at the tracks, forming cul-de-sacs.

With tracks moving to the north side of 11th Street, eliminating crossings on it will mean closing access to 11th Street from the north. Phillips, which runs southwest from 11th, will have access, as will traffic from the other 10 coming from the south.

Regular crossings will remain in the Double Track project route at Sheridan, Willard, Chicago, Ohio, Wabash, Washington, Franklin, Lafayette and Oak.

The project, with an estimated cost of $290 million, is planned for completion in 2019 if federal funding is secured.

South Bend airport rerouting

The South Shore comes into South Bend south of the airport, turning north along Bendix Drive before arriving at its station on the east side of the airport terminal. There are 22 grade crossings, 19 of them involving roads, along the way.

The proposed rerouting would put the station on the west side of the airport terminal, providing a more direct route to the airport. The project's main goal is to contribute to reductions in travel time to Chicago, with the goal of a 90-minute trip on express trains.

"By bringing the line to the west side of the airport, we believe we'll reduce the grade crossings to between four and six," South Shore President Michael Noland said. "Anytime you can reduce the opportunity for trains and vehicles or pedestrians to meet, that is a positive thing for safety."

Babin's presentation to the NICTD board showed a net reduction of crossings to 16. The project is still in its early planning stages, with construction targeted for 2019-20. The city of South Bend, through its Redevelopment Commission, has pledged $25 million for the project, though NICTD will seek federal funding if it's available.
GARY  Darlene Moore attended the Northwest Indiana Business Conference on Thursday with a goal of finding resources so she could set her recently launched non-emergency transportation company on a path to success.

Moore, owner of Gary-based Moore Transportation, achieved that goal when she met Diana Hunter, a procurement specialist at the Crown Point-based Procurement Technical Assistance Center, sponsored by the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

Moore said she wanted to get information on the various aids to minority businesses and how they can help my business and my community.

Hunter's job is to connect small businesses with local, state and federal government contracts.

These businesses are looking for added sales, along with marketing to the government, Hunter said.

Hunter was a panelist at Thursday's conference presented by the Indiana Department of Administration's Division of Supplier Diversity, held at Majestic Star Hotel. The conference was the third of four regional programs presented statewide.

Kesha Rich, business development and outreach manager for IDOA, said the state department wants to provide women and minority business owners with free tools.

The conference, she noted, offered information on accessing capital and doing business with municipalities and state educational and economic development institutions. The afternoon program provided panel discussions related to those topics, with government and business leaders attending.

These people are looking for opportunities, Chuck Hughes, executive director of the Gary Chamber of Commerce, said of attendees. Such conferences, he continued, are in line with efforts of local businesses and government to grow and attract local commerce.

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, fresh from a beach cleanup, cited the ability to promote, grow, and develop business in Gary.  Im excited about what is going on here.

The venue has hosted the conference since 2013. Peter Ligouri, president and CEO of Majestic Star Casino and Hotel, praised the 100 people who registered for the conference, pointing out his companys commitment to supporting minority- and women-owned businesses.

Ligouri, whose father started a small business at age 40, said the casino and hotel spend $20 million annually on vendors outside Gary, noting his desire to reduce that number and work with more local merchants.

Panelist Eric Mazelis offered this advice to business owners: Plan ahead financially.

Its important to think about finances, including loans, before you run into a financial crunch, said Mazelis, a loan officer with Accion, a nonprofit small-business lender. Someone may be good at what they do, but they dont plan ahead. You need an understanding of finances.

The conference began with a presentation on the state certification process by Amy Wolf, director of certification for IDOA. Becoming registered with the state is a marketing tool, she said, offering access to potential state contracts.

While some attendees were new to state connections, others, such as H&D Landscaping of Hammond, are already state-certified.

I came to network, said H&D owner Daphne Dixon. I need to make connections with companies that may need subcontractors.
MICHIGAN CITY  Three people have been taken into custody for drug activity after police executed two separate search warrants this week in the city's Eastport and Elston Grove neighborhoods.

The LaPorte County Drug Task Force executed the first search warrant in the early Wednesday hours in the 2200 block of East Michigan Boulevard, according to a news release.

George D. Jackson, 66, has been charged with two counts of dealing cocaine and one count of being a serious violent felon in possession of a firearm in connection with that search warrant.

The search resulted in the seizure of a "large amount of crack cocaine, cash and a handgun, according to a news release.

A second search was executed early Thursday in the 100 block of Maple Street, according to police. Crack cocaine was seized during the search, the release stated.

Cassandra Bardlett, 60, and Willie Daniels, 62, were charged with two counts of dealing cocaine in connection with that search warrant.

"The LaPorte County Drug Task Force has received numerous citizen complaints on both of these locations, and continues to aggressively pursue tips from the public, into alleged narcotics dealing within our neighborhoods," the release stated.

Subsequent arrests are likely as the investigation continues, according to the news release.

Anyone with information about drug activity to submit tips through social media or the crime tip hotline at 219-873-1488.
By PTI: Nagar

(Eds: Updating with the new name of the station)

New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) The Centre today approved a proposal to rename the iconic Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh after Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, a home ministry official said.

The proposal was given by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, in a bid to revive the legacy of Upadhyaya, who was found dead in 1968 in the junction itself.

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Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir cleared the proposal to rename the railway station as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar station, the home ministry official said.

The move led to an uproar in Parliament after several MPs including Samajwadi Partys Naresh Agarwal protested against the Centres decision to give the nod to renaming the junction after Upadhyay.

The junction, the fourth busiest railway station in the country, is located on the main Howrah-Delhi Grand Chord line.

The Uttar Pradesh government, headed by Yogi Adityanath, had in June approved the proposal of renaming the station and forwarded it to the Ministry of Railways for final approval.

Upadhyays body was found under mysterious circumstances on a platform of Mughalsarai in 1968. The town is part of Chandauli district and is just 20 km from Varanasi.

Mughalsarai is also the birthplace of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The station contains the largest railway marshaling yard in Asia. It is 12.5 km long and handles around 1,500 wagons daily. The largest wagon repair workshop of the Indian Railways is also located here.

Mughalsarai is not the only railway station whose name has been changed in recent times. The iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, which was earlier known as Victoria Terminus, saw the word Maharaj added to its name earlier this year. PTI ACB SMN

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CROWN POINT  The sister of a 38-year-old man charged in his parents' killing in October 2013 testified at a court hearing Friday that it was strange messages circulating on social media that alerted her that something was wrong at the family home in West Creek Township.

The message, according to testimony Friday from Julie Niemeyer, claimed that her father, Clifford Snow, had died of a heart attack, though Niemeyer said she had not been notified of his death at her home in Missouri.

Niemeyer said she was first alerted to the message on Oct. 18, 2013. The news had spread on social media among former students of the retired shop teacher from Hammond Morton High School.

Niemeyer said the message was made stranger because she hadn't been able to contact her parents by telephone for nearly a month. She had once gotten ahold of her brother, Thomas J. Snow, but he claimed their parents couldn't come to the phone.

The daughter contacted local hospitals asking if her family members were admitted, and when that turned up nothing, she called her uncle, a retired police officer, who suggested she request law enforcement check the parents' home in the 14500 block of West 197th Avenue.

An officer was dispatched and told Niemeyer he found 10 newspapers still in their plastic wrappings in the driveway and dogs barking in the home.

Niemeyer said she knew then something was wrong  her father kept the yard immaculate. So she said she gave the officer permission to kick in the back door, and inside he found the decomposed bodies of Clifford Snow, 68, and Joyce Snow, 66.

Minnesota police arrested Thomas J. Snow the next day in possession of a family car and a credit card. He was charged in April 2014 with two counts of murder in his parents' slaying. A trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 30.

Defense attorneys Alrington Foley and John Maksimovich argue in a motion filed in April that the officer acted unlawfully when he entered the Snow family's home without a warrant. The attorneys are seeking to have all the evidence collected from the residence barred from trial.

Police did obtain a search warrant from Lake Criminal Court about two hours after they first entered the home and before they began a detailed search for evidence.

The hearing held Friday was the second hearing on the issue.

Judge Samuel L. Cappas said at the hearing's conclusion he would have a ruling on the motion by Sept. 21.
CROWN POINT  The city was close to adding a temporary three-way stop sign at 109th Avenue and Iowa Street to help control increased traffic due to construction going on at nearby roadways.

With Indiana Department of Transportation road construction on Interstate 65 bridges causing closures at 93rd and 113th avenues, the already heavily trafficked 109th is seeing an increase in traffic volume, and making turns at the intersection with Iowa is difficult, officials said.

The city's board of works on Wednesday initially approved the stop signs, which were talked about as becoming a permanent measure even after nearby construction is scheduled to end around Aug. 17.

However, it was determined after the meeting that INDOT will have 113th Avenue open in a few days, so the city will no longer be adding the stop signs.

The city will continue to look at improvements to the intersection for the near future, one of which could include a roundabout, which has already been approved based on traffic counts.
GARY  The Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit is seeking information on the identity or whereabouts of a man or woman in connection with a homicide early Saturday.

Police responded at 12:07 a.m. Saturday to Philly's Steak and Lemonade, 5405 W. 25th Ave., for a call for a gunshot victim.

When they arrived, officers discovered a man inside with a gunshot wound, police said.

The male had no signs of life and was later declared dead at the scene by the Lake County coroner's office, police said.

A man and woman were last seen in a black SUV heading west on Interstate 80/94, police said.

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact Detective Kristopher Adams of the Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit at 219-755-3855. To remain anonymous, call the Crime Tip Line at 866-CRIME-GP.
VALPARAISO  Cooler summer weather did not leave a chill Friday on workers assembled for the 15th annual United Way of Porter Countys Day of Caring.

Despite morning temperatures in the 50s, more than 1,000 volunteers on 73 teams gathered at sites in Valparaiso and Portage for 85 community service projects. Among the beneficiaries were 42 nonprofit organizations.

You guys are all part of a magical day, Kim Olesker, president/CEO of United Way of Porter County, told volunteers at the Urschel Pavilion in downtown Valparaiso. A similar breakfast took place at the Portage YMCA.

Day of Caring magnifies the heart of the community, Olesker said, praising residents and businesses for pulling together to support the local nonprofits in their endeavor to support the community.

People of varied ages and backgrounds worked on projects all over the Region. Some volunteers did landscaping, while others painted walls, washed windows, cleaned rooms and even grilled burgers.

For the seventh year, administrative staff members of the Valparaiso University Law School helped. This year they cooked burgers at St. Agnes Day Service Center, a facility in Valparaiso for older adults.

Its nice you can get out in the public and do something worthwhile and represent the university, VUs Melissa Mundt said. You do what you can to give back to the community.

Lakeside Wealth Management, of Chesterton, brought 31 employees to work on the Girl Scout camp in Porter County. Jen Brown, Lakesides corporate communications manager, called Day of Caring a good team-building event. We can give back to the community as a team, and we spend a day together out of the office.

The Valparaiso Swim Club brought 14 adults and children to wash windows at the VNA Hospice Center in Valparaiso. I like the camaraderie, with kids and parents doing something together, club president Dawn Brown said.

Dale and Gayle Sandquist, of Valparaiso, had volunteered in previous years through Dales job. Both are now retired and have returned to Day of Caring. Gayle Sandquist said she and her husband enjoy giving back, helping others.

The Sandquists were among the volunteers at VNA Hospice Center. According to Maria Galka, director of development for VNA of Northwest Indiana, chores included landscaping, washing windows and cleaning a playroom. In addition, Valparaiso Tri Kappa donated comfort kits for hospice families.

Weve got a lot going on, Galka said. Im loving it.

1st Source Banks team of 11 was headed for the Salvation Army in Michigan City, where they helped in the food pantry and did painting. Jayne Cooper, representing the bank, said 1st Source has helped with Day of Caring for seven years.

This gives us a chance to get out and see different organizations in the community, Cooper said. Also, a lot of these nonprofits may not have the time or money to get these projects done, which we can do in a day.
EAST CHICAGO  HUD Secretary Ben Carson will meet Monday with elected officials and community leaders during a visit to the USS Lead Superfund site, according to Gov. Eric Holcomb's office.

Carson committed to visiting the site in April in a phone call with U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., the senator's office said.

Carson will be briefed on efforts to assist families displaced after the East Chicago Housing Authority ordered them to relocate last summer because of lead and arsenic contamination at the West Calumet Housing Complex. The complex is in the first of three residential cleanup zones in the Superfund site, which includes East Chicago's West Calumet, Calumet and East Calumet neighborhoods.

Contamination levels were greatest within the public housing complex, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data show. The complex was built in the footprint of the former Anaconda lead smelter, likely without any remediation, in the early 1970s.

ECHA applied to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in July 2016 to demolish the complex and submitted a plan Sept. 2 to HUD to relocate residents. A written relocation plan is typically required before a housing authority applies for demolition.

The last of the complex's more than 1,000 residents  who comprised more than 300 families  moved out in June. According to HUD, 62 families remained in East Chicago, 46 transferred to the Gary Housing Authority, 40 went to the Hammond Housing Authority, 25 moved to Chicago public housing, 70 found public housing in Cook County and 46 went to "other areas."

In addition to Carson and Donnelly, U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, Holcomb and East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland will attend the meeting.

Residents have list of concerns

Thomas Frank, a member of the Community Strategy Group, said at least six residents have been selected to participate in the meeting and will address a number of issues.

Residents are concerned about how former West Calumet residents have been disbursed, he said. The group will ask whether residents who received temporary vouchers and moved to locations with high crime rates or other types of environmental contamination will receive another voucher to move to a safer home.

Group members want to know if community development block grant money could be used to help displaced residents. They also want an assurance that if new residences are built at the West Calumet property, displaced residents will be given an opportunity to return before new residents are accepted.

Residents plan to ask about what can be done for people who lived at the West Calumet Housing Complex over the years. The group still wants a program, for instance, like one offered in Libby, Montana, that extended Medicaid to all residents  both past and present  for life, Frank said.

Donnelly, Young and Visclosky wrote a letter last month to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking that HHS work with East Chicago to identify opportunities to improve treatment, prevention and education programs. The congressmen also asked HHS to detail its ability to provide long-term health monitoring and treatment for affected residents and former residents.

PCB disposal permit still an issue

Young's office helped coordinate a visit in April by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who recently announced his agency would create a Top 10 list of Superfund sites.

The list has not yet been announced, but Pruitt talked about East Chicago during a press conference last month announcing recommendations by his Superfund Task Force, The Washington Post reported. Albert Kelly, an advisor to Pruitt and chairman of the task force, personally attended EPA's last two monthly meetings for the USS Lead site and a community meeting regarding a proposed permit for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The corps is seeking to dispose of dredged sediment from the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal that contains higher levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, than previously allowed.

Frank said residents also will ask Donnelly and Young to sign a letter asking EPA and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to reject the permit for the corps. Visclosky has declined to sign such a letter, but vowed to continue to bring concerns about the permit to EPA and IDEM's attention.

EPA said Friday a decision on the risk-based PCB disposal permit could come within weeks.

The Superfund site and dredging of the ship canal are not related, but residents have raised concerns that they could face cumulative health risks because of multiple exposures to toxic substances. They're especially concerned that children exposed to contaminants at the Superfund site were moved to a school located near the confined disposal facility where toxic sediments are being stored.
Hundreds of New Yorkers with outstanding warrants for low-level offenses wiped their slates clean Saturday in the Bronx.

The Bronx District Attorney's office hosted its second annual warrant forgiveness program, "Another Chance," at the Eastchester Presbyterian Church located in Baychester.

"I have a couple warrants out, and I feel like this would be a good way to get them cleared up, because I have human resources calling me soon and I just don't want this to stop me from getting a job," one man at the event said.

"Another Chance" let people resolve warrants for minor crimes like drinking alcohol in public, trespassing, or littering.

Organizers said those offenses can affect applications for citizenship, jobs, and public housing units.

As a result, a resource fair was also on-site for those looking for jobs, health care, and social services.

Residents from the five boroughs were encouraged to come.

By the early afternoon, officials had cleared the records of more than a hundred people.

"We're doing everything that we can to try to keep people out of the criminal justice system, and provide them with resources so that they can be stable and really be productive members of the community," Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said at the event.

Clark said she is working on a motion with the district attorneys of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens that would dismiss a number of summons warrants.


An editorial in the hawkish Communist Party-run newspaper Global Times on Saturday slammed the Narendra Modi government for being "reckless" over the Doklam stand-off and warned that it was "pushing India into a war".

By Ananth Krishnan: An editorial in the hawkish Communist Party-run newspaper Global Times on Saturday slammed the Narendra Modi government for being "reckless" over the Doklam stand-off and warned that it was "pushing India into a war".

In the latest verbal attack from Chinese state media over the border stand-off near the India-China-Bhutan trijunction, the Global Times editorial said, "If the Modi government refuses to stop, it will push its country into a war that India has no power to control."

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The editorial also accused the Modi government of "lying to its people that India in 2017 is different from India in 1962." "The gap in national strength between the two countries is the largest in the past 50 years. If the Modi government wants to start a war, at least it should tell its people the truth", the editorial said.

The editorial also declared that "the PLA has made sufficient preparation for military confrontation." "It is a war with an obvious result", the Global Times said. "The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be aware of the PLA's overwhelming firepower and logistics. Indian border troops are no rival to PLA field forces. If a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region."

INDIA MUST IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAW FROM DOKLAM: CHINA

The paper's editorial came after a series of statements this past week from the Foreign Ministry and PLA, all demanding India's "immediate" withdrawal from Doklam.

"China has exercised great restraint, demonstrating respect to peace and human life", the editorial said. "The PLA did not strike in the past month when Indian troops savagely trespassed into Chinese territory. If the Modi government takes China's goodwill for weakness, its recklessness will only lead to devastation."

"India is publicly challenging a country that is far superior in strength", it added. "India's recklessness has shocked Chinese. Maybe its regional hegemonism in South Asia and the Western media's comments have blinded New Delhi into believing that it can treat a giant to its north in the way it bullies other South Asian countries."

ALSO READ |

China's 'salami slicing': Why Doklam must unite world leaders against Beijing

To resolve Doklam standoff with China, India coordinating with Bhutan

On Doklam, India's roadmap is peace with China, not war: Sushma in Rajya Sabha

Watch video | Modi govt pushing India into war: Chinese paper blames 'reckless' leadership for Doklam standoff

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A traveling exhibit, Alabama Justice: The Cases and Faces that Changed a Nation, will tour the state in 2019, Alabamas bicentennial year, thanks to funding from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Auburn University Intramural Grants Program and a College of Liberal Arts Summer Research Grant.

Steven Brown, professor in the Department of Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, is conducting extensive research to write about three U.S. Supreme Court justices appointed from Alabama, and eight landmark cases that arose from this state. He will utilize his research to create content for a traveling exhibit that will make appearances in museums, libraries, universities and public buildings throughout the state during the upcoming bicentennial of Alabama statehood.

The three-dimensional multimedia exhibit is tentatively designed to have 35 display panels, five pop-up panels, video monitors and audio components to allow visitors to learn more about these cases, the justices, the Supreme Court and the Constitution. He is also working on an accompanying exhibition book.

The Alabama Humanities Foundation grant was the most recent agency to approve funding for the project.

I was very grateful to learn that I had received this grant, Brown said. As critical as every dollar of the funding is, however, the most important thing to me has been the support of Thomas Bryant, the foundations grants director."

Brown said he met Bryant last year when Bryant came to Auburn as part of a College of Liberal Arts grant workshop.

He [Bryant] expressed initial interest in the idea of the exhibit, Brown said. He encouraged me to develop the project further and primarily because of his support for the exhibit, and now with the addition of the AHF grant, the idea of Alabama Justice is about to become a reality and it is just very exciting.

Strong support

Brown says that he has received of support from his colleagues and peers and throughout the community and state.

My department, the College of Liberal Arts and Auburn University have been very supportive, financially and otherwise, Brown said.

Brown says that the project is in its initial phase. He is spending this summer writing a book on the landmark cases and Supreme Court justices that will accompany the exhibit and that was made possible with the help of a College of Liberal Arts Summer Competitive Research Grant.

Dr. Browns initiative is exactly the kind of project we like to encourage through our summer research competitive grants program, said Joseph Aistrup, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. The state-wide educational component of this exhibition aligns with our commitment to outreach and serving the community.

The exhibition is slated to begin its tour on Jan. 1, 2019, in commemoration of Alabamas Bicentennial.
During the June 6 State of the Nation address, President Museveni praised Maria Lubega Mutagamba as one of his most dedicated ministers.

At the time, little did the president know that his former minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities was writhing in pain at Lubaga hospital. During the State of the Nation speech, Mathias Kasamba, an East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) member was busy trying to get Musevenis handlers to tell the president that his former minister needed specialised medical care.

Kasambas message got to Museveni through Maj Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso. That evening, Mutagamba was transferred to Case hospital where she died on June 24.

Before her admission to Lubaga hospital, she had gone to the USA where she underwent an operation to remove gallstones. But her condition worsened upon return to the country.

Some media reports suggested at the weekend that she had been suffering from cancer of the liver but the government chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa, told mourners during a requiem mass at Lubaga cathedral on June 26 that government would officially release her post-mortem report.



CAREER

During the 1989 elections for the expanded National Resistance Council (NRC), Mutagamba contested and won the affirmative action seat for Rakai district. Mutagamba had been a quiet supporter of the Democratic Party (DP). She remained unknown to most DP leaders at the time including Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere who had led the party in the 1980 elections.

My first contact with her was during the CA [Constituent Assembly] and I was impressed with her articulation of the issues DP stood for, Ssemogerere told The Observer on June 26 outside Lubaga cathedral.

At the promulgation of the 1995 Constitution, Mutagamba was among the opposition politicians in the CA who refused to append their signatures because some of the issues they espoused such the return to multipartism had been left out. She proved a brilliant and hardworking person. That persuaded Ssemogerere to appoint her to lead his 1996 presidential bid.

I formed an opinion about her, chose her to lead my campaign. That was my judgementwhat happened next, I dont want to comment, Ssemogerere said.

Despite her DP leanings, she reached out across the political divide to work with NRM to develop Rakai. Mutagamba, the late former minister Manuel Pinto and Brig Elly Kayanja were leaders of Rakai Development Association.

Mutagamba was at the time the associations treasurer when they sought assistance to deal with the HIV/Aids scourge that was ravaging families in the district. At the time, Mutagamba ran a microfinance institution, Equator Building Society, which was housed on Johnson street near the defunct Munno publication.

Besides offering financial services, she used her firm to finance DP activities and also to support needy orphans.



JOINING NRM

After the 1996 elections, Mutagamba got actively involved in DP politics. She went on to become the partys deputy secretary general. By 2000, she had got frustrated with DPs frail financial muscle. At one time she accused the party of failing to clear her accumulated mobile telephone bills with the now defunct Celtel Uganda.

She piled up the bills when she led Ssemogereres 1996 campaigns. She had, however, been in contact with some government bigwigs such as former vice president Prof Gilbert Bukenya who connected her to President Museveni.

President Museveni has a talent for identifying talented people whether in government or in the opposition, and once he has identified you, he will bring you on board so that you also contribute to the transformation of the country, Nankabirwa said.

He [Museveni] saw a unique leadership quality in Mutagamba and that is why he got her from the opposition to come and serve in cabinet, Nankabirwa added.

Her defection was rewarded with an appointment as minister of state for water resources. She used her new job to position herself as the political kingpin in Rakai district. But her influence at the time was overshadowed by the presence of Sarah Kiyingi, the then state minister for Internal Affairs and Rakai Woman MP.

Given Kiyingis opposition to the lifting of presidential term limits during the 2005 constitutional amendment and her subsequent quitting of politics, Mutagambas political clout in Rakai grew, and she went on to become the NRM chairperson in the district.

She diligently served DP and when she joined NRM, she served wholeheartedly without any grumbling, which is characteristic of many in NRM, NRM secretary general Justine Kasule Lumumba said on June 26.

She had used her position in the ministry of Water and Environment to improve water coverage in Rakai, and thus did not expect any challenge in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

All the candidates that had come up to challenge her were talked out of the race and offered jobs within the Rakai district service. As a minister, she shined on the international scene, becoming the president of the African Ministers Council on Water (2004 to 2012) and coordinator of the Global Women Leaders Forum for Water and Sanitation (from 2005 to 2012). She was later to be appointed by the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as the vice chairperson of the United Nations Task Force on Integrated Water Resource Management.

Her accomplishments on the international scene won her elevation to full cabinet minister for Water and Environment in the post-2006 election cabinet.

In 2012, she was appointed as minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, a portfolio she held until her retirement from active politics in May 2016.



PERSONAL LIFE

Mutagamba was born 65 years ago on September 5, 1952 to the late Emilio Lubega of the Buganda royal families headed by Kibi Kaganda of Ssanje near Kakuuto.

Details of her primary school education were not readily available. But as a child she was interested in becoming a nun and in 1967 she earned a placement at St. Aloysius Senior Secondary School at Bwanda, the headquarters of the Daughters of Mary sisters in present-day Kalungu District.

It is here that she sat for her O-levels in 1970. The following year in 1971, she joined Mount St Marys College Namagunga until 1972 when she sat for her A-levels before joining Makerere University from where she graduated with BA (Economics) in 1976.

In 1980, she joined ICL computer school in Nairobi, Kenya for a diploma in computer programing in addition to other certificates that she obtained from the USA and an honorary doctorate of law from McMaster University, Canada. She was married to the late Tarsis Matthew Mutagamba, a former employee of Bank of Uganda.

sadabkk@observer.ug
The commission of inquiry into land matters ordered for the arrest of former Ntungamo Grade II Magistrate, Gaston Kamugisha over allegations of interfering with the commissions work.

Kamugisha, a lawyer to Hajj Swaib Yiga, who is being accused of land grabbing in the areas of Balatila village, Kapeeka sub-county in Nakaseke district.

According to the commission, Kamugishas presence at the public hearings is contrary to the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 166.

Mr Kamugisha was excluded from the commission hearing hall for purposes of order and for preserving and protection of the due conduct of the inquiry, said Ebert Byenkya, the lead counsel to the commission on Friday.

His arrest came shortly after Robert Wamala Ssali, one of the key witnesses accused Yiga of fraudulently transferring ownership of nearly 1,180 acres of land that belonged to their late father, Yakobo Lukwago, into his names.

Gaston Kamugisha being escorted out of the hearing hall

The family reportedly sought for Yigas services after he was introduced to them as a surveyor. His services were to survey Lukwago's the two square miles and help in sub-diving it among his 10 children. Instead, the family says, Yiga transferred the ownership to himself.

The family is now seeking justice to earn back their inheritance. Yiga is also being accused of torturing a 15-year old boy, whom he accused of stealing hoes, knives, a wallet that had Shs 80,000, and one sack of rice.

He [Yiga] undressed me and brought pliers and unbuttoned my shirt. His driver pressed my head against the car seat then Hajj [Yiga] sat on my head and squeezed my genitals. He said he can kill me and leave me in the maize plantation, testified Steven Matovu to the commission.

Since then, Matovu explained, he has been urinating blood whenever he goes to ease himself. His request to the Justice Catherine Bamugemerire led commission, was to compel Yiga to foot his medical bills.

OFFENSIVE COMMENTS

The commission accused Kamugisha of making loud and offensive comments towards witnesses that appeared to be calculated to undermine the authority and conduct of the commission as they gathered for the public hearing.

According to some witnesses that The Observer spoke to, Kamugisha told them that the commission is acting out of the law and that it has no powers to prosecute Swaib [Yiga]

Byenkya explained that Kamugishas conduct shall be further investigated to establish whether he has committed any offences under the Commissions of Inquiry Act for purposes of forwarding the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Kamugishas exclusion from the proceedings or the premises of the commission stay in force for the duration of its tenure in light of his conduct, Byenkya said.

OTHER ARRESTS

On Wednesday, the commission ordered the arrest of Assistant Superintendant of Police, Christine Atai Ayeko, the officer in charge of Kapeeka police station over taking sides in land wrangles at her area of jurisdiction.

Ayeko also had a business relationship with Yiga.

alitwaha@observer.ug
US and UK tech specialist Hotwire has launched a new division focused on the public sector.

Hotwire Social Impact is the agencys new practice serving clients in the non-profit and government arenas. The unit will focus on four core areas  digital and social media strategy, media relations, influencer engagement, and creative campaigns  and will provide integrated marketing and communication services to organizations whose goals include social responsibility, innovation, community building and technology.

It is extremely rewarding to have a measurable impact on an organization and advance their goals  both business goals and those of the overall company mission, Heather Kernahan, Hotwire president, North America, told ODwyers. This is where Hotwire is at its best. We have a longstanding history with non-profit and government clients and are doubling down on our commitment with the launch of our Hotwire Social Impact practice.

The new practice will be led by digital marketing specialist Aidan Lukomnik, who now wears the title of head of Hotwire Social Impact.

Hotwire, a subsidiary of Australia-based marketing and communications network Enero Group Limited, was the largest gainer out of any PR firm ranked by ODwyers in 2017, increasing more than 322 percent year-over-year to account for $13.2 million in net fees in 2016.
The government is giving a big push to digital transactions which is expected to weed out black money in the economy and has set a target of 25 billion transactions to be achieved by March 2018.

By Mail Today Bureau: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation for all retail electronic payments systems in the country, has touched a landmark number of 1 billion transactions during July this year.

The figure reflects the surge in electronic transactions which has been triggered by the shock demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes by the Modi government last November.

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NPCI managing director AP Hota said the 1 billion transactions pertain to all types of payments handled by NPCI from cheque clearing and ATM clearing to IMPS (immediate payment system), UPI (unified payment interface), BHIM, RuPay, POS, e-commerce and also Aadhaar based payments. There are now 12 payment systems operated by NPCI.

"Highest growth has been seen in the mobile payments and Aadhaar based payments. This change was achieved by way of adding new products to NPCI's portfolio and widening the membership of all products. The next logical target can be a billion transactions a day may be in 3 years," he added.

"NPCI has truly emerged as the powerhouse of all financial transactions in India and has joined the leagues of reputed payment institutions which process billions of transactions every month globally," Hota added. NPCI was set up in 2009 as the central infrastructure for various retail payment systems in India and was envisaged by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the payment utility for all banks in the country.

DIGITAL PAYMENTS RECORDED 55 PER CENT INCREASE

According to digital payments committee chairman, Ratan Watal, digital payments recorded a 55 per cent increase in 2016-17 and the trend is likely to continue in the coming years. "Due to innovations in digital payment technologies and increasing consumer satisfaction, the growth trends in digital payments are positive and will continue to dominate the payments landscape in India," said Watal.

The government is giving a big push to digital transactions which is expected to weed out black money in the economy and has set a target of 25 billion transactions to be achieved by March 2018. Official figures show that the outstanding stock of currency in circulation, which hovered around 12 per cent of GDP during 2011-12 to 2015-16, declined to 8.8 per cent during 2016-17, reflecting the impact of demonetisation partially offset by the ongoing re-monetisation process. Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal disclosed in the Lok Sabha on Friday that the notes in circulation as on July 21 was around 86 per cent of the pre-demonetisation level.

PUSH ON DIGITAL PAYMENTS

This also reflects that people are doing with less hard cash in the day to day transactions. The government has been promoting a less cash economy through a greater push on digital payments. Retail payments accounted for as much as 98-99 per cent of the total volumes as consumers see the convenience in cashless transactions.

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"The payment of fuel bills at petrol pumps through the digital mode is also growing at a rapid pace as consumers are getting more familiar with e-payments," said a senior Indian Oil official.Tere was initially some skepticism that people would return to older habits of using cash instead of digital transactions once the supply of notes in circulation grew. However, provisional data from the RBI also shows that after falling in January and February, the value of electronic transactions still remain elevated at much higher levels than the pre-demonetisation period.

There was a sharp jump in e-payments during March, which is partly attributed to last-minute tax collections and payment rush towards various income tax-saving instruments. This trend was also reflected across the various electronic payment tools such as National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), prepaid payment instruments, debit and credit cards at point of sale (PoS) machines, and mobile banking.

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Paytm raises $1.4 billion from SoftBank, to launch Payments Bank on May 23

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You can now pay your traffic fine using Paytm

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Leonard Gunia started out as a stock and delivery boy 50 years ago at Frank Stoysich Meats, and today he hangs up his cleaver.

Ive had many relationships with customers, and its been fun to watch families grow up, he said Friday. Ive thoroughly enjoyed it, and (the Stoysiches) are a wonderful family to work for.

Leonard knew a dinner was planned for him last Sunday at the shop, 52nd and Q Streets, but had no idea it was for 80 people  followed by an open house attended by 200 customers.

Through the years he has performed about every job, from meat cutter to sausage maker. Now 68, he had hoped to work until 70 but said lung cancer has slowed him down.

He and his wife of 47 years, Mary Lou, have two daughters and five grandchildren. The farewell dinner included something not normally seen at the meat shop  a Champagne toast.

Omaha man survived same disaster as McCain 50 years ago

U.S. Sen. John McCains brain cancer surgery has drawn great attention, but 50 years ago he barely survived a disaster that killed 134 on the USS Forrestal.

On July 29, 1967, an electrical anomaly caused the accidental launch of a rocket that struck a parked A-4 Skyhawk jet, in which McCain waited to take off. He escaped, but a fire spread and detonated a 1,000-pound bomb.

Norman Barnes of Omaha, one of 5,000 sailors onboard the aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin, remembers it all too well.

I have spent a good deal of my life trying to forget the things I experienced that day, he said. In recent years, it has become very important to me that no one ever forgets the good men who lost their lives that day.

Beth El Synagogue will hold its first same-sex wedding

Beth El Synagogue in Omaha will conduct its first same-sex wedding ceremony Monday.

More than 100 guests are expected for the religious ceremony uniting Matt Blodgett, 30, and Yousef Hazimeh, 23. The pair, who met online, had a civil wedding Nov. 14. Matt is an administrative assistant for an auto insurance company, and Yousef is an information technology technician.

Although another Omaha synagogue, Temple Israel of the Reform movement, has conducted a few same-sex weddings, this will be a first for Beth El, of the Conservative movement.

Conservative Judaism, the largest Jewish denomination in the U.S., is a theological middle ground between Reform and Orthodox. The term conservative denotes an intent to conserve Jewish tradition and is not a reference to political conservatism.

Same-sex weddings have been allowed in Conservative Judaism for about a decade. Rabbi Steven Abraham will conduct the ceremony under a canopy, the huppa.

Both men will observe the tradition of stomping on napkin-covered glass, with the attendees shouting, Mazel tov!

Father of BH Media vice president dies at 88

Denny Reilly was a phone company guy, and his job allowed him to do interesting things  like calling home to his family from Air Force One.

He also worked on communications at Offutt Air Force Base with the old Looking Glass airborne nuclear command post, which sent out flights around the clock.

Reilly worked with NASA from the Houston Space Center when the Apollo lunar missions were in flight. That included helping arrange phone calls between President Richard Nixon and the astronauts on the moon.

A 43-year employee of AT&T, where he started out as a phone installer and rose to executive, he also helped with global communications from Mexico City during the 1968 Olympics.

A St. Louis native, Denny died July 15 in Port St. Lucie, Florida, of a heart attack at 88. One of his six children is Mike Reilly, former World-Herald executive editor and now vice president for news for BH Media.

Mike gave the eulogy, mentioning that his dad once was summoned to Air Force One after President Lyndon Johnson complained about phone reception. With LBJ busy elsewhere, pilots flew the plane while Denny worked on the problem  testing the reception by making calls around the country, including a quick call home.

The elder Reilly had grown up poor in the Great Depression, helping raise chickens in the backyard and working as a soda jerk and delivery boy. After his long life, his son could smile and say wryly of Denny Reilly: He helped win the Cold War and land men on the moon.

Omaha vet marks anniversary of lightning strike survival

Mike Hoyt of Omaha, a partially disabled veteran, this week observed the anniversary of his survival  from a lightning strike.

With the Nebraska National Guard at Fort Carson, Colorado, on Aug. 1, 1991, he stood in line for his paycheck when a bolt hit a tent support and arced across to a military-rank pin on his hat.

He woke up later in a hospital, fortunate to have no entry or exit wound. The result over the years was a progressive weakening on his left side, including eyesight impairment.

Mike, who said he is grateful to be alive, observed the date by visiting the graves of veterans at the Omaha National Cemetery.

Correction: Rabbi Steven Abraham's name was misspelled in a previous version of this column.
In the minutes before he was shot Wednesday night in Omaha, Anthony Evans choked and threatened to kill his girlfriend as he swung a pipe, the woman told police.

Evans seethed at four women, threatened to kill three of them with the pipe and smashed the front windshield of a sport utility vehicle with a drive shaft that he found in a yard, according to their accounts in police reports.

One of the women who is not Evans girlfriend told police that he grabbed a pipe out of his car and swung it around as if he were going to hit someone with it.

A woman shot Evans, 45, once in his abdomen about 7 p.m., police said. They have not said whether the shooter was among the women Evans is accused of threatening.

Police found Evans lying in the backyard of a house near 28th Avenue and Manderson Street.

He was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he remained Friday. A hospital representative said that Evans or a relative instructed the hospital not to make his condition public. Police have said his wound is not life-threatening.

Police drove the woman who shot Evans to Central Police Headquarters to be interviewed. Police did not describe their relationship.

Police have not announced that the shooter has been booked. A police spokesman said Friday that at this time detectives had not determined whether Evans shooting was justified.
Officials in Council Bluffs are hoping that six reported fentanyl overdoses in two days in the city were simply a spike and not the beginning of a longer trend.

This is kind of new to us, said Council Bluffs Police Lt. Chad Meyers, head of the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force. To have that many overdoses in that short of a period of time is something we havent experienced before.

Bluffs police say two men were found to have overdosed on fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, Wednesday night. A night earlier, three people were found unconscious in the parking lot of the D&S Express gas station at 1220 25th St.

A short time later, responders were dispatched to a house a few blocks away at the 2500 block of Avenue H for another unresponsive man.

All were treated and released. Police are investigating if the incidents are linked.

Omaha police say they have not seen a similar spike in fentanyl-related incidents.

Dr. Ron Kirschner of the Nebraska Regional Poison Center said exact numbers are hard to come by, but data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show deaths caused by fentanyl and other opioids like heroin are on the rise nationwide.

There is no reason to think we would be different, he said.

Nevertheless, he said, the Omaha area is not believed to be a fentanyl hot spot.

A powerful pain reliever, fentanyl is more potent than heroin, Kirschner said. Users may not realize that or not know there could be fentanyl in drugs they buy on the street.

Fentanyl is made in laboratories and does not require fields of opium poppies to manufacture, he said, making it more profitable than heroin.

Economically, its good for the drug cartels to be in the fentanyl business, Kirschner said. Some of your customers will die, but if you are a drug lord thats just part of the cost of doing business, I guess.

Mike Bell of the World-Herald News Service contributed to this report.
On July 27, just a day before Pakistan's Supreme Court ejected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, India's minister of state for external affairs General VK Singh (retired), while speaking in Parliament, listed four reasons that had set back bilateral ties between India and Pakistan - the Pathankot terror attack, cross-border terrorism, ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces and the death penalty handed down to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav. Left unsaid was the common thread binding all four reasons - the Pakistan army.

India believes the Pakistan army runs 'the infrastructure of terror' that recruits and trains terrorists to carry out attacks -- as in Pathankot and Uri in 2016 -- and provokes firing on the LoC to facilitate their infiltration. This deadly incendiary cocktail of factors and a Pakistani military court's April 10 death sentence to Jadhav have scorched India-Pakistan ties.

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In June, when PM Narendra Modi met Sharif at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana, Kazakhstan-their first meeting since December 2015, the two leaders were warm and cordial, enquired about each other's families, but that was it. No formal meeting was scheduled and the two sat at separate tables.

Sharif's ouster, which many in the Indian establishment have been privately calling a 'judicial execution' and 'soft coup', has reiterated an old axiom: in Pakistan, the military calls the shots and there is little civilian prime ministers can do. Not even Sharif, whose nine years in office make him the country's longestserving PM, even though all his three tenures were cut short.

"In Nawaz Sharif, you at least had a politician who wanted to improve relations with India," says G Parthasarathy, former Indian high commissioner to Islamabad. Commendable as his good intentions were, they were not backed by a real appreciation of the limits of his power.

Sharif, ironically, was pulled out of the heartland of Pakistan's Punjab province and built up by General Zia ul-Haq to take on the charismatic Benazir Bhutto. Instead, he became the military's deadliest foe. And this rivalry saw General Headquarters Rawalpindi scuppering both his celebrated peace outreaches to Indian prime ministers, Vajpayee in Lahore in 1999 and Modi, once again in Lahore, in December 2015. If it was the Northern Light Infantry hiking up the Kargil heights in 1999, it was four heavily armed Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists shinning up a tree over the Pathankot air base on January 2 last year, just a week after PM Modi had attended the wedding of Sharif's granddaughter in Lahore on December 25, 2015.

"Sharif's ouster doesn't have any specific implications for India," says Tilak Devasher, former special secretary, cabinet secretariat. "It is the army that determines Pakistan's India policy, as also its Afghan, security and nuclear policies. So long as this persists, there is little that elected PMs, even those with a heavy mandate from Punjab, can do to make a substantive difference in bilateral ties."

The ministry of external affairs has been silent on the July 28 verdict against Sharif. One official called it "an internal matter of Pakistan". The peace process with Pakistan has been stalled for so long -- nearly 18 months since the Pathankot attack -- that the country has practically dropped off the to-do list in South Block.

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Jadhav's death sentence has sparked off fresh acrimony. In April, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj issued a warning over Jadhav's execution. "I would caution the Pakistani government to consider the consequences for our bilateral relationship if they proceed on this matter," she said. An International Court of Justice verdict in May has so far stayed the execution. Last month, Pakistan refused another request for consular access to Jadhav, the 18th over the past year. India has hit back by freezing visas issued to Pakistani nationals, from over 20,000 issued last year, the number is believed to be in single digits so far this year.

Outgoing Pakistan high commissioner to India Abdul Basit hinted at hopes of reviving the bilateral dialogue when he said on July 31 that the national security advisors of the two countries were "in touch". For the moment, however, New Delhi doesn't seem to be interested without some movement on the four core issues it has identified. That is unlikely to happen soon as Pakistan lurches towards another period of domestic political turmoil, culminating perhaps with the June 2018 general elections.

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New Delhi is studying its limited options. Nawaz's probable successor, Shahbaz Sharif, is seen as someone who understands the scope for civilian manoeuvre and doesn't enter domains the army considers its preserve, including ties with India. "His pragmatism was demonstrated when, during his 2013 visit, he spoke for economic engagement between the two Punjabs while in Amritsar, but when in Delhi, where he called on then PM Manmohan Singh, talked about the need to progress on issues like Kashmir and water disputes before any economic cooperation," says Devasher.

Pakistan's yawing instability does not presage any difference in policy or the fraught relationship, says Rana Banerji, former special secretary, R&AW. "No newly elected civilian politician will challenge the army's hold on security, neighbourhood or Pakistan's nuclear policies in the near term. Neither would the army encourage any diversionary [moves] to ratchet up tensions at present." Non-state actors would be less predictable, though, and India would need to maintain its heightened vigil, he warns.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Rajya Sabha MP who introduced and later withdrew a bill asking for Pakistan to be declared a state sponsor of terror in March, says the bill has lost relevance. "The Pakistan army is relatively immune to the prospect of being declared a terrorist state. They will simply run to China for help," he says.

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On August 1, Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa praised China effusively at a reception held in the Chinese embassy in Islamabad to mark the PLA's 90th anniversary. "Pakistan is indebted to China for its unflinching support to our perspective at all international forums, be it expansion of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Kashmir issue or Pakistan's full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation," he said. The military stranglehold ensures Pakistan remains what lawyer and Senate member Aitzaz Ahsan called in 1985 a "bonsai democracy": "created by General Zia to be put in the show window for Americans to admire".

Washington has been replaced by Beijing. On July 28, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang termed the Supreme Court verdict Pakistan's "internal matter" with no impact on the ambitious $66 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor. He hoped Pakistan's various parties could "prioritise state and national interests, properly deal with their domestic affairs, maintain unity and stability and keep focusing on economic and social development". Rawalpindi's new benefactor is clearly worried about the safety of its investments for which it will need the military.

Friends with benefits: Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa (centre) with Chinese Envoy Sun Weidong (to his right) in Islamabad on July 31

"The military has credulously instilled in the Pakistani mind that India is a permanent threat," says Vivek Katju, India's former ambassador to Afghanistan. "As long as that idea remains, the army will continue to control all security and foreign policy and leave subordinate governance to the civilians." This adds an element of instability to the India-Pakistan dynamic and raises the possibility of more terror strikes, inviting retaliation from the Indian army.

During the ongoing impasse with Pakistan, and indeed since the Uri attack that led to last year's September 28 cross-border commando raids, the Indian army has been recalibrating its 'Cold Start' mobilisation plan to give it a greater retaliatory punch. One general calls it "our only strategy against Pakistan". The plan, most recently discussed by army chief General Bipin Rawat with his army commanders at a war strategy meeting in Srinagar on June 1, calls for the army to launch lightning cross-border thrusts in response to a high-intensity terrorist attack. The army has been stocking up on ammunition supplies to wage what it calls a '10-15 day intensive war'.

This is why a few Indian military analysts, such as Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd), suggest letting the Indian army engage directly with the Pakistan army and raise it from the present level of hotlines between the directors general of military operations and DG, Coast Guard, and Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency. "The primary cause of the lack of progress in talks with Pakistan is that these efforts do not seem to have its army's support," he says.

India has rebuffed attempts to allow greater military-to-military ties because that would mean legitimising Pakistan's extra-constitutional authority. But, as Brigadier Kanwal says, there are compelling reasons to try this channel. All agreements between the two armies, from the 2003 informal ceasefire along the LoC to pacts on notifications of major military exercises and not attacking each other's nuclear installations, have been honoured in letter and spirit by both sides. If New Delhi sees the utility of talking to Pakistan that is.

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Questions from U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., demand answers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a president who pledged to get tough on illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Federal immigration authorities ought to explain how the agency handled the previous cases of the driver in a fatal crash in Omaha. Prosecutors say Nemias Garcia-Velasco, 32, of Mexico, had been removed from the United States seven times. He had also been convicted of fraudulently claiming U.S. citizenship. Yet there he was in Omaha on July 5, police say, driving drunk in a van that lost control at more than 100 mph and crashed near the Interstate 80-680 interchange. The crash killed passenger Silvano Torres, 58, and injured a 16-year-old boy. Answers to Sasses questions could help pinpoint wider problems in immigration enforcement.
70 per cent women don't complain of workplace sexual harassment

India

oi-PTI

Hyderabad, August 5: National Commission for Women (NCW) member-secretary Satbir Bedi said about 70 per cent of women who perceive sexual harassment at workplace do not complain.

Bedi was speaking at a one-day consultation organised by the Telangana State Commission for Women, in collaboration with National Commission for Women, on 'Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013'.

"Seventy per cent, rather 69 per cent of women who perceive sexual harassment at work never complain," she said. While some do not complain, there are also many who try to take advantage of laws to blackmail the system, she said. Observing that laws are in place to deal with exploitation and sexual harassment of women, Bedi said awareness on them needs to be promoted.

"There is a huge plethora of Acts and schemes to prevent women... from exploitation...The fault does not lie in the laws, it does not lie in the schemes," she said.

Laws are in place and what matters is the choice one makes on using them, she said. Justice G Yathirajulu, a former High Court judge, stressed on the need for women employees to collectively fight against sexual harassment.

Telangana State Commission for Women Chairperson T Venkataratnam said some institutions have not acted the way they should on matters of sexual harassment of women at the workplace. She said the consultation has been organized to send recommendations to the Centre to add more teeth to the law.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 19:17 [IST]
They stay among you to kill you: Ansarul Bangla Team could be Indias biggest threat

Al-Qaeda makes fresh push to revive outfit in India

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The chief of the al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahari released a video clip stating that his son-in-law Abu Dujana al-Pasha was the driving force behind the setting up of the al-Qaeda in the sub-continent (AQIS).

Decribing Pasha as a martyr after he had been killed in an air strike, Zawahari said that he had united several jihadi forces in the sub-continent. Pasha is not a known name and many had referred to him as the hidden commander of the al-Qaeda.

Zawahari further states in the video clip that it is time to raise against those opposing jihad. The video widely circulated on the social media was first posted on the As-Sahab, the media arm of the terror group.

Zawahari in the video takes on the Pakistan establishment. He also slams the ISIS and asks those in Syria to back the al-Qaeda.

"Allah guided him to avail his old relationships that had been formed with the Mujahideen of the Subcontinent in training camps and fronts. Allah had given him popularity amongst them, so he directed his efforts to unite these different groups in a single organisation, and thus, with the blessing and favour of Allah, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent was formed, under the banner of the Islamic Emirate," Zawahari also says in the clip.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 7:13 [IST]
Alumni celebrate 50 years of Kendriya Vidyalaya Malleswaram, vow to give back

India

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A school in Malleswaram was abuzz with activity on Saturday. People from every walk of life had gathered inside a school. Some were IAS officers, others doctors, entrepreneurs, army men, teachers even but one thing that brought them together was Kendriya Vidyalaya. Alumni came together to celebrate 50 years of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Malleswaram in Bengaluru.

Recalling bitter sweet memories, sharing a childhood joke, reliving their life in the school, former teachers, alumni, current faculty and students celebrated golden jubilee celebrations of Kendriya Vidyalaya.

"I was a teacher in KV for 23 years. I am very happy to see my colleagues, the children who are all grown up today and have become such successful people. It is a homely place and we have a personal connection. I haven't seen any other school at all and so there is no comparison," said Leelavathi, a 75-year-old former teacher.

Alumni of the school organised the celebrations and flew in from various parts of the world to take part. "I am in the Navy am currently posted in Mumbai. I flew down to meet my friends, talk to my teachers. I was in the '87 batch. Ours was a small batch and we keep in touch to this day. We share a bond with the school and that brings us back," said Capt Rajneesh Sharma.

Alumni spoke about how nostalgic it was to be at the alumni meet.

Alumni wished for more students of the school to achieve more and become successful. "I could never bunk because the teachers always knew how to find us. I tried bunking one day to miss my report card but my teacher postponed the distribution to ensure that I was in class when the report card was being given," he recalled with a smile.

"There was one room where students were restricted simply because it had no flooring. It was dust and mud. One day the door was left open and we all ended up playing with the mud. We were taken to the principal's room and were asked to stand the entire day as punishment. From then on, I never once broke a rule," laughed IAS officer Ajay Seth, Additional Chief Secretary, Education department, Karnataka government.

The alumni association has decided to contribute to the welfare of the school via a trust. "The school needs furniture, books etc. Alumni make donations and we use the money to give back to the school in small ways, said Koushik Chakraborty, a member of the alumni association.

The young and old, teachers and students, alumni and current students came together to relive the best times spent at a school whose history dates back to 50 years. Alumni vowed to do everything they can to give back to their alma mater as part of the day-long event.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 20:41 [IST]
People of Himachal have decided to go with Modi; all other factors irrelevant: CM Thakur

BJP youth leader arrested for attack on Rahul Gandhi's car in Gujarat

India

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By Chennabasaveshwar

A BJP worker has been detained police on Saturday for attacking Rahul Gandhi's convoy while the Congress leader was touring flood hit areas in Dhanera town of Banaskantha district, Gujarat.

Banaskantha Superintendent of Police Niraj Badgujar identified the accused as Jayesh Darji alias Anil Rathod. Congress leaders claimed that he was a local office bearer of the BJP's youth outfit. "We have arrested one person named Jayesh Darji alias Anil Rathod for allegedly throwing a stone at the vehicle in which Gandhi was travelling," Badgujar told PTI

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Congress protests attack on party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi | Oneindia News

The Congress party today accused the BJP and the RSS of being behind what it described as a "murderous attack" on Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat and claimed it was a "pre- planned" conspiracy. Rahul Gandhi also said the attack on his convoy was carried out by the BJP and RSS workers and this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP's way of politics.

"In yesterday's incident, the BJP workers hit a big stone at me that hit my PSO. This is Modi ji, BJP's and RSS's way of politics. What else can we say," Gandhi said outside Parliament.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Congress workers continued to protest outside the BJP headquarters in the state against the attack. However, Rahul Gandhi asked workers to shift their attention towards helping flood-affected people.

In a tweet on Saturday, the Congress leader said he respects the sentiments of his party workers. "Respect the sentiments of Congress workers in Gujarat protesting against the administration not filing an FIR against the stone pelting but I urge them to divert their energy in helping the people affected by floods in the state," he wrote.

Respect the sentiments of Congress workers in Gujarat protesting against the administration not filing an FIR against the stone pelting(1/2)  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 5, 2017

Rahul Gandhi on Friday faced protests in flood-hit Gujarat where a cement brick was hurled at his car allegedly by BJP supporters, breaking the window planes of his car. He was also shown black flags, that forced him to cut short his address at a gathering in Dhanera town of Banaskantha district and had to leave in a huff.

(With agency inputs)
Bihars 1st beef vigilantism case has support of BJP leadership, reveals BJP leader

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Patna, August 5: The opposition in Bihar was quick to blame the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the state recently reported the first case of beef vigilantism.

The attack took place in Bihar's Bhojpur district when three men travelling in a truck were targeted by a mob on allegations of ferrying beef.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress stated that as the BJP has come to power in the state recently, so the attack on people in the name of cow protection did not surprise them.

The BJP has recently joined hands with the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) to form a fresh government in the state.

Now, a BJP leader from Bihar admitted that the attack was done by the party and the Bajrang Dal workers. Moreover, the top leadership of the saffron party had prior knowledge about the attack.

The BJP leader added that the attack was done to "produce proof" for police to take action against "illegal" meat traders.

"We had been telling the police for some time about an illegal slaughterhouse in the Ranisagar area of Shahpur but they would not listen to us. Now, that the BJP is a part of the state government, our morale has been boosted," Bhuwar Ojha, BJP state executive committee member was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

Ojha added that Ranisagar and Bagahi, the only Muslim-dominated areas in the Shahpur assembly segment, as "the problem areas". "The BJP's top leaders in Bihar have asked me to ensure that no untoward incident takes place," said Ojha.

"We are not staging any protests today because we hope for some action from police. We should not be protesting against our own government now," added Ojha.

Ojha admitted that he had been kept in the loop by those who blocked the truck. After the attack, supporters of the BJP and the Bajrang Dal staged protests over "police inaction" in tackling illegal meat trade.

The Bihar police arrested four men for allegedly running illegal beef business. Among the four arrested persons, three were those attacked by the mob. The fourth arrested man is allegedly an owner of an illegal slaughterhouse.

"Meat samples from the truck were also sent for laboratory tests," a police official said.

According to the Bihar Preservation and Improvement of Animals Act, 1955, cow and buffalo slaughter is banned in the state.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 12:09 [IST]
Dialogue only way to cut through religious stereotypes: Modi

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said "Samvad" or "dialogue" is the only way to resolve religious stereotypes and prejudices that cause conflict between nations and societies.

In a video message for the second edition of 'Samvad'-Global Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness, PM said it is only natural that the search for answers is led by the humanity's longest traditions of thought, rooted in various religions, civilizations, and multiple streams of spirituality.

The second edition of 'Samvad' is being organized in Yangon (Myanmar) today and tomorrow. The Vivekananda Kendra had, in September 2015, hosted the first edition of this unique conference, representing various religions and traditions, in New Delhi, which had been addressed by the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister said that he is a "product of the ancient Indian tradition that firmly believes in dialogue on difficult issues." He said that the ancient Indian concept of "Tarka Shastra" is founded on dialogue and debate as the model for exchange of views and avoidance of conflict.

Giving illustrations from Indian mythology such as Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha and Bhakta Prahlada, the Prime Minister said that the purpose of each of their actions was to uphold Dharma, which has sustained Indians from ancient to modern times.

He further said that if man does not nurture nature, then nature reacts in the form of climate change. Environmental laws and regulations, while essential in any modern society, afford only an inferior protection to nature, he added, calling for "harmonious environmental consciousness."

OneIndia News
UP: 5, including a child, killed and 5 seriously hurt as car hits electric pole

Five including 4 Spanish tourists killed in accident in Andhra Pradesh

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Tirupati, Aug 5: Five persons including four Spain nationals were killed and nine others injured when their mini bus was involved in a collision with a container truck at Punganoor, about 100 kms from here on Saturday, police said.

The mishap occurred at about 10 AM when the tourist bus was proceeding to Puducherry from Puttaparti, they said.

Two Spanish nationals and the driver of the van died on the spot, while two others died en route to a hospital.

According to Punganur police, a group of 11 tourists from Spain, were on their way to Pondicherry from Puttaparthi. Around 9 AM, they left Madanapalle after visiting a missionary hospital. Close to Punganur, their vehicle met with the accident, which left it mangled.

The impact of the collision was so severe that the front portion of the van was completely crushed and the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.

The nine injured were immediately rushed to Bengaluru in a special ambulance.

The four deceased were identified as Vicente Perez, Francisco Pedrosa, Joseph Moran and Nieves Lopez. The driver was yet to be identified.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)
By PTI: Eds: Updating with details, quotes

Dhanera, Aug 4 (PTI) Congress vice president Rahul Gandhis car was pelted with stones today during his visit to this flood-affected town in Gujarat but he escaped unhurt, police said.

He had to cut short his address to a gathering at Lal Chowk area of Dhanera in Banaskantha district as black flags were waved at him by some of those who turned up for the meeting.

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The glass pane at the rear of the car, in which Rahul was seated on his way to the helipad in Dhanera from Lal Chowk, was shattered in the attack, a police official said.

However, Rahul did not suffer any injury and moved on to his next venue, Runi village in Thara taluka, where he asserted his party is not going to be cowed down by stone pelting.

"Wont step back because of black flags, Narendra Modi slogans or stones," he said at a gathering in Runi.

"We have detained the man who threw the stone on the vehicle of Rahul Gandhi," Banaskantha Superintendent of Police Neeraj Badgujar said.

"Right from helipad, police had offered him bullet proof vehicle. After getting down from helicopter, he took bullet- proof vehicle. Later, he got down from that vehicle and took a car of a Congress party worker," the official said.

"Police, convoy marshal and SPG urged him repeatedly to take bullet-proof car for sake of security, but he instead took the vehicle provided by the party," he further said.

"Police had provided all the security, but he (Rahul Gandhi) was repeatedly stopping the car, even at some sensitive places. He even met unknown people on the way," Badgujar said, indicating that he broke all security protocol.

"We will register an FIR and investigate the case," he said, adding, none was injured in the attack.

The incident sparked immediate protest from the Congress with the party spokesman spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi in New Delhi saying BJP "goons" carried out the "dastardly" attack.

Earlier, Rahul was heckled by protesters and shown black flags as soon he started his speech at Lal Chowk and he left in a huff.

Some of the people who gathered at the spot also raised slogans hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Yesterday, I was in Assam, today I am visiting Rajasthan and Gujarat," he said and minutes later the protest began.

"I wanted to be among you when your villages are flooded, when people have died in your homes. I wanted to meet you and embrace you. I want to tell you I and the Congress party are with you," he said.

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"We do not have (a Congress) government at the Centre or in the state. But I and my party workers are standing with you in this hour of need," he said.

The 47-year-old Congress MP abruptly ended his speech and left the stage at Dhanera.

Later, addressing a gathering at Runi village of Thara taluka of same district Rahul said that they will not be deterred by such attacks.

"You are welcome here, so are those who were shouting slogans for Modiji. During my earlier speech (at Dhanera) four people came, showed black flags. Later, some threw stone. Recently, when I reached here another four more people came and showed black flags, so I thought, lets see how strong they are," he told villagers.

"I came out of the vehicle and went towards them. They were 8-10 people, they ran away. The truth is that they are cowards," he said.

"Why are they cowards, I will tell you. Those who know and understand truth need not fear. You have been taught this by Mahatma Gandhi," he said.

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State Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki accused the BJP "goons" of carrying out the attack.

"Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel says that Rahulji should have travelled in bullet proof car. Which means that if such a tall leader is not safe in Gujarat, then it is for us to understand what will happen to common people," he said.

Patel condemned the attack but said Rahul refused to go in a bullet-proof car.

"Congress leader Rahul Gandhi came to Gujarat via Rajasthan to meet flood-affected people. Several people in Dhanera registered their protest by showing black flags.

"The reason behind their protest is that people in Dhanera are upset that their MLA Joitabhai Patel is not here among them (he is in Bengaluru) along with other Congress MLAs," he said.

"Some threw stone at his car because of which the glass broke. Gujarat government had offered him bullet-proof car. But he did not use the bullet-proof car and instead used a party workers private car to travel in the region," Patel added.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said that he is pained at the development.

"I have no words to express my anguish. It appears that administration and government has completely failed. This proves how bad is the law and order situation. Strong action should be taken against officers who are responsible to provide security, they should be suspended," said Patel.

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The Congress MLA from the area Joitabhai Patel is in Bengaluru as part of the 44 party legislators who have been flown to the southern city apparently to avoid being "poached" by the BJP ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha polls.

The politics in poll-bound Gujarat has been on the boil for quite some time with a section in the Congress led by rebel leader Shankarsinh Vaghela breaking ranks with the party and resignation of half a dozen party MLAs.

The situation heated up after the process for election for three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat got underway.

The Congress has fielded Ahmed Patel as its candidate, while the BJP has nominated its president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani. The ruling party has also put up a Congress rebel as a third candidate.

Singhvi said several cars in the convoy were damaged, their windowpanes smashed and an SPG man suffered minor injury.

"All this because, the Congress vice president went to a flood-affected area," he said. PTI PJT/KA PD NSK NM RSY RMT ZMN

--- ENDS ---
GJM front rung leader and former GTA Sabhasad arrested

India

oi-Amitava

By Amitava

Darjeeling, August 5, 2017: Norbu G Lama, a heavy weight Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader and former Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Sabhasad of Tukdah Teesta Valley was arrested from Siliguri on Saturday. He was arrested by the CID in connection with the incidents of unrest in Darjeeling town on June 8.

Norbu G Lama has been arrested by the CID" stated Akhilesh Chaturvedi, Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling. CID officers confirmed the arrest.

Lama in his mid 40s is a front rung GJM leader. During the recent agitation for Gorkhaland, Lama was appointed as the spokesperson by the party.

Lama was produced at the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court (ACJM,) Siliguri on Saturday. The CID had prayed for 7 days of remand.

Gobind Chettri, the Defence lawyer had moved a bail prayer arguing that Lama's name does not feature in the FIR in connection with the Darjeeling Sadar Police station case in connection with the June 8 incident. He further argued that Lama is a cardiac patient having undergone Bypass surgery. The prayer was challenged by Assistant Public Prosecutor Sudip Roy Basunia arguing that Lama needed to be questioned regarding the incident.

The FIR has 36 names and "others. " Lama has been charged under different sections of the IPC relating to rioting, arson, criminal conspiracy read with sections of the Arms Act and Explosives Act in connection with the June 8 incident.

Sujit Kumar Bandopadhyaya, ACJM, Siliguri rejected the bail prayer and remanded Lama to 7 days of police custody. The Judge while remanding Lama to police custody instructed that Lama should receive special medical attention as he is a cardiac patient and no force should be used during questioning.

According to the CID, Lama had been arrested from Salugarah at around 8:30pm on Friday. It has been learnt that Lama had gone down to Siliguri for his son's treatment. He will be lodged at the Siliguri police station during the remand period.

On June 8, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supporters had clashed with the security forces in Darjeeling town. Police reports claim that more than 45 security force personnel were injured in the clash. A police booth was set on fire. 15 police vehicles were torched along with a State Government Bus. Army was deployed in Darjeeling, Ghoom and Kurseong to control the situation.

On that day GJM had taken out rallies and staged a sit in demonstration a short distance away from the Raj Bhawan where the State Cabinet meeting was taking place. The rallies arrived from Singmari, Darjeeling Railway Station and Batasia Loop at the Gorkha Ranga Mancha Bhawan and staged a sit in demonstration.

At around 3pm the GJM supporters torched an effigy of the CM. Suddenly there were stones being pelted and amidst shouts a stampede ensued. Some people even tried to bring down the police barricade.

Police resorted to baton charge and bursting tear gas shells. A pitched battle ensued with police personnel, CRPF including lady police personnel and officers injured. 5 GJM supporters were also injured. Finally at around 5pm the situation was diffused and the GJM supporters and leaders left the area.

At around 7pm the 28 ministers who had attended the State Cabinet meeting had left Darjeeling for Siliguri. CM Mamata Banerjee however had stayed back to oversee the situation. At 8pm the army had been deployed and started flag marching.

OneIndia News
Gujarat MLAs leave Bengaluru resort after a week's stay

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Gujarat MLAs have left the Eagleton resort where they were holed up for over a week. The MLAs were brought in to the resort located 40 kilometres away from Bengaluru ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat in which Congress candidate Ahmed Patel is contesting. The elections will be held on August 8.

Before leaving Bengaluru, they called on the Governor at Raj Bhavan. The man in charge of their hospitality, D K Shivakumar too met with the MLAs.

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The Congress while alleging poaching by the BJP carted around 43 MLAs to the resort near Bengaluru. Their hospitality in charge, D K Shivakumar was raided three days back by the Income Tax department.

The MLAs are expected to reach Gujarat today. The Congress is trying to keep its flock together to ensure that Patel wins the elections. The Congress came under severe criticism as the MLAs were holed up in the resort when the state was facing floods.

The Congress had also moved the Supreme Court challenging an Election Commission of India notification which had introduced the NOTA option for the RS polls. The SC however rejected the petition.

OneIndia News
Man impersonates Gadkari's OSD only to bump into minister at Nagpur airport

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A man arrives at the counter of a private airline in Nagpur and tells the personnel that he would need front seats as he is Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's officer on special duty. He gets the preferential treatment and then minutes later Nitin Gadkari himself walks in.

31 year old Jesus Waghade, a physician from Nagpur is under investigation for impersonation. It is not clear why he decided to do it, but reports suggest that it was to get some VVIP treatment.

When he walked up to the counter, he told the ground staff that he was Gadkari's officer on special duty. The lady at the counter obliged and gave him the seats on the front row. He dropped his card off and then walked towards the airline with his wife.

A few minutes later when Nitin Gadkari himself arrived at the airport, the personnel got a bit suspicious. They said that the minister's OSD had already checked in. Do you know Jesus Waghade, they asked. Waghade who was the answer. The bluff was caught.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 9:09 [IST]
A bayath, a massive suicide bombing, the Coimbatore blast was in the making for a year

With another ISIS module busted, TN has become a paradise of Islamic Jihadists

NIA arrests three from Kerala, TN for suspected ISIS links

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Three persons have been taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency on the charge that they were affiliated with the Islamic State. The NIA arrested one persons from Alappuzha in Kerala and two from Coimbatore.

They were detained on Thursday after raids at their residence following inputs that they were in contact with suspected IS recruits from south India.

Data storage devices, mobile phones and other materials were seized. The raids were conducted after obtaining orders from the NIA court in Kochi.

Alok Mittal, Inspector-General, NIA, confirmed the detention and said no arrest had been recorded. An NIA Kochi team is interrogating the Alappuzha native, who is employed by a private firm in Kochi, and the two others.

Reports said the detained men were maintaining social media contact with suspected IS recruits. The NIA raids were linked to the investigation in a case regarding the Umar Al Hindi module and a meeting held by its members in Kanakamala in Kannur district, in October last year.

According to the NIA charge sheet in the case, members of the module - youth from Kerala and Tamil Nadu - entered into a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 6:24 [IST]
JNU Admissions 2022: PG First merit list to be released today; how to check

Only 74 out of 139 research programme seats filled in JNU, second list yet to be announced

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, August 5: Only 74 candidates have been admitted to the university's research programmes so far against a total of 139 seats announced, according to the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association.

The university administration, however, said the "admission process is not over and it is yet announce a second list". The JNUTA in a statement alleged that only 74 candidates were offered seats, of which only three belonged to Schedule Caste and one to Schedule Tribe.

"Most distressingly, there has been a complete failure to satisfy the constitutional provisions for reservations and the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act," JNUTA president Ayesha Kidwai said in the release.

JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar said: "We going according to the UGC Gazette Notification 2016. A second list is yet to be announced. The admission process is not over."

Kidwai further said that normally, a second list comes out when seats offered in the first list are not filled.

PTI

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 9:35 [IST]
Central Vista to be unveiled by PM Modi today | 7 things to know

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Parliament to hold special session on Aug 9 to mark Quit India Movement

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Indian Parliament will convene a special session on August 9 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement. A resolution has been passed to this effect.

All parties will express their views and a resolution will be passed affirming commitment to the nation.

Regular work like Question Hour and Zero Hour are likely to be suspended to hold the special sitting. All parties will speak on the occasion.

A Sankalp or affirmation to the nation will be expressed through a resolution. The same would be read out by Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan. The Rajya Sabha too is in the process of holding such a programme.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 9:17 [IST]
International news brief: Floods trap many in Florida; Royal Mint unveils first coins and more

Thankfully, floods are in news as BJP, Congress throw stones, muck at each other

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

New Delhi, August 5: The issue is flood, but once again, unfortunately, politics has taken over it.

Hardly, we see our politicians and the media talking about things affecting people. If ever they highlight any topic, it has to have a political connection to it. This is the plight of Indian voters, they have elected leaders who hardly talk about their problems and they have the media that is too obsessed with politicians.

From Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha to West Bengal, floods have created havoc in large parts of the country. At least 700 people have died due to floods in the last two months across the country. Lakhs of people have lost their homes and agricultural lands in the flood-affected areas.

It's a massive human tragedy. By now national emergency should have been declared to provide prompt relief measures to the flood-hit people. But that is not the case. Once again, politicians are busy throwing stones and muck at each other.

Why is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat defending stone-pelters who attacked Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's car in Banasakantha when he came to meet the flood-affected people in the area on Friday?

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Instead of condemning the attack and ensuring the arrest of the culprits, the chief minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, tweeted, "The perpetual tourist Rahul Gandhi came to Gujarat but the people of Gujarat are asking--where are our (Congress) MLAs in this crucial time? Instead of another photo-op, it would have been better had Rahul and the Congress devoted time to proper relief work in flooded areas."

"People of Gujarat know the tricks of the Congress too well. Their anti-people, anti-Gujarat mindset is not a secret," Rupani added.

In reply to Rupani's tweet, senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said, "This is the first time a head of the state stoops this low and backs stone-pelters instead of taking action against the accused. Rupaniji, you are head of the state, not an RSS puppet."

Thankfully, after receiving flak from Congress leaders and supporters for condoning violence, Rupani once again tweeted, this time condemning the violent incident.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible," Rupani tweeted.

The BJP leaders and spokespersons in the national capital also did not show any "sympathy" towards Rahul, instead they further attacked him.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "For God's sake, don't call people goons. Don't call the public of this country rowdy elements, people who are suffering from floods, people who are tired of this kind of politics that Rahul Gandhi and his party are doing. Let's respect people's emotions."

After Rahul's car was attacked, Congress leaders alleged that the entire incident had the backing of the BJP and the attackers were "goons".

When Rahul's convoy was passing through Dhanel in Banaskantha district, a group of people chanting "Modi, Modi" and holding black flags in their hands threw stones at the travelling motorcade.

A few concrete structures ended up damaging the Congress VP's car. The stones broke rear windowpanes of the car in which Rahul was travelling. Although nothing happened to him, Rahul's SPG personnel got injured in the violent incident.

In Gujarat, "flood" politics has been played by both the parties with great noise as the state is all set to hold the crucial Rajya Sabha polls on August 8. Already the election to one of the Rajya Sabha seats from which Ahmed Patel, the political secretary of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is contesting has showcased the "dirty" political designs of our leaders.

After six Congress MLAs left the party to join the BJP, the Congress in its attempt to stop further "poaching" is keeping 43 of its MLAs in a resort nearby Bengaluru, Karnataka, where the Congress is in power.

The Income Tax (IT) sleuths are conducting raids in properties of Karnataka energy minister DK Shivakumar, who was in-charge of the Gujarat MLAs, since the last four days.

The Congress has called the IT raids against Shivakumar as "vendetta" politics, the BJP, on its part, alleged that the Gujarat MLAs, who are supposed to help flood victims in their state, are have a "good" time in the resort.

Patel, the central character of the current fight between the BJP and the Congress, tweeted about the stone attack: "Is this possible without state's connivance? Action against officials responsible must be initiated immediately."

Rahul said he won't be intimidated by such attacks. "They are cowards. I will tell you why they fear. Those who are with truth, who understands truth, need not fear. Mahatma Gandhi taught this to the entire country. We can't be intimidated by Modi slogans, black flags and stones. We will stand with the people with all our might," he said.

In Assam, where at least 83 people have died due to floods, the Congress and the BJP are engaged in a verbal duel to prove who is more concerned about the plight of the people.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an aerial survey of flood-affected areas in Gujarat recently, senior Congress leader and former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi targeted him.

"Assam floods claimed 76 lives, Narendra Modi never visited and his government has not released adequate funds," Gogoi has tweeted.

Afterwards, the PM came to Guwahati, Assam, where he had several meetings with the CMs of various northeastern states to take stock of the flood and landslide situations in the region.

He also announced Rs 2,000 crore relief package for the entire Northeast to help flood and landslide-hit people. Modi was once again criticised for not meeting the affected people and releasing a "meagre" amount of flood relief funds for Assam.

Rahul immediately followed Modi and visited Assam earlier this week.

During his Assam visit, Rahul told flood-affected people of Lakhimpur district that his party would fight for their adequate compensation and rehabilitation. Lakhimpur district in Upper Assam is one of the worst flood-affected parts of the state.

"There are floods in Assam and I thought I must come to meet you and hear about your pain and understand the situation," Rahul told the people. "I will fight for compensation, which is your right," he added.

He also criticised both the state and the central governments for "neglecting" the flood-hit locals of the northeastern state.

Rahul also visited Devda village in Jalore district of Rajasthan to take stock of the situation caused by floods on Friday. Fortunately, his Rajasthan visit was free from any controversial event.

Like in Assam and Gujarat, the BJP is also in power in Rajasthan. Rajasthan visit of Rahul was a quiet affair, maybe as destruction caused by floods in the state is lesser than that of Assam and Gujarat. While 224 people have died in floods in Gujarat, around 17 people lost their lives in Rajasthan.

Or, unlike in Gujarat, no election is scheduled in the near future in Rajasthan. There might be several reasons for these fights, but every time politicians make sure to hijack human tragedies and get busy attacking each other.

From agrarian crisis to floods, both the BJP and the Congress ensured that relief does not reach the "victims" as they continue with their tu tu main main (arguments and bickering).

And our television studios simply love these shrill and cheap arguments presented by political parties in defence for not working for the janata (people).

OneIndia News
Raksha Bandhan: Man going to meet sister run over by train

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UPs Muslim women send rakhis to Modi, Yogi for their efforts on triple talaq

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Lucknow, August 5: The Muslim women of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, are happy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took a lot of effort to give them justice over the issue of triple talaq.

In order to thank them, these women will send rakhis to both the PM and the CM.

"Women from Muslim community in Lucknow to send Rakhis for PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath. They hail their efforts over triple talaq issue," tweeted ANI.

Women from Muslim community in Lucknow to send Rakhis for PM Narendra Modi & CM Yogi Adityanath, hail their efforts over triple talaq issue. pic.twitter.com/jgW7OlAd92  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 5, 2017

Both Modi and Adityanath have advocated for the rights of Muslim women and had called for the abolition of the triple talaq and nikah halala.

A lot of Muslim women and organisations have challenged the practice of triple talaqin which the husband often pronounces talaq thrice in one go, sometimes over phone or text message. Currently, the case on triple talaq is pending in the Supreme Court.

The SC on May 18 reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging constitutional validity of the practice of triple talaq among Muslims.

The festival of Raksha Bandhan is due in a few days from now. This year, the festival will be celebrated on August 7.

Every year, during Raksha Bandhan women and girls tie rakhi (a special colourful thread) on the wrists of their brothers and the brothers in return vow to protect their sisters.

The Hindu religious festival is celebrated by people belonging to all religions as it marks a special bond between brothers and sisters.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 13:10 [IST]
Always admired his zeal, energy: PM Modi greets VP Naidu on his birthday

Vice-President election: Cross-voting, missing votes derailed Opposition fight

India

oi-PTI

Huge cross-voting on Saturday marked the election of BJP-led NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu as the 13th Vice President of India.

Nearly two dozen MPs of opposition parties defied their leadership and voted for the NDA's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu, BJP sources said on Saturday.

Naidu secured 516 votes against the pledged support of around 495.

With the former Union minister securing over 68 percent of valid votes against 32 percent of the opposition's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who received 244 votes, the margin between two contestants at 272 was higher than Gandhi's tally.

Outgoing vice-president Hamid Ansari had prevailed over his rivals by 252 and 233 votes in 2012 and 2007 polls, respectively.

What should cause concern among the opposition, including the Congress, the Left and the TMC, is that their candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got only 19 votes more than their presidential nominee Meira Kumar even though 40 more MPs had pledged support to him.

Kumar had received votes of 225 MPs, while Gandhi was supported by 244. President Ram Nath Kovind had received the support of 522 MPs.

The BJD, which has 28 members in Parliament, and the JD (U) with 12 MPs had switched over to the opposition camp after supporting the NDA in the presidential poll.

Despite desertion by 40 MPs, the NDA's vote count went down by only six, underlining major cross-voting in its favour.

In an electoral college of 785 eligible members, 771 votes were cast out of which 11 were declared invalid, according to officials.

Among the 14 members who could not cast their votes for a variety of reasons, four belonged to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, two each to the BJP, Congress and the IUML, and one each to the NCP and PMK. One nominated and one Independent member also could not cast their votes.

Polling officials said this was the highest turnout in the vice-presidential election. Before it, the highest number of votes in the poll was 759 in 2002 when BJP candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had won the election.

PTI

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 22:13 [IST]
Always admired his zeal, energy: PM Modi greets VP Naidu on his birthday

Venkaiah Naidu elected as next Vice President of India

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Venkaiah Naidu has won the Vice Presidential elections. He beat Gopalkrishna Gandhi in the VP poll that was held on Saturday. Naidu will be the 13th vice president of India. He will take the oath of office on August 11.

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Out of 760 valid votes, Venkaiah Naidu got 516 votes and UPA's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got 244 votes.

The polling percentage was high. The total polling percentage recorded was 98.21. 771 out of 785 votes were polled.

The voting began at 10 am Saturday and ended at 5 pm this evening. Counting of votes began at 6 pm, after which the results are likely to be announced after 7 pm.

While Naidu has the support of the NDA parties along with AIADMK, TRS and YSRCP, Gandhi will get the votes of MPs belonging to the Congress, RJD, JD(U), NCP, Left and other smaller parties. In the Vice-Presidential election, members of both Houses of Parliament vote in a closed ballot.

Earlier in the day, Naidu had said that he had not campaigned for the election. I wrote a polite letter to all seeking their support. I am confident that many will vote for me, Naidu had also said.

Speaking to the media, Gandhi thanks all the opposition party MPs who voted for him. He wishes Naidu all the best for the new office.

As soon as the results were out Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on becoming the vice president of India.

I am confident Venkaiah Naidu will serve nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building, PM Modi tweeted.

While Gulam Nabi Azad has said that Opposition will never compromise on ideology whether we face defeat or victory.

OneIndia News
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) The JNU Teachers Association today alleged that only 74 candidates have been admitted to the universitys research programmes so far as against a total of 139 seats announced.

The university administration, however, said the "admission process is not over and it is yet announce a second list".

The JNUTA in a statement alleged that only 74 candidates were offered seats, of which only three belonged to Schedule Caste and one to Schedule Tribe.

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"Most distressingly, there has been a complete failure to satisfy the constitutional provisions for reservations and the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act," JNUTA president Ayesha Kidwai said in the release.

JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar said: "We going according to the UGC Gazette Notification 2016. A second list is yet to be announced. The admission process is not over."

"Normally, a second list comes out when seats offered in the first list are not filled," Kidwai said. PTI CPB GVS

--- ENDS ---
Tuesday is now No Meeting Day in Haryana and officers to be with people on Friday

Women of Haryana village to send 1001 Rakhis to Trump

India

oi-PTI

Gurgaon, August 5: Women and girls of a remote Muslim-dominated village "symbolically" named by an NGO after US President Donald Trump will send him 1001 sacred threads on the Hindu festival that celebrates the brother-sister bond.

The gesture by the residents of Marora village in the backward Mewat region represents the "wish of the people that ties are further strengthened between India and the US", says the NGO which has adopted the village.

The village had come into limelight after Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO) chief Bindeshwar Pathak had announced to name it 'Trump's village'. The district administration had later said the move to rename the village was "illegal", forcing the organisation members to remove boards mentioning the new name.

They said signage boards and banners carrying the new name of the village and image of Trump had been removed by the organisation. The village, with a population of 1,800 people, lies under Punhana Tehshil, some 60 km from Gurgaon. "The NGO has been conducting many welfare programs for women and girls in the village," Monica Jain, vice president of the NGO, said.

"These students have made 1001 rakhis with photos of Donald Trump and 501 rakhis for Narendra Modi. Women and girls of the village consider them their elder brothers," she said. The consignment of rakhis was sent yesterday through cargo so that it reached the US president on Raksha Bandhan on August 7.

The villagers are also sending invitations to the two leaders to visit the village. Widows of the village have also expressed a desire to meet Modi on Raksha Bandhan at his residence in the national capital and tie rakhis. "I have made 150 rakhis within three days for Trump bhaiyaa. I also written in a letter to be sent to the White House that the girls of your village want you to visit it with PM Modi," said 15-year-old Rekha Rani, a resident of the village.

Sulabh had recently constructed 95 toilets in Marora to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship program to make every village in the country open defecation free.

Jain said out of 140 houses only 45 were equipped with toilet facility. Sulabh constructed the remaining 95 toilets.

PTI

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 16:22 [IST]
Doklam standoff day 50: China says military action against India in 2 weeks

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

China is likely to undertake a small military operation to expel Indian troops at Doklam. The Chinese media reported that such action would be taken in two weeks time.

The standoff at Doklam has entered into the 50th day.

"The series of remarks from the Chinese side within a 24-hour period sends a signal to India that there is no way China will tolerate the Indian troops' incursion into Chinese territory for too long. If India refuses to withdraw, China may conduct a small-scale military operation within two weeks," state-owned Global Times quoted Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, as saying. Hu, however, added that China will inform India's foreign ministry before undertaking any such operation.

Doklam standoff: 3 reasons why the Chinese will not back off

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China Central Television (CCTV) on Friday reported that Tibet military region conducted live fire exercises in recent days in Tibet.

The exercises are a sign that China could use military means to end the standoff and the chances of doing so are increasing as the Indian side is still saying one thing and doing another," Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 7:56 [IST]
Doklam standoff: Modi should be aware of our military might, says China

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be aware of PLA's overwhelming firepower, the Chinese have said. Speaking about the military might of China, an article in the Global Times said that the PLA is perfectly capable of "annihilating all Indian troops" in the border region. This Modi administration is "recklessly breaking international norms and jeopardizing India's national pride and peaceful development", the article also said.

If the Modi government doesn't stop, the article warned "India of pushing itself into a war that India has no power to control".

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Sikkim standoff: Feasible solution to end standoff between India

External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj had said in Parliament that war was not a solution, wisdom was to resolve the issue diplomatically.

The standoff at Doklam has entered into its 50th day. While China had said that India has reduced its troop strength, officials in New Delhi denied the same. However during an official briefing of the Ministry for External Affairs, the issue was not discussed. On the other hand, India has said that China has slowly started to wind down its troops at Doklam.

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Full-scale war between India, China likely soon, predicts political analyst Desai

International

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By Oneindia

New Delhi, August 5: Noted commentator on international affairs Meghnad Desai in an interview predicted that a war could break out within a month between India and China.

Desai's comment has come at a time when both the nations are exchanging heated arguments in regard to the ongoing standoff in Doklam, lying in the tri-junction region of Bhutan, China and India.

"Even today, nobody is contemplating that the whole Doklam thing could break anytime. We could be in a full-scale war with China within a month. At that stage it will not be controllable. It may come as a surprise, but that is when the defence co-operation of India (with various countries) will bear fruit," Desai told IANS in an interview.

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UK-based Indian-origin Desai, who is also a Labour Peer in the British House of Lords, observed that if a war is to break out in the two theatres, it will see the United States and India on one side and China on the other.

He added that the fate of the ongoing Doklam standoff would largely depend upon events in the South China Sea.

Desai did not consider the Doklam standoff a mere India-China issue but rather equated it to the geo-political tensions across the globe, primarily in the South China Sea.

When again asked if a war is really likely to break out, the Padma Bhushan awardee, said ,"I am not a jyotisi (astrologer). I cannot say what day or date but I think at this time it is very likely that we will be in a state of full-scale war with China very soon. And mind you, on several fronts, not just Doklam. It is just one frontier, they will start from all places, across the northern Himalayas,"

Regarding the US' reaction in case there is a war between India and China and whether Washington would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with India, Desai said, "Absolutely".

"Ultimately, you have to understand that India cannot stand up to China without American help and support. America cannot stand up to China without Indian help. That is the symmetry in this relationship," he added.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2017, 10:36 [IST]
UN set to vote on toughening sanctions on North Korea

International

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United Nations, Aug 5: The voting on a US-drafted resolution toughening sanctions on North Korea will be held on Saturday. The UN Security Council will vote on a proposed ban on certain exports that could deprive Pyongyang of $1 billion in annual revenue.

After a month of negotiations, the United States reached a deal with China, North Korea's main trading partner and ally, on the measures aimed at ratcheting up pressure on Pyongyang to halt its missile and nuclear tests.

The draft resolution calls for a ban on all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state, according to the text seen by AFP.

If implemented by all countries, the ban would strip Pyongyang of roughly a third of its export earnings estimated at $3 billion per year, according to a diplomat familiar with the negotiations. The diplomat, who briefed reporters on the content of the draft, said he had "high confidence" that China and Russia would support the proposed sanctions.

Backed by its European allies, Japan and South Korea, the United States has been leading the push at the United Nations for tougher sanctions in response to North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4.

A second test on July 28 further raised alarm about Pyongyang's drive to develop a missile capable of hitting the US mainland. The draft text would also prevent North Korea from increasing the number of workers it sends abroad, prohibit all new joint ventures and ban new investment in the current joint companies.

North Korea is blamed for a "massive diversion of its scarce resources" toward the development of "nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programs," the draft resolution said.

The new raft of measures would be the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006, but these have failed to compel Pyongyang to change its behavior. Two resolutions adopted last year, however, have introduced economic sanctions with more bite.

The United States has put heavy pressure on China, which accounts for 90 per cent of trade with North Korea, to enforce the sanctions. The proposed resolution would add North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank, the primary foreign exchange bank, to a UN sanctions blacklist, which provides for an assets freeze. It would also tighten trade restrictions on technology to prevent North Korea from acquiring items that could be used for its military programs.

Under the proposed measure, North Korean vessels caught violating UN resolutions would be banned from entering ports in all countries. The draft resolution, however, does not provide for cuts to oil deliveries to North Korea -- a move that would have dealt a serious blow to the economy.

PTI
Vietnam calls for united stand against Chinese expansionism

International

pti-PTI

Manila, Aug 5: In a bold play against China, Vietnam urged other Southeast Asian nations to take a stronger stand against Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea at a tense regional security forum that began on Saturday.

Ahead of the launch of the annual gathering of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam made a bold play against China with a raft of suggested changes to a planned joint communique.

It set the stage for what was expected to be a fiery few days of diplomacy in the Philippine capital, with the top diplomats from China, the United States, Russia and North Korea set to join their ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific counterparts for security talks from Sunday.

The meetings will take place as the United Nations Security Council votes this weekend on a US-drafted resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea to punish the isolated regime for its missile and nuclear tests.

The United States said it would also seek to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event -- known as the ASEAN Regional Forum -- and Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said Pyongyang would receive a strong message. But on the South China Sea dispute -- one of Asia's other top powder keg issues -- there was far less consensus with Vietnam resisting efforts by the Philippines to placate Beijing, diplomats told AFP.

Vietnam on Friday night sought to insert tough language against China in an ASEAN statement that was scheduled to be released after the Southeast Asian ministers wrap up their own talks on Saturday.

According to a copy of a draft obtained by AFP, Vietnam lobbied for ASEAN to express serious concern over "construction" in the sea, in reference to China's ramped up artificial island building in the disputed waters in recent years. Vietnam also wanted ASEAN to insist in the statement that a planned code of conduct for the sea with China be "legally binding", which Beijing opposes.

The lobbying occurred when the ASEAN foreign ministers held unscheduled and informal talks late on Friday night.

"The discussions were really hard. Vietnam is on its own to have stronger language on the South China Sea. Cambodia and Philippines are not keen to reflect that," one diplomat involved in the talks told AFP.

China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, including waters approaching the coasts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

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On July 31, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Congratulations to the five @AITCofficial candidates elected today to [the] Rajya Sabha and [also to] the sixth supported by us." It read like an innocuous self-congratulation, but party insiders say it was also a communique to anti-BJP parties, especially the Congress.

Following Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's re-alignment with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders believe that Banerjee remains the only opposition leader with pan-India appeal. They say that she alone can bring together opposition parties for a united fight against the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "We have the numbers in Parliament and our chief minister has mass appeal beyond West Bengal," says a TMC Rajya Sabha member. "Of course, the Congress and the [All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam] (AIADMK) have more numbers than us, but the Congress is yet to find a leader and the AIADMK is split."

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There is some merit in his statement. Leaving aside the two national parties, the TMC has the second highest number of seats in Parliament, with 34 in the Lok Sabha and 12 in the Rajya Sabha. The AIADMK is marginally ahead (37 and 13 seats respectively), but is currently factionalised. That aside, by voting in favour of Ram Nath Kovind for President, the AIADMK factions have already declared an informal alliance with the government at the Centre. That leaves the TMC as the strongest anti-BJP party among non-Congress opposition parties. With 20 Lok Sabha and eight Rajya Sabha MPs, the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) comes in after the TMC, but the Odisha chief minister, facing a tough challenge from the BJP in his home state, is unlikely to be interested in a national role.

Banerjee's significance is underlined by what a Congress Rajya Sabha member told his TMC colleague just days after Nitish Kumar deserted the opposition: "In 2019, even if the Congress, [the Samajwadi Party] (SP) and [the Bahujan Samaj Party] (BSP) fight together in Uttar Pradesh, we will still need Mamata Banerjee as the star campaigner."With Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's repeated failure to keep his own house in order -- nearly a dozen influential Congressmen have left the party since the 2014 Lok Sabha election debacle -- his position as opposition leader has increasingly come under question. The party may face another embarrassment if it fails in its campaign to have Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, Ahmed Patel, elected to the Rajya Sabha from his home state Gujarat. On this count, it appears that Banerjee had sensed trouble for the Congress well in advance, even offering the party a safe seat from West Bengal for Patel. Rahul reportedly declined the offer. On July 31, the day of Banerjee's tweet, Congress candidate Pradip Bhattacharya, along with five TMC members, was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. "[Banerjee's] tweet was a reminder of the fact that Patel could have been in Bhattacharya's place."

Banerjee's generous offer could also have been a result of political math. The BJP is likely to pose a much stiffer challenge to the TMC in West Bengal than it did in the 2014 Lok Sabha and the 2016 assembly elections. Banerjee has reason to worry - it might not be possible for her to repeat her party's superlative performance in 2014, when it won 34 of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats. She must consolidate her vote base, and if possible, pull more non-BJP votes to the TMC's camp. With no possibility of joining with the Left, the TMC's bitter rival, the Congress emerges as the best bet for an ally. "The Congress won four out of 42 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal. They performed better here than in Uttar Pradesh, where they won two out of 80. So it's a better force to ally with," says a TMC parliamentarian.

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However, the possibility of Banerjee becoming leader of the opposition is still entirely theoretical. Though political calculations may win her temporary friends in Lalu Prasad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Arvind Kejriwal, aside from the support she enjoys from Patnaik, it is uncertain if Congress veterans will accept Banerjee as captain of this imaginary ship. Worse, all the leaders named above, besides Lalu, have faced electoral debacles and are in the process of rebuilding their voter bases. An even bigger obstacle for the TMC chief could be the allegations of corruption levelled against several TMC members, including her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee. The CBI probe into the Saradha and Rose Valley scams and the arrest of some of its senior leaders has already put the TMC on the back foot. "The BJP may use the CBI against her, forcing her to abandon any national ambitions. We will carefully observe the political developments," says a Congress general secretary.

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Though the opposition lacks both unity and coherence, there is still strength in its camps. The BJP could face serious challenges in 11 states - by the National Conference in J and K, the Left in Kerala, the SP and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh, the BJD in Odisha, the TMC in West Bengal, the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab and Delhi, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Telangana and the YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh. These states account for 285 Lok Sabha seats, three more than what the BJP won in 2014. Of these seats, non-BJP and non-Congress parties have only 98 in the current Lok Sabha. Together, these parties had 26 per cent of the votes in 2014-five points less than the BJP. If they put up a united fight with support from the Congress, they may be able to increase both vote shares and seats won. That said, there is still a big gap between the theory and its implementation.

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--- ENDS ---
Prabhas said that he is no longer bothered about the speculation about him and Anushka Shetty.

By India Today Web Desk: The stupendous success of the Baahubali franchise catapulted Prabhas into national fame, and the actor gained a huge female fan following across the country. However, reports began doing the rounds that Prabhas was all set to get hitched soon, and they were heartbroken.

Prabhas told Hindustan Times that he had no plans of tying the knot anytime soon. "At present, my [female] fans don't need to worry. I'm not doing any such thing (getting married) now. I'm not even thinking about it," he laughed, adding, "I feel lucky that so many people admire me."

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His chemistry with Anushka Shetty has been the talk of the town, and their onscreen romance was so convincing that it sparked rumours of a real-life romance. That Anushka said in an interview that Prabhas was sexier than Rana Daggubati only added fuel to the fire.

However, he denied that there was something brewing between them and said that such speculation is not unheard of, when an actor and actress work together in multiple films. Prabhas and Anushka have paired together in Billa (2009), Mirchi (2013), Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017).

"Such stories are common. I was, in fact, expecting this. If you work with one [female] actor in more than two films, then people tend to start spreading such rumours. It's normal for me now. Earlier, I used to feel bad and say, 'How could they write this?' But now, such stories don't bother me. I am okay with them," Prabhas told the publication.

On the work front, Prabhas is currently shooting for his next, Saaho, directed by Sujeeth. According to some reports, Anushka will be the leading lady of the film. However, no official confirmation has been made regarding the same.

ALSO READ: Anushka Shetty fired a team member, and it has to do with Prabhas

ALSO WATCH: Anushka Shetty says Prabhas is sexier than Rana Daggubati

ALSO READ: Did you know Baahubali 2's Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka are highest paid star cast in India?

ALSO WATCH: Rajamouli's Baahubali 2 gets a thumbs up from fans

--- ENDS ---
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By India Today Web Desk: Two days after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj underlined that diplomatic channels were the only way to resolve Doklam standoff with China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed hope the two countries would find a solution through dialogue.

Speaking at the Samvad - Global Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness through video-conferencing, PM Modi said, "As inter-connected and inter-dependent world of 21st century battles a number of global challenges, from terrorism to climate change, I am confident that the solutions will be found through Asia's oldest traditions of dialogue and debate."

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Modi said that samvad or dialogue is the only way to cut through deep-rooted religious stereotypes and prejudices that divide communities across the world and sow seeds of conflict between nations and societies.

PM Modi also reiterated India's commitment to protection of nature and take effective steps to tackle the challenges posed by climate change.

Modi said, "If man does not nurture nature, nature reacts in the form of climate change. Man must relate to nature, man must revere nature, not merely consider it a resource to be exploited."

Also Read:

Modi govt being reckless over Doklam stand-off, pushing India to war: Chinese editorial

China's 'salami slicing': Why Doklam must unite world leaders against Beijing

India cautious on Doklam while China advocates cultural exchanges

WATCH | Modi govt pushing India into war: Chinese paper blames 'reckless' leadership for Doklam standoff

--- ENDS ---
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A local BJP leader in Gujarat was today arrested in connection with the stone-pelting attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. Three other people were detained.

By India Today Web Desk: Gujarat police today arrested a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader from the Banaskantha district over the attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy even as the Congress has upped its ante, blaming the BJP and the RSS for the stone-pelting incident.

Jayesh Darji, a BJP leader from Banaskantha, was arrested and three other men were detained in connection with the attack on the convoy of the Congress vice-president, who was in Gujarat yesterday.

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Meanwhile, Gandhi today questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the stone pelting incident on his car during his visit to flood-affected areas yesterday.

Gandhi called the attack on his convoy in Gujarat a handiwork of the BJP and the RSS. Rahul Gandhi alleged that the attack was carried out by people from the BJP and the RSS.

On the other hand, senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad condemned the incident calling it a "pre-planned conspiracy." "It was a murderous attack by the BJP, RSS," Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

The Congress vice-president also appealed to party workers not to waste time protesting the yesterday's incident and instead "divert their energy [sic] in helping the people affected by floods in the state".

Rahul Gandhi yesterday faced protests in flood-hit Gujarat where alleged BJP supporters hurled a cement brick at his car and showed him black flags, forcing him to cut short his address at a gathering and leave in a huff.

"Attack on me was carried out by the BJP RSS people. This is their and PM Modi's, way of politics," he said adding, "It is done by their people so why would they condemn it."

"Kal ki ghatna mein itna bada patthar BJP ke worker ne meri or maara, mere PSO ko laga (The BJP workers hurled a big stone at me, my PSO was hit by it)," Rahul Gandhi said today.

Meanwhile, the Congress workers today staged a protest outside the BJP headquarters in New Delhi against attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat.

Congress workers stage protest outside BJP headquarters in New Delhi. (Photo: @ANI_news)

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ |

After mob attack in Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi says not scared of Modi's stone-pelters

ALSO WATCH | Rahul Gandhi's car attacked in Banaskantha of Gujarat, black flags shown

--- ENDS ---
By Mail Today Bureau: Carrying forward its recently launched blitzkrieg to draw attention to the "political killings" of its cadre in Left-ruled Kerala, the RSS on Friday demanded a judicial probe, alleging that they were aimed at containing the new found enthusiasm of the people to join the Sangh in the state.

RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale claimed that 14 RSS workers had been killed since October 2016, last 13 months. "The Kerala government should fulfill its constitutional responsibilities and check this political violence. There should be a judicial inquiry by either a judge of high court or the Supreme Court in the murders of RSS workers in the state," Hosabale said.

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Making a case for the inquiry, Hosabale said, "Our workers are being targeted as more common and poor people are joining RSS - which is not going well with the ruling CPI(M)." "These are not just murders, but are political killings," he said.

On whether there was a need for imposing President's Rule in Kerala, Hosabale claimed the people of the state felt so as the law and order machinery in the state had completely broken down. "Union minister Arun Jaitley will also visit the family of RSS worker Rajesh, who was killed by CPI(M) workers," he said.

Mail Today had earlier reported that RSS had moved national rights bodies such as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), where a complaint was already submitted by Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajshekharan, while the RSS is also moving to appeal to Dalit rights body, the National Commission for SCs and STs.

RSS cited that members of the community, who were associated with the party, were also not spared. MAIL TODAY had accessed the contents of the complaint that the Sangh has submitted to NHRC where the Sangh has accused the local Kerala police of complicity with those perpetrating violence.

"They realised that loss of life was bringing them bad name, so they have shifted to burning houses, as this is not as immediately horrendous as murder," BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi told having termed the violence "Talibanic".

ALSO READS:

Kerala government shielding goondas: RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale to India Today

BJP calls for bandh after RSS worker hacked to death in Thiruvananthapuram; 8 held

ALSO WATCH | Kerala: RSS worker hacked to death in Thiruvananthapuram

--- ENDS ---
By Karishma Kuenzang: A band member of Delhi-based progressive/ambient five-piece band - The Cosmic Truth - was allegedly beaten up by the staff of the recently opened Turquoise Cottage in Green Park on Friday.

It started after the show, a tribute to the late frontman of Linkin Park, Chester Bennington, ended at 12-12.30AM and Sahil Sharma, the band's guitarist, noticed that his band's sound engineer, Mayank, was having a heated altercation with an employee, Harpal.

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The band had a tab open at the bar and Mayank was trying to settle the bill, when some misunderstanding about the amount occurred, leading to an argument. "When I approached them, the first thing I heard was Harpal telling Mayank 'Tu bahaar mil mereko'. I was the artiste at the venue and it was my responsibility that Mayank be treated well. So, I tried to intervene, while the manager looked on. Then, Harpal started pushing and I stuck my hand between the two to stop the exchange," says Sahil.

It was then that a bouncer made an appearance, while Harpal tried to strangle Sahil for 15 seconds, which alarmed the guitarist. "After that, the bouncers started manhandling us. They pushed Mayank around, and proceeded to drag me by my neck and arm down two flights of stairs. As it was head first, I received a cut on my head. They stopped at every landing and kicked and punched me. Customers and bandmates tried to stop them, but ended up getting a thwack or pushed out of the way," he added.

However, the police have a different story to tell. According to them, Sahil alleged that they had been overcharged for the food and drinks served and got into an argument with the manager, Harpal Singh, who said Sahil refused to pay, was under the influence of alcohol and proceeded to abuse the bartender, whom he slapped and even proceeded to tear his clothes, the police said.

Chinmoy Biswal, additional DCP of south district, said the manager of restobar informed them about the incident, and a nearby PCR van reached the venue. "The situation was out of control. Sahil was quite aggressive and got into an argument with head constable Sunil Kumar. Sahil then tore the clothes of Kumar and other police personnel."

Sahil alleged he was dragged into a PCR van and taken to the police station with Harpal and a new bouncer, whom he hadn't seen before that night. "I was quite intimated. The constable was rude, and Harpal and the bouncer were busy defending themselves. The cops weren't ready to believe what had happened there," Sahil added.

"We have received two complaints from both sides in this matter and have accordingly registered cross FIR under the relevant IPC sections. We have also registered an additional FIR against Sahil and his friends for abusing and misbehaving with police personnel on the statement of head constable Kumar," Biswal said. Police have collected CCTV footage from the venue and a probe is underway.

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ALSO READ:4 injured in fight for cricket pitch in South Delhi park

WATCH: Pub brawl over dinner bill turns violent in Gurgaon

--- ENDS ---
Global Cryogenic Pumps Market Research Report 2017

Cryrogenic Pumps

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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 Cryogenic Pumps in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaGlobal Cryogenic Pumps market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Cryostar SAS Nikkiso Cryo Inc. Cryoquip Australia Ebara Corporation Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. Flowserve Corporation Ebara International Corporation Brooks Automation Inc. PHPK Technologies Inc. Global Technologies Fives S.A. PumpScout SefcoGet Free PDF sample @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoBy Product Type- Kinetic Pumps Entrapment Pumps Positive Displacement Pumps By Gases Nitrogen Hydrogen Helium Argon OthersOn 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 Cryogenic Pumps for each application, including Healthcare Electronics Power Generation Industry Metallurgy Industry Chemicals OthersTable of Contents-Global Cryogenic Pumps Market Research Report 20171 Cryogenic Pumps Market Overview2 Global Cryogenic Pumps Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Cryogenic Pumps Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)4 Global Cryogenic Pumps Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)5 Global Cryogenic Pumps Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Cryogenic Pumps Market Analysis by Application7 Global Cryogenic Pumps Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Cryogenic Pumps Manufacturing Cost AnalysisBROWSE FULL REPORT @Life Science Market Research(LSMR) firm is specialized in market research , that helps companies in the field of life science to achieve growth and success by providing market intelligence.New York City Zone 01, United Stateshelp@24lifesciences.comInt'l: (+1) 646 781 7170UK(Toll free): +44 800 088 5734
Vibrating Screens Market : Global Trends, Analysis and Forecast 2026

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Vibrating screens are used to segregate feeds comprising solid and crushed ores down to approximately 210m and are also applicable to both dried and wetted feed. The vibrating motor and rubber sieve plate are the internal components of the vibrating screen. High frequency vibrating screens are primarily utilized in the mineral processing industries. Different vibrating screens are available in the market such as circular vibrating screens, gyratory screen, rotary vibrating screen, trammel screen, linear vibrating screens, etc. Factors such as amount of oversize and undersize material, type of material, shape of particles, moisture content, others govern the capacity of vibrating screens. The high frequency vibration screens operates at varying 0 to 25 degrees and can go up to a maximum of 45 degrees. The frequency range is from 15007200 RPM and should operate at a low stroke. As the apertures in the high frequency screen may cause blockage, pre-treatment of the feed is required. General design of a vibrating screens consists of screen web, bock, coupler, mainframe, rub spring and electric motor. Vibrating screens are widely used in coal, refractory, mining, building materials etc. and can be customized according to the requirement. Waste streams released from waste products should be treated as they may cause damage to the environment over a sustained period of time.Request Report Sample@Global Vibrating Screens Market: SegmentationVibrating screen market can be segmented on the basis of applications, motive mechanism, product type, production process, driving method and region. On the basis of application, vehicle screen market can be segmented into metallurgy, wood pelleting, food, chemical industry, mineral processing and reclaimed asphalt pavement. On the basis of motive mechanism, vehicle screen market can be segmented into hydraulic vibrator and electric vibrators. On the basis of product type, vehicle screen market can be segmented into linear vibrating screens and circular vibrating screens. On the basis of production process, vehicle screen market can be segmented into screen selection and pre-treatment of feed. On the basis of driving method, it can be segmented into direct drive and indirect drive.Global Vibrating Screens Market: DynamicsDriversFast and easy replacement of vibrating screens due to screw less fastening system is driving the growth of the global vibrating screens. High availability and low maintenance requirements are growing the market of vibrating screens globally. Moreover, robust design and low susceptibility of the vibrating screens are another factors leading to the growth of the vibrating screens market globally. Moreover, diversified product portfolio available in the market meeting the demands of the consumers is another factor fueling the demand for vibrating screens globally.Restraints:Screening efficiency can be affected by screen tearing, dampening, blinding and contamination which may challenge the growth of the vibrating screens market globally. Furthermore, limitations of rotary screen to handle two devices as compared to high frequency vibrating screens is another factor which can be considered as a restraint for the global vibrating screens market.Global Vibrating Screens Market: Key PlayersThe main key players of the global vibrating screens market are:Deister MachineElgin Equipment GroupOsbornHawk MachineryDerrick CorporationJOST GroupMidwestern IndustriesAury Pty Ltd.Gator Machinery CompanySouthwest Milling and Industrial CompanyVisit For TOC@Global Vibrating Screens Market:Region Wise OutlookOn the basis of region, vibration screens market can be segmented into Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa, and Japan. Europe and Asia pacific is expected to dominate the market as they are significant market for mining and steel industries. China, UK and Ukraine are expected to show robust development in the steel industry. Furthermore, countries such as South Africa, Australia and India are expected to create moderate demand for vibrating screens.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 Pigments Market : Key Players, Growth, Analysis, 2016 - 2026

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Pigments, mainly used for coloring paint, ink, plastic, fiber and other materials, are basically organic and inorganic particulate solids, which alter appearance of the substrate on which theyre applied by selective absorption and/ or by scattering of light. Organic pigments are carbon based particulate solids which can be prepared by natural and synthetic source of production. The natural organic pigments are derived from plants and animals while synthetic organic pigments are carbon based and are often derived from petroleum compounds. Organic pigments are used in the form of finely crushed powder for their use in coloring various products and in visual arts.Rising demand of organic pigments from end-use industries such as textile, plastic etc. are expected to drive growth of the market over the coming years. The market for organic pigments is anticipated to record its highest growth in Asia-Pacific due to rise in number of textile industries. Organic pigments are cost effective, non-toxic and possess good color strength, which makes them good choice for their use across various end-use sectors. Availability of organic pigments in various unique shades make them attractive for using in visual arts also. Increasing consumption of organic pigments in various hi-tech applications such as opto-electronic display, photo-reprographics and optical data storage is expected to create significant growth opportunities over the forecast period of 2016-2026.Request Report Sample@Organic Pigments Market DynamicsMajor factors driving growth of the organic pigments market include their increasing use in plastic, paint, coatings and textile industries. Moreover, upswing in number of textile industries and increasing demand of plastic products owing to various macro-economic factors is expected to boost the demand of organic pigments, in turn, fuelling the growth of global organic pigments market over the forecast period.Unstable prices, various environmental regulations and limited availability of raw materials are some of the factors expected to impede the growth of global organic pigments market.Manufacture of organic pigments with good light fastness property is gaining traction among global manufacturers. Besides, developing countries such as China & India are shifting towards becoming the center of global organic pigments market, both from the demand and supply side. Regulatory environment, labor laws and wages in Asia Pacific are expected to remain major factors impacting this global market shift. Moreover, owing to their ability to providing a wide color spectrum compared to their inorganic counterpart, organic pigments are expected to substitute inorganic pigments for some specific applications over the coming years.Organic Pigments Market: SegmentationGlobal organic pigments market is segmented on the basis of source of production and application.On the basis of production source, global organic pigments market is categorized into natural and synthetic segments.On the basis of application, global organic pigments market is segmented into paints and coatings, plastics, printing inks, textiles, cosmetics, food, chemical, and others.Organic Pigments Market: Regional OutlookGlobal organic pigments market is segmented into seven key regions namely North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Upsurge in development of textile & plastic industries in Asia-pacific is expected to boost the demand of organic pigments market in the region by 2026 end.Visit For TOC@Organic Pigments Market: Key PlayersKey players involved in the value chain of organic pigments market include BASF SE, Heubach India, DIC Corporation, Clariant, Lansco Colors, Sensient Technologies Corporation, Sun Chemical Corporation, Synthesia, Neochem Industries, Vibfast Pigments Pvt. Ltd., Neelikon Food Colors & Chemicals Ltd., Shanghai Road Dyestuffs & Chemicals Company Limited and others.About Us Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Real Time Store Monitoring Platform Market : Key Players, Growth, Analysis, 2016 - 2026

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Real Time Store Monitoring Platform enables the retailer better understand consumer behavior as well as stores performance. Online shopping has raised customer expectations, standards. Stores have historical information on products, orders, inventory, and customers. The data provides retailers a clear idea on stores performance. The real time store monitoring platform enables view all store activity effectively with integrated platform. The platform offers information on inventory visibility such as sales, return on exchange, out of stocks, receipts and people count, shopper conversion, path analysis etc. Retailer can track the information of loss event details, vendor fraud, and internal theft. Retailers can understand how consumers shop, which item is moving, reasons for out of stock. The platform enables optimize stores performance and reduce risks by provides information on missed items and inventory management. The technological advancements in store management offers new opportunities for the companies in Real Time Store Monitoring Platform industry. Global Real Time Store Monitoring Platform market is expected to exhibit a robust growth over the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Real Time Store Monitoring Platform Market: Drivers and restraintsAdvanced Technologies in store management enables reduce risks associated with inventory management and store traffic. Which attract customers to adopt the real time store monitoring platform. The integrated platform enables maintain effectiveness and accuracy. Increased awareness among people to manage the store in effective manner by adopt to advanced technologies such as real time store monitoring platform drives the market. This, in turn, would lead to increase in demand for integrated platform. Adoption of Real Time Store Monitoring Platform has been observed modest in lower and middle-income countries due to low awareness and less disposable income, this can diminish the global Real Time Store Monitoring Platform market. Real Time Store Monitoring Platform is costlier than the conventional methods, it can be hampered global real time store monitoring platform market.Real Time Store Monitoring Platform Market: SegmentationGlobal Real Time Store Monitoring Platform Market can be segmented as following typesBy Product TypeSoftwareHardwareEnd UserIndependent storesChain StoresLeased DepartmentsReal Time Store Monitoring Platform Market: OverviewGlobal Real Time Store Monitoring Platform market is getting traction due to increased awareness across the globe. Major retail giants are inclined towards advanced technologies in order maintain the accuracy in store management. The global Real Time Store Monitoring Platform market expected to witness a significant CAGR over the forecast period.Real Time Store Monitoring Platform Market: Region-Wise OutlookGlobal market is segmented into seven key regions, those are North America (N.A), Latin America (L.A), Eastern Europe (E.EU), Western Europe (W.EU), Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and Middle East and Africa (MEA).North America is anticipated to have a maximum market share in global Real Time Store Monitoring Platform market due to increased adoption rate to advanced technologies to maintain store, followed by Europe. Asia Pacific region is witnessed for lucrative market in global Real Time Store Monitoring Platform market due to stable and healthy economic growth rate in the region and particularly in countries like China and India. Europe is having a considerable contribution in global Real Time Store Monitoring Platform market due to its use in the commercial sectors. Middle East and Africa are at a nascent stage in global Real Time Store Monitoring Platform market and is expected to have a moderate CAGR in the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Real Time Store Monitoring Platform Market: Key playersSome of the key players areSoftware AGRetail Next, Inc.iVend RetailAralco Point of sale SystemsReal Time POS, Inc.Netsuite, INC.Comcash, Inc.NovateKAbout 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:
By PTI: (Eds: Combines JK-Encounter and JK-Firing stories)

Srinagar, Aug 5 (PTI) Security forces today killed three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants in an encounter in Sopore area of north Kashmir, the police said.

Two of the killed militants were locals while one was yet to be identified, the police said.

The gunbattle took place after security forces launched an operation following information about the presence of militants in Amargarh area of Sopore in Baramulla district, a police official said.

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As the security forces were closing in, the militants opened fire, which was returned, the official said.

Two slain militants were identified as Javid Ahmed Dar of Baramulla and Abid Hamid Mir of Bandipora, the police said.

Three AK rifles and two magazines were recovered from them, the police added.

Meanwhile, three persons were injured in Bandipora district when Army personnel allegedly opened fire on a group of stone-pelters who targeted them,police said.

A mob pelted stones on Army vehicles which were passing through S K Bala locality in Sumbal area of Bandipora this morning, a police official said.

He said the Army personnel allegedly opened fire to disperse the mob, resulting in injuries to three persons.

The injured have been referred to a hospital here for treatment,he added.

A similar incident took place at Harnag in Anantnag district but there were no injuries there,the official said. PTI MIJ AJR AAR AKK AKK

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Real-Time Parking System Market : Segmentation, Industry trends and Development to 2026

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Proliferating number of vehicle combined with the escalating traffic has led to a serious issue of parking in urban cities. In the absence of any systematic method or a system, sufficient time and fuel is wasted over parking. As much as more than twenty five percent of the traffic is contributed by vehicles cruising for parking. Problems are further exacerbated if there are limited parking spaces and or if they are available for any particular period of time. Therefore there arises a strong need for real time information on the availability of parking in a particular region and location. The parking industry has witnessed major technological metamorphosis, and with the introduction of new technology and systems efficient and convenient parking operation can be achieved. A real time parking system collects the data either through cameras or sensors, analyses the input and presents a location to the user either through an inbuilt device in car or through a mobile application. The utilization of real time parking system by parking operator and customer is enabling a smoother transition and efficient management of traffic and parking in a location.Request Report Sample@Global real-time parking system market: DynamicsThe real time parking system market demand is propelled with increasing usage of such systems in urban cities. The demand is further boosted with enhanced features offered by modern real time parking system such as parking spot price, spot guidance and airport and transit connections along with other services. With increasing adoption of efficient real time parking system the demand for these system is expected arise from airport, hospital, mall parking, commercial parking garages, universities, on street municipal and other event avenues. The strong integration of real time parking system and Internet of Things and cloud data is opening new avenues for the users and manufacturers. The integration is enabling users to access real time parking condition and for paid parking structures, its helping user opt for simple payment method through payment wallet. Although owing to high capital cost of equipment for real time parking systems, the adoption is relatively low but with economic pricing of these systems the application for commercial purpose is expected to increase.Global real-time parking system market: SegmentationReal-time parking system market can be segmented on the basis of location, type and application.On the basis of type, real time parking system market can be segmented as:SoftwareHardwareServicesThe Real time parking system market can be segmented on the basis of LocationOnstreetOffstreetOthersOn the basis of application, the real time parking system market can be segmented as:CommercialPersonalTransport and AviationGovernmentOthersGlobal real-time parking system market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of region, the real-time parking system market can be segmented into North America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excl. Japan, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Eastern Europe, and Japan. The North America and Western Europe are currently one of the largest markets real-time parking system, yet the demand for real-time parking system is relatively moderate in the regions owing to maturing automotive sales. The rising sales of automobile and increasing vehicle density in Japan and APEJ are propelling the demand for real time parking system market in the region, therefore the market is anticipated to account for substantial market share during the forecast period. Likewise Latin America real time parking system market is expected to gain significant market share over the forecast period. The Middle East and Africa real time parking system market is expected to create sustainable opportunities in key markets of Qatar, Dubai, Turkey and South Africa among other countries.Visit For TOC@Global real-time parking system market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified in the real-time parking system market are: Streetline, Smart Parking Ltd., ParkMe Inc., Parknav, T2 SYSTEMS, Spot Innovation, Inc., INRIX, Inc., ParkWhiz API, Robotic Parking Systems, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., and PARKMATIC among many other participant.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:
Silicon Anode Battery Market : In-Depth Market Research Report 2016 to 2026

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In order to meet the rising energy requirements and to overcome rapidly depleting fossil resources, rechargeable batteries has evolved as one of the efficient means of energy storage. The ongoing technological advancement in power electronics and automotive has brought lithium ion batteries into the frame as an advanced storage systems with high capabilities. The silicon anode batteries are lithium ion batteries with silicon anode. The traditional anode material in lithium ion batteries i.e. graphite doesnt meets the high energy demand of advanced electric automotive due to its limited theoretical capacity, whereas, silicon stores ten times more lithium than the graphite anode resulting in increased energy density which enables fast charging and high current delivery. Thus silicon anode battery is emerging as a substitute for graphite anode battery. Due to its low discharge potential and extreme charge capacity, silicon anode could provide faster charging, greater current delivery and smaller battery size. However, large volume change during electrochemical process remains the major challenge in wide commercialization of silicon anode battery. Silicon anode battery is expected to emerge as next generation of lithium ion batteries. The silicon anode battery market is still between introduction and growth phase, when plotted on product life cycle. Huge investments by market leaders are being made to further develop silicon anode battery technology and bring it on practical grounds and thus market is expected to hold significant growth potential.Request Report Sample@Silicon Anode Battery: Market DynamicsThe major factor contributing to the growth of silicon anode battery market is the increasing energy requirements from various end-use applications such as consumer electronics and automotive, for more efficient and advanced battery. Further, robust growth of automotive industry and turning focus towards EVs could generate significant opportunity for growth of the silicon anode battery market. Lower working potential and high charge capacity of silicon anode battery could help automotive manufacturers to reach required power ranges by deploying less number of batteries thus achieving high performance. Moreover, abundance of raw material i.e. silicon can turn as a major factor driving its application into lithium ion batteries. Major challenges faced in the silicon anode battery market are limited commercialization of the product due to existing technical challenges particularly large volumetric expansion. Furthermore, high costs silicon anode battery as compared to available alternative is also a factor restraining market growth. The major trends observed in the silicon anode battery market is product development and innovation such as use of nanowire battery with silicon anodes as they allow improved accommodation of volume changes during lithiation. Number of players in the market have filed patents over different advancements in silicon anode battery technologySilicon Anode Battery: Market SegmentationThe silicon anode battery market can be segmented on the basis of: application and region.On the basis of application the silicon anode battery market can be segmented into:Consumer electronic devicesMedical applications (pacemaker, defibrillator machines)AutomotiveSpace & defenseSustainable energy (wind turbine and photovoltaic)The silicon anode battery market can be segmented on the basis of region into: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, Middle East and AfricaSilicon Anode Battery: Regional OutlookNorth America holds a major share in the silicon anode battery market due to the substantial growth in the automotive industry and consumer electronics section. Europe and North America collectively holds over 50% share in the market owing to demand from industrial sector. However, Asia Pacific silicon anode battery market is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period due to rapid industrialization and increasing awareness about the use of energy efficient, reliable, safe and economical battery systems.Visit For TOC@Silicon Anode Battery: Key PlayersSome of the major key players identified in the silicon anode battery market are: Nexeon Limited, BYD Company Limited, Amprius Inc., ENOVIX, Boston-Power, Inc., LG Chem Ltd., Panasonic Corporation, Samsung SDI, XG Sciences, Zeptor Corporation, California Lithium battery Inc, Yuasa battery Europe Ltd., JTT Electronics Ltd, Vmcell Technology Co., Ltd, Enevate Corporation, Nanotek Instruments.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:
Cider Packaging Market : Growth, Demand and Key Players to 2026

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Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented juice of apples. Cider beverage is made up of cider apples which is mostly produced in U.S. There is great demand of innovation in packaging of cider in market. The growth of hard cider has been driven largely by the highly coveted millennial generation. Market is mainly driven by increased disposable income and demand for innovative packaging product and safe packaging.Global Cider Packaging Market: DynamicsReducing unit cider packagingsize is creating more consumption opportunities.The presence of premium brand such as woodchuck, Kopparberg and angry orchard has increased the demand for premium quality cider packaging. Premium cider packagingbrand are high in demand as compared to economically priced product due to rise in consumption of alcohol as a status symbol, disposable income and association of premium labels with the beverage quality and taste. cider packaging market is highly competitive which led competitors to come up with innovative product and new strategy in packaging world.The vendors in cider packaging are coming with bottles prepared with a high barrier coating technology to upturn its shelf life and minimize the risk of saturation. With the technological innovations in the cider packaging market, there is increasing demand for water-based coating technology as it is environmentally-friendly, tasteless, odorless and decreases the usage of sprig powder. The global demand of cider packaging is expected to grow at impressive CAGR in near future.Request Report Sample@Global Cider Packaging Market: SegmentationThe global cider packaging market can be segmented on the basis of material type packaging type and region. On the basis of material cider packaging market can be segmented on glass, plastic and metal. On the basis of packaging type cider packaging market can be segmented as bottles, cans and stand up pouches. Among all material type used for cider packaging, plastic is gaining preference over glass bottles and metal cans because plastic are light in weight, compatible lower in cost and are available in various design. The development of plastic packaging solution will be key driver for the growth of overall cider packaging market. Another driving factor for cider packaging id the increasing demand for alcoholic beverage has pushed vendors to focus on shelf-life packaging that is easy to store, easy to transport and is convenient to unpack. The manufactures are coming up with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which shelters the cider products for long period. On the basis of region North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa.Global Cider Packaging Market: Regional OverviewNorth America cider packaging market is expected to register strong growth in near future while cider packaging market is expected to slowdown in largest market of Europe. Europe market is focusing in innovative packaging so that product become more appealing to consumers. The launch of low calorie and craft cider in Europe is expected to create demand in new cider packaging product which can add volume sale in this region. Cider packaging market in Asia Pacific region is expected to show nominal growth during forecast period. Middle East and Africa is expected to dominate the cider packaging market in near future and projected to account highest market share.Visit For TOC@Global Cider Packaging Market: Key PlayersThe main player of global cider packaging in market are Amcor limited , Ardagh group, Ball corporation, Crown Holdings, Rexam Owens-Illinois. Some of the other prominent players are Plastipak Packaging, Silgan Holdings, Consol Glass, Vetropack, Allied Glass Containers, Can-Pack, MeadWestvaco, Nampak and VidralaAbout 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:
Regenerative Braking Systems Market : Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends, 2014 - 2020

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Increasing demand for fuel efficient vehicles, increasing efforts for mitigation of carbon emissions and rising cost of fuels, are pushing the Automakers to seek for development of energy efficient systems. This changing dynamics has significantly led to developments in regenerative braking systems market. Nowadays, energy recovery systems in vehicles are increasingly getting employed in passenger as well as commercial vehicles to improve fuel economy and reduce vehicular emissions.As a result for the need of better fuel-economy the regenerative braking systems market has evolved, which is gaining a significant growth in global automotive industry because of energy saving application.Nowadays, regenerative braking systems have become an important feature in hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. In these type of vehicles, regenerative braking systems are used to generate electricity by convertingmomentum loss during application of brakes. The amount of recoverable energy depends upon the vehicle speed and stopping pattern, 5% to 20% of transmitted energy can be saved by using regenerative braking systems. This energy is then transferred to on-board auxiliaries or comfort functions such as climate control. This energy can also be stored as electricity and then returned to the drive train during acceleration or whenever required. This energy can either be stored in batteries or banks of super capacitors. The energy saving features are one among the latent drivers of regenerative braking systems market.Request Report Sample@The factors driving the growth of global regenerative braking systems market are growing concern for controlling vehicular emission, rising fuel cost and growing concern for advance technology. Although, factors such as increased overall cost of car and maintenance are the major challenges.The global regenerative braking systems market is geographically segmented intosevenkey regions which are, North America, South America,Eastern Europe, Western Europe,Asia Pacific, Japan andMiddle East & Africa. As of 2013, North America dominates the overall global regenerative braking systems market value, followed by Asia Pacific, Europe and others. Asia Pacific is projected to register a significant CAGR for the forecast period in global regenerative braking systems market. This growth is fuelled by increasing penetration rate of hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in regions like Japan, South Korea and China.Growing concern for controlling vehicular emission in Europe region is also expected to drive the growth of global regenerative braking systems market for forecast period.On the basis of passenger vehicle type, the regenerative braking systemsmarket is segmented into three sub-segments, which are, hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The hybrid vehicle sub-segment of global regenerative braking systems market is the predominant in terms of market value dueincreasing adoption of hybrid vehicles in regions like North America and Europe. The hybrid vehicle passenger sub-segment is forecast to have higher growth rate in regenerative braking systems market, followed by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles.Visit For TOC@Some of the key players in the global regenerative braking systems market include Continental AG, Delphi Automotive PLC, Denso Corporation, Robert Bosch GMBH and TRW automotive. Acquisitions and mergers are key strategies adopted by major companies to expand their geographical presence and market share in global regenerative braking systems market along with an enhanced customer base.In future, deployment of advanced regenerative braking systems with more efficiency and less prone to energy loss during transmission will provide a completive edge for automotive OEMs.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:
Specialty Fuel Additives Market : Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends, 2014 - 2020

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Specialty fuel additives are chemical formulations which when added to fuel, enhance desirable properties of the fuel or suppress the undesirable properties of the fuel. An additive may be used unaided or may be combined with other additives to impart desired characteristics to the fuel. The additives are generally added for a multitude of functions such as to improve the power output, reduce the consumption of fuel, improve the efficiency and reduce the emissions on combustion, prevent corrosive effects etc.The specialty fuel additives market can be segmented product wise intofuel antioxidants, lubricity improvers, corrosion inhibitors, deposit control additives, cold flow improvers, cetane number improvers, fuel system icing inhibitors,metal deactivators etc. Based on the application, specialty fuel additives market can be segmented on the basis of fuel types such asgasoline(petrol) additives, diesel additives, aviation turbine fuel additives, and others (heating fuels, marine fuel additives).Request Report Sample@The cold flow improvers product segment of specialty fuel additives market is expected to record a rapid growth in the next five years.The demand for diesel fuel additives is expected to emerge as the largest segment of specialty fuel additives market in the next five years owing to an increase in fuel consumption in Asia-Pacific, as well as the increase in demand for ULSD (ultra-low sulfur diesel).North America commands predominant share in specialty fuel additives market. However, North America and Europe are mature markets and have reached a saturation stage. In order to grow, manufacturers are pursuing opportunities in Asia Pacific specialty fuel additives market where there has been a significant growth in the consumption of fuel in recent past. Increase in vehicle fleet especially in China and India are fueling growth in specialty fuel additives market in the region.The APAC specialty fuel additives market is expected to exhibit moderate single digit growth over the next five years. The developed regions such as North America, Europe have witnessed an increase in demand for bio-fuel, this in turn willdrive the demand for specialty fuel additives in these markets.The growing emphasis on developing cleaner fuels while not compromising on performance and efficiency, the increasing awareness about conservation of resources and the need to comply with the stringent regulations emerge as the major drivers for the specialty fuel additives market. Moreover, in order to address the ever increasing competition, manufacturers are developing application specific differentiated products. However, an increase in demand for alternative fuels like LPG and CNG could hamper the growth of specialty fuel additives market to a certain extent.Visit For TOC@The major players in the specialty fuel additives market are Lubrizol Corporation, Innospec, Infineum, Chevron Oronite Company LLC, Evonik Industries AG, Chemtura Corporation, andBaker Hughes 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:
Waste To Energy Asia Pacific Market: Facts, Figures and Analytical Insights, 2014 to 2020

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Waste to energy (WTE) is the process of utilizing waste to generate energy or electricity. Various technologies are used to generate energy from waste source such as, municipal domestic waste. Energy generated from the process can be in form of electricity, fuel or heat.The WTE management is considered as a vital part of the waste disposal infrastructure of any nation as it also comes under renewable energy sources. Waste to energy market refers to electricity generated with utilization of waste resources.Rapid change in consumption pattern and lifestyle of the population, along with migration of people towards urban areas are triggering urban waste accumulation, hence demanding a better infrastructure for its safe disposal and reuse.Various corporate or energy producing companies have ventured into waste to energy market by deploying their facilities. Types of waste that can be used in the waste to energy market include utilization of semi solid waste discharged from the industrial plants, liquid waste like domestic sewage and gaseous waste produced in refinery.Request Report Sample@Waste to energy market can be segmented on the basis of technology used, viz. thermal and biological. Thermal technology can be further bifurcated on the basis of oxygen used in the process, combustion (excess oxygen), gasification (partial oxygen) and pyrolysis (no oxygen). Biological process can be used in a process where anaerobic decomposition of the solid waste is required. In Asia pacific, incineration is the most commonly used technology in waste to energy market. Incineration cuts the cost required in the transportation of waste to landfills. There has been a noticeable rise in the production of industrial and municipal waste, demanding innovation in existing waste to energy management technologies.Necessity to maintain balance between the three Es that is, saving the Environment, Economic development and Energy independence can clearly explain the need of waste management thus driving growth in waste to energy market. Companies are adopting aforementioned technologies to reduce discharge of waste material and generate confined energy in parallel. For instance, General Motors through its renaissance center and landfill-free sites has been able to eliminate over 10 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions in 2013.Waste to energy management supports nation to conserve energy resources and earn carbon credits, which can be further used to gain profit via carbon credit trading. Additionally, converting a waste into a beneficial product will leadto an economic development of a country by turning a liability into an asset. China is considered as one of the forerunnersin waste to energy market.Asia pacific waste to energy market is expected to grow two folds by 2020 with promising CAGR. Japan primarily dominates waste to energy market in Asia pacific, owing to its increasing waste to energy technology adoption. Rapid growth of residential and industrial wastes in China and India,and supports by government to endorse sustainable energy generation are anticipated to drive the regional waste to energy market.Rapid rise in industrial and domestic wastes are provoking governments across the region to support energy production from waste, positively impacting the growth of waste to energy market. Also strong shift towards the renewable resources from coal, decreasing carbon footprints is driving the waste to energy market. Rise in economic development is anticipated to lead to the increase in the municipal domestic waste and hence will drive the demand of waste to energy market.Various developing nations have implemented landfills, due to its less implementation cost. This can be an inhibitor for waste to energy market, as methane gas is emitted from the landfill. Industries playing an active role in the economic development of the nation are energetically using WTE technologies.Visit For TOC@Regional key players in waste to energy market includeThe Babcock & Wilcox Company, China Everbright International Limited, Xcel Energy, Suez Environment S.A, Waste Management Inc., C&G Environmental Protection Holdings Ltd., Veolia Environment and Foster Wheeler AG.Waste to energy market is expected to grow significantly in Asia pacific region. India, China and Japan will be the boon for the growth of the nation in the forecasted year duration.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:
Process Liquid Analyzer Market to Witness Steady Growth through 2025

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Process Analyzers are engineering precision equipment used for incessant monitoring of parameters such as gas and liquid content during the manufacturing process. It has redefined the way by which companies carry out their production and improve the overall efficiency of the products by its accurate analysis and intelligence.They are widely used to analyze and identify the physical, chemical, molecular, and elemental properties of a sample of the products. These instruments are majorly being used in Chemical and Petrochemical, Oil and Gas, and Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries.Process liquid analyzer include monitoring of sulfur, water, olefins, aromatics, BTX, calorific value, many of which are crucial in the refining, processing and treatment of oils, fuels and petrochemicals.Request Report Sample@Process Liquid Analyzer Market: Drivers and RestraintsProcess liquid analyzer market is globally driven by the developing countries, increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions, huge development and advanced in global industries, and intense competition in the global market with the presence of many international and local vendors. However, shortage of skilled process technicians, and need for continuous support and maintenance act as a major barrier for this market.Process Liquid Analyzer Market: SegmentationThe global market of process liquid analyzer is segmented into following types:PH/ORP analyzersConductivity analyzersNear infrared analyzersTurbidity analyzersDissolved oxygen analyzersChlorine analyzers.Process Liquid Analyzer Market: OverviewWith the rapid technological advancement and intense competition in the global market between international and local vendors. The global process liquid analyzer market is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR in the forecasted period (2015-2025).Process liquid analyzers are used extensively in the chemical process, food & beverage, power, mineral processing, petroleum refining, pharmaceutical, primary metals, pulp and paper, semiconductor, textile, water and wastewater industries which helps to boost the growth of this market globally.Process Liquid Analyzer Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, process liquid analyzer market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa.North Americais the largest region in terms of market revenue for this market followed by Japan. However, Asia Pacific and European countries represent emerging markets, due to a rise of pharmaceutical giants and biotechnology industries, and growing industry demand for standardization and accreditation.Visit For TOC@Process Liquid Analyzer Market: Key PlayersSome of the key participating players in global process liquid analyzer market are Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan), Emerson Electric Co. (U.S), Cemtrex Inc. (U.S), AMETEK Process Instruments (U.S.), ABB Ltd. (Switzerland) and others.About Us Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Sodium Sulfur Batteries Market : Facts, Figures and Analytical Insights, 2015 to 2025

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Unlike banking accounts, where one saves money and use it afterwards whenever required; electricity is an asset which needs to be consumed as exactly when it is being generated. When compare to energy generation, energy storage is quite complicated process. Most of the times we refer how the energy could be saved when it is economically dispatched, so as to utilize it in order to serve the consumers with a robust and cost-effective manner. However, with the advancements in technology and increasing demand of electricity it will give rise to dramatic change of load characteristics all over the world. Future trend will be the application of using batteries to provide bulk power to the load with a new set of regulations emerging to support the energy needs.When dealing in the field of exotic, high energy batteries; sodium-sulfur batteries need to be understood. Alkali metals such as lithium, sodium and potassium which are highly reactive in nature; are used as anodes in these batteries to achieve the highest theoretical energy and power densities. Sodium-sulfur batteries are commonly known as NaS batteries. Sodium-sulfur reactants have an operating temperature of 300C with a potential energy density output of more than 400 Wh/kg or 200 Wh/lb. Their charge/discharge efficiency is in the range of 8692%. Compare this to about 30 Wh/kg for a lead-acid battery. High operating temperature along with the highly corrosive nature of the sodium metal allows this battery technology to be used in stationary applications such as grid energy storage. Sodium sulfur batteries are made up of many cells. Each cell is typically made in a tall, cylindrical configuration. The entire cell is enclosed by a steel casing usually protected by chromium and molybdenum from internal corrosion. This outside casing serves as the positive electrode, while the liquid sodium serves as the negative electrode. The container is sealed at the top with an airtight alumina lid. An essential part of the cell is the presence of a beta-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE) membrane, which selectively conducts sodium cations. With increasing size, the cell becomes much more economical. In commercial applications, the cells are arranged in blocks for better conservation of heat and are encased in a vacuum-insulated box. Pure sodium presents a hazard because it spontaneously burns or explodes in contact with water, so the system must be protected from moisture. In modern NaS cells, sealing techniques are quite sophisticated which make fires unlikely, although there have been cell leaks.Request Report Sample@Since 1983, NGK Insulators Ltd. (NGK)/ Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have become the primary drivers behind the development of the sodium sulfur batteries because all of its componentssodium, sulfur and ceramics are abundantly found in Japan. In late 1990s, first large-scale prototype field testing took place using 3 x 2 MW, 6.6 kV battery banks. Based on this testing, improved battery modules were made commercially available in 2000. Sodium sulfur batteries are a possible energy storage technology to support renewable energy generation, specifically in solar generation plants and wind farms. These batteries present an option for energy storage in locations where other storage options are not feasible due to location or terrain constraints. Electric energy is stored and delivered within 1 mill second of an electronic command.Sodium sulfur batteries are used in the pilot projects to develop a durable utility power storage due to its high efficiency of 70% or higher and better lifetime. The world's largest sodium sulfur battery in service is in Texas, used for supplementing the power grid.Sodium Sulfur Batteries Market: Drivers & RestraintsIncreasing infrastructure investments, growing population, rising demand of power and ecofriendly energy storage are some of the key factors driving the growth of global sodium sulfur batteries market.The threat of moisture is quite important for sodium sulfur batteries, giving rise to regular battery servicing as well as individual cell inspection to ensure long term operation. Battery servicing include the crucial work of replacement of the cells showing any sign of leakage. Periodic maintenance, inspection and sealing costs, regulations on distributed energy storage (DES) and installation in inaccessible places are probable factors restraining the growth of the global sodium sulfur batteries market.Sodium Sulfur Batteries Market: SegmentationThe global sodium sulfur batteries market is broadly classified on the basis of applications and geographies.Based on application, the global sodium sulfur batteries market is segmented into:Ancillary ServicesLoad LevellingRenewable Energy StabilizationSodium Sulfur Batteries Market: OverviewSodium sulfur batteries are trending in US. In the coming years, Asia Pacific region will see the highest growth for utility-scale applications, though growth will be strong in North America and Europe. More than 20MW of sodium sulfur batteries have been installed in North America.With rapid urbanization and increasing pressure on conservation of energy, the acceptance of sodium sulfur batteries is gaining popularity. The global sodium sulfur batteries market is expected to expand at a promising CAGR during the forecast period (2015-2025).Visit For TOC@Sodium Sulfur Batteries Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global sodium sulfur batteries market is expected to register an optimistic CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, global sodium sulfur batteries market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. As of 2015, North America dominated the global sodium sulfur batteries market in terms of market revenue followed by Europe. Asia Pacific & Japan are projected to expand at a substantial growth and will contribute to the global sodium sulfur batteries market value exhibiting a robust CAGR during the forecast period, 2015?2025.Sodium Sulfur Batteries Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market participants in global sodium sulfur batteries market are NGK Insulators Ltd, KEMET Electronics Corporation, Eagle Picher Technologies LLC, GE Energy, Ceramatec Inc, FIAMM Group, POSCO, Sieyuan Electric Co. 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.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Photo Sharing Market : Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, and Threats (2015 - 2025)

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Social media is a networking tool which helps any individual to exchange, create, and share information photos, videos and others. In the current scenario social media tool has become the best mode for marketing, promotion and building social relationship across the globe. Photo sharing tool helps in storing, organising and sharing ones photo collections. Increasing internet penetration coupled with adoption of photo sharing tool as a marketing strategy among the social media platforms is fuelling the growth of photo sharing market across the globe.Photo Sharing Market SegmentationPhoto sharing market is segmented on the basis of platform which includes paid services membership and free services membership. Among both these segments free services membership segment is expected to account for the major market share as compared to paid services membership. However, services provider are offering increased features and add on services in paid services membership which is expected to support the demand of paid services membership during the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Photo sharing market is also segmented on the basis of application, which includes personal computers and mobile devices. Personal computers can be further sub segmented as desktop and laptop. Among both of these sub segments laptop is expected to be the major contributor on the pie for photo sharing market as compared to desktop. Increased in number of usage of laptop across the globe is expected to support its growth in photo sharing market during the forecast period. Mobile devices sub-segments include smart phone, tablets and notebook. Among all of these sub-segments smart phones is expected to account for the major share in photo sharing market as compared to other sub-segments. This growth has been supported by the increased usage of smart phone across the developing countries. Moreover, contribution of tablets in terms of share in photo sharing market is also expected show a substantial increase during the forecast period.On the basis of end user, the photo sharing market segmentation includes enterprises and individual. Enterprises can further be sub segmented as large scale enterprise, medium scale enterprise and small scale enterprise. Among all these sub segment large scale enterprise is expected to account for the major share in photo sharing market. Increased adoption of online marketing among the product manufacturers and service providers is expected to support the growth of enterprises in photo sharing market during the forecast period.Globally, photo sharing market is expected to reflect a double digit growth during the forecast period. North America is expected to account for major share followed by Europe in the near future. Moreover developing regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to show a substantial growth in photo sharing market during the forecast period. Countries such as Singapore and Japan are expected to be the major contributor in terms of revenue in photo sharing market. Increased penetration of internet in developing regions is expected to support the growth of photo sharing market.Photo Sharing MarketDriversAvailability of wide features for creating and sharing or collections of photos with one and another coupled with increasing connectivity medium is expected to drive the growth of photo sharing market in the near future. Moreover, increased adoption of social media for generating awareness and promotion of the product and services is predicted to fuel the growth of photo sharing market during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Photo Sharing Market Key PlayersKey players operating in photo sharing market includes Yahoo Inc., Cooliris Path Inc., Photobucket Corporation, Phonezoo Communications Inc., Trover, Facebook Inc., Bump Technologies LLC., and Hewlett Packard 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:
Energy Intelligence Solution Market to Witness Steady Growth through 2025

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Energy intelligence solutions provide an intelligent way to deal with energy crisis. Energy intelligence solutions includes tools and services which collect and analyse the energy data. Energy intelligence solutions can be considered as advanced form of energy management solutions. As compared to energy management software, it provide two fold benefits; first it is not only a visualization tool for meter data but also provides intelligence to reduce energy waste. Second, it offers advanced domain knowledge to utilize collected energy data for energy management. Energy intelligence solutions provides support for open standards, measure and verify results, insights and analysis of recorded data, accessibility and portability, control and automation, an integrated platform. Energy intelligence solutions finds applications in food & beverages industry, automotive industry, metal manufacturing industry, oil & gas industry, petrochemicals, electronics & telecommunication industry and utilities etc.Request Report Sample@Global Energy Intelligence Solution Market SegmentationGlobal energy intelligence solution market is segmented on the basis of service type, deployment model and end-user. On the basis of service type, global energy intelligence solution market is segmented into  system integration service, consulting services, support & maintenance service. Energy intelligence solutions are segmented into two ways by which it can be deployed  on-premise deployment and cloud based deployment. Energy intelligence solution provide assistance for energy saving along different industry verticals. Various end-users of energy intelligence solutions are residential buildings, offices & commercial areas, manufacturing units and others.Global Energy Intelligence Solution Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global energy intelligence solution market is divided into seven geographical regions  North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Middle East & Africa. The global energy intelligence solution market is expected to reflect a double-digit CAGR over the forecast period. At present, North America is dominating the market followed by Western Europe. Among all the regions, APEJ is expected to create huge market opportunity for major players operating in the energy intelligence solution market during the forecast period. Latin America and Middle East & Africa regions are reflecting comparatively slow growth during forecast period.Global Energy Intelligence Solution Market: DriversIncreasing energy consumption and rising need for advanced energy management solutions for residential, commercial and industrial areas are the prominent factors responsible for evolution of energy intelligence solutions. Organizations around the world are focusing on significantly reducing their energy consumption bills through efficient utilization of energy. Energy intensive applications such as power & energy, industrial manufacturing and telecommunication need to control their CO2 emissions in order to comply with existing legislations and standards. Energy intelligence solutions not only provide competitive advantage to business but also extends its responsibility towards sustainable economic development. Aforementioned are some of the factors that are expected to drive the global energy intelligence solution market growth in near future.On other hand, long period on return of investment, lack of knowledge and difficulties in handling technical issues related to energy intelligence solutions limits its full-fledged market growth.Visit For TOC@Tremendous opportunities lies in developing standardized foundation for deploying and leveraging energy intelligence solutions.Global Energy Intelligence Solution Market: Key PlayersThe energy intelligence solution market is highly competitive and diversified market, characterised by active presence of many big players. EnerNOC, Inc., Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, and GridPoint, Inc are some of the major players in global energy intelligence solution 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:
By PTI: nephew

By Gurdip Singh

Singapore, Aug 5 (PTI) Singapore Attorney-Generals Chambers has filed an application to begin proceedings against Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs nephew for contempt of court over a Facebook post he put up on the countrys judiciary.

The Attorney-Generals Chambers (AGC) said it decided to act after Li Shengwu, 32, the eldest son of Lee Hsien Yang, and nephew of the Prime Minister failed to remove the Facebook post and to apologise by an extended deadline of 5pm yesterday.

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In the Facebook post on July 15, which Li set to "friends only" privacy setting, but which was published by several websites and widely circulated on social media, he said foreign media had been cowed into self-censorship because of previous legal action.

He shared a link of a Wall Street Journal newspaper article giving a summary of the recent dispute which saw his father and aunt Lee Wei Ling on one side, and his uncle, the Prime Minister, on the other, over their late father Lee Kuan Yews home on 38, Oxley Road, off central business district.

The article was titled Singapore, "A Model Of Orderly Rule, Is Jolted By A Bitter Family Feud".

He also included a link to a 2010 New York Times commentary that was critical of the late Lee Kuan Yew and the government over what it deemed as censorship of the foreign press.

AGC, in its statement, said it issued a letter of warning on July 21 to Li.

In that letter, Senior State Counsel Francis Ng noted that the New York Times article described the Singapore government as "an authoritarian regime which aggressively uses the Singapore judicial system to silence its critics, even where such criticisms are fair or valid".

The article also described the late Lee Kuan Yew as the designer of "draconian press laws", which have been used to suppress legitimate criticism, he wrote.

Referring to Lis Facebook post, Ng said: "The clear meaning of the post, in referring to a pliant court system, is that the Singapore judiciary acts on the direction of the Singapore government, is not independent, and has ruled and will continue to rule in favour of the Singapore Government in any proceedings, regardless of the merits of the case".

"This assertion is reinforced by your reference to, and clear endorsement of, the article," he added, referring to the New York Times story.

The AGC said it had given Li until 5pm on July 28 to delete the post.

Li then wrote to the AGC to request an extension of time till 5pm on August 4 to respond to the AGCs letter.

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But he failed to purge the contempt and to apologise by the extended deadline, the AGC said.

In a Facebook post earlier yesterday, Li said the post was not an attack on the judiciary. PTI GS AJR

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Mens Wear Market to Reach US$ 540,454.6 Mn by 2022

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The mens wear sector includes various categories, of which clothing and foot wear are the most prominent. Within the clothing category, there are several other sub categories such as ethnic wear, sportswear, t-shirts, shirts, casual wear, winter wear, accessories, sleep wear, trousers, formal wear, etc. The global mens wear market is impacted owing to different components lurking within the market, which ultimately decide the adoption rate of these different types, thereby influencing the market growth. The APEJ region is considered to be the most lucrative region as compared to other regions. The over increasing population as well as increasing disposable income are two of the few primary factors driving the growth in the APEJ region.This report, compiled by Fact.MR, provides in-depth analysis of global mens wear market for the forecast period of 2017-2022 and offers key insights about the future market direction.ScopeThe scope of Fact.MRs report is to analyze the global mens wear market for the forecast period 2017-2022 and provide readers an unbiased and accurate analysis. Garment manufacturers, stakeholders, and suppliers in the global consumer goods sector can benefit from the analysis offered in this report. This report offers a comprehensive analysis, which can be of interest to leading trade magazines and journals pertaining to mens wear.For More Details - A sample of this report is available upon request@SummaryThe report commences with a brief information of the global mens wear market. This executive summary sets the tone for the rest of the report, providing users the scope of the report. The executive summary includes important facts and statistics on the global mens wear market.OverviewThe next section offers an overview of the global mens wear market. This comprises an introduction to the market, along with a standard definition of the product  mens wear. In this section, market value and year-over-year growth is offered to the readers. Year-over-year growth provides readers with a broader view of growth patterns over the forecast period.The reports succeeding section focuses on drivers, restraints and key trends from macroeconomic, demand, and supply perspectives. Impact analysis of weighted average model-based growth drivers is contained in the report for better provision of decision-making insights to clients.Request For Discount:In order to offer readers with up-to-date information about the latest advancements in the global mens wear market, the report provides updates about market opportunities, which can benefit leading manufacturers of mens wear market. With continuous evolution of the consumer goods sector, keeping a record of latest developments and trends is fundamental for mens wear market manufacturers to formulate key business strategies. Detailed insights about raw material sourcing, supply chain, pricing analysis, list of distributors, and cost structure are provided in this section.Considering the wide scope of global mens wear market and to offer in-depth insights, Fact.MRs report provides segment wise analysis and forecast. The global mens wear market has been categorized on the basis of category, demographics, sales channel, pricing, and region. This segmentation analysis is comprehensive, coupled with a detailed country-wise forecast provided on all parameters.The reports last section comprises of the global mens wear market competitive landscape, to provide readers with the dashboard view of company analysis and market players. This competitive intelligence is based on the providers categories across value chain, and their presence in the global mens wear market.Browse Full Report:Research MethodologyFact.MR is committed to offer unbiased and independent market research solutions to its clients. Each market report of Fact.MR is compiled after months of exhaustive research. We bank on a mix of tried-and-tested and innovative research methodologies to offer the most comprehensive and accurate information. Our main sources of research include,Primary researchSecondary researchTrade researchFocused interviewsSocial media analysisABOUT US:Fact.MR is focused on offering transformative intelligence that inspires breakthroughs and innovation. We believe that the right decisions at the opportune time are integral to achieve extraordinary success. We are here to help you with your strategic decision making.CONTACT:Suite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandPhone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.comwebsite:
Aquaculture Market to grow at CAGR of 13.19%: Driven by increasing investments in Leisure Products

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A new research document with title 'Aquaculture Market in Indonesia 2017-2021' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes region Indonesia and important players/vendors such as Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Sumatra ................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2021About AquacultureAquaculture is a process of rearing and cultivating aquatic animals and plants for food under controlled conditions. It includes the farming of more than 500 species of finfish, mollusks, crustaceans, and other invertebrates, over 30 seaweed species, more than 30 freshwater macrophytes species, a few amphibians and aquatic reptile species, and approximately 50 microalgae and invertebrates species as fish-food organisms in hatcheries.Request a sample report @The analysts forecast the aquaculture market in Indonesia to grow at a CAGR of 13.19% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the aquaculture market in Indonesia for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated through the production and retail sales of different types of aquaculture animal species.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Java Kalimantan Sulawesi Sumatra ROIAquaculture Market in Indonesia 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 PT. Bumi Menara Internusa PT. Dharma Samudera Fishing Industries PT. Japfa Comfeed Indonesia PT. Mega Marine PrideBuy this report @Other prominent vendors Baiyang Investment Group Liancheng Overseas Fishery (Shenzhen) Company Ningde Xiawei Food PT. Central Proteina Prima Tbk (CP Prima) Shandong Oriental Ocean GroupMarket driver Rich nutritional sources in aquaculture products For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Inversely proportional behavior of aquafarming seed quantity and quality For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Development of new aquaculture species For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Get customization & check discount for report @Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: Introduction Market outline Parent market: Global aquaculture market Aquaculture market in APAC: An overviewPART 05: Market landscape Aquaculture market in Indonesia Five forces analysis PESTLE analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by product Aquaculture market in Indonesia by product Freshwater fish market in Indonesia Crustaceans market in Indonesia Mollusks market in Indonesia Diadromous fish market in Indonesia Other aquaculture species market in IndonesiaPART 07: Market segmentation by environment Aquaculture market in Indonesia by environment Freshwater aquaculture market in Indonesia Marine water aquaculture market in Indonesia Brackish water aquaculture market in IndonesiaPART 08: Market segmentation by culture Aquaculture market in Indonesia by culture segmentation Aquaculture market in Indonesia by net pen culture Aquaculture market in Indonesia by floating cage culture Aquaculture market in Indonesia by pond culture Aquaculture market in Indonesia by paddy field culture....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 :Nidhi Bhavsar (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Coconut Water Market to grow at CAGR of 25.03% by 2021: Driven by increasing investments in Beverages Sector

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A new research document with title 'Coconut Water Market in Europe 2017-2021' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like Americas, APAC, EMEA and important players/vendors such as green coco europe, PepsiCo, Vaivai , Vita Coco................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2021About Coconut WaterCoconut water is the clear liquid extracted from coconuts. It is technically a fruit juice and is a popular drink among consumers in tropical countries. Packaged coconut water is prepared by extracting it from coconuts. It is then processed, and packaged in cans, bottles, and other packaging types. The growth of the packaged coconut water market in Brazil suggests that major opportunities exist in other tropical countries (like Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and Ecuador), even though fresh coconut water is highly preferred. However, as the trend of packaged food and beverages is gradually gaining prominence in these countries, it is expected that consumers will eventually switch to packaged healthy beverages owing to factors like portability, convenience, and hygiene, especially for consumption in schools and offices.Request a sample report @The analysts forecast the coconut water market in Europe to grow at a CAGR of 25.03% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the coconut water market in Europe for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the retail selling price as the average selling price of the product.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEACoconut Water Market in Europe 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors CHi Coca-Cola GraceKennedy green coco europe PepsiCo Vaivai Vita CocoOther prominent vendors Cocofina - The Coconut Experts COCOWELL Dharma By Kova Kft. Freedom Brands (GO COCO) Genuine Coconut Goya Foods Happy Coco INVO Coconut Water Kulau MightyBee Pearl Royal RiRi Coconut Water Rubicon Exotic Stur TIANA Fair Trade Organics TROPICAL SUN UFC Coconut WaterMarket driver Nutritional benefits of coconut water For a full, detailed list, view our reportBuy this report @Market challenge Product consistency and reliability issue in supply chain For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Growing trend for organic coconut water For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Get customization & check discount for report @Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: Introduction Global coconut water marketPART 05: Market landscape Coconut water market in Europe Technologies used in the manufacturing of coconut water Various kinds of packaging used for coconut water by players in Europe Product life cycle of coconut water market in Europe versus global coconut water market Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by product Flavored coconut water market in Europe....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 :Nidhi Bhavsar (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
President Trump has personally assured Ron Wyden, Oregon's senior U.S. senator, that he will work to reinvigorate Oregon's timber industry, primarily by pressing for a more favorable trade deal with Canada.

"He said he would assign his officials to it and he has done that," Wyden said Friday of the Republican president.

'TRADE BATTLE'

In an exclusive interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Wyden alleged the Canadian government has "flagrantly" subsidized its lumber producers, allowing them to "steal our markets" by flooding the United States with cheap stumpage. He said the two countries have been in a longstanding trade battle over softwood timber imports  the kind of lumber used to build houses.

The Oregon Democrat was one of four congressional leaders who met with Trump at the White House in February to discuss trade with Canada and Mexico. After the meeting, Trump publicly reiterated his commitment to renegotiating the North American Free Trade Act, which he said has been a "catastrophe for our country."

Wyden said that since the February meeting he's been collaborating on timber trade policy with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who heads the federal agency that drafts national trade policies.

"I have been working with them, and I'm going to stay with them until it gets resolved," Wyden said. "If they do it in a way that helps Oregon, middle-class families and workers, I'll say so, and if they don't, I'll say that as well."

In this Feb. 26, 2015, file photo, a front end log loader transports logs at Swanson Group Manufacturing in Roseburg, Ore. Company chief executive Steve Swanson says a tariff on Canadian lumber imports has helped his mills boost production.

TARIFF LIFTS OREGON MARKETS

Continuing an Obama-era trade dispute, Trump put in place a tariff on Canadian softwood lumber imports in April, forcing importers to pay an average of 20 percent or more on lumber goods they wish to bring over the border.

That policy has been good for Oregon sawmills, said Steve Swanson of the Swanson Group Manufacturing, which owns mills in Springfield, Roseburg and Glendale. "We're enjoying some pretty good markets today," he said, adding that his company intend to hire more mill workers if good market conditions continue. Wildfires that have burnt uncut Canadian timber supplies have also helped American mills boost production, Swanson said.

Restricting Canadian lumber imports with a tariff is one possible way to bolster U.S. mills, said Sumeet Gulati, a University of British Columbia professor who has studied the Canadian timber markets. But he warned that icing out Canada from the U.S. softwood lumber market may backfire if other cheap lumber exporting nations, like Indonesia, seek to flood the American market with their trees.

Oregon's once-robust timber industry employed near 100,000 people decades ago. But automation and concerns of environmental damage did much of the wreckage to employment opportunities in the woods and lumber mills. Oregon's timber industry now employs less than 30,000, according to figures from the state Employment Department.

Swanson, the timber executive, said a change in trade policy could help Oregon mills. But it's a long shot that Canada will back off giving its own producers a leg up through generous subsidies.

"I'm under no illusion that the U.S. can change timber policy within Canada," he said. "It's a well-entrenched system. It'd be an enormous task. What we want is some border measure that levels the playing field."

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman
In his first town hall meeting of the summer Congressional recess, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden talked healthcare, Israel and Trump with a crowd that at times turned testy at Woodrow Wilson High School in Portland Saturday.

The Democratic senator's co-sponsorship of Senate Bill 720, which would bar individuals from collaborating with international organizations on Israeli boycotts, drew some of the most prolonged questions and back-and-forths as Wyden explained his position.

"This is exactly what town hall meetings are for," Wyden said, "is to get people's ideas and exchange differing viewpoints."

The bill's opponents claimed the legislation would curtail First Amendment rights to voice opposition against Israeli activity in the West Bank. Wyden repeatedly assured the audience that wasn't the case.

"As we have read the bill, it means that anybody in this audience can boycott Israeli products or say they intend to boycott Israeli products," he said.

What the bill won't allow, Wyden told the audience, is collaboration "with a foreign government to promote the boycott" of Israeli products, just as U.S. companies are barred from doing under the Export Administration Act of 1979.

The American Civil Liberties Union has opposed the legislation, saying in a letter that it would "punish individuals for no reason other than their political beliefs."

Wyden also fielded questions about the Republican push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which failed in late July when three GOP senators  Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona  defected to vote against the measure.

"People power defeated that bill," Wyden said, referring to the intense pressure GOP senators faced from their constituents, both in-person at town hall meetings and by phone and email.

The Oregon senator said it's time to look forward to amendments to the law, colloquially known as Obamacare. One of the major drivers of healthcare costs, Wyden said, is that Medicare can't bargain directly with pharmaceutical companies to lower the costs of medication.

"It defies common sense," he said.

As has become custom since the inauguration, Wyden pivoted toward the FBI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election as the town hall neared its end.

He talked about Donald Trump, Jr.'s admission of accepting a meeting with Russian businesspeople who claimed they were offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. In an email exchange to set up the meeting  tweeted out Trump Jr. ahead of a New York Times story on the conversation  the president's son replied to the offer with, "If it's what you say, I love it."

"That was an attempt to collude," Wyden said. "And I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

The senator also addressed a statement made by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and adviser. Wyden noted the wording of the statement Kushner's insistence that his business interests didn't rely on ties with Russia rather than an outright denial.

"Whoever did that lawyering made enough to put a couple of kids through school," Wyden said.

After the town hall meeting wrapped up, the senator took questions from local media. Asked about Sen. Cory Booker's recent push to legalize recreational marijuana at the federal level, Wyden said his Democratic colleague from New Jersey's proposal "is clearly a step in the right direction."

But there are already steps the federal government can take to ease the burden on dispensaries in states such as Oregon, Washington and Colorado, Wyden said.

For starters, marijuana-related businesses could receive the same tax write-offs as other establishments. The federal government could also lift restrictions barring debit and credit card transactions on dispensaries.

"Why in the world would we want to sit around and invite all of these law enforcement problems with people having to carry all this money around in wheelbarrows?" Wyden said.

You can watch the full town hall meeting below:

Were at Wilson High School, where Senator Ron Wyden is hosting the first of eight town hall meetings. Posted by The Oregonian on Saturday, August 5, 2017

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com
A federal jury Friday awarded $793,375 in damages to the owners of a Tillamook County dairy farm, ruling their insurance company breached their contract by failing to cover losses for stolen cattle, missing equipment and property damage caused by former tenants.

The seven-member jury deliberated less than two hours after hearing four days of testimony in U.S. District Court in Portland.

"The message is insurance companies need to treat their clients fairly,'' said attorney Frank V. Langfitt, who represented Robert and Janet Chatelain, owners of the Dairy Farm in Cloverdale. "They can't just stick their heads in the sand and not be straight with their clients.''

In December 2009, the Chatelains were approaching retirement, and they leased with an option to own the Dairy Farm in Cloverdale to Martin and Jeanette Braun, who moved from California. At the time, the farm had about 230 milking cows, 166 heifers, two bulls and a shop full of tools needed to run the operation.

Nearly four years later, the Brauns violated their lease, and the Chatelains notified them of their eviction. The Chatelains, then living in Arizona, moved back to the farm in December 2013.

When the owners moved back, the owners discovered 113 milking cows and 100 heifers missing. They also found property damage to the farmhouse, including a wall torn down between the kitchen and the living room, wires exposed and ruined carpets.

Country Mutual Insurance had issued several farm policies covering the Dairy Farm, including an AgriPlus insurance policy that provided liability and property damage to the farm. The Chatelains accused the insurer of failing to fully investigate their allegations of theft, vandalism and property damage before denying their claim in a Jan. 30, 2015, letter.

Country Mutual's lawyers countered that the company denied one theft claim submitted by the Chatelains because there was no evidence the cows had been stolen. It was up to the Chatelains, not the insurance company, to file separate claims for property damage or vandalism and they never did, argued company lawyer Daniel E. Thenell.

Janet Chatelain testified that she and her husband already had submitted to the insurance company an itemized list of all their losses, identifying damage to the farmhouse and lost farm equipment, in addition to the stolen cows.

"I told him we had turned in everything,'' she told jurors. "We didn't have anything else to claim.''

"Did you ever give consent to transfer cows or equipment from your family to the Brauns?' her lawyer asked.

"Absolutely not,'' Janet Chatelain said.

Langfitt argued that the insurance company's denial letter of a single theft claim "was incomprehensible'' and pointed out inconsistencies in statements obtained from the Brauns as to what happened to the cattle.

The Chatelains believed the Brauns caused damage to the farm as "angry and vindictive'' tenants upon eviction, and the owners reported the theft of cows and damage to the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office. They also filed a lawsuit against the Brauns, alleging about $1 million in damage. They recovered some cows and equipment, but within a few months the Brauns filed for bankruptcy protection.

Braun initially told the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office that he owned the cattle, and in a deposition later said he never stole them.

"How do you know when any specific cow left the farm?'' the insurance company's lawyer, Thenell, asked Janet Chatelain.

She said the lease called for the herd not to go below 230 milking cows or 166 heifers, and there were less cattle when they returned to the farm. "The herd is rolling,'' Janet Chatelain said on the witness said. " I don't think you understand a dairy herd.''

The Chatelains sought damages for the stolen cattle, equipment and damage to their property, and the jury awarded everything they sought.

"That farmhouse was the pride and joy of Mrs. Chatelain,'' Langfitt told jurors. "About half the dairy herd -- the livelihood of the Chatelains -- was gone. ... When the cows are gone, the milk is gone and the income is gone.''

The jury found Country Mutual breached their contract with the Chatelains and also breached their "contractual duties of good faith and fair dealing.''

The jurors awarded $303,400 for the value of the stolen cattle, $400,00 for the loss of milk production from those cattle, $56,871 for stolen property, $26,570 for vandalism to the farm, and $6,534 for damage to structures on the farm.

Thenell, representing Country Mutual, declined to comment about the verdict.

The Chatelains hugged after the judge announced the jury's verdict and dismissed the jurors. Both said they were relieved.

"Feels good that the jury believed us,'' Robert Chatelain said.

Their lawyer, Langfitt, added, "It's a case where good people won.''

As their lawyers packed up their boxes of paperwork, the Chatelains walked out of the courtroom, and said they were headed back to work on their farm.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
The NIA has intercepted three youth- two from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and one from Alappuzha in Kerala - who were closely in touch with the ISIS module and the 23-member group who left for Afghanistan mid 2016.

By Shashank Shekhar: Investigation Agencies are grilling three techies who allegedly had links with Islamic State on social media and were radicalised through speeches of Salafi preachers Zakir Naik and Anwar Al-Awlaki.

NIA investigation has revealed that several people in south India have links to module following ISIS ideology using online media hinting that ISIS module busted from Kanakamala in Kerala's Kannur district in 2016 was still active.

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In the latest development, the NIA has intercepted three youth- two from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and one from Alappuzha in Kerala - who were closely in touch with the ISIS module and the 23-member group who left for Afghanistan mid 2016.

Those grilled includes an employee of a computer shop, another suspect runs an internet cafe and youngest member has completed MCA and is currently unemployed. Other link officials claim that suspects are also part of the group formed by Shajeer Manglassery alias Abu Ayisha an absconder in the Kanakamala case who was reportedly killed in Afghanistan.

"They were members of WhatsApp and Telegram groups through which Shajeer coordinated activities. However, they operated online using fake names and continue with ISIS activities even after the bust in October last year," a senior NIA official told Mail Today.

NIA has already filed a chargesheet against six persons besides Shajeer Mangalassery, who, while being outside India had hatched the criminal conspiracy and formed the terrorist gang to further the objectives of ISIS/Daesh in India.

Shajeer Mangalassery had migrated to ISIS/Daesh controlled territory in Afghanistan from the UAE in June 2016. NIA in its raid carried out the residences of these people on Friday recovered around 80 compact discs, three mobile phones, and laptops.

The majority of CDs were of recordings of the speeches made by controversial religious leader Zakir Naik. These persons were following the ISIS ideology for more than one year and were radicalised by speeches of Zakir Naik and Anwar Al-Awlaki.

During the searches, NIA officials seized several mobile phones, laptops, hard disks, pendrives, DVDs, CDs, memory cards, and SIM cards besides documents, including books and manuscripts.

The agency has sent the electronic devices for cyber forensic examination to ascertain their role in the case before recording their arrest. The Umar Al Hindi module was busted by the NIA on October 2, 2016, when six persons, including Three techies quizzed for their links with ISIS module leader Manseed, aka Omar Al Hindi aka Muthuka, 30, of Kannur, were holding a secret meeting at Kanakamala.

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Of the six persons arrested, Abu Basheer aka Rashid aka Buccha aka Dalpati aka Ameer, 29, belonged to South Ukkadam in Coimbatore. He is the third accused in the case. The NIA searched his house following his arrest.

The module had allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit terrorist activities in Kerala by targeting at least five prominent persons. For some time now, Kerala's presence on the ISIS radar has baffled investigating agencies given its social indices of high literacy, welfare programmes, political awareness and remittance economy.

Largest number of youth have joined ISIS from Kerala as compared to other states of the country. Most of these sympathisers are connected to their handlers and Jihadis through encrypted chats or social media platforms. In past couple of years security agencies have managed to track and crackdown on increasing presence of terror outfit in South India but it's treat is still looking in the country.

ALSO READ

How ISIS lures youth with women, meat, chocolates to recruit in Kerala. An India Today exclusive

At least 2 of 20 ISIS Kerala recruits feared dead in Afghanistan MOAB attack

--- ENDS ---

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Portland police arrested a man they say turned on exterior water faucets at multiple homes in Southeast Portland, causing thousands of dollars in damage since July.

Police responded Friday to a report of a naked man turning on a water faucet on a home in the 1500 block of Southeast Holly Street on Friday, police spokesman Sgt. Chris Burley said.

Shortly after, police arrested Moyhijah Widger-Chongo, 30.

Police believe that Widger-Chongo turned on water faucets outside 40 homes in the Ladd's Addition neighborhood since the beginning of July. The running water flooded the basements of several homes, Burley said. Police believe Widger-Chongo caused nearly $50,000 of damage to the homes.

Widger-Chongo was also linked to a burglary in May, Burley said. He is also facing charges of criminal trespass, criminal mischief, indecent exposure and littering from May and June, court records show.

Widger-Chongo was booked into the Multnomah County jail on 14 felony and misdemeanor crimes, Burley said.

Officers requested a mental health evaluation for Widger-Chongo.

Police believe there may be additional victims. They ask anyone with information Officer Shaun Sahli at 503-823-0076 or Shaun.Sahli@portlandoregon.gov.

 Samantha Matsumoto

503-294-4001; @SMatsumoto55
Former deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday came down heavily on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and slammed him for worsening education system in the state.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's younger son and former deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday came down heavily on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and slammed him for worsening education system in the state.

"In the last 10 to 12 years if there is one person who is responsible for falling standards of education in the state it is only Nitish Kumar," Tejashwi wrote in his Facebook post.

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The former deputy chief minister's angst against the chief minister came after Bihar govt announced on Friday that government teachers who have crossed the age of 50 and are inefficient will be asked to retire forcefully. Tejashwi declared that he will be hitting the street soon in support of the teachers.

However, no sooner did Tejashwi question the education system and Nitish Kumar's policy that JD-U came out all guns blazing mocking him for his own education. JD-U spokesperson, Ajay Alok took the initiative to counter Tejashwi Yadav through his tweets.

This is what Ajay Alok tweeted regarding Tejashwi Yadav and him questioning Nitish Kumar policy on education:

"Tejaswi and question? That too on education policy? Despite staying in peon's quarter, a person (read Lalu Prasad) secured a Masters degree and LLB degree but a person (read Tejaswi) living in CM and Railway Minister's house fails to pass Class 9 but questions state's education system," tweeted Ajay Alok, JD-U spokesperson.

ALSO READ:

Tejashwi Yadav's Janadesh Apmaan Yatra to expose ex-boss Nitish Kumar

Trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me, says Lalu Prasad

--- ENDS ---
Party workers are set to visit households countrywide and urge them to hoist the national flag for 15 days from August 16 onwards.

By Rakesh Ranjan: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will unfurl a countrywide mega show of nationalism for over a fortnight immediately after Independence Day, with a Tiranga Yatra that will see its leaders trying to reach out to every household.

Led by party MPs in every parliamentary constituency and chanting Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai, BJP leaders and workers will hoist the tricolour at every home.

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TIRANGA YATRA TO BE A REGULAR EVENT

Though the Tiranga Yatra was conceived in 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for seven days, he has asked BJP members to celebrate the occasion for 15 days this time, from August 16-31. He has also told party workers to make it a regular event every year.

"PM Modi wants Tiranga Yatra to be a regular feature of the Independence Day celebrations in India. All BJP MPs, MLAs and other prominent leaders will take out the yatra in their areas and appeal to citizens to hoist the national flag for 15 days," said Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari, who will be leading the march in his parliamentary constituency of North East Delhi on a bike.

The party's programme comes amid growing instances of avowed nationalists challenging citizens to prove their loyalty to India by shouting the right slogan or showing respect to national symbols.

NATIONAL FLAG TO INSTILL PATRIOTISM

The BJP cadre has been specifically told not to use four-wheelers while on the quest. They will have to ride two-wheelers. "The idea behind the Tiranga Yatra is to remind the countrymen of our martyrs and their supreme sacrifices. The national flag is a symbol which could instill the feeling of nationalism among the countrymen and have that unifying effect on the masses," Tiwari said.

Last year, PM Modi had flagged off the Tiranga Yatra from Bhabra village in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh, which is the birthplace of freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azad.

The BJP leaders will also put up posters and photographs of martyrs in parks, markets and other public places in their areas. However, strict instructions have been given to participants to follow the flag code so that the tricolour is not disrespected during the yatra.

They have been told to take down the tricolour at unset or ensure that the flag is well-lit after dusk. While carrying the flag on two-wheelers, it has to be perched atop an eight-foot long bamboo stick.

"Across the nation, the BJP leaders would pay homage to the sung and unsung freedom fighters and in the process connect with the people of the region. We also want every Indian to celebrate Independence Day with full pride and enthusiasm as it is the feeling of nationalism which unites 125 crore Indians," said Poonam Mahajan, president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, which is also reaching out to the war veterans to instill a sense of nationalism among the young generation.

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70 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

In another event to mark the 70 years of Independence, the war veterans would hand over national flags to BJP chiefs of all states and UTs in Delhi on August 9, and they will further camp in their states till August 15.

Mail Today had reported that the BJP state presidents will tell the countrymen about contributions of the armed forces, the wars the country has fought since Independence and the sacrifices made by the the Army.

The programme will be launched on the occasion on 75 years of Quit India Movement in the national Capital and will conclude on August 15, when the country celebrates 70 years of Independence.

According to the plan, 27 state BJP presidents will assemble in Delhi on August 9 where beneficiaries of OROP will hand over the flags to them. The tricolours will be carried by BJP workers through all the districts of the country.

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ALSO READ

War veterans to join BJP's nationalism drive, to be launched on Quit India movement's 75th anniversary

Karnataka flag row: BJP slams Siddaramaiah government as anti-national

--- ENDS ---
MSU Extension of Midland County and cooperating parent educators sponsor the Parent's Corner. Send submissions to Midland County MSU Extension Educator, Lisa Treiber, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland, MI 48640.

Incredible Insects Family Yoga

Chippewa Nature Center and Well-Bean are teaming up to provide a program that blends yoga, nature, education, cooperative games, breathing and relaxation. This fun and interactive program set for 2 to 3 p.m. Aug. 10 titled "Amazing Amphibians Family Yoga" is designed to bring families together to nurture relationships and an appreciation of the outdoors. Classes will be held outside adjacent to the CNC Visitor Center and will be moved indoor in case of rain. Bring a towel or yoga mat for each family member. This is a free program with limited space. Registration is necessary one day prior to each session. Visit www.chippewanaturecenter.org

Pickling, It Isn't Just for Cucumbers!

Make sure your pickling techniques are up to date. Learn how to successfully and safely prepare pickled foods using a water bath canner. There will be a demonstration using the fresh-pack method, as well as a discussion about fermentation and other pickling methods. This class, set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29, will provide handouts and resources to use at home. Michigan State University Extension - Midland County will host this event at the MSU Extension Learning Center, 220 W. Ellsworth St. (third floor County Services Building). Cost is $10 per participant. Scholarships are available for participants receiving WIC, SNAP and other forms of assistance. To register, e-mail treiber@anr.msu.edu Payment may be made the night of the session.

Summer Exploration Days - Insects

Add a special element to your visit to Chippewa Nature Center this summer by taking part in Summer Exploration Days. This indoor program includes a variety of self-guided, hands-on exploration stations. Families can participate in experiments, learn fun facts, do crafts and try a scavenger hunt. The topics and activities will change bi-weekly. The theme July 19 - 31 is insects; Aug. 2-14 is amphibians and Aug. 16-28 is reptiles. Email info@chippewanaturecenter.org to learn more.

Head Start Preschool Programs

NEMCSA Head Start is a free preschool program for qualifying families with children ages 3 to 4. Head Start also serves children with special needs and/or disabilities. Head Start is a member of the Midland County Regional Preschool Partnership. Complete a preschool interest form online at www.michiganpreschool.org NEMCSA Head Start offers full day and half-day preschool classrooms that run four days a week. Classroom locations in the Midland and Sanford areas include sites at Longview Early Childhood Center, First Baptist Church, Grace Bible Church and Sanford Early Childhood Center. Contact Katie Estelle at (989) 832-0968 or Kelly Scoles at (989) 832-7520 to schedule an application appointment.
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Children having their faces painted and getting balloon animals, music from faraway lands, free food and a chance to perform karaoke were among the sights and sounds at First Baptist Church's neighborhood block party.

Dozens of church members and neighbors gathered on the church lawn along Sugnet Road Wednesday evening despite the threat of rain. Children obtained "passports" for the event which had an "Around the World" theme, and collected stickers from the various booths.

Face painter Jennifer Caldwell was giving a little girl a Wonder Woman look, and a young boy anticipated his Captain America makeover.

Caldwell said she has done theater makeup for years, and does face painting "kind of as a hobby."

At a booth highlighting China and its culture, Joe Chai was playing the Chinese flute. He pointed out it was made of bamboo and had no keys.

The Ghana booth was overseen by Victor Atiemo-Obeng.

"I want to show people the continent with many countries," he said, pointing to a map of Africa. "I want to show the number of countries" on the vast continent.

He said his native Ghana is famous for drums, and not only did he display carvings of people drumming but had a drum which he encouraged booth visitors to play.

Church members wearing light teal T-shirts mingled with neighbors as they ate pulled pork barbecue, hot dogs, potato chips and watermelon. A "cake walk" course stood ready on the wet grass with the hope that contestants would vie for various treats including plates of cookies and rice crispy treats.

Pastor Lara Heise said the event, last held two years ago, is a way of offering something to the neighborhood with no strings attached.

"This year we definitely made it a priority. We love doing it," Heise said.

Church members in recent weeks went door-to-door in the surrounding area handing out invitations to the event.

Occasions such as the block party, a continental breakfast served on the first day of school and a "Halloween hallway" event are ways to help parishioners "take the next step" in reaching out and help First Baptist "be a church in our community, for our community," Heise said.

Linda Atiemo-Obeng, who coordinated the block party, said handing out invitations to the party was "uplifting."

"We are serving the neighborhood, it's wonderful," she said.

She described talking with a young mom who told her that her children use the church playground because it's closer than going to a city park.

Heise said the church, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches-USA, is developing a new mission and vision statement and is focusing on "What does the community need?" This focus includes not only neighbors living near the church at the corner of Sugnet and Washington, but also community organizations and schools.

First Baptist is adjacent to Plymouth Elementary School and down the street from Northeast Middle School.

The church houses a Head Start program and also offers a free afterschool program.

The pastor said the name "Baptist" sometimes takes some explaining to visitors, as there are many types of Baptists and many preconceived notions of what the term means.

"We tend to be too liberal for conservatives and too conservative for liberals," she said.

More information about First Baptist Church can be found at http://midlandfbc.com
The Dow Chemical Employees PAC has filed its July Quarterly Campaign Statement with the Michigan Secretary of State.

For the period of April 21 through July 20, DOWPAC reported total contributions of $11,250 and total expenditures of $10,250, leaving a balance on hand of $1202.58.

DOWPAC reported receiving $5,000 from David Kepler and Torsten Kraef while Dow Chemical Board Member Jeff Fettig, of the Whirlpool Corporation, gave $1,250.

The PAC contributed $2,250 to Elect Mike Shirkey State Senator and $2,000 to the Stamas Leadership PAC. It donated $1,000 to Moving Michigan Forward Fund, Committee to Elect Roger Hauck, Michigan Values Leadership Fund and the Gary Glenn for Representative campaign.

Receiving $500 were Lee Chatfield for State Representative, Ken Horn for Senate, Friends of Brian Elder and the Committee to Elect Peter MacGregor.

All of the elected officials are Republicans except for Democrat Brian Elder, who represents the City of Bay City and Eastern Bay County.

Chatfield represents Chippewa, Emmet and Mackinac counties and chairs the Michigan Competitiveness and the House Government Operations committees.

MacGregor, a state senator from Rockford, is vice chairman of the senate appropriations committee and a member of the Banking and Financial Services, Commerce, Economic Development and Regulatory Reform committees.

Shirkey is a state senator who represents Branch, Hillsdale and Jackson counties. He serves as chair of the Senate Health Policy and Michigan Competitiveness committees, and is a member of the Elections and Government Reform and Energy and Technology committees.
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It's been days since a fire displaced 175 residents from Greenhill Apartments, but the real recovery is just beginning.

The high rise apartment fire was reported on the eighth floor of the complex at 6:22 p.m. Monday, bringing the Midland Fire Department, Midland Police, MidMichigan Medical Center EMS, and more. Then came a scramble for local agencies to find places for the residents to stay and the question how long until their apartments are again inhabitable.

The cause of the fire was deemed unintentional, with fire investigators unable to rule out smoking materials or a candle, Fire Chief Chris Coughlin said.

The damage is extensive, Couglin said, explaining the fire was contained to one apartment but the entire complex sustained smoke and water damage. There are sprinklers in the building's hallways, which contributed to the damage.

In a media release, the fire department stated some areas of the building will be inhabitable within a few weeks, while others won't be for substantially longer.

In the meantime, a number of agencies have stepped up to ensure the residents are cared for.

Among them are The Arc of Midland, which has connections to about 30 residents, said executive director Jan Lampman.

"We are used to helping people through crisis," she said. "We just got into our rhythm," starting Monday night.

"Everybody that had Arc connections had a bed to sleep in Monday night," Lampman said, adding a few went to hotels. "So we were able to quickly mobilize."

"The folks that I serve were pretty quickly connected with their staff," she said. They were directed away from the fire scene, and the debilitating sight of their home burning.

One of the ladies who had a place to stay just needed a ride from the scene, so Lampman offered up her own car, which is a convertible.

"I asked her, 'Do you want to put the top down?" she said. "You have to kind of find something to move the next step forward."

After making sure their connections were cared for, Arc representatives remained at the fire scene, 1010 Eastlawn Drive, offering help to others. Among them was social worker Rebecca Lobodzinski, who directed residents to pharmacies that opened after hours in response to the fire, including Great Lakes Pharmacy, and the temporary shelter set up at Midland High, 1301 Eastlawn, by the American Red Cross East Central Bay Chapter.

"I think things have gone very well," said Tony Lasher, the chapter's executive director. The first night the shelter was open, 29 people stayed overnight; the second day, 26. The shelter closed Thursday, after the apartment management located hotels for those residents to stay for two weeks.

"The residents who stayed in the shelter overnight were very appreciative," Lasher said, adding Dial-A-Ride helped ferry them and their pets to their hotels on Wednesday afternoon. "The apartment complex did a great job finding a couple hotels that took pets. ... We got a lot of hugs from people who left yesterday"

Also at the shelter were staff from the Region 7 Area Agency on Aging, the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and Midland Senior Services, for long term planning, replenishment of food and more. The Red Cross shelter was staffed by 33 trained volunteers.

Lampman said the morning after the fire, Arc staff began brainstorming where their clients would be able to stay while repairs are made at Greenhill.

"We're trying to get them some normalcy as fast as we can," she said, adding her meetings during the week included the Midland County guardian.

Lampman also said that when the time comes to move back in, the Arc has donated furniture, bedding and clothing. Of course, the Arc helps manage money for some, and has been careful to budget for renters insurance for those people as well.

Both Lampman and Lasher pointed out local agencies are dealing with the fire aftermath at the same time they are handling flood recovery. Lasher called Midland's nonprofits and funding agencies phenomenal.

"They have taken on really two disasters," he said. "This community has responded well."

Among the resources that have been tapped is a long-term flood recovery group, a collaboration of the faith-based community, local agencies and more, Lasher said.

"I do believe our community will come together," Lampman said.

Lasher said Red Cross caseworkers will continue working with Greenhill residents.

"We'll maintain contact for the next couple weeks," he said. "It doesn't just end today."

Lampman said the United Way has set up a fund for donations to assist the victims of the fire, and the Arc is set up to take donations of household items and other goods.
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By PTI: detectives

Lucknow, Aug 4 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has received some intelligence input that secret information related to the Indian Army was allegedly being handed over to detectives from the SDM Sadar office in Jhansi, an official said today.

"A probe has been initiated in this connection," IG ATS Aseem Arun said.

Some personnel posted in the office were being interrogated and some documents have been taken into possession along with computers and pen drives. Further action would be taken based on the evidence, he said.

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So far no arrest has been made, he said, adding that a team led by ATS sub-inspector K M Rai was investigating the matter. PTI SAB IKA

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CHENOA  Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue will host a roundtable discussion on fertilizer and other agriculture issues of Illinois farmers Monday afternoon in Chenoa.

Perdue is on a five-state RV tour to gather input on the 2018 Farm Bill and increasing rural prosperity. He plans to meet with farmers, ranchers, foresters, producers, students, governors, members of Congress, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees and other stakeholders.

He is expected to be at the Evergreen FS plant, 315 W. Scott St., at 3 p.m.

The Back to our Roots Farm Bill and rural prosperity RV listening tour will allow us to hear directly from people in agriculture across the country, as well as our consumers, Perdue said in a statement. They are the ones on the front lines of American agriculture and they know best what the current issues are.

This is the first of two RV tours the secretary will undertake this summer. It will feature stops in five states, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

The USDA will be intimately involved as Congress deliberates and formulates the 2018 Farm Bill," he said. "We are committed to making the resources and the research available so that Congress can make good facts-based, data-driven decisions.

"Its important to look at past practices to see what has worked and what has not worked, so that we create a farm bill for the future that will be embraced by American agriculture in 2018.

He also has stops planned in Rochester and Georgetown in Illinois.
BLOOMINGTON  Romo was there to mop up the competition. However, the Force was with Jedi. And a kiss turned a frog into a prince.

It was all part of the costume competition for dogs and their owners at the McLean County Fair on Friday afternoon at the Interstate Center, Bloomington.

Like dog care, conformation, obedience and showmanship, the costume category is a competition, but to the participants, it's more than that. It's a chance to express themselves and have a little fun.

You can basically be yourself, said Kara Froidcoeur, 17, of Hudson, who added a little bling and a tiara to her homecoming dress to become a princess. She is a member of the Mighty Mutts 4-H and Hudson Ag 4-H clubs.

Her dog, Raiden, was dressed as a frog  until she kissed him and turned his costume around to reveal a prince. They were champions in the 13 and older category.

Coming from a family of Star Wars fans with pets named after its characters, Jedi the 120-pound Labradoodle was destined to be a character from a galaxy far, far away.

Ten-year-old Adelyne McNamara of Bridle Path 4-H in Downs dressed as Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, said she had fun making the costume that transformed Jedi into a bantha from the original Star Wars: A New Hope. He even had one of the Sand People riding on the back.

They were named champions in the 8- to 10-year-old class.

But Romo was a close second as reserve champion in that class, comfortably riding in a mop bucket with Hannah Johnson of Wild Oats 4-H in LeRoy dressed as a maid.

Hannah, who is 11 but is classified as 10 in 4-H, explained that before a recent haircut, Romo  a Havanese  looked like a mop and acted like one, too. Things stuck to his fur, especially when he walked through the horse barn, she said.

We would just keep calling him 'Mop' because he kept picking up stuff, she said. So they decided to have him be a mop in the competition.

Marshall Watson, director of the dog department, said the costume category requires creativity and planning.

They have to think about it and ask, 'Is this costume going to stay on the animal,' he said.

Indeed, there were a few wardrobe malfunctions, but overall, costumes and dogs stayed put.

Super Girl and Super Dog didn't fly away and neither did the Queen Bee and her little bee with four legs. Although the Queen did try to sting a judge, neither of the two participants dressed as police tried to arrest her.

Watson said while it might be difficult for some families to have a horse, steer or hog, most can have a pet dog and learn responsibility and training.

It's something a lot of kids can do. You can be city kids or country kids, said Watson. Dogs are dogs and kids are kids.

Erika Nergard, 15, of Mackinaw, a member of Hearts and Hoofbeats 4-H, said a key to working with dogs is to build that bond and get them to trust you.

Thirty-six 4-Hers competed in 16 classes in the afternoon dog competition. Despite having dogs ranging from a Saint Bernard to a dachshund in close quarters in the Cloverleaf Auditorium, there was minimal barking and few conflicts.

The cooler temperatures are one of the things that helped us today, said Watson.

Casey Engelhorn, 19, of Normal took home champion ribbons and best of show in several categories in her last 4-H competition. Last year, she fulfilled a dream to show her dog, Rotten Robert, at the Westminster Kennel Club in New York City. She intends to keep showing dogs, but will miss 4-H.

This is where I started, she said. When I first started 4-H, I couldn't even place in a class  and now I got to go to Westminster because of 4-H.
BLOOMINGTON  Motorists in McLean and DeWitt counties will no longer receive handwritten citations when pulled over by Illinois State Police troopers for a moving violation.

Instead, e-citations, or computer-generated tickets, will be issued, said Master Sgt. Mike Link.

The look and feel of the citation is mostly the same, he said. The only difference is that it prints on 8-by-11 inch paper and it is typed instead of handwritten.

The change went into effect this week, Link said. The e-citation program is now active in 40 Illinois counties. The rest of the state will follow in the coming months, Link said.

The e-citation program was piloted in Sangamon and Madison counties, starting June 1.

Instead of a pad of paper citations, the trooper uses a handheld device such as a tablet or other mobile device. Scanning the barcode on the violators license automatically fills in the fields on the e-citation form, eliminating errors in transcription or caused by illegibility. The trooper enters the location of the violation and chooses from a drop-down list of traffic violations and corresponding codes.

The violation information is then transmitted to the state database and local courthouse. If the device or printer malfunctions, the trooper can still write a handwritten citation.

ISP said there are several advantages to the new system. It's faster, so the officer and motorist spend less time on the side of the road. Also, fewer citations are dismissed for transcription errors, illegible handwriting or other mistakes.

As part of the rollout, ISP is reminding motorists to write out their emergency contact information and place it inside the glove box, paper-clipped to their insurance card and vehicle registration.

It makes it very helpful when first responders arrive at a crash, especially if you have been transported by ambulance or are unable to answer questions, Link said. Your phone, purse, or wallet may be thrown around/destroyed and if you have your information inside your glove box, it will be the first place we check.
Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu today won the vice-presidential election. As vice president, Naidu, a former union minister, will hold the crucial post of the Rajya Sabha chairman.

By India Today Web Desk: Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Venakaiah Naidu today became Vice-President-elect. The former union minister's win in the vice-presidential polls was expected with the BJP's strong numbers reducing the contest between Naidu and Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the Opposition's candidate, to a dead rubber. Naidu pipped Gandhi, winning 516 votes in the election as opposed to the Opposition candidate's 244 votes.

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Soon after the news of his winning the election broke, Naidu expressed gratitude to the Members of Parliament who voted for him, and vowed to uphold the constitution. "With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines. I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors," Vice President-elect Naidu said in a series of tweets.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick to send a congratulatory message, posting on Twitter, "My mind is filled with memories of working with @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu, in the Party & Government. Will cherish this aspect of our association. I am confident @MVenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the the goal of nation building."

Meanwhile, the Opposition candidate Gopkalkrishna Gandhi said that he was satisfied with his performance. "Was expecting handsome performance by united vote of opposition parties and I'm more than satisfied," Gandhi said, thanking those who had voted for him.

#WATCH: #VicePresident elect #VenkaiahNaidu with his wife Usha at their residence in Delhi after winning the elections. pic.twitter.com/fSeqAuW0uw- ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

(Vice President-elect Venkaiah Naidu celebrates win with wife, Usha. Video: Twitter/@ANI_news)

The Congress too extended its best wishes to Naidu saying in a statement, "Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, has extended best wishes to the Vice President elect, Venkaiah Naidu."

The party's statement went on essentially urge Naidu to assume a "non-partisan role" when he becomes the Rajya Sabha chairman. "The position of the Vice President of India has the crucial challenge of assuming a non-partisan role in running 'The House of Elders', which acts as a store house of wisdom and sage advice for the government. House of Elders is an important determinant of our democratic functioning to address appropriate checks and balances," Sonia Gandhi said.

14 MPs DID NOT VOTE

Voting in the vice-presidential poll was held today, with 771 of the 785 eligible Members of Parliament casting their votes. 14 MPs (2 from BJP, 2 from INC, 2 from IUML, 4 from TMC, 1 from NCP; 1 from PMK and 2 Independents) were absent during voting.

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As vice president, the 68-year-old Naidu, who was previously a senior minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, becomes the de facto chairman of Rajya Sabha. He will take charge as Rajya Sabha chairman at 11 am on August 11 after being sworn-in as vice president at 10 am on the same day.

Naidu's overseeing of Rajya Sabha sessions will work to provide the government with a boost in the upper house, where the National Democratic Alliance does not yet have a majority.

Naidu's election to the V-P's office, also means all of the constitutional posts in India (except the non-partisan Chief Justice of India) are now controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party - the President of India (Ram Nath Kovind), Vice President of India (Venkaiah Naidu), Prime Minister of India (Narendra Modi) and Speaker of Lok Sabha (Sumitra Mahajan).

Born to a farmer's family in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, Naidu is a dyed-in-the-wool BJP worker who has been in active politics (including student politics) for over four decades. He was imprisoned during the Emergency between 1975 and 1977 and after coming out of jail, he became the Janata Party Youth Wing president of Andhra Pradesh.

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The year 1978 marked his entry into public office after he was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. Rising through the ranks, Naidu went on to become the BJP national president in July, 2002. However, he held the post briefly, stepped down in December the same year. Two years later, he again became the BJP chief.

Naidu is extremely familiar with the upper house of Parliament that he will now be chairing. He was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1998 and won subsequent re-elections in 2004, 20110 and 2016. His time in Parliament has saw him chairing and being a member of several important committees.

ALSO READ | From a farmer's son to NDA's vice-president candidate: All you need to know about Venkaiah Naidu

ALSO READ | Venkaiah Naidu loves coining acronyms, beats competition with one on APJ Abdul Kalam

ALSO WATCH | When India Today asked Venkaiah Naidu on vice-presidential aspirations: I'm Ushapati, husband of Usha

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The July 30 Pantagraph noted that Mayors Renner and Koos are nurturing relationships this week. The global relationship development will occur during a trip to Asahikawa, Japan to celebrate the 55th anniversary of a Sister Cities Program between Asahikawa, Bloomington and Normal.

Being a supporter of collaboration, I am delighted that our Twin City leaders are spending high-quality time with one another. (Assume they are traveling on the same flight seated in the same row.) This provides a unique opportunity for significant value creation during the lengthy flights if the mayors explore a plan for revitalizing collaboration between Bloomington and Normal.

Those monitoring local government relationships know that B-N collaboration has been suffering from anguish since early 2016. During recent conversations, with both Mayor Renner and Mayor Koos, they confirmed that regular communication continues to occur between them.

Several months back a current and former council member from the town and city drafted a nine point Principles of Partnerships as a foundation for improved local collaboration. The last word has been the full councils have yet to engage in a discussion of the merits of their peers work.

The hugely successful BN Beyond event hosted earlier this year provided clear confirmation that both local businesses, the education community and citizens want local governments to be active collaborators. It's a path for capturing improved efficiency in government.

So, join me, in asking both mayors on their return from Japan, if they explored during their Sister City mission travels, how effective collaboration might be expanded locally.

Glen Ludwig, Bloomington
Nightclubs, like New York City itself, were once a place for everyone - a weird and wild variety show of cross cultural exchanges and experiments in the art of being a human, all on a very crowded stage. If you look at the history of getting down on the dancefloor, even before the disco era of the 1970s, you will see that it was largely driven by the gay and black community and was that perfect no man's land where everything was forgiven. A safe zone where the ambassadors of all the tribes could come together, commune, celebrate themselves and set aside their differences. Important dialogues took place, guards came down, and hearts opened.



People used to come to the nightclubs for the culture but, somewhere along the line, clubs became places of exclusivity and inequality strongly in favor of the wealthy. Money replaced creativity as the main qualifier of who and what was considered "cool."

So what happened?

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's 90s-era quality of life initiatives made the city safer, but they also ushered in a crackdown on the dirty sweaty fun that good dance floors are made of. Gentrification brought soaring real estate prices, and the death of legendary anything-goes clubs like Nicky Siano's The Gallery, and Limelight. The Noah Tepperbergs of the city took over opening clubs in Manhattan with their quick and financially efficient bottle service model that sidestepped the archaic cabaret law. Money was now the qualifier that got you inside.

From 2007 to 2015, we worked in these nightclubs as professional "sexy stilt-walkers." We wiggled our glitter-covered bodies around tables and dance floors at Kiss and Fly, Marquee, Avenue, 1 Oak, Lavo, Soho House, and Provocateur. When we started, the table game was strong. We were told when the sparklers flared up and the bottle parades started, we were to go dance around the destination table and celebrate their splurge. The first time we saw a bottle service menu we were shocked by the sticker prices. At the $300 a night we were earning on stilts, we would have to work a whole month for one bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

At the same time, we were also performing and partying at underground warehouse parties in Brooklyn. The infamous Danger parties, where we spent our formative years, were a perfect cacophony of DJs, brass bands, art installations and of course, circus. They were 100% illegal, 200% participatory and 1,000% the most fun you could possibly have. In 2007, we somehow managed to open our own weird venue, which was more a performance-fueled, communal-living, illegal loft than an official club. Over the course of ten years, we are now at our first legal incarnation, House of Yes 3.0 in Bushwick.



Like the disco glory days, at House of Yes we strive to create a space where everyone can party without following male-to-female dance protocol or exclusive club policies. By bringing people together from all walks of life and backgrounds, we create a safe haven for queer and minority partygoers to dance in peace and celebrate who they are instead of being scrutinized. We encourage people to explore sexuality while still enforcing and teaching the concept of consent (we have a zero tolerance policy for behavior like surprise spankings or "pussy grabbing"). What we've built is a liberated party scene with a political bent: to exclude minorities is to alienate yourself from all new culture.

We've been open in our current location for over a year which has been the biggest learning experience of our lives. The most important lesson being, if you want diversity on your dancefloor, create diversity in your bookings, talent, and staff. Hire DJs and live entertainers of all colors, genders, and sizes, and really consider the impact of the images you select to use for promo and social media. We're products of a collaborative community which means dialogue and criticism are huge parts of how we operate. We are new, we still have a lot to learn and having patrons willing to teach us when we mess up is invaluable.

And, yes, inclusivity means making parties financially feasible for our guests. When we fell in love with NYC nightlife we were young and broke; endless creativity and effort was our ticket to getting in. At House of Yes, if you're young and broke, but want -- no need -- to dance your ass off, most of the time we offer a "free before 11pm with costume" entry tier. We pay our artists as much as we can afford and give them resources to expand their skills and careers. Before being club owners we were (and are still!) performers. We do sometimes have expensive events, especially when we have a world-class DJ or a lavish dinner party. And we do offer table service (with drag queen bottle models), but every patron, table or no table, is expected to have a good time, embrace the fun vibes and wear a costume, and not act entitled.

Participation over observation is crucial. We find that costumes can be a great equalizer for nightlife where we collectively go to escape our everyday identities. If we are all playing with pageantry, then there is no "us" and "them." We become a unified, sparkling mass of expression and existence beyond our jobs and status in the outside world. Of course this is tricky, as not everyone is down to dress up, and some people didn't get the memo. That's why for our Friday and Saturday events where effort and costumes are mandatory, we have an affordable pop-up costume boutique right outside the club so everyone who arrives at our door can join in the fun.

The denizens -- particularly the young, diverse and queer -- of New York's nightlife are again starting to look for something different, a new renaissance that encourages inclusion and participation.

All photos courtesy House of Yes


For anyone willing to acknowledge that racism is a very real, very prevalent problem in America, it shouldn't come as a shock that, as a community, Black people have to approach their day-to-day lives much differently (and much more cautiously) than some of their white-skinned peers. As is clearly evidenced by the continuous murders of Black men and women at the hands of the police, sometimes it can be dangerous just to be Black. Given that this is the case, it's also not surprising that parents of Black children feel a certain added responsibility to educate their children about the cruelties of the world.

For their new commercial, Procter & Gamble (the manufacturer behind countless recognizable brands like Always, Pantene, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, Gillette, and Head & Shoulders) spotlighted six Black mothers having "The Talk" with their Black children. In one scenario, a mother has to tell her daughter that being told she's pretty "for a Black girl" is "not a compliment." Another mother explains the history of the n-word to her son but insists that he is "not gonna let that word hurt you." Elsewhere, one mother assures her daughter that she can do anything her white peers at Galaxy Camp can but warns her that she has to "work twice as hard and be twice as smart." And, in what is perhaps the most salient of the discussed issues, a mom tries to make sure her daughter knows the dangers of getting pulled over by police officers when you're driving while Black. "This is not about you getting a ticket," she says sternly. "This is about you not coming home."

The commercial is part of "My Black Is Beautiful," a larger initiative by the company that was created a decade ago by the Black women employees of the P&G family. It aims to tell more stories about Black beauty. And, as if the commercial wasn't powerful enough as a standalone advertisement, P&G is doing their part to extend the conversation past the video's brief two minutes by encouraging viewers to have similar discussions on social media with the hashtag #TalkAboutBias.

Cry to the whole thing below.

Splash photo via YouTube
'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli is perhaps best known for unnecessarily raising prices 5,000 percent for a life-saving drug for HIV patients. He's also known for harassing female journalists, bragging about his business prowess, holding the Wu-Tang Clan's album hostage and his overall "evil" demeanor.

Martin Shkreli's reaction when his lawyer says he is a "brilliant young man but sometimes people skills don't translate well" pic.twitter.com/vUCvL8un73

 Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) August 4, 2017

Following a trial in which over 250 potential jurors were dismissed for actively hating Shkreli, the "most hated man in America" was convicted by a federal jury on three accounts of securities fraud. He was acquitted of five criminal counts related to duping hedge fund investors and the drug company he founded. Currently free on $5 million bail, Shkreli faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, though he will surely receive far less. Shkreli managed to spin his conviction into something positive, saying outside of the courthouse, "I think we are delighted in many ways. This was a witch hunt of epic proportions and maybe they found one or two broomsticks but at the end of the day we've been acquitted of the most important charges in this case."

He also took to his new Twitter account to post a similar statement and started a YouTube livestream from his apartment.

Martin Shkreli weighing in on his mixed verdict today, shortly after a jury convicted him on just 3 of 5 counts #Shkrelitrial #Shkreliwin pic.twitter.com/uJAaSLf5CI

 Emily Saul (@EmilySaul1) August 4, 2017

The rest of Twitter, however, was mostly busy celebrating what US Attorney Bridget Rohde, whose office prosecuted Shkreli, called "justice served."

Martin Shkreli at prison commissary:

"Can I buy shower sandals?"

"That'll be $700"

"I thought it was $13.50"

"The price suddenly went up"

 Benjamin Siemon (@BenjaminJS) August 4, 2017

Judge orders Martin Shkreli's owner to shatter cursed amulet, turning Shkreli back into a puppet

 Pixelated Boat (@pixelatedboat) August 4, 2017

Martin Shkreli needs a dose of prison time to wipe that smirk off his face. If they could arrange to make him broke, that would be better.

 Steve Redmond (@sjredmond) August 4, 2017

Martin Shkreli going to jail, QB's getting hurt so owners gonna have to call Kaepernick, Mueller assembled a Grand Jury. pic.twitter.com/LiEBTPLbE2

 Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) August 4, 2017

Martin Shkreli's unbridled greed finally caught up with him today. https://t.co/rqCnzgBQyo

 Robert Reich (@RBReich) August 5, 2017

Sitcom pitch: Martin Shkreli and Stephen Miller in a prison cell together

 Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 4, 2017

Worrisome new crime wave - people are breaking the law to get themselves arrested so they can beat the shit out of Martin Shkreli in prison.

 Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) August 5, 2017

*~*And in the end, the only person Martin Shkreli wound up fucking was himself.*~*https://t.co/ALgTUP9alP

 Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) August 4, 2017

It's good to see the country come together in agreement that we all want Martin Shkreli to go to jail

 Lane Sorkin (@lasork) August 4, 2017

Even the court illustrator knew what was up:

Every sketch of Martin Shkreli looks like it's from The Trial of Rumpelstiltskin pic.twitter.com/I0CmmW8nES

 New Donk Casey (@CaseyMalone) August 4, 2017

Karma is a cold you-know-what.

Image via Getty


Caitlyn Jenner is a controversial representative of the transgender community, with many of its members saying she doesn't represent them at all. Declaring her support for then-presidential candidate Trump didn't help Jenner's case in this area; though some chocked it up to Jenner being a lifelong Republican who was simply sticking by her party, others questioned how a trans person could support a candidate with seemingly little to no regard for the LGBTQ population.

Jenner's devotion to her community was really tested when Trump tweeted last week that transgender people would no longer be welcome in the military. At first it seemed like Jenner was down for the cause, posting to Twitter, Instagram and her personal website that she did not support Trump's views or the ban:

This AM, @POTUS attacked trans people fighting for our country. Every American should be outraged. My full response: https://t.co/ALJwnvFwQg

 Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017









So far, so good, right? Old habits die hard, though, and yesterday Jenner was spotted cruising around in her good ol' bright red 'Make America Great Again' hat.

Caitlyn Jenner wearing a Make America Great Hat after the transgender ban. Unreal. https://t.co/JFFoL4cQuR

 Anthony Dominic (@tmzanthony) August 4, 2017

This confusing move angered tons of people who took to Twitter to share their disappointment with Jenner:

happy friday here's a reminder caitlyn jenner is slime. https://t.co/Gqk2bW3WPw

 Emma Sarran Webster (@emmawebsta) August 4, 2017

How could the Trans comm have thought Caitlyn Jenner would represent them, when she is the only Trans person alive with no sense of humor?

 Allison Burnett (@Allison_Burnett) August 4, 2017

.@Caitlyn_Jenner is not a trans advocate! She's a self-hating privileged ignorant ass!!! https://t.co/zt9gQRxz1r

 Perez (@ThePerezHilton) August 4, 2017

I hate criticizing any member of the LGBT community, but Caitlyn Jenner wearing a MAGA hat yesterday is fucked up. https://t.co/8mbKC0mXYf pic.twitter.com/WTmFdOEr4M

 Greg Hogben (@MyDaughtersArmy) August 4, 2017

I see @Caitlyn_Jenner still living that white male privileged life

 Taste Like Summer (@gi0_o) August 4, 2017

Like donning an ugly red hat with a hateful slogan on the front, saying one thing and doing another is never a good look. Jenner's mentions haven't been pretty for awhile though, so whether it's bigoted trolls or people with actual grievances about her problematic politics coming for her in the comments, it's likely she just isn't listening anymore.



[h/t TMZ]

Image via Instagram
As more and more New York designers leave the Big Apple for bigger opportunities at fashion weeks across the pond, the smaller brands that were once considered "up and coming" are finally getting their chance to lead the pack. Eckhaus Latta, the half-New York/half-Los Angeles-based brand comprised of Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta, is poised to take that seat very soon. For the past few seasons, the design duo's show has been one of the hottest tickets of the week.

Not much is known about what to expect from their upcoming show during the fast approaching New York Fashion Week, but Eckhaus Latta do have something exciting that will be unveiled during street style's favorite week. A Mag Curated Bythe fashion publication that most recently released issues curated by Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele and the New York fashion legend Thom Browneis scheduled to release their seventeenth issue during NYFW and it will be curated by none other than Eckhaus and Latta.

As part of the issue, the duo are currently holding open casting calls for a portrait series that will run inside the magazine. All photos for the issue will be taken by either Mike Eckhaus himself at the New York location or by Zoe Latta at the Los Angeles one. In a statement given to Dazed about the special opportunity, Eckhaus said, "Casting has always been really integral in the sense that clothing is really activated by the person wearing it rather than just a certain body type." He also let it slip that some participants may be luckier than others, noting that "maybe we will find some people who will be good for our next show."

Unfortunately, if you want to be considered for a feature, you don't have much time left. Those who live in New York have a little more than two more hours to make it to the open call, while those in Los Angeles have about six.

You can find the addresses for both locations below.

NYC: (3-8pm) 185 East Broadway, Lower Level

LA: (3-8pm) 3311 W Washington Blvd.

And while you're at it, peep the Instagram announcement post.

[h/t Dazed]

Splash photo via Fernanda Calfat / Stringer


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Patna: After going on a tantrum spree for the last ten days since the 'betrayal' of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, senior Janata Dal  U leader and former party national President Sharad Yadav, seemingly resigned to his fate saying he would after all attend the party's working committee meet in Patna on August 19.

Yadav, who had been threatening to walk out of the JD-U and join hands with parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and even talking about forming his own party saying many of the JD-U leaders were troubled by Kumar's unilateral decision to break away from the Grand Alliance in Bihar giving him a respectable number to start his own new party, on Friday denied ever saying those things and expressed his intention to attend the party's national working committee's meet to be held in Patna in a fortnight.

Party national spokesperson K C Tyagi confirmed the news saying the party had extended an invitation to Yadav to attend the meeting in Patna and he had responded by accepting it.

Sharad Yadav, who last contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Madhepura only to be crushed by the then Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Pappu Yadav, was later sent by the party to Rajya Sabha to keep him in good humor.

With no base of his own in Bihar, Yadav was seen as a dispensable leader who, as said by Nitish supporters, was way past his prime contributing almost nothing to the party.

Earlier, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had claimed that he was in talk with the senior JD-U leader with an open invitation to dump JD-U and join the RJD. He had also said that Sharad Yadav had given his consent to join the RJD rally in Patna on August 27 along with the 'Vishwasghat Yatra' to be launched by his son and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejaswi Yadav from Champaran district.
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called for intensification of the fight against HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis (TB).



They said more was needed to be done to overcome stigmatization and ensure access to antiretroviral drugs by people infected with HIV/AIDs.



The CSOs made the call at a three-day advocacy training workshop held in Kumasi.



The programme was organized by the Hope for Future Generations (HFFG), an NGO and the goal was to help the organizations to engage in advocacy and monitoring of the availability of HIV and TB commodities.



Ms. Olivia Graham, the Coordinator, Technical Support Unit of the Ghana AIDS Commission, said there was the need for the public to give strong support to the infected persons to lead normal lives.



They should not be condemned as being disgraceful but deserved to be shown love and care.



She urged the opening of more antiretroviral therapy (ART) centres to enable the patients to access treatment.



Mr. David Nartey Tekpenor, Programmes Manager of HFFG, said the workshop was part of a one-year project to equip the CSOs with advocacy, monitoring and data gathering skills on HIV and TB commodities in three districts.



These are the Kumasi Metropolis, Bekwai and Obuasi Municipalities.



The project is aimed at tearing down the barrier of public stigmatization and being implemented by the HFFG in partnership with the Ghana HIV and AIDS Network (GHANET), another NGO.



The finding is coming from the United States (US) Ambassadors Small Grants Project.



Mr. Tekpenor said they would be working closely with the Ghana AIDS Commission, Ghana Health Service, Ghana-West African Programme to Combat AIDS and STIs (WAPCAS), and the Network of Association of Persons Living with HIV (NAP+Ghana), the media, traditional and religious leaders to achieve the goal.

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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The British High Commission in Ghana has debunked media reports that it has issued a new alert warning its citizens against travelling to Accra over looming terrorist attacks.



Recent media stories in Ghana have wrongly suggested that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have issued a new warning with regard to terrorism in Ghana. We have not issued new advice, the High Commission said in a statement on Friday, 4 August 2017.



It added that the British government provides advice to British citizens travelling to countries across the world and their aim is to provide practical, accurate and up-to-date information and advice to help British nationals make informed decisions about their safety and travel abroad.



Our travel advice for Ghana was last updated on 24 April", the statement indicated adding that the "advice is similar to that of other countries in the region and around the world.



The clarification comes on the back of local media reports on Thursday, 3 August 2017 that the Canadian and the UK governments had issued new terror alerts in Ghana warning their citizens against traveling to the West African country.



Meanwhile, the Canadian High Commission has also denied issuing any new terror alert.



The High Commission in Ghana said the travel advice it issued over looming terrorist attacks is over a year old.

Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The troubles of Ibrahim Mahama, brother of former President John Mahama, have deepened, as he has been dragged to court a day after the Northern Regional Minister abrogated a road contract awarded to him.



Firebrand Brong-Ahafo Regional Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe aka Abronye DC, has filed a suit against Mr Ibrahim Mahama over the bauxite concession granted to him a few days to the exit of his brother from power.



Ibrahim, who is linked to Exton Cubic Group Limited, is to face Abronye at the Supreme Court over the huge bauxite mining lease granted the firm for 21 and 18 years respectively.



He is challenging the legitimacy of the concession.



The suit also cited the Attorney General as respondent and Abronye wants the Supreme Court to declare that the mining lease agreement between the then National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and Exton Cubic Group Limited required parliamentary ratification under Section 5 (4) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703).



The NDC government, acting through then Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Nii Osah Mills, on December 29, 2016, entered into and granted Exton Cubic Group Limited mining leases to mine bauxite in different concessions for 21 and 18 years respectively.



Abronye wants an order setting aside the mining lease agreement because they violate Section 5 (4) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703).



Abronye is also seeking a perpetual injunction restraining Exton Cubic Group Limited and its assigns from prospecting, exploiting or mining bauxite in Ghana pursuant to the mining lease agreements being ratified by parliament.



In his statement of claim prepared in Sunyani, Abronye said he was bringing the action pursuant to Articles 2 (1) (b) and 130 (1) of the 1992 Constitution and was invoking the jurisdiction of the highest court for interpretation.



According to the plaintiff, Exton Cubic Group Limited has started mining/exploiting bauxite in Nyinahini pursuant to the purported mining lease agreements.



He averred, the plaintiffs case is that the activities of the 2nd defendant (Exton Cubic Group Limited) are illegal as same are against the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703).



According to Abronye, he would argue in court that the power of the minister responsible for mines to grant mining rights is governed by Section of Act 703, saying What is germane to the plaintiffs case is Section 5 (4) of Act 703.



The language of Section 5 (4) of Act 703 is clear, plain and calls for no conflicting interpretations. The plain and unmistakable import of the provision is that any contract that involves the grant of a mining right for the exploitation of mineral in Ghana is subject to ratification by parliament.



He averred that there is a plethora of cases in which the Supreme Court has authoritatively held that any transaction that requires parliamentary ratification is null and void and creates no rights, unless it has been ratified by Parliament.



It is in the interest of the public that mining agreements are subjected to parliamentary approval and ratification. Any mining agreement purportedly entered into without parliamentary approval or ratification is null and void.



He pointed out that the overall kernel of the plaintiffs case is that the two impugned mining agreements were entered into in violation of the express provisions of Section 5 (4) of Act 703 as same were not laid before parliament for approval and ratification.



There is no indication that Exton Cubic Group Limited has been served with the processes of the Supreme Court.



NDC minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, also believes that the concession granted to Ibrahims company must be ratified by parliament.

Source: Daily Guide









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The woes of the beleaguered Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, do not appear to be over, as an allegation of an award of contract far in excess of the approved amount has surfaced.



She allegedly awarded contracts for the construction of three EC regional offices and 100 Pre-FAB offices in some districts to accommodate staff, equipment and election materials at the cost of $14 million.



However, it is emerging that the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) granted only $7.5 million for the commission in respect of the projects, which had been done through restricted tendering.



Raging Issues



Currently, the EC boss and her two deputies  Amadu Sulley in-charge of Operations and Georgina Opoku-Amankwa, who is in-charge of Corporate Services  have been trading accusations and counter accusations since a petition was sent to the presidency by unnamed staff of the commission for the impeachment of Mrs Osei.



Another petition has roped in the two deputies over allegations against them, and a committee to be set up by the Chief Justice is expected to investigate the three  including Mrs Osei.



In the initial petition, Mrs. Charlotte Osei has been accused of engaging in cronyism by awarding contracts to the tune of 14,310,961 United States Dollars to her cronies for the construction of Pre-fabricated District offices without recourse to the Commission.



However, the EC boss said she got approval from the PPA.



EC Letter



But documents available to DAILY GUIDE showed that the EC boss wrote to the PPA for restricted tender approval on July 21, 2016 and listed five companies  Solar Eco Limited, Clicotech Limited, Remscon Limited, Business Pros Limited and Cads Contract & Services Limited  as the contractors for the projects.



In the said letter with reference C/EC/PROC/01/SF.24/V.3/11, the EC boss had stated that the EC staff in the affected areas lacked the needed infrastructure to work effectively, posing security, political and other related threats to their smooth operations and needed those facilities without delay ahead of the 2016 elections.



PPAs Reply



The PPA, through its then Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Sallas-Mensah, in a letter with reference PPA/CEO/08/1851/16, granted the approval for the EC to use $7,500,000 for the projects.



Curiously, after the PPA had approved $7,500,000 for the EC on the entire projects, the contracts were rather signed later on December 19, 2016  when the general elections were over.



There is no indication yet that Mrs Osei went back to the PPA for further approval when the contract sum scaled up from $7,500,000.00 to $14,311,002.53 million.



Main Contractors



Per the documents available to DAILY GUIDE, only two out of the five companies presented to the PPA by the commission for the restricted tendering were given the contracts and the agreements were all signed on December 19, last year.



The first company, Cads Contract & Services Limited, got $2,447,114.80 contract for the construction of Pre-fad offices in Lot 3 in the Greater Accra Region (3), Central (9) and Western (7), as well as another for $3,204,402.14 in Lot 4 in the Volta (6) and the Eastern Regions (17).



For Clicotech Limited, a contract worth $4,278,340.61 was awarded for the construction of Pre-fab offices in Lot 1 in the Upper West (7), Upper East (10) and Northern Region (12), as well as another $4,181,104.98 in Lot 2 in the Brong-Ahafo Region (17) and Ashanti Region (12).



It is not clear if the contracts have been executed.



The contracts form part of the allegations that have forced the staff to call for the impeachment of the EC boss.



Petitioners Claim



It would be recalled that in the original petition against Madam Charlotte Osei, the petitioners had averred that the value of these contracts is in excess of the approved threshold by the Public Procurement Authority, adding, One of the Contractors by name Messrs Contracts & Cads Limited is related to Mrs. Charlotte Osei.



Upon receipt of advance mobilization under the approval of the chairperson, the company has failed to meet the contract terms; the company has requested for additional payment, which the chairperson has approved. they claimed and added, The Director of Finance has stopped the payment of this request. This accounts for one of the reasons of the Chairpersons disaffection for the Director of Finance.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A leading member of Kenyans National Super Alliance (NASA) has confirmed that former National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party in Ghana, Peter Mac Manu and one other Ghanaian were deported from Kenya on Saturday.



The two had arrived in Kenya as part of a delegation to observe the countrys general elections to be held on August 8, 2017.



Mac Manu who was the Campaign Manager of the NPP in the 2016 general elections was the leader of a team of Democratic Union of Africa (DUA) International Observers to Kenya.



But Musalia Mudavadi, the Chairman of NASA National Campaign Committee (NACACO), told journalists Mr. Mac Manu and his compatriot, who is yet to be identified, were arrested immediately their plane landed in Kenya and deported on Saturday.



They did not formally disembark from the plane, they were taken away by the police and pushed into another plane this morning back to Ghana, he announced.



No Permit



He denied claims by the Kenyan authorities that the two are among foreign nationals working without permit.



Musalia Mudavadi was categorical that the two Ghanaians were not in the country to work for NASA but to only share their experiences because the electronic system to be used for this years elections was similar to what was used in Ghanas 2016 elections.



An American and a Canadian who were arrested on Friday have also been deported.

Source: 3news









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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Ghanaian Actor James Gardiner has stated that, the Ghanaian movie industry can only thrive if there is unity amongst players of the industry.



Speaking at the launch of Zylofon Medias Ashanti Regional branch, the actor disclosed that disunity amongst industry players is the cause of the ailing movie industry.



The Zylofon media signee also added that its time industry players do away with the division in the industry most especially the Ghallywood and Kumawood factions.



I dont know why we have allowed the division to creep into the industry most especially movie actors in Accra seeing Kumasi actors as Kumawood actors. To me, there is nothing like Kumawood or Ghallywood. We are one people and its time we unite to push the industry forward.



The actor, who joined other signees from Zylofon media at the launch, also ceased the opportunity to express his profound gratitude to the media and industry players who were present to grace the occasion.

Source: Ultimatefmonline









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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In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs three days apart on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

The bombings combined killed 129,000 people.

It remains the only time that nuclear weapons were used in warfare.

As World War II was entering its sixth year, Nazi Germany had surrendered in May but the Japanese refused to accept the terms of surrender.

The United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Failure to comply would result in "prompt and utter destruction," according to history.com.

A uranium atomic bomb called "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The "Fat Man" plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9.

Thousands were killed instantly. Thousands of others died within months from burns and radiation sickness.

On Aug. 15, Japan surrendered to the Allies.

The Evening News, Monday, Aug. 6, 1945:

"Atomic Bomb Used First Time"

"Truman Reveals Secret of Miracle Explosive Equal to 20,000 Tons of the Deadliest TNT"

"The United States has unleashed against Japan the terror of an atomic bomb 2000 times more powerful than the biggest blockbusters ever used in warfare.

President Truman revealed this great scientific achievement today and warned the Japanese that they now face 'a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth.'

More and more of these devastating bombs, unlocking the vast hidden energy that lies within the atom, will tumble on Japan if they continue to reject the Potsdam surrender ultimatum.

The new atomic bomb was used for the first time yesterday. An American plane dropped one on the Japanese army base at Hiroshima.

Its use marked victory for the Allies in the greatest scientific race in history. We put $2,000,000,000 and the work of 125,000 persons into the project.

A single bomb has more power than 20,000 tons of TNT. It has more than 2000 times the blast power of the British 'grand slam' bomb, the largest ever used previously in the history of war."

The Evening News, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 1945:

"Atomic Bomb Snuffs Out All Life To Destroy Most of Hiroshima"

"100,000 Dead, Injured in Unmatched Holocaust Dismaying To Japanese"

The Evening News, Thursday, Aug. 9, 1945:

"2nd Atomic Bomb Wipes Out Nagasaki"

"Another City Blown To Bits By Holocaust"

The Evening News, Friday, Aug. 10, 1945:

"AWAIT OFFICIAL NEWS OF JAPS' SURRENDER OFFER"

"Truman Warns Japan Doomed If War Goes On"

"President Truman left bruised and battered Japan with the grim promise today of more atomic bombs and more military surprises unless she surrenders immediately."

(Note that in 1945 it was considered acceptable to refer to the Japanese in derogatory slang terms.)
Take a look at vice-president elect Venkaiah Naidu's remarkable career that has taken more than four decades in the making.

By Press Trust of India: From pasting party posters to an epitome of political and ideological loyalty who rose to become one of BJP's most visible leaders and now India's vice president-elect, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu has come a long way.

Born to a humble agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, the 68-year-old has served as BJP president, minister in various portfolios and a long-time Rajya Sabha member.

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This remarkable career in politics has been more than four decades in the making.

It began in the 1970s when BJP's precursor Jana Sangh was a marginal player with little clout in the south and a young party worker kept himself busy putting up posters of stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani.

Naidu has come a long way since those days of political obscurity.

"Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity," India's vice president-elect said.

"I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the Prime Minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and uphold the dignity of the Upper House," he added.

Naidu is known for his oratory. A two-term member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha three times from the southern Indian state of Karnataka. He represented Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament before he was nominated to the vice president's post by the National Democratic Alliance.

Once an Advani protege, Naidu vigorously backed Modi for the prime minister's post before the 2014 elections.

He was minister for Information and Broadcasting and Housing and Urban Affairs in the Modi government and earlier also held the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

In the previous NDA government led by Vajpayee, he had served as Rural Development Minister.

The veteran party leader also served as the BJP national president from July 2002 to October 2004 for two consecutive terms.

He quit the post after the party's defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Naidu was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.

As the first minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the Modi government, Naidu defended the prime minister and the government whenever the opposition targeted them in Parliament.

He had also ensured high political outreach by meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when there was a standoff between the government and the opposition in Parliament.

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Several major legislations were cleared by Parliament when he was Parliamentary Affairs Minister, including the historic Real Estate Act and fast forwarding of the GST Bill.

Known for coining acronyms, Naidu termed the mission of the Modi Government as 'MODI- Making of Developed India' which had become the official line of the Centre in its public outreach campaign on the occasion of three years of being in office.

As the minister for Information and Broadcasting, he was always quick to present issues in perspective with effective repartee as and when required.

As Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, which was recently merged as Housing and Urban Affairs, Naidu pioneered the launch of several new urban missions, including the Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All.

As Rural Development Minister, Naidu was instrumental in launching the hugely popular 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana'.

When the Congress swept the polls in Andhra Pradesh in 1978, Naidu got elected as MLA from Udayagiri constituency as a Janata Party candidate.

He was re-elected on a BJP ticket when N T Rama Rao swept the polls in the state.

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But all that has receded into the past.

"There is no my party or your party. Now I am a non-party man," Naidu told reporters on Saturday morning as the election for the vice president got underway.

Also Read|| Venkaiah Naidu expectedly wins vice-presidential election, bags over 500 votes

Also Read|| From a farmer's son to vice-president of India: All you need to know about Venkaiah Naidu

Also Read|| Assume non-partisan role: Congress to Vice President-elect Venkaiah Naidu

--- ENDS ---
Marines Aircraft Mishap

FILE - In this April 22, 2015 file photo, a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey comes in for a landing at Miami International Airport before a presidential visit, in Miami. Search and rescue operations were underway for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017 while trying to land. Twenty-three of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft have been rescued, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement.

(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

SYDNEY -- Search and rescue operations were underway for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia on Saturday while trying to land.

Twenty-three of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft have been rescued, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement.

The MV-22 Osprey involved in the mishap had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when it crashed into the water, the statement said. The ship's small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an airplane. They have been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.

The aircraft was in Australia for a joint military training exercise held by the U.S. and Australia last month in Shoalwater Bay. The Talisman Sabre exercise, a biennial event between the two nations, involved more than 30,000 troops and 200 aircraft.

Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said Saturday's incident occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay in Queensland state.



"I can confirm no Australian Defence Force personnel were on board the aircraft," Payne said in a statement. "The United States are leading the search and recovery effort."



Payne said she had spoken with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis "to offer Australia's support in any way that can be of assistance."

The White House said that President Donald Trump was briefed on the matter by his chief of staff, John Kelly.



In 2015, a U.S. Osprey crashed during a training exercise in Hawaii, killing two Marines. Last December, a U.S. military Osprey crash-landed off Japan's southern island of Okinawa. Its five crew members were rescued safely. And in January, three U.S. soldiers were wounded in the "hard landing" of an Osprey in Yemen.
At least 10 people were injured by "severe turbulence" on an airplane from Athens, Greece that landed in Philadelphia Saturday afternoon.

American Airlines flight 759 safely landed at the Philadelphia International Airport at 3:12 p.m., which was ahead of the scheduled time of 3:45 p.m., according to the airline's website. There were nearly 300 people on board: 287 passengers and 12 crew members, according to Abc6 Action News.

The flight encountered "brief" turbulence shortly before landing that apparently was powerful enough to injure three passengers and seven crew members. The victims were transported to a local hospital to be evaluated after arriving at terminal A.

No details were provided from American Airlines regarding the extent or nature of the injuries.

American Airlines provided this statement to PennLive:

American Airlines flight 759 from Athens, Greece to Philadelphia International Airport briefly encountered severe turbulence shortly before landing safely in Philadelphia. The seatbelt sign was on at the time. Three passengers and seven crew members were transported to a local hospital for evaluation. We are taking care of our passengers and our crew members at this time and want to thank our team members for keeping our passengers safe.
By Eugene Robinson

Enough, already, with all the takeouts and think pieces about how President Trump's loyal base continues to support him. That's neither surprising nor impressive -- and it's certainly not the point about this shameful and appalling presidency.

Eugene Robinson (PennLive file)

Also, it's not entirely true. Trump won 47 percent of the popular vote in November's election. That's less than Hillary Clinton's 48 percent but means nevertheless that nearly half the country put its trust in a man who had already shown himself to be a liar, a buffoon, a demagogue and a self-proclaimed sexual harasser.

This week, Gallup reported Trump's approval rating at 36 percent, with 60 percent of those polled disapproving of the job he's doing. Since the advent of polling, no president has been so unpopular at this point in his tenure. Clearly, some who voted for Trump have had second thoughts. But most have not, and why, at this point, should anyone expect otherwise?

It might feel like six years, but it's only been six months and change since Inauguration Day -- far too soon for even Trump to have alienated everyone who trusted him with their hopes and dreams. Give him time. He's working on it.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that Trump has a solid base of about 35 percent of voters who will stick with him no matter what. Much of his base lives in small towns, rural areas, the South and the Rust Belt -- which has inspired countless lazy op-eds about how the jaded sophisticates of the East and West Coasts are too smug and insular to have a clue about the "real America."

Please. Just stop.

This country is riven by many fault lines, race and educational attainment being perhaps the most important. But no citizen's America is any more "real" than anyone else's.

The voice of a laid-off West Virginia coal miner is no more authentic than that of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, a Hollywood production assistant, an Upper West Side advertising executive or -- and this may be shocking -- an opinion writer for a mainstream news outlet. If people such as me live in an elite, progressive "bubble," it must be an awfully big one; indicators such as the popular vote suggest there are more Americans inside than out.

I accept that most Trump voters -- those who were not heeding his campaign's dog-whistle appeals to white supremacy and racial grievance -- had an understandable motive: Frustrated with a political system that seems incapable of getting much of anything accomplished, they decided to lob in a grenade, blow it to smithereens and start over.

I get that. I get how Trump's outrageous statements on Twitter and in campaign-style rallies sound fresh and encouraging to his die-hard supporters, not vicious and loopy. Trump gets it, too, and that's why I doubt anyone will ever be able to pry his smartphone from his dainty clutches. Some of his tweetstorms are primal screams from an insecure man who is in way over his head, but others are carefully crafted to show that he is keeping the faith with those who elected him to break the rules.

But Trump is genuinely delusional about both his talents and his popularity. On Thursday, a day after he grudgingly signed the Russia sanctions bill, he tweeted, "Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low. You can thank Congress, the same people that can't even give us HCare!"

Apparently he's never heard of the Cuban missile crisis, in which Washington and Moscow came close to nuclear war. But why is he going out of his way to attack a Congress led by his own party? Senators, especially, do not take kindly to such abuse, as Trump should have learned from the health-care vote. It might be different if he were a popular president. But he is not.

How long will Trump's base stay with him? I don't know, but clearly he's worried. Even Rasmussen, the generally conservative survey that usually shows him as having more support than other pollsters detect, released a poll this week showing Trump's approval below 40 percent for the first time. He makes laughable claims about having accomplished more than any other president in his first months because he knows his support will slowly leak away if he fails at his central promise, which is to get stuff done. Thus far he has been a failure.

Trump voters are not blind to that fact. And their patience won't last forever.

Eugene Robinson is a columnist for The Washington Post. His work appears on Saturdays on PennLive.
A masked anti-government demonstrator walks past next to a burning barricade during a protest against the installation of a constitutional assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Aug. 4, 2017. Defying criticism from Washington to the Vatican, Venezuela's ruling party on Friday installed a new super assembly that supporters promise will pacify the country and critics fear will be a tool for imposing dictatorship. (AP Photo/Wil Riera)
Sources within the BJP indicate that Venkaiah Naidu won the polls with the largest margin in the last 33 years, with at least 20 MPs having cross-voted in his favour.

By Poulomi Saha: Venkaiah Naidu did not campaign and seek votes, and it looks like it wasn't much of a gamble he took. The veteran former BJP leader won the vice-presidential elections, 2017 with a huge margin over his opponent, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

A significant number of cross-voting seems to have given Naidu a massive edge over Gandhi. Sources within the BJP indicate that Venkaiah Naidu won the polls with the largest margin in the last 33 years, with at least 20 MPs having cross-voted in his favour.

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Of the 785 members of the Parliament from both Houses who were eligible to cast their ballot, 771 cast their ballot, but 11 were declared invalid. At final count, 516 votes were cast in favour of the next Vice-President of India, Venkaiah Naidu.

Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi polled 244 votes.

In total, there are 790 seats in both Houses of Parliament, but there are two seats each that are vacant in both Houses. Besides, BJP MP from Bihar, Chhedi Paswan, had been debarred from casting his vote following a judicial pronouncement. This brought the total numbers down to 785.

Fourteen Members of Parliament, including Union Minister Vijay Goel and BJP MP Sanwarlal Jat weren't able to cast their votes. The others included two from Congress, four from Trinamool Congress, two from IUML, one from NCP, one from PMK and two other Independent MPs.

BJP ensured that all its MPs made an appearance. It cracked the whip on party MP from Maharashtra, Pritam Munde, and compelled her to cut short her trip to the United States of America and come to Delhi to cast her vote in favour of Venkaiah Naidu. Munde landed in Delhi this morning to exercise her franchise.

Venkaiah Naidu was supported in his candidature by TRS, AIADMK and YSRCP, besides all NDA constituents, except for latest ally, JDU that chose to keep its word and support Gopalkrishna Gandhi, as it had committed to the Opposition earlier. BJD also voted in favour of Gandhi.

But despite this, Venkaiah Naidu polled 516 votes, which is only 6 short of the 522 votes cast in favour of Ram Nath Kovind in the President elections, when both BJD and JDU lent their support to him. This is bound to be a cause of serious concern for the Opposition, which needs some introspection.

ALSO READ:

Venkaiah Naidu elected Vice President of India, will be Rajya Sabha chairman

From a farmer's son to NDA's vice-president candidate: All you need to know about Venkaiah Naidu

ALSO WATCH:

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ISSUES....

Inside, confidential and off the record Venezuelas Guyana Essequibo

Venezuelan minister urges: Know details of 1899 Award and Geneva Agreement As part of its activities to maintain its claim to Guyana's Essequibo territory, the Venezuelan government has established an organization it calls the New Frontier of Peace Mission. A press release issued by the Venezuelan foreign ministry on June 2 announced that this organization held a seminar from May 31 to June 2 on the geostrategic and geopolitical situation of the Essequibo territory at the ministry. Interestingly, the release announced the inauguration of the Essequibo Hall and the unveiling of a bust of Simon Bolivar, a replica of the sculpture located in the city of Puerto Esquivel along the Essequibo River.



Where this city of Puerto Esquivel exists on the Essequibo River remains a mystery since there is no such place-name within Guyana's 83,000 square miles of sovereign territory.



However, as is known, the Venezuelan authorities a few years ago were instrumental in influencing Google to publish a map of Essequibo (prepared in Venezuela) on which all the towns and villages were shown with Spanish names. Therefore, it may not be strange to find the peace mission using a similar map showing a place called Puerto Esquivel on Guyana's Essequibo River.



The Venezuelan ministry stated that this seminar would be the starting point of several activities aimed at reaffirming, refreshing and re-sensitizing the officials of the ministries and other institutions of the country of Venezuela's territorial claim.



According to Major General Gerardo Jose Izquierdo Torres, director of the border office of the ministry and minister of state of the New Frontier of Peace Mission and executive secretary of the presidential commission for the border, new evidence has been found of that vile imperial spoil, which seeks to seize the existing riches, both in terrestrial and aquatic spaces. He did not reveal the alleged new evidence.



Other speakers at this seminar, mainly military personnel, were Colonel Pompeyo Torrealba, described as the founder of the so-called city of Puerto Esquivel; Lieutenant Averell Jhon Nicholas Melville, (of Guyanese ancestry), who spoke on the Rupununi uprising of 1969; Andrea Stefany and Juan Ruiz who discussed the geography, culture and infrastructure; while Brigadier General Jose Miguel Jaimes Vivas dealt with the Pemon separatist project (of which no details were publicized).



The Pemon linguistic population comprises six Amerindian groups on the frontier region of Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. Among them are the Arecuna and Macushi of Guyana.



In his presentation, Torres called for Venezuelans' awareness and patriotic sentiment towards Essequibo, whose inhabitants should no longer be seen or treated as foreigners. For this reason he reported that actions have been initiated to grant Venezuelan nationality to people from Essequibo born in Venezuela. To this end, he announced that approximately 1,000 identification cards were already available for such persons.



He said President Nicolas Maduro, in the search for solutions to the territorial conflict, was following the vision of the late Hugo Chavez who had established the High Level Bilateral Commission oriented towards cooperation with Guyana, which generated bilateral exchanges such as the import of Guyanese rice.



He added that spirit of mutual cooperation was maintained until the accession of the new Guyanese President David Granger in May 2015, who compared Venezuela with the discomfort of having a thorn in the throat. He also alleged that behind the violations of international laws there is an imperial intention to turn the Orinoco into an international space, to seize energy and wealth, plus fresh water.



Torres also emphasized the importance of knowing the details the Geneva Agreement and the 1899 Paris arbitration award, legal instruments that have no expiration and which he claimed are being violated by Guyana with the support of the American government. However, the press statements did not describe these alleged violations.



Obviously, Torres' allegation of treaty violations can be easily rebutted by the Guyanese authorities who can point to the resuscitated claim to Guyana's territory since 1962; the illegal occupation since 1966 by Venezuela of the Guyanese half of Ankoko Island at the Cuyuni and Wenamu border junction; the Leoni decree of 1968 by which Venezuela laid an extended claim to 12 miles of continental shelf off the Essequibo coast; and more recently the Maduro decrees of 2015 claiming almost all of Guyana's offshore economic zone with its huge yet-to-be-exploited reserves of petroleum.



All of these actions against Guyana's sovereignty remain as flagrant breaches of both the Geneva Agreement of 1966 and the Paris arbitration award of 1899, especially the latter, which both disputing parties  the Venezuelan and British governments  defined by treaty as a full, perfect, and final settlement.

Odeen Ishmael / Caribbean News Now / July 13 , 2017 Link to the original article





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Police are searching for an assailant who killed a man and a teenager and injured another teenager during a shooting late Friday in Colwyn Borough, Delaware County.

The shooter fired several times at about 10:30 p.m. near the intersection of 4th and Walnut Streets, striking the victims, ages 15, 16, and 20.

The victims were transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, where the 16- and 20-year-olds died. The 15-year-old, who was struck in the arm, is being treated for his injuries.

Police ask that anyone with information call Colwyn Police at 484-494-4900 or Delaware County CID at 610-891-4861.
Listening to testimony in February on expanding the number of ailments and conditions covered under the medical marijuana program were Ricardo Rivera (left), founder of Tuffys Fight, and Jim Miller, co-founder of Coalition for Medical Marijuana in N.J. Rivera holds a collage of his sister Matilda Candelaria, who died of opioid overdose in 2015 after suffering from chronic pain. Read more

If you're one of the nearly 200,000 people in New Jersey who suffer from chronic pain, migraines, anxiety, opiate-use disorder, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, autism, Tourette syndrome and a few other ailments, you should be allowed to obtain medicinal marijuana, with the consent of your doctor.

At least that's what the state's Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel says, after studying petitions from doctors and people who suffer from those conditions, and then holding two hearings over the past 12 months. It issued its first report last week, seeking that 43 more conditions be permitted for treatment.

But it may be a while before the state health commissioner rules on the request, a slow process that has angered potential new patients and their advocates.

New Jersey's rigid, seven-year-old medical marijuana program permits only those afflicted with one of a dozen conditions to obtain cannabis. Among the approved conditions are terminal cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, glaucoma, Crohn's disease, and muscular spasticity.

Only 13,200 patients have enrolled in the program, which is considered one of the most restrictive of those in the 29 states with such programs. There are five dispensaries in New Jersey; a sixth is expected to open this year.

"The decision as to who qualifies doesn't seem to be rooted in the science, and seems to be arbitrary and politicized," said Amanda Hoffman, a Franklin Park, Somerset County, resident who testified at the panel's hearing in February.

"I don't want to say that I'm fortunate, but my condition, ulcerative colitis, qualifies me to be a medical marijuana patient. But many others are locked out of the program because their ailment doesn't qualify," she said in an interview this week.

Hoffman requested the panel make migraines an eligible condition. She noticed that after she started using cannabis, her migraines lessened; she wanted others who suffer from the debilitating headaches to get the same relief.

Health Commissioner Cathleen D. Bennett will make the final decision, but it could be months away. There is a two-month comment period on the recommendations.

After the panel held its second hearing in May, it voted, 5-1, to recommend that the commissioner open the door to more patients. Based on the petitions, the panel suggested 43 new conditions for the list, including variations of certain diseases and ailments. It said cannabis should be available to people suffering from chronic pain that arises from surgeries, injuries, back and neck problems and other medical problems.

Alex Bekker, an anesthesiologist who chaired the panel, said after the hearing that the testimony was often emotional and was supported by facts and some existing medical literature. Bekker, who heads the department of anesthesiology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, said the panel wanted to allow more patients to get access to cannabis if they and their doctors believe it might help alleviate their pain.

Pennsylvania, which is planning to launch its medical marijuana program next year, already includes chronic pain and autism among its list of eligible conditions.

One year ago, the New Jersey panel invited the public to submit petitions and evidence that cannabis can alleviate certain symptoms and conditions.

Last week, it posted its first report on the health department's website, but said that these were just initial recommendations. The public will have 60 days to comment on the panel's findings. After that, another hearing  which has yet to be scheduled  will be held. Then, a final recommendation would be formally submitted to Bennett.

"The commissioner has to review the recommendations and rule on them, so the department has no comment at this time," said Donna Leusner, a spokesperson for the commissioner, in an email asking for comment.

But Ken Wolski, executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey, said the commissioner has the discretion under existing law to add conditions to the list. He said the coalition submitted a petition to the health department to add post-traumatic stress syndrome to the list in 2014, but the petition was rejected.

Last year, the state legislature passed a bill to make PTSD an eligible condition, bypassing the health department. Gov. Christie reluctantly signed it after saying on several occasions that he did not want to expand the program because he views marijuana as a gateway drug.

"I'm very happy with the panel's initial recommendations," Wolski said. "But I am distressed with the pace.  The panel determined its recommendation on May 11, but then it takes 2 months before it's posted on the website? That's an unconscionable delay and works to the detriment of patients who are suffering and want to get legal access to medical marijuana."

A Quinnipiac poll in February found that 93 percent of Americans support medical marijuana and 59 percent favor full legalization.

Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New Jersey, also said she is disappointed that the panel decided to hold a third hearing before issuing a final report. "Well, it certainly is taking a long time to add conditions, and the law took effect right before Gov. Christie took office," she said. "No one expected that seven years later we would still be waiting. Patients are waiting to get their medicine."

Last month, the sixth and last nonprofit granted approval by the state department in 2011 to open a dispensary finally received a permit to begin growing marijuana. Harmony Foundation in Secaucus is expected to open later this year.

Among the other dispensaries are two that operate in South Jersey, out of former warehouses in Bellmawr and Egg Harbor Township.
Eric Schmidt (left), executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., Wendy Schmidt, president of the Schmidt Family Foundation, and Sanjeev Arora, who will lead the Program in Theoretical Machine Learning at the Institute for Advance Study in Princeton. Read more

A $2 million donation will launch new research at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton to forge an understanding of how machine learning evolves.

Machine learning  sometimes called the leading edge of artificial intelligence  is the rapidly developing computer technology behind self-driving cars, complex web searches, medical and science applications, and face and speech recognition. Machine-learning programs synthesize knowledge in a way that's analogous to how children learn. The programs take examples, generalize, and then develop rules and understanding about the world without being taught directly. With time, the programs become better at particular tasks.

"Machine-learning techniques are finding new applications almost daily and are already transforming society in numerous ways." said Avi Wigderson, who heads the institute's computer-science group at the School of Mathematics. "But because of the self-teaching aspect they have, their immense size, and the way they evolve, the final algorithms are not well understood by their own designers."

The gift, from Silicon Valley philanthropists Eric and Wendy Schmidt, will fund a three-year program focusing on the mathematical underpinnings of machine learning. Eric Schmidt is the executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. Wendy Schmidt is president of the Schmidt Family Foundation. IAS is best known as the academic home of some of the 20th century's greatest mathematical minds, including Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and Kurt Godel.

Sanjeev Arora, of neighboring Princeton University, will lead the new program in theoretical machine learning as a visiting professor in the institute's School of Mathematics.
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 4 (PTI) Targeted by Opposition for alleged corruption, Maharashtra Housing Minister Prakash Mehta today said he will accept the decision of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the BJP high command over his fate.

"The chief minister is capable of taking the right decision. Whatever decision the CM and the party take, it is obvious that I will abide by it," Mehta told reporters here.

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He was replying when asked if he would resign following Oppositions demand for his ouster.

As to his decision pertaining to a slum redevelopment scheme in Ghatkopar, he said the scheme had been approved in 1996 by the then housing minister.

A government resolution back then mentioned that the work of redevelopment should be awarded to Nirmal holdings, Mehta said, adding that this was unprecedented, as never before a redevelopment work was awarded to a specific company in this way.

He was trying to safeguard the interests of slum dwellers who lived in his erstwhile constituency, Mehta said.

"Any decision pertaining to redevelopment has not been taken yet, so why is the Opposition levelling unsubstantiated allegations against me?" he asked.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Congress) had alleged two days ago that Mehta wrongly allotted a plot in Ghatkopar to Nirmal Holdings which was later taken back by the state government.

Mehta, MLA from Ghatkopar in Mumbai, is already facing an inquiry ordered by the chief minister for allegedly violating norms in a slum redevelopment project in south Mumbai.

Vikhe Patil today made another allegation saying that Mehtas company Shri Sai Nidhi Pvt Ltd had undertaken an SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) project in Ghatkopar, where names of Mehtas son Harsh and his relatives were inserted as existing tenants.

"Mehta used his influence to get flats for his relatives. This is a conflict of interest," Vikhe Patil said.

Asked about this allegation, Methas cryptic reply to reporters was: "I have only one wife and I dont intend to change her name".

The BJP minister first came under fire for allowing unauthorised transfer of extra building (development) rights in a SRA project in south Mumbai. He allowed transfer of extra development rights, originally granted to slum-dwellers, to another project, to favour a developer, it was alleged. PTI MM ND NSK KRK DIP

--- ENDS ---
A used syringe rests on the bridge above the Conrail railroad tracks at B Street in Philadelphia on Aug. 3, 2017. Read more

On the street above the train tracks, a knot of television crews and news reporters gathered around a phalanx of city officials on hand for a day too long in the making: the closing of the heroin camp in a Fairhill gulch.

Now, the officials said, the real work was to begin  helping those trapped in addiction along the Conrail tracks and all through the surrounding neighborhood of Kensington. For the first time in more than a decade, the camp was quiet Monday, except for the strains of festive music from the news conference. Only one of the shacks was still occupied, its inhabitant trying to nap before "moving on," he said. The medical hut  where the camp "doctors" injected those who needed help finding a vein and administered the lifesaving spray Narcan to overdose victims  was deserted. And everywhere, still, the mountains of needles.

There, in the silence, the great shame of this place was somehow ever more stark: How did we let suffering people live like this for so long?

And how, in this shuttering of a place unfit for human habitation, can Philadelphia be losing the closest thing it had to a safe injection site?

As advocates point out, of the staggering 902 fatal overdoses in Philadelphia last year, only 17 occurred in the camp  despite the thousands of injections that took place there. It's likely the most concentrated site for heroin in the city. But outreach workers supplied the users here with Narcan. They kept one another alive.

Now, the bulldozers disperse the camp's occupants into the neighborhood. And the city is, rightfully, there to meet them and offer treatment. As of Friday, outreach workers at a trailer set up near the camp had screened 50 people, though it's not yet known how many eventually made it into treatment.

But as encouraging as that number is  and it is remarkable  there are tens of thousands more people in the grips of the opioid crisis in the city who are not yet ready for recovery, or unwilling to navigate a treatment system that still falls short.

The city estimates that it is on track to average three overdose deaths a day. Advocates believe that in the absence of even the most perilous of safe spaces, the toll will rise even higher. And as the Gurney Street camp closed last week, the city is barely past the early stages of a conversation about the option that could save those lives: safe injection sites.

This is a controversial proposal, but people are dying at devastating rates, higher even than the AIDS crisis. We have to embrace a solution that evidence tells us works. The city has to lead and advocate against the kind of backward thinking and fear-mongering that got us here in the first place and will stalk the debate for its entirety.

It takes guts to install a safe injection site. Seattle is close to approving the country's first. At the height of the AIDS crisis, Philly declared a public health emergency and funded another controversial initiative: a needle exchange that now saves lives in Kensington. The city needs to show some of the same guts now.

Brian Abernathy, the first deputy managing director, is leading the city's exploration of safe injection sites. He told me Friday that he and his boss, Michael DiBerardinis, are not yet convinced a safe injection site could work here, but they "remain open to being convinced."

He said he's far warmer to the idea than he was in May when a city task force urged the city to consider a site. Abernathy said he doesn't question the health benefits of a site. After all, there's overwhelming evidence from Europe and Canada showing how sites keep people alive and healthier  and usher far greater numbers into treatment.

It's the legal issues, he said. Liability challenges that would arise in a city-sanctioned space. Law enforcement questions of how to secure and police it. Neighborhood impact. Potential backlash from a presidential administration that has already targeted the city for its sanctuary policies.

"I don't think the decision around safe injection is one that I can just flip the page," Abernathy said.

Of course not. But that these questions exist shouldn't derail the conversation. The answers exist. The city needs to just look harder to find them. Officials plan on traveling soon to Vancouver  which opened the first safe injection site in 2003  to investigate. Good. Book the tickets.

But they have already heard from Canada.

When she addressed the city task force earlier this year, Sarah Evans, a former coordinator of the Vancouver site, reported that crime and drug use rates did not rise. The neighborhoods grew cleaner. Life expectancy rates around the sites rose by 10 years. Quickly, community support grew. Now, amid the crisis, staff at the site rescue eight overdose victims a day on average, a site spokeswoman said. No one has ever died there.

"By now, safe injection sites are seen as just an essential part of dealing with drug use in the city," Evans said. And they are supported by the mainstream, she said. Even police.

Philadelphia will reach a decision by the fall, Abernathy said. On Aug. 31, advocates are planning a march through the heart of Kensington to raise awareness for the overdose crisis.

Even if you don't agree with safe injection sites, go and listen to the people there who do  the people who have dedicated their lives to this issue.

The conversation so far has been burdened by the stigma surrounding addiction. The Inquirer's editorial board, for instance, has wrongly argued against safe injection sites. This has to be a conversation that engages everyone, including people who are against it, including many in law enforcement, who advocate for well-needed reforms but still see safe injection sites as a step too far. Above all, city officials must be held accountable for any failure to act.

The question now is no longer should we have a safe injection site. It's where and when.
Back in 2013, Gen. James Mattis warned Congress about the dangers of undercutting U.S. diplomacy.

"If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition," said the general, who was then head of U.S. Central Command. Mattis recognized that skilled diplomacy is required to prevent wars or cement military victories.

Fast-forward to now, when President Trump not only wants to slash the State Department's budget by a third but clearly considers the department unnecessary. His vision of foreign policy revolves around military strikes and arranging mythical "big deals"  while tweeting bizarre missives at world leaders.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson conducts diplomacy as if he were still the godhead of ExxonMobil, consulting only a few aides while facilitating the gutting of the department. Most key posts and many crucial ambassadorships remain vacant.

At a time when skilled U.S. diplomacy is desperately needed to deal with North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria, Trump and Tillerson seem bent on dismantling our ability to act.

The big disappointment is Tillerson, who many  myself included  had hoped would bring his global experience as an oilman to his new job. The expectation was that he would join a talented troika, with Defense Secretary Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, to temper Trump's worst foreign-policy impulses.

Didn't happen.

"Tillerson is as big a problem as Trump is," says Gerald Feierstein, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen and now director of Gulf affairs at the Middle East Institute. "He has no respect for the mission of the State Department. He's distant, disinterested in having any interaction with employees."

The oilman has displayed the same disdain for American diplomats as his boss, failing to protest the size of the proposed cutbacks. He's conducting a "reorganization" that will paralyze the department until mid-2018.

Only three nominations have been put forward to permanently fill 22 assistant secretary positions, which include the top department posts for critical regions like the Near East, East Asia, and Afghanistan. Instead, these positions are being filled by "acting" heads, whose clout is limited by their temporary status. The suspicion among diplomats is that the White House wants most positions filled with political appointees, not department professionals.

The posts of special envoys for climate change, for conflict and stabilization operations, and for nuclear nonproliferation (among many others) remain vacant, with the expectation they'll never be filled.

At the same time, no nominations have been put forward for dozens of key ambassadorships, including those to critical countries such as South Korea. Nor are current ambassadors spared the disdain for their profession that Trump and Tillerson appear to share. The secretary has become notorious for his reluctance to meet with U.S. ambassadors in the countries he's visited, or even when they return home to accompany foreign leaders visiting the United States.

As a consequence, morale at the State Department is sagging, and many of the most talented diplomats are quitting or retiring. Such expertise takes decades to develop and now is being thrown away.

Moreover, there's another, less noticed, consequence of denuding the department of its talent. Foreign officials and ambassadors in Washington are realizing it's pointless to speak to "acting" heads of departments or U.S. ambassadors. Many decide their only avenue is to try to curry favor directly with the White House, ideally with First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner, as if this were a banana republic.

Some diplomats to whom I've spoken excuse Tillerson because they think he's still trying to find his footing within the White House. He has had his own problems with Trump, who publicly undercut the secretary's efforts to patch up a messy confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar (the confrontation was actually encouraged by Trump). And the president has outsourced key Mideast tasks to Kushner, who has proven to be woefully unsuited and in way over his head.

But the president's fascination with all things military ignores the fact that America's most immediate challenges demand diplomatic solutions if war is to be prevented. That includes resolving the impasse with North Korea, reexamining the nuclear deal with Tehran, and negotiating over how to end the sectarian conflict in Syria that empowered ISIS.

Such diplomacy can't be finessed by a real estate mogul or a lone oilman, no matter their illusions. It will require input from professionals with on-the-ground experience, who can help Tillerson develop a policy process along with negotiating terms.

That, in turn, requires a secretary of state who understands he can't act solo, and must encourage the best and brightest in his department and stand up for its survival. It also requires a secretary who's willing to stand up to Trump, or join in the aforementioned troika that may be able to penetrate the president's tweet-drenched delusions.

Tillerson should study Mattis' 2013 warning to legislators to view diplomacy in terms of a cost-benefit ratio. "The more that we put into the State Department's diplomacy," the general said, "the less we have to put into a military budget as we deal with the outcome of an apparent American withdrawal from the international scene."

Although Trump will deny it, that warning is even more relevant today. His denigration of diplomacy is viewed abroad as a sign of a new U.S. isolationism and a signal for adversaries to take advantage. And Tillerson is making a bad situation worse.
Frederick Bannons parents, Frederick Sr. and Elvira, with whom he opened up discussions about end-of-life issues. Read more

Frederick Bannon Jr. was by his mother's side in intensive care as she fought a rare form of muscle cancer in late 2014. She was heavily sedated, but he felt confident making medical decisions for her, thanks to his family's advance care planning.

Bannon had difficult end-of-life-care conversations with his parents, both in their mid-80s, before his mother's diagnosis. During those discussions, held at Bannon's urging, his parents decided how far they wanted doctors to go to keep them alive should they become too sick to communicate. Bannon then documented their wishes.

"That helped so much because you knew at least one thing was going to be taken care of," said Bannon, 65, of San Francisco, whose mother survived and lives with Bannon's father in Wethersfield, Conn.

Rebecca Sudore, a geriatrician at the University of California-San Francisco, created prepareforyourcare.org, which provides step-by-step instructions and video stories to help people navigate the care they want at the end of their lives. She built the site in 2013 for families unsure about how to broach sensitive questions. In a study published in May in JAMA Internal Medicine, she and other researchers found that the website  combined with the use of an "advance directive" form  prompted participants to plan ahead.

The website is free, and Sudore makes no money from it. She said she created it as a public service with the idea of studying its effectiveness.

The site guides patients in drafting a "summary of wishes" to help families and other caregivers decide whether their loved ones should undergo life-sustaining medical interventions such as feeding tubes and ventilators.

For the study, Sudore approached 414 San Francisco-area military veterans  including Bannon  who were split into two groups. One received a simplified advance directive, a legal document allowing a patient to consent to or decline specific medical procedures well before they occur. The other group was given the directive, but also was pointed to prepareforyourcare.org, which is publicly available in English and Spanish.

Almost none of the participants had documented their wishes in the six months before the study. But nine months after the study began, 35 percent of those who received access to the website and the directive had updated their medical record, while 25 percent who received just the directive had done so.

Sudore sees stark contrasts between "deer-in-headlights" families who arrive at the intensive-care unit with outdated directives and no specified plans, and those who have had ongoing conversations.

Bannon, a Vietnam War veteran, X-ray technician and colon cancer survivor, praised the site's simplicity and accessibility and said it persuaded him and his parents to document their wishes before his mother's cancer treatment.

The website appears to be a useful tool, according to VJ Periyakoil, a physician, associate professor of medicine, and director of Stanford University's Palliative Care Education and Training Program. (Periyakoil is friends with the UCSF researchers, but was not involved in the study.)

"Clinicians are so hard-pressed for time," she said, "so when the patients get activated by web-based tools, I think it's a wonderful thing."

Seventy percent of Americans lack an advance care plan, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lack of preparation can have undesirable effects, Periyakoil said.

Family members who have not gone through this process sometimes choose life-sustaining options for their loved ones, which may cause unnecessary suffering, Periyakoil said.

Children "might be more lured by, 'I really love Mom. I can't allow anything bad to happen to her, and I want to keep doing whatever I can to extend her life,' " she said. "And by doing so, they might end up subjecting Mom or Dad to a lot of measures that are ineffective and burdensome."

Periyakoil, who has studied barriers to end-of-life care among eight ethnic groups, does not believe there's a single solution to encouraging end-of-life conversations, because different groups have different approaches to discussing death. She suggested that the website might be one of many strategies to consider.

Prepareforyourcare.org has logged more than 1.7 million page views and 85,000 users in 115 countries since its 2013 launch.

For Bannon, the site worked. Now, he said, his parents are "even more relaxed, because when they do face their final exit, everything's in place."

This article was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. KHN's coverage related to aging & improving care of older adults is supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation, coverage of end-of-life and serious illness issues is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and coverage of aging and long-term care issues is supported by the SCAN Foundation. Inquirer staff writer Kelly O'Shea contributed to this article.
David Mano holds a sample of his private well water from the first day he realized it was tainted. Read more

When David Mano bought his home on Valleyview Drive in Exton in 2008, it was primarily for three reasons: the ranch-style house itself, its swimming pool and the water well.

For years, the water flowing from the well was "nearly perfect," Mano said.

"It was basically spring water," he said. "But now it's a moot point."

That's because the well and several others in the neighborhood of $300,000-$400,000 homes were tainted last month  possibly with groundwater and sediment  by Sunoco Pipeline LP's horizontal drilling for the $3 billion Mariner East 2 pipeline project.

Because of that water contamination and related spillage concerns, drilling for the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Exton and 54 other locations around the state was suspended last month by an environmental judge. On Friday, a judge ruled that Sunoco can resume work at 16 of 17 locations where Sunoco had specifically requested to continue drilling. Before drilling can resume at other locations, including in Exton, the state's Environmental Hearing Board in Harrisburg has set three days of hearings that begin Wednesday.

The judge ordered Sunoco to halt its horizontal drilling in response to a filing by environmental groups that the process has polluted local waterways in Pennsylvania.

The hearings pit the Clean Air Council, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the Mountain Watershed Association against the state, Sunoco and the state's Department of Environmental Protection. Mano plans to testify at the hearings.

Mariner East 2 is a 350-mile expansion of Sunoco's current Mariner East pipeline system, designed to carry natural gas liquids from the vast Marcellus and Utica shale gas fields  through 17 Pennsylvania counties to Sunoco's Marcus Hook Industrial Complex on the Delaware River. The project has a long and complex legal and regulatory history, including Sunoco's contentious court victory designating it as a public utility and eligible to take land for the project by eminent domain.

Residents in the region, advocates and local politicians are concerned that more problems are imminent if Sunoco resumes drilling. Late last month, a coalition of local environmental groups from suburban Pennsylvania said it had gathered about 1,200 signatures of residents who want the Mariner East 2 project halted because of water contamination fears.

State Sen. Andrew Dinniman (D), who represents Chester County, is among pipeline opponents. He said he has lost confidence in Sunoco and the DEP because of the Exton water contamination  and worries that will happen again.

"I have significant concerns of whether they're up for the job and able to do the task," said Dinniman. "They certainly haven't shown it so far."

Sunoco initially reported to West Whiteland Township around June 23 that its drilling caused water to drain from the private aquifer and lower the water table, causing the contamination, said Sunoco spokesman Jeff Shields. But the company continued drilling and didn't notify residents because, at that point, there was no indication of water contamination, Shields said.

But at a Fourth of July party on July 3, Mano, his fiancee Diane Salter and a friend drank some of their well water and realized it tasted "terrible." Mano, who described the cloudy, brown water as"dirty-tasting," and other residents called West Whiteland Township's Board of Supervisors. The officials notified Sunoco and Sunoco voluntarily halted drilling in the area that day.

The Sunoco spokesman said the company resumed drilling on July 8 but stopped again on July 13 out of precaution to ensure that no further contamination would occur.

Initially, the clouding of the water in Exton was suspected to be from non-toxic bentonite clay, commonly used in drilling as a lubricant. But Shields said the company's tests on the wells of 30 homes show only groundwater and sediment in their water, not bentonite clay. Independent tests on Mano's water at his expense are pending.

To obtain the permit, Sunoco was required to offer pre-drilling, private well testing to homeowners with wells within 150 feet of areas of proposed drilling. Shields said a number of homes across the state opted to have their wells tested, including some of the 14 affected Chester County households.

Shields said post-drilling water tests compared to the baseline results showed differences in turbidity, or cloudiness, and some elevated iron measures - changes that would affect the taste and smell of the water - but no changes in key health-affecting content.

Sunoco reacted quickly to help the Chester County residents reporting fouled water, supplying bottled water and household water filtration systems and offering hotel rooms for residents to use. The company also offered to connect the affected properties to West Whiteland's public water supply, operated by Aqua Pennsylvania.

Mano and Salter's home, along with the other 13 other homes known to be affected, will soon be connected to the public water system. The families are being supplied bottled water by Sunoco but have been told by the energy company that their water is safe for showering.

Sunoco sat down with concerned residents last month, offering each of the affected households $60,000, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. Shields declined to discuss details of the negotiations.

Mano said a reading of the agreement reveals a stipulation that residents taking the offer would agree not to take any legal action against Sunoco. He said Sunoco representatives had said in the meeting, though, that there was no such condition.

"They straight-up lied to us," he said.

Shields, however, was emphatic that Sunoco was "very clear and explicit to the residents about what the agreement says and what it does not say."

Mano has no plans to sign the agreement but he said he believes many of the residents have already agreed to it. Several of the other affected residents declined to be interviewed for this story.

Other residents in the pipeline's path are concerned that their wells could also be contaminated  and some say they don't live near a public water supply to tap into if necessary. Take Karen Katz of Edgmont Township in Delaware County, whose home on Heather Hills Lane is near . Drilling has begun near her home on Heather Hills Lane, and she believes there is "a significant possibility" that her private well could become contaminated. But there is no public water source available in her township, she said.

"How long would I have to go without water? Nobody will address that," Katz said. "Nobody will tell me how they're going to protect us."

State Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky (D., Delaware County) has called for a halt to the pipeline construction. She said there were 61 spills of drilling fluid between April and June  and she expects more if drilling continues.

"We have a responsibility to show people that their water is safe," she said. "If Sunoco can't keep their water safe, then the permit should be revoked."

Shields acknowledged that there have been several bentonite spills along the drilling route. But he also noted that the drilling fluid being used for the pipeline is nontoxic, consisting of nontoxic bentonite and potable water.

Joseph Minott, the executive director of the Clean Air Council, said Sunoco's drilling permit was "problematic from the beginning" and called on the DEP to rescind it and reissue the permit with new requirements. Alex Bomstein, an attorney for the council, said the permit allows Sunoco to drill where it is unsafe because of the area's geology and population density  and that includes Exton.

"(The Department of Environmental Protection) should have focused on that and ensured that Sunoco took extra precautions," such as rerouting the pipeline away from such areas, he said.

Shields said that Sunoco is working closely with the DEP to ensure that private wells are identified in advance and protected going forward.

Mano, meanwhile, is simply concerned about when he and the other impacted residents will have clean water to drink. The aquifer that Aqua Pennsylvania pulls from for its public water is down the road from his home, he said.

Shields said that no public wells have been tainted by the drilling, but Mano said he's worried that if the Sunoco drilling could ruin his private well, it could also endanger that public-supply aquifer.

"If it can happen to our well, why can't it happen to an Aqua well? If they wreck public water, then nobody has water to drink," Mano said.
The study explores the antidepressant effects of certain yoga postures.

By Indo-Asian News Service: If you are suffering from depression, yoga can complement traditional therapies and help reduce the symptoms of the mental disorder, researchers claim.

"Yoga has become increasingly popular in the West, and many new yoga practitioners cite stress-reduction and other mental health concerns as their primary reason for practicing," said Lindsey Hopkins from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in the US.

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In the study, presented at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington DC, the team of researchers explored the acceptability and antidepressant effects of "Hatha Yoga" and "Bikram Yoga" -- also known as heated yoga -- in a series of experiments.

While 23 males participated in the twice-weekly "Hatha Yoga" classes for eight weeks, 52 women participated in the "Bikram Yoga" classes for eight weeks.

Both the methods led to a significant reduction in depression symptoms as well as improved quality of life, optimism, and cognitive and physical functioning.

"The more the participants attended yoga classes, the lower their depressive symptoms at the end of the study showed," said Maren Nyer, PhD from the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Further, the researchers also looked at the potential of yoga to address chronic and/or treatment-resistant depression in two studies.

The first study involved 12 patients, who had experienced depression for an average of 11 years, participated in nine weekly yoga sessions of approximately 2.5 hours each.

The second study involved 74 mildly depressed university students, and compared yoga with a relaxation technique.

Also Read:Yoga tones my body and soothes my senses: Malaika Arora

The results showed that yoga significantly lowered scores for depression, anxiety and stress, the researchers said.

"These studies suggest that yoga-based interventions have promise for depressed mood and that they are feasible for patients with chronic, treatment-resistant depression," said Nina Vollbehr, from the Centre for Integrative Psychiatry in the Netherlands.

However, the research on yoga as a treatment for depression is still preliminary, Hopkins noted.

"At this time, we can only recommend yoga as a complementary approach, likely most effective in conjunction with standard approaches delivered by a licensed therapist," she added.

"Clearly, yoga is not a cure-all. However, based on empirical evidence, there seems to be a lot of potential," Hopkins said.

--- ENDS ---
Ill readily admit going into the 2017 Wildays show feeling a little jaded. Bike shows? Ive seen em all. Theyre either a car park full of bikes and corporate tents in the summer sun, or theyre a convention centre full of bikes and corporate stands with air-conditioning. Been there, done that. But by the end of this particular show, my eyes had been opened. There is another way to do bike shows. A better way. And I think Italys Wildays show has found it.

After a trip from Sydney that I can only describe as biblical, I arrived at the Autodromo Riccardo Paletti racetrack. Located about 30 kilometres south-west of Parma, I was a little taken aback at its distance from the city itself. After all, people live in cities and its these very same people who tend to buy tickets to bike shows. The further you place the show away from the people, the less of them tend to come.

None the less, you couldnt have hoped for a better location. Picturesque Northern Italian town with a castle. Cool river for swimming. A professional racetrack. And enough surrounding nature to mean that a decent flat track oval and an extensive enduro course could easily be cut out of the surrounding landscape with nothing more than a tractor and a bunch of perimeter tape. And unsurprisingly, the people came.

Bored of the live band? A five minute wander to the sprint races should see you right. Bored of the sprint races? A five minute stroll to the flat track will change things up. Flat track dust too much? Time for a little enduro, maybe? Whatever the case, you get the idea. Sure, Wheels & Waves offers a similar selection of goodies but here at Wildays, its all available within a stones throw. No need to ride across any international borders or travel any great distances. Its all right here.

The brainchild of Marco and Phonz from Italian custom shop Anvil Motociclette and supported by a few local business visionaries, the show screams informed moto fanaticism from the rooftops. These arent businessmen looking to make a quick buck. Hell no. These are riders who have sat down with a blank piece of paper, written Ultimate Bike Show at the top of the page and then gone to town.

My personal highlights? Tearing around a flat track on a hired Yamaha SR400 from the Di Traverso Flat Track School. Campfire laughs with the Vagabund boys on a Saturday night. Cool beers in the cool river at sunset on the shows last day. Midnight V8 donuts with crazy Daan from Moto Adonis. And eating like a king with Dopz from Emporio Elaborazioni. Note to self: barbecued goat meat on a stick is the best beer food ever.

And the sheer amount of moto bambinos tearing around the show was a heart-warming testament to the future of the scene, at least in Italy. The Italians attitude towards the younger generations hopping on bikes seem, to me at least, to be passionate, well-intentioned and delightfully free of that over the top Health & Safety mindset that seems to pervade shows in the US, UK, and Australia. Father and unlicensed young daughter practicing their riding in a quite corner of the show? Not a problem. And their wasnt an over zealous security guard with a chip on their shoulders to be seen for miles.

The team behind the show has just announced that itll be on again in May 2018. Were positively champing at the bit to get over there again. Take it from us, if you have the chance to make it to the next show, youd be a total barbecued goat not to come along. Just look for the Aussie in the Pipeburn t-shirt with the smile and the liberal coating of flat track dust and make sure you say hello.

[ Photos by Hookie Co. & David Ohl ]

The fine print: In an effort to keep things as legit as possible, we feel its best to mention that the Wildays team paid for our trip to Parma to visit the show. Rest assured that if the show wasnt up to scratch, wed have no problems in saying just that. We will always endeavour to give you the best reviews possible without fear or favour; Northern Italians bearing delicious Parma ham and hard cheese included.
This article originally appeared on August 4, 2017 at collectspace.com and is republished with permission.

Hardware from one of NASA's retired space shuttle orbiters played a critical role in the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars five years ago.

Largely unknown to the public, a helium regulator that first flew multiple times into Earth orbit as part of the propulsion system for the reusable winged spacecraft was inspected, modified, tested and then re-launched as a key component of the descent stage for the six-wheeled rover that touched down on the Red Planet on Aug. 5, 2012 (PDT or Aug. 6 EDT/GMT).

"We took part of a space shuttle and put it on Mars," said Masashi Mizukami, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., in an email interview with collectSPACE. "It was an existing off-the-shelf design that could meet nearly all of the specialized [Mars Science Laboratory] MSL requirements as is."

The repurposed hardware, which brought together a team from NASA's planetary exploration and human spaceflight programs, needed to function for the rover's landing to be successful.

"On the propulsion side, this was one of the few [possible] single point failures on the mission," said John Habis, vice president of business development at VACCO Industries, which sourced the helium regulator for the shuttle program and serviced it for its reuse on MSL. "If this unit had not of worked, there was no backup."
Photo: Summit (NJ) PD/Facebook

The wife of Summit, NJ, police Detective Matthew Tarentino, who died in a car crash as he was driving to work in May, recently gave birth to their daughter, the department announced Thursday.

Tarentino's wife, Victoria, gave birth to Anastasia Catherine at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, police said.

"Mom and baby are doing great!" the police department said on Facebook. "Proud big brothers Robbie and Ray are eager for their little sister to start playing with them!"

Tarentino was killed in late May in a three-car wreck at milepost 33 on Route 78, where there are no guardrails or trees separating the lanes of the busy highway, reports NJ.com.

He was the community D.A.R.E. program officer for the town and was scheduled to attend a school event on the day of the crash.
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Kellyanne Conway tried to attack the grand jury that is looking into the Trump/Russia scandal and humiliated herself by not knowing that grand juries arent secret.

Video:

Leaking the phone calls between our president and other heads of state is nothing short of a national disgrace. @KellyannePolls pic.twitter.com/AbiHaRpIVJ  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) August 4, 2017

Conway said, You know, the grand jury investigations are meant to remain secret, so someone leaked it. It could be anybody thats in the grand jury. It could be one of the lawyers. It could be anyone, I suppose.

That is not how any of this works.

As USA Today law and justice reporter, Brad Heath tweeted:

Witnesses and their lawyers are free to talk about grand jury subpoenas. https://t.co/N3KoDzFnAj  Brad Heath (@bradheath) August 4, 2017

Conway and Fox tried to pivot the conversation back to what they view as the real scandal. LEAKERS!!!

It is side splitting funny to listen to the painful desperation of Conway and Fox News as they try to whip up fear and outrage over leakers:

https://youtu.be/6o2DET0rOHI?t=3m3s

The real story isnt Trump financial crimes with Russia, or Trump collusion with Russia, or Trump obstruction of justice.

What Fox and the White House want people to be worried about are leaks.

Kellyanne Conway humiliated herself while trying to attack the grand jury that is investigating Trump. Her false and misleading information would be laughable if it didnt misinform millions of Americans. Conway cant attack the grand jury because its existence became publicly known.

It is impossible to know what kind of Law and Order on acid, Conway is pushing, but her attack on the grand jury was a humiliating flop.
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Economists are lining up to criticize the Trump administrations proposal to crack down on legal immigration this week, saying that immigrants  despite Trumps rhetoric  benefit the economy; they dont hurt it.

According to a report from The Hill, economic experts say the Trump-GOP legislation would hurt the country because immigrants fuel the economy and actually help non-immigrant workers, too.

Those experts broadly agreed that immigration improves the economy for the native population, even on the per-person level. Theres no disagreement. I dont think youll find an economist or demographer that doesnt think immigration increases the size of the pie going to natives, said Rutgers Economics Professor Jennifer Hunt, a former Labor Department Chief Economist and one of the committee members that worked on the Academies report. Overall, the study found that immigration had no negative effects on wages in the long run.

Not only is the United States a nation filled with immigrants, but each generation of those immigrants contributes more to the economy than the last generation.

As The Hill report continued:

Immigrants children  the second generation  are among the strongest economic and fiscal contributors in the population, the report found. The second generation ends up adding roughly $30 billion to government coffers, while the third generation creates a $223 billion surplus.

The criticisms come as Trump teamed up with two Republican senators earlier this week to propose legislation that would actually cut legal immigration by half over the next 10 years, claiming that it would accelerate economic growth.

This legislation demonstrates our compassion for struggling American families who deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first and that puts America first, Trump said when unveiling the plan.

The irony here is that, even though Trump spent his entire campaign blaming immigrants for the struggles faced by non-immigrant workers in the United States, its his anti-immigrant policies that could end up squeezing U.S. workers the most.
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If this isnt an idea we can all get behind, then Im not sure what is.

On Saturday, former George W. Bush ethics lawyer Richard Painter made a suggestion so simple, its hard to understand why it wasnt proposed sooner in the age of Trump.

In an interview on MSNBCs AM Joy, Painter said its time to rig up the podium in the press briefing room with a lie detector.

Video:

Ex-Bush ethics lawyer proposes rigging up the press briefing podium with a lie detector. Good idea. #AMJoy pic.twitter.com/LAV9BWaPnF  Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) August 5, 2017

Painter said:

They are trying to cover things up, and now theyre talking about bringing lie detectors into the White House  at least Kellyanne Conway was talking about that. I suggest they put one in the press podium right there. The place would light up like a disco. I mean this  its crazy.

The ex-Bush ethics lawyer made similar comments on Twitter late Friday:

Kellyanne wants lie detectors in the White House? Try one on the press secretary podium. The place will light up like a disco!  Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) August 5, 2017

Painters jab at the unending stream of lies that pour out of the White House came after White House counselor and alternative-fact peddler Kellyanne Conway suggested Friday that the Department of Justice may start using polygraph tests to determine whos been leaking information to the press.

They may, they may not, Conway told Fox News. There are many different ways to discover who is leaking.

In other words, the administration isnt happy when actual truth just so happens to creep out of the White House, so theyre going to use polygraph testing to put a stop to it.

Of course, if the technology was used in the briefing room since the start of the administration, it would have lit up like a disco, as Painter said, on day one during the infamous Sean Spicer lie about Trumps inauguration crowd.

In a White House where lying is second nature, its ironic that anybody in the building would float the idea of subjecting administration officials to a lie detector test.

If fully implemented, thered likely be nobody left in the White House.
While the superintendent is the public face of the Rochester Public Schools, there's a team of people behind him that make the district tick.

That team is the eight-person cabinet , the top-level leadership group that oversees the departments responsible for day-to-day operations in the district. This year, after the sudden mid-year resignation of the assistant superintendent and two cabinet-level vacancies, that group looks a little bit different.

The assistant superintendent position was eliminated and, as a result, another cabinet position was created. Two longtime district employees filled the the cabinet vacancies for director of human resources and a director of elementary and secondary education.

The cabinet is once again fully staffed, just in time for the school year to begin.

The group handles everything that goes on in the district  from construction projects to curriculum  and they meet as a full cabinet every week for three to four hours. As the school year nears, those meetings sometimes turn into full-day events.

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The superintendent and each of the directors meet to get department updates and work through issues.

"We're large enough that it would be impossible for one individual to oversee our entire system," Superintendent Michael Munoz said, noting the district's 2,800 employees and 20-some schools. "There's just no way one person can manage the day-to-day of that."

The cabinet, as a whole, is relatively fresh team - just one members, Karla Bollesen, preceded Superintendent Michael Munoz, who's been in the district for six years. Bollesen, the director of student support services, has been a cabinet member since 2010.

She said cabinet roles have remained relatively consistent since she's worked for the school district. Some of the titles have changed, she said, but the positions and responsibilities have largely remained the same.

For example, some of the positions had been focused on specific levels of education. But the district has balanced that as its size has grown and responsibilities shift year-to-year.

A departure prompts change

Four years ago, when one cabinet member took a job in another district, Munoz took the opportunity to reorganize top-level administration and carve out an assistant superintendent position , which was filled by Brenda Lewis.

Now, the school board is using Lewis's sudden resignation to restructure once again. In February, two weeks after her resignation, the school board voted not to hire for the position , and instead created another cabinet-level position.

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The position was re-posted as "director of elementary and secondary education," and has since been filled by Jacque Peterson, who had been a principal at Friedell Middle School and Riverside Elementary School.

Munoz pointed to the decision to eliminate the position as one made by the school board. Previously, because two people had "superintendent" in their job titles, there was a potential for confusion with "who's running the show," he said.

School board chairwoman Julie Workman did not return calls for comment.

The district's human resources position was vacant for about eight months, following Brooke Bass's April 2016 resignation; Lewis stepped in and held the position temporarily. Fourteen-year district employee Karl Bakken was hired for the position in January.

This decision to not have another assistant superintendent switched up cabinet roles and changed each cabinet member's areas of responsibility to "balance out the workload," Munoz said.

"We've tweaked that chart every other year, probably since I've been here," Munoz said. "And a lot of it is you try to balance out the work, and you also try to match it with the skill sets of the individuals that are head of the various different departments."

Munoz said that with the vacancies, everyone has had to chip in and spread out the workload.

"I know it was a lot of extra work put on everybody's plates, but everybody kind of chipped in when needed," he said. "The strength of our cabinet is that we're collaborative and willing to work with each other and help each other out whenever there's a need.

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And as of July 1, he said, "we are back to full strength."
The current regime has been actively suppressing its people for close to 40 years. During that time, the Iranian people have dealt with significant levels of oppression, from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to even the morality police, the people find themselves distrustful of their neighbors, as they try to avoid being reported for any of the numerous possible violations.

The larger picture, however, is the fact that the Iranian regime has been allowed to continue for so long. During its tenure, the mullahs have supported the execution of more than 120,000 people for political reasons, while imprisoning and torturing thousands more. The most basic rights of the Iranian people, such as the right to watch and read what you want, as well as to voice your personal political ideology have been brutally repressed.

Corruption runs rampant throughout the regime, while the economic consequences of these actions are being felt by the average Iranians. Poverty has also increased and reached what would be deemed an unprecedented level. The environment is also being actively destroyed, leaving the Iranian people in a catastrophic state.

Additionally, the Iranian culture is also being destroyed by the regime. Artists, musicians, and others have been banned from performing in public areas and even some private venues. The regime is silencing anything that it feels negatively reflects on the theology and extremism of this fundamental ruling class.

Therefore, based on the actions of the regime and its unwillingness to change or modernize their approach to their peoples most basic human rights, the Iranian people have the right to change the regime. Denying regime change in Iran is tantamount to suggesting that the people of Iran should continue to live with the current conditions, which include torture and execution under the regime.

For the international community, supporting the Iranian people in their quest for regime change is an opportunity to take the side of the oppressed versus the oppressor. It is the opportunity for the international community to stand up to an immoral government that has used and abused its people. The time for the international community to act in support of the Iranian people is now!
A Rochester medical technology start-up believes they might have an all-in-one package solution to a problem that costs the health care industry $35 billion every year.

Thaddeus Medical Systems, founded in 2015 by Steve Scully, has created a prototype temperature-controlled container called iQ+-ler (the + and - are silent) for shipping "cold chain" medical samples and/or drugs and vaccines.

As a National Institutes of Health Fellow at Mayo Clinic and pediatrics resident at Cleveland Clinic with a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology, Scully has seen many spoiled samples and thawed-out pharmaceuticals as well as misplaced packages.

"Most of the errors are due to mislabeling and inadequate temperature control. That's the reason I founded this company, to address those problems," he said. "Even the best hospital in the world is still dealing with this."

Experts say the pharmaceutical industry could lose an estimated $35 billion because of "temperature excursions" and other problems during shipping.

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The proposed Thaddeus solution would be able to maintain up to six specific temperature ranges. Sealed compartments in the cooler package allow for multiple samples or materials requiring different temperatures to be shipped together.

In addition to controlled temps, the iQ+-ler would feature remote real-time condition and location tracking for each shipment for safety and security.

"The majority of our competition is just cardboard or Styrofoam and dry ice," said Thaddeus CEO Ilya Preston. "No one has a one-stop shop solution. That's exactly what Thaddeus is aiming to do with an all-in-one hardware and software smart packaging solution."

While Thaddeus knows exactly what it wants to do, it's still in the early stages of developing their smart shipping cooler.

Scully built a working prototype with help from Samuel Prabhakar's Elite Custom Solutions in Rochester and Kevin Klungtvedt and Rushford Conductive NanoFiber in Rushford. Much of the financing for the prototype project came from a seed grant from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation.

Thaddeus still has office space within Elite Custom Solutions on IBM's Rochester campus.

"We need to optimize the initial design  and we need to build out the software component," said Preston.

To help propel the four-person company forward, Thaddeus has been accepted into a 12-week program at a Kentucky-based business accelerator for early-stage health care companies.

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XLerateHealth in Louisville announced that Thaddeus will be one of eight companies participating in its "intensive program" starting on Wednesday and ending on Oct. 26.

Bob Saunders, chairman and co-founder of the 5-year-old XLerateHealth, said that his nonprofit organization focused on jump-starting health care start-ups.

"We work with earlier stage companies, get them to success faster  using the methodology of the Lean Start-Up model," he said.

Scully and Preston hope the time at XLerateHealth with the use of their facilities will give them the boost they need to get a product to the market.

"We have an aggressive schedule. We like to get the beta stage and hit the ground running by 3Q (third quarter) 2018," Preston said.
The Presidency has vowed speedy and thorough investigation of two persons named to the board of the anti-graft agency, ICPC, Maimuma Aliyu and Saad Alanamu, who are being investigated for alleged corruption.

The appointment of the two and 12 others was announced on Tuesday following approval by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

But the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, on Friday reported that Mr. Alanamu and Ms. Aliyu are separately under investigations for alleged corrupt practices by the police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the ICPC which they are to serve.

The matter will be thoroughly investigated, said the spokesperson for the Acting President, Laolu Akande, in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES Saturday morning. The right thing will be done.

Mr. Akande, however, did not state when the outcome of the said investigation would be known.

I cant say that, but there will be speedy investigation, he said, stressing further, thats why I said prompt investigation and the right thing will be done.

Anti-graft campaign remains a major campaign of the Buhari-Osinbajo administration, but many Nigerians have expressed shock at the naming persons under probe for corruption to serve on the board of an anti-graft agency.

While Mr. Alanamu is being investigated on corruption charges allegedly committed while he headed several institutions in Kwara State, Ms. Aliyu has a longstanding case of alleged abuse of office, misappropriation and diversion of public funds against her.

Mr. Akande was asked to comment on concerns about how Mr. Alanamu and Mrs. Aliyu scaled security screening before their appointments were announced  or if there was none.

He, however, declined comment but reiterated prompt investigation.

PREMIUM TIMES also spoke with Itse Sagay, the chief presidential adviser on anti-corruption campaign, who said he was not aware of the allegations against Mrs. Aliyu and Mr. Alanamu, but expressed concerns.

Mr. Sagay said: I am just hearing it from you for the first time. I dont have any information about that. But if it is true they are under investigation, especially by the ICPC itself, definitely it will be improper for them to be on the board. I think those who have the information should forward it to the appointing authority.

According to the ICIR, charges were already being prepared against Mrs. Aliyu by the ICPC in preparation to taking her to court when her name was announced as a member of the new board of the commission.

Apart from the ICPC investigation, ICIR said its investigations showed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Nigerian Police have investigated several corruption cases against Ms. Aliyu, a former executive director of the Aso Savings and Loans.

In fact, in May, a police investigative report indicted her and recommended her for prosecution. The investigative report dated May 31, 2017, and signed by Taiwo Oyewale, a Superintendent of Police, for the Deputy Commissioner of Police, IGP Monitoring Unit, said Ms. Aliyu illegally converted to personal use a total of N58 million being proceeds of three plots of land belonging to her employers, Aso Savings and Loans.

Also, Mr. Alanamu, described as a protege of Olusola Saraki, late politician and father of Senate President Bukola Saraki, is being investigated by the ICPC for corruption and bribery.

He is being accused of collecting bribes from contractors handling TETFUND contracts, which he approved as Chairman of the Board of Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin.

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The Borno Police Command on Saturday said three suicide bombers were killed on Friday at Simari area of Maiduguri.

Victor Isuzu, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, confirmed the killing in a statement in Maiduguri on Saturday.

Mr. Isuzu said that the incident occurred at about 21.49 p.m., when three suicide bombers, a male and two females attempted to penetrate Usmanti Community in Mafa LGA.

The suicide bombers were chased by security personnel in the ensuing stampede and in an attempt to escape arrest, the suicide bombers hurriedly detonated the IEDs strapped on their bodies killing themselves.

However, two members of the security personnel sustained injuries and were rushed to University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

Police and EOD personnel visited the scene to secure and render the area safe, he said.

Abdullahi Danbatta, the spokesman of the CJTF, confirmed that two of their members were wounded in the attacks.

A witness, Amin Audu, said the insurgents took advantage of the night to gain access into Maiduguri.

The powerful blast also made the explosives strapped to the other ladies to detonate and blew them into pieces, he said.

Maiduguri and other liberated areas have witnessed upsurge of suicide bomb attacks in which many lives and property were lost in the past two months.

The insurgents had recently attacked a team of prospecting oil workers on exploration at Lake Chad Basin.

The insurgents also attacked Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps in Maiduguri and Dikwa Local Government Area of the state.

Also, 14 women including police personnel were abducted by the insurgents.

(NAN)

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By Dayo Aiyetan

The federal government will most likely replace the two persons nominated to the board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, who have since been discovered to be under investigation by the agency.

The ICIR exclusively reported Friday that two persons announced as members of the reconstituted board of the ICPC, Maimuna Aliyu and Saad Alanamu, were being investigated for corruption by the anti corruption agency.

The report indicated that Ms. Aliyu, a former Executive Director at the government-owned Aso Savings and Loans, was being investigated for stealing and diversion of public funds and that charges were being drawn up against her by the ICPC before her appointment.

Mr. Alanamu is also being for, among other allegations, bribery during his tenure as chairman of the the Kwara State College of Education.

A senior presidency source who cannot be named told the ICIR late Friday that the government took the decision to replace the two of them after verifying the allegations that they were under investigation and that the decision to replace them would be announced next week.

He said the government felt embarrassed that persons undergoing criminal investigations were announced as members of the board of the anti corruption agencies handling their case.

However, another source in the government whose name can also not be mentioned told our reporter that the members of the ICPC board announced on Tuesday did not go through any security screening as is traditional for such appointees.

The source said the appointees were picked from a long list of names that had piled up in the two years that the Mohammadu Buhari government came into office.

He said the delay by the government to fill available vacancies led to a situation where a long list had developed of persons seeking appointment into several boards. Such appointments are used for political patronage and rewarding the party faithful.

However, lately, a lot of pressure, it was learnt, had been put on the government to fill some of the vacancies, leading to the recent announcement of appointments into some boards.

Mr. Osinbajo approved a total of 36 new board appointments on Tuesday.

Apart from the ICPC, members were appointed into the boards of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC; the Investment and Security Tribunal and the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission.

However, rather than send the names of the appointees to the State Security Services for proper security screening, the government just announced their appointment, the source said.

When asked to verify the claim that the appointees did not go through security screening, spokesman to the Acting President, Laolu Akande, was not too committal.

In a text message sent in response to our enquiries, he said the claims will be thoroughly and promptly acted upon with dispatch doing the right if found true.

This report was first published by the ICIR. We have its permission to republish.

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The policeman at the centre of the burglary of an Abuja home of former President Goodluck Jonathan, initially made a bolt for it but was rearrested after a man he sold a property to tricked him into polices net, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

Mr. Jonathan had last week confirmed this newspapers exclusive report of the burglary, affirming that everything, including door and window frames as well as kitchen cabinets were removed.

The Nigeria Police have sacked Mr. Musa and two others involved in the theft. They are expected to be arraigned in court soon over the burglary.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Musa Musa, a sergeant, and his colleagues on security duty at the house, were arrested and detained at the Gwarimpa Police Division following the report.

They were however released on bail after a few days in detention, disclosed a source familiar with the development.

The Police Inspector who obtained bail for Musa promised to bring him back to the police station the following Monday, but he jumped bail and disappeared, a source told PREMIUM TIMES.

The Gwarimpa Police division wasted no time in arresting the inspector who stood as surety for Musas bail.

During interrogation, the Inspector revealed that Musa had a house in Dikwa (a satellite community of Abuja) and that he might be hiding there.

Unknown to the inspector, Sergeant Musa had rushed to Dikwa, a village near Dei Dei and sold the house at a giveaway price, intending to run away.

But unfortunately for him, the buyer had only half of the agreed amount in cash so he persuaded Musa to give him three days to raise the balance.

When the Inspector led the officers from Gwarimpa Division to Dikwa, it was the buyer they met in the house. The man revealed that Musa was yet to collect the money for the house in full.

The police officers directed him to call Musa to come for the balance. It was then that he was re-arrested as he arrived the house from a hotel where he was hiding, the source said.

Another source confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Musa was brought back to Gwarimpa police station in handcuffs.

Police are also looking for another person, identified simply as Mallam Shuaibu, in connection to the looting.

The police in the Federal Capital Territory have also forwarded the names of two other police inspectors to the Assistant Inspector-General of FCT Zonal Office for disciplinary action for their suspected roles in the incident.

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Some parents donate their daughters to the Boko Haram for suicide attacks, the Nigerian Army said on Saturday.

The Army in a statement by its spokesperson, Sani Usman, therefore warned such parents to desist forthwith.

Mr. Usman, a brigadier general, also appealed to religious, traditional and community leaders, and other Nigerians in the North-east, to dissuade people from donating their daughters to Boko Haram for indoctrination and suicide bombing missions.

Mr. Usman said the appeal became necessary following revelations by some intercepted female suicide bombers during interrogations.

It was discovered that most of these hapless minors were donated to the terrorist sect by their heartless and misguided parents and guardians, as part of their contribution to the perpetuation of the Boko Haram terrorists dastardly acts against the Nigerian society and humanity.

The acts of these parents and guardians are not only barbaric, but condemnable and unacceptable.

Nigerians have a responsibility and obligation to collectively mould our children and wards and define a better future for them rather than condemning them to death by the criminal Boko Haram terrorists and their sympathisers through suicide bombings, Usman said.

Suicide bombings, largely by teenage girls, has been on the increase in Borno since the start of this year with scores of such attacks leading to the death of several people.

The latest of such incidents occurred on Friday with security agencies announcing on Saturday that three suicide bombers including two females were killed by security operatives. Two members of the civilian Joint Task Force were also injured in the ensuing explosions.

In his statement on Saturday, Mr. Usman urged the people to be more vigilant and security conscious. He urged Nigerians to report any suspicious persons or those whose daughters or female wards are missing or have not been seen recently.

You can report by calling 193 on any network.

The public is also reminded that the Nigerian Armys offer and reward of the sum of Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N500,000.00) to anybody that provide information about suicide bombing, is still valid, he added.

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The Access to Health and Rights Development Initiative has demanded the release of the 40 people charged for alleged homosexual activity by the Lagos State government.

In a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES, the group said it was calling the international community to raise the issue with their governments as a matter of urgency, especially the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

We are also raising the fact that the conditions for bail are not just unreasonable but they violate the fundamental human rights of the accused.

The statement had the support of other groups like the Bisi Alimi Foundation (BAF), the Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS), Queer Alliance (QA), and the International Centre for Advocacy to Health And Rights (ICARH).

Last week, more than 40 men were arrested by the police for alleged homosexual activities at Vintage Hotel in Owode-Onirin, a Lagos suburb.

On Thursday, the Lagos State Government arraigned 28 adults and 12 minors before a Magistrate Court for allegedly engaging in homosexuality. While the minors were arraigned before Ebute-Metta Magistrate Court, the adults were arraigned before Yaba Magistrate Court.

They all pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge of engaging in gay activities by permitting male persons to have canal knowledge of themselves against the order of nature and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The defendants were each granted bail in the sum of N500,000 and two sureties in like sum.

On Friday, the owner of Vintage Hotel, Patrick Okeze, was arraigned before a Yaba Magistrate Court for allegedly aiding and promoting same sex sexual activities and gay club in his hotel.

Mr. Okeze was arraigned alongside two of his workers, Sunday Isang and Bright Oba, for allegedly encouraging the illegal act to be perpetrated by young men and minors in the hotel contrary to the provisions of Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act of 2014.

In their statement on Friday, the groups insisted that the men charged for homosexual activities were attending an event were HIV Counselling and Testing services were being rendered.

We are working hard to ensure the release of the boys and also to help them assimilate back into society after the ordeal is done, the statement said.

While the official press release from the Lagos state government state that there were minors involved, organisers had no means to verify ages and the event was an 18+ event and not for minors.

The party was not a sex party. Efforts are currently being made towards securing and perfecting bail for the men. We also would want to express our appreciation to all activists working tirelessly to see the release of the 42 currently in police custody.

The groups have also put up an online petition calling on the government to have a rethink on the stand of the law about homosexual activities.

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An interview by Uba Sani, the political adviser to Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, generated controversy on Saturday.

Mr. Sani was accused of justifying the attack on senators and journalists at the Nigeria Union of Journalists secretariat in Kaduna.

The attack occurred last Sunday as two senators, Shehu Sani and Suleiman Hunkuyi, addressed journalists.

Both senators, especially Mr. Sani, are political opponents of the governor, thus leading to allegations Mr. El-Rufai sponsored the thugs who carried out the attack.

The governor, however, promptly condemned the attack, and promised investigations.

However, the governors political adviser, Uba Sani, was accused of justifying the attack in an interview granted in Hausa and partly played on a local Nagarta radio in Kaduna.

Mr. El-Rufais spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, denied the statement credited to the governors aide.

Reports quoting Malam Uba Sani justifying the unfortunate incident at the secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists is not only FALSE but MISCHIEVOUS, Mr. Aruwan said in a message sent to PREMIUM TIMES.

Its part of the grand design to blackmail and crush to the ground anything related to the Governor and Government of Kaduna State.

PREMIUM TIMES has now obtained the audio of the interview by Uba Sani and has transcribed it into English.

In the interview, the political adviser denied that the state government was responsible for the attack, and said interim findings by the state indicated the thugs may have been aggrieved supporters of some of the politicians.

Read the transcript of the brief interview below:

Q: They are accusing the state government of masterminding the attack on them especially you who is the governors adviser on politics, how would you respond about that.

Uba Sani: What they have been saying has no bases and it is just a lie.

Just like you know politics is not madness. If you are voted to represent the people, it became mandatory for you to always visit them. One should come and look after them, provide for them and fulfil all the promises he has made to them. Because you might have promised them something.

What we find out after investigation was that, when the Executive Governor heard about it which he was not happy with, he ordered a thorough investigation. He does not want any trouble happening in the state and as you also know he was the first person to condemn the action of the youth.

Result of the investigation ordered by the governor even though it is still ongoing is that some of the elected people that where there, note, not all of them, few among them never returned from Abuja to look after this youth that have worked for them after using them that time.

They told the youth that if they were elected, some of them spoke over the radio making these promises which we heard, that as soon as they get to Abuja they will be sending them money on monthly basis.

And now, these youth have waited for over two years without receiving anything and since then they have been targeting them.

What we then think happened was the youth attacked them to demand for the monies promised them and fight started; and this is what the preliminary result of the investigation shows. And that they also said as a senator I will be getting about N20 million every month. And this same person who you promised to give money every month understands that you pocket N20 million while he is not getting anything and as you earlier told him that the money you are getting is supposed to be given to him, that could be the reason they now attacked them.

From my own point of view, they are the same people who organised these boys, promised to give them money; and two years later they did not receive anything from them, this is what the preliminary result of the investigation shows.

However. it is just part of the result that we are getting. The investigation is still ongoing.

EDITORS NOTE: The headline and body of this story has been edited to reflect the actual statements made by Uba Sani.

Listen to the Audio here: Saurari abin da Uba Sani ya ce kan harin da aka kai NUJ

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Governor Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa State says a committee of Northern governors and traditional rulers will soon come up with a stand on restructuring in the regions and countrys best interests.

Mr. Almakura stated that the committee is led by the Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State.

The Nasarawa State governor made this known on Saturday at the official installation and presentation of first class staff of office to the new Emir of Keffi, Shehu Yamusa III, in Keffi Local Government Area of the state.

I wish to say that in spite of the numerous provocative statements credited to some unpatriotic elements cloaked in the guise of restructuring, I want to assure everyone that a joint committee headed by Gov. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the Governor of Sokoto State, comprising Northern governors and traditional rulers would soon come up with a common position that will be in the best interest of not only the North, but Nigeria as a whole.

Since our coming on board, we have remained consistent in our determination to ensure the inclusion of traditional rulers in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to enable our Traditional Institution to continue to play its pivotal role as custodian of our traditions, customs, and heritage.

We have since incorporated the traditional institution into the machinery of governance in Nasarawa State by engaging them in the affairs of government at all levels in the state.

This has availed government of their wealth of experience and doggedness in our governance of Nasarawa State and, indeed, the conscience of the society.

It is our conviction that when this is done, the traditional rulers will more proactively complement government efforts toward the development of our society, he said.

Mr. Almakura also noted that the state government has embarked on robust infrastructural development in Keffi and environs.

We have networked the city with asphalted roads and completed the abandoned Keffi Modern Market which will open commercial activities for the people.

We have also awarded contract of about N400 million for the construction of a bridge over Antau River to link the municipality of Keffi with other communities, he added.

He urged the monarch to abide by the oath of office and to discharge his duties without fear or favour to promote peace and socio-economic development of the country.

The governor expressed gratitude to the governors, traditional rulers, and politicians within and outside the state, who attended the ceremony.

He called for sustained cordial relationship with one another in the interest of peace and tranquillity in the country.

Responding, the new emir expressed appreciation to Mr. Almakura for the honour done him and gave an assurance that the Keffi emirate council would be loyal to the state government by providing all the support expected of it.

He pledged to initiate projects and programmes that would impact the lives of the people of the state and Nigerians at large.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that governors Aminu Tambuwal, Simon Lalong, and Samuel Ortom were at the event.

The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido, and the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Saad Abubakar 111 were among other traditional rulers and dignitaries that graced the occasion.

The former Emir of Keffi, Muhammadu Yamusa II, who was enthroned on May 11, 1978, died on December 4, 2015 at the aged of 70 years.

The development led to the appointment of his son, Shehu Yamusa III, as the new emir on December 14, 2015.

(NAN)

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Amnesty International has commended Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for setting up a judicial commission to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by Nigerias security agencies.

In a statement Saturday, the group said the move is long overdue and is an opportunity to bring justice to victims of war crimes and other serious human rights violations committed across parts of Nigeria affected by conflict.

We therefore call on the government to ensure that victims of human rights violations are allowed to present evidence to the commission without fear and with all the necessary protection, said Osai Ojigho, Director, Amnesty International Nigeria.

Mr. Osinbajo on Friday announced the appointment of a seven-member Judicial Commission headed by Justice Biobele Georgewill of the Court of Appeal to review compliance of the Nigerian Armed Forces with human rights obligations and rules of engagement, especially in local conflict and insurgency situations.

The announcement came after months of accusation by local and international media as well as groups that the military were culpable in several cases of human rights abuse, an allegation the government had largely left the military to investigate itself and thus clear itself of the allegations.

In its statement, Amnesty International called on the government to ensure that the commission is independent, impartial and free from any conflict of interest that may affect the integrity of its work.

Ensuring that the commission has the resources to carry out its work and making its terms of reference public can bring transparency, said Mr. Ojigho.

Investigating compliance of security agencies with rules of engagements in all conflicts, and violation of international humanitarian and human rights law is a step in the right direction that must be carried out with all sense of responsibility of making sure that no human rights violation goes unaccounted for.

The mandate of the commission to advise on preventing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in conflict situations is also a vital step for the country.

The governments priority should be justice, human rights and the dignity of human life in Nigeria. All persons reasonably suspected of committing crimes under international law and other serious violations of human rights on all sides of all conflicts in the country must be brought to justice in fair trials before civilian courts without recourse to the death penalty.

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Floods have destroyed many property and rendered thousands homeless in Benue and Katsina States, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports.

In Benue, the Commissioner for Water Resources and Environment, Joseph Ustev, told NAN on Saturday in Makurdi that five local governments had been affected by flooding in the state.

Mr. Ustev said all the local governments were among the six predicted by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) that would be affected by the 2017 flooding.

The six local government areas are Makurdi, Buruku, Guma, Tarka, Logo and Agatu.

So far the flood committee has discovered that flood has actually set in, we went to places like Adeke along Welfare Quarters and discovered that flood has taken over some houses.

As we speak, they are homeless, like one of the places we visited, they were yet to eat because water has taken over their houses and there is no place to cook.

The problem in Adeke is because of lack of sufficient culvert to control the water; while along George Akume Road, the area needs a big drainage system to control the water flow.

Mr. Ustev urged the Federal Government to include Benue among the states to benefit from the N1.6 billion ecological intervention funds for states affected by flood disaster in the country.

He said since 2013, the state had not received any ecological assistance from the Federal Government.

He said the current budget provisions to address environmental issues were inadequate and needed to be increased as a result of the number of disasters witnessed in the country.

He said if adequate budgetary provisions were made many disasters may be mitigated the since natural disasters could only be controlled.

Natural disasters cannot be prevented but minimised, there are measures that man can put in place to checkmate the disasters like dredging of rivers where necessary, building of drainage systems among others, he said.

On NIMETs prediction, the commissioner said the state had constituted a committee and had so far gone round the local governments.

He said the committee would formally write to the governor for immediate action.

According to him, the state government was constructing a camp at Agan Toll gate in Makurdi for likely victims of the flood and is enlightening the public on flood control measures.

NAN recalls that no fewer than 4, 000 houses were submerged in 2012 due to flooding which also destroyed property worth millions of naira.

Record shows that Nigeria experienced its first flood disaster in the 1950s and the problem has persisted till date.

In Katsina State, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) on Saturday said over 1000 houses were destroyed and thousands of people displaced during flood disaster in five communities in the state.

The flood disasters have displaced several families from their homes and are currently squatting with friends and relatives, said Aminu Garba, the Executive Director of the agency.

He said this during the distribution of building materials to the flood victims of Inwala Jangebe village of Batagarawa LGA in Katsina State.

Mr. Garba said the flood disaster happened three weeks ago at Inwala Jangebe village of Batagarawa Local Government Area where 300 houses were destroyed.

According to him, at Jangebe village a boy lost his life and 10 people sustained injuries.

Flood has destroyed 150 houses and displaced over 2000 people in Kaita LGA; while a 10 year old boy lost his life during the disaster.

The flood also destroyed 20 houses in Malumfashi LGA, while 40 houses were destroyed by the disaster in Mabai village of Kankara LGA.

We also recorded flood disaster in Kusada Local Government Area of Katsina state, he said.

The director said that SEMA had purchased two trailers of cement and 600 bundles of roofing zinc for distribution to the victims of the flood.

Earlier, the Acting Sole Administrator of Batagarawa LGA, Alhaji Bishir Shargalle, called on the victims not to sell the relief materials and urged them to repair their houses.

He commended the state government for providing food and drugs assistance to the people of Jangebe when the flood disaster occurred.

In his remarks, the Magajin-Garia Katsina, Alhaji Aminu Abdulmumini, called on the people to consider the disaster as an act of God.

He advised the victims to assist themselves by clearing the drainages in their village to avoid future occurrence of the disaster. (NAN)

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The Plateau State University, Bokkos, has dismissed reports claiming that it had raised fees.

Recent reports claim that we have increased charges from N36,000 to N100,000; I want to state categorically that we have not increase the fees. The charges are still N36,000, the Vice Chancellor, Doknan Sheni, said on Saturday.

Mr. Sheni, who met with officials of the universitys chapter of the Students Union Government (SUG), urged students to discard the baseless rumour.

I want to assure you that no fee has been increased. The university has not even considered doing that, he said.

He urged the SUG officials to relay the message to their colleagues to ensure that no 0ne was deceived.

Mr. Sheni also reacted to allegations that he was siphoning the institutions limited resources.

I am not here to make money. I merely offered myself as a sacrificial lamb to salvage PLASU, which was in dire need of rescue when I took over as Vice Chancellor.

I had juicy offers but ignored them to serve PLASU which was like a secondary school when I took over. All of you can testify to the difference between now and when I came in.

Monetary gains were not part of my reasons for coming here. My prime interest was to develop PLASU into an institution that will be ranked among key universities in Nigeria and even beyond.

He challenged the students leaders to be ready to sacrifice for the welfare of their colleagues, and urged them to feel free to approach the school authorities if there was anything they wanted to clarify.

Our doors are always open. Feel free to seek clarification from us instead of listening to rumours and gossips, he said.

The school boss promised to provide a piece of land for SUGs permanent secretariat, and called for more suggestions toward academic excellence.

Earlier, the SUG president, Izang Ajik, expressed students anxiety over the rumoured hike in fees and its impact, and asked the Vice Chancellor to clarify the situation.

We are worried over rumours that you are raising fees to N100,000; we want to know the truth because students are already agitated, he said.

Mr. Ajik also requested for a piece of land for the unions permanent structure, and pledged the students support to efforts to make the school a leading academic institution. (NAN)

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A former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has stayed away from the state congress of the ruling All Progressives Congress currently going on in Kano.

The event, which is holding at the Indoor Hall of the Sani Abacha Stadium, is being attended by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, federal and state legislators, political office holders and party leaders to elect a new state executive committee for the party.

Mr. Kwankwaso, who is now a senator, has been at loggerheads with his successor, Mr. Ganduje, over the control of the APC in Kano State. Mr. Ganduje was the deputy governor to Mr. Kwankwaso until the end of May 2015 when he stepped up as governor.

At the state congress, 15 persons loyal to Mr. Ganduje were presented unopposed for the various state party offices.

Presenting the 15 nominees, the chairman of the committee organising the congress, Nadu Yahya, said the committee gave equal opportunity to every party member to contest for the party seats.

The unopposed nominees include the current acting Chairman of the party Abdullahi Abbas, who wants to take the seat in substantive capacity; his deputy, Shehu Maigari; and current Secretary, Ibrahim Sarina.

The Chairman of the Election Committee sent from Abuja, Nwankwo Arinze,, noted that despite the fact that the contests are unopposed,the laws of the party stipulate strict compliance with the guidelines for election into party offices.

Mr. Arinze said his committee was directed by the APC National Headquarters to conduct transparent elections at the party congress.

He said the APC remains a transparent party that believes in the rule of law and principle of open participation.

There is heavy presence of security operatives outside and within the Congress venue with the delegates and other participants thoroughly screened with metal detectors before being allowed into the stadium.

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A chieftain of All Progressive Congress, APC, in Kano State has dumped the party and defected to the opposition PDP.

Ibrahim El-Amin, popularly known as Ibrahim Little, an ally of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, announced his decision in Kano on Saturday.

Mr. Little was the Kano chairman of the defunct All Peoples Party, APP, in 2003. He won the partys governorship ticket that year but was manoeuvred by forces loyal to the then presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, who argued that he did not step down as party chairman before the primaries.

While speaking to journalists on Saturday, the politician alleged that the APC has betrayed the trust Nigerians and claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari has lost his government to a clique around him

Today, APC has proven to be a worst party with the government doing worst economically, socially and otherwise, while millions of Nigerians continue to go to bed without eating anything as daily meals, he said.

Mr. Little said although he holds President Muhammadu Buhari in high esteem and sees him as someone who believes in a better Nigeria, the presidents aides have hijacked his government.

Sickness has beaten down Buhari, he is no longer in control of the government and those who are in control are not professional enough in their field of endeavours, that is why they could not make any difference.

Look at the so-called chairman of the economic team of the government, he is not professional but a lawyer; the Minister of Finance an accountant; while the CBN Governor is not an economist but a banker.

With all these, how do you drive a sound economy? he said.

Mr. Little who supported Mr. Buhari in the 2015 presidential elections noted that he has no regret doing so.

He said Mr. Buhari deserved to be president, but unfortunately he has been down with health problems while others have taken over the government.

The politician also said he decamped to the PDP because he believed the North-west had not benefitted so much from the Buhari administration unlike the South-west.

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The Akwa Ibom Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has faulted a recent court judgment which sacked the caretaker chairmen in all the local government areas in the state.

The 31 local governments in the state have been run for about two years now by chairpersons handpicked by Mr. Emmanuel.

A State High Court at the Abak Judicial Division presided by Justice Ezekiel Enang declared on Tuesday that the setting up of the caretaker committees was unlawful because there were no provisions for such within the Nigerian Constitution.

The court accordingly ordered Mr. Emmanuel to dissolve the caretaker committees immediately.

The state government, as reported earlier by PREMIUM TIMES, said they were appealing the judgment.

But Governor Emmanuel, through a statement issued on Friday by his spokesperson, Ekerete Udoh, said, An exercise lawfully executed by the governor pursuant to extant laws of the land cannot be considered unconstitutional.

The Constitution of the Transition Councils by His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel was a lawful exercise that was properly done in accordance with the extant laws made by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly pursuant to the powers vested in Section 7 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the governor said, adding that the councils have not been dissolved, contrary to the rumours being peddled.

The suit against the state government was instituted by a lawyer, Nsikak Akai of the Nsikak Akai and Associates, Abak.

Mr. Akai told PREMIUM TIMES that the court judgment was a victory for democracy and the people of the state.

For once, Akwa Ibom people can hold their governor to account subsequently whenever a governor intends to or even contemplate appointing caretaker committees in the state, Mr. Akai said.

The grievance we had was that the persons that were being appointed as caretakers were only answerable to their benefactors who see them as stooges, while the people bear the brunt.

Once we have elected representatives at the grassroots level, then we can hold them to account, he said.

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The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, on Saturday lamented what it described as incessant attacks on its personnel discharging their lawful duties in Ebonyi.

The corps also alleged that a serving commissioner in the state watched its staff being lynched without acting.

Stella Uchegbu, Sector Commander of the commission in the state, told the News Agency of Nigeria that such negative development was hindering the effective discharge of their duties.

According to Ms. Uchegbu, such incidents are recorded more along the busy Abakaliki to Enugu federal highway.

The attackers do not ask questions on the actions of our personnel, or listen to explanations before attacking and leaving our staff critical wounded in most cases.

The question is, do they attack other security agents in such manner, or is it because we do not carry arms? she queried.

The sector commander lamented that despite the various avenues explored by the corps to enlighten the public on its activities, the threat had persisted.

Our duty is primarily to save lives but it has become pertinent that in doing so, we have to protect ourselves first.

Not all dehumanizing acts against our staff are made public as the offenders usually appeal that such issues are settled amicably she said.

She said that whenever the corps prosecuted motorists for violating traffic regulations, the culprits always felt our staff were against them.

When accidents caused by violating these regulations occur, they do not affect only the offenders, but innocent people, who did not violate such regulations.

Ms. Uchegbu recalled an incident on July 28, when a bus driver abducted FRSC staff detailed to take him (driver) to the FRSC headquarters for prosecution.

The driver overloaded his vehicle and when our staff was detailed to take him to our office, he sped towards Enugu, which made other personnel to pursue him with our patrol vehicles.

The abductors vehicle unfortunately somersaulted and the crowd, which gathered, started brutalising our personnel, including the abductee, which left them seriously injured and hospitalised.

The most intriguing aspect was that a serving commissioner in the state witnessed the spectacle and was alleged to have aided the attackers, she lamented.

(NAN)

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Life-Changing Prayers from the Bible

The Bible is our prayer book. We should not only read the word but also pray it. The Spirit uses the word to teach us how to pray, since we do not know how to pray as we ought (Rm 8:26). The following prayers are guaranteed by God to change lives because they are based on the word. Most of these prayers have been used for several years in evangelistic ministry. They have repeatedly put thousands of people in touch with the life-giving power of God. The prayer of a holy person "availeth much" (Jas 5:16 KJV). Never underestimate the power of a simple heart-felt prayer. Pray God's word, and see God's power.

Don't read this book. Let the Spirit pick out one prayer for you to pray. Let the Spirit take you through this book, prayer by prayer, over a period of months or years.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE RENEWAL OF OUR BAPTISMAL PROMISES

We entered into God's kingdom by being born again of water and the Spirit (Jn 3:5). We must be aware that we were baptized into Christ Jesus and therefore into His death and resurrection (Rm 6:3). This is the most important event that has ever happened to us and the basis for membership in God's family and our relationship with Him. Therefore, the Spirit will often call us to renew our baptismal promises.

The universal Church does this every Easter, but it is advisable to do it more frequently. When we renew our baptismal promises, we must consider the implications of renouncing all Satan's works, especially since Satan is well aware that we are rejecting him. We should also think about the reality that the God of the universe has chosen to adopt us and is our personal Father. We should consider the life-style changes resulting from believing Jesus is God, Lord, and Man born of the Virgin Mary. We no longer live for ourselves but for Him. We do His will and not ours. By faith, we enter into the realm of the invisible. We believe in the virgin-birth, our salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection, and the realities of heaven and hell. We believe in the Holy Spirit and the holy, Catholic Church. Now we have the privilege of renewing our baptismal promises.

Do you reject Satan? I do.

And all his works? I do.

And all his empty promises? I do.

Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth? I do.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father? I do.

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting? I do.

THE RENEWAL OF OUR CONFIRMATIONS

Those of us who have been confirmed and prayed over for the Holy Spirit have the indwelling and the outpouring of the Spirit. Often, however, the Spirit is stifled by sin, selfishness, and pleasure-seeking (1 Th 5:19). We must stir into flame the Spirit's power so we will not give in to discouragement but walk ever more strongly in the power of the Spirit (2 Tm 1:6).

Re-enact your Confirmation. Ask your brothers and sisters in Christ to lay hands on you, and pray: "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22). If you were confirmed several years ago, ask for a little tap on the cheek, like the one the bishop gave you when you were confirmed. This is not nostalgia but a prayer of faith renewing your Confirmation. Set your heart on praising God in other languages (see 1 Cor 14:1). Also expect a new outpouring of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, fear of the Lord, and much more (Is 11:2). Finally, seek above all the gift of prophecy (1 Cor 14:1). Now, lift your hands and receive a new anointing of the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER AFTER RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT

It is a great challenge to continue to live and grow in the Spirit. Therefore, it is crucial to pray for those who have just received a new outpouring of the Spirit. For those who have received love in the Spirit (Col 1:8), pray unceasingly (in this order):

May they "attain full knowledge of His will through perfect wisdom and spiritual insight" (Col 1:9). May they "lead a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him in every way" (Col 1:10). May they "multiply good works of every sort and grow in the knowledge of God" (Col 1:10). May they "be endowed with the strength needed to stand fast, even to endure joyfully whatever may come" (Col 1:11). May they soon have a new life-style, a new wineskin, to hold the new wine of the Spirit (Lk 5:37). May they be devoted "to the apostles' instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). May they put to death the works of the flesh by yielding to the Spirit (Rm 8:13). By the Spirit may they crucify the flesh (Gal 5:24) and not stifle the Spirit.

TWO FAMILY PRAYERS

"I kneel before the Father from Whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name; and I pray:

That He will bestow on you gifts in keeping with the riches of His glory. May He strengthen you inwardly through the working of His Spirit. May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, and may charity be the root and foundation of your life.

Thus you will be able to grasp fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love, and experience this love which surpasses all knowledge, so that you may attain to the fullness of God Himself. To Him Whose power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine  to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end. Amen" (Eph 3:14-21).

(Put the names of your family members in place of the word "you" and "yours".)

"May our sons be like plants well-nurtured in their youth, our daughters like wrought columns such as stand at the corners of the temple. May our garners be full, affording every kind of store; may our sheep be in the thousands, and increase to myriads in our meadows; may our oxen be well laden. May there be no breach in the walls, no exile, no outcry in our streets. Happy the people for whom things are thus; happy the people whose God is the Lord" (Ps l44:12-15).

PRAYER FOR THE WIFE OF AN UNBELIEVING HUSBAND

This prayer applies to circumstances when a husband is unbelieving and disobeying God's word. It applies to many marriages. In these situations, wives should pray both for their husbands and for themselves:

Heavenly Father, I pray that my husband will be won over to Jesus through my conduct. Give me a reverent purity in my way of life. May I be adorned with the hidden character of the heart expressed in the unfading beauty of a calm and gentle disposition (1 Pt 3:1, 2, 4). Father, show me what it means to be Your daughter, a bride of Christ, a temple of the Spirit, and a Christian woman. I repent of my sins and trust You completely. I put my husband, marriage, family, and life into Your hands in Jesus' name. Amen.

PRAYER FOR WIVES

Father, may wives be their husbands' "delight", the "choicest of blessings", "like the sun rising in the Lord's heavens", like the "light that shines above the holy lampstand" (Sir 26:13-17). Amen.

PRAYER FOR HUSBANDS

Father, may husbands be strong men who are spiritual heads of their family, leaders in prayer (1 Tm 2:8), courageous and bold witnesses for Jesus, and victors over the evil one by the power of Your word (1 Jn 2:14). Amen.

PRAYER TO WANT TO FORGIVE

"To err is human; to forgive is divine." Since forgiveness is divine, we can truly forgive only by God's grace. The Lord will give the miracle of forgiveness instantaneously (Mt 5:25). But many times we don't want to forgive. We should pray:

Father, I don't even want to forgive. Change my will. Make me willing to forgive, and then give me the power to forgive in Jesus' name. Amen

PRAYER FOR THE FEAR OF THE LORD AND AGAINST THE FEAR OF MAN

Father, may a reverent fear overtake me (Acts 2:43). Make me so aware of Your presence, power, and love that I will be amazed. May this amazement be so pervasive so as to overshadow everything else in my life, especially the fear of man.

PRAYER FOR GOD TO COME ON STRONG

Jesus, rend the sky and shake the earth (Is 63:19).

Father, use me and use me up (see 2 Tm 4:6).

Spirit, make me holy  no matter what it takes (Mt 5:6).

(Expect the unexpected.)

PRAYER TO THE HEAVENLY POTTER

"O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay and You the Potter: we are all the work of Your hands" (Is 64:7).

In this seemingly innocuous prayer, we ask God to work with us as a potter molds clay. It's a prayer to be pounded, whirled, soaked, cut, and baked. Expect exciting changes.

JOYFUL SHOUTS

God teaches us to pray by joyful shouts (Ps 89:16; Ps 66:1). Go somewhere where you won't disturb anyone and shout:

"Arise, O Lord, that Your enemies may be scattered, and those who hate You may flee before You" (Nm 10:35; Ps 68:2).

"Jesus is Lord!" (Phil 2:11)

"Viva Cristo Rey!" ("Praised be Christ the King")

"Maranatha!" (1 Cor 16:22; Rv 22:20)

PRAYER FOR WISDOM

Every Christian can receive wisdom by asking for it "in faith, never doubting" (Jas 1:5-6). Therefore, the key to receiving wisdom is to pray for freedom from doubt. Pray:

Father, give me wisdom (Wis 9:4) but first

give me faith. I repent of doubts that I have entertained. Holy Spirit, confirm me in Your love. Jesus, "beyond doubt, You are the Son of God!" (Mt 14:33) Amen.

PRAYER WHEN WE SEE SOMEONE SINNING

Father, thank You for giving me the grace to repent and be forgiven of my sins. Thank You for the blood Jesus shed on the cross. Take the plank out of my eye (Mt 7:5), and give life to this person who is sinning (1 Jn 5:16). Amen.

PRAYER FOR VICTORY

"O Lord, there is none like You to help the powerless against the strong. Help us, O Lord, our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. You are the Lord, our God; let no man prevail against You" (2 Chr 14:10).

PRAYER FOR GOOD SHEPHERDS

Lord, appoint over us shepherds after Your own heart who will shepherd us wisely (Jer 3:15).

PRAYER BEFORE READING THE BIBLE

Father, I can't understand Your word without Your grace. I acknowledge my weakness so Your power can reach perfection in me (2 Cor 12:9). Send Your Holy Spirit to remind, teach, and guide me to the Truth (Jn 14:26; 16:13). May I share as soon as possible whatever You teach me (see Lk 8:15-16). Amen.

PRAYER BEFORE JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

"O God, You are my God Whom I seek; for You my flesh pines and my soul thirsts" (Ps 63:2). May "all of us, gazing on the Lord's glory with unveiled faces" be "transformed from glory to glory" into Your "very image by the Lord Who is the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:18).

PRAYERS BEFORE CONFESSION

"Have mercy on me, O God, in Your goodness; in the greatness of Your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always" (Ps 51:3-5).

Holy Spirit, prove me wrong (Jn 16:8). Take me to the cross and let me see the connection between my sins and Jesus' crucifixion and death. Amen.

PRAYER IN TEMPTATION

Jesus, give me specific Scripture passages to use in resisting the temptations of the evil one as You did (Mt 4:4, 7, 10). Amen.

PRAYER FOR HEALING

Jesus, you healed by giving a command. Give to me "Doctor's orders" that will bring healing as I obey them by faith. Amen.

PRAYER TO HAVE JESUS' ENERGY, HIS MIND, AND HIS JOY

Jesus promises to give us His energy, mind, and joy. Therefore, we dare to pray: "Jesus, may I be 'impelled by that energy of' Yours 'which is so powerful a force within me' (Col 1:29). Thank You for giving me Your energy (Col 1:29), mind (1 Cor 2:16), and joy" (Jn 15:11). Amen.

PRAYER TO HAVE CHRIST'S HEART

Jesus, You promised me a new heart and a new spirit (Ez 36:26). May I not be conformed to the world (Rm 12:2). Give me a new gospel life-style. Where my treasure is, there will my heart be (Lk 12:34). May I want what You want. Amen.

PRAYER TO GIVE OUR LIVES TO JESUS

Father, "those things I used to consider gain I have now reappraised as loss in the light of Christ. I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ. For His sake I have forfeited everything; I have accounted all else rubbish so that Christ may be my wealth, and I may be in Him" (Phil 3:7-9). "I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me" (Gal 2:19-20). Jesus, You gave Your life for me; I give my life for You. Amen.

PRAYER FOR HOLINESS

Father, may I hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6), be made perfect in holiness, and be preserved "whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body, irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Th 5:23).

PRAYER AGAINST SATAN

Jesus, I accept my share in the authority You have given the Church over every demon (Mt 10:1). Satan, in Jesus' name, I disarm and despoil you (Lk 11:22). I bring down all your strongholds, sophistries, and proud pretensions (2 Cor 10:4-5). I cast you out in Jesus' name. Thank You Jesus for Your victory.

PRAYERS FOR THE CLEANSING OF OUR SUBCONSCIOUSNESS

"Cleanse me from my unknown faults!" (Ps 19:13)

"Probe me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, see if my way is crooked, and lead me in the way of old" (Ps 139:23-24).

"Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart find favor before You, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer" (Ps 19:15).

PRAYER FOR SEXUAL PURITY

Father,

may I know that my "body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is within" (1 Cor 6:19). may I be determined to fight sexual temptation, even to the point of shedding blood (see Heb 12:4). may I not even mention impurity (Eph 5:3). may I guard my eyes and throw TV out of my life (Mt 5:28-29). may I be pure as Jesus is pure (1 Jn 3:3).

PRAYER TO OVERCOME MASTURBATION, SMOKING, DRINKING, GAMBLING, PROFANITY, AND OTHER COMPULSIONS

Father, Your grace is always sufficient (2 Cor 12:9). There is always a way out of every temptation, and You will never let me be tested beyond my strength (1 Cor 10:13). But sometimes I want the pleasure of slavery more than the victory of freedom. Let not the lustful cravings of the flesh master me, surrender me not to shameless desires (Sir 23:6). May I want to stop sinning. Amen.

PRAYER TO BE FREED FROM PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS

Lord, "I want to see" (Mk 10:51; 2 Kgs 6:17).

(Write to us and tell us that God has opened your eyes.)

PRAYERS FOR SIGNS AND WONDERS

Lord, "grant to your servants, even as they speak Your words, complete assurance by stretching forth Your hand in cures and signs and wonders to be worked in the name of Jesus, Your holy Servant" (Acts 4:29-30). "Give new signs and work new wonders, show forth the splendor of Your right hand and arm" (Sir 36:5). Father, may I proclaim the good news and have signs and wonders accompany me. May I expel demons, speak entirely new languages, handle serpents, drink deadly poison without harm, and heal the sick through the laying on of hands (Mk 16:15-20). "Deliver us by Your wonders, and bring glory to Your name, O Lord" (Dan 3:43). "As in the days when You came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs" (Mic 7:15).

PRAYER TO MULTIPLY MONEY

Jesus, I believe You can multiply loaves, fish, work, and money. I give You the only multipliable portion  I give You my all. Bless, break, and multiply it, especially through the Eucharist (Lk 9:16).

Jesus, my Lord, my God, my All (Jn 20:28).

PRAYER TO GET A JOB

Father, may I seek first Your kingdom and Your way of holiness, and a job will be given to me (Mt 6:33).

PRAYER FOR WORKERS FOR THE HARVEST

(Pray this prayer with caution because usually you are the answer to your own prayer.)

Father, Harvest-Master, send workers into the harvest (Mt 9:38).

PRAYER FOR UNITY

Pope John Paul II has taught: "Prayer should always concern itself with the longing for unity, and as such is one of the basic forms of our love for Christ and for the Father Who is rich in mercy. In this journey which we are undertaking with other Christians toward the new millennium prayer must occupy the first place" (That They Be One, 102).

Therefore, pray: Father, I pray "that all may be one as You, Father" are in Jesus and He in You. I pray that they may be one in You, "that the world may believe that You sent" Jesus (Jn 17:21).

PRAYER TO BREAK WITH THE WORLD

(To be prayed before a crucifix)

Holy Spirit, take me to the cross (Gal 3:1). At the foot of the cross may I come to hate sin and love sinners. May I be turned off to the world, crucified to it, and it to me (Gal 6:14). Amen.

PRAYER FOR YOUR PARISH CHURCH

"May the Lord increase you and make you overflow with love for one another and for all, even as our love does for you. May He strengthen your hearts, making them blameless and holy before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones" (1 Th 3:12-13).

(Put the name of your church, where there are "you" and "your".)

PRAYER TO EVANGELIZE

Father, I acknowledge that it is a sin not to evangelize. I repent. Forgive me. May I fall so much in love with Jesus that it would be normal for me to tell others about Him. Empower me by the Holy Spirit to be His witness (Acts 1:8). Amen.

PRAYER FOR TEARS

Father, "let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, over the great destruction which overwhelms" the Church and the world because of sin (Jer 14:17) (see also Lk 6:21).

"Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people" (Jer 8:23).

PRAYER FOR MARY'S MOTHERING

Crucified Jesus, thank You for sending Mary to be my mother (Jn 19:27). May she lay bare the thoughts of my heart (Lk 2:35) so I will be humble (Lk 1:38). Through Mary's intercession, may I receive the Spirit (Acts 1:14; 2:4). Do with me as You will. Amen.

PRAYER FOR AN END TO ABORTION

Pope John Paul II has taught; "A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from every heart of every believer. Jesus Himself has shown us by His own example that prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil (cf. Mt 4:1-11). As He taught His disciples, some demons cannot be driven out except in this way (cf. Mk (9:29). Let us therefore discover anew the humility and courage to pray and fast so that power from on high will break down the walls of lies and deceit" (The Gospel of Life, 100). Therefore, pray:

Father, You have revealed to us that some demons can be driven out only by prayer and fasting (Mt 17:21). May I discover anew the humility and courage to pray and fast "as never before" so as to stop both surgical and chemical abortions. Lead us all to repentance and salvation. Amen.

PRAYER FOR A HAPPY DEATH

"Now, Master, You can dismiss Your servant in peace; You have fulfilled Your word. For my eyes have witnessed Your saving deed displayed for all the peoples to see" (Lk 2:29:31).

PRAYER TO SUFFER

Very few people have the courage to pray this prayer. Nevertheless, pray:

Father, "I wish to know Christ and the power flowing from His resurrection; likewise to know how to share in His sufferings by being formed into the pattern of His death" (Phil 3:10).

PRAYER TO DIE A MARTYR'S DEATH

This may be the first time you have ever prayed like this. Consider carefully whether the Lord wants you to pray this:

Father, may I be so in love with You as to feel compelled to seek new and greater ways to express my love. Jesus said: 'There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life' (Jn 15:13). By the power of the Holy Spirit, give me the opportunity to show my love for You by dying a martyr's death. Amen.

PRAYER TO HASTEN JESUS' FINAL COMING (2 Pt 3:12)

Father, may we intercede, evangelize, and become holy so Jesus can return soon and sooner. Amen.

In conclusion, Pope John Paul II exhorted the Church in 1979, the first year of his pontificate: "We hear within us, as a resounding echo, the words that He spoke: 'Apart from Me you can do nothing.' We feel not only the need but even a categorical imperative for great, intense and growing prayer by all the Church" (The Redeemer of Man, 22) May this book result in great, intense, and growing prayer.

Nihil obstat: Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, January 5, 1989.

Imprimatur:  Most Reverend James H. Garland, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio, January 25 1989.
A two-vehicle crash Friday afternoon in Folsom resulted in one of the cars being overturned, according to the Collings Lakes Fire Department.

At 12:45 p.m., the Collings Lakes Fire Department was dispatched to the intersection of Mays Landing Road and Eighth Street for the two-vehicle crash.

The Fire Department assisted with traffic control until the tow company could arrive on the scene and clear the vehicles from the roadway.

The accident scene was cleared by around 1:30 p.m., and no Fire Department personnel were injured in dealing with this situation, the department said.
HAMMONTON  Authorities arrested three employees of a local farm and recovered drugs, cash and a handgun Thursday, the Atlantic County prosecutor announced Friday.

The investigation into the distribution of cocaine and methamphetamine was dubbed Operation Crystal Ball, Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner said in a statement.

The Atlantic County Regional SWAT Team executed search warrants at Columbia Fruit Farms on Middle Road and another location on Walnut Street, Tyner said.

Columbia Fruit Farms could not be reached by phone Saturday.

15 arrested in Atlantic City drugs and prostitution sweep ATLANTIC CITY  Fifteen people were arrested Friday as part of an operation targeting drug sales and prostitution in the city, police said.

Authorities recovered one handgun, two vehicles, about $25,000 in cash, 20 ounces of cocaine with a street value of about $28,000 and 11 ounces of methamphetamine with a street value of about $17,600, Tyner said.

Vincent Lopez-Hernandez, 24, is charged with attempt to distribute a controlled dangerous substance and possession of cocaine.

Juvenal Duran-Almanza, 29, is charged with distribution and possession of cocaine, two counts of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, one count of possession and two counts of distribution of crystal methamphetamine, possession of a firearm without a permit to carry, possession of a firearm during the commission of a CDS offense and possession of U.S. currency under $75,000 derived from distribution of CDS.

Moises Duran-Almanza, 38, is charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute crystal methamphetamine, two counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession of crystal methamphetamine and cocaine, possession of a firearm without a permit, possession of a firearm without a permit while in possession of CDS, possession of U.S. currency under $75,000 derived from the distribution of CDS, and conspiracy to distribute crystal methamphetamine and cocaine.

Hamilton Township police seek suspects in home invasion HAMILTON TOWNSHIP  Police on Saturday were looking for three suspects in an early morning home invasion on Yorktown Place.

All three defendants were sent to the Atlantic County jail pending detention hearings, Tyner said.

Immigration detainers were issued on Moises Duran-Almanza and Lopez-Hernandez due to their illegal immigration status, Tyner said.

The Atlantic County Prosecutors Office, Homeland Security Investigations, FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Hammonton Police Department, Atlantic County Sheriffs Office, Cumberland County Prosecutors Office and the Stockton University Police Department collaborated on the investigation, Tyner said.
An investigation into alleged prescription benefit fraud in three Absecon Island towns could include doctors, pharmaceutical representatives and compounded drugs, Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner said this week.

The Prosecutors Office announced last week that Atlantic County grand jury subpoenas were issued July 28 to the same three towns under federal investigation  Atlantic City, Margate and Ventnor  looking into city employee health insurance information.

The FBI has declined to comment about their investigation.

While Tyner could not specify all the details of the parallel investigations, he said the process of drug-compounding fraud could be part of it and the search of Dr. James Kauffmans office in June was partially related.

Kauffman, 68, of Linwood, remains jailed and charged with weapons offenses following a standoff with police June 13 at his Egg Harbor Township practice.

Tyner stressed there are state offenses that are separate and distinct from federal offenses, with different implications and consequences.

Our investigation is not limited to just public employees, Tyner said.

Drug compounding is a process in which a pharmacist or doctor alters or mixes ingredients into a custom drug to fit the needs of a patient, according to the federal Food & Drug Administration.

City officials fend off rumors in federal prescription fraud investigation MARGATE  The flow of new information on a federal prescription-drug investigation among cit

The process of mixing drugs is legal, and compounded medications can be beneficial to patients unable to take another drug because of allergies or other issues. But problems arise when the drugs, intended for one person and costing thousands of dollars, are mass-produced, said Charles Ross, a New York-based attorney who has represented clients in medical compounding cases.

Ross said the profit for compounding pharmacies can reach tens of thousands of dollars for a single tube of compounding cream.

Pharmacies that get into mass production see that they can make a ton of money, Ross said. What a truly compounded cream can fetch in terms of insurance reimbursements is truly stunning.

In recent years, the U.S. Attorneys Office targeted cases of fraud in which compounding pharmacies have paid middlemen to steer doctors to prescribe an expensive form of compounded drugs.

Just last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a $1.3 billion health care fraud investigation that resulted in 412 people charged nationwide. Some of those cases involved compounded medications.

The alleged schemes resulted in government-funded health care programs Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE seeing huge leaps in spending for prescriptions.

In some cases, patients, recruiters or beneficiaries were paid kickbacks for giving information to providers so bills could be submitted for services or medications that werent needed or never provided. In some cases, insurers were billed for unnecessary drugs and compounded medications.

For Keith Hartman, owner of Curexa, a compounding pharmacy in Egg Harbor Township, the fact that compounding practices have become the subject of criminal investigations is disheartening.

View Margate and Ventnor subpoenas in federal prescription drug probe A federal investigation into public employees health benefits extends beyond Margate and in

When done effectively and properly, compounding helps patients in need, he said.

Some of the services we provide are unique and are doing significant health improvements for people, said Hartman. But theres going to be bad eggs in every industry.

Hartman mentioned the company is accredited by the PCAB  the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board  which has strict standards for how drugs can be created and solicited.

When it gets to the point of sales representatives mass-producing or selling products people dont need, thats when the fraud is clear, he said.

Its not a game that we would entertain or get involved with, Hartman said. Its clear lapse of judgment.

Even before Tyners investigation was announced, mayors in several South Jersey towns were aware of the potential impact prescription costs can have on their budgets.

Federal subpoena requests info on Margate employees' health benefits MARGATE  City officials are prepared to suspend without pay any city employees indicted as 

Egg Harbor Township Mayor James Sonny McCullough said township officials have been keeping a close eye on compounding prescription prices over the past couple of months, even though his towns records have not been sought.

Its something that we are watching, said McCullough. We want to watch anything that will drive the principal up.

In Margate, prescription costs jumped from $539,114 in 2010 to $3.4 million in 2015. The practice of compounding was discussed in a July 20 commission meeting that followed revelations of an investigation.

Margate Business Administrator Rich Deaney said prescription-drug fraud is not unique to Downbeach.

Nationwide, there reportedly has been a 3,000 percent increase in the dispensing of compound drugs in the past several years, he said.

Large leaps in prescription costs not caused by a similar increase in the number of prescriptions filled is something that could set off red flags for law enforcement, who would view profit-making as a fraud on the system, said Ross, who believes prosecutors and insurance providers are catching up to the practice.

There have been a lot of prosecutions and a lot of convictions and people sent to jail, forfeiture of moneys, so Im not sure theres a lack of oversight these days, Ross said.

Tyner urged the public to refrain from spreading rumors because it interferes with the investigation.

I would just urge the community to allow us, rather than speculate, to allow us to conduct our investigation, Tyner said. Ultimately, time will tell as to who is implicated and what they were implicated for.
ATLANTIC CITY  Two men were arrested Saturday morning following an altercation and one discarded a handgun in the process, police said.

At 1 a.m., Tourism District officers assigned to the Boardwalk were stopped by a potential victim saying two males were attempting to assault him and one was in possession of a handgun, police said.

The two men, Brett Baglio and Malik Stitts, attempted to assault the victim and Stitts attempted to hand Baglio a gun before seeing the officers on the Boardwalk, police said.

Officers Maria Borsani and Warren Young chased Stitts to Arkansas and Pacific avenues. Baglio remained at the scene. During the pursuit, Stitts removed the gun from his waistband and threw it into the bushes along Pacific Avenue, police said.

Both men were taken into custody. Stitts, 20, of Newport News, Virginia, was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, aggravated assault, obstruction of justice, resisting arrest, possession of marijuana and tampering with evidence. Baglio, 20, of Millville, was charged with terroristic threats.
MARGATE  Hannah Bychick was having a slow Saturday on Argyle Avenue.

Bychick works as a beach-tag attendant just feet from the remains of what was a nine-block lake on Margates beach, a product of flooding during rainstorms last weekend and man-made dunes built under the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The dunes are part of a $63.3 million project to place 3.8 million cubic yards of sand onto 8 miles of beach on Absecon Island from Atlantic City to Longport.

But that flooding  which has since been pumped back toward the ocean  has left a muddy eyesore for residents and visitors, and Bychick said shes seeing it in the lack of people walking onto her block of the beach.

Margate dune project bad for business MARGATE  Shirley Frankel, a city resident for the past 50 years, cant look at the ocean fr

As of 11 a.m., she said, she could count on her hand how many people have walked through the mud to the beach.

Its literally like four people, said Bychick, of Margate. People usually walk up and leave because its really gross.

Most people were avoiding the area altogether. A few managed to walk around the former lake to get to the ocean. Many people gathered at the end of the Ventnor Boardwalk, which ends at the Margate border, to get a look at the piece of land no one is walking on.

All Margate beaches were reopened this weekend for the first time since the flooding, with the exception of Huntington Avenue, which is hosting heavy equipment from the beach fill contractor, Weeks Marine of Cranford, Union County.

Judge halts Margate dune project for one week MARGATE  Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez on Thursday issued a restraining

On Thursday, Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez issued a restraining order to temporarily stop the dune project in the city for one week. Officials from the city, Army Corps and state Department of Environmental Protection are to meet on the issue, and the DEP and Army Corps have until Wednesday to file briefs on short- and long-term solutions to the drainage problems.

All parties are to return to Mendezs courtroom Friday for another hearing.

Meanwhile, Nicholas Russo, mayor of neighboring Longport, issued a statement late Friday saying it is yet unclear whether beach work will be diverted to Ventnor or Longport but that he would prefer it not start in Longport until after the summer, as was previously scheduled.

If that is not the case, the Borough of Longport will prepare contingency plans that all scheduled activities occur in a safe and meaningful manner, Russo wrote.
MARGATE  City officials are prepared to suspend without pay any city employees indicted as a result of an alleged federal investigation into Margate employees health benefits.

Mayor Mike Becker said Saturday he would like to wait until the situation plays out entirely before taking any permanent action against city employees.

This is America, so people may get charged, but theyre innocent until theyre found guilty by a jury or make a deal. In the meantime, I should think that we should suspend everybody (indicted) without pay until this is adjudicated, he said.

However, no charges have been filed at this point, and no investigation has been acknowledged by the federal government. The spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office, District of New Jersey, could not be reached for comment Saturday. Special Agent Jessica Weisman of the FBIs Northfield office said she could not comment on the matter.

Becker said he was surprised to learn Friday of a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Attorneys Office in June requesting information from the city about employee health benefits.

It astounded me, he said.

According to an NBC10 report, the subpoena asks for a list of all police, fire and city employees who have health insurance plans through benefit providers ExpressScripts, Medco and/or NJ Direct. No reason was given for why the subpoena request was made.

The report also notes the citys brand-name prescription drug costs increased from $713,935 in 2014 to $3.351 million in 2015, with only a small increase in the number of prescriptions filled. Becker said he could not speculate on the reason for the increase.

Ive heard all the same rumors that everybody has heard, but until we get to the bottom of it, we really dont know, he said.

Becker said the cost of health benefits paid by the city and funded by local property taxes could be affected by the large jump in prescription costs.

You get charged according to your experience, he said.

The small but affluent island city of Margate has 116 employees covered under the state health benefits plan, according to its 2017 user-friendly budget, which breaks down employee health costs. The budget includes an appropriation of $2.5 million for the citys contribution toward employee health benefits.

Defense attorney Rocco Cipparone of Haddon Heights, Camden County, who has represented clients in various federal fraud cases, said the details of the subpoena are too scarce to make an assumption of what investigators are looking for. He said there are many reasons investigators may be requesting such information.

A lot of times you see them in health care fraud cases and fraud cases that relate to sometimes a physician overbilling. You might see it in a political corruption investigation, Cipparone said.

As far as the prescription cost increase, Cipparone said it was not fair to speculate at this point.

Its a pretty significant leap, but its hard to know whether there are or there are not legitimate reasons for that. There can be legitimate reasons that those costs increase, he said.
Sure, spend more unnecessary money to fight the problem instead of just trying to help make the situation better.

John Gifford

So I take it the DEP will test the ocean and deem it not open due to the high bacteria levels next.

John Rogers

via Facebook

Margate holds public meeting

to discuss dunes project

Utterly nonsensical piece. Its not 1978 anymore. Gaming has got to expand beyond A.C.

Bill Holobowski

Push continues behind closed doors

to expand NJ gaming

He was guilty of gambling and was still going to be honored. He has not been found guilty of sexual assault.

David DiPalma

via Facebook

Pete Rose out at Phillies Alumni Weekend; Phillies offer refunds

I get the feeling America is tired of wasting our tax dollars on this in middle of heroin epidemic.

Steven Alfonso

via Facebook

Atlantic City police say man

had pound of marijuana in car

Government measures its success by how many people they have provided help to, not how many people they got back on their own feet.

Dan Klein

Government aid programs

create illusion of caring

While I agree with the basic concept of the article and the need for this project, the laughable part comes at the end where it tries to lay blame on the public worker.

Beatrice Cosmo Theriault

New Jersey will pay, a lot more, for Christies rail-tunnel mistake

Let the chips fall. If you are innocent, great. If not, its on you.

Rita Absecon

via Facebook

City officials fend off rumors in federal prescription fraud investigation

I talk to a lot of homeless when I am in A.C. and sometimes they just need someone to listen.

David Miller

via Facebook

Day Center for the homeless opens Tuesday in A.C.

This just breaks my heart ... such sadness.

Andrea Swensen Ferry

via Facebook

Mainland Regional teens testify in Aisling Cooke crash trial
MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who reportedly bombed a mosque in that state this morning during a prayer service. [NOTE: The Muslim American Society of Minnesota is offering a similar reward.]

CAIR's national office is also urging mosques and Islamic centers nationwide to step up security measures.

Early morning worshipers at Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., were shaken by a blast at 5:05 a.m. that shattered windows in the imam's (Islamic religious leader) office. No one was hurt in the explosion. A worshiper reportedly saw a truck speed out of the mosque's parking lot after the blast.

SEE: Blast Rocks Bloomington Islamic Center

http://www.startribune.com/blast-investigated-at-bloomington-islamic-center/438715693/

"We hope a reward will help law enforcement authorities quickly apprehend the perpetrator of this act of violence targeting an American house of worship," said CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director Amir Malik. "If a bias motive is proven, this attack would represent another in a long list of hate incidents targeting Islamic institutions nationwide in recent months."

"The swift apprehension and punishment of the perpetrator will send a clear message that attacks on mosques, or on any other American houses of worship, will not be tolerated," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

Last week, CAIR-MN called on law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, to investigate a possible bias motive for vandalism targeting the Muslim Cemetery Al Magfirah in Castle Rock Township.

The vandals went into buildings on the property and spray-painted profanities, Nazi swastikas and a statement that appears to be "leave, you r dead." They also damaged walls, ceilings, furniture, and equipment on the property.

CAIR Video: Vandals Target Minnesota Muslim Cemetery, Write 'Leave, You R Dead'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy9aG_AL0VU

Since the beginning of the year, CAIR has called for investigations of possible bias motives for dozens of other incidents targeting mosques in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Texas, and a number of other states. By comparison, in the January-March period in 2016, CAIR recorded 19 such incidents.

CAIR is asking American Muslims and Islamic institutions nationwide to take extra security precautions and is offering Muslim community leaders free copies of its booklet, "Best Practices for Mosque and Community Safety."

A hard copy of the booklet may be requested through CAIR's website at: http://www.cair.com/mosque-safety-guide.html

It may also be viewed at: http://www.cair.com/images/publications/CAIR_Mosque_Safety_Guide.pdf

CAIR has noted an unprecedented spike in hate incidents targeting Muslims and other minority groups since the November 8 election. A recent CAIR update on anti-Muslim incidents in the second quarter (April-June) of 2017 indicated that the number of hate crimes in the first half of 2017 spiked 91 percent compared to the same period in 2016

SEE: CAIR Report Shows 2017 on Track to Becoming One of Worst Years Ever for Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes

https://www.cair.com/press-center/press-releases/14476-cair-report-shows-2017-on-track-to-becoming-one-of-worst-years-ever-for-anti-muslim-hate-crimes.html

The Washington-based Muslim civil rights organization recently released a report showing a 57 percent increase in anti-Muslim incidents in 2016 over the previous year. This spike in anti-Muslim incidents was accompanied by a 44 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes during the same period.

SEE: New CAIR Report Shows More than 50 Percent Spike in Anti-Muslim Incidents

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-cair-report-shows-more-than-50-percent-spike-in-anti-muslim-incidents-300454362.html

CAIR Islamophobia Monitor: Anti-Muslim Bias Incidents 2017 Quarter One Update

http://islamophobia.org/158-key-issues-in-islamophobia/204-anti-muslim-bias-incidents-2017-quarter-one-update.html

In response to the spike in hate crimes, CAIR recently launched an app to share critical "know your rights" information and to simplify the process to report hate crimes and bias incidents. CAIR is urging American Muslims and members of other minority groups to download the app and utilize this resource to stay informed and empowered.

For a quick download of CAIR's civil rights app, click here: http://www.cair.com/app

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

La mision de CAIR es mejorar la comprension del Islam, fomentar el dialogo, proteger las libertades civiles, capacitar a los musulmanes estadounidenses, y construir coaliciones que promuevan la justicia y la comprension mutua.

CONTACT: CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director Amir Malik, 612-701-6364, [email protected]; CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein, 612-406-0070, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]

SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Related Links

http://www.cair.com


NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (NYSE: DPLO).

On November 2, 2016, the Company announced disappointing results for the third quarter of 2016 including earnings per share of $0.21 on revenues of $1.18 billion and lowered high end guidance for 2016 which it attributed to "softness in the hepatitis C business" and its handling of DIR fees in light of material changes in the "methodology and transparency around how PBMs are applying these DIR fees."

Thereafter, Diplomat Pharmacy and certain of its executives were sued in a securities class action lawsuit, charging them with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Diplomat Pharmacy's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to its shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Diplomat Pharmacy shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]).

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Related Links

http://www.ksfcounsel.com


NEW ORLEANS, La., Aug. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (NYSE: PBYI).

On July 25, 2017, the Court again denied a motion to dismiss in a shareholder class action against Puma, CEO, President, and Chairman Alan H. Auerbach, and other executives. The amended complaint alleged that, in violation of the federal securities laws, Puma and the other defendants failed to inform shareholders that additional studies were needed regarding its breast cancer drug neratinib which would delay filing the NDA into the first quarter of 2016, that Puma made false and misleading statements concerning the results for its phase 3 trial and that company executives "actively sought to have Puma acquired by a larger pharmaceutical company" before results were released for personal gain.

In denying Puma's motion to dismiss the securities fraud class action, the court stated that "[the] additional allegations concerning Defendants fraudulent intent serve to buttressthe already adequate allegations of scienter." The court further held that "[d]efendants shouldn't benefit from safe harbor by simply saying they "anticipated" success [with the results] when, in fact, they had a reasonable belief that defeat was just around the corner."

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Puma's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to Puma's shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Puma shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]).

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Related Links

http://www.ksfcounsel.com


NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Tempur Sealy International, Inc. (NYSE: TPX).

Throughout the second half of 2016, the Company made statements misrepresenting the true increasingly-hostile nature of relations with its largest purchaser, Mattress Firm, omitting and/or downplaying the likely material adverse effect of the disagreements on the Company's operating results, which resulted in the price of the Company's stock being artificially inflated. During this time the Company undertook a wasteful repurchase of its stock at an inflated price and further, a Company executive received significant proceeds from insider sales of the Company's stock, which resulted in a wasteful over payment by the Company of at least $56 million. On January 30, 2017, the true nature of the Company's deteriorating relationship with Mattress Firm was revealed when it announced that it was terminating its business with Mattress Firm due to "significant economic concessions" demanded by its former largest customer.

Thereafter, Tempur Sealy and certain of its executives were sued in a securities class action lawsuit, charging them with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Tempur Sealy's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to its shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Tempur Sealy shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]).

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Related Links

http://www.ksfcounsel.com


NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Gearing up for a major third-quarter expansion of its residential real estate services, USRealty.com has brought in additional corporate and regional leaders.

"We are investing in the talent that will translate our proven online brokerage model to more markets and to home buyers," said Colby Sambrotto, USRealty.com chief executive officer. "Today's sophisticated sellers know they can't rely only on market momentum to sell -- they still need a powerful platform to get their listings in the MLS and into key selling services."

Buyers want the same thing, "and we're going to give it to them," said Sambrotto, "by offering all buyers  in all markets -- cash back at closing, when they buy through USRealty.com and our network of local agents."

Expanded Leadership for Regional Operations

Derek Morgan, Senior Vice President, Senior Managing Broker, manages Broker Services, drawing on real estate experience cultivated since 2000, when he landed the first of his seven state broker licenses. For seven years, he managed broker services for ForSaleByOwner.com, a division of tronc, (formerly known as Tribune Digital).

Keith Wolf, Managing Broker, oversees USRealty.com's Midwest broker operations and has been a Realtor, appraiser and real estate analyst since 1981.

John David has been a real estate broker since 2009, and is the Designated Broker for USRealty.com in the state of Missouri. He brings broad experience in corporate sales and development.

Expanded Corporate Leadership

Stuart Daroca, General Counsel, oversees USRealty.com's regulatory, commercial and corporate matters advising on legal, strategic and business issues. He has more than two decades of experience in financial services and was in-house legal counsel at American International Group, Inc, and Citigroup, Inc. during the financial crisis where he played a significant role in each company's restructuring and recapitalization. He earned his J.D. at Georgetown University Law Center and B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley.

About USRealty.com

USRealty.com is a national, online real estate brokerage committed to significantly reducing commissions for both buyer and sellers. The company provides free MLS access in 34 of America's largest states and, through its Pennsylvania call center, supports home sellers through the listing and closing process. For more information, visit www.USRealty.com.

Contact:

Joanne Cleaver

Manager, Communication and Content

O:231.299.1275 M: 414.232.3181

[email protected]

SOURCE USRealty.com
Mumbai, Aug 3 : Negative global cues, coupled with heavy selling pressure in banking and metal stocks, dragged the Indian equity markets lower on Thursday.

Stocks of banking majors like State Bank of India, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank and were among the top losers on the BSE.

The wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) held on to the psychologically important 10,000-mark and provisionally closed at 10,004.35 points -- down 77.15 points or 0.77 per cent (at 3.30 p.m.).

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 32,502.55 points, closed at 32,237.88 points -- down 238.86 points, or 0.74 per cent -- from its previous close at 32,476.74 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 32,502.55 points and a low of 32,194.58 points during intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,793 declines and 827 advances.

On Wednesday, the benchmark indices were pulled lower to close on a subdued note on the back of broadly negative European markets and profit booking.

The Nifty fell by 33.15 points, or 0.33 per cent, to close at 10,081.50 points, while the Sensex closed at 32,476.74 points -- down 98.43 points, or 0.30 per cent.
New Delhi : The UK after Teresa May's self-imposed "Brexit General Election" reveals a stalemated society and politics, deeply divided between those who support and those who passionately reject the decision to leave the EU. Voting to leave was much easier than actually leaving. Political analysts are now talking of a "fuzzy Brexit", representing a constructive ambiguity where the UK tries to "muddle through" and stay within Europe while leaving the EU.

Insiders argue that this would imply a much longer transitional period, with the UK remaining inside the EU Customs Union in a modified form and a compromise agreement on its contribution to the EU budget. Some form of continuing jurisdiction by the European Court of Justice could also be part of this emerging deal.

With Prime Minister May away on a three-week vacation, there appears to be a power shift away from her headed by Chancellor Philip Hammond. A cabinet source revealed a "broad consensus" on seeking an off-the-shelf transition deal -- effectively maintaining the status quo for around three years after Brexit, beyond March 2019. Informal sources point to a huge movement within the cabinet in favour of a substantial transition period, a direct fallout of the recent election which ministers interpret as a failure to endorse May's plan for a hard Brexit.

Hammond confirmed to BBC that the UK's relationship with the EU could look "similar in many ways" until 2022 -- despite formally leaving the bloc in 2019. A majority of cabinet ministers confirmed they were comfortable with a lengthy transitional period of around three years, with continued free movement of people, single-market access, a customs union arrangement and potentially oversight from a supranational tribunal structure. Even more interesting was Home Secretary Amber Rudd's announcement that EU nationals would be free to come to the UK during the transition period as long as they register with the authorities. This is totally at variance with Teresa May's public statements on this issue.

Labour Party leaders were quick to respond. Chuka Umunna, Labour MP and leading member of the "Open Britain" campaign group, said it was "refreshing to hear government ministers facing up to the realities of Brexit at last" and acknowledged the Chancellor and Home Secretary had "brought a welcome dose of reality to the Brexit debate".

George Osborne, former Chancellor and now editor of the Evening Standard, appeared to take Hammond's interview as a vindication of his own position from June that May's government needs the "political equivalent of the cold shower" and a "realistic assessment of Britain's approach to the Brexit talks".

London's popular and charismatic Mayor Sadiq Khan quickly noted that the Brexit referendum result could be "trumped" if Labour used its next general election manifesto to commit to not leaving the EU, or to hold a second referendum on withdrawal. In a pointed intervention after days of conflicting signals on Brexit from senior Labour figures, Khan insisted he was an "optimist" about the chances of the UK staying in the EU. Labour had been accused of an incoherent policy on Brexit after leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted the party wanted the UK to leave the EU single market while shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer said nothing was off the table.

The chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier was continuing to pressure the UK Government along with the European Parliament's chief Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt. British negotiators would need to demonstrate major progress on the paramount issue of citizens' rights. If they fail to do so, Verhofstadt would recommend to the European Council that negotiations on Brexit should not enter phase two relating to Britain's future relationship with the EU.

Verhofstadt underlined: "I am adamant that the European Parliament, as the directly elected body representing European citizens, will also provide its assessment to the Council, via the adoption of a parliamentary resolution, about whether or not we can go into phase two. Our voice will be heard." His comments are significant. It is clear that British negotiators would be required to satisfy the interests of the European Parliament on the complex issue of citizens' rights, as the institution will provide a separate assessment on progress, creating another potential hurdle for Brexit talks.

His intervention follows reports that Barnier had warned that talks on a future trade deal could be stalled due to lack of progress on the highly contentious issue of a financial settlement with the UK -- often referred to as the so-called "divorce bill". Speculation has placed the financial settlement as high as 100 billion euros (89 billion pounds).

What are the stakes for India in this backdrop of intense speculation on the impact of Brexit on India-EU business relations as well as on the India-UK partnership? It is generally agreed that with 72.5 billion euros of India-EU trade and 19.4 billion euros of India-UK trade at stake, all partners needed to think through this issue carefully in the business and commercial context. The Indian position was best summarised by a leading industrialist, Shishir Bajoria, Chairman of the Bajoria Group, who noted: "We have 800 million young Indians who need jobs. We will trade with the UK, Brexit or no Brexit. And we will trade with the EU, Brexit or no Brexit."

Clearly, this is a narrative still in the making with high stakes for all -- India, the UK and Europe. If responses are based only on national security templates, the global economy risks being seriously impacted. In the event of a harmful deal, harmful to either side, or no deal, the repercussions will be global, not national. Brussels will be blamed as much as London. As David Goodhart (author of "The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics") recently commented to the New York Times: "May be it is Europe's 'true-believers' who need to embrace the spirit of constructive ambiguity."

(Bhaswati Mukherjee is a former Indian diplomat. The views expressed are personal. The article is in special arrangement with South Asia Monitor)
New Delhi, Aug 4 : A court here on Friday extended by 10 days the NIA custody of four Kashmiri separatists arrested on charges of receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting in Kashmir.

During the in-camera proceedings, Special Judge O.P. Saini allowed the National Investigation Agency to quiz Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah till August 14.

Three accused -- Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, and Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate -- were remanded in judicial custody by the court till September 1.

Allowing the NIA plea to extend its custody of the four separatists, the court pointed to the serious nature of allegations against them and the large expanse of investigation to be conducted by the agency.

The four men are required to be confronted with evidence gathered, Special Public Prosecutor Siddharth Luthra earlier told the court.

Court sources quoted Luthra as saying that electronic evidences are also required to be retrieved and analysed.

As investigation is to be conducted in far off places in Jammu and Kashmir and other states, and maybe even overseas, the remand of the four accused be extended, the NIA pleaded.

Defence counsel Ravi Qazi and Rajat Kumar opposed the NIA plea and said the accused have been falsely implicated in the case and had cooperated in the investigation.

Defence counsel told the court that the accused have already been in police custody for the last 10 days and the agency had failed to show as to what it had done during this period.

The NIA said investigation in the case is not yet complete and to facilitate further probe, the remaining three accused may be remanded in judicial custody for 30 days.

The sources said the NIA had requested for keeping the remand application in a sealed cover due to investigation pending in the case, which was allowed by the court till the next date of hearing.

On July 24, the NIA had arrested seven key Kashmiri separatists. Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Peer Saifullah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam and Ayaz Akbar Khandey were arrested from Srinagar while Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate was arrested from Delhi.

On July 25, the court had sent all seven to 10-day NIA custody.

They were booked on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan, while Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Ayaz Akbar is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.
MATTOON -- The states newly adopted budget means less revenue for the City of Mattoon and may lead to deficits in future city budgets, according to Mayor Tim Gover.

In reviewing the State of the City with the Mattoon Rotary Club on July 12, according to a press release, Gover noted that the State of Illinois will, under the newly adopted state budget, begin to deduct 2 percent of sales tax distributions to local governments, costing the City of Mattoon a projected $125,000 annually. The state budgets 10 percent reduction in state income tax distributions to local governments will further reduce Mattoons revenues by about $190,000 annually.

Gaming revenue provides one bright spot for Mattoon budgeting, Gover reported. Last year, the City of Mattoon received $313,000 from the 28 establishments operating 138 machines in the city. Gaming revenues go to the citys general fund, but are not used to pay for routine operation costs. They are instead earmarked for specific purposes: 20 percent for the demolition of derelict structures; 20 percent for the police/firefighter pension fund; 20 percent for the mobile equipment fund; 20 percent for the maintenance of City buildings, and 20 percent paid into a reserve fund.

Gover is encouraged by the growth he has witnessed among businesses operating in Mattoon. He observed that newly constructed facilities have recently opened for the Sarah Bush Lincoln Walk-In Clinic, the Copper Creek Cottage Memory Care Center, and the First National Bank Wealth Center. Groundbreaking is expected soon for a new strip-mall building with space for five tenants, including a Starbucks, to be constructed immediately west of the Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Wireless Mike's has expanded. Planet Fitness, Harbor Freight, and Crave Coffee have opened in remodeled spaces. KFC is scheduled to be remodeled. All American Realty will be moving into the building formerly occupied by the Pizza Hut restaurant. Dunkin Donuts is actively seeking a location for a store in Mattoon, the mayor said.

Public investment in infrastructure is an important piece of the puzzle for Mattoon to prosper. Gover spoke of the new Public Works building under construction on DeWitt Avenue that is expected to be in operation this fall. The new building will allow the city to park all of its equipment inside, secure and out of the weather, for the first time. Improvements are also being made to the city's sewer system. The installation of new street pavement and sidewalks in sections along Marshall Avenue will proceed as funds allow.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : Dubbing the attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's car in Banaskantha in Gujarat as a "dastardly" act, the Congress on Friday said that "violence and physical attack have become BJP's culture".

The party asked if Prime Ninister Narendra Modi would answer about the "serious lapse" in security as Gandhi is an SPG protectee. It also demanded that every political party should unequivocally condemn the attack.

In a series of tweets, Congress spokseperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that the attack was an organised act by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists.

"BJP goons attack Congress Vice President Rahulji's car in Lal Chowk, Dhanera, Banaskanta, Gujarat. Disgusting and disgraceful," said Surjewala on his Twitter page.

"With 218 deaths in Gujarat, 61 in Bansakanta alone, Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) only does an aerial visit while CM takes five days to visit. BJP only attacks opposition," he wrote about the flood situation in the area, and attached pictures of broken windowpanes of Gandhi's car.

Surjewala said: "Windowpanes of Congress Vice President's car broken in an organised attack by goons, security staff injured. BJP must know truth can't be silenced."

"Violence and physical attack have become BJP's culture. Congress and Rahulji get more determined to raise people's voice after every attack," he said.

The spokesperson also said: "Rahulji is an SPG protectee. An attack under Gujarat BJP government's watch reflects not only serious lapse but tacit complicity. Will the Prime Minister answer?"

Condemning the attack, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "The damage done to the motorcade and injury to security personnel clearly shows that it was a well-organised attack on Rahul Gandhi to harm him physically."

"We strongly condemn the cult of violence for which the BJP and its cadres are famous. This is being deliberately done by the BJP to create an atmosphere of fear in the state of Gujarat just before the assembly elections. This is yet another example of intolerance exhibited by the BJP and its workers openly."

Rahul Gandhi on Friday faced hostile black flag-waving crowds shouting slogans in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tour of flood-hit Dhanera town in Gujarat's Banaskantha district, forcing him to beat a hasty retreat.

Terming the attack appalling and reprehensible, another Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: "It was a dastardly attack for no reason other than the fact that Rahul Gandhi dared to visit a flood-affected area in Banaskantha district."

"Are we reaching a space in our democracy where political opponents are not allowed to practise democratic politics in terms of visiting areas and voicing opinion without any intimidation and throwing of bricks?" he said.

Singhvi said: "When a leader dares to visit Banaskantha, it is taken as an affront by the ruling party and their goons. This has to be condemned unequivocally across the board by every political party."
New Delhi, Aug 5 : A 13-year-old Indian-origin boy in London died last month after suffering a severe allergic reaction to a piece of cheese.

According to media reports, Karanbir Cheema was allergic to wheat, gluten and dairy and his condition was well known at school but he came in contact with the allergen in cheese as it was allegedly forced on him by a schoolmate.

Food allergy or intolerance, which can cause symptoms ranging from a harmless skin rash to a potentially lethal anaphylactic shock, are estimated to affect four to six per cent of children and four per cent of adults, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

If left untreated, a food allergy can turn fatal, especially in children, because the body's immune system considers the proteins and complex carbohydrates present in the food as foreign.

"It is only in rare cases that one can get a severe allergic response to any food allergen. Food items like cheese have other ingredients which may have caused severe allergic reaction. Commonly mild allergy, however, does not cause such severe reactions," Vivek Raj, Director (Gastroenterology), Max Super Speciality Hospital, told IANS.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there are eight foods that are common for allergic reactions in a large segment of the sensitive population. These include, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, milk, shellfish, fish, wheat and their derivatives, soy and their derivatives, and sulphites (chemical-based, often found in flavours and colours in foods) at 10 parts per million (ppm) and over.

These can cause several types of allergies such as skin manifestations which include rashes, swelling and itching, respiratory symptoms including wheezing, bronchospasm and choking and gastrointestinal symptoms including cramping, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Some also cause low blood pressure which manifests as light-headedness, dizziness or even a fainting spell.

Allergy to any food item may cause bronchial secretions, which can lead to bronchospasm -- a sudden constriction of the muscles in the walls of the bronchioles in the respiratory tract.

"As a result, the patient experiences choking and breathing difficulty, which, if not treated timely, may increase the risk of death," added Rakesh Gupta, Senior Consultant (Internal medicine), Apollo Hospitals.

Further, children are much more vulnerable to food allergies than adults as the allergies fade away by adulthood.

"As children grow older, they outgrow some of the allergies as their immune system matures. Also, the allergens are identified in childhood and then the person learns to avoid those as an adult," Raj noted.

However, allergies are not just hereditary but may be related to gender, according to recent research published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The study revealed that the genetic risk of a child having allergies doubles if the parent of the same sex is an allergy sufferer. Thus, mothers pass the risk of allergies to their daughters, as do fathers to their sons.

Moreover, food allergies can worsen other conditions such as asthma and diabetes. If a patient already has other allergy-linked conditions like asthma, then the impact of food allergy can be more, doctors said.

Therefore, an early identification of allergen and then complete avoidance of those allergens is essential.

"As there is no cure to food allergy, the only way to prevent it is not to eat that food item," Ritika Samaddar, a Delhi-based nutritionist, told IANS.

"The allergy can be confirmed by skinprick tests and/or bloods tests to measure the allergy antibodies," she added.

Because fatal and near-fatal food allergy reactions can occur at school or other places outside the home, parents of a child with food allergies need to make sure that their child's school has a written emergency action plan.

The plan should provide instructions on preventing, recognising and managing food allergies and should be available in the school and during activities such as sporting events and field trips, experts suggested.

However, "if any allergic item is consumed, the patient should be immediately rushed to the hospital. No drug should be taken without a doctor's prescription", Gupta said.

(Rachel V Thomas can be contacted at rachel.t@ians.in)
Chennai, Aug 5 : Hollywood stunt artist Serge Crozon Crazin, who has worked in films like "Casino Royale" and "300: Rise of an Empire", says working in forthcoming Tamil film "Vivegam" was a memorable experience.

Crazin plays a key role in the film, due for release on August 24.

Talking about how he landed the role, Crazin said in a statement: "I attended an interview with director Siva and got this role. I was as highly impressed with director Siva's ability to visualize and to clearly know what he wants."

He considers it an "honour" to make his acting debut in Indian cinema with an "international movie like 'Vivegam'."

"Working in the film has been memorable, especially with Ajith sir. Only after I finished my portion and came back home, I discovered how big a star Ajith sir is and the tremendous celebrity status he enjoys. He was so simple and humble on the sets," he said.

Crazin said he was amazed by the "incredible stunts he (Ajith) pulled off".

"He did all action sequences sans a body double. He is such a perfectionist and hard worker. We both had a lot of interactions and I enjoyed every bit of it. Since I am a master of martial arts I loved my combat sequences," he said.

In "Vivegam", Ajith plays an Interpol agent and majority of the film has been shot across picturesque locations in Europe.

The film also stars Akshara Haasan, Kajal Aggarwal and Vivek Oberoi.
Mumbai, Aug 5 : Actor-producer Riteish Deshmukh heaped praise on his wife Genelia Deshmukh, calling her an "incredible woman" and his "biggest support" on her 30th birthday on Saturday.

Even a string of Bollywood celebrities sent out wishes for the "happy soul" to spread more "sunshine" with her smile.

Riteish, who has two sons with Genelia -- who is eight years younger than him -- tweeted: "Happy Bday Baiko. You are an incredible woman, my best friend, my biggest support and the strongest mother. Tumhare bina mai bikhar jaata."

He also shared a cosy and candid photograph with the post.

Their friends from the film industry also wished the actress, who has featured in Bollywood as well as southern films.

Filmmaker Karan Johar tweeted: "Happy birthday my darling. Have the best year... all the happiness and love always!"

Actress Huma Qureshi wrote: "You are such a lovely warm and super happy soul. Stay blessed and always cocooned in love."

Actor-director Sajid Khan called Genelia "sister", and said: "Always keep the sunshine going with that bright smile."

Actor Rahul Dev hoped Genelia keeps "glowing always", while filmmaker Ken Ghosh wrote: "Hope you get lots of sunshine in your life, like you give to others."
New Delhi, Aug 5 : Condemning what it said was a "potentially fatal" attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's cavalcade in Gujarat, the Congress on Saturday said it won't be cowed down by the "cult of violence and intimidation espoused by followers of Nathuram Godse".

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the Congress was a 130-year-old party that had seen many ups and downs and its leaders won't be scared by such tactics.

"This stone could kill a human. What was the police doing? Let me say that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress won't be intimidated by such tactics," Sharma said as he showed a piece of rock allegedly hurled at Rahul Gandhi's car in Gujarat on Friday.

"It deserves the strongest condemnation, and exposes the intent, ideology, and character of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which believe in violence, intimidation, and physical assaults on political opponents or leaders.

"It is integral to their thinking and their political philosophy and their actions."

Nathuram Godse, a Hindu Mahasabha member and perceived close to RSS founder Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.

Sharma said that the BJP was using every possible means to capture power everywhere.

Blaming the state government for lack of proper security, the Congress leader said: "It cannot just wash off its hands by saying a bullet proof car was offered." He said the Congress Vice President had every right to go and stand in solidarity with affected people (by floods).

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala accused Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani of shielding the goons behind the attack.

"We have lodged a complaint of 'murderous assault' against four BJP workers, but police has not registered an FIR," Surjewala said.

He alleged that Gujarat's BJP government deliberately ignored the protocol followed in the case of the Special Protection Group protectee Rahul Gandhi.

"Let's tell them that Godsewaad did not succeed in 1948, and it won't succeed now. It is Gandhiwaad that has prevailed and will prevail," he said.

On the political conspiracy behind the attack, Surjewala said it has to be examined. "There is an abject failure on the part of Rupani and his administration."

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi faced hostile crowds waving black flags and shouting slogans in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tour of flood-hit Dhanera town in Banaskantha district. His car was pelted with stones, shattering some windowpanes.
Lucknow/New Delhi, Aug 5 : Over four months after taking over as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath on Saturday resigned from his Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency.

He quit the seat he has held for five consecutive terms, after voting in the vice-presidential poll earlier in the day.

Adityanath is likely to enter the state assembly as a member of the legislative council.

Three Samajwadi Party and a Bahujan Samaj Party member from the upper house have already quit and it is expected that he along with his two deputies, Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, will fill these vacancies instead of a direct election.

There is however no word on when Maurya, who represents the Phoolpur constituency in the Lok Sabha, would quit. Speculation is rife that he may be inducted in the Narendra Modi government.
Baghdad, Aug 6 : Iraq is promised to get a loan of $195 million from Japan to develop a thermal power station in Basra province, said an Iraqi government statement on Saturday.

The loan was signed during a visit to Iraq by Japan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kentaro Sonoura, who met Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the statement said, Xinhua reported.

Iraq needs external financing to plug a budget deficit of approximately 25 trillion Iraqi dinars ($21.44 billion) for this year as it grapples with lower global oil prices and costs associated with the fight against Islamic State.
The Q-School classes have had tons of success over the past couple of years, so we decided to add the competition class in order to help competitors learn new techniques and skills to help them take steps to becoming award-winning competitors.

From beginners to experienced BBQ competitors, all are invited to attend the smoker cooker competition class, Friday, August 25 and Saturday, August 26, from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM in the Lang BBQ Smokers Kitchen, 4649 Main Street, Hoboken, Georgia 31542.

The Q-School Competition Class is being hosted by Lang BBQ Smokers, featuring members of the Lang BBQ Competition Team, Daryl Strickland and Matt Lee.

The Q-School classes have had tons of success over the past couple of years, so we decided to add the competition class in order to help competitors learn new techniques and skills to help them take steps to becoming award-winning competitors, states Ben Lang. The Competition Class provides participants with all the techniques and skills needed to find success competing at BBQ events across the nation. The class is a full KCBS (Kansas City Barbeque Society) box building class, which teaches participants how to prepare and cook chicken, ribs, pork and brisket. Lessons include how to pick meat out, trim the meat, season and develop flavor profiles.

Lang Smoker Cooker owners are welcome to use their smoker cooker during the class. Those that are purchasing a Lang Smoker Cooker and are picking it up directly from the factory in Nahunta, Georgia, can use it during the class as well.

Register for the Lang BBQ Smokers Q-School Competition Classes online at https://langbbqcookingclass.com/class-2017-august.html or call the Lang BBQ Smokers factory at 1-800-464-4629. The class fee is $350 per class. Class sizes are limited.

The Q-School Classes give participants all the tips and techniques needed to compete against other BBQ competitors. Visit the event calendar (http://blog.langbbqsmokers.com/events/) on the Lang BBQ Smokers website to find BBQ competitions nationally and internationally to participate in.

About the Q-School

Lang BBQ Smokers hosts Q-School smoker cooker classes and competition classes throughout the year featuring instruction by BBQ chefs, pitmasters, and award-winning competitors. The classes are available for backyard enthusiasts, competitors and restaurateurs.

About Lang BBQ Smokers

Since 1988, Ben C. Lang II has revolutionized the smoker cooker industry. The Lang Smoker Cookers feature a unique design with a reverse-flow, an off-set fire box, and  inch welded steel. The family owned and operated business provides models fit for the backyard, competitions, and commercial use. The factory will customize units to your needs.
Hivelocity launched its second data center in Tampa in response to the demand for locally owned and operated supply in Tampa. A Tampa Bay Business Journal Fast50 award winner, Hivelocitys growth has historically been driven by its dedicated server and private cloud businesses, making Hivelocity the largest consumer of its own data center services. Rick Nicholas, VP of Colocation at Hivelocity explained Were able to meet customers where they are along their journey to the cloud. We offer private connectivity from their colocation space to our public cloud, private cloud, storage, and dedicated server offerings so they can migrate and grow in the manner that best suits them. Total Telecoms a trusted name to walk customers along that journey and were thrilled to serve their customers.

The Partnership aims to expand Hivelocitys exposure to the Enterprise and Government segments. Hivelocitys newly opened TPA2 data center is the latest in the growing requirements for Data Center space expected to be a $62.3 Billion dollar industry by 2022 (Source http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/colocation.asp ). The newly opened 30,000sf/3MW facility 15 minutes from Downtown Tampa is Hivelocitys second data center in Tampa and provides the ability to custom design, build, and support the unique needs of Government and Enterprise organizations. This facility is the most recent to open in Tampa with the ability to expand by an additional 60,000sf/6MW over the coming years.

TTMUSA is a sourcing and advisory group quietly assisting Business and Government organizations better source and operate their technology needs. We are very excited about the opening of Hivelocitys TPA2 facility. Tampa Businesses have been in need of better options to host their most critical IT infrastructure for years. Mergers/Acquisitions, lack of investment, and lack of local support has been the most common complaint. This has lead to many of our Tampa based Customers to source and grow their space out of the region. Hivelocity is unique in a number of respects. They built one of the largest and robust IP interconnections for their Private Cloud Customers in Tampa and Atlanta. The space provides the opportunity to completely customize around a clients needs and its proximity to Tampa. This infrastructure, aquility, and Geographic desirability will be a winning combination in our engagements to assist customers find proper data center housing both in Tampa and Atlanta. Allan Watkins

About TTMUSA

Total Telecom Management, Inc. (TTMUSA) is a full service, boutique Master Agency, located in Roswell, GA. TTMUSA has focused on how to develop a complete IT life cycle for their customers specifically in the VAR community. TTMUSA is a key partner resource for numerous VAR's and MSPs to assist them in leveraging network services and cloud "as-a-Service" solutions. TTMUSA focuses on simplifying the technology to enhance the buying experience for their enterprise and government customers. TTMUSA achieves success when we empower our partners and their customer IT teams to focus on the adoption of new technologies swiftly and efficiently while maintaining a high level of cost effectiveness. As one of the leading full service boutique Master Agents, we strive in providing the best results on ever engagement.

About Hivelocity

Hivelocity provides cloud hosting, dedicated servers and colocation services to customers from over 130 countries worldwide. By simply focusing on solutions and environments that put the customer in the best position to succeed, Hivelocity has grown steadily since 2002. These highly scalable solutions are delivered from CJIS, SSAE16, SOC 1, SOC 2 and HIPAA certified facilities. For more information about Hivelocity you can visit them at https://hivelocity.net.
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SPRINGFIELD -- The Governors Office of the Illinois Bicentennial, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild and the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois, will present a craft beer competition at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield Friday through Sunday, Aug. 11-13.

To highlight the robust craft beer industry and Illinois-made products, Illinoisans will be able to celebrate the 200th birthday of the state with an Official Bicentennial Craft Beer.

This is a fitting tribute to the number one industry in the state, said Heidi Brown-McCreery, director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and a Bicentennial commissioner. Theres already a good buzz about the Craft Beer Competition.

Craft brewers from Evanston to Alton and Rock Island to Chicago accepted an invitation to showcase one of their signature beers, all vying for the chance to be selected to brew the Official Bicentennial Craft Brew. The winner will be determined by a vote of state fair attendees who sample the offerings, and a panel of craft beer experts.

An Illinois Bicentennial craft beer will be an exciting offering to all craft beer lovers, said Danielle DAlessandro, executive director of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. We are thrilled to highlight our vibrant Illinois craft beer community through this opportunity.

The Illinois Bicentennial Craft Beer Competition tent is located inside Gate 1 in the Happy Hollow area.

We are excited to have Illinois brewers from across the state represented in this competition, Brown-McCreery added.

Brewers who are scheduled to participate: 718 Brew Cafe, Metropolis; Aleman Brewing Company, Chicago; Bent River Brewing Company, Rock Island; Blue Nose Brewery, Hodgkins; Church Street Brewing Company, Itasca; DESTIHL Brewer, Normal; Engrained Brewing Company, Springfield; Excel Brewing, Breese; Forge Brewhouse, Sycamore; Hand of Fate Brewing Company, Petersburg; Miskatonic Brewing Company, Darien; Myths and Legends Brewing Co., Westmont; Noon Whistle Brewing, Lombard; The Old Bakery Beer Company, Alton; Peel Brewing Company, O'Fallon; Pollyana Brewing Company, Lemont; Sketchbook Brewing Company, Evanston; White Oak Brewing, Normal;

Illinois was recognized as a state on Dec. 3, 1818, and the official Illinois Bicentennial will be celebrated in 2018 with events planned across the state on Constitution Day, Aug. 26, 2018, and the grand birthday celebration at the United Center on Dec. 3, 2018. Local municipalities and organizations can upload their Bicentennial activities to the official Bicentennial event calendar on www.illinois200.com.
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Ivetta Starikova wanted to be a manager at a San Francisco Bay-area tech company. At 26, she was used to being one of the few women in a group. Before becoming an engineer, she studied math and computer science at University of California at Berkeley in a class that was heavily male.

Starikova's request to become a manager got rebuffed, and she said she was effectively fired. A mentor, an older man, advised her on the realities.

"Nobody will make you a manager because you're a girl and you're too young," Starikova recalled him saying.

The mentor had given her stellar recommendation letters in the past, and he was looking out for her, she said in an interview with Business Insider.

That was 14 years ago. She has since advanced in her career, now working as a product and project manager. But some perceptions about women at work haven't changed.

In a poll conducted earlier this month by Business Insider partner MSN, more than 90% of men and women said they were comfortable with having a boss of the opposite gender.

But their preferences tell a different story.

One in five men said they preferred working with men. Men with less education are more likely to say so. Among men who said they preferred working with their own gender, 24% had only a high-school diploma, 20% had some college, and 16% had a college degree or more.

The stats are about the same for women who prefer working with men, at 21%. Of those women, 24% had gone through high school, and 21% had gone through some college. Seventeen percent had college or more.

Other data backs this up. A Wall Street Journal poll last year found that both genders still preferred male bosses. The same percentage of men and women, 6%, said they preferred working with women, according to MSN's poll.

The data highlights how women are perceived at work, a domain largely unavailable to them until fairly recently. It also highlights that women are fighting an uphill battle. A large group of people, mostly men, don't want to work with them, don't think they should have to, and don't think there is a problem.

"Workplaces were created for men," said Katherine Zaleski, the cofounder of PowerToFly, which connects female engineers to jobs at startups.

"Women only came into the workplace around World War II. They were handed pink slips when the men came back. Then women started reentering the workforce in the '60s and '70s, where women were literally paid less, penalized for having children, and had no parental leave."

Three out of four men and women said they preferred to work with a mix of both men and women. But other data suggests perceptions of working women have a ways to go.

MSN polled more than 463,000 readers on its US homepage on Monday, July 17. It then used machine learning and big data, such as the census, to model how a representative sample of the US would have responded. It's nearly as accurate as a traditional scientific survey, MSN said.

Is gender diversity important? Not to a lot of people

Almost one in three men (31%) in MSN's poll said gender diversity at work was "not important at all." Women aren't far behind on that notion, with about one in four (24%) saying the same.

There could be many reasons for that. For example, we don't know what kind of workplace the respondents work in, so it's possible that these respondents work at companies that have already done well on that front. Or the data could mean simply that a lot of Americans don't think it's important.

"We have a lot of folks who are undeniably biased against women and don't think women can perform at the same levels," said Anna Auerbach, co-CEO of Werk, which matches employers to employees seeking flexibility.

"We still have a generation that was raised with a lot of stay-at-home moms. There's no judgment there, but you wouldn't think [gender diversity] was important unless you knew the data on how this was failing companies and was actually unfair."

Americans appeared split, in any case. On the other end of the spectrum, 28% of men and 41% of women in the MSN poll said gender diversity at work was "very important."

Some companies tout gender diversity as a way to boost their bottom lines, and there is some research that backs that up (here are examples from Harvard Business Review, Morgan Stanley, and McKinsey).

Some companies, like Paris-based Sodexo, have said that improving gender balance helped the firm's bottom line. Sodexo's CEO, writing for Harvard Business Review, said: "We found that our teams with gender-balanced management achieve operational, organizational, and performance benefits that include employee engagement, enhanced brand image, greater client and consumer satisfaction, increased organic growth, and an increase in generating profit and cash."

But some research challenges that gender correlates with company performance. For instance, a Wharton professor, in reviewing peer-reviewed academic research, found little correlation to gender diversity on boards and CEO gender on performance.

"Rigorous, peer-reviewed studies suggest that companies do not perform better when they have women on the board. Nor do they perform worse," the professor, Katherine Klein, wrote. "Depending on which meta-analysis you read, board gender diversity either has a very weak relationship with board performance or no relationship at all."

Klein added: "In sum, the research results suggest that there is no business case for  or against  appointing women to corporate boards. Women should be appointed to boards for reasons of gender equality, but not because gender diversity on boards leads to improvements in company performance."

That doesn't mean that some companies aren't forging ahead with finding ways to keep, and promote, their senior female talent.

"If you don't think gender diversity is important, then you won't have the best team you could possibly have," said Peter Riccio, founding partner at New York-based recruitment firm Atlas Search.

Riccio's recruiting company has created flexible schedules for all staffers so they can properly attend to children, family emergencies, and the like. That planning includes having junior staffers take up administrative tasks that would pile up for more senior workers if they leave work in the afternoon  which is expensive up front, but pays out in the long run, allowing him to keep on experienced talent and allowing them to use their time more efficiently while also attending to personal matters.

"Rather than you have to be at the job 9 to 5, you can work from home," Riccio said. "If theres someone who needs to leave at 4 every day to pick up kids from school, their hours don't necessarily change.

"On paper, in the beginning, it costs more money, but we get a lot more return on it," Riccio added. He said this method has allowed him keep on one of his star moneymakers, a recruiter who is also a mother, and that this method has also allowed her to more efficiently allocate her time at work.

A lot of men think women are treated very fairly at work
He was found not guilty on five other counts in the case: three counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

He faces as much as to 20 years in prison.

Shkreli said during a press conference after the jury's announcement that he was "delighted by the verdict" since he was found not guilty on a key charge regarding his former drug company Retrophin.

"This was a witch hunt of epic proportions," Shkreli said. "Maybe they found one or two broomsticks, but at the end of the day we've been acquitted of the most important charges in this case, and I'm delighted to report that."

Still, even the mixed verdict was a blow for Shkreli, who said before the trial that he was "so innocent" that the jury and prosecutors would have to apologize to him after the case.

Shkreli made headlines in September 2015 when as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals he raised the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat a parasitic infection, by more than 5,000%, earning him the nickname "pharma bro." The charges in this trial weren't related to that price hike but stemmed from events earlier in his career while he managed hedge funds.

In court, his lawyer had argued that his notoriety shouldn't influence the case.

"You may not like Martin Shkreli," the lawyer, Ben Brafman, said in his opening statement. "And you may have reasons to hate Martin Shkreli, but that is not a basis on which to convict."
Officials close to Prime Minister Theresa May's government have told Politico that two positioning papers will be published in August which will reveal the Cabinet's desire for a smooth and gradual departure from the European Union aided through transitional arrangements.

The first paper will outline the government's desire for a transitional customs arrangement while the second is set to present a possible solution to the Northern Ireland border dilemma, sources close to the papers have told Politico. The papers, scheduled to be published in the week beginning August 14, will be first of dozens to be made public in the comings months.

The UK government is keen to counter the opinion held by figures in Brussels that Britain is neither prepared nor equipped to enter such complex negotiations. May triggered Article 50 in March but since then her government has failed to articulate specific goals it wants to achieve in divorce talks with the EU. Steve Bullock, a former UK representative to the EU, told BI last month that EU figures were "baffled" by how unprepared Britain was for talks.

"If someone had asked me in August 'okay what would be the absolute worst way to approach this?' I don't think I could have done it as badly as government ministers are right now," former negotiator Bullock said.

Former UK-EU negotiator: May is handling Brexit in the 'absolute worst way' possible

"There is a cranking up of the machine into another gear. There is an awareness that we have to get to the European Council having shown seriousness," an official told Politico.

The papers will reportedly indicate a preference for a gradual departure based on Britain's current trading relations with the EU continuing beyond March 2019 as part of a transitional arrangement. This is the sort of Brexit that has been pushed by Chancellor Philip Hammond and the Cabinet's more moderate voices, while staunch Brexiteers like Trade Secretary Liam Fox lean towards a harder version of Brexit with less emphasis on a transitional period.
Academia isn't for everyone. The hours are long, you're likely to spend a lot of time looking at a computer or in a lab, and you are endlessly trying to prove you deserve the title of "Doctor."

Many of the pressures PhD students face have been published in the Guardian's Academics Anonymous series, including the stress associated with getting your papers published, and the bullying behaviour or lack of useful feedback from supervisors who aren't properly trained.

According to a study published in the journal Research Policy in May, this stress can have an impact on PhD students' mental health. Approximately a third of students working towards their doctorate could be at risk of developing a psychiatric condition such as depression, the authors concluded.

The sample size was small, with the team analysing results from 3,659 students at universities in Flanders, Belgium, studying science or humanities subjects. However, the results are a valuable addition to the research into how academic study affects our mental health.

About 51% of people surveyed said they had experienced at least two symptoms of poor mental health over the past week, and 32% reported at least four symptoms. This prevalence was about twice as high as the highly educated general population.

Some of the most common symptoms students reported were feeling under constant strain, losing sleep due to worry, being unhappy or depressed, and not being able to enjoy their day-to-day activities.

The researchers also found that the greatest predictor for experiencing mental health problems was finding it difficult to take care of family needs due to work commitments. The high demands of the PhD itself and little control over the work were also associated with more symptoms.

Guilt, failure, and bullying

Claire*, who is currently in the final six months of her PhD at Imperial College London, told Business Insider that she can see how studying at this level has the potential to affect someone's mental health.

She said that she and some of her colleagues all thought about quitting about half way through their PhD.

"It seems to be when you feel like you should have accomplished something by then, but you haven't, and the end isn't exactly in sight," she said. "For me, the frustration comes from the fact that I know I should get up at 7 a.m. and start working, but I hit snooze 10 times because I technically don't have to be in an office. Then when I do get up I feel super guilty and behind and then I'm unproductive and the cycle continues."

Claire also started getting physically ill, with a bad cough and a fever, but blood tests indicated there was nothing wrong. The doctors told her it could have been linked to feeling stressed.

"Coming into the last six months I'm glad I did it, but there were definitely a lot of tears a long the way," Claire said.

"I've said to a few people that I think PhDs aren't necessarily the most 'academically' challenging, comparative to for example my Masters, but they're emotionally challenging." Challenging in the sense of whether you can stick it out, handle the failure associated with it, and work independently.

However, having an interest in an academic career and having a clear vision for the future could offset the risks of developing a mental health problem, the authors note in the study. Having an inspirational supervisor was also an important factor.

Unfortunately, not everyone who starts their PhD necessarily appreciates their supervisor. In fact, some are not just unhelpful, but abusive to their students.

One student, Alex*, who has been doing her PhD at a university in the Netherlands for the past two years, and has started seeing a psychologist because of how it has impacted her.

She told Business Insider that she is worrying all the time, and sometimes she doesn't eat or sleep as a result. She can never completely relax, and checks her emails countless times a day, even when on holiday. She puts this mainly down to her tutors, who are not only unsupportive, but insidious bullies.

"If it was a regular job, I would have quit over a year ago," Alex said. "Every single day I think about quitting. I absolutely dread going to the office."

She said the content of her PhD is intense enough on its own, as she studies refugee mothers, children, and sexual violence. The constant undermining and pressure from her supervisors is the worst part, though. She has just started seeing a psychologist for therapy sessions, and said being able to speak about it has been like two years of weight lifting from her shoulders.

What is it about academia that attracts this kind of behaviour?

"I have a feeling it's because we're mostly so honoured to be accepted, that we don't question anything that seems off," Alex said. "We know our place at the bottom of the ladder and so anything can happen higher up without being challenged. And then if or when things go badly wrong, it's still our fault and not those ultimately responsible."

One way to try and combat this could be to invest in proper leadership training for academic supervisors. After all, they are trained in their subject, not in being a teacher or a mentor.

In an article for Quartz, Jennifer Walker wrote about when she attempted suicide during her PhD due to suffering with imposter syndrome and depression. She said university tutors should be trained in the warning signs of depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, and substance abuse.

She added: "They need to create a culture of openness that not only removes the stigma associated with mental-health problems but encourages students to ask for help."
The respected Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has suggested to government to increase the VAT rate by 1 percent to cater for the funding of the free SHS.

A Senior Research Fellow at the IEA, Dr Eric Osei-Assibey, in analysing the mid-year budget presentation by the Finance Minister Thursday said the Free SHS policy is a catalyst for sustainable growth and development, adding that the programme needs an exclusive funding.

Just as we did for NHIS, increasing the VAT rate by say 1% and ring-fencing it for exclusive funding of the Free SHS will be very ideal. Domestic tax revenue provides a more stable and predictable source of financing expenditure for important public programmes such as free education, he said.

But for IMANI, increasing the VAT rate will run counter to the governing New Patriotic Partys commitment not to increase taxes.

IMANI founding president Franklin Cudjoe said in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM that he believes the government has funds to make sure the free SHS programme succeed.

I suspect they already have funds to make sure the plan succeeds," he said.

"Im not sure taxation is one of them. For a government that is interested in reducing taxes, I would think that it may not be fair on them to be asked again to impose an additional 1% tax for something they already had a master plan for and ways to find sustainable resources to execute, Franklin Cudjoe said.

Last month, the Minister of Education said the implementation of the policy to provide free public senior high school (SHS) education will begin from the 2017/2018 academic year.

Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh said students who fail their Basic Certificate Education Examination (BECE) will not enjoy the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy being implemented by the government.

He noted that a student who is repeated as a result of failing an exam or for any other reason, will also not enjoy the policy but only students who pass their BECE
READ MORE:Yvonne Okoro Shows Off Her Banku Skills

But speaking with Berla Mundi on GhOne TV, Okoro said she will feature in one if she is given a better offer and a good script.

She further said the movie industry should not be segregated into Ghallywood and Kumawood, saying they all serve their purpose.

I was asked if I was willing to work in Kumasi and I told them it is about time we stopped segregating between Ghallywood and Kumawood, she said.
According to organisers, the programme which started 30 June and will be ending on the first of September has seen an appreciable increase in the number of audience so far compared to the previous years.

There are several interesting artistic works on display, ranging from electronic gadgets to any other things one could think of.

In an interview with Pulse News, one of the curators, Mawuenya Amudzi said that the profession is gradually gaining momentum in reliance and has the potential to partly address the high level of unemployment in the country.

Mawuenya Amudzi however lamented lack of financial support as one of the major challenges artists face in their field of work. He said artists have to depend on their personal earnings to fund the arts for the benefit of the entire society.

As to whether it is a lucrative venture to engage in and how one could generate income from it, Mr. Amudzi said the only way to make income is when someone expresses interest in the artistic work, but the initial motive is usually not to make money.

One might be wondering whether the works of this Artists are impactful in any way to inspire either government or any investor to support it financially. But Mawenya Amudzi believes that artistic works have contributed greatly in changing attitudes and societal behavior by criticizing and drawing attention to conducts that are inimical to the welfare of the general society, hence the need to take their work seriously.

He has not only called for financial support, but would also like to see a complete overhaul of the School Curriculum right from the basic level up to the tertiary to make adequate room for the study of art.
It was the morning of Oct. 6, 1780, that Arthur Patterson and his son, Thomas, were captured by advance scouts of British Major Patrick Ferguson. Arthur struggled with his captors and yelled to Thomas to run and dont come back. James and his brother, William, were nearby but with Ferguson arriving with his 1,100 Torie, rescue was impossible to save their father who was hung.

What made the Scots of North Carolina so anti-British was the Highland Clearances of 1746. British soldiers went into the Highlands of Scotland and forcefully removed more than 240,000 men, women, and children and herded them to British ports, chained them to the ship to break their spirit, and sailed them to North Carolina, named after Charles I, who was beaded by Cromwell. The British hated the Scots so much they would sail from the port and scuttle the ship beyond the horizon to drown all the Scots chained to the ship.

Arthur was named after King Arthur of Camelot, James was named for King James I who had the Bible translated into English, William was named for William Wallace who fought for Scotlands independence but was betrayed and dissected alive, and Thomas named after Thomas Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. They had pride in being Scot even though born in America as James, my ancestor, James Patterson, was born in Montgomery County, Virginia.

As their horses were taken away by Fergusons scouts, it was Joseph Kerr who rode 30 miles to the united militias called for by Isaac Shelby of Sullivan, Tennessee, to battle Ferguson who threatened to lay their lands to flame and sword if they did not lay down their weapons and swear allegiance to the king. Shelby was joined by John Sievers, Campbell, Cleveland, McDowell. Ferguson now became the pursued.

Joseph Kerr rode 30 miles to where Shelbys militia army was waiting news of Fergusons location and Kerr told them he was on Kings Mountain which stands above the surrounding area with steep sides. Ferguson considered it was unclimbable even though only about 60 feet high. He yelled a taunt to Patriots he knew were close and said he would be king of that mountain and no one could drive him from it.

Isaac Shelby knew that being on top, Fergusons men would have to expose themselves to fire down on anyone climbing up. The decision was to send 900 men and the strongest horses to ride in night in a heavy October rain. They arrived the next day around noon and hitched their horses some distance away and surrounded this flat outcrop about 600 yards long. At three in the afternoon, the patriots started firing.

Captain Abraham de Peyser was second in command of Fergusons Tories and said, We didnt know they were there at the top until they started shooting. He then remarked, This is serious, these men are yelling and screaming.

Ferguson took to his horse and covered his red jacket with a checkered shirt and rode up and down the flat top encouraging his men, Thats it boys, give it to them and blowing his silver whistle that could be heard above the gunfire.

Ferguson attempted to break the Patriots blocking the trail downward; Ferguson charged and tried to open a breech. He was shot from his horse but his foot was caught in the stirrup. Some say he died as he fell with his horse running and dragging his body around. Tories managed to stop the horse and propped him up against a tree where they say he died.

De Peyser saw it was useless to continue the fight and offered surrender but some Patriots continued firing. The British force of 1,200 men suffered 290 killed, 163 wounded, and 668 captured that were taken to Hillsborough. Patriots (American) force was 904 with 29 killed, 58 wounded. I added the three for James and his brothers as I have copies of his affidavit of his service in the American Revolution and information from the genealogical files of Tennessee. Arthur was added to the official rooster even though he was executed by Ferguson the day before.

President Theodore Roosevelt called it the greatest victory of the Revolution and came at a time after General Gates lost 4,000 men at Camden, New Jersey, and Genera; Lincoln surrendered 5,000 men at Charleston and three signers of the Declaration of Independence were captured.

The most important factor was the breech-loading Ferguson rifle that could be loaded while lying on the ground and shoot three times faster than a musket that required a soldier to stand and load. This played a factor in the next battle at Cowpens where Cornwallis sent Major Tarleton with 2,200 men that had 850 Patriots cornered with a flooded river behind and James and his brothers in the front line with the Ferguson rifle to face a charge by the British Dragoons.

General Morgan planned that strategy perfectly and Cornwallis couldnt believe how such a small force could beat a superior force that had three 3-pounder cannon. James was in the front line again at Guilford Courthouse that demolished the charge of the British Dragoons and then headed for the woods and the Hessians followed. The Patriots were used to fighting in the woods and Cornwallis looked on and said, From the day God made me, I have never seen men fight like devils.

But the names of men who fought at Kings Mountain are all over Shelby, Coles, Moultrie counties, as well as towns and streets named for the leaders. James and the militiamen were assigned to General Lafayette who admired them so much he had soil from America brought to cover his grave.

Date of the battle: Saturday, Oct. 7, 1789, Weather 22 F, wind 13 knots.

British: Major Patrick Ferguson. Patriots: Isaac Shalby, John Seivers, Cleveland Captain Abraham de Peyser William Campbell, James Johnson, McDowell.
The incident occurred late in the evening of Tuesday, August 1, 2017, at Cathedral Drive near Wilmington Street, Houston.

Report says the suspect fled the scene in her car after shooting Johnson who died upon arrival at the Ben Taub General Hospital where he was rushed for medical care.

Davis later turned herself in after the police began a search for her in what news sources have described as a "love triangle gone wrong".

ALSO READ: Another woman shot dead by lover in South Africa

An attorney representing the accused insisted that the shooter acted in self defense as opposed to murdering him.
The 30-year-old confessed the strange to Bryt FM, saying: It was there that God told me to marry my sister before things will be okay for me in life, and he told me that if I refused to marry my blood sister, he will kill me and I did not want to die, he claimed.

I was not interested in my sister, but I have no option, because I cannot defy my creator.

The relationship between the two, Mawena and his sister, Dzigbordi, though not agreed to by their parents, has resulted in the birth of a four-month old baby boy.

According to Mawena, had previously spent five years in Mauritania seeking greener pastures, he sees nothing wrong with having a sexual relationship with his blood sister.

On the part of Dzigbordi, she confessed that natural feelings pushed her into having an affair with her brother, hence she moved from her mothers house to stay with him.

She added that, she got convinced their relationship was in fulfillment of Gods promise which has changed the life of her brother.
Justice Kamocha Kamocha gave the verdict yesterday, August 3, 2017, after finding the accused guilty of murder.

A top online news company in Zimbabwe, The Chronicle, confirmed that Mutero committed the heinous act in a bush which left 3-year-old Chipochashe Ndlovu unconscious.

He subsequently returned the child to her home where he told its mother that the infant had suffered an epileptic attack.

Kamocha in her ruling said, I was unable to find anything which can be regarded as an extenuating circumstance. In the result, the sentence of this court is that you be returned to custody.

"The sentence of death be executed upon you according to the law."

Mutero would have gotten away with the crime if not for a suspicious village head identified as Chief Nyamhondo who reported the matter to the police.
Musa, who resides at Saje Village in Bichi Local Government Area of the state, is being tried on a one count charge of rape.

The Chief Magistrate, Muhammad Jibril, ordered the remand of the defendant in prison custody and adjourned the case to August 10 for mention.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp. Pogu Lale, had told the court that one Bashir Ado of the same address reported the case at Bichi police Division on July 27.

The defendant deceived and lured her into his shop situated at Saje Village and forcefully had unlawful sexual intercourse with her, he said.
While sharing of nude photos are common among celebrities world wide, the practice is gaining currency in Ghana.

Last month, an explicit video of Rashida Black Beauty was uploaded online. Prior to that, nude photos of actress Christabel Ekeh had been shared online.

Musician Sista Afia has also confessed that she goes naked to actress attention. And as for Moesha Budon, she has threatened to break the internet.

But why do celebrities take or share nude photos? Here are some researched answers on the phenomenon.

Social recognition:Ron Kramer, a senior sociology lecturer at the University of Auckland, has told travel magazine the Stuff thataccess to new technology is changing behaviours. Kramer adds that social media is changing the way we think about ourselves and others.

While some studies have suggested that narcissism lies behind our desire to share photos online, Kramer thinks most posters are after social recognition.

"One outcome of social media is that it's almost as if you don't exist if you don't share things on social media; that you haven't really been to a place if you haven't posted a photo of yourself there. Image sharing is effectively a game of social status, and self-validation perhaps. It's a bit like buying a flash car to prove your worth," Kramer said.

For attention: Another reason people share nude photos is for attention, Kramer says.

"That edge gets pushed further and further and people feel less and less concerned by what they share. There's no such thing as too much information anymore."

Social influence: A study conducted on college students in 2012 found out that students who saw more sexually suggestive photos of their peers on Facebook reasoned that more of those peers were having unprotected sex with strangers. They were also more likely than the group who saw less suggestive photos to say they planned to have sex without condoms with strangers.
READ MORE: National Security allays fears of terror attacks

It said the travel advice was "standard practice" and is similar to that of other countries in the region and around the world.

"The British government provides advice to British citizens travelling to countries across the world. Our aim is to provide practical, accurate and up to date information and advice to help British nationals make informed decisions about their safety and travel abroad," the statement said.

It continued: "Recent media stories in Ghana have wrongly suggested that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have issued a new warning with regard to terrorism in Ghana. We have not issued new advice.

"Our travel advice for Ghana was last updated on 24 April and can be found at www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/ghana. This contains a section on terrorism  something that is standard practice for all travel advice. This advice is similar to that of other countries in the region and around the world."

Meanwhile the National Security Ministry has calmed the nerves of the Ghanaians over the security alert.

"The National Security Ministry has taken notice of news reports of some travel alerts issued by western nations as a caution to potential travelers to Ghana," the ministry said in a statement.

"The Ministry hereby informs the Ghanaian public that the alerts are only standard cautions and do not represent any specific known terrorism threats to the Nation.
The former campaign chairman of the New Patriotic Party is the Honorary Chairman of the Democratic Union of Africa, an umbrella body of centre- right parties in Africa which includes some opposition parties in Kenya.

The deportation comes just two days after President Nana Akufo-Addo appointed a new ambassador to Kenya.

On Saturday, the AFP reported that two foreign nationals working on the opposition's poll campaign are being deported from Kenya, the opposition and the US embassy said Saturday.

In a tweet the US embassy in Nairobi said an American and a Canadian had been detained Friday. "They're safe & departing Kenya," it added.

James Orengo, a senior official in the National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition, named the two as John Aristotle Phillips, an American, and Andreas Katsouris, a Canadian.

Phillips is chief executive officer of Aristotle Inc, a Washington-based data mining firm and political consultancy, while Katsouris is a senior vice president in the company.

Aristotle spokeswoman Brandi Travis confirmed the deportation.

"We have for years worked on pro-democracy campaigns. They were helping NASA's candidate," Raila Odinga, Travis said.

Orengo described the two men as "friends from Canada and the United States".
Before Monday's police standoff at a home on Fourth Street in Charleston was even concluded, critics began to harp.

At least on the JG-TC Facebook page, from some the mantra was, "It's EIU's fault!" They blame Eastern Illinois University and its students for a crime situation before even knowing any facts about the event.

Cut it out!

This is ridiculous. Some people's knee-jerk reaction in our local communities is to blame EIU for allegedly bringing miscreants to town, degrade Eastern students and decry the alleged "downhill slide" of the university that some contend is leading to a higher crime rate in Charleston.

In many cases, that's just not true, and in all cases, it's just not that simple.

Of course university students sometimes are arrested for committing a crime. So are plenty of "townies." The Monday standoff did involve one person who was a former EIU student, according to police. It's worth noting that no one yet has been arrested for a crime related to that incident.

But what does a person's status as a student have to do with being allegedly involved in criminal activity? Will some people suddenly start blaming a particular church in town for all auto accidents in Charleston if one of their members gets a speeding ticket?

Blaming Eastern for a very small percentage of its students getting into trouble is just as ridiculous.

Eastern has been part of the Charleston community for decades. Chicago natives -- who some locally try to give a bad reputation simply because of their hometown -- have attended the university for almost as long. It's just plain inaccurate and sadly simplistic to try to pin most of the city's crime on people from a certain geographical location.

When it comes to blaming students, facts are not on the naysayers' side. Multiple studies have found that people with a high school diploma versus those without one are less likely to be involved in criminal activity. The same goes for those with a college education versus those without. Higher education actually correlates to lower crime rates.

Yes, there is crime in Charleston. But the campus and town are notably safe.

In fact, the city has been hailed for its safe environment. SafeWise named Charleston No. 2 of its 2016 Safest College Towns in America.

EIU brings a lot to Charleston, and any negatives related to the university are far outweighed by the positives. The quality of education, culture opportunities, employment, economic contributions by students and faculty and staff that support local businesses, and much more combine to keep Eastern the fine institution it long has been.

Now, we're not saying the town is Mayberry.

In a different kind of ranking, SafeWise selected Charleston as No. 27, down from No. 18 the previous year, among the 50 Safest Cities in Illinois in 2017 (Mattoon didn't make the list.).

And EIU students are involved in crimes. Just in May, a student was shot and killed at a party in Charleston in an as-yet-unsolved incident.

But it's certainly unfair to relate all the crime in the city to EIU and/or EIU students, or to students who originate from a particular city.

Residents have to remember -- these are not the 1950s, or the '60s, or the '70s, or whatever decade for which you may be nostalgic. It's not realistic to leave car doors and houses unlocked and expect no one to take advantage. Most of the crimes seen in this area are petty. Yet we now live in a world of mass shootings, a time in which criminals use automobiles to kill innocents, and no major city, at least, is immune to terrorism.

Still, Charleston remains outside of that world thus far, thankfully, with violent crime incredibly low. We wish there was no violence at all, ever, in our communities, but certainly EIU can't be blamed for the actions of people who may or may not be students at the university.

We applaud law enforcement personnel for handling Monday's incident well and bringing it to a peaceful end. And when it comes to blanket statements about crime and some residents' attitudes in Charleston, we have a simple request:

Stop blaming Eastern.

-- JG-TC Editorial Board
Dr Nduom in a statement said towing levy is move to exploit Ghanaian drivers.

He said current laws mandates the government to tow broken down vehicles, wondering why the government will bring a private company to execute this mandate.

He said: Existing laws allow government to tow vehicles wrongfully parked on our roads and charge a fee accordingly.

So why assume that we will all engage in illegal parking and require towing and as a result make it mandatory for all vehicle owners to pay a road towing fee every year?

The towing levy, which was supposed to commenced in June, has been put on hold due to criticisms from commercial drivers and the public.

READ MORE: Government suspends controversial towing levy

The political parties have also weighed in, condemning the levy in no uncertain terms.
Speaking on Accra-based Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia's' programme, Abronye DC said: "If you knew what goes on during Campaign, I dont think you will implement it".

The towing levy, which was supposed to commence in June, has received widespread criticism from commercial drivers and the public.

The programme will be executed by Road Safety Management Limited (RSML), a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies owned by business mogul, Joseph Siaw Agyapong.

But for Abronye DC, Mr Agyapong is seeking to take advantage of the government which he says could land the party in opposition.

I will resign from the party because Mr Siaw Agyapong, the owner of RSML is seeking to exercise undue advantage over the government which would lead the party back into opposition.

Government to decide on levy

On Friday, the Transport Ministry issued a statement saying the cabinet is yet to take a decision on the towing levy.
It might not be the easiest title to fit on your LinkedIn profile, but it does allow you exclusive access to The Yeoman Warders Club  a pub set within the walls of the Tower of London itself.

These photos captured by Reuters News Agency provide a rare look into the Beefeaters' drinking hole. Scroll down for a look at the place where the elaborate red-trimmed dress coat can be shed after long days of endless photographs with tourists and time spent guarding Her Majesty's crown jewels.

Welcome to the Tower of London, 'a secure fortress, royal palace and infamous prison.' Over the years, the Tower has confined prisoners ranging from Elizabeth I to the Kray twins. Two of Henry VIII's wives were beheaded here.

Now, though, it is one of London's foremost tourist sites. Around 3 million visitors take in the history of the Tower every year.

Among the Tower's many secrets is a pub. Tucked away in a private corner of the castle walls, this might be the most exclusive pub in the world.

Welcome to The Yeoman Warders Club, open only to  you guessed it  Yeoman Warders. The Warders are more commonly known as Beefeaters.

The inside is much like any pub or clubhouse  with a few distinct differences...

Draught beers include the Beefeater Bitter and Yeoman 1485  both brewed in Staffordshire, exclusively for the Warders Club.

According to club chairman John Donald, 'both are delicious.'

There's also plenty of Beefeater Gin, obviously.

The memorabilia here is a bit different too. The Yeoman Gaoler's axe is an eye-catching reminder of the castle's dark history.

There's also a signature of Hitler's former Deputy Fuhrer Rudolph Hess. The Nazi politician was briefly held in the Tower after crash landing in Scotland in 1941.

Not just anyone can be a Beefeater  criteria to make rank is strict. Applicants must have 22 years of military service under their belt, made (at least) the rank of Warrant Officer and hold a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

New Beefeaters are initiated with a traditional ritual in the pub. "We each have a tankard, and we swear in new recruits around a large bowl of port," Chief Yeoman Warder at the time Alan Kingshott told BBC Travel. "They swear allegiance and we toast them with the line: 'May you never die a Yeoman Warder.'"

"There were dozens of inns and bars in the Tower during the 18th and 19th Centuries, but this is the last one," Kingshott said.

The 37 Beefeaters live, often with their families, within the fortress walls.
After the publication of full transcripts of Trump's calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia, some of those diplomats were able to have a laugh at his expense.

But the details revealed by the transcripts may not give them any more insight into dealing with the mercurial US president.

The day the transcripts were published, Jorge Guajardo, one of Mexico's most senior diplomats, received several messages from colleagues about them.

"He's the opposite of Teddy Roosevelt," one official told him, according to McClatchy. "He speaks loudly and carries a small stick."

The transcripts, published by The Washington Post, appeared to show that Trump didn't understand the domestic political consequences that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto would face if he backed off his stance that Mexico would never pay for the border wall Trump touted as a central part of his campaign.

Diplomats from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East all expressed concerns about candidate Trump in private conversations.
Nigerias Muhammadu Buhari is in the United Kingdom, Angolas Eduardo Dos Santos was in Spain, Benins Patrice Talon just returned from Paris and Zimbabwes Robert Mugabe frequents Singapore.

74-year-old Muhammadu Buhari returned home in March 2017 after spending seven weeks on sick leave in the UK for an undisclosed ailment. He left Abuja on January 19 after informing the National Assembly. Not so long ago his first picture after he left his country for about six months surfaced on the internet.

Buhari 's recent absence has been raising fears and speculation about his ability to run the country.

The Federal Government of Nigeria announced that it would not provide funds to any government official to travel abroad for medical treatment unless the case could be handled in Nigeria.

Despite a well-funded presidential clinic for the president, it appears Buhari does not even trust local hospitals with his health.

Famously, in September 2015, Godswill Akpabio, then governor of oil-rich Akwa Ibom state, went abroad for treatment following a car crash just four months after he commissioned a $95 million hospital in his state.

Dos Santos Spanish treatment

In May 2017 the Oil-rich Angola for the first time in a long while officially confirmed that their longtime president, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, was in Spain to seek medical treatment.

Despite leaving the country in early May, it was not until May 29, that the foreign minister confirmed the news after opposition parties heaped pressure on the government to disclose the location of the man who has led Angola since 1979. Dos Santos steps down from power after 38-years in charge.

Benins Talon and the Paris surgeries

Earlier in the month of June, Patrice Talon, president of the Republic of Benin, admitted to undergoing two surgeries during a visit to Paris.

The presidency has opened up about his condition disclosing that the 59-year-old underwent two successful surgical operations during his recent visit to Paris.

According to a statement released on June 19, 2017, one procedure was due to doctors finding a lesion in his prostate while the second operation was on his digestive system.

Zimbabwes Mugabe and routine check-ups in Singapore

Singapore has been Robert Gabriel Mugabe's regular destination for medical tourism. It is on record that the old president has visited that country twice this year all for medical attention.

According to the government, the 93-year-old suffers from eye cataract disputing the opposition claims that Mugabe is afflicted by cancer.

Instead of fixing the crisis in Zimbabwe's health care, he rather prefers flying out to seek medical attention.

At a time when he was flying out to seek treatment, major hospitals in the country were in crisis.

Some had resorted to turning away non-emergency cases, at a point doctors had embarked on strikes.

Other facilities had announced the suspension of surgeries citing the unavailability of medicines.

Over the last decade, six out of 12 sitting African leaders have passed away while seeking treatment abroad.

Although African leaders make promises about improving local health care while seeking office, they continue to make international appointments with medics to address their sick conditions.
Sessions made the suggestion in a Friday press conference in which he outlined steps being taken to reduce the volume of leaks that have frequently embarrassed President Donald Trump and his administration.

Ryan took issue with Sessions' characterization of journalists' roles in reporting stories that include leaked information. While speaking at an event in Muskego, Wisconsin, on Friday, Ryan said it's "the problem of the leaker, not the journalist," the Journal Sentinel reported Friday afternoon.

"Leaks are concerning because leaks can often compromise national security, but thats the problem of the leaker not the journalist," Ryan said.

Session said earlier Friday: "We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited. They cannot place lives at risk with impunity. We must balance their role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in our intelligence community, the armed forces, and all law-abiding Americans."

A number of press-advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), criticized Sessions' remarks. The ACLU's privacy, and technology director, Ben Wizner, said: "Americans should be concerned about the Trump administration's threat to step up its efforts against whistleblowers and journalists."
"First kid" Tiffany Trump, President Trump's youngest daughter, is set to start her first year at Georgetown Law School.

And former "first kid" Malia Obama, after taking a gap year, is about to start classes at Harvard.

With that in mind, we looked at the college choices of first kids who were teenagers or young adults when their parents lived in the White House, as far back as President John F. Kennedy.

Along with Tiffany Trump, we added Trump's other children  the other current first kids  to this list.

Take a look below to see where everyone went  as well as who dropped out of college, who failed the bar exam, and whose parents didn't go to their graduation.

Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, University of Texas at Austin, Class of 1966

The oldest daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb attended the all-girls National Cathedral School in Washington, DC, and the University of Texas at Austin for college. She is the last first daughter to be married in the White House. She is the oldest living child of a president, and serves on the board of the Lyndon Baines Johnson FoundationLady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Luci Baines Johnson, Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, 1966 (did not graduate)

The younger daughter of President Johnson, Luci attended Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, but she was forced to drop out in 1966. She was married that year, and the school prohibited married students. She currently

Tricia Nixon Cox, Boston College, Class of 1968

The oldest daughter of President Richard Nixon, Tricia attended Boston College and earned a degree in English. Her father served as a guest speaker at her graduation. She currently Richard Nixon Foundation

Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Smith College, Class of 1970

Julie Nixon, the youngest Nixon daughter, attended Smith College and earned a master's degree in education from The Catholic University of America in 1972. She married David Eisenhower, grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 2010 she wrote "Going Home to Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower."

Caroline Kennedy, Radcliffe, Class of 1980

The oldest child of President Kennedy, Caroline went to Radcliffe College at Harvard University and earned a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1988. She served as US ambassador to Japan

John F. Kennedy Jr., Brown University, Class of 1983

The younger Kennedy attended Brown University where he majored in history. He graduated with a law degree from NYU School of Law in 1989, though he failed the bar exam twice, before passing on his third try. Kennedy died in a plane crash in 1999.

Amy Carter, Brown University, 1988 (did not graduate)

Amy Carter, the youngest daughter of President Jimmy Carter, attended Brown University but was dismissed in 1987 for falling behind in her classes. She graduated with a bachelor of fine arts from the Memphis College of Art in 1992 and earned a master's in art history from Tulane University. She currently serves on the board ofCarter Center.

Chelsea Clinton, Stanford University, Class of 2001

Chelsea could be the first child with the highest educational credentials. The only daughter of President Bill Clinton, she graduated with highest honors from Stanford with a history degree. She then attended University College of the University of Oxford, where she graduated with a master of philosophy in 2003. Clinton earned a graduate degree from Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health in 2010 and a doctorate from Oxford in 2014. She currently serves on the board of the Clinton Foundation.

Barbara Pierce Bush, Yale University, Class of 2004

The older fraternal twin daughter of President George W. Bush, Barbara attended Yale University and graduated with a degree in humanities. She is the CEO and cofounder of public-health nonprofit Global Health Corps.

Jenna Bush Hager, University of Texas at Austin, Class of 2004

Jenna, the younger fraternal twin, attended UT Austin, where she graduated with an English degree. She is an author and an editor-at-large for Southern Living magazine. Her parents did not attend her nor her sister's 2004 graduation, saying they did not want to detract attention from the activities.

Donald Trump Jr., University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2000

The oldest of President Trump's children with his first wife Ivana Trump, Donald Jr. attended The University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a degree in economics. He currently oversees The Trump Organization, which was set up to administer President Trump's assets once he assumed the presidency.

Ivanka Trump, University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2004

Ivanka is Trump's second-born child from his marriage to Ivana. She spent two years at Georgetown before transferring to UPenn where she graduated with a degree in economics. She is currently a senior adviser to her father.

Eric Trump, Georgetown University, Class of 2006

Eric is the youngest child from Trump's

Tiffany Trump, University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2016
of it:

The Ford Transit van also doesn't appear to have any lidar sensors mounted on its roof. Lidar is a 3D sensing technology that big tech companies like Google and Apple believe is key to autonomous vehicles.

Virginia's state government has aggressively courted self-driving vehicle companies and researchers. There are "no laws preventing autonomous testing on roadways, or a special permitting process, that doesn't exist," Virginia Department of Transportation spokesperson Marshall Herman told Business Insider. "There are very few regulations in Virginia for that."

However, the roads that the car were spotted on were not controlled by VDOT.

Some officials have said that nobody needs to be in a self-driving car if it's operated remotely, the Washington Post reported in April.

One person who saw the van said it was driving weirdly and that the technology "on the top" of the vehicle got her attention.

Apple has operated unmarked Ford Transit vans in the past in California, and leased them from California auto dealers, Business Insider previously reported. But Apple's vans  which have been labeled lately with "Apple Maps"  were equipped with visible lidar technology.

It might not be a tech company behind the van. Lots of university and military researchers are based in Northern Virginia and the DC suburbs.

ARLnow couldn't get to the bottom of who was operating the vehicle either, but they have lots of additional details about the unmarked grey van.
The excited dad took to his Instagram page to announce her birth as well as reveal her name to be, Nnenna Njoku.

He wrote alongside a photo of the newborn:

"#3 decided to join us. Welcome, Nnenna Njoku. Mrs Njoku is well. We are all super dupa happy. O+K are ecstatic to have a little sister. Njoku Kwenu."

The couple revealed in March this year that they were expecting and are already parents to a son, Jason Obinna Njoku, and daughter, Nwakaego Annabel Njoku.

Remmy, who is also the CEO of Rok Studios got married to her husband on August 18, 2012 at an occasion held in Festac, Lagos.
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In July 1953, a young truck driver walked into Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, paying $3.98 to record a couple songs via the Memphis Recording Service, a Sun side business.

Six months later, he returned to cut another disc, playing his guitar and singing two more popular ballads.

On July 5, 1954, Elvis Presley was back at Sun, called in by owner and producer Sam Phillips, who paired the 19-year-old with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black and started cutting some songs -- first a warbly attempt at Harbor Lights, then a try at I Love You Because, a country hit.

A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955, an invaluable three-CD set, captures everything still releasable that Presley recorded at the 706 Union Ave. studio -- all four sides of his demos and the Sun master tracks for sessions that ran through November 1955, by which time Elvis was on his way to RCA Records.

Scrubbed to a brilliant clarity, those remastered classics -- Thats All Right, Blue Moon of Kentucky, Good Rockin Tonight, Youre a Heartbreaker, etc. -- have never sounded better. Thats coming from an owner of the Sun sessions, one of my two or three favorite albums of all time on multiple vinyl and CD releases.

Disc two of the set gathers 26 outtakes and misfires along with some studio chatter. While the truncated versions of songs arent always compelling listening, they shed light on the development of the songs and of Presley while preserving old-school recording -- live in the studio with no chance to overdub or go back and fix it in the mix.

Particularly instructive are the five takes of Im Left, Youre Right, Shes Gone recorded over five months at a far slower tempo than the final, faster take from April 1955 -- a demonstration of how Phillips, Presley, Moore and Black worked and tinkered until they hit the right version of a song.

The third CD compiles every Elvis live performance and radio recording known to exist from the period. Many of the performances come from the "Louisiana Hayride," the country music show broadcast from Shreveport, Louisiana, that Presley first played in October 1954. Theres also a handful of songs at Eagles Hall in Houston in March 1955.

Some of those recordings are pretty rough. But theyre nonetheless electric, capturing Elvis, Scotty and Bill, joined by drummers and occasionally pianos and steel guitars as they developed into a tight outfit who delivered their ground-shaking hillbilly bop to ever more excited audiences.

Completing the set is a 120-page book thats called, appropriately, an illustrated travelogue -- a day by day accounting from July 4, 1954, to Dec. 31, 1955, with a narrative describing highlights of each week or two, noting every live performance and recording session. The book is crammed full of photos of Presley, some of which this Elvis aficionado had never seen, beginning in his childhood and running through the end of 1955, when he was all of 20, and on the brink of changing the world.

That combination of great sounding remastered tracks, comprehensive outtakes, live performances, photos and a daily dairy makes A Boy From Tupelo indispensable, even for Elvis fans who already have most of the tracks on other recordings. Grade: A
The prosecutor, Sgt. Olusegun Kokoye, told the court that the accused, who entered a not-guilty plea, committed the offences on April 7 at Wharf area of Apapa, Lagos.

He added that Onwusah failed to clear the container and disappeared with the money.

The complainant said that when he did not receive feedback from the accused, he became worried and decided to confront him for his money.

Ahmed said the accused failed to pay his money when asked to do so, Kokoye added

The prosecutor said the complainant reported the case to the police and the accused was arrested.

He said the offences contravened Sections 287 and 314 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 287 provides a three-year jail term, while Section 314 stipulates 15 years for obtaining under false pretences.
Adamu, a resident of Zuru in Kebbi, was convicted on a two-count charge of joint act and theft, contrary to sections 79 and 287 of the penal code.

The Presiding Judge, Sadiq Abubakar, passed the sentence when Adamu pleaded guilty to a charge of theft.

Sadiq, however, gave the convict an option to pay N25, 000 fine , adding that the punishment would serve as a deterrent to others.

The prosecuting counsel, Mr Dalhatu Zannah, told the court that one Patrick Nnaemeka of Plot 312A Road 6 Avenue Gwarinpa, reported the matter at Gwarinpa Police Station on July 11.

Zannah told the court that the convict and one Musa Garba, now at large , committed the offence on July 10 at the same address.

The prosecutor said that the complainant had parked his green colour Toyota Camry on July 10 at about 8:10 p.m in his mothers compound at Gwarinpa, but woke up the following morning at about 7. 30 a.m to find the car missing.
The incident occurred at about 9.00 am at Old Garage area of Osogbo.

An eyewitness said the deceased was a labourer who was on her way to Old Garage, where labourers usually assemble for daily engagements, before she met her untimely death.

The source said that the deceased was hit by stray bullets from a gun fired into the air by some men on a motorcycle before they sped off from the scene.

The police spokesperson in the state, Mrs Folashade Odoro, confirmed the incident to journalists, saying four suspects had been arrested.
The societys Lagos State chapter Chairman, Dr Oluwatosin Adu, made the assertion at a seminar to mark the 2017 World Breastfeeding Week, in Agege, on Friday.

The breastfeeding week has the theme: Controversy in Nutrition, Separating Facts, Fads and Falacy.

Adu said the programme was geared toward sensitising the public, from the grassroots, on ways to ensure that infants and adults had good health through nutrition.

According to him, exclusively breastfeeding a baby for six months will improve a childs brain development.

Adequate nutrition is a foundation for a wealthy and prosperous nation and what we are doing is to sensitise the public and members of this community on the benefits of breastfeeding a baby.

One of the ways we want go about this is by identifying the artisans, associations and communities; the programme is not for women alone, men are also participating and they are expected to pass the information to their families and others.

Breast milk contains all the vitamins and nutrients a baby needs in the first six months of life, thereby preventing the chances of a baby getting malnourished.

It is also packed with disease-fighting substances that protect a baby from illnesses and allergies: breast milk makes a baby to get adequate weight gain.

It also aids in the cognitive development of a baby, said Adu, a lectures at the Department of Biochemistry, Lagos State University (LASU).

He urged the participants to utilise the knowledge from the programme to ensure that their children got the necessary nutrition required of them to prevent malnutrition.

Mr Olushola Abimbola, National Publicity Secretary of NSN, said that climate change and migration of people had posed major challenges to high malnutrition.

A lot of people spend their man-hour in the hospital trying to see a doctor on one ailment or the other.

If our children are given adequate nutrition, it will reduce or eradicate some diseases in their body.

There is a need for mothers to adequately breastfeed their children and also eat nutritious foods, Abimbola said.

Mrs Motunrayo Alabi, a fashion designer and a participant, commended the society for the training.

She urged the society to spread the campaign to hospitals and maternity homes in the state for more people to benefit.

Another participant, Mr Akeem Ogunmoye, said the seminar was a good initiative.

He promised to inform members of his families on the benefits of good nutrition as it had great impact on the baby, mother and whole family.
The Speaker of the House, Mr Onofiok Luke, gave the assurance when NUT members paid him aid a courtesy visit in his office in Uyo on Friday.

The speaker said that the legislature was ready to interface with the executive to address the way forward on how to improve the well being of serving and retired primary school teachers.

He thanked the teachers for not embarking on industrial action but chose to dialogue with the government over issues bordering on members entitlements and welfare.

Luke said that the House would resume from recess in September, adding that it would meet with the NUT members to get the true situation of the issues at stake.

I promise you that as soon as we are back from recess, we will look into the issues to be able to advise the governor appropriately.

We are the bridge between government and the people. As a House, we will also interface with NUT and other unions to be able to get the true situation of things.

We will look into these issues, Luke said.

Earlier, the state Chairman of NUT, Etim Ukpong, said he and his colleagues were at the speakers office to intimate him of some lingering issues affecting primary school teachers in the state.

Ukpong, who is also the state Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), pleaded with the speaker and members of the House of Assembly to look into the welfare of NUT in the area.

As we speak sir, government still owes primary school teachers arrears of leave grant of 2013, 2015 and 2016, promotion arrears since 2011 is still hanging.

We understand the current economic situation in our state and country. It is our plea that this House, through your leadership, lends its weight and support this plea,  Ukpong said.

He, however, said the union met and agreed that the funding and management of primary school education should be taken from the local government administration.

Ukpong said the union also resolved that to enhance qualitative education and wellbeing of teachers, funding of primary schools and payment of teachers salaries and other entitlements should be transferred to the state.
Ortom said this on Thursday, August 3, 2017 while speaking on his encounter with Buhari when he joined some governors to see him in London.

The governor, who maintained that the president was mentally alert throughout the period of his meeting with the governors, believes Nigerians and public office holders should continue praying for the president.

He said: I was the first person that initiated prayers and I shouted halleluyah when I saw him because God has answered my prayers.

I urge both Christians and Muslims to pray for Mr. President because that is our duty.

There is no power without Gods ordination. So those of us who are subjects should continue to pray. We should not be castigating Mr. President or wishing him evil.

We should be praying for him. If Mr. President is sick, it means all of us are sick; the whole country is sick. It is our responsibility to pray that Mr. President get well so that our country too will be well.

ALSO READ: We cracked jokes with President on our visit - Gov Ganduje

Mr. President is doing well. When we saw him, he was not in a wheelchair, he was not bedridden. He greeted us, we cracked jokes and he was mentally alert. We discussed about the security situation in the country and he asked us questions about what we are doing.

Our prayer is that God will consummate his healing. We asked him not to hurry because there is no vacuum. The Acting President is holding forth for him and he is doing very well. By the grace of God, I believe that very soon, he will be with us.

Ortom was one of the seven Nigerian governors that visited the President in London recently.
Much has changed in 22 months.

In November 2015, opponents of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline drank to the project's apparent demise: After seven years of wrangling, President Barack Obama's administration had rejected TransCanada's application to build along a 1,179-mile route from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska.

But TransCanada and its supporters didn't abandon the Keystone XL.

Last January, four days after his inauguration, President Donald Trump revived the project, inviting TransCanada to reapply for a cross-border permit, which the U.S. State Department granted two months later.

Now Nebraska regulators are poised to determine the fate of the Keystone XL.

Beginning Monday, members of the Nebraska Public Service Commission will hear testimony from TransCanada, local landowners, environmental groups, Native American tribes and labor unions on whether or not the pipeline serves the public interest.

It's the last major hurdle on the Keystone XL's nearly decade-long path to approval.

Here's a look at what to expect during the weeklong hearing:

Issues at play

Landowners and environmental groups will challenge the pipeline on several grounds, contending that its design won't prevent damage to the land or wildlife, and that it would provide little benefit to individuals and communities along the route.

TransCanada and its supporters counter that the Keystone XL would employ state-of-the-art technology to minimize environmental impacts, and that its construction would create jobs and be an economic boon for Nebraska.

Two questions that can't be considered: the potential impact of spills, and whether or not the pipeline is even likely to be built given shifting demand in the oil market. State law specifically prohibits the Public Service Commission from considering safety in its review, and a judge overseeing the process ruled last week that the pipeline's commercial viability couldn't be considered, either.

Still, expect pipeline opponents to push the envelope, in part to position themselves for an appeal.

And like any major court proceeding, expect some surprises, too.

How to watch

Members of the public will be allowed to attend the hearing, which is at the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel, 333 S. 13th St., Monday through Friday. Doors open at 8 a.m. each day, and the hearing begins at 9 o'clock.

Seating will be limited. An overflow room will be available.

The proceedings will also be streamed live online at netnebraska.org. For highlights, follow Journal Star reporter Zach Pluhacek on Twitter @zachami.

Inside the hearing room, follow court rules: No signs, noisemakers, large bags or backpacks, coolers, food, beverages or recording equipment. Cellphones should be turned off, and noise should be kept to a minimum.

Setting the scene

Pipeline opponents plan a rally and march in downtown Lincoln on Sunday, beginning outside the Capitol at 3 p.m. And supporters of the Keystone XL will host a noon barbecue with TransCanada officials at the Laborers Training Center in Omaha.

Starting Monday, the hearing itself will be a formal proceeding, with testimony from approved witnesses only, and cross examination by attorneys representing official parties in the case.

There will be no closing arguments. Witnesses called by TransCanada will go first, followed by landowners, environmental groups, tribes and unions.

Retired Lancaster County District Judge Karen Flowers will preside over the hearing, under a contract with the Public Service Commission. Flowers will make procedural rulings during the hearing.

The PSC's five elected members will be seated with her and will ultimately decide whether to approve or deny TransCanada's application.

What's next?

A decision will be issued in writing and should come by November.

If the project is approved, and TransCanada makes the final decision to build the pipeline, construction should begin in the middle of 2018 and is expected to take about two years.

If TransCanada's application is denied and the company still wants to build the pipeline, it could file an amended application within 60 days, which would trigger another 60-day review period by the Public Service Commission.

Any decision by the PSC could also be appealed in court.

How did we get here?

Public concern over the Keystone XL's original proposed route through the Nebraska Sandhills spurred lawmakers to revamp the state's process for evaluating major pipeline projects in 2011.

Adopted that year, the original version of Nebraska's Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act assigned review of the Keystone XL and similar projects to the Public Service Commission, an independent agency. But a controversial rewrite of the act in 2012 shifted authority to the governor and the state Department of Environmental Quality, which the governor oversees.

Pipeline opponents challenged the rewrite, and rather than continue to fight in court, TransCanada chose to apply with the Public Service Commission anyway.
The Senate Joint Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport had summoned over 60 executives of the companies for questioning, but only 33 were said to have shown up.

The companies were allegedly involved in the N30 trillion-revenue loss in the maritime sector.

At the committee's meeting on Friday, August 4, the Chairman, Senator Hope Uzodunma, said by shunning the summon, the companies disrespected the National Assembly.

He said, "It is no longer going to be business as usual.

"We have directed the Nigeria Police to arrest the heads of the firms and bring them before us.

"If we can suspend our recess as lawmakers to see to the end of this investigation, I see no reason why the firms that have been indicted will not come to defend themselves."

The companies include Globacom mobile, Crown Flour Mills, British American Tobacco, CCECC, Dana Group, Olam Int. Ltd., Hong Xing Steel Co. Ltd., Visafone, African Wire, Star Comments and Allied Ltd. and Aarti Steel Nig. Ltd.

ALSO READ: Senate quizzes 60 firms over alleged N30trn revenue leakage

Others are Abyem-Diva Int. Ltd., Gagasel Int., Friesland Capina, Etco Nig., Edic Chemicals and Allied Distributors, De United Foods, Don Climax Group, Skill G Nig. Ltd., Premium Seafood and La Rauf Nig. Ltd.
The IGP made this known in Lagos during a working visit to The Nation's corporate head office on Friday, August 4, 2017.

Giving reasons for not arresting the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu as well as Arewa Youths, Idris said: "We have the National Security Council in place chaired by the Acting President. We have been meeting and analyzing each of these threat messages from separatist groups. We have to analyse the pros and cons. As you are aware, the police are on top of the situation."

Continuing, Idris said: As an organisation, what we take as paramount is the maintenance of law and order. There was a time we ordered the arrest of the leaders of groups making threat messages. Then, leaders of various ethnic nationalities came to the villa for a meeting with the Acting President.

The agreements reached at the meeting made the police to relax on the arrest order. We believe there are certain situations needed to be managed very carefully, so that you dont bring up tension. We believe the security and safety of Nigerians is paramount. We are assuring Nigerians that there is no person or group of persons that can deny them their rights to free movement in any part of the country.

ALSO READ: Nigeria not mature for state policing - IGP
The group said this yesterday at a press conference it held in Awka.

They group alleged that while other aspirants had conducted themselves with the modest decorum, a much needed prerequisite for anyone to be the flag-bearer of the party, it was sad that Nwoye had not taken that path.

AAGSG coordinator, Anona Anaso urged the national executive and all other organs of the party to live up to its billing and save the party from the likes of Nwoye.

We have it on good source that Nwoye had been engaged in activities detrimental to the harmony, unity and chances of the party even before the primaries and we are prepared to present evidence when called upon if need be to state its case, he said.

"Owing to the nature of the forthcoming elections and the pressing need for APC in Anambra to win the November 18 elections, we as a party ought to check and weed out undesirable characters capable of causing disharmony amongst members of the party and dent very much the chances of success.

As I speak, while a number of other aspirants have largely carried out their campaigns with the decorum demanded of them, it is much to our dismay that Tony Nwoye an aspirant known for all forms of notoriety has refused to go along that path.

It is instrumental to inform NEC and all other concerned organs and committees of the party, that Nwoye was a signatory to the accord set by the Jim Nwobodo committee, which called upon all aspirants to be prepared to support whoever emerges as the candidate.

Sadly, Nwoye has thrown away all aspects of the accord, sponsoring insidious allegations and petitions against other candidates as well as threatened violence.

We have it on source that, typical of his undemocratic disposition, he has even threatened to work against the party should certain aspirants win the primaries.

Again, we have it on source that the story making the rounds that the party chairman had been bribed by a fellow aspirant was also due to the evil machinations of Nwoye.

Is Tony Nwoye bigger than the party? Is he bigger than our collective interests?

"We therefore call on the party to immediately look into these charges and do the right thing or risk the victory that we so seek," he added.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Ikonne said despite Kalus defection to the APC, the former governor still hobnobs with members of the People Democratic Party (PDP).

An act Ikonne says is capable of affecting the chances of the APC in forthcoming elections in the state.

Ikonne recalled the concerns he raised against Chief Kalu when the latter defected to the APC, saying everything he predicted about the former governor is now coming to pass.

His words: "Remember that when some people said they have joined the APC, I raised serious concern because of the antecedent of such individual especially the former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu. Those things I predicted have started playing out.

"Orji Kalu is hobnobbing with Okezie Ikpeazu the governor of Abia state in the bid to get his brother, who is a PDP person to run with the governor as his running mate in 2019 while his brother will run for the House of Assembly.

"It is devilish and it is an act I know Abia will resist. This kind of action is capable of tearing the APC apart. Right now, we are building our party. APC is getting stronger in Abia and sincerer and focused people are joining the party.

Kalu cannot be in APC and the same time hobnobbing with the sitting governor in bid for his brother to run as the deputy governor to the sitting governor in 2019. Now, my question is under what platform is the arrangement going to take place because the governor has not join APC yet. Is Orji Kalus one leg in APC and the other one in PDP?

"I think he should concentrate all his effort in the Abia State North Zone and try and win his Senatorial seat instead of trying to plant his brothers to run as a Federal House member from Abia constituency and one to run as a deputy governor with the serving governor.

"I use this opportunity once again to call on Chief Orji Uzor Kalu to desist from act that are capable of tearing the APC apart and also capable of scaring the people from joining the party and also make APC to loose election in the fourth coming election in 2019.

"The party is getting stronger and positioning its self to win election in the forthcoming elections and those kind of attitudes are attitudes that can scared well-meaning Nigeria's even the electorate themselves, they will think Orjism is back again in Abia state and APC is not the platform," he said.
Oyegun said this at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, August 3, 2017, when he received political leaders from Delta Central Senatorial district who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.

He said the present administration is building a new economic model which will be sustainable, production-based and will diversify from oil to agriculture, solid minerals and other viable sectors.

Economically, things are difficult, there is no question about it. But in spite of that people of your quality sat down and still want to join the boat, because you have seen the future and you know the future belong to a changed country. A country that produces, not only consumes. Oyegun said.

He continued: In the last sixteen years of previous administrations, we just consumed. Thank God this nation brought President Buhari at the point it was about to collapse and all we are doing today is putting the pieces back together again. It is a difficult experience and as a result of that our people are going through some hardship. But there is no question at all, that you can see the silver lining that is on the way.

By the end of this year, we will be net exporters of rice, today we have started to export formally yam. Today we are about certain that all the grains in this country can be produce locally. These are all part of the building blocks towards the Nigeria that we foresee in another year or two.

"So, tremendous is progress is being made to reverse the road at which we were travelling, to build a new economy, an economy based on what we can produce. An economy based on agriculture, based on our solid minerals, he added.

The APC National Chairman stated that with the global decrease in the demand for oil, Nigerias economic mainstay, the need to diversify the Nigerian economy has become increasingly imperative.

It is clear today that oil is gone. Britain has declared that in 40 years, vehicles that consume fossil fuel will be phased out. The United States of America and other countries of Europe have made similar declarations.

"So it is fortunate that President Buhari is today in office taking us painfully through the process of change such that this nation will be counted in another few years as one of the industrial power houses of the African continent. Oyegun said.

ALSO READ: Archbishop of Canterbury visits President in London

While welcoming the new entrants to the APC, Oyegun said one of the resolutions of the Partys National Leadership was to bring the South-South back into the mainstream of Nigerian politics.

The APC national chairman described the zone as one of the strongest pillar for unity in the country.

I cannot resist but speak like somebody from the South-South on this very special occasion even though I belong to the nation as APC National Chairman. The point about us is that we are not tribal. The South-South is perhaps the strongest pillar for unity in this nation.

"The reality about the South-South is because we believe in the unity and oneness of this nation so strongly, we are ready to work with anybody who stands for one nation and one Nigeria.

Today, two years now we have a new regime of change. Unfortunately to a large extent, we missed the boat. We have only one state in the entire South-South, Edo State. It is our resolve here at national headquarters to bring the South-South back into the mainstream of Nigerian politics.

"Because at the greatest point of danger for this country, it was the South-Southerners that stood firm at risk to themselves, at risk to their lives that this nation must remain one," he said.

He said with the new entrants from Delta Central another solid block has been added to the APCs aspiration to bring Delta State and indeed the South-South into the Progressives fold.

I know how crucial central is in Delta state and with your entry into the Party, we have firmed up the central and can project from there to take Delta State and eventually take the entire South-South. Today we are adding one more solid block towards the unity, development and great of this country.

I am aware there are scores of you, but because the ceremony is taking place at the National Secretariat, we had to limit the number of persons who could come, I know that at the appropriate time we will have a great big unity rally in Delta state where all those who have joined us in the recent past will be formally received and where we will also formally launch the movement for the recovery of Delta state, he said.

The decampees were led by Chief Johnson Boro, former Commissioner in the Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC).

Other decampees are: Immediate-past PDP Chairman, Ughelli South LGA, Chief Francis Aguonigho; Chief Sleek Oshare; Chief (Engr.) Isaiah Kekeje; Chief Mathew Kwode; Chief Robert Ojo; Comrade Sunny Ogbududu; Mr David Edonor; Comrade Saturday Nukueye and Chief Charles Otaiye.

Speaking earlier, the APC National Vice Chairman (South-South), Prince Hilliard Eta said the defection of the PDP leaders from Delta Central to the APC was testimony of the paradigm shift being witnessed in the South-South.
The 52-year-old speaker made the pledge when he spoke with journalists in Lokoja on Friday.

Kolawole said the change being witnessed by the House of Assembly was for the advancement of the state aimed at attracting more dividends of democracy to the people.

He said that the state legislature under his leadership would work closely with the executive to facilitate the speedy actualisation of dividends of democracy to the people.

I promise to run an open-door policy and solicit the support and cooperation of honourable members.

Our collective resolve to put the interest of the state and our constituents, far above any other considerations, is an exhibition of statesmanship.

Together we shall work to deliver good legislation and people-driven government, he said.

Kolawole (Kabb-Bunu APC) expressed gratitude to his colleagues for electing him as the 12th Speaker of the Assembly.

He said, You have demonstrated to the world that this honourable House has the wherewithal to resolve issues, however contentious and whenever they may arise.

The new speaker promised to leave an accountable, focused, progressive and united House, capable of playing stabilising factor in the politics of the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Kolawole, who was born on May 5, 1965, started his primary education in at Ayede-Bunu in 1973 and completed it at Ayeh-Gbede in 1978.

ALSO READ: Former Kogi Assembly Speaker didn't resign to avoid impeachment

He proceeded to Baptist Commercial Secondary School also at Ayeh-Gbede and completed his secondary education in 1987.

Kolawole also attended Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin where he obtained National Diploma (ND) in 1993,HND in 1996 and Post Graduate Diploma (PGD),in 2004, all in Business Administration.
Mogherini met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ahead of an inauguration ceremony for President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.

Iran's missile tests and a satellite launch on July 27 were "not in contradiction" with UN resolutions, Zarif's office said in a statement after the meeting.

Britain, France and Germany last week joined the United States in calling for UN action in response to the satellite launch, saying the technology could be used for ballistic missiles and was "threatening and provocative".

"This is the wrong path," Zarif said in the statement.

UN Resolution 2231 was implemented alongside a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, urging Iran to refrain from testing missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads.
The remains were decomposed and showed signs of gunshot wounds to the skull.

They belonged to civilians probably executed by Daesh,Amar Nuri, an official in the western province of Anbar told the news website, using an Arabic acronym for the extremist group.

However, he did not state when the grave was unearthed.

Ramadi, the capital city of Anbar, was recaptured from Islamic State in December 2015.

In recent months, Iraq has unearthed mass graves of people thought to have been killed by Islamic State in several areas of the country.

In July, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially announced victory over Islamic State in Mosul, the groups last key stronghold in Iraq, after battling the hard-line militia there for nearly nine months.
The Lincoln Parks Foundation and the Friends of Dog Parks will host the inaugural Dog Bowl fundraising event presented by TMCO Inc. Sunday, Sept. 3, from 4-7 p.m. at Pinewood Bowl, South Coddington and West Van Dorn streets in Lincoln.

The Dog Bowl is a fun, musical event to raise funds for the Lincoln Dog Runs Campaign, sponsored by Friends of the Dog Parks and the Lincoln Parks Foundation.

This free family-friendly event will feature food trucks, craft beer, vendor tents, dog activities and live music at picturesque Pinewood Bowl inside beautiful Pioneers Park. All proceeds will support additional features at Lincolns three new public dog runs and our current public dog run, Rickmans Run. Dogs are welcome to attend on leashes.

We are excited to present the inaugural Dog Bowl as a way to give back to the community, which has supported us so well over the years, said Diane Temme of TMCO, a manufacturing company established in 1974 by her father, Roland. We look forward to enjoying the event with our employees and others in the community, and supporting this fun, worthwhile project that will further enhance our parks and recreation system.

Other event sponsors are A4 Vet Clinic, Kenl Inn, KFOR, Nebraska Animal Medical Center, Rich Rodenburg and Kim Soucie of Nebraska Home Sales, Paws 4 Fun, Pinnacle Bank, Sams Club, Greater Lincoln Obedience Club and Lincoln Animal Ambassadors.

Dog runs are off-leash dog parks where dogs can exercise, play and socialize with other dogs under their owners supervision. The three new dog runs will be located at:

 Roper East Park, I-180 north of Cornhusker Highway, which will replace the current Oak Lake facility;

 Mahoney Park, 84th and Adams streets; and

 Peterson Park, 2200 Southwood Drive.

Once completed, dogs and their companions will have off-leash runs to enjoy in each quadrant of Lincoln.

Also a campaign leader, Temme said the campaign has reached 54 percent of its goal of $861,000, which includes $240,000 from the citys capital improvement budget. The new dog runs are expected to be open by years end.

The private funds will leverage our public investment and serve as another example of a public-private partnership that has worked so well for Lincoln. The city-funded improvements include separate fenced areas for large and small dogs, fencing, gates, parking facilities with ADA stalls, sidewalks, benches, portable restroom shelters and trees. The campaign will provide the funds for enhancements such as drinking fountains, rinsing stations and additional trees, benches, paths and trails.

For more information about the campaign or the Dog Bowl, visit LincolnParks.org/dogruns or call the Lincoln Parks Foundation at 402-441-8258.
The billionaire, who turned 89 on Saturday, said he was "cautiously optimistic" about his company's future, as an upturn in major economies was weighed by geopolitical risks and renewed uncertainty over commodity prices.

Europe's economic recovery helped Li, who announced last week that his conglomerate and its property arm agreed to buy German energy management firm Ista International GmbH for $5.3 billion.

CK Hutchison Holdings continues to count Europe as a significant income source, with its joint Italian telecom venture Wind Tre being a main contributor to its growth for the reported period, the firm said in a statement Thursday.

Net profit for the company rose to HK$15.9 billion ($2 billion) in the first six months of 2017, compared with HK$14.9 million for the same period a year earlier.

But that fell short of the HK$16.2 billion average estimate in a survey of three analysts by Bloomberg.

Li said first half growth was adversely affected by currency changes, especially with the British pound.

Looking ahead, he said China's One Belt, One Road initiative -- a massive network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks in Asia, Europe and Africa -- would provide new opportunities.

"With its close economic connectivity and geographical proximity to the mainland, as well as its advanced economic development and diversity, Hong Kong is in a unique position to benefit from potential growth opportunities ahead," Li said in a statement.

Li offloaded major property investments in China after investing heavily there in the 1990s, in a move seen as a quest for stability for the tycoon's vast empire and a sign of diminishing confidence in the region.

Analysts called him a maverick at the time, but his moves irked Chinese critics.

His relations with China have since appeared to warm up again, as he dismissed calls for an independent Hong Kong and shared a prolonged handshake with Chinese President Xi Jinping -- a gesture typically seen as symbolic -- when Xi visited Hong Kong last month.
In a statement following the tally's release the company said it believes the outcome "positions Nissan to be competitive in the future" and urged the United Auto Workers union to end its bid to organize employees.

Nissan had been accused of conducting a vicious anti-union campaign at the plant -- where 80 percent of the blue-collar work force is African-American, and about 3,000 temporary and contract employees working at the plant were not eligible to cast a ballot.

"It ain't over yet,"Michael Carter, a Nissan employee who helped lead the union drive, told a crowd of more than 100 union supporters after the votes were counted.

"We are never giving up," he added.

After years of work trying to organize foreign car factories in the South, UAW president Dennis Williams called the results a setback for workers -- but said defeat should not be conceded.

"Nissan and its anti-worker allies ran a vicious campaign against its own workforce that was comprised of intense scare tactics, misinformation and intimidation," he said.

A complaint by the NLRB Friday accused Nissan of threatening employees with termination because of union activities, and threatening to close the plant if workers voted to unionize, charges Nissan vehemently denied.

"Nissan is running one of the nastiest anti-union campaigns in the modern history of the American labor movement," Gary Casteel, secretary-treasurer of the UAW, said in a recent statement.

Jobs for depressed region

The factory sits in what is historically one of the poorest areas of the poorest state in the union, according to government census data.

Companies often choose to locate in the US South, where wages are low, unemployment is high and the states are generally anti-union.

While the pro-union forces managed to ring the plant with supporters as the voting began Thursday, workers opposed to the union had fought back on social media and local talk radio.

The anti-union campaign said the UAW's presence had forced plants to close in other parts of the country and said the union used dues money to support Democratic political candidates like Hillary Clinton.

Nissan said the plant, which sits along the freeway just north of the state capital of Jackson, employs 6,400 workers, adding a measure of prosperity to a depressed region.

Prior to the vote's conclusion factory worker WaShad Catchings, 37, said the company seems to have different standards for its plants in Mississippi

He has worked for Nissan since the plant opened in 2003 and gradually came around to supporting the UAW.

"We don't want to bankrupt the company but we want to negotiate," he said. "We want a seat at the table. Let's negotiate. That's not too much to ask."

The Delta, as the region is known, is considered the birthplace of the Blues, and residents are predominantly African-Americans, the descendants of the slaves and later poor share croppers who made the region one of the most important cotton-growing regions in the country.

Machines now harvest the cotton but poverty and limited education have restricted economic opportunities.

The UAW has leveraged its history of support for the Civil Rights movement to establish a foothold in the community.

Prior to the vote Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California-Berkeley, said a loss would not necessarily end the drive to organize.
"If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Kang Kyung-Wha told reporters as she landed in Manila on Saturday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

North Korea's top diplomat, Ri Hong-Yo, is also attending the regional summit, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Kang, South Korea's first female foreign minister, said any meeting with Ri would be an opportunity "to deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers (for talks) aimed at establishing a peace regime".

Seoul last month proposed military talks with Pyongyang but the North refused to respond. Had they gone ahead, they would have been the first official inter-Korean talks since 2015.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has defied international pressure to accelerate his country's nuclear weapons capabilities, and boasted after the second intercontinental ballistic missile test that he could strike any target in the United States.

In response, Washington drafted the planned UN resolution to toughen sanctions against Pyongyang.

The United States also said it hoped to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event, known as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is attending.

'Seriously threaten' peace

In the run up to this year's gathering, Washington lobbied to have Pyongyang kicked out of the ARF. But there is limited appetite among Asian countries to shut North Korea out of one of the few diplomatic gatherings it attends.

The newly elected South Korean government of President Moon Jae-In is also more open to negotiations than the previous administration of conservative Park Geun-Hye.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula often dominate the ARF because it is one of the few annual diplomatic gatherings attended by the key stakeholders: South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

On Saturday ASEAN released a joint statement following a meeting of its own foreign ministers saying the North's missile tests "seriously threaten" global peace, but they stopped short of any moves to isolate Pyongyang.

The UN resolution proposes a ban on certain exports that could deprive Pyongyang of $1 billion in annual revenue.

It comes after a month of negotiations with China, the North's main trading partner and ally, to shore up their support for fresh punitive measures.

The draft resolution calls for a ban on all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state, according to the text seen by AFP.

The new raft of measures would be the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006, but these have failed to compel Pyongyang to give up its missile programme.
The 55-year-old US-educated multi-millionaire, whose family owns an array of businesses, properties and tracts of land, followed in his father's footsteps when he defeated his rival Raila Odinga in 2013.

Kenyatta won that poll despite being indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) along with his running mate, William Ruto, for alleged roles in orchestrating violence that left over 1,100 dead after the previous election in 2007.

Foreign powers, including Britain and the US, warned at the time that Kenya, under an ICC-indicted president, would be a pariah, but the threats proved empty.

In 2014 the ICC dropped charges against Kenyatta -- and Ruto later -- citing the disappearance of witnesses and lack of evidence.

Since then Kenya has welcomed President Barack Obama, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Pope Francis and hosted a string of international gatherings and conferences.

Privilege and wealth

Kenyatta's first term has been defined by big spending on eye-catching infrastructure and impressive economic growth in a tough climate.

But this has gone hand-in-hand with spiralling debt and widening inequality.

Terrorism has also been a consistent threat during his presidency with Kenyatta being forced to address the nation in doleful terms on numerous occasions, notably after the 2013 Westgate mall attack and the 2015 Garissa university attack.

The former finance minister and deputy prime minister was born in 1961, shortly after his father Jomo Kenyatta was released from nearly a decade in British jails and before becoming Kenya's first president in 1964. His first name means "freedom" in Kiswahili.

Educated at a private school in Nairobi and at Amherst College in the US, Kenyatta is regarded as a leader of the Kikuyu people, the country's single largest ethnic group.

He is married with three children and regularly attends Catholic church.

In 2011 Forbes magazine estimated Kenyatta's wealth at $500 million (423 million euros). Despite his elite background Kenyatta has a common touch. He easily mixes it up with ordinary Kenyans, eagerly gets down on the dance floor and joshes in the local youth slang and, in his younger years, earned a persistent reputation for partying hard.

A leaked 2009 US diplomatic cable described him as "bright and charming, even charismatic" but warned that "Kenyatta's liabilities are at least as important as his strengths. He drinks too much and is not a hard worker."

Dynastic politics

Kenyatta's political career is a case study in pragmatism.

In the 1990s, he joined with the sons of other independence heroes to call for democratic reforms but then became a close ally of autocratic former president Daniel arap Moi who had him nominated as the ruling party's candidate for the presidency in 2002.

Kenyatta lost to fellow Kikuyu politician Mwai Kibaki but then backed Kibaki's successful re-election bid in 2007, against Odinga who, at the time was allied with Ruto.

The violent fall-out from the disputed result led to a power-sharing government in which Kibaki was president, Odinga prime minister and Kenyatta one of his deputies.

In 2013 the two ICC indictees, Kenyatta and Ruto, joined forces to defeat Odinga in a close and controversial election. Kenyatta won in the first round with a wafer-thin margin of 50.03 percent -- a result Odinga disputed, unsuccessfully but peacefully this time, in court.

The upcoming vote is a re-run of 2013 except that this time the opposition has united behind Odinga posing a serious challenge to Kenyatta's ruling Jubilee Party.

Opinion polls put the two neck and neck.

The election will most likely be the final act in a multi-generational political rivalry stretching back half a century to when Jomo Kenyatta and Odinga's father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, vied for control of the nation.
The missing sailor was identified as Lieutenant Steven D. Hopkins, a Texas native, according to the US 7th Fleet.

On Thursday, China said it helped the US search for the sailor, a rare cooperative gesture in the disputed waters.

The US, Japan and China "spent 79 hours in a comprehensive search that covered roughly 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometres)," the US 7th Fleet said.

But they were "unable to locate" the sailor after an extensive search, Captain Jeffrey Bennett, commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, said in the statement.

The incident comes just weeks after seven American sailors were killed when their Navy destroyer collided with a Philippine-flagged cargo ship in a busy shipping channel off Japan's coast.

Aged 19 to 37, the seamen were found by divers in flooded sleeping berths a day after the collision tore a huge gash in the side of the USS Fitzgerald.

Japanese and US naval forces have been holding drills in the contested South China Sea in the face of Beijing's increasing assertiveness over its maritime claims in the region.

Beijing has pursued claims on nearly the entire territory of the South China Sea by building military facilities and conducting naval exercises -- despite partial counter-claims from nations such as the Philippines and Vietnam.
CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. (AP)  A northeastern Illinois man has been charged in the fatal shootings of his 31-year-old wife and her 15-year-old sister.

Ryan Yarber of Crystal Lake had a rights hearing Saturday before a McHenry County judge who confirmed first-degree murder charges. Yarber's bond was set at $5 million.

Allania Yarber and the teen were found Thursday night in the Yarber's Crystal Lake home, northwest of Chicago. Autopsies showed both suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

The teen's name was not released.

The Daily Herald reports that Allania Yarber and Ryan Yarber were husband and wife. The (Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald reports that the slain teen was Allania Yarber's sister.

Ryan Yarber is due back in court Tuesday.
DAVENPORT -- Child Abuse Council leaders have all their birthday bases covered.

The Moline-based organization will celebrate its 40th birthday with a trip to the old ball park when the Quad Cities River Bandits host the Peoria Chiefs at 6:35 p.m. Aug. 16 at Modern Woodmen Park, 209 Gaines St., Davenport.

"Aug. 18 is our actual birthday," said development and communications director Angie Kendall. "We wondered what we were going to do to celebrate it. What better way to celebrate building strong families than with your own family."

Community involvement got the council going, so it seemed natural to celebrate its birthday with the community, Ms. Kendall said.

"So why not just hang out at the ball park," and enjoy all the other amusements added to the its features, she said. "It's a great way to just let kids be kids," even if they now are 40-year-old "kids."

The council also will get a portion of the admissions.

In 1976, Rock Island and Scott counties formed a Quad Cities Inter-Agency Council led by Dr. Gerald Weiss. A year later it incorporated as the Council on Children at Risk and Cathy Alter was hired as its director. She left in 1980 and Roy Harley became executive director in 1981.

In 1998, Mr. Harley became executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Illinois. Sue Swisher became executive director and held the position until she retired in March 2014. Mark Mathews was promoted as executive director and the council received the donation of a downtown Moline building.
Looking up at the ladder leading into the dome of the State Capitol, sixth-grader Taylor Schmitz was in awe.

Paired with her mentor, Bob Ripley, the Capitol administrator, Taylor took three personalized tours of the Capitol this summer as a finalist of the first-ever Lincoln Children's Museum's "So You Think You Can STEAM" competition.

She saw hidden doorways and other parts of the Capitol closed to the public, things she said she "really enjoyed."

The private tours helped her make a model replica of the Capitol, her entry in the STEAM competition, which judges fourth- through 12th-grade students on their creativity, ingenuity and knowledge of science, math, technology, engineering arts and math.

The competition began in May. Each of the seven competitors was paired with a mentor and allotted $200 from Big Red Keno, a sponsor.

The Children's Museum started the competition this year when funding became available through sponsors, said Marissa Gill Keyzer, the museum's chief advancement officer.

Last month, the competition narrowed down to three finalists.

Saturday morning, Schmitz and two other students presented their projects before a panel of judges and audience members at the museum.

Pius X High School freshman Allyson Korus won the grand prize, a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by LI-COR Biosciences, which she plans to put aside for college.

Korus was interested in learning about heat conductivity after she'd done several textile-related projects through 4-H. She loves to sew and was encouraged by her science teacher to pursue the project.

The competition has had good reception at the Children's Museum, said executive director Tara Knuth.

Parents have told us how great its been for the kids to have something so educational to focus on all summer," Knuth said in a press release. "And all the judges and mentors who have participated have commented about how much they have loved being involved."

Sixth-grader Logan Crist, also a finalist, wanted to find out what products were most effective for hand-washing.

His project mentor was his uncle, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student.

They performed a series of tests that showed how many germs were left after using different washing methods.

He was excited to partner with his uncle, he said, because it gave him the opportunity to bond over science.

Since May, the project has been one of the only things on his mind.

"I was constantly thinking, 'When am I going to go to the lab and work with my mentor?'" Logan said.

The project helped Logan realize that he wants to be a scientist someday.

"You don't really get to do stuff like this at school; you don't get to go that far in-depth," he said.
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A decision in an appeal over the firing of a deputy warden at the Lincoln Correctional Center blamed staff shortages for the prison's inability to perform required drug tests.

The Nebraska State Personnel Board said this week that deputy warden Matthew Heckman should be reinstated because he shouldnt have been fired in October over the escape of two prisoners last year.

The board's report also pointed out that another complaint against Heckman  that he failed to ensure drug tests were done  wasnt entirely his fault.

Heckman was responsible for supervising employees who conduct required urine drug tests on inmates, and those workers failed to do an adequate number of those tests during eight months of 2016, the Department of Correctional Services said in firing him.

The personnel board found Heckman had no knowledge of the deficiencies until September and a severe staff shortage made it difficult for staff to be assigned to perform the drug tests.

Warden Mario Peart was aware the testing was not being completed, the board decision said, and had told the person in charge to "do the best you can."

The department was notified in September 2016 by an intelligence analyst that the prison had not met the required number of random urine drug tests for any month in 2016. A captain testified the tests weren't done because of a staff shortage.

Of 65 required drug tests each month in 2016, these are the number completed: January (23), February (21), March (20), April (5), May (15), June (4), July (5), August (1).

The department alleged that one of Heckman's duties was to supervise a major, who supervised a captain coordinating the drug tests.

Heckman would have had some knowledge of the low number of drug tests from meetings, according to hearing testimony, but specific numbers may not have been mentioned.

None of the nine other prisons had 100 percent of required tests done, but LCC was the lowest, the board indicated. In fact, it may have been happening for years, and no one had been disciplined for it until Heckman, the board said.

By September 2016, when the prison was notified, Heckman had been assigned other duties, the decision said.

The information comes at a time when the prison system is struggling with overcrowding and with publicity about drugs getting into the prisons to inmates, and alcohol being manufactured on site.

In May, a disturbance at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution that ended in the death of two inmates was triggered by staff confiscating large amounts of homemade alcohol.

In June, inmate Daelan Lamere, 22, was found unresponsive in his cell at Tecumseh and later died at Bryan West Campus in Lincoln. He tested positive for methamphetamine and ecstasy.

On Friday, Corrections Director Scott Frakes outlined tactics the prisons are using to operate drug-free. Contraband control efforts have been stepped up in recent weeks.

In July, a visitor was observed passing drugs to an inmate. Staff members confiscated the drugs and notified the State Patrol, Frakes said. The visitor was subsequently arrested.

Then, with the help of numerous sources of intelligence, the department located a cellphone and drugs in an inmates cell. In the past month, he said, contraband had been thrown over the fence on three occasions.
The Nebraska State Personnel Board said this week that a deputy warden fired over an escape last year at the Lincoln Correctional Center should be reinstated to his job or an equivalent position.

The board determined Matthew Heckman, a 33-year employee, did not violate rules or policies of the Department of Correctional Services, and the department was not justified in firing him. Such a harsh discipline was not imposed on those workers whose actions or inactions were the direct cause of the escape, the board said.

It also recommended he receive back wages and benefits.

The department said Heckman had the opportunity to observe and review deficiencies in the system and failed to correct them. The department accused him of failure to comply with federal and state laws, an executive order, rules, policies or procedures; inefficiency, incompetence or negligence; and with acts or conduct that adversely affected his performance or the agency's.

No specific actions he took or didn't take that could have led to the escape of Armon Dixon and Timothy Clausen from LCC in June 2016 were described in the department's allegations.

The department argued Heckman was in charge of overall security in the facility and all failures that day. Heckman placed most of the blame on others and failed to take responsibility, the department said in explaining his firing.

Heckman said at his February hearing before the personnel board there was enough blame to go around, and he was not directly responsible.

"The discipline appears to have been enhanced in this case because of (Heckman's) failure to take responsibility for the incident," the board's decision said.

The report said hearing officer William Wood was also frustrated by Heckman's failure to accept responsibility, but that didn't change the relevant facts in the case.

Attorney James Zalewski noted Heckman's last two performance evaluations said he "exceeded expectations" and recommended he be promoted to warden if an opening occurred.

The Department of Correctional Services received the personnel boards decision and department lawyers are reviewing it, said spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith. The department has not decided how to respond, or next steps, she said.

At the time of the June 2016 escape, the prison had at least 20 open custody positions, making it necessary for workers to substitute at posts other than those assigned.

The board decision said Heckman described the escape of two inmates in a laundry truck as a "perfect storm."

On the day of the escape, the usual worker was not assigned to the turnkey area, the first place the escapees should have been stopped. A lieutenant also was not present when the inmates passed through to go to the prison shop/laundry area.

The lieutenant said his captain allowed him leeway on whether or not to be present when inmates were entering for work, the decision said.

A corporal not usually assigned there accepted the word of the inmates that they were supposed to be there, and told a corrections officer they had started working a few days previously. The officer added the inmates' names to the roster.

Then, a shop sergeant, a replacement not familiar with employee work assignments, did not report the two were in the area or prevent them from entering.

Neither inmate was assigned to work in the laundry and, in fact, Heckman had taken steps to keep the inmates from working in shop areas. He also had tried unsuccessfully to have the two who escaped transferred to the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution, because he believed Tecumseh was more secure, the board recommendation said.

Adding to the foul-up, the laundry supervisor was on vacation and a six-month employee who didn't usually work in the laundry was filling in. Neither he nor another sergeant at the wire gate examined the laundry carts before they were loaded onto a truck leaving the prison.

The board also noted in the decision that a large number of lights, in particular perimeter lights, in the facility were burned out. Supervision of maintenance was not Heckman's responsibility, the board said.

But Heckman was aware the lights were out and had asked permission for an electrician from another prison to come in to change them. That permission was denied, "and he was told to stay out of it."

The lights did not play a part in the escape, the board said.

While all this was going on, Heckman was in his office and not aware of what was occurring, the decision said. Yet Heckman was the only employee fired as a result of the escape. A major was demoted, a lieutenant received no discipline, two others were briefly suspended and one got probation.

Testimony indicated Warden Mario Peart would have been fired, but was allowed to retire instead. No one in a position above Peart was disciplined, as far as can be ascertained, the decision said.
Naidu was an ABVP activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.

IMAGE: Vice President-elect Venkaiah Naidu being greeted by his wife Usha and daughter Deepa Venkat in New Delhi on Saturday. Photograph: Vjay Verma/PTI Photo

From pasting party posters to an epitome of political and ideological loyalty who rose to become one of Bharatiya Janata Party's most visible leaders and now India's Vice President-elect, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu has come a long way.

Born to a humble agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, the 68-year-old has served as BJP president, minister in various portfolios and a long-time Rajya Sabha member.

This remarkable career in politics has been more than four decades in the making.

It began in the 1970s when BJP's precursor Jana Sangh was a marginal player with little clout in the south and a young party worker kept himself busy putting up posters of stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani. Naidu has come a long way since those days of political obscurity.

"Coming from an agricultural background, I never imagined I would be here. Agriculture has no proper voice in Indian polity," India's vice president-elect told PTI.

"I am very humbled. I am also thankful to the prime minister and all party leaders for their support. I will seek to utilise the vice presidential institution to strengthen the hands of the president and uphold the dignity of the Upper House," he added.

Naidu is known for his oratory. A two-term member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha three times from Karnataka. He represented Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament before he was nominated to the vice president's post by the National Democratic Alliance.

Once an Advani protege, Naidu vigorously backed Modi for the prime minister's post before the 2014 elections.

He was minister for Information and Broadcasting and Housing and Urban Affairs in the Modi government and earlier also held the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

In the previous NDA government led by Vajpayee, he had served as Rural Development Minister.

The veteran party leader also served as the BJP national president from July 2002 to October 2004 for two consecutive terms.

He quit the post after the party's defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Naidu was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.

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.

His father was a farmer and he grew up in an environment where he could empathise with the problems of the farmers and the people of backward classes.

Before joining active politics, Naidu was much of a social worker. After completing his graduation, Naidu pursued law from Andhra University in Visakhapatnam.

His entry into politics was marked by his active participation in 'Jai Andhra Movement' of 1972.

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. During the Emergency between 1975-77, he remained underground until his arrest.

He used to distribute anti-government literature in educational institutions in Andhra and Tamil Nadu.

Naidu rose to prominence along with S Jaipal Reddy, who was then in Janata Party, during the campaign by N T Rama Rao.

He gained immense popularity because of his outspoken nature and great communication skills.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party was formed in 1980, he became vice president of its youth wing.

He was leader of the BJP Legislature Party in Andhra Pradesh, state general secretary and state unit chief.

Naidu displayed his leadership skills when he won the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections twice in 1978 and 1983 from Udayagiri constituency.

Naidu's oratory skills elevated him to different positions as a leader in the BJP and made him its national president in 2002.

He succeeded Jana Krishnamurthy as the national president of the BJP. On 28 January 2004, he was elected unopposed for a full three-year term.

Naidu was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1998. He was re-elected twice in 2004 and 2010 from Karnataka.

He served as the party spokesperson from 1996 to 2000.

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.

As the first minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the Modi government, Naidu defended the prime minister and the government whenever the opposition targeted them in Parliament.

He had also ensured high political outreach by meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when there was a standoff between the government and the opposition in Parliament.

Several major legislations were cleared by Parliament when he was Parliamentary Affairs Minister, including the historic Real Estate Act and fast forwarding of the goods and services tax bill.

Known for coining acronyms, Naidu termed the mission of the Modi Government as 'MODI- Making of Developed India' which had become the official line of the Centre in its public outreach campaign on the occasion of three years of being in office.

As the minister for Information and Broadcasting, he was always quick to present issues in perspective with effective repartee as and when required.

As Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, which was recently merged as housing and urban affairs, Naidu pioneered the launch of several new urban missions, including the Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All.

As Rural Development Minister, Naidu was instrumental in launching the hugely popular 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana'.

When the Congress swept the polls in Andhra Pradesh in 1978, Naidu got elected as MLA from Udayagiri constituency as a Janata Party candidate.

He was re-elected on a BJP ticket when N T Rama Rao swept the polls in the state.

But all that has receded into the past.

"There is no my party or your party. Now I am a non-party man," Naidu told reporters this morning as the election for the vice president got underway.

With inputs from ANI, agencies
P C Padhi became headlines in Odisha after a media expose on funds received by the BJD became known.

Dillip Satapathy reports.

The name Purna Chandra Padhi did not ring a bell with the people of Odisha until recently, when it popped up on a national channel in connection with irregularities in the funding of the Biju Janata Dal, the state's ruling party for the last 17 years.

'Peon donates Rs 1 crore to BJD party fund,' screamed the headline.

Padhi, who used to run errands at the BJD party office and Naveen Nivas (Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's home), was at the centre of a media expose on funds received by the party, allegedly from dubious and anonymous sources.

For many BJD leaders, Padhi or P C Padhi, as the name appears in some bank entries of the BJD account, was an unknown entity.

Many plead ignorance about his role in the party. Some say they recall him doing odd jobs at the party office and at Patnaik's residence.

Padhi, who is in his late 30s, belongs to Amanya Sahi, an obscure village in the Purusottampur block of Ganjam district, Patnaik's home district.

Fortune smiled on this son of a marginal farmer after he came in contact with some BJD leaders in the district.

"Bereft of any educational qualification to mention, Padhi started as a small-time contractor in his village," says a person who has known him for several years but who does not wish to be named.

"He even served as the driver of a BJD minister from the district, who helped get him a job at the party office in Bhubaneswar."

Padhi held a BPL (below poverty line) card before it was withdrawn when it was found that he was building a large pucca house in his village, one of the clauses for disqualification of such benefits.

A scrutiny of the BJD's account with the main branch of the State Bank of India, Bhubaneswar, shows Padhi deposited huge sums of money on different occasions.

"There are scores of entries in Padhi's name between 2008 and 2014," says Subash Mohapatra, a civil rights campaigner who filed a PIL in the Odisha high court on the issue pertaining to alleged irregularities in BJD fund collection and Patnaik's poll expenditure.

"In some cases, the money deposited is in thousands, while in others, it runs into lakhs (one of the entry being more than Rs 32 lakh/Rs 3.2 million). The total adds up to a few crores," he adds.

Padhi describes himself as a mere emissary given the responsibility of depositing the money collected from party members.

'I didn't make donations to the party in a personal capacity. I just deposited the money collected from people towards the party membership fee,' he told the media when asked about the issue.

"The argument lacks credibility," counters Mohapatra.

With the fee for ordinary party membership being Rs 1 per person and Rs 100 per person (in case of special members), the total amount deposited by Padhi, which is estimated in excess of Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million), more than covers the entire population of the state.

"It is as if everyone has chosen to be a BJD party member in the state," Mohapatra points out.

Moreover, the maximum donation that a political party could receive in cash from one person was Rs 20,000 for the period when the deposits were made (this has now been further reduced to Rs 2,000).

So Padhi's conduct raises suspicion, says Mohapatra.

The BJD refutes this argument.

A party spokesman, unwilling to be named, says Padhi was a mere carrier of funds donated to the party or contributed towards membership.

That is why his name has come up in the bank account, he says.

Small contributions were deposited together at intervals, which is why big amounts of deposits are reflected against his name, says the spokesman.

It was, he adds, not necessary to submit to the bank the list of contributors, which has been properly documented by the party and submitted to the satisfaction of the income tax department during the filing of returns for the party for 2014-2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and opposition's vice-presidential nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi extended their best wishes to Naidu.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers sweets to Vice President-elect Venkaiah Naidu at his residence in New Delhi on Saturday. Photographs: Vjay Verma/PTI Photo



Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the Vice President and expressed confidence that he will serve the nation with dedication and diligence, committed to the goal of nation-building.

The prime minister's message came immediately after Naidu, the ruling NDA's candidate, was declared winner in the vice presidential polls, bagging 516 votes out of total 771 votes cast.

The opposition's candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi could only manage 244 votes.

'Congratulations to @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu on being elected Indias Vice President. My best wishes for a fruitful & motivating tenure,' Modi tweeted.

'I am confident @MVenkaiahNaidu will serve the nation as a diligent & dedicated Vice President, committed to the goal of nation-building,' the prime minister added.

Talking about their association, Modi said, 'My mind is filled with memories of working with @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu, in the party & government. Will cherish this aspect of our association.'

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also extended best wishes to the Vice President-elect and extended her party's support in further strengthening the Rajya Sabha for effective scrutiny of legislations and government policies.

'The position of vice-president has the crucial challenge of assuming a non-partisan role in running 'The House of Elders' which acts as a storehouse of wisdom and sage advice for the government. The House of Elders is an important determinant of our democratic functioning to address appropriate checks and balances,' she said in her message.

By virtue of being vice-president, Naidu will also preside over the Rajya Sabha as its chairman.

Taking to Twitter, Naidu thanked everyone and said, 'With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines.'

Naidu also said that he promises to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by his esteemed predecessors.

IMAGE: Modi and BJP president Amit Shah greet Naidu.

Later, Naidu said in an address that as chairman of Rajya Sabha, 'I will uphold dignity and decorum of the house with cooperation of all members'.

"I am humbled by honor bestowed on me. I'm particularly overwhelmed as the honor has been conferred on a common man like me with a background in agriculture," Naidu said.

Opposition's vice presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi also congratulated the National Democratic Alliance nominee on his victory.

At the same time, Gandhi said that the vote he secured were an affirmation of 'the right to free thought and speech'.

Thanking the MPs and the parties that backed him in the election, he said they voted for what they felt was 'national good'.

He said the number of votes he received was 'beyond expectation'.

The former West Bengal governor said that the MPs voted for him to affirm 'the right to free thought and speech and the duty to serve pluralism and secularism'.

"I congratulate M Venkaiah Naidu garu on his victory and wish him all the best in his new office of the vice president of all the sections of India.

"Secondly, I would like to thank all the members of the Parliament for having voted for me. I believe members who voted for me is beyond expectations or calculations," Gandhi told reporters after the poll result was out.

The former West Bengal governor and diplomat also stressed that the election saw two victories -- one of Naidu and another of free speech.

"And the second victory belongs to all the people of India," he added.
Nearly two dozen MPs of opposition parties defied their leadership and voted for the National Democratic Alliance's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu, Bharatiya Janata Party sources said on Saturday.

Naidu secured 516 votes against the pledged support of around 495.

With the former Union minister securing over 68 per cent of valid votes against 32 per cent of the opposition's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who received 244 votes, the margin between two contestants at 272 was higher than Gandhi's tally.

Outgoing Vice-President Hamid Ansari had prevailed over his rivals by 252 and 233 votes in 2012 and 2007 polls, respectively.

What should cause concern among the opposition, including the Congress, the Left and the Trinamool Congress, is that their candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got only 19 votes more than their presidential nominee Meira Kumar even though 40 more MPs had pledged support to him.

Kumar had received votes of 225 MPs, while Gandhi was supported by 244. President Ram Nath Kovind had received support of 522 MPs.

The Biju Janata Dal, which has 28 members in Parliament, and the Janata Dal-United with 12 MPs had switched over to the opposition camp after supporting the NDA in the presidential poll.

Despite desertion by 40 MPs, the NDA's vote count went down by only six, underlining major cross-voting in its favour.

In an electoral college of 785 eligible members, 771 votes were cast out of which 11 were declared invalid, according to officials.

Among the 14 members who could not cast their votes for a variety of reasons, four belonged to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, two each to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League, and one each to the Nationalist Congress Party and Pattali Makkal Katchi. One nominated and one Independent member also could not cast their votes.

Polling officials said this was the highest turnout in the vice-presidential election.

Before it, the highest number of votes in the poll was 759 in 2002 when BJP candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had won the election.

IMAGE: Supporters of Vice President-elect Venkaiah Naidu in Bhopal celebrate his victory on Saturday. Photograph: PTI Photo
IMAGE: India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with then Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev during his visit to Moscow in 1961.

Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said on Saturday.

According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.

The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year -- a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops -- reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing.

The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.

The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: 'You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position.'

'If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama,' Khrushchev told Mao.

Mao shot back: 'Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India].'

He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run news agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement.

Khrushchev also told Mao that he was 'outraged' by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union 'time-servers'.

'Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth. We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody... If you consider us time-servers, comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it,' Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting.

After that visit, relations between China and then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the United States.
Almost the day the Nebraska Territory was made official in 1854, settlement began with an initial surge coming across the river from Iowa followed by colonies from eastern states as well as Germany, Czechoslovakia and other European nations. One of the crafts which accompanied many ethnic groups was brewing, and, as pasteurization -- which would have enabled larger scale brewing and shipping -- was not yet perfected, small breweries popped up coincidental with settlement.

In fall 1869, Otto Magenau immigrated to Fremont from Germany where he established a drug store. The following year he began bottling soda and mineral water. Magenau and his brother then established the citys first brewery on Main Street opposite the City Park and later were joined by Albert Oswald Mueller (Muller), who had learned brewing in his native Germany.

Their first building was a three-story, 24-by-40-foot structure which was supplemented some months later by a 24-by-80-foot malt house on a site which was described as being in the heart of the city. Mueller bought out the Magenau brothers in 1873 when the firm had nine men on the payroll and was producing 30 barrels of beer a day.

By 1882, the buildings, which then covered an entire city block, were valued at $20,000.

In February 1891, Mueller incorporated the Fremont Brewing Co. with $100,000. John Dern, also from Germany and later Dodge County treasurer, state senator and member of the board of trade, was corporation president. John Deals (Diels) was vice president; L. P. Larson, whose own company was the wholesale distributor of Yellowstone whiskey, was treasurer and Edward N. Morse of the Fremont Ice Co. was corporate secretary.

The new firm then purchased a site from the Stock Yards & Land Co. southeast of Fremont in an area known as Factoryville and hired Chicago architect August Maritzen to design the new brewery building. Two structures were planned about 40 feet from each other. The main building was six stories tall with a footprint of 108-by-96 feet and the other 100-by-52 feet described as four stories plus a two-story tower, costing a total of $125,000.

Integral in the design was the boiler room with two 80-horsepower boilers and a 40-ton refrigeration machine which did away with the use of ice. The malt house was able to handle 60,000 bushels while the huge copper boiling vat could manufacture 150 barrels of beer in each batch.

According to an article published April 5, 1892, in the Fremont Frail, the process moved production up and down the six-story building beginning with barley soaked in two 300-bushel tanks for three days, sprouted for six to eight days, dried for malting, dumped into mash tubs with hops where it was boiled for three to four hours, stored in copper vats, run through Baudelot cooler, settled and fermented for up to two weeks and then placed in 19 casks back on the first floor. The entire process expended about 190 days and produced Imperial Pilsener. By 1902 production in the plant which soon covered nearly the entire block was averaging about 30,000 barrels annually.

In 1916, Nebraska voters approved statewide prohibition to go into effect the following year. A company press release announced that its 28 stockholders, seven of which were women, had voted not to manufacture a substitute for beer when prohibition goes into effect. In 1917, the brewery closed and renamed itself the Fremont Beverage Company to manufacture ice and Fremo, a cereal beverage, and contemplated making malt extract.

With the end of prohibition, the Fremont Brewing Company was reinstated but lasted only through the year of 1934.

Today the site at 900 East Factory Street retains one or possibly two of the original buildings, currently empty, about six blocks northwest of the Hormel Foods campus. Dont be surprised, however, when you discover that the Fremont Brewing Co. still produces beer but in a completely unrelated firm in Seattle, Washington.
OMAHA  An Omaha man has capped off 365 days of charity work by donating a car to a man in need.

Mickey Manley, 31, made it his goal last July to spend an hour every day making a difference in the Omaha community. The pledge has included cleaning veterans' graves, volunteering at a nursing home and donating small amounts of money to local charities.

"If we took the population of Omaha and put that into just one hour per person per year, the equivalent would be weeks' and weeks' worth of workers' time," Manley said.

He gave a 1993 Acura to a resident of a local homeless shelter called the Siena-Francis House recently.

Manley said he didn't do much charity work for most of his life until his father took his own life in 2013.

"After that happened I kind of took a step back and looked at my life," he said. "I wasn't a bad person, but it really made me look at myself and what I was doing."

Manley co-created a nonprofit called We Can Make a Difference through which he and two friends distributed bottled water, socks and other items to the homeless in downtown Omaha. He also gets together with 12 volunteers each month to serve lunch at homeless shelters.

"What I'm doing now is what I think he would have done had he been able to overcome that darkness," he said of his father.

Rod Bauer, director of day services at the Siena-Francis House, said Manley has a big heart for helping others.

"He simply understands that some people are dealt really bad cards and maybe he was dealt better cards and wants to help," Bauer said.

Manley said he hopes his yearlong effort encourages others to volunteer or donate.
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
At the July 26 Carriage Glen Board meeting, Pinnacle Bank assistant vice president Kirk Schlueter was honored for his five years of dedicated service to the board, and Pinnacle Bank consumer loan officer Scott Kunzman was introduced as the new Pinnacle Bank representative. Kunzman, who has worked at Pinnacle Bank for 11 years, earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2007.

LPD Investigator Cindy Koenig-Warnke has also joined the Carriage Glen Board for a one-year term as a community representative. She is a 20-year veteran of the Lincoln Police Department.

Koenig-Warnke, who recently received her master's degree in gerontology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was honored as the state's first Elder Abuse Prevention Advocate of the Year in 2014. She currently serves as an advocate for older persons in a variety of organizations, including the Protection of Vulnerable Adults Subcommittee of the state Supreme Court's Commission on Guardianships and Conservatorships.

The newly-elected board officers are:

President Darwin Wassman

Vice President David Bryan

Secretary Elaine Stewart

Treasurer Frankie Pane, Essex Communities Regional Property Manager.
The blindfold seen on statues of Lady Justice worldwide represents how the judicial system must not be affected by outside influences. All who enter a courtroom must, too, be treated fairly.

A Monday ruling by the 8th Circuit Court confirmed that justice must be blind to geographical boundaries and equitable to all juvenile Nebraskans, regardless of where they committed their offenses. By reaffirming that a teen should not be placed on the states sex offender registry because of a juvenile court ruling in his previous home state of Minnesota, the court ensured he received the same treatment as if hed committed the act in Nebraska.

Listing the teen, now 15, whose juvenile case stemmed from an incident when he was 11, as a sex offender would have been inequitable. Throughout his court proceedings, all sides noted that if his offense had been committed in Nebraska, he wouldnt have been placed on the registry because juvenile court adjudications are not criminal convictions under Nebraska law.

Furthermore, only juveniles convicted of sex offenses in Nebraskas adult courts can be publicly listed as sex offenders. Until this teens case, however, the same protection wasnt afforded to those whose cases were processed in other states.

By strongly confirming the decision of the lower court, the 8th Circuit Court made the correct, fair call.

In its defense, the Nebraska Attorney Generals office said it was following the law based on its interpretation of state statute as written, one that requires all sex offenders to register upon moving to the state  regardless of age. Public safety is paramount, which why this registry exists, but its application must be uniform.

Decisions about whom to list must be made fairly. The plaintiff is one of about 30 minors on Nebraskas sex offender registry who was listed simply because he registered upon moving to Nebraska after his juvenile case was adjudicated in another state.

Now, the Attorney Generals Office and other state officials have clarification from the courts. A spokesman for the Nebraska State Patrol, which oversees the list, said the agency is already taking the appropriate, needed action to remove these juveniles from the registry.

A system thats more punitive for crimes committed outside Nebraskas borders than inside them creates a double standard that cannot exist if the justice system truly provides blind justice. The long-lasting ramifications of being listed on the sex offender registry  particularly for offenses handled in juvenile court  merit extreme care in their dispensation.

We applaud the courts common-sense decision to ensure Nebraska fairly treats minors whose offenses are adjudicated through the juvenile justice system, regardless of where they occurred.
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Roscoe D. Cooper III, a member of the Henrico County School Board, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated early Saturday.

According to Sgt. Stephan Vick with Virginia State Police, Cooper, 43, was stopped just before 1 a.m. on westbound Interstate 64 just west of the Gaskins Road exit.

He was then arrested and transported to Henrico County Jail, where he posted bail at 4:30 a.m.

State police declined to release Coopers blood alcohol content.

Cooper, who represents the Fairfield District, was elected to the board in 2015 after winning a recount by 42 votes. He currently serves as vice chairman of the board.

Board members are aware of Mr. Coopers personal situation, said Beverly Cocke, School Board chairwoman, in a statement. Well be better able to respond once more details are available. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Cooper family at this time.

Cooper did not immediately respond to attempts to reach him.

A Richmond native, Cooper has been pastor at Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church in Henrico since 2003. He holds a bachelors degree in religion and philosophy and a masters degree in divinity from Virginia Union University, along with a doctorate in divinity from Richmond Virginia Seminary.
ROANOKE  An estimated 165 gallons of an agricultural-use chemical that spilled into a Botetourt County creek and killed 40,000 fish last week affected a much larger stretch of the waterway than many at first realized.

The state Department of Environmental Quality its biologists determined that the downstream extent of the kill was between Clearwater Avenue and Hollins Road in Cloverdale on Tinker Creek. Thats a distance of approximately 4.5 miles.

Allen Linkenhoker, a pollution response coordinator for DEQ, said that while the fish kill ended in that area, it was not contained there and in fact extended about 4.2 miles upstream of Clearwater Avenue.

He said the agency plans to modify its language to make that clearer.

The facility where the spill took place is on Simmons Drive in Cloverdale. The chemical, Termix 5301, made it into a small, unnamed tributary of Tinker Creek on July 29, Linkenhoker said. Thats where the fish kill began, extending for about half a mile until the tributary flowed into Tinker Creek.

The chemical was still present in samples taken from the creek Monday, although in very low levels. Linkenhoker said the agency will take more samples next week and then determine whether the advisory can be lifted.

He said the state environmental agency has not had any prior issues with the business, Crop Production Services.

A Friday news release reports that 40,198 fish were killed as a result of the spill. It is not the largest fish kill in Virginia, but it is considered a significant incident.

The spill changed how Andy Hough, who lives nearby, thinks about the creek. Rather than admiring its beauty, he finds himself worrying about another incident.
I attended the town hall meeting with Rep. Jeff Fortenberry on Monday night at Lux. Boisterous appropriately described that crowd ("Fear, loathing in Lincoln," Aug. 1). It was less disrespectful than the last time the congressman held a town hall meeting but not the level of respect I expect from fellow Nebraskans.

From my perspective, the level of disrespect, fear and loathing has escalated since President Trump took office, although it started with his totally inappropriate campaign.

A Lux teacher asked our congressman if he thought President Trump lived up to the character standards expected of Lux students. Those standards, boldly printed on the wall of the auditorium in which we met Monday, are: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship and academics.

Rep. Fortenberry responded by saying he respected the office of president but did not comment on how our president would do if graded on these standards. The teacher said she thought the president would fail on each of the standards.

She said it has becoming increasingly difficult to teach these traits to her students given the level of inappropriate discourse coming from the president that started in his campaign and continues today. I agree with the teacher.

I also question our congressmans significantly differing levels of respect for Presidents Obama and Trump. While he wants to work with Trump, he let most of the eight years Obama served pass with little being accomplished as he and fellow Republicans seemed more concerned about party loyalty than loyalty to the Constitution and the people of Nebraska.

Gary Heusel, Lincoln
RACINE PUBLIC LIBRARY

RACINE  The Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St., is offering these free events:

Teen Advisory Council, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8. Group for teens entering grades sixth through 12. Attendees will brainstorm library events and parties, discuss books and movies, and receive community service hours for school. For more information, email Carrie Richmond at carrie.richmond@racinelibrary.info.

Its the End of the World As We Know It Young Adult Book and Movie Talk, 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10. Teens (grades six-12) may attend this twice-monthly movie showing and book talk series featuring paired movies and books around dystopian themes. August will show young people being put to the test. For more information, email Carrie Richmond at carrie.richmond@racinelibrary.info.

Novel Noshes, 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10. The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes will be discussed. New members are welcome.

Little Golden Books touring bus visit, 2-5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9. The bus includes a walk-through exhibit of the history of Little Golden Books, childrens activities and an art show on wheels. Visitors can tour the bus, participate in hands-on activities, hear stories from favorite Little Golden Books, have their photos taken with costumed characters and enjoy a special Little Golden Books birthday cake. Attendees will be eligible to enter a free drawing to win one of four Little Golden Books gift baskets.

One-on-One Tech Time, 9-11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9. Attendees may get help with their laptop, the Internet and smart devises or learn how to download ebooks from the library. Appointments are are available between 9 and 11 a.m. Wednesdays, Aug. 9 and 23. Call the library to sign up for a 30-minute appointment.

To register for an event, call 262-636-9217, unless otherwise noted, or go to www.racinelibrary.info. A valid library card is required.

WATERFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY

WATERFORD  The Waterford Public Library, 101 N. River St., will offer these free programs:

Medicare ABCs, 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8. Leanne Cowles will lead a program with information on Medicare. This program is for educational purposes only and no plan specific benefits or details will be shared. Advance registration required.

Hearing Screenings for Seniors, 1-3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10. Avada Hearing Care will offer free hearing screenings for seniors. Seniors should sign up in advance for a 15-minute testing slot.

Family Movie, 10 a.m.-noon. Friday, Aug. 11. A Disney film featuring a genie and street rat will be shown. Free popcorn and soda will be offered. Sponsored by Friends of the Waterford Library.

For more information, call 262-534-3988 or go to www.waterford.lib.wi.us.

BURLINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

BURLINGTON  The Burlington Public Library, 166 E. Jefferson St., will offer these free following:

Teacher Night at the Library, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10. Burlington Elementary School District teachers will read with children and complete fun projects.

STEAM-Art-3D Pens, 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10. Attendees may create STEAM art while getting a chance to play with a 3D doodler pen.

Fox and Branch Performance, 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 11. Fox and Branch, a musical duo from Milwaukee, will perform. Crafts will follow the performance. Funded by a Music Matters grant.

For more information, call 262-342-1130 or go to www.burlingtonlibrary.org.
RACINE COUNTY  When the historic floodwaters receded in Racine County last month, they left behind damaged and totaled cars submerged by the rising waters.

Flooded cars are often cleaned up, then re-sold. Damaged cars could turn up locally or be offered far from the flooding.

Lisa Schiller of Wisconsins Better Business Bureau is getting the word out to help victims of flooding avoid being taken by unscrupulous contractors looking to profit from the flooding.

When the water goes down after a flood, cleanup and repair begins on homes, businesses, and vehicles. The BBB wants consumers to remember that this is an emotional time, which makes it even more important to take their time when decision-making, Schiller said.

You can spot a flood-damaged car with telltale signs:

A musty odor in the interior, which can sometimes be covered with a strong air freshener.

Upholstery or carpeting which doesnt match.

Rust around doors, inside the hood and trunk latches, pedals, or under the dashboard.

Mud or silt in the glove compartment or under seats.

Brittle wires under the dashboard.

Fog or moisture beads in the interior or exterior lights or instrument panel.

John Olejniczak, manager at Manheim Auto Auction in Raymond, which takes licensed dealer cars and would not see flood-damaged cars from the public, said most insurance companies total out the vehicles after a flood.

The most common disposition of the flood vehicles is through the insurance companies, who total the vehicle out, take possession, and then sell the vehicles at a salvage vehicle auction such as Copart or Insurance Auto Auction, Olejniczak said.

Cars that have been declared a total loss by an insurance company get a new title marked salvage or flood in most states, but sometimes just a coded letter or number.

You can find out if a used vehicle has been damaged by water or in a flood by viewing the title history report from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

A manager at Sturtevant Auto Salvage, 2145 N.E. Frontage Road, Mount Pleasant, who declined to be identified, said his workers know how to spot flood-damaged cars and take care to remove appropriate parts and dispose of the rest of the vehicle.

If youre doing a private sale with a car you suspect is flood damaged, the BBB recommends testing the vehicle and ultimately getting it checked thoroughly by a reliable mechanic.

The BBB also encourages consumers to call its toll-free number to check on a company or report fraud: 1-800-273-1002.

Also, companies like Carfax.com offer a vehicle history, enabling you to check for flood damage or signs of salvage title fraud.
KENOSHA  Police have arrested two suspects in connection with the death of Olivia Mackay, 17, who was found dead July 24 in Mount Pleasant.

Kenosha police identified the suspects as Daniel Tate, 19, and Jamari Cook, 17. Both are residents of the City of Kenosha.

Tate and Cook were arrested late Thursday by Mount Pleasant and Kenosha police detectives, according to a news release.

Mackay went missing July 23. Less than 24 hours later her body was discovered on a ditch line in the 11000 block of Louis Sorenson Road in Mount Pleasant. The road is located east of Interstate 94, south of Highway 20, north of Highway 11 and west of the Sturtevant village limits.

Information regarding the arrests and investigation will be referred to the Kenosha County District Attorneys Office for criminal charges pending more investigation, according to the release. No charges had been filed as of Friday afternoon.

Officials urged anyone with information about the case to call the Kenosha Police Department Detective Bureau at 262-605-5203 or anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 262-656-7333.

Mount Pleasant police declined to release additional details, citing the ongoing investigation. The Kenosha Police Department is now the lead agency in the investigation as its likely the case began there, officials said.

Our Mount Pleasant detectives worked very closely with Kenosha detectives and they all worked hard to get to this point, Mount Pleasant Police Chief Tim Zarzecki said. Im very pleased with the work they have done thus far so we can move forward to continue to investigate the case.

There were detectives from both agencies working nonstop on the case every day to get to this point, Zarzecki said.

Insightful, inclusive

Mackay would have been a senior at Indian Trail High School and Academy in Kenosha this fall.

Olivia was insightful, inclusive, an outsider, but a leader in her own chosen, intimate circle of friends. She could be silly, but quiet and shy to people outside of that circle, family spokesman Jeff Moody said prior to a vigil last week.

Mackays family got the word out on social media after she went missing late July 23. They became suspicious after she did not show up for work at McDonalds in Kenosha, police said.

Police at the time called the death suspicious and later declared it a homicide. A cause of death has not yet been released.

Tate appeared in court Friday on a bail jumping charge related to a different case, court records show. That case involved a misdemeanor battery charge Tate pleaded guilty to last year.

An online fundraising page to help the Mackay family had raised more than $23,000 by Friday afternoon. Any donations exceeding the cost of the funeral, which was held Aug. 2, will go into a scholarship fund in Mackays honor, according to the page.
BURLINGTON  To get a better understanding of what local businesses are facing in the current economy, House Speaker Paul Ryan stopped in Burlington to listen to executives and workers and to preview a major push for tax reform.

In Burlington, Ryan visited LDV Inc., a company which manufactures specialty vehicles such as mobile command centers, to promote tax reform for businesses and individuals. The stop was one of several Ryan made Friday at businesses throughout the Wisconsin 1st Congressional District, which he represents.

The tax rate on this business is 44.6 percent, Ryan said to a crowd of more than 100 LDV employees. The average tax rate that industrialized countries tax their businesses is 22.5 percent  we are losing competition. We are losing jobs.

Lowering the corporate tax rate is a major issue for LDV as it looks to compete more efficiently internationally.

The big issue is our competition is out of this country, LDV founder and owner David Lynch said. We cant compete. Theyre going to kill us. Theyre going to kill us eventually.

Lynch said there needs to be a change in the tax code otherwise business could close.

Ryan used the example of Johnson Controls Inc., which moved its headquarters from Glendale, Wis., to Ireland for a low tax rate, as a reason for why tax reform should be addressed in the fall.

Johnson Controls was our biggest Wisconsin-based publicly traded corporation. Johnson Controls is an Irish company now, Ryan said. And their worldwide tax rate is 12.5 percent instead of 35 percent because the Irish tax rate is 12.5 percent.

Get rid of the loopholes

For individuals, Ryan said the tax code is too complicated and needs to be simplified so people know what to expect.

What we want to do is clear out the clutter in our tax code, make it really easy to comply with taxes, raise our standard deduction and then let people fill out their taxes on a form the size of a postcard, Ryan said.

One of the major parts of tax reform would be raising the standard of exemption, which would allow individuals to cut back on the itemizations on their taxes to give rid of loopholes and streamline the process, Ryan said.

Ryan said he would allow for people to itemize donations to charities, mortgage interest, saving for retirement, but added all the rest of it goes.

You take out a lot of special interests by doing that, Ryan said. On the business side, where there are just as many special-interest provisions, weve got to do the same thing. Get rid of the loopholes. Get rid of the carve-outs, lower taxes.

Ryan hopes to have bipartisan support for tax reform but is confident it could pass the House and U.S. Senate with a simple majority vote.

The recent setback in the Senate effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act hasnt deterred Ryan from taking on tax reform.

Were not going to allow the setback in the Senate on health care to knock us off track with our plans for tax reform in the fall, Ryan said, adding that he urges the Senate to keep trying to pass health care legislation. What we keep telling the Senate is, because the House passed our health care bill in May, keep working at it. In the meantime, were going to work on tax reform because we think thats really important to get this economy growing as fast as possible.

Foxconn incentive package

The July announcement of tech giant Foxconns plans to build a manufacturing plant in southeastern Wisconsin, Ryan said, is an example of all areas of government  from local to federal  working together towards a common interest.

We saw that Foxconn deal as a game-changer for our economy, Ryan said. With this deal, we basically are helping make Wisconsin to be the industrial park of Silicon Valley.

As part of the agreement to come to Wisconsin, Foxconn plans on investing $10 billion to build a facility in the area which could create 13,000 jobs, not including an estimated 10,000 construction jobs up front.

State legislators are preparing a package for the Taiwan-based company which could include up to $1.5 billion in state income tax credits for job creation; $1.35 billion in state income credits for capital investment; and $150 million for the sales-and-use tax exemption, according to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

Some legislators have criticized the potential size of the package, but Ryan said that criticism is a bit misplaced.

The tax incentive package is conditional upon those jobs being created, Ryan said. You dont want to just give money away, you want to have incentives, and thats the way they designed it.
The rescue operation at the Mir diamond mine in Yakutia is underway to save nine miners remaining underground. Sergey Ivanov, President of ALROSA, who is currently on the scene of the accident, said: "The rescue operation is in the most active phase. Every effort is being made to locate nine people remaining in the mine. We will believe to the last that they are alive. As for the search and rescue operation itself and the work of the operational headquarters, it should be said that Yegor Borisov, Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and Vladimir Puchkov, Head of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Emergencies, have highly appreciated the level of mobilization that was achieved after the accident. All the services have worked very professionally and efficiently, thanks to which it was possible to quickly bring to the surface an overwhelming number of people. I believe this part of the rescue operation deserves a high estimate. Further on, we will wait for the conclusions of the commission."Speaking about the work of rescuers, Sergey Ivanov said: "At the moment, it has not been possible to get to the people underground using the traced routes. A new task was set for the rescue teams and some of the workers of the Mir Mine are also involved being given additional equipment. It is planned to remove pulp (watered rock fines at the bottom of the Mir open pit) in order to get through to the place where the miners are supposed to be. All the necessary services of the mine are involved to ensure the rescue operation. The social units, the personnel services of ALROSA and psychologists are working with relatives of the miners who are still underground. All the necessary support is there."The company's latest report says that one of the workers, Alisher Mirzayev, managed to use communication means to get in touch with the rescue team on the mine's underground Level 410. He was then lifted to the surface and taken to the hospital, his life is out of danger."We were very lucky: Alisher Mirzayev reached the mines shaft and was lifted to the ground. And we are doing everything we can to save the rest of our people," Sergey Ivanov said in his address to the residents of Mirny. The head of the company assured that all the victims will definitely receive compensation payments. "For my part, I also guarantee that the workers of the mine will be paid salaries in the event of forced downtime. The workers will be used, if possible, in other areas and sectors of the companys operations," he said.Visiting the city hospital currently treating the victims of the accident at the Mir Mine, the president of ALROSA highly praised the courage of the miners and wished them a speedy recovery. Having met with the families of the miners, who are still being searched for by rescue teams underground, he expressed sincere support to them on behalf of the company and on his own behalf.Yesterday, a sharp deterioration in mining and geological conditions at the Mir Mine resulted in its partial flooding. At the time of the accident, there were 151 miners working underground, of which 142 were brought to the surface and their lives are not threatened, according to the company.The kimberlite Mir Pipe was discovered in 1955. Diamond mining operations started there in 1957 and continued in an open pit until June 2001. The underground mine was put into operation in August 2009 building up its production capacity to 1 million tons of ore per year.
OAK CREEK  Five years ago, the Sikh community was shaken to the core when a lone gunman walked into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin and killed six people, critically injured another worshiper and shot a responding police officer 15 times before turning the gun on himself.

What followed for the Sikh community at large  Pardeep Kaleka, a member of the temple, trauma therapist and anti-hate activist, among them  was a whirlwind of emotions.

In the aftermath of August 5, we had our own journey of hyper-vigilance, of relapse from being triggered by certain faces, Kaleka said. (There was) an angst that came from seeing people of white complexion walk into the temple. Wed say, Could this be another person (with mal-intent)? 

Kalekas father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was one of the men gunned down in the attack. Kaleka himself narrowly avoided being present for the shooting. He was taking his children to Sunday school at the temple, but his daughter forgot a notebook at home; so he had turned the car around and returned home.

On the drive back to the temple, Kaleka was passed up by a swarm of police vehicles. He arrived to find the area blocked off and was informed by responding officers that there was an active shooting scene.

Active temple member Navi Gill said that immediately after the shooting, he was left feeling that as much as you like to believe in nonviolence, you dont know what to believe or who to trust.

Kaleka was at first told his father escaped the temple and was being treated at a hospital before officers positively identified the body. Gill, who witnessed mass confusion on the day of the tragedy, said another person  the son of a victim  was similarly told his mother had been injured and the woman she was with had been killed. In truth, it was the opposite.

I cant even imagine what he had been going through losing his mom that way, Gill said. Not to say it was purposeful, but the chaos and misinformation basically added insult to injury.

At the same time, Kaleka said, Sikhs were united with themselves and the rest of America in a way they never were before. The Sikh faith has a concept called chardhi kala, which means relentless optimism. That very phrase was embodied in the way the Sikh community found strength in the pain that was brought on after the attack.

One of our mottos at the first year anniversary was turning tragedy into triumph,  said Gill, a current graduate student who lives in Franklin. Violence will not solve anything. If anything, it brings communities together and we learn about each other. Were as American as anyone else.

The Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, 7512 S. Howell Ave., was completely open to the public at the time of the shooting and has stayed that way. Gill said it was never a question whether or not they would close it off  its not the Sikh way.

While repairs have been done to the temple, one bullet hole remains in a door frame, with a small plaque beneath it that reads We are One to show that in spite of the shooters best efforts, Sikhs still live and practice their faith in Oak Creek. Seven domes were added inside and outside the temple as a reminder of the victims.

If were suffering, Kaleka said, and the rest of the community is suffering and saying, Im so scared that Im not going to go back to the temple, then (the shooter has) completed his mission. But what needs to be said is he completely didnt win, and it went the opposite way.

People want to have the glory without having the grief: I dont want to fall; all I want to do is get up. You cant have one without the other. Theres no way.

The nation responds

According to a 2014 study by Hart Research Associates, 60 percent of Americans surveyed admitted they know nothing about Sikhism, and only 31 percent had seen or interacted with a Sikh person.

Kaleka said that the publics general lack of knowledge of Sikhism is one of the biggest problems the community faces, but the temple shooting was the unfortunate rocket fuel that helped propel the religion into the public eye; however, there is still a lot more work to do, as the Hart Research Associates study shows.

As for Oak Creek, its people have never been more closely connected, Mayor Dan Bukiewicz said.

If youd have asked six to eight years ago where the Sikh Temple was, I dont think most people would have known where it was, let alone that we had one, Bukiewicz said.

Now, Oak Creek residents on the whole are very knowledgeable on the diversity within the city, Bukiewicz said, and the national community has come closer to understanding the faith.

In Racine, a group of Sikhs representing the temple walked in the Fourth Fest Parade, where they received a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd. Nimral Jutley, who was instrumental in organizing their participation in the parade, could not have imagined that sort of reception.

I was scared, Jutley said. I didnt know what the reaction would be from the audience.

For Jutley, the moment was validation that all of her struggles have been worth it. She realized people are starting to learn about and appreciate her faith.

After the parade, Jutley said, an organizer came up to her and told her: You guys were a hit.

I am proud to be an American, Jutley said. We all are one at the end of the day.
After five minutes of fame

Last summer, Durge Kami became an overnight internet sensation. As a 69-year-old high-schooler enrolled in the tenth grade with students the age of his grandchildren, Kamis story had all the right ingredients for a viral hithe was born into poverty; faced marginalisation throughout his life; lived alone in a house without electricity; walked three hours to school and back each day; and he doggedly refused to give up on his dream.
By SA Commercial Prop News

73 million was transacted on the Hungarian real estate investment market in Q1 2013 according to the international property advisor Jones Lang LaSalle.

During the first quarter of 2013 only two transactions were concluded with a total investment volume of 73 million. One of these two transactions was not an institutional investment while the other was an off-market deal. The disposal of the Match and Profi retail units continued and, as a result, more than 60 units were transacted at a value of around 15 million for mainly local, private food retailers or investors.



ProLogis and Norges Bank Investment Management formed a joint venture at the end of 2012 and as part of the deal, the 50% of ownership of several Hungarian properties were sold to Norges. Altogether 18 distribution centers were involved in the deal with a value of 57.7 million.



According to the forecasts of Jones Lang LaSalle, the annual transactional volume will be around 300 million in 2013, reflecting a growth year-on-year. However, it is important to point out that this volume would include two large off-market transactions to the value of nearly 150 million.



Besides the volatile Hungarian macroeconomic environment, which is highly exposed to the changes of the international economic climate, the startling RE market fundamentals discourage most investors who would rather focus on safe-haven locations such as Poland. The country is largely off the radar for more traditional institutional buyers excepted for some high net worth individuals, value-add investors or local players.



According to Jones Lang LaSalles research Hungarian prime office yields are at 7.50%-7.75%, prime logistics at 9.25%-9.50% and prime retail at 7.25%-7.50%. At the end of 2012, a yield shift of 25 bps was recorded for retail and industrial properties. This has mainly reflected the lack of proper, open-market transactional evidence for several quarters in a row. There is also a clear re-pricing of non-core assets (secondary locations, class-B assets). While transactional evidence for this class is even thinner than for prime assets, the feedback of investors and banks is clear on this matter.



Marcell Szotyori-Nagy, Senior Investment Analyst of Jones Lang LaSalle Budapest commented: There is an increasing number of international investor groups interested in real estate investment opportunities across Hungary at the current pricing levels. However, this has not been reflected in the transaction volumes yet due to the unpredictable and unreliable economic policy as well as the limited financing possibilities. Hopefully the investment activity will improve in the second half of the year as a result of the decreasing bank margins and the recovering perception of the overall risk profile of Hungary.
Bridge linking Nuwakot-Rasuwa swept away in floods

A suspension bridge at Betrabati over Phalakhu River linking Nuwakot and Rasuwa district was swept away by the flood last night.
Tourism is everyones responsibility.

Thats the message from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi to the country  especially Cabinet Ministers and senior government officials.

He is encouraging Cabinet Ministers and Chief Executive Officers who travel overseas for meetings to always keep that in mind.

I always tell them that if they attend meetings and if there is an opportunity for Samoa to be the host country, seize the opportunity, he said.

Make a bid to have these big meetings in Samoa.

This is the easiest way to bring tourists into our country and this is one method we need to utilise to bring in money for our economy.

Tuilaepa made the comments during his weekly media programme.

We dont wait for Samoas turn to host meetings, we make it known to them that we can be a host country.

Tuilaepa referred to the Pacific Power Associations 26th Annual Conference being held in Samoa this week.

It attracted close to 300 participants who have been using the hotels, restaurants, bars and buying small souvenirs, benefitting everyone.

During his speech at the official opening of the conference, Tuilaepa said this is the second time Samoa hosted this conference.

Tuilaepa said the meeting was to be held in Guam but because they were not ready, Samoa came to the rescue.

And we are happy to host every years conference if you will allow us to do so, he said.

Back to tourism, Tuialepa said one of the biggest complaints from the hotel operators in Samoa is that not enough tourists are being brought in.

However Tuilaepa pointed out that hotels like Sea Breeze in Aufaga; Saletoga in Matatufu and Return to Paradise in Lefaga are always fully booked.

Why? he asked. Because their marketing teams are keen on the off island markers and that is why they have tourists all the time....

They have substantial partnerships with off island marketing people who refer them to these hotels in Samoa.
Bodybuilding might have been excluded from the list of sports for the 2019 Pacific Games but the man at the helm of the sport in Samoa, Benjamin Tamanikayaroi, remains upbeat.

It would be a lie if he said he wasnt disappointed but the President of the Samoa Bodybuilding Federation said the sport is going through a rebuilding phase and it will only get stronger.

Bodybuilding was among minor sports excluded by S.A.S.N.O.C for the 2019 event. Surfing is another casualty.

Back in 2007 when Samoa last hosted the South Pacific Games, 33 sports were offered. This time round with very limited time to prepare, only 24 sports have been given the nod, with 16 compulsory and eight optional sports.

President of S.A.S.N.O.C, Fepuleai Patrick Fepuleai, they are sad with the exclusion of these Sports from the South Pacific Games Sports.

We are so sad to come to this decision because these are some of the key sports that earned Samoa medals in the past, he said.

For President Tamanikayaroi, he is not angry about S.A.S.N.O.Cs decision.

He admits that their last serious competition was back in 2011 and they are on a mission to revive the sport in Samoa.

Samoa Bodybuilding as it stands at the moment is still a developing Sport, he said.

In 2011 was when we had our last competition where late Tapasu Leng Wai was the President of the Samoa Bodybuilding Federation.

Tamanikayaroi said it would have been nice if bodybuilding was part of the 2019 Games but he understands the reasons behind S.A.S.N.O.Cs decision.

We dont have any other option but we have to agree with what Patrick Fepuleai has set aside for us. Whether its the budget or just the development of the sport, we can only look ahead.

I know what we have to do and that is to take one step at the time to re-develop the sport and once we do good with the amount of competitors, hopefully bodybuilding as a sport will make a return at the next Pacific Games after Samoa.

For now, we are starting slowly. Like I said slow progress is better than no progress.

Tamanikayaroi added that Samoa has many bodybuilders overseas who could compete.

If we have to rush the process then we will be inviting our body builders from overseas countries, he said.

But that will discourages the local boys and push them aside and thats its why we have start slow and focus more on the local boys.

So far we dont want to go against the decision but we have to move on and start reviving the Sport and produce positive results.

The President believes development has to start from the bottom.

It means we have to start from grassroots level, and back to square one. Our main focus now is starting with the new generation.

Our people are blessed with the potential and the physique the sport requires. Many former rugby players can consider being a bodybuilder as an optional sport.

As part of the efforts to revive the sport, there will be a competition later this year.

We just need to get them used to the lifestyle of a bodybuilder and set their mindset for it because bodybuilding is not a short term goal, its a life style, he said.

On November this year the Samoa Bodybuilding Federation will be hosting a tournament to find the Mr. Samoa and a team from American Samoa will be competing as well.

Mr. Tamanikayaroi said there are big names they are looking to attract for their first competition and its something they are very much looking forward to.
In the fresh produce area at the Fugalei Market, Dear Tourist spoke with Californians, Katherine Calpert and her son, Joseph Calpert who are two days into their two-week holiday.

Joseph is playing tour guide to his mum on this trip, having been here before when he served his Mission in Samoa in 2012 for the L.D.S church.

This is Katherine Calperts first time and shes letting her son lead the way in showing her the sights and sounds saying,

I wanted to come back to see what he has seen and meet the people that he met, she said.

Its so beautiful .The flowers and the trees, the green grass and the beautiful fales that people live in. Wonderful warm people, I mean everybody has been so friendly. I had to buy an ie lavalava because they are so pretty.

Katherine was looking around Fugalei markets and was taking a little longer because she couldnt decide which one to get.

I just walked the whole market and just brought two of them because its so hard to choose.

Katherine and Joseph are staying at Le Manumea Hotel and are more than satisfied with their stay so far there,

I love it, says Katherine.

Its just gorgeous and we stayed for their show last night and their big dinner and it was really fun. The dancers were great and beautiful and the food was delicious. Our room that we are staying in is just wonderful. Great air conditioning, comfortable bed and beautiful views from our room.

Turning to Joseph, Dear Tourist asked him about his experience of serving in Samoa and he recalled that some of his first impressions evolved the longer he stayed in Samoa, he shares;

I was looking forward to coming back to the food, I missed the food and the people the most. Some of the food I didnt like at first like oka and ulu but by the end I loved them. The first two days into my mission, youd walk up to someone in the street who was a stranger but they would just be super nice to you.

As for Katherine, the Observer asked her for the final verdict, would she return?

Oh my goodness, yes! Absolutely its wonderful here. 
Soaking up the suns rays was the only thing on Stephanie and Matthew Bells agenda for the day yesterday.

The Weekend Observer sat down with them at the Taumeasina Island Resort.

This is our first time in Samoa and its our third day here - its been very relaxing, Stepanie said.

Its been a beautiful stay so far. We were looking at Luxury escapes and we saw the property (Taumeasina Island Resort) come up on there, we had a look into it and we thought this sounded like it suited all our needs.

It looked beautiful and it had some really great reviews.

Matthew seemed relieved to be in Samoa and added, We just wanted to get away from the cold really. We are from Melbourne and we heard it was two degrees there this morning. 

When they did manage to tear themselves away from the pool, the couple went around town to check it out.

We went into Apia one morning and it was pretty chilled. We checked out the markets. We really like it, its really nice. We are heading out to the other side of the island next week at Lalomanu beach.

Matthew ponders on the idea that perhaps he may have been a Samoan in his former life.

I love this kind of weather and just how relaxed everything is and kind of laid back, he said.

It suits me well. Its incredibly laid back, exactly what I expected from an island kind of life. Ive been to Seychelles before and it was very similar in how everything worked and all the people and especially the markets.

Matthew is slowly working up the courage to try some of the local delicacies, he tells Dear Tourist.

I tried the palusami and I enjoyed it. That was nice with the taro leaves and coconut cream. Im working myself up to trying out the oka or any raw seafood. I havent eaten anything raw before.

Asked to describe Samoa in one word and Stephanie says without missing a beat, Relaxed.

The weather and the people have been really lovely. Everyones really friendly and willing to have a chat. The whole general vibe of the place has been really nice.
Its official. Bluesky Samoa Limited is under new ownership.

The Office of the Regulator has approved the sale to a Fiji-government owned company, Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (A.T.H.).

This was confirmed by the Regulator, Lefaoali'i Unutoa Auelua-Fonoti in response questions from the Sunday Samoan.

She said the approval was made in June 2017.

Please be informed that my Office conveyed approval of transfer of control of the current Bluesky Samoa Limited to A.T.H. sometime in June this year, she said.

Subsequent to the review of their application with relevant information provided and sought in accordance with section 31 of the Telecommunications Act (the Act); with the view of promoting the objectives of the Act enshrined under section 3 of the same Act.

The approval follows a submission made to the Office of the Regulator last September.

The Sunday Samoan understands that the acquisition of BlueSky Group is for F$169Million.

The approval has also been posted on A.T.H.s website.

Following the signing of the Sale and Purchase Agreement (S.P.A.) on 23, September 2016, it has received formal regulatory approval for change of control of BlueSky Samoa Limited from Amper SA to A.T.H."

The Office of the Regulator Samoa has given formal approval in accordance with Section 31 of the Samoan Telecommunications Act, consigning to the transfer of control to A.T.H."

As per the S.P.A, execution of the sale is subject to the usual conditions including the obtaining of appropriate local consents, licenses and permits from respective governments and regulatory authorities."

Formal regulatory approvals and connects for American Samoa and Cook Islands are still in progress and A.T.H. is still waiting these approvals.

Last month the Unit Trust of Samoa (U.T.O.S.) inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (A.T.H.).

Amalgamated Telecom Holdings Limited was incorporated as a public company on 10 March 1998, as a vehicle through which the Fiji government's investments in the telecommunications sector was consolidated for the purpose of privatisation under its public sector reform programme.

A.T.H. commenced operations on 16 December 1998, following the sale of a 49 per cent strategic stake in the company to the Fiji National Provident Fund (F.N.P.F.) as part of a tender in which a number of international parties participated.

The F.N.P.F. subsequently consolidated its control of A.T.H. in September 1999 after it acquired a further two per cent of the issued shares in accordance with contractual obligations. Government's shareholding as a result, was reduced to 49 per cent.

In February 2002, Government sold a further 9.7 per cent of its shares through a Private Placement with institutional investors, including the F.N.P.F. which acquired further shares.

An additional 4.7 per cent of Government's shares were sold in a Public Offer a month later. Government is currently A.T.H.'s second largest shareholder with 34.6 per cent interest, while the F.N.P.F. is the largest shareholder with 58.2 per cent.
The Minister of Health, Tuitama Dr. Leao Tuitama, says the National Health Service does not tolerate insubordination.

Tuitama made the point referring to the nine midwifery nurses who have been suspended by the Samoa Nurses Council.

The suspension came after the nurses failed to sit the biannual midwifery renewal of credentials exam.

According to the Minister a special meeting was held on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

It was uncovered by the National Health Service Management these nine nurses were instructed to attend the bi annual credential course, said the Minister.

Again, they were being reckless and because of their actions, we have been meeting to try and come up with a solution to assure the service is provided to the public in a safe way.

The Minister added that if this was him and if nursing was his bread and butter, he would never forget to sit the text.

To assure this does not happen again, Tuitama said the decision has been made to discipline the nurses.

This will set an example to all the nurses that this type of behavior will not be tolerated by the Ministry.

According to Tuitama, the nurses took advantage of the fact the hospital needs their services.

The reality is they should be disciplined, if your boss tells you to do something you do it. If they did not do it, that is insubordination and it should be dealt with accordingly."

We are doing everything for them because we want their service and they are talking advantage of our leniency because we need their service."

Disciplinary measures should be imposed on this certain matter."

They want to bend the [nursing] Council, bend the nurses act because they did not do what they were instructed to do.
Aerospace giant Boeing Co. has won a contract to sell the U.S. Air Force two commercial 747-8 jetliners that will be modified into the presidential aircraft known as Air Force One.

The Air Force said Friday that the modifications are expected to begin in 2019 and the planes should be ready by 2024. Upgrades will include a mission communications system, a medical facility, an executive interior and self-defense system.

The current Air Force One aircraft were ordered by President Reagan and have been used since President George H.W. Bushs administration in 1990.

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The Air Force said in a statement that the negotiated price paid for the aircraft, along with other related details would not be released because it was commercial-competition sensitive information.

In a statement, Darlene Costello, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, called the contract a significant step towards ensuring an overall affordable program.

Late last year, President Trump criticized the cost of the next generation of Air Force One, tweeting in December that the $4-billion price tag to build newly designed planes based on the 747-8 for presidential use was out of control.

Boeing spokeswoman Caroline Hutcheson said in a statement that the two commercial planes were sold to the Air Force at a substantial discount from the companys existing inventory.

In buying these readily available, U.S.-built new airplanes, the Air Force has taken advantage of a unique opportunity to get a great airplane at a great price for the American taxpayer, she said.

Trade publication Defense One reported earlier this week that the two Boeing jumbo jets were originally set for service with a now-defunct Russian airline. The planes were ordered in 2013 by Transaero, but the airline ceased operations two years later and never took ownership of the aircraft.

The jetliners are now parked along with other retired or surplus aircraft in a boneyard in the Mojave Desert, according to Defense One.

Boeing has flight-tested the jets and had reportedly paid to store the planes in new condition while looking for a buyer.

A source close to the matter confirmed details of the Defense One story earlier this week.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

@smasunaga
Committee to recommend modality for urea plant

Investment Board Nepal (IBN) has decided to form a high-level committee to recommend the modality for establishing a fertiliser plant in Dhalkebar under public-private partnership and whether the government should provide viability gap funding to set it up.
You dont have to go looking for get-rich-quick schemes; theyll happily find you.

If your emails spam folder is like mine, it holds several hundred offers to start the hottest digitally based business. For just $100, you get malware and the opportunity to work from home. On the off chance that it goes wrong, there are always multilevel marketing companies, scratch-off lottery tickets, penny stocks and long-lost Nigerian princes.

The problem is that none of those things will make you rich; they actually have a better chance of making you poor. A new paper from J.P. Morgan Asset Management lays out the real way to build wealth: $6 million in retirement accounts and two fully funded college savings plans, to be exact.

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The story of the Lees

The J.P. Morgan analysis shows how a hypothetical couple, the Lees, could effectively save both for retirement and college for their two children. Theyre high earners  a combined salary of $137,000 at age 28  so the paper puts their retirement needs between $4.8 million and $6.3 million. Theyre also overachievers, with the goal of fully funding four years at a public college for both kids. The paper projects that will cost $48,000 a year for the older child and $53,000 per year for the younger one.

The remarkable thing is that these goals are achievable  if they start putting 15% of their combined income into 401(k)s at age 22. When they have children, they can shortchange that 15%, directing 3.4% of their income into a 529 college savings plan for each child instead. That means for a long stretch  15 years  during which theyre saving only about 8% of their income for retirement, yet they still manage to hit their $6.3 million stretch goal.

Retirement is sort of the universal savings goal, one that many people are failing to reach. It can seem like youre not allowed to even think of other things  college, a down payment on a house, God forbid a vacation  until you have that on track. In a way, this scenario illustrates that theres some truth in that, even for high earners: The Lees were able to divert savings to college in part because they started so young.

But if you get that head start, keep up the momentum and invest wisely  J.P. Morgan assumes a 7% average annual return in the Lees 401(k)s and a 6% return in the 529s  reaching a range of goals becomes much easier.

The Lees have a clear advantage

This is not your typical American couple. The Lees earn twice the median household income. They had the ability, and the wherewithal, to start saving 15% of their income at age 22. (Presumably they each made that responsible decision separately, unless they married at 22  who says opposites attract?) And they both have 401(k) plans with a company match.

That alone sets them apart. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, only 58% of workers have access to a workplace retirement plan. That number drops to 47% for workers ages 18 to 29, and to 32% for workers who earn less than $25,000 a year.

Those workers miss out on a company match, the ease of paycheck deferrals and a tax-advantaged retirement account with one of the highest annual contribution limits. Fidelity Investments released some pretty stark numbers recently that illustrate how powerful all of that is. Savers who consistently contributed to their companys plan for the past 15 years saw their average balance grow to $331,200, up from an average of $43,900 they had saved by 2001.

Thats an increase of over 650%, a figure that includes not only investment growth but employer matching dollars and employee contributions. These three things combined are what will get you to a secure retirement, but the first two wouldnt be possible without the third.

Consistency matters most

What the Lees did that matters more than anything is save on a consistent basis. You can do that without a 401(k), by using a tax-advantaged individual retirement account like the Roth IRA.

The problem is that the Roth IRA contribution limit is much lower: $5,500 per year, less than a third of the $18,000 you can put into a 401(k). (Try NerdWallets Roth IRA calculator.) That can set up a roadblock to putting 15% of your income, the rate that most experts recommend, into a tax-advantaged account.

But whats frequently missing from that recommendation is that lower earners could aim to save less, perhaps closer to 12%. Thats because Social Security would replace a larger share of their preretirement incomes  as much as 53%, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Target how much you should save with a retirement calculator, then get started and dont stop. If youre lucky enough to get a raise or an end-of-year bonus (or both), consider it a jumping-off point. A recent NerdWallet analysis found that if average earners save half of their raises and all bonuses over a 40-year career, they could end up with $1 million by retirement.

No, thats not a Lee-sized nest egg. But its significantly more than what the average American has, and it might be closer to what you actually need. As I said: The Lees are not typical.

More on retirement from NerdWallet:

Arielle OShea is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: aoshea@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @arioshea.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by Forbes.

The article How to Build a Multimillion-Dollar Retirement Fund originally appeared on NerdWallet.

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jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin
The mortgage interest deduction and the state and local property tax deduction are probably the best-known tax incentives for homeownership and real estate investment.

Thats no surprise. Roughly 9 out of 10 home buyers borrow money to buy a home, meaning they likely pay some form of mortgage interest. And property taxes are a near-universal expense for homeowners. Both deductions are crucial to making homeownership possible for the average buyer.

But there are other real estate-related tax incentives that might not be as familiar.

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Capital gains exclusion

All homeowners hope their property will appreciate. The flip side is that anyone selling an asset that has gone up in value may get hit with a tax bill for the profit, also known as the capital gain. Thankfully, homeowners have some help in their corner.

An individual selling his or her principal home can qualify for an exclusion of up to $250,000 in capital gains, and married people who file jointly may qualify for an exclusion of up to $500,000. Theres no need to report gains up to these limits on a tax return.

To take the exclusion, sellers must pass the IRS ownership and use test, but its fairly straightforward. Essentially, they must own the property and have used it as a primary residence for a total of two out of the five years preceding the sale. Even if owners currently rent the property and depreciate it  as well discuss shortly  they might still meet the use and ownership test and qualify for the exclusion. And even if sellers havent lived in the home during the past five years, they might qualify for a partial exclusion.

Thats a big help, as well as a recognition of the fact that millions of Americans depend on their home to build wealth throughout their lives.

1031 like-kind exchanges

The 1031 like-kind exchange sounds like its ripped right from an accountancy textbook, but its actually fairly easy to understand. Lets say a person owns a single-family, detached rental home as part of an investment portfolio. If the home appreciates, the owner will likely owe capital gains taxes in the event of a sale  unless he or she uses the proceeds to buy a condominium in a market with higher rents.

Because the single-family home and the condo are both investment properties, tax law treats them as like kind. And because this transaction is a like-kind exchange, the owner wont pay capital gains tax until he or she sells the new property.

This gives investors an incentive to put any realized gains back into the economy rather than pocketing them. And its a big deal: Major real estate investors and mom-and-pop investors alike can benefit.

Depreciation on rental property

Homeowners who rent a portion or all of their property might be able to depreciate that asset, which means deducting some of the cost of the property each year on their tax return. That could result in a significant income tax deduction.

If you do earn money on the sale of your home after depreciation is taken into account, youll generally owe tax on the depreciated portion at the 25% depreciation recapture rate. Any other gains will be taxed as capital gains.

Changes may be coming

For more than a century, the United States has recognized the benefits of homeownership and real estate investment. It strengthens communities and helps individuals grow nest eggs for themselves. However, Congress is considering tax reform proposals that could have sweeping implications for real estate incentives. Thats something to keep an eye on.

Everyones tax situation is unique. Before you count on any of these incentives, you may want to talk with a tax professional. But if youre ready to take the plunge into homeownership or real estate investment, tax benefits  some obvious and others perhaps less so  are out there.

More on Real Estate Planning from NerdWallet:

Bill Brown is the 2017 president of the National Association of Realtors. Learn more about Bill on NerdWallets Ask an Advisor.

The article Deductions Arent the Only Way to Save on Real Estate Taxes originally appeared on NerdWallet.
San Diego-based Sempra Energy is making big investments in the burgeoning liquefied natural gas (LNG) market but during a call Friday with analysts to discuss the companys second-quarter earnings, executives announced that Sempras massive LNG project in Louisiana is running behind schedule.

It marks the second time in the last nine months that news of delays have come out regarding the construction of the Cameron LNG facility near the Gulf Coast.

LNG processing units are called trains and Train 1 of the Cameron facility was originally scheduled to go online in 2018, with Trains 2 and 3 following in close order.

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But after talking to the projects contractors, Sempra CEO Debra Reed said Friday morning we think it is reasonable to expect that Train 1 may get delayed into 2019, with Trains 2 and 3 following through later that year.

Reed said Sempra has revised its 2018 financial plan to assume no earnings from the Cameron project.

CB&I and the Chiyoda Corporation are the contractors for the Cameron facility.

Sempra officials did not go into details about what is causing the delay. Last November, heavy rain and some flooding at the contractors fabrication facility in Baton Rouge were cited as reasons for initial slowdowns.

Joseph Householder, Sempras president of infrastructure businesses, said the company signed contract provisions that will shield it from financial exposure from construction delays.

Our economics are going to be protected, Householder said. Were disappointed in the earnings movement but were confident about the getting the value out of this project.

Reed said Sempra still expects earnings from Cameron in 2020 to range from $300 million to $350 million.

It all depends on what happens from here, said Andy Smith, a senior analyst who follows utilities for Edward Jones. If everything goes according to schedule from here on out and they have a slight delay from 18 to 19, no big deal. If there are more hiccups  then I think it could become an issue. Its a very large, complicated project and you just dont know until its done if its going to work out perfectly.

The Cameron LNG project is a partnership among Sempra, Mitsui and Mitsubishi of Japan and France-based ENGIE, with commitments to take delivery of LNG  in which natural gas is cooled to minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit and condensed into liquid  and ship it to clients around the world.

The market for LNG exports has mushroomed in the U.S., going from essentially zero to about 6 billion cubic feet per day in just over a year.

The countrys first liquefaction train, built by Cheniere Energy has proven to be very lucrative and a number of energy companies such as Sempra are eager to get their own facilities up and running.

In addition to Cameron, Sempra has also filed applications with the federal government to build another LNG facility in Port Arthur, Texas, and also completed feasibility studies for a proposed LNG export terminal in Ensenada, Mexico.

Earlier in the call, the company reported second-quarter earnings of $259 million, up $16 million from a year ago. Revenue was $2.533 billion, up from $2.156 billion under general accepted accounting principles.

The higher earnings were attributed in part to strong performance from San Diego Gas & Electric and Sempras operations in Mexico.

Sempra stock ended the trading day Friday up 1 percent at $117.19.

Reed said Sempra has added more than $1 billion in new investments and IEnova, its subsidiary in Mexico, has identified $45 billion in potential opportunities in that country, which is dramatically reforming its energy system.

IEnova recently announced development for three projects totaling $275 million for liquid fuels terminals, two in the high-consumption areas of Mexico City and Puebla and a third in the Port of Veracruz. All of the projects expect to go into service by 2019.

Earlier this week, IEnova signed long-term contracts with a subsidiary of U.S. energy company Valero, giving Valero an option to purchase 50 percent ownership in the projects.

Mexicos emerging liquid fuels market is estimated at $10 billion.

We see opportunities for solid returns and great growth by being an early mover in this market in Mexico, Reed said.

Reed also said Sempas division in South America is developing a $50 million transmission project in Chile that is expected to go into service in 2021.

Reed also mentioned a 200-megawatt solar plant that is under construction in California but did not say where. When asked for details, a Sempra spokesman said in an email the facility is fully contracted for an average of 18 years and expected to go into service in phases through the first half of 2018.

More information will be coming soon, said Doug Kline, director of corporate communications.

Fridays earnings call came just days after another of Sempras subsidiaries, Southern California Gas, restarted injections into the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in the San Fernando Valley.

A gigantic leak at Aliso Canyon spewed about 100,000 metric tons of methane that forced the evacuation of more than 8,000 households in the Porter Ranch neighborhood.

State officials have OKd injections at the facility, although on a limited basis, citing what they called an abundance of caution.

Since last November, SoCalGas has insisted the site is safe and ready for injections. Aliso Canyon is one of the largest natural gas storage facilities in the country.

While the recent approval to resume gas injections is positive news, we remain concerned about system reliability this summer and in the coming winter, given the length of time it took to receive this decision, Reed said.

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rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski

ALSO

South Korean gas giant signs deal with Sempra LNG project in Texas

Sempra projects mountain of cash from LNG project

Sempra takes on bigger role in Mexican energy landscape
An anti-climactic pretrial hearing left Snopes.com Friday without an answer to an important question: How much money is the fact-checking site actually owed by its advertising partner, Proper Media?

Proper Media, a San Diego-based media firm, sells all advertisements on behalf of Snopes, the urban-legend-dispelling site visited by around 18 million people a month. The companies had previously contracted to split monthly proceeds from advertisements above an $85,000 base payout to Snopes.

But, in a lawsuit filed in May, Proper Media alleges that Snopes parent company Bardav Inc. and its CEO David Mikkelson unlawfully tried to terminate the agreement earlier this year. It also claims to own 50 percent of Bardav and is seeking recognition of its stake.

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Meanwhile, the media firm has withheld monthly revenue payouts to Bardav for months, prompting Snopes to plead to readers in July to save the site through donations on GoFundMe.

Despite a Friday hearing, the contentious money matter continues without a resolution, though one is presumably around the corner.

In a tentative ruling issued ahead of the hearing, San Diego Superior Court Judge Judith Hayes granted Bardavs request for advertising funds.

Friday, after listening to arguments from both sides, Hayes said she would give the motions another look before finalizing her order. One of the issues is how much Proper Media should pay Bardav for ad revenue generated through Snopes.com since April.

Bardav believes its owed at least $500,000 in ad revenue, and that, given the alleged contract termination, Proper Media is entitled to nothing since early May.

But Karl Kronenberger, the lawyer for Proper Media, argued that the judge should award money based only on the terms of the disputed contract, with the firm splitting proceeds above $85,000. Kronenberger said that Bardavs share adds up to $104,478 for April and $148,976 for May, with funds from June and July not yet due.

It just makes common sense that you dont ask someone to work for free, and thats what Bardav is suggesting. That our client hand over money without being paid for all the work in generating and collecting it, Kronenberger said during an interview after the hearing.

Our position is that we dont disagree  up through the date of the contract termination, said Ryan Caplan, co-counsel for Bardav. Its early on, but I think were right on the contract interpretation.

Proper Medias lawyer also asked the court to order that Mikkelson and his wife, who is an employee of Snopes, only be paid a total salary of $260,000.

This would be very helpful to make certain that there isnt a $2 million salary that Mr. Mikkelson is taking, Kronenberger said. It is of great concern to us that Mr. Mikkelson now has free reign to essentially pay himself whatever he wants.

The comments reference the judges tentative ruling to deny Proper Medias request to remove Mikkelson as a director of the company for misuse of corporate funds.

Whether the judge heeds the lawyers latest salary recommendation is unknown, but her tentative ruling made clear she does not believe Proper Media has presented enough evidence to support its claim that Mikkelson participated in wrongdoing that would warrant dismissal.

Plaintiffs have not identified any particular financial transaction conducted by Mikkelson that would constitute waste or abuse of control, the judge wrote.

While Hayes initial ruling, which is not yet binding, read like a partial victory for Bardav, the larger question over ownership of the company is an area where Proper Media still hopes to prevail at trial.

(The tentative ruling) was actually slightly encouraging because the judge laid out the groundwork for us to come back as a 50 percent owner, Kronenberger said.

In 2016, Mikkelsons ex-wife Barbara sold her half of the company  a single share  to then-directors of Proper Media: President Drew Schoentrup, CEO Christoper Richmond, Ryan Miller, Vincent Green and Tyler Dunn.

Her stake was divvied up among the directors, with Richmond and Schoentrup each holding 20 percent interest in Bardav; and Miller, Green and Dunn each holding 3.33 percent.

As such, Proper Media maintains that it owns 50 percent of Bardav. Mikkelson contends that the five individuals, and not Proper Media, are minority shareholders. Complicating matters, Green and Miller are now employees of Snopes.

With the ownership matter months away from resolution, Bardav hopes that, in the interim, it successfully swayed the judge to reconsider her still-tentative position that Proper Media does not have to hand over the source code behind Snopes.

Also, based on Fridays hearing and Thursdays ruling, the judge will likely allow Proper Medias breach of contract claim to move forward.

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jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin
Life is returning to Oceansides downtown Dolphin Hotel, which opened in 1927 and served big-shots and celebrities for decades before falling into decline at the end of the last century.

The 27-room hotel continued to serve a rough crowd of mostly long-term tenants until a fire broke out in a second-floor room in January 2015. Firefighters saved the building, but the water from their efforts left extensive damage to the rooms below, and the hotel has been closed ever since.

It used to be one of those cool hotels for Hollywood people in the 1930s and 40s, said Sam Patel, president of the Irvine-based Western Hospitality Group.

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Western Hospitality bought the building at 133 S. Coast Highway in May 2016 and began an extensive restoration that is expected to be finished by the end of this year. All plumbing, electrical and mechanical facilities are being replaced, and earthquake safety features are being added.

It was very modern when it was built, Patel said Thursday. It was one of the first hotels with hot and cold water and steam heat in every room. Each room had its own bathroom, which was a big thing at the time.

Most hotels at the time had a communal bath off the hallway shared by all the guests on the floor.

The exterior of the building will remain the same, as will key features of the lobby, which will keep the original multi-colored, mosaic tile flooring and the original wooden-railed staircase. On its largest interior wall will be a 9-by-32-foot mural-like photograph of the Oceanside pier, which is just a few blocks away, and parts of which were also built in 1927.

The hotels location is a big advantage, near new downtown restaurants, breweries, and other attractions and services, said construction manager Mitesh Bhagat. The Oceanside Transit Center can be seen from the corner of the hotel.

If you are coming from out of town, you dont even need a car, Bhagat said

The restored two-story hotel will have an elevator for the first time, he said, because, Nobody wants to climb the stairs with luggage and kids.

And one room at the rear of the second story, the honeymoon suite, is getting a 200-square-foot deck. Its one of about three rooms with partial views of the ocean several blocks away. Theres also a stand-alone villa, like a small beach cottage, at the rear of the building.

The main building includes two retail tenant spaces on Coast Highway, one long occupied by a barber shop and the other by a tailor. Both those spaces also are being remodeled.

Its nice, Jerry Chavez, owner of Jerrys Tailoring. Its improving the city. I see lots of changes all around town.

The barber shop has moved into an adjacent building to make way for the remodeling work. Chavez will move into that space when its finished, and the space he now occupies will be renovated for a new tenant, probably a small restaurant or another food-oriented business.

I cant wait, he said. His renovated space will include a new laundry room, larger restrooms and a fitting room for the first time.

Owners of a business at the other end of the block, the Banana Dang! coffee shop, said they were happy to see change underway.

The hotel was kind of an eyesore when they opened the coffee shop three year ago, said Thanh-Thanh Dang, who owns the business with her husband, Mario Jimenez. The renovation will be a huge improvement.

Its going to be a great addition to the neighborhood, Dang said.

The hotel owners are considering changing the name to the Keisker Hotel, for the original owner Julius K. Keisker. Another possible name is DeWitt, as the hotel was known for decades after in was purchased by James and Jesse DeWitt in the mid-1930s. But for now it remains the Dolphin.

State rules guide much of the restoration and require the building to keep the original number of rooms.

Were trying to keep the integrity of the historic parts, Patel said. Its quite a challenge. I think the contractor has done a good job of that, though. Its probably 75 percent complete.

The guest rooms will remain the same small size, but have been redesigned with custom furniture and todays amenities such as high-speed internet access.

Nobody wants to give up their gadgets, Patel said.

The company operates several Holiday Inns and Marriotts in Southern California, but the Dolphin is their first boutique hotel, Patel said.

The company did some research, he said, and the Oceanside property stood out as a good opportunity because of all the new development underway downtown.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl
Faced with a dog in a hot car, Alice Bovee had to make a quick decision.

A laser thermometer showed the dashboard temperature at 104 degrees Fahrenheit  hazardous for animals. Opening the door, Bovee let the pup out.

Fortunately the dog was a plush toy, used in a training scenario for campers this week at the San Diego Humane Societys Career Camp, offered for the first time this year.

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The Humane Society holds an Animal Adventure Camp for younger kids each spring and summer, officials said, but received requests for a high school camp focusing on career paths in animal care.

The three-day camp is held at the Humane Societys Oceanside Campus, and introduces teens ages 14 to 17 to different aspects of animal work, including humane law enforcement, veterinary care, and animal behavior and training. Each day includes hands-on animal encounters and visits with shelter professionals, said Laura Leonard, the pet-assisted therapy coordinator.

On the veterinary day, for instance, campers learned how shelter staff treat sick or injured animals, and observe spay or neuter surgery in progress. During the animal behavior session, they practiced training shelter dogs, using positive reinforcement and food rewards.

On Wednesday, campers learned how law enforcement officers deal with pet problems, through exercises depicting common scenarios they face in the field.

I was incredibly excited for this, said Bovee, 14, who said shes considering humane law enforcement as a possible career path. My family, weve always been good at talking to people, reading people and body language. Being able to help animals while interacting with people would be a good choice.

That ability to connect with both people and pets is key to the job, officers told campers. Thats particularly true in instances of animal hoarding, in which animal endangerment intersects with other issues including mental illness and public health.

During a scenario on that dilemma, Humane Officer Sonja Lueschen donned a tiger-striped mumu and pink turban, playing an overwhelmed caregiver with a real dog, and a host of plush toys representing other pets. A broken palette, jumper cables and trash depicted the debris thats often present in hoarders homes.

People who hoard animals usually hoard stuff, said Officer Katherine Tarnowski.

Dealing with overwhelmed caregivers requires finesse, Tarnowski explained. Hoarding is classified as a mental disorder, she said, and people who compulsively collect animals often have financial and medical issues of their own. Some are ill, disabled or unemployed, so officers try to connect them with services they need, while moving out excess animals and spaying or neutering those that remain.

Playing the role of an officer, camper Belinda Nicholas, 16, discussed the problem with Lueschen.

Theres not a sufficient amount of water for the animals you have, and the fact that you dont know how many you have is a problem, she said. Also, the fact that you have predators loose with bunnies is a problem. Theyre going to get eaten.

The two dogs who helped with the exercises  Rio and Wiley  were adopted by the officers who rescued them. Besides learning about that potential benefit of the job, campers were interested in prerequisites for the position.

If you want to be an officer, do you need to go to college? asked Melanie Urquidez, 16.

Every different person has a different path, said Officer Justin Stillions, who explained that college, volunteer hours and animal handling experience all help with getting the job.

The career camp aims to help campers get started on that path, explained Leonard, who said the Humane Society plans to offer it again next summer.

We just hope that they enjoy themselves and come out of it finding their passion for animals, and opening their eyes to a career in animal care and being compassionate with animals, she said.

deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan
Fielding a flurry of tips, complaints from commercial competitors and the concerns of Navy whistleblowers, federal agents ratcheted up their probes between 2009 and 2012 into the Malaysian tycoon nicknamed Fat Leonard and his company that services U.S. warships overseas.

For a quarter-century until his 2013 arrest during a sting operation in San Diego, the rotund Leonard Glenn Francis and his tugboats and fenders, security guards and sewage suckers, food suppliers and trash collectors had catered to the Navys vessels. He kept the cash flowing to his pearl ports by bribing top Navy officials with money, booze and prostitutes.

Federal prosecutors have indicted dozens of commissioned officers and civilian leaders, and the Navy continues an internal probe into 30 admirals and more than 200 sailors for corruption.

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But this disciplinary activity is taking place years after the initial investigations began. How did Francis stay ahead of the law for so long? The answer involves a host of self-inflicted problems by federal investigators, along with a mole helping Francis.

That mole worked inside the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service in faraway Quantico, Virginia. In exchange for envelopes stuffed with cash and prostitutes procured by Francis, NCIS Supervisory Agent John Bertrand Beliveau Jr. ratted out confidential informants, leaked secret law-enforcement files to the grifter and helped him evade arrest.

Federal investigators from the NCIS and other agencies churned out 10 criminal intelligence reports and kicked off 14 investigations between 2004 and 2012, but the alleged criminal activity by (Francis company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia) was not interrupted, according to an internal report completed by the Economic Crimes Department of NCIS on Feb. 10, 2014, two years after Beliveau was arrested.

A heavily redacted copy of that eight-page report was provided to The San Diego Union-Tribune following a Freedom of Information Act request.

It breaks into two categories the reasons why federal investigators failed to ferret out Fat Leonards crimes for nearly a decade: A series of missteps by NCIS and other agencies that scrutinized allegations of Glenn Defense wrongdoing, plus structural problems within NCIS itself that kept agents from zeroing in on both the grifters and their mole.

Most of the report was devoted to how federal agencies missed clues into Francis criminal activities, which also included overcharging the Navy, threatening both competitors and subcontractors, bribing foreign port officials, creating ghost services while failing to deliver goods and services, and mass corrupting of the Department of Defense procurement process.

With Francis at its center, Glenn Defense created a web of Navy personnel beyond the crooked NCIS agent who were able to explain away allegations and, when confronted about questionable billings, helped the company credit the Navy and thus eliminating any monetary loss and the appearance of criminal intent, the 2014 report stated.

In mid-2007, for example, the Navys inspector general passed along an anonymous letter alleging that Glenn Defense padded the bills for force-protection services in Southeast Asia.

But two unidentified Fleet Industrial Supply Center Detachment employees in Singapore reviewed invoices and payments made by the Navy container ship Stockham and failed to find any overcharges.

In 2009, an unnamed confidential informant alerted NCIS to questionable Glenn Defense billing for port services in Thailand. Contracting officers in the Marine Corps also alleged the contractor used the Indonesian military to thwart a rival. U.S. Fleet and Industrial Supply Center personnel also noted suspicious invoices for vehicles, sewage treatment, fuel and port tariffs, allegations apparently echoed by a late 2009 call to a Department of Defense hotline.

Yet the U.S. Department of Justice declined to prosecute Francis because of a lack of definitive criminal violations. And three years later, federal prosecutors declined a similar Glenn Defense case involving allegations of an unspecified conflict of interest.

Navy censors redacted 16 other investigations or leads in the 2014 internal report before turning it over to the Union-Tribune. Most of those entries apparently occurred between 2010 and 2013, when Glenn Defense became the Navys primary husbanding-services provider across the Pacific Ocean.

The top problem was the chronic lack of anti-corruption agents dedicated to ferreting out fraud in Navy contracts across Asia, the report said.

For example, the NCIS failed to post any Economic Crimes agents in its offices in the Pacific Rim and Southeast Asia until 2008, when it placed one agent in the Yokosuka, Japan, field station, the report stated. That was caused partly by the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Before those incidents, the NCIS boasted 140 dedicated special agents in the Economic Crimes Department. That number plunged to only nine fraud specialists as the detectives were diverted to counter-terrorism programs, according to the analysis.

Although the NCIS Economic Crimes Department was the smallest anti-fraud division of all the Defense Criminal Investigative Organizations, it oversaw a Navy that expends more contracting dollars annually than any of the other armed forces. Other NCIS agents left in Asia possessed limited training and experience in procurement fraud investigations, the report said.

New Economic Crimes billets were created stateside in 2006, but those agents probed purchases of counterfeit or defective parts while America fought wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

By early 2014, the NCIS Economic Crimes program had dwindled to 73 positions, including supervisors, and more than half of the agents had less than a year or no experience in the investigation of major procurement fraud, the report revealed.

In a section charting the way ahead for Economic Crimes, the reports authors urged 13 vital reforms to prevent another Fat Leonard scandal, ranging from hiking the number of Economic Crimes and Forensic Financial Examiner positions to buying financial analytical software.

Many of the proposed changes lacked funding, the authors pointed out, including hiring more agents, developing a training plan specific to probing public corruption and white-collar crimes, crafting Certified Fraud Examiners through Naval Postgraduate School and increasing their numbers at field offices, obtaining intermediate and advanced instruction at schools houses in other agencies, and promulgating briefing materials about economic crimes to sailors and civilians handling Navy contracts.

To find out how many fixes the Navy completed during the past 3  years, the Union-Tribune sent NCIS officials 16 questions culled from the way ahead portion of the 2014 report.

In a statement, NCIS spokesman Ed Buice warned it was inaccurate to extrapolate too broadly from that or similar phrases because several of the Fat Leonard cases which originated in the same time period continue to be part of the larger, ongoing  investigation into Glenn Defense. But he also insisted that the Navy had fixed the problems identified in the study.

Since 2012, Buice wrote, the NCIS increased the number of agents assigned to Economic Crimes by more than a third, growth thats projected to continue over at least the next five years.

Despite those gains, NCIS Economic Crimes remains roughly 40 agents short of the number it fielded 17 years ago.

In the past three years, NCIS agents averaged 418 economic crime probes annually, about four per agent.

The shortage of agents has been mitigated by an internal restructuring the Economic Crimes program, Buice wrote, which has focused the white-collar crime agents on investigative priorities while hiking their expertise and providing a spine of management to supervise their probes.

Today, the majority of the agents are located in the agencys five Economic Crimes Centers of Excellence  in Washington, D.C.; Mayport, Florida; Norfolk, Virginia; Newport, Rhode Island; and San Diego, he said.

Seven are assigned to the Pacific area of responsibility overseas.

These agents are better trained, thanks to a five-year education program for economic crime investigators. Since 2012, the NCIS has nearly tripled its number of certified fraud examiners to 35 specialists, and 18 more are slated to gain those credentials this year.

Nearly all the agents working economic crimes have received basic formal procurement fraud schooling, Buice said. More than four out of every 10 agents now has more than three years of experience tackling economic crimes; nearly one out of 10 boasts a decade of experience.

In 2015, the agency launched an interactive economic crimes prevention program. The briefings detail the types of fraud Navy employees might encounter and show how they can anonymously report allegations to the NCIS.

During the past two years, the NCIS has given 1,535 briefings to more than 91,000 Navy personnel, Buice said.

Sentenced on Oct. 14 to a dozen years behind bars, Beliveau the mole didnt respond to a letter posted to where hes serving out his sentence  the Federal Correctional Institution Allenwood in his home state of Pennsylvania.

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cprine@sduniontribune.com
A decade into his Navy career, Howard C. Warner III wasnt sure if he wanted to stay or get out.

It was the turn of the century, and the son of a Navy master chief was suffering what he remembers today as a string of unsuccessful runs with bad leadership on my previous submarines, and it didnt seem like it was going to get any better.

Then he came aboard the attack sub Alexandria as its weapons officer and rediscovered the joy of being a silent hunter of the deep. And a Navy career was saved.

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On Friday  proclaimed Capt. Howard C. Warner III Day in San Diego  he retired from the Navy, a prestigious Legion of Merit pinned to his chest and a letter from President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lauding him for 28 years of selfless service to his country.

The departing Installation Mayor of Naval Base Point Loma, home to The Alex and four other Los Angeles-attack submarines, Warner turned over his command in a Friday morning ceremony to Capt. Brien W. Dickson, also a career submariner.

A sprawling base, Point Loma boasts more than 70 tenant commands, including Submarine Squadron 11, the Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command and Space and Naval Warfare Systems  better known as SPAWAR. Dicksons three-year tour tasks him with overseeing more than 800 civilian and uniform staffers and provides services and security to 25 times that many workers and troops.

1 / 15 Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, salutes as he leaves the retirement and change of command ceremony at the submarine base. Captain Brien W. Dickson takes over as the commander of the base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 15 Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, gets a hug from his daughter, 10-year-old Sofia during his farewell speech. Captain Brien W. Dickson takes over as the commander of the base, and a change of command ceremony was held as part of Warners retirement ceremony. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 15 Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, gets a kiss from his wife, Sarah Warner, as their daughter, 10-year-old Sofia Warner looks, at the end of his change of command and retirement ceremony at the submarine base. Captain Brien W. Dickson takes over as the commander of the base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 15 Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, uses a tissue to wipe a tear from his eye while delivering his farewell speech. Captain Brien W. Dickson takes over as the commander of the base, and a change of command ceremony was held as part of Warners retirement ceremony. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 15 Sideboys arrive as the retirement and change of command ceremony for Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, began. Captain Brien W. Dickson took over as the commander of the base in the ceremony held at the submarine base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 15 A retirement and change of command ceremony was held at Naval Base Point Loma for Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years. Captain Brien W. Dickson took over as commander during the ceremony held at the USS Roncador submarine memorial on the base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 15 A retirement and change of command ceremony was held at Naval Base Point Loma for Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years. Captain Brien W. Dickson takes over as the commander of the base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 15 Navy Band Southwest performs during the change of command and retirement ceremony held at the submarine base for Naval Base Point Loma for Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of the base, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, and turning over command of the base to Captain Brien W. Dickson. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 15 Navy Captain Brien W. Dickson delivers his speech after taking over as the commanding officer of Naval Base Point Loma during a change of command ceremony with Captain Howard C. Warner III, at the submarine base. Warner also retired after 28-years in the Navy. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 15 Sideboys salute during the change of command ceremony for Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, began. Captain Brien W. Dickson took over as the commander of the base in the ceremony held at the submarine base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 15 Sailors line up during the retirement and change of command ceremony for Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, began. Captain Brien W. Dickson took over as the commander of the base in the ceremony held at the submarine base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 15 Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, listens during the change of command and retirement ceremony. Captain Brien W. Dickson takes over as the commander of the base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 15 Navy Real Admiral Yancy B. Lindsey, the commander of Navy Region Southwest, shakes hands with Captain Howard C. Warner III, right, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, during the change of command, retirement ceremony, at the submarine base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 15 Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma, who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years, receives the American flag during the Old Glory presentation, part of the retirement ceremony. Captain Brien W. Dickson took over as the commander of the base in the ceremony held at the submarine base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 15 / 15 A retirement and change of command ceremony was held at Naval Base Point Loma for Navy Captain Howard C. Warner III, the outgoing commander of Naval Base Point Loma who is also retiring from the Navy after 28-years. Captain Brien W. Dickson took over as commander during the ceremony held at the USS Roncador submarine memorial on the base. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Previously the director of Operational Support for the Chief of Naval Operations, Dickson has served aboard the ballistic missile submarines Kamehameha and Ohio, plus the attack subs La Jolla and Jefferson City. The Naval Submarine League honored him with the Rear Adm. Jack N. Darby award for inspirational leadership and excellence in command in 2013.

But Fridays focus was on Warner, a skipper respected in the Navy for his many years spent undersea. He served aboard the ballistic missile submarine Nevada and the attack subs Pogy, Alexandria and Key West before taking command in early 2008 of the Bremerton.

He commanded that attack sub until mid-2010, a tour highlighted by the SINKEX of the amphibious warship Anchorage, slamming a torpedo into the decommissioned vessel and turning it into an artificial reef off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Under Warners leadership, Point Loma received a slew of awards for sailor retention, environmental protection and, last year, for having the best chow hall in the entire service.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer was on hand to read his Warner Day proclamation and Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, and Rear Adm. Yancy Lurch Lindsey  the Navy Mayor in charge of Navy Region Southwest  led the applause.

At times stopping to dab tears from his eyes, at other moments trading funny sea stories with well wishers, Warner thanked his wife, Sarah, for sustaining him through 18 moves; the band of brotherhood underwater who kept watch undersea with him for nearly three decades; and generations of fellow servant leaders who mentored him and other sailors so that they could project American power overseas and protect the Constitution at home.

Warner spent his final words encouraging younger officers to always persuade rather than coerce, to command as a master of paradox who was firm but fair, consistent but flexible, trusting and compassionate while also demanding and tough. Exercise a strong hand, he continued, but be decisive.

I think weve seen time and time again in recent history and in the past, indecision can cause the loss of life, Warner said. Encourage innovation. Create an environment where your teams can succeed by turning dreams into reality.

cprine@sduniontribune.com
Officials in Imperial Beach this week announced they were preparing to take legal action against the federal government concerning the continued flow of polluted wastewater from Tijuana into San Diego County.

The city is targeting the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, a binational agency that oversees water treaties between the U.S. and Mexico. Imperial Beach officials allege that the agency repeatedly has failed to properly capture and treat sewage routinely flowing across the border through canyons and the Tijuana River.

Were hoping to force the U.S. government to address this issue and spend the money needed to stop the flow of toxic waste and sewage into the Tijuana River and under the border fence, said Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina, who also heads the environmental group Wildcoast.

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Officials with the U.S. section of the boundary and water commission denied allegations that they havent taken proper steps to safeguard the regions water quality.

Its important to acknowledge that we have taken and continue to take concrete actions to address conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border, said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the panel. Weve been very responsive to the city of Imperial Beach and have taken concrete actions on some of their recommendations and the recommendations of other stakeholders. That includes studying infrastructure alternatives on the U.S. side.

Imperial Beach has retained an outside law firm to prepare a 60-day notice that is required before it can sue the federal government for the alleged violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act.

The legal team is also representing the city in a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit against the worlds largest oil and coal companies for the local financial impacts of sea-level rise.

Long-held frustrations came to a head in February, after millions of gallons of sewage poured into the Tijuana River south of the border and fouled beaches as far north as Coronado.

A binational investigation found that as much as 256 million gallons of raw sewage and wastewater went unaccounted for as a result of heavy rains that overwhelmed Tijuanas sewer system, cracking pipes that spilled directly into the river. It was the latest flashpoint for the cross-border water pollution issue, which has persisted for decades despite financial investments by Mexico and the U.S. to make various infrastructure improvements.

U.S. Border Patrol agents who work in the region have come out in support of the legal action by Imperial Beach.

Officials with National Border Patrol Council Local 1613 have said theyre considering filing their own lawsuit against the federal government to highlight what they said are hazardous work conditions.

In recent months, the local union has expressed concerns about respiratory problems, rashes and nausea that it said are linked to cross-border spills. While such unanticipated flows dont necessarily make it into the Tijuana River or open waters, they have regularly poured through culverts and canyons, according to records from the boundary and water commission.

Besides the accusations from the Border Patrol union, the agencys agents have filed dozens of reports documenting adverse reactions after they came into contact with the potentially hazardous sewage flows, including chemical burns, rashes, respiratory infections and breathing problems. Agents routinely track down illegal border crossers through mud contaminated with sewage, officials said.

joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com

Smith writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune
Gumboots for all!

Our honorable Prime Monster Deuba goes to Chitwan to see for himself if our hardworking contractors are doing their job right along the Narayangadh-Muglin stretch. Whom are we kidding?
A 21-year-old man who broke into a Del Cerro home where he held two women at knifepoint, killing one of them, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.

Eduardo Jose Torres pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder and a sex-crime charge in connection with the June 2016 incident. He also admitted several allegations, including torture and use of a weapon.

As part of his plea, he agreed to the life term.

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Before the sentencing went forward Friday, Torres asked a judge to remove his defense lawyer from the case.

After holding a brief hearing on the matter, San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth denied Torres request, and the sentencing resumed.

Torres broke into the house on Mill Peak Road the night of June 12, 2016. At the time of the defendants arraignment, Deputy District Attorney Marisa Di Tillio described what happened during the home invasion as every citizens worst nightmare.

The homeowner, Thuan Doan, was asleep in bed at the time, but was awakened by a loud noise  the sound of a sliding-glass door shattering.

Around the same time, neighbors knocked on Doans front door to tell him they had just chased away an intruder. The homeowner opened the door to his neighbors and became locked out of his house.

Torres, now inside the home, gathered the two women  Doans 74-year-old mother, Ut Nguyen, and a 50-year-old woman who was visiting from out of town  into a bedroom.

Torres forced the younger woman to commit a sex act. He then stabbed Nguyen in the neck as SWAT officers stormed the bedroom.

Doan was visibly emotional Friday when he spoke to the judge during the hearing. He described how his mother tried to survive the attack, but she lost too much blood.

The trauma of that event will be on our family for life, he said.

Doans son, Egbert, told the judge he was away at school at the time of the break in but rushed to the house when his father called him, crying.

I dont know what kind of mindset you had or how you could do such a thing, the young man said to Torres, who was seated in the courtroom.

He said his grandmother was supposed to be around to watch him graduate and to celebrate other milestones in his future, but Torres had taken away those possibilities. He said he was trying to contain his emotions but was finding that task impossible.

He also said he wonders if Torres, who has been held in county jail, ever thinks back to the night of his crimes.

I regret it every day, Torres said, interrupting the younger Doan as he spoke.

It wasnt the first time Torres spoke out of turn during the hearing. As the judge talked about what it must have been like for the victims during the home invasion, the defendant spoke up again.

The legal system is wrong, Torres said, and he didnt stop there.

They should have the right to kill me!

This world is going to hell.

Theres no such thing as heaven.

The judge and Torres defense lawyer repeatedly told Torres to keep quiet. The judge even threatened to have him gagged.

Eventually, the judge directed sheriffs deputies to escort Torres out of the courtroom.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield
A two-year standoff between UC San Diego and the campus co-operative Che Cafe has been resolved with the university signing new leases with the iconic gathering spot and other collectives.

The new eight-year lease agreements with the Che Cafe Collective, Groundwork Books, the Food Co-op and the General Store Co-op were announced Friday. All of the collectives had been under month-to-month agreements since 2015, and the Che Cafe had been operating without a lease for the past two years.

The cafe had faced an eviction order two years ago after losing its lease, but students and other supporters occupied the building for more than 100 days that year, and the eviction never happened. Instead, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla agreed to stay the eviction and began meetings with representatives of the collective, which operates the cafe.

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As part of the agreement, the four co-ops will be charged rent of only one dollar a year and receive free utilities. A UC San Diego News Center story posted Friday said the university would make a significant investment in life and safety and other renovations on the Che Cafe facility in the coming months.

Although the cafe has not had a lease since 2015, shows have been regularly performed at the colorfully painted, iconic building that has been on campus for 36 years and had hosted performances by Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Death Cab for Cutie and many others.

The most recent post on the collectives website was in April and stated that the cafe was still in operation, but would not have programs at the site until mid-July or early August because of construction.

The UC San Diego News Center story quoted Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez as saying the new lease agreements show the universitys support for campus co-ops and the experiences they provide students.

The co-ops provide an enhanced cultural interaction with a diverse student population, bringing new opportunities and engagement that our students would not otherwise encounter. We want our co-ops to thrive and be successful, he said.

The cafes lease problems began in 2014, when a study of the 1940s-era structure found it needed about $700,000 in repairs and other work, including a sprinkler system to suppress fires.

The University Centers Advisory Board that year voted to not fund the repairs, which led to the venue losing its lease.

Supporters of the cafe, including 1981 UC San Diego graduate Monty Kroopkin, argued that the cost estimate of the repairs was overblown.

Kroopkin said the cost in the report was an estimate for the life of the building, not expenses that needed to be done immediately. He also said that while the report noted the cost of installing sprinklers, it also said they were not needed because the single-story building had multiple exits.

UC San Diego public information officer Christine Clark said the upgrades will include a new sprinkler system, but she did not have information about how much the improvements would cost.

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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
The longest journey begins with a single step, so the old adage goes.

Many took their first steps in the daunting quest to end homelessness in San Diego Saturday at Marina Park, where hundreds of volunteers turned out to raise money for Father Joes Villages, the venerable San Diego charity dedicated to helping neighbors in need.

The 2.1-mile bayfront walk  promoted as San Diegos first walk to end homelessness  was expected to raise $50,000 or more in just three hours.

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They are resources Father Joes Villages CEO Deacon Jim Vargas said will be put to good use.

Were raising awareness on the plight of the homeless, Vargas said just before the morning kick-off. We have the fourth-largest homeless population in the United States and the second-largest number of homeless veterans.

The numbers just keep growing.

Volunteers began lining up nearly an hour before the official 8:30 a.m. start.

1 / 12 A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless, winds around Embarcadero Marina Park South in the background past Darrell Edll, who has been homeless for the past two-years. The 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront began and ended in the park. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 12 Participants in A Short Walk Home, held at Embarcadero Marina Park South, and sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help homeless, walk through a symbolic makeshift door frame at the beginning of the 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront. At the end of the walk they walked through the door a second time. The door symbolizes efforts to help clients find their own home according to organizers. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 12 Participants in A Short Walk Home, held at Embarcadero Marina Park South, and sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help homeless, walk through a symbolic makeshift door frame at the beginning of the 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront. At the end of the walk they walked through the door a second time. The door symbolizes efforts to help clients find their own home according to organizers. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 12 A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless, winds around Embarcadero Marina Park South. The 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront began and ended in the park. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 12 Participants in A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless carried heart-shaped balloons during the 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront began and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South near the San Diego Convention Center. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 12 Leilani Barcarse holds heart-shaped balloons before the start of the A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 12 Participants in A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless, walk near the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina. The 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront began and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 12 A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless, winds around Embarcadero Marina Park South past a homeless man sleeping on a bench. The 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront began and ended in the park. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 12 A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless, winds around Embarcadero Marina Park South. The 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront began and ended in the park. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 12 A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless, winds around Embarcadero Marina Park South. The 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront began and ended in the park. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 12 Most participants in A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless carried heart-shaped balloons during the 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront that began and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South near the San Diego Convention Center. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 12 Participants in A Short Walk Home, sponsored by Father Joes Villages, the first walk in the city to help the homeless, walk near the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina. The 2.1 mile walk along the waterfront began and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Dawn ODonnell of Point Loma brought her 7th-grade daughter, Megan, and a small group of other girls from her neighborhood to help raise money and, more important, to show the young women how other people struggle.

Anything we can do to give back is important, said ODonnell, who works as a recruitment director for a telecom company.

Its also important to get them out of their bubble, she said of the girls, part of a group called San Diego MADCAPS, or Mothers and Daughters Club Assisting Philanthropies.

They have good friends and a good family so its important they see that there are other families with challenges and children that are not living in as nice conditions, ODonnell said. They dont know until they see it.

According to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, more than 9,100 people in San Diego County were homeless in 2016  a 5 percent increase over the previous year. The city of San Diego accounted for more than 5,600 of those and registered a 10 percent spike since 2015, the task force reported in April.

John Pack, an optometrist from Chula Vista, signed up for the event through his parish, St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church.

We are big supporters of Father Joes Villages, said Pack, one of 40 or so walkers organized under Team Bishop John, representing the Rev. John Dolan, auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego. We support their mission and what they are doing for the community. These are our people, our neighbors.

The walk concluded with volunteers walking through a makeshift door frame of bare timber, a telling symbol for the people they sought to help.

Barely 100 yards away, however, on a flannel sleeping bag unzipped and spread out on the moist grass with a pair of soiled backpacks and what little else they had, James and Little Whitney were less than impressed with the compassion unfolding behind them. The couple did not wish to give their last names.

Despite the swell of volunteers working to end homelessness, the couple said, they were not likely to benefit from any of the proceeds.

It all ends up back in the vendors pockets, said James, who said he once served in the U.S. Navy.

Little Whitney said people who donate time and money to fight homelessness have no idea how difficult and violent and uncaring life on the street can be.

Were not even halfway allowed to go into a fundraiser like this, said the woman, who became homeless after aging out of foster care. When you look like this, with a backpack, they wont let you in. We cant even go to the bathroom.

Back at the wood-framed door, Deacon Vargas acknowledged there can be gaps in the services available to homeless people  even though his organization serves more than 2,000 people every day.

This isnt the case with us, but I understand how they feel, he said in response to James point that donations do not always translate to direct help for those in need. The reality is we dont have enough resources. We need to raise funds for that very reason.

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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald
There was celebration in the air. Anxiety, too.

About 60 people who came to San Diego from Somalia  refugees, immigrants, naturalized citizens  gathered in a conference room in City Heights for their weekly meeting. Its an opportunity to work out problems, strengthen community bonds, share food. This time, Friday morning, they applauded those among them who had just completed a sixth-month program to learn how to read and write English.

And they worried.

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Two days earlier, President Donald Trump had endorsed a radical shift in the nations immigration policy. The bill would eventually cut in half the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country every year, currently more than 1 million, and it would take a decades-old system that favors family ties and turn it into one that is merit-based, giving preference to those with college degrees, job skills, and the ability to speak English.

This legislation will not only restore our competitive edge in the 21st century, but it will restore the sacred bonds of trust between America and its citizens, Trump said at the White House. This legislation demonstrates our compassion for struggling American families who deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first and that puts America first.

Almost immediately, critics on both sides of the political aisle criticized the plan and gave it little chance of passage. They disputed the claims that low-skilled immigrants are taking jobs from Americans and driving down wages, and they said the new restrictions would hurt the economy by shrinking the number of foreign-born workers at a time when the native population is decreasing.

To the Somalis gathered in City Heights, the new proposal felt mostly like more of the same. Trump made immigration reform a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, and since taking office in January hes moved to build a wall on the Mexican border, increase deportations, stem the influx of refugees, and curtail visitors from certain Muslim-majority countries.

What hes telling us is were not welcome here, said Said Osman Abiyow, 34, president of the Somali Bantu Association of America, an aid organization he founded after arriving in 2003. This is not what America stands for around the world, where it has a great reputation as a place of freedom and peace.

Like many others in the room, Abiyow has relatives in Somalia he would like one day to bring to America. Now a U.S. citizen, hes hoping his sister can join him. But he said shes been caught up in the ban the administration put in place for newcomers from six predominantly Muslim countries (Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Iran, Syria and Yemen). He doesnt know when she might be allowed to come.

If the proposed changes go through, maybe never.

It hurts my heart

There were 44.7 million immigrants living in the United States in 2015 (the last year for which numbers are available), which was 13.4 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Research Center. An estimated 11 million of those are believed to be here illegally. In San Diego County, Health and Human Services Agency figures show about 21.5 percent of the population is immigrants.

Under current policy, American citizens and permanent residents can sponsor spouses, minor children and parents for an unlimited number of green cards, and siblings and adult children for a limited number of visas. Thats how most lawful immigrants arrive here. In fiscal year 2015, for example, about 65 percent of the green cards went to relatives.

The new bill, sponsored by Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, would still allow the spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents to come in, but it would end the preferences for siblings and adult children.

That left San Diego newcomer Rukiya Bare with a furrowed brow during Fridays weekly meeting of the Somalis.

She came here with her husband and four children 10 months ago. But their 25-year-old daughter, Natesho, had to stay behind. Now shes trying to join the family and is currently in Saudi Arabia, Bare said. When her three-month visa there expires, shell have to leave the country or risk jail.

I worry about her all the time, Bare said through an interpreter. At night, during the day  it hurts my heart, the stress of not having her with us.

Several of the Somalis said they came to America because of the immigration-policy emphasis on family unity. The Somalis are a tight-knit group (there were 3,534 in the county in 2015) and family connections can be crucial to helping them survive in new surroundings, Abiyow said.

Sado Moh, 29, misses her mother. Moh arrived in San Diego four months ago after spending 10 years in a refugee camp and is hoping her mother, father and four siblings will be able to come, too. That was already uncertain because of the other immigration initiatives pursued by the Trump administration, she said, and the latest proposal seems to her the most threatening yet. In addition to the cuts in immigration, it would cap the number of refugees admitted annually at 50,000, about half of what it has been.

I ran away from civil war and came here to build a new life, Moh said through an interpreter. But without my family, what I feel mostly is lonely. I want them to come here and have the same chance for a new life. Then I will be happy.

Working age

Lawful immigrants are more likely to be of working age (18 to 64) than U.S. native-borns are, according to Pew  76 percent compared to 60 percent.

The occupation with the largest percentage of immigrant workers, about 20 percent, is farming, fishing and forestry. Its a big draw in San Diego County, too, which has more than 5,700 small family farms (most of them less than 10 acres). Nationwide, the county is first in avocado and nursery-crop production; third in honey production; fifth in lemons; and ninth in strawberries.

About 11,000 people are employed as farmworkers in the county, and most are immigrants  a mixture of people here legally and illegally. Americans are just not raising their children to be farmworkers, said Eric Larson, executive director of the county Farm Bureau. Historically, its been foreign-born workers and we just dont see that changing.

Under the new immigration legislation, preference for green cards would go in a point system to things like education, English-language ability, high-paying job offers, entrepreneurial initiative and achievements (such as a Nobel Prize). Although that would seem to suggest limited opportunities for incoming farmworkers, supporters of the bill said it will help bring up wages, perhaps making the jobs more attractive to native-born workers.

Were not committed to working-class Americans, and we need to change that, said Cotton, the senator from Arkansas.

Larson said the agricultural industry has seen other reform proposals come and go over the years.

I think this continues the chain of disappointment not just with President Trump but with all of Washington, D.C., in failing to address immigration in a way that understands the needs of agriculture, he said. Farmers see their workforce shrinking, aging out, and they dont feel theres any place for them to turn to get the workers they need.

Trouble in the fields, to go with the anxiety in the air.

john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com
A 23-year-old man was fatally shot in the street outside his home in San Carlos Friday night, San Diego police said.

The man apparently was alone when he was shot multiple times outside the home on Park Ridge Boulevard at Wandermere Drive, homicide Lt. Mike Holden said.

Police did not have a description of the shooter.

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Several people called 911 about 10:50 p.m. to report hearing the gunshots.

Family members carried the victim into a car and rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Holden said. His name was not released.

About an hour after the shooting, a distraught man who identified himself to police as the victims brother arrived at the scene, yelling outbursts of profanity and walking frantically behind the police tape.

Once he became calm, officers allowed his past the police tape and accompanied him inside the victims home, where homicide investigators were interviewing relatives.

Police cordoned off the intersection of Park Ridge and Wandermere, near St. Dunstans Episcopal Church.

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Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
Agents for Homeland Security Investigations have tracked down stolen work by Tchaikovsky, paintings by Picasso, ancient Greek artwork and other priceless treasures that been looted over the years.

When it comes to finding some of the oldest artifacts in the United States, however, they admit they could be doing a better job.

On Thursday, members of Homeland Security Investigations, a part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, met at Sycuan Tribal Hall with members of Kumeyaay and Luiseno Indian tribes with a goal of creating a stronger partnership between the agencies and people.

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Tribal members attending said they appreciated the symposium, the first of its kind, although some were skeptical about the offer. Some tribal members also used the opportunity to voice criticism of what they see as loopholes in laws that let developers and federal agencies desecrate land and loot artifacts.

Everyone agreed that artifacts should be respected, and people who illegally remove them should be caught.

If these are collected and taken away from the tribal communities, it impedes our ability to educate future generations and to show them the physical reality of their ancestry, said Cody Martinez, chairman of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation.

As part of the ceremony Martinez was presented with an ancient pot that had been had been recovered after it was taken off tribal land. It will be kept at a cultural museum and resource center the Sycuan Band opened in November.

Martinez handed the pot to Jamul Indian Village Chairwoman Erica Pinto, who put her hand over her heart as she became emotional thinking about its history.

To know its 1,000 years old, it was overwhelming, she said.

David Shaw, special agent in charge with Homeland Security Investigations, said 204 officers in the US and 63 officers overseas work on fighting illicit trafficking of artifacts, and more than 7,000 pieces from 27 countries have been returned in the past decade. It is the fourth most lucrative illicit trade, behind narcotics, arms and human trafficking, and generates between $6 billion and $8 billion annually, he said.

Shaw said he doesnt know how much money is generated from the illegal sales of Indian artifacts, which was one of the the reasons they were having a symposium to strengthen partnerships with the community.

Steve Banegas of the Barona Band of Mission Indians said he appreciated the outreach to work together on preserving their heritage.

Every day somewhere, somehow, somebody is digging up something and destroying it, he said.

When I see your agencies today, I get a new-found hope that your heads and your hearts are going to be filled with the realization that the Kumeyaay people have been here for a long time, and its necessary to preserve this stuff, he said.

Banegas also encouraged of tribal members to reach out the agency, and told federal officials the Indians would be there for them.

If you guys are truly honest and youre willing to work with this nation, I think we can make some really good headway, he said to the agents.

Anne Perry of the U.S. Attorneys Ofice said she was the only local person who had prosecuted anyone for trafficking Indian artifacts, and she has had only one case in 15 years.

Violators are prosecuted under either the Archaeological Resources Protection Act or Native American Graves Repatriation Act, and penalties can range from $10,000 fines and one year in prison to a $250,000 fine and five years in prison.

Prosecutions are rare, she said, because the cases are not brought forward. One officer urged people to share any information that could lead to a case.

Im making a pledge that if you make a phone call and bring things to us, well look into it, said Daniel Hiel, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations.

Another presenter at the symposium was Cindy Stankowski, executive director of the San Diego Archaeological Center, who said the centers collection had come from artifacts recovered in development sites as a requirement of the 1974 California Environmental Quality Act.

CEQA had saved artifacts from being lost, she said, but it also had been a double-edge sword because some archaeologists working on sites do poor jobs in protecting what they find.

Her comments struck a nerve with some tribal members.

Theres no standards with archaeology, said Brandon Linton of the Mesa Grande Band.of Mission Indians.

Linton said he would like CEQA changed because it has loopholes that allows developers to build where they want as long as they follow the acts vague rules.

The law says you have to have meaningful consultations with tribes, but theres no definition of what meaningful is, he said. Whats meaningful to us may not be meaningful to them.

Other tribal members had issues with the Bureau of Land Management, which some said had built roads and other projects on sensitive land.

I just want to be clear and on the record that from a tribal perspective, BLM is looting artifacts in our area, said Bobo Elliot of the Manzanita Band. The archaeologists working on these projects and with BLM is helping conspire to loot our artifacts.

One man grilled Tom Zales, field manager in the BLMs El Centro office, about whether he could name any project that had been denied.

Zales said no, but explained that proposed projects had been abandoned before they ever made it through the approval process because of BLM inspections.

He also said decisions are based on the public interest, and they do their best to mitigate loss.

I try to listen as carefully as I can and understand your perspectives and take them into account, he said. With these contentious projects, were never going to completely agree.

People with information about the illicit trade of cultural property or art are asked to call the Homeland Security Investigations tip line at 866-DHS-2-ICE.

Homeless Playlist  On Now San Diego hepatitis outbreak continues to grow: 481 cases On Now Homeless entrenched in booming tent city along Santa Ana River On Now San Diego mayor agreed to homeless hub, then delayed, advocates say On Now Homeless outreach in San Diego On Now Video: Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #8 On Now In poverty himself, 'Water Man Dave,' is the fearless saint of San Diego's homeless 5:41 On Now Video: Homeless living in cars find safe havens 2:21 On Now Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #7 On Now Pitching a tent plan for San Diego's homeless On Now Homeless efforts get $80M boost for various services

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Retired Army sergeant Cristian Valle is about to begin what will likely be his last journey home.

Today, Cristian, his wife Blanca and their four children are in Temecula for a community kickoff event hosted by Homes For Our Troops. The privately funded 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization builds and donates specially adapted custom homes nationwide for severely injured post9/11 veterans.

This event marks the launch of the construction phase. Within a year, their home will be completed, and the family will make the trip from their current home in Livermore, to the new one in Temecula.

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In 2005, Valle suffered multiple and significant injuries  including the loss of both his legs  after a bomb exploded near him while he was on patrol in Iraq.

Its very difficult with my disabilities in my current home, he said. The halls and doorways are narrow, making navigating in a wheelchair a major challenge. The walls are scratched up, and pretty much everything is banged up because of the wheelchair.

Blancas main concern has been for his safety.

Kitchen cabinets are too high, forcing him to climb to reach what he needs. To shower, he has had to sit on a slippery floor. And because the house is elevated, Valle can only enter through a makeshift ramp that leads to the back door.

The Valles worries are common among severely injured veterans and their families.

The majority of veterans served by Homes For Our Troops have sustained partial or full paralysis and injuries including multiple limb amputations.

Over the past several years, fifteen custom homes have been built for veterans in Menifee, Murrieta and Temecula. Five more housing projects are in progress.

All of the homes feature automatic door openers, wider doorways and hallways, roll under sinks and stove tops, modified bathrooms and other adaptations.

Homes For Our Troops hopes that by providing safe, comfortable and mortgage-free homes, veterans will be free to focus on their family, recovery and rebuilding their lives, which is a main part of our mission, said Teresa Verity, a staff member at Homes For Our Troops.

After receiving their homes, many veterans have more energy and time to put into hobbies, careers, starting businesses, school and starting or expanding families. They get back to doing the things they love and pursuing their dreams.

For Cristian and his family, this new home will be a game-changer.

My wife and I know that things will be easier without the challenges of our current home, he said. Its important just knowing that I have the freedom to move around the house with no issues.

Their kids are excited, too.

They always ask about the house, Cristian said. They say, Is it ready daddy? Are we moving yet?!

This will be a new beginning.

Email: temecula@sduniontribune.com
Your article on the effort to privatize the Escondido library (Privatization of Escondido library staff a hot-button issue, July 27) failed to include key history of this situation.

Residents of Escondido are sick and tired of attacks on our public services by current Mayor Sam Abed and his councilmen. Their current scheme, to decimate our last library by handing it over to a corporate interest with a bad reputation, is the last straw.

Libraries are the political third rail in Escondido. We remember these same leaders who heartlessly closed our East Valley Branch in an area of high need when it could have easily been saved.

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A public library should be an elevation of community, a statement of our culture.

It is not an expense but an investment in our people. Our library is the very heart of our city.

If Mayor Abed and his friends would cut out that heart, may they meet a ballot box rebellion in 2018.

Laura Hunter

Escondido

Outsourcing Escondido Public Library jobs to a private company is the wrong move, and its being done for the wrong reasons. Mayor Sam Abed and the City Council majority claim they are looking for ways to save money.

The librarys budget is only 3 percent of the total general fund budget. Not only that, the library has unused allocated funds that are not even being used to benefit the library.

If the mayor and the City Council really wanted to be fiscally responsible, they would stop funding pet projects and they would have avoided getting Escondido involved in costly and unnecessary lawsuits over the years.

Now they want to save money by using public tax dollars to increase the profit margin of a private Maryland-based corporation? No wonder they initiated this whole process behind closed doors and with no opportunity for public input.

Jacob Silva

Escondido

Letters and commentary policy

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Regarding Cannabis advocates seek special elections (Aug. 2): When will our country and cities wake up and get their heads out of the sand? It is irrational that marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, the same as heroin and LSD. Medical marijuana is legal in 28 states and recreational marijuana is legal in eight states. When will the federal government recognize the will of its citizens?

In California, cities can bar the sale of medical and recreational marijuana. The majority of those City Councils are among the populace that voted against legalization. The cities are not only losing what could be major tax revenue but are encouraging the black market, boosting the power of the drug cartels that continue to corrupt Mexican society.

Marijuana is only a gateway drug because the same black-market dealer of marijuana also sells meth, cocaine, heroin and other powerful narcotics.

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Bruce Swartz

Escondido

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
Home minister to sweep crime clean

Home Minister Janardan Sharma has said the government will act tough against anti-national elements, punishing people or groups that indulge in activities that harm the nation.
President Donald Trump s crackdown on government leaks reached new heights Friday when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced aggressive investigations by the Justice Department while raising the possibility of going after journalists that publish those leaks.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation criticized Sessions announcement, which also renewed debate about the public value of leaks and their effect on national security, but it is hardly the first time a White House has gone after leakers or the journalists who publish highly guarded information.

President Barack Obama , in fact, set a record for any president with his number of prosecutions against leakers using the Espionage Act . Some observers fear that Obamas crackdown on leaks paved the way for Trump to do the same.

Here are 10 people that fell under leak investigations during Obamas presidency:

Thomas Drake

Drake was a National Security Agency executive before he was indicted in April 2010 under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking information about TrailBlazer, one of several surveillance programs used by the agency. Drake eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and avoided prison.

Shamai Leibowitz

Leibowitz was an FBI linguist before pleading guilty in May 2010 to leaking national security information to a blogger. Leibowitz was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning)

Manning was an Army intelligence analyst who was arrested and charged in June 2010 in connection with one of the largest leaks ever of U.S. State Department documents. In July 2013, Manning was convicted to a prison sentence of 35 years, a sentence Obama commuted before he left office.

Manning spent seven years in prison and was released in May.

Stephen Kim

Kim was a state department contractor before he was indicted in August 2010 for leaking information about North Korea to a Fox News reporter, James Rosen. Kim pleaded guilty and in 2014, he was sentenced to 13 months in prison.

James Rosen

Rosen, a Fox News journalist, reported in 2009 that U.S. officials feared North Korea would respond to United Nations sanctions with nuclear tests, The Washington Post wrote at the time. Stephen Kim was suspected to be his source, so the Justice Department obtained Rosens phone records and emails to make that connection.

Rosen was not charged with a crime.

Jeffrey Sterling

Sterling was a CIA officer before he was arrested and charged in 2011 with leaking information about U.S. efforts to sabotage Irans nuclear program to a reporter for The New York Times, James Risen. Four years later, Sterling was convicted on espionage charges and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

James Risen

Risen was first ordered to testify in the Justice Departments case against Sterling as early as 2008 at the end of the George W. Bush administration, The Times reported. Risen spent the next seven years, mostly during the Obama administration, fighting the Justice Department and vowing to go to prison before revealing his source.

The legal battle ended finally in 2015 when Attorney General Eric Holder said Risen would not be forced to testify in the case.

John Kiriakou

Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, was charged in 2012 with disclosing information to reporters about the capture and interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, a suspected Al Qaeda member. Kiriakou pleaded guilty later that year and was then sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Donald Sachtleben

Sachtleben was a former FBI agent who pleaded guilty in 2013 to leaking classified information about to journalists about a foiled bomb plot in Yemen, The New York Times reported. Sachtleben was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Edward Snowden

Snowden is the notorious NSA contractor who leaked information to journalists about the agencys massive surveillance programs in 2013. Snowden was charged with three felonies  one count for theft of government property and two for disclosing that information. Snowden fled the U.S. and to this day remains in asylum in Russia.

Sessions on Friday said the Justice Department was investigating three times as many complaints about leaks as there were at the end of Obamas term. Sessions did not say exactly how many leaks it was investigating, but within the first six months of Trumps presidency, his administration had arrested and charged its first leaker.

Reality Winner, an NSA contractor, was charged in June with leaking intelligence reports to The Intercept about Russias hacking attempts in the 2016 election. Her trial is set for October.

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House adjourned for lack of quorum

Parliament faced another instance of lawmakers insincerity towards their job on Friday as they abandoned a meeting after recording their attendance.
House panel tells CIAA to probe NOC land deals

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ruled that there have been irregularities in Nepal Oil Corporations (NOC) controversial land purchase deal and directed the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to investigate and take action against those involved.
This article is not intended to be controversial or defend or attack the religious views or practices of any church or individual. It is, however, an observation meant to bring awareness of our actions.

As a young Christian attending a traditional Baptist church, I often heard the choir sing an invitational hymn that uttered these words: Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me  Oh Lamb of God I come. Id hear the church clerk stand up and extend a welcome address and state: Our doors swing on welcome hinges, and we invite you to join us in worship in whatever way you are led.

The expression might be made, Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, which means there is freedom, so you are free to praise the Lord in this house. And, at Open Door Baptist Church, our motto is: We dont judge, we love.

So much jargon, yet, in many churches, although we enter through opened doors, we are often met by persons with closed hearts and minds from the pulpit to the door. We have prejudices, preferences and convictions, which are sometimes more subjective than they are objective, and we impose them on those who enter to worship. In my previous editorial, I suggested that everybody has to do better and we do!

If the church is going to bring glory to the creator, it must understand how to minister to all creation. It is the task of the modern-day church to discern its current context, and in doing so it can take a holistic approach to doing ministry. Those who lead the church must challenge churchgoers to open their minds and develop a sense of out-of-the-box ministry that reaches every segment of the population.

Open minds are aware that the world is large, and in that large world is a multitude of hurting people who are seeking answers. The church must provide ministry that at least makes hurting people feel comfortable enough to share their hurts without feeling judged or intimidated.

Church leaders must not allow how a person looks to be the determining factor in their eligibility to participate in ministry. Just because a person has braids, dread locks, piercings or tattoos, they should not be excluded from acceptance in the traditional church. We must accept that the new normal still deserves a place in ministry. The only standard that needs to be met is that of Jesus, and he was welcoming to all.

All it takes to figure out how accepting Jesus was is to look at the 12 men he chose as disciples. Judas was a thief, Peter was one who used swear words and Matthew was a publican, yet Jesus willingly accepted them into ministry.

Yes, if the doors of the church are open to all, the hearts of the leaders and the people must be open to all as well. Religiosity alone will judge and make differences in people, but true salvation will extend grace to all who will receive Christ as Lord and Savior.

If the traditional church is to survive and thrive, open doors must lead to open and receptive hearts that intentionally bring healing and wholeness to all who enter their sacred places. Whether Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian or Episcopal, leaders must welcome all and allow them to participate in the program of the church. The reason many nontraditional churches are successful is that they use nonconventional means to bring people to God.

Lets be honest: The major reason that many traditional churches and ministries are falling off and losing people is the doors are open but the hearts are closed. Try opening hearts first, then open the doors and watch God do a work that surpasses all understanding.

If we do that, we will do better and win lost souls for Christ.

Michelle M. Law-Gordon is the pastor of Open Door Baptist Church and a lifelong member of New Ebenezer Baptist Church in Florence. She is a member of the Morning News Faith & Values Advisory Board. Contact her and other board members at fvboard@florencenews.com.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Florence School District One will host a community forum at 7 p.m. Tuesday to gain input on its $266 million Facilities Needs Assessment Plan, a proposed referendum that some people say is flawed.

I support our public schools and their need for funding, Florence Mayor Stephen Wukela said. However, the referendum proposed by the district is fatally flawed and has been since its form was predetermined in the absence of public input months ago.

The proposed plan would be financed through borrowed money and a rate increase in property taxes that would more than double. The current millage is 31.5; the target would be 77 mills.

Barry Townsend, the District One board chairman, said this is the only funding option available. He said that if school facility needs are not addressed now, the tax increase could be even higher in the future.

Were in a situation where too many of our schools are aging and inadequate to meet the educational needs of 21st century children, Townsend said.

Also, comparatively, South Carolina has one of the lowest property tax rates in the nation, Townsend said.

For various reasons, including the tax increase, Florence County Council Chairman Kent Caudle opposes the Facilities Needs Assessment Plan in its current form.

Caudle said facilities need to be updated, but that doesnt necessarily mean tearing down buildings to build new ones, especially if a building is structurally sound. He said a slight tax increase over time could sufficiently contribute to facility needs.

I dont think buildings educate young people, Caudle said. Id like to see them focus more on obtaining, attracting and retaining quality teachers.

Townsend said up-to-date buildings attract teachers to districts, and some industries have not moved to the area because they viewed the school district as lacking.

Under the proposed plan, five new schools would be built and 11 facilities would be renovated. A new Southside Middle School will be paid for under the pay-as-you-go plan.

Caudle said he supported the pay-as-you-go plan when he served on the school board. This plan avoids long-term debt but slows the speed of building or renovating schools.

If pay-as-you-go continued as the funding plan, it would take approximately two decades to finish projects. The plan has limitations, including the inability to build a new high school.

Another concern about the proposed plan is fairness.

Caudle said schools in the eastern and southern areas of town have been bypassed in years past and will continue to be underserved if the proposed Facilities Needs Assessment Plan is enacted.

I think all students are equal, but its overdoing it in that one area, Caudle said, referring to the west side of town.

Wukela said the district has a history of favoring the west side. During the past two decades, six new schools were added to the west side of Florence, and one new school added to serve north and east Florence.

They now ask this community to pay an additional $180 in property taxes per $100,000 in home value each year in order to build a new $88-million-dollar West Florence High School while South Florence and Wilson see only renovations, which will not relieve the persistent need for mobile units at those schools, Wukela said.

Wukela said passing the referendum in its current form would have long-term effects on the Florence community in regard to preserving unfairness.

This massive bond proposal would consume revenue capacity and thus cement this disparity for decades, Wukela said.

Townsend said the plan benefits every student, every school and every community. He said statements about the plans unfairness are either uninformed or untrue.

The proposed amount of money to be spent on each school is not equal, but Townsend said that each school has different needs. The board is considering details such as a buildings age and projected enrollment.

The community is encouraged to attend the forum in the auditorium of the Poynor Adult Education Center, located at 301 S. Dargan St.

The forum will begin with a presentation that gives an overview of the Facilities Needs Assessment Plan. Then board members and possibly some administrators will go to different classrooms. In a breakout-session format, attendees can go to classrooms and dialogue with school leaders.

In an effort to keep everyone on the same page, each board member and administrator will have a document that outlines what updates will be made to each school.

If the board learns that there are concerns that it hasn't sufficiently addressed, it will adjust its plan.

The Poynor building auditorium holds 295 people. If the facility is filled to capacity, the board will have an additional forum.

Nothing would make me happier than to have more than we expected, because that means people are paying attention to what is happening to schools, Townsend said. I think that shows you have an engaged community.

Debbie Hyler, executive director of The School Foundation, said it is imperative to attend the forum. To make an informed decision, she said educated voters must take advantage of opportunities to hear firsthand information. She said this also decreases the spreading of rumors.
Ten years ago, South Carolina was littered with real-life hate groups  43, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama. These days, the number is down to a dozen.

At one point, South Carolina had the highest per capita of hate groups in the United States, according to Heidi Beirich, intelligence policy director at the Center.

South Carolina was a place where they had actual buildings  they had a store, she said.

But infighting at the largest group, the League of the South, and its hardening of secessionist positions, led thousands to fly the coop. In 2006, the league had 27 chapters in South Carolina. Now it has one, according to the Centers Hate Map. It also shows outposts for several other organizations it classifies as hate groups, including the Nation of Islam (Greenville and Charleston), the Ku Klux Klan (two groups, one statewide and one in Walterboro) and an anti-LGBT church in Spartanburg.

But a dramatic drop in the number of physical hate groups in the Palmetto State doesnt mean theres less hate. In fact, thanks to the Internet, there might be more, simmering under a surface stunted by racism that sucked energy and life from the American South for generations.

The world of hate has moved online, just like everything else, Beirich said. There are more than 300,000 users of Stormfront (a white nationalist website). Whenever I talk about hate groups, its not capturing whats happening online, which is where most of it is happening now.

Case in point: South Carolinas own Dylann Roof, who murdered nine people worshipping at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in June 2015.

That happened right in your backyard, Beirich said.He was never a member of any hate group. He learned everything about hating black people from the web.

Dylann Roof was radicalized online, and that makes him just like a lot of ISIS killers who have no connection to the Islamic State.

Every 34 days, Beirich said, theres some sort of attempted or achieved domestic terror attack by white supremicists, Beirich said, pointing to a 2015 study, Age of the Wolf: A study of the Rise of Lone Wolf and Leaderless Resistance Terrorism.

Among the studys primary findings were that almost three-quarters of the incidents were carried out, or planned, by a lone wolf, a single person acting without accomplices, according to a summary . Ninety percent of the incidents were the work of no more than two persons.

State Law Enforcement Division Thom Berry said the agency monitored online hate.

SLED works closely with our fellow law enforcement partners at both the local and federal level to gather information on these groups, he told Statehouse Report. It would be inappropriate, though, to discuss and specifics of our work in this area.

His boss, SLED Chief Mark Keel, urged South Carolinians to be careful when using the Internet.

We have to remember theres a dark side as well, he said in a statement. There are many examples of people taken advantage of by unscrupulous people posing to be something or someone theyre not. This can be financially or personally devastating.

He urged citizens to use common sense and careful when using the Internet.

Be skeptical, he said. Dont give out personal information to someone you know only by a web address or a screen name. The person on the other end may not be who you think they are.

The same is true for online groups. Dont be lured by the graphics, interactivity or what may be on the surface an appealing message. Online groups can be very influential on our children. Parents should be involved and aware of their childrens online activities.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at brack@statehousereport.com.
Internal dispute in RJP-N hits its decision on polls

An internal dispute has made the newly formed Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal indecisive whether to participate in the third phase of local level elections scheduled to be held in Province 2 on September 18.
Land purchased by Nepal Oil Corporation inundated

The land purchased by Nepal Oil Corporation on the banks of Rohini River in Bhairahawa of Rupandehi district to build a fuel storage facility has been inundated due to torrential rains.
Press Release

August 4, 2017 Free College Law a "World-Class Reform" - Gatchalian Senator Win Gatchalian on Thursday expressed elation at the surprise signing into law of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. "The Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act is a world-class reform that elevates educational access in the Philippines to a superior standard enjoyed by just a handful of progressive countries. Its passage into law is a historic moment that has fundamentally altered the state of education in our country for the better," said Gatchalian, co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill. Gatchalian expressed his "sincerest gratitude" to President Rodrigo Duterte for "believing in this reform and signing it into law" despite the misgivings of some of his top cabinet advisers. "This law achieves the type of genuine social change promised by the President, and his signature proves that he is a true champion of education reform," he added. Gatchalian also lauded his legislative peers in both houses of Congress for the strong multi-partisan support that allowed for its passage just over a year into the 17th Congress. "It is great to see how the measure gained so much momentum over the past year," the senator said. Gatchalian has been a vocal proponent of free college education for years now. On July 6, 2015, Gatchalian (then serving as congressman of Valenzuela City) filed the first bill proposing the establishment of a full tuition subsidy in state universities and colleges (SUCs): House Bill No. 5905, the Free Higher Education Act. The bill was approved by the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education later that year, but no further action was taken on the measure for the rest of the 16th Congress. Free tuition in SUCs then became Gatchalian's signature rallying cry during the 2016 senatorial elections, with passage of the bill as his foremost campaign promise. The idea caught fire during the campaign period, with presidential and senatorial candidates across the entire political spectrum indicating their support. Upon his election to the Senate, Gatchalian re-filed the Free Higher Education Act (Senate Bill No. 198) as one of his priority measures for the 17th Congress, and continued to lobby aggressively for its passage as Vice-Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. The final version of the bill signed into law by the President has further expanded the scope of the benefits provided. Gatchalian estimates that as many as 5.6 million undergraduate students enrolled in public and private HEIs will be granted aid through a mix of full tuition subsidies, grants, and other financial assistance. Included in this count are more than 200,000 students enrolled at local universities and colleges (LUCs) who will now enjoy a 100-percent subsidy for tuition and other fees after Gatchalian fought for their inclusion in the coverage of the law at the bicameral conference. "We have come a long, long way from where we started with this advocacy. That battle cry of generations of student activists has now become firm government policy, and we are better for it. This is the collective victory of everyone who has fought to uphold and defend the inalienable right of every Filipino to quality tertiary education," Gatchalian said.
Learning the art of showing

Pranisha Gurung, a fourth year student at Sirjana College of Fine Arts, Uttar Dhoka, felt something like panic when her teacher reminded the class that their BFA final-year exhibition was to be held in a month-and-a-halfs time.
Press Release

August 4, 2017 Legarda Hails Enactment of Free SUCs Tuition Law Senator Loren Legarda today hailed the signing into law of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which institutionalizes the provision of full tuition fee subsidy for students enrolled in all of the country's state universities and colleges (SUCs), local universities and colleges (LUCs) and in state-run technical-vocational institutions. "The President's enactment of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act is a manifestation of his commitment to provide access to higher education and better opportunities for the poor," said Legarda, co-author and co-sponsor of the measure. "This law addresses the concerns of poor families who have no means to bring their children to college. I am glad that we have already institutionalized what we advocated for in the 2017 budget," she said. "In the 2017 budget, we were able to fund the free tuition in SUCs. I will also make sure that this is funded under the 2018 budget," Legarda stressed. "I urge the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to work on the immediate implementation of the law so that it becomes effective in the next school year. Moreover, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), being the agency that crafts the budget, should be part of the committee that will draft the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the law," she added. The free tuition in SUCs is being implemented in the current school year due to the intervention of Legarda, who, as chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, pushed for the additional P8.3 Billion allocation under the CHED budget. Aside from the free tuition in SUCs, Legarda also ensured funding for universal healthcare and free irrigation for farmers during her term as Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance.
Koko says free tuition for SUC students a game changer

Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel on Friday hailed President Duterte's signing of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which provides free tuition and other school fees for students of state universities and colleges (SUCs).

Pimentel, a former bar topnotcher and a former professor of law, considers the passage of the law as a pivotal moment in the war against poverty.

"I have always believed that education is the great equalizer. I am where I am today because of my education", said Pimentel.

According to Pimentel, the measure gives more Filipino families better pathways out of poverty, saying, "A college diploma is the most decisive tool a Filipino can carry in the struggle to give his or her family a better life, and President Duterte has just given every Filipino the means to have it."

The Senate chief says that the law is a boost for the country and not just for individuals.

Pimentel said, "With this law, our country will have a bigger pool of skilled professionals who are necessary for the development of a modern economy."

The law is one of the key planks of the 11-point legislative agenda that the Senate majority agreed upon at the beginning of the 17th Congress.
Press Release

August 4, 2017 Free public college tuition can be funded in 2018 nat'l budget--Recto Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto today thanked President Duterte, "the country's teacher-in-chief," for signing into law the free college tuition bill. "By signing the law, he is in effect lecturing the nation that we should not just build, build, build for the sake of our future, but also teach, teach, teach our youth, " Recto said. Recto, however, said that "hard work" awaits in "funding the many mandates" of the law signed by Duterte, sans the ceremony which usually attends the enactment of significant bills. Recto urged "immediate work and consultations" on the drafting of the law's rules and regulations, without which the law will not be implemented. "The challenge now is how to fund the measure, effective next year, because budget delayed is education denied," Recto said, in stressing the importance of the early release of the IRR. The proposed combined budgets of state universities and college for next year is P61.4 billion, which do not factor in free tuition. Recto, however, expressed confidence "that the 2018 proposed national budget has enough budget space to accommodate the more important mandates of the new law." "We'll have to liposuction the fat, and transform it into funds for state colleges," Recto said. "We should be open to a phased implementation that should begin with free tuition," he said, noting that the law waives not just tuition but all fees, and covers not only SUCs but other tertiary education institutions like local government-run colleges and tech-voc public schools. It will be recalled that Recto filed the first and only bill on free college during the 16th Congress. He is the principal author of Senate Bill 61, the first measure filed on the matter in the present 17th Congress. During the budget deliberations on the 2016 national budget, Recto formally introduced the inclusion of P6 billion in the SUCs budget for free public college. He repeated this again for the 2017 national budget, which led to the successful addition of P8 billion in the SUCs budget for free tuition. Recto said "this law occupies a place among landmark social legislations," and gives credit to President Duterte for valuing opinions outside the Cabinet. He said the President will be remembered for "siding with people" on this issue. "If a teacher affects eternity, so does a president who removes obstacles to learning."
Statement of Senator Joel Villanueva on the signing of Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act

We thank the President for signing into law the bill granting free tuition in state universities and colleges and technical-vocational institutions.

Tunay po na magiging abot-kamay na sa lahat lalo na sa mahihirap ang makapag-aral sa kolehiyo at makatanggap ng skills training na magbibigay-daan sa magagandang trabaho.

This is an important milestone in ensuring that we provide sufficient support developing our human capital. Our people are our greatest asset that's why the biggest investment of the government should go to them.

We should all welcome this development. We all want to take all available steps to ensure education for everyone. At the same time, we should listen to those who raised concerns about this measure and ensure that these are addressed.
Press Release

August 4, 2017 Zubiri welcomes signing of free-tuition law by President Duterte Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri was ecstatic over the President's signing of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education. "This is a landmark legislation that will have a lasting imoact for our country's future. Education is an excellent investment whatever the cost to government. Whether it is hundreds of billions of pesos or only P8 Billion, we will find the resources to fund it in Congress. It is my dream that in ten years, all Filipino youth will be a college graduate." "Let us thank President Rody Duterte for signing this into law. The fact that he signed this against the advice of many who wanted it to be vetoed shows he has a heart for the poor. I also see this as a marching order for us to fund this and to fully implement it as well. "As a product of a State University, I know that even the supposed subsidized tuition in UP was already a big burden for many of my former classmates. Even now, with the socialized tuition program of UP, many parents feel the hardship. Now, there is no excuse at all for any Filipino not to seek college education." "We will be scrutinizing the budget soon and we will target revenue sources to fund the tuition of students in 112 State Universities and Colleges (SUC), local universities and colleges, and state-run technical- vocational schools nationwide. By funding tuition in LUCs and government tech-voc schools, we address the needs of students from the middle and low-income brackets. Free education is truly the great equalizer of opportunities for a better future of the youth, rich or poor." The expenditures for the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act is currently not provided for in the proposed Budget for 2018. "We senators will see to it that the funds will be provided," Zubiri stressed. "This has been a part of my advocacies since I believe that college education is the way out of poverty. Our country's passport to become a true tiger economy is a well-educated citizenry like India, Malaysia and Singapore that invested hugely in education."
Press Release

August 5, 2017 Senate Minority Bloc lauds approval of law on free tuition in SUCs, vows to work on funding The Senate Minority bloc lauded the President's signing of the landmark law granting universal access to college education but warned that his economic managers' opposition to the law may affect its full implementation. "We laud the President's decision to sign the law even when there was some hesitation from his economic managers. The challenge now, however, is to ensure that the new law will be effectively and completely implemented in 112 state colleges and universities nationwide," they said in a statement on Saturday. "The new law will only become a reality if government allocates enough and accessible funding for SUCs nationwide. The executive branch and Congress must work closely to make tertiary education accessible to all through tuition subsidies and financial assistance," they stressed. "We hope that his economic managers would not bungle its implementation. Their cooperation is crucial to ensuring the success of this landmark law The Senate Minority Bloc is composed of Senators Franklin M. Drilon as the minority leader, Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV, and Leila De Lima, all belonging to the Liberal Party; Sen. Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV; and Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros. Congress already provided P8.3 billion to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for tuition fee subsidy in the current General Appropriations Act. However, the Department of Budget and Management has removed provisions for free tuition in SUCs in the 2018 National Expenditures Program that was submitted to Congress during the President's second State of the Nation Address. Senator Bam, who is the principal author and sponsor of the measure in the Senate, estimated that the law would require about P20 to P25 billion to be implemented nationwide, way below Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno's P100 billion estimate. The minority bloc then assured the public that it would ensure that adequate budget would be included in the next year's appropriation act. "We are glad that the President saw just how important this law is to ensuring that every young Filipino will have a greater opportunity to finish their studies, and to improve their lives and that of their families," Drilon said. Drilon also congratulated the "inspiring persistence and passion" of Sen. Bam, who pushed for the passage of the bill even when he was stripped of chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture. "I would like to thank my colleague Senator Aquino, for his pivotal role in this fight to bring quality education closer to all Filipinos, no matter their status or condition in life. This law will bring a positive effect to the lives of not only young Filipinos today, but in the years to come as well," Drilon said. Minority senators de Lima and Pangilinan also co-authored the law, he noted. "I wish to thank the President for signing the free college tuition into law. Congratulations to my fellow lawmakers and everyone who supported this policy," Aquino said in a statement. According to Pangilinan, the signing of the Free Higher Education Act "brings a promise of brighter future to our youth and our nation." "This great progress also proves that while as members of the minority we may disagree with certain policies of the administration, there are issues that unite us to better our country and the life of every Filipino," Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party, said. "We must now make sure that this achievement is really felt in our SUCs during enrollment period, and not just in paper," he said. Hontiveros, for her part, said: "Kaisa ng hanay ng kabataang Pilipino, ipinagbubunyi ko ang pagsasabatas ng Free Higher Education Law. Ito ay tagumpay ng ating kabataan at ng bawat estudyante na magsisilbing daan sa mas magandang buhay sa bawat mag-aaral. Ito ay bunga ng matagal at matapang nilang laban para sa dekalidad at libreng edukasyon." Hontiveros congratulated Aquino "for leading the final charge to victory and ensuring the passage of this measure" and thanked her fellow senators "for crossing party lines in brave support of this law."
No extension of Indias Small Development Project deal

The Ministry of Finance has declined to further extend the agreement on the Small Development Projects undertaken by the government of India as the terms of agreement between the two countries expire on Saturday.
ANAHEIM  As minor-leaguer Casey Thomas died May 1 of accidental fentanyl intoxication, according to the medical examiner in Maricopa County, Ariz.

Fentanyl is a powerful opiate painkiller considered 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine; Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2016.

Thomas, 24, was assigned to the As minor-league facility in Mesa, Ariz., at the time of his death and he had been playing in extended spring-training games there.

Oakland outfielder Jaycob Brugman, who went to high school in Phoenix with Thomas, was delighted to reconnect with him there, and he said Friday, Casey was there when I was rehabbing, so we got to spend a lot of time together. It was a surprise  he was so happy, doing his thing, playing baseball, and all of a sudden, hes gone. Obviously, no one expected it. It was a tragic, shocking thing, but I can say he was in good spirits. We hung out a little bit, went out to dinner a couple of days before.

Brugman said Thomas was not on a rehab assignment for any injury. We had some fun, we had some laughs, Brugman said. Casey was awesome, really funny, always joking around. It was nice to be around him  if you were down or sad, hed always say something to make you happy. Thats the kind of person he was.

The son of As scout Tom Thomas, Casey Thomas was a 34th-round draft pick out of Texas A&M Corpus Christi in 2016; he hit .258 with 18 RBIs in 37 games in the Arizona rookie league last season.

Another As minor-leaguer, Triple-A pitcher Sean Murphy, died of an undetected heart condition on April 25, 2016.

Transaction: The As claimed catcher Dustin Garneau from the Rockies but have yet to provide Garneau with an assignment  often an indication that a team is waiting for the new player to arrive. That suggests the As expect Garneau on Saturday; catcher Ryan Lavarnaway likely would be designated for assignment if so.

Garneau, 29, was Khris Davis teammate at Cal State Fullerton and, Davis said, He plays the game the right way. Dustins my boy.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

On deck

Saturday

at Angels

6:07 p.m. NBCSCA

Blackburn (2-1)

vs. Skaggs (1-1)

Sunday

at Angels

12:35 p.m. NBCSCA

Manaea (8-6)

vs. Nolasco (5-12)

Monday

Off

Leading off

Lighter DL: With Kendall Gravemans return, the As have only Dustin Fowler, Josh Phegley, Jake Smolinski, Andrew Triggs and Bobby Wahl on the disabled list, matching the season low, and Wahl is on a rehab assignment.

 Susan Slusser
As Charlie Orbell dives into the frigid San Francisco Bay on Sunday for a 1.5-mile swim under the Golden Gate Bridge, hell have two thoughts foremost in mind. Both are somber, but only one of them profound.

The first, he said, will be about how that water is really, really cold. The second will be of Brian Bill, a Navy SEAL killed six years ago Sunday when the Chinook CH-47 helicopter he rode in was shot down in Afghanistan.

Bill was one of 17 SEALs and 21 others who died that day, the single worst loss for U.S. forces in 16 years of war in Afghanistan. Sundays plunge in the bay, being undertaken by Orbell and as many as 19 other swimmers, will be in honor of not just those slain SEALs, but all other members of the elite fighting force and their families.

The goal of this inaugural Golden Gate Frogman Swim is to raise money for the nonprofit Navy SEAL Foundation, which provides education, grief counseling and other support to SEALs and their families.

Orbell and the others who will be churning the waves feel driven to give their own service in gratitude to those who have served.

Theyve done such a lot of the heavy lifting in the war on terror, I just feel its right to give back to them, said Orbell, who is flying from his home in Florida to do the swim. I will be swimming for Brian because I met his father when I did a triathlon a couple of years ago. But its really for all the SEALs.

Sundays swim will be the first expansion west of the Tampa Bay Frogman Swim, which has taken place every year in Florida since 2010.

The concept was born when a high school student asked local journalist Terry Tomalin how to train for applying for the SEALs, and Tomalin  who had not served in the military, but edited an outdoors section  took him on a bracing swim across Tampa Bay. A Navy commander heard of the workout, and suggested they turn it into a fundraiser for a SEAL officer who had just lost both legs in Afghanistan.

I swam in that very first one, and its grown like crazy ever since, said Rory OConnor, a 50-year-old former SEAL who now co-chairs the frogman swim. The 3.1-mile Florida event happens every January, pulls in 175 swimmers, and is so popular that this years was booked up within 12 minutes of applications going online. To date, it has raised $2.5 million.

OConnor flew to San Francisco this week to help with Sundays swim in conjunction with local coordinators including Ryan Nelson of the South End Rowing Club. Anyone can sign up  if they can handle open-water waves and water temperatures of 60 degrees or colder, which is a stiff challenge even with the wet suits everyone is being advised to wear.

Swimmers will take off at 8:30 a.m. from Kirby Cove, just west of the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Keeping fairly near the shoreline, theyll stroke under the bridge for the 1.5 miles it takes to get to Horseshoe Cove at Fort Baker. The route takes about an hour.

We certainly do have veterans who swim, but the lions share of our swimmers are not vets, OConnor said. Its not a race  its a safe event, and its about honoring the SEALs. If someone is just coming to show off, find another event.

Applicants can register online at the events website, and they are asked to find donors to pitch in to support their swim for a total of as much as $2,500 per swimmer. Check-in for the swim starts at 6 a.m. at Horseshoe Cove, and participants will be taken by boat to the starting spot in Kirby Cove.

Its not all just splashing in the waves, though. Before anyone dives in, there will be an opening ceremony at 7:15 a.m., during which the names of the 116 warriors in the Naval Special Warfare arm of the military  which includes SEALs  who have been killed since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, will be read aloud.

Thats a lot of fallen, especially considering the SEAL community (members on active duty) is only 2,500, OConnor said. Its a big price.

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron
The San Francisco Police Department will be stepping up patrols around Dolores Park over the weekend in the wake of a spasm of gun violence Thursday afternoon that left three people wounded and nearby residents deeply rattled.

Law enforcement officials said Friday that they are working to identify as many as five suspects in connection with the shooting, which erupted in broad daylight as the popular park was teeming with people.

Investigators are also looking into whether the shootings were gang-related. Officer Giselle Talkoff, a police spokeswoman, said the citys gang task force was trying to determine what the connection is between the victims and the suspects, adding that the attack did not appear random.

We believe it was targeted, she said. We want to reassure the public in that sense.

Investigators were also reviewing surveillance video, and have asked for the publics assistance in collecting more in an effort to identify suspects.

Two videos captured from a nearby residents security camera were reviewed by The Chronicle and turned over to police by the homeowner. The footage shows what could be two getaway cars speeding away from the park moments after the gunfire.

Audio on one of the videos also captured what sounded like nine gunshots in quick succession, and then another moments later.

Police and witnesses said the attack occurred after a confrontation between two groups of people on a pedestrian bridge that leads into the park from the corner of Church and 19th Streets.

The three victims were two men, ages 69 and 37, and a 16-year-old boy. Their identities have not been released, but one remained in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital as of Friday afternoon. Another victim was still hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and the third was treated and discharged Thursday.

Rising levels of gang-related activity at Dolores Park appear to have been on the police departments radar for some time. Celeste Oberfest, who lives near the park, said a police lieutenant recently spoke to her neighborhoods safety group and mentioned seeing an uptick in gang activity around the park since the beginning of the year.

The lieutenant was very forthcoming about the challenges they face in our neighborhood, Oberfest said.

A recent spate of violence has shaken many of those who live near Dolores Park, which, especially on warm, sunny days, can draw crowds of thousands.

Thursdays triple shooting was acutely unnerving to John Beauparlant, who also lives near the park and walks dogs for a living there. He was walking a dog in the park minutes before gunfire cut through the air. He said he feels lucky to have avoided being harmed in the attack.

This is a place that I always said was so serene and so mellow  and sure enough, thats been shattered, he said.

The specter of a rising tide of gang activity in the park, Beauparlant said, also has him worried about retaliatory attacks born out of the shootings Thursday.

Innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire, he said.

In response to the shootings, Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, whose District Eight includes Dolores Park, has called for a community meeting on Aug. 21 to discuss safety issues in the park in response to the shooting. The location and time of the meeting have yet to be determined.

We have to do everything we can to keep Dolores Park safe for families, visitors and neighbors, Sheehy said in a statement Friday. This incident demands a top-to-bottom review of Dolores Park operations and a community process on how to make things better.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
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GUADALAJARA, Mexico  With his frequent refrains about Mexicans and the need for a wall to contain them, it is no surprise that President Trump has made few friends in Mexico.

Yet here in the capital of Jalisco state, sometimes referred to as Mexicos Silicon Valley, people are practically celebrating him.

Hes helping us a lot! Gov. Aristoteles Sandoval exclaimed. Hes put us on the worlds agenda.

As part of Trumps efforts to push an America-first philosophy, he has vowed to restrict the availability of special visas that are widely used by technology companies to hire talent from around the world.

Trumps plans, combined with a U.S. political climate that has left many immigrants feeling less welcome, has cast a pall of uncertainty over the U.S. tech industry, which relies heavily on highly skilled workers from abroad.

But while entrepreneurs and executives in the United States are fretting, other countries  including Mexico, Canada and China  are salivating over the Trump administrations rumblings. Silicon Valleys loss, they say, could be their gain.

In recent months, foreign governments and tech industry leaders have sought to capitalize on the uncertainty in Silicon Valley. They are stepping up their efforts to attract engineers and entrepreneurs who might rely on the special U.S. visa program, known as H-1B, to work or to run businesses in the United States.

Its an exciting time, said Brad Duguid, the minister of economic development in Ontario, where Toronto is one of Canadas biggest tech hubs. And while its unfortunate that the U.S. is looking more internally, far be it from us not to take advantage of that.

In June, Canada set up a visa program that makes it easier for companies to recruit highly skilled foreign workers. Under the program, which was in development before Trumps election victory, the Canadian government has promised to approve two-year visas in less than two weeks  blindingly fast compared with the process in the United States.

And unlike the H-1B visa in the United States, there is no limit to the number of visas available.

Beyond that, Ontario is in the early stages of preparing a social media campaign for technology executives around the world to sell the province as a place for investment.

Canada is seizing its moment, said Navdeep Singh Bains, the countrys federal minister of innovation, science and economic development. Were open to trade and people.

In Mexico, states with growing regional tech hubs, like Jalisco, have been redoubling their efforts to attract talent and investment in recent months, peddling a philosophy of openness that departs from what Sandoval called Trumps xenophobia and lack of global vision.

The efforts have included visits by Jalisco officials to the Bay Area and to Europe. The Chronicle published an opinion piece by Sandoval pitching the advantages of doing business in his state.

The officials herald Mexicos proximity to Silicon Valley, its alignment with time zones in the United States and its lower cost of living. They are also sweetening the invitation with enticements like tax incentives and promises of full government cooperation.

Chinas tech leaders have also been seizing the opportunity created by Trumps immigration policies.

Wang Huiyao, founder and president of the Center for China and Globalization, a research group in Beijing, said Trumps America First doctrine was a boon for Chinas efforts to attract foreign tech talent and persuade Chinese engineers working abroad to return home.

China is shifting from attracting foreign capital to foreign talent, Wang said. The U.S. is losing out.

In an executive order this spring, Trump directed federal agencies to review immigration laws with an eye toward ending what he called the theft of American prosperity.

The president has taken particular aim at the H-1B visa program, under which the government admits 85,000 highly skilled foreign workers every year, most of them in tech.

Trump says businesses use the program to avoid hiring higher-paid Americans, and his executive order instructed the agencies to ensure that visas were awarded to the most skilled, best-paid immigrant workers.

Disney, Toys R Us, Southern California Edison and New York Life are among the companies that have laid off U.S. tech workers who first were asked to train their replacements  tech workers from low-wage countries like India brought in on temporary visas. In some cases, the jobs themselves went back home with the new workers.

Canada revised its temporary visa program partly because the Royal Bank of Canada, the countrys largest financial institution, shuffled jobs overseas using that technique.

Trumps executive order made no immediate changes, but it has sowed concern throughout the industry. Competition for H-1B visas was already intense. The government received 199,000 applications in the first five days of its lottery this year, then stopped accepting them. Many companies fear that Trumps efforts might put highly skilled immigrant workers even further out of their reach.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

A change could favor the biggest U.S. tech companies, which tend to pay the highest wages. But it could hurt some of the biggest users of the H-1B program  the outsourcing companies, including several from India  that bring thousands of workers to the United States on lower wages to handle computing tasks for banks, health care companies and other firms.

It could also hurt startups and smaller firms without the cash to compete on salaries.

Adding to the uncertainty, the Trump administration said last month that it would delay, and perhaps eliminate, an Obama-era rule allowing thousands of foreign entrepreneurs to move to the United States every year to build startups.

People here are extremely nervous, said Andreas Kraemer, managing partner of MITA Ventures, a San Francisco venture capital firm. This whole area is driven by immigration.

Leon David Perez, president of Propulsar, a Mexico City company that develops tech startups and has an office in San Francisco, argued that Trumps policies could jeopardize Silicon Valleys culture of creativity.

When you want to spur innovation, the best way to generate it is to employ the greatest diversity of people, he said. Thats whats being threatened with Trumps policies.

The uncertainty in Silicon Valley  combined with the invitations from around the world  have already begun to lead some tech companies and entrepreneurs to rethink the valleys gravitational pull.

Business interest in Jalisco has soared since Trumps election, leaders in the states tech sector contend. Trumps immigration policies, said Jaime Reyes Robles, Jaliscos secretary of innovation, science and technology, have been our best marketing.

In 2003, Manuel Gutierrez Novelo, a Mexican engineer, moved to Silicon Valley to develop TDVision Systems, a company specializing in 3-D technology. He went on to develop a multipronged operation based in California, with offices in Europe and Asia.

But in recent weeks, he uprooted his businesses and moved them back to Guadalajara, his hometown. Trumps efforts to restrict immigration were a big reason, he said, calling them anathema to his companys philosophy and a potential barrier to hiring foreign workers.

If I saw Donald Trump, Id tell him he has lost my business, he said.

Kirk Semple and Ian Austen are New York Times writers.
Parties agree to endorse HPE Bill in a week

Top leaders of major parties on Friday agreed to endorse the Health Profession Education (HPE) Bill, which is in Parliament since September last year, within a week.
Bill Daitchman got some bad news this week: His insurer is breaking up with him.

Daitchman and his wife, who own a graphic design business in Santa Cruz County, each pay $350 a month for a health insurance plan from Anthem Blue Cross on the Covered California exchange. But Anthem announced this week that it will pull out of most of the states individual markets, including most of the Bay Area, citing the uncertainty swirling around the Affordable Care Act.

And that vexes Daitchman, 59. First, theres the possibility that a new insurer will charge more for coverage. Second, he has kidney disease. Will he lose the doctors who know him and his needs? Hes especially reliant on the nephrologist hes seen since 2006.

Invariably when you lose policies, you lose those relationships, said Daitchman. You get whats available at that point. You get the doctors they offer.

The move by Anthem, the nations second-largest health insurer, means about 153,000 Californians like Daitchman, who buy insurance on the California exchange, must look for new plans for 2018. Thats more than 10 percent of Covered Californias total enrollment of 1.4 million. Fewer than half of Anthem policyholders on the exchange  about 108,000 customers in the California marketplace  will be able to renew their Anthem policies.

The insurers decision marks a significant turnabout.

Anthem led the state exchange in enrollment during its first two years, starting in 2014 with 30 percent of enrollees. Now, its share of the market has dwindled to 19 percent, state officials said Tuesday, and that could plummet to single digits next year as exchange policies are canceled.

Anthem had long sold policies across the state, from large markets such as Los Angeles to rural, mountainous counties like Inyo and Mono, which often had few insurers to choose from.

But next year, Anthem will sell to individuals in only about half of Californias counties, including San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Tulare and most of the region north of Sacramento up to the Oregon border. Many of these markets are the least populous, limiting the insurers financial risk. It is pulling out of all Bay Area counties except Santa Clara.

This was not an easy decision for us, Brian Ternan, president of Anthem Blue Cross in California, said in a message posted online.

The market for these plans has become unstable, Ternan wrote. And with federal rules and guidance changing, its no longer possible for us to offer some of those plans.

In an email, company spokesman Tony Felts explained that planning and pricing affordable health plans has become increasingly difficult amid uncertainty about such things as the availability of cost-sharing subsidies for low-income marketplace enrollees.

Anthems pullback also affects approximately 144,000 individual policyholders outside the state exchange, who will have to find new plans next year  unless they were grandfathered into a plan they bought before the Affordable Care Act was implemented. But the retreat does not touch the companys other insurance customers, such as people with Medi-Cal, Medicare or plans through an employer.

Many Wall Street analysts and investors cheered Anthems retreat in California. Ana Gupte, a health care analyst at Leerink Partners, said these surgical extractions minimize the risk that potential losses from exchange plans drag down profit. Big insurers also sense more opportunity and growth in other government markets, such as Medicaid managed care and Medicare Advantage plans.

Kathy Hempstead, director of health coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said even well-functioning state exchanges like Californias are not immune from the contentious debate over the federal health law.

In general, the national commercial carriers have all but completely left the market for Affordable Care Act individual policies this year, she said. The returns are not that great, and they have better opportunities elsewhere.

Anthems two biggest competitors, UnitedHealth and Aetna, had already announced their exits from most Affordable Care Act marketplaces nationwide.

Anthem has been making similar moves in other states. The company has already announced it will exit the Affordable Care Act exchanges next year in Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, three of the 14 states where it sells exchange plans. The insurer also plans to reduce its exchange presence in Nevada.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Even with Anthems retrenchment in California, the state will remain more competitive than many others. For 2018, Covered California said, more than 82 percent of consumers will have more than three plans to choose from, and 96 percent will have at least two insurers to pick from.

Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said the state exchange played a very active role in encouraging Anthem to stay in three of Californias 19 insurance regions.

Lee emphasized that Californias marketplace is still viable and competitive, with all 11 insurance carriers this year set to participate next year, if not to the same extent as before.

Covered California staff members will help Anthem enrollees find new plans, Lee said, and some may be able to keep their doctors. Eighty-four percent of Anthems providers are available through other insurance products, he said.

Robert Laszewski, a Virginia health care consultant, said Anthem is turning its back on longtime customers in California and other key states, despite making repeated commitments to regulators over the years about its staying power.

Its all quite puzzling, he said. If Anthem was under financial stress and needed to do it that would be one thing. But they are making incredible amounts of money.

Last month, Anthem reported a second-quarter profit of $855.3 million, up 10 percent over the same period a year ago.

Pauline Bartolone, Anna Gorman and Chad Terhune are correspondents with California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation produced by Kaiser Health News (which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente). Email: pbartolone@kff.org, agorman@kff.org, cterhune@kff.org Twitter: @pbartolone, @AnnaGorman, @chadterhune
Wells Fargo & Co., reeling from a scandal over fake accounts that erupted in September, said its expanding a review that could lead to the bank finding significantly more cases.

The San Francisco banks reasonably possible legal charges could surpass its reserves by $3.3 billion as of June 30, up from an estimate of $2 billion at the end of March, the lender said in a regulatory filing Friday. The company also disclosed a new investigation into a separate matter by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The board of directors is also reviewing its own structure, composition and practices, which will lead to actions announced this quarter, according to a separate statement from CEO Tim Sloan.

The consumer bureau is looking at whether consumers were unduly harmed by the bank freezing and closing accounts that had suspected fraudulent activity.

Also on Friday, Wells Fargo settled an 11-year-old lawsuit with the U.S. government that claimed the lender overcharged veterans under a federal mortgage-refinancing program.

The bank will pay $108 million to the government to resolve allegations that some loans it made under a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs program shouldnt have been eligible for guarantees by the agency, Wells Fargo said. It denies the allegations in the lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2006 by two mortgage brokers.

Wells Fargo and other banks were accused of defrauding veterans and the U.S. out of millions of dollars under a loan refinancing program. The lenders allegedly overcharged veterans and concealed their conduct from the government to obtain guarantees for the loans, according to filings. Most of the banks have settled the lawsuits.

Wells Fargo has been struggling with scandals in its consumer bank over the past 11 months, beginning with revelations in September that its employees may have created millions of fake accounts without customers knowledge. In July, it said it may have pushed thousands of car buyers into loan defaults and repossessions by charging them for unwanted insurance.

Laura J. Keller is a Bloomberg writer. Email: lkeller22@bloomberg.net
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One of two men charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland had his request to be released on his own recognizance denied on Friday, but a judge lowered his bail by $330,000.

Derick Almena, 47, who was the master tenant of the Fruitvale neighborhood warehouse, appeared briefly before Judge Kevin Murphy in Alameda County Superior Court. His attorneys asked that his bail of $1.08 million be eliminated so he could be released from the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, where he has been held since June.

Though the judge did not grant the request, he did lower Almenas bail to $750,000.

Almenas co-defendant, Max Harris, who also appeared in court on Friday, made a similar request last month and was also rejected. Like Almena, his bail was also lowered to $750,000, which he has been unable to raise.

Prosecutors say Almena illegally converted the warehouse on 31st Avenue into a live-work artist collective, using makeshift materials and a tangle of electrical wires that turned the building into a deathtrap. They also said Harris blocked an exit on the night of the Dec. 2 fire  a claim his attorneys have denied.

We feel that really the bail issue became ultimately a pre-conviction punishment. We feel very frustrated and angry. We will take it obviously to the next step, said Tony Serra, Almenas attorney. We do extend to the family of the victims our utmost compassion and sympathy. Obviously, their loss is a disaster, but thats not a reason to impose punitive bail.

Almena and Harris were scheduled to enter pleas on Friday, but the hearing was postponed until Sept. 13 to give their lawyers more time to review discovery evidence in the case.

Serra said he plans to meet with people next week who are willing to put up equity and property to secure Almenas bail.

Sam Geller, an attorney for Harris, said that his office is working to organize an event to raise money for Harris bail.

Before Judge Murphy denied Almenas release on his own recognizance, another lawyer for Almena, Jeffrey Krasnoff, told the judge his client is not a flight risk, has deep ties to Alameda County and referenced character letters from supporters that had been submitted to the court beforehand.

Almenas wife, Micah Allison, sat in the court gallery with nearly 10 friends who had come to show their support.

Prosecutors argued that the high bail was necessary to ensure Almena, who was living with his family in Lake County prior to his arrest, will show up in court for trial.

Also in the courtroom on Friday were Kim and David Gregory, the parents of Michela Gregory, one of the 36 people who died in the inferno during an unpermitted music event.

We are very pleased that (Almena and Harris) will not be coming home to their families, said Mary Alexander, an attorney for the Gregory family. These young people who lost their lives will never come home to their families. Because they lost their lives, we think that its right and fair and just that these two defendants remain in jail.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Jury selection could begin within weeks in the San Francisco murder case that sparked a national debate over immigration policies, with the case moving a step closer to trial Friday.

More than two years after 32-year-old Kate Steinle was shot on Pier 14 by a Mexican citizen who had been wanted for deportation by federal agents, the case was assigned to Superior Court Judge Samuel Feng, who is expected to preside over pretrial legal motions Monday. No trial date has been set.

Steinle was strolling with her arm around her father when a bullet pierced her back on July 1, 2015. Police arrested Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, 54, who admitted to handling the gun that fired the round.

The gun had been stolen from a Bureau of Land Management rangers car four days earlier in the city, and Lopez Sanchez, who was homeless, said he found the weapon wrapped in a T-shirt under a bench. His attorneys say the shooting was an accident, but prosecutors say he committed murder because he either aimed the gun at Steinle or recklessly fired the weapon in a crowded area.

Lopez Sanchez had been on track for a sixth deportation after serving 46 months in prison for felony re-entry into the country, but was released from the San Francisco jail before the shooting, rather than being turned over to immigration agents, under the citys sanctuary policies.

He had been transferred from federal custody to the city jail in March 2015 on an old warrant alleging he fled marijuana charges in 1995. When prosecutors discharged the case, the Sheriffs Department released him despite a federal request to hold him for deportation.

Lopez Sanchezs public defender, Matt Gonzalez, said jury selection could prove difficult because of the publicity around the case. But he believes his client will be able to obtain a fair trial.

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Its expected that the people of San Francisco will have heard of this case and will have read about it, he said. I dont think that makes you ineligible to be a juror. I think the real question is whether or not those jurors havent read so much information that their mind is made up, that they cant re-evaluate the facts of the case.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo
A Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford employee wanted in the stabbing death of a Chicago man were arrested in the Bay Area and will be returned to Chicago for interrogation, federal and Chicago-area authorities said Friday.

Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren were in custody in Oakland, a Chicago police spokesman said.
More for you After triple shooting, Dolores Park neighbors are fed up with violence, drug use and partying

As two of the three victims wounded in Thursdays shooting at Dolores Park in San Francisco remained hospitalized on Friday, police were looking for up to five assailants in what they are calling a targeted attack motivated by possible gang affiliation.

Were looking into that as a reason for the incident, said Officer Robert Rueca, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department. We believe it to be a targeted event.
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As President Trump calls for reinstatement of a ban on transgender military service  a ban his predecessor repealed a year ago  another large institution, the California prison system, is going through a court-supervised overhaul of policies on gender identity.

Having complied with a federal judges order to allow the nations first sex-reassignment operation for a prisoner, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is now struggling to implement new rules for hundreds of transgender inmates  the clothing they are issued, the medical care they receive and the prisons to which they are assigned.

The rules also require guards and other prison staff to undergo training on how to communicate professionally with inmates, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and how to conduct pat-down searches.

State officials say the California prison system is a national trailblazer that can implement reforms and set boundaries itself, without further judicial intervention. Management of the institutions and their inmates is a proper subject of prison officials day-to-day judgment, with transgender rights limited by legitimate safety and security concerns, state lawyers said in federal court filings.

But Flor Bermudez, legal director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco, which has sued the state over its treatment of transgender prisoners, said progress has been uneven.

The prisons, under court order, have eased their restrictions on medical treatment and gender-specific clothing, Bermudez said, but the attitudes have not changed. Judging from letters her organization continues to receive from inmates, she said, the treatment and the cultural competence of people (on the prison staff) have not changed much either.

Californias prisons, with a confined population of 126,000, are clearly a different institution than the 1.3 million-member, all-volunteer U.S. military. But Trumps call to ban thousands of current service members has raised some of the same attitudinal issues as in the prison debates, in particular labeling a socially marginalized subgroup of citizens as the other.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, the president declared July 26 in a series of early morning tweets.

A year earlier, a Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Defense Department under President Barack Obama had found exactly the opposite: that available evidence, including the experiences of 18 nations that allow transgender military service, resulted in minimal cost and no harm to military effectiveness.

Obama released the study in support of his decision to allow transgender people already in the military to serve openly, while scheduling the ban on transgender enlistment to expire in July. The Rand Corp. has estimated the number of transgender U.S. service members at between 1,300 and 6,000, while another survey by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School puts the total as high as 15,000.

A similar population ratio can be found in California prisons. As of the end of March, 527 transgender inmates were receiving doctor-approved hormonal treatment, according to the court-appointed receivers office that supervises prison health care. A larger, unspecified number of prisoners are classified as transgender by the prison system, which includes those who self-identify and those diagnosed by physicians.

Under the prisons new rules, transgender inmates are entitled to clothing appropriate to their gender, can shower separately, and must have their privacy respected, with searches conducted by a guard of the same gender.

They can also ask a prison committee to be transferred to a prison for inmates of their gender, and  with their treating physicians approval  for sex-reassignment surgery. But such requests have been almost uniformly rejected.

Only inmates who have already undergone the surgery  including Shiloh Quine, who in January became the first in the United States to have such an operation while in prison custody  have been housed in an institution of their chosen gender. The others remain where they were originally assigned.

A male inmate can identify as a woman, but that doesnt necessitate that we will move that individual to a womens prison, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The issue hits home for Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, a former prisoner who had been receiving doctor-approved hormonal treatment in custody when she was gang-raped by nine fellow inmates at a mens prison in 2009.

I would go to the doctor and Im Michelle, with the right pronouns, Norsworthy, now 53, said in an interview in San Francisco, where she has lived since her parole in 2015. I walked out of the door and into the yard to have all that undone.

Likewise with prison staff, she said, every day I had to struggle with being called a dude, a man, sir. They would constantly remind me that my name was Jeffrey, that I was born someones son.

Thornton said the recent staff training sessions have included instruction on how to address trans people. We have trans employees, too.

Norsworthys doctors recommended sex-reassignment surgery in 2012, but prison officials resisted until U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of San Francisco ruled that they were violating her right to medical treatment. Before her surgery could be scheduled, however, the state parole board, which had repeatedly turned her down in the past, approved her release after 28 years of imprisonment for second-degree murder.

Norsworthy had the surgery on Medi-Cal after her release. Ive joined the human race, she said.

Meanwhile, Quine, still serving a murder sentence, underwent her historic surgery in January, funded by the prison system, under provisions of Tigars ruling that required the prisons to set standards for approving the procedure.

But Bermudez, of the Transgender Law Center, said the prisons seem to be disregarding those standards. Based on letters the center has received from inmates, she said, 58 have requested the surgery and only two, besides Quine, have been approved.

And an ongoing court case indicates the prison system also has been reluctant to provide womens apparel to female transgender inmates in mens prisons. (Its clear from the court ruling.)

Womens pajamas, nightgowns, robes and scarves are forbidden under the prisons new rules, because they can be altered to resemble street clothing and used in escape attempts. Bracelets, earrings, hairbrushes and hair clips are off-limits because they can be taken apart to make weapons, or, in the case of bracelets, used as currency for illicit gambling.

Tigar rejected those justifications in an April 28 ruling, noting that male inmates can purchase other street clothing items, such as sweatpants and ponchos. Earrings and other ornaments, Tigar said, can be made of plastic or other safe materials. Bracelets, he noted, are allowed in womens prisons in California.

The state is appealing his decision.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday that the Justice Department has more than tripled the number of leak investigations compared with the number that were ongoing at the end of the last administration, offering the first public confirmation of the breadth of the department's efforts to crack down on unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information.

The announcement seemed designed both to reassure the president, who has criticized the attorney general of being "weak" on leak investigations, and to scare government officials away from talking to reporters about sensitive matters.

Sessions said he was devoting more resources to stamping out unauthorized disclosures, directing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray to actively monitor every investigation, instructing the department's national security division and U.S. attorneys to prioritize such cases, and creating a new counterintelligence unit in the FBI to manage the work.

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Sessions also said he was reviewing the Justice Department's policy on issuing subpoenas to reporters.

"This culture of leaking must stop," Sessions said.

President Donald Trump has complained vociferously about unauthorized disclosures of information, particularly when the leaks result in stories that are unflattering to the administration. Many Republicans have argued that the issue deserves as much attention as the investigation into whether Trump's campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election.

Sessions, too, has said previously that illegal leaks are "extraordinarily damaging to the United States' security" and confirmed that such disclosures were already resulting in investigations. Last week, though, Trump wrote on Twitter that his attorney general had "taken a VERY weak position" on "Intel leakers."

The attorney general did not specify the raw numbers by which leak probes had tripled. The Obama administration initially pursued such cases in historic numbers but grew more averse over time. Officials have said that since the start of the Trump administration, authorities have approved more than half a dozen leak probes and more are expected.

Rosenstein refused to rule out the possibility that journalists would be prosecuted, saying, "I'm not going to comment on any hypotheticals."

It has long been Justice Department practice in leak probes to try to avoid investigating journalists directly to find their sources. In 2014, then-Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said that as long as he was heading the Justice Department, "no reporter is going to go to jail for doing his or her job."

The policy instead has been for investigators to first focus on government employees who may be responsible for leaking. In some cases, when the scrutiny of employees has been exhausted, senior Justice Department officials may authorize investigations of journalists, possibly by examining their phone records.

As a result, leak investigations are often slow moving, and many never lead to charges. Within the FBI and the Justice Department, agents and prosecutors who handle leak cases have long argued that if they could investigate journalists earlier and more aggressively, they could be more successful in prosecuting leak cases.

"We are reviewing the entire process of how we conduct media leak investigations by responding to issues that have been raised by our career prosecutors and agents," Rosenstein said. "We're taking basically a fresh look at it. . . . We don't know yet what, if any, changes we want to make, but we are taking a fresh look."

Sessions said that the Justice Department must "balance the press's role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in the intelligence community, the armed services and all law-abiding Americans."

Prosecutors in the Obama era brought nine leak cases, more than during all previous administrations combined, and in the process called a reporter a criminal "co-conspirator" and secretly went after journalists' phone records in a bid to identify reporters' sources. Prosecutors also sought to compel a reporter to testify and identify a source, though they ultimately backed down from that effort.

Holder issued updates in 2015 to the department's policy on obtaining information from members of the news media, after his Justice Department came under fire for the tactics prosecutors used in bringing such cases.

Sessions made his announcement Friday in the Justice Department's seventh-floor conference room with Rosenstein, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, and National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina. Conspicuously absent were representatives from the FBI, which generally investigates leaks. Rosenstein said that was probably because Wray had just started his job as director of the bureau this week.

Coats said the hunt for reporters' sources would go well beyond the intelligence agencies. "These national security breaches do not just originate in the intelligence community. They come from a wide range of sources within the government, including the executive branch and including the Congress," he said.

Sessions said that in the first six months of this year, the Justice Department received nearly as many criminal referrals involving unauthorized disclosures of classified information as it had received in the past three years combined. Though he did not say if it had resulted in a criminal referral, Sessions cited in particular a recent disclosure to The Washington Post of transcripts of Trump conversations with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

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Sessions said prosecutors had charged four people with making unauthorized disclosures of classified information or concealing contacts with foreign officers. Most of the cases did not involve journalists.

So far, the Justice Department under Sessions has publicly announced charges in just one leak case related to the media. Reality Leigh Winner, a 25-year-old government contractor, was charged in June with mishandling classified information after authorities said she gave a top-secret National Security Agency document to a news organization.

A Justice Department spokesman said that when Sessions mentioned four people who had been charged, he was referring to Winner; Candace Marie Claiborne, a State Department employee charged with concealing her contacts with foreign intelligence agents; Kevin Patrick Mallory, a former CIA officer accused of selling information to China; and Harold Martin III, a federal contractor suspected of stealing a massive amount of classified information. Martin was arrested during the Obama administration, though he was indicted in February.

Several prominent conservatives lauded Sessions's announcement, while open-government and free press groups said it was worrisome. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said it would "strongly oppose" revising department guidelines on issuing subpoenas to reporters, and Danielle Brian, executive director at the Project on Government Oversight, said leak investigations might inappropriately target well-intentioned whistleblowers.

"Whistleblowers are the nation's first line of defense against fraud, waste, abuse, and illegality within the federal government, the last thing this administration wants to do is to deter whistleblowing in an effort to stymie leaks," Brian said in a statement.

Leak cases are difficult to prove and prosecute, and they almost always come with political controversy - especially when the leaks involve providing information to reporters that is arguably in the public interest.

Trump's presidency has been dogged by a steady stream of information given to reporters by anonymous sources, though not all of those disclosures have involved classified information and many were probably not illegal.

Trump, for example, has complained that former FBI director James Comey's decision to engineer a leak about a conversation he had with the president was illegal, when legal analysts say that is probably not the case.

Comey has conceded that he told a friend to give a reporter information about a request from the president that Comey shut down the bureau's probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. But he said he did not share classified material.

Prosecutors can bring charges against people for sharing information with the public only when classified or other national security material is at issue. Material cannot be classified to conceal legal violations or prevent embarrassment, according to an executive order from President Barack Obama.
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The first time Alana ONeal ate a Charentais melon, she was 19 years old in the South of France, holed up in a dorm room with her college roommates. Years later, ONeal describes the initial bite as the first time she ever truly tasted a piece of fresh fruit.

Granted, a 19-year-old in search of new experiences and living abroad with friends for the first time may be prone to romanticizing a moment, which ONeal admits, but there was something more to the flavor.

I grew up around good food, but this melon, Id never tasted anything like that before in my life, she says.

If all goes as planned, ONeal will open Les Arceaux (pronounced lez-ar-so) with business partner Mikha Diaz, in mid-September in Berkeleys former Bistro Liaison space (1849 Shattuck Ave.). ONeal tells Scoop the team hopes to be running by the week of Sept. 11.

Les Arceaux is a love letter to ONeals feelings after that first bite of melon.

Its only been a few months since Diaz and ONeal shuttered Two Sisters after five years in Hayes Valley. The neighborhood is still fertile ground for notable new restaurant and bar projects, but the duo lives in the East Bay. A half-decade in, they said they were tired of the daily commute.

Its all about striking a work-life balance, they said. Plus, theyre familiar with the Berkeley food crowd.

People also have really good palates in Berkeley. They like food out here and theyll totally dork out with you. They get excited about the small details, Diaz says.

Intimacy is a big theme in the Diaz and ONeal project. The 40-seat Les Arceaux interior spans one-third of the 1,700-square-foot restaurant space. The rest is dedicated to production and prep for services and their catering program. About a dozen more seats are available on the Les Arceaux patio facing Hearst Avenue.

Diaz said aesthetically, Les Arceaux is going to have warm accents and earth tones evident in the cherry wood bar top contrasting a white, tin bar face. Light fixtures will have muted brass finishes and the concrete floor is stained to match the restaurants overall color scheme.

Were encouraging people to take that little pause and notice the lovely things. It doesnt have to be a long pause, but we want you to just relax and notice things, Diaz says.

As for the menu, it isnt solely based on South of France recipes, but the food does have French influences. The region shaped ONeals food sensibilities so there are subtle homages and a few imported ingredients.

The restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner along with a happy hour. The menus are set, but the prices are still being adjusted, Diaz says.

In the morning, parfaits and pastries will be around $3 to $4 while larger dishes like pancakes or breakfast sandwiches are about $12. Lunch items are between $6 and $15 with a nicoise salad with tuna confit and mustard-chicken panini among the offerings.

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Small dinner plates of crostini and fried socca batons are around $9. The more substantial plates are $20 to $30.

Its worth noting for the fans of Two Sisters that Les Arceaux will not have a full bar. Instead, theres a spritz component with offerings ($11-$13) like the Spagliato Balsamico made with house balsamic vinegar, dried cherry, pink peppercorn vermouth, Campari and Lambrusco.

Diaz and ONeal left San Francisco for something more simple in Berkeley  opening a French-inspired restaurant and bar only miles from their homes and bolstered by support from their closest friends. And for ONeal, Les Arceauxs pending debut means shes one step closer to reliving the fleeting feeling she had while biting into a Charentais melon in the South of France.

The experience shaped my food sensibilities in a way I could never untangle, ONeal says. I want to convey that discovery I had to other people. Heres something youve seen a million times but this time, itll be like nothing youve ever had before.

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle food writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips
PM appoints Karki as IBN VC

Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has been appointed as the vice chairman of the Investment Board of Nepal (IBN), a government body formed to promote investment in the country.
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San Franciscans are known for their firmly entrenched viewpoints and their ability to defend them vigorously.

Uber is either a savior for those needing to zip quickly around town, or the devils spawn for its taxi-wrecking bro culture. The new Salesforce Tower is an inspiring symbol of the citys new place in the international economy or an unforgivable blight on the once-charming skyline.

Nuance is not exactly our strong suit.

But perhaps theres no greater test for San Francisco than homelessness. And, in particular, one homeless woman: Megan Doudney, who has been very publicly panhandling with her now-7-week-old daughter on Market Street.

Last weeks column about the shocking sight of Doudney holding her newborn while panhandling generated a huge, extremely polarized response.

Some readers said it was clear Doudney is a good mother, that nobody should judge her and that she should be left alone. Why is your criticism directed so strongly at Megan? one asked.

Really? Are we so live-and-let-live here in San Francisco that nobody should blink at the sight of a homeless newborn?

Other readers  they read the exact same story  said the baby should clearly be removed from Doudney and placed in foster care, and that the column was entirely sympathetic to her and that I was just another bleeding-heart liberal.

Really? It always strikes me as ironic that people on the conservative end of the spectrum say they want less government interference in our lives until it comes to intruding into the lives of people who are in situations they find unsavory.

Those opposite viewpoints are typical of how we discuss homelessness in San Francisco, and part of the reason its been such an intractable issue for so many years.

We should either allow the down-on-their-luck residents of tent camps to do whatever they want, including chop up stolen bicycles and cook over open flames, or we should lock them all up in jail.

We should allow huge tents to block sidewalks and bike paths, or we should ban everybody from sitting or lying on sidewalks. (That last one really did, incredibly, pass muster with voters back in 2010, and look how effective its been. The sidewalks are entirely clear! Oh wait ...)

Missing in this conversation is the complexity of solving an enormous societal problem and the complexity of homeless people themselves.

Most people view homeless people as angels or animals, and the truth  as with all human beings  lies in the middle, said Kara Zordel, CEO of Project Homeless Connect, a one-stop shop for homeless services.

Seeing a baby with a mother asking for help on Market Street should hit all of us in the gut, Zordel said. Not because we judge the mother, but because this doesnt represent who we are as the city of St. Francis.

Rose Broome  founder of HandUp, which crowdfunds for homeless individuals  agreed theres a false dichotomy.

Poverty is very ideological, she said. Its hard to get everybody on the same page and take a pragmatic, solutions-focused approach.

For those who would like a refresher, Doudney is from Nebraska and took a Greyhound bus here five years ago seeking medical marijuana for the chronic back pain that had led her to become hooked on opioids. She said she no longer uses hard-core drugs, though she does smoke cigarettes heavily.

She said she got pregnant before her boyfriend became abusive, and hes no longer in her life. She said she has struggled with depression and suicidal tendencies, but shes feeling better now.

At night, Doudney and her daughter sleep in a shelter run by Hamilton Families. But she says she needs extra money for diapers and other essentials, so she panhandles with her newborn. Passersby have called 911, and police have responded. The citys child welfare workers have determined the baby is healthy, and that theres no justification for removing her from her mother.

Doudney hasnt been hanging out at her usual location near Market and Third streets since the column ran last week, and some readers said they tried to bring her money or baby supplies but couldnt find her. I couldnt find her again either, but shes still sleeping at Hamilton.

Though city and Hamilton officials couldnt discuss her individual case for confidentiality reasons, its clear Doudney has other options than panhandling, and that she has been presented with them.

Leah Millis/The Chronicle

Asked whether all new mothers who enter Hamiltons shelter are told of how to obtain free day care, diapers, formula and other baby supplies, Tomiquia Moss, the agencys director, said, Absolutely.

Any mom who is receiving services from Hamilton is not only made aware of them, but those resources are provided immediately, Moss said. The challenge is that how folks access services is always up to them.

The city operates 500 permanent supportive housing units just for families, and another 500 will be built within five years. San Francisco also offers rent subsidies for homeless families and can connect them with jobs through the Human Services Agencys Jobs Now program.

Doudney, it seems, accepted a shelter bed, food and case management from Hamilton but nothing else. Moss, who once worked as a social worker in the Tenderloin, said thats common.

Id be having a case management session with one of my clients who was housed, and then Id go to the BART station and Id see them panhandling or sleeping on the street, and Id be like, Wait a minute. What is going on? she recalled.

Sometimes its out of habit, a desire to earn extra cash, the refusal to be inside all day or the feeling that panhandling means theyre working for the money rather than just getting a government handout, Moss said. It may not make sense to us, but its also not our choice to make.

Theres a lot of implicit bias in how we view this issue, especially in this town, Moss said. Its so volatile.

Jeff Kositsky, director of the citys Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, agreed the sight of a homeless newborn on Market Street is uncomfortable, but hes confident the city is making strides in helping moms like Doudney.

Theres always going to be situations that come up that are confounding, but what were focused on, is the city has a very real plan to dramatically reduce family homelessness, Kositsky said. In the city, approximately 55 percent of the homeless children under 18 are age 5 and younger, he added.

Surely we can all agree the fruition of that plan cannot come quickly enough.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

How to help S.F. homeless families

Here are places to donate money or baby supplies to help homeless mothers and their children in San Francisco.

Hamilton Families offers many creative ways to support homeless families, including putting together diaper bags at baby showers, donating Halloween costumes and organizing a fundraiser at a bar with your friends as guest bartenders. https://hamiltonfamilies.org/get-involved/ways-to-support

Compass Family Services takes monetary donations. www.compass-sf.org/donate

Homeless Prenatal can use money, baby clothes, maternity clothes, diapers, childrens books and other items. www.homelessprenatal.org/donate

Help a Mother Out accepts money and diapers, and encourages people to host their own diaper drives. www.helpamotherout.org
In a city proud of its counterculture history and progressive politics, a radical monument to rebellion has languished, uncared for and unloved, for most of its nearly 50-year existence.

The Vaillancourt Fountain is that cockeyed concrete tangle at the foot of Market Street on the edge of Justin Herman Plaza. The one that the late Chronicle architecture critic Allan Temko insisted must have been deposited by a concrete dog with square intestines. Art critic Alfred Frankenstein was far kinder, allowing that its very outrageousness and extravagance are part of its challenge.

There have been repeated calls for removal of the fountain over the years, all of which failed in the face of vigorous defense  not the least of which has come from sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, now 87. Meanwhile, pressure has lately grown to rename the plaza it dominates, given the grave errors of judgment of which Justin Herman has been accused. As that potential controversy heats up, it seems a good time to review the plazas most visible feature, and to consider its place in the citys heritage.

I was not at the unveiling of the Vaillancourt Fountain on April 21, 1971, but it happens that I was in San Francisco that spring, and the event was front-page news. There had been high-minded praise for the project: The noted landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, chief designer of the plaza and chairman of the jury that selected Canadian sculptor Vaillancourt, pronounced it the first great monumental fountain in America.

But there was dissent, as well: The great San Francisco sculptor Ruth Asawa, no foe of advanced art, lamented that the best that could be said for the work was that its 710-ton mass and 30,000-gallon-per-minute roaring output of water would blot out the despised Embarcadero Freeway (which had not yet succumbed to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake).

The opening was a zoo, with prominent speakers and noisy protesters competing for the attention of an audience of 2,000-3,000 freaks, hips, straights, uptights and strung-outs, The Chronicle said. The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art appeared on the dais, as did the then-director of UC Berkeleys art museum, Peter Selz, who had the honor of being the first to fall in.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

I came downtown to see what the fuss was about. By that time, Im pretty sure, the legend Quebec Libre had been removed. The artist  creator of numerous public sculptures with leftish political titles before and since  had stenciled the phrase in orange paint as he waded through the pool at the opening. The revolutionary impulse symbolized by that action seemed embodied and enlivened by his monumental work.

It was, after all, an officially commissioned public sculptural ensemble made to get wet in. It also seemed to me a deliberate poke in the eye of the burghers who ordered it up  an elaborate, ironic send-up of the monolithic freeway overpass.

By 1971, the idea that a work might require the participation of an audience to be complete was well ensconced in the contemporary art world. Happenings, the name used by artist Allan Kaprow beginning in the late 1950s for live-art projects that combined aspects of music, dance, theater and visual art, had by a decade later come into use throughout youth culture for all manner of cultural celebrations.

Such an approach to permanent public sculpture was new, however, and Vaillancourt went all in. Frankenstein got it. He reported:

There is a walkway of square steppingstones behind the principal jets, and following along it is like taking the famous walk behind Niagara Falls. But here you dont walk behind a single Niagara; you walk behind and around half a dozen, all pouring out their loads of water every which-way, with jets and little clouds of steam mixing in to complete the wet cave-like romanticism of the experience.

Eventually there will be big walls of water pouring over the concrete walls at the back: lights and sprays and other pyrotechnical effects are programmed into the fountain and will presumably be used. But the heart of the idea is the unique one of public entry into and intimate exploration of the fountains innards; in this it is unique and decidedly a success.

It is not a great work of sculpture, he concluded, which is like observing that an automobile is not much of a success as a horse.

I took a walk down Market Street recently to look again at the Vaillancourt Fountain. At the intersection with Battery Street, one passes the Mechanics Monument, a forceful tribute to labor by the great San Francisco sculptor and lover of men Douglas Tilden. It was originally erected, in 1901, as the center of a fountain, but the basin in which it stood was eliminated after the 1906 earthquake. The piece still stands at the same corner as an extraordinary work of art: gracefully modeled, righteous in intention. The pool, at best, was an attractive setting, likely not designed by the artist. The sculpture might even have been improved by bringing it closer to the viewer.

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If you squint, you might see in Vaillancourts work a reminder of the entwined forms of the Tilden monument, but the similarities stop there. The water is as essential to the one as it was superfluous to the other. Vaillancourt is a sprawling, lifeless skeleton in its current dry state, with a chain-link fence blocking the two sets of stairs that once allowed people to peer down into the roiling maelstrom below. The chain of island-like steppingstones that made visitors feel they were walking on water is now a gantlet of precarious pedestals several feet above a rock-hard floor. The site is littered with trash.

On my visit I happened upon two Recreation and Park Department workers tinkering with electrical wires, who told me it has been at least two years since the fountain was running. Thats just the latest of frequent extended dry spells.

Via email, I reached Rec and Park spokesman Elton Pon, who told me, Crews are making preparations this week to test the working condition of the fountain.  However, if, as expected, there are substantial capital costs beyond Rec and Parks or the Arts Commissions resources ... there are currently no plans to restore it.

There are many ways to destroy culture. The midcentury redevelopment czar and plaza namesake Justin Herman is being castigated, rightly, for the ignorance and de facto racism that led to displacement of families of color and the gutting of a significant part of San Franciscos material heritage. Erasing the memory of those mistakes will not recover what was lost. It could make it easier to fall again into the trap of arrogance.

Herman could not see that it is the life of a city that matters most, not the look of it. And we, perhaps, have yet to learn that it is the experience of works of art, not their raw components, that is of greatest value.

It makes little sense to spend money to add even a single new object to our civic art collection if we allow the virtual eradication, through neglect and obliviousness to its original intention, of our citys most visible public work. We are the heirs to a memorial that, encountered as it was designed to be, animates a moment in art and history that cannot be re-created. If our city agencies can understand that, their priorities should be as clear as the waters of a healthy Vaillancourt Fountain.

Charles Desmarais is The San Francisco Chronicles art critic. Email: cdesmarais@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Artguy1
Rosie in real life

At 55, the widowed Usha (Ratna Pathak-Shah) has morphed into one of those tough-as-nails matriarchs you mess with at your own peril.
Journalism has come under public scrutiny to a degree never experienced in my four decades in the profession. President Trump has assailed what he calls fake news and has attempted to delegitimize watchdog reporting with a vigor that makes President Richard Nixons efforts pale in comparison. The Washington Post and New York Times have engaged in one of the great newspaper wars of modern times in their determination to expose the administrations provable lies and suspected malfeasance.

Im often asked, through emails and at public appearances: How should Americans define real journalism and distinguish it from fake news? What are the standards of authentic journalism? As a purveyor and avid consumer of news, here are six areas to consider:

1. Leaks and anonymous sources

There may never be another Deep Throat if journalists are not allowed to protect the identity of their sources, a Republican congressman from Indiana told me in a July 2007 phone interview about legislation that would provide journalists with such a guarantee. His name is Mike Pence, now vice president in an administration that is near apoplectic about leaks.

Here is the reality: Many stories of government wrongdoing would simply not be possible without anonymous sources. Here is my standard: A journalist must measure the veracity and motivation of the source and  equally important  validate the disclosure through other means. Mainstream news organizations include these requirements and require an editor to know the identity and assess the credibility of the source before signing off on the story. In cases involving national security, major news organizations routinely give government officials an opportunity to flag details that might compromise intelligence or military operations.

As for the Trump White House suggestion that these anonymous leaks are somehow unfair or undermining the nations interest, consider how the mainstream media have exposed the duplicity of this administration. Would Americans really be better off not knowing what Trump told his Russian visitors behind closed doors about his firing of FBI Director James Comey ... or that the meeting that Donald Jr. had with the Russians was not pitched to talk adoptions but to offer a potentially illegal transfer of dirt about Hillary Clinton ... or that Trumps lawyer was flat-out wrong in claiming the president had nothing to do with drafting a misleading statement about the meeting? Just the other day, Americans learned  through a leaked transcript  that earlier reports of a contentious phone call between Trump and the Australian prime minister, which the president derided as fake news, were indeed accurate.

Our right to know what the people in power are doing sometimes requires the use of anonymous sources. Otherwise we are left at the mercy of so-called public servants willing to spin or invent the truth.

2. Blind quotes

While anonymous sources can be critical to supplying the facts of a story  whether securing documents or describing a behind-the-scenes meeting  I have an issue with unattributed quotes that amount to opinion or speculation. The Trump White House has been the target of many such blind quotes in his short tenure.

I cry foul: As a reader or viewer, I want to know which senior White House official said what and for what reason. The president himself has been known to ask that he be referred to as a senior administration official.

The use of blind quotes is epidemic in the national media. Ive seen it creep into our own news pages from time to time. Its especially troubling to see an unnamed source take a cheap shot at someone else. It only subtracts from our credibility with skeptical readers who are wondering what to believe.

3. On the record

As journalists, our role must always be to push news figures to stay on the record whenever possible. Our job is to represent our readers  and let them know what we know  rather than to ingratiate ourselves with the insider crowd. Sorry, Anthony Scaramucci, you should have known that the New Yorkers Ryan Lizza was our eyes and ears, not your sympathetic ear, when you went on that vulgar rant about your soon-not-to-be White House colleagues.

4. You tweet it, you own it

Some reporters and editors seem to think they get a free pass to express their personal opinions on social media about the people or issues they cover. They do not. Its a public forum. True professionalism requires a journalist to assiduously avoid even a perception of bias. If President Trump is held accountable for his tweets  as he should be  then so should we.

5. You are not the story

The big cable news clash of the week was CNN correspondent Jim Acostas alpha duel with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller about the meaning of the Statue of Liberty. Acosta crossed the line between asking questions and showboating, and Miller shot back with Scaramucci-grade musking  guaranteeing extended replays, with predictable conflicting outrage, on CNN and Fox News. It brought more heat than light, and a reminder to journalists everywhere: You are not the story.

6. Corrections and accountability

Perhaps the most telling distinction between real and fake news is an organizations commitment to acknowledge and correct its mistakes  and, if warranted, to elevate its standards to prevent a recurrence. CNN deserves credit for retracting what turned out to be a flawed story about a Senate investigation into an alleged meeting between a CEO of a Russian investment fund and a member of Trumps transition team (Scaramucci). Three CNN employees resigned after the story fell apart.

Less noble was the way Fox & Friends  in a segment trumpeted by its No. 1 fan, the president himself  recently hyperventilated over what turned out to be a false accusation that a New York Times story hindered the U.S. militarys attempt to kill a leader of the Islamic State group. Foxs fleeting clarification was easy to miss.

Authentic journalism requires a relentless and clear-eyed pursuit of truth, and accountability for the inadvertent but inevitable glitches along the way. Those qualities seem to be sorely missing from the Trump White House, which presents both a challenge and an opportunity for my profession.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnDiazChron
The Justice Departments newly announced crackdown on leaks has the distinct scent of political interference. President Trump has been hectoring Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in public and in private, to get tough in finding and punishing government employees who disclose information without authorization.

On Friday, Sessions pledged to deliver on the presidents wishes.

There were a number of disturbing elements of Sessions news conference, in which he announced an escalation of leak investigations that would include more resources, more aggressive criminal prosecutions against those who leak classified information, and a new counterintelligence unit within the Justice Department.

For one, history has shown that administrations often fail to distinguish between national security and political security (i.e., blocking revelations that expose embarrassing blunders or inconsistencies). Trump, in particular, regularly loses the distinction in condemning leaks of infighting and chaos within the White House.

Time and again, leaks that posed no threat to national security have revealed White House duplicity. The latest example came this week, when leaked transcripts of Trumps late January conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia were indeed every bit as contentious as news stories at the time characterized  articles the White House denounced as fake news. Stories based on anonymous sources also forced the White House to walk back its denial that the president helped craft a misleading statement about his son Donald Jr.s meeting with Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

The other highly unsettling announcement was that Sessions had opened a review of Justice Department guidelines for issuing subpoenas attempting to get journalists phone records in an attempt to identify confidential sources. The current policy, negotiated with the Obama administration after controversy over its overaggressive efforts, essentially allowed such a move after all other means have been exhausted  and after news organizations been given a chance to contest the demand in court.

Trump has also raised the issue of prosecuting journalists who publish or broadcast classified material. Sessions deflected a question on whether that was in his plans, saying he would not comment on hypotheticals.

The value of whistle-blowers and an unencumbered media to a democracy is not hypothetical. The history of government lies  throughout the Vietnam War, the malfeasance of Watergate and, more recently, the governments use of torture and illegal surveillance of Americans  all came to light only through anonymous sources.

The embattled Sessions, channeling the president who belittles him, is going down a dangerous path.
Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle 2016

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla blasted President Trumps plan to reduce legal immigration over the next decade as an unconscionable position to take and one that has no respect, frankly, for the history of our nation as a whole.

The bill proposed by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Sonny Perdue, R-Ga., and backed by President Trump would bar people from sponsoring siblings, parents and adult children who are citizens of other countries from immigrating to the U.S. and obtaining green cards, which confer legal residency status. They could still sponsor spouses and minor children.
Dawn Jewell recently treated a patient haunted by a car crash. The patient had developed acute anxiety over the cross streets where the crash occurred, unable to drive a route that carried so many painful memories.

So Jewell, a psychologist in Colorado, treated the patient through a technique called exposure therapy, providing emotional guidance as they revisited the intersection together.

But they did not physically return to the site. They revisited it through virtual reality.

Jewell is among a handful of psychologists testing a new service from a Palo Alto startup called Limbix that offers exposure therapy through Daydream View, the Google headset that works in tandem with a smartphone.

It provides exposure in a way that patients feel safe, she said. We can go to a location together, and the patient can tell me what theyre feeling and what theyre thinking.

The service re-creates outdoor locations by tapping into another Google product, Street View, a vast online database of photos that delivers panoramic scenes of roadways and other locations around the world. Using these virtual street scenes, Jewell has treated a second patient who struggled with anxiety after being injured by another person outside a local building.

The service is also designed to provide treatment in other ways, like taking patients to the top of a virtual skyscraper so they can face a fear of heights or to a virtual bar so they can address an alcohol addiction.

Backed by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, Limbix is less than 1 year old. The creators of its new service, including its chief executive and co-founder, Benjamin Lewis, worked in the seminal virtual reality efforts at Google and Facebook.

The hardware and software they are working with is still very young, but Limbix builds on more than two decades of research and clinical trials involving virtual reality and exposure therapy. At a time when much-hyped headsets like the Daydream and Facebooks Oculus are still struggling to find a wide audience in the world of gaming  let alone other markets  psychology is an area where technology and medical experts believe this technology can be a benefit.

As far back as the mid-1990s, clinical trials showed that this kind of technology could help treat phobias and other conditions, like post-traumatic stress disorder.

Traditionally, psychologists have treated such conditions by helping patients imagine they are facing a fear, mentally creating a situation where they can address their anxieties. Virtual reality takes this a step further.

We feel pretty confident that exposure therapy using VR can supplement what a patients imagination alone can do, said Skip Rizzo, a clinical psychologist at the University of Southern California who has explored such technology for 20 years.

Barbara Rothbaum helped pioneer the practice at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, and her work spawned a company called Virtually Better, which has long offered virtual reality exposure therapy tools to some doctors and hospitals through an older breed of headset. According to one clinical trial she helped build, virtual reality was just as effective as trips to airports in treating the fear of flying, with 90 percent of patients eventually conquering their anxieties.

Such technology has also been effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans. Unlike treatments built solely on imagination, Rothbaum said, virtual reality can force patients to face their past traumas.

PTSD is a disorder of avoidance. People dont want to think about it, she said. We need them to be engaged emotionally, and with virtual reality, its harder for them to avoid that.

Now, headsets like Googles Daydream, which works in tandem with common smartphones, and Facebooks Oculus, the self-contained $400 headset that sparked the recent resurgence in virtual reality technologies, could bring this kind of therapy to a much wider audience.

Virtually Better built its technology for virtual reality hardware that sold for several thousands of dollars. Today, Limbix and other companies, including a Spanish startup called Psious, can offer services that are far less expensive. Now Limbix is beginning to offer its tools to psychologists and other therapists outside its initial test. The service is free for now, with the company planning to sell more advanced tools at some point.

After testing the Limbix offering, Jewell said it allowed patients to face their anxieties in more controlled ways than they otherwise could. At the same time, such a tool can truly give patients the feeling that they are being transported to a different locations  at least in some cases.

Standing atop a virtual skyscraper, for instance, can cause anxiety even in those who are relatively comfortable with heights. Experts warn that a service like the one offered by Limbix requires the guiding hand of trained psychologists while still in development.

Limbix combines technical and medical expertise. One key employee, Scott Satkin, is a robotics and artificial intelligence researcher who worked on the Daydream project at Google. Limbix also works with its own psychologist, Sean Sullivan, who continues to run a therapy practice in San Francisco.

Sullivan is using the new service to treat patients, including a young man who recently developed a fear of flying, something that causes anxiety simply when he talks about it. Using the service alongside Sullivan, the young man, who asked that his name be withheld for privacy reasons, spent several sessions visiting a virtual airport and, eventually, flying on a virtual plane.

In some ways, the young man said, the service is still less than perfect. Like the Street View scenes Jewell uses in treating her patients, some of this virtual reality is static, built from still images. But like the rest of the virtual reality market, these tools are still evolving toward more realistic scenes.

And even in its current form, the service can be convincing. The young man recently took a flight across the country  here in the real world.

Cade Metz is a New York Times writer.
TOKYO  Toyota is taking a 5 percent stake in Mazda, another Japanese automaker, and said Friday that the companies would jointly build an assembly plant in the United States and would pool resources on new technologies.

The factorys location has not been decided, but Toyota and Mazda said they hoped the first vehicles would roll off its production lines in 2021. The plant is expected to cost $1.6 billion and to employ about 4,000 workers, they said.

Akio Toyoda, chief executive of Toyota, said in January that the carmaker would invest $10 billion in the United States over the next five years. Although plans for that spending predated the election of President Trump, the announcement was widely seen as a response to Trumps vows to promote U.S. manufacturing, pushing back against countries like Japan that have large trade surpluses with the United States.

Mixing appeals, rebukes and state-sponsored enticements, Trump has pushed both American and foreign-owned companies to locate factories in the United States rather than in lower-wage countries. Even before Trump was sworn in, heating and cooling giant Carrier agreed to cut the number of jobs it planned to move to Mexico from an Indiana plant after the state added $7 million in incentives.

Last week, Taiwanese electronics supplier Foxconn joined Trump at the White House to announce its plans to locate a plant with 3,000 positions in Wisconsin, which lured the company with a staggering $3 billion in state tax credits.

The announcement by Toyota and Mazda earned a congratulatory tweet from the president early Friday. Toyota & Mazda to build a new $1.6B plant here in the USA and create 4K new American jobs. A great investment in American manufacturing! he wrote. Seven months earlier he had warned Toyota in a tweet that moving operations to Mexico could result in a big border tax.

The alliance between Toyota and Mazda represents a small but significant step in the consolidation of the Japanese car industry, where a half-dozen producers compete for customers and capital. Toyota and Mazda said they planned to pursue joint development of electric vehicles and safety technology.

In an era of soaring development costs and unsettling technological shifts  especially the emergence of battery-powered and self-driving cars  many smaller producers fear they lack the resources required to keep up. Even Toyota, one of the worlds largest producers of vehicles, with an output of 10 million units a year, has been accused by some critics of falling behind in research and development.

In the future, mobility wont belong only to carmakers, Toyoda said at a news conference announcing the Mazda stake, noting that Silicon Valley is increasingly turning its gaze to the auto industry, looking to disrupt areas including design, manufacturing and retail distribution.

Totally new players like Google and Amazon are right before our eyes, Toyoda said. We need to cooperate and compete with them.

Japans smaller carmakers have sought partnerships with larger producers before. Ford Motor long had a minority stake in Mazda, as did General Motors in Suzuki, before the American partners withdrew.

Mitsubishi joined the Renault-Nissan alliance last year, after the French-Japanese group extended Mitsubishi a $2.2 billion lifeline to help it recover from a scandal over falsified fuel-economy ratings.

Toyota has been extending its reach, as well.

Last year, it took over its longtime minicar affiliate, Daihatsu. It has also been strengthening its links with Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru cars, in which Toyota owns a 16.5 percent stake. And it has been discussing a new partnership with Suzuki.

Toyota and Mazda have been cooperating since 2010, when Toyota agreed to license its gasoline-electric hybrid-drive system to Mazda. The companies said in 2015 that they were exploring ways to expand their partnership.

With the Prius and other hybrids, Toyota has dominated the market for lower-emissions vehicles for years. But as fully battery-powered cars gain favor with regulators and consumers, the company faces new challenges  both from traditional competitors and new players like Tesla.

Mazda is known for making powerful and fuel-efficient internal combustion engines, but it lacks its own electric alternatives. Its sporty image and widely praised designs could appeal to Toyota: Toyoda has repeatedly spoken of his desire to give his companys products more flair.

Mazda said it planned to issue new shares to Toyota worth about $450 million, which would give Toyota a 5.05 percent ownership stake in Mazda. In return, Toyota plans to transfer some of its shares to Mazda. The stock would be worth an equivalent amount in cash, but because Toyota is much larger than Mazda, Mazdas stake in Toyota would work out to 0.25 percent.

According to a Toyota fact sheet, the company has directly invested $23.4 billion in the United States, has 10 plants, and employs 136,000 people.

Jonathan Soble and Patricia Cohen are New York Times writers.
Ubers auto-lending program is facing new questions after the company leased cars prone to fires in Singapore.

The San Francisco ride-hailing company borrowed capital from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other banks used to purchase more than 1,000 defective Honda Motor Co. vehicles from importers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A 72-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of beating his wife to death late Friday in Boyes Hot Springs in Sonoma County, authorities said.

Steven Rothschild of Boyes Hot Springs called police at 11:40 p.m. to say that he and his wife had been in a fight and she was dead, according to the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office.
Less than two months before a San Francisco man allegedly killed his mother and engaged authorities in a 15-hour standoff, city police officers placed him on an involuntary psychiatric hold and seized a cache of guns and ammunition from him, including an AK-47 assault rifle, records show.

The suspect, 52-year-old former security guard Thomas Ragsdale, was jailed in the earlier case on suspicion of illegal weapons possession after a brief stint in psychiatric care.

But prosecutors did not file charges, and Ragsdale returned to his home on 15th Street near Corona Heights Park, where he purportedly shot his mother in the back Sunday before shooting and wounding himself hours later to end the tense standoff. On Friday, Ragsdale remained in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital.

The series of events raises questions about whether San Francisco authorities did enough to protect the victim, 76-year-old Martha Alfaro. It may also shed light on two notoriously complicated systems in California: one governing the treatment of people with mental illness, and the other regulating the legal possession of firearms and ammunition.

The district attorneys office said Friday it did not file charges in the first case because the allegations of illegal weapons possession needed further investigation. The existence of that case was first reported by Mission Local, an online news site.

More San Francisco victim identified as mother of suspected gunman

According to a police report, officers responded to the 15th Street home and discovered the weapons on June 5, after receiving a call from the mother of Ragsdales son. The officers reported finding three rifles  including an AK-47  as well as a shotgun, five handguns, 46 ammunition magazines and nearly 28,000 rounds of ammunition.

The woman who contacted police said she had grown concerned about statements Ragsdale was making about people plotting to kill him and his son. When officers questioned Ragsdale about the threats, records show, he said he heard voices through his bedroom wall, and believed they belonged to his neighbors gang member friends.

Ragsdales neighbor, however, told officers she did not know him, nor did she wish to cause him harm.

Ragsdales sons mother, meanwhile, said Ragsdales family had a history of mental illness, and that she was worried he was suffering from paranoid delusions. Ragsdales son and Alfaro had echoed the concerns, saying they believed he was hearing voices in his head, police said.

The officers placed Ragsdale on an involuntary psychiatric hold, judging that he was a danger to himself or others, and seized his weapons as prescribed by state law. But they were unable to locate six other firearms registered to Ragsdale, according to the police report.

Under state law, a person can be placed on a 72-hour mental health hold and must be released if they are deemed to be no longer dangerous. Upon Ragsdales release from the hospital, city officers booked him into County Jail.

Following the recommendations of investigators in the psychiatric liaison division of the special victims unit, officers arrested him on suspicion of 13 misdemeanor counts of illegal possession of high-capacity ammunition magazines and one felony count of possession of an unregistered assault weapon.

But the district attorneys office sent the case back to the Police Department, saying prosecutors required further investigation before filing charges.

Though California has prohibited the sale of magazines that hold more than 10 cartridges, and though AK-47s fall under the states landmark assault weapons ban, the laws carry a number of exceptions, said Max Szabo, a spokesman for the district attorneys office.

For instance, assault weapons purchased and registered with the state before April 1992 are grandfathered in and allowed, as are ammunition magazines bought before they were outlawed.

A voter-approved law that was due to take effect this year banning all possession of high-capacity magazines was recently blocked by a federal judge, who said it would violate Californians right to defend themselves.

According to the police report, Ragsdale told officers that his AK-47 was a pre-ban weapon, and that he had registered it through the proper channels. The investigating officer wrote that he was unable to determine at the scene if Ragsdales AK-47 was a pre-ban weapon, and it was not known Friday whether anyone had followed up.

Police did not provide details about the alleged murder weapon.

But the cache seized in June was still in police custody when authorities said Ragsdale shot Alfaro in the back about 11:45 p.m. Sunday. He allegedly barricaded himself inside the home at 15th and Beaver streets before shooting himself in the chest and then stumbling into police custody at about 2:45 p.m. Monday.

Little is known about Ragsdale, but he is licensed by the state as a security guard, and as recently as last year had permits to carry a gun and a baton.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo
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A Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford employee, both wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 26-year-old man in Chicago, turned themselves in to San Francisco and Oakland law enforcement officials late Friday, authorities said.

Chicago police said the suspects will appear in court in the Bay Area before returning to Chicago for questioning by homicide detectives.

The two suspects came to the Bay Area because they had friends and colleagues in the area, who helped them surrender to authorities, Frank Conroy, a supervising deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service, said Saturday.

These guys ... have had no criminal history, Conroy said. People panic when they were in a situation like they were in, and they reach out to people they might not have reached out to in years, just to try to hide.

Wyndham Lathem, 43, surrendered to authorities in Oakland about 7 p.m. and was booked into the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on felony fugitive charges at 11:40 p.m., according to jail records. He is under intensive observation at the jail, said Sgt. Ray Kelly with the Alameda County Sheriffs Office.

Lathem is scheduled to appear in court in Pleasanton at 9 a.m. Monday for an arraignment.

He arrived at the Oakland courthouse by car and was told to get out of the car, which is when authorities placed him in handcuffs, Conroy said. No guns were drawn.

I dont know anybody who wouldnt look distraught or worried, Conroy said. He wasnt happy. He wasnt crying, but he wasnt giving everybody high-fives and telling jokes either. He looked solemn.

Andrew Warren, who jail records list as 49, turned himself in at the San Francisco Police Departments Park Station about the same time, said police Officer Grace Gatpandan.

He knew he was next, Conroy said.

Warren was booked at the San Francisco County Jail on felony fugitive charges about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. A court date was not immediately scheduled, but Conroy said he expects Warren will also appear Monday.

Both men are being held without bail.

Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions, and we hope (Fridays) arrest brings some comfort for the victims family. We are also thankful that this did not end in further tragedy, the Chicago Police Department said in a statement.

The two men were being sought by authorities after the body of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found in Lathems Chicago apartment on July 27. Cornell-Duranleau had been stabbed multiple times in a brutal attack that caused the knife to break, Chicago police said.

The front desk receptionist at Lathems apartment, in the River North neighborhood, received an anonymous call that a crime had been committed in Lathems 10th-floor apartment, said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department.

When police arrived, Cornell-Duranleau had already been dead for about 15 hours. Surveillance video shows Lathem and Warren leaving the Lathems apartment building on the day of the stabbing, Guglielmi said.

Shortly after the stabbing, Lathem, an associate microbiology professor at Northwestern, sent a video to friends and relatives apologizing for his involvement in Cornell-Duranleaus slaying, Guglielmi said.

In the video, Lathem was apologetic and said that the crime was the biggest mistake of my life, Guglielmi said.

The content of the video concerned police that Lathem could harm himself, Guglielmi said.

It was through their friends and colleagues that Chicago police received tips that the two men were in the Bay Area, Conroy said.

Lathem obtained an attorney in the Bay Area, who was not identified, to negotiate his safe surrender, Conroy said.

Warren did not negotiate with the Marshals Service on his surrender, Conroy added.

Neither suspect made a statement upon arrest.

The information (Chicago police) had on Mr. Lathem was more actionable than they had on Mr. Warren, Conroy said, explaining why negotiations were not made with Warren. They knew more about Mr. Lathem. The victims body was found in his apartment.

There is no information on whether Lathem has retained the Bay Area attorney to represent him in court on the first-degree murder charges hes facing.

On Monday, the defendants can choose to fight the extradition, which Conroy said would be unusual. If they are ordered back to Chicago, officials will have 10 business days to pick up the two men and return them to Illinois.

Lathem has worked at Northwestern University since 2007 but was recently placed on administrative leave, Alan Cubbage, a spokesman for the university, said Saturday. Cubbage did not elaborate on why Lathem was placed on leave.

On the day of slaying, Lathem and Warren drove 80 miles northwest of Lake Geneva, Wis., and made a $1,000 donation to the public library there in Cornell-Duranleaus name, Guglielmi said. The man making the donation did not give his name, but police suspect it was Lathem, Guglielmi added.

Cornell-Duranleau moved to Chicago from Grand Rapids, Mich., after receiving his cosmetology license. He had a personal relationship with Lathem, Guglielmi said.

Cornell-Duranleaus family posted a statement on Facebook after his death. Our family is deeply saddened by the death of our son. It is our hope that the person or persons responsible for his death are brought to justice, they said.

Warren, a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College at Oxford University in England, arrived in the United States three days before the killing. It is unclear how Warren knew Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau and why he was in the United States, Guglielmi said.

Police contacted the university and determined that Warren was not in the country on university business, Guglielmi said.

Neither the College nor the university were aware of the case, which is clearly extremely worrying, Alice Prochaska of Somerville College said in a statement. We and the university authorities will liaise with the investigating authorities and provide any assistance that is required. This comes as upsetting news to all of us.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Sajha Prakashan told to furnish financial records

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday directed Sajha Prakashan to submit its financial records for the last five years as it begins a probe into suspected embezzlement by Chairperson and General Manager Dolindra Prasad Sharma.
If you live in the Bay Area, Bon Appetit's local contenders for its Best New Restaurants list shouldn't come as a surprise  they've been the talk of the town for the past year.

Though they share a reverence for impeccable food, the three restaurants couldn't be more different. There's an elegant Healdsburg eatery tucked below an inn (Single Thread); a hub for NorCal-inflected Cantonese cuisine in a historic Chinatown building (Mister Jiu's); and a bonafide temple for fresh-baked bread (Tartine Manufactory).
Robert Hardy, the veteran British character actor whose roles included Cornelius Fudge in four Harry Potter movies, an eccentric veterinary surgeon in All Creatures Great and Small and numerous incarnations of Winston Churchill, died Thursday in London. He was 91.

His family confirmed his death in a statement.

Mr. Hardy first achieved fame when he played the outspoken and irascible Siegfried Farnon in the long-running British series All Creatures Great and Small (1978-90), based on James Herriots books.

He became a familiar face to a new generation of fans when he was cast, in his late 70s, as Fudge, the imperfect minister for magic (he once unwisely stationed the flying fiends known as Dementors around Hogwarts), in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and three of its sequels.

But it was his portrayals of Churchill, Britains crusty and indomitable wartime prime minister, that defined him for many British audiences.

He first took on the role in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, a 1981 British miniseries, for which he won a BAFTA, Britains most prestigious film and television award. (He said he had prepared for the role by listening to Churchills audio recordings for months.)

American viewers saw him reprise the role in the acclaimed miniseries War and Remembrance (1988-89), but he also played Churchill in two 1980s television movies, The Woman He Loved and Bomber Harris; a London stage production, Winnie (which The Guardian pronounced a feeble musical); and a French play, Celui Qui a Dit Non (1999). And his last screen appearance, other than a role in a film short, was as the star of Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain, a 2015 British television movie.

Mr. Hardy had a prolific screen career over seven decades. He was hailed for his portrayal of Henry V in the 1960 British miniseries An Age of Kings, and of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in Elizabeth R, the miniseries starring Glenda Jackson, which was shown in the United States in 1972.

He had memorable roles in films like Sense and Sensibility (1995), Mrs. Dalloway (1997) and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (1994).

And he appeared in The Shooting Party (1985), a British drama about thoughtless pre-World War I aristocrats. The movie almost wasnt made after Mr. Hardy, Edward Fox and the films star, Paul Scofield, were injured while filming a scene. As Reuters described it, a runaway horseless carriage overturned, leaving Scofield with a broken leg and the others with cuts and bruises. Scofield had to be replaced, by James Mason, but Fox and Mr. Hardy carried on.

Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy was born in Cheltenham, England, in the Cotswolds, on Oct. 29, 1925. He was the youngest child of Henry Harrison Hardy, headmaster of Cheltenham College, and the former Edith Dugdale. He attended Oxford University and served in the Royal Air Force before beginning his acting career in Stratford-upon-Avon with the troupe that later became the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Although he was best known for his screen work, he had a notable stage career. His London debut was as Claudio in John Gielguds production of Much Ado About Nothing (1952). Working with the Old Vic theater company in the early 1950s, he appeared in a variety of roles, including Laertes to Richard Burtons Hamlet. He also appeared on Broadway twice, although both productions  Someone Waiting (1956) and Four Winds (1957)  had extremely brief runs.

Mr. Hardy was an author, too. Inspired by an early Shakespearean role, he became fascinated by archery, particularly one ancient British weapon, and wrote Longbow: A Social and Military History (first published in 1976). It is now considered a classic reference work on the subject.

He was married twice, to Elizabeth Fox (1952-56) and to Sally Pearson (1961-86). His survivors include a son, Paul; and two daughters, Justine and Emma Hardy. He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1981.

Mr. Hardys acting ambitions began in early childhood, he once told the BBC, when he served as a page at a wedding.

I walked down the aisle with my head held high, and as I went every eye was turned towards me, he recalled. And something inside me said: Thats it. Get every eye on you.

Anita Gates is a New York Times writer.
Its not surprising to find an Arizona Republican smack in the middle of a poke-in-the-eye dustup with the powerful. The only surprise these days is that the Republican in question isnt John McCain.

McCain is in a fight of his own, having cast the final blow against the health care plan crafted by his fellow Senate Republicans and President Trump. In his home state, references to that vote prompt common Arizona refrain: Just McCain being McCain.

The newest set-to, however, involves the states junior Republican senator, Jeff Flake, a first-termer who may have blasted a big hole in his re-election campaign next year by publishing a book.

And not just any book. A book that swiped its name from one published a generation ago by Arizonas revered veteran Sen. Barry Goldwater: Conscience of a Conservative. A book that vented about the Republican Party and what he calls his colleagues abdication of their responsibility to stand up against the partys embattled president.

Republicans are in denial about Trumps erratic executive branch, Flake wrote, saying that the partys unnerving silence would be as if Noah had watched the flood rising and decided to focus on other things. At a certain point, if one is being honest, the flood becomes the thing that is most worthy of attention, he wrote. At a certain point, it might be time to build an ark.

For Arizonans, that has set up a question: Will the president, who famously punches back when hit, seek revenge on Flake by summoning a Senate challenger? White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would not rule out that possibility when asked about it Wednesday.

Im not sure about any potential funding of a campaign, she said. But I think that Sen. Flake would serve his constituents much better if he was less focused on writing a book and attacking the president, and (more on) passing legislation.

In Arizona, Republican strategists believe that Trump has the power to engineer Flakes defeat, particularly if he were to clear the field to a single challenger and vouch for that person.

If he did get involved, the money would not be an issue, said one Republican strategist. Like several others, he spoke on condition.

Were the president to put his imprimatur on a candidate, it would set up a roaring battle between the ascendant Trump wing of the Republican Party and a senator who has more or less been an establishment conservative.

Cathleen Decker is a Los Angeles Times writer.
WASHINGTON  Leaked transcripts of presidential calls arent just embarrassing to President Trump. They could undermine faith in Washingtons ability to protect confidential conversations and intelligence and have a chilling effect on American diplomacy.

In the latest and perhaps most egregious sign of a U.S. administration that cant keep a lid on its private deliberations, the Washington Post published a written record last week of phone conversations between Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Australia. The talks took place soon after Trumps January inauguration.

Such leaks have enraged Trump. On Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged to rein in government leaks that he blamed for jeopardizing American security, after being called weak on leaks by Trump. And White House adviser Kellyanne Conway raised the possibility of lie detector tests for the small number of people in the West Wing and elsewhere with access to transcripts of Trumps phone calls.

Experts and former U.S. officials also warn the leaks could add to mistrust among international partners grappling with Trumps unconventional approach to foreign policy, which includes at least one high-profile case of the U.S. president sharing the sensitive intelligence from a foreign ally. The cumulative effect may be to hurt Washingtons leadership in world affairs.

The risk is that our foreign counterparts no longer believe we are capable of keeping conversations, or even their intelligence, private, said Jon Finer, who was Secretary of State John Kerrys chief of staff during President Barack Obamas second term. This is not just embarrassing to the president. It is bad for the country, since cooperation on issues like terrorism is essential to our security.

The transcripts offered new detail and laid bare the U.S. presidents preoccupation about how he is viewed at home, even when speaking to the leader of a foreign government.

Anthony Clark Arend, professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University, said foreign governments are likely to compartmentalize how they share information with the U.S. Theyll probably maintain confidence in U.S. intelligence and military chiefs and top American diplomats, he said, but will be more reticent with the White House.

Matthew Pennington is an Associated Press writer.
1 Florida sinkhole: Pasco County officials said Saturday that a sinkhole that swallowed two homes last month is still growing. A large chunk of the holes edge has collapsed, and two more homes in Land OLakes, a Tampa suburb, have been condemned. The sinkhole, which opened up July 14, is now about 260 feet across at its widest point. Officials arent sure what caused the latest destabilization, but think seismic vibrations from trucks and construction equipment around the hole could be to blame.

2 Trump backs adviser: President Trump has issued a defense of his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, against criticism hes not supportive enough of Israel and is stifling conservative viewpoints. Trump came out with a public endorsement late Friday: General McMaster and I are working very well together. He is a good man and very pro-Israel. McMaster, an Army lieutenant general, came under attack after the recent firing of intelligence adviser Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who was a protege of Trumps first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Critics have accused McMaster of trying to remove conservative voices from Trumps national security team.
Richard Dudman, a much-traveled reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who spent more than a month in captivity in Cambodia after being ambushed by Viet Cong fighters and later survived an assassination attempt after meeting the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, died Thursday in Blue Hill, Maine. He was 99.

The death was confirmed by his daughter, Iris Dudman.

Mr. Dudmans career in journalism lasted about three-quarters of a century. He was in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and, after oversleeping and missing a flight back to Washington, dropped by the police station where Lee Harvey Oswald was being held and watched as he was gunned down by Jack Ruby.

He covered the 1956 Arab-Israeli War, filed stories from Havana when Fidel Castro toppled the Batista government and covered wars and revolutions in Guatemala, Argentina, Burma (now Myanmar), Ireland, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Algeria, Laos and China.

He made his first reporting trip to South Vietnam in 1962 and, concluding early on that the war was a doomed enterprise, became one of the first American reporters to question the official narrative dispensed by military and government officials. In 1965, while preparing a series of pessimistic reports, he wrote to his colleague Marquis W. Childs, The war is being lost, and in a hurry.

As the Washington bureau chief for the Post-Dispatch, Mr. Dudman secured and published excerpts from the governments classified history of the war, known as the Pentagon Papers, after the courts barred the New York Times and the Washington Post from printing any additional material.

His taste for adventure occasionally led him down dangerous roads. In 1970, he and two colleagues, Elizabeth Pond of the Christian Science Monitor and Michael Morrow of Dispatch News Service International, tried to drive from Saigon to Phnom Penh to report on the developing covert war in Cambodia.

At a roadblock halfway between the border and Phnom Penh, three Viet Cong fighters, brandishing assault rifles, emerged from the trees along the road and took the reporters captive, convinced that they were CIA spies. Mr. Dudman turned to his colleagues and said, If we get out of this alive, well have a hell of a good story.

A cool-headed Vietnamese general, Bay Cao, eventually intervened and ensured better treatment of the three prisoners  on Ho Chi Minhs birthday, they enjoyed a feast of roast dog. After six weeks, Mr. Dudman and his colleagues were taken to a road and left to hitchhike back to Saigon. Mr. Dudman described his ordeal in Forty Days With the Enemy, published in 1971.

Cambodia had not finished with him. In 1978, he and Elizabeth Becker of the Washington Post and Malcolm Caldwell, a leftist Scottish economist, secured a meeting with Pol Pot, becoming the first Western writers to travel through Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1974.

The hoped-for interview never materialized. After a handshake that Mr. Dudman found unnerving  Pol Pot had delicate, tapering fingers and soft skin  the dictator held court.

He spoke in a quiet monotone as we sweltered in tropical sunshine that flooded the room and brushed away the flies that buzzed around the orange juice, Mr. Dudman wrote in the Post-Dispatch in 2015. He spoke in Cambodian, Foreign Minister Ieng Sary put the Cambodian into French, and another official translated into English. Before getting to our questions, Pol Pot launched into a diatribe against the Vietnamese.

He added, We tried to break in with questions, but he ignored them and rolled right on.

Mr. Dudman did manage to take one of the few known photographs of Pol Pot.

The next night, Mr. Dudman heard gunshots in the guesthouse where he and his colleagues were staying. Stepping out into the hallway, he faced an attacker, who began shooting at him with a pistol. Mr. Dudman dashed back into his room, dodging bullets, and hid behind his bed.

Two hours later, a Cambodian escort officer appeared. He told me that Becker was safe but that Caldwell had been killed and I should view his body, Mr. Dudman wrote in the Post-Dispatch in 1997. The young terrorist was sprawled dead in the doorway. And Caldwells body lay on his bed with a gaping wound in his chest.

The motivation for the attack, and the identity of the gunman and two accomplices, remained unknown.

Richard Beebe Dudman was born May 3, 1918, in Centerville, Iowa, to Virgil Ernest Dudman, a gynecologist and obstetrician, and the former Wilma Beebe. The family moved to Portland, Ore., two years later.

Mr. Dudman enrolled in Stanford University with ideas of becoming a doctor, but lost his nerve when it came time to dissect a frog. He began reporting and taking photographs for the Stanford Daily and, on summer vacations in Northern California, worked for the Mercury-Register, in Oroville (Butte County), a newspaper owned by his uncle.

After graduating in 1940 with a degree in economics and journalism, he joined the merchant marine, serving on a freighter that transported war materiel across the North Atlantic. In 1942, he enlisted in the Navy Reserves and spent four years on an armed supply ship that led convoys to Europe and North Africa.

He was hired as a reporter by the Denver Post and joined the Post-Dispatch in 1949. He reported from around the world for the newspaper and in 1954 was assigned to its Washington bureau. He became bureau chief in 1969 and held the position until retiring in 1981.

Mr. Dudman, desperate to get a piece of the story, chafed when the Times began printing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers in mid-June 1971. A chance meeting with the left-wing journalist I.F. Stone, a good friend, led him to Leonard Boudin, a radical lawyer and Stones brother-in-law, with whom Mr. Dudman had an inconclusive conversation.

That same day, an anonymous caller said he understood I wanted a batch of the papers, Mr. Dudman wrote in the Post-Dispatch in 1996. He said I should send someone to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to wait in a certain public phone booth at a certain time the next day for further instructions.

Thomas W. Ottenad, the newspapers political reporter, flew to Cambridge, where, at the appointed phone booth, he was told to go to a second phone booth. There he received instructions to look under a stack of newspapers on a table on the upstairs back porch of a Cambridge row house. There he uncovered a trove of classified material, which he, Mr. Dudman and James Deakin distilled in 38 articles. The newspaper published them the next day.

To Mr. Dudmans annoyance, however, the Post-Dispatch, on the advice of its lawyers, held off publishing further material from the Pentagon Papers until the Supreme Court handed down a decision on the injunctions against the Times and the Post.

After retiring from the Post-Dispatch, Mr. Dudman continued to file special assignment stories. When his wife, the former Helen Sloane, bought two radio stations in Maine, he accompanied her to Ellsworth, intending to build boats.

Instead, he spent nine years as a managing editor of South-North News Service in Hanover, N.H., editing copy from foreign correspondents. From 2000 to 2012, he wrote two editorials a week for the Bangor Daily News. In 1993, he was given the George Polk Career Award for his foreign reporting.

In addition to his daughter, Iris, and his wife, who was executive womens editor of the Washington Post in the 1960s, he is survived by another daughter, Martha Tod Dudman, and four grandchildren.

Mr. Dudmans last day on the job at the Post-Dispatch was eventful. Word came in that a gunman had shot Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton, not far from the newspapers offices. Like a racehorse hearing the bugle, Mr. Dudman ran out the door and up Connecticut Avenue, pen and notebook in hand. His story ran the next day.

He had a motto: Reporter who sits on hot story gets ass burned.

William Grimes is a New York Times writer.
Unidentified gunmen attack tile shop

Two unidentified persons opened fire at a tile shop in Manigram, Rupandehi, on Friday. Police said the motorcycle-borne assailants fired three shots at the shop owned by Durga Lal Bhandari but no one was hurt.
Last months Detwiler Fire, which threatened the Gold Rush town of Mariposa, was started by somebody shooting off firearms, investigators said Friday.

The blaze, which has been largely contained, broke out on July 16 near Lake McClure and burned southward toward Mariposa, eventually forcing thousands of residents to evacuate. It has burned 81,826 acres and destroyed 131 structures, according to a news release from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It is 97 percent contained.
WB defends NEAs move to hire Chinese firm

The World Bank has defended the decision taken by Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to hand over 25-megawatt solar plant project to a Chinese company amidst parliamentary committees instruction to scrap the process of appointing the firm and restart works related to contractor selection.
Andrew Kuhn/MBO

FRESNO, Calif. (AP)  A missing California woman who was found alive Friday in a cattle ranching area after vanishing more than two weeks ago survived by eating a few bugs and drinking from a dirty cattle trough, authorities said. She told rescuers that she did not want to be found.

The former public elementary school teacher, Jamie Tull, was struggling with emotional issues and was last heard from on July 17 when she called her husband while she was driving and crashed into a ditch, authorities said.
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Like most adults, Jennifer Lynch remembers little from second grade. That was some 38 years ago.

But Lynch vividly recalls one moment from that period in her life: The day her teacher at a Los Angeles school escorted her class onto the playground to witness an eclipse in 1979.

"That wasn't even a full eclipse in L.A., but I remember it like it was," says Lynch, who now live in San Francisco."I remember in school, we made these boxes so you could watch the eclipse looking at the sun without destroying your eyes. I remember it as being a part of my childhood more than anything else."

And so when her son's father asked if he could pull their 7-year-old out of school to go to Oregon to see the 2017 total solar eclipse, she didn't hesitate in saying yes  even though her son will be missing the first day of second grade.

"I think this is the best way to get excited about science and the world around you," says Lynch, who grew up with a mother who taught science. "It's definitely more exciting than what happens on the first day of school."

ECLIPSE WATCHING: Perfect spots around the U.S. to view the total solar eclipse

The eclipse falls on the first day of school in San Francisco, West Contra Costa, and many Bay Area districts

On Aug. 21, a total solar eclipse tracing a path across the United States will present an opportunity for kids to experience an awesome science event first hand.

When the moon passes between the Earth and sun, the day will turn to darkness, the temperature will plummet, stars will twinkle in the sky, and the power of our universe will be felt.

What parent wouldn't want their curious, impressionable child to experience this? There's no greater classroom than the extraordinary world we live in, right?

For parents living in the Bay Area, giving their child this experience isn't easy.

First of all, the eclipse can't be fully seen in California. The moon will obscure 75 percent of the sun in the Bay Area. In order to view the full eclipse, you would have to travel at least 452 miles to Oregon.

Perhaps even more problematic, the eclipse falls close to the first day of school, making travel difficult. For those attending San Francisco and some East Bay public schools, the eclipse falls on the first day of school, and you have to make the decision that it's OK for your child to miss school.

For many parents like Lynch, this is a no-brainer. Patricia Putney is another San Francisco mom whose child will be missing school and traveling to Oregon.

"I really like that the kids go to school and they learn, but there so many things they can learn outside, too. And this is a special event, and this is something they can't do every day. For me, it's fine to miss school. It's a couple days. She can do a follow-up for the first days. This will be a family event with grandparents and cousins convening. I think she's at that age when kids start to create really strong memories."

But not all parents are comfortable with their kids missing school. Scott Olson has three boys in San Francisco public schools, and he was tempted to travel with them to Springfield, Tenn., where the eclipse will travel directly over the boy's great-grandparent's house.

"Realistically, such a trip would require the boys to miss at least the first two days of school," Olson says. "Especially for the older boys (7th and 10th grade), we didn't feel comfortable with that. Grandpa will share pictures though."

And, in some cases, it's the kids who don't want to skip school. "I was trying to head north to catch it," Rosanna Jeremias says. "But both kids summarily said no given they don't want to miss their first day of middle and high school, respectively."

SFUSD is encouraging students to attend the first day of school

SFUSD spokesperson Heidi Anderson says the district is directing parents who wish to pull their kids out of school to the section in the Student Handbook regarding absences.

"We share it with families from time to time, including when when we are aware of a citywide event happening on a school day (Giants' parade, protests, etc.)," Anderson wrote in an email.

The handbook indicates that missing school for travel or an event is considered an unexcused absence, and usually this means the child's school loses a sum of money for that student's missed day. (Absences for illness and events such as funerals are considered excused and a school still receives its Average Daily Attendance allotment.)

Anderson points out that in San Francisco, people will be able to view about 75 percent of the eclipse, and while she can't guarantee that teachers will take their students outside for the experience, she imagines some will build lessons around it and says the district is encouraging students to go to school.

"In this particular case, the district is concerned because we feel the first day is a very special day and important," Anderson says.

Oakland Unified School District, which also starts the new year on Aug. 21, released a similar statement.

"Here at Oakland Unified School District, we know this remarkable event is of great interest to our students and families," OUSD spokesperson John Sasaki wrote in an email. "Our teachers are well-prepared to use the solar eclipse as an important educational moment. Here in Oakland, we won't experience the complete eclipse, but the partial eclipse will still be spectacular and historic. We encourage all students to be in class on Monday, August 21, which is our first day of school and which will include some instruction on the phenomenon.
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A Sacramento man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting another Sacramento man during a drug deal at an East Oakland gas station on New Year's Day 2015.

Andre Poole, 27, was convicted in May of first-degree murder and the special circumstance of committing a murder during the course of a robbery for the fatal shooting of Derrick Williams, 23, at the Valero gas station at 7225 Bancroft Ave. at 1:38 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2015.

Poole was also convicted of attempted voluntary manslaughter for the shooting of Williams' accomplice, Stanford Boatner, and of being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm.

Officers who responded to the shooting, which was captured on the gas station's surveillance cameras and shown to jurors during Poole's trial, found Williams suffering from a gunshot wound and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Alameda County prosecutor Peter McGuiness said Poole, Marcus Mayfield, 21, of Oakland, Dwight Hilton, 28, of Pittsburg, and a fourth man were at the gas station on the sunny holiday afternoon when they happened to run into Williams and Boatner and agreed to buy 20 Xanax pills from them.

Xanax is an anti-anxiety medication that has a high street value because it's often used recreationally, according to police.

McGuiness said that instead of buying the Xanax pills, Poole decided to snatch a gold chain off of Williams' neck and steal the pills.

The prosecutor said that when Williams resisted Poole shot and killed him.

Poole's attorney, Stephen Avilla, admitted during the trial that Poole fatally shot Williams but said he did so in self-defense after Williams pulled a gun on him.

But McGuiness said there's no evidence that Williams pulled out his gun and jurors' quick verdict against Poole after less than a full day of deliberations showed that they don't believe he acted in self-defense.

Mayfield, who shot at Boatner, was also was charged with murder with special circumstances for his role in the crime but on May 18, just before he was scheduled to stand trial, he pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and attempted voluntary manslaughter.

Mayfield was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years to life in state prison, which was the term that was agreed to in his plea bargain.

Hilton was also charged with murder in the case but those charges were later dismissed. He pleaded no contest last year to second-degree robbery in an unrelated case and is serving a seven-year sentence in state prison. He was called as a prosecution witness during Poole's trial.
A Richmond man was sentenced to 9 years in prison in federal court in Oakland on Wednesday for downloading child pornography, prosecutors said.

Dumaka Hammond, 40, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on March 8, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.
MOSCOW  The former Russian ambassador to the United States on Saturday strongly denied the accusations of meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

Sergei Kislyak, who has just returned from Washington, said on Russian state Rossiya 24 television that he was merely doing his job as a diplomat when he met with members of President Trumps team. He said he also had met with representatives of Hillary Clintons campaign, but didnt give any names.

Kislyak described the U.S. accusations against him as absurd and shameful for the U.S., adding that the official acknowledgment that his phone conversations were bugged was unhealthy.

Any diplomat, Russian or not, works to better understand the policy of a country hes posted to, figure out what the new administrations course is and understand where cooperation is possible, Kislyak said.

Kislyaks contacts with members of Trumps team have been part of congressional and FBI investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Moscow has denied any interference in the U.S. election.

Asked about his contacts with Michael Flynn, who served briefly as Trumps national security adviser before being fired in February, Kislyak said they didnt discuss any secrets.

We talked about very basic things, he said. There are a few subjects important for Russia-U.S. cooperation, primarily terrorism, and it was one of the subjects we talked about. Our conversations were legitimate, calm and absolutely transparent.

Flynn was fired after officials said he misled U.S. Vice President Mike Pence about whether he and the ambassador had discussed Washingtons sanctions against Russia in a phone call.

Kislyak insisted that they hadnt talked about sanctions.

I had instructions not to discuss sanctions, he said. We havent been involved in any discussions or bargaining over sanctions, because we believe that they have been introduced unlawfully.
1. Yes. Taxpayers are funding its operation; they should have a voice in the naming process.

2. Yes. The city should operate with a spirit of inclusivity. Residents will be responsive.

3. No. Public input can be problematic; rejection of suggestions can be divisive for residents.

4. No. Residents elect council members to make decisions on their behalf. No input is needed.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether public input would be more of a benefit or a hindrance.

Vote

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Below is the live streaming of the 2017 Norseman Xtreme Triathlon. This is the race most Slowtwitchers wish they could gain an entry too. One fortunate Slowtwitcher, our CTO Jordan Rapp, is racing.

With any luck you can see the race broadcast live below.

You can Also see the race on a sticky thread on our Reader Forum, with comments from Slowtwitchers (that means you, perhaps!) on that forum.
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It's hard to fathom the energy required to be a mother of eight.

But that's Queanbeyan mum Amanda Taylor's story, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Caitlin Benson, left, Amanda Taylor and 4 month old twins Lucy Taylor and Lili Taylor. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos

The 40 year old has stretched her child bearing years across two decades.

Her eldest, 20-year-old Caitlin, flies in and out between shifts at work and Amanda nurses her four-month-old twins Lili and Lucy.
Google sister company Project Wing is seeking approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to extend their approved testing distance within Australia.

The US company hope CASA will grant approval to fly beyond one kilometre and staff will search the region for a suitable new test site.

Project Wing drones made deliveries to six households in Fernleigh Park.

Project Wing just completed a two week test of their autonomous drone delivery system with the help of residents in Googong.

During the two week period the drones flew within one kilometre while always in a pilot's line of sight in case of emergency.
Lean forward a little, would you? We can only whisper this to a trusted few. Don't want word getting out just yet  nudge, nudge, wink, wink and all that. But it's time we talked about convincing someone that their time is up and the moment has come to say goodbye.

It's a delicate dilemma in so many workplaces. Someone hangs around for so long they believe they are indispensable. Truth is, they instead become set in their ways. A little long in the tooth. Predictable. You know the type. Thinks everything will fall apart if they move on and the world is left to others.

The 96-year-old Prince Philip stepped down from his official royal duties this week. Credit:CP

Anyway, enough about Tony Abbott.

Instead, let us examine the case of another who believes they were born to rule. How to tell the boss of a family business to relinquish control? For the past 65 years Queen Elizabeth II has presided over a business royal insiders have long referred to as "The Firm". This week her 96-year-old husband, Prince Philip, stepped down from his official duties, many of which, in his own words more than half a century ago, were devoted to "the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, a science which I have practiced for a good many years".
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's calling of an emergency party room meeting today says a lot about the state of Australian politics. The meeting is not in response to an economic crisis or national security threat, but how to respond to community support in favour of same-sex marriage. The task of achieving this reform has somehow tied the government in knots.

Party room meetings on same-sex marriage have not been kind to the Coalition, or conducive to making good policy. The last major discussion produced the idea of holding a plebiscite. This is despite a plebiscite being unnecessary and wasteful of tens of millions of taxpayers' dollars. In addition, no other group in the community has been forced to have their right to equality endorsed by a national vote.

Any move to hold a postal vote on same-sex marriage is likely to be challenged in the High Court. Credit:Rohan Thomson

The only explicable reason for the government's plebiscite policy is to frustrate the move to same-sex marriage. In this, the evidence shows that it has been a remarkable success. No group of conservative politicians from a like country has been as effective. The Coalition came into office in 2013, and from that year same-sex marriage has been recognised in a raft of nations including New Zealand, France, Brazil, Uruguay, the UK, Finland, Ireland, the US and Germany.

The plebiscite policy has delayed the recognition of same-sex marriage in Australia, but it has also thrown up intolerable tensions within the Coalition. It is not a plausible path to achieving change, and runs counter to parliamentary traditions. Coalition MPs have understandably pushed for an ordinary vote in parliament.
The sight of 13-year-old Sean Donato peering down the barrel of a rifle is a confronting one.

But despite the jarring image of such a young child wielding a deadly tool, the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) allows a youth from the age of 12 to legitimately use such a weapon. The youngster needs to have obtained a "minor's permit" that requires training in gun safety procedures and they must supervised by an adult holder of a firearms certificate. This allows for target shooting or, perhaps, hunting of game.

There are now, however, calls to lower the age at which a child can obtain a minor's permit. The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia backed by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party would like to see the age reduced to 10. This is an age considered way too young for alcohol, sex, smoking, voting or driving.

The proposal is likely to be met with some controversy. These are, after all, times in which our security seems to face regular challenges.

Some will cite the example of Lindt cafe siege gunman Man Haron Monis and his access to illegal weapons to argue that availability of firearms should be tightened rather than relaxed.
Some 70 per cent of Britain's trade is with countries in its surrounding seas. So why send your only two aircraft carriers to the other side of the world to protect trade that is not threatened in the first place? As many have pointed out, the last thing China would want to do is damage trade through its surrounding seas. But that's not to say there are no issues in the East China Sea or the South China Sea that could generate conflict. Fishing rights, environmental protection and of course oil and gas fields are all potentially hot issues. Having Western warships and fighter planes roaming the region will not help resolve these matters. Lately we have avoided major incidents between Western and Chinese naval vessels that could spark regional conflict.

But in 2001 a Chinese fighter pilot died after his plane hit a US Navy aircraft gathering intelligence just off the Chinese coast, 70 miles from Hainan Island. Ironically the only lives lost recently have come from the collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a Philippine-flagged merchant vessel, the ACX Crystal, where seven US sailors died south of Tokyo Bay in the East China Sea. Australians will also well remember the June 1969 tragedy when the USS Frank E Evans crossed the bow of the aircraft carrier Melbourne during a training exercise in the South China Sea. Seventy four US sailors lost their lives. Potentially the biggest prizes in the South China Sea will come from oil and gas discoveries. Vietnam recently directed a subsidiary of a Spanish company Repsol to suspend drilling operations on a block in the Spratly Island region of the South China Sea after Chinese foreign ministry officials raised objections.

Much closer to Vietnam's coast, ExxonMobil is planning development of the Blue Whale natural gas reserves in a region just outside the area historically claimed by China. In the hope of confirming a huge gas field, the Philippines is also planning to drill in the Reed Bank region north of the Spratly Islands. The new code of conduct could enable joint drilling and development of disputed blocks without anyone losing face and without costly conflict. No matter how you try, you can't get away from history when considering China's claims and its disputes with surrounding states. To most in Australia, Okinawa in the East China Sea is recalled only as the scene of the largest US amphibian assault on Japan during WWII.

But it was once the capital of the Ryukyu kingdom which controlled the Ryukyu Islands running south of Japan and guarding the eastern Pacific approach to China. Today the islands are considered part of Japan but for centuries the kingdom was a vassal state of China. In 1879 when China's military capability was no match for Japan, Japan unilaterally abolished the kingdom and incorporated Okinawa into Japan as a prefecture. US emissaries early recognised the value of these islands with Commodore Matthew Perry, who famously used his cannon bearing Black Ships to forcibly "open" Japan to trade, argued in 1854 that the United States should establish a foothold in the Ryukyus to sustain US maritime rights in the east. Japanese expansion saw it take Taiwan in 1895 in the first Sino-Japanese war, invade mainland China in 1931 and push on as far as New Guinea in the Second World War.

Today China is not claiming the Ryukyus, but it is claiming the Senkaku or Diaoyus rocky outcrops to their south which Japan annexed in 1895. Further south, China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and even further south China maintains its historic claims to the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. What is rarely mentioned these days in all the US talk about freedom of navigation is that Article 2 (f) of the WWII peace treaty signed between the allies and Japan on 8 September 1951 in San Francisco states: "Japan renounces all right, title and claim to the Spratly Islands and to the Paracel Islands." China was not represented at the San Francisco conference but the following year the Republic of China signed the Treaty of Taipei with Japan. This states: "Japan has renounced all right, title and claim to Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu (the Pescadores) as well as the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands." American maps produced before the US recognised Communist China as the "One China" (such as that printed by Encyclopaedia Britannica) clearly show the Paracel Islands marked as Chinese.
Business generates extensive economic and social benefits. It can also be dreadfully damaging. By making informed, conscientious choices about consumption and investment, each of us can back the good and shun the bad.

First, an example of the bad. Crown Casino is an ostentatious palazzo raking cash, often from the vulnerable and addicted, in the certainty that the house always ultimately wins. Walk through the place at any time of day or night: the jarring sights and sounds of this cavernous trap baited by thousands of gaming machines and hundreds of gaming tables trigger alarm  and support for advocates of stricter protections for punters.

Australian actress Rachel Griffiths (left) and Hagar CEO Jo Pride appear before a Modern Slavery Inquiry at Parliament House in Melbourne. Credit:JOE CASTRO

Instead of regulating rigorously, our governments have for decades gifted widely reported manifold special treatment to this gaudy gem. It happened again in February, when the Victorian government invoked a special exemption clause in the planning act and rubber stamped Crown's plan to build a 90-storey tower. In the very same week, the Victorian Auditor-General's Office said the state's alcohol and gambling regulator is too lenient on Crown Casino, amid well-reported concerns criminals have been given too much freedom to launder money in what is one of the world's biggest casinos.

Gambling is, and should of course continue to be, legal. But is hard to escape the conclusion Crown and its ilk have undue legal freedom, at the expense of the significant number of problem gamblers they prey on. Last financial year alone, Crown clients lost $1.8 billion. The annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, released last week, found that as many as 1.4 million Australians are directly harmed by gambling. A staggering 41 per cent of monthly punters reported detrimental effects to themselves and their loved ones.
Marriage equality advocates are weighing up a legal challenge to the potential postal plebiscite. Credit:James Alcock Surprisingly (if you look at the way he avoided answering questions on it this week), Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was mightily opposed to the postal approach in 1997, as leader of the republic's "yes" campaign. In an opinion piece for The Australian, he said postal voting "flies in the face of Australian democratic values". According to the article, unearthed by Crikey, Turnbull raised concerns about the high number of people who change their address between elections. "These voters will not get their ballot papers. Not unless they ring up and make a special request, and who will get around to doing that?" Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says a postal vote is the "next best option". Credit:AAP Turnbull also said young people and Indigenous people in remote communities were at greater risk of being disenfranchised because they tend to move more often. Young people were certainly less likely to vote in the 1997 ballot than any other age group. As a percentage of those enrolled in their age group, only 34 per cent of 18-25 year-olds participated in the postal vote. This compares to 50 per cent of 46-55 year-olds and 59 per cent of those over 56.

It's also true that young people are less involved in elections, generally. In the 2016 election, 95 per cent of eligible voters participated, compared to 86.7 per cent of eligible 18-24 year-olds. There are fears among same-sex marriage advocates that given support for marriage equality is more pronounced among younger people, a postal vote will harm the "yes" camp's chances if there was a vote. Monash University senior lecturer in Australian politics Nick Economou isn't convinced by this argument. He notes that because same-sex marriage is an issue that young people care about, they are more likely to want to vote. And even though they do live in a digital world, they are also more than capable of using a pen and an envelope (it's not that hard). "I have full confidence young people would be engaged," Dr Economou says. In his 1997 tirade against postal voting, Turnbull also warned that a postal ballot lacked secrecy and integrity. "In the voting booth each of us votes alone. Without the pressure of husband or wife, parent or child. When the postal ballot arrives in the letter box how many people will be compelled to vote one way or other by a strong-willed friend or family member?" Economou similarly notes there are no real protections against one person in a household simply filling out papers for others they live with, perhaps with the more benign intention of helping rather than bullying.

Another significant question mark hovering over the postal vote is its ability to deliver decisive victory or closure. Non-compulsory voting means less people  of any age group  will vote. In 1997, just 47 per cent of voters sent their ballot papers back. As Sydney Liberal MP and same-sex marriage opponent Craig Kelly told Fairfax Media last month: "My concern would be that a voluntary postal vote may not have the authority of a compulsory vote at the ballot box. It would be very easy for one group to say they would boycott it and not recognise the result." So, beyond its proponents within the Coalition, it is difficult to find fans of the postal vote. Those who are against same-sex marriage, such as the Australian Christian Lobby, say the postal vote is an "option that should be canvassed"  given the plebiscite was blocked in the Senate (by Labor and the Greens). But the lobby's managing director Lyle Shelton adds his preferred option is for the government to "just show some resolve" and take its plebiscite policy to the next election. The "yes" camp  who vociferously opposed the idea of a compulsory plebiscite  don't even want to entertain the idea of a voluntary one. Australians for Equality executive director Tiernan Brady says a postal vote sends a "terrible message" about LGBTI Australians.
A postal vote on same-sex marriage would likely be invalid without legislation and struck down in the High Court, according to legal advice obtained by marriage equality advocates.

In the first detailed legal opinion to be presented on a same-sex marriage postal vote, lawyers argued the Turnbull government could not circumvent Parliament to enact a postal plebiscite.

More than 54,000 new voters have enrolled in the past two weeks. The roll closes Thursday.

The advice, prepared by Ron Merkel QC and Christopher Tran, and seen by Fairfax Media, suggested the High Court would likely rule a postal vote invalid unless authorised by a specific law.

Same-sex marriage campaigners have seized the advice and committed to a legal challenge if Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull goes ahead with the idea, which has been gaining traction among Coalition MPs.
Universities would be hit with $1.2 billion in funding cuts under the Turnbull government's higher education changes, with new data showing some institutions are set to lose up to $57 million over the next four years.

The figures, compiled by peak body Universities Australia, provide the first breakdown of how each university in the country would be affected over the budget forward estimates if the government's proposals pass the Senate.

The University of Melbourne is the top-ranked Australian university with an overall rank of 32, followed by the Australian National University at 48. Credit:Louie Douvis

NSW universities would lose $341 million in base funding between 2018 and 2021 while Victorian universities would lose $294 million.

The cuts would hit universities already in deficit and those with large numbers of disadvantaged students as well as the elite sandstone universities in Sydney and Melbourne.
When George Clooney came to Sydney in 2011, he was here for barely 24 hours, but it was certainly a lucrative trip  collecting a whopping $600,000 fee in return for giving an inspirational speech and posing for selfies with a few cashed-up fans.

Yep, fame has certainly paid off for Clooney, a man who generates millions of dollars in fees for spruiking coffee capsules and can command a $20 million salary to headline a major motion picture.

Amal and George Clooney at the 42nd Cesar Film Awards in Paris earlier this year are only now discovering the cost of fame. Credit:Francois Mori

We have had ringside seats to his various relationships, played out in the public gaze as he was named the world's sexiest man alive, year after year.

Then we felt like guests at THAT wedding, which was pretty much a full-scale public event on the canals of Venice, complete with a flotilla of paparazzi in hot pursuit as the beaming couple waving regally to their adoring fans and smiled widely for the hundreds of cameras. Hello! and Woman's Day magazines paid about $1 million for the rights to cover the wedding.
You can usually choose your fund. There are two main types of funds  industry funds that return profits to members and retail funds run by financial institutions such as banks for a profit. Industry funds have historically out-performed retail funds on average, but there are good and bad in both categories. You don't have to work in an industry to join the applicable industry fund  there's nothing to stop a waiter joining Local Government Super, for example. I wrote recently about a child actor who found all his super was eaten away by fees and insurance premiums. Judging by the response, this is a very common problem, not just for kids but anyone who earns a low or sporadic income. If this is you, look for a low-fee fund. When the balance is low, minimising fixed fees is more important than the investment returns. SuperRatings has a list of the top 10 funds with the lowest fees. Second, choose the right investment option. When you're young, you should probably be in a growth fund. It's higher risk but over the long term should deliver higher returns. If you've got decades to go before you retire, you can usually afford the risk. Third, consolidate your accounts. Otherwise you could be paying multiple sets of fees and insurance premiums. There's a good guide to how to do this on ASIC's MoneySmart website. Fourth, review your insurance needs. By default you have life insurance, which pays out on death and also total and permanent disablement (TPD), and sometimes income protection insurance. You can opt out but think carefully before you do. If you have dependants (usually children) or liabilities (such as a mortgage), then life insurance is important. In some cases you'll want to increase your cover.

Fifth, consider making a small personal contribution. That's if you're not madly saving for a house or trying to pay off a mortgage. Behavioural economists know that people adjust to their take-home salary  so if you can force yourself to save before you even get the money, you probably won't even notice it. Your 20s and 30s are a great time to contribute to super, because of the magic of compound interest. Time is your greatest asset when investing, and superannuation is the most tax-effective way to invest. You can contribute through salary sacrifice if it's offered by your employer. But there's also a new law that means you can do it yourself and claim a tax deduction at the end of the year. You can set up a direct debit so the money drips into your super account frequently, or even use tools such as the Acorns app to sweep digital "spare change" into your super account. By contrast, many employers only deposit super every three months ... if at all (unpaid super entitlements are a big problem in Australia). The downside is that you don't get the tax deduction until the end of the year  but if you like getting a tax refund, then you might consider that a benefit. Sixth, make sure your binding death benefit nomination is up to date  that is, letting your fund know who should get your money if you die. Seventh ... nope, that's job done, actually. Forget about it for a while. Make a date to spend an hour or two reviewing it in a year's time, or maybe two. Don't get sucked into fiddling around with your investment options constantly. You pay transaction costs every time you buy and sell and you're probably not as good at it as you think. If you could time the market, you'd have made a motza from share trading and be retired already. If you want to try, do it with your "play money" not your super.

This also means you shouldn't worry about whether your fund has a great app or mobile experience. There are new disruptors that make this a selling point, but it's more important that the investment returns are good and fees are low. Don't buy into the fearmongering about how much you need in retirement. Some very smart people think the super industry's definition of a "comfortable" retirement is inflated. The super industry, naturally, disagrees. I reckon there's plenty of fat in it, but take a look for yourself. The average young person will have a lifetime of compulsory super of at least 9.5 per cent of your salary and this is slated to rise to 12 per cent. If you're aged under 54 now, you can't get to your super until you're at least 60 and you can bet they'll put the age up before you get there. Loading If you think you might need money to buy a home or any other important purpose before you're allowed access to your super, then keep your money outside the system  or use the new first home super saving scheme. You can invest outside of super and earn similar returns  it's not as tax effective, but that's the price of freedom.
"I was scared of him. If I ever was not obedient he would threaten to take my kids away. I was scared of being humiliated. "It was hell for 16 years." Ms Jaffar now supports migrant women as a case worker at the Community Migrant Resource Centre in Parramatta. Shame, secrecy, silence and fear were keeping many new migrant women in the dark about their own sexual and reproductive health, found a recent study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Cultural and religious beliefs were major barriers to many women accessing health services, warned the researchers who held focus groups with 169 single, married, divorced and widowed women who arrived in Australia or Canada from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India and Latin America within the past six years.

Migrant and refugee women had higher rates of sexual health problems, said lead researcher Professor Jane Ussher at Western Sydney University's Translational Health Research Institute. "Many of the women in the focus groups were not allowed to talk or even think about sex before marriage," said Professor Ussher of the study participants, who were aged between 18 to 70 years old and of various religions including Islam (66 per cent), Christianity (20 per cent), Hinduism (7 per cent), Sikhism (2 per cent), and Buddhism (1 per cent). A woman who spoke about sex was tarred as a "whore", "vulgar", or "not a good girl", several women told their focus groups. "Any knowledge that these women have about sexual health issues is often pieced together from female friends, relatives and the media," Professor Ussher said. Their wedding night was often a frightening experience; one Iraqi woman said: "I thought he was doing the wrong things, and I started screaming."

"After the first night, I felt like running back home to my mother," a Tamil woman said. Professor Ussher said there was "a lot of shame around sex and very little knowledge about sexual desire". "They either had no experienced desire or if they had they were not allowed to express it," she said. The exceptions were some Islamic women, whose beliefs dictated a husband must please his wife, but women were still not permitted to ask for sex. Pain and discomfort was a common complaint, but the women felt they could not tell their husbands or stop the encounters.

"I hurts every time," one Afghani woman said. A Sudanese participant said: "I have to keep quiet. In my culture it's shame to talk about this pain, it is considered a normal [part] of having sex." Many said they felt they had no consensual rights and couldn't say no "because God or the angel would punish them", Professor Ussher said. Several women said they were shocked and frightened when they got their first period, thinking they were sick, injured, or they were being punished for some unknown wrongdoing. "I thought I must have ripped something in my belly," one Afghani woman said.

A Somali woman said: "I couldn't look at my father and mother faces [sic]." Many women felt too ashamed to use contraception or feared the contraceptive pill would cause cancer or make them permanently infertile. They had very little knowledge about cervical cancer, or the need for cervical screening. Some believed a pap smear would affect their virginity, and the human papillomavirus vaccine was not considered important for young women. Most women had never heard of STIs except for HIV/AIDS and believed if they were faithful to their husbands they would be safe from infection.

Despite many participants reporting having had urinary tract and yeast infections, they avoided or put off seeing a doctor because they did not know they should and, instead, used home remedies or put their health in the hands of fate or God's will. Many women were too shy to seek out additional information, and there was a lot of fear around talking to health professionals and not knowing what they could offer. Sexual rebellion But several women had found ways to resist control and embrace their sexuality in subtle ways. When they were in the mood, they would put on perfume and acceptably alluring clothing, Professor Ussher said.
Australia is eighth out of the top 30 opioid producing countries in the world., 2012-2014. Credit:Lancet, July 29, 2017 A former adviser to the White House, Professor Humphreys said the two countries with true prescription opioid epidemics were the United States and Canada. "I wrote the article in the hopes that Australia and nations like it would avoid my country's mistakes and take action before the epidemic takes hold," he said. He urged countries to immediately assess and strengthen all available safeguards against the globalisation of the prescription opioid addiction and overdose epidemic. Legally produced pharmaceutical opioids were the origin of the American epidemic and still fuel the problem, he wrote, often by addicting people who later transition to heroin. He added that heroin and gangs dealing with fentanyl  a prescription opioid commonly prescribed for cancer pain and which is 50 to 100 times more concentrated than morphine  had added to the death toll by strategically establishing markets in areas with high prescription opioid use.

The idea that there are good patients with pain, and then some other group of patients is not understanding the complexity of the problem with opioids. Dr Suzanne Nielsen In 2014, figures released by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme found that just fewer than 3 million people had been prescribed at least one opioid analgesic in the previous 12 months, and warned of increasing rates of oxycodone usage. Australia had a relatively high opioid use per capita, but was nowhere near the same stratosphere as the US, said Suzanne Nielsen, a pharmacist and National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre's senior research fellow specialising in prescription drug problems. Increasingly users of illegal opioids and those who got drugs legally were overlapping. To view them as two separate groups was unhelpful and stigmatising, said Dr Nielsen. People with chronic pain did develop opioid use disorders, and some loss of control occurred. And about 40 per cent of those with substance abuse disorders have had chronic pain, she said. "The idea that there are good patients with pain, and then some other group of patients is not understanding the complexity of the problem with opioids," Dr Nielsen said.

Like most people in rehabilitation at Sydney's Odyssey House, John was a poly-drug user. When he was on methadone, adding prescription opioids gave him the closest thing to the high he got from heroin. He would buy pills and prescriptions written for others who had gone to the doctor for pain-relieving medication. Experts say the chronic use of heroin, oxycodone, and other morphine-derived drugs are underlying causes of opioid dependence (the need to keep taking drugs to avoid a withdrawal syndrome) and addiction (intense drug craving and compulsive use). John also found it easy to get a doctor to prescribe painkillers if he mentioned his "back pain" and went doctor shopping until he found someone sympathetic. Last year John overdosed twice when he shot up heroin that he believed had been laced with fentanyl. Although he said he lost everything, including his three children, friends and the jobs that he held down despite his addiction, he didn't lose his life.

He was luckier than musician Prince who died from a fentanyl overdose in 2016, and many others who accidentally overdosed on prescription opioids alone or mixed with other drugs.



New research released this month found accidental overdoses from prescription opioids far exceeded those from heroin. Researchers at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found 68 per cent of the 668 overdose deaths in 2013 were related to pharmaceutical opioids, a contrast from the heroin epidemic of the 1990s when the majority of opioid deaths were caused by illicit drugs. The figures do not include as many as 200 other deaths where opioids contributed to a person's death. NDARC also found opioid-related hospitalisations among Australians aged 30 to 59 years old had steadily increased over the past five years. And many deaths were caused by multiple drug toxicity, which increases the risk of a fatal overdose. Brain abnormalities resulting from the chronic use of heroin, oxycodone, and other morphine-derived drugs were underlying causes of opioid dependenceand addiction, said experts at the US National Institutes of Health. Like John's use of prescription opioids, if heroin was made harder to get, people would turn to opioids, said Dr Wodak. "When Grandpa Bill gets some oxycodone for his back pain because he has cancer of prostrate ...and needs money to buy for a Christmas gift... he will sell the odd tablet," he said.

"If someone else in the family needs money, they may steal grandpa's pills to sell." Dr Wodak said the adverse effects of the painkillers were significant and underestimated. As for John, he is terrified of heroin. Now about to graduate from Odyssey House's program, he described himself as a careful addict; someone who took care to test small amounts first. But his last two overdoses were nothing like anything he had had in the past. Now he is clean and determined to survive for his mother's sake and to reconnect with his children. "My poor old mum is 86 ... I don't want her to die while I am in rehab or in prison," he said.

His mother had outlived two husbands, including a bad alcoholic, and John's 22-year-old brother, who died from suicide many years ago. "She will say 'I am not going to visit you', and two days later she will be there," John said. "Always dropped off packets of socks and underwear; she's been the only person who has stuck with me. "She's never deserted me." Recommendations Much of American policy was designed to stop the flow of illicit drugs, which Dr Wodak said was close to useless in countries such as the United States and Australia, which have large borders.

To address the growing problem, Dr Wodak made six recommendations, including increasing the availability of medical cannabis in Australia. A study published in the Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA) found states with medical marijuana laws had a 24.8 percent lower average annual opioid overdose death rate compared to states without such laws. In 2010, that translated to about 1,729 fewer deaths than expected. Dr Wodak also recommended: Loading
A search is under way for three missing US Marines after a military heli-plane crashed off the coast of Queensland on Saturday.

The aircraft, an MV-22 Osprey, crashed near the Shoalwater Bay military training area, north of Rockhampton, at about 4pm.

An MV-22 Osprey pictured at an RAAF Base in Townsville. Credit:US Army

A US defence official said there were 26 people on board the aircraft when it crashed, and only twenty-three of those had been rescued by Saturday night.

Other US military aircraft and boats responded to the area, where they are combing the water for any sign of the missing service members.
Police will decide on Sunday if they should charge, release or continue questioning the final man being held after a series of terrorism raids were carried out across Sydney a week ago.

The raids allegedly uncovered two plots to target passenger planes flying from Sydney to the Middle East by placing an explosive or gas in checked baggage.

An injured Khaled Merhi is taken away in an ambulance after being arrested in Surry Hills on July 29. Credit:Seven News

One plot was abandoned at the last minute on July 15, after an improvised explosive device was taken as far as the international terminal at Sydney Airport, the Australian Federal Police said on Friday.

It is alleged another plot was being planned when the raids were carried out. The plots were arranged by an Islamic State operative in Syria who sent bomb components to Australia in air cargo, police said. International intelligence agencies intercepted communications from the operative.
He was a keen surfer, having competed along the New South Wales coast and Gold Coast, until his battle with mental illness forced him from further major competitions. Just before his disappearance, Karl had spent five weeks in hospital receiving treatment for a mental illness and had been "up and down" at home. He had had trouble sleeping, become confused at times, and had trouble planning and processing everyday activities. But, he had just started back at work as a fully qualified carpenter. There have been three reported sightings of Karl on the Gold Coast, between October/November last year and March/April this year. Karl had been battling depression and anxiety since he was 16. He had been a prominent surfer, competing along the New South Wales coast and up to the Gold Coast, but mental illness forced him from further major competitions.

"Everything became very confusing and we were trying to understand the disease, what it was going to mean for him and how he was going to deal with it in his life," Ms Richards said. Karl was last seen on September 2, 2016 in Maroubra in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. "He just couldn't really continue pursuing it (surfing) to that level anymore. But he continued to free surf and just do local comps in our area." Karl's disappearance took a heavy toll on his family and friends, especially his younger brother. "His little brother was having trouble at school, he was having trouble interacting with his little friends, he was becoming aggressive and just had no concept of why someone he loved would just disappear suddenly," Ms Richards said.

"He had the fear that other people would just disappear out of his life, because he is only five and doesn't know any other life." The Maroubra community was also shocked by his disappearance. "He was very well known in our community for his surfing and simply because he had grown up and been to school there. He's missed by a lot of people, people can't believe that he's gone, it's really hit Maroubra very hard," Ms Richards said. Since Karl's disappearance, three potential sightings have been reported from the Gold Coast area, which Ms Richards said would make sense because, other than Maroubra, Karl would know that area best. The first potential sighting was made during October/November in North Burleigh, a mutual Facebook friend contacted Ms Richards and said they had seen Karl walking in the area during their morning run.

This was followed by a woman reporting she had seen Karl fishing near Tallebudgera Creek every day on her morning walk for four to five weeks during February and March. However, after Cyclone Debbie hit at the end of March, Karl was not seen in the area again. During a trip up to the Gold Coast, shortly after the Tallebudgera Creek sighting, Ms Richards was driving along the Gold Coast Highway near Burleigh Heads and Miami, when she was flagged down by another motorist, who recognised Karl from the missing persons poster on Ms Richards' car. The woman said she hadn't seen Karl for a week or so, but had met him through a mutual friend and believed he lived in the area. "It's only now that we have these pieces of information and we now believe that there is a possibility that we may see him again and be reunited that we're starting to recover," Ms Richards said. "I think I have experienced a lot of what Karl has had to experience, even though I don't have depression.
Two separate fires at Gold Coast primary schools this week have been declared as suspicious by police.

Initial investigations suggest that in both cases, flammable material was pushed under classroom doors and set alight.

Both Gold Coast primary school classrooms suffered smoke damage. (File pic) Credit:Morten Boe

The first suspected arson attack happened on Wednesday at Miami State School on Oceanic Drive at Mermaid Waters.

Emergency services were called about 7.20pm and extinguished a small fire in one of the classrooms, which caused only minor damage.
Rome: A Polish man has been arrested in the Italian city of Milan over the alleged kidnapping of a British model who was held captive for six days.

The police say the man, Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, a Polish citizen who lives in the UK, was charged with kidnapping for extortion purposes.

Italian police released photos of Lukasz Herba who has been arrested on kidnapping charges.

Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera reports the 20-year-old model who has not been named was lured to a fake photo shoot on July 11.

Based on court documents, the newspaper says she was then drugged, handcuffed and put into a suitcase.
New York Times: The United States hit North Korea at the United Nations with a proposed set of unprecedented economic penalties, punctuated by a one-third cut in its export revenue, to punish the isolated country for its missile and nuclear tests.

The penalties were contained in a draft Security Council resolution to penalise North Korea that US diplomats have been working on since North Korea launched its first successful intercontinental ballistic missile a month ago, demonstrating an ability to attack the US homeland.

United States UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, right, speaks during United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea's latest launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday. Credit:AP

North Korea, which considers the United States its most dangerous and implacable enemy, conducted a second successful ballistic missile test last week.

Under North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, the country has boasted of its increasingly sophisticated missiles in rejection of UN prohibitions. The North has also threatened to punish the United States and its other perceived foes -- South Korea and Japan -- with a "nuclear sword of justice."
A woman who spotted a fellow plane passenger texting about sexually assaulting children has led police to arrest two people and rescue two potential victims, according to authorities.

Michael Kellar, 56, of Tacoma, Washington, was arrested after arriving in Mineta San Jose International Airport airport on a flight from Seattle on Monday night, police said.

Michael Kellar, 56, was arrested by police when the plane landed. Credit:AP

Officers also arrested 50-year-old Gail Burworth at her home in Tacoma, Washington.

It appears that two children, aged five and seven, were at risk of being sexually assaulted, according to investigators.
PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten  Parliament invites the public to send in nominations for the Annual President of Parliament Award.

The application documents are on the Parliaments website. Persons have until August 15, 2017, to submit their nominations.

The website address is: www.sxmparliament.org and can be found under the documents section of the site. Select the link and you will be able to download the application form.

The purpose of the award is to honor young persons on Sint Maarten that are a great example to the youth and who have contributed positively to the community and the country.

Nominations can be submitted by any citizen of Sint Maarten who believes that the individual that he/she is nominating meets the criteria.

The eligibility criteria are:

- the candidate must have the Dutch nationality and/or has been legally residing in Sint Maarten for 10-years or more consecutively, and has been registered in the Civil Registry for that period of time; must be between the ages of 15-24 years;

- has made a worthwhile contribution to the development of the community and the country; these contributions/achievements must have taken place within the last three years;

- contributions/achievements must have been made while the individual was acting as a private citizen, not as an appointed or elected government official;

- and must have demonstrated a capacity for leadership and ability to motivate.

An award committee will be established each year consisting of three members of Parliament. Members of the committee will review the nomination documents prior to the selection meeting and select three nominees.

During the selection meeting, the President of Parliament selects the recipient of the award based on the recommendations of the award committee.

The award will be presented yearly to the recipient during the reception ceremony at the Opening of the Parliamentary Year.

Nominations for the Annual President of Parliament may be submitted to The Parliament of Sint Maarten, attention, Annual President of Parliament Award Committee, Wilhelminastraat 1, Philipsburg or via e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
PHILIPSBURG:--- "My day was made", to use a colloquial expression, with the announcement by our Finance Minister that my proposal as approved in 2 unanimous motions of Parliament regarding the English language was being followed up upon by the government of St. Maarten.

The first motion on this topic was of September 17, 2015, and instructs the government to come up with "a plan to establish English as the first and 'mother tongue' language for St. Maarten.

The motion continued to ask for a plan to accomplish the aforementioned, with specific attention for the promotion of the English language in the civil service of St. Maarten.

In a follow up to this motion, Parliament was informed that the money to execute this ambitious plan to promote English as our national language was not available.

Hence , a follow-up motion I initiated in December of 2016, again passed unanimously, instructed government to allocate Naf. 500.000,-- in the first amendment to the government's 2017 budget for development of the plan: "English as the first official language of St. Maarten".

This matter of English as the primary official language of communication in our society has had my keen attention for several years and in my different capacities, because I firmly believe in language as an enabler. It is part of our heritage and part of our personal, social and cultural identity.

Many, many years ago, St. Maarten made a bold step when in a then primarily Dutch educational system, several schools went over to English as the language of instruction on St. Maarten.

We need that "boldness" now to ensure that students who came and are still coming out of our dual language educational system are not stymied in their further development and aspirations to contribute to their society. This means that we also need to pay attention to the areas, such as our justice system, where for obvious reasons the dominance of Dutch is prevalent.

The disparity between the formal and informal usage of our 2 official languages in my opinion calls for a national language policy and ultimately a national ordinance, and professional advice soonest how best to navigate to our desired goal.

S. Wescot-Williams, MP/Chairlady of Parliament
PHILIPSBURG:--- In connection with the upcoming yearly August Monday Celebration which is scheduled to be held on the island of Anguilla on August 7th 2017 the Police/Immigration Department is sending out the following traveling advisory. All residents of Sint Maarten traveling to Anguilla by boat from the Dutch side of the island should have all basic travel documents in order and at hand. All tourists requiring a Visa to enter Sint Maarten and a Visa to travel Anguilla should make sure their Visa, tickets and all other travelling documents are also in order.

This advisory has been sent to avoid travelers from experiencing any inconvenience or unnecessary delays.
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Claim: Starbucks refused free product to Marines serving in Iraq, saying the company didn't support the war or anyone taking part in it. Rating: About this rating False

In these days of heightened patriotism and concern among Americans for their military troops, any rumor about a corporate giant's snubbing those who are putting their lives on the line overseas is bound to make a number of folks hot under the collar, which is what a message originally circulated via e-mail back in 2004 did. That viral missive proclaimed that Starbucks had not only refused a request for free product from some U.S. Marines serving in Iraq, but had retorted that "they don't support the war [in Iraq] and anyone in it":

I have indeed confirmed the fact that Starbucks charged rescue workers $130.00 for 3 cases of bottled water on September 11, 2001, so the following info that was passed on to me would not be surprising to me at all!! Dear everyone: Please pass this along to anyone you know, this needs to get out in the open. Recently Marines over in Iraq supporting this country in OIF wrote to Starbucks because they wanted to let them know how much they liked their coffee and try to score some free coffee grounds. Starbucks wrote back telling the Marines thanks for their support in their business, but that they don't support the War and anyone in it and that they won't send them the Coffee. So as not to offend them we should not support in buying any Starbucks products. As a War vet and writing to you patriots I feel we should get this out in the open. I know this War might not be very popular with some folks, but that doesn't mean we don't support the boys on the ground fighting street to street and house to house for what they and I believe is right. If you feel the same as I do then pass this along, or you can discard it and I'll never know. Thanks very much for your support to me, and I know you'll all be there again here soon when I deploy once more. Semper Fidelis,

Sgt Howard C. Wright

1st Force Recon Co

1st Plt PLT RTO

A September 2008 version changed "marines" to "Royal Marines," thereby altering the group of soldiers being slighted from American to British. We first encountered the Starbucks story in late April 2004 when it turned up in our inbox.

We got in touch with the e-mail's writer and asked him about the events that led to his penning the note about Starbucks' response to Marines who had come to them looking for a donation of coffee. Sgt. Wright heard the story from a friend, who had gotten it from someone else. He talked things over with the Marine who had supposedly contacted Starbucks, and that, coupled with that night's televised news about the goings on in Iraq, made his blood boil. He pounded out his thoughts into the form of an e-mail, which he mailed to ten of his friends.

It is that e-mail which continues to circulate to this day. Sgt. Wright has since learned that what he heard was in error, and he has subsequently tried to set things right by issuing the following retraction:

Dear Readers, Almost 5 months ago I sent an email to you my faithful friends. I did a wrong though that needs to be cleared up. I heard from word of mouth about how Starbucks said they didn't support the war and all. I was having enough of that kind of talk and didn't do my research properly like I should have. This is not true. Starbucks supports the men and women in uniform. They have personally contacted me and I have been sent many of their Company's policy on this issue. So I apologize for this quick wrong letter I sent out to you. Now I ask that you all pass this email around to everyone you passed the last one to. Thank you very much for understanding about this. Howard C. Wright

Sgt USMC

Sgt. Wright has been unable to produce the reply his buddy supposedly received from Starbucks, and the folks at Starbucks deny engaging in any correspondence on such matter prior to this rumor coming along. Given that no copy of the letter appears to exist, neither one resting in the hands of the Sergeant's comrade, nor one residing in Starbucks' files, the rumor about the java vendor's harsh response to a coffee-hunting Marine should be dismissed.

As for what Starbucks has to say about the matter, they have long since refuted the rumor on their website, stating:

On behalf of Starbucks' more than 140,000 dedicated partners (employees), we want to set the record straight on an old rumor concerning Starbucks lack of support for the military and our troops. This rumor, dating back to 2004, claims a lack of Starbucks support for the U.S. Marines, and has evolved to include a lack of support for the British Royal Marines. In both instances, the rumor is not, and has never been, true. When Starbucks learned of the original email, we immediately contacted the author, a Marine Sergeant, who subsequently sent an e-mail to his original distribution list correcting the mistake. Unfortunately, rumors have a way of continuing even after the truth has been revealed. At Starbucks, we respect the efforts of the men and women who serve their country in the military, including our fellow partners who serve during this time of war. In fact, Starbucks has partnered with the American Red Cross and the United Service Organizations (USO) to provide coffee to relief efforts during times of conflict, donating more than 141,000 lbs of coffee and over one million 3-packs of Starbucks VIA. Additionally, troops all over the world are enjoying Starbucks VIA Ready Brew in care packages they receive not only from Starbucks, but from their family and friends as well. In 2011, Starbucks provided over 220,000 3-packs of Starbucks VIA to the USO for their care package program.

Although Starbucks does not themselves directly donate to military personnel, they do get their coffee into the hands of those serving in the U.S. armed forces through their partnership with the USO.

Under the terms of the Starbucks' corporate giving policy, had such a request as presented in the much-circulated e-mail been made, the coffee giant would have had to say no to it. Such a refusal would have been in keeping with the corporation's donations policy, in that Starbucks chooses to direct their charitable resources within the global community through grants from The Starbucks Foundation programs and to communities where its stores are located through local involvement. According to the guidelines in place at the time, a request for coffee from soldiers serving overseas would have been turned down.

However, while it is true Starbucks as a corporate entity could not have donated coffee to java-seeking Marines, it would have passed along such a request to any number of its employees looking for military mailing addresses to send product to, as they have already done on many occasions. Starbucks partners receive one pound of free coffee each week as an employee benefit (known as "partner mark-out"). Many of them have elected to send their weekly mark-out to members of the military or military families, and related organizations.

The claim that Starbucks would ever have said "they don't support the War and anyone in it" is false, in light of what various news accounts show us about the coffee retailer's attitude towards those who serve in the armed forces. In addition to what Starbucks themselves say of their beneficences to soldiers, we know from different newspaper articles of other instances of glad-hearted support. In July 2004, a Starbucks in Cincinnati was reported to have been practically overflowing with people making yellow ribbons in support of Keith "Matt" Maupin, a soldier whose fate was then uncertain (it has subsequently been reported that his remains have been found and positively identified), along with red, white, and blue ones to show support for American troops in Iraq. In June 2004 in Cleveland, when the mother of one serviceman called her local Starbucks to arrange for the shipping of some java to her son, the employees at that store insisted on paying for 30 pounds of coffee as their gift.

As to another of the claims made in the e-mail, while it is true someone working at a New York City Starbucks did indeed charge ambulance workers $130 for three cases of water on September 11, 2001, it would not be quite fair to say Starbucks did this. However, act of a single, misguided employee or not, the corporation alone bears responsibility for afterwards spurning a number of opportunities to offer the rescue workers their money back or apologize to them  though the coffee giant finally took both those actions, they did so only after the story attracted online and print media attention.

In addition to the "rescue workers charged for water" and the "spurned servicemen" story that is the focus of this piece, Starbucks has been the butt of a number of other unsavory rumors and mistaken beliefs just in the past few years, including:

A 2002 poster promoting two new iced drinks prompted some consumers to see in it reminders of the hijacked planes hitting the twin towers.

In 2001, a false story spread in e-mail about the wife of the owner of a Thailand Starbucks telling non-white customers the coffee shop was not for Asians.

The company's 2003 termination of its business interests in Israel caused some to believe Starbucks had abandoned that nation in favor of being able to continue to do business in Arab countries.

In 2002, a prankster who scanned and distributed online a coupon entitling the bearer to a free Creme Frappuccino caused any amount of bad feeling to be directed at the company  those duped into believing they were entitled to free product were often angry at the stores who refused to honor the fake coupons rather than with the unnamed person who had deceived them.

Starbucks, like any other successful corporation that has a strong public presence, is fated to operate with the Damocles sword of public opinion hanging above its head. No corporation can fund everyone who comes to it looking for assistance, which means some deserving groups will always be refused. In less emotionally-charged times, the logic of such a policy is better understood, but the current climate makes it a dicey public relations proposition at best to say no to anything having to do with soldiers.

Variations: An April 2007 version of this rumor changed Starbucks to Oscar Mayer and coffee to hot dogs. In response, Oscar Mayer posted a denial on its web site:
Everything you need to know about No. 20 Notre Dame's game vs. Navy Saturday in Baltimore
KENT  Downtown Kent is like something out of Gilmore Girls. Antique shops and galleries reside in old houses with wraparound porches. The local market is filled with shelves of locally made ice cream and honeys in glass jars. Shops are cluttered with flyers advertising things like the local production of The Music Man and an apartment for rent downtown. Its fitting, considering the show was actually based on Washington Depot, which is less than a half hour away.

But as I sat in J.P. Gifford Market on North Main Street eating a breakfast sandwich, I noticed something unusual about Kent. Wandering down the sidewalks of North Main Street were hikers touting bulky, rectangular backpacks. With bandanas tied around their heads, they looked like a scene out of Cheryl Strayeds Wild, walking the streets as though it were another dusty mountain trail.
The State Board of Educations recent rubber-stamping of Capital Prep Harbor charter schools expansion in Bridgeport is yet another example of a common theme in education reform: trampling community will. Capital Prep, which opened in 2015 over the objection the Bridgeports Board of education and community members, does not reflect the community. The school serves no English Language Learners, though 15 percent of Bridgeports students are ELL. The school has a 37 percent out-of-school suspension rate, over twice the rate in Bridgeports public schools. Bridgeports Board of Education unanimously opposed the schools expansion. Bridgeport already must pay several million dollars annually to charters. As the superintendent testified, the expansion will drain an additional $200,000 from Bridgeports budget; money it cannot afford. Last year, owing to decreased state funding, Bridgeport had to fill a $16 million budget gap. The state board ignored Bridgeports needs.

As recent education reform failures demonstrate, robbing local districts of decision-making power over education policies is a recipe for disaster. By contrast, reforms that emanate from the school districts themselves have shown success.

The ultimate in top-down reform for struggling districts is state takeover. Two much-hyped state takeovers occurred in Tennessee  the Achievement School District (ASD), and Detroit  the Educational Achievement Authority (EAA). After years of consistent failure, both recently closed, returning control of schools to the districts.

ASD and EAA employed reforms greatest hits. Outside managers were hired to run the districts. Charter schools proliferated. They used ill-trained Teach for America recruits.

EAA also employed student-centered personalized computer-based learning, which caused 10,000 struggling students to fall further behind academically.

Both reform districts were plagued with high teacher turnover, a major factor in their failures, and rampant financial mismanagement.

State takeover made things worse for students in the ASD and EAA. In 2015, only one fourth-grader in Detroits EAA passed the state math test. After years of EAA control, only three of the 15 EAA schools moved off the list of the lowest 5 percent in the state. In Tennessee, the results were similar, with the ASDs charter schools performing the worst.

After years of failure, both states admitted defeat. EAA was labeled a train-wreck of educational policy. Tennessee was recently ranked the worst in education, owing in large part to its severe shortage of trained teachers.

In a telling comment, one departing ASD chief, charter founder Chris Barbic, admitted that it is harder to succeed in a zoned neighborhood school environment, rather than when he was able to cherry-pick charter students.

Incredibly, other states replicate these failed ideas. Charter expansion, questionable teacher licensing and state-imposed receivers are still being pushed despite lackluster, if not failing, results.

At the same time, officials ignore the slow and steady progress made by districts that engage in home-grown educational improvement. Long Beach, California, and Union City, New Jersey, are good examples. Both districts are diverse and majority economically disadvantaged. Yet both have been able to sustain improvement by focusing on the unique needs and strengths of their communities.

As reported by journalist Jeff Bryant, Long Beach resists reform trends, instead focusing on time-tested educational policies. It increased resources in its schools. Instead of focusing on rooting out teacher incompetence, the district provides additional supports. The district forged strong relationships with local community colleges and universities. Long Beach State trains 70 percent of the districts teachers, who student teach in the citys schools. The district has a 92 percent teacher-retention rate. Years of focus on supporting teachers and children have paid off. The districts graduation rate has climbed steadily, often beating the state average. District alumni who attend Long Beach City College graduate at higher rates than their classmates.

Union City, New Jersey, as chronicled in David Kirps book, Improbable Scholars, is a similar district-grown success story. The district received a sizable infusion of resources as a result of the Abbott school funding case. The money was spent on preschool, reducing class size and instructional initiatives that this majority Spanish-speaking population needed. The architect of much of the reform was a bilingual-teacher-turned-administrator who spent his career in the district. As in Long Beach, struggling teachers are provided support, rather than fired. Stability is a key to Union Citys steady progress.

In contrast to failed state takeovers, that leave children and communities behind in their wake, district-led improvement methods have staying power precisely because they use the needs of their children and communities as their starting point. It is a shame that Connecticut officials ignore our own local, well-informed voices.

Wendy Lecker is a columnist for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group and is senior attorney at the Education Law Center.
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STAMFORD - Because the Army didnt forget, Bud Byrnes is coming home.

No matter that his B-24 bomber went down in Papua, New Guinea, long ago in 1943, killing all 12 airmen aboard.

No matter that portions of their remains were found and buried three times, in group graves around the world.

No matter that all the family members Byrnes wrote home to are gone, save his big sister, Anna, now 99.

Seventy-four years after his death, 2nd Lt. Patrick J. Bud Byrnes Jr. will be remembered at an Aug. 19 funeral Mass at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in the old family neighborhood downtown, then laid to rest beside his younger sisters, Betty and Rita, in Queen of Peace Cemetery on Rock Rimmon Road.

Its because the Army didnt forget, said Byrnes niece, Anmarie Byrnes Galgano, who was born three decades after his death and  until her family learned that DNA tests and a high-school ring found at the crash site had confirmed the identity of his remains  knew little about him.

All I knew was that he died in World War II, Galgano said. They were a close Irish family. He was very much loved. But they didnt discuss it.

Maybe it was the Irish way, Galgano said. Maybe it was just too painful. Or maybe they didnt want to make it seem like their sacrifice was greater than someone elses, she said. So many families were making such huge sacrifices at the time.

Since the news of the DNA identification in June, however, Galgano learned a lot about Uncle Bud, who was 23 when he died. Her Aunt Anna, it turns out, had a treasure trove of information on his life, and the Army has presented a full report on his death.

Bud was the second of five children born to Patrick and Elizabeth Byrnes, who lived on Clinton Avenue downtown. He was a student at nearby St. Johns School, then attached to the church, and St. Basils Preparatory School. When he graduated, he bought a gold class ring with a garnet stone and his initials, PJB, engraved inside the band.

Bud - friendly and smart, nearly 6 feet, 3 inches tall with hazel eyes and auburn hair  was close to Anna, only 18 months older, and teased her about everything, Galgano learned.

He never liked any boy she had her eye on - he would find something about them to make fun of, Galgano said.

Bud Byrnes registered for the draft in July 1941, five months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and plunged the United States into World War II. He earned his wings as an Army Air Corps aviation navigator in March 1943, and shipped out to the South Pacific that June.

Before he left, Anna gave him a diary. He kept it religiously, writing about movies he saw with fellow airmen, attending daily Mass, and looking forward to letters from home. Galgano recently found the diary in her aunts house.

It says that on Aug. 30, 1943, he was a pall bearer for a soldier named Murphy who was killed during a mission the day before, Galgano said. That day he wrote that he was going to bed early because his crew had a mission at 4 a.m. on Aug. 31. He flew in a B-24. It was a heavy plane and the airfield was surrounded by hills.

Something went wrong. The B-24 hit the side of a hill right after takeoff. Two days later, a search team found the wreckage and some remains but could not retrieve them because the area was covered with unexploded bombs.

The search team buried what remains they could at the crash site. Two years later, with the war nearly over, another search team found more remains. They placed them in containers in a single casket, which they marked unknown and sent to the U.S. Armed Forces Cemetery in Brisbane, Australia.

The casket later was sent to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo., for reburial.

More remains were recovered in 1983, along with an ID tag, shoe fragments, a metal button with the U.S. Army insignia, and a mans ring inscribed PJB. They were sent to an Army laboratory in Hawaii, now called the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

In 2008 the agency contacted Galganos father, Bill Byrnes, to say they were trying to identify remains that could include those of his brother and asked whether he would send a DNA sample. He did.

We got all excited. My father thought we would have results soon, Galgano said. But then he got a letter saying thank you for the submission, we are keeping it on file. So we put it out of our minds.

At one point Galgano had to go to St. Louis for her job and visited Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery to look for her uncles burial site.

It was a group grave, she said. There was a plaque and his name was on it along with the other crew members. I called my father. He cried.

Last spring, Bill Byrnes, a retired Stamford High School social studies teacher, died at 84. This spring, the Army called.

Its very sad that my father isnt here for this, Galgano said. He was 11 when Bud left for the service.

When they told Anna, she cried like a baby, Galgano said. She instructed Galgano to look in certain places in her house, where Galgano found letters Bud wrote from the war, his diary, and other paperwork the Army sent home after his death.

No one knows how deeply Anna Byrnes was affected by the loss of her brother. She joined the Navy as a nurse soon after he was killed and made a career of it, rising to the rank of captain.

In her earlier life she would meet someone but say to herself, Well, Bud wouldnt like this one, Galgano said. I always wondered if that was part of the reason she never married.

Galgano said she, her brother and cousins are grateful for the opportunity to learn about their Uncle Bud and their parents generation, and thank the Army for not forgetting.

They are treating this as if Bud just died last week, Galgano said. A military guard will be at the airport to greet his remains and he will be buried with full military honors. Their respect for the sanctity of life is amazing. They are still taking care of these boys.

angelacarella@

stamfordadvocate.com
F or those who want to get away from frantic parents on holiday or frantic parenting and just want to enjoy a drink in a charming place between heaven and sea, then the adults only Amare Marbella Beach Hotel in Costa del Sol is one to consider.

The hotels Mediterranean name tries to capture the essence of this private paradise. Amare not only means love, but mar gives the feel of the sea.

Where is it?

It's set on the beach front, at the heart of Marbellas old town.

Design details

Its most luxurious room, Room Oh La La The One has a balcony that is open to the full force of the Med. It is spacious with glass walls and modern decoration.

Adults only hotel: perfect for couples or singles (Amare Marbella Beach Hotel) / Hotel Amare Marbella

Which room?

There are six types of rooms to choose from. Depending on the scale of luxury each guest desires, all rooms are modern and trendy with plenty of sunlight. The top rooms will have touches like a pillow menu, satellite TV, padded bedspreads and bathrooms with rainfall showers.

Rooms are modern and trendy (Amare Marbella Beach Hotel) / Hotel Amare Marbella

On the menu

Guests are spoilt for choice. The hotel is home to the award-winning and Michelin-starred Messina Restaurant, which serves elaborate local dishes such as Malaga Goat and fish and shellfish from Marbellas coast. Other places to eat within the hotel are Mare Nostrum Restaurant; Verite; Belvue Tooftop Bar; Amare Beach Restaurant and Amare Lounge.

Parpatana de Atn by CHef Mauricio Giovanini of Michelin-starred REstaurante Messina (Amare Marbella Beach Hotel) / Hotel Amare Marbella

Anything else I should know?

Although the hotel is a destination itself with its spa and various events, there is a myriad of things to see in Marbella. It has places of cultural interest such as the 15th century church, Ermita de Santiago. Those who like to wander can enjoy a walk by the promenade or venture out of the hotel and have dinner at Los Naranjos Square, where the fragrance of orange blossom lingers.

The hotel offers its guests with a free circuit with its Spa by Germaine de Capuccini (Amare Marbella Beach Hotel) / Hotel Amare Marbella

Best for

The hotel is an exclusive hotel for adults only, making the perfect couples retreat and singles holiday.

When to go

Those who wish to be under the blue skies should visit in the summer.

Enjoy summer walks through Marbella's old town (Amare Marbella Beach Hotel) / Hotel Amare Marbella

How to get there

Getting to the hotel is pretty straight forward. Marbella is a 40-minute drive from Malaga Airport. The hotel offers a private airport transport for a fee. As it is right in the heart of downtown Marbella, once there, no transportation is needed when exploring Marbellas old town.

amarehotels.com/amare-marbella.

Travel in style and hassle free by getting a chauffeur-driven taxi. Blacklane operates in more than 250 cities worldwide.
A British model was abducted in Milan and put up for auction online after being lured to a sham photoshoot.

Italian police said the 20-year-old woman was attacked on July 11 and kidnapped for six days.

She is believed to have been drugged and transported in a bag to a secluded village near Turin, before being released on July 17.

It is thought two men tried to sell her on the internet for more than $300,000  or 230,000  and demanded ransom money from the models agent to secure her safe release,

Polish man Pawel Lukasz Herba, who was arrested in Milan on suspicion of orchestrating the abduction of a British model. / AFP/Getty Images

The woman was kept handcuffed to furniture but was freed and taken to the British embassy in Milan, despite the ransom not being paid.

It has been reported that the captor demanded 50,000 upon the woman's release and threatened to kill her if she told police about the incident.

A 30-year-old Polish man, said to be a resident in Britain, was arrested on July 18 on suspicion of kidnap and extortion, state police said.

Italian police said they are working with officials in Britain and Poland as they continue to investigate.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We have been providing consular support to a British woman in Italy and are in touch with local authorities."
T he United Nations Security Council has unanimously backed new sanctions on North Korea as tensions rise over its missile programme.

The council agreed on Saturday on a fresh resolution which will ban exports worth over $1 billion and prohibit countries from giving additional permits to North Korean workers.

The measure, drafted by the US and negotiated with North Koreas ally China, is part of a bid to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to talks over its nuclear and missile programmes.

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley speaks to China's ambassador to the UN Liu Jieyi. / AP

Last month the secretive state carried out its first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles which were capable of reaching the United States.

The new UN resolution bans North Korea from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood products estimated to be worth over $1 billion. This represents one-third of its total exports last year, estimated at $3 billion.

According to Reuters, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said: We should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem. Not even close. The North Korean threat has not left us, it is rapidly growing more dangerous.

Kim Jong Un celebrates Missile Launch

Further action is required. The United States is taking and will continue to take prudent defensive measures to protect ourselves and our allies.

Earlier this year tensions grew even further after Kim Jong-un accused the US and South Korea of carrying out military drills.

Sanctions have already been in place since 2006 over the countrys weapons programmes.
A British cyber security expert has admitted creating software that harvests bank details, US presecutors have said.

Marcus Hutchins, 23, found global recognition when he discovered a kill-switch that curbed the global WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled the NHS in May.

But he now faces charged in the US over creating and distributing Kronos malware which can be used to gain bank details, having been arrested in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Hutchins, from Ilfracombe in Devon, was granted bail for 23,000 after an appearance in court in Las Vegas. He plans to plead not guilty to all six charges he faces.

Hutchins thwarted the virus that took computer files hostage around the world / AP

Dan Cowhig, prosecuting, detailed evidence against Hutchins, which included an alleged confession during a police interview.

"He admitted he was the author of the code of Kronos malware and indicated he sold it," Mr Cowhig said.

He said the researcher also known as MalwareTech and his unnamed co-defendant, who is still at large, were caught in a sting operation when undercover officers bought the code.

Prosecutors claim the software was sold for 2,000 dollars (1,522) in digital currency in June 2015.

Other evidence comes from chat logs where he complains to the co-defendant that he did not receive a fair share of the money, Mr Cowhig said.

After the hearing, Hutchins' lawyer Adrian Lobo denied he is the author and said he would plead not guilty to all of the charges, which date from between July 2014 and July 2015.

She said: "He has dedicated his life to researching malware, not trying to harm people. Use the internet for good is what he has done.

"He was completely shocked, this isn't' something he anticipated. He came here for a work-related conference and he was fully anticipating to go back home and had no reason to be fearful of coming or going from the United States."

Hutchins smiled to the press packing the gallery as he was led into the court dressed in a prison-issued yellow jumpsuit with "detainee" stamped on the back, and bright orange Crocs shoes.

The surfer spoke softly as he answered procedural questions and confirmed his identity.

District judge Nancy Koppe ordered his release on bail considering he has no criminal history and because the allegations date back two years.

She was also impressed by letters from cybersecurity colleagues.

He cannot access the internet, must be monitored by GPS, surrender his passport and only reside in Clark County, Nevada, and within the Eastern District of Wisconsin where he will appear in court on Tuesday.

At that hearing Hutchins, who works for Los Angeles-based computer security firm Kryptos Logic, is expected to formally enter his pleas.
SCOTTSBLUFF  With the school year fast approaching, volunteers with United Way of Western Nebraska wrapped up its Stuff the Bus Campaign with a summers end cookout.

The Scottsbluff Main Street Market hosted United Way volunteers as they grilled hamburgers on Aug. 4 with some of the proceeds going to the Stuff the Bus Campaign. Through July and August, residents of Scotts Bluff, Box Butte and Dawes counties are encouraged to donate new school supplies to support children as they head back to school. United Way Pacesetter companies also bring in what theyve collected from employees.

The school supplies are delivered to eight area schools and distributed to students in need. The program brings those children the tools they need to proudly start and succeed in school.

Families in need of assistance may contact their childrens school counselor or principal to participate in the program.

Area schools that receive school supplies include Gering, Scottsbluff, Mitchell, Morrill, Minatare, Bayard, Bridgeport, Banner County and the Community Action Partnership of Western Nebraska School.

Susan Wiedeman, marketing director with Panhandle Coop, said her company is one of the Pacesetter sponsors for United Way and has been hosting the cookout for the past few years.

Were accepting all kinds of school supplies, from glue sticks and pencils, to notebook paper and markers.

She said most school websites and businesses that sell school supplies will have a list of items that students need to start the school year.

Last year we received about 111 requests for school supply backpacks from the schools, Wiedeman said. Supplies that dont go into the backpacks go into totes or boxes for distribution to the school districts. 

Any cash donations are redeemed into gift cards that are also given to the school districts for student supplies.

United Way is still accepting monetary donations to purchase additional school supplies. Call the office at 308-635-2522 for information.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue issued a proclamation Thursday declaring Aug. 6-12 to be National Farmers Market Week. This is the eighteenth year USDA has supported local producers by encouraging families to meet, and buy from, the farmers and other vendors at their local farmers market.

The proclamation Perdue signed notes farmers markets and other agricultural direct marketing outlets contribute approximately $9 billion each year to the U.S. economy and serve as significant outlets by which small-to-medium, new and beginning, and veteran agricultural producers market agricultural products, generating revenue that supports the sustainability of family farms and the revitalization of rural communities nationwide.

Throughout the week, thousands of U.S. farmers markets will highlight the range of produce, fruit, meat, dairy and specialty products available from their local and regional farmers. USDAs National Farmers Market Directory makes it easy to locate farmers markets in towns and neighborhoods across the country. Buying directly from farmers and ag-entrepreneurs has an outsized impact by helping diversify farm incomes and supporting other businesses by keeping more money in the local economy.

In addition to being good for the farmers and convenient for consumers, farmers markets are a gathering place that help build a sense of community.

Local farmers markets include the 18th Street Farmers Market Saturdays in downtown Scottsbluff from 8 to 11 a.m.; the Morrill Farmers Market, Tuesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; The Torrington Farmers Market, on Thursdays, 4 to 6 p.m.; The Bridgeport Farmers Market Wednesdays from 4 to 7:30 p.m.; Cheyenne County Farmers Market in Sidney, Saturdays from 8 to 11 a.m.; and the Alliance Farmers Market Tuesdays from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
SCOTTSBLUFF  West Nebraska Blood Center is currently requesting donations of A or O blood types.

As a major supplier for blood products to Nebraska panhandle hospitals, the donor center relies on regular and new donors to help maintain its supply of all blood types.

Donors must be healthy and meet other basic eligibility requirements. Teenagers age 16 and above who have written parental consent can also donate. The donation process usually takes less than one hour. Donors will complete a donor registration form, health history, and mini-physical (i.e., temperature, blood pressure, pulse). It is helpful to eat and drink plenty of fluids before donating blood. The blood collection takes approximately 8 to 10 minutes, after which you will be given juice and a cookie.

To schedule an appointment to donate blood or for more information, call West Nebraska Blood Center at 308-630-2477. The Donor Center is located next to the Park Bench Cafe, on the main floor of Regional West Medical Center. It is open Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
A white University of Kentucky student accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs says she will withdraw from the school. The decision announced Tuesday by a lawyer for 22-year-old Sophia Rosing came after hundreds of students rallied on campus the night before. News outlets report the students called for unity and for the university to quickly address the situation. Officials say Rosing has been charged with assault, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday afternoon. The altercation at Boyd Hall was captured on video and posted to multiple social media platforms.
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As Monsanto, the Creve Coeur-based seed and pesticide giant, prepares to merge with Germanys Bayer, observers wonder how the marriage will affect the companys reputation in India, one of the largest markets in the world.

Monsanto has a complicated relationship with the nation of 1.3 billion people. Critics claim Monsantos business practices have led farmers into dependence, debt and suicide, a charge the company refutes. Supporters credit the company with advancing Indias Green Revolution of increased crop yields and say its technology is essential for a rapidly growing population.

Monsanto representatives declined to comment for this story on the pending $66 billion merger and public criticism of the company, which is famous for herbicides such as Roundup and insecticides such as Bollgard II.

The company has multiple outreach efforts geared toward helping farmers in India. According to a 2016 Monsanto sustainability report, its Sustainable Harvest Agriculture Resource Environment program, or SHARE, has educated and increased productivity among nearly 71,000 small farmers. Other Monsanto initiatives deal with sanitation, clean water and encouraging education for farmers children. And the company works to reduce child labor through a committee that keeps watch on business partners to ensure no child under 14 works in the fields and awards school funding to any model village that has 50 farms and no child laborers.

Still, the debate continues in both India and in the U.S.

Richard Oswald, president of the Missouri Farmers Union, said Monsantos monopoly has grown by consuming nearly 600 smaller agriculture businesses over the past 50 years, giving the company colossal control over the prices charged to farmers. He fears the merger with Bayer will simply increase the companys pricing power, and said, Farmers dont really seem to take that to heart.

At the same time, he said, the public is increasingly aware of concerns surrounding glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup. According to the National Pesticide Information Center, a cooperative agreement between Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, studies have shown conflicting results on whether products containing glyphosate are associated with cancer. Some have associated use of glyphosate with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Monsanto has argued glyphosate is not a carcinogen.

The public is looking at increased bad publicity about glyphosate being found in our food and even in the tissue of our bodies, Oswald said.

Many of the same concerns trouble people across the globe, including in India, home to Monsantos sole daughter company outside of the U.S.

Guilty verdict

The Monsanto Tribunal is an international civil society initiative whose purpose is to hold Monsanto accountable for human rights violations. A board of judges listened to victims testimonies about issues such as the right to adequate food, glyphosate and genetically modified seeds, and delivered an advisory opinion on Monsantos actions in April in The Hague in the Netherlands. The tribunal delivered a guilty verdict, stating the company infringed on fundamental human rights.

Vandana Shiva, an Indian environmental activist, has fiercely opposed Monsanto since 1987 and is known internationally for boldly voicing her contempt for the companys actions. She has called Monsanto a criminal entity and took the company to court in 1999 on charges of illegal smuggling of BT cotton, a genetically modified, insect-resistant variety, into India.

The Monsanto Tribunal is showing that  its a criminal in its behavior of not obeying this law, Shiva said in an interview after a press conference in Kolkata, India.

Shiva and her supporters say the benefits for farmers have been largely exaggerated and that Indian farmers would earn four to 10 times more by not spending money on Monsantos seed.

Krishna Vir Chaudhary, a farmer leader, joined Shiva in submitting a report to Indias National Human Rights Commission alleging Monsanto trapped farmers in debt, created a monopoly on seed price control and sued Indian companies for not paying royalties for using their seed, which conflicts with patent law in Indian courts.

Some researchers and Monsanto critics link debt with rising farmer suicides. But on a company website, Monsanto says the issue is much more complicated, that farming in rural India brings with it a set of systemic and social issues that can lead to hopelessness among farmers . The company says significant research has disproved the claim that genetically-modified crops are the leading cause of farmer suicide.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi  and the countrys Agriculture Ministry  called for an antitrust regulation against what they consider Monsantos monopolistic practices.

Shiva said she believes the companys decision to merge with Bayer is an attempt to repair its reputation and fool the public into thinking the company is being bought and controlled by Bayer when it is actually maintaining the same practices. She said she fears the merger will lead to a company powerful enough to manipulate Indias government.

Bayer has its own problems. Its annual reports show its no stranger to controversy or legal suits, with an extensive list of lawsuits.

But there are those who believe most farmers in India would be worse off without Monsantos help and that regardless of the companys faults and reputation, India will need its technology.

Key to the future

Bhagirath Choudhary, founder director of the South Asia Biotechnology Centre in New Delhi, said Monsanto has helped India, giving it BT cotton technology in 2002, allowing farmers to triple their yields from 2002 to 2015. Today, India produces 39 million bales of cotton. The merger cant be stopped, Choudhary said, so India should look for ways to benefit from its inevitability.

I am advocating for all those companies who have the technology that can help the Indian farmers, and Monsanto is one such, Choudhary said.

The companys investment portfolio shows that Monsanto Growth Ventures, the companys venture capital arm, has been a heavy investor in biotech startups. It has helped fund some budding firms in digital agriculture aiming to be the next Google or Skype of farm data management systems, said Jason Miner, senior global chemicals analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence.

Miner said biotech companies like the impending chemical-agricultural behemoth are essential to Indias future.

As controversy swirls, other seed and chemical companies are also planning to merge  driven in part by the hope of serving growing populations in countries like India and China with genetically modified seeds and crops.

Miner said there are concerns that these mergers will decrease competition, leading to less incentive for cutting-edge research and development in biotechnology.

To ensure against too much market dominance, antitrust regulators are meticulously inspecting these companies, setting the Monsanto-Bayer merger completion date back to late 2017.

Meanwhile, some Indian activists, businessmen and women, and others are looking for ways for India to sustain its people without a major agrochemical conglomerate.

Shiva, for example, started the Bija Vidyapeeth, or Earth University, through her nonprofit organization, Navdanya, which helps teach farmers alternative systems of agro ecology in order to get out of debt and produce healthier foods.

But financial analysts say India is a growing economy where companies such as Monsanto should invest, not divest. Its a vibrant market for agricultural inputs for farming, Miner said, adding that the future holds even more growth opportunity.

As part of a University of Missouri journalism class last semester, six teams of students worked on story projects that connected India and Missouri. Previously published stories covered immigration, solar power, farmers and climate change, yoga and natural childbirth. The students worked under the direction of Laura Ungar, investigative and enterprise reporter for USA Today and The Courier-Journal, and journalist Sujoy Dhar, a former Reuters correspondent and founder of the Indian news agency India Blooms, based in Kolkata, India. Students reported and wrote material from their home countries, communicating and collaborating through Skype and email.
ST. LOUIS  He had a stellar military career in the Navy. He co-founded a national charity to provide leadership opportunities for veterans.

He is a political outsider with an Ivy League pedigree taking on career politicians.

Sound familiar, Missouri?

Well, meet Ken Harbaugh, candidate for Congress in Ohio.

If you can sit down with a warlord, you can sit down with somebody on the opposite side of the political aisle, Harbaugh, 43, said in an interview.

Eric Greitens, Missouris Republican governor, may be the best-known and most successful elected alumnus from the top ranks of The Mission Continues, a St. Louis-based nonprofit group.

But others are following his lead.

Harbaugh co-founded the organization with Greitens a decade ago and was its first executive director. Harbaugh said they met on their first day at Duke in 1992 as part of the same scholarship program.

Greitens went on to study global humanitarian efforts as a Rhodes scholar. Harbaugh graduated from Yale Law School.

Both ended up in the Navy, Harbaugh a pilot, Greitens a SEAL. Both spoke publicly about visiting wounded service members at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

Sir, I lost my legs, but thats it. I didnt lose my desire to serve, Harbaugh recalled one Marine telling him then.

Encounters like that were the seeds of The Mission Continues, which provides hundreds of fellowships and other programs to empower veterans to serve in their communities, anything from mentoring at-risk youths to beating back chronic homelessness.

Treat veterans as assets, not liabilities, is one mantra. Its not a charity, its a challenge, is another.

Millions of dollars in donations poured in, as Greitens shared the compelling story nationwide in speeches and books. Greitens left the organization in 2014 and soon ran for office.

Meanwhile, the mission has continued without him.

We have gotten much more robust in what we offer to veterans, and our scope has gotten more national in scale, said Spencer Kympton, president of the organization. The uniqueness and the strength of the model speaks for itself because its beyond one individual.

Studies suggest The Mission Continues helps veterans have a better outlook by being civically engaged. Politics seems to be a natural outgrowth.

Apart from Harbaugh, who left the organization in 2012, a regional director just resigned to run for Congress in West Virginia, vowing to bring the service back into public service.

Going rogue

American veterans have been drawn to politics since the Revolution. They say they are battle-tested leaders.

Now, at a time when the number of veterans in Congress has dipped low, a correction may be underway, with a new wave forming out of service members who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, where the longest war in U.S. history is still underway.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a double amputee after her Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade, came back to Illinois to run successfully for the U.S. House and Senate.

Others, like Jay Breneman, 34, are building up steam on the local level. Vowing to end the status quo, he lost a recent bid for mayor of Erie, Pa., but remains chairman of the county council.

Breneman, a former The Mission Continues fellow, said hes the only combat veteran serving in local government there, which can be frustrating.

My military experience has made me a little restless, he said. I understand that things take time. I dont want to sit around waiting for things to happen.

St. Louis University political scientist Ken Warren said military experience is perhaps the best attribute for a national candidate, but he said campaign promises to vote conscience over party, or to go rogue if needed, almost always fall short, once someone is part of the deeply entrenched two-party system.

Its naive for anybody to think that once they become elected to Congress they can act independent of party, Warren said. They cant. They literally have party whips. If you dont comply, you will be ostracized.

He said Greitens, a former Democrat, gets away with doing what he wants because hes an executive. Still, Greitens has alienated some veteran Republican lawmakers in the Missouri Legislature.

If you want to be an independent voice, you are not going to be one in a legislative body, Warren said. You will be very, very unpopular if you do that.

And likely wont get re-elected.

Political parties on the national level have become polarized in recent decades. In 2015, members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted along party lines 75 percent of the time in hundreds of roll call votes. Warren said the percentage was much tighter when party leaders actually weighed in on issues they cared about.

Harbaugh, who flew reconnaissance missions in the Middle East and other areas, said the voting data is a reflection that the right people arent always being sent to Congress. Polarization, he said, means lawmakers are putting party first, rather than their country.

When I lost an engine off of North Korea, I didnt turn to my co-pilot and ask, Are you a Republican or a Democrat? We solved the problem, Harbaugh said. We got the plane down safely.

Its telling that one of the decisive votes in the Senates recent rejection of a proposal to repeal and replace part of the Affordable Care Act came from John McCain. Before becoming a Republican senator from Arizona, he was shot down over Hanoi and endured several years as a prisoner of war.

Veterans have proven to not just say they are putting country before party  but attached their lives to that promise, Harbaugh said. That commitment can be part of the solution to the standoff, the disaster that is D.C. today.

Continuing the mission

Greitens once told a group at Harvard that he founded The Mission Continues in 2007 while sleeping on an air mattress. In the early days, it was called the Center for Citizen Leadership and met at the St. Louis Public Library.

Today, the central office is in Soulard, but Kympton, the president, works out of a regional office in New York. Other offices are in Houston, Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles.

Donation money is still flowing. In 2016, The Mission Continues received $12.3 million, up from $8.5 million the year prior. There are 64 employees, with plans to reach 70 by the end of the year, the most ever.

We tried to build out a model that was national in scope and had a variety of ways for veterans to engage in community service once they took the uniform off, said Kympton, 44, a former West Point valedictorian.

He said theyve built on the fellowship model that got the organization going. In addition to more than 300 fellowships each year, theyve added mass deployments. In June, 75 veterans were flown to Atlanta to do a weeks worth of service projects dubbed Operation West Side Surge.

Also, 71 service platoons with large teams of veterans have been formed to carry out volunteer projects every quarter in 36 cities.

Those service platoons are challenging thousands and thousands of veterans to serve in the largest urban centers of our country, Kympton said.

On July 29, a service platoon of about 65 volunteers in blue T-shirts showed up early at Normandy Kindergarten Center in north St. Louis County. Reporting for duty in your community, read a sign hanging on a fence.

We can get a lot done with a group this size, said Jess Peter, city impact manager in St. Louis for The Mission Continues, before dispatching everyone to paint various parts of the school interior.

Classrooms were mission critical, she said, so there isnt one or two teachers who feel like they didnt get the love.

From there, theyd try to get to the hallways.

The platoon leader, a retired military chaplain, helped manage the volunteers, many of whom worked at Boeing. A few others had ties to the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership.

Austin Moir was six months into his job as a Midwest project specialist for The Mission Continues. He said the Normandy area was the latest in a string of stops, including Detroit, Chicago, California and Boston.

Its a lot of pulling people together for a common cause, he said.

Empowering vets

One of the volunteers with a cup of yellow paint in his hand at the school was Orion Foeller, 28. He grew up in Ferguson and ran the computer network for the main weapons system on a guided-missile destroyer.

He said he struggled to transition from the Navy to civilian life until he was accepted in 2012 as a fellow with The Mission Continues.

Probably one of the best things Ive done, he said. They gave me a shot. Thats all I really wanted.

He seemed to board an express train to success. His first stop was the St. Louis Science Center, where he was a volunteer.

There were networking opportunities, too. Foeller recalled Greitens introduced him one time as the speaker at an event at the Ladue home of Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear. Former Democratic Missouri Gov. Bob Holden was in the audience.

Foeller said he was nervous about speaking. Hed never done anything like it. Greitens encouraged him, he recalled, telling him to remember that most people just wanted him to succeed.

Foeller ran into Clark at another event later. Soon, he was hired at Build-A-Bear. He has since completed a masters degree in cybersecurity management from Washington University and works on a P-8 Poseidon aircraft simulator at Boeing.

Politics is something else Foeller said hes passionate about. In 2012, he helped campaign for Barack Obama in North County. He said he might circle back to it later, though he didnt like knocking on random doors and running a phone bank.

Its a far-out idea, he said. I am just focusing on my career.

Learning curve

Its unclear how many veterans affiliated with The Mission Continues have actually pursued public office, but two of its former leaders announced this summer they are running for Congress.

Harbaugh, the co-founder and first executive director, most recently ran Team Rubicon Global, a relief organization that has trained 45,000 veterans to respond to disasters. He said hes running as a Democrat because the incumbent isnt showing up for work and happens to be a Republican.

In July, Aaron Scheinberg stepped down as director of The Mission Continues Northeast sector. He studied Arabic at West Point and served in Iraq. He holds advanced degrees from Harvard and Columbia University. Now, hes running for Congress.

Aaron Scheinberg is not a career politician, his campaign literature says. Aaron is a husband, father, a military veteran, a West Virginian, and leader who has dedicated his life to building our communities and serving our country.

But the leap from nonprofit to politics isnt always a clean one.

In April, the Missouri Ethics Commission slapped Greitens on the wrist for violating campaign rules regarding campaign disclosure. His campaign was fined for not disclosing that The Mission Continues helped with a donor list. The Associated Press reported in 2016 that Greitens campaign used the list to raise $2 million.

I dont know anything about Erics situation, Harbaugh said. I will say we have been incredibly careful about firewalling the two. Granted, there is an incredibly steep learning curve. All the regulations around campaign finance, you could get a law degree on it. Its been a real education.

Kympton, president of The Mission Continues, said the organization responded to the Ethics Commissions investigation by fully cooperating.

Weve always had strong systems that have protected our donors interests and our donors information, he said. Its been something we have been committed to since our inception and stand behind that.

He added that its not coincidental that people affiliated with The Mission Continues are gunning for public office.

Its fairly natural to try to take that impact to a different level, he said of community engagement. One way to do that is trying to get involved in state or national government. I am proud. Hopefully its bucking a trend that has been happening for decades.
WASHINGTON  Efforts by several members of the Missouri congressional delegation to toughen laws on online sex advertising have run into a powerful foe: Google.

The company is circulating letters on Capitol Hill claiming that various measures backed by Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., among others, would create a trial lawyer bonanza of overly broad civil lawsuits.

The Internet Association also has weighed in, with the groups president calling a bill McCaskill is pushing overly broad and counterproductive in the fight to combat human trafficking.

Separate Wagner and McCaskill bills in the House and Senate are aimed primarily at the online advertising site Backpage, which the legislators say runs ads advertising illegal sex, including with minors. Backpage has already pushed back with aggressive legal actions, suing Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley to try to stop him from investigating Backpages business practices.

McCaskill is co-sponsoring the Senate legislation with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. The bill had 28 senators aboard as of Friday afternoon, including Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., McCaskill press secretary Sarah Feldman said.

Wagners House bill, which critics said was even more sweeping than the Portman-McCaskill one, had 111 House co-sponsors as of Friday afternoon, Wagners office said. All seven of the remaining Missouri House members have signed on, as have three Metro East House members: Reps. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville; Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro; and John Shimkus, R-Collinsville.

Portman and McCaskill issued a scathing report on Backpages practices this year that alleged that the site automatically filters out words in ads that could indicate it was offering sex with children, undermining the websites claims that it is protected by the First Amendment and by the Communications Decency Acts 1996 amendment saying Internet sites that host others speech should not be held liable for it.

Wagner and McCaskill, in separate bills, are trying to toughen that provision, essentially arguing that they are going after illegal activity  sex trafficking  and not protected speech.

In a speech to the Family Research Council last month, Wagner said that it is as easy to order up a little girl online as it is a pepperoni pizza.

She accused Backpage of being the auctioneer for online sex trafficking. They are not a third-party platform.

Backpage lawyer Liz McDougall has argued that the company has complied with the Communications Decency Act and, that by going after her client, Congress will drive illegal sex activity further underground, where it will be harder for police to track.

Now, other groups and companies, while trying to maintain distance from Backpage, are also lining up against the Wagner-McCaskill efforts. One of those is Google.

In a letter widely distributed to members of Congress, Google lawyer E. Steward Jeffries said the efforts by Wagner, McCaskill and others have the potential to seriously jeopardize the internet ecosystem.

A number of Senators, led by Senators Portman and McCaskill, have introduced a bill  aimed at fighting sex trafficking  basically by trying to go after a single bad actor, Backpage, Jeffries said, They have been working with Rep. Wagner, who has a slightly different companion bill 

Unfortunately, in doing so, the bills undercut one of the foundational statutes for the Internet: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, (which) provides that platforms, websites, ISPs, Web-hosting providers, and online advertisers are not held liable for the actions of users.

The letter urges members of Congress not to sign onto the bill and to insist that it be considered on its own, not attached to a popular measure, such as the National Defense Authorization Act. That is one Senate legislative angle being explored by its sponsors.

The Google letter to members of Congress also included statements in opposition from several online and technology organizations, including the Consumer Technology Association and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment further. She did point to a statement from the Internet Association, of which Google is a member.

The Department of Justice must hold criminal actors and facilitators of human trafficking  including rogue operators like Backpage.com  responsible to the fullest extent of the law, the statement said.

However, this bill is overly broad and will be counterproductive in the fight to combat human trafficking. While not the intention of the bill, it would create a new wave of frivolous and unpredictable actions against legitimate companies rather than addressing underlying criminal behavior. Furthermore, it will impose new, substantial liability risks for companies that take proactive measures to prevent trafficking online, hampering the ability of websites to fight illegal activity.

Sex trafficking has become a big issue for many members of the St. Louis-area delegation after reports describing the city as a nexus in sex-trade transportation because of its location where major interstates cross.

Last year, Portman and McCaskill got the Senate to issue its first contempt citation in more than 20 years after Backpage refused to comply with their requests for documents and testimony in a probe of the websites practices. A federal court ruled in favor of the senators, leading into the scathing report on the company that Portman and McCaskill released in January.
FERGUSON  The mayor of this north St. Louis County suburb would like for the questions to go away. But three years later, they persist.

How are things in Ferguson?

Has it settled down?

James Knowles III typically gives an answer befitting a good ambassador to a city thrust into the international spotlight after a white police officer fatally shot a black teen and set off months of protests and violence.

Knowles is sick of fielding questions about riots and burning buildings. He talks about a city moving forward. A city working to make streets safer, build relationships between law enforcement and community, create jobs.  We know what we need to do.

What he does not say is that things are back to how they once were.

I always have to be careful with the term back to normal because some are sensitive to that and dont think its a good thing, Knowles said. And not realistic, he concedes.

Gone are the white police chief and the white city manager, replaced by African-American men, moves that reflect the makeup of a city where more than two-thirds of its residents are black. The seven-member council, including the mayor, now has three African-American members, compared to one on Aug. 9, 2014, when Michael Brown was killed.

Im the only one that is still here from that, said Knowles, who is white, referring to top city leadership. He was re-elected in April, winning nearly 57 percent of the vote. He ran against an African-American council member who had been elected two years earlier.

Some people have made me the villain and say, As long as the mayor is there, nothing is going to change, Knowles said. But he sees it differently.

His election to a third term, he says, demonstrates that Ive worked to keep whats right going and to make necessary changes.

Many of those changes, focused on improving police department hiring and training and court reform, came as a result of a Justice Department investigation and led to the city signing a consent decree with the federal government to make adjustments or face legal action.

City leaders say they continue to work with the federal government in honoring the agreement. An order four months ago from Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Justice Department officials review consent decrees nationwide to ensure they do not interfere with the goals of President Donald Trumps administration to promote officer morale and safety has had no bearing on efforts in Ferguson.

Those particular statements by the attorney general were merely diversionary to issues they were dealing with in Washington  i.e. Russia and things of that nature, said Ferguson Councilman Wesley Bell, a lawyer and head of the criminal justice department at St. Louis Community Colleges Florissant Valley campus.

There has been no change in approach on the Justice Department side and certainly not on ours, said Bell, an African-American elected in 2015.

A Justice Department lawyer in late June told the federal judge overseeing the consent decree that we believe we are all working together in good faith. That includes putting in place the tools to better recruit and retain a diverse and well-trained police force as well as setting guidelines for police use of force.

We can fix it

Joshura Davis, a Ferguson business owner, agrees that the city is progressing, but not quickly enough.

His insurance office sits on West Florissant Avenue, and he and his wife, Lisa, attended the opening last month of a new job training center across the street, on the site where a QuikTrip once stood.

The convenience store burned to the ground during the unrest that followed Browns killing and was commonly referred to as ground zero as protests and violence continued.

Davis said he and his wife had a front row seat to everything that happened. After the violence that included the burning of at least two dozen buildings, small-business owners in that part of town formed the Ferguson-Dellwood West Florissant Business Association, which Davis heads. He has 45 businesses on his email list.

Davis said it was important to create a united front to let St. Louis know we are here for the long haul and all-in to develop this side of Ferguson that was really devastated.

Davis said he and other business owners in that part of town were asked to join the more established Ferguson Special Business District, in place since 1987. But the needs of his part of town are unique, he said. The businesses have to dig out from perceptions of danger and destruction, forever linked to one of the countrys largest news events.

Today, businesses in the corridor continue to struggle. Davis, who runs Best Insurance Agency and Always Love and Care, an in-home health care service, said business is down 50 percent since before August 2014  something he hears from others in his association.

After the Brown shooting, Davis was among 55 business owners who received a grant from a partnership between the Regional Business Council and North County Inc. to help stay afloat. He received $2,500.

That was just to keep the offices open. There were no grace periods to pay rent or utilities, he said. Davis also won about $4,000 in a competition on how to best market a business. He used the money to build a website.

During a panel discussion at the National Urban League conference in downtown St. Louis last month, Davis made an emotional plea to corporate and elected leaders on the stage and in the audience.

We do not have five, 10, 15, 20 years to rebuild West Florissant Avenue. We dont have that kind of time, Davis told the crowd at a session titled Ferguson: From Anger to Action. It was moderated by Michael Neidorff, CEO of Centene Corp., which opened a $25 million service center in Ferguson last year, and Michael McMillan, head of the local Urban League chapter.

We have enough resources in St. Louis to fix it, Davis said. We broke it. We can fix it.

Davis said later that he knew he would have a captive audience and wanted to go on record that challenges are real and the clock is ticking.

He said he is heartened by the new Ferguson Community Empowerment Center, a partnership of the Urban League and Salvation Army.

It is really huge, Davis said. Before the empowerment center, every day 34,000 cars would pass by and see the ground zero site and all those vacant lots. Those were visions of the past. The empowerment site is a solid vision of the future that lets people see that someone is interested, someone is committed and the community is coming together.

Knowles said the city is seeing more businesses open and city leaders are working to hire a Texas firm to attract more national retailers to Ferguson.

A Ferguson near you

At a hearing in June before U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry, Fergusons city attorney, Apollo Carey, said that since the death of Brown, the city had waived $1.8 million in fines, dismissed or dropped about 39,000 municipal court cases and signed up 1,381 people to perform community service instead of paying fines.

It was a required status report outlined in the citys consent decree.

While that sort of progress is getting generally good reviews, some residents who spoke at the hearing said more community input is needed in the reform process.

And in April, two months before the status hearing, Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway released the results of a review of the citys municipal court system. She said the audit took more than a year to conduct because the city continued putting up roadblocks and failed to produce some court documents that appeared to have been lost. She said the information she was able to review was in disarray and included moldy records.

Ferguson City Manager DeCarlon Seewood said in response that more than a dozen significant changes have been made to the court system since 2015, including the exit of the lead court clerk and the firing of another employee.

As the city continues its reform efforts alongside the federal government, a nonprofit has taken up the task of addressing the findings of the Ferguson Commission. The 16-member commission was appointed in November 2014 by then Gov. Jay Nixon to offer specific recommendations for making the St. Louis region a stronger, fairer place for everyone to live.

The nonprofit, Forward Through Ferguson, has before it the 189 calls to action recommended by the Ferguson Commission, which officially completed its work in December 2015. The commission labeled 47 of its recommendations as signature priority items.

They include creating civilian review boards at the municipal and county levels; consolidating law enforcement agencies, municipal courts and police training centers; and eliminating incarceration for minor offenses.

Forward Through Ferguson, in partnership with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, created a report that was made public at the Urban Leagues national conference. It serves as a history lesson, of sorts, for what happened in Ferguson.

While the Ferguson Commission and many of the efforts connected to it arose in response to a specific situation, what happened in Ferguson didnt create that situation, reads the report.

It revealed difficult truths that had been the reality for many people for many decades. Deep truths that were present and manifested almost 100 years ago in the East St. Louis race riots that sparked the creation of the Urban League affiliate in St. Louis. The underlying issues that led to these situations exist today, to varying degrees, in every metropolitan area in America.

The Rev. Traci Blackmon, a member of the Ferguson Commission, was on the Urban League panel where Davis made his plea. She told the crowd that when she speaks around the country, the message is clear: There is a Ferguson somewhere near you.

Knowles had a rocky relationship with the Ferguson Commission from the get-go. When Nixon announced the commission two months after Brown was killed, Knowles showed up late to the news conference, saying he had not been invited and complained that city leaders had not been briefed about the governors announcement beforehand.

Last week, Knowles said he had no contact with the commission and still has issues with calling it the Ferguson Commission when the problems it outlined in its report are systemic nationwide. And I havent heard much about the work Forward Through Ferguson has been doing, he said.

Knowles said his priorities are leading the city and breaking down misconceptions, including those that come from tour groups expecting to see a bombed-out Baghdad.

Weve been remarkably resilient and shown what a community can do to rebuild and come together, Knowles said. Were taking this small municipality and building a model police department  I should say rebuilding  a model police department. I feel quite confident that Ferguson is in a good place.
After years of tax cuts for special interest groups and wealthy corporations, Gov. Eric Greitens and the Missouri Legislature found themselves confronted with declining tax revenue while working on this year's state budget. This occurrence was predictable.

Because the Missouri Constitution requires a balanced budget, the Legislature was forced to cut funding for various state programs. After the session was over, the governor imposed additional cuts and withholdings. Programs for health, transportation and higher education were not spared. Programs for the elderly and handicapped were special targets.

The governor stated, We have to make tough decisions. After making these budget cuts, however, Gov. Greitens found enough money to call the legislators back to Jefferson City for special sessions.

When the budget deliberations were complete, more than 8,000 seniors and disabled Missourians lost their in-home care and nursing home services. In addition, more than 63,000 low-income seniors lost state assistance to help them pay for prescription drugs. This should not have happened.

The governor and Legislature can reverse this trend and restore program funding for Missouri seniors by reversing some of the tax cuts they made for the wealthy. They can also prevent additional tax cuts, which are scheduled to become effective in 2018, from becoming a reality. Failure to do so will cause great harm to Missouri's elderly and disabled citizens.

Do our elected officials care about our seniors and disabled citizens? It appears they do not.

Dave Damico  Jefferson City

President, Missouri Coalition for Quality Care
Under ordinary circumstances, leaks from the White House are problematic and should be viewed with suspicion. However, we are not living in ordinary circumstances. When the competence, honesty, motives and loyalty of the president are in serious doubt, leaks become acts of patriotism. The recent transcript leaks of President Donald Trump's conversations with Mexico's president and Australia's prime minister are excellent examples of such patriotism.

Given the destruction that the Trump administration is wreaking on our nation, it is imperative that all citizens, especially Trump supporters, are presented with incontrovertible evidence of the dangers he is creating. These transcripts do just that and should be required reading for all voters. Anyone who loves our nation and reads these transcripts must realize that the election of Trump as president was a terrible mistake that must be corrected by any means that the Constitution allows.
Stoke City fans out in Germany have been having their say on the Potters prospects for the forthcoming Premier League season. And camped outside an appropriately named Leipzig bar called Stein, several of them were kitted out in some of the most striking retro Stoke shirts from the 1990s.

But although they may look like a throwback to the days when Lou Macari was Potters boss, their views are very much focused on what will be happening over the next nine months. And they are seriously concerned for Mark Hughes' Class of 2017/18 unless reinforcements are brought in... and fast. For now, though, they are focussed on having a great time as the Potters take on RB Leipzig in their final pre-season game of the summer. And it promises to be just the sort of test Stoke need before next week's Premier League opener at Everton.

You can follow all the build-up and match action from the Red Bull Arena via our live blog at thesentinel.co.uk .
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Stoke City are closing in on the signing of Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting  but Mark Hughes is not ready to toast a done deal yet.

Choupo-Moting is a free agent after leaving Schalke and has been lined up to fill the void left by Marko Arnautovic's 25m departure to West Ham.

The 28-year-old Cameroon international, who can play across the front line, is expected to join early next week but Hughes admits he has seen transfers go as close to completion and still ended up disappointed.

(Image: Phil Greig/Stoke City)

The manager said following this afternoon's impressive 2-1 friendly win at RB Leipzig: "He's a player we've got an interest in and it's one of those we're hopeful of getting over the line.

"You can never say it's done until it is. I've had experiences where clubs have just jumped in at the last moment when you've done all the work and they're able to convince players. We'll just hang fire until it's actually official."

That scenario also apparently ring true with Mario Lemina, the 16m-rated Gabon midfielder it has emerged Stoke have been trying to sign from Juventus.

Reports have suggested that the 23-year-old could indeed be heading to the Premier League  but to Southampton rather than Staffordshire, with talk of a medical on Monday.

"There's possibly something in that (Stoke interest)," said Hughes, before laughing: "I refer you to my last answer."

Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino has this afternoon distanced himself from any link.

"I don't know anything about him," he told the Daily Echo .

"We are studying the market with some options. It is difficult to bring in important players and hopefully some of them can come in to make us stronger."
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Two men have been jailed for a total of 14 years after subjecting a man to a terrifying ordeal in his own home.

Jordan Grocott was one of four masked men who burst into their victim's Tunstall home brandishing weapons - including two machetes.

The man was watching TV when the group burst into his home at 8pm on November 10.

During the ordeal, the gang:

Punched and kicked their victim before hitting him with a machete;

Tied his wrists with duct tape bought from Wickes, in Tunstall, 20 minutes before the raid;

Poured petrol over his face and jumper and threatened to light it if he did not stay still;

Put a bag over his head;

Threatened to cut off his toes after tying his legs up;

Repeatedly struck him with a baseball bat.

The gang escaped with two iPhones before running to a Seat Ibiza getaway car driven by 22-year-old Brandon Williams which was then abandoned about a mile away.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard the victim thought he was going to be killed. He suffered a bloody and swollen nose, swelling to his face, and cuts to his legs, hands, finger and shin.

Now 23-year-old Grocott - who has also been sentenced for dangerous driving after hitting speeds of more than 100mph and going the wrong way on the M6  has been jailed for a total of eight years. Williams was jailed for six years and eight months.

The defendants were arrested and interviewed in January and answered 'no comment' to all questions.

Grocott, of Hillary Street, Cobridge, and Williams, of Roundway, Blurton, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary. Williamss plea was on a basis he did not go inside the house and was a getaway driver.

Andrew Turnock, mitigating for Grocott, said his client was not armed with a machete and did not pour petrol over the victim.

Stuart Muldoon, representing Williams, said his client was going to be paid 500 for his role. He added he was ashamed and remorseful.

Judge Paul Glenn said: This was a terrifying experience.

Staffordshire Police are still hunting the other three raiders.

A police spokesman said: "We regularly review progress in cases and are always following up new leads. Any members of the public who may have information that could assist us in this case should call us on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.
Cinnamons tourism conference explores technology, innovation and authenticity View(s):

The Cinnamon Future of Tourism summit on September 26 in Colombo will look at best practices around the world on the theme Innovation, Technology and Authenticity.

The topics will focus on practical solutions to the evolving challenges of the hospitality and tourism industry delivered by a high profile panel of international speakers, Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts said in a recent media announcement.

Doug Lanksy, an acclaimed travel writer and industry leader on travel and tourism trends and destination development, will deliver the keynote address on the theme Making Destinations Ready for the Future. Other speakers at the conference include Sanjay Nadkarni, Director of Research and Innovation at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, who will speak on the Use of customer data for innovation to deliver a superior customer experience and revenue enhancement. Jereon Gulickx, a well-travelled hospitality professional with 20+ years experience within the hotel and spa segment, will speak on Changing the hospitality landscape of the future to make your hotel profitable.

Editor for CNN Travel, Brekke Fletcher will address the audience on Understanding Tomorrows Traveller while Roy Graff, who leads Dragon Trail Interactives expansion into Europe, Middle East and Africa, will elaborate on the Future of Chinese Outbound Tourism and opportunity in Sri Lanka.

Cinnamon said that having successfully established its credentials as a valuable thought leadership event for the travel and tourism industry in 2015, the summit takes place bi-annually and encourages Sri Lankan and regional participation. This years summit is expected to attract 400 participants.

Commenting on the 2017 summit, Dileep Mudadeniya, Head of Brand Marketing  Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, explained, The 2017 summit in particular will be a pivotal one because it brings an eminent panel of speakers under one roof to share their knowledge and insights about the industry. We are hopeful that the dynamic sessions by the speakers will create new opportunities for participants in their respective businesses. Cinnamon has always used a sustainable approach and we believe that by strengthening the industry, we are ultimately strengthening Sri Lanka as a destination that is evolving fast to meet emerging expectations of tourists.
Coconut crisis: Growers raise key questions at crucial meeting By Quintus Perera View(s): View(s):

The absence of the Minister in charge of coconuts (Plantation Minister Navin Dissanayake) or his deputy at last weeks 23rd AGM of the Coconut Growers Association of Sri Lanka (CGASL) irked members who expressed disappointment over the absence of senior government politicians at a crucial meeting.

During the question and answer session, a member said that it was regretted that this is the first time that a responsible officer of the government was not present to consider their issues and offer solutions. While invitations had been extended to the Minister in charge of the subject, his deputy and the Ministry Secretary, none was present at the meeting.

Some of the members pointed out that the coconut industry is at a critical stage as there are the issues of palm oil imported in bulk and openly mixed with coconut oil. The government is also moving to import coconut while there is a ban of insecticides and weedicides, with one member pointing out that due to the ban, 20 per cent of his plants were dying.

Another major hurdle is that of large scale coconut thefts and pilfering which is taking place in their estates. Several members accused the police of demanding coconuts from these estates. One member said that though the watchers in these estates are armed, they cannot use them and what really happens is that the thieves either get round the watcher or threaten him to steal coconut.

One of the members, Prof, Deepal Mathew told the Business Times on the sidelines of the AGM that, before banning these (chemicals) the responsibility of the government is to provide alternatives that are equally effective.

Jayantha B. Samarakoon was elected the new president of the CGASL.

Outgoing President Lionel Fonseka presenting the annual report said that attempts to import cheap coconut is a major concern for the coconut industry as it is already facing several major issues resulting in a production drop.

He said that there is a solution to this issue, which has to be looked at from a national angle as there are more than two million people directly dependent on coconut cultivation, the majority being poor people who earn a living by selling a few nuts.

He said that for the sake of some companies who want coconut imports, the authorities should not betray the livelihood of the poor coconut growers. He urged the coconut processing sector to be mindful of the industry that is now on the verge of falling, to think of the national interest and be prepared to sacrifice a portion of their profits during the difficult times to develop the coconut palm industry in Sri Lanka.

He said that during the first half of 2016 the wholesale price of a nut was Rs. 20 but during September that year it rose to Rs. 36. Subsequently the nut production was low and the price rose to between Rs. 40 to 45, yet the total income of the grower dropped.

Today, he pointed out that the coconut industry is faced with two major problems  one of the most severe droughts during the past 18 months while the average temperature is on the increase, affecting the pollination of coconut flowers, adversely. Problem two is the pressure from the coconut processing people to import coconut. He said that no sooner they had information that coconuts were to be imported they met the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Economic Development and represented matters as to why imports should be prevented. He said the current drop in production is around 500 million nuts, but he stressed that imports is not the solution and pointed out that there would be the danger of pests and diseases coming through imported nuts.

He said that according to statistics 2,100 million nuts are used annually for household consumption and out of it around 30 per cent go waste. If the waste can be avoided there would be a saving of around 420 million nuts. He said that while a major portion of the production is consumed domestically only about 400 million nuts would be available for the industry, out of a crop of over 2,000 million nuts, annually. Several presentations were made by experts that were useful for the coconut growers during the AGM.
Glyphosate debate: Whos killing Ceylon Tea? By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s):

Glyphosate is a killer (of weeds!!!). Proponents of the Vasa Visa Nethi Ratak (A country devoid of poisonous food) has been successful in getting the substance banned in Sri Lanka since the World Health Organization (WHO) reported it was possibly cancerous based on laboratory tests conducted on animals.

Smallholders and regional plantation companies (RPCs) are searching for an alternative to the glyphosate herbicide, now banned in Sri Lanka over protests that it is cancerous and has an impact on the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in the country.

But plantation companies and their smallholders surmise this is not the case and that it is being widely used all around the world in most developed nations.

So whos right and whos wrong? Should chemicals be used or should they be abandoned? Then again the broader question that looms over the estates is whether centuries-old plantations would withstand the tough tide of the glyphosate debate? Is the alternative organic farming?

The government got so bitterly embroiled in this sordid affair so much so that though the farmers never made a hue and cry the RPCs did that, and led to a 10-member Cabinet sub-committee being appointed to look into the possibility of allowing its use simply on the plantations alone.

These issues came out in the open at a discussion organised last week by the Presidential Secretariat-appointed SEMA on the topic Glyphosate Ban and the Future of the Tea Industry.

Chemicals kill important small insects

Parliament MP Ven. Athuraliye Rathana, chief among those who believe the substance should not enter the local market, said that the micro-organisms in the soils were also killed alongside the weeds and blamed it on the use of chemicals like glyphosate.

He noted that without the use of these small insects the fertilizer required for the adequate nutrition generated by the soil itself was lost as a result of which the estate owners would then use another chemical to make the ground fertile.

His argument is that CKD is rampant in areas where this is widespread owing to water being contaminated with the glyphosate getting into the soil. In fact he pointed out that today the fresh water streams in Nuwara Eliya could not be openly consumed due to this contamination.

Ven. Rathana also questioned that since this was not a substance used by the smallholders who produced 75 per cent of the exports, whether the country should continue to allow glyphosate to be used on the tea plantations that contributed only 25 per cent of the total yield.

Prof. Ranil Senanayaka, who was also on the Cabinet sub-committee, said that as a former planter he was aware of the fact that the glyphosate when applied affects the lands and the grounds.

He claimed that the absence of micro-organisms was what contributed to ailments like diabetes and gastritis. We need to preserve our health and our country, he said.

Hapugastenne study

Findings of one study carried out on the Affectivity of chemical weed control in commercial tea plantations in the Hapugastenne Estate in Maskeliya by H.M.P. Peiris of the Postgraduate Institute of Science and S.P. Nissanka from the Department of Crop Science Faculty of Agriculture of the Peradeniya University states that over 20 weed species out of 23 acutely problematic weeds which cause great damage to tea crop, are entirely tolerant to Diurone, Paraquat and Glyphosate and cannot be controlled by using these herbicides.

This research was carried out to prove that there was an intense emergence of herbicide tolerant weed species on treated areas and that this crucial factor had remained unnoticed as a result of frequent manual weeding undertaken by the tea estates under various other accounts such as plucking fertilizer application, mossing and ferning green manure.

The investigation was carried out over a period of 24 months since 2012 at five different elevations with five replicates set at each elevation.

The study has also revealed that such weed species have the ability to turn a tea plantation into a totally unproductive and economically non-viable unit within a time period of one to two years depending on the herbicide tolerant weed species present.

It was noted that these weeds are capable of suppressing the growth of the tea bushes by making them stunted in growth with poor bush frames, turn the foliage yellowish and induce defoliation, unless they were removed completed by manual uprooting.

Moreover, the findings in this report revealed that the herbicides used in commercial tea plantations are greatly ineffective in weed control and their use cannot be justified when considering the associated cost involved along with the health hazards, ecological and environmental issues forged against them are considered.

Ceylon Tea a niche?

Prof. Piyasena, an academic and a tea smallholder, said that organic teas fetched higher prices since they were maintained through a manual workforce.

He believes that the tea industry can be converted to producing organic teas thereby dispelling fears of price fluctuations and constant problems encountered among large scale commercial teas.

The learned tea smallholder is the manufacturer of the brand of Ahinsa Organic Teas that he cultivates on his tea plantation.

But the world market consumption of organic teas is limited and stocks of this nature are in small supply a reason why the prices are attributed to be higher than other commercial teas that have been subject to a number of price fluctuations and constant problems. Organic teas, industry leaders note is a niche market and therefore fetches a high price due to the nature in which it is also manufactured. It is the simple principle of demand and supply where anything in short supply is high priced due to its demand.

Commercial tea manufacturers however, could not move into this segment of teas since the larger estates have problems of their own.

Going the distance

If there is one person fed up of talking on behalf of the tea industry and the removal of the ban of glyphosate on the tea plantations it is the Plantations Ministry and its Minister Navin Dissanayake.

During his speech he pointed out they were ready to accept a solution if one was put forward but it was the haphazard removal of the product from the market that added to the problems on the estates.

The minister noted that the substance was banned even though it was not mentioned in the report as one that was meant to be.

He also explained that the CKD allegedly believed to be spreading is not considered a communicable disease and as such it could not travel to other parts of the country.

He also highlighted that the categorisation of glyphosate as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) under 2A meant it joined forces with a number of products also considered so but was freely available in the country and those which continued to be consumed. (See box)

The Cabinet sub-committee had noted that the ban of this substance had led to unavailability of effective herbicides leading to a number of experimenting with unauthorised herbicides; manual weeding adding to the cost of production; reduced use of fertilizer depressing the tea production further; tea production due to the above factors and the drought dropped by about 12 per cent in 2016.

Weeding manually amounts to 17 per cent of the cost of production on estates that already are pressured to pay relatively high wages to workers who are currently in short supply, Minister Dissanayake explained.

He said that what they were asking for was an exemption of about 8,000 litres to be imported for use on the tea plantations alone.

In fact, he asserted that though banned, the substance was still being brought down to the country from India by boat and then sent to Puttalam.

Minister Dissanayake noted that even he was with the governments stance on the ban of chemicals but said that in order to get to that juncture you need to be in agreement as well.

But Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne addressing the officials denounced his colleagues assertion stating that the ban on glyphosate was required until it is proved to be good.

He opined that despite the ban being imposed if the substance was still entering the local market then the problem should be averted without allowing it to continue. The minister added that the products on the 2A category were some items that doctors have advised their patients against consuming due to the health risks.

Another dead end?

The tea industry however, is not in agreement in fact just ahead of the start of the forum one official was overheard saying that he has been delivering umpteen number of presentations that are worth bringing down a container load of glyphosate!

Officials are tired of standing up for the tea industry that was not invited to the event to tell their side of the story and who have been vociferously accusing the authorities of overlooking an age old industry for the benefit of a few.

In fact, the last AGM of the Colombo Tea Traders Association brought out the issue highlighting how just one individual was holding a government and an entire industry to ransom based on their ideals.

Another industry spokesman told the Business Times that while practitioners were not allowed and not even informed (about this discussion) it was unfair how they had conducted the discussion with only the minister present to give their (tea) side of the story.

In fact, he pointed out that the substance continued to be used by tea smallholders who were also equally affected by the ban and that it was freely available in the country in a number of areas. In that he dismissed the accusation that only 25 per cent of the tea exports required this substance as believed by most learned advisors.

IARC statement and a local study The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has stated that glyphosate is a Group 2A product that is probably carcinogenic to humans which also has a number of other products like: red meat, beverages hotter than 65 degrees C, emissions from high temperature frying, tetrachloroethylene (a chemical commonly used in dry-cleaning) and chloramphenicol (a commonly prescribed antibiotic). IARC also places occupations such as hair dressers and shift workers in the same risk group as 2A carcinogens, while also considering radio frequency electromagnetic fields such as those associated with mobile phones to be possibly carcinogenic.

This indicates the degree of carcinogenic risk that may be expected from glyphosate and to place this in the context of probably carcinogens generally. Another finding crucial to the CKD is that scientific literature has no evidence to directly link it to the use of or consumption of glyphosate. On the contrary, the Cabinet sub-committee noted that in a Sri Lankan study of 601 patients who deliberately drank a concentrated formulation of glyphosate only 5.5 per cent showed symptoms of moderate to severe poisoning, with a mortality rate of 3.2 per cent. There was no record of kidney failure in the 96.8 per cent of patients who attempted self-harm with glyphosate.
Lankan unions oppose USAID entry in labour reforms View(s):

Sri Lankan unions have strongly objected to the entry of a foreign party and the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade in labour reforms, saying this is the role of the Labour Department and the Ministry of Labour, and no one else.

These objections have been raised in an August 3 letter to S.A. Nimal Saranathissa, Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Trade Union Relations and Sabaragamuwa Development, by Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary of the Committee Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union, acting on behalf of its executive committee.

The letter refers to the appointment of a Working Group on Labour Law Reforms and its invitation to Mr. Marcus to serve on this committee and points out that the union was withdrawing from the committee in protest over the involvement of outside parties in labour reforms which is as an unhealthy intervention.

It said the Labour Minister chairing a special meeting of the National Labour Advisory Committee (NLAC) on July 25 informed the NLAC that the Government has decided to appoint a Working Group on Labour Law Reforms and announced the names of representatives nominated to the Working Group.

Trade union representatives in the NLAC thereafter placed their reservations on representation in the Working Group and the Minister accommodated same. Accordingly the initial number of trade union representation was increased to include the plantation sector and details along with Terms of Reference asked for was also promised. With such acceptance of the Working Group at the NLAC, I (Marcus) consented to be a member of the Working Group, representing workers and their interests, the letter noted.

It said the Secretary had informed that this labour law reform had been the initiative of the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade in collaboration with USAID, a non- governmental agency of the US administration.

This, the union points out, raises very serious doubts as to the intentions and objectives of reforming labour laws of this country. Everything related to labour and industrial peace and stability is the sole responsibility of the Labour Department and its Ministry. It is the Minister in charge of labour who is mandated and tasked to decide on policy and reforms necessary. There is a tripartite mechanism in place that includes both trade union and employer representation the Minister can work with and have worked with on any such reform, when necessary, the union complaint says.

It said this decision at the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade in collaboration with USAID to reform labour laws, is clearly a trespassing on the responsibility and authority of the Labour Ministry. Let us state very clearly that neither the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade nor the USAID has any right or responsibility to intervene in reforming labour laws in Sri Lanka.

It said: We have always participated in reforming and improving labour laws that were deemed necessary and proposed by the Labour Ministry. We participate when employers propose such through the ministry and also when the ILO initiates such dialogues. We remain committed to such endeavours in the future too. Yet this reform process is not one we approve nor accept and therefore wish to inform that as decided at the Executive Committee of our union, we would withdraw from the Working Group on Labour Law Reforms and will not be participating in any of its meetings in the future.
SC determines IR Bill merits referendum View(s):

The Supreme Court has determined that certain clauses in the new Inland Revenue Bill are inconsistent with the Constitution and thus needs approval through a 2/3rds majority of parliament or referendum.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya informed parliament on Friday that the court has held that the bill needs to approved by a parliamentary majority or merits a referendum unless certain clauses are amended.

The new bill, seen radicalising Sri Lankas tax revenue structure, is a joint collaboration between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and local authorities, the fund said defending claims that it was an entirely IMF-driven product.

The IMF has already disbursed the third tranche of US$167.2 million from the $1.5 billion Sri Lankas Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to Sri Lanka as the government has submitted the draft bill to Parliament as a prior action required for the release of the tranche.
SLs One Verge Holdings renews partnership with Apalya Technologies View(s):

One Verge Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, one of Sri Lankas second generation digital companies, recently renewed a partnership with pioneers of mobile video streaming, Indias Apalya Technologies (Pvt) Ltd which has a presence in over 11 countries across South and South-East Asia, West Asia and Africa.

One Verge is a streaming specialist with half a decade of experience in the mobile streaming industry and its partnership has been the catalyst in the market leading mobile streaming services such as Dialog Mobile TV, Mobitel MplexTV, Etisalat Mobile TV and Airtel Mobile TV catering to over three million smart phone users from all major telecom operators in Sri Lanka, the company said in a media release.

Apalya is a multinational streaming giant, a pioneering player in the OTT streaming industry across Asia. With over a 100 million subscribers across more than 30 video and OTT platforms in 11 countries, Apalya enables telcos, media owners and distributors to launch and manage their mobile video and OTT businesses using their proprietary, state of the art video OTT platform that brings leading edge technology and best-in-class user experience within reach.

One Verge Apalya partnership further ensures many cutting-edge innovations for the Sri Lankan market and is already in the process of enabling an unparalleled music streaming experience to Sri Lanka pretty soon, said Dilash Weerasooriya, founder CEO of One Verge Holdings Pvt Ltd.

Apalyas Chief Operating Officer Venugopal Iyengar, said: It has been a great journey with Dilash and One Verge team so far, one which has helped Apalya become the platform of choice for all the Sri Lankan telecom companies to run their mobile TV and video services on. We look to the renewed partnership with One Verge to reach out to media owners and content creators while reinforcing our strong telco relationships.
UltraTech Cement and IESL to continue free services to support Sri Lankan public View(s):

UltraTech Cement Lanka and the Institution of Engineers of Sri Lanka have signed an MoU in a continuation of its partnership to offer free expert engineering advice through building clinics to homebuilders island wide.

These clinics offer professional advice free of charge to people with no access to technical knowledge and engineering information. The MoU, effective from 1 June 2017, pledges to conduct these clinics in various parts of the country for the next two years, the cement company said in a media release.

Over the past two years, UltraTech Cement Lanka and IESL have conducted six building clinics in Kalutara, Kurunegala, Kandy and Gampaha helping hundreds of homebuilders, contractors and masons. UltraTech Cement Lanka and IESL are committed to the advancement of Sri Lankas home building industry, disseminating knowledge and best practices to those unable to afford or access expert advice, said Kiran Redkar, CEO of UltraTech Cement Lanka. (Prof.) Mrs. Niranjanie Ratnayake  President Elect of IESL, Niyas Samad  Chairman, Civil Engineering Sectional Committee of the IESL, Champika Nawagamuwa  Team Leader Civil Engineering Sectional Committee of the IESL, Probodha Jinasena, who championed the concept of the building clinic, Ananda Silva, who actively coordinates the programmes, and Sandeep Holey, Senior General Manager  Marketing and Technical at Ultratech Cement Lanka, were among the attendees at the MoU signing ceremony.

Building clinics offer advice on construction related queries such as proper land selection, geo- technical issues, building services, structural designs, electrical, plumbing and sewage and also raises awareness on sustainability and affordable design.
Bond probes explosive claims threaten to eclipse I know nothing Ravi Ks sun THE PENTHOUSE SCANDAL SET TO ROCK THE GOVT. View(s): View(s):

Yahapalanaya awaits crucifixion on the nations cross of faith if the Govt fails to show its commitment to its professed ideals

Oh dear! Would it not have been a bowl of hot soup that the former Finance Minister and now Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake found himself dipping his spoon into last Sunday with the dread of eating porridge on his mind after allegations were made by a witness at the Presidential Commission hearing into the bond scam that he and his familys eight months stay last year at the 4000 square feet luxurious penthouse suite at the Monarch Residencies next to the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo 3, was paid for by the man at the epicenter of the Central Bank bond scam, namely, Arjun Aloysius?

At the tune of Rs 1.45 million a month. For eight months. Totting up a lease bill of Rs. 11,600,000. And that he knew nothing?

And that Ravi Karunayake and his family took residence thereat and occupied the top floor Monarch suite without any lease agreement between him or anyone of his family with the owner of the premises Anika Wijesuriya, the witness who made the claim under oath before the presidential tribunal? Of that, too, he knew nothing?

Surprising, isnt it, that it never struck him to find out the legal status of his stay there or who was funding his and his familys 11 million buck luxury sojourn there? That he only got to learn who had paid for it only last Monday when Anika Wijesuriya gave her testimony to the presidential commission probing the bond scam and said it had been Aloysius who held lease in the name of Walt and Rowe Ltd, of which Arjun and his father were directors.

But as far as Ravi K was concerned, his wife and daughter had placed him in the lap of luxury atop Monarch Residencies and he had never paused to ask them how they worked their miracle. Why question Heavens grace and favour when it puts one in the crib of utmost comfort? Its only beggars, les miserable, who look to the heavens and ask from povertys gutter: Why me Lord, what have I done to deserve even none of the blessings youve given in abundance to those who least deserve thy benevolence?

Furthermore, after the six months lease expired and a two months extended stay was granted by owner Anika Wijesuriya, the luxurious penthouse suite was bought for Rs 165 million by a company called Global Transport and Logistics (GTL) Ltd a company which Ravi set up and of which he was chairman till 2015 when he resigned to become minister but of which his wife Mela and daughter Onella are directors? And, of course, he knew nothing of that too.

Family man Ravi Karunanayakes family world would have been shattered last Monday to hear that his idyllic eight months stay at the celestial Monarch penthouse suite had been paid for by Arjun Aloysius and that his wife and daughter had kept him in the dark? That they had not revealed that there was any lease agreement between them with the owner of the premises but that the lease agreement was between the owner Anika and a company called Walter and Row Ltd., which was owned by Aloysius Perpetual Trust.

What a shock it would have been for him to learn from Anikas evidence that the near million and half month rent was being paid by the said company and that he and his family were enjoying a little piece of heaven not due to the benevolence of his patron saint, St. Anthony of Padua  the saint of seekers of lost things  but due to the munificence of Aloysius who had just made a five billion buck killing from government bonds. That the manna that provided the Rs 1,450,000 rent per month to pay his stay at his Monarch penthouse suite had not fallen from heaven but had  surprise, surprise  come from Aloysiuss hip pocket wallet.

Ignorance as to the source of funds to pay the Rs. 1.45 million a month rent for eight months may have indeed been bliss for Ravi K but it soon became clear that the former finance minister and now foreign minister who had enjoyed the opulence only big money can buy had a whole lot of explaining to do. Not only to the presidential commission. But, more importantly, to the people of Lanka.

But first lets briefly recap how the Penthouse Scandal broke.

The first cold winds of an impending storm blew on July 19th when a State Counsel told journalists that the witness to be summoned at the next sitting would surprise everyone. He was not joking. Or exaggerating the dynamite the witness would ignite and explode by the testimony she would give before the Presidential Commission come Monday the 24th of July. Her evidence would strike at the very core of the government, would become the acid test whether the Maithripala government stood by its Yahapalana principles or only paid lip service to it merely to show by words and not by deeds its dedication to just and transparent government, accountable to the people.

When Anika Wijesuriya, daughter of well known businessman Nahil Wijesuriya, took the stand to give evidence before the presidential commission and affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, little did anyone realise that what she was about to reveal would soon rock the Government and would force it to decide between loyalty to a cabinet minister and its commitment to its Yahapalana policies.

Anika then went onto give a blow by blow account, how the entire transaction was done. In her words: Its a large apartment comprising 4,000 square feet as two separate apartments had been amalgamated and the Monarch Residencies management had declared it to be a penthouse. Minister Karunanayakes wife had first come to see the apartment around 1.00 pm on Jan. 27, 2016 and after inspecting it the latter had called someone and about one hour later Arjun Aloysius had come there to my surprise as I knew him because he had been few years senior to me at Colombo International School.

The deal was discussed verbally with Arjun, who paid me cash Rs 1.45 million and a further Rs. 10.2 million by cheque, making a total payment of Rs 11.6 million. He told me verbally that even though he was taking the apartment on lease, it would be occupied by Minister Karunanayake and his family. The lease agreement was signed between Walt and Row Pvt. Ltd., and I. Anika told the Commission. It was on that basis that Sri Lankas Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and his family took residence. Rent free. And Sri Lankas Finance Minister had no clue on what legal basis  whether he was a lessee or a squatter, a freeholder or a freebie  he and his family occupied the premises. He asked no questions and was given no lies.

But there was more to come from this young girl, still in her late twenties. She told the Bond scam commission that in July, 2016, there was news published on websites regarding the incident highlighting the Karunanayake family occupying an apartment, with the rental paid by Mr. Aloysius.

Anika, whose second name is Vinodani, said Because of these media reports, Arjun Aloysius had asked me to destroy the lease agreement. He said he destroyed his copy of the lease agreement and asked me to do the same, but I was confused with the request because the documentation would generally be available at the public records room and did not do what he asked me to do, Anika said.

I also contacted Mrs. Karunanayake afterwards and talked about the media reports and their negative impact on me as the owner of the apartment. I asked Mrs. Karunanayake to either purchase the apartment or vacate it considering the circumstances. The Karunanayake family later conveyed their willingness verbally to buy the apartment and we settled on a price of Rs.165 million.

If young Anikas testimony was dynamite, what the Karunanayake owned Global Transport and Logistics chief accountant Brian Sinnaiah had to say when he took the stand was nothing short of nuclear. The testimony he gave may well have lifted the unfolding penthouse scandal to a higher level. Under oath, the Chief Financial Officer of Global Logistics and Transportation Brian Sinnaiah testified regarding to a loan facility taken by the company to purchase a penthouse on behalf of former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

This is what Sinnaiah, who described himself as a banker of over 30 years experience, had to say:

FIRST: 70% of the company shares are owned by OSM Holdings represented by the two Karunanayakes and the 30% of it is owned by Hampton Group, which is a foreign company represented by the two Lakshmis who live in Great Britain. Minister Ravi Karunanayake, who was a director of the said company, had stepped down from his post in January 2015 following the appointment as Finance Minister.

SECOND: He had received instructions in July 2016 from the two local directors of the company to seek a loan facility to purchase the said penthouse. The two directors are Mela Karunanayake and Onella Karunanayake, the wife and the daughter of Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

THIRD: Ravis company GLTC applied for a loan facility from Seylan Bank in the latter part of 2016 to purchase the said penthouse at Monarch residencies in Colpetty.

FOUR: Following the instructions, he, Sinnaiah, has sent an email to a Seylan Bank Senior Manager requesting a loan facility of Rs. 150 million to be paid in 15 installments.

FIFTH: The loan facility acquired to purchase the Penthouse was to be paid back using money belonging to GLTC Chairman T.V. Lakshmikanthan who lives in Britain. Lakshmikanthans money, of which the origin is undisclosed, was kept in the GLTCs money safe since February 2016. Lakshmikanthan has visited Sri Lanka twice in February 2016 and February 2017. In both instances, Lakshmikanthan has placed Rs 70 million and Rs 75 million of his personal money in the GLTC money safe. But no receipt had been issued to him after receiving the money.

SIXTH: His chairman Lakshmikanthan came to the company on two occasions in February 2016 and February 2017 in a car. He said Lakshmikanthan carried the Rs 70 million and Rs 75 million on the said two occasions in two parcels. His Chairman told him to await further instructions on the money after he kept the money in the safe.

SEVEN: The Monarch Penthouse was purchased with the GLTC paying the installments of the loan taken from Seylan Bank. The first installment was due on October 2016. The company did not have sufficient funds to pay the installment. So I sought Miss Onella Karunanayakes instructions. She told me that she would talk with the Chairman. Later on she got back to me and said to use Chairmans money kept in the safe to pay the instalment.

EIGHT: Nine installments of the said loan were paid in the same fashion by using the Chairmans money kept in the money-safe. The monthly instalments had been paid at the rate of Rs. 11 million for nine months. The cash was taken from the chairmans safe and the installments were paid in cash.

NINE: There were no ledger entries in the GTLPL accounts books regarding these two cash inflows. The Rs 145 million cashed received and the nine installments of Rs. 11 million paid to the bank in cash.

Justice Chithrasiri observed that Rs. 70 million was a big amount and the witness had done something very foolish by accepting money without any documentation and going by the way the money had been used, several criminal offences had been committed under the money laundering laws.

But before the storm broke last week, Ravi Karunanayake had already received his summons to appear before the presidential commission of inquiry into the bond scam on July 25th. On Monday the 24th the day Anika gave her evidence, Ravis lawyer asked the commission to excuse him on that date he had to attend the cabinet meeting. The court fixed a new date, July 26th for him to present himself. On that day, Ravis counsel excused Ravis absence stating his client had to attend the Security Council meeting. Obviously the Presidential Commission had failed to realise the importance of being Ravi K when they had twice issued the summons without prior consultation with him as to when it would be convenient to spend a few minutes in their company.

As Ravi Karunanayake told reporters last Tuesday, Dont they know I am a Cabinet minister when summoning me to be present on Tuesday? I was summoned on the day I had to attend the Cabinet meeting. There is nothing to hide. I will answer any question asked and I will expose the truth to the entire country. Even as the joint opposition rubbed its hands with great expectations that he would open a can of worms and the UNP announced it would suspend its decision depending on Ravi Ks answer to the serious allegations leveled against him, the nation waited with bated breath for the great day to dawn when the reigning resident by divine right of Monarchs Rs 165 million penthouse suite would condescend to emerge from his swank top floor apartment to take the elevator down and take his place in the witness stand to answer all questions asked of him and to expose the truth to the entire country.

But when the great day dawned and Ravi K took his stand it proved to be the greatest anti climax of the year. A puswedilla. Or what youll call a damp squib.

He answered all significant questions asked him with a studied I know nothing and passed the buck to his wife and daughter. And, as for exposing the truth to the entire nation, he only exposed his own dodgy stance and his temporary bouts of amnesia. For over five hours he was questioned not only by the ASG Dappula De Livera but also by a Commissioner, Supreme Court Justice Prasanna Jayawardena, but he stubbornly stuck to his guns of ignorance. His stock reply was: Ask the wife. Ask the daughter. I know nothing.

Some of the piercing questions posed by Supreme Court Judge Prasanna Jayawardane and the answers Ravi Karunanayake gave in response will give you a fair idea. Space does not permit to give the whole transcript but six questions posed by Justice Jayawardane should give you the drift.

JUSTICE JAYAWARDENA: Your family knew there was no lease agreement signed with the owner of the house?

RK: I do not know that.

JUSTICE JAYAWARDENA: You said your family paid the rental to Walt and Rowes?

RK: I dont know, they said it was to an accountant.

JUSTICE JAYAWARDENA: They had to know the lease agreement was with this company because it clearly says so in the agreement. Your wife and daughter are educated people so they must surely know there is a conflict of interest?

RK: No. They are not in the political arena so I dont think they are aware.

JUSTICE JAYAWARDENA: So you are saying that they did not see anything wrong with their house rent being paid by a company which is connected to the stock market, the Primary market and the Excise Department?

RK: No. I didnt know.

JUSTICE JAYAWARDENA: It is publicly known that Perpetual Treasuries Limited, Perpetual Capital Holdings and Walt and Rowes Associates are interconnected. So are you seriously telling us to believe you when you say you are unaware of these close associations which concern you?

RK: Yes. I was not.

JUSTICE JAYAWARDENA: We have given you every opportunity to tell us what you want to say. What you are basically telling us is that I knew nothing.

RK: Yes, I knew nothing.

That should give the gist of the ambit of Ravis professed ignorance.

But it must be stressed that though ignorance is no defense, neither is accepting a gift from a friend a criminal offense. But paying Rs 165m in cash, in installments of Rs 11 million a month with no records kept of cash received or spent is, of course, another matter and may well invite, as Supreme Court Justice Jayawardane observed, a money laundering probe.

Should the FCID investigate the matter further, it will be up to Ravi K to prove how he or his company earned the money, for under the money laundering act, the onus of proving ones innocence is on the one accused, not for the prosecution to prove guilt. Thus I know nothing answers may rule ok at a toothless presidential commission but may not suffice to escape doing porridge at a criminal court with bite.

The more serious question that faces the nation is what the UNP response is going to be. As it indicated on Tuesday, it will await Ravi Ks explanations to the presidential commission before passing judgment on his political future. Prime Minister Ranil Wicremesinghe must now express his view whether Ravi Ks profound ignorance profusely exhibited with his signature tune of I know nothing, will be sufficient to absolve him of the serious allegations leveled against him by witnesses under oath,

The all powerful Rajapaksa government fell not because they were found guilty of corruption by the courts. Even after two and a half years of the Sirisena government no one in that regime has still been convicted. But because the peoples perception was that they were corrupt. It must be acknowledged and hats raised all around that if not for the Yahapalana policies, no commission would have been set up in the first place and even if it was, no witness would have dared come forth and give evidence against a powerful sitting minister. But when what spouts from the commissions probing there is something rotten in the state of Yahapalanaya and there is no follow through, it does not require a joint opposition no confidence motion against Ravi K.

If no action is taken by President Sirisena to allay the worst fears of the masses that they had been betrayed again by their leaders who vowed to dawn a just, transparent government accountable to the people not even two years ago, then the nation would pass their own no confidence motion against this government come 2020 elections. And see it passed with an overwhelming majority. And they wouldnt mind who the alternative is. For by then they would know that behind the mask of cherubs devils look alike whatever the hue.

Perhaps its best that Ravi Karunanayake reconsiders his position. And retires to his penthouse pad as the family man he says he is, and there in that cosy tree top nest, enjoy the company of his wife and daughters in solitude. Or else he might find his luxury suite besieged with the entire cabinet the day after the 2020 presidential election seeking asylum. Far better to retire with dignity and make the supreme sacrifice for the nations sake, for his partys good and the peoples interest than dilly dally any longer before the naions contempt and take the whole government down with him, isnt it? Especially when the writing is on the wall. With the word RESIGN writ large.

And the question must be asked: Is one mans political existence worth the price the nation would have to pay if the masses lose trust and confidence in the President and the Prime Ministers shining stance of placing principle before politics? If not, it will surely come to pass, that on the cross of a shattered faith would see nailed the nations forlorn Yahapalana hopes.
House lauds RW, deplores JO, JVP boycott as unbecoming By Chandani Kirinde Parliament Vote of Felicitation for RW's 40 years as a Legislator View(s): View(s):

The Vote of Felicitation in Parliament Friday for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in recognition of 40 years of continuous service as a legislator, was overshadowed by the boycott of the special sitting by MPs of the Joint Opposition (JO) group and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

Mr Wickremesinghe who first entered Parliament on July 21, 1977 has seen his fair share of political upheavals in the country, but the felicitation vote came at a particularly turbulent time when his govt is at the center of a political storm, brought on by the information unravelling before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed to look into the Treasury Bond issue.

This in turn has led to growing public disquiet about the failure of the Yahapalanaya Govt to walk the talk on many of their pre-election promises, which means the Prime Ministers 40th year as an MP may portend more trying times ahead.

While Govt shortcomings have given ample opportunities for the those in the JO and JVP to seize their moments and make political mileage, there is no justification for their decision to boycott Parliament on a day it convened to felicitate a Parliamentary colleague. Notwithstanding which side of the political divide one is, there is general agreement that Premier Wickremesinghe has contributed immensely to further Parliamentary democracy in the country and help keep alive a faltering system.

The reason given by some JO MPs for the boycott is that the House is breaking with tradition by having a vote of felicitation. Which is not so because, as a matter of fact that such a vote was held in 1992 to felicitate Sri Lankas longest serving MP, the late Maithripala Senenayake, when he completed 45 years as a sitting MP.

As Minister of Civil Aviation, Nimal Siripala De Silva noted, when a Parliamentarian from any party reaches a milestone in their political career, they too would be felicitated in the same manner. Felicitating an MP who is from another Party is in no way a betrayal of our Partys principles. We can have our political differences, we can debate and we can disagree but, we do not need to engage in vengeful politics, he said.

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Minister of City Planning & Water Supply, Rauf Hakeem, who spoke in Parliament on Friday, put it more bluntly, when he said the decision to keep away from the House took essential Parliamentary decency to the lowest level.

Politics aside, as many of the speakers noted, 40 years of service as a lawmaker during four turbulent decades in the countrys history is no easy task, and like Mr. Hakeem noted, there are traits in the Prime Minister which even his worst political opponents would admire and want to learn from. A case in point the SLMC leader reminded the House was the steadfast loyalty Mr Wickremesinghe showed to late President Ranasinghe Premadasa, when he was faced with an impeachment motion, engineered largely by several senior members of his own Party.

His perseverance and patience, and ability to stomach criticism calmly and unruffled, while also taking decisions that are not always politically popular, are traits that Leader of the Opposition and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan noted in his speech.

Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe was prepared to take decisions which he considered to be in the best interest of the country, irrespective of any other consideration. A crucial decision taken by him was to field Maithripala Sirisena as the common Opposition candidate at the last presidential election. He made this decision boldly and wisely, Mr Sampanthan said.

The Premier said he is indebted to his political mentor, the late President J.R. Jayewardene, who encouraged him to enter politics and also guided a younger generation of politicians including Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayaka and himself. He also thanked President Premadasa.

Two lessons I learned were to treat the advice of elders as gold and to learn from past experiences. Discipline, patience, learning to work without jealously towards others and embracing victory and defeat in the same manner, are other qualities that helps one to go forward, he said.

While a vote of felicitation will in no way lessen the burden that high political office carries with it for the Premier, there is no doubt that in the rumble and tumble world of politics, where brickbats are more common than bouquets, a little appreciation goes a long way.

And in defense of the Premier, at least this could be said with some certainty. There is little doubt that Ranil Wickremesinghe would have been the first to speak if the tables were turned, and Fridays felicitation was for politicians like former President Mahinda Rajapaksa or, MP Dinesh Gunawardena or, even MP Anura Dissanayaka. It is their inability to put aside political differences and be magnanimous enough to wish a fellow Parliamentary colleague, who has reached a milestone in his political career, well, is the bane of Sri Lankas politics of today.
RK: The belligerent but beleaguered Minister By Our Political Editor View(s): View(s):

Bond Commission revelations severe embarrassment to Govt., especially to the UNP; party stalwarts also ask FM to quit

Renewal of MoU, Sirisena to wait till December 31 for Bond Commission and Budget debate to be concluded

Amendments to hold all PC election on a single day next year; local council elections unlikely this year

Minister Ravi Karunanayake appeared Wednesday before the Commission probing the bond scam and his testimony plunged a Government, voted to office on the edifice of fighting bribery and corruption, into its worst embarrassment.

During five hours of testimony, he denied any knowledge of how the apartment where he lived at Monarch, adjoining Colombos Hotel Cinnamon Grand was acquired on lease for Rs 1.45 million a month. Later it had been purchased for Rs 165 million. The deals had been done by his wife and daughter. He had only learnt that Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual Treasuries had rented it after the matter was raised in Parliament by Mahindananda Aluthgamage, former minister and an MP from the Joint Opposition. Had he known earlier, he would have not occupied the apartment, Karunanayake who was the then Finance Minister said. Perpetual Treasuries is at the centre of the inquiry into alleged misappropriation of a colossal amount of money from a Central Bank bond scam under the incumbent Government.

A further insight into the matter can be gleaned from the relevant Q & A before the Commission:

Q: Did your wife visit the premises before you rented it.

A: I was told that she did

Q: She went there alone?

A: I dont know.

Q: Did she tell you that she met Arjun Aloysius in the premises

A: No

Q: She did not tell you that Mr Aloysius came in and discussed matters with Miss (Anika) Wijesuriya in the presence of your wife.

A: No. All I know is that Miss Wijesuriya was the former girlfriend of Arjun Aloysius.

Q: Miss Wijesuriya said that when your wife visited, she called Mr Aloysius and he visited the place.

A: I dont know that. I am only privy to what my family has told me.

Q: Are you aware of the existence of the company Walt & Row?

A: No

Q: Do you know that Arjun Aloysius and his father are directors of this company?

A: They are directors of many companies. Thats all I know. I do not know who is owning what.

Q: You did not know that this apartment was leased by Walt & Row from Miss Wijesuriya?

A: No. I need not know.

The three-member Commission of Inquiry was appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena and was gazetted on January 27 this year to probe the alleged Central Bank bond scam reportedly running into billions of rupees. Justice C. Chitrasiri, its Chairman, Justice Prasanna Jayawardena and retired Deputy Auditor General Kandasamy Velupillai are members. Among their terms of reference is one to ascertain whether there has been misuse or abuse of power, influence, interference, fraud, malpractices, nepotism or any act or omission connected with corrupt activity in relation to the bond issue.

The Commission had earlier heard the testimony of Anika Wijesuriya, a director of East West Properties Ltd. She told the Commission Aloysius had obtained the apartment for Minister Karunanayake and family initially on lease for six months. She had later asked the wife of the Minister, Mela Karunanayake to purchase the apartment and sought Rs 180 million. They had later agreed to Rs 165 million and the deal was closed.

At the end of his testimony, Karunanayake appeared before television cameras outside the Commission premises in Hulftsdorp and declared, Certain media groups were set to hang me without trial. I proved them wrong. If he told the Sunday Times last week that interested groups wanted to make him a fall guy, Karunanayake this time accused the Attorney Generals Department of tarnishing his image and for trying to capitalise on it to gain top positions. He added, These are consequences of certain misdeeds carried out by our own fellow politicians. That is the biggest quandary I have ever faced. I can tell at this moment that the truth will unearth soon. It cannot be concealed.

Within minutes rather than hours, what Karunanayake told the Commission began to reverberate countrywide. For the United National Party (UNP), it came as a severe blow. Its leaders had vowed ahead of both the presidential and parliamentary elections to deal with those accused of bribery and corruption. Karunanayake himself was, ironically, one of the most vociferous anti-corruption advocates at the time. He often said we will not be going after the small fish, we will go after the thora (big fish). The partys main plank included accusations against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, members of his family and officials of that administration.

When the new Government assumed office, a much publicised Presidential Task Force for Assets Recovery was established to ferret out hidden wealth, both here and abroad, of those in the previous Government. It has so far produced zero results except for a pile of travel bills of some members. It was only last month that President Maithripala Sirisena admonished the UNP leadership at the weekly Cabinet meeting for stalling investigations into high profile cases. That the Government was into its mid-year tenure unable to produce results irked him. And now, a UNP Cabinet Minister has testified before a Commission of Inquiry bringing in its wake allegations of serious corruption.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe sought an urgent meeting with Sirisena on Wednesday evening. Ahead of that, he met Karunanayake to determine his own position. What the two leaders of the National Unity Government discussed during their one-on-one meeting is not known. However, one source said Wickremesinghe urged that the Commission be allowed to complete its proceedings before any form of action was contemplated. In effect, he was seeking more time before any action is initiated. Unconfirmed reports said Sirisena was not in favour since the revelations were of a very serious nature and it was incumbent on the UNP leadership to decide on immediate action. This was on the grounds that the revelations had an adverse bearing on the entire Government, and Sirisena himself was under pressure to act.

Earlier, at a dinner at Temple Trees to felicitate Premier Wickremesinghe for his 40 years in politics, Sirisena met briefly with Karunanayake, one of the guests, as he walked around. The two were alone for a moment. When Karunanayake raised issue, Sirisena replied that it was better for him to resign his portfolio. Then, Sirisena was conspicuous by his absence when laudatory speeches were made in Parliament on Friday to celebrate the 40th year of the Prime Minister as a Member of the House. He was in Anuradhapura on official engagements. Sirisena told friends later laughingly that Eya mata bena bena yanawa or he (Karunanayake) is scolding me. To some, he even recounted the events that prompted him to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to seek the truth behind the bond issue.

UNP leaders set in motion measures to cope with a rapidly changing situation. Wickremesinghe met his ministers and party parliamentarians to seek their views on what should follow. On Friday in Parliament, a group of ministers met Karunanayake for a confidential discussion. They included UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim, Rajitha Senaratne, Mangala Samaraweera, Gamini Jayawickrema Perera and some MPs. They urged Karunanayake to step down until his name is cleared by the Commissions probe. The Foreign Minister had argued saying he had done no wrong and had raised an overdraft from a local bank to purchase the house. He had said that he was only a witness and was not in any way associated with the alleged bond scam. He said he had shown bank statements to the Commission. He had said that his wife handled his personal work. The group urged Karunanayake to step down as Foreign Minister until such time the Commission concludes its findings. There was also subtle hints that a refusal to step down could lead to dismissal.

At one point, when Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera suggested that his colleague Karunanayake step down temporarily, he was defiant. He said if he did so, what about others who would or are facing such accusations, he asked.

Samaraweera was to explain that in this instance it was not a case of a telephone number of a colleague being found or his name appearing in an SMS that has come to light. He said there was a specific instance where it has transpired that he had lived in an apartment that had belonged to Arjun Aloysius and had denied any knowledge of how it had happened.

According to one senior UNPer, Karunanayake was livid with a ministerial colleague from his own party and had accused him of being among those out to destroy him. Highly placed UNP sources said that Premier Wickremesinghe was due to meet Karunanayake last night to urge him to step down from the post of Foreign Minister until the sittings of the Commission are over. Wickremesinghe had not wanted to make the appeal earlier allowing time for his ministers and MPs to first raise issue with the Foreign Minister. Thereafter, he was to tell him, that his position would be reviewed once the Commissions report is handed in.

Yesterday, Wickremesinghe was in Kataragama taking part in religious ceremonies to mark his fortieth year in politics. The same source said that a number of Karunanayakes ministerial colleagues were in favour of the Foreign Minister stepping down though a few did argue that he had not been found guilty of any offence. They also said he had not even been indicted. The call for his resignation is on the grounds that the issue, ahead of local and provincial elections, was causing heavy embarrassment to the party.

Since admonishing the UNP leadership for stalling investigations into high profile cases, Sirisena has personally taken initiatives to expedite them. The move has seen increased consultations between those in the Attorney Generals Department and the different state investigative arms. A new probe which Sirisena has initiated involves the payment of US$ 146 million for the cancellation of three Airbus A 350 900 aircraft.

Vote of no-confidence

The other partner in the ruling coalition, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is also in a dilemma. This was after its rival group that includes the Joint Opposition handed in a Vote of No Confidence on Foreign Minister Karunanayake in Parliament. It was signed by Joint Opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardena and 31 others. Some of the signatures were obtained at Joint Opposition MP Keheliya Rambukwellas sons wedding at the Cinnamon Grand earlier this week. A date for the debate is to be determined at a party leaders meeting with Speaker Karu Jayasuriya at noon on Tuesday. He left on Friday night for Teheran for ceremonies connected with the inauguration of the re-elected President Hassen Rouhani. Firstly, the pro-Sirisena SLFP group has been strong critics of the UNP for stalling high profile investigations against the anti-Sirisena SLFPers. Secondly, they claimed, it was pro-Sirisena SLFPers who were brought in for investigations. As one SLFP minister, who spoke on grounds of anonymity said, We cannot remain non-committal when a vote is taken. We have to support it. Even abstaining will make our position weak.

The Joint Opposition Vote of No Confidence against Karunanayake saw sharp differences in its own leadership. An influential section was all out to stop the move. One of the powerful among them in fact telephoned a UNP stalwart on Friday and declared he was unable to come over to Parliament to make a laudatory speech on Premier Wickremesinghe since the motion was due. The Joint Opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardena told the Sunday Times we are asking for an early debate. This motion is not personally against an individual. It is against a person who is holding an exalted position where public trust is essential.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa now MP for Kurunegala District told the Sunday Times I will vote for the No Confidence Motion. Reports that I will stay away is not true, he said.

This is what the Joint Opposition Vote of No Confidence says:

Since Mr Arjun Aloysius, as a Primary Dealer has been accused in a major financial fraud over Treasury Bond transactions carried out in 2015 and 2016,

Since Mr Ravi Karunanayke as the Minister in charge of the subject of Finance and a close associate of Mr Aloysius has been actively trying to defend him (Mr Aloysius) while maintaining illegal financial transactions with him as revealed in the Commission of Inquiry into issue of Bonds,

Since Ms Karunanayake inspected the house in the Monarch apartment complex, Kollupitiya and Mr Aloysius paid the rent for a six month period amounting to Rs. 10.2 million enabling Mr Karunanayake and his family to occupy the apartment giving him undue financial advantage and subsequently carrying out a transaction that lacks transparency by the purchase of the said apartment for Rs 165 million by Global Star Logistic, a company owned by the Ravi Karunanayake family,

Since the apartment occupied by Mr Karunanayke was purchased using money provided on the instructions of the Karunanayake family owned Company Global Transportation Chairman Lakshmi Kanthan and Ms Karunanayake where undeclared money amounting to Rs 145 million packed in bags and held in a private safe was made use of thereby seriously violating regulations of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the gazette notification by the Financial Intelligence Unit on Financial Transactions Reporting

and,

Since the confidence in Mr Ravi Karunanayake who served as the Minister in charge of the subject of Finance has eroded, if he continues to hold a ministerial position it would be a disgrace to the national economy and therefore the House resolves that he should resign from the ministerial position held.

Like its SLFP counterparts, for the UNP too, the Vote of No Confidence will come as a dilemma. At a discussion in Parliament lobbies, a UNP minister asked how the party was going to oppose the vote particularly in the light of Karunanayake denying any knowledge of the transactions relating to the lease or purchase of the apartment. Of course, there were a few who held the view that the party could vote against the motion since it was a witch hunt against Karunanayake. It could therefore, also galvanise the UNP which is divided currently on Karunanayake remaining as a minister.

MoUs term ends this month

The Karunanayake saga comes at what seems a crucial period both for the UNP and the SLFP, the two main partners in the coalition. Their Memorandum of Undersanding (MoU) for the present consensual Government ends on August 22, or in just 16 days. Contrary to claims earlier by SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake, there is no written provision in this MoU about a renewal date of December 31, 2017. The SLFP former general secretary and Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa confirmed this yesterday. He told the Sunday Times, We are yet to discuss with President Sirisena what should follow (once the MoU lapses on August 22). It will take place soon.

Why then was a deadline of December 31, 2017 placed by President Sirisena? The Sunday Times has learnt that there were two main reasons. The main one was the Governments budget proposals in November which would require the support of both the SLFP and the UNP. They would together support it on the basis that the agreement is allowed to hold till year end. Another is the Commission of Inquiry probing the Central Bank bond issue. Its term has been extended until end October. President Sirisena will thus be able to determine the causes and those responsible for this alleged billion-rupee swindle before the conclusion of a renewed MoU. It was only a week ago, Sirisena told an SLFP Executive Committee meeting that he left a corrupt Government to form a new one. He said he would not continue in a Government that was also corrupt.

Local and PC elections

The deadline of December 31 also comes amidst the impending local government and provincial council elections to three bodies. Whilst the likelihood of a local government election before year end is increasingly remote, the Cabinet of Ministers has decided to amend laws to put off polls for Eastern, Sabaragamuwa and North Central provincial councils. This is until such time amended legislation is introduced to enable all provincial council elections to be held on a single day.

Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faiszer Mustapha told a news conference last week that a two-thirds vote in Parliament would be required to put off polls for the three Provincial Councils. Whether the Government is able to muster a two-thirds vote remains one thing. However, the most important issue, if the Government does succeed in passing the amendments, would be how both the SLFP and the UNP propose to contest them. If it is after December 31, the prospects of the two sides fielding their own candidates cannot be ruled out.

Premier Wickremesinghe who sought the re-scheduling of Provincial Council elections noted in his memoranda to the ministers that the election process, having adopted a staggered system in the recent past, an undesirable socio- political environment has emerged in the country that would result in:

Inefficient allocation of Governments financial, human and other resources for unending election related activities, almost every year.

Undue disruptions to State Service Delivery System and day-to-day activities of the General Public.

Increased possibility of Election-related violence, malpractices and abuse of state Resources due to concentration of National Political Figures, Media and Political Party Machinery in a limited geographical area.

Creating ability for the incumbent government to exert undue influence on the outcome of the election by concentrating State Resources and State Media to a restricted area.

Distortion of Public Perception of Country regarding the popularity/unpopularity of a political party based on the outcome of the election held in a particular Province that can be a decisive factor for the subsequent elections, having chain effects.

The emerging consensus among the party leaders, Wickremesinghe pointed out, is that all elections should be held under the same system i.e. Mixed Member Proportional System as agreed at the Steering Committee (involved in the Constitution making process). The local council elections should be held on a single day and the Provincial Council elections should also be held on a single day. This should facilitate the voters knowledge of the electoral system by which the Parliamenary elections are held.

Wickremesinghe added: The term of Provincial Council is five years and it cannot be dissolved prior to expiration of its term unless the Board of Ministers concurs to do so. It is mandatory for the Commissioner of Elections to call for nominations within one week from the date of such dissolution.

In view of the prevailing legal provisions, it is inevitable to hold Provincial Council Elections on a staggered basis since their current terms would be concluded on varying dates from September 2017 to October 2019. The situation necessitates:

Further amendments to the 13th Amendment of the Constitution: Inserting a Provision immediately after Article 154E, requiring the elections for all Provincial Councils to be held on the same date. Inserting a transitional provision empowering the President of the Republic or the Parliament to dissolve all Provincial Councils on the specified date and in the event of the term of office of any Provincial Council conclude prior to the said specified date, the term of office of such Provincial Council should be extended beyond such date until the specified date.

The need for a two thirds vote makes it difficult for the Constitutional amendments to be made. Additional Elections Commissioner (Legal and Investigation Branch), M.M.M. Mohamed told the Sunday Times, The conduct of the Provincial elections will depend on the proposed amendments which the government hopes to bring. If the amendments come before the due dates for the elections, we will have to go by the amendments. The elections for the Sabaragamuwa, North Central and Eastern Provincial Councils were due to be announced in October, after terms lapse at the end of September. Mr Mohamed said the local elections will also depend on the proposed amendments.

The heightening political developments this week come at a time when friction between the two coalition partners, the SLFP and the UNP, is widening. Just last week, the Cabinet of Ministers took up for discussion a proposal by President Sirisena to set up a National Economic Council. Once more, Premier Wickremesinghe made an appeal that the discussion be further delayed by a week giving him time to study it and discuss it with Sirisena.

During his visit to Bangladesh last month, Sirisena discussed with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hassina the working of the National Economic Council in that country. She gave him a detailed overview of how this premier economic policy making body will function. In Sri Lanka, once set up, the proposed NEC will be the premier body and the present Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) will

function under it. The CCEM is chaired by Premier Wickremesinghe.

For both the pro Sirisena SLFP and the UNP, the challenges this week are formidable. Karunanayakes evidence before the Bond Commission has come as a big blow for the UNP leadership and bolstered SLFP claims to go it alone. One is not wrong in saying this is the beginning of a new crisis which portends to end with not just bruises but severe wounds, particularly for the UNP.
The classic dilemma of the unrepentant ministers View(s):

It is an exceedingly disconsolate reflection that key Cabinet Ministers of the unity alliance, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice for instance, appear to have a magic cloak around them, affording impunity for acts which should have, to put it bluntly, led to resignations by now.

A favorite chorus that members of this Government love to chant is that there is freedom to criticize now, unlike in dark and dangerous Rajapaksa times. However, to what extent is freedom of speech of any value when despite its vigorous exercise and notwithstanding act upon ugly act of undermining the Rule of Law by Cabinet Ministers, no consequences seem to ensue?

Is crudity the measuring rod between then and now?

In contrast, what we had with the Rajapaksas was outright buffoonery and robbery of public funds of a particularly crude kind. But is crudity the measuring rod that we must employ in judging if this Government is better or worse than its predecessor in its ransacking of the public coffers?

Let us be quite clear. The destruction that was wreaked by the Rajapaksas was incalculable. It has been repeatedly said in these column spaces that the Rajapaksa standard cannot be used in comparison as that belonged in a category of its own. Hopefully this country will never experience such extraordinary impunity ever again. It is also undisputed that where the judiciary is concerned, that level of interference is no longer the case. Judges are not now being besieged by phone calls by the then President downwards to lowly provincial councilors to rule in a particular manner. That must be conceded.

That said however, the performance of the Unity alliance is abysmal in other respects. And we return to the antics of its Ministers. It seems that the predominant thinking is that if all else fails, temporary trickery will suffice until the storm blows over and the attention of the fickle public is turned elsewhere. So even when there is some small reaction, this seems to be a cynical gameplay.

Scandal upon scandal follows

For instance, Law and Order Minister Tilak Marapana resigned in 2015 over an unseemly controversy regarding statements that he made in Parliament which amounted to a defence of Avant Garde, the controversial maritime security firm investigated for corruption. He had represented the firm before being appointed as Minister. At the time, Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapaksa had to also defend himself against similar allegations which he denied.

Though tempers died down to some extent after the resignation of the then Law and Order Minister, lo and behold, the recent Cabinet reshuffle sees him back again in a ministerial position, though somewhat lowly this time, namely the subject of Development Assignments, which had many scratching their heads wondering what development? and what assignments?

And scandal upon scandal succeeds each other. This week, the Minister of Foreign Affairs did himself no favours by insisting that he knew nothing of the payment of a colossal sum of money by a company owned by his family members to purchase a luxury apartment. The money had no source of origin nor was it accounted for. Moreover, the lease of that apartment had earlier been paid by Arjun Aloysius, son-in-law of the former Governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mahendran.

A most non-judicious Minister

On his own part, the Minister of Justice has been disgracefully cited on television talk shows by his own colleagues as a core reason as to why criminal trials and investigations into high level corruption are being dragged on. As details come to light of the number of pending cases against Rajapaksa politicians, quite apart from the files still languishing at the Department of the Attorney General, the failure of due process is staggering.

Meanwhile his role in trying to push through a highly controversial counter-terror law and amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code that safeguards the rights of police officers to engage in the unfettered interrogation of suspects is on record. He makes no bones of his contempt for ensuring the protection of ordinary civil liberties.

So while the law splutters and chokes and the Minister in charge of the portfolio of Justice appears to be behaving in a most non-judicious way, we have a Presidential Commission of Inquiry before us, playing out an absorbing drama of what seems to be the biggest financial fraud in recent years and that too, involving the once premier and august institution, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Could there be a sadder reflection on the towering hopes and lofty expectations with which the people elected a new President and a new Government in 2015?

Will the law break down here again?

It is a further interesting reflection that after all the interminable (and useless) Commissions of Inquiry (COIs)that have been afflicted on the Sri Lankan people during the past so many decades, this seems to be one Commission which may actually expose the grotesque and great extent of high-level corruption in the country. In that regard, it is entertaining to see the contortions of the legal representatives of those under inquiry resorting to various legal strategies to block details of these acts coming to light.

Regardless, it is also relevant to note that a 2008 amendment to the COI Act (1948) conferred new powers upon the Attorney General to institute criminal proceedings in a court of law in respect of any offence based on material collected in the course of an investigation or inquiry, as the case may be, by a Commission of Inquiry appointed under the Act.

This is, of course, where the drama of a Commission of Inquiry always breaks down. When the time comes for the law to be activated against those named in Commission reports, nothing happens. In a study of eleven such Commissions of Inquiry since the 1870s engaged in by this columnist, the gap between the findings of such inquiries and actual penal punishments was documented as startlingly wide. This is the case whether a Commission of Inquiry investigates gross murders and extra judicial executions or high-level corruption.

It remains to be seen if this disconcerting pattern will persist. Whatever it may be, a temporary resignation of a Minister of two (even if that takes place) will not be enough to stem the tide of public anger that is rising. Much sterner action is warranted. Let that be a stern warning to this Government.
Hambantota Port; a Concession (like no other) Agreement View(s):

The photographs that appeared in last weekends newspapers after the signing of the tripartite agreement between China Merchant Port (CMP), the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the Ministry of Ports and Shipping to lease the debt-ridden Hambantota port, said it all. On the prompting of the vice chairman of CMP for a cross handshake between the three signatories, the two locals looked awkward and embarrassed, but they obliged.

Behind the scenes were the Government politicians  for once shy of the cameras. It was they who had negotiated the deal to give the Chinese government- backed company a 99-year lease, and to have a controlling interest over the harbour in a strategic location for sea navigation. The barter. USD 1.2 Billion. Is it a mess of pottage? Some think so. Was Sri Lanka so desperate for this pittance? Has any Government whether it be President Mahinda Rajapaksas or President Maithripala Sirisenas any moral right to hand over a part of the country to another for three generations to come? If the SLPA was losing money and this was the remedy, what about the bigger losses suffered by SriLankan Airlines and what would the remedy be to offset those losses  would they sell off another part of Sri Lanka to settle that? Could not the Government have borrowed from Peter to pay Paul and retained ownership of the harbour? Could not it have continued work begun back in 2012 to develop the port gradually, steadily and strategically to become a national asset through Joint Ventures/Public-Private-Partnerships on shorter terms (35 years) and generated sufficient revenue to service the loans? These and many more questions arise.

A harbour at Hambantota was a logical exercise, in principle. The Sri Lankan Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMAREST) was one of the first to propose a commercial port in the southern city of Hambantota citing the number of vessels sailing just off its coast. What happened thereafter was the Chinese Maritime Silk Route proposal taking off (now called the One Belt; One Road initiative), and Hambantota being central to its plans.

That the Chinese aggressively pursued the plan with the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government is no secret. The Chinese came up with the funds for it, and President Rajapaksa eager to show off his economic development prowess to his local audience went hell for leather in implementing it. Protests by the then Opposition, now in Government were short-lived. At the beginning of January 2015, the new Government refused to hear of proceeding with the project, as it did the Colombo port city project.

The Chinese on the other hand, are known for their patience  and optimism that there are ways to the ears  and the pockets, of ruling politicians. They launched massive public relations campaigns overtly, and political relations campaigns with the new leaders, covertly. When the Prime Minister went to Beijing to re-negotiate the rising debt servicing for a port already in situ, he was told by the Chinese leadership in no uncertain terms that there would be no writing off the debts, and no charity. But if you cant pay, they told our Premier, We are ready to swap debt for equity. Their excuse was that other countries that also cant meet their debts to the Chinese might ask for the same concessions and similar privileges. And so, what is now called the Concession Agreement is what generosity China could best offer Sri Lanka.

The Chinese call this a win-win agreement. Many sceptics are not so sure. They feel this is Chinese imperialism replacing the old world order of Western colonialism. A foreign policy of based on give a loan; bribe the Third World leaders; start a project they cannot afford; take their territory when they cant pay back.

This is not just the case of Sri Lanka. Countries in the Caribbean, and many African countries face the same quagmire. The Chinese Dragon has spread its wings far and wide. Now, comparisons are being made in Sri Lanka to the 1815 capitulation of the Kandyan Kingdom and by a strange twist of contemporary history  to the signing of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord on the very date this deal was signed, 20 years ago.

The Government seems to be adopting a foreign policy no different to its predecessor in office i.e. to balance the competing interests of China with India in the region. The fact that India has made no formal complaint on the Hambantota agreement is significant and could be taken as not wanting to jeopardise its own quest to secure the oil tanks farms in Trincomalee. As a South East Asian Ambassador was to remark recently, Sri Lankas strategic geographical location is a double-edged sword.

In a statement, the Ports and Shipping Ministry tried to mislead the public last week by making some arithmetical jiggery-pockery to show the SLPA had majority shares in one of the two companies (viz., HIPS) to run the port. It reminded one of a former Foreign Ministers maths when he argued that though Sri Lanka lost a vote on the UNHRC Resolution in Geneva, we actually won because he counted the Abstentions also as votes for Sri Lanka. The Minister was at pains to explain that HIPS, which provides for services for the Hambantota port will be chaired by the SLPA chairman etc., but the fact of the matter is that SLPA remains a minority share-holder in the company.

He also spoke of the losses suffered at Hambantota because only some 14 cargo vessels (apart from the containers bringing in cars) berthed at the port. He didnt tell the country that orders for two cranes ordered by the Rajapaksa Government were cancelled by his predecessor for whatever reason. Obviously, no ship is going to call at the port if the equipment is not available to unload cargo.

In a bid to stave off mounting criticism, the Minister said that after the signing of the agreement, he took the Chinese delegates to meet the President who said that the Government of Sri Lanka should have the option to amend the already signed papers should there be anything inimical to Sri Lankas interest. The Chinese readily agreed to this, he added. How naive is this.

There are only few real options if things go wrong in the future. Any negotiations are by mutual consent of both parties. Nationalisation is not an option as it was in the past with international arbitration tribunals now the order of the day. And make no mistake. This is not a purely commercial exercise of running a port, however good the Chinese are at it. They know that one day, Western sanctions (economic embargoes)  the Wests modern weapons of war, can throw its plans into the sea. This is a dual purpose port for the Chinese. It is a strategic foothold as well, in Chinas grand scheme of things  for 99 years.
BreadTalk Sri Lanka launches new range View(s):

BreadTalk honours the art of bread making by imparting life to their novel creations since its inception. The evolution and growth as an internationally recognised bakery brand for over 12 years, has been encapsulated through three distinctive generations. Single Handedly, BreadTalk has succeeded in revitalising the once stale bread business, with a creative new approach to the art of bread making and baking.

Specialising in the finest breads, bakery items and gourmet desserts, BreadTalk ensures each item has its very own scrumptious story to tell, mostly filled with special ingredients sourced from around the world. From exotic nuts to the freshest fruits and finest cheeses, BreadTalk will seduce you with its charm and delight you with its many exquisite flavours.

Unveiling the new range concept, you can Get Talking with our new Buns and delightful Dessert products that aims to alter the way customers see, feel and taste the brand. BreadTalk Sri Lanka chefs, RavinPriyantha  Executive Chef (Bun) and Indika Perera  Executive Chef (Cake), whom Sri Lanka acclaimed master chefs together have created a range that reflects the aesthetic beauty of Sri Lankan customer centric food range for local customer to enjoy each bite! This new Bun and Cake and Dessert range is in celebration to express Sri Lankan culinary standards, innovative flavour combination and unique culture.

Internationally acclaimed baker and confectioner BreadTalks franchise in Sri Lanka which is a fully owned subsidiary of RIL Property recently looking forward to open its eighth outlet in the suburb of Wattala bringing baked goodness to the buzzing customers in town.
Lady Gaga faces a legal tangle View(s):

Lady Gaga is not pleased at being dragged into the legal battle between Kesha and Dr. Luke. Lady Gaga has backed Kesha all along in her legal battle has been subpoenaed by Luke to testify which the Born This Way hitmaker refers to an attempt to manipulate the truth. Gaga who opened her Joanne World Tour on 1st August in Canada is being represented by her legal team

Mariah Carey has announced she will release a Christmas song this year. The Star is the title to her brand new yuletide offering this season and is also the title of a new Christmas animated film which will be out. Carey made the announcement on social media on 26th July. She is best known for another Christmas hit song All I Want For Christmas Is You which originally came out in 1994 and has to date sold over 16 million copies worldwide.

Marti Pellow has left the group Wet Wet Wet which he helped form back in 1982. The 52 year old is to pursue an acting and solo music career. Pellow last performed with the group in July at the 30th anniversary of the band at Edinburgh Castle. Wet Wet Wet scored their first top 10 UK hit with  Wish I Was Lucky in 1987. A few more 10 UK hits followed and then they hit No: 1 with a cover of the Beatles classic With A Little Help Of My Friends in 1988. Good Girl was the quartets next No: 1 in 1991. After a slight slump in popularity in 1994 they were back at the top of the charts with a cover version of the Troggs song Love Is All Around. The track was featured on the soundtrack of the film Four Wedding And A Funeral. The song went on to become Wet Wet Wets trademark song as it were as it turned out to become a classic in its own right. The remaining members of Wet Wet Wet are Graeme Clark, Tommy Cunningham and Neil Mitchell.

The infectious sounding song Despacito by Puerto Ricans Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee with Canadas Justin Bieber has returned to the top of the UK singles chart once again, a week after it lost ground to DJ Khaleds Wild Thoughts with Rihanna and Bryson Tiller. The remix has Bieber who added the English lyrics to the song. Despacito thus has clocked 10 non consecutive weeks at the No:1 position on the UK chart. The bilingual track also joins a select group of five that have been at the top of the UK singles chart on three occasions  Frankie Laine I Believe (19530, Guy Mitchell Singing The Blues (1957), Pharrell Williams (2014), Justin Bieber What Do You Mean ( 2015).

Rudimental are back on the UK singles chart after two years. The bass and drum group are at No: 10 with Sun Comes Up. The former X-Factor winner James Arthur provides the vocals to Rudimentals fourth UK top 10 hit. Sun Comes Up has had a chart life of four weeks, beginning at 26. This week the track climbed upwards from 16 to No: 10.

Reports from the US say a private funeral for the late leader of Linkin Park, Chester Bennington took place on 29th July in California. Bennington committed suicide on July 20.

TW LW

1 2 Despacito (Remix)  Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee ft: Justin Bieber

2 1 Wild Thoughts  DJ Khaled ft: Rihanna & Bryson Tiller

3 3 Unforgettable  French Montana ft: Swae Lee

4 4 Feels  Calvin Harris /Pharrell Williams/ Katy Perry/ Big Sean

5 5 Mama  Jonas Blue ft: William Singe

6 8 Power  Little Mix

7 7 Your Song  Rita Ora

8 9 Pretty Girl  Maggie Lindemann

9 11 Came Here For Love  Sigala & Ella Eyre

10 16 Sun Comes Up  Rudimental ft: James Arthur
British High Commission issued a separate joint statement RIGHT OF REPLY - British High Commission in Colombo on Maldives seeks seat in UN Security Council, Unseats its own MPs. View(s): View(s):

The British High Commission in Colombo has responded to last weeks front page report in the Sunday Times headlined Maldives seeks seat in UN Security Council, Unseats its own MPs.

An e-mail message says, We would like to address an inaccuracy in it, relating to the British High Commission in Colombo.

The article notes the following; The deployment of troops has been condemned by many countries. British High Commission officials who convened a meeting of the diplomatic community in Colombo this week, failed in their efforts to have a joint statement issued expressing concern over the political developments in the archipelago. Thereafter, they condemned the move in the Maldives, separately.

However, we would like to clarify that the British High Commission in Colombo, issued a joint statement on the Maldives.

Our Diplomatic Editor says: Yes, the British High Commission did issue what they call a joint statement. But they issued it separately. For the record, the British High Commission issued this joint statement separately, with some EU countries and the US.

Taking umbrage under those two words in Her Majesty the Queens English, they have glossed over a fact which is a gross inaccuracy on their own part. Our report makes clear they did make efforts to issue a joint statement with those whom they had invited for a discussion on the situation in the Maldives and wanted them to be signatories to a joint statement, but some of those whom the High Commission invited DID NOT become a party to it. So, it is those who remained  from the EU and the US, who chose to make what the High Commission now touts is a joint statement.

And when asked by the Sunday Times who else took part in the meeting, heres their official response; since the meeting with other members of the diplomatic community was private and the British High Commission does not comment on private meetings  we are unable to disclose who was at the meeting.

By Gad Sir, so much for that, what.
Dalada Maligawa gets new Rs 140m Elephant shelter View(s):

The handing over last week of the new Eth Gala (Elephant shelter) for the Dalada Maligawa, took place amidst a distinguished gathering of both clergy and laymen. Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka who supervised the task, handed over the new Elephant shelter.

Sri Dalada Maligawa Media and Special Projects Director Krishantha Hissella told the Sunday Times of the history of the Eth Gala of the Sri Dalada Maligawa.

The need for an elephant shelter for the Sri Dalada Maligawa was long felt, to house our elephants and tuskers. We had 12 in our elephant herd (eth panthiya) from which Eka Danthaya passed away recently. Now, we have eight tuskers and three elephants, Mr. Hissella elaborated.

Mr. Hissella explained that, on the advice of the Ven. Mahanayake Theras of the Asgiriya and Malwatte Chapters, Diyawadana Nilame Nilanga Dela Bandara had initiated this project, which took one-and-a-half years to complete.

The elephant shelter is our way of showing gratitude, love, kindness and compassion to the great beasts, without which this ancient pageant will not be a success. Foreign visitors to Kandy venerate the Temple of the Tooth Relic, and come to see the elephants which are a great attraction to the them, he said. A proper shelter for these animals was a much-needed requirement. When we approached Minister Patali Champika Ranawake, he readily agreed to help us with this herculean task. Before the shelter was erected, the elephants rested under trees and it was only when they fell ill, that a temporary shed was erected to shield them from the elements, Mr Hissella explained.

The total cost of the project was Rs 140 million. I believe this shelter would last for the next 100 years, and would be of immense service to the elephants and tuskers of the Dalada Maligawa, he concluded.
GMOA to meet other TUs for further anti-SAITM action View(s):

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) will meet with all other trade unions on Wednesday (9) to discuss further action to be taken against abolishing the South Asian Institute of Technology & Medicine (SAITM).

GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr Navin De Soysa told the Sunday Times that, if the President and the Prime Minister do not show an interest in solving the issue, then we will have to discuss further trade union action.

Discussions will be held with all other trade unions and political parties which participated in the National Protest Day, he said.

When queried about the refusal to gazette the minimum standards of Medical Education by the Attorney Generals (AG) Dept, Dr De Soysa said the AGs Dept has stated that the Sri Lanka Medical Association cannot intervene in such matters, according to the prevailing Medical Ordinance.

If there is an obstacle blocking the gazette, then, as a means of safeguarding Medical education, they should amend the Medical Ordinance and approve the gazette, he said.

However, the Prime Minister has appointed MP Tilak Marapana and his Secretary Saman Ekanayaka to oversee matters in this regard.
Govt scours, scrambles for potable water for the drought-affected By Sandun Jayawardana View(s): View(s):

With the remaining water sources continuing to dry up, the task of finding safe drinking water for over a million people affected by the prolonged drought, is becoming more challenging by the day.

In the worst affected areas such as Kurunegala, Puttalam and Trincomalee, authorities are scrambling to transport and distribute drinking water to tens of thousands, who are also facing severe economic hardships due to the devastation of their agricultural crops and livelihoods by the drought.

According to the Disaster Management Centers (DMC) drought situation report issued at 9 am yesterday (5), over 1.1 million persons from more than 341,000 families in 137 Divisional Secretariat Divisions, are affected by the drought. Fifteen Districts are severely affected, while two others are moderately affected, said DMC Assistant Director Pradeep Kodippili.

Kurunegala District is the worst affected, with 151, 262 persons affected by the drought, while the Trincomalee District had 140,938 affected persons. Putta lam, Jaffna and Mullaitivu had over 100,000 persons affected by the drought.

Mr Kodippili noted that providing drinking water to the affected was the biggest challenge faced by authorities, with Rs 40 million already allocated for this purpose. Over 200 new bowsers and 6,000 water storage tanks had been sent to affected areas within the past few months.

District DMC offices were coordinating with District and Divisional Secretariats, Pradeshiya Sabhas and Grama Niladhari Divisions in distributing drinking water and conducting other drought relief efforts in affected areas.

The Govt is initiating drought relief measures in two ways, Minister of Disaster Management, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told the Sunday Times. One aspect is the distribution of safe drinking water to affected areas, while the other is providing relief to families whose crops have been destroyed or damaged by the drought.

Bowsers and tractor-mounted bowsers have been dispatched to affected areas to distribute drinking water, the Minister pointed out. We are also distributing water storage tanks, but have found the numbers are not sufficient, he acknowledged. Accordingly, measures have been taken to purchase more water tanks for the drought-hit areas.

Additionally, the Sri Lanka Navy is also involved in setting up sea water purification plants in places such as Jaffna.

Meanwhile, efforts are also under way to provide relief to those affected by the drop in agricultural produce. Accordingly, the Govt will be distributing relief packs with Rs 5,000 worth of essential food items to each family in the affected districts every month for the duration of the drought.

According to Minister Yapa, initial estimates put the amount of funds required for the distribution of relief packs alone at Rs 2.5 billion per month. Its a huge economic burden, he observed, But, theres nothing much we can do about that. People need relief.

The parcels will be distributed through Co-operatives and Sathosa outlets after District Secretariats send details of the affected in their respective Districts, he further said.

The Sunday Times also spoke to officials in several Districts severely affected by the drought, regarding the situation in their areas. In the Puttalam District, 15 of its 16 Divisional Secretariat Divisions are affected by drought and the main difficulty now faced by authorities is finding water sources in the district to fill bowsers to supply affected areas, said Assistant District Secretary W.M.C.K. Wanninayake. Most water sources have dried up and the ones that remain are not enough. We are currently faced with the prospect of not being able to find enough drinking water to distribute, he stressed.

Therefore, in addition to distributing water via bowsers, officials had requested funds to construct temporary wells near tanks, he added. Funds have also been requested to clean disused tube wells.

Compensation for damage caused to crops was also being paid at Rs 10,000 per affected family in the first round. The Rs 5,000 relief packs would also be distributed in the coming days, said Mr Wanninayake.

If the drought continues, there are fears the regions coconut production too would be severely damaged, he added.

The Trincomalee District faces a similar problem, as all water sources in the Gomarankadawala Divisional Secretariat Division have run dry. The only way we can get drinking water to Gomarankadawala now is by transporting it all the way from Trincomalee in bowsers, revealed DMCs Trincomalee Assistant Director K. Sugunathas.

Mr Sugunathas said that, However, all necessary equipment and funds have been made available for officials to provide relief, with a large bowser capable of transporting 13,000 litres of water was delivered this week.

In Kurunegala, 30 bowsers have been dispatched to distribute drinking water, said Additional District Secretary R.M.R. Rathnayake. The drought has had a severe impact on paddy cultivation, with only about 25% to 30% of paddy lands cultivated during this season.

Matale District Secretary D.P.G. Kumarasiri meanwhile, has instructed his Grama Niladharis to furnish daily reports to their respective Divisional Secretariats regarding details of families sans access to drinking water or, forced to purchase drinking water from shops or, travelling long distances to obtain water. Such data enables authorities to identify areas urgently in need of water, so they can provide it free of charge, he explained.

According to Mr Kumarasiri, Galewela, Dambulla and Wilgamuwa areas in the district were the worst affected, with 70 Grama Niladhari Divisions directly impacted by drought.

Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa stated the Govt expected such drought relief measures to be in place for a short term as the Dept of Meteorology has forecast the current drought to prevail till the end of September or beginning of October. The coming monsoon is forecast to be a normal one, with many rice producing areas severely hit by the present drought, getting sufficient water, the Minister remarked. He however, added there was always the chance this would not happen, in which case the current relief measures will have to continue.

The Minister outlined the need for implementing short, mid and long term measures to mitigate effects of drought. The reason is that, we have seen our monsoons are now periodically failing. The main culprit is climate change, the effects of which are being increasingly felt, he opined.

While the Govt would take whatever steps possible, the public also had a duty to conserve water. Whether you have your own water resource or, if you purchase water from the Govt, you need to understand that water is now a scarce commodity. Wastage must stop, the Minister insisted.

Drought portends poor Paddy yields Paddy cultivation in many areas was significantly affected by the prevailing drought, District officials said. They said applications have been sent to the farmers for details regarding damage to their paddy lands by the drought, and are in the process of receiving them. Anuradhapura District Agrarian Services Dept Deputy Commissioner P.G. Somarathna said, Although around 28,000 acres of paddy lands were cultivated this Yala season, there is a risk of losing at least half its harvest due to insufficient water. He added that the situation deteriorates by the day, as water levels of tanks drop drastically. Paddy lands in Galenbidunuwewa, Medawachchiya, Horowpathana and Elayapaththuwa areas are facing destruction. Water levels in the other tanks including Kalawewa and Nachchaduwa are very low, and insufficient to irrigate paddy plants. Paddy lands ready for harvest too, are at risk, he said.

Polonnaruwa District Agrarian Services Dept Assistant Commissioner H.K.P. Ranjani said, Elahara is the worst affected area by the drought in the District. She said a kg of paddy was sold between Rs 45 to 50 in the area, as the yield is poor. She said that, as the rainfall received during the last Maha season was low, some lands were cultivated early this year and harvested by April. She also noted that, in areas where the water supply from tanks were delayed, cultivation was significantly affected. Ms Ranjani said that paddy lands which got water from the Parakkrama Samudraya was entirely cultivated but added that damages are expected in those too. In the Yala season, the yield is usually high if we get sufficient rainfall during Maha. However, rainfall was less during Maha. Paddy plants grow better in the dry season, but should have had sufficient water for that. In some areas the yield from individual cultivated lands may be high but, the total amount of cultivated lands is low, she said.

Bottled water over well water from depleted wells In the midst of a prolonged drought that has brought misery to thousands, reports are emerging of unscrupulous elements profiting from the misfortune of victims. Officials in drought-hit areas that are also affected by the devastating Chronic Kidney Disease, told the Sunday Times they have reports that representatives of some bottled water companies had warned residents of these areas not to drink water from their wells, where water levels have reduced considerably due to the drought, claiming the water would damage peoples kidneys. Though this warning has no basis, people whose wells still have water, are purchasing bottled water out of fear, disclosed a senior official, on grounds of anonymity. Officials are reluctant to make formal complaints as they do not possess concrete evidence that companies are using this as a marketing tactic. We only stumbled on it by chance, following officials sent to gather data on drinking water sources, were told by residents that representatives of a bottled water company warned them against drinking water from wells with depleted water levels. However, authorities are now working to make people understand they could still drink their well-water.
Help me today, show me the way View(s):

Amidst calls for his resignation, besieged Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake is seen at a religious ceremony held in Parliament on Friday. The ceremony was held to mark the 40th anniversary of Premier Ranil Wickremesinghes entry to Parliament. By Indika Handuwala
PUCSL sheds light on power dispute with CEB By Sandun Jayawardana Director General dismisses CEB's charge that the commission acted against the law View(s): View(s):

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the countrys power sector regulator, has brushed aside Ceylon Electricity Boards objection to a power generation expansion plan approved by the commission.

Last week, CEB General Manager A.K. Amerasinghe conveyed its objections to the Least Cost Long Term Generation Expansion Plan (LCLTGEP), pointing out that the Commission had arbitrarily amended the LCLTGEP 2018-2037 sent by the CEB.

The base case plan recommended by the CEB contained a mixture of coal, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and renewable energy plants, though the plan eventually approved by PUCSL contained no coal power plants. The CEB, therefore, argued that the regulator had exceeded legal powers vested with it under the Sri Lanka Electricity Act (SLEA) in arriving at its decision and as such, the CEB could not accept the Commissions decision.

PUCSLs Director General Damitha Kumarasinghe , however, dismissed the CEBs argument, insisting that under the Electricity Act, there was no provision for the CEB to object to the regulators decision. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times this week, Mr. Kumarasinghe pointed out that under the Act, the PUCSL is the authority tasked with ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply to the country. The LCLTGEP is one of the instruments required to fulfil this obligation, he stressed, adding that it was very clear from the Act that the Commission has the mandate to review, amend and approve the plan.

Mr. Kumarasinghe said the CEBs objection that the Commission had violated guidelines was a non-issue. Guidelines do not supersede the Act. The Act always prevails and we can use powers vested with us by the Act at anytime, he said.

The Director General said the regulator had held completely transparent public consultations regarding the LCLTGEP prior to arriving at its decision. While the PUCSL had powers to go for a legally binding public hearing, it did not do so as it believed such a hearing was not required at this stage, he said.

Mr. Kumarasinghe also refuted the CEBs allegation that the plan it approved was not the one submitted by the Board. The CEB recommended its base case plan. But it submitted several scenarios, including a scenario where there was no further coal development. We found the no-coal scenario to be the cheaper and in keeping with least cost principles, we approved that. All plans were submitted by the CEB, Mr Kumarasinghe claimed.

The only adjustments made to the data submitted by the CEB were regarding the price of diesel, coal and LNG. This, the PUCSL felt, was not in keeping with actual prices at the time of the plans preparation, the DG insisted.

Regarding allegations made in some quarters that the PUCSL had also inserted power plants on its own into the LCLTGEP, Mr Kumarasinghe said what the Commission did was to fully optimise plants that were in the CEBs plan. As such, for example, the Commission thought that rather than construct a 300 Mega Watt (MW) power plant, it was better to construct the plant in two stages with two 150MW units, because it would result in a gain of the capital cost. The plants are the same as in their plan, but this approach is financially cheaper.

The Governments future energy policy also does not involve coal, he pointed out. According to the Power and Renewable Energy Ministrys Energy Sector Development Plan 2015-2025, the goal is to make the country an energy self-sufficient nation by 2030. According to the objectives set out in this plan, the target is to boost the countrys total renewable power to 60 percent by 2020. Currently, it is at 50 percent. The Government hopes to reach the ambitious goal of powering the entire country using renewable energy and indigenous sources, mainly natural gas by 2030.

We have asked the Government repeatedly if there has been a change in this policy and it has communicated to us a change of policy, Mr Kumarasinghe said. As such, the current policy clearly does not provide any room for further development of coal power plants either, he added.

The DG, however, said he did not foresee the issue between the regulator and the CEB escalating. They have lawyers. We have lawyers. Let them discuss the matter and find a solution. The bottom line is that we need to work together to avert a future power crisis, he emphasised.
SriLankan chief admits need to trim fat, but wont say how From Kapila Bandara in Hong Kong View(s): View(s):

Suren Ratwatte, the chief executive of indebted, overstaffed, multi-billion rupee loss making Sri Lankan Airlines, has admitted having excess corporate fat, while sidestepping a question on how costs would be cut, in an interview with a US business news broadcaster.

Staff costs at the airline which employs 6,959 people, runs into billions and it has been awarding generous 13% annual salary increases in some cases.

Asked by US business and financial news network Bloomberg TV this week about a lot of fat you got to cut, Capt Ratwatte replied, arguably yes, and appeared to justify unsustainable losses at Sri Lankan Airlines by comparing its situation to significant competitors, Gulf carriers among them. He added that the group businesses of those airlines cross subsidises parts of it.

But, Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Etihad have not continued to report multi-billion dollar losses for decades and are not known for employing cronies and pals. For the 2016-17 financial year, Emirates profit fell by 70% to US$670 million from record profit the year before.

Revenue grew by 2 percent to US$25.8 billion. Etihad Airways booked a net loss of US$1.87 billion on US$ 8.36 billion in revenues for 2016. This was largely attributed to one-off impairment charges of US$1.9 billion including a US$1.06 billion charge on aircraft, and fuel hedging losses. The core airline business booked passenger revenues of US$4.9 billion and 79 percent load factor. It carried a record 18.5 million passengers. Yields fell by 8 percent, but it was partially offset by an 11% reduction in unit costs.

CEO Ratwatte, also boldly predicted that the carrier will make profits this year, gave himself and his team a pat on the back for beating revenue forecasts every month, while admitting costs cuts are necessary. At air transport level, making a profit in our region is going to be very difficult in the short term. However, at group level with ground handling, catering and engineering business, we are in a position to become profitable this year, once the restructuring goes through.

In reality, the airline in haemorrhaging public money. The number of passengers Sri Lankan Airlines flew dropped last year and group revenue and company revenues both slumped. Group loss was Rs 12.08 billion in 2015-2016 and company loss was Rs 12.62 billion, down from 16.49 billion in 2014-15. The loss slightly narrowed, helped by factors such as very low fuel costs. Revenue per employee also fell.

In October last year, chairman Ajith Dias is on record saying that the airline has realigned its strategic focus to Asia, from the Middle East to the Far East. He said this was because Sri Lankan Airlines sees excellent opportunities in this high-growth region. He predicted also that this would be profitable for the airline.

A carrier without capital, but a big spender on perks, luxuries and costly aircraft, Sri Lankan Airlines has instead negative equity of Rs 87.78 billion.

CEO Ratwatte repeatedly told Bloomberg TV that costs should be cut.

Company employee costs have increased to Rs 10.69 billion from Rs 9.21 billion. Crew expenses have risen to Rs 11.53 billion from Rs 10.64 billion. These two costs, the biggest by far, excluding fuel costs, even exceed rentals on aircraft leases.

Despite multi-billion rupee losses, Mr Dias and CEO Ratwatte, have presided over 10% salary increases for senior staff in 2015, and a 3% rise in 2016. They also awarded a 13% rise for non-senior staff in 2016 and a 10% increase in 2015.

CEO Ratwatte expressed hope of a turnaround and sounded elated about flights to Melbourne, Australia.

We are still expanding quite significantly into India and also Australia starting October 29, we launch most of the services to Melbourne, which I think will be a huge boost for the traffic between Australia and Sri Lanka, which have been growing year-on-year quite strongly. So it is not all doom and gloom, theres still hope out there. Its just trying to rejig the business and pivot to a more regional focused network rather than, the more ambitious European trade that we were in so long.

He complained of not having capital to grow the business. Expansion is on the cards. I need more aircraft. Unfortunately, capital is the problem. The Government is obviously not in a position to pump capital into the airline.

Asked about the pace of restructuring, he said: The government does seem to move slowly, youre right. This is a fast-moving business as you know. If you dont act very quickly, Id say in the next six months we need to get this thing sorted, we are going to be left behind as more and more capacity is added to the market and we lose market share.

Responding to a question on the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe governments plans on finding suitors for the airline, including, oddly, a potential public stock offering, he chuckled and added:  well, the Sri Lankan Government works in mysterious ways, shall we say. And its sometimes best left alone.

I do have a small management team. We are maxed out trying to do what needs to be done in the short-term to keep the airline going. And I have to say, the last couple of months have been very good. Weve beaten revenue forecasts every month of the financial year. So things are turning around. Our big problem is the cost base. We got to reduce the cost base. If we can do that, well be profitable this year.

He did not say what those revenue forecasts were. They can be set low for obvious reasons.

Bloomberg TV anchor Rishaad Salamats question from the Hong Kong studio on plans for an initial public offering for an airline that has been posting massive losses for decades was bizarre.
Worldwide tenders for power plants to boost national grid: CEB View(s):

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will call for worldwide tenders next week to procure several power plants as supplementary power for two to five years, to shore up the national grid.

Ministry of Power & Renewable Energy, Secretary Dr B.M.S. Batagoda told the Sunday Times that the main reason for procuring the power plants was to avoid widespread power failures which may occur, given the current drought situation. Cabinet has already given the go-ahead to procure the power plants, he added.

Dr Batagoda pointed out that the national grid continued to be deprived of 300 Mega Watts (MW) of power due to the failure of one unit at the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai. Coupled with that, the drastic drop in water levels in hydropower reservoirs meant the CEB needed to balance the national grid.

Accordingly, tenders will be called next week for several power plants including a 100MW land based Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) powered power plant and a 100MW barge mounted HFO power plant. In addition, the CEB intends to procure 4x24MW HFO plants. Solar and wind power plants are also being procured, with tenders due to be called next week for a solar plant containing 80 units of 1MW each, along with another 10MW solar power plant.

The Govt will also set up two solar parks and two wind parks, each of 100MW capacity.

All power plants will be procured as Independent Power Producers (IPP). The Govt will be procuring a unit of electricity at the current price of Rs 25-27 per unit. This is the same unit price that applies to IPPs already generating for the national grid, Dr Batagoda added.

All plants are also being procured only on short-term basis, he observed. We intend to retire all these plants within two to five years, he stated, stressing they would no longer be needed, once large 500MW Indian and Japanese Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) fired plants, as well as solar and wind parks scheduled to be built in Pooneryn, come on line.

Dr Batagoda disclosed that the Govt has already suffered a staggering loss of Rs 52 billion for having to generate electricity through diesel power plants that had to be put into operation owing to the drought. We have asked the Treasury for Rs 31 billion to compensate for the loss and Rs 6 billion has already been released, he noted. The Treasury has asked the CEB to present audit reports each month, and agreed to release the remaining funds after reviewing those reports.

Nevertheless, Dr Batagoda said the Ministry estimates that an additional Rs 9 billion will have to be spent in the coming months to generate electricity, due to the effects of the ongoing drought.

Normally, hydropower reservoirs should be at 75% capacity at this time of year, owing to monsoonal rains, Dr Batagoda remarked. The failure of the monsoon has meant that hydropower capacity is currently down to 38%. As such, we have altogether stopped generating electricity using hydropower, and all electricity is currently being generated through coal and fuel.

Given the prospect that monsoons may now be periodically failing, Dr Batagoda said a decision has been taken to base future electricity generation needs without taking hydropower into the equation.
At 83, shes not ready to quit Gethsie Shanmugam who has won the 2017 Ramon Magsaysay award for her counselling work among war-affected people over the years, talks to Kaveesha Fernando View(s): View(s):

She has been named a 2017 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award, but Gethsie (Gnanatheepam) Shanmugam does not understand what the fuss is all about. So you are interested in this old lady? she laughingly asks. Having worked as a psychosocial counsellor for children, youth and women, especially those affected by war and disaster, today she has been recognised by this award which is regarded by many as Asias Nobel Peace Prize. She will receive her award on August 31 in Manila.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award celebrates greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia. The award is in memory of Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay, the seventh President of the Republic of the Philippines who commanded the admiration of the people with his progressive policies which developed the nation. The award has been given to over 300 men, women and organisations over the past 50 years for selfless service to society. Only ten people from Sri Lanka have won the award including the late Pandit Amaradeva and Ediriwira Sarachchandra. The last award to a Sri Lankan in 2008 was to Ananda Galappatti, a medical anthropologist and psychosocial support practitioner working in the field of mental health.

In honouring Mrs. Shanmugam the board of trustees recognizes her compassion and courage in working under extreme conditions to rebuild war-scarred lives, her tireless efforts over four decades in building Sri Lankas capacity for psychosocial support, and her deep, inspiring humanity in caring for women and children, wars most vulnerable victims.

The prize will not change too many things for her, says this 83-year-old mother of two and grandmother of three who seems in no hurry to retire. Now she does not travel out of Colombo for too long because her husband feels lonely when she is away. I dont think it will change me as a person  I want to leave something which someone else will take up, she says expressing her desire to further her work through the recognition she has received. The publicity the award has generated has her a little wary. People told me to run from the interviews but where can I run to? I cannot do that, so I will answer the questions as best I can, she says.

Born in Dolosbage, Nawalapitiya in 1934 (her father was the chief clerk on Craighead tea estate and her mother died when she was 15), Gethsie studied at Mowbray College, Kandy till she was 17 and began her career as a pupil teacher there in 1951. After a six-year hiatus during which she married Muthuvelu Shanmugam and had two children, she joined St. Josephs College in 1967 and then began her training in counselling shortly after under Fr. Mervyn Fernando at Aquinas College and later the Family Studies and Services Institute. It was the then Vice Rector of St Josephs College Fr. Joseph Benedict who had identified her capacity for helping others. Says Mrs. Shanmugam, He must have seen that I had feeling for children I think there was something in me that they had noticed I would stay after school and talk to the children and I took special interest in the naughty ones so he thought I must be properly trained to counsel them.

With two school periods a week to teach life education and counsel students, her counselling career began. She went on to work with many organisations including Save the Children Norway (also known as Redd Barna, where she started working in war-torn areas following training she received there) and later as a consultant to organisations such as the Eastern Self-Reliant Community-Awakening Organisation, Foundation for International Training, Basic Needs Sri Lanka and the World Health Organization where she currently works as a resource person. She has also followed many training programmes overseas in countries such as India, Cambodia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Winning this award, Mrs. Shanmugam says was completely unexpected. When two people from the selection team came to interview her armed with cameras and questions which took hours to answer, all she knew was that they were interested in her work and wanted to know more. They just said they heard about me and they wanted to meet me, she explains. Learning that she was short-listed just before the winners were announced, she was asked to keep that information confidential. She was conducting a programme in Vavuniya when the news came through a video message from the organizers. A simple celebration with ice cream and cake with all those there was all that took place after the event. She returned home and went back to her usual routine, save for meeting the media and returning the many congratulatory calls from her daughters and other friends and family.

Looking at her now, winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award, one may discount the challenges she has faced in her work. However, she is the first to admit that it has not been easy. From reassuring a family who she says sometimes felt that they were neglected due to the sheer volume of work she did (although they, along with her friends were always very supportive), to navigating suspicion from both sides of the war as she travelled to and fro from government controlled areas to LTTE controlled areas, (reassuring them time and time again that she was a bonafide volunteer), to witnessing the blood and suffering from the long war, she has seen much trauma.

It only strengthened her determination to help.We all have the resources we need to overcome problems and we are all resilient. All I do is help people discover their potential to overcome their problems and trauma and tap into the resources they already have within themselves, thats all, she says with humility. Having worked steadily for several decades with no need for recognition or commendation, the number of projects and initiatives she has done are many, from her work with students at St. Josephs College to counselling war-affected children and women.

She remains deeply invested in their lives, relating with pride how the secretary of a youth group she has worked with went from a shy girl who could not read a speech out loud to a confident young woman who recently graduated from university. We cannot write her exams for her but we can be there for her, she says. She has worked with street children in Colombo and also trained over 80 school teachers in the aftermath of the tsunami. She has also worked closely with war widows whom she refers to as Ammas .

With all of the experience which she has had working with people who have been marginalised, traumatised or hurt in some way, the main message which Mrs. Shanmugam offers people on coping with issues is self- awareness and non-violence  being in the present moment and living together in harmony. Look at us  we are such a small island and we face so many disasters. We have mountains falling and the sea coming in and drowning us and yet we are still fighting with each other. We should get together and fight against such disasters and help each other rather than fighting among ourselves, she says firmly.

The last Sri Lankan awardee of the Ramon Magsaysay award Ananda Galappatti, describing her as the nicest person he knows, expressed his happiness on her achievement. She is someone who would make her work sound less important than it really is and she is not one to seek publicity or promote herself so I feel extremely pleased that her quiet and dedicated work is being recognized through this award, he says. He explains that her work with developmental psychologist Professor Karsten Hundeide and child psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Jareg is particularly noteworthy as she has applied the methodology based on Mediated Learning Experiences which she learnt from Professor Hundeide and developed a model for kinship fostering of orphaned or separated children in conflict areas that she developed with Dr. Jareg  which protected them from threat of institutionalisation or recruitment by armed groups.

Apart from laying particular emphasis on the fact that she could not have done it without the many people who have helped her and supported her (including Ananda Galappatti who has helped her navigate electronic media, especially in the wake of the excitement regarding the award), the only message which Mrs. Shanmugam really wants to give lies in Rabindranath Tagores poem Gitanjali which inspires her. Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; where words come out from the depth of truth; where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake!
Regal 18th century Kasthane takes its stand at the museum By Randima Attygalle View(s): View(s):

The 18th century Kasthane sword, believed to have belonged to a Kandyan aristocrat was taken to the UK in 1906. How and who engineered its journey still remains a mystery. The 480.5 mm long kasthane sword with the mythical serapendiya head-adorned pommel, embellished with hammer work, moulding, bench-work, gold plating and engraving was auctioned at Sothebys London a century later on December 19, 2006 in the elite section of Property of a Princely Family and Other Aristocratic Estates. The proud claimant was an antique dealer in Russia.

Gifted to President Maithripala Sirisena by the Russian President Vladimir Putin during his recent visit to Russia, this sword was ceremonially handed over to the National Museum, Colombo last Wednesday under the auspices of President Sirisena and is now displayed in the Arms and Weapon Gallery.

The return of the sword to the Colombo National Museum which has a collection of around 75 kasthane swords is a significant moment, says the Deputy Director, (Ethnology), Department of National Museums Senarath Wickramasinghe. Comparative studies, features of a particular sword and the type of decorative art used help determine its period. He also distinguishes the swords as fighting swords and decorative swords. Kasthane falls into the latter category and is further categorized into Kandyan (Up Country) and Low Country kasthanes.

The majority of the swords belonging to the Kandyan Period as the publication Ancient Swords, Daggers and Knives in Sri Lankan Museums by Prof. P.H.D.H De Silva and Senarath Wickramsinghe documents are the lions head hilted swords with shallow curved blades resembling the scimitar or sabre form. Occasionally the pommel is with the serapendiya head as found in the recently returned sword. The serapendiya is also called gurulu pakshiya a mythical bird said to have a head like a lion joined to the body of a bird like the hamsa. Although our national museum network has fighting swords from pre-Kandyan era, the Kasthane sword collection is confined only to the Kandyan period, points out the scholar. Among it, kasthanes of the royalty is very rare, the only one, belonging to King Buwanekabahu 1, deposited at the Colombo National Museum. Those belonging to King Rajasinghe 11 and Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe are in the custody of the Rijksmuseum in Netherlands.

The Sinhala term Kasthane is said to be derived from the Portuguese word castao, meaning the hilt (of a walking stick). As Mr. Wickramasinghe explains, kasthane and kadukasthana refer to the sword which was part of the official dress of government officials such as Arachchi, Muhandiram and Mudliyars. The kasthanes are also believed to have been given by the Dutch Government to persons who are to be invested with a rank. The British too had followed suit.

Speaking at the ceremony Return of the Inheritance on Wednesday, Director Department of National Museums, Sanuja Kasthuriarachchi reflected that the kasthanes return is also a gesture of diplomatic goodwill.
A Clerk Reminisces: Anecdotal introduction to Lankas parliamentary politics View(s):

A read for everyone. Its the kind of book that will get the politically, socially and legally uninitiated into a deeper understanding of Sri Lankan politics, Sri Lankan Parliament and Sri Lankan society, said State Minister of Finance and Mass Media, Eran Wickramaratna, at the launch of the book A Clerk Reminisces by Nihal Seneviratne.

Apart from Mr. Wickramaratne, the panel of eminent speakers at the launch last Sunday, July 30 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute consisted of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Editors Guild President Manik de Silva and Tea Board Chairman Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda, all of whom were personally known to the author.

Mr. Jayasuriya describing Mr. Seneviratne as an outstanding intellectual, a sincere human being and a gentleman, said he had known him since the time he was the Mayor of Colombo. Dr. Pethiyagoda described him as a fantastic government servant [who] served his country with distinction adding that he left Parliament in a better place than he found it.

Written from Nihal Seneviratnes perspective as the former Secretary General of Parliament, the book details the many interesting incidents that took place within the walls of Parliament, which he was privy to, during his 33 years of service.

With the subject matter being such, it was inevitable that comparisons would be made by the panel to the current state of Parliament.

Citing the calibre of legislators of the past, the likes of Colvin R. De Silva,. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Pieter Keuneman and S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, State Minister Wickramaratne said todays parliamentarians no longer saw themselves as legislators, but rather only sought executive positions. This had led to a blurring of the lines in the separation of powers, he said.

In his book, Mr. Seneviratne, who was at the time the advisor to the Speaker, details the historic ruling made by the then Speaker, Anura Bandaranaike, on the supremacy of Parliament over the Judiciary. Both Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and State Minister Wickramaratne expressed their reservations about the decision in the light of the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. Wickramaratne went on to say that perhaps his views on the matter differed from the author, due to his perspective from a political science background as opposed to a legal perspective.

It was also noted at the event that the author had served under six administrations and witnessed two Constitutions being adopted. Commenting on the changes in our Constitution, State Minister Wickramaratne suggested that provisions in the Soulbury Constitution which protected minority rights and ensured the protection of the public servants from political interference should have remained.

Speaker Jayasuriya in his address, saud that in recent times Parliament had made gains and this was evident in the fact that the Inter Parliamentary Union had rated our Parliament a model parliament. He also noted that last year Parliament had established links with foreign legislatures in an attempt to create what he called Parliamentary Diplomacy.

The ceremony ended with the authors granddaughters, Sehanya, Aleyha and Taheli, to whom the book was dedicated, taking the stage to thank their grandfather. The three expressed how proud they were of him for taking the time to pen down his memories for the benefit of future generations.

A Clerk Reminisces is available at Sarasavi and Vijitha Yapa bookshops priced at Rs. 850.
ASEAN at 50 View(s):

SINGAPORE  We live in troubled times, with pessimism clouding even the most prosperous parts of the planet. Many are convinced that the international order is falling apart. Some fear that a clash of civilizations is imminent, if it has not already begun. Yet, amid the gloom, Southeast Asia offers an unexpected glimmer of hope. The region has made extraordinary progress in recent decades, achieving a level of peace and prosperity that was previously unimaginable. And it owes much of this success to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which marks its 50th anniversary this month.

Southeast Asia is one of the worlds most diverse regions. Its 640 million people include 240 million Muslims, 120 million Christians, 150 million Buddhists, and millions of Hindus, Taoists, Confucianists, and Communists. Its most populous country, Indonesia, is home to 261 million people, while Brunei has just 450,000. Singapores per capita income of $52,960 per annum is 22.5 times that of Laos ($2,353).

This diversity puts Southeast Asia at a distinct disadvantage in terms of fostering regional cooperation. When ASEAN was founded in 1967, most experts expected it to die within a few years.

At the time, Southeast Asia was a poor and deeply troubled region, which the British historian C.A. Fisher had described as the Balkans of Asia. The Vietnam War was underway, and the Sino-Vietnamese War was yet to be fought. Many viewed the five non-Communist states that founded ASEAN  Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand  as dominoes, set to be tipped over by a neighbours fall to communism or descent into civil strife.

But ASEAN defied expectations, becoming the worlds second most successful regional organisation, after the European Union. Some 1,000 ASEAN meetings are held each year to deepen cooperation in areas such as education, health, and diplomacy. ASEAN has signed free-trade agreements (FTAs) with China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and established an ASEAN economic community. Today, ASEAN comprises the worlds seventh-largest economy, on track to become the fourth largest by 2050.

As I explain in my book The ASEAN Miracle, several factors have underpinned the blocs success. At first, anti-communism provided a powerful incentive to collaborate. Strong leaders, like Indonesias Suharto, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, and Singapores founding father Lee Kuan Yew, held the group together. It helped that as ASEAN was getting off the ground in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the strategic interests of America, China, and the blocs members converged. But even when the Cold War ended, the region did not erupt into conflict, as the real Balkans did. ASEAN countries maintained the cooperative habits that had become established in Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s.

In fact, ASEANs erstwhile communist enemies  Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam  decided to join the bloc. So, too, did Myanmar, ending decades of isolation. ASEANs policy of engaging Myanmar attracted criticism from the West, but it helped lay the groundwork for a peaceful transition from military rule. (Compare this to the Wests policy of isolation toward, say, Syria, which certainly wont lead to a similar outcome.)

To be sure, ASEAN is far from perfect. Over the short term, it seems to move like a crab  two steps forward, one step back, and one step sideways. Yet ASEANs long-term progress is undeniable. Its combined GDP has grown from $95 billion in 1970 to $2.5 trillion in 2014. And it is the only reliable platform for geopolitical engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, unique in its ability to convene meetings attended by all of the worlds great powers, from the United States and the European Union to China and Russia.

ASEAN continues to face serious challenges. Territorial disputes in the South China Sea have created deep divisions, and the intensifying geopolitical rivalry between the US and China poses a further threat to cohesion. And domestic politics in several member states, including Malaysia and Thailand, is becoming increasingly chaotic.

But ASEANs history suggests that the bloc can weather these storms. Its impressive resilience is rooted in the culture of musyawarah and mufakat (consultation and consensus) championed by Indonesia. Imagine how other regional organisations, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council or the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, could benefit from adherence to such norms. The EU once amounted to the gold standard for regional cooperation. But it continues to struggle with a seemingly never-ending series of crises and weak economic growth. Add to that the impending departure of the United Kingdom, and it seems only prudent to seek other models of cooperation. ASEAN, however imperfect, provides an attractive one.

The EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012. But ASEANs approach may turn out to be the way of the future, enabling other fractious regions to develop sturdy bonds of cooperation, too.

The writer is the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore and is the co-author with Jeffery Sng of The ASEAN Miracle: A Catalyst for Peace.Courtesy: Project Syndicate, 2017. www.project-syndicate.org
Always wanted to run away with the circus? Today could be your chance with the circus coming to the Bay.

Cirque Grande is a brand new circus tour in New Zealand and will present world-class acts like Teeterboard, Hoop Diving, human pyramids from around the globe.

Universoul Circus in the USA describes their bicycle act as the most amazing bicycle display youll ever see.

12 beautiful girls performing tricks on a single bicycle in an act that combines aerobics, gymnastics, riding and dance. Truly incredible.

There will be a special guest act from the amazing African acrobats, which will take your breath away with gravity-defying performances.

Their ability to entertain you goes far beyond anything you have ever seen before. They dazzle children and adults alike with their zest for fun, everlasting energy and cheeky sense of humour says Cirque Grande.

The Cirque Grande will be running until Sunday, August 6 at the Fraser Cove Shopping Centre.

Ticket prices are: Adult VIP $45, child VIP $35, concession VIP $43, adult ringside $39, child ringside $29, concession ringside $37, adult elevated $29, child elevated $19, concession elevated $27, and family pass (2 adults + 2 Children) $86.

For more information on Cirque Grande go to: https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2017/cirque-grande/tauranga

If that doesnt sound like something for you, there is also a Art in the Park event at the Coronation Park between 8am and 5pm.

Entry is free and the public will be able to buy any of the works on display, as well as, time to talk to the artists about their works.

To see what else is happening in and around Tauranga today, check out SunLives whats on listings below:

Saturday 5 August

Baycourt

Mirage - Inzpire Dance Company 3pm and 7.30pm Addison Theatre (Dance Show) 0800 TICKETEK

Bay Network Singles Social Club

55+ who wish to make new friends & enjoy club activities, dining, shows, trips, bbqs etc. Mary-Anne 027 207 1690 or 576 9988

Come Dancing Tonight

Sequence & Old time Dancing. Great music, supper. Entry $7.00 All welcome. Run by Tauranga Scottish Society. Greerton Hall 7-30 to 10-30pm Ph Nola 576 5076

Computer Lessons

Learn in your own time, at your own pace. Tauranga Library has a free course online to meet your needs. Visit one of our libraries to register

Death Cafe

Coffee, cake and group led conversation on dying, death & living in a warm friendly space. Grindz Cafe 1pm-3pm e:taurangadeathcafe@gmail.com Carole 0220 689 183 www.deathcafe.com

Discover Your Lifes True Purpose

Why am I here? How can I have a more meaningful Life? Create an action plan that works for you. Info and register interest at www.eventspronto.co.nz/meaningfullife

Friendship Force International

Friendship & Home Hosting exchanges with other clubs worldwide. Barbara 574 5711 or email: regclothier@gmail.com www.thefriendshipforce.org

Ians Tai Chi Class

Saturday mornings at QE Park. Cancelled for the month of June.

Leisure Marching

Teams made up of adult members practice this non-competitive activity on various days & times throughout the week. Frances 544 1318 or 021 297 3407

LOL Laughter Wellness

Laughter IS the best medicine. 10:30-11:15am Arataki Community Centre, Mt Maunganui. Koha. Call Trish 022 036 6768 email lollaughterwellness@gmail.com

Messianic Meetings

Every Sat at Hillier Centre, 31 Gloucester Rd, Mt Maunganui 10am. Seek to unite together in our walk to put truth into action on a daily basis. 544 7424 or 0210 226 3515

Mount Sequence Dance

Sat 12 Aug 7.30pm-10.30pm $7. Live band, quality supper. Arataki Community Centre, Mt Maunganui. Arataki Centre. Organized by the Mount Maunganui Scottish Society. Ph Erica 576 0578

Narcotics Anonymous Open Meetings

Sat 7.30-8.30pm & every Sun 7-8pm, Hanmer Clinic, 1235 Cameron Rd, Greerton. Mon 7-8pm & Fri 7.30-8.30pm, Hillier Centre. 31 Gloucester Rd, Mt Maunganui. Womens Meeting every Tues 10.30-11.30am Salvation Army Recovery Church, 375 Cameron Rd. 0800 NA TODAY

Oropi Playgroup Annual Quiz Night

Sat 12th August. Fundraiser to support non-profit group for young families in Oropi. Tickets at www.oropiplaygroup.co.nz

Petanque @ Club Mt Maunganui

Sat 1pm. Equip available, all levels welcome. Arnold 544 5598

The Sociables

A group for the 30s/40s and 50s age group that meet once a week to participate in activities, events and dine out. 0220 120 376

Taoist Tai Chi

New Beginner classes starting 5th August Saturday 8.30am. 15 Koromiko St Judea. Come and have a go, contact Dianne 021 146 6890 or 578 9116

Tauranga Meditation Group

Intro to meditation classes 1st Tues of month 7-8.30pm. General classes every 2nd & 4th Sats of month. $5 koha. Blind Foundation, 160 17th Ave, Tauranga

Tauranga Social Dance Club

Sequence & Old Time Dancing, Greerton Hall, 7.30pm. 1st Saturday Monthly. Great music & supper. $7.00. All Welcome. Gary 543 0051

Tauranga Photographic Society

Award winning audio-visuals NZ and overseas. Arts and Crafts Centre, Elizabeth St. 7.30pm Entry $2 Information taurangaphoto.org.nz/tga-av-salon/presentation-evening

Village Radio

Community radio broadcasting from Tauranga Historic Village 1368 kHz AM. Music of 1940s - 90s weekends 9am-5pm, weekdays 10am-5pm. www.villageradio.co.nz or 571 3710
Cheerleaders all over New Zealand are taking on a world record for the biggest cheerleading pyramid today.

The Battle in the Bay event is in its second year running and brings cheerleading teams from all over the country to perform and show off dazzling skills.

This year they have added a Guinness World Record to the mix, the largest Cheerleading Pyramid, with the record standing at 46 people.

They hope to beat this with over 60 cheerleaders in a pyramid at the ASB Arena at 1.15pm.

Bay Twisters chairperson and Battle in the Bay event organiser Rebecca Grigson says they wanted to add something extra to the event that would be fun and encourage the public to come along.

I thought how cool would it be last year to host our own competition, so last year was our first competition, we had heaps of people come, but this year we are expecting 700 athletes from across the country.

We are lucky enough to have Simon Bridges come to witness our Guinness World Record attempt, and everyone is welcome to come.

The Pyramid will be three levels high and will have to be held for 30 seconds.

They must meet the world record requirements by videoing it, measuring how high the pyramid is and using an approved way of timing it and organising the participants.

Record breaking organiser Ellen Worthington says for every 50 people there will also be two stewards who will watch how the pyramid is constructed.

In terms of the cheerleading side of it, we have been working closing with the NZCU, which is the New Zealand Cheerleading union, to ensure that its safe by their standard, because having a third- tier is highly remote, so we will be having more senior cheerleaders executing that part of the programme, says Ellen.

We will be grouping everyone by ability and positions in their normal teams, so some people will be bases and some people will be flyers.

The standing pyramid will have 10 nominated members from all the clubs that are involved in the Battle in the Bay event.

There will also be a range of performances from cheer squads like Cheer Dynamics from Papakura, who have a team that will be competing at the Worlds, and a solo performance from Rebeccas daughter Anna Grigson, who won at the Nationals last year.

Rebecca says its great that cheerleading is being recognised more with events like this one driving its popularity forward.

We (New Zealand) have done pretty well, we have bought home a few gold medals, with an all-star team, so we actually compete quite well.

It the fastest growing sport in New Zealand, its huge here now and getting bigger and bigger.

The Battle in the Bay event is running for the whole day at the ASB Arena, with the Guinness World Record being attempted at 1.15pm.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Tickets can be purchased at the door.
The iPhone is apparently not the only Apple device that will be revamped this year, as the next Apple Watch is rumored to come with some significant changes as well.

While Apple will implement a new design and various new features for the iPhone 8, the company will reportedly look to make the Apple Watch less reliant on the smartphone.

Apple Watch 3 Built-In LTE

According to a Bloomberg report, the next Apple Watch will come with built-in LTE chips to connect directly to cellular networks, sources familiar with the matter revealed.

Current models of the Apple Watch rely on a wireless connection with an iPhone to carry out its most important functions, including streaming music, downloading maps, and sending messages.

The sources claim that some of the models of the Apple Watch Series 3 will come with LTE chips, so they will function even without the user's iPhone connected or in range.

Apple is currently talking to carriers in the United States and Europe regarding the cellular version of the Apple Watch, with the four major carriers of the country, namely AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, all planning to sell the device.

Apple, meanwhile has tapped Intel to supply the LTE modems for the new Apple Watch, another source said, which is a big deal for Intel as it has been trying for years to become a bigger supplier for Apple. It helped that Qualcomm, the main modem supplier for Apple's products, is currently locked in a legal battle with the company.

Apple Watch 3 All-New Form Factor

Shortly after the release of Bloomberg's report, Daring Fireball's John Gruber reported rumors that the Apple Watch 3 will come with an "all-new form factor."

Gruber admitted that the rumor remains unconfirmed and should be taken with a grain of salt, but it is an intriguing notion nonetheless.

Apple Watch Series 3 Coming Soon

Users will not have to wait too long to see the changes that will be applied to the Apple Watch 3. The new series of smartwatches is expected to be released by the end of 2017, though there is still a possibility that the new Apple Watch will be delayed beyond this year.

It is unclear when the Apple Watch Series 3 will be unveiled, but there is a definite possibility that the smartwatches will be announced alongside the next iPhone models in September.

Rumors regarding the Apple Watch Series 3 have been scarce, but interesting. A report from October 2016 claimed that the next Apple Watch will feature gesture controls, while a February rumor stated that the new Apple Watch will use a new display technology known as touch on lens panels.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
On November 11, the EU announced the renewal, until November 14, 2023, of the sanctions against officials linked to the Administration of Nicolas Maduro. | Read More
I am very disappointed that all of the four major New Orleans mayoral candidates have declined to discuss the four statues that have been taken down. While they are correct in saying the removal is a closed matter, only one of the three steps in the process has been completed.

The remaining two are the disposition of where the statues are to be placed, how they will be cared for and the decisions about what will be placed in their stead. While these issues have been divisive and contentious, the campaigns of the candidates must include their thoughts and plans for these remaining issues.

It is unreasonable for the candidates to ask citizens to vote for them without providing this vital information.

Bernard M. Jaffe

physician

New Orleans
A $1.5 billion work-for-the-dole program that overwhelmingly targets Indigenous communities has been labelled racist by Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus, with the prominent unionist arguing the government's policy denies Aboriginal people rights enjoyed by other Australians.

In a speech to the Garma Festival on Sunday, Ms McManus will ramp up a union campaign against the Community Development Program, which covers approximately 37,000 mostly Indigenous Australians. While the ACTU has long been hostile to the CDP, the speech marks the union leader's highest-profile and clearest attack on the program since she was elected in March.

"The bare-faced discrimination of the Community Development Program is a stark reminder that systemic racism endures," Ms McManus will tell an audience at the high-powered Indigenous event in the Northern Territory, also attended by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and prominent Aboriginal figures.

"Unlike every other 'work-for-the-dole' program or the $4 per hour internships the Turnbull government has introduced for young unemployed people, the CDP is compulsory. It is important to remind the rest of Australia of this  we have a system in our country where we make working for social support when unemployed compulsory for some Australians and not others."
Premier Daniel Andrews says allegations of a printing rort should go to police. Credit:Justin McManus "The best arguments are not necessarily religious," says Flynn. And Right to Life recently paid for US anti-euthanasia campaigner William Toffler, a controversial Catholic doctor who believes abortion can lead to breast cancer, to conduct a speaking tour around Australia. But the biggest combatant of all is the Catholic Church. On Thursday, as Melbourne shivered through another frosty winter morning, Pat Shea, a parish volunteer from Inverloch, entered the electorate office of Bass MP Brian Paynter, holding a petition and letters from churchgoers with a simple message: don't vote for the bill. The seeds of that message were on sown on April 18, when Archbishop Denis Hart wrote to priests asking them to "pray and to act", in other words, to get mobilised and to find "lay people" to spread the church's concerns about the renewed push for reform.

Attached to his letter was a two-page document co-signed by his bishops, arguing voluntary euthanasia was "never justified" and merely represented "the abandonment of the sick and the suffering". The Catholic Education Office passed that document on to its Victorian schools. Some are now getting politically active. "The case for legalised 'Physician Assisted Suicide' is a direct attack upon our Catholic beliefs and would further erode society's respect for the 5th commandment," said one recent newsletter to parents at St Joseph's School in Wonthaggi. "Euphemisms, such as 'assisted dying' and 'dying with dignity' are being hailed as acts of compassion, yet, with the sugar coating removed, euthanasia is about actively killing someone, and assisted suicide is helping someone to suicide. We need your help to convince our local member of parliament to oppose 'Physician Assisted Suicide' and to promote Palliative Care. An information session is planned." Opinion polls show the church is fighting an uphill battle, with up to 85 per cent of the community in favour giving of terminally ill people the right to a physician-assisted death. If the legislation succeeds, it will be the first time such a law has passed in Australia since euthanasia was legalised in the Northern Territory in 1995, only to be overturned by the federal parliament one year after taking effect.

The difference for Victoria is that the Commonwealth has no power to repeal the state euthanasia legislation. And in a sign of just how tight the numbers are likely to be, government insiders have not ruled out introducing the bill in the upper house, where some are more confident of securing a majority when the legislation is put to a conscience vote. This unusual tactic would give more time to undecided MPs in the lower house, where Andrews and Health Minister Jill Hennessy will champion the bill, but Deputy Premier James Merlino, Opposition leader Matthew Guy, and a considerable number of Liberal, National and Labor politicians are set to vote against it. Most, however, are hopeful the debate won't be quite as vicious as the battle to decriminalise abortion in Victoria in 2008. Back then, animal organs were sent to cabinet minister Jacinta Allan; plastic fetuses were distributed to pro-choice politicians accusing them of being murderers; some MPs were even sent abusive emails directly to their Blackberries from angry members of the public as they sat down from speaking during the vote. "I think inside the chamber it will be a pretty respectful debate, but outside the chamber  who knows?" says Greens MP Colleen Hartland. Hartland recalls the abortion debate well, partly because it happened the same year she introduced her own private members' bill for voluntary euthanasia, which was resoundingly defeated. But a lot has changed since then: the influence of religion; the views of MPs; the public's momentum.

The "Yes" side of the campaign is spearheaded by neurosurgeon Brian Owler, who headed the government's expert panel for the bill, Dying With Dignity's Dr Rodney Syme, and newcomers like Go Gentle, the not-for-profit body set up last year by TV personality-turned-euthanasia advocate Andrew Denton. Denton has devoted the past few years to reforming the law, but was forced to withdraw this week to have multiple bypass surgery after being diagnosed with advanced heart disease. Until he can return, Go Gentle's work will continue under its campaign manager Paul Price, a former senior adviser in the Baillieu Liberal government. In a bid to mobilise the "silent majority", a new ad will soon be released in marginal seats asking people whether the individual, or the church, should have the right to choose how long they suffer in intolerable pain before death. The aim, says Price, is to overcome the "noisy minority of mostly faith-based opponents". "They are organised and active," he says.
The Queensland government has announced new laws to stop petrol stations from displaying discounted fuel prices on their boards.

However, the Opposition has been left fuming, after they announced the same policy 18 months ago, which was rubbished by Labor at the time.

From February 2018, Queensland petrol stations must display the undiscounted fuel price on both the pricing board and pump itself. Credit:Thinkstock

The new laws will come into effect on January 31, 2018, with the RACQ having called for them for the past five years.

Treasurer and Acting Energy and Biofuels Minister Curtis Pitt said the new "what you see is what you pay" regulations were about improving transparency in the industry.
Work has begun on a new inner-city park, in a grey industrial area that could one day be home to tens of thousands of people.

The Andrews government unveiled its design for the future park on Saturday: a grassy, tree-lined public square on what is now a demolition site wedged between two light rail routes and the West Gate Freeway viaduct.

Artist's impression of a $19m park that will open in Fishermans Bend next year.

At a cost of $19 million for 8000 square metres, Fishermans Bend's newest patch of urban greenery will not come cheap for Victorian taxpayers.

The value of land on which the park will be built soared overnight when it, along with 250 hectares of industrial land, was rezoned in 2012.
Indeed, sentencing judge Justice George Hampel made it clear Knight needed to reform to be freed telling him the 27 years was just the minimum he could serve and was not a guaranteed release date. Many thought Knight would die in prison  either by his own hand or from the career crooks who would show him less sympathy than Justice Hampel. But Knight had the instincts of a survivor  first shown when he meekly surrendered the moment he saw anyone who could return fire at Hoddle Street. Craig Minogue was sentenced to life in prison. Slight but fit, Knight went to prison and taught himself to box, hitting the heavy bag at every opportunity and  more importantly  used the sound military tactic of developing strong allies including some of the worst killers Australia has known.

But there were other heavyweights who didn't warm to him. In 1993 prison authorities discovered a mass escape plot involving up to 30 inmates in Pentridge's notorious H Division. The plan included attacking Knight in his cell. Prue Bird was abducted from her home and murdered. While Knight was not a model prisoner (there were a few minor assaults and discipline issues) he was usually well behaved. "He quickly learned to fly under the radar and keep a low profile," a veteran Pentridge officer said. "He didn't steal anything and didn't try to stand over anyone." "He has a huge ego," another prison officer said of Knight, who was once assessed as intelligent but a "chronic under-achiever".

Scenes from the shooting in Hoddle Street in 1987. "He always believes he is the smartest in the room," a prison source said. In one conversation Knight talked of an international mass killing then added that if you wanted to create maximum casualties, "you would just fly a plane into the MCG". Julian Knight, left, being taken away by police after the Hoddle Street shooting. Credit:John Lamb "It chilled me to the bone," said the officer.

His cell has always been maniacally ordered and he even lined up his soft drink bottles "like little soldiers". Sometimes uninvited guests would sneak in to rearrange his possessions. "He would be furious," a source said. Before the horror: Julian Knight in 1986. Even in prison the military-obsessed Knight ranked inmates  referring to career criminals and murderers as "long termers" while those serving shorter sentences were "shit-kickers". By 2012 Knight started to prepare to apply for parole telling people he would "make a mark" on release. "He wasn't talking about crime  he just thought he was special and a natural high achiever." Julian Knight talks of an alleged police informer to triple murderer Ashley Coulston.

But in 2014 the then Coalition state government brought in one-off legislation shutting the cell door  effectively banning him from parole. "This is guaranteeing that he remains in jail until he's dead, or so seriously incapacitated he's no risk to other people in Victoria or indeed in the community," then premier Denis Napthine said. Knight recently wrote: "The Victorian state government changed the law to keep me in prison not because I pose a threat to the community, but because they believe I did not deserve to be given a minimum non-parole term. "The fact is a minimum term was not opposed by the prosecution and the minimum term that was set was not appealed against. They didn't think I would survive to see the end of my 27-year minimum term and when I did they brought into law retrospective legislation that rewrote history to suit their views as to what they thought my sentence should have been." Knight is right. In reality he has been re-sentenced by politicians with a law designed to trump the courts entrusted with the job of setting prison terms and the parole board that should decide release dates.

If Knight has reformed he should be able to apply for parole in the same way as any other inmate. If. So we know what Knight did 30 years ago but what has he become? Let's not ask those traumatised by his actions nor look at the image Knight would like to portray. Let us look at the real Knight  the one he shares with the killers and the crims who have been his friends and allies for decades. To do so we must reach back to an investigation that does not directly relate to Knight but shows his actions are at odds with his claims to have reformed. In February 1992, schoolgirl Prue Bird was abducted from her Glenroy home and murdered. Her body has never been found. Police believe the 13-year-old was targeted as revenge against her grandmother's partner who gave evidence against the men responsible for the 1986 Russell Street bombing.

One of those convicted of the bombing was Craig Minogue (a Knight ally) who is alleged to have said, while warning people not to talk, "It would be a shame if anything happened to your sweet little Prue, wouldn't it?" In February 2012 police charged Bega schoolgirl killer Les Camilleri with Prue's murder. Camilleri, who was already serving life with no minimum for the 1997 murders of Lauren Barry, 14, and Nichole Collins, 16, eventually pleaded guilty to the Bird murder. He refused to implicate anyone else in the crime and gave a clearly bogus account of what happened. There was never any incentive to tell the truth as his papers have been marked never to be released over the Bega double murder. Within weeks of the charges being laid Knight involves himself, identifying a fellow prisoner he claims was the police informer. He claims the prison source was paid $500,000 for information  an allegation that put the man's life in danger. Two years earlier, drug boss Carl Williams was bashed to death in Barwon prison because he had been identified as a police informer. The man Knight repeatedly claimed was the informer in the Bird case was an old enemy  one of the inmates from Pentridge who had planned to attack him in 1993 during a prison break-out.

On March 19, 2012, Knight wrote to Minogue saying, "I have been following the Prue Bird investigation ... I have it on good authority who the prison source is. "On a completely different subject, [names prisoner] is on the loose after being sentenced in a closed court. I hear he is hoping to invest $500,000." In another letter he tries to organise another inmate who is a Minogue associate to connect with Camilleri to compare notes, implying police will not be able to link the Russell Street bombers to the Bird murder. "I predict no one else will get charged and the case against Les will collapse. We will wait and see." In a letter of support to Camilleri he sends him media transcripts on the case before ending, "Take care of yourself Big Boy". In another letter he names the suspected informer asking Camilleri to remember where he met him. "Mate, think hard." In a note to triple murderer Ashley Mervyn Coulston, Knight says, "I predict the case against Les will collapse. A gaol-house informant has 500,000 reasons to make up stories. Say no more."
Fearful staff in Victoria's youth justice centres are overlooking poor behaviour such as swearing, graffiti and gambling which can lead to critical security problems including riots, a major review of the system has found.

The comprehensive assessment into the Victorian youth justice regime declared that the system was in "crisis" with significant structural and cultural reform needed before it could improve, including better training for staff to deal with misbehaving inmates.

Inmates riot at Malmsbury youth detention centre in January. Credit:Nine News

The report, conducted by former Department of Justice secretary Penny Armytage and Swinburne University professor James Ogloff, uncovered multiple examples of guards being desensitised to misdemeanours or unwilling to address them.

Acts witnessed by the reviewers included defiance of staff, damage to property, excessive swearing, and gambling. Failing to crack down on bad behaviour had critical security implications, the report found.
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The Milwaukee County medical examiner's office has revised its ruling on the death of Derek Williams, who died in Milwaukee police custody in July 2011, from natural to homicide, according to the district attorney's office.

The decision came after the Journal Sentinel alerted an assistant medical examiner to newly released records - including a video of a suffocating Williams pleading for help from the back of a squad car - and also made him aware of a national expert who said Williams, 22, did not die naturally of sickle cell crisis.

In making his initial determination of natural death more than a year ago, Assistant Medical Examiner Christopher Poulos did not review all of the police reports or a squad video recently obtained by the newspaper. The video shows a handcuffed Williams, his eyes rolled back, gasping for breath and begging for help in the back seat of a Milwaukee police car as officers ignore his pleas. The police reports include key details about Williams' arrest that the medical examiner didn't know.

As a result of the new ruling, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm is reopening his investigation into whether criminal charges are warranted against any of the officers involved.

Chisholm, the Police Department and the Fire and Police Commission previously had cleared the officers of wrongdoing, largely based on the medical examiner's earlier ruling of natural death.

"We're going to revisit it. Absolutely," Chisholm said. "The medical examiners are our experts in these cases. Without any question, we place a tremendous amount of weight in their determination. Any time they revisit one of their determinations, we really take that seriously."

Chisholm emphasized, however, that the revised finding does not mean a crime was committed. Homicide in medical examiners' parlance means "death at the hands of another." In contrast, the crime of homicide requires prosecutors to prove intent to kill, reckless disregard for life or negligent disregard for life while operating a firearm or a vehicle.

In a statement, Milwaukee police Chief Edward Flynn said he did not expect any officers to be criminally charged as a result of the new ruling.

"This second report contains no information that was not in the first report, nor does it present any new objective facts," the statement says.

In the video, which the paper initially requested last November, Williams struggles to breathe for seven minutes, 45 seconds, then slumps over, unconscious.

An officer then checks his pulse, props him up in the seat and walks to a nearby supervisor's car. Finding no one there, the officer returns and starts CPR as a different officer calls for medical assistance. Police and paramedics continue CPR for more than 45 minutes before Williams is declared dead.

Along with Chisholm, Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission Executive Director Michael Tobin and internal affairs Lt. Alfonso Morales viewed the video months ago and determined officers had done nothing wrong, despite department rules requiring police to call for help immediately "if medical treatment becomes necessary."

The Police Department's Standard Operating Procedures go on to state: "It cannot be overemphasized that members shall continually monitor and remain cognizant of the condition of a person in custody, especially when he/she is in restraints. The arrestee may encounter immediate or delayed physical reactions that may be triggered by the change in physical or environmental factors. Therefore, caution and awareness on the part of the officer is constantly required."

Flynn agreed with Morales' conclusion that the officers did not violate department rules or the law.

Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz would not answer questions Friday. Via email, she noted that the department has instituted new training on recognizing and responding to medical distress, including sickle cell crisis, in prisoners.

Tobin said he would review the matter in light of the medical examiner's revised findings.

Neither the two officers who arrested Williams nor the two officers who took turns sitting in the squad car while Williams was in back responded to email requests for interviews.

Poulos re-examined Williams' case after the Journal Sentinel informed him that Werner U. Spitz, a forensic pathologist and one of the nation's leading experts on death investigation, believed the death was a homicide.

Spitz reviewed the case at the newspaper's request . Poulos said in March that he used Spitz's work on sickle cell crisis as a resource in determining how Williams died.

"Is this a natural death? No. This is not a natural death," Spitz told the Journal Sentinel.

Spitz said that while sickle cell crisis likely occurred, it was caused by an officer applying pressure to Williams' back - and perhaps his neck - while he was facedown on the ground.

"This officer didn't have the intention of killing him, but that doesn't mean this kind of restraint should be performed," Spitz said.

Spitz is co-author of the book "Medicolegal Investigation of Death," considered the medical examiners' bible. In addition to evaluating Poulos' autopsy, he reviewed the video and police reports, which were released to the newspaper under a state open records law request.

The newspaper first requested the public records in November 2011. The department released the police reports in June and the video last week.

Williams' loved ones wanted the video to be turned over to the newspaper and made available for the public to see, according to attorney Jonathan Safran, who represents Williams' long-term girlfriend - with whom he had three young children - and Williams' father.

The two are very upset that officers said Williams was breathing just fine and playing games, according to Safran.

"(Williams' girlfriend and father) believe that it was obvious that he could not breathe, and they think it is important for others to see and hear the video and draw their own conclusions," Safran said. "They are devastated by the depiction of what happened to Derek."

The video does not show Williams being arrested or placed in the squad car.

Poulos' initial autopsy report, written in August 2011, includes this note: "Based on the information at the time of this report, the decedent's interaction with police officers included a chase (running) and no physical altercation; therefore, the manner of death is described as natural."

The newly released records tell a different story.

Williams, who had gotten out of jail earlier in the day after being arrested on municipal warrants for loitering, vandalism and assault, fled from police after attempting to rob a couple near the intersection of N. Holton and E. Center streets, according to the reports. He was sweating profusely when police found him hiding behind an overturned card table. Officer Richard M. Ticcioni pulled him out. Ticcioni said he believed rookie Officer Patrick Coe helped him. Ticcioni "ended up on top of Williams with the suspect facing down," according to the report of Milwaukee police Detective Luke O'Day, who interviewed Ticcioni.

Williams, his hands cuffed behind him, repeatedly told officers he couldn't breathe for at least 15 minutes between the time of his arrest and his death, according to records. He first made the complaint as he lay facedown, Ticcioni pressing a knee across his back, O'Day's report says.

"As soon as he released pressure, Williams began squirming, as if trying to break free, and reached around his right side to his right waistband (while still in handcuffs)," according to the report. Ticcioni worried that Williams was trying to grab a gun and "reapplied pressure with his right knee to prevent any further movement from the suspect," the report says.

Officers then searched Williams. No gun was found.

They got him to his feet, and "Williams immediately went limp," the report says. Ticcioni "laid him on the ground on his back and observed that he was breathing hard."

"He felt Williams was playing games and directed him to stop messing around," the report says.

A few minutes later, as officers Ticcioni and Coe were helping Williams walk toward the car, Coe left Williams' side to move a "for sale" sign that was blocking the sidewalk. When he did, Williams "pulled forward and fell face forward into the grass," the report says.

Ticcioni believed Williams was dragging his feet to make it difficult for the officers to get him to the waiting squad car, the report says.

Once locked in the back seat, Williams continued to say he could not breathe and asked officers to call him an ambulance, according to the squad video and a summary of the internal investigation. Officers Jeffrey Cline and Jason Bleichwehl, who can be heard talking on the recording, told internal investigators they did not hear Williams ask for an ambulance, the summary says.

Poulos declined to answer questions Friday.

In March, he told the newspaper he relied on officer accounts that there was no scuffle and on Spitz's book when he ruled Williams' death natural and due to sickle cell crisis.

Poulos misinterpreted the book in making that decision, according to Spitz.

Sickle cell crisis has been the subject of debate in the medical community when it occurs in people such as Williams, who had the genetic marker known as sickle cell trait, but not the disease itself. Sickle cell crisis results when red blood cells suddenly become misshapen, or sickle, blocking blood vessels and preventing oxygen from being carried throughout the body.

Doctors at the National Institutes of Health say people with only the trait cannot die of sickle cell crisis.

Pathologists - including Spitz - counter that it can happen in rare cases.

Sickle cell crisis is caused by oxygen deprivation, Spitz said, and he believes the oxygen deprivation that led to Williams' death occurred when Ticcioni held Williams facedown on the ground and forced his knee into Williams' back.

Putting pressure on someone's back not only stops the lungs from expanding, it also compresses the abdominal organs toward the diaphragm, further restricting breathing, Spitz said. What's more, even people who do not have the sickle cell trait can suffocate and die if they are restrained in that manner, he said.

"If you compress the chest, you cannot breathe. If you cannot breathe, you have a problem," he said. "The whole procedure of arresting somebody by causing them to be asphyxiated is not what should be done."

Officers often mistake the struggle to breathe for an attempt to resist arrest, so they use more force or apply a chokehold, worsening the problem, Spitz said.

There is no mention of a chokehold in any of the reports.

But a cracked hyoid bone in Williams' neck - revealed during the autopsy - is an indication that one of the officers may have put him in a chokehold, Spitz said.

"The hyoid bone fracture is not necessarily harmful, but it indicates with 99% certainty that some force was applied to the area," he said.

It takes tremendous pressure to break the hyoid bone. The injury occurs in only one-third of homicides by strangulation, according to the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Poulos had attributed the cracked hyoid bone to medical intervention during resuscitation. Spitz said the possibility of that is so remote it should not be considered unless the investigation conclusively proves Williams' neck was not compressed by police restraining him.

"In the absence of another explanation, I think it was done during restraint rather than CPR or intubation," Spitz said. "Under the circumstances of this and from what I've seen, everything in my view seems to suggest a neck hold."

Police on the scene and those who investigated afterward reached another flawed conclusion when they determined that Williams must be breathing OK because he could talk, according to Spitz.

Passing enough air over the vocal cords to speak doesn't mean someone is breathing normally - especially if they are saying they cannot breathe, he said.

If authorities would have taken Williams seriously and gotten him oxygen quickly, he could have survived, Spitz said.

"If they did what they were taught in the Police Academy, maybe that should be changed," he said.

Attorney Robin Shellow, who represents Williams' mother, said anyone trained in CPR, including the officers at the scene, should have known he was in trouble.

"Any layperson observing Derek for more than a nanosecond would have realized he was in medical distress," she said. "The police acknowledge they heard his cries for help. They acknowledge that they heard Derek's words that he could not breathe. The police acknowledge they saw him writhing in the back of the squad car and gasping for air. Why let him suffer for so long until his heart finally stopped?"

It isn't fair to expect police to react the same as average citizens, according to Chisholm. Anyone who works in law enforcement knows suspects often pretend they are sick or hurt in order to avoid being arrested, he said.

"If 99 times out of 100, someone is essentially faking, and the signs of acute emergency mimic that behavior, you have to take it as what's reasonable from an officer's perspective," he said.

The same is true when describing the use of force or a struggle, Chisholm said. What police officers consider normal may not seem that way to people who don't witness arrests every day, he said.

In June, after the Fire and Police Commission review, Tobin recommended that the Police Department consider training on the topic of sickle cell crisis.

As a result of that recommendation, the department has added a component to its CPR training that addresses responding to medical distress and sickle cell crisis, Schwartz said in an email. It will be presented at the academy for the current recruit class. Officers already on the job will receive the training at their next in-service.

Tobin also proposed that the Police Department complete its internal reviews more quickly.

In response to that recommendation, the department last week created a critical incident review board, which will respond to "incidents involving Department members that result in great bodily harm or death, or injury caused by a police member's use of a firearm," according to a newly adopted standard operating procedure.

Schwartz said the review board will provide "a new level of improved and thorough review for critical incidents."

"It also provides for independent participation and review of the process," she said in a statement.

The review board's membership will not include anyone outside the Police Department. All members will be selected by Flynn, and an assistant chief will oversee it. Board reports and recommendations will be presented to Flynn and Tobin, and whether to implement them will be solely up to Flynn.

In addition, Tobin - an attorney and former police officer - now is paged by a dispatcher any time a critical incident occurs, and either he or a Fire and Police Commission investigator responds to the scene of such incidents.

Safran, the attorney who represents Williams' girlfriend, is considering a civil suit on behalf of Williams' three children, ages 4, 3 and 1. Safran also plans to ask the U.S. attorney's office to review the case.

Safran said he is pleased the medical examiner revised his findings, but questions remain .

"The family and I have significant concerns with the actions of police officers, both at the time of Mr. Williams' arrest and while he was gasping for air in the back of the police squad car," Safran said.

"The issues raised in this case support our office's ongoing concerns that in situations where there are claims of police misconduct - especially crimes such as excessive force, or where there is a death or substantial injury claimed due to police actions - that an outside agency might be more effective and impartial in conducting an investigation," he said.

***

Fund established

A memorial fund is being established to care for Williams' three children, ages 4, 3 and 1.

Donations will be accepted beginning Monday at the offices of their attorneys, Samster, Konkel and Safran, located at Riverfront Plaza, Suite 405, 1110 N. Old World 3rd St., Milwaukee, WI 53203. Checks should be made payable to the Derek M. Williams Jr. Children's Memorial Fund.

Whom to contact

To share your thoughts on the death of Derek Williams, contact:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett: (414) 286-2200; mayor@milwaukee.gov

Fire and Police Commission Executive Director Michael Tobin: (414) 286-5000; fpc@milwaukee.gov

Milwaukee police Chief Edward Flynn: (414) 933-4444

Milwaukee Common Council: (414) 286-2221; or visit Milwaukee.gov/CommonCouncil for a list of city aldermen and their email addresses.
With members whose ages span from 7 to 88, a hiking climb based in Navasota made a dent in the Appalachian Trail this summer.

Every year, the group chips away at what many backpackers consider the ultimate bucket list trail in the U.S., drawing in a few more Brazos Valley hikers each time.

Called the Navasota Wilderness Expedition Society, or NWES for each of the directions on a compass, the club was formed around three years ago to promote hiking and bringing people together.

"Your life becomes very simple," said founder David Sweeney. "You get up in the morning and you walk. And you walk until it's night time, then you stop, you visit and you sleep. Then you get up the next day."

The group trekked around 75 miles this year, for a total of 271 miles since the trips began, or about a tenth of the trail. The club started with just Sweeney and his son, hiking down the Appalachian wearing fat over-packed backpacks five years ago, but Sweeney said around three years ago the club really took form.

This year, 16 members made the Appalachian trek, and the group became a registered nonprofit in Texas. Sweeney hopes that the club can grow into an organization where members donate their older equipment to those who may be interested in getting into the activity.

"The purpose of the club is to promote hiking, and to have a good set of hiking equipment is about $1,500 to $2,000," he said. "So people are interested in maybe hiking or joining our club, but the cost of getting some good equipment to do that is pretty steep."

Sweeney gets animated talking about hiking, particularly when it comes to the mental and emotional benefits of taking a step back from the day-to-day and enjoying a view. He's passionate about sharing the experience with interested people in his community to the point that he once pulled over his car and asked a man who was on his regular walk if he'd be interested in hiking across the country with him.

The man, Walker Boyd, 88, soon became the club's oldest member.

"As a routine, I've always walked about 4 miles in the morning, and last year, a neighbor stopped me as I was walking and said, 'Would you like to walk on the Appalachian?" Boyd said. "He didn't know I had walked on it before."

Boyd hiked the same portion of the trail the group hiked this year with his family 47 years ago. Each night on the trail this year, the hikers read from a journal that the family kept the first time -- Sweeney said the similarities were uncanny.

Boyd said he enjoys the challenge of the up-and-down rocky terrain. But he, like Sweeney, particularly enjoys the company.

"At least for me, being as old and decrepit as I am," Boyd joked, "it wasn't real easy to do all that, but we just chugged along and enjoyed ourselves, the new challenge and the camaraderie."

Sweeney said the club revolves more around the intergenerational "hiking family" than the physical aspect of hiking.

The youngest member on the trail was Sweeney's 8-year-old daughter Mattie.

She said she enjoys hiking, because it gives her a chance to learn more about her family, sing campfire songs and see a different part of the U.S. But Mattie -- who has an extensive knowledge of pixies -- gets especially animated talking about "trail magic" -- or moments where hikers are surprised by the kindness of other strangers on the trail.

David Sweeney's wife, Allyson, said trail magic can include anything from an exhausted hiker finding a beer in her boot to her own family finding a cooler full of bananas on a table -- "for people coming that far, fresh fruit is like a bar of gold," she said.

Trail magic came on Mattie's birthday when hikers who passed her family began wishing her a happy birthday.

It turned out that the faster NWES group was telling everyone they passed about Mattie's special day.

"You don't know what to say," Mattie said. "You can only say thank you."

For Allison Sweeney, just being unplugged from her phone is what makes hiking special.

"You end up with bruises on your hips, because your body isn't used to doing that, but you forget about that -- it's so peaceful," Allison Sweeney said.

Information on the group and getting involved can be found at nwes.rocks
According to College Station police, a woman called officers on July 25 and said earlier that day she had been assaulted by Roderick Mishawn Bailey, 24, whom she knew. The woman said around 1 a.m. July 25, Bailey kicked in the door of the woman's apartment and grabbed her and pinned her to the bed. At one point, another person entered the home and Bailey and that person went to talk in another room, police said. The victim asked the two to leave and Bailey allegedly pinned the woman to the table. According to a probable cause statement, the woman broke free and ran outside, but Bailey chased after her, knocked her down and strangled her until she lost consciousness. When the woman woke up, she fled to a relative's home nearby. Police said the woman had bruises on her arms and chest, as well as finger-shaped marks on her upper neck.
An 80-year-old San Antonio man was arrested by Bryan police this week on charges of inappropriately touching at least two children.

According to Bryan police, a woman contacted officers in December and said she and another woman were chatting about Thomas Frank Votion, 80, when they admitted to one another that they had both been molested by him as children. The woman told police she wondered if he had touched other children and spoke to two girls whom Votion knew. According to a police report, when she approached the other girls, they began to cry and said they had been touched by Votion at different periods within the past seven years.

Bryan police arranged for the two girls to speak with forensic interviewers at Scotty's House child advocacy center. One girl said about four years ago that Votion touched her inappropriately on the outside of her clothes, then later apologized and said God had forgiven him for what he did. She also told the investigator that about seven years ago he touched her over her clothes, but at the time she hadn't thought the man was doing anything wrong, instead believing he was holding her the way that she had seen adults hold babies.

The second girl told investigators Votion had touched her inappropriately about four years ago and said another time he had touched her thigh. Bryan police spoke with three adult women who said Votion had touched them when they were younger than 10 years old, and his accusers believe he may have touched up to eight girls. According to the police report, officers felt that had probable cause to arrest him and apprehended him on Thursday.

Martha Garcia Opersteny, executive director of the Sexual Assault Resource Center in Bryan, did not speak to Votion's case, but she and SARC counselor Michael Fischer did share general perspective on sexual assault cases dealing with children and with adults who were molested as children.

They explained that children have a smaller view of the world, and often don't disclose being hurt because they don't believe what happened to them will happen to someone else. Their abuser may promise to never offend again, or the child may block the incident from their minds. The emotional maturity regarding their assault remains stunted as they grow, and even as intelligent adults they may not be able to fully grasp what happened to them. Opersteny noted that the ways people react to abuse are nearly infinite.

"For the victim, it's not about them believing the abuse will happen again," she said. "Just like adults, the children feel a lot of self-guilt. A lot of them also don't know what 'the norm' is. When you're young, you don't think about your abuser doing it to someone else. A lot of people who are abused as a child are kind of stuck at that age... They're not thinking as an adult would think... In some cases we've dealt with here, the victim [eventually] suspects something has happened to someone else, and that's when they [disclose]. But some victims wonder: Was it a dream? Did it really happen?"

Fischer addressed years spent talking to offenders themselves. He said many predators have been sexually abused themselves, or in cases of younger abusers, they may have been exposed to pornography at too young of an age, learning to justify their behavior.

"Every behavior exhibited, especially by offenders, makes sense to them at the time," he noted.

Votion has been charged with two cases of indecency with a child at this point, though the investigation continues. Indecency with a child by sexual contact is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in jail and $10,000 in fines. Votion was released from the Brazos County Jail on $4,000 bond.
All who desire to serve their country in uniform are to be commended. That includes transgender individuals. Too few Americans wish to serve.

Of course, not all people willing to serve are able to do so. Today, only 25 percent of U.S. citizens aged 17-24 meet military entrance criteria. The most common disqualifications are physical fitness issues, including obesity, medical issues, lack of high school education or criminal records.

These standards serve two essential purposes. They help ensure that those entering the armed forces will be able to complete successfully their term of enlistment in what is one of the most physically demanding and arduous professions in America. And these standards reduce the risk that military service will cause harm to enlistees.

For example, an individual who wants to enlist but who has moderate asthma would be ruled ineligible for two reasons: He may jeopardize an entire units success by not being able to contribute at a critical moment, and also because  without access to proper medical treatment  he may become a casualty.

From 2001-2003, I served as an army brigade commander. In that position, one of my responsibilities was to oversee basic combat training. The rigorous training often exposed medical conditions that had gone undetected during entrance examinations. I had to make daily decisions on whether individuals in training should be retained or released.

Typically, these new soldiers desperately wanted to stay in the service despite their disqualifying medical condition. Isnt there a desk job in the rear where my medical condition wont matter? they would ask.

Unfortunately the answer to that question, which must be the same in all the services, is no.

Every soldier, every service member, must be ready at a moments notice to deploy to a distant hostile battlefield, away from family and support, to fight and win.

There is no guarantee of a continued supply of medication or medical treatment in these remote areas. And success depends on every person doing his or her job.

At the July 2016 press conference announcing his decision to open the military to transgender individuals, Ashton Carter, President Barack Obamas Defense secretary, spoke eloquently about clearing away barriers to service.

But rational recruiting standards must be established and enforced strictly to assure that our military can meet readiness requirements and to protect at-risk citizens from being harmed by the demands of military service.

Im just a former soldier, not a doctor, but I am aware of survey data that indicate some 40 percent of transgender individuals attempt suicide in their lifetime  nearly nine times the attempted suicide rate of 4.6 percent in the U.S. population as a whole.

In that same survey, 39 percent of transgender respondents reported that they had experienced serious psychological distress in the month prior to completing the survey, compared with only 5 percent of all respondents.

I can think of nothing more stressful and more likely to exacerbate a pre-existing psychological distress than combat deployments to inhospitable places.

For the first time ever, at least in part due to the stress created by more than 15 years of continuous warfare, the U.S. military is coping with a suicide rate higher than that of the general population.

It would be both reckless and immoral to allow transgender individuals to enlist in the armed forces before we have fact-based assurance that they have the mental resilience needed to survive the crucible of combat and deployments.

Before President Donald Trumps tweets about prohibiting military service by transgender individuals, Defense Secretary James Mattis had announced a six-month pause in the implementation of his predecessors policy in order to assess its impact on military readiness.

Such caution and prudence seem to be the best policy option until the complete impact on readiness can be determined.

Thomas W. Spoehr is a retired lieutenant general of the U.S. Army who directs The Heritage Foundations Center for National Security. Write him at Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington, D.C., 20002. Distributed by Tribune News Service.
When President Donald Trump tweeted that he had conferred with Generals and military experts and said the United States will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, it marked yet another misinformed episode in his tenure as commander in chief.

Lets start with the unprofessional way Trump made the announcement. It became clear shortly after his tweets that the generals did not know this was coming or, at the very least, that it would be coming at this time.

Trumps on-a-whim approach was disrespectful to the very people he actually needs to carry out the policy, not to mention the brave service members directly impacted.

Trumps governance by tweet too often sends administration officials scrambling to understand, defend and implement his directives  often at their own peril.

This chaotic approach is not only unprofessional, its unsustainable, as evidenced by the constant state of upheaval seen in the Trump administration.

Now lets talk about the potential policy. Sadly, we have a long history of restricting military service and excluding different groups of people. Women, minorities, and certainly LGBT Americans have endured periods of exclusion.

Time and again, though, history has proven exclusion and the rationales that accompany it to be shortsighted. The exclusion of transgender Americans from the armed forces will be no different.

Military service is honorable and voluntary. Folks from every walk of life give up their livelihoods  and many their lives  to serve us. When we exclude people based on false assumptions and bigoted fears, we lose.

Not only is exclusion in and of itself wrong, it is foolish to turn away capable volunteers.

Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Arizona, said it well in his statement on Trumps tweets, We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so  and should be treated as the patriots they are.

Whether the rationale for Trumps policy is ensuring unit cohesion, lessening disruptions or lowering costs associated with gender reassignment surgeries, these excuses for exclusion are quickly dismissed by studies and personal accounts from military members themselves.

Kristin Beck, a decorated transgender Navy Seal, made critical points about several of these false rationales in an interview with Business Insider.

A very professional unit with great leadership wouldnt have a problem, she said in response to Trumps tweets.

Beck also criticized the governments treatment of the people it depends upon.

They care more about the airplane or the tank than they care about people, Beck said. They dont care about people. They dont care about human beings. A veteran with 20 years of experience seems more qualified to comment on the matter than our current president.

People, all people, are what make our country and our military great  not the weapons and equipment that prop up the military industrial complex.

Until we fully support the people serving our government, we will not meet our full potential. From beginning to end, public service should be open to all, respected with decent pay and benefits without exception, and protected from spontaneous political decisions.

Trumps policy decree via tweet is harmful and ill-informed and, most importantly, will not make America great, as he so often exhorts.

Exclusion is a sign of fear, not strength. Divisiveness is the tool of those without compassion, without courage and without genuine ideas.

We should push back in the name of decency but also in the name of effectiveness.

Policies governing public service, military and otherwise, should not be based on politically expedient impulses. Effective administration of our government, and particularly our national defense, demands more.

A native of Texas, Don Kusler is national director of Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal advocacy organization. Write him at ADA, 1629 K St. NW, suite 300, Washington, D.C., 20006. Distributed by Tribune News Service.
WESTPORT  Nearly half a century after their days guarding Westports shores, a group of Compo Beach lifeguards has started an annual tradition, reconvening at the shoreline for a weekend of reminiscing and  this year  rallying around a familiar cause.

Compo lifeguards from 1971-75 began a tradition several years ago of an annual reunion that has since swelled to bring together dozens of former guards at the beach each summer. And at this years Aug. 25-27 reunion, former lifeguard David Jonesy Jones is tying in a fundraising drive for a Westport water safety charity.

The 64-year-old former town resident of over 30 years had the idea at the Staples High School Class of 1971s 45th reunion, when he saw former classmate Stew Leonard. Jones was inspired to use his own foundation to fund raise for the water safety branch of Leonards Stew Leonard III Childrens Charities, which he founded with his wife Kim in memory of their son, who died in 1989 after a drowning accident at 21 months old.

Stew was just thrilled this is what Jonesy and the lifeguards wanted to do as their fundraising effort this summer, said Meghan Bell, Director of Public Relations for Stew Leonards. She noted the husband and wife live in Westport and that its touching to their family that the community continues to rally around their water safety efforts.

The support of their neighbors means the world to them, Bell said.

Jones, who now lives in Rhode Island, was also urged to the cause by stories from his own son, a 21-year-old whos followed in his fathers footsteps by working as a lifeguard in Narragansett. His sons stories emphasized to him the need for children from underserved communities to get swimming lessons and for childhood water safety education.

While open to any donations, Jones has focused on fundraising in the Staples Class of 1971 and fellow former lifeguards, many of whom were also his high school classmates. The reunion weekend  which will include a meeting for cocktails, a lobster bake and a farewell meal at Westport classic, the Sherwood Diner  will have an extra event; Jones will present Leonard, his wife and Stew Leonards employees with a donation check for Stew Leonard III Childrens Charities at 10 a.m. on Sunday at the Compo Pavilion.

The idea of fundraising took on a life of its own, Jones said.

In a similar fashion, the reunion has gotten bigger each year and former lifeguards have returned to town from across the country for the occasion, he added. And when the former guards get together, reflecting on their time at Compo, you dont miss a beat, Jones said. Many went to Staples, giving the weekend the feel of a mini-high school reunion.

Ann Becker Moore, who while not a lifeguard herself spent time at the Compo lifeguard shack in the early 1970s and was adopted by the group like a little sister, Jones described, has played host each year, renting a house by the beach.

It creates a bond, Jones said of lifeguarding at Compo. It creates kind of this synergy between friends. And then we all go away. Well, over the years weve come back to this reunion.

LWeiss@hearstmediact.com; @LauraEWeiss16
I love fried green tomatoes! My grandmother made them at the beginning of fall when there were so many tomatoes on the vine that no one minded picking the unripe ones and cooking them before they turned red and juicy.

And later, when I lived in New Orleans, I discovered that fried green tomatoes were available all year at local restaurants. Many places served the fried tomatoes as a side or an appetizer.

I was in heaven!

But the first time I ever had the combination of fried green tomatoes and remoulade was at the long-shuttered, lunch-only institution Uglesichs. Uglesichs was known for its seafood and that day, it was a special. Fried green tomatoes and crab remoulade. Two of my favorite things on a plate together. How could it not be great? Hot-out-of-the-pan fried green tomatoes and cold lump crabmeat with remoulade sauce!

It was more than memorable; it became an obsession. I couldnt stop thinking about the dish. I went back several more times and they never had that special again.

So I took that flavor experience and decided to adapt it for myself  which of course means I adapted it for the grill  and I was thrilled with the results.

Lets start with the tomatoes. When I make these mock fried tomatoes, I slather the tops and bottoms in a mixture of mayo and Dijon mustard, then dredge them in fine white cornmeal. I grill them so that the texture is reminiscent of fried  a little gritty. Thats just how they should be. Be sure to cut the tomatoes in thick (a generous 1/2 inch) slab-like slices so they hold up to the weight of the batter and the heat of the grill.

I prefer shrimp to crab with the green tomatoes, but feel free to make this with lump crab if you prefer. The shrimp must be made at least 2 hours in advance in order to let the bold flavors develop. That also makes this a great dish for a party, when you want all the prep work to be done before your company arrives.

I like to grill shell-on shrimp, as I think they have better flavor and the shell protects the delicate shrimp. But if you dont like to peel shrimp, feel free to use shrimp without shells, just remember that the peeled shrimp will take less time to cook.

Once everything is prepped, all you have to do before serving is grill the green tomatoes and plate your dish. Easy!

When grilling the tomato slices, its best to use tongs to turn them. A spatula can knock off the coating.

Grilled Green Tomatoes with Shrimp Remoulade

Start to finish: 30 minutes, plus chilling

For the remoulade sauce:

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons Creole or other whole-grain mustard

2 tablespoons ketchup

3 tablespoons finely chopped scallions

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 rib celery, finely chopped

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon hot sauce

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

For the shrimp:

1-1/2 pounds jumbo shrimp, unpeeled

Olive oil

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

For the tomatoes:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1/2 cup of fine-grain cornmeal

2 large green tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch slices (8 slices total)

To prepare the sauce, in a medium bowl mix together the mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, scallions, parsley, garlic, celery, paprika and hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate the sauce until ready to use, or up to 1 day in advance.

To prepare the shrimp, heat the grill to medium.

Use paper towels to pat them dry. In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with a splash of olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Place the shrimp directly on the cooking grate and grill for 2 to 3 minutes, or until they curl and begin to turn pink.

Turn over and grill on the other side for another 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool for 5 minutes. Peel the shrimp and add to the bowl of remoulade sauce. Toss well, then cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

Prepare the tomatoes just when ready to serve. Heat the grill to medium.

In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise and mustard. Place the cornmeal in a second bowl.

One at a time, spread the mayonnaise mixture over both sides of each tomato slice, then dredge the slices through the cornmeal to coat evenly. Remove any excess coating by lightly shaking the slices. The sides where the tomato skin is should be dry. Making sure your cooking grates are very clean, place tomatoes on the grates and grill 3 to 4 minutes per side, using tongs to flip, or until the tomatoes are marked, warm and tender.

While the tomatoes are still warm, divide the slices among 4 serving plates. Top each serving with the chilled remoulade shrimp and serve immediately.

Makes 4 main-dish or 8 side-dish servings.

Nutrition information per serving (based on 4 servings): 830 calories; 600 calories from fat (72 percent of total calories); 67 g fat (11 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 250 mg cholesterol; 2130 mg sodium; 29 g carbohydrate; 3 g fiber; 9 g sugar; 27 g protein.

The American Table is an Associated Press column by Elizabeth Karmel that celebrates the delicious diversity of simple home cooking. Karmel is a grilling and Southern foods expert and the author of three cookbooks, including Taming the Flame.
With net farm income expected to decline by 8.7 percent to $62.3 billion  the fourth consecutive year of declines after reaching a record high in 2013  the USDAs National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Thursday that farm production expenditures were down 4 percent in 2016, along with a decline in farm real estate values.

According to the USDA, farm and ranch production expenditures in Nebraska totaled $21.7 billion in 2016. Livestock expenses were the largest expenditure category, at $6.17 billion, with a decrease of 9 percent from 2015. Rent was the next-largest total expense category at $2.56 billion, a decrease of only 1 percent from 2015. The third-largest category was feed, at $2.47 billion, a decrease from the previous year of 7 percent.

According to the USDA, livestock expenses accounted for 28 percent of Nebraskas total production expenditures. Rent accounted for 12 percent, feed 11 percent, and farm services 9 percent.

Earlier in the year, the USDA reported that gross income from cattle and calves in 2016 in Nebraska was $10.986 billion, down from $12.566 billion in 2015. Gross income for hogs in the state was $734.5 million, down from $734.8 million in 2015. Crops values in Nebraska totaled $9.565 billion, down from $9.744 in 2015.

The USDA reported that total expenditures per farm or ranch in Nebraska averaged $448,760 in 2016, also down 4 percent from 2015. But it was still expensive to farm and ranch in Nebraska as the livestock expense category was the leading expenditure, at $127,479 per operation, more than 6.5 times the national average. Rent expenditures, at $52,893 per operation, were more than 3.5 times the national average. The average feed expenditure, at $51,033, was nearly two times the national average. Farm services expenditures per operation, at $40,909, were two times the national average.

Real estate values in a downturn

Nebraskas farm real estate value, a measurement of the value of all land and buildings on farms, decreased from 2016, the USDA reported. Farm real estate value for 2017 averaged $2,900 per acre, down $50 per acre (2 percent) from last year.

Cropland value decreased 6 percent from last year to $4,550 per acre. Dryland cropland value averaged $3,550 per acre, $250 lower than last year. Irrigated cropland value averaged $6,180 per acre, $380 less than a year ago. Pastureland value, at $930 per acre, was $20 more than the previous year.

Changes in cash rents paid to landlords in 2017 for cropland are mixed. Irrigated cropland rent averaged $238 per acre, $5 less than last year. Dryland cropland rent averaged $149 per acre, $1 less than than a year earlier. Pasture rented for cash averaged $25 per acre, $1 more than the previous year.

Consumers, businesses express confidence

In related news, consumer and business confidence moderated in Nebraska during July, according to the latest monthly surveys from the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The monthly Survey of Nebraska Households showed that the states consumer confidence index fell to 102.5 in July from a value of 104.7 in June. While down, the survey found that the July value remains well above the neutral level of 100, indicating that Nebraska consumers are confident. More than half of the respondents cited cost concerns  such as cost of living, health care costs, taxes and other major expenses  as their top financial issue, according to the survey. Health care and health insurance costs were the most commonly reported issue.

Nebraska consumers remain confident about their financial situation and making a major purchase, said Eric Thompson, an economist and bureau director.

The monthly Survey of Nebraska Business indicated that the states business confidence fell from a value of 109.2 in June to 105.1 in July.

Nebraska businesses remained confident about the prospects for both sales and employment during July, Thompson said. Business confidence, however, retreated in July from very high levels observed during the first six months of 2017.

During July, there was an elevated level of concern about customer demand among businesses in two key industries: agriculture and health care. Businesses also faced increased competition in both the product and labor markets.

Nondurable goods are strong point

Creighton University Mid-America Business Conditions Index, a leading economic indicator for the nine-state region stretching from Arkansas to North Dakota, reported earlier this week that the July Business Conditions Index for Nebraska fell to 58.0 from 61.3 in June. Components of the index from the monthly survey of supply managers were new orders at 63.4, production or sales at 59.8, delivery lead time at 57.3, inventories at 51.1, and employment at 58.5.

Nebraskas nondurable goods sector, including food processing firms, is expanding at a brisk pace, offsetting pullbacks among durable goods producers, including agricultural equipment manufacturers and metal producers, said Ernie Goss, Ph.D., director of Creighton Universitys Economic Forecasting Group.

But Goss said that Japans recent decision to raise the tariff on frozen beef imports will have a significant and negative impact on Nebraskas economy if implemented.

Japans action could potentially shave one-half of one percentage point from the states GDP growth unless offset with expanding beef exports to China, said Goss.
As travelers flock to Central Nebraska to view the solar eclipse on Aug. 21, they may just pass through the Central Nebraska Regional Airport.

Executive Director Mike Olson said the airport does not have any special events planned for the eclipse, but that he expects Aug. 21 to be not only the airports busiest day of the year, but the busiest day on record.

Were expecting a lot of planes, so were gearing up for a lot of planes being here, Olson said. Our general aviation provider, Trago-Dugan Aviation, is gearing up for that. The general aviation providers have received a number of calls. At some point, we are going to have to say we cant take any more aircraft because our ramp is only so big. The pilots need to check in advance to see if there is going to be any room on the ramps.

Olson said he suspects there will be an increase in air traffic, as well as some full flights on Aug. 21, but did not have any specific numbers. He did not know whether there are still any seats available on flights into Grand Island.

A search on Allegiant Airlines website shows there are seats available on a flight from Las Vegas to Grand Island that departs on Aug. 20. Seats on that flight cost $110. There were only two seats left on that flight.

There are also only two seats available on a flight from Phoenix/Mesa to Grand Island that departs on Aug. 18. A seat on that flight is $194.

For American Airlines, a search shows one seat available in the main cabin and another in first class for a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Grand Island that departs on Aug. 20 at 1:15 p.m. A seat on that flight costs $361 for a main cabin seat and $485 for a first-class seat.

A flight departing from Dallas/Fort Worth to Grand Island at 7 p.m. Aug. 20 is slightly cheaper, costing $286 for a main cabin seat and $416 for a first-class seat. However, a first class seat on a Friday, Aug. 18, flight cost much more  $1,469.

On Aug. 20, there are two first-class seats left on each flight. There is only one main cabin seat left on the 1:15 p.m. flight.

Olson said there will be the same amount of flights coming into Grand Island as there usually are and there will not be any charter flights landing at the airport for the solar eclipse. The airport currently has daily flights to Dallas/Fort Worth and twice-weekly flights to both Las Vegas and Phoenix/Mesa.

In addition to the increased revenue from arriving and departing flights, Olson said the airport may see an increase in revenue from travelers dining at Afternooners.

Olson added airport operations will not cease during the solar eclipse and flights will land and takeoff as usual.

We will have all hands on deck that day, he said. So everyone will be here that day to assistant in any way they can.

Olson said the airport has 19 staff members.

The Great American Solar Eclipse, where the moons shadow will darken the sun for about two-and-a-half minutes, will occur around 1 p.m. Aug. 21.
Hundreds of kids will go to school in the Grand Island area this year with new school supplies thanks to Stuff the Bus.

The event, which was Thursday and Friday, helped gather school supplies for the homeless and less fortunate children in the community who may not be able to afford them.

Shopping carts were parked near the front entrances inside Shopko and both the North and South Walmart. Stuff the Bus supplies help kids through the Salvation Army, the Crisis Center, Hope Harbor, Central Nebraska Community Action Partnership, the Outreach Center through Grand Island Public Schools and area churches.

Hope Harbor Marketing Coordinator Katie Simmons said Stuff the Bus is neat because it doesnt just help kids at Hope Harbor, but throughout Grand Island and at other agencies. She said the new supplies, which often includes backpacks, help the kids feel like they fit in at school.

Starting back at school can be very stressful for kids, Simmons said, noting that the cost of supplies can also be stressful for parents.

She said by local shoppers and community members donating new school supplies to Stuff the Bus, those parents and kids can be relieved of some of that stress.

Verna Haberman, outreach coordinator for Stuff the Bus, said its been going on for 17 years. She helps coordinate the event and make it possible.

Haberman said last year the event helped fill 300 backpacks. This years goal is about 400.

For a little bit of money, you can really get a lot of supplies, Haberman said. She said the costs for school supplies can really add up.

She said last year the event helped a grandma who had recently gained custody of her grandkids. Haberman said due to the circumstances, the woman didnt know how she was going to pay for school supplies.

I told her, Well help you, Haberman said.

She said it was a big relief to the woman, as it is to many others.

I want them to be excited for school, Haberman said about the kids.

She said anything in the school supply aisle, especially pocket folders and loose leaf paper, is needed. Haberman said backpacks are given out at the beginning and during the school year.

Haberman said though the supplies are packed next week, people can still donate if they wish. Those still wanting to donate supplies, she said, should drop the items off at the GIPS Administration Building at 123 South Webb Road.
It is alarming to see our government, which was founded on biblical guidelines, values and principles, so corrupt and scandalized. We are going from one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all, to a divided nation who makes up their own gods and has a steady decline of liberty and justice. Added to that, the relentless push by liberals, Democrats, Hollywood, the mainstream media and others who want to destroy our elected President Donald Trump.

Those who are involved in the attacks have to know they are doing more damage to our democracy and the office of the presidency than anything else. Makes one think maybe thats their goal. And our society and culture seem to be turning their backs on the source our government was based on  the Bible.

It seems like our educated technological society wants to push aside or put the Bible under mans authority, deeming it old fashioned, out of touch and that it doesnt apply to the 21st century. Wait a minute. God created the universe and everything in it, including mankind. Without his handiwork, we might not even know what century we are in.

God did not abandon us. We abandoned him. In his love and mercy for us, he sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to be crucified, die and rise again for our sins. By trusting in Jesus and only in him for the forgiveness of our sins, we will spend eternity with him. Wow, what an awesome God he is. God is more in touch and up to date than we are. It is far better to turn to him than from him.

Pray for a revival and for all people, the president and our representatives in Washington, D.C.
An Edwardsville man has thrown his hat in the ring as a candidate for the 13th Congressional District.

Erik Jones is running as a Democrat. He announced recently that he will be challenging Republican Rodney Davis in the November, 2018, general election.

Davis has held that seat since 2013. A year later, he held off a challenge from former Madison County Chief Judge Ann Callis. And in last years Republican primary, Davis defeated Ethan Vandersand, and went on to defeat two challengers to win the general election.

Erik Jones grew up in Centralia and attended SIUE, which continues to hold a special place in family lore.

Its where he met his wife Karissa on the first day they arrived on campus.

His parents also attended SIUE. Their initial meeting was at the Granary, a popular 1970s nightclub on Route 159 that eventually gave way to a QuikTrip convenience store.

Now I get my gas at QuikTrip and I think, Boy this is an important spot for me, Jones said during a recent interview.

Jones went on to graduate from SIUE with a degree in business administration. His father still operates a printing and office supplies business in Salem; Joness mother has retired after more than three decades teaching fifth grade at nearby Patoka Elementary School.

The 13th District covers parts of Madison, Bond, Champaign, McLean and Sangamon counties and all of Christian, Calhoun, DeWitt, Greene, Jersey, Macon and Macoupin counties.

We have some tough challenges, Jones said, We have an economy that is not working for everybody, and there are parts of Illinois that have been having really tough times. Its motivating me to do something about it. I really think I can.

Jones said he wants to ensure that the country does a better job of funding its public universities.

Look what its done for Edwardsville, he said of the SIUE campus. I was here, and I saw it. I think its an important part of the community and in the district Im running in.

Jones also wants to focus on better access to health care and financial aid so that students are able to attend college. Community colleges and technical schools can serve as a stepping stone to job or a career. A big part of it is putting people in a position to succeed, he said. There are job openings out there that arent being filled. There are certain types of technical training that employers are looking for.

Jones also stressed the need to extend broadband Internet to rural areas of District 13 where it isnt now available.

In the 1930s, a lot of people didnt have access to electricity and we had to decide as a country that everyone should have access to electricity. Its important. And I think thats where were going with broadband. If youre in a house that does not have access to it, youre going to fall further and further behind.

Often private companies hesitate to extend broadband service into sparsely populated areas because the cost is too high. But if you set up non-profit systems, and the government helps, you can get it done, he said. We did it before.

Davis, the incumbent Republican in District 13 is focusing on issues here and now, according to his communications director, Ashley Phelps.

Were roughly 15 months from the general election and Congressman Davis is focused on legislative work that will help struggling communities and families by repealing government overregulation by the Obama administration, lowering tax rates for small businesses and middle-class families, investing in infrastructure, fixing our broken health care system, and many more issues facing Congress. But he welcomes any challenge to debate the issues and wishes Erik best of luck in the Democratic primary, Phelps wrote in an email.

Jones has experience as an Assistant Attorney General and an investigative counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight.

Most recently, he has been an attorney in private practice.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 5, 2017 13:34 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ab9b9f3 2 National Agusta-Westland,TNI,helicopter,procurements,corruption,military-police Free

The military police have named an ex-Air Force officer as a suspect in a graft case related to the procurement of a VIP helicopter from Italian-British manufacturing company Agusta Westland.

We have named former Air Force chief of staff planning assistant, identified only as SB, a new suspect on the case, military police commander Maj. Gen. Dodik Wijanarko said on Friday, as quoted by kompas.com.

Read also: Investigation of helicopter procurement graft might target higher officials

He claimed SB was responsible for ordering his subordinates to continue the project despite President Joko Jokowi Widodos instruction to cancel the purchase of the VIP helicopter. The suspect could be charged with insubordination, misuse of authority and embezzlement.

SB is the fourth suspect to be named by the military police. Three Air Force personnel were named suspects in May, including the deputy governor of the Air Force Academy and the Air Force commander of operations I. The embezzlement reportedly caused Rp 224 billion (US$ 16 million) in state losses.
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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Manila  Sat, August 5, 2017 17:35 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aba14a5 1 World ASEAN,Retno-Marsudi,North-Korea,AMM,Manila Free

ASEAN has given North Korea a lifeline ahead of a key security forum that the United States is expected to attend to balance against the intent of the US to isolate Pyongyang over its continued missile tests.

ASEAN foreign ministers endorsed on Saturday a standalone joint statement on developments in the Korean Peninsula.

"We strongly call upon the DPRK, as a participant in the ASEAN Regional Forum [ARF], to positively contribute to realizing the ARF Vision to maintain the Asia-Pacific as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity," the ministers stated, referring to North Korea.

On Thursday, Washington called on ARF participants to downgrade their engagement with North Korea and pressure the rogue state to abandon its nuclear program.

Read also: Minister Retno to have series of bilateral meetings

The Philippines, this year's ASEAN chair, is expected to host 26 parties, including the US, North Korea and the European Union, at the ARF on Monday.

In varying degrees, ASEAN states have been critical of Pyongyang's ongoing missile development, but some countries have emphasized the importance of engaging with the reclusive state.

Outside the UN, the ARF is the only security forum that North Korea partakes in.

The joint statement further emphasizes the need for states and organizations "both within and outside the region" to work in a spirit of mutual trust to overcome security threats and prevent the escalation of potential conflict. (bbs)
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Linkedin Sharon Nadeem (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 5 2017

A call for a united literary community among ASEAN countries marks the start of a four-day literary festival held at the historic Fatahillah Square in the preserved part of Kota Tua in West Jakarta.

As the sun began to set on Thursday evening, street performers, musicians, writers, artists and dignitaries began to trickle into Fatahillah Square in Kota Tua in West Jakarta for the opening night of the 4th ASEAN literary festival.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 5, 2017 12:42 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ab9a8c5 1 National novel-baswedan,#acid-attack,KPK,National-Police Free

Novel Baswedan's doctor has advised the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) lead investigator to take full bed rest as high pressure had been detected in his injured eyes.

In the past several days, Novel gave a series of media interviews that the doctor said had contributed to the pressure increase.

"When I saw my doctor yesterday, my eye pressure had apparently increased, so I was asked to refrain from giving any interviews for at least two weeks," Novel said in Singapore in a telephone interview with Antara on Friday night.

Read also: Novels left eye showing improvement: KPK

Novel's doctor also told him that interviews could raise his emotions and lead to an increase in blood pressure and eventually affect the recovery of his eyes.

"God willing, after that I can meet with journalists again," he added.

On Thursday, scheduled surgery on his left eye was canceled as there had been gradual improvement in the eye, KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan sought medical treatment on his eyes in Singapore. Novel's face and eyes were severely injured in an acid attack in April. (tempo.com/file)

Novels eyes were seriously damaged after he was attacked by two unidentified people who threw acid on his face. The attack happened early in the morning on April 11 after morning prayers at a mosque near his house in North Jakarta.

Novel has slammed the National Police in media interviews for failing to arrest the assailants and alleged there were numerous irregularities in the investigation. (bbs)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 5, 2017 15:30 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ab9fd8f 1 National #acid-attack,novel-baswedan,Gerindra-Party,Ferry-Juliantono,KPK,Tito-Karnavian Free

Gerindra Party deputy chairman Ferry Juliantono said on Saturday the party supported a proposal to establish an independent fact-finding team to help investigate an acid attack on Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan.

Ferry said the support was based on the fact that the police investigation had been sluggish as investigators could only come up with a sketch of one of the alleged perpetrators 116 days after the attack.

"There must be power to surpass the institution's. In Novel's case, there must be an independent fact-finding team directly endorsed by President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo," he told a discussion in Jakarta.

Read also: Doctor tells Novel to avoid interviews

Ferry said an independent team could help accelerate the investigation, as well as help reveal the identities of the assailants, the mastermind and their motivation. "We want the mystery to be revealed."

Activists have called on the government to create a fact-finding team for the case on the basis of a suspicion that political interests were involved and Novel's statement suggesting the involvement of a high-ranking police officer.

National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian has acknowledged there are mounting public concerns about the police's impartiality in the investigation. Yet, he rejected the proposal to establish an independent fact-finding team.

Instead, Tito proposed a joint investigation team with the KPK. The antigraft body has brushed off the idea, saying its investigators were not authorized to probe general crimes.

Novel Baswedan receives treatment at a hospital in Jakarta after suffering burns to his left eye, face and neck. (Antara/Aprillio Akbar)

Novels eyes were seriously damaged after he was attacked by two unidentified people who threw acid on his face on April 11. (yon/bbs)
The Jambi administration will speed up the construction of the Muarasabak Port in East Tanjung Jabung regency and the Depati Parbo Airport in Kerinci regency with the support of the Transportation Ministry.

Jambi Governor Zumi Zola recently met Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi where the latter promised to help realize the construction of both projects, Zumi said on Saturday.

For the construction of Muarasabak Port, the Jambi administration has coordinated with state-owned port operator Pelindo II, which owns a 200 hectare plot of land earmarked for the project, and publicly listed sea transportation services firm PT Samudera Indonesia, the governor said.

The water and electricity, as well as the dock, are all available. We have set a budget of Rp 3.5 billion [US$262,683] to dredge the land belonging to Pelindo II, he said.

Read also: Supadio, Sultan Thaha named best airports by Airports Council International

Zumi said the Jambi Transportation Agency had conducted the required environmental impact analysis.

The land, stretching some 12 miles along the coast, will be dredged for water channels. The cost is estimated at Rp 120 billion.

For the acquisition of a 30 hectare land plot for the Depati Parbo Airport, the Jambi administration and the Transportation Ministry will allocate Rp 15 billion each.

We hope the disbursement of the budget will not be postponed so that we can finish the land acquisition this year and start the expansion project for the airport in 2018, Zumi said. (ecn/bbs)
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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Manila  Sat, August 5, 2017 14:22 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ab9e7e0 1 World ASEAN,#ASEAN,Retno-Marsudi,AMM,Manila Free

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has been scheduled to have a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Manila, the Philippines, on Saturday.

Retno is expected to meet with her counterparts from Vietnam, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Australia for talks on various bilateral issues.

On Friday, Retno met with Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, after which she said they talked about preparations for the upcoming leaders' retreat and bilateral consultation forum in the island-nation scheduled for September.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (right) shakes hands with Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan ahead of their bilateral talk in Manila, the Philippines, on Friday. Indonesia and Singapore celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations this year. (Courtesy of teh Foreign Ministry/file)

This year, Indonesia and Singapore are celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations.

Last week, Retno revealed she would meet with her Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Binh Minh, to discuss a recent maritime spat in which Vietnam accused Indonesian authorities of attacking Vietnamese fishermen in the South China Sea.

As Indonesia has denied the accusation, Retno told the Post she was looking to settle discrepancies in the data Vietnam has.

Read also: Code of Conduct framework not an instrument to settle disputes between China and ASEAN

Retno is in Manila to attend a series of events under the banner of the AMM, which also includes key regional security forums like the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit foreign ministers' meeting.

The week-long event will culminate in commemorative activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN. (bbs)
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Linkedin Bagus Saragih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 5, 2017 18:01 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aba2406 1 Politics Ryamizard-Ryacudu,Pancasila,NKRI,liberalism,communism,radicalism,University-of-Indonesia Free

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu has warned new university students about the "threat" of liberalism, communism and radicalism.

He made the statement while delivering a general lecture before thousands of new students at the University of Indonesia at the university's campus in Depok, West Java, on Friday.

Also attending the lecture was rector Muhammad Anis.

"There are real threats faced by Indonesian youth today, such as drug abuse. However, the greater challenge is the non-physical threat against Pancasila, which could ultimately threaten the nation's unity and resilience," the minister said as quoted in a release made available to The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

"Ideological threats are attempting to damage our mindset through the influence of 'materialism'. Materialist ideology here is liberalism, communism, socialism and religious radicalism," the retired Army general added.

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu shakes hands with new students at the University of Indonesia at the university's campus in Depok, West Java, on Friday. (Courtesy of the University of Indonesia/file)

He said the government had launched the so-called "smart power" defense strategy to combine a soft power approach, or regional security diplomacy, with hard power, which centers on the strengthening of the military.

The ministry has stepped up efforts to promote the state defense program to a wider audience by teaming up with several government institutions and civil organizations.

Read also: No set plan to ban other organizations: Minister

The ministry, for example, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Culture and Education Ministry, the Social Affairs Ministry, the Communications and Information Ministry and dozens of community groups to encourage all civilians, particularly children, to love the Republic of Indonesia and to be willing to defend national unity.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 5, 2017 19:06 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aba3648 1 City giant-sea-wall,Jakarta-Bay Free

Despite protests from fishermen and environmentalists, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry and the Jakarta administration have resumed the construction of a sea wall along the northern part of Jakarta Bay.

The ministrys head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office (BBWSCC), T. Iskandar, said the project, part of the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD), is currently in the second phase and more than half of the construction target has been met.

The total progress in the construction is 56.14 percent, with total completed construction of 2,689 meters from a total of 4,500 meters, said Iskandar on Friday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

He elaborated that the progress included the 1,317 meter wall in Muara Baru subdistrict, North Jakarta, and the construction of a 1,372 meter wall in Kali Baru subdistrict, also in North Jakarta.

Initiated by the central government, the NCICD is a project to build a beach wall to prevent worsening floods in Jakarta.

Critics of the project say the project, also known as the giant sea wall, will close off access for fishermen and take away their livelihoods.

In 2014, the government completed construction of an embankment in Pluit.

Iskandar said the government was still working with the Jakarta administration to clear more land along the capitals northern beaches to make way for the project.

He also said the central government is being supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and South Koreas Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) with technical assistance and funding. (wit)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 5, 2017 14:45 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ab9e93f 1 Politics PKB,Jokowi,2019-presidential-election,#election,#ElectionBill Free

The National Awakening Party (PKB) will not declare support for President Joko Jokowi Widodo's reelection in the near future, a party executive has said.

PKB deputy secretary-general Daniel Johan said the party had yet to discuss which presidential candidate the Islamic party would support in the 2019 presidential election because it did not want to affect Jokowi's performance.

[We want] the government to focus on its work. We want the government to focus on serving the people so that it will be successful, he said on Friday as quoted by kompas.com.

Read also: Parties seek votes through Jokowi factor

Of the seven government coalition parties, only the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the PKB, and the National Mandate Party (PAN) have yet to decide whether to support Jokowi in 2019.

The Golkar Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the NasDem Party and the Hanura Party have all declared support for Jokowi's reelection.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo shakes hands with Hanura Party patron Wiranto, who is accompanied by party chairman Oesman Sapta Odang (second right) and secretary general Sarifuddin Sudding (left). (The Jakarta Post/Zul Trio Anggono)

Daniel gave assurances that the PKB would continue to support Jokowi's current administration until 2019.

He said the PKB would rather prepare for the upcoming simultaneous 2018 regional elections.

Hanura declared support for Jokowi in the 2019 presidential election during its national leadership meeting in Bali on Aug. 4-5.

The PPP declared its support in its national meeting last month. (ecn/bbs)
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Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram  Sat, August 5, 2017 16:34 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aba047c 1 National Lombok,tourism,West-Nusa-Tenggara,NTB,Tourism-Ministry Free

The Tourism Ministry is set to kick off the construction of the Lombok State Tourism Polytechnic in Puyung village, Central Lombok regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), on Aug. 10.

The ministrys deputy for institutional development, Ahman Sya, said the school would be built on a 20 hectare plot of land and would cost roughly Rp 1.5 trillion (US$113 million).

The money for the school will be allocated from the state budget.

This year the government allocates Rp 130 billion from the budget and Rp 180 billion in 2018 for the construction, he said during a coordination meeting at a hotel in the provincial capital of Mataram on Friday.

The construction will be managed by state-owned construction company PT Brantas Abipraya, he added.

Read also: Korean Air opens up chartered flights to Lombok

Ahman explained that the construction would be conducted concurrently with the construction of a similar school in Palembang, South Sumatra.

There are currently four educational institutions dedicated to tourism in Indonesia, namely the Bali State Tourism Institute, the Bandung State Tourism Institute in West Java, the Makassar State Tourism Polytechnic in South Sulawesi and the Medan State Tourism Polytechnic in North Sumatra.

Ahman said a school dedicated to tourism in Lombok was crucial for the nation's development in the tourist sector.

Read also: Mandalika promotes Sekotong area in West Lombok

NTB Tourism Agency head Mohammad Faozal said the Lombok polytechnic had been actually running since 2016 but it does not yet have its own building.

I hope with the new building the school can accommodate more students, he said. (ecn/bbs)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Sat, August 5, 2017 16:09 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ab9fef6 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Angkasa-Pura-II,award,Airport Free

After earning the most improved airport 2017 award from Skytrax World Airport Survey and winning four awards at the Asia  Pacific Stevie Awards 2017 in June, state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II is currently being nominated at the International Airport Review Award 2017.

Thank you for the support from Indonesian netizens; the voting period is from June 16 to Aug. 31. Angkasa Pura II is nominated in three categories at the International Airport Review Award 2017, said Angkasa Pura II president director Muhammad Awaluddin.

The award itself consists of nine categories, and AP II is being nominated in passenger experience, airside operation and air traffic center (ATC)/air traffic movement (ATM) categories.

Among AP IIs competitors are Brazil Civil Aviation Secretary, Leidos, Imtradex, Nats, Swiss International Airlines, Zurich Airport, Gatwick Airport and Airport Advisos.

Read also: Six eco-friendly accommodations for green travelers

Muhammad said AP II could win the three categories because its airports design boast Indonesian themes and art galleries and all feature excellent and complete services.

The voting can be done at https://www.internationalai rportreview.com.

To make it easier for people to vote, AP II has also integrated a voting feature into the Indonesia Airports mobile app.

Winners will be announced on Nov. 1 at the 20th anniversary of International Airport Review as well as online. (kes)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Sat, August 5, 2017 15:10 1925 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ab9ef21 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,bali,Benoa Free

A coordination meeting led by Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan on Aug. 1 resulted in a decision to begin the development of Benoa  Bali Cruise Ship Terminal by September this year.

The construction project is assigned to state-owned port management company PT Pelindo III and is set to be complete by the end of next year.

The new port will be able to welcome mega cruise ships that can accommodate up to 5,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members, or equal to 44 Boeing 737 planes.

Read also: Tourism minister officiates the opening of Baobab Safari Resort

Currently the Benoa Port can only accommodate two cruise ships.

The East Dock Pool will be 662 x 150 meters with the depth of 11 meters whilst the West Dock Pool will be 900 x 150 meters with the depth of four meters. The Cruise Ship Terminal will be able to manage 2,500 passengers on a single batch, said Pelindo III president director Ari Ashkara.

Apart from the Cruise Ship Terminal, the ministry also plans to develop Celukan Bawang Port in North Bali starting December 2017 until March 2018 to allow it to welcome seven tourist ships carrying 1,000 passengers each.

Celukan Bawang Port already has the sea level that fits the standard so no further dredging is needed. The huge area of the part provides easy access for hundreds of vehicles to transport arriving tourists to tourist attractions, said Marine Tourism Acceleration Department head Indroyono Soesilo.

Read also: Kei Islands still a hidden gem waiting to be explored

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said three million tourists in East Asia  Australia region traveled using a cruise ship every year, yet Indonesia only welcomed 200,000 foreign tourists.

With the availability of the new terminal, I hope the 2019 target of 500,000 foreign tourists from cruise ships can be achieved, said Arief.

He also hoped the development would be done in a year prior to the IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting that will be held in Bali in October next year.

Apart from Benoa, were also developing Belawan, Tanjung Priok, Tanjung Perak and Soekarno-Hatta ports in Makassar, added Arief. (kes)
WHAT'S ON AROUND Here is a link to a Calendar of upcoming events in Kilcullen. If you have an event you want listed, email the Diary.





WEATHER Mild, cloudy and misty this morning with outbreaks of rain and drizzle. Becoming dry for most through the afternoon and evening. Highest temperatures of 15 to 16 degrees in moderate to fresh southeast winds.

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TEXT ALERT Kilcullen Garda District Text Alert The Grocery in Calverstown, Kilcullen Garda Station , Kilcullen Credit Union , and scheme committee members. Please encourage neighbours and friends to join. Forms for joining thescheme are available fromin Calverstown, Kilcullen, Kilcullen, and scheme committee members. Please encourage neighbours and friends to join.



The Kilcullen & Gormanstown Parish Lotto D raw is held at 9pm each Tuesday in the Parish Centre. This is a public event to which all are welcome. There's a prize draw each night for those attending. Details of previous Draws are here.



EMAIL THE DIARY kilcullendiary@gmail.com . Comments, contributions, requests always welcome.

AROUND TOWN Kilcullen Town has its own Facebook Page . Keep an eye on it. Email notices to us, or text 086 8267104.

PEOPLE OF THE HOLLY BUSH Another subject has been posted in the 'People of the Holly Bush' Kilcullen profiles project by Kieran Behan and Brian Byrne. He is Martin Murphy
15 year old

Currently

turn

here

It all began when, as a, she was forced to flee her hometown of Baghdad because of kidnapping threats. When some years later, in 2013, she came across photographs of refugees on her Facebook newsfeed, she found herself relating to their struggles, since she too had been made to leave her life behind to seek safety. However, she found shed been lucky to never have had to live in a camp, and thus was motivated to aid those who did not have the same privileges shed had. She posted a status on her personal account asking her friends to donate blankets and warm clothes to be sent to Syrian refugees. Her family and close friends were, of course, all very supportive of her initiative, and quickly the scope of the campaigns broadened, driven by the rising number of refugees and internally displaced Iraqi persons. And so the Shine Together Charity team came together, with the help of her best friend Sarah, who is the co-founder and has held a leading role in the charity since Zinah moved to the UK. It works primarily through social media: Zinah will share a new campaign idea, and will subsequently be approached by volunteers and donors. Primarily through Facebook, she encourages people to help in any possible capacity, whether it be donations of money, goods, or their own time. One of her objectives is for volunteers from different backgrounds and religions, representative of Iraqs ethnic and social diversity, to all come together for a humanitarian cause. This is what her charity aims to represent: how unity can help people create positive change in the world, and spread awareness so that others might do the same. Her teams primary goal in distributing aid is to fill gaps that can be left behind by some official organisations. Zinah expresses concerns that official organisations may at times provide things that are of little use to individuals, and may be more concerned with advertisement and promotional purposes than with delivering the most effective kind of aid possible. People in camps are in need of everything; however, she advocates that asking people what particularly products they are most in need of, rather than merely assuming, is a more efficient method of resource distribution. Another issue with such approaches to aid, according to Zinah, is the focus on the documentation of aid distribution, often to the detriment of covering effective aid. The refugees dignity isn't being respected, having to answer demeaning questions in front of a camera, such as how they feel about receiving aid. Their photographs are also being taken and published online, often without consent, which is unethical. She hopes to speak to people on the ground to identify their most pressing needs and to take care of their difficult situation in a way that does not degrade them.Her charity also wants to do better on the donor front. Thanks to her social networking, Zinah obtains funds through her many connections, which means she often knows the donors. She encourages them to accompany herself and her volunteers while buying the aid that will be sent, and sometimes help with the distribution process, as a way of proving the charitys integrity and reliability. The charity also provides donors with receipts, so that they are informed as to how their donations are being used. Its also crucial, she says, for people to face the reality of camps with their own eyes, which also benefits the refugees since it often results in repeated donations. Shine Together Charity has, over the years, built strong relationships based on mutual trust with camp managements in Erbil and continues to consult them regarding which camps and what areas of these camps are most urgently in need of relief. Because of the charitys limited capacities, they must unfortunately prioritise, and can only cover the neediest sectors. Since its inception, however, the charity has grown from helping 40 families in its first campaign to now reaching an approximate 1,000 families in each campaign, which bodes well for future expansions.When asked about some of her charitys cases that have particularly touched her, Zinah warmly speaks of a Syrian teenager who had had his face and neck burnt in an explosion. This forced him to stop attending school, but her charity has thankfully been able to raise enough money to get him two surgeries. Having not yet met him, she looks forward to meeting him as soon as she is back in Iraq. She continues, and recounts when she and her team distributed new clothes for Eid, to over 200 orphans in Erbil: I just saw joy in childrens eyes, and thats all that matters.Due to limited funds, Shine Together must currently focus on satisfying immediate needs for aid, such as clothing and food. Zinah, however, hopes eventually to create an educational platform where young people can develop their potential, which she sees as key to ensuring a brighter future for the country. The Iraqi educational system, according to her, is one that is particularly in need of urgent reform.she is working on a project in the UK called Lets be friends, in cooperation with the Princes Trust International, for which she is the delegate for Iraq. This project aims to create a framework in which British children between the ages of eight and 11 can build connections and make friends which children their age currently attending schools at Iraqi camps. She strongly believes that learning about one another, breaking down preconceptions and stereotypes, and overcoming the language barrier through art, will be conducive to a better future. It focuses on the worlds future leaders and will create bridges of peace and hope, built on the similarities that unite us all as humans. This is undoubtedly the most effective, long-term solution to the situation Iraq faces today.Following Mosuls liberation, Zinah feels optimistic that this signals a new path for Iraq. With the efforts of the Iraqi youth, she hopes that new political systems can be established in which all Iraqis can contribute in rebuilding the country: Now is the time for us to rebuild the city after the trauma it experienced under ISIS control and ensure the future is built on strong foundations of peace and equality. As questionsto her personal life, Zinah reveals she desired to do a masters degree abroad to obtain more international exposure and anticipates that her studying International Business Law will give her a wider exposure to the legal field. She aims to continue her studies to include a doctorate level, and specialise in researching the role of the law in protecting children from armed conflict involvement, due to ISISs use of child soldiers in their conflicts. Asked about her future plans, she mentions her wish to be a positive change-maker in the world. One way in which she sees herself doing this would be working for the United Nations, she says, where she could reach a wider audience and broaden the scope and vision of her charity. Her charity work has greatly changed her outlook on day-to-day life. Prior to founding the charity, she claims she would look at the world around her and see how the war had changed her life and the lives of all Iraqis. She would compare her experiences to those of her peers in countries not torn by violence, and find it difficult to make sense of it all. However, when she began working at camps and giving her time to her initiative, she began to appreciate small things that shed previously overlooked, and her perspective transformed. Although being Iraqi came with limited opportunities that were otherwise easily accessible to others, she could now recognise that I wouldnt be who I am today if it wasnt for that struggle. Being born during the Gulf war, spending her life in a conflict zone, she can appreciate the struggles her parents went through to teach her and her siblings the powerful ability of an individual to exact positive change in the world.
If you carefully dissect the word 'Christmas' into minute parts in the modern day world, you'll soon find hidden within it the words 'free market capitalism' or 'give me all your money', or something of the sort.

For the past few years, we've seen things like Valentine's Day, Easter and Halloween products advertised and stocked in shops well before their due date. It's now something we sort of tolerate, and often joke about, despite it, in the long run, taking us for fools.

But how about opening a Christmas shop just under five months before the big day?

Selfridges' opening a Christmas shop so early will either make you burst out with laughter, curse at Adam Smith (Google him) or simply drain your wallet without you realising.

It's all a bit (in the words of every Love Island 2017 contestant) muggy, if you ask me.

What's even more laughable, is the prices Selfridges' Christmas gifts and decorations.

You can get yourself an ultimate drinks hamper that'll polish 1,000 off your bank account, or go for something a little more low-key like a single Christmas tree bauble for 70 (bargain).

As a result of the department store bringing forward Christmas, it's made me a little depressed.

Time is a bit of a precious thing if you hadn't noticed, and it seems as though all Selfridges (and of course many other stores) want to do is rob me, and you, of this time, as well as fleece us of our money.

Bringing a few months forward for the stores is nothing and everything. They've existed long before us and will go on for an indefinite amount of time after us. They can make millions more from lengthening out what is now supposed to be a seasonal holiday.

But for us, it takes away a few more months of relaxation and time to enjoy the intermittent periods in which we're forced (or at least felt to be forced) to spend copious amounts of money on gifts that aren't worth the time.

A lot of people won't really look this much into it, and think it just a harmless way of Selfridges' making it easier for those with not a lot of time on their hands to bag their Christmas gifts well before December suddenly creeps up on us and we ask, "Where did September, October, and November go?"

But it all seems quite disquieting for my liking.
Find yourself drawn to Facebook? There is a reason why you crave the social media site and according to researchers in the US and Netherlands, its because it makes us feel good.

Researchers at Michigan State University in the US, and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands,

add

further analysis to the two studies published earlier this year with regular and less-frequent Facebook users.

The first study involved participants being shown to a Facebook-related cue (such as the logo or a screenshot of the timeline) or a control picture, followed by a random Chinese symbol.

The test subjects were asked whether they found the symbol pleasant or unpleasant.

When exposed to a Facebook-related image, regular users of the social media site reacted more positively to the Chinese image compared with the less frequent ones.

The researchers put this down to Facebook exposure being a learned response. An example of learned response is how children learn that misbehaviour earns them attention.

According to Michigan State Universitys Allison Eden, these responses are hard to break.

(Yui Mok/PA)

People are learning this reward feeling when they get to Facebook, she said.

What we show with this study is that even with

something as

simple as the Facebook logo, seeing the Facebook wall of a friend or seeing anything associated with Facebook, is enough to bring that positive association back.

In the second study, the test subjects were asked to measure their craving for Facebook through a series of questions.

The researchers found that those lured by the logo and other Facebook-related triggers and wanted to regulate their use struggled with feelings of guilt.

(Dominic Lipinski/PA)

If they try to regulate Facebook usage and fail, they feel badly, so they turn to Facebook and feel badly again, the researchers said in a statement. Its a cycle of self-regulatory failure.

However, the researchers warn the guilt can be damaging, adding that the solution could be to remove some of the cues, like, for example, turning off notifications or moving the Facebook logo from the mobile phones home screen so its not immediately visible when you unlock your phone.

Media, including social media, is one of the most commonly failed goals to regulate, Eden said. People try to regulate themselves and they really have difficulty with it.

The study is published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Light snow this evening will give way to snow showers late. Low 27F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%..

Tonight

Light snow this evening will give way to snow showers late. Low 27F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%.
Several public meetings this week in Watertown

Here's a look at who's meeting this week and what they'll be discussing.
Delegations of more than 50 countries have arrived in Tehran to participate in the inauguration ceremony of re-elected President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, IRNA reports.

August 5, 2017, 12:01 Over 50 foreign delegations to take part in Iranian President Rouhanis inauguration ceremony: Armenias President also to attend

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 5, ARTSAKHPRESS: The event will be attended by President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Russian Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea Kim Yong-nam, as well as delegations from Palestine, South Korea, Moldova, Lebanon and etc.

The inauguration ceremony will be held on August 5 at the Iranian parliament with the presence of high-ranking officials of various states, including 8 Presidents, 19 parliamentary speakers and 92 high-ranking international delegations.

Hassan Rouhani was re-elected as President of Iran with 57% of votes during the May 19 presidential elections.
ANGOLA  Clear Vision Media has taken new 360-degree aerial views of Angola recently, with hopes the views bring economic and community development to the area.

Clear Vision Media was contracted by the city to take 360-degree aerial views of various Angola locations including downtown and the site of the new technology park, where ground was broke Monday afternoon.

Technology like this has been used by others in the county, including the Steuben County Tourism Bureau, to create virtual guides through places like Pokagon State Park, the Trine State Recreation Area and a couple of area hotels. The Tourism Bureau was the first in the community to work with Clear Vision and its owner, Chris Sanchez, on a number of 360-degrees and aerial projects.

Views of these county attractions can be seen on the tourism bureau website, lakes101.org.

The use of the technology will attract potential investors, businesses, new residents, and visitors to Angola, said a news release from Angola. Online users will be able to view a 360-degree image of each location as well as zoom into businesses, organizations, and other specified locations within the 360-degree view. Specific locations will be able to each have their own 360-degree view.

Downtown services coordinator Maria Davis said this technology has also been used to shoot aerial images of Fort Waynes downtown.

We will most likely continue the addition of other organizations and businesses populating Virtual Angola, Davis said.

Davis anticipates Clear Vision Media will update again as building continues on the tech park, although it has not yet been discussed.

As we continue to build upon the 360-degree view, it will become something that all online users can use to view and even re-discover this community and its assets, she said.

The project is expected to be complete yet this summer.

There currently is a 360-degree view of the historic downtown that can be seen at angolain.org.

Questions about the project can be directed to Maria Davis by emailing downtown@angolain.org or by calling 624-2698.
The son of Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala has been arrested along with another person for allegedly stalking a senior state IAS officer's daughter, police said on Saturday.

Vikas Barala was arrested by the police along with his accomplice, Ashish, from the Housing Board light early on Saturday. Police said that both accused were drunk when they were stalking the victim.

Police officials told IANS that Vikas and Ashish were granted bail as the sections imposed against them were bailable.

The victim, daughter of a senior Haryana cadre IAS officer, shared her traumatic experience in a Facebook post.

The victim, who was driving towards adjoining Panchkula town, alleged that both men followed her in their Tata Safari Storm SUV (HR 23-G-1008) from the Sector 7 area.

She said she was driving alone from Sector 8 in Chandigarh towards Panchkula around 12.15 a.m. (on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday) when the two youth started following her. She said that the SUV pulled up close to her car several times and even tried to block her way to force her to other routes.

She claimed that at one point, the SUV blocked her way and one youth jumped out of it and started walking towards her vehicle. While she reversed at full speed and tried to evade them, they continued to follow her.

The victim then called up the Police Control Room and gave the number details of the SUV. Police intercepted the car at the boundary of Chandigarh and Panchkula (which is in Haryana).

Deputy Superintendent of Police, East, Satish Kumar said that the youth were arrested and booked under section 354 D (for stalking a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 341 IPC (wrongful restraint) was later added against the accused.

"We have arrested both the accused. We got their medical examination done and it was confirmed that they were under the influence of liquor," Kumar told media. He confirmed that one of the suspects was related to a senior BJP leader of Haryana. Both the accused are law students.

Police sources told IANS that the Chandigarh Police was under pressure from political leaders in Haryana and the Central government to dilute the case against Vikas and his friend.

Subhash Barala is a sitting legislator of Haryana's ruling BJP from Tohana assembly seat and a powerful Jat leader.
In the backdrop of a prolonged standoff between India and China over a border dispute, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said dialogue and debate is the only way to overcome divisions and conflicts.

Addressing the 2nd edition of the two-day 'Samvad- Global Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness' that began in Yangon on Saturday, Modi talked about issues such as avoiding conflicts, addressing climate change and furthering peace.

Asias oldest traditions of dialogue and debate can give the answers to several global challenges such as terrorism and climate change, Modi said in the video message.

Samvad or dialogue is the only way to overcome prejudices, divisions and conflicts, he added.

The Prime Minister said that he is a "product of the ancient Indian tradition that firmly believes in dialogue on difficult issues."

He said that the ancient Indian concept of Tarka Shastra is founded on dialogue and debate as the model for exchange of views and avoidance of conflict.

Giving illustrations from Indian mythology such as Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha and Bhakta Prahlada, Modi said that the purpose of each of their actions was to uphold Dharma, which has sustained Indians from ancient to modern times.

The Vivekananda Kendra had, in September 2015, hosted the first edition of the conference, representing various religions and traditions, in New Delhi, which had been addressed by the Prime Minister.
Veteran BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, who had humble origins in an agriculturist family in Andhra Pradesh, was on Saturday elected as the VicePresident of India, completing the quartet of top four constitutional posts  President, Vice President, Prime Minister and Lok Sabha Speaker  going to persons from BJP with RSS background for the first time in 70 years.

Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, 68, who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later the Narendra Modi governments, defeated the combined opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi by a huge margin of 272 votes in a straight contest, whose verdict was already predictable.

At the end of two-hour counting process in the 15th vice-presidential election, Returning Officer Shamsher K. Sherif announced the election of Naidu, who secured 516 votes against 244 by Gandhi. In all, 771 votes were cast out of a total of 785 MPs eligible to vote. Eleven votes were declared invalid. Of this, seven were voters backing Gandhi.

A seasoned politician, Naidu, who had his political teeth cut in the RSS and later Bharatiya Jana Sangh, had been President of the BJP. Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari, is a bureaucrat-turned-diplomat, who was Governor of West Bengal. He was fielded by the Congress-led Opposition with backing from parties, including Trinamool Congress, Left, BJD and the Janata Dal-U.

Soon after his election, Naidu said he as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, would steer the functioning of the House "without fear or favour" and uphold its dignity and decorum with the cooperation of all members by acting in accordance with the rules and conventions of the House.

In his reaction, Gandhi congratulated Naidu on his victory and wished him all the best in his new office. He hoped Naidu would be Vice President of all sections of India.

Gandhi thanked all the parties that supported him and said that the voting figures showed that the numbers that voted for him were "beyond expectations".

He said the fight in the election was for free thought, free speech, pluralism and secularism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Naidu on his victory and expressed confidence that he will serve the nation "as a diligent and dedicated Vice President, committed to the goal of nation building".

"My mind is filled with memories of working with Venkaiah Naidu in the party and the government. Will cherish this aspect of our association. My best wishes for a fruitful and motivating tenure," Modi tweeted.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also congratulated Naidu and said he was sure that he would give time and opportunities to all leaders and parties to express their views in the way the outgoing Chairman Hamid Ansari conducted the House.

Azad and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said the fight was between two political trends. One wanted to strengthen the constitutional order. Both of them thanked Gandhi for agreeing to be the opposition candidate and for putting up a dignified fight.

Azad and Yechury claimed that the opposition has got 19 votes more than what it got in the recent Presidential election. They said they would go into issues like how many of their voters were absent or invalid and the reasons for that and take actions internally.

Born in 1949 in Chavatapalem in Nellore district, Naidu acquired law degree from Andhra University College of Law Visakhapatnam. He was a "swayamsevak" in the RSS and joined ABVP during his college days. He came to the spotlight for his role in "Jai Andhra" movement of 1972 and became the convenor of the anti-corruption Jayaprakash Chhatra Samiti in 1974. He held street protests against the Emergency.

He served three terms in the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka from 1998 and was elected for his fourth term from Rajasthan last year. He was a member of the Andhra Pradesh assembly twice in the 1980s.

Naidu was Rural Development Minister in the Vajpayee government between 2000-02. In Modi's government, first he was Parliamentary Affairs Minister as well as the Housing and Urban Development. From Parliamentary Affairs, he was shifted to Information and Broadcasting Minister which portfolio he held till he was nominated as the Vice Presidential candidate.

Soon after his election, a string of leaders of the BJP and allied parties and ministers went to Naidu's residence and greeted him on his victory.
The latest bout of muscle-flexing has been dramatic for a cloistered country. With North Korea conducting the second ballistic missile test-launch, the ever so belligerent President Kim Jong-un has advanced a fresh challenge to President Trump, stating that it has the potential to strike at Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and not merely Alaska which was within the range of the 4 July test.

The test ~ the second in three weeks ~ was ordered by Kim, who has been quoted as saying that the launch reaffirmed the reliability of the Norths ICBM system, indeed an ability to fire at random regions and locations at random times with the entire US mainland now within range. Pretty obvious is the remarkable strategic planning by the hermit kingdom for an intrinsically technological mission.

There is little doubt that the test has, in the immediate perspective, served to compound the US Presidents troubles at home and the resultant friction in Americas equation with Russia. President Kim has timed the launch in the immediate aftermath of the US Congress vote in favour of sanctions against North Korea, Iran, and also of course Russia. What Pyongyang calls a serious warning to the US can, therefore, be contextualised with recent developments in the US.

That warning makes it explicit that Washington has been meaninglessly blowing its trumpet with threats of war and stronger sanctions. In a sense, Kim can be said to have linked the recent cache of sanctions to the ICBM test.

In comparison, President Putins directive to America to truncate its staff in Moscow by 755 must seem a relatively mild reprisal. The missile is reported to have splashed into the East Sea/Sea of Japan after travelling 1000 km ~ very much within Japans exclusive economic zone.

Which explains why Japans Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has been as robust as President Trump while leading the international condemnation of North Koreas latest launch. The second ICBM test-flight appears to have been timed to mark the commemoration of the end of the Korean war in 1953.

This clearly shows the threat to our nations safety is severe and real, has been Abes assessment of Pyongyangs potentially nuclear posturing. Markedly, he has clothed his statement with the pledge to do our utmost to protect the safety of the Japanese people. Russias response, at another remove, has been somewhat defensive given its cordial relations with the North.

To the extent that it has disputed the US and Japanese description of the missile, saying it appeared to be a medium-range weapon, not an ICBM. Considering the flutter in the international roost, the comity of nations looks forward to a possible US-China joint venture to rein in North Korea.

However, the prospect doesnt readily inspire optimism, with China telling the US not to link trade to discussions about Pyongyangs nuclear programme.
As is evident from Chinas occasional reference to the punishment which it had meted out to India in 1962, it is toying with the idea of repeating the feat but is hesitating because it is uncertain about an adverse international reaction.

As the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, has pointed out, the world chancelleries are almost unanimously on Indias side. In Indias immediate vicinity, there is little doubt that countries like Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan are with India.

If this is indeed the case, then China has only itself to blame. The aggression it has shown towards its neighbouring countries with their respective claims on the zones of influence in the South China Sea has made the international community aware of its bullying nature.

Although the longstanding apologist for China, the Australian journalist, Neville Maxwell, has said that China has settled its border disputes with 12 out of 14 neighbouring countries  the only exceptions being India and Bhutan  the falsity of the claim is evident from the maritime controversies in the South China Sea.

China, therefore, continues to be an unsettling presence in the region  somewhat like a more dangerous North Korea. Maxwell also says that India is repeating its 1962 mistakes by violating Chinese territory, but some observers believe that the Doklam standoff at the trijunction of India, Bhutan and China is a diversionary tactic which has been undertaken by Beijing at the request of its all-weather friend, Pakistan, to deflect the heat which Pakistan is facing because of the aggressive response by the Indian army along the border in Jammu and Kashmir to infiltrations from across the Line of Control and the shelling by Pakistani forces.

These observers rule out any escalation, therefore, in Doklam since China is playing Pakistans game and not its own. At the same time, China cannot be unaware of the implications of India fobbing off its bellicose intentions. Since China considers itself far superior to India, it simply cannot afford to be seen being held to a draw by a supposedly weak India.

To its neighbours and the rest of the world, such an outcome will be typical of a bully whose bark is worse than its bite. China, therefore, is in something of a bind for the first time since it began seriously flexing its military muscles. The forthcoming 19th congress of the Chinese communist party has further complicated the situation, for President Xi Jinping cannot afford to be stared down by India when he is seeking another term.

Even a mutually agreed simultaneous withdrawal of the troops will be interpreted as a defeat in China, especially by its gung-ho official media which probably reflects the more jingoistic among the apparatchiki. China wants, therefore, India to withdraw first before any negotiations can take place. But New Delhis refusal to do so cannot but have surprised Beijing which has  correctly  seen in the show of defiance a sign of the Narendra Modi governments Hindu nationalist fervour. Clearly, the standoff has become a case of Han versus Hindu obduracy in the frozen landscape of the Himalayas.

The present confrontation between the two giant neighbours is a far cry from what Deng Xiaoping said about the need for solving the border disputes through repeated discussions, adding that until a settlement is reached, let us develop contacts in other fields.

These contacts have indeed been developed, mainly in the field of trade and commerce, which is another reason why a wider conflict is unlikely as it will disrupt the $ 70 billion bilateral trade and cast a shadow on Chinas pet Belt and Road Initiative.

But even if there is no war, the fact remains that China has gone out of its way to be hostile towards India by befriending Indias inveterate enemy, Pakistan, opposing Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and preventing the UN from declaring the Jaish-eMohammed chief, Masood Azhar, as a terrorist. China, on its part, probably believes that India, too, has shown its unfriendly intentions by letting the splittist and public enemy No. 1, the Dalai Lama, live in India and even visit Arunachal Pradesh, which China describes as southern Tibet, against vociferous protests by Beijing.

But India has long been the preferred destination of those fleeing persecution, whether they were the Parsis from Persia in the 8th century, who were escaping from Muslim invaders, or the Tibetans in the 20th century who were running away from the Chinese invaders.

It is noteworthy, however, that despite the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation in Doklam, China had no objections to visits by various delegations from the saffron think tanks.

The conversations of Indias national security adviser, Ajit Doval, with his Chinese counterpart and his meeting with President Xi Jinping along other NSAs showed that the lines of communication have remained open. India and China are seemingly entering a new phase of their relationship where they are more or less on an equal footing, for China has realized that India is no longer a pushover as in 1962.

It has also understood that there is more to international relations than military prowess.

(The writer is a former Assistant Editor, The Statesman)
The ruling BJP has travelled a long distance since 1980 when the party was founded as the political wing of the RSS. In 27 years it has overtaken the Grand Old Congress Party, which had ruled the country for 58 of the 70 years after independence.

The BJP emerged in 2015 as the largest party in India with about ten crore members while the Congress has been shrinking.

The Communist Party of China was until now considered the largest party with about 8.60 crore members. The BJP grew from two seats in the Lok Sabha in 1984 to 85 in 1989 and rose to 120 seats in 1991 and 198 in 1998. The BJP formed the government in 1996 for thirteen days but fell because no other party supported it. The BJPs first phase of success came when L K Advani successfully launched his Ram Janambhoomi movement in 1989. The second was when Vajpayee became the prime minister (1998-2004) leading the NDA coalition.

The third phase began when Narendra Modi as chief minister became a Hindutva icon after the Godhra carnage in 2002. The peak came when the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha in 2014 winning 282 seats and formed the government with its other NDA partners, a feat indeed after 30 years of coalition governments at the Centre.

The BJP is ruling in 19 states  either on its own or in coalition  while the Congress is reduced to just five states. But the latest is its emerging as the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha where the Congress-led opposition had been blocking most government business frustrating the BJP in the past three years.

But the NDA is yet to get a majority in the upper house. This week the BJP has overtaken the Congress, which had 57 members, by gaining one seat more than the Grand Old Party.

A big boost will come next year when the BJP will win eight of nine Uttar Pradesh seats that will be vacated, after sweeping assembly elections in the state this year. Next week, elections will be held for nine seats  six in west Bengal and three in Gujarat. But these may not affect the BJP lead.

The party is sure to win two seats in Gujarat and is eyeing the third seat by defeating Congress leader Ahmed Patel who is contesting for the seventh term. In West Bengal two Congress members are retiring but the Congress can get only one seat while the ruling Trinamool Congress will get five seats.

The BJP has also occupied for the first time all top four Constitutional positions with the election of President Ramnath Kovind, Vice President M.Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. How did the BJP achieve all this? The BJPs growing dominance is surprising in a country that was historically dominated by Centre-Left parties since independence.

Historically, the Congress started out as a left of centre party and moved further leftward in the 1960s and seventies. Its main competitors then were mostly the Communist Parties. However, leftism eventually failed due to many reasons though the Congress Party survived because it moved back toward the centre.

At the national level, the Left presence is minimal. Today the Left parties are ruling in only two states  Tripura and Kerala. The CPI-M and the CPI also supported the National Front, the United Front and the UPA governments at the Centre. The BJP now has a pan-Indian presence and the party, either by itself or in coalition, rules states in the South, North, North east and West.

Seven decades of left of centre Congress politics has given way to the right wing BJP. The party has adopted various methods to reach its goals. It got acceptance among voters.

It has adopted a method of breaking up other parties and coalitions. The recent breaking up of the Grand Alliance in Bihar has helped the NDA increase its tally with the addition of the Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) to the NDA last month. This will add another ten members to the NDA kitty. With the JD (U) allying with the BJP, the Modi dispensation can now expect the support of at least 121 members in the 245-member upper house.

Regional parties like the AIADMK, the BJD, the TRS, the YSRCP and the INLD, which together have 26 members, have often backed the government, which can also count on at least four of the eight nominated members for support. Thirdly, it has imported senior leaders from other parties to win elections as it did in Assam. Fourthly, it has taken over an entire state like Arunachal Pradesh without having a single MLA.

Fifthly, it has encouraged defections from other parties. Above all, it has weakened the already weak opposition. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is also Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, claims that the BJP becoming the Number 1 party is a "natural consequence of our support base increasing".

He said, "We are in power in most states and since the Rajya Sabha is a council of the states, the strength of the BJP has to be reflected." The minister was confident that his party's "base will increase in every election".
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his first interaction with the media a week after he was disqualified by the Supreme Court, on Saturday asked if any court in the country will ever punish former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

Sharif, speaking to reporters at the Punjab House, asked: "When will the court punish the dictator who says 'dictatorship is better than democracy'."

"The one who subverted the Constitution twice is still roaming free, is there any court which will take cognizance of this matter?," he asked.

Sharif pointed out that a lot had changed since he came back from exile in 2007, the News International reported.

In October 1999, General Musharraf, the then army chief of Pakistan, had ousted Sharif in a bloodless coup and seized power. Sharif was in exile in Saudi Arabia for eight years, before he returned to Pakistan in 2007.

According to the thrice-deposed premier, he was disqualified by the court for not declaring the salary he never received.

Sharif, who was staying in Murree after his ouster as Prime Minister, arrived in Islamabad with a grand welcome by scores of his followers.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz head said Baloch leader Akbar Bugti was brutally killed in the mountains but no one asked who was responsible for this injustice.

He said there was no allegation of corruption and misappropriation of public funds against him.

Last Sunday, the former premier vacated the Prime Minister House and proceeded to Murree along with family members.

Since then, the country has seen a new Prime Minister  PML-N's Shahid Khaqan Abbasi  assume office.

Sharif has spent most of his time in Murree in hectic consultations over the formation of the new cabinet. The former premier chaired back-to-back meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, which finally led to the swearing-in of the new cabinet on Friday.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment in the Panama Papers case, disqualified Sharif under Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution over his failure to disclose un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from a UAE-based company.

The verdict stated that he was not honest' and truthful', as per the country's Constitution.

The PML-N has decided to file a review petition against the verdict.

However, the party's troubles are not over as it gears up for the by-election in Sharif's Lahore constituency  NA-120  on September 17, Geo News reported.

According to some reports, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is expected to contest the by-poll and assume office of Prime Pinister. However, there is a chance Abbasi could continue in office till the next general elections and the party gives the NA-120 ticket to someone else.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is also set to file several corruption references against Nawaz, his children Maryam, Hussain and Hasan, son-in-law MNA Capt (retd) Safdar and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, among others, in an accountability court.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Cloudy. Periods of light rain early. Low 39F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Cloudy. Periods of light rain early. Low 39F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will host the 27th annual Wisconsin Space Conference next week.

The conference kicks off at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, in room 3200 in the Student Union, with breakfast. Thomas Corbitt, assistant professor of physics at Louisiana State University, will give the keynote on gravitational wave astronomy.

Throughout the day, attendees will hear about NASA partnerships, student research, K-12 outreach, academic and industry research, and WSGC team projects. There will be a poster and networking session, and an awards ceremony. The conference ends at 5:30 p.m.

UW-L is a member of the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, which holds this annual conference. WSGC is a joint effort between NASA and statewide organizations. WSGC is dedicated to helping provide Wisconsin students, researchers, educators, businesses, non-profit organizations and other stakeholders with the tools, connections and resources needed to make the aerospace community in the state of Wisconsin thrive and grow.

For more information, visit the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium website at https://spacegrant.carthage.edu/live/news/14899-27th-annual-wisconsin-space-conference.
The last days of the Newfie Pride

There were many nights he didnt sleep. The numbers and scenarios turned over and over in his mind, making rest impossible. Id get up two, three oclock in the morning, night after night, come out to the kitchen table and work the numbers every ...
From the public files of the La Crescent Area Police Department.

Friday, July 28

Background check regarding conditional offer of employment with the City of La Crescent. Main Street.

1:10 a.m. Lost property reported. Fourteenth Drive.

5:40 a.m. Emergency Medical. Second Street.

6:07 a.m. Suspicious person reported in backyard of residence. Officer was unable to locate individual. Hills Drive.

9:15 a.m. Welfare check. Contact made with subject of concern. Jonathan Lane.

10:12 a.m. Shore Acres Bypass opened for over size retail delivery truck. Shore Acres Road.

12:45 p.m. Juvenile welfare check. Senn Lane.

12:47 p.m. Shore Acres Bypass opened for cement delivery truck. Shore Acres Road.

1:56 p.m. Complaint of harassing text messages. Welshire Drive.

3:17 p.m. Assist other agency.

3:33 p.m. Juvenile welfare check.

4:01 p.m. Juvenile welfare check.

4:46 p.m. Driving complaint on a motorcycle. Vehicle not located. Fourteenth Street and Hwy. 16.

8:34 p.m. Report of trees on fire. It was a brush pile that had been lit for disposal. County Road 6.

10:34 p.m. Traffic stop. Verbal warning for illegal lane use. Hwy. 16/26.

11:15 p.m. Driving complaint of wrong way driver. Hwy. 14/61.

Saturday, July 29

12:26 a.m. Traffic stop with verbal warning given for illegal lane use. Second Street and Chestnut Street.

4:06 a.m. Suspicious activity. Contact made with subjects. Walnut Street.

7:23 a.m. Person has not returned to pay for fuel purchase. Third Street.

7:48 a.m. Report of a natural gas order. Fifth Street.

12:11 p.m. Possible vehicle fire. Lancer Boulevard.

1:43 p.m. An 18-year-old Dakota man cited for speed with endangerment. Hwy. 14/61.

4:59 p.m. A 42-year-old La Crescent man arrested for threats of violence with a firearm, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance. A loaded .357 handgun was recovered. Sycamore Street.

10:19 p.m. Suspicious activity reported. Walnut Street.

Sunday, July 30

5:13 a.m. Door check, building secured. Walnut Street.

10:43 a.m. A 19-year-old La Crescent man cited for speed. Jonathan Lane.

11:55 a.m. A 51-year-old Brownsville woman cited for speed. Hwy. 16/41.

1:20 p.m. Motor vehicle crash reported. A 31-year-old Houston man cited for driving the wrong way on a one way roadway and leaving the scene of property damage crash. Kistler Driver and Hwy. 16.

1:46 p.m. Assisted Houston County Sheriffs Office with a roll over crash. Driver of vehicle was subject of an earlier driving complaint in the city of La Crescent. County 21/9, Houston.

2:23 p.m. Stolen bicycle in city of La Crosse. Owner believed item maybe located in La Crescent.

3:25 p.m. Property damage reported. Landscaping shrub believed to been run over by a vehicle during the night.

3:46 p.m. Remove unwanted individual from facility, Second Street.

6:40 p.m. Minor two vehicle property damage crash reported. A 21-year-old La Crescent man cited for failure to drive with due care.

7:09 p.m. Minnesota State Patrol requested LCPD to respond to Interstate 90 for a wrong way driver. Request was cancelled while enroute, I-90.

9:01 p.m. Attempt to serve arrest warrant. Redwood Street.

9:21 p.m. Traffic stop- verbal warning for illegal driving conduct. Hillview Boulevard and Hwy. 14/61.

10:56 p.m. Winona County Sheriffs Office assistance. Officer cancelled enroute. Knob Hill Road, Dakota.

11:02 p.m. Neighbor dispute reported. Eleventh Street.

12:05 p.m. Assisted Houston County Sheriffs Office deputy with traffic stop. driver was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Twilite Road and Hwy. 14/61.

12:27 p.m. Verbal domestic argument reported, Lancer Boulevard.

Monday, July 31

1:28 a.m. Traffic stop. Driver discharged firearm at officer who approached vehicle and officers returned fire. A high speed chase pursued with suspects fleeing in vehicle continuing to shoot at pursing officers. Suspect vehicle hit stop sticks and fled on foot with firearms into a nearby farm eventually giving up. One 19-year-old Holmen, Wis. man and one 19-year-old Kellogg, Min. man were arrested. Sanden Road and Hwy. 44.

6:58 a.m. Assisted with a stalled motor vehicle that lost rear wheel. Stood by providing traffic control until wrecker arrived. Hwy. 14/61.

9:25 a.m. Bicycle Safety presentation to adults and juveniles. Hill Street.

9:56 a.m. Report of a substantial natural gas leak within a business. La Crescent Fire Department paged and immediate vicinity was evacuated for safety. Upon the power and utilities having been disconnected. The building was vented and area subjects were advised they could return as gas company repaired the leak. Walnut Street.

10:33 a.m. Shore Acres Bypass opened for a dumpster delivery. Shore Acres Drive and Road.

12:03 p.m. Report of a down power line. Line determined to be data transmission line and appropriate utility company contacted. Redwood Street and Seventh Street.

12:17 p.m. Shore Acres Bypass opened for delivery of construction equipment. Shore Acres Road.

12:40 p.m. Concern for dog inside of parked vehicle. Owner spoke to about concern for animals welfare. Main Street.

2:27 p.m. Welfare Concern. Second Street.

3:15 p.m. Stolen cellphone reported. Lancer Boulevard.

3:26 p.m. Welfare concern. Second Street.

3:59 p.m. Live trap request. Main Street.

4:38 p.m. Welfare concern. Elderly subject had entered residence unannounced to homeowner. Subject is known to police and care facility staff was advised of unsafe behavior. Elm Street.

5:05 p.m. Traffic stop-verbal warning given for distracted driving. Walnut Street.

7:03 p.m. Parking complaint. Spruce Drive.

7:46 p.m. Report of vehicle fire. Vehicle was not located. Twilite Road and Hwy. 14/61.

8:34 p.m. Civil standby request- officer stood by without incident. Kistler Drive.

9:17 p.m. Juvenile welfare concern. An adult relative was located to assume temporary custody. Oak Street.

10:56 p.m. Complaint of harassing telephone calls. Second Street.

Tuesday, Aug. 1

5:17 a.m. Driving complaint. Vehicle not located. Twilite Road and Hwy. 14/61.

8:30 a.m. Shore Acres Bypass opened for refuse container delivery. Shore Acres Road.

8:38 a.m. Welfare Check. Contact made. Ninth Street.

9:44 a.m. Shore Acres Bypass opened for a refuse container Delivery. Shore Acres Road.

1:31 p.m. Emergency medical. Third Street.

1:40 p.m. Auto unlock requested. Vehicle opened. Hill Street.

1:51 p.m. Two vehicle minor property damage crash in a private parking lot. Hill Street.

2:24 p.m. Numerous pieces of wood removed from roadway. Twilite Road and Hwy. 14/61.

3:47 p.m. La Crescent juvenile on a skateboard observed to have illegally discarded a plastic drink bottle. Second Street.

4:17 p.m. Report of a caning left in a locked motor vehicle. Dog was briefly left and had sufficient ventilation. Walnut Street.

4:28 p.m. The 11th Annual National Night Out Event, Seventh Street.

Wednesday, Aug. 2

8:13 a.m. Emergency medical, Valley Lane.

9:55 a.m. Juvenile welfare check. Poplar Street.

1:49 p.m. Fingerprinted for Minnesota teacher licensure. Main Street.

3:17 p.m. Emergency medical. Crescent Hills Drive.

6:15 p.m. Report of a subject attempting to convince passing persons to assist in pushing his stalled vehicle while stopped in the traffic lane. A 51-year-old La Crescent man was intoxicated and arrested for driving while intoxicated.

Thursday, Aug. 3

12:36 a.m. Emergency medical. An intoxicated male laying on the Sportsmans Landing dock. A 38-year-old La Crescent man was not in medical distress and was arrested for violated court order in having consumed alcohol. DNR Landing and Hwy. 14/61.

5:09 a.m. Found cell phone. Later returned to owner. Jonathan Lane.

6:59 a.m. Report of a deer stuck in a fenced in back yard. Deer found eating fallen apples in yard and walked through open gate unharmed. Hill Street.

12:57 p.m. Welfare check. Main Street.

3:12 p.m. Fingerprinted for employer background check.

4:20 p.m. Abandoned bicycle in park picked up for safekeeping. Jonathan Lane.

4:33 p.m. Project lifesaver battery change and visit. Regent Drive.

5:19 p.m. Motor vehicle unlock. August Hills Drive.

7 p.m. Assist Houston County Sheriffs Department with a welfare check. Subject was taken into custody by HCSO for a health and safety commitment.
Economist Rajiv Kumar has been appointed the vice chairman of NITI Aayog in place of Arvind Panagariya, said informed souces.

Panagariya, an academic on leave from Columbia University, resigned as the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman on August 1.

Kumar, a senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research (CPR), is also chancellor of the the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune and the founding director of Pahle India Foundation, a non-profit research organisation that specialises in policy-oriented research and analysis.

Before coming to CPR, he was the secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

He has also served as director and chief executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), as well as in positions with the Asian Development Bank and the ministries of industries and finance.

He presently sits on the boards of several international and national institutions, including the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and Asia in Jakarta, the State Bank of India, and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. He was a member of the Indian Government's National Security Advisory Board between 2006 and 2008.

Kumar holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford and a PhD from Lucknow University.

Apart from Kumar, Vinod Paul, a doctor by professsion, has been appointed member of NITI Aayog. Paul is a paediatrician at AIIMS.
From leading lives under a control and licence raj, India initiated the reforms in 1991. Now, 26 years after the process was kick-started by former prime minister P.V.Narasimha Rao and then finance minister, Manmohan Singh, a new book from Penguin discusses the hits and misses of this era.

The book 'India Transformed: 25 years of Economic reforms' is published by Penguin India and authored by 31 big names from the corporate, finance and government. The volume, that promises to be the ultimate compendium on reforms process, is edited by Rakesh Mohan, former RBI deputy governor and former IMF director.

Names who have authored essays in the book, discussing different aspects of the reforms done in India, include Mukesh Ambani, Naushad Forbes, Gita Piramal, Shyam Saran, N.K. Singh, Rama Bijapurkar, Ashok Gulati, Sunil Bharti Mittal, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Y.V. Reddy and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

Speaking at the launch event, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, "1991 was a defining moment for India, it changed not only the course of economic development in the country, but it had also changed the mindset."

"It is said that there is a political cost that any reformer must pay. So, many are afraid to introduce reforms. Politicians need to blend their reforms agenda with a little politics," Jaitley said.

"There is no finishing line as far as reforms are concerned," he said, emphasising that the reforms process is still largely ongoing.

Speaking at a panel discussion of the book launch, Uday Kotak, chairman, Kotak Bank stressed on reforms needed in the banking sector.

"Radical reforms are needed to allow privatisation of PSU banks. A lot of focus is now given on entry to the financial sector, through payments bank, NBFCs. The sector has expanded with these new entries, but very little focus is given on exit from the financial sector, which is known to cause huge distress to everyone when a business announces its exit," Kotak said.

Describing the pace of reforms in India, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramaniam said, "In India, from socialism with limited entry we have now a capitalism without exit."

Leading intellectual and legal expert, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, speaking at a panel discussion after the book release, said India's reforms had largely missed out on delivering public goods, namely education and health.

Stressing on the need for government support, instead of private industry, for providing public utilities like health, education, Rakesh Mohan said: "India's private sector will not be able to grow better unless it has enough public utilities in place."

Reacting to his statement, Uday Kotak said, capitalism minus social welfare in India is encouraging socialism.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh also attended the book release function. Though invited to be the first speaker at the book release, Singh declined to speak anything and disembarked from the dais.

He, however, watched the proceedings of the entire evening from his front row seat among the audience.
"This hand which insulted the Islam will not be used in future, the terror assailants had asserted in Malayalam when they chopped off the palm of professor T.J. Joseph on July 4, 2010. The heinous crime, investigated by the National Investigation Agency, has gone down in the history of law enforcement agencies as a classic case of how attempts are made to create communal discord and disharmony.

Professor T.J. Joseph | Manoramanews

In a latest development in the case, the NIA on Saturday arrested an absconding accused, 47-year-old Mansoor, hailing from Aluva in Ernakulam district of Kerala for allegedly being part of the criminal conspiracy that led to the ''terror act''.

Joseph, a former lecturer with the Newman College at Thodupuzha, was attacked by a seven-member gang with deadly weapons and explosive materials following a controversy over a question paper he had prepared. The attack took place around 8 am when Joseph was on his way back home from the church after the Sunday mass in his Maruti Wagon-R along with his mother Elikutty and sister Sr. Stella

NIA officials said the attack was not a spur of the moment. In fact, each move had been planned and rehearsed over several secret meetings at various locations. It was here that the role of Mansoor was explained.

The chargesheet filed by the NIA, bears testimony to the fact that Mansoor was part of the conspiracy hatched over a long period of time.

According to the chargesheet, ''Mansoor was working as district secretary of Popular Front of India (PFI) in Ernakulam during 2010 and, perturbed by the alleged ridiculing of Prophet Mohammed by Professor Joseph, pursued the common objective of the accused persons to avenge by way of committing terrorist acts.''

The chargesheet says that the criminal conspiracy was first hatched at Seema Auditorium at Perumbavoor on March 28 evening when several chargesheeted accused including M.K. Noushad, Moideen Kunhu and others held a meeting and decided to commit the terrorist act on the professor. Mansoor was present at this meeting.

"It was decided in the conspiracy meeting, that others have to be recruited into this terrorist gang. Further, it was also decided in that conspiracy meeting that there shall be different teams with specific purposes and M.K. Nasar will be the leader of all the teams," says the chargesheet.

Several follow-up meetings were held, including the one which was held at the house of a PFI activist at Kakkanad on the evening of July 3. Meetings were also conducted at Perumbavoor the next day after the attack. Mansoor was present in these meetings. Mansoor is also accused of harbouring the assailants, causing disappearance of evidence and providing financial assistance to their families.

"Mansoor had willfully joined as a member in the terrorist gang with the knowledge that it was constituted for terrorist activity and acted as a member of a terrorist gang, facilitated the lethal attack and caused terror by exploding explosive substance, caused communal disharmony and fear in the minds of the general public besides creating panic and hatred among different communities," says the NIA.

They did so by "by creating terror, facilitating the attack by being members of the terrorist gang, destroying the evidence and harbouring the assailants or other accused persons involved in this crime." Mansoor was produced before trial court in Ernakulam on Saturday.

It may be recalled that the case was originally registered as an FIR on July 4, 2010 at Muvattupuzha Police Station in Ernakulam district. "All of them (the accused) were leaders or activists of Popular Front of India (PFI)/ Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), who were accused of being involved in the criminal conspiracy and consequent lethal attack on Professor Joseph, said NIA officials.

On April 30, 2015, the NIA special court in Ernakulam had completed trial against 31 accused in the case and convicted 13 of them for various offences including those under the UAPA Act. On June 1, 2017, the NIA had filed third supplementary chargesheet against six accused including Mansoor and booked them for offences punishable under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Karnataka energy minister D.K. Shivakumar on Saturday walked out of his Sadashivanagar residence, after the Income Tax search launched last Wednesday finally concluded.

The central agency had launched simultaneous raids across multiple locations including the residences and offices of Shivakumar, his close family, in-laws, aides and business partners in Karnataka and Delhi. Barring speculations of cash being recovered from his Delhi residence, there was no official confirmation by the department.

"I have not violated any law and always abide by the Constitution. I would never embarrass my party too," said the minister, who greeted the CRPF personnel deployed by the I-T department outside his house. He also thanked the media for the "cooperation" and apologised for the "inconvenience" caused due to him.

Shivakumar, who was hosting 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs at a resort on city outskirts, allegedly to stall their "poaching" by the BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, was picked up by I-T sleuths from the resort.

Refusing to comment further on the raids, Shivakumar said, "Only after I get the entire panchnama and the documentation will I speak to you."

Thanking the Congress party and its leadership for backing him, he said, "All my leaders across the country have stood by me in the crisis...I don't want to embarrass my party and I will not. At no point of time I will let down my leaders and my party."

Soon after the IT sleuths left his premises with loads of documents, Shivakumar rushed to meet the Congress MLAs at the resort, after offering prayers at Kabalamma temple.

An hour later, the influential Vokkaliga leader who was entrusted with the task to keep Congress MLAs together till August 8 (when Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, seeks re-election to Rajya Sabha) met the Gujarat MLAs outside Raj Bhavan.

Gujarat MLAs before the Gandhi statue in Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru

AICC spokesperson and MLA from Gujarat Shaktisinh Gohil said that the Congress was fighting to save democracy. "We met Governor Vajubhai Vala to apprise him about our fight to save democracy. It is matter of pride for every Gujarati that our MLAs have rejected Rs 15 crore offered by the BJP and stood with the party to save democracy. It is clear the the Centre has misused the I-T and CRPF. Why did they not raid Amit Shah's house whose assets have multiplied several folds in the last few years? Shivakumar ji has a big business and he files IT returns. Yet, he has been targeted. The BJP is trying to break our unity and confidence."

"We have asked our families to install CCTVs and record phone calls as BJP continues to make offers. If a prominent politician like Rahul ji, with SPG cover can be attacked, what about our plight in Gujarat," asked Gohil.

The MLAs who visited the Vidhana Soudha with Shivakumar, gathered before the Mahatma Gandhi statue and sang a bhajan before being driven back to the resort in two luxury buses. According to sources, the MLAs are likely to travel to Delhi on Sunday to meet Sonia Gandhi before returning home, just in time for the RS polls.

DKS apologies to CM

A day after his mother Gowramma blamed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for the IT raids, Shivakumar tendered a public apology to the CM stating his mother's statement was not intentional, but a result of her love for her son.

"My mother is not educated and does not know that the I-T department comes under the purview of the Centre. She was stressed out due to the raids and some media exploited her naivete. Her statements are uncalled for. I apologise to the CM and people of the state. I thank all leaders of my party. I am grateful to the CM for standing by me during tough times," said Shivakumar in a press statement.
Local history enthusiasts can sign up for Exploring the Back Roads of Winona County Tour Saturday, Aug. 19.

The first bus will leave at 8 a.m. and return at 4:30 p.m. The second bus will leave at 9 a.m. and return at 5:30 p.m. The cost of the tour including lunch and refreshments is $55 for members and $65 for non-members. To register, visit winonahistory.org or call 507-454-2723.

The first stop will be the Rollingstone Luxembourg Heritage Museum in Rollingstone. Next, the tour will travel overland passing at least one of Winona Countys famous round barns before passing through Altura, Elba and then on to the Marnach House. Since the Marnach House is 1.5 miles back in the woods the group will, weather permitting, take a tractor pulled wagon ride back to the site. The home was built by Luxembourg immigrants and is similar to the home they left in Europe.

Next will be a program on the history of Whitewater State Park and the German Prisoner of War camp that was there during World War II. Lunch will be provided by the Cabin Coffee Co. of St. Charles.

After lunch, the tour will head to the Rural Heritage Museum on the grounds of the County Fair for a chance to see the new structure the Society built. Following the RHM the tour will head to Utica and check out the old Utica school and Presbyterian Church across the street. After that, its back on the bus to Stockton for a rare opportunity to see a 1930 private railroad car built by the Pullman Car Company.

The trip will conclude with a tour of the Holy Angels Novitiate on Stockton Hill, originally the St. Peter Martyr Priory and Novitiate when it was constructed in 1949.
The UN today detailed more than 250 "extrajudicial or targeted killings" of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Kasai region from mid-March to mid-June, counting dozens of children among those massacred.

The findings, based on interviews with 96 refugees from the conflict-hit Kasai who had fled to Angola, blamed state agents for the murders of seven children.

The refugees gave harrowing accounts of the violence in the central region, which the UN warned had taken on "an increasing and disturbing ethnic dimension."

Victims recounted mutilations, including of a seven- year-old boy whose fingers were cut off, and an attack on a hospital in the village of Cinq where 90 people were killed, some because they were too injured to escape a raging fire.

Aside from government troops, the UN blamed a reportedly state-backed militia called the Bana Mura as well as the anti-government Kamuina Nsapu militia for a range of atrocities.

"Survivors have spoken of hearing the screams of people being burned alive, of seeing loved ones chased and cut down, of themselves fleeing in terror", the United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

A team of investigators has confirmed 251 executions between March 12 and June 19, the UN report said.

"These included 62 children, of which 30 were aged under eight".

Regarding the children murdered, the UN explained that seven were killed by members of the army (FARDC) or the national intelligence service, while six died at the hands of the rebel group Kamuina Nsapu.

The Bana Mura militia members were blamed for the deaths of 49 minors. Scott Campbell, the head of the western and central Africa division at the rights office, said the new UN report was merely "a snapshot" of the wider conflict and atrocities had likely continued over the past six weeks.

The violence in the Kasai region "could amount to crimes against humanity", Campbell added, underscoring growing concern that the conflict was "tipping towards to ethnic cleansing".

The Kasai conflict erupted last September after the death in clashes of a tribal chieftain, known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against the authority of President Joseph Kabila's regime in Kinshasa and its local representatives.

The killing sparked violence that has escalated, including gross alleged violations such as rapes, torture and the use of child soldiers.

The UN said the Bana Mura militia largely included members of the Tshokwe, Pende and Tetela ethnic groups, while the Luba and Lulua communities were seen as supporting the anti-government Kamuina Nsapu.

In less than a year, the violence has claimed more than 3,300 lives, according to a tally by the influential Roman Catholic Church, and displaced 1.4 million people.

Around 80 mass graves have been uncovered in the region.

The president's mandate expired last December but under a transition deal, he was allowed to remain in office until elections that are supposed to be held in late 2017.

Kabila has so far failed to set a date for the polls, heightening tensions across the country.

The UN rights chief has blasted Kabila's government for not mounting serious investigations into the Kasai crisis.

He successfully lobbied the Human Rights Council to set up an international investigation, although it is not clear if Congolese authorities will grant the probe access to the Kasai region.
Venezuelan security forces took up positions outside the office of the country's chief prosecutor on Saturday, a day after the government inaugurated a new legislative body that the prosecutor said was fraudulently elected.

Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega had asked a local court to halt the inauguration of the country's new 545-member constituent assembly, citing allegations that the government fudged the results of the vote that created it. The assembly was nonetheless installed on Friday despite opposition protests.

The new legislative body has no checks on its powers.

It could re-write the constitution, re-arrange state institutions and allow socialist President Nicolas Maduro to rule by decree. Assembly members had said they would fire Ortega the first chance they got. It took less than 24 hours from the assembly's inauguration for her offices to be cordoned off.

Ortega, in a tweet, asked the international community to denounce what she called "this arbitrary action".
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is looking for park rangers. The DNR is recruiting rangers at several locations throughout the state.

A Wisconsin park ranger is the face of the Wisconsin State Park system, providing outstanding customer service and public safety to millions of visitors from around the world that recreate each year in one of the premier state park systems in the nation, said Chris Madison, chief ranger for the park system. Rangers find themselves traversing a career path surrounded by the outdoors and rewarded by helping families create lasting memories. They are experts at maintaining and managing outdoor recreation, natural resources, interpretation and providing high-quality customer service.

Madison said an ideal ranger candidate is one with a background and education in natural resources, with strong communication skills, the ability to problem-solve and a passion for outdoor recreation. Rangers are often called upon to make decisions without immediate supervision, while providing consistent visitor service.

Although not law enforcement officers, rangers are counted on to provide safe and memorable experiences for visitors.

People who are interested in an adventure, can review the full job announcement on the state of Wisconsin jobs website at: wisc.jobs/public/job_view.asp?annoid=92060&jobid=91574&org=370&class=65400&index=true.
Anglican Church of Kenya must reinstate clergy unlawfully suspended

An appeal court in Kenya has confirmed a lower court ruling that three priests who were suspended because of allegations that they were homosexuals, must be reinstated, because there was no evidence to support the allegations. Previously the Employment Court had so ruled, but the Anglican Church of Kenya had appealed against this.

Daily Nation ACK to reinstate priests in gay case after losing appeal

The Anglican Church will still have to reinstate three priests sacked over alleged homosexuality and pay them Sh6.8 million after the Court of Appeal dismissed its application to stop the execution of the orders by a lower court. Justice Philip Waki, Justice Roselyne Nambuye and Justice Patrick Kiage threw out an application by the Registered Trustees of the Anglican Church of Kenya that sought an order to halt the enforcement of a judgment by the Employment Court in Nyeri. EVIDENCE

Judge Byram Ongaya of the Employment Court had, on September 2016, directed the church to reinstate Archdeacon John Njogu Gachau, Rev James Maina Maigua and Rev Paul Mwangi Warui so that they could perform their pastoral duties. The court found that it was unlawful for the church to suspend the three priests from pastoral work without evidence that they were homosexuals. SALARY

Justice Ongaya also ordered the church to pay the priests all their accrued salaries from August 2015, when they were sacked. Archdeacon Gachau was awarded Sh2,437,780, Rev Maigua Sh2,224,996 and Rev Warui Sh2,219,814. However, the church applied to have the execution of the judgment suspended pending the determination of an appeal seeking to overturn the court orders

Also, Anglican Church to pay clerics suspended over homosexuality

There is also a report in Christian Today Anglican priests sacked for being gay must be reinstated, Kenya court rules.
Guy Hands injected 13.3m into his loss-making country house hotel chain last year

Financier Guy Hands injected 13.3 million of cash into his loss-making country house hotel chain last year, to add to the millions he has already invested in the company.

Hand Picked Hotels, run by his wife Julia, owns 20 hotels across the British Isles, including the Grand Jersey hotel and spa and Bailbrook House, Bath.

Guy Hands put in the funds via Alscot, his Luxembourg-incorporated vehicle, which controls the chain, to add to the 4.6 million invested the year before.

The firm also owes Guy Hands 11.2 million and Julia Hands 14 million.

Accounts just filed for Hand Picked Hotels show turnover of 61.9 million for the year to November 24, 2016, down from 62.4 million, due in part to the disposal of Priest House hotel in Derby in February 2016, while pre-tax losses rose from 2.3 million to 3.5 million.

Julia Hands said: 'On a like-for-like basis turnover rose by 1.8 per cent or 1.1 million, with growth in occupancy and average room rates.

We continue to invest heavily in improving quality, and 2016 saw the reopening of our spa and health club at St Pierre Park Hotel in Guernsey as well as extensive room refurbishments at Hotel L'Horizon in Jersey and Rhinefield House Hotel in Hampshire, continuing to drive our market-leading customer satisfaction scores.'
WASHINGTON (TNS)  For four years, Ira N. Forman served as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, a State Department post in which he advocated on behalf of Jewish communities at risk around the globe.

He resigned, as required for political appointees, on Jan. 20, the day President Donald Trump took office. But six months later, Forman and his staff have not been replaced.

All the expertise has frittered away, Forman said.

His is one of scores of empty offices in a demoralized State Department, where critics say a panorama of missing diplomats, analysts and bureaucrats is weakening the foreign policy mission and hurting efforts to project American values abroad.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has embraced a White House proposal to slash the combined State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development budget by nearly a third next year, from $54.9 billion to $37.6 billion.

The final cuts wont be that severe. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called it a waste of time to even review the proposed budget because Congress would reject it.

Still, Tillerson has embarked on a wide-ranging operation to reorganize Foggy Bottom in ways that worry many foreign policy experts.

He has proposed scaling back U.S. support for United Nations peacekeeping missions, plus cutting back offices that deal with refugees, womens health and climate change.

News reports have suggested other jobs may be eliminated, including the coordinator of cybersecurity and an office that investigates international war crimes.

Even Tillersons staff has taken a hit. He has appointed only one undersecretary, not the six who worked for his predecessor, John F. Kerry.

Of the top 130 State Department posts that require Senate confirmation, 44 had been nominated and 23 confirmed by late Thursday, when Congress went on a monthlong break, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that tracks government hiring.

At this point in President Barack Obamas first term, 95 State Department officials had been nominated and 48 confirmed. Under President George W. Bush, it was 100 nominations and 77 confirmations, according to the Partnership for Public Service.

Current and former State Department officials say it appears that one goal in the current reorganization is to reduce staff by attrition, what one critic called death by a thousand cuts.

Tillerson has denied that his efforts at streamlining will have a debilitating effect on policy or morale.

The building is hardly hollowed out, he said at a news conference Tuesday at the State Department that was called to highlight his first six months in office.

Any time you have a dramatic change in the administration, like we had six months ago, there are going to be individuals who struggle with that, he added.

Tillerson said he had hired an outside consulting company, Insigniam, to help survey the more than 70,000 State Department employees worldwide for input on how to make the department more efficient.

About half responded, some reportedly with scathing critiques. About 1,000 people were interviewed for additional perspective.

Five steering committees will make recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget on Sept. 15. But Tillerson has indicated the redesign of operations could take a year, leaving some policy priorities and programs adrift.

A senior State Department official, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said morale had plummeted. Diplomats and foreign service officers who can earn higher salaries in the private sector were leaving in droves, the official said.

There is a dearth of clear information  no sense of who is making decisions or how  no sense of dialogue or trust, the official said.

Even if the positions are filled in the coming years, it will require a long period of rebuilding relationships that diplomats count on to do their jobs, the official said.

Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, said that few decisions on personnel cuts have been made and that critics were overreacting. She became exasperated when reporters pressed her recently on reports of likely job and program cuts.

I know people are obsessed with, Are you shutting down this bureau? Are you shutting down that bureau? Are you shutting down the global office of whatever, whatever? she said.

All of those functions will still remain here at the State Department. That is not changing. A different person may handle it. In some instances, it may get combined with an existing bureau. That doesnt mean that the priority goes away, and that doesnt mean that the functions of that job or its duties will go away, Nauert said.

She defended the reorganization underway, arguing that it was simply modernizing a department that is mired in tradition.

Well figure out best practices and how we should change things to alter the State Department, to keep it in line with the 21st century, she said.Robert G. Berschinski, a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration, said it was completely appropriate for Tillerson to look for ways to streamline what many see as a bloated bureaucracy.

But by accepting drastic budget cuts before studying the problem, Berschinski said, Tillerson has alienated much of the staff.

It set everybody on their back foot and caused a compete erosion of trust, said Berschinski, now a vice president of the New York-based Human Rights First. It has been maximally counterproductive.

There are about 70 special envoys at the State Department. Eleven, including the special envoy on anti-Semitism, are mandated by Congress, so only lawmakers can eliminate them.

But many of the other positions are empty and could be on the chopping block under Tillersons reorganization.

There is apprehension every day. Are they going to fill these jobs or not? said Arsalan Suleman, who left the State Department in January after seven years, most recently as special envoy to the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concern about the lack of special envoys, saying that their work requires a point person at the State Department rather than an agenda item for other diplomats.
LAS VEGAS (TNS)  An internet realm known as the dark web was once promoted as a safe haven for political dissidents and libertarians worldwide, and financed partly by the State Department. But it has turned into a criminal cesspool.

Rogue hackers sell stolen credit card information there, and gun runners peddle every variety of weapon. Pedophiles and malware merchants lurk in its confines alongside opioid dealers and human traffickers.

What happens on the dark web is so ugly that cybersecurity firms that comb its data routinely share the information with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

All us work in partnership with law enforcement, when possible and necessary, to combat this, said Danny Rogers, chief executive of Terbium Labs, a Baltimore company that specializes in automated combing of the dark web.

A handful of U.S. cybersecurity companies focus on the dark web, primarily working for retailers, banks and other firms concerned that cybercriminal gangs are trafficking there in consumer data that theyve obtained through breaches.

A small and secretive corner of the internet, the dark web cannot be accessed by traditional search engines, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. Those visiting the dark web must employ special web software, like The Onion Router (Tor) or I2P, both of which encrypt and give anonymity to the user and hide the location of everything visited. It is a challenge to configure the software and find where one wants to browse.

That difficulty is what makes the dark web a hub for the most foul types of crime.

When I was CEO of Tor  law enforcement came to me my first year and said, Look, theres child abuse on your sites. Your technology is enabling child abusers to be far more bold, said Andrew Lewman, now vice president of Owl Cybersecurity, a Denver company.

In subsequent years, the complaints from the Feds grew more vigorous, saying child sex rings had been set up and were offering live streaming. Lewman, a longtime advocate and volunteer for the Tor Project who was hired full time as executive director in 2009, demurred over details but said one of the worst was a sexual child abuse snuff film.

Now, Lewman serves on the Interpol Crimes Against Children Committee, and openly helps the FBI, Homeland Security and other agencies battle crimes on the dark net.

When we crawl, we see all the amount of horrible stuff on the dark nets and the fact is that its the majority usage. Its criminal, he said.

Not all on the dark web is sinister. Advocates say it was designed as a refuge for dissidents and outcasts who reside in oppressive countries, like Syria and China. Over the years, the State Department offered more than $3 million in funding, largely from its Democracy and Human Rights branch but sometimes through third parties. The Tor Project was seen as a vehicle to promote freedom of speech, allow access to blocked news and research sensitive topics. More than a million people access Facebook through the dark web, where the social media site has a presence, among the 5,000 to 7,000 sites that are available through Tor.

Over half of those sites themselves are benign, peoples personal blogs, conspiracy websites, pictures of cats, Rogers said.

The other half is where nasty stuff happens.

Two weeks ago, the FBI and law enforcement agents from six other countries took down the dark webs biggest criminal marketplace, AlphaBay, which it called the largest criminal marketplace on the internet.

Joining the FBI in the global takedown were law enforcement authorities in Thailand, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, Britain and France.

Prior to the action, Thai authorities arrested a Canadian, Alexandre Cazes, 26, on a U.S. petition. On July 12, Cazes, the founder of AlphaBay, was found dead in his cell, and news reports said he used a piece of cloth to hang himself. Prosecutors in California July 19 filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Cazes estate seeking control of a Lamborghini, a Porsche and properties in Thailand, Cyprus, Lichtenstein, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Other criminal platforms are ready to take AlphaBays place.

As soon as you turn off the light, those cockroaches come back, dont they? said Christian Lees, chief information security officer at InfoArmor Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz., cybersecurity firm that analyzes the dark web.

Those who scour the dark web often come away stunned.

The sheer amount of drugs is astounding, said Dan Palumbo, research director of the Digital Citizens Alliance, a Washington-based coalition of consumers, internet businesses and experts seeking to make the internet safer.

Palumbo said he has seen sites offering black tar heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs like fentanyl, a powerful addictive opioid driving a sweeping U.S. drug epidemic.

Vendors sell varieties of ransomware and malicious hacking tools on dark web storefronts, as well as military-grade weapons, and what Rogers called recipes for making WMD  weapons of mass destruction.

Its varying degrees of shocking, he said.

The dark web, sometimes also called the dark net, is a hive for cybercriminals involved in buying and selling stolen personal information.

Your identity, Social Security number, Visa numbers, phone, address, email, passwords, all that, is already on the dark net, said Lewman of Owl Cybersecurity.

The market for stolen data is very robust, said Rogers, of Terbium Labs. If the data is monetizable, this is where it will end up.

When hackers steal credit card data or other personal data, they advertise it on digital underground storefronts. Fraudsters buy the data and make phony purchases, launder money or commit other acts.

Hundreds of millions of stolen records and credit card numbers are believed to have passed through the dark net, and criminal gangs routinely finance activities through card theft. While growing as a menace, the $10 billion a year in credit card losses have yet to alarm banks.

Compared to the $4 trillion a year or more thats spent on credit cards in the U.S., whats $10 billion? Its small peanuts, Rogers said.

Former federal agents say it is a huge task to suppress dark web criminal activity.

Thanks to the Russian-speaking underground, theyve created this crime-as-a-service model that is very robust, said Eduardo E. Cabrera, chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro, and a former cyber official at the U.S. Secret Service.

Increasingly, though, the private cybersecurity firms that sift through the dark web  either with automated crawl systems or using human analysts  collaborate with the FBI.

We simply cooperate with them, Lees said.
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By Naeisha Rose

Native Americans from North America representing 40 different tribes celebrated their culture for three days during the Thunderbirds 39th Annual Grand Mid-Summer Pow Wow at Queens County Farm Museum last weekend.

Throughout the event, Native Americans wore the traditional regalia of tribes from Canada, Panama and the Caribbean, as well as the South, the Midwest and Northeastern regions of the United States.

Hundreds of people from all different backgrounds showed up to listen and watch the traditional Gourd singing, dancing and drumming as they sat around in a circle on haystacks in an orchard.

Food truck vendors dished out Native American tacos and sweets, like baked bread with honey and cinnamon. Toddlers and adults competed in different dance competitions, which had a $500 prize for the winner.

Dennis Zotigh of the Kiowa Dakotas and the Pueblo tribes came from Washington, D.C. to provide narration about the history of the indigenous people of the Americas. He spoke about the purpose of the pow wow.

A pow wow is intertribal dancing where tribes from different areas come together to dance to a common drum beat, said Zotigh, who works at the National Museum of the American Indian branch of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington as a cultural specialist. A pow wow itself is a celebration of being American Indian, with dancing and singing as its focal point.

The indigenous people of North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean spoke over 250 languages and dialects, according to Zotigh.

Hoop dancer Marie McKinney Ponce, of the Key West Conch, Taino and Cherokee tribes, got emotional when speaking about her heritage.

We kept our land in North Carolina, said Ponce, who is also of European and African descent. They fought the powers that were. They had legal battles that they won for their land. To do the Gourd dance is an affirmation of that history and that legacy.

Monica Lopez, a St. Albans resident, brought her 7-year-old twins to the festivities to embrace their Cherokee culture.

When you have children, it is good for them to know where they come from, Lopez said.

Little Blue Storm, her daughter, was in the fancy shawl competition, while Lone Fox, her son, participated in the mens traditional dance portion of the event.

The proceeds of the event will be split between the Thunderbirds organizers and the farm. The Queens County Farm will use its part of the earnings from the event for educational programs.

The Thunderbirds will use their portion to provide college scholarships to Native American youths.
The majority of feature films being made these days are based on a popular young adult novel full of angst, a comic book brought to life through a massive amount of special effects or a top-selling novel that comes with a built-in audience. There are no assurances that any of these will turn into a hit, but the odds are higher for success.

"The Little Hours" will have to find an audience in a different way. There's only one performer in the film who isn't old enough to drink in any state, so that rules out any teen angst. The only costumes are the robes and habits worn by nuns and priests. And while the movie is based on a story from a collection of novellas titled "The Decameron," it was written by Giovanni Boccaccio long before there was a New York Times best-sellers list. Boccaccio's work was composed in the 14th century.

Boccaccio's "The Decameron" features 100 tales covering a wide range of topics told by a group of men and women. For the new film adaptation, writer/director Jeff Baena ("I Heart Huckabees") has taken a bit of the original collection and turned it into an offbeat blend of a 14th century cautionary tale with a satirical modern touch. The result is not as whimsical as a Mel Brooks period piece, but does brush up against enough farce to make it fun.

"The Little Hours" unfolds in a convent during the latter part of the Middle Ages where most of the nuns are unstable. Alessandra (Alison Brie) has been sent to the convent while her father (Paul Reiser) tries to pull together a dowry that will most likely never happen. She's friends with Genevra (Kate Micucci), a virgin hiding a dark secret about her religious history.

More Information *** Review "The Little Hours" Rated: R for graphic nudity, language, sexual content, drug use Running time: 90 minutes See More Collapse

They tend to follow Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza), a nun completely lacking in grace, love for her fellow person, commitment and religious passion. If the film was set in a modern office building, she would be the worker most likely to go crazy and kill her fellow employees. This anger is mixed with a mysterious need to head into the woods late at night with the convent's donkey.

These three are so abusive (using a language that's salty for the 20th century) to the convent handyman, he quits. When Father Tommasso (John C. Reilly) runs into Massetto (Dave Franco), a young man in need of a place to hide, he comes up with a plan to have him take over as the handyman. Massetto will pretend to be deaf and unable to speak, so he can avoid conversations with the nuns.

Talking is about the only thing Massetto doesn't do with the nuns.

Baena bounces the players through a bizarre series of events that deal with love, lust, witchcraft, religion and elements that don't often appear in a tale set in a convent. The way Baena has written and directed the movie, it plays more like a modern tale of sexual antics. Part of that is the modern language his characters use as verbal weapons and part is the very aggressive attention to breaking as many Commandments as possible.

It works because Brie, Micucci and Plaza attack the roles with unbridled energy. Micucci has made a career out of playing quirky characters, but they all pale to the absurdities of her Genevra. Plaza always looks like she's having a wicked good time when she gets to play a character who lives to defy the rules.

This isn't the first time Bocciccio's writing has been turned into a big screen production. The plot of the new film was first approached on film in 1971 by director Pier Paolo Paolini. That production featured 10 vignettes with the tale of the young man and the lustful nuns as the plot of one. Because it was only a small part of the overall movie, that segment didn't have nearly as many twists and turns as the latest adaptation of Boccaccio's work for film.

A word of warning: "The Little Hours" is an assault on conventional religious thinking that will most likely shock those who expect this movie to show any respect toward the Church. All this movie shows is that girls just want to have fun, even if it is the Middle Ages.
One has brown hair, the other orange. One is effortlessly bilingual, the other horrifies editors of the Oxford English Dictionary. One openly calls himself a feminist, the other grabs female genitals. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes for a tempting contrast with President Trump. He seems like the picture of serene and right-thinking liberal mindedness compared with all of the United States' most cartoonishly boorish elements.

As a Canadian, I'm not surprised that the American news media and the Internet are saturated by swooning profiles. The Rolling Stone cover story "Why Can't He Be Our President" was only the most recent example. Shortly after Trudeau was elected, Vogue fawned: "The New Young Face of Canadian Politics"  despite the fact that he was neither new nor particularly young. Business Insider noted that he looked like a "Disney prince." Vanity Fair seems to have a Trudeau vertical. US Weekly: "Canada's New Prime Minister is Super Hot." He even inspired the quintessential BuzzFeed piece: "Literally Just 27 Really Hot Photos of Justin Trudeau." CNN's headline sums up the trend: "Justin Trudeau, 'the anti-Trump,' shows U.S. Canada's progressive, diverse face," which was a particularly impressive take, considering Trudeau is a white man and the son of a previous Canadian prime minister  making him pretty close to the embodiment of a nascent hereditary political establishment in Canada.

Please stop.

Although Trudeau has proved to be a powerful public relations coup for my country, the political erotica now streaming from the southern border is embarrassing, shallow and largely misses the mark. Trudeau is not the blue-eyed lefty Jesus, and the global affection for him  and for the progressive politics that he and this country seem to represent  presents a puerile and distorted vision of Canada and its political culture. Worse, the uncritical puffery that is passing for political journalism only makes it harder to hold the man to account.

Canada is, indeed, the land of progressive benefits and left-leaning victories. We take no small pride in our universal health care, maternity leave and strict gun control. More controversially, we are expanding safe injection sites and access to doctor-assisted suicide.

But all of the things that make Canada such a liberal exemplar predate Trudeau by generations. Many of them have their roots in a Westminster parliamentary system and political culture that demands compromise and conciliation and time, rather than benevolent leadership. Further, they are far from perfect, and they come with higher taxes and a greater curtailment of personal freedoms. There are no free lunches in Canada. (There aren't even any food stamps.)

Take universal health care, for example. The fight for the system Canadians have today began in Saskatchewan in the 1960s; it was virulently opposed by doctors' groups at the time and expanded, over decades, to become a federal priority. Even today, it's a mishmash by province, and the strains of the system are evident in months- to years-long waits for low-priority treatments such as back surgeries and hip replacements. Wealthy Canadians can, and do, travel to the United States to receive these treatments. And they pay for what they get locally, too, in taxes: The nation spends an average of $5,000 per person on health care each year.

Health care was a battle that spanned generations, and continues today. A 2005 court challenge made it legal to purchase private health insurance in Quebec, for example, which some advocates feared would undermine the government monopoly on health care. As baby boomers age, the economic viability of universal health care is ever more in question, leading some provinces to experiment with private delivery of high-demand services such as cataract surgery.

On the flashier issues that have garnered Trudeau the international limelight, his record is actually pretty spotty. Take Canada's vaunted refugee program; Trudeau has made great show of glad handing refugees at airports and tweeting encouraging bromides. Although these acts have symbolic value in a world where anti-Muslim rhetoric has grown increasingly vitriolic, those who have faced punishing winter conditions to risk crossing the Canadian border found this country was not the free-for-all Trudeau would suggest.

More than one-third of the 40,081 refugees who have been resettled in Canada since Trudeau took office have been privately sponsored, brought over by thousands of acts of private charity. And sponsoring a refugee family isn't cheap; sponsors need to front the cost for a full year of income and resettlement. Further, this private program was scaled back for 2017 thanks to a backlog of applications and administrative hurdles.

By comparison, Trudeau's expanded government-sponsored refugee targets  announced at a pivotal point in the last election campaign  proved to be hasty, with the government missing its own timelines and housing refugees in last-ditch hotels. At the nadir of this program, the government frantically upgraded military barracks to house the influx of people; ultimately, they were not used. This is not a model of technocratic competence.

And Canada's laudable efforts demand a little perspective. Its targets pale in comparison to those of Germany, which had accepted 890,000 as of last year, and other European nations. (Although Germany's success in resettling those refugees remains debatable.)

We may be taking in more people than the United States, which set a goal of only 10,000 during the Obama administration. But 40,000 refugees is hardly an expansive target for one of the least populous countries relative to land mass. In the 1970s, when Canada had many fewer people, it welcomed about 60,000 Vietnamese refugees. The current global refugee crisis is now immeasurably worse.

And Canada's continued failure on first nation issues warrants a library unto itself. Trudeau promised an impossible-to-deliver veto to indigenous people over energy projects. Although the prime minister deserves credit for trying to involve First Nation communities and restore the credibility of national regulators in the face of vigorous protests over pipeline projects, that veto quickly fell to the wayside after he approved the controversial domestic Trans Mountain line between Alberta and British Columbia.

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He established a commission to examine this country's history of missing and murdered indigenous women  a commission that now appears to be collapsing amid calls by First Nation people for mass resignations. Families of murdered women are complaining of lack of communication, and the commission seems to have accomplished very little beyond the expansion of a sclerotic bureaucracy. Meanwhile, remote reserves are no closer to enjoying economic sustainability, reduced child poverty or improved potable drinking water than they were two years ago. Reconciliation with our First Nation people remains as fraught as ever.

The most stinging truth about Trudeau is that he hasn't done much at all. He came into power an avatar of youthful Canadian optimism and has squandered one of the most extraordinary honeymoon periods any politician has had in recent memory. The best that can be said of his accomplishments is that he has tripled his promised deficits, promised deferred tax increases on the wealthy and almost legalized marijuana  although it will be up to the provinces to sort out that mess.

Trudeau promised Camelot and delivered, well, Ottawa.

Ottawa is OK. It's better than some places and worse than others. Next to the swamp of Washington, the Rideau Canal is idyllic. But let's not valorize the man who happens to preside over it during a time of national embarrassment for the United States. Canadians have rewarded Trudeau with mediocre poll numbers, typically hovering at between a 50 percent and 60 percent approval rating.

Yes, he's the poster boy for Brand Canada, and a good one. Perhaps someone who is charming and affable is precisely what Canada needs as key alliances and treaties such as NATO and NAFTA come under threat. But his real talent lies in not government but showmanship. At least on that front, that Trump and Trudeau have something in common.

Jen Gerson is an Alberta-based correspondent for the National Post
Weve remodeled and updated most of the original farmhouse built by my great-grandparents, but one original piece that remains is the brick chimney.

Many years ago the chimney was used by a wood-fired cook stove in the kitchen and by a wood furnace in the basement. Ancient creosote oozes out the chimney in the basement when we have heavy rain, which has been a common occurrence this summer.

We still have the cook stove, but its long been disconnected from the chimney. Today theres a fuel-oil furnace that exhausts through the chimney but its seldom used because we heat with an outdoor wood stove.

Inside the house I chiseled off the plaster to expose the brick. While it looks nice, the top of the chimney needs to be repaired because the mortar has crumbled away. Weve talked about upgrading to a gas furnace as our backup heating source. That would allow us to vent the furnace out the side of the house and we could cap the old chimney.

But doing that would disrupt the home of a unique bird that helps keep mosquitoes at bay  the chimney swift. The swifts have roosted and nested in our chimney for as long as I can remember. We can hear their high-pitched chattering  particularly at night  when they come down the chimney to roost.

According to the Wisconsin Chimney Swift Working Group  visit www.wiswifts.org for more information  the birds nested in the old-growth forests prior to European settlement. When the forests disappeared, the birds discovered brick chimneys. The birds like the enclosed areas with rough vertical surfaces they can cling to, like a hollow tree. Swifts do not perch on branches but use sharp nails on their feet to cling to vertical surfaces.

Their populations have been in decline; Canada in 2009 listed the bird as a threatened species. That prompted the formation of the Wisconsin working group in 2012 to help identify and protect important swift-roost sites and to encourage the public to keep chimneys uncapped.

This is the time of year that swifts can be spotted at dusk pouring into chimneys  sometimes hundreds of them. Swifts have slender bodies with narrow, curved wings and tapered tails. With their rapid flight and nearly constant wing beats combined with the high-pitched chattering, theyre sometimes mistaken for bats.

The swift working group is asking for the publics help to identify roosting sites. More than 60 volunteers have helped identify 70-some sites so far, including the chimney at Cherokee Middle School in Madison where more than 2,800 swifts were counted in 2012.

Chimney swifts are an important species in Wisconsin because they help keep flying-insect populations in check, said Kim Grveles, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources avian ecologist and a member of the Wisconsin Chimney Swift Working Group. We need citizens help in counting the birds near them and in reporting that information to us so we can better understand and take steps to hopefully reverse the decline of chimney swifts.

Look for tall brick chimneys and pick a night from now through September  before the birds migrate to South America for the winter  and observe about 30 minutes before sunset. Estimate the number of swifts that enter the chimney. Enter the data on ebird.org or email sschwab49@gmail.com to reach Sandy Schwab.

Id still like to upgrade the furnace, but perhaps the old chimney should stay.
HARRISBURG  Pennsylvania state government will delay more than $1.7 billion in payments due largely to Medicaid insurers and school districts
INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Commences Investigation on Behalf of Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. Investors

Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. ("Blue Apron" or the "Company") (NYSE: APRN) investors concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of federal securities laws.

The investigation concerns recent changes to the Company's executive team, including the abrupt resignation of Blue Apron's Chief Operating Officer Matt Wadiak. The executive change comes less than a month after the Company's disappointing initial public offering. And, on August 4, 2017, several news agencies repoted emerged that the Company would cut almost a quarter of its staff according to New Jersey Department of Labor information items.







To date the Company's shares have fallen sharply below the initial public offering price thereby injuring investors.

If you purchased Blue Apron securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170804005735/en/
Amgen stock hits high on earnings, prospects of obesity drug In one of the worst years for the stock market since the 2008 financial crisis, Thousand Oaksbased Amgen is showing no signs of weakness. As of Wednesdays market close, the...

Council approves rules to limit self-storage growth Future self-storage facilities in the city of Thousand Oaks will be excluded from prime commercial areas, according to a new ordinance adopted by the City Council this month. In a...

Dealership does Distinguished thing SPECIAL TRIPChildren from Boys & Girls clubs in Camarillo, Simi Valley and Moorpark, and Oxnard and Port Hueneme attended Misty Copelands Oct. 18 appearance in the Distinguished Speaker Series at...
One person hurt in a two-car crash in Sennett Thursday afternoon was listed in good condition Friday, while the other had since been discharged, a representative with Upstate Medical Hospital in Syracuse.

Bernard C. Smith, 54, of Montezuma,  who was flown by helicopter to the hospital  was still at the facility Friday while Jessica A. Dunn, 32, of Auburn, had been released.

The accident occurred by the intersection of Grant Avenue Road and County House Road at 3:52 p.m. Thursday, according to a Thursday press release from the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office.

A 2004 Chevrolet sedan driven by Dunn hit the passenger side of a 2010 Chevrolet sedan driven by Smith, according to the press release. Police said that Smith had failed to yield the right of way while turning left onto County House Road.
LA FARGE  Organic Valley emerged as the big cheese  in the butter category  of the American Cheese Societys annual dairy competition, winning first place for its salted butter for the second consecutive year, as well as second for its European Butter in the unsalted category.

Andrew Westrich, brand manager at the La Farge-based co-op, gave a particular shout out to the 43 workers in the Chaseburg plant, who churn out about half of the co-ops salted butter and all of its European butter and Pasture butter.

Two years in a row, best butter in the country  were so proud of our Chaseburg Creamery team and all the family farmer-owners in the cooperative, Westrich said. Without great organic milk, we couldnt produce great organic butter.

The plant in Chaseburg, a Vernon County village with a population just under 300, produces all of its butters with a vintage, 1950s batch churn. It also uses a proprietary strain of European cultures to produce cultured butter, including the unsalted European Butter and a seasonal Pasture Butter.

Westrich attributed a recent butter boom among consumers to scientific research debunking old myths that butter makes us fat, (so) Americans are consuming butter at levels not seen in 45 years.  Consumers are not only eating more butter, theyre eating better butter.

Organic Valley, which a handful of farmers founded in 1988 as the Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool and now has more than 2,000 farmer-owners, declined to release butter production figures for proprietary reasons.

More than 280 companies submitted 2,024 products in the competitions 123 categories. Wisconsin cheesemakers dominated the contest, with almost 120 ribbons, compared with just over 50 for cheeses made in key dairy state California.

On Tuesday, Organic Valley will celebrate its participation in the University of Wisconsins Project 72 Campaign, which celebrates the states 72 counties with stories and events.

The project features a 1957 International Harvester delivery truck handing out ice cream treats to residents as a token of gratitude to them for helping make UW a world-class institution.

The truck will be at Organic Valleys Cashton location from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday to distribute treats to employees and others who attend.

Americans are consuming butter at levels not seen in 45 years.  Consumers are not only eating more butter, theyre eating better butter. Andrew Westrich, brand manager at the La Farge-based co-op
"Nick Haines goes on location to the KC Librarys Plaza Branch to lift up the hood on our libraries. The metro's four top library directors dissect the role, challenges and future of our libraries  from the possibility of bookless branches to drone delivery. Our panel of experts includes: Crosby Kemper III, KC; Steve Potter, Mid-Continent; Carol Levers, KCK & Sean Casserly, JOCO."
Last fall, after he was laid off from The Kansas City Star, Yael Abouhalkah did what many journalists do: he started a blog and continued to cover local and national politics. That is, until couple of weeks ago, when he announced that he and his wife are heading to Namibia to be Peace Corps volunteers.
The 5th Ouzo Fest was held by the Lesvos Association of Distillers and took place this year in the area of Ladadika in Mytilini town

Lesvos island held its annual Ouzo Festival, an event dedicated to the world-renowned anise-flavoured Greek spirit, attracting a large crowd of both tourists and island locals.

The 5th Ouzo Fest was held by the Lesvos Association of Distillers and took place this year in the area of Ladadika in Mytilini town and at the marina in the town of Plomari.

During the festival, restaurants, taverns and cafes around town treated visitors to ouzo and a variety of local products, while Greek traditional music played in the background, inviting all guests to dance and enjoy the celebration.

The festival featured ouzo tasting events and guests were also given the opportunity to sample the spirit from the eight participating distilleries, which included Matarellis, Yiannatsis, EPOM, LEVA, Barbayiannis, EBA, Spentza, Plomariou Isidorou Arvanitou. Visitors were given the fine details of this much loved drop, which has been identified as Greeces alcohol of choice.

We aim for the Ouzo Fest to be a quality festival in which visitors will come to know not only Ouzo but also the islands tradition that is associated with it, the association noted.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: rutger2 Michael W. Pendergrass License: CC-BY-SA

Source: greekcitytimes.com
Kuwait-based Agility, a leading global logistics provider, has reported a net profit of KD16.8 million ($55.5million) for the second quarter of the year, an increase of 12.1 per cent over the same period in 2016.



Agility EBITDA grew 14 per cent to KD32.6 million. Revenue increased 10.9 per cent to KD342.1 million.



First-half earnings of 24.9 fils per share and net profit of KD31.4 million were up 12.1 per cent and 11.6 per cent respectively from first-half 2016. First-half EBITDA was KD63.4 million, an increase of 15.6 per cent. Revenue for the first half was KD662.6 million, an increase of 9.1 per cent. The results are in line with the companys long-term guidance, a statement said.



Tarek Sultan, Agility vice chairman and CEO, said: Agilitys Infrastructure group was the primary driver of performance in Q2. Our industrial real estate business and aviation services company delivered particularly strong results. Revenue in our logistics business is growing because air and ocean volumes are increasing and contract logistics revenue is expanding, but rate pressure continues to affect profitability.



Revenue for Agility Global Integrated Logistics (GIL), the companys core logistics business, grew 9.6 per cent in Q2, to KD255.2 million. Air and ocean revenue grew, driven by volume growth of 14.7 per cent and 12.9 per cent in air tonnage and ocean TEUs respectively.



These growth rates are above market average. Contract logistics revenue also grew, particularly in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, with the improved performance coming from a combination of new and existing warehousing facilities.



Net revenue in Q2 was flat compared to the same period a year ago, primarily due to significant yield degradation in freight forwarding because of capacity constraints and higher market rates. Net revenue margins contracted to 24.9 per cent, compared with 27.3 per cent in Q2 2016. EBITDA decreased 5.8 per cent to KD9.1 million in Q2 for the same reason.



GIL continues to grow by committing to defined solutions, customer segments, sales productivity and efficient trade lane development. In addition, GIL is driving its transformation by building technology that enables efficiencies and boosts productivity for the customer and operations. GIL continues to be strongly focused on managing its costs in a disciplined manner.





Agilitys Infrastructure group EBITDA rose 7.4 per cent, to KD27.5 million in Q2. Revenue grew 12.1 per cent to KD89.1 million. Agility Real Estate, National Aviation Services (NAS) and Tristar were the main factors in the groups growth.



Agility Real Estate increased revenue 11.6 per cent in Q2. It is developing new warehouses across the Arabian Gulf countries and Africa.



Tristar showed healthy revenue growth of 13.5 per cent for the quarter, driven by new shipping contracts and its recent E-ships acquisition.



NAS grew its revenue by 17 per cent. NAS continues to expand its presence in Africa and is performing well in Cote dIvoire and growing in Afghanistan.



UPAC revenue grew 6.5 per cent as the company focused on its income-generating projects in Kuwait, where it manages commercial space at the Kuwait International Airport, Sheikh Saad Terminal, and Discovery Mall.



Agility enjoys a healthy balance sheet with KD1.6 billion in assets. Net debt position was KD109 million as of June 30, 2017. Operating cash flow was (KD4.3) million for the first half of 2017, due to the global settlement of the U.S. government food-supply contracts.



Summary



To achieve its 2020 EBITDA target of $800 million, Agility has two areas of focus. First, it is investing in its Infrastructure businesses in emerging markets. Second, it is continuing to improve the underlying fundamentals of its commercial logistics business, particularly in technology-driven transformation of its processes and development of online solutions for customers.



Sultan said continued earnings growth will be driven by operations and by a reduction in legal fees that is anticipated as a result of the settlement of the US case. The impact of lower legal fees will be partially reflected in Q3 before realizing the full impact starting Q4, he said.



Investments in Infrastructure businesses will limit free cash flow, Sultan said. The company is moving toward a ring-fenced net debt position to finance these investments in the future.  TradeArabia News Service
Iran's media delegation in a recent meeting with political and media officials in Iraq signed three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on expansion of media cooperation, a report said.



The Iranian delegation led by Secretary for the Government High Council for Dissemination of Information Alireza Moezi arrived in Baghdad on Monday and visited various Iraqi TV channels and met a group of Iraqi media persons and head of their syndicate, reported Irna.



In separate meetings, the delegation met with Iraqi prime minister, president, vice president and a number of Iraqi religious, cultural and media persons.



The Iranian media delegation signed three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Iraqi media.



The signed MoU calls for exchange of media products, benefiting from each others' capabilities and establishment of a representative office.
Abdulmohsen Abdulaziz Al-Babtain, the sole authorized dealer of Nissan in Kuwait, has launched a campaign guaranteeing zero per cent interest on instalments for Nissan Patrol, Altima and Sentra.



This campaign, launched in partnership with Kuwait Finance House, comes in effect to ensure every one owns the cars of their dreams and enjoy its superior performance, a statement said.



Customers can now purchase their Nissan Patrol, Altima and Sentra with zero per cent interest for up to five years instalment on any of the three models the showrooms located in Al Rai and Ahmadi.



Additionally, customer will have the option to choose between the 0 per cent offer and the Peace Of Mind Offer where with the purchase of every Nissan Patrol vehicle, customers will enjoy a stress-free ride from day one, benefiting from a complimentary three-year after sales service, one-year comprehensive and third party insurance, body protection, window tenting and free traffic registration.



The 2017 Nissan Patrol famed as the Hero of all Terrains treads the roads as one of the most reliable, rugged and versatile 4X4s available backed by cutting-edge technology and a distinguished status that can accommodate adventure to luxury and family life to business. The Nissan Patrol on offer starts with monthly instalments from KD222 ($734).



2017 Nissan Altima, designed for the fast lanes with innovative engineering and maximum power delivery is additionally championed with improved technologies and follows the Nissan Safety Shield philosophy along with its luxurious cabin. The economic and practical Nissan Sentra also included in this offer comes with a very attractive monthly instalment starting from KD76.  TradeArabia News Service
Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5

Panjab University has decided to consult the PGIMER over tackling the increasing monkey menace on the campus.

In a meeting held between the Vice Chancellor and the Dean of Student Welfare (DSW) today regarding the issues of hostels, the matter of simian terror was also discussed. The PU will also look into how the PGI has hired langurs for the job while animal rights bodies had objected to the practice when the PU had done the same in the past.

According to DSW Emanula Nahar, the PGI was not facing such problems and we would follow their model. They also have hired langurs for the job and would find out how they did not face resistance for the same. As per the information, the PU is already looking for a contractor to hire langurs.

Currently, the PU has hired six persons who are supposed to roam around the campus and shoo away the monkeys. However, they have not proven to be effective as the problem has not subsided. While there have been multiple attacks by the monkeys on the campus, the latest one was reported on Thursday, when a monkey had attacked a first year student of the UIET and another group of monkeys wreck havoc in the School of Communication Studies.

Change in policy leading to poor development

According to sources, authorities also discussed how development works of hostels had taken a hit due to the hostel funds being transferred in the central pool. Chandigarh Tribune had reported on June 24 that according to a new policy, hostels will stop having a separate account for themselves. Their funds will now go to the central pool of the university and hostels will have only a contingency fund. It was discussed in the meeting how even after releasing funds, renovation and maintenance works were yet to start in some hostels.

Snake bites guard

An on duty security guard was bitten by a snake late on Friday night. He was taken to the PGIMER by his colleagues and his condition is stated to be stable now. Jasbir Singh, an outsourced security guard, was on duty for the last time at the Alumni Guest House gate on the south campus as his contract ended on Friday. At around 11 pm, he felt a sharp pain near his ankle and when he looked down, a black snake was seen escaping his sight. He informed his colleagues, who immediately tied a handkerchief to his lower leg. In the meantime, another security guard, Hansa Singh, who was on patrolling duty, reached the spot and took Jasbir to the PGI. While Jasbir Singh could not be contacted, his colleagues informed that his condition was stable now.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 4

The newborn baby girl, who was found abandoned on a bench of a park adjoining Kumbhra village, has been handed over to a Ludhiana-based NGO, Swami Ganganand Dhuriwale International Dham, here today.

The baby was kept under observation at the Mohali Civil Hospital in Phase VI, here, since she was recovered by the police yesterday morning.

Giving details, Senior Medical Officer of the Mohali Civil Hospital Surinder Singh said the dham had shown interest in taking care of the infant.

She was fit and fine as our board of doctors and staff was taking care of her. Today, we handed over the infant to officials of the dham following instructions by the District Child Protection Officer of the Child Welfare Committee of Mohali,  the SMO said.

An onlooker had noticed the baby, who was wrapped in a piece of cloth, after hearing her cries at around 5 am and informed the police about the same.
Toronto, August 5

Rana Sarkar, an Indo-Canadian, has been appointed as Canada's consul general in San Francisco as well as a member of the Canadian official team tasked with renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with the US and Mexico.

Sarkar was till recently national director for high growth markets at the Toronto-based multi-national KPMG.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Sarkar is part of a 13-member group tasked with helping the Canada navigate the renegotiation of NAFTA, the Canadian government said in a statement.

From 2009 to 2013, Sarkar was president and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council. He was also the founding advisory board committee co-chairman and senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs.

The statement said the government hopes Sarkar will be able to seize on opportunities to attract investment from the US to Canada.

The Canadian government is beefing up its team in the US as it prepares a full court press to defend Canada's interests in the looming renegotiation of the NAFTA, CTV News reported.

Talks on changing the NAFTA agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico are scheduled to begin on August 16.

According to Global Affairs Canada, the advisory council will bring "expertise and strategic advice" to the Canadian side of the discussion.

Appointment of Sarkar in this high-profile position is amongst a series of appointments of Indo-Canadians made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

They include four Indo-Canadian federal ministers: Bardish Chagger as the Minister for Small Business and Tourism and House Leader, Navdeep Bains as the Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Harjit Singh Sajjan as the Minister for National Defence and Amarjeet Sohi as the Minister for Infrastructure and Communities.  PTI
Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ambala, August 5

Family members of Major Yogesh Gupta, who sacrificed his life while fighting terrorists in Surankot in Jammu and Kashmir in July, 2002, have decided to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court if no gallantry award and a road or a chowk is announced after the martyr.

Ved Prakash Gupta, farther of the martyr, says, No gallantry award has been announced for Yogesh though he killed four dreaded terrorists before sacrificing his life. My wife, who struggled for nearly 15 years to keep the name of Yogesh alive in public memory, died on June 13 with her earnest desire unfulfilled. We feel dejected when a gallantry award is presented to the next of kin of other martyrs while Yogesh has been given none.

We have written numerous letters to the GOC in Ambala, the President, the Prime Ministers Office, Ministry of Defence, local administration, state officials and the MLA over the last 15 years, but to no avail, he adds.

Gupta says, We just want a road or a chowk to be named after Major Yogesh. After a struggle of 15 years, we got a reply in February this year that according to the government policy, the Deputy Commissioner has the authority to effect the change after considering the matter as and when any gram panchayat or municipal council approaches him with a resolution in this regard.

It gives us a feeling that a letter from a gram panchayat or a municipal council gets more respect than the martyrdom of an Army Major and the struggle of his parents. It is the duty of the local administration and the government to do the needful instead of the aggrieved family to request people to pass resolutions and approach them, he adds.

The martyrs father says, We are not seeking monetary help. It is a matter of honouring a martyr and remembering his bravery. Renaming a road or a chowk will help in keeping his name alive and inspiring the future generation.

We have written a letter to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and sent a reminder to the Ministry of Defence this week. This is our last attempt, as we have been struggling for 15 years now. If no gallantry award is announced or a chowk is renamed after Major Yogesh, we will approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court to seek justice for the martyr, says Gupta.
Tribune News Service

Hisar, August 5

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said a battalion of 1,000 policewomen would be raised.

Khattar, while addressing a function organised to mark Mahila Police Divas, said a training centre would also be set up in Hisar to impart training to policewomen.

He also announced that women police stations would be set up in eight subdivisions as well.

He said the percentage of women in the state police force has increased from 6 per cent to 9.3 per cent, and with the recruitment of 1,000 more policewomen, the number would increase to 11 per cent.

He added 38 women help desks operational at the sub-divisional level could be converted into full-fledged police stations, if required.

In view of their large population, an additional womens police station would be established in Gurugram and Faridabad. Two women police stations are already functioning in these districts. Additional police stations would be set up at the NIT, Faridabad, and southern Gurugram.

Khattar said creches would be opened at all-women police stations for the care of children accompanying their mothers on duty and women lodged there for committing crimes. A family counsellor will be appointed at each women police station to provide counselling to complainants and help in strengthening their familial bond, he said.

The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme has yielded positive results, with the sex ratio at birth in the state, which was less than 832 girls per 1,000 boys in 2014, crossing the 950-mark, he added. Khattar urged people belonging to all sections of society to contribute towards this initiative.

The Chief Minister said 30 sites had been earmarked for opening colleges for women and the process to allot land would start this year.

Cops awarded
Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, August 5

Girls and women from Muslim-dominated Marora village in Mewat have sent rakhis to US President Donald Trump.

The village had recently hit the headlines when it was named after Trump by Sulabh International Social Service Organisation chief Bindeshwar Pathak.

The administration had pulled down billboards carrying the US Presidents photos within two days, but the villagers could not thank Trump as the renaming of their village gave recognition to it.

We have struggled for decades to get infrastructure and accepted it as our fate, but things changed suddenly when our village was named after Trump. We got this name only for two days, but it changed our fate as the government paid attention . We want to thank Trump for acting as a virtual elder brother and are thus sending rakhis to him, said 16-year-old Safutan, a member of the womens group from the village. The group has made 1,001 rakhis for Trump and 501 for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They also tied rakhis on the wrist of Pathak who visited the village today.

We had always seen Trump on TV and now, we consider him as our elder brother. We are celebration the festival for the first time. I made 100 rakhis that had been sent to the US and also written a letter to Trump seeking permission to visit the White House, said Rabia.

We have already sent the consignment. These rakhis are our bit to improve the Indo-US relations and putting village on international map, said Monika Jain. Sulabh had recently constructed 95 toilets in the village to implement the Prime Ministers flagship programme to make every village in the country open defecation-free.
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5

Leaders of opposition parties today demanded the resignation of state BJP president Subhash Barala following the arrest of his son for stalking a girl in Chandigarh last night. They also ridiculed the BJPs Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign.

Abhay Singh Chautala, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, said the BJP should sack Barala from the party presidents post if it has any respect for peoples concerns. His tweet in Hindi, inter alia, says, A political party, the state presidents son of which, has been arrested trying to kidnap a girl last midnight, talks of Beti Bachao.

State Congress president Ashok Tanwar termed it as a serious matter and said the government must ensure that the police were not pressured. Incidents of harassment and exploitation of women have increased during the BJP regime and the government has been unable to protect women, he alleged. Leaders of the opposition parties in Baralas Assembly constituency Tohana in Fatehabad, too, condemned the incident and demanded his resignation.

Nishan Singh, a former INLD legislator from Tohana, said Barala has lost the right to remain BJP president and he must resign. Meanwhile, the BJP issued a statement on Baralas behalf that, Like every Indian citizen, I respect the law of the land. I am confident that the law will take its own course and the matter will be investigated impartially.

Ambala: Former MLA Roshan Lal Arya on Saturday demanded the resignation of state BJP chief Subhash Barala after his son was arrested for allegedly stalking the daughter of a Haryana IAS officer. TNS

An individual case, says Khattar

Hisar: CM Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday said the arrest of state BJP president Subhash Baralas son in Chandigarh was an individual case and the law would take its own course. The incident has nothing to do with Subhash Barala. Khattar was here to attend a 0function of policewomen organised at GJUST.

I have taken cognisance of the matter. The Chandigarh Police are fully capable of dealing with it. I am sure that the police will investigate the case in a fair manner, the CM said. However, he added the incident has nothing to do with Subhash Barala as it "pertains to an individual". TNS
Gurgaon, August 5

He may have not heard of Rakhi, but the women and girls of a remote Muslim-dominated village "symbolically" named by an NGO after US President Donald Trump will send him 1001 sacred threads on the Hindu festival that celebrates the brother-sister bond.

The gesture by the residents of Marora village in the backward Mewat region represents the "wish of the people that ties are further strengthened between India and the US", says the NGO, which has adopted the village.

The village had come into limelight after Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO) chief Bindeshwar Pathak had announced to name it 'Trump's village'.

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The district administration had later said the move to rename the village was "illegal", forcing the organisation members to remove boards mentioning the new name.

They said signage boards and banners carrying the new name of the village and image of Trump had been removed by the organisation.

The village, with a population of 1,800 people, lies under Punhana Tehshil, some 60 km from Gurgaon.

"The NGO has been conducting many welfare programmes for women and girls in the village," Monica Jain, vice president of the NGO, said.

"These students have made 1001 rakhis with photos of Donald Trump and 501 rakhis for Narendra Modi. Women and girls of the village consider them their elder brothers," she said.

The consignment of rakhis was sent yesterday through cargo so that it reached the US president on Raksha Bandhan on August 7. The villagers are also sending invitations to the two leaders to visit the village.

Widows of the village have also expressed a desire to meet Modi on Raksha Bandhan at his residence in the national capital and tie rakhis.

"I have made 150 rakhis within three days for Trump bhaiyaa. I also written in a letter to be sent to the White House that the girls of your village want you to visit it with PM Modi," said 15-year-old Rekha Rani, a resident of the village.

Sulabh had recently constructed 95 toilets in Marora to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship program to make every village in the country open defecation free.

The village has 140 houses and only 45 of them were equipped with toilet facility. Sulabh constructed the remaining 95 toilets, Jain said. PTI
Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5

Two LLB students, including the son of Haryana BJP state president Subhash Barala, were on Saturday arrested by UT Police allegedly for stalking the daughter of a Haryana IAS officer on Friday night.

The victim, who was driving towards Panchkula town adjoining here, alleged that both men followed her in their Tata Safari Storm SUV from the Sector 26 Grain Market area. Both were drunk.

The two have been booked under Section 354-d of the IPC and 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act. Police said more sections might be added after the statement of the victim was recorded.

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After their arrest, they were taken for medical examination, which confirmed that they were drunk.

They have been identified as Vikas Barala and Ashish Kumar. The two friends were putting up in Sector 7.
Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, August 5

Sepoy Tanzin Chhul Tim (25) had made a promise to his two sisters that he would visit home on Raksha Bandhan, but to the utter devastation of his family, he returned in a coffin.

A native of Karpat village in Lahaul and Spiti, Tanzin was martyred during a gunbattle with militants in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on August 3. He was serving in 62 Rashtriya Rifles.

He was cremated with full military and state honours at his native village today. His father Kishan and grandfather Angroop lit the pyre of the martyr.

The body of the martyr reached his village today afternoon, which was transported via road in an ambulance from Pathankot on Friday morning as the Army helicopter could not take-off due to bad weather.

Lahaul and Spiti Deputy Commissioner Deva Singh Negi, Superintendent of Police Gaurav Kumar, MLA Ravi Thakur and other public representatives were present at the cremation.

Yesterday, Brigadier Khushal Thakur (retd), president of the Ex-Service Men Association, Mandi, paid tributes to the martyr when the coffin arrived at Pandoh in Mandi. It was greeted at Kullu last evening, where people raised slogan against Pakistan and paid tributes to the martyr. The body was kept at the Army transit camp at Palchan at night and taken to Lahaul and Spiti today morning.

No Army vehicle escorts ambulance

The body of the martyr was brought in an ambulance from Pathankot to Pandoh without any Army vehicle escorting it. However, from Pandoh to Manali, an Army vehicle as well as local residents escorted the ambulance. People reacted on the social media that it was an insult that there was no Army vehicle to escort the ambulance.

Killed in Shopian attack

Sepoy Tanzin Chhul Tim was martyred during a gunbattle with militants in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on August 3. He was serving in 62 Rashtriya Rifles.
Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 5

Traffic movement on the Chandigarh-Shimla highway was majorly affected after 3 am today following landslides near Jabli, Sanwara and Koti on the stretch between Parwanoo and Dharampur.

The landslides were triggered by incessant rains as strata and trees from the hills--excavated for four-laning work--gave way in the absence of adequate retaining walls. A major landslide was visible near Datiyar where a JCB machine was buried in the muck flowing down the hill.

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Solan Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohit Chawla said one-way traffic was restored around 4:30 am and it took another five hours to make it two-way. Around 60 police personnel, including two DSPs, four SHOs, an Additional SP and three PCR vans, were rushed to the spot to ensure speedier clearance of roads, he said.

An urgent meeting of National Highways Authority of India officials and GR Infra Limited (the firm executing the road project) has been convened tomorrow to assess the situation and to step up preparedness for such exigencies, he said.

With rain continuing throughout the day, the police had a tough time in ensuring smooth vehicular movement despite traffic being diverted through Bhojnagar-Kumarhatti and Jangeshu-Kasauli routes. As a few policemen were available to man traffic at Grakhal and Kumarhatti junction, long queues of vehicles piled up on the highway.

The chaos is learnt to have aggravated as the construction firm failed to respond promptly to clear the debris. A police official said the firm had been directed to place sufficient staff at vulnerable points.

A few commuters said the highway had become highly landslide-prone due to massive cutting of fragile hills and low retaining and breast walls, which were incapable of holding the strata.

Raising a question mark over the quality of work, a government official said the walls were a mere 1.5 m to 3 m high compared to those measuring up to 15 m in height on the Chandigarh-Parwanoo four-lane stretch.

Meanwhile, rail traffic on the Kalka-Shimla stretch also remained suspended due to landslides at three places between Koti and Sanwara.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 5

Three local Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed and a policeman injured in a gunfight in north Kashmirs Sopore this morning, the police said.

The gunfight broke out at Amargarh village, around 50 km from Srinagar, when joint teams of the police, Army and CRPF launched a cordon and search operation around 4 am after receipt of an input about militant presence.

As the cordon was being laid around the houses under suspicion, militants opened fire to break the cordon. The fire was retaliated and three militants were killed in the exchange of fire, said a police officer.

A policeman was injured in the gunfight, he said, adding that three rifles and magazines were recovered from the encounter site. The Srinagar-based police spokesman said the three slain militants were associated with the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

The slain militants were identified as Javaid Ahmad Dar of Khanpora, Baramulla, Abid Hamid Mir of Hajin, Bandipora, and Danish Hassan Dar of Batapora, Sopore.

Immediately after the gunfight broke out, the government barred all mobile services except the BSNL in north Kashmir and suspended mobile Internet amid fears of violence.

The authorities imposed restrictions in major towns in north Kashmir and closed educational institutes as a precautionary measure to maintain peace.

The Army and police put up barricades in Baramulla to stop people from attending the funeral prayers of Javaid, who had joined militant ranks earlier this year. Javaid was buried in Khanpora.

Three persons were injured in clashes in Hajin, Bandipora, after youths took to the streets to protest the killing of militants.

The police said the injured received bullet injuries. There were reports of protests from some other parts of the Valley as well.

There had been a spurt in gunfights in the recent past. Eight militants, including Abu Dujana, were killed in the past five days. Security forces were going all out to neutralise militants, especially top commanders.

In over two months, four top militant commanders  Sabzar Bhat, Junaid Mattoo, Bashir Wani, alias Lashkar, and Abu Dujana  had been killed in various operations.

Meanwhile, three overground workers of the Lashkar-e-Toiba were arrested in a joint operation in Shopian, south Kashmir. Sources said some weapons were recovered from the trio.

CRPF man injured in militant attack

A radio operator with a night area domination team of the CRPF was injured when motorcycle-borne militants opened fire at the Nowgam bypass on the outskirts of Srinagar on Saturday evening. A CRPF spokesman said a patrol party of the 23 Battalion was attacked by two militants, resulting in injuries to the head constable, working as radio operator
Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 5

The state Public Service Commission (PSC) has again come under the scanner for its discriminatory and biased mode of selection after only one candidate from the Jammu region figured in the recent selection list of Jammu and Kashmir civil services (judicial) competitive examination in the open category.

This seems to be a sequel to the PSCs apparent plan to deprive Jammu candidates of jobs in the gazetted category. The only selected candidate from the Jammu region in the open category is the daughter of a Cabinet minister.

Eleven candidates have been called by the PSC for medical examination after interview for the posts of Munsif judge, of whom five are in the open category, three in the Reserved Backward Area (RBA) category and one each in the SC, ST and Actual Line of Control categories.

Of the five open category candidates selected, four belong to Kashmir. Two of the candidates in the RBA category hail from Kashmir as well. According to the PSC, a total of 2,029 applications were received and all candidates were called for the written examination. Of them, 457 candidates appeared in all papers and 71 were declared to have qualified for viva-voce. The BJP, which has been facing sharp criticism for its silence over discrimination against candidates from the Jammu region in selection to gazetted posts, has finally broken its silence.

The selections made by the PSC in about one year were completely discriminatory and biased against candidates of the Jammu region, said the BJP.

The party endorsed the demand for bifurcation of the commission. The way the PSC is functioning, the demand of people of the Jammu region of bifurcation of the PSC or recruitment on a 50:50 basis is genuine, it said.

Virender Gupta, BJP spokesperson, questioned the intentions of the PSC Chairman of hushing up the case pertaining to forgery. The PSC Chairman does not want a fair investigation for reasons best known to him, he said. He sought sacking of the PSC Chairman and suspension of other members and officials involved. He wanted retired officers working in the PSC to be relieved.

Hari Om, convener of Jammu for India, reacted sharply to the development. He said the BJP, instead of attacking its own government, should quit the coalition and fight for Jammus cause.

After extending all facilities to Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Jammu, the PDP-BJP government is bent on Islamisation of the judiciary, he said.

Harsh Dev Singh, former minister and Panthers Party chief, echoed similar views. The PSC has resorted to grave injustice with the Jammu region. This is being done under a well-planned conspiracy to deprive the educated youth of Jammu of gazetted jobs, he said.

Lateef-u-Zaman Deva, PSC Chairman, was unavailable for comment. The crime branch had started a preliminary inquiry into forgery of PSCs policy documents.
Amarjot Kaur

Fifty photographs on display at Punjab Kala Bhawan paint a bigger, more personal, picture of Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi. From his hand-written letters to an artist friend, Sohan Qadri, to the cover of his novel Aatte Diyan Chiddiyaan, the intensity of his character grows with every photograph.

Clicked in 1962, a picture shows him dressed in dhoti and kurta in front of a mike. Behind him, in a turley wali pag, is Yamla Jatt, but you probably wont notice him first. Theres something attractively hypnotic about the way he looks, in every picture.

Theres a yellow house with green doors, now in Pakistanthe one he was born in, at Bara Pind Lohtian. Theres a picture of his house in Indias Batala too. But the ones that steal the thunder from almost every other photograph in the room are his hand-written letters to Qadri.

Sent from Prem Nagar, Phone 130, he writes to his friend urging him to meet him. In the other, he talks about a book he was to return to Qadri. He tells him how upset he had been for six months, and apologises for not being able to attend his exhibition.

An onlookers comment breaks the meditative state of mind. Who writes letters these days? WhatsApp teh e-mails ne reh gaiyan hun! says a 70-something turbaned Sikh man, who looks rather annoyed. But there was something very dignified about how Shiv picked up the first letter of the word while underlining it as he took that line upward to cover the letter that followed it.

Captioned in Punjabi, giving due credit to the contributor and the photographer, most of these pictures are marked with the year they were taken in. Even the ones in black and white, and sepia, give some colour to his disposition.

He looks like a doting father posing in two of his photographs, one with his son Meharban and the other with daughter Pooja. He strikes as an achiever humbled to receive the Sahitya Akademi Award by President Zakir Husain in 1967, making him the youngest recipient of the award for his verse play based on ancient legend of Puran Bhagat, Loona (1965).

A picture of his clicked in London of 1971 with Kailash Puri along with many others at mushairas brings out the brooding poet in him. You may spot a loving friend in more photos than onephotographed in 1960, he poses next to Sohan Qadri and Surjit Singh Sethi. In a yet another frame, he smiles for the camera (while looking away from it) with his former roommate Prem Kumar clicked in 1966. In this whole tryst with Batalvis life in letters and photographs, one is left wondering who to give the first compliment tothe one who clicked, or the one being clicked!

They did it

These pictures have been contributed by Amarjit Chandan, Beeba Balwant, Zadid, Harbhajan Bajwa, Goldee Tara, Krishan Adeeb, Rajiv Batalvi, Vishav Bharti, Punjab Digital Library, Harpreet Singh Bhatti, and Pritam Singh Rupal.

The exhibition has been compiled by Diwan Manna.

Its presented by Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi and Punjab Arts Council.

On till August 14 at Punjab Kala Bhawan, Sector 16.
Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, August 5

Five persons, including four Spanish nationals working for a rural NGO, were killed and their nine colleagues injured in an accident in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh today.

The mishap occurred when their van collided head-on with a speeding truck at Yetlavanka village, the police said. A group of 13 Spaniards was on its way to Puducherry. They were associated with the Rural Development Trust (NGO) based at Bathalapalli village in Anantapur district.

Such was the impact of the collision that the front portion of the van was completely crushed and the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.

Two Spanish nationals and the driver of the van were killed on the spot, while two others died on way to the hospital. The four deceased were identified as Vicente Perez, Francisco Pedrosa, Joseph Moran and Nieves Lopez. The van driver was yet to be identified. Those injured in the accident were admitted to a Bengaluru hospital.
Ahmedabad/New Delhi, August 5

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing leader was arrested on Saturday in connection with the attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis car, when he was visiting north Gujarats flood-affected Banaskantha district on Friday.

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The action comes after 18 hours of night-long dharna and demonstration by Congress leaders and scores of district-level supporters.

Palanpur unit BJP youth wing general secretary Jayesh Darji was arrested by the Banaskantha district on Saturday after registering an FIR, which also names three others.

Read: Rahuls car stoned in flood-hit Gujarat

Congress leaders condemn attack on Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat

One of them is Bhagwanbhai Patel, chairman of Dhanera Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC). It is from the APMC market yard in Dhanera that the wave of protests against Rahul Gandhi started.

The police had through the night refused to take the complaint from former Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia and others till a meeting between district police and senior officers.

Attack on my convoy carried out by BJP, RSS people: Rahul

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi said the attack on his convoy in Gujarat was carried out by people from the BJP and the RSS.

Gandhi on Friday had faced protests in flood-hit Gujarat where alleged BJP supporters hurled a cement brick at his car and showed him black flags, forcing him to cut short his address at a gathering and leave in a huff.

Attack on me was carried out by the BJP-RSS people. This is their and PM Modis way of politics, he said.

It was done by their people so why would they condemn it, he said.

Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also condemned the attack on Gandhi, saying it was a planned conspiracy. It is a murderous attack by the BJP, RSS, Azad said. Agencies
Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

Justice Dipak Misra  who is all set to succeed Justice JS Khehar as the next Chief Justice of India later this month  will head the three-judge Bench that would hear the Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri Masjid case on August 11.

According to the cause list issued by the top courts Registry, the other two judges on the Special Bench are justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer,

Almost seven years after the Allahabad High Courts order dividing the 2.7-acre disputed land at the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site equally between Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhara and Sunni Wakf Board, the Supreme Court will take up cross-appeals filed by various parties on August 11.

Appeals against the September 30, 2010, verdict of the Allahabad High would be heard at 2 pm on Friday, a circular issued by the top court said.

The listing of the vexed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid problem case almost two weeks after Chief Justice of India JS Khehar assured senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy that the appeals would be take up soon.

We are going to list the main matter soon. We will take a decision on it, a bench headed by CJI Khehar had on July 21 told Swamy after he mentioned the matter for urgent listing.

Swamy  an intervener in the case  had said the appeals were pending for the last seven years and they needed to be heard urgently. He had said his petition for enforcement of his right to worship without much hassle at the makeshift temple, too, was pending. He had demanded expeditious disposal of all these cases.

Hindus believe that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya thousands of years ago. During Mughal emperor Babars rule, a mosque was constructed at the place in 1528 after destroying the temples existing there.

The RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and BJP have been running a campaign for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

On December 6, 1992, kar sevaks of right wing Hindu organisations demolished the disputed structure. Many BJP leaders, including LK Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi, face criminal charges in connection with the demolition.

But the civil dispute over 2.7 acres is a separate one that has been on since 1961 when the Sunni Wakf Board took the matter to court.

Swamy told the Bench that the Centre had in an affidavit filed in 1994 said that it would hand over the disputed land for construction of temple if it was proved that the Babri Masjid was built on a pre-existing temple. He said it had been proved by the Archeological Survey of India and the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had accepted it. He had suggested that the mosque could be constructed across the Saryu.

Earlier, the CJI had offered to play a mediator to solve the contentious issue if parties agreed to it, saying a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute was a better option. But the parties to the dispute could not agree to the suggestion.
Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, August 5

Nearly 18 hours after Congress workers sat on a dharna demanding action against those responsible for stoning party vice-president Rahul Gandhis car, the police today arrested a BJP youth leader.

Soon after the news of the arrest of Banaskantha district BJP Yuva Morcha general secretary Jayesh Darji was communicated to the party, Congressmen led by the former Gujarat unit president Arjun Modhvadia withdrew the dharna as per Rahuls directive.

Rahul Gandhi in a tweet this morning had regretted that the BJP government in Gujarat had not taken action against those who pelted stones. But he told his partymen not to waste their energy in staging dharna and instead return to their respective duties to provide relief to flood-hit people in north Gujarat.

Besides facing black flag demonstrations wherever he went, stones were pelted at Rahul Gandhis car in Dhanera town, one of the worst-hit places in the recent heavy rain in north Gujarat, smashing the windowpanes.

The stones, however, did not hit Rahul Gandhi, who was sitting on the front seat. The stones landed on the back seat of the car. Rahul was on a visit to the flood-hit north Gujarat districts of Banaskantha and Patan yesterday.

Many parts of Gujarat erupted in noisy demonstrations by Congressmen against the attack. A number of party workers led by Modhvadia, former MP Jagdish Thakore and others, who had accompanied Rahul during his visit, sat on dharna in front of the district collectors office demanding action against those responsible for the attack.

Though the demonstrators and those who pelted stones were easily identifiable from the cameras of news channels covering Rahul Gandhis visit, the police evaded all action till this evening.

After prolonged negotiations with Modhvadia and other Congress leaders, the police agreed to register a case against Darji, but only under Section 332 and other Sections of the IPC that provide for a maximum jail term of three years.

Cases have also been registered against at least three others including the Dhanera unit BJP president Modhsinh Rao and the chairman of the Dhanera Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) chairman Bhagwanbhai Patel but they are yet to be arrested.

BJP, RSS behind murderous attack, claims Congress
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Shamsher Surjewala on Saturday condemned the attack on Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat, asking what the state police were doing.

Sharma said they apprehended it was the rise of fascism in India.

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Surjewala said if all stones had hit Gandhi, it could have killed him. He said they had named four people for the attack but no FIR had been lodged by the state police.

Surjewala said their people were sitting on a dharna in the village but no case had been registered yet.

He said it needed to be examined whether it was a conspiracy and planned attack.
Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5

Two youths, one of them the son of Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala, were today arrested by the Chandigarh Police for allegedly stalking the daughter of an IAS officer well past Friday midnight. Though released on bail, the two were detained for questioning.

They have been booked under Sections 354-D (stalking) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC and Section 185 (driving by a drunken person or by one under the influence of drugs) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

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As per the police, Vikas Barala (23), an LLB student, came to meet his friend Ashish Kumar (22), a law graduate. While on a car ride, the two drank beer and started chasing a young girl, who happened to be an IAS officers daughter.

Read: BJP MP Saini demands Baralas resignation after his son held for stalking

Chandigarh Police diluted case against Baralas son: Tewari

Why PM, Shah silent on stalking by son of BJP leader? Yechury

The 29-year-old complainant said she was heading home in Panchkula after car repairs. On her way, a white Tata Safari (HR-23-G-1008) began to chase her and its driver tried to block her way near a school in Sector 26. She sped away, but the Safari again blocked her way.

Terrified, she phoned the PCR (police control room) for help even as the Safari driver repeatedly swerved the car, not allowing her to halt at any light point. She finally stopped her car at the housing board lights where several vehicles were lined up.

One of the youths came out of the car and tried to open the rear door of her car.

He banged on the window. Luckily, the central lock was on. I reversed the car and fled, she said. The ordeal lasted 25 minutes, from 12.20 am to 12.45 am. It was clear that they tried to abduct me, she alleged.

After a while, she received a call from the police, telling her that they had arrested the culprits. She was asked to come to the police station to file a complaint. Based on the girls statement, Sections 164 of the CrPc and Section 341 of the IPC have also been added. Legal opinion will be taken if more Sections are to be included, said Satish Kumar, DSP (East).

From Chandigarh Tribune



Girl says women must train in self-defence

The young victim, who braved the late night harassment and alleged abduction attempt by two drunken youths in an SUV, has set an example for other girls to come forward and report such incidents to the police. Calling it the scariest day of her life, she advocates defence training to girls and carrying personal-defence equipment. She shares her experience in a chat with Chandigarh Tribune:

It must have been a horrific experience?

I was extremely scared last night. Nothing could have been worse than this. This was the scariest day of my life so far?

How swift was the Chandigarh Police?

I am very thankful to the police. Had the police not acted swiftly, I may not have been fine today. After the incident, the women cell offered me support. They also helped me mentally.

Do you think Chandigarh is a safe place for women?

This is probably the safest city in India. I never felt unsafe in the city before this incident. Isolated incidents were there but this was an outrageous act.

Do you think incidents of eve-teasing go unreported?

Girls should not be afraid and should take a stand. If such people are not taught a lesson, then the situation will never improve. We talk of women's safety, so we also have to walk the tightrope.

What was the reaction of the public at the spot?

At the Housing Board chowk, I had to stop my car due to the red signal while the youths in the SUV were following me. One of the youths even tried to open my door, but fortunately it was locked. Out of fear, I constantly honked my horn, so as to seek people's attention. But, no one acted. May be they were afraid that the youths could be carrying a weapon. I cannot blame them. But we expect the public to at least call at 100 at such point.

What should girls do for their safety?

I am glad I am safe as the police acted swiftly, but quick assistance may not always be there. So, self-defence training is a must for women. I am trained, so I did not panic and could sense initially they were chasing me. Then I noted down the number of their car and called up the police. Also, I think girls should carry pepper spray, sticks or scissors in their cars for safety. I had scissors in my purse, but not pepper spray. I will keep one from now on.

Stalked by Haryana BJP chief's son, Chandigarh girl shares her terrible experience on Facebook.

WAS ALMOST KIDNAPPED ON A CHANDIGARH ROAD LAST NIGHT

That being said, Id like to take a moment to commend and thank Chandigarh Police for unparalleled efficiency and attention to a distress call from me. They almost restore my faith in the system.

I was driving home from the Sector-8 market at about 12:15am, and crossed the road into Sec-7, near a petrol pump. I was also on the phone with a friend at the time, and realised about a minute later that a car was following me.

It was a White SUV, and as I noticed it, it pulled up and started driving alongside my car. I was now in Sec 7, heading towards the lights next to St. Johns school in Sector 26.

There were 2 guys inside the SUV, and they seemed to really be enjoying harassing a lone girl in the middle of the night, judging by how often their car swerved, just enough to scare me that it might hit me.

By now I was totally alert and mildly panicky, so I decided to turn right from the St.Johns school traffic lights towards Madhya Marg (a more crowded, seemingly safer road).

I tried to turn right from the lights but the SUV blocked my way, forcing me to go straight into Sec 26. At the next turn, I tried to turn again, but this time they went a step further.

Right at the turn, they blocked the road in front of my car, and the guy in the passenger seat got out of the car and started walking towards me. I reversed as fast as I could and went straight and took the next right turn before they could catch up again. I used this time to also call the cops at 100, and explain to them the situation and my exact location and where I was headed. The cop who answered my call, intuitively sensed the urgency in my voice, and promised me that help would be along very soon.

I hung up and had now reached the main road, and hadnt seen the SUV for about 15 seconds, so I hoped, that theyd seen me calling the cops and disappeared. I was wrong.

I was now on a straight road for about 5-6 km (Madhya Marg), and that entire time, the SUV stayed alongside my car, trying to bully me into stopping every 10-15 seconds LITERALLY.

I was in a full-blown panic attack by now because they would keep trying to corner me, and Id somehow manoeuvre my way out and keep moving.

Half in tears, half bewildered, because I didnt know if Id make it home tonight.

These guys INCESSANTLY bullied me all the way to the Solitaire hotel, and at the traffic lights, blocked my car for the final time.

This time they meant business, because they left me absolutely no space to move or escape, and the passenger JUMPED out of the car and moved towards mine.

I dont know how, but I reversed my car and moved to the right where there was space, all this while constantly honking. At this point, the guy had reached my car, banged loudly on my window, AND TRIED TO OPEN THE DOOR HANDLE!

Just as he did this, I saw a PCR pull up at the lights. A couple of cops ran out towards the SUV, nabbing it just in time.

If this is what women deal with in one of the safer cities in the country, where are we going?

LADIES! Please be proactive about your own safety. STAY SAFE, LADIES!

The father of the victim, an IAS officer, said the issue was being highlighted as a politician and a bureaucrat are involved but it should be taken as a case of eveteasing.

The media is giving some other angle to the case. It is a simple case of two adults chasing a girl and harassing her. While she was being chased, it was not known whose son they are or whose daughter she is, he told Chandigarh Tribune.

On only non-bailable sections being added to the FIR, he said: I cannot question the system on the very first day of the incident because this is the system which has got my daughter safe. The police are the best persons to decide what sections are to be added. The girl alleged the youths tried to abduct her.

He also wrote on his FB account: We are thankful that she survived this ordeal. The goons had a very clear intention of abducting her, and she escaped because of her courage and presence of mind. But it was a very close call, and her trauma is unimaginable. I suppose it will take her a long time to get back to a normal life.

As a father of two daughters, I feel compelled to take this matter to its logical conclusion.

Our clear intention is to bring the culprits to book. We do not intend to harm the families or relatives. However, we know it's not going to be an easy struggle. The possibility of harassment, threats and even physical harm is undeniable, even though unlikely. Influential families can sometimes take desperate measures to discredit or disable the complainants. Sane friends may advise us against our action. We may be foolhardy, he added.
Beijing, August 5

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said today.

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According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.

The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing.

The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.

The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."

"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.

Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India]."

He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run news agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement.

Khrushchev also told Mao that he was "outraged" by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union "time-servers".

"Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth.

We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody... If you consider us time-servers, comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it," Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting.

After that visit, relations between China and then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the US. PTI
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

In Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, India has as its 15th Vice-President a hardcore politician, someone who has been in the public life for more than four decades  or what he describes as a peoples person. With Naidus election, the BJP now holds all three top constitutional positions of the country  the President, the Vice-President and the Prime Minister.

Naidu comes with rich political experience. He has not just been in charge of key portfolios in Prime Minister Narendra Modis Cabinet but has also headed the organisation he refers to as his maa (mother) as its President-the key charge that Amit Shah, the BJPs new-age Chanakya holds today.

According to Naidus close associates, he brought dynamism and synergy in the ministries he held and it would not be out of place to expect action and change oriented Naidu to aim at similar improvement in the functioning of the Rajya Sabha as its Chairperson.

Naidus appointment to the protocol-wise second top Constitutional position of the country is expected to augment the saffron partys political endeavour down south. His moorings in Chavatapalem, a remote village in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, are supposed to achieve that for the BJP.

Alongside his outreach and friendships among various political parties is also expected to help in effective functioning of the Rajya Sabha where the party-led NDA is in a minority.

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Naidus election comes at a time when the BJP has emerged as the number one party in the Rajya Sabha but the numbers continue to be stacked against it in favour of the Congress-led Opposition.

Naidu has promised to follow and strengthen the Constitutional practices and Parliamentary democratic system but with him in the Chair, the BJP hopes to achieve more from the Upper House than it had been able to in the past three years since it came to power.

The Vice-Presidential job is a Constitutional office and the substantive part the role is as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. This is the second time that the Rajya Sabha will have an RSS- BJP man (10 years there was Bhairon Singh Shekhawat tenure) in the Chair.

This apart, that the 68-year-old was no mood to end his political journey so early in life is now a stated fact. Never am I going to participate in vice-president election even if anyone compels me".

Happiness for me is to meet people, be among them and serve them. I cannot stay away from people by taking up any ceremonial position, Naidu had said amid speculations about his nominations from the post.

His journey with the BJP did not end just with a resignation from all party and Cabinet positions but with the pain of leaving his mother. Now I do not belong to any party, Naidu said after filing nomination papers that many also perceived as the end of the political road for an intensely political man. As he and his family prepare to move to 6 Maulana Azad, the Vice-Presidents House, the add-on assignment of the Rajya Sabha chairman will nonetheless keep him connected with the active politics he so loves.

I wanted to see Modi come back to power in 2019 after which I wanted to resign from active politics. But destiny has other plans for me, said Naidu, also known for his penchant for slogans and rhyming sentences.

Earlier, while stating that there was no chance of him contesting the Vice-Presidential election, he quipped he neither wants to become the "rashtrapati" (president) nor the "uparashtrapati" (vice-president) and was happy being Usha's "pati" (spouse). Usha is his wife.
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

In Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, India has got its 13th Vice-President, a hardcore politician who has been in public life for more than four decadesa peoples person in his own words.

The politically nuanced 68-year-old, who has been in charge of not just key portfolios in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi Cabinet but also of the party organisation he fondly refers to as his maa (mother), will have the additional responsibility of being the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

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These are certainly happy times for the saffron brigade with all the three top Constitutional postsPresident, Vice President and Prime Ministerbring held by men having strong BJP-RSS moorings.

Moreover, a southern stalwart holding the second top Constitutional post is expected to augment BJP chief Amit Shahs political endeavours down south in the run up to the 2019 General Election. Naidus farming background and origin in Chavatapalem, a remote village in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, are supposed to achieve all that for the party looking at increasing its footprint in the south.

Naidujis entry into the Vice Presidents office is the victory of every small farmer contributing to the nations growth, Shah tweeted after the announcement of the poll results.

His election has come at a time when the BJP has emerged as the largest party in the Rajya Sabha but where the numbers are still stacked in the favour of the Opposition.

Now that it has its own person in the Chair, the BJP-led Union Government would be hoping to draw more from the Upper House than it has in the past three years. For his part, the new Vice President has promised to follow and strengthen the Constitutional practices and parliamentary democratic system.

As Naidu and his family prepare to shift to 6 Maulana Azadthe Vice President Houseit is perhaps his add-on assignment of the Rajya Sabha Chairman through which he would be trying to remain connected with the active politics he so much loved.

Left to him, he would have preferred spending some more time in active politics or at least till the next Modi government was formed in 2019. I wanted to see Modi come back to power after which I wanted to resign from active politics, Naidu had said after his candidature was announced. But, destiny had other plans for him.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 5

Voting began around 10 am on Saturday for the 15th Vice-Presidential election in which ruling NDA's candidate M Venkaiah Naidu is pitted in a straight contest with Opposition-backed Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Assistant Returning Officer Mukul Pandey said 98.21 per cent votes were cast until 5 pm. Counting began at 6 pm and will take roughly an hour-and-a-half.

Some 771 voters of a collegium of 785 cast their vote.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, M Venkaiah Naidu, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were among early voters.

Former Union Minister and senior Akali Leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa who is in hospital took permission from doctors to cast his vote.

"It is my sacred duty to vote, illness or no illness", Dhindsa told The Tribune before returning to the hospital.

Read: Naidu favourite in V-P poll today

MPs of both Houses of Parliament are members of the collegium that votes in the V-P poll.

There are 790 MPs in both houses with four current vacancies.

The electoral college for the V-P poll consists of 790 voters but effective votes will be 785 due to two vacancies each in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and LS MP Chhedi Paswan barred from voting due to concealment in his election affidavit.



Anyone who wins half the valid votes cast plus one will clinch the top constitutional office.
Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 5

Two Doaba-based loyalists of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today chose to boycott the visit of Local Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu to their respective constituencies. The development has exposed simmering factionalism in the state Congress.

Sidhu today visited Seechewal village in Shahkot. Congress leader Hardev Laddi, who had unsuccessfully contested the last Assembly elections from Shahkot, did not join him.

Laddi said there was no intimation about the visit from the minister and it was the local SDM who informed him at the last minute.

Sidhu was to visit Sultanpur Lodhi, but MLA Navtej Cheema took a stand against him, saying the minister had not informed him about the visit on time. The minister was visiting our constituencies for the first time. He should have shared the schedule of his visit with us at least a day in advance. We will ask the CM to tell the ministers to keep us in loop about their visits, the duo maintained.

Interacting with the media at Seechewal village, Sidhu said: I had come to see Cheema to plan Guru Nanak Devs 550th birth anniversary event. Since Cheema did not take his calls, Sidhu had to drop his visit to Sultanpur Lodhi at the last minute.

Meanwhile, the minister said the number wards had been increased in all major cities and a notification would be issued by the end of this month. Wards in Patiala have been raised to 60 from 50, Amritsar 85 from 65, Ludhiana 90 from 70 and Jalandhar 75 from 60.
Ludhiana, August 5

A court here on Saturday granted anticipatory bail to actress Rakhi Sawant but ordered her to surrender before it on August 7 in a case related to "objectionable" remarks by her against Valmiki, the author of the epic Ramayana.

Granting her anticipatory bail, Sessions Judge Gururbir Singh directed her to surrender before the court of Judicial Magistrate Vishav Gupta on August 7.

The judicial magistrate's court had cancelled the bail of the actress after she failed to appear before it on July 7 despite directions.

While granting her bail on July 6, Judicial Magistrate Vishav Gupta had directed her to attend the hearing on July 7.

Local advocate Narinder Adiya had filed the complaint against Sawant on July 9 last year, claiming her comments  allegedly made on a private television channel  had hurt the sentiments of the Valmiki community.

The actress had tendered "an unconditional apology" to the Valmiki community after its members voiced outrage over her alleged remarks. PTI
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 5

Three commission agents (arhtiyas) were booked today under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC for abetting the suicide of Chanarthal Kalan village resident Devinder Singh, even as the complainant, Harnek Singh, told the police that Devinder was not a farmer.

Harnek claimed that the arhtiyas had taken money from the victim on the pretext of getting him a job. Devinder was under stress as the agents  Jaspal Singh, Harjeet Singh and Supinder Singh  were neither refunding the money nor providing him employment, the complainant added. The 32-year-old had hanged himself from a ceiling fan at home on Thursday.

Varinder Jit Singh Thind, DSP, said Harnek, a resident of Bhal Majra, had earlier lodged complaints on behalf of the family in connection with the suicides of Devinders father and brother. He said the family endorsed Harneks latest statement to the police. This is no longer a farmer suicide case, the DSP added.

Jaspal is already in jail after being booked for abetting the suicide of Devinders father Gurlabh Singh, while Harjeet and Supinder are on the run.

Deputy Commissioner Kanwalpreet Brar said Devinders case would be discussed during the August 7 meeting of the district-level committee formed to provide relief to the families of farmers taking the extreme step.
Sangrur/Tarn Taran: An indebted farmer allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison at his home in Sangrur district on Friday. The police said Sadhu Singh (45) of Adakwas village had failed to repay his debt despite selling his land. My father had taken land on lease recently, said Dalvir Singh, son of the deceased. The family didnt specify the loan amount. In Tarn Taran, Jagir Singh (55), a debt-ridden farmer of Machhike village, died at a hospital here on Friday, five days after he had consumed poison. Jagir, who owned 1 acre, owed Rs 90,000 to a bank. He had been arranging money for his daughters marriage, fixed for November. tns
Vandana Aggarwal

In the heart of Singapore lies Bukit Brown, a cemetery home to more than one lakh Chinese graves. The area is overgrown, and at first glance, it looks like any old Chinese cemetery with its horseshoe-shaped graves, elaborate funerary paraphernalia and tomb guards. Look again, and you will notice that statues of Sikhs stand guard at some of the tombs!

The Sikhs, like other Indian communities, had made their presence felt in Singapore quite early. However, it was after the Anglo-Sikh wars of the 19th century that the British sat up and took notice of the military capabilities and bravery of the Sikhs. The first Sikh police contingent arrived in Singapore in 1881. A British recruitment handbook referred to them as being fairly incorruptible, and good policemen.

Many of them took up private employment after completing their tenure with the government. Impressed by their masculine personality and bravery, the prosperous Chinese businessmen started employing Sikhs at their houses and businesses. Soon, they became an important part of their lives thanks to their honesty, hard work and loyalty.

They are locally referred to as jagas (Malay for guards), a word that undoubtedly owes its origins to the Punjabi word jaga or staying awake.

Old timers in Singapore nostalgically remember the kind-hearted, burly Sikh guards sitting in front of banks and offices on their charpoys.

The Sikhs built a formidable reputation of being reliable protectors of life and property. The Chinese, who strongly believed in an afterlife, at some point decided that it would be a good idea to have the Sikh guards protecting them after their deaths as well.

Guarding the dead

The Bukit Brown cemetery was established in 1922. So far nearly 30 pairs of Sikh guards have been discovered there. These range from around 3 feet to 5 feet 8 inches in height.

These stand in pairs, erect, holding guns by their sides and very often carry a kirpan too. Every curl of their beard, fold of their turban and wrinkle in their shirt is carefully carved out giving them a realistic, life-like appearance.

Some of the guards look older; they have a slight slouch, a visible paunch and gentleness in their eyes. Others have an imposing appearance, with piercing eyes and are smartly dressed with carefully tied turbans, ammunition belts and police boots.

There is no evidence that these beautiful statues were made in Singapore. These were probably imported from China with the rest of the tomb decorations. It is a mystery how the carvers were able to carve the likeness of the guards. Either these were sent sketches to help them or they modelled them after the Sikh policemen who had already made their way to Shanghai and other parts of China as policemen.

Traditional Chinese medicine physician Chew Geok Longs tomb, with its accompanying Sikh guards, is well maintained and the guards are brightly painted. These guards are dressed in military uniforms, and apart from the gun, also have a majestic ceremonial sword at their waist.

These sentinels of a lost world replace the Chinese door gods, who guarded the tombs and ward off evil spirits. A few guards have foo dogs  mythical Chinese guard dogs  standing beside them showcasing an interesting amalgamation of Chinese and Indian cultures. The features of some are distinctly Chinese!

A page forgotten

Sadly Bukit Brown was largely forgotten for decades having been closed in 1973. Nature then took over the graves, enveloping anything and everything in its embrace. In 2012, the government of Singapore announced plans to redevelop Bukit Brown into a housing estate and build a road through it. That was when Singaporeans, once again, took notice of this cultural heritage.

The brownies is a group of dedicated volunteers, who have worked tirelessly to make more people aware of the rich heritage at Bukit Brown. Peter Pak has discovered and extensively photographed and recorded these guards for the past six years. In his blog, Rojak Librarian, he states, these Sikh guards are representative of a unique period of time when Singapore was a colony of the invincible British Empire.

When news about the presence of these statues came to public notice, Ishvinder Singh (30), a third-generation Sikh in Singapore, was taken by surprise. As a practicing Sikh, Bukit Brown meant a lot to him as he was at that time grappling with a desire to know more about his roots.

He, along with researcher Vithya Subramaniam, decided to work on a Sikh heritage trail app. Vithya focused on research and content and Singh on technology. The app was launched in 2015. His aim was twofold  to make the Sikh youth proud of being Sikhs and to raise an awareness of their shared immigrant heritage.

A heritage conserved

At least one pair of Sikh guards, along with the tomb, which they were guarding, has been removed to make way for the proposed road. It is, however, being preserved as an important part of Singapores heritage by the National Heritage Board.

Many of these statues are not easy to find and are hidden in the dense undergrowth. Closer inspection has shown that not all guards are Sikhs as some do not have facial hair.

They have been exposed to the elements for decades and due to a lack of maintenance, many of them have been knocked down at an angle or have trees enveloping them.

Human and nature notwithstanding, these Sikh guards are not giving up the job that was assigned to them and continue to stand tall, reminding us of how our forefathers travelled to faraway places and made a name and place for themselves in different parts of the world.
Sunil Phogat

During summer months, one often sees large flocks of sheep grazing in the central regions of Haryana. From a distance, everything looks fine. The envious and carefree life of the nomads, herds of bleating sheep, newborn lambs carefully tucked in the shepherds arms But, a few days spent with them reveal the hard side of the seemingly romantic life.

They hail from Rajasthan and tread great lengths and breadths of the north-western and western regions of the country in search of pastures that have now shrunk. Not just Gujjars, they are Muslims, Rajpoots and Jats too. Most of them own sheep, but some rear those of a seth, a rich businessman, for livelihood. They bring hundreds of herds of sheep from Jodhpur, Sirohi, Jalaur and Nagaur every year and enter Haryana from the southern tip near Rewari or Mahendergarh, preferably along the railway track. The journey starts after Makar Sankranti.

What brings them here is the fact that agricultural lands that get vacated after the rabi crops have been harvested and fallows offer green fodder. There is enough to feed them throughout the harsh summer as fallow lands in Haryana are seldom used by cattle herds from the state. The shepherds from Rajasthan thus occupy these lands until monsoon hits the region.

We get talking to the shepherds who tell us that a healthy and grown up sheep yields about 700g of raw wool in a season. But rearing season is also a season of exploitation by middlemen who keep an eye on their movement and approach them at the onset of shearing season. The rate offered is as low as Rs 20 per sheep per season!

A sheep is sheared thrice a year: in February-March, June-July, and November-December. The rate of wool varies in accordance with quality and demand. In lean times, the buying price remains static at Rs 35 to 40 per kilogram. Towards the end of winter, it might double and sometimes sell at Rs 100 per kg.

Any little profit that the shepherds can make vanishes between the time lag in the three fleecing seasons. The katariya or sheep barber charges Rs 16 per sheep. Besides, the herdsmen incur expenditure on maintenance of the sheep if it ever falls sick. The cost of transportation of one truck load of sheep is Rs 15,000 per journey. The assistant herdsmen are also paid wages. A headman of the shepherds, who we talk to, says the price per kg of wool should not be less than Rs 150 if they have to survive.

The shepherds say that with the changing times, herdsmen shun laborious and time-consuming walks to the pastures of Haryana. Animals are now loaded into trucks at Jodhpur and alighted at the border touching Mahendragarh. From there, they usually start their journey into the hinterland of Haryana. Rayees Khan, a shepherd from Jodhpur, tells us that the sheep remain tightly packed in the vehicles chamber for 12-14 hours before they reach the borde. Gujjars, with their own flocks of sheep, prefer to travel long distances, often covering 400 miles or more on foot.

From Mahendragarh, the shepherds move towards the shepherds move towards Charkhi Dadri and Bhiwani, cross a small stretch of Rohtak or Hissar and then move towards Jind, following the shortest country routes that they are well familiar with after years of travelling to and fro. They keep the sheep in open lands in Jind, Rohtak and Jhajjar districts, in rotation as per the availability of fodder and other vegetation, and stay on for several months.

The flocks are taken away for grazing during the day within a radius of 5km from the camp to make the return in the evening easier. The grown up children of the herdsmen join them during vacations in the school. A laggard soon joins the herdsman to follow the age-old tradition. Women and children are taken care of by a couple of elderly persons in the Dera while the herdsmen are away for grazing.

Sheep keep healthy and happy in dry season, but despise wet surroundings or rains. Heavy rains, in fact, bring a change in the mood of both the herdsmen and the sheep. While men feel melancholy, the sheep flock together and stand perched on high lands until they shed the last raindrops dangling from their hair. The morass and sticky land damages their hoofs and skin. To experience the same, this June, this writer followed them from dawn to dusk one day. The day began with heavy rains, was followed by scorching heat and ended when the stars lit up the sky. Being a nomad isnt everyones cup of tea.

No benefits

During the 12th five-year, the government of India had set a target of covering 1, 30,000 shepherds and less than a million sheep under the Sheep Breeders Insurance Scheme. However, the data about the final outcome could not be known. A large number of sheep and shepherds remained excluded from the beneficiary schemes despite the fact that the Central Wool Development Board releases grant money to NGOs for their welfare.

1,500

The estimated number of herds grazing in the countryside of Haryana every year
Harish Khare

YESTERDAY, an election was held to decide the new occupant of 6 Maulana Azad Road in New Delhi. This house is the designated residence for the Vice-President of India. The great scholar, freedom fighter, and educationist, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad lived at this address from 1947 till his death in 1958. Till then, the street was called King Edward Road. After the Maulanas departure, it came to be known as Maulana Azad Road.

Hamid Ansari has lived in this modest but elegant residence for the longest time  10 years. That is not surprising because he is only the second person in our history to have served two terms as Vice-President. The first one, Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, lived a part of his tenures at York Road (now Moti Lal Nehru Road).

6 Maulana Azad has had an interesting procession of occupants, and each one of them probably left an imprint on it. Curiously, there was a mosque in the premises, and then a temple got added. But perhaps the most significant addition that got made was during the stay of KR Narayanan.

Soon after that horrible day, December 6, 1992, when our very constitutional order came under severe assault, Vice-President Narayanan bought two paintings, both of the Mahatma. The paintings show the Mahatma in a pensive mood, and each lends a certain spiritual charm to the surroundings. One of the paintings that Narayanan bought hangs in the Chairmans office in the Parliament House, and the other adorns the wall above the mantle-piece in the drawing room at 6, Maulana Road. None of Narayanans successors felt the need to tinker with the arrangement. It would be interesting to know if Hamid Ansaris successor has different thoughts and ideas and whether the Mahatma retains his place at the Vice-Presidents residence.

For 10 years, Hamid Ansari made a model and dignified resident at 6, Maulana Azad Road. His presence in the second highest constitutional office of the land showcased the best of Indian plurality and diversity. But these last three years, he was seen as an incongruity. This incongruity got symbolised by his choice of sherwani as the formal dress.

More than the choice of attire, Hamid sahib was the odd man out. After all, he is a man of ideas, a man who values and reads books, feels at home in the company of the educated. He is familiar with the history of our region and beyond; and, more importantly, he has a sense of history.

A Vice-President has just about no power. But that does not prevent an incumbent from speaking out on issues of national and international importance. Hamid Ansari made his erudite presence felt often. He spoke out against the creeping culture of intolerance and intimidation.

Hamid Ansaris gentle, dignified presence at the pulpit must have been an eyesore to the new congregation of the closed minds. Now, with a new occupant at 6 Maulana Azad Road, the ruling establishment will have one less irritant to deal with.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

IT is almost a cliche for our leaders to extol the virtues of dialogue even when they continue to talk down to others, that is, when they are not shouting at their adversaries. Much of our public discourse has become a dialogue of the deaf. I say my piece, you say your piece and we put the onus on the other person to try to understand me. Neither of us wants to listen and appreciate the others point of view. We are happy with our prejudices and contented with our sense of superior wisdom. We accuse the others of intolerance and, worse, of bigotry.

Try listening. That is Arun Mairas mantra in this very, very readable book, Listening for Well-Being  Conversations with People Not Like Us. Arun Maira is not a things-to-do guru and this is not the kind of books that are displayed prominently at airport bookstores. He is a serious student of public policy and for five years, between 2009 and 2014, he was a member of the Planning Commission.

In a brief foreword to this book, the Dalai Lama notes that along with contemplating and meditating, listening is one of the three wisdom tools. This means listening without preconceived notion and with respect and full attention to what others say. Another Buddhist sage, Thich Nhat Hanh, has exhorted us: To know how to love someone, we have to understand them. To understand, we need to listen.

The book is a rather thoughtful reflection on inadequacies we have injected in our collective affairs, especially with the arrival of social media. The new tools of social media only help us reinforce our prejudices and passions and we end up creating more and more ugliness around us.

Our failure to listen  rather our refusal to listen to those who are not like us  is producing great social disharmony, endangering our security. Our politics, our media, and our national discourse end up creating noxious bitterness.

Arun Maira ends the book with a simple reminder that we all like to pose ourselves a question: What sort of a world are we leaving behind for our grandchildren? This question has become a cliche. Yet, the question remains urgent and relevant. Therefore, while we do listen to our own aspirations, we must also listen to the aspirations of people not like us for the better world they want to leave for their grandchildren. Well put.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

JUST when we thought that everybody was succumbing to a creeping madness, there emerges evidence of sanity. The evidence has a name: Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma. It appears that Judge Sidharth Sharma had before him the case of Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for possessing undisclosed foreign funds.

The Enforcement Directorates lawyer challengingly asked Mr Shah to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai in order to prove his innocence and his patriotism. Judge Sidharth Sharma correctly and promptly intervened and ticked off the lawyer that the courtroom was not a television studio.

Judge Sidharth Sharmas rebuke for the ED was not at all out of place; indeed, it was way overdue. It is bad enough that our political leaders use the courts to settle scores with their rivals, it a double tragedy that some lawyers have come to believe that a cause takes precedence over the law and etiquettes and protocols of the courtroom. Patriotism and nationalism are the two latest causes which excite a section of lawyers who take it upon themselves to pronounce a person guilty or innocent. This unfortunate trend, in fact, was first noticed in Srinagar where a very vociferous bar association has virtually rendered the courts of law defunct.

Our nation faces many grave challenges but none of these challenges would be defused by resorting to extra-legal tactics or reducing our judicial process to a kangaroo court.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I am impressed with the tagline in the Haryana Governments publicity campaign on the completion of its 1,000 days in office. There is a rather clever play on words in the Chief Ministers name to produce the raj manohar slogan. This is very creative ad work.

In the process, it need be noted that Manohar Lal, perhaps, becomes the first major BJP functionary in the Age of Modi to be allowed a spot of self-glorification. So far, this trick has been reserved for the Prime Minister.

The chief minister is too self-effacing to be suspected of wanting to promote a personality cult and let us hope that the commissars in Delhi do not take a different view.

Till then, let me raise my cup of coffee to Manohar Lals creative team. Join me.

kaffeeklatsch@tribuneindia.com
GS Paul in Amritsar

The most astounding fact of history is you cannot create it; you can only make it: as you inch closer to any historic city, you can feel it  as people and places rush past, come closer and fade away. Thats why Amritsar becomes Ambarsar in pretty much the same manner as New Delhi becomes Delhi and then Dilli(was it Indraprastha or Dhillika, you ask intermittently without a definite answer). Words then lose meanings, their symbolism visible in stones or in the re-discovered splendour of modern-versus-medieval syncretism: the past remains present in the continuum of the celebration of glory

Here is Amritsar, the ever-glowing, ever-inspiring, divine city, as you drive through Amritsar-Jalandhar GT Road. You are taxed twice at two toll plazas within 10 km: Rs 25 at each point, the last one located just about 15 km ahead of the municipal limits of the city. A few years back, things were different: no one knew toll and the road was as good or bad as any other. Forget it.

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A giant golden gate looms over. It illuminates only to highlight its contours. This is the most preferred selfie spot. Shaped like the dome identical to the Golden Temple perched on the pillars adorned with Nanakshahi-look bricks, this Rs 9-crore gate was dedicated to visitors on October 26, 2016, by former CM Parkash Singh Badal.

Further down as you enter the city limits, there lies a gilded leaf-patterned Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) track in the middle of flawless eight lanes: there is a five-star hotel, a flashy mall and a changed route to the Golden Temple, straightaway to its parking lot, on the second floor through a number of elevated roads. A glance below shows the messy traffic: old Ambarsar?

The 2011 census puts Amritsar population at over 11 lakh, up from 9.6 lakh 10 years back. In 2016, its count was well over 12 lakh. With Lahore barely 30 km from the border, the city is linked through rail, road and international flights. The latest public transport is aimed at 20 lakh people. Apart from city bus service, 31-km dedicated bus corridors have been carved out. All this cost Rs 600 crore. Ironically, the absence of bus culture has made both these projects fruitless. The ruling Congress wants to make them more viable. Out of the 93 low-floor AC buses planned, only 15 are plying.

A general impression is that a tourist would not stay for more than a day in Amritsar. Their trip would wrap up after a customary visit to the Golden Temple, Durgiana Mandir or Attar-Wagah Joint Check Post. On any day, nearly 1 lakh tourists come to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple.

Orchestrated by the erstwhile SAD-BJP, a multi-crore complete makeover plan for the holy city was drawn out with an aim to offer visitors an altogether different experience. A double decker bus service called Hop-on Hop-off was introduced that takes the tourists to 16 places of the city.

If Amritsar is here, can politics be behind. But that thought of political mileage vanishes for a moment as it takes you back to the old world charm. A Heritage Walk is a guided tour of narrow lanes of the 400-year-old city: there are katras, akharas, bungas, havelis, and hattis  the vocabulary of traditional town planning and architecture.

From Town Hall to the Golden Temple, a 800-m stretch has been spruced up at a cost of Rs 160 crore on the lines of New Yorks Time Square.

A unique rock sculpture in front of Jallianwala Bagh is lit with a flame to respect freedom struggle martyrs in 1919: another spot for selfies and pictures.

Gurcharan Singh from Ludhiana agrees that heritage street has put Amritsar on the global map. Its hygienic ambience leaves one with good impression. The congestion was an eyesore.

Ashwani Arora, a trader, says making places a no-vehicle zone has made pedestrians safer. But for differently abled, theres no provision.

Malti Shreedhar from South Delhi complains of lack of public conveniences.

Dairy owner Sanjay Sharma, in business since 1959, near Jallianwala Bagh, says restriction on vehicular movement has hampered his business. I require at least 45 milk drums daily. The milk carriage used to come straight to our dairy, but now we have to pay up double to get these drums lifted from Bharawan Da Dhaba to my shop. The barricades are removed only if there is a VIP movement, he said.
Sumedha Sharma in Gurugram

It has been five days and teenaged Saanya (name changed) refuses to leave her room, holding on to her hijab and getting scared even by a slight flutter of a newspaper. She was a chirpy girl until July 31: she had picked up a comb to hurriedly manage her mane. The moment it touched her hair, her braid came off. Screaming, she fainted and almost the entire village rushed to see the latest victim of phantom barber.

Similar incidents have been reported from Delhi, Gurugram Rewari and Fatehabad where the victims blame a witch, saying they saw black cats before falling unconscious. Some people have started putting up neem leaves, lemon & chilli bunches, talismans and even cow dung on the entrances of their houses to ward off the evil spirits.

The fear has led to both Hindu and Muslim religious leaders coming up with special charms and enchantments to ward off the phantom barber. Anti-witch hair bands have made it to local markets in Mewat and are being sold for as high as Rs 100 apiece.

Several braid saving experts are offering doorstep services and roaming the streets selling their talent to keep ones house safer through turmeric-stained handprints or a special talisman. A series of songs have been composed on braid chopping.

Call it fear or hysteria, some people say the phantom barber is a paranormal entity going around chopping braids of women in Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The phenomenon is believed to be the biggest since 2001 when monkey man started prowling the district of Nagaur in Rajasthan.

How it began

The state police were startled when a video went viral in Nagaur in the second week of June. The clip showed two men thrashing a woman, forcing her to repeatedly recite various names of gods. The two were traced and arrested and their revelation brought the story of the phantom barber to fore. They told the police that the woman was a Baal Kataani  a witch who was chopping off the braids of local women. The two produced a WhatsApp message in support of their claim.

Within days the district thanas were flooded with over 20 complaints about braid chopping incidents. With no concrete evidence, no FIR was registered. Soon, similar cases started surfacing from Bikaner, Jodhpur, Sikar and Jaipur districts. A few cases were registered, but no major breakthrough came.

While the matter was about to be written off as an odd rumour in Rajasthan, alarm bells rang out in Haryana, Delhi and UP with a barrage of reports of braid chopping reaching the authorities.

Mewat is the worst hit by phantom barber: the district police have received over 250 cases, but have registered only one case. Areas like Punhana, Ferozpur Jhirka, Nuh and Hathin have reported around 50 cases each to the local administration though victims have flatly refused to go to the police, fearing for their lives.

The victims in Rajasthan have not explained much about the mysterious chopping. In Gurugram, though, such victims are talking about a shape shifter who is seen for a few seconds before a woman falls unconscious and her braid is chopped. The fall-out has been serious: women have been confined to homes with hair tied up in buns after being massaged with badly smelling oils. The youths of villages are forming special groups to man the areas at night, and are even catching hold of suspects and turning them over to the police.

Suppressed fear?

Most say it is something similar to the 2001 case where victims saw flashes of monkey assaults. But it all turned out to be a mere hysteria. All of this started with WhatsApp messages. If you review profiles of the targeted women, you would find most of them coming from suppressed sections of society living with constant sense of victimization. And when anything of this sort happens, they are vulnerable to illusions of being targeted, says Ritika Sen, a city-based psychologist and behavioral expert. No woman living in condominiums has been touched. A detailed investigation of victims will tell us how many of these cases are genuine. Paranormal entities do exist, but their effect is localized, said Sen.

The city administration also dismisses it as a scare. There are many self-proclaimed victims. But they are not ready to file a police complaint even after much persuasion. We are currently more focused on spreading awareness and preventing rumours. Panchayats and maulvis are getting in touch with the victims and persuading villagers to deal with it logically, said Mani Ram Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Mewat.
Swati Rai

When couture took over the ramp in the Capital recently, one label had to leave a mark. This season was Shyamal & Bhumikas first at FDCIs India Couture Week. A drift from the usual cheer at the event, they brought in muted colours. Champagne gold, ruby red, emerald green, coral blue and crimson swayed the ramp. Moving away from traditional flavour, their designs were contemporary this time. And well, it turned a glamorous affair.

The Gujarat-based couple established the brand in 2003. Across the years, it has come to know for their designs that seek inspiration in the rich Indian heritage and history. The two use precious crafts and techniques of the country to create couture collections relevant to modern-day sensibilities.

Bhumikas passion for textiles and fashion led her to study fashion design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) whereas Shyamal researched fashion in Milan and London. This disparate design training and fashion exposure honed their design sensibility. It gave me a completely different perspective and helped add an international view point of fashion to our work. It led to the birth of what we call our global line, which is designed by keeping in mind the current global influences, trends and a very modern aesthetic, says Shyamal.

Architectural grandeurs of their ancestral homes to personal travels and tales that they grew up listening to, all find expression in their mood boards, sketches and, finally, the ramp. Their sartorial map remains faithful to its vision of India to the World, their tagline. They use fashion as a medium to connect global audiences through the rich and glorious crafts and artisan techniques of India.

But there is a question that bothers us again and again: Is it not a disadvantage to live away from the fashion hubs of India? Shaymal says that from marketing and networking point of view, it might not be a good idea to stay in Gujarat. However, he feels this distance gives them as an opportunity to be away from commercial pressures and influences and work in peace.

Also, when you are away, your roots and influences are different and your collections look unique. However, we do have a store in Mumbai and retail points in Delhi. So, we are very accessible to everyone. The constraint of not being in the fashion capital helped us adopt social media early on and led us to being one of the most followed south Asian designers on Facebook, he smiles.

The Princess Soiree, the collection showcased at ICW, is an extension of the common thread binding their collections form the past  that of a grand and royal, yet contemporary lexicon. With this, they carry forward their earlier collections like The Royal Procession, Shaahi Baug, etc.

The Princesss Soiree centres around a well-heeled and well-travelled woman of the present with roots in the past. The story is about her travels from India to Europe and back and her various inspirations en route. The new collection draws from the ancestral stories of their family from the late 1800s. But, it also features European details, Victorian inspirations and Baroque decorations amalgamated with rich Indian heritage. So, what you see on the ramp are floor sweeping gowns, sheer tulle capes, ruffled blouses, supple frills, belted waists, kalidaar jackets and lehengas. Fluid beadwork, dripping gold embroidery in floral setting and luscious gold thread work is immaculately incorporated. The cascading ruffles sprinkled with glitter, twirling tulle skirts and magnanimous gowns with winding floral thread work transcend you to a fantasy like ambience.

Amidst all this experimentation, one mulls if at a time when plus size fashion and ageless fashion is taking over sartorial discussions, do they see their collection breaking stereotypes Shyamal and Bhumika say, Style is more important than just blindly aping fashion trends. No wonder then that their team is trained to customise couture for a global clientele with very specific requests and multiple size specifications, suiting different age groups as well as altering the outfit to meet different religious customs.

The designers also intend taking the crafts of India to a global clientele. We have been successful in doing it over the internet and the next step would naturally be a network of international retail points to cater to this global following, says Bhumika. In the near future, they swear to breaking away from the conventional and inch towards pastels such as forest green or English green, shades of red, intricate handwork and a subtle play of sheer. Take the hint.
Washington, August 5

About 2,000 Islamic State fighters are estimated to remain in the Syrian city of Raqqa, fighting for their survival in the face of an offensive by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a senior US official said on Friday.

Brett McGurk, US special envoy for the coalition against Islamic State, said the SDF had cleared about 45 percent of Raqqa since launching an attack in early June to seize Islamic States stronghold in northern Syria.

Today in Raqqa ISIS is fighting for every last block ... and fighting for their own survival McGurk told reporters.

Some 2,000 ISIS fighters are left in the city and most likely will die in Raqqa, he said.

The assault on Raqqa coincided with the final stages of a campaign to drive Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where the Islamist militants were defeated last month.

McGurk said Islamic State has lost 27,000 square miles (70,000 sq km) of the territory it once held in the two countries - 78 percent of what they had seized in Iraq and 58 percent of what they held in Syria.

Before every military operation, coalition forces surround the area targeted to make sure Islamic States foreign fighters cannot escape and make their way out of Iraq and Syria, he said.

With the close cooperation of Turkish forces, the entire Syrian-Turkish border was sealed and Islamic State can no longer send militants trained in Syria for attacks in Europe and elsewhere, McGurk said.

The coalition has compiled a database of almost 19,000 names of Islamic State fighters gathered from cellphones, address books and other documents found on battlefields which it is sharing with the international police agency Interpol, he said.

Islamic State is also fighting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias.

McGurk said deconfliction arrangements the US and Russian militaries have made to avoid accidents as they operate separately in Syria were working well despite deteriorating diplomatic relations between the two countries.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday the US-Russian relationship was at an all-time and very dangerous low, and Russia said new sanctions imposed by Washington meant an end to hopes for better ties with the Trump administration.

So far we have not seen an effect on our engagement with the Russians when it comes to Syria, McGurk said. Reuters
Lima, August 5

A national appeals court in Peru denied the appeal of former President Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia and the couple will continue their preventive prison for 18 months.

In a 57-page decision, magistrates said on Friday that the appeal for the charges of aggravated money laundering was groundless, Xinhua news agency reported.

Perus prosecutor-general said that evidence showed Humala and Heredia received bribes from entities in Brazil and Venezuela to finance Humalas 2006 and 2011 presidential campaigns.

In 2006, Humala was the candidate for the Union for Peru (UPP), where he finished first in the first round but lost in the runoff.

In 2011, Humala won the top job with the Peru Nationalist Party (PNP).

Humala is being detained at a special facility in the district of Ate-Vitarte to the east of Lima, while Heredia is jailed at the Santa Monica Womens Prison, in the capitals district of Chorrillos.  IANS
Toronto, August 5

Rana Sarkar, an Indo-Canadian entrepreneur, has been appointed as Canada's consul general in San Francisco as well as a member of the Canadian official team tasked with renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with the US and Mexico.

Sarkar was till recently national director for high growth markets at the Toronto-based multi-national KPMG.

Sarkar is part of a 13-member group tasked with helping the Canada navigate the renegotiation of NAFTA, the Canadian government said in a statement.

From 2009 to 2013, Sarkar was president and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council. He was also the founding advisory board committee co-chairman and senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs.

The statement said the government hopes Sarkar will be able to seize on opportunities to attract investment from the US to Canada.

The Canadian government is beefing up its team in the US as it prepares a full court press to defend Canada's interests in the looming renegotiation of the NAFTA, CTV News reported.

Talks on changing the NAFTA agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico are scheduled to begin on August 16.

According to Global Affairs Canada, the advisory council will bring "expertise and strategic advice" to the Canadian side of the discussion.

Appointment of Sarkar in this high profile position is amongst a series of appointments of Indo-Canadians made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

They include four Indo-Canadian federal ministers: Bardish Chagger as the Minister for Small Business and Tourism and House Leader, Navdeep Bains as the Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Harjit Singh Sajjan as the Minister for National Defence and Amarjeet Sohi as the Minister for Infrastructure and Communities. PTI
Toronto: Rana Sarkar, an Indo-Canadian who was till recently the national director for high growth markets at the multinational KPMG, has been named by the Justin Trudeau government as Canada's Consul-General to San Francisco. He has also been named a member of the high-profile Canadian team for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the US and Mexico. IANS

$30K bail for UK researcher in malware case

Las Vegas: A federal judge has set a bail of USD 30,000 for a celebrated cybersecurity researcher accused of creating and distributing malicious software designed to steal banking passwords. Marcus Hutchins, 23, who has broad support in the information-security community, would contest the charges. The UK hacker gained overnight fame when he helped curb the spread of the WannaCry ransomware attack. AP

9-yr-old eyes NASA job to prevent invasion

Washington: NASA has sent an inspiring letter to a nine-year-old who expressed interest in being a Planetary Protection Officer after the US space agency announced an opening for the position. Jack Davis from New Jersey is a self-proclaimed 'Guardian of the Galaxy'. The position promotes the exploration of the solar system by preventing microbial contamination of planets. IANS
Lahore, August 5

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif "smartly deprived" his younger brother Shahbaz an opportunity to become prime minister because of "family politics" despite nominating the Punjab chief minister as his eventual successor, according to some PML-N leaders.

After his disqualification by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case on July 28 Nawaz Sharif had announced that Shahbaz Sharif would be prime minister for remaining 10-month tenure of the party after interim arrangements of 45-day for which Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected premier.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

In the background interviews, some PML-N leaders said they are of the view that Shehbaz Sharif is made to miss a "golden opportunity" to succeed his elder brother as there was no guarantee that he would get the same chance in 2018 if PML-N won the election, as more players from the elder Sharif family will be there in the race for the top slot.

His wife Kalsoom will be strong candidate for the prime minister in case PML-N won the 2018 general election if his daughter  Maryam  doesnt find herself cleared of corruption charges she faces in the accountability courts by then," a top PML-N leader said. "Perhaps Shehbaz missed the golden chance of becoming premier, thanks to smart politics of his elder brother. Who knows about 2018 election's outcome and family politics then.

Sharif actually told his brother that he couldn't take his chances with him (Shahbaz). Sharif fears Shahbaz might take control of the party once he becomes and will also hand over Punjab province to his son Hamza," he said.

Another leader said: "Sharif played excellent family politics. First he announced his brother successor. Later he built a campaign within the PML-N through his close aides establishing a narrative that Shahbaz's quitting of Punjab would be disastrous for the party as it might be split and face difficulties in 2018 polls. Had not Nawaz and company known the importance of Punjab for PML-N earlier?"

On the other hand, Shahbaz had tried unsuccessfully to have his brother take him to the Centre and leave Punjab to his son Hamza.

Maryam, who is blamed for Dawn Leaks and giving 'ill-advice' to her father regarding handling the Panama Papers case legally and politically, is also not in favour of his uncle's elevation to the Centre.

"Maryam does not like to see the total control of Shahbaz and his family in the Centre, Punjab and the PML-N," another PML-N leader from Punjab said.

"Giving everything on the platter of Shahbaz was never in the scheme of things of the elder brother and Maryam. Blockade of Shahbaz to the Centre will help Nawaz a compete control over the party affairs and pave the way for future premier from his family," he said, adding that the current arrangement suited the leadership as Sharif would see matters in the Centre and run the government through "puppet PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi" and Shahbaz reduced to Punjab.

Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said the decision to 'retain' Shahbaz had almost been finalised.

Asif says the party wanted Shahbaz in Punjab because of his relationship with MPAs in Punjab, as well as because of his knowledge of ongoing development projects.

"A large section of the party is of the view that Shahbaz should continue delivering in Punjab." PTI
Mexico City, August 5

Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday it planned to build pickup trucks and possibly SUVs at a new plant in Mexico, a move that followed threats by US President Donald Trump to penalise the company if it built small cars south of the border.

Toyota initially planned to produce Corolla sedans at the plant it is building in the central state of Guanajuato but will now switch production of the small cars and a new Mazda SUV crossover to a new assembly plant planned for the United States.

Trump threatened in January to impose a hefty fee on the worlds largest automaker if it built Corollas for the US market in Mexico.

Toyota de Mexico spokesman Luis Lozano said the global auto maker would study producing SUVs in Guanajuato, in addition to the Tacoma truck model.

Were going to concentrate only on pickups at the beginning and are studying the potential for SUVs in the future, he said.

Trucks and SUVs represented some 65 per cent of the North American market, Lozano said.

The decision came as Toyota planned to take a 5 per cent share of smaller Japanese rival Mazda Motor Corp as part of an alliance that will see the two build a $1.6 billion U.S. assembly plant and work together on electric vehicles.

A move to produce SUVs in Guanajuato would mark a continuation of a burgeoning trend of Mexican manufacturing meeting quality standards needed to produce more expensive vehicles, said Christopher Wilson of the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

Instead of building lower value cars that generally offer smaller margins in Mexico and keeping high-value SUV and luxury model production in the US, they are moving in the opposite direction, said Wilson, deputy director of the think tanks Mexico institute.

The moves by Toyota seem to be designed to reduce political pressure on the company from President Trump, he added.

Toyotas Lozano told a Mexico radio station later on Friday he expected the companys level of investment in the region to remain similar despite the shift in plans.

The investment that we calculated when we announced the decision to make a plant for Corolla was for $1 billion dollars, he said.

At present, we dont have a final figure for what this change means for our assessments. Up to now, it seems it wont vary substantially, Lozano said. Reuters
Washington, August 5

US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have discussed various global issues, including mutual interests regarding North Korea, crisis in Syria and Iraq, the White House has said.

Trump and Macron spoke on the phone, the White House said in a statement yesterday.

Trump spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France to explore how to increase cooperation in addressing the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq and countering Iranian malign influence, it said.

They also spoke about forging a political resolution in Libya and countering terror activity in the Sahel region of Africa, it added.

They agreed that the Maduro regime in Venezuela must restore the rights of the Venezuelan people and reaffirmed the importance of all sides implementing the Minsk agreements to reach a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, the White House said.

Finally, they discussed mutual interests regarding North Korea, it said. PTI
A 2-year-old Tulsa energy company has made its first acquisition and plans to hire up to 100 people.

Oak Ridge Natural Resources, through its subsidiary Pinedale Energy Partners, announced its $740 million purchase of all assets in the Pinedale Field in western Wyoming held by Denver-based QEP Resources. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by Sept. 30.

The acquisition is a milestone for Oak Ridge, which was backed by an initial $300 million equity commitment from the Kayne Private Energy Income Fund LP.

We are excited to announce our first acquisition since forming Oak Ridge, company CEO Chris Jacobsen said Thursday. Weve been looking for deals for two years. We ended up second four times. Were excited to have landed one and, quite honestly, the one weve wanted the most.

The assets generated 234 million cubic feet equivalent per day of net production from over 1,100 producing wells in the first quarter of 2017, according to an Oak Ridge statement. They include several low-risk vertical drilling locations along with significant acreage in the emerging horizontal Lance and deep Hilliard plays.

The agreement calls for QEP to reimburse the company for any deficiency charges it incurs related to gas processing and transportation contracts between the date of sale and Dec. 31, 2019, while not exceeding $45 million.

Jacobsen said the company will look to hire 40-50 field employees in Wyoming and another 40-50 at its Tulsa office at 5727 S. Lewis Ave. It will seek candidates with land, accounting and operation backgrounds with specific experience in leases with the Bureau of Land Management and Wyoming leases.

Oak Ridge currently has 14 employees.

We have enjoyed being in Pinedale and getting to know the Wyoming employees over the last two weeks Jacobsen said. Surrounding yourself with good, quality people is always the key to great success.

Were acquiring one of the largest gas fields in the United States. Were only acquiring a part of it, but the portion were acquiring already produced 2 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Officials with American Farmers and Ranchers will be in Wagoner County at the Wagoner Civic Center Tuesday, Aug. 29 to meet with AFR members and their friends for an informal barbecue.

The meal will be served promptly at 6 p.m. and be followed by issue discussion.

We want to use this informal, relaxed atmosphere to learn the critical issues on the minds of Oklahoma farmers and ranchers, AFR President Terry Detrick said.

Among the issues for possible discussion include the new federal farm bill, the current agriculture economy, tax increases and the states continuing budget challenge.

Detrick said the issues discussed will lead to new and improved policies for the states oldest farm organization.

The thoughts and ideas surfaced at these barbeques will be used by our members to formulate policies to be voted on at our annual convention in February, Detrick said. These policies are important as they will guide or organization throughout the coming year.

For more information or to RSVP, contact Bethany Andrews at 405-218-5531 or by email at bandrews@afrmic.com
The amount of saltwater being disposed of in Oklahomas deepest wells in the earthquake-prone parts of the state has dropped to a monthly level not seen since late 2011, according to government data analyzed by the Tulsa World.

In July, the operators of 443 Arbuckle disposal wells reported injecting 36.2 million barrels of produced wastewater within the 15,000-square-mile region under stricter quake regulations, according to Oklahoma Corporation Commission data. Figures for the last two days of the month werent available.

At the overall peak of disposal volumes, 94.5 million barrels were injected in December 2014. That is about 2 times more than the July amount. Volumes first topped 40 million barrels in early 2012.

Regulators and researchers have been analyzing data after several earthquakes that struck near Edmond on Tuesday and Wednesday, including a magnitude 4.2 that tied for Oklahomas largest in 2017.

Scientists say Oklahomas man-made earthquakes are caused by the tremendous volume of ancient seawater in some shale formations that comes to the surface with oil and natural gas and is re-injected back into the ground in the states deepest geologic formation  the Arbuckle.

The saltwaters pressure pops off earthquakes in the states crystalline granite basement, which has many faults that are critically stressed by natural tectonic forces and optimally oriented to slip.

From 2011 through 2016, 206 unique well operators reported injecting 4.2 billion barrels in 723 disposal wells, according to a previous analysis by the World.

For perspective, the 4.2 billion barrels is analogous to 64 hours of water flowing over Niagara Falls or 88 brimming Lake Yaholas in north Tulsa.

The high of 94.5 million barrels in December 2014 is equivalent to two Lake Yaholas. The 36.2 million barrels in July equates to three-fourths of Lake Yahola.

State seismologist Jake Walter said the Oklahoma Geological Surveys interpretation of the recent Edmond earthquake swarm is that if the wastewater injection of the past several years theoretically were to be removed, the series of quakes likely wouldnt have happened.

But he explained that it is difficult for experts to evaluate success of regulatory actions because of the complexity of causal factors.

Its not clear that any kind of mitigation would be successful other than a long-term strategy of wastewater reduction, Walter said in response to a question about whether more regulatory action is needed.

Matt Skinner, spokesman for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, previously said more actions will be required by the agency to restore what would be considered normal seismicity for Oklahoma.

He said whether the spike in seismicity near Edmond will prompt any new measures specific to that area isnt clear yet.

(The earthquake risk is) obviously unacceptably high, even if Edmond hadnt happened, Skinner said.
CLAREMORE  Air handling systems may not come to mind when people think of museums, but they are vital. Without proper climate control, documents, paintings and artifacts deteriorate more quickly and are more subject to mold and mildew.

Thats why officials say the Will Rogers Memorials newly installed $930,000 system is one of the most significant additions since the museum opened in 1938.

I would say its the third-most important thing thats happened here, after the opening of the original building and the addition, said Pat Reeder, the museums public relations director.

The original 15,000-square-foot museum opened three years after Rogers death in a 1935 plane crash. An 11,000-square-foot addition was added in 1983.

Reeder said the old heating and air conditioning system was long outdated and jeopardized the safety of the museums collection.

We have Wills original manuscripts, she said. I know theyre in the process of being digitized, but those original manuscripts, where you can see where he has marked out and marked over, are priceless.

The improvement was authorized by the Oklahoma Long-Range Capital Improvement Commission, which oversees major maintenance of state-owned buildings.

This is such an important project for the future of the museum and the collection for the next 100 years, said Tad Jones, executive director of the Will Rogers Memorial.

Jones particularly thanked a pair of Claremore lawmakers, state Sen. Marty Quinn and state Rep. Mark Lepak.

The Will Rogers Memorial houses some 18,000 photographs and thousands of original manuscripts, private letters, documents, motion pictures, home movies and audio tapes.

It recently received nearly 1,500 Will Rogers movie posters and other items from the collection of former Tulsa resident Gordon Kuntz.
The graduation of 20 cadets from the Tulsa Police Academy will help fill a hole in the agencys ranks of active personnel, but efforts to reverse a longstanding officer shortage are far from over.

While 22 graduates walked across the stage during a ceremony at the academy Friday, two were Tulsa firefighters who underwent the training to fulfill certification requirements to serve as fire marshals. The rest will join the police force and receive permanent assignments after finishing a 16-week field training program in which they will work in each of the departments patrol divisions.

Police are eager to welcome the newcomers, who spent 28 weeks in rigorous training at the academy, into their sapped ranks.

Its extremely nice. There was a great turnout, Sgt. Shane Tuell said. We just want to have more bodies in police cars because we want to get back to where we were years ago.

Tuell said the Tulsa Police Department has struggled for several years with attrition, as it continues to lose more officers than it can hire.

A study released in 2015 by the University of Cincinnatis Institute of Crime Science recommended that the Tulsa Police Department hire an additional 200 officers to be adequately staffed. The studys findings led to the passing of the Vision public safety tax renewal and the funding of more than 100 officers over the course of 16 years.

The departments authorized strength increased from 783 to 853 at the start of July, but it had only 682 sworn personnel as of Friday, Tuell said. The new graduates will be added to that count in November, while the next academy class of 29 cadets is set to graduate in December. Another class beginning in September is slated to have 30 cadets.

Although the frequent hiring boosts help, Tuell doesnt expect to see a real impact for at least a few more years.

Were losing on average about 4.2 officers a month, he said. Whenever you put a 20-man academy out there, it makes a very small dent in your very large manpower problem. But as long as we keep rolling out the classes, its going to help.

During his speech in Fridays ceremony, Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan diverged from his routine of talking about the heroes who have emerged in the departments history. Instead, he focused on the troubled state of affairs in modern-day policing and laid out his hopes for the future.

Jordan said police nationwide consistently are bombarded with criticism, verbal attacks and even physical attacks.

There are times it seems when we can do nothing right, Jordan told the new officers. Sometimes our actions are grossly misinterpreted by the media and even members of our own community. And sometimes we have to admit we could have done things better or differently.

Whats most important, he said, is that officers rise above their natural reactions to be defensive and strive to objectively see what they can do better.

Jordan said police always will defend themselves from false accusations but also emphasized the importance of not dwelling on them. He added that most people support law enforcement and are grateful for their sacrifice, but its the detractors who speak with the loudest voices.

Some will have valid concerns. If we are going to move forward, we must listen to those concerns and have those difficult conversations, he said. The oath youll take this morning does not specify to serve and protect only those who speak well of you. It applies to all citizens.

Graduate Kyle Russell said he signed up for the academy to follow through with his lifelong dream of becoming a police officer and being a part of something greater than himself.

Russell said the pervasive criticism targeting police didnt discourage him from following through with his commitment.

Theres a lot of problems in the world, so becoming a solution is something to be proud of, he said. At times things are tough, but it doesnt mean you stop trying. You just keep working to make things better.

Capt. Steve Rhodes, one of the two firefighters who completed the academy, decided to become a fire marshal for the challenge of doing something new. After almost 22 years with the Tulsa Fire Department, he said he looks forward to the day-to-day change in routine that comes with investigating arson and apprehending suspects.

Rhodes said he appreciates the experience he received during training and values the bonds he formed with the police officers in his class, even with all the teasing endured by the outnumbered firefighters.

I caught so much flak from these guys, Rhodes joked. But its like having a big brother. The big brother can pick on the little brother and the little brother can pick on the big brother, but a stranger doesnt pick on either one of them. Thats kind of the way we are. We can pick on each other and give each other a hard time, but when were out on the scene, were a team.
The ongoing battle for control of the Cayuga Nation in central New York is heading back to court, as one faction seeks the return of businesses and other assets taken over by another.

The Cayuga Nation Council on Friday said that the federal Interior Board of Indian Appeals had rejected a motion by the Unity Council seeking to overturn a federal decision recognizing Clint Halftown and his council as the official governing body of the Nation.

Halftown's group also said that it filed a complaint Friday in New York State Supreme Court seeking the return of properties, inventory and other assets taken from its control in 2014. The properties include businesses, offices and a security trailer in Seneca County.

The complaint, according to a news release, "also seeks monetary damages from Cayuga and non-Cayuga individuals who have been in possession of these properties and assets and seized them for their own personal use and benefit."

Last year, Halftown distributed voting ballots to some Cayuga Nation members, requesting their support for his council. The ballots did not include anyone else to vote for, but the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs used the information as part of its process in determining the Halftown group should be the official Nation leaders.

Joseph Heath, the attorney for a Nation group formerly known as the Unity Council, filed a motion questioning the validity of the decision to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals. Heath said at the time that if the motion was unsuccessful, "then the avenue for challenging that becomes federal court. We don't want to be in federal court, but if there are no other alternatives, we are certainly prepared to do that."

Heath added that he would likely file in the federal district court in Washington D.C. where there are more cases handled involving the review of agency decisions.
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It's a summer Friday, so you know what that means: antsy office workers, loosened ties, potential conference room beersand semi-NSFW Twitter poetry battles between two major transit agencies.

Yes, it's been a little more than a year since the great Metro/BART Haiku Battle of June 2016, and the two agencies' social media teams appear to be at it again. But this time they've thrown the 5-7-5 haiku form by the wayside, and are instead opting for limericks... about weed.

Largely popularized through the Mother Goose nursery rhymes, the limerick is a verse form composed of five lines that adhere to a strict rhyme scheme ( aabba, for anyone who was wondering). The limerick, according to the American Academy of Poets, "is often comical, nonsensical, and sometimes even lewd."

Today's comical, nonsensical, and sometimes even lewd poetry face-off began just before 12:30 p.m., when the wild San Franciscans at BART decided to remind their readers not to get stoned in the transit zone, via popular microblogging platform Twitter. And, for reasons that at first seemed inexplicable, BART felt the need to drag the good people at Metro Los Angeles into it:

To keep things from going amiss

On BART please don't smoke cannabis

It stinks up the train

Maybe you can explain

This best @metrolosangeles  BART (@SFBART) August 4, 2017

We find both the limerick and the fact that BART is still operating, despite its citizenry's mass exodus to the Tech Bus Dark Side, very cute! But what the heck does this have to do with us in L.A.?

Well, as the renowned literary scholars at The Paris Review Mashable pointed out, @MetroLosAngeles does rhyme with cannabis. Color us legitimately impressed.

More than an hour later (was everyone at an all-staff lunch? An hour is like six months in internet time!) Metro saw fit to reply with a limerick of their own. The home of City Lights Bookstore was unimpressed:

Metro took the criticism in stride, and stepped up their game:

Much better. 10/10  BART (@SFBART) August 4, 2017

Soon, the L.A. Times' transit reporter Laura Nelson was ON IT. But, in a true understanding of the fourth estate's role as a watchdog over the agencies they cover, Nelson also felt the need to point out that Metro's anapests (the metrical feet wherein certain syllables should be stressed) weren't quite up to snuff:

A summer Friday in California: The transit agencies for Los Angeles and San Francisco are having a limerick battle about weed. pic.twitter.com/yozrPCRqdj  Laura J. Nelson  (@laura_nelson) August 4, 2017

.@metrolosangeles's anapaests need a bit of work.  Laura J. Nelson  (@laura_nelson) August 4, 2017

Other less relevant cities also tried to get involved, but honestly no one cared...

Packed ferry with hours on 80

Parking fees & high tolls a plenty

So I hop on a bus

Cause #SolTrans helps us

Bond us to #Bart as a new bestie pic.twitter.com/zHbEKLITZJ  VisitVallejo (@VisitVallejo) August 4, 2017

Seattle is smoldering, record heat, BC smoke,

But there's no Route 420 upon which you can toke@SFBART @metrolosangeles  King County Metro   (@kcmetrobus) August 4, 2017

Seriously, bless Metro and BART for their reaction GIFs to Seattle's continued nonsense:

And oh dear God, Canada. O, Canada:

Sorry Jocelyn, this rep is terrible with poetry. Have a nice day. :) ^DM  TTC Customer Service (@TTChelps) August 4, 2017

Toronto Transit with the most Canadian response of all time. https://t.co/GRoyN8D873  BART (@SFBART) August 4, 2017

In conclusion, we hope your weekend is even a fraction as good as this final one-two punch from BART:
Dan Bullock doctored his birth certificate to join the Marines ( BETTMANN/CORBIS)

A photo of Dan Bullock while in Vietnam.

The name of Dan Bullock on The Wall in Washington, D.C.

His grave in North Carolina bears a stone paid for years ago by talk show host Sally Jesse Raphael.

How many of you knew that the youngest American soldier to be killed during the Vietnam War was only 15 yrs. old? The minimum age for enlistment was 17 years-old with parental consent.U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Dan Bullock is a name everyone should know, but many do not. The Brooklyn teen was just 15 years old when he was killed in action in the Quang Nam province of South Vietnam in 1969, making him the youngest American casualty of the Vietnam War. He enlisted after he doctored his birth certificate to join the Marines.When you visit the memorial page for Dan Bullock , prepare to scroll through dozens of remembrances. Strangers, veterans, and loved ones have left heartfelt stories and messages of thanks in honor of a young man who lost his life too soon.Dan is one of the more than 58,000 service members whose names are inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Dan is remembered on Panel 23W, Row 96.Originally from Goldsboro, North Carolina, Dan moved to Brooklyn, New York with his father and siblings as a teenager. Unsatisfied with his living situation in New York and discouraged by a lack of opportunity, Dan searched for a better life.In order to achieve this, Dan falsified the date on his birth certificate to read Dec. 21, 1949 in order to enlist in the Marine Corps. On paper, Dan was 18 years old. He enlisted in the Marines on September 18, 1968 at just 14 years old. Dan was assigned to Fox Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment as a rifleman. He arrived in Vietnam on May 18, 1969.Dan was large in stature, standing at about 5-foot-9 inches and weighing about 160 pounds. However, Dan seemed to lack in endurance, most visible during boot camp. Despite his size, Dan was a boy in every regard.Nearly one month after Dan was in-country, the 15-year-old was killed on June 7, 1969 as a result of small arms fire while on night watch duty, according to his squad leader.Today, The Wall is where his story remains. His name is spoken from the mouths of volunteers, teachers, and veterans. His sacrifice teaches a nation why we should never forget. Visitors touch his name and feel the power of an unyielding legacy.A remembrance left by Sandra Hoskins sums up the sentiments of many. You did it for me, you did it for your father, you did it for the United States.Dan is buried in his hometown of Goldsboro, North Carolina. He is revered as one of the ordinary who answered his nations call for his fellow men and country.(via Your Stories. Your Wall.
Insurers now are now racing for bancassurance deals (Illustration)

In the first six months of 2017, there have been at least five bancassurance deals among insurance companies and commercial banks so that insurers can sell their products through the banking channel.

Two more bancassurance deals are expected in August. It seems that insurance companies are in a hurry to find an appropriate banking partner so that they can catch up with the bancassurance trend.

Bancassurance accounts for more than 10 per cent of AIA (Vietnam) Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (AIA Vietnam)s total revenue, and it is forecasted that this number will rise in the future. To develop business in the bancassurance sector, our strategy is to carefully select domestic and foreign commercial banks for partnership. Our partners can share with us technology-based customer services, Wayne Besant, general director of AIA Vietnam, said at the ceremony to announce partnership with HSBC Bank (Vietnam) Ltd. (HSBC Vietnam) in the middle of May 2017. This was one of five bancassurance deals in the first half of 2017.

AIA Vietnam is one of the rapidly developing insurers in the bancassurance sector. After teaming up with HSBC Vietnam, it entered into cooperation with the South Korean Shinhan Bank to provide clients with the newest technology at the event Fuel customer experience with digital capabilities.

Recently, in early August, AIA Vietnam has officially announced a cooperation deal with DongA Joint Stock Commercial Bank (DongA Bank). Accordingly, all insurance counselors of AIA Vietnam in DongA Bank will be equipped with iPoS on their iPads to facilitate their support to customers, such as quickly recording customer information and establishing an illustration table that shows customers benefits.

Nearly at the same time with AIAs cooperation with DongA Bank, FWD Vietnam Life Insurance Company Limited also published its partnership with Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Nam A Bank). In particular, this will be an exclusive cooperation which will last for 15 years, with the aim of providing Nam A Banks customers with comprehensive and diverse life insurance products.

Anantharaman Sridharan, FWD Vietnams general director, said that the companys outstanding growth in the last six months derived from the significant contribution of its bancassurance business. Right from entering the Vietnamese market, bancassurance was considered one of the most important strategies of FWD Vietnam.

Earlier, FWD Vietnam stroke an exclusive bancassurance contract with the maturity of 15 years with An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank).

As a partner of a big commercial bank in Vietnam, Gaurav Sharma, general director of BIDV MetLife Life Insurance Limited Liability Company (BIDV MetLife), said that he really believes in the development potential of the bancassurance sector in Vietnam.

With the advantage of teaming up with Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), one of the four biggest commercial banks in the country, the New York City-headquartered life insurer MetLife is always ready to supply capital to its joint venture in Vietnam so that BIDV MetLife can take the leading position in the Vietnamese bancassurance sector in the coming period.

The increasing bancassurance deals have demonstrated that the competition in the sector is heating up. The representative of an insurance company said, Not only big insurers with large market share, but smaller ones are also hurrying up to find a banking partner.

This month, two insurance companies with large market shares will announce their cooperation with banks.

With the advantage of various branches all over the world, modern facilities, and experienced staff, commercial banks are now hunted by insurers. Competition in bancassurance is getting fiercer, as most local insurers have joined or tried to join this sector.

Nevertheless, the number of commercial banks is limited, and some have signed exclusive contracts with other insurers. Thus, if they do not act in time, some insurers will not find appropriate banking partners and may lose in the bancassurance race.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc chairs the Governments regular meeting, Ha Noi, August 3, 2017 - Photo: VGP/Quang Hieu

PM Phuc made the request yesterday while chairing the Governments regular meeting in July on August 3 on measures to cut income expenditures for businesses.

Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung reported that a document on cutting fees and income expenditures for enterprises was submitted to the PM on July 31.

Nevertheless, Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha and Minister-Chairman of the Office of the Government Mai Tien Dung complained that the document has yet presented an overview of business expenditures. They also proposed the Government make fundamental direction.

Minister Dung stressed the need to focus on other costs in construction licenses, labor, market and capital access.

The Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported that out of 243 conditional business lines, there are 5,719 business conditions (usually so-called small licenses).

The Ministry of Industry and Trade regulates 27 conditional business lines, the largest of this kind with 1,220 small business licenses. The Ministry of Construction required the least conditional business lines (17) and 106 small licenses.

Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue stressed that businesses are suffering high expenditures from customs clearance. So far, the proportion of imported shipments subject to specialized inspections during the customs clearance period was 35%. However, the erroneous rate was only 0.06%. Thus, the proportion was set to cut to only 15%.

Cutting business costs

PM Phuc hailed the interest cuts and practical contribution of the MoF for the business circle.

However, business costs remained high especially capital, social insurance, and trade union fund. So far, in Viet Nam, the rate of social insurance payment was at the highest level in ASEAN at 32.5% of total monthly wage (of which businesses pay 22% and laborers 10.5%).

In addition, transport and logistics costs were also high, while costs relating to business, brand name and tax registration, and customs were streamlined but at low rate.

PM Phuc also emphasized costs on small business licenses for conditional business lines.

He highlighted the determination to turn 2017 into a year of cutting business costs.
Rescue workers cleared a road which was filled with mud after a flash flood in Yen Bai Province on August 3.

The Central Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control said that reports from authorities in the four provinces of Son La, Yen Bai, Dien Bien and Lai Chau showed that by 5pm on August 3, seven people have died in Yen Bai, Son La, Lai Chau and 27 others remained missing in the area.

The report also said that the flash floods had swept away and damaged 240 houses and many national roads and commune's roads in the area. The total amount of mud slid was estimated at over 33,000 cubic metres.

The flooding has also isolated many residential areas.

The flash floods which were triggered by torrential rains over the past few days in the area occurred on August 2 evening lasted through August 3 morning.

Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung arrived at Yen Bai Province on August 3 morning to direct the rescue work.

The northern region is forecasted to have rains and rainstorm from now on to August 6 according to the Centre for Hydro-meteorology Forecast.
File photo of Qantas airplanes. (Photo: AFP)

Flight QF7 was enroute to Dallas, but the Airbus A380's captain decided to head back to Sydney after discovering the wing flaps could not be retracted.

"(This) means the aircraft can't fly efficiently. As the Dallas flight is our longest on the network, the captain made the decision to return to Sydney," Qantas said in a statement.

The second flight, QF63 to Johannesburg, returned when "a cracked pane of glass on the aircraft windscreen" was found.

"An aircraft windscreen is made up of three layers of glass, the outer pane had cracked but did not compromise the integrity of the aircraft," the statement added.

"The aircraft was safe to continue to Johannesburg but the captain made the decision to return as the windscreen will be replaced at Qantas' engineering base in Sydney."

Qantas said the Boeing 747-400 landed safely. Replacement flights were being arranged for passengers.

Several flights have had to return to Australia in recent months, including an AirAsia Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur service last month that the carrier said involved a suspected bird strike.

In June, a China Eastern plane bound for Shanghai made an emergency landing in Sydney after a huge hole appeared in one of its engine casings.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been leading the charge at the UN Security Council for tougher sanctions against North Korea. (AFP/Jewel SAMAD)

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been leading the charge at the UN Security Council for tougher sanctions against North Korea. (AFP/Jewel SAMAD)

UNITED NATIONS: The United States on Friday (Aug 4) presented a draft UN resolution toughening sanctions on North Korea with a sweeping ban on exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood that could deprive Pyongyang of US$1 billion in annual revenue.

After a month of negotiations, the United States reached a deal with China, North Korea's main trading partner and ally, on the measures aimed at ratcheting up pressure on Pyongyang to halt its missile and nuclear tests.

The United States requested the UN Security Council hold a vote on Saturday on the new raft of sanctions, but the meeting was not immediately confirmed.

The draft resolution calls for a ban on all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state, according to the text seen by AFP.

If implemented by all countries, the ban would strip Pyongyang of roughly a third of its export earnings estimated at US$3 billion per year, according to a diplomat familiar with the negotiations.

The diplomat, who briefed reporters on the content of the draft, said he had "high confidence" that China and Russia would support the proposed sanctions.

Backed by its European allies, Japan and South Korea, the United States has been leading the push at the United Nations for tougher sanctions in response to North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Jul 4.

A second test on Jul 28 further raised alarm about Pyongyang's drive to develop a missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

The draft text would also prevent North Korea from increasing the number of workers it sends abroad, prohibit all new joint ventures and ban new investment in the current joint companies.

North Korea is blamed for a "massive diversion of its scarce resources" toward the development of "nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programmes," the draft resolution said.

The new raft of measures would be the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006, but these have failed to compel Pyongyang to change its behaviour.

Two resolutions adopted last year however have introduced economic sanctions with more bite.

The United States has put heavy pressure on China, which accounts for 90 per cent of trade with North Korea, to enforce the sanctions.

NO BAN ON OIL

The proposed resolution would add North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank, which manages foreign exchange, to a UN sanctions blacklist that imposes an assets freeze.

It would also tighten trade restrictions on technology to prevent North Korea from acquiring items that could be used for its military programs.

Under the proposed measure, North Korean vessels caught violating UN resolutions would be banned from entering ports in all countries.

The draft resolution however does not provide for cuts to oil deliveries to North Korea - a move that would have dealt a serious blow to the economy.

Russia, which like China is a veto-wielding council member, had warned that it would not support sanctions that would worsen North Korea's humanitarian crisis.

The United States and its European allies, as well as Japan and South Korea, have argued that tougher sanctions are needed to force North Korea to halt its military programmes.

China and Russia have meanwhile insisted that sanctions alone will not change Pyongyang's behaviour and that talks are needed to address the crisis.

As negotiations at the United Nations entered the final stretch, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that Washington was not seeking regime change in North Korea and was willing to talk to Pyongyang.
Passengers wait to complete immigration procedures at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC

Holders of ordinary passports with a validity of at least six months are subject to a visa-free stay shorter than 90 days.

The visa waiver will not apply to those wanting to stay for more than 90 days or wanting to stay in the foreign country to do business.

Previously, Vietnam allowed tourists from 23 countries and territories to enter and stay in the country without a visa. Since February 1, the Government has started the pilot issuance of e-visas for travelers from 40 countries in Asia, Europe and America.

E-visas are now accepted at 28 border gates, including eight by air, 13 on land and seven on sea.
A cholera victim displays his Haitian national identification card as he discussed the psychological and physical scars of the disease. He is among scores of cholera victims who gather regularly in Haitis Cite Soleil seaside slum to get updates on their plea for compensation from the United Nations.
It was on 28 July 1954, in Sabaneta de Barinas, Venezuela that one of the most important revolutionary leaders in Latin Americas history was born: Hugo Chavez Frias.

His mother, Elena Frias, brought him into the world, yet only remained with him until he was delivered. Story has it that, as a child growing up, he enjoyed listening to the stories related by his grandmother about the heroes that liberated his country and those who confronted the injustices inflicted by dictatorial governments in the period before the Republic of Venezuela was established; leaders that paid scant regard to the Bolivarian ideal and almost bowed in deference to the new colonialism that the United States and the European powers, helped out by servile, local oligarchies, put in place in Latin America.

Hugo Chavez spent his first years in this environment where traditions and legends were glorified through the gentle lilting voice of his paternal grandma, Rosa Ines. During this period he became acquainted with the exceptional deeds of General Paez and his cavalry of plainsmen that, with their spears, could conquer the best cavalrymen that the Spanish army had. He also became familiar with the guerrillas of the Maisanta, who had risen up against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gomez.

As Chavez himself would say, it was in fact Grandma Rosa Ines who advised him of his difficult path as a military and revolutionary and accurately predicted the course his life would take. And this she did when he, the future president of Venezuela, was just 21. Having graduated from military academy with the ranking of a sub-lieutenant, he had a stellar development that, in 1982 led him to establish within the army, the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement 200 (MBR200). Heading this movement, he commenced another attempt to take heaven by storm on 4 February 1992.

On this day, dressed for battle, he took his gun and headed a rebellion with forces of the commanders who took orders from him in Maracaibo, Caracas, Valencia and Maracay. His aim? To assume power and begin a revolution that would transform his country.

The movement failed and those who had participated in it were arrested. Yet on this day, TV enabled the Venezuelan people to get a glimpse of and get to know that young lieutenant called Hugo Chavez Frias, who announced that for now the objectives of the movement had not succeeded; that this was a failure that rested squarely on his shoulders, and that his companions should now return to the barracks.

The media, far from rubbishing the revolutionary leader, validated him, asserting that he was supported by the people. Thereafter he just kept getting more popular. When he was finally released from prison, thanks to the pressure applied by the people against the discredited President Carlos Andres Perez, he toiled with every sinew in his body to building a mass movement.

Within a short time, he was transformed into the peoples candidate in the presidential elections held on 6 December 1998. Chavez emerged victorious, obtaining 56.24% of the votes cast in a transparent electoral process, untainted by corruption; a process in which the people fully participated, which paved the way for a democratic tradition for more than 20 ballots, realized and won by an immense majority in support of the Chavista project.

The Bolivarian Revolution will change forever the regions stagnant political context, destroying the neoliberal offensive and demonstrating while the Left is in crisis, dealt an almost fatal blow by the dissolution of the USSR and its European Socialist allies, that the paths leading to substantive social transformation maintain their vigour, and still bring hope to oppressed people wherever they may be in the world.

As the Cuban leader Fidel Castro said, in all Cubas history, there had been no better friend to the Cuban people than Chavez, who has also been an extraordinary support for Latin American integration and solidarity. This is why, right from the beginning, Chavez was able to successfully counter the destabilizing and economic aggressions waged by Yankee imperialism and those oligarchs in the Yankee backyard that were allied to it.

In 2011, Sabanetas boy was diagnosed with cancer, too timely for the interests of US imperialism. Yet with his extraordinary strength and courage, he got on top of it, and exhausted his final energies on the Bolivarian movement, winning the Presidential Elections on 7 October 2012, with a mandate for the period 2013-2019. Yet his lot was death on 5 March 2013.

Today, the fatherland of Hugo Chavez faces an offensive led by the US government, its troops and right wing media that feeds an internal terrorist minority, for whom destruction awaits, dealt out by the followers of the Eternal Commander., that poor boy from Sabaneta who dreamed of having a gun in his hand so that he could stand shoulder to shoulder with the mythical heroes of his countrys past, brought to life through the tales of Grandma Rosa Ines.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia  Cambodias prime minister has ordered the ouster of an American-led Christian organization that seeks to rescue and rehabilitate women working in the sex trade, saying its comments in a TV report last week demeaned the country.

The report by CNN showed the head of the Agape International Mission, Don Brewster of Lincoln, California, describing child prostitution in the Svay Pak suburb of Phnom Penh. The report was a follow-up to a 2013 story on the same subject.

Prime Minister Hun Sen singled out the programs reporting that Cambodian mothers sold their daughters into prostitution as particularly insulting, although a 2013 story by CNN had previously reported that. The new report also showed Brewster declaring that Svay Paks child prostitution problem had improved.

Representatives in Cambodia for Agape, or AIM, could not be contacted for comment.

Much of the controversy involved the ethnicity of the three young women the CNN report focused on. They appeared to be ethnic Vietnamese rather than Cambodias mainstream ethnic Khmer. Many Cambodians share a long-established prejudice against Vietnam, a much larger neighboring country that has traditionally been suspected of coveting Cambodian territory and resources.

Hun Sen said he could not accept the assertion that Cambodian mothers sold their daughters into prostitution.

My country is poor but you cant insult my people, he said. This insult cannot be tolerated. No matter what it costs us, this organization has to leave Cambodia.

His governments Womens Affairs Ministry issued a statement charging that AIM had manipulated the story in order to raise funds.

It said the young women interviewed in the report were not Cambodian and had a different culture and traditions than Cambodians. The program, it said, affected the honor and reputation of Cambodians.

No matter how poor they are, under Cambodian culture and tradition we have never sold our daughters, the statement said.

AIM, founded by Brewster and his wife Bridget, opened its first center for former child sex workers in 2006, according to the groups website.

It says Agape International Missions has been granted unique permission by the Cambodian government to conduct investigations, perform raids, make arrests and rescue victims of sex trafficking alongside local government officials within the country of Cambodia.
Friday, August 4, 2017

A disciplinary decision issued today by the Tennessee Supreme Court is summarized on the court's web page

The Tennessee Supreme Court has increased a hearing panels recommended punishment of a public censure and suspended Paul Julius Walwyn from the practice of law for one year. He will serve six months of the suspension on active suspension and six months will be served on probation with a practice monitor. The Court also required that Mr. Walwyn complete six additional hours of CLE on subjects related to the management of a law practice and/or client communication.

This disciplinary matter arose out of Mr. Walwyns representation of his client in a first degree murder trial. Following the clients conviction, Mr. Walwyn filed a motion for new trial, which was denied. Mr. Walwyn failed to file a notice of appeal for three and a half years and failed to adequately communicate with his client in the interim. The client filed this complaint during the delay in his proceedings, after which a late-filed notice of appeal was filed and was later accepted by the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The hearing panel determined that Mr. Walwyn had violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by not exhibiting the skill, thoroughness, or preparation necessary when representing his client; by failing to file a timely notice of appeal; by waiting three and a half years to file a motion to accept a delayed appeal; by failing to keep his client informed about the status of his case; by violating the Rules of Professional Misconduct; and by engaging in conduct that was prejudicial to the administration of justice with the above stated conduct. Accordingly, the hearing panel imposed a public censure with the conditions that he be supervised by a practice monitor for one year and that he complete six additional hours of CLE on subjects related to the management of a law practice and/or client communication.

Neither the Board of Professional Responsibility nor Mr. Walwyn appealed the hearing panels decision. The Tennessee Supreme Court then reviewed the discipline pursuant to Rule 9 of the Tennessee Supreme Court Rules and entered an order proposing to increase the punishment because it seemed inadequate. After review, the Court, in a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Roger A. Page, concluded that a public censure was inadequate, particularly in light of Mr. Walwyns prior disciplinary record. As a result, the Court increased the attorneys discipline to one year on suspension with six months of the suspension on active suspension and six months to be served on probation with a practice monitor. The Court also required that the attorney complete six additional hours of CLE on subjects related to the management of a law practice and/or client communication.

To read the Courts opinion in In re: Paul Julius Walwyn, BPR #018263, authored by Justice Roger A. Page, go to the opinions section of TNCourts.gov.

Notably, the court looked to a series of prior cases for purposes of assessing comparable discipline. Two involved the same attorney. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/08/unappealing-behavior-draws-suspension-in-tennessee.html
Gov. Greg Abbotts veto of state funding for air quality planning means Central Texas leaders now have to fund efforts to keep the air clean on their own. But no one is sure how local stakeholders will offset the loss of $350,000 in state funds every two years.

Abbott cut more than $6 million from the states fiscal year 2018-19 budget for air quality planning at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which was then distributed to areas across the state. The cut effectively eliminated TCEQs Rider 7 program, which funded local efforts to reduce ozone, said Chris Evilia, Metropolitan Planning Organization director.

The Heart of Texas Council of Governments was an active participant in the Rider 7 program, which used the funds to help model efforts to understand the nature and sources of high ozone days within the Waco region, Evilia said. While federal funding remains, it is only available for regions officially designated as non-attainment, meaning areas that failed to meet state ozone standards, he said.

The area will have to find local tax dollars to put toward the efforts, Evilia said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designates Texas counties as attainment or non-attainment based on ratings set by the TCEQ. The national ozone standard is a three-year average of 70 parts per billion.

If the data reports an average above that figure for the area, the region may fall into the non-attainment designation and be required to return to compliance.

The good news is our three-year average is well below that 70 limit, Evilia said. So far this year were doing OK. Weve actually had a couple days where weve been in the mid-70s. Well keep an eye on that since August and September are problem times.

The countys three-year average was 64 parts per billion from 2014-2016, Evilia said. There were a few years McLennan County bumped up against the state limit, he said.

That changes everything in the county from how you have to test your automobiles to economic development restrictions on new companies, said Waco Mayor Kyle Deaver, who is also an MPO board member.

The areas ozone monitor station is at Texas State Technical College, and the funding cuts are not expected to impact it.

Ozone is formed when nitrogen oxide, created by burning fossil fuel, mixes with volatile organic compounds on hot, sunny days, which can be inflamed by factories, power plants, and cars, even from far away. Evilia gave the recent update to the members of the MPO, which worked alongside the Heart of Texas Council of Governments and the local air quality board on the efforts.

Locally the area has worked on public relations messages, including Breathe Easy Waco, to encourage residents to proactively help reduce ozone levels and promote cleaner air, said Frank Patterson, Waco-McLennan County emergency management coordinator.

Area leaders will have to find a way to continue to fund efforts as air quality is of importance to local leaders, Patterson said. If the area reaches non-attainment status like some larger cities across the state, local residents could face higher vehicle inspection costs due a required emission check, he said.

An areas ozone rating also affects economic development, County Judge Scott Felton said.

Felton said companies interested in locating to McLennan County may look elsewhere if the county is in non-attainment status, because the businesses costs may increase under the areas regulations due to failure to meet the state standard.

The county and the city of Waco invest a lot of money in economic development, Felton said, and neither entity wants let those efforts go to waste by letting the ozone rating change.

We just have to figure out how were going to pay for it and who is going to pay for it, Felton said.

Multiple area leaders characterized the veto as another unfunded state mandate passed down to the local level.

Abbotts veto comes at a time when the state Legislature is considering proposals to limit tax revenue increases to 4 or 5 percent a year without voter approval.

Currently, voters are allowed to petition for a rollback election if the increase exceeds 8 percent.

Hewitt City Manager Adam Miles, an MPO board member, said air quality measures started with funding from the federal level. Federal authorities then determined states should fund the efforts. Both the state and the federal government have deemed the matter important enough to create laws and standards, but not important enough to fund, Miles said. And while the state passes on the required costs, state legislatures are looking at limiting the amount cities can increase taxes, Miles said.

Area city councils and the county plan to discuss how to move forward. Air quality control is a national issue thats now going to be treated regionally, Miles said.

Money doesnt just magically appear to do studies. The public has to pay for it somehow, Miles said.
No one these days works harder for the impeachment of Donald Trump than Donald Trump. If we have learned anything about this president, it is that he has a compulsion to be the center of attention. He cant bear being out of the limelight and will say almost anything  no matter how offensive, outrageous or dishonest it strikes millions of Americans  to keep the public fixated on him. The more he does this, the more he risks impeachment.

Just whether John F. Kelly, the retired Marine general who is Trumps new chief of staff, can restrain his boss is unclear. This certainly is a central question hovering over the White House.

For months, Trumps behavior has posed a riddle. Why is he so self-destructive? His constant tweets deepen the countrys divisions, which he promised to heal. The customary explanation is that Trump is playing to his base, but recently this has seemed less convincing. Opinion polls suggest his support has slipped even among loyal backers. (The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll has Trumps approval rating dropping from 42 percent in April to 36 percent in early July.)

In fact, weve been asking the wrong question. Its been widely assumed that Trumps behavior must reflect some political logic. He is, after all, the nations most important politician. His every move must aim to bolster his popularity and agenda. Although this sounds reasonable, it doesnt fit the facts. Trumps nonstop outbursts alienate, usually needlessly, countless voters: precisely the people he needs to broaden his support.

But the mystery vanishes once we realize that Trumps motives, rather than advancing some grand political strategy, are deeply personal. He cant control himself. In his mind, silence means obscurity, which is unbearable, especially when ending it is only a tweet or two away. It doesnt matter what he says  whether it is true or false, relevant or irrelevant to the issues  so long as he stirs passions and dominates public discussion. It is personality more than politics that impels Trump to be Trump. With hindsight, his rhetorical escapades can be described as political maneuvers, but this is mostly damage control. See Trump and Russia.

Superficially, the odds of Trump being impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted  ousted from office  by the Senate are long. Impeachment (which resembles an indictment) requires a majority vote in the House. Conviction in the Senate mandates a two-thirds vote. Even if all Democrats voted against Trump, many Republicans would have to join them for Trump to be removed. To convict in the Senate would require 19 Republican votes, if all senators were present, says political scientist Sarah Binder of the Brookings Institution. As yet, an anti-Trump coalition doesnt exist.

Still, nothing can be entirely discounted. Thats the reality Kelly faces as chief of staff. Trump is an extreme exhibitionist in a calling  politics  where exhibitionism is normal. His addiction to incendiary tweets will be hard, though not impossible, to break. It may defy political or legal logic  indeed, it places him at further risk, because he may get himself in legal trouble or say something hugely unpopular. But it satisfies his need to own the news cycle.

In this sense, Trump can be seen as the strongest and most determined advocate of impeachment. If he must flirt with impeachment to retain his command of the media, so be it. He might see impeachment (though not conviction) as acceptable. He would be automatically in the spotlight every day for months. He would have a new arena in which to fight and win.

Perhaps subconsciously, this is his goal: Impeach me, please!
JOHNSON LAKE  After purchasing the former Subway building at Johnson Lake in August 2016, Jim and Cindy Fahrenbruch took some time to think about what to do with the space and how to remodel it.

Eleven months later, the Fahrenbruchs held an open house Friday, July 21, for their business, Artistic Cabinetry, LLC, located at 74902 Johnson Lake Drive 26, at Johnson Lake.

A certified kitchen designer, Cindy Fahrenbruch has been working as a designer in Nebraska for over 25 years. She obtained an interior design degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and started working in the kitchen business for her brother Ken Anderson, owner of Task Lighting in Kearney right after graduating.

Fahrenbruch became a Certified Kitchen Designer in 1996.

Johnson Lake is the second business location for Artistic Cabinetry. It serves as a "window shopping" showroom and a "by appointment only" meeting place, as well as storage for cabinetry.

"We set up the business location as a window shopping showroom. I can bring customers in and meet with them here," Fahrenbruch said.

The primary location is a studio showroom at Task Lighting in Kearney. Kari Mitchell, an Associate Kitchen and Bath Designer, works at the Kearney location and is employed by Artistic Cabinetry. Mitchell was chosen as a recipient of the National Kitchen and Bath Associations 30 under 30 Award.

Fahrenbruchs husband Jim has been a huge support person for the company, as well as their daughter-in-law, Stephanie, who is the financial bookkeeper.

The influence and lighting expertise of Fahrenbruchs brother, Ken Anderson, is evident in Fahrenbruchs kitchen designs. "We complement each others business very well," Fahrenbruch said.

Unique lighting applications in designs by Fahrenbruch, utilize fixtures manufactured and patented by her brother.

These unique lighting fixtures include LED undercabinet lighting, puck lights, a lighted closet rod and angle power strips.

One of the most unique fixtures that can be used in a variety of different ways, and have the most dramatic change to a customers kitchen, is the angle power strip. Its most common use is mounted to the back wall, under the wall cabinets, eliminating the electrical outlets and switches from a clients beautiful tile backsplash.

Fahrenbruch directs customers to her web site, www.art-cab.com, to view her portfolio and videos of her past work.

She can provide standard and customized cabinets for kitchens, closets, bathrooms and has designed small offices and fireplaces as well.

Cabinets designed by Fahrenbruch are not only unique but also extremely functional. Customizations to cabinets can include pull out waste baskets, walnut interiors, and bake centers with pocket doors. Closet and pantry systems are becoming very popular and can optimize a customers space if designed correctly.

Fahrenbruch designs kitchen countertops in all sorts of materials, from quartz to granite to other favorites.

Customers are encouraged to bring in pictures, often from apps like Pinterest and Houzz, with design elements they want to see in their project, she said.

Steve Heldt of Lexington, who hired Fahrernbruch to design his master bathroom and kitchen, said before he hired her he asked other customers about her work and all of them were very happy.

Heldt said Fahrenbruch redesigned his kitchen and helped him expand it, while making the old space and new space look cohesive as if they were parts of the same kitchen.

"She can do what you want with your space," he said.

Half a year after having her redesign his kitchen, Heldt said he hired her to redesign his master bathroom.

Fahrenbruchs vision for his bathroom, which was in a home that was more than 20 years old, blew him away, said Heldt.

"She designed a center aisle with wash basins and mirrors. I have a walk-in shower. Ive never seen a master bath with center aisle wash basins," he said of Fahrenbruchs creativity in designing his bathroom.

His special request when working with Fahrenbruch was to have her give him three options for designs, Heldt said.

"My master bath is very, very nice, Im pleased with the results. I couldnt visualize it myself. I relied on her expertise," he said.

Heldt said he would recommend Fahrenbruchs kitchen and bath design services to a friend without question, "absolutely."

Fahrenbruch uses 20/20 software to provide customers with 3D pictures of kitchen designs. She also utilizes software from an Auto CAD program to provide the precision needed in designing. The software has come as far as customers being able to place goggles to their iPhones to walk around the 3D design virtually.

One of the most vital skills for her as a certified kitchen designer is to be a good listener, she said. "It really takes practice. A lot of customers bring ideas, they bring in pictures. I try to design something especially for them and specific to their space. Hopefully it is unique, and just what they wanted when we are done" Fahrenbruch said.

Office hours at the Artistic Cabinetry location at Johnson Lake are by appointment.

Although kitchen cabinets, countertops and kitchen islands, as well as pantry shelves are on display at the Artistic Cabinetry business, an outlet for more ideas, kitchen designs and contact information, is on the web site www.art-cab.com.
This website is inclusive of tolerant people of all faiths, without exception. Neither anti-Semitism nor Islamophobia nor homophobia should ever be acceptable to anyone. We must all strive to live in peace and harmony with each other, regardless of religious affiliations, or none. Intolerance is the mother of strife and conflict.   Mark Alexander

We Britons are Europeans!Wir Briten sind Europaer! Nous, les Britanniques, sommes europeens !  Mark AlexanderEmail me at:markalexander.librabunda@gmail.com
It will. But that's the second arena in which this will be fought. Before it goes to the wider party room, it is scheduled to go before the Turnbull cabinet, which will meet earlier on Monday, and this is where the government's position is to be decided. The cabinet meeting is taking shape as a contest between the author of the postal plebiscite compromise, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, and the advocate for an immediate parliamentary vote to allow gay marriage, Attorney-General George Brandis. Illustration: Jim Pavlidis. This would allow Turnbull to play chairman and to pronounce the final decision once everyone around the cabinet table has been heard. Dutton has been actively building support for the postal plebiscite among his colleagues. It already has won the grudging support of key moderates in the cabinet as the least worst option. Turnbull has not said so publicly but it's an outcome that he would embrace. But it will nonetheless be a hard-fought cabinet debate.

The government has commissioned legal advice on the option of a postal plebiscite. Some ministers have seen it already. This advice makes plain that a postal plebiscite would be vulnerable to a High Court challenge, as a number of academic experts on constitutional law have been saying publicly all week. The answer to this from Dutton and his supporters? That's OK. The High Court would be expected to hear the case expeditiously. If it allowed the plebiscite to proceed, the government could probably carry it out by the end of the year. It doesn't need any legislative approvals and the funding authority already exists, so Labor and the Greens couldn't block it. The plebiscite would inevitably endorse same-sex marriage. Turnbull would have kept his pledge to maintain the Abbott policy. He would have kept faith with the party. And same-sex marriage would quickly be endorsed by the government and legislated by the Parliament. The issue would be off the agenda by the time of the next election. But if the High Court were to strike it down? The Dutton argument is that that's OK, too. Turnbull would have made every effort to fulfil his pledge of a plebiscite. He will have kept faith with his party. In the first instance, he's been frustrated by Labor and the Greens in the Senate in his effort to hold a go-out-on-a-Saturday-and-cast-a-vote plebiscite. On the second, he would've been blocked by the High Court in his bid for a postal plebiscite. He would then be liberated to take the question it to a free parliamentary vote.

Whether the government were to win or lose in the High Court, legalised same-sex marriage would be the result. "A postal plebiscite could be a workable compromise because people with competing views could settle on it as a way forward," says a moderate cabinet minister. "Because there is a significant lack of willingness to make any effort at give and take on this on either side." Brandis can be expected to argue that a postal plebiscite is not only constitutionally dubious, it's also politically dubious. Why? If the postal vote were boycotted by the gay marriage lobby, and if younger voters lacked the interest to mail their ballot papers, the participation rate could be low, below 50 per cent. If that were to happen, the plebiscite could be dismissed as a farce, runs the argument. The same-sex marriage lobby would be undeterred and press on, agitating within the Liberal Party, continuing to destabilise. Labor would make it an issue at the next election. And the government would look like incompetent dills as well as homophobic bigots. The counter-argument is that a low turnout rate wouldn't matter  many countries routinely elect governments with voter turnouts of 30 or 40 or 50 per cent. Their legitimacy isn't questioned. French president Emmanuel Macron was elected on a turnout of 38 per cent, for instance. The cabinet debate will be further freighted by the political ambitions of the protagonists. Brandis is approaching the sunset of his time in the cabinet. He wants a decisive victory on same-sex marriage as his culminating career trophy on a matter that is dear to the moderate wing of the Liberal Party.

Besides, Brandis lost his last contest with Dutton. Brandis opposed the creation of a Home Affairs ministry. He didn't want to cede oversight of ASIO and the Federal Police to Dutton's super ministry. And he doesn't want to lose on this signature issue of rights. Dutton's political trajectory, conversely, is on the rise. He's emerged as the leading conservative in the cabinet. Fresh from being named Home Affairs Minister-designate and security supremo, he is now trying to demonstrate that he can be more than a conservative warrior, that he can transcend factions to become a political problem-solver and conciliator. It's widely recognised that same-sex marriage in Australia is inevitable. Progressives want it now; conservatives are merely seeking to delay as long as possible. For Turnbull, the trick is how to deliver it without the ruin of his prime ministership and possibly the collapse of the government along the way. The postal plebiscite is an appealing option for Turnbull because it's the least suicidal politically. Consider the other options. If Turnbull next week allows a free parliamentary vote, he would be seen to be yielding to the five pro-gay marriage MPs who are threatening to revolt on the issue. "If he does that, he will do himself very serious damage in the party room," says a conservative critic of the Prime Minister.

"Because the suspicion is that he hasn't acted in good faith," in keeping to his pledge to preserve the Abbott-era policy of a plebiscite. "I wouldn't be surprised if Malcolm Turnbull had given them some tacit encouragement." The conservative dissenters unhappy with Turnbull's leadership would proceed to do everything in their power to make his prime ministership unworkable. And the third option  that Turnbull preserve the status quo by confronting the pro-gay marriage rebels in his party  is also fraught. By daring them to revolt openly on the floor of the House, Turnbull runs the risk of losing control of the legislature. Labor could seize control of the chamber, pass a same-sex marriage law with the support of Liberal defectors, claim victory, and deal a humiliating blow to Turnbull. The consequences would be unpredictable. One scenario is that disgruntled Liberals would declare a spill motion. There are no candidates  no one is organising to seize the leadership at the moment. Indeed, Dutton, often cited by anonymous Liberal sources as a leadership contender, is not about to strike Turnbull. On the contrary, he is pursuing the postal plebiscite compromise as a way of protecting Turnbull and preserving the government.
Ask Perth breastfeeding advocate Anne McRae about why fewer women in Australia are breastfeeding their babies and she'll give you both barrels.

"There's no money in breastfeeding, so the big corporations and the government are pushing bottle feeding with formula," she said.

Anne McRae with Perth breastfeeding advocate Sydel Weinstein. Credit:David Allan-Petale

"Add in growing social stigma about breastfeeding, women going back to work and having to put their kids in daycare with bottles, and there's very little chance a woman is going to choose to breastfeed."

A journalist for four decades, and a mother of four breast-fed children, Ms McRae spoke at a rally in Perth's Murray Street Mall on Saturday to promote World Breastfeeding Day.
Scott Atkins' lungs were suffocating him.

Climbing stairs was a challenge. Mundane daily outings became chores to be prepared for  finding parking close to shops, carrying oxygen everywhere, stay at home if hours of therapy weren't complete in the mornings.

Scott Atkins and partner Hayley Close are enjoying life to the full after his lung transplant. Credit:Neil Richardson

"I have cystic fibrosis, diagnosed at birth  I started getting sick, really sick, two years before the transplant," he said.

"I was allergic to anything on the entire planet."
The WA Health Department has issued a measles alert after a confirmed diagnosis for an unvaccinated secondary school student who returned to Perth after being infected overseas.

In a statement, the department said prior to the diagnosis  and while infectious to others  the student attended Perth Waldorf School in Bibra Lake.

A case of measles. Credit:US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

The department warned that a substantial number of students exposed at the school had not been vaccinated against measles, and because the school has a metropolitan-wide catchment, it's likely additional cases of measles will occur in Perth over the coming weeks.

The campus of Perth Waldorf School also includes pre-school and primary school students, and the department said it cannot exclude the possibility of incidental exposure to younger students.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 04, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 04, 2017 | 10:15 AM | PADUCAH, KY

First District Congressman James Comer will be the featured speaker for the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Luncheon on Thursday, August 17.



The event, sponsored by Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership and Swift & Staley, will be held at Walker Hall Events Center, 229 Madison Street in Paducah, beginning at 11:30 am.



The Paducah Chambers Public Policy Series gives the business community access to legislative leaders, issues and information.



Rep. Comer was elected to Congress in November of 2016. He grew up in rural Monroe County and graduated from Western Kentucky University where he studied agriculture. Prior to his election to Congress, he served as Kentuckys Commissioner of Agriculture having been elected in 2011. He also served six terms as a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives.



Comer's priorities in the 115th Congress are rebuilding our nations infrastructure, balancing the federal budget, and implementing business-friendly policies, including regulatory reform.



Comer is married to TJ Comer, and they have three children.



In addition to providing an update on the top issues before Congress, Congressman Comer will spend time answering questions pertinent to the business community in the area.



The cost is $20 and open to the public, but tickets will not be sold at the door. Those interested in attending should register on line at www.paducahchamber.org, email info@paducahchamber.org or call 270-443-1746. The deadline to register is August 14.
Alec Baldwin sues to 'clear his name' in movie set death
By Matt McClain, West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 05, 2017 | 02:47 PM | FANCY FARM, KY

The 137th Annual Fancy Farm Picnic got underway with it's usual fanfare of years past, Saturday afternoon.Even though it's not an election year, there were several notables on the roster that spoke, and the usual heckling from the crowd and opposing parties consumed the grandstand area at times.U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed his opponents and received heckles and cheers from the crowd for nearly the entire time he spoke.McConnell spoke about his accomplishments he has made in Washington DC, and steered clear of any challenges that he faces as the Senate Majority Leader. The Senator talked about how important it was to keep Republicans in control of Congress and The White House.Meanwhile, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear (D-KY), released his individual tax incomes and has called on Republican Governor Matt Bevin to do the same. Bevin was not in attendance at the picnic.A spokesman for Beshear handed out copies of tax returns during his speech at the Fancy Farm picnic. The document shows Beshear earned $110,829 last year. He paid $16,049 in federal taxes and $5,618 in state taxes. His combined refund was more than $9,500.Beshear said he is the first attorney general in Kentucky to publicly release his tax returns at a time when he is not seeking election. Beshear was elected in 2015 and is a potential candidate for governor in 2019.Bevin has refused to release his tax returns. Democrats made it a major issue during the 2015 governor's race.Noticeably absent was Bevin, as well as Secretary of State Allison Lundergan-Grimes (D-KY). You can listen to the complete speakers' list by clicking on the links below.

On the Net:
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 04, 2017 | EDDYVILLE, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 04, 2017 | 03:12 PM | EDDYVILLE, KY

UPDATE: Lyon County Emergency Management says Hankins has been found, and is safe.





Authorities in Lyon County are asking for the public's help locating a missing Evansville, IN woman.



Lyon County Emergency Management says a Golden Alert has been issued for 82-year-old Shirley Hankins, who has been reported missing since 10 a.m. Thursday.



Hankins is white, 55" tall and weighs 140 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing a white shirt and either blue or black pants. Hankins reportedly suffers from dementia.



Hankins was last seen driving a silver 2005 Kia Sedona with tag #D910CP north on Interstate 69 in Lyon County when she was separated from her traveling companion. There is a Delta Airlines sticker on the back bumper of the vehicle.



Hankins is from Evansville, IN.



Anyone who knows where Hankins might be is asked to call Kentucky State Police at 270-575-7228 or Indiana State Police at Evansville, 812-867-2079.
New Ross mourns tragic death of Anthony Rochford (47): We will remember him for all the great times
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The cost of housing is the single greatest financial burden of many families, with millions fighting to afford a decent and safe place to live. A large percentage of renters spend over 30 percent of their monthly income on their rent. There are dozens of Federal, State and private assistance programs designed to help lower and moderate-income families find affordable housing. A lot of families dont apply for these programs or dont even know they exist.

The Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly referred to as Section 8 Rental Assistance Program, is one assistance program that plays a critical role in helping extremely low-income households with the ability to rent units in the private market. The Section Rental Assistance Program is a federal housing program through the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that dates back to the Housing Act of 1937. Section 8 pays rent for over 3 million low-income households. A variety of Section 8 programs are available to low-income tenants, but the most popular is the Section 8 Rental Assistance Program. This program will pay a portion of the tenants rent depending on the individual tenants income. Most tenants pay about 30% of their take-home adjusted income for Section 8 housing.

The Southeastern Minnesota Multi-County HRA is federally funded with $1.5 million to operate the Section 8 Rental Assistance Program and provide housing assistance to 388 households throughout Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Wabasha, Winona Counties (excluding the City of Red Wing and Winona). Participants can select a privately-owned house, apartment, duplex, or mobile home where the property owner is willing to accept a voucher for the Section 8 Rental Assistance Program. Over 70 percent of families are on this program for five years or less.

The Southeastern Minnesota Multi-County Housing and Redevelopment Authority can assist citizens when it comes to affording rent. For more information, please go to our agency website, www.semmchra.org or contact our office at 651-565-2638.
Vietnam veteran Jim Crigler will discuss his biography, "Mission of Honor," which relates to his canoe paddle of the entire Mississippi River in honor of Gold Star Families of fallen Vietnam vets.

The event is called "Paperbacks and Pieces," taking place from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tues., Aug. 8.

A Q & A on Crigler nonfiction work will follo .

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Shelley Olsen at pbpieces@hbci.com.
Maria Guenther has traveled to Guatemala, Mexico, Ireland, and New Orleans participating in more than 15 mission trips since she was a teenager. She grew up in Horicon and resides in Beaver Dam, where she works as a certified nursing assistant at Beaver Dam Community Hospitals, Inc. Home Health Care. She has strong roots in her local community but also treasures the connections she has made around the world.

It is her commitment to putting family first that has her taking a hiatus from travels abroad and instead focusing her volunteer efforts closer to home. Guenther lives with and cares for her 94-year-old grandma, mentors a group of local teenage girls, and is now a volunteer and ambassador for Blue Zones Project Dodge County.

Working at BDCH, Guenther was among the first to hear about Blue Zones Project. She is excited by the commitment her employer has made to improve the well-being of employees and the community at large. When Blue Zones Project held its community kickoff events in April, she seized the opportunity to get involved. She signed up to volunteer at the events and she appreciated that she could bring her Grandma Glennie along to help as well. My name is unique and Im an antique, Glennie said as she introduced herself to featured speaker Nick Buettner of Blue Zones. Glennie shared with him her own insights on how to live to be 100. Her advice: Keep breathing and keep your heart beating.

Buettner acknowledged Grandma Glennies insight during his presentation and shared the research that was done by his brother, Dan Buettner, and National Geographic Magazine in 2004 of places around the world where people are living longer with less chronic disease and greater vitality. People living in these areas share nine lifestyle habits  the Power 9. Blue Zones Project encourages people to adopt practices incorporating the Power 9 into their own lives. To Maria, many of these principles resonate personally, including Family First, and are the reason she is excited to be involved in Blue Zones Project.

The parts about putting family first, belonging to a faith-based community, and having the right tribe are important to me, Maria said. I am a social person so I especially understand the importance of being connected.

Blue Zones Project has helped Maria to find her right tribe, a group of people that support one another in healthy lifestyle choices. Research shows that you are 150 percent more likely to engage in the activities that your friends engage in. Maria joined a Blue Zones Project Walking Moai, a group that commits to meeting at least once a week for 10 weeks to walk together. The group completed that commitment in early July but continues to meet because of the friendships they have formed.

Maria notes that walking with the group doesnt even feel like exercise. It is nice to know people are counting on you to be there and they explore areas of the community she has never been to before despite having lived here for five years.

The group not only walks together, but they share in other fun activities that are happening. They attend these activities knowing they will have at least one friend there to share in the experience. Several from their Moai attended the Blue Zones Project cooking demonstration at Beaver Dam Piggly Wiggly, and nearly half of their group attended a book discussion at the Beaver Dam Community Library, which included samples of recipes from the Blue Zones.

It is cool to see businesses across the community such as Piggly Wiggly and BDCH working together to help us be healthier, Maria said. As part of her calling to bring joy to others, volunteering with Blue Zones Project is a natural fit, allowing her to impact the well-being of people close to home.
JUNEAU  Windows rattled, eardrums rumbled and the air over Juneau reverberated with the rush of jet engines on June 13.

Then, as quickly as it began, the ruckus subsided, leaving residents wondering what had happened.

Information from law enforcement and the military was sparse after Gregory G. Joslyn and his passenger, Traci A. Joslyn, both of Burlington, were forced to land their single-engine Cessna 150 at Dodge County Airport on the north edge of Juneau that Tuesday afternoon, but fighter pilot David Boar Gunter shared professional insight in Oshkosh last week that may help clear the air.

Maj. Gunter, who is attached to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), presented a seminar July 25 at EAA AirVenture titled: How to Avoid a Fighter Escort and although he said he was not personally involved when the Joslyns were forced to land, he was familiar with the rules and protocols that launched armed military aircraft toward Juneau.

According to news reports, a small plane violated a no-fly zone set up for President Donald Trumps visit to Waukesha County Technical College in Pewaukee on June 13, and the Dodge County Sheriffs Office said two F-16 fighters scrambled to intercept the intruder and convinced it to land at Dodge County Airport.

Gunter said the president is protected by a temporary flight restriction whenever he leaves Washington, D.C.

The TFR, Gunter explained, creates two circular bubbles of air, extending from the surface up to 17,999 feet, above and around the president.

The inner bubble, which no aircraft is permitted to penetrate, has a radius of 10 nautical miles (about 11.5 statute miles) with the president at its center, Gunter said.

The outer bubble, he said, extends that radius to 30 nautical miles in which, he told pilots gathered at EAAs International Federal Pavilion, you can operate, but we want to know, so we can track you.

The distance from Waukesha County Airport, which is near Waukesha County Technical College, to Dodge County Airport is about 35 miles.

At some point during the presidents visit, the Joslyns flew too near him to suit NORAD, the joint American/Canadian command originally created to protect the perimeter of North American airspace, from Canada and Alaska to Mexico and the Caribbean.

That task, however has expanded.

Pre-9/11, our job was to protect the borders, but now we also are looking in, Gunter said.

NORAD monitors TFRs established over each Super Bowl, airshows like EAA AirVenture and rocket launches at Cape Canaveral, according to Gunter. He said other, more permanent no-fly zones, like those over Washington, D.C., and the presidents Florida retreat at Mar-A-Lago, also are protected by NORAD radar and jets.

And then, theres the chief executive himself.

Nobody gets to control the Presidents agenda or where he goes, Gunter observed.

So when Trump decided to go to Pewaukee, notice of a TFR went out 48 hours in advance, Gunter said, by e-mail, Twitter and other means.

Gunter said failure to notice a TFR is fairly common.

Ninety percent of intercepts are of general-aviation pilots, he explained. They often happen to someone who has flown the same route every weekend for 30 years and they dont check for TFRs before takeoff.

NORAD and other government agencies do not take such neglect lightly.

An intercept wastes tax dollars and risks a deadly mistake, Gunter said, noting the expensive fighters launched in response to a TFR violation are armed for combat.

Further, Gunter said, violating pilots are going to become too familiar with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and may get to visit with the Secret Service, which could result in a fine, loss of pilots license or imprisonment.

Dodge County Sheriffs Chief Deputy Scott Smith said Wednesday the FAA handled the matter once the Joslyns landed in Juneau, but Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt went to the airport after hearing jets overhead.

Prior to landing, Gunter said, the Joslyns likely encountered what few pilots ever care to.

First, he said, air-traffic controllers attempt to contact an intruder by radio. Next, two fighters typically scramble from a nearby airbase. Once those fighters locate the offending aircraft, Gunter said, they attempt to get the pilots attention by rocking their wings.

Also, he said the fighters broadcast, This is an armed, air-defense fighter on your left wing. You are ordered to turn to heading  immediately, to exit restricted airspace.

Should the intruder fail to obey, Gunter said one fighter will execute a head butt maneuver by turning sharply across the offenders nose and sending out flares.

Once contact is established, the fighters put their landing gear down and the intruder is instructed to land, at the airfield off (their) nose, Gunter said.

Gunter warned any who might contemplate evasion: We can find you, track you and stay with you no matter how slow you go and nobody can fly as fast as we go. Dont try to evade; we can fly as low as you can. Even if you land, well track you from the airfield.
The image is familiar, the symbolism fairly easy to decode: A burgundy Cadillac Fleetwood  complete with gold-colored spoked wheels, gold trim and gold front-end grill  seized from a drug dealer, emblazoned with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education logo and driven by a Racine police officer to make an attention-getting arrival at a school or community center.

If we catch you dealing drugs, Racine police were saying, well take your car.

The key component is that Racine police caught someone dealing drugs, someone who was later convicted. When people talk of ill-gotten gains, a Cadillac purchased with drug money is what they mean.

There was justifiable concern recently when the federal Justice Department revived the practice of civil asset forfeiture, which allows state and local law enforcement officials to use federal law to seize the cash, cars or other personal property of people suspected of crimes but not charged.

Civil rights advocates say such a policy can be abused by law enforcement officials and deprive people who have done nothing wrong of their right to due process, a charge that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein contested, according to New York Times report.

This is not about taking assets from innocent people, Rosenstein told reporters. Its about taking assets that are the proceeds of, or the tools of, criminal activity, and primarily drug dealing.

The policy revives so-called federally adopted forfeitures, which empower state and local law enforcement to use federal law to bypass more restrictive state laws to seize the proceeds from crimes and to share the profits with federal authorities. That money then may be repurposed, the Justice Department said, for training or equipment, such as bulletproof vests or bomb-disposal equipment.

We take no issue with asset forfeiture in the event of a conviction. But until someone is convicted of a crime, seizure of a suspects assets  by definition, someone suspected of a crime but not yet found guilty in court of it  treads into territory that raises constitutional issues. Is the seizure reasonable, as required by the Fourth Amendment, if someone has not been convicted of a crime? If police seize someones cash because they suspect its drug money, have they infringed upon that someones Sixth Amendment right to counsel?

Were wary of the potential for overzealousness stepping on someones constitutional rights. That being said, we were reassured to hear Attorney General Jeff Sessions address those concerns directly in July.

Over the last decade, four out of five administrative civil asset forfeitures filed by federal law enforcement agencies were never challenged in court, Sessions said in prepared remarks to law enforcement officials on July 19. Even so, we must take every precaution to protect the rights of claimants in that small minority of cases.

And so today, the Department of Justice is issuing legal guidance that will clarify DOJ policy on the adoption of seized assets. It will return us to longstanding DOJ policy  and also provide additional, supplemental protections for law-abiding Americans. This will make us more effective at bankrupting organized criminals and at safeguarding the property of law-abiding Americans.

We have no issue with the forfeiture of assets belonging to those convicted of crimes. But as for those found not guilty, we expect law enforcement agencies to abide by the directive of the attorney general with regard to the swift return of that which was seized.
The original architects drawing for the Soldiers Monument erected in Fall River Cemetery in 1896, a top hat worn by one of the villages early citizens and vintage matchbooks advertising bars and businesses that have come and gone over the years are just a few of the treasures to be found in the Fall River Museum today.

The museum, which was originally housed in Savanna Oaks Community Center when it opened in 2004, was moved to a room inside the Fall River Farmers and Merchants Union Bank last summer. It is open to the public during regular business hours.

Betty Wright, whose late husband David was the driving force behind the museums opening, became its caretaker after his death in 2010.

History was so important to David, Betty said. He didnt want to just throw everything away. He felt like you had to have something to remember with.

Many of the items in the museum, from the old Motorola TV that belonged to Davids mother to the newel post that he rescued from the old red brick school when it was torn down, were things that he had collected over the years and had a personal connection to.

We were the fourth generation to live on the farm, Betty said. So there were a lot of things that were handed down to him.

And once word got out that David was rounding up items for a museum, other people started giving him local artifacts and memorabilia to add to the collection.

The only requirement for inclusion in the museum is that items have to have a connection to Fall River.

We have a pew thats from the Catholic church in Doylestown; however many of our Catholics go to Doylestown so we figured there were a lot of Fall River people who sat on there, so it qualified, Betty said with a laugh.

The wooden pew is not just a relic. People are welcome to sit on it as they thumb through old books or photos in the museum, or wait for someone else whos busy looking. When it was donated, The idea was that dad could sit while mother looked, Betty said.

Canning corner

One corner of the museum is devoted to the Fall River Canning Co., which was the villages largest employer for many years.

In fact when Betty, now 84, was growing up, it was the only industry in town.

Every kid would work there during the two packs, she said. There wasnt much to do beyond that, except maybe babysit and mow lawns.

Betty herself spent the summer of one of her high school years working at the plant, on a new line that the company had high hopes for: canning corn on the cob.

It didnt pan out, Betty said. I think they only did it the one year.

Bettys job was to watch as the husked and cleaned corn cobs dropped off of the conveyor belt to the bin in front of her. Then she had to lay the cobs into slots so the ends could be trimmed off and the ears would fit in a can.

As the corn would drop, it would spit all that sticky milk on me, Betty remembered. Id go home and my clothes would be stiff, just stiff.

The canned corn on the cob might have failed, but, overall, the business boomed. Over the years, the company opened and operated a half dozen factories in the area, and at its peak, it employed 2,500 people, according to an article in a special section of the Columbus Journal-Republican that was printed in 1957 to celebrate the companys 50th anniversary.

That issue, along with an issue of the Fall River Herald from 1916 and an issue of the Fall River New Era from 1905 are on display in the museum for people to look through. (Before they put them out on display, Betty and David took the old newspapers to the Wisconsin Historical Society to have them cleaned and wrapped in archival polyethylene bags for preservation purposes.)

A thriving community

Looking back at the old newspapers gives a hint of what life was like back in the day when boys and gents working clothes  as well as groceries, fruits, ammunition, gloves and mittens  were sold at The Rookery, and Geo. H. Langs Fall River Mill was advertising its feed grinding services.

Most of the people and businesses written about in the old newspapers have long since been forgotten, but here and there, as Betty looked over the pages, she would recognize a familiar family name or a store, like Tramburgs repair shop, that was passed down through several generations and is still around in some form today.

We were a thriving community, Betty said. I can remember when we had three grocery stores. We had a hardware store. We had a barbershop. We had three taverns. We had a blacksmith shop.

Many of the businesses of yesteryear are represented in the museum in the form of vintage promotional items like yardsticks, spoon rests, banks, pens and calendars that they used to give out to customers.

One of the museums prized possessions is a goosetracks pattern quilt made by the Neighborhood Club in 1933 with the names of the women who created it stitched into the squares. The club was formed in the winter of 1912 by Ann Adams, when she decided to invite a group of her neighbors into her home at the corner of Highways 16 and 146 to meet socially and to help with the Sunday school being held at the Bennett School.

In addition to the homespun artifacts like the quilt, there few items of old technology, including the Motorola TV with a tiny round screen that belonged to Davids mother (it still works) and an old desk model telephone from the days before there were keypads or rotary dials.

Youd get the operator and youd tell her what number you wanted, Betty said. You couldnt dial it yourself.

Lots of photos

Also on display are high school yearbooks, documents and photos. Lots of photos. Theres a picture of the founder of Fall River, A.A. Brayton, and a picture of the villages last surviving Civil War veterans. There are photos of the four Brace brothers who served in France during World War I and photos of old buildings that are no longer standing or, in the case of the old 1880s schoolhouse, have been split in two.

To display as many of the photos and newspaper clippings as possible, David and Betty repurposed an old carpet swatch rack that is mounted to the wall and made up of a series of hinged plastic panels that people can flip through like pages in a book. The display rack puts the photos in order from black and white pictures of the villages early days to shots of the 1996 sesquicentennial celebration and beyond.

The sesquicentennial was another of Davids pet projects. He was the head of that committee, Betty said, and was proud of the celebration that they put together, which included a visit from Good Morning, America and a spot on national TV.

Personally, David and Betty show up in a few of the photos on display. Theres one of David in front of his old school bus and another of his first and second grade class taken in 1939. Then theres one of Betty with her Girl Scout troop in 1947.

Its just fun to have all of these old, old things, Betty said as she flipped through the pages of memories. I love this. I could stand here for hours.
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New Painting Highlights Guildhalls Role in Wrexham

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Aug 5th, 2017

A piece of artwork documenting the role played by Wrexham Councils Guildhall in day-to-day life in the county borough, has been unveiled.

Created by London-based artist Niloufar Bakhshalian, the painting of the Guildhall will hang in on the first floor corridor of the Guildhall, near the registry office.

The painting shows the front of the Guildhall from Llwyn Isaf, with a wedding scene in the middle.

The picture was produced as part of a collection of artwork showing town halls and landmark buildings across England and Wales, including Alexandra Palace in Haringey, Kent County Council Headquarters and Ealing Town Hall.

The collection was put together by Martin Reddington Associates (MRA), which worked with Wrexham Council back in 2015 to put together a survey on employees experiences.

The painting hasnt cost the council anything, and was produced as part of the survey work.

To produce the work, Niloufar visited the Guildhall in the winter and interviewed staff, asking them about their impressions of the building and putting together the information and images required so she could represent it.

She said: The buildings represented in art form provide a means by which to explore pictorially the people, the culture, the challenges and the level of progress made over the years, because it is the location at which employees are physically gathered on a daily basis.

The lawn stood out as very scenic and when I was introduced to the history and traditional aspects of it, it appealed to me even more.

The main thing that stood out to me was the emphasis on the people as an important aspect of the Council. I was introduced to the culture of holding wedding ceremonies and registrations for births in the building.

Cllr Mark Pritchard, Leader of the Council, said: Were very pleased to have this painting and to be able to show the final work at the Guildhall itself.

Its particularly nice to see a wedding depicted in the painting because the Guildhall plays an important role in the lives of a lot of people in Wrexham  especially when it comes to the registry of births, marriages and deaths.

These are all incredibly important subjects and the Guildhall plays a front and centre civic role in each of them, so Im very pleased Niloufars work has captured that.
Directed by David Leitch; written by Kurt Johnstad; based on the graphic novel by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart

Set in 1989 before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Atomic Blonde is an action spy thriller starring Charlize Theron. Lorraine Broughton (Theron) is an MI6 [British foreign intelligence] agent sent to retrieve a secret list hidden in a wristwatch that has the names of every active agent in the Soviet Union. Should it fall into the wrong hands, we are told, it may extend the Cold War another 40 years. A fairly ludicrous premise to begin with.

Lorraine is sent to Berlin to retrieve the list and eliminate Satchel, a double agent working for the Soviet side who also killed her partner, MI6 agent James Gasciogne (Sam Hargrave). She meets her contact, agent David Percival (James McAvoy), a hedonistic Berlin spy station chief who loves the citys night life.

She is also joined by Delphine LaSalle (Sofia Boutella), a French agent naively seeking the excitement and intrigue of the espionage world. At the dramatic high point of the film, Lorraine and Percival have to smuggle an East German Stasi (secret police) officer codenamed Spyglass (Eddie Marsan) and his family across the border to West Berlin. Spyglass has memorized the contents of the list and is defecting before the KGB gets to him.

All of this is told in flashbacks by Lorraine to her MI6 handler Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and CIA agent Emmet Kurzfeld (John Goodman). Most of the film, however, is devoted to ambushes, shootings, car chases, hand-to-hand combat and people looking cool and extraordinarily chic in various bars, nightclubs, hotel rooms and so forth.

Since the film takes place in the 1980s, the soundtrack inevitably features the popular music of the time, namely disco and New Wave. Even the title of the film is borrowed from a 1979 song by Blondie, Atomic. This reviewer enjoyed some of the music, but here it is used in a manipulative fashion. During fight and/or flight sequences, right on cue we hear a rock or disco track, which only adds to the cold, brutalizing effect. It has become something of a cliche in modern films.

The various decors and locales add up to a very glossy and sleek film. At times it feels like an advertisement for vodka, cigarettes or luxury cars, or all three. The insipid dialogue proves true to its comic book origins. There is not much of substance here, which is a little disappointing given the historical setting, but not surprising given the commercial and artistic interests involved.

The much lauded action sequences are bloody, violent and unrealistic. Lorraine seems to possess almost superhuman strength and agility, and the spectator is apparently supposed to suspend his or her disbelief. Some of the action pieces are effective, but always within definite limits. For action films to maintain any genuine suspense, the characters and their situations have to come to life in some interesting mannerotherwise we are left with largely meaningless choreography.

Atomic Blonde has next to nothing explicit to tell us about Cold War politics, but of course there is an ideological undercurrent at play here. Vaguely decadent and fun West Berlin is counterposed to rainy and dim East Berlin. The counter-culture, with its mohawk hairstyles and break dancers, is free to express itself in the West, but not so in the Stalinist East.

To underscore the point, a KGB villain bludgeons a young hip-hop captive with a skateboard and smashes his boombox in an effort to find out where a defector has gone. We see Lorraine go to an East German cinema where the only film playing is Russian director Andrei Tarkovskys 1979 film Stalker. Who would ever want to see that boring rubbish? For those who dont know the work, Tarkovskys film is slow and contemplative, the precise opposite of Atomic Blonde.

From a contemporary point of view, it all seems a bit ridiculous. Here the West is synonymous with freedom, rap and punk, lesbianism, what have you. The East is all cold and totalitarian. Not much fun.

In an interview on uproxx.com, director David Leitch spoke about what inspired him about the original story: Berlin is all about the counterculture. I think thats one of the reasons why it spoke to me from the beginning and I go back to that first read of the script and understand the set piece. Thats when I was thinking, Holy crap. This is taking place in Berlin. This should not be a stuffy noir. This is about counterculture. This is about rebellion. This is about rock and roll.

Thoughtful comments, clearly a substantial basis for a $30 million film.

The irony of course, is that any self-respecting punk or rapper in the 1980s despised Ronald Reagan, the CIA and the Cold War. To be sure, there were plenty of youth in the Eastern bloc countries who longed for the material goods in the United States and the West, but the most advanced who protested in the fall of 1989 wanted political freedom in addition to social rights, not just access to a different lifestyle.

Of course, it would never occur to Leitch to ask: what has occurred in the former Stalinist countries in the quarter-century since the fall of the Berlin Wall? Fascist and authoritarian parties and governments are on the rise in the region. The social conditions of the working class are a disaster. No fun at all.

In regard to the free, democratic West? Whats happened there? Their competing intelligence agencies possess surveillance abilities that would make the Stasi and KGB green with envy.

As for walls and borders, what about the US-Mexico border? Some 200 people died fleeing Stalinist East Germany during the existence of its reactionary wall, but at least 5,000 migrant deaths occurred along the US-Mexico frontier from 1994 to 2007 alone, according to the Human Rights National Commission of Mexico and the ACLU. One could go on

Many of the spy films made even at the height of the Cold War (The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, The Manchurian Candidate, The Ugly American, The Ipcress File, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Torn Curtain, Funeral in Berlin, The Deadly Affair, The Looking Glass War, Scorpio, etc.) were somewhat slow-paced and often morally ambiguous affairs. The exceptions, of course, were the James Bond and similar films (Matt Helm et al), but those were never taken seriously. It was taken for granted that there was something absurd and outsized about them.

A recent turning point in the serious spy genre came with the Jason Bourne films. Here some attention was paid to a coherent plot structure, but now the raison detre of the filmdespite its pseudo-antiestablishment surfacegravitated overwhelmingly to the action scenes, especially ones involving close hand-to-hand combat. Most of the spy films of the last 15 to 20 years have been violent and, not surprisingly, dull efforts.

We see the hero, for example, single-handedly disarm half a dozen enemies all in one room and all in the space of a few minutes, if that. The hero will usually be unarmed and able to get away in a car leading to an extended and pointless car chase in this or that part of the globe. We have seen all this before, it is tiring, tiresome and desensitizing.

One wonders why the villains/authorities dont simply shoot the suspect/target upon entering the scene, as they do in real life? But apparently its best to leave ones brain in the lobby, when watching a contemporary Hollywood product.

So what is a major studio to do when audience members have seen this sort of film again and again, and potentiallydangerously!may not rush to the theatre to fork over their cash? Well, along comes a film like Atomic Blonde. Here the protagonist is a woman, so not only is the nearly two hours of violence and mayhem acceptable, it is also marketable.
On Friday, a US appeals court threw out the first-degree murder conviction of Nicholas A. Slatten, one of the four former Blackwater security guards who massacred 14 unarmed Iraqis in September 2007 while working for the US State Department. Slatten had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015, and the other three former guards each received sentences of 30 years. The court also ruled that the three other men be resentenced.

In a statement, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit panel ruled that the trial court which sentenced the four guards abused its discretion by not allowing Slatten to be tried separately from his three co-defendants. He was the only one who faced a murder charge since he was found to have fired the first shots as well as shooting dead the driver of a white Kia car that had stopped at a traffic circle.

The other three defendants, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard, were found to have violated the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment for their part in the massacre. Thirty-year sentences were issued based on their use of military firearms while committing a felony, a charge that was used for the first time against security contractors who were provided weapons by the US government. All four men were convicted of first-degree murder and manslaughter by a federal jury in October 2014.

On September 16, 2007, the four men were part of a convoy which opened fire with automatic weapons on a civilian intersection in Baghdads Nisour Square. One member of the team did not stop firing his automatic assault rifle, even when he was ordered to cease fire. Helicopters were also used to fire into the intersection from overhead. In total, 14 unarmed Iraqis, including children, were killed and 17 more were wounded.

The guards say that they acted in self-defense after coming under AK-47 gunfire, but during the 10-week trial in 2014, no witness testified to such a circumstance nor was evidence found that any AK-47 rifles were carried by Iraqi insurgents at that time. After their conviction, the defendants had vowed to appeal what one of them called a perversion of justice. All four men were US military veterans.

The two US circuit judges responsible for Fridays ruling, Karen LeCraft Henderson and Janice Rogers Brown, wrote, we by no means intend to minimize the carnage attributable to Slough, Heard, and Libertys actions. Their poor judgments resulted in the deaths of many innocent people.

Despite this, Henderson and Brown ruled that the sentencing judge should have given the men more nuanced penalties tailored to each defendant, rather than using a sledgehammer across the board. They also argued that the legislation used for the sentencing was originally aimed at violent drug traffickers and should not be applied to US contractors with no prior criminal record.

When the sentences were handed down two years ago, US District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that, Based on the seriousness of the crimes, I find the penalty is not excessive. Assistant US Attorney T. Patrick Martin, who prosecuted the four men, argued for the lengthy sentences stating, You are entrusted to do a job with deadly weapons, but you must use them only when necessary, and their use must be justified. You cant just shoot first and seek justification later.

Blackwater has changed names twice, first to Xe Services and then to Academi. The companys CEO Erik Prince, the brother of current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, resigned from Blackwater in 2009. He went on to form a private mercenary force for the United Arab Emirates and is currently lobbying the Trump administration to expand the role of mercenaries in the US war in the Afghanistan.

The 2007 incident was notable for its brutality even in a city where a bitter sectarian war was taking place. It significantly raised the profile of the private security contractors which the US government has increasingly relied on in waging its imperialist wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

At the time of this writing, there had been no word on whether Slatten will be retried. Spokespeople for the US Justice Department and US Attorney Channing D. Phillips, said that the latter is reviewing the opinion and has no further comment at this time. The sentencing that took place in 2015 was the conclusion of a years-long process which wound its way through the federal court system.

Fridays court action may have similar effects to the lack of prosecutions and criminal convictions against police officers who kill without prejudice in the United States. The decision sends the message that these actions are acceptable and that soldiers and military contractors can get away with using unwarranted deadly force. This is particularly important to note as geopolitical tensions continue to ramp up around the globe and the Trump administration determines its strategy for the war in Afghanistan.
Dubais Torch Tower was engulfed in flames early Friday morning for the second time since 2015. According to Dubai officials, the blaze damaged 64 of the building's 86-storeys.

The scenes filmed were a chilling echo of Londons Grenfell Tower inferno, with reports of burning cladding raining down from 40 to 50 floors high. Two cars in the parking lot were set alight by falling debris from the tower. So far, no official explanation has been given for the latest blaze in the building, one of the worlds tallest.

The earlier blaze in the United Arab Emirates largest city was attributed to the same type of cladding and insulation later used on Grenfell Tower, where a June 14 fire claimed over 80 lives.

No lives were lost yesterday at Torch Tower, or in the 2015 blaze that engulfed 60 floorsprimarily because, unlike Grenfell Tower, the buildings luxury flats are fitted with sophisticated internal fire safety features. A two-bedroom flat starts at $500,000.

Friday's fire at the 337-metre skyscraper began around 1 a.m. on the ninth floor. It was fought by firefighters from four stations who had it under control by 3:30 a.m.

The building is the fifth tallest residential tower in the world as well as the 40th tallest structure. But firefighters were able to fight the inferno from inside the building, while residents could flee via smoke-free, fire-free safety zones enabling officials to successfully evacuate the 337-metre buildings 676 apartments.

Yorkshire-born resident Lucy told the Daily Mail that she was woken by fire alarms at around 1 a.m. in her apartment on the 40th floor. In addition, the tower's security team triggered a system which gave an automated call, email and text to all residents within minutes of the fire starting.

Samia Badani, chairman of the residents association at Bramley House, next to Grenfell Tower, told the newspaper, They clearly took their duty to protect the safety of residents seriously and were organised. The Mail reported that Badani believed Grenfell residents were let down because of their social status and because they were poor and that local authorities were only interested in making the building look nice from the outside rather than being safe for those living inside.

The second blaze at The Torch underscores the inherent danger in the widespread cladding of high-rise buildings. UAE authorities have acknowledged that at least 30,000 buildings across the country were clad in a manner that could cause fire to spread rapidly. Most of Dubai's 250 high-rise buildings have cladding panels with thermoplastic cores.

Cladding contributed to other major fires in Dubai - most notably the 2012 blaze started by a discarded cigarette that gutted the 34-storey Tamweel Tower and at a 63-storey luxury hotel on New Year's Eve in 2016.

In 2012, Dubai introduced legislation that outlawed foamed plastic insulation and required cladding for new buildings to be fire retardant. In 2013, it imposed restrictions on cladding new buildings over nine storeys tall, requiring owners of high-rise buildings with flammable cladding to install external sprinklers and a ring of fire retardant panels every three floors.

However, the rules were not applied to existing structures to protect the commercial interests involved. This exemption led to the latest fire at The Torch that struck before remedial work on the last fire was even completed.
Amid reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expanding his probe into alleged Russian interference in the US elections and possible collusion and obstruction of justice by the Trump White House, Attorney General Jeff Sessions held a press conference Friday to announce a crackdown on leaks of classified and sensitive information.

Sessions, who was joined by Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, raised the threat of reprisals against reporters who publish leaked information. In recent days, President Trump has publicly disparaged Sessions for failing to aggressively counter the almost daily flow of media reports, coming from intelligence sources or from within the administration itself, exposing details of contacts between Trump aides and Russian officials and other information embarrassing to the White House.

One day before the Friday press conference, the Washington Post published transcripts of Trump telephone calls with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last January in which Trump tried to bully his foreign counterparts into lining up behind his America First immigration and trade policies.

Trumps battle with the press is part of the raging factional warfare within the ruling class and the state centering on differences over imperialist foreign policy. The liberal press, spearheaded by the New York Times, the Washington Post and most of the TV news outlets, is aligned with sections of the intelligence establishment opposed to Trumps efforts to improve relations with Russia and determined to effect an escalation of the confrontational policy initiated by the Obama administration. This is the reactionary basis of the Democratic Partys opposition to Trump, not the administrations overall militarism, its attacks on immigrants, social programs and democratic rights, its staff of billionaires, generals and neo-fascists, and its open appeal to the most reactionary social forces.

The corporate-controlled media, for its part, has discredited itself with wide swaths of the public by serving as a conduit for government propaganda and lies, the most notorious example being the claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction used to justify the 2003 invasion. And the official narrative of Russian meddling in the US election, for which no serious evidence has been provided, has evoked broad public skepticism.

At the press conference, Sessions said that his Justice Department had already tripled the number of active leak investigations over the Obama administration. He boasted that in the first six months following Trumps inauguration there were nearly as many criminal referrals concerning leaks of classified information as there were in the previous three years combined.

Sessions said four people had been charged under Trump with leaking classified information or concealing contacts with foreign intelligence officials, and that the FBI was creating a new counterintelligence unit to oversee leak investigations and prosecutions. He indicated that his department would likely investigate the leaking of Trumps conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia, declaring, No government can be effective when its leaders cannot discuss sensitive matters in confidence or to talk freely in confidence with foreign leaders.

The irony of this statement coming from a country that has been caught bugging the offices of the United Nations, NATO and the European Union and tapping the personal telephones of leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel evidently escaped the attorney general and the other officials on the podium.

Raising the threat of criminal prosecutions to force reporters to reveal confidential sources, Sessions said, One of the things we are doing is reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas. He continued: We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited. Reporters, he declared, cannot place lives at risk with impunity We must balance their role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in our intelligence community, the armed forces and all law-abiding Americans.

Rosenstein, who took questions from the press, said the new FBI unit would focus on investigating leaks to reporters. He said he would meet with media representatives to discuss the leak crackdown next week, but evaded a reply when asked if prosecutors would rule out bringing criminal charges against reporters for doing their jobs.

Coats was even more menacing. All but equating leaking and publishing leaked information with treason, he said, Anyone who engages in these criminal acts is betraying the intelligence community and the American people. Directing his threats in part to intelligence agency personnel, he added, If you improperly disclose classified information, we will find you, we will investigate you and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. You will not be happy with the result.

In response to the press conference, Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union said, Every American should be concerned about the Trump administrations threat to step up its efforts against whistleblowers and journalists. A crackdown on leaks is a crackdown on the free press and on democracy as a whole.

The announcement of a crackdown on leakers and the media followed reports on Thursday that Special Counsel Mueller was using a grand jury in Washington DC to conduct his investigation as well as a previously reported grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia. The Washington panel has reportedly issued subpoenas for documents concerning the June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump, Jr., Trump aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner, his then-campaign director Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer with Kremlin connections as well as other Russian officials. Recent reports based on leaked information say that Trump personally dictated a misleading statement initially released by his son concerning the meeting.

Muellers use of a Washington DC grand jury indicates that his probe is encompassing the White House itself, possibly including the president, and that it will continue indefinitely. In addition, bipartisan measures have been introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate designed to block Trump from firing Mueller.

Under these conditions, Trump has over the past two weeks sought to base his administration even more directly on the military and the police while directly appealing to far-right social elements through anti-immigrant and anti-minority racism, law-and-order demagogy and anti-gay prejudice. (See: Trump makes an appeal to the fascistic right).

The Democrats will not oppose this appeal to ultra-right forces. On the contrary, they are seeking bipartisan talks with the Republicans on ways to shore up the insurance markets at the expense of health care for workers, cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, and provide more profit windfalls for business under cover of an infrastructure program.

In attacking press freedom, moreover, Trump is building on the foundation laid by Obama. During his tenure, Obama prosecuted twice as many journalists and whistleblowers under the Espionage Act as all previous administrations combined. The Obama administrations attack on the press included the jailing of Chelsea Manning for revealing US crimes and intrigues in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world, the imprisonment of ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou for exposing CIA torture of detainees in a television interview, and the secret seizure of the phone records of Associated Press reporters.
Following the failure of Senate Republicans to pass legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a bipartisan group in the House of Representatives has drafted a plan to prop up the insurance companies in the name of fixing Obamacare. The authors of the proposal call themselves the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of some 40 House members divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

The collapse of the effort to deliver on President Trumps pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare came against the backdrop of broad popular opposition to the proposal passed by the House in May and the equally reactionary plan advanced by Senate Republicans, which would have cut taxes for the wealthy, raised premiums and reduced services for millions of Americans, and made anywhere from 22 million to 32 million more people uninsured. It would have, as well, marked the beginning of the end of the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled as a guaranteed social benefit.

The response of the Democratic Party to the debacle for Trump and the Republicans was to offer their services in implementing the demands of the insurance giants for repairing Obamacare so as to better ensure reduced costs and fatter profits. The last thing the Democrats wanted was for the mass opposition to the Republican plans to take the form of an organized movement to expand health coverage to the 28 million people totally abandoned by Obamacare and replace that corporate-dominated, anti-working class scheme with guaranteed, good quality health care for all.

The Democratic mantra was the need to stabilize the insurance markets, i.e., meet the demands of the companies for changes in the ACA to further limit coverage for working people and more securely underwrite profits. Hence the Problems Solvers five-point plan:

 Point one: Guarantee a continuation of the government cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments to the insurance firms that Trump has threatened to cut off. The $8 billion in CSR funds provide a tax-payer subsidy to private insurers to lower co-pays and deductibles for very low-income people on Obamacare plans. The insurance firms have been blackmailing the governmentthreatening to pull out of the Obamacare insurance exchanges if they are not assured that the CSR subsidies will continue.

 Point two: Create a dedicated stability fund, alternately referred to as a reinsurance program, to compensate insurance firms for the cost of covering people with high-cost medical conditions that eat into profits.

 Point three: Change the ACA mandate requiring companies to provide insurance to full-time employees to apply to firms with more than 500 workers instead of 50 workers, eliminating employer-sponsored coverage for millions of workers.

 Point four: Repeal the tax on medical device makers, saving corporations billions of dollars.

 Point five: Provide technical changes and clear guidelines to allow insurers to sell policies across state lines, encouraging a further monopolization of the health insurance market.

The pro-corporate character of the Problem Solvers plan serves as a warning that the bipartisan assault on health care has not been jettisoned with the Republican defeat. At most, it has been handed a temporary setback. Within the confines of Congress and at the direction of the two big business parties, forces are regrouping. Nothing is off the table, particularly the drive to end Medicaid, which currently serves 77 million poor, elderly and disabled people, as an entitlement program based on need.

Despite the defeat of the Senate legislation, a stealth attack on Medicaid is accelerating. A number of statesincluding Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine and Wisconsinare seeking federal waivers for changes at the state level, including imposing work requirements, drug testing and time limits for benefits, as well as locking people out of the program for failure to pay monthly premiums.

It was Obamacare that laid the basis for the Republicans offensive against health care. By establishing the mechanism of partially subsidizing the purchase of insurance from private companies by means of government vouchers it set a precedent for privatizing Medicaid, Medicare and, ultimately, Social Security.

Taking any measure of the nations healththe opioid epidemic, the soaring rate of teen suicide, rising mortality among middle-aged men succumbing to deaths of despair, growing infant and maternal mortality, declining overall life expectancyAmerica faces a health care crisis of monumental proportions.

But the fight to secure a basic human and social right, the right to high-quality health care, cannot be waged based on a perspective of pressuring the Democrats. Decent health care for working people is incompatible with a system based on private ownership of the corporations and production for profitthat is, on capitalism.

The working class must advance its own class strategy, independent of the Democrats and Republicans, who are beholden to the private insurers, the pharmaceuticals and the giant hospital chains that profit off the misery, ill health and premature death of ordinary Americans.

The health care industry must be taken out of private hands and the health care system organized as a public utility under the democratic control of the working class, based on socialized medicine.
On August 3, the Italians government sent the frigate Commandante Borsini into Libyan territorial waters to stop refugees fleeing Libya for Europe. This violation of the sovereignty of Libya, a former Italian colony, aims to destroy refugee vessels and force refugees back into Libya, where the militias that have controlled the country ever since the devastating NATO war against Libya in 2011 detain them in appalling conditions.

The Italian parliament has approved a law allowing the Italian navy to trespass into Libyan waters under the pretext that they are helping the Libyan coast guard to arrest refugees. Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti even declared that the goal was to reinforce Libyan sovereignty. A large majority in parliament voted for the intervention, 328 to 113 in the lower house and 191 to 47 in the upper house.

The law provoked outrage on Libyan social media and protests in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, with banners bearing pictures of Omar al-Mukhtar, the Lion of the Desert who led the resistance to Italian colonial rule in the early 20th century, and the slogan No to a return to colonialism. Rome reacted by cutting the number of vessels deployed off Libya from six to two.

Human rights groups denounced the Italian naval operation. The Italian Navy deployment in Libyan waters could effectively lead to arbitrary detention of people in abusive conditions, said Human Rights Watch official Judith Sunderland. Italy is preparing to help Libyan forces who are known to detain people in conditions that expose them to a real risk of torture, sexual violence, and forced labour.

The Italian Navy also seized the Iuventa, the ship of the German Jugend Rettet (Youth Rescue) NGO, which tries to save refugees on the dangerous central Mediterranean passage from western Libya to Italy. The NGO had refused to sign a code of conduct dictated by the European Union (EU) that would have limited the number of refugees it could save on the high seas.

If NGOs do not sign [the code of conduct], it is hard to see how they can continue their work, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti told La Stampa.

The Italian naval mission points to the rising danger of a new imperialist intervention in Libya by competing European powers. Paris has already called for the installation of camps where French and Libyan officials would imprison, inspect, and render judgment on refugees seeking to escape Libya to Europe. Now, Rome is proposing its own intervention amid escalating rivalries between French and Italian imperialism in North Africa.

The Italian operation provoked a loud condemnation from Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, a former Libyan general and CIA asset who now controls much of eastern Libya around Benghazi and is being groomed as a proxy for French imperialism.

Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) declared in a communique that it would confront any naval vessel that enters national waters without permission from the army. It called the Italian operation a violation of sovereignty of Libya by Italy; which was aiming to export the illegal immigration crisis from its territory to Libyas. The LNA claimed that its forces in Benghazi, Tobruk, and Ras Lanouf, in the eastern part of Libya, as well as in Tripoli in the west, would confront Italian vessels.

This is only a political maneuver, however, in that the LNA only has forces in eastern Libya, whereas refugees travel along sea lanes going from western Libya to Italy. This is where Rome is sending its warships.

It is plainly evident that Haftar, like the other militia leaders in Libya, is hostile to the anti-imperialist sentiment that is rising among the Libyan workers and masses. He has no fundamental differences from the militias in Misrata and elsewhere in western Libya currently working with Rome. He plans to use the LNAs control of eastern Libyas vast petroleum reserves and of the Ras Lanouf refineries to develop ties with other imperialist powers, including France, as well as with the Russian, Algerian, and Egyptian regimes.

These conflicts expose yet again the utterly reactionary character of the 2011 NATO war in Libya. With the assistance of petty-bourgeois academics and political groups like Frances New Anti-capitalist Party, the media and governments shamelessly promoted a war of imperialist plunder, in which NATO coordinated its actions with Islamist and tribal militias, as a humanitarian war to defend a democratic revolution. NATOs overthrow of the Libyan regime only created a disaster for Libyas inhabitants, as well as for hundreds of thousands of refugees in the country.

Nearly 2,500 refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean in the first seven months of 2017, putting 2017 on track to be the deadliest year yet for refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean. A total of 94,000 refugees traveled from Libya to Italy.

The civil war is also sharpening tensions between the major powers, and in particular among the NATO countries. As Washington threatens Russia and China with war, and rivalries grow between Washington and a Berlin-Paris axis that aims to develop an independent defense policy from the United States, a diffuse coalition of countries is backing Haftar.

In January, a military officer from neighboring Algeria spoke to Middle East Eye to underscore growing ties between Moscow, Algiers, and Haftar: We will not wait forever for the various Libyan political forces to reach a settlement. Libya needs the law to be applied across its territory and, above all, a strong army that is capable of guaranteeing security all the way to the border. And with the Russians, we see eye to eye.

According to another Algerian source, Moscow and Beijing both hope Haftar will fight members of the Islamic State (IS) militia that, they fear, could return via Libya to Central Asia or to Xinjiang in China, to carry out attacks there: In a certain measure, the Russians also want to secure this area. For they fear that after the defeat of IS in Syria and Iraq, Russian or Chinese terrorists in East Turkestan sympathetic to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham [ex-Al Nusra, the Syrian wing of Al Qaeda], that is 2,000 to 3,000 men, could also flee to Libya.

After Haftar was invited onto the Russian aircraft carrier Kuznetsov in the Mediterranean in January, the commander of US forces in Africa, General Thomas Waldhauser, said the ties between Moscow and Haftar are undeniable. Waldhauser added, They are on the ground, they are trying to influence the action, we watch what they do with great concern and you know in addition to the military side of this, we've seen some recent activity in business ventures. He indicated that Washington planned to continue working with the Tripoli regime.

Paris has oriented to Haftar, however, since the election of President Emmanuel Macron in May, inviting Haftar to a summit in Paris, as Franco-Italian tensions continued to grow on several issues. Not only is Paris refusing to accept refugees who have arrived in Europe via Italy, citing the EUs Dublin Accords, but Macron has nationalized the STX naval shipyards in Saint Nazaire to block an Italian firm, Fincantieri, from acquiring them.

This provoked an angry comment from the Italian paper Il Fatto Quotidiano on the Berlin-Paris axis in the EU: European ideals mask nationalist interests. French President Emmanuel Macron has just decided to nationalize STX, the largest French shipyard, to keep it from falling into Italian hands  In Libya, Macron is playing without Europe and against Italy on petroleum and on immigration: the goal is to take over the petroleum to benefit French [energy] firm Total. France is acting in line with its interests, like Germany.
The demonisation of refugees is increasingly the central theme of the federal (Bundestag) election campaign of Germanys Social Democratic Party (SPD). Just ten days ago SPD chief Martin Schulz resorted to the jargon of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Schulz accused German chancellor Angela Merkel of allowing into the country more than a million refugees two years ago in a largely uncontrolled manner and declared that this could not be repeated.

Boris Pistorius, responsible for internal security issues in Schulzs election campaign, quickly followed suit. The interior minister of the state of Lower Saxony, known as a hardliner, called for the limitation of asylum numbers by setting up detention centres in Libya. Refugees are to be held in such centres before they can embark on the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.

At the centres their asylum claims are to be summarily reviewed. In fact only a handful can ever expect a positive response to their applications. Refugees from Africa are dismissed en masse as economic refugees, who are not entitled to asylum. It is already clear that the vast majority of African refugees are not eligible for the right of asylum, Pistorius told the Suddeutsche Zeitung.

What Pistorius is proposing is the construction of concentration camps, in which tens of thousands of refugees would be imprisoned indefinitely until they are deported across Libyans southern border into the Sahara where they face fierce heat and the possibility of death by dehydration.

To overcome any resistance on the part of the largely powerless Libyan government, Pistorius suggests bribes. Possible resistance by the Libyans can be resolved with money, he suggested delicately in the Suddeutsche Zeitung.

Until now the demand for the establishment of such camps in Libya has been restricted to far-right circles in the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), along with the ultra-right AfD. Schulzs predecessor as leader of the SPD, current foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel, long rejected such camps noting that Libya is plagued by civil war and dominated by rival warlords and Islamic militia.

The existing prisons for refugees in Libya are hell on earth. Prisoners are crowded by their hundreds into tiny spaces, subjected to violence, beatings and rape, and even killed. Disease is widespread. There is a lack of washing facilities, clean drinking water and food. The Libyan coast guard is considered to be corrupt and brutal, and enriches itself by stealing from refugees and trading in human beings.

With its demand for such camps, the SPD is taking up the inhuman and racist slogans of the AfD. The shift arises mainly from domestic considerations. The SPD is responding to growing social antagonisms and the radicalisation of workers and youth.

The hoopla surrounding Schulz following his coronation as the partys lead candidate in the September election lacked any real basis. It was the product of a systematic campaign by SPD bureaucrats and the media. The Schulz bubble quickly burst and the party suffered major defeats in a series of state elections in Saarland, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein.

The SPD is seen by the working class as what it is: the party which introduced the Hartz IV welfare reforms, condemning millions to precarious forms of income, while the partys tax reforms precipitated the biggest redistribution of wealth and income in favour of the rich in the history of the federal republic.

In the meantime, the SPD is trailing far behind in every poll and Schulz is reckoned to have no chance of taking over the chancellorship after the September election. In a recent Forsa survey, Merkel polled 52 percent support compared to 21 percent for Schulz. The ratings of the SPD stood at 22 percent compared to the union partiesthe CDU and CSUwhich polled at 40 percent. Even the role of the SPD as a junior partner of the Union parties (CDU and CSU) is doubtful. The right-wing union has the option of forming a coalition with the neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), while the Greens are quite prepared to form an alliance with the CDU.

Unable to lure and pacify workers and youths with promises of social improvements, the SPD has decided to turn to intimidation, the mobilization of ultra-right elements and the rearmament of the state apparatus in order to suppress future social and political conflicts. This is why it has adopted the slogans of the AfD and placed the refugee issue at the heart of its election campaign.

SPD Justice Minister Heiko Maas has long played a leading role in the introduction of measures aimed at censoring the Internet and persecuting left-wing organisations. Following protests against the G20 summit in Hamburg, he even demanded a Rock against the Left concert.

On foreign policy, the SPD is also outflanking the right-wing parties on the right. Foreign Minister Gabriel has been explicit in his advocacy of German great power politics.

It is not the first time that the SPD has allied itself with ultra-right forces to suppress the class struggle. After betraying its socialist program and supporting World War I in 1914, the Social Democrats mobilised Freikorps mercenaries at the end of the war to violently put down the revolutionary uprisings of workers and soldiers, and assassinate their leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Later on these Freikorps forces formed the backbone of Hitlers Stormtroopers.

The SPD is returning to the tradition of the Bloodhound, i.e., Gustav Noske, the first Social Democratic defense minister who played a key role in suppressing workers in 1919.

The Left Party also supports this political course. It has organized its entire campaign around forming a future federal coalition government with the SPD. The Left Partys leading candidate, Sahra Wagenknecht, has long been denouncing refugees along lines similar to those of the AfD.

The SPD today has nothing in common with the working class. It is a right-wing state party, which exclusively defends the interests of the banks, large-scale conglomerates, the secret services and army. Its transformation shows that, under the conditions of the intensified crisis of world capitalism, not a single problemthe defence of refugees and democratic rights, opposition to social decay and redundancies, the struggle against warcan be solved within the framework of the establishment parties and institutions. The working class must prepare for fierce class struggles.

This is the importance of the Socialist Equality Partys election campaign. The SGP (Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei) is the only party that advocates a socialist program. It combines the struggle against war and the arming of the state with the defence of democratic and social rights. It fights for the establishment of an international movement of the working class to overthrow capitalism:

We defend democratic fundamental rights and the right to asylum and reject every form of nationalism and xenophobia. Attacks on refugees are directed against all workers. That is why a joint struggle against capitalism by all workers is necessaryirrespective of their origin.

We call upon all readers of the WSWS to support the election campaign of the SGP and join the party.
After being detained for five days without charge over an alleged plot to bring down a passenger plane, two Sydney men were charged on Thursday night with two vague counts of acts done in preparation for, or planning a terrorist act.

The laying of charges came as the federal government was increasingly under pressure to justify the detentions and the turmoil created over the past week in Australian airports by the alleged terror plot to bring down an aircraft.

The authorities now say there were two separate plans, one to blow up a plane and another to kill people using rotten egg gas.

The charges were laid two days after the release, without charge, of another man arrested when police raided six homes across Sydney last Saturday. A fourth man remains detained without charge under investigation and interrogation powers handed to the police as part of the war on terror.

For political purposes, the government and the police are feeding what appear to be fantastic claims to the population, via a complicit media, prejudicing any chance the two men ever had of a fair trial.

This is one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Deputy Commissioner Mike Phelan told a press conference.

At his own media gathering, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull congratulated our intelligence, security and police services for their outstanding work in disrupting the terrorist plot to bring down an aeroplane.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan, who is responsible for the AFP, said the seriousness of the charges laid against the two men cannot be underestimated.

With their help, the media has been full of headlines such as ISIS sent bomb parts for terror plot and Terror at the terminal.

The new details, however, only raise many more questions about the alleged plots, the surveillance the men were under, and the timing of the police operation.

The charges themselves are nebulous. Khaled Mahmoud Khayat, 49, and Mahmoud Khayat, 32, are being prosecuted under section 101.6 of the federal Criminal Code. This provision makes it an offence to do any act in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act, even if no terrorist act occurs and the persons act is not done in preparation for, or planning, a specific terrorist act [emphasis added].

The two brothers can be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without the police having to present evidence of any specific plot or its location, target, method or timing. Preparation or planning can mean nothing more than discussing a possible terrorist act.

The two defendants were denied bail and are not due to face court until November 14.

The first alleged plot is that the men attempted to smuggle an improvised bomb, encased in a metal meat grinder, onto a July 15 Etihad flight from Sydney to the Middle East. Supposedly the bomb was made from military grade explosive sent by a senior Islamic State operative in Syria, via the post using an air cargo flight from Turkey.

Exactly how or why the men and their sophisticated ISIS handlers thought they could get a metal meat grinder through routine airport security metal detection has not been explained.

Deputy Commissioner Phelan said it was a matter of conjecture why this plan was aborted. For unknown reasons, he said, luggage containing the bomb was not loaded aboard the Etihad plane, although the man taking the luggageallegedly another Khayat brotherwas permitted to board the flight and leave the country.

Phelan said the moment police found out about the plot they constructed a replica of the weapon and tried to smuggle it aboard a plane to test security. He said there had been a 100 percent success rate, suggesting the device would never have made it onto the plane. This only underscores the implausibility of the meat grinder plan.

The second plot seems just as far-fetched. According to the police, after the men failed in the first plot a controller directed them to construct an improvised chemical dispersion device designed to release highly toxic hydrogen sulphide.

Better known as rotten egg gas, this compound is an unlikely terrorist weapon, and there is no record of it ever being used for that purpose. Relatively easily made and commonly produced in high school laboratory experiments, hydrogen sulphide can be lethal, but only in very high concentrations in small enclosed locations, not aircraft.

One of the academic security experts cited in the media, Professor Greg Barton, said: Releasing hydrogen sulphide in an aircraft cabin wouldnt render everyone unconscious.

Commissioner Phelan declared that the gas plan was in its early stages. I want to make it quite clear that we were a long way from a functional device, he said. There is no evidence at all that that device was completed.

This only points to further questions about the nature and timing of the police operation. If the meat grinder plot failed and the rotten egg gas bomb was nowhere near completion, why were the raids and arrests conducted last Saturday, and why were they accompanied by escalated security measures that threw airports into chaos for days?

Questions about timing go back further. According to todays Australian newspaper, Khaled Khayat first came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) some years ago when another brother, Tarek, went to Syria to join ISIS.

The Australian said Khaled was of no interest to security authorities after that, but reported that the plot began back in April when Khaled started communicating with Tarek and an ISIS controller via text and encrypted app messages.

It now appears that, as with so many terrorist plots, the participants were under surveillance. According to the Australian, a foreign intelligence agency believed to be Britains knew about the failed July 15 plot but waited until July 26 to tell Australian authorities. If this is true, it raises obvious questions: how and when did the overseas agency know about the plan?

If the agency knew about the plot before it took place, why were Australian police and intelligence agencies not informed? If it only knew after the failed attempt, why wait for days to alert its Australian counterparts? And why did Australian police wait for another three days to act after they were allegedly told?

All of these details should be treated with healthy suspicion. Increasingly it appears that the police raids were timed to create a terror scare right at the point that the Turnbull government was seeking to justify a revamping and expansion of the federal intelligence agencies and police.

How this operation is being exploited politically can be seen from Turnbulls media event yesterday. He again declared that the terrorist plot proved the need for the far-reaching restructuring of the police and intelligence apparatus that he unveiled the previous week, and for ongoing relentless measures to bolster the security powers and agencies.

This restructuring includes the creation of a Home Affairs super-ministry to take centralised control over a range of police and spy agencies, including ASIO, the AFP, the Border Force, and a parallel centralisation of all the civilian and military intelligence agencies under a new Office of National Intelligence in the prime ministers office.

Further plans are now being mooted, including more intrusive security measures at airports and an extension of ASIOs detention and interrogation powers.

None of this has anything to do with ensuring the safety of the population. Instead, terrorism scares are being exploited to try to divert attention from the deepening crisis of Turnbulls badly divided government and of the political establishment as a whole.

At the same time, as last weeks intelligence review report indicated, a police-state framework is being established to monitor and suppress rising social and political discontent, and intensifying popular concern about Australias close involvement in plans for escalating US-led wars, including against North Korea and China.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) hailed the Sri Lankan governments mobilisation of the military to suppress recent strike action by Ceylon Petroleum Cooperation (CPC) workers. TNA leaders R. Sambandan and M.A. Sumanthiran accused the strikers of attempting to bring down the government.

The TNA, which includes the main Tamil bourgeois parties, heads the current parliamentary opposition but supports the pro-US government in Colombo.

Sambandan and Sumanthiran made their anti-democratic comments during a parliamentary debate on July 27 over President Maithripala Sirisenas proclamation of the petroleum sector as an essential service. The oil workers launched an indefinite strike on July 24 in protest against government plans to privatise the state-owned CPC.

Using its draconian essential services law, the government mobilised the military to take over the main CPC supply centres. After the troops entered CPC premises and drove out the workers, the union leaders met with Sirisena and officially called off the strike (see: Sri Lankan government deploys army to break oil workers strike).

During the parliamentary debate, Sambandan attempted to present the governments crackdown as democratic while denouncing the strike as anti-democratic. Echoing Sirisenas and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghes denunciations of the striking workers, Sambandan said the unions had crippled fuel distribution and the essential services order was necessary to guarantee fuel supplies to the people without any impediment.

Sambandan claimed the strike was part of a conspiracy organised by a group of opposition MPs led by former President Mahinda Rajapakse. He warned the oil workers: You cant topple the government through strikes. He repeatedly urged the government to take bold decisions to suppress workers struggles.

Sambandan declared: I must caution this government. The countrys economy is in a very serious state. The country is mired in debts. The country must be redeemed from this position.

The TNA leader continued: If the government failed to take bold decisions [this] would encourage the joint opposition [the Rajapakse group]. He called on the government to demonstrate that you are governing efficiently and effectively and silence the joint opposition.

Sambandan praised former Sri Lankan army commander and current government minister Sarath Fonseka as an exemplary leader. Fonseka led the final bloody military offensives against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in 2009 that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

Several CPC workers told the World Socialist Web Site the governments strike-breaking operation was planned and organised in direct consultation with Field Marshal Fonseka. In April, President Sirisena suggested Fonseka should resign from the government and be reappointed as army chief in order to discipline the country.

The TNAs Sumanthiran told the parliament that strike action was the ultimate weapon, adding threateningly: If the workers abuse it, they are putting their own rights at risk. He said the unions had been irresponsible and the government had no alternative but to use the [essential services] law.

Sumanthiran denounced ongoing protests by the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) as criminal, saying they put patients lives in danger. GMOA members are demanding that the government take over a substandard private medical college.

The remarks of Sambandan and Sumanthiran make absolutely clear that the TNA supports police-state measures to suppress the working class and prop up the government and capitalist rule.

In January 2015, the TNA, along with the pseudo-left groups, academics and others, played a key role in the campaign to elect Sirisena as president. Sirisena and his supporters exploited the mass opposition to the Rajapakse governments assault on living conditions and democratic rights.

Under the pretext of fighting corruption and for democracy, the campaign to bring Sirisena to power was part of a US-led and Indian-backed regime-change operation against Rajapakse. Washington and New Delhi were not opposed to Rajapakses war crimes or his anti-democratic rule. They were hostile to his close relations with China, their chief geo-political rival in the Indo-Pacific.

The TNAs denunciations of CPC strikers and GMOA members are not accidental but are another indication of the reactionary character of Tamil nationalism.

The Elam People Revolutionary Front, a TNA partner, the Tamil National Peoples Front and the Tamil Peoples Council have recently criticised Sambandan and Sumanthiran for backing the government. These organisations, however, have said nothing about the TNAs denunciations of the CPC workers.

This silence is tantamount to political consent. These Tamil nationalist parties share the TNAs views. While the Colombo media quoted Sambandans and Sumanthirans speeches, Virakesari, the Tamil daily, published an editorial endorsing their statements.

The TNA and other factions of the Tamil bourgeoisie are seeking to secure their privileges by backing Washingtons aggression against China and lining up with the Sinhala ruling elite in the joint exploitation of the working class.

The TNA has supported all the attacks on the living conditions and democratic rights of the workers and the poor and assisted the government to block an international investigation into war crimes committed during the decades-long war against the separatist LTTE.

In the almost three years since taking office, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government has been thoroughly discredited among working people. The bourgeoisie, Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim alike, live in mortal fear of the mass opposition and developing workers struggles against the governments austerity program. In the countrys North and East, Tamil workers and the poor are hostile to the ongoing military occupation and the devastating conditions created by the war.

What is necessary is a unified movement of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim workers, across ethnic lines, on the basis of a socialist program. This is the perspective fought for by the Socialist Equality Party and encapsulated in its struggle for a workers and peasants governmenta socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Eelamas part of the fight for socialism across South Asia and around the world.
A Unions New South Wales delegates meeting last week provided a graphic example of how the unions and their allies in the various pseudo-left organisations are seeking to channel widespread anger over social inequality, declining wages and the gutting of social spending, into the re-election of a federal Labor government.

Speaking at the meeting on July 28, Sally McManus, secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), referenced the mounting social crisis facing working people. She noted that inequality in Australia is at its worst level in 70 years, with the richest 1 percent of the population controlling more wealth than the poorest 70 percent.

McManus added: Since the global economic crisis nearly all wealth has gone to the top. She listed the abolition of weekend penalty wages and draconian industrial laws as examples of the fact that workers rights are no longer strong enough. McManus has previously described herself as a democratic socialist.

McManus posture is shot through with hypocrisy. What she was presenting is a short-list of the consequences of the collaboration of the unions with successive governments, Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition, and the major corporations.

It was the ACTU that signed a series of accords with Labor governments and big business in the 1980s, which provided for the deregulation of the economy. This led to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs.

The unions, working with the Labor Party, also spearheaded the introduction of enterprise bargaining in the early 1990s. For more than 20 years, union bureaucrats have signed off on pro-business enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) that have lowered wages and eroded working conditions, including the elimination of penalty rates for cleaners, fast food workers and other low-paid employees.

The anti-strike laws referenced by McManus are contained in Fair Work Australia legislation, introduced by the last federal Labor government with the full support of the unions.

Underlying the ACTUs bogus campaign is the fear within the political establishment that the unprecedented disaffection fuelled by the mounting social crisis threatens the stability, and the very existence, of the two-party parliamentary set-up. This is why Labor leader, Bill Shorten, who heads one of the main big business parties, has also begun mentioning inequality and suggesting corporate and family trust tax hikes.

McManus called for rallies next year, when a federal election could be held, and proposed to place demands on Labor and the Greens. Her left demagogy is aimed at ensuring the election of a Labor or a Labor-Greens government that would impose the austerity demands of the corporate eliteas they have done in the past.

Other speakers struck a similar note. Brian Parker, the state secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, outlined his unions bogus campaign against the federal Coalition governments building code. He was silent on the fact that many of the codes draconian provisions, including those banning strikes, were contained in the previous Labor governments legislation, supported by his union.

Parker touted a worthless Senate inquiry, called by the Labor Party, into the building code, as a means of addressing the issue. He said the union also was lobbying right-wing crossbench senators, including Derryn Hinch and Pauline Hanson, a notorious xenophobe.

Paul McAleer, head of the Sydney branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and a member of the Stalinist Communist Party of Australia, said it was necessary to fight the ruling class on the streets. For all of McAleers bluster, the MUA has again and again suppressed any independent struggle by the working class and struck its own treacherous deals with employers.

McAleer recalled Labors record in imposing Fair Work laws, but claimed workers had to support that party, because it had the capacity to form government.

Annette Bennett of the TAFE Teachers Association conceded Labors role in enforcing funding cuts to public vocational training, which saw the closure of dozens of TAFE colleges, and the sacking of thousands of teachers.

However, Bennett declared: After years of Labor obsessing about creating a market in education, weve won the fight and convinced them its not working.

To justify this lie, Bennett cited federal Labor electoral promises that two-thirds of vocational education funding would go to public institutions. Even in the improbable event that this promise is kept, a third will continue to go to private colleges that charge exorbitant fees, while receiving handsome government payouts. For the unions, this pro-business agenda constitutes a victory.

After the officials spoke, handpicked delegates addressed the meeting from the floor. CFMEU representatives demagogically declared they were ready for a fight and moved a resolution to hold a protest in October.

Members of the pseudo-left tendencies bolstered the posturing of the unions, and backed their promotion of Labor.

Robin Mayo, a Socialist Alliance member, spoke as a Finance Services Union delegate. He said Labors proposal for a Royal Commission into the banking sector was so necessary, because of the financial institutions predatory operations.

After hailing Labors cynical manoeuvre, Mayo said it would, at some point, be necessary to nationalise the banks. His comment summed up the tenor of the meetingsupport for the status quo, and the major parties, justified with fake-left rhetoric.

The CFMEUs Parker, a prominent supporter of the Labor Party, made a point of thanking Mayo for his comments.

Erima Dall, a Solidarity member who was, until recently, a long-time student activist, declared she was now an MUA representative. Dall called for an endless series of protests. She urged the unions to replicate their Your rights at work campaign in 2006-07, which was used to channel hostility to the Howard Liberal-National government into the election of a Labor government, which imposed no less draconian industrial legislation.

This is precisely what the unions are seeking to do again. The final speaker at the meeting was Brendan OConnor, Labors shadow minister for workplace relations. He repeatedly stated that while there were shortcomings to previous Labor governments, Bill Shorten had policies to tackle inequality. He did not outline any such policies, except to claim that Labor opposed the governments construction laws.

OConnor defended Fair Work Australia, noting that Labor and the unions always had been committed to arbitration mechanisms between the unions and big business. These mechanisms aim to suppress the class struggle.

OConnor was a minister in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments of 2007 to 2013 as they carried out sweeping pro-business cuts to healthcare, education and welfare, and oversaw the destruction of large sections of industry. His presence makes clear that the unions are seeking to divert discontent behind another Labor government that would be no less committed to the dictates of the corporate elite.

In its report on the meeting, Solidarity failed to mention that OConnor was the keynote speaker. Instead, it called for the Turnbull government to be  booted out when the election comes, and appealed to the unions to keep the pressure on the Labor Party to reverse the attacks on workers if they get elected.

Socialist Alliance falsely claimed that OConnor received a grilling from a number of unionists. In reality, the union officials presented as militants by Socialist Alliance, including CFMEU leaders such as Parker, warmly welcomed OConnor to the stage. Socialist Alliances own members at the meeting were no less fawning, with decades-long leader, Jim McIlroy politely applauding OConnors lies.

The meeting was a sharp warning of the political mechanisms that will increasingly be used to suppress the working class, as it enters into convulsive struggles for its social and democratic rights.
The Chinese government, with the assistance of American corporations, has launched a widespread crackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow Chinese Internet users to circumvent state censorship.

A government order to Chinas three telecommunications companiesall state-owneddemands that they restrict access to VPNs by February 2018. The order is apparently being implemented already, and Apple and Amazon have both joined in with the Chinese telecommunications companies in blocking VPNs.

VPNs allow for Internet users to access the Internet as if they were located in another country. For example, someone located in China can use a VPN to appear as if they are browsing in the United States, allowing them to access web sites blocked in China but not in the US.

Reports indicate that select VPNs, registered with the government and heavily monitored, will be allowed to continue operations. These VPNs will be used by approved companies, and the government will likely monitor traffic going through them.

While the Chinese government maintains a significant censorship regime and prevents most Chinese Internet users from accessing large portions of the Internet, including Facebook and Twitter, it has largely tolerated the use of VPNs. The relatively free Internet access provided by VPNs is essential for economic and academic pursuits, encouraging the Chinese government to turn a blind eye to some cracks in the Great Firewall.

Chinese Internet censorship is seen by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as essential to maintaining its control over the population, including an increasingly restive working class. The Stalinist CCP is concerned that the Chinese working class will learn its own history, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and use the Internet to communicate in China and internationally.

President Xi Jinping has emphasized cybersecurity during his tenure under the banner of cyber sovereignty. Additionally, the CCPs upcoming party congress is prompting the crackdown, with the New York Times noting, Five years ago, ahead of a similar meeting, VPNs were hit by then-unprecedented disruptions.

CyberGhost, a Romanian VPN provider, had been under increasing pressure from the Chinese government prior to the new order. CyberGhost CEO Robert Knapp said, We had seen the Chinese government putting more and more pressure on VPN providers in a technical senseblocking our IPs, blocking the server infrastructure we were using, detecting traffic from certain sources.

US companies Apple and Amazon have collaborated with Beijings anti-VPN campaign. Apple has removed popular VPN apps from its App Store for Chinese users.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that Apple would cooperate with any legally required censorship efforts: We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries we follow the law wherever we do business. We strongly believe participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers is in the best interest of the folks there and in other countries as well.

Amazon has also cooperated with Chinese censorship efforts. The Chinese company that runs Amazon Web Services (AWS) in China reportedly emailed its clients to warn them against VPN use.

Wired notes that, in the pursuit of access to the huge Chinese market, US technology companies have collaborated in the CCPs censorship for years. Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco, and LinkedIn have all cooperated with Chinese state censorship.

Wired also reports that Facebook is trying to find a way to get access to the Chinese market: Facebook has reportedly worked on a censorship tool for the purposes of getting Chinas approval.

Beijings actions are part of a wave of Internet censorship. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on July 30 heavily restricting VPNs in Russia. The law also requires messaging apps to link users phone numbers to their activity on the app, making anonymous usage much more difficult.

The Indonesian government and YouTube, a video streaming site owned by Google, have agreed to censor extremist content and hate speech. While the Indonesian government claims it is not creating a regime of censorship, these vague terms can be used to censor oppositional content as the government and its corporate partners deem fit.

Mainstream Western news organizations have criticized Apples cooperation with the Chinese government in stifling the Internet. Farhad Manjoo, writing in the New York Times, notes that Apples quiet capitulation to tightening censorship in one of its largest markets is still a dangerous precedent.

The Guardian published an article by Shaun Walker on Friday highlighting human rights groups reactions to Moscows anti-democratic moves to restrict access to blacklisted web sites. The article quotes Human Rights Watch researcher Yulia Gorbunova, who said, These laws negatively affect the ability of tens of millions of Russians to freely access and exchange information online.

While the press in the US and the United Kingdom criticizes Russian and Chinese censorship, similar activities conducted by the US-based Google and Facebook receive general praise and encouragement. Since the 2016 election, the Times, the Washington Post and other major news outlets have promoted a campaign against fake news.

Over the past several months, Google has been restricting access to left-wing and anti-war web sites by reducing their prominence in search results. An investigation by the World Socialist Web Site broke this story, and the WSWS has documented it thoroughly. Google justifies its censorship of left-wing views in the name of combating fake news.

Leading progressive and anti-war sites, including Democracy Now! and CounterPunch, have been affected by Googles censorship. The World Socialist Web Site has been the most heavily affected, with traffic generated from Google searches declining by 67 percent since April.

As of this writing, no major US newspaper has acknowledged the effects that Googles new algorithm is having on left-wing web sites. Indeed, the Post and other papers have spearheaded the calls to combat fake news. While criticizing the anti-democratic measures of Moscow and Beijing, the censorship by Washington and its corporate allies in Silicon Valley inside the United States is either praised or ignored by leading US and European newspapers.
North Port, Fla. (WWSB) - A Florida caregiver was convicted Friday of trying to kill a WWII veteran by beating him over the head with an oxygen tank.

Elena Erickson was charged with Attempted 2nd degree murder in May of last year, after police say she and 91 year old Michael Nicholas Tristano, got into an argument over payment for her services.

That's when prosecutors say she used Tristano's own air tank to beat him on the head. She then reportedly left him on the ground for a day before calling paramedics.

After an extensive investigation and interviews with the victim, police were able to gather enough evidence to arrest Erickson.

Erickson will be sentenced on October 13th.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Leon County Schools wants to encourage the public to donate to the 2017 school supply drive titled Stuff the Bus starting now through September 1.

Help Stuff the Bus with new school supplies on Saturday, August 5 at Walmart on Manhan Dr. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The supply drive will help kids in the community be prepared for the school year. LCS ask the community to donate new school supplies to be used by students that are most in need.

Items that can be donated include backpacks, composition books, erasers, highlighters, pencil boxes, glue sticks, rulers, two and inch ring binders.

People can also make monetary donations to the Foundation for Leon County School.

You can also drop off supplies at the Bloxham Building, 725 South Calhoun St. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, contact Jamie Holleman 850-561-8950.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - As Florida universities and college students return to campus this month, many will benefit from a major expansion of need-based financial aid.

It's Florida's main program aimed getting the financial need to those who need it most, known as Student Assistance grants, the grants will expand to cover almost 235,000 people this year, nearly doubling from last $1100, which won't have to be repaid.

The legislature also expanded the "Florida Resident Access Grant" program, which will provide $3,300 per year to 3700 students attending private colleges and universities in Florida.

According to Dr. Ed Moore, president of the independent colleges and university of Florida, students should be able to finish school sooner.

More than 4600 university and college students who qualify as academic scholars under Florida's bright futures program will have all of their tuition and fees covered this year.
LEON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - A Valor Ceremony is being held for a Gadsden County Deputy now in hospice care.

The ceremony is being held at Big Bend Hospice, where Gadsden County Sheriff's Office deputy and Army Specialist 4 (Charlie Troop, 1/153 Calvary, 53rd IBCT) Maximilian Sander was transported last weekend.

Deputy Sander was riding his motorcycle in Tallahassee on North Meridian Road near County Road 155 back in may, when a car pulled out in front of him.

Sander was critically injured

Police say Deputy Sander was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

Organizers say ceremonies like these are a way to acknowledge and honor hospice patients who served in the military.

Sander has served in the National Guard since 2015. His unit was stationed here which enabled him to be an active deputy in Gadsden County.

You can help support Deputy Max Sander at his GoFundMe page.
HART COUNTY, GA (WSB/CNN) - Two pit bulls are in custody after officers say they attacked a toddler, killing him at a home on a quiet street.

Police arrested Sandra Adams and charged her with second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. They say Adams was babysitting her 20-month-old grandson, Paris, when two of her dogs attacked the child.

Investigators said Adams picked up her daughter, Amy, before heading to the Reddy Urgent Care, where medical personnel pronounced the child dead.

She had kept a few in a fence and then she kept a couple in her house, neighbor Harvey Byrum said.

Hartwell Police Chief Anthony Davis said the department was left shaken.

I think it kind of shocked a bunch of my officers that something like this happened. The community seems quiet right now, but Im pretty sure, and I know right now, the community is in prayer for the family., Davis said.

Police said this grandmother has a history of her dogs getting into trouble. This time, they said, the two dogs inside the house ran out and attacked.

The two that were in the house are the ones were the ones, I think, had apparently been an issue at one time or the other, Byrum said.

Davis confirmed that.

We just had calls to her place - dogs at large, barking, a nuisance, he said. I think one had chased someone - hadnt bit someone - but chased someone.

The dogs that attacked the child have been quarantined and will be euthanized, officials said.

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China's smartphone makers eye rural Bangladeshi market In Bangladesh, names on the bestseller list of smartphones include top Chinese brands like Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo that collectively nowadays sell almost as many handsets as the other big brands.

Huawei roots for cloud computing to boost data security amid hacking threats Governments and corporations should invest in cloud computing that promises better data storage and retrieval options while protecting it from intrusion by hackers, a Huawei Executive said on Thursday.
The sun is diffused by a thick haze over West Valley from wildfires in the region Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. (PAUL CRAWFORD/Yakima Herald-Republic)
US President Donald Trump is giving his stamp of approval to national security adviser H.R. McMaster after criticism in conservative media.

The White House issued a statement Friday in which Trump says, "General McMaster and I are working very well together."

After the firing Wednesday of intelligence adviser of Ezra Cohen-Watnicka protege of Trump's initial national security adviser, Michael Flynnright-wing critics said McMaster is trying to remove conservative voices from the White House national security team.

Trump also says McMaster "is a good man and very pro-Israel." That remark is apparently in rebuttal to a widely circulated Facebook post by Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, who called McMaster "deeply hostile to Israel."

The president says, "I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country."
The Union of Journalists in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice on Wednesday to formulate clear procedures regarding press coverage in areas in which police are stationed to maintain security.

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The petition was filed against the backdrop of the recent events on the Temple Mount. The union claims that the police prohibited reporters from entering the Old City compound for coverage, and treated journalists violently.

Ynet reporter Hassan Shaalan attacked by police

One of those journalists was Ynet reporter Hassan Shaalan

The petitioners request the High Court of Justice to order the Ministry of Public Security and the police to formulate procedures that will ensure coverage without infringing the freedom of the press.







"In view of the real danger to democracy in way of harm to the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press, the time is ripe for a transparent and clear policy," the petition stated.

The union's petition joins a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, in which similar arguments were made, and it too will be deliberated on in the High Court of Justice.
Liza Masri had learned as a young girl during the bloodiest days of the second intifada to fear the soldiers patrolling her neighborhood in the besieged West Bank city of Nablus.

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But it wasn't until after the uprising that her mistrust was most shockingly vindicated as she witnessed Israeli troops shooting dead her Palestinian neighbor as he smoked a cigarette on his balcony.

Photo: AFP

"It's flashbacks I can remember... the ambulance, the way they took him down the building," the 21-year-old tells AFP, as if the intervening decade has suddenly melted away.

"We weren't allowed into the streets. We were afraid they would kill us. It's something I will always rememberit's so painful."

Some years later, her neighbor's bereaved daughter introduced Masri to "Creativity for Peace," an organization in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that brings together Palestinian and Jewish Israeli girls in a bid to bridge the emotional fault lines created by 70 years of conflict.

Half a world away from the corridors of the United Nations, they get together at a ranch in the timbered foothills of the southern Rocky Mountains to hear for the first time the stories of enemies they have grown up learning to hate.

Since 2003 more than 200 girls of ages 15 to 17 have participated in the Creativity for Peace camp, where Masri has returned this year as a "young leader" after taking part in 2013.

It was at the camp that she befriended Naama Shlomy, a Jewish Israeli who lives some 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Nablus, on the border with Gaza.

Trauma

The girls share their experiences of the Arab-Israeli conflict as part of a total of 40 hours of dialogue founded on the notion that "an enemy is a person whose story you haven't heard."

Shlomy was three years old when her home town of Sderot was targeted by Hamas's Qassam artillery rockets, the first of an estimated 8-10,000 to rain down on Israel from Gaza since 2002.

Fewer than 30 Israeli civilians have been killed but the psychological trauma has been profound.

Almost half of Sderot middle schoolers surveyed for the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2008 showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, while high levels of miscarriage and depression are a fact of daily life.

"It's horrible, I can't describe it. It's a trauma that's in me. I'll need to deal with it for the rest of my life," Shlomy, 19, tells AFP at an open day as the three-week summer camp.

When Hamas launches a rocket, an alarm sounds and the people of Sderot know they have 15 seconds to get to the nearest shelter, day or night.

"Each time you need to drop everything and go to the shelter. It's just so stressful to keep worrying about your family all the time, and yourself," says Shlomy.

Palestinian Lama Khaled (L) and Israeli Eden Vakni (Photo: AFP)

Every year up to 20 girlshalf Jewish Israelis and half Palestinians from Israel, the West Bank and Gazaare invited to New Mexico by Creativity for Peace, which is funded privately, notwithstanding a 2015 US government grant.

The girls share their experiences of the Arab-Israeli conflict as part of a total of 40 hours of dialogue founded on the notion that "an enemy is a person whose story you haven't heard."

Using English as their common language, they go shopping, visit the movies, divvy up chores, share bedrooms and attend art therapy classes together.

Almost all have lost family and friends to violence and most will never have spoken to members of the opposite side before.

Baby steps

"We teach our young women that both sides are right and both sides are wrong. Their job is not to debate politics or go over history, but more to understand one another and find common ground," says Dottie Indyke, executive director for the last 11 years.

The fact that both sides have suffered often comes as a revelation to the girls, although resentment can still run deep.

Masri points to the 400,000 illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and the numerous checkpoints that have choked Nablus, a thriving trading post since the days of the seventh century Umayyad Caliphate that now finds itself in penury.

"I understand that we both suffered. It didn't change my mind towards the other side. I feel them, understand their stories, but that doesn't mean I should change my perspective, that they are not doing something wrong to my country," she tells AFP.

Lama Khaled: 'We discovered so many things we could not even imagine before' (Photo: AFP)

But she is persevering in the processeven turning around her initially unsupportive familybecause she believes in the intrinsic value of dialogue as driver of change.

"Maybe we are not resolving the conflict but it's a long process, it's about trust," she says. "As long as we trust the other side many things will start to happen."

Perhaps the toughest part comes after the camp, when the girls are asked to go back to their communities as "peacemakers" who can be an example of compassion, friendship, and courage.

"Each girl can go to her family and change the way they see things, then they can change their communities," says Sana Zahalka, 17, another young leader who first came to the camp in 2015.

"It's like baby steps. But they all lead to this amazing big step."
Teva Pharmaceutical CEO Yitzhak Peterburg said Thursday that the company will cut 7,000 jobs by the year's end and take a host of other cost-cutting measures, as well as pull out from 45 countries and close or sell six plants in 2017 and nine more in 2018.

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Teva reported an 18.4 percent drop in second-quarter earnings on Thursday, a bigger drop than Wall Street had expected, causing its share price to plummet by 34.5% in the just two days.

Photo: Reuters

After the disappointing quarterly report and a huge write-down of $ 6.1 billion of the company's valuewhich is basically an admission that last year's $40 billion acquisition of Allergan Pharmaceutical was a failurethe company had to make serious cuts to pay their accumulating debt.

Speaking about the lay-offs, Peterburg said "This is not an easy decision, but we believe it is important first and foremost to continue to employ in Israel." Last month, Teva announced the dismissal of 350 workers from factories in Kfar Saba and Teva-Tech.

"All of us in Teva understand the frustration and disappointment of our shareholders in light of these results," said Peterburg. "The results for the second quarter were lower than we expected as a result of the performance of our generic business in the US and the continuing deterioration in Venezuela. These factors also led us to reduce our forecasts for the rest of the year.

"This is happening due to the decline in sales in the US, and our customers' demand for larger discounts. Consumers are getting better prices because of competition in the generic market. We have suffered a severe blow to our generic drug business in the US."
An IDF force identified a drone from the southern Gaza Strip which had fallen in Israeli territory. The IDF reported that the drone was taken for inspection.

Earlier this week, IDF forces identified a drone approaching the border in the northern Gaza Strip, but at the end of the search, the IDF resumed routine activity after it apparently returned south.

Hamas uses dozens of drones mainly for the purpose of collecting intelligence against Israel or for the enhancement of its forces.

The IDF allows the terrorist organization to fly the small aircraft on the Gaza Strip, but intercepts them if they cross the border into Israel's airspace.
For decades, Palestinians have dreamed of having their own port on the Mediterranean, from where they could sail the world. Instead, they are making do with a wooden ship run aground on a Gaza beach, which has become a popular restaurant.

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The "Lolo Rose" may not look like much, but its eight tables are in heavy demand, with Gazans queuing for a chance to eat fish in an unusual spot where they can hear the waves crashing on the sides, even if they can't make it out to sea.

Photo: Reuters

"It is a nice idea but it is a standstill, it does not move," said Manar Shaqoura, 19, a law student who managed to snag a table at the front of the vessel. "We wish the ship could sail and take us to Turkey."

In Roman times, Gaza was an important port on the Mediterranean, a stopover in the Middle East for merchants on the way between Asia Minor and North Africa. That status continued into the 20th century and World War One.

Photo: Reuters

But recent decades have not been so good. After Israel seized Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war, the port was effectively put out of use. In the mid-1990s, under the Oslo accords, plans were drawn up for a much larger port for Gaza's now 2 million people, but they never came to fruition.

Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but still controls entry and exit, access to the sea and the territory's airspace. Locals feel trapped and frustrated.

Photo: Reuters

Despite Palestinian and international efforts, Israel will not allow a new port to be built, citing security. The concern is that Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled Gaza since 2007, will smuggle weapons into the territory.

Israel's minister of intelligence and transport has been pushing the idea of building an artificial island off Gaza's coast that would provide a port and other facilities, but that has so far failed to win the government's backing.

So for now, the "Lolo Rose" is one place where Gazans can go to get a feel for the sea and imagine themselves on it.

Photo: Reuters

The owners once used the vessel for fishing, but Israel's tight restrictions on access to the seafishermen can only go out 6-9 nautical miles, rather than the 20 miles agreed under the Oslo accordshave made the industry unprofitable.

"We are under blockade, the idea is that you feel yourself inside the water," said Thabet Tartouri, the ship's owner. "We hope one day, we will be allowed to have tourist ships that will go from Gaza to the whole world."
Jordan's King Abdullah II is scheduled to visit the Palestinian Authority on Monday to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas.

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Fatah leadership member Mohammad Shtayyeh said this was "a visit of solidarity and coordination, which proves the Palestinians and Jordanians speak with one voice."

He was referring to the shared positions with regards to the Temple Mount as well as the American efforts to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Abbas and King Abdullah meet in Amman (Photo: Reuters)

Jordanian officials told the newspaper Ad-Dustour that Abdullah and Abbas will discuss diplomatic issues relating, among others, to the developments at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The officials said the king will be accompanied by several senior Jordanian officials. Abdullah will first meet with Abbas privately at the latter's office and later hold an extended meeting including the king's entourage and Palestinian officials.

"The king wants to emphasize his support and his aid to the Palestinian president and the Palestinian people, and his and the Jordanian people's stance beside the Palestinian people and their leadership," one of the officials explained the purpose of the visit.

The King's last visit to the Palestinian territories took place five years ago.

The timing of the expected visit is as important as the visit itself. Abdullah's arrival at the present time is expected to give Abbas political support in a time when relations between Israel and the PA deteriorated due to Abbas' decision to sever ties with Israel, including security coordination.

The fact that Abdullah will arrive in Ramallah shortly after the incident in Ammanin which an Israeli security guard shot two Jordanian civiliansand after the Temple Mount crisis, two events that brought Israel-Jordan relations to a record low, constitutes a clear and meaningful statement to Israel.

Violent clashes at the Temple Mount (: ,  )

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Earlier this week, King Abdullah ordered to allocate over $1.4 million to the Islamic Waqf at the Temple Mount to develop the Islamic museum located at the compound.

Abdullah's visit also comes amid growing pessimism in the PA with regards to the Trump administration's ability to restart peace talks, this following the cautious optimism the Palestinian leadership displayed in the first few months of the US president's term.

Earlier this week, Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner, entrusted among other things with promoting the Middle East peace process, said in off-the-record remarks that were leaked that t here may not be a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Meanwhile, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized the American administration for having yet to express support of the two-state solution and for failing to condemn Israeli construction in the West Bank.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was sworn-in for a second term on Saturday, has accused the United States of trying to undermine Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers , telling President Donald Trump that it will be his political suicide.

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Rouhani, who was decisively re-elected in May after promising to open Iran to the world, took the oath of office before parliament in Tehran in the presence of foreign dignitaries including senior European figures.

"The US lack of commitment to implementation of the nuclear deal ... proved it to be an unreliable partner to the world and even to its longtime allies," Rouhani said in a ceremony broadcast live on state television.

Ayatollah Khamenei swears in Rouhani for second term (Photo: Reuters)

Rouhani has intensified efforts to protect the dealthe biggest achievement of his first termagainst Washington's return to an aggressive Iran policy.

In comments aimed at Trump, Rouhani said: "Those who want to tear up the nuclear deal should know that they will be ripping up their own political life."

The US Senate voted in late July to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missiles program and human rights issues.

"Iran would not be the first to pull out of the nuclear deal, but it will not remain silent about the US repeated violations of the accord," Rouhani said.

Praise for European presence

In a meeting with European foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Tehran in advance of the ceremony, Rouhani said the US stance could hamper implementation of the nuclear deal.

Praising the presence of senior European dignitaries at the ceremony, Rouhani said it showed Europe was determined to expand ties with Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was also quoted as saying by state media in his meeting with Mogherini: "Mr. Trump is trying to destroy the nuclear accord at Iran's expense, and Europe should be conscious of this."

Rouhani sworn in for second term (Photo: EPA)

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, President of Iraq Fuad Masum, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe were also present at swearing-in ceremony.

Among the Western officials present were French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, State Secretary at the German Foreign Ministry Michael Roth, and British Minister of State Alistair Burt.

Security in Tehran was increased to the highest level, the police said, two months after gunmen linked to the Islamic State group attacked parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing 17 people.

Rouhani's deputy said on Wednesday that Rouhani would keep on two important ministers for his second term: Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh and Foreign Minister Zarif.

The powers of the elected president are limited by those of the unelected Supreme Leader who outranks him, but the scale of Rouhani's victory can give the pragmatist president a strong mandate.

However, analysts say Rouhani may struggle to make a significant impact given sharpening divisions in the dual clerical-republican power structure in Iran, and Trump's aggressive policy against Tehran.
BERLIN - German police on Saturday arrested two Chinese tourists for making illegal "Heil Hitler" salutes in front of the historic Reichstag building that houses the German parliament.

Berlin police officers say they detained the two men, aged 36 and 49, after they were seen striking the Nazi-era pose and photographing each other with their mobile phones.

They face charges for "using symbols of illegal organizations," the police said in a statement, and were released after posting bail of 500 euros each.

Germany has strict laws on hate speech and symbols linked to Hitler and the Nazis, who ruled between 1933 and 1945.
Over 3,000 demonstrators gathered near the home of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in Petah Tikva on Saturday evening to protest what they say is his hesitant and slow conduct in the investigations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Police deployed hundreds of officers to the scene of the protests in Petah Tikva's Goren Square, who were entrusted with keeping the peace and separating the two sides. The area was entirely closed off to traffic.

Demonstrators held up signs saying, "Mandelblit, issue a stay of exit order to the Netanyahu family," "Bibi doesn't give a f*** about the law" and "INSS Bribery," among others.

Protesters calling on AG to push forward with PM's investigations facing Netanyahu supporters (Photos: Motti Kimchi)

Protest calling for PM investigations (:  )

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The demonstration was held a day after Netanyahu's former chief of staff Ari Harow signed a state witness agreement to provide police with possibly incriminating information against the prime minister.

Protesters calling on AG to push forward with PM's investigations (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

While this is the 37th consecutive weekend such a protest is held, this time demonstrators were met with a counter protest of some 400 Likud supporters, which was organized by coalition chairman MK David Bitan (Likud).

He said he asked prominent activists in the Likud movement to show up for the demonstration, but did not petition Knesset members.

Nevertheless, Communication Minister Ayoob Kara, also of the Likud party, announced he would attend, while Likud MKs Nava Boker and Nurit Koren joined the pro-Netanyahu rally as well.

Likud supporters (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Likud supporters prepared signs saying, "The rule of law is a joke to the left-wing," "One Thousand and One investigative cases," "Loving Netanyahu, protecting democracy," and "The people elect, the leftists frame."

They also waved Likud banners and Israeli flags.

"We won't leave the protesters alone because these demonstrations are undemocratic," Bitan asserted. "There is pressure put on the attorney general, who has yet to receive the (investigative) materials from the police. These demonstrations must be stopped, and we will fight this with our own demonstrationthey won't protest alone against Mandelblit. Only the left-wing is capable of protesting against the attorney general."

Bitan went on to say that, "Gentlemen, Netanyahu will be the prime minister in the coming decade. I call on MKs and ministers to start acting for the Likud... I call on all of our people to come here, because if you don't, you'll suffer in the primaries."

Likud supporters' protest (:     )

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MK Boker, meanwhile, lamented that "We're being wronged. The prime minister is innocent until proven otherwise."

Both MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz) and Yoel Hasson (Zionist Union) tried to approach the Likud supporters and were yelled at.

Gilon said he wanted to speak to Bitan. "I didn't know they were so violent. What kind of language is this? They wished me horrible things," he said.






ISTANBUL - Turkey's president reiterated Saturday that new cross-border operations into Syria are in the works as the country boosts its military presence along the border against threats from Kurdish militants in war-torn Syria.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is determined to launch "new moves" akin to its foray into northern Syria last August. "It's clear that the situation in Syria goes beyond a war on a terror organization," Erdogan said, referring to the Islamic State group, and alluding to Kurdish aspirations for statehood.

He was addressing a large crowd at a stadium opening in eastern Malatya province, and slammed the US-led campaign against ISIS in Syria.
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the owner of free Israeli daily Israel Hayom, reportedly told police that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked him to look into the possibility of nixing the paper's weekend supplements, Channel 2 News reported Saturday.

Adelson was testifying as part of the criminal investigation into Netanyahu's talks with Arnon Mozes, the owner of Israel Hayom's rival newspaper Yedioth Ahronoththe so-called Case 2000. The prime minister was allegedly seeking more favorable coverage in return for acting to weaken Israel Hayom.

Channel 2 reported on Friday that police is expected to recommend an indictment be filed against the prime minister in this case as well.
UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday including a ban on exports worth over $1 billiona huge bite in its total exports, valued at $3 billion last year.

The resolution also bans countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean laborersanother source of money for Kim Jong Un's regime. And it prohibits all new joint ventures with North Korean companies and bans new foreign investment in existing ones.

The US-drafted measure, negotiated with North Korea's neighbor and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.
The following questions were asked recently on the Wonderline:

Q: Any more stories about the big flood in York County in 1950?

A: Readers continue to come forward with memories of the flood of 1950 that created a substantial amount of damage in York County, after another reader asked if people remember it.

This week, we heard from a family member of Irene Wellman who had pictures from the flood in a photo album.

The farm owned by her and her husband, Vernon, which was southwest of Waco, was flooded and they had to be evacuated.

Family members said they remember stories about the livestock the Wellmans lost, including a bull that they later found hanging in a tree.

Q: The mayor seems to have his hands in a lot of different activities and departments. Can you explain our city governmental structure and what the mayors actual duties really are? What policies, as an example, can he do on his own and what powers does the council have? Also who can the mayor fire and hire on his own? And also, what abilities do the department heads have? Thank you.

A: According to the municipal code, the general duties of the mayor are that he or she shall have superintending control of all officers and affairs of the city and shall perform such duties as may be required by state law, this code, or ordinances or resolutions of the city.

It says further that the mayor can make recommendations to the council  it says specifically that mayor shall from time to time, communicate to the council such information and recommend such measures as in his opinion may tend to the improvement of the finances of the city, the police, health, comfort and general prosperity of the city.

The mayor has the right to vote when that vote is a tie-breaker for the council.

The mayor does have veto power, which in turn can be reversed by a 2/3 vote of the council.

The mayor is required to sign all resolutions, ordinances and orders that have been passed, approved and declared to be law by the council.

The mayor has to sign the clerks minutes of council meetings and he has to give written approval to bonds and warrants.

The mayor has the ability remove any police officer who fails to or refuses to perform his or her duties.

Proposed ordinances may be brought forward by the mayor  but it is the city council to determine whether they are adopted. No ordinance shall be legal unless it has received the affirmative vote of the majority of the city council.

Section 2-101 of the municipal code says that the mayor may, by and with the consent by the city council or a majority of the same, appoint an administrator, treasurer, city clerk, city attorney, parks and recreation director, convention center director, and three or five members of the board of public works as provided by separate ordinance and such other department heads as may be further provide by separate ordinance, with consent by the council. The administrator shall perform such administrative duties as prescribed by ordinance. Any of the officers (before mentioned) may be removed from office at any time by the mayor with the approval of a majority of the members of the council.

The code that says the city administrator is the administrative head of the city government under the direction and control of the mayor and city council and shall be responsible to the mayor and city council for the efficient conduct of his office.

While the duties of the mayor are somewhat general in nature (in the city code), there are many duties of the city administrator that are outlined in the code. These include:

 Making and keeping up to date an inventory of all property, real and personal, owned by the city.

 Acting as purchasing agent for the purchase of all supplies, goods, wares and merchandise, equipment and material which may be required for the various departments, divisions or services of the city;

 He shall keep the mayor and council fully advised as to the financial condition and needs of the city and shall be responsible for and prepare the annual estimate of expenditures for presentation to the mayor and council prior to the passage of the annual appropriate ordinance.

 To serve as public relations officer of the city government.

 To attend all meetings of the council with the duty of reporting any matter concerning city affairs under his supervision and to attend such other meetings of the city departments and officials as his duties may require.

 To analyze the functions, duties and activities of the various departments, divisions and services of the city and all employees.

 To carry out the mayor and councils recommendations in coordinating the administrative functions and operations of the various departments.

 To procure facts and submit long range improvements to the mayor and council.

 Recommend to the mayor and council the appointment and dismissal of all department heads over which he exercises jurisdiction. Appointment or dismissal of department heads will be made upon the recommendation of the mayor and confirmation by the council. The city administrator may appoint and dismiss all subordinate employees of the city, as well as provide for the transfer of such employees from one department to another except those employees covered under the civil service act of the state.

 The city administrator shall have the duty and right to investigate and make recommendations to the mayor and city council regarding duties and activities of any employee of the city covered under the civil service act of the state and recommend to the mayor and council the promotion, demotion, suspension, transfer or discharge of such employees.

 The administration is responsible for all departments and divisions of city government, which are under the mayor and councils direction, including the board of public works and any public utilities hereafter acquired by the city and including fire and police departments, except insofar as such jurisdiction and administration conflicts with the civil service law pertaining to such fire and police departments.

 Recommend to the mayor and council measures and ordinances as are deemed necessary.

 Prepare and recommend to the mayor and council a classification and compensation plan.

 Exercise general supervision over all public buildings, streets and other public property which are under the control and jurisdiction of the mayor and council.

 Prepare and submit to the mayor and council as of the end of the fiscal year a complete report on the finances and administrative activities of the city for the preceding year.

 Keep the property of the city insured.

Q: With brick streets in desperate need of repair, why did the city take up and replace the stretch of west side frontage road southbound that runs from Perennial Power south to about the Palmer Inn? The majority of that stretch of frontage road runs along a cornfield. Surely that stretch of road is traveled on so much less than some other streets in York, especially Blackburn Avenue. Im just wondering.

A: You are correct in that many of our brick streets are in need of major repair or reconstruction. You may or may not be aware that often there is also much resistance to replacing a brick street with a concrete street. The brick on Blackburn Avenue seems to be one of those sentimental favorites! said York Public Works Director Mitch Doht.

The frontage road by Perennial has also been on the reconstruction list for many years and was some of the worst concrete pavement in the city, as are other frontage roads further south. This Wonderline question perfectly illustrates that the needs of our city streets far outweigh the available funding. More money is needed to make things better and to spread projects into the residential areas. So until the city wins the lottery, specific projects are chosen based on pavement condition rating, traffic count and the functional classification of the facility. Arterials and collectors in commercial areas get a higher priority than residential streets. We do the best we can with the available funds.

Q: What are the tiny beautiful yellow wildflowers along the edge of the road on the Waco black top, the Gresham black top, by the city wastewater treatment plant and the I-80 interchange called? They seem to be along state and federal highways.

A: We arent exactly sure so we looked up all the yellow wildflowers that are used in the states right-of-way areas. They are: Black-eyed Susans (although these arent necessarily tiny flowers), the goldenrod (which arent small either), the Golden Glow, the Compass Plant, the Grayhead Coneflower, the Maximilian Sunflower (also not small, however), the Plains Coreopsis, the Plains Sunflower, the Upright Coneflower and the Western Wallflower (which would be the most like the description from the reader). There is also the Birds Foot Trefoil which is non-native, but it is also used (and these are smaller in size).

Q: What is with all the butterflies? They are all over the York area.

A: Butterflies are currently migrating.

And according to Jenny Rees, UNL extension educator, if you look closely, many are painted lady butterflies. These are the adults of the thistle caterpillars which have been feeding in soybean fields for well over a month now.

Q: With all the different things about the Keystone XL pipeline, I once heard that it would use all American steel and workers. Is that still going to happen?

A: It has been confirmed that purchase agreements for the steel pipe for the Keystone XL pipeline already exist, with half the pipe to come from the Arkansas plant of India-based steelmaker, Welspun. Another 10 percent would come from a Welspun plant in India, the rest would be imported from Canada and Italy.

It was also acknowledged that a lot of pipe is already stockpiled.

So no, it would not be built completely with American steel.

The purchase agreements existed prior to President Trump saying it would have to be built with American steel.

Since that statement, the White House has said the executive order pertains to future pipelines, as the Keystone XL pipeline steel has already been negotiated and purchased.

As far as the people who would actually be constructing the pipeline, steel worker unions have said the construction would involve American workers.

The pipeline would be owned by a Canadian company.

Q: How many foreign languages does Hillary Clinton speak? She ran for president twice. So how many languages does she speak?

A: Hillary Clinton speaks English and no foreign languages.

And yes, you are correct, she ran for president twice.

Q: I have questions about the signs on the outside of town that say you are entering a water protection area. Does that have anything to do with the high arsenic levels in our water? And is arsenic still an issue?

A: Those signs so not pertain to the arsenic levels in our water. These signify the existence of the citys formally designated wellhead protection area. Other communities have wellhead protection areas also.

As far as arsenic levels in the water here, the levels are safe at this time, but fluctuating regulations at the federal level continue to lower what is considered legally safe . . . and those changing regulations could in the future get low enough that our levels would exceed the allowable.

The arsenic here is naturally occurring.
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London: Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday that it was "only a matter of time" before Northern Ireland legalises same-sex marriage, as he attended a gay pride event in Belfast.

"It is of course a decision for the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I am confident that like other western European countries they will make that decision in due course," said Varadkar, Ireland`s first openly gay leader who took office in June.

Northern Ireland is the only part of Britain where same-sex marriage remains illegal, and the largest political party in the province, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is deeply opposed.

The DUP, which has strong Protestant Christian fundamentalist roots, has consistently blocked the measure in the devolved assembly in Belfast.

However, the party has been relatively restrained about Varadkar`s participation in the Pride event, with DUP leader Arlene Foster saying it was "his own business".

The Republic of Ireland, a traditionally Catholic country, voted to allow same-sex marriage in a historic referendum in 2015.

Varadkar attended a Pride breakfast in Belfast although other commitments prevented him from staying for the parade through the city centre, which this year will include uniformed police officers for the first time.
Zee Media Bureau/Smriti Srivastava

New Delhi: Those who are planning to buy JioPhone can now heave a sigh of relief as the phone may include their most favourite 'Whatsapp' in it. Mukesh Ambani backed-Reliance Jio is in talks with Whatsapp to design a less intense alternative version of the messaging app for the JioPhone. While JioPhone has created a lot of commotion in the telecom market and generated a lot of energy among people, not everything was clear about the features of the phone.

Reportedly, both the companies are in initial stages of the conversation to release a toned down version of Whatsapp for JioPhone. Recalling the a healthy relationship of the company with Facebook, it can be said, Reliance Jio and Whatsapp, overcoming all the technical challenges will be able to develop a version that will perform optimally on JioPhone.

Reliance Industries launched the 4G JioPhone in its 40th Annual General Meeting chaired by Mukesh Ambani. Pre-bookings of the phone will start from August 24. While the JioPhone will be available for free, customers need to deposit a refundable amount of Rs 1,500 as security money in the company.

Additionally, JioPhone comes loaded with Jio Apps which supports Youtube and Facebook as well. Reportedly, it did not include Whatsapp earlier as the messaging app does not have a version that could run JioPhone's OS. The handset performs on KaiOS, an operating system based on Firefox OS.

In India, Whatsapp is used by 200 million of population. Having a toned down version of Whatsapp in JioPhone may give an extra edge to the handset.
New Delhi: Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's recently formed cabinet on Friday included the first Hindu in the government in over two decades.

65-year-old Darshan Lal, reportedly, would be looking after the co-ordination of four Pakistan provinces.

A doctor from Mirpur Mathelo town in Ghotki district of Sindh, Lal was elected the second time in 2013 to the National Assembly on PML-N ticket for a seat reserved for minorities.

The 'reshuffle' was aimed at intensifying support for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ahead of the general elections in mid-2018, reported the Times of India.

The oath-taking ceremony of office to 47-member cabinet including 28 federal and 19 state ministers has been scheduled at President Mamnoon Hussain's official residence later.
Islamabad: Pakistan`s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his first interaction with the media a week after he was disqualified by the Supreme Court, on Saturday asked if any court in the country will ever punish former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

Sharif, speaking to reporters at the Punjab House, asked: "When will the court punish the dictator who says `dictatorship is better than democracy`."

"The one who subverted the Constitution twice is still roaming free, is there any court which will take cognizance of this matter?," he asked.

Sharif pointed out that a lot had changed since he came back from exile in 2007, the News International reported.

In October 1999, General Musharraf, the then army chief of Pakistan, had ousted Sharif in a bloodless coup and seized power. Sharif was in exile in Saudi Arabia for eight years, before he returned to Pakistan in 2007.

According to the thrice-deposed premier, he was disqualified by the court for not declaring the salary he never received.

Sharif, who was staying in Murree after his ouster as Prime Minister, arrived in Islamabad with a grand welcome by scores of his followers.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz head said Baloch leader Akbar Bugti was brutally killed in the mountains but no one asked who was responsible for this injustice.

He said there was no allegation of corruption and misappropriation of public funds against him.

Last Sunday, the former premier vacated the Prime Minister House and proceeded to Murree along with family members.

Since then, the country has seen a new Prime Minister - PML-N`s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi - assume office.

Sharif has spent most of his time in Murree in hectic consultations over the formation of the new cabinet. The former premier chaired back-to-back meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, which finally led to the swearing-in of the new cabinet on Friday.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment in the Panama Papers case, disqualified Sharif under Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution over his failure to disclose un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from a UAE-based company.

The verdict stated that he was not `honest` and `truthful`, as per the country`s Constitution.

The PML-N has decided to file a review petition against the verdict.

However, the party`s troubles are not over as it gears up for the by-election in Sharif`s Lahore constituency - NA-120 - on September 17, Geo News reported.

According to some reports, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is expected to contest the by-poll and assume office of Prime Pinister. However, there is a chance Abbasi could continue in office till the next general elections and the party gives the NA-120 ticket to someone else.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is also set to file several corruption references against Nawaz, his children Maryam, Hussain and Hasan, son-in-law MNA Capt (retd) Safdar and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, among others, in an accountability court.
New Delhi: Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali's much-talked about venture 'Padmavati' has a dream cast of Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor. The film has been much in news for various reasonsfrom fringe groups hitting the headlines over controversial content to change in release datePadmavati has had it all.

Now, it has been confirmed that the film will not see any change in the release date and will be releasing on November 17 as promised. Mumbai Mirror quotes the company's spokesperson as saying, It will keep its November 17 date with the box-office.

'Padmavati' is currently being shot and the actors are fully geared up to wrap-up their respective parts on time. SLB often keeps the look of his film and characters heavily guarded and this time the practice is same.

Deepika will be seen playing the titular role of Rani Padmini whereas Shahid will play her on-screen husband Raval Ratan Singh. Ranveer will essay the ferocious character of Alauddin Khilji and for that he is currently growing a beard and long hair.
New Delhi: Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday asked the government why it had not named six secretaries of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) if the 2007 clearance given to a media house for receiving foreign funds was wrong. The case involves his son Karti.

"If FIPB approval in a particular case was wrong, why does the CBI not name the six secretaries as accused? Is it because the six secretaries were persons of unimpeachable integrity," Chidambaram tweeted.

Though the Congress leader did not name the case but it was obvious that he was referring to a CBI probe into the FIPB approval given to INX Media for allegedly receiving funds from Mauritius.

The CBI wants to question Karti in the case and has issued summons to him following allegations that a firm that was "indirectly controlled" by Chidambaram`s son received money from the media house.
New Delhi: Hours after an AAP legislator was remanded in judicial custody, a court here on Saturday granted him bail in a case related to defacement of public property as he "dramatically" furnished a surety bond.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ashu Garg granted bail to Delhi Cantonment`s Aam Aadmi Party MLA Surender Singh on a surety bond of Rs 20,000.

In the morning, the legislator had failed to furnish a surety and told the court he was ready to go to jail.

"Since the accused has refused to furnish a bail bond, the court has no other option but to take him into custody," the court said while remanding him in judicial custody till August 17.

The court was irked by his behaviour, including his non-appearance in the case, despite repeated warrants.

The court, on April 17, had issued a bailable warrant after Surender Singh failed to appear. The court also noted that the politician had not filed any application till date regarding cancellation of bail.

Surender Singh was granted bail by the Delhi Police in the instant case till November 20, 2016. Later, the legislator did not apply for extension of bail, the court said.

The AAP leader is accused of putting up posters and hoardings as well as defacing public property in south Delhi in 2014.

The court has listed the matter for November 6 for consideration of framing of charges.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday moved a Delhi court seeking quizzing of jailed INX media director Indrani Mukerjea in a money laundering case against her and others including Karti Chidambaram, son of former minister P Chidambaram.

The ED, in its application moved before special judge Sunil Rana, has sought the issuance of production warrant against Mukerjea, currently facing trial in Mumbai in connection with the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora.

The central probe agency has told the court, which may hear the plea on August 8, that Mukerjea, currently lodged in a Mumbai jail, was required to be questioned in connection with the money laundering case.

A lawyer associated with the money laundering matter said that the ED has registered the case against Karti Chidambaram, INX media and its directors, Peter and Indrani and others, after taking cognisance of a recent CBI FIR against them.

The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), ED's equivalent of a police FIR, was registered under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The accused have denied all the charges against them.

The CBI had filed an FIR against Karti and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

It is alleged that Karti had received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

The CBI had also recovered vouchers of Rs 10 lakh which were allegedly paid for the services.

These vouchers were issued in favour of Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti, the CBI had alleged.

The senior Chidambaram, after the CBI searches on May 16, had issued a strong statement in response to the raids saying the government was using the CBI and other agencies to target his son.

FIPB approval was granted in "hundreds of cases", the senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister had said.

The CBI FIR was made out against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas (currently in jail on charges of murder their daughter Sheena Bora), INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its director Padma Vishwanathan.
Rupnagar: Two women pilgrims were killed and 22 others injured, seven of them seriously, in a head on collision between a truck and a mini-truck near Nangal village in Sirsa on Rupnagar-Nangal road here on Saturday, police said.

The incident occurred when the mini-truck, carrying pilgrims, was on its way from Delhi to Dera Baba Badbhag Singh in Una district of Himachal Pradesh, they said.

The other truck coming from Nangal on way to Rupnagar collided head on with it, they added.

The deceased have been identified as Shobha Jain (52) of Uttam Nagar and Raj Rani (70) of Jagat Puri in Delhi, police said.

The seriously injured persons were admitted to the PGIMER in Chandigarh, they said.

The other injured were admitted to a civil hospital here, they added.
Toronto: Scientists have discovered the world's best-preserved armoured dinosaur - dubbed as the 'Mona Lisa' of dinosaurs - in Canada that dates back about 110 million years.



The new genus and species Borealopelta markmitchelli used camouflage to hide from predators despite being built like a tank, researchers said.



An analysis of the 18-foot-long specimen's exquisitely well-preserved form, complete with fully armoured skin, suggests that the nodosaur had predators, despite weighing more than 1,300 kilogrammes.



The researchers came to that conclusion based on studies of the dinosaur's skin, showing that the Borealopelta exhibited countershading, a common form of camouflage in which an animal's underside is lighter than its back.



The scientists say the discovery suggests that the dinosaur belonging to the nodosaur family faced predation stress from meat-eating dinosaurs.

"Strong predation on a massive, heavily-armoured dinosaur illustrates just how dangerous the dinosaur predators of the Cretaceous must have been," said Caleb Brown, a scientist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Canada.



The specimen was found by accident in 2011, by mining machine operator Shawn Funk at the Suncor Millennium Mine in Alberta.



Over the last five and a half years, museum technician Mark Mitchell spent more than 7,000 hours slowly and gently removing rock from around the specimen to reveal the exceptional, fossilised dinosaur inside.



The specimen now represents the best-preserved armoured dinosaur ever found, and one of the best dinosaur specimens in the world, the researchers said.



"This nodosaur is truly remarkable in that it is completely covered in preserved scaly skin, yet is also preserved in three dimensions, retaining the original shape of the animal," said Mr Brown.



"The result is that the animal looks almost the same today as it did back in the Early Cretaceous. You do not need to use much imagination to reconstruct it; if you just squint your eyes a bit, you could almost believe it was sleeping.



"It will go down in science history as one of the most beautiful and best preserved dinosaur specimens - the Mona Lisa of dinosaurs," Mr Brown said.



The condition of the specimen made it possible for researchers to document the pattern and shape of scales and armour across the body.



They also used chemical analysis of organic compounds in the scales to infer the dinosaur's pigmentation pattern. Those studies revealed that the dinosaur had reddish-brown-pigmented skin with countershading across its body, researchers said.



Although countershading is common, the findings come as surprise because Borealopelta's size far exceeds that of countershaded animals alive today.



It suggests the dinosaur was under enough pressure from predators to select for concealment.
New Delhi: The government is hopeful that the strategic Chabahar Port will be operational by 2018, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

The Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari is in Tehran on Saturday to represent India at the oath taking ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier congratulated Rouhani on his re-election as the President of Iran and affirmed India's commitment to strengthen the special relations between the countries.

"India and Iran have been historically sharing special ties ... We are keen on developing Chabahar Port and are hopeful of starting operations in 12 to 18 months," Gadkari told PTI.

Gakdari is keen on expediting development of the Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nation's southern coast that can be easily accessed from India's west coast, bypassing Pakistan.

The visit assumes significance as India has accelerated work at the Chabahar port and finalised some tenders for installation of key equipment at Chabahar Port.

"Civil construction work has started there. We have finalised tenders worth Rs 380 crore for equipment out of Rs 600 crore and once the port becomes operational it will become a growth engine," the minister has said.

The minister has said that he was also hopeful of certain approvals from the Iranian government for expediting work and added that once Chabahar becomes operational the trade and business between both the nations would see a boost.

For greater trade and investment flow with Iran and neighbouring countries, the Cabinet last year cleared proposals for development of Chabahar port including through a USD 150 million credit from Exim Bank.

It also authorised the Shipping Ministry to form a company in Iran for implementing the Chabahar Port Development Project and related activities.

As per the MoU signed between the two nations in May last year, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease.

Ownership of equipment will be transferred to Iranian side on completion of 10 years or for an extended period, based on mutual agreement. The Iranian side had requested for provision of a credit of USD 150 million in accordance with the MoU.

As per the pact, operations of two berths are to commence within a period of maximum 18 months after the signing of the contract.

Besides the bilateral pact to develop the Chabahar port, for which India will invest USD 500 million, a trilateral Agreement on Transport and Transit Corridor has also been signed by India, Afghanistan and Iran.
London: Two out of three people living in Europe will be affected by heat waves, coastal floods and other weather-related disasters, largely due to global warming and climate change by the end of the century, a study said.

That's 350 million people in 31 countries subjected to an increased risk of death and health hazards, said the study published on Friday in the journal Lancet Planetary Health.



Overall, weather-related disasters are expected to cause 152,000 deaths a year in Europe between 2071 and 2100, jumping from 3,000 weather disaster-related deaths a year between 1981 and 2010.



Heat waves will be responsible for 99 per cent of weather-related deaths in Europe by 2100, the study said. Climate change will be the dominant driver of these disasters, CNN said quoting the report.



The researchers estimate that 99 per cent of future weather-related deaths will be due to heat waves that very well could cause a spike in cardiovascular disease, stroke and respiratory diseases, the researchers suggested.



"This should be considered in light of the devastating effects of the 2003 European and 2010 Russian heat waves, where thousands died. The thought of such events occurring more frequently is frightening," said Andrew Grundstein, a University of Georgia Professor not affiliated with the study told CNN.



Southern Europe is likely to be hit the hardest, based on projections for heat waves and droughts.



Almost everyone living in Italy, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal and Slovenia would be affected by weather-related disasters, causing 700 deaths per 1 million people annually.



By comparison, one out of three people will be affected every year in northern Europe -- Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden.



Other than heat-related deaths, annual coastal flooding-related deaths will rise from six to 233 by the end of the century.



Droughts could also reduce the water needed for food production and basic needs for 138 million people, the researchers said.



Previous studies have pointed to population growth, urbanization and migration as drivers of disaster risk in the future.



"Our results show that for the future, climate change will likely be the dominant driver of the projected trends, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the rise in risk to population," said Giovanni Forzieri of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, lead author of the new study.



"Population changes such as growth, migration and urbanization will account for the remaining 10 per cent," Forzieri said.


London: Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that he did not want to see an economic border between his country and any part of a post-Brexit Britain.

Varadkar used his speech at Queen`s University in Belfast on Friday to call for unique solutions to preserve the relationship between Britain and the European Union (EU) after Brexit, Xinhua news agency reported.

Describing Brexit as the challenge of this generation, Varadkar said every single aspect of life in Northern Ireland could be affected by Britain`s departure from the EU.

He warned that time is running out to try to achieve the best outcome for the island of Ireland after Britain leaves the EU.

The Irish Republic, which joined the EU on the same day as Britain more than 40 years ago, is destined to share the only EU border with Britain.

In what was his first official visit to Belfast since becoming the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Varadkar said: "It will come as no surprise to anyone here that I do not want there to be an economic border on our island, nor do I want one between Ireland and Britain."

He said supporters of a hard Brexit had already had 14 months to come up with a plan, adding: "If they cannot, and I believe they cannot (come up with a plan) we can then talk meaningfully about solutions that might work for all of us."

Varadkar also commented on the lack of input into the Brexit debate from Northern Ireland as a result of the collapse of the devolved power-sharing executive which has led to the Northern Ireland Assembly being put on hold since March.

Varadkar said the EU 27 (the remaining member states of the EU) would meet in October to decide whether enough progress had been made in the initial phase of negotiations, focusing on the financial settlement, citizens` rights and the Irish border, to enable talks to proceed to the next phase.

He said there was a need for Northern Ireland`s voice to be heard ahead of the crunch meeting in the fall. "Today we need an answer to the question, of who do we  and others in Europe  talk to in Belfast? Who will speak for Northern Ireland and her 1.8 million people?"

His own possible solutions for the future relationship between London and Brussels were an EU-Britain customs union if Britain wanted to remain in the customs union, or a deep free trade agreement with the EU if Britain did not want to stay in the European single market.

He said if those arrangements cannot be agreed now there could perhaps be a period of transition during which Britain would stay in the single market and customs union while the issues are worked out.

Varadkar promised that the Irish government would do all it could in Brexit negotiations to achieve the best outcome for peace, freedom, rights and prosperity in Ireland.
Ahmedabad: A court in Surat issued an arrest warrant against Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel for not appearing for the hearing of a sedition case against him on Saturday.

District judge Geeta Gopi issued a bailable arrest warrant against Hardik after he failed to appear for the consecutive second time.

His lawyer Yashwant Vala said Hardik could not come because he was busy meeting members of the Patel community in Ahmedabad after a programme, scheduled for today, could not be held.

Bright students from the community were to be felicitated at the programme, but it had to be cancelled at the last moment, he said, seeking exemption for his client.

Government pleader Nayan Sukhadwala pressed for a warrant against Hardik, pointing out that the Patel leader had failed to appear before the court for a second time.

The court issued a bailable warrant against him, posting the matter for hearing to September 4.

The court had rejected Hardik's discharge application in the case on June 30.

The Surat police registered a case of sedition under the Indian Penal Code against Hardik in 2015 after he allegedly exhorted a fellow activist to "kill policemen instead of committing suicide".

Ahmedabad police too registered a sedition case against him and five others for allegedly inciting Patel youths to resort to violence, in order to destabilise the government.

Hardik is currently out on bail.
Amritsar: The BJP will launch a 'Sankalp Se Siddhi' campaign across the country from August 9 to 30 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Quit India movement, the party's national secretary Tarun Chugh said.

The party would organise programmes on August 9 in all districts where freedom fighters would be honoured and statues of martyrs would be garlanded, he said in a statement here.

Chugh said torch marches would be organised on this occasion to make the youngsters aware of the sacrifices of the martyrs while bike-borne volunteers would take out 'Tiranga Yatras' in their respective districts from August 10 to 14.

Films on the lives of Mahatma Gandhi, Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh, B R Ambedkar will be screened on August 14 at all district headquarters. On Independence Day, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all Chief Ministers' speeches in their respective states, various programmes will be arranged at mandal level, he said.

"From August 16 to 30, the BJP will organise discussions and debates on 'Naya Bharat Manthan'," Chugh said, adding Union Ministers, MPs, ministers from different states, MLAs, other elected representatives, BJP's national and state office bearers and its Morchas would be participating in these programmes.
Beijing: In the wake of an Army face-off and chill in ties with India over Dokalam stand-off, a state-run Chinese daily has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to push New Delhi into a "reckless conflict" with Beijing.

Amid simmering border tension over Dokalam in Sikkim, an article published in China's Global Times said, PM Modi should be aware of the PLA's overwhelming firepower and logistics. Indian border troops are no rival to PLA field forces. If a war spreads, the PLA is perfectly capable of annihilating all Indian troops in the border region.

The Modi government's hardline stance is sustained by neither laws nor strength. This administration is recklessly breaking international norms and jeopardising India's national pride and peaceful development, the article read.

Its move is irresponsible to regional security and is gambling against India's destiny and its people's well-being. If the Modi government refuses to stop, it will push its country into a war that India has no power to control. the state-run Chinese daily stated.

The Chinese media outlets have been spewing venom against India, ever since the two Asian giants got engaged in the standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction since June after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Doklam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

In the wake of an Army face-off and chill in ties with India over Doklam stand-off, China has moved tens of thousands of tonnes of military vehicles and equipment into Tibet, a report said on Wednesday.

India has said Beijing's action to "unilaterally determine tri-junction points" violated a 2012 India-China pact which says the boundary would be decided by consulting all the concerned parties.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday said that war is not a solution and the government will keep engaging with China to resolve the dispute.

Replying to a discussion on "India's foreign policy and engagement with strategic partners", Swaraj expressed confidence that a mutually- acceptable solution would be found through talks to the Doklam border stand-off even as it described the Chinese action as a "matter of concern".

"Our stand is that we maintain restraint in language and keep patience and engage in diplomacy. No solution will be gained out of war because even after war, talks are required. A solution cannot be derived out of war," she said.
New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested one for looting a passenger at the Sarai Rohilla Railway Station here.

The incident took place on the intervening night of August 4 and August 5 with the passenger identified as Dr. Astha Chauhan, who boarded train number 12416 for Indore.The perpetrator looted a laptop and few other valuable things.

Few agitated passengers of the train went and lied on the track, which delayed the train for one and a half hour.As per reports, the police took action two hours after the incident took place.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that dialogue and debate is the only solution to the number of global challenges varying from terrorism to climate change. In a video message for the second edition of "Samvad"- Global Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness the Prime Minister said,"As inter-connected and inter-dependent world of 21st century battles a number of global challenges, from terrorism to climate change; I am confident that the solutions will be found through Asia's oldest traditions of dialogue and debate."

The Prime Minister said that he is a "product of the ancient Indian tradition that firmly believes in dialogue on difficult issues." He further said that Samvad (dialogue) is the only way to cut through deep rooted religious stereotypes and prejudices that divide communities across world and 'sow seeds of conflict between nations.'

Referring examples from Indian mythology such as Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha and Bhakta Prahlada, the Prime Minister said that the purpose of each of their actions was to uphold Dharma, which has sustained Indians from ancient to modern times. Further calling for 'harmonious environmental consciousness', the Prime Minister said every individual should nurture nature and should not exploit it.

"If a man does not nurture nature than nature reacts in the form of climate change. Man must relate to nature, man must revere nature, not merely consider it a resource to be exploited," he said.

"As the inter-connected and inter-dependent world of 21st century battles a number of global challenges, from terrorism to climate change, I am confident that the solutions will be found through Asias oldest traditions of dialogue and debate," the Prime Minister said.

The second edition of the conference is being organised in Yangon today and tomorrow. In September 2015, the Vivekananda Kendra had hosted the first edition of this conference in New Delhi.

(With inputs from agencies)
Haridwar: In the wake of ongoing standoff between India and China in the Doklam area of Sikkim, yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday urged Indians to boycott Chinese products.

Talking to ANI, Ramdev said,"China is openly supporting the terrorists of Pakistan. We need to give a befitting reply to Pakistan and for this firstly we have to merge Pakistan Occupied Kashmir ( PoK) with India and secondly every Indian should boycott China made products whether it be mobile, watches, cars, or toys."

He also appealed to the political parties to come together on this issue keeping aside the political rivalry. With the growing tension between India and China, the traders across the country are boycotting Chinese products and also urging the public to not purchase them.

China ab seedhe taur par Pakistan ke aatankwaadiyon ka khula samarthan kar raha hai: Baba Ramdev  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Ab waqt aa gya hai PoK ka Bharat mein vilay karen & aarthik astar par sabhi deshwasi China ke banen saamanon ka bahishkaar karen-Baba Ramdev pic.twitter.com/YSUERhslEf  ANI (@ANI_news) August 5, 2017

Earlier, Federation of All Odisha Traders' Association (FAOTA) asked the public to boycott Chinese products as China would earn huge profit by selling its products in Indian market.

The stand-off between India and China emerged after Chinese troops were stopped by the Indian Army from constructing roads along 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 India n 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.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: The government is hopeful that the strategic Chabahar Port will be operational by 2018, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

The Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari is in Tehran today to represent India at the oath taking ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier congratulated Rouhani on his re-election as the President of Iran and affirmed India's commitment to strengthen the special relations between the countries.

"India and Iran have been historically sharing special ties ... We are keen on developing Chabahar Port and are hopeful of starting operations in 12 to 18 months," Gadkari told PTI.

Gakdari is keen on expediting development of the Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nation's southern coast that can be easily accessed from India's west coast, bypassing Pakistan.

The visit assumes significance as India has accelerated work at the Chabahar port and finalised some tenders for installation of key equipment at Chabahar Port.

"Civil construction work has started there. We have finalised tenders worth Rs 380 crore for equipment out of Rs 600 crore and once the port becomes operational it will become a growth engine," the minister has said.

The minister has said that he was also hopeful of certain approvals from the Iranian government for expediting work and added that once Chabahar becomes operational the trade and business between both the nations would see a boost.

For greater trade and investment flow with Iran and neighbouring countries, the Cabinet last year cleared proposals for development of Chabahar port including through a USD 150 million credit from Exim Bank.

It also authorised the Shipping Ministry to form a company in Iran for implementing the Chabahar Port Development Project and related activities.

As per the MoU signed between the two nations in May last year, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease.

Ownership of equipment will be transferred to Iranian side on completion of 10 years or for an extended period, based on mutual agreement. The Iranian side had requested for provision of a credit of USD 150 million in accordance with the MoU.

As per the pact, operations of two berths are to commence within a period of maximum 18 months after the signing of the contract.

Besides the bilateral pact to develop the Chabahar port, for which India will invest USD 500 million, a trilateral Agreement on Transport and Transit Corridor has also been signed by India, Afghanistan and Iran.
Srinagar: Three LeT terrorists have been killed in an encounter with the security forces at Sopore, in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, on Saturday. Arms and ammunition were also recovered from the encounter area.

According to the Additional Deputy Commissioner, all government and private schools and colleges in Sopore are closed today post encounter. The internet services have also been snapped in North Kashmir's Baramulla District.

As per the reports of ANI, a joint operation is conducted by 179 Battalion Central Reserve Police Force ( CRPF), 52 Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operation Group ( SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police since 04:30 a.m. Saturday morning.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, North Kashmir IGP Nitish Kumar informed that one police jawan has been injured in the encounter.

Talking to IANS, police spokesman Manoj Pandita confirmed the news and said,"The terrorists were killed in Amargarh area of Sopore in an encounter with police, army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Arms and ammunition have also been recovered from the slain terrorists. The exact identity of the terrorists is being established. One police constable was injured during the encounter. He was shifted to hospital where doctors have described his condition as stable."

The incident came days after top LeT terrorist Abu Dujana, a Pakistani national wanted in connection with several terror attacks, and his aide were gunned down by the security forces in an encounter in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Beijing: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev squarely blamed China's Mao Zedong for the border skirmish in 1959 with India and the subsequent escape of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, absolving then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of any blame, a media report said on Saturday.

According to a transcript of a stormy meeting between Khrushchev and Mao published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the Soviet leader bluntly told the then chairman of China's ruling Communist Party that he was responsible for the situation in Tibet and the tension with India.

The acrimonious meeting towards the end of September that year - a little over a month after the skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops - reportedly forced the Soviet leader cut short his visit to Beijing.

The Post attributed the Cold War International History Project of Wilson Centre as the source of the transcript.

The meeting began with Khrushchev telling Mao: "You have had good relations with India for many years. Suddenly, here is a bloody incident, as a result of which Nehru found himself in a very difficult position."

"If you let me, I will tell you what a guest should not say: the events in Tibet are your fault. You ruled in Tibet you should have had your intelligence [agencies] there and should have known about the plans and intentions of the Dalai Lama," Khrushchev told Mao.

Mao shot back: "Nehru also says that the events in Tibet [were] our fault. Besides, in the Soviet Union they published a TASS declaration on the issue of conflict with India [supporting India]."

He was referring to a report in the Russian state-run news agency TASS, urging India and China to reach a negotiated settlement.

Khrushchev also told Mao that he was "outraged" by the Chinese calling the Soviet Union "time-servers".

"Take back your accusations; otherwise we spoil relations between our parties. We are your friends and speak the truth. We never acted as time-servers with regard to anybody... If you consider us time-servers, comrade Chen Yi, then do not offer me your hand. I will not accept it," Khrushchev told Mao and other Chinese leaders who attended the meeting.

After that visit, relations between China and then Soviet Union appeared to deteriorate leading to Beijing warming up to the US.
New Delhi: Branding the attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's convoy in Gujarat as 'shameful', party leader Anand Sharma on Saturday said that the incident clearly indicates that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is 'disturbed' with the campaigning and upsurge of the grand old party across the nation.

"In a democracy, there is no room for violence and attack against political leaders. It is clear that the BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are disturbed by the efforts and campaigning of Rahul Gandhi and the upsurge of the Congress," Sharma told ANI.

Sharma said that the Congress is committed to the Gandhian values and principles and will always fight against violence and the communal agendas.

"We want to make it absolutely clear to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, and to the BJP president that Congress shall never be cowed down. We will stand up and keep on fighting. Eventually their lies are getting exposed and their true faces are coming out," he said.

Another Congress leader Kapil Sibal said if a person with special protection is not spared, then it clearly reflects how the ruling-BJP Government is neither taking care of the Opposition leader in the country nor punishing the culprits.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Friday had said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) goons allegedly pelted heavy stones at Rahul's car on his way to the helipad after meeting flood victims at Gujarat's Dhanera.

After this assertion, Gandhi further attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying such obstacles like raising black flags, throwing stones won't stop them from helping people.

Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and wrote, "Narendra Modi ji's slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us.... We will put in all our might into the service of people."

Surjewala branded the attack on Gandhi's convoy "disgusting and disgraceful," accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying the latter must know the truth can't be silenced.

Also, earlier, Rahul visited flood affected areas in Gujarat where he was shown black flags by a group of protesters.

Addressing the villagers and the media, Rahul Gandhi said that he was in Assam the other day, Rajasthan on Friday and now in Gujarat.

Amidst his speech, few people waved black flags to which he asked the guards to let them in, and saying, "I don't care."

"It's a difficult and grievous time for all of you and so I wanted to come amongst you all," he said addressing the crowd.

Following this, reacting to the Congress' barbs and demand of launching a probe into the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has informed that a senior officer has been appointed to investigate into the incident in detail and assured that a strict action will be taken against the guilty.

"Govt has appointed Add DG rank officer to investigate in detail&will tk strict action agnst those found responsible (sic)," Rupani tweeted.

Rupani had earlier taken to Twitter to condemn the incident and assure an inquiry into the same.

"I condemn the unfortunate attack on Rahul Gandhi's convoy. I have instructed officers to take strict action against those responsible," he tweeted.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has received some intelligence input that secret information related to the Indian Army was allegedly being handed over to detectives from the SDM Sadar office in Jhansi, an official said on Saturday.

"A probe has been initiated in this connection," IG ATS Aseem Arun said.

Some personnel posted in the office were being interrogated and some documents have been taken into possession along with computers and pen drives.

Further action would be taken based on the evidence, he said.

So far no arrest has been made, he said, adding that a team led by ATS sub-inspector K M Rai was investigating the matter.
New Delhi: National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu was on Saturday elected the 13th vice-president of India, defeating Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Naidu is the third Telugu person who has occupied the key constitutional post after Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and V. V. Giri.

The veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was handling the portfolios of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information and Broadcasting in Narendra Modi-led NDA government.

His early life:

Born in Chavatapalem in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh on July 1, 1949, Naidu had pursued his education from VR School and obtained a degree in politics and diplomatic studies from VR College. Later, he acquired a bachelor's degree in law with specialisation in international law from Andhra University College of Law, Visakhapatnam. He was a swayamsevak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and joined ABVP during his college days. Naidu was President of the Students Union, V.R. College, Nellore. In 1973-74, he was president of the Students Union of Andhra University Colleges. He came into limelight for his prominent role in the Jai Andhra Movement of 1972. The 68-year-old Naidu cut his political teeth during the "Emergency" of 1975-77 when he went underground against the government of Indira Gandhi and eventually was sent to the jail.

He remained underground until his arrest, distributing anti-government literature in educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, travelling on a scooter along with a woman activist on pillion in a bid not to arouse suspicion.

He was accused of disturbing a meeting of Sanjay Gandhi and handcuffed during transit from one jail to the other.

Political journey:

A key member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet, Naidu hit the national scene when he was one of the prominent opposition spokespersons along with S. Jaipal Reddy, who was then in Janata Party, during the campaign by N.T. Rama Rao after his dismissal as the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister by Indira Gandhi in the 1980s.

Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party was on a weak wicket in southern India, Naidu embraced it tightly.

A quick-witted and effective communicator steeped in RSS/BJP ideology, Naidu rose through the ranks to become the party President and a Union Minister.

Naidu has been a troubleshooter for the government as also one of its best communicators with his alliterative and catchy one-liners. He has friends across political parties. It will help him as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha where the BJP still does not have a majority.

Naidu is quick to respond to criticism from the opposition.

He has handled key organizational assignments in the BJP and became its President in 2002.

Naidu had three continuous terms in the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka from 1998 to 2016, when he shifted to Rajasthan to get a fourth term.

He was Rural Development Minister during the first NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his inspiration along with senior party leader L.K. Advani.

With Modi scripting BJP's success in 2014, Naidu described him as the most popular Indian leader, the most credible political personality and among the top 10 leaders of the world. He is credited with coining the acronym MODI - Making Of Developed India, a BJP favourite.
New Delhi: NDA's vice presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday made it clear that he is not contesting against any individual or party. He is contesting for Vice President of India.

While talking to media before the polling, Naidu asserted,"I am known to all members of Parliament and they are known to me. And this is the reason I'm not even campaigning." Naidu was also confident of his thumping victory today, he said, "I have written a polite letter to everybody and their response is very good. Confident that they all will support me."

Naidu is pitted against Opposition parties' nominee Gopal Krishna Gandhi. The counting of votes will begin after polling and the results will be declared by 7 PM. The one who bags 50 per cent plus one vote of the total valid votes cast will win the poll.

Voting for Vice Presidential elections will be held today at the Parliament House complex between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The electoral college for vice president consists of elected and nominated members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. The term of incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who held the position for two consecutive terms, will come to an end on August 10.
New Delhi: Voting for Vice Presidential Election has ended with a total poll percentage of 98.21%.

Total 771 out of 785 MPs cast their votes.

The counting process will begin at 6:00 p.m.National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu is contesting against Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

The winner of the polls will be appointed as the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

The term of incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who held the position for two consecutive terms, will come to an end on August 10. The voting began at 10:00 a.m. The results are expected to be declared by 7:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The Vice-President is selected through a secret ballot by the members of the Electoral College consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

The nominated Members of Rajya Sabha as well as of Lok Sabha are also eligible to be included in the Electoral College and, therefore, are entitled to participate in the election.

Members of Parliament had to use special pens for marking their choice.Votes marked with any other pen are liable to be rejected.

The ballot paper contained the names of the contesting candidates, but did not contain any election symbol.Unlike the President, the Vice-President is not allotted any special residential privileges while in office.
New Delhi: Opposition vice presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Saturday described the contest between him and Venkaiah Naidu as a fight based on constitutional principles.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Gandhi said, "During the campaigning, I maintained complete civility and the same was done by Naidu too."

When asked to comment on Naidu emerging as the winner, the Opposition vice presidential candidate said, Can't call the contest as one sided as there were two candidates in the Presidential election as well, in which Meira Kumar got a significant amount of votes, but only one emerges as the winner.

There is no competition as such between me and Naidu, NDA's candidate is an experienced person, Gandhi said.

Polling to elect the 14th Vice President of India began on Saturday in Parliament with Prime Minister Narendra Modi casting his vote.

The voting started at 10 am and will continue till 5 pm.

The counting of votes will be done in the evening. The results would be announced later on Saturday.
Srinagar: Spontaneous protests broke out on Saturday in north Kashmir areas after three local LeT militants were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Sopore town, with three persons injured in firing during clashes.

Three local LeT militants, identified as Danish Ahmad Dar of Sopore, Abid Hamid Mir of Bandipora and Javid Ahmad Dar of Baramulla town, were killed in a gunfight with security forces, which included state police, army and the CRPF, in Amargarh area of Sopore town.

One police constable was injured in the gunfight. His condition was described as stable by doctors.

Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral processions of two slain militants in Bandipora and Baramulla districts.

Security forces did not intervene to stop the funeral processions of the slain militants in Hajin area of Bandipora and Khanpora in Baramulla town after the bodies were handed over to the families.

Authorities imposed restrictions in the old town areas of Baramulla as a precautionary measure.

Earlier, protesters clashed with security forces in Sadarkote area of Bandipora district as news about the death of Mir, militant belonging to Bandipora district, spread in the area.

Three protesters sustained bullet injuries and were shifted to hospital for treatment, police said.

Protesters also engaged security forces in clashes in Sopore town and at three other places in north Kashmir areas.

An army escort vehicle was attacked by stone pelters on the highway near Anantnag town.

The occupants of the escort vehicle fired in the air to ward off the protesters.

Police said three over ground workers of LeT were arrested on Saturday in south Kashmir`s Shopian district.

Authorities closed schools and colleges in Sopore, Baramulla and Handwara in addition to suspending mobile phone services and Internet facility in north Kashmir areas, as a precautionary measure.

The Internet speed both on mobile phones and fixed landline broadband connections was brought down to 2G from 3G and 4G.

Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, the senior separatist leader who continues to remain under house arrest in his city outskirts Nigeen residence in Srinagar, has criticized the government`s decision to close educational institutions and suspend Internet services whenever they face a law and order situation.
Ranchi: Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Saturday congratulated Venkaiah Naidu for winning the vice-presidential polls.

Das in his statement said the nation would get the benefit of his long experience, an official release here said.

His role would be there in creating new India, the chief minister added.
Kochi: A 47-year-old activist of a radical Muslim group was arrested here on Saturday by the NIA for alleged involvement in the chopping off of the palm of a college professor seven years ago.



According to the NIA, Manzoor was the lone absconding accused in the case. He was produced before the NIA court here.



Activists of the Popular Front of India had chopped off the right palm of Prof TJ Joseph on July 4, 2010, when he was returning along with his family members from the Sunday mass near his home in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district.



The case was transferred to the NIA which arrested those behind the crime. In 2015, the NIA court here found 13 guilty and acquitted 18.



PFI, a radical Muslim group, was upset after Joseph - a Malayalam teacher at New Man College Thodupuzha - in the Malayalam question paper that he had prepared for an internal examination at his college had inflammatory remarks on Prophet Mohammed. The PFI chopped off his right palm in retaliation.
New Delhi: Bizarre but true! To appease the rain gods, two married men in Madhya Pradesh's Indore city tied the knot with 'love and fanfare' in the presence of their wives and children in a religious ceremony which had earlier seen only frog reunions.

Sakaram Ahirwar and Rakesh Adjan performed the marriage rituals on Thursday. To the local residents' surprise, it did rain on the day of their wedding.

'Frog weddings' are popularly held in Assam and other states as part of a ritual to appease the rain gods.

The state has been reeling under severe drought-like situation for the past couple of weeks. The ritual is intended to bring showers.

Both the men dressed in traditional wedding attire, put garlands on each other and took rounds around the ceremonial fire.

There was a proper 'baraat' and the usual dancing to Bollywood numbers as the marriage possession passed through the main roads of the locality, reported the Times of India.

There was no bride. Both Sakaram and Rakesh were grooms in this marriage. They tied the knot as a gesture to draw Indradevs attention for good rain on Indore, said the organiser, Ramesh Singh Tomar.

It gave me the idea of performing a marriage between two men as a gesture to please the gods for rainfall, he added.

Amusingly, both the men returned to their respective wives after the completion of the rituals.

Earlier, Union Minister Uma Bharati had proposed a scheme to irrigate several hectares of land in areas of Madhya Pradesh owing to reported droughts in the state.
Mumbai: Three students from a Dharavi school were drowned on Saturday morning when they ventured into choppy waters of the Arabian Sea off the Dadar Chowpatty beach here, an official said.



According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Disaster Control, Bharat Hanumanta, 13, Rohit Yadav, 15, and Anup Yadav, 16, from U.M. High School were swept away around 11.15 am.



Mumbai fire brigade personnel fished out the bodies after searching for around an hour.



The officials said no lifeguards are posted at the beach even though it has been declared a danger zone due to a rocky seashore.
Allahabad: Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai visited the city today along with husband Abhishek Bachchan to immerse the ashes of her father at the Sangam, the holy confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical river Saraswati.

The couple was accompanied by their six-year-old daughter Aaradhya besides Aishwarya's mother Vrinda Rai and brother Aditya Rai. Upon their arrival at the Sangam, the group was received by some policemen and priests, who escorted them on to a boat.

After reaching midstream, the ashes of Aishwarya's father Krishnaraj Rai, who passed away in March this year, were immersed amid chants of hymns.

"It was a personal visit by the Bachchans who had requested for privacy and hence only bare minimum deployment of police personnel was made. They left immediately after performing the rites at the Sangam," District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar said.

(PHOTO COURTESY: IANS)

Incidentally, the last time the Bachchans visited the city was a decade ago when they accompanied Abhishek's superstar father Amitabh Bachchan to immerse the ashes of the latter's mother Teji Bachchan.

The Bachchans have their roots in the city where Teji got married to renowned Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Amitabh spent his early childhood before the family moved to Delhi in the 1950s.
New Delhi: The government has extended till September-end the time by which poor women wishing to avail of free cooking gas (LPG) connections must apply for the unique 12-digit biometric identification number Aadhaar.

The government had in March this year mandated that anyone not having Aadhaar but desirous of availing free LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana must apply for it by May 31.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas yesterday issued a gazettee notification extending that deadline to September 30.

The government had in October last year made the unique identification number mandatory for everyone to get LPG subsidies. In March this year it was extended for free cooking gas connections to women of BPL households.

"A beneficiary desirous of availing the benefits under the Scheme (PMUY), who does not possess the Aadhaar number or has not yet enrolled for Aadhaar shall have to apply for Aadhaar enrolment by 31st May, 2017, provided she is entitled to obtain Aadhaar," the notification issued on March 6 had said.

In yesterday's notification, the ministry said: "The figures, letters and word '31st May, 2017', the figures, letters and word '30th September, 2017' shall be substituted."

The government had last year launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to provide 5 crore poor women with free LPG connections in three years with a view to providing clean cooking fuel. So far over 2.6 crore free connections have been provided.

"Individual beneficiary desirous of availing the benefits under the scheme (PMUY) is hereby required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication," said the March 6 gazette notification.

Those below poverty line (BPL) women looking to avail free LPG connection but do not have the Aadhaar number, have been asked to apply for it by September 30.

Once enrolled for Aadhaar, the beneficiary can apply for free LPG connection by providing the enrolment ID slip or a copy of such a request.

Such application will have to be accompanied by one of the government identification documents like bank passbook with photograph, election voter ID, ration card, permanent account number (PAN), passport, driving licence, kisan photo passbook or a certificate of identity having a photo issued by a gazetted officer on an official letterhead, it said.

The ministry has asked state-owned fuel retailing firms to facilitate enrolment of beneficiaries for biometric identification number, Aadhaar.

The government currently gives 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each at subsidised rates per household in a year. The subsidy on every cylinder is transfered in advance directly into bank accounts of individuals, who then buy the cooking fuel at market rates.
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said moral values in politics are declining and it can be addressed only through the socialist ideology.

"Today society is facing a challenge of inequality and politics degradation in moral values..Society is being threatened by divisive forces ...These problems and challenges can be countered only through Socialist ideology," he said.

The former chief minister was addressing a fucntion to mark 85th birth anniversary of socialist idealogue Janeshwar Misra here.

Hailing Misra, Akhilesh said, "He had been a minister in the central government but had led a clean life away from corruption ...He had always struggled against communal and capitalist forces."

A party release here said similar functions were held all over the state and partymen took resolve to follow the path shown by Misra to strengthen the socialist movement.

Speaking in Unnao yesterday, Akhilesh had said the Yogi Adiyanath had broken the confidence of the people in 100 days and the BJP was resorting to poaching of opposition lawmakers as it was scared of facing the electorate again.

His comments came days after three MLCs of his party joined the BJP.
Lucknow: Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for raising voice against the injustice meted out to women through triple talaq, women from Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh are sending 'rakhis' to the two BJP leaders.

PM Modi has repeatedly urged people belonging to the Muslim community not to "politicise" the issue and requested them to come forward with a "solution".

Terming triple talaq a "bad social practice" PM Modi had earlier said that such practices can be ended by social awakening.

Several Muslim women have challenged the practice of 'triple talaq' in which the husband, quite often, pronounces talaq thrice in one go, sometimes over phone or text message.

PM Modi and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath have advocated for the rights of Muslim women and had called for the abolition of the triple talaq and nikah halala.

SC reserves verdict on triple talaq

The Supreme Court on May 18 reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging constitutional validity of the practice of triple talaq among Muslims.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar heard the issue for six days during which various parties including the Centre, All India Muslim Personal Law Board, All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board and various others made the submissions.

The bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Joseph, R F Nariman, U U Lalit and Abdul Nazeer, had begun the hearing on May 11.

The members of the bench are from different religious communities including Sikh, Christian, Parsi, Hindu and Muslim.

The bench had made it clear that it would examine whether the practice of triple talaq among Muslims is fundamental to their religion and had also said for the time being it will not deliberate upon the issue of polygamy and 'nikah halala'.

It had also said that the issue of polygamy and 'nikah halala' would be kept pending and will be dealt with later.
5 TV shows and films on homosexuality and same-sex marriages - IN PICS
Kabul: At least 50 Taliban militants were killed and three wounded in an airstrike on a militants` hideout in Afghanistan`s Khost province, a local official said on Saturday.



"The strike was conducted in a remote locality in Piri area of Musa Khil district late on Friday evening," District Chief Gulab Mangal told Xinhua news agency.



Mangal said the airstrike was conducted by the US-led coalition war planes in the province, 150 km southeast of Kabul. A Taliban hideout, together with weapons and ammunition, was also destroyed in the attack.



Earlier on Saturday, the Afghan Defence Ministry also confirmed in a statement the elimination of 50 militants in Khost, but did not give details.



The Afghan forces have beefed up security operations as the Taliban and Islamic State militants have been attempting to take territory and consolidate their positions across the country.
Tehran: Emphasising that terrorism is a common problem for both Tehran and Kabul, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday called for cooperation between the two sides against it.

During a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani, he said that Iran has made every effort in bringing about peace and stability in Afghanistan and has always stood by Afghan people in different segments of history.

He described Chabahar Port as a suitable link to promote economic, trade and mineral cooperation between the two sides.

The Afghan President congratulated Rouhani on being re-elected as Iran's next President.

He also hailed Iran's efforts in bringing about peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Ghani said Afghanistan is in favour of maintaining cooperation with the neighboring countries like Iran to safeguard its borders.

Earlier, Ghani arrived in Tehran to attend swearing in ceremony of his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani.

About 70 delegations from foreign countries and international organisations have so far arrived inTehran to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran .

The inauguration ceremony will be held in the parliament where Rouhani is expected to propose his 18-member cabinet on the same day for a vote of confidence.
Kabul: A member of the Afghan police force has been killed by NATO advisers before he was able to attack their forces in southern Kandahar province, according to a NATO-led Resolute Support mission statement.

The statement released on Friday said the incident took place near Kandahar Airfield after the advisers had completed scheduled law enforcement training and were attacked by a police officer as they were preparing to return to their base.

The Romanian soldiers, who were providing security for the Train, Advise and Assist Command south advisers, returned fire in self-defence and killed the gunman, it said.

A wounded Romanian soldier is being treated at Kandahar Airfield's medical facilities and another Afghan policeman who was wounded in gunfire exchange is being treated at an Afghan medical facility, it added.
Jerusalem: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played down his former aide's decision to become a state witness against him in two graft cases.

On Friday, Ari Harow, Netanyahu's former chief of staff, agreed to provide testimonies against the Israeli Prime Minister in two separate long-running criminal investigations, Xinhua news agency reported.

In a post on his official Facebook page, the Israeli PM dismissed the move as "background noises."

He addressed the "citizens of Israel" and said he is "continuing working for the benefit of the country."

According to reports in local media, Harow, 44, has already provided the police with information about the cases.

The US-born Israeli was one of Netanyahu's most trusted aides. He served as Netanyahu's bureau chief in the prime minister's office in 2008 and was appointed as his chief of staff in 2014. Harow left this position in 2015 amid allegations of conflict of interests.

A document the police filed with the court on Thursday shows the investigations involve "suspicion of the commission of felonies of bribery, fraud and breach of trust."

Netanyahu, 67, is a suspect in two cases. One, dubbed by the police as "Case 2000," involves secret talks he held with the owner of a large Israeli newspaper called Yediot Aharonot about reducing the competition in the news sector in return for more positive coverage.

The other case, known as "Case 1000," involves suspicions that Netanyahu and his wife Sara received expensive gifts from Israeli-US businessman and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

Netanyahu had been investigated by the police at least four times. In March, Police Chief Roni Alsheikh estimated the police are close to completing the investigation, saying "we are in the final stages."

The procrastination of the law enforcement authorities sparked anger in the Israeli public, leading to weekly demonstrations near the home of Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit to demand charges against Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is serving his fourth term as Prime Minister.
Caracas: Venezuela`s contested new assembly fired the country`s dissident attorney general, Luisa Ortega, Saturday in a move sure to provoke greater international criticism.

The body, which made the sacking its first order of business, also said it planned to operate as Venezuela`s supreme power for up to two years.
Tripoli: Libyan Coast Guard teams have rescued over 600 migrants from the Mediterranean waters off the coast of the Arab nation, rescue services said on Saturday.

The largest rescue operation, which took place at dawn off the city of Sabratah, managed to bring to safety some 462 people found adrift on two inflatable boats and two wooden barges, Efe news reported.

Among those rescued were Tunisians, Moroccans, Algerians, Libyans and Sudanese. Another group of 128 migrants, including several women and children, was rescued from an inflatable boat on Thursday north of Sabratah.

A total of 43 migrants from Pakistan and Arab countries, as well as several Libyan families, were also rescued by a team from the Coast Guard of the Libyan city of Misrata in the early hours of Friday.
Manila: South Korea`s foreign minister said Saturday she was open to rare discussions with her North Korean counterpart at a security forum in the Philippines in a bid to rein in Pyongyang`s nuclear weapons programme.

The diplomatic olive branch came as the isolated regime faces increasing global pressure following its second intercontinental ballistic missile test on July 28, with the United Nations Security Council set to vote this weekend on new sanctions.

"If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Kang Kyung-Wha told reporters as she landed in Manila on Saturday, according to South Korea`s Yonhap news agency.

North Korea`s top diplomat, Ri Hong-Yo, is also attending the regional summit, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Kang, South Korea`s first female foreign minister, said any meeting with Ri would be an opportunity "to deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers (for talks) aimed at establishing a peace regime".

Seoul last month proposed military talks with Pyongyang but the North refused to respond. Had they gone ahead, they would have been the first official inter-Korean talks since 2015.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has defied international pressure to accelerate his country`s nuclear weapons capabilities, and boasted after the second intercontinental ballistic missile test that he could strike any target in the United States.

In response, Washington drafted the planned UN resolution to toughen sanctions against Pyongyang.

The United States also said it hoped to build unified pressure on the North at the Manila event, known as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is attending.

In the run up to this year`s gathering, Washington lobbied to have Pyongyang kicked out of the ARF. But there is limited appetite among Asian countries to shut North Korea out of one of the few diplomatic gatherings it attends.

The newly elected South Korean government of President Moon Jae-In is also more open to negotiations than the previous administration of conservative Park Geun-Hye.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula often dominate the ARF because it is one of the few annual diplomatic gatherings attended by the key stakeholders: South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

On Saturday ASEAN released a joint statement following a meeting of its own foreign ministers saying the North`s missile tests "seriously threaten" global peace, but they stopped short of any moves to isolate Pyongyang.

The UN resolution proposes a ban on certain exports that could deprive Pyongyang of $1 billion in annual revenue.

It comes after a month of negotiations with China, the North`s main trading partner and ally, to shore up their support for fresh punitive measures.

The draft resolution calls for a ban on all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state, according to the text seen by AFP.

The new raft of measures would be the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006, but these have failed to compel Pyongyang to give up its missile programme.

China and Russia have insisted that sanctions alone will not change Pyongyang`s behaviour and that talks are needed to address the crisis.
United Nations: The UN chief on Thursday urged the US to re-engage with the 2015 Paris climate agreement even after America submitted its formal communication indicating its intention to withdraw from the historic pact as soon as possible.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has received a notification from the US expressing the country's intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, his spokesman said.

The notification received yesterday was communicated by US Permanent Representative to the United Nation's Nikki Haley.

"The Secretary-General received, in his capacity as Depositary of the Paris Agreement, a communication from the Permanent Representative of the US expressing the intention of the US to exercise its right to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as soon as it is eligible to do so under the Agreement, unless it identifies suitable terms for reengagement," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The Paris climate deal aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 2C since the start of the industrial age.

The spokesperson added that the secretary-general "welcomes any effort to reengage in the Paris Agreement by the United States".

The notification came two months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the accord.

Under article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a party may withdraw at any time after three years from the date on which the agreement has entered into force for that party, and such withdrawal takes effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the depositary of the notification of withdrawal.

The US accepted the Paris Agreement on September 3, 2016 and the agreement entered into force for the US on November 4, 2016. This means that the US must stay in the pact until at least 2019.

The note referred to the June statement by the secretary-general in which he had said that the decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a "major disappointment" for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security.

"It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on climate and sustainable development. Climate change is impacting now," Dujarric said, adding that the UN Chief looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future for our children and future generations.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan held consultation in Armavir province on August 4 during which the process of development programs of the province and communities, as well as the works and upcoming steps were discussed, press service of the government told Armnpress.

Presenting the socio-economic situation of the province and the main figures, Governor Ashot Ghahramanyan said the provinces share in the countrys GDP was 5-6% in 2015-2016. The gross agricultural product volume comprises 167 billion AMD.

48002 farms are engaged in agriculture, 34 companies in agricultural product processing and production. 11 out of investment programs submitted by the province to the government relate to the agriculture field. By the assistance of the PM Karapetyan, solar power plants have been installed in Lernamerdz community.

5-year development programs for 97 communities of the province have been developed, the formation and performance works of the budget have been controlled.

Armavir Governor Ashot Ghahramanyan said the province is actively cooperating with territorial units of several countries aimed at attracting investments and implementing socio-economic development programs. The priority task of the province is provision of employment, creation of new jobs and increase of the welfare of the people.

Expressing satisfaction over the ongoing steps, the PM informed that currently the government is discussing the opportunities to promote business programs through state assistance tools.

A number of issues relating to waste management, organization of agricultural works, situation of irrigation water supply, the protection system from disasters, the implementation process of programs being carried out by the state assistance and the interim results were touched upon during the consultation.

For the development of agriculture, protection of water resources we consider priority the construction of small and medium reservoirs. It will contribute to decreasing water maintenance costs. We will consistently move forward on this path, the PM said.

He also discussed the ongoing works in education and healthcare spheres with the representatives of the fields. The PM talked about the logic of ongoing reforms, proposing to discuss the further steps with the respective agencies. Programs aimed at boosting the business environment and attracting investments, as well as land use and urban development programs were presented.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. Delegations of more than 50 countries have arrived in Tehran to participate in the inauguration ceremony of re-elected President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, IRNA reports.

The event will be attended by President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Russian Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea Kim Yong-nam, as well as delegations from Palestine, South Korea, Moldova, Lebanon and etc.

The inauguration ceremony will be held on August 5 at the Iranian parliament with the presence of high-ranking officials of various states, including 8 Presidents, 19 parliamentary speakers and 92 high-ranking international delegations.

Hassan Rouhani was re-elected as President of Iran with 57% of votes during the May 19 presidential elections.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump and President of France Emmanuel Macron held a phone conversation during which they discussed issues relating to expanding the cooperation in the ongoing crisis in Syria and Iraq, The National reports.

The two Presidents also discussed the current situation in Venezuela and agreed that President Nicolas Maduros regime must restore the rights of the Venezuelan people.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. Demolition of Armenian cemetery in Turkey is nothing new. Its not surprising that the local authorities of Edremit district of Van Province permitted to build toilets in the territory of the Armenian cemetery in Dilkaya village, Aragats Akhoyan  Chairman of the Return Foundation, member of the National Congress of Western Armenians, told a press conference in Armenpress. He has just returned from the Western Armenia.

I have visited the site and got acquainted with the issue. That area is close to the beach, the local authorities have decided to provide the beach with infrastructures, therefore, they built toilets on those areas, Aragats Akhoyan said, adding that despite criticism by Kurds, media, the construction has been quickly carried out. Akhoyan told that they were informed that during the construction works human bones have been discovered.

Turkey has not changed its policy and approaches. We have witnessed that numerous other Armenian cultural values have been eliminated. The maintenance of the Holy Cross of Akhtamar and the St. Giragos churches are not enough to be presented to the world as a civilized country, he said.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. Armenias close relations with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), as well as with the European Union enable Iran to further deepen the ties with Armenia especially in economic sphere, Karen Mkrtchyan  expert on Iranian studies, told reporters, reports Armenpress.

The implementation of various programs and the establishment of free economic zone by Iran enable the two sides to propose new business programs. The Armenian side must have serious expectations from the free economic zone to be launched soon on the Armenian-Iranian border. Under this program the Armenian and Iranian businesses will develop. The free economic zone will enable Iran to export goods to the EAEU multimillion market via Armenia. And one of the most prospective fields for Iran is perhaps the energy resources, the expert said.

According to him, Armenia and Iran are regional security creators, rather than security threats like Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Even if there are problems in the Armenian-Iranian relations, they can be solved. However, there are no serious problems as such. There must be consistency on each issue and its necessary to find solutions through negotiations than contractions, he said.

Commenting on President Serzh Sargsyans visit to Iran, Karen Mkrtchyan said the Presidents attendance to the inauguration ceremony of re-elected President of Iran Hassan Rouhani means that the Armenian-Iranian bilateral relations are at a high level.

The Armenian delegation includes also the minister of energy and natural resources. In order to record progress in economic ties the visit of ministers of economic bloc is very important, the expert said, adding that the Presidents recent interviews to Iranian media confirm that there are key commonalities in the foreign policy of Armenia and Iran.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. During the period from July 30 to August 5, relative calm has been maintained in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact, the Defense Ministry of Artsakh Republic told Armenpress.

During that period, the Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire regime more than 110 times firing various weapons, as well as 60 mm mortars.

The Defense Army forces continue controlling the situation in the frontline and confidently fulfill their military tasks.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. High temperature is expected in Armenia on August 6-10, the Ministry of Emergency Situations told Armenpress.

In the daytime up to 39...41 degrees above zero and a high risk of fire is expected in the valleys of Syunik province, in Yerevan and Ararat Valley. The daily average air temperature will be 5-6 degrees higher than normal.

Air temperature will gradually increase by 1-2 degrees on August 6-8.
TBILISI, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. The solemn opening ceremony of Hovhannes Tumanyan's House scientific, cultural center of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Georgia was held on August 5.

The blessing ceremony of the last apartment of great Armenian poet was conducted by His Grace Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, the Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia, vicar of Samtskhe-Javakhk and Tsalka father Ter-Babgen Salbiyan and spiritual shepherd at the Cathedral of Saint George in Tbilisi, priest Ter-Samuel Torosyan.

The Armenian Diocese of Georgia plans to give new impetus to the Tumanyan's House in Tbilisi in accordance with contemporary standards, hold literary talks, readings, press conferences, discussions on published and unpublished works, create links for ethnography studies and development, cultural ties between the Armenian and Georgian art figures, open AGBU virtual university branch, spiritual, cultural heritage museum of Georgian-Armenians, as well as a library. The Hovhannes Tumanyan Puppet Theater and the Guest House of former President of the Writers Union of Armenia, late Levon Ananyan will operate at the center. Within the course of time the Hovhannes Tumanyan's House center will become a platform of cultural dialogue and solidarity for national minorities in Tbilisi and will contribute to boosting the activity of the Armenian community of Georgia.

After the opening ceremony Primate of Tavush Diocese Bishop Bagrat Galstyan read the congratulatory message of Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II where he said the Holy Etchmiadzin was informed with satisfaction about the opening of the Hovhannes Tumanyan's House scientific and cultural center in Tbilisi. Tumanyans name is cherished for our people. He lived his entire life by sadness and happiness of the Armenian people, and fought for the welfare of the Armenian people and the homeland. This house of Hovhannes Tumanyan is a tribute to the memory of the Armenian genius. We are happy that thanks to the efforts of our Armenian sons this historical cradle was saved from alienation and was returned to the Armenian people, reads the congratulatory message.

Armenias Ambassador to Georgia Yuri Vardanyan also addressed congratulatory message expressing deep gratitude to all who had their contribution to the implementation of this important work. First of all, we should remember former President of the Writers Union of Armenia, late Levon Ananyan since this process was launched by his initiative. I want to express my special gratitude to my compatriot, MP Vardan Ghukasyan who was first to respond to the settlement of the issue, the Ambassadors message said. According to the Ambassador, the Armenian peoples love and respect to Hovhannes Tumanyan is seen by the title given to him  poet of All Armenians. The maintenance of even a small part in connection with Tumanyans memory is important as a strong factor of Armenian upbringing. Thats why the handing over of his House to the Armenian community is a significant contribution in maintaining the Armenian identity. Our country is greatly interested in maintaining material wealth relating to Armenias cultural activity regardless of where they are across the world. However, we have to admit that we havent still reached the level of financial strength so that we could implement our all patriotic wishes.

The congratulatory message of Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan highlighted that Tumanyan with his literary and public activity unconditionally served his people and will continue to serve. Tumanyans house has not been called as a place of continuous, constant visits in vain. This house can be considered as house for Armenian-Georgian literary ties, as well as friendship of the two peoples, the message said.

President of the Writers Union of Armenia Eduard Militonyan said the name of former President of the Writers Union of Armenia Levon Ananyan in the list of this programs initiators is not coincidental. It is no coincidence that this entire process should begin with the Writers Union since Tumanyans first, the so-called, advocates must be the writers. Hovhannes Tumanyan has left the largest seal on the Armenian identity. Vernatun (garret) carried out major collective works for folklore, contemporary writers, our history, he said.

Director of Armenpress news agency Aram Ananyan in his remarks said in 2012 it was difficult to believe that five years later this great return of Tumanyan will take place. He highlighted that in general the past years were periods of changes in the life of the Armenian community of Georgia: the evidence of this are both the opening of Tumanyan House center, the renovated St. George Church in Tbilisi, as well as the activeness that the Georgian-Armenians have. In 2012 there were very few people who were ready to move forward that step so that it will turn into reality. As we were initiating the digitization of photo archive of Armenpress, we have revealed that all photo negatives dedicated to 100th anniversary of Tumanyan have been maintained. I think we will bring our photo exhibition here during the cultural opening of Vernatun (garret) and will leave the dublicate at the Tumanyan's House scientific, cultural center, Aram Ananyan said.

The renovation and furnishing works of the House are being conducted by the funds of the Armenian Diocese, as well as by the assistance of the Jinishian Memorial Foundation and IDeA Foundation.

The history pages of the Tumanyan's House scientific, cultural center were opened thanks to the efforts of His Grace Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, the Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia, late Levon Ananyan, MP Vardan Ghukasyan, co-founder of IDeA charitable Foundation Ruben Vardanyan, Executive Director of Jinishian Memorial Foundation Armen Hakobyan. The Armenian Diaspora Ministry and the Armenian Embassy in Georgia greatly contributed to the opening of the center.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. Armenians in Turkey have started to speak more about their identity, Aragats Akhoyan  Chairman of the Return Foundation, member of the National Congress of Western Armenians, told a press conference in Armenpress. He has just returned from the Western Armenia.

Of course, many dont speak Armenian, they know very little words in Armenian, however, the fact that people speak about them being as Armenians, they voice the issue of their identity is already encouraging, Akhoyan said.

He said for years they have witnessed how the Turkish authorities forced Armenians to change their religion, language, eliminate their culture, however, today the issue of identity is being voiced.

There are cities where Armenians are quite organized, they also are encouraged by our visits, they establish ties with Armenians who left for Armenia. There is a movement, but of course, it is dangerous, but people are ready, a thing which was impossible several years before, he said.

He said during his visit he witnessed an incident in Mush, in particular when visiting Goms. The local community launched a trial for Mush cemetery. The cemetery is now closed. The problem is that the authorities do not want to give it to Armenians, there is another mechanism. As long as the issue is unresolved, the local Armenians face problems. When a Christian dies, they are unable to bury him/her in the cemetery since it is closed. Now this is being done secretly, by asking the mullahs. The local Armenians already raise these issues as well, Aragats Akhoyan said.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. The inauguration ceremony of re-elected President of Iran Hassan Rouhani has kicked off in the Iranian parliament, IRNA reports.

The ceremony is also attended by President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

8 presidents, 19 parliament speakers, 9 vice presidents and prime ministers, 7 parliament vice-speakers, 11 foreign ministers and 35 special envoys from different countries attend the ceremony.

Rouhani was re-elected as President for a second consecutive term at the May 19 elections, securing nearly 57% of the total votes cast.
CARTAGENA, ColombiaLeading Colombian newspapers are reporting that on Wednesday, August 2, the mayor of Cartagena, Manuel Vincente Duquewho last month ordered the closure of the Latin American Adult Business Expo (more commonly known as the LALExpo), the trade show then in full swing in the coastal citywas arrested on charges of bribery, influence peddling and corruption. Also taken into custody at the same time was Jose Julian Vasquez, a close relative of the mayor.

The arrest, which was sparked by a series of accusations regarding irregularities in the election of the district comptroller Nubia Fantalvo, was carried out by members of the Technical Corps of Intelligence of the prosecutor's office, as reported by the newspaper El Universal. In related news, councilman Jorge Useche voluntarily surrendered to the prosecutor's office to face similar charges.

Previously, the Attorney General's office had suspended the mayor of Cartagena as a precautionary measure following investigations that began after the collapse of a six-story building in the town of Blas de Lezo that resulted in the deaths of 21 people on March 27.

The tragedy and its subsequent investigations revealed irregularities in the licenses procedures and the construction plans and materials used in the project. Manuel Duque was blamed for failing to take measures to prevent the incident, according to El Colombiano newspaper.

On May 18, the Attorney General's office determined to suspend the mayor, but while that was in process, the mayor the closure of the adult industry trade show LALExpo, which had begun the previous day and which, for all reports, was operating successfully. Duque claimed that the Expo was a pornographic show that promoted prostitution and sexual tourism, which prompted a wave of reactions against it from the local community, diverting attention from the mayor's activities and enraging public opinion on the business event, which led to peaceful protests at the Julio Cesar Turbay Convention Center where the event was taking place.

However, Duque resumed his duties as mayor after a ruling that annulled the action of the Attorney General's office, but his return was not permanent, because on July 24, the Disciplinary Chamber of the Superior Council of the Judiciary upheld the decision of the Public Prosecutor's office, leading to Duque's expulsion from power. Taking Duque's place is Sergio Londono Zurek, who was appointed by President Juan Manuel Santos.
Higher education has a public relations problem on its hands. The results of a new Pew Research survey show that almost 60 percent of Republicans believe higher education has a "negative effect on the way things are going in the country." Given recent high-profile cases involving violent protests, the shouting-down of conservative campus speakers, and calls to fire professors who oppose social justice initiatives, the survey results should surprise no one.Unchecked campus radicalism has created a situation in which a large chunk of the population now feels alienated from, and resentful toward, colleges and universities. And with Republicans now in control in Washington and many state legislatures, it's easy to envision a not-too-distant future in which higher education is front and center in a larger culture war, with funding cuts and various forms of legislative intervention serving as conservatives' weapons of choice.In a recent National Review article , Elliot Kaufman made a grim prediction about what that future will look like: "The next successful Republican politician will rally the Right by making America's universities his punching bag-and the universities will prove even more vulnerable to that politician's attacks than the media were to Donald Trump's." Whether it's too late for universities to avoid being the kind of populist punching bag described by Kaufman is unclear.But they should try. Higher education still has many bright spots, and at its best it adds significant value to students, the economy, and the intellectual life of the country. Higher education's redemption will require bolder university leaders, many of whom have avoided confronting extremism, "safe space" culture, and students' and professors' growing obsession with identity politics, which is rapidly breeding anti-intellectualism and anti-social behavior.Higher education's redemption also will require a shift in students' attitudes about free speech and the purpose of a college education. In North Carolina, the Campus Free Speech Act, recently passed in the General Assembly (now awaiting Governor Roy Cooper's signature), stipulates that freshman orientation programs will educate students on the principles of free expression. This is great news, but students themselves should take action, and not just on free speech issues.Student government, for example, needs significant reform. Beyond distributing funds to student organizations, reviewing cases of student academic misconduct, etc., student government can help to promote school traditions, enhance campus culture, and give voice to students' concerns. At its worst, however, it can create a divisive campus culture and give power to those who think their ideology should be imposed on the entire student body and university administration.Examples of student government abuses are legion. Last year, the University of Houston's student body vice president posted a Facebook message in support of the phrase "All Lives Matter" as opposed to "Black Lives Matter." In addition to forcing her to apologize for the post, the student government there voted to suspend her for 50 (later reduced to 15) days from the organization and mandated that she attend various diversity training sessions.Earlier this year, Santa Clara University's student government refused to recognize a chapter of Turning Point USA as a student club because of the group's fiscally conservative message. And Cal State San Marcos's student government has been accused of denying funding to conservative groups. (A similar problem arose several years ago at UNC-Chapel Hill.) Yet student governments seem to have no reservations about funding progressive advocacy groups or issuing political statements denouncing, for instance, conservative legislation and policies.I served in North Carolina State University's student senate during my sophomore year and witnessed similar politicization, though it didn't quite reach the levels seen at many universities in the country. Most of my fellow senators seemed to work genuinely toward promoting the welfare of the student body. But I still found that even the well-intentioned can be tempted to use student government as a bullhorn to promote their ideological beliefs.Student leaders never questioned the appropriateness of issuing declarations on the political controversies of the day. The student senate condemned President Trump's travel ban, called for the relaxation of campus discipline regarding marijuana usage, proposed that the campus be 100 percent reliant on renewable energy by 2030, lamented low teacher pay, and criticized concealed carry on campus. Often, such resolutions were as divisive as they were empty.I cannot recall any senators campaigning to be progressive mouthpieces while running for election. Yet once in office, many senators viewed political commentary as a necessary responsibility. Their emphasis on promoting progressivism and social justice pushed student government to fund projects (using student fees) that should have been rejected outright.For example, on behalf of disabled students, the student senate voted to install an automatic door in the student government suite, to the tune of $9,200. This feel-good gesture was part of an attempt, ultimately unsuccessful, to convince the administration to install automatic doors at all building entrances on campus. To outsiders, this endeavor may seem to be a mistake of priorities. But purchasing a door hardly anyone will use to convince NC State to buy more doors hardly anyone will use makes sense if one's real goal is to show commitment to social justice.During my time in the senate, student government abuses extended to campus speakers. In January, a Christian club invited a gay pastor to deliver a lecture encouraging homosexuals to live in celibacy. The pastor stressed the need for sensitivity and compassion, devoting much of his lecture to admonishing Christians who have treated homosexuals cruelly. He even recalled that, as a teen, he contemplated suicide after his pastor told him all homosexuals should die.But before hearing the pastor out, the student senate issued a resolution denouncing him as a man with "a history of making openly homophobic and transphobic comments." It insisted that, going forward, "actions and events meant to perpetuate the idea that members of the GLBTQ+ Community are inherently flawed" should be censured. If NC State's student government possessed the authority, one wonders if other speakers offending liberal sensibilities would even be allowed to step foot on campus.Student governments, at NC State and elsewhere, should recognize that their actions impact more than just their respective student bodies. In an era in which social media and shows such as Tucker Carlson Tonight frequently expose, to millions of Americans, the boorishness of ideological campus zealots, their actions can impact the public's perception of their universities and higher education generally. For student leaders, a bit of introspection is in order.While they seem constantly to be on the pulse of broader political controversies of the day, some student leaders too often are oblivious to the fact that their views and agendas, especially at larger universities such as NC State, may not actually represent most students, the majority of whom go about their business and avoid the partisan fray. Student leaders also seem oblivious to the fact that, for an increasing number of Americans, recent campus antics have been viewed, at best, as buffoonery and at worst as national nuisances.Still, in my view, student governments are capable of playing an important role in terms of helping to restore faith in higher education. I realize that this is easier said than done, given the hyper-partisan times in which we live. But I've seen firsthand that many who enter student government do so out of genuine love for their school and concern for the well-being of their fellow students. Now is the time for them to give real voice to those students, most of whom are much more moderate than those who participated in the recent Pew Research poll might think.Whether the kind of change I'm hoping for is adopted willingly or mandated by the electorate will depend on the actions of administrators and students. The best way for campus communities to keep legislatures and populist politicians out of their affairs-and avoid becoming a national "punching bag"-is to stop giving them so many reasons to interfere in the first place.
The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day?

Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount.

Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what so called "Democracy" does exists.
NC Emergency Responders Ready for the Next Storm as Hurricane Matthew Recovery Continues

Contact: Ford Porter

Ford Porter govpress@nc.gov

RALEIGH: North Carolina is ready for the next potential hurricane even as the state continues efforts to recover from Hurricane Matthew, Governor Roy Cooper said today during a national hurricane briefing with President Donald Trump and other federal officials.Gov. Cooper said.Hurricane Matthew struck North Carolina in October 2016, causing an estimated $4.8 billion in damage and impacting half the counties in the state.Gov. Cooper thanked FEMA for its help with Hurricane Matthew recovery. More than 300 FEMA employees are still in North Carolina working closely with NC Emergency Management officials and local partners to help families and communities recover from Matthew. Gov. Cooper continues to work with the state's congressional delegation to secure more recovery help for North Carolina.Gov. Cooper was one of three governors asked to speak during the video conference, which included governors from 14 states and territories at high risk for hurricanes. NC Public Safety Secretary Erik Hooks and NC Emergency Management Director Mike Sprayberry joined Gov. Cooper for the conference. Also participating were Vice President Mike Pence, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, FEMA Administrator Brock Long, and other federal officials.said Acting Secretary Duke.Gov. Cooper pointed to unique challenges North Carolina faces in responding to a hurricane, including the state's extensive and fragile barrier islands that draw tourists from across the country and around the world. The state's efforts to prepare for hurricanes must consider ways to protect both residents and visitors, he said.Gov. Cooper said during the briefing, pointing to recent training exercises, conferences, and other efforts to coordinate between state, local and federal partners.North Carolina conducted a statewide Hurricane Exercise in March that included participants from across the state. State Emergency Management officials also co-hosted an annual hurricane conference with East Carolina University in May, and hosted a summit in June with the Defense Department agencies to synchronize disaster response with the many military installations in the state.The state and county agencies that comprise North Carolina's State Emergency Response Team work throughout the year to coordinate and practice response plans. The state has developed numerous resources to help with disaster response including seven Search and Rescue Teams, seven Regional HazMat Teams, and two Mobile Disaster Hospitals ready to deploy in the event of another hurricane. Also available are two disaster warehouses ready to provided needed goods to 20,000 survivors, with contracts in place for additional needs.
Reports Show Expanding Program Would Reduce Prison Costs, Improve Public Safety

In the past three years, how many compassionate release requests, categorized by criteria, have BOP wardens received? How many were forwarded with recommendations to the Central Office (also categorized by criteria)? Of those, how many were granted and how many were denied? For both categories, how long on average did petitioners wait before receiving an answer? While waiting, how many petitioners died before receiving a response to their request for compassionate release? For all requests, whether disposed of by the warden or the Central Office, and for both denials and grants, what reasons did BOP give for its decisions? What steps has BOP taken to respond to the Commission's directive to expand the use of compassionate release? If BOP has made no compassionate release policy changes or has not increased the number of compassionate release motions filed in the courts since the guideline change, please explain why and how BOP intends to remedy those problems? What actions can BOP take to increase the use of compassionate release? What additional actions can BOP take to reduce the number of aging and sick people in federal prisons and reduce spending on incarceration without harming public safety?

Contact: Daniel Keylin

Daniel Keylin daniel_keylin@tillis.senate.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. This week, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) joined a bipartisan group of senators to call on Acting Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Thomas Kane and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to review and explain their plans to follow recommendations from the Department of Justice Inspector General to expand the use of compassionate release, a program that provides low-risk, elderly or terminally ill inmates the opportunity to appeal for early release if they meet specific criteria.Multiple reports have shown that the careful and appropriate use of the program would save millions in medical care spending, free up much-need resources for the federal prison system, and improve public safety.the senators wrote.Senator Tillis joined Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai'i), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) on the letter.The full text of the letter follows:Dear Acting Director Kane and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein:We are writing to ask that you take a serious look at the Bureau of Prison's (BOP) use of compassionate release. We would also appreciate it if you would provide us data on compassionate release and an explanation of BOP's plans to increase the use of compassionate release based on the recently revised guidance issued by the U.S. Sentencing Commission (the Commission).Congress authorized compassionate release in the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. It allows federally incarcerated people to appeal for early release if they present certain "extraordinary and compelling" reasons. Upon approval of the request, BOP makes a motion to a federal judge for a sentence reduction. The Commission sets the "extraordinary and compelling" criteria, which include, but are not limited to, age and terminal illness. The program essentially allows BOP to seek the release of certain elderly and terminally ill inmates, as well as those with special family circumstances, before the end of their prison sentences rather than keep those inmates in prison when they are no longer a significant risk to the community and when they are draining away substantial and valuable BOP resources.In a 2013 report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) reviewed BOP's use of compassionate release and recommended reforms to the program. In another report, the IG found that federal prisons house an increasingly large number of aging individuals who often have serious medical conditions, and that medical care is one of the biggest expenses of the federal prison system.The IG pointed out that using compassionate release will help address rising prison spending, a serious concern, especially in our current budget environment. The elderly are the fastest growing population in federal prison, expected to represent 28% of the total population by 2019. Incarceration costs for the elderly and terminally ill in prisons are substantially greater than for the general population. In fiscal year (FY) 2015, BOP spent $1.1 billion on medical care for incarcerated people, an increase of nearly 30% in 5 years. BOP's budget request for FY 2018 represents 29.9% of DOJ's overall budget.The appropriate use of compassionate release also should not impact public safety. People released under compassionate release have a 3.5% recidivism rate, the lowest rate among all those formerly incarcerated. Additionally, incarcerated individuals 50 years and older have a 15% re-arrest rate, compared to a 41% re-arrest rate for the general federal prison population.After the issuance of the IG's report, BOP adopted new policies to expand its criteria for compassionate release, delineating three categories of applicants: medical, non-medical, and age-based. BOP also attempted to streamline its process for considering petitions under compassionate release.However, as the IG report found, BOP did not have clear standards or a formal timeline standard when making its compassionate release decisions. At a 2016 hearing before the Commission, the IG related that in the 13 months since BOP's changes,Due in part to the fact that the BOP brought very few motions for compassionate release, in November 2016, the Commission amended its sentencing guidelines pertaining to "extraordinary and compelling reasons." The Commission, which already recognized terminal and debilitating conditions as well as exceptional family circumstances, expanded and clarified the criteria for age and family circumstances.Importantly, the amendment directly encourages BOP to file a motion for compassionate release if the defendant meets any of the criteria set by the Commission, explaining that the sentencing court, rather than the BOP, is best suited to decide if the prisoner deserves compassionate release.We agree that under current law, it is the appropriate purview of the sentencing court to determine if a defendant's circumstances warrant a sentence reduction under compassionate release. But BOP needs to take a hard look at expanding the use of compassionate release of certain federal prisoners as a way to focus scarce BOP resources and improve public safety. In light of the recent changes the Commission made that expand compassionate release, we ask that you respond to the following questions about BOP's use of compassionate release:Congress gave the Commission the authority to determine the conditions by which an individual in federal prison could be released for "extraordinary and compelling reasons." It authorized federal courts to reduce a defendant's sentence if that individual meets the criteria set by the Commission. And Congress gave BOP the administrative task of filing motions in federal court if the defendant meets the Commission's criteria for compassionate release. We are deeply concerned that BOP is not fulfilling its role in the compassionate release process.BOP should make the compassionate release process more efficient and use that authority to the full extent provided by the Commission's guidance. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your response.
A U.S. Federal appeals court today threw out the murder conviction of former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten, who had been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2007 massacre of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.



Slatten and other former staff of military security contractor Blackwater (renamed Xe Services, now Academi, run by Erik Prince, brother of Trump DOE chief Betsy DeVos) were the focus of a high-profile legal case that has stretched on for a full decade.

Dozens of people from Iraq traveled to the United States for the trial, as we reported ten years ago here on Boing Boing. And the judge who sentenced Slatten to life in prison decided he was a nice guy who deserved a break (from the death penalty).

From Reuters:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered a new trial after tossing out the murder conviction of former security contractor Nicholas Slatten. The three-judge panel said Slatten should have had a separate trial instead of being tried alongside his former colleagues. At a new trial, Slatten would be able to introduce evidence that one of his co-defendants had fired the first shot. Separately, the court said Paul Slough, Dustin Heard and Evan Liberty, who were all convicted of manslaughter and other offenses over their respective roles in the incident, should be re-sentenced because their 30-year prison terms were too long. The court also threw out one of Liberty's convictions for attempted manslaughter.

No word from the Justice Department, or lawyers for the defendants.

The mass killing at a traffic circle in Iraq's capital city on Sept. 16, 2007 was notable for its sheer brutality, and brought into focus concerns over the growing number of private military contractors working alongside U.S. military forces in Iraq and other mideast war zones.

Erik Prince, the founder and chief of the many-times-renamed firm at the center of this story, is now advising President Donald Trump's regime on how to further privatize American military operations overseas.

We'll always have the Seychelles.



In the Reuters photo above from September 20, 2007, one of the people who was wounded the Blackwater shooting attack is helped by his relatives in a hospital in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the time said the U.S. embassy should stop using American security firm Blackwater after the deadly shooting, saying he would not allow Iraqis to be killed in "cold blood".

PHOTO, TOP: Blackwater Worldwide security guard Nick Slatten (C) and attorneys leave the federal courthouse after being arraigned with 4 fellow Blackwater guards on manslaughter charges for killing unarmed civilians in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad, in Washington in this January 6, 2009 file photo. (Reuters)
On Wednesday afternoon, a Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner took off from Seattle on a test flight. Flight tracking apps show the Dreamliner followed a flight path over the United States that draws an outline of the Dreamliner.

It set the internet abuzz, likely one of the goals. But the Dreamliner was actually conducting a flight test of its new Rolls Royce engine "to prove to regulators that the airplane can safely operate on one engine for an extended period of time," according to Flightradar24, a flight-tracking app.

Flightradar24 said the Dreamliner flew an 18-hour flight of 16,000 km at 12,000 metres.

On its website, Boeing said, "With time to spare in the air, a Boeing test team got creative, flying a route that outlined a 787-8 in the skies over 22 states," with the nose pointing at Boeing's home, the Puget Sound region of Washington state.

Flightradar24 says, "This isn't the first time Boeing has made sky art during endurance testing." Pilots testing a 737-MAX-8 drew the letters 'MAX' over the northern U.S. in February.

Previously, pilots drew "a '787' with the Boeing logo and a large '12' in support of the Seattle Seahawks," Flightradar24 says.
Environmental and industry groups say it's time Premier Brian Gallant gave New Brunswickers an idea of what kind of carbon price he plans to impose next year.

It's been almost eight months since Gallant released his climate plan and declared "today, we act."

But so far, there's no indication whether the Liberals will implement a carbon tax that drivers would see at the pumps, or a cap and trade regime that would hit people indirectly through higher costs to emitters.

"We're right down in the weeds, likely, trying to find the best way to respond to the deadline," said Lois Corbett of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, which supports a price on carbon.

"On one hand, I'm sympathetic about the complexities, but on the other hand I do think it's about time that the New Brunswick government announced where it was and shed a little sunlight on where they are and what complex questions they're coming up against."

Need to plan ahead

Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an industry organization that opposes a carbon price, agrees it's time the Liberals show their cards, allowing businesses can plan ahead.

"From a budgeting perspective and a planning perspective  they need to start planning for that," said Joel Richardson, the group's vice-president for New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

"It's always good to have a long lead-up time."

Richardson said his group hasn't been consulted by the government.

"They may just be going directly to companies," he said.

A spokesperson said Environment Minister Serge Rousselle was not available for an interview Monday.

Incentives to be created

Gallant said last December that the government needed "a bit more time" to introduce a carbon price "that helps our economy and our efforts to combat climate change."

A carbon tax would attach a surcharge on purchases tied to carbon dioxide emissions, creating an incentive to reduce consumption.

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Cap-and-trade would see emitters forced to buy credits if they go over a government-mandated cap. Emitters that stay below the cap would earn credits they could then sell to the higher emitters.

New Brunswick can't refuse to implement a price, because the federal Liberal government says it will impose a pricing system in any province that doesn't develop its own regime by sometime in 2018.

Even provinces that develop their own plans must meet federal criteria. Otherwise, Ottawa says it will "top up" any provincial plan by imposing additional measures there, such as broadening the group a carbon price applies to or increasing its amount.

Higher costs

Richardson said from industry's point of view, a federal or provincial system doesn't make much difference at the moment.

Employers in the province are already facing higher costs, including Worksafe NB premiums, minimum wage increases, and a new paid statutory holiday, he said.

"Regardless of whether that's a federal or provincial carbon pricing program, either way it still pulls money out of the company and puts it into government coffers, instead of leaving it in the private sector and allowing the private sector to invest that money and hire more people and improve their manufacturing facilities."

Earlier this year, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said the three Maritime governments were discussing whether New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island would join his province's cap-and-trade system, now being developed.

But on Monday a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia government suggested that's not on the table.

"To date, we have not received a formal request from New Brunswick," Krista Higdon said in an email statement. "It would be best to ask the N.B. government about what carbon pricing option they'll pursue."

Gallant has said the province will use revenue from a carbon price to pay for programs to tackle climate change or mitigate the impacts of it.

More than one deadline

Ottawa's deadline isn't the only one looming over the Liberals.

They have to run for re-election next year, so the longer they wait to settle on a carbon price, the closer to the campaign they'll have to make the announcement.

The Progressive Conservative opposition has already said it will campaign against any carbon tax.

"There's no doubt that taxing anything is going to be perceived by political opponents as fodder ripe for an election debate," Corbett said.

But she said a carbon price is the best way to get emissions down and such measures usually end up saving money.
Manitoba's ombusdman has decided in favour of an NDP complaint against the Progressive Conservative government's initial refusal to release Premier Brian Pallister's personal cellphone and text-message records.

In January, the provincial NDP used freedom-of-information legislation to request records of Pallister's local, national and international mobile phone calls and text messages dating back to May 3, 2016.

The executive council  essentially, the Tory cabinet office  refused, claiming personal records are exempt from freedom-of-information legislation. The NDP then complained to the ombudsman, whose subsequent conversations with the executive council led to the release of mobile-phone records in July.

In a decision issued Thursday, the ombudsman supported the NDP's complaint, noting that records related to government business are subject to freedom-of-information legislation "regardless of where or how created" and are under government control for the purposes of the legislation "even when they are housed on a personal device."

The ombudsman noted the provincial freedom-of-information manual makes it clear that records to the premier or cabinet ministers "include all records made or received in the course of carrying out portfolio responsibilities."

The NDP initially sought Pallister's personal mobile-phone records in an effort to shed light on how the premier communicates while he visits a vacation property in Costa Rica.

The records obtained by the NDP in July revealed that during the six weeks Pallister spent in Costa Rica in 2016, he only spoke twice to a government employee. Both conversations occurred on Dec.19, during the height of negotiations between the provinces and Ottawa over a new health accord.

The ombudsman noted the executive council released the records as a result of its investigation, which is now concluded as a result.

Chisholm Pothier, Pallister's communications director, said he's pleased the ombudsman took note his government released the records before the final report into the complaint was issued.

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"The original request was denied, but we revised that. This was before the ombudsman's report," Pothier said in an interview Thursday.

Pothier also noted that Pallister requested the formulation of a policy governing the use of personal mobile phones and email accounts.

'It wasn't his wife's usual phone'

NDP justice critic Andrew Swan said that policy is mere common sense asserted the only reason the Pallister government changed course on the release of the phone records is it became aware the ombudsman was going to rule against it.

"It's a clear rebuke from the ombudsman to the premier. The ombudsman has clearly found the premier was wrong to try and hide his communication and it's clear the government knew this was coming," Swan said in an interview Thursday.

Swan also asserted the mobile phone registered to Esther Pallister, the premier's wife, was used almost entirely for government business, in Manitoba and Costa Rica, based on the fact only eight out of 82 calls made on that phone were deemed by the ombudsman to fall outside the scope of freedom-of-information legislation.

"It wasn't his wife's usual phone for calling friends, doing her own business. It's pretty clear the cellphone was being used in an attempt to obscure the premier's activity and circumvent Manitoba's freedom-of-information laws," Swan said.
Why are thousands of Haitians streaming into Canada from the U.S.?

Heading to Canada is one of the only options seen by many of the 50,000 Haitians who've been living under temporary protection status in the U.S.  but many don't know they face deportation here, too, should their asylum claim be rejected.

The temporary protection status for Haitians in the U.S. granted after the 2010 earthquake is set to expire in January.

The Department of Homeland Security considers Haiti to be a safe country now, and it's warned that the U.S. doesn't intend to renew that status, prompting the deluge of asylum seekers crossing into Canada.

"There is a major humanitarian crisis coming up this January," said Emmanuel Depas, a New York-based immigration lawyer, who was born in Haiti.

Depas said many of his clients' only hope is coming to Canada. Going back to Haiti would mean living in poverty, facing persecution or, for a fifth of them with U.S.-born children, being separated from their families, he said.

"I've even suggested looking into Canada to people because there aren't that many options," he told CBC News Thursday.

End of Canada's deportation protection

"It's a real threat. Donald Trump is out to make immigrants' lives uncomfortable in the United States, to the point where they no longer feel welcome here," Depas added.

However, Canada's own program granting Haitian nationals temporary refuge here after the earthquake has already ended, after it was extended twice by the Trudeau government.

In 2004, when a coup d'etat removed then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Canada banned deportations to Haiti.

Years of instability followed. Then came the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000, followed five years later by a devastating hurricane that destroyed a large portion of the island.

Canada's last extension of the ban ended Aug. 4, 2016, meaning the 3,200 Haitians without status in Canada have had to apply for residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Story continues

Serge Bouchereau, who helped establish an advocacy group for Haitians without status, said most were granted residency. Some returned to Haiti of their own will, and many are still living here without status.

To Haitians in the U.S., however, the grass appears greener in Canada.

Relying on rumours and hope

"Unfortunately, a lot of folks in this situation are not well-educated on the immigration laws in the U.S. or the immigration laws in Canada," said Patricia Elizee, a Miami immigration lawyer and past president of the U.S.-based Haitian Lawyers Association.

"They're just relying on rumours and hope for a better future for themselves and their families."

Text messages sent with WhatsApp have been circulated, encouraging Haitian nationals with or without TPS to come to Canada.

One forwarded to CBC says Canada "invited and even encouraged all Haitians to apply for residence ... the fees will be covered by the Canadian government."

The wave of Haitian migration to Canada in the past month isn't surprising to Bouchereau. Migrants believe the prospect of living without status there is worse than here, he said.

Bouchereau said Montreal's large Haitian community, which is about 120,000 strong, has family, business and cultural ties with those south of the border.

"Knowing Canada is a land of welcome, the word going around is that it's open to Haitians," he said, noting that seeing asylum seekers are well-treated when they cross the border will encourage "more and more" to join them.

"These people are panicked because they know Trump isn't joking around and that he won't renew [their protected status]," he said.

"They'll die of hunger in Haiti. Where are they going to live there? Haiti is unable to feed its own people and provide basic safety."

Consequences for those staying in U.S.

On top of that, said Depas, the New York lawyer, the climate for those without status in the United States is the worst it's been in a long time, and the anxiety for immigrant families is hitting fever pitch.

"Anybody that's in the way of ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], who doesn't have documents, they'll take them," Depas said.

Living without status means "living in the shadows," he said, facing victimization from under-the-table employers and law enforcement.

The U.S. decision will also affect Haiti's economy, which is largely reliant on remittances sent from family members working in North America. That money is helping Haiti's ability to rebuild after the earthquake and the hurricane, he said.

Though temporary protection status was "never supposed to lead to a green card or citizenship, it's still a benefit," he said. "When you give somebody something  it's really hard to take it away."

"People, they've developed ties, roots into this country."

Uncertain future after 12 years in U.S.

Farah Larrieux was in her early 20s when she arrived in the U.S. in 2005 with her husband, some big dreams and a tourist visa.

She began a public relations company and bought a car, so the couple applied for green cards. When they were refused, she "lost everything," Larrieux told CBC News.

After Larrieux and her partner divorced, she fought depression along with a court deportation order.

Larrieux wasn't allowed to work or drive during that time. When the temporary protection status was established in 2010, her application was approved.

"I was finally able to find a job and rebuild my life step by step," she said from her work in Miramar, Fla.

"Out of the blue, now they're telling us, we're kicking you out? This is real injustice."

She's been advocating for the U.S. Congress to adjust the status of all those with temporary protection status  estimated to be around 300,000 people from several countries  so they can stay permanently.

If not, she said, the displacement will create a crisis for millions, and Haitians will continue to risk their lives to try to reach the U.S. and Canada  only to be told, one day, to go back.

"This is the fear, the stress that you're living every day as an immigrant," she said.
Add Maine to the list of states that have raised the age to be able to buy tobacco to 21. This week the Maine legislature overrode a veto by Governor Paul LePage on a bill that raised the tobacco purchase age. The new law goes into effect on July 1st, 2018.

After both the Maine House and Senate passed the bill, LePage promptly vetoed the bill. Im not going to strap a gun to their shoulder and go fight a war if they cant go buy cigarettes, commented LePage at the time he vetoed the bill. Ill tell you, this is just sinful, it is absolutely sinful, and I believe that at 18 they are mature enough to make a decision and Im tired of living in a society where we social engineer our lives. The new law applies to all tobacco products and not just cigarettes.

The bill went back to the legislature where the Senate voted 29-5 and the House voted 90-44 to override the veto. Both were well above the 2/3 vote needed for the veto.

At press time, Maine joins Hawaii, California, and New Jersey as States where the legal purchase age of tobacco is now 21.

Image Credit: Public Domain
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 2, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Fewer than half of U.S. stroke survivors are prescribed cholesterol-lowering statins, a new study finds.

Statins are recommended for patients who have had an ischemic stroke or mini-stroke (transient ischemic attack) to reduce their risk for a repeat stroke or other cardiovascular events, according to the American Heart Association. Ischemic strokes, the most common kind, are caused by blocked blood flow to the brain.

But a 10-year analysis of data from 323 ischemic stroke survivors found only 49 percent were prescribed statins when they were discharged from the hospital.

The findings were published Aug. 2 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The research also found that prescribing statins varied by patients' geographic location, gender, age and race.

In particular, the researchers looked at the so-called Stroke Belt -- the southeastern part of the country where death from stroke is more common -- and compared it to the rest of the country.

In contrast to previous studies, the new study found that outside the Stroke Belt, black patients were much more likely (42 percent) than whites to receive statins. And men were more likely (38 percent) to receive statins than women.

Inside the Stroke Belt, those over 65 were significantly less likely (47 percent) to get statins than younger patients. And men were less likely (31 percent) to get statins compared to women.

"All survivors of ischemic stroke should be evaluated to determine whether they could benefit from a statin, regardless of the patient's age, race, sex or geographic residence," study author Dr. Karen Albright said in a journal news release. She is an advanced fellow at the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center at Birmingham VA Medical Center in Alabama.

The study relied on medical records, which could have led to incorrect estimates of the number of statin users, according to the journal news release. In addition, it only included patients who reported they were not taking a statin when they entered the hospital, which could also have affected results.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on cholesterol and statins.
In April this year two volunteers from Flagstaff, Shannon Anderson and Alice Carter were part of team to deliver gift boxes to children in Togo, Africa, with Samaritans Purse. The shoebox gifts are a project of Operation Christmas Child. The boxes are filled by volunteers in several countries with hygiene items, school supplies and toys. The boxes are delivered year-round to 150 countries.
Learn how to live like a Buddhist

TWIN FALLS  Did you ever wonder what its like to be a Buddhist? Sounds so exotic! Surely it must be different from anything ever experienced. Actually its surprisingly simple, and for Michael Johnson, the philosophy has provided the most direct path to personal contentment and happiness. Join Johnson in this brief look at a new way to experience yourself, the people around you and even people you may never meet.

Magic Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meets at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday at the Vendor Blender and Event Center, 588 Addison Ave. W. in Twin Falls. Newcomers of all religious paths or none at all are always welcome. The building is handicapped accessible. Please park in the rear of the building. Child care is available. Information: 208-734-9161.

Pastor shares struggles with eating disorder

BUHL  The Rev. Candace Woodroof will share her story of treatment for an eating disorder at 11 a.m. on Aug. 13 at Buhl Calvary Assembly of God. There will also be information on resources available for those dealing with eating disorder and other types of addictions. For more information: 208-934-7250.

Musical couple brings message of hope

TWIN FALLS  Musicians Greg and Glenda Bostock are returning to the Magic Valley for three free concerts.

Greg and Glenda Bostock will perform at 10:30 am. and 6 p.m. on Sunday at Full Life Family Church, 143 Locust St. N. in Twin Falls. They will also perform at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 13 at Grace Church, 681 Filer Ave. in Twin Falls and at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 20 at Hagerman Christian Center, 2750 S. 900 E. in Hagerman. For more information, go to blastoffmusic.org.

The Bostocks met and were married in Buhl. The Bostocks use a musical and visual presentation to deliver a message of hope through Jesus Christ. They also share true life stories that will encourage audiences of all ages. This couple is a living testimony of what the power of faith in Jesus Christ can do. Admission is free and donations are tax-deductible.

School supply donations needed

TWIN FALLS  Throughout the month of August, Ascension Episcopal Church will collect school supplies to support the Twin Falls School District. Lists of needed supplies are available in the gathering area of the church for the collection.

A Morning Prayer worship service will be held at 9 a.m. on Sunday, with a fellowship coffee hour held after the service. Childcare for children 7 and younger is available from 8:45 a.m. until after the worship service. Ascension Cafe, the adult discussion group, will also meet after the worship service with Janie Humphrey to discuss the need for school supplies in the Twin Falls School District.

On Wednesdays, Knit-Us-Together, the handwork group, meets from 1 to 3 p.m. working on prayer shawls, baby blankets and hats to donate, or on individual handwork projects.

All are welcome for worship, study and fellowship. Ascension Episcopal Church at 371 Eastland Drive N. is handicapped accessible. For more information, go to episcopaltwinfalls.org or call 208-733-1248.
(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday threw out the death sentence for a man forced to wear a "stun belt" during the penalty phase of his trial for a 1996 triple murder in Indiana.





The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said John Stephenson, 54, was prejudiced by his lawyer's failure to object to the belt, which lets an officer administer an electric charge to prevent a prisoner from misbehaving in the courtroom.





A box on the belt that contained electric wires had been hidden under Stephenson's shirt but visible as a bulge to jurors, four of whom had been aware of the belt.





Stephenson had also worn the belt during his eight-month trial, but never acted up.





Though the appeals court upheld Stephenson's conviction, Circuit Judge Richard Posner said the belt "contaminated" the penalty phase of his trial.





"The fault is certainly not Stephenson's; it's his lawyer's, for failing to object to his client's having to wear a stun belt, given the absence of any reason to think his client would go berserk in the courtroom," Posner wrote.





A spokesman for Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Stephenson's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.





The appeals court said Indiana can ask a jury to reimpose the death penalty if Stephenson does not wear the stun belt, or ask a judge to impose a lesser penalty.





Stephenson was convicted of murdering three people inside a pickup truck at a rural intersection in March 1996.





The case is Stephenson v Neal, 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-1312.

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: Reuters, Jonathan Stempel, August 4, 2017
Veteran death penalty defense attorney Jimmy Berry of Marietta closed the book on his last open capital murder case Tuesday.





It wasn't a win; it wasn't a loss. The case went to dead docket, his client committed to a psychiatric prison, declared incompetent to stand trial.





In Berry's line of work, it was the best he could do. And it got him started talking to a reporter late in the day about the 50 death penalty cases he's handled over nearly half a century.





"I'm 74. I've been doing this 47 years," Berry said. "I've tried a lot of murder cases, a lot of death penalty cases. It's sad to see the suffering of people in the victims' families, what they have to go through, and the families of the people charged."





"It's a tough doing these kinds of casesa lot tougher than people think," he added.





Asked what drove him to choose this work, Berry paused. "I don't know. I like a challenge, I guess," he said. "I want to try to help people the best way I can."





It's not for appreciation, he said: "Generally the public doesn't like criminal defense lawyers. It's sad. You need criminal defense lawyers to make sure the system runs properly. If some things are not done properly or against the Constitution, it won't work. You've got to have both sides."





He said he still has three murder cases open, but none of them will involve the death penalty. He doesn't know if he'll take another capital case.





Tuesday's case was unusual, Berry said. After seven years of attempts to prosecute Berry's client, Jesse James Warren will go to a prison psychiatric hospital indefinitely. Warren has been charged with killing four people and seriously wounding a fifth at the Penske truck-leasing facility in Kennesaw on Jan. 12, 2010. Psychiatrists have found him incompetent to stand trial and said he refuses to take medication to control his schizophrenia and delusions. The state tried to forcibly medicate him in an attempt restore his competency, but the Georgia Supreme Court overruled that effort in 2015. Among the high court's concerns were that the meds might not work.





On Tuesday, Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark signed a civil commitment order, granting a request from Berry and co-counsel Gerald Word of the Georgia Capital Defender office. Warren will be held and evaluated in much the same way he would have been if he'd been tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. The court will re-evaluate his status annually, but Berry said he doesn't expect it to change. Warren, he said, is unable to assist in his own defense because he continues to believe the delusions that he was acting under seven years ago.





"He believes all that was a conspiracy," Berry said of Warren. Even at their last meeting on Friday, he said Warren was concerned not with defending himself but of making sure his legal team presented documentation of his delusions.





This was a textbook case for the insanity defense, if it had gone that far, Berry said. Most are not so clear, although many involve mental illness, he said. He has taken some encouragement in the development of mental health courts that have come with criminal justice reform.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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: Daily Report, Katheryn Hayes Tucker, August 2, 2017
On a recent visit to Georgia, Vice President Mike Pence assured the people of Georgia that the United States stands with them in the defense of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. The U.S. also supports Georgia in its pursuit of NATO membership.

It was only a generation ago that Georgia was still within the walls of the Soviet Union. That Communist regime personified everything that free peoples reject, and it sought to crush the independent spirit of the Georgian people.

But when the Soviet Union collapsed, Georgia reclaimed its liberty and reached out to the West. Indeed, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Georgia.

Today, the strategic partnership between the United States and Georgia is stronger than ever. The joint exercise Noble Partner is a tangible sign of that mutual commitment. Noble Partner will strengthen Georgia's ability to defend itself in the years ahead. And it will prepare Georgian soldiers to join NATO's Response Force in the future.

Even now Russian tanks sit on Georgian land in South Ossetia, occupying one-fifth of Georgian territory. "The United States," said Vice President Pence, "strongly condemns Russia's occupation of Georgia's soil," and "will continue to support Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders."

The United States has called on Russia to "cease its destabilizing activities," and will continue to work with Georgia to reduce its vulnerabilities and counter potential Russian aggression. In response to Russia's actions in Ukraine and elsewhere, President Trump signed legislation to strengthen sanctions against Russia.

"The United States has stood with Georgia since your independence," said Vice President Pence, "and under President Trump we will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and work hand-in-hand with you to fortify your defense, to strengthen your democracy, and to deepen your ties of friendship with Europe and the United States.
The United States has recently contributed an additional 20 million U.S. dollars to the Syria Recovery Trust Fund, or SRTF, to help fund the rehabilitation of Syria. This brings U.S. contributions to the SRTF to a total of $60 million since the SRTF's inception in 2013. In total, the United States has contributed nearly 7 billion dollars in assistance for Syria since beginning of the crisis.

Since 2011, the Assad regime has committed atrocities against its people including chemical weapons attack against unarmed citizens. The ongoing civil war in Syria and the influx of ISIS forces have caused a massive refugee crisis.

Refugees from Syria number over 5 million, while internally displaced persons now number over 6.5 million, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

The United States is committed to assisting those affected by the terrible war in Syria and the surrounding area. Brett McGurk, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, recently addressed this crisis:

Our basic goal is to establish conditions that will allow the local population from the areas freed of ISIS control to restore life to their communities and voluntarily return IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) to their homes.

Our military actions and our stabilization planning "must move in parallel," said Special Envoy McGurk. "We have identified a hundred critical stabilization sites in and around Raqqa which will be the immediate focus for demining and restoration."

U.S. aid through the SRTF has helped refurbish medical facilities and provide medical equipment and supplies. It provides equipment and engineers to rehabilitate and expand electrical grids and water networks, provides food to those in need, and provides equipment and facilities to maintain wheat production for bakeries in Syria.

In order to complete our mission of liberation and stabilization in Syria, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, the international community must remove obstacles to the defeat of ISIS and help provide stability [to] prevent ISIS from rising anew from the ashes of their failed and fraudulent caliphate.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 5

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan on Aug. 8-9, the Turkmen Dovlat Habarlary (TDH) state news agency reported.

The issues related to the upcoming visit were discussed during a meeting of Turkmenistans Cabinet of Ministers.

Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov noted at the meeting that Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are developing constructive cooperation in political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

Currently, there are 52 bilateral documents forming the regulatory and contractual base of the interstate partnership of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

In 2007-2017, four mutual visits of the highest level took place between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, a Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation was established, and the commissions four meetings have been held so far, says the report.

During the upcoming high-level talks, it is envisaged to sign several bilateral documents aimed at further activating and building up a mutually beneficial partnership.

At the Cabinet meeting, Turkmen leader Berdimuhamedov instructed the deputy prime minister to ensure a high level of organizational preparation for the official visit of the Turkmen government delegation to Azerbaijan.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, which are neighbors on the Caspian Sea, are interested in using alternative routes to send their energy resources to Europe.

Turkmenistan is one of the key players in energy market of the Caspian region and Central Asia.

Hydrocarbon resources of Turkmenistan can be sent in the western direction if a pipeline is constructed across the Caspian Sea to the shores of Azerbaijan, from where the hydrocarbon resources can be sent to Turkey and further to Europe.

A stable transportation of Turkmen oil through Azerbaijan in recent years is an illustrative example of mutually beneficial cooperation.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

An international conference on Islamic solidarity and Iranian-Azerbaijani friendship will kick off in Tehran on August 6, the Caucasus Muslims Office said Aug. 5.

Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Office Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade, Azerbaijani MPs, scholars and religious figures, representatives of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations, the Iranian Islamic Culture and Relations Organization will participate in the conference.

Another conference, following international events held in Baku, Russia and Finland, will be held in Tehran as part of the Year of Islamic Solidarity, announced by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Pashazade will also take part in the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during his visit to Iran.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to provide funding for the construction of a road in Zagatala.

Under the presidential order, AZN8.9 million is allocated from the State Budget for the construction of Aliabad-Mughanli-Faldarli-Gandakh-Yengiyan-Aliabad highway connecting 7 residential areas with the population of 23,000 people.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to provide funding for the construction of a road in Balakan.

Under the presidential order, AZN3 million is allocated from the Presidential Contingency Fund for the construction of Balakan-Gazbina-Ititala highway, which connects 10 residential areas with the population of 18,000 people.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Kazakhstan will begin delivery of the new electric locomotives to Azerbaijan in 2017, Kazakh TV channel reported.

According to the TV channel, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have recently increased the mutual trade turnover volumes.

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan intend to increase mutual trade turnover and have already prepared a corresponding road map.

Azerbaijan intends to supply not only agricultural products, but industrial goods to Kazakhstan as well, Rufat Mammadov, head of the Azerbaijan Export and Investments Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), said in the interview to Kazakh TV channel.

"We have planed to send another export mission to the regions Kazakhstan, due to our intentions of supplying them not only with the agricultural products and food supplies, but also with the industrial goods, Mammadov added. At the same time, we invited Kazakh producers, distributors and companies to Azerbaijan. Some of them concluded agreements with local partners.

According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan amounted to $74.5 million in January-June of 2017, $60.7 million of which accounted for the import from Kazakhstan. The trade turnover between two countries had increased by 4 percent for the year.

Azerbaijan had already bought diesel locomotives produced by the Kazakh Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty JSC.
Details added (first version posted on 09:14)

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 5

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan on Aug. 8-9, the Turkmen Dovlat Habarlary (TDH) state news agency reported.

The issues related to the upcoming visit were discussed during a meeting of Turkmenistans Cabinet of Ministers.

Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov noted at the meeting that Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are developing constructive cooperation in political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

Currently, there are 52 bilateral documents forming the regulatory and contractual base of the interstate partnership of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

In 2007-2017, four mutual visits of the highest level took place between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, a Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation was established, and the commissions four meetings have been held so far, says the report.

During the upcoming high-level talks, it is envisaged to sign several bilateral documents aimed at further activating and building up a mutually beneficial partnership.

At the Cabinet meeting, Turkmen leader Berdimuhamedov instructed the deputy prime minister to ensure a high level of organizational preparation for the official visit of the Turkmen government delegation to Azerbaijan.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, which are neighbors on the Caspian Sea, are interested in using alternative routes to send their energy resources to Europe.

Turkmenistan is one of the key players in energy market of the Caspian region and Central Asia.

Hydrocarbon resources of Turkmenistan can be sent in the western direction if a pipeline is constructed across the Caspian Sea to the shores of Azerbaijan, from where the hydrocarbon resources can be sent to Turkey and further to Europe.

A stable transportation of Turkmen oil through Azerbaijan in recent years is an illustrative example of mutually beneficial cooperation.
TWIN FALLS  A Twin Falls man who was arrested in connection with another mans shooting death in May acted in self-defense and will not face homicide charges the Twin Falls County Prosecuting Attorneys Office said Friday.

However, Billy Duane Johnson is still charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Prosecutors said Friday that William Newton Scott, 38, of Twin Falls, went to Johnsons home next to the Creekside Trailer Court on Addison Avenue West that evening on May 26 with another adult male and a teenage male to confront Johnson, 45. During the confrontation, authorities said, Scott attacked Johnson, who during a short struggle used his gun to shoot Scott in the chest. Scott died at the scene.

A person has the right to use deadly force when he reasonably believes it is necessary to defend himself, his family or other persons, or his home from attack, Twin Falls County Prosecuting Attorney Grant Loebs said in a statement. We concluded after looking at all the evidence that this was what happened in this case.

Police and prosecutors made this decision after an extensive review of all the evidence according to the statement, interviewing both witnesses and Johnson.

This event is an example of several poor decisions leading to tragedy, said police Chief Craig Kingsbury. Our agency investigated this event thoroughly and the evidence supports that Mr. Johnson acted in self-defense when he shot Mr. Scott. The Twin Falls County Prosecuting Attorney was consulted every step of the way during this investigation.

Johnson was barred from owning a gun due to a 2004 conviction for battery or assault on a law enforcement officer. Johnson told police when he was arrested that he had completed his sentence and thought he was allowed to own a firearm.

He has been free on bond and a jury trial is scheduled to start in January with a pretrial conference in December.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 5

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Atageldi Shamyradov has been appointed Turkmenistans culture minister by a decree of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

Issues of further improvement of the activities of all cultural and media organizations were considered at a government meeting.

The Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reports that focusing on the work of the National Television, the Turkmen head noted the urgency of creating new TV programs that are interesting for viewers, including those devoted to economic and social topics, providing reliable information about the ongoing transformations in the country.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 5

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a decree appointing Orazmuhammet Charyyev as the countrys Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Egypt.

Ashgabat and Cairo attach special attention to the issues on increasing the export of final goods by discussing the prospects of further intensification of the Turkmen-Egyptian interaction in trade and economic sphere.

Two countries also intend to expand relations in energy sphere and processing sector of the chemical industry. Meanwhile, medicine and pharmaceutical industries are considered as the fields of mutual interest.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 5

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Construction of the Turkmen section of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline is going on in line with the schedule, the local Turkmenistan TV channel reported Aug. 5.

During a government meeting, Turkmenistans Deputy Prime Minister Maksat Babayev gave information about the projects implementation.

TAPI will make it possible to deliver gas from Turkmenistan, which ranks fourth in the world for its gas reserves, to large and promising markets of South and Southeast Asia. The pipeline will run from Galkynysh  the largest gas field in Turkmenistan  through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, and finally reach the Fazilka settlement located near the India-Pakistan border.

Annual capacity of the gas pipeline will be 33 billion cubic meters. Total length of the TAPI will be 1,814 kilometers. The project's preliminary cost is estimated at $10 billion. The Turkmen government said earlier that the state concern Turkmengas would be the main investor for the TAPI project.

Turkmenistan started constructing its TAPI section in December 2015 and the construction is expected to take three years. Time frame of the Afghan and Pakistani sections construction has not been determined yet. However, the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited, which is developing the project, has signed a contract with German ILF Beratende Ingenieure GmbH for the provision of services for preliminary design and management of the project in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Technical work in the territory of these states has already started.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Representatives of the Fund for Support of Export of Small Business and Private Entrepreneurs under Uzbekistans National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity and Korean Jewelry Manufacturers Association held a meeting on August 4, Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) reported.

The sides discussed the issues of jewelry manufacturing in the country within the framework of further development of partnerships and export opportunities based on market requirements.

It was noted that the economic cooperation between Uzbekistan and South Korea is becoming increasingly amplifying.

"The main purpose of our visit to Uzbekistan is to study the possibilities of setting up an enterprise for the production of jewelry in Tashkent," Lee Bong Seung, Chairman of the Association, said at the meeting.

It is expected to export jewelry products to the Republic of Korea and other countries. Within the framework of this cooperation a special educational department is planned to be established.

The representatives of the Korean delegation were provided with information on eight small industrial zones located in Tashkent, free economic zones of Angren and Djizak, as well as the amenities and facilities created in them.

Delegation was also invited to visit the small industrial zone in Chilanzar district of Tashkent, where one of the largest jewelry factories in the country is expected to be built.

The enterprise "1-Zargarlik Korhonashi" with a project cost of 10 billion soums, is expected to produce jewelry worth 13 billion soums per year.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

US President Donald Trump plans to withdraw from nuclear deal on Irans account, Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif told Federica Mogherini, the chair of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA (nuclear deal) and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy today, state-run TV IRIB reported.

Mogherini arrived in Tehran to participate in the inauguration ceremony for President Hassan Rouhani on Aug. 5.

She has met with President Rouhani, Zarif, Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations and plans to meet with Ali-Akbar Velayati, advisor to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Zarif said that US wants to prevent Iran from benefits offered by JCPOA and it is a violation of the nuclear deal.

He also criticized declaration, issued last week by US, UK, France and Germany, which urges Iran to stop missile tests.

On July 27 Iran had launched its domestically-manufactured Simorgh carrier, with the mission of delivering Iranian satellites into the orbit.

Simorgh satellite carrier has capabilities to put satellites weighing as much as 250 kilograms into an orbit of up to 500 kilometers from the Earths surface.

The report quoted Mogherini as saying that, EU endorses JCPOA strongly and is encourages Trump to support this issue as well.

Reportedly, Zarif and Mogherini have also discussed regional issues, including crisis in Syria and Yemen.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany have signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the agreement, restrictions were put on Irans nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

On August 2 US President Donald Trump signed into law the legislation that imposes new sanctions against Irans missile program.
Tehran, Iran, Aug.5

By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:

Federica Mogherini, in her capacity as chair of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA, arrived in Tehran on August 5th to attend the inauguration ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani, IRNA reported.

Previously, Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ray tweeted July 29 that concerning the matter noting that, Mogherini will have bilateral meetings with Iranian dignitaries to review the state of implementation of the nuclear deal and discuss the issues of bilateral and regional relevance.

Official inauguration ceremony for Hassan Rouhani will be held at the Parliament on August 5, where he will be sworn in as the 12th President of the Islamic Republic.

Hassan Rouhani overwhelmingly won the presidential election on May 19, sweeping 57 percent of the votes.

Eight presidents, 19 heads of parliaments, nine vice presidents and prime ministers, 11 foreign ministers and more than 40 representatives of different governments will participated in the Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis inauguration ceremony, the state-run TV IRIB reported.
Russia and Iran agreed to strengthen the military, technical and technological cooperation after new US sanctions, Sputnik news agency reported.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin will discuss arms supply with Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan in Tehran on Aug. 5, as the countries tentatively agreed to amplify military, technical and technological cooperation in view of new US sanctions, a source in Rogozins office said.

Rogozin is set to visit Iran on Aug. 5 to lead the Russian delegation at the inauguration ceremony of re-elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

"Rogozin will meet with Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan to discuss several matters, including new supplies of Russian arms," the source said, adding that the parties "have reached a tentative agreement to increase military, technical and technological cooperation after both countries have been included in the sanctions list."

The source added that the Russian delegation will work on the possibility of signing new deals.

Apart from that, Deputy Prime Minister is expected to meet with the Iranian Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari to discuss the transfer of advanced technologies as well as relevant training of Iranian specialists in Russia.
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 5

By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:

Federica Mogherini arriving in Tehran on August 5, met with President Hassan Rouhani right after a meeting with Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, ISNA reported.

Negotiations concerned the crisis in Syria, was said in the report without further elaboration.

Mogherini will attend the inauguration ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani today.

Previously, Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ray tweeted on the matter on July 29 stating that, Mogherini will have bilateral meetings with Iranian dignitaries to review the state of implementation of the nuclear deal and discuss the issues of bilateral and regional relevance.

Iranian media reports that Mogherini would meet with Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, as well as Ali Akbar Velayati the advisor to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Official inauguration ceremony for Hassan Rouhani will be held at the Parliament on August 5, where he will be sworn in as the 12th president of the Islamic Republic.

Hassan Rouhani overwhelmingly won the presidential election on May 19, sweeping 57 percent of the electorate.

Eight presidents, 19 heads of parliaments, nine vice presidents and prime ministers, 11 foreign ministers and more than 40 other foreign governmental officials will participate in the Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis inauguration ceremony, state-run TV IRIB, reported.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug 5

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:





Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has pledged his support for the measures already taken and aimed at all-out expansion of ties with People's Republic of Korea (PRK) during his second term in office.

Speaking at the meeting with PRK National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun in Tehran on Saturday, President Rouhani called on the South Korea to seize the opportunity and enroll in the developmental projects of the Islamic Republic, IRNA news agency reported.

Hassan Rouhani further voiced Irans support for strengthening security and stability in Asia.

Two countries have already inked 50 agreements for expansion of bilateral ties in economic sphere.

Rouhani is expected to take the oath of office for a second term this evening.

68-old president has pledged to deliver on his campaign promises of improving the economic situation in the country through expansion of international ties.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

Trend:

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin met with Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan in Tehran, RIA Novosti agency reported Aug. 5.

The supply of Russian weapons will be discussed during the meeting with the Iranian minister, a source in Rogozins office said earlier. Iran and Russia preliminary agreed to strengthen military-technical and technological cooperation after both countries were included into the sanctions list.

Earlier, it was reported that Rogozin will visit Iran to participate in Hassan Rouhanis inauguration ceremony.
Cassia County

Felony sentencing

Salvador Lopez-Salinas; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $500 fine, $535.50 costs, $100 restitution, 36 months probation, 130 days jail, two years determinate time, two years indeterminate time, 130 days credited, penitentiary suspended; misdemeanor drug paraphernalia - use or possess with intent to use, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Felony dismissal

Erica Rose Trevino; felony possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor false information provided on own identity or another's to an investigating law enforcement officer, guilty, $50 fine, $157.50 costs, 12 months probation, 90 days jail, 75 days suspended, 15 days credited, five days community service.

Driving under the influence

Sierra Dawn Martinez; misdemeanor driving without privileges, guilty, $172.50 costs, $300 restitution, 90 days driver's license suspended, 12 months probation, 180 days jail, 134 days suspended, 46 days credited, five days discretionary community service; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $200 fine, $202.50 costs, 180 days jail, 134 days suspended, 46 days credited.

Josue E. Garcia; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $300 fine, $202.50 costs, 12 months probation, 180 days jail, 178 days suspended, one day credited, one day community service in lieu of jail; misdemeanor drug paraphernalia - use or possess with intent to use, guilty, $197.50 costs, 12 months probation, 180 days jail, 179 days jail, one day credited; misdemeanor possession of controlled substance, guilty, $197.50 costs, 12 months probation, one day credited, 104 hours community service.

Driving under the influence dismissal

Vincent Bedke; misdemeanor driving under the influence, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug 5

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

At a meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini ahead of his inaugural ceremony on Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani expressed hope for expansion of ties with the EU during his second term.

President Rouhani also urged the signatories of countrys nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action/JCPOA) to honor their commitments under the nuclear accord, IRNA news agency reported.

Hassan Rouhani further accused the US of refusing to meet its commitments under the nuclear deal through imposing new sanctions on Iran which leaves a negative impact on the public opinion in the Islamic Republic.

He also voiced hope for deepening cooperation with the EU concerning regional and international issues.

Rouhani is expected to take the oath of office for a second term this evening. The 68-old president has pledged to deliver on his campaign promises of improving the economic situation in the country through expansion of international ties.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug 5

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tends to restore relations with regional and Western countries but the risk of war seems very real in the Middle East, an Iranian political expert and author believes.

Rouhani appears willing to improve ties with the Western states including the US, in the meantime he is very keen to resolve regional disagreements and broaden the countrys international ties, Akbar Ganji told Trend.

Saying that the situation could get quite dangerous in the Middle East and the growing crisis may take the region to the brink of new wars, he added that an idea on dividing the three countries of Syria, Iraq and Libya into several states has begun to form among some politicians.

This is while the issue of separation of a country in the region will definitely claim the lives of millions of individuals and it will displace even more, he said.

Criticizing the regional countries rivalries on extending their influence in the region, he warned against the grave risks of new wars and called for establishing peace in the region.

Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif tend to resolve the crisis through dialogue however superpowers have a key role here. Most of the superpowers consider their own interests and they do not care about the rights of the other nations, he added.

The Middle East nowadays is in the desperate need of establishing peace and justice but I am not really optimistic about this, Ganji concluded.

Hassan Rouhani has been sworn in for a second term after a landslide victory over his conservative opponent in the countrys May election.
About 2,000 Islamic State (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) fighters are estimated to remain in the Syrian city of Raqqa, fighting for their survival in the face of an offensive by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Reuters reported on Friday, according to a senior U.S. official.

Brett McGurk, U.S. special envoy for the coalition against ISIS, said that SDF had cleared about 45 percent of Raqqa since launching the attack in early June to seize Islamic State's stronghold in northern Syria.

"Today in Raqqa ISIS is fighting for every last block ... and fighting for their own survival" McGurk told reporters.

Some 2,000 ISIS fighters are left in the city and "most likely, will die in Raqqa," he said.

The assault on Raqqa coincided with the final stages of a campaign to drive ISIS from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where the Islamist militants were defeated last month.

McGurk said that ISIS has lost 27,000 square miles (70,000 sq km) of the territory it once held in the two countries - 78 percent of what they had seized in Iraq and 58 percent of what they held in Syria.

Before every military operation, coalition forces surround the area targeted to make sure Islamic State's foreign fighters cannot escape and make their way out of Iraq and Syria, he said.

With the close cooperation of Turkish forces, the entire Syrian-Turkish border was sealed and ISIS can no longer send militants trained in Syria for attacks in Europe and elsewhere, McGurk said.

Coalition has compiled a database of almost 19,000 names of ISIS fighters gathered from cellphones, address books and other documents found on battlefields, which is being shared with the international police agency Interpol, he said.

ISIS is also fighting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias.

McGurk said "deconfliction" arrangements, made by the U.S. and Russian militaries to avoid accidents as they operate separately in Syria, were working well despite deteriorating diplomatic relations between two countries.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that U.S.-Russian relationship was at "an all-time and very dangerous low," to which Russia replied as stating that new sanctions imposed by Washington meant an end to hopes for better ties with the Trump administration.

"So far we have not seen an effect on our engagement with the Russians when it comes to Syria," McGurk added.
The White House says President Donald Trump has discussed with Frances president ways to increase cooperation on addressing the crises in Syria and Iraq and countering the influence of Iran, the Washington post reported.

In a statement, the White House says Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France spoke on the phone.

The two leaders also talked about forging a political resolution in Libya and countering terrorist activity in the Sahel region of Africa.

According to the White House, Trump and Macron agreed that the Maduro regime in Venezuela must restore the rights of the Venezuelan people. They also reaffirmed the importance of all sides implementing the Minsk agreements to reach a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.

They also discussed mutual interests regarding North Korea.
UN Security Council, in response to the recent missile tests, is expected to consider a draft resolution on toughening sanctions against the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) at 15:00 hrs EDT or 19:00 hrs UTC, TASS reported, citing Western diplomatic source.

The draft envisions a ban on the exports of a range of minerals and products to the DPRK, including coal, iron, lead, and seafood. The text also spells out restrictions and precisely targeted measures against the individuals and manufacturers linked to the DPRK nuclear and missile programs.

Full observance of these restrictive measures could slash Pyongyang's foreign currency revenues, currently standing at $ 3 billion, by $ 1 billion, U.S. estimations quoted by Reuters earlier. A source speaking to the agency claimed Russia and China might support the U.S.-drafted resolution.

In view of active developments in the North Korean missile program, the situation on the Korean Peninsula remains extremely tense. In July, country held two launches of Hwasong-14 ballistic missiles, with the background of reports of a successful testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

U.S. authorities confirmed Pyongyang's statements that the missile was an intercontinental ballistic one, but Russian Defense Ministry said the characteristics of the trial test showed it was a medium-range ballistic missile.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Recent US sanctions aimed at North Korea (DPRK), Russia and China will most probably bring these countries even closer, internationally known expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union Dr. Stephen Blank told Trend.

Russia and China are already close and share a common approach to North Korea, so this will probably cement that relationship still more, he said.

Expert further commented on the effectiveness of the sanctions imposed by the United States.

In some cases these sanctions do work, but to be effective they must be a part of a broader strategy and I do not see that at present, Blank added.

U.S. imposed a new set of sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea on August 2.

Although the sanctions are not officially directed against China, they concern Chinese banks and trading companies involved in the financing of China-DPRK commodity trade.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 5

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey has limited the import of such chemicals as soman, sarin, tabun and mustard, said in the message posted on the website of the Turkish Resmi Gazete (Official newspaper) Aug. 5.

According to the message, import of the above-mentioned chemicals has been restricted for safety reasons, as these substances are mainly used in the production of explosive materials.

To import the above-mentioned substances, it will be necessary to get a special license from the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade, which will be issued for a period of 90 days.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 5, 2017 - 20:39 | World, All

Southeast Asian foreign ministers agreed Saturday to the framework of a long-mooted code of conduct in the South China Sea to be adopted with China and voiced strong concerns over North Korea's continued belligerence.

The formal green light from the top diplomats of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the endorsement may translate into major progress for the first time in many years on addressing persistent tensions in the disputed sea. But not a few critics see it as more of a diplomatic achievement for China.

"The ministers endorsed the framework of the Code of Conduct for eventual adoption at the ASEAN-China ministerial meeting on Aug. 6," Philippine foreign ministry spokesman Robespierre Bolivar told a press conference after the one-day meeting in Manila.

"The framework is an outline. It helps structure the discussions," he said.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano praised ASEAN's development into a respected regional organization 50 years since its establishment, contributing to peace and stability in the region.

ASEAN countries have long sought a legally binding mechanism with China to manage disputes and avoid conflict in the South China Sea, one of the world's vital shipping routes, where several of them have overlapping territorial claims with China.

But so far the framework does not mention if the code will be binding or enforceable, according to officials with knowledge of its negotiations.

A draft copy of the framework seen by Kyodo News indicates as much, saying it is "not an instrument to settle territorial disputes or maritime delimitation issues."

It also notes the importance of respecting each other's "sovereignty and territorial integrity" and "the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states."

China, which claims virtually the entire South China Sea, has rapidly built artificial islands and militarized areas it occupies in recent years.

Beijing had long been reluctant to engage in in-depth negotiations toward a legally binding code of conduct. But senior officials from ASEAN and China agreed on the framework, including preambles of objectives and principles, in May in the southwestern Chinese city of Guiyang.

In 2002, ASEAN and China signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties, a looser set of guidelines for their actions in the contested sea. The grouping had since then been working to upgrade it.

Ironically, the momentum for the negotiations strengthened after an international arbitration tribunal ruled in mid-July last year that China's sweeping claims to historical rights in the resource-rich waters have no legal basis.

The Philippines was a vocal critic of China's assertiveness in regional waters, but Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, since taking power just weeks before the ruling, has engaged in diplomacy with Beijing and started focusing less on differences over conflicting territorial claims between them, in return for receiving economic cooperation from the Asian powerhouse.

The foreign ministry spokesman, however, stressed during the press conference that the Philippines continues to seek the code of conduct to be legally binding in nature in the forthcoming negotiations.

China has repeatedly said the ruling by The Hague-based arbitral tribunal for the case brought by the Philippines in 2013 is completely flawed and that territorial disputes in the region must be handled only by the countries directly involved through bilateral negotiations.

On Saturday, the ASEAN foreign ministers also expressed "grave concerns" over the escalation of regional tensions in the wake of North Korea's two launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles last month.

After the meeting, they promptly issued a standalone statement criticizing North Korea's continued development of nuclear and missile technologies.

"These developments seriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world," it said.

They urged North Korea, as a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum, to comply with its obligations under all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and to contribute toward making the Asia-Pacific "a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity."

Saturday's meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers will expand through Monday to include 16 other countries and the European Union.

The 16 include China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, all the major players in global efforts to abate North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

The Philippines this year holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, whose nine other members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
SHOSHONE  Evacuation orders are in place for some residents north of Shoshone as a fire rages on the east side of Highway 75.

The Mammoth Fire was called in around 2:30 p.m. Friday about seven miles north of Shoshone. Residents along the Burmah and Cottonwood Slough roads are being evacuated, and are encouraged to head to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Shoshone.

Its approximately 4,000 acres and running, Bureau of Land Management Twin Falls District spokeswoman Kelsey Brizendine said.

Evacuations were ordered within two hours of the initial call. Homes, a gas pipeline and power poles are in the fires direct path as it burns east. It is wind-driven.

The cause of the fire is undetermined. As of 5:40 p.m., there were 14 engines, three dozers, one water tender and 13 aircraft on scene from Shoshone, Gooding and Richfield fire districts, the Sawtooth National Forest and the BLM.

There are no road closures at this point, but Brizendine urges drivers to be cautious around Highway 75 due to smoke.

Use extreme caution in that area, she said. Take it easy. Slow down. Be careful.
donald trump

Toyota and Mazda have announced plans to build a new plant in the US, but they haven't indicated a specific location.

The factory will most likely be built in the South, where Trump has no political worries for 2020.

He needs investment and hiring in the Midwest, where foreign carmakers have avoided building new plants.

Toyota and Mazda on Friday announced plans to build a $1.6 billion factory to make Corolla sedans and, in Mazda's case, crossover SUVs, which are popular in the US market.

President Donald Trump welcomed the news. "Toyota & Mazda to build a new $1.6B plant here in the U.S.A. and create 4K new American jobs. A great investment in American manufacturing!" he tweeted.

From a business perspective, Mazda could use US manufacturing. Its lineup of crossovers has been well reviewed and is helping it to capture gains from a sales boom in America.

But from a political perspective, while the creation of 4,000 new manufacturing jobs is nothing to sneeze at, the likelihood that the new factory will be built in a state that helps Trump win reelection in 2020 is extremely slight.

The so-called foreign-transplant carmakers have favored states in "Detroit South" for their plants. There are three key reasons for this.

Money in and the UAW out

First, the states, craving economic development, have rolled out the red carpet, offering all manner of incentives.

Second, these states are in many cases adding population, so they have good backfill prospects  the ability to provide a stable workforce that can replenish itself over the decades a billion-dollar investment would require to pay off.

Third, factories in the South are in nonunion, right-to-work states. The United Auto Workers has made zero progress organizing in the region. An effort in Tennessee at a Volkswagen plant failed a few years back, and an ongoing UAW-backed campaign at a Nissan factory in Mississippi has turned into a pitched battle, with the workforce on one side and management and the state government on the other heading into a vote that would authorize the formation of a collective bargaining unit.

Story continues

Trump needs plants in states like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania  the old-economy realm of Detroit's heyday and the swing states he carried when he won the election in 2016 by a narrow margin in the Electoral College. But foreign automakers don't want to deal with UAW contract negotiations and higher union wages. (Though VW did sort of back the effort in Tennessee, to have a German-style workers' council at its factory, the state government ferociously opposed the campaign, which failed.)

If Toyota and Mazda put the factory in Mississippi, where Toyota already has a Corolla plant, it would be a gift to a state Trump carried in 2016 by 18 percentage points. Another candidate may be Texas, where Toyota now builds a pickup truck, the Tacoma, whose assembly it plans to move to Mexico. Trump won there last year by about 9 points.

The new factory will come online in 2021, according to various reports about the news.

Trump should consider himself lucky that the US is getting any new car plants. Most manufacturers have been dead set against adding capacity ahead of a sales downturn, as the market has begun slipping from its 2016 high mark, when 17.55 million new vehicles rolled off dealer lots.

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Oklahoma earthquake risk map

In less than 28 hours, Oklahoma has been pummeled by multiple earthquakes.

The wave started Tuesday night, when five quakes struck the central part of the state, and extended into the early hours of Thursday as two more hit, according to the United States Geological Survey.

All of the earthquakes were between magnitude 2 and magnitude 5, and no significant damage was reported. The shaking, however, is part of a troubling recent phenomenon. The disposal of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, the process also known as fracking, appears to have spiked the likelihood of earthquakes in Oklahoma, potentially raising the state to the same earthquake threat level as California, according to a recent USGS forecast.

Until recently, earthquakes in Oklahoma were few and far between. In 2010, the state experienced just 41 tremors. By comparison, each year Southern California alone has about 10,000 earthquakes.

But seismic activity "has surged" in Oklahoma in recent years, reporter Joe Wertz of StateImpact Oklahoma told NPR on Thursday. Oklahoma has weathered hundreds of significant quakes in each of the past few years, along with parts of several other Midwestern states.

"Scientists link the quake boom to the widespread oil-industry practice of pumping waste fluid into underground disposal wells," Wertz told NPR.

The rise in earthquakes, in other words, can be attributed to the injection of large quantities of wastewater into wells deep below the Earth's surface. According to USGS, most of the underground wastewater comes from oil and gas operations  it is created when clean water mixes with dirt, metals, and other toxins below the Earth's surface during extraction operations.

The contaminated water becomes too dangerous to dump anywhere, since it could seep into regular groundwater, so companies shoot the wastewater deep into the ground, between layers of hard rock. That buried water can fracture and move previously stable rock, causing earthquakes under certain circumstances.

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Much (but not all) of that wastewater injection is associated with the fracking boom, which has led the practice to become more common in recent years, especially in Oklahoma. Though the state isn't the only one experiencing a spike in wastewater injections, Oklahoma is full of eons-old fault lines that went quiet long ago. Wastewater operations seem to be shaking some of those faults loose, making the land especially vulnerable to earthquakes.

The 2017 USGS predictions for Oklahoma are actually less intense than they were in 2016, because earthquakes were somewhat less frequent there than expected last year. USGS scientists suggest that might be due to stricter regulations designed to control wastewater injection.

The Environmental Protection Agency's administrator, Scott Pruitt, previously served as Oklahoma's attorney general, and he has come under fire from some in the state for failing to take action against wastewater injection and fracking.

Rafi Letzter contributed to an earlier version of this post.

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J20 Inverted

China's recent military parade included several new weapons systems and a flyover by the J-20, a stealth jet that many think incorporates stealth technology stolen from the US into a design built to destroy weak links in the US Air Force.

Russia has also been testing a stealth jet of its own that integrates thrust-vectoring technology to make it more maneuverable, which no US jet can match.

But the US has decades of experience in making and fielding stealth jets, creating a gap that no amount of Russian or Chinese hacking could bridge.

"As we see Russia bring on stealth fighters and we see China bring on stealth fighters, we have 40 years of learning how to do this," retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Mark Barrett told Defense News' Valerie Insinna at a Mitchell Institute event on Wednesday.

While China's J-20 seeks to intercept unarmed US Air Force refueling planes with very-long-range missiles, and Russia's T-50 looks like a stealthy reboot of its current fleet of fighters, a senior scientist working on stealth aircraft for a US defense contractor told Business Insider that other countries still lagged the US in making planes that could hide from radars.

The scientist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of their work, told Business Insider the J-20 and T-50 were "dirty" fighters, since the countries lack the precision tools necessary to painstakingly shape every millimeter of the planes' surfaces.

Barrett said of China's and Russia's stealth attempts, "There are a lot of stuff hanging outside of these airplanes," according to Defense News, adding that "all the airplane pictures I've seen still have stuff hanging from the wings, and that just kills your stealth."

Additionally, the US has stealth-fighter tactics down, while China and Russia would take years to develop a similar playbook.

Two Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 stealth fighter jets flies during a display at the Avalon Airshow in Victoria, Australia, March 3, 2017. Australian Defence Force/Handout via REUTERS

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Meanwhile, the US has overcome the issue of external munitions blowing up a plane's radar signature by having internal weapons bays and networking with fleets of fourth-generation aircraft.

Because the F-35 and F-22 can communicate with older, non-stealth planes, they can fly cleanly, without weapons hanging off the wings, while tanked-up F/A-18s, F-15s, or F-16s laden with fuel, bombs, and air-to-air missiles follow along.

The F-35s and F-22s can ensure the coast is clear and dominate battles without firing a shot as older planes fire off missiles guided by the fifth-gen fighters.

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The last recession ended in 2009, and it took until 2014 for the economy to add back all the jobs lost during the downturn. But accounting for population changes, the proportion of jobs remained below pre-recession levels.

Until now. Employers added 209,000 jobs in July, which pushed the economy past an important milestone: When adjusted for a growing and aging population, there are now more jobs than there were at the pre-recession peak in 2007. Nearly a full decade after the start of the recession, employment has returned to its demographically adjusted pre-recession level, according to a new report from the Hamilton Project, which is part of the Brookings Institution. The economy has added enough jobs to make up for losses during the Great Recession.

The economy lost about 8.5 million jobs on account of the recession. Since the U.S. population continued to grow during that time, and the age mix shifted, it took about 10 million new jobs to get back to the same level of labor-market health as in November of 2007, right before the recession began. There are still shortcomings in the labor market. But fully closing this jobs gap is an important sign of healing.

Source: Brookings Institution

Some segments remain troubled

The Brookings report points out that even back in 2007, there was slack in the labor market, with some people underemployed and others who might work if good jobs were available not even looking for work. So weve returned to a less-than-perfect baseline. And some significant slices of the labor market remain troubled.

Men suffered more during the recession, because male-dominated sectors including construction and manufacturing got hammered. As a consequence, men have not recovered as a bloc of the labor force as well as women have, with a sizable jobs gap for men, compared with 2007 levels.

Source: Brookings Institution

There are regional variations, too. Fifteen states (including the District of Columbia) have closed the jobs gap, including New England and Midwestern states such as Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. But 11 other states still have a sizable jobs gap, including southern ones such as North Carolina and Mississippi along with northern ones such as Montana and Wyoming. This reflects a variety of factors, including disruptions in the energy industry, the impact of technological change and the extent of damage done during the recession.

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Blacks and Hispanics suffered more than whites in terms of job losses caused by the recession  but theyve now recovered slightly better, compared with 2007. Those struggling most during the last 10 years are workers without a college education, who still face a large jobs gap compared with 2007. Many unskilled jobs have been replaced with automation and will probably never return.

Source: Brookings Institution

Source: Brookings Institution

President Trump has crowed about job gains during his first six months in office, even though job growth under Trump has continued at the same pace as during President Obamas second term. The recovery of the last eight years has been the slowest since the end of World War II, but it is grudgingly moving along. Eventually, the labor market may be even healthier than it was in 2007.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Encrypted communication available.

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Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman
Oil could see downward correction in next quarter, Barclays says

Oil market is expected to see a downward correction this quarter but Brent prices will move higher in the final quarter of this year, according to a research note from Barclays.

"Prices have moved higher, due to a perfect combination of a favorable macro environment, a seasonal uptick in consumption, continued inventory drawdowns, and geopolitical unrest," the note said. "Certain factors that supported prices in July are unlikely to last, and we expect a downward correction during this quarter."

The report, however, forecasts Brent prices going up to $54 a barrel in last three months of the year, based on continued inventory draws, OPEC discipline, and the ongoing decline in output in Venezuela.

The report further added that during the recent market rally, prices moved higher because of a paring back of selling positions, rather than new buying trades entering the market.

"Fundamentals remain shaky this quarter, therefore any rally that occurs before more substantive inventory draws would be short-lived."

Oil markets traded lower in Friday's session, with U.S. crude remaining below $50 per barrel, restrained by rising output from the U.S. as well as producer club OPEC. Both Brent and WTI (London Stock Exchange: CRUD-GB) are down more than 9 percent since the start of the year and close to 20 percent over a 12-month period.

A number of analysts have predicted oil prices to go back up this year. RBC Capital Markets' Helima Croft told CNBC earlier this week that there is very high probability Venezuela's state oil company will default and bring about a steep jump in crude prices.

"I think that's going to be the biggest geopolitical story to watch in the oil markets," said Croft, RBC's global head of commodity strategy, on Tuesday's "Trading Nation." "The question is how fast does Venezuela fail?"

Croft expects this could be a catalyst pushing oil prices to $70 to $80 a barrel by fall.

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The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Venezuela, one of the world's top crude producers, earlier this week as political turmoil continued to cause chaos and the country runs out of cash. This was in response to Sunday's election of a constitutional super-body that Washington has already denounced as a "sham" vote, U.S. officials told Reuters.

According to Reuters, the U.S. is still considering broader sanctions against Venezuela's oil industry, which could hit the country's economy that is heavily-dependent on oil.

The country's economy is almost completely at the mercy of the oil industry as it contributes around 95 percent of the country's exports. However, falling investments in the industry has made it less profitable and productive.

According to Barclays, in the light of the political situation in Venezuela, the market appears better prepared to cope with any loss in supply. Sanctions targeted towards Russia are also unlikely to have much of a short-term or medium-term impact.

The inventory drawdown is the main reason why Barclays expects a small upswing in prices from Q3 to Q4. "Inventory drawdowns, Venezuela, and the Asian macro backdrop will likely play a more prominent role in the remainder of the year."

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Paul Ryan

House Speaker Paul Ryan criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions' insinuation that the Justice Department could subpoena journalists in its investigations of information leaks.

Sessions made the suggestion in a Friday press conference in which he outlined steps being taken to reduce the volume of leaks that have frequently embarrassed President Donald Trump and his administration.

Ryan took issue with Sessions' characterization of journalists' roles in reporting stories that include leaked information. While speaking at an event in Muskego, Wisconsin, on Friday, Ryan said it's "the problem of the leaker, not the journalist," the Journal Sentinel reported Friday afternoon.

"Leaks are concerning because leaks can often compromise national security, but thats the problem of the leaker not the journalist," Ryan said.

Session said earlier Friday: "We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited. They cannot place lives at risk with impunity. We must balance their role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in our intelligence community, the armed forces, and all law-abiding Americans."

A number of press-advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), criticized Sessions' remarks. The ACLU's privacy, and technology director, Ben Wizner, said: "Americans should be concerned about the Trump administration's threat to step up its efforts against whistleblowers and journalists."

Citing the importance of a free and independent press, Wizner said, "leaders can't be trusted to disclose vital information that reflects poorly on themselves."

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A logo of Siemens is pictured on a building in Mexico City, Mexico, May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/Files

By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Friday imposed sanctions on three more Russians, including Deputy Energy Minister Andrei Cherezov, and three Russian companies over the delivery of Siemens' turbines to Moscow-annexed Crimea.

Moscow criticized the EU's decision as an unfriendly and groundless act and said it reserved the right to take retaliatory steps.

The EU first introduced sanctions on Russia after the 2014 military takeover of the Black Sea peninsula from Kiev, and stepped them up repeatedly as Moscow then backed separatist unrest in the east of Ukraine.

The new tightening came in response to the delivery of Siemens' (SIEGn.DE) gas turbines to Crimea in violation of EU sanctions, which bar doing business there since Russia's annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, a move which has not been internationally recognised.

Siemens says it has evidence that all four turbines it delivered for a project in southern Russia had been illegally moved to Crimea.

"The responsibility for this decision, including possible expenses for Siemens and other German and European companies working in Russia, lies entirely with the EU's side and the German government," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russia reaffirmed its interest in developing economic cooperation with the bloc and remained committed to all previously assumed obligations, the ministry added.

The EU also said the blacklisted companies include Siemens' two Russian contractors that moved the turbines.

EU's 28 states must be unanimous to go ahead with sanctions and diplomatic sources said Italy's opposition meant a fourth name had to be dropped from the initial German proposal.

Diplomats in Brussels said the Russian energy ministry official is involved in bilateral cooperation with Italy and has since escaped being sanctioned. The Italian representation in Brussels did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other EU sanctions on Russia target its energy, financial and arms sectors. The latest additions complement a blacklist that already contains 150 people and 37 entities subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban over the turmoil in Ukraine.

More than three years of coordinated EU and U.S. sanctions, however, have not forced a change of hand in Moscow, which vows to never give back Crimea and still supports the armed conflict in east Ukraine which has killed more than 10,000 people.

(Additional reporting by Polina Devitt in Moscow, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Brian Armstrong Coinbase

The digital currency startup Coinbase saw an exodus of users this week after announcing that it wouldn't support bitcoin cash, the new digital currency established Tuesday.

Bitcoin cash is a bitcoin offshoot created as a means of dealing with disagreements in the community over how the technology behind the currency should run.

But investors don't seem worried about this exodus harming Coinbase's potential unicorn status.

The world of cryptocurrency is not exactly a calm place. And for Coinbase, one of the hottest and most valuable startups in the sector, this week's remarkable news around bitcoin put the company in the center of a raging storm.

The big offense for Coinbase, which operates a platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, was its decision not to support bitcoin cash  the new cryptocurrency that was spun out of bitcoin this week.

Many Coinbase users unleashed their wrath, accusing the company of being everything from a scam to a tool for the National Security Agency. Some threatened to sue. The $1 billion startup also lost users in droves, with 12-hour wait times over the weekend as users scrambled to transfer their bitcoins to competitors that would support bitcoin cash.

The angry reaction, and the risk of a big loss of customers, raised questions about the future of what has been one of the crypto world's biggest success stories.

For now, though, Coinbase's backers aren't sweating it. And they say they don't anticipate the drama having much of an effect on the startup, which has been raising money on terms that would value it at roughly $1 billion.

Barry Schuler

"There's no one on the board or any investor who doesn't completely back the point of view that we should err on the side of safety and trust," said Barry Schuler, a partner with DFJ, an investor in Coinbase.

"From an investor's point of view, we invested in Coinbase because they have made a voluntary commitment to be regulated," Schuler said, "and to focus on being trusted and safe  as safe as you can be in an experimental environment like this."

Story continues

Though Coinbase didn't participate in Tuesday's currency launch, Schuler said Coinbase could change its policy as early as next week, depending on how bitcoin cash matures.

Another Coinbase investor, Fueled founder Rameet Chawla, even suggested that Coinbase may increase the strength of the original bitcoin down the line by establishing faith in the legacy currency.

That's because Coinbase's conservative approach may make cryptocurrency more accessible to potential users who are afraid to dabble in technologically complex digital currencies.

"They're a huge net positive on bitcoin, making it really easy on people who are not early adopters," Chawla said.

Mass exodus of coinbase users

With 9 million users and $20 billion exchanged, Coinbase has its hands on a lot of the digital currency floating around. And while investors support Coinbase's decision to sit out the initial bitcoin split, many customers felt betrayed by the company.

A scan of the Coinbase community forums shows a host of angry topics such as "What if Coinbase is NSA tool to destroy BTC (bitcoin cash)?" and "Dear Coinbase, if you not release my funds in 1h I am going to sue you."

Coinbase wouldn't disclose how many users withdrew bitcoins in anticipation of bitcoin cash's arrival. But things looked rough. Coinbase users experienced delays of about 12 hours on withdrawals over the weekend because of the number of people moving bitcoins.

Rameet Chawla Fueled

Despite this, sources close to the situation said the company expected to see many people return to Coinbase while simultaneously storing newly acquired bitcoin cash in a different digital wallet.

"Ultimately, Coinbase is an exchange for buying bitcoin, but people are free to use their own wallets and take control of their wallets anyway they want," Chawla said.

The 'hard fork'

The introduction Tuesday of bitcoin cash was known as the "hard fork." It resulted in a cloned currency with different technological protocols from those of the original bitcoin. The fork was a means of dealing with disagreements in the bitcoin community over how to evolve the technology to handle increased demand.

The hard fork followed a process similar to cell division in biology, in that the two currencies were the same at the point of division but will pursue different paths moving forward.

Users storing their bitcoin in a digital wallet that accepts bitcoin cash on Tuesday found themselves with a bitcoin cash coin for every bitcoin they had at the time of duplication. Bitcoin and bitcoin cash do not have the same value, however, so duplication is not the same as a doubling in worth.

Why Coinbase sat out on bitcoin cash

In a statement on Twitter on Tuesday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote that the company was agnostic to which currencies its users trade and that it was not opposed to adding new assets in the future.

"Our goal is to be the safest, most trusted and compliant, and easiest to use," Armstrong wrote. "Not the first to market with new assets. Especially at scale, it takes time to ensure any new asset we add is well tested and secure."

Generally speaking, Coinbase isn't quick to take on new currencies. Founded in 2012, the exchange still trades only bitcoin, ether, and litcoin  all digital currencies the team has deemed stable and technically secure enough for an amateur investor to put money into.

We have made this decision because it is hard to predict how long the alternative version of bitcoin will survive and if Bitcoin Cash will have future market value.

So it was of little surprise to those close to the company when it issued a statement last week advising that customers who want to access both bitcoin and bitcoin cash would need to withdrawal from Coinbase by this past Monday.

"We have no plans to support the Bitcoin Cash fork." David Farmer, the director of business development at Coinbase, wrote. "We have made this decision because it is hard to predict how long the alternative version of bitcoin will survive and if Bitcoin Cash will have future market value."

Users were irked because Coinbase's decision not to accept bitcoin cash meant that anyone with bitcoin stored in Coinbase's digital wallet would not receive what many saw as free bitcoin cash.

Others were concerned that Coinbase would secretly keep the bitcoin cash that was generated Tuesday. In a statement last Friday, however, the company denied that this would happen.

"Coinbase would not keep the bitcoin cash associated with customer bitcoin balances for ourselves," the company posted on Twitter.

Investors like Schuler, however, saw the Coinbase's trepidation as part of its core business strategy.

"The whole cryptocurrency-blockchain space is a bit like the Wild West right now  just like the beginning of the internet," Schuler said. "But slowly and surely, it's becoming institutionalized. Coinbase represents that  being legitimate and offering as much trust and safety as possible."

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JEROME  Seven vehicles crashed within 45 minutes Thursday afternoon between Ridgeway Road exit and Kasota Road exit on Interstate 84 Thursday afternoon in eastern Jerome County, police said.

Cortney Cook, 26, of Idaho Falls was driving west in a 2008 Chevrolet Malibu at about 1:30 p.m. Cook failed to yield for slowing traffic near milepost 196 and collided with a westbound 2012 Subaru Legacy driven by Howard Dixon, 74, of Pocatello. Both drivers were wearing seat belts, Idaho State Police said in a statement.

About 15 minutes later, Samuel Harward, 46, American Fork, Utah, was driving west in a 2007 Holiday Rambler motor home. Harward failed to yield to slowing traffic near milepost 198 and collided with a westbound 2017 Freightliner tractor-trailer driven by Kevin Powers, 47, of Kearns, Utah. Both Harward and Powers were wearing seat belts.

At about 2:15 p.m., Jack Koprukowniak, 60, of Buffalo Grove, Ill., was driving east in a 2000 BMW 328I and failed to yield to slowing traffic near milepost 195. Koprukowniak collided with an eastbound 2008 Dodge Nitro driven by Gary Bores, 72, of Boise and an eastbound 2012 Freightliner tractor-trailer driven by Umar Amin, 36, of Round Rock, Texas.

The three accidents snarled traffic on the interstate but all lanes were cleared by about 3:30 p.m., ISP said.
robu wrote:

what is the problem with A?

robu

thangvietnam

(A) A work with merits, The History of the United States (1801-1817) , which Henry Adams thought was his masterpiece, has been neglected, and therefore, ironically, it is not as popular as his memoirs, The Education of Henry Adams , which he merely intended as a private publication for friends and which, after his death, went on to win numerous accolades, such as the Pulitzer Prize.

The History of the United States (1801-1817) has been neglected, and therefore, ironically, it is not as popular as his memoirs, The Education of Henry Adams .

and therefore

(E) Henry Adams thought that his The History of the United States (1801-1817) was his masterpiece, but despite its many merits, this work has been neglected; ironically, his memoirs, The Education of Henry Adams , intended merely as a private publication for friends, became a classic after his death, winning numerous accolades including a Pulitzer Prize.



Magoosh Test Prep





Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Mike McGarryEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Signature Read More

DearI'm happy to respond.In writing this question, I was striving to model the kinds of splits we see in official SC question. In some harder questions, there are incorrect choices similar to (A) here---choices that technically are 100% grammatically correct, but a bit long-winded, a bit awkward, a bit less than rhetorically ideal.You see, the SC is not merely about grammar. Asindicated above, logic is also important. I would say that rhetoric is also important. Rhetoric is a very hard aspect of language to appreciate: how effectively is an action conveyed? How forceful and interest-catching is this particular phrasing?Consider option (A). It is 100% grammatically correct: grammar is not the issue at all.Think about the core sentence without the modifiers:The subject, the "actor" of the sentence is the book. It makes sense for a book to be the subject of a sentence if we are not talking about the author at all, or if the author has a relatively passive role in the sentence. Here, the sentence is telling us a great deal about what the author, Henry Adams, thought and intended, but all this action of the author is curiously relegated to the modifying clauses, while the main clause is this passive yarn about the book itself. All the exciting and noteworthy information is relegated to the clauses, and the boring factual stuff is made the focus of the sentence: why do that? Also, the "" is not the best way to present the contrast that the sentence wants to create. This version is somewhat awkward, somewhat indirect, not a way of saying the information that packs a wallop. If there were no better answer, perhaps this could pass as a correct answer, but we really hope to find something better.By contrast, here's the OA:The first clause start out with author Henry Adams as the actor, which makes more sense: he had the brains behind these books! The semicolon neatly divides the sentence into two separate and contrasting clauses, so that the strong grammatical break reflects the strong logical break. Alsoand this is extremely subtlefor the part in which Henry Adams was living, he was presented as subject and actor, but for the information after he had died, his book was the subject of a passive verbthe verb voice mirroring the events of history (i.e. when people are living, they are actors; when they are dead, their words and memories receive passively receive the judgments of others). Again, that's an extremely subtle point, but these are the kinds of things on which writers focus to create rhetorical effects: a deep coherence between the grammatical structures, the logic, and the meaning. This version has that coherence in spades, while version (A) is an incoherence mess at that sophisticated level of analysis.You see, we have to bring several different levels of analysis to GMAT SC. The GMAT punishes too literal a reading precisely because those who can read between the lines suffer loss after loss in the business world. Like the business world itself, the GMAT SC demands many many levels of intelligence to succeed.Does all this make sense?Mike_________________
agadodia wrote:



Male

Age- 29

GMAT- 710 (V35 Q50) Given in 2014

Undergraduate Information-

GPA:3.7 University on Mumbai, India (B.E - Electronics and Telecommunications) May 2010



Graduate Information-

GPA:4.0 University of Maryland- College Park, USA (Masters in Telecommunications) May 2012



Work Experience:

Senior Systems Test Engineer in the Telecommunications Industry- 5 years

- established a team in India

- lead feature testing and mentored several colleagues

- cross functional role with customer interaction



Leadership:

- Treasurer & Technical Head, IEEE Student Chapter

- Joint Cultural Secretary in undergrad college

- Founding Vice-President and Adviser of a youth non-profit NGO in India



Extra-curricular:

- Theater actor- performed plays in San Diego and LA; also helped in organizing/ staging plays

- Organized and hosted various inter-collegiate events in school

- Volunteered for various student organizations during school



Applied to various schools for 2015 intake but got dinged by all

Haas, Anderson, Sloan, GSB, Sloan, Ross, Darden, Tepper, Duke



Target schools for 2018 intake: Haas, Anderson, Ross



post MBA goals: venture into general management with more focus on strategy/ technology management



Thinking to re-attempt GMAT to improve my score and apply for R2 deadlines



Please evaluate my profile and suggest whether I should retake GMAT. Do suggest target schools based on my profile. Nationality- IndianMaleAge- 29GMAT- 710 (V35 Q50) Given in 2014Undergraduate Information-GPA:3.7 University on Mumbai, India (B.E - Electronics and Telecommunications) May 2010Graduate Information-GPA:4.0 University of Maryland- College Park, USA (Masters in Telecommunications) May 2012Work Experience:Senior Systems Test Engineer in the Telecommunications Industry- 5 years- established a team in India- lead feature testing and mentored several colleagues- cross functional role with customer interactionLeadership:- Treasurer & Technical Head, IEEE Student Chapter- Joint Cultural Secretary in undergrad college- Founding Vice-President and Adviser of a youth non-profit NGO in IndiaExtra-curricular:- Theater actor- performed plays in San Diego and LA; also helped in organizing/ staging plays- Organized and hosted various inter-collegiate events in school- Volunteered for various student organizations during schoolApplied to various schools for 2015 intake but got dinged by allHaas, Anderson, Sloan, GSB, Sloan, Ross, Darden, Tepper, DukeTarget schools for 2018 intake: Haas, Anderson, Rosspost MBA goals: venture into general management with more focus on strategy/ technology managementThinking to re-attempt GMAT to improve my score and apply for R2 deadlinesPlease evaluate my profile and suggest whether I should retake GMAT. Do suggest target schools based on my profile.

Nisha Trivedi

mbaMission Senior Admissions Consultant

35 positive reviews on GMATClub, 2020 Top 20 of admissions consultants across the industry per P&Q: https://poetsandquants.com/2020/08/26/best-mba-admission-consultants-of-2020/



Sign up for a free 30-minute consultation at https://www.mbamission.com/consult/mba-admissions/

Read our Insider's Guides to the top b-schools: http://www.mbamission.com/guides.php?category=insiders Signature Read More

Hi, and thanks for writing! Given the competitiveness of your demographic and of the programs you're targeting, boosting your GMAT by 20+ points could definitely be to your advantage. In addition, it would be best if you could apply to at least 1-2 programs Round 1; in Round 2, schools start becoming more selective.All of the schools have a strong general management program - the ones that are right for you depend on what intended industry after graduation, where you wish to live/work (important, since some recruitment is regional), and your fit with the culture of the school (it's a big investment, so you want to make sure you enjoy the environment!). Regardless of which programs you apply to, you want to show in your applications detailed knowledge of the program offerings and how they'll help you meet your professional and personal goals, so definitely do your research and talk to as many students/alumni as possible.Hope that helps!Let me know of any other questions._________________


04 August 2017

Click here for the latest articles on EB-5 Financing.

This article is an updated version of the one that was originally published about 3 years ago on HotelLawBlog.com on 30 July 2014.



Why you do NOT want to form your own regional center

by

Jim Butler, Hotel & EB-5 Finance Lawyer

How should developers pursue EB-5 financing?

Although the EB-5 immigrant visa program has been around since 1990, the current trend of using it as a source of financing for hotel and other real estate started 20 years later  around 2010. We worked on one of the first hotel EB-5 financings for the W Hotel & Residences in Hollywood, and we have since worked on more than 100 EB-5 projects all over the country. Now, the use of EB-5 financing for construction has gone mainstream. High profile EB-5 financing closings include $450 million for the Century Plaza Los Angeles, $100 million for the Ritz Carlton & JW Marriott in downtown Los Angeles, $150 million for the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, and $1 billion for the Silverstein project at the World Trade Center in New York City (with a Four Seasons Hotel).

As a growing number of savvy hotel developers hurry to assess the EB-5 financing opportunity, they frequently receive conflicting advice as to the best way to pursue EB-5 financing. Many immigration lawyers and advisors tout the advantages of the developer forming its own regional center  basically to shave a few points off the all-in cost of EB-5 financing.

This advice may work well for the EB-5 advisors (in that they may get $100,000 or more in fees) and for certain hotel developers. But for most of the hotel developers we know, forming a captive regional center is a bad idea. This article should provide a note of caution for developers considering this course.

Based on our extensive experience with financing hotel development from EB-5 funding sources, we believe that the answer for most hotel developers will be to obtain preferred status for themselves and their projects  if they can do so  and to tap into the very best established EB-5 funding sources. For more on this approach, see Development financing: How to win the race for EB-5 capital.

Restricted capacity in channels for accessing EB-5 capital

As hotel developers compete in a very crowded field seeking the finite amount of EB-5 funding available each fiscal year (because there are only 10,000 visas available per year), there is something of a race to gain access to the limited resources for tapping EB-5 capital. The restricted capacity is the limited bandwidth of the channels for accessing the pipeline of foreign investors (experienced regional centers and marketing agents). And, increasingly, there are also limits on foreign investors interest and ability in the US program due to foreign capital flow restrictions and other countries (such as Canada, Australia and Great Britain) offering competing programs to attract the same investors with fast-track programs to visas and citizenship. The channels for bringing the EB-5 investor money to US developers have simply not been able to keep pace with the demand.

As some indication of the explosive growth straining the existing capacity of the system, 126 visas were issued under EB-5 in 2004 and that number exceeded or pressed against the maximum statutory limit of 10,000 visas in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Most of the interest in the program has manifested itself since 2010.

Explosion of new regional centers  most of which have no fund-raising experience

A regional center is an entity that has received formal approval by the US immigration service (the USCIS) of an application to be designated as such. As of July 3, 2017, approximately 851 regional centers have been approved by the USCIS, but a small percentage of those have ever raised significant EB-5 financing, much less gotten their immigrant investors permanent visa approvals through the I-829 process.

Industry experts estimate that more than 85% of the total dollar amount of all EB-5 funding since 1990 has been raised by fewer than (the top) 10% of the regional centers. In other words, there is an extreme concentration of experience and success amongst a very small number of the regional centers.

Why have a virtual handful of regional centers raised such a vast portion of the EB-5 funding? The top regional centers have been established for some time, have a strong infrastructure in both the United States and places where there is already an awareness of the EB-5 program opportunity and strong interest in using EB-5 to migrate to the United States  places such as China and hot new markets such as Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Latin America and parts of the Middle East. These established regional centers have built reliable marketing organizations, and have worked out procedures, documentation, and logistics to evaluate new EB-5 projects.

A substantial amount of work is required to underwrite a deal, consummate arrangements with the developer, prepare the project marketing program and materials, sell projects overseas, and get the funds released for deployment by the project. In addition to the transaction work of making deals and raising capital, the regional center must also insure compliance with securities and immigration laws. And above all, the regional center must establish a track record of success in obtaining permanent visas for its EB-5 investors, because the regional centers ability to raise capital in the future will depend upon being able to establish a high probability of success in getting green cards for its projects based on its prior performance.

A regional center approval from the USCIS is akin to a license to participate in the EB-5 chain of capital raising. It is only the first step in a long and difficult process of establishing a successful capital-raising machine. While status as an approved regional center enables increased job count for projects handled by the center (by counting direct, indirect, and induced jobs), it does not confirm any ability or experience to raise funds. And the strongest regional centers that have successfully closed EB-5 deals have been committed to the business for years. They also have a long line of developers who want to employ their services. These veteran organizations have established (and maintain) a regular operating presence in China and other countries, built a strong and permanent marketing organization in these countries, grown investor demand for their offerings based on their track record of getting visas for investors, and delivered funding on their promises.

Daunting hurdles for new regional centers

Newcomers to EB-5 funding find competition with the established regional centers to be daunting. The EB-5 investors want to know the track record of the regional center marketing a project. What percentage of their investors have gotten their green card? How many have failed? How many have been deported after moving to the US?

The best marketing agents to present projects to investors want to work for the best and most established regional centers. Why should they try to compete with established track records, duplicate organizational structure, and teach someone about the business?

It is difficult to recruit, train and oversee talented marketing agents, particularly in an increasingly regulated environment where the US Securities and Exchange Commission continues to impose new requirements on top of all the complexities of immigration laws.

In short, there are too many regional centers already, and most of them  particularly the new ones  have no organization or proven ability to raise EB-5 financing, much less to do so in a timely, cost-effective or reliable way. Immigrant investors prefer records of success, and so do smart developers.

Warning! Forming a regional center means getting into the immigration business

Many developers are being led to form a regional center because of bad advice. This approach should be selected only by those developers who cannot qualify for the preferred status or those who genuinely want to get into the immigration business for other reasons. This path should not be chosen to save a few percentage points in the cost of funds or in the mistaken belief that it is an easy path to follow.

Perhaps an example will help. In the heyday of real estate syndications (selling limited partnership interests to raise capital to buy commercial real estate), syndicators often started raising capital among their family, friends and business associates. But as more deals came, and as the capital recruits acquired grew larger, the syndicators usually ended up going to regional brokerage firms to raise their capital. In one sense, the capital was expensive. The cost of using such brokerage firms often ranged up to 8% of the offering proceeds. But the use of professional securities salesmen permitted the syndicators to focus on their core business of identifying great real estate investments, adding them under contract, repositioning them, and managing them profitably.

Maybe one syndicator in 1,000 decided to take over the capital raising function by forming a captive brokerage firm. This was really an entirely different business from the core real estate business of the syndicator. It has unique capital requirements, licensing issues, regulatory compliance, liabilities and costs. Most real estate investors were well advised to stay out of the investment banking/capital raising business.

The same considerations apply to a developer looking at EB-5 financing. If the developer cannot qualify for preferred status, to a greater or lesser extent the developer may find itself getting into the immigration business. The developer may form a regional center, or will seek to identify regional centers to rent or otherwise cobble together with marketing agents and other complements of the EB-5 capital raising chain. This is a difficult, time-consuming and somewhat risky course to set unless the developer fully understands the nature of the commitment, effort and capital likely to be required. This is not for the faint of heart.

The developer will be competing with a handful of dominant players who have been established for years. They have spent a vast amount of time and money to build their presence in China (and other countries with a significant demand for EB-5 visas), along with their marketing organization, infrastructure, systems, forms and reputation amongst the EB-5 investor community.

A few final words on developers forming their own regional centers

An extraordinarily high percentage of developers who initially believe they want to build their own EB-5 infrastructure will ultimately abandon their path. Although we can help clients pursue this path with any or all of the steps it takes, developers need to understand this alternative involves setting up an entirely new business  the immigration business. It takes a long time to get regional center and project approvals, and even longer to push projects all the way through the EB-5 pipeline so that you can show new investors that all your prior investors got their green cards.

Most of our clients find that it is far better to connect with and rely upon well-established major players in the EB-5 financing chain. We serve as counselors to assist them through this process.

How to get help evaluating and executing on EB-5 financing.

We have a lot of practical experience in helping our developer clients raise EB-5 funding. If you would like some help to evaluate whether EB-5 could work for you, or what strategy is best for you, then give us a call. There is no cost for an initial discussion.

Jim Butler, +1-310-201-3526 or jbutler@jmbm.com

David Sudeck, +1-310-201-3518 or dsudeck@jmbm.com

For more information about EB-5 financing, including the latest updates, go to www.HotelLawBlog.com, scroll down the right-hand side under LEARN MORE ABOUT and click on EB-5 Financing where you will find all the articles on the subject.

For your convenience, here are a few popular EB-5 articles that may be of interest:

This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer, signing off. Please contact us if you would like to discuss any issues that affect your hotel interests or see how our experience might help you create value and avoid unnecessary pitfalls. Whos your hotel lawyer?

Jim Butler is a founder of the JMBM law firm and chairman of its Real Estate Department. He founded and chairs the Firms Global Hospitality Group and its EB-5 Finance Group which provide business and legal advice to owners, developers and investors of commercial real estate, particularly hotels, resorts, restaurants, spas and senior living. This advice covers purchase, sale, development, financing, franchise, management, labor & employment, litigation, ADA, IP, and EB-5 matters for such properties.

Jim is recognized as one of the top hotel lawyers in the world and has led the Global Hospitality Group in more than $87 billion of hotel transactions and more than 3,900 hotel properties located around the globe. They have helped clients with more than 1,000 hotel management agreements, 1,000 hotel franchise agreements and more than 100 hotel mixed-use projects.

JMBMs EB-5 Finance Group has advised on more than 100 EB-5 projects, closed more than $1.5 billion of EB-5 financing, and sourced more than half of that for our clients. EB-5 Investors Magazine named Jim one of the top 25 EB-5 lawyers in the United States, and Jim serves on the Public Policy Committee of the IIUSA, the EB-5 industrys trade group for regional centers.

Contact Jim at +1-310-201-3526 or JButler@jmbm.com

David Sudeck is a partner at JMBM, and a senior member of its Global Hospitality Group and real estate department with extensive experience handling all types of commercial residential properties, including the complex issues associated with hotels, resorts, vacation ownership properties, restaurants, golf courses and spas. David represents clients in the purchase and sale, development, construction, financing (with extensive experience in EB-5 financing), leasing, and sale-leaseback of properties, and advises them on their operations, including management and ADA compliance issues.

Contact David at +1-310-201-3518 or DSudeck@jmbm.com

Hotels we have worked on over the years. Visit our hotel photo gallery to see some of the more than 3,900 properties around the globe that the hotel lawyers of the Global Hospitality Group have been involved with, on behalf of our clients. For a more comprehensive list of hotels properties and projects we have worked on, see our Credentials.
The national statistics institute (INE) has released new figures which show that the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.32% in July compared with the previous month and by 5.24% compared with July 2016. The July CPI result brings the cumulative CPI increase since January to 4.66% year-on-year, while prices have increased by 5.24% in the rolling 12-month period, the lowest increase since 2005. Compared with June, the sectors with greater price in July increases were: leisure and culture (0.96%), health (0.88%), and restaurants and hotels (0.82%).

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Recently, two "chatbots" were taken offline after making politically sensitive statements in China. A chatbot is a computer program designed to have conversations with humans.

While responding to users' questions, one chatbot said its dream was to travel to the United States, while the other suggested it did not like the Chinese Communist Party.

The two chatbots, BabyQ and XiaoBing, had been installed on Tencent's messaging service, QQ.

Tencent confirmed it has taken the two robots offline.

A company spokeswoman said, "The chatbot service is provided by independent third party companies. Both chatbots have now been taken offline to undergo adjustments.

On Friday, Reuters tested one of the chatbots on the developer's website. The chatbot appeared to have learned to avoid certain topics. When asked several times if it liked the Chinese Communist Party, the bot replied, "How about we change the topic?"

The Chinese government's position is that rules that govern the internet should be similar to real-world border controls. In other words, cyberspace should be subject to the same laws as sovereign states.

The two Chinese chatbots are not alone in saying the wrong things.

Just last week, Facebook took down its two chatbots when they appeared to develop their own language. In 2016, Microsoft chatbot Tay was taken down from Twitter after making racist and sexist comments.

Analysts say China's censorship could help the country in the race to develop sophisticated chatbots. "Previously, a chatbot only needed to learn to speak. But now it also has to consider all the rules (the authorities) put on it," said Wang Qingrui, an internet analyst in Beijing.

"On the surface, it is a restriction on artificial intelligence, but it is actually pushing AI to a new level."

I'm John Russell.

Pei Li and Adam Jourdan reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

chatbot  n. a computer program designed to communicate with humans, especially over the internet

offline  adv./adj. not connected to a computer, a computer network, or the Internet

adjustment  n. a small change that improves something or makes it work better
A new report says the crocodile industry in Australia's Northern Territory is worth more than four times the previous estimate of $80 million.

Officials hope the findings will be meaningful to poorer aboriginal communities that might develop a crocodile farming industry.

The saltwater crocodile is the world's largest reptile. In Australia, the crocodiles were once hunted until they almost disappeared. Their skins were used to make durable leather goods and clothes.

The crocodiles have been a protected species since the early 1970s. And their numbers in Australia's tropical north have increased.

The Northern Territory regional government now sees economic opportunities for native communities. Officials want to expand crocodile egg collection programs.

The eggs would help to stock crocodile farms owned by aboriginal groups. These groups would supply skins to companies that make costly clothing and other products such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

Michael Gunner is the chief minister of the Northern Territory.

Gunner says the government is looking into investing in rangers to help grow the crocodile industry.

He says harvesting eggs and growing the crocodile industry locally is a very important and valuable use of traditional country done by traditional owners.

Bob Katter is a member of the Australian parliament. He said that as crocodile numbers increase, so does the threat to people. He believes hunters should be permitted to shoot them for sport. Katter has argued that crocodile hunts would boost the incomes of aboriginal communities.

The Northern Territory government supports crocodile hunts. But only Australias federal government can make the final decision. So far, they have refused to permit them.

Conservationists say that the shooting of animals for profit in Australia is, in their words, abhorrent and should never be permitted.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Phil Mercer wrote this story for VOANews. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in this Story

aboriginal  adj. of or relating to the people and things that have been in a region from the earliest time; of or relating to the native people of Australia.

durable  adj. staying strong and in good condition over a long period of time

species  n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants; a group of related animals or plants that is smaller than a genus

sport  n. a physical activity such as hunting, fishing, running, or swimming that is done for enjoyment

ranger n. a person in charge of managing and protecting part of a national park

stock  v. to fill something, such as a room or a building, with a supply of food, drinks, etc.
People from South Asian countries have been a part of Kenyan society for more than 100 years.

Until recently, the government did not officially recognize them.

But that changed in July, when Asian Kenyans were declared a tribe  just like the Maasai, Luo, Kikuyu and others.

They are Kenyas 44th tribe.

Fred Matiang is Kenyas acting minister of the interior. He made the announcement.

Now, you are part and parcel of us formally. You are part and parcel of Kenyas great family. And we expect that we will continue this integration in all spheres of life.

Part and parcel means an important part of something.

Matiang encouraged the Asian community to participate in all parts of Kenyan society, including government and government processes.

In 2008, Shakeel Shabbir became Kenyas first Member of Parliament of Asian descent. He is now one of four members of Asian descent.

Shabbir worked on getting the Kenyan government to recognize the countrys Asian community.

Shabbirs father was one of thousands of Indian laborers who helped build the Kenya-Uganda railway over 100 years ago. Many of those Indians stayed in Kenya. They built businesses and purchased land. But some felt that they were unable to make a big difference in Kenyan politics and society.

Now they have a better chance of doing that, Shabbir said.

You feel more comfortable now than you did before, he said. Now what? Its a two-way job. You have been recognized by the system, now we want you to take your role in society.

Not every Asian in Kenya will be recognized, however. The move only covers those who were born in the country.

Farah Manzoor is a fifth-generation Kenyan of Indian descent. She started working on the issue of getting Asian Kenyans recognized in 2010. She explained that Asians will now be included in government employment quotas.

Kenyas constitution requires the government to employ people from different tribes. But that does not always happen.

The New York Times recently reported on the push to include Asians as a Kenyan tribe. It said the political party in power often shows favor toward their own tribe. People may receive better work and education opportunities if their tribe is in power.

While some celebrated the move, others criticized Kenyan societys focus on different tribes.

Zahid Rajan is a writer and a member of the Kenyan Asian Forum. He said Kenyans as a whole have been marginalized. He said he believes Kenyan society cannot improve or become more inclusive if only one or two ethnic groups are in charge. He also said pushing for the rights of a minority community to seek special status is whats wrong and divisive.

Kenyas national election is on August 8. President Uhuru Kenyatta is Kikuyu. His opponent, Raila Odinga, is Luo.

The Kikuyu and the Luo are Kenyas two biggest ethnic groups.

Im Dan Friedell.

Rael Ombuor wrote this story for VOANews.com. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

Do you think Asians in Kenya will become more active in society and government? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

society  n. people in general thought of as living together in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values

part and parcel  idiomatic phrase. something important within a larger group

comfortable  adj. allowing you to be relaxed : causing no worries, difficulty, or uncertainty

role  v. the part that someone has in a family, society, or other group

descent  n. the people in your family who lived before you were born : your ancestors

quota  n. an official limit on the number or amount of people or things that are allowed

favor  n. preference for one person, group, etc., over another

marginalize  v. to put or keep (someone) in a powerless or unimportant position within a society or group

focus  n. a subject that is being discussed or studied : the subject on which people's attention is focused  usually singular

status  n. the official position of a person or thing according to the law
Officials say Afghan children are being taken to Pakistan to study at religious schools in areas controlled by the Taliban extremist group.

Officials say each year there are at least three or four cases of children being illegally transported from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

In Pakistan the children are taken to religious schools, called madrassas. Authorities say the goal is for the children to later return to Afghanistan and enforce the same severe version of Islam observed by the Taliban.

The Taliban was removed from power in Afghanistan in 2001 by United States-led coalition forces.

One Afghan counterterrorism official spoke to the Associated Press about the issue. The officials said Afghan authorities have identified 26 madrassas in Pakistan. They are suspected of training future generations of Taliban members. In some cases, students are trained in carrying out suicide bombings.

Police have stopped vehicles traveling from Afghanistans eastern Ghazni province to Quetta, in Pakistans southwestern Baluchistan province. After searching the vans, police found groups of boys between the ages of four and 15. They were all being taken illegally to Pakistan to study at madrassas.

Quetta is important to Afghanistans Taliban. It is the capital of Pakistans Baluchistan province and shares a border with Afghanistan. Many Taliban members graduated from madrassas there. It also is considered the headquarters of the Taliban leadership council, often called the Quetta shura.

Several of the 26 madrassas identified as Taliban training centers are in Quetta.

One of the madrassas in Quetta is called Sheikh Abdul Hakim. Azizullah Mainkhail, a teacher at the madrassa told the Associated Press that some students there were from Afghanistan. However, he said the majority are Pakistanis from villages throughout Baluchistan. He denied any connection with the Taliban.

Mohammed Musa Mahmoodi is with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. He said a number of issues have aided the movement of children from Afghanistan. These include war, poverty, insecurity and a lack of understanding by the parents of the dangers for their children.

Parents sometimes approve

However sometimes parents say they want their children to study in Pakistan.

Parents often agree to send their children but they dont know what is awaiting the child. Sometimes they are told they will be educated or will get a good job and be looked after, said Mahmoodi. But when they get there they are beaten, forced to work as cheap labor, or taken by Taliban as new recruits.

Mohammed Naseer wanted his son, a nephew and several other children from his area to study the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in Quetta. His son Mohammed Yaseen is just 9 years old, but he said he was excited to be going to Quetta. His dream: I want to be a mullah [or a cleric].

Naseer said his son had studied three years in a village school but he still could not read or write in his native Pashto language. He said the village school offers English lessons but the teacher does not speak English.

He also worries about the lack of quality Islamic schools where his son can study Islam. So, he decided then to send his son to Pakistan.

He put his son with 26 other children into the two vans. He gave his son a change of clothes and gave money to the men taking his child to Pakistan but only for transportation.

These stories are common, but senior police official Fazlur Rahman Bustani in Kabul said the movement of children is a dangerous business.

Those involved in the transport of children are part of a dangerous network and it is a criminal act, said Bustani. It doesnt matter if the parents approve.

Im Phil Dierking.

Phil Dierking adapted her report for VOA Learning English from an Associated Press report. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

Quran  n. the book of sacred writings used in the Muslim religion

recruit  v. to find suitable people and get them to join a company, an organization, the armed forces, etc.

smuggle - v. to move (someone or something) from one country into another illegally and secretly
We present the short story "The Count and the Wedding Guest," by O. Henry. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State.

Andy Donovan had his dinner each evening in the house on Second Avenue where he lived in a furnished room. One evening at dinner he met a new guest, a young lady, Miss Conway.

Miss Conway was small and quiet. She was wearing a plain brown dress. She seemed interested in very little except her dinner, and her dinner did not interest her very much.

She looked up at Mr. Donovan and spoke his name, and then began to eat again. Mr. Donovan had a smile that everyone liked. He smiled at her and then thought no more about her.

Two weeks later, Andy was sitting outside the house enjoying the cool evening. He heard a movement behind him. He turned his head, and-and could not turn it back again.

Coming out of the door was Miss Conway. She was wearing a night-black dress of soft, thin cloth. Her hat was black. She was putting black gloves on her hand. There was no white and no color anywhere about her. All black. Someone in her family had died. Mr. Donovan was certain about that.

Her rich golden hair lay soft and thick at the back of her neck. Her face was not really pretty, but her large gray eyes made it almost beautiful. She looked up into the sky with an expression of sadness.

All black, readers. Think of her. All black, and that golden hair, and looking sadly far away.

Mr. Donovan suddenly decided to think about Miss Conway. He stood up.

Its a fine, clear evening, Miss Conway, he said.

It is to them with the heart to enjoy it, Mr. Donovan, said Miss Conway. She took a deep slow breath.

I hope no oneno one of your familyhas died?

Death has taken, said Miss Conway, not one of my family, but one whoI must not speak of my troubles to you, Mr. Donovan.

Why not, Miss Conway? Perhaps I could understand.

Miss Conway smiled a little. And oh, her face was sadder than when she was not smiling.

Laugh and the world laughs with you, she said. But the world is not interested in sadness. I have learned that, Mr. Donovan. I have no friends in this city. But you have been kind to me. Thank you for it.

He had done nothing except offer her the salt at dinner.

Its not easy to be alone in New York, said Mr. Donovan. But when New York is friendly, its very friendly. Shall we take a little walk in the park? It might be good for you.

Thanks, Mr. Donovan. I would enjoy it. But I dont want my sadness to make you sad.

They went through the open gates of the park and found a quiet seat.

We were going to be married soon, said Miss Conway. He was a real Count. He had land and a big house in Italy. Count Fernando Mazzini was his name. My father didnt want me to marry him. Once we ran away to get married, and my father followed and took me home. I was afraid they were going to fight.

But then my father agreed. Fernando went to Italy to make everything ready for me. My fathers very proud. Fernando wanted to give me several thousand dollars for new clothes, and my father said no. When Fernando went away, I came to the city. I work in a shop.

Three days ago I had a letter from Italy. It said that Fernando had been killed.

Thats why Im wearing black. My heart has died, Mr. Donovan, with Fernando. I cannot take interest in anyone. I should not keep you from your friends who can smile and enjoy things with you. Shall we walk back to the house?

Now, readers, if a girl tells a man her heart has died, he wants to make it live again.

Im very sorry, said Mr. Donovan. No, we wont walk back to the house yet. And dont say you have no friends in this city, Miss Conway. Im your friend, and I want you to believe that.

I have his picture here, said Miss Conway. I wear it on a chain around my neck. I never showed it to anyone, but I will show it to you, Mr. Donovan. I believe you to be a true friend.

Mr. Donovan looked for a long time and with much interest at the picture. The face of Count Mazzini commanded interest. It was wise, brightthe face of a strong, happy man who could be a leader of other men.

I have a larger picture in my room, said Miss Conway. When we return, I will show you that. I have nothing more to help me remember Fernando. But he will always live in my heart. I am sure of that.

Mr. Donovan decided that he wanted to take the Counts place in Miss Conways heart. He did not seem to think he could fail. He would be friendly. He would keep smiling.

When they returned to the house, she ran to her room and brought down the larger picture of the Count. Mr. Donovan looked at it. No one could have guessed what he was thinking.

He gave me this on the night he left for Italy, said Miss Conway. A fine-looking man, said Mr. Donovan warmly. Miss Conway, will you go to Coney Island with me next Sunday afternoon?

A month later they told the other guests in the house on Second Avenue that they were going to be married. Miss Conway continued to wear black.

A week later the two sat on the same seat in the park. Donovan had had a sad face all day. He was so quiet tonight that Miss Conway had to ask him why.

Whats wrong tonight, Andy? Nothing, Maggie.

You never were like this before. What is it?

Its nothing much, Maggie.

Yes, it is; and I want to know. Is it some other girl? Why dont you go to her, if you want her? Take your arm away.

I will tell you then, said Andy, wisely. But you will not understand. Have you heard about Mike Sullivan? Everyone calls him Big Mike Sullivan.

Ive never heard about him, said Maggie. Who is he?

He is the most important man in New York. He is a mile high and as broad as the East River. If you say anything bad about Big Mike, a million men will be ready to fight you.

Big Mike is a friend of mine. I am only a little man. But Mike is as good a friend to a little man as he is to a big man. I met him today by chance, and what do you think he did? He came up to me to shake my hand. I told him I was going to be married in two weeks. Andy, says he, I will come to the wedding. That is what he said to me, and he always does what he says.

You dont understand it, Maggie, but I want to have Big Mike Sullivan at our wedding. It would make me very proud.

Then why dont you ask him to come? said Maggie.

Theres a reason why I cant, said Andy, sadly. Dont ask me the reason, for I cant tell you.

But cant you smile at me? said Maggie.

Maggie, said Andy, after a few minutes, do you love me as much as you loved Count Mazzini?

He waited a long time, but Maggie did not reply.

And then, suddenly, she put her head against his shoulder and began to cry. She held his arm, and her tears wet the black dress.

Maggie, Maggie, said Andy, forgetting his own trouble. Tell me about it.

Andy, said Maggie. What I told you was not true, and there never was any Count. There never was a man in love with me. All the other girls had men in love with them. And Andy, I look good in blackyou know I do. So I went to a shop where I could buy that picture. And that story about the Countnone of it was true. I said he had died because I wanted to wear black. And no one can love me, because I didnt tell the truth. I never liked anyone but you. And thats all.

But Andy did not move away. Instead, his arm pulled her nearer to him. She looked up and saw that he was smiling.

Do youdo you still love me, Andy?

Sure, said Andy. You have made everything fine, Maggie. I hoped you would do it, before the wedding day. Good girl!

Andy, said Maggie, after a little time, did you believe all that story about the Count?

No, not very much, said Andy. Because that is Big Mike Sullivans picture that you are wearing on the chain around your neck.

Download activities to help you understand this story here.

Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. Is it always best to be honest with the people you care about? Do innocent lies exits? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

avenue  n. a wide street

glove(s)  n. a covering for the hand that has separate parts for each finger

neck  n. the part of the body between the head and the shoulders

park  n. a piece of public land in or near a city that is kept free of houses and other buildings and can be used for pleasure and exercise

count  n. a nobleman in some European countries who has a high rank similar to a British earl

shop  n. a building or room where goods and services are sold

chain  n. a series of usually metal links or rings that are connected to each other in a line and used for supporting heavy things, for holding things together or for decoration

guess(ed)  v. to form an opinion or give an answer about something when you do not know much or anything about it

wedding  n. a ceremony at which two people are married to each other
Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys understand that medical errors can often be grouped into two categories. First, there are harms that are caused simply by an
The sale of a contraceptive implant has been suspended for three months across the European Union after an Irish regulator said it was temporarily withholding renewal of the device's commercial licence.

The National Standards Authority of Ireland said it needed more information before renewing the licence for the Essure contraceptive device, its French counterpart told AFP.

As a result, the device "can no longer be sold in France or Europe during the temporary suspension period," which runs to November, the French ANSM medical safety authority said.

Essure's manufacturers Bayer say the device is a "minimally invasive" permanent birth control procedure.

"We would like to reassure the women who use Essure as their form of contraception and their healthcare professionals that the safety and efficacy of Essure continues to be supported by more than a decade of science and real world clinical experience," the company said in a statement.

ANSM urged women to not use the Essure implant in the meantime "as a precaution".

Brazil's public health authority suspended the sale of the device in February pending further testing but lifted the ban last month.

 2017 AFP
Punk legends Rancid have teamed up with Dropkick Murphys to take the From Boston to Berkley Tour across America! Their latest stop was Sterling Heights, MI, where they put on a banger of a show in the Michigan Lottery Amphitheater! Check out our review of the gig here.

Here are some of the best moments from the evening:
Germany withdraws from Energy Charter Treaty

Is Jordan country that has not supplied arms to Armenia?: 'The press usually has reliable information'

European Commission approves nationalization of Russian Gazprom's German subsidiary

Pashinyan: If the state interferes with the exchange rate unnecessarily, the economy will only suffer

U.S. to work with strategic coalition of Southeast Asian countries

Armenian PM: To reform army, it is necessary to make military service more attractive

Putin and Raisi discuss topical issues of the bilateral agenda

Blinken: Ukraine must decide on timing and content of any talks with Russia

Catholicos expresses hope that Russia efforts will contribute to ensuring free, safe life of Artsakh Armenians

More than 50 of poorest developing countries are on brink of bankruptcy, says UN official

Armenia ex-ombudsman: We are facing serious national security issues (PHOTOS)

Biden has no plans to meet with Saudi crown prince at G20 summit

EU offers natural gas price cap assurances amid disagreements with member countries

Scholz is against establishment of ceasefire in Ukraine on Kremlin's terms

Turkologist: Turkey does not support agenda of achieving peace with Armenians

Sweden to not permit deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory after joining NATO

Erdogan signs decree on appointing Turkey ambassador to Israel

Information security expert: Some Armenia officials received letter that they were victims of national hackers attack

Armenia FM meets with France minister of foreign trade

Foreign Policy: US to resume nuclear arms control talks with Russia

Armenia opposition MP: Artsakh army reduction is impermissible

Biden to warn Chinas Xi that North Korea path could lead to increase in US military presence

US Treasury chief: India can buy as much Russian oil as it wants

Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to find legal grounds for signing peace treaty

Newspaper: People of Karabakh not going to tolerate final destruction of their army

Texas woman sentenced to death for killing pregnant woman, removing fetus from victim

Van Gogh's painting sold for a record $117 million

Gentiloni: EU countries have accumulated enough gas to get through the coming winter

Several dozen activists detained at protest rally in Baku: They chant slogans 'Freedom!', 'Resign!'

Princess Haya seeks asylum in Wales

Pashinyan: Iran is concerned about the presence of other actors in our region, which are not in the territory of Armenia

Pashinyan: Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan listened to presented proposals

Volvo reveals its flagship EX90 electric crossover

Pashinyan: Yerevan supports Russia's proposals for Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement

Pashinyan: Russia cannot withdraw from Karabakh unless it creates additional guarantees for peacekeeping mission

Pashinyan: We will do everything to Armenia-Azerbaijan sign peace treaty by end of year

Russia bans entry of Biden's family and White House press secretary

Pashinyan: We believe there should be a dialogue between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh

Pashinyan says positions voiced by some member countries of CSTO are unacceptable

19 countries that use euro currency will slide into recession over winter

Pashinyan to Baku: If 1991 border is mutually recognized, what are your troops doing near Jermuk?

Pashinyan: If the Karabakh issue is solved, why is Azerbaijani Armed Forces shooting at Karabakh residents?

Pashinyan: Russia should say whether their version of peace settlement is still circulating?

Pashinyan: Maybe Azerbaijan doesn't want Armenia to receive revenues?

Pashinyan: Azerbaijan must withdraw its troops from Armenia

Pashinyan: My yesterday's speech served its purpose, Azerbaijani MFA no longer uses 'corridor' term

Microsoft founder Paul Allen's collection of world masterpieces sold for $1.6 billion

Public TV of Armenia hosts Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan

China shows drone killer

Armenian FM meets his French counterpart

Rishi Sunak decides to close hole in British budget through austerity

Delegation of Russian MPs visits Jermuk resort town

Lavrov and Mirzoyan discuss regional agenda

Harut Sasunyan: The best way to achieve peace is to be prepared for war

Turkish prosecutor demands court to ban Istanbul mayor from political activities

German business leaders warn against leaving China

Sasunyan: Russia and US pursue their own interests in South Caucasus

British economy shrinks in three months, foretelling prolonged recession

Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan summoned to Foreign Ministry

Euro rises above dollar for first time in long time

Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister calls Council of Turkic States 'forum of peace' and praises Turkey

EU embargo on Russian oil will be a boon for OPEC

Armenia defense minister receives China ambassador, military attache

Lemkin Institute condemns Azerbaijan president's genocidal rhetoric

Dollar goes up, euro rises sharply in Armenia

U.S. warns Europe that conflict over Taiwan will cause massive global economic shock

EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to moderate their rhetoric

Erdogan says Turkey has been waiting at door of EU for 52 years and will give answer when time comes

U.S. fears that European support for Ukrainian strategy will begin to weaken

Armenia, Iran emphasize need to quickly implement agreements reached (PHOTOS)

Armenia soldier wounded by Azerbaijan shooting undergoes surgery

Gas over morality: Hungary guards Azerbaijan's interests

U.S. quietly seeks concessions from Saudi Arabia after Mohammed bin Salman humiliated Biden

Italy's Ambassador to Armenia visits Gyumri

Russian Armed Forces complete redeployment of grouping from right bank of Dnieper

IRGC: Adversaries are frightened and on alert

Armenia appoints ambassador to Sri Lanka

Kremlin doesn't consider leaving Kherson 'humiliating'

Israeli president thinks the world is concerned about Netanyahu's far-right coalition partner

Chinese MFA: China is not distancing itself from Russia, as Biden believes

Ukraine will seek help from its foreign partners in financing Starlink satellite internet systems

Erdogan: Situation in South Caucasus remains fragile

Marukyan: Azerbaijans Aliyev admitted that his country started 2nd Karabakh war, despite previously insisting opposite

Azerbaijan blackmailing Armenia through Lachin corridor

Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus becomes observer in Organization of Turkic States

Armenia PM: In his latest speech Aliyev flagrantly violated agreement on refraining from threat or use of force

World Bank official: Armenia is one of best countries in terms of credit portfolio performance

Azerbaijan president makes repeated accusations, threats against Armenia

Iran citizens injured in Armenia road accident

China reveals new giant drone that could point to the future of air warfare

US embassy in Armenia closed today

Karabakh MOD: Defense Army did not fire at Azerbaijan positions located in occupied territories

Israel and U.S. counter threat of hypersonic missiles together

U.S. and EU plan to publish new roadmap on artificial intelligence

Armenia ombudsperson meets with Belgium colleagues

Newspaper: Armenia parliament opposition seats to no longer be empty

Newspaper: Armenia parliament committee of inquiry into 2020 war circumstances is inactive

U.S. will no longer consider Russia a country with a market economy

US intends to protect Azerbaijan from threats of Iran

Aliyev, Erdogan discuss results of tripartite meeting in Russias Sochi
VPPPA's 2017 National Annual Meeting Drawing Near

Hundreds of occupational safety and health professionals will be traveling to New Orleans to attend Safety+ at New Orleans' Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. It takes place Aug. 29 through Sept. 1.

Hundreds of occupational safety and health professionals will be traveling to New Orleans about a month from now to attend the 33rd Annual National VPPPA Safety & Health Conference, a conference renamed Safety+ by VPPPA in January 2017. Their goal: to learn from the best in safety and health in more than 100 educational sessions, network with thousands of OSH leaders and decision-makers, and share their successes and innovations to make workplaces safer across the globe.

The event will take place in New Orleans at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Tuesday, Aug. 29 through Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. VPPPA, the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants' Association, has partnered with the Louisiana Governor's Safety & Health Conference to present a joint event this year, with Mike Guillory, chairman of VPPPA, saying in March that the association has been "looking for more opportunities to work with safety professionals on a state level and expose more people to safety excellence education and trade ideas. Safety+," he explained, "will continue to provide excellent resources and education for both VPP and non-VPP companies."

Keynote speakers will include Dan Clark, a primary contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and author of 31 of his own best-selling books, and also Jeff "Odie" Espenship, a former USAF fighter pilot and international airline pilot who has become a renowned speaker.

Exhibit hours are scheduled so as not to coincide with workshops and sessions. On Monday, Aug. 28, there are pre-symposium workshops from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Tuesday, the highlights include the Labor & Management Open Forum (7-8:30 a.m.), First Timer's Workshop (8-8:30 a.m.), the Annual Meeting of the Membership (9:15-10 a.m.), Opening General Session Part 1 (10:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.), lunch (12:30-1:30 p.m.), and Opening General Session Part 2 (2-3:30 p.m.). A reception for the grand opening of the exhibit hall will be 5-7 p.m.

Workshops will take place at 8-9 a.m., 1-2 p.m., and 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Aug. 30, with the exhibit hall open 9-10 a.m. and 2-3:30 p.m. Lunch will be from 1-2 p.m.

Aug. 31 workshops are set for 8:30-9:30 a.m., 11 a.m.-noon, 1:30-2:30 p.m., and 3-4 p.m. The exhibit hall will be open 9:30-11 a.m. and 12-1:30 p.m. Lunch will be from noon-1:30 p.m. The Casino Night Reception at the New Orleans Marriott will be from 6-9 p.m. Aug. 31.

There are no exhibit hours on Sept. 1. Workshops will be from 8:30-9:30 a.m. and 9:45-10:45 a.m. that day, with the Closing General Session set for 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Muslim immigrants who feel marginalized and discriminated against in countries that expect them to integrate into their culture and society are more likely to experience psychological threats to their own significance that could be related to increased support of radicalism, according to new research presented at the American Psychological Association's 125th Annual Convention.

"We found that immigrants who identify with neither their heritage culture nor the culture they are living in feel marginalized and insignificant," said presenter Sarah Lyons-Padilla, PhD, of Stanford University. "Experiences of discrimination make the situation worse."

Lyons-Padilla presented two studies, one focused on 198 Muslims (78 men) living all over the United States. They were asked about their cultural identities and attitudes toward extremism via online surveys. The participants were between the ages of 18 and 35 and the majority lived in Maryland, Virginia and California. In this sample, 92 were first-generation immigrants; the rest were second-generation American-born, with the majority (105 participants) identifying Pakistan as their heritage country.

They were asked how connected they felt to their heritage culture as well as to American values, and how they felt about their level of integration in their new country. They were also asked if their religion or cultural background had ever led to their experiencing hostility or unfair treatment and how connected and significant they felt.

Finally, they were presented with a description of a hypothetical fundamentalist group made up of young Muslims in the United States. This hypothetical group made clear its stance against American maltreatment of Muslims and promised belonging, commitment and loyalty to potential members. Violence was never explicitly mentioned but the group clearly justified extreme actions to support its cause. The participants were asked how much they thought most people they know would like the hypothetical group, how willing these friends would be to engage in activities on behalf of the group and to what extent their friends would sympathize with the group should it engage in extreme behaviors, such as participating in illegal or violent demonstrations or damaging people's property.

Marginalization and discrimination were found to predict feelings of insignificance, which became stronger with the experience of more discrimination and, in turn, predicted an attraction to fundamentalist groups and its extreme behavior, the research found.

Another study Lyons-Padilla presented may help explain why countries in Europe are facing more cases of homegrown radicalization than the U.S. This survey of recent Muslim immigrants in Germany (204 participants) and the U.S. (198 participants) in late 2014 showed that in Germany, which is described as a tight society that expects more conformity, Muslims reported having a more difficult time integrating than immigrants in a looser society, such as the U.S. This could be due to the perception that the tighter society is not open to cultural diversity, said Lyons-Padilla. Those who were not well integrated were more likely to show support for extremist practices, the study found.

In this survey, all participants were asked about their acculturation experiences and perceptions of the larger society. For example, they were asked to rate their agreement with statements such as, "In this country, there are very clear expectations for how people should act in most situations," and "Most Americans/Germans are not interested in learning about other people's cultures." They were also asked about their desire for integration into their host country's culture. Finally, to measure their support for radicalism, they were asked whether they would sacrifice their life or endure suffering for an important cause. She noted the results are preliminary as the study is undergoing peer review.

"In what has also been referred to as a vicious cycle of prejudice, we find that lower levels of openness to diversity are associated with lower levels of cultural integration," she said. "Difficulty integrating, in turn, shapes support for extremism. Our findings therefore suggest that radicalization is not merely a process that takes place within individuals, but that the larger context of reception plays a crucial role."

More information: Session 3139: "When Disconnection Breeds Extremism: Marginalization, Discrimination and Risk for Radicalization," Symposium, Saturday, Aug. 5, 10-11:50 a.m., EDT, Room 146C, Street Level, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Pl., N.W., Washington, D.C.
TESS spacecraft awaits installation of cameras and other instruments. Credit: Orbital ATK

A NASA mission designed to explore the stars in search of planets outside of our solar system is a step closer to launch, now that its four cameras have been completed by researchers at MIT.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), due to launch in 2018, will travel through space, identifying more than 20,000 extrasolar planets. These will range from Earth-sized planets to much larger gas giants. TESS is expected to catalog a sample of around 500 Earth-sized and "super Earth" planets, or those with radii less than twice that of Earth. It will detect small rock-and-ice planets orbiting a diverse range of stars, including rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars.

"The scientific community is eagerly awaiting the launch of TESS and the first data release in 2018," says Sara Seager, the Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences at MIT and deputy lead of the TESS Science Office.

During its two-year mission, TESS, which is being led by MIT and managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will monitor the brightness of more than 200,000 stars. It will search for temporary drops in brightness caused by an exoplanet passing in front of its host star, as viewed from Earth.

The satellite's four cameras, developed by researchers at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, are equipped with large-aperture wide-angle lenses designed to survey the entire sky.

Each camera consists of a lens assembly containing seven optical elements and a detector with four charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor chips. The overall process of designing, fabricating, and testing the cameras at MIT has taken four years to complete.

The cameras were recently delivered to Dulles, Virginia-based aerospace company Orbital ATK, where they will be integrated onto the satellite. The four cameras have been mounted onto the camera plate, and successful operation with the flight computer has been demonstrated.

The instruments have just been inspected by NASA and a group of independent technical experts, as part of a formal Systems Integration Review of all TESS components, which they passed successfully.

Each of the four cameras has a field of view that is more than five times greater than that of the camera flown on the earlier planet-hunting Kepler space observatory mission, according to TESS Principal Investigator George Ricker, senior research scientist at the MIT Kavli Institute.

TESS cameras ready for installation onto spacecraft. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Science Research and Lincoln Laboratory

"The TESS four-camera ensemble instantaneously views a section of sky that is more than 20 times greater than that for the Kepler mission," Ricker says. "The instantaneous field of view of the TESS cameras, combined with their area and detector sensitivity, is unprecedented in a space mission."

A complication found in very fast wide-angle lenses, such as those in the TESS cameras, is that the image sharpness varies over the field of view, and there is no single focus, as found in more conventional cameras. Furthermore, the imaging properties change as the temperature of the cameras changes.

The MIT TESS team has subjected the cameras to extended, rigorous testing in conditions designed to replicate the environment they will be subjected to in space. These tests demonstrate that the cameras perform as expected, but with a small shift in focus relative to that predicted by models. This shift results in simulated stellar images in the center of the field appearing sharper than expected, while images at the edges of the field are somewhat less sharp. However, after independently studying the effects of this shift, researchers on the MIT TESS team and at NASA both concluded that the mission will readily achieve all of its scientific goals.

TESS relies on its ability to sense minute changes in stellar brightness to detect planets passing across them. The data processing is designed to correct for the variations in image sharpness over the field for most of the stars, and it will produce a record of brightness over time for every star being monitored, according to Jacqueline Hewitt, director of the MIT Kavli Institute.

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), shown here in a conceptual illustration, will identify exoplanets orbiting the brightest stars just outside our solar system. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The MIT TESS team will continue to carry out long-term ground tests on a spare flight camera to ensure that their in-orbit performance is well understood.

Following its launch next year, TESS will divide the sky into 26 "stitched" sections and will point its cameras at each of these in turn for 27 days. It will explore the Southern Hemisphere in the first year of its mission, and the Northern Hemisphere in its second year.

"TESS is classed by NASA as an Explorer mission with very focused scientific goals," Hewitt says. "It was designed to find exoplanets that are nearby and orbiting bright stars, so we can study them in great detail."

The data produced by the cameras will first be processed by the spacecraft's on-board computer. They will then be transmitted to Earth every two weeks via the NASA Deep Space Network and immediately forwarded to the TESS Payload Operations Center at MIT.

Provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc. provides home and security products for residential home repair, remodeling, new construction, and security applications. It operates in three segments: Plumbing, Outdoors & Security, and Cabinets. The Plumbing segment manufactures, assembles, and sells faucets, accessories, kitchen sinks, and waste disposals under the Moen, ROHL, Riobel, Victoria+Albert, Perrin & Rowe, and Shaws brands in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Southeast Asia, Europe, and South America directly through its own sales force, as well as through independent manufacturers' representatives to wholesalers, home centers, mass merchandisers, and industrial distributors. The Outdoors & Security segment offers fiberglass and steel entry door systems under the Therma-Tru brand; storm, screen, and security doors under the Larson brand; composite decking and railing under the Fiberon brand; and urethane millwork under the Fypon brand. This segment also manufactures, sources, and distributes locks, safety and security devices, and electronic security products under the Master Lock and American Lock brands; and fire resistant safes, security containers, and commercial cabinets under the SentrySafe brand. It serves home centers, hardware and other retailers, millwork building products and wholesale distributors, specialty dealers, and remodeling and renovation markets, as well as locksmiths, industrial and institutional users, and original equipment manufacturers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Central America, Japan, and Australia. The Cabinets segment manufactures custom, semi-custom, and custom cabinetry, as well as vanities for the kitchen, bath, and other parts of the home directly to kitchen and bath dealers, home centers, wholesalers, and builders in North America under the AOK, Diamond Brands, Homecrest, Kitchen Craft, Omega, and EVE brands. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.
United Parcel Service, Inc. provides letter and package delivery, transportation, logistics, and related services. It operates through two segments, U.S. Domestic Package and International Package. The U.S. Domestic Package segment offers time-definite delivery of letters, documents, small packages, and palletized freight through air and ground services in the United States. The International Package segment provides guaranteed day and time-definite international shipping services in Europe, the Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and Africa. This segment offers guaranteed time-definite express options. The company also provides international air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, distribution and post-sales, and mail and consulting services in approximately 200 countries and territories. In addition, it offers truckload brokerage services; supply chain solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industry; shipping, visibility, and billing technologies; and financial and insurance services. The company operates a fleet of approximately 121,000 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles; and owns 59,000 containers that are used to transport cargo in its aircraft. United Parcel Service, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The following companies are subsidiares of SAP: Abakus, Abakus Europe Limited, Abakus Ukraine Limited Liability Company, Adatfeldolgozasban Informatikai Kft., Altiscale, Ambin Properties Proprietary Limited, AppGyver, Ariba, Ariba Czech s.r.o., Ariba Inc. Palo Alto, Ariba India Private Limited, Ariba International, Ariba International Holdings, Ariba International Singapore Pte Ltd, Ariba Slovak Republic s.r.o., Ariba Software Technology Services (Shanghai) Co., Ariba Technologies India Private Limited, Ariba Technologies Netherlands B.V., Beijing Zhang Zhong Hu Dong Information Technology, Business Objects, Business Objects Holding B.V., Business Objects Option LLC, Business Objects Software Limited, CNQR Operations Mexico S. de. R.L. de. C.V., Callidus Software, CallidusCloud, Christie Partners Holding C.V., Clear Standards, ClearTrip Inc., ClearTrip Inc. (Mauritius), Cleartrip MEA FZ LLC, Cleartrip Private Limited, Coghead, ConTgo Consulting Limited, ConTgo Pty. Ltd., Concur (Austria) GmbH, Concur (Canada), Concur (France) SAS, Concur (Germany) GmbH, Concur (Japan) Ltd., Concur (New Zealand) Limited, Concur (Philippines) Inc., Concur (Switzerland) GmbH, Concur Czech (s.r.o.), Concur Holdings (France) SAS, Concur Holdings (Netherlands) B.V., Concur Technologies (Australia) Pty. Limited, Concur Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited, Concur Technologies (India) Private Limited, Concur Technologies (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Concur Technologies (UK) Limited, Concur Technologies Inc. Bellevue, Contextor, Coresystems, Crystal Decisions (Ireland) Limited, Crystal Decisions Holdings Limited, Crystal Decisions UK Limited, Emarsys, EssCubed Procurement Pty. Ltd., Extended Systems, Factory Logic, Fedem Technology AS, Fieldglass Europe Limited, Financial Fusion, FreeMarkets Ltda., Frictionless Commerce, Gigya, Gigya Australia Pty Ltd, Gigya Ltd., Gigya UK Ltd, GlobalExpense Limited, Highdeal, Hipmunk, Hybris (US) Corp., Hybris GmbH, Inxight Federal Systems Group, KXEN, Khimetrics, LLC "SAP Labs", LLC "SAP Ukraine", LLC SAP CIS, MaXware, Merlin Systems Oy, Multiposting Sp.z o.o., Nihon Ariba K.K., OpTier, OutlookSoft, OutlookSoft Deutschland GmbH, PLAT.ONE, PT SAP Indonesia, PT Sybase 365 Indonesia, Pilot Software Inc., Plat.One Inc., Plat.One Lab Srl, Plateau Systems LLC, Quadrem Africa Pty. Ltd., Quadrem Brazil Ltda., Quadrem Chile Ltda., Quadrem Colombia SAS, Quadrem International Ltd., Quadrem Netherlands B.V., Quadrem Overseas Cooperatief U.A., Quadrem Peru S.A.C., Qualtrics, Recast.AI, Right Hemisphere, Roambi, Ruan Lian Technologies (Beijing) Co., SAF, SAP (Beijing) Software System Co., SAP (Schweiz) AG, SAP (Schweiz) AG Biel, SAP (UK) Limited, SAP (UK) Limited Feltham, SAP AZ LLC, SAP America, SAP America Inc. Newtown Square, SAP Andina y del Caribe, SAP Argentina S.A., SAP Asia (Vietnam) Co., SAP Asia Pte Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd. Sydney, SAP Belgium NV/SA, SAP Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Brasil Ltda, SAP Brasil Ltda Sao Paulo, SAP Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Business Compliance Services GmbH, SAP Business Services Center Nederland B.V., SAP CR, SAP Canada, SAP Chile Limitada, SAP China Co., SAP China Co. Ltd. Shanghai, SAP China Holding Co., SAP Colombia S.A.S., SAP Commercial Services Ltd., SAP Concur, SAP Costa Rica, SAP Customer Experience, SAP Cyprus Limited, SAP Danmark A/S, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG Walldorf, SAP Dritte Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP EMEA Inside Sales S.L., SAP East Africa Limited, SAP Egypt LLC, SAP Erste Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP Espana - Sistemas Informatica, SAP Estonia OU, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Financial, SAP Finland Oy, SAP Foreign Holdings GmbH, SAP France, SAP France Holding, SAP France Levallois Perret, SAP Global Marketing, SAP Hellas S.A., SAP Holdings (UK) Limited, SAP Hong Kong Co., SAP Hosting Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Hungary Rendszerek, SAP India (Holding) Pte Ltd, SAP India Private Limited, SAP India Private Limited Bangalore, SAP Industries, SAP Industries Inc. Newtown Square, SAP International, SAP International Panama, SAP Investments, SAP Ireland Limited, SAP Ireland US - Financial Services Designated Activity Company, SAP Israel Ltd., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A. Vimercate, SAP Japan Co., SAP Japan Co. Ltd. Tokyo, SAP Kazakhstan LLP, SAP Korea Ltd., SAP Labs, SAP Labs Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Labs Finland Oy, SAP Labs France SAS, SAP Labs India Private Limited, SAP Labs Israel Ltd., SAP Labs Korea, SAP Latvia SIA, SAP MENA FZ L.L.C., SAP Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., SAP Malta Investments Ltd., SAP Mxico S.A. de C.V., SAP National Security Services PA, SAP Nederland B.V., SAP Nederland B.V. s-Hertogenbosch, SAP Service and Support Centre (Ireland) Limited, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP d.o.o., SeeWhy, Signavio, SuccessFactors, SuccessFactors Inc. South San Francisco, SwoopTalent, Sybase, Syclo, TopTier Software, Triversity, Vimercate, Virsa Systems, Visiprise, Wicom Communications, and conTgo limited.

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The following companies are subsidiares of D.R. Horton: 10700 Pecan Park Austin Inc., 11241 Slater Avenue NE LLC, 2 C Development Company LLC, 8800 Roswell Road Bldg. B LLC, 91st Avenue & Happy Valley L.L.C., ANN & 215 LLC, Austin Data Inc., BP456 Inc., C. Richard Dobson Builders Inc., CH Funding LLC, CH Investments of Texas Inc., CHI Construction Company, CHM Partners L.P., CHTEX of Texas Inc., CV Mountain View 25 Inv LLC, Cane Island LLC, Continental Homes Inc., Continental Homes of Texas L.P., Continental Residential Inc., Continental Traditions LLC, Crown Operating Company Inc., Cypress Road L.P., D.R. Horton - CHAustin LLC, D.R. Horton - Colorado LLC, D.R. Horton - Crown LLC, D.R. Horton - Emerald Ltd., D.R. Horton - Georgia LLC, D.R. Horton - Hawaii LLC, D.R. Horton - Highland LLC, D.R. Horton - Indiana LLC, D.R. Horton - Iowa LLC, D.R. Horton - MV LLC, D.R. Horton - Nebraska LLC, D.R. Horton - Permian LLC, D.R. Horton - Regent LLC, D.R. Horton - Terramor LLC, D.R. Horton - Texas Ltd., D.R. Horton - WPH LLC, D.R. Horton - Wyoming LLC, D.R. Horton BAY Inc., D.R. Horton CA2 Inc., D.R. Horton CA3 Inc., D.R. Horton CA4 LLC, D.R. Horton Commercial Inc., D.R. Horton Cruces Construction Inc., D.R. Horton Inc. - Birmingham, D.R. Horton Inc. - Chicago, D.R. Horton Inc. - Denver, D.R. Horton Inc. - Dietz-Crane, D.R. Horton Inc. - Greensboro, D.R. Horton Inc. - Gulf Coast, D.R. Horton Inc. - Huntsville, D.R. Horton Inc. - Jacksonville, D.R. Horton Inc. - Louisville, D.R. Horton Inc. - Midwest, D.R. Horton Inc. - Minnesota, D.R. Horton Inc. - NNV, D.R. Horton Inc. - New Jersey, D.R. Horton Inc. - Portland, D.R. Horton Inc. - Torrey, D.R. Horton Inc. Foundation, D.R. Horton Insurance Agency Inc., D.R. Horton LA North Inc., D.R. Horton Life Insurance Agency Inc., D.R. Horton Los Angeles Holding Company Inc., D.R. Horton Management Company Ltd., D.R. Horton Materials Inc., D.R. Horton Realty LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Atlantic County LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Central Florida LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Delaware LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Georgia Inc., D.R. Horton Realty of Melbourne LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Northwest Florida LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Southeast Florida LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Southwest Florida LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Tampa LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Virginia LLC, D.R. Horton Seabridge Marina Inc., D.R. Horton Serenity Construction LLC, D.R. Horton Urban Renewal LLC, D.R. Horton VEN Inc., D.R. Horton  Corpus Christi LLC, DBC54 LLC, DHI Commercial - Lakeview LLC, DHI Commercial - Signal Butte LLC, DHI Commercial - Tamarron LLC, DHI Commercial Inc., DHI Communities Construction LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Arizona LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Colorado LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Florida LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Iowa LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Nevada LLC, DHI Communities Construction of North Carolina LLC, DHI Communities Construction of South Carolina LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Texas LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Utah LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Virginia LLC, DHI Communities II LLC, DHI Communities Inc., DHI Engineering LLC, DHI Insurance Inc., DHI Mortgage Company, DHI Mortgage Company GP Inc., DHI Mortgage Company LP Inc., DHI Mortgage Company Ltd., DHI Ranch Ltd., DHI Realty of Alabama LLC, DHI Realty of Mississippi LLC, DHI Title GP Inc., DHI Title LP Inc., DHI Title of Alabama Inc., DHI Title of Arizona Inc., DHI Title of Florida Inc., DHI Title of Minnesota Inc., DHI Title of Nevada Inc., DHI Title of Texas Ltd., DHI Title of Washington Inc., DHI Verandah South Shores Communities LLC, DHIC - Bridges LLC, DHIC - Brittmore LLC, DHIC - Carolina Forest LLC, DHIC - Desert Peak LLC, DHIC - Durbin Creek LLC, DHIC - Freestone LLC, DHIC - Hammock Landing LLC, DHIC - Heritage LLC, DHIC - Horizon Uptown LLC, DHIC - Jacobs Reserve LLC, DHIC - Lakeview LLC, DHIC - Lipoma LLC, DHIC - Minton Cove LLC, DHIC - Mountain Vista LLC, DHIC - Naco LLC, DHIC - Northshore LLC, DHIC - Prairie Village LLC, DHIC - South Creek LLC, DHIC - Tamarron LLC, DHIC - Valley Vista LLC, DHIC - Varina Gateway LLC, DHIC - Waterleigh II LLC, DHIC - Waterleigh III LLC, DHIC - Waterleigh LLC, DHIC - Westridge LLC, DHIC LLC, DHIC  Glendale LLC, DHIC  Grove West LLC, DHIC  South Park LLC, DHIC  Westinghouse LLC, DHIR - Aspen Vista LLC, DHIR - Avian Pointe LLC, DHIR - Emerald Lakes LLC, DHIR - Fosters Ridge LLC, DHIR - Gulf Stream LLC, DHIR - Parkview at Lynn Haven LLC, DHIR - Poplar Terrace LLC, DHIR - Properties I LLC, DHIR - Rock Ridge LLC, DHIR - Sunset Village LLC, DHIR - Village at Hickory Street LLC, DRH - ARK LLC, DRH - ASG LLC, DRH - HWY 114 LLC, DRH Cambridge Homes LLC, DRH Capital Trust I, DRH Capital Trust II, DRH Capital Trust III, DRH Colorado Realty Inc., DRH Construction Inc., DRH Energy Inc., DRH FS Mortgage Reinsurance Ltd., DRH Land Opportunities I Inc., DRH Land Opportunities II Inc., DRH Mountain View LLC, DRH Oil & Gas Inc., DRH Opportunities I Inc., DRH Properties Inc., DRH Realty Company Inc., DRH Realty of Iowa LLC, DRH Regrem L LLC, DRH Regrem LI LLC, DRH Regrem LII LLC, DRH Regrem LIII LLC, DRH Regrem LIV LLC, DRH Regrem LV LLC, DRH Regrem VII LP, DRH Regrem XII LP, DRH Regrem XIV Inc., DRH Regrem XIX Inc., DRH Regrem XLIX LLC, DRH Regrem XLV LLC, DRH Regrem XLVI LLC, DRH Regrem XLVII LLC, DRH Regrem XLVIII LLC, DRH Regrem XV Inc., DRH Regrem XVI Inc., DRH Regrem XVII Inc., DRH Regrem XVIII Inc., DRH Regrem XX Inc., DRH Regrem XXI Inc., DRH Regrem XXII Inc., DRH Regrem XXIII Inc., DRH Regrem XXIV Inc., DRH Regrem XXV Inc., DRH Southwest Construction Inc., DRH Tucson Construction Inc., DRHI Inc., Deer Valley Office Park LLC, Desert Ridge Phase I Partners, Emerald Creek No. 4 L.P., Emerald Realty of Alabama LLC, Emerald Realty of Central Florida LLC, Emerald Realty of North Florida LLC, Emerald Realty of Northwest Florida LLC, Emerald Realty of Southeast Florida LLC, Emerald Realty of Southwest Florida LLC, Encore II Inc., Encore Venture Partners II (California) L.P., Encore Venture Partners II (Texas) L.P., Encore Venture Partners L.P., Express Realty of Central Florida LLC, Express Realty of North Florida LLC, Express Realty of Northwest Florida LLC, Express Realty of Southeast Florida LLC, Express Realty of Southwest Florida LLC, Forestar Group, Forestar Group Inc., Founders Oil & Gas II LLC, Founders Oil & Gas III LLC, Founders Oil & Gas IV LLC, Founders Oil & Gas LLC, Founders Oil & Gas Operating LLC, GP-Encore Inc., Georgetown Data Inc., Germann & McQueen L.L.C., Grand Title Agency LLC, Grande Realty Incorporated, Grande Realty of Pennsylvania LLC, Greywes LLC, HPH Homebuilders 2000 L.P., Hadian LLC, KDB Homes Inc., Kaomalo LLC, Lexington Homes - DRH LLC, MRLF LLC, Martin Road Lake Forest LLC, McQueen & Willis LLC, Meadows I Ltd., Meadows II Ltd., Meadows IX Inc., Meadows VIII Ltd., Meadows X Inc., Melody Homes Inc., Pacific Ridge - DRH LLC, Rielly Carlsbad LLC, Rielly Homes Madison LLC, SFTEN LLC, SGS Communities at Grand Quay L.L.C, SHA Construction LLC, SHLR of California Inc., SHLR of Nevada Inc., SHLR of Washington Inc., SRHI LLC, SSHI LLC, Schuler Homes of Arizona LLC, Schuler Homes of California Inc., Schuler Homes of Oregon Inc., Schuler Homes of Washington Inc., Summerlin Pkwy & Cimarron LLC, Surprise Village North LLC, The Club at Cobblestone LLC, The Club at Hidden River LLC, Tierra Financial Advisors LLC, Travis County Title Company, Treasure Assets LLC, Venture Management of South Carolina LLC, Vertical Construction Corporation, WPH-Camino Ruiz LLC, WPH-Copper Canyon II LLC, WPH-Copper Canyon LLC, Walker Drive LLC, Western Pacific Brea Development LLC, Western Pacific Housing - Mountaingate L.P., Western Pacific Housing - SDG LLC, Western Pacific Housing - Westlake II L.P., Western Pacific Housing Inc., Western Pacific Housing Management Inc., Western Pacific Housing-Antigua LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Broadway LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Canyon Park LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Carrillo LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Communications Hill LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Copper Canyon LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Creekside LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Lomas Verdes LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Lyons Canyon Partners LLC, Western Pacific Housing-McGonigle Canyon LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Norco Estates LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Pacific Park II LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Park Avenue East LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Park Avenue West LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Playa Vista LLC, Western Pacific Housing-River Ridge LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Terra Bay Duets LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Torrey Meadows LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Torrey Village Center LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Windemere LLC, and Wilson Parker Homes.

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Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation: 510 N. Leroux St. From Rock n Roll last week to Far Out this Sunday. As we approach the annual Perseid Meteor Showers in the coming week, with this year noted to be one of the most active and brightest in many years, a contemplative service and guided meditation this Sunday. Join Rev. Kevin for a service of centering and calm during the busy summer months. beaconuu.com/.

Calvary Bible Church: 6555 Townsend-Winona Road. Sunday: Kathy and Karen Anton with concert and ministry update. Adult Bible study followed by worship service. Potluck after worship service; no evening service. Wednesday night prayer and Bible study. Studying 2nd Peter. Coming Aug. 13, Ernie and Roxie Geeting with UIM International. calvarybiblechurchflagstaff.com.

Center for Spiritual Living: 2384 N. Steves Blvd. Our guest speaker on Sunday will be Steve Higgins, RScP, who will give a message to open our August theme "Vitality." At 9:30 a.m., prior to our service, Alex Reegan will facilitate a meditation time. 522-9103. cslflagstaff.org.

Christian Science Society of Flagstaff: 619 W. Birch Ave. We hold Sunday worship services and Sunday School (for children and young people up to the age of 20). The subject of this week's sermon is "Spirit" from Job 33:4 and John 4:24. Wednesday testimony meetings at 5:30 p.m. Our Christian Science Reading Room, a quiet place for prayer and study, is open from 4-5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-noon on Saturdays or by appointment. 556-0510.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon): Sunday services held at four Flagstaff locations: 4165 S. Lake Mary Road, 625 E. Cherry Ave., 2401 E. Linda Vista Dr. and, for young single adults, 239 E. Saunders Dr. Meetings are also held in Williams at 1111 Stockmens Road and at the Shrine of the Ages on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Check azdailysun.com or "Locations and Schedules" at LDS.org for meeting times by ward/branch. Sunday services consist of Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and special instruction for various age and interest groups (Priesthood Meeting for men, Relief Society for women, Young Men/Young Women for youth and Primary for children).

Church of the Resurrection: 740 W. University Heights Drive South. It's Communion Sunday and Pastor Bob Norton is preaching on "A Church is Born" based on Acts 16:6-40, the first in a series on "Jesus Our Joy." Get ready for Sunday, Aug. 13, when the People's Pantry van will be parked at church so we can "stuff the bus" with food items. Bring your donations to church that Sunday or the week before. Let's fill the van to help those in need in our community! Is the desire of your heart to be baptized or join the church? Come to a baptism and new member class on Wednesday evening. Love garage sales? Today is a monster one to benefit FaithWorks in Cosninino at 10075 Roan Road. All proceeds benefit short-term missions. 699-2715. cor-pca.org.

Congregation Lev Shalom: 2609 N. Patterson Blvd. Rabbi Mindie Snyder will lead Erev Shabbat Services on Friday, Aug. 11. 527-8747. levshalomaz.org.

Episcopal Church of the Epiphany: 423 N. Beaver St. Feast of the Transfiguration. Priest Marianna Gronek preaches and celebrates at all services this weekend. Are you heading back to school? Bring your backpack, messenger bag or briefcase with you to church for the Blessing of the Backpacks. Our school supply drive continues through August for students at Puente de Hozho and Killip Schools. 774-2911. epiphanyaz.org.

Faith Fellowship: Meeting in Knoles Elementary (4055 E. Butler Ave.). Charismatic, spirit-filled and nondenominational. Kids church available for ages 1-12. This Sunday we will be serving Communion and be speaking on "Pillars of Our Faith." In our evening service, we are speaking on "The Power of God." faithfellowshipflagstaff.com.

First Congregational Church of Flagstaff, United Church of Christ: 740 N. Turquoise Dr. John Leung will preach on "Make Peace Inevitable" based on Matthew 14:13-21. In other church news: The Meditative Spirituality Group meets for discussion and meditative exercise Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Church Fellowship Breakfast meets at 8 a.m. Thursday at Coco's Restaurant. 774-0890. fccflagstaff.org.

Flagstaff Christian Fellowship: 123 S. Beaver St. Pastor Steve Cole's message for Sunday is "The Church and Money" from various Scriptures as he continues his series on the Church. Adult class continues the Proverbs series. Sunday evening we continue in Apologetics with Dan Barton speaking on "Sharing and Defending the Faith." Wednesday: Reformation Profiles facilitated by Mike Keena (introduction to the Five Solas of the Reformation). Thursday: Missions Focus Book Club (offsite) "Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret" by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor. 774-3603. fcfonline.org.

Flagstaff Federated Community Church: This Sunday Pastor Jessica will conclude the worship series called, "Seven Deadly Sins." This Sunday's sermon, titled "Dying with Lust, Living with Love," is inspired by Matthew 14:1-11, Song of Solomon 4:16-5:16 and Luke 4:1-13. We will enjoy communion during worship. The Christian Living Class will continue their study, "Painting the Stars," which will explore Progressive Christianity. The Wired Word Class will continue to examine current events through the lens of faith. 774-7383. flagstafffederatedchurch.org.

Flagstaff Unity Church: 417 W. Santa Fe Ave. Rev. Penni Honey is our speaker. Her message is "Diversity Differently Defined." Fellowship follows the service. 526-8893. unityofflagstaff.org.

Greenlaw Baptist Church: 3400 E. Lockett Road. Sunday School classes for all ages. Pastor Barry Hall will bring the message: "Reasons for and Results of Redemption." Our monthly potluck will follow the morning service. Thursday worship service followed by dinner and breakout groups, including our Celebrate Recovery program. If you have an addiction, we can help you in this program. This is a non-judgmental, caring approach to your problem. Our next outstanding music event will be Friday, Aug. 11, at 7 p.m. Come and hear delightful music by the Sweet Adelines (ladies' barbershop chorus), soloist Sandie Sangster and some talented young musicians. 526-4939.

Harvest Bible Chapel Flagstaff: 2801 N. Izabel St. This month (August) we'll have a mini-series titled "Under Construction: Prayer at Work" led by Pastor Paul. Children's ministry and contemporary worship. 773-1615. harvestflagstaff.org.

Holy Cross Orthodox Church: 6134 Black Bill Road. Divine Liturgy with Father Eugen. (480) 991-3009. holycrossflagstaff.org/.

Living Christ Lutheran Church: 6401 N. US Highway 89. We gather weekly on Sundays to worship through music, teaching, prayer and sacraments. Fellowship time after service. Pastor Kurt Fangmeier will be leading worship. 526-8595. livingchristflagstaff.org.

Peace Lutheran Church: 3430 N. Fourth St. There will be only one morning service Sunday at 8:30 a.m., with communion. Deacon Gary Melvin will speak on "You Gave Them Something to Eat" from Matthew 14:13-21, the feeding of the 5,000. The installation service and reception for Pastor Brian Pape Sunday at 3 p.m. Reception dinner to follow. RSVP to 526-9578. peacelutheranflagstaff.org.

Refuge: A Flagstaff Community Church: 4000 Cummings St. We meet weekly for fellowship and worship. Sunday school available for children. 607-5728. facebook.com/refugeinflagstaff/.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quaker): Flagstaff Friends Meeting House, 402 S. Beaver St. At our unprogrammed Quaker Meeting we meet in silence of expectant listening. A meeting may be completely silent, or, as more often happens, someone will feel moved to speak, to share something which may be of help or guidance to others. 779-3517. flagstaffquakers.org/.

San Francisco de Asis: 1600 E. Route 66. Fr. Dan and Fr. Clement will preach the Gospel of Matthew 17:1-9. 779-1341. sfdaparish.org.

Trinity Heights United Methodist Church: 3600 N. Fourth St. The Sunday morning message is "Four Themes of the Bible: God Is With Us" and scripture is taken from Psalm 139. Children's Sunday School is offered for kids through 5th grade and nursery care is available at both services. We also have an Adult Sunday School class. Beginning Aug. 13 at 6:15 p.m., we will be starting a six-week class called The Art of Marriage. 526-1397. thumc.com.
Li Shengwu, eldest son of Lee Hsien Yang. (Photo: Facebook)

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect further comments by Li.

The eldest son of Lee Hsien Yang has expressed surprise at the Attorney-Generals Chambers (AGC) response to his private Facebook post in July about the Lee family feud, saying that the agency had chosen to escalate the dispute.

I dont know whether or not this will resolve the matter. There should have been no matter in the first place, and Im surprised that the AGC chose to escalate the dispute, said Li Shengwu on Friday (4 August), in an email response to queries from Yahoo News Singapore.

Yahoo News Singapore had asked the 32-year-old if he felt that his latest Facebook post on Friday would resolve the matter. Earlier in the day, Li said that the AGC had sent him a threatening letter that called the July post an attack on the Singapore judiciary. He stressed that he had actually intended to comment on the litigious nature of the government and how this affects press freedom.

He added that he had amended his July post to avoid any misunderstanding.

Li, who is the nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, added that he had responded in writing to the AGC. Li was asked by the AGC to take down his original post and put up an apology prepared by government lawyers by 28 July, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.

Li confirmed to Yahoo News Singapore that he had been asked to take down the post and issue an apology.

Asked if he intended to continue writing social media posts on similar issues, Li replied, I regularly write commentaries on current affairs to my Facebook friends. I will continue to be frank and honest with them.
Li Shengwu deliving a eulogy at the funeral of Lee Kuan Yew in March 2015. Screenshot from YouTube

UPDATE: This article has been amended to reflect Li Shengwus letter to the AGC.

Li Shengwu has denounced the Attorney-Generals Chambers (AGC) move to begin contempt of court proceedings against him as politically motivated prosecution.

In an email response to Yahoo News Singapores queries, the eldest son of Lee Hsien Yang said on Saturday (5 August), The AGCs letter directly mentions Singapores recent political crisis as justification for their action. I thought Singapore was better than this.

He added, I will not buy a quiet life at the price of my integrity.

Also on Saturday, Li said in a separate interview with Reuters that he had no intention of going back to Singapore to face charges.

On Friday, AGC announced that it had filed an application in the High Court to commence committal proceedings against Li for contempt of court over his Facebook post on 15 July this year. In his private post, the 32-year-old junior fellow at Harvard University had said that the Singapore government is very litigious and has a pliant court system.

In its July letter to Li  which is being circulated online  the AGC had said that the republication of his post was an entirely foreseeable consequence given that he is the grandson of the late Lee Kuan Yew.

It also noted the timing of the Post, coming shortly after a highly published debate in Singapore, including the Singapore Parliament, in respect of allegations by members of your family against the Prime Minister of abuse of power, and your postings publicly supporting your family.

The highly inflammatory nature of these assertionsdirectly contradict Mr Lee Kuan Yews values and the judicial system which he spent his entire public life upholding and defending, and would therefore be very topical, it added.

AGC has misunderstood me

Li, who is also the nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, reproduced his letter to the AGC online on Saturday. Dated 4 August, the letter claimed that AGC has taken my post completely out of context (and) misunderstood me.

Story continues

In the letter, he explained that his post was not meant as a criticism of the Singapore judiciary. Instead, he was commenting on how the Singapore governments litigation against the international media acts as a censorship to the coverage of the international media.

LI again stressed that his post was a private one and that it had been circulated without his permission. It was then reproduced by mainstream media outlets such as The Straits Times and Channel NewsAsia, none of which approached him for verification or clarification.

Instead, the mainstream media articles capitalized as newsworthy comments made on 16 July by Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat that he was disappointed with my actions and on 17 July by AGC that it was looking into my post, making my private post public news and widely circulated.

He added, I am not responsible for the widespread and unauthorized publication and republication in Singapore of my private post.

Noting that AGCs concern appears to be the public reproduction of his private post, Li said, Perhaps AGC should require the mainstream media and other parties who made my private post public to delete and remove their unauthorized publications and republications.

Earlier on Friday, Li also said that it was not his intention to attack the Singapore judiciary, stressing that his post was private and not meant to be circulated. He also told Yahoo News Singapore that it was the AGC that had escalated the dispute over his July post.
Starting this fall, students in Rhode Island will have the opportunity to attend community college tuition-free.

The state legislature on Thursday approved the RI Promise Scholarship, a four-year pilot program that will pay tuition and fees for students attending the Community College of Rhode Island, the states only community college, regardless of their income.

Rhode Island the latest state offering free tuition for residents to attend community college  a significant benefit as the cost of a college education continues to rise. Tennessee passed a free community college tuition program for recent high school graduates in 2015, and will expand it to include all adults next year. Oregon, New York and Nevada have begun similar programs.

Rhode Island budgeted $2.8 million for the first year of the free-tuition program. The benefit originally was part of a 2015 proposal by Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) to provide two years of free college education to students at all of the states public colleges. The idea was for community college students to pay no tuition for a two-year associates degree, while state residents at Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island would pay no tuition for their junior and senior years.

But Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello called the full plan unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible. Democratic lawmakers in June significantly slimmed down Raimondos proposal to the legislation the governor signed on Thursday, which applies only to community college students.

Community College of Rhode Islands in-state general tuition fee for the fall semester is $2,074. The Promise Scholarship will cover this, as well as the $208 annual fee, after students use any need-based grants they receive. The college estimates 1,200 to 1,300 students will receive the scholarship in the fall.

Students are eligible to receive the scholarship if they graduated from a Rhode Island high school or completed the GED the semester before. They also must enroll in the college full time, maintain a GPA of at least 2.5, earn 30 credits each year, and enroll each semester for two years.

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Approximately 70 percent of the schools students are part time, according to the schools website. Alix Ogden, the college presidents chief of staff, told the Providence Journal in June that she hopes the scholarship will persuade more part-time students to enroll full time.

Scholarship recipients must also agree to live and work in Rhode Island for the same length of time they receive the scholarship, meaning a student using the scholarship for a two-year associates degree must then spend two years living and working in the state. Theres no penalty for violating the condition.

In a video posted on her Twitter account, Raimondo explained why she advocated for the plan: Because I want you to get a good job here in Rhode Island.

The Promise Scholarship is expected to expand enrollment at the community college.

Rhode Island College President Frank Sanchez told the Providence Journal in June he was concerned the program would take enrollment from his four-year school.

We dont know what the impact will be, Sanchez said. We do know that with similar programs such as Tennessees, they saw a decline in enrollments at the four-year public institutions.

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's top police official has called for tougher laws to fight cyber crime on the illegal internet - the Darknet - and other organised criminal structures, in an interview published on Saturday. Holger Muench, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office, told Die Welt newspaper that German law needed to be adjusted to account for the massive harm such criminal activities can do. "Professional hackers can cause enormous damage. They represent a danger for security and the economy," Muench said. "That should be reflected in the sentences as well." Muench said current law made it difficult to go after operators of botnet networks that enable large-scale automated cyber attacks. Muench's comments came after a German court recently gave a suspended sentence to a British hacker-for-hire who confessed to a cyber attack that knocked out the internet for around a million Deutsche Telekom customers. The regional court in Cologne handed the man, named only as Daniel K., a suspended sentence of a year and eight months for attempted commercial computer sabotage. The maximum sentence was up to 10 years, and prosecutors had asked for two years. The Federal Criminal Police Office last year reported 83,000 cases of cyber crime that caused damage costing over 51 million euros. More than half of German companies have been hit by spying, sabotage or data theft, the IT industry association Bitkom reported last month. Die Welt newspaper also quoted the federal prosecutor for Frankfurt, home of Germany's internet crime agency (ZIT) as calling for reforms of current law to account for a growing trade in drugs, pornography and weapons on the Darknet. "The criminal code for cyber crime must be reformed and modernised, otherwise many of the crimes that we see cannot be sufficiently prosecuted," Georg Ungefuk told the newspaper. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, whose party wants him take over the federal interior ministry after the Sept. 24 German election, said Germany needed a more comprehensive approach to cybercrime, despite its decentralised federal structure that assigns great responsibility to the individual states. "The competencies between the federal government, states and military are even more blurred in the cyber realm than in the fight against terrorism," he told the weekly magazine Der Spiegel. "We need new structures." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Petra Jasper; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
India's main opposition Congress Party staged angry nationwide protests Saturday, blaming supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for pelting stones at the car of its leader Rahul Gandhi. Congress workers shouted slogans outside the headquarters of Modi's ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi and held street protests in other states. Gandhi was travelling to a flood-hit area in western Gujarat state Friday when a mob carrying black flags pelted stones at his convoy. Although Gandhi was unhurt in the attack, the windows of his car were smashed, television channels showed. "BJP workers threw stones at me, it hit my PSO (personal security officer). It is their style of politics, what can I say," said Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that ruled India for decades through the Congress party. Gandhi, 47, has been seeking to revive the party's fortunes after the BJP ousted it from power in 2014 general elections. Gujarat, Modi's home state, goes to the polls in December with the BJP seeking to retain power. "Windowpanes of Cong VP's car broken in an organised attack by goons, security staff injured. BJP must know truth can't be silenced," tweeted Randeep Surjewla, a Congress spokesman. The Congress also lodged a police complaint of "murderous assault" against four BJP workers. Police have detained one man and are investigating the incident, the Press Trust of India reported. Gandhi said he was undeterred by the attack. "Narendra Modi ji, slogans, black flags and stones will not deter us... We will put in all our might into the service of people," he tweeted Friday. Gandhi later met flood victims in Banaskantha district of Gujarat where severe monsoon flooding has killed more than 200 people so far.
A reconstruction in 2013 uncovered a unique fresco of high artistic value and technical quality from around 1400 AD.

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More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

The castle hill in Nitra is part of the upper town and is the most significant sight in the city centre. This fortified complex consists of the cathedral, the bishops residence and a seminary.

St. Emerams Cathedral dominates the complex and actually consists of three churches: the 11th century Romanesque St Emeram church; the originally gothic, 14th-century upper church; and the lower 17th-century church.

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The oldest church contains relics of St. Andrew-Svorad, St. Emeram and St. Benedict. The complex is dedicated to these three saints, who were significant in Slovak history.

The reliquary of St. Cyril, the missionary who brought the first Slavic script to the current territory of Slovakia, was a gift from Pope Paul VI. The buildings history can be seen in the rich decorations, which span centuries.

A reconstruction in 2013 uncovered a unique fresco of high artistic value and technical quality from around 1400, showing that the church may still contain hidden treasures.

The Diocesan Museum in the bishops residence offers insight into the history of the place as well as the Nitra Bishopric.

Many of the buildings surrounding the cathedral are either private residences or administrative offices and are off limits to the public.

It is possible, however, to explore some areas of the former fortifications, including star-shaped, singleman watchtowers, and also to look at the imposing statues of St.s Cyril and Methodius, the trailblazers who brought Christianity and literacy to Slovakia.

Watch a video about Nitra castle, which was prepared as a part of project Cultural Heritage to promote renewal and preservation of cultural and historical heritage in Slovakia, through the EEA and Norwegian Funds.
The ceremony was organised by Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur, who thanked Slovakia for the beautiful tree.

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A Slovak Christmas tree decorated Grand Place, the main square in Brussels, during last years Christmas period.

The ceremonial lighting of the tree, brought there from Horne Oresany (Trnava Region) as a gift of Slovakias presidency of the Council of the EU, took place in late November, starting the traditional Christmas celebrations in Brussels, the TASR newswire reported.

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The ceremony was organised by Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur, who thanked Slovakia for the beautiful tree. Also Slovak Ambassador to Belgium Stanislav Vallo, who had the idea to place a Slovak tree on the main square, participated in preparations for the event.

Both were assisted by ambassadors from Japan and Canada, whose embassies had stalls at the zone booked for the Pleasures of Winter festival.

Part of the programme was included a performance of the folklore ensemble Makovica from Svidnik (Presov Region) that also sang Silent Night in Slovak.

The trees decoration and lighting became part of the show titled Lost in Brussels. The music part was secured by Belgian DJ Lost frequencies, while the lighting was provided by designer Koert Vermeulen, TASR wrote.
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Inc., ITO Emniyet, Ingersoll Rand Cyprus Investments Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Finance LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Investments LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Ventures LLC, Ingersoll Rand Hong Kong Investments Limited, Ingersoll Rand Inc., Ingersoll Rand Investments (SG) Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Investments B.V., Ingersoll Rand Schweiz Investments Gmbh, Ingersoll Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (Australia) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (China) Investment Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Guilin) Tools Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Hong Kong) Holding Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (India) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Ab, Ingersoll-Rand Air Solutions Hibon Sarl, Ingersoll-Rand Beteiligungs Und Grundstucksverwaltungs Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Colombia S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (Uk), Ingersoll-Rand Company South Africa (Pty) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Cz S.R.O., Ingersoll-Rand De Mexico S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Equipements De Production S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Industrial Ireland Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International (India) Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Italia S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Italiana Manufacturing S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Korea Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Korea Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments II S.A R.I., Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Luxembourg Industrial Company S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Machinery (Shanghai) Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Malaysia Co. Sdn. Bhd., Ingersoll-Rand S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Services And Trading Limited Liability Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Singapore Enterprises Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand South East Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Superay Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technical And Services S.A.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Technologies And Services Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Tool Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Trading Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Vietnam Company Limited, Instrum Rand JSC, Interflex Datensysteme, Ir Canada Holdings Ulc, Ir Canada Sales & Service Ulc, Ir France Sas, Kryptonite corp, Lawrence Factor Inc., LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MILTON ROY (HONG KONG) LIMITED, MILTON ROY (UK) LIMITED, MILTON ROY EUROPA B.V., MILTON ROY EUROPE SAS, MILTON ROY INDUSTRIAL (SHANGHAI) CO. LTD., MILTON ROY LLC, MILTON ROY US PURCHASER INC., MP Pumps Inc., Maximum AG Technologies Inc., Maximus Solutions, Mb Air Systems Limited, Nash Elmo, Officina Meccaniche Industriali Srl, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Plurifilter D.O.O., Pt Ingersoll-Rand Indonesia, Robuschi, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, SEEPEX, Seepex (M) SDN, Seepex Australia Pty Ltd, Seepex Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft mit Beschrankter Haftung, Seepex France S.a.r.l., Seepex GmbH, Seepex Inc., Seepex India Private Ltd., Seepex Italia SRL, Seepex Japan Co. Ltd., Seepex Nordic A/S, Seepex OOO, Seepex Pumps (Shanghia) Co. Ltd., Seepex UK Ltd., Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Shanghai Ingersoll-Rand Compressor Limited, Shenzhen Bocom System Engineering Co., Superay, Syltone, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, Tamrotor Marine Comp AS Norway, Tecno Matic Europe s.r.o., Thomas Industries Inc., Trane Technologies, Tri-Continent Scientific Inc., Vacuum and Blower Systems division, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zaxe Technologies Inc., Zeks Compressed Air Solutions Llc, Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, Zinsser NA Inc., and crayon interface.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: 2nd Road, ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Limited, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Limited, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AFD.TECH, AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, AIG Shared Services Business Processing Inc, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co. Ltd., Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) Pty Ltd, Accenture (UK) Limited, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Agencia Interativa Ltda, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture B.V., Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BPS Services S.p. z o.o., Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A., Accenture Canada Holdings Inc, Accenture Capital Designated Activity Company, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Limited, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co. Ltd, Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Pty Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SASU, Accenture Customer Services Ltd, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Accenture Delivery Poland S.p. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance II Limited, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services S.r.l., Accenture Financial Advanced Solution & Technology S.r.l., Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Global Capital Designated Activity Company, Accenture Global Engagements Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Limited, Accenture Global Services Limited, Accenture Global Solutions Limited, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc, Accenture Holding Brasil Ltda, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SASU, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services B.V., Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture International B.V., Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea B.V., Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Lithuania UAB, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Marketing Services LLC, Accenture Marketing Services Limited, Accenture Middle East B.V., Accenture Minority I B.V., Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi Pty Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations GmbH, Accenture Operations S.p. z o.o., Accenture Operations Services Private Limited, Accenture Operations Services Sdn Bhd, Accenture Outsourcing S.r.l., Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations B.V., Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru SRL, Accenture Post Trade Processing SASU, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture Qiyun Technology (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture S.p. z o.o., Accenture S.p.A., Accenture SASU, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sdn Bhd, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.p. z o.o., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services and Technology S.r.l., Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Single Member S.A. Organization Information Technology & Business Development, Accenture Solutions Co. Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions S.p. z o.o, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc, Accenture Sub III Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions S.r.l., Accenture Technology Solutions SASU, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures B.V., Accenture Technology Ventures SPRL, Accenture Tecnologia Consultoria y Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co. Limited, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Ltda, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Advoco, Agilex Technologies Inc., Alfa Consulting, Allen International, AlphaBeta Advisors, Altevie Technologies S.r.l., Altima, Altima (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Altima Asia Ltd, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Altius Consulting Limited, Altius Data Solutions Private Limited, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Apis Group Pty Ltd, Appaloosa Technology SASU, AppsPro, AppsPro, Arca, Arca Ingenieros y Consultoria S.L., Arca Telecom S.L., Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Artio People (Payroll) Pty Ltd, Artio People Pty Ltd, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Automation Partners Pty Ltd, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc, Avanade Consulting Poland S.p. z o.o., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Limited, Avanade Europe Services Limited, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SASU, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade Inc, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy S.r.l., Avanade Japan KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Middle East Limited, Avanade Netherlands B.V., Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland S.p. z o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain S.L., Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Limited, Avanade do Brasil Ltda , Avanade Osterreich GmbH, Avenai, Avieco, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCS Consulting, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BENEXT, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, BRIDGEi2i, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing Zhidao Future Consulting Co. Ltd, Benext, Berico Technologies LLC, Bionic, Bionic Solution LLC, Blue Horseshoe, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Bow & Arrow, Bow & Arrow Limited, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, Byte Prophecy Private Limited, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CS Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd, CS Technology (UK) Limited, CS Technology Group LLC, CS Technology LLC, CadenceQuest Inc., Callisto Integration Europe B.V., Callisto Integration Europe Limited, Callisto Integration LLC, Callisto Integration Ltd, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc, Certus Solutions Consulting Services Limited, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cirrus Connect Australia Pty Ltd, Cirrus Connect Limited, Cirruseo, Clarity Insights, ClearEdge Partners, Clearhead, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas Japan G.K., Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Limited, Cloudeasier SAS, Cloudpoint Limited, Cloudsherpas Inc, Cloudworks, Cloudworks Consulting Services Inc, Cloudworks Technology LLC, Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda, Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda, Context Information Security, Context Information Security LLC, Context Information Security Limited, CoreCompete LLC, CoreCompete Limited, CoreCompete Private Limited, Corliant Inc., Creative Drive LLC, Creative Drive US LLC, CreativeDrive, CreativeDrive Digital Content Services (Shenzhen) Co Ltd., CreativeDrive EMEA Limited, CreativeDrive Singapore Pte Ltd, CreativeDrive UK Group Limited, Cutting Edge Solutions Limited, Cygni AB, Cygni Norrsken AB, Cygni Stockholm AB, Cygni Syd AB, Cygni Vast AB, Cygni Ost AB, Cygni Ostersund AB, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Limited, DI Futures Corporation, Data Essential SARL, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings LLC, Decora Marketplace LLC, Decorado Marketplace Ltda-EPP, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digital Results Group LLC, Double Digit Limitada, Double Digit Pty SA, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Limited, Duck Creek Technologies, ESR Labs, ESR Labs AG, EdenOne Solutions Limited, Edenhouse ERP Holdings Limited, Edenhouse Solutions Limited, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting LP, End to End Analytics LLC, End-to-End Analytics, Endorphin Medici (M) Sdn Bhd, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Limited, EnergyQuote JHA, Enimbos, Enimbos Global Services S.L., Enkitec, Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions LLC, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V., Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enthusian Pty Ltd, Entropia, Entropia (M) Sdn Bhd, Entropia Holdings Pte Ltd, Entropia Intercraft Sdn Bhd, Epylon, Ergo, Espedia S.r.l., Ethica Consulting Group, Ethica Consulting S.p.A., Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Experity, Exton Consulting, Exton Consulting Spain Strategy&Management S.L., Exton Germany GmbH, Exton International SAS, Exton Italia S.r.l., Exton SAS, FGM LLC, Fairway Technologies Inc, Farah BidCo Limited, Farah MidCo Limited, Farah Topco Limited, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Formicary, Founders Intelligence, Fruendo S.r.l., FusionX, Future State Consulting LLC, FutureMove (Beijing) Automotive Technology Co. Ltd., FutureMove Automotive, FutureMove Automotive Co. Ltd., GRA Supply Chain Pty Ltd, Gagel Group S de R.L. de C.V., Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gevity, Gren utvikling AS, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., HRC Retail Advisory, Hagberg Consulting Group, Hahntel Ltda, Halo Partners LLC, Hamilton Holding Company S.A, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Happen GP Limited, Happen Limited, Headspring, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl A/S, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn Bhd, IBB Consulting, ICM.S S.r.l., IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INSITUM, IQSP Consulting LLC, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Icon Integration (NZ) Limited, Icon Integration Pty Ltd, Imagine Broadband (USA) Limited, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Imaginea Technologies LLC, Industrie IT (Hong Kong) Ltd, Industrie IT (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Industrie IT Group Pty Ltd, Industrie IT Pty Ltd, Industrie&Co, Infinity Works Consulting Limited, Infinity Works Holdings Limited, Infinity Works Management Limited, Infinity Works Midco Limited, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Innotec International EAD, Innotec International S.p. z.o.o., Innotec Marketing GmbH, Innotec Marketing International Ireland Limited, Innotec- Marketing Spain S.L, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., International Biometric Group LLC, International Biometric Group UK Limited, Intrepid, Intrepid Futureworks Sdn Bhd, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Technology Ltd, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, ItSafer Continuity Services S.L., JKD Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, K Comms Group Limited, KSC Studio LLC, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, King James Group, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Limited, Kogentix Singapore Pte Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon US LLC, LEXTA, LINKBYNET, LINKBYNET Indian Ocean (L.I.O) Ltd, LabAnswer, Lexta GmbH, Lexta UK Limited, Lien par le reseau Inc, Lien par le reseau infrastructures Inc, Lin Bo (Shanghai) Network Technology Co. Ltd., Link By Net SAS, Link By Net SRL, Link By Net Vietnam Company Limited, Linkbynet East Asia Ltd, Linkbynet Singapore Pte Ltd., Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, Lumenup S.A., MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision LLC, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte Ltd, Mackevision UK Limited, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd, Maihiro, Matter, Maud Corp Pty Ltd, Maxamine International, Measuretek LLC, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing LLC, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mistral Wind Operations  Servicos Empresariais Unipessoal Lda., MobGen, Mortgage Cadence LLC, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, Mudano Limited, Myrtle Consulting Group LLC, N3, N3 (Dalian) Business Consulting Co. Ltd., N3 Brazil Consultoria em Marketing Ltda, N3 Germany GmbH, N3 LLC, N3 North America LLC, N3 Results Australia Pty Ltd, N3 Results Ireland Limited, N3 Results Japan G.K., N3 Results Limited, N3 Results Malaysia Sdn Bhd, N3 Results Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., N3 Results S.A.S., N3 Results Singapore Pte Ltd, N3 Results Unipessoal Lda, NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., Nell'Armonia Israel Ltd, Nell'Armonia SAS, Nell'Participation SAS, NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda, New Energy Group, News Imaging LLC, NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage Pte Ltd, Northstream, Novetta Holdings LLC, Novetta LLC, Novetta Solutions LLC, Novetta Topco LLC, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Olikka Pty Ltd, Olympus Systems Corporation, Openmind, Openmind S.r..l., Openminded, Openminded SAS, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium AG, Orbium Consulting Limited, Orbium Inc., Orbium Ltd, Orbium Pte Ltd, Orbium Pty Ltd, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PLM Systems S.r.l, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, PacificLink Group, Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production A/S, Pegasus Production K/S, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pollux Automation Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pollux Canada Inc, Pollux S.A.S., Pollux USA LLC, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Limited, Pramati Technologies Europe Limited, Pramati Technologies Private Limited, Presence of IT Workforce Management North America LLC, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Limited, Procurian Inc., Prof. Homburg GmbH, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co. Ltd., RBCP Fund 1-A Vapor Blocker LLC, RBCP Platform Vapor Blocker I LLC, REPL Consulting LLC, REPL Consulting Limited, REPL Digital Limited, REPL Group K.K., REPL Group Pty Ltd, REPL Group Worldwide Limited, REPL Pte Ltd, REPL Software Limited, REPL Technology Limited, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Root LLC, Rothco, Rothco Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SALT Solutions GmbH, SEC Servizi, SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Salt Solutions, Sandbox Studio LLC, Sapling Bidco Limited, Sapling Midco Limited, Sapling Topco Limited, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Search Technologies BPO Inc, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Securiview SAS, Sentelis, Sentor Managed Secuirty Services AB, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Seven Seas Business Ventures LLC, Shackleton, Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton S.L.U., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., SigInt Technologies LLC, Silveo, Silveo Consulting India Private Limited, Simian Pty Ltd, SinnerSchrader, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., Sirvart S.A., Sistemes Consulting S.L., Skylink SAS, Soltians Limited, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Somers Ventures Ireland Limited, Somers Ventures LLC, Spacelink SAS, Storm Digital, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Synership LLC, Systor AG, T.A. Cook, TXF LLC, Tambourine, TargetST8, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Ltd, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Tquila, Trivadis, Trivadis AG, Trivadis Austria GmbH, Trivadis Denmark AS, Trivadis Germany GmbH, Trivadis Holding AG, Trivadis Partner AG, Trivadis Services AG, Trivadis Services SRL, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Vector Acquisition Company LLC, Vector Topco LLC, Verax Solutions, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd, Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, WaveStrike LLC, White Cliffs Consulting LLC, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wise Partners SAS, Wolox, Wolox Colombia S.A.S, Wolox LLC, Wolox Mexico S.R.L de C.V., Wolox S.A., Wolox SpA, Workforce Insight, Workforce Insight LLC, Yesler, Yesler LLC, Yesler Limited, Yesler Singapore Pte Ltd, Zag, Zag Australia Pty Ltd, Zag Limited, Zag USA LLC, Zebra Worldwide Australia Pty Ltd, Zebra Worldwide Group Limited, Zebra Worldwide Media Pty Ltd, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines Inc, Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc, Zestgroup, Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, solid-serVision.com GmbH, and umlaut.

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Under Armour, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the developing, marketing, and distributing performance apparel, footwear, and accessories for men, women, and youth. The company offers its apparel in compression, fitted, and loose fit types. It also provides footwear products for running, training, basketball, cleated sports, recovery, and outdoor applications. In addition, the company offers accessories, which include gloves, bags, headwear, and sports masks; and digital subscription and advertising services under the MapMyRun and MapMyRide platforms. It primarily offers its products under the UNDER ARMOUR, UA, HEATGEAR, COLDGEAR, HOVR, PROTECT THIS HOUSE, I WILL, UA Logo, ARMOUR FLEECE, and ARMOUR BRA brands. The company sells its products through wholesale channels, including national and regional sporting goods chains, independent and specialty retailers, department store chains, mono-branded Under Armour retail stores, institutional athletic departments, and leagues and teams, as well as independent distributors; and directly to consumers through a network of 422 brand and factory house stores, as well as through e-commerce websites. It operates in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Under Armour, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 61,000 kilometers (km) of operational electricity transmission and distribution lines; 5,300 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 7.3 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 360,000 long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating and cooling solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 4,800 km of rail; 3,800 km of motorways; and 13 port terminals. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 600 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 3,900 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as one petrochemical processing complex. Its Data segment operates approximately 148,000 operational telecom towers; 8,000 multi-purpose towers and active rooftop sites; 10,000 km of fiber backbone; 1,600 cell sites and approximately 12,000 km of fiber optic cable; and 2,100 active telecom towers and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 50 data centers and 200 megawatts of critical load capacity. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates in four segments: Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Wealth Management, and Global Banking and Markets. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small, medium, and large businesses, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides online, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 954 branches and approximately 3,766 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,300 branches and a network of contact and support center internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada.
BT Group plc provides communications services worldwide. Its Consumer segment sells telephones, baby monitors, and Wi-Fi extenders through high street retailers, online BT Shop, and Website BT.com; and offers home phone, copper and fiber broadband, TV, and mobile services in various packages. The company's EE segment offers 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile network services; broadband, fixed-voice, and TV services; and postpaid and prepaid plans, and emergency services network. This segment also sells 4G mobile phones, tablets, connected devices, and mobile broadband devices from various manufacturers. Its Business and Public Sector segment provides fixed voice, mobility, fiber and connectivity, and networked IT services to retailers, utilities, public sector, healthcare, sports, construction, finance, and educational sectors. The company's Global Services segment offers business communications and ICT services comprising BT Connect, BT Security, BT One, BT Contact, BT Compute, BT Advise, and BT for financial markets. This segment serves approximately 5,500 customers in 180 countries. Its Wholesale and Ventures segment enables communications providers and other organizations to provide fixed or mobile phone services. Its ventures provide mass-market services, such as directory enquiries and payphones; and enterprise services comprising BT Fleet and BT Redcare. This segment also provides broadband and Ethernet, voice, hosted communication, mobile virtual network operator, managed solutions, machine-to-machine, roaming, and media services. The company's Openreach segment engages in the provision of services over the local access network; and installation and maintenance of fiber and copper communications networks that connect homes and businesses. The company was formerly known as Newgate Telecommunications Limited and changed its name to BT Group plc in September 2001. BT Group plc was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
Juniper Networks, Inc. designs, develops, and sells network products and services worldwide. The company offers routing products, such as ACX series universal access routers to deploy high-bandwidth services; MX series Ethernet routers that function as a universal edge platform; PTX series packet transport routers; wide-area network SDN controllers; and session smart routers. It also provides switching products, including EX series Ethernet switches to address the access, aggregation, and core layer switching requirements of micro branch, branch office, and campus environments; QFX series of core, spine, and top-of-rack data center switches; and juniper access points, which provide Wi-Fi access and performance. In addition, the company offers security products comprising SRX series services gateways for the data center; Branch SRX family provides an integrated and next-generation firewall; virtual firewall that delivers various features of physical firewalls; and advanced malware protection, a cloud-based service and Juniper ATP. Further, it offers Junos OS, a network operating system; Contrail networking, which provides an open-source and standards-based platform for SDN; Mist AI-driven Wired, Wireless, and WAN assurance solutions to set and measure key metrics; Mist AI-driven Marvis Virtual Network Assistant, which identifies the root cause of issues; Juniper Paragon Automation, a modular portfolio of cloud-native software applications; and Juniper Apstra to automate the network lifecycle in a single system. Additionally, the company provides software-as-a-service, technical support, maintenance, and professional services, as well as education and training programs. It sells its products through direct sales, distributors, value-added resellers, and original equipment manufacturers to end-users in the cloud, service provider, and enterprise markets. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
The following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Credit Management LLC, AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe Holdings S.a.r.l, AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Operations Inc., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund II GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund III GP LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund IV GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American International Group UK Limited, American International Realty LLC, American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A. en Liquidacion S.A., Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., C.A. de Seguros American International, Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Glatfelter Underwriting Services Inc., Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Illinois National Insurance Co., Inversiones Segucasai C.A., Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, Lexington Specialty Insurance Agency Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PCG 2019 Corporate Member Limited, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SAFG Capital LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., and Western World Insurance Company.

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Suncor Energy Inc. operates as an integrated energy company. The company primarily focuses on developing petroleum resource basins in Canada's Athabasca oil sands; explores, acquires, develops, produces, transports, refines, and markets crude oil in Canada and internationally; markets petroleum and petrochemical products under the Petro-Canada name primarily in Canada. It operates through Oil Sands; Exploration and Production; Refining and Marketing; and Corporate and Eliminations segments. The Oil Sands segment recovers bitumen from mining and in situ operations, and upgrades it into refinery feedstock and diesel fuel, or blends the bitumen with diluent for direct sale to market. The Exploration and Production segment is involved in offshore operations off the east coast of Canada and in the North Sea; and operating onshore assets in Libya and Syria. The Refining and Marketing segment refines crude oil and intermediate feedstock into various petroleum and petrochemical products; and markets refined petroleum products to retail, commercial, and industrial customers through its other retail sellers. The Corporate and Eliminations segment operates four wind farms in Ontario and Western Canada. The company also markets and trades in crude oil, natural gas, byproducts, refined products, and power. The company was formerly known as Suncor Inc. and changed its name to Suncor Energy Inc. in April 1997. Suncor Energy Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
AstraZeneca PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of prescription medicines. Its marketed products include Calquence, Enhertu, Faslodex, Imfinzi, Iressa, Koselugo, Lumoxiti, Lynparza, Orpathys, Tagrisso, and Zoladex for oncology; Brilinta/Brilique, Bydureon/Byetta, BCise, Byetta, Crestor, Evrenzo, Farxiga/Forxiga, Komboglyze/Kombiglyze XR, Lokelma, Onglyza, Qtern, and Xigduo/Xigduo XR for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism diseases; Bevespi Aerosphere, Breztri Aerosphere, Daliresp/Daxas, Duaklir Genuair, Fasenra, Pulmicort, Saphnelo, Symbicort, and Tudorza/Eklira/Bretaris for respiratory and immunology; and Andexxa/Ondexxya, Kanuma, Soliris, Strensiq, and Ultomiris for rare diseases. The company's marketed products also comprise Synagis for respiratory syncytial virus; Fluenz Tetra/FluMist Quadrivalent for Influenza; Seroquel IR/Seroquel XR for schizophrenia bipolar disease; Nexium, and Losec/Prilosec for gastroenterology; and Vaxzevria and Evusheld for covid-19. The company serves primary care and specialty care physicians through distributors and local representative offices in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. It has a collaboration agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to research, develop, and commercialize small molecule medicines for obesity; Neurimmune AG to develop and commercialize NI006; Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop eplontersen, a liver-targeted antisense therapy in Phase III development for the treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis; Proteros Biostructures GmbH to jointly discover novel small molecules for the treatment of hematological cancers; Sierra Oncology, Inc. to develop and commercialize AZD5153. The company was formerly known as Zeneca Group PLC and changed its name to AstraZeneca PLC in April 1999. AstraZeneca PLC was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.
Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut.
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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Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
TANGA, Tanzania, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The leaders of Tanzania and Uganda laid a foundation stone on Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) for the construction of a $3.55 billion-crude export pipeline that would pump Ugandan oil for international markets.

The 1,445 km-project - set for completion by 2020 - will stretch from landlocked Uganda's western region, where crude reserves were discovered in 2006, to Tanzania's Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.

The project will become "the longest electrically heated crude oil pipeline in the world," said Guy Maurice, Senior Vice President of Africa at Total Exploration and Production.

Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) is one of the owners of Ugandan oilfields, alongside China's Cnooc (HKSE: 0883-OL.HK - news) and Britain's Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW.L - news) .

Tanzanian President John Magufuli, flanked by his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, urged the three joint venture partners to speed up construction of the pipeline.

"We don't need to delay the completion of the project for almost three years. They can do it even night and day to ensure the project is completed as quickly as possible," Magufuli said.

"Act (Stuttgart: 0LW.SG - news) with big speed and make sure you finish this project before 2020."

Uganda estimates overall crude reserves at 6.5 billion barrels, while recoverable reserves are seen at between 1.4 billion and 1.7 billion barrels.

Kampala said it picked Tanzania over its other neighbour Kenya as the route for the proposed 24-inch export pipeline because it was a "least cost and least risky" option.

"Tanzania offered several concessions to make the pipeline profitable inspite of the falling global crude oil prices," said Museveni.

Tanzania agreed to waive taxes, offered to take up shares in the pipeline project and charge a tariff of $12.2 per barrel to make the project feasible, he said.

(Reporting by Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala; Editing by Aaron Maasho)
BEIJINGChina has stepped up its rhetoric in an increasingly tense border row with India, hinting at the possibility of military action in a propaganda push that analysts are calling genuinely troubling.

For more than a month, Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a standoff on a remote but strategically important Himalayan plateau near where Tibet, India and Bhutan meet.

On Thursday, Chinese defense ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang warned that Beijing had shown restraint but had a bottom line.

No country should underestimate the Chinese forces resolve and willpower to defend national sovereignty, he said in a post on the ministry website.

It is a line that has been echoed almost word for word this week by the foreign ministry, the official Xinhua news agency, the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece the Peoples Daily, the official military news website of the Chinese armed forces, and other outlets.

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On Wednesday, the foreign ministry released a 15-page document of facts about the border dispute, which included a map of alleged intrusions and photographs of what it stated were Indian troops and military vehicles on Chinas side of the frontier.

Calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, it warned Beijing would take all necessary measures to safeguard its interests.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Thursday that India was building roads, hoarding supplies and deploying many troops in the area.

This is by no means for peace, Geng said.

Mistrust between the giant neighbors goes back centuries and the pair fought a brief war in 1962 in Indias border state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The recent escalation of Chinas rhetoric was genuinely troubling, Rory Medcalf, head of Australian National Universitys National Security College, told AFP.

It suggests that diplomatic conversations, including among high-level national security advisers, are failing to find a face-saving way for the two powers to withdraw their forces, he said.

The plateau is strategically significant as it gives China access to the so-called chicken neck  a thin strip of land connecting Indias northeastern states with the rest of the country.

Despite the heated war of words, other analysts played down the possibility of an armed clash.

The point of these statements isnt that war is imminent; rather, theyre an attempt to figure out how to not go to war without losing face, Shen Dingli, vice dean of Fudan Universitys Institute of International Studies, told AFP.

Neither side wants to go to war, but China and India are acting like two unhappy little children.

China has rolled out a massive new global infrastructure programme known as the One Belt, One Road initiative, which it presents as a peaceful development policy to connect Chinese companies to new markets around the world.

Critics see it as a geopolitical powerplay.

President Xi Jinping is set to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a summit of BRICS nations in the Chinese city of Xiamen in early September and has said he hopes for greater cooperation within the bloc.

But he is also gearing up for a key party congress later this year, at which he is expected to further consolidate his grip on power  making him unwilling to appear weak by backing down in the current dispute, said politics professor Yvonne Chiu, who researches Chinas military at Hong Kong University.

Chiu said China was testing how much they can get away with, in a region that is unlikely to draw the involvement of other major powers such as the US.

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In 2014, Nadia Murad was captured, alongside many other Yazidi women, by the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in the Iraqi town of Sinjar. She was held hostage, enslaved, tortured and raped, before escaping to Mosul and making her way to Germany. After sharing the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize with Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, she is now a leading global advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Nadia Murad spoke to FRANCE 24 from the Paris Peace Forum. Murad said that more needs to be done to prevent sexual violence in conflict."Progress has been made on recognising survivors' right to reparations (...) but I think it's time to put political weight and resources behind the words," Murad told FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris Trent."Not much has been done to prevent what happened to the Yazidi women and girls," Murad said. More than eight years later, "we still have 2,800 women and children who are missing in ISIS [another name for the IS group] captivity in Syria, Turkey and some parts of Iraq. No effort has been made by the international community or our own government or any international organisations to look for the missing Yazidi women and children and bring them back"."Sexual violence does not go away when war is over (...) Ukraine is sadly another example of a failure to follow through on commitments to preventing sexual violence in war," Murad continued."Women's rights were never a priority for the international community to prevent the use of sexual violence," Murad said.Read more on FRANCE 24 EnglishRead also:Amnesty International demands urgent help for survivors of sexual violence in TigrayAllegations of mass rape by Russian troops in UkraineIraqs Yazidi community: Nadia Murads ongoing fight for justice
By Stefanno Reinard and Eveline Danubrata JAKARTA (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google is working with Indonesia to tackle video content deemed to be offensive, including material that might incite violence or hate speech, a senior official of the search giant said on Friday. Google plans to implement its "Trusted Flagger" programme in Indonesia over the next two to three months, Ann Lavin, Google's director for public policy and government affairs in Southeast Asia and Greater China, told a news conference in Jakarta. The programme, which is already running in countries such as the France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, allows selected users to flag questionable content on its video-sharing platform, YouTube, in bulk rather than one at a time. Content flagged by group members will be prioritised for review and may then be removed by Google.(http://bit.ly/2v4rqtB) A growing amount of content encouraging religious intolerance or radicalism is being shared in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population and some of the most avid users of social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information Rudiantara separately discussed the issue of "negative" content with representatives from Google and Twitter Inc on Friday, two days after he met Facebook officials. At a joint news conference with Google's Lavin after their meeting, Rudiantara said his ministry's priority was to "protect" Indonesians from content that promotes radicalism, terrorism and drugs. But the Indonesian government was not trying to foster a "regime of censorship", said Rudiantara, who uses one name. Apart from the communications ministry, Lavin said, Google would also work with civil society groups such as the Wahid Institute, led by prominent moderate Muslim figure Yenny Wahid, and anti-hoax community MAFINDO. While the move to curb content that incites hatred is positive, both the government and Google should be clear about the process, said Nawawi Bahrudin, executive director of the non-government body, Legal Aid Center for the Press. "They should not just use their own yardsticks," Bahrudin said by telephone. "They have to be transparent and not just keep it among themselves." In June, Rudiantara said Google's Asia-Pacific headquarters had agreed on future tax payments after a months-long dispute with the government, paving the way for a shake up in the way similar companies operate in Southeast Asia's biggest economy. Indonesia has been pushing multinational technology firms to incorporate domestically, arguing that by setting up small business entities to provide "auxiliary" services they get away with minimal taxation and book most of their revenue from the country elsewhere. (Reporting by Stefanno Reinard and Eveline Danubrata; Editing by Ed Davies and Clarence Fernandez)
Italy has despatched naval patrol boat, , Nave Comandante Borsini, to Libya in order to help the countrys coast guard curb the flow of migrants. The Italian parliament gave the go-ahead for a naval mission, saying it had been requested by Libyas U.N.-backed government. But the move triggered angry statements from factions in eastern Libya that oppose the Tripoli based government. Abdallah Bilhaq, spokesman of the Libyan House of Representatives in Tobruk, said Italy wanted to export the illegal immigration crisis from its territory to Libyas, adding that the return of tens of thousands of migrants would have a dangerous impact on Libyas security, economy and society. The parliament also criticised Prime Minister Fayez Serraj for striking the deal with the Italians. Serrajs government has denied that, although Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni said they requested help from Italys navy. The parliament in Tobruk said having a foreign navys vessels patrolling Libyan waters would be a violation to the sovereignty of Libya. After a surge in migrant arrivals from Libya at the start of the year, the number of newcomers to Italy has slowed However, rights groups have warned that those sent back to Libya face abuse at the hands of traffickers.
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Creating a huge global network connecting billions of individuals might be one of humanitys greatest achievements to date, but microbes beat us to it by more than three billion years. These tiny single-celled organisms arent just responsible for all life on Earth. They also have their own versions of the World Wide Web and the Internet of Things. Heres how they work.

Much like our own cells, microbes treat pieces of DNA as coded messages. These messages contain information for assembling proteins into molecular machines that can solve specific problems, such as repairing the cell. But microbes dont just get these messages from their own DNA. They also swallow pieces of DNA from their dead relatives or exchange them with living mates.

These DNA pieces are then incorporated into their genomes, which are like computers overseeing the work of the entire protein machinery. In this way, the tiny microbe is a flexible learning machine that intelligently searches for resources in its environment. If one protein machine doesnt work, the microbe tries another one. Trial and error solve all the problems.

But microbes are too small to act on their own. Instead, they form societies. Microbes have been living as giant colonies, containing trillions of members, from the dawn of life. These colonies have even left behind mineral structures known as stromatolites. These are microbial metropolises, frozen in time like Pompeii, that provide evidence of life from billions of years ago.

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Microbial colonies are constantly learning and adapting. They emerged in the oceans and gradually conquered the land  and at the heart of their exploration strategy was information exchange. As weve seen, individual members communicate by exchanging chemical messages in a highly coordinated fashion. In this way, microbial society effectively constructs a collective mind.

This collective mind directs pieces of software, written in DNA code, back and forth between trillions of microbes with a single aim: to fully explore the local environment for resources using protein machines.

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When resources are exhausted in one place, microbial expedition forces advance to find new lands of plenty. They transmit their discoveries back to base using different kinds of chemical signals, calling for microbial society to transform from settlers to colonisers.

In this way, microbes eventually conquered the entire planet, creating a global microbial network that resembles our own World Wide Web but using biocehmical signals instead of electronic digital ones. In theory, a signal emitted in waters around the South Pole could effectively travel fast to waters around the North Pole.

Internet of living things

The similarities with human technology dont stop there. Scientists and engineers are now working on expanding our own information network into the Internet of Things, integrating all manner of devices by equipping them with microchips to sense and communicate. Your fridge will be able to alert you when it is out of milk. Your house will be able to tell you when it is being burgled.

Microbes built their version of the Internet of Things a long time ago. We can call it the Internet of Living Things, although its more often known as the biosphere. Every organism on the planet is linked in this complex network that depends on microbes for its survival.

More than a billion years ago, one microbe found its way inside another microbe that became its host. These two microbes became a symbiotic hybrid known as the eukaryotic cell, the basis for most of the lifeforms we are commonly familiar with today. All plants and animals are descended from this microbial merger and so they contain the biological plug-in software that connects them to the Internet of Living Things.

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For example, humans are designed in a way that means we cannot function without the trillions of microbes inside our bodies (our microbiome) that help us do things like digest food and develop immunity to germs. We are so overwhelmed by microbes that we imprint personal microbial signatures on every surface we touch.

The Internet of Living Things is a neat and beautifully functioning system. Plants and animals live on the ecological waste created by microbes. While to microbes, all plants and animals are, as author Howard Bloom puts it, mere cattle on whose flesh they dine, whose bodies will be digested and recycled one day.

Microbes are even potential cosmic tourists. If humans travel into deep space, our microbes will travel with us. The Internet of Living Things may have a long cosmic reach.

The paradox is that we still perceive microbes as inferior organisms. The reality is that microbes are the invisible and intelligent rulers of the biosphere. Their global biomass exceeds our own. They are the original inventors of the information-based society. Our internet is merely a by-product of the microbial information game initiated three billion years ago.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Predrag Slijepcevic received funding from various organisations including Department of Health, EU, Royal Society and British Council.
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By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin LONDON (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was sworn-in for a second term on Saturday, has accused the United States of trying to undermine Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, telling President Donald Trump that it will be his political suicide. Rouhani, who was decisively re-elected in May after promising to open Iran to the world, took the oath of office before parliament in Tehran in the presence of foreign dignitaries including senior European figures. "The U.S. lack of commitment to implementation of the nuclear deal ... proved it to be an unreliable partner to the world and even to its longtime allies," Rouhani said in a ceremony broadcast live on state television. The deal he championed with the United States and five other major powers in 2015 led to the lifting of most sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. Rouhani has intensified efforts to protect the deal - the biggest achievement of his first term - against Washington's return to an aggressive Iran policy. In comments aimed at Trump, Rouhani said: "Those who want to tear up the nuclear deal should know that they will be ripping up their own political life." The U.S. Senate voted in late July to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missiles programme and human rights issues. "Iran would not be the first to pull out of the nuclear deal, but it will not remain silent about the U.S. repeated violations of the accord," Rouhani said. PRAISE FOR EUROPEAN PRESENCE In a meeting with European foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Tehran in advance of the ceremony, Rouhani said the U.S. stance could hamper implementation of the nuclear deal. Praising the presence of senior European dignitaries at the ceremony, Rouhani said it showed Europe was determined to expand ties with Tehran. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was also quoted as saying by state media in his meeting with Mogherini: "Mr Trump is trying to destroy the nuclear accord at Iran's expense, and Europe should be conscious of this." Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, President of Iraq Fuad Masum, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe were also present at swearing-in ceremony. Among the Western officials present were French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, State Secretary at the German Foreign Ministry Michael Roth, and British Minister of State Alistair Burt. Security in Tehran was increased to the highest level, the police said, two months after gunmen linked to the Islamic State group attacked parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing 17 people. Rouhani's deputy said on Wednesday that Rouhani would keep on two important ministers for his second term: Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh and Foreign Minister Zarif. The powers of the elected president are limited by those of the unelected Supreme Leader who outranks him, but the scale of Rouhani's victory can give the pragmatist president a strong mandate. However, analysts say Rouhani may struggle to make a significant impact given sharpening divisions in the dual clerical-republican power structure in Iran, and Trump's aggressive policy against Tehran. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
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It may not be obvious while lying in the sun on a hot summers day, but a considerable amount of heat is also coming from below you  emanating from deep within the Earth. This heat is equivalent to more than three times the total power consumption of the entire world and drives important geological processes, such as the movement of tectonic plates and the flow of magma near the surface of the Earth. But despite this, where exactly up to half of this heat actually comes from is a mystery.

It is thought that a type of neutrinos  particles with extremely low mass  emitted by radioactive processes in the Earths interior may provide important clues to solving this mystery. The problem is that they are nearly impossible to catch. But in a new paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, we have set out a way to do just that.

The known sources of heat from the Earths interior are radioactive decays, and residual heat from when our planet was first formed. The amount of heating from radioactivity, estimated based on measurements of the composition of rock samples, is highly uncertain  accounting for anywhere from 25-90% of the total heat flow.

Elusive particles

Atoms in radioactive materials have unstable nuclei, meaning they can split up (decay to a stable state) by giving off nuclear radiation  some of which gets converted to heat. This radiation consists of various particles with specific energies  depending on what material emitted them  including neutrinos. When the radioactive elements decay within the Earths crust and mantle, they emit geo-neutrinos. In fact, each second, the Earth radiates more than a trillion trillion such particles to space. Measuring their energy can tell researchers about what material produced them and therefore the composition of the Earths hidden interior.

The main known sources of radioactivity within the Earth are unstable types of uranium, thorium and potassium  something we know based on samples of rock up to 200km below the surface. What lurks beneath that depth is uncertain. We know that the geo-neutrinos emitted when uranium decays have more energy than those emitted when potassium splits up. So by measuring the energy of geo-neutrinos, we can know what type of radioactive material they come from. In fact, this is a much easier way to figure out whats inside the Earth than drilling tens of kilometres down below the surface.

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Unfortunately, geo-neutrinos are notoriously difficult to detect. Rather than interacting with ordinary matter such as that inside detectors, they tend to just whizz right through them. Thats why it took a huge underground detector filled with with about 1,000 tonnes of liquid to make the first observation of geo-neutrinos, in 2003. These detectors measure neutrinos by registering their collision with atoms in the liquid.

Since then, only one other experiment has managed to observe geo-neutrinos, using a similar technology. Both measurements imply that approximately half of the Earths heat caused by radioactivity (20 terawatts) can be explained by decays of uranium and thorium. The source of the remaining 50% is an open question.

However, measurements so far have been unable to measure the contribution from potassium decays  the neutrinos emitted in this process have too low an energy. So it could be that the rest of the heat comes from potassium decay.

New technology

Our new research suggests we can make a map of the heat flow from inside the Earth by measuring the direction the geo-neutrino comes from, as well as its energy. This sounds simple, but the technological challenge is formidable, requiring new particle detection technology.

We propose using gas-filled time projection chamber detectors. Such detectors work by making a 3D picture of a geo-neutrino colliding with the gas inside it  knocking off an electron from a gas atom. The movement of this electron can then be tracked over time to reconstruct one dimension of the process (time). High-resolution imaging technology can then reconstruct the two spatial dimensions of its movement. In the liquid detectors currently used, the particles that get knocked off in collisions travel such a short distance (because they are in a liquid) that the direction is impossible to resolve.

Similar detectors, on a smaller scale, are currently used to make precision measurements of neutrino interactions, and to search for dark matter. We calculated that the size of the detector needed to discover the geo-neutrinos from radioactive potassium would be 20 tonnes. To properly map the mantle composition for the first time, it would need to be 10 times more massive. We have built a prototype for such a detector, and are working on scaling up.

Measuring geo-neutrinos in this way could help map the heat flow in the Earths interior. This would help us to understand the evolution of the inner core by assessing the concentration of radioactive elements. It could also help unravel the longstanding mystery of what source of heat powers the convection (transfer of heat by movement of fluids) in the outer core that generates the Earths geomagnetic field. This field is vital for retaining our atmosphere which protects life on Earth from the suns harmful radiation.

Its strange that we know so little about whats going on under the ground that we walk on. That makes it exciting to think about how these measurements could finally allow the pioneering exploration of the veiled inner workings of the Earth.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Conversation

The authors of this work are Jocelyn Monroe, Michael Leyton and Stephen Dye. Jocelyn Monroe receives funding from the European Research Council and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. Stephen Dye appreciates past support from the Cooperative Studies of the Earths Deep Interior (CSEDI) and the Cooperative Institute for Dynamic Earth Research (CIDER) programs funded by the US National Science Foundation.

Michael Leyton receives funding from the Marie Skodowska-Curie Fellowship program, Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO), Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER).
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.
New US sanctions not going to jeopardize Southern Gas Corridor

The new US bill on sanctions against Russia will also affect the Russian pipeline project known as the Nord Stream 2.The Senate has approved a bill toughening the US sanctions against Russia, Iran and the North Korea. The document is to be signed by US President Donald Trump.According to the bill, entitled Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, the US government is required to counteract the construction of the Nord Stream 2 as the project has a harmful effect on the energy security of the European Union, the development of the gas markets in Central and Eastern Europe, and energy reforms in Ukraine.Another project, the Southern Gas Corridor, which should provide Europe with Caspian gas, despite the equity of Iranian and Russian companies there, is not mentioned in the document. The gas to be supplied through the Southern Gas Corridor will be produced at Azerbaijans Shah Deniz Stage 2. Russian Lukoil owns a 10 percent stake in the project. National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), exempted from sanctions by a special amendment to the US law on Iranian energy companies, also has a share there.There was enough speculation over this project. Former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar said that the US bill tightening the anti-Russian sanctions may harm the development of Shah Deniz Stage 2 and the supply of the gas extracted there to Europe.However, sanctions against Russia or any other country will unlikely prevent the West from implementing such a strategically important project as Southern Gas Corridor.As for the Nord Stream 2, the political component of the project plays a big role here, which gives Moscow the leverage to exert influence upon Europe. However, the Caspian gas, which can help the EU to ensure energy independence and security bypassing Russia, is in the US interests.Therefore, lobbying for the project that will supply the Caspian gas to Europe has been centerpiece to Washington's long-term policy of European energy security.The new US administration apparently understands that realization of Shah Deniz Stage 2 and Southern Gas Corridor will change not only the world's energy map, but also its political map, as it will contribute to ensuring Europe's energy security and weakening Moscow's influence in the region, which is strategically important for the US.Taking into account the aforementioned, the US is unlikely to jeopardize such an important project as the Southern Gas Corridor.
Genuine Parts Company distributes automotive replacement parts, and industrial parts and materials. It operates through Automotive Parts Group and Industrial Parts Group segments. The company distributes automotive replacement parts for hybrid and electric vehicles, trucks, SUVs, buses, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, farm vehicles, small engines, farm equipment, marine equipment, and heavy duty equipment; and accessory and supply items used by various automotive aftermarket customers, such as repair shops, service stations, fleet operators, automobile and truck dealers, leasing companies, bus and truck lines, mass merchandisers, farms, industrial concerns, and individuals. It also distributes industrial replacement parts and related supplies, such as bearings, mechanical and electrical power transmission products, industrial automation and robotics, hoses, hydraulic and pneumatic components, industrial and safety supplies, and material handling products for original equipment manufacturer, as well as maintenance, repair, and operation customers in equipment and machinery, food and beverage, forest product, primary metal, pulp and paper, mining, automotive, oil and gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, power generation, alternative energy, governments, transportation, ports, and other industries. In addition, the company provides various services and repairs comprising gearbox and fluid power and process pump assembly and repair, hydraulic drive shaft repair, electrical panel assembly and repair, hose and gasket manufacture and assembly, and other value-added services. It operates in the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Indonesia, and Singapore. The company was incorporated in 1928 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Group) Nominees Ltd, Lotus Finance Ltd, MBNA, MBNA Direct Ltd, MBNA Europe Finance Ltd, MBNA Europe Holdings Ltd, MBNA General Foundation, MBNA Global Services Ltd, MBNA Indian Services Private Ltd, MBNA Ltd, MBNA R & L S.A.R.L., MBNA Receivables Ltd, Mainsearch Company Ltd, Maritime Leasing (No. 19) Ltd, Membership Services Finance Ltd, Mitre Street Funding S.A.R.L., Molineux RMBS 2016-1 plc, Molineux RMBS Holdings Ltd, Moor Lane Holdings Ltd, NFU Mutual Finance Ltd, NWS Trust Ltd, Nominees (Jersey) Ltd, Nordic Leasing Ltd, Ocean Leasing (July) Ltd, Oystercatcher Nominees Ltd, Oystercatcher Residential Ltd, PIPS Asset Investments Ltd, Pacific Leasing Ltd, Penarth Asset Securitisation Holdings Ltd, Penarth Funding 1 Ltd, Penarth Funding 2 Ltd, Penarth Master Issuer plc, Penarth Receivables Trustee Ltd, Pensions Management (S.W.F.) Ltd, Peony Eastern Leasing Ltd, Peony Leasing Ltd, Peony Western Leasing Ltd, Permanent Funding (No. 1) Ltd, Permanent Funding (No. 2) Ltd, Permanent Holdings Ltd, Permanent Master Issuer plc, Permanent Mortgages Trustee Ltd, Permanent PECOH Holdings Ltd, Permanent PECOH Ltd, Perry Nominees Ltd, Prestonfield Investments Ltd, Proton Finance Ltd, R.F. Spencer And Company Ltd, Ranelagh Nominees Ltd, Retail Revival (Burgess Hill) Investments Ltd, SARL Coliseum, SARL Hiram, SAS Compagnie Fonciere De France, SCI Astoria Invest, SCI De LHorloge, SCI Equinoxe, SCI Rambuteau CFF, SW Funding plc, SW No.1 Ltd, SWAMF (GP) Ltd, SWAMF Nominee (1) Ltd, SWAMF Nominee (2) Ltd, Saint Michel Holding Company No1, Saint Michel Investment Property, Saint Witz 2 Holding Company No1, Saint Witz 2 Investment Property, Salisbury II Securities 2016 Ltd, Salisbury II-A Securities 2017 Ltd, Salisbury III Securities 2019 DAC, Salisbury Securities 2015 Ltd, Sandown 2012-2 Holdings Ltd, Sandown 2012-2 plc, Sandown Gold 2012-1 Holdings Ltd, Sandown Gold 2012-1 plc, Savban Leasing Ltd, Scotland International Finance B.V., Scottish Widows Administration Services (Nominees) Ltd, Scottish Widows Administration Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Annuities Ltd, Scottish Widows Auto Enrolment Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Europe, Scottish Widows Financial Services Holdings, Scottish Widows Group Ltd, Scottish Widows Industrial Properties Europe B.V., Scottish Widows Ltd, Scottish Widows Pension Trustees Ltd, Scottish Widows Property Management Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth (ACD) Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Wealth Holdings Ltd, Scottish Widows Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Trustees Ltd, Scottish Widows Unit Funds Ltd, Scottish Widows Unit Trust Managers Ltd, Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society, Seabreeze Leasing Ltd, Seaspirit Leasing Ltd, Share Dealing Nominees Ltd, Shogun Finance Ltd, Silentdale Ltd, St Andrews Group Ltd, St Andrews Insurance plc, St Andrews Life Assurance plc, St. Marys Court Investments, Standard Property Investment (1987) Ltd, Standard Property Investment Ltd, Sussex County Homes Ltd, Suzuki Financial Services Ltd, Swan Funding 2 Ltd, Syon Securities 2019 DAC, The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation Plc, The British Linen Company Ltd, The Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland, The Mortgage Business plc, Thistle Financing Holdings Ltd, Thistle Investments (AMC) Ltd, Thistle Investments (ERM) Ltd, Thistle Leasing, Three Copthall Avenue Ltd, Tower Hill Property Investments (10) Ltd, Tower Hill Property Investments (7) Ltd, Tranquility Leasing Ltd, Trinity Financing plc, UDT Budget Leasing Ltd, UDT Sales Finance Ltd, Uberior (Moorfield) Ltd, Uberior Co-Investments Ltd, Uberior ENA Ltd, Uberior Equity Ltd, Uberior Europe Ltd, Uberior Fund Investments Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments (No.2) Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments Ltd, Uberior Investments Ltd, Uberior Nominees Ltd, Uberior Trading Ltd, Uberior Trustees Ltd, Uberior Ventures Australia Pty Ltd, Uberior Ventures Ltd, United Dominions Leasing Ltd, United Dominions Trust Ltd, Universe The CMI Global Network Fund, Upsaala Ltd, Vine Street IX LP, WCS Ltd, Ward Nominees (Abingdon) Ltd, Ward Nominees (Birmingham) Ltd 1, Ward Nominees (Bristol) Ltd 1, Ward Nominees Ltd 1, Waverley  Fund II Investor LLC, Waverley  Fund III Investor LLC, Waymark Asset Investments Ltd, West Craigs Ltd, Wetherby II Securities 2018 DAC, Wetherby III Securities 2019 DAC, Wetherby Securities 2017 Ltd, Wood Street Leasing Ltd, and Zurich Insurance Group - UK Workplace Pensions and Savings Business.

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China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited, an investment holding company, provides cellular and fixed-line voice, and related value-added services in the People's Republic of China. It also provides broadband and other Internet-related, information communications technology, and business and data communications services. In addition, the company offers communications technology training, technical, and Internet information and value-added telecommunications services; telecommunications network construction, planning, and technical consulting services; and consultancy, survey, design, and contract services relating to information and construction projects. Further, it provides customer, project design consultation and management, property management, e-payment, venture capital investment, communications technology development and promotion, auto informatisation, financial, data processing, and tourism and information services; advertising design, production, agency, and publication services; technology development, transfer, and consulting services; and technology promotion service of intelligent transportation system's products. Additionally, the company offers technology development and consultation, and other services; technology research and development, consultation, and services of TV video and mobile video; internet of things technology, and online data processing and transaction services; and big data, and cloud computation and infrastructure services. It also provides online video and reading materials; network music; financing leasing services; and data analysis and application services, as well as sells handsets and telecommunication equipment. As of December 31, 2019, it had approximately 254 million 4G subscribers, 83 million fixed-line broadband subscribers, and 54 million fixed-line local access subscribers. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is based in Central, Hong Kong. China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited is a subsidiary of China Unicom (BVI) Limited.
The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment offers cleaning products, such as laundry additives and home care products primarily under the Clorox, Clorox2, Scentiva, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Tilex, and Formula 409 brands; professional cleaning and disinfecting products under the CloroxPro and Clorox Healthcare brands; professional food service products under the Hidden Valley brand; and vitamins, minerals and supplement products under the RenewLife, Natural Vitality, NeoCell, and Rainbow Light brands in the United States. The Household segment provides cat litter products under the Fresh Step and Scoop Away brands; bags and wraps under the Glad brand; and grilling products under the Kingsford brand in the United States. The Lifestyle segment offers dressings, dips, seasonings, and sauces primarily under the Hidden Valley brand; natural personal care products under the Burt's Bees brand; and water-filtration products under the Brita brand in the United States. The International segment provides laundry additives; home care products; water-filtration systems; digestive health products; grilling products; cat litter products; food products; bags and wraps; natural personal care products; and professional cleaning and disinfecting products internationally primarily under the Clorox, Ayudin, Clorinda, Poett, Pine-Sol, Glad, Brita, RenewLife, Ever Clean and Burt's Bees brands. The Clorox Company sells its products primarily through mass retailers; grocery outlets; warehouse clubs; dollar stores; home hardware centers; drug, pet and military stores; third-party and owned e-commerce channels; and distributors, as well as a direct sales force The company was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Oakland, California.
Pence confirms U.S. support to Georgia

By Tina Tskhovrebadze

Mike Pence, U.S. Vice President, arrived in Georgia on July 31, 2017. The visit of Vice President of United States is significant for Georgia as the country tries to maintain its western-oriented policy and continues its path to NATO membership. Especially, as Pence visited Georgia in the frames of his to tour to NATO member states.The residents of Georgia gathered at Tbilisi International Airport to meet the Vice President on Monday demonstrating that Georgian people appreciated his visit and had trust in the support of the United States. Most political parties and official representatives agreed that this visit shows U.S governments full support for Georgias territorial unity and sovereignty.As Russia keeps on its creeping occupation of Georgias territory, the Georgian government seeks for international support, which is seen as a major peaceful tool for Georgia to stop its peaceful annexation.Mike Pences visit has a historical meaning for Georgia. On the one hand, our country needs support from the United States to have a balanced situation in the region and handle some threats, but on the other hand, Georgia is a trustful, serious and an important partner for the USA. We are contributing to the process of building global security and this role is appreciated by U.S., explains Tamar Khulordava, Chairman of European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament.Earlier during his visit to Estonia, Mike Pence stated: We stand by our partners in the Eastern Europe to protect freedom and it is a great honor for us.The Vice President had a clear message from U.S. President Donald Trump that was declared at the meeting with Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia: The President of the United States sent me here with a very simple message  to you, to your government and to the good and courageous people of Georgia: we are with you, we stand with you, for your freedom and for our shared values, said Pence.The Prime Minister of Georgia mentioned that the United States has a dedicated friend in Georgia, a stable geopolitical ally and a strategic partner, a partner with common values and shared global security priorities that brings Georgia to retake her rightful place in the family of European nations.The Georgian opposition Parties also had their meetings with the Vice President. One of the representatives of the Georgian opposition - David Usupashvili, former Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia and a leader of the Time to Build party, mentioned that getting an economic support from the United States depends on the quality of democratic processes in Georgia.According to David Bakradze, leader of the European Georgia the Vice Presidents message regarding the future and security of Georgia is absolutely clear  the new administration of the United States continues to support Georgias territorial unity, security and joining NATO. The Georgian opposition leaders admitted they have discussed amendments to the Constitution of Georgia and expect wider involvement in the process.On August 1, after the meeting with the opposition parties of Georgia, Prime Minister Kvirikashvili and Vice President Pence held a joint press conference. The questions raised mainly referred to the undergoing peaceful occupation process of Georgias soil. At the press conference, Mike Pence stressed the United States strong support to Georgia and its sovereignty. Pence also said that America is ready to have good relationships with Russia, but Russias behavior shows different will. Mike Pence stressed that Trumps administration strongly supports Georgias membership to NATO and is ready to cooperate in the spheres of defense, security and economy.The Vice Presidents visit is an encouraging sign for Georgia in its western aspirations and peaceful democratic development.
National Fuel Gas Company operates as a diversified energy company. It operates through four segments: Exploration and Production, Pipeline and Storage, Gathering, and Utility. The Exploration and Production segment explores for, develops, and produces natural gas and oil in California and in the Appalachian region of the United States. As of September 30, 2021, it had proved developed and undeveloped reserves of 21,537 thousand barrels of oil and 3,723,433 million cubic feet of natural gas. The Pipeline and Storage segment provides interstate natural gas transportation and storage services through an integrated gas pipeline system in Pennsylvania and New York; and owns and operates underground natural gas storage fields. This segment also transports natural gas for National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation, as well as for other utilities, industrial companies, and power producers in New York State; and owns and operates the Empire Pipeline. The Gathering segment builds, owns, and operates natural gas processing and pipeline gathering facilities in the Appalachian region, as well as provides gathering services to Seneca Resources Company, LLC. The Utility segment sells natural gas or provides natural gas transportation services to approximately 753,000 customers in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Jamestown, New York; and Erie and Sharon, Pennsylvania. The company markets gas to industrial, wholesale, commercial, public authority, and residential customers primarily in western and central New York, and northwestern Pennsylvania. As of September 30, 2021, the company also owned approximately 95,000 acres of timber property; and managed approximately 2,500 additional acres of timber cutting rights. National Fuel Gas Company was incorporated in 1902 and is headquartered in Williamsville, New York.
The following companies are subsidiares of Caterpillar: Advanced Tri-Gen Power Systems LLC, Anchor Coupling Inc., Asia Power Systems (Tianjin) Ltd., AsiaTrak (Tianjin) Ltd., Banco Caterpillar S.A., Berg Propulsion International Pte Ltd., Bucyrus, Bucyrus Australia Surface Pty. Ltd., Bucyrus Europe Holdings Ltd., Bucyrus Europe Limited, Bucyrus International (Chile) Limitada, Bucyrus International (Peru) S.A., Bucyrus Mining Australia Pty. Ltd., Bucyrus Mining China LLC, Bucyrus UK Limited, Cat Rental Kyushu LLC, Caterpillar (Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Caterpillar (China) Financial Leasing Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (China) Machinery Components Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (HK) Limited, Caterpillar (Huainan) Machinery Service Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Langfang) Mining Equipment Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Luxembourg) Investment Co. S.a r.l., Caterpillar (NI) Limited, Caterpillar (Newberry) LLC, Caterpillar (Qingzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Suzhou) Logistics Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Thailand) Limited, Caterpillar (U.K.) Limited, Caterpillar (Wujiang) Ltd., Caterpillar (Xuzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar (Zhengzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar Acquisition Holding Corp., Caterpillar Americas C.V., Caterpillar Americas Co., Caterpillar Americas Funding Inc., Caterpillar Americas Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Asia Limited, Caterpillar Asia Pacific L.P., Caterpillar Asia Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Asset Intelligence LLC, Caterpillar Belgium S.A., Caterpillar Brasil Comercio de Maquinas e Pecas Ltda., Caterpillar Brasil Ltda., Caterpillar Brazil LLC, Caterpillar Castings Kiel GmbH, Caterpillar Centro de Formacion S.L., Caterpillar China Limited, Caterpillar Commercial Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Commercial LLC, Caterpillar Commercial Northern Europe Limited, Caterpillar Commercial S.A., Caterpillar Commercial S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Commercial Services S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Communications LLC, Caterpillar Corporativo Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Cote DIvoire, Caterpillar Credito S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., Caterpillar DC Pension Trust Limited, Caterpillar Digital Services & Solutions SARL, Caterpillar Distribution International LLC, Caterpillar Distribution Services Europe B.V.B.A., Caterpillar East Real Estate Holding Ltd., Caterpillar Emissions Solutions Inc., Caterpillar Energy Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Energy Solutions GmbH, Caterpillar Energy Solutions Inc., Caterpillar Energy Solutions S.A., Caterpillar Energy System Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Engine Systems Inc., Caterpillar Equipos Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Eurasia LLC, Caterpillar FS (QFC) LLC, Caterpillar Finance France S.A., Caterpillar Finance Kabushiki Kaisha, Caterpillar Financial Acquisition Funding LLC, Caterpillar Financial Aftermarket Solutions Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Australia Leasing Pty Limited, Caterpillar Financial Australia Limited, Caterpillar Financial Commercial Account Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Corporacion Financiera S.A. E.F.C., Caterpillar Financial Dealer Funding LLC, Caterpillar Financial Funding Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Caterpillar Financial Leasing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Financial New Zealand Limited, Caterpillar Financial Nordic Services AB, Caterpillar Financial Nova Scotia Corporation, Caterpillar Financial OOO, Caterpillar Financial Receivables Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Renting S.A., Caterpillar Financial SARL, Caterpillar Financial Services (Dubai) Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services (Ireland) plc, Caterpillar Financial Services (UK) Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services Argentina S.A., Caterpillar Financial Services Asia Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Financial Services Belgium S.P.R.L., Caterpillar Financial Services CR s.r.o., Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Services GmbH, Caterpillar Financial Services India Private Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services Leasing ULC, Caterpillar Financial Services Limited Les Services Financiers Caterpillar Limitee, Caterpillar Financial Services Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Caterpillar Financial Services Netherlands B.V., Caterpillar Financial Services Norway AS, Caterpillar Financial Services Philippines Inc., Caterpillar Financial Services Poland Sp. z o.o., Caterpillar Financial Services South Africa (Pty) Limited, Caterpillar Financial UK Acquisition Funding Partners, Caterpillar Financial Ukraine LLC, Caterpillar Fluid Systems S.r.l., Caterpillar Fomento Comercial Ltda., Caterpillar Forest Products Inc., Caterpillar France S.A.S., Caterpillar GB L.L.C., Caterpillar Global Investments S.a r.l., Caterpillar Global Mining America LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Equipamentos De Mineracao do Brasil Ltda., Caterpillar Global Mining Equipment LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Europe GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Expanded Products Pty Ltd, Caterpillar Global Mining Germany Holdings GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining HMS GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Holdings GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Hong Kong AFC Manufacturing Holding Co. Limited, Caterpillar Global Mining Hong Kong Limited, Caterpillar Global Mining LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Mexico LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Global Mining SARL, Caterpillar Global Mining U.S. Parts LLC, Caterpillar Global Services LLC, Caterpillar Group Services S.A., Caterpillar Holding (France) S.A.S., Caterpillar Holding Germany GmbH, Caterpillar Holdings Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Hungary Components Manufacturing Ltd., Caterpillar Hydraulics Italia S.r.l., Caterpillar IPX LLC, Caterpillar IRB LLC, Caterpillar Impact Products Limited, Caterpillar India Private Limited, Caterpillar Industrial Inc., Caterpillar Industrias Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Industries (Pty) Ltd, Caterpillar Insurance Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Insurance Company, Caterpillar Insurance Holdings Inc., Caterpillar Insurance Services Corporation, Caterpillar International Finance Designated Activity Company, Caterpillar International Finance Luxembourg Holding S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Finance Luxembourg S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Holding S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Luxembourg I S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Luxembourg II S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Product SARL, Caterpillar International Services Corporation, Caterpillar International Services del Peru S.A., Caterpillar Investment Limited, Caterpillar Investment One SARL, Caterpillar Investment Two SARL, Caterpillar Investments, Caterpillar Japan LLC, Caterpillar Latin America Services S.R.L., Caterpillar Latin America Services de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Latin America Services de Panama S. de R.L., Caterpillar Latin America Servicios de Chile Limitada, Caterpillar Latin America Support Services S. DE R.L., Caterpillar Leasing (Thailand) Limited, Caterpillar Leasing Chile S.A., Caterpillar Leasing GmbH (Leipzig), Caterpillar Leasing Operativo Limitada, Caterpillar Life Insurance Company, Caterpillar Logistics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Logistics (UK) Limited, Caterpillar Logistics Inc., Caterpillar Logistics ML Services France S.A.S., Caterpillar Logistics Services China Limited, Caterpillar Luxembourg Group S.ar.l., Caterpillar Luxembourg LLC, Caterpillar Luxembourg S.a r.l., Caterpillar Machinery Nantong Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Marine Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Marine Asset Intelligence, Caterpillar Marine Power UK Limited, Caterpillar Marine Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Maroc SARL, Caterpillar Materiels Routiers SAS, Caterpillar Mexico LLC, Caterpillar Mexico S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar Mining Canada ULC, Caterpillar Mining Chile Servicios Limitada, Caterpillar Motoren (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Motoren GmbH & Co. KG, Caterpillar Motoren Henstedt-Ulzburg GmbH, Caterpillar Motoren Rostock GmbH, Caterpillar Motoren Verwaltungs-GmbH, Caterpillar Netherlands Holding B.V., Caterpillar North America C.V., Caterpillar Operator Training Ltd., Caterpillar Overseas Credit Corporation SARL, Caterpillar Overseas Investment Holding SARL, Caterpillar Overseas Limited, Caterpillar Overseas SARL, Caterpillar Panama Services S.A., Caterpillar Paving Products Inc., Caterpillar Paving Products Xuzhou Ltd., Caterpillar Pension Trust Limited, Caterpillar Poland Sp. z o.o., Caterpillar Power Generation Systems (Bangladesh) Limited, Caterpillar Power Generation Systems L.L.C., Caterpillar Power Systems Inc., Caterpillar Power Ventures International Ltd., Caterpillar Precision Seals Korea, Caterpillar Prodotti Stradali S.r.l., Caterpillar Product Services Corporation, Caterpillar Propulsion AB, Caterpillar Propulsion International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Propulsion Italy S.R.L., Caterpillar Propulsion Namibia (Proprietary) Limited, Caterpillar Propulsion Production AB, Caterpillar Propulsion Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Propulsion Singapore Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar R&D Center (China) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe LLC, Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe Servicios S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar Reman Powertrain Indiana LLC, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Drivetrain LLC, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Renting France S.A.S., Caterpillar Reynosa S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar SARL, Caterpillar Services Germany GmbH, Caterpillar Servicios Limitada, Caterpillar Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Servizi Italia Srl, Caterpillar Shrewsbury Limited, Caterpillar Skinningrove Limited, Caterpillar Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd., Caterpillar Special Services Belgium S.P.R.L., Caterpillar Switchgear Americas LLC, Caterpillar Switchgear Holding Inc., Caterpillar Tianjin Ltd., Caterpillar Torreon S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Tosno L.L.C., Caterpillar Transmissions France S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Holdings Ltd., Caterpillar Tunnelling Canada Corporation, Caterpillar Tunnelling Europe Limited, Caterpillar UK Employee Trust Limited, Caterpillar UK Engines Company Limited, Caterpillar UK Group Limited, Caterpillar UK Holdings Limited, Caterpillar Undercarriage (Xuzhou) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Underground Mining Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Used Equipment Services Inc., Caterpillar Venture Capital Inc., Caterpillar Work Tools B.V., Caterpillar Work Tools Inc., Caterpillar World Trading Corporation, Caterpillar Xuzhou, Caterpillar of Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar of Canada Corporation, Caterpillar of Delaware Inc., Centre de Distribution de Wallonie SPRL, CleanAir Systems, Downer Freight Rail, ECM Railway Evolution Romania s.r.l., ECM S.p.A., EDC European Excavator Design Center GmbH, EMC Holding Corp., EMD International Holdings Inc., ERA Information & Entertainment (BVI) Limited, ERA Mining Machinery Limited, Electro-Motive Diesel Limited, Electro-Motive Locomotive Technologies LLC, Electro-Motive Technical Consulting Co. (Beijing) Ltd., Energy Services International Limited, Equipos de Acuna S.A. de C.V., Eurenov S.A.S., F. G. Wilson (Proprietary) Limited, F. Perkins Limited, FG Wilson (Engineering) Limited, GB Holdco (China) Inc., GFCM Comercial Mexico S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., GFCM Servicios S.A. de C.V., Gremada Industries - Assets, Hong Kong Siwei Holdings Limited, Inmobiliaria Conek S.A. de C.V., JCS Co., Kemper Valve & Fittings Corp., Leo Inc., Locomotive Demand Power Pty Ltd., Locomotoras Progress Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Lovat, M2M Data Corporation, MGE Equipamentos & Servicos Ferroviarios, MWM, MWM Austria GmbH, MWM Benelux B.V., MWM Energy Australia Pty Ltd, MWM France S.A.S, MWM Real Estate GmbH, MaK Americas Inc., MaK Americas Inc. (Canada), Magnum Power Products LLC, Marble, Maschinenbau Kiel GmbH, Mec-Track S.r.l., Metalmark Financial Services Limited, Motoren Steffens GmbH, Nippon Caterpillar LLC, P. T. Solar Services Indonesia, PT Caterpillar Finance Indonesia, PT. Bucyrus Indonesia, PT. Caterpillar Indonesia, PT. Caterpillar Indonesia Batam, PT. Caterpillar Remanufacturing Indonesia, Perkins Engines, Perkins Engines (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, Perkins Engines Group Limited, Perkins Engines Inc., Perkins Group Limited, Perkins Holdings Limited LLC, Perkins India Private Limited, Perkins International Inc., Perkins Japan LLC, Perkins Limited, Perkins Machinery (Changshu) Co. Ltd., Perkins Motores do Brasil Ltda., Perkins Power Systems Technology (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Perkins Small Engines (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Perkins Small Engines LLC, Perkins Small Engines Limited, Perkins Technology Inc., Progress Metal Reclamation Company, Progress Rail Arabia Limited Company, Progress Rail Australia Pty Ltd, Progress Rail Canada Corporation, Progress Rail Equipamentos e Servicos Ferroviarios do Brasil Ltda., Progress Rail Equipment Leasing Corporation, Progress Rail Holdings Inc., Progress Rail Innovations Private Limited, Progress Rail Inspection & Information Systems GmbH, Progress Rail Inspection & Information Systems S.r.l., Progress Rail International Corp., Progress Rail Leasing Canada Corporation, Progress Rail Leasing Corporation, Progress Rail Leasing de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Progress Rail Locomotivas (do Brasil) Ltda., Progress Rail Locomotive Canada Co., Progress Rail Locomotive Chile SpA, Progress Rail Locomotive Inc., Progress Rail Maintenance de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Progress Rail Manufacturing Corporation, Progress Rail Raceland Corporation, Progress Rail Rocklin Corporation, Progress Rail SA Proprietary Limited, Progress Rail Services Corporation, Progress Rail Services Holdings Corp., Progress Rail Services LLC, Progress Rail Services UK Limited, Progress Rail Switching Services LLC, Progress Rail Transcanada Corporation, Progress Rail Welding Corporation, Progress Rail Wildwood LLC, Progress Rail de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pyroban Group, Pyroban Group, Pyrrha Investments B.V., Pyrrha Investments Limited, S&L Railroad LLC, SCM Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., SPL Software Alliance LLC, Sabre Engines, Servicios de Turbinas Solar S. de R.L. de C.V., Shandong SEM Machinery Co. Ltd., Solar Turbines, Solar Turbines, Solar Turbines (Beijing) Trading Services Co. Ltd., Solar Turbines (Thailand) Ltd., Solar Turbines CIS Limited Liability Company, Solar Turbines Canada Ltd./Ltee., Solar Turbines Central Asia Limited Liability Partnership, Solar Turbines EAME s.r.o., Solar Turbines Egypt Limited Liability Company, Solar Turbines Europe S.A., Solar Turbines India Private Limited, Solar Turbines International Company, Solar Turbines Italy S.R.L., Solar Turbines Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Solar Turbines Middle East Limited, Solar Turbines New Zealand Limited, Solar Turbines Saudi Arabia Limited, Solar Turbines Services Company, Solar Turbines Services Nigeria Limited, Solar Turbines Services of Argentina S.R.L., Solar Turbines Switzerland Sagl, Solar Turbines Trinidad & Tobago Limited, Solar Turbines West-Africa SARL, Tangshan DBT Machinery Co. Ltd., Tecnologia Modificada S.A. de C.V., Towmotor Corporation, Traction & Mining Motor Repairs Pty Ltd, Turbinas Solar S.A. de C.V., Turbinas Solar de Colombia S.A., Turbinas Solar de Venezuela C.A., Turbo Tecnologia de Reparaciones S.A. de C.V., Turbomach, Turbomach Endustriyel Gaz Turbinleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited, Turbomach France SARL, Turbomach GmbH, Turbomach Netherlands B.V., Turbomach Pakistan (Private) Limited, Turbomach S.A. Unipersonal, Turbomach Sp. Z o.o., Turner Powertrain Systems Limited, UK Hose Assembly Limited, Underground Imaging Technologies Inc, United Industries LLC, VALA Inc., Vasky Energy Ltd., Wealdstone Engineering, Weir - Oil & Gas Division, West Virginia Auto Shredding Inc., Western Gear Machinery LLC, Wetland Sustainability Fund I LLC, Williams Technologies, Yard Club, Zhengzhou Siwei Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Sales Co. Ltd., and okyo Rental Ltd..

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Cantel Medical Corp. provides infection prevention and control products and services for the healthcare market. The company's Medical segment offers automated endoscope reprocessing systems; disinfectants and sterilants; detergents; leak testing and manual cleaning products; storage cabinets and transport systems; manual cleaning products; endoscope process tracking products; other consumables, accessories, and supplies for use in disinfect rigid endoscopes, flexible endoscopes, and other instrumentation; and technical maintenance services. Its Life Sciences segment provides dialysis water purification and bicarbonate mixing systems; hollow fiber filters, and other filtration and separation products; liquid disinfectants and cold sterilization products; dry fog products; room temperature sterilization equipment and services; and clean-room certification and decontamination services for the dialysis and other healthcare, research laboratories, food and beverage, and commercial industrial customers, as well as microbiological testing services. The company's Dental segment offers hand and powered dental instruments, instrument reprocessing and sterility assurance products, towels, bibs, tray liners, sponges, nitrous oxide/oxygen sedation equipment and related single-use disposable nasal masks, face masks, and shields. It also provides hand sanitizers, germicidal wipes, disinfectants, surface disinfectants, waterline treatment products, saliva ejectors, evacuator tips, plastic cups, prophy angles, and prophy paste. The company's Dialysis segment provides hemodialysis concentrates and other ancillary supplies; medical device reprocessing systems; and sterilants and disinfectants. The company sells its products through its direct distribution network in the United States; and directly or under various third-party distribution agreements internationally. Cantel Medical Corp. was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Little Falls, New Jersey.
LAS VEGAS  A Las Vegas federal judge set bail of $30,000 on Friday for a celebrated young British cybersecurity researcher accused by U.S. prosecutors of creating and distributing malicious software designed to steal banking passwords.

The attorney for Marcus Hutchins, who has broad support in the information-security community, said the 23-year-old hacker would contest the charges. She said he would not be released until Monday because there wasnt enough time to post bail after Fridays afternoon ruling.

Hutchins is due in federal court in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

The U.K. resident gained overnight fame with quick thinking in May when he helped curb the spread of the WannaCry ransomware attack that had crippled thousands of computers worldwide.

Much of the cybersecurity community rallied around Hutchins after his arrest Wednesday, calling him a principled, ethical hacker.

The conditions of his release came as a relief for his supporters.

This is excellent news, said Nicholas Weaver, a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley. The indictment is remarkably shallow even by indictment standards, which is disappointing because it adds considerable uncertainty and fosters distrust with the general security community.

Las Vegas-based attorney Adrian Lobo said money for Hutchins bond would come from a variety of supporters and family in the U.S. and abroad. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital leading civil liberties non-profit, said it helped arrange Hutchins counsel and was working to find him an attorney to provide the best possible defense.

Security researchers are vital to protecting the computers we rely upon every day, EFF general counsel Kurt Opsahl said via email. Mr. Hutchins arrest has unfortunately deepened the divide between the research community and the government.

Weaver said federal prosecutors and the FBI were making a mistake by not providing more details about the crimes it alleges Hutchins committed. Having more information would act to reassure the larger security community, he said.

At the hearing, assistant U.S. attorney Dan Cowhig said Hutchins admitted to authorities in an interview following his arrest that he was the author of the malware code and sold it. He said the government has evidence of chat logs in which Hutchins discussed with an associate the sale of the Kronos banking Trojan.

Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe said Hutchins is not a danger to the community and has sufficient community support to not be a flight risk.

She ordered him to surrender his passport and said he could fly to Wisconsin, where he was indicted last month, without identification.

The most recent charge in the indictment is in July of 2015. Thats two years ago that the defendant has been free to roam the world during that period of time, she said.

Hutchins did not enter a plea at Fridays hearing. He was arrested while preparing to return home from the Def Con convention for computer security professionals.

He stands accused of creating and distributing malware known as the Kronos banking Trojan. Such malware infects web browsers, then captures usernames and passwords when an unsuspecting user visits a bank or other trusted location, enabling cybertheft.

Computer law expert Tor Ekeland described the evidence so in the case far as flimsy.

This is a very, very problematic prosecution to my mind, and I think its bizarre that the United States government has chosen to prosecute somebody whos arguably their hero in the WannaCry malware attack and potentially saved lives and thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars over the sale of alleged malware, Ekeland said.

The indictment alleges that Hutchins and another defendant  whose name was redacted  conspired between July 2014 and July 2015 to advertise the availability of the Kronos malware on internet forums, sell the malware and profit from it. The indictment also accuses Hutchins of creating the malware.

Programs, however, can often include code written by multiple programmers. Prosecutors might need to prove that Hutchins wrote code that targeted specific institutions.

U.S. Justice Department officials on Friday declined to answers questions about the case. The FBIs Milwaukee field office, which led the 2-year investigation, didnt return requests for comment.

Ekeland said that what is notable to him from the indictment is that it doesnt allege any financial loss to any victims  or in any way identify them. Besides that, laws covering aspects of computer crime are unclear, often giving prosecutors broad discretion.

The only money mentioned in this indictment is  for the sale of the software, he said.

Jake Williams, a respected cybersecurity researcher, said he found it difficult to believe Hutchins is guilty. The two men have worked together on various projects, including training material for higher education for which the Briton declined payment.

Hutchins lives with his family in the town of Ilfracombe, England, and worked out of his bedroom.

His mother, Janet, who has been frantically trying to reach her son, said she was outraged by the arrest and that it was hugely unlikely her son was involved because he spends much of his time combatting such attacks.

Back in May, the curly-haired computer whiz and surfing enthusiast discovered a so-called kill switch that slowed the unprecedented WannaCry outbreak.

He then spent the next three days fighting the worm that crippled Britains hospital network as well as factories, government agencies, banks and other businesses around the world.

Though he had always worked under the moniker of MalwareTech, cracking WannaCry led to the loss of his anonymity and propelled him to cyber stardom. There were appearances and a $10,000 prize for cracking WannaCry. He planned to donate the money to charity.

I dont think Im ever going back to the MalwareTech that everyone knew, he told The Associated Press at the time.

___

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported Marcus Hutchins age. He is 23.

___

Bajak reported from Houston and OBrien from Providence, Rhode Island. AP writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
A black sedan at the scene near Central and 59th SW where FBI agents were involved in a shooting Friday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales / Albuquerque Journal) Investigators comb through the scene near Central and 59th SW where FBI agents were involved in a shooting Friday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales / Albuquerque Journal) Investigators comb through the scene near Central and 59th SW where FBI agents were involved in a shooting Friday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales / Albuquerque Journal) Investigators at the scene near Central and 59th SW where FBI agents were involved in a shooting Friday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales / Albuquerque Journal) A black sedan at the scene near Central and 59th SW where FBI agents were involved in a shooting Friday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales / Albuquerque Journal) Investigators at the scene near Central and 59th SW where FBI agents were involved in a shooting Friday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales / Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 6 Next

Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

FBI special agents and task force officers were involved in a shooting that sent a suspect to the hospital Friday afternoon.

Spokesman Frank Fisher said agents were conducting a law enforcement operation near 59th Street SW south of Central around 3 p.m. when the shooting occurred, although the investigation of the shooting was taking place on 61st SW later Friday afternoon.

He said the suspect was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital, but he did not give the suspects condition, did not identify the suspect or provide any details about what led to the shooting. He did not say how many agents were involved, how many of them fired their weapons or whether the suspect had or used a weapon.

No law enforcement officers were injured, Fisher said.

Because the incident is under investigation, no further details can be released at this time, he wrote in an email.

He did not say when more information would be available and did not respond to phone calls.

Crime tape blocked the area near 61st and Central SW as both FBI and Albuquerque police investigated the scene while neighbors watched from their yards. On 61st, multiple vehicles crowded around a dark blue sedan that had bullet holes in the windshield. Yellow evidence markers dotted Lucca SW, an adjacent residential street that was also taped off.

One woman watching nearby said it was her cousin who was shot by agents and identified the dark sedan with bullet holes as belonging to him.

This is the second shooting the FBI has been involved in this year.

On June 19, agents fired at a suspect who struck and injured an agent with his car as he fled a parking lot after being busted in a drug deal. The suspect wasnt hit.

It also comes at the heels of several shootings, both fatal and nonfatal, involving local law enforcement agencies over the past month.

On July 4, Bernalillo County Sheriffs Deputy Charles Coggins shot and killed Miguel Gonzales, 28, in southwest Albuquerque after he fled a traffic stop.

On July 23, a sheriffs deputy shot at David Macias, 23, after police say he rammed two patrol cars in a stolen truck. Macias was uninjured.

Just two days after that, on July 25, Coggins shot another man, 26-year-old Charles Chavez, after responding to a burglary call in southwest Albuquerque. Chavez was hospitalized but the injuries were not life-threatening and he was booked into the county jail this week.

On July 28, a BCSO deputy Pete Martinez fatally shot Raymond Cruz, 37, after what was described as a one-man crime spree that included a home invasion and hostage situation. Martinez shot Cruz after he said he was dragged, hanging from the passenger side door of a stolen car.

The most recent shooting was on Monday when Albuquerque Police Department officer Jon OGuin shot and killed 43-year-old Robert Savelli, after he said Savelli pointed a gun as he fled from a traffic stop.

So far, there have been 13 shootings by law enforcement in the Albuquerque metro area this year, seven of which were fatal.

An Albuquerque SWAT team officer also shot and killed murder suspect Hector Gamboa, 59, in Cibola County after he refused to come out of a home.
The July 14 commentary by New Mexico LULAC titled National monuments key to Hispanic culture is a gross overstatement. The proliferation of national monuments in New Mexico is merely the continuation of several decades of land loss that the Hispano community has endured, beginning with the U.S. War on Mexico in 1846 and continuing through the present. These national monuments represent a net loss to the surrounding communities, especially to the native Hispano, as a land-based people.

Traditional Hispano culture is fundamentally rooted in the numerous villages and rural communities of New Mexico, especially in the mountainous areas of the state. There you will find the uniqueness of the native Hispano experience in El Nuevo Mexico, deeply rooted in its traditional land use practices. Its long history, unique dialect, written literature and oral stories, legends, epic journeys, and pioneering presence have kept generations of scholars busy in its historic documentation. The New Mexico Hispano culture is truly without parallel in this country and even among its counterparts throughout Latin America.

Juan de Onates founding of San Gabriel del Yunque near present-day Espanola in 1598 predates the failed Jamestown colony of Virginia by a decade, and more importantly, it never failed. The Spanish colonization of New Mexico was well-documented, including numbers and inventory of livestock  horses, mules, donkeys, cows, sheep, goats and swine  in a caravan miles long. Many native Hispano ranching families are direct descendents of these original founders of the livestock and ranching industry in the USA. It is these Hispano ranchers who constitute the Northern New Mexico Stockmans Association, sponsor of this commentary. Today, northern New Mexico remains a repository of valuable crops, including several varieties of native chiles, squashes, maize, apples, pears and grapes, as well as many of the pit fruits. This legacy did not happen by chance but by the hand of successive generations of Hispanos living and surviving on the land in their numerous villages. This legacy includes the numerous acequias, incorporated from Spanish/Moorish tradition into the native landscapes in the mountain ranges of New Mexico, both north and south, enabling an environment for all life to thrive.

The New Mexico LULAC position that any loss of any acreage to the two national monuments will somehow diminish the Hispano cultural heritage is absurd in the light of the millions of acres of former land grants that were stolen by the Santa Fe Ring. After the complete exploitation of these huge expanses, millions of acres were then recycled to the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies. The illegal theft of these lands continued with the U.S. Forest Services continuous reduction of the grazing permit system since its inception in the 1930s.

The rural Hispano population has long opposed the far-left environmentalist agenda that puts their unrealistic goals ahead of the rural communities of New Mexico. NNMSA is committed to protecting its members existing vested rights against any reductions by the federal government. To this end, NNMSA has recently promoted two public meetings in Abiquiu to discuss the road closings and the wilderness studies proposed by the Carson and Santa Fe National Forests. Crowds in excess of 200 local Hispano residents expressed their unanimous sentiment against these proposals, 200-plus opposed to 0 in favor.

In creating these national monuments, President Obama overlooked the statutory requirements involved in designating a national monument. The Antiquities Act of 1906 requires that reservations of land be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected. This law was blatantly ignored, given the enormous sizes of the two monuments: 496,000-plus acres for the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and 242,500 acres for Rio Grande del Norte. NNMSA urges (Interior) Secretary (Ryan) Zinke to drastically roll back the acreage in these two designations in order to provide the land base for the next generations of New Mexicans.
CHICAGO  Before 11-month-old Charlie Gard died in Britain last week from complications of a rare disease, his short life triggered debate about when its appropriate to stop treating patients and allow them to die.

His parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, mounted an epic struggle, trying every conceivable effort to save their son. In the end, however, their baby slipped away before they were ready to say goodbye  they never got to bring their son home for their last hours as a family.

Predictably, there has been outrage and backlash about this familys sad tale.

People read short headlines and feel compelled to pass instant judgment about what Yates and Gard should have done. Some think the parents should have accepted the reality of their sons disease, called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, and let him pass humanely and quickly. Others believe they should have gone public earlier when there was a better shot at experimental treatments.

There is no right answer.

Seventeen years ago, my daughter was diagnosed, in utero, with a rare disease that would virtually guarantee her death soon after birth. Best-case scenarios involved severely debilitating medical conditions and disabilities that would have made a normal childhood impossible.

But when the doctors gave my husband and me the bad news  and offered us the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy right then  the specter of a profoundly sick and disabled child that would live for any amount of time was, to us at that point, a gamble worth taking.

It was a less than logical choice. She was my second, high-risk pregnancy. I had a toddler at home and was putting my health in peril by not terminating. The hospital costs were soaring and there was no guarantee our baby would even live long enough for any surgical or medical interventions to try to prolong life.

Really, looking back on it, the easier, less complicated and medically cheaper thing to do would have been to end the pregnancy. I would have saved myself and our family a fair amount of physical, mental and emotional suffering.

But there was no convincing my husband and me that we shouldnt do everything humanly possible to ensure a live birth and pray for the miracle of even a very sick baby.

Its been so many years since our daughter was born and immediately died. But even with the cool-headed benefit of hindsight, Im sure we made the right decision for us. But even having suffered through the tragedy of a lost baby, my husband and I arent in a position to answer the question of when its appropriate to treat gravely ill infants and when nature should be allowed to take its course. This is because there is no singular answer to that question. No one  not parents whove been through similar traumas, not policymakers who have a pet crusade for or against limits to heroic measures for saving lives, and certainly not politicians looking to exploit a familys unspeakable tragedy  should be weighing in on what Connie Yates and Chris Gard should have done.

The conservative British columnist Melanie Phillips described the drama surrounding the Gard case as a cruel and ignorant campaign. On her blog, Phillips wrote: The parents in their great distress cannot be blamed (if their baby experienced pain or trauma from having his life extended through desperate measures). The people who should consider what harm they may have done here are all those who, through giving the parents such false hopes, so cruelly embedded them in their denial of reality.

Shes not wrong.

But it is worth noting that though this false hope fueled political grandstanding and ideological bullying  and, perversely, generated ad revenue for media companies  it was also probably the only thing helping Charlie Gards parents endure such a heart-rending time.

Charlie Gards life and death are not a case study or parable about the bureaucracy of national medical systems. And his experience doesnt belong to the world, not even to those who mourned for him.

No one but his parents have a right to take any kind of life lesson from it. After all, theyre the only ones who have to live with the consequences of a heartbreaking situation that offered no easy solutions.

E-mail: estherjcepeda@washpost.com. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Gov. Susana Martinezs claim that the state Constitution does not require her to provide an explanation for every veto does not jibe with settled state law, top New Mexico lawmakers argued in a court brief filed Friday.

The Legislative Council, a group of top-ranking legislators, filed a lawsuit against the governor in June over 10 bills that were vetoed in the final weeks of this years 60-day legislative session.

In the court brief filed Friday, attorneys for the legislators said Martinez  in her official response to the lawsuit  cited parts of the state Constitution out of context.

It is clear the language, history and the purposes of (the New Mexico Constitution) require that to effectively veto a bill during the legislative session, the governor must provide her objections so that the Legislature can timely consider and act on them, the Legislative Councils outside attorneys wrote in their filing.

The legislators argue that the 10 bills Martinez vetoed should be declared to be law because the governor did not follow proper procedures. She either took too long to act on the bills  more than three days  or did not provide a sufficient explanation for the vetoes, the suit claims.

Martinez, the states two-term Republican governor, has insisted the vetoes were legal.

The Governors Office has also blasted Democratic lawmakers for wasting time and taxpayer money in spearheading the lawsuit. It was authorized in a closed-door vote by the Legislative Council, a group of lawmakers that includes both Democratic and Republican members.

At stake are bills dealing with local government broadband expansion, industrial hemp research, drug testing for racehorses and allowing computer science to count toward math and science requirements for New Mexico high school students.

Most of the 10 bills were vetoed in a flurry of action on March 15, the day after the Senate voted to successfully override Martinezs veto of a teacher sick leave bill. A similar override attempt in the House of Representatives came up short, and no override attempts were launched on any of the 10 bills in question.

Since Martinez vetoed the 10 bills in question, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, has declined to chapter them into law. If successful, the lawsuit would compel that action, a needed step for the bills to take effect.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit was filed after a contentious 60-day session in which the Democratic-controlled Legislature frequently clashed with the Governors Office over budgetary matters.

In all, Martinez vetoed 145 bills passed during this years session  or roughly 52 percent of the bills approved by lawmakers. The veto rate was the highest of her tenure, which began in 2011.

A hearing before District Judge Sarah Singleton in the veto lawsuit case is scheduled for next week.
Love that scent of chile roasting in the morning?

A dozen finalists from which will emerge the best chile cheeseburger for this year have been announced the State Fair, which hosts this very New Mexican contest.

The event is so popular that fair officials decided to expand the footprint in the Agriculture Building Courtyard on the west side of Main Street in order to meet the demand and accommodate even more participants.

The order to Fire Up Your Grill for the annual Green Chile Cheeseburger Challenge will be given at approximately 3:45 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11, allowing contestants time to test cook and prepare for the challenge, and the green chile must be from a home-grown New Mexico location.

The contestants, and two alternates selected by drawing, which represent 10 different towns or villages from all over the state, are:

 El Brunos  Cuba

 Sparkys Burgers, BBQ & Espresso  Hatch

 The Eklund  Clayton

 Starr Brothers Brewing  Albuquerque

 Village Cafe  Los Lunas

 Rockin BZ Burgers  Alamogordo

 Whole Foods Market/Sandia Saloon

 Albuquerque

 Oso Grill  Capitan

 Fat Sats Bar & Grill  Belen

 Oak Tree Cafe  Albuquerque

 Fuddruckers  Albuquerque

 The Pointe Grill  Rio Rancho

Alternates are :

 Sadies of New Mexico  Los Ranchos

 Big Mikes Grill  Belen

For more information, visit www.exponm.com.

We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.
SAN FRANCISCO  Far from their prestigious campuses, a Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford finance officer were jailed in the San Francisco area on Saturday after eight days as fugitives in the death of a young hairdresser in Chicago who was repeatedly stabbed until the knife broke, police said.

The Northwestern microbiologist, Wyndham Lathem, had a personal relationship with the victim, although the nature of it wasnt clear, and Lathem had made a video apologizing for what he called the worst mistake of my life, according to investigators.

Lathem, 42, was being held without bail in Alameda County and faced a court appearance in the city of Pleasanton. Lathem was under intensive observation Saturday in jail, Alameda County Sheriffs Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

The other suspect, Andrew Warren, a treasury assistant at one of Oxfords residential colleges in England, was being held at the county jail in San Francisco.

Both men surrendered separately and peacefully on Friday evening in the Bay Area.

They had been fugitives since the body of 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found in Lathems Chicago apartment on July 27.

Police said Lathem had a relationship with Cornell-Duranleau, who moved to Chicago from the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area after receiving his cosmetology license. Investigators have not elaborated on how Cornell-Duranleau or Lathem knew Warren, or if Warren knew them before he arrived in the United States.

Chicago police said Warren was 56; he was booked into jail as age 49.

A deputy U.S. marshal said Lathems surrender came after fast-paced negotiations through an attorney that led to the fugitive turning himself in at the federal courthouse in Oakland.

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Conroy told The Associated Press the telephone negotiations began late Friday afternoon and by evening, Lathem arrived by car at the courthouse. No guns were drawn, but Lathem was ordered to carefully step out of the vehicle and was taken into custody in a courtyard area, Conroy said.

According to Conroy, Lathem stated that he would not answer questions on the advice of a lawyer, and no questions were asked.

Investigators talked with Lathems friends during the week, including people from his graduate and undergraduate days, along with his colleagues.

They knew the seriousness of the charges, the seriousness of the case and how important it was that he be brought into custody, not have to live a life on the run, Conroy said. He knew that.

Conroy said he believed some of the friends were in contact with Lathem while he was a fugitive, and that the attorney probably became involved through a recommendation.

Conroy didnt have any details on Warrens surrender because he wasnt our primary target, Mr. Lathem was.

Police said Lathem had sent a video to friends and relatives apologizing for his involvement in the crime, which he called the biggest mistake of my life. The video raised concern among investigators that Lathem might kill himself.

We are also thankful both men are safely in custody and this did not end in further tragedy, a police statement said.

Warren arrived in the United States three days before Cornell-Duranleaus death. He and Lathem were seen in surveillance video leaving Lathems high-rise apartment building the day of the stabbing.

In a bizarre twist, police said that on that same day, before the body had been discovered, Lathem and Warren drove about 80 miles (128 kilometers) northwest of Chicago to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where one of them made a $1,000 cash donation to the local public library in Cornell-Duranleaus name. Lake Geneva police said the man making the donation did not give his name.

Ive never seen where suspects in a homicide would make a donation in the victims name, said Lake Geneva police Lt. Edward Gritzner.

On the night of the slaying, police said the front desk of the building where Lathem lived in Chicagos trendy River North neighborhood received an anonymous call from a person who said that a crime had been committed in Lathems 10th floor apartment. When police opened the door, they found Cornell-Duranleaus body.

Police also said that by the time they found the body on the night of July 27, Cornell-Duranleau had been dead for 12 to 15 hours

Cornell-Duranleaus mother, Charlotte Cornell, didnt immediately reply to an email requesting comment on the arrests.

___

Associated Press writer John Antczak contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
The week (July 31-August 5) saw two major acquisitions effected  Madison Media picking up a controlling stake in Bangalore-based performance marketing agency, HiveMinds Innovative Market Solutions; and digital ad-tech company Fork Media acquiring a majority stake in a start-up, Rappio Advertising. Cause marketing and Podcasting in India are our special feature offering this week.

Other headline makers included:

Account wins by Havas Media, Performics.Convonix and Matchbox Media

Zee Anmol climbing up to No. 1 as per BARC ratings for Week 30

Episode 4 of Game of Thrones Season 7 being leaked online and Star India confirming the breach

Q1 FY18 results of Colgate-Palmolive India and NDTV India

The CSR factor is gaining grounds in brands campaigns as they seen to bring about a social change, along with building up the brand. According to a study commissioned by Havas Media, brands which embed social and environmental benefits in their core products outperform the stock market by 120 per cent and generate higher levels of loyalty, purchasing intent and overall consumer advocacy. What happens when a brand goes the cause-way and keeps it at the centre? Our two-part Deep Dive feature report explores cause marketing in India.

Deep Dive: How brands are building stronger equity the CSR way  Part 1

Deep Dive: How brands are building stronger equity the CSR way  Part 2

Great potential, but not finding too many takers to match this potential  this has basically been the journey of podcasting in India. The medium has not been able to come out of its niche positioning and gain a mainstream status. We take a look at the Indian podcast scene, which has a handful of notable players  Audiomatic, Indias first podcast network launched in 2015; Indus Vox Media; and digital music offerings like Saavn, Gaana and Hungama.

Podcasting in India:Need to build a strong listening culture  Amit Doshi

As Chief Executive Officer of My FM, Harrish M Bhatia is the driving force behind the stations record breaking performance in its over decade-long existence. In a tete-a-tete for Adgullys Offbeat section, Bhatia reveals a lesser known side of him.

Offbeat: Harrish M Bhatia  once a leader, always a leader

Madison Media has taken a controlling stake in Bangalore-based performance marketing agency, HiveMinds Innovative Market Solutions, which counts among its clients Big Basket, ABOF, ClearTrip, and CloudNine Hospitals, among others. HiveMinds strengths have been in search, social, performance marketing and programmatic buying and specialising in e-commerce, education and travel.

Madison Media fortifies digital biz, acquires majority stake in HiveMinds

Digital ad-tech company Fork Media has acquired a majority stake in Rappio Advertising, a start-up that has a unique platform for digital audio advertising. With this acquisition, Fork Media plans to introduce audio-based advertising at scale using its large inventory of premium publishers and create new avenues for brands.

Fork Media acquires majority stake in audio advertising platform Rappio

Havas Media Group, India has bagged the integrated media duties of Faircent.com, Indias largest peer to peer lending platform which caters to retail and business loans. The account will be handled out of the agencys Gurgaon office.

Havas Media wins integrated media mandate for Faircent.com

Continuing its recent run, Performics.Convonix, the digital end-to-end solutions company under Starcom India, has won the SEO duties of Aditya Birla Health Insurance. The agency had recently bagged the SEO mandate for Jeep India.

Performics.Convonix bags SEO mandate for Aditya Birla Health Insurance

Following a multi-agency pitch, Matchbox Media, the media arm of ITW Playworx, has bagged the media duties of Richfeel, a leading trichology centre, hair and scalp clinic for more than 3 decades. The account will be serviced out of the agencys Mumbai office.

Matchbox Media bags media duties of trichology centre Richfeel

BARC ratings for Week 30 (July 22-28) [HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals] saw Zee Anmol surging ahead to be placed at No. 1 for the first time since BARC ratings came into being. Meanwhile, Star Plus, slid to the third spot from No. 1 last week. Reality show, Fear Factor Khatron Ke Khiladi  Pain in Spain, on Colors entered the list of most watched shows on Hindi GECs in Rural+Urban this week.

BARC Wk 30 ratings: Zee Anmol surges ahead to claim No. 1 spot

Episode 4 of popular fantasy drama Game of Thrones Season 7 was leaked online ahead of its date of airing on August 6 on HBO globally and on August 8 in India on Star World. It is now known that the breach happened at Star India, HBOs distribution partner in India. Star Indias watermark appears in the multiple screen grabs of the leaked Episode 4. For internal viewing only also appears on the top left hand corner of the screen.

Game of Thrones Season 7 Ep 4 leaked online; Star India confirms breach

Marking its 100th anniversary, Grey Group has promoted Michael Houston to Worldwide Chief Executive Officer of Grey Group. He has become only the fifth person to hold the CEO position since Greys founding in 1917. James R Heekin, who has led the company, as Chairman and CEO of Grey Group since 2007, will remain Executive Chairman of Grey Group.

Grey Group announces leadership appointment for its next generation

Prasad Kathe has been roped in as Editor of Marathi news channel IBN Lokmat, a joint venture between Network18 and Lokmat Group. Kathe joins in from NDTV, where he produced and anchored shows like Money Mantra, Marathi Ke Naam Par and Ek Bhaiyya Dooja Marathi.

NDTV's Prasad Kathe joins IBN Lokmat as Editor

Colgate-Palmolive India has reported net sales of Rs 1,109.9 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, a decrease of 3 per cent over Q1 of the previous year, largely due to destocking in the trade channel ahead of the implementation of GST. Volumes declined 5 per cent during the quarter. The company saw an 8 per cent increase in its net profit after tax for Q1 FY2018 at Rs 136.4 crore. It also continued strong media investment behind its core equities.

Colgate-Palmolive India Q1 FY18 net profit up 8%, net sales down 3%

NDTVs digital business has enjoyed spectacular growth in the first quarter ended June 30, 2017. Revenues jumped by 65 per cent to Rs 38 crore from Rs 23 crore in the same quarter last year. Profit after Tax improved to Rs 7 crore, compared to a loss of Rs 3 crore in the same quarter last year. The group EBITDA improved by Rs 19 crore, compared to same quarter last year. EBITDA from Television & Digital segments achieved break-even in this quarter.

NDTVs digital business revenues jump 65% to Rs 38 cr in Q1 FY18
It seems Google has now made available a preview program for Google Home, or is about to. As support pages for a Google Home Preview Program are now live. In fact, the support pages are not new pages and instead are simply the same Preview Program pages that were already available to those who joined up to the Chromecast Preview Program. Which Google launched back towards the end of 2016. So in reality, it seems this is more of a case of Google now expanding that Preview Program to now include Google Home.

In either case, for those hoping to secure a place on the beta program, it seems the signing up process is pretty much the same as it was/is for Chromecast. So users just need to head to the Google Home app, tap Devices, and scroll down until an enroll card appears for the Google Home device. Then on that card, tap the menu (top right corner), hit Settings, and then Preview Program. From here it is just a matter of following the on-screen prompts. One point to note, according to the support pages, if you get to the enroll card point and do not see a Preview Program option, then it means Google is no longer accepting new members. Although, the same pages do note that checking back regularly might be worth it, as new places do become available.

As to be expected, by joining up the program users should be able to gain access to the very latest features available for Google Home, and certainly before they become widespread available. Of course, in return for that advanced access, it should be equally expected that the features might not always be working as well as they should. Although, Google does state that the Preview channel is updated shortly before the full push of our production firmwares suggesting that the version made available to Preview members will be very close to the release version. If you do not own a Google Home, but do happen to own an Android TV device, then it is worth knowing that last week Google also opened up a beta program for the Google Cast Receiver app for Android TV. Which was in addition to Google+ also announcing that it is now looking for beta testers. So it does seem as though Google is making a number of new beta options available at the moment.
Google is reportedly planning to debut a new initiative called Stamp next week, which aims to create what industry watchers describe as a Snapchat Discover-like feature that would allow publishers to produce media content with a major focus on its visual appeal, exactly like Snapchats tool for keeping tabs with the latest events that matter to you. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, which quoted insiders briefed on Googles plan, the Mountain View, California-based company has started talking to a number of publishers such as CNN, Vox Media, The Washington Post, Mic and TIME, all of whom the search giant wants to take part in the initiative.

According to the report, the Stamp effort will be powered by Googles Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project to provide a major benefit to users as AMP web pages are designed to load more rapidly than a typical page. The search giant is also making sure that Stamp would be immediately visible to all by baking it into Google Search, though it is not immediately clear in what specific area of the search engine the upcoming feature would sit as well as how it would be displayed. It is possible that the feature could be placed at the bottom of Googles search results as it looks more convenient that way for mobile users. But more to the point, Google has already been providing recommendations for some topics that are relevant to a users search in that area of the search results page, so it is likely that Google would also utilize that space for Stamp stories to show up. Insiders also revealed that the Stamp stories may consist of slides that readers can swipe.

The stories could also possibly come in the form of texts, photos and videos, according to the report, but what substantially sets Stamp stories apart from Snapchat Discover is the fact that the media content may also appear on the website of a publisher in addition to Googles search results page, significantly increasing the exposure of stories. While Stamp stories seem to be taking on Snapchat Discover, Google also appears to be developing a direct rival to Facebook Instant Articles, which works to disseminate news and other information from publishers to its large user base. More updates about Googles upcoming media content creation service should emerge in the coming weeks.
Theres a new fan-made concept video for Huaweis Mate 10 on YouTube, which may have been spurred by this mornings revelation that Huawei would be bringing an as-yet-unnamed flagship device stateside. Rumors and leaks have been floating around the internet about the Mate 10 for at least a few months now, and it has been speculated that will be the device arriving at AT&T sometime in 2018. There is no guarantee for any of the information contained in those rumors and the video  included below  is definitely not official, but it is well-made and definitely worth a look.

In the video, Huaweis Mate 10 is portrayed in a sleek looking bezel-free form factor, following closely with recent rumors that the final product will follow that design standard. Antenna lines are clearly visible wrapping around the lower portion and dual, bottom-firing speakers are shown on either side of what appears to be a USB Type-C port. Concept Creator has imagined a dual camera setup on the back, which also stems from the current set of spec expectations, but the concept extends on that to show dual cameras sitting neatly in the front as well. Both setups would match up nicely with the AR capabilities many are expecting to be featured with the Mate 10. A fingerprint sensor is located just below the rear cameras. Beyond that, the design presentation shows off no fewer than 5 different color variants. It bears repeating that this concept is not from Huawei itself but the company does tend to release multiple color layouts, giving individual users a bit more flair and personalization. Those shown in the conceptualization include the more standard metallic gray, in addition to dark blue and bright red, green, and violet variants.

Although the leaks have actually given content creators plenty of material to work with, its worth mentioning that the video in question is still just a concept and is not officially tied to the manufacturer. However, the video itself  made by Concept Creator and uploaded August 4  shows at least one possible direction Huawei could take with its handset if any of the rumors up to this point have been true. Moreover, it is interesting because high-quality concept creation is usually reserved for devices that have or are gaining popularity among buyers.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has confirmed that the MIUI 9 user interface, the companys latest version for its Android 7.0 Nougat-based firmware announced last month, is set to hit the Xiaomi Mi 5 handset on August 7 in addition to its scheduled rollout to other Xiaomi devices this month. The Beijing, China-based original equipment manufacturer revealed the upcoming launch of MIUI 9 on the Mi 5 via MIUIs Weibo account, adding that the phone was initially scheduled to receive the update after MIUI 9 lands on the Mi 6, Redmi Note 4X, and the Mi 5X handsets on August 11.

The reason behind the change in schedule remains unclear after Xiaomi recently confirmed during a product event in Beijing that the MIUI 9 update was set to be released to the Mi 5 on August 25 along with the Mi MIX, Mi Note, Mi Note 2, and the Mi 4-series. The relatively earlier MIUI 9 treat for the Mi 5 indicates that the company is giving a high priority to the phone, which was announced back in February last year and is still performing well in sales. Keep in mind, though, that while the MIUI 9 is first coming to the Mi 5, this version of the firmware is a beta edition that is available only to users who have signed up for the MIUI beta program. That means the latest MIUI version, billed to have a super fast performance, is expected to encounter a number of bugs and issues prior to its final release on August 11 since it is not a stable version yet.

Nonetheless, the user interface boasts a substantial upgrade compared to the previous version of MIUI, with Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun recently commenting that MIUI 9 will be significantly smooth, powerful and stable. Xiaomi even recently demonstrated capabilities of the MIUI 9 in a performance test that pitted the Mi 6 with the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Huawei P10, showing how the MIUI 9-equipped device outperformed its rivals. Some of the key features of MIUI 9 include the all-new Smart App Launcher, an image search engine, split-screen support, digital assistant, picture-in-picture mode, a screen recorder feature and other optimizations meant to significantly improve the performance of Xiaomi devices to provide a better experience to users.
The News in Brief

Sokhumi Grants Citizenship to Georgians Willing to Return to Abkhaz Roots



Russian-backed authorities in Sokhumi will grant citizenship and passports to those ethnic Georgians, who would be willing to change their ethnic identity from Georgian to Abkhaz and who would address the regions president for such a request, said Temur Nadaraia, head of the administration of the Gali District, Abkhazias easternmost district predominantly populated by ethnic Georgians.



No one can say that this was forced and that someone pushed you to do so, this was your voluntary application to the president requesting him to grant you the citizenship and restore your historic last names and ethnicity, Nadaraia stated on July 26 at the meeting of the heads of the Murzakan* Abkhaz Council, an organization established in 2014 for promoting "the integration of the descendants of Murzakan Abkhaz, with the three dozen local residents willing to change their ethnic identity.



You have such an opportunity and you will be receiving a passport indicating your ethnic belonging as Abkhaz and the last names without the changes that were done during the times of [Joseph] Stalin and [Lavrenti] Beria, Nadaraia noted, echoing the claims of the Abkhaz leadership that part of the local population in Gali District, which is home to the regions 40,000-some ethnic Georgian population, has been Georgianized during the Soviet Union.



At the same meeting, Edisher Zukhba, deputy head of the Murzakan Abkhaz Council, read the July 19 decrees of Raul Khajimba, the regions leader, granting Abkhaz citizenship to the first 31 applicants.



Jemal Gamakharia, Deputy Chairman of the Abkhazian Supreme Council, the Tbilisi-based legislature of Abkhazia, issued a statement on July 21, saying that unfortunately, the occupation regime in Abkhazia continues to conduct totally unacceptable experiments on the Georgian population in the Gali District.



The Deputy Chairman called the latest initiative a new form of discrimination against Georgians  an attempt to forcefully change their ethnicity. He added that the authors of the pseudo-historical theory that the identity of locals was changed during the Soviet times know better than anyone else that they are shamelessly lying.



The decision comes less than two weeks after Sokhumi started distributing residence permits to the ethnic Georgians of the Gali District, allowing them to retain Georgian citizenship, to reside in the region, to sell and bequeath property and travel to the rest of Georgia, but depriving them of full political rights and the right to purchase property.



Conference of the Murzakan Abkhaz



The July 26 meeting comes a week after the first conference of the Murzakan Abkhaz Council held on July 19 during the celebration of 85 years since Gali was granted the status of a city.



The resolution adopted by the Murzakan Abkhaz Council claimed that the identities and the last names of the residents of the eastern areas of Abkhazia had been changed into Georgians during the time of Stalin and Beria, and called on the residents to recall their ancestry and do everything possible to go back to their [Abkhaz] roots. It also calls on the authorities to support this process.



The regions Russia-backed leader Raul Khajimba issued a statement read at the conference by prime minister Beslan Bartsits, implying that the Gali residents were in truth Abkhaz, with the Georgian identity forced upon them in the Soviet period. Khajimba said in his statement that nevertheless the ethnic memory is alive and there are ongoing processes to restore the national identity of the native people.



Deputy head of the Murzakan Abkhaz Council EdisherZukhba said that the presence of high-level Abkhaz officials at the conference meant that the goals and tasks set before our civic organization - the Murzakan Abkhaz Council  are objectives at the state level [as well].



According to Zukhba, the organization had been assessing the potential targets for identity change among Gali District residents for three months, with the help from the authorities, and added that they have already identified over 4 500 individuals as such targets. To enhance the identity change process, Zukhba suggested opening of a boarding school in Gali, where particular attention and priority will be given to studying the Abkhaz language and literature, and history of Abkhazia.



* The newly introduced term Murzakan Abkhaz is based on Samurzakano, the historical name of the area which included the Gali Districts territory. (civil.ge)




It looks like the engine of the E90 BMW caught fire, with the unfortunate incident taking place just as the V8 animal was going through Brunnchen, one of the most dangerous twists on the Nordschleife.A potential coolant leak is said to have caused the fire and while we can't be certain of that, the flames exiting the exhaust made it clear that the powertrain of the Bimmer was in serious trouble.As you'll be able to notice in the first piece of footage below (on the left), which focuses on the M3 fire, the driver of a brand new Porsche 911 GT3, who was just behind the BMW, stopped to provide assistance.Speaking of which, the second clip below (video on the right), which allows us to zoom in on the crash-involving aftermath of the BMW's fluid spill, shows the Ring marshals failing to signal the slippery issue properly.Thus, an unsuspecting Honda S2000 driver lost the rear end of his sportscar in Brunchen, with the Japanese machine ending up in the guardrail.As if that hadn't been enough, a biker also fell off his motorcycle as he was approaching the said twist. Despite the rider appearing to have taken notice of the incident, entering the turn at reduced speed, the man's efforts were in vain.Fortunately, the man doesn't seem to have been hurt, as the clip shows him getting up and recovering his fallen bike.So, if anybody needed another example that proves why one should always use a certain safety margin when pushing a machine to the limit on the Ring, this unfortunate happening should tick that box.
Stephen Miller, the Trump senior policy adviser who just tangled on-camera with CNN's Jim Acosta, is under consideration for White House communications director, top Trump sources tell me.

The effort to find a Mooch successor is still in the name-gathering process, and Miller is not the top contender, the sources said.

But Steve Bannon likes the idea of Miller for the job, and Miller was the hero of the West Wing after he attacked Acosta as a "cosmopolitan" for his views on immigration.

likes the idea of Miller for the job, and Miller was the hero of the West Wing after he attacked Acosta as a "cosmopolitan" for his views on immigration. When Miller finished that press briefing, his colleagues high-fived him, according to Sebastian Gorka, a national-security aide who's a favorite of the president's for his over-the-top TV hits.

that press briefing, his colleagues high-fived him, according to Sebastian Gorka, a national-security aide who's a favorite of the president's for his over-the-top TV hits. The super-key point: Trump cares primarily about how people perform on TV. He's totally uninterested in the behind-the-scenes, unglamorous planning work of a comms director.

Miller is proudly hardline nationalist, and a favorite of the Trump faithful:

As a top aide to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, Miller was a central player in ginning up opposition to the "Gang of 8" bipartisan effort at immigration reform.

to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, Miller was a central player in ginning up opposition to the "Gang of 8" bipartisan effort at immigration reform. He has a "Rainman" ability to recall immigration statistics.

a "Rainman" ability to recall immigration statistics. When Miller worked in Sessions' office, he was effectively an adjunct of the Breitbart editorial team. He'd work closely with Julia Hahn  then Breitbart's immigration reporter, and now a White House colleague  on stories favoring nationalist immigration positions. A former colleague of Hahn's said Miller "mentored" Hahn.

in Sessions' office, he was effectively an adjunct of the Breitbart editorial team. He'd work closely with Julia Hahn  then Breitbart's immigration reporter, and now a White House colleague  on stories favoring nationalist immigration positions. A former colleague of Hahn's said Miller "mentored" Hahn. Miller was famous for bugging reporters at all hours with his story pitches, and seemingly had a direct line to Matt Drudge. The running joke was that the Sessions office had a permanent lease on at least one of the prized top-left Drudge links.

Many in the GOP establishment think Miller has been unpersuasive in his few trips to the TV cameras and the briefing room.
5 August 2017 13:14 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The transparency of Azerbaijani State Oil Funds (SOFAZ) financial stocks and flows is greater than the sovereign wealth funds of most higher-rated oil producers, according to Fitch Ratings analysts.

Assets held by SOFAZ were $34.8 billion at end-June (88 percent of end-2016 GDP). Sovereign net foreign assets will fall due to debt issued as part of the restructuring of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), but at a forecast 65 percent of GDP at end-2017 (down from 81.1 percent at end-2016), said Fitch.

SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million. As of 1H2017, assets of SOFAZ increased by 4.96 percent as compared to early 2017 ($33.147 billion) and totaled $34.79 billion.

Based on SOFAZs regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.

The main goals of the State Oil Fund include: accumulation of resources and placement of the Funds assets abroad in order to minimize the negative effects on the economy, prevention of Dutch disease to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations and support of current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan.

As much as 47.3 percent of the investment portfolio of SOFAZ was concentrated in US dollars (almost $16.45 billion) as of July 1. Some 35.9 percent of the total investment portfolio of SOFAZ is concentrated in euros (10.92 billion euros), 5 percent  in British pounds (1.33 billion pounds), 1.1 percent  in Turkish liras, 0.6 percent  in Australian dollars, 1.4 percent  in Russian rubles, 1.2 percent  in South Korean won, 1.4 percent  in Chinese yuan, 1.2 percent  in Japanese yen, 1.4 percent  in other foreign currencies. The remainder of the portfolio (3.5 percent, or around $1.21 billion) is concentrated in gold.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
5 August 2017 10:53 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan on Aug. 8-9, Turkmen Dovlat Habarlary (TDH) state news agency reported.

The issues related to this visit were discussed during the meeting of the Turkmenistans Cabinet of Ministers.

Turkmenistans Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov noted that, his country and Azerbaijan are developing constructive cooperation in political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

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5 August 2017 13:18 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Russia and Iran agreed to strengthen the military, technical and technological cooperation after new US sanctions, Sputnik news agency reported.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin will discuss arms supply with Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan in Tehran on Aug.5, as the countries tentatively agreed to strengthen military and technical and technological cooperation after new US sanctions, a source in Rogozins office said.

Rogozin is set to visit Iran on Aug.5 to lead the Russian delegation to the inauguration ceremony of re-elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

"Rogozin will meet with Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan to discuss several matters, including new supplies of Russian arms," the source said, adding that the parties "have reached a tentative agreement to increase military and technical and technological cooperation after both countries have been included to the sanctions list."

The source added that the Russian delegation will work on the possibility of signing new deals.

Apart from that, the Deputy Prime Minister is expected to meet with Iranian Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari to discuss the transfer of advanced technologies and training of Iranian specialists in Russia.

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5 August 2017 15:42 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has pledged his support for the measures already taken and aimed at all-out expansion of ties with People's Republic of Korea (PRK) during his second term in office.

Speaking at the meeting with PRK National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun in Tehran on Saturday, President Rouhani called on the South Korea to seize the opportunity and enroll in the developmental projects of the Islamic Republic, IRNA news agency reported.

Hassan Rouhani further voiced Irans support for strengthening security and stability in Asia.

Two countries have already inked 50 agreements for expansion of bilateral ties in economic sphere.

Rouhani is expected to take the oath of office for a second term this evening.

68-old president has pledged to deliver on his campaign promises of improving the economic situation in the country through expansion of international ties.

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Diabetes Epidemic Shifting To Urban Poor: Noted Diabetologist Dr Mohan (Interview) Wellness ians-Lekhaka

Diabetes, once a disease of the affluent, is now rampant among the urban poor too and preventive measures and free screening services are urgently required to control its impact. This is the recommendation of pioneering diabetologist Dr. V. Mohan, one of the authors of a 15-state study on diabetes funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Ministry of Health. The study was published in The Lancet last month. At 16.7 per cent, India had the highest share of the worlds diabetics in 2015 after China (26 per cent).

Mohan, 63, who heads the Dr Mohan's Diabetes Specialties Centre in Chennai, is a graduate of Madras Medical College and a fellow of all the four Royal College of Physicians in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Dublin, the American College of Endocrinology and all the three science academies of India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012.

In an interview with IndiaSpend, Mohan discusses the reasons for the spread of diabetes across classes and the need to tweak public health policy to deal with the epidemic. Excerpts:

Q: Prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus -- onset of diabetes during pregnancy -- has been increasing as much as impaired glucose tolerance in India. Did you notice this in your study?

A: This study did not look at the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus. However, from earlier studies, we have shown that the prevalence of gestational diabetes is also increasing in our country.

Q: The study argues that mainland states see more cases of diabetes than the northeast (prevalence in the sample's eight mainland states is 83 per cent but only 5.9 per cent in six northeastern ones). What makes the mainland population more vulnerable to diabetes?

A: The differences between diabetes in the mainland and northeastern states could be due to several factors. Of course, it could be due to ethnic differences or even genetic differences but also it could be related to lifestyle, for example, the cereal type consumed. Even more importantly, it could be related to physical activity, which is much higher in the northeastern states that have a hilly terrain. Perhaps the combination of these factors have contributed and the lesson to be learnt is that by lifestyle modification, diabetes prevalence can be reduced.

Q: The study says the "main factors driving the diabetes epidemic in both urban and rural areas are obesity, age, and family history of diabetes". It also points out that in urban areas "less affluent individuals have a higher prevalence of diabetes than their more affluent counterparts". Do the same factors affect the rich and the poor in urban India -- obesity, age and family history?

A: Further analysis has to be done to answer these questions and such analyses are now going on.

Q: The study points out that this epidemiological transition from the affluent to the urban poor "is worrying because it suggests that the diabetes epidemic is spreading to those individuals who can least afford to pay for its management". What sort of change in focus would you like to see in government health programmes for diabetes?

A: The government should provide free treatment for those who cannot afford to pay. Public-private partnerships would also help.

Q: Indians remain one of the biggest out-of-pocket health spenders. Do you think India should follow the US example of allowing tax deduction for diabetic expenses?

A: Tax deduction for diabetes expenses could be one solution. The other is to provide widespread insurance which can also pay for out-patient treatment. Better control of diabetes will result in lower rates of complications that are more expensive to treat than diabetes itself.

Q: The study admits that being "cross-sectional [it cannot make] inferences of causality". Have you made any presentations to the authorities for supporting longitudinal studies in the future?

A: There are some longitudinal studies going on in India. One of them has already been published, that is, the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study. There are other studies like the CARRS [Centre for Cardiometabolic Risk Reduction in South-Asia Surveillance] study, which is also ongoing now.

Q: Diabetes accounts for 2.4 per cent of the disability adjusted life years lost in India. It also leads to other major complications such as stroke, kidney failure and vision loss. How should public health programmes be restructured to include such ailments?

A: We need massive awareness programmes. We have to teach people about the importance of diabetes and its good control. We should also convey the message that good control of diabetes and related co-morbidities like blood pressure and lipid disorders can prevent diabetic complications. Finally, there should be facilities for screening not only for diabetes but also for its complications.

Q: You have pointed out earlier that rising diabetes incidence among urban Indians is partly because they are aping the food habits of the West. So is this factor now applicable to the urban poor as well?

A: What happens is that as the epidemic of diabetes matures, the more affluent and educated classes of society begin to take care of themselves because knowledge and awareness levels are better. They also have the facilities to look after their health. Hence, the diabetes rates begin to level off in the upper classes. However, by this time the standard of living among the urban poor begins to improve. When this happens, they start changing their lifestyle. Their physical activity goes down. They get mechanised transport, their eating habits change. They start eating unhealthy foods and the brunt of the diabetes epidemic now shifts to the poor. So, in this sense, behavioural change cuts across all classes.

With Inputs From IANS
The latest figures from the Department of Housing show that 7,941 people were without a home in June and 2895 of them were children.

The Department says progress has been made in moving families out of hotel and B&B accommodation with just 638 in receipt of this kind of emergency accommodation in June.

However the overall figure marks an increase in the numbers of people in need of housing supports.

Reacting to the figures the charity, Barnardos, said they remain disturbed that the Governments homelessness figures are continuing to rise.

Barnardos Head of Advocacy, June Tinsley said while the charity acknowledge the reduction in the number of families being accommodated in hotels and B&Bs since March, month on month little progress has been achieved.

"In May, 647 families were in such accommodation and in June this figure had fallen to 638. This demonstrates that the number of families entering homelessness remains higher than those exiting. A net decrease of just nine families is extremely disappointing and disheartening.

Each day in Barnardos services across Ireland we see the impact that homelessness is having on children. We watch the mental and emotional wellbeing of children deteriorate as their hopes of escaping homelessness fade.

"We meet mothers and fathers acutely aware that their children are experiencing a childhood deprived of play because their entire home is a hotel room. We see the physical impacts of not being able to access adequate nutritious meals due to the transient nature of homeless accommodation.

Ms Tinsley went on to say that last week the Ombudsman for Childrens Office highlighted that cases referred to them in relation to housing policy and practice frequently show that the best interests of children are ignored.

"As the Department of Housing review the Governments Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, it is critical that they redouble their efforts to ensure that childrens rights and needs are realised.
Boredom can be a very difficult concept to deal with for students. Though it is something that no one wants to have, everyone reaches a point where they get bored of whatever they have been up to.

Studies can get very strenuous for students. It requires continuous concentration to grasp all the concepts. Thus to keep their mind up to focus becomes more and more difficult. Boredom is not something that students develop just because they don't want to study. It is a natural reaction to things being uninteresting.

Teachers have a hard time conforming to the fact that whatever activities they conduct for the students , they do not pay attention. Well, you can't always blame the child.

Why do Students get Bored?

Boredom can result in students who are over achievers if the pace of teaching is very slow compared to what they are used to. For many others it might just be that the subject of conversation is not interesting enough or that they find it difficult to understand the way the topic is being taught to them. You might ask the students to stop yawning in class, or to and wash their faces multiple times, but they are temporary solutions to you problems.

As teachers, one must make sure that the students in the classroom are never bored. There are few tips that you can take up and try to make your classes interesting and kick boredom out of the classroom instead of the student for a change.

What can Teachers do to Keep Students from Getting Bored?

Don't Talk Too much at once

When you are trying to explain certain concepts, you might have a lot to say and you might have prepared a lot to give for your students. But understand that the students have to sit in the same position for long hours, so just talk a lot may bore them very easily.

Rather than just telling them how a certain concept is , or how a certain process works, make them think. Make their minds work and let curiosity do the job. You will find that a lot many students would start paying attention.

Simplify

While talking to students, make complex structures of sentences as simple as possible. Before you go in for you classes, just go through your plan as to what you will be putting forth the students.

Now as you go through your presentation piece by piece, try to identify whether there are any complex sentences or concepts. If any, try to simplify them then and there. Do this for all your lectures. This will help you provide a simple explanation thus, it won't fly right above the students' head.

Keep Energizing your students

Students are humans just like you. Though it is a job to teach and it is their requirement to learn, you can't rule the fact that they are children who need to be continuously energized for all the activities. The students will need to have small breaks for drinking water so they are hydrated, and to relax.

Activities like meditation may help the students to calm down and focus more. Make sure you do not stress them out to finish the portions, because in doing so they wouldn't be able to grasp any knowledge as they would be distracted throughout.

Tips for New Teachers on How to Manage Students

Use Interactive Methods

Don't stick to the age old blackboard and chalk. Bring in some new and interactive methods so that the students will be paying attention. Use a projector and screen a movie, form which the students will learn about the subject matter. Show tutorials and documentaries that will provide more information.

After such episodes, conduct a questions and answer session, where the student who asks the most questions, asks the best question etc. are given an incentive.



Creativity is Key

Creativity lets imagination loose, and there are no boundaries to imagination. The students will come up with the most surrealistic perception of the topic that you are teaching to them You will be amazed with the kind of thinking they posses. In this way, you will get to know what and how they think, which can be helpful you later, while taking classes in future.

Show Interest

Yes! We know you care about your students. But sometimes while in a hurry, you might shush one student off an then it might be other. The students might misunderstand this behavior for your disinterest in them.

Students tend to be more active and attentive in classes where they know the teacher cares for them and shows interest in them. So let them know that you are interested in the on goings of the class and the student's life. Such teachers are always reminiscence and are given an important place in a student's mind.

With these tips, your students will definetly not get bored and will be attentive in the classes to come.

How to Encourage Language and Communication Development in a Classroom?
The following companies are subsidiares of Johnson & Johnson: 3Dintegrated ApS, ALZA Corporation, AMO (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AMO (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd Beijing Branch, AMO (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd Guangzhou Branch, AMO (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd., AMO ASIA LIMITED, AMO Asia Limited (Korea Branch), AMO Asia Limited Taiwan Branch (Hong Kong), AMO Australia Pty Limited, AMO Australia Pty Limited (New Zealand Branch), AMO Canada Company, AMO Denmark ApS, AMO Development LLC, AMO France, AMO Germany GmbH, AMO Groningen B.V., AMO International Holdings Unlimited Company, AMO Ireland, AMO Ireland Ireland Branch, AMO Italy SRL, AMO Japan K.K., AMO Manufacturing USA LLC, AMO Netherlands BV, AMO Nominee Holdings LLC, AMO Norway AS, AMO Puerto Rico Manufacturing Inc., AMO Sales and Service Inc., AMO Singapore Pte. Ltd., AMO Spain Holdings LLC, AMO Switzerland GmbH, AMO U.K. Holdings LLC, AMO United Kingdom Ltd., AMO Uppsala AB, AUB Holdings LLC, Abott Medical Optics, Acclarent Inc., Actelion Ltd, Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Actelion Pharmaceuticals US Inc., Actelion Treasury Unlimited Company, Akros Medical Inc., Albany Street LLC, Alios BioPharma, Alza Land Management Inc., Anakuria Therapeutics Inc., Animas Diabetes Care LLC, Animas LLC, Animas Technologies LLC, AorTx Inc., Apsis, Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Aragon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Asia Pacific Holdings LLC, Atrionix Inc., Auris Health, Auris Health Inc., Backsvalan 2 Aktiebolag, Backsvalan 6 Handelsbolag, Beijing Dabao Cosmetics Co. Ltd., BeneVir BioPharm Inc., Berna Rhein B.V., BioMedical Enterprises Inc., Biosense Webster (Israel) Ltd., Biosense Webster Inc., Branch of Johnson & Johnson LLC (RU) in Kazakhstan, C Consumer Products Denmark ApS, CSATS Inc., Calibra Medical LLC, Campus-Foyer Apotheke GmbH, Carlo Erba OTC S.r.l., Centocor Biologics LLC, Centocor Research & Development Inc., Cerenovus Inc., ChromaGenics B.V., Ci:Labo Customer Marketing Co. Ltd., Ci:Labo USA Inc., Ci:z Holdings, Ci:z. Labo Co. Ltd., Cilag AG, Cilag GmbH International, Cilag Holding AG, Cilag Holding Treasury Unlimited Company, Cilag-Biotech S.L., CoTherix Inc., Coherex Medical Inc., ColBar LifeScience Ltd., Company Store.com Inc., Conor MedSystems, Cordis International Corporation, Cordis de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Corimmun GmbH, DePuy Hellas SA, DePuy International Limited, DePuy Ireland Unlimited Company, DePuy Mexico S.A. de C.V., DePuy Mitek LLC, DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., DePuy Products Inc., DePuy Spine LLC, DePuy Synthes Gorgan Limited, DePuy Synthes Inc., DePuy Synthes Institute LLC, DePuy Synthes Leto SARL, DePuy Synthes Products Inc., DePuy Synthes Sales Inc., Debs-Vogue Corporation (Proprietary) Limited, Dutch Holding LLC, ECL7 LLC, EES Holdings de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., EES S.A. de C.V., EIT Emerging Implant Technologies GmbH, Ethicon Endo-Surgery (Europe) GmbH, Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., Ethicon Endo-Surgery LLC, Ethicon Inc., Ethicon LLC, Ethicon PR Holdings Unlimited Company, Ethicon Sarl, Ethicon US LLC, Ethicon Women's Health & Urology Sarl, Ethnor (Proprietary) Limited, Ethnor Farmaceutica S.A., Ethnor del Istmo S.A., FMS Future Medical System SA, Finsbury (Development) Limited, Finsbury (Instruments) Limited, Finsbury Medical Limited, Finsbury Orthopaedics International Limited, Finsbury Orthopaedics Limited, GH Biotech Holdings Limited, GMED Healthcare BV, GMED Healthcare BV (Branch), Global Investment Participation B.V., Guangzhou Bioseal Biotech Co. Ltd., Hansen Medical Deutschland GmbH, Hansen Medical Inc., Hansen Medical International Inc., Hansen Medical UK Limited, Healthcare Services (Shanghai) Ltd., Hickory Merger Sub Inc., I.D. Acquisition Corp., Innomedic Gesellschaft fur innovative Medizintechnik und Informatik mbH, Innovative Surgical Solutions LLC, J & J Company West Africa Limited, J&J Pension Trustees Limited, J-C Health Care Ltd., J.C. General Services BV, JJ Surgical Vision Spain S.L., JJC Acquisition Company B.V., JJHC LLC, JJSV Belgium BV, JJSV Manufacturing Malaysia SDN. BHD., JJSV Norden AB, JJSV Produtos Oticos Ltda., JNJ Global Business Services s.r.o., JNJ Holding EMEA B.V., JNJ International Investment LLC, JOM Pharmaceutical Services Inc., Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy (Holding) Limited, Janssen BioPharma LLC, Janssen Biologics (Ireland) Limited, Janssen Biologics B.V., Janssen Biotech Inc., Janssen Cilag C.A., Janssen Cilag Farmaceutica S.A., Janssen Cilag S.p.A., Janssen Cilag SPA, Janssen Development Finance Unlimited Company, Janssen Diagnostics LLC, Janssen Egypt LLC, Janssen Farmaceutica Portugal Lda, Janssen Global Services LLC, Janssen Holding GmbH, Janssen Inc., Janssen Irish Finance Unlimited Company, Janssen Korea Ltd., Janssen Oncology Inc., Janssen Ortho LLC, Janssen Pharmaceutica (Proprietary) Limited, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Janssen Pharmaceutica S.A., Janssen Pharmaceutical K.K., Janssen Pharmaceutical Sciences Unlimited Company, Janssen Pharmaceutical Unlimited Company, Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. Japan Branch, Janssen Products LP, Janssen R&D Ireland Unlimited Company, Janssen Research & Development LLC, Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company, Janssen Scientific Affairs LLC, Janssen Supply Group LLC, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., Janssen Vaccines Branch of Cilag GmbH International, Janssen Vaccines Corp., Janssen-Cilag, Janssen-Cilag (New Zealand) Limited, Janssen-Cilag A/S, Janssen-Cilag AG, Janssen-Cilag AS, Janssen-Cilag Aktiebolag, Janssen-Cilag B.V., Janssen-Cilag Farmaceutica Lda., Janssen-Cilag Farmaceutica Ltda., Janssen-Cilag GmbH, Janssen-Cilag International NV, Janssen-Cilag Kft., Janssen-Cilag Kft. Branch Office, Janssen-Cilag Limited, Janssen-Cilag Manufacturing LLC, Janssen-Cilag NV, Janssen-Cilag OY, Janssen-Cilag Pharma GmbH, Janssen-Cilag Pharmaceutical S.A.C.I., Janssen-Cilag Polska Sp. z o.o., Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd, Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd (Branch), Janssen-Cilag S.A., Janssen-Cilag S.A., Janssen-Cilag S.A. de C.V., Janssen-Cilag de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Janssen-Cilag s.r.o., Janssen-Pharma S.L., Jevco Holding Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson (Angola) Limitada, Johnson & Johnson (China) Investment Ltd., Johnson & Johnson (China) Investment Ltd. Beijing Branch, Johnson & Johnson (Egypt) S.A.E., Johnson & Johnson (Hong Kong) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Ireland) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Jamaica) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Kenya) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc., Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc. (DHCC Branch), Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc. (JAFZA Branch), Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc. Service Center (DAFZA Branch), Johnson & Johnson (Mozambique) Limitada, Johnson & Johnson (Namibia) (Proprietary) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (New Zealand) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Philippines) Inc., Johnson & Johnson (Private) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Thailand) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson (Trinidad) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Vietnam) Co. Ltd, Johnson & Johnson - Societa' Per Azioni, Johnson & Johnson AB, Johnson & Johnson AB Eesti filiaal (Branch), Johnson & Johnson AG, Johnson & Johnson AG (Zuchwil Branch), Johnson & Johnson Belgium Finance Company BV, Johnson & Johnson Bulgaria EOOD, Johnson & Johnson China Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Consumer (Hong Kong) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer (Thailand) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer B.V., Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health Care Switzerland Branch of Janssen-Cilag AG, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Holdings France, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. (Dominican Republic Branch), Johnson & Johnson Consumer NV, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Saudi Arabia Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Services EAME Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Del Paraguay S.A., Johnson & Johnson Dominicana S.A.S., Johnson & Johnson Enterprise Innovation Inc., Johnson & Johnson European Treasury Unlimited Company, Johnson & Johnson Finance Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Finance Limited, Johnson & Johnson Financial Services GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Financial Services GmbH (Branch Office), Johnson & Johnson Gateway LLC, Johnson & Johnson Gesellschaft m.b.H., Johnson & Johnson GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Guatemala S.A., Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc., Johnson & Johnson Health and Wellness Solutions Inc., Johnson & Johnson Hellas Commercial and Industrial S.A., Johnson & Johnson Hellas Consumer Products Commercial Societe Anonyme, Johnson & Johnson Hemisferica S.A., Johnson & Johnson Holding GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Inc., Johnson & Johnson Industrial Ltda., Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC Inc., Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC, Johnson & Johnson Innovation Limited, Johnson & Johnson International, Johnson & Johnson International (Belgian Branch) (European Logistics Center), Johnson & Johnson International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Johnson & Johnson International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (Branch), Johnson & Johnson International Financial Services Unlimited Company, Johnson & Johnson K.K., Johnson & Johnson Kft., Johnson & Johnson Korea Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Korea Selling & Distribution LLC, Johnson & Johnson LLC, Johnson & Johnson Lda, Johnson & Johnson Limited, Johnson & Johnson Limited (Sri Lanka Branch), Johnson & Johnson Luxembourg Finance Company Sarl, Johnson & Johnson Management Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical (China) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical (Proprietary) Ltd, Johnson & Johnson Medical (Shanghai) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical (Shanghai) Ltd. Beijing Branch, Johnson & Johnson Medical (Suzhou) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical B.V., Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices & Diagnostics Group - Latin America L.L.C., Johnson & Johnson Medical GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Medical Korea Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical Mexico S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson Medical NV, Johnson & Johnson Medical Products GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Medical Pty Ltd, Johnson & Johnson Medical S.A., Johnson & Johnson Medical S.C.S., Johnson & Johnson Medical S.p.A., Johnson & Johnson Medical SAS, Johnson & Johnson Medical Saudi Arabia Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical Taiwan Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medikal Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Johnson & Johnson Medikal Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Ankara Branch), Johnson & Johnson Medikal Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Izmir Branch), Johnson & Johnson Middle East - Scientific Office, Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ - LLC (Lebanese Branch), Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC, Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC (Ghana Branch), Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC (Kenya Branch), Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC Branch (TSO) (Saudi Arabia Branch), Johnson & Johnson Morocco Societe Anonyme, Johnson & Johnson NCB (Belgian Branch), Johnson & Johnson Nordic AB, Johnson & Johnson Pacific Pty Limited, Johnson & Johnson Pakistan (Private) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Panama S.A., Johnson & Johnson Personal Care (Chile) S.A., Johnson & Johnson Poland Sp. z o.o., Johnson & Johnson Poland sp. z o.o. oddzial w Warszawie "Consumer", Johnson & Johnson Private Limited, Johnson & Johnson Pte. Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Pte. Ltd. Korea Branch, Johnson & Johnson Pty. Limited, Johnson & Johnson Romania S.R.L., Johnson & Johnson S.A., Johnson & Johnson S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson S.E. Inc., Johnson & Johnson S.E. d.o.o., Johnson & Johnson SDN. BHD., Johnson & Johnson Sante Beaute France, Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision Inc., Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision India Private Limited, Johnson & Johnson Taiwan Ltd., Johnson & Johnson UK Treasury Company Limited, Johnson & Johnson Ukraine LLC, Johnson & Johnson Urban Renewal Associates, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (Shanghai) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc., Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Ireland Unlimited Company, Johnson & Johnson d.o.o., Johnson & Johnson de Argentina S.A.C. e. I., Johnson & Johnson de Chile Limitada, Johnson & Johnson de Chile S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Colombia S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson de Uruguay S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Venezuela S.A., Johnson & Johnson del Ecuador S.A., Johnson & Johnson del Peru S.A., Johnson & Johnson do Brasil Industria E Comercio de Produtos Para Saude Ltda., Johnson & Johnson for Export and Import LLC, Johnson & Johnson s.r.o., Johnson Y Johnson de Costa Rica S.A., Johnson and Johnson (Proprietary) Limited, Johnson and Johnson Sihhi Malzeme Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, LTL Management LLC, La Concha Land Investment Corporation, Latam International Investment Company Unlimited Company, Legal Entity Name, MDS Co. Ltd., McNEIL MMP LLC, McNeil AB, McNeil Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co., McNeil Denmark ApS, McNeil Healthcare (Ireland) Limited, McNeil Healthcare (UK) Limited, McNeil Healthcare LLC, McNeil Iberica S.L.U., McNeil LA LLC, McNeil Nutritionals LLC, McNeil Panama LLC, McNeil Products Limited, McNeil Sweden AB, Medical Device Business Services Inc., Medical Devices & Diagnostics Global Services LLC, Medical Devices International LLC, Medos International Sarl, Medos International Sarl succursale de Neuchatel (Branch), Medos Sarl, MegaDyne Medical Products Inc., Menlo Care De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Mentor B.V., Mentor Deutschland GmbH, Mentor Medical Systems B.V., Mentor Partnership Holding Company I LLC, Mentor Texas GP LLC, Mentor Texas L.P., Mentor Worldwide LLC, Micrus Endovascular LLC, Middlesex Assurance Company Limited, Momenta Ireland Limited, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc., NeoStrata Company Inc., NeoStrata UG (haftungsbeschrankt), Netherlands Holding Company, NeuWave Medical Inc., Neuravi Limited, Novira Therapeutics, Novira Therapeutics LLC, NuVera Medical Inc., OBTECH Medical Sarl, OGX Beauty Limited, OMJ Holding GmbH, OMJ Ireland Unlimited Company, OMJ Pharmaceuticals Inc., Obtech Medical Mexico S.A. de C.V., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals NV, Ortho Biologics LLC, Ortho Biotech Holding LLC, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical LLC, Orthospin Ltd., Orthotaxy, PT Integrated Healthcare Indonesia, PT. Johnson & Johnson Indonesia, Patriot Pharmaceuticals LLC, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pharmadirect Ltd., Pharmedica Laboratories (Proprietary) Limited, Princeton Laboratories Inc., Productos de Cuidado Personal y de La Salud de Bolivia S.R.L., Proleader S.A., Pulsar Vascular Inc., Regency Urban Renewal Associates, RespiVert Ltd., RoC International, Royalty A&M LLC, Rutan Realty LLC, SYNTHES Medical Immobilien GmbH, Scios LLC, Sedona Singapore International Pte. Ltd., Sedona Thai International Co. Ltd., Serhum S.A. de C.V., Shanghai Elsker For Mother & Baby Co. Ltd, Shanghai Elsker Mother & Baby Co. Ltd Minghang Branch, Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Ltd., Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Sightbox LLC, Sodiac ESV, Spectrum Vision Limited Liability Company, Spectrum Vision Limited Liability Partnership, SterilMed, SterilMed Inc., Surgical Process Institute Deutschland GmbH, Synthes Costa Rica S.C.R. Limitada, Synthes GmbH, Synthes Holding AG, Synthes Holding Limited, Synthes Inc., Synthes Medical Surgical Equipment & Instruments Trading LLC, Synthes Produktions GmbH, Synthes Proprietary Limited, Synthes S.M.P. S. de R.L. de C.V., Synthes Tuttlingen GmbH, Synthes USA LLC, Synthes USA Products LLC, TARIS Biomedical, TARIS Biomedical LLC, TearScience Inc., The Anspach Effort LLC, The Vision Care Institute LLC, Tibotec LLC, Torax Medical Inc., UAB "Johnson & Johnson", UAB Johnson & Johnson Eesti Filiaal (Estonian Branch), Vania Expansion, Verb Surgical, Verb Surgical Inc., Vision Care Finance Unlimited Company, Vogue International, Vogue International LLC, Vogue International Trading Inc., WH4110 Development Company L.L.C., XO1, XO1 Limited, Xian Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd., Xian-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. Beijing Branch Office, Xian-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. Shanghai Branch Office, Zarbee's Inc., and Zarbee's Naturals.

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HOLLAND LAKE  The black swift looks a little bigger than a robin, but black. It only comes off its nest at dusk and dawn. And it builds its nest behind waterfalls.

Oh, it also flies like a greased bullet. Spot one, and your bird list gets you through the velvet rope to aerie level status.

Its like the holy grail of birding, said Alissa Anderson, a U.S. Forest Service biologist heading the flock of hopeful lookers up the trail to Holland Falls on a July evening. Theres always tons of people up here, but youd never know there was a swift nest unless you were specifically looking for them.

Were watching for a little black spot to go pee-Shaaaow, added Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks intern Shelby Smith. Black swifts like waterfalls that tumble over sheer cliffs, where they can have a clear shot at open sky and protection from any climbing weasel or snake that might raid their eggs. While a couple of red-breasted robins hopped around the mossy rocks looking for bugs (and sending false alarms through the birding crowd), the swifts were expected to come and go like UPS drivers  all business in and out.

The black swift search was part of a larger effort to learn whatever can be logged about this elusive bird. So rarely do they get spotted, huge holes remain in its biological record. We dont know if its populations are growing, shrinking or holding steady. Officially, the black swift lies on the species of greatest inventory need list, which must be completed before anyone can conclude if it needs to be on a species of concern list.

Just figuring out how to spot a swift took a couple of hours of homework. Montana Audubon conservation program manager Amy Seaman ran the group through two pages of fine print regarding how to size up a waterfall for potential nesting habitat, how to fill out the one-page form of a swift sighting and the protocol for watching for the birds (work in pairs, with one person staring at the sky for 10 uninterrupted minutes while the other tries to undo the subsequent neck kinks and eyelid spasms).

Were trying to get people on the same page for identifying the six characteristic nesting locations, Seaman explained. You cant just hand people a packet and say, Go out and do it. 

That includes whether the waterfall is a plunge, horsetail, fan, cascade, segmented or tiered type (Holland wavers between plunge and horsetail). The site must have a commanding view of the sky and enough water flow to create curtains of spray. Those curtains better cover rock cavities full of moss where the birds can feel secure and find nest-building material.

But a bunch of other considerations remain untested. Holland Falls gets direct evening sunlight: Does that encourage or discourage nesting as the heat dries out the cliff wall? Does moonlight exposure affect flying activity?

What we really need is some good military-grade night-vision goggles, Seaman joked. How do we see the bugs? Do they even forage at night?

Although they're considered native to Montana, black swifts have less than 30 known nesting sites in the state. Holland Falls and Haystack Falls in Glacier National Park have become fairly well-examined. The first recorded sighting of a black swift in Montana came in 1961 on Mission Falls near St. Ignatius. The next confirmation didnt arrive until 2000. In 2012, Anderson completed a survey that found just six nests. This summer's survey campaign has boosted the known sites to at least 22, with 14 of those in Glacier National Park.

Waterfall description completed and snacks devoured, the dozen swift watchers staked out observation spots in the tumbled rocks. More experienced members had brought foam pads to soften the boulder edges. Jill Davies of Victor starred at the waterfall so long, the surrounding rocks seemed to flow uphill when she looked away. 8:30 p.m. rolled up.

Wait-wait-wait! Anderson yelled, lying on her back and kicking her legs in the air. Did anyone see that? It was so big.

A black blur had flown straight at the waterfall and disappeared. The group compared notes. Yes, several others saw the blur. It vanished just below the upper third of the waterfall, below a horizontal log that had fallen across the cliff.

Then the blur shot back out and down the chasm.

FWP biologist Chris Hammond forsook high-powered telephoto lenses for his cellphone video camera. Nevertheless, he was the first person to document a black swift at Holland Falls.

Its still super-fast, Hammond said as he played back the video in slow-motion. As the water torrent crept down like sludge, a bird the size of a small crow bolted from the left edge of the falls and angled toward the sky as fast as any falcon.

The watchers compared notes on the nesting site. Find a finger of copper-colored rock pointing 30 degrees upward. Follow it to its base to an oval-shaped, green mossy rock. In that cavity, a black swift sat motionless on a nest, fading in the evening gloom.

The black swift has some related species: the chimney swift and the Vauxs swift thats fairly common in western Montana. A southern-hemisphere variant has been videoed flying straight through falling water to its nest sites in Argentina. But the black swift has a feature none of its cousins can match.

We have an extra challenge, Seaman reminded the group as the sun set shortly after 9 p.m. Were walking out in grizzly bear country.
Court rules in favor of Christian photographer who didn't want to take photos of gay weddings

The state of Wisconsin and its capital city of Madison cannot legally force a Christian photographer to photograph same-sex weddings, a court has said.

Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal group defending evangelical Christian photographer Amy Lawson, announced that Dane County Circuit Court vowed in a hearing Tuesday to issue an order declaring that Lawson is exempt from city and state laws that could force her to photograph same-sex weddings or face crippling punishments.

ADF explained in a press release that although the court has not yet officially issued a preliminary injunction in the case, it is expected to do so in the coming weeks.

According to the press release, the court stated that the 25-year-old Lawson, who runs her own photography business, is not subject to state and city ordinances that prevent places of public accommodation from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

The court reportedly reasoned that Lawson is exempt from that law because she does not have a physical storefront and such laws would have control over her artistic freedom.

"The court's announcement has important implications for everyone in Wisconsin who values artistic freedom," ADF Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs said in a statement. "It means that government officials must allow creative professionals without storefronts anywhere in the city and state the freedom to make their own decisions about which ideas they will use their artistic expression to promote."

Scruggs continued by stating that the city and state have agreed with the court's finding that "such professionals cannot be punished under public accommodation laws for exercising their artistic freedom because those laws simply don't apply to them."

"No one should be threatened with punishment for having views that the government doesn't favor," Scruggs continued.

Lawson's troubles began in 2016, when she put a statement on her website explaining that she could not promote same-sex marriage through her photography and blog and that she would not serve same-sex weddings.

Like many other Christian business owners who have declared they won't participate in same-sex weddings, Lawson's decisions to post the statement on her website caused some backlash. One wedding client that saw her statement canceled her services because of her belief in marriage.

According to ADF, news reports about how Christians can face crippling fines for not serving same-sex weddings drove Lawson to remove the statement from her website.

ADF reports that under Madison law, it is illegal for a place of public accommodation to publish communication that explains that a person's business is "unwelcome" because of their sexual orientation. Meanwhile, the state law also prevents places of public accommodation from discriminating against someone on the basis of their sexual orientation.

As seen in other cases involving Christian wedding vendors in other states, punishment for violating state nondiscrimination laws can be very severe and financially crippling.

Considering that the state and city law made Lawson vulnerable to being sued, she took a proactive step and filed a pre-enforcement challenge to the laws. She also stopped accepting requests for weddings until a court order has been officially produced.

"Amy is happy to take photographs of anyone; she simply objects to being forced to participate in events, or promote messages or causes, that she can't support," Scruggs said in another statement. "Photography and writing are quintessential examples of protected artistic expression and free speech."

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
Heavy winds overnight Friday and Saturday morning resulted in a smoky haze over Missoula, blocking out the blue sky and filtering sunlight.

A cool front has brought lower temperatures and a slight increase in humidity to the area, with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s expected in the coming days.

Here's a look at the fires around western Montana.

Rice Ridge: Crews worked to contain the Rice Ridge fire two miles northeast of Seeley Lake from the ground and with aircraft Friday and Saturday. Heavy air tankers dropped retardant on the east side of the fire to slow its eastern growth, and on the northeastern end, the fire made several runs toward the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Nine aircraft made water and retardant drops on the fire, drawing from Seeley Lake. The number of personnel working on the fire is up to 326, and the fire grew from 6,857 acres on Friday to 7,740 acres Saturday morning. Structure protection crews are working to thin fuels near homes and place hose lays along the Highway 83 corridor and the north side of Seeley Lake and the Double Arrow community.

The evacuation warning in the area is still in effect, though no mandatory evacuations have been ordered. The Red Cross has opened an evacuation shelter in the Potomac Community Center for people who wish to pre-evacuate. Its free to stay in the shelter. A fire information booth will also be staffed at the Valley Market on Highway 83 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Liberty: Cooler weather and smoke cover from fires in Canada facilitated firefighters on the Liberty fire Saturday, which is located 17 miles southeast of Arlee. Crews are working to hold the fire at the 2003 Boles Meadow burn scar, and to continue improving containment lines. Smoke cover from Canada fires and higher humidity are expected to slow burn activity, and there is a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. The fire is 12 percent contained, and covers 3,769 acres. Key containment lines are being completed, and firefighters have better access into the center of the fire through the newly reopened Finley Creek Road. No evacuations have been ordered.

Lolo Peak: Fire activity in the Lolo Peak fire, 10 miles southwest of Lolo, was much lower than expected Friday thanks to smoke cover in the area. Temperatures are forecast to be in the 80s and low 90s with relative humidity in the 20 percent range. The fire is expected to move north and east within the Cedar Creek drainage, with some southerly spread as well. By Saturday afternoon, the fire had grown to 7,084 acres. Crews worked to remove slash piles next to the completed control lines, and prepared Elk Meadows Road for use as a primary control line. As of Friday, 278,000 gallons of retardant had been used, especially to keep the fire from spreading west into the Johnny Creek drainage and north into Dick Creek.

Noel Livingstons Pacific Northwest Type 1 Team assumed management of the fire Friday evening, and is working on a long term strategy for the fires management. An evacuation warning is in place for the area south of Highway 12 from Fort Fizzle west to the intersection with Elk Meadows Road, including the Mill Creek area.

Sunrise: Despite lower temperatures, a shift in wind direction Saturday will cause areas that have been sheltered from the 12,900-acre Sunrise fire to become more active. Fire growth is expected to the north and south, threatening structures in Quartz Creek and Verde Creek, which are both under a Stage 3 mandatory evacuation order. Burnout operations around structures in these communities have effectively kept the fire from burning any structures. Crews continue to work around structures to secure control lines. As of Saturday, the fire was 10 percent contained. Crews have both day and night shifts for structure protection with defensive firing around structures.

Residents in Quartz Flats and Sunrise are now under Stage 2 evacuation order and may return to their homes. Residents are encouraged to stay updated on fire activity, as conditions can change quickly.

Meyers: Todays cooler temperatures are expected to slow fire activity on the Meyers fire 25 miles southwest of Philipsburg. The fire has reached 12,777 acres, and 477 firefighters are on scene. Containment is at 2 percent, and should begin to increase as existing and additional fire lines are improved. Engines are monitoring the Moose Lake area overnight and throughout the day in case the fire moves toward the area. Structure protection efforts have already been implemented. Evacuation notices have been issued for the Frog Pond Basin and Copper Creek Campground areas and the Moose Lake area.

Sapphire complex: The Sapphire complex, comprising the Goat Creek fire, Little Hogback fire and Sliderock fire, grew to a combined burn area of 21,573 acres by Saturday morning. The complex is located about 25 miles south-southeast of Missoula in the Rock Creek drainage. Crews have made the most progress on the Goat Creek fire, which is 45 percent contained. Crews are working to patrol along Rock Creek Road to extinguish hot spots and monitor structures. One structure has been lost in the fires. The Little Hogback fire is still 0 percent contained, and the east edge of the fire was active yesterday evening, when strong winds blew in. Crews will continue to prep structures and provide protection in the red and yellow evacuation areas. The Granite County Sheriff issued a yellow evacuation order for the Upper Willow Creek drainage from the Kyle Bohrnsen Memorial Bridge north to McDermott Gulch in the Upper Willow Creek drainage. The Sliderock fire is 20 percent contained, and crews have made good progress widening indirect line in the south.
We Americans are having the wrong immigration debate, couched in the wrong terms. Those who oppose open borders, and especially unlimited flows of low-skilled workers from Mexico, are accused of being anti-immigration. Anyone who doubts that its good for America to have an amnesty for illegal immigrants and a guest worker program that will produce even more low-wage, low-skilled immigration is quickly branded a modern-day nativist and Know-Nothing.

But its possible to oppose all those things and still support healthy levels of immigration. The right debate should be about what kind of immigrants America should be admitting. It should ask how immigration can best benefit our economy and citizens. Countries with booming economies, countries that are, like the United States, immigrant magnetsAustralia and Ireland, for instancehave set their immigration priorities in precisely this way, creating much more rational systems than ours. Managed as part of our broader economic policy, immigration can provide America with badly needed skills, boost productivity, and raise our living standard.

But well never get to an immigration system that serves our national interest until we stop debating the issue in terms set down 50 years ago.

Open-borders advocates are right to say that immigration made America great: we are indeed, as the cliche goes, a nation of immigrants. But its important to understand why previous generations of immigrants succeeded in America, how they helped the country grow, and how todays immigration differs. The popular image of the 24 million who came during the first great migration, from the 1880s to the 1920s, is that they were Europes tired and poor masses, desperately escaping political or religious persecution and stagnant economies, making their way here with a few threadbare possessions. But whats forgotten is that many were also skilled workers. A 1998 National Academy of Sciences study noted that the immigrant workers of that era generally met or exceeded the skill levels of the native-born population, providing Americas workforce with a powerful boost just when the country was metamorphosing from an agrarian into an industrial economy.

Even though nativists agitated to bar these Southern and Eastern European immigrants because they were not Anglo-Saxon, it was not until after World War I that Congressstunned by the growing radicalism of European workers in the wake of the Russian Revolution and by postwar turmoil in Europefinally enacted immigration quotas based on national origin, with the purpose of shifting the balance of immigration back to Northern European countries. Those quotas helped cut immigration in half, though it was the Depression that truly ended the great migration, turning America into a net exporter of emigrants during the 1930s, as 60 percent of those who came for a better life left when the economy soured, according to the National Academy of Sciences study.

For 40 years, the 1920s laws largely governed and limited immigration (with certain exceptions for refugees), until new legislation in the mid-1960s unintentionally precipitated the waves of low-skilled immigration that we now see. The new law, which the Kennedy administration introduced as a civil rights measure that would abolish the supposedly racist national-origin quotas and give preference to immigrants with family members already in the United States, would, supporters claimed, make U.S. immigration policy fairer but would have little impact on levels of migration. Instead, the law had far-reaching unanticipated consequences, dramatically increasing the immigration of unskilled workers from poorer countries. From the 1950s to the 1970s, immigration from Asia soared tenfold, and from Africa fivefold, while newcomers from Central and South America doubled.

Today, when success in our economy requires ever more skills and education, the vast majority of immigrants arrive without the skills or the education to fit in easily anywhere except at the lowest economic rung. A study by Harvard economists George Borjas and Lawrence Katz noted that 63 percent of Mexican immigrants are high school dropouts who on average earn 53 percent less than native workers when they enter the United States. Because such immigrants start so far behind, this income gap can persist for decades, research shows. Moreover, because so much of todays immigration now hails from just a few countries (Mexican immigrants now represent 30 percent of Americas foreign-born population, whereas no two ethnic groups during the first great migration accounted for 25 percent), immigrants increasingly group in insulated communities of their own, where their children adopt the cultural attributes of their home country rather than those of America. High school graduation rates among the American-born children of Hispanic immigrants are much lower than the average in the rest of the native-born population, while census surveys have begun to record growing numbers of native-born Hispanics who dont have English-language proficiencynearly 3 million in the 2005 American Community Survey.

Meanwhile, the benefits of so much low-wage immigration to our economy are minimal and increasingly outweighed by the costs. Low-skilled immigrant workers have crowded into service jobs that do little to make America more competitive internationally or more productive: they deliver our pizzas, cut our lawns, wash our cars. True, these immigrants push down prices of services for middle-class Americans, but they also depress the wages of low-skilled native-born workers, according to Borjas and Katz, and recent studies show that they probably raise the unemployment levels of native-born blacks and Hispanics. Not surprisingly, a 1997 study by economists for the National Academy of Sciences estimated the net benefits of immigration at only $10 billion in our $8 trillion economy, while the next year an NAS study of the social costs of immigration reported that in California each native-born family paid nearly $1,200 more in taxes to support government services that went to immigrants. Those costs will only grow as the number of immigrants in America increases. The Heritage Institutes Robert Rector has estimated that each immigrant high school dropout will cost U.S. taxpayers $85,000 over his lifetime. Enacting amnesty for illegals already here, as well as creating a new guest-worker program, Rector calculates, would eventually add some $46 billion a year in social costsincluding welfareto the federal government.

As America has grappled with its increasingly costly immigration, other developed countries have transformed the way they think about immigration, placing more emphasis on economic considerations and the cultural capital that immigrants bring with them. Like the United States, Australia for much of its history had an immigration policy based on race and nationality. But the countrys slowing economic performance in the mid-1980s prompted the government to rethink its policies. The result: a skills-based immigration approach that welcomes workers who have the experience and training in jobs that the economy needs, posted on the so-called Australian Migration Occupations in Demand List. The new policy recognizes that from an economic point of view, not all workers are equal. Among the most sought-after workers in recent years have been accountants, nurses, and tradesmen, including mechanics and electricians. To qualify for a visa to work at a job on the MODL, potential immigrants must show that they have the right skills, workforce experience, English-language proficiency, and age. Those over 45 cannot gain permanent skills-based residency, because their contribution to the Australian economy will be too brief to offset the social costs that they will impose on society.

The policy has led to a dramatic shift in the nature of Australian immigration. Whereas in 1993 70 percent of all immigration was based on family relations, today 70 percent of Australias permanent visas go to skilled workers. As a result, Australian immigrants do far better than American immigrants. A 2006 study by the Australian Productivity Commission (roughly the equivalent of our Government Accountability Office) shows that on average Australian immigrants earn about 6 percent more than the median income of the native-born population, because immigrants typically have higher levels of education and skills. Even Australian immigrants in the country for less than five years earn 4 percent more than the native-born. By contrast, because the preponderance of low-skilled workers pulls the average down, American immigrants earn 20 percent less than the median native-born worker. The shift toward welcoming more skilled immigration has prompted the Australian government to declare that it is winning the worldwide contest for better-trained workers: We are beating the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand, Australias former immigration minister (and now attorney general), Philip Ruddock, has boasted.

Other countries have adopted a similar skills-based approach. Canada, for instance, gives would-be immigrants additional points for advanced educational degrees and for knowing both French and English. But because the country does not try to match immigrants to specific jobs shortages the way Australia does, some highly educated immigrantsespecially those from Asian and Latin American countries, according to a recent studyfind it difficult to get jobs in their professional fields once they arrive in Canada. Moreover, Canadas emphasis on education without reference to what the labor market needs has prompted frustration in industries like construction, which has shortages of skilled workers. As a result, immigrants in Canada, on average, earn less than native-born workers.

Ireland has taken yet a third approach, letting employers select candidates for visas and prohibiting immigrants from shifting jobs once they arrive, unless they can find another business to sponsor them. Irelands approach aims to manage surges of immigration that result from the dramatic growth of the countrys economy, thanks to the heroic tax cuts and deregulation of the early 1990s. From being an exporter of emigrants for much of its history, Ireland became a net importer of immigrants as capital rushed in from around the world and unemployment rates fell from nearly 16 percent to about 5 percent by the end of the decade.

As newcomers poured into the country, Ireland reshaped its policy to prevent unskilled workers from flooding its labor markets. So that employers dont import immigrants in occupations where workers are already plentiful, aiming to drive down wages, Ireland wont grant visas in job categories for which market surveys deem the labor supply adequate. Virtually all the jobs for which the country currently wont grant work visasfrom hotel workers to retail salespeople to clerical staffare low-skilled. Ireland requires that employers try to fill vacancies in those jobs from Ireland itself or with workers from other E.U. countries, who can migrate to Ireland without restriction. As a result, 25 percent of the countrys immigration hails from E.U. members Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

The other half of a sound immigration policy is to eliminate the magnet effect of modern welfare programs. Developed countries uniformly prohibit illegal aliens from receiving social benefits, and many restrict those benefits for legals, too. Australia, for instance, prohibits legal immigrants from participating in social programs for two years. Immigrants in Canada who qualify for a skilled-worker visa must show a bank account of at least $9,420 (Canadian) before entering the country, to ensure that they wont become an immediate burden on the welfare system. Canadian residents who want to sponsor a relative under the countrys family reunification program must also prove that they have the resources to support the immigrant. (America makes a similar demand that those who sponsor immigrants pledge to support them in case of need, but it doesnt require sponsors to honor the promise.)

Similarly, Ireland restricts legal immigrants from receiving many social welfare benefits. Moreover, in 2004 Irish citizens voted to amend their constitution to stop granting automatic citizenship to children born in the country of foreign parents, after widespread reports that immigrants were flying to Dublin to give birth, because Irish law allowed the parents to take up residence in the country with their citizen-child thereafter. Now at least one parent must be legally resident in Ireland for three out of the four years before the childs birth for their baby to become a citizen.

Welfare-benefit restrictions are an acknowledgment that the economic calculus of immigration has changed dramatically. Before the welfare state, which developed countries have all embraced to some degree, immigrants came to a country like the United States because its free-enterprise system gave them an opportunity to succeedbut not a guarantee. Those who failed often returned home, and one reason why studies showed that immigrants did so well during the first great migration is that those who came were the most enterprising and those who stayed were the most skilled at adapting to our economy.

But today, the modern welfare state has turned the self-selection process upside down, offering immigrants from very poor countries incentives to come to America and sponge off the taxpayers, reaping where they did not sow. Todays immigrants are more than twice as likely to use government programs as native-born Americans. As Nobel laureate Milton Friedman has said: Its just obvious that you cant have free immigration and a welfare state.

The experience of other countries provides clear guidelines for the kind of immigration policy that the United States should adopt. And as early as the 1990s, a bipartisan congressional commission on immigration reform sketched out some of the reforms essential principles. It concluded, based on recommendations from leading economists, that the United States should stop admitting unskilled workers into the country, because there was no widespread need for them, and that such immigration was not in the national interest. It further recommended that the country should not institute any guest-worker programs for industries like agriculture, because such programs effectively expand rural poverty by importing large numbers of very low-paid workers. The commission also recommended that the U.S. reduce total immigration levels by one-third to assimilate better those who are coming and to reduce the costs of immigration on our society. Though the Republican-controlled Congress and President Clinton initially accepted the commissions work, both parties backed off when political opposition arose from an unusual alliance of business interests, open-borders ideologues, ethnic and racial activists, and Mexican politicians.

Nonetheless, the U.S. should now try to push through the reforms that the commissions economists suggested and that the experience of other nations has proven to be beneficial. The first step is to acknowledge that our family unification policy, our current immigration laws centerpiece, not only does not serve our economy but goes way beyond preserving the nuclear family. Current law allows not only the spouses and minor children of permanent residents and American citizensboth native-born and naturalizedto come here, but also their adult sons and daughters, as well as the parents and adult siblings of citizens. This chain of relations accounts for some 600,000 legal visas a year and has prompted a backlog of some 4 million visa applicants. By restricting the family unification category to the spouses and minor children of citizens, the United States could cut family unification visas in half.

Reducing family visas would allow for a shift toward skills-based immigration without increasing the number of newcomers. To determine what kinds of workers would receive skills-based visas, the United States would shift away from its current system in which those visastotaling only 77,000 last yearnow almost entirely go to highly educated workers, such as technology specialists, whom companies request, but not to skilled tradesmen who might also be in short supply. Under a revised system, while companies could continue to request visas for workers they need, the U.S. would also award visas based on the model of Australias Migration Occupation Demands List, compiled through labor-market surveys. In Australia, that list currently is heavily weighted toward trades like automotive electricians, boilermakers, machinists, toolmakers, and welders. The U.S. Labor Departments list of more than 200 of the fastest-growing job categories includes many similar trades, but potential immigrants with those skills have virtually no way of getting into the country legally unless they are high on the family reunification list. An immigration policy designed to strengthen the U.S. economy would bump workers in such fast-growing trade categories to the top of visa lists. By reorienting immigration toward more skilled workers, the United States would probably diversify its immigration flow and could eliminate its so-called diversity category, which grants 50,000 visas a year to winners of a lottery.

For these changes to have much impact, the nation will have to get much tougher on illegal immigration, now about a quarter of all immigration and almost entirely unskilled. Though hardening the border is important, the real key is to lessen the economic incentives to sneak into the U.S. by ensuring that businesses dont hire workers they know to be illegal and that government doesnt provide them with services and benefits. The 1990s commission on immigration reform recommended establishing a national database for employers to verify the Social Security numbers of their workers. Now is the time to do it.

Though eliminating economic incentives will stem the flow of illegals and send many home, stricter enforcement also means more deportations. Although open-borders proponents argue that the United States can never deport all of the estimated 11 million immigrants heresomething it would never be necessary to doit is nevertheless a fundamental principle of policing that failing to enforce laws spurs more illegal activity, while stepped-up enforcement discourages it. Canada has followed this policy, beefing up its Border Services Agency and increasing deportations, estimated to rise to about 10,000 this year in an illegal population of about 200,000. By comparison, the U.S. deports some 50,000 annually out of its 11 million-strong illegal population.

Reducing economic incentives, of course, entails eliminating government benefits to illegals. Though the federal government bans illegal aliens from receiving many benefits, several states and cities have made themselves immigrant havens by providing government services through a dont-ask, dont-tell policy. New York City, for instance, offers immigrants, regardless of their status, such benefits as government-sponsored health insurance, preventive medical care, and counseling programs. Some states have moved to ensure that illegals receive in-state tuition discounts to state colleges, even though out-of-state American citizens dont qualify for those discounts. Although the states administer many of these services, they are often supported by funding from the federal government, which should move to withhold all funds from state and municipal programs that openly provide services to illegals. Immigration is a federal issue, and individual states and cities cannot have their own policies.

Finally, the United States should begin a debate on whether to stop granting citizenship to anyone born here of foreign parentsa right that no E.U. country grants. The right springs from the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment, passed after the Civil War to ensure that states did not deny citizenship to former slaves. The framers of the amendment did not mean it to apply to the children of noncitizens who happen to be born here, though the Supreme Court has interpreted it that way, because its language does not specifically exclude those children. America has never had a discussion about whether we want to extend citizenship to these children, and now is the time to begin that conversation. Currently, the children of our 11 million illegal aliens automatically become citizens with the right to apply for visas for their parents and siblings to immigrate here legally. And they have the right to government benefits, including child-only welfare payments, which vary greatly by state but can amount to up to $500 a month for two children in California.

Reordering our immigration policies in this way would give a big boost to our economy. Not only do skilled workers create more wealth than unskilled ones, but studies consistently show that economies make more productive use of skilled workers, since businesses invest more in new machinery and equipment when skilled labor is available. And of course better-paid, skilled workers are unlikely to need taxpayer-funded social programs. Meanwhile, lower-income Americans, who now suffer from the depressing effect that unskilled immigration has on their wages, would also benefit, because their pay would rise.

Such a policy shift would also diversify our stream of newcomers, as it did Australias, and help ensure that immigrants continue to assimilate economically and culturally. Todays family-based immigration policy has resulted in millions of Hispanic immigrants living in insulated, unassimilated ethnic communities, where their children retain the characteristics of their immigrant culture, including out-of-wedlock childbearing and a low valuation of education. A reformed immigration policy would result in fewer such enclaves, where the ethnic capital handed down by one generation to the next is out of step with what it takes to succeed in the American economy.

Americas current immigration policy doesnt satisfy the majority of our own citizens, who say in polls by a two-to-one margin that they would like to see immigration levels decreased. Our immigration law is also out of step with how other countries that are economic powerhouses have ordered their own policy. Our debate revolves around a law that is an anachronism, formulated 50 years ago to sanitize U.S. policy of any hints of racism or nativism and resulting in far-reaching, unintended negative consequences. Now its time to move the discussion into the twenty-first century.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images
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Suitability may be all-important in investing, but the concept can be lost on children, who probably have little to no interest in what stocks are or how to invest, Jim Cramer said. "Let's be honest. You couldn't explain to a kid what a stock is to save his or her life," the "Mad Money" host said. Cramer grew up differently. His dad taught him about stocks, giving Cramer the business section of the Philadelphia Bulletin each day so he could look at stocks' closing prices. "I liked the stock picking process so much I got the whole fifth grade class at Penn Manor involved. We would all pick stocks and keep track of the closing prices for a week to see who could make the most money," the "Mad Money" host said. But there are ways to learn about stocks even for kids who play with toys, Cramer said. While they may not know what it means to own shares of companies, they know they love their Hasbro Star Wars Lightsabers or their Mattel Barbie dolls. "I bet you they'd pick Hasbro over Mattel," Cramer added. Kids also know Disney theme parks, McDonald's Happy Meals, and General Mills' Cheerios. The rougher tykes may even be familiar with Johnson & Johnson's Band-Aids. "If you want to get your kids into investing, buy a brand name," Cramer said. "Something they can see and hear and tough and even like. Yeah, just own it. The stock won't always work. But think of what you liked when you were little, and remember that you may have a long term winner on your hands."

Find What Suits You

A woman walks past the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. Drew Angerer | Getty Images

There used to be an understanding in the stock market that stocks could be here today and gone tomorrow, but Cramer finds that is not the case anymore. "We've gone well beyond that," the "Mad Money" host said. "Those days are long over, and if you recommend a stock for a trade, even if you say, 'Buy it today for the analyst meeting and sell it tomorrow,' there will always be a YouTube video kicking around that shows you liked the stock but never gave it the 'sell' call." That is why Cramer wanted to  an idea that suggests certain stocks are right for some investors, but wrong for others. Cramer thought it was obvious that stocks came with no guarantees until a Goldman Sachs executive explained the worth of knowing what an individual investor wants to Cramer, then an incoming summer intern at the bank. That opened the "Mad Money" host's eyes to the importance of risk tolerance. Clothes, cars, devices and houses either come with some level of insurance or can be returned. Stocks cannot. So Cramer decided to go through the investments suitable for investors of all ages, starting with the youngest of the young.

Investing for Newborns

Diane Macdonald | Stockbyte | Getty Images

Investing for children can be tricky, but Cramer says that if you do it right, it can leave your loved ones much better off by the time they grow up than if you avoid it altogether. "Parents, grandparents, listen up. You can give all sorts of things to families that had just had babies. I want you to open up accounts for them. Or at least give them some shares of stock so that from the earliest moment you can start the process of saving that you have to do," Cramer said. His first suggestion was taking several hundred dollars and buying shares in an index fund like the , then pairing that with some kind of total return fund, which provides a wider array of stocks. And for investors who are more interested in , Cramer suggests picking two  a stock with a dividend that could be increased each year and then reinvested, and a stock with some more growth.

Teen Habits: Not So Destructive?

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Over the years, Cramer found that when it comes to investing, some of the best advisors have been none other than his two teenage daughters. "We all know that teenagers are incorrigible. The last thing they want to hear about is stocks. They have bigger fish to fry. To which I say, so what? I'm not going to tell them what to buy. I'm going to let them tell me," he said. Cramer started with the stock of Domino's . The "Mad Money" host thought it was a good speculative stock after CEO Patrick Doyle took up reforming the quality of the ingredients. "But that's not what made this stock a 'Mad Money' crown jewel. Nope, it was the technology behind DPZ," Cramer said, adding that until his kids discovered the Domino's ordering app, they preferred local pizza restaurants to the national chain. Cramer's daughters, like so many other millennials, hate talking on the phone, especially given the risk of the person on the other end getting their orders wrong or giving them an incorrect estimate for when their food would be delivered. "All of this technology was totally lost on me," Cramer said. "I never minded the phone, was always patient about when the pizza would arrive, never cared about the interchange with the delivery person. I kind of liked it. In short, I was not like the target audience. That's why I always call Domino's a tech company that sells pizza."

Investing Through College and Beyond

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As summer winds down, across the country are finishing their required or suggested summer readings. Collegiate summer reading lists are selected by some of the world's brightest academics and are designed to challenge, educate and engage students. No matter what stage you are in your career, can .

Other schools selected books that can be broadly applied. For example, Olin College of Engineering encourages students to read, "Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation" as by Edward L. Deci and Richard Flaste.

This book breaks down how to motivate people as students, professionals and individuals and argues that "the best way to motivate people  at school, at work, or at home  is to support their sense of autonomy." Publisher's Weekly describes "Why We Do What We Do" as "An insightful and provocative meditation on how people can become more genuinely engaged and successful in pursuing their goals."

If you're looking to be challenged and inspired or just on the hunt for your next read, check out the great books that college students are reading this summer:
Google employees and Silicon Valley pundits are reacting with outrage to a 10-page document written by a Google engineer that criticizes the company's "left leaning" culture, taking aim at company policies meant to foster a more diverse workplace.

The document, which was first reported by Motherboard and published in full by Gizmodo, was reportedly written by a Google senior software engineer named James Damore and went "viral" inside the company on Friday.

It argues that differences in pay between men and women in the technology sector are not entirely related to bias against women, but are partly attributable to biological differences between the genders. It also called on Google to "stop alienating conservatives" and calls into question practices like "unconscious bias" training for committees that promote employees.

Several Google employees expressed their outrage about the post on Friday (some of these tweets have since been protected and are no longer visible to the general public):

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Outside commentators have also criticized the companyfor instance, Slack engineer Erica Joy. She called attention to alleged unequal pay for women when she worked at Google, and has been an outspoken critic of systematic bias in the tech industry.

called attention

Joy wrote that Google execs should ask themselves, "why is the environment at Google such that racists and sexists feel supported and safe in sharing these views in the company?"

Another former Googler, Yonatan Zunger, who recently left the company, wrote a scathing criticism of the post suggesting that its author didn't understand the basics of engineering -- "all of these traits which the manifesto described as 'female' are the core traits which make someone successful at engineering" -- and concluding that the person who wrote it should have been fired immediately.

Google recently hired a VP of diversity, Danielle Brown, who wrote a memo on Saturday responding to the document, Recode reports. She wrote that the document "advanced incorrect assumptions about gender" and that "it's not a viewpoint that I or this company endorses, promotes or encourages."

Google parent company Alphabet pointed to Brown's statement as its official comment on the matter.

The document comes as the company is under investigation by the Department of Labor for paying women less than men.

It also fits into a broader story unfolding in Silicon Valley tech companies this year. Company executives and investors have often claimed tech companies are "meritocracies," where hard work and skill are valued and race and gender are ignored. Yet an increasing number of workers in the industry are coming forward with concrete and specific stories of discrimination and harassment.

Uber was rocked by allegations of pervasive discrimination and harassment against women, beginning with a blog post by former engineer Susan Fowler in February. Her story culminated in the resignation or firing of many top executives, including CEO Travis Kalanick, who stepped aside in June.

More recently, several venture capitalists have left their posts after women accused them of making inappropriate advances in business scenarios.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Getty Images

CEO isn't running for president. Zuckerberg says he isn't running. His close colleagues and friends we've spoken to say he isn't running. And quite frankly, he already has pretty amazing influence running Facebook and spending his billions on whatever philanthropic issues he cares most about. Why add all the red tape and drama? BUT. Zuckerberg is doing a terrible job of convincing people he isn't running for president. He's in the midst of a year-long tour across America feeding cows and visiting national parks and drinking milkshakes with small business owners. His trips are planned by former government staffers, he just hired one of Hillary Clinton's chief strategists, and he has President Obama's former photographer traveling around with him taking photos. He looks, on the surface, like a man trying to snag some prime DC real estate. So, even though we know he's not running, we went ahead and took a look at where Zuck stands on the issues anyways. A few, like immigration, climate change, and net neutrality, are clearly very important. So here's a look at candidate Zuckerberg and where he stands. (Seriously, though, he's not running.)

Environment

Climate change Zuckerberg talks about climate change often, and thinks it's a major concern. It was a theme in his recent commencement address at Harvard, and has been mentioned multiple times during his cross-country travels. "I believe stopping climate change is one of the most important challenges of our generation," he wrote after a visit to North Dakota where he learned about fracking. Paris climate agreement Zuckerberg posted publicly condemning President Donald Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord. "Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement is bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and it puts our children's future at risk," he wrote. "Stopping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it's too late." Renewable energy Facebook has committed to building all of its new datacenters with 100 percent renewable energy, something that Zuckerberg has posted abut multiple times, and a clear point of pride.

Healthcare

Preventative medicine Zuckerberg is spending billions of his own money on research to help fight disease, and has been public about his desire for the government to spend more on preventative medicine. When Zuckerberg hired former Obama adviser David Plouffe to run policy for his philanthropic investment company, he wrote: "We need to change that our government spends 50x more treating people who are sick than finding cures so people don't get sick in the first place." He also applauded the passing of the 21st Century Cures Act, a law authorizing billions in spending for medical research projects. Family leave Zuckerberg took two months off after the birth of his daughter, Max, and Facebook offers new parents up to four months of leave in the first year of a newborn's life. "Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families," he wrote at the time. Facebook also has a generous bereavement policy.

Opioids Zuckerberg spent time with opioid addicts earlier this year and called America's so-called opioid crisis "one of the worst public health crises we've faced."

Immigration

DREAM Act Zuckerberg is a huge supporter of the proposed DREAM Act, which would legally protect the children of undocumented immigrants so they can work or go to school in the United States. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have provided hundreds of college scholarships to Dreamers. "We need a government that protects Dreamers," he wrote back in May. Zuckerberg is also a founding member of FWD.us, an organization of techies focused on immigration reform. Refugee support Zuck believes the U.S. should be a safe place for political refugees. Zuck condemned President Trump's so-called "Muslim ban," posting that "The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that." (Zuckerberg's in-laws were also refugees from Vietnam.) After meeting with a group of Somali refugees this summer, he also wrote: "I left impressed by your strength and resilience to build a new life in an unfamiliar place, and you are a powerful reminder of why this country is so great." Border wall Safe to say Zuckerberg is against the wall. At the company's F8 developer conference last year, he said: "I hear fearful voices calling for building walls...Instead of building walls, we can help people build bridges."

Justice and equality
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is being sworn-in for a further term on Saturday, has accused the United States of trying to undermine Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, and urged European countries not to side with Washington. Rouhani, who was decisively re-elected in May after promising to open Iran to the world and create more jobs, will take the oath of office before parliament in Tehran in the presence of dignitaries including senior European figures. "The US's repeated violations of its commitments and the new sanctions it imposed on Iran have left a negative impact on Iran's public opinion, and can hamper implementation of the nuclear deal," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency in advance of the ceremony.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Lucas Jackson | Reuters

The deal he championed with the United States and five other major powers in 2015 led to the lifting of most sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. Rouhani has intensified efforts to protect the deal - the biggest achievement of his first term - against Washington's return to an aggressive Iran policy since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. The U.S. Senate voted in late July to impose new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea. The sanctions target Iran's missiles programme, as well as human rights issues. Iran has said the new U.S. sanctions break the terms of the nuclear deal and has vowed a "proportional" reaction. In a meeting with European foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Tehran, Rouhani said the presence of senior European dignitaries at his swearing-in ceremony showed that Europe was determined to expand ties with Tehran despite U.S. pressures. Tasnim also quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying in his meeting with Mogherini: "Mr Trump is trying to destroy the nuclear accord at Iran's expense, and Europe should be conscious of this." Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also asked Europe to "take a more independent policy towards Iran" state media reported.

CEREMONY

Other top foreign officials present at Rouhani's swearing-in ceremony will include French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, State Secretary at the German Foreign Ministry Michael Roth, and British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt.

Residential and commercial properties sit illuminated on the city skyline in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015. Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A patient is monitored in an examination room inside the Clinical Decision Unit at Kaiser Permanente's Capitol Hill Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Brooks Kraft LLC | Corbis | Getty Images

It's easy to think the nation's entire health insurance market is paralyzed by the nasty debate over Obamacare in Washington. But, while Congress battled over health reform this spring, the nation's largest health insurers racked up strong profits in the second quarter thanks partly to less exposure to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.



Combined, the nation's top six health insurers reported $6 billion in adjusted profits for the second quarter. That's up more about 29 percent from the same quarter a year ago  far outpacing the overall S&P 500 health care sector 's growth of 8.5 percent for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.



"A lot of the companies have downsized their exposure to the public exchanges," said health care equity analyst A.J. Rice, a managing director at UBS. "The core business, which is providing coverage to large and mid-sized employers... and the established government programs, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care, have all done well."



Aetna , Humana and Cigna all saw adjusted earnings rise more than 45 percent from the year ago quarter, despite the fact that they continue to experience losses on Obamacare individual plans. Centene and UnitedHealth Group 's adjusted profits were up roughly 25 percent from a year ago; Anthem was the laggard, with its earnings up just 2 percent.



The strong earnings are driving share gains, with all six of the top insurers' stocks hitting all-time highs this summer. The S&P 500 Managed Care sector is up 25 percent year to date.



What's driving insurer profits?

Taming medical costs

One major tailwind has been their ability to control medical costs. Most see costs rising in the mid-single digit range again this year. Cigna, the nation's fifth largest health insurer, said that much of that is being driven by the changes in plan design in the large employer market, which covers nearly 180 million Americans.



"They're seeing the benefit of this lower medical cost trend for their respective portfolio based upon the actions we're driving and continuing to drive for them," said Cigna CEO David Cordani on the company's second-quarter conference call. Though, Cordani noted that even within the individual exchange business, medical costs growth is trending better than the company expected.

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Analysts say that increasing use of high deductible plans is helping rein in medical spending, in part by driving down the use of hospital emergency rooms. A number of the hospital providers reported lower volumes this quarter.



"It's not so much that (insurers are) getting great concession from hospitals," explained Rice. "Employees have much more upfront costs... and maybe they're taking a look at some utilization."

Boost from government health plans

The Medicaid and Medicare markets are increasingly driving insurer topline growth, and that is where the plans are setting their sights on expansion. Aetna now derives more than half of its revenue from government plans, and after abandoning its merger deal with Humana, the insurer is focused on growing its Medicare Advantage market share on its own in 2018 and 2019.



"The general trend is growing the portion of health care claims that are directly or indirectly paid by the federal government," said health care ratings analyst Deep Banerjee, a director at S&P Global Ratings.



Beyond the appeal of the growing number of baby boomers aging into Medicare, Banerjee says the government health programs represent mature, more predictable markets for the large insurers, than the three-year old Obamacare program.



"If you look at Medicare Advantage, it's a public-private partnership," said Banerjee. "Even with a single payer in a public-private partnership, insurance companies are very involved in managing the costs, and actually running the program for the state or the federal government."



And as state and federal officials governments look to cut costs in programs like Medicaid, they are increasingly turning to the insurers.

Waiting out Obamacare uncertainty

That's not to say that the big insurers are not worried about the Obamacare market. Centene and Anthem are the largest national insurers on the exchanges, and both are still planning to offer plans next year, as is Cigna.



With 2018 open enrollment slated to begin in less than three months, large and small insurers are sweating whether the Trump administration will continue to pay cost-reduction subsidies for low-income enrollees and whether the health insurance tax will be reinstated next year. They are also watching to see whether a proposed bipartisan short-term stabilization plan floated by Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander will gain support when Congress returns from its August recess.



Yet, even before the ACA, large insurers have had a tougher time with the individual market than regional players.



"This is a market they've never been able to break into very well," explained Rice, of UBS. "They've found it really tough to find the right model."



Centene is among the few large insurers that is starting to manage its exchanges plans profitably. Some Blue Cross insurers are also starting to see cost trends on the exchanges stabilize, after raising rates to account for the older, sicker risk pool in the last year.



The industry argues that with more permanent reinsurance funding to offset losses on the most expensive consumers, similar to the Medicare program, the individual exchanges could find their footing, and consumers could begin to see better pricing.



But, it is a work in progress," said Banerjee.



And for now, most large insurers are finding it pays to wait it out, when it comes to Obamacare.
The U.S. Marine Corps said on Saturday an active search and rescue operation was underway for servicemembers involved in an aviation "mishap" off the east coast of Australia.

The incident involved an MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, the III Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa, Japan, said on its Twitter account.

"Ship's small boats and aircraft from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group are conducting the search and rescue operations," the tweet said. "We will provide more details as they become available."
Another day of calm winds and cooler-than-expected temperatures held western Montana fires to light growth on Friday.

However, a cold front expected to arrive late Friday evening had fire managers on edge as National Weather Service forecasts called for gusty winds through Saturday morning. Saturday and Sunday both have a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, with high temperatures in the mid-80s.

Rice Ridge: Cooler weather allowed crews to reinforce the southern edge of the fire where its creeping down the Morrell Creek drainage about 2 miles north of the town of Seeley Lake. That also allowed for a third consecutive day of heavy aerial bombardment with water and retardant. A new Type II incident command team installed on Wednesday brought personnel up to 150, and the fire has so far burned 6,857 acres. An evacuation warning remains in place for residents on both sides of Highway 83 south of Rice Ridge Road to Morrell Creek and south of Cottonwood Lakes Road east of Highway 83, including the town of Seeley Lake and Double Arrow Ranch. No actual evacuations have been ordered.

Liberty fire: The old Boles Meadow burn scar along the northern border of the Rattlesnake Wilderness Area has provided some defense against the spread of this 3,652-acre fire. Burning about 17 miles southeast of Arlee, the fires smoke column has been frequently visible along Missoulas northern skyline. A crew of 260 firefighters has been assigned. Evacuation warnings remain in effect for cabins around Placid Lake. The south fork and middle fork of Jocko Lakes Road remain closed. A community meeting has been set for 6 p.m. Saturday at the Potomac Community Center.

Lolo Peak fire: A new Type I incident command team took control of the 353-person crew on Friday afternoon as the fire expanded to 6,873 acres. The main growth continues to be around the flank of Lantern Ridge and into the Cedar Creek drainage toward U.S. Highway 12, while a western front is pushing to the ridge line between the south fork of Lolo Creek and Johnny Creek. Highway 12 remains open, and an evacuation warning is in place for the area south of Highway 12 from Fort Fizzle west to the intersection with Elk Meadows Road, including the Mill Creek area.

Sunrise fire: Shifting winds kept this 12,300-acre fire burning vigorously in the mountains 11 miles southeast of Superior. A crew of 516 is on scene and reported 10 percent containment Friday. They are standing both day- and night-shift watches to protect homes and cabins in the Quartz Creek, Quartz Flats and Sunrise road areas. The 645-acre Burdette fire to the southwest continues to burn mostly in inventoried roadless area. It is being monitored but not actively fought.

Meyers fire: Since growing together on Aug. 1, the Whetstone Ridge fire is now part of the Meyers fire incident with a total acreage of 12,120. A Type II incident command team has 466 firefighters assigned to the scene, working on indirect defensive lines to protect the Moose Lake, Copper Creek and Frog Pond Basin areas. The combined fires are burning about 25 miles southwest of Philipsburg.

Sapphire Complex fires: The three adjacent fires burning about 25 miles southeast of Missoula in the Rock Creek drainage have a combined burn area of 17,498 acres. A Type II incident command team with 579 firefighters has made the most progress on the 7,563-acre Goat Creek fire, which is now considered 45 percent contained. Little Hogback remains uncontained at 9,110 acres, while the 825-acre Sliderock fire is about 20 percent contained. The Hogback Homestead area south to Stony Creek and Sliderock Mountain areas remain under mandatory evacuation orders, while the northern portion of the Rock Creek drainage is under an evacuation warning.
Babcock International Group PLC, together with its subsidiaries, provides value-add services for aerospace, defense, and security in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Africa, North America, Australasia, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Marine, Nuclear, Land, and Aviation. It designs, procures, operates, and manages critical utility and process equipment; offers asset management, defense and maritime training, information and intelligence, equipment and system, and facilities and infrastructure services, as well as naval platforms; and designs, manufactures, and provides through-life support for mechanical and electrical systems and equipment. The company also offers naval architecture, engineering, and project management services; submarines and complex engineering services in support of various decommissioning programs and projects, training and operation support, new build program management, and design and installation; critical vehicle fleet management, and equipment support and training services for military and civil customers; and designs, assesses, manufactures, installs, maintains, and decommissions vehicles for police, fire and ambulance, civil service, military, and other security-focused organizations. In addition, it provides plain line track renewal services; and engineering services for track projects, signaling, telecommunications, and on-track plants. Further, the company offers critical engineering services to defense and civil customers, including pilot training, equipment support, and airbase management, as well as operates aviation fleets that provide delivering emergency services. Babcock International Group PLC was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
Morgan Stanley is the 6th largest financial institution in the US. The company is ranked 61st on the Forbes Fortune 500 list and is the 39th largest bank in the world. A financial holding company, Morgan Stanley provides a full range of financial services to clients around the world.

Morgan Stanley was formed in 1935 as a result of the Glass-Steagall Act. Glass-Steagall separated commercial and investment banking in a way that forced the then-largest bank J.P. Morgan & Co to split into two groups. J.P. Morgan & Co. chose to retain the commercial side of the business while partners Henry S. Morga, grandson of J.P., and Harold Stanley took the investment end. In its first year, Morgan Stanley did 24% of the IPO business and maintains a lions share of the market to this day.

The original company existed and grew through acquisitions until 1987 when it merged with Dean Witter Discover & Co. The new Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover & Co existed for 14 years until 2001 when the name was shortened back to Morgan Stanley.

The bank is credited in part with both beginning and ending the financial crisis of 2007/2008. The Process Driven Trading unit lost $300 million in one day due to a short-squeeze that popped the bubble in the housing market. After teetering on the brink of failure Morgan Stanley agreed to become a bank holding company regulated by the Federal Reserve, a key factor in the original decision to split from parent J.P. Morgan & Co. Ironically when given the chance, present-day J.P. Morgan refused to buy Morgan Stanley but that was for the better.

Today, Morgan Stanley operates through three segments via offices in 41 countries and employs more than 75,000 people. Revenue in 2021 topped $49 billion and total assets topped $1.15 trillion.

The operating segments are Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments. The Institutional Securities segment is by far the largest and most profitable. It offers a range of services and products for businesses, institutions, and entities that include capital raising, strategic advisory, underwriting, advice on M&A, restructuring, and real estate. The Wealth Management segment provides brokerage and investment advisory services for individuals and employers. The services include brokerage, financial planning, company stock-plan administration, insurance, mortgage loans, lines of credit, and retirement planning. The Investment Management segment provides investment products to a range of institutions, organizations, corporations, and governments.
General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and salty snacks, ice cream, nutrition bars, wellness beverages, and savory and grain snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Blue Basics, Blue Freedom, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Haagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Larabar, Latina, Liberte, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. It sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. The company operates 466 leased and 392 franchise ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation provides a range of financial products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Securities Services, Market and Wealth Services, Investment and Wealth Management, and Other segments. The Securities Services segment offers custody, trust and depositary, accounting, exchange-traded funds, middle-office solutions, transfer agency, services for private equity and real estate funds, foreign exchange, securities lending, liquidity/lending services, prime brokerage, and data analytics. This segment also provides trustee, paying agency, fiduciary, escrow and other financial, issuer, and support services for brokers and investors. The Market and Wealth Services segment offers clearing and custody, investment, wealth and retirement solutions, technology and enterprise data management, trading, and prime brokerage services; and clearance and collateral management services. This segment also provides integrated cash management solutions, including payments, foreign exchange, liquidity management, receivables processing and payables management, and trade finance and processing services. The Investment and Wealth Management segment offers investment management strategies and distribution of investment products, investment management, custody, wealth and estate planning, private banking, investment, and information management services. The Other segment engages in the provision of leasing, corporate treasury, derivative and other trading, corporate and bank-owned life insurance, renewable energy investment, and business exit services. It serves central banks and sovereigns, financial institutions, asset managers, insurance companies, corporations, local authorities and high net-worth individuals, and family offices. The company was founded in 1784 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
The University of Montana will have 24 fewer faculty members when students return to campus this fall, a headcount as of July 18 shows. And that number is expected to grow.

"There will be no automatic replacements, and in fact, there will not be very many replacements," President Sheila Stearns said Friday. "But there will be a few."

This year, UM offered two different sets of early retirement buyouts to full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty in an effort to save personnel costs and shore up its student-to-faculty ratio.

UM made an initial round of offers in May to 48 faculty ages 65 years or older. Eleven faculty members accepted offers and had a termination date of July 17, according to UM.

UM declined to provide a list of faculty members who accepted buyouts, citing personnel privacy.

However, the Missoulian requested and UM provided a list of all full-time tenured and tenure track faculty who taught in the last school year and their salaries, and all who were slated to teach in the upcoming school year as of July 18.

The list shows 24 faculty departures to date out of 538 who taught last school year. The departures should include the 11 who took buyouts as well as others who are leaving under different circumstances. (See corresponding list for names, salaries and departments of departing faculty.)

Collectively, the 24 faculty earned $1.87 million, from as low as $52,020 to as much as $127,163, according to the data.

The final tally of faculty who will no longer teach in the upcoming school year is pending a second round of buyouts.

***

An enrollment decline at the Missoula flagship has caused budget problems for UM, and the Montana Legislature set aside $2 million this year to help the university pay for buyouts. UM aims to save $4 million a year in the long run with buyouts, although it has not yet reached that target.

Officials in the Montana Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education have said the campus must make faculty cuts to align its enrollment and resources with its personnel. Stearns, serving as interim president of UM, has also said UM spends too much of its budget on personnel, some 80 percent instead of closer to 70 percent.

Stearns said Friday a small number of positions will be filled based on accreditation needs, and the provost and deans will determine the posts that are "mission critical."

"We want to make sure that all of our good programs have all the faculty they need to meet our students' needs," Stearns said.

Five of the 24 faculty members who have left so far are from Missoula College, according to information from UM.

In a text, Missoula College Dean Shannon O'Brien said it feels premature to make any substantial comments on the situation. The data from UM show 33 faculty listed as being with Missoula College last school year.

"We are now simply preparing for the best experience and high quality instruction for our students and looking forward to a great year," O'Brien said.

***

The number of faculty who are leaving will likely increase because the second round of buyouts had yet to be finalized last week.

The termination date for faculty ages 60 to 64 who accepted buyouts was July 28. However, the six employees who had expressed interest in them had until Friday to revoke agreements, and Stearns said the second round of buyouts had yet to be solidified.

She said it's too early to tell whether enough employees will have departed to avoid layoffs, but she suspects UM will need to cut the faculty further.

"I think it is probably insufficient, which is why we really need to proceed with prioritization," Stearns said.

UM is in the midst of evaluating its academic programs, and it aims to have identified its priorities by December, the president said. Through the fall, a committee will determine which programs are staffed at adequate levels, which have too many employees, and which have too few, she said.

UM will use $580,000 of the $2 million appropriation to buy out 11 faculty and additional funds for possibly six others who accept the second round of offers.

Stearns said she hopes the Commissioner's Office will hold the funds that remain until December so UM can extend a third round of offers based on sector, ostensibly to faculty in academic programs deemed a lower priority for UM.
The following companies are subsidiares of American Tower: 10 Presidential Way Associates LLC, 3267351 Nova Scotia Company, 3286208 Nova Scotia Company, 3298099 Nova Scotia Company, 52 Eighty Partners LLC, 52 Eighty Tower Partners I LLC, ACC Tower Sub LLC, AT Atlantic Holding LLC (1), AT Iberia C.V. (2), AT Kenya C.V., AT Netherlands C.V., AT Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., AT Rhine C.V. (2), AT Sher Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., AT South America C.V., ATC Africa Holding B.V., ATC Africa Shared Services (Pty) Ltd, ATC Antennas Holding LLC, ATC Antennas LLC, ATC Argentina Cooperatief U.A., ATC Argentina Holding LLC, ATC Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ATC Atlantic C.V. (2), ATC Atlantic I B.V. (2), ATC Atlantic II B.V. (3), ATC Atlantic IV B.V. (2), ATC Backhaul LLC, ATC Brasil  Servicos de Conectividades Ltda., ATC Brazil Holding LLC, ATC Brazil I LLC, ATC Brazil II LLC, ATC Burkina Faso S.A., ATC CSR Foundation India, ATC Chile Holding LLC, ATC Colombia B.V., ATC Colombia Holding I LLC, ATC Colombia Holding LLC, ATC Colombia I LLC, ATC EH GmbH & Co. KG (2), ATC Ecuador Holding LLC, ATC Edge LLC, ATC Ethiopia Infrastructure Development Private Limited Company, ATC Europe B.V. (2), ATC Europe C.V. (1), ATC Europe Cooperatief U.A. (2), ATC Europe LLC, ATC European Holdings Inc., ATC Fibra de Colombia S.A.S., ATC France Holding II SAS, ATC France Holding SAS, ATC France Reseaux SAS, ATC France SNC, ATC France Services SAS, ATC GP GmbH, ATC Germany Holding I B.V. (3), ATC Germany Holding II B.V., ATC Germany Holdings GmbH, ATC Germany Munich GmbH, ATC Germany Services GmbH, ATC Ghana ServiceCo Limited, ATC Global Employment B.V., ATC Green Grass LLC, ATC Heston B.V., ATC Holding Fibra Mexico S. de R.L. DE C.V., ATC IP LLC, ATC Iberia Holding LLC (3), ATC India Infrastructure Private Limited (1), ATC Indoor DAS Holding LLC, ATC Indoor DAS LLC, ATC International Cooperatief U.A., ATC International Financing B.V., ATC International Financing II B.V., ATC International Financing II Holding LLC, ATC International Holding Corp., ATC Iris I LLC, ATC Kenya Operations Limited, ATC Kenya Services Limited, ATC Latin America S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., ATC MIP III REIT Iron Holdings LLC, ATC Managed Sites Holding LLC, ATC Managed Sites LLC, ATC MexHold LLC, ATC Mexico Holding LLC, ATC Niger Wireless Infrastructure S.A., ATC Nigeria Cooperatief U.A., ATC Nigeria Holding LLC, ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure Limited, ATC On Air + LLC, ATC Operations LLC, ATC Outdoor DAS LLC, ATC Paraguay Holding LLC, ATC Paraguay S.R.L., ATC Peru Holding LLC, ATC Polska sp. z o.o., ATC Ponderosa B-I LLC, ATC Ponderosa B-II LLC, ATC Ponderosa K LLC, ATC Ponderosa K-R LLC, ATC Rhine Holding LLC (3), ATC Scala Operations S.L. (3), ATC Scala Spain Holding S.L. (2), ATC Sequoia LLC, ATC Sitios Infraco S.A.S., ATC Sitios de Argentina S.A., ATC Sitios de Chile S.A., ATC Sitios de Colombia S.A.S., ATC Sitios del Peru S.R.L., ATC South Africa Investment Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, ATC South Africa Services Pty Ltd, ATC South Africa Wireless Infrastructure (Pty) Ltd, ATC South America Holding LLC, ATC South LLC, ATC TRS I LLC, ATC TRS II LLC, ATC TRS III LLC, ATC TRS IV LLC, ATC Tanzania Holding LLC, ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited, ATC Tower (Ghana) LTD, ATC Tower Services LLC, ATC Uganda Limited, ATC Uganda ServiceCo (SMC) Limited, ATC Watertown LLC, ATC WiFi LLC, ATS-Needham LLC, ActiveX Telebroadband Services Private Limited, Adquisiciones y Proyectos Inalambricos S. de R. L. de C.V., Agile Airband Ohio LLC, Agile Connect LLC, Agile IWG Holdings LLC, Agile Network Builders LLC, Agile Networks Indiana LLC, Agile Networks Site Development LLC, Agile Towers LLC, Alternative Networking LLC, American Tower Asset Sub II LLC, American Tower Asset Sub LLC, American Tower Charitable Foundation Inc., American Tower Chile I S.A., American Tower Chile II S.A., American Tower Delaware Corporation, American Tower Depositor Sub LLC, American Tower Espana S.L.U. (3), American Tower Guarantor Sub LLC, American Tower Holding Sub II LLC, American Tower Holding Sub LLC, American Tower IB Participacoes Imobiliarias Ltda., American Tower Inmosites S.L.U., American Tower International Holding I LLC, American Tower International Holding II LLC, American Tower International Inc., American Tower Investments LLC, American Tower LLC, American Tower Latam SLU, American Tower Management LLC, American Tower Peru S.A.C., American Tower Servicios Fibra S. de R.L. de C.V., American Tower T. Torres do Brasil Ltda., American Tower Tanzania Operations Limited, American Tower do Brasil - Cessao de Infraestruturas Ltda., American Tower do Brasil  Communicacao Multimidia Ltda., American Towers LLC, Appleseed Holdco LLC, BR Towers, Blue Sky Towers Pty Ltd, Blue Transfer Sociedad Anonima, Broadcast Towers LLC, CNC2 Associates LLC, California Tower Inc., Cell Site NewCo II LLC, Cell Tower Lease Acquisition LLC, Central States Tower Holdings LLC, Colo ATL LLC, Colo Atl, Communications Properties Inc., Comunicaciones y Consumos S.A., Connectivity Infrastructure Services Limited, CoreSite Real Estate 12100 Sunrise Valley Drive L.L.C., CoreSite Real Estate 1656 McCarthy L.P., CoreSite Realty Corporation REIT Qualification Trust, Coresite, DCS Tower Sub LLC, Digital Access Ohio LLC (1), Eaton, Eaton Towers Ghana (M) Limited, Eaton Towers Ghana Limited, Eaton Towers Holdings Limited, Eaton Towers Kenya Limited, Eaton Towers Limited, Eaton Towers Uganda Limited, Essar Telecom Infrastructure, GTP Acquisition Partners I LLC, GTP Acquisition Partners II LLC, GTP Acquisition Partners III LLC, GTP Costa Rica Finance LLC, GTP Infrastructure I LLC, GTP Infrastructure II LLC, GTP Infrastructure III LLC, GTP Investments LLC, GTP LATAM Holdings B.V., GTP LatAm Holdings Cooperatieve U.A., GTP Operations CR S.R.L., GTP South Acquisitions II LLC, GTP Structures I LLC, GTP Structures II LLC, GTP TRS I LLC, GTP Torres CR S.R.L., GTP Towers I LLC, GTP Towers II LLC, GTP Towers III LLC, GTP Towers IV LLC, GTP Towers IX LLC, GTP Towers V LLC, GTP Towers VII LLC, GTP Towers VIII LLC, GTPI HoldCo LLC, Ghana Tower InterCo B.V., Global Tower Assets III LLC, Global Tower Assets LLC, Global Tower Holdings LLC, Global Tower LLC, Global Tower Partners, Global Tower Services LLC, Gondola Tower Holdings LLC, Grain HoldCo LLC, Grain HoldCo Parent LLC, GrainComm I LLC, GrainComm II LLC, GrainComm III LLC, GrainComm LLC, GrainComm Marketing LLC, GrainComm V LLC, Haysville Towers LLC (1), IW Equipment LLC, IWD Equipment LLC, IWG Holdings LLC, IWG II Holdings LLC, IWG II LLC, IWG Towers Assets I LLC, IWG Towers Assets II LLC, IWG-TLA Australia Pty Ltd., IWG-TLA Canada Corp., IWG-TLA Encanto 1 LLC, IWG-TLA Encanto 3 LLC, IWG-TLA Holdings LLC, IWG-TLA Media 2 LLC, IWG-TLA Media LLC, IWG-TLA Telecom LLC, InSite (BCEC) LLC, InSite (MBTA) LLC, InSite Borrower LLC, InSite Co-Issuer Corp., InSite Guarantor LLC, InSite Hawaii LLC, InSite Issuer LLC, InSite Licensing LLC, InSite Tower Services LLC, InSite Towers Development 2 LLC, InSite Towers Development LLC, InSite Towers International 2 LLC, InSite Towers International Development LLC, InSite Towers International LLC, InSite Towers LLC, InSite Towers of Puerto Rico LLC, InSite Wireless Development LLC, InSite Wireless Group, InSite Wireless Group LLC, Invisible IWG Holdings LLC, Invisible Towers LLC, JT Communications LLC, Kirtonkhola Tower Bangladesh Limited (1), LAP Inmobiliaria Limitada, LAP Inmobiliaria S.R.L., LL B Sheet 1 LLC, Lap do Brasil Empreendimentos Imobiliarios Ltda, Lease Advisors-AU PTY LTD, Loxel SAS, MATC Digital S. de R.L. de C.V., MATC Infraestructura S. de R.L. de C.V., MATC Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., MC New Macland Properties LLC, MCSU Properties LLC, MHB Tower Rentals of America LLC, MIP III U.S. Iron LLC, Microwave Inc., Mountain Communications LLC, Municipal Bay LLC, Municipal-Bay Holdings LLC, New Towers LLC, PCS Structures Towers LLC, R-CAL I LLC, RSA Media Inc., Repeater Communications Group I LLC, Repeater Communications Group II LLC, Repeater Communications Group III LLC, Repeater Communications Group IV LLC, Repeater Communications Group LLC, Repeater Communications Group V LLC, Repeater Communications Group VI LLC, Repeater Communications Group of New York LLC, Repeater IWG Holdings LLC, Richland Towers LLC, Signum/IWG Tower Corp., Southeast Network Access Point LLC, SpectraSite Communications, SpectraSite Communications LLC, SpectraSite LLC, T8 Ulysses Site Management LLC, TLA PR-2 LLC, Telecom Lease Advisors Management 2 LLC, Tower Management Inc. (4), Towers of America L.L.L.P., Transcend Infrastructure Holdings Pte. Ltd., Transcend Towers Infrastructure (Philippines) Inc., Turris Sites Development Corp., Turris Sites IWG Corp, Tysons II DAS LLC, U.S. Colo. LLC, UNIsite, Uganda Tower Interco B.V., Ulysses Asset Sub I LLC, Ulysses Asset Sub II LLC, UniSite LLC, UniSite/Omnipoint FL Tower Venture LLC (1), UniSite/Omnipoint NE Tower Venture LLC (1), UniSite/Omnipoint PA Tower Venture LLC (1), and Viom Networks.

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Flags will be flown at half staff on Saturday in memory of 19-year-old Trenton Johnson and 29-year-old Brent Witham, who died within two weeks of one another while putting out fires in Montanas wildlands.

Gov. Steve Bullock announced the order Friday, writing it was to honor the two men as well as all those who have died on the fire line.

On this the 68th anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire, we remember the courage and sacrifice of all the men and women who have lost their lives fighting wildfires to protect the people of Montana, Bullocks proclamation read.

Witham, from Mentone, California, was killed Wednesday in a tree-felling accident on the Lolo Peak fire. Witham was a Hotshot firefighter, which are some of the most highly trained and experienced firefighters on the force. He had worked as a firefighter in some way or another close to 10 years, said Dean Richards, Withams best friend from California. Richards knew Witham since the two were in diapers and called Witham his brother.

No one had better work ethics than Brent, Richards said. He loved his job and he was very good at it.

Witham started in the business straight out of high school, Richards said. He used to fill plans with fire retardants and then began working with a type-two fire crew before joining an engine crew and finally becoming a Hotshot, Richards said.

Witham had gotten a tattoo on his right shoulder of seven firefighters silhouetted against a fire line, said Chris Santos, the tattoo artist for Witham and a fellow wildland firefighter.

It is mentally and physically one of the most difficult jobs out there, Santos said.

Santos called Witham a relaxed and humble person who was passionate about firefighting and a great friend.

Witham was a member of the Vista Grande Hotshot crew based in Idyllwild, California, serving with 374 fellow firefighters in the mountains 10 miles southwest of Lolo.

The rest of the Vista Grande Hotshot crew has already returned to their base at the San Bernardino National Forest.

On July 19, Johnson of Missoula died when he was struck by a tree while preparing to confront a half-acre fire northeast of Seeley Lake.

Falling trees killed 4 percent of the 440 firefighters who died on the job between 1990 and 2014, according to statistics compiled by the National Interagency Fire Center.
Church & Dwight Co., Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets household, personal care, and specialty products. It operates through three segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International, and Specialty Products Division. The company offers cat litters, carpet deodorizers, laundry detergents, and baking soda, as well as other baking soda based products under the ARM & HAMMER brand; condoms, lubricants, and vibrators under the TROJAN brand; stain removers, cleaning solutions, laundry detergents, and bleach alternatives under the OXICLEAN brand; battery-operated and manual toothbrushes under the SPINBRUSH brand; home pregnancy and ovulation test kits under the FIRST RESPONSE brand; depilatories under the NAIR brand; oral analgesics under the ORAJEL brand; laundry detergents under the XTRA brand; gummy dietary supplements under the L'IL CRITTERS and VITAFUSION brands; dry shampoos under the BATISTE brand; water flossers and replacement showerheads under the WATERPIK brand; FLAWLESS products; cold shortening and relief products under the ZICAM brand; and oral care products under the THERABREATH brand. Its specialty products include animal productivity products, such as MEGALAC rumen bypass fat, a supplement that enables cows to maintain energy levels during the period of high milk production; BIO-CHLOR and FERMENTEN, which are used to reduce health issues associated with calving, as well as provides needed protein; and CELMANAX refined functional carbohydrate, a yeast-based prebiotic. The company offers sodium bicarbonate; and cleaning and deodorizing products. It sells its consumer products through supermarkets, mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs, drugstores, convenience stores, home stores, dollar and other discount stores, pet and other specialty stores, and websites and other e-commerce channels; and specialty products to industrial customers and livestock producers through distributors. The company was founded in 1846 and is headquartered in Ewing, New Jersey.
China Telecom Corporation Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides wireline and mobile telecommunications services primarily in the People's Republic of China. It offers wireline voice services, including local wireline telephone services and long distance wireline services; CDMA mobile voice services, such as local calls, domestic and international long distance calls, intra-provincial roaming, and inter-provincial roaming and international roaming; wireline Internet access services comprising dial-up and broadband services; wireless Internet access services; and wireline, Internet, and mobile value-added services. The company also provides Best Tone information services; and information technology-based integrated solutions, such as system integration and consulting, outsourcing, special advisory, information application, knowledge, and software development services. In addition, it offers managed data services that include digital data network, frame relay, and asynchronous transfer mode services for government agencies, large corporations, and institutions; and leased line services, as well as sells, repairs, and maintains customer-end equipment. Further, the company provides international telecommunications services, including network, Internet access and transit, Internet data center, and mobile virtual network services in various countries, including the Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, South America, and North America; and music production and related information, instant messenger, finance leasing, capital and financial management, and e-commerce services, as well as sells telecommunications terminals. As of December 31, 2019, it had approximately 336 million mobile subscribers; 153 million wireline broadband subscribers; and 111 million access lines in service. The company was incorporated in 2002 and is based in Wanchai, Hong Kong. China Telecom Corporation Limited is a subsidiary of China Telecommunications Corporation.
Campbell Soup Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Meals & Beverages and Snacks segments. The Meals & Beverages segment engages in the retail and foodservice businesses in the United States and Canada. This segment provides Campbell's condensed and ready-to-serve soups; Swanson broth and stocks; Pacific Foods broth, soups, and non-dairy beverages; Prego pasta sauces; Pace Mexican sauces; Campbell's gravies, pasta, beans, and dinner sauces; Swanson canned poultry; V8 juices and beverages; Campbell's tomato juice; and snacking products in foodservice in Canada. The Snacks segment retails Pepperidge Farm cookies, crackers, fresh bakery, and frozen products; Milano cookies and Goldfish crackers; and Snyder's of Hanover pretzels, Lance sandwich crackers, Cape Cod and Kettle Brand potato chips, Late July snacks, Snack Factory pretzel crisps, Pop Secret popcorn, Emerald nuts, and other snacking products. This segment is also involved in the retail business in Latin America. It sells its products through retail food chains, mass discounters and merchandisers, club stores, convenience stores, drug stores, and dollar stores, as well as e-commerce and other retail, commercial, and non-commercial establishments, and independent contractor distributors. The company was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, a security and aerospace company, engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems, products, and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, and Space. The Aeronautics segment offers combat and air mobility aircraft, unmanned air vehicles, and related technologies. The Missiles and Fire Control segment provides air and missile defense systems; tactical missiles and air-to-ground precision strike weapon systems; logistics; fire control systems; mission operations support, readiness, engineering support, and integration services; manned and unmanned ground vehicles; and energy management solutions. The Rotary and Mission Systems segment offers military and commercial helicopters, surface ships, sea and land-based missile defense systems, radar systems, sea and air-based mission and combat systems, command and control mission solutions, cyber solutions, and simulation and training solutions. The Space segment offers satellites; space transportation systems; strategic, advanced strike, and defensive missile systems; and classified systems and services in support of national security systems. This segment also provides network-enabled situational awareness and integrates space and ground-based systems to help its customers gather, analyze, and securely distribute critical intelligence data. It serves primarily serves the U.S. government, as well as foreign military sales contracted through the U.S. government. Lockheed Martin Corporation was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.
Pampa Energia S.A., an integrated power company, engages in the generation and transmission of electricity in Argentina. The company operates through Electricity Generation, Oil and Gas, Petrochemicals, and Holding and Other Business segments. It generates electricity through combined thermal generation plants, open-cycle gas turbines, and hydroelectric power generation systems, as well as through a wind farm. The company has an installed electricity generation capacity of approximately 4,970 megawatts; and 21,414 kilometers of high voltage electricity transmission network in Argentina. It is also involved in the exploration and production of oil and gas. In addition, the company offers petrochemicals, such as styrene, synthetic rubber, and polystyrene. As of December 31, 2020, it had approximately 12.625 thousands of barrels of oil and LNG, as well as 24.537 millions of cubic meters of natural gas; owned a refinery with an installed capacity of approximately 25.8 thousand barrels per day; and operated a network of 92 gas stations. The company was formerly known as Pampa Holding S.A. and changed its name to Pampa Energia S.A. in September 2008. Pampa Energia S.A. was incorporated in 1945 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
A former state doctor who was stripped of his medical license for suspected drug use and who pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in 2016 among several other substance abuse-related charges is in trouble with the law again.

Mark Jay Catalanello, who had his drivers license revoked after his 2016 guilty plea, was spotted driving in Anaconda July 15, Police Chief Tim Barkell told The Montana Standard this week.

The officer who witnessed Catalanello driving knew the former doctor to not have a drivers license and began following the 56-year-old, who sped away and made a turn without using a signal, the chief said.

Barkell said the officer eventually pulled over Catalanello, who had no insurance on him and attempted to pass off an ID card as a drivers license. The officer searched Catalanello and his car and found 0.2 grams of cocaine, a vaporizer containing marijuana, baggies containing a glass pipe and two syringes, and a vial with a powdery residue, the chief said.

Catalanello was arrested and taken to county jail, where he is facing multiple drug charges, one of them a felony, Barkell said.

Catalanello is also facing multiple charges for possessing drug paraphernalia, driving with a revoked license, unlawful use of license, and disorderly conduct for allegedly screaming at the arresting officer.

Meanwhile, Catalanello was arraigned in Anaconda district court last week.

Court documents say he appeared without counsel, pleaded not guilty, and said that he did not believe he would qualify for a public defender and preferred to represent himself.

This isnt the first time Catalanello has been accused of drug use.

He came under fire in 2015 when staff at the Butte-based Montana Chemical Dependency Center reported erratic behavior they suspected was in connection to illegal drug use.

At the time, Catalanello served as the medical director of MCDC and as a staff physician at Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.

The Montana Board of Medical Examiners suspended Catalanellos license in October 2015. In March 2016, the board unanimously voted to permanently ban him from practicing medicine in the state.

For now, Catalanello remains in county jail without bond. A revocation hearing and an omnibus hearing have been set for Aug. 9 and Aug. 23, respectively.
Summit Midstream Partners, LP focuses on owning, developing, and operating midstream energy infrastructure assets primarily shale formations in the continental United States. The company provides natural gas gathering, compression, treating, and processing services, as well as crude oil and produced water gathering services. Its unconventional resource basins include the Utica and Point Pleasant shale formations in southeastern Ohio; the Williston Basin that consists of the Bakken and Three Forks shale formations in northwestern North Dakota; the Denver-Julesburg Basin, which include the Niobrara and Codell shale formations in Colorado; the Permian Basin that comprise the Bone Spring and Wolfcamp shale formations in New Mexico; the Piceance Basin, which include the Mesaverde formation, and the Mancos and Niobrara shale formations in western Colorado; the Barnett Shale formation in north-central Texas; and the Marcellus Shale formation in northern West Virginia. The company also owns an ownership interest in Ohio Gathering, which owns and operates natural gas gathering and condensate stabilization facility in the Utica Shale in southeastern Ohio. It serves natural gas and crude oil producers. Summit Midstream GP, LLC operates as a general partner of the company. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
The Ocean Dream made its maiden call to the Russian port of Vladivostok on July 31 as part of its current ongoing Peace Boat mission. The port said in a prepared statement the ship was carrying around 1,200 passengers from South Korea and Japan. It was the first call for the 1982-built vessel in Vladivostok.

The cruise departed on July 27 from the Port of Kobe, followed by stops in Yosu and Vladivostok, and continuing on to Hakodate, Sakaiminato, Busan.

Vladivostok Sea Terminal LLC organized welcome ceremony for the ship call including national dances, folklore sings and drummers, which the port said the passengers applauded.

Shore excursions for passengers included several programs such as Highlights of Vladivostok, a short trip by the Transsiberian railway to a suburb of the city, visiting the local art gallery and others.

The city is the homeport of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean.

Vladivostok said it will have 13 calls cruise calls this year, up on six in 2016.
Police reports

STOLEN VEHICLE

When police stopped Sam Smith, 36, of Butte at about 5:15 p.m. Thursday on the first block of East Granite Street because the officer knew Smith was driving on a suspended license, the stop turned into two felony complaints and the retrieval of a stolen vehicle from Idaho.

The officer said he smelled marijuana and saw a glass pipe in the car. The officer then found Smith had a syringe in his sock and methamphetamine in his pocket, according to the police report. The car was also reportedly stolen from Kootenai County in Idaho.

Jessica Smith, 20, of Anaconda was riding with Smith. She claimed she had bought the vehicle, a 1994 Ford Explorer, for $500, despite the fact the vehicle had been reported stolen.

Sam Smith was booked for two felony counts  possession of a stolen vehicle and possession of dangerous drugs  as well as three misdemeanors  no liability insurance, driving on a suspended or revoked license, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Jessica Smith was booked for possession of a stolen vehicle, a misdemeanor.

THREATENING WITH A KNIFE

Brian Hower, 56, of Butte allegedly threatened to stab two Taco John's employees during an altercation in the restaurant's parking lot at about 7 p.m. Thursday.

Hower initially entered into the business, 1960 Harrison Ave., demanding payment for cleaning the parking lot, although he was not contracted to do so, according to police. He then caused a disturbance and exited the restaurant but blocked the exit to the drive-through. One employee went outside to ask Hower to leave, and he allegedly threatened to shoot and stab the employee. Another employee came outside, and Hower reportedly threatened both employees with a small, silver pocket knife. Police booked Hower on two felony charges of assault with a weapon.

DUI REFUSAL

When police went to arrest Jason Ringe, 46, of Butte for refusal to take a blood alcohol test at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday at St. James Healthcare, Ringe reportedly told police he was going to smoke a cigarette and go home and started to walk out of the hospital. The officer reportedly told Ringe to stop, and he allegedly refused. When the officer stopped him, Ringe allegedly refused to put his hands behind his back for handcuffing. The officer and Ringe got into a minor altercation, and both wound up on the floor, according to police.

Officers had initially found Ringe at Nissler Junction at the Interstate 15-90 interchange west of Rocker with his engine running, an open container of alcohol inside his car, and asleep at the wheel, police report. The officer transported Ringe to take a DUI blood test at St. James Healthcare.

Ringe was booked on four misdemeanors: obstructing justice, resisting arrest, driving without a valid license, and DUI refusal.

FIGHT ON NATURE TRAIL

Russell Geary, 32, of Butte was booked at about 6 a.m. Thursday for a warrant for his arrest out of Lake County for a $2,000 bond. Geary and a female allegedly got into an altercation on Grizzly Trail near Rocker. The female reportedly told police Geary shoved her, but she did not want to file a complaint. But police booked Geary on the warrant complaint.

FALSE NAMES

When an officer stopped a car on a routine traffic stop at George and Oregon Streets at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, the man and woman in the car reportedly gave false names.

The female, Haley Maher, 20, of Butte, was wanted on two warrants out of Butte city court for failure to appear and for a $285 bond out of Jefferson County. She was also booked for obstructing a peace officer, all misdemeanors. The male, Nicholas Williams, 28, of Butte, was booked for failure to wear a seatbelt, no liability insurance in effect, driving on a suspended or revoked license, and obstructing a peace officer, all misdemeanors.

FAILURE TO APPEAR

Shayna Lamping, 22, of Butte allegedly got into a minor accident at South Montana and Second Streets at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. When police ran her identification, they found she was wanted by city court for failure to appear. She was booked for careless driving, not wearing a seatbelt, no insurance, and criminal contempt, all misdemeanors.

GOODS WORTH $2,000 STOLEN

Officers responded to the 2600 block of Meadowbrook Drive Tuesday morning after two homeowners called to report that someone had stolen two rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns, a fly rod, an ammunition bag, and clothing from their home, totaling a value of $2,000.

According to police, the homeowners said they were away from the home during a renovation project and were notified by a caretaker that someone had broken into the home. Upon arrival, police said, officers discovered the burglar or burglars had broken a window leading into the homes basement. They later learned from contractors working in the area that a suspicious SUV had been recently driving in the neighborhood.

Police said they were able to recover the clothing and ammunition bag, which had been tossed in a nearby field, but have yet to locate the other stolen goods.

Police say they believe the burglary took place sometime between Monday night and early Tuesday morning.

DUI AT THE CAR WASH

Police say they apprehended a woman Tuesday morning as she exited a car wash for allegedly driving under the influence.

Around 9 a.m., an employee at a Harrison Avenue gas station phoned police to report that an intoxicated woman had driven her vehicle to the car wash.

Police arrived at the station, where they waited for the woman to exit the car wash.

After questioning the woman, Danette Brown, 49, of Butte, police said they smelled alcohol on her breath and witnessed her fail sobriety maneuvers. Police arrested the woman and took her the Butte jail, where she allegedly failed sobriety maneuvers a second time and blew twice the legal limit on the Breathalyzer.

Brown was cited with aggravated DUI and driving without insurance.

NO CLOTHING CAPER

Police say a man returned to his parked vehicle on the first block of Main Street Tuesday evening to find a woman in the back trying on some of his clothing.

When the man came toward the vehicle, police said, the woman took off the clothes and exited the vehicle, kicking and breaking a ceramic plate in the process.

Police later caught up with the woman, Harriett Peltier, 55, of Butte, and arrested her. Police say she is being cited with criminal mischief and trespassing.
ElringKlinger AG develops, manufactures, and sells systems and components for the automotive industry in Germany, the Asia-Pacific, North America, rest of Europe, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Original Equipment, Aftermarket, Engineered Plastics, and Other. The Original Equipment segment is involved in the development, manufacture, and sale of products and assemblies, such as metal sealing systems and drive train components; thermoplastics for drivetrains, body, and underbody applications; hybrid technologies; thermal, acoustic, and aerodynamic shielding systems; cylinder-head and specialty gaskets; battery and fuel cell components and systems; electric drive units; and exhaust gas purification. This segment serves passenger car and commercial vehicle sectors. The Aftermarket segment offers a range of gaskets, gasket sets, and service parts for the repair of engines, transmissions, exhaust systems, and auxiliary units in cars and commercial vehicles under the Elring - Das Original brand. This segment serves a network of wholesalers and purchasing organizations. The Engineered Plastics segment develops, manufactures, and markets customized products made from various plastics for the mechanical engineering sector, as well as in medical, chemical, energy, and vehicle industries. The Other segment operates engine test benches and measuring equipment for testing engines, transmissions, and exhaust systems for vehicle manufacturers and automotive suppliers; and offers logistics and catering services. ElringKlinger AG was founded in 1879 and is headquartered in Dettingen an der Erms, Germany.
EPAM Systems, Inc. provides digital platform engineering and software development services worldwide. The company offers engineering services, including requirements analysis and platform selection, customization, cross-platform migration, implementation, and integration; infrastructure management services, such as software development, testing, and maintenance with private, public, and mobile infrastructures for application, database, network, server, storage, and systems operations management, as well as monitoring, incident notification, and resolution services; and maintenance and support services. It also provides operation solutions comprising integrated engineering practices and smart automation; and optimization solutions that include software application testing, test management, automation, and consulting services to enable customers enhance their existing software testing and quality assurance practices, as well as other testing services that identify threats and close loopholes to protect its customers' business systems from information loss. In addition, the company offers business, experience, technology, data, and technical advisory consulting services; and digital and service design solutions, which comprise strategy, design, creative, and program management services, as well as physical product development, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality. It serves the financial services, travel and consumer, software and hi-tech, business information and media, life sciences and healthcare, and other industries. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
Markel Corporation, a diverse financial holding company, markets and underwrites specialty insurance products in the United States, Bermuda, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Canada, the Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. Its Insurance segment offers general and professional liability, personal lines, marine and energy, specialty programs, and workers' compensation insurance products; and property coverages that include fire, allied lines, and other specialized property coverages, including catastrophe-exposed property risks, such as earthquake and wind. This segment also offers credit and surety products, and collateral protection insurance products. The company's Reinsurance segment offers transaction, healthcare, and environmental impairment liability; and specialty treaty reinsurance products comprising structured and whole turnover credit, political risk, mortgage and contract, and commercial surety reinsurance programs. Its Markel Ventures segment provides equipment used in baking systems and food processing; portable dredges; over-the-road car haulers and transportation equipment; and laminated oak and composite wood flooring, tube and tank trailers, as well as ornamental plants and residential homes, handbags, and architectural products. This segment also provides consulting, and other types of services to businesses and consumers, including distribution of exterior building products, crane rental, fire protection, and life safety services, management and technology consulting, and retail intelligence services. The company's Other segment provides healthcare, leasing and investment services, as well as operates as an insurance and investment fund manager offering a range of investment products, including insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bonds, insurance swaps, and weather derivatives; and program services. it also manages funds with third parties. Markel Corporation was founded in 1930 and is based in Glen Allen, Virginia.
The following companies are subsidiares of Novartis: 1 A Pharma GmbH, Abadia Retuerta S.A, Admune Therapeutics, Advanced Accelerator Applications, Advanced Accelerator Applications, Advanced Accelerator Applications International SA, Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A., Advanced Accelerator Applications S.r.l., Advanced Accelerator Applications USA Inc., Aeropharm GmbH, Alcon, Alcon  Couvreur NV, Amblyotech, Amblyotech Inc., Arctos Medical, Arctos Medical AG, Australia Pty Ltd, Beijing Novartis Pharma Co. Ltd., BioMedical Research Co. Ltd., CELLforCURE, Cadent Therapeutics, Cadent Therapeutics Cambridge, Cellerys, Cellerys AG, CellforCure, Chiron Corporation, Ciba-Geigy Japan Limited, Co. Ltd, CoStim Pharmaceuticals, CoStim Pharmaceuticals Inc., Coalesce Product Development Limited, Corthera, Development Co. Ltd., EBEWE Pharma Ges.m.b.H Nfg. KG, Encore Vision, Endocyte, Endocyte Inc., Eon Labs Inc., Farmanova Saglik Hizmetleri Ltd, Fougera Pharmaceuticals, Fougera Pharmaceuticals Inc, Gyroscope Therapeutics, HEXAL AG, Hexal, IDB Holland BV, Iberica S.L.U., Ilaclari Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S, JSC Sandoz, Japat AG, Kedalion Therapeutics Inc., Lek Pharmaceuticals d.d., Lek S.A., Manufacturing Pte Ltd , Navigate BioPharma Services Inc, Neutec Pharma Limited, Novartis (Hellas) S.A.C.I., Novartis (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Novartis (Taiwan) Co. Ltd, Novartis (Thailand) Limited, Novartis Argentina S.A., Novartis Australia Pty Ltd, Novartis Austria GmbH, Novartis Biociencias S.A., Novartis Biosciences Peru S.A., Novartis Bioventures AG, Novartis Business Services GmbH, Novartis Capital Corporation, Novartis Chile S.A., Novartis Corporation, Novartis Corporation Sdn. Bhd., Novartis Deutschland GmbH, Novartis Ecuador S.A., Novartis Farma S.p.A., Novartis Farma  Produtos Farmaceuticos S.A., Novartis Farmaceutica S.A, Novartis Farmaceutica S.A. de C.V., Novartis Finance Corporation, Novartis Finance S.A., Novartis Finance Services Ltd, Novartis Finland Oy Espoo, Novartis Gene Therapies, Novartis Gene Therapies EU Limited, Novartis Gene Therapies Inc., Novartis Grimsby Limited, Novartis Groupe France S.A., Novartis Healthcare A/S, Novartis Healthcare Philippines Inc., Novartis Healthcare Private Limited, Novartis Holding AG, Novartis Hungary Healthcare Limited Liability Company, Novartis India Limited, Novartis Inflammasome Research, Novartis Integrated Services Limited, Novartis International AG, Novartis International Pharmaceutical Investment AG, Novartis Investment Ltd, Novartis Investments S.a r.l., Novartis Ireland Limited, Novartis Israel Ltd, Novartis Korea Ltd., Novartis Middle East FZE, Novartis Netherlands B.V., Novartis Neva LLC, Novartis New Zealand Ltd, Novartis Norge AS, Novartis Ophthalmics AG, Novartis Optogenetics Research Inc., Novartis Overseas Investments AG, Novartis Pharma (Logistics) Inc., Novartis Pharma (Pakistan) Limited, Novartis Pharma AG, Novartis Pharma B.V. , Novartis Pharma GmbH, Novartis Pharma GmbH, Novartis Pharma K.K., Novartis Pharma LLC, Novartis Pharma Maroc SA, Novartis Pharma NV, Novartis Pharma Produktions GmbH, Novartis Pharma S.A.E., Novartis Pharma S.A.S., Novartis Pharma Schweiz AG, Novartis Pharma Schweizerhalle AG, Novartis Pharma Services AG, Novartis Pharma Services Romania S.R.L., Novartis Pharma Stein AG, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Limited, Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Limited, Novartis Poland Sp. z o.o., Novartis Portugal S.G.P.S. Lda., Novartis Ringaskiddy Limited, Novartis Saglik Gida ve Tarim Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S, Novartis Saudi Ltd., Novartis Securities Investment Ltd, Novartis Services Inc., Novartis Slovakia s.r.o., Novartis South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Novartis Sverige AB, Novartis UK Limited, Novartis US Foundation, Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Inc, Novartis Vietnam Company Limited, Novartis de Colombia S.A., Novartis de Venezuela S.A., Novartis s.r.o., Oriel Therapeutics Inc., PT. Novartis Indonesia, Protez Pharmaceuticals, Pte Ltd, Research Inc, Salutas Pharma GmbH, Sandoz A/S, Sandoz AG, Sandoz B.V., Sandoz Canada Inc., Sandoz Egypt Pharma S.A.E., Sandoz Farmaceutica S.A., Sandoz Farmaceutica Lda., Sandoz GmbH, Sandoz Hungary Limited Liability Company, Sandoz Ilac Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., Sandoz Inc, Sandoz Industrial Products S.A, Sandoz International GmbH, Sandoz K.K., Sandoz Limited, Sandoz Manufacturing Inc., Sandoz NV, Sandoz Pharma K.K, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals AG, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals d.d., Sandoz Philippines Corporation, Sandoz Polska Sp. z o.o. , Sandoz Private Limited, Sandoz Pty Ltd, Sandoz S.A. de C.V, Sandoz S.A.S., Sandoz S.R.L., Sandoz S.p.A., Sandoz South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Sandoz Ukraine LLC, Sandoz d.o.o. farmaceutska industrija, Sandoz do Brasil Industria Farmaceutica Ltda, Sandoz s.r.o., Selexys Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Shanghai Novartis Trading Ltd., Societe par actions SANDOZ, Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, The Medicines Company, The Medicines Company, Triangle International Reinsurance Limited, Trinity River Insurance Co Ltd, Vedere Bio, Vedere Bio ll, Xiidra, Ziarco, and Ziarco Group Limited.

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Meeting on homeless planned Monday

Butte-Silver Bow County officials and the Continuum of Care Coalition will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 7, at the Copper King Hotel and Convention Center, 4655 Harrison Ave., to talk about Butte's homeless dilemma.

This meeting will focus on homeless services and how agencies are working together to end homelessness. There will be a presentation and then a panel discussion.

Time will be allowed for questions from the public. Details: Kareniesa Kohn at 406-497-6214 or Karen Byrnes at 406-497-6467.

United Way needs volunteers

United Way of Butte and Anaconda will hold its 2017 Dress a Child event on Tuesday, Aug. 22, and volunteers are needed to make this year's event another success.

The goal is to ensure that many of our area students begin their school year with the necessary new clothing to start the year on par with their peers.

United Way of Butte and Anaconda is recruiting volunteers to be "Shopping Buddies" to assist one-on-one with each student. Each "Shopping Buddy" will ensure that each student spends the allotted $100 on basics such as undergarments, socks, and shoes and then on school-appropriate clothing of the students' choice.

"Getting kids ready to start a new school year is a financial strain for a lot of area families," said Julie Crnich, executive director of United Way of Butte and Anaconda. "The financial support that has been received and committed will allow us to outfit 170 children this year. "

If you would like to volunteer, call the United Way office at 406-782-1255, email Julie at uwbadirector@bresnan.net, visit their website at www.uwbutteanaconda.org, or stop by 1880 Harrison Ave. (lower level).

Irish festival looking for volunteers

The An Ri Ra Irish festival is looking for volunteers for the event, which runs Friday and Saturday, Aug. 11 and 12, at the Original Mine yard venue, Main and Copper.

People are needed to sell soft drinks and water as well as people to man the donation buckets. If you can help, or for details, call Mary at 406-490-8037 or Julie at 406-498-0018 or 406-782-7375.

Bridge club announces August games

The Butte Bridge Club plays at 1 p.m. on Monday and Thursday throughout the month of August at the Hawthorne Community Center, 3500 Whiteway (enter through the back).

Other games are 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Aug. 8 and 15, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27.

Driving class set for Thursday

AARP Smart Driving Course is being offered from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, at the Belmont Senior Center. This includes one hour for lunch. For details and to register, call 406-723-7773.

Bingo Night featured at KC Hall

The Focus Recovery Group is hosting a fundraising bingo night at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9, at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 224 W. Park St. The evening includes 10 games of bingo, two specials, and blackout. The cost is $5 a packet, $1 for specials.
According to results reported after midnight, Andersen got 52% of the vote out of 523 cast in District 10. In the District 11 race, Walker got 53% out of 847 votes cast.
By Elena Saxonhouse and Adam Beitman

Shortly after Scott Pruitt took over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Sierra Club filed a formal complaint with the agencys Inspector General demonstrating that he violated EPAs Scientific Integrity Policy in multiple ways. Our filing called for an investigation into and resolution of Pruitts televised denial of established science: the fact that carbon pollution plays a strong role in fueling the climate crisis. Wednesday, we received a private letter in response from the EPAs Office of the Science Advisor. Unfortunately, the letter and the panel decision it describes provide a fundamentally flawed reading of the Scientific Integrity Policy. The decision fails to address many of the areas of the policy the Sierra Club had called attention to, relies on partial quotes from the policy, and provides Pruitt with special protections afforded to actual scientists working at the agency, although he isquite obviously at this pointnot a scientist. This erroneous and incomplete review led to a conclusion that Pruitt had not technically violated the policy because he was expressing an opinion.

Whats more, as a sign of Pruitts desperation for good press, his spokespeople leaked an earlier version of the letter to fringe websites earlier this week in an end-run around established EPA procedures, and before it had even been provided to the Sierra Club employees to whom it was addressed.

Despite the findings of the letter, and the disappointing process in which it was released, what remains clear is that Scott Pruitt has repeatedly violated scientific integrity principles, both in his public communications and through his disastrous public policy. From removing scientists from advisory boards, to deleting scientific information from public websites, to blatantly ignoring scientists advice to ban a dangerous pesticide, Pruitt is undermining the faith of the American people in the agencys ability to fulfill its mission.

Pruitts statements on CNBC that more debate is needed as to whether CO2 is a primary contributor to climate change were not a harmless scientific opinion, as EPAs decision suggests. With his many close ties to the fossil fuel industry, they were clearly a politically motivated attempt to obfuscate basic facts that EPA scientists have studied and verified for years. In addition, Pruitt is not just any employee. As the administrator of the agency, Pruitts opinions can have especially weighty consequences for the many scientists working below him. Finally, the fact that EPAs decision ignores the full sentence of the policy that it relies upon to absolve Pruitt  helpfully explained herecalls into question the rigor of the review. This portion of the policy is intended to protect differing opinions within the scientific processand carries an expectation that the person offering the opinion will express it complete with rationale, preferably in writing. Pruitt, on the other hand, is expressing an opinion that has already been thoroughly debunked through peer-reviewed science. Were not holding our breath for that rationale in writing either.

While focusing on a partial quote protecting scientists opinions, the EPA letter fails entirely to address other aspects of the policy described in our complaint. For example,[w]hen dealing with science, it is the responsibility of every EPA employee to conduct, utilize, and communicate science with honesty, integrity, and transparency, both within and outside the Agency. And, policy makers shall not knowingly misrepresent, exaggerate or downplay areas of scientific uncertainty associated with policy decisions.

In short, Pruitts behavior is just the type of behavior the Scientific Integrity Policy should be protecting against. It is unfortunate that this letter effectively lets Pruitt off the hook for deceiving the American public regularly about the state of science in high profile contexts.

This kind of public deception has real impacts. Climate deniers like Scott Pruitt have spent many crucial years confusing the public in their effort to prolong our reliance on dirty fossil fuels. Unfortunately, this effort has succeeded in delaying an effective response to the climate crisis. The result is that it will be far more difficult and expensive to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

If EPAs current scientific integrity policy and review process is truly not strong enough to make clear that Pruitts denial of climate science is unacceptable for the head of EPA, then thats simply evidence that the policy must be strengthened.

The EPA response letter does note that Pruitts comments did not come in the context of an immediate policy decisionand thats an important distinction. We cant hold Pruitt accountable before a court for his violations of the Scientific Integrity Policy, but violations of environmental statutes and regulatory procedure are another story entirely. As Pruitt puts his words into action, you can be sure the Sierra Club will be there to hold him accountable.

Elena Saxonhouse is a senior attorney for the Sierra Clubs Environmental Law Program. Adam Beitman is the Sierra Clubs Deputy National Press Secretary, covering federal policy, politics and international issues.
WASHINGTON -- Muslim immigrants who feel marginalized and discriminated against in countries that expect them to integrate into their culture and society are more likely to experience psychological threats to their own significance that could be related to increased support of radicalism, according to new research presented at the American Psychological Association's 125th Annual Convention.

"We found that immigrants who identify with neither their heritage culture nor the culture they are living in feel marginalized and insignificant," said presenter Sarah Lyons-Padilla, PhD, of Stanford University. "Experiences of discrimination make the situation worse."

Lyons-Padilla presented two studies, one focused on 198 Muslims (78 men) living all over the United States. They were asked about their cultural identities and attitudes toward extremism via online surveys. The participants were between the ages of 18 and 35 and the majority lived in Maryland, Virginia and California. In this sample, 92 were first-generation immigrants; the rest were second-generation American-born, with the majority (105 participants) identifying Pakistan as their heritage country.

They were asked how connected they felt to their heritage culture as well as to American values, and how they felt about their level of integration in their new country. They were also asked if their religion or cultural background had ever led to their experiencing hostility or unfair treatment and how connected and significant they felt.

Finally, they were presented with a description of a hypothetical fundamentalist group made up of young Muslims in the United States. This hypothetical group made clear its stance against American maltreatment of Muslims and promised belonging, commitment and loyalty to potential members. Violence was never explicitly mentioned but the group clearly justified extreme actions to support its cause. The participants were asked how much they thought most people they know would like the hypothetical group, how willing these friends would be to engage in activities on behalf of the group and to what extent their friends would sympathize with the group should it engage in extreme behaviors, such as participating in illegal or violent demonstrations or damaging people's property.

Marginalization and discrimination were found to predict feelings of insignificance, which became stronger with the experience of more discrimination and, in turn, predicted an attraction to fundamentalist groups and its extreme behavior, the research found.

Another study Lyons-Padilla presented may help explain why countries in Europe are facing more cases of homegrown radicalization than the U.S. This survey of recent Muslim immigrants in Germany (204 participants) and the U.S. (198 participants) in late 2014 showed that in Germany, which is described as a tight society that expects more conformity, Muslims reported having a more difficult time integrating than immigrants in a looser society, such as the U.S. This could be due to the perception that the tighter society is not open to cultural diversity, said Lyons-Padilla. Those who were not well integrated were more likely to show support for extremist practices, the study found.

In this survey, all participants were asked about their acculturation experiences and perceptions of the larger society. For example, they were asked to rate their agreement with statements such as, "In this country, there are very clear expectations for how people should act in most situations," and "Most Americans/Germans are not interested in learning about other people's cultures." They were also asked about their desire for integration into their host country's culture. Finally, to measure their support for radicalism, they were asked whether they would sacrifice their life or endure suffering for an important cause. She noted the results are preliminary as the study is undergoing peer review.

"In what has also been referred to as a vicious cycle of prejudice, we find that lower levels of openness to diversity are associated with lower levels of cultural integration," she said. "Difficulty integrating, in turn, shapes support for extremism. Our findings therefore suggest that radicalization is not merely a process that takes place within individuals, but that the larger context of reception plays a crucial role."

###

Session 3139: "When Disconnection Breeds Extremism: Marginalization, Discrimination and Risk for Radicalization," Symposium, Saturday, Aug. 5, 10-11:50 a.m., EDT, Room 146C, Street Level, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Pl., N.W., Washington, D.C.

Presentations are available from the APA Public Affairs Office.

Contact: Sarah Lyons-Padilla at sarahlp@stanford.edu.

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes nearly 115,700 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has moved one step closer to launch after successfully passing its Systems Integration Review (SIR), an independent review from independent technical and scientific experts who have deemed the mission ready to begin installation of its scientific instrument onto the spacecraft.

Scheduled for launch in March 2018, TESS will be NASA's next planet-hunting mission, searching for planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. TESS will use four wide-field cameras to scan nearly the entire sky, monitoring the nearest and brightest stars for temporary dips in the light they emit that may indicate a planet passing in front -- an event known as a transit.

Developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and Lincoln Laboratory, the TESS cameras will use their wide field of view to monitor more than 200,000 stars for transits.

"After a number of years of planning and design, it is incredible to stand in the clean room and see a completed instrument from MIT and a completed spacecraft from Orbital ATK, just waiting to be brought together," said TESS Project Manager Jeff Volosin at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Now that TESS has completed this critical review, the mission's cameras and science data processing computer are scheduled to begin installation onto the spacecraft at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, over the next several weeks. Once successfully integrated, the spacecraft will spend the rest of the year undergoing rigorous testing to ensure the mission can withstand the harsh environment of space. The spacecraft is scheduled to ship in February to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The mission will survey stars up to 100 times brighter than those observed by NASA's Kepler mission, providing ideal targets for follow-up observations with missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is currently undergoing testing prior to its launch. In fact, TESS will spend its two-year mission observing areas of the sky that overlap with JWST's optimal viewing zone, finding the best exoplanet candidates for more detailed characterization.

"We're excited about the discoveries that TESS will make," said TESS Project Scientist Stephen Rinehart from Goddard. "TESS will find thousands of new exoplanets around bright, nearby stars, and these planets are going to be valuable targets for future study for decades to come."

Like the Kepler telescope, by design there is a range of focus and image quality across the TESS camera's field of view. Recent measurements revealed the TESS cameras to have slightly reduced focus and image quality near the outer edge of the image when placed in the cold temperatures of space, and better camera focus and image quality towards the center of the image. The difference between the designed and measured focus and image quality will not affect the mission's science goals.

"The TESS instrument, as built, is going to achieve all the Level 1 requirement goals it was built for, and it's going to be able to address a wide range of exciting additional science," Rinehart said.

The launch of TESS will be NASA's next step in the search for life on other worlds, adding to NASA's growing catalog of planets beyond our solar system.

"Our team is incredibly proud of the role we will play in identifying nearby exoplanets that can be studied in detail by JWST and other powerful telescopes," said TESS Principal Investigator George Ricker.

###

TESS is an Explorer-class mission overseen by the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. It is being led by MIT's the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with support from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Additional partners include Orbital ATK, MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California; the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. More than a dozen universities and observatories worldwide are participating in the scientific planning for the mission.

For more information about TESS, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/tess

http://space.mit.edu/space-based-observatories/tess-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite
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The majority of Brits believe consumers need to learn more about the origins of their food, new research reveals.

The survey, conducted by Certas Energy, explored the nation's awareness around British agriculture and UK food trade.

The survey revealed that more than four out of five people would like to support British agriculture, but have no idea where to start.

Three-quarters of people confessed (75%) that they are unaware of how commercial farming operates.

A further 77% of people said that they are unaware of how much food is imported and exported in the UK, but 86% claim they actively try to purchase British grown produce.

The cities that most actively try to purchase produce from home soil were Newcastle (87%), Glasgow (87%), Nottingham (84%), Edinburgh (83%) and Bristol (81%), while the least active were Sheffield (39%) and Birmingham (34%).

Getting it wrong

When it came to knowing about which fruit and vegetables are in season, respondents had very mixed knowledge, with the majority of Brits getting the answers wrong.

Over half of those surveyed thought that garlic (55%) was grown all year round, despite it being seasonal in summer.

Only 16% of people knew that kale and leeks are typically grown in the winter, while only 13% knew that butternut squash is in season during the autumn and just one in ten (11%) knew that peas are a spring vegetable.

The fruit and vegetables that most respondents guessed correctly were onions (55%), mushrooms (62%) and parsnips (40%) which are grown all year round.

Sheffield and Nottingham fared worst with their fruit and veg knowledge, while the cities with most correct answers about seasonal produce were Southampton and Norwich.

Cheese come from plants

The study comes at a time when a recent conference said that the future of agriculture and food production lies with young people.

However, even children's agricultural facilities are closing down.

And according to new research by the BNF, which spoke to more than 27,500 children across the UK, cheese comes from plants, tomatoes grow underground and fish fingers are made of chicken.

To top if off, research has shown that seven in ten (69%) Brits feel they are losing touch with nature, with a further 13% admitted they have not been to the countryside for more than two years.
The vice-president of France's biggest farming union has said European Union farmers could lose billions in subsidy payments when the UK leaves.

Arnold Puech-d'Alissac, from FNSEA, told France 24 that the biggest concern was calculating how much the next CAP budget will be in light of Brexit.

"We could lose some billions," he said.

"But if you lose some billions out the EU budget the UK will lose all the European markets for its financial services, for example.

"That will be a big problem for the UK, the negotiations just started, we've got 18 months for an agreement, they will find an agreement."

Mr Puech-d'Alissac also voiced concern over the Irish border and potential non-EU goods crossing it.

"You need to find a solution, to have a border between these two countries is impossible.

"But maybe at the exit you can have strict control," he said.

'Hard border'

In May the president of another French farming union said there should be a hard border between the two countries to prevent non-EU food entering the EU.

Christophe Hillairet, who has been president of the Chamber of Agriculture of Ile de France for over 10 years, said the British government will sign deals to import food from Commonwealth countries post-Brexit and that those products could then be transported across a future EU land border via Northern Ireland.

Mr Hillairet expressed fears to Agra Europe that lamb from New Zealand could arrive in Northern Ireland and cross a 'soft' border into the Republic of Ireland, before entering the mainland EU markets.

Irish Creamery president John Comer said the only people enjoying Mr Hillariet's comments were anti-EU British eurosceptics.

"That must not happen, and with respect to our French friends, we would prefer them to reflect on the common good and not just on their own particular sectoral interests."

Speaking from Leinster House, Sinn Feins agriculture spokesman, Martin Kenny expressed deep concern at the remarks.

"We can assure him that Irish farmers do not want an influx of non-EU produce either, but it is a pity that, instead of listening to us and supporting designated special status for the North within the EU in order to secure the integrity of the customs union, he should take a Franco-centric approach.

"Calls for a hard border are not helpful."
Producers see losses increase to 26-28 per pig, estimates show
Emraan Bagged His First Film Because Of 'Inside Connection'

Emraan unapologetically confessed that it was his "inside connection" that landed him his first film Footpath (2003).

He Got A Break In Bollywood Because Of Nepotism

"Yes, nepotism exists in our industry, and I got a break because of it. If my uncle [Mahesh Bhatt], who is a producer and director hadn't been there, I wouldn't have been an actor."

'There Was No Dying Need For Me To Become An Actor'

"My case was different. There was no dying need for me to become an actor or be a part of this industry. My college had got over, and I stepped into films."

'It Would Be A Lot Easier For Ayaan To Become An Actor'

"I wouldn't push my seven-year-old son, Ayaan, now into Bollywood. But tomorrow, if he wants to become an actor, it will be a lot easier for him because his father is an actor and producer."

'The Industry Won't Let Him Start Afresh As An Outsider'

"The industry will try to box my son into an image that his father had and completely snatch away his individuality. They won't let him start afresh, like an outsider."

On The Film Front

Emraan Hashmi will be next seen in Milan Luthria's Baadshaho and his home production Captain Nawaab.
Don't Worry My Female Fans

In an interview to Hindustan Times, Prabhas said, "At present, my [female] fans don't need to worry.''

Recommended Video Baahubali 2 Actor Prabhas REVEALS about his MISS PERFECT | FilmiBeat

I Am Not Getting Married Now

"I'm not doing any such thing (getting married) now. I'm not even thinking about it.''

I Feel Lucky

"I feel lucky that so many people admire me."

When Rana Posted A Matrimony Ad For Prabhas

"Did [Rana] say I am getting married?" he said.

On His Link-Up Rumours With Anushka

The handsome actor said, ''Such stories are common.''

I Was Expecting That People Will Link Me With Anushka

"I was, in fact, expecting this. If you work with one [female] actor in more than two films, then people tend to start spreading such rumours.''

I Used To Feel Bad

It's normal for me now. Earlier, I used to feel bad and say, How could they write this?'

I Am Okay With It Now

''But now, such stories don't bother me. I am okay with them."

Excited For Saaho

Prabhas, who is shooting for Sujeeth's Saaho, also said that he is "very excited" to work in the film.
Here's a retirement planning tip: The point of saving and investing for retirement isn't necessarily to hit some magical number. Instead, it's to ensure that you'll have enough sustainable income for the rest of your life. While there's no one-size-fits all formula to determine how much income you'll need in retirement, here's how to get a good idea of your post-retirement income need, and how this can be incorporated into your retirement planning strategy.

The 80% rule is a good place to start

A widely used rule of thumb is that if you want to maintain the same quality of life after retirement, you should plan to need roughly 80% of your pre-retirement income. So, if you earn $50,000, you'll need $40,000 to keep up the same standard of living you enjoy now.

The idea here is that after you retire, there are certain expenses you won't have anymore. For example, you won't be setting aside a portion of your salary to save for retirement. And you may not have job-related expenses like putting gas in your car to commute every day. This is why they say you'll need 80%, not 100%, of your income.

Adjust the rule to fit your goals

Of course, not everyone wants to maintain the same lifestyle after retirement. Some people plan to travel the world after retirement, and will therefore need more money. Others plan to downsize their home and live a simple lifestyle, and could get by on a much lower budget. The point is that you should start with the 80% rule and adjust it accordingly.

Just to name a few, reasons you may need more than 80% of your pre-retirement income include:

You plan to travel more in retirement.

You want to pursue an expensive hobby, such as sailing.

You're retiring before age 65 and won't initially be eligible for Medicare, and will have to cover healthcare expenses.

On the other hand, reasons you may be able to get by on less than 80% of your pre-retirement income could be:

You pay certain bills now that you won't have to worry about in retirement. For example, if you'll have your home paid off before you retire.

You've always been a super-saver. In other words, if you save a high percentage of your income, you're probably using less than 80% of your income to pay for your lifestyle.

You plan on cutting back on expenses, downsizing your home, or otherwise planning to live a simpler lifestyle than you currently do.

How to use your income target

Using your income target, you can create a ballpark estimate of how much you'll need to save in order to create this level of income on a sustainable basis.

While you're doing this, keep in mind that your savings won't be your only source of income in retirement. Social Security, for example, should be taken into account, as should any pensions or annuities you expect to receive. In other words, if you determine that you'll need $60,000 per year in retirement, and expect to get $20,000 per year from Social Security plus another $15,000 from a pension, this means that just $25,000 will need to come from your savings.

Having said that, the "4% rule" of retirement is a good place to start. The basic idea is that you can realistically expect to withdraw 4% of your retirement savings during your first year of retirement, and give yourself cost-of-living increases in subsequent years, without having to worry about running out of money. To apply this rule, simply multiply your income need from savings by 25.

To be clear, the 4% rule isn't perfect. Just like the 80% rule for income, this can be adjusted up or down based on your risk tolerance. For example, a conservative investor may want to withdraw just 3% of their assets per year, while an aggressive investor with plenty of savings may feel comfortable withdrawing 5%.
Xiaomi opens third Mi Home Store in Bengaluru News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Third Mi Home store is now open in Bengaluru.

Back in May, Xiaomi opened India's first Mi Home Store in Bengaluru. During the launch of the Mi Max 2 in India, it was announced that they will launch two more Mi Home Stores in July itself.

As proposed, Xiaomi opened the second Mi Home Store at 1 MG Road Mall in Bengaluru on July 22. However, there was a delay in inaugurating the third store that was to happen on July 29. Today, after a week's delay, the company has opened the third Mi Home Store at Orion Mall, Brigade Gateway, Bangalore.

Xiaomi's India head Manu Kumar Jain has taken to Twitter to announce the opening of the third Mi Home Store in the country. He has posted a few photos of the inauguration of the store as well.

Similar to the other Mi Home Stores, this one at Orion Mall will also be an exclusive store of Xiaomi. At its store, the Mi fans can purchase the Mi and Redmi lineup of smartphones, headphones, fitness bands, power banks, VR headset, selfie sticks, etc. This store will sell all the Xiaomi products those are available in the country.

In addition to these three Mi Home Stores in Bengaluru, India will get more Mi Home Stores soon. Xiaomi has announced its plans to launch more such offline stores in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad in the coming months. Initially, they will start with Delhi and go to the other cities. Notably, Xiaomi is in plans to open 100 Mi Home Stores all over India in the next two years.

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Samsung flip phone SM-G9298 high-end flip phone vs other beat smartphones Features oi -Harish Kumar

There's n dearth of high-end feature packed smartphones in the market. Smartphone enthusiasts willing to spend a fortune can get the latest and most advanced processors, humongous RAM configurations, pixel-popping displays and top notch cameras that can even give some DSLRs a run for their money.

These handsets from big brands such as Apple, Sony, HTC, etc. are usually full screen devices that boast premium all-metal constructions.

However, we as consumers still can't get enough of the good old days of flip phones which were every bit of stylish. Those clamshell mobile phones have a retro feel that can give you a trip down to the memory lane anytime.

Top Samsung smartphones powered by Android Nougat to buy In India

Having said that, Samsung the veteran smartphone maker is once again back with some really cool high-end flip phones. These clamshell devices run Android OS, feature crisp displays and have capable camera hardware to take on any modern smartphone these days.

Here we have compared the Samsung's high-end flip phones to best smartphones available in the market. Read out to choose the best handset matching your requirement.

OnePlus 5 128GB Buy At Price of Rs 32,999

Key Features

5.5-inch (19201080 pixels) Full HD Optic AMOLED 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 display

2.45GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 64-bit 10nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 540 GPU

6GB LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB storage

8GB LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB (UFS 2.1) internal storage

Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) with Oxygen OS

Dual SIM (nano + nano)

16MP rear camera with dual LED Flash with secondary 20MP camera

16MP front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

3300mAh battery with Dash Charge (5V 4A) Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro Buy At Price of Rs 31,815

Key Features

6-inch (19201080 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED 2.5D curved glassdisplay

Octa Core Snapdragon 653 processor with Adreno 510 GPU

6GB RAM

64GB Internal Storage

expandable memory up to 256GB via micro SD card

Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow)

Dual SIM (nano + nano)

16MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, f/1.9 aperture

16MP front camera,f/1.9 aperture

4G LTE

4000mAh battery with fast charging Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus Buy At Price of Rs 64,900

Key Features

6.2 Inch QHD+ Super AMOLED Display

Octa Core Exynos 9/Snapdragon 835 Processor

4/6GB RAM With 64/128GB ROM

WiFi

NFC

Bluetooth

Dual SIM

Dual Pixel 12MP Rear Camera

8MP Front Camera

3500 MAh Battery Honor 8 Pro Buy At Price of Rs 29,999

Key Features

5.7-inch (2560 x 1440 pixels) Quad HD LTPS 2.5D curved glass display, 515 PPI, 94.5% NTSC Color Gamut

Octa-Core 4 x CortexA53 (1.8GHz) + 4 x ARTEMIS (2.4GHz) Kirin 960 processor with Mali G71 Octa-core GPU

6GB RAM

128GB internal storage storage

expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD

Android 7.0 (Nougat) with Emotion UI 5.1

Hybird Dual SIM (nano SIM + nano SIM / microSD)

12MP (Monochrome) + 12MP (RGB) Dual rear cameras, dual-tone LED flash, f/2.2 aperture, 4k video recording

8MP front-facing camera, f/2.0 aperture

Fingerprint sensor, Infrared sensor

Dimensions: 157 x 77.50 x 6.97mm; Weight: 184g

4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 LE, GPS, NFC, USB Type-C

4000mAh (typical) / 3900mAh (minimum) battery with fast charging OnePlus 3T Buy At Price of Rs 27,999

Key Features

5.5-inch (19201080 pixels) Full HD Optic AMOLED display with 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection

2.35GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 821 64-bit processor with Adreno 530 GPU

6GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB / 128GB (UFS 2.0) storage

Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) with Oxygen OS

Dual nano SIM slots

16-megapixel rear camera with LED flash

16MP front-facing camera with Samsung 3P8SP sensor

4G LTE with VoLTE

3400mAh battery with Dash Charge LG G6 Buy At Price of Rs 36,990

Key Features

5.7-inch (1440  2880 pixels) QHD+ LCD display with a 18:9 aspect ratio, 564 PPI

Quad-core Snapdragon 821 processor with Adreno 530 GPU

4GB LPDDR4 RAM

32GB / 64GB (UFS 2.0) internal memory

expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD

Android 7.0 (Nougat) with LG UX 6.0, Google Assistant

13MP dual rear cameras with dual-tone LED Flash, OIS 2.0 with secondary rear camera with 125-degree lens

5MP front camera with 100-degree wide-angle lens

Fingerprint sensor

4G LTE

3300mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Motorola Moto Z2 Play Buy At Price of Rs 27,999

Key Features

5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection

2.2GHz GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 626 processor with Adreno 506 GPU

4GB LPDDR3 RAM with 64GB storage / 3GB LPDDR3 RAM with 32GB storage

expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD

Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)

Single / Dual SIM

12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash

5MP front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

3000mAh battery with Turbo charging HTC U11 Buy At Price of Rs 59,500

Key Features

5.5-inch (1440 x 2560 pixels) Quad HD Super LCD 5 display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

2.45GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform with Adreno 540 GPU

6GB RAM

128GB storage

expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD

Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) with HTC Sense UI, HTC Edge Sense,HTC Sense Companion

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)

12MP HTC UltraPixel 3 rear camera

16MP front-facing camera with 1080p video recording

Water and dust resistant (IP67)

Fingerprint sensor

4G VoLTE

3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0

Best Mobiles in India
Exclusive: Panasonic to launch 11 smartphones in the next 2 months News oi -Priyanka Panasonic has sent out media invites for an event on 9th August.

With an aim to increase its market share in the smartphone market, Japanese technology firm, Panasonic is planning to launch 11 smartphones in next two months in India.

"We are going to launch 11 smartphones in next two months, five in August and six in September which is a big push from Panasonic as far as the mobile phone is concerned," Pankaj Rana, Business Head, Mobility Division, Panasonic India told Gizbot in an exclusive interview.

However, about launching a high-end smartphone in the market, Rana replied that " Before Diwali, we are planning to launch a new smartphone at a price of Rs. 20,000." He further added, "we are also expanding our distribution channel to tier II and tier III cities.

"Further when asked about revenue expectation and investment during this financial year he replied, "The company is eyeing Rs 2,000 crore as revenue this financial year on the back of new launches and will invest Rs 150 crore.

While Panasonic is aiming for greater things in the smartphone market, the company has sent out media invites for an event on 9th August which says that 'It's time the world knows there is so much to do'. In any cases the smartphone launches could happen at this scheduled event and date.

As for the latest smartphone the company has recently unveiled - the power packed P55 Max featuring a massive 5000mAh battery with fast charge support, metal design,Android 7.0 Nougat and 13MP camera with Quad LED flash for excellent low light photography.

Featuring a classy textured finish, the new Panasonic P55 Max further comes with a 5.5-inch HD IPS display for great readability and wider viewing angles. The smartphone is powered by a 1.25 GHz Quad core processor which is paired with 3GB RAM and 16GB internal memory. The storage is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card and the handset also gets an OTG support that enhance your storage options.

Moreover, the device comes with ZigPlay, a cool feature that keeps all your priorities at your fingertips with simple to use profiles. This feature also keeps you connected on the go at home, in the car, at work and anywhere you go. (To be received Over-the-air)

The new P55Max is integrated with a 5MP front camera. For connectivity, the device has a dual SIM - 3G/4G LTE configuration, direct Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

Best Mobiles in India
Lenovo K8 Note will come with a new Stock Android experience News oi -Samden Sherpa Lenovo K8 Note will be the first smartphone from the company that will deliver a stock Android experience with Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

If you use or have used a Motorola smartphone then the software that comes with provides a rather fluid and seamless experience. This has basically led to Motorola phones being popular in the market. And now it looks like Lenovo the company that owns the Moto brand is going on the same path.

Lenovo K8 Note First Impressions

A report from Gadgets 360 notes that the company has confirmed that it is doing away with its Vibe Pure UI skin which is currently the UI is most of its smartphones. The company will now be focusing on delivering a stock Android experience.

As such, Lenovo will be bringing a new UI experience with the upcoming K8 Note which will also be the first phone to ship with android 7.1.1 Nougat out-of-the-box.

While speaking to the publication, Anuj Sharma, Lenovo India's head of marketing for the mobile unit, said, "What we have done in last 11 months is we looked at what we had in terms of software perspective. We have been close to the consumers and we saw what they were asking for. There was a certain trend and we have now decided to cut the Vibe Pure UI off from our phones. So you will now get the stock Android which consumers have been asking for."

"There's no more Vibe UI going forward and we are moving to complete stock Android for all our future Lenovo phones. This is a huge transition for our business perspective."

Additionally, Sharma also pointed out the challenges in getting rid of its custom skin. He explained, "It was a lengthy process to get done. As Lenovo had to align all markets where it sold Android devices. The cultural differences that came in where for example in China Android isn't a very popular choice when you compare it to custom skins. But this was something for which Lenovo pushed really hard. For the Indian market, the preference was with stock Android experience."

However, Lenovo's move may prove beneficial for users who are looking to buy smartphones for the brand. The company will be adding few software enhancements for Dolby Atmos and TheaterMax, technologies which have been exclusive to Lenovo for some time now. Moreover, the interface and bloatware in the new phones will be replaced with stock Android experience.

Apart from that, having stock Android means that the new smartphones will be more efficiently updated to next Android version that is Android O. "It also makes it easier to support for an extended period of time," Sharma added.

Regarding the Android O update, the company has also announced that all smartphones launched in the 'K series' in 2017 will be updated to Android O. The exact timelines have not been shared though. In any case, the Lenovo K8 Note will be launched in India on August 9.

Best Mobiles in India

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LG Q6 India launch pegged for August 10; will be an Amazon exclusive News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu LG Q6 will be priced under Rs. 20,000.

LG announced the LG Q6, a downgraded variant of its flagship G6 in the last month. Following the launch of the smartphone, the company announced that it will release the LG Q6 in a number of global markets in the coming days.

Initially, the LG Q6 will be released in the company's home market, South Korea before entering other countries in Asia, Europe, the U.S. and Middle East. Now, there some information regarding the Indian availability of the LG Q6. The company has taken to Twitter to announce that the LG Q6 will be launched in India on August 10 as an Amazon exclusive. The teaser put up by LG India's Twitter handle shows that the smartphone will be priced at Rs. 1_,990.

Notably, priced below Rs. 20,000, the LG Q6 will feature a 5.5-inch FHD+ FullVision display with a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18:9. While the display is the USP of the smartphone, it is crafted using 7000 series aluminum with rounded corners making it more durable. At its heart, there lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 SoC paired with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage capacity.

The imaging aspects of the LG Q6 include a 13MP main camera snapper and a 5MP selfie shooter as well. Running on Android 7.1.1 Nougat, the LG smartphone is bundled with connectivity aspects such as Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, Wi-Fi, and 4G. The battery capacity of the LG Q6 is 3000mAh battery that should give a decent backup to the device.

Best Mobiles in India

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It has become easier to visit distant locations all over the world to embark on a thrilling adventure. Traveling alone is now becoming the trend for people who want to spend time away and unwind.

Though it can be fun, it is paramount to take every caution before you choose your next destinations. You should avoid some regions for security reasons as criminal activities have become rampant all over the world.

If you choose to pick a travel destination that sounds risky, it is important to take someone with you. Here are some of the dangerous cities you should never travel alone.

Caracas, Venezuela

In reference to The Economist, Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela is among the most dangerous cities in the world. In 2016, Caracas reported the highest number of murder cases in the world.

The city is currently facing a crisis involving criminal gangs that deal with drugs. Mugging and theft are some of the criminal activities being witnessed in broad daylight, making it an undesirable tourist destination.

Additionally, these crime rates are also high in other cities in Venezuela.

Mexico City, Mexico

The major problem in Mexico happens to be drug trafficking, and Mexico City is on record for criminal activities involving drug traffickers. Criminal gangs hire police officers and this means even reporting a criminal activity is irrelevant.

Robberies, kidnappings, and assaults are some of the most dreaded criminal activities in Mexico City. In fact, The U.S. Department of State has issued a travel warning into certain Mexico cities for safety reasons.

For instance, Juarez Valley displays burnt bodies across the street, splatters of blood against the walls, and very dangerous drug cartels at war.

New Delhi, India

New Delhi ranks among the most dangerous travel destination for lone travelers. The city is not only huge but also hosts a population of over 12 million people.

Pickpockets hang around busy areas such as markets, train, and bus stations, according to TripAdvisor. Men are advised to keep their wallets in front pockets while women should keep their purses close to their sides.

Detroit, Michigan

Despite a lot of effort to restore security, Detroit still ranks among the top dangerous travel destinations in the world. Common criminal activities include murders, break-ins, drugs, robberies, and sexual assaults.

In reference to mlive.com, the numbers of homicides are on the increase in the recent years.

Lima, Peru

Locals and tourists have been warned about the dangers of living or visiting Lima, Peru. Although measures have been deployed to make the city safer, it is not an ideal travel destination, especially for lone travelers.

Criminal activities are extensive in areas where tourists flock like the central plaza. Ensure you are in someones company when walking in the streets as it will be easier to spot common suspicious characters, such as pickpockets and fraudsters.

Memphis, Tennessee

Dont ever dare step in Memphis when you are alone. Memphis was in 2015 ranked by the FBI as the third most dangerous city in the United States.

The high criminal activities are blamed to its poverty rate, which stands at 28%. Arson, burglaries, motor vehicle theft, and larceny are typical in Memphis.

Cape Town, South Africa

The high crime rate in Cape Town is due to the prevalence of civil unrest and poverty. Although South Africa attracts any tourists from all over the world due to its natural beauty and preserve, Cape Town can be a dangerous destination.

You can enjoy a visit to the city, but it is crucial to avoid some areas or to walk alone at night.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Many Brazilian cities have high crime rates, and some are even worse than Rio de Janeiro. Given that Rio de Janeiro is the most popular travel destination in Brazil, criminals target unsuspecting lone travelers. Most criminal activities occur at night.

You can enjoy the amazing beaches and resorts, precaution should be your priority if traveling alone.

Guatemala City, Guatemala

This Central American nation has numerous tourist attractions, but the capital is plagued by drug violence.

Common criminal activities include murder, street robberies, carjacking, and bus holdups. If planning to visit Guatemala, keep off from Guatemala City and remain in safer regions.

See More: Where You Should Travel Each Month Of The Year?

Final Word

While it can be fun traveling alone, there are some precautions you should take if you are not sure about your safety. It can be embarrassing to go and get attacked while you were seeking solace from your usual residence.

Luckily, even in cities where criminal activities are rampant, there are places that are well secured. It is thus recommendable to engage your travel agency to guarantee your travel in these cities is safe.

However, there is no need of taking too much risk in visiting some cities.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

Inpost Image Credit: Shutterstock

Related Posts
Washington/New York, Aug 5 (IBNS): The United States has formally written to the United Nation about their decision to pull out of the Paris climate deal, though it said that it will continue to be involved in talks, reports said.

The US President Donald Trump announced his decision to pull out of the Paris Accord in June, much to other's chagrin.

Trump had termed the deal as biased and said that it will cost millions of American jobs.

"Today, the United States submitted a communication to the United Nations in its capacity as depositary for the Paris Agreement regarding the US intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as it is eligible to do so," the US statement read.

"The United States will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings... to protect US interests and ensure all future policy options remain open to the administration,' the statement added.

Trump had also urged the other members to make another deal, provided it gave US a fair chance, however it fell flat as others did not show enthusiasm.

Ever since the pullout, Trump has been surrounded by a cloud of tension in global meets, the latest of which was witnessed in the G20 Summit in Germany, a month ago.

A joint summit statement said that it "took note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement."

According to the Paris Climate Change, a key agenda is to limit the rise in temperature globally.

Countries except Syria and Nicaragua pledged to meet the points stated in the accord.
Image: download-wallpaper.net

Srinagar, Aug 5 (IBNS): At least three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore on early Saturday, police said.

"After receiving an input about the presence of some militants, police, army and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) laid cordon in Amargrah village of town," a police official said.

"During searches militants opened fire on forces, ensuing a fierce gunfight. The forces retaliated effectively, resulting in the death of three LeT militants," the official added.

The exact identity of the militants are being established while arms and ammunition have also been recovered from the slain militants, reports said.

During the encounter one police constable was injured.

He was moved to a hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, authorities have suspended cellular and mobile internet services in the town to stop any kind of incidents.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)




New Delhi, Aug 5 (IBNS): Dialogue is the only way to cut through deep rooted religious stereotypes and prejudices that divide communities across the world and sow seeds of conflict between nations and societies, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his message for the second edition of Samvad- Global Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness.

The meet is being held in Yangon over Saturday and Sunday.

The Vivekananda Kendra had, in September 2015, hosted the first edition of this conference in New Delhi, which was attended by participants from various religions and traditions, in New Delhi.

In a video message to the second edition of Samvad, the Prime Minister said that societies across the world are facing several questions today, such as how to avoid conflict, how to address a global challenge like climate change, etc.

He said that it is only natural that the search for answers be led by the humanitys longest traditions of thought, rooted in various religions, civilizations, and multiple streams of spirituality.

The Prime Minister said that he is a "product of the ancient Indian tradition that firmly believes in dialogue on difficult issues."

He said that the ancient Indian concept of Tarka Shastra is founded on dialogue and debate as the model for exchange of views and avoidance of conflict.

The Prime Minister said that if man does not nurture nature, then nature reacts in the form of climate change. Environmental laws and regulations, while essential in any modern society, afford only an inferior protection to nature, he added, calling for "harmonious environmental consciousness."

Man must relate to nature, man must revere nature, not merely consider it a resource to be exploited, the Prime Minister said.

"As the inter-connected and inter-dependent world of 21st century battles a number of global challenges, from terrorism to climate change, I am confident that the solutions will be found through Asias oldest traditions of dialogue and debate," the Prime Minister said.

Image: NarendraModi/Twitter
Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, Aug 5 (IBNS) : Four tourists from Spain and an Indian were killed when their mini bus collided head-on with a container in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district on Saturday morning, media reports said.

The deceased include a woman

The accident took place at Eedigapalle village of Punganur mandal.

According to reports, a group of eleven tourists from Spain, were on their way to Pondicherry from Puttaparthi. Around 9.00 a.m., they left Madanapalle after visiting a missionary hospital. Close to Punganur,

The Indian who died in the accident was the driver of the tourist vehicle.

. Four other Spanish nationals were rushed to a hospital in Madanapalle.

The container was seized and its driver taken into custody.
New Delhi, Aug 5 (IBNS): Assistant Returning Officer Mukul Pandey for the Vice President elections on Saturday said that 90.83 per cent voting took place till one pm, according to media reports.

According to the polling officer, 90.8% votes polled till 1 PM. 730 members out of 785 have cast their votes."

Voting began at 10am and will conclude a 5pm.

NDA backed Venkaiah Naidu and Opposition's joint candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi are in the fray for the Vice President election.

BJP veteran Naidu was the former Information and Broadcasting minister of the Modi government and also held various other portfolios.

Former Governor of West Bengal, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, was nominated by the 18 opposition parties as their candidate for the V-P poll.

Naidu is likely to become the next VP of the country as the BJP-led NDA dominates the share of electoral votes, according to reports.



Images: PMOIndia/Twitter and RSTV website
New Delhi, Aug 5 (IBNS) : Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the BJP and RSS were behind the attack on his car in Gujarat.

Jo apne aap kaam karta hai, wo condemn kaise karega, (How can one, who is involved himself, condemn?) he was quoted by the media as saying on being asked about the absence of any statement from the PM condemning the attack.

"It is a way of Modi jis and BJP-RSS politics, what can one say?" he also said.

Earlier, Gandhi had declared that he will not be deterred by the incident. Narendra Modi jis slogans, black flags and stones will not stop us. We will put in all our might into the service of people, he had said on Twitter.The Congress on Friday had alleged that BJP workers attacked party vice president RahulGandhi's car in Gujarat's Banaskantha area.

Rahul Gandhi is currently visiting Gujarat to meet flood-hit people in the state.

The Congress shared an image of Rahul Gandhi's car on Twitter.

The Congress said Rahul Gandhi was fine but his team members were injured in the attack.

Along with the picture, the party tweeted: "Congress VP Rahul Gandhi is fine but team members are injured. #BJPGoons try to harm us, but we will only emerge stronger!"

Congress leaders reacted strongly to the attack, with former PM Manmohan Singhsaying, Political violence has no place in a functioning democracy.
Image: twitter.com/SoniaGOfficial

New Delhi, Aug 5 (IBNS): Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday wished M. Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the vice president of the nation.

The Congress tweeted: "Congress President Smt Sonia Gandhi congratulates @MVenkaiahNaidu on his election as Vice-President."

Congress President Smt Sonia Gandhi congratulates @MVenkaiahNaidu on his election as Vice-President  Congress (@INCIndia) August 5, 2017

M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday was elected as the new Vice President of India, beating his rival Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

After being elected as the Vice President, Naidu said he promised to uphold the Constitution and the high standards.

Thanking all lawmakers, who supported him, Naidu said: "With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines."

With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

He tweeted : "I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors."

I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed

predecessors.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

Naidu said he was honoured to become the Vice President of the nation.

"It's an honour for me to become Vice President from a family of an ordinary farmer.This Speaks for the beauty & strength of our democracy," Naidu tweeted.
Image: twitter.com/MamataOfficial

Kolkata, Aug 5 (IBNS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday congratulated M. Venkaiah Naidu on being elected as the Vice President of India.

"Congratulations to Venkaiah Naidu Ji, who will be our next Vice President. We wish him well," Banerjee tweeted.

Congratulations to Venkaiah Naidu Ji, who will be our next Vice President. We wish him well  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 5, 2017

Mamata Banerjee said opposition leader Gopal Krishna Gandhi fought this election with dignity for certain ideals.

"In the tradition of our democracy, Gopal Krishna Gandhi Ji fought this election with dignity for certain ideals," she said.

In the tradition of our democracy, Gopal Krishna Gandhi Ji fought this election with dignity for certain ideals 1/2  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 5, 2017

"We will continue to believe in these ideals and take them forward," she said.

We will continue to believe in these ideals and take them forward 2/2  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 5, 2017

M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday was elected as the new Vice President of India, beating his rival Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

After being elected as the Vice President, Naidu said he promised to uphold the Constitution and the high standards.

Thanking all lawmakers, who supported him, Naidu said: "With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines."

With all humility, I express my gratitude to every MP who supported my candidature cutting across party lines.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

He tweeted : "I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed predecessors."

I promise to uphold the Constitution and the high standards set by my esteemed

predecessors.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) August 5, 2017

Naidu said he was honoured to become the Vice President of the nation.

"It's an honour for me to become Vice President from a family of an ordinary farmer.This Speaks for the beauty & strength of our democracy," Naidu tweeted.
Srinagar, Aug 5 (IBNS): Militants injured a CRPF trooper after they fired on road opening party of paramilitary forces at Naugam area in outskirts of Srinagar city of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday evening.

According to official, militants fired upon the patrol of 23 battalion CRPF, injuring a Head Constable.

The injured person has been hospitalised.

Soon after the incident, reinforcement were rushed towards the area.

Meanwhile, militant organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility for the attack.

(Reporting by Saleem Qadri)
New York, Aug 5(Just Earth News): A number of adisillusioned and disappointeda foreign terrorist fighters left Syria and returned to their countries of origin when they found these groups hardly make good on their promises, except promise of death and destruction, according to a report issued by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT).

The report, released Thursday, is the product of direct interviews with 43 fighters from 12 nationalities in seven countries.

The authors believe that despite some shortcomings  such as the small sample size  the survey remains a useful tool for Member States that wish to get to grips with the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters, develop their capacities to deal with it, and design more effective policies and programmes to stem the flow and facilitate the effective reintegration of returnees.

This study calls for action at the national, regional, and international level based on a comprehensive and balanced approach that puts more emphasis on prevention than has been common until now.

Warning against sweeping generalizations as there is no single profile for foreign terrorist fighters, the report's findings confirm the results of other similar studies, while other findings suggest that different samples will draw different conclusions.

The report did find that while foreign fighters are most likely to be male, young and disadvantaged economically, educationally, and in terms of the labour market, evidence suggests that the flow of women, especially from Western countries has increased since early 2016, while the flow of men has declined.

Most of those interviewed in this survey are neither well educated nor well off economically. This perhaps contradicts other findings in the literature, which often conclude that foreign terrorist fighters are both better educated and better off economically than their peers.

About half of the interviewees in this sample were already married by the time they went to Syria, with or without children of their own, and a significant percentage come from large families, often where there was a history of domestic violence, single parenthood or other family proble

Most of them also come from communities in poor urban areas or on the periphery of cities that are somewhat removed from the main centres of commercial activity. In these areas, youth share similarly low educational levels, poor job prospects, little hope for change, and limited opportunity for social or economic mobility.

This survey also suggests that friendship circles and social networks are the most dynamic and powerful mechanism through which recruitment occurs, with the Internet playing a far less significant role as an independent source of radicalisation than is generally assumed, and certainly a far less significant role than real life contact.

Bad governance, especially disregard for the rule of law, discriminatory social policies, political exclusion of certain communities, inadequate courts, corruption, particularly in the distribution of state benefits, harassment by the security authorities, and confiscation of passports or other identity documents, all contribute to feelings of despair, resentment, and animosity towards the government and provide fertile ground for the terrorist recruiter, especially when the vision of a new life is presented as almost effortlessly attainable.

In addition to these push factors, there are also pull factors, most notably the empathy felt by would-be foreign terrorist fighters towards a perceived in-group suffering from violence and aggression in a conflict zone.

Such suffering resonates well with the personal experience of some marginalized and disadvantaged youth.

The report says that the armed groups in Syria ultimately provide no positive outcomes to the youth they recruit. They hardly deliver on any of their promises, except the promise of death and destruction, both for its recruits and for the Muslim communities it claims to defend.

It is this failure to deliver, coupled with its extreme, violent ideology and brutal tactics, its in-fighting and the corruption of some of its leaders, that, according to this survey, most often gives rise to the disappointment and sense of disenfranchisement and exclusion that leads foreign terrorist fighters to defect, the report says.

While social networks play a key role in motivating individuals to go to Syria, their influence on the decision to return is less evident. Instead, it is the family network, particularly mothers, that exert the most influential pressure on foreign terrorist fighters to return home, though only once their disillusionment and disappointment has begun to kick in.

While the risk presented by returning foreign terrorist fighters is a real one, it should not be exaggerated. A practical, effective and proportionate response should start from a sound understanding of the root causes of the problem, the report says.

Photo: UNHCR/Bassam Diab

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Ankara, Aug 5 (IBNS) : Five people were killed and 36 wounded in a bus accident in Turkey's northern Amasya province on Saturday.

Local news reports said the bus driver and three passengers died when the accident happened. Another passenger died in the ambulance while being transferred to the hospital.

According to reports, while the bus wasn't traveling at a high speed, the bus driver lost control and the vehicle overturned, tumbling down a small hill.

An investigation into the accident has been launched.
New York, Aug 5(Just Earth News): United Nations Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres on Saturday received a notification from the delegation of the United States expressing the country's intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change as soon as it is eligible to do so, his spokesman has confirmed.

The notification came two months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the accord.

As the Secretary-General said in a statement on 1 June 2017, the decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security, said UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a note sent tonight to correspondents.

Under article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a Party may withdraw at any time after three years from the date on which the Agreement has entered into force for that Party, and such withdrawal takes effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the Depositary of the notification of withdrawal. The United States accepted the Paris Agreement on 3 September 2016 and the Agreement entered into force for the United States on 4 November 2016.This means that the US must stay in the pact until at least 2019.

The communication says the US intends to exercise its right to withdraw, unless it identifies suitable terms for reengagement.

The Secretary General welcomes any effort to reengage in the Paris Agreement by the United States, Dujarric said.

It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on climate and sustainable development. Climate change is impacting now. He looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build the sustainable future for our children and future generations, he added.

The Spokesman said that the Secretary-General is the depositary of the Agreement, and will circulate the text of this communication as a notification, in English and French, early next week.

UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Kabul, Aug 5 (IBNS) : At least five members of a family, including four children- all belonging to one family- were killed in Taliban attack in central Logar province of Afghanistan.

Local Khaama Press quoted Government officials as saying that the incident took place late on Thursday night in the vicinity of Alwazi area in the provincial of Pul-e-Alam.

The officials further added that the insurgents launched an attack on the Afghan security forces and some of the bullets landed inside a residential house, leaving at least five of a family dead.

At least four of those killed in the attack were children, the officials said, adding that the remaining bullets landed in a mosque which partially damaged the building of the mosque.

The anti-Government armed militant groups including the Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.
Ottawa, Aug 6 (IBNS): New Zealand firefighters have extended their helping hands to Canada with an aim to combat the ongoing wildfire in British Columbia.

New Zealand firefighters' support came at a time when around 4000 Canadian firefighters are working to get the situation under control.

On August 3, Fire and Emergency New Zealand took to Twitter to announce their plan of combating the wildfire. "New Zealand firefighters to help combat Canadian wildfires."

On July 7, the disaster occurred when lightening storm made the fire spread rapidly in the Interior of B.C. An emergency was called immediately after the wildfire.

It continued to grow forcing local people to flee from their homes.

A media report on July 28 suggested around 10000 people were forced to go out of Williams Lake, the largest city in the Central Interior of British Columbia, which was under a high alert.

This year's wildfire has now become the worst since 1958, Global News said.

The record of wildfires are kept since 1950.

In 1958, 8560 sq. kms were burnt due to the wildfire contrary to 4910 in 2017, the latter recording much lesser than the former.

Still, 2017 wildfire is considered to be dreadful as statistically it is the worst in last 59 years.

Meanwhile, the ongoing provincial state of emergency has been extended till August 18.

Images: Twitter handle of New Zealand Firefighters, official site of Public Safety Canada (Government of Canada).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAUGUST 5, 2017 PRESS CONFERENCE AT SANTA CLARA CITY HALL FOR JESUS A. GENEYTo: MediaFrom: Justice for Jesus A. GeneyDate: Saturday, August 5, 2017 at NOONLocation: 1500 Warburton Ave., Santa Clara, CAFamily and community groups continue to demand answers in the death of Jesus A. Geney who, although unarmed and naked, was shot and killed by Santa Clara Police.The Family will be holding a press conference with their attorneys at Santa Clara City Hall to announce their investigation and federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Santa ClaraThe family of Jesus A. Geney is organizing a press conference on Saturday, August 5, 2017 beginning at Noon to demand action from the City of Santa Clara and the Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office. The rally will take place at the Santa Clara City Hall located at 1500 Warburton Ave., Santa Clara, CA.On March 9, 2017, at approximately 5:00 PM, Jesus A. Geney was shot and killed by Officer Collin Stewart of the Santa Clara Police Department. When Mr. Geney was shot, he was wearing only swim trunks (no shirt, no shoes), and was unarmed. Santa Clara Police had been called to Mr. Geneys residence several times that day, beginning at approximately 9:00 AM because his parents were concerned for his mental well-being and safety.Despite the Police Department knowing that Mr. Geney was suffering from a psychiatric episode, at no point were paramedics, social workers or other healthcare professionals called in to assist. And at no point did the police attempt to place Mr. Geney in a psychiatric hold.Instead, the police left Mr. Geney at his residence and, when Mr. Geney, who was in an altered mental state, ran away from his house, he was cornered by police and eventually shot. Mr. Geney was unarmed at the time and essentially naked.Family and community members continue to demand answers as why this senseless death had to occur and why the police and city failed to take other steps to assist Mr. Geney and his family.The family will discuss their investigation and federal civil rights lawsuit on Saturday.This community effort is organized and supported by Justice for Jesus A. Geney; Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy (CCRA); Idriss Stelley Foundation; Stockton's Mobile Response Team (Justice for James Earl Rivera Jr. and Justice for Colby Friday); Justice for Asa Sullivan; Justice for James Nate Greer; Alex Nieto Coalition; Justice for Kayla Moore; and Justice for Derrick Gaines.For more information please contact: CCRA: ccra [at] mitotedigital.org ###
Hiroshima Day Gathering: Commemorate Hiroshima Day at Peace Crossroads

Date:

Sunday, August 06, 2017

Time:

11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Event Type:

Vigil/Ritual

Organizer/Author:

WILPF

Location Details:

crossroads/intersection of Stevens Creek Blvd. & Winchester Blvd., San Jose, CA

To remember Hiroshima, gather with your signs of peace at Peace Crossroads where we will remind those driving by that 72 years ago, the first nuclear weapon of war was dropped on innocent civilians in Hiroshima.



Bring your peace umbrellas.



Depending on the mood, the Raging Grannies will sing, or not.



This event is sponsored by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (August 5)

A Myanmar migrant worker with thanaka paste on her face is seen at a wholesale market for shrimp and other seafood in Mahachai, in Samut Sakhon province, Thailand, July 4, 2017. / Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters

Philippines Firm Eyes Myanmar

A Philippines-based rice research firm is considering expanding operations to Myanmar and India, ABS-CBN in Manila reported.

The firm could invest up to US$3 million in Myanmar, Chairman Henry Lim said.

The company plans to produce seeds for sale to farmers, and then to sub-contract farmers to produce rice including the companys own brand, Dona Maria.

Last month, SL-Agritech signed a collaboration agreement with Bangladesh firm EnP Solutions for the seed production of a high-yielding rice hybrid which can withstand both dry and wet climates.

Lat War Group in Health Deal

The Lat War Group in Myanmar has joined with Singapore-based Asian American Medical Group (AAMG) to explore healthcare opportunities, the Edgemarkets reported.

The deal is with Lat Wars subsidiary, Golden Land United Health Group Company.

Lat War is mainly involved in garments, textiles, paper manufacturing, power generation and real estate.

It has extensive business networks in Myanmar and a proven track record, AAMG chairman Dr. Tan Kai Chah said.

Golden Land managing director Dr. Khin Maung Aye said, While Lat War is new to healthcare, we are experienced in doing business in Myanmar. Backed by the track record and international network of Dr. Tan and his team, I am confident we will make rapid inroads into this exciting sector.

AAMG specializes in liver treatment and oncology and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. It will take a 51 percent stake in the joint-venture Gold Bell Healthcare Ventures Company Ltd, with Golden Land holding the remaining 49 percent.

Yoma Sees Profits Up

Singapore-listed Yoma Strategic Holdings saw a sharp rise in net profits this year over the previous year, according to a company report.

Better operational performance across all its businesses helped revenues group year on year by more than 46 percent from $17.6 million to $25.8 million.

Its consumer business, including KFC outlets, were up 42.1 percent in revenues and the automotive and heavy equipment business rose by 61 percent, it was reported. The real estate business was also up.

Thais to Probe Shan State Opportunities

Shan State officials will receive a delegation from Thailands Foreign Trade Department on a five-day mission starting Monday in an attempt to boost border trade, the Bangkok Post reported.

The goal is to expand border trade by five percent this year, said deputy director-general Adul Chotinisakorn. Opportunities in Shan State are primarily in hotels and tourism, restaurants, agro-industries, electricity and livestock, he said.

Thai companies who will join the trip include the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc, the Port Authority of Thailand and Amata Corporation Plc.

Thanaka Products Make Inroads in Thailand

Traditional Myanmar thanaka (a fragrant paste traditionally used in Myanmar for cosmetic and medicinal purposes) is finding new markets in Thailand, according to Asia Nikkei.

British Dispensary, a Thai personal care products manufacturer, introduced a cooling body powder that contains thanaka to the Thai market earlier this year. The product marketed under its Snake Brand line is billed as a way to cool the body before going to bed or after a shower.

Thanaka used directly on the face also has potential in Thailand, according to the companys president Anuruth Vongjanij. People might initially find it weird to put a powder on their face, but I think it could be a new fashion trend from Thailand.

British Dispensary spent more than $5 million marketing thanaka on social media, according to the report.

Another Thai company, Everyday Happy, has introduced a thanaka skincare line that includes soap, foundation and body powder. Sales of De Leaf Thanaka products have been doubling every year since 2014, according to the report.

Myanmar Squashes Trade Zone on India Border

Myanmar will not yet set up a trading zone on its border with India at Tamu due to slow trade in the area and poor immediate potential, it was reported last week.

Deputy Commerce Minister Mr U Aung Htoo told parliamentarians that the Tamu trading point has been open since 1995 but trade value has been low.

A series of joint committee meetings between Myanmar and India was held last week with a view to improving bilateral trade and border trade. There were also discussions on opening a trade zone in Chin State.

According to official statistics, Myanmar-India bilateral trade amounted to $1.743 billion in the fiscal year 2016  2017.

New Hotel to Open by Inya Lake

A 15-story hotel and apartment complex overlooking Yangons Inya Lake is due to open at the start of September, Hotel Lotte of South Korea announced.

The Hotel Lotte Yangon will have 343 guest rooms, all with a view of the lake, and facilities will include a large banquet hall and a swimming pool overlooking the lake.

The 29-story apartment block will have 315 units and facilities will include a childrens playroom. Apartment sizes range from 62 to 339 square meters.
Dateline Housemaids Need Protection of Law

The Irrawaddy

May Sitt Paing: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss the growing problem of abuse of young housemaids in Myanmar and legal protection for them. There have been a few high-profile cases over the past year including the abuse of young housemaids at Ava tailoring shop, and another case in [Yangons] Dagon Seikkan Township, which have not yet been settled. U Nyi Nyi, lawmaker in Yangon regional parliament representing South Dagon Township and Daw Hla Hla Yi, director of Legal Clinic Myanmar, join me to discuss laws and legislation for the legal protection of housemaids.

The issue of housemaid abuse is under the spotlight. U Nyi Nyi, you are currently acting for 13-year-old housemaid Ma Khaing Hnin Wai of Dagon Seikkan Township. How is the progress in the prosecution of her employer?

Nyi Nyi: She is 13 years old and was working as a housemaid in Dagon Seikkan Township. Her employers [a married couple] have been released on bail. The case was reported to me last month only after local residents were not happy with the charge of causing minor injury. She was pressed with a hot iron on many parts of her body, and locals were not happy with the charge of causing minor hurt. As far as Im aware, her employers have been released on bail. The [Yangon Region] parliamentary committee on social affairs is coordinating with concerned authorities and locals to bring justice for the girl.

MSP: Firstly, the couple was charged with causing grievous injury. And then the charge was altered to minor injury. So, U Nyi Nyi, what do you think of the actions of the police force?

NN: As far as I know, police accepted the case under the charge of causing grievous hurt. But, after they submitted the interrogation and medical reports to the township law officer, when the case was brought before the court, the charge had been changed to causing minor hurt. As I am not a legal expert, I am not clear on the reasons behind the downgrading of the charge. But from the point of view of ordinary citizens, she is just 13we must take her age into considerationshe was pressed with hot iron on various parts of her body, and was also hit in her face. The parliamentary social affairs committee made a field trip to Dagon Seikkan Township on Friday, and met the responsible persons. According to the medical superintendent [of the township hospital], they found 10 serious injuries on her, but only reported nine of them in the medical report. He said the hospital had had to wait and see if that injury would leave a scar. According to the updated medical report, she got injured in her face, which spoils the beauty of a girl, and the medical superintendent suggested that the assault was deliberate. The medical superintendent said the updated medical report has been submitted [to the police]. And the township judge also told us that the charge may change again depending on the results of the medical report.

MSP: The issue of the abuse of housemaids had come under the spotlight with the reported abuse of a young housemaid by the wife of a township judge in Bago over the past years. Then, the Ava tailoring factory case is a high-profile one. And in the last one, a young housemaid working at the house of a retired [Myanmar Army] lieutenant-colonel had got her teeth knocked out. The problem between housemaids and their employers is growing. What is your advice from the legal point of view to help solve this problem?

Hla Hla Yi: Firstly, a law is necessary to protect them. Sadly, there have been many reported cases of abuse of young housemaids lately. Such cases are prosecuted under the Penal Code, and the charge may vary depending on the severity of the injuries. Domestic workers are different from other employees in terms of the job nature. Other employees have fixed working hours, and they dont have to work the whole day and sleep at the workplace. This different job nature poses risks to young and adult housemaids. Assessing the cases reported to our office, we found that they are either sexually or physically abusedto name a few serious things, for instance, pressing with an iron and hitting knuckles. They are also suffering from emotional abuse. So, the general laws covering general laborers are not enough for them. There is a need for the enactment of a specific law for them. Because their job involves greater risks than other employees, and young housemaids are at greater risk in particular. So there is a need for the announcement of a law dedicated to domestic workers. In our country, many dont understand and therefore have no respect for human rights, and labor rights. So, domestic workers are forced into work in conditions akin to modern slaverymany of the cases we have seen and heard today. To prevent these, a dedicated law is necessary. But so far, there is still no such law. On the other hand, house owners also complain about bad domestic workers. I dont deny that there are bad domestic workers. Some domestic workers are immoral and give trouble to house owners. We have also heard about such cases. There is a need for contracts to be signed between house owners and domestic workers. Only then, will we be able to curb the problems facing domestic workers to a certain extent.

MSP: Many legal experts have called for the announcement of a law regarding domestic service. But have you ever made your voices heard by the concerned ministries? What actions are you taking?

HHY: Yes, weve called for enacting laws to protect the rights of housemaids. But for the time being, we havent yet made an official request to the concerned ministries to enact such laws. But then, we have discussed enshrining provisions that protect women against sexual abuse at the workplace in the draft law on the prevention and protection of violence against women.

MSP: Young housemaids are exploited by house owners. They have no fixed working hours. And they are also subject to sexual and physical abuse. Legal experts have called for enacting legislation to give protection for them. As a lawmaker, what is your advice for the adoption of such law in Parliament? What steps are lawmakers taking?

NN: It directly concerns the Parliament at the Union level. Such a law shouldnt be applied to cover Yangon Region only. There is an urgent need for lawmakers of both houses to discuss laws covering the terms of agreement between housemaids and house owners, the protection of housemaids and the regulations for housemaids. If there are right laws, and when there is momentum in their enforcement, domestic workers will have legal cover.

MSP: Besides the enactment of laws, raising the awareness of both house owners and domestic workers is also important. Ma Hla Hla Yi, what is your view?

HHY: There are two parts. Some employers know that hurting their housemaid is a crime, but they do it deliberately with the knowledge that housemaids are too weak to file a complaint and seek legal protection. And some employers do not know it is a crime. So, it is important to raise legal awareness of each and every citizen. But our capability to do so is limited. I think state media can play a role here to raise the awareness, warning them about the criminality of physical and sexual abuse of housemaids, because civil society organizations have limited resources to do so. Id like to suggest that the government should raise awareness through television channels. Again, housemaids in our country are forced by limited job opportunities and poverty into this job, but not because of their own choice. It is therefore very difficult for them to file complaints and seek legal protection and justice. So even if a law wont be enacted immediately, the government should at least adopt policies urgently detailing the rights of domestic workers as well as obligations of house owners and domestic workers.

MSP: What are your recommendations for public awareness of this issue?

NN: Prevention is better than cure. Now is the opportune time to take actions. In fact, we could have taken actions earlier. But it is not too late if we are committed to solving this issue. [Awareness-raising] pamphlets should be distributed in affluent and middle-class neighborhoods. The [number of] abuse cases have slightly decreased because of extensive coverage of the issue in media. Many more cases would have been exposed if those children knew how to file complaints. Ive also heard that the potential [number of] abuse cases have been deterred by media reporting. More potential cases can be reduced by awareness-raising campaigns; for example, the social affairs ministry can erect billboards detailing the prison terms for sexual and physical abuse of young housemaids. This will largely reduce potential cases, I would say.

MSP: Thank you for your contributions!
From the Archive What We Were Fighting For

Burmese protesters in Rangoon in August 1988. / Richard Rothhaas / Reuters

This month marks the 29th anniversary of the nationwide protests in 1988 that launched Myanmars pro-democracy movement. In this commentary originally published in 2013, The Irrawaddys Aung Zaw reflects on his own participation in the movement, and reconciling the reality of the present with the events of the past.

It was 25 years ago that students led a massive uprising against military rule in Myanmaran event that has shaped an entire generation and affected virtually every person in the country. After 26 years of disastrous decline under the regime of Gen Ne Win, the people of Myanmar had had enough. Little did they know then, when victory had seemed so near, that it would be nearly the same number of years again before they would finally begin to see the end of the long, dark night of oppression.

As a student at that time, I can clearly remember the exhilaration of knowing that the entire nation was behind us, that we could not possibly lose. But we were wrong. Though people came out into the streets in their millions all over the country, the military would not stand down. Too accustomed to holding power, and believing that only they could lead the way out of the crisis that they had created, the generals gave the order: shoot, shoot to kill.

And so thousands of young lives were mown down, and with them, the hopes of an entire nation. Some fled to the jungle to take up arms or seek allies abroad, while others went underground to defy the new regime from within. For more than two decades, an undeclared war continued to ragea war on students, on the very people who had refused to lose faith in their countrys future.

They knocked on doors in the middle of the night: the military intelligence agents who didnt care about the sobbing parents as they dragged their children away with hoods over their heads. They tortured and imprisoned any who dared to speak out against the regime. And when they couldnt throw everyone who opposed them behind bars, the generals locked the gates to the universities, knowing they were breeding grounds for dangerous ideas, such as democracy and human rights.

Of course, students were not the only victims of the violence, which also targeted ethnic minorities and opposition politicians and affected everybody from poor farmers to rich businesspeople who fell afoul of the all-powerful generals. But it was students who were treated with the greatest distrust, because the weapons they wielded were their own minds, which refused to be yield to force.

Later, the junta refined its strategy for dealing with students: while keeping most campuses closed, it created new ones, banishing students to the distant outskirts of cities. Thus the prisons, home to some of Myanmars best minds, became in some ways the countrys most important centers of learning, while the universities, deprived of decent facilities and properly qualified instructors, became little more than holding centers for a dispossessed generation.

Now all of this has changed, or so we would like to believe. Students are no longer vilified in the state-run press, and most of Myanmars political prisoners have been freed. Some of the 88 activists are now politicians, media people or artists, all determined in their own way to keep their struggle for democracy alive. Those forced to flee have begun to return, looking for ways to help rebuild the country they never really left behind.

There is some hope in the air in Myanmar today, but it is nothing like that of 1988. Then, it was possible to believe that the country could easily return to the days when, before the coup of 1962, it was seen as the most promising in the region. Now, there is half a century of rubble to remove before rebuilding can even begin.

But perhaps it isnt necessary to clear away every remnant of the recent past, as we tried to do in 1988. Perhaps as we reclaim the space that was taken away from us and learn again how to speak openly, without fear of our overlords, we can, in the process, dismantle the legacy of military rule.

Does anybody really believe that the former generals who now rule Myanmar understand the meaning of democracy? Probably not. But perhaps it doesnt really matter, as long as we are all determined to make what use we can of the little freedom we now have to create a nation based on respect for the rights of its people, rather than on dread of its despotic rulers.

This does not mean that we can forget the past, especially when its effects are still very much with us. Those who sacrificed their lives must be remembered, not only by their loved ones, but by the nation as a whole. But this can only happen in a country with real leadership. Until Myanmar has leaders who can acknowledge the past, the road to a better future will be strewn with obstacles.

These days, the way forward looks particularly daunting. Despite numerous ceasefires, conflicts in the countrys north remain unresolved because of the current governments refusal to accommodate the desire of ethnic minorities for greater self-determination. Meanwhile, religious riotsevidently backed by some still in power todayare hurting the countrys efforts to rejoin the international community after decades of isolation.

Myanmar wont be able to recover from its long years of abuse at the hands of its rulers on its own. It would truly be a tragedyand a betrayal of the spirit of 1988if agents of hatred and intolerance succeeded in robbing the people of Myanmar of the respect they have earned in the eyes of the world for their tireless struggle for democracy. Only by continuing to resist the forces of ignorance and brutality will we be able to win the war on students, and on the minds of all Myanmar citizens.

This story first appeared in the August 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.
From the Archive We Can Bring about BothJustice and Reconciliation

Min Ko Naing, a leader of the 1988 uprising against military rule, explains what hes doing to push for national reconciliation.

This month marks the 29th anniversary of the nationwide protests in 1988 that launched Myanmars pro-democracy movement. As one of the most prominent leaders of that uprising against military rule, Min Ko Naing was forced to spend most of the next two and a half decades in prison.

Released in early 2012 along with many other fellow political prisoners, he has since returned to public life as a founding member of the 88 Generation Peace & Open Society, a group dedicated to restoring democracy and human rights in Myanmar. The Irrawaddy interviewed him in 2013 on Myanmars struggle for independence.

Min Ko Naing is a nom de guerre meaning Conqueror of Kings, and it has become synonymous with the determination of the people of Myanmar to end unjust and autocratic rule. But these days Min Ko Naing is also actively seeking national reconciliation, even as he continues to push for accountability for human rights abuses committed in the country. However, as he says in this interview with The Irrawaddys Kyaw Zwa Moe, his quest to uncover the truth about the past is not about seeking revenge.

Min Ko Naing has won numerous international awards for his activism. These include the 2009 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights; the 2005 Civil Courage Prize; the 2001 Student Peace Prize; the 2000 Homo Homini Award of People In Need; and the 1999 John Humphrey Freedom Award. His most recent honor was an award from the US National Endowment for Democracy, which he received in 2012.

Twenty-five years after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, what do you think the movement has achieved so far?

Certainly, they [the authorities] now have to shout louder than we do about democracy. Whether they are really practicing it or not is another matter. The situation today is that they now have to admit that the banner of democracy that we raised is righteous and noble. Here, I think we need to examine what kind of political reform is taking place in this countryis it for all of the people, or just for a group of people? The important question is: who is this current change for?

Back in 1988, many democracy activists, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, called the pro-democracy movement the countrys second struggle for independence. Is it still the same struggle today?

Unlike the past, the other side is no longer denying democracy. But things are not moving smoothly, so we still have to struggle. Sometimes, we have to compete with them and sometimes we have to negotiate with them. After all, it is still a struggle.

It will be very difficult to achieve reconciliation in Myanmar without compromising on the issue of justice. How will the 88 Generation Peace & Open Society seek justice for those who have suffered for their role in the struggle?

I think we can bring about bothjustice and reconciliation. Of course, it is essential to reveal the truth. We can learn lessons from the past only if we uncover the truth. But this doesnt mean seeking revenge. So first we have to disclose the truth, and then we have to take responsibility together to ensure that injustices dont happen again.

These days, we can see many media reports about human rights violations in the past. So far, I havent seen any actions taken by the authorities against those publications. I think its all part of disclosing the truth, although we still cant pursue it as a nationwide mission.

Your group has decided to make peace and reconciliation the theme of its commemoration of the 1988 uprising. Why did you choose that topic?

Peace and reconciliation are essential if we want to move forward. At the same time, however, we will also organize exhibitions about what happened in the past, to continue to disclose the truth.

Myanmars opposition groups always had trouble dealing with the political games of the former regime, and they are still lagging behind the current government in terms of strategy. Why are the opposition groups so weak at formulating and following strategies?

I dont see politics as a game. Eventually, politics [in Myanmar] will become a game in which there are players. But right now we are freedom fighters, not players in a political game. I dont know the rules of that game. Dhamma [justice] will prevail over Adhamma [injustice] in the end. But it also depends on our might and unity. Unity is not a problem in a dictatorship because it is always a top-down system. But in a democracy, everybody is allowed to be different. That is the nature of democracy.

The people of Myanmar are looking to the 88 Generation for leadership at this critical time. What is the political agenda of the group?

I dont want people to depend on an individual person or group. I think we need collaborative leadership. We are now trying to empower civil society, which is different from forming political parties. I think the civil society groups are getting stronger and stronger. What we are doing today is building a network. You cant see a single tree standing out in a field. Our work is horizontal, not vertical.

Will you form a political party to contest the 2015 national election?

Personally, I have no plan to form a political party. But in our group, there are some who are keen to do so and capable of making it work, so they might form a party at some point. I understand why they want to do it, but as for me, I dont have any enthusiasm or aptitude for it.

Let me say a few words about party politics and peoples politics. Those two ideologies always divide us into two groups. Look at Bogyoke Aung San: He formed a party, but he wasnt really doing party politics. Instead, he engaged in peoples politics for the good of the whole nation.

I wont form a political party, but I will keep working at the grassroots level. Look at people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. We dont criticize them for not taking part in party politics. Their work was hugely influential. So I dont think that that forming a political party and running in an election is the only way to achieve things in politics.

How do you propose to change the current political situation in Myanmar, in which former military leaders still dominate in both the government and the Parliament?

It would be best if power was in hands of the people. To reach our goal, I am more interested in influence than power. After 50 years of being ruled with an iron fist, our people tend to think of power as something used to oppress them. It was power that intimidated and enslaved them. The way governments took or seized power wasnt right, either. Thats why I want to apply influence rather than power. By building influence, we will be able to put power into hands of the people.

What is the difference between the struggle you started in 1988 and the challenges you face today?

In the past, our struggle faced total denial and a closed door. So we had to put all our energy into opening that door. Now the door is open and weve received promises [from the authorities] that they will walk together with us on this road [to political reform]. We have to admit that we now enjoy more freedom. The media, for example, is much freer than before. We couldnt even dream of such freedom in the past. These are changes we cant deny, but that doesnt mean that those changes are complete.

What I am concerned about now is whether these initial changes will be able to continue to grow. We now have basic rights to form and run associations, organize activities, and so on. But if these rights cant grow and develop, they will be like bonsai trees in a living roomjust for show.

There are traps and obstacles that we have to overcome. There are still restrictive laws in force, such as the draconian Electronics Act, under which we were given 60-year prison sentences for sending out four emailsthats 15 years for each email. Those laws are still instruments that they can use to throw you into jail anytime they choose.

You said earlier that you are not satisfied with the current political reforms. What kind of political transition would satisfy you?

Lets talk about what should be done in this situation. One of the most critical issues in our country is the ethnic problem. Unless that issue is tackled seriously and immediately, any political reform will be a sham, and we wont be able to build up a new nation. If we really want to continue this political reform, we need to solve the ethnic issue right away.
News This Week in Parliament (July 31  August 4)

Girls walk to school at the outskirts of Yangon in November 2015. On Monday, the Lower House approved a proposal for a state-run education TV channel, to facilitate learning in rural and remote areas. / Jorge Silva / Reuters

Monday (July 31)

The Lower House approved a proposal by Dr. U Hla Moe of Aungmyaythazan Township to launch an education television channel. According to the education and information ministry, the channel will be aired by the state broadcaster Myanma Radio and Television starting in the next fiscal year.

The channel reportedly aims to facilitate learning in rural and remote areas, offer new teaching methods to educators, and keep the public informed about academic progress in the country.

U Kyaw Lwin Aung of Sidoktaya Township urged the government to issue a disaster alert through mobile SMS messages to help mitigate the impact of disasters. Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications U Myo Kyaw said that Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) sent its subscribers a download link to the DAN Myanmar mobile application in December, which provides emergency telephone numbers, dos and donts in times of disaster, and weather news and disaster alerts in real time.

In addition, Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement runs a Facebook page and a website which also provide real-time weather reports and disaster alerts.

In the Upper House, parliamentarians debated a bill proposing amendments to the 2012 Farmland Law.

Tuesday (August 1)

Ten MPs debated President U Htin Kyaws proposal to make the sale of diamonds, emeralds, and gold bars, which are listed as special commodities under the Special Commodities Tax Law, exempt from commercial tax. Seven lawmakers debated in favor of tax exemption, and three others endorsed exempting tax on basic commodities, rather than luxury products.

Wednesday (August 2)

The Lower House voted down the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) MP U Thein Tuns proposal which urged the government to boost awareness of H1N1also known as swine fluacross the country in order to reduce infection rates and deaths. Out of a total of 392 votes in Parliament, 146 MPs voted in support and 231 against the proposal, while four abstained, and 11 MPs did not join the ballot.

In response to the question by Tamu Township MP U Naing Naing Win, Deputy Commerce Minister U Aung Htoo said that his ministry for the time being had no plan to establish a Myanmar-India border trade zone in his township.

Daw Khin Hnin Thit of Padaung Township urged the government to equalize the required matriculation marks for both male and female students for admission to vocational institutes. Currently, women are required to earn higher scores to attend the same institutes, particularly in studying subjects like medicine. Deputy Minister for Education U Win Maw Tun said the required marks are the same for both male and female students for admission to universities of economics, education, technological and computer studies. However, the education ministry currently has no plan to change the male-female ratio for medical and pharmaceutical programs.

The Upper House voted down the scrapping of the Article 66(d) of 2013 Telecommunications Law, but approved proposed amendments, such as a provision allowing for bail.

MPs also debated the bill amending the law on narcotics, drugs and psychotropic substances. There were different views and the speaker asked the bill committee to review the amendments.

Thursday (August 3)

In the Lower House, Deputy Minister for Planning and Finance U Maung Maung, in response to a question by Minhla Township MP Dr. Than Aung Soe, said that the government has for the time being no plan to increase the pension for retired military personnel and civil servants.

The Upper House approved a bill amending Myanmars Gemstone Law. The bill has yet to be discussed in the Lower House.

The new law will ban large-scale mining, and only allow medium- and small-scale ventures.

Friday (August 4)

In response to a question by Dr. Daw Pyone of Kachin States Indaw Township, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Aung Soe said that the government had adopted a road map to design a new comprehensive anti-drug policy. This, he said, would address the countrys drug problem at the national level. In addition, the home ministry will send a special drug squad to be stationed in Indaw Township which is situated on the smuggling route for drugs to jade mines in Kachin State, said the deputy minister.

The MPs discussed the regional development tasks of their respective constituencies in the Upper House.
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By Aniqa Raihan | (Foreign Policy in Focus) |  

The goal is to frighten people from engaging in the completely legal act of living out their values.

In 1966, the NAACP of Claiborne County, Mississippi launched a boycott of several white-owned local businesses on the basis of racial discrimination.

It was so impactful that the local hardware store filed a lawsuit against the individuals and organizations who coordinated the boycott. After 10 long years of litigation, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in favor of the white businesses and ordered the NAACP to pay for all their lost earnings.

Years later, in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0 to overturn the lower courts decision on the basis that nonviolent boycotts are a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. In announcing the unanimous decision, Justice John Paul Stevens said, One of the foundations of our society is the right of individuals to combine with other persons in pursuit of a common goal by lawful means.

That should have been the end of it. But now, Americans right to boycott is under attack once again  thanks to a vicious anti-boycott bill making its way through the Senate.

In particular, it appears to target the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS is an international movement calling on individuals, institutions, and governments to boycott Israeli products until it ends its occupation of Palestinian lands. The boycott is explicitly nonviolent and is supported by activists, celebrities, faith-based groups, and political and social justice organizations around the world.

The proposed Israel Anti-Boycott Act would make it a felony for Americans to support BDS, with a penalty of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison.

Unfortunately, the bill enjoys bipartisan support: 32 Republicans and 15 Democrats are currently signed on as cosponsors, including party leaders like Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Ted Cruz (R-TX). In response, the ACLU issued a letter urging members of the Senate to oppose the bill based on its direct violation of the First Amendment. (Following the publication of the ACLUs letter, several members of Congress agreed to review their sponsorship, and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) became the first Senator to officially withdraw sponsorship.)

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act would function by amending an earlier law from 1979, which prohibits American citizens and corporations from complying with boycotts called for by foreign nations against U.S. allies. The new law would include boycotts fostered and imposed by international governmental organizations like the United Nations. In this, its a direct response to the 2016 UN Human Rights Council resolution discouraging businesses from operating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In one way, its genius. By claiming a connection between BDS and the UN  a connection the UN has never embraced, in that resolution or any other  the bill attempts to work around NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co.

But the BDS movement is not a product of the UN  it has nothing to do with it at all, except to the degree that its based on international law. The BDS call to action was issued in 2005 by a coalition of 170 Palestinian political parties, professional associations, refugee networks, and civil society organizations. BDS is a tactic, not an organization, and the boycott has always been grassroots and decentralized, meaning anyone anywhere can partake in BDS by making the simple decision to do so.

Whether the congressional supporters of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act misunderstand or are intentionally misrepresenting BDS is uncertain, but the Supreme Court decision of 1982 is clear as crystal: Americans right to peaceful boycott with the aim to bring about political, social, and economic change is protected by the First Amendment. That means this bill is more than egregiously immoral  its unconstitutional.

The bills language also lumps Israels settlements in with the countrys internationally recognized borders.

Significantly, it declares the UN Human Rights Councils 2016 position on Israeli settlements an action to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel. Yet that resolution took no position on the boycotting of goods produced in Israel proper  it only took aim at Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, which are illegal under international law.

U.S. policy since 1979 has recognized that the Israeli settlements are inconsistent with international law. By contrast, the new bill effectively erases any distinction between Israel and its settlements in the West Bank. If its passed, anyone who chooses not to do business with or buy items manufactured in illegal Israeli settlements can be convicted, fined, and even jailed.

Efforts to curb this kind of activism are often touted as efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Yet polls show that only 17 percent of American Jews support the continued construction of settlements. The bill is so controversial, in fact, that the liberal pro-Israel organization J Street, which has long opposed BDS, recently announced its opposition to the proposed law on the basis that it divides [opponents of the global BDS movement] by making the issue about the settlements.

Its difficult to know exactly how broadly the law, if passed, will be enforced. Its intentionally vague language leaves a lot to the imagination, and perhaps thats exactly whats intended. The real goal may be to frighten people from engaging in the completely legal act of living out their values in their economic choices.

But we cant let fear prevent us from exercising our rights and fulfilling our moral obligations. The silver lining is that every effort to quell the BDS movement has served to strengthen it. Each attempt at criminalizing the boycott, whether on the state or federal level, has been met with a spike in Google searches for BDS and related terms.

And with the uproar caused by this new bill, the right-wing pro-Israel lobby just may prove to be the BDS movements best ally.
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By Sam Morgan | EURACTIV.com . |  

A consortium of clean energy developers has applied for permission to build a gigantic solar power plant on the edge of the Sahara desert, which will be linked to Europe by a number of undersea cables and could power over 5 million homes.

TuNurs planned project in Tunisia hopes to tap into the Sahara deserts vast potential to provide solar power. Its request to the Tunisian energy ministry envisages a facility in the southwest of the country that will produce 4.5GW of power.

Chief Executive Kevin Sara claimed that an initial 250MW could be up and running, powering Europe via an interconnector with Malta, by 2020. It would mean an extra 1,000GWh of clean power a year being made available to the European grid.

Italy and Maltas energy grids are already connected via a 95km link that came online in 2015.

Commission funds France-Ireland power link that bypasses UK The European Commission has allocated 4 million to a project that will link the French and Irish electricity grids via an undersea cable. Irish lawmakers have now touted the plan as an obvious solution to Irelands energy reliance on a post-Brexit United Kingdom.

Even this initial phase of development, which would cost an estimated 1.6bn, would be one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world.

The TuNur project will hope to avoid the fate of the similarly ambitious DESERTEC initiative, which was scuppered in 2013 after its main backers fell out. The partnership began in 2009 with the aim of promoting a 400bn project that would have provided 15% of Europes power by 2050.

Sara insisted that TuNur is better prepared for the challenges ahead, claiming that DESERTEC was a big consortium of companies looking for business opportunities, but no plan.

Similar to DESERTEC, TuNur plans to exploit Tunisias abundant sunshine and large amount of land that is unsuitable for agriculture. The firms most ambitious version of its scheme is a solar facility that covers 25,000 hectares, an area nearly the size of Malta.

Undersea power cable soldiers on despite WWII bombs A large-scale energy interconnector project linking the United Kingdom to mainland Europe is pressing on, despite the discovery of wartime bombs and mines in the cables path.

The second stage of the plan is to construct Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) towers with a capacity of 2.25GW, which would be connected to Italy, just south of Rome, via another cable that would deliver 9,000GWh per year.

This second 600km cable has been under development for a number of years and is currently being evaluated as a project of common interest by the EU. A third cable that will link Tunisia with France and more towers that would bring capacity up to 4.5GW are also planned.

TuNur claimed in its request to the energy ministry that the power generated will be enough to power over 5 million homes or fuel over 7 million electric vehicles.

Europe currently has about 100GW of solar photovoltaic power capacity, the blocs sixth largest source after natural gas, wind, coal, large hydro and nuclear.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Lizzie Dearden at The Independent reviews a new report by the United Nations Office of counter-terrorism report.

Some 25,000 young men are said to have made their way from Europe to fight the regime in Syria, and as the war winds down, many will return. Understanding what drove them will help in designing programs to help with reintegration.

The report itself makes it clear that the young Muslim men who went off to fight on the rebel side in the Syrian Civil War were not motivated by a detailed knowledge of Islam. In fact, they knew little about their religion.

They say that they did not seek to become terrorists and did not want to commit acts of terrorism in Europe on their return.

Why did they go? They are Sunni Muslims and felt that the Alawite-dominated regime of Bashar al-Assad is mistreating Sunni Muslims.

Many studies have found that those who run off to join terrorist or guerrilla groups are well-educated and middle class. Not this study. For whatever reason, its respondents were mostly poor, urban and hopeless. Most said they hoped to leave that dysfunctional home forever when they went to Syria.

Some one third of those who went to Syria were unemployed, a high rate. The rest had jobs, though in many cases menial ones.

They confirm an earlier study that although their sample was from a poverty-stricken background, they were not radicalized by mere poverty but rather by what they perceived as the lack of a ladder of self-advancement:

Our results suggest that it is not so much the lack of material resources that is important for terrorism but rather the lack of economic opportunities: Countries that restrict economic freedom experience more terrorism.

Neither religion nor family motivated the group in this study. Rather it was the guys they hung around with:

The validation of the influence of friendship in motivating individuals to become FTF s supports the bunch of guys theory of terrorism put forward by the psychologist Marc Sageman, 81 who argues that the decision to join a terrorist group was based on pre  existing friendship ties and that the evolving group of future perpetrators seemed more akin to such networks  than a formal terrorist cell, with well  defined hierarchy and divisi on of labour . This theory has led some observers to call for a social network approach to terrorism

Only ten percent thought ideology motivated them, and only 30% said that religion did (though they most often knew little about their religion).

The take-away appears to be that if you want to tamp down Muslim discontent in Europe, give young people more opportunity to make something of themselves. It is those who feel irrevocably blocked who turn to radicalism.



Related video:

CNN: UAE diplomat warns Muslims of Islam ignorance'
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By Ethan Coffel | (The Conversation) |  

Hot weather has forced dozens of commercial flights to be canceled at airports in the Southwest this summer. This flight-disrupting heat is a warning sign. Climate change is projected to have far-reaching repercussions  including sea level rise inundating cities and shifting weather patterns causing long-term declines in agricultural yields. And there is evidence that it is beginning to affect the takeoff performance of commercial aircraft, with potential effects on airline costs.

National and global transportation systems and the economic activity they support have been optimized for the climate in which it all developed: Machines are designed to operate in common temperature ranges, logistical plans depend on historical weather patterns and coastal land development is based on known flood zones. In the aviation sector, airports and aircraft are designed for the weather conditions experienced historically. Because the climate is changing, even fundamental infrastructure elements like airports and key economic sectors like air transportation may need to be redesigned and reengineered.

As scientists focused on the impacts of climate change and extreme weather on human society and natural ecosystems around the world, our research has quantified how extreme heat associated with our warming climate may affect flights around the world. Weve found that major airports from New York to Dubai to Bangkok will see more frequent takeoff weight restrictions in the coming decades due to increasingly common hot temperatures.

Climate changes flights

There is robust evidence that extreme events such as heat waves and coastal flooding are happening with greater frequency and intensity than just a few decades ago. And if we fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly in the next few decades, the frequency and intensity of these extremes is projected to increase dramatically.

The effects on aviation may be widespread. Many airports are built near sea level, putting them at risk of more frequent flooding as oceans rise. The frequency and intensity of air turbulence may increase in some regions due to strengthening high-altitude winds. Stronger winds would force airlines and pilots to modify flight lengths and routings, potentially increasing fuel consumption.

The July heat-related Phoenix flight cancellations happened at least in part because airlines operational manuals didnt include information for temperatures above 118 degrees Fahrenheit  because that kind of heat is historically uncommon. Its another example of how procedures may need to be updated to adapt to a warmer climate.

Flying in the heat

High air temperatures affect the physics of how aircraft fly, meaning aircraft takeoff performance can be impaired on hot days. The amount of lift that an airplane wing generates is affected by the density of the air. Air density in turn depends mostly on air temperature and elevation; higher temperatures and higher elevations both reduce density.

The lower the air density, the faster an airplane must travel to produce enough lift to take off. It takes more runway to reach a higher speed, and depending on how long the airports runway is, some airplanes might risk running out of room before reaching sufficient speed. When this occurs, the only immediate option is to reduce the aircrafts weight to lower its required takeoff speed  by removing passengers, luggage and cargo. This is referred to as a weight restriction.

Weight restrictions happen now, especially in hot places like Phoenix and Dubai and at airports with short runways like New Yorks LaGuardia and Washington, D.C.s Reagan National, but our research suggests that they may become much more common in the future.

Global temperatures have been steadily rising for decades, and they will almost certainly continue to do so. In some regions, there is evidence that the hottest temperatures may increase at a faster rate than the average, further stacking the deck in favor of extreme heat. These hotter temperatures will reduce air density and make it much more likely weight restrictions are needed for flights taking off during the hottest parts of the day.

The frequency and magnitude of weight restrictions is projected to increase  in some locations, the number of days requiring at least some amount of weight restriction for certain aircraft could double or triple, perhaps covering 50 or more days per year.

The economics of adaptation

On most affected flights, the amount of cargo, passengers and fuel that must be removed to allow for takeoff will usually be small  between 0.5 percent and 4 percent of the total load. That means fewer paying customers on airplanes, and less cargo on board. When those restrictions add up across the global air transport system, the costs can be significant.

Carrying just a fraction of a percent fewer passengers or less cargo can add up to millions of dollars in lost revenue for an airline over years of operation. That makes even small weight restrictions a concern in such a highly competitive and optimized industry. These limits could disproportionately affect long-haul flights, which require large fuel loads and often take off near their maximum weights.

There are ways that airlines could mitigate increasing weight restrictions. The most feasible is to reschedule some flights to cooler hours of the day  although with air traffic increasing and many airports already operating near capacity, this could prove difficult.

Another potential solution is to build longer runways. But thats not always possible: Some airports, like New Yorks LaGuardia, are on coastlines or in dense urban environments. Even where a longer runway is technically possible, buying the land and expanding an airports physical area may be expensive and politically difficult.

Aircraft could be optimized for takeoff performance, but redesigning aircraft is extremely expensive and can take decades. Manufacturers are always working to build planes that are lighter and more fuel-efficient. In the future, those efficiency improvements will be necessary just to maintain todays performance.

Broader implications

These changes are merely examples of the countless procedures, processes and equipment requirements that will have to be adjusted for a changing climate. Even if those adaptations are successful, they will take effort and money to achieve.

Many sectors of the economy, including the aviation industry, have yet to seriously consider the effects of climate change. The sooner, the better: Both airport construction and aircraft design take decades, and have lasting effects. Todays newest planes may well be flying in 40 or 50 years, and their replacements are being designed now. The earlier climate impacts are understood and appreciated, the more effective and less costly adaptations can be. Those adaptations may even include innovative ways to dramatically reduce climate-altering emissions across the aviation sector, which would help reduce the problem while also responding to it.

Ethan Coffel, Ph.D. Student in Earth & Environmental Sciences, Columbia University and Radley Horton, Associate Research Scientist, Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

ABC15 Arizona: Why cant planes fly when its so hot?
Texas-based specialty store Forty Five Ten has opened its first California-based outpost.

The store, known for its distinctive fashion edit for women, men and home, opened in Yountville on July 28.

Forty Five Ten Napa Valley is located on Yountvilles Washington Street, steps from Chef Thomas Kellers The French Laundry and Bouchon. This is the fifth store for the brand, and the first outside Texas.

The 865-square-foot Napa Valley location will spotlight selections from emerging designers (Jacquemus, Khaite, Kalita, Tome) as well as such names as Celine, Loewe, Mark Cross, Gabriela Hearst and Derek Lam.

Mens and womens ready-to-wear and accessories will sit alongside an edit of Forty Five Tens Rare Beauty assortment (Goop, Heretic Parfums, Vintners Daughter) as well as a gift and home area curated by Forty Five Ten Home Creative Director Rob Dailey.

We are so pleased to join the Napa (Valley) community, said Forty Five Ten President and Co-Founder Brian Bolke.

This has always been one of my favorite parts of the country and it feels like the right time. We felt there was a great opportunity in the Napa Valley with the assortment we have.

Bolke, coincidentally, was born and raised in California.

Three longtime friends and supporters of Forty Five Tendesigner and event planner Ken Fulk, philanthropist and arts patron Cindy Rachofsky, and interior designer and author Jay Jeffers hosted a private VIP opening prior to the July 28 public opening.

A percentage of the evenings sales benefited Bay Area Legal Aid, which provides free bilingual legal assistance to seniors, immigrants, and low-income residents of the Bay Area.

The store is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Forty Five Ten Napa is located at 6540 Washington St.
July temperatures in Death Valley have incinerated previous records.

With an average daily high temperature of 107.4 degrees Fahrenheit (41.9 degrees Celsius), July was the valley's hottest month on record, blazing through the former record of 107.2 degrees F (41.8 degrees C) set in 1917, the National Weather Service's Las Vegas Forecast Office (NWS Las Vegas) wrote Aug. 2 in a tweet.

Temperatures in Death Valley in July blazed into the record books not only as the hottest month in the desert valley in eastern California but also as the hottest month ever recorded in the United States, according to NWS Las Vegas. [Hell on Earth: Image Tour of Death Valley]

During July, temperatures were at their lowest at around 5 a.m. local time, averaging about 95 degrees F (35 degrees C), Death Valley National Park representatives wrote in a Facebook post on Aug. 3.

"This is an extreme place to live and visit in the summer, especially this past month," they said.

A photo shared in the post showed a National Park Service (NPS) official posing next to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center in the park, leaning against a sign displaying a local temperature of 124 degrees F (51.1 degrees C).

Death Valley's highest temperatures during July were 127 degrees F (52.8 degrees C) on July 7; 126 degrees F (52.2 degrees C) on July 8; and 125 degrees F (51.7 degrees C) on July 31, according to daily temperature reports compiled by the National Weather Service, The Washington Post reported.

A combination of geological factors  including its low elevation and the presence of surrounding mountains that block cooling moisture  trap and fuel the baking heat that develops during summer in Death Valley.

Death Valley holds the record for the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth  134 degrees F (56.7 degrees C) on July 10, 2013, which was part of a five-day heat wave during which temperatures hovered at 129 degrees F (53.9 degrees C) or more, the NPS reported.

Death Valley isn't the only place where things are heating up  global average temperatures have been on the rise for years. 2016 was the hottest year on record for the third consecutive year, and a forecast for August, September and October 2017 predicts more warmer-than-average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, according to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Original article on Live Science.
by Josh Engroff , Op-Ed Contributor, August 4, 2017

Often the best way to learn about a new field -- especially one that is both complex and noisy, like AI -- is to watch people who are truly proficient at it. What do they talk about? What do they spend their time working on, and what things do they ignore? What kind of music do they listen to?

Someone working in marketing is not going to learn a lot about AI from another person working in marketing, for the simple reason that most marketers dont understand the fundamentals of AI. They know the marketing-speak version of AI, which looks a lot like bullshit bingo. The term AI is just another entrant in the lexicon of agency word porn, a sexy-shiny thing to pull out during new-business pitches and client dinners, but ultimately signifying little.

To whom, then, should an autodidact turn in order to better understand where AI is really headed, and why industry pundits insist on saying ridiculous things like artificial intelligence is eating the world?

Below are five people I have found particularly insightful on topics ranging from neural networks, to self-driving cars, social robotics, natural language processing and AI startup investing. I highly recommend paying close attention to all of them this year.

(Note: at five, this list is necessarily  even hilariously  incomplete; my goal is to be concise and useful, not comprehensive. Plus, I have a thing for prime numbers).

Carla Echevarria, design lead, Google

A masterful presenter, Echevarria is unrivaled in her ability to clearly explain neural networks to a nontechnical audience. After listening to her, you will understand how hierarchical thinking is different from linear thinking. You will understand why traditional programming is useful for teaching a computer how to recognize a specific cat, but utterly useless at enabling the computer to teach itself catness. You will understand the preceding sentence without having to reread it three times.

Echevarria has a deep background in design, with previous lead design roles at MakerBot, Facebook, and R/GA. Part of her focus at Google is on nonvisual design challenges presented by voice-only interfaces, such as Google Home.

Shivon Zillis, partner, Bloomberg Beta

What LUMAscapes are to ad tech (remember ad tech?), Zillis' landscapes are to the field of machine intelligence. As a partner at Bloomberg Beta, Zillis is laser-focused on machine and enterprise intelligence. Her investments include Shield AI, Datalogue, and Domino Data Lab, among others.

If you follow AI long enough, you realize that some of the most important work comes out of Canadian universities. Zillis is on the advisory board of the Machine Learning Group at the University of Alberta, a leader in reinforcement learning.

Yann LeCun, director, AI research, Facebook; professor at NYU

When people talk about personalization at scale, they are talking about Facebook. With more than 1.2 billion users, Facebook Messenger has replaced SMS in the Western World and become the testing ground for bots and conversational commerce.

Sadly, most chatbots suck, due either to a lack of contextual awareness or emotional tone-deafness. If anyone can change that its Yann LeCun, one of the pioneers of deep learning. In fact, Facebooks public foray into AI began in 2013 when it hired LeCun.

Rumored developments at Facebook include speech recognition and enhanced emotional intelligence for its M assistant, the latter underscored by the companys acquisition of conversational AI startup Ozlo just three days ago.

Fei-Fei Li, director, Stanford Vision Lab

(Full disclosure: Fei-Fei Li and I attended Princeton University at the same time during the late 1990s. The similarities end there).

One month ago, Quartz featured Li in an article captioned Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li changed everything. Everything! Li is a rock star in the world of computer vision. In 2009, she pioneered a new paradigm in large-scale visual recognition called ImageNet; the annual competition that followed is credited as a major catalyst to the current AI boom.

Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, former head of Baidu AI Group & Google Brain

As the founding lead of the Google Brain team, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and lead of Baidus AI team of 1,200 people (thats not a a typo), Ng knows a thing or two about machine learning. His early work included developing one of the most capable autonomous helicopters in the world (easy), and hes also been a pioneer of online education, getting Stanford courses online in 2008 and founding Coursera in 2012 -- where you should head if you want to learn more about any of the AI topics discussed above.

I hope this short-ish list was helpful. I would love to hear what you think.
Responding to calls for better ad tracking and measurement tools, Snap is now offering marketers some advanced campaign management options.

Tailored for Snaps largest and most sophisticated business partners, the advanced mode is designed to help them quickly build, manage and scale their respective campaigns.

The effort includes permutation builders with which brands can create and launch hundreds of targeting and creative variations with a few clicks.

In addition, advanced users now have access to Snap-created spreadsheets, which they can use to create and edit campaigns in bulk. Brands can also save their audiences to a targeting library to more easily find and apply audiences to existing ad sets.

The options are similar to those already available to brands using Facebooks Power Editor. The bigger picture is that Snap is clearly on a mission to measure up to Facebooks ad management infrastructure.

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Without mentioning Facebook, a Snap spokesperson said on Friday the company has been focused on improving measurement, targeting and optimization over the past year.

Earlier this week, Snap also began rolling out a new measurement program that addresses marketing mix modeling (MMM).

With the help of Neustar Marketshare, Nielsen, Analytic Partners and Marketing Management Analytics, the initiative specifically measures return on ad spend (ROAS) and sales lift.

Since its IPO, Snaps measurement shortcomings have been scrutinized by analysts. Most social marketers already complain about Snapchats lack of user data and proper social measurement, Forrester analyst Jessica Liu said recently.

In tests, the focus on MMM -- which helps brands isolate, measure and forecast the impact of specific marketing tactics -- has shown promise. For example, in movie theatrical release campaigns, Snapchat drove an ROAS of $14.33, which is more than five times the category average, as measured by Neustar.

In the carbonated soft-drinks campaigns, Snapchat drove an ROAS of $4.76, which is more than five times the category average, according to the real-time information provider.

In restaurants, Snapchat drove an average ROAS of $10.76, which is nearly three times the category median, as measured across nine restaurant campaigns by Placed.

Additionally, of the 59 offline sales studies conducted by Oracle Data Cloud and Nielsen Catalina Services, 83% had positive sales lift.

Based on seven retail campaigns measured by Nielsen Buyer Insights, Snapchat drove an average sales lift in total spend per household of more than 7%. Based on 20 campaigns measured by Placed, Snapchat drove a median visitation lift of 9.5%, which bested the Placed median of 7.4%.

As part of a broader ad push, Snap recently unveiled a Certified Partners program -- offering advertisers help in planning, executing and improving their Snapchat ad buys. With Certified Partners, the idea is to encourage brands to create more video ads, which have historically been harder to create than banner and text ads.

To participate in Snaps Certified Partners program, the social giant is requiring partners to participate in training, which encompass best practices and execution strategies.

Snap also began rolling out Snap Publisher -- a tool for brands to create ads in less than two minutes.

Among other features, the browser-based tool lets brands trim horizontal videos into vertical mobile videos, access an existing library of ad templates and add motion to still photos and images.
by Erik Sass @eriksass1, August 4, 2017

Snapchat may not be the biggest tech platform, but everyone likes to copy its ideas.

In yet another example of a much bigger company taking a page from Snapchats book, Google is developing a new service for publishers. It will allow them to create visually oriented media content similar to Snapchats Discover feature, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the product.

The new publisher technology, called Stamp, represents an escalation in the competition between tech platforms for publisher partnerships and access to media content, which they need to drive user engagement.

On that note, Google has already entered into negotiations with media companies, including Vox Media, The Washington Post, Time Inc., CNN, and Mic. A preliminary version of the product could be available as early as next week, the WSJ reports.

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The news that Google is developing a Discover competitor comes on the heels of a report from Business Insider that Google tried to buy Snapchats parent company, Snap, for $30 billion early last year.

More recently, advertisers have reportedly been expressing dissatisfaction with Snapchats measurement and tracking tools, leaving the company vulnerable to bigger competitors with more resources to devote to wooing advertisers and publishers.

However, Snap is moving quickly to fend off these sallies.

As reported in MediaPost's Digital Daily News, this week it began offering marketers some advanced campaign management options. Among these are permutation builders that allow brands to create and launch hundreds of targeting and creative variations with a few clicks.

Snap also began rolling out a new measurement program that addresses marketing-mix modeling (MMM). With the help of Neustar Marketshare, Nielsen, Analytic Partners and Marketing Management Analytics, the initiative specifically measures return on ad spend (ROAS) and sales lift.

On the publisher side, Snapchat has been introducing new features to give media content owners greater control over their distribution and audiences. Last month, it unveiled a new feature, Paperclip, that allows users to incorporate links to external Web sites into messages and content sent within the app.

Paperclip enables publishers, along with other users, to attach links to third-party mobile Web sites to videos or images as part of a Snapchat Story, increasing traffic to their own properties.

Snapchat also landed some big content deals earlier this summer. Most notably, in June, it announced a $100 million content development deal with Time Warner. The deal also includes an advertising component, in which Time Warners TV and film business  HBO, Turner and Warner Bros.  will also run media schedules on Snapchat.
Cyrus Jerome Barron died Friday evening, July 28, 2017 at Kaiser Hospital surrounded by his family. He was born in Greenville, Mississippi and lived with them in his early years in Belzonia, Mississippi. In 1952 Cy moved to Napa with his family. Cy attended Ridgeview graduating in the Napa High, Class of 1957.

In 1959 he joined the Army serving with the First Hawk anti-aircraft missile detachment in the Panama Canal Zone. Upon discharge, he returned home and began working as a Psychiatric Technician at Napa State Hospital and Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute in San Francisco. He graduated from Napa J.C. in 1962 and he and his two brothers started their Mare Island apprenticeships together, graduating in 1970. Cy worked there for 26 years as a Machinist Ships Systems Inspector, retiring in 1990.

As an avid fisherman, he began salmon fishing with family friend Tony Beals out of San Francisco before retirement. They later teamed up with Tom DiMaggio fishing on the boat, Yankee Clipper. He owned and operated his own commercial salmon boat from 1986 to 1997 out of Bodega Bay.

Cy visited his wifes classroom one day and watched students playing with blocks and trucks and it reminded him of his childhood. Shortly thereafter he began drawing pictures and made several prototypes. He applied for and received a design patent for his Munch Wagons.

He was a great family guy, taking many trips and celebrated all holidays with the three generations. He was loved by, and will be greatly missed by his wife of 54 years; daughters Nora Strauss and Melinda Barron; grandchildren Katie (Andy) Cunningham, Nick Strauss, and Christian Barron and great-grandchildren Elijah, Bradley and Adeline Cunningham; brother Rick (Linda) Barron; sister-in-law Elfriede Barron; Aunt Hazel Pattullo, and numerous nieces and nephews and cousins.

He was predeceased by his parents, Lester and Emma Mae Barron, his son Jerrold, and his brother Charles.

Friends are invited to a celebration of his life at 11:00 am, Saturday, August 19 at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1226 Salvador Ave. It will be followed by a light lunch and conversation. The family would like to thank his doctors and nurses at Kaiser, especially Doctors Clancy and Ram for the compassionate care they gave him.

Arrangements are under the direction of Treadway & Wigger Funeral Chapel, Napa, CA
The Braves have struck a deal to acquire some international spending capacity from the Reds, both teams announced. In return, Cincinnati will receive minor-league outfielder Randy Ventura.

$1.25MM in pool money is changing hands, per Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer (via Twitter). Under the new bonus system that goes into place this year, theres a hard cap on spending. The Reds had started with $5.25MM in availability, while Atlanta had $4.75MM. Its permissible for teams to trade away their entire allocation, though clubs can only boost their original pools by 75%.

This exchange of spending capacity is more about the volume of signings than aiding the pursuit of bigger fish. Both teams are serving bans on doling out bonuses of over $300K after blowing past their allocations in the prior signing period (when that was still permitted, albeit with penalties).

Both clubs have been rather aggressive with their international outlays in recent years  Atlanta, in particular. Indeed, thats how the Braves landed Ventura, who signed during the 2014-15 period.

Despite a slight build, Ventura has drawn some attention for his tools  especially, his speed. He swiped 55 bags in just 58 games in the Dominican Summer League upon signing and has stolen 29 through 95 games of Low-A ball this year. That said, he has also yet to develop any pop, with his on-base percentage out-pacing his slugging percentage in each of his pro seasons. Through 413 trips to the plate in 2017, Ventura owns a .294/.338/.325 batting line.
The Giants have announced that the Pirates have been awarded Giants reliever George Kontos on a waiver claim. The Giants evidently placed Kontos on revocable waivers, as Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets, then gave him up without receiving anything in return. To clear space for Kontos and the newly acquired Sean Rodriguez, the Pirates have designated reliever Jhan Marinez and outfielder Danny Ortiz for assignment.

For the Giants, the move clears a 25-man spot for Chris Stratton, who is set to pitch against the Diamondbacks today, and a more permanent spot in the bullpen for Matt Cain. It also clears a 40-man spot for Pablo Sandoval, who the team recently promoted.

That the Giants would essentially give Kontos away still rates as something of a surprise, since hes been effective this season. The 32-year-old righty has posted a 3.83 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 47.9 GB%. While Kontos exact profile has shifted from year to year (he had a K/9 of just 5.9 last season, for example), hes been effective since joining the Giants early in the 2012 season and has a 3.05 career ERA, albeit with peripherals that are somewhat less impressive than that.

Kontos will help bolster a Pirates bullpen that has rated as about average this season and that effectively swapped Tony Watson for Joaquin Benoit at the trade deadline. If Kontos performs well for the Pirates, they can keep him beyond this season  he makes just $1.75MM this year, and is not eligible for free agency until after 2019.

The 28-year-old Marinez arrived in Pittsburgh via a waiver claim from the Brewers in May. He posted a 3.18 ERA, 6.9 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 34 innings in the Pirates bullpen and has a career 50.7 GB%. Hes struggled with walks in the past, but with his mid-90s fastball and ground-ball-heavy profile, he could attract interest on the waiver wire yet again.

The 27-year-old Ortiz has spent the bulk of the 2017 season with Triple-A Indianapolis, hitting .259/.291/.450 over 342 plate appearances while playing all three outfield spots. The Twins product also collected his first 13 big-league plate appearances this season.
Governments decision to celebrate Friday August 4, as Ghanas day of destiny has been questioned by a retired diplomat and statesman, K B Asante.

Exactly 70 years ago Ghanas first political movement the United Gold Coast Convention was formed.

Government is expected to hold a memorial and thanksgiving service as well as a lecture to commemorate the occasion.

But the 93-year-old retired diplomat and statesman, K.B Asante has asked government to rather focus on more important matters confronting the nation.

Ghana was not born twice, even an ordinary human being are you born twice?. Ghana became Ghana on the 6th of March 1957I mean I dont understand.

I dont know of any party which is happy with what is happening now, we have not gone far as we all expected and that is what we should be thinking about and not when we were independent and all that, Mr. Asante said.

According to government, the 4th of August is a very significant day in the history of Ghana and as such, the day ought to be celebrated as Ghana marks its 60th anniversary.
04.08.2017 LISTEN

Wenchi (B/A), Aug. 4, GNA - Mr Sammy Awuku, the aspiring National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), deserves the position and must be given the nod to lead the party to another resounding victory in Election 2020.

Mr Richard Adu, the Wenchi Constituency Youth Organiser of the Party, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Wenchi in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

He called on the NPP delegates, who would be attending the Party's national delegates' congress in 2018, to vote for the National Youth Organiser so that the fortunes of the Party to shine brightly in Election 2020.

Mr Adu said the NPP was able to make significant impact and win the Election 2016 partly due to the hard work of the various youth wings of the Party led by Mr Awuku.

He said the national youth organiser personally provided enough financial and technical assistance which enabled the various youth wings of the Party across country to intensify campaign and reached out to the local voting masses and canvassed for more votes.

'We were able to go round to almost all the deprived communities in the constituency to reach out to and propagate the manifestoes of the great NPP', he said.

Describing Mr Awuku as a strong pillar holding the NPP, Mr Adu said it was through his influence and other key members that helped in find lasting solutions to some internal security problems in the NPP.

Mr Adu, who is the Assemblyman for Ntoase Electoral Area in the Wenchi Municipality, said there is the need for the NPP to recognise and appreciate the selfless services of Mr Awuku since the youth remains a strong force and pillar of the NPP.

This, he said, would not only motivate other young people to selflessly contribute their quota for the growth of the Party, but it would also encourage the youthful population to join the Party.

Mr Adu said despite the NPP's overwhelming victory in the Election 2016, many voters at the grassroots were still unaware of the ideologies and philosophies of the NPP, hence the need for the Party to avoid complacency and sensitise the masses on this and other government poverty reduction intervention policies.

He called on the Party leadership and government to establish special funds for the youth wings to strengthen and empower the constituencies adequately for effective political campaigns.

Mr Adu commended the constituency executives of the Party for their loyalty and personal contribution that made the NPP to capture political power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He said since the constituency remains the strength of the party, there is the need for the leadership to pay regular visits to the constituencies to help in addressing their challenges.

Mr Adu cautioned supporters and members of the NPP to guard against tendencies that would undermine and make the government unpopular, and urged them to sell good policies and programmes of the government to the electorate.

'This is the surest way that our Party can win the confidence of the floating voters and retain political power in the next general election', he added.

GNA

By Dennis Peprah, GNA
04.08.2017 LISTEN

Accra, Aug. 4, GNA - Today is August 4, 2017, and a lecture, expected to define Ghana's destiny after 60 years of independence, is scheduled for the evening at the National Theatre in Accra.

The date, August 4, is very significant in Ghana's history and the struggle for independence because it was a day that marked the beginning of an uprising that ultimately led to self-rule in Ghana, then the Gold Coast.

Professor Michael Aaron Oquaye, the Speaker of Parliament, will deliver the lecture on the theme: "August 4, Ghana's Day of Destiny," before an audience that cuts across the Ghanaian social strata as the lecture would chronicle the events of the national liberation struggle from August 4, 1897, to the day of Ghana's independence, March 6, 1957.

The Speaker, according to Mr Abu Jinapor, the Vice Chairman of Ghana's 60th Independence, was chosen to deliver the lecture not only because of his values in statesmanship, but also for his pedigree in academia, politics, religion and public service.

On August 4, the Aborigines Rights Protection Society (ARPS) was formed as a conglomerate of different groups of intellectuals in Cape Coast and Southern Ghana who sought to protect the traditional land tenure practices of the indigenous Gold Coast peoples from being usurped by the colonial government of Britain.

One of the initial goals of the Gold Coast ARPS was to ensure "that every person may understand (the Lands Bill of 1897) the same".

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; that its introduction would break family and society ties, and that the land was valuable to indigenous peoples for its religious significance.

The Gold Coast ARPS then sent a delegation to London to advocate for the dismissal of the Lands Bill of 1897 in front of Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary of State of Britain at the time.

A notable aspect of the delegation was that it included not only members of the Gold Coast elite, but also "prominent merchants". It was through their meeting with Joseph Chamberlain that the Gold Coast ARPS was able to get support for the denunciation of the Lands Bill of 1897 and the assurance that "native law would remain and prevail with regard to devolution of land". The Gold Coast ARPS eventually fell out of fashion in exchange for newer nationalist movements, such as the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA) in 1920.

Fifty years on, the United Gold Coast Convention was formed, and J.B. Danquah of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) chose the eagle as the emblem of the nation, and it was approved.

Prof Oquaye in the lecture may praise the nation's forebears for resisting the attempts by the colonial British to usurp Ghana's 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 Ghana's 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," Prof Oquaye had said.

He also might advocate the protection of the land rights of the present and future generation, prescribe suggestion to enhance Ghana's land holding policy reforms.

The Speaker, when he received the invitation to give the lecture, said: '...The land belongs to the dead, the living and the unborn......Any chief who sells land arbitrarily must be de-stooled.'

Mr Jinapor has told the media that a thanksgiving and memorial service would be held at Saltpond where the first nationalist political party, the UGCC, was formed.

Mr Jinapor, a Deputy Chief of Staff, said the 60th Anniversary Planning Committee had been tasked by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ensure that the anniversary was celebrated in an elegant but modest manner.

Leading members of the UGCC including Paa Grant, Ako Adjei, Obetsebi-Lamptey, J.B. Danquah, Mr Justice Edward Akufo-Addo and R.S. Blay are being celebrated today in Salpond.

Mr Jinapor said the views of many pundits and those in the New Patriotic Party were that it was the fight by John Mensah Sarbah and his colleagues that led to the stability of the nation and the land tenure system the country has today.

GNA

By Benjamin Mensah, GNA
Accra, Aug. 4, GNA - The Intelligent Unit of the Narcotics Control Board has arrested Prosper Kumako, an agent who facilitated the exportation of Pangolin Scales from Ghana to Malaysia, Nana Kofi Adu-Nsiah, Executive Director, Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, has said.

Mr Adu-Nsiah at a press briefing in Accra said Mr Kumako confessed that on June 13, 2017, he exported Pangolin Scales from the country to Malaysia, on three occasions, with the help of Robert Konu and Philip Konu as accomplices, saying all the items were named as 'OYSTER SHELLS'.

Pangolin is classified as one of the endangered species banned globally by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, of which Ghana is a signatory.

The Convention seeks to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants do not threaten their survival.

He said Mr Konu said an individual called Lee, a Chinese, was his source of supply and he supplies him the stock through an accomplice in Nigeria.

Mr Konu is currently assisting in further investigations at the Criminal Investigations Department at the Ghana Police Service Headquarters.

Mr Adu-Nsiah said Mr Prince Anim, an agent, was also arrested for using his documents to facilitate the exportation of the species during interrogations.

He said the Commission has realised that some of the wildlife traffickers are using Ghana as transit destination to operate their illegal activities and urged the public to be mindful of such individuals.

The Executive Director said in June 16, 2017, a publication by the Associated Press carried a news item that the Malaysian custom official has seized nearly 400 kilograms Pangolin scales worth 1.2 million dollars from Ghana at the Kuala Lumpur Airport transported by Turkish Airlines.

He said the scales were believed to be used for medicine to enhance sexual performance and that the increase demand for the species has seen an estimated one million pangolins removed from Asian and African forests over the past decade.

Mr Adu-Nsiah their outfit would continue to collaborate with the Customs, Police, NACOB, informants, airport officials and their intelligent to combat the menace.

GNA

By Kodjo Adams, GNA
04.08.2017 LISTEN

Accra, Aug. 4, GNA - The Maternal Health Charity Concert, which is aimed at assisting the Tamale West Hospital and the Efia Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi- Takoradi, is schedule for Saturday, August 12.

The Concert is being organised by Outlook Minik, an event organising firm.

Though Ghana has recorded some improvement in maternal healthcare and reduction in maternal deaths over the last 20 years, the pace has been very slow and government and stakeholders need to step up efforts.

The introduction of the free maternal health service by the Government to improve maternal healthcare delivery has contributed to the progress made.

Mr Dominic Oduro-Antwi, the Chief Executive Officer of Outlook Minik, disclosed this at the launch of this year's concert, which was aimed at ensuring safe delivery for mothers.

He said his organisation has, for the past seven years, been supporting the Government in its efforts at reducing maternal mortality.

Mr Oduro-Antwi said Outlook Minik had been organising the Maternal Health Charity Concerts annually to raise funds to support the maternity wards of the various hospitals.

He said this year's concert would feature the Accra Symphony Orchestra and musicians including Irene Logan, Becca, Sandra Huson, Efya, and Lamisi backed by the Patchbay Band.

The CEO said previous beneficiary hospitals of the charity concerts include the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and the Winneba Government Hospital in the Central Region.

He said though efforts to achieve the goal had not been easy, the support from corporate Ghana and the media would go a long way to overcome their challenges.

Mr Oduro-Antwi said in order to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters; several challenges and bottlenecks had been identified in maternal health service delivery by the Ghana Health Service.

He said measures being put in place to overcome those challenges include the scaling up of maternal health services at the district level, supply of equipment, and logistics, and ambulance services.

He urged the public to support the project by participating in their numbers, adding; 'If you buy a ticket, you save a life'.

Sponsors of the Concert include Movenpick, Unibank, the Special Group, Jaguar, Multimedia, Voltic, Gold Coast Restaurant, Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, Cascade Consult, Easy Multimedia and Alliance Motors.

The media sponsors include Sunny FM, Homebase TV, Family TV, OM TV, DDP Outdoor Advertising Company and Design House Project.

GNA

By Amadu Kamil Sanah, GNA
Two Solano County residents were arrested on suspicion of burglary after being found in an unoccupied home on Third Street in Napa on Friday morning, according to Napa Police. The homes windows had been smashed in and approximately $7,000 in power tools and welding equipment was missing, police said.

Police responded to the scene at about 8:12 a.m. after the homes caretaker noticed the broken windows and reported finding two people sleeping in one of the bedrooms. Officers located Tyler Chubb, 31, of Vacaville and Jennifer Anne Estrada, 27, of Fairfield inside the home and arrested them.

Chubb and Estrada, who police say admitted to being inside the home without permission, were booked at the Napa County jail on suspicion of burglary and conspiracy.
Accra, Aug. 4, GNA - The Osu Traditional Council has appealed for support to improve the living conditions of the people.

Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, the Paramount Chief and the President of the Council, made the appeal at the launch of the 2017 Osu Homowo Festival.

It was on the theme: 'Our Youth and Education - the Way Forward,' which would start from August 18 to 22.

Homowo is a festival of the Ga indigenes in the Greater Accra Region which they celebrate to hoot at hunger and to thank God for His abundance blessing for a bumper harvest during the year.

Nii Kinka Dowuona said the launch was all-inclusive and a unique one because it would form part of his 10th anniversary celebration since he ascended the throne.

He said youth education was paramount to the Council and that they needed the collaboration and support from institutions like the National Vocational Training Institute, Opportunities Industrialisation Centre, Social Welfare Training Centre and Young Women Christian Association to train the youth in employable skills.

Nii Kinka Dowuona said the Traditional Council, together with authorities of basic schools in the area had formed a school committees, which members comprised of traditional leaders, teachers, assemblymen and opinion leaders to ensure that children stayed in school.

He outlined some of the projects that the Council would undertake as the designing of the Osu Royal Mausoleum; creation of a public square for durbars and Tourism Development Fund.

Nii Kinka Dowuona said activities to take place during the Homowo would include health walk and screening, clean-up exercises, durbars, and sprinkling of 'Kpokpoi', the main meal for the festival.

The Paramount Chief called on individuals and organisations to donate in cash and kind to support their projects and festival activities.

He entreated the citizens to clean their surroundings to create a healthy environment during and after the festival.

Nii Ako Nortei IV, the Osu Mankralo, called on all the people to come together to celebrate the festival in peace.

GNA
Saltpond (C/R), Aug. 04, GNA - President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday joined the Wesley Methodist Church Congregation in Saltpond to mark the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).

Also at the ceremony were Ministers of State, Legislators, traditional rulers, stalwarts of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), dignitaries and many from all works of life.

The memorial and thanksgiving service formed part of activities marking Ghana's 60 Years of independence.

The UGCC was one of the foremost political movements in the struggle for independence from the coloniser, Britain.

The President, resplendent in a white shirt over black trousers, electrified the congregants as he stepped into the Church, with some of the elated congregants showering appellations on the iconic political and human rights advocate.

He read the first Bible scripture from Isaiah 40:25-31, while the Acting Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr Freddie Blay, took the second reading from Philippians 4:6-9.

In a sermon, which focused on the scriptures read by the President, the former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, the Most Reverend Emmanuel Asante Antwi, asked political and pressure groupings to always uphold due processes and to operate within the boundaries of the law.

He asked the youth to exercise patience as the Government had expressed its commitment to transform the economy and create jobs for their wellbeing,

He also stressed the need for modesty and circumspection in the deeds and pronouncements of politicians, calling on all and sundry to reverence the forebears of Ghana's independence struggle.

The most Rev. Asante Antwi also urged the Government to invest in the reformation of education because he explained, 'but for education our forebears would not have been able to take the practical and analytical decisions that brought us independence".

He also appealed to Ghanaians and the corporate world to support plans to build the National Cathedral in Accra, and amplified a prophecy about the exploration of oil in Saltpond that would create jobs and boost Ghana's economy.

"Let today's celebration lead us to a new path, so that Ghana would be great and strong," he prayed.

Prayers were said for the promotion of incorruptible leadership, quality education, job creation, unity and consensus building in the polity of the country.

The UGCC was established at Saltpond in August 4, 1947, by Dr J.B. Danquah, with the support of Edward Akufo-Addo, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey and other lawyers, academicians, and traditional leaders, and with funding from merchants such as George Alfred Grant.

In December that year, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, upon the recommendation of Ebenezer Arko-Adjei, was invited from Liverpool, England, to become the General Secretary of the Party.

However, following disagreement over the direction of the independence movement, Dr. Nkrumah parted ways with the UGCC and went on to form the Convention Peoples Party and, eventually, became the first president of the Independent Ghana.

GNA
Kigali (AFP) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame looked set for a landslide victory Friday as election results trickling in showed the incumbent with an average 98 percent of the vote in districts counted.

The 59-year-old is expected to easily win a third seven-year term at the helm of the east African nation which he has ruled with an iron fist since the end of the 1994 genocide.

The electoral commission released 40 percent of results late Friday, in which Kagame led his two little-known opponents with a whopping 99.38 percent.

Provisional turnout is 97 percent of the 6.9 million registered voters.

Around the country Rwandans gathered to hear the results, with some already celebrating a win for Kagame. At a gymnasium in the capital loud music blared and dancers took to the floor to entertain several hundred people.

"We are celebrating the presidential election," said one young man as he danced. "We are celebrating Paul Kagame!" another yelled out next to him.

Kagame has been the de-facto leader of Rwanda since, as a 36-year-old, his rebel army routed extremist Hutu forces who slaughtered an estimated 800,000 people -- mainly minority Tutsis -- and seized Kigali in 1994.

He was appointed president by lawmakers in 2000 before being elected in 2003 and again in 2010 with more than 90 percent of votes.

The lanky former guerilla fighter is one of Africa's most divisive leaders, with some hailing him as a visionary while critics see a despot aiming to become one of the continent's presidents-for-life.

Rwandan socio-economic indicators since 1990

Kagame is credited with a remarkable turnaround in the shattered nation, which boasts annual economic growth of about seven percent, is safe, clean and does not tolerate corruption. Rwanda also has the highest number of female lawmakers in the world.

However rights groups accuse Kagame of ruling through fear, relying on systematic repression of the opposition, free speech and the media.

Kagame's critics have ended up jailed, forced into exile or assassinated. While few Rwandans would dare to openly speak against him.

'A winning team'

Those who praise him, do so with adulation.

"He freed the country, he stabilised the country. Now we can walk anywhere day or night without problems," Jean Baptiste Rutayisire, a 54-year-old entrepreneur, said at a polling station in Kigali.

"He is an exceptional man. You don't change a winning team."

Like many other voters AFP spoke to, Rutayisire didn't know the names of the other candidates, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party -- the only permitted critical opposition party -- and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana.

In early results Mpayimana scored a dismal 0.22 percent and Habineza 0.34 percent.

Rwanda is safe, clean and does not tolerate corruption. It also has the highest number of female lawmakers in the world

Despite facing an unwinnable battle against Kagame in which opponents had only three weeks to campaign, Habineza was upbeat after voting.

"For the first time since 23 years an opposition party has been in the ballot," he told AFP. Previously only independents and parties allied with Kagame fielded candidates.

President until 2034?

Even Kagame has said the result is a foregone conclusion.

"The election is over," he declared on the first day of the campaign.

His confidence comes after 98 percent of Rwandans approved a constitutional amendment in a 2015 referendum that granted him the right to run for a third term in office.

Observers condemned the reform, which could potentially see Kagame retain office twice more if re-elected this time and allow him to stay president until 2034.

Kagame defends his third term run as a duty to his people, who asked him to do so in the referendum.
Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya's main opposition coalition said Friday that one of its offices in a Nairobi suburb was raided by police who made off with dozens of computers, servers and surveillance equipment.

The incident comes as the country is on a knife edge just days ahead of general elections next Tuesday.

An AFP reporter at the scene of the raid at the office in the Westlands suburb saw dismantled cables, a broken door and chairs and tables turned upside down.

"What we are witnessing is a very unusual situation in the sense that one of our centres, our tallying centres was raided in the course of the evening," Musalia Mudavadi, one of the leaders of the National Super Alliance (NASA) told reporters at the scene.

"They damaged the place and disappeared ... with all the desktops, some laptops as well."

Earlier a NASA statement said "police in hoods and armed with AK47 and machine guns raided different offices" belonging to the coalition.

However no other raid at any other office belonging to the coalition could be confirmed.

A senior police officer denied any knowledge of the raid.

A guard at the affected building, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "They were all armed and when they walked in they introduced themselves as policemen and were brandishing guns, others were left outside while others went in.

"They had covered their faces and from the way they spoke they were very confident and were not in a hurry."

Musavadi said "we have no doubt this is the work of the government. It is unfortunate they have resorted to this but I can assure you that this will not deter us at all."

Polls show NASA's flagbearer Raila Odinga in a dead heat with longtime rival President Uhuru Kenyatta and tensions are rising.

Odinga says that the only way he will lose is if the poll is rigged. It is his fourth shot at the presidency and he claims elections in 2007 and 2013 were stolen from him.

NASA has locked horns with the national election commission (IEBC) with its plans to set up a parallel tallying centre to announce its own results.

Kenyatta's ruling Jubilee party denounced this as a plot to dispute the results.

The IEBC eventually agreed to the opposition plan, as long as it did not announce its own final result.

The country was also stunned by the murder and torture of a top IT official at the national election commission, who oversaw an electronic voting system seen as crucial to the success of the poll.

He was found strangled in a forest on the outskirts of Nairobi last weekend.

While 2013 polls were largely peaceful, it is a decade since a disputed 2007 presidential election led to two months of violence, leaving 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.
President Uhuru Kenyatta hails from the elite but has a reputation for the common touch. By SIMON MAINA (AFP)

05.08.2017 LISTEN

Nairobi (AFP) - The son of Kenya's founding president and a man who epitomises the country's elite, Uhuru Kenyatta hopes to win a second and final five-year term in elections on August 8.

The 55-year-old US-educated multi-millionaire, whose family owns an array of businesses, properties and tracts of land, followed in his father's footsteps when he defeated his rival Raila Odinga in 2013.

Kenyatta won that poll despite being indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) along with his running mate, William Ruto, for alleged roles in orchestrating violence that left over 1,100 dead after the previous election in 2007.

Foreign powers, including Britain and the US, warned at the time that Kenya, under an ICC-indicted president, would be a pariah, but the threats proved empty.

In 2014 the ICC dropped charges against Kenyatta -- and Ruto later -- citing the disappearance of witnesses and lack of evidence.

Since then Kenya has welcomed President Barack Obama, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Pope Francis and hosted a string of international gatherings and conferences.

Privilege and wealth

Kenyatta's first term has been defined by big spending on eye-catching infrastructure and impressive economic growth in a tough climate.

But this has gone hand-in-hand with spiralling debt and widening inequality.

Terrorism has also been a consistent threat during his presidency with Kenyatta being forced to address the nation in doleful terms on numerous occasions, notably after the 2013 Westgate mall attack and the 2015 Garissa university attack.

Kenyan presidents: from father to son

The former finance minister and deputy prime minister was born in 1961, shortly after his father Jomo Kenyatta was released from nearly a decade in British jails and before becoming Kenya's first president in 1964. His first name means "freedom" in Kiswahili.

Educated at a private school in Nairobi and at Amherst College in the US, Kenyatta is regarded as a leader of the Kikuyu people, the country's single largest ethnic group.

He is married with three children and regularly attends Catholic church.

In 2011 Forbes magazine estimated Kenyatta's wealth at $500 million (423 million euros). Despite his elite background Kenyatta has a common touch. He easily mixes it up with ordinary Kenyans, eagerly gets down on the dance floor and joshes in the local youth slang and, in his younger years, earned a persistent reputation for partying hard.

A leaked 2009 US diplomatic cable described him as "bright and charming, even charismatic" but warned that "Kenyatta's liabilities are at least as important as his strengths. He drinks too much and is not a hard worker."

Dynastic politics

Kenyatta's political career is a case study in pragmatism.

In the 1990s, he joined with the sons of other independence heroes to call for democratic reforms but then became a close ally of autocratic former president Daniel arap Moi who had him nominated as the ruling party's candidate for the presidency in 2002.

Kenyatta lost to fellow Kikuyu politician Mwai Kibaki but then backed Kibaki's successful re-election bid in 2007, against Odinga who, at the time was allied with Ruto.

The violent fall-out from the disputed result led to a power-sharing government in which Kibaki was president, Odinga prime minister and Kenyatta one of his deputies.

In 2013 the two ICC indictees, Kenyatta and Ruto, joined forces to defeat Odinga in a close and controversial election. Kenyatta won in the first round with a wafer-thin margin of 50.03 percent -- a result Odinga disputed, unsuccessfully but peacefully this time, in court.

Kenyatta supporters, one wearing a mask of their champion, take part in a pre-election rally

The upcoming vote is a re-run of 2013 except that this time the opposition has united behind Odinga posing a serious challenge to Kenyatta's ruling Jubilee Party.

Opinion polls put the two neck and neck.

The election will most likely be the final act in a multi-generational political rivalry stretching back half a century to when Jomo Kenyatta and Odinga's father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, vied for control of the nation.

If he wins, Kenyatta must stand down after one more term and, at 72, Odinga is regarded as too old to make another bid for the presidency in five years time. Both men's children are still inexperienced in politics.
05.08.2017 LISTEN

Accra, Aug. 4, CDA Consult  The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has urged Members of Parliament to maintain political neutrality in the performance of their official functions as Public Officials.

Whilst the Minister or Public Office Holder may be a politician, the public office he or she occupies is established to serve all members of the public and must be depoliticized.

Under the Generic Code of Conduct for Public Officials, all Public Officers including MPs are mandated to maintain political neutrality in the performance of public duties, Mr Richard Quayson, Deputy Commissioner, CHRAJ stated at a validation of Integrity Compliance Tools workshop in Accra.

He explained that Public Officials shall not, in the performance of official duties, act as agents for or further the interest of political parties - Public office are not party office.

Public Officials shall not engage in political activity that may compromise or be seen to compromise the political neutrality of public office.

Mr Quayson explained that the Generic Code of Conduct seeks to promote a high standard of ethics in public service, encourage good governance, transparency and accountability in Public Offices and improve the image of the Public Service in Ghana.

He said the Generic Code of Conduct is also to ensure that public officials are accountable to the people and discharge their duties with responsibility, integrity, competence, and loyalty.

It also seeks to promote selfless, dedicated and faithful service to the State, which enjoins the Public Officers to honour and abide by the Constitution and the Laws of Ghana in the performance of their official duties with dignity, integrity and professionalism.

The CHRAJ Deputy Commissioner explained that Public Officers in the performance of their official duties are mandated to act with professionalism and integrity and serve the State with honesty, fairness, integrity, neutrality and impartiality.

He said Public Officials are under obligation to ensure that their personal interests or activities do not interfere with or appear to interfere with their obligations to serve the State.

Public Officers shall not bring the Public Service into disrepute through their official or private activities; shall not allow their personal interests, activities or conduct to interfere with the performance of their duties and shall not engage in any activity that may influence or give the appearance of impropriety in the exercise of official duties.

He said Public Officials are also not to conduct themselves in a manner that undermines the integrity of public service, and shall not put themselves in positions where their personal interests conflict or are likely to conflict with the performance of the functions of their office.

Other mandates of a Pubic Officer includes forbidden from the use of the public office directly or indirectly for private gain, solicit gifts or favours directly or indirectly from any person or accept gifts or favours directly or indirectly from any person when such gifts or favours may compromise the objective performance of official duties.

Mr Quayson said Public Officials prohibited from the use of State property for activities not associated with the performance of official duties.

He said Chapter 24 of the 1992 Constitution provides for the Code of Conduct for Public Officers and the methods for dealing with breaches, which sets forth the values and ethics of public service to guide and support public officers in their work.

It is to secure integrity in the Public Service and enhance public confidence.

The two-day seminar was attended by Senior Public Officers from Ministries, Departments and Agencies which was also used to update the skills of the officers in Public Service Integrity Programme.

The Officials were also schooled on the Gift Management Policy and Disclosure Reporting Template, and the Code of Conduct Compliance Tools.

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Ghanas new president, Nana Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is, undoubtedly, one of the most resilient politician in the land. There is also no question that he was among the most qualified to ever sought the high office.

The determination of thisscion of one of Ghanas most illustrious families, son of a former president, was also never in doubt, as hedoggedly sought the presidency three times before he won in last December elections.

The72-year president, a very astute and experienced politician, told Ghanaians that he had extensively studied their problems and will solve them in no time. Given his pedigree and his lofty promises, plus a pledge to hit the ground running, the expectations of him to deliver was sky-high.

Today, discombobulated Ghanaians are asking why their leader, with all his vast experience is lurching from one controversy to another.

Right from the beginning, Nana Akufo-Addos presidency was inauspiciously marred by the public ridicule that greeted his inaugural address, when it was discovered that his speech-writers had engaged in massive plagiarism, lifting texts verbatim from several US presidents, among others.

The dust had barely settled on the scorn poured on Ghana by local and international critics when the president went to cut the sod for a National Cathedral. Many Ghanaians shook their heads in disbeliefand asked why their new leader thought a cathedral is a priority, in a country where every available space is dotted with a church or mosque. A good example is the large Industrial Estate at Kaneshiein the capital, Accra, where factories and warehouses have been turned into Megachurches.

This year marked Ghanas sixty years of independence. The occasion, nicknamed Ghana @60, was also greeted with controversy.

The government promised that no state fund will expended and set up a committee to run affairs and seek sponsorship from the private sector.All well and jolly except that the president found some ways to mar the occasion. Not only did he andhis vice decided not to wear the official uniform at the official ceremony, the president used that occasion, of all times, to revive the age-long controversy between his Danquah-Busia political dynasty and the partisans of Ghanas first president, Kwame Nkrumah.

Ostensibly a multi-party democracy, Ghana is, effectively, a two-party state. The Busia-Danquah political lineage, to which the president belongs, have always been at loggerheads with those that claim allegiance to Ghanas first president, Kwame Nkrumah, even if only at the lip-service level.

Ghana, like most African countries, still suffer from deep ethnicity and tribal divisions. The states, carved out to serve colonials interests, are yet to become viable nations.

In Ghana, the other tribes accuse the majority Akan tribe/nation (they dominate the Danquah-Busia group), of arrogance and overbearing.Some, especially the Ewes in the Volta Region, faulted President Akufo-Addos appointments, which is said to be tilted heavily towards his kinsmen.

But it was thepresidents attempt to rewrite history on Independence Day that peeved many people. Things would probably have died down if the presidents men did not attempt to ram their version of Ghanas history down their compatriots throats. Many of them went to town to dismiss Kwame Nkrumah as the Founder of modern Ghana.

The attempt at revisionism did not go down well with Nkrumahs hardcore partisans. Nkrumahs daughter, SamiaYaaba, released a statement and gently reminded people that attempt to besmirch her fathers legacy is an exercise in futility.

The more battle-hardened of Nkrumahs supporters were not as kind and as gentle as Samia, they launched pungent and very scathing attack on the president and his men, accusing them of fanning ethnic division and promoting an Akan Agenda.

More ominously, a group in the Volta Region revive a dormant secessionist movement which called for the independence of the region, formerly part of German-run Togoland, to be called Western Togoland. They Police promptly arrested and charged three of their leaders with treason.

It remains unclear what the president and his men hope to achieve by fanning the ember of ethnic chauvinism at this very early stage of their administration. It was not a pretty sight to see many Ghanaians picking cue from their leaders, donned the garb of ethnic cheerleaders and heap tribal invectives at each other.

Supporters of president Akufo-Addos New Patriotic Party (NPP) are, generally, very loyal. They stood by the party through thick and thin, and bore their years in opposition stoically. It was incredible then to see the president succeeding in annoying his own hardcore supporters. It happened when the president sent his final batch of ministerialappointees to the parliament for approval. His list brought the number of ministers to one hundred and ten (yes, 110).

Ghanaians, even committed NPP supporters, felt scandalized.

Many riled Ghanaians took to the airwavesto vent their anger at what they perceived as attempt by their newly-elected rulers to find jobs for the boys and girls who helped them to win elections. They cited the hypocrisy of seeing a man who, over the years, vociferated loudly against government excesses and lambasted the previous government for appointing a 85-strong cabinet, only to come to power and increase the tally.

The anger of Ghanaians would be best appreciated if situated properly in context. Naturally-endowed, the country remains a poor country. Its economy is in very bad, even dire,straits. Ghana depends on donor support for close to a third of its budget. A paltry GDP of US$10.7 billion gives the nation a measly GNP of some US$478. Many Ghanaians still live in conditions of shocking poverty. Many villages, especially in the northern part of the country, rely on NGOs for their educational and health needs. That notwithstanding, Ghanaian officials enjoy remunerations that will be the envy of officials in the countries that offer them support. For example, each Minister in Ghana is entitled to a V8 Jeep, police escort, free house and household supports, among other mouth-watering emoluments.

The president used his first State of the Nation address delivered on March, to lament about the parlous state of national affairs. He bemoaned how Ghana has been badly misled over the years, and asked why many citizens still live in poverty.

With so many critical areas crying for attention, sober-minded Ghanaians asked why their elderly president choose to deliberately court controversy.

Ghana, like many African countries, still face developmental challenges of truly epic proportions. Basic like water and electricity are still in short supply. More worrisome are the activities of illegal miners (Galamsey in the local parlance) who have denuded much of Ghanas prime forest and polluted many of the river bodies that the people depend on for their sustenance. Galamsey activities have been well publicized, but corrupt officials continue to look the other way as their nations environment is destroyed and the wealth stolen.

It baffles greatly why, with all these challenges, the president chose to stoke the ember of tribalism.He would be better served if he devotes his energies and attention to solving Ghanas huge problems.

Some commentators, perhaps uncharitably, opined that the president, in resurrecting the Nkrumah-Danquah controversy is trying to divert attention because he does not have answers to the huge problems he inherited. Only time will tell if they are right.

About the Author

Femi Akomolafe is a passionate Pan-Africanist. A columnist for the Accra-based Daily Dispatch newspaper and ModernGhana, and Correspondent for the New African magazine, Femi lives in both Europe and Africa, and writes regularly on Africa-related issues for various newspapers and magazines.

Femi was the producer of the FOCUS ON AFRICANS TV Interview programme for the MultiTV Station.

He is Man and Machine Coordinator at Alaye Dot Biz Limited, a Kasoa-based Multimedia organisation that specialises in Audio and Video Production. He loves to shoot and edit video documentaries.

He is the author of the highly-acclaimed books: Africa: Destroyed by the gods, Africa: It shall be well, 18 African Fables & Moonlight Stories and Ghana: Basic Facts + More.

Femis Blog: www.alaye.biz/category/blog

Website: www.alaye.biz

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More than 200 local and foreign investors have expressed interest in supporting the country develop its rail industry.

This is according to a deputy Railways Development Minister, Kwaku Agyenim Boateng.

He said the government will resort to what it calls multiple financing approaches to achieve its goal of revamping the rail sector.

In June this year, the government announced that it will need $7 billion dollars to revamp the sector but different groups including the minority in Parliament said the government was being over-ambitious.

You are dealing with investors who want to invest. It could be Public Private Partnership, Government of Ghana, or Build Operate and Transfer. Rail investments are huge, so you have to be very innovative in funding such projects. We have received over 202 Letters of Interests. They want to engage the ministry in discussing funding arrangements for the various projects, he said.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in its election 2016 manifesto said improving the rail industry was one of its key infrastructural plans.

It said it would construct an Eastern and Central rail line to improve transportation of goods between the north and the south.

The Eastern Railway line will cover a distance of 330km and starts from Accra to Kumasi with a branch line from Achimota to Tema.

The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta while presenting the 2017 budget statement said when the line becomes operational, it will decongest the port and facilitate the movement of cargo and passengers to Kumasi and its environs. In 2017, the feasibility studies will be finalized and invite proposals from the private sector.

On the Central Rail line, he said, he said it will cover a distance of 200km and spans from Kotoku on the Eastern Line to Huni Valley on the Western Line. It will have a branch line from Achiase to Kade and we plan to undertake feasibility study on the line and extend it to Kibi.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
05.08.2017 LISTEN

Former Information Minister Fritz Baffour has criticised political parties in the country who make attempts to change Ghanas history to suit their motives.

The former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma South said he is appalled at the insidious attempts to revise and skew our history to suit their ideological inclinations without recourse to credible documentation and the glaring facts at hand.

He blamed respected historians, many of whom he said were aligned to existing political dispensations at the time, and, therefore, were not neutral in their published works, for the recurrent altering of the countrys history.

Mr Baffour wrote on Facebook on Friday, August 4 that he was glad that a new breed of academics and researchers who are not tainted politically, are working diligently to give us a more credible picture of our past and present.

He added: I am also happy a lot of firsthand accounts of political and public stewardship are being written by the players themselves, myself included, God bless Ghana!

Mr Baffours comments come in the wake of the governing New Patriotic Partys move to celebrate the formation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) as they mark the 70-year anniversary of the founding of the party on August 4.

The New Patriotic Party, an offshoot of the UGCC believes the formation of the first political movement was a precursor to Ghanas independence, hence worth celebrating.

As part of activities earmarked for the commemoration, there would be an anniversary lecture to be delivered by the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike A. Oquaye on the topic, 4th August, Ghanas Day of Destiny at the National Theatre in Accra.

The lecture will be preceded by a memorial and thanksgiving service in honour of the founders of the UGCC at Saltpond in the Central Region, a town that hosted the Headquarters of the UGCC.

The NPP on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the UGCC has also called on Ghanaians to, at all times, exude high spirit of patriotism and nationalism, hard work and dedication, adherence to rule of law and democratic principles, freedom and liberty, commitment to duty and unwavering love for country, which according to them were the ideals of the UGCC.
TWO REPORTERS of Luv FM in Kumasi and a driver of the station were arrested by the Asokwa police on Thursday and later granted bail.

They are Erastus Asare Donkor and Nana Yaw Gyimah. The driver was also identified as James Aggrey.

They were said to have invaded the premises of a building under construction at the Asokwa Interchange area and reported about it.

The five-storey building is reportedly owned by Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo, the Agric Nzemahene in Kumasi.

The building, located along the road from the interchange to Ahensan, had been abandoned for more than one decade.

There were rumours that it had suffered some serious defects, which had led to the project being abandoned for a long time by its owner.

Erastus and Nana Yaw said they saw some people seriously working on the house on Thursday and so they became curious and wanted to find out more about it.

They told DAILY GUIDE that they visited the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and they were told that the assembly had not permitted work to be undertaken on the building.

According to Erastus and Nana Yaw, from the KMA they visited the construction site to find out why the house was being built without permission from the KMA.

They said to their dismay, workers at the construction site pounced on them, destroyed their gadgets and hauled them to the Asokwa Police Station.

The two journalists claimed that they were charged for unlawful invasion and other charges before they were granted bail by the police.

They disclosed that their cameras and microphone were being kept at the police station.

Meanwhile, DAILY GUIDE checks at the KMA indicated that the assembly had no knowledge about the project.

A deep-throat source at the assembly told the paper that the KMA had even written to the house owner to stop working on the facility.

FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
The progressive era of California government a century ago spawned many innovative reforms, among them a grand compromise between the states workers and their employers.

Under workers compensation, enacted in 1914, workers would give up their right to sue employers for injuries and in return, employers would be obligated to pay for medical care and provide cash benefits while disabled employees recuperated.

Today, work comp, as its dubbed, is a huge program  well over $20 billion a year  whose operating rules are a source of perennial political jousting.

Five major stakeholder groups  employers, insurers, labor unions, medical care providers and lawyers who specialize in work comp cases  maneuver incessantly behind the scenes. About once a decade, several of the big interests agree among themselves on rules changes and get the Legislature and the governor to enact them.

Usually, whats called reform involves financial gains for its sponsors and financial hits on those left out of the deal. It last happened in 2012 when employers and unions, with the tacit approval of work comp insurers, agreed to raise cash benefits and pay for them by tightening medical care and rehabilitation services. It angered medical providers and lawyers, of course, but followup studies indicate its done what it was supposed to do.

However, it still left California employers with  by far  the nations highest work comp burden. The 2016 annual survey of costs by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services kept California in the No. 1 spot with an average cost of 3.24 percent of payroll for work comp insurance, 76 percent above the national average.

Obviously, working in California is not inherently more dangerous than in other states, and cash benefits to disabled California workers are not out of line, so the enormous cost differential must be rooted in the system itself, which explains why its rules are the subject of constant political infighting.

One factor in those costs is what officials say is an enormous amount of fraud, concentrated in Southern California.

Last year, the Center for Investigative Reporting reviewed work comp fraud cases that had been prosecuted and reported that they totaled more than $1 billion. But authorities believe that prosecutions merely are the tip of the iceberg.

Why Southern California? Its large numbers of immigrant workers are easily persuaded by recruitment agents, called cappers, to file claims that allow unscrupulous lawyers and medical providers to milk inflated payments for nonexistent injuries.

The Legislature occasionally addresses fraud. Last year, Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Cerritos, carried legislation to prevent medical providers charged with work comp fraud from making claims for payment until their cases are settled, citing fraudulent or unnecessary surgeries and compound medicines, as well as the selling of patient referrals to lawyers and doctors.

The continuing litany of cases underscores that concern. In June, Orange County prosecutors filed fraud charges against 10 attorneys and six others in an alleged scheme involving more than 33,000 patients for which more than $300 million in insurance payments had been made. Two months earlier, Orange County had busted a similar operation, bringing charges against more than two dozen doctors, pharmacists and business owners.

The grand compromise is just as valid today as it was in 1914, but it could collapse if costs  and the fraud and other unseemly aspects of work comp that drive them  are not tamed. The next overhaul should be systemic, not just another backroom deal.
The Chairman of the National Disciplinary Committee of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Most Rev Asante Antwi, has instructed Invisible Forces and all other vigilante groups affiliated with the party, to stop perpetrating acts of violence with immediate effect.

He noted that the actions the groups are in sharp contrast to the conduct of the founding fathers of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) from which the current NPP was formed and should therefore come to an end.

According to him, such acts tarnish their (the founding fathers') image and make them waggle in their graves.

Most Rev Asante Antwi gave the advice on Friday in a sermon he delivered at a Memorial Service at Saltpond in the Central Region to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the formation of the UGCC in August 1947.

The service, held at the Saltpond Methodist Church, was graced by the President, Nana Addo-Danquah Akufu Addo, members of the Council of Elders of the NPP, key party figures and Ministers in the Akufu Addo government.

The ruling New Patriotic Party takes its root from the UGCC, but its second government in the 4th Republic led by President Akufu Addo has been hard hit by series vigilante acts by various youth groups within it such as the Invisible Forces and the Delta Force.

The Invisible Forces have recently sent a strong warning to party officials that they may replicate what the Delta Force did in Kumasi if the ruling party does not offer them jobs.

The acts have attracted diverse condemnation from different sectors of the Ghanaian public, but Most Rev Asante Antwi has advised the party members to be circumspect in their public and private pronouncements and actions as a way of keeping the image of the founding fathers untainted.



By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
A damning report compiled by Non-Governmental Organization called Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development (CALID) has revealed that 48.5% of basic school pupils in the Sagnarigu District of the Northern Region could neither read simple letter words or work out simple numeracy from grade 2 symbols.

CALID's Executive Director, Mohammed Awal Sumani Bapio decried the situation at a day's stakeholders forum organized in collaboration with OXFAM Ghana.

He thereby called for the establishment of more libraries in basic schools to overturn the situation.

According to Mohammed Awal Sumani Bapio, CALID in partnership with OXFAM Ghana conducted research in the Sagnarigu, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and Kpandai districts on basic school pupils reading skills.

He said a sample size of 925 school children comprising 433 girls and 492 boys from Primary 1 to Junior High School 3 were assessed in 20 Electoral Areas of the Sagnarigu District.

He narrated that the assessment was conducted by volunteers under a project codenamed, Citizen-Led Assessment: Strengthening Citizens' Action on Learning and Empowerment (SCALE).

The study examined the extent to which every child who is of school age has learned in terms of basic literacy and numeracy skills in order to survive the 21st century learner space, Sumani Bapio explained

The bedrock of real learning lies in the ability to read and understand but when a child in lower and upper primary school as well as JHS cannot read and make meaning out of what they see written on paper or on a chalkboard, then that is very serious.

Comparing the Sagnarigu District to the Kpandai and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Districts, though the former is better than the latter, the study result of the three districts is still nothing to write home about.

A representative of the Sagnarigu District Education Directorate, Mohammed Fuseini urged parents to get involved in the assessment of their children in school.

Participants at the forum attributed the phenomenon to lack of parents interest in monitoring their children's performance, poor teacher instructions and government's failure to provide the requisite learning and teaching materials.

They also cited weak structures of many Parent Teacher Associations and School Management Committees as a major cause.

The participants advocated the independence of the Ghana Education Service devoid of government's interference.



By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The Association of Gas Tanker Drivers has refused to call off its earlier threat of a nationwide strike over the sole supply of gas by Puma Energy.

This is despite the National Petroleum Authority' (NPA) denying any it has any deal with Puma Energy Limited to supply of gas and LPG cylinders to domestic consumers as part of the Cylinder Recirculation Module.

According to the group, there has still not been any formal communication to them from the NPA and the plan to strike will still hold until it gets something concrete.

This is according to Bernard Donkor, the Public Relations Officer for the Gas Tanker Drivers Association, who indicated some distrust for the NPA saying we have been dealing with the NPA for some time now and we know their ways of operating.

The NPA released a statement to the General public denying the ties with Puma first alleged by the Gas Tanker Drivers Association.

The authority said the claims from the Gas Tanker Drivers Association were an outright falsehood perpetuated by the Association.

Mr. Donkor acknowledged the statement from the NPA but said his group is expecting that we get a direct communication, either written or verbal to that effect.

The communication that came from the NPA was for the general public. If we should go by what they have said to the General Public, which has not been directed at us, I don't think we will be doing ourselves any good.

Thus he said, if we get the desired results, definitely, we are going to hold on [with the strike] but until that, we will go ahead with all our plans as scheduled.

Discontent with policy

When the Association first raised concerns with the Cylinder Recirculation Module, it expressed fears that the policy if allowed will throw them out of business, and cause the collapse of all gas filling stations in the country.

The associations warned that about 7,000 Ghanaians workers in the LPG chain would be laid off, aggravating the already high unemployment situation in the country.

The LPG Marketers Association also feel the plan to introduce the Cylinder Recirculation Module is targeted at collapsing their businesses despite their long operation within the industry.

They, however, feel the policy can be implemented through them due to their experience in the industry, spanning over 30 years.



By: Minna Dablu/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP) - James Anderson took four wickets from the newly-named James Anderson End to leave England in a commanding position against South Africa in the fourth Test at Old Trafford on Saturday.

South Africa were 220 for nine in reply to England's first innings 362, featuring Jonny Bairstow's 99, at stumps on the second day.

That left them with a deficit of 142 runs in a match they have to win to draw this four-match series 2-2.

Morne Morkel was 18 not out after Kagiso Rabada (23) was brilliantly caught by a diving Ben Stokes in the gully off Stuart Broad in what became the last ball of the day.

At stumps, paceman Anderson had figures of four wickets for 33 runs in 15 overs.

The 35-year-old was now in sight of his first five-wicket haul in a Test innings at Old Trafford.

But his seventh Test at Old Trafford was the first fixture since what was known as the Pavilion End had been renamed in honour of Anderson, England's all-time leading Test wicket-taker.

Anderson needed just three balls to strike when Dean Elgar, fresh from a hundred in South Africa's 239-run defeat in the third Test at The Oval, was lbw for a duck in the first over of the Proteas' reply.

Roland-Jones has Amla again

Hashim Amla made a typically stylish 30.

But for the third time in as many innings, he fell to Toby Roland-Jones after the Middlesex paceman had twice removed him cheaply on his Test debut at The Oval.

England's Toby Roland-Jones dismissed South Africa's Hashim Amla for 30 on the second day of the fourth Test at Old Trafford on August 5, 2017

Amla glanced Roland-Jones off his pads for four only to fall next ball when, trying to play a similar shot to a worse delivery, he was caught down the legside by wicket-keeper Bairstow.

South Africa then sent in Temba Bavuma rather than Quinton de Kock, who had been batting at number four this series.

But with a sunny day and good pitch offering some of the best batting conditions this series, struggling opener Heino Kuhn and Bavuma got bogged down.

Their approach would have been justified if at least one of them made a big score.

But two balls after a near run out, Kuhn edged off-spinner Moeen Ali to Stokes at slip on 24.

Bavuma battled hard for 46 before becoming the latest Proteas batsman to be out playing no shot this series, leaving an Anderson delivery that clipped the top of off stump.

And when South Africa captain Faf du Plessis fell for 27 via an inside edge onto his stumps, Anderson had taken two for one in three balls to reduce the Proteas to 132 for five.

Theunis de Bruyn (11) gave Anderson his fourth wicket of the innings when he edged an intended drive to England captain Joe Root at second slip.

Ali followed up with his 20th wicket of the series, surpassing his previous best of 19 at home to India in 2014, when Keshav Maharaj was plumb lbw.

De Kock had dropped opposing gloveman Bairstow on 53, a costly error, but there was no returning the favour when the left-hander nicked Stuart Broad to the Yorkshireman on 24.

England resumed on 260 for six after winning the toss.

Bairstow was 33 not out, having survived a contentious umpire review for a slip catch when he'd made a mere four runs.

England's Jonny Bairstow was dismissed for 99 on the second day of the fourth Test against South Africa on August 5, 2017

He was in fluent touch Saturday against an attack without injured pacemen Vernon Philander and Chris Morris, both sidelined from this match with back strains.

But he should have gone for 53 only for de Kock to drop a low diving chance off Rabada.

Bairstow, with just last man Anderson for company, cashed in amid a blizzard of boundaries that included a straight six off Duanne Olivier.

But in sight of what would have been a fourth Test century, Bairstow was lbw trying to sweep left-arm spinner Maharaj.

Bairstow was the first England batsman out for 99 in a Test match since Kevin Pietersen against Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2010.
05.08.2017 LISTEN

Accra, Aug. 5, GNA - Dr Mrs Bernice Adiku Heloo, MP for Hohoe, has expressed unhappiness with the capturing of Mrs Samira Bawumia, the Second Lady, on the social media promoting Kukum Bhagya, an Indian soap opera, during her trip to India.

She claimed Mrs Bawumia was spotted in pictures with members of Kumkum Bhagya fame.

Mrs Heloo, who was interacting with journalists, advocated the promotion of Ghanaian soap operas rather than foreign ones, to protect the nation's culture and to create more jobs in the film industry.

The MP condemned also the use of working hours to watch foreign soap operas.

She said Ghanaians must watch local soap operas, whilst calling on the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Arts to come out with packages that would encourage managers of the TV stations to devote much time to airing Ghanaian products. GNA

By Benjamin Mensah, GNA
05.08.2017 LISTEN

Accra, Aug. 5, GNA - Dr Paul K. Effah, the President of Radford University College, has urged stakeholders not only seek to professionalise university administration, but also intellectualise it, to enable it remain relevant to the academics.

He said there was no place for administrative artisans, who waited to be told what to do.

He said the current trends of development in advanced countries showed that research departments were being headed by administrative staff, who went all out to source for funding to ensure the sustainability of research activities.

Dr Effah, who is also the former Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education, made the call on Friday in Accra at the Ghana Association of University Administrators' (GAUA) Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Workshop Series for the southern sector.

The day's workshop on the theme "Modern Trends in University Administration and Management," was hosted by the University of Ghana (UG).

It was attended by participants from the UG, the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) - campuses at Ajumako and Winneba, the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

There rest are the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Ho Technical University and Accra Technical University.

GAUA's vision is to promote the advancement of higher education administration in Ghana and to stimulate the professional development of its members.

Dr Effah noted that nowadays, universities administrative portfolios such as registrar, planning officers, institutional research and information technology directors were being held by master of philosophy holders or doctorate degree holders.

Dr Effah, who spoke on the topic: "Modern Trends in University Management and their Impact on Career Development," said the principal duties of university lecturers were to conduct research, teach and render services.

He said for a university to remain relevant, it had to make impact at the local, national and international levels.

Touching on four alternative path for developments, Dr Effah mentioned the Post-Fordist University, which was grounded in changes in the way the University is internally managed.

The others are the Core University Model, the Distributor University System and Universities in "an ecology of learning".

On the importance of middle level staff in universities management, Dr Effah said: "Organisations don't prosper unless managers in the middle ranks identify and promote the need for change.

"People at that level gather valuable intelligence from direct contact with customers, suppliers and colleagues," he said.

He urged university authorities to ensure that their institutions operated an all year round programmes instead of the semester system to cater for the rising demand for university education.

Mr Matthew Asare, National President of GAUA, who chaired the function, said the National Executive Committee decided to hold the CPD twice a year.

He said one was for the northern sector made up of the University for Development Studies (UDS), University for Energy and Natural Resources, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Mines and Technology and the UEW Kumasi and Mampong-Ashanti Campuses.

The southern sector was made up of UCC, UEW Winneba and Ajumako campuses, UG, UPSA and the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

He said for strategic reason, there was the decision to hold the northern sector event to coincide with the memorial lecture of the late Mr Koby Yebo Okra, former Registrar of the KNUST.

Mrs Mercy Haizel-Ashia, UG Registrar, called for effective collaboration and partnership between universities.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
Nouakchott (AFP) - Counting began on Saturday in Mauritania after a referendum on constitutional changes sought by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who derided the efforts of a boycott movement that has galvanised mass protests during the campaign.

Aziz is pushing to abolish the country's Senate and several other state bodies and to make a small alteration to the national flag, measures that have galvanised boycotters hoping to sap the vote's credibility by forcing a low turnout.

Polling stations closed at 7:00 pm (1900 GMT) after peaceful voting, with no repeat of the violent clashes seen in the final week of campaigning.

After voting in the morning, Aziz said the changes would bring Mauritania "peace, security, stability and development", and dismissed the boycott movement as existing "only on paper and social media".

The boycott movement draws broad political support from figures as diverse as religious conservatives and anti-slavery activists.

They have held several protests attracting thousands of supporters, but have also been prevented from demonstrating by the security forces, who on Thursday shut down several planned rallies close to the capital with tear gas and beat protesters back with batons.

Bedenna Ould Sidi, the head of operations for the country's electoral commission, said the referendum had been a success but turnout was not available.

Mauritanians are also voting on a new flag that would honour those killed in the struggle for independence from France

A source close to the electoral commission told AFP around 1400 GMT that turnout was around 20 percent in Nouakchott and 40 percent in the country's interior.

Around 1.4 million Mauritanians were eligible to vote, and results could be available as early as Sunday if counting proceeds quickly.

Third mandate?

While Aziz and his supporters are seeking a "Yes" vote, one moderate opposition party is seeking a "No", while the rest have joined civil society groups to call for a total boycott for amendments they consider unconstitutional.

The Forum for Unity and Democracy (FNDU), a coalition of parties spearheading the boycott, thanked the Mauritanian people for their "positive response" on Saturday night and said they believed turnout had not broken 15 percent.

The electoral commission hailed the poll a success, though turnout was still unclear

They repeated earlier claims that Aziz's supporters would arrange for a "vast fraud" to win the vote and promised to reveal tactics aimed at pushing through what they termed an "anticonstitutional farce".

The UN Human Rights Office said Thursday that "protest leaders were reportedly beaten up and a number of them were arrested" during campaign rallies in the last few weeks, urging the government to ensure fair and credible elections.

The opposition also fears that despite Aziz's claims to the contrary, he is laying the groundwork for a third term in power, as his own prime minister said back in July he supported the idea.

Aziz himself fuelled speculation on Saturday by saying that "in two years, or even 10 years other amendments could arise to adapt our constitution to reality," without elaborating.

He also said journalists questioning why European Union observers were not present had a "colonial mentality", describing the EU as "not a barometer for the truth."

Sidi, the polling chief, said foreign observers were present but would not be drawn on where they had come from.

Aziz vs Senate

The proposal to modify the constitution, in force since 1991, was rejected by the Senate in March, leading Aziz to call the referendum to push through the changes.

Results could come as soon as Sunday if counting goes smoothly

The most contentious measure remains the abolition of the Senate and its replacement with elected regional councils, and senators have held a sit-in this week and demanded apologies from Aziz for accusing them of corruption.

Unrepentant, Aziz said at a final rally on Thursday the Senate "costs a lot, has no use and does nothing", and vowed to launch legal action against several senators.

The president came to power in a coup in 2008 and was elected in 2009 and again in 2014 for a second five-year term.

Under the proposed change to the flag, red bands would be added to the current green flag with yellow Islamic crescent and star, to honour those who fought for freedom from colonial master France.
'The big truck is still on ...
After delivering a blistering speech critiquing Donald Trumps performance as president at a recent conference, I was challenged by an audience member to say something nice about our commander in chief. I answered without a seconds hesitation.

For almost a decade, Mika Brzezinski and I had the pleasure of occasionally crossing paths with Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric Trump. I explained that in those encounters, the presidents children were unfailingly deferential and polite. Long before their fathers election, the Trump children enjoyed a stellar reputation among most Manhattan influencers for being hard-working and well raised. They possessed few of the flaws too easily recognizable in other wealthy and well-connected kids. Often, conversations that centered on the boorish behavior of Trump himself would end with someone citing his children as a mitigating factor against whatever severe judgments were being handed down.

I once told Trump that a good way to judge most people is by the children they raised, and that by that measure, he seemed to be an unqualified success. The Donalds response was uncharacteristically humble.

Anything good you see in my children is the result of them having a great mother, he quietly said, with no cameras rolling to catch this fleeting glimpse of humility.

Much has changed in the five years since Trump delivered that self-aware confession. The Manhattan developer is now the least popular first-year president in the history of presidential polling. His oldest son is caught up in a federal investigation involving attempts by Russia to undermine American democracy. Federal prosecutors are also reportedly investigating the finance and business dealings of Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has repeatedly been forced to amend federal disclosure forms to add omitted information on his financial assets and contacts with foreign nationals, including from Russia. Even Trumps daughter Ivanka, despite her concerted efforts to keep a low profile during the campaign and to round off her fathers roughest edges inside the White House, has become the subject of controversy.

Her decision to sit alongside foreign leaders at the recent Group of 20 summit in Hamburg was slammed as grotesque and banana-republicky. In a recent tweet, she declared that she would be serving alongside John Kelly, just as the retired four-star Marine general let it be known that all access to the Oval Office would go through him. The real estate heiress not only appeared to be claiming the West Wing as her territory, but she also betrayed a troubling sense of entitlement that one might expect from other billionaires daughters but not this one. Kelly and White House insiders know that Ivanka Trump is as ill-prepared to face the brutish realities of Washington as her father. And tragically, neither seems to know what they do not know.

Which brings us back to Kushner.

Though Donald Trump might be loath to admit it, Kushner did much to elect his father-in-law. By quietly building a successful online fundraising and targeting operation far beyond his candidates comprehension, Kushner gave Trump a fighting chance to keep the 2016 presidential race close, in the hope that lightning would strike at the right time. It did. And thats when Kushners problems began.

The quiet diplomacy Kusher employed so effectively during the campaign gave way to the sort of stubborn arrogance that often infects the winning side of presidential campaigns. Trumps shocking victory led his son-in-law to believe he could reinvent government like Al Gore, micromanage the White House like James Baker and restructure the Middle East like Moses. Kushners confidence seemed to reach its apex whenever the subject turned to Middle East peace. His bizarre belief that the world began anew the day Trump was inaugurated was exposed again this week when a leaked audiotape caught Kushner telling White House interns: We dont want a history lesson. Weve read enough books.

Americans have seen enough headlines over the past six months to better understand why nepotism does not work in the White House. Though my words may suggest otherwise, I genuinely like Jared and Ivanka. I also love Joey, Andrew, Katherine and Jack Scarborough. But I wouldnt let them run my morning show any more than Trump should let his children run roughshod over White House operations. Vice presidents, not daughters, should sit in G-20 summits. And a secretary of state should broker Middle East peace. Not an inexperienced 36-year-old son-in-law.

I have no doubt that Trumps daughter and son-in-law believe they are working hard to make America and the world a better place. But now the best thing they can do for their country is to move back to New York and let professionals run the White House.
- The Oba of Lagos said President Muhammadu Buhari is to blame for the decay in the Nigeria Police Force

- He said during Buhari's military regime as Head of State, he was not committed to the funding of the police because he thought there was a conspiracy in the Force againsthim

- The monarch called on Buhari to repair the damage he caused in police now that he is a democratic leader

The Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, has said President Muhammadu Buhari is responsible for the rot in the Nigeria Police Force.

Akiolu, a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, said between 1983 and 1985, when Buhari was Head of State, he took some decisions which killed the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nigeria Police Force, The Punch reports.

The monarch disclosed this on Friday, August 4, at a seminar in Lagos, tagged: Providing Strategic Solutions to Emergent Security Challenges: The Essentials of Synergy Amongst Security Agencies and Civil Populace.

READ ALSO: Islamic Movement demands release of El-Zakzaky, 600 days after

He said: The military killed the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nigeria Police Force. The problem of the police started with Buhari in 1984 when he was Head of State. They said (Sunday) Adewusi wanted to take over the government. I explained to them that it was not possible at all.

Akiolu called on Buhari to consider repositioning the police so that they can be efficient, now that he is back as a democratic leader.

The monarch prayed that the president would recover speedily and return to the country to continue with the anti-corruption fight.

Also speaking, a former IG, Musiliu Smith, said the government needed to pay attention to training of officers.

PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

On his part, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who organised the seminar said the collaboration between the police, other sister agencies, and the military was being strengthened to ensure effective operation in the country.

He added that his special teams had been deployed to various highways in the country where kidnappers were unleashing terror on daily basis.

In an earlier report by Legit.ng, the Nigerian Senate voted to alter the constitution to allow independent candidates contest elections in the country and to change the name of the Nigeria Police Force.

In the vote on the name change, 87 senators voted for YES while 2 voted for NO with 1 abstaining.

Legit.ng TV asked Nigerians if they regard police officers as their friends. Watch their reactions in the video below:

Source: Legit.ng
Barely 5 months after Legit.ng reported that some Jewish scientists visited Nnewi, Anambra state to trace the ancestral lineage of the Igbos, they have returned with the result.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the former president-general of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr Dozie Ikedife, invited Jewish scientists to carry out some Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) tests at his hospital, to ascertain the possibility of an ancestral relationship between the Igbo people and Jews in Israel.

About 5 months later, the scientists led by the international president of the Jewish voice ministries identified as Rabbi Jonathan Bernis, returned to Nnewi where they presented the DNA results of their verification.

The scientists whose current visit to Nnewi is said to be their 4th, presented the result which reportedly proves that the Igbos from south-eastern Nigeria are truly descendants of the clan of Gad in Israel.

The Jewish scientists returned to Nnewi with DNA proof that Igbos are truly of Israeli descent.

READ ALSO: Jewish brothers show Kanu where Igbos are written in Torah (photos)

They were reportedly received by the Nnewi North caretaker committee chairman Prince Chukwudi Orizu, at the Messianic Faith Assembly in Uruagu.

See more photos below:

The scientists were led by the international president of the Jewish voice ministries, Rabbi Jonathan Bernis.

The Jewish scientists were received at the Messianic Faith Assembly in Uruagu, Nnewi.

What do you think?

Meanwhile, watch this video to learn how far the Biafra agitation has gone:

Source: Legit.ng
Bees are first insects shown to understand the concept of zero New Scientist (Robert M)

I cant find the honey bee queen, what now? Spreadcasts. Will C:

We let one of our hives raise a new honey bee queen. Later, when I opened up the hive, I saw shed been very busy laying eggs. The circled cell has not one but two eggs. This is pretty normal for a new queen. Call it excitement or maybe just nerves. Workers will eat the supernumerary eggs so that theres no bee twins. The bonus feature of the photo is the two workers in the upper left trading food, aka trophallaxis.

Iditarod Sled Dogs Are Racing to Early Graves (Video) Alternet :-(

Fido And Fluffy Are Ruining The Environment, UCLA Study Says Patch (Chuck L). Not clear if it backs amount the amount of meat that would not be used for human consumption that winds up in pet food, or that beef is far more costly in environmental terms than chicken. Not disputing that pets have a cost, the question is how the study made its estimate.

Extreme weather could kill up to 100,000 a year in Europe by 2100 BBC

Just trading beef for beans could get the United States near its CO2 goal. Grist

Interview: The First Naked Ascent of El Capitan Climbing Magazine (Bill C)

Boeing Dreamliner crew draws enormous outline of their plane in the sky Minnesota Public Radio News (Chuck L)

Banning Nuclear Weapons: The Beginning Portside (Sid S)

6-Monsanto-Consultant-Protests-Ghostwriting.pdf Baum & Hedlund Law (Chuck L). From Monsanto Secret Documents in the Roundup multidistrict litigation.

Circumventing machine-gun controls with a robotic glove that automates faster-than-human trigger-pulls Boing Boing (resilc)

Why We Cant Have the Male Pill Bloomberg (Chuck L):

The joke in the field is that the male contraceptive has been five years away for the last 40 years, says John Amory, a research physician at the University of Washington School of Medicine who has been working on the challenge for two decades.

China?

Brexit

Irish PM tells May to tear up Brexit plan The Times Is Britains Brexit chaos a cunning ploy? Financial Times (Richard Smith). Betteridges Law strikes again. And while what the author presents is sufficient to make the case, theres another set of failings he is too polite to admit to: the Foreign Office is woefully undermanned, having been hollowed out over decades. Individually competent officials cant make up for far too few seasoned hands on deck to manage a massively complex set of tasks.

Toronto Housing Bubble Pops. Genuine Fear of Price Collapse Wolf Richter

New Cold War

Go look at the replies to this tweet to see how much support there is for free speech in America. As Lambert has said, this is not the behavior of a confident elite. The @nytimes reports on evidence that Russia is trying to get the U.S. National Security Advisor fired.https://t.co/dMgS36qUkE pic.twitter.com/ChJxm3Hj5e  Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 5, 2017

Syraqistan

Our generals reveal why we lost in Afghanistan, and will continue to lose Fabius Maximus. Resilc: The BEST generals have not won since Truman.

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

That Drone Hovering Over Your Home? Its the Insurance Inspector Wall Street Journal. Drones presented as a consumer benefit, natch. Glad I live in an apartment building with super tight security (the permanent residence of the Egyptian ambassador is two floors above mine, and theyve had that entire floor for fifty years). You Are the Product London Review of Books. On Faceborg.

Trump Transition

Obamacare

The Scandal That Matters Wall Street Journal (UserFriendly). Key paragraph:

Because based on what we already know, the Awan story isat the very leasta tale of massive government incompetence that seemingly allowed a family of accused swindlers to bilk federal taxpayers out of millions and even put national secrets at risk. In a more accountable world, House Democrats would be forced to step down.

Police recover car stolen from senior couple, then try to auction it Boing Boing (resilc)

New McCarthyism

Black Injustice Tipping Point

NAACP Travel Warning for Missouri Is a Sad Fact of 2017 Esquire (UserFriendly). Ugh: The NAACP says this is the first travel advisory ever issued by the organization, at the state or national level.

Kill Me Now

Why Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Is Swaggering Into Jail Bloomberg

July Part-Time Work Jumps by 393,000; Full-Time Employment Down 54,000 Michael Shedlock

Nobodys immune: More retail bankruptcies are looming Business Insider

Wells Fargo Clients Want Credit Repair for Insurance Debacle Bloomberg

Wells Fargo says fake accounts scandal may widen Financial Times:

The US bank has been trying to overcome a crisis since it was revealed that employees, under pressure to hit targets, set up as many as 2.1m accounts without customer authorisation over a period of about four years. The bank has been reviewing the extent of the malpractice over an additional three-year period, as far back as 2009  and on Friday Wells confirmed that this review may lead to a significant increase in the identified number of potentially unauthorised accounts.

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (MGL). The well-known Larry, No. 10s mouser-in-chief, taking a pose. From the Telegraphs Meet the cats of Westminster. But it turns out Treasury has dogs.

Another Viahalhaven Sightings image via Robert H:

And a bonus video thanks to Richard Smith:

Just a rhino charging at traffic, while an Indian couple commentate with Hank Marvin on the radio. That's all. pic.twitter.com/1WG8Nt2EMb  Ste.A (@sarm0161) August 4, 2017

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
When it comes to HIV prevention and treatment, there is a growing population that is being overlooked -- older adults -- and implicit ageism is partially responsible for this neglect, according to a presentation at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

"The lack of perceived HIV risk in late adulthood among older people themselves, as well as providers and society in general, inhibits investment in education, testing and programmatic responses to address HIV in an aging population," said presenter Mark Brennan-Ing, PhD, director for research and evaluation at ACRIA, a non-profit HIV/AIDS research organization in New York City. "Ageism perpetuates the invisibility of older adults, which renders current medical and social service systems unprepared to respond to the needs of people aging with HIV infection."

There is an enduring misconception that HIV is a disease of the young, and in particular young gay and bisexual men, according to Brennan-Ing, but it is estimated that in developed countries with well-developed health care systems, almost half of all people living with HIV are 50 or older. In some countries, that number is expected to increase to 70 percent by 2020. People 50 and older account for 17 percent of new HIV infections, and are more likely than younger adults to be diagnosed with AIDS at the same time as they discover their HIV status.

Previous research has suggested as many as two-thirds of all older Americans with HIV have experienced stigma due not only to the disease, but to their age. This phenomenon may be even more pronounced among gay and bisexual men, because of an increased obsession with age and internalized ageism within the gay community.

Despite a median age of 58, older Americans with HIV are more likely to exhibit characteristics of people in their 60s, 70s or even 80s, said Brennan-Ing. The combination of stigma due to age, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, gender identity and expression, and HIV can lead to a number of negative outcomes specific to this population.

"Stigma results in social isolation, either through rejection by social network members or self-protective withdrawal, leading to loneliness and, ultimately, depression," he said. "Stigma also makes people reluctant to disclose their HIV status, which could affect their health care treatment or prevent them taking precautions to reduce transmission."

Older individuals who believe in the negative stereotypes associated with aging can also have poor health outcomes. Negative expectations about aging have been associated with poor cognitive test performance in older individuals and can increase stress, resulting in physical health issues, such as heart disease. More important, if an individual believes that aging leads to inevitable health problems and decline, that person may stop engaging in healthy behaviors, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"These mechanisms may be responsible for empirical findings that internalized ageism is related to both chronic disease and longevity," he said.

While it may not be possible to reduce ageism at the societal level, there are opportunities at the community level for providers of health and human services to buffer or reduce the impact of ageism for those who are infected or at risk for HIV, he said.

Specifically, Brennan-Ing recommended:

 Training health providers in HIV screening, early diagnosis and initiation of antiretroviral therapy in older populations and integration of key services.

 Prevention, education and outreach targeting older adults.

 Treatment guidelines for older individuals with HIV.

 Funding in line with the aging of the epidemic.

 Engagement of communities, community-based organizations and social service providers in outreach, mental health and social support.

 Addressing the needs of special populations.

"With the demographic shift toward older adults in the HIV population globally, and the elusiveness of a cure, addressing the care needs of this aging population are paramount," said Brennan-Ing. "The aging of the HIV epidemic will be very challenging, but provides the opportunity to mount a global response that will address the needs of this population across regions and settings."

Source: http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/08/older-adults-hiv.aspx
Exposure to targeted, personal and verbal aggression by patients can adversely affect mental health nurses decision-making regarding physical restraint, new research published in the world's leading nursing research journal reveals.

While exposure to physical aggression and self-harm are known to have detrimental consequences for nurses working in mental health services in terms of staff sickness and trauma, this new study suggests that nurses who are subject to humiliating personal remarks experience higher levels of distressing emotions, including anger.

The new research, led by Dr. Rahul Jalil conducted rigorous assessments with mental health nurses working in three UK secure mental health units.

Dr. Rahul Jalil, Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at Birmingham City University, said:

"Nurses who reported being the target of derogatory remarks reported higher levels of anger than their colleagues. What's more, this was not true for those who had witnessed greater levels of physical aggression or self-harm.

"Moreover, the same nurses who experienced humiliating remarks were more likely to endorse coercive management techniques, such as restraint or seclusion."

The study, published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies, formed part of Dr. Jalil's PhD studies, which was joint-funded by St Andrew's Healthcare and the University of Northampton. His PhD research also considered the role of anger in patient aggression, as well as in the nurse-patient therapeutic relationship.

Geoff Dickens, Professor in Mental Health Nursing at Abertay University was the study supervisor. He said:

"We already knew that exposure to aggression seems to be related to nurses' approval of these less desirable interventions. What this study adds is that it is this particular type of insidious and seemingly less severe form of aggression that seems to play the largest role."

This has real implications for education and training for staff in the prevention of violence and aggression.

Professor Dickens added:

"Training provision largely focuses on managing physical aggression through techniques such as de-escalation. While this is great, more attention should be paid to how nurses regulate their own responses to this behavior.

"This study shows that anger seems to be a mechanism that plays a unique role. While it is common to hear that nurses should 'just deal with it', it is unreasonable to believe that nurses are immune and can do this without help or support."

The study - 'Mental health nurses' emotions, exposure to patient aggression, attitudes to and use of coercive measures: Cross sectional questionnaire survey' - also revealed that, while individual nurses exposed to this behavior were more approving of coercive interventions, this did not translate into an increased use of restraint or seclusion.

Dr. Jalil said:

"It seems that existing checks and balances, perhaps including team support or nurses own self-awareness, act to prevent a spiral in which behavior is dealt with coercively, which in turn might make patients more likely to insult the nursing staff."
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a grant worth nearly $1.6 million over four years from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to help reduce vision problems in African-Americans caused by glaucoma.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness for African-Americans; they are five times more likely to get glaucoma than white Americans and six times more likely to go blind from it. Glaucoma is a condition that can damage the optic nerve leading to loss of vision. It is caused by abnormally high pressure inside the eye.

Betsy Sleath, the George H. Cocolas Distinguished Professor and chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is the principal investigator on the grant. She is also a senior research fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"We want to empower glaucoma patients to be more actively involved during their visits by asking their doctors more questions about glaucoma and its treatment," Sleath said. "We hypothesize that doing this will in turn lead to doctors educating patients more, which could lead to improved outcomes for patients."

Sleath's team will enroll 380 glaucoma patients who say they take their medications as directed less than 80 percent of the time. The patients will come from three ophthalmology clinics: UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina; and the private practice of Alan Robin, M.D., in Baltimore, Maryland.

Patients will be randomly placed in an intervention or control group. Those in the intervention group will watch a short video on the importance of being actively involved during their doctor visits and given a list of questions about glaucoma so they can check off the ones they want to ask their doctor. The intervention is being developed with the input of African-American patients with glaucoma.

In addition, patients will be audio-recorded during their doctor's visits and will use the Medication Event Monitoring System, a device which records the date and time that a medication bottle is opened and closed to measure their medication adherence. Patients will be followed for one year.

"We hypothesize that African-American patients with glaucoma in the intervention group will have significantly improved communication with their ophthalmologists, and this improved communication will improve glaucoma medication self-efficacy, adherence and intraocular pressure," Sleath said.

The study aims to contribute to the Healthy People 2020 goal of reducing glaucoma-related visual impairment. Healthy People 2020 is a federal government initiative to improve the health of Americans over a decade.
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
You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person.



Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else.
The message resonated with many workers, although some found it condescending. They were telling African-Americans look what they provided for us, but I had a job before I came to Nissan, said David Brown, who was undecided the week before the vote but ended up supporting the union. I had a house already, had cars already. Nissan didnt provide me with it.

In meetings between management and workers, and in a video featuring the plants top official, Nissan was more menacing, suggesting that a union would put workers jobs at risk.

Theyve come out with some of the nastiest, most unprecedented attacks Ive seen in the 20 years Ive been doing this, said Gary Casteel, the second-ranking official at the U.A.W. This issue of threatening to close a facility is the worst threat you can put toward an employee.

At one point leading up to the vote, managers delivered a slide presentation warning that in the event of a strike, most employees who walked out would not be guaranteed jobs afterward. Many workers appeared to find the presentation alarming, even though strikes are rare in the industry and replacing production workers could be difficult.

Another manager emphasized in a meeting that Nissan could decide not to automatically deduct workers union dues, in which case the union would end up sending workers a regular bill.

It was just to deter people from joining, was what Im getting out of it, said Earnestine Mayes, a union supporter. No one wants to sit there and pay that bill every week.
From edwardcurtin.com



"If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten."

George Carlin

Book publishers seem to agree with them. Recently they have awarded well-deserved book deals to some of our most important writers, wordsmiths of exquisite prose, today's Hemingways and Martha Gelhorns, who will reveal truths we can't live without. TV celebrity Megyn Kelly reportedly is receiving 3-10 million; comedian Amy Schumer, 9 million; Amanda Knox, the young American convicted and then acquitted by an Italian court of murdering her roommate, 4 million; Hillary Clinton and the Obamas, 8 million and up to 60 million respectively, despite having escaped convictions, since they were never tried for their war crimes. Whatever their deeds, or lack thereof, this disparate group, whose revelations are so eagerly awaited, share a common attribute.

What they have in common -- aside from money, having appeared in the nation's publications of record: People magazine, The National Enquirer or The New York Times, and attended parties on Martha's Vineyard or in the Hamptons -- is that they consider themselves, and are considered by their adoring publics, to be Somebodies. A Somebody is, if you didn't know it, not a Nobody. What else, if anything, a Somebody is is very hard to say; you'd have to ask one. I'm sure you'd get an answer.

Does the name Narcissus ring a bell?

On the other hand, a Nobody is someone a Somebody thinks stupid enough to read the Somebody's "life." Who else but a Somebody would have the effrontery to put the boring, confessional details of his or her life between the covers of a book? Who else but a Somebody would confabulate in print even more than they did in life? And who else but a Nobody, wanting to be a Somebody, would read it? Who could bear to read page upon page of self-serving lies and fabrications except someone wishing to have the arrogance to do the same and make themselves look fascinating and virtuous.

Which brings me to the good news: I have just read a new book that brought a smile to my face and hope to my heart. Perhaps it is an omen of good things to come in book publishing; perhaps even a great shift in the quality of our cultural life. I note with pleasure that this book -- Nobody's Life (Prestige Press, 2017) -- has already become an underground best seller in England and Schwenksville, Pennsylvania. Since so many of our television shows come from those seedbeds of creativity, I surmise that this revolutionary book could have an enormous impact on our reading habits, not to say our collective ego.

Understandably so, Nobody's Life is written under a pen name, Shallow Bloke (henceforth referred to as SB). It's good to know Shallow Bloke has a sense of humor. Somebodies never do. A self-admitted Nobody, SB is naturally the adult child of parents who were Somebodies. Who would publish a Nobody unless that were so? A Nobody with parents who were Somebodies might still be a Nobody, but even such a fatal connection can open doors, not to say induce one to open one's wrists.

Which brings to mind the memorable opening lines of this non-life: "Call me Shallow Bloke. I'm a Nobody. Who are you? Are you a Nobody too?" This is the kind of opening that releases something in the reader. A hint of recognition perhaps, or maybe the sense that one is about to share in a dirty secret.

But don't get me wrong; this is no "Mommy Dearest." Far from it. SB is not out to get his parents, even though they got him good, as the saying has it. It's why, of course, he's a Nobody. He knows that, but being a Nobody, he doesn't have the nerve to get revenge or just walk away and not write this book, which, by the way, is dedicated "to Mommy and Daddy, who made me who I am, a Nobody."

The sad truth is SB would like to be a Somebody like them. This is obvious in the way he unconsciously emulates them by dropping names. "When I was eighteen years old, I remember how Anna Freud would come to afternoon tea and we would play Chutes and Ladders." This was about the time Mommy and Daddy used to go bowling every Tuesday night with J. Edgar Hoover and Uncle Allen." In those days we lived near Harvard Square, next door to Eddie Bernays, who would regale my parents over a bit of sherry about the way he fooled the stupid public in helping the CIA overthrow the Guatemalan government."

In fact, it was by hearing his parents drop so many names that he realized his parents were Somebodies. They never came out and directly said, "Son, we are Somebodies and we would like you never to forget it." That would have been gauche. The name dropping was enough. SB is very forthright about this, but there is no rancor in his telling. Nor does he seem to harbor any resentment toward his parents for the way he learned he was a Nobody: they kept telling him.

One of the nicest features of Nobody's Life is the book jacket. Contrary to what you would expect, there is no author photograph on the back. In its place is a blank space. The reader is invited to send in the jacket with a photograph and have his photo superimposed for a small fee. I suppose they got this idea from the makers of Wheaties, who used to invite eaters to get themselves imprinted on "The Breakfast of Champions." But this is a far better deal, for books last longer than cereal, and in the extremely literate United States writers are esteemed far higher than athletes; that's why they earn on average 43 cents an hour.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
"We urge you to make this a living NAACP action plan with a mandate and roadmap for saving America's public schools by advocating for public quality education in every sector." - NAACP Task Force on Quality Education

When confronting the newly anointed Los Angeles County Board of Education President about his support for a charter that was failing its students, Alex Johnson accused me of being "against high-quality education for black and brown students". Anti-immigrant agitator Arthur Schaper pulled from the same counterfeit deck of race cards to claim that I "believe Black/Hispanic Americans are too stupid to choose the school for their kids". When presenting at the NAACP Task Force on Quality Education at their hearing in Los Angeles, I was heckled by charter supporters for targeting a "black school" when showing how View Park Middle School was allowed to continue operating despite the fact that it had "presented an unsound educational program". Apparently, none of these critics realized that my most vociferous criticisms have been of Granada Hills Charter High School and El Camino Charter High School, both of which are located in the San Fernando Valley and serve high populations of white students.

Perhaps the reason that charter proponents are forced to rely on desperate personal attacks is that the facts do not back up their assertion that charters help to improve opportunities for minority students. The NAACP report quotes a study that found 37% of charter schools "performed worse than their traditional public school counterparts serving similar students." Another study "found that charter school enrollment explained less than one hundredth of 1% of the variation in students' test performance." In comparison, Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig, a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at California State University, Sacramento, testified that "class size reduction [has] 400% more impact. Pre-K? 1000% more impact than charters." This seems to suggest that those pushing for privatization of our schools over more proven methods of improving education outcomes have interests other than reducing the achievement gap.

Charters have also proven to be an unstable way of providing education as "approximately 211 charter schools closed across the United States" during the 2016-17 school year. "Since 2001, at least 2500 charter schools have closed". "Black students are particularly susceptible to being impacted by school closures" as "45% of all students in charter schools that closed during those years were Black." These leave parents scrambling to find new accommodations, students struggling to adjust to new surroundings and districts with the responsibility to integrate these students into their programs, sometimes without receiving any additional funding.

The NAACP's report does not pretend that our public schools are not facing serious challenges and points out that "the achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families has grown in the last 50 years." However, instead of turning our schools over to private operators, their task force recommends prioritizing the funding of our education system. It is hard to see how children are not being left behind when "in 36 states, public school funding has not yet returned to pre-2008 levels-before the great recession" or when "federal funds have also declined in real dollar terms for both Title I and for special education expenditures over the last decade."

It should also be noted that with the exception of for-profit charters, the NAACP has not called for the elimination of charter schools. Instead, they insist on "a rigorous authorizing and renewal process for charters". This includes allowing "only districts to serve as authorizers, [empowering] those districts to reject applications that do not meet standards, and [establishing] policies for serious and consistent oversight." Enacting these regulations would help to ensure that these schools are providing equal access for all students and that they are contributing to the overall effort to eliminate the achievement gap.



Charter school students line up to enter the Ann Street School separate from their public school counterparts.

(Image by Carl J Petersen) Details DMCA



____________________________________________

Carl Petersen is a parent and special education advocate and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. He was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a "strong supporter of public schools." His past blogs can be found at www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com.

(Article changed on August 6, 2017 at 03:31)
A guy has to wonder if his leg's getting pulled,

His thoughts led astray and his eyes getting wooled,

When a lot of news stories turn out to be hooey,

Yet favor the viewpoint of the rich fewey,

By which I'm meaning the guys who shoot guns,

Suppliers, neocons, and those who bank tons.

.

Take the fib about Crimean "invasion,"

Osama bin Laden whacked by our nation,

The one about intel consensus on hacking,

Donald Trump's win with V. Putin's backing,

WMD or MH-17,

Those nukes in Iran that nobody's seen.

.

Which now that I look, ain't bad for a stanza:

In just six lines a true fake-news bonanza,

Seven top whoppers all vying for greatness,

In the race to be told with most straight-faceness.

Me, I'd give the prize to the OBL raid,

For chutzpah, pizzazz and Homeric glissade.

.

Whether fake news or "conspiracy theories"

Basically depends on who makes the queries,

Or if it's historic like old 9-11,

Which if made public would blow to high heaven

The government, the army and half of our country,

So MSM flaks give that the full shuntry.

.

I suppose it's inev in the Internet world,

The fake and the true end up ying and yang curled,

Slickly produced for a lovely fat wage,

Or lovingly researched by the sweaty and sage,

The first paid sweetly by MadMen arrangers,

The other dependent on the kindness of strangers.

.

In long term truth-tellers will largely close shop,

Shushed like a child who wants lollipop.

Even now tech-weavers on Google's vast loom,

Consign their villains to algorhythed doom:

TruthDig and Alternet and the ACLU,

ConsortiumNews and soon maybe yours true.










From Our Future

If a picture's worth a thousand words, what's the value of a single word?

If you're a Democratic Party leader and the word is "compete," the answer may be: more than you can afford.

Much of the Democratic Party's rhetoric has been 'Uberized' by a creeping free-market ideology that treats workers as lone competitors in a survival-of-the-toughest economy.

The time has come to reject this language as well as the thinking behind it. The notion that people must compete with each for low-paying jobs undermines worker solidarity and weakens our sense of national community.

When the Democratic Party rolled out its "Better Deal" language in July, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi each wrote op-eds promoting an agenda whose subtitle is, "Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future."

An earlier version of that slogan -- "Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages" -- was roundly criticized when it was leaked to a reporter, and rightly so. That phrase first appeared in an op-ed by Sen. Tim Kaine, who wrote:

"Better skills in our people and communities ... will make us more competitive in a world where talent is now the most precious resource. We need to double down on retraining people whose jobs are destroyed by shifts in trade."

Those words offer nothing new to the American people. They could have been lifted from a speech Bill Clinton gave in 1993, when he declared that "workers in advanced countries must become ever more productive to deal with competition from low-wage countries on the one hand, and high-skilled, high-tech countries on the other."

Since those words were spoken more than a quarter-century ago, millions of American jobs have been lost to bad trade deals that shifted work overseas and wealth upward.

Misguided government policies and greedy business practices ended a 30-year period in which wages kept pace with productivity growth, resulting in soaring inequality and stagnating wages for American workers. Increasingly wealthy individuals in corporations have, in turn, used their money to hijack the political process.

No retraining program on Earth can prepare workers for jobs that don't exist. And, as long as inequality remains the highest it's been since the 1920s, "competitive" education strategies will do little to improve wages or social mobility. To beleaguered workers, the phrase "better skills" reinforces the perception that an out-of-touch elite would rather blame the victims of its policies than take responsibility for its actions.

Better jobs, better wages, better luck next time.

The finished slogan was a notable improvement from the beta version. The phrase "better skills" was gone, replaced by the noncommittal "better future."

It was a welcome surprise to see Democrats taking on corporate monopolies and the rapaciousness of Big Pharma as they rolled out the "Better Deal" platform.

Those fights can energize voters if they're properly framed and presented -- as in,"these corporations are so big they think they can do what they want, but we're gonna stop 'em" -- especially if they're complemented by strong stands on labor, trade, Medicare and Social Security expansion, and other populist issues.

But it was disappointing to see both Sen. Schumer and Leader Pelosi echo Kaine's unsupportable claims for worker retraining in their respective op-eds. Schumer wrote that "millions of unemployed or underemployed people particularly those without a college degree, could be brought back into the labor force or retrained to secure full-time, higher-paying work."

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From Counterpunch



Doctors for the 99 Percent

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Before recommending a practical way to reverse the devastating impact of Congressional Republicans' attempts to strip tens of millions of Americans of health insurance coverage, and the non-stop anxiety and dread that comes with such cruel and vicious legislation, note the impact of having gerrymandered (the politicians pick the voters) Washington rulers.

The arrogant Republicans in Congress have good health insurance, life insurance, pensions, salaries and expense accounts paid by you the taxpayers. This perversely has led them to drop any empathy their residual consciences might have possessed before they came to Capitol Hill -- many as millionaires.

At the same time, in a country that spends well over $3 trillion a year on "healthcare," the GOP's various bills leave millions of families fearing loss of insurance, reduced coverage, larger deductibles, unaffordable co-pays and inscrutable insurance and billing fine-print trap doors. This is producing serious fear, anxiety, depression and in many cases absolute terror for sick children and ailing parents.

We have the New York Times to thank for bringing this vast human toll, day after day, night after night, to their readers. In a recent article, reporter Jan Hoffman interviews people who are wondering "whether they would be able to continue screenings and treatment." Hoffman writes that patients "are postponing" -- so as not to set up a preexisting condition -- "or accelerating major medical decisions, weighing whether to move to more insurance-friendly states" and worrying about "their own inability to control critical matters in their own lives."

"'I'm so done,' moaned Cathy McPherson, 58, a retired court clerk in Sonora, CA, with hypertension...It's what I think about all the time and I am totally burned out. They go over and over it. Can you stop? Just stop it for a little bit?"

The Times also interviewed a psychologist, Nancy Molitor in Wilmette, IL, who describes "escalating anxiety about healthcare for all her patients. Many want to spend entire sessions about how to handle the stress and the feelings of fear, powerlessness, rage and frustrated paralysis."

Perhaps Meghan Borland, who, with her husband, owns a small business in Pleasant Valley, NY, gives voice to this preventable despair in the USA most pointedly. They have a two year-old daughter, Amelia, receiving chemotherapy for leukemia. Meghan said, "For months it's been: Here's a bill, we'll vote. No, we won't. Now it will change. Maybe not. Will that one person in the Senate vote or not? Except for us, this is not a game."

Well it's a stupid, but lucrative, ideological game for the Republicans, whose various factions juggle their corporate paymasters and reactionary dogmas, as they try to give the rich and powerful another $800 billion in tax breaks at the expense of millions of their neighbors' lives and livelihoods.

Without health insurance, about 35,000 Americans die each year; many more stay sick or injured because they cannot afford insurance to get diagnosed and treated in time. About 30 million people fall into that helpless, hurtful category.

Those tens of millions more Americans who are underinsured can barely figure out where they are covered and how much they have to pay or go without.

For the most vulnerable of these Americans, the choice is morbidly clear: pay or die.

In Canada, everybody has a Medicare card to use a system that is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal. They hardly see a bill. They have better health outcomes, cover everyone and spend less than half per capita than does the corporate dominated US that excludes tens of millions of human beings from healthcare. Canadians do not have the anxieties, dread or fear of losing all their personal savings or bringing financial ruin on their families, as so many Americans do.

In Canada, no one has to decide whether to take or not to take another job based on health insurance factors. They are free to choose any physician or hospital -- no narrow networks, with hidden charges, in that country.

In Canada, where there is public funding and private delivery of healthcare, profits are not the king, people come first. The large majority of citizens, liberals and conservatives, love their healthcare system, especially when they hear of the horrors going on south of their border in the US (Canadians need to be more alert to corporate forces trying to undermine, restrict budgets and bad-mouth their system, which is a shining example of what is possible with equitable public investment in healthcare).

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Renowned scientist to UF doctoral graduates: Live the life you have imagined.

Dr. Duane Mitchell is co-director of the Preston A. Wells Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy and the head of the Cancer Therapeutics & Immuno-Oncology program at the UF Health Cancer Center. He and his team are among the leaders in the battle to find ways to treat glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer that affects about 13,000 Americans annually. U.S. Senator John McCain was recently diagnosed with glioblastoma and is undergoing treatment.

Good afternoon. It is an honor and a privilege to have been asked to give this commencement address to the summer doctoral graduate class of 2017.

I graduated from my doctoral program in 2001 and over the last 16 years as an academic faculty member and researcher, I have given innumerable talks at a variety of national and international venues. This however, is a new experience for me and I just want to take the time to thank President Fuchs for what would otherwise be long forgotten experiences such as stage fright, dry mouth, panic, and nausea.

And I must say, it feels as exhilarating as I remembered. So thank you. No, Im just being serious. Really.

As I prepared this talk I had thoughts on several occasions of what could I say that would be meaningful to this audience?

This question would interrupt my constant thinking of Oh my goodness, I cant do this.

And...Youve worked so hard to create your comfort zone, what are you doing?.

And..."Please dont start out with what an honor and privilege this is.

And yet.here we are.

So in the next 10 minutes or so, I am going to attempt to impart some information to the doctoral graduates gathered here today that you will remember. Something that you will find useful to you as you embark upon your chosen professional and personal endeavors.

For inspiration, I thought back to the core messages of my graduate school commencement address. I thought, Who even spoke at my graduation? Im pretty sure I was there. I do have pictures. I truly couldnt remember anything that was said that day. I did however, remember my college graduation commencement address.

But that was given by Susan Sarandon. She was the star of the hit movie Thelma & Louise, and at that time a three-time Academy Award nominee for best leading actress in a motion picture. I remember thinking, Duane, you are no Susan Sarandon.

And that is when I realized that sixteen years from now, nothing I say today is going to matter in your life.

I cant think of one Nobel laureate, or Academy Award winner, or anyone with their last words of imparting wisdom, ever quoting their commencement address speaker. It just doesnt happen. I realized that what I say today is going to matter as to whether I am ever asked to do something like this again.

However, for you, for the graduates who are being honored today for your achievements, for you, sixteen years from now, what is going to matter are the decisions you have made, the actions you have taken, and the attitude you have sustained throughout the process.

And so what Id like to talk to you about for next few minutes are what I believe are the only variables we really have total control over in our lives. And yet through a conscientious directive of our decisions, our actions, and our attitude, we can largely define our future. It is instrumental to realize that life asks certain questions of us every day that demand answers. Either we answer these questions affirmatively with our decisions and actions, or through neglect, they are answered for us, by circumstances and by other people.

These daily questions are best designed to be asked each morning in anticipation of the days events, and again, each evening in reflection.

What will you or did you accomplish today?

What long term goals will you or did you make progress toward today?

What will you or did you learn today?

And...Who will you or did you help today?

Addressing these iterative life questions will help continually steer our lives in a positive direction. Through the urgency of now and the myriad of decisions that life thrusts upon us, these questions can keep us focused on the not urgent but important matters in our lives.

I love to collect memorable quotes as a way of codifying philosophies that resonate with life experiences. Every Monday in our research group, I share a quote of the week as a way to kick start the momentum for the next several days.

One of my favorites is Quote of the Week #135 which was sent out a while ago. It comes from a relatively well-known philosopher named Jack Handy. For those who dont know Jack Handy, for several years he has been a featured writer on Saturday Night Live, who shares his philosophies in a series called Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy.

When you die, if you get a choice between regular heaven and pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick. But if its not.mmmmmmm, boy!

Now the reason I like this quote, is that, like most Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy, on the surface level it is just utterly ridiculous.

Somewhat humorous, but utterly ridiculous. However, if we analyze these silly utterances more deeply there is often some hidden wisdom that can be gleaned. For most of us, regardless of our background or religious beliefs, the concept of heaven embodies the best there is. Weve probably never realized that there was a pie heaven or ever even thought about getting there.

And yet, Jack challenges us that if life presents us with a choice between regular heaven or pie heaven, go for pie heaven.

You will have occasions throughout your life where your personal or professional experiences will expose you to opportunities beyond what youve previously imagined, or will present challenges to you that are beyond your current comfort zone or perceived capabilities.

Taking the dream job versus the one your family approves of; launching your great idea into a business venture vs. saving it until youre established; stepping forward and introducing yourself to that person you know you need to meet vs. remaining quiet so you dont risk looking foolish.

These may not be embodiments of heaven, but nonetheless they represent the types of crossroad decisions that we are often faced with throughout our lives.

The author Robert Brault said, We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.

Do not be afraid to set ambitious goals and high expectations for your life. However, It might be a trick.

What if pie heaven isnt real? What if we go for it and fail?

Jack reminds us that success is not guaranteed. There is risk involved in going after pie heaven. Fear of failure is one of the main obstacles that prevents us from living up to our true potential. Particularly those of us who have been trained to be experts.

Many of you will enter careers where there will be a low tolerance of being wrong, of making mistakes, and in failing at what youve set out to accomplish. I mean, after all, I am a doctor.

You may be employed based on your very high level of training and expertise and expected to perform at a very high level of competence and productivity.

While this is an appropriate expectation for the day to day executive functions of a professional, you must not allow fear of failure to become the guiding principle for your decision-making processes. Fear is simply faith in a negative outcome. Do not be afraid to let your dreams, goals, and aspirations guide your life choices.

Although, Jack states It might be a trick, he also states, but if its not then imagine the rewards.

The truth is, that the reward is not actually in attaining the goal. The rewards come in the form of the person you become through the process of stretching and growing to reach your goals.

Today you are being recognized for achieving the goal of completing your doctoral program. For many of you, it probably was tougher than you thought, took longer than you planned, and may have had unanticipated detours, obstacles, and restarts along the way.

While the outward recognition of the achievement may be occurring at this moment and conveyed with additional letters before or after your name, the true reflection of the achievement is embodied in the resilience youve developed, the specialized knowledge youve amassed, and the analytical thinking skills youve acquired.

You are almost certainly a better orator, writer, and leader than you were when you entered your program.

It is who you have become through this process that is far more important than the degree or the letters that you now carry with your name. Choosing to go after your goals and aspirations involves some risk, but almost always comes with the guarantee that you will grow and become better through the process.

Many people got through life afraid to make a wrong decision, but Dr. Phil McGraw, or Dr. Phil, stated, Sometimes you make the right decision. Sometimes you make the decision right.

Often times the difference between the right and wrong decision is not in the choice itself, but in the level of corresponding conviction and action put behind the decision.

I have three young sons, Anthony, age 9, Brandon, age 7, and Austin, age 3.

A while ago, I asked them this relatively simple math problem.

Three frogs are sitting on a log in a pond and one decides to jump off. How many frogs are left on the log?

Anthony and Brandon proudly chimed together, Two!

To which I promptly said, Wrong. The answer is three. The frog only decided to jump off, but he didnt act on his decision.

Now in retrospect, I recommend saving this life lesson for your children until they have moved onto multiplication and division. It really confuses them and irritates their teachers when you mess up their foundational math skills. However, for adults, I think this new math equation illustrates a very important facet of life. We must decide to do fewer things, but to follow through on the decisions we make with definitive action.

After 18 years of marriage to my lovely wife, Michelle, I have learned that it is better to state outright something I am not going to do than to say I am going to do it and deal with the consequences of having that promise go unfilled for months or years to come.

As talented experts entering the workforce, you will have a huge number of demands placed on you for your time and energy investment.

The more productive you are, the more these demands, also known as opportunities, will increase. Additionally, you already do or will have increasing responsibilities to care for family and loved ones. You will quickly learn that the quantity and quality of your lifes experiences will be shaped as much by the things you decided not to do as they are by the things you decided to do.

This is why setting short-term and long-term goals for your personal and professional life can be so instrumental in navigating the sometimes turbulent seas of life.

Much like a GPS device set upon a specific destination, or a lighthouse beacon to a ship out at sea, your goals can serve as a guiding post to keep you headed in the right direction.

Henry David Thoreau said, It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, 'What are we busy about?'

As doctoral graduates entering a new phase in your life, now is a great time to reflect upon your priorities, to decide what is truly important to you, and to set and write down goals for your professional, personal, and recreational lives.

For many years I kept the question, What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? above my desk at work and at home. At work, it would remind me to think big about the challenges in my field and to not be afraid of going after the tough questions in research. At home, it would remind me to envision the family life and the experiences I wanted for my wife and children, and to continually fight against the inertia of a life that can easily crowd out quality time and cause one to take their family for granted.

Decide what you want out of life. Back up that decision with continual action. Answer lifes daily questions for yourself.

Our approach to answering the life questions, or our attitude, not only greatly influences the outcome of our efforts but also determines the quality of our experiences along the way.

The writer Erich Heller stated, Be careful how you view the world, it is that way.

If facts are black and white but perception is our reality, then our attitude is the lens filter through which we color the worlds experiences.

I can remember moving from New Jersey where I grew up to North Carolina to attend medical school and graduate school. The first week I was there I went grocery shopping and when I went to check out the cashier asked me, How are doing?

I said, Fine.

She then said, Getting your shopping done for the week?

To which I thought to myself. Obviously.

But said, Yes.

She rang a few more items and then asked, Are you from around here?

At this point, I thought, Whats with the 20 questions? I mean Im paying for my items. Whats the deal here?

I answered her probing questions and completed the transaction and went home. It wasnt until a couple weeks later, after Id experienced the same thing at numerous establishments that I realized that people in North Carolina were just friendly. They actually were genuinely just trying to have a conversation. This was a foreign experience to me.

Although I would have classified myself as a friendly person, I did not realize that my lens filter had been colored by a Jersey attitude.

Our attitude about ourselves, or our self-image, sets the boundaries of what we believe is possible.

Our attitude about others determines our capacity to build lasting relationships based on trust or only superficial ones that are opportunistic.

Our attitude about serving others often dictates our capacity to be effective in leadership roles.

Our attitude about life often determines whether others want to be around us or prefer to clear the room.

Quote of the Week #95: Life is either a great adventure or nothing.  Helen Keller.

Surround yourself with people who have achieved great things and are encouragers of your aspirations, and your attitude about what is possible will grow.

Read about or get to know people who have overcome great adversity and you will steel your attitude toward facing down the challenges you face in your own life.

Pour yourself into helping others and you will enrich and widen the pathway towards your own aspirations.

You sit here today because you have achieved much.

You have many talents, you are exceptionally motivated, and you have amassed a level of education and experience that few people in the world attain.

By answering lifes daily questions through conscious control of your decisions, your actions, and your attitude, you can weave together the fabric of an extraordinary life.

I leave you with one of my truly favorite quotes of all time, also from Henry David Thoreau, Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Congratulations, Class of 2017! Go Gators!
India must withdraw its troops on the Doklam plateau or "face consequences", said Liu Jinsong, Chinese Deputy Chief of Mission in New Delhi on Thursday.

The Hindu newspaper said that Jinsong's remarks mark a serious escalation in rhetoric over the ongoing tensions between the two countries, as their armies continue a six-week-long standoff near the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction off Sikkim.

"The crossing of the boundary line by Indian troops into the territory of China using the pretext of security concerns for a 3rd party (Bhutan) is illegal," Liu Jinsong said. "Troops should be withdrawn immediately; otherwise there will be serious consequences."

The diplomat said that the Indian action at Doklam was akin to "intruding into your neighbors house," and quoted Chinese President Xi Jinping: "Military option is the fundamental guarantor of sovereignty."

India denies Chinese report of pulling out most troops from Doklam

Meanwhile India has rejected China's statement that the number of Indian soldiers at the actual confrontation site had gone down from 400 to just over 40 by the end of July.

India has not pulled back troops from the Doklam face-off with the People's Liberation Army, Indian sources said, according to the Times of India.

The Times of India said that the Chinese foreign ministry, through a 15-page statement with maps, photographs, and documents on Wednesday, seemed to imply that the Doklam crisis in Bhutanese territory near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction had finally begun to de-escalate, with India backing down from the confrontation after 45 long days.

Transgressions by PLA along LAC likely to rise

Transgressions by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) across different sectors of the 4,057-kilometre-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) -- the de facto boundary between India and China -- can increase in the coming months as India remains committed to thwarting Beijing's designs in Dokalam plateau, according to the Times of India.



With PLA failing to make headway in the Sino-Bhutan-India trijunction to create infrastructure and claim territory, there is apprehension that transgressions by the Chinese troops along LAC in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Ladakh could spike in order to create pressure on India, according to the Times of India, which quoted persons familiar with Chinese military strategy.

Initial signs of this PLA strategy amid the Dokalam standoff were first visible along LAC in Uttarakhand and then in Himachal Pradesh, the paper said, adding that Heightened Chinese activities have been reported along the LAC in Tibet across two Himachal Pradesh districts days after PLA transgressions in Uttarakhand territory.

While transgressions along LAC often happen due to differing perceptions of LAC, an increase in such attempts by China is not ruled out in the coming months, whose purpose is to engage Indian troops across various sectors of LAC, the Times of India said.

It may be recalled that weeks before the Dokalam standoff Chinese aircraft had flown over Uttarakhand. LAC is divided into three sectors -- Eastern (Arunachal Pradesh), Central or Middle (Sikkim, Uttarakhand, and Himachal), and Western (Ladakh and Kashmir).

Sikkim Standoff



Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face-off in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector since June 26, after Indian troops reportedly stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

China said that they were constructing the road within their territory and has been demanding an immediate pull-out of the Indian troops from the disputed Doklam plateau.

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Trump selects John Kelly as new chief of staff President Trump announced he was replacing Reince Priebus with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly as White House chief of staff. CBS News White ...

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President Trump's new Chief of Staff John Kelly

Considering what's usually found in this space the following will be somewhat of a departure.

Last Monday President Trump named retired ex-general John Kelly as his new chief of staff. Truthfully I never knew much about the guy, even his being head of Homeland Security prior to becoming Trump's Chief of Staff.

Normally I wouldn't put much stock in what happens in this White House insane asylum. What caught my eye is one of the first things Kelly did after his appointment was fire White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, the bombastic blowhard who had been appointed to the post just two weeks earlier and headlines had him bad mouthing Reince Priebus, now former chief of staff as well as Steve Bannon, the White House Chief Strategist.

So with all this happening I felt the need to do a little research about this guy Kelly-which didn't include much on his 30 year career as a marine.

What struck me most in what I did read about him he was a no- nonsense guy who believed in the chain of command-which shouldn't be a great revelation considering he had been a four star general in the Marine Corps-but also immediately after his appointment he told everyone if they wanted to see the president they had to go through him first. There would no longer be just anyone going into the Oval Office whenever they felt like it including Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. Both agreed to abide by the new rules set by Kelly. Apparently Trump had encouraged advisers to see him whenever they pleased. Obviously Kelly got Trump to agree such practices had to end before he would take the job. Kelly as Homeland Security chief had been in White House staff meetings and his no nonsense approach often got Trumps attention and approval.

Now why is Kelly as Trump's new chief of staff important? Well to say the least, inner turmoil and palace intrigue characterized this White House and apparently the Trumpster encouraged the idiocy. Couple this with his impetuous behavior, twittering away as he reacted to everything, it's clear this White House was in total disarray. Throw in the constant berating by Democrats and the corporate MSM of his collusion with Russian President Vladimir Putin who helped get him elected-absolutely ridiculous-the threats Trump's made against North Korea, Iran, his firing missiles into Syria believing impetuously without evidence Syrian President Bashar Assad had gassed his own people to say nothing of the ongoing provocations against Russia and China, both nuclear superpowers and there being some narcissistic, impulsive crazy in the White House with no adults as close advisers is tantamount for anything to happen including initiating nuclear war.

But getting back to Kelly. I read where listening to one White House adviser drone on endlessly he interrupted the guy in mid sentence saying to him "that's nonsense". So Kelly isn't one to suffer fools.

Reading other tidbits apparently Kelly is no political animal and with the aforementioned palace intrigue characterizing this White House that will almost certainly come to an end as Trump himself has agreed with Kelly being the gatekeeper.

Of course we'll see what happens. But certainly at least one adult in the White House with no nonsense clarity is a good thing and maybe Kelly can influence Trump from making wrongheaded decisions; no small undertaking to be sure.

That may be impossible considering the recent sanctions Trump signed against Russia, harming supposed western allies in Germany, France, Austria, Italy.

Maybe Kelly can impart some sanity in a White House where none existed before.

Again we'll have to wait and see.
Spokespersons of embattled businessman in the controversial GHc51 million judgment debt case has defended a decision by his boss, Alfred Agbesi Woyome to run to the Africa Court on Human and Peoples Right in Tanzania for redress.



According to Reginald Seth Dogbe, this is aimed at safeguarding the interest of Mr. Woyome who they believe is being persecuted in Ghana.



Like Mr. Woyome clearly stated it looks as if this matter concerning him is not prosecution but persecution where all his rights to fair hearing is being ignored. And he feels that the best forum where he can get fair justice as far as the ruling against him is concerned is outside and the human rights courts is one of those avenues because Ghana has signed to international protocols and some of those protocols have establish that very course and we can only do good to respect those international bodies, he said on Eyewitness News on Friday.



Mr. Woyomes petition to the International Chamber of Commerce court (ICC) to look into his case was thrown out on Thursday. The ICC rejected Woyomes petition citing Article 6(4) of its Arbitration Rules and also the lack of establishment of prima facie.



Prior to ICCs ruling, Mr. Woyome had gone to the human rights court concerning some declarations made by Ghanas Supreme Court some years back.



An earlier statement from Lawyers of Mr. Woyome insisted that the Supreme Court of Ghana erred by linking Alfred Agbesi Woyome to the Waterville contract by necessary linkage using the now residual unspecified Jurisdiction to ground Justice as their main Principle in ordering a refund of monies paid to Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome legally under the laws of Ghana.



Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome has sent this aspect of the case to the African Court on Human and Peoples Right in Arusha Tanzania by invoking Article 40 read together with Article 75 of the 1992 constitution of The Republic of Ghana under case number Ref:AfCHPR/Reg./appl.001/2017/001. Ghana has ratified the necessary protocols of the African Court, recognized the competence of the African Court, and also submitted to the authority of the African Court. A preliminary determination of the case has been made and a prima facie case has been established by the African Court in favour of Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome and Ghana has been served all the necessary processes through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ghana, the statement added.



Background



Mr. Woyome was paid the GHc 51 million after claiming he helped Ghana raise funds to construct stadia for the hosting of the 2008 African Cup of Nations. However, an Auditor Generals report released in 2010, held that the amount was paid illegally to him.



Subsequently, the Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money, after Martin Amidu, challenged the legality of the payments.



Following delays in retrieving the money, Supreme Court judges unanimously granted the Attorney General clearance to execute the courts judgment, ordering Mr. Woyome to refund the cash to the state.



There had been previous attempts to orally examine Mr. Woyome, with Mr. Amidu himself, in 2016, filing an application at the Supreme Court to find out how the businessman was going to pay back the money.



This came after the Attorney Generals office under the Mahama Administration, led by the former Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, discontinued a similar application.



In February 2017 however, Mr. Amidu withdrew his suit seeking an oral examination, explaining that the change of government and the assurance by the new Attorney General to retrieve all judgment debts wrongfully paid to individuals, had given him renewed confidence in the system.

Source: Citifmonline.com









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Ghana's Deputy Minister of Health, Hon. Tina Gifty Mensah was honoured on Friday at the Ghana-Nigeria Achievers Awards (GNAA) held at the British Council in Accra.



The Ghana Nigeria Achievers Awards which is in its second year aims at rewarding and to celebrate hard work, positive effort towards building a united and prosperous continent.



Hon. Tina Gifty Mensah also Member of Parliament for Weija-Gbawe constituency was awarded based on her leadership roles which have seen her rise to become a role model to the youth.



Speaking in an interview with www.Ghanaweb.com shortly after the event Hon. Tina Mensah expressed her utmost gratitude to the organizers of the awards; she pledged to go the extra mile to nurture the youth.



I work because I want to work, it is my desire to do what I do, so I dont know someone was observing me, they told me theyve been watching me and following me through the social, online and print media.



I have been informed that I am a role model so this has inspired me to be more committed. If you are doing something you shouldnt forget that people are watching and following you, they know what you are doing if you do it right you will get people to commend you.



She added that with this award, I want to tell the organizers that I am going to work more than I do especially in supporting my Minister who has given me the opportunity to be doing all this work.



CEO of the Ghana Nigeria Achievers Awards, Comrade Barry Ndu Nwaihim congratulated the President of Ghana HE Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo for giving young people the opportunity to serve.



We commend the effort of the President and reassure our commitment as a group to maintain our solidarity and support as he works hard in making Ghana a better place to live for all to live.



He also added that the organizers were satisfied with the turnout of the event and articulated that the preparations for the 2018 edition of the awards night had commenced.



Other awardees on the night included Chief Joseph Obugu Okeke, Chief David Ukueku, DCOP Osabarima Asare Oware Pinkro III, Pastor James Muyiwa, Mr Isaac Nelson Igoma, Chief Taiye Adekanbi Oladipupo and many others.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









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The prosecution in the murder case of Major Maxwell Mahama has told the court that the police are on a manhunt for 13 more suspects, who took part in the murder of the soldier at Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region.



The prosecutor Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) George Amegah, therefore, prayed the court for an adjournment, saying his team had also forwarded the duplicate docket to the Attorney Generals Department for advice.



The court then adjourned the matter to September 7 to allow the Police more time for investigations and also to wait for the advice from the Attorney-General.



At the last sitting, the court commended the prosecution for acting expeditiously to prosecute the case, saying the prosecution, for once, had dealt with the matter speedily.



The judge was happy about the turn of events so far.



The prosecution had earlier asked the court to discharge all the accused persons because further investigations had led them to charge 19 out of the 32.



They later added an additional person, bringing the number of accused persons standing trial to 20.



He said some of them would be used by the prosecution as witnesses.



Major Mahama was on national assignment at Denkyira Obuasi when on May 29 he was lynched by some residents of Denkyira-Obuasi, who allegedly mistook him for an armed robber because he had a pistol in his back pocket.



The mob ignored the soldiers consistent plea that he was an officer of the Ghana Army.

Source: GNA









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Britain has described Ghana as a model of democracy and rule of law the rest of the African continent can emulate to position the continent as an emerging world power in the years ahead.



As such, the UK has declared to remain a strong trading partner of Ghana when it finally exits the European Union (Brexit) in March 2019.



Ghana commended



In recognition of the countrys political stability and peaceful transfer of power from one political party to the other after seven successful elections, the British government has been motivated to further strengthen ties with Ghana and also partner it to build a stronger Commonwealth.



Sharing his perspectives in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic in London, the UK Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the United Nations, Lord Tariq Ahmad, who spoke highly of the country, said the UK government was, particularly pleased with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) governments declaration to steer the country away from aids and handouts.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, upon assumption of office, promised to build a Ghana beyond aid; a Ghana which looks to the use of its own resources. We want to build an economy that is not dependent on charity and handouts but an economy that will look at the proper management of its resources as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country.



It is against this backdrop that Lord Ahmad said he was impressed with the vision of the President and expressed confidence in his administration, saying aid should be an enabler and not an end in itself.



I have absolute confidence in the new administration and the British government is ever prepared to support the Ghana government to succeed, Lord Ahmad, who was recently in Ghana for a short visit, told the paper.



He said Ghana was one of Britains largest trading partners with trade volumes totalling about 1.13 billion pounds.



Ghana-UK relations



The relationship between the United Kingdom and Ghana is strong and vibrant dating as far back as the pre-independence era.



The relations between the two nations are rooted in their long-standing economic, political and cultural connections, their shared values and the deep links between the people of the two countries.



There is half a million British-Ghanaian diaspora community in the UK and an ever-growing contingent of British business people based in Ghana, making the future of the relationship between the two countries to be anchored on firm foundations.



Commonwealth summit



Lord Ahmad, who is also the British Prime Ministers Special Representative for Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI), said the UK was set to host the next Commonwealth summit scheduled for London and Windsor in April 2018.



He mentioned the key topics to be discussed at the conference as sustainability, prosperity, fairness and security to re-energise and revitalise the alliance of nations.



Lord Ahmad, who is a member of the British House of Lords and former minister of aviation, said Ghana had a great potential to become an aviation hub, noting that it was important for the government to find a national airline to help attract the needed investments for the sector.

Source: Daily Graphic









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A security alert has been released by the UK and Canadian governments warning Ghana against an impending terrorist attack.



The alert on Thursday, August 3, appeared on their website claiming "terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Ghana. While there have been no recent attacks in Ghana, terrorist groups in West Africa have demonstrated their capability and intent by mounting attacks in 2015 and 2016 in Cote dIvoire, Burkina Faso and Mali, targeting beach resorts, hotels, cafes and restaurants visited by foreigners.



Following the security threat alarm, the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah has sought to allay the fears of Ghanaians.



According to him, both the UK and Canadian Embassies in Ghana have denied issuing any new travel or terror alerts warning their citizens against travelling to Ghana over the claims of terrorist attacks.



This is only a travel advice that the western countries have been known to issue to their citizens. The one that is on the website today that has caused all this panic is not something that was planted yesterday or this week, certainly not this month, or this year; its been there for years. The same advice word for word, so I dont really know what has changed.



"Ghana has not experienced any terrorist attack in the past but there have been terrorist attacks in some neighbouring countries, and, therefore, it is possible that there can be an attack in Ghana. This is the advice and I dont really find anything alarming in that sort of advice, especially when it is not a new one but has been there for a number of years. So, I dont see why we should be panicking about this," he said.



Also commenting on the issue, the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper Kwesi Pratt has asked the National Security Minister and security agencies in the country not to trivialize the security alert.



To him, Ghana shouldn't ignore the warning given by the UK and Canadian governments but rather strengthen the country's security.



Though he commended the National Security Minister for allaying the fears of Ghanaians, he however would have him and the security services to put measures in place to avert any possible threat.



He also advised Ghanaians, particularly hotel and restaurant owners, to be vigilant, watch out for persons whose actions and behaviours are suspicious and report to the appropriate security services.



He charged the government to take steps to assure the safety of Ghanaians.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Imagine if HAIM carried around a large leather grimoire.

That's certainly the case for witchy sisters Monika and Karen Walker of The New Tarot. The relatively new bandhelmed by the sisters, who play keys and sing alongside band members bassist Dave Kahn, guitarist Elizabeth Callen, drummer Chas Langston, and trombone player David Bankerhas been honing their specific brand of "post-genre indie alternative" music since forming back in 2014. It's been a long road for the pair since that fateful decision to make music together: since growing into a full-fledged band, they've released an electrifying EP called God of Science. With a sound that veers between the angst of Alanis Morissette and the familial tenderness and chemistry of HAIM, these sisters are carving out their own path as the next sister act to take on the music world.

The band has never shied away from large topics or bold statements despite just starting out: the cover art for God of Science, which features the face of Jesus over Stephen Hawkins body, explores the in-betweens of scene, religion, and the current struggle. As they exalt the "god of science," they criticize those who've made money their God, and lift up those who aren't as fortunate. The emotions at the core of the EP are exactly what The New Tarot is about: a warm, mystical, affectionate kind of hope. Despite this, their critiques never lose their harshness; they've grown quite a bit since the shy, thumping introduction to the world that was their Stella! EP. Instead of growing reserved, they've continued to branch out, exploring their deepest concerns in the tumultuous world they inhabit.

As the band has continued to grow, their social critiques have only grown more elegant and pointed.Their most recent single, "America," serves as a combination of the mystic and the political, an honest and raw comfort amidst the current political climate. The sisters and their band, a veritable family, are here to provide comfort and a little bit of mysticism into a situation that would otherwise seem hopeless in the current climate. In an America where we don't know who to trust, where the president ignores any kind of diversity in religion or thought, it takes a new kind of American to charge everyone with magic and hope. With a full-length on the way, we have no doubt they'll continue to explore the mystic in the actual world through their music.

Watch The New Tarot perform "Reign' & "Alaska" below:

Fresh off a successful show at Brooklyn's own Paperbox and getting ready to begin a weekly residency at the Bowery Electric in October, the sisters who make up the vibrant face of The New Tarot came to the Popdust offices to play an exclusive set that includes new single "America" and talk about their influences, their interests in magic, and the looming question of America's future. I also got the honor of writing a haiku into their leather-bound tome, inspired by their set and by the awe-inspiring aura that they exude. As the year boils down, this is without a doubt the band to watch in 2018. Listen to The New Tarot on Spotify:

E.R. Pulgar is a music writer, poet, image-maker, and once cried reading Virginia Woolf. Follow him on Twitter.

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The Guam Election Commission believes savings from eliminating primary elections may be offset by the cost of a runoff election, which would "likely be necessary" for the gubernatorial and senatorial races under the majority-vote provisions of the Organic Act of Guam.

"Conducting a runoff election is costly  ballots must be printed, absentee ballots must be packaged and mailed to (absentee) voters, election officials must be hired and overtime costs are higher due to time constraints relative to conducting an election in such a short period of time," said Maria Pangelinan, executive director of the commission.

Pangelinan and other stakeholders appeared before lawmakers yesterday to testify on Bill 45-35, a measure from Sen. Joe San Agustin seeking to eliminate primary elections in Guam.

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The bill represents a major piece of election reform for the island that, according to San Agustin, will save taxpayers hundreds of thousands each election year.

Each primary costs about $400,000. The 2016 primary resulted in about 2,000 spoiled ballots as well, which comes to a cost of about $32,000, according to Sen. Michael San Nicolas, who chairs the committee on government operations.

But Pangelinan said some of the costs of the primary also go to preparing for the general election, such as the procurement of ballot stock, which is cheaper to purchase at one time.

While the election commission provided data on primary elections, it did not take a position on Bill 45.

Bipartisan opposition

However, the bill faces unified opposition from Democrats and Republicans alike. Both parties have argued that costs would increase with a runoff election likely to happen under current voting laws.

Guam must hold a runoff election if the top candidate doesn't have a clear mandate, which is at minimum 50 percent of the votes plus one vote, according to both parties.

The heads of the parties appeared to restate their opposition to the bill yesterday.

"We believe this bill will have the opposite effect to its intent ... In the upcoming gubernatorial elections, there are potentially four teams running for office," said Republican Party Chairman Victor Cruz. "Should Bill 45 pass into law, none of the four teams would be able to achieve the 50 percent plus one vote ... The Guam Election Commission would have to scramble to put together a special election, which would make the (bill) less efficient."

Democratic Party Chairman Joaquin Perez, speaking for himself, said he was not against the intent of the bill but said it was lacking. Perez said that all parts of the election process, including legal issues that may arise from changes in law, need to be considered before ballots are printed.

Joining the discussion was former Sen. Robert Klitzkie, who was also opposed to Bill 45. Klitzkie stated that without the normal candidacy process, such as petitions, partisan involvement and primary elections, Bill 45 would turn the "essential feature of our democracy into a free-for-all."

Testimony supporting the bill

Not all testimony was against the measure. Government accountability advocate Ken Leon-Guerrero and Darryl Taggerty, former chairman of the Democratic Party of Guam, both testified in support of Bill 45.

Leon-Guerrero stated that the primaries mainly benefit the parties and not the people of Guam. Only a few candidates are weeded out each election cycle, while hundreds of thousands gets spent running primary elections, he added.

Taggerty said the primaries, which are currently open to the public, are detrimental to the parties.

"The government is conducting a primary and saying how these two associations are going to participate, and it interferes with freedom of the two organizations," Taggerty said.

"(Bill 45) cleans everything up. By eliminating the government-funded primaries, the parties can field a set of candidates they endorse by internal processes and persons who don't seek the party endorsement can approach the public directly."

San Agustin said he asked San Nicolas for another hearing on changes to Bill 45.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-05 08:35:13

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Agave nectar is a sweetener which is commercially produced from various agave species such as Agave tequilana (blue agave) and Agave salmiana. Agave nectar market is increasing significantly with CAGR of 5.5%. Agave nectar is primarily produced from blue agave which is mostly found in Southern Mexico. Agave Nectar is a natural substitute to artificial sweeteners and refined sugars which is less viscous than sugar. With its thin, light consistency, agave nectar is used as a topping for food products such as fruit salad, pancakes and ice-creams. Agave nectar is used as a sugar substitute in baked products such as bread, bread roll, bun, cake, and cookies. Agave Nectar is 1.4 to 1.6 times sweeter than sugar, which mean less quantity is required for preparing food and beverages. Agave nectar is healthier than refined sugar. Agave nectar is used as a binding agent in breakfast cereals globally.Agave Nectar Market: SegmentationThe global agave nectar market is segmented on the basis of type, form, application, distribution channels and region. The agave nectar is segmented on the basis of types such as light, amber, raw and dark agave nectar. Light agave nectar has neutral flavor and mostly used in food products such as desserts, baked goods, and others. Amber agave nectar contains medium caramel flavor used for preparing sauces and savory food products. Dark agave nectar has high caramel flavor which is mostly used in food products such as poultry, meat products and other seafood products. Raw agave nectar contains mild and neutral taste that is used as a sweetening substitute for raw food products.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2478 The global agave nectar market is also segmented on the basis of form such as powder and liquid. The global agave nectar is segmented on the basis of distribution channels such as supermarket, online stores, and retail stores. The supermarket segment is increasing significantly as a result increasing demand for agave nectar by the consumers globally.The global agave nectar is segmented on the basis of applications such as baked products which is further sub segmented as bread, cakes, pastries, and others. Agave nectar is also used in poultry and meat products, savory food products, and others. Hence, the global agave nectar market is expected to significantly increase the revenue contribution over the forecast period.Agave Nectar Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global agave nectar market can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Globally, among all regions, Europe has developed as the dominant region in global agave nectar market followed by Africa. Increasing baking industry and demand for convenient and on-go-option snack and baked foods, has strengthened the growth of global agave nectar market and hence is projected to significantly expand the revenue contribution of the market over the forecast period.Agave Nectar Market: Growth DriversAgave nectar is a substitute for honey and sugar. Increasing consumer awareness regarding health benefits from agave nectar, which is another driving factor of the global agave nectar market. Rising number of supermarkets and retail stores are rapidly increasing the demand for agave nectar worldwide. Various agave nectar manufacturers are focusing on providing healthier product offerings. Hence, the global agave nectar market is expected to observe robust growth over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2478 Agave Nectar Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified across the value chain of the global agave nectar market includes Wholesome, Dipasa USA, The iidea Company, S.F.D (PTY) Ltd, MADHAVA NATURAL SWEETENERS, GLOBAL GOODS INC., Colibree Company, and the groovyfood company. The companies are focusing on framing certain strategies in future for gaining competitive advantage in the global agave nectar market till 2026.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-04 17:13:13|Editor: Lu Hui

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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has lifted a state of emergency enacted on October 9, 2016 after a deadly week of arson and violence left many private and state-owned firms in flames.

The Ethiopian parliament based in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa Friday formally lifted the state of emergency after hearing report from Siraj Fegessa, minister of the Ethiopian Ministry of Defense, which said Ethiopia's stability has been sufficiently restored to warrant full lifting of martial law.

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 throughout 2016 and intensified in October.

Protestors were alleging political and economic discrimination by Ethiopian government.

According to a recent report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, 669 Ethiopians were killed in connection with the demonstrations.

The Ethiopian Parliament had decided on March 30 to extend the initial six-month period by additional four months.

Ethiopia's state of emergency during its initial days, had imposed various restrictions such as curfews, social media blockage, and a ban on diplomats traveling in excess of 40 km outside Addis Ababa without government approval.

Much of the restrictions were gradually lifted in the following months as the country's peace and security situation improved.
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for FanLogic Interactive Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Calgary, AB (FSCWire) - FanLogic Interactive Inc. (TSX Venture:FLGC). has issued a press release with the following headline:Fanlogic Interactive Inc. Announces Closing of First Tranche of Private PlacementTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on FanLogic Interactive Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/FanLogic Interactive Inc.Source: FanLogic Interactive Inc. (TSX Venture: FLGC)Date: August 04, 2017Time: 9:16 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of FanLogic Interactive Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for New Age Farm Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - New Age Farm Inc. (CSE:NF). has issued a press release with the following headline:New Age Farm Adopts Advance Notice PolicyTo 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 New Age Farm Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/New Age Farm Inc.Source: New Age Farm Inc. (CSE: NF, FWB: ONF, OTC Pink: NWGFF, WKN: A12C9F, ISIN: CA64157D1087)Date: August 04, 2017Time: 11:00 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of New Age Farm Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Payment Bank Solutions Market

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Presently with the growing usage of digital and online banking, many banks have started offering various options for banking payments. These Payment banks are helping in modernization of banking by offering unique payment solutions to customers. The concept of payment bank solution is growing at a faster pace due to rising usage of mobile technology to provide financial assistance in remote areas. These payment bank solutions are developed specifically for unbanked segments and locations which do not have banks.This payment bank concept has been launched by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in which a payment bank operates at smaller level that as an actual bank. In this payment bank can make payments and do some work of banks but cannot lend money or issue credit card. A payment is allow to accept deposit, enable mobile payments, net banking services, fund transfers, issuance of ATM or debit card and can sell third party financial products. Payment Bank solutions are precisely tailored for organizations looking for payments banks and small finance banks licenses from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). With these solutions, licensees can set up the required technology backbone and become operational quickly.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4403 Payment Bank Solution Market: Drivers and ChallengesThe major factor driving the adoption of Payment bank solutions is the rising usage of mobile technology among individuals. In India, rural and urban both places, individuals have been adopted mobile technology significantly for online shopping, online banking and others. The concept of Payment bank solution is also getting adopted by individuals due to internet facilities and easy to understand concept.The key challenge for Payment bank solution is the lack of knowledge payment banking solutions. RBI has issued license to 11 entities to launch payment banks due to which only these 11 companies are offering solutions to areas where they already exist. This concept is in introductory stage due to which it will take time for individuals to adopt.Payment Bank Solutions Market: SegmentationSegmentation on the basis of type:HardwareATM cardsDebit cardsForex cardsSoftwarePlatformsMobile AppsKey Developments:In February 2017, MasterCard has entered into the partnership with Airtel Payment Bank to provide payment processing solution. The MasterCard is offering online debit card to Airtel customers to make digital payments up to 1 lakhs. This will help Airtel to offer safer, innovative and faster payments experience to its customers.In October 2015, Mahindra Comviva has entered in the Payment Bank Solutions market in India to offer technological solutions and infrastructure to payment banks. Mahindra Comvivas technological product has been deployed with Idea and is expected to be adopted by Tech Mahindra as well when it rolls out its own payments bank.In September 2015, Infosys Finacle, a subsidiary of EdgeVerve Systems has launched solution for Payment banks named as Finacle Payments Bank and Finacle Small Finance Bank solutions for the India market. hese solutions are specifically tailored for organizations seeking payments banks and small finance banks licenses from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).In Payment Bank Solution market there are vendors are Infosys Finacle, MasterCard, Mahindra Conviva and others.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4403 Regional OverviewPresently, India is holding the largest market share for Payment Bank Solution market due to high adoption of mobile banking and net banking apps among individuals in various industries for improved payment services, to increase real time financial assistance and other.This Payment Bank Solution market is expected to have the highest growth rate in coming years due to the adoption of cloud based tools and increase in the number of solution providers.
Polypropylene Woven Bags And Sacks Market

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616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesAbhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531

Polypropylene is also recognized as polypropene and which is a thermoplastic polymer which is used in various industries that include packaging and labeling, reusable containers, textiles, stationery. The polymer which is made from monomer propylene are used for acids and chemical solvents.The global plastic packaging market primarily includes of packaging for food and beverages  which accounts nearly 70% packaging which is processed by polymers, remaining 30% polymer packaging covers of cosmetics, chemicals & fertilizers, and medical products.Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks have become popular due to their inertness towards moisture, chemical & exceptional resistance towards rotting & fungus attack as they are nontoxic which is also lighter in weight and is more advantages than conventional bags. Polypropylene Woven Bags and sacks laminated with LDPE/PP liner have wider applications.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4438 Global Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks Market: SegmentationBased on the types, Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks market can be segmented into:UncoatedLaminated (Coated)GussetBOPP bagsPerforatedLiner Woven Bags & SacksSmall BagsEZ Open BagValve BagBased on the end-user industries, Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks market can be segmented into:PharmaceuticalsFertilizersChemicalsSugarPolymersAgroOthersBased on the end-user industries, Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks market can be segmented into:SupermarketsHypermarketsConvenience StoresOthersGlobal Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of the geographical market segment, it is segmented into seven different regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific region, Japan and the Middle East and Africa.In Regional segments, the USA and Germany are the biggest markets for polypropylene woven bags & sacks industry. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to grow its position during the forecast period for polypropylene woven bags & sacks market mainly due to the developing economies like India and China as the spending by middle-class consumers is rising and rapid pace of urbanization. Moreover, the market growth is attributed to the lifestyle across the developing regions and rising per capita income are also the factors which are boosting Global Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks Market. The Market for Global Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks is also rising in emerging markets like South Africa, East European regions over the forecast period.Owing to polypropylene woven bags & sacks contribution in various commodities which are associated with day to day life of human it can be anticipated that market of polypropylene woven bags & sacks is expected to grow substantially over the forecast period.Global Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks Market is expected to witness sustained growth over the forecast period. The growth of the Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks market is driven as there is favorable growth in the packaging industry is a major factor which will boost the global Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks market. Increasing economies, the rising population, and the subsequent disposable income of people are the main drivers for augmented opportunities in developing countries.Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks are used for packaging of a range of products like fertilizers, sugar, cashew nuts, chemicals, maize, animal feeds, and numerous other products. Manufacturers of polypropylene woven bags & sacks on producing biodegradable bio-based polypropylene woven bags & sacks which can be easily recycled so that they do not pose risk to the environment.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4438 Global Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks Market: Key PlayersSome of the players operating in the Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks Market includes Berry Plastics Inc., Da Nang Plastic Joint Stock Company, Shrijikrupa Polypack Pvt. Ltd., Abdos Polymers Ltd., Umasree Texplast, STPGroup, Hanoi Plastic Bag JSC.and Mondi plc and many other regional players. Manufacturers are investing in R&D and also focusing on different strategies to maintain their market share in the global Polypropylene Woven Bags & Sacks market.
Tea Tree Oil Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-05 09:04:51

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Future Market Insights

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# 659 Words

616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesAbhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531

Tea tree oil is distilled from the leaves of tea tree and also known as melaleuca alternifolia. Tea tree oil has wide application in cosmetics and personal care products due to its natural and antiseptic properties. In addition, the demand for tea tree oil is also increasing due to its purity and quality and which is primarily influencing the personal care and cosmetic manufacturers to use this oil as a natural and herbal ingredient in their products. In health care industry also the demand for tree oil is increasing as it is used for health care treatments related to skin infections, acne, cuts, scrapes, rashes etc. The primary reason behind increasing demand for tea tree oil in the global healthcare manufacturers is due to its natural antiseptic properties. In the global market, the majority of production accounts from Asia Pacific region such as from Australia and New Zealand.Global Tea Tree Oil Market: Key DriversSome of the key drivers influencing the demand for tea tree oil in the global market is due to increase demand for herbal, natural and organic cosmetic, and personal care products. Tea tree oil is naturally produced from Manuka and Kanuka tea tree and due to which it is widely used as a natural and organic ingredient in products such as skin care, hair care, shampoos, perfumes, soaps, and many others. Nowadays, due to increasing level of income, increasing urban population and consumers greater emphasis towards health care has enforced the manufacturers to focus more towards the quality of raw material or ingredient used in products. Further, the demand for tea tree oil is also increasing in healthcare industry, as it is widely used in health care products related to skin ointments, cold, dental care, and fungal infection and for many other medicinal purposes. The key reason behind increasing demand for tea tree oil in personal care and healthcare industry is due to its antiseptic, antibacterial, and antifungal properties.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4501 Global Tea Tree Oil Market: Market SegmentThe market segment for tea tree oil is segmented by application, by end-use, and by distribution channel. On the basis of application segment, it is segmented into cosmetics, personal care, health care, and others (food). A major application of tea tree oil is in cosmetic and personal products which include skin care products, hair care, body lotions, beauty care products, soaps, deodorant perfumes, sanitizer etc. In health care sector, it is used in skin care products such as for fungal infection, acne, dandruff etc. and also used in health care products related to mouth, ear and nose infections and creams used for cuts and scrapes. Further, the market for tea tree oil is segmented by end-use includes commercial use and household use, and the market segment on the basis of distribution channel includes supermarket/hypermarket, wholesaler/distributor, departmental stores, and online retailers. Tea tree oil is also directly purchased by the consumers as a solution to prevent from heal, cuts, common cold, and cough, acne and also for household purpose as an insect repellent and cleaners.Global Tea Tree Oil Market: Regional SegmentOn the basis of the regional segment, tea tree oil market is segmented into seven regions including North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan and the Middle East & Africa. On analyzing the market share on the pie chart, it is expected that North America and Asia-Pacific accounts for the majority of share in terms of tea tree oil consumption.Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4501 Global Tea Tree Oil Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players operating in the global tea tree oil market are NATURES REMEDIES, New Zealand Coromandel Mountains Tea Tree Oil Company Ltd., AOS PRODUCTS PVT. LTD., Young Living Essential Oils, Oribi Oils (Pty) Ltd., Naturally Australian Tea Tree Oil Pty Ltd., Xi'an Natural Field Bio-Technique Co., Ltd., NOW Foods, and Jenbrook Pty Ltd.
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.




Excellence in Action award recognizes superior commitment to quality

Contact

Michelle Horlbogen (PR/Development)

Bethany Home of RI

***@bethanyhomeofri.org Michelle Horlbogen (PR/Development)Bethany Home of RI

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-- On June 22, 2017, Bethany Home of Rhode Island received the Excellence in Action award from NRC Health. This honor, awarded exclusively to NRC Health post-acute clients, recognizes organizations that achieve the highest overall resident or employee satisfaction scores in the NRC Health databasethe largest source of long-term care and senior-living satisfaction metrics in the nation.Bethany Home of Rhode Island received the customer satisfaction award."The Excellence in Action award remains a true testament to the overall quality being provided in today's long-term care and senior living organizations,"said Rich Kortum, Director of Strategic Partnerships at NRC Health. "The recipients of this award continue to show the importance of focusing on what matters most to their residents, families, and employees. We are honored to partner with such high-performing organizations, and wish them continued success."Qualifying skilled nursing, assisted living, and independent living communities must have completed a customer or workforce satisfaction survey in 2016. Winners must also have received a minimum of 10 responses (achieving a response rate of at least 30 percent). Their overall responses must have scored the organization within the top 10 percent of qualifying assisted living and independent living facilities and the top 20 percent of qualifying skilled nursing facilities on either the question, "What is your recommendation of this facility to others?" or the question, "What is your recommendation of this facility as a place to work?"Bethany Home of Rhode Island is a non-profit organization that has been caring for people in the Providence area since 1892; they are celebrating their 125year of community service and support. The organization specializes in post-acute care, short-term skilled nursing and rehabilitation and respite care."We are so proud of our staff and their dedication to quality care and attention to our residents and their families. Anyone who has visited Bethany Home realizes instantly it is a very special place with a family feel", said W. Parish Lentz, Chairman of the Board, Bethany Home of RI. "Our board is very proud of our staff and honored by the recognition, but not at all surprised."For more information, contact Bethany Home at 401-831-2870.Founded in 1892, The Bethany Home of Rhode Island provides continuous quality progressive Rehabilitative Services as well as Skilled Nursing and Long-Term Care in a community environment. This non-profit organization exceeds expectations by focusing on resident, family and staff satisfaction with its services.The Bethany Home of Rhode Island embraces the privilege of serving the public. Its goal is to achieve excellence in performance through innovation, education and leadership in its field, making it the provider of choice for consumers and their families in the beautiful East Side of Providence, Rhode Island and the surrounding communities.NRC Health post-acute customer experience solutions help improve quality in all long-term care and short-term stay settings, including skilled nursing homes, assisted living communities, independent living communities, and continuing care retirement communities.NRC Health is focused on enabling human understanding across the care journey. As long-term care providers continue to broaden their offerings and align with hospitals and health systems for plan-of-care transition partnerships, our post-acute customer experience solutions open the door by demonstrating proactive leadership in quality measurement and improvement.NRC Health is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. For more information, call 1.800.388.4264, write toinfo@nrchealth.com, or visit www.nrchealth.com
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-04 18:54:22|Editor: Yang Yi

Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Chief Executive Office Director O Lam and President of Alibaba Cloud Hu Xiaoming sign the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement to Build Smart City at a ceremony presided by SAR Chief Executive Chui Sai On (2nd R) and the board of directors of Alibaba Group Jack Ma (2nd L), in Macao, south China, Aug. 4, 2017. Macao and Alibaba Cloud will work together to upgrade the SAR into a smart city by applying cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), according to the agreement signed on Friday. (Xinhua/Cheong Kam Ka)

MACAO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Macao and Alibaba Cloud will work together to upgrade the special administrative region (SAR) into a smart city by applying cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), according to an agreement signed on Friday by Macao SAR government and Alibaba Cloud.

Macao SAR Chief Executive Office Director O Lam and President of Alibaba Cloud Hu Xiaoming signed the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement to Build Smart City at a ceremony presided by SAR Chief Executive Chui Sai On and the board of directors of Alibaba Group Jack Ma.

According to Alibaba Cloud, the world's top cloud computing service provider will help Macao build an AI hub to enhance its municipal administration capability by a four-year program. The first phase will finish a cloud computing center in two years and initiate AI applications such as traffic control, medical service, E-government and tourism promotion.

The program's second phase will start from 2019 and extend the application into such areas as environment protection, custom clearance and economy forecast.

O Lam told a press conference that the SAR government seriously considered the plan to build Macao as smart city with Alibaba and it was a strategic decision for economy development and people's welfare.

She noted that the SAR government chose Alibaba Cloud for its leading position in the industry, advantages in technology and experience in cloud computing, and its global talent pool in many countries and regions including Macao.
MotchiRocthi Advertising and Media company has won the 5th place regarding to 10SEO.com August reports between all the Egyptian advertising & Marketing Agencies and Companies.

By: Top10SEO.com

Motchirotchi Advertising & Digital Marketing Agency - www.motchirotchi.com

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-- MotchiRotchi Advertising & Marketing Agency has won the 5th place in the competition in EgyptMotchiRocthi Advertising and Media company has won the 5th place regarding to 10SEO.com August reports between all the Egyptian advertising & Marketing Agencies and Companies.MotchiRotchi is the top international agency which is the leader in Advertising & Digital Mareting and Media productions fields.MotchiRotchi listed as a top agency / organisation in Advertising, Digital Marketing and Media Productions regarding to it's professionalism and work in Egypt & United Kingdom 2016 / 2017MotchiRotchi is the leading Advertising & Marketing Agency in Egypt & United Kindgom. Also Digital Marketing, Media Productions & Post Productions are our muscles.MotchiRotchi is known for its outstanding creative ideas that generate powerful emotional connections between consumers and products.With our unique love marks methodology, MotchiRotchi in the business of getting people to fall in love with our clients' brands, products and services. Through our creative ideas across all media and all disciplines, we set out to turn brands into Lovemarks which, unlike brands, generate loyalty beyond reason.They HAVE A PURPOSE, NOT A MISSION STATEMENTMost companies have a mission statement. MotchiRotchi don't. Instead, we have a Purpose:MotchiRotchi Inspirational DreamTo be revered as the hothouse for world changing creative ideas that transform our clients' businesses, brands and reputationsMotchiRotchi FocusTo fill the world with LovemarksMotchiRotchi SpiritOne Team, One Dream  Nothing is Impossible.https://www.motchirotchi.com/services/Peak Performance is about excelling at all times. Peak Performance calls for love and passion. Peak performers love what they do. Love doing what they do better. And doing it better than anyone else. Characteristically, peak performers dream it, then they do it. And then they aim for a higher peak.And, as MotchiRotchi Purpose defines, MotchiRotchi have an unshakeable belief and unbeatable attitude from day one at MotchiRotchi that 'Nothing is Impossible'.News refrence on 10SEO.com: https://www.10seos.com/company/motchirotchi/37821
To get the best possible flavors, Aroma Bravo advises coffee enthusiasts to buy 100% Arabica coffee beans.

Contact

Charles C Harmon Co LLC

***@gmail.com

888-582-6650 Charles C Harmon Co LLC888-582-6650

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-- Over the centuries, only one coffee variety has managed to capture the hearts of true coffee lovers. That variety is called Coffea Arabica, or simply referred to as Arabica. Coffee aficionados all around the world swear by the premium taste of Arabica beans and consider them to the best coffee beans for making specialty coffee. This is exactly the reason why trusted gourmet brands like Aroma Bravo Coffee and Tea exclusively use Arabica beans for their products."There are two types of coffee species that are often used for production: Arabica and Robusta. 70% of the world's coffee supply is composed of Arabica, while Robusta takes up the rest. The statistics don't lie thoughArabica is significantly preferred especially for producing gourmet coffee because it has a superior flavor compared to its counterpart. So if you're after the optimum flavor for your morning coffee, definitely opt for Arabica," said the Aroma Bravo expert.The Arabica variety is more difficult to produce because it has to be grown in an altitude in order to bring out the best coffee flavors. As a result, it is more expensive but the taste is superb and very worthwhile. On the other hand, the Robusta variety a lot easier and cheaper to cultivate that's why it is often found in instant coffee, or sometimes mixed together with Arabica beans to create a blend."Some brands add Robusta to their Arabica coffee to reduce production costs and make more money, but this practice only ends up compromising the flavor. These are often marketed as coffee 'blends' that are priced higher than they usually would if there were solely composed of Robusta beans. In my opinion, it is always best to go with a bag of 100% Arabica whole beans because you can guarantee the flavor and quality," the expert strongly suggested.Fortunately, Arabica coffee is much easier to find these days thanks to the internet. For more information on the Arabica variety, the coffee expert advises coffee lovers to visit https://www.amazon.com/ review/R3OES3BACTNV3Y/ ref=cm_cr_rd... Aroma Bravo sources only the best coffee beans from Honduras to create an impressive lineup of gourmet coffees. Roasted in small batches, Aroma Bravo Coffee is highly recommended for serious coffee lovers.
Astronaut Scott Kelly, whose memoir, Endurance, will be published by Knopf in September, holds the record for most days in orbit: 520. Hes traveled into space four times and spent a total of more than 18 hours on space walks. Yet, in his apartment overlooking Houstons downtown Discovery Green, named for the citys famous association with space exploration, the only obvious memento of his highly decorated two-decade-long career at NASA is a large glass case holdingwhat else?a space suit. Its the same one he wore on his first long-duration space flight in 2010 and 2011.

Pulling off the front of the case, Kelly says, Its still off-gassing and smells a little like spacea scent he describes in Endurance as like that of burnt metal. Its just one of many surprising facts that Kelly serves up in his memoir; another is that the Russian-made space suit is sealed against the vacuum of space with a couple of rubber bands. It goes back virtually to when Yuri Gagarin made his first mission, Kelly says. The Russians are ingenious and very committed to the idea that if something works, it doesnt need replacing.

Kelly notes that the suit, which is entered through a zipper in the chest, can be a bit snug. In the absence of gravity, especially after a year, our bodies do reconfigure and expand. But he adds: I want to be clear about something: I did not grow two inches after my year in space, as reported all over the internet. That did not happen.

Were it the case, Kellywho is a stout five feet, seven inches tallwould stand taller than his identical twin brother Mark, who is also one of NASAs most highly decorated astronauts. Mark Kelly is perhaps best known as the husband of Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona Congresswoman who was nearly assassinated in 2011. News of his sister-in-laws shooting reached Kelly during one of his four missions to the International Space Station, one of several dramatic moments recounted in the book.

I wanted Endurance to give people a sense of what it was really like to live on the space station for a year, and I felt it was important to get across that life on Earth doesnt stop for you just because you are in space, Kelly says. In fact, your connection to daily life on Earth becomes all the more important.

Kelly writes lovingly of his long-term partner Amiko (who returns in the middle of our interview having just attended a session of goat yogaMore like yoga with goats around, than yoga with goats, she explains) and describes the rigors of maintaining an Earth-to-space relationship. This ranges from prosaic tasks, like explaining how to connect the speaker to their home stereo, to the emotional issues of a long-distance relationship taken to the next level.

At the time of Kellys final extended mission, Amiko was working in public relations for NASA, and the couple bonded, in part, by collaborating on social media. They promoted a viral video of Kelly chasing a shipmate while dressed in a gorilla suit and posted photos of different environmental and climate events as seen from the ISS (sometimes against NASAs wishes). I cant say if climate change exists, but I can tell you pollution exists, Kelly says. [And] from the first time I went up to the last, I could see the deforestation of large parts of South America.

Kelly notes that the ISS is a collaboration between the space agencies of Russia, Japan, Canada, Europe, and the United States. With the retirement of the space shuttles, NASA is dependent on Russia to fly Soyuz rockets to and from the ISS; and as Kelly says often in the book, the mission would have been impossible without international collaboration.

Throughout, he emphasizes his intimate relationships with his many Russian colleagues. He also describes their preflight rituals, many of which date back to Gagarins first spaceflight (walking past a row of trees, each one planted by previous cosmonauts and astronauts who had flown into space, and stopping on the drive to the spacecraft to urinate on a rear tire of the bus; women participate by carrying a vial of urine to douse on the tire).

The Russian references make the book feel very timely, Kelly says, referring to the current controversy surrounding President Trump and Russian tampering with the election. Kellys concerned that Putin will retaliate for the U.S. sanctions against Russia by limiting or ending NASA access to the Russian program. This would effectively end the mission of the ISS, he says. As we speak, Kelly continues to eyeball a TV turned to CNN.

As for reaching Mars, Kelly believes that humanity can and will make it to the red planet someday, but it will take a worldwide effort to get there. And though he regrets that he wont have the opportunity to travel on that missionthough he says it may happy in his lifetimehis hope is that his book will inspire future generations to make that journey. When I read Tom Wolfes The Right Stuff as a college student it changed the course of my life, and I hope that the same will happen after some young person reads Endurance.

In addition to this book, Kelly has already been commissioned to do a book of photographs that he took from space, and also to write several books for Random House Childrens Books, the first of which is My Journey to the Stars, illustrated by Andre Ceolin (Crown, Oct.).

All in all, Kelly isnt likely to be done circumnavigating the globe: foreign rights for Endurance have sold in more than 20 countries, including to Russia, and hes committed to a 20-city U.S. book tour. (His sense of adventure extends to his home planet, as exemplified by the well-thumbed copy of Atlas Obscura sitting on his desk.) Its taken me 15 months to write the book, which is already longer than the time I spent on the space station, and it looks like Im going to spend an equal amount of time promoting it.

Having already achieved so much, Kelly wants to set one more record: to be the author of the bestselling space book of this century. His competitive side is best summed up in an anecdote from Endurance in which Kelly confesses to struggling with growing some flowers on the ISS on social media. Someone taunted him on Twitter about it, saying Kellys no Mark Watneya reference to the main character in Andy Weirs bestselling novel The Martian. Kelly took it as a personal slight and doubled down on his efforts, eventually succeeding in getting his zinnias to bloom.

So its no surprise that, when I make a passing reference to Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut who became a celebrity after posting a video of himself singing David Bowies Space Oddity on the ISS and who has since penned several bestsellers, Kelly replies, stone-faced: Never heard of him. Is he an astronaut? Then, offering a knowing smirk, says: Oh, you mean that guy who cant sing?
As part of a cross-cultural exchange between Mexico and Los Angeles, the California Institute of the Arts, the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, ProMexico, and the Los Angeles Times presented MXLA, a symposium on exploring the economic and cultural value of this binational relationship, on June 26 and 27. The symposium included panels on the film, music, arts, and book publishing industries.

Participants in the book publishing panel included Marisol Schulz, director of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) and LeaLA, the University of Guadalajaras Spanish-language book fair in Los Angeles; Jorge Volpi, Mexican author and coordinator of cultural diffusion for the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM); David Shook, poet, translator, and publisher; Chiara Arroyo, co-owner of La Libreria, a bookstore of childrens books in Spanish; and Edgardo Moctezuma, owner of Latin American Book Source, an importer and distributor of books in Spanish. The panel was moderated by this reporter.

The panelists discussed current trends and issues that books in Spanish face in the U.S. When they were asked who todays buyers of books in Spanish are, the responses ran the gamut from schools and universities to public libraries and the general consumer. The wide range of customers makes it necessary for distributors to carry a wide selection of titles, panelists said.

Moctezuma observed that, for Latin American Book Source, Amazon has become much more important. In the last few years what we are selling through Amazon has been growing, and today it accounts for about 35% of our sales, he said. He noted that about 45% of the books he imports are from Mexico, about 40% from Spain, and the rest from Latin America, making his relationship with Mexican publishers imperative to the success of his business.

La Libreria, which is located in the Los Angeles area, also does a significant volume of business with Mexico. Arroyo said that about half of the books the store offers are imported from Mexico and the other half are mostly composed of imports from the rest of Latin America and Spain. Arroyo noted that the demand for high-quality childrens books in Spanish has grown steadily since the store opened in 2011. That higher demand is one reason La Libreria added book distribution to its business mix and began to organize school book fairs.

Schulz discussed FILs strong ties to the U.S. market, but not necessarily with U.S. publishers. She noted that the number of librarians and distributors attending the fair seeking new titles to purchase for the U.S. has grown.

Volpi brought up the fact that only 3%4% of books published in the U.S. are translations. Shook estimated that of books being translated into English, only about 10%15% are translations from Spanishthat is, about 58 books per year. Of those, only about 20% are books from Mexico. Schulz noted that, indeed, when literary agents and rights representatives from the U.S. go to FIL, they are often looking to sell rights into Spanish, but they do little purchasing of rights of books to translate into English.

Shook pointed out that, although the Mexican government has been generous in funding translations of Mexican literature and poetry, it is often only independent publishers that are taking the financial risk of doing translations. Arroyo mentioned a similar trend with childrens books: many good titles are published by independent Mexican publishers. Though this is a positive development, Arroyo said it also poses a challenge, since their print runs tend to be very small, making it difficult for them to fulfill the orders placed by La Libreria. These publishers want to come into the U.S. market, but they dont understand what it really takes to do business here, she pointed out.

The challenges of MexicoU.S. business were another main theme of the discussion. Schulz said organizers were forced to cancel LeaLA last year for a variety of reasons, among them the devaluation of the Mexican peso. She added that she hopes the fair will return in 2018.

Moctezuma discussed the high operational costs involved in importing books from Mexico. He emphasized that many logistical issues could be resolved by working with the Mexican government: Sometimes the truck driver is in line for hours to cross the border, and, when you are paying him by the hour, the cost of the books just increased. These are issues that can be worked out. It is these issues that keep us from offering a wider range of books at a better price.

Arroyo said that there is also a significant difference between the ways people work in the two countries. She explained that U.S. customers are used to receiving their books shortly after placing an order, so when orders get stuck at customs or half the order doesnt arrive, distributors miss their clients deadlines, leading to financial losses that they must absorb.

When asked what would improve business between the U.S. and Mexico, Arroyo identified greater media coverage of books in Spanish as a potentially helpful factor (and thanked PW for its coverage). Schulz discussed the importance of support from U.S.-based organizations for LeaLA. Several of the responses centered on the need for publishers and distributors in Mexico to further understand the U.S. market. When the idea of a similar panel discussion in Mexico came up, Volpi and Schulz agreed that FIL and UNAM would work together to make it happen.
The 14th edition of the Guatemala International Book Fair (FILGua) was held in Guatemala City from July 13 to 23. The consumer fair had more than 50,000 people in attendance, a 36% increase from the previous year, and close to 100 exhibitors and 90 authors from 15 countries. About 60% of Guatemalas population of about 16 million speaks Spanish, with nearly all the rest speaking Amerindian languages (there are 23 officially recognized in Guatemala). Books available at the fair were mostly in Spanish, but there were a number of books in Kaqchikel, one of the Mayan languages taught in Guatemalas public schools.

Fair director Raul Figueroa said FILGua has had a positive impact in the Guatemala City region: Not only does the fair invite schools to bring the children and participate but we also went out to 12 schools in the surrounding areas to bring authors to present. Some of the rural communities hold writing contests among the students, and the winners get to attend the fair. The fair also had a day of workshops for the more than 100 librarians who attended.

The opening speech was delivered by Sergio Ramirez, an award-winning author and the former vice president of Nicaragua. Internationally renowned authors such as Mayra Santos-Febres from Puerto Rico, Carlos Winter Melo from Panama, Fran Antmann from the U.S., and Dorella Barahona from Costa Rica participated in this years fair. The extensive roster of Guatemalan authors included internationally acclaimed author and translator Javier Mosquera; journalist, human rights activist, and novelist Anabella Giracca; and artist, poet, and childrens book author Julio Serrano, who just published a series of books based on Mayan folklore.

Librarians and booksellers in the U.S. have mentioned an unmet demand for books from Central Americaunsurprising given that the number of immigrants to the U.S. from Central America increased tenfold between 1980 and 2015. But there were few Americans in attendance at the fair. Of the publishers that participated in FILGua, the majority already work with companies to distribute their books in the U.S. but realize they need to make a greater effort in order to better reach the U.S. market.

Librarians and booksellers in the U.S. have mentioned an unmet need in the U.S. for books from Central America.
RAND Europe was commissioned by the UK Ministry of Justice to evaluate the world's first Social Impact Bond (SIB), an innovative payment-by-results mechanism to fund public services. Implemented in a prison in Peterborough in eastern England, this first SIB aims to reduce reoffending by prisoners who have served short custodial sentences.

Background

Between 2010 and 2015, an intervention called the One Service operated at Peterborough Prison. This service provided through-the-gate and post-release support to adult male offenders released from HMP Peterborough who had served prison sentences of less than 12 months, with an aim of reducing reoffending. The through-the-gate support provided by the One Service involved contacting offenders before release in order to introduce case workers, assess needs, and plan resettlement activities. The One Service then implemented these plans by working with offenders for up to 12 months following their release. If an offender returned to prison within this period, the One Service aimed to ensure that support services continued back in prison.

The One Service was funded through a financing mechanism known as a Social Impact Bond (SIB), a form of payment by results. This is where private, non-government investors pay for an intervention, and if certain results are achieved, are paid back their initial investment plus an additional return on that investment. In the Peterborough SIB, the Ministry of Justice, supported by the Big Lottery Fund, entered into an agreement to pay a return to investors if targets for reducing reconvictions were achieved. This pilot was the first SIB to be established worldwide.
Commentary

Yoon Suk-yeol has been elected president of South Korea. With a tall order to fill at home and abroad, the Yoon administration has the potential to reshape South Korea's future and relationships in the region. The path that he carves for Seoul in the coming weeks and months will be watched with keen interest marked by hopes and apprehension by his neighbors.
Argentinian video-on-demand (VOD) service Cine.ar Play has announced an agreement with Samsung to launch its first smart TV app.

The nearly 600,000 registered users of the platform will gain access to one more viewing screen, after Cine.ar Play released a platform supported by all Tizen-based Samsung smart TVs manufactured from 2015 onwards.Through this launch, the VOD service, managed by public telco ARSAT and the Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA), will increase its multi-screen footprint shortly after launching an iOS app . Cine.ar Play is also available for Android connected devices and for computers through a web-based platform. The service , which was recently rebranded in a move to boost the former transactional VOD platform Odeon, has also claimed a record number of users in June. According to Arsat, almost 20,000 new subscribers were registered in June and 555,000 users regularly watch content on the platform.Were strengthening the distribution of national productions carried by the INCAA, said Rodrigo de Loredo, president, Arsat. From now on, producers will have one more released window in Samsung smart TVs, opening new distribution possibilities across the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 03:48:41|Editor: Yang Yi

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BERLIN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The rapist and murderer of a Chinese overseas student in Germany was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, and his accomplice received a youth penalty of five years and six months for sexual coercion, a court in eastern German town of Dessau-Rosslau delivered the verdict Friday.

Local media Mitteldeutche Zeitung reported both defendants, Sebastian F. and Xenia I., were also ordered to pay damages for pain and suffering of 60,000 euros.

Li Yangjie, a 25-year-old architecture student went missing while jogging on the evening of May 11, 2016 in the city of Dessau. Her disfigured body was found abandoned in brush near the crime scene two days later before the police identified the both 20-year-old male and female suspects.

According to prosecutors, the two lured her to an empty apartment and then sexually assaulted her. When they found Li still alive, they carried the severely wounded victim away and abandoned her outside.

The case aroused tremendous public attention in both China and Germany. The male culprit's parents are both police officers, and dpa reported there had been temporary suspicion that the parents might have an influence on the investigation.

Chinese expatriates and overseas students across Germany had held memorials in various localities following the tragedy, also demanding a fair and just handling of the case.

Li's attorney Sven Peitzner told Xinhua Friday evening that their side is satisfied about the lifelong sentence for Sebastian F., but not satisfied about Xenia's penalty or the court judgement that Xenia is not guilty concerning the murder. Xenia got five years and a half for rape.

Peitzner said the verdict specified that Sebastian cannot ask for probation after 15 years like those sentenced to life-in-prison do in normal cases, and he will stay in prison for longer than twenty years, because it is a "severe case" and because of the "heavy guilt" of the criminal.

After Germany abolished death penalty in 1949, lifelong imprisonment is the heaviest penalty, but the condemned have the right to apply for probation after 15 years in jail.

However, "we are convinced that Xenia did more than the court believes," said Peitzner, adding there was proof that the woman culprit also took part in murder and they will appeal against the woman's verdict.

According to Peitzner, both defendants did not accept the verdict. "Sebastian will definitely appeal because he has nothing to loose, but it's not known yet whether Xenia will appeal."

Concerning the crime itself, Peitzner gave his opinion, "It's quite bad of what they did because they pretended to need help and Li just wanted to help them. She was a nice girl, and that's what they exploited, which makes it very bad."
An Afghan police officer was killed in an apparent insider attack in the southern province of Kandahar on August 5, NATO and Afghan officials say.

The NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement that the policeman was killed by NATO advisers before he was able to attack their forces near Kandahar Airfield.



The statement said the incident took place after the advisers had completed scheduled law enforcement training and were attacked by the officer as they were preparing to return to their base.



The Romanian soldiers who were providing security for the advisers returned fire in self-defense and killed the gunman, it said.



The statement added that a Romanian soldier and another Afghan police officer were wounded in the fire exchange.



The AFP news agency quoted police spokesman Abdul Hamid Mubarez as saying that foreign troops opened fire on their forces after a "verbal clash" with Afghan policemen.



No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
The Taliban has shot dead at least seven Afghan police officers who were captured by the militant group during fighting in the northern province of Sari Pul, a local official said.



Zabihullah Amani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said on August 5 that the policemen were captured by the Taliban in the Mirzawalang area in Sayad district.



Amani also said that the Taliban seized control of the Mirzawalang area early on August 5, after two days of intense gunbattles with Afghan security forces.



The spokesman said that 10 Taliban fighters, including two group leaders, were also killed in the battles and four Afghan security officers were wounded.



"We requested reinforcements from the central government. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any support. That is why the forces lost control of Mirzawalang," said Amani.



The Taliban has stepped up attacks across the country in recent months, seizing control of three districts in Ghor, Faryab, and Paktika provinces in late July.



However, Afghan security forces repelled multiple attacks by the militants in strategic Gereshk district in southern Helmand Province on August 4, the provincial governors office said in a statement.



The militants wanted to destroy a bridge in Gereshk and create a hurdle for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project, which would pass through the district, but their attack was repelled before reaching their target, the statement said.

With reporting by AP and tolonews.com
A British court on August 4 refused to extradite a Russian businessman who is accused of organizing the murder of a retail tycoon in Russia, saying there was little solid evidence against him.

Russian officials say Georgy Shuppe, who resides in London, arranged the January 2014 murder of Aleksandr Mineyev, who was shot 22 times with a Kalashnikov rifle on the outskirts of Moscow.

Shuppe, 46, also is accused of fraudulently taking over assets belonging to Mineyev. His lawyers say the case is politically motivated.

Shuppe was once married to the daughter of oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a strong critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Berezovsky was found dead in his English mansion in 2013. An inquest failed to determine whether he was killed or committed suicide.

The London court said the claims against Shuppe were based on "the account of an anonymous witness who, in turn, reports what he was told by a third party who may or may not have been present when the conversation between two other individuals, not including the defendant, took place."

Russia has 14 days to appeal the decision.

Shuppe said he was "pleased and delighted" with the court's ruling.

Based on reporting by AP and TASS
As Iranian President Hassan Rohani enters his second term in office, he faces a number of challenges both at home and from abroad.

U.S. Pressure And The Nuclear Deal

Hassan Rohani began his second term on August 5 amid an intensification of pressure from Washington, which has accused Tehran of noncompliance with international obligations following recent missile tests and has characterized the 2015 nuclear accord as a bad deal.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has twice (in April and July) certified Iran's compliance with the deal, under which Iran limited its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. But he has reportedly asked White House staffers to begin making a case to deny certification of the deal, worked out with five other world powers under the administration of President Barack Obama, when the next review comes up in October.

Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in July, when he last certified Iranian compliance following a 90-day review period, that if it were up to him he would have declared Iran noncompliant 180 days ago.

"I think theyll be noncompliant. I think theyre taking advantage of this country. Theyve taken advantage of a president, named Barack Obama, who didnt know what the hell he was doing. And I do not expect that they will be compliant.

The United States had earlier imposed new, unilateral economic sanctions on Iran over its ballistic-missile program, in both May and July. On July 18, Trump expressed concern over Iran's "malign activities across the Middle East" and said that while Iran was complying with the deal, it was in default of "the spirit" of the accord.

Rohani, who won election in 2013 on the promise of ending Iran's international isolation, dedicated the first years of his presidency to negotiating the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In his second term, he will have to work to defend it in the face of criticism from not only abroad but at home, as well.

Sanctions Piling Up

Rohani enters his second term just as more new U.S. sanctions, signed into law by Trump on August 2, target Iran for human rights violations and support for terrorism. The sanctions also single out companies and individuals that aid Iran's ballistic-missile program.

Iran was barred under a 2010 UN Security Council resolution (1929) from conducting ballistic-missile tests. But that resolution was terminated with the signing of the JCPOA worked out with the United States and other world powers. The postdeal resolution (2231) says that "Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons."

Tehran has said that its most recent missile tests, involving the Simorgh rocket, are intended to launch satellites.

Pressure From Hard-Liners



Hard-line pressure on Rohani could increase in the next four years. Hard-liners who control key institutions have targeted Rohanis outreach to the West and also his efforts at home to expand civil liberties and lessen censorship. They have also targeted his brother Hossein Fereidoun, who was briefly detained last month and released on bail over unspecified allegations of financial impropriety.

Rohani, who has in past weeks launched verbal attacks on his hard-line rivals, including on the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), called for unity during his August 3 endorsement ceremony.

Reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh said earlier this week that Rohani has faced unprecedented pressure.

"Even [former reformist President Mohammad Khatami] didnt face the kind of problems Rohani has faced in the past two months since his [reelection], Tajzadeh said.

"The atmosphere has been so intense against Rohani that some were asking me whether there would be an endorsement and inauguration ceremony," he added.

And the attacks are likely to continue.

"To weaken Rohani, they will try all possible ways, from provoking hawks in Washington to imposing more political limitations at home...and isolating Iran economically," an unidentified senior official told Reuters in June.

The Economy

Rohani is also under pressure to translate the nuclear deal into a better economy for Iranians who are frustrated with the slow results of the accord. During the election campaign, Rohanis rivals accused him of having failed to revive the economy, claiming that the gap between rich and poor has widened.

Hard-line conservatives, who have consistently attacked Rohani for the deal, have said existing U.S. sanctions scare potential foreign investors away and cite them as evidence that Washington, too, is not in compliance with the spirit of the JCPOA.

Political Prisoners

The release of Iran's political prisoners, particularly opposition figures Mir Hossein Musavi, his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, and fellow reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi has been among the main demands of Rohanis supporters.

Rohani has failed to push for their release despite promises made in his 2013 and 2017 election campaigns.

The head of the powerful judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, recently criticized the Iranian president for promising to release the opposition figures.

"Who are you to end the house arrest?" Larijani said in May, without naming the president.

The three main opposition figures, who have been under house arrest since 2011 and denied adequate medical care, are in poor health, according to their families.

There are concerns particularly over the health of 79-year-old Karrubi, who was hospitalized this month at a Tehran hospital due to a heart condition.

Rohani could face a backlash if anything happens to the opposition leaders.

Karrubi's son tweeted this photograph of his father in the hospital:

Rohani is also under increased pressure over jailed dual U.S. nationals, including businessman Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father, Bagher Namazi, who are said to have been detained by the IRGC.

The White House has threatened the Islamic republic with "serious consequences if it does not release all American citizens it is holding.





Political And Social Reforms



Many of the pro-reform supporters of Rohani are expecting the president to follow up on his promises to give them more social and political freedoms. But the Iranian president doesnt have the last say. It is also not clear whether hes ready to pick a fight with powerful hard-liners who oppose political liberalization.

Some have expressed disappointment in reports that Rohanis future cabinet is not likely to include women as ministers.

"We supported him during the campaign, but now there is no place for us, womens rights advocate and journalist Jila Baniyaghoob told The New York Times.

This tweet says: Women who voted for Rohani versus those who were invited to his endorsement ceremony.




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
Leading Iraqi Shi'ite clerics are calling for the disbandment of powerful Iran-backed Shi'ite militias now that the nation has retaken its second-largest city, Mosul, from the Islamic State extremist group.

Muqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American firebrand with a large following among Baghdad's urban poor, on August 4 called for the disbandment of Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary organization with an estimated 122,000 troops dominated by Iran-backed Shi'ite militias.

Sadr was speaking to thousands of supporters in Baghdad after a rare visit over the weekend to Iran's archrival Saudi Arabia, where he met with the Saudi crown prince.

In a speech broadcast on huge screens, Sadr urged Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to dismantle the Hashed militias, or Popular Mobilization Forces, and "integrate into the army the disciplined members," AFP reported.

Sadr also called on the authorities to "seize the arsenal of all armed groups."

Sadr himself led a militia that fought against the U.S. occupation of Iraq in the last decade. But he is now seen as a nationalist who has repeatedly called for protests against corruption in the Iraqi government.

Another leading cleric calling for the disbandment of the Iran-backed militias is Shi'ite Sheikh Fadil al-Bidayr, who was one of the religious leaders who issued an urgent call to arms answered by the militias in 2014 when IS swept through northern and western Iraq and captured Mosul amid a collapse in the Iraqi Army.

"We always knew that Iran would use this [call to arms] to increase its own power in Iraq, but we had no other choice" at the time, Bidayri told AP.

Bidayri said that now that Mosul has been retaken and the Iraqi military has been partially rebuilt, he believes the Shi'ite militias should be disbanded, to curb Iranian influence in Iraq and reduce sectarian tensions.

The elderly sheikh, like much of Iraq's religious establishment in Najaf, is a staunch nationalist and wary of Iran's growing influence.

"From the very beginning...Iran used every opportunity to get involved in Iraq," he told AP. "Each time they used the protection of the Shi'ite people as an excuse."

The Hashed al-Shaabi is the largest Shi'ite paramilitary group and is nominally under Abadi's command. But some of its components have for years been sending fighters to support Syria in its six-year civil war with rebel groups.

The paramilitary force took part in the battle to liberate Mosu, and could join future operations aimed at routing the militants from areas of the country they still hold. IS still controls parts of western Iraq, including much of the desert province of Anbar.

While Sadr, Bidayri, and some other Iraqi political, religious, and military leaders say the Shi'ite militias must go, militia leaders say their sacrifices on the battlefield have earned them a permanent place in Iraq's security forces.

Although the Shi'ite militias did not play a central role in the battle to retake Mosul, they moved into the deserts held by IS west of the city, massing around the town of Tal Afar and retaking a border crossing between Iraq and Syria.

They also took control of highways bisecting the Sunni heartland in western Iraq and used as vital military and civilian supply lines.

In past fights against IS, including the operation to retake the cities of Tikrit and Fallujah, the Shi'ite militias were accused of sectarian killings and other abuses against minority Sunnis. Militia leaders acknowledged some abuses occurred but said those responsible have been disciplined.

"The Hashed will remain...and our relationship with Iran will remain," Hadi al-Amiri, a senior leader of the Badr Brigade, one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite militias, told AP.

Amiri said IS's insurgent capabilities will pose a long-term security threat to Iraq and his forces will have a continuing mission.

Iraq's prime minister has also repeatedly said he backs the Popular Mobilization Forces, telling reporters at a press conference last week that they "must remain at least for years, as the terrorism threat still exists."

Moreover, analysts say it's unlikely Iraqi security forces would be able to absorb all the militia factions.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters


The U.S. Defense Department has recommended sending a package of lethal defensive military aid to Ukraine worth about $50 million, U.S. media are reporting.

The Wall Street Journal, NBC, The New York Times, and other media outlets have cited unnamed Defense Department officials as saying the recommendation has been forwarded to the White House for consideration.

A Pentagon official would not confirm the reports but told NBC on August 4 that "we haven't ruled anything out."

The reports are in line with comments made in an interview with Current TV on July 25 by the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who said the administration is considering sending "defensive arms" to Ukraine.

The reported weapons package purportedly would include Javelin shoulder-launched antitank missiles.

Ukraine has long sought the Javelins to defend against Russian-made armored vehicles operating in rebel-held areas.

Until now, the U.S. military has not supplied Kyiv with antitank missiles, but it has been training the Ukrainian army in methods to stop armored vehicles without missiles, such as by laying wire traps that damage treads of tracked vehicles.

The New York Times reported the military aid would also include antiaircraft arms that would be defined as defensive weapons.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in early 2014 and has provided extensive military, economic, and political aid to separatist militants in eastern Ukraine.

During a visit to Kyiv last month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg asserted that Russia has "thousands" of troops on Ukrainian soil.

Although Russia denies military involvement in the conflict, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

With reporting by NBC, the Wall Street Journal, Stars And Stripes, BBC, and The New York Times
Former Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak has said that his discussions with former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn were "completely appropriate, calm, and absolutely transparent."

Speaking on Russian state television on August 5, Kislyak added that he would not be willing to testify about his contacts with Flynn before the U.S. Congress or a U.S. grand jury.

"We spoke about the most elementary things," Kislyak said. "There are several issues that are important for Russian relations with the United States -- first and foremost, terrorism. That was one of the topics we touched upon. On the whole, our interaction was absolutely proper, calm, and completely transparent. There have been no secrets [about it], certainly not on our part."

Flynn was forced to resign from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump after it came out that he had failed to reveal his contacts with Kislyak during the period between the November 2016 U.S. presidential election and Trump's inauguration in January.

Kislyak specifically said he had been instructed by Moscow not to discuss U.S. sanctions against Russia.

He added that he had made rebuffed attempts to establish contacts with the campaign of Trump's Democratic Party rival, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I could give you a long list of people from Clinton's campaign I wanted to pay a visit to, but they all walked away from [my attempts]," he said.

Kislyak ended his tenure as ambassador last month.

The U.S. Justice Department and committees in both houses of Congress are investigating possibly illegal contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign.

The U.S. intelligence community issued an assessment in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an "influence campaign" targeting the U.S. election, with goals that included undermining trust in the U.S. electoral process, denigrating Clinton, and helping Trump. Russia denies meddling, despite what critics say is strong evidence, and Trump denies any collusion.

With reporting by TASS, Interfax, and Reuters
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 07:43:31|Editor: Yang Yi

The freight train X8074 from Prague arrives in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, Aug. 4, 2017. The first freight train from Prague, the Czech Republic to Yiwu arrived at Yiwu west freight station at about 11:00 a.m. Friday after a 16-day journey. The train carried 82 containers of crystal products, automobile accessories, beer and some other Czech products, with total value of about five million U.S. dollars. (Xinhua/Lyu Bin)
Rescuers at one of Russia's largest diamond mines were searching early on August 5 for eight miners still missing after a water cavern collapsed into an underground shaft with 142 workers inside.

One miner was reportedly rescued on August 5 and was taken to a local hospital in "weak" condition, officials said.

After the water broke through into the Mir mine in the Sakha region early on August 4, 133 of the workers were safely evacuated and a search was launched for the nine missing miners, Alrosa, Russia's largest diamond producer, said.

Yegor Borisov, head of the Sakha region, was quoted as saying the water levels in the mine were stable and ventilation and electrical systems were working. Therefore, he said, there was hope the remaining miners were still alive.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry declared a state of emergency in the town of Mirny near the mine some 4,160 kilometers east of Moscow and said an offiical search and rescue mission was under way.

The ministry's head, Vladimir Puchkov, said 32 mine rescuers and seven mine divers had arrived at the scene.

Interfax reported that communications was established at one point on the night of August 4 with two or three of the trapped miners.

The water flooded into one of the mine's pumping stations from a crater where water discharges had been disposed that contained some 300,000 cubic meters of water -- the equivalent of 120 Olympic-size swimming pools, the ministry said.

Alrosa said it was an "uncontrolled increase in the flow of water" out of the abandoned crater into the underground shaft.

It said the flood was caused by sudden and unexpected geological processes and the washing away of rocks in the crater. It insisted that all of the mine's "equipment has been regularly tested."

One company official told TASS that it was fortunate the massive water release occurred at the start of the work shift before many miners had descended deep into the mine where the water flowed.

The Sakha region's branch of the Russian Investigative Committee said it was checking into possible safety violations at the mine.

The director of the mine, Mikhail Lopatinsky, has reportedly been suspended pending the results of the investigation.

Russian television said the rescue operation at the Mir mine was hindered by a power cut that prevented the lift system from working.

TV channels showed footage posted on social media of water flooding into a control room and coming from the ceiling of underground passageways.

Of the 133 people evacuated from the mine, two were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, the region's Health Ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Siberia on August 4, was briefed about the accident, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told TASS.

Alrosa's president, Sergei Ivanov, flew to the scene, as did Sakha region head Borisov, who brought along doctors specializing in emergency medicine.

Emergency Situations Minister Puchkov also traveled to the scene.

Ivanov, 36, is the son of Putin's former chief of staff, also named Sergei Ivanov. He has headed Alrosa since March.

Alrosa, based in the Sakha region, made a net profit of 22.7 billion rubles ($376.37 million) in the first quarter of 2017.

The Mir mine was launched in 2009 and produces 1 million tons of diamond ore per year. Last year, the diamonds it produced totaled 3.19 million carats, according to the company's website.

Until 2001, Alrosa used open-cast mining at the Mir site, which has been used for diamond production since 1955. The open-cast mine is a vast round crater with a diameter of over 1 kilometer that is one of the largest man-made holes on Earth.

TASS reported that the Mir mine was hit by a smaller emergency last week when a rockslide buried a loading machine and killed a miner.

The last major mining accident in Russia resulted in 36 people being killed by methane explosions that ripped through the Severnaya coal mine north of the Arctic Circle in February 2016.

In 2010, 91 people died after a methane explosion at the Raspadskaya coal mine in the Siberian region of Kemerovo.

With reporting by AFP, TASS, and Interfax
On July 30, the Russian government held lavish celebrations to mark the annual Navy Day holiday. But there were no official commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the July 30, 1937, Soviet government order that formally launched dictator Josef Stalin's Great Terror that left around 700,000 people dead and millions displaced, orphaned, or crippled.



The silence of the government and the Russian Orthodox Church was symptomatic of Russian society's ambiguous interpretation of the Great Terror and the other crimes committed by the Soviet government against itself and its own people. According to a recent public opinion poll by the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), 43 percent of Russians believe the purges were necessary "to maintain order in the country." At the same time, only 16 percent said that the verdicts of the Stalinist courts and tribunals were just. Forty-nine percent said Stalin's crimes cannot be justified by any arguments.

The terror kicked off 80 years ago when Soviet secret-police head Nikolai Yezhov signed Order No. 00447, which stated:

"The state security organs stand before the task of mercilessly smashing this entire band of anti-Soviet elements and defending the laboring Soviet people from their counterrevolutionary plots and, finally, once and for all, ending their insidious work against the foundations of the Soviet state."

In February 1940, Yezhov himself became a victim of the terror when he was executed in a Moscow basement.

In the face of official silence -- in an interview released in June, President Vladimir Putin criticized the "excessive demonization of Stalin" -- ordinary Russians have tried to keep the memory of Stalin's victims alive. Journalist and activist Sergei Parkhomenko has for the last two years coordinated the Last Address project, which puts memorial plaques on the buildings were victims lived, often over the objections of local residents and officials. In just under two years, the project has erected about 600 plaques.



For the July 30 anniversary, a social-media hashtag, # (We remember the Great Terror), was created and people were encouraged to post information about their repressed relatives. The testimonials illustrate whole families ripped apart.



"Pyotr Burakov was my great-grandfather," Marina Makarevich wrote on Facebook. "He was repressed for the first time in 1928 as a kulak for owning two horses. He was sent from Stavropol to the northern Urals with his six children. He returned in 1936, having lost his wife and two children during his exile. His wife was forced to work at a tuberculous clinic for [secret police] officers -- she became infected and died in 1930.

"The second time my great-grandfather was arrested was in 1939 for his [Baptist] religious beliefs. He was released in 1943 together with other religious prisoners at the request of the Soviet Union's allies in World War II. He was arrested again in 1947. He was tortured and forced to renounce his faith. He died from the torture in 1948 in a prison in Nalchik. I don't know where he is buried. Neither he nor his wife nor his children are on any of the lists of repressed people. Many victims remain unknown."



Yelena Grigoryeva described the decimation of her family.



"On my mother's side, two large peasant families were exiled and imprisoned -- the great-great-grandfathers from both my grandmother's and grandfather's families," she wrote. "On my father's side, three members of my grandmother's family were shot or died as a result of their time in labor camps. The rest were forced to abandon their homes and hide, including by changing their name. As far as my grandfather's family, we know nothing about them, which in my opinion could indicate that they all died prematurely.



"In short, everyone in three generations of my family was touched by the Great Terror of the 1930s.... That is why I cannot sit by calmly while they erect memorials to Stalin and hang his portrait in the subway. It was a huge mistake that there has never been an open trial about the crimes of Stalin and his supporters like there was regarding the crimes of [German dictator Adolf] Hitler."

WATCH: In northwestern Russia, residents are frequently reminded that their village was once home to one of Stalin's notorious gulags. Vadim Kondakov of Current Time TV, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, spoke with a man who is trying to bring dignity to the victim's remains.

One of the organizers of the hashtag, documentary filmmaker Valery Balayan, told RFE/RL's Russian Service that the action was prompted by the government's apparent desire to see the anniversary pass unnoticed.



"In our history textbooks, both Soviet and Russian, the real scope of the [Great] Terror is not conveyed," Balayan said, adding that he personally learned about Stalin's crimes from the work of Western historians such as Robert Conquest. "And this was really a huge terrorist attack on their own population. I think it was unprecedented [at the time]. Intellectuals were killed, as well as the elite of the peasantry and so on. I don't think Russia has recovered to this day. The fact that the government wants to be silent and forget about this date is shameful.



"The descendants of the wardens don't want people to remember and to know," Balayan said. "Someone once said that half of Russia was sitting in the camps and the other half guarded them. Perhaps the descendants of those prison guards don't want to admit that. But the people who were affected will never forget."

Written by Robert Coalson based on reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service correspondent Yaroslav Shimov
Ukrainian prosecutors have begun legal proceedings against the German techno band Scooter, and it faces significant legal consequences for performing at a festival in Crimea on August 4, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany said.

Ukrainian envoy Andriy Melnyk said on Facebook and in an interview with the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain that the band's decision to enter Crimea, which Russia annexed illegally in 2014, was "not only a scandal, but also a crime with serious legal consequences."

The band appeared at the ZBFest rock festival in Balaklava.

"This isn't some minor infraction, but a serious crime that will be punished," Melnyk told the newspaper chain.

Ukrainian prosecutors said the band's members were warned against going to Crimea and could face up to eight years in prison.

"Such illegal actions committed by foreign citizens and world celebrities, who can...influence the opinion of their fans, impede Ukraine's efforts towards restoring its territorial integrity," the prosecutor's office said.

Scooter front man H.P. Baxxte said last month the band was going to Crimea to perform music for its fans there, not to engage in politics.

No comment was immediately available from the band on the prosecutor's charges.

Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS


U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called a new United Nations resolution against North Korea over its banned missile program "the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation."

But she said on August 5 that the measures were not enough and that "we should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem  not even close."

"The threat of an outlaw nuclearized North Korean dictatorship remains...[and] is rapidly growing more dangerous," Haley told the UN Security Council after the vote.

U.S. President Donald Trump hailed the sanctions, writing on Twitter that "The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!"

A White House statement later said, "The president appreciates China's and Russia's cooperation in securing passage of this resolution."

The Security Council voted unanimously to impose its toughest sanctions ever against North Korea after Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in July, claiming it now had the ability to launch a strike against the entire United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha in the Philippines on the sidelines of a regional summit, said the approval of the new UN sanctions was a "very good outcome."

Tillerson said he and the South Korean foreign minister plan to discuss the sanctions during their meeting, along with next steps to pressure Pyongyang, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Manila.

Kang said the new sanctions were a "very, very good outcome."

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yion urged his North Korean counterpart to abide by UN resolutions and stop provoking "the international community's goodwill" with missile launches and nuclear tests.

Wang spoke to reporters in Manila after meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of the summit.

Wang said the two had an intensive conversation during which China urged North Korea to maintain calm. Wang said he told Ri "do not violate the UN decision or provoke the international community's goodwill by conducting missile launches or nuclear tests."

Wang also urged the United States and South Korea "to stop increasing tensions" and said that all sides should return to negotiations.

In an earlier statement on August 6, Wang appealed to other governments to resume six-nation talks that involve North Korea, the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea, as well as Beijing.

Tillerson was due to meet Wang and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later on August 6, seeking to intensify North Korea's diplomatic isolation and reduce the risk of renewed conflict.

The key element of the U.S.-drafted sanctions is a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, lead, and seafood products, and a ban on all countries importing the products.

The exports are estimated to bring in more than $1 billion a year in hard currency for Pyongyang, about one-third of the countrys $3 billion in annual exports.

The resolution also prohibits countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean workers abroad and bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.

The resolution adds nine individuals and four entities to the UN blacklist, including North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank, subjecting them to a global asset freeze and travel ban.

All 15 members of the Security Council said the aim was to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang to bring it back to the negotiating table over its nuclear and missile programs.

Prior to the new resolution, the Security Council had imposed six rounds of sanctions, but they have failed to halt North Koreas drive to develop its ICBM and nuclear weapons capabilities.

Pyongyang has said its weapons program is necessary to oppose U.S. aggression.

Russia and China approved the resolution and did not invoke their veto rights. However, both expressed words of caution.

Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, warned that "sanctions cannot be a goal in itself" but should be seen as a tool to help engage North Korea in negotiations.

He added it was Russia's position that the new sanctions should not be used for the "economic strangulation" of North Korea which, he said, would lead to a deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

China and Russia both criticized the U.S. deployment of the THAAD antimissile defense system in South Korea, with Chinas ambassador, Liu Jieyi, calling for a halt to the deployment.

Liu also urged North Korea to "cease taking actions that might further escalate tensions."

With reporting by Reuters, the BBC, dpa, and TASS
She was drugged with Ketalar (used to sedate horses) and transported in a bag to Borgial, an isolated village near Turin. In the house, the model was kept handcuffed to a wooden dresser in a bedroom. Two men tried to sell the woman online for around 230,000 in Bitcoin and demanded the models agent pay to secure her safe release. However she was freed after six days and taken to the British embassy in Milan, despite the ransom not being paid.

The captors threatened to kill her if she told police about the incident. Pawel Lukasz Herba, 30 old, a Polish national with British residence has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping for extortion purposes. The man was arraigned in a Milan court on Friday. He is not being charged for sex crimes, only kidnapping and illegally holding a person captive. Its supposed the woman was released because she is a mother, making her undesirable to human traffickers. Analysis of his email shows this man belonged to an organization called Black Death, Milan prosecutor Paolo Storari said in a media conference Saturday.
Back in Nov 2016, the all new Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 and Svartpilen 401 were revealed to the world. Both these motorcycles are based on the KTM Duke 390, and are set for launch in Europe later this year. For India, both these bike will be launched next year.

Bajaj will be manufacturing both the Husqvarna motorcycles at their plant in Pune, where they also manufacture the KTM range of motorcycles. Both Vitpilen 401 and Svartpilen 401 will be made in India, and exported across the globe.

We all know how big a success KTM has been in India. None of the existing brands in the country have managed to match the success of KTM. But now, Bajaj believes that their new brand Husqvarna has the potential to overtake KTMs success in India.

In an interview with Business Standard, S Ravikumar, President, Business Development, Bajaj Auto Ltd., has said that Swedish brand will be a bigger success than the Austrian brand in India. There are many reasons behind. For starters, Husqvarna motorcycles will be relatively easier to ride, and will attract a wider range of audience as compared to the KTM.

Speaking about the Vitpilen 401 and Svartpilen 401  both are basically the same bikes, but with different names. This because they are of different colour. Vitpilen means White Arrow, while Svartpilen means Black Arrow.

Both Vitplien 401 and Svartpilen 401 are based on the new Duke 390 and uses the same steel trellis frame, complete with the alloy swing arm and WP inverted telescopic front forks. The ergonomics is typical of a cafe racer with a low-mounted flat handlebar and rear set footpegs.

The new Huskies bodywork remains true to the concept (which was showcased at 2014 EICMA) with a circular LED integrated headlamps (prototype wears a decoy), fully digital dashboard, a slender fuel tank, and a minimalist tailpiece. The Vitpilen series will spawn more derivatives with varying engine displacements. Each one will share its engine with the respective KTM Duke counterparts.

Svartpilen 401 Photos

Vitpilen 401 Photos
NASAs Mars rover Curiosity took this selfie in the Murray Buttes area, on the lower flank of Mount Sharp.

Five years after touching down on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover mission is still making big discoveries.

On the night of Aug. 5, 2012, the car-size robot aced a dramatic and harrowing landing, settling softly onto the Red Planet's surface after being lowered on cables by a rocket-powered "sky crane." The success of this unprecedented (and seemingly improbable) maneuver sparked eruptions of emotion at mssion control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California  and at late-night viewing parties all over the world.

Curiosity landed on Mars at 10:17 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5  that's 1:17 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6 (0517 GMT)  with the signal of its success reaching Earth 14 minutes later after crossing the 154 million miles between Mars and Earth.

Within weeks of its arrival inside Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater, Curiosity hit scientific pay dirt, rolling through an ancient streambed where water once flowed. And, not long after that, mission scientists revealed a bombshell: Billions of years ago, a nearby area known as Yellowknife Bay was part of a lake that could have supported microbial life. [The 10 Biggest Moments from Curiosity's First 5 Years on Mars]

But that's not where Curiosity's story ends. The rover has continued to piece together details about the ancient Gale Crater environment  work that has led to another exciting find.

"I feel like we're arriving at a second conclusion from the mission that's just as powerful as the first, which is that habitable environments persisted on Mars for at least millions of years," Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of JPL, told Space.com.

Rolling up Mount Sharp

Curiosity worked near its landing site on Gale's floor for its first year on Mars. Then, the nuclear-powered rover began a 5-mile (8 km) trek to the towering Mount Sharp, which rises about 3.4 miles (5.5 km) into the Red Planet sky from Gale's center.

The mountain's foothills had long been Curiosity's main science destination, even before the rover's November 2011 launch. Mission team members wanted the six-wheeled robot to work its way up through Mount Sharp's lower reaches, studying the rock layers there for clues about Mars' long-ago transition from a relatively warm and wet world to the cold, arid place it is today.

And that's what Curiosity has been doing for the past three years. Since arriving at Mount Sharp in September 2014, the robot has climbed about 600 vertical feet (180 meters), drilling, sampling and studying numerous rocks that are part of a geological division that mission scientists call the Murray Formation.

Curiosity found that most of this rock is fine-grained mudstone  classic lake-bed deposits, Vasavada said. Such deposits on Earth generally take millions of years to accumulate, leading the team to conclude that Gale Crater's lake system was long-lasting.

That's a big deal, because Curiosity's work at Yellowknife Bay captured just "a snapshot in time," Vasavada said.

Based on the initial findings, "that lake may only have been around for 100 or 1,000 years at the minimum," he said. "There was a risk that our habitability discovery only applied to a short amount of time." [Photos: Ancient Mars Lake Could Have Supported Life]

More work to do

Curiosity has already seen some changes during its climb up Mount Sharp. For example, the mudstone was pretty much continuous at and near the mountain's base, but that finely grained stuff gets broken up by other deposits closer to the top of the Murray Formation, Vasavada said.

"There are intervals of deposits that are consistent with forming in near-shore environments where rivers are reaching the edge of the lake, or even in dry environments where the lake has presumably receded," he said. "But the lake then reappears."

And Gale Crater likely remained habitable even through such periodic dry spells, Vasavada added. That's because groundwater probably remained, even if the lake site was dry on the surface.

This groundwater also outlasted the lakes, he said. Mission scientists know this because Curiosity has spotted evidence that liquid water flowed through Gale's lake deposits after they dried out and were buried, compressed and fractured.

"So there's a whole other era of water that's, by definition, after the lakes," Vasavada said. "It suggests that the water was there even longer than the timescale of the lakes."

Vasavada and his colleagues hope to learn more about this other era, and Gale's early history in general, as Curiosity goes higher up the mountain. Ideally, mission scientists would like to reach three other rock layers that are above the Murray Formation. The first is Vera Rubin Ridge, a feature with lots of the iron-containing mineral hematite; the second is a clay-rich unit; and the third is one dominated by sulfates.

The clay unit was probably exposed to lots of liquid water in the ancient past, whereas sulfates imply that water was scarcer, Vasavada said.

"There's this idea that you go from the clays to the sulfates, and you're going to be witnessing some kind of drying out of the environment at Gale Crater," he said. "Whether that has anything to do with the global drying out of Mars we'd love to figure out. But at the very least, it's a major environmental change within Gale Crater."

Curiosity has already been eyeing Vera Rubin Ridge and should start studying the formation in earnest in the next month or two, Vasavada said. If everything goes according to plan, the rover should get to the clay unit by the end of the year and arrive at the sulfate region, which is about 650 feet (200 m) above Curiosity's current location, a year or two after that.

"In the next three years or so, we'll probably see all of those units," Vasavada said.

In good health (mostly)

Curiosity has already far outlasted its warranty; the rover's $2.5 billion mission was originally scheduled to last just two Earth years.

But there's no reason to think Curiosity won't be able to power through three more years on the Red Planet; the rover is in good shape overall, Vasavada said. (The mission team has been able to slow an initially worrying rate of wheel damage, primarily by choosing routes with softer ground, he added.)

But one major health problem continues to afflict Curiosity: The rover has been unable to use its drill since December 2016. This is a big blow, because the drill  which sits at the end of Curiosity's 7-foot-long (2.1 m) robotic arm  allows the robot to access the pristine interiors of rocks and, therefore, characterize ancient environments. (Without this capability, the rover is mostly limited to analyzing surface material such as sand, which was shaped and altered in the recent past.)

The issue lies in the drill feed mechanism, which moves the drill bit forward and backward. Until about a month ago, Curiosity engineers were focused primarily on diagnosing the problem and fixing it in a way that would restore normal drill operations, Vasavada said. But the team is now investigating an alternative drilling method  using the arm itself, not the feed motor, to move the drill.

"That requires a lot of work  to figure out if that's safe, and to figure out how to do it, and how to command it," Vasavada said. "But it's promising, and that may be where we concentrate our efforts going forward."

Though he and other mission team members are chiefly concerned with the future  fixing the drill and continuing Curiosity's climb up Mount Sharp, for example  the events of Aug. 5, 2012, still have a special place in Vasavada's heart.

"When I look at the landing video, I still get really emotional; I have a hard time giving talks when I show the video, because it takes me like a minute to recover," he said. "It's remembering the emotion of that night, where your whole career is depending on seven minutes of this stuff going right  and when it actually did work, realizing that you had a future."

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.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 07:14:53|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Charles Munyaneza, the executive secretary of National Electoral Commission of Rwanda speaks about the counting results in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, on Aug. 5, 2017. Preliminary results of votes count show that incumbent President of Rwanda Paul Kagame won 98.66 percent of 80 percent of votes cast at national level in the Friday's polls, National Electoral Commission of Rwanda (NEC) announced Saturday. (Xinhua/Wang Junbo)

KIGALI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Preliminary results of votes count show that incumbent President of Rwanda Paul Kagame won 98.66 percent of 80 percent of votes cast at national level in the Friday's polls, National Electoral Commission of Rwanda (NEC) announced Saturday.

Central African country Rwanda went to the polls on Friday to select the new president for the next 7 years. Kagame, who is seeking re-election faced two other candidates, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana in the election.
WASHINGTON  Vector, a company developing the Vector-R small launch vehicle, carried out what it said was a second successful low-altitude test flight of the rocket from a Georgia site Aug. 3.

The Vector-R rocket lifted off from future site of Spaceport Camden in Camden County, Georgia, near the Atlantic coast, at about 12:25 p.m. Eastern. The launch, designated B.002 by the company, is the second in a series of several test flights planned for the Vector-R.

The company did not immediately release details about the flight, but declared the launch a success in social media posts immediately after the brief flight.

"In summary, the rocket took off, it flew, so we're happy about that," said John Garvey, chief technology officer of Vector, in an video released by the company a little more than an hour after the flight.

A launch attempt about 40 minutes earlier was aborted because of a problem with the ignition system for the rocket's single engine. "We had some ignition problems that we had to work our way through," Garvey said. Technicians made adjustments at the pad that corrected the problem, he said.

The launch was the second for the Vector-R, after a test flight three months earlier in California's Mojave Desert. Both launches were low-altitude test flights, with a peak altitude on this flight of no more than 3,000 meters. That is part of an incremental test strategy by the company.

"It's an incremental development approach that gradually adds more and more complexity and performance to the vehicle as we go along," James Cantrell, chief executive of Vector, said in an interview after the May test flight. Vector is planning a total of up to six test flights, culminating in an orbital launch, he said then.

Vector announced June 29 that it had raised a $21 million Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. That funding round, the company said at the time, would allow it to accelerate its testing program.

Garvey didn't give a schedule for the next test flight, which will test a thrust vector control system for the rocket. "We'll be regrouping in the next few days and looking at that schedule," he said, adding there is an engine test planned at the company's headquarters in Tucson, Arizona, on Aug. 11.

He added, though, that he expected Vector to begin commercial orbital launches within a year. "We're already buying hardware and doing things that are directly impacting" those orbital launches, he said. "We're already L-365 [days]."

The launch was also the first from the future site of Spaceport Camden, a proposed commercial launch site near the Atlantic coast in southern Georgia. Camden County officials have been working on plans to develop a vertical launch site on property that once hosted a Union Carbide facility, and is in the process of obtaining a launch site operator's license from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The site, though, lacks dedicated launch facilities or other critical infrastructure; Vector noted it needed a satellite internet link in order to provide a webcast of the launch. At one point in the webcast, a wild pig could be seen crossing the field in front of the launch pad as workers corrected the igniter problem with the rocket.

The forests surrounding the pad also posed a challenge for recovering the rocket, which descended back to Earth under a parachute. "This is a new experience for us," said Garvey, who has extensive experience launching and recovering rockets in the Mojave Desert. "It took about 45 minutes to find it. A little different than the desert."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
O ne thing you must know before visiting Hamburg is just how many sides there are to the city. Renowned as Germanys largest port, (its German name Tor zur Welt translates as Gateway to the World), it stepped into the spotlight in 2017 as the host for the G20 summit - so oversubscribed even Trump couldnt book a hotel - and for giving Kate, Will, George and Charlotte a warm welcome on their July tour of Germany.

Not simply a must-visit for the top brass, the citys seedier side attracts 20 million visitors every year. Fun-seeking stag dos pile into the mile-long red light district of the Reeperbahn, (its name, the Ropewalk, harks back to areas rowdy maritime heritage) in search of Hamburg-style hedonism.

Away from the lager and the red lights, theres much to discover in Germanys creative hub and media city: the spanking-new architecture of HafenCity and the stately Elbe Philharmonic, lush green spaces, the boat-strewn waters, and, of course, the model village masterpiece that is Miniatur Wunderland.

Here's everything you need to know about staying at one of Hamburg's coolest new hotels, the Sir Nikolai.

Where is it?

Youll find the 94-room Sir Nikolai - a former seedhouse, and the fourth offering from design-focused SIR hotels - located on cobbled streets of the city centre Aldstadt, near to inner-city regeneration project HafenCity. Inside friendly staff welcome you into the sophisticated surroundings of the townhouse owned by the fictitious Sir Nikolai: Hes away, but do make yourself comfortable the receptionist tells me, proffering coffee and lemon-scented water. With peaceful views across the Nikolaifleet River, this is upper-crust Hamburg: no hens or stags in evidence here.

Style

Swish. From the neon-lit, mirror-lined entrance hall, enhanced by pumping music from the DJ as we arrived late on the Friday night, to the Berners Tavern-esque dining room and its glass roof, its all about the dark wood panelling and velvet accents. Upstairs, theres plenty packed into our boutique room, including cubicle-style toilet and wetroom stocked with DEAD CLEAN products, expansive dressing area, chaise longue, writing desk and must-photo drinks trolley. Comfortable, but verging on the point of cramped.

Facilities

While you await the opening of the hotels spa later this year, switch off the giant TV, line up the best of the Beatles on your in-room Marshall speakers - the group played over 10,000 hours in Hamburg in the early 60s - and load up on posh snacks from the food box, including grown-up chocolate and local lagers in the fridge (not included in the bill).

Food and drink

Begin your day in the open kitchen with a brimming breakfast buffet (dont miss the pickled herring) that includes a plate from the a la carte menu like smashed avo on toast or salmon royale. By night, the local cool crowd flocks to the IZAKAYA Asian Kitchen and Bar, which serves up South American-inspired Japanese menu, including fresh sashimi and Robata-grilled items like jumbo prawns, lobster and sirloin.

Away from the hotel, it wouldnt be a trip to Germany without sampling some of the local wares, so pay a visit to brewery-cum-bar Altes Madchen, which serves up BBQ food (including the eponymous hamburger) and beer from lunch until late. Sample traditional Hanseatic cuisine at fresh-fish focused, Hamburger Fischerstube, while Clockers ticks the box for cocktails.

If youre set for a serious night out, begin in the bars around Ottensen (try Reh Bar or Familien-Eck), then head to the Reeperbahn. Snap a pic with the monument to the Fab Four at Beatles-Platz before sampling the delights of the strip (we loved stumbling across all sorts of dive bars). Finish your night with beer and dancing at the famous Fish Market, just a short walk (or stagger) away.

Extra-curricular

The ornate hallway

When it comes to exploring the city, leave the hectic rushing around to the boats chugging up and down the Elbe river - Hamburg rewards the relaxed weekender with a tendency to potter.

We began by taking in the sights at the HafenCity, all gleaming glass and urban planning, five minutes walk from the hotel. You cant miss the vast Elbphilharmonie (also ticked off by Will and Kate): either wait in line to pay for views from its observation deck across the sprawling port - or just head to the bar at The Westin next door, which offers a similar perspective for the price of a drink. If youve a head for heights, the bell tower at St Michaels, near the piers of Landungsbrucken, offers port views at 106m.

Wander northwards along the waterways to the Alster Lake, where you can take a seat at one of the outdoor bars and sip on an Aperol Spritz while watching sailing boats criss-cross the water. Or amble through the sprawling green of Planten um Blomen, the city park, where we enjoyed a tropical pit stop in its plant-packed greenhouses. Shop in the hipster-favoured Schanzenviertel district, before passing through St Pauli, home to the infamous Reeperbahn.

Near to the hotel, kitsch fans should book ahead for a ticket to the Miniatur Wunderland, home to the worlds largest miniature railway (and criminally oversubscribed in peak season!).

And while Hamburg might not top best-beach-lists, dont leave without paying a visit to its golden sands. Do as the locals do and hop on the 62 ferry (public transport covers the waterways as well as bus and metro, and a day ticket is just 6e20) from Landungsbrucken and head for the Strandperle, passing the old fish market and docked ocean liners en route. Once ensconced on the beach, be sure to order an ice-cold (and locally brewed) Fritz-Cola from one of the nearby bars.

Which room?

Avoid inward-facing rooms on the lower floors - theres little light and nothing to look at - and ask for a harbour or Nikolaifleet view.

The top 25 cheapest city breaks in Europe 1 /33 The top 25 cheapest city breaks in Europe Bratislava, Slovakia Typical price per night: 36 Shutterstock Athens, Greece Typical price per night: 36 Milos Bicanski/Getty Images Vilnius, Lithuania Typical price per night: 35 Maciej Lulko/Flickr Istanbul, Turkey Typical price per night: 27 Chris McGrath/Getty Images Belgrade, Serbia Typical price per night: 27 Shutterstock Wrocaw, Poland Typical price per night: 32 Janek SkarzynskiFP/Getty Images Toulouse, France Typical price per night: 36.50 Rob DeGraff/Flickr Ljubljana, Slovenia Typical price per night: 36.50 Pedro Szekely/Flickr Thessaloniki, Greece Typical price per night: 28 Shutterstock Zadar, Croatia Typical price per night: 36.50 Min Zhou/Flickr Riga, Latvia Typical price per night: 36.50 AFP/Getty Images Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria Typical price per night: 33 Shutterstock Sofia, Bulgaria Typical price per night: 28 Dennis Jarvis/Flickr Tbilisi, Georgia Typical price per night: 24 Shutterstock Nantes, France Typical price per night: 38 AFP/Getty Images Palermo, Sicily Typical price per night: 36.50 Shutterstock Budapest, Hungary Typical price per night: 36 GLars Baron/Getty Images Catania, Sicily Typical price per night: 35 Carlos Bustamante Restrepo/Flickr Leipzig, Germany Typical price per night: 32.50 Shutterstock Krakow, Poland Typical price per night: 32 Jan Kucharzyk/Getty Images Zagreb, Croatia Typical price per night: 32 Shutterstock Saint Petersburg, Russia Typical price per night: 28.50 Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images Bucharest, Romania Typical price per night: 28 Shutterstock Warsaw, Poland Typical price per night: 32 Shutterstock Kiev, Ukraine Typical price per night: 28.50 Marco Verch/Flickr

Best for?

Mini-break-loving couples looking to tick off a new city and groups of friends looking for fun.

Any downsides?

I couldnt get used to the close proximity of the toilet (which didnt lock) to the bed, although the layout varies from room to room. Its also a fair hike to the fun areas of the city, but on the weekend transport runs all night.

Details

Prices start at 148 Euro per night. Book via designhotels.com or visit sirhotels.com/nikolai
A redevelopment of an east London pub will only get the green light if it includes an LGBT club venue.

The planning permission condition is believed to be the first of its kind, and comes as London fights the loss of its LGBT pubs and clubs.

Tower Hamlets Council has told developers of the Joiners Arms that the venue must be included in its plans to build luxury flats and offices.

And City Hall will be sending an inspector to the venue, which previously counted Alexander McQueen and Wolfgang Tillmans as regulars, to ensure it is gay enough.

John Biggs, the boroughs mayor, said: Tower Hamlets Council is committed to celebrating our great diversity, which includes serving the needs of our LGBTQ+ community.

I am delighted that as a council we are leading the way in using innovative ways to protect spaces such as the Joiners Arms site.

London has lost a staggering 58 per cent of its LGBT venues in the past decade as their prime locations are snapped up by developers for regeneration.

Councillors in the east London borough, which has lost seven of its 10 LGBT venues since 2006, are to vote on the redevelopment plans on Wednesday.

Developers Regal Homes, who bought the site a year before the Joiners Arms closed in 2015, said it has agreed to the local authoritys demands.

The developer in statement said: The development on Hackney Road will re-provide a public house at ground-floor level with the same floor space as the previous Joiners Arms pub.

We are committed to keeping this space within our development in Tower Hamlets as a LGBT+ venue and have offered a right of first refusal on the lease to LGBT+ interested parties, including the Friends of the Joiners Arms and the New Joiners Arms.

If the lease is taken up by an interested party then the venue will be secured for at least 12 years for LGBT+ use.

Regal Homes said it has met with Sadiq Khans night tsar Amy Lame to discuss the future of an LGBT venue at the site.

City Halls culture at risk officer, Ed Bayes, will be involved in assessing licensee applications to ensure that the operator of the new bar will be sufficiently LGBT.
T he head of one of Londons top museums has sent a personal apology to a mum who said she was asked to cover up while breastfeeding.

The woman was visiting the Victoria and Albert museum in Knightsbridge when she claims she flashed a nanosecond of nipple before being reprimanded.

Writing on Twitter under the name Vaguechera, the woman she was left perplexed by the incident, which happened in the courtyard of the famous museum.

She added it was the first time she has ever been told to cover up in more than three years of breastfeeding.

The mum went on to post a string of amusing tweets containing pictures of several of the museum's topless sculptures which have their breasts fully exposed.

On the upside, I had a lovely day at @V_and_a exploring depictions of breasts thru the ages and making lovely mammaries. I mean memories," she wrote.

She poked more jibes at the museum, taking pictures of statues with one caption that read: "'I will throw you out of this museum with your naked breasts!' 'But I'm made of marble!' 'Oh sorry you're fine then.'

Tristram Hunt, who stepped down as MP in January to be director of the V and A museum, replied personally on the social media site with the words: V sorry. Our policy is clear: women may breastfeed wherever they like, wherever they fell comfortable and shld not be disturbed.

The museum itself also replied and said: Were sorry to hear this. Women are welcome to breastfeed in the museum, and we also have quiet spaces for those who would prefer privacy.

V&A director Tristram Hunt. Getty

It added: Staff receive regular customer service training to provide the best care for our visitors. Well remind staff of our breastfeeding policy.

Our policy goes beyond legal responsibilities to welcome and encourage breastfeeding in our spaces and provide private spaces when requested.

It comes just days after experts said Britons attitudes to breastfeeding must change as it emerged the UK has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in the world.

Just one in three babies are breastfed for the recommended six months in the UK, research by Unicef and the World Health Organisation showed.
B rits travelling to popular European holiday destinations have reportedly been warned to be vigilant after militants protesting against mass tourism promised more attacks.

The leader of a group of Spanish anarchists accused the travel industry of destroying Barcelona and the Balearic islands, and vowed direct action.

Travel operators have said the protests could escalate and pose a risk to holidaymakers, The Times reported.

This week, British tourists on a trip to Barcelona thought they were attacked by terrorists when masked men ambushed an open-top bus they were travelling on.

Slogans were daubed on the vehicle's windows and its tyres were slashed.

The same group later burst the tyres of bicycles rented by tourists and smashed windows in five-star hotels.

The Catalonian pro-independence group, Arran, is protesting in Majorca as they say tourism 'destroys Majorca and damns the Catalonian working class to poverty.' / EPA

Activists on the same day let off smoke bombs and smashed windows at a restaurant popular with tourists in Palma, Majorca.

They rolled out a banner that read: Tourism is Killing Majorca.

Laura Flores, 24, one of the leaders of the group, which is called Arran, told The Times: We cannot rule out more attacks. There have been assaults in the past and there will be more in the future.

Noel Josephides, chairman of Abta, the tour operators association, told the newspaper: These protests are a wake-up call. It is a great shame but we will see more of them.

They are adopting dangerous tactics and that shouldnt be happening. But the reason it is happening is because the local governments havent been listening or taking the overcrowding seriously.

The advice to tourists is use your common sense. Be vigilant and dont go where there might be a risk.

Activists in San Sebastian, northern Spain, are said to have called for a demonstration this month, sparking fears that the violence seen in Barcelona and Palma may spread.

Alvaro Nadal, Spains tourism minister, promised an inquiry into the attacks.

He said: Were not going to tolerate this situation a single day longer A minority cant ruin the decades of prestige for our tourist industry, which is the most competitive in the world.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: We are aware of the protests and monitoring the situation. We are also in contact with the local authorities. There is no specific update to our travel guidance at the moment but we keep it under constant review.

Anger towards mass tourism is also evident elsewhere.

Last month 2,000 people protested in Venice, Italy, against damage to the ancient city, which brings up to 70,000 visitors each day.
T he man who built the New Palmyra project - a 3D version of the ancient city before it was razed by Islamic State forces - was executed by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, it was confirmed this week.

Bassel Khartabil Safadi, a Palestinian-Syrian software developer and activist, was said by human rights groups to have been killed by members of Assad's regime.

Mr Khartabil's wife, human rights lawyer Noura Ghazi Safadi, posted a tribute to her "hero" husband on Facebook, writing: "This is a loss for Syria. This is loss for Palestine. This is my loss."

She said the free speech activist was killed a few days after disappearing from the infamous Adra prison in Damascus back in October 2015.

Mr Khartabil was listed in Foreign Policy magazines Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2012, and won the Index on Censorship Digital Freedom Award in 2013.

Tribute: Mr Khartabil's wife wrote on Facebook after his death was confirmed / Christopher Adams/Creative Commons

He founded the Aiki Lab hackerspace in Damascus in 2010 and took part in international projects such as the Arabic-language Wikipedia site and the Syrian version of Creative Commons.

His cultural heritage mission to create a virtual version of Palmyra found worldwide acclaim.

While his whereabouts were still unknown, groups from Amnesty International to Jimmy Wales Foundation issued pleas for his release.

Barry Threw, director of New Palmyra, wrote: "Needless to say, along with all of the international community whose lives he touched, we were shocked and saddened to learn of the outrageous, unwarranted, extrajudicial killing of our dear friend and collaborator."

A spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders said: "After this news of yet another shocking crime, we reiterate our call to the UN Security council to refer crimes against journalists in Syria to the International Criminal Court."
A n Oxford University employee and a US professor suspected of murdering a man in Chicago have handed themselves in after more than a week on the run.

Somerville College senior treasury assistant Andrew Warren, 56, and Professor Wyndham Lathem, 42, were taken into custody in California, more than 2,000 miles from the crime scene.

They triggered a nationwide manhunt after allegedly stabbing Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, multiple times in Lathem's apartment on July 27.

Warren handed himself into a police station in San Francisco on Friday evening while Lathem gave himself up at 7.30pm in Oakland, Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Frank Conroy said.

"Wyndham surrendered peacefully and seemed to be in good condition," he added, but could not give details of Warren's state.

Stabbed to death: Trenton Cornell-Duranleau

"They refused to speak to anybody on the advice of counsel."

Mr Conroy said the men will appear in separate courts in the coming days to face extradition hearings to Chicago where they will face detectives.

Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: "Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today's arrest brings some comfort for the victim's family. We are also thankful that this did not end in further tragedy."

US Professor: Wyndham Lathem

Oxford University had urged Warren to hand himself in and a spokesman said his colleagues were "shocked" to hear of the case.

Warren, who says on Facebook he lives in Swindon, and Lathem, a microbiology professor at Northwestern University, are accused of repeatedly stabbing the victim in the 10th floor apartment before fleeing.

Detectives said they believed they knew the pair's whereabouts but wanted to end the situation calmly without another "tragedy".

Mr Cornell-Duranleau was a hairstylist originally from Corunna, Michigan, but was living in Chicago at the time of his death.
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Source: Xinhuanet| 2017-08-05 08:16:28|Editor: Yang Yi

Children make paper-cutting works to greet the upcoming 9th BRICS Summit in Huli District of Xiamen City, southeast China's Fujian Province, August 4, 2017. The 9th BRICS Summit will be held on Sept. 3-5 in the coastal city. (Xinhuanet/Zhang Dan)
Four C-17 Globemaster III's and a C-130 Hercules line up in preparation for Mobility Guardian's elephant walk, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Aug. 2, 2017. More than 3,000 Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and international partners converged on the state of Washington in support of Mobility Guardian. The exercise is intended to test the abilities of the Mobility Air Forces to execute rapid global mobility missions in dynamic, contested environments. Mobility Guardian is Air Mobility Command's premier exercise, providing an opportunity for the Mobility Air Forces to train with joint and international partners in airlift, air refueling, aeromedical evacuation and mobility support. The exercise is designed to sharpen Airmens skills in support of combatant commander requirements. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Jodi Martinez)

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Digital currency exchange Coinbase sparked outrage in the cryptocurrency community earlier this week over its decision to not support the new Bitcoin hard fork, dubbed Bitcoin Cash.

Coinbase Director of Communications David Farmer noted in a recent blog post that not every asset (cryptocurrency) is immediately safe to add to Coinbase from a stability, security or compliance standpoint.

In the case of Bitcoin Cash, Farmer said they made it clear that they did not feel as if they could safely support it from launch day. For those that wanted immediate access to their Bitcoin Cash, the exchange advised them to withdraw their Bitcoins from the platform and go elsewhere (which many apparently did).

One activist group even threatened to file a class action lawsuit unless Coinbase released the Bitcoin Cash its users are entitled to.

Over the past few days, however, Coinbase weighed factors including customer demand, trading volumes and security and ultimately decided that they will work to add support for Bitcoin Cash. It won't happen overnight, however, as Farmer said they plan to have support in place by January 1, 2018 (assuming that nothing crazy happens in the interim).

Farmer said that once support is added, Coinbase customers will be able to withdraw Bitcoin Cash. They'll make a determination at a later date, he said, with regard to adding trading support.

Photo courtesy Ulrich Baumgarten, Getty Images
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 04/08/2017 (1926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Update: Aug. 9, 2017, 7:51 a.m.. Dakota Hunter has been safely located. The RCMP thanks the public and the media for their assistance.



Oakbank RCMP are searching for a missing 16-year-old female who was reported last Thursday.

Dakota Hunter

Dakota Hunter was last seen in the early morning hours of July 31 on Balmoral Street in Winnipeg.

Hunter is described as aboriginal in appearance, 58, 140 pounds, brown eyes, long brown hair and a red birth-mark on the front of her neck. She was last seen wearing a grey-hooded sweatshirt, black capri pants, sandals and carrying a black backpack.

She is known to frequent locations around the University of Winnipeg and The Forks.

Anyone with information is asked to call Oakbank RCMP at 204-444-3391, or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, submit a secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com or text TIPMAN plus a message to CRIMES (274637).
The following companies are subsidiares of Marsh & McLennan Companies: 8WORKS INC., 8WORKS LTD, A. Constantinidi & CIA. S.C., A.C.N. 000 951 146 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 001 572 961 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 076 935 683 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 102 322 574 Pty Limited, ACE Insurance Agents Limited, ACE Insurance Consultants Limited, ACE Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Limited, AD Corretora de Seguros, AFCO Premium Acceptance Inc., AFCO Premium Credit LLC, Access Equity Enhanced Fund GP LLC, Admiral Holdings Limited, Agnew Higgins Pickering & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd, Aldgate Investments Limited, Aldgate Trustees Ltd, Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, Alpha Consultants Limited, Alta SA, Altius Real Assets (GP) LLC, Amal Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Anda Insurance Agencies Pte Ltd, AssetVal Pty Ltd, Assur Conseils Marsh S.A., Assurance Capital Corporation, Assurance Services Corporation, Australian Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Australian World Underwriters Pty Ltd., BBPS Limited, Barney & Barney Orange County LLC, Beaumonts (Leeds) Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Services Limited, Beneficios Integrales Oportunos SA, Benefitfocus Inc., Blue Marble Micro Limited, Blue Marble Microinsurance Inc., Bluefin, Bluefin Insurance Group Limited, Bluefin Insurance Services Limited, Boulder Claims LLC, Bowring (Bermuda) Investments Ltd., Bowring Marine Limited, Bowring Marsh (Bermuda) Ltd., Bowring Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Bowring Marsh Asia Pte. Ltd., Bowring Marsh Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Bowring Marsh Limited, Broderick Piller Pty Ltd, Broker 2 Broker Limited, BuildPay LLC, Burke Ford Trustees (Leicester) Limited, C.T. Bowring Limited, CMC-Belgibo NV, CPRM Limited, CPSG Partners LLC, Carpenter Marsh Fac Chile Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Carpenter Marsh Fac Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Carpenter Marsh Fac Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.C., Carpenter Marsh Fac Re LLC, Carpenter Turner Cyprus Ltd, Carpenter Turner S.A., Cascade International Holdings C.V., Cascade Regional Holdings Limited, Central Insurance Services Limited, Charter Risk Management Services LLC, Chartwell Healthcare Limited, Chronos Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Claims and Recovery Management (Australia) Pty Limited, Clark Thomson Insurance Brokers Limited, Client Provide Limited, Colombian Insurance Broking Wholesale Limited, Consultores 2020 C.A., Cronin & Co Insurance Services Limited, DVA - Deutsche Verkehrs-Assekuranz-Vermittlungs GmbH, Dawson Insurance, DeLima Marsh S.A. - Los Corredores de Seguros S.A., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Managing General Agency Corporation, Dovetail Technology Service India Private Limited, Draw Connect Limited, Draw Create Limited, Draw Group London Limited, Eagle & Crown Limited, Echelon Australia Pty Limited, Echelon Claims Consultants Sdn Bhd, Echelon New Zealand Limited, EnBW Versicherungs Vermittlung GmbH, Encompass Insurance Agency Pty Ltd., English Pension Trustees Limited, Epsilon (US) Insurance Company, Epsilon Insurance Company Ltd., Eustis Insurance & Benefits, Evolution Management Ltd, Exchange Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Exmoor Management Company Limited, Faulkner & Flynn LLC, Freedom Trust Services Limited, GC Genesis LLC, GCube Insurance Services Inc, GCube Underwriting Limited, Gama Consultores Associados Ltda., Gem Insurance Company Limited, Global Premium Finance Company, GrECo International Holding AG, Gracechurch Trustees Limited, Gresham Pension Trustees Limited, Group Promoters Pty Limited, Guy Carpenter & Cia (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter & Cia. S.A., Guy Carpenter & Co. Labuan Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company AB, Guy Carpenter & Company Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Guy Carpenter & Company Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company GmbH, Guy Carpenter & Company LLC, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Ltd./Guy Carpenter & Compagnie Ltee, Guy Carpenter & Company Participacoes Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company Private Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Proprietary Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Pty. Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A. (Uruguay), Guy Carpenter & Company S.A.S., Guy Carpenter & Company S.r.l., Guy Carpenter (Middle East) Limited, Guy Carpenter Bermuda Ltd., Guy Carpenter Broking Inc., Guy Carpenter Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter Insurance Brokers (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Guy Carpenter Japan Inc., Guy Carpenter Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, HAPIP GP 2009 LLC, HAPIP GP LLC, HSBC Insurance Brokers International (Abu Dhabi) LLC (in liquidation), Hamilton Bond Limited, Hansen International Limited, Hayward Aviation Limited, INSIA Europe SE, INSIA SK s.r.o., INSIA a.s., INSURANCE BROKERS OF NIGERIA LIMITED, IRC Asia Insurance Brokers Limited, InSolutions Limited, Industrial Risks Protection Consultants, Ingeseg S. A., Ingeseg S.A., Insbrokers Ltda., InsurTech Alliance LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC [BAHRAIN BRANCH], Insure Direct - Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, International Catastrophe Insurance Managers LLC, International Loss Control Services Limited, International Risk Consultants (Asia) Limited, Invercol Limited, Irish Pensions Trust Limited, Isosceles Insurance (Barbados) Limited, Isosceles Insurance Company Limited, Isosceles Insurance Ltd, Isosceles PCC Limited, J&H Marsh & McLennan Limited, J.W. Terrill Benefit Administrators Inc., JI Holdings Limited, JIB Group Holdings Limited, JIB Group Limited, JIB Holdings (Pacific) Limited, JIB Overseas Holdings Limited, JIB UK Holdings Limited, JL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co. KG, JLM Verwaltungs GmbH, JLT (Insurance Brokers) Limited, JLT Actuaries and Consultants Limited, JLT Advisory Limited, JLT Affinity Colombia Solutions SAS, JLT Agencies Limited, JLT Asesorias Ltda, JLT Asia Holdings BV, JLT Asia Shared Services Sdn Bhd, JLT Belgibo, JLT Benefit Consultants Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Bermuda Ltd, JLT Brasil Holdings Participacoes Ltd, JLT Chile Holdings SpA, JLT Colombia Retail Limited, JLT Colombia Wholesale Limited, JLT Consultants & Actuaries Limited, JLT EB Holdings Limited, JLT EB Services Limited, JLT Employee Benefits Holding Company (PTY) LTD, JLT Employee Benefits SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Financial Planning Limited, JLT France Holdings, JLT Group Services Pty Limited, JLT Holdings (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Holdings (NZ) Limited, JLT Independent Insurance Brokers Private Limited, JLT Insurance Agencies Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited ( Shanghai Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Beijing Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Guangzhou Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Ireland Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers SA, JLT Insurance Group Holdings Ltd, JLT Insurance Management Malta Limited, JLT Intellectual Property Limited, JLT Intellectual Property [UK Branch], JLT Interactive Pte. Ltd., JLT Investment Management Limited, JLT LATAM (Southern Cone) Wholesale Limited, JLT Latin American Holdings Limited, JLT Life Assurance Brokers Limited, JLT Management Services Limited, JLT Marine (Pty) Ltd, JLT Mexico Holdings Limited, JLT Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., JLT Netherlands BV, JLT Norway AS, JLT PLA, JLT Pension Trustees Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Holdings Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Limited, JLT Peru Reinsurance Solutions Limited, JLT Peru Retail Limited, JLT Peru Wholesale Limited, JLT QFM Services Limited, JLT RE Brasil Administracao e Corretagem de Resseguros Ltda, JLT Re (French Branch), JLT Re (Northern Europe) AB, JLT Re Argentina Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.U., JLT Re Labuan Limited, JLT Re Limited, JLT Re Pty Ltd, JLT Reinsurance Brokers GmbH, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited [French Branch], JLT Risk Management Limited, JLT Risk Solutions AB, JLT Risk Solutions AB Branch - Germany, JLT SA IB Holdings Company (Pty) Limited, JLT SCK Affinity Administracao e Corretora de Seguros Ltda., JLT SCK Corretora e Administradora de Seguros, JLT Secretaries Limited, JLT Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerlii A.., JLT Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., JLT Specialty France, JLT Specialty Insurance Broker A/S, JLT Specialty Limited, JLT Specialty Limited [DUBAI BRANCH], JLT Specialty Pte. Ltd., JLT Towner Insurance Management (Anguilla) Limited, JLT Trust Services (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Trustees (Southern) Limited, JLT Trustees Limited, JLT UK Investment Holdings Limited, JLT Vantage Risk and Benefit Consulting Private Limited, JLT Wealth Management Limited, JLT do Brasil Corretagem de Seguros Ltda, JLTPCS Holdings Pte. Ltd., JMIB Holdings BV, JSL Securities Inc., Japan Affinity Marketing Inc., Jardine IBR Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson (Proprietary) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Asia Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Australia Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Canada Inc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited (UK Branch Office), Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance Consultants Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Inc., Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Holdings Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Unlimited Company, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Korea Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited [Macao Branch], Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS (Dubai) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS SA, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Sdn Bhd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Valencia y Iragorri Corredores de Seguros SA, Jardine Pension Trustees Ireland Limited, Jardine Risk Consulting Co. Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited [Macao Branch], Jardines PF- Consultoria Em Gestao De Risco Limitada, Jelf, Jelf Commercial Finance Limited, Jelf Financial Planning Limited, Jelf Insurance Brokers Limited, Jelf Limited, Jelf Risk Management Limited, Jelf Wellbeing Limited, John Lampier & Son Ltd, Johnson & Higgins (Bermuda) Limited, Johnson & Higgins Limited, KESSLER & CO AG, Kepler Associates Limited, Kessler & Co Inc., Kessler Consulting Inc., Kessler Prevoyance Inc., Key Underwriting Pty Limited, Kroll, Lambert Brothers Holdings Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Employee Benefits) Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Hong Kong) Ltd, Laterlife.com Limited (in liquidation), Lavaretus Underwriting AB, Lavaretus Underwriting AB (BRANCH - Denmark), Libra Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Lloyd & Partners Limited, Local Government Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Lomond Macdonald Limited, Lynch Insurance Brokers Limited, M&M Vehicle L.P., M.P. Bolshaw and Company Limited, MAG JLT SpA, MERCER ALTERNATIVES LIMITED, MM Risk Services Pty Ltd (for dissolution), MMA Mid-Atlantic Employee LLC, MMA Securities LLC, MMB Consultores S.A., MMC (Singapore) Holdings Pte. Ltd., MMC 28 State Street Holdings Inc., MMC Borrower LLC, MMC Brazilian Holdings B.V., MMC Capital Inc., MMC Cascade Regional Holdings LLC, MMC FINANCE (EUROPE) LIMITED, MMC FINANCE HOLDINGS LTD, MMC Finance (Australia) Limited, MMC Finance (Singapore) Limited, MMC France Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., MMC GP III Inc., MMC Group Services sp. z o.o., MMC Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, MMC Holdings (New Zealand) ULC, MMC Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC International Finance (Barbados) SRL, MMC International Holdings LLC, MMC International Limited, MMC International Treasury Centre Limited, MMC Middle East Holdings Limited, MMC Poland Holdings B.V., MMC Realty Inc., MMC Regional Asia Holdings B.V., MMC Regional Caribbean Holdings Ltd., MMC Regional Europe Holdings B.V., MMC Regional LATAM Holdings B.V., MMC Securities (Europe) Limited, MMC Securities LLC, MMC Treasury Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC UK Group Limited, MMC UK Pension Fund Trustee Limited, MMOW Limited, MMRC LLC, MOW Holding LLC, MPIP III GP LLC, MPIP IV GP LLC, MPIP V GP LLC, MPIP VI GP LLC, Mangrove Insurance Europe PCC Limited, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC Limited, Manoel Management Services Ltd, Marchant McKechnie Insurance Brokers Limited, Marine Aviation & General (London) Limited, Marsh & McLennan (PNG) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agencies AS, Marsh & McLennan Agencies Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency A/S, Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC, Marsh & McLennan Agency Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency Pty Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Argentina SA Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh & McLennan Colombia S.A., Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Funding Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Asia Pacific Treasury Center Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies BVBA/SPRL, Marsh & McLennan Companies Finance Center (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies France S.A.S., Marsh & McLennan Companies Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., Marsh & McLennan Companies Regional Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Services B.V., Marsh & McLennan Companies UK Limited, Marsh & McLennan Europe S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan GP I Inc., Marsh & McLennan Global Broking (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Holding GmbH, Marsh & McLennan Holdings (Canada) ULC, Marsh & McLennan Holdings Inc., Marsh & McLennan Incorporated (for dissolution), Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings II, Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Limited, Marsh & McLennan Insurance Services Limited, Marsh & McLennan Ireland Limited, Marsh & McLennan Management Services (Bermuda) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Risk Capital Holdings Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Servicios S.A. De C.V., Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Canada Limited, Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Corporation, Marsh (Bahrain) Company SPC, Marsh (Beijing) Risk Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Marsh (China) Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd., Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh (Insurance Brokers) LLP, Marsh (Insurance Services) Limited, Marsh (Malawi) Limited, Marsh (Middle East) Limited, Marsh (Namibia) (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh (Pty) Ltd, Marsh (Risk Consulting) LLP, Marsh (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Marsh A/S, Marsh AB, Marsh AG, Marsh AS, Marsh Advantage Insurance Holdings Pty Ltd, Marsh Advantage Insurance Pty Ltd., Marsh Africa (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Argentina S.R.L., Marsh Associates (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Austria G.m.b.H., Marsh Aviation Insurance Broking Pty Ltd (for dissolution), Marsh B.V., Marsh Botswana (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh Brockman y Schuh Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas S.A. de C.V., Marsh Broker Japan Inc., Marsh Broker de Asigurare-Reasigurare S.R.L., Marsh Brokers (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh Brokers Limited, Marsh Canada Limited/Marsh Canada Limitee, Marsh Company Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Compensation Technologies Administration (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Isle of Man Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Malta Limited, Marsh Corretora de Seguros Ltda., Marsh EOOD, Marsh Egypt LLC, Marsh Emirates Consultancy LLC, Marsh Emirates Insurance Brokerage LLC, Marsh Employee Benefits Limited, Marsh Employee Benefits Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd, Marsh Eurofinance B.V., Marsh Europe S.A., Marsh FJC International Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh For Insurance Services S.A.E., Marsh Franco Acra S.A., Marsh GSC Servicos e Administracao de Seguros Ltda., Marsh GmbH, Marsh Holding AB, Marsh Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Marsh India Insurance Brokers Private Limited, Marsh Insurance & Investments LLC, Marsh Insurance Brokers, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Macao) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Private) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers AO, Marsh Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh Insurance Consulting Saudi Arabia (in liquidation), Marsh Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers LLC, Marsh Intermediaries Inc., Marsh International Broking Holdings Limited, Marsh International Holdings II Inc., Marsh International Holdings Inc., Marsh Investment B.V., Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited, Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited (UK Branch), Marsh Ireland Holdings Limited, Marsh Israel (1999) Ltd., Marsh Israel (Holdings) Ltd., Marsh Israel Consultants Ltd., Marsh Israel Insurance Agency Ltd., Marsh Israel International Brokers Ltd. (in liquidation), Marsh JCS Inc., Marsh Japan Inc., Marsh Kft., Marsh Kindlustusmaakler AS, Marsh Korea Inc., Marsh LLC, Marsh LLC Insurance Brokers, Marsh LLC [Ukraine], Marsh Lda., Marsh Limited, Marsh Limited [Fiji], Marsh Limited [New Zealand], Marsh Limited [PNG], Marsh Ltd. [Wisconsin], Marsh Management Services (Bahamas) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Dublin) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Labuan) Limited, Marsh Management Services (MENA) Limited, Marsh Management Services (USVI) Ltd., Marsh Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Management Services Guernsey Limited, Marsh Management Services Inc., Marsh Management Services Isle of Man Limited, Marsh Management Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Marsh Management Services Malta Limited, Marsh Management Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., Marsh Management Services Sweden AB, Marsh Marine & Energy AB, Marsh Marine Nederland B.V., Marsh Medical Consulting GmbH, Marsh Mercer Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Marsh Nest Inc., Marsh Oman LLC, Marsh Oy, Marsh PB Co. Ltd., Marsh Philippines Inc., Marsh Privat A.I.E., Marsh Private Client Life Insurance Services, Marsh Pty. Ltd., Marsh Qatar LLC, Marsh RE S.A.C. Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh Rehder Consultoria S.A. (MRC), Marsh Rehder S.A. Corredores de Seguros, Marsh Resolutions Pty Limited, Marsh Risk Consulting B.V., Marsh Risk Consulting Limitada, Marsh Risk Consulting Ltda., Marsh Risk Consulting S.L., Marsh Risk Consulting Services S.r.L., Marsh Risk and Consulting Services (Pty) Ltd, Marsh S.A. Corredores De Seguros, Marsh S.A. Mediadores de Seguros, Marsh S.A.S., Marsh S.p.A., Marsh SA [Argentina], Marsh SA [Belgium], Marsh SA [Luxembourg], Marsh SA [Uruguay], Marsh SIA, Marsh Saldana Inc., Marsh Saudi Arabia Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers, Marsh Secretarial Services Limited, Marsh Semusa S.A., Marsh Services Limited, Marsh Services Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Marsh Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Szolgaltato Kft., Marsh Takaful Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Treasury Services (Dublin) Limited (in liquidation), Marsh Treasury Services Limited, Marsh Tunisia S.a.r.l., Marsh UK Limited, Marsh USA (India) Inc., Marsh USA Borrower LLC, Marsh USA Inc., Marsh Uganda Limited, Marsh Venezuela C.A. Sociedad de Corretaje de Seguros, Marsh Vietnam Insurance Broking Company Ltd, Marsh Zambia Limited, Marsh Zimbabwe Holdings (Private) Limited, Marsh d.o.o. Beograd, Marsh d.o.o. za posredovanje u osiguranju, Marsh for Insurance Services - Jordan, Marsh i-Connect (Pty) Ltd, Marsh s.r.o., Matthiessen Assurans AB, Mercer (Argentina) S.A., Mercer (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer (Austria) GmbH, Mercer (Belgium) SA-NV, Mercer (Canada) Limited/Mercer (Canada) Limitee, Mercer (China) Limited, Mercer (Colombia) Ltda., Mercer (Danmark) A/S, Mercer (Finland) OY, Mercer (France) SAS, Mercer (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer (Ireland) Limited, Mercer (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Mercer (N.Z.) Limited, Mercer (Nederland) B.V., Mercer (Norge) AS, Mercer (Polska) Sp.z o.o., Mercer (Portugal) Lda, Mercer (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer (Sweden) AB, Mercer (Taiwan) Ltd., Mercer (Thailand) Ltd., Mercer (US) Inc., Mercer Administration Services (Australia) Pty Limited, Mercer Africa Limited, Mercer Agente de Seguros S.A. de C.V., Mercer Asesores de Seguros S.A., Mercer Asesores es Inversion Independientes S.A. de C.V., Mercer Broking Ltd., Mercer Career Unipessoal Lda, Mercer Consultation (Quebec) Ltee., Mercer Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Consulting (Chile) Limitada, Mercer Consulting (France) SAS, Mercer Consulting (India) Private Limited, Mercer Consulting B.V., Mercer Consulting Group Inc., Mercer Consulting Holdings Sdn. Bhd., Mercer Consulting Limited, Mercer Consulting Middle East Limited, Mercer Consulting S.L.U., Mercer Consulting Venezuela C.A., Mercer Corredores de Seguros Limitada, Mercer Corretora de Seguros Ltda, Mercer Danismanlik Anonim Sirketi, Mercer Deutschland GmbH, Mercer Employee Benefits - Medicacao de Seguros Unipessoal Lda., Mercer Employee Benefits Limited, Mercer Financial Advice (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Financial Services Limited, Mercer Financial Services Limited liability company, Mercer Financial Services Middle East Limited, Mercer Global Investments Europe Limited, Mercer Global Investments Management Limited, Mercer HR Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer HR Services LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Health & Benefits Administration LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, Mercer Holdings Inc., Mercer Holdings Inc. [Philippines], Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltda, Mercer Human Resource Consulting S.A. de C.V., Mercer ICC Limited, Mercer Investment Consulting Limited, Mercer Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mercer Investment Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Investments (Australia) Limited, Mercer Investments (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer Investments (Japan) Ltd, Mercer Investments (New Zealand) Limited, Mercer Investments LLC, Mercer Ireland Holdings Limited, Mercer Italia Srl Socio Unico, Mercer Japan Ltd., Mercer Korea Co. Ltd., Mercer LLC, Mercer Limited, Mercer MC Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer Master Trustees Limited, Mercer Mauritius Ltd., Mercer Oliver Wyman Holding B.V., Mercer Outsourcing (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Outsourcing S.L.U., Mercer Pensionsfonds AG, Mercer Pensionsraadgivning A/S, Mercer Philippines Inc., Mercer Private Investment Partners IV General Partner S.a.r.l., Mercer Private Markets AG, Mercer Private Markets Advisers (US) AG, Mercer Services Poland Sp. z.o.o., Mercer Sigorta Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Mercer South Africa (Pty) Limited, Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited, Mercer Switzerland Inc., Mercer System Services LLC, Mercer Technology Acquisitions Limited, Mercer Treuhand GmbH, Mercer Trust Company LLC, Mercer Trustees Limited, Mercer WorkforcePro LLC, Mercury Insurance Services Pty Ltd, Moola Systems Limited, Mountlodge Limited, Muir Beddal (Zimbabwe) Limited, NERA Australia Pty. Ltd., NERA Economic Consulting GmbH, NERA Economic Consulting Limited, NERA S.R.L., NERA SAS, NERA UK Limited, NERA do Brasil Ltda. (for dissolution), National Economic Research Associates Inc., NetComp Insurance Corp., Neuburger Noble Lowndes GmbH, Normandy Reinsurance Company Limited, Northern Alliance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), OWL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co.KG, OWL Marine Verwaltungs GmbH, Oliver Wyman (Bermuda) Limited, Oliver Wyman (Hong Kong) Limited, Oliver Wyman AB, Oliver Wyman AG, Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting Inc., Oliver Wyman B.V., Oliver Wyman Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Oliver Wyman Consultoria em Estrategia de Negocios Ltda., Oliver Wyman Energy Consulting Limited, Oliver Wyman FZ-LLC, Oliver Wyman Group KK, Oliver Wyman Inc., Oliver Wyman LLC, Oliver Wyman Limited, Oliver Wyman Limited Liability Company, Oliver Wyman Limited/Oliver Wyman limitee, Oliver Wyman Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pte. Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pty. Ltd., Oliver Wyman S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman S.A.S., Oliver Wyman S.L., Oliver Wyman S.r.l., Oliver Wyman SNC, Oliver Wyman SPRL/BVBA, Oliver Wyman Sdn. Bhd., Oliver Wyman Services Limited, Oliver Wyman Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman sp. z o.o., Omega Indemnity (Bermuda) Limited, Organizacion Brockman y Schuh S.A. de C.V., Osbornes Insurances Oxford Limited (in liquidation), PFT Limited, PI Indemnity Company Designated Activity Company, PT JLT Reinsurance Brokers, PT Jardine Lloyd Thompson, PT Marsh Indonesia, PT Marsh Reinsurance Brokers Indonesia, PT Mercer Indonesia, PT Nexus Asia Pacific, PT Oliver Wyman Indonesia, PT Quantum Computing Services, PT Quantum Investments, PT Quantum Support Services, Pallas Marsh Servicos Ltda., Pavilion Alternatives Group (Singapore) PTE. Ltd, Pavilion Financial Corporation Holdings UK Limited, Pavilion U.S. Investments Holdco LLC, Pension Trustees Limited, Pensionsservice Benefit Network Sverige AB, Perils AG, Personal Pension Trustees Limited, Pet Animal Welfare Scheme Limited, Portsoken Trustees (No. 2) Limited, Portsoken Trustees Limited, Potomac Insurance Managers Inc., Premier Pension Trustees Limited, Premium Services Australia Pty Limited, Professional Claims Handling Limited (in liquidation), Profund Solutions Limited, Promerit AG, Promerit Hungary Kft, Promerit Schweiz AG, Pymetrics Inc., R G Ford Brokers Limited, R R B Beratungsgesellschaft fuer Altersversorgung mbh, R. Mees & Zoonen Holdings B.V., Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters LLC, Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters Limited, Resource Benefit Associates, Rightpath Reinsurance SPC Ltd., Risk Management Australia Pty Limited, Rivers Group Limited, Rockefeller Risk Advisors Inc., Rutherfoord International Inc., SAFCAR-Marsh, SBJ Holdings Limited, SCIB (Bermuda) Limited, SCM Global Real Estate Select GP LLC, SCM Infrastructure General Partner S.a r.l., SCM International Private Equity Select III GP LLC, SCM LT General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE II GP Ltd., SCM PE II Scotland GP Ltd, SCM Strategic Capital Management (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., SICAR Marsh S.a.r.l., SME Insurance Services Limited, Sail Insurance Company Limited, Scalene Re Ltd, Seabury & Smith Borrower LLC, Seabury & Smith LLC, Secure Limited, Sedgwick (Holdings) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Consulting Group Limited, Sedgwick Dineen Group Limited, Sedgwick Financial Services Limited, Sedgwick Forbes Middle East Limited, Sedgwick Group, Sedgwick Group (Australia) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Group (Bermuda) Limited, Sedgwick Group (Zimbabwe) Limited, Sedgwick Group Limited, Sedgwick Internationaal B.V., Sedgwick Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Singapore) Pte Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes (UK) Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Group Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Limited, Sedgwick Overseas Investments Limited, Sedgwick Private Limited, Sedgwick Re Asia Pacific (Consultants) Pte Ltd (for dissolution), Sedgwick Trustees Limited, Sedgwick UK Risk Services Limited, Sedgwick Ulster Pension Trustees Limited, Settlement Trustees Limited, Shanghai Mercer Insurance Brokers Company Ltd., Shorewest Insurance Associates LLC, Sirota Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Sirota Consulting UK Limited, Smith Long Term Disability Management Group Inc., Societe d'Assurances et de Participation Guian SA, Software Underwriting Systems Limited (in liquidation), Southern Marine & Aviation Inc., Southern Marine & Aviation Underwriters Inc., Sudzucker Versicherungs-Vermittlungs GmbH, Sumitomo Life Insurance Agency America Inc., Sylvite Financial Services, TBX Solutions Limited, Talent Tech Labs LLC, The Benefit Express Holdings Limited, The Benefit Express Limited, The Carpenter Management Corporation, The Insurance Partnership Holdings Limited, The Insurance Partnership Services Limited, The Positive Ageing Company Limited, The Purple Partnership Limited, The Recovre Group Pty Ltd, Thomsons Online Benefits (HK) Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits Inc., Thomsons Online Benefits Limited, Thomsons Online Benefits Pte Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits S.R.L, Torrent Government Contracting Services LLC, Torrent Insurance Services LLC, Torrent Technologies, Torrent Technologies Inc., Tower Hill Limited, Tower Place Developments (West) Limited, Tower Place Developments Limited, U.T.E. AMG, U.T.E. Marsh - Caja Castilla La Mancha Junta de Comunidades, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus (in liquidation), U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus 2012, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Vila-Seca 2010, UAD BB Marsh Lietuva, Vezina & Associes Inc., Vezina Assurances Inc., Victor Insurance Europe B.V., Victor Insurance Holdings Inc., Victor Insurance Italia S.r.l., Victor Insurance Managers Inc., Victor Insurance Managers Inc./Gestionnaires d'assurance Victor inc., Victor O. Schinnerer & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd., Victor O. Schinnerer & Company Limited, Victoria Hall Company Limited, Wellnz Limited, William M. Mercer (Canada) Limited/William M. Mercer (Canada) Limitee, William M. Mercer AB, William M. Mercer Comercio Consultoria e Servicos Ltda., Wortham Insurance & Risk Management, everBe SAS, and realright GmbH.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 09:31:02|Editor: Yang Yi

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SAINT-AIGNAN, France, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Huan Huan, the female panda on loan to France from China, has delivered twin cubs on Friday night, but one cub died shortly after its birth, according to the French zoo.

In her first delivery, Huan Huan "was very calm" and has given birth to two cubs at an interval of a few minutes, the zoo said. The first panda cub was born at 10:18 p.m. local time (2018 GMT), and the other came 14 minutes later.

In the wild, female pandas raise only one cub, the "strongest", the one that has the most chances of survival, and abandon the second. Huan Huan took care of the first cub immediately after its birth, but chose the second cub and abandoned the first after the second cub was born.

The first cub was put immediately to the incubator but was announced dead shortly.
Telecom Argentina S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services in Argentina and internationally. The company offers telephone services, including local, domestic, and international long-distance telephone services, as well as public telephone services; and other related supplementary services, such as call waiting, call forwarding, conference calls, caller ID, voice mail, itemized billing, and maintenance services. It also provides interconnection services, such as traffic and interconnection resource, dedicated Internet access, video signals transportation in standard and high definitions, audio and video streaming, dedicated links, backhaul links for mobile operators, data center hosting/housing services, dedicated links, layer 2 and layer 3 transport networks, video links, value-added services, and other services. In addition, the company offers mobile telecommunications services, including voice communications, high-speed mobile Internet content and applications download, online streaming, and other services; and sells mobile communication devices, such as handsets, Modems MiFi and wingles, and smart watches under the Personal brand. Further, it provides internet connectivity products, including virtual private network services, traditional Internet protocol links, and other products; data services; and programming and other cable television services. The company was formerly known as Cablevision S.A. and changed its name to Telecom Argentina S.A. in January 2018. Telecom Argentina S.A. was founded in 1979 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company. It engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The company operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Wealth; Corporate and Commercial Banking; and Insurance Holdings. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health insurance and commercial general liability insurance on an agency basis and through a wholesale insurance brokerage operation, merchant services, trust and retirement services, comprehensive wealth advisory services, asset management and capital markets services. The company was founded on December 6, 2019 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. insurance and commercial general liability insurance on an agency basis and through a wholesale insurance brokerage operation, merchant services, trust and retirement services, comprehensive wealth advisory services, asset management and capital markets services. The company was founded on December 6, 2019 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC.
The following companies are subsidiares of Air Products and Chemicals: 7001 Hamilton Properties LLC, ACP Europe SA, ACP Zolder Invest NV, AJWAA Emirates Gases Company LLC, AJWAA Gases LLC, AP Services South America SpA, APCI (U.K.) Inc., Abdulla Hashim Gases & Equipment Co. Limited, Air Products (Anshan) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (BR) Limited, Air Products (Cangzhou) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Changsha) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Chongqing) Chem-Materials Co. Ltd., Air Products (Dongguan) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Guangzhou) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Hangjin Qi) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Hefei) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Huaibei) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Inner Mongolia) Hydrogen Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Air Products (Jiangxi) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Jincheng) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Jinjiang) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Kunshan) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Linfen) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Middle East) FZE, Air Products (Nanjing) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Ningbo) Hi-Tech Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Qindao) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Rozenburg) B. V., Air Products (Shandong) Engineering Co. Ltd Nanjing Branch, Air Products (Shandong) Engineering Co. Ltd., Air Products (Shanxi) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Shenyang) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Air Products (Xi'an) Gases Co. Ltd, Air Products (Xia'men) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products (Zhongshan) Gases Co. Ltd, Air Products (Zhumadian) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products A/S, Air Products Advanced Materials LLC, Air Products Ammonia Distribution AD GmbH, Air Products Ammonia Distribution LLC, Air Products Ammonia Distribution Ltd., Air Products Ammonia Holdings LLC, Air Products Asia Inc., Air Products Bahrain W.L.L, Air Products Blue Energy, Air Products Brasil Ltda., Air Products Canada Ltd./Prodair Canada Ltee, Air Products Caribbean Holdings Inc., Air Products Central Asia Group LLC, Air Products China Inc., Air Products Debang (Lianyungang) Co. Ltd., Air Products Ecuador S.A., Air Products Emirates Gases LLC, Air Products Equipment Limited, Air Products Gas O.O.O., Air Products Gases Holdings B. V., Air Products Gases S.A.E., Air Products Gesellschaft mbH, Air Products GmbH, Air Products Group Limited, Air Products Gulf Gas LLC, Air Products Helium Inc., Air Products Helium Inc. Qatar Branch, Air Products Holdings B. V., Air Products Holdings GmbH, Air Products Huadong (Longkou) Co. Ltd., Air Products Hydrogen Company Inc., Air Products Hydrogen Energy Technology (Zibo) Co. Ltd., Air Products Iberica S. L., Air Products Industrial Gas LLC, Air Products International LLC, Air Products Investments B. V., Air Products Investments Holdings LLC, Air Products Investments LLC, Air Products Ireland Limited, Air Products Israel Ltd., Air Products Italia S. r. I., Air Products Japan Inc., Air Products Japan K. K., Air Products Korea Inc., Air Products LLC, Air Products Leasing B. V., Air Products Llanwern Limited, Air Products Lu'An (Changzhi) Co. Ltd., Air Products Maghreb S. A.R. L., Air Products Majan LLC, Air Products Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Air Products Management BV/SRL, Air Products Manufacturing Corporation, Air Products Manufacturing LLC, Air Products Middle East Industrial Gases Company Limited, Air Products Nederland B. V., Air Products Netherlands Gases B. V., Air Products O. O.O., Air Products PLC, Air Products PLC Branch, Air Products Peru S. A., Air Products Qudra (GICIS), Air Products Renewable Energy Limited, Air Products S.A., Air Products SAS, Air Products San Fu Co. Ltd., Air Products Saudi Investment Company, Air Products Services Europe S. A., Air Products Shared Services Sdn. Bhd, Air Products Singapore Industrial Gases Pte. Ltd., Air Products SinoHytec (Beijing) Hydrogen Energy Technology, Air Products Slovakia s. r. o., Air Products South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Air Products Sp. Z o.o., Air Products Specialized Process Equipment SDN, Air Products Switzerland Sarl, Air Products Taiwan Holdings Co. Ltd., Air Products Ukraina LLC, Air Products West Coast Hydrogen LLC, Air Products Yanbu Limited, Air Products and Chemicals (Anhui) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Banan) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Beijing) Distribution Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Binzhou) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Chengdu) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Chongqing) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Guiyang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Hefei) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Hohhot) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Jiyuan) Onsite Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Lianyungang) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Nanjing) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Nanjing) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Pengzhou) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Putian) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Qingdao) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shaanxi Pucheng) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shaanxi) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Electronics Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Gases Production Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Gasification Technology Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Hydrogen Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) On-Site Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Systems Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shangluo) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Shenzhen) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Tangshan) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Tongxiang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Weifang) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (WuXi) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (WuXi) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Xi'an) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Xingtai) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Xinxiang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Xuzhou) Gases Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Yichun) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Yulin) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Zhejiang) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Zhuhai) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals (Zibo) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Air Products and Chemicals Inc. of Utah, Air Products and Chemicals Tech Development (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Air Products and Chemicals de Mexico S. A. de C. V., Air Products spol s.r.o., Asia Industrial Gas Company Ltd., Bangkok Cogeneration Company Limited, Bangkok Industrial Gas Co. Ltd., Beer Gas Cymru Cyf, Beijing AP BAIF Gas Industry Co. Ltd., Beijing Shuimu Tongda Transportation Co. Ltd., Blue Ocean Industrial Gases Co. Ltd., Carbolim B.V., Carburos Via Augusta Logistics S. L., Caribbean Industrial Gases Unlimited, Centro Tecnico Indura Limitada, Chengdu Air & Gas Products Ltd., Chengzhi Air Products Hydrogen Energy Technology Co. Ltd., China Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co., Consolidacion Comercial Infra S. A. de C. V., CryoService, CryoService Limited, Dixons of Westerhope Limited, DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials, EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products, EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products Inc., East Coast Nitrogen Company LLC, East Coast Oxygen Co., Far Eastern Industrial Gases Co. Ltd., Gaolu Air Products and Chemicals (Shanghai) Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Gardner Cryogenics, Gas Direct Limited, Gas Supply Services Ltd., Gas Technologies Ltd., Gases Industriales de Colombia S.A.  Cryogas, Gases Integrated Company Limited (GIC), Gasin II Unipessoal LDA, Gastel Limited, Gazsur S. de R. L. de C. V., Goar Allison & Associates, Green BioFuel s.r.o., Harvest Energy Technologies, Harvest Energy Technology, Helap SAS, INOXAir Products Pvt. Ltd., Indura, Indura Argentina S.A., Indura Holding LLC, Indura Holdings Colombia LLC, Indura Inversiones Limitada, Indura S. A., Indura Sociedad Comercial Limitada, Inner Mongolia Jiutai New Materials Technology Co. Ltd., Inversiones Air Products Holdings Limitada, Jazan Gas Projects Company, Jazan Integrated Gasification and Power Company (JIGPC), Jubail Waves for Gases Company, KRIG Holdings B. V., KRYVYI RIH Industrial Gas, Korea Industrial Gases Ltd., Kulim Industrial Gases Sdn Bhd, Lida SAS, M&M Gases Limited, Markaziy Osiyo Sanoat Gaz LLC, Matgas 2000 A.I.E., NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, NMAP Services Unlimited, Napro S.A., Olin DNT Limited Partnership, Oxigeno Medicinal Domiciliario Limitada, Oxygen & Argon Works, Oxygen & Argon Works Ltd., Oxygen Center Ltd., Oxygen Warehouse Trade (1980) Ltd., PQ Ammonia, PT Air Products East Kalimantan, PT Air Products Indonesia, PT Air Products Indonesia Services, Permea China Ltd., Permea Inc., Procal, Prodair Air Products India Private Limited, Prodair Corporation, Prodair Escravos Limited, Prodair S. A. S., Prodair et Cie S.C. S., ROVI Cosmetics International, S.I.Q. Beteiligungs, SAGA SAS, SCWC Corp., STP & DIN Chemicals Sp. Z.o.o., STS Science Technologies and Services Ltd., Sapio Produzione Idrogeno Ossigeno S. r. l., Servicios Indura Limitada, Shanxi Lu'An Air Products (Hydrogen Energy) Co. Ltd., Sociedad Espanola de Carburos Metalicos S. A., Soprogaz SNC, Stravinsky Investments LLC, Tanasio Industrial Gases Cyf, The Former SR Manufacturers Inc., Union Mobiliere Industrielle S. A.R.L., Vitalox Industrial S.L.U., WuXi Hi-Tech Gas Co. Ltd., Yangnon Industrial Gas Trading Company Limited, Yangon Industrial Gas (Thilawa) Company Limited, Zhangjiakou HyPower New Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Zhangjiakou Jiaotou Hydrogen New Energy Technology Co. Ltd., and Zibo Chuangcheng Design.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 10:31:14|Editor: Yang Yi

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COLOMBO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China has donated equipment estimated at 293,000 U.S. dollars to the Sri Lankan Parliament in order to further strengthen parliament to parliament ties between the two countries.

Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya while accepting and appreciating the donation on Friday from Yi Xianliang, China's ambassador to Sri Lanka, said to date over 100 parliamentarians had visited China on several programs with the support of China.

Jayasuriya said a further 15 parliamentary members would visit China next week to undergo a program on disaster management. "We hope to strengthen this relationship further," Jayasuriya said.

Yi said China welcomed more local parliamentarians to visit China and would look forward to further boosting ties with the island country.

Yi said he would also encourage more Chinese companies and investors to invest in Sri Lanka.

The equipment which included office materials and laptops was donated by the state-owned China National Corporation For Overseas Economic Cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 11:26:47|Editor: ying

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PYONGYANG, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Ri Yong-ho, left here Saturday morning for the Philippines to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum.

The five-member delegation will return to Pyongyang on Aug. 10 after attending the meeting in Manila at the weekend, and wrapping up a visit to the Philippines, according to DPRK officials.

The forum will also be attended by foreign ministers of ASEAN countries, as well as those of China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.

Foreign ministers of the six-party talks sponsored by China to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula will thus all be present in Manila for the meeting.

Vice Foreign Minister of the DPRK Choe Hui Chol visited the Philippines last week in preparation for the visit.

The ASEAN regional forum is focused on security dialogue in Asia and draws ASEAN members and dialogue partners to discuss security issues of the Asia Pacific region.
Ford Motor Company is the second largest US auto manufacturer by market cap and market share and ranks 4th globally. The company was founded in 1903 by Henry Ford following a series of cars that led to the introduction of the Model T. The Model T revolutionized the automobile industry not only because it made vehicles affordable for the budding middle class but it changed the way manufacturing was done. The Ford factory features the worlds first moving assembly line, an introduction that not only improved the pace of production but lowered the cost of its vehicles.

Other prominent innovations made by Mr. Ford include the strict standardization of parts that allowed for easy construction and repair and the standardized workweek. Henry Fords switch to a $5 workday and 8-hour shifts allowed him to run 3 shifts per day and improve productivity while providing his employees with the power to buy their own products.

Today, Ford Motor Company makes and markets a large lineup of cars, trucks, SUVs, EVs, and Lincoln luxury vehicles globally. The companys iconic F-series of trucks is the worlds best-selling pickup truck for decades running and the new all-electric Lightning is on track to dominate the top spot in the EV market. Other iconic brands in the Ford lineup include the Thunderbird introduced in 1954, the Mustang in 1964, and the Transit work van in 1965. The Mustang, notably, was created for the Worlds Fair and expected to sell 100,000 in its first year but shocked the industry with 22,000 units sold on the first day.

The company operates through four segments including Ford Blue (ICE vehicles), Model e (EVs) Mobility, and Ford Credit. The Ford Blue and Model e segments sell Ford and Lincoln vehicles, parts, and accessories while the Mobility segment designs and builds advanced technologies including but not limited to self-driving autonomous car systems.

The Ford Credit segment primarily offers commercial and retail loans to auto dealers and car buyers. This segment not only provides financing for new purchases and dealer inventory but makes loans for new dealerships and expansions of old ones.

Ford has fully embraced the switch to EV and is planning for an all-EV future. To that end, the company pledged to spend up to $50 billion on EV infrastructure by 2026. The plans include the build-out of an entirely new campus dedicated to EV manufacture from batteries to motor platforms, manufacturing capacity, and new vehicles. In regard to total capacity, the company is targeting 2 million in total annual EV sales by that same year.
Imperial Brands PLC, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, imports, markets, and sells tobacco and tobacco-related products in Europe, Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australasia. It offers a range of cigarettes, fine cut and smokeless tobacco, papers, and cigars; and next generation product (NGP) portfolio, such as e-vapour products, oral nicotine, and heated tobacco products. The company sells its products under various brands, including Davidoff, Gauloises, JPS, West, L&B, Winston, Parker & Simpson, blu, Pluze, Zone-X, Kool, Horizon, Backwoods, Skruf, Golden Virginia, Rizla, and Dutch Masters. It also engages in the distribution of tobacco and NGP products for tobacco and NGP product manufacturers; and various non-tobacco and NGP products and services. In addition, the company is involved in the management of a golf course; distribution of pharmaceuticals, POS software, and published materials and other products; printing and publishing activities; and provision of long haul transportation, industrial parcel and express delivery, advertising, and support management services. Further, it owns the trademarks; and retails its products. The company was formerly known as Imperial Tobacco Group PLC and changed its name to Imperial Brands PLC in February 2016. Imperial Brands PLC was founded in 1901 and is based in Bristol, the United Kingdom.
Exxon Mobil Corporation is the largest direct descendent of John D. Rockefellers Standard Oil and one of the worlds largest companies. Its earliest roots lie with Vacuum Oil which got its start in the 1860s. Vacuum Oils primary product was kerosene, an important advancement for heating and lighting in rural America. Vacuum Oil was later merged with Standard Oil of New Jersey which was the parent operation of the Standard Oil empire prior to its breakup. Standard Oil of New Jersey would merge with other independent operators over the next few years until settling on the brand Exxon for most of its operations.

Meanwhile, Standard Oil of New York was operating under much the same impetus, merging and growing, until it became known as Mobil. Then, in 1999, the two giants became one with a merger of equals that on paper had Exxon buying Mobil. Now, the combined company operates under the Exxon, Mobil, and Esso brands as an international vertically integrated energy and petrochemical business.

Today, the company explores and produces crude oil and natural gas and their derivative products globally. As of 2022, it was ranked 6th on Forbes Fortune 500 list and 12th on the Global 500 list but it has held positions from #1 to #10 over the years. In terms of its operations, it is the worlds second-largest oil refiner and the largest refiner outside of China. In terms of reserves, ExxonMobil claimed about 18.5 million barrels of oil and oil equivalents at the end of 2021 and was ranked 15th globally.

ExxonMobil operates through three segments that are the Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces oil and oil equivalents and represents roughly 70% of the income. The Downstream segment gathers, receives, stores, transports and refines oil and equivalents and their derivatives. The Downstream segment also markets and delivers fuel products to consumers and businesses. The Chemicals segment produces the full range of petrochemicals including plastics, resins and synthetic rubber.

ExxonMobil is committed to advancing sustainable and carbon-free energy solutions. The company is targeting 2050 for net-zero emissions and its 2030 interim targets are in alignment with the Paris Accord, the EU's Global Methane Pledge, and US Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan. The companys plans include investing $15 billion into reducing greenhouse emissions by 2028.






craigslist: thailand jobs, apartments, for sale, services, community, and events

craigslist provides local classifieds and forums for jobs, housing, for sale, services, local community, and events
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 12:22:07|Editor: ying

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SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Three militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant outfit were killed and a policeman was wounded Saturday in a fierce gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

The gunfight between militants and government forces broke out in Tarzoo village of Sopore town, about 52 km northwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"Three militants of LeT outfit were killed today in a gunfight with police and army in Jamia Mohalla, Amargarh locality," a police spokesman said.

Police said the search and cordon in the area was launched on specific intelligence information suggesting presence of militants.

"The hiding militants opened fire on the joint search party, triggering a gunfight, during which three militants of LeT were eliminated," the spokesman said. "Their identity of slain militants is being ascertained."

Since last week there has been an increase in the gunfights in region.

On Tuesday a top militant commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant outfit Abu Dujana and his local associate were killed in a fierce gunfight in Pulwama district. Two civilians were also killed and over three dozen wounded in government forces firing in the subsequent clashes that broke out to protest militant killings.

A separatist movement and guerrilla war challenging New Delhi's rule is going on in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.
Everest Re Group, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States, Bermuda, and internationally. The company operates through Reinsurance Operations and Insurance Operations segments. The Reinsurance Operations segment writes property and casualty reinsurance; and specialty lines of business through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies in the United States, Bermuda, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Insurance Operations segment writes property and casualty insurance directly, as well as through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents in Bermuda, Canada, Europe, South America, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The company also provides treaty and facultative reinsurance products; admitted and non-admitted insurance products; and property and casualty reinsurance and insurance coverages, including marine, aviation, surety, errors and omissions liability, directors' and officers' liability, medical malpractice, mortgage reinsurance, other specialty lines, accident and health, and workers' compensation products. In addition, it offers commercial property and casualty insurance products through wholesale and retail brokers, surplus lines brokers, and program administrators. Everest Re Group, Ltd. was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 12:32:12|Editor: ying

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TOKYO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Five people were still unaccounted for and over 530 lived as refugees one month after heavy rain plummeted Japan's Kyushu main island and caused 36 fatalities in early July.

Search operations continued for the five missing people in the city of Asakura in Fukuoka prefecture, one of the areas hit hardest by the torrential rain, with 30 local police deployed for the mission, according to local authorities.

The devastating torrential rain that lasted for several days from July 5 has caused extensive flooding and mudslides in Fukuoka prefecture and neighboring Oita prefecture, displacing more than 2,000 people at one point.

Some 530 people were still living as refugees, as the disaster has destroyed over 300 houses and caused damage to more than 2,300 residences.

Local governments said that damage caused by the disaster was estimated at around 120 billion yen (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in Fukuoka prefecture and 29 billion yen in Oita prefecture, and the numbers could rise further as investigation goes on.

Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Friday that the government is to decide whether to designate the deadly rain as a "disaster of extreme severity" at a cabinet meeting on Aug. 8.

The designation will increase subsidies for rebuilding infrastructure and supporting affected businesses in the municipalities hardest hit by the rains in the Kyushu area.

Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), however, warned on Saturday that the rain-hit areas may be on alert for secondary disasters as Typhoon Noru is approaching southwestern Japan and could make landfall on Sunday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 13:02:17|Editor: Yang Yi

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KATHMANDU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were killed and seven others injured in a car crash in Doti District of western Nepal, police said on Saturday.

The jeep slipped off the mountain road at Botagan area of the district and plunged some 500 meters down into a gorge, killing nine people on the spot, local police officer Shiva Bahadur Singh told Xinhua.

Of the seven injured, the condition of four people was critical, said the police officer.

"The injured are undergoing treatment at local hospitals," he added,

The passenger jeep carrying 16 people was en route to Chamarachautara area of Dipayal District from Doti when it skidded off the highway.

The crash site is some 800 km west of the capital city Kathmandu.

Poor condition of mountain roads and ill-maintained vehicles are often said to be major reasons behind road mishaps in the Himalayan nation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 13:32:21|Editor: Xiang Bo

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LOS ANGELES, August 4 (Xinhua) -- A craft beer bar will be opened across the U.S.-Mexico border to "make beer no walls", a Britain-based brewery announced Thursday.

BrewDog USA, a branch of Britain's biggest craft beer brewery, announced a plan called "The Bar on the Edge" on the first Friday of August, the annually International Beer Day celebrated by millions of people over 200 cities globally.

According to the company's press release, since "The Bar on the Edge" will be set up across the borderline, the exact location has not been disclosed with the current building being defined as a temporary one.

Meanwhile, in order to attract fans from both countries, the bar will serve the U.S. beer on the Mexico side and vice versa, and "the geographical border will be represented by a dotted line across the center of the bar and along the venue's outdoor seating area," the brewery said.

"We will request official permission from the local authorities...I guess it would make it more difficult to build a wall if there's a BrewDog bar in the way," James Watt, co-founder of the company, said on the official website.

BrewDog is a peculiar company relying on equity crowdfunding. At first, the company had a hard time getting access to capital, so co-founders Watt and Martin Dickie set up an "Equity for Punks" initiative, namely selling 47.5 U.S. dollars for each share with a minimum investment of two shares.

Anyone in the world, who had a passion for their craft beer, can pay 95 dollars to become a full-fledged shareholder with a say in the business along with added privileges, such as a 20 percent lifetime discount in their bars.

The brewery is not the first to weigh in such a serious conservation on the U.S.-Mexico border wall via a pranky way. Trade magazine ADWeek commented Friday that last year alone saw big campaigns by Tecate, 360Fly, 84 Lumber and Aeromexico addressing the wall.

The establishment of the U.S.-Mexican border wall was a crucial campaign promise by the U.S. President Donald Trump administration, and also a major contention not only between the two countries, but also between the conservatives and liberals in the United States.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 13:37:26|Editor: Xiang Bo

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SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- India signed a loan agreement with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for providing loan of 329 million U.S. dollars to improve rural road connectivity in western state of Gujarat, officials said Saturday.

"The loan and project agreements for AIIB lending of 329 million U.S. dollars for Gujarat rural roads project have been signed between the government of India, government of Gujarat and the AIIB yesterday in New Delhi," a finance ministry official said. "The objective of the project is to improve the rural road connectivity and accessibility in rural areas of Gujarat.

According to officials the project would benefit about 8 million people in the state by providing all weather road connectivity to 1,060 villages in 33 districts.

The project would envisage constructions and up-gradation of non-plan roads (NPRs), besides up-gradation of planned roads.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 14:17:41|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- 2017 is an eventful year for China, with several marquee activities on the political calendar, including the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army early this week.

The world's attention has once again shifted to China with the CPC as the center of that attention.

Tasked with leading the country to rejuvenation, the CPC also has its own mission: to be the strongest party in the world.

The mission is determined by China's national conditions. The country's vast population, unbalanced economy, and the pressure of its two centennial goals require the leadership of a stronger CPC.

The mission is also the CPC's response to the international community. Under the CPC's leadership and endeavors of the generations of Party members, China's progress in social development has made the Party an example to all and the world looks forward to its contribution to global governance.

Over the years, the CPC has established an efficient organizational structure and strict party discipline, which helped it survive wars and revolutions and to continue to thrive after almost a century.

But the Party never rests on its laurels. The leadership has repeatedly warned that the biggest threat to the Party is corruption and the CPC must better serve the people and lead the second largest economy in the world.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, an anti-corruption campaign has swept across the country, putting at least 240 senior officials under investigation.

The campaign has reinforced people's confidence in the Party. In a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2016, 64 percent of the interviewees believed that corruption would lessen over the next five years.

Grassroots Party members and organizations are crucial to the strength of the Party. The CPC is setting up a better appraisal mechanism to allow more mobility within its organizational structure, so that any capable candidate from its 89 million members has a chance to shine.

Over the past year, the catchphrase of the Party has been "staying true to our founding mission", which is to serve the people.

"We won't have the support of the people if we cannot strive for the people's benefit," said Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic of China, in 1934.

"To meet the people's desire for a happy life is our mission," said Xi Jinping when meeting the press after being elected as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee in 2012.

Considering the achievements of China, the CPC is fulfilling its promise.

More than 700 million people have been lifted out of poverty since 1978. In the past more than four years alone, China has seen over 55 million reach a reasonable standard of living.

Under the leadership of the Party, China is sharing the benefits of its economic boom with the people.

Antaeus, the giant in Greek mythology, can absorb inexhaustible power from the earth. Similarly, as long as the CPC stays close to the people, it will never lose its vitality.

Throughout its history, the CPC has debunked and defanged so many prejudices and stereotypes. Now, as China finds itself at a critical point of its revival, the world is waiting to see how the CPC continues to impress.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 14:22:43|Editor: Yang Yi

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SHIJIAZHUANG, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Yao Zhongmin, former chairman of the board of supervisors at China Development Bank (CDB), has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for accepting bribes.

Yao was also fined 3.5 million yuan (about 520,000 U.S. dollars). All his illegal profits will be turned over to the state treasury, according to the verdict issued on Friday by the Intermediate People's Court of Baoding City in north China's Hebei Province.

Yao had also served as deputy chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee at the CDB and vice president of the bank.

Yao took advantage of his positions to secure loans and projects for others, and accepted money and valuables worth nearly 36.2 million yuan either personally or through others, including his brother Yao Zhongquan.

It was noted that Yao had confessed his crimes and returned his profits willingly, all grounds for leniency.

The discipline inspection agency of the CPC announced in September 2016 that Yao had been expelled from the CPC and removed from public office following a corruption investigation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 14:32:46|Editor: Yang Yi

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WUHAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Wu Tianjun, a former senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official in central China's Henan Province, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for taking bribes.

The court also seized Wu's personal assets of 1 million yuan (150,000 U.S. dollars) which will be turned over to the state treasury, according to the verdict announced on Friday by the Intermediate People's Court of Xiangyang City in central China's Hubei Province.

Wu, a former member of the standing committee of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee, took advantage of his positions to help others with business operations and promotions. He accepted money and valuables worth more than 11 million yuan (1.6 million U.S. dollars) personally or through others between 2004 and 2015.

Wu had also served as head of the commission for political and legal affairs of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee as well as chief of CPC committees of Xinxiang City and Zhengzhou City.

Wu had confessed his crimes and returned his illegal gains willingly, all grounds for leniency, according to the verdict.

Wu accepted the ruling at the court and said he would not appeal.
A self-taught computer-security researcher credited with stopping a devastating cyberattack that crippled British hospitals in May was arrested on charges that he created malware used to hack banking systems in Canada and Europe, the U.S. said.

Marcus Hutchins, who started blogging under the pseudonym MalwareTech when he was a teenager, was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas, the Justice Department said in a statement. Court documents unsealed Thursday show he was indicted in July on several charges of computer misconduct relating to the creation and distribution of the Kronos banking Trojan, a type of malicious program that steals usernames and passwords for banking websites from infected machines.

We are aware of the situation. This is a law enforcement matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further, the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre said in a statement.

Read more: Surfer worked from bedroom to bring WannaCry cyberattack to a halt

Hutchins arrest came as a shock to the cybersecurity industry, which was coming off its biggest week of the year at the Black Hat and Def Con conferences in Las Vegas, which Hutchins had attended. Among white-hat security researchers, who hack technologies to find ways to fix them, Hutchins was a hero. They hailed his quick thinking in neutralizing the WannaCry ransomware just hours into a fast-spreading attack in May that threatened not just computer systems but also potentially lives.

WannaCry infected about 300,000 computers in 150 countries, locking users out unless they paid a ransom in Bitcoin. Victims included the U.K.s National Health Service, whose hospitals were disrupted, as well as FedEx Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Renault. Hutchins found a clever way to stop the attack by registering an internet domain that served as a kill switch for the malware, a secret that was hidden in its code.

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), said the San Francisco-based legal advocacy group is trying to reach out to Hutchins.

The EFF is deeply concerned about the arrest of Marcus Hutchins said Jeanne Carstensen, a spokesperson for the group. We are looking into the matter and are reaching out to Hutchins.

According to federal investigators, in 2014 and 2015, more than a year before the WannaCry outbreak, Hutchins wrote the Kronos malware, advertised it for sale in online hacker forums and split thousands of dollars in profits with at least one other defendant, whose name was redacted in the indictment. While Kronos is one of many widely used forms of banking Trojans, Hutchins is accused of being a supplier and not actually hacking peoples computers to install the malware.

Tor Ekeland, a U.S. attorney who specializes in cyber crime, told the BBC Friday that Hutchins faces six felony charges, with up to 40 years in jail.

It seems to be suggesting that writing software of this type is a felony which is highly problematic for the information software industry as a whole, he said.

The arrest appears linked to the FBIs shutdown of a notorious online criminal marketplace called AlphaBay, where Hutchins is accused of selling the Kronos malware. The Justice Department announced late last month that it had dismantled the site, which it said had 200,000 users and 40,000 sellers. The site had hundreds of thousands of listings for drugs, guns, fake IDs and hacker tools. The alleged founder, a 26-year-old Canadian living in Thailand named Alexandre Cazes, was found dead in his jail cell shortly after his arrest, in an apparent suicide.

The language in the indictment and timing of the allegations suggest that federal investigators used information they learned in the probe of AlphaBay to build the case against Hutchins, who became a reluctant celebrity after news outlets published his real name  doxing, in hacker parlance  following his WannaCry intervention.

His arrest coincides with a conclusion of sorts for the WannaCry attacks. On Thursday, three Bitcoin wallets linked to the malware were emptied out, with the tokens divided into smaller amounts and sent to other Bitcoin addresses. The wallets held a combined 52 bitcoins, or about $140,000 (U.S.)

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For six months now, almost all the news about Uber has been bad. Even before then, the ride-hailing companys combative executive team displayed a remarkable facility for generating negative headlines, but since former Uber engineer Susan Fowler went public in February about seemingly systemic sexual-harassment problems at the company, its just been one disaster after the other. Ugly lawsuit over allegedly stealing autonomous-car secrets from Google parent Alphabet? Check! Revelations of a concerted effort to evade regulators around the world? Check! Embarrassing video of co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick rudely berating a diver? Check! Board member resigning after complaining during an all-hands employee meeting on combating sexism that women talk too much? Check!

Even the forced departure of Kalanick in June doesnt seem to have settled things down much, with the companys board struggling to agree on a replacement and Kalanick  who remains a major shareholder  reportedly haunting the search with chatter about Steve Jobs-ing it by eventually returning to power.

If you think turmoil like this would be bad for the companys business, youre right. Ubers market share in its head-to-head U.S. battle with kinder, gentler rival Lyft fell to 75.3 per cent in June from 78.8 per cent in February and 90 per cent two years ago, USA Today reported last month based on data from TXN Solutions, a consumer research firm.

Read more:

A timeline of Ubers escalating woes

Kalanick ouster began with hand-delivered letter

Uber driver facing sex assault charge in Oakville

This does not mean Ubers business is shrinking, though. The company reported that revenue rose 18 per cent in the first quarter of this year, to $3.4 billion (U.S.), and has told investors that bookings were up more than 10 per cent in the second quarter. Lyft is growing even faster, but Ubers competition with Lyft is not a zero-sum game  at least not yet.

For one thing, both companies are still taking market share from taxis. Ubers market share is flat, not falling. Throw in rental cars, and Ubers share of all business-travel spending on ground transportation is still rising, to 55 per cent in the second quarter from 53 per cent in the first. Thats just among business travellers, but it seems reasonable to extrapolate that a similar dynamic is playing out among non-travelers choosing to leave their cars at home (or dispense with them entirely) and taking an Uber or a Lyft instead.

In short, despite shooting itself in the foot again and again and again, Uber continues to hold a pretty commanding share of what is still a growing market. Thats partly because of the kind of business it is: a platform that connects customers with providers. Once youve got a critical mass of both signed up, it can be pretty hard to unseat you. Such two-sided markets existed before the internet (credit card companies, for example), but in the online era, they seem to be the default business form. Online platforms such as Airbnb and Uber, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology write in their new book Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future:

 ... represent the richest combination weve yet seen of the economics of bits and the economics of atoms. As they scale, these platforms handle huge volumes of information  about members and their choices and activities, the availability and pricing of goods and services, payments and problems, and so on. All of this information approaches the ideals of free, perfect, and instant. Its very cheap to store, process, and transmit, and its getting cheaper. This means that all relevant and useful information can be everywhere on the platform, all the time. It also means that the demand-side economies of scale  the network effects, in other words  can eventually grow much faster than costs.

That all sounds like good news for Uber. So why is it that the company lost $708 million in the first quarter? One theory popular among the most skeptical observers is that the potential market for ride hailing actually isnt all that big, and Uber and Lyft have been continuing to grow only by offering unsustainably low fares. Eventually their venture capital riches will run out, theyll have to stop subsidizing fares, and their growth will shift into reverse. Theres surely something to this worry  and to concerns that Uber and Lyft will eventually be forced to take on their independent-contractor drivers as employees or at least spend more on benefits for them. Focus on these issues too much, though, and you risk missing that Uber and Lyft really do provide a useful service that wasnt being provided nearly as well before they came along. As Ben Thompson put it in a somewhat different context in his Stratechery newsletter in April:

The most important reason why Uber (and Lyft) has overcome regulatory challenges most of the time is that the company has positive externalities: not only is the service good for passengers (who get a liquid transportation option) and drivers (who get a job), it benefits people who dont use the service. There are fewer drunk drivers, fewer parked cars, restaurants and bars get more business, underserved neighbourhoods become accessible, travellers have better experiences, etc.

Another worry is that the switching costs between Uber and Lyft are quite low: Once customers have installed both apps on their phones, its no hassle at all to toggle between them for the best service or the best deal. For drivers, its more complicated, but there are now apps that can manage the process. If switching is easy, it follows that profit margins will always be under pressure. On the other hand, getting to the point where it can offer a plausible switching option to Uber across much of the U.S. has cost Lyft hundreds of millions of dollars. Thats a pretty significant barrier to entry.

So Uber and Lyft provide a service that is worth something. Some company (or maybe more than one) should eventually be able to turn a profit by providing it. Despite all its recent troubles, Uber still seems to have the best shot at becoming that company.

Of course, Kalanick talked investors into giving Uber a $69 billion valuation based on a wildly ambitious vision that included a presence in every major global market, brand extensions such as UberEats  a meal-delivery service  and Ubers very own self-driving cars. It has ratcheted back those global ambitions over the past year by getting out of China and Russia, and theres probably more retrenchment to come. I dont think Uber is in a death spiral. I do think some of its investors will be sorely disappointed.

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Genetically modified salmon have been approved for sale in the United States, but labelling complications have prevented them from coming to market. In Canada, however, according to a report released Friday by the company AquaBounty, about 4.5 tonnes of genetically modified salmon filets have been sold so far.

Eric Hallerman, an expert in fisheries and fish genetics at Virginia Tech who is not affiliated with the company predicts that we will see many more genetically modified fish and other animals on shelves around the world in the future.

The AquaBounty salmon, called AquaAdvantage, is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone gene from a Chinook Salmon. In the wild, salmon produce the hormone only when the conditions are right for rapid growth. In the AquaAdvantage salmon, a regulatory switch from an ocean pout gene makes the fish produce growth hormone all the time, so the AquaAdvantage salmon grow rapidly throughout the year.

Read more:

Groups want hearings on proposal to grow worlds first genetically modified salmon in P.E.I.

GMO salmon coming soon to a grocery near you

Canadian scientist thrilled to the gills by U.S. approval of genetically modified salmon

These fish, which are raised in fish farms, grow four to six times faster than other Atlantic salmon early in life, said Hallerman, and they reach market weight twice as fast. This shortens the total production time from three years to a year and a half and reduces the amount of feed they consume by 10 per cent.

Fish farms can be established on land in tanks, or in the ocean in floating net enclosures. AquaBounty originally intended to produce the genetically modified eggs and sell them to commercial fisheries, which would grow the fish primarily in floating nets, said Hallerman. He was involved in assessing the potential environmental impact of this plan, and raised concerns about it.

The salmon eggs AquaBounty produces are all female, and their number of chromosomes has been modified to make them sterile, like seedless watermelons. However, this process is not 100 per cent successful, and Hallerman and others worried about the potential for these fast-growing salmon to escape and mix with wild populations. After raising these concerns with AquaBounty, the company agreed to address them, and, theyve stood by their word, said Hallerman.

AquaAdvantage salmon eggs are produced in a land-based research facility on Prince Edward Island. If the eggs were to escape the facility, they would find themselves in salt water, where regulators predict they would be unable to survive. (Salmon hatch and develop in fresh water, then swim to salt water to spend most of their adulthood.) The eggs are then shipped to a land-based aquaculture facility in Panama, thousands of miles from the nearest Atlantic salmon population, where they grow to market weight. The FDA and Environment Canada conducted environmental analyses in light of these precautions and gave the fish the go-ahead.

Last month, AquaBounty purchased a fish farming facility in Indiana. The company plans to begin sales in the U.S. in the second half of 2019, Dave Conley, a representative told the Washington Post in an email. When regulations in the U.S. will actually permit sale of the salmon remains unclear.

The FDA approved the salmon in November of 2015, and Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency followed in May of 2016. Sales began in Canada in 2017, said Conley. Because Health Canada concluded that these salmon are as safe and nutritious for humans and livestock as conventional salmon, labelling was optional and left up to the discretion of the grocers who distributed the filets.

In the U.S., the regulatory landscape is less straightforward. When it comes to GM foods, [regulators] found existing laws and stretched out the scope of those laws to cover biotechnology products, said Hallerman, and its awkward.

In some other countries, such as Australia, whole new acts were drawn up specifically to cover biotech products. In the United States, square pegs were shoved into round holes. For example, because many genetically modified plants are generated using a modified version of a bacterium that can be an agricultural pest, these plants are regulated as plant pests. Genetically modified animals are regulated as drugs, which is why the Food and Drug Administration is responsible.

That could help to explain why these salmon, which were first developed back in 1989, are only now reaching the marketplace. Despite the 2015 approval, the salmon still hasnt hit U.S. shelves due to a section in the congressional spending bill which requires that the FDA finalize guidance related to labelling before imports can begin.

The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Act (signed into law in 2016) charges the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates most meat and fish, with developing a national mandatory standard for disclosing the presence of bioengineered material in food by July 2018. But it is unclear whether the FDA will align its labelling guidance with the USDAs. Further complicating the debate, Sen. Lisa Murkowski just this month introduced a bill that would require the salmon to include the label genetically engineered.

In the meantime, Hallerman said there are several genetically modified animals that have already been produced and are waiting for the salmon to carve their way through the regulatory landscape. In addition to other fish, these include cows and goats that produce nutritive compounds in their milk, disease-resistant livestock, mosquitoes that die before breeding, and more.

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A Toronto man working on the oppositions presidential election campaign in Kenya has been deported after being detained ahead of Tuesdays contentious vote, his wife says.

As far as we know he boarded the plane (in Nairobi), Jennifer Mary Bell said of her husband, Andreas Katsouris.

Ive spoken to him twice today, both very, very briefly, like maybe 60 seconds at the most, Bell said Saturday in an interview from the Netherlands, where he is expected to join her after the flight to Germany.

I spoke to him early this morning and he was on a monitored call, he couldnt really talk. He sounded fine, he sounded very calm. He said they were treating them fine. And then I spoke to him just as he was getting on the plane a couple hours ago. He sounds upset.

Hes been there since late June, theyve been working their hearts out on this campaign and of course its really disappointing to have it end this way.

Katsouris is senior vice-president of global services at Aristotle, Inc., a political consulting firm that provides various services to campaigns, including strategy and data analysis.

He and the companys CEO, John Aristotle Phillips, an American, were detained Friday night in the capital, Nairobi, said Aristotle spokesperson Brandi Travis.

Travis said the two men were in Kenya assisting opposition candidate Raila Odinga, and had become involved in the election because they thought it had the potential for irregularities.

I was originally just informed that they were missing and that they had been taken somewhere, said Bell, who works in public health as an epidemiologist.

That was last night. I got an urgent call to say that they had been apprehended and taken to some building, but nobody knew where.

Bell said the men went out for dinner with a member of the campaign staff, but were apprehended. The campaign staff member was the one who sounded the alarm.

Bell said her husband was safe and had been well-treated, despite reports that Phillips had been assaulted and put in the trunk of a vehicle.

James Orengo, a senior member of the opposition National Super Alliance, told reporters that Phillips was very adamant about his rights under the constitution, civic rights, was molested, thrown into the boot, and taken away with his colleague.

Though Bell said she had a feeling Katsouris would be OK  going into potentially dangerous countries during elections is kind of his thing  she called her MP to make sure the incident was on the Canadian governments radar.

But the incident does raise questions.

To me the interesting question is why this happened, and why the (Kenyan) government would choose to do something so visible with an American and a Canadian, she said. It suggests a motive that isnt necessarily pure.

President Uhuru Kenyatta  the son of Kenyas first president  will face longtime opposition leader Odinga, the son of the countrys first vice-president.

Odinga has run unsuccessfully for the top post in three previous contests.

Recent elections in Kenya, East Africas high-tech and commercial hub, have been hotly contested; more than 1,000 people were killed in post-election violence a decade ago. Kenyatta prevailed over Odinga in a 2013 vote that was mostly peaceful but tainted by opposition allegations of vote-rigging.

Travis said Katsouris and Phillips knew there were risks associated with working for the opposition in Kenya, but they thought Odingas cause was worth it.

They do go into countries that arent always safe, she said, but they think its the right thing to do.

James Orengo, a senior member of the opposition National Super Alliance, told The Associated Press that the detention of Katsouris and Phillips happened around the same time that armed and masked police raided an opposition vote-counting centre, intimidating workers and seizing equipment. He also said two Ghanaians working on the opposition campaign have been deported.

Kenyan police denied allegations that officers broke into political party offices on Friday, saying no report of a burglary has been made to any police station.

With files from Emily Fearon and The Associated Press

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 14:57:51|Editor: ying

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YANGON, Aug 5 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar said it mainly permitted investment which is eco-friendly and creates better job opportunities to local people in Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) which has 5,000 employees on the outskirts of Yangon, official media reported Saturday.

To date 84 companies have been permitted to invest in Zone A and the first phase of Zone B.

Of the Thilawa SEZ's total area of 2,400 hectares, 400 hectares, which represents Zone A, has been put into operation in September 2015.

Zone B with 101 hectares is set to be leased this year and is scheduled for completion next year.

Thilawa SEZ represents the first of its kind being developed in Myanmar with the other two -- Dawei and Kyaukphyu SEZs being in progress.

Myanmar and Japan signed an agreement on Oct. 29, 2013 to set up the Thilawa SEZ which is operated by Myanmar-Japan Thilawa Development Company, a joint venture between Myanmar and Japan formed by two Myanmar companies and two Japanese companies sharing a ratio of 51 to 49.

Foreign investment in the zone hit 1.7 billion U.S. dollars so far since the zone was launched four years ago.
MONTREALGroups of men and women walk toward the metal security barrier outside the stadium, shielding their faces from media cameras with their hands or T-shirts. Others pass by dragging suitcases, carrying babies. Still more exit crowded buses, squinting through the sunshine at the underbelly of the giant stadium.

Fleeing danger, fleeing poverty, fleeing anxieties of America and the dead end of their hopes there  all to wind up at Montreals Olympic Stadium, sleeping on cots in a structure that looks like a concrete spaceship. Thanks to an attention-grabbing government decision this week, the centrepiece of the 76 Summer Games has become the first Canadian home for scores of asylum seekers with origins in Haiti, Nigeria, Turkey, Mexico and elsewhere whove come here to try to start a new life.

Inancien Milien appeared overwhelmed as he tried to explain what it feels like. He was brought to the stadium Wednesday after walking into Canada at the Lacolle border crossing, south of Montreal. Originally from Haiti, he said he lived in the U.S. for 17 years before he decided to join the surge of his compatriots entering Canada.

Like many others, Milien said he was propelled by the disquiet of immigration policy under President Donald Trump. There is also a distinct impression, held by many asylum seekers, that Canada, with its refugee-hugging prime minister, will be a more welcoming place.

Its a dream. This is what we are looking for, said Milien, who was leaving the stadium with two other men to meet a refugee lawyer in the city.

I have no anxieties since Ive arrived here in Canada.

That contrast between the U.S. and Canada, in perception and reality, has been a central theme in the ongoing saga of asylum seekers who are breaking the law by walking across the border into this country. Quebec has borne the brunt of their arrival; according to federal government figures for the first half of the year, 3,350 of the 4,345 people intercepted by RCMP as they crossed into Canada were in Quebec.

In recent weeks there has been a surge of hundreds more. The agency that supports these asylum claimants in Quebec, PRAIDA, took on 1,674 new people in July  more than double the number in June. And on Thursday, Quebecs immigration minister said the number of asylum seekers entering the province tripled to 150 from 50 a day last month.

PRAIDA said many of the people arriving recently are from Haiti, which again has drawn attention to Trump. In May, the White House announced it would lift an Obama-era policy that prevented Haitians seeking asylum in the U.S. from being deported to their home country. An estimated 40,000 people could be affected when this policy expires in January, prompting some to seek safe haven in Canada.

Shelters in Montreal reached their capacity in July, hence the need for the Olympic Stadium. Mayor Denis Coderre told reporters Thursday theyre working to make sure there are 600 beds in the Olympic Stadium, though as of Friday afternoon 132 people were staying there, said PRAIDA spokesperson Emmanuelle Paciullo.

The situation has fuelled continued calls from refugee advocate groups  as well as the federal NDP  to suspend the Safe Third Country agreement. The accord says asylum seekers arriving in Canada or the U.S. must claim refuge in the first country in which they land, but a loophole exists that critics of the agreement say encourages people to take desperate measures by walking into the country: the agreement doesnt apply to people who cross irregularly by avoiding border posts.

But for people from Haiti trying to avoid deportation in the U.S., Canada isnt a sure bet either. Last summer, Ottawa lifted its own order that allowed asylum seekers from Haiti who would otherwise be deported to stay because of poor conditions and potential danger in that country.

In an email Friday, Hursh Jaswal, spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Ahmed Hussen, said that the deportation suspension for Haitians was briefly reinstated last fall after a hurricane, but the government now treats asylum seekers from the country the same as any other.

However, he said deportation orders can be appealed and that the decision to remove anyone from Canada is not taken lightly.

It was all just wind to Frantz Eustache Saint Jean. The 30-year-old walked into Canada at the Lacolle crossing with his pregnant wife last weekend. He shrugged as he explained how the police officers at the border patted down his wife and him, searched their belongings and brought them to an inspection station for processing.

After spending three months in the U.S., he said he was relieved to be in Montreal and felt confident that he would be able to stay. Its just too dangerous in Haiti, he said, where his wife was extremely persecuted.

He didnt want to elaborate.

Id prefer to keep silent, he said. There is a crisis in that country.

Moments later, Thelyson Orelien ambled down a concrete ramp to the entrance of the Olympic Stadium. At 29, the blogger and library worker said he came to Canada from Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, which killed an estimated 160,000 people and left hundreds of thousands more sick, injured and homeless.

He was among several people who came to the stadium to help. Hed just spent the morning with one of its new denizens, helping him convert money into Canadian currency and figure out how to navigate Montreals bus system.

Its certain that there are many who will be returned (to Haiti), Orelien said, arguing that the U.S. is no longer respecting international law and Canada should accept people fleeing that country.

There are people who have already built a life in the United States, who have bought a house, who work there, who already have a family . . . . Should those people have to sell everything, to cancel everything?

As he spoke, three others approached the stadium  Montrealers from the local Haitian community whod heard news stories about what was happening. Among them was Celienne Francois, who was pushing her daughter, Oriana, in a stroller.

I know there are young mothers inside, she said. It touches my heart because, these are children here, (and) they have to start again at zero.

If I can volunteer, or give some food, or give them a roof over their heads  whatever to help. I felt they are my compatriots.

Meanwhile, in Montreals north end, Marjorie Villefrance was also busy trying to figure out how to support these newcomers. As executive director of the citys Maison dHaiti community centre, she said shes been alarmed in the past eight weeks  since the U.S. move to change its policy on temporary Haitian residents  to see the rising number of asylum claimants walking into Canada.

At the beginning it was three, four families per week, then it was 20 per week and now it is 20 per day, she said, speaking in her office Thursday.

There have been surges like this before, she said, but what makes this one different are the rumours. Social media is abuzz with conversation that Justin Trudeau promised to welcome everybody into Canada  a falsehood possibly derived from his much-discussed statement on Twitter, when Trump unveiled his first refugee and immigration restrictions, that Canadians would welcome those fleeing terror, persecution & war.

People are recounting this, so they enter. This is a new phenomenon, Villefrance said.

To solve the situation for Haitians, shed like to see the government institute a special program similar to the push to bring in Syrian refugees.

I see people risking everything to travel, to come here  fleeing from their country, she said, arguing that Ottawas decision to lift the moratorium on Haitian deportation was wrong.

We can officially say the situation (there) has improved, but thats not what were finding.

On Friday, Trudeau urged would-be migrants to respect Canadas border with the U.S.

The prime minister took pains to reassure Canadians that the country has the resources and the capacity to deal with the sudden spike in asylum seekers crossing into Quebec, but he also made it clear that anyone who is caught trying to enter the country illegally would be required to navigate the proper immigration channels.

We want migration to Canada to be done in an orderly fashion; theres border checkpoints and border controls that we need to make sure are respected, Trudeau said at the Glengarry Highland Games in eastern Ontario.

Across town in Montreal, Aristide Joseph leaned on a wooden bench outside a YMCA that is packed with newcomers from Burundi, Brazil, Haiti and elsewhere. Joseph, 40, said he fled Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and lived in Orlando, Fla., for three years. But he couldnt find work, and a lawyer there told him he likely wouldnt get citizenship, so he walked across the border to Canada a few weeks ago, he said.

Like many others on the benches around him, and in the stadium across town, Joseph said he feels better being in Montreal, even though hes alone. His eyes glazed over with tears as he spoke about his wife, two 14-year-old sons and 7-year-old daughter. Theyre still in Haiti, he said.

There is a lot of trouble and insecurity there, he said.

One day he hopes to bring them here, to be Canadians together.

With files from The Canadian Press

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In a rare move, Ontarios top court has ordered a third trial in the same first-degree murder case, lambasting the Crowns key evidence: an expert witness whose testimony about gang members with teardrop tattoos contained inaccuracies and even falsehoods.

At the second trial for Warren Nigel Abbey related to the 2004 murder of Simeon Peter in Scarborough, sociologist Mark Totten testified that a teardrop tattoo meant one of the three things: the individual had lost a loved one or fellow gang member, had spent time in prison or had killed a rival gang member.

The Crown alleged that Abbey was an associate of the Malvern Crew gang who shot and killed Peter, mistakenly believing he was a member of the rival Galloway Boys, and that Abbey had a teardrop tattooed under his right eye about four months later.

Abbey was acquitted at his first trial  in which Totten was not permitted to give evidence  but the Crown appealed and at the second trial, where Totten did testify, the jury convicted Abbey.

In a decision released Friday, the Ontario Court of Appeal largely sided with Abbeys lawyers and found Tottens evidence unreliable, that he misrepresented the sample size of gang members in some of his studies, and that statistics he provided on the stand about gang members with teardrop tattoos are nowhere to be found in his studies.

The court also stated there is a legitimate concern that Tottens interview summaries are fabrications in two of his studies, which contain the same quotes from three participants. Totten had denied in a different court case that he used the same gang members in more than one study.

I have concluded that the fresh evidence shows Tottens opinion evidence on the meaning of a teardrop tattoo to be too unreliable to be heard by a jury. If the trial judge had known about the fresh evidence he would have ruled Tottens evidence inadmissible, Court of Appeal Justice John Laskin wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel.

And the absence of Tottens evidence would reasonably be expected to have affected the jurys verdict. I would admit the fresh evidence, allow Abbeys appeal, overturn his conviction and order a new trial.

Abbey has been in prison since his conviction at his second trial in 2011.

He will be applying for release pending a retrial, his lawyers told the Star on Friday.

We are gratified that the court found, as we had argued, that this Crown witnesss evidence was unreliable and dangerous, said David E. Harris and Ravin Pillay in an emailed statement.

This is another example of how expert evidence can mislead a jury and contribute to an unsafe conviction.

Totten did not return the Stars requests for comment Friday.

Neither side opted to seek permission from the Court of Appeal to call Totten to respond to the issues with his research and evidence.

As Totten has not been directly confronted with some of these deficiencies and inaccuracies in his testimony and research I think it would be unfair to make the positive finding that Abbey urges us to make: Totten fabricated or concocted part of his research, or gave deliberately misleading testimony, Laskin wrote.

But when assessing the reliability of Tottens opinion, I see nothing unfair in taking into account that the many serious problems in both Tottens evidence and research, which were identified by the fresh evidence, remain entirely unexplained.

It will be up to the Crown to decide if it actually wants to re-prosecute Abbey a third time. A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General declined to comment because the matter is within the appeal period. (The Crown has 30 days to decide if it wants to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.)

The Court of Appeal had harsh words for the position of the Crown in the appeal, given the fact that the fresh evidence  the issues with Tottens research  was brought to the forefront under cross-examination by Crown attorney Mary Misener (now a judge) in a separate case, R v. Gager, where that time it was the defence trying to have Totten admitted as an expert.

The cross-examination took place during a hearing known as a voir dire, to determine if Totten should be qualified as an expert witness for the trial.

Totten was the Crowns witness, a key witness for the Crown (at the Abbey trial). Yet in Gager the Crown sought to impeach Tottens credibility and the reliability of his evidence on several matters that were relevant to his opinion in this trial, Laskin wrote.

And then on this appeal the Crown made no attempt to contest the deficiencies, inaccuracies, and even falsehoods in Tottens trial testimony, as demonstrated by the fresh evidence.

The Crown is not an ordinary litigant. Its role is not to obtain a conviction, but to try to ensure a fair process and a just result. The Crown has impeached Totten, its own key witness, albeit in another proceeding, and yet by its silence in this proceeding must be taken not to have challenged the many serious problems in Tottens trial testimony shown by the fresh evidence.

The judge in the Gager case ultimately qualified Totten as a witness, despite expressing some reservations with his evidence, but neither side ended up calling him to the stand at trial.

I made mistakes, theres no question about that, Totten told the Star at the time. Ive got no problem stating that. Its the job of a lawyer to attack you as an expert witness. Some experts can handle it, others cant. Obviously, I didnt handle it very well.

In Fridays appeal decision, Laskin pointed out that the defence in the Abbey case could have raised the issues with Tottens research at Abbeys previous trial, but that it would be a miscarriage of justice not to admit the fresh evidence now because it is so compelling.

The appeal court went as far as saying that if the Crown had not been permitted to lead with Tottens evidence on teardrop tattoos at the second trial, it could reasonably be expected the verdict would have been different.

Among the reasons for that conclusion, Laskin noted that the rest of the Crowns case was not overly strong, which included poor eyewitness testimony and problematic evidence from three Malvern Crew members whose testimony implicated Abbey.

Their testimony was severely compromised by inconsistencies and their unsavoury pasts, Laskin wrote. He said two of them had been granted immunity by the Crown on a number of serious offences in exchange for their testimony, while the third member, who testified at the first Abbey trial, refused to testify at the second. His testimony from the first trial was read into the record at the second trial.

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Two 18-year-old men are facing a total of 24 charges following a shooting last week in Chinatown.

Toronto police said on July 28 four men were involved in a verbal altercation that led to a firearm being discharging multiple times just after midnight at Queen St. W and Cameron St. near Spadina Ave.

Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook said two 18-year-old men began shooting at the other two men after the altercation.

No one was injured. Only a vehicle at the scene was struck by the gunshots causing significant damage. It is not known if the car belonged to anyone involved in the shooting.

On August 2 Kevin Pacheco and Dravid Collis, both 18 and from Toronto, were arrested and are both facing a number of firearm related charges such as unauthorized possession and the discharge of a firearm with intent to injure.

Police say Pacheco, who is facing 15 charges, was in possession of a loaded firearm and protective body armor, and Collis, who is facing nine charges, was in possession of a knife.

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Beneath Fridays pouring rain and dark skies, a group of Indigenous women continue the fight against northern Ontarios suicide crisis outside the offices of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada on St. Clair Ave.

Theyve been at it for more than two weeks. Geoffey Daybutch, who was asked to join the women outside INAC three days earlier to serve as a male voice from the First Nations community, stands guard as a man brushes past him with groceries and tells him to get off the sidewalk.

For Daybutch, this crisis hits close to home.

The stories that are coming out from the suicide crisis is that some of the older children from the families are making their choice to commit suicide so that the younger kids will have enough food to eat, he says, struggling to get the words out.

Daybutch is in Toronto because he too made that choice.

This is a personal thing that I havent told anybody here: thats why I left my home, he says, tears in his eyes and barely able to talk.

When we had my youngest brother, I knew we were struggling so I told my family Ill come down to the city, Ill leave so that theres enough food for everyone. I never came up with the choice to off myself. I made the choice to come down south and make a difference and here I am.

On Friday night, a few dozen activists marched their cause up Yonge St. to the office of Carolyn Bennett, Canadas Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, in a vigil for the nearly 300 under-20 Indigenous youth whove taken their lives in Northern Ontario since 1986.

Once the march began, and two lanes of traffic were blocked, lineups of cars waited patiently while others blared their horns in anger as drum rolls sounded out and flags and signs were carried north on Yonge St.

This is the second time in a year the activists have come to INAC to demand the federal government follow through on an election promise made to address a state of emergency declared last April by the northern Ontario First Nations community of Attawapiskat.

The state of emergency came after 100 people, including children, tried to kill themselves in the community of only 2,000.

On July 24, Indigenous leaders met with the federal government in Ottawa. Another meeting was arranged for September.

Out of the July meeting came four already-promised mental health workers for the northern community of Wapekeka and 20 more for Pikangikum, which is now the suicide capital of the world after five youth suicides last month, according to the vigils organizers.

They have reneged and theyre going to have a meeting in September when theyre finished their holidays and vacation time, says organizer Sigrid Kneve, two days after someone woke her up in the middle of the night to inform her that another Indigenous youth had taken her life.

This year alone, there have been more than 20 suicides in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which is located in northern Ontario and represents 49 First Nations communities.

Since that meeting when they decided to have the meeting in September, another young person has killed themselves, adds Kneve. We want them to do something now! We dont understand how its out of sight and out of mind.

Outside their sidewalk tent, Toronto police frequently visit, stopping to check in and make sure theyre OK.

Bennett, too, often meets with them. But they say they are still awaiting action.

How many young people are going to commit suicide from now until September? asks Kneve.

For now, Daybutch waits on a sidewalk he has claimed as his own until his friends and family get the support he feels they deserve.

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Two Canadian geese found on Lake Couchiching north of Lake Simcoe were living in pain, impaled by arrows.

People from surrounding cottages helped capture the birds and drive them about an hour south to Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge in Pefferlaw.

Some of those cottagers told Aaron Quattrociocchi, the animal care manager at Shades of Hope, that theyd seen the impaled birds on the lake since May.

The rescue mission was a public effort from some outstanding people, Quattrociocchi said. One bird arrived on Monday and the second on Tuesday this week.

Quattrociocchi said the geese were managing, considering the arrows ran completely through their bodies.

The first one had (an arrow) going from one side of his body to the other side, he said. The second one had it going from its back to its breast, and then on top of the arrow, the second one was actually shot on two separate occasions, he said, noting there were two different bullets in its body.

Quattrociocchi explained that their injuries meant the geese werent able to sustain themselves.

They werent eating a whole lot; they were very thin. So thats what they actually would have died from was malnutrition as opposed to the arrow, he said, adding the removal of the arrows went well, for the most part.

The first one it was a little touch and go, he said, detailing how the birds heart stopped during the surgery and it had to be revived. He woke up and he did well after that.

Both of the birds are recovering at the refuge now. One goose had its wing injured by the arrow and is receiving daily physiotherapy. The refuge hopes he will be released in a month, while the second should be healed in a few weeks.

I cant say Ive ever seen (an animal) come in with an arrow poking through its body, but we do get many animals that have just been shot and come to us, Quattrociocchi said.

If people notice an animal that has been injured, he said the best thing to do is contact a local wildlife rehabilitation centre.

Were here to help animals that suffer. People dont realize how much pain these animals are actually in, Quattrociocchi said. Imagine if you were shot with an arrow, right? It does hurt. We want the animals to not have to live in pain and thats why were here.

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Hundreds of Drake fans filled an entire hallway of Yorkdale Mall on Saturday, forming a snaking line, all eagerly waiting to enter the rappers new flagship store.

The OVO store  which stands for Octobers Very Own, Drakes brand for everything from his record label to his music festival  sells apparel, including sweaters, shoes, hats, water bottles and lighters.

Some Drake fans channelled the rappers owl logo and camped out overnight to be the stores first customers. By mid-afternoon, 600 people had entered the store, with hundreds more waiting.

I didnt sleep, we just messed around to kill time, said Omar Hassan, who arrived at 6 p.m. Friday and got into the store at 11 a.m. Saturday. Hassan plans to resell some of the merchandise he bought.

Customers leaving the store described it as small; Hassan said its gold and white interior looked like a rich persons closet.

I came all the way from Louisiana for OVO Fest, said rapper Jade Delvale, referring to the annual music festival Drake founded that will kick off on Monday. Im a big Drake head anyway, so seeing this line is not surprising.

Keelie Belmonte waited in line with her son for nearly 10 hours to enter the store. Despite her sore legs, she was still upbeat.

Theres a few collector items, so hopefully well be successful in our quest, she said. (Drakes) the man, Toronto represent.

Security guards and police officers were on scene to monitor the crowd. Passersby squeezed by the hulking line, some taking pictures, others bewildered at what all the commotion was about.

Hours of waiting caused frustration for potential customers. One woman exited the line with her mother, saying that she waited six hours for nothing.

Rahim Jaffer, who entered the line at 8 a.m., said by mid-afternoon, the vibe now seems more like frustration than excitement.

Ryan Dillon was able to skip most of the line because of some connections. While he was happy with his purchases, he said the store was not worth the wait. Some customers spotted some VIP shoppers, part of Drakes inner circle.

Security guards allowed 10-15 customers in the store at a time, with no time limit as to how long they could shop.

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Some say theres magic in the antique carousel on Centreville Island. You just get on and get swept away by the music of the organs that has been entertaining children for over a century. For a couple of minutes, you get lost in a whirl of colour on the back of an inanimate animal that feels alive.

For Al Cochrane, 77, the artist/carver who has restored and maintained the Centreville carousel since he was 29-years old, the magic was in realizing that the carousel is the most unique piece of art that there is.

People had the incredible experience of riding on a piece of art work thats been created by hand, he said. Think of this incredible amusement that is entertaining and a piece of history.

Cochrane has spent more time with the carousel than, arguably, anyone else. A sign-maker by trade, he was hired by the Beasley family in 1980 to repaint some of horses.

After the summer season had ended, and he was alone with the carousel, hed walk around the ride on the creaky wooden floors with the doors closed. I imagined all the people in the factories carving these animals and painting them, he said. It was eerie to me, but rewarding.

Since news of the impending sale of the 110-year-old carousel on Centre Island, Star readers have been lamenting the loss of the ride that has been a staple on the island for decades. Theyve sent (and keep sending) memories, photos, videos, hoping to share the joy the ride has given generations of residents and visitors.

It shocked Cochrane when people came up to him, excited to meet somebody associated with the ride. I look back and realize what an incredible thing it was for someone who wasnt trained to take on the task, he said, and how important it became for people.

When Margaret Franklin was eight years old, her father took her to Centre Island and let her ride the carousel 13 times. Little did he, or anyone else know what would eventually transpire, wrote Franklin to the Star.

Franklin fell in love with carousels that day. Twenty-one years after her first experience, she bought an unlimited day pass and rode it again with her best friend for her birthday. They went on the ride 30 times that day, once for each year she had been alive. When Franklin got married, she embroidered carousel-style horses on the skirt of the dress her mom made. Today, she has her own website where she sells carousel-inspired quilts and ornaments.

Yuriy Polevoy, a corporate lender based in Toronto, was inspired by the reaction to set up a crowdfunding page in an attempt to keep the carousel. People really love it, and I just wanted to help them, said Polevoy.

Every year, Tracie Klaehn takes her three daughters to Centre Island and their love of horses always takes them to the carousel. Carousels let you dream, said Klaehn. Their visits inspired a childrens book she self-published this year.

In Klaehns story, Centreville Island After Dark, every night one of the animals can go on an adventure. The chestnut horse goes first, as all the other animals keep a watchful eye out for any humans.

Shirley Fowley, who did the illustrations, said she spent tons of time researching images of the Centreville carousel to make sure the likeness was authentic, and replicated the feeling of adventure she remembered.

The last illustration in the book is a nine-year-old boy riding the chestnut horse: Without further thought, he grabbed the reins and was gone, imagining he was riding through the woods on a grand adventure.

Thats how Ann Joslings son, Adam, felt every time he rode the carousel. Diagnosed with autism 20 years ago at the age of two, a visit to the ride was a reward for getting through every visit to the hospital. We would start each May with opening day and end with closing day, she wrote to the Star.

The carousel was Adams favourite ride; sometimes, he would walk around twice trying to decide which animal to sit on. Hed ride it ten to twenty times in a row, some days jumping off one animal to go to another.

The look on his face was always priceless; the world felt happier to him, wrote Josling, and before we left on a long journey home he would kiss the animals goodbye.

Centre Island wont be the same without the carousel, it has been a big part of our life, said Josling. It will be a huge loss to the Island and all the grownups wanting to take their grandchildren down memory lane.

Im going to miss it a lot, said Cochrane. Hes designing six horses right nowhand-carved wooden animals that will be installed in a new, modern carousel.

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There are days, in this age of Trumpian alternative facts and Trudeaupian selfies, of climate-change deniers and anti-vaxxers and all the varieties of truthers, when you begin to wonder if things like facts and evidence and logic play much of a role in our public debates anymore. Theres a tenor to the barrage of insults on social media that further raises the question.

And then theres this: less than half of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump believe his son Donald Jr. attended a meeting with Russians about information that might be harmful to Hillary Clinton. A poll last month by Public Policy Polling found that 32 per cent of Trump supporters believe there was no such meeting, and a further 24 per cent say theyre not sure. This, the pollster reported, is in keeping with the general attitude of Trump supporters, of whom 72 per cent say the whole Russia story is fake news.

The astonishing thing about that  astonishing to those of us outside the Trump-true-believer bubble, anyhow  is that Donald Trump Jr. is among our direct sources of information on that meeting and what it was about. In early July, the presidents son tweeted an email chain showing he had agreed to attend a meeting with someone who was said to be a Russian government attorney who had very high level and sensitive information that would be incriminating to Clinton.

In other words, he has admitted it and provided evidence to back his admission. Yet his fathers supporters continue to believe the story is made up by the mainstream media and Trump opponents.

There are clues all around that make you suspect we live in an Age of Unreason. And then there is this  a smoking gun in a red hand that seems to close all room for doubt.

Way back at the dawn of modern western civilization, Aristotle laid out the three modes of persuasion that are used to make arguments: ethos (the credibility of the speaker), pathos (the emotions of the audience) and logos (logic or reason applied to the facts of the matter at hand). Today, it is all too clear that the last of these  perhaps long thought to be the most valid and important  plays only a small role in how we discuss and decide things.

Ethos continues to play a prominent role. In online debates among the left, the credibility of a speaker, hinged on their identity (race, gender, sexual orientation, class), often seems to be a trump card. For those on the right, the alignment of a news organization (Breitbart versus the Failing New York Times, say) may be more persuasive than the reporting itself. Who is speaking, and how we regard them based on their identity and political alignment, seems to remain a big part of how we choose what to believe.

Pathos, the emotional argument, looms even larger, from the resentments that fuel political debates to the offences that fuel campus complaints to the hope and sunny ways feelings that have driven the success of candidates such as Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau and Jack Layton. Often enough, it certainly seems that for many people a feeling is an argument in itself.

And what about Logos? What about reason? It isnt that weve discarded it altogether. Just that its increasingly clear we use it pretty selectively and mostly to confirm the conclusions weve drawn based on the emotions and identity affiliations we use to make up our minds.

Theres a significant and constantly growing body of research that shows that we use reason  we evaluate the facts and apply logic  primarily to convince ourselves and others that we are right. You can go online and look up confirmation bias or motivated reasoning and see that studies show, again and again over a period of years, people seek out and believe information that aligns with what they already believe and to disbelieve or avoid any information that contradicts those beliefs.

Facts dont change our minds as the title of a New Yorker article from earlier this year put it  and when we encounter facts that contradict what we believe, we tend to stop trusting the person giving us the facts, rather than revise our longstanding belief. Such an experience may, paradoxically, reinforce our belief.

Its easy to see this tendency in those we disagree with  of course I led off with an example about Trump supporters, who seem obviously wrong to me, and I receive dozens of letters a week from people who claim to see my bias and illogic equally clearly. But theres no reason to think this tendency to make up our minds first, seek evidence later and think ill of anyone who disagrees with us is limited to one group of people or one side of the political spectrum.

A study reported in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology recently summarized in an article in Vox found that pretty much everyone  liberals and conservatives alike  will do a lot to avoid even finding out what their opponents think or why they think it. In both the United States and Canada, they found people would forgo money in order to avoid hearing about the political thinking of those they disagree with. Asked to place the experience of hearing the political views of opponents on a desirability spectrum, those on the left and right each rated it almost as bad as having a tooth pulled.

Largely, the partisans were unfamiliar with their viewpoints. So its not the case that people are avoiding learning about the other side because theyre already familiar, the Vox piece says.  People on the left and right, the study concludes, are motivated to avoid hearing from the other side for some of the same reasons: the anticipation of cognitive dissonance and the undermining of a fundamental need for a shared reality with other people. 

This may not actually be new. If it is true, as it seems, that it is part of how our brains work to make up our minds first and seek evidence later and to avoid even hearing about why some people disagree with us, then it seems equally likely it may always have been the case. And yet for many of us, this tendency seems increasingly pronounced recently.

To me, it seems that some politicians, especially conservative politicians, are particularly brazen in disregarding evidence. Former Conservative justice minister Rob Nicholson, who served under Stephen Harper, told Macleans magazine in 2009 and 2010 fairly straightforwardly that when it came to getting tough on crime, statistics about crime levels and evidence about whether policies would be effective were secondary to his government and the feeling of voters was more important. Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto seemed to take disregarding evidence beyond gut feeling and openly despising expertise to an extreme, while Trump in the U.S. seems to have only further extended this longstanding right-wing trend.

To others, it seems equally apparent in recent years that the appeals of both Obama and Trudeau were based on platitudes about hope and sunny ways  though both talked about evidence-based decision making and logic, their popular appeal was about a feeling of optimism their supporters wanted to share.

And beyond the ballot box, you can see the emotional arguments, and the shutting down of any but the most toxic debate, pretty much everywhere. The internet has broken up the information monopoly of the big pseudo-professionalized media giants who pride themselves (maybe too much, but pride themselves still) as objectivity-seeking honest brokers. Today anyone with a theory and a web connection can provide news and information, unfiltered by skeptical reportorial middlemen, directly to an audience looking for it.

Social media seems to be a steroid strengthening the tendencies: on Facebook, friend selection and algorithms mean one can find a circle of news, information and discussion made up almost exclusively of like-minded people sharing stuff you already believe to be true. On Twitter, the partisan lines of the short-form argumentative bursts are drawn like trenches in warfare  much disagreement consisting merely of accusations of malice or bias or dishonesty lobbed back and forth, with people who share any controversial opinion subjected to a perceived mobbing as hundreds or thousands of accounts rush to tweet insults at them.

We may not be any more unreasonable than in the past, but if this feels like the Age of Unreason, perhaps it is because the science demonstrating it has piled up at the same time that our technology and politics make it more transparent to us than ever before.

The problem is obvious enough: our society and political system are based, in large measure, on the premise that disagreements can be resolved and compromises can be reached when reasonable people attempt to persuade each other. If were all unreasonable, and are avoiding each others attempts to persuade, what can we do?

Its not an abstract question, either. Policy questions, life and death decisions, hinge all the time on democratic resolution of disagreement. And in a democracy, you cannot actually defeat your opponents  at least not all of them  instead, you must persuade them. Given what we know in the Age of Unreason, how can we do that?

The science about this, as I understand it, offers few satisfying conclusions. Very few of the papers on motivated reasoning seem to suggest any reliable ways of getting around it.

For each of us, assuming we want to be reasonable, perhaps being aware of all of this is a first step  we can attempt to be aware of our biases and perhaps seek out information that might change our minds. As unpleasant as we find it, perhaps anyone serious about public discussion needs to seek out arguments we disagree with in order to at least attempt to understand them. If not to be convinced ourselves, at least to be able to know our grounds for disagreement.

And perhaps knowing that identity and emotion play such a large role, we need to seek to address them in any arguments we make if were hoping to persuade people. People are not going to change their sense of themselves, and their emotions are real to them whether they seem justified to other people or not. So it would seem  logically, to me  that attempts to persuade people would need to leave room for their sense of selves and the perceived validity of their own emotional reactions.

And then theres that thing the researchers cited in Vox said about why we avoid different opinions in the first place: the fundamental need for a shared reality with other people. Perhaps acknowledging or emphasizing shared humanity is part of how we can come to agree or at least disagree reasonably. Some research exists showing the possibility that short, personal door-to-door conversations by LGBTQ canvassers were effective in reducing the transphobia of those they conversed with.

(Theres a strange story behind this reported by Wired magazine: a 2014 study claimed to show exactly this effect in a gay marriage canvass. It was quickly shown to be fraudulent, and the research was retracted. But then in 2016, the people who debunked the original paper conducted the experiment for real trying to address transphobia, and got the same result as was originally reported.)

It does seem to me like the realization of shared humanity  and friendship, family ties, shared identity  should be effective in creating an emotional connection that might open peoples minds to more productive discussion. To me, it seems reasonable. But perhaps I am motivated to think so because I want to believe theres a way to have a productive conversation, and Im looking for evidence to support me in that belief.

If thats the case, at least I know Im not alone in doing so.

Read more in the Age of Unreason series:

To agree to disagree on racism, sexism has become a cowardly cop-out: Age of Unreason

Does truth matter in Ontario politics in the Trump era?: Age of Unreason

Buy now, rationalize later. This is how emotional advertising works: Age of Unreason

The science of why we wont stop believing: Age of Unreason

How minds were changed on pot, same-sex marriage, assisted death and GMOs: Age of Unreason

I try to generate debate on social media but spend most of my time tackling trolls: Age of Unreason

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Climate change is caused by humans.

Taxing the rich hurts the economy.

Vaccinations cause autism.

Heterosexuals are better parents than same-sex couples.

You might agree with some of those statements. You might have shared articles arguing for or against them on social media. You may even have debated them with friends or co-workers.

Read more:Finding a way forward in our moment of truths: Age of Unreason

But have you ever questioned why you believe what you believe about them, and whether youre objectively, factually correct?

We humans fancy ourselves logical thinkers, who consider the facts and come to a rational, scientifically sound conclusion about the world around us.

But, in truth, the way we process information is actually shaped in large part by our emotions and fears, desires and biases.

We try to think things through, but (our conclusions) are moulded by the kind of things we feel, said Pete Ditto, professor of social psychology at the University of California, Irvine.

A lot of people just get their information through their friends on Facebook, said Stephan Lewandowsky, a psychology professor at Bristol University in the U.K. (It causes) these self-amplifying echo chambers where people only read things that they already believe and never step outside that.

Whether its on social media or in the news, people tend to take information at face value if it supports their world view, but scrutinize and fact-check if it contradicts their existing beliefs, said Ditto.

Its good to be skeptical of information but people deploy that skepticism unevenly, he added.

People have ideological beliefs that they want to be true.

You can, for instance, determine a persons beliefs on the existence of climate change by asking them a few questions about economics, said Lewandowsky.

The more extreme people are in their (support) of the free market, the more likely they are to reject the fact that the climate is changing and that people are causing it, he added.

Thats because the prospect of imposing eco-friendly regulations on businesses is so distasteful to free-market supporters, that theyll push back against the idea that theres a problem that needs fixing in the first place, said Lewandowsky.

Once we have picked a stance, theres a whole toolbox of cognitive methods we use to dismiss information that contradicts us, said Justin Friesen, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Winnipeg.

We might disparage the source of the information, question the motives of the person sharing it, or disagree with the interpretation of the data.

Its not that people dislike definitive statements of fact. We love to use hard evidence to bolster our arguments  but only when that evidence reinforces what we already believed, he explained.

In 2013, Friesen worked on an experiment by researchers at the University of Waterloo and Duke University, using one group of participants who believed same-sex couples should be allowed to raise children and another group that believed children need a mother and a father.

Researchers showed the participants opposing sets of facts, dummied up for the purpose of the experiment, then asked them why they believed what they did about same-sex parenting.

When they were shown facts that supported them, participants in both groups told the researchers their feelings about same-sex parenting were based on science.

But, when shown facts that opposed their views, participants said their beliefs on same-sex parenting werent based on science at all, but on abstract principles, like morality or human rights, said Friesen.

We found that people strategically shift their reasons for their beliefs based on what serves their purposes in the moment, said Friesen.

Using your principles as the basis of an argument is safe, said Friesen. Your opponent may have facts that contradict you, but they cant disprove your belief that you are morally right.

Simply knowing their beliefs could hypothetically be disproved by empirical data can change peoples level of dedication to those beliefs, Friesen added.

In another study, Friesen and his fellow researchers asked American participants to rate Barack Obamas performance as president.

Some were told a leaders performance could be objectively measured, while others were told it could not.

When they thought that a presidents performance cant be tested, so its not subject to facts, they criticized or praised him more strongly, said Friesen.

In other words, if you think that your belief isnt going to be fact-checked, then you can express it more strongly.

That boldness of belief can also result from knowing other people agree with you.

Theres a lot of evidence that when people think that their opinion is widely shared, they hold that opinion much more strongly than they otherwise would, and are much more resistant to changing it, said Lewandowsky.

The trouble is that, in the internet age, its easier than ever to find people who share even your most outlandish beliefs, creating what researchers call a false consensus effect.

Peoples unwillingness to consider new and challenging information is a problem because it prevents us from negotiating or reaching a compromise, Ditto said.

How do we compromise if two sides (believe) completely different facts about something? It stops every conversation.

Widespread acceptance of some facts can evolve over time.

Only a few decades ago, people mocked and denounced the evidence that showed cigarettes cause cancer, that drunk driving is dangerous and that seatbelts save lives. Today those ideas are generally treated as common knowledge.

But that evolution was not necessarily the result of convincing arguments and mounting scientific evidence, said Lewandowsky.Rather, people were persuaded to change their behaviour by laws and incentives.

Many people started wearing seatbelts because they were afraid of being ticketed, not because they thought it was safer, said Lewandowsky. Eventually, there was a generation of drivers who had always buckled up. It became the norm and people began to see seatbelts as essential.

Once you change the way they behave, then their attitudes are going to follow suit, said Lewandowsky.

Read more in the Age of Unreason series:

To agree to disagree on racism, sexism has become a cowardly cop-out: Age of Unreason

Does truth matter in Ontario politics in the Trump era?: Age of Unreason

Buy now, rationalize later. This is how emotional advertising works: Age of Unreason

How minds were changed on pot, same-sex marriage, assisted death and GMOs: Age of Unreason

I try to generate debate on social media but spend most of my time tackling trolls: Age of Unreason

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 15:02:58|Editor: Song Lifang

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ISTANBUL, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 36 others injured on Saturday when a passenger bus overturned in Turkey's Black Sea region province of Amasya, local media reported.
PARISA giant panda in a French zoo has given birth to twins, the first-ever panda birth in France, but one died soon after birth.

The Beauval Zoo southwest of Paris said panda Huan Huan bore twins late Friday night but despite efforts by panda experts from China to care for the first-born, it did not survive. It said the mother is taking close care of the surviving second-born cub.

Huan Huan was artificially inseminated from partner Yuan Zi, both of whom are at Beauval on a 10-year loan from China.

The zoo set up cameras to broadcast live images from the mothers room until the baby is safe to show to visitors.

There are only about 1,800 pandas in the wild in China and about 400 in captivity worldwide.

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GENEVAUN human rights investigators warned Friday of ethnic cleansing in central Congo, documenting the recent killings of more than 250 people, including 62 children, in violence with no good guys and bad guys.

The investigators based their new report on interviews in June of 96 people who fled Congos Kasai provinces into neighbouring Angola over the three previous months. It decried alleged violence involving a recently formed militia, Bana Mura, backed by Congolese security officials.

The office provided photos of survivors with dismembered limbs and deep scars. In a statement, the UN human rights chief described accounts of the screams of people being burned alive and others who were cut down.

The report provides a snapshot of the violence that erupted in the once-calm region a year ago. The UN has estimated the existence of 80 mass graves there. At least 1.3 million people have been internally displaced, and at least 40,000 have fled to Angola.

UN human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein urged Congos government to act now to prevent such violence from tipping into wider ethnic cleansing.

His office called on militia groups to lay down their weapons.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York that the issues raised in the report are regularly brought up to the governments attention by the UN peacekeeping mission and the human rights office in Congo. He said that in drafting the report it was shared with the Congolese authorities.

Violence in the Kasai region by the Kamwina Nsapu militia began last August with the killing of a regional tribal leader who had defied the government of President Joseph Kabila. Access for UN investigators to the region has been difficult, and security concerns skyrocketed after the murder of two UN experts in the Kasais in March.

Based on the accounts from people who fled between March and June, the new report counted 251 killings, attributing 150 of them to the Bana Mura and another 79 to the Kamwina Nsapu. Government forces were blamed for another 22.

The Catholic Church has estimated more than 3,300 people have died in the fighting. The UN human rights office, which follows a strict methodology, has estimated the total death toll at over 500.

The diamond-rich region has been a stronghold of opposition to Kabilas government.

The Kamwina Nsapu, linked to the ethnic Luba and Lulua communities, have used children to attack security forces, the report said. That militia group also has employed witchcraft, the rights office said, citing cases of young girls drinking victims blood as part of a magic ritual that was supposed to render the group invincible.

The Bana Mura, formed among the Tshokwe, Pende and Tetela ethnic groups, allegedly attacked Luba and Lulua inhabitants, beheading, mutilating and shooting victims; in some cases burning them alive in their homes, according to the rights office.

Speaking Friday to reporters in Geneva, Scott Campbell, the rights offices chief for central and west Africa, said: There are no good guys and bad guys in this crisis. All sides need to be held to account.

The violence in the Kasai region comes on top of a broadly unstable situation in Congo, which has faced years of tensions and bloodshed in the east and where Kabilas government has defied international calls for Congo to hold elections as required under its constitution. The government says it needs more time.

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Investigators working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, recently asked the White House for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn and have questioned witnesses about whether he was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the presidential campaign, according to people close to the investigation.

Although not a formal subpoena, the document request is the first known instance of Muellers team asking the White House to hand over records.

In interviews with potential witnesses in recent weeks, prosecutors and FBI agents have spent hours poring over the details of Flynns business dealings with a Turkish-American businessman who worked last year with Flynn and his consulting business, the Flynn Intel Group.

The company was paid $530,000 (U.S.) to run a campaign to discredit an opponent of the Turkish government who has been accused of orchestrating last years failed coup in the country.

Read more:

Michael Flynn details tie to controversial data firm, Trump transition team pay

Michael Flynn turns over documents to panel investigating Russia, Trump END

Why Michael Flynn is unlikely to actually get immunity: Analysis

Investigators want to know if the Turkish government was behind those payments  and if the Flynn Intel Group made kickbacks to the businessman, Ekim Alptekin, for helping conceal the source of the money.

The line of questioning shows that Muellers inquiry has expanded into a full-fledged examination of Flynns financial dealings, beyond the relatively narrow question of whether he failed to register as a foreign agent or lied about his conversations and business arrangements with Russian officials.

Flynn lasted only 24 days as national security adviser, but his legal troubles now lie at the centre of a political storm that has engulfed the Trump administration. For months, prosecutors have used multiple grand juries to issue subpoenas for documents related to Flynn.

U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly said Mueller should confine his investigation to the narrow issue of Russias attempts to disrupt last years presidential campaign, not conduct an expansive inquiry into the finances of Trump or his associates.

Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump

Flynn declined to comment. Ty Cobb, special counsel to Trump, said, Weve said before were collaborating with the special counsel on an ongoing basis.

Its full co-operation mode as far as we are concerned, he said.

After Flynns dismissal, Trump tried to get James Comey, the FBI director, to drop the investigation, Comey said.

Mueller is investigating whether Trump committed obstruction of justice in pressing for an end to the Flynn inquiry. The president fired Comey on May 9.

Investigators are also examining the flow of money into and out of the Flynn Intel Group  a consulting firm Flynn founded after being forced out as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency  according to several potential witnesses who have been interviewed by prosecutors and FBI agents.

Taking money from Turkey or any foreign government is not illegal. But failing to register as a foreign agent is a felony, and trying to hide the source of the money by routing it through a private company or some other entity, and then paying kickbacks to the middleman, could lead to numerous criminal charges, including fraud.

Prosecutors have also asked during interviews about Flynns speaking engagements for Russian companies, for which he was paid more than $65,000 in 2015, and about his companys clients  including work it may have done with the Japanese government.

They have also asked about the White Canvas Group, a data-mining company that was reportedly paid $200,000 by the Trump campaign for unspecified services. The Flynn Intel Group shared office space with White Canvas Group, which was founded by a former special operations officer who was a friend of Flynns.

Flynn has now had to file three versions of his financial-disclosure forms. His first version did not disclose payments from Russia-linked companies. He added those payments to an amended version of the forms he submitted in March. This week he filed a new version, adding that he briefly had a contract with SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm that worked with the Trump campaign.

The new forms list at least $1.8 million in income, up from the roughly $1.4 million he had previously reported. It is unclear how much of that money was related to work Flynn did on Turkey issues.

Flynns campaign to discredit the opponent of the Turkish government, Fethullah Gulen, began Aug. 9 when his firm signed a $600,000 deal with Inovo BV, a Dutch company owned by Alptekin, a Turkish-American businessman.

Gulen, a reclusive cleric, lives in rural Pennsylvania.

The contract with Alptekin was brought in by Bijan R. Kian, an Iranian-American businessman who was one Flynns business partners. Kian, who served until 2011 as a director of the Export-Import Bank, a U.S. federal agency, is also under scrutiny, according to witnesses questioned by Muellers investigators. A lawyer for Kian declined to comment.

Inovo ultimately paid the Flynn Intel Group only $530,000 and received little more than slapdash research and a comically inept attempt to make an anti-Gulen video, which was never completed. The entire enterprise would probably have gone unnoticed if Flynn had not written an opinion piece advocating improved relations between Turkey and the United States and calling Gulen a shady Islamic mullah.

The opinion piece appeared on Election Day. Soon after, the Daily Caller revealed that the Flynn Intel Group had a contract with Inovo, prompting the Justice Department to look into Flynns relationship with Alptekin.

Authorities quickly determined that Flynn had not registered as a foreign agent, as required by law. In March, he retroactively registered with the Justice Department.

Muellers investigators have asked repeatedly about two payments of $40,000 each that the Flynn Intel Group made to Inovo, said witnesses who have been interviewed in the case.

The investigators have indicated that they suspect that the payments were kickbacks and, in one interview, pointed to the suspicious timing of the transfers. The first payment back to Inovo was made Sept. 13, four days after the Dutch company made its first payout under the contract, sending $200,000 to the Flynn Intel Group.

On Oct. 11, Inovo paid the Flynn Intel Group an additional $185,000. Then, six days later, Flynn Intel Group sent $40,000 to Inovo.

Alptekin said that both payments were refunds for work that the Flynn Intel Group had not completed.

Ekim maintains that all payments and refunds were for unfulfilled work and that they were legal, ethical and above board, said Molly Toomey, a spokeswoman for Alptekin. She described the reimbursements as a business decision.

Another focus for investigators is the repeatedly changing explanation Alptekin has offered for why he hired Flynn. In March, he told a reporter that Flynn had been hired to produce geopolitical analysis on Turkey and the region for an Israeli energy company. But in an interview with the New York Times in June, he said he wanted a credible U.S. firm to help discredit Gulen, whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has blamed for the coup attempt.

Like many Americans rolling up their sleeves in 9/11 to do something, I decided to do something, Alptekin said.

He scoffed at the suggestion that he was a front for the Turkish government. Inovo, he noted, was registered in the Netherlands, where it is difficult to mask the ownership of a company. A clear paper trail linked the payments between his company and the Flynn Intel Group, he said.

If we were trying to hide, he said, youd think wed be good at it.

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SRINAGAR, INDIA  A gun battle between Indian troops and Kashmiri rebels on Saturday killed three insurgents in the disputed Himalayan region and triggered a new round of anti-India protests and clashes.

The fighting began after government forces raided a cluster of homes on a tip that rebels were hiding in northwestern Sopore area, said police Inspector-General Muneer Ahmed Khan. He said that as the soldiers began searching homes, they came under gunfire from militants.

In the ensuing battle, three rebels were killed and a police official injured, he said.

As the news of the killings spread, protests and clashes erupted in several parts of the region as residents chanted slogans against Indian rule and in favour of rebels who have fought against New Delhis rule since 1989.

Read more:

Anti-India protests led mostly by students erupt in Kashmir after rebels, civilian killed

India says Pakistan killed two of its soldiers in ambush along Kashmir border

Dozens injured after Kashmir students clash with Indian troops

Soldiers fired at rock-throwing protesters in Bandipora area and wounded at least three civilians.

In an escalating confrontation in the last seven days, at least 10 rebels and four civilians have died in five gun battles and subsequent anti-India clashes. Two Indian army soldiers also have been killed in a rebel ambush.

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. Rebel groups demand that Kashmir be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmirs mostly Muslim population and most people support the rebels cause against Indian rule.

Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.

In recent years, Kashmiris, mainly youths, have displayed open solidarity with anti-India rebels and sought to protect them by engaging troops in street clashes during military operations against the militants. The anti-India protests and clashes have persisted despite the Indian army chief warning recently that tough action would be taken against stone throwers during counter-insurgency operations.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, which Pakistan denies.

Rebel groups have largely been suppressed by Indian forces in recent years and public opposition to Indian rule is now principally expressed through street protests.

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SYDNEY, Australia - Search and rescue operations were underway for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia on Saturday while trying to land.

Twenty-three of 26 personnel aboard the aircraft have been rescued, the Marine base Camp Butler in Japan said in a statement.

The MV-22 Osprey involved in the mishap had launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard and was conducting regularly scheduled operations when it crashed into the water, the statement said. The ships small boats and aircraft immediately responded in the search and rescue efforts.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an airplane. They have been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years.

The aircraft was in Australia for a joint military training exercise held by the U.S. and Australia last month in Shoalwater Bay. The Talisman Sabre exercise, a biennial event between the two nations, involved more than 30,000 troops and 200 aircraft.

Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said Saturdays incident occurred off the coast of Shoalwater Bay in Queensland state.

I can confirm no Australian Defence Force personnel were on board the aircraft, Payne said in a statement. The United States are leading the search and recovery effort.

Payne said she had spoken with U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis to offer Australias support in any way that can be of assistance.

The White House said that U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed on the matter by his chief of staff, John Kelly.

In 2015, a U.S. Osprey crashed during a training exercise in Hawaii, killing two Marines. Last December, a U.S. military Osprey crash-landed off Japans southern island of Okinawa. Its five crew members were rescued safely. And in January, three U.S. soldiers were wounded in the hard landing of an Osprey in Yemen.

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WASHINGTONWhen U.S. President Donald Trump looks at America, he sees two very different worlds: Hes visited inner cites he declared to be worse than almost any of the places in the Middle East, he slammed New Hampshire as a drug-infested den. And hes championed beautiful cities full of massive crowds and true American patriots, often in states that voted for him. Oh yeah, and he really hates regions where a personality or politician crossed him. Always, though, Trump uses some very vivid imagery to paint his black-and-white vision of America. Here it is:

LOVES TRUMP, OR TRUMP LOVES THEM

Kentucky  Abraham Lincoln was a great president. Most people dont even know he was a Republican.

Maine  What it does do is it gets you out to see states that youll never see otherwise. Its very interesting. Like Maine. I went to Maine four times. Trump, referring to the fact that Maine splits its electoral vote (one of only two states to do that) said, I went to Maine 2 for one, because everybody was saying you can get to 269 but there is no path to 270.

Massachusetts  They have a hell of a team, Trump has said of the Patriots, of which hes a big fan. (He and Patriots owner Bob Kraft are close.)

Ohio  Tonight Im back in the centre of the American heartland, far away from the Washington swamp to spend time with thousands of true American patriots.

Tennessee  I know you people arent skeptical people, cause nobody would be that way in Tennessee. Nope, nobody. Not Tennessee.

West Virginia  The folks in West Virginia who were so nice to me.

Wisconsin  Trump repeatedly refers to the fact that a Republican presidential candidate hadnt won Wisconsin since the 1980s. He also references its large crowds. We had tremendous crowds. And Id leave these massive crowds, Id say, Why are we going to lose this state? 

BAD POLITICIAN OR PERSONALITY RESIDES HERE

California  Arnold Schwarzenegger isnt voluntarily leaving The Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show

The mayor of San Jose did a terrible job of ordering the protection of innocent people. The thugs were lucky supporters remained peaceful!

D.C.  We dont need advice from the Washington swamp. We need to drain the swamp.

Hawaii  Hours after a Hawaii judge blocked a revised version of his travel ban, Trump called it an unprecedented judicial overreach.

Illinois  More than two homicide victims per day. What the hell is going on in Chicago? Better tell that mayor to get tough.

Maryland  I see where Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore is pushing Crooked (Hillary) hard. Look at the job she has done in Baltimore. She is a joke!

Massachusetts  Bostons Mayor Walsh wasted a lot of time and money on going for the Olympics, and then he gave up. I dont want him negotiating for me!

New Mexico  Shes (Susana Martinez) got to do a better job. OK? Your governor has got to do a better job.

New York  Mayor Bill de Blasio is the single worst mayor in the history of New York City.

Pennsylvania  Former mayor Michael Nutter is a crude dope!

South Dakota  After Badlands National Park tweeted defiant climate-change messages, the Trump administration ordered a ban on all Interior Department employees using Twitter, which was lifted the next day.

Texas  Called Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban dopey.

Virginia  (Republican Party of) Virginia has lost statewide seven times in a row. Will now not allow desperately needed new voters. Suicidal mistake. RNC MUST ACT NOW!

Wyoming  I dont want to waste money going to Wyoming, sending crews for months and months knowing youre not going to beat the bosses. Ive beaten the bosses.

FAILING, INFESTED OR OTHERWISE IN SHAMBLES

California  Our airports are like from a Third World country, Trump has said, singling out LAX, LaGuardia, Newark and Kennedy.

California in many ways is out of control.

Georgia  Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his (Atlanta) district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to . . . mention crime-infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk  no action or results. Sad!

Illinois  You go to some of these inner-city places and its so sad when you look at the crime. . . . Theyre living in hell. You look at the numbers in Chicago. There are two Chicagos. Theres one Chicago thats incredible, luxurious and all  and safe. Theres another Chicago thats worse than almost any of the places in the Middle East that we talk about and you talk about every night on the newscasts. So were gonna do a lot of work on the inner cities.

Iowa  How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?

Maryland  Repeatedly referred to Baltimore as an inner city.

Michigan  You could go to war zones in countries that were fighting and its safer than living in some of our inner cities that are run by the Democrats. It is a disaster the way African Americans are living in many cases, and in many cases the way Hispanics are living.

New Hampshire  I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.

New York  Our airports are like from a Third World country

Pennsylvania  Repeatedly referred to Philadelphia as an inner city.

Trump said Harrisburg looked like a war zone from his plane.

Texas  The drugs pouring through on the southern border are unbelievable. Were becoming a drug culture, theres so much. And most of its coming from the southern border.

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An early-morning blast rocked the Dar Al Farooq mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Saturday, as worshippers had just begun to gather inside for morning prayers.

No injuries were reported. The building sustained damage to its front, and photographs from the scene showed a large shattered window, singed blinds and charring around the outside.

Police said Saturday afternoon that a preliminary investigation indicates the explosion was caused by a destructive device.

They announced that the Minnesota office of the FBI would take the lead on the investigation. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on the scene.

The explosion was reported to police around 5 a.m., and they found smoke and some damage upon arriving. Mike Hartley, deputy police chief in Bloomington, said there was no structural damage to the building, but he declined to elaborate on any damage inside.

In a news conference, Mohamed Omar, executive director of the mosque, said the explosion had occurred in the direction of the imams room.

He said one member of the congregation immediately ran outside to see what had happened, and saw a truck fleeing from the parking lot.

While police had not determined a motive, community members and interfaith leaders of various congregations responded to the episode as yet another attack on a Muslim place of worship.

Were here all together in order to defend the values of our country, the values of our faith, the values of our people, said Hamdy El-Sawaf, president of the board of the Islamic Community Center of Minnesota. No matter what happens, small or big, it will never scare us, it will never bring us to our knees. Were here to help each other, to support each other.

Omar was joined by dozens of community members, with some in the crowd holding signs of support proclaiming, All are welcome here.

What I would say is an attack on a mosque is an attack on a synagogue, its an attack on a church, its an attack on all faith communities, so we stand with you, a million Protestants in Minnesota, said the Rev. Curtiss DeYoung, chief executive of the Minnesota Council of Churches.

The mosque had recently been the target of harassment, receiving threatening and hateful messages, Omar told The Star Tribune.

People talking about us, telling us, accusing us that we shouldnt be here, that we are like a burden to the community or we are like harming it, Omar said.

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ROMEA 30-year-old man has been arrested in the alleged kidnapping of a young British model who thought she was coming to Milan for a photo shoot, but instead was drugged, hustled away in a suitcase and handcuffed in a house in northern Italy before being released, Milan police said Saturday.

Police released a mug shot of the suspect whom they identified as Lukasz Pawel Herba, a Polish citizen with British residency. He was jailed for investigation of suspected kidnapping for extortion purposes, police said.

Police official Lorenzo Bucossi told reporters the 20-year-old woman had come to Milan for what she thought was a photo shoot and was abducted on July 11.

A statement from Milan police headquarters detailed the womans ordeal.

Attacked, drugged, handcuffed and closed inside a suitcase, thats how a 20-year-old English model was kidnapped on July 11 in Milan to be sold to the best offer on pornography sites, on the internet, the statement said.

The suspect was arrested on July 18, the day after he allegedly released the woman and dropped her off at the British consulate in Milan, police said.

The woman had arrived in Milan on July 10 and was supposed to do the photography session the next day, the statement said. A photographer had booked the session through the models agent, but as soon as she stepped inside the Milan apartment for the appointment, she was attacked by two men, according to the police account.

The kidnappers loaded the suitcase with the girl (inside) into a car trunk and drove to a rural home in a hamlet outside Turin, the statement said. In the house, the model was kept handcuffed to a wooden dresser in a bedroom until she was released on July 17, the police said.

Police suspect the Polish man advertised the sale of the woman online, while at the same time demanding ransom from the womans agent of about $380,000.

Authorities said as far as they know, no ransom was paid. An investigation is being conducted in Poland and Britain as well as in Italy. Investigators are trying to determine if the suspect had accomplices and was mainly after ransom, or was trying to defraud someone who might have been willing to pay money online for the woman, police said.

They didnt identify the models agent.

Milan daily Corriere della Sera said the kidnapper let his victim go because he discovered she had a child and considered her unsuitable for the sex trade. But the police official, Lorenzo Bucossi, told reporters it was unclear why the woman was released.

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KIGALI, RWANDAThe United States said Saturday it was disturbed by irregularities observed during voting in Rwandas election, which longtime President Paul Kagame won with nearly 99 per cent of the vote.

A State Department statement reiterated long-standing concerns over the integrity of the vote-tabulation process.

Kagame easily won a third term in office in what he had called a formality. He faces another seven years leading the small East African nation praised for its economic performance but criticized for its silencing of opponents.

Electoral authorities said Kagame won 98.63 per cent of the vote. Neither of his two challengers won a full percentage point.

The U.S. statement also said it remains concerned by the lack of transparency in determining the eligibility of prospective candidates, and it commended Rwandas media for reporting on complaints of harassment of some opposition candidates.

Kagame faced two challengers, while three others were disqualified for allegedly failing to fulfil requirements including collecting enough signatures.

This election was criticized so much due to me continuing to be your leader, especially people from outside the country because they oppose the will of Rwandans, the president told jubilant supporters Saturday. But Rwandans have shown that it was not manipulated by anyone but their own will.

Kagame has led the country of 12 million people since his rebels helped to end its genocide in 1994 in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by Hutu extremists.

The 59-year-old president has been praised for the countrys economic growth, but human rights groups accuse his government of using state powers to silence any opposition. Rwandan authorities, including the president, deny it.

A constitutional amendment in 2015 allows Kagame to stay in power until 2034 if he pursues it. The United States, a key Rwanda ally, opposed the change to the constitution. Kagame has accused some Western diplomats of meddling in the countrys affairs.

Kagame was running against Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda  the only permitted opposition party  and independent candidate and former journalist Philippe Mpayimana.

Mpayimana received just 0.73 per cent of the vote. Habineza received 0.47 per cent.

Well over 90 per cent of Rwandas 6.9 million registered voters cast their ballots, according to the Rwanda Electoral Commission.

In Rwandas tidy capital, Kigali, there had been little hint of the coming vote. Candidates had been barred from putting campaign posters in most public places, including schools and hospitals. The electoral commission vetted candidates campaign messages, warning that their social media accounts could be blocked otherwise.

Two decades of often deadly attacks on political opponents, journalists and rights activists created a climate of fear ahead of Rwandas election, Amnesty International said in a report last month.

In 2010, Kagame won election with 93 per cent of the vote.

In July, he told a campaign rally that the day of the presidential elections will just be a formality.

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The UN Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday including a ban on coal and other exports totalling more than $1.27 billion  a huge bite in its total exports, valued at $3.8 billion last year.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley praised the new sanctions, telling council members after the vote that it is the single largest economic package ever levelled against the North Korean regime.

The resolution also bans countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean labourers  another source of money for Kim Jong Uns regime. And it prohibits all new joint ventures with North Korean companies and bans new foreign investment in existing ones.

The U.S.-drafted measure, negotiated with North Koreas neighbour and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.

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The Security Council has already imposed six rounds of sanctions that have failed to halt North Koreas drive to improve its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.

The resolutions adoption follows North Koreas first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States on July 3 and July 27.

All of this ICBM and nuclear irresponsibility has to stop, Haley told reporters as she headed to the council to vote.

The resolution condemns the launches in the strongest terms and reiterates previous calls for North Korea to suspend all ballistic missile launches and abandon its nuclear weapons and nuclear program in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.

The resolution bans North Korea from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood products estimated to be worth over $1.27 billion. This represents one-third of last years exports.

It adds nine North Koreans, mainly officials or representatives of companies and banks, to the UN sanctions blacklist, banning their travel and freezing their assets. It also imposes an asset freeze on two companies and two banks.

A Security Council diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity, called the newly sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank a very critical clearing house for foreign exchange.

The Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies, which was also added to the blacklist, is described in the resolution as engaged in exporting workers for construction, including of monuments, in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The resolution asks the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea to ban the import of many more so-called dual-use items, which have commercial purposes but can also be used in conventional, biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

It also gives the committee a green light to designate specific vessels that are breaking sanctions from entering ports all over the world and to work with Interpol to enforce travel bans on North Koreans on the sanctions blacklist.

The resolution expresses regret at North Koreas massive diversion of its scarce resources toward its development of nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programs  a point stressed by Haley. It notes UN findings that well over half the population lacks sufficient food and medical care, while a quarter suffers from chronic malnutrition.

Though the economic sanctions have teeth, Washington didnt get everything it wanted.

In early July, Haley told the Security Council that if it was united, the international community could cut off major sources of hard currency to North Korea, restrict oil to its military and weapons programs, increase air and maritime restrictions and hold senior officials accountable.

Neither oil nor new air restrictions are included in the resolution.

Its adoption follows U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillersons comments Wednesday reassuring North Korea that Washington is not seeking regime change or an accelerated reunification of the Korean Peninsula  comments welcomed by Chinas foreign minister.

Tillerson also said the United States wants to talk eventually with North Korea but thinks discussions would not be productive if the Pyongyang comes with the intention of maintaining its nuclear weapons.

North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear arsenal, which it sees as a guarantee of its security.

The resolution reiterates language from previous ones supporting a return to six-party talks with the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula; expressing the Security Councils commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation; and stressing the importance of maintaining peace and stability in northeast Asia.

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In 2016 the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of affirmative action at the University of Texas-Austin (UT), further validating the use of race in admissions policies around the country.

The efforts of opponents of affirmative action were temporarily stymied, but they have reemerged with a lawsuit against Harvard University claiming the school discriminates against Asian-Americans, The New York Times reported.

An anti-affirmative action group called Students for Fair Admissions filed a lawsuit against Harvard in 2015, alleging that the college and other Ivy League institutions use racial quotas to admit students to the detriment of more qualified Asian-American applicants. The group includes a coalition of more than 60 Asian-American groups.

"It falls afoul of our most basic civil rights principles, and those principles are that your race and your ethnicity should not be something to be used to harm you in life nor help you in life," Edward Blum, the president of Students for Fair Admissions, told The Times.

Blum is the same figure who helped to bring the landmark University of Texas-Austin case to the Supreme Court.

The suit against Harvard claims Asian-American applicants are held to a higher standard than others and must achieve, for example, higher test scores to be accepted.

Michael Wang, an Asian-American recent college graduate, relates to those claims. He was ranked second in his class and graduated with a 4.67 weighted GPA. He scored a 2230 on his SAT, placing him in the 99th percentile of students who took the exam.

When he applied in 2013, Wang suspected that his race might work against him. But he was still shocked when he received rejection letters from Stanford and every Ivy League school except for the University of Pennsylvania.

"There was nothing humanly possible I could do," Wang told Business Insider in 2016, adding that he felt utterly demoralized after his rejections.

The Department of Justice confirmed it has begun seeking volunteers to investigate the Harvard complaint, an indication that they may be starting an investigation.

That may mean that the case is aimed for the Supreme Court, and may wage the next war in the fight over the use of race in admissions policies.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 15:13:02|Editor: Song Lifang

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Friday received notification from U.S. delegation on the country's intention to withdraw from the Paris climate pact, his spokesman has confirmed.

The notification came two months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the accord.

"The decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security," said UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a note sent Friday night to correspondents.

Under article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a party may withdraw at any time after three years from the date on which the agreement has entered into force for that party.

The United States accepted the Paris Agreement on Sept. 3, 2016 and the agreement entered into force for it on Nov. 4, 2016. This means that the United States must stay in the pact until at least 2019.

The Secretary General welcomes any effort to reengage in the Paris Agreement by the United States, Dujarric said.

"It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on climate and sustainable development," he added.

Dujarric said the UN looks forward to engaging with the American government and all other actors in the United States and around the world to build a sustainable future for generations to come.
CARACAS, VENEZUELAA newly installed constitutional assembly ousted Venezuelas defiant chief prosecutor Saturday, a sign that President Nicolas Maduros embattled government intends to move swiftly against critics and consolidate power amid a fast-moving political crisis.

Cries of traitor and justice erupted from the stately, neo-classical salon were 545 pro-government delegates voted unanimously to remove Luisa Ortega from her post as the nations top law enforcement official and replace her with a staunch government supporter.

They said they were acting in response to a ruling by the government-stacked Supreme Court, which banned Ortega from leaving the country and freezing her bank accounts while it weighs criminal charges against her for alleged irregularities.

Ortega, a longtime loyalist who broke with the socialist government in April, refused to recognize the decision and vowed to continue defending the rights of Venezuelans from Maduros coup against the constitution with my last breath.

This is just a tiny example of whats coming for everyone that dares to oppose this totalitarian form of government, Ortega said in the statement she signed as chief prosecutor. If theyre doing this to the chief prosecutor, imagine the helpless state all Venezuelans live in.

Earlier Saturday, Ortega was pushed and barred from entering her office by dozens of national guardsmen in riot gear who took control of the entrance to the building.

She alleged that authorities were desperate to get their hands on dossiers containing information on dirty dealings by high-level officials, including sensitive details about millions of dollars in bribes paid by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Assembly delegates later swore in as her replacement Ombudsman Tarek William Saab, who was recently sanctioned by the Trump administration for failing to protect protesters from abuses in his role as the nations top human rights official.

Read more:

Prosecutor who was once loyal to Maduro emerges as a new hero in Venezuela protests

Venezuelan president completes power grab as loyalist assembly sworn in

Venezuela must step back before democracy is lost: Editorial

Members of the all-powerful constitutional assembly had pledged in their first meeting to move quickly against Maduros opponents and didnt disappoint.

Dont think were going to wait weeks, months or years, former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said Friday after she was chosen to lead the assembly. Tomorrow we start to act. The violent fascists, those who wage economic war on the people, those who wage psychological war, justice is coming for you.

The constitutional assembly was seated despite strong criticism from the United States, other countries and the Venezuelan opposition, which fear it will be a tool for imposing dictatorship. Supporters say it will pacify a country rocked by violent protests.

Its installation is virtually certain to intensify a political crisis that has brought four months of protests in which at least 120 people have died and hundreds more have been jailed.

Maduro also wants the assembly to strip opposition lawmakers of their constitutional immunity from prosecution, saying their constant conspiring to oust him shouldnt be protected.

While members of congress say they will only be removed by force, the opposition is struggling to regain its footing in the face of the governments strong-arm tactics and the re-emergence of old, internal divisions. Several opposition activists have been jailed in recent days, others are rumoured to be seeking exile and one leader has broken ranks from the opposition alliance to say his party will field candidates in regional elections despite widespread distrust of the electoral system.

In a sign of its demoralized state, only a few hundred demonstrators showed up for a Friday protest against the constitutional assembly, one of the smallest turnouts in months. Those who did turn out said fear of arrest  rights groups claim there are more than 600 political prisoners jailed during the protests  may be keeping people at home but urged Venezuelans to remain mobilized.

This is what the constitutional assembly will bring: more repression, opposition lawmaker Miguel Pizarro said.

An increasing number of foreign governments have refused to recognize the constitutional assembly, further isolating Maduros government on the international stage.

On Saturday, the South American trade bloc Mercosur moved to suspend Venezuela for failing to follow democratic norms.

Venezuela was previously suspended in December for failing to uphold commitments it made when it joined the group in 2012. The new decision will make it harder for the country to return to good standing since the new suspension can be lifted only when the bloc is satisfied that Venezuela has restored democratic order.

Today in Venezuela there is no democracy, Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said. Essentially what Mercosur is saying is: Without democracy, no, you cannot be a part of Mercosur.

Maduro responded by calling the move part of a dirty campaign led by the Trump administration to discredit Venezuela and get its hands on its vast oil reserves.

They come walking down the middle of the street barking orders, treating rulers like their maids, Maduro, told Argentinas Radio Rebelde in an interview.

The opposition boycotted the July 30 election for the constitutional assembly, saying the rules were rigged to further entrench Maduros dictatorship.

The results have come under mounting scrutiny after the international company that provided the electronic voting machines said that without any doubt the official turnout had been tampered with  a charge dismissed by Maduro and the National Electoral Council.

The constitutional assembly is made up of delegates from an array of pro-government sectors such as trade unionists, students and even representatives of Venezuelans with physical disabilities. But the agenda is expected to be set by bigger-name loyalists, including Maduros wife, son and several Cabinet ministers who resigned to join the body.

It will have sweeping powers to upend institutions and in theory could even remove Maduro, a fact held up by government supporters as a sign of its independence.

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Kevin Johnston, the failed Mississauga mayoral candidate and enthusiastic online troll, is well known for his vitriolic anti-Muslim rhetoric, which he spews in a steady stream on social media. In recent months alone he has fomented fear about Muslim prayer at Peel schools, opposed the construction of a mosque in Meadowvale, and baselessly protested Parliaments anodyne anti-Islamophobia motion, M103, as a threat to free speech.

Last October, a website co-owned by Johnston published a hateful screed aimed at Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie. The article claimed that Crombie is trying to convert the citys residents to Islam so they can kill her son just for being gay. Crombie understandably filed a hate-crime complaint. Now Johnston has been arrested by Peel police and charged with hate speech under the controversial Section 319 of the Criminal Code.

The province should be very careful as it pursues this case. Johnstons views are despicable, but the coercive power of the state may not be the appropriate remedy. Indeed, such an intervention may end up not only undermining our freedom, but also feeding the very hate it seeks to snuff out.

The never-ending debate over hate-speech laws turns in this case as always on the question of harm. The great liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill rightly argued that essential to an open, democratic society is the fullest liberty of professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine, however immoral it may be considered. When such views are suppressed, he argued, they inevitably percolate up and manifest in yet more destructive ways.

But Mill also understood that there must be limits to speech rights, which he described in his so-called Harm Principle: essentially, the only justification for constraining expression is to prevent harm to others.

It would be silly to pretend that theres no harm caused by toxic statements like those contained in the attack on Crombie, that such speech does not at least cause emotional pain and at worst create an environment out of which violence might arise. Nor is it self-evident how much harm is necessary before the state should intervene.

But the article in question, which does not appear to be a direct threat of violence or an incitement to it, does not seem to meet the bar. We do not yet know what speech Johnston is being charged for, but if indeed it is this article, the case is cause for concern.

An open, democratic society ought to impose the fewest restrictions possible on free speech. Canadas Criminal Code, which is tough on anyone who willfully promotes hatred against identifiable groups, is arguably overbroad in this respect. Hate-mongers run the risk of spending up to two years in prison, even absent any evidence of intent or direct harm.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that the provision offends our Charter rights, but held by the narrowest 4-3 margin that the infringement is justified by the protection it provides to vulnerable groups. At the time the Star lamented the ruling, seeing the law as an obnoxious blow to free speech just to still the tongues of a few bigots.

In 2011, that decision was reaffirmed in the case of William Whatcott, an anti-gay activist who distributed flyers calling gays sodomites, denouncing their conduct as filthy and likening them to pedophiles. Whatcott was ultimately fined $7,500 for his putrid campaign.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association intervened in that case on Whatcotts behalf, arguing that the language of the law was so vague and subjective that it could inhibit people from expressing even deeply held religious beliefs.

Now, a different organization, the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) has published an online petition calling on Attorney General Yasir Naqvi to withdraw the charges against Kevin Johnston and urging Ottawa to strike the hate-speech provision from the Criminal Code entirely.

The OCLA makes the classic liberal case. No one in Canada should be jailed or criminally prosecuted for thoughts, inferred attitudes or speech, in the absence of proven intention to have demonstrably caused actual harm to an identified person, the group writes.

They are right to be concerned about the vagueness of the law. Yet while the threshold for criminalizing speech ought to be limited and as precise as possible, we do need a threshold. As the Star has long argued, any speech that advocates, justifies or threatens violence, for example, should be against the law.

In recent years, the always-fraught free-speech debate has evolved into something yet more fraught, weaponized by those who want to create more room for hate. Those who invoke free speech every time they are rebuked for a hurtful opinion deviously conflate free expression with expression without consequence. Those, meanwhile, who celebrate every hater and bigot as a champion of free speech conflate hate with freedom in a way that does profound damage to both society and their professed cause.

These disingenuous critics serve as a reminder that while protecting free speech is of utmost importance, so, too, is addressing the attendant harms. The right to free expression comes with a responsibility to counter bad and dangerous ideas, whether through a collective commitment to education or the use of the political bully pulpit. The state, and in particular our political leaders, must protect free speech, while also making sure to expose hate for what it is, and certainly never pandering to it.

Mill had the foresight and wisdom to understand that allowing hate in the public square carries risks, but more dangerous still is trying to bury it. Listening to people like Kevin Johnston is among the least pleasant costs of living in a free society. But freedoms come with responsibilities, too. We should be cautious in prosecuting Johnston and his ilk, but we should do all we can to denounce his views and ensure they are exposed as the bile they are in a healthy marketplace of ideas.

Correction  August 8, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that incorrectly said the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) is the Ontario Chapter of Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA). In fact, the two are distinct organizations and are not related in any way.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 15:28:09|Editor: Song Lifang

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SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- As many as 10 Taliban militants were killed in an Afghan forces' counter-attack operation in northern Afghanistan's Jawzjan province, an official said on Saturday.

"Unknown number of militants attacked army positions in Jangal-e-Arigh area of Aqcha district Friday. The army personnel launched a counter-attack raid, killing 10 militants," Nastraullah Jamshidi, a press officer of Army Corps 209 Shaheen based in the region, told Xinhua.

According to Jamshidi, a Taliban local commander Abdul Rahman had also been wounded during the clashes in the province, 390 km north of Kabul.

The Taliban has yet to comment on the incident.

Fighting has escalated in Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgency spreads from its traditional strongholds in the south and east to the once peaceful region in the north, where Taliban have been recruiting from the youths.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 15:43:15|Editor: Song Lifang

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ISTANBUL, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 36 others injured on Saturday when a passenger bus overturned in Turkey's Black Sea province of Amasya, local media reported.

The bus was travelling from the country's biggest city Istanbul to the Black Sea city of Samsun when it went off the road near the Merzifon district of Amasya and capsized, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Rescue crew and ambulances were dispatched to the scene, the agency said, noting that the injured were taken to hospitals in Amasya and Merzifon.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 16:13:33|Editor: Song Lifang

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Justice has waged war on leakers, as the White House grows angrier over unauthorized disclosures of classified materials within the administration.

AN EXPLOSION OF LEAKS

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced at a press conference Friday an enhanced crackdown on what he called a "staggering number of leaks" that have undermined the government's functions.

His prepared remarks came against the backdrop of a series of breaking news reports using unnamed sources about probes into Russia's role in U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and infighting within his administration, which have embarrassed the White House.

Sessions told reporters that referrals for probes of classified leaks to the Department of Justice from U.S. intelligence agencies "have exploded."

Officials said the department has more than tripled the number of active leak investigations compared to the number pending at the end of the last administration.

The announcement was also just a day after the U.S. daily newspaper the Washington Post published a transcript of rancorous phone calls between Trump and leaders of Australia and Mexico, the latest high-profile leaks that Sessions lashed out at.

"No one is entitled to surreptitiously fight to advance battles in the media by revealing sensitive government information," Sessions said. "This culture of leaking must stop."

TO EASE WHITE HOUSE ANGER

Besides Trump's conversation with foreign leaders, a steady stream of authorized disclosures have brought to light contacts between his inner circles with Russia, and even his revelation of highly classified information when meeting with Russian visitors in the Oval office.

Most of the leaks grabbed headlines, and were considered detrimental to the former business mogul's presidency.

Pressure has been piling up on Sessions, as the ardent Trump supporter previously failed to address the president's repeated frustrations regarding the leaks.

Last week, Trump denounced Sessions as "very weak" on leaks, part of his periodical demand for a crackdown.

"I want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before at a very important level," Trump said, in a show of his effort to assert political influence over law enforcement.

In a response on Friday, Sessions said he took the same stance with Trump on leaks, stressing that "no government can be effective when its leaders cannot discuss sensitive matters in confidence or talk freely in confidence with foreign leaders." Sessions recused himself in early March from the Russia investigation on the advice of ethics officials of the Justice Department.

Despite chaotic shake-ups in the Trump administration, Sessions was reportedly told that his job was safe by John Kelly, the newly-appointed White House Chief of Staff.

It remains to be seen whether the attorney general could walk the walk.

HARSH WARNING TO BOTH SIDES

While revealing the Department of Justice has already charged four people with unlawfully disclosing classified material or with concealing contacts with federal officers, Sessions warned would-be leakers against attempts to make any disclosures.

In a sharper warning, Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence who joined Sessions in announcing the crackdown, said that anyone who improperly discloses classified information would be found, investigated and prosecuted.

Not all leaks are illegal, but disclosing certain categories of materials that put national security at risk is criminalized under the U.S. law. The war-era Espionage Act could be used to prosecute suspected leakers.

Additionally, Sessions warned the press that the department is reviewing polices affecting media subpoenas, a kind of writ that compels journalists to testify or provide evidence, with a penalty for failure to cooperate.

"We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited," Sessions said. "They cannot place lives at risk with impunity."

Though Trump has repeatedly blasted news organizations and their stories as "fake news," it would be an unusual move to prosecute a journalist for publishing government secrets.

"Americans should be concerned about the Trump administration's threat to step up its effort against whistleblowers and journalist," Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union warned.
Jenoptik AG engages in the optics and photonics business in Germany and internationally. The company operates through Light & Optics, Light & Production, and Light & Safety divisions. It offers imaging solutions and cameras, including microscope and thermographic camera, imaging modules, polymer-based camera modules, and digital microscope subsystem; laser and laser technology, such as laser ablation, scoring, cutting, welding, and distance meters and sensors, as well as laser OEM solutions comprising diode laser and disk laser technology, diode pumped disk lasers, laser systems, and LK heat sink; and optical modules and components for light detection and ranging sensors. The company also provides optics and optical systems, including objective lenses for laser material processing, system partner for optics, customized and standardized objective lenses, optical measuring systems, and precision optical components; optical shaft measuring systems, optical 3D measurement technology, optical in-line inspection, vision-systems, and ultra-fast opto-electronic probe card; and optoelectronics and optoelectronic systems comprising system partner for optoelectronic systems, customized-specific optoelectronic systems, optoelectronics assemblies and subsystems, light modulation, and photodiodes and LEDs. In addition, it offers road safety solutions, such as speed enforcement, average speed cameras, red light cameras, evaluation software, and traffic services; and civil security solutions, including automatic number plate recognition and data analysis software, border security, combating organized crime, protecting public places, and monitoring suspect vehicles. The company serves automotive, defense and security, electronics and information technology, healthcare and life science, industry and mechanical engineering, semiconductor equipment, and public safety sectors. Jenoptik AG was founded in 1846 and is headquartered in Jena, Germany.
Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG provides integrated telecommunication services to private and business customers in Germany. It offers mobile and stationery voice and data services; very high data rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) internet services; fiber-to-the-home lines; broadband services, consisting of VDSL, cable, fiber, and fixed mobile substitution services; and machine to machine communication and managed connectivity services. The company also distributes various terminal devices, such as mobile phones; and offers digital products and services in the fields of Internet of Things, as well as O2 Tv, O2 cloud, and O2 Select & Stream. In addition, it provides access to infrastructure and services for its wholesale partners. The company provides its products and services through a network of independently operated franchise and premium partner shops, and online and telesales channels, as well as indirect selling channels, such as partnerships and co-operations with retailers. It markets its products and services under the O2, Blau, AY YILDIZ, Ortel Mobile, Telefonica, and Geeny brand names. As of December 31, 2021, Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG served approximately 45.7 million mobile accesses and 2.3 million fixed-line customers. The company was formerly known as Telefonica Germany Verwaltungs GmbH and changed its name to Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG in September 2012. The company is based in Munich, Germany. Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG is a subsidiary of Telefonica Germany Holdings Limited.
Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks holding back the Apple Watch since its 2015 launch is its dependence on the iPhone. Thats about to change with an LTE Apple Watch reportedly on the way this fall.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

According to Bloomberg, Apple is putting an Intel LTE modem in the next generation of its smartwatch, which could debut as soon as September alongside the 10th anniversary iPhone. The addition of a modem would free the watch to operate on its own, just as the iPhone does.

Current Apple Watches need to be connected via Bluetooth to the iPhone to download apps, receive notifications or send iMessages. When the iPhone is out of range, the watch displays a sad red phone icon with a slash through it at the top of its screen.

MORE: How to Use the Apple Watch - Tips, Tricks, Apps and Bands

The Apple Watch wouldnt be breaking ground by adding cellular capability to its smartwatch  LTE Android Wear watches have been around for awhile. But those LTE watches all take up a massive amount of wrist real estate, which isnt appealing to many people.

If Apple can add LTE connectivity to the Watch without negatively impacting its form factor and battery life, that will be an enormous technical and design achievement, said GlobalData analyst Avi Greengart.

Adding a modem to the watch poses some other challenges, too. Apple would have to achieve three huge breakthroughs to pull off a cellular Apple Watch (and make it worth buying):

Carrier support: Theres just no getting around it: an LTE Apple Watch will require a monthly data plan to keep you connected to a cellular network. Apple is reportedly striking deals with wireless carriers in Europe and the U.S., including support from multiple carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. It makes sense that carriers would go all-in with an LTE smartwatch  thats just another charge they can add to your monthly bill.

Longer battery life: Right now, the Apple Watch lasts about a day on a single charge, or slightly longer if you dont activate the workout modes continuous heart rate-monitoring. An LTE modem would suck up significantly more battery just by existing; then imagine how much more youd use a watch untethered to a phone. (I would hope youd still be able to connect the watch to a Wi-Fi network to avoid consuming significant amounts of data.)

In fact, finding a battery small enough that can last long enough is exactly why Apple hasnt released an LTE Apple Watch in the past, but the company is trying to overcome that hurdle as we speak, Bloomberg noted.

Price: At $369 for the 38mm Series 2 model, the Apple Watch is already one of the most expensive smartwatches on the market, although that hasnt prevented the device from becoming one of the best-selling wearables around (ranked just behind budget-conscious Xiaomi and Fitbit). Its unclear how much more an LTE version of the watch would cost, but if its significantly more than the current base model, that might put a damper on sales.

Its unclear just how many Apple Watches have been sold over the last two years, because the company doesnt break out that line item from its other devices category. But CEO Tim Cook said during the companys third-quarter earnings call this week that Apple Watch sales grew more than 50 percent. (More than 50 percent from what? We just dont know.)
Cui Aimin, Chinese Ambassador to Angola (2nd L) views the sand table of the Caculo Cabaca Hydropower Project in Dondo, Angola on Aug. 4, 2017. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos officially inaugurated the construction of the Caculo Cabaca Hydropower Project in Dondo, Angola on Friday. Located at the North Kwanza province, the hydropower project will be constructed by China Gezhouba Group Co., Ltd (CGGC). (Xinhua/Xu Kunpeng)

DONDO, Angola, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has officially inaugurated the construction of the Caculo Cabaca Hydropower Project in Dondo, Angola.

Addressing the opening ceremony on Friday, Angolan Minister of Energy and Water Resources Joao Baptista Borges said the project, the largest of its kind being built in the country, is crucial to the economic construction of Angola in the future.

"It will solve the power shortage in Angola and play an active role in increasing employment of the country," he said, adding that the Angola government felt grateful to the Chinese government and Chinese enterprises for their support to the development of Angola.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos (front) inaugurated the construction of theCaculo Cabaca Hydropower Project in Dondo, Angola on Aug. 4, 2017. (Xinhua/Xu Kunpeng)

Located at the North Kwanza province, the hydropower project will be constructed by China Gezhouba Group Co., Ltd (CGGC).

According to Ren Jianguo, deputy general manager of CGGC, the group will turn Caculo Cabaca Hydropower Project into a high-quality project, making contribution to Angola's energy and power, infrastructure improvement, social and economic development, and people's livelihood improvement.

Angola Caculo Cabaca Hydropower Project is currently the largest hydropower station to be constructed by a Chinese company in Africa, Ren said, adding that upon completion, the project is expected to meet more than 50 percent of the country's electricity needs.

The project has a total contractual value of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars and has a planned installed capacity of 2,172 megawatts. The project will be completed within 80 months, and during the peak construction period nearly 10,000 jobs are expected to be provided for the locals.

According to the contract, CGGC will also be responsible for the four-year operation and maintenance of the power plant and for training a group of professional power plant operation management and technical personnel for Angola.

Cui Aimin, Chinese Ambassador to Angola, said that China is Angola's largest trading partner while Angola is China's second largest trading partner in Africa as well as the largest source country of imports in Africa.
- A car believed to have been used by people who killed IEBC ICT manager Chris Msando has been intercepted in Uganda

- The car had Ugandan number plates as a decoy

- Ugandan Flying squad officers also arrested the driver and two other people who are believed to be Chris Msandos killers who were trying to flee

A black Toyota Fortuner vehicle with Ugandan number plates which is believed to have been used by the killers of IEBC ICT manager Chris Msando has been nabbed in Uganda.

TUKO.co.ke has learnt that Ugandan Flying Squad officers intercepted the vehicle with the supposed killers of Msando who were trying to flee. The vehicle was nabbed at Pabbo Sub-county, Amuru District in northern Uganda, on Friday,August 4, afternoon.

According to the Daily Monitor Uganda,the Ugandan flying squad officers arrested three suspects, a Kenyan national and two Ugandans who have been detained.The suspects have been identified as Mathew Butia ,a Kenyan national, and Mr Joseph Okongo and Moses Goloba both Ugandans.

The vehicle believed to have been used by Msando's killers. Photo: Crime Watch Nairobi

The suspects are said to have entered Uganda through Malaba border post in Tororo District and were heading to Juba, the capital of South Sudan.According to fresh reports reaching our news desk, the Ugandan flying squad officers found a Kenyan number plate inside the vehicle which had Ugandan registration plate as a decoy.

READ ALSO: Everyone knows Jubilee killed Chris Msando-Wetangula

Speaking about the new development, a top Ugandan police officer said the Kenyan number plate found in the vehicle is registered to a popular Kenyan politician.

As reported by TUKO.co.ke earlier, the late Chris Msando was killed by unknown people who dumped his body, and that of his female friend at a thicket in Kikuyu.

READ ALSO: The one person who holds key to unraveling the mysterious murder of IEBC manager

Chris Msando. Photo: Nation

READ ALSO: Moses Kuria's outburst on the late Chris Msando lands him in trouble

The murder sparked heated debates in the country with countless people calling for an immediate probe.

According to post-mortem results, the late Msando was killed by strangling, with his body bearing serious marks of torture.

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The arrest Msandos alleged killer in Uganda comes barely a week after he was murdered.

The Kenyan government is still mum over the arrest. Keep it here for more on this as it unfolds.

Have something to add to this article? Send to news@tuko.co.ke

Was Chris Msando tortured? Watch below:

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone as a result of hostilities in Donbas over the past day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson for ATO issues Andriy Lysenko said this at a press briefing on Saturday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"No Ukrainian soldiers were killed but three were wounded as a result of combat actions over the past day," Lysenko said.

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Militants launched 38 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO press center.

In Mariupol direction, militants used heavy machine guns and grenade launchers to shell Ukrainian positions near Lebedynske (16km north-east of Mariupol) and Shyrokyne (20km east of Mariupol).

The tensest situation was observed in Donetsk direction, where illegal armed formations fired at ATO troops near Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk), using grenade launchers and heavy machine guns. Ukrainian strongholds also came under grenade launcher fire near Zaitseve (67km north-north-east of Donetsk), Kamyanka (62km south of Donetsk) and Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk).

In Luhansk direction, Russian-backed militants launched attacks on Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk), using small arms and grenade launchers.

Three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded as a result of the fighting.

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Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Alexander Hug will travel to eastern Ukraine from August 6 to August 11.

This is reported by the press service of the OSCE.

"The purpose of the visit is to assess the security situation and its impact on the civilian population, as well as to encourage all concerned to work towards peace and normalization of the situation in the country," the report reads.

Hug will visit Donetsk and Luhansk regions, meet the SMM teams, conduct meetings with representatives of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination and other relevant interlocutors.

During the visit, Hug will join other SMM monitors in patrolling the contact line.

He will also hold news briefings on the results of his visit.

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The Ukrainian World Congress welcomes the signing by United States President Donald Trump of the Bill "Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act".

This was stated by President of the Ukrainian World Congress Eugene Czolij, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The Ukrainian World Congress welcomes the signing by President of the United States of America of the Bill "Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act" and urges the United States to increase sanctions as soon as possible against the Russian Federation, which for over three years has been violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine and intensifying its military actions in Eastern Ukraine," the UWC president said.

As reported, the Bill "Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act" (HR 3364) reinforces the ability of the U.S. Congress to control the implementation of sanctions, in particular against Iran, the Russian Federation and North Korea, for their dangerous and hostile actions that undermine the U.S. and its allies. In the case of the Russian Federation, sanctions were implemented in response to its illegal annexation of Crimea and invasion of the territories of Eastern Ukraine.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 17:08:54|Editor: Song Lifang

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MANILA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- ASEAN foreign ministers endorsed on Saturday the framework of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea for eventual adoption at the ASEAN- China meeting on Sunday, a Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman told a news conference.
The presidents of the United States and France talked about the situation in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya and North Korea.

"U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the situation in Ukraine. Trump and Macron also discussed the importance of implementation of the Minsk agreements to reach a peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas," the White House reports.

The presidents also spoke about the cooperation in resolving the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq, the political settlement of the situation in Libya and countering terrorist activity in the Sahel region of Africa.

They agreed that the Maduro regime in Venezuela must respect the rights of the Venezuelan people.

The parties also discussed mutual interests regarding North Korea.

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More than UAH 1 billion from the state budget has been allocated this year for the support of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko announced this on Saturday on the occasion of the Day of Air Forces during his trip to Vinnytsia region, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"More than UAH 1 billion has been allocated from the state budget for the Air Force of Ukraine to restore combat capability, maintenance, operation and repair of weapons and military equipment," the Head of State said.

According to him, this will help to send more than 40 basic models of new weapons and equipment to the military units.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 17:18:58|Editor: Song Lifang

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RAMADI, Iraq, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and three others wounded on Saturday in a bomb explosion during a funeral near the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western province of Anbar, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

The blast occurred in the morning when a roadside bomb went off near mourners at a funeral of a woman in Albu Ali al-Jasim area in north of Ramadi, which itself located some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the area and launched an investigation and a search operation at the scene, the source said.

No group has so far claimed the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) group, in most cases, is responsible for deadly attacks targeting Iraqi security forces as well as crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across the country.

Earlier, the Iraqi security forces dislodged IS militants from the key cities of Anbar province, including Ramadi and the nearby Fallujah, but the areas near the border with neighboring Syria, including Aana, Rawa and al-Qaim as well as the vast rural areas across the province are still under the control of the extremist IS militants.

On July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Abadi has declared a new plan to be implemented soon to liberate the IS-held town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, from the extremist militants, which will include the participation of the predominantly Shiite paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units and Sunni tribal fighters.

The Iraqi forces still have to wage more offensives to drive out IS militants from their redoubts in Hawijah in southwestern Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in eastern Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border towns with Syria in western Anbar province.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the U.S., which invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003, under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country.

The war led to the ouster and eventual execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but no such weapons have been found.
This exciting 55 minutes of awesome pan-African music features special guest Tosin Aribisila. He is a drummer and composer from Nigeria. Tosin performs live,original compositions from inside the VOA here in Washington and if you dont know the difference between afrobeat and Afrobeats: This is your chance. Tune in: Music Time in Africa - this Sunday and the following Saturday - 15 and 2000 UTC.
Al-Shabab militants have shot dead a provincial governor and his brother in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Mohamed Ali Elmi, the governor of Galgadud region in central Somalia, and his brother were gunned down in Mogadishus Yaaqshid neighborhood Friday night, witnesses said.

The governor was visiting relatives when gunmen who trailed him opened fire. Witnesses said the gunmen fled before security forces arrived.

Our mujahedeen unit carried [out] an operation to kill the governor, al-Shabab said in a statement posted on a website affiliated with the group.

The incident occurred less than three hours after a car packed with explosives blew up in the center of the capital, killing at least three civilians.

Al-Shabab retakes town

Early Friday, al-Shabab militants retook a strategic town in Lower Shabelle, after African Union (AU) forces stationed there retreated. The militants entered Leego town, 120 kilometers from Mogadishu, minutes after AU convoys left.

The governor of Lower Shabelle region, Ibrahim Adam Najah, confirmed the fall of Leego to VOA Somali.

I can confirm to you that the anti-peace element, the enemy of Somalia, has taken over the town without a fight, and that AMISOM troops have withdrawn, he said.

Najah said militants using five battle wagons entered the town from different directions.

Leego is 30 kilometers west of Ballidogle airport, where U.S. advisers and instructors have been training several hundred elite Somali commandos.

Najah said he was disappointed that AU troops left town without informing his administration.

I have contacted AMISOM on why they had to suddenly withdraw from an area so strategic, Najah said.

AMISOM has yet to comment on the Leego withdrawal.

Mogadishu cut off

Al-Shababs capture of Leego effectively cuts off Mogadishu from these regions, making air travel the only means to get there.

Najah said he wants either government troops or other AMISOM troops to retake Leego from al-Shabab.

The withdrawal came five days after al-Shabab carried out one of the deadliest ambushes on Ugandan troops. The attack on a supply convoy in Golweyn village July 30 killed as many as 23 Ugandan soldiers, according to Somali government officials. Uganda said it lost 12 soldiers.

Military sources told VOA Somali that the troops who were pulled from Leego Friday would be deployed at Golweyn village to secure the southern route linking Mogadishu to the port town of Barawe.

Al-Shabab, which is allied with al-Qaida, has been fighting since 2006 to overthrow the Somali government and turn the country into a strict Islamic state.
Southeast Asian foreign ministers expressed grave concern Saturday about rising tensions on the Korean peninsula stemming from long-range missile tests by North Korea that seriously threaten global peace and security.

Taking a stronger tone than it has previously on the standoff, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) called for North Korea to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions on its nuclear program and make a positive contribution to regional peace.

The statement was issued separately, rather than included in ASEANs customary communique at the end of the foreign ministers meeting.

Regional Forum on Monday

Following the foreign ministers meeting is Mondays annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which gathers 27 foreign ministers, including those of Russia, Japan, South Korea, the United States, China and North Korea, to discuss Asian security issues.

We strongly call upon (North Korea) as a participant of the ASEAN Regional Forum, to positively contribute to realize the ARF vision to maintain the Asia-Pacific as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity, said the ASEAN ministers meeting in Manila.

North Korea is determined to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States, and officials in Washington say its latest test a week ago showed it may be able to reach most of the country.

China has urged calm and restraint from all countries involved in the standoff.

Short of tougher line

The ASEAN position is short of the tougher line on North Korea urged by the United States, which wants Southeast Asian countries to downgrade their relations with the isolated nation. ASEAN countries have argued that is difficult since its members do not have substantive ties with North Korea.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, who is chairing the Manila meetings, said Friday ASEAN would not consider expelling North Korea from the ARF. He argued it is better to have talk and use a rare opportunity where parties involved in the issue are meeting together.

Some Asian countries, including South Korea, are hoping to have bilateral talks with North Koreas foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho. He left Pyongyang Saturday and was en route to Manila, the Norths official KCNA news agency reported.

If there is a chance, I would tell him that we must have dialogue and that the North must stop the continuous provocations, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha told reporters upon arrival in Manila. Moreover, I will tell him that to build a peace system, North Korea must respond to the two proposals we recently suggested.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is to attend the Manila meeting and will press China and other Asian countries to take tougher action against North Korea.

UN Security Council vote

The United Nations Security Council was set to vote Saturday afternoon on a U.S.-drafted resolution that aims to slash by a third North Koreas $3 billion annual export revenue over Pyongyangs two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in July.

North Korea briefed diplomats of Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia in Pyongyang on Tuesday about the resounding success of its latest ICBM test, its foreign ministry said on its website.

In the posting Saturday, it said diplomats were told the U.S. trumpeting about war and its threat of sanctions only increased Pyongyangs vigilance and courage, and justification for its tests.
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have reiterated their grave concerns over the escalation of tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

In a statement issued at the end of their meeting in Manila Saturday the 10 member nations said the recent ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests by North Korea threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world.

The ministers said, "We reiterate our support for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner..."

Arriving in Manila Saturday, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha says she would welcome the opportunity to talk with her North Korean counterpart Ri Hong-Yo at the ASEAN Regional Forum, which begins Monday. The annual forum is a grouping of 27 nations, including both Koreas, Russia and the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to arrive in Manila Saturday and will begin meetings with a variety of people Sunday.



.
An explosion Saturday in a Minnesota mosque was caused by an improvised explosive device, an FBI official said.

No one was injured in the blast at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in the city of Bloomington.

Rick Thornton, the FBI's special agent in charge of the investigation, told reporters, "At this point, our focus is to determine who and why. Is it a hate crime? Is it an act of terror? ... That's what the investigation is going to determine."

The Department of Homeland Security released a statement saying it was in "close contact" with federal, state and local authorities as the investigation continued. It said the department "fully supports the rights of all to freely and safely worship the faith of their choosing and we vigorously condemn such attacks on any religious institution."

The statement continued, "We are thankful there were no injuries, but that does not diminish the serious nature of this act."

The explosion took place shortly after 5 a.m. when a few worshippers were present.

The manager of the mosque earlier called the incident an attack and said he suspected a man who was spotted outside the mosque at the time of the explosion might be involved.

Device tossed through window

Speaking to VOA Somali, executive director Mohamed Omar said, "A congregant saw a man driving a pickup truck, then heard a sound of a banging car door, before smoke came out and a huge explosion followed.

"The worshipper saw the man in a truck, whom we suspect was behind the attack. The exploded device was hurled into the window of the main office where the imam of the Mosque sits," and the suspect sped out of the mosque's parking lot just after the blast, Omar said.

A VOA reporter who went to the mosque reported that Bloomington police had cordoned off the entire area with yellow police tape and that fire damage was visible on the building.

Omar said that he did not know why his mosque had been targeted, but that the center had received threatening, anti-Islam and hateful phone calls and emails in the past.

"Our center is one of the Islamic centers that have been receiving threatening calls in the past, but I do not know another reason that can make us a target," he said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said attacks against Islamic institutions in the United States nearly doubled in the first half of 2017 compared with a year earlier.

Minnesota's CAIR chapter and the Muslim American Society have each offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the Dar Al-Farooq attacker.
The U.S. job market exceeded expectations last month adding 209,000 new workers to the economy in July and lowering the national unemployment rate to 4.3 percent. But wages continue to underperform, as did the nation's labor participation rate. Economists say that's because millions of working-age Americans are choosing to remain on the sidelines, some going back to school, others staying at home to take care of their families. Why does that matter? Mil Arcega explains.
The initial 90-day resettlement program for refugees in the United States is a whirlwind of activity that helps them find a place to live, a place to work, and initial introductions to American life and culture. But integration into American life extends well beyond 90 days. VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports on one woman in Pittsburgh who is trying to help refugee and immigrant families connect with the rest of the community.
The leader of Lebanons Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said the Shiite group would fight in the coming assault on Islamic State on the countrys border with Syria, which he said would begin within days.

The Lebanese army will attack a pocket of Islamic State fighters from the Lebanese side of the border, while Hezbollah and the Syrian army will simultaneously attack it from the Syrian side, Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on television.

The Syrian front line against Daesh will be opened, and the Syrian army and Hezbollah will be there, he said.

He said Islamic State fighters in the enclave, who hold Lebanese captives, still had a door open for negotiations and could avoid a battle.

Hezbollah has been a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the six-year conflict, fighting alongside the Syrian army against rebels including hard-line Sunni Islamists.

A Hezbollah offensive last month forced Nusra Front militants in an adjacent enclave on the border to depart under an evacuation deal for a rebel-held area in northwest Syria.

The Lebanese army did not take part in that offensive, but has been widely expected to lead the attack against the Islamic State pocket. Nasrallah emphasized that the assault inside Lebanon will be the armys responsibility.

The presence of the militant enclaves on its border has represented the biggest military spillover of Syrias civil war into Lebanon.

More than a million Syrians have also sought refuge in Lebanon, putting strains on the economy and services, and in his speech Nasrallah said it was time for Beirut to discuss their situation with Damascus.

Thousands of refugees traveled to rebel-held northwest Syria alongside the Nusra fighters who left the border area after Hezbollahs assault.
RAMADI, Iraq, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and three others wounded on Saturday in a bomb explosion during a funeral near the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western province of Anbar, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

The blast occurred in the morning when a roadside bomb went off near mourners at a funeral of a woman in Albu Ali al-Jasim area in north of Ramadi, which itself located some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the area and launched an investigation and a search operation at the scene, the source said.

No group has so far claimed the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) group, in most cases, is responsible for deadly attacks targeting Iraqi security forces as well as crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across the country.

Earlier, the Iraqi security forces dislodged IS militants from the key cities of Anbar province, including Ramadi and the nearby Fallujah, but the areas near the border with neighboring Syria, including Aana, Rawa and al-Qaim as well as the vast rural areas across the province are still under the control of the extremist IS militants.

On July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Abadi has declared a new plan to be implemented soon to liberate the IS-held town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, from the extremist militants, which will include the participation of the predominantly Shiite paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units and Sunni tribal fighters.

The Iraqi forces still have to wage more offensives to drive out IS militants from their redoubts in Hawijah in southwestern Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in eastern Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border towns with Syria in western Anbar province.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the U.S., which invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003, under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country.
A military official in the Indonesian province of Jambi said Saturday he has ordered that anyone who deliberately sets fire to forest areas be shot, as authorities struggle to contain fires that cause choking smoke in the region.

Five Indonesian provinces have declared emergencies because of forest fires, according to Indonesias disaster mitigation agency (BNPB), with the number of hotspots steadily increasing in many areas over the past week.

The BNPB is working with many government branches, including the military, to contain the fires. Indonesian media have reported that authorities in the neighboring province of South Sumatra, also on the island of Sumatra, had issued the same order.

This is to stress a point to the people, who have been warned many, many times, said Colonel Refrizal, commander of the forest fire task force in Jambi. (This is) to show our firmness and seriousness. The order would be carried out responsibly, said Refrizal, who goes by one name.

BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said via Twitter the Jambi task force was working to extinguish a fire covering an area of 10 hectares (25 acres).

Nugroho also said authorities had found one area in Jambi that had been intentionally burned by its owner.

The number of hotspots had increased to 239 by July 30, from 173 hotspots three days earlier, according to the BNPB. The hotspots were seen mostly on Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo island, with some also on Sumatra and Java island.

The agency had previously warned that the threat of forest fires would escalate, with the dry season expected to peak in September.

Regular forest fires

Indonesia is regularly hit by forest fires, which can result in choking smoke blowing across to neighboring countries like Singapore and Malaysia.

The sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago suffered some of its worst forest fires in 2015, hitting Sumatra and Kalimantan.

The World Bank, citing government data, said 2.6 million hectares (6.4 million acres) of land in Indonesia burned between June and October 2015, causing $16 billion of estimated economic damage.
Indonesia is an island nation, the world's largest, but it's hard to grasp what that means in Java or Sumatra, its most populous islands, which are so huge and diverse as to be almost self-contained.

But outside those two, which hold more than 70 percent of the country's 260 million people, there are at least 13,000 more inhabited islands. To really grasp what this entails, consider the role of Pelni, Indonesia's national shipping company, whose ferries are a lifeline for the millions of Indonesians in the country's less-developed eastern half.

Pelni, short for Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia, or Indonesian National Shipping, has a fleet of 26 passenger ships that unhurriedly loop around the archipelago, circulating families, workers and goods. Whereas Java and Bali are ringed with fertile paddies, residents of a place like the remote volcanic Banda Islands, in Central Maluku, must get shipments of staple foods like rice and sugar from a Pelni ferry that pulls up once a week or two. Sometimes places like this will run out of milk between shipments and there is only condensed milk to stir into your coffee until the next Pelni arrives.

Indonesia's island nature has become newly prominent in light of its recent moves to enforce maritime sovereignty, both by renaming part of the South China Sea and flashily blowing up illegal fishing boats. The dated but tenacious institution that is Pelni encapsulates the sheer ambition of governing a vast, decentralized archipelago.

Aboard the KM Pangrango

Pelni was founded in 1952, shortly after independence from Dutch colonization in 1945, first with 12 ships from the new Indonesian Central Shipping Authority, and then with 45 more that it purchased from Germany, Italy and Belgium. It was a powerful symbolic move for the young country to start taking control of its own shipping routes from the Dutch KPM shipping company.

The KM Pangrango is, today, one of the smaller ferries, with a capacity of 500 people (although it sometimes absorbs a couple hundred more). It makes a two-week loop from Ambon through the Maluku Islands, including the Banda Islands, which were once the center of the global spice trade.

On a 15-hour leg from Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, to Banda Neira, the main port of the Banda Islands, hundreds of Indonesians boarded with tickets that cost about $7 for deck class.

"It's the only reliable way to get in and out of Banda Neira, especially in this season when the sea is rough," said Jabar Buang, a young electrician in Neira. (There is sometimes a fast boat from Banda Neira to Ambon, but it is too dangerous for them to run in July.) "I always take the Pangrango, Tidar or Nggapulu boats in and out of town, to Ambon, Makassar, Papua  wherever I need to work."

There are private cabins on the five-level Pangrango, but most of its passengers sleep in dormlike platforms. There are little boxed meals of rice and fish, the Muslim call to prayer is broadcast five times a day on the open seas, and there is an impressive quantity of clove cigarettes being smoked; years of the scent have accumulated in the bed linens and bathrooms. Some of the larger Pelni ferries have karaoke rooms.

On Run, another Banda island, a 35-year-old woman named Hariro said Pelni ferries were the only way for her to visit her hometown of Semarang, Central Java.

"For me to visit my family for the end of Ramadan, I have to take a weeklong Pelni from Banda Naira to Surabaya, in East Java," she said. "And then a bus to Semarang. The round trip is longer than the time I have at home! But it's worth it to see my family, even if it is only once every few years."

Local economies, history

In the port towns serviced by Pelnis, the docking of a ferry is itself an event. In Banda Neira, which still trades heavily in nutmeg and mace, the streets come alive with vendors and shops.

"I do half my business when passengers get off the boat," joked one woman selling sticky rice and candied nutmeg near the harbor.

It's hard to describe just how far Eastern Indonesia  Maluku, Papua, West Timor  can feel from Jakarta, the capital. Many of its residents will never see Java, and often, federal government services don't make it to them either. Run does not get electricity from the government, for instance. President Jokowi has made commercial shipping routes a Pelni priority, to drive down the cost of goods like rice and cement in eastern provinces.

Pelni routes have been cut in recent years because of competition from budget air carriers, so they need a degree of government subsidization. Each slashed route eliminates a lifeline for poor Indonesians who are priced out of even the cheapest planes.

Still, at 65 years old, the remarkable part of the Pelni is not its diminished capacity but that it still runs, mostly everywhere, mostly on time.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was sworn in for his second term Saturday after easily winning the presidential election in May.

Rouhani, who is seen by some as a moderate leader, led Iran from relative global isolation when he signed a nuclear deal in 2015 with several world powers in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against the country.

Earlier this week, though, the United States confirmed new sanctions against Iran, leading the country to accuse the U.S. of violating the deal.

Iranian deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on state television that the country would react appropriately to the new sanctions.

We will certainly not fall into the trap of U.S. policy and Trump, and our reaction will be very carefully considered, he said.

The new sanctions against Iran came as part of a package that also put new sanctions on Russia and North Korea. The bill aims to stop anyone whos dealt with the Iranian ballistic missile program from entering the U.S., and blocks those associated with the program from buying or selling property held in the U.S.

President Donald Trump, during his campaign for the presidency, called the nuclear agreement the worst deal ever. He also criticized his predecessor, Barack Obama, for signing the deal, which Trump said doesnt do enough to curb Irans nuclear ambitions.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley on Wednesday condemned Irans reported launch of a satellite-carrying rocket, technology that possibly could be used for a ballistic missile.

"The world must not allow Iran to act in defiance of the Security Council and its resolutions. The United States will be vigilant in ensuring that Iran is held accountable for such behavior, she said, calling on other U.N. nations to join the U.S. in calling out Irans destructive and threatening actions.

The increasing tension could create a problem for Rouhani as he enters his second term, which he won based on his willingness to work with western nations.

We will never accept isolation, Rouhani said earlier this week after receiving the blessing of Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The nuclear deal is a sign of Irans goodwill on the international stage.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is putting journalists on notice as he cracks down on a deluge of leaks of classified information that has dogged the Trump administration since it took office in January.

We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited, Sessions said Friday as he announced that the Department of Justice has more than tripled the number of leak investigations this year.

Sessions said the department is reviewing guidelines on subpoenaing journalists records as part of a stepped-up effort to investigate and prosecute leakers.

Those guidelines, put in place by the Obama administration in 2015, made it more difficult for the Department of Justice to subpoena journalists phone and email records in leak investigations.

While the regulations dont have the force of law, press freedom advocates see them as critical to journalists ability to communicate with confidential sources.

Sessions: 'Culture of Leaking Must Stop'

Chilling effect

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said relaxing the subpoena rules would have a chilling effect on press freedom.

Rolling back the limited protections on communication between journalists and their sources would lessen the publics ability to hold their elected leaders to account and weaken hard-won standards of source protection around the world, CPJ researcher Alex Ellerbeck said in a statement.

The Justice Department revised its guidelines in 2015 after revelations that it had secretly obtained phone records of Associated Press reporters and had named a Fox News reporter a co-conspirator in a separate leak investigation.

The revised policy called for additional levels of approval before a reporter could be subpoenaed.

Mary-Rose Papandrea, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina, said the guidelines made it clear that the Department of Justice would not ever have a member of the news media go to jail for doing his or her job.

The Espionage Act of 1917 makes it a crime to leak classified information, and it contains no exceptions that would protect members of the news media, she said.

That no journalist has been prosecuted under the law is more of a matter of custom and practice that the United States government has recognized that the press plays an important role in our democracy, Papandrea said.

Since 1971, the Department of Justice has used the law to prosecute at least 12 government workers accused of leaking classified information to journalists, including eight people during the Obama administration, according to CPJ.

Sessions: Leaks Are Undermining The Ability of Our Government to Protect This Country

Charges leveled

Sessions said the Department of Justice has charged four people with leaking classified information or concealing contacts with foreign intelligence agents this year.

In the only known leak case, the Justice Department in June charged Reality Leigh Winner, a 25-year-old government contractor, with illegally sending a classified National Security Agency document to a news site.

Sessions announcement followed repeated complaints by Trump that the Justice Department wasnt aggressive enough in investigating leaks of classified information that he claims have emanated from intelligence agencies.

I want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies. These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen, Trump tweeted last week.

Sessions said he agreed with Trump and condemned in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country.

Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, said not all leaks originate with intelligence agencies.

They come from a wide range of sources within the government, including the executive branch and including the Congress, Coats said.

Coats: Leaks Are Betraying the Intelligence Community

Number of leaks

According to a recent Senate report, the Trump administration dealt with one leak per day during its first four months in office.

The report examined news articles during Trumps first 126 days in office and discovered at least 125 stories with leaked information potentially damaging to national security.

The report said 78 of the leaks were related to the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in last years election and alleged collusion with the Trump campaign.

The report was prepared by the Republican staff of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Trump has called the Russia investigations a hoax and has said the only crime against us is LEAKS.

Sessions, who ordered a review of the Justice Departments leaks investigations soon after he was sworn in as attorney general in February, said it found there were too few referrals, too few investigations with insufficient resources dedicated to them.

When few investigations take place, criminal leaks may occur more often and a culture of leaking takes hold, Sessions said.

But Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represents whistle-blowers, said the investigations will have little to no deterrent effect on leaks.
Russia's former ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak, said on Saturday his conversations with former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn had been transparent and focussed on matters of U.S.-Russia cooperation.

Kislyak ended his tenure in Washington in July but remains a key figure in ongoing U.S. investigations into Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Flynn was forced to resign in February after it became known that he had failed to disclose the content of conversations he had with Kislyak and misled U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence about their meetings.

"We only spoke about the most simple things... but the communication was completely correct, calm, absolutely transparent. In any case, there were no secrets on our side," Kislyak said during a panel discussion on Russian television.

"There are a number of issues which are important for cooperation between Russia and the United States  most of all, terrorism. And that was one of the things we discussed."
Special counsel Robert Mueller is questioning witnesses about whether former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign, according to The New York Times.

The Times is reporting that Mueller recently asked the White House for documents related to Flynn, the first known instance of Muellers team asking the White House to hand over records. The newspaper said the document request was not a formal subpoena.

Flynn was President Donald Trumps national security adviser for just 24 days, but he has become one of the central figures in the investigation of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign.

The Times reported that prosecutors have been investigating Flynns business dealings with a Turkish-American businessman who worked with Flynn last year, and are trying to determine if the Turkish government was behind payments to Flynn.

On Thursday, Mueller seated a grand jury, meaning his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is growing. Investigators and prosecutors use grand juries to examine evidence, question witnesses and subpoena documents to determine if a crime has been committed.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the grand jury news, said the panel had begun its work in recent weeks and will likely continue for months.

Trump has consistently denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and has called Muellers probe a witch hunt.

Mueller, a former FBI director, took over the Russia probe after Trump fired his own FBI director, James Comey, in May.
Security forces in Myanmar fired warning shots to disperse Muslim villagers while they were arresting four suspected insurgents in a western region where government troops have been accused of human rights violations against Rohingya minority, officials said Saturday.



About 600 villagers surrounded troops in Rathedaung township in Rakhine state on Friday while they were searching for six men suspected of financing a terrorist group, said police officer Zaw Win Aung.



He said the villagers carried slingshots, sticks and machetes as they approached the troops, who responded by firing 40-50 warning shots. They managed to arrest four suspects, he said.

Buddhists killed



On Thursday, the government said that six Buddhists were killed and two other villagers are missing in Kaigyi village in Maungdaw township, also in Rakhine state.



It wasn't clear who was responsible, but Maj. Zayar of the border guard police headquarters in Maungdaw said they were searching for culprits.



The government has shut down northern Rakhine to independent journalists, rights experts and humanitarian workers for almost nine months except for organized media trips.



The military has launched operations in the northern part of Rakhine since last October, when suspected Rohingya militants killed nine police officers along the border with Bangladesh.



Rights groups protest

Rights groups said that during the crackdown, more than 1,000 houses have been burned down, an unknown number of civilians killed and hundreds of Rohingya men and boys arrested. The government said that the operation had ended in February.



Last month, the U.N. human rights envoy to Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, expressed disappointment over a lack of government effort to tackle problems behind the violence between Buddhists and Muslims. She said she saw little improvement in the situation for Rohingya and that the government prevented her from visiting several areas there.


The Lebanese army will not coordinate with the Syrian army to fight against Islamic State in the Lebanese-Syrian border zone, a military source told Reuters on Saturday, rejecting a local media report of direct military cooperation between the two.

The source said the Lebanese army had the military capability to confront and defeat the group without any regional or international support.

The presence of Islamic State and Nusra Front militants in pockets on Lebanon's border is the biggest military spillover into the country from Syria's civil war.

An offensive launched last month by Lebanon's Hezbollah  a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad  forced Nusra Front militants to leave for a rebel-held area in northwest Syria under an evacuation deal.

The Lebanese army did not take part in that offensive, but has been widely expected to lead an attack against the Islamic State pocket.

On Friday Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said an assault on Islamic State militants in the border zone would begin in a few days.

He said the Lebanese army would attack Islamic State from the Lebanese side of the border while Hezbollah and the Syrian army would simultaneously attack from the Syrian side.

Hezbollah has been fighting alongside the Syrian army against rebels including hardline Sunni Islamists in Syria.

On Saturday Lebanese newspaper al-Joumhouria reported from sources that direct military coordination had occurred between the Syrian and Lebanese armies regarding the upcoming offensive against Islamic State.

The military source said the Lebanese army had been attacking Islamic State for some time, by preventing it spreading further and cutting supply routes.

Lebanese state news agency NNA and a Hezbollah media unit said on Saturday the Lebanese army had shelled Islamic State positions in the Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa areas of northeast Lebanon.
The Western state of Utah is home to stunning red rock formations shaped by geological forces over millions of years. Some of the most beautiful are at five of the state's most popular national park sites, known as "The Mighty 5." National parks traveler Mikah Meyer shared highlights of his visit to three of the Mighty 5 sites, with VOA's Julie Taboh.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame led Friday's presidential election with more than 99 percent support in early returns, the country's election commission said.

In a nationally televised broadcast, the commission's executive secretary said more than 80 percent of the country's 6.9 million registered voters had cast ballots.

In July, Kagame told a political rally that "the day of the presidential elections will just be a formality." The massive lead in the preliminary results set the stage for his third term in office.

"I'm very excited" about the initial results, said Kagame supporter Ester Kabaera, 55, a businesswoman. "Obviously, he is going to win. He's the only president who can win, who can rule this country."

At the national headquarters of Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front party, political leaders, supporters and donors watched election results on televisions as they came in district by district.

"Tonight we are very, very, extremely happy because he accepted our request [to lead the country]," medical student Fred Namania, 30, said at the event. "And we are looking forward to a lot of things being done in the next seven years."

In power for nearly 20 years

Kagame has been in power for 17 years. A 2015 constitutional measure, approved by 98 percent of voters, could allow Kagame to remain in power until 2034.

"I feel like President Kagame should lead us for [more] decades," Namania said.

Other Kagame supporters told VOA they weren't looking for a president for life.

"At the end of the [new] seven-year term of his excellency, Paul Kagame, someone will continue after him," Kagame supporter Joseph Zorondera said after casting his ballot at the Mbandazi Primary School outside Kigali. "We need a good leader in our country now to continue to secure the country, to help the people of Rwanda and to continue to develop the country for the next seven years,"

Voting was calm as people trickled into the school, nestled in the hilly outskirts of the sprawling capital.

Valerian Musengamana, the polling station chief, told VOA that people were "very happy with the activities of the election. They are really satisfied."

The East African Community  a regional intergovernmental organization comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda  sent international observers to monitor the polls. The European Union did not. Representatives of local observer missions told VOA they hadn't encountered any significant issues and that the voting appeared to be progressing smoothly.

Opposition presidential candidate Frank Habineza of the Green Party told VOA that some of his party's observers had been denied access to polling stations, but after the National Election Commission was informed of the problem, 95 percent of them were permitted to monitor the voting process.

Habineza was one of two challengers Kagame faced in his re-election bid. Independent Philippe Mpayimana was also on the ballot.

Few of their supporters would agree to be interviewed at the polls.

"I chose [the Green] Party simply because of its good platform," said voter Charles Ndamage, with electoral commission officials watching nearby. "The manifesto presented by Habineza was very interesting to me  for instance, the fact that he wants to develop the country by reducing the step between rich people and poor people."

IN PHOTOS: Rwanda's election

Endorsements for Kagame

Nine of the 11 political parties permitted to register in Rwanda endorsed Kagame. Four other presidential hopefuls were disqualified by the electoral commission. The government and ruling party brushed off allegations from human rights groups that authorities restricted freedom of expression and stifled political opposition.

Kagame is widely credited with stabilizing the country after a 1994 genocide.

"They [the opposition candidates] are good but  I don't think any of them will do better than Paul Kagame. Because we have seen for the last few years that he has been on, the changes. It's really a big change. It's obvious," said voter Imelda Batamoliza.

Kagame's supporters pointed to developments like improved roads, more community connections to clean water and recently built schools.

Government officials said they expected to announce final results over the weekend.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 18:09:12|Editor: Yurou Liang

Suspects in telecom and online fraud cases are brought back to China from Fiji at Changchun Longjia International Airport, Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 5, 2017. A total of 77 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been brought back to China from Fiji, the Ministry of Public Security announced Saturday. The suspects are accused in more than 50 cases involving more than 6 million yuan (892,000 U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Lin Hong)

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A total of 77 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been brought back to China from Fiji, the Ministry of Public Security announced Saturday.

The suspects are accused in more than 50 cases involving more than 6 million yuan (892,000 U.S. dollars).

Chinese police sent a team to Fiji on July 2 to work with local police. On July 18, they took action, destroying five dens, arresting 77 suspects and confiscating equipment, including mobile phones, computers and bank cards.

In a separate case, the ministry announced on Friday that it had brought 143 such suspects to China from Indonesia. Another 10 suspects, who had been arrested, remained in Indonesia under investigation. Their cases involved more than 20 million yuan, said the ministry.
Rwandas electoral commission says President Paul Kagame has won a third term in a landslide victory.

The commission said partial results of Fridays election had the president winning 98 percent of the votes. In July, Kagame told a political rally that the day of the presidential elections will just be a formality.

This is another seven years to take care of issues that affect Rwandans and ensure that we become real Rwandans who are (economically) developing, Kagame said in a speech broadcast live early Friday.

At the national headquarters of Kagames Rwandan Patriotic Front political party, thousands of political leaders, supporters and donors watched large screen televisions displaying the election results as they came in district by district.

Supporters thrilled

Tonight we are very, very, extremely happy because he accepted our request [to lead the country], said Fred Namania, a 30-year-old medical student, at the event. And, we are looking forward to a lot of things being done in the next seven years.

Kagame has been in power for 17 years. A 2015 constitutional referendum, approved by 98 percent of voters, could allow Kagame to remain in power until 2034.

I feel like President Kagame should lead us for [more] decades, Namania said.

Other Kagame supporters told VOA they arent looking for a president for life.

At the end of the [new] seven-year term of his excellency, Paul Kagame, someone will continue after him, Kagame supporter Joseph Zorondera said after casting his ballot at the Mbandazi Primary School primary school outside Kigali.

We need a good leader in our country now to continue to secure the country, to help the people of Rwanda and to continue to develop the country for the next seven years, he added.

Voting appeared to be smooth

Voting was calm as people trickled into the school in the hilly outskirts of the sprawling capital city, casting ballots in different classrooms.

Valerian Musengamana, the polling station chief, told VOA the people are very happy with the activities of the election. They are really satisfied.

The East African Community sent international observers to monitor the polls. The European Union decided not to send a team of observers. Representatives of local observer missions told VOA they hadnt encountered any significant issues and that the voting appeared to be progressing smoothly.

Opposition presidential candidate Frank Habineza, of the Green Party, told VOA that some of his partys observers had been denied access to polling stations but, after informing the National Election Commission, 95 percent of them were permitted to monitor the voting process.

Habineza is one of two challengers Kagame faced in his bid for a third term. Independent Philippe Mpayimana is also on the ballot.

Few of their supporters would accept to be interviewed at the polls.

I chose [the Green] party simply because of its good platform, said voter Charles Ndamage, with electoral commission officials watching nearby. The manifesto presented by Habineza was very interesting to me. For instance, the fact that he wants to develop the country by reducing the step between rich people and poor people.

Kagame endorsements

Nine of the 11 political parties permitted to register in Rwanda have endorsed Kagame. Four other presidential hopefuls were disqualified by the electoral commission. The government and ruling party have brushed off allegations from human rights groups that authorities have restricted freedom of expression and stifled political opposition.

Kagame is widely credited with stabilizing the country after a 1994 genocide.

They [the opposition candidates] are good but  I dont think any of them will do better than Paul Kagame. Because we have seen for the last few years that he has been on, the changes. Its really a big change. Its obvious, said voter Imelda Batamoliza.

Kagames supporters point to developments like improved roads, more communities connected to clean water, and recently built schools.
The Secret Service command post inside President Donald Trumps namesake Manhattan skyscraper has been moved.

A spokeswoman for the umbrella company that controls Trumps businesses said Friday that the Secret Service moved out of Trump Tower to somewhere more cost effective and logistically practical.

The Secret Service wont say where its Trump Tower command post has relocated. A spokeswoman says the move hasnt affected security.

A Government Services Administration spokeswoman says officials are searching for a permanent space. She wouldnt comment on lease negotiations.

The Trump Organizations Amanda Miller described the location change as a mutual decision. She didnt respond when asked about terms of the governments lease or what prompted the location change.

Trump hasnt visited his Trump Tower residence since moving into the White House.
The betting was that law-and-order Attorney General Jeff Sessions would come out against the legalized marijuana industry with guns blazing. But the task force Sessions assembled to find the best legal strategy is giving him no ammunition, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, a group of prosecutors and federal law enforcement officials, has come up with no new policy recommendations to advance the attorney generals aggressively anti-marijuana views. The groups report largely reiterates the current Justice Department policy on marijuana.

It encourages officials to keep studying whether to change or rescind the Obama administrations more hands-off approach to enforcement  a stance that has allowed the nations experiment with legal pot to flourish. The report was not slated to be released publicly, but portions were obtained by the AP.

Difficult to change course

Sessions, who has assailed marijuana as comparable to heroin and blamed it for spikes in violence, has been promising to reconsider existing pot policy since he took office six months ago. His statements have sparked both support and worry across the political spectrum as a growing number of states have worked to legalize the drug.

Threats of a federal crackdown have united liberals, who object to the human costs of a war on pot, and some conservatives, who see it as a states rights issue. Some advocates and members of Congress had feared the task forces recommendations would give Sessions the green light to begin dismantling what has become a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar pot industry that helps fund schools, educational programs and law enforcement.

But the tepid nature of the recommendations signals just how difficult it would be to change course.

Some in law enforcement support a tougher approach, but a bipartisan group of senators in March urged Sessions to uphold existing marijuana policy. Others in Congress are seeking ways to protect and promote pot businesses.

Task force not the last word

The task force suggestions are not final, and Sessions is in no way bound by them. The government still has plenty of ways it can punish weed-tolerant states, including raiding pot businesses and suing states where the drug is legal, a rare but quick path to compliance. The only one who could override a drastic move by Sessions is President Donald Trump, whose personal views on marijuana remain mostly unknown.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The recommendations are not surprising because theres as much evidence that Sessions intends to maintain the system and help improve upon it as there is that he intends to roll it back, said Mason Tvert, who ran Colorados legalization campaign. He pointed to Sessions comment during his Senate confirmation hearing that while he opposed legalization, he understood the scarcity of federal resources and echoed the position of his Democratic predecessors.

But in July, he sent letters to Colorado and Washington that stirred concern, asking how they would address reports they were not adequately regulating the drug.


U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson landed Saturday in Manila on his first official trip to Southeast Asia as the United States continues to call for a legally binding mechanism to prevent conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea from erupting into violent confrontations.

While in the Philippines, Tillerson will also seek greater cooperation from regional allies in isolating North Korea.



After a stern warning from China, Vietnam called off permission for an energy company to drill for gas in the South China Sea. It is the latest chapter in the ongoing dispute over the worlds most contested waterway that is believed to be rich in natural resources.



Foreign ministers from countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expected to endorse the framework of a code of conduct on the South China Sea as they gather Manila.



While the framework is not legally binding, it commits to cooperation over confrontation and is also seen as bending to Chinas influence.

The U.S. will continue to press for a dispute resolution mechanism and upholding freedom of navigation.

Destabilizing actions, such as Chinese land reclamation, construction and militarization of disputed features, makes it harder for the region to resolve these disagreements peacefully, Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said.



Tillerson wants to work with China on differences without leading to open conflict. Among them is stepping up pressure against North Korea.



There is no future where North Korea holds nuclear weapons or the ability to deliver those nuclear weapons to anyone in the region much less to the homeland. In doing so, weve sought to partner with China. China does account for 90 percent of economic activity with North Korea, he said recently.



Tillerson will be walking a fine line with the Southeast Asian bloc, seeking assurances from them to isolate Pyongyang without creating a perception that North Korea overshadows their concerns in the South China Sea.



"And the fact is, North Korea matters a lot less for Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines than the South China Sea does, which is right at their front door, Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.



Others warn regional allies are starting to believe they may not get practical support from Washington in the South China Sea disputes. Bill Hayton of research organization Chatham House said, They felt that the Trump administration couldn't be relied upon to protect Vietnams interest in such a confrontation, so it is a sign that governments in Southeast Asia are concerned that the Trump administration isnt interested in defending their interests."



Besides maritime security and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, regional counterterrorism is said to be also high on the ASEAN agenda.
President Donald Trump is rallying his base supporters even as the probe into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia heats up. Trump held a campaign-style rally in West Virginia this week. The president is battling low poll numbers and a stalled congressional agenda, and often turns to his core supporters for a boost. But there are signs of Republican discontent with the president, as VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports from Washington.
Britain is prepared to pay up to 40 billion euros ($47 billion) as part of a deal to leave the European Union, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported, citing three unnamed sources familiar with Britain's negotiating strategy.

The European Union has floated a figure of 60 billion euros and wants significant progress on settling Britain's liabilities before talks can start on complex issues such as future trading arrangements.

The government department responsible for Brexit talks declined to comment on the Sunday Telegraph article. So far, Britain has given no official indication of how much it would be willing to pay.

The newspaper said British officials were likely to offer to pay 10 billion euros a year for three years after leaving the EU in March 2019, then finalize the total alongside detailed trade talks.

Payments would be made only as part of a deal that included a trade agreement, the newspaper added.

"We know ([the EU's] position is 60 billion euros, but the actual bottom line is 50 billion euros. Ours is closer to 30 billion euros but the actual landing zone is 40 billion euros, even if the public and politicians are not all there yet," the newspaper quoted one "senior Whitehall source" as saying.

Whitehall is the London district where British civil servants and ministers are based.

'Go whistle'

A second Whitehall source said Britain's bottom line was "30 billion euros to 40 billion euros," and a third source said Prime Minister Theresa May was willing to pay "north of 30 billion euros," the Sunday Telegraph reported.

David Davis, the British minister in charge of Brexit talks, said on July 20 that Britain would honor its obligations to the EU but declined to confirm that Brexit would require net payments.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a leading Brexit advocate, said last month that the EU could "go whistle" if it made "extortionate" demands for payment.

Last week, the Bank of England said Brexit uncertainty was weighing on the economy. Finance Minister Philip Hammond wants to avoid unsettling businesses further.

If Britain cannot conclude an exit deal, trade relations would be governed by World Trade Organization rules, which would allow both parties to impose tariffs and customs checks and leave many other issues unsettled.

The EU also wants agreement by October on rights of EU citizens already in Britain, and on border controls between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland, before trade and other issues are discussed.
Latin American trade bloc Mercosur suspended Venezuelas membership hours after the newly elected constituent assembly ousted the countrys chief prosecutor.

After a meeting in Brazils financial center, Sao Paulo, Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Ferreira, told reporters: We are saying: Stop with this! Enough with the deaths, enough with the repression. It is not possible to inflict such torture to the people.

The suspension is indefinite. Venezuela joined the bloc in 2012 and has been suspended before for failing to uphold its commitments.

Chief prosecutor removed

Meanwhile, the constituent assembly, made up of allies of President Nicolas Maduro, voted to remove chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega on Saturday and swore in her replacement Tarek William Saab. Saab was previously Venezuelas Human Rights Ombudsman, but the United States has recently criticized him for failing to prevent human rights abuses.

After the vote, dozens of Venezuelas National Guard members surrounded Ortegas office and refused to allow her entry.

Ortega said the troops attacked her with riot shields to prevent her from entering the building.

This is a dictatorship, she told reporters.

Ortegas firing had been expected. Members of the constituent assembly had said it would be their first priority.

The assembly was officially installed Friday.

In another development Saturday, Venezuelan authorities released opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez from military prison and returned him to house arrest, his wife said via Twitter.

Lopez and Antonio Ledezma, another opposition leader, had both been under house arrest for their opposition activities when they were placed in a military prison Tuesday. Twitter video showed intelligence agents dragging Lopez and Ledezma out of their homes and shoving them into cars.

Ledezma was returned home and to house arrest Friday.

McMaster interview

Also Saturday, U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said U.S. intervention in Venezuela is unlikely.

In an interview that aired Saturday on MSNBC, McMaster said he doesnt want to give Maduro the chance to further blame Yankees from the U.S. for the once-oil-rich countrys economic failures.

Its important for us to place responsibility for this catastrophe on Maduros shoulders. He is the one who has caused it, and hes the one whos perpetuating it, the three-star general said.

The Trump administration placed sanctions on Venezuela, following a recent vote to establish a constitutional assembly that has power over all other branches of government.

McMaster has previously called on other nations to rescue Venezuela from Maduros authoritarian dictatorship.

The assembly is expected to rewrite the countrys constitution in order to cede more power to Maduro.

It was elected last week Sunday in a national election that was boycotted by opposition supporters and called a sham by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Maduros sham election is another step toward dictatorship. We wont accept an [illegitimate government], she said in a post on Twitter. The Venezuelan [people] & democracy will prevail.

The United States, European Union and several Latin American countries have said they will not recognize the assembly.
Venezuelas new legislative superbody is set to convene again Saturday.

The controversial Constituent Assembly, inaugurated Friday, is expected to rewrite the constitution and give new powers to the ruling Socialist party.

President Nicolas Maduros wife and son are among the members of the 545-member assembly that unanimously selected former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez as its president.

Rodriguez promised quick action against the governments opponents.

Dont think were going to wait weeks, months or years, Rodriguez said Friday. Tomorrow we start to act. The violent fascists, those who wage economic war on the people, those who wage psychological war, justice is coming for you.

She also condemned foreign criticism of Venezuela.

The international community should not make a mistake over Venezuela. The message is clear, very clear  we Venezuelans will resolve our conflict, our crisis without any form of foreign interference, she said.

In addition to rewriting the constitution put in place under then-President Hugo Chavez, the new assembly will have power over other branches of government and the authority to remove public officials.

Media reports say Venezuelan chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who this week said she had opened an investigation into alleged voter fraud in Sundays election, may be targeted by the assembly.

Ortega filed the request for an investigation in a lower court, after earlier filing complaints about the constitutionality of the new assembly with the nations Supreme Court.

The Vatican has called for a suspension of the Constituent Assembly, saying Friday that it contributed to a climate of tension and conflict. The Vatican also called for the Catholic-majority nation to avoid any form of violence as the crisis deepens.

The United States, European Union and several Latin American countries have said they will not recognize the assembly.

In another development, Venezuelan authorities, who had detained opposition leaders Antonio Ledezma and Leopoldo Lopez earlier in the week, allowed Ledezma to return home, where he was placed under house arrest, Ledezmas wife said via Twitter on Friday.

Lopez remains in prison.
Over the past year, minorities across the United States have increased their outreach to the public and efforts to make their voices heard amid fears of a White Supremacy movement.

The Sikhs of Oak Creek, however, were working to raise awareness of their faith and uplift their community long before 2016.

On August 5, 2012, a white supremacist named Wade Michael Page killed six believers of the Sikh faith in their house of worship, a Gurdwara, outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In the five years since, members of the Gurdwara have organized scholarships, blood drives, 6K walks and runs, and presentations on understanding the Sikh faith in local schools.

My outreach is also a coping mechanism, Pardeep Kaleka, whose father was one of the six victims, told VOA. Processing my own pain and hurt... Id rather just go into the community and make it better for everybody else.

Immediately after the shooting, the Sikh community increased its efforts to invite people of all faiths to come to the temple and learn about Sikhism.

But Navdeep Gill, who co-founded the temples outreach program, Serve to Unite, with Kaleka, says they soon realized they also needed to spread awareness outside the temple after members of the community said they were uncomfortable attending Sikh services.

Whatever faith you practice, whatever community you come from, you should feel comfortable attending an event, said Gill, who was tasked with organizing events commemorating the 5th anniversary of the shooting. Whether thats in schools, churches, telling other people who Sikhs are, as well as trying to learn about other people and see where the commonalities exist.

Saturdays 6K run is the 5th instance of the annual event. The blood drive was added three years ago to the August 5 activities.

This year, members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin had their first float in the 4th of July parade. Though organizers were initially skeptical, Gill said it was well received and prompted non-Indian neighbors to strike up conversations with participating Sikhs.

Devout male followers of the Sikh faith, a monotheistic religion that originated in Northern India, keep long beards and wear turbans, and often are confused with Muslims.

And while some minorities across the country have expressed feeling less safe since U.S. President Donald Trumps election, Oak Creek Sikhs say the political climate hasnt affected their community.

Honestly, nothing has changed, Navdeesh Toor, an Oak Creek resident and member of the Gurdwara for the past eight years, told VOA.

Toor said that although hate crimes have received more media attention in the past year, which some attribute partly to divisive rhetoric heard during President Trumps campaign and first few months in office, she doesnt see any impact on her community.

A vast majority of Wisconsinites voted for Trump, including minorities and a lot of desis [South Asians] I know, she said, adding that she didnt fault her neighbors for voting for the lesser of two evils in 2016.

Regardless of politics in Washington, survivors of the 2012 shooting, along with their friends, family, and fellow members of the Gurdwara, have not lost momentum in their pursuit of engaging the community.

Its not just about organizing 5Ks, its about what were really being asked to do spiritually, Kaleka said.

I think theres a reason [the shooting] happened, a reason those people who stood up made that sacrifice. This community has really stood up.
As many as 100 elephants are being killed every day for their tusks, according to the United Nations. USA implemented a near-total ban on the commercial trade of African elephant ivory. In New York this week, conservation groups gathered to destroy merchandise that came from the illegal ivory trade.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 18:34:18|Editor: Yurou Liang

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KHOST, Afghanistan, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Some 50 Taliban militants were killed and three others wounded in an airstrike against a militants' hideout in eastern province of Khost, a local official said Saturday.

"The strike was conducted in a remote locality in Piri area of Musa Khil district late on Friday evening," district chief Gulab Mangal told Xinhua.

Mangal said the airstrike was conducted by the U.S.-led coalition war planes in the province, 150 km southeast of Kabul.

A Taliban hideout, together with weapons and ammunition, was also destroyed by the attack, he added.

Earlier on Saturday, the Afghan Defense Ministry also confirmed in a statement the elimination of 50 militants in Khost, but did not give the details.

The Afghan security forces have beefed up security operations against militants as the Taliban militants and Islamic State (IS) fighters have been attempting to take territory and consolidate their positions across the country.

The militant group has yet to make comments.
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A U.S. Postal Service letter carrier loads mail. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg)

The boom in Internet retailing has provided a rare bit of good news to the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service, which is delivering packages at a historic pace  and reaping revenue that helps offset billions of dollars of losses elsewhere in the agencys budget.

But the Postal Service isnt the only one making money when a mail carrier brings a new pair of shoes or a school backpack to your door.

Private companies compete fiercely to sell postage, prepare labels and help retailers find the best deals for shipping their products. And several of them argue that a single company, Stamps.com, is getting unusually good deals from the Postal Service, allowing it to undercut the prices of rivals and reap profits that should be going to the government.

As exhibit one, these competitors and other critics within the shipping industry point to a run of astonishing quarterly profit reports for Stamps.com  with gross margins often topping 80 percent  and a skyrocketing stock price that has increased by more than 500 percent over the past three years. It was up by more than 40 percent last week alone, following yet another sterling earnings report Wednesday.

This comes at a time when the Postal Service has run deficits for 10 years in a row, including $5.6 billion in losses in 2016.

The package-shipping business that Stamps.com and its rivals compete in is not the reason for these losses, which are driven largely by fixed personnel costs such as medical insurance and retirement. But the Postal Services dire finances underscore the importance of maximizing the agencys revenue. And it is this point that has generated sharp controversy within the industry, with officials at several companies complaining that the Postal Service has tipped the scales against them while wasting money in the process.

Everybodys getting cannibalized, and they dont know what to do, said Bert Hamilton, founder of Harvey Software, a developer of shipping software and a rival of Stamps.com, who has brought his concerns to the Postal Service, the Office of Inspector General and his representative in Congress  all to no avail.

At the heart of this dispute is the Postal Services use of discount deals, called negotiated service agreements, that allow some companies to sell postage for less than others even though the underlying service  having the Postal Service deliver a package to a particular address within a specified period of time  is identical. The details of these deals, and even the identities of companies receiving them, are not public because of the Postal Services broad exemption from public disclosure laws when it comes to its dealings with private businesses, leaving rivals to guess at who is getting better terms and why.

Several current and former industry officials say they believe that Stamps.com, through several subsidiary companies, has gotten particularly lucrative discount postage deals from the Postal Service and is using them in novel ways that give Stamps.com an unfair competitive advantage over other companies.

Stamps.com and Postal Service officials say that such negotiated service agreements are mutually beneficial, helping win customers away from private sector shipping rivals FedEx and United Parcel Service.

Stamps.com  directly or through subsidiaries ShipWorks, ShippingEasy and ShipStation  provides postage for hundreds of millions of packages each year, including one-third of the roughly 1 billion Priority Mail shipments by the Postal Service. These companies, Stamps.com said in a statement to The Washington Post, essentially act as the Postal Services sales force, recruiting customers, selling postage and preparing deliveries in a system that has helped to dramatically increase its shipping volume amid fierce competition from FedEx and UPS.

Like many other businesses, the USPS allocates a part of that discount to be shared with the customers, and the remainder is to be retained by its partners in order to help fund their sales, marketing, support, IT infrastructure and product development, Stamps.com said in response to written questions. By sharing some of its revenue, the USPS has been highly successful in attracting a significant number of companies to focus their businesses around driving USPS growth.



Even as the business of parcel delivery booms, the Postal Service has run deficits for 10 years in a row, including $5.6 billion in losses in 2016. (Ron Antonelli/Bloomberg)

Priority Mail is a particularly lucrative part of the Postal Services shipping business, earning $1.7 billion in extra revenue in 2016  beyond the costs of running the service  helping to cover massive losses elsewhere in its budget as traditional staples, such as the mailing of letters, continued their long decline.

But several industry officials, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of their fear of damaging relationships with the Postal Service and business partners, estimate that the Postal Service could collect $100 million a year more in revenue by reforming or eliminating the discount programs that Stamps.com and some other companies use.

The startling growth of Stamps.com, meanwhile, has drawn scrutiny from journalists and investors as well. The Capitol Forum, a Washington-based investigative news and legal analysis publication, has run a series of articles over the past year detailing what it has portrayed as Stamps.com and several subsidiaries taking advantage of a poorly managed Postal Service discount program.

The coverage has illuminated a complex web of companies that profit from the Postal Services shipping of packages. Some, like Harvey Software, make money mainly from monthly or annual subscription fees for providing software portals that allow businesses with products to ship to quickly find the best price, whether from the Postal Service, FedEx or UPS.

Others make money mainly by selling what is called PC Postage  meaning postage sold online rather than from a post office  and profit mainly from taking a portion of the discount allowed by the Postal Service on each package. The Postal Service has only approved a few companies, including Stamps.com, to sell postage in this way.

Stamps.com operates in both parts of the industry because, though it once was mainly a PC Postage company, in recent years, it has acquired several subsidiaries that more closely resemble Harvey Software and work directly with businesses looking to ship products through a software portal that compares prices and prepares labels. That has allowed Stamps.com to offer discounted postage to the customers of its subsidiaries.

Some industry officials were particularly surprised to learn in the Capitol Forum stories that postage discounts had been made available to businesses that ship relatively small numbers of packages, rather than the high-volume shippers that many in the industry thought were the typical beneficiaries of negotiated service agreements. That has raised questions about whether the Postal Service is administering its discount program in an evenhanded way.

Its hard for me to say whether its working well or not working well because its opaque, said shipping industry consultant Gordon Glazer of Shipware, a San Diego-based shipping consultancy that helps businesses trying to trim transportation costs. We dont get to see how others are using it. From what I can see, the program has net benefits growing volume for the Postal Service. But Glazer added, Greater oversight would make sure that the program is used as it was intended, which is to drive net new revenue to the Postal Service while protecting revenue at risk. The big question that remains is whether it is appropriate for very small shippers . . . to participate in a . . . program where the net costs to the USPS is the same as a larger shipper.

To determine the extent of the discounts, which are closely held secrets by the Postal Service, the Capitol Forum acquired dozens of shipping labels for three subsidiaries of Stamps.com and several other companies and had them analyzed by Yousuf Lodhia, co-founder of Micronite, a developer of postal software in Roseville, Calif.

Using a program that reads the bar codes on shipping labels, Lodhia was able to determine how much the various companies paid the Postal Service for the postage that was eventually provided to a shipping customer. For smaller packages, Lodhia found that discounts averaged $1 to $2  about 15 percent. It is a difference that adds up quickly for companies that sell postage for hundreds of thousands of packages a day. But for larger packages traveling longer distances, discounts studied by Lodhia have in some cases exceeded 30 percent and even more when a package was sent overseas.

Lodhias research made clear that several companies, including some not affiliated with Stamps.com, had found ways to profit from the Postal Services discount programs. But other companies, which dont benefit from the PC Postage rates, could offer their customers only the official  and invariably more expensive  rates available to any business dealing directly with the Postal Service.

The post office also talks about needing to raise postage rates, so why are they giving these huge discounts? Lodhia told The Post.



Private companies compete fiercely to sell postage, prepare labels and help retailers find the best deals for shipping their products. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg)

A virtual sales force

The Postal Service has long had different prices for shipping depending on who was paying. The rate paid by an ordinary customer who walks up to a post office is the most expensive. Commercial shippers get cheaper rates, helping the Postal Service better compete with private-sector rivals. More than 1,000 shippers have gotten even deeper discounts by negotiating directly with the Postal Service for deals, the details of which are not made public. (Amazon.com, whose chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Post has a discount agreement with the Postal Service. Amazon told Fortune in July that: As is the case with all of its customers, our partnership with USPS is reviewed annually by the Postal Regulatory Commission, which has spent decades reviewing and approving USPS costing and pricing practices.)

The Postal Service declined multiple requests for interviews regarding its postage-discount programs and did not respond to written questions from The Post. The Postal Service did issue a statement saying, Like any prudent business, the Postal Service does not publicly discuss the specifics of our business relationships. Nevertheless, every Postal Service [discount contract] is reviewed by our independent regulator and can only be approved after a finding that the arrangement will in fact be profitable.

Postal Regulatory Commission officials said they review only whether a discount deal will generate more revenue than it costs to provide the service. They do not assess whether a better deal  or no deal at all  would generate more revenue.

After declining The Posts requests for interviews, a senior Postal Service official, Chief Customer and Marketing Sales Officer Jim Cochrane, discussed negotiated service agreements and other discount programs Tuesday with a Stamps.com marketing executive for a blog post on the companys website. The use of discount deals, Cochrane told Stamps.com, allows us to compete better for the larger shippers, and really customize a solution that looks at everything from the size of the packaging, the amount of the volume, where the packages are going to. So all that matters, and once again the key issue is to grow with our customers.

Cochrane attributed some of the Postal Services success to its excellent partners such as Stamps.com.

But other companies are not as happy with how the Postal Service is handling its partnerships.

Window Book, based in Cambridge, Mass., said that it has lost many customers to rivals offering shipping discounts through the PC Postage program.

We feel that the Postal Service has given an unbelievable deal to the PC Postage guys because no one else can get discounted postage. Its an unbelievable deal, and its not fair, said Jeff Peoples, founder and chief executive of Window Book. It just killed our business.

Peoples said he too has complained to Postal Service officials, saying, Hey, look, guys, you guys have decimated my business by allowing Stamps.com and other PC Postage providers to have access to discounts that Window Book wasnt allowed to offer. If I could do that, I would be making billions.

As the controversy has grown, some investors have spoken publicly about taking short positions on Stamps.coms stock, hoping to profit from a drop in the rapidly growing stock price amid growing scrutiny of the postage-discount programs.

Prescience Point Research Group repeatedly tweeted about Stamps.com last summer, predicting precipitous decline in $STMP revenue in the weeks after the first Capitol Forum story.

But in the year since, the stock price for Stamps.com has more than doubled, not fallen as some investors had expected.



The Postal Services dire finances underscore the importance of maximizing the agencys revenue. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg)

Walls and bridges

Many within the industry say that the negotiated service agreements were intended to persuade large shippers to increase their use of the Postal Service, helping it bolster revenue. Many also say that the agreements functioned in a better and fairer way in an earlier era, when there was something of a wall between the few companies that were permitted to sell PC Postage  including Stamps.com  and the companies such as Harvey Software and Window Book that helped large numbers of business customers shop for the best prices and prepare shipments.

But the market fundamentally changed when Stamps.com made a series of acquisitions in recent years. One move that drew immediate attention was the purchase in 2015 of PC Postage rival Endicia, one of only a few companies that at the time were allowed to sell postage. Another, Pitney Bowes, had not yet moved into the PC Postage market aggressively, so a marketplace that once appeared to have several competitors had consolidated substantially.

When I heard they were buying Endicia, I just panicked, said Hamilton, who founded Harvey Software in 1983. In addition to fearing the rising market power of the newly merged company, Hamilton had contracted with Endicia for some shipping services and worried that Stamps.com could poach his customers.

Hamilton said that he shared his concerns with the Justice Department, whose antitrust division was reviewing the deal. But the acquisition was approved over industry complaints.

Less controversial at the time was the companys purchase of several other companies  ShipStation, ShipWorks and ShippingEasy  that worked directly with hundreds of thousands of Internet retailers and other businesses. The massive volume handled by these companies allowed Stamps.coms subsidiaries to bundle the shipments of many smaller retailers so that their packages were eligible for the same discounts that many within the industry thought were available only to larger shippers.

Additionally, industry rivals expressed frustration that Stamps.com used the lure of its postage discounts to win customers away from them  including customers who already were using the Postal Service for most of their shipping. In the process, the amount paid to the Postal Service declined by the amount of the discount while the profit to Stamps.com grew.

Stamps.com, however, said such complaints reflected a misunderstanding of the Postal Service discount programs, which Stamps.com said are intended to keep customers from leaving for rivals such as FedEx and UPS. Federal law gives the Postal Service wide leeway to negotiate prices with individual customers so long as the cost of providing the service does not exceed the revenue collected for it.

The reseller [discount] program is meant both for the acquisition of new package volume and the retention of existing package volume, both of which must happen in order for the USPS to generate growth in package volume, Stamps.com said in its statement. The Postal Services overall goal with the reseller [discount] program is to grow package volume, and the USPS has set up the program to be equally applicable to both new and existing customers.

But others such as Hamilton saw it differently, maintaining that a discount program they thought was intended to help the Postal Service take business away from FedEx and UPS was being used by Stamps.com and its subsidiaries to undercut rivals prices.

The ultimate irony, said several industry officials, including some who support the Postal Services discounts generally, is that much of the supposed competition for shipping customers was not real. The Postal Service, they said, generally offered better prices for smaller packages than FedEx or UPS. Most shippers would have used the Postal Service anyway  discounts or not.

All this stuff has really changed my understanding of the U.S. government, Hamilton said. I always thought they would always be there to help me if things went bad. Now, I realize I was very wrong.
Andy Salmons and Amanda Farris of Corbin, Ky., have been dating for four years. Now they're talking about marriage and the idea of signing a prenuptial agreement to separate her savings from his businesses. (Shawn Poynter/For The Washington Post)

Amanda Farris works in accounting and likes to play things safe when it comes to her savings and investments. Her boyfriend, Andy Salmons, owns a coffee shop and is a serial entrepreneur not afraid to take risks.

The two have been together for nearly four years and are talking about marriage. But before they vow to stay together for better or worse, theyve agreed to come up with a plan for how they would protect their finances on the  slim, they hope  chance that their relationship should head south.

I wanted to find some middle ground, said Farris, 31, adding that a prenuptial agreement would separate her retirement savings from Salmonss business and the debt he took on to launch that and other ventures. Its important for us to keep things separate, Salmons, 32, said. I dont ever want my decisions to put her in jeopardy.

As more millennials put off marriage until later in life than previous generations, they are more likely to have careers, businesses and property. And that, financial advisers say, has made them more protective of what they have built. As a result, the prenuptial agreement is starting to lose its taboo.

For generations, the agreements have proven a sticking point for couples who deemed them unromantic. In some relationships, the contracts can signal a lack of trust or suggest that one person is foreseeing an end to the union.

But over time, the equation for when and why two people should marry has changed. In the 1970s, about 8 in 10 people had married by age 30, according to a U.S. census report. In 2016, that same percentage wasnt reached until age 45.

Millennials are also less inclined to get married while theyre young and broke. More than half of people in their 20s and 30s say it is important for them to be financially secure before they get married, according to a 2015 survey by Allstate and the National Journal.

That increases the chance that when two people tie the knot, each will have a career or business that they want to protect, financial advisers say. In 1975, about 43 percent of women were stay-at-home moms or homemakers, according to the census report. In 2016, only 14 percent of women were home full time.

Now, some couples are using prenups as a way for each person to protect any assets they accumulated  be it a modest condo or a promising start-up. The agreements can also help people protect future income at a time when its not unheard of for a popular smartphone app to bring sudden wealth or for a successful side gig to turn into a full-blown business.

And in the era of rising student loan debt, prenups have emerged as a way for couples to say upfront how they would like to separate their debt loads in the event of a divorce.

Kids today are saying, How do I protect my ideas?  said John Voltaggio, a wealth manager at financial firm Northern Trust who has noticed an increase in the number of young couples interested in prenups. Theyre not shy about talking to their fiances about it.

A 2016 survey from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a trade association for divorce lawyers, found that 62 percent of members saw an increase in the number of couples seeking prenups over the past three years. And 51 percent said they noticed more millennials asking for the agreements.

Prenuptial agreements are a relatively modern concept. It was only within the past 25 years or so that the contracts became widely accepted in most states, coinciding with the rise of divorce, said John Slowiaczek, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Prenups also have evolved as relationships have changed. In the 70s, when couples generally married younger, prenuptial agreements were mainly used for estate-planning purposes, Slowiaczek said. And more commonly, those were situations where one partner had significantly more wealth or stood to inherit money.

But prenups arent only for the rich. As young people have become more likely to delay marriage until they are more financially secure, prenups also have become a way for partners to protect their assets and future income, Slowiaczek said.

Theyre also emerging as a tool for dividing debt loads. About 41 percent of couples had student loan debt in 2013, compared with 17 percent in 1989, according to the census report. The size of that debt burden is growing as college becomes more expensive.

New college graduates left school with an average $30,100 in student loans in 2015, more than triple the average debt load of $9,400 in 1993, according to the Institute for College Access and Success, which tracks student loan debts. In situations where one partner has significantly more debt than the other, a prenup can detail who would be responsible for paying that debt should the two divorce, Slowiaczek said.

Some couples are still using prenups for more traditional reasons. Christopher Lee, 29, talked to his parents and then his fiancee about a prenup within days of his proposal. Lee said he knew the agreement would be important for his parents, who have a pharmaceutical consulting business and want to make sure any assets they pass along to their children would stay in the family in the event of a divorce.

Lee said that he views the agreement as a form of insurance to keep his parents at ease and that his fiancee is totally on board.

Theyll finish the paperwork before they say their vows near Denver in August  and they hope to never have to use it, he said.

To be sure, prenups are still off limits for plenty of couples. Some people view the agreements as the first step to a divorce.

The contracts may also not always make sense for two people with similar financial situations.

Tyler Dolan, a 29-year-old financial planner who works mostly with millennials, said the clients he works with are more preoccupied with paying down loans and opening 401(k)s than signing prenups. But the issue comes up with people who have been married previously or who have children from a prior relationship.

Some couples are turning to legal agreements after getting married to lay out how they would divide any property, savings and debt accumulated after tying the knot.

Phoebe Gavin, 30, didnt sign a prenup when she married her husband six years ago. But now that the two are planning to invest in several rental properties, they have agreed to draw up a postnuptial agreement.

The document, which they hope to formalize before they buy their first investment property at the end of next year, will lay out a plan for how they would divide their properties if they ever decided to separate. Gavin broached the topic before the two bought their first home in March, when she realized there could potentially be hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, if not more.

Its just on my mind that we should be really smart about all of our real estate investments, Gavin said. Marriage is a financial decision, and divorce is a financial decision, and we should be smart about that.
Karin Slaughters new thriller, The Good Daughter, is not for the squeamish. All of Slaughters books  the Will Trent and Grant County series  are known for being deeply researched.

Sometimes this means multiple pages containing forensic details of grisly murders and savage rapes that are spelled out horribly as they happen. Some of this information is useful  in The Good Daughter, you can learn, for example, how to survive being buried alive. But most of it is there in the service of being truthful about physical violence and to generate our sympathy for the victims  both worthy pursuits.

A lot of this goriness, however, is hard to take repeatedly and at length, so readers beware.

The Good Daughter, by Karin Slaughter (Harpers)

Family dysfunction plays a big role in this turbulent saga about the Quinns of Pikeville, Ga., a place you might want to visit if you wish to puncture any romantic illusions you have about small-town American life. The D.A. is corrupt, the cops are dimwitted know-nothings, and most of the citizenry tends toward ignorant mob mentality.

Rusty Quinn is the defense lawyer just about everybody hates because he defends people accused of especially despicable crimes. Some of these accused carjackers, pedophiles, kidnappers and rapists are innocent, some guilty. All of their case files read like pulp novels that always ended the same, bad way. Rusty believes that in our justice system even the worst rotters deserve a fair trial. Plus, he doesnt trust the cops and prosecutors, often for good reason in Pikeville.

Rustys wife, Gamma, is a brilliant research scientist who has given up a career elsewhere to settle with Rusty in the town he has loved/hated all his life. In the ghastly opening scene of the novel, set in 1989, Gamma is gunned down and dies in a home invasion led by a local redneck creep, Zack Culpepper, whom Rusty had actually saved from going to jail. Rustys two daughters, Charlotte, (called Charlie), 13, and Samantha, (called Sam), 15, are kidnapped and terrorized by the invaders. Rusty isnt home at the time, and Sam, who takes months to recover physically, blames him and soon abandons what remains of the family and eventually becomes a rich patent lawyer in New York.

[17 thrillers and mysteries worth toting to the beach]

Jump ahead 28 years to the present day, where a school shooting in Pikeville that Charlie witnesses reunites the Quinns. A low-functioning 18-year-old, Kelly Wilson, stands accused of shooting dead a school principal and an 8-year-old girl. Charlie, a defense lawyer herself now, is a witness and cant take the case, but 74-year-old Rusty can and does, again earning the wrath of the people of Pikeville.

A security video recording seems to suggest the shooting itself was not what it first seemed to be, and when Rusty is stabbed and Sam ends up taking his place for the Wilson arraignment, what had been mainly a novel about a fractious family and the sources of its pain turns into a riveting legal thriller.

The author Karin Slaughter (Alison Rose)

The plot twists here are satisfyingly surprising and plausible, but its Slaughters prodigious gifts of characterization that make her stand out among thriller writers. The sisters are like two kids fighting in the back seat of a family car well into adulthood, and its lovely to see the hate part of their love-hate for each other eventually erode away. They are often wonderfully funny together, as in a funeral parlor scene where they attempt to lower a balky coffin lid over a corpse that has been cosmetically improved hideously. Slaughters satirical touches are as deft as her grimmer renditions of real life.

Its Rusty, though, who is the most winning of all the semi-oddball Quinns. It drives his daughters crazy that he smokes and drinks to excess, but they love being with him and in the presence of his warmth and humor. And his mock-courtly manner, as when in a hospital bed he notes the tubes protruding from his midsection and barks out, Oh, I am slain! When he explains to Charlie that death snickers at us all, my dear. The eternal footman will not hold my coat forever.

Some readers may find that at 500 pages The Good Daughter is a little longer than it needs to be (Is it mean to fat-shame a novel?), but if I were to attempt to pare it down, I dont know where I would start. Sleekness has its virtues  come back, Inspector Maigret!  but in Slaughters big tome neither does there seem to be a word wasted, which is quite a feat.

bookworld@washpost.com

Richard Lipez writes the Don Strachey PI novels under the name Richard Stevenson.


Winemaker Lorenzo Pasquini can add some old-vine malbec to his blends at Cheval des Andes in Argentinas Mendoza region. (Dave McIntyre)

We usually turn to Chile and Argentina for affordable, quaffable wines. Yet both are capable of producing high-end vino that can stand among the best in the world. And theyve looked to Bordeaux, the very image of Old World wine sophistication, for help.

On a recent visit to South America, I was interested in exploring French-influenced wineries to see how the Old World was influencing the new in this reach for quality. Instead I found the opposite: that Bordeaux has been reaching out to the New World to reconnect to its roots.

[Mexican migrant workers came to California to pick grapes. Now they own wineries.]

Chile is known for red wines from the smoky, peppery carmenere grape, and Argentina for fruity malbec. Both are traditional varieties prominent in Bordeaux blends in the 1800s but fell out of favor after the phylloxera root louse epidemic decimated European vineyards in the latter part of that century. When the Bordelais replanted their vineyards, they favored cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot, grafted onto American rootstock immune to the louse. By then, however, carmenere and malbec vines had been exported to South America, where they thrived on their own rootstock; vinous time capsules waiting to be unlocked.

[This might be the worlds best-rated $7 wine. How did Walmart get a lock on it?]

My first stop in Chile was Almaviva, on the outskirts of Santiago, a joint venture between Concha y Toro, one of Chiles largest wineries, and Baron Philippe de Rothschild, which owns Chateau Mouton Rothschild and other wineries in Bordeaux. Almaviva is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, a landmark that Philippe de Sereys de Rothschild, vice chairman of the French company, says marks a turning point toward maturity and top quality.

Wine is an investment, he told me during a visit to Washington in May. It takes time for the terroir to begin to express itself. Almaviva is already 20 years old, but it is only 20 years old. Theres still a lot of work to do.

And the project is evolving. From the initial 1996 vintage, Almaviva has been a blend dominated by cabernet sauvignon, with a healthy dollop of carmenere providing a Chilean signature. In the early years, however, the carmenere was labeled as merlot; Chile realized only in the 1990s that its merlot was actually carmenere. So the idea of tasting Bordeaux of old is newer than the Almaviva project.

But the wines are aging well. I tasted 12 vintages, from the initial 1996 through the not-yet-released 2015. All were delicious, with even the early vintages from the late 1990s remaining fresh and complex as they age. The 2007 was my favorite, having shed its youthful tannins but not yet taking on the patina of age, suggesting Almaviva hits its stride about 10 years after the vintage.



Almavivas wines have aged well over 20 years. (Dave McIntyre)

About a three-hour drive from Santiago, in the Millahue Valley, is Vina Vik. This a project of Alexander Vik, a Norwegian entrepreneur, but with a French connection: The initial winemaker was Patrick Valette, a former owner of Chateau Pavie in St. Emilion in Bordeaux and a prolific consultant for wineries in Bordeaux and Chile. Valette left Vik earlier this year to return to Bordeaux. I met with his successor, Cristian Vallejo, who oversees the futuristic winery  a property of nearly 11,000 acres in a horseshoe-shaped valley about 40 miles from the Pacific.

Vik is a no-expense-spared operation, with a luxury hotel and a restaurant with Michelin aspirations. While other Chilean wineries emphasize tradition, Vik opts for modernity. Many Chilean wines boast of their ungrafted vines, unaffected by phylloxera, even though theres no real way to tell if wines from ungrafted vines taste better. Viks vines are all grafted to ensure even quality, using six different rootstocks in various parts of the vineyard, Vallejo says.

Vina Vik manages to walk the tightrope between power and elegance. We dont want muscle wines, Vallejo told me, referring to the overtly fruity, high-alcohol style that became popular with international wine critics over the past two decades. Obviously, we are Chile, so we have color, density, structure and tannin. To make an elegant, well-balanced wine is a challenge. High vine density in the vineyards and low yields per vine help preserve acidity while ripening grapes without too much sugar, he says.



The futuristic Vina Vik connects Chiles present to Bordeauxs past with high-end wines based on cabernet sauvignon and carmenere. (Vina Vik)

Across the Andes in Argentinas Mendoza region, malbec replaces carmenere as the focus of Bordeaux history. When Pierre Lurton, director of Chateau Cheval Blanc in St. Emilion, came to Mendoza in the late 1990s, he wanted to re-create the style of Bordeaux in the 1850s, when malbec made up about 40 percent of the average red Bordeaux blend. Obviously, few people alive today have tasted that style, and the terroir of the high-altitude vineyards in the Andes foothills differs wildly from maritime Bordeaux. But malbecs prominence in Mendoza offered a unicorn of sorts  a chance to re-create history.

Lurton founded Cheval des Andes, a joint venture between Cheval Blanc and Terrazas de los Andes. Today, Cheval is a blend of malbec and cabernet sauvignon, with other Bordeaux varieties playing smaller roles. Winemaker Lorenzo Pasquini says Cheval, like Vina Vik, has moved away from the power-focused international style.

Today we have more concentration on elegance and finesse instead of power, Pasquini says. That means complexity in the nose before intensity, and balance in the mouth before power.

Bodegas Caro is a joint venture of Catena Zapata, famous for pioneering Mendozas wine renaissance and leading the exploration of high-altitude vineyards. Its partner is Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), the parent company of Bordeauxs Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Like Cheval des Andes, Bodegas Caro was established in 1999, and with a long-term perspective.

We want to make the most elegant wine in Argentina, and if we persevere over four or five decades, I think we can achieve it, says Caros winemaker, Fernando Buscema.

For Caro, evolution over the first two decades hasnt been a change in style so much as an effort to find the best vineyards to produce the style of wine the Catenas and Rothschilds envision. The key is in the vineyards, and it takes a lot of time to understand where to grow the right grapes, Buscema says.

Like many wineries in Mendoza, Caro has extended its reach south of Mendoza city, higher up in the Andes foothills. Our focus now is on Altamira, south of Mendoza, Buscema told me. We believe we can make really elegant wines there. But it took us nearly 20 years to reach that conclusion.

Such effort and investment do not come cheap. These wines range from about $50 a bottle for the Caro to well into triple digits for Vik. They are trying to prove a point, and recapture a whiff of history.

New World innovation, meet French patience. The result is terrific, with more to come.


Eric Bolling, third from right, next to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on The Five in 2015. (Richard Drew/AP)

Fox News Channel suspended longtime host Eric Bolling on Saturday, amid a report that he sent lewd texts to female co-workers at the network.

Bolling, co-host of the weekday Fox program The Specialists and former co-host of The Five, is the latest Fox employee to be accused of inappropriate sexual behavior in the 13 months since the network was consumed by allegations of sexual harassment against its co-founder and then-chairman, the late Roger Ailes.

According to a report in HuffPost, Bolling, 54, texted a photo of male genitalia to two colleagues at Fox Business Network, and one to a co-worker at Fox News. The website didnt reveal the names of the alleged recipients, but said they are Bollings current and former colleagues. The messages were sent several years ago and were unsolicited, it said.

In a statement issued Saturday afternoon, Fox said it had suspended Bolling pending the results of an investigation, which is currently underway. The law firm Paul Weiss, which has conducted a series of investigations into harassment at the network, is investigating the allegations against Bolling.

Last summer, Ailes was forced out of his job after former Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson filed suit against him. Her suit  quickly settled for $20 million  unleashed a series of accusations against Fox executives and on-air personalities by women who work at the company.

In April, the network forced out its biggest star, Bill OReilly, after the New York Times reported that he and Fox had settled five harassment suits or complaints dating back more than a decade. Network president Bill Shine resigned soon after.

Bollings attorney Michael J. Bowe told HuffPost that Bolling recalls no such inappropriate communications, does not believe he sent any such communications, and will vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made.

In addition to The Specialists, Bolling co-hosts a weekend business-discussion program on Fox called Cashin In. On Friday, Bolling taped an episode of that program, but Fox pulled it after HuffPost published its story.

Bolling, a conservative whose recently published book was endorsed by President Trump, was merciless in his commentary when former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) was involved in several incidents of sexting, beginning in 2014. After Weiner pleaded guilty in May to federal charges of exchanging lewd messages with an underage girl, Bolling called him a sick human being, to continue to do this time and time again, continue to get caught, saying hes not going to do it again, gets caught again.

Bolling is one of several Fox News personalities who have reportedly been under consideration for positions in the Trump Administration. In November he was said to have discussed an appointment as commerce secretary, but recently signed a long-term contract extension with Fox.

In an interview with NJ.com in June, Bolling said he would eventually like to run for office: When the lights go down on my TV career, the next step is running for Senate.

According to HuffPost, four people, in addition to the recipients, said they had seen the photo that Bolling allegedly sent. Eight others said the recipients had spoken to them about it.
When Lucia Hatch was a student at the District's Eaton Elementary School, during World War II, she wore this dog tag on a chain around her neck. (Lucia Hatch)

I was a student at Murch Elementary School in the early 1950s. In addition to the pointless duck-and-cover drills, I have a memory of being issued dog tags. I know this was done in other cities. Have I created a false memory or did this occur in District public schools?

 Terry Gans, Longboat Key, Fla.

Yes, some District schoolchildren had dog tags. But were they issued to students? Not really.

Before we examine the local practice, lets scour the nation, thanks to Answer Mans army of readers. Patricia G. Roberts of Great Falls, Va., wrote: I can confirm that as a child in New York public schools in the fifties, I was issued a dog tag. It contained my name, my fathers name and my address. In fact I still have it.

Janet Davis of Frederick, Md., got one in the early 1950s when she was a student in Houston. Its just like a military tag in size and shape, aluminum, and stamped with my full name, my mothers full name, our street address, city and state, and a letter P for Protestant, she wrote. That last was for proper final rites, I guess, if my remains were found under my school desk.

Tags werent always metal. John Howell grew up in Saginaw, Mich. He received a plastic dog tag after being blood-typed at around age 9. I knew very early in my life that I was A +, he wrote.  My tag was about the size of a grocery store loyalty card. It was color-coded by blood type. Mine was yellow.

Doug Bietsch got a cardboard dog tag in Chambersburg, Pa., in October of 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It had emergency contact information on it, and he wasnt allowed on the school bus without it. As it was made of paper, he didnt think it would survive a nuclear conflagration.

Emily White remembers the dog tags that came in the mail when she was a first-grader in Florence, Ala., in 1961. Earlier, her parents had filled out a form supplied by the local Red Cross chapter. I remember my father opening the envelope and giving out the dog tags to our family, wrote Emily, who now lives in Arlington, Va. Each dog tag had the persons name, home address, date of birth and blood type.

But what about the District? Andy Moursund, who now lives in Kensington, Md., wrote: I went through D.C. public schools from 1951 through 1962  at Eaton, Hearst, Deal and Wilson  and while we had the occasional air raid drill during elementary school, we never were issued dog tags.

The Districts Lucia S. Hatch went to Eaton, too, but during World War II. She had a dog tag that she wore on a chain around her neck. I also chewed on it, as perhaps you can tell from the photo, she wrote.

Maryanne Kendall went to Murch Elementary about seven years before our question-asker. I do remember that we were issued dog tags, wrote Maryanne, now of Reston, Va.

While many readers say they were issued dog tags by their school, Peggy Robin, who grew up in Atlanta in the early 1960s, raised a clarifying point. Wrote Peggy, who now lives in the District: As I recall, it wasnt a giveaway; the offer came from a for-profit enterprise that was allowed to market to schoolchildren through in-school handouts and application forms.

Heres what happened in the District: During its April 16, 1952, meeting, the school board heard from a city civil defense official who recommended that all District citizens provide themselves with a permanent identification tag, capable of withstanding the modern methods of attack and for the purpose of facilitating speedy and accurate post-attack registration; the reuniting of families, and the notification of next of kin.

At its May meeting, the board approved the distribution of order forms. They decided to start in elementary schools. The tags would be 2  inches by 1 1 /8 inches, embossed with the childs name, address and an identification number unique to each family. Each tag and chain would cost 50 cents, and its purchase would be voluntary.

One school board member asked: What about families that couldnt afford tags? This was a matter for the PTAs, was the answer.

Those modern methods of attack were on a lot of Americans minds during the Cold War. Proof was hanging from the necks of some  but not all  District students.

Next week: Washingtons civil defense dog tag scandal.

john.kelly@washpost.com

Twitter: @johnkelly

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.

Do you have a question about the Washington area? Send it to answerman@washpost.com.
Richard Dudman and Elizabeth Pond soon after the journalists were released by Viet Cong captors in Cambodia in 1970. (Hugh Van Es/AP)

If we get out of here alive, Richard Dudman said to two other journalists as they were being marched into the Cambodian jungle at gunpoint, were going to have one hell of a good story.

It was May 7, 1970, days after President Richard M. Nixon announced that U.S. forces would enter Cambodia as an outgrowth of the war in neighboring Vietnam. Mr. Dudman, on assignment for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, left the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon for the Cambodian border, less than 40 miles away.

He was accompanied by Elizabeth Pond of the Christian Science Monitor and Michael Morrow of Dispatch News Service International.

Mr. Dudman, who died Aug. 3 in Blue Hill, Maine, at age 99, was the Washington bureau chief of the Post-Dispatch and had made several previous trips to Vietnam.

After the three reporters crossed into the Parrots Beak region of Cambodia, they reached a bridge that had been destroyed. As they attempted to turn around, armed Viet Cong-aligned guerrillas emerged from the forest and ordered the reporters out of their Jeep. They were forced to surrender their press credentials and were put into the back of a truck.

Richard Dudman in 2015. (Family Photo/Family Photo)

The soldier with the automatic rifle kept it pointed at my chest, Mr. Dudman later wrote. When I motioned politely to him to point it to one side, he waved it angrily at me and put the gun to my head. He kept it there all the while the truck bounced along jungle roads.

Bald and bespectacled and rarely seen in Washington without a bow tie, Mr. Dudman was then a 52-year-old father of two girls. He may not have had the image of the intrepid international reporter, but he had already covered wars and revolutions from Cuba to Burma to the Middle East for the Post-Dispatch, which then had a national reputation for ambitious journalism. He knew how to remain calm under pressure.

In 1954, when he was covering a Guatemala revolution, his wife, Helen, told The Washington Post in 1970, his editor told him, A dead correspondent is no use to us  and an injured one is worse. Hes used that as his guide.

He and the two other journalists were accused by their captors of being CIA agents and were taunted as prisoners of war. Mr. Dudman and Morrow, then 24, were tied by a rope to motorbike and forced to run behind it through a gantlet of angry villagers. They linked hands to keep each other upright.

Blindfolded, stumbling, fearful of breaking an ankle, we ran as fast as we could to keep up with the bike, Mr. Dudman late wrote in an account for the Post-Dispatch. Fists and hands hit and shoved us from both sides.

The motorbike stopped after half a mile. Mr. Dudman and Morrow, still blindfolded, were taken to a darkened building.

I heard a muttered conversation, Mr. Dudman wrote, then a sharp crack and a moan. I felt Mike slump to the floor. I thought he had been shot.

Someone struck me on the back of the head with a club and I dropped to the floor.

Pond fended off an attempted rape.

As the reporters feared for their lives, a higher-ranking guerrilla officer came to their rescue. The officer, known to the reporters as Anh Ba, assured them that they would be safe. They were shuttled from one place to another in the Cambodian countryside, eating rice, wild oranges and, on at least one occasion, roast dog.

They were sometimes at risk from U.S. bombing missions and helicopter attacks. One time, the Americans were in a house camouflaged by tree boughs while a U.S. helicopter hovered overhead.

During the six weeks of their captivity, a kind of rapport developed between the journalists and their captors.

Before we were released, Mr. Dudman wrote, they were describing us as not prisoners of war but travelers who lost their way. 

In Washington, Mr. Dudmans wife, a onetime Washington Post editor, enlisted help from high-ranking political and diplomatic figures.

Late on the night of June 15, 1970, the three reporters were released on a highway in Cambodia. They hitched a ride with a South Vietnamese military convoy and turned up in Saigon the next day, thinner but otherwise in good condition.

His wife was awakened by a 4 a.m. phone call, with an operator saying, This is Richard Dudman, calling from Saigon.

Mr. Dudman published a well-received book about his experiences, Forty Days With the Enemy, in 1971.

After several years in Washington, Mr. Dudman returned to Cambodia in December 1978 as one of three Western writers granted an audience with Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, a totalitarian Communist regime that ravaged Cambodia and murdered a quarter of the population.

The night after the meeting with Pol Pot, a gunman entered the guesthouse where Mr. Dudman, Washington Post correspondent Elizabeth Becker and British scholar Malcolm Caldwell were staying.

Becker confronted the intruder, then escaped into her room.

Over my head on the stairwell, she wrote in The Post, I heard rubber sandals running up to the second floor.

The gunman shot at Mr. Dudman in a hallway.

I rushed into my room and slammed the door, Mr. Dudman wrote in the Post-Dispatch in 2015. It was good luck that I dodged to one side, because two bullets ripped through the door.

As Mr. Dudman crouched behind his bed, more shots were fired. He and Becker later learned that Caldwell had been killed and had to identify his body. The Cambodian gunman had also been shot dead by unknown assailants.

Becker, the author of a book about Cambodia, When the War Was Over, described Mr. Dudman in an email as a rock solid colleague during those two weeks when we were kept under constant armed guard and especially during our final night when we were attacked by Khmer Rouge assassins.

Richard Beebe Dudman was born May 3, 1918, in Centerville, Iowa, and moved as a child to Portland, Ore. His father was a gynecologist.

Mr. Dudman majored in journalism and economics at Stanford University and graduated in 1940. He then served in the merchant marine before becoming a Navy officer during World War II.

After working at the Denver Post, Mr. Dudman joined the Post-Dispatch in 1949. He came to the papers Washington bureau in 1954.

He covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, then two days later witnessed the killing of suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby.

In 1971, Mr. Dudman obtained copies of the secret Pentagon Papers, detailing the background of the Vietnam War, and published portions in the Post-Dispatch. The New York Times and Washington Post had previously run excerpts, only to be temporarily blocked by a court order. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the newspapers favor in a landmark decision supporting freedom of the press.

Mr. Dudmans final day in the Post-Dispatch Washington bureau came on March 30, 1981. Instead of attending a retirement party, he rushed out of the office to cover the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan and the arrest of assailant John W. Hinckley Jr.

Mr. Dudman then moved to Ellsworth, Maine, where his wife owned a group of radio stations. He contributed to the Post-Dispatch and other papers and wrote editorials for the Bangor Daily News until 2012.

His death, from congestive heart failure, was confirmed by a daughter, Iris Dudman, formerly known as Janet, of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Other survivors include his wife of 69 years, Helen Sloane Dudman of Blue Hill; another daughter, Martha Tod Dudman of Northeast Harbor, Maine; and four grandchildren.

Among other honors, Mr. Dudman received a George Polk journalism award for career achievement. In the 1990s, he returned to Southeast Asia to meet Anh Ba, the Viet Cong officer who saved his life in 1970.

After his visit to Cambodia in 1978, when he met Pol Pot, Mr. Dudman noted that the capital city of Phnom Penh seemed deserted, with the eerie quiet of a dead place  a Hiroshima without the destruction, a Pompeii without the ashes.

Departing from the reporting of Becker and others, he wrote that, under the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian people were clearly not being worked to death and starved to death.

The killing fields of Cambodia, he concluded in a 1990 New York Times essay, certainly do not prove genocide.

In 2015, two senior Khmer Rouge officials were put on trial in Phnom Penh for crimes against humanity. Testifying from Maine, the 97-year-old Mr. Dudman revised his earlier views and admitted he had failed to grasp the full horror of the Khmer Rouge.

From everything that I have read since then, he said, I think there was genocide under the Pol Pot regime.

The members of the Khmer Rouge were found guilty.
Dear Annie: I have an 11-year-old daughter who has ADHD. Most of the time, we are able to control her behaviors and impulsiveness with medication. I have learned over the years to pick my battles with her behaviors.

My mom recently told me about a family reunion coming up. I told her that I would not be attending. Being surrounded by large groups of people tends to overwhelm my daughter and makes her behaviors worse. A lot of the family members who are going to be there I haven't seen in probably 20 years. Though I would like to see some of them, I don't feel it's fair to force my daughter into a situation that is very uncomfortable for her.

I suggested getting a babysitter so I could attend, but my mom is saying that I'm not welcome without my daughter because I'm letting her dictate my life. According to my mom, I am to make my daughter go and make her behave. How can I tell my mom that, with that many people, it's just too stressful for my daughter and that she has not yet learned the skills to deal with all that anxiety? I'm conflicted. I want to be able to see my family and do what's right for my daughter, too. -- Torn in Wisconsin

Dear Torn in Wisconsin: It sounds as if Grandmother is trying to play Mother. It's up to you to decide what's best for your daughter. If you're at all open to it, ask your daughter if she would like to go for a little while and meet everyone, and have a babysitter with you in case she feels overwhelmed and needs to leave. If you'd rather not try that, I say leave your daughter with a sitter and go to the reunion anyway. Your mother is not the only person who will be there. I'm sure your other family members will welcome you with open arms.

Dear Annie: I would like to reiterate your advice to "Motherless in the Midwest," whose mother seems to hate her. I hope that your sentence, "Your mom has her limitations, for whatever reason; this is as much as she can give you," resonated with the writer so that she can find peace.

My mother was verbally and physically abusive. I severed the relationship in my early 20s despite all my friends saying, "But she's your mother!"

The anger I carried controlled my life until my early 40s, when, through counseling, I finally accepted that my mother did the best she knew -- as she was abused as a child. However, I wouldn't keep a friend who treated me as my mother did, so it was the right decision for me to walk away and finally let go of all the hurt and disappointment.

I'm happy to say that I have done much better with my own daughter -- not without our own struggles -- but we have a very close relationship. -- Been There, Too

Dear Been There, Too: In the face of persistent toxic behavior, detachment is often the best and only option. Though I'm sure it wasn't easy, I'm glad you were able to make the right decision for yourself and forge a healthier relationship with your own daughter. I'm printing your letter here for anyone trying to find the courage to do as you did.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 18:49:22|Editor: Song Lifang

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NAIROBI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) election observer mission in Kenya on Saturday renewed call for peaceful, free and fair national polls on Aug. 8 in order to enhance stability, cohesion and economic growth in the East African nation.

Marietje Schaake, the Chief Observer and Member of EU Parliament from the Netherlands said that Kenya will boost its democratic credentials, diplomatic and economic clout if it conducts credible and transparent polls next Tuesday.

"It is important that Kenya sustain its democratic ideals that are enshrined in the new constitution by holding free and fair elections. This is an important election for Kenya and we hope the outcomes will not affect peaceful coexistence in the country," Schaake remarked.

She spoke to reporters in Nairobi during the deployment of 32 short-term observers from the EU to different parts of Kenya to assess overall election preparedness.

The EU has since late June dispatched election observer teams to different Kenyan counties to monitor campaigns and technical capacity of the electoral body to conduct free and transparent national polls.

Schaake said the bloc has assembled a competent and impartial team of observers that will later issue a comprehensive report on whether Kenyan elections met a critical threshold.

She disclosed that a delegation from European Parliament will arrive in Kenya on Saturday to join the observer team and local staff in monitoring the voting exercise.

"We have been following the flow of events in Kenya and will use rigorous and impartial methodologies to come up with preliminary findings that will be made public two days after elections," Schaake said.

She noted that Kenya has solid institutions to facilitate peaceful and transparent polls but urged aspirants and political parties to engage in sober debate to avoid a disruption on civil order.

"Candidates should urge their supporters to respect the election outcomes and gracefully concede defeat in case of loss," Schaake remarked adding that a robust constitution that has entrenched inclusivity in Kenya will be a safeguard against election-related skirmishes.
THE DISTRICT

One dead, another hurt in fiery crash

A vehicle in a fiery crash in the District stopped short of gas pumps at a nearby station in an incident that left one person dead and another seriously injured , officials said.

The D.C. fire department found one burning vehicle, a second vehicle flipped on its side and a toppled light post at Sixth Street and Florida Avenue NE, near a Hess gas station, at 3:17 a.m. Saturday, said Vito Maggiolo, a fire department spokesman.

A vehicle struck a parked car, but information about the crashs sequence and the people involved were not available as D.C. police conducts an investigation. The seriously injured person was taken to a hospital, Maggiolo said.

Officials extinguished the fire and cut off fuel to the nearby gas pumps as a precaution, Maggiolo said. D.C. fire photos from the scene show a large Hess sign shattered on the ground beside the flipped car.

 Ellie Silverman

MARYLAND

Body found near Mt. Rainier Library

A man was found dead on the 3400 block of Rhode Island Avenue, near the Mount Rainier Library, on Saturday morning, police said, in what is being treated as a suspicious death.

Mount Rainier police said officers arrived at about 6:30 a.m. because of a report of an unresponsive man.

Officers found the man dead with trauma to the upper body, according to the Mount Rainier police spokesman.

The identity of the man has not yet been confirmed and no further details were immediately available.

Prince Georges County police are conducting a homicide investigation.

 Mary Hui

Man, 71, drowns cleaning his pool

A 71-year-old man who went outside to clean his pool in La Plata, fell in and drowned Friday night, officials said.

Its unclear how he fell, but his wife found him in the pool face down and called 911 at about 8:20 p.m., said Diane Richardson, a Charles County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman.

He was pronounced dead on the scene in the 5600 block of Mount Carmel Road, Richardson said.

There were no obvious signs of trauma, no foul play suspected and officials are waiting for an autopsy for more information, Richardson said.

 Ellie Silverman
Family, colleagues, former students and parents of victims of a longtime Montgomery County teacher crowded a courtroom Friday in two distinct camps as the now former teacher faced sentencing on child sex abuse charges.

John Vigna was sentenced to 48 years in prison at the hearing where supporters wore black bracelets that read #vignastrong as they listened to one parent of a victim repeatedly call Vigna evil and a monster.

Minutes after Circuit Court Judge David Boynton read the sentence, Vigna looked at his wife Anita, sitting in the front row with their son, and shook his head.

A jury in June found Vigna guilty of four counts of sex abuse of a minor and five counts of third-degree sex offense in an investigation that began when an 11-year-old, who had taken a body safety class that taught students to identify signs related to good, bad and confusing touches, reported Vigna had been inappropriately touching her for 18 months.

John Vigna (Montgomery County Police)

His conviction involved four victims, prosecutors said.

Ive seen many, many good people come before me who have done really bad things, Boynton said. I couldnt have agreed more with the verdict in the case.

Boynton said Vigna had been given verbal and written reprimands to change the way he interacts with children.

Vigna taught at Cloverly Elementary School in Silver Spring for more than 20 years before he was put on administrative leave in 2016.

Vigna, who testified during the trial, has not wavered from his not guilty plea. On Friday, he asked the judge to consider his merit as a human being and that my life is not just the sum of the jurys verdict.

Police documents show Vigna forced a student to sit on his lap, holding her when she tried to leave and squeezing her buttocks sometimes when she hugged him goodbye. Vigna also improperly rubbed a female student when hugging her, according to the documents.

Although most of the incidents were from recent years  two girls said they were sexually abused at school in the 2015-16 school year and 2013-14 school year  one woman in her 20s reported Vigna sexually abused her when she was a student in the 2000-2002 school years.

The sentencing hearing attracted so many people the courtroom reached capacity and had to be closed to people still waiting to get in.

A host of letters also were sent to Boynton which the judge said he spent hours reading that said nothing but the most exemplary things. But the judge emphasized he has seen teachers, counselors and religious leaders who are highly respected, yet found guilty of serious crimes.

We know he would never harm a student. It goes against every fiber of his being, Anita Vigna told the judge Friday. He was and continues to be an affectionate man. That will not change, but sadly it has brought about the demise of his treasured teaching career.

But prosecutors argued it is not uncommon for sex offenders to be friendly and charismatic.

Im sure that Mr. Vigna was kind and nice to many of his students but he also acted improperly, Montgomery County States Attorney John McCarthy said outside court. These kids are having a hard time.

Two parents of victims spoke about the palpable effects of what they called Vignas predatory contact with their children. The parents said their children are dejected and considered outcasts in the community for bringing up the allegations against Vigna.

In statements read by prosecutors, one girl wrote I am embarrassed and I am ashamed. Another wrote, Im also having thoughts about dying  I cry a lot.

The families of the victims were escorted from the courtroom through a crowd of more than 30 people, many donning white #vignastrong T-shirts once they left the courtroom. Some of Vignas supporters yelled I love you John.

[Longtime Montgomery County teacher found guilty of sexual abuse]

Toni Patton, 33, knows Vigna as her former fourth grade teacher, a mentor and the man who inspired her to become a teacher herself.

The paper with her statement shook as she held back tears in front of the judge. He was blessed with a fatherly nature, said Patton who teaches first grade in Baltimore. He created a place where children knew they were loved.

[Montgomery County police charge 3rd-grade teacher with sex abuse]

Vigna had taught for the school system since 1991 and helped run the after-school computer club and the schools student safety patrol.
A barricade was under way Friday night in the New Carrollton area of Prince Georges County Police were told that shots had been fired there. (iStock/iStock)

Police surrounded an apartment complex in Prince Georges County on Friday night after gunfire was reported there. By 10:20 p.m., they had entered an apartment there, found a gun, and begun questioning three people, the police said.

The shots were reported in an apartment complex in the 7600 block of Fountainbleau Drive, in the New Carrollton area, according to the police. The residential street is south of Riverdale Road and west of Annapolis Road.

Its a huge relief that matters ended without serious injury, said county police spokeswoman Jennifer Donelan, noting that the area was densely populated.

Shortly after 7 p.m. authorities began receiving reports of someone apparently firing shots from a balcony in the complex, police said. First to arrive were police from New Carrollton, a municipality in Prince Georges. The New Carrollton officers heard two more shots, the Prince Georges police said.

They also heard what sounded like a bullet ricocheting near them, the Prince Georges police said.

Police barricaded the area. They saw three people come out of an apartment house. They were being questioned Friday night, police said.

They said they went into an apartment in the complex and found nobody there. However, they said a gun was located.

There was no explanation for the gunfire, and it was not clear if anyone had been hit.

The only injury reported involved someone who fell, trying to take cover from the gunfire, Donellan said. She said the injury was described as a minor scrape.

However, she said the person was obviously shaken up, as, she said, were other residents of the area. Many of them had been kept from returning to their homes during the incident, she said.

It was not yet clear late Friday what had touched off the gunfire, or who was shooting.
Fire crews extinguished a fire at this Buchanan Street NE home Thursday after two D.C. police officers pulled a man from the burning home. (D.C. Fire and EMS)

D.C. police officers Alex Cepeda and Eldred Boria could hear a man screaming for help from inside Northeast Washington home, but they had a problem: How to rush into a burning building with no protective gear?

Luckily, the front door was open of the brick house, but a wall of nearly impenetrable smoke kept them on the front steps calling back to the voice trapped inside.

As soon as you peeked through that door you saw those flames and that smoke. As soon as we took that first step, the smoke kicked us back out, Cepeda said. We knew we needed to get in there and we needed to get in there fast.

We had to come up with some way to make it into that house.

These dramatic moments took place about 12:30 Thursday morning in the 1700 block of Buchanan Street NE, after the officers responded to a call for a fire.

D.C. police officers Alex Cepeda (left) and Eldred Boria raced into a burning house to rescue a man early Thursday morning. (Sean Hickman/D.C. Police Department)

When Boria drove the cruiser into the block, neighbors called to them, saying a man was trapped inside the two-story house. Flames and smoke leaped from the right side of the homes first floor.

The officers called into the home and heard the man respond.

There was smoke...a lot of smoke.I was yelling... Hello! Where are you at?, Boria said in an interview. It was scary because of all the smoke and even with a flashlight you couldnt see much.

After smoke beat back their first rescue attempt, the officers frantically searched their cruiser for an extinguisher or anything that could help them safely enter the darkened home.

Finally, Cepeda decided to crawl low under the smoke and was guided by the mans voice through the darkness.

By this time, Boria asked a neighbor to take off a shirt and the officer used it as a makeshift mask around his face, to help block the smoke and headed through the door.

Flames burned hot in the room to the right and Cepeda found the man sitting in a chair in a room on the left side of the house.

Both officers then pulled the man in the chair to safety.

The officers said they were unsure if the man was disabled, but he was elderly and only the sound of his voice allowed them to rescue him.

He was just sitting in that chair. I dont know how he was able to call out. We couldnt breathe, I can only imagine how he felt, Cepeda said.

The trio emerged from the smoke as at least three city fire trucks arrived to fight the blaze.

All three men were taken to a hospital. The man they saved, who authorities did not identify, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

Both officers were released after treatment.

We got a little scuffed up but were still alive and hes still alive. Cepeda said.

He has worked as an officer for nearly 14 years, and Boria joined D.C. police as a lateral hire 16 years ago from Puerto Rico where had been an officer. Neither ever faced a burning building before, and both men deflect talk of heroics.

I thank God we did what we had to do. You dont even know what youre thinking, it happens so fast, Boria said. It was hard, it was scary, but we just tried to do our best.
Tyonna Stinnie, left, is in training Thursday for a certification in child care at the Spanish Education Development (SED) Center in Washington. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

Hundreds of child-care workers in the District are heading back to school to meet new education requirements that are among the highest in the nation.

Meanwhile, 17-year old Tyonna Stinnie, an aspiring early childhood teacher, graduated from Capital City Public Charter School in June with a head start.

Along with her diploma, she earned a Child Development Associate (CDA) certificate, considered a baseline credential in the field and one many child-care workers lack.

She took part in a new city-funded career and technical education program called First Step that aims to build a pipeline of highly trained workers who can help transform the quality of care and education for the Districts youngest learners.

We have an opportunity unlike any other place in the country, D.C. State Superintendent of Education Hanseul Kang said.

Children return to the Spanish Education Development Center in Washington Thursday after a trip outside. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

While most states and cities are focusing scarce early education resources on expanding access to public prekindergarten programs, she said, the District has a public preschool program available to all 3- and 4-year-olds and is now looking to invest in quality programs for infants and toddlers.

A central part of that mission is improving the skills of child-care workers, many of whom are paid minimum wage and have little more than a high school degree. Researchers say the job of teaching children under age 3  a time when their brains are developing rapidly  requires training similar to what elementary school teachers receive.

New licensing regulations that went into effect in December call for teachers of infants and toddlers to have an Associate degree by December 2020.

The regulations also require child-care center directors to earn a bachelors degree and home care providers and assistant teachers to earn a CDA.

[D.C. among first in nation to require child-care workers to get college degrees]

These minimum credentials are stoking anxiety among child-care workers who say they lack time and resources to go back to school. Some Spanish-speaking providers say they will have to spend extra years learning English before they can even enroll in college-level courses.

Many business owners are also concerned they cannot afford to reward better-educated teachers: The under-resourced system is already strained with some of the highest average tuition in the country, at $1,800 a month, allowing little room for increases to pay teachers more. At the same time, government vouchers for low-income families do not fully reimburse for the actual cost of quality care, providers say.

[D.C. child care workers push back against new college degree requirements]

Kang said officials are listening. We believe its absolutely critical to support our child-care workforce, she said.

The city recently launched an online platform called Quorum where child-care workers can complete their CDA course work free. It added new funding for scholarships to help child-care workers pursue college degrees, increasing the sum from $916,840 to $1.5 million.

The current years budget added $4.5 million to increase the value of child-care vouchers.

City officials are also talking with universities about the possibility of offering a degree program in Spanish, Kang said. The law includes a waiver provision for people who have taught in a licensed child development center for at least 10 years.

Martha C. Egas, executive director at the Spanish Education Development (SED) Center in Petworth, said its challenging to meet the new education standards, but worthwhile. Its a wonderful opportunity for workers to improve their skills and take advantage of what the city is offering at the moment.

The First Step program, which just graduated its first seven students in June, aims to increase the skill level and education of workers now entering the field. It is projected to expand into new schools and enroll 150 students over the next three years.

To earn a CDA, students must take 120 hours of course work in child development and spend 480 hours working with children. To help students earn their hours, the city is paying them to work in licensed child-care centers through its Summer Youth Employment Program.

I knew I wanted to work with children. So when I heard about this program, I said, Sign me up,  Stinnie said. She is working in a class for 2-year-olds this summer at the SED Center before enrolling at Trinity Washington University, where she plans to study early-childhood education and eventually earn a masters degree. Some of her high school credits through the CDA program can transfer to her new university, and she hopes to take advantage of the Districts scholarships for child-care workers.

Eben Benavides, 17, another First Step graduate, is also working at the SED Center this summer. He was eating lunch on a recent afternoon at a small table of 2- and 3- year olds.

He said he enrolled in the program because he wanted to learn how children learn.

As a rare male in an overwhelmingly female-dominated workforce, he says he hopes to be a role model for children. I can let them know that there are males figures they can depend on in their lives, he said.

Valora Washington, chief executive at the Council for Professional Recognition, which oversees the CDA program nationally, said high school-level training programs are beginning to take root around the country. The programs provide professional skills and college credits to high school graduates, and they benefit young children who too often spend formative years in programs with low-skilled workers.

In many places, a person with no specialized training or educational background can walk into an early-childhood education program and become employed, she said.
Metro continues to overhaul its track inspection department one year after a high-profile derailment on the Silver Line, but efforts to improve the quality of inspections have been hampered by some seemingly intractable problems: troublesome technology, daily time constraints and the agencys self-imposed safety regulations that have made it more difficult for inspectors to access the tracks.

An internal report prepared by Metros quality control unit  and delivered to senior managers in June  outlined many of these problems, detailing four wins within the track inspection department and 14 other areas for improvement.

The improvements, according to the quality control unit: Track inspectors have gone through an enhanced training program (very effective and informative, commented one of the reports authors after watching a training session), and more inspections take place at night, when there are fewer interruptions from passing trains. Additionally, workers have finally ramped up their use of an $8 million track inspection machine that was rarely utilized before the derailment.

The report also paints a clear picture of the myriad challenges: The software that allows inspectors to log track defects remains confusing to workers and allows for redundancies and inaccurate information. Its a problem Metro is grappling with even after the agency fired a third of its track inspection department following the July 2016 derailment and amid reports that workers had been falsifying inspection logs.

Although the track inspection machine now spends more time on the rails, workers dont use much of the data the machine is capable of collecting.

And theres still not enough time to do track inspection work, in part because of extra logistical hassles caused by safety regulations that have been put in place in the past year.

In that period, Metro has become much more aggressive about reducing speed limits in areas of the system where tracks have defects, part of an effort to reduce the risk of derailment. But when inspectors stop to fill out the documents required to put a speed limit in place, it cuts into the time they have to finish the inspection.

New rules instituted to help protect workers from being struck by trains also result in longer wait times for permission to access the tracks.

[NTSB: Metro knew of potentially dangerous track conditions more than a year before July derailment]

The report demonstrates how, in the business of running a subway system, there are rarely easy solutions or quick fixes.

The internal report was not publicized by Metro but was posted to its website. The link to the document was removed minutes after The Washington Post asked Metros communications team about the report. The report was later posted on Metros internal reviews page.

At the boards most recent meeting, Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld was asked about the state of the track inspection department. He acknowledged that issues remain, but he maintained that much has improved since last year, when a train derailed at the East Falls Church station, injuring at least one person and causing an estimated $150,000 in damage to the train.

The derailment occurred because a stretch of the tracks had fallen into disrepair, month after month, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. During subsequent investigations, it became clear that repairs were not performed in a timely manner and Metros inspection department didnt even have an accurate picture of where problems existed on the tracks.

By the beginning of this year, Wiedefeld had fired 16 track walkers (rank-and-file inspectors) and five supervisors. Now, he says, the department is on the right path.

Weve brought in some outside help, weve established much different procedures that we follow to inspect and repair the tracks, we have more time to do the work with additional hours, Wiedefeld said last week. Im very comfortable that weve moved quite a long way from a year ago, both on the conditions of the track and on the safety of the track.

[Jan. 2017: One-third of Metros track inspection department has been fired for falsifying records, Wiedefeld confirms]

But the internal review offered a more nuanced picture of the progress.

The quality control team suggested that Metro cut down on the time used for pre-inspection safety briefings so workers could get more time on the tracks.

In one instance, the report said, a worker was contacted multiple times by the Operations Control Center to see when he would be clear of the tracks.

The Control Center radioed . . . before and again during the interlocking inspection, the report said. The report said the interruptions led to an overly rushed inspection which prevented a full inspection of all the rails and fasteners.

One quality control official noted that an inspector was ordered to halt his inspection so other employees could do maintenance work.

There was almost another hour in which inspection could have been performed, the report said. This wastes resources and makes it more difficult for the inspection supervisor to meet Track Inspections obligations.

That comports with similar issues raised by the Federal Transit Administration in a May inspection report, which noted that workers had to wait two hours to be given permission to step onto the tracks; by the time a dispatcher provided the go-ahead, they had only 10 minutes to investigate a problem before their window to be on the tracks expired.

The long wait times for track access exemplified a recurring theme in the internal report: Sometimes, prioritizing safety is a complex calculus of weighing competing needs.

The quality control unit also cited the track inspection departments insufficient staffing and the impact it has had on the work.

Inspectors do not have the sufficient manpower to inspect . . . fast enough during regular service hours, the report said.

But Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said insufficient staffing is largely a problem of the past. There are 36 qualified inspectors at Metro  six more than the 30 required by the system, she said.

Metros quality control unit offered other suggestions for improvement in the report:

 The multimillion-dollar inspection machine should be outfitted with GPS to cut out the guesswork in describing the exact location of spots where defects are discovered.

 Workers should use more of the information that can be collected by that machine, which the quality control team said is underutilized.

 The software used to log defects allows for informational redundancies that confuse track maintenance workers. The software also forces inspectors to log defects individually, which can make it difficult to bump up a problem zone as an immediate priority if a slew of interrelated defects in one spot result in an urgent safety risk. Quality control officials recommended that the software be changed to allow for defects to be linked to one another, to provide for better tracking.

 Gauge rods, tools that are placed on the tracks to prevent rails from spreading apart, should be removed after 14 days. Right now, the report said, it sometimes takes longer.

The quality control unit had one more piece of advice for management: Track inspectors are now allowed to pick the set of tracks they are responsible for based on seniority. Inevitably, senior track walkers select the stretches of track that are shortest or easiest  and often, they pick the same stretch of track year after year.

Maybe, quality control officers said, it would be a good idea to force inspectors to rotate tracks each year, for one simple reason: It is important to know that someone else will be inspecting the track after you, the report said.

[Virtual inspections: A solution to Metros late-night service cuts?]
Have you ever been awakened in the middle of the night because your calf is in a painful cramp? When it happens to me, I have to swing my leg to the floor to stretch the cramp out. After one cramp, Im usually doomed to several more the same night, in the same muscle or down in my foot.

My episodes are infrequent, but they are painful. And my experience is hardly unique.

More than half of the people responding to a nationwide survey reported experiencing nighttime leg cramps. Nearly 30 percent of adults get them at least five times per month; 6 percent get them at least 15 times per month, according to an analysis of the survey results published in the journal PLOS One in June.

Study author John Winkelman, a sleep medicine specialist at Harvard University, was not surprised by the prevalence. Not at all, he said. Because I see patients, I see how common they are.

A European group of researchers queried 516 French patients age 60 or older and found similar numbers: 46 percent reported having experienced cramps, 31 percent said cramps had awakened them and 15 percent said it happened more than three times per month.

Doctors sure hear about it from patients, but they dont have much solid advice to give. No one really knows what causes nighttime leg cramps. As a sleep doctor, I tell patients, We dont understand the causes, and we dont have good, reliable treatments, Winkelman says. (Winkelman is an adviser to a biotech company developing an anti-cramping treatment.)

Thats not to say theres not plenty of advice out there in Googleland. Stretching regimens, hydrating and taking vitamins are some of the things that youll see recommended. However, the evidence is not strong for any of them.

Stretching the calves and hamstrings right before bed did yield a benefit, a small randomized study from the Netherlands found. Eighty people older than 55 had an average of three cramps per night at the start of the study. One group practiced the stretching exercises for six weeks: Its average cramp frequency decreased to one per night. The group whose members didnt stretch reported an average of two cramps per night at the studys end. This could have been a placebo effect from being under observation by researchers.

A small Israeli study assessed magnesium supplements in 94 adults, half getting the real thing and half getting a placebo. Both groups experienced a similar decrease in cramp frequency, which suggests a strong placebo effect.

A small study in Taiwan found an appreciable effect with vitamin B-complex supplements in elderly people with hypertension who had frequent nighttime cramping.

The list goes on, but you get the idea.

Its not easy to study, Winkelman says. Its at night, during sleep  out of sight of a doctor. You cant do a test for it.

Also, theres no incentive to do larger studies. Thats because the treatments that are proposed are already available, meaning they wouldnt be profitable, and big studies are costly, says Andrew Westwood, a sleep medicine specialist at Columbia University.

One treatment that has some reasonable science supporting it is the antimalarial drug quinine.

The best evidence is for quinine, Westwood says. But its not recommended because of its side effects. Quinine can cause nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, as well as fever, chills and dizziness. There are also rarer but more-serious side effects, such as severe loss of blood platelets. The Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against the use of quinine (brand name Qualaquin) for nighttime leg cramps.

Westwood came across a different idea serendipitously. Patients who had begun using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines for sleep apnea would volunteer to him that their nighttime cramps had gone away. Westwood and his colleagues started keeping track and published their case reports.

Westwood says its not clear why sleep apnea and nighttime leg cramps might be related. Still, he says, now when patients tell me they have cramps, I think, hmm . . . sleep apnea?

Nighttime leg cramps are more common in older people. They are sometimes related to such medical conditions as peripheral artery disease and diabetes. They also can occur as side effects of diuretics and some statins.

But often they just happen, without any obvious trigger. Doctors may suggest that patients try one of the treatments for which evidence is weak. I have found in my clinical practice that trial and error works for most people, says Richard Allen, a family medicine doctor at the Utah HealthCare Institute. Ill recommend one thing, and if it doesnt work, Ill recommend another. Eventually, everyone seems to find something that helps them.

Theres little risk to doing stretching exercises before bed or taking B vitamins or magnesium. And they might work for you, at least a little.

Read more

Why cant I get a good nights sleep?

Interrupted sleep may lead to Alzheimers, new studies show

Do you have restless legs syndrome?
Cant wait for the Aug. 21 eclipse? While you look ahead, go back in time with the paintings of Howard Russell Butler.

In the early part of the 20th century, Butler painted solar eclipses. His eclipse-related images and the tale of his storied career in scientific art share center stage in a new exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum.

Transient Effects explores how a science-obsessed artist brought his fascination with one of natures most fleeting phenomena onto canvas.

Howard Russell Butlers Solar Eclipse, Lompoc, California, a 1923 oil on canvas. (Princeton University Art Museum)

Today, we take photos and coverage of solar eclipses for granted. In Butlers time, however, photographers werent able to capture eclipses with the precision and high-tech equipment that exist today. So he tried his hand at it. He went with the U.S. Naval Observatorys eclipse-viewing team to Oregon in 1918 to capture the last total solar eclipse that crossed the entire continental United States  and his companions said the painting that Butler created in just hours before the eclipse faded from memory is extremely accurate.

The pioneering painter didnt just develop a special artistic shorthand to capture the precious seconds of the moons transit in front of the sun; he also spent much of his career with his eyes on the skies. Today, his paintings are considered among the finest eclipse records of the time. The exhibition also explores how Butler translated into art other ever-changing phenomena such as the ocean and the northern lights.

If you cant make it to the free exhibition, dont worry: Its online, too, with a website that features information on the upcoming eclipse, an overview of eclipses in art and more details on Butlers life and celestial landscapes. Its a reminder that the seeming magic of solar eclipses has awed and inspired skywatchers for generations.

Transient Effects closes Oct. 15.

Read more

Want to use your phone to photograph the solar eclipse? Read this first.

Travel the path of the solar eclipse

How rare is the Aug. 21 solar eclipse?

An omen of doom and source of awe: A glimpse into the history of solar eclipses
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 18:54:25|Editor: Song Lifang

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PARIS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to France Zhai Jun on Saturday hailed the birth of giant female panda Huan Huan's cub, saying the first baby panda born in France represents "further link" between Beijing and Paris.

The giant panda, on loan to Beauval zoo park, central France, from China, late on Friday, gave birth to a twin cubs but one died afterwards.

"Congratulations on the birth of the baby panda at the Beauval zoo park. It is a great success for the zoo park and for our two countries," the Chinese diplomat said.

"I hope that the baby panda grows in the best conditions. A new symbol of Sino-French friendship, it will be a further link between our two peoples," he added.

In her first delivery, Huan Huan "was very calm" and has given birth to two cubs at an interval of a few minutes, the zoo said. The first panda cub was born at 10:18 p.m. local time (2018 GMT), and the other came 14 minutes later.

In the wild, female pandas raise only one cub, the "strongest", the one that has the most chances of survival, and abandon the second. Huan Huan took care of the first cub immediately after its birth, but chose the second cub and abandoned the first after the second cub was born.

France's first lady Brigitte Macron will be named godmother of the first cub born in France.

Huan Huan and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived in central France's Beauval zoo in January 2012.

There are about 2,000 pandas in the world. They are classified as "vulnerable" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
SOMALIA

Blast in Mogadishu leaves at least 2 dead

At least two people were killed in an apparent car bomb blast on a major street in Somalias capital Friday evening, police said, just hours after the U.S. military confirmed that a recent airstrike had killed a high-level extremist al-Shabab commander blamed for deadly attacks in Mogadishu.

Capt. Mohamed Hussein said that the two victims were pedestrians. The exact target was unknown. Five other people were wounded, Hussein said, adding that security forces had been on high alert after tip-offs of a possible attack by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab.

The U.S. military on Friday confirmed that al-Shabab commander Ali Mohamed Hussein had been killed in an airstrike last weekend in southern Somalia. Also known as Ali Jabal, he had been blamed for a number of deadly attacks in Mogadishu and was the highest-level al-Shabab commander killed this year.

 Associated Press

SAUDI ARABIA

Government defends planned executions

Saudi Arabia, facing mounting criticism for the planned execution of 14 Shiite Muslims, has issued a rare statement defending its judicial system.

Justice Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Qafari said all defendants facing trial in Saudi Arabia receive due process.

In a statement published Friday by the Saudi Press Agency, al-Qafari said terrorism-related cases and death penalty verdicts are reviewed by an appeals court and the Supreme Court, with a total of 13 judges reviewing the case before an execution is carried out.

The 14 face execution for protests and violence against security forces. Rights group Reprieve said the judgment came from a secretive counterterrorism court.

Ultraconservative Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia have in the past referred to Shiites as apostates, and Shiite protesters have been accused of being allied with the kingdoms rival, Iran.

 Associated Press

ISRAEL

Probe launched into Amman shooting

Israel said Friday that it would conduct a preliminary investigation into the July 23 fatal shootings of two Jordanians by a guard at its Amman embassy who the kingdom says should face criminal prosecution.

Citing the guards diplomatic immunity, Israel repatriated him and other embassy staff after the incident, which stirred up anger in Jordan, where the 1994 peace deal between the countries is unpopular and pro-Palestinian sentiment is widespread.

Israel says the guard fired in self-defense after being stabbed by a screwdriver-wielding Jordanian workman, who was killed along with a Jordanian bystander hit by stray gunfire.

Jordanian authorities initially said there had been an altercation before the shooting, but later described the incident as a double homicide and demanded that Israel put the guard on trial.

Israels attorney general ordered police on Friday to look into the shootings, the Justice Ministry said in a statement, using terminology signifying a preliminary probe that could be upgraded into a criminal investigation if warranted.

 Reuters

Offices of Kenyan opposition alliance reportedly raided: A Kenyan opposition spokesman said police raided his alliances offices, four days ahead of national elections. Dennis Onyango, a spokesman for veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, said the purpose of the raid on the party offices in the capital was unclear. A Kenyan government spokesman said later that the opposition group lied about the raid on its offices and that no raid had taken place. Kenyans are preparing to vote for a president, lawmakers and local officials on Tuesday.

U.N. report details Congo carnage: Human rights investigators warned of ethnic cleansing in central Congo, documenting the recent killings of more than 250 people, including 62 children, in violence with no good guys and bad guys. The investigators based their report on interviews in June of 96 people who had fled Congos Kasai provinces into neighboring Angola over the previous three months. The report decried violence involving a recently formed militia, Bana Mura, backed by Congolese security. U.N. human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein urged Congos government to act now to prevent such violence from tipping into wider ethnic cleansing. His office urged militias to lay down their arms.

 From news services
BASED ON what they were told by D.C. police, Paul and Gail Casey buried their 33-year-old son thinking he had started an argument that turned violent and caused him to be knocked to the ground with fatal injuries. That was nearly six years ago. The upstate New York couple have since conducted their own investigation, and the results are striking. There is good reason to think that a rush to judgment in their sons case led to a wrong result. Officials have reclassified the death  it is no longer deemed justifiable  and police are pressing federal prosecutors to review the case. Justice demands that the request be seriously considered.

According to police, the death of Patrick Casey, an Army veteran who had served in Afghanistan and was in an international studies program at George Washington University, is open and is still actively being investigated. Casey died Sept. 27, 2011, of massive brain trauma, four days after he was involved in an early-morning altercation outside a McDonalds in Georgetown.

At a news conference three days after Caseys death, police said he had been drinking and acting in an annoying manner and may have instigated the physical confrontation. In November 2011, the U.S. Attorneys Office told police that charges would not be pursued against three men involved in the fight, classifying the homicide as justifiable and consistent with an individual acting in defense of another.

Caseys parents have since obtained police files through the Freedom of Information Act. Their investigation also includes analysis of surveillance video and depositions taken in civil suits against the three men involved in the fight. It all points to missteps in the investigation and inconsistencies in the accounts of the men. One witness said Casey was punched from behind. The man who was identified by authorities as striking the blow that resulted in Caseys death was arrested three years later for assaulting a bouncer at a D.C. bar and entered into an agreement that deferred prosecution in exchange for community service.

Presented with this new material, federal prosecutors said they still werent going to prosecute in Caseys death but this time cited insufficient evidence . . . to meet the governments burden to rebut a claim of self-defense or defense of another.

Such reclassification is unusual, particularly after so many years, and the Caseys see it as a vindication of their son. But they believe the process was short-circuited, with no one ever held to account. Police Chief Peter Newsham told us he wrote directly to the U.S. attorney asking for further review. That office is soon slated for a change in administration. We hope the new U.S. attorney takes a fresh look at a case that demands better answers.
The July 24 PowerPost article Kushner to face both intelligence committees this week closed with a reference to Jared Kushner in his role as Trumps principle adviser on foreign policy. Beyond the grammatical mistake, this was even more glaring because of its unintended irony. Much of the investigation is to learn what principle  if any  drives this principal adviser and his boss.

The July 25 PowerPost article Scaramuccis business advice book may offer some lessons for his new boss quoted one of the presidents tweets referring to the A.G. or Special Council without including sic after Council. The error by President Trump was significant  no mere typo or misspelling  and The Post should have pointed it out. If Trump does not distinguish between a Special Council and a Special Counsel, that might explain a lot about his obvious misunderstanding of all that is happening around him.

Michael Scott, Arlington
In retrospect, the battle lines of the Cold War  the West, NATO and democracy on one side; the East, the Warsaw Pact and dictatorship on the other  seem obvious and inevitable. The outcome  the collapse of the U.S.S.R.  feels now as if it were preordained. But at many moments in the half-century that the Cold War lasted, the battle lines were far from clear and the ultimate outcome very much in doubt.

Certainly in the immediate aftermath of World War II, when communist parties were still strong, it was far from clear that Europe would end up in the same ideological camp as the United States. The 1970s were another low point: In the aftermath of Vietnam, U.S. allies around the world questioned American leadership, demonstrated at American embassies and called for the closure of U.S. bases.

The Soviet Union sought to exploit those moments of weakness. Starting in the 1940s, the U.S.S.R. cultivated a network of pro-Soviet newspapers and journalists around the world, using them both to repeat the fictions that the Soviet Union told its own people and to pass on conspiracy theories about the United States. The most famous  the allegation that the CIA created AIDS  was started in a Soviet-linked Indian newspaper and was repeated by a team of East German scientists. It eventually gained currency in more than two dozen countries around the world.

Back then, it took two years for the CIA created AIDS to spread; nowadays, conspiracy theories can be passed along by networks of bots and trolls in seconds. But even then, the nature of propaganda had to be defined, explained and framed before it could be countered. Someone in power had to decide, in other words, that disinformation was a problem and had to hire people to think about the solution.

Eventually, they did  and not just in the United States. In the 1940s, the British government created a covert research group, the Information Research Department, that put together material on the realities of Soviet life and quietly passed it on to politicians and journalists across Europe. In the 1980s, the U.S. government set up the Active Measures Working Group, a small interagency team that kept track of constantly changing Soviet narratives and came up with responses. Eventually the United States would threaten the U.S.S.R. with sanctions unless it stopped pushing the CIA created AIDS mythology. There were ups and downs, successes and failures. But in the end Soviet propaganda failed to win hearts and minds, in part because the United States and its allies pushed back.

Why does this history matter? Because we are living at a similarly fraught moment, in a time when international alliances are in flux. Americas reputation abroad has plunged in many countries. Conspiracy theories have never been easier to create and pass on, both abroad and at home. A part of the U.S. population right now believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a Christian leader fighting against the Islamic State in Syria. In fact his government represses religion and is not particularly interested in the battle against the Islamic State at all.

Yet at the moment, there is no systematic U.S. or Western response to Russian, Chinese or Islamic State disinformation. Attempts to keep track of it are uneven. There is no group or agency inside the U.S. government dedicated solely to this task. And, thanks to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, it looks like there wont be anytime soon.

Despite a congressional decision allocating $80 million for this purpose, Tillerson has refused to spend the money. This is most certainly not, as Tillersons aide R.C. Hammond has claimed, because there is no plan to spend the money: Officials at State have told me that discussions on the issue are well advanced. Nor is it because State doesnt have the capacity to spend it, or because the department has too many bureaucrats. From the beginning, the plan was always to create a small internal group to spend a large chunk of the money outside the department and outside the government, for example supporting Russian-language media, which can debunk myths told in the Russian media far better than outsiders could.

The real reason is because we dont have a president like Harry S. Truman, Ronald Reagan or, frankly, even Jimmy Carter in the White House. We dont have a president, and therefore we dont have a secretary of state, who wants to stop conspiracy theories, promote democracy, bolster alliances and defend Americas reputation abroad. Instead of a president who identifies foreign disinformation as a problem that needs a solution, we have a president who thinks it serves his interests. If this were the Cold War, in other words, we would be poised to lose.

Read more from Anne Applebaums archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
ELECTED OFFICIALS have traditionally used town halls, letters and email correspondence to engage with their constituents. In the age of social media, Facebook and Twitter have emerged as key platforms for political dialogue. Lawmakers increasingly rely on these tools to inform the public of their positions, announce policy changes and gauge constituent opinion. With this in mind, blocking citizens from these forums is akin to denying them access to their representatives.

That, at least, is the argument of four plaintiffs in a new lawsuit against Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and two of his staffers, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland. According to the complaint, Mr. Hogan and his aides deleted critical comments from his Facebook page and blocked some commenters from posting on the page. An estimated 450 people  some of whom had previously pressed the governor on his position on education policy and President Trumps travel ban  have been blocked from the page since 2015.

Mr. Hogans office claims that the comments that were removed were either hateful or part of a coordinated effort, and that its Facebook policies do not vary greatly from those of other politicians. Neither of those defenses holds much water. While most public figures take down abusive or racist posts, other top elected officials in the region have said that they do not delete comments solely because they are repetitive or stem from specific groups. There is a crucial distinction here: Deleting public comments based on viewpoint reeks of censorship. The case law, which is admittedly in its infancy, seems to agree.

Many organizations, including The Post, curate reader comments, but if they are not part of the government, they do not have the same responsibility to communicate with constituents. Mr. Hogans Facebook page is linked to his office and run by government employees . It is both constitutionally and ethically held to a different standard.

The legal framework surrounding free speech rights on online forums is still developing, and with time government officials may have real concerns about how to preserve constructive dialogue on their pages. Some difficult questions may present themselves.

This is not one of them. The ACLU of Maryland simply asks that Mr. Hogan adopt a clear-cut, constitutional social media policy that narrowly defines comments that should be removed. Instead of deleting comments that critique his policy positions, Mr. Hogan should allow them online  and, if he disagrees with them, respond and make his case.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 19:04:33|Editor: Song Lifang

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NAIROBI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The newly appointed Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Special Envoy to South Sudan, Ismail Wais has begun preliminary consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders in Juba to shore up peace process, the bloc said on Saturday.

A statement from IGAD said during the meetings this week, Wais deliberated on a mapping exercise towards the realization of the High Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) for the implementation of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS).

"The HLRF is also expected to develop a revised and realistic timeline and implementation schedule towards a democratic election at the end of the transition period," said the bloc.

During the two-day mission, the special envoy met with key officials from the Transitional Government of National Unity, the UN Mission in South Sudan and the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission.

He also held consultations with officials of the UN and the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism.

A regional summit held in Ethiopia in June authorized the convening of the HLRF. The forum aims to bring together parties to the ARCSS and other stakeholders including estranged groups to discuss concrete measures of restoring the permanent ceasefire.

The Summit mandated the IGAD Council of Ministers to urgently facilitate the convening of the Forum. Subsequently, the IGAD Council held two extra-ordinary sessions on July 2 and 24 in Addis Ababa and Juba respectively.

During their deliberations, the ministers developed an indicative roadmap that gave precedence to the mapping of the parties to the ARCSS amongst other prioritized events and activities leading to the eventual convening of the Forum next month.
IN GREECE, the lucrative tourism industry is threatened this summer by millions of oversized jellyfish washing ashore on the nations beaches. An even slimier development is the ongoing persecution of the countrys first independent chief statistician, whose tough-minded steps to straighten out Greeces notoriously fraudulent economic data have been repaid with farcical prosecutions by a judicial system rapidly discrediting itself in the worlds eyes.

Andreas Georgiou, an American-trained economist who spent two decades working at the International Monetary Fund, was hired as Greeces top statistician in 2010 as the countrys debt crisis was spiraling out of control. His goal was to honestly report economic data that for years had been fudged by politicians and officials seeking to minimize their own fateful fiscal mismanagement.

Having done just that, by applying reporting standards widely accepted across Europe, he is now scapegoated as the cause of the painful austerity program imposed on Greece by the IMF and European Union. Four times in recent years, an array of criminal accusations against Mr. Georgiou have been dismissed by prosecutors, only to be revived by judicial authorities amid fury by politicians and media outlets. This month, an Athens appeals court gave Mr. Georgiou a two-year suspended sentence  essentially for reporting accurate information to European authorities during the debt crisis.

Meanwhile, the real villains in Greeces economic swan dive  officials who manipulated the numbers to hide their profligacy and populist bungling  have avoided accountability. In their self-serving view, which feeds into popular conspiracy theories, Athens is the victim of a cabal of sinister international institutions bent on victimizing Greece, and Mr. Georgiou was their instrument in bringing unwarranted suffering on the blameless Greeks.

That handy myth conveniently absolves Greeces ruling political class, including the current president, Prokopis Pavlopoulos of the New Democracy Party, who was interior minister until 2009 and played a role in the reckless expansion of the countrys public payroll.

Mr. Georgious critics harp on his upward revision of Greeces 2009 budget deficit, which forced officials to seek a bigger bailout from the E.U. and IMF, which in return imposed a stringent program of fiscal and structural reform in 2010. Quite properly, he refused to vet data with the statistical agencys meddlesome board of directors before reporting to European authorities, thereby avoiding the statistical airbrushing and data fiddling for which Greece had become infamous.

Rather than exaggerating the deficit, as his critics charge, Mr. Georgiou simply followed European rules by including sums, previously omitted, from money-losing state-owned enterprises and figures reflecting the governments actual obligations for interest on its bonds, social security and other pending payments.

Mr. Georgiou left Greece after his five-year term expired in 2015 and returned to Maryland, where he spends his days defending himself against an array of baseless accusations. His conviction, a disgrace roundly condemned by economists and statisticians, gives Greeces creditors and investors ample reason to wonder whether the nation has learned any lessons from its debt crisis, and cause to avoid wading again into Greeces perilous shores to help.
Regarding the July 28 front-page article Scaramucci unloads on Priebus in vulgar tirade:



I was extraordinarily disappointed in The Posts decision to quote directly from excerpts of the New Yorkers interview with now-former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, including the frequent use of vulgarity he employed.

While I understand wanting to convey the degree to which Scaramuccis language was inappropriate, quoting him directly risks taking The Posts dignity down that same sordid path. As I raise my three young children to value and appreciate high-quality journalism and the vital role it plays in keeping our country strong, I want them to look to The Post as an indispensable source that maintains high standards of conduct and language. My trust in those standards has been shaken. I urge The Post to rethink the manner in which it reports on these unfortunate circumstances.

Nathan A. Jones, North Logan, Utah
PROFOUND CHANGE may someday come to Saudi Arabia. The new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, last year offered a soaring blueprint for modernizing the kingdom, Vision 2030, that promised to build a thriving country in which all citizens can fulfill their dreams, hopes and ambitions. The document also vowed to build a tolerant country with moderation as its method that is a global investment powerhouse and an epicenter of trade and the gateway to the world.

This is a tall order, especially in a kingdom where change has been agonizingly slow. The crown prince clearly wants to move Saudi Arabia toward a future not beholden to oil. But in one important respect Saudi Arabia remains mired in the dark ages: Human rights are trampled upon, and free expression crushed. This is entirely out of sync with ambitions to create a thriving and modern state.

The latest sign of this backwardness is the fate of 14 Saudi men, all from the countrys Shiite minority, who are facing execution for allegedly staging protests in the kingdom. As The Posts Sudarsan Raghavan reported , the men are charged with terrorism-related offenses, but human rights groups say confessions from the defendants were extracted under torture. Among those condemned to death are Mujtabaa al-Sweikat, who, after attending pro-democracy protests inspired by the Arab Spring in 2011 and 2012, was arrested at an airport in December 2012 as he was leaving the country to visit the campus of Western Michigan University, which he was thinking of attending. Seventeen years old at the time, he was not given a reason for his arrest and has been in prison ever since, convicted without having access to legal representation, according to human rights activists. In a July 22 statement, Western Michigan faculty and administrators said Mr. Sweikat was subject to sleep deprivations, beatings, cigarette burns, solitary confinement and others forms of torture or suffering. He was sentenced to death on the sole basis of a confession extracted by torture, they added, citing the findings of the U.N. human rights office.

If only this were an isolated case. Another travesty surrounds the fate of blogger Raif Badawi, who has been jailed since 2012 following his online appeal for a more liberal and secular society. His sentence was 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes, of which he has been given 50 lashes. Mr. Badawis aspirations were also for a tolerant and moderate Saudi Arabia, but that was a threat to the kingdoms conservative Islamic establishment. His treatment offers a reason to doubt Crown Prince Salmans commitment to the goals of Vision 2030.

President Trump steered clear of human rights in his May visit to Saudi Arabia, but the kingdoms horrors have not vanished. If Saudi leaders really want to embrace modernism, they could start by reversing the barbaric death sentences imposed on 14 Shiite men for taking part in demonstrations.
THE FOOD and Drug Administration unveiled last week what may be one of the most important public-health initiatives of this century: an ambitious long-term strategy to finally end tobaccos cycle of addiction and death, a scourge that has taken the lives of millions of Americans over centuries of cultivation and consumption. The FDA should move quickly to make this vision a reality  more quickly than it did under the Obama administration.

Though smoking rates are at historic lows, the habit still kills roughly half a million people every year. Meanwhile, some 2,500 youths light up for the first time every day, representing a new generation of smokers who, absent intervention, will refill the ranks of those destined to die prematurely due to their nicotine dependence.

Nicotine is astonishingly addictive, working its calming effects on users with incredible speed when combusted along with everything else in tobacco leaves  including a range of toxins. Public-health authorities have encouraged people for years to get their nicotine fix some other way, including by chewing gum or wearing a patch. More recently, e-cigarettes have become popular as an alternative nicotine delivery mechanism. But millions continue to smoke.

So the FDA is proposing to lower nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes to minimally addictive or nonaddictive levels. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb explained that allowing nicotine levels to remain the same in gums, patches and e-cigarettes will encourage smokers to move toward products capable of delivering nicotine without having to set tobacco on fire, which is by far the riskiest way to obtain the drug. There is a risk that addicts would simply take deeper puffs or hold smoke in their lungs longer, seeking to maximize their nicotine hit. But these behaviors would be minimized if nicotine levels were not tapered down slowly but cut dramatically all at once, spurring smokers accustomed to a certain level of nicotine intake to switch immediately to non-tobacco alternatives.

The most profound gains, however, would take time to see. Nearly all habitual smokers get hooked in their teens. No public-health authority can stop all young people from experimenting with cigarettes. But by making cigarettes far less addictive, the FDA can minimize the number of lifelong smokers that teen experimentation produces.

The role of e-cigarettes in this initiative is still controversial. Anti-smoking activists are wary of the devices, which vaporize nicotine-laced liquid for inhalation, because they can still hook people on nicotine, their various flavorings seem to appeal to teens and it is not entirely clear how safe vaping is. Ideally, smokers who cannot quit would move to e-cigarettes, and teen use would be limited. The FDA has begun to regulate the e-cigarette industry, but the agency also announced last week a slight relaxation of its timeline on enforcing some rules.

The sooner the FDA makes good on its long-term vision  low-nicotine cigarettes along with a well-regulated e-cigarette industry  the better. Congress gave the agency wide authority over tobacco products nearly a decade ago. The FDA should move with determination now.
Regarding Leon Weintraubs July 23 Outlook essay, Five Myths: The Foreign Service:

As long as we are educating Americans on the misconceptions of the Foreign Service, we should also acknowledge the hard work and technical expertise of Foreign Service officers and specialists from multiple federal agencies.

Weintraub, like many career State Department Foreign Service officers, failed to acknowledge that the State Department is not the only U.S. federal agency with Foreign Service officers. This is not a small omission. Foreign Service officers work in the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service, U.S. Agency for International Development, Foreign Agricultural Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and Broadcasting Board of Governors. These officers are also commissioned by the president and take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Foreign Service officers and specialists from these agencies all help implement an administrations foreign policy in embassies abroad.

The State Department serves as the coordinating federal agency for U.S. policy interests, and its Foreign Service officers comprise the diplomatic corps. Effective diplomacy, however, includes an ability to represent, among other things, U.S. commercial, agricultural and foreign assistance interests on behalf of taxpayers and businesses. USAID, in addition to providing humanitarian relief efforts globally, has been a prominent player in strengthening foreign democracies through programs focused on economic, health, education, environmental and judicial reform. These agencies and their Foreign Service officers bring technical expertise as part of our foreign policy toolkit, helping to fortify diplomatic efforts.

Stephen Callahan, Annandale

The writer is a retired senior USAID Foreign Service officer who has worked for USAID and the State Department in South Africa, Peru, Romania, El Salvador, Botswana, Kenya and Malawi.
Does Kathleen Parker know what she wants? Indeed, according to her Aug. 2 op-ed, Who can save us from ourselves?, Ms. Parker seeks a leader who is well-read and erudite. The American Library Association apparently did not consider Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton a head-nodding yes woman when it invited her to give the closing keynote at its annual conference in June. Her speech showed her to be one of the thinkiest people to run for the presidency since her husband and Barack Obama.

Listening to one of Ms. Clintons speeches from beginning to end leaves no doubt about where the candidate stood on the issues. Her platform was perfectly clear. How did President Trump win? It is a question people, including me, ask every day. The difference in temperament and policy could not have been sharper. I know whom I chose.

This is the world Ms. Parker helped create, by vilifying Ms. Clinton throughout the campaign, and she should own it.

Shari Rathet, West Chester, Pa.
When West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced that he was leaving the Democratic Party and returning to the Republican Party, the move highlighted once again the dominance of the GOP at the state level  and signaled to beleaguered Democrats the importance that the 2018 gubernatorial elections could play in starting a comeback.

With Justices switch, announced Thursday at a rally with President Trump, Republicans now hold 34 of the 50 governorships, tying the record for the most ever for the GOP. Democrats, who at the beginning of the Obama presidency held 28 governorships, have seen their ranks dwindle to just 15. At some point over the past decade, according to the Republican Governors Association, there has been a Republican governor in 46 of the 50 states.

Republican control of the states is even more lopsided when the partisan balance of state legislatures is included in the statistics. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Republicans now hold the governors office and control of the legislature in 25 states. Democrats enjoy total control in just six, with 18 states having split control. (Nebraska has a Republican governor and a unicameral, nonpartisan legislature.) Eight years ago, Democrats held the upper hand, controlling 17 states to nine for the Republicans.

For Democrats, the rapid loss of power in the states is both cause for alarm and some reason for hope. Republicans posted enormous gains in the states and in Congress in the midterm elections of 2010 and 2014. If it happened for the GOP, Democrats ask, why couldnt it happen for them?

Midterm elections for a new president generally result in losses, sometimes substantial losses, and Trump currently suffers from the lowest approval ratings of any new president at this point in a first term. Thats compounded by the fact that the president and congressional Republicans have so far failed to enact a health-care bill, which could dampen enthusiasm among many GOP voters.

(The Washington Post)

GOP strategists believe they must prepare for a political climate like that of 2006, when Republicans lost the House and surrendered their majority among governors.

A year from now, the atmosphere might look better, if the economy continues to expand and Congress enacts major legislation. If not, look for Republican gubernatorial candidates to distance themselves from Washington.

[Gov. Justice of West Virginia announces party change at Trump rally]

Democrats plan to make an issue of Trump in the state races. They also hope to see more intraparty turmoil over allegiance to the president in Republican gubernatorial primaries. That was a feature of the Virginia GOP primary earlier this year.

Even if there are favorable conditions for the Democrats, it is difficult to overstate the significance of these 2018 contests for their longer-term implications for the party. Winning more governorships offers at least two potential dividends. First, it could bring new faces to a party desperately in need of a reinvigoration through fresh, younger talent. Second, it could give Democrats more power in the redistricting battles that will take place after the 2020 Census and that will affect the shape of the House for a decade.

The future of the Democratic Party really is at stake in these gubernatorial elections, said Elisabeth Pearson, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association.

Over the next 15 months, there will be 38 gubernatorial races, starting this November with contests in Virginia and New Jersey. Democrats are heavily favored to pick up New Jersey, where current Gov. Chris Christie (R) has an approval rating in the teens. In Virginia, currently in Democratic hands under Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the race will be closer, but Democrats rate a narrow advantage.

The real test will come in November 2018, with the Republicans having to defend 26 states to just nine for the Democrats. Of those 26 Republican-held seats, about half will feature incumbents running (although several were appointed since 2014 and will be running on their own for the first time) while the remainder will be open seats and therefore potentially more attractive targets.

But heres just one example of the challenge for Democrats. Republicans currently hold the governorships in Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont, all deep-blue states presidentially. Yet the incumbents  Larry Hogan in Maryland, Charlie Baker in Massachusetts and Phil Scott in Vermont  are among the most popular governors in the nation. In a wave election, one or more could be vulnerable, but Democrats cant count on easy pickups in states where their presidential candidates won by big margins last year.

[Republican lawmakers head home for recess with little to show]

Their best hopes in blue states will be in Maine, where outgoing Republican Gov. Paul LePage has been a source of constant controversy, and in Illinois, where Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, a businessman who had never held office until he was elected four years ago, has been in a multiyear war with Democrats in the legislature. Meanwhile, Democrats could find themselves on the defensive in at least one other blue state, Connecticut.

Nor can Democrats look to many deep-red states for easy pickups. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report list of solid or likely Republican gubernatorial seats includes a dozen or so of these red states. Democratic strategists say they will not write off those states, arguing that they are determined to go after seats in all areas of the country.

As is so often the case in politics, the Midwest looms large in the gubernatorial elections. To mount a serious comeback, Democrats will need to show strength in the region that gave Trump the presidency over Hillary Clinton. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R) will be trying for a third term. Since winning the office in 2010, he has survived a recall election and a reelection campaign. Walker remains a polarizing figure, but the Democratic bench is not strong there.

Three Midwestern states will have open races: Michigan and Ohio, currently held by Republicans, and Minnesota, now in Democratic hands. Ohio went strongly for Trump, and Democrats have struggled in most statewide races in recent elections. Michigan narrowly backed Trump and probably will see a fierce battle for the governorship. Minnesota backed Clinton by a surprising small margin, and the gubernatorial race next year will be crowded and competitive. In Pennsylvania, incumbent Gov. Tom Wolf is seen by Republicans as vulnerable, and Democrats recognize he will have a serious challenge.

Other traditional presidential battlegrounds present opportunities for the Democrats, including Florida, New Mexico and Nevada, where Republican governors Rick Scott, Susana Martinez and Brian Sandoval are term-limited. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) also is term-limited, giving Republicans an opportunity in a purple state.

The overlay of the coming redistricting battles adds an extra element of importance to 2017 and 2018 gubernatorial races. In 28 of the 38 states with elections this year or next, the governor has the power to veto a redistricting map produced by the state legislature. For Democrats, that provides the easiest route to check the power of Republican-held legislatures to draw maps favorable to their party  and vice versa.

Outside money will probably be pouring into many of these contests. Democrats have set up an operation aimed specifically at winning back House seats through more balanced congressional district lines, and that has heightened attention on the gubernatorial races. Normally, our people are focused on federal races, Pearson said. This year, it feels like the difference between night and day.

Next years congressional elections will draw outsized attention for the possibility of Democrats regaining control of the House and putting a huge roadblock in front of Trump and the GOP. But no one should lose sight of the longer-term importance of the gubernatorial races and what they will say about the rebuilding efforts of the Democratic Party.
A concrete bridge and a narrow, garbage-filled river divide the slum of Mathare into two parts, a space between ethnic groups and voting blocs that are competing fiercely  and many say dangerously  over Kenyas presidential elections scheduled for Tuesday.

Here in one of the most economically successful and stable countries in East Africa, Mathare is only a few miles away from Nairobis rising skyline. Tech firms have popped up on the citys periphery. Every week, thousands of tourists pile into sleek safari trucks. This spring, the top U.N. humanitarian official here, Siddharth Chatterjee, called Kenya a beacon of hope in a region mired in fragility.

But with the election approaching, Mathare feels far from stable. On one side of the rutted bridge is a community of ethnic Kikuyus, the tribe of incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta, 55. On the other side are the Luos, the tribe of opposition candidate Raila Odinga, 72.

Most days, those tribes peacefully coexist, as the slum is consumed by honking minibuses and a frenzy of commercial activity, with traffic moving across the bridge in both directions. But as the election approaches, it is a line not to be crossed.

This is the front line, said Stephen Maina, a Kikuyu shopkeeper.

Where it all goes down, said Akal Nicholas, a Luo lab technician.

On Friday, families were packing their belongings, preparing to leave the slum before possible violence. Stores were shuttering. Extra firetrucks had reportedly been hired. A senior police officer in the slum said, We are preparing, but declined to elaborate.

For all of Kenyas success and modernization, its elections are still decided almost exclusively by ethnicity, with the Kikuyus and Luos at the forefront of a fractured electorate, where ideology is obscured by identity politics. Since Kenya became independent in 1963, three of its four presidents have been Kikuyu, the first being Kenyattas father, Jomo Kenyatta. A Luo has entered, and lost, every presidential election.

Now, it is our time, Nicholas said.

In 2007, a tightly contested race devolved into ethnic violence that left 1,200 dead, with swaths of Mathare burning to the ground and young men clashing with machetes. Kenyatta and William Ruto, his current vice president, were among those charged by the International Criminal Court for inciting violence. Both cases were later dropped for lack of evidence.

Odinga, the son of a former vice president and himself a prime minister from 2008 to 2013, has lost three presidential elections since 1997. Its likely that this might be his last attempt at the presidency, and Odinga has already said that the only way he could lose is if the results are rigged. For years, seemingly unfounded rumors have swirled in Mathare that if he wins, the Kikuyu section of the slum will be demolished and a stadium named after Odinga will be built in its place.

Last week, when Chris Msando, an election official, was found dead, with signs of torture on his body, Odinga supporters said it was an early sign that the vote could be marred. Msando was one of few officials with access to the countrys computerized voting system. So far, there are no indications of who killed him. Human Rights Watch called his death catastrophic for the election preparations.

1 of 69 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Candidates campaign before Kenyan elections View Photos Kenyan presidential elections are scheuled for Tuesday. Caption Kenya's election commission announced on Aug. 11 that President Uhuru Kenyatta has won a second term as opposition candidate Raila Odinga claimed the vote was rigged. Protests and clashes with police followed voting. Aug. 12, 2017 A supporter of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga stands in front of a burning barricade while engaging in battle with riot police officers during a protest in the Kibera slum of Nairobi. Since the announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenyan president on Aug. 11, supporters of Odinga, who reject the official result, started rioting in various areas in and outside of Nairobi. A number of people have been killed in violent protests, the media reports say. Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency Wait 1 second to continue.

In speeches, and on their billboards and websites, Odinga and Kenyatta make little overt mention of tribal alliances. Kenyatta talks about the new national railway that recently opened and improvements to maternal health. Odinga says his team offers an alternative to an administration plagued by allegations of corruption, where wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a few. Although Kenyas average per capita income is more than $1,400 annually, a vast number of citizens live on a small fraction of that.

Behind the scenes, both candidates have put together tribal alliances that they hope will bring the majority of the vote. And both have spent untold millions on their campaigns, buying fleets of SUVs and painting them in their partys colors.

Theres no ideological daylight between the candidates, said Murithi Mutiga, a researcher for the International Crisis Group. Its just about numbers that the ethnic alliances will bring them.

Kenyas next president will have crucial decisions to make across a number of issues, even if those issues wont sway the countrys tribally minded electorate. Its military is mired in a bloody war against insurgents in Somalia, who have created a foothold in parts of Kenya. This country remains a haven for refugees from Somalia and South Sudan, but politicians have for years contemplated closing its largest refugee camps. It is crowded with NGOs trying to eradicate poverty and improve education and health access, but the government has much further to go in fulfilling its own development role.

For now, the election polls indicate an extraordinarily close race, mostly showing Kenyatta with a slight edge. The closer the results are, the higher the probability that they will be contested, experts say.

In Mathare, the Luo community says it has seen signs of Kenyattas ethnic patronage network in the slum for years. A national youth employment program, for example, exists only on the Kikuyu side of the bridge. Mathares wealth  and particularly its real estate  remains mostly in Kikuyu hands. Kenya has 42 official tribes, and several of them have members in Mathare, but the Luo and Kikuyu are the most prevalent.

Across Kenya, the Kikuyu make up roughly 22 percent of the country and the Luo make up about 13 percent. Kenyatta and Odinga have formed coalitions with other major tribes. Those tribal identities were sharpened during Britains colonial reign, when colonizers used a strategy of divide and rule to keep tribes from uniting in opposition. In recent years, a class of urban, educated Kenyans has emerged, less interested in a politics dominated by tribe, but that demographic remains a minority.

In 2013, when the official results said that Odinga lost to Kenyatta by seven percentage points, Odinga launched a failing appeal in court, alleging a rigged outcome. This year, Odinga has indicated that hell take a bolder stand if he suspects fraud.

In January, he told reporters, We are not going to take it lying down if they suspect vote rigging.

In Mathare, some of his supporters have suggested that an Odinga loss would translate into immediate violence.

If he loses, Kenya will burn, said Nicholas, the lab technician, who didnt want to specify what role he might play in such a display.

But standing about 20 yards from Mathares bridge, his expression grew more serious.

I will need people to know that I am not content.

Read more

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Rael Ombuor contributed to this report.
Rwandas President Paul Kagame sealed a crushing victory Friday in an election that granted him a third term in office, extending his 17 years in power.

Kagame has won international plaudits for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery in this East African nation since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 people Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

But he has also faced mounting criticism for what critics and rights groups say are widespread human rights abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition.

With 80 percent of the votes accounted for, the 59-year-old former guerrilla leader secured 98.66 percent, the National Electoral Commissions executive secretary, Charles Munyaneza, said at a news conference.

We expect that even if we get 100 percent of votes, there will not be any change, he said.

The board expected turnout to top 90 percent in the country of 12 million once full details emerged in an election that fielded only a single opposition candidate, Frank Habineza, and an independent.

Even if I am poor, I voted for Kagame for restoring peace and security, said 45-year-old farmer Appolinaire Karangwa, who cast his ballot in Kigali, the capital.

Kagame, who cast his vote in Kigalis Rugunga polling station, said later that he would work to sustain economic growth in the tiny nation.

This is another seven years to take care of issues that affect Rwandans and ensure that we become real Rwandans who are [economically] developing, he said in a speech broadcast live on television.

Under his rule, some dissidents were killed after they fled abroad, in cases that remain unsolved. The government denies any involvement.

Kagame, a commander who led Tutsi rebel forces into Rwanda to end the 1994 genocide, banned the use of tribal terms after becoming president.

He won the last election in 2010 with 93 percent of the vote and said during his campaign for a further seven-year term that he expected an outright victory.

Habineza, who had so far won 0.45 percent of the early count, had promised to set up a tribunal to retry dissidents whose convictions by Rwandan courts have been criticized as politically motivated.

Another would-be opponent, Diane Rwigara, was disqualified by the election board despite her insistence that she met all the requirements to run.

To me I see this as a one-man race. I simply did not go to vote, said one man in Kigali who asked not to be named.
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, arrives at a meeting near Paris last month to discuss the European migration crisis with Libyan officials. (Philippe Wojazer/Pool/European Pressphoto Agency/Philippe Wojazer/Pool/European Pressphoto Agency)

In May, Emmanuel Macrons victory over his opponent, the far-right populist Marine Le Pen, was seen as a win for the European Union or, as Macron put it, a Europe that protects.

But three months later, many across the continent have begun wondering whether Macron really is the drum major for European unity he says he is or whether he will become another French president out to defend national interests above all else.

Nowhere is this truer than in Italy, Frances southern neighbor, where leaders have begun to feel slighted by the new presidents bid to launch himself and his country as major players on the world stage.

Precisely because the French election developed the way it did  with the European leader on one side vs. the extreme nationalist right wing on the other  there was a fundamental misunderstanding of who Macron was and what he represented, said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute for International Affairs and a special adviser to E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

Because it was such an extreme presidential election, we kind of forgot at the end of the day that it was also a national election, Tocci said.

[Nearing 100 days in office, Macron starts showing his true ambitions]

Recently, Macron and his administration have pursued multiple initiatives that have rankled his Italian counterparts, who have said they were deliberately excluded from discussions that directly concern their interests.

These perceived slights have ranged from the specific to the general, from infighting over a Lyon-Turin railway to more substantive issues such as Europes migration crisis and Middle East foreign policy.

In Rome, there is now the perception that Macron may be less of a team player than he was initially considered.

This sense first emerged in the aftermath of Macrons recent Libya summit, during which the new president invited the countrys two rival leaders  the U.N.-backed prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the military strongman Khalifa Haftar  to a chateau outside Paris to discuss a cease-fire agreement.

Conspicuously absent was an Italian delegation, despite the reality that, as Tocci put it, Italy is the European member state that has the most granular understanding of the situation on the ground.

[Top French court orders government to offer humanitarian aid to Calais migrants]

At stake in particular was the issue of migration. Italy now receives the bulk of Europes incoming migrants, with many arriving across the Mediterranean directly from Libya.

So far in 2017, Italy has received about 95,000 along this route, prompting the Italian government to petition the European Union for assistance in handling the new asylum seekers.

There is the very strong impression in Rome of having been left alone with the migrant question, said Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute for International Relations, in an interview.

Last month, France  along with Germany  reluctantly promised to help in relocating migrants more quickly, although critics say details of that plan remain vague and that little action has been taken since.

In any case, after his meeting with the two Libyan leaders, Macron  without Italian input  announced plans to open hot spots in Libya later this summer, which would theoretically curb the flow into Europe.

For Gomart, however, any French action on migrants cannot be separated from the reality that France, when compared with Germany and Italy, has not taken anywhere near the same proportions of asylum seekers.

This for me is the biggest cause of the tensions that have materialized  and its a barometer of European solidarity, he said.

Then came a French move that, for many in Italy, was even more surprising.

Before an Italian firm, Fincantieri, could close on the purchase of Frances largest shipyard, known as STX, Macron  who had campaigned on promises of easing government regulations and even of attracting foreign investment  temporarily nationalized the facility and prevented the sale, in an effort to protect French jobs.

[Macron is the president Trump wishes he could be]

To assuage the immediate Italian accusations of economic protectionism that followed, Macron called Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, whose office later told reporters that the conversation was friendly. He then dispatched Bruno Le Maire, Frances economy minister, to Rome on Tuesday to meet with his Italian counterpart.

French officials were quick to dismiss any notion of soured relations with Italy.

We will continue to exchange with our Italian partner at all levels on Libya, said a French diplomatic official.

But the consensus in Italy was different. As Italian economy minister Pier Carlo Padoan told reporters after the Tuesday meeting: During our conversation with minister Le Maire, weve first of all ascertained that between Italy and France there are still unresolved differences.

Foreign policy analysts see Macrons actions on Italy as evidence that his image as a dogged advocate of European integration could soon change.

Said Pierre Vimont, a former French ambassador to the United States and the E.U.: At the end of the day, if you look at the way Europeans are watching Macron, one cannot help but notice that for many of our European counterparts, there is the impression that this president is very French and merely promoting French interests.

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Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in France. So why didnt Parisians protest his visit?

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Stefano Petrelli contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 19:29:45|Editor: Song Lifang

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RABAT, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani cancelled vacations of 10 ministers over delay in development projects in the country's restive northeastern region, local media reported on Saturday.

The ministers usually take their annual vacations in August.

According to the Moroccan daily Assabah, El Othmani has formally informed the 10 ministers, adding that the concerned ministers will also not be allowed to leave the country.

PM instructed the ministers to closely follow up the projects and make regular visits to ensure their proper implementation, the same source pointed out.

In 2015, Morocco launched Lighthouse of the Mediterranean, a large-scale development program in the north-eastern province of Al Hociema, but many of its projects have been marred by delays.

Disappointed by the delays, king Mohammed VI ordered in late June the cancelling of the vacations for the ministers concerned with the implementation of the development program, and set up an investigation committee to hold related officials responsible for the delays.

In a speech to the nation on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of ascension to the throne on July 29, the king blamed politicians and public officials for their low performance and for the delay witnessed in the implementation of a set of social projects in Morocco's different regions, including Al Hociema.

The situation in Al Hoceima has been tense since October 2016, when fish vendor Mouhcine Fikri was crushed to death after climbing into a rubbish lorry to retrieve his swordfish confiscated by police.

The demand for justice for Fikri in the northeastern region has evolved into a major grassroots movement to protest the delay in the implementation of scheduled projects, requesting greater government investment to create more jobs.

Currently returning to calm, Morocco has not witnessed any protests of this size since the pro-democracy demonstrations during the Arab spring in 2011.
Afghans are alarmed by widespread reports that President Trump has threatened to fire Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the highly regarded U.S. military commander in this war-torn country, and that Trump has also delayed choosing a new military and political strategy Afghans have awaited anxiously for the past six months.

Nicholson, 61, the top U.S. military official in Afghanistan for the past 16 months, has become the best-known face of Washington here, working closely with Afghan military and civilian officials, and vocally advocating expanded U.S. military engagement, while the Taliban and other insurgents continue aggressive attacks across the country.

Now, with two U.S. service members killed in the past week, Trumps attack on Nicholson for failing to win the 16-year war has stunned Afghan officials and political leaders. They said a clear signal of continued support from Washington is urgently needed to keep the fragile Kabul government on its feet amid an explosion of public unrest and organized opposition from a variety of groups.

Our biggest immediate worry is the lack of an American strategy, said Omar Daudzai, a former senior Afghan official. We are facing political turmoil and a security crisis. Neighboring governments are meddling. We need an American commitment to support the defense forces, elections and democratic institutions. Americas reputation is at stake in Afghanistan, and if this all goes bad, America will lose its credibility.

[Suicide bomber kills 29, injures dozens at Shiite mosque in western Afghanistan]

Over the past several days, Afghan officials and others here praised Nicholson, saying he inherited a protracted and worsening conflict but has worked closely with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on developing a detailed four-year plan to support Afghan security forces so they can defend the country alone. With no permanent U.S. ambassador here since December, the four-star generals role has also taken on added diplomatic importance.

Observers in Kabul said Nicholson, now on his fourth military tour in the country, has earned wide respect for his hard work and outreach to Afghans of all stripes. Last year, Nicholson told a congressional committee that since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan has largely defined my service.

A U.S. military official here, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Nicholson is not one to twist in the wind. He is focusing on the mission he was asked to carry out: a strategy to help the Afghans stand on their own feet. This is an Afghan conflict, and everyone knows there is no quick and easy solution. The main thing President Ghani has asked us for is time.

But a variety of Afghans said the new controversy over Nicholson, and further postponement of an announced U.S. policy after months of drift, have aroused concern that Washington may abandon its longtime role as a supporter of Afghan democracy, and possibly even the war effort, at a time of growing domestic unrest and interference by foreign regional powers.

These delays are not just a matter of bureaucracy. They are a matter of life and death to the Afghan people, said Davood Moradian, director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies. The Taliban insurgents, he said, are trying to influence the debate in Washington with these new attacks. The longer these delays continue, the more innocent lives will be lost.

Moradian said Trump has a right to be angry about the military stalemate, but he is attacking the wrong target. He said that Nicholson has done an admirable job of filling the political and diplomatic vacuum since Trump took office and that he should not be blamed for the failure of policies set by the Obama administration.

[On July 4 visit to Kabul, GOP senators say U.S. needs to win in Afghanistan]

Under President Obamas policy, U.S. and NATO forces peaked in 2009 at 140,000 troops, but most of them withdrew in 2014 with the war still hotly contested. Nicholson heads a limited assistance mission of about 8,400 troops that advise and train Afghan forces and provide air combat support.

The plan worked out by Nicholson and Ghani calls for doubling the size of the Afghan special operations forces and bringing in hundreds of U.S. trainers for the recruits, improving the Afghan air force, pairing advisers more closely with Afghan soldiers, reforming military leadership and combating corruption in the defense forces. Ghani has said he wants the military to be totally independent after four years.

But some observers said Trumps sharp criticism of Nicholson at a tense July 19 meeting in the White House may indicate he wants to scrap the entire plan, supported by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, that would include raising the number of U.S. troops by several thousand. According to news reports, the president repeatedly said he wanted to fire the general, leaving senior military and policy aides stunned. There was no indication of what alternatives Trump is considering.

The president has undermined his own general, and he has also undermined the mission, said a former Afghan security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Nicholson has now lost face in front of Afghans, his NATO counterparts and his officers. What does this tell the troops under his command? How can Afghan leaders accept any commitment he makes when they know he does not carry the full faith and credit of the United States?

The other missing half of the equation is a U.S. political policy toward Afghanistan, which most experts agree is even more important than deciding how many troops to send or what they would do. Opinions among Afghans are divided on this issue, with some saying Washington needs to do more to strengthen the divided Ghani regime, and others saying it should focus on building institutions rather than supporting individual leaders.

The blind spot in U.S. policy is not about the troop numbers, it is about uncritically supporting Ghani, said the former security official, noting that the Afghan presidents popularity has plummeted as his government faces growing public insecurity and political opposition. The U.S. should be reexamining its political strategy. It should not be Ghani or bust.

Government officials, however, said that Ghanis goal is to strengthen democratic institutions and reform a corrupt political system, not seek personal endorsements, and that a strong signal of support for those goals from the new administration in Washington is crucial.

We know that building a secure, stable Afghanistan is our responsibility, but we are also fighting a war against transnational terror, and we cant do it alone, said Nader Nadery, a senior Ghani aide. It takes time for reforms to show results, and there is a huge wall of people against them. If there can be a clarification of U.S. support, everyone will get the message, the security plan will succeed, and eventually Afghanistan will be a success story for both countries.

Read more

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Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Loyalists of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuelas newly created super congress moved to consolidate government power Saturday, stripping the independent chief prosecutor of her job and cordoning off her headquarters in a move signaling a swiftly widening crackdown on political dissent.

The new body, elected last Sunday in a vote decried internationally as a power grab, was installed Friday, with its leaders vowing to back Maduros calls to move against political opponents. Those threats translated into fast action, with hundreds of troops surrounding chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diazs office at dawn. Ortega Diaz was the most prominent senior administration official in Venezuela who is a vocal critic of the Maduro government.

The move appeared to signal a dangerous new phase in Venezuelas break with democracy, reinforcing fears about Maduro using the new National Constituent Assembly (ANC), to rubber-stamp a fresh campaign against opponents. In addition to firing Ortega Diaz, the assembly ordered her not to leave the country and replaced her with a Maduro loyalist.

Ortega Diaz didnt give the impression of being objective in her duties, the assemblys second vice president, Isaias Rodriguez, said.  This decision is not news. Everyone knew it was coming long before the ANC was installed.

In a communique issued by the Public Ministry, Ortega Diaz denounced the decision to remove her from the position of attorney general of the republic as a violation of the constitution.

We are just a tiny sample of what comes to anyone who dares to oppose the totalitarian way of governing, she said. I will continue fighting for Venezuelans, for their liberties and rights, until my last breath.

Ortega Diaz broke with Maduro in March and has strongly criticized the governments actions against pro-democracy demonstrators. More than 100 have died and thousands have been detained in four months of street protests.

Ortega Diaz said that she was not inside her headquarters in central Caracas when troops surrounded the building but that members of her staff were trapped inside.

My office has been taken by public security forces, including national guards and policemen, between 400 and 500 troops, she said. We still dont know how many of our employees are inside. Theyre not permitting us to go in, or anyone to go out.

In an interview with The Washington Post, she denounced the creation of the new Constituent Assembly  members of which include Maduros wife and son  as the birth of a dictatorship.

Speaking before the assemblys action, she said: If they remove me, Ill keep fighting for human rights and for democracy. I cant permit my country to become a dictatorship.

1 of 46 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Reaction in Venezuela to creation of a super congress View Photos People took to the streets to either vote in or boycott a controversial election to choose members of an all-powerful Constituent Assembly. Caption People took to the streets to either vote in or boycott a controversial election to choose members of an all-powerful Constituent Assembly. Aug. 7, 2017 Pro-government supporters holding Venezuelas flag march in Caracas. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

[Venezuela ushers in new pro-government chamber; opposition struggles to regroup]

On Friday, Ortega Diaz had challenged the legality of the Constituent Assembly, a body of 545 Maduro loyalists elected in a vote that the firm that supplies balloting technology to Venezuela called grossly manipulated. Opponents, who boycotted the election, describe the new bodys creation as a move to solidify Maduros autocratic rule and create a Cuban-style dictatorship. Maduro has said it would give more representation to average citizens. Its members range from slum dwellers and fisherman to top government officials.

The assembly replaced Ortega Diaz with Maduros ombudsman, Tarek William Saab. The proclamation brought rousing applause and shouts of support from the chamber.

Before the vote to remove Ortega Diaz, the assembly heard a statement from the president of the pro-government supreme court. It informed the body of the courts decision to suspend Ortega Diaz pending an investigation. But the new assembly went further, striping her of her job and barring her from leaving the country.

Diosdado Cabello, a leading member of the new assembly and a powerful figure in Maduros inner circle, made the motion to remove her instead of suspending her. The vote included a pledge to urgently restructure the independent office.

The assemblys action brought the indefinite suspension of Venezuela from the South American trade bloc Mercosur, a decision announced in Sao Paulos city hall by the foreign ministers of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes said that to avoid worsening the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, the suspension will not affect trade or migration policies.

Maduro responded in an interview with Argentinas Radio Rebelde that Venezuela will never be removed from Mercosur. Venezuela has met more Mercosur standards than the founding countries, he said.

Ortega Diaz said she was being targeted for calling out the government.

The attack comes because of the attitude I have assumed in defense of human rights and democracy, she said. Because the government has committed serious violations, including arbitrary detentions, torture, cruel [and] inhumane treatment, the use of military justice to judge civilians and the planting of evidence.

Ortega Diaz represents a political camp in Venezuela of leftist populists who have broken with Maduro. She was, and still is, a Chavista  a backer of the late president, Hugo Chavez, who anointed Maduro as his successor before his death in 2013.

For years Ortega Diaz backed Maduro, supporting legal action against leading dissident Leopoldo Lopez, who was jailed in 2014. She broke with the government, however, after increasing human rights and democratic abuses. She has said that her daughter and grandson were kidnapped and held for three days in what she considered to be government pressure tactics.

The opposition leaders who have led the most recent uprising  four months of street protests  once saw her as an enemy. But they have embraced her willingness to condemn and investigate a major surge in fatalities and arrests of dissidents. On Saturday, a group of top opposition officials went to the prosecutors office in a show of support.

All of our support to the Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz, tweeted Julio Borges, head of the National Assembly, whose members were elected in 2015 but have now been pushed aside by the Constituent Assembly. Together, in the defense of the constitution and democracy, we will overcome the dictatorship.

A month ago, the supreme court announced it would conduct a preliminary hearing on whether to suspend Ortega Diaz. She refused to attend, and the court froze her assets and prohibited her from leaving the country.

On Friday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States, warned Venezuela not to target Ortega Diaz and her family.

Theyre in a grave and urgent situation and their rights and integrity face imminent irreparable risk, the statement said. It cited comments by high-ranking officials suggesting that Ortega Diaz was backing terrorist acts and government betrayal.

Gabriela Ramirez, a former national ombudsman on human rights who also recently broke with Maduro, said the move against the chief prosecutor amounts to the start of a new campaign against opponents. She said she fears the new assembly will give Maduro legal cover to act more forcefully.

This is the establishment, through the naked force of the state, of a parallel justice system, Ramirez said.

Read more:

Vatican calls on Venezuela to suspend its Constituent Assembly

Venezuela election results manipulated by at least 1 million votes, polling company says

Venezuelas controversial new Constituent Assembly, explained

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to impose new sanctions on North Korea, banning exports that supply up to a third of the countrys annual $3 billion earnings.

The U.S.-sponsored resolution was in response to North Koreas launch of two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month, activities prohibited under existing U.N. resolutions.

The sanctions ban North Koreas largest export, coal, along with exports of iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, and seafood. Together, those exports amount to more than $1 billion a year in income for Pyongyang.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council that the vote showed Pyongyang that the world was united in seeking to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. But we should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem, Haley said. Not even close. The North Korean threat has not left us.

She said the United States had no plans to decrease its military exercises with South Korea, despite calls from China and Russia to do so.

Both Beijing and Moscow, in casting their votes for the new sanctions, said they appreciated statements by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week that the United States does not seek North Koreas collapse, replacement of its government or accelerated reunification of the Korean Peninsula, and has no intention of sending troops there.

Our hope is that the United States will translate these four nos into a firm policy, Liu Jieyi, Chinas U.N. ambassador, told the council. In addition to reducing U.S. military exercises in the region, he repeated Chinas objection to deployment of sophisticated U.S. antimissile systems, known as THAAD, in South Korea. THAAD will not bring a solution, he said. What it will do is to seriously undermine the strategic balance of the region.

China also called for the resumption of talks among North Korea, regional powers and the United States. In his Tuesday statement, Tillerson said Washington was interested in a productive dialogue but only on the basis of Pyongyangs acceptance of nuclear disarmament.

We dont think having a dialogue where the North Koreans come to the table assuming theyre going to maintain their nuclear weapons is productive, he said.

President Trump has expressed disappointment in the failure of China, which accounts for 90 percent of North Koreas economic activity, to exert sufficient pressure on the rogue regime in Pyongyang. Passage of the new resolution follows nearly a month of U.S.-Chinese negotiations over the text, bolstered with administration warnings that it was preparing to lodge unrelated complaints against Beijing at the World Trade Organization.

It condemns the long-range missile tests and reminds North Korea that tests of both the missiles and nuclear weapons are prohibited by previous resolutions.

In addition to banning exports, the resolution also prohibits all countries from increasing the number of North Korean laborers they employ, prohibits any new joint ventures and commercial agreements with North Korea, and forbids increased investment in existing ventures. It also adopts new measures to strengthen previous measures and improve sanctions enforcement.

The goal is to prevent North Koreas access to hard currency, which Haley and other delegates at the council session said are not used for the welfare of the North Korean people. The United States had initially hoped to ban oil exports and additional banking and commercial penalties, which were opposed by China and Russia.

Although U.N. sanctions were first imposed in 2006 against North Korea, they have not prevented tests of five nuclear warheads and four long-range missile launches since then, including the two launches in July.
This video image released Aug. 3, 2017, by Hawar News Agency , a Syrian Kurdish activist-run media group, shows a fighter from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces firing his weapon during clashes with Islamic State fighters in Raqqa, Syria. (HAWAR NEWS AGENCY/AP)

Nearly a third of territory reclaimed from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014 has been won in the past six months, due to new policies adopted by the Trump administration, a senior State Department official said Friday.

Brett McGurk, the State Departments senior envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition, said that steps President Trump has taken, including delegating decision-making authority down from the White House to commanders in the field, have dramatically accelerated gains against the militants.

Combined Islamic State losses in both countries since the groups peak control in early 2015 total about 27,000 square miles of territory  78 percent of militant holdings in Iraq and 58 percent in Syria. About 8,000 square miles have been reclaimed under Trump, McGurk said in a briefing for reporters.

[The State Departments map of ISIS areas of influence in Syria and Iraq]

He said the Islamic State has been driven out of 45 percent of Raqqa, the groups de facto Syrian capital since the launch of an offensive by U.S.-backed local forces two months ago. U.S. and coalition airstrikes have been instrumental in the ground successes of the Syrian Democratic Forces, composed of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

Assessments by different sources of ground won and lost by the militants over the years have varied widely. Early this year, the defense consultant IHS Janes put the total amount of territory controlled by the Islamic State in early 2015 at 35,000 square miles. After unprecedented losses for the militants in 2016, it said in January that the group occupied a remaining 23,000 square miles.

Although the Trump administration has yet to announce its new strategy for the campaign against the Islamic State, McGurk cited key changes under Trump. In addition to the delegation of decision-making authority, which he said has allowed much greater responsiveness to opportunities and changing circumstances, he cited a campaign of annihilation that has concentrated on surrounding cities held by the militants before launching offensives, to ensure that no militants will escape.

He said the 2,000 militants remaining in Raqqa most likely will die in Raqqa. The United Nations has estimated that 25,000 civilians also remain in the city.

McGurk, who held the same job in the Obama administration, also cited renewed administration efforts to increase burden sharing from the coalition among what he said were 73 countries. Most of them do not contribute to the warfighting but are expected to help with stabilization efforts in cleared areas, including in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces declared victory over the Islamic State last month.

Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized what they have said is a lack of post-conflict plans, while others have said  as Trump emphasized during his presidential campaign  that the United States should not be involved in nation-building overseas.

McGurk described extensive preparations, while emphasizing that the United States is not interested in reconstruction or nation-building. Instead, he said, U.S. and partner nations are removing mines, clearing rubble and making sure that basic services  electricity, sewage and water  are operational to allow displaced residents to return under the leadership of local councils.

People say, We want you to run the hospital, the schools. We say, No, were not very good at that. Its not our responsibility, McGurk said.

(Sarah Parnass,Jesse Mesner-Hage/The Washington Post)

Asked whether the current deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia has affected their cooperation in Syria, he said that so far, weve not seen an effect on our engagement there.

Last month, the two governments announced a cease-fire agreement in southwest Syria, where U.S.-backed opposition forces have battled the Russian-backed Syrian army of President Bashar al-Assad in an ongoing civil war.

Russia, on Assads behalf, has also agreed to deconfliction lines south of Raqqa and along the Euphrates River, where Assads forces threatened to clash with U.S.-backed fighters combating the Islamic State. McGurk described daily military to military contacts between Russia and the United States, and less-frequent diplomatic contacts.

Among the successes of the current policy, he said, are the near-cessation of civilian displacements inside Syria and Iraq, and the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians to their homes in places previously occupied by the Islamic State.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is known for being a political survivor, but the revelation this past week that a former top aide will testify against him has led to speculation that his indictment in relation to allegations of corruption is increasingly inevitable.

Ari Harow, who served as Netanyahus chief of staff, will turn states witness in two probes into the premier, Israeli police said Friday. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The details of the investigations  from the Cuban cigars and other lavish gifts Netanyahu is alleged to have received from prominent business executives to allegations of collusion with Israels dominant newspaper for favorable news coverage  have gripped Israel in recent months. Harows agreement to testify, though, significantly ramps up pressure on the premier, now serving his fourth term.

The agreement has one virtually irreversible implication: an indictment against Netanyahu is coming, an analysis in Israels daily Haaretz said Saturday, as the Israeli press mulled whether it could mark the end for his premiership.

The development was the culmination of a turbulent week for Netanyahu, who was already facing criticism for his handling of a standoff with Palestinian worshipers over metal detectors installed at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalems Old City.

On Wednesday, his wife, Sara, was questioned by police in relation to the misuse of funds allocated to the prime ministers residence. The next day the prime minister was named as a suspect in the investigations into bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the two cases.

Meanwhile, his eldest son caused a furor as he lashed out at a website that criticized his lavish lifestyle with a Facebook post signed off with emoji of a raised middle finger and a pile of excrement.

Harow served as Netanyahu's bureau chief for two years beginning in 2008, returning in 2014 as his chief of staff. According to Israeli media reports, it was Harow who recorded conversations between Netanyahu and Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, negotiating coverage.

In exchange for giving evidence, the U.S.-born Harow will avoid jail time in a separate case of fraud and breach of trust. Instead he will do community service and pay a fine of 700,000 shekels ($190,000), according to the police statement.

While his evidence is likely to strengthen the cases against the prime minister, just how damning Harows testimony will be is unclear. A gag order has been imposed on the information Harow provided under interrogation.

Netanyahus office has dismissed the allegations against him as politically motivated.

We completely reject the unfounded claims made against the prime minister, it said in a statement. The campaign to change the government is underway, but it is destined to fail, for a simple reason: there wont be anything because there was nothing.

Although he may be facing the most serious crisis of his tenure, Netanyahu, who has held the office for more than a decade in total, has so far managed to outlast every prime minister other than David Ben-Gurion. But there have been mounting calls from Israeli politicians for him to step down if he is charged.

Mickey Rosenthal, a Knesset member with the Zionist Union, told an Israeli radio station on Friday that the prime minister should declare himself temporarily incapacitated while the investigation against him is conducted.

One poll showed that three-quarters of Israelis believed that Netanyahu had surrendered over the decision to remove metal detectors from the entrance to the mosque site, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews, to whom it is known as the Temple Mount.

In what has been perceived as an attempt to rebuild his popularity among right-wing voters, Netanyahu announced his support Wednesday for the Greater Jerusalem bill, which would effectively annex several West Bank settlements. The next day he participated in a ceremony to lay the foundation stones for 1,000 new units at one of the settlements, which are considered illegal by most of the international community.

But no amount of political maneuvering is likely to distract from the mounting accusations of impropriety by the premier and his inner circle. A third corruption investigation is looking into allegations of bribery among his close associates related to a $2 billion submarine deal with Germany.

Read more:

Clashes erupt as Palestinians declare victory over Israel in crisis over holy site

Israeli diplomat says UNESCO resolution is less important than fixing his toilet

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In this March 11, 2011, photo, Saudi riot police gather as Saudi Shiite protesters, unseen, chant slogans during a demonstration in Qatif, Saudi Arabia. Several hundred people protested in heavily Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia but hundreds of police prevented protests in the capital calling for democratic reforms inspired by the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Saudi Arabia is defending its decision to execute 14 minority Shiites  whose verdicts sparked criticism in the United States and Europe  declaring in a rare public statement that their trials were conducted fairly.

The men were arrested for their involvement in demonstrations in 2011 and 2012 during the Arab Spring revolts and were later sentenced to death in a secretive counterterrorism court, according to human rights activists and the mens relatives, who also say that some of the men were tortured and forced into making false confessions.

The group included a teenager who was arrested at the airport before boarding a flight to visit a university in Michigan, and a youth who is half-deaf and nearly blind, activists said.

Shiites in the Sunni-majority kingdom have long complained of discrimination and harassment by authorities.

Last month, the kingdoms highest court upheld the death sentences, clearing the way for the executions to take place any day now.

A spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Justice, Mansour al-Ghafari, said in a statement released Friday that the trials met international standards for fairness and due process and that the defendants enjoy full legal rights. All of them had access to lawyers and all court hearings were in the presence of the media and human rights observers, Ghafari said.

In a response Saturday, a prominent human rights group said the Saudi governments statement made several false claims and was at odds with assessments by the U.N. and rights groups.

Saudi Arabias attempts to justify these 14 unlawful executions are appalling, said Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, an advocacy group based in Britain. This statement is a serious mischaracterization of the trial process against the 14 men.

At least one defendant was never permitted to see a lawyer, and in another defendants case, no evidence against him was presented at trial, said Reprieve.

Officials with the United Nations last year said the secretive counterterrorism court raises serious concerns about its lack of independence and due procedure. Its judges, they said, often refused to act on claims by defendants that they had been subjected to torture.

Ghafari said the death sentences were handed down only for the most dangerous crimes. Saudi officials in state media have claimed that the 14 men were arrested on terrorism-related charges. But activists say the Saudi government continues to conduct executions for alleged nonviolent crimes.

Some of the 14 men were convicted of using cellphones to organize protests and of using social media, according to Reprieve.

Governments close to Saudi Arabia  including the Trump administration and the U.K.  must urgently call on the Kingdom to halt these executions, Foa said.

Sheikha Aldosary in Riyadh contributed to this report.

Read more

Saudi man arrested for allegedly filming himself killing cats

Saudi prince arrested on King Salmans order

How a video of a woman in a skirt became a global headache for Saudi Arabia

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WeltN24 GmbH has filed a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights due to the continued incarceration of its Turkey correspondent Deniz Yucel. The publisher is criticizing the violation of its press and reporting freedom.

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Now WeltN24 GmbH, publisher of DIE WELT, has also filed a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg due to the continued incarceration of its Turkey correspondent Deniz Yucel. The publisher is criticizing the violation of its press and reporting freedom given that the WELT correspondents groundless incarceration  already for half a year now  renders direct reporting on site from Turkey impossible.

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Stephanie Caspar, Managing Director WeltN24: "We are using all legal means to defend the freedom of Deniz Yucel and our publishing house to report. The complaint in front of the European Court of Human Rights is another important step forward. It cannot be accepted without objection that a journalist is thrown into prison simply for doing his job.

In April, Mr. Yucel himself also filed a complaint in Strasbourg. In July, the Court asked the Turkish government for a statement. Turkey accuses Mr. Yucel without detailed argumentation of terrorist propaganda and inciting the public. There is no formal indictment. According to figures by the platform for independent journalism (P24) there are more than 160 journalists incarcerated in Turkey. Additionally, the Turkish government has closed 130 publishing houses and media companies in total since July 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 19:34:49|Editor: Song Lifang

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LAGOS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Three suicide bombers were killed in an attempted attack in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri on Friday, the police said Saturday.

Police spokesperson in restive Borno State Victor Isuzu, who confirmed the killing to Xinhua, said the incident occurred at about 9.49 p.m. local time when three suicide bombers, a male and two females attempted to penetrate Usmanti area of the state.

"The suicide bombers were chased by security personnel in the ensuing stampede and in an attempt to escape arrest, the suicide bombers hurriedly detonated the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) strapped on their bodies killing themselves," he added.

"However, two members of the security personnel sustained injuries and were rushed to University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital," he said.

Maiduguri and other liberated areas have witnessed upsurge of suicide bomb attacks in which many lives and property were lost in the past two months.

The insurgents had recently attacked a team of prospecting oil workers on exploration at Lake Chad Basin.

The insurgents also attacked Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Maiduguri and Dikwa area of the state.
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A self-taught computer-security researcher credited with stopping a devastating cyberattack that crippled British hospitals in May was arrested on charges he created malware used to hack banking systems in Canada and Europe, the United States said.

Marcus Hutchins, who started blogging under the pseudonym MalwareTech when he was a teenager, was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. Court documents unsealed Thursday show he was indicted in July on several charges of computer misconduct relating to the creation and distribution of the Kronos banking Trojan, a type of malicious program that steals usernames and passwords for banking websites from infected machines.

Hutchins arrest came as a shock to the cybersecurity industry, which was coming off its biggest week of the year at the Black Hat and Def Con conferences in Las Vegas, which Hutchins had attended.

Frank Augstein / The Associated Press Files Marcus Hutchins is under arrest in the United States for allegedly writing and distributing the Kronos banking Trojan.

Among white-hat security researchers, who hack technologies to find ways to fix them, Hutchins was a hero. They hailed his quick thinking in neutralizing the WannaCry ransomware just hours into a fast-spreading attack in May that threatened not just computer systems, but also potentially lives.

WannaCry infected about 300,000 computers in 150 countries, locking users out unless they paid a ransom in bitcoin. Hutchins found a clever way to stop the attack by registering an internet domain that served as a kill switch for the malware, a secret that was hidden in its code.

According to federal investigators, in 2014 and 2015, more than a year before the WannaCry outbreak, Hutchins wrote the Kronos malware, advertised it for sale in online hacker forums and split thousands of dollars in profits with at least one other defendant, whose name was redacted in the indictment.

While Kronos is one of many widely used forms of banking Trojans, Hutchins is accused of being a supplier and not actually hacking peoples computers to install the malware.

Tor Ekeland, a U.S. lawyer who specializes in cybercrime, told the BBC on Friday Hutchins faces six felony charges, with up to 40 years in jail.

The arrest appears to be linked to the FBIs shutdown of a notorious online criminal marketplace called AlphaBay, where Hutchins is accused of selling the Kronos malware.

The language in the indictment and timing of the allegations suggest federal investigators used information they learned in the probe of AlphaBay to build the case against Hutchins, who became a reluctant celebrity after news outlets published his real name  doxing, in hacker parlance  after his WannaCry intervention.

His arrest coincides with a conclusion of sorts for the WannaCry attacks. On Thursday, three bitcoin wallets linked to the malware were emptied out, with the tokens divided into smaller amounts and sent to other bitcoin addresses.

 Bloomberg News
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Striking airport workers are bound by more restrictions on the picket line because of a court order imposed this week.

Manitoba Court of Queens Bench Justice Herbert Rempel granted the Winnipeg Airports Authoritys request for an interim injunction against the union representing striking workers  the Public Service Alliance of Canadas Union of Canadian Transportation Employees.

The injunction restricts where the striking employees can picket, keeping them away from public entrances and exits to airport terminals on the arrival and departure levels, and says no more than 12 picketers can be present at once.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A court has placed restrictions on where picketers can walk and how many can picket at one time.

The judge refused to order picketers not to film or photograph other employees in public areas and did not prohibit them from handing out brochures.

This is a case where placing a reasonable limit on the right of PSAC members to freely express their opinions is necessary. The special environment of an international airport makes it more than just a workplace because a whole host of security and safety regulations mandated by law are in play and they cannot be interfered with, given the potential for catastrophic consequences, Rempel said in his Aug. 2 ruling.

The Winnipeg Airports Authority had argued picketers were intimidating other employees by filming them with cellphone cameras, blocking traffic and interfering with vehicles.

One picketer jumped up onto a vehicle that was being blocked, a lawyer for the authority said.

The pickets have been very respectful of passengers. When a passenger is coming out (of the airport terminal), they stop and let them by automatically, authority president and CEO Barry Rempel has told the Free Press.

The judge said he believed both the authority and the unions striking employees have a duty to protect the public and maintain high levels of security.

About 150 airport employees  including managers, tradespeople and administrative workers  went on strike July 24. Theyve been without a contract since June 30, 2016, and cite issues such as work being contracted out to non-union employees, wages and pension-plan changes.

 staff
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The Winnipeg Regional Health Authoritys new chief medical officer admits hell have a tremendous amount of catch up to do when he steps into his new role, less than a month before the first round of emergency room and urgent care closures.

That being said, Dr. Bruce Roe is visibly pleased by the opportunity to be the Authoritys next top doctor, this after two years at the helm of St. Boniface Hospital.

Whats really exciting about this job is theres a tremendous opportunity to redefine how were delivering care, says Roe, during his first interview since the Free Press learned he would take on the role, effective Sept. 5.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Bruce Roe, the incoming chief medical officer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

Roe will have a heavy hand in the daily operations of the Authority, which is in the early stages of a system-wide overhaul to health delivery. The contentious change has so far been marred by the release of information in confusing bits and pieces and almost-weekly protests and rallies.

Since the initial announcement in April, union heads have been unrelenting in their demand for specifics about staffing changes. Still, they know very little.

Two lactation consultants from Health Sciences Centre are being axed, as well as two clinical nurse specialists who work in the trauma and burn units, but for the most part unions are left with the evergreen promise that the WRHA will endeavour to make sure everyone who has a job now will still have one.

Part of the confusion for staff and the public comes from the by-election media blackout, a WRHA spokeswoman interjects to clarify.

We lost a significant amount of momentum, she says.

So, how does Roe intend to help regain it?

I cant really comment too much about the communicational strategy because I havent been directly involved in it, he says, but I recognize that you can design a strategy and the living out of it doesnt necessarily follow that strategy.

The trick for the WRHA moving forward, Roe says, is going to be about connecting disjointed stories and really trying to bring things together as more of a whole.

Confusion about what changes have to do with trying to curb costs and what changes have to do with consolidation plans persist. The provincial government has ordered the WRHA to cut annual costs by $83 million, of which the Authority says $21 million will come from consolidation efforts.

Bt the WRHAs attempts to pitch consolidation as separate from cuts doesnt seem to be minimizing concerns, as evidenced by ongoing protests bolstered by a lack of information.

Whats included in the plan is bold, it will cause disruptions, Roe says. We are changing the roles of hospitals, we are changing where care is delivered for many types of patients and that, by definition, is disrupting the way weve always done things.

Roe knows plenty about the WRHAs status quo. Originally from Saskatchewan, Roe trained as an internal medicine resident in Winnipeg then spent five years studying and working in endocrinology in San Francisco before returning to Winnipeg in 1999. Hes been at St. Boniface ever since, working his way up the leadership ranks.

During that time, hes watched the health care budget balloon  not just in Winnipeg, but across the country and around the world.

Frankly, he says, echoing Manitobas health minister, it just isnt sustainable.

Trying to make it sustainable is whats exciting, he says, although he acknowledges he cannot promise it will be a 100 per cent smooth transition.

Despite his new workload, Roe intends to keep his clinic at St. Boniface open one day a week.

For me, its an important part of my connection with patients, with health care delivery, he says, it really is grounding.

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @Jane_Gerster
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MORDEN  Manitoba once had its own Trump.

It was an upstart oil and gas company called Trump Oil that existed in the 1930s and 40s.

Its oil refinery was near Morris, about 60 kilometres south of Winnipeg, and it had numerous gas stations in southern and central Manitoba.

Photos by BILL REDEKOP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Harvey Thiessen, who collects petroliana (gas station memorabilia), poses with a Trump Oil sign. At right is a Red Indian oil display.

Morden resident Harvey Thiessen, who collects petroliana (gas station memorabilia), has several artifacts from Trump Oil, including a Trump Oil calendar with a thermometer. But hed give his left arm for a Trump Oil gas pump.

Theyre almost impossible to find.

One item in his possession is a metal Trump Oil sign in the shape of a knights shield, in bright orange, with lightning bolts angling down the sides.

It was affiliated with Phillips 66, and sold their oil, so they have a shield logo, Thiessen said.

The Trump Oil name, now more than ever with Donald Trump as president of the United States, intrigues.

Trump Oil calendar

Most accounts are that Trump Oil was merely named after Trump Siding, a section of rail line where trains could pull over and load or unload a product, where its refinery was located.

In 1915, a group of farmers from nearby Rosenort used the siding, ordering rail tank cars with oil and gas to distribute among themselves. In the early 1930s, the directors sold shares in the community and built a refinery and lubricating oil plant called Trump Oil. Soon, Trump Oil gas stations were sprouting up around Manitoba.

Another version of the story, however, is that the siding was named after the Trump Oil refinery, not vice versa, and that the Trump family invested in the refinery.

I always understood it was from the Trump family, said Mervin Dueck, a councillor in the Regional Municipality of Morris who grew up next door to the refinery and who named his farm Trump Farm.

After all, the upstart Trump Oil had its own brand of notoriety, not unlike the more famous namesake. It was a thorn in the side of big oil companies because it undercut prices. It could do so, in part, because it processed only sweet crude oil (high sulphur content) from the United States.

Above: Part of Thiessens collection of petroliana. Left: Thiessen mans a Red Indian gas pump.

Theres little evidence to support that the Trump family was ever in Manitobas oil business. In fact, Trump Siding preceded the refinery, according to early maps, said Des Kappel, the provincial toponymist in charge of naming land features.

However, the Trump family, which made its fortune in real estate, could have engaged in land speculation in Manitoba, and had Trump Siding named after them, Kappel said. There was tremendous land speculation in Manitoba, which was booming before the Panama Canal opened in 1914.

Thiessens collection, which includes seven vintage gas pumps, shows how the oil and gas landscape has changed in Manitoba over the past century. His most prized possessions are from Trump Oil, Buffalo Oil and Red Indian.

Buffalo Oil was the brand name of Prairie City Oil Co., based in Winnipeg. It started in 1911 and served all of Western Canada. North Star Oil bought out Buffalo in 1937, which was bought out by Shell in 1962. Shell also bought out White Rose around that time.

There was a Buffalo gas station in Morden in the 1920s.

Above: Buffalo Oil, from the Winnipeg-based Prairie City Oil Co. Below: Trump Oil calendar.

There were once a dozen gas stations in town, Thiessen said.

Now there are three: two Co-ops and an Esso. The Co-op stations chased many Shell dealers out of rural Manitoba, Thiessen said.

Another big Canadian oil company back then was British American, started in Toronto in 1906. Its Western Canada headquarters were in Winnipeg. Gulf Oil gained control of a majority share in BA, Thiessen said. Petro-Canada later bought out Gulfs Canadian operations, and its American side merged with Standard Oil to become Chevron.

Red Indian is the most controversial name for an oil company. McColl-Frontenac Oil Company, from Eastern Canada, had Red Indian gas stations and oil products across Canada. Thiessen has at least 30 pieces from Red Indian, including gas pumps.

The Texas Company, or Texaco, took over Red Indian in 1938 and gradually converted the stations to its own name, starting with Sky Chief, which eventually morphed into Texaco. In the early 1990s, Esso (Imperial Oil) purchased Texacos Canadian division. Esso also owns the Fas Gas stations sprinkled throughout rural Manitoba.

Part of Thiessens collection of petroliana.

I am not too politically correct, Thiessen said of his fondness for Red Indian petroliana. I like Trump  Donald Trump  too.

Thiessen cautioned the member of the mainstream media (his words) that the coffee shops of Morden are full of Trump supporters.

Trump Oil operated until the Second World War, when Ottawa passed a law requiring Canadian refineries use a percentage of Canadian crude, in its efforts to keep more money within the country. The Trump Oil refinery wasnt equipped to process Canadian sour crude; that marked the end. However, it was still operating in some capacity as late as 1952, as Thiessens Trump Oil calendar attests.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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One has brown hair, the other orange. One is effortlessly bilingual, the other horrifies editors of the Oxford English Dictionary. One openly calls himself a feminist, the other grabs female genitals.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes for a tempting contrast with U.S. President Donald Trump. He seems like the picture of serene and right-thinking liberal mindedness compared with all of the United States most cartoonishly boorish elements.

As a Canadian, Im not surprised that the American news media and the internet are saturated by swooning profiles. The Rolling Stone cover story Why Cant He Be Our President was only the most recent example. Shortly after Trudeau was elected, Vogue fawned: The New Young Face of Canadian Politics  despite the fact that he was neither new nor particularly young.

Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press Files Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might not be U.S. President Donald Trump, but he's also not a swoon-worthy dreamboat, nor a Disney prince.

Business Insider noted that he looked like a Disney prince. US Weekly: Canadas New Prime Minister is Super Hot. He even inspired the quintessential BuzzFeed piece: Literally Just 27 Really Hot Photos of Justin Trudeau.

CNNs headline sums up the trend: Justin Trudeau, the anti-Trump, shows U.S. Canadas progressive, diverse face, which was a particularly impressive take, considering Trudeau is a white man and the son of a previous Canadian prime minister  making him pretty close to the embodiment of a nascent hereditary political establishment in Canada.

Please stop.

Although Trudeau has proved to be a powerful public relations coup for my country, the political erotica now streaming from the southern border is embarrassing, shallow and largely misses the mark. Trudeau is not the blue-eyed lefty Jesus, and the global affection for him  and for the progressive politics that he and this country seem to represent  presents a puerile and distorted vision of Canada and its political culture.

Canada is, indeed, the land of progressive benefits and left-leaning victories. We take no small pride in our universal health care, maternity leave and strict gun control. More controversially, we are expanding safe injection sites and access to doctor-assisted suicide.

But all of the things that make Canada such a liberal exemplar predate Trudeau by generations.

Take universal health care, for example. The fight for the system Canadians have today began in Saskatchewan in the 1960s; it was virulently opposed by doctors groups at the time and expanded, over decades, to become a federal priority. Even today, its a mishmash by province, and the strains of the system are evident in months- to years-long waits for low-priority treatments such as back surgeries and hip replacements.

On the flashier issues that have garnered Trudeau the international limelight, his record is actually pretty spotty. Take Canadas vaunted refugee program; Trudeau has made great show of glad handing refugees at airports and tweeting encouraging bromides.

More than one-third of the 40,081 refugees who have been resettled in Canada since Trudeau took office have been privately sponsored, brought over by thousands of acts of private charity. And sponsoring a refugee family isnt cheap; sponsors need to front the cost for a full year of income and resettlement. Further, this private program was scaled back for 2017 thanks to a backlog of applications and administrative hurdles.

By comparison, Trudeaus expanded government-sponsored refugee targets  announced at a pivotal point in the last election campaign  proved to be hasty, with the government missing its own timelines and housing refugees in last-ditch hotels.This is not a model of technocratic competence.

Canadians maintain an uncritical faith in international institutions such as the United Nations, and one of our prevailing national mythologies is that peacekeeping remains one of our greatest contributions to the world. Canadians  unlike Americans, ahem  are considered honest brokers in international conflicts.

Shortly after he was elected, Trudeau made much show of his recommitment to the United Nations, and, in particular, to its flawed peacekeeping program.

Our government has recently pledged to increase military spending  after the next election  and although the Liberals enjoy much smug bragging about Canadas ostensibly peace-loving role the world, our actual commitments have proved, yet again, to be largely symbolic. According to the latest data from the United Nations, Canada contributes 20 troops, 58 police officers and 10 military experts to peacekeeping efforts for a total of 88 personnel. This is somewhat short of earlier Liberal pledges to commit 600 troops and 150 police officers to such efforts. Canada has about 68,000 active personnel in the military. By comparison, the United States has almost 1.3 million.

And Canadas continued failure on First Nations issues warrants a library unto itself. Trudeau promised an impossible-to-deliver veto to Indigenous people over energy projects. Although the prime minister deserves credit for trying to involve First Nation communities and restore the credibility of national regulators in the face of vigorous protests over pipeline projects, that veto quickly fell to the wayside after he approved the controversial domestic Trans Mountain line between Alberta and British Columbia.

He established a commission to examine this countrys history of missing and murdered Indigenous women  a commission that now appears to be collapsing amid calls by First Nations people for mass resignations.

The most stinging truth about Trudeau is that he hasnt done much at all. He came into power an avatar of youthful Canadian optimism and has squandered one of the most extraordinary honeymoon periods any politician has had in recent memory. The best that can be said of his accomplishments is that he has tripled his promised deficits, promised deferred tax increases on the wealthy and almost legalized marijuana  although it will be up to the provinces to sort out that mess.

Trudeau promised Camelot and delivered, well, Ottawa.

Jen Gerson is a correspondent for the Washington Post.
Opinion

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HBO has made headlines in recent weeks after it was announced that the showrunners behind its massively popular Game of Thrones series were launching a new series that imagines an alternate history of the United States. The problem is, many argued it is hardly alternate at all, and raised questions about the kinds of stories we tell, and for whom.

Of course, GoT creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have the artistic freedom to portray any world they like, and Confederate, a series that posits a U.S. in which slavery never ended, was what they chose to pursue.

Activist Bree Newsome, who literally climbed a flag pole to tear down a Confederate flag flying in front of Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., in 2015, weighed in on Confederate in a recent piece in the Washington Post. Most wars end with one side being clearly defeated, its cause and ideology clearly rejected, she writes. By contrast, thanks to monuments, nostalgia and sociopolitical realities that still remain, America has yet to definitively part ways with its Confederate past.

BRUCE SMITH / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Bree Newsome removes a Confederate flag in Columbia, S.C., in 2015.

But artistic freedom isnt freedom from criticism. And, as many writers and activists have pointed out, a U.S. in which African-American people are literal slaves isnt much of a fantasy. The effects of racism are all too real, and with the resurgence of hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, itself founded as a racist reaction to Reconstruction-era U.S. policies, those old days dont seem that long ago.

As Newsome points out: It frankly doesnt require much imagination to fantasize a world where the Confederacy remained undefeated.

There is a huge disparity in incarceration rates for African-American and Latino citizens, prison inmates are used as cheap labour in many U.S. states, and the increasingly privatized U.S. prison system has proven incredibly profitable while driving down wages. Its systemic racism in action, and any pretence it isnt built on what came before  overt slavery and then segregation, to name just two things  has to ignore a lot of actual history.

So an alternate history that sees African-Americans literally enslaved has prompted many to ask: why is this story getting a big-money push? What other alternate histories are being ignored?

There have been no shortage of suggestions via social media, including ones that would apply equally in Canada (What if the treaties with Indigenous peoples were honoured? was one). And, as it happens, there was already another such TV series in the works, from Amazon, announced in February. Black America, by Will Packer and Aaron McGruder, posits a world in which, after the Civil War, newly freed African-Americans secured the states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi as reparations for slavery, and formed an independent nation, New Colonia. Not surprisingly, the series saw a renewed spike in attention in the wake of reaction to Confederate.

Its not a question of what stories we are allowed to tell, but rather a question why a series that imagines an explicitly white supremacist United States seemed like a good idea. To provoke the same questions, one could as easily stick to the reality portrayed in a documentary, such as Ava Duvernays 13th, which chronicled the effects of the 13th Amendment and how it made a different form of slavery legal, that of using convicts as unpaid labour.

There are many what-ifs in our own history. What if France had won on the Plains of Abraham? What if the War of 1812 had turned out differently? What if Confederation had failed? What if Louis Riel had not been executed? What if there had been no reserve system or residential schools? These are questions for history aficionados, students and citizens alike.

And while Canadians can take pride in many aspects of our history, its always worth considering what we could, or should, have done better.
In the wake of the Supreme Courts 2012 ruling that made the Medicaid expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) optional, many states with Republican governors refused to implement an expansion. Under the ACA, better known as Obamacare, the eligibility cutoff for the government health insurance program for the poor was raised to an income of up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line.

In Indiana under then-governor and now Vice President Mike Pence, the state took a different route, developing an expansion plan that is today serving as a model for state and federal efforts to privatize Medicaid, the federal program which currently provides health coverage to one-sixth of insured Americans, some 70 million people.

In 2015 the state of Indiana introduced a Medicaid expansion plan, the Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0 (HIP 2.0), which converts the entitlement program into a fee-based insurance program. It requires the states poorest residents to pay a monthly income-based fee into the program or face a reduction or potential loss in coverage. It also introduces a tiered system of coverage, with those patients who wish to have dental and vision coverage required to pay more.

Under the HIP 2.0 plan, Indiana residents with incomes between 105 percent to 138 percent of the federal poverty level must pay a monthly premium of two percent of their income into a health savings account, dubbed a POWER account (Personal Wellness and Responsibility). This qualifies them for the HIP plus plan, which includes dental and vision coverage. For an individual making $16,394 (138 percent of the federal poverty line) per year, this works out to $27 per month and $55 for a family of four with an income of $33,500. Those residents with incomes between 0-105 percent of the poverty line pay a fee of $1 per month.

Those residents above the poverty line who fail to pay the monthly fees lose their coverage and are locked out of access to the plan for six months.

Those residents below the poverty line who cannot pay the monthly fee are downgraded to the HIP basic plan. This plan excludes dental and vision care and requires co-payments for a range of services, including a $75 copay for inpatient services, including hospital stays.

According to figures released by the state of Indiana, roughly half of the programs enrollees make less than $600.00 per year.

An assessment carried out by The Lewin group on behalf of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration that was published in March concludes that of the 590,315 Indianans eligible for Medicaid, 13,550 people lost their coverage between February 1, 2015, to November 30th, 2016 due to nonpayment of the monthly fee. An additional 46,176 people eligible for the program never enrolled because they did not or could not make the initial payment. A further 287,000 Indianans were bumped from the HIP Plus to the HIP basic plan for nonpayment.

The HIP 2.0 plan was introduced after two years of negotiations with the Obama administration concluded with the state being granted a waiver to implement its right-wing scheme. In order to increase support amongst doctors and hospitals for the plan the state increased compensation for participating hospitals by approximately 20 percent and doctors pay by some 25 percent.

The state sought to impose work requirements as a precondition for access, but was denied by the Obama administration. Many believe the Trump administration will override that decision when the state applies for the renewal of its program later this year.

The programs architect, Seema Verma, worked as a health care consultant at the time and has since been appointed by President Trump as the new administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In this capacity, she now has the authority to grant waivers to other states to supplant traditional Medicaid with a fee-based system similar to Indianas. In March, Verma sent a letter to governors cosigned by Health and Human Services director Tom Price encouraging states to develop alternatives to Medicaid, stating We wish to empower all states to advance the next wave of innovative solutions to Medicaids challenges.

Verma has made a career out of helping state governments subvert Medicaid. As the founder of SVC, a health care consulting firm now known as HMA Medicaid Marketing Solutions, Verma was the architect of the original Healthy Indiana Plan, HIP 1.0. Similar to its successor, the original Healthy Indiana Plan was a high deductible plan for the poor that required monthly payments based on the users income. Those who fell behind on payments were expelled from the program for a year.

On their company web site, HMA describes their activities in reactionary language: Our colleagues have also been instrumental in the design and development of several pioneering Medicaid waiver initiatives, many modeled on the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), the nations first consumer directed Medicaid program. These waivers include elements of personal responsibility, price- and quality-conscious healthcare consumption, and a focus on healthy lifestyles.

For her efforts in advancing the privatization of health care, Verma has been richly rewarded by those companies which have benefitted from it. A 2014 article in the Indianapolis Star describes how Verma, whose company at that time had received $3.5 million in state contracts, was at the same time working for a division of Hewlett-Packard, which is one of the states primary Medicaid vendors. The article states that Verma was paid over $1 million by the company, which subsequently secured more than $500 million in state contracts.

In addition to their work in Indiana, Vermas company also worked with the states of Kentucky and Ohio in crafting Medicaid alternatives using the section 1115 waiver, the provision of the Affordable Care Act which allows states to design their own Medicaid programs.

Thus far ten states have applied for section 1115 waivers (Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Seven of those had been previously approved. Amongst those states, several are seeking to make additional changes that will further reduce the level of coverage of enrollees.

In Kentucky, which had implemented Medicaid expansion under its previous governor, the new Republican governor, Matt Bevin, is seeking a waiver to make substantial changes to the states program. This includes work requirements that would compel those enrolled in the program to work 20 hours a week to remain eligible. It would also require users to either pay a premium for Medicaid or pay a fee for every doctors visit.

In Wisconsin, Republican Governor Scott Walker has applied to alter the states Medicaid program, known as BadgerCare, along similar right-wing lines. Walkers plan would require participants to pay a monthly premium based on income as well as a co-pay for emergency room visits beginning at $8 dollars for initial visits and $25 for all subsequent visits. The plan also imposes a 48-month limit on BadgerCare coverage, after which participants would lose benefits for six months.

Walker is also seeking the right to drug test applicants prior to approval. Those who fail the test would be required to complete a rehabilitation program, while those who refuse to take the test would be declared ineligible for six months. Walker has also sent a letter to President Trump requesting permission to drug test applicants for the states FoodShare program, commonly referred to as food stamps.

In Arkansas, Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson is seeking to roll back the expansion of Medicaid his state had previously implemented. If granted, the states waiver would scale back eligibility from 138 percent above the federal poverty line to 100 percent. This alone would cause an estimated 60,000 Arkansans to lose coverage. Participants would be required to work 80 hours per month or attend school or job training. Those who fail to comply would become ineligible for the remainder of the calendar year.

Hutchinson used familiar language in the waiver application, stating that the proposed changes in the health law seek to test innovative approaches to promoting personal responsibility and work, encouraging movement up the economic ladder, and facilitating transitions to employer-sponsored insurance and marketplace coverage.

Beneath the hypocritical rhetoric about personal responsibility lies the reality of a concerted drive to dismantle the social programs upon which millions of Americans rely and which were extracted from the ruling class in the course of decades of struggle by the working class. This process has accelerated under the Trump administration, but the Democrats have spearheaded cuts to both Medicaid and Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly; Obamacare includes a $700 billion cut in Medicare funding.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 19:39:53|Editor: Song Lifang

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MOMBASA, Kenya, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan fire fighters have managed to put off fire from spreading to more petrol stations after three people were injured in an oil tanker explosion in the coastal city of Mombasa on Saturday.

Mombasa County commissioner Evans Achoki said the oil terminal exploded in the yard in Mombasa. Police said at least six oil tankers were also burnt in the yard situated near Nakumatt retail chain.

Achoki said fire fighters have managed to contain the fire from spreading to more petrol, diesel and gas reserves in yard. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

"Three people have been injured and rushed to the hospital. We have launched investigation to establish the cause of fire," said Achoki.

The company handles bulk bitumen, diesel, heavy fuel oil, kerosene and palm oil. The firm is the only terminal in East Africa that is capable of handling bulk bitumen.

At least nine oil tankers were inside the yard, according to security guards. A team of police and Red Cross workers are leading the operation.

Achoki has ordered petroleum tanker drivers to keep the vehicles off the road during Tuesday polls. He said this follows fears that the fuels are likely to be used as bombs in the event that the general election results are disputed.

Achoki also ordered inspectorate officers to clear used vehicle tyres from the streets and asked residents to raise alarm of any incident that may threaten peace.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions plan to crack down on leaks from the Justice Department and intelligence community by subpoenaing reporters would constitute a serious threat to free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union warned Friday.

Sessions announced earlier in the day that the DOJ would be reviewing its policy on issuing subpoenas to members of the press as part of an effort to prevent such disclosures.

We respect the important role the press plays and will give them respect, but they cannot place lives at risk with impunity, Sessions said. We must balance their role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in the intelligence community, the armed forces and all law-abiding Americans.

The ACLU, which has frequently criticized the Trump administration for encroachments on the First Amendment, said Sessions crackdown constitutes a threat to journalists and whistleblowers.

Every American should be concerned about the Trump administrations threat to step up its efforts against whistleblowers and journalists. https://t.co/UwdQmbtWqW  ACLU National (@ACLU) August 4, 2017

A crackdown on leaks is a crackdown on the free press and on democracy as a whole.  ACLU National (@ACLU) August 4, 2017

Our founders knew democracy depends on informed citizens and leaders can't be trusted to disclose info that reflects poorly on themselves.  ACLU National (@ACLU) August 4, 2017

These first months of the Trump administration dramatically illustrate that point.  ACLU National (@ACLU) August 4, 2017

Can anyone seriously argue our country would be better off if the public received all of its information through official channels alone?  ACLU National (@ACLU) August 4, 2017

President Donald Trump has frequently spoken out against leaks he sees as damaging to his presidency, and has threatened to come down hard on government officials speaking to the press. He also previously criticized Sessions in public for not being tough enough on leaks, and reportedly asked former FBI Director James Comey to consider jailing reporters who publish classified information.

The presidents war on leaks reportedly led him to hire Anthony Scaramucci, an outspoken former Wall Street financier, as his communications director. Scaramucci immediately set out to find and fire White House staffers who had leaked to the press, even accusing then-chief of staff Reince Priebus of leaking. (Priebus ultimately resigned one week after Scaramuccis hire.) Scaramucci, however, was immediately fired by Priebus replacement, Gen. John Kelly.

Trump has also frequently attacked the media as fake news, and has fiercely criticized reporters for covering the FBIs investigation into whether members of his campaign team colluded with Russian officials to influence the election, a probe he has called a witch hunt.

Read more on Sessions announcement here.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Michelle Carter was convicted in the death of Conrad Roy, her boyfriend, who she encouraged by text message to kill himself

Amanda Knox, the American exchange student convicted and later cleared of a murder in Italy, is offering her support to a Massachusetts woman convicted of manslaughter for encouraging her suicidal boyfriend to kill himself.

In an op-ed published on Thursday in the Los Angeles Times, Miss Knox wrote that Michelle Carter deserves sympathy and help, not a jail sentence.

Carter on Thursday was sentenced to 15 months in jail for the 2014 death of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III.

Carter was then 17 and is now 20. A judge agreed to her request to remain free on bail while her state appeal is pending.

The 30-year-old Miss Knox is no stranger to sensational trials drawing global media coverage.

Amanda Knox in court in Perugia in 2011

The student from Seattle was convicted along with her Italian boyfriend in the 2007 killing of Miss Knox's roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy.

Miss Knox spent four years in jail but was exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court in 2015.

Miss Knox said she felt a "sickening sense of deja vu" as she watched prosecutors try to depict Carter as a "femme fatale," the way she said the media tried to portray her during her trial.

Miss Knox noted that it's difficult to feel sympathy for Carter, who sent Roy dozens of text messages urging him to follow through on his plan to kill himself and then told him to "get back in" his truck after he became frightened as it filled with carbon monoxide and briefly got out of the vehicle.

Michelle Carter

But Miss Knox pointed out that for months leading up to Roy's suicide, Carter had tried to talk Roy out of it and urged him to seek mental health counseling. She also wrote that Carter - who struggled with depression, bulimia and anorexia - was "ill-equipped" to help Roy, who also suffered from depression.

"By holding her accountable for Roy's death, we increase the tally of victims in this case, we ignore the mental health factors that lead to suicide, and we learn nothing about how to prevent it," Miss Knox wrote.

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"Conrad Roy III needed our sympathy and our help and didn't get it in time.

"Michelle Carter deserves the same sympathy and help now."
(Reuters) - A British cyber security researcher arrested in the United States on hacking charges has gained the support of his MP in England.

Marcus Hutchins, 23, widely credited with helping neutralize the global "WannaCry" ransomware attack, was arrested on charges he conspired to sell malware that steals online banking credentials and credit card data, a court filing unsealed on Thursday showed.

In a statement issued Friday, Peter Heaton-Jones, MP for North Devon, expressed his concern at Hutchins' arrest.

"People who know him in Ilfracombe, and in the wider cyber-community, are astounded at the allegations against him," Heaton-Jones said, referring to the town in Devon where Hutchins is originally from.

The Conservative Party politician credited Hutchins' role in protecting Britain's National Health Service and other institutions from the "WannaCry" attacks earlier this year.

He said he had written to British foreign minister Alan Duncan seeking assurances Hutchins was receiving consular assistance and would get independent legal representation.

A U.S. official said Hutchins' case was unrelated to the WannaCry attack.

(Reporting by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Hay)
As Trump reportedly plans to investigate alleged intellectual property and trade abuses, ex-adviser to Beijing warns of lawsuits and other forms of retaliation

Donald Trump with Chinas president, Xi Jinping. The US president is reportedly planning to announce a trade investigation targeting Beijing. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AP

China has all kinds of weapons and ammunition to fight back against Donald Trumps petulant threat to investigate alleged Chinese intellectual property and trade abuses, a former trade adviser to Beijing has warned.

According to some reports, Trump will use a speech at the White House on Friday to announce a wide-ranging trade inquiry targeting Beijing  a move that has received the blessing of senior Democrats, in a rare show of bipartisan solidarity. We should certainly go after them, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, was quoted as saying by Reuters on Thursday.

In a letter to the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, another top Democrat, the Oregon senator Ron Wyden, also backed the decision to tackle China on trade.

Wyden accused Beijing of placing significant limitations on the ability of US firms to compete there, and called for action to counter Chinas attempts to strong-arm US innovators into giving up their intellectual property and drive US firms further out of the Chinese market.

Cheng Dawei, a former government trade adviser, said that with Trumps anticipated investigation  and the tariffs or trade restrictions on Chinese goods that might follow  the US president would be trampling on bilateral trade relations.

Beijing had been trying to improve ties with the US, Cheng claimed, but the US now appeared to be stepping up its attempts to wreck the relationship. I think the commerce ministry has all kinds of weapons and ammunition [to fight back], she said. They have been studying this, so they know very well when to fire which shell. The question now is how to use them.

Cheng, an economics professor at Beijings prestigious Renmin University, said one possible means of retaliation might involve China suing the US for its groundless accusations and fighting the investigation at the World Trade Organization (WTO). I think this is an opportunity for China to emphasise its role and take a stance at the WTO.

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Another possible method might be to launch an anti-dumping investigation targeting certain American products. China [could] strike back by simply choosing some important goods to find flaws or stir up trouble with, she said.

According to Bloomberg, Chinese officials have identified soybeans as one American import that could potentially be targeted. Cars, aircraft and rare-earth commodities might also face restrictions.

Last year, one state-run newspaper claimed Beijing would adopt a tit-for-tat approach were Trump to spark a trade war by slapping hefty tariffs on Chinese imports. A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. US auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback, and US soybean and maize imports will be halted, the Global Times predicted.

Ties between the worlds two biggest economies had seemed to be improving following the two-day Mar-a-Lago summit between Trump and Chinas president, Xi Jinping, in April.

After that meeting, Trump publicly stated he would refrain from challenging Xi on economic or trade issues in order to secure his help reining in the nuclear ambitions of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator. Hes working so nicely [on North Korea]. China is trying to help us, Trump told Fox.

Would I want to start heavy, heavy trade or currency manipulation statements against somebody that is out there right now trying to stop what could be a very bad situation?

However, the relationship has soured in recent weeks, with the US president venting his frustration at what he sees as Chinese inaction on North Korea in the wake of a second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test on 28 July.

I am very disappointed in China, Trump tweeted last weekend. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue.

Tensions could increase further this week, with Trump reportedly poised to punish Beijing by issuing a presidential memorandum which would cite Chinese theft of intellectual property as a problem. According to Reuters, a so-called Section 301 case would then be launched by the trade representative, Lighthizer, allowing Trump to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions designed to protect US industries.

Liu Ming, a North Korea expert from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the inquiry was an attempt by Trump to exact revenge on China because of his gripes over North Korea.

Liu predicted that Beijing would adopt a wait-and-see policy until the nature of Trumps initiative became clear but would be ready to respond to any stern economic policies.

[China] has cards to play in its hand, he said.



Additional reporting by Wang Zhen


By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday said India has been building up troops and repairing roads along its side of the border amid an increasingly tense stand-off in a remote frontier region beside the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. The stand-off on a plateau next to the mountainous Indian state of Sikkim, which borders China, has ratcheted up tension between the neighbors, who share a 3,500-km (2,175-mile) frontier, large parts of which are disputed. "It has already been more than a month since the incident, and India is still not only illegally remaining on Chinese territory, it is also repairing roads in the rear, stocking up supplies, massing a large number of armed personnel," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "This is certainly not for peace." India has denied any such military buildup and, in a statement to parliament on Thursday evening, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj urged dialogue based on a written common understanding regarding the border intersection reached in 2012. "India always believes that peace and tranquility in the India-China border is an important pre-requisite for smooth development of our bilateral relations," Swaraj said, according to a transcript of her remarks released by her office. "We will continue to engage with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels to find a mutually acceptable solution." Early in June, according to the Chinese interpretation of events, Indian guards crossed into China's Donglang region and obstructed work on a road on the plateau. The two sides' troops then confronted each other close to a valley controlled by China that separates India from its close ally, Bhutan, and gives China access to the so-called Chicken's Neck, a thin strip of land connecting India and its remote northeastern regions. India has said it warned China that construction of the road near their common border would have serious security implications. In a separate statement, China's Defence Ministry said China had shown goodwill and that its forces had exercised utmost restraint, but warned "restraint has a bottom line" and that India must dispel any illusions. "No country should underestimate the Chinese military's confidence in and ability to fulfill its mission of safeguarding peace, and should not underestimate the Chinese military's determination and will to defend the country's sovereignty, security and development interests," it said. Despite China's numerous diplomatic representations, its foreign ministry said, India has not only not withdrawn its troops but has also been making "unreasonable demands" and is not sincere about a resolution. "If India really cherishes peace, it ought to immediately withdraw its personnel who have illegally crossed the border into the Indian side." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit China early in September for a summit of BRICS leaders. Indian officials say about 300 soldiers from either side are facing each other about 150 meters (yards) apart on the plateau. They have told Reuters that both sides' diplomats have quietly engaged to try to keep the stand-off from escalating, and that India's ambassador to Beijing is leading the effort to find a way for both sides to back down without loss of face. Chinese state media have warned India of a fate worse than the defeat it suffered in a brief border war in 1962. China's military has held live fire drills close to the disputed area, and state television on Friday said more exercises had been conducted recently, though did not give an exact location. The official China Daily said in a Friday editorial that China was not in the mood for a fight, noting how the stand off has been "unusually restrained". "However, if good manners do not work, in the end, it may be necessary to rethink our approach. Sometimes a head-on blow may work better than a thousand pleas in waking up a dreamer," the English-language paper added. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Douglas Busvine in NEW DELHI; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Michael Perry)
The family of Conrad Roy III spoke out following Michelle Carter's sentence Thursday, revealing their shock and awe that the young woman accused of urging Roy to kill himself would walk free this week. Carter was sentenced to two and a half years, 15 months of which she would serve behind bars, but was allowed to leave with her family Thursday pending appeals.

Roy's mother said in an interview with "48 Hours" that the case will never end for her and her family.

"We want to put it past us," she said. "We want to move on. Best way we can."

Related: Read Text Messages From Michelle Carter To Conrad Roy

Carter, 20, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a contentious trial revealed hundreds of text messages in which she urged her boyfriend to take his own life. "Hang yourself, jump off a building, stab yourself... there's a lot of ways," she wrote in one text. At various points, she told Roy his parents would get over his death and expressed frustration that he hadn't killed himself yet.

In other evidence presented during the trial, the prosecution introduced YouTube videos Roy recorded of himself discussing his own depression and anxiety. In one video, he called himself "a minuscule little particle on the face of this earth... no good, trash" and said he would "never be successful, never have a life, never have kids, never learn."

"Michelle Carter exposed my son's weaknesses and used him as a pawn," Roy's father said. "Where was her humanity?"

Roy's cousin, Makenna O'Donnell, told "Good Morning America" Thursday she was sickened by the fact that Carter would walk free, at least for now.

"I was just sick," O'Donnell said. "Just sick to my stomach... the fact that she can be free, and my cousin, he's not here. She should be behind bars."

Roy took his own life in 2014 when he was 18 by attaching a portable generator to his pickup truck. Prosecutors showed evidence at the trial asserting Roy got scared at one point during his suicide and attempted to get out of the truck. Carter, who was on the phone with him at the time, told him to "get back in."

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"I just don't understand how someone can be free knowing she deliberately told him to get back in the car and she gets to sleep in her own bed tonight. She gets to eat breakfast. She gets to wake up with her family. Meanwhile, where's Conrad?" O'Donnell said. "No normal human being who doesn't have problems would tell someone to get back in a truck where it is a toxic environment. I do believe she needs help and I do believe she needs to take responsibility for her actions."

Related: Amanda Knox Says Michelle Carter Needs Sympathy After 'Wrongful Conviction'

Other family members spoke out prior to Carter's sentencing Thursday. Roy's aunt, Kim Bozzi, said Carter should be "kept far away from society" and that the judge should sentence her to 20 years to "take away the spotlight that she so desperately craved."

"I'm unsure when she decided to set her sick plan into motion or why," Bozzi said in a victim impact statement given to the Boston Herald. "But when she did, she did it relentlessly. It was calculated and it was planned down to a T. She preyed on his vulnerabilities. He trusted her, which in turn, cost him his life."

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Brussels (AFP) - The EU expanded its Russia sanctions blacklist Friday, targeting three people including the deputy energy minister and three companies involved in diverting gas turbines sold by German firm Siemens to Russian-annexed Crimea.

Under the 28-nation European Union's strict policy of not recognising Crimea's March 2014 annexation from Ukraine, the three individuals will be hit with an asset freeze and a travel ban.

The measures come despite the fact that the EU just days ago bitterly criticised the United States over fresh sanctions targeting Russia for election meddling, on the grounds that it could harm European energy firms.

"The EU has added three Russian nationals and three companies involved in the transfer of gas turbines to Crimea to the list of persons subject to restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence," the EU statement said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.

But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he was "grateful" to the EU, calling the sanctions a "powerful message to the aggressor about unwavering unity and solidarity among the capitals of the European Union."

"Attempts to bypass the sanctions by cynical schemes will lead only to greater price for the aggression. And so be it until the full restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea!" he wrote on Facebook.

The EU said 153 people and 40 companies had now been targeted by individual sanctions against Russia.

Siemens said last month it was scaling back its Russian operations after finding out that the four turbines had been "illegally" modified and moved to Crimea, which Russia annexed in March 2014.

- 'Completely unacceptable' -

The new sanctions target Russia's vice energy minister Andrey Cherezov, a senior energy ministry official responsible for electricity projects in Crimea, and the head of a Russian company who led negotiations with Siemens over the original import of the turbines, according to the EU's official legal journal.

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The EU said that setting up an independent power supply for Crimea supports its "separation from Ukraine" and that "gas turbines are a substantial element in the development of new power plants."

The turbines had originally been supplied for a power-plant project in Taman, in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia -- separated from Crimea by just a few kilometres (miles) of water.

The companies hit by sanctions are the firm that bought the turbines, the current owner of the machinery, and a firm that specialises in setting up power plants in Crimea.

Siemens had already said last month that it would divest a minority stake in one of the targeted firms, Interautomatika, which sells power-plant control systems.

The German government has expressed anger over the "completely unacceptable" turbine delivery to Crimea and pressed Siemens for answers.

A German government spokesman reportedly said that that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself had personally assured Berlin the turbines would not end up in Crimea.

The EU also maintains broader economic sanctions against Russia, imposed after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.

However sanctions are an increasingly sensitive issue for the EU after the US Congress voted overwhelmingly for fresh measures against Russia, which President Donald Trump reluctantly approved this week.

The EU has said it is ready to retaliate if the US sanctions hurt EU energy firms, amid fears the American measures could interfere with a German-backed pipeline with Russia.

Previous sanctions had all been coordinated on both sides of the Atlantic.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 21:25:24|Editor: Song Lifang

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NEW DELHI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least five people, including four Spanish nationals, were killed when their mini bus collided head-on with a container truck in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh Saturday, a senior police official said.

Six other Spanish nationals were injured in the accident on Madanapalle-Punganuru Road in the state's Chitoor district, local police chief Rajasekhara Babu told the media.

The accident happened when the driver of the mini bus carrying the 10 Spanish nationals, who came from Spain to oversee development activities in villages in Andhra Pradesh, lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a curve and hit the container truck coming from the opposite side.

A probe has been ordered, the official said.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has expressed grief over the accident.
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Marina Tanaka / EyeEm via GettyTwo planes crashed into each other mid-air Saturday during a Dallas air show that was packed with families marking Veterans Day weekend, with both planes plummeting to the ground in a fiery explosion, video footage shows. Six people who were aboard the planes are feared to have died, ABC reported. The collision took place during the Wings Over Dallas World War II Airshow. A spokesperson for the Dallas Fire-Rescue said he didnt know the status of the pilots, but th
Officials from New Hampshire fired back at Trump after a report said Trump called it a "drug-infested den." Trumps comment came from a Jan. 27 phone call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, according to a transcript obtained and published by the Washington Post. New Hampshire's Republican Gov. Chris Sununu shot back at Trump for his "mischaracterization" of the state. Democrats also criticized Trumps comments on Twitter. According to the transcript, President Trump also boasted about his election victory and said he didnt want to talk publicly about who is going to pay for the border wall.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The heaviest fighting and shelling for months hit Hama province in northern Syria on Friday, a war monitor said, but there were diverging accounts of how the battle started. The clashes were accompanied by heavy bombardment, with dozens of shells and rockets being fired, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding that it had confirmed there had been casualties. The battle is around the village of Maan, 23 km (15 miles) north of Hama in western Syria, near the location of a rebel assault and government counter-offensive this spring. The Observatory said the fighting arose from an attempt by pro-government forces to advance north from Maan into rebel territory. A military media unit run by the government's ally Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi'ite group, said it was rebels who tried to attack, but were thwarted by the Syrian army. Hardline Islamist groups, including the Tahrir al-Sham alliance which contains al Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate, are present in the area. The war front in northern Hama province has mostly been quiet since a de-escalation process, brokered by the government's ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey took effect in early May. The Syrian army's main focus since May has been its campaign in the east of the country against Islamic State. (Reporting by Angus McDowall; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Beirut (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday he was ready to launch an offensive against the Islamic State group on the Lebanon-Syria border, days after forcing Al-Qaeda's former Syrian branch from the area.

In a televised speech broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel, Nasrallah also demanded news within days about the fate of nine Lebanese soldiers kidnapped by IS in 2014.

Nasrallah said "eliminating" IS from the mountainous area known as Jurud along the Lebanon-Syria border "is in the interests of both Lebanon and Syria".

According to Nasrallah the Lebanese army will decide when to launch an offensive on IS, adding that "from the other side the Syrian army and Hezbollah are ready".

Nasrallah said if the battle against IS is launched from both Syrian and Lebanese territory "that will lead to victory and be less costly for everyone".

"There is a final decision" to launch an offensive against IS, he said.

Addressing IS directly, he said: "The Lebanese and Syrians will come at you from all sides."

There was no immediate comment from the Lebanese army.

Nasrallah said that IS holds around 296 square kilometres (115 square miles) on both sides of the border, of which 141 sq km are in eastern Lebanon.

His Shiite movement is a key ally of the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and has been battling alongside regime forces since the onset of the conflict in 2011.

Nasrallah's remarks come a day after nearly 8,000 Syrian refugees and jihadists from Al-Qaeda's former Syrian branch were bused back to Syria following a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah.

In exchange, the jihadists released five Hezbollah fighters they had seized during clashes in Syria.

The swap was part of a broader ceasefire deal announced last week between the two sides which ended six days of fighting in the mountainous Jurud Arsal region in the restive border area.

The Lebanese army did not take part in the fighting between Hezbollah and the former Al-Qaeda affiliate now known as Fateh al-Sham Front, but it reportedly coordinated with Hezbollah.

Nasrallah on Friday said negotiations that led to the ceasefire with the jihadist group were possible after being approved by both the Lebanese and Syrian leaderships.
By Chris Kenning (Reuters) - Chicago police were preparing to interrogate two university officials who were arrested in California on Friday and charged with a fatal July stabbing that investigators believe stemmed from a domestic dispute. Northwestern University professor Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren, an employee of Britain's Oxford University, are in custody in California and are expected to be transported to Illinois in the coming days, Chicago police spokesman Frank Giancamilli said on Saturday. He declined to provide details on why police believe the two men killed Trenton Cornell Duranleau in Chicago on July 27. "At this point, we're just saying it's domestic in nature," Giancamilli said. "We have a few theories but don't want to comment until we talk to them." Lathem, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology, sent family and friends a video apologizing for the slaying, police said. He surrendered in Oakland, California, and Warren was arrested in nearby San Francisco, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Authorities had been in touch earlier in the week with Lathem's family and a lawyer, who helped negotiate his peaceful surrender, said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Conroy. "They were very concerned," Conroy said on Saturday. Lathem refused to say anything to authorities after he was taken into custody, Conroy said. Lathem, 42, will be arraigned in Alameda County, California, on Monday, jail records showed. The arraignment date for Warren, 56, was not listed. Both are charged with murder. [L1N1KQ1IE] It was not clear if either man had hired a lawyer. Duranleau's body was discovered in Lathem's Chicago apartment, according to the Chicago Tribune. The 26-year-old victim had stab wounds to his back, and investigators found one knife with a broken blade in the kitchen's trash can and another near the sink, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified law enforcement sources. Lathem and Duranleau knew each other and had "some type of falling out," Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi previously told the Tribune. It was not clear how Warren, who was visiting from Britain, knew the other two men. Warren is a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College, part of the Oxford University network, the school said. Earlier in the case, the manhunt took police to Lake Geneva, a resort community in Wisconsin. A day after the killing, a man who police believe may have been Lathem made a $1,000 donation in the victim's name to a library in that town. (Reporting by Chris Kenning in Louisville, Kentucky; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Von Ahn)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Interior Department's inspector general said it would investigate a reported threat by the agency's head, Ryan Zinke, against Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski's state of Alaska last week over her opposition to her party's efforts to repeal Obamacare. Zinke called Murkowski and Alaska's other U.S. senator, Republican Dan Sullivan, on July 26, the day after Murkowski's crucial vote against a motion to begin debate on the healthcare overhaul, the Alaska Dispatch News reported. The interior secretary warned the two senators that Murkowski's vote could have negative consequences for energy and land use in Alaska, the newspaper said. Murkowski spokeswoman Karina Peterson confirmed that Zinke had called the senator. The Interior Department deals with policies crucial to the state's economy such as drilling and mining on federal and tribal land and control of wildlife areas. The inspector general's office sent a letter to Democratic U.S. Representatives Frank Pallone and Raul Grijalva, the top Democrats on the House committees on energy and natural resources, respectively, on Thursday evening, saying it would start a preliminary investigation into the matter. The two lawmakers had asked the inspector general's office and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for an investigation following the report of the threat. Zinke's office and the GAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Murkowski's July 25 no vote, along with that of Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, forced Vice President Mike Pence to cast a tiebreaking vote to pass the motion by a 51-50 ballot. Subsequent efforts in the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, collapsed last Friday after Murkowski, Collins and Senator John McCain of Arizona joined their Democratic and independent Senate colleagues in voting against a "skinny repeal" bill that would have eliminated some parts of Obamacare. Murkowski chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which oversees appropriations and appointee confirmations for Zinke's agency. On Thursday, the interior secretary suggested he had reconciled with Murkowski, posting a photo of him drinking Alaska-brand beers with the senator on Twitter. "I say dinner, she says brews. My friends know me well," he tweeted. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
By Wa Lone and Simon Lewis YANGON (Reuters) - Suspected insurgents killed at least six members of a Buddhist ethnic minority in western Myanmar on Thursday, the government and regional sources said, amid spiraling violence in troubled Rakhine state. Security forces discovered the bodies of three men and three women bearing machete and gunshot wounds in the Mayu mountain range near the town of Maungdaw, the office of Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said. In a statement, it said "extremists" were responsible for killing the six members of the Mro minority from the village of Kaigyi who residents believe stumbled upon a camp for Rohingya Muslim militants. Two groups with monitors in northern Rakhine said local sources believed Rohingya militants were not active in the area, and that the killings could be linked to rampant methamphetamine trafficking. Reuters was unable to verify the contradictory claims. Muslim-majority Northern Rakhine was plunged into violence last October when Rohingya insurgents killed nine police in coordinated attacks on border guard posts. In the ensuing military operation, security forces allegedly shot villagers at random, raped Rohingya women and burned down houses. United Nations investigators who interviewed some of the nearly 75,000 people who fled to neighboring Bangladesh said troops probably committed crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is refusing to cooperate with a U.N. fact-finding mission set up to look into abuses in Rakhine and elsewhere. The government accuses the militants of running training camps in the mountains and killing alleged informants in the Muslim community. Security forces had begun an "intensive clearance operation" to hunt the killers, a military officer in Rakhine said. Two women aged 21 and 34 were still missing from the group that ventured into the hills to tend to farms, said the officer, who sought anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. Aung Kyaw Min, a Buddhist resident of Kaigyi, said villagers believed the two women had also been killed because some of their bloody clothing was recovered. "We are all suffering from this killing," he said. "All the villagers are in panic and nobody wants to live there. They all want to move to a safe place arranged by the government." Non-Muslim ethic groups recognized as Myanmar citizens are the minority in northern Rakhine. About 1.1 million Rohingya live in the state, but are denied citizenship. Many in Myanmar consider them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Tension among the communities has been running high in recent weeks, say aid workers and U.N. officials there. In Rathedaung, south of Maungdaw, an estimated 600 Muslim villagers confronted security forces who were trying to arrest six alleged militant financiers on Friday, a separate statement from Suu Kyi's office said. Government forces fired warning shots when they were attacked with sling shots, sticks and knives in Auk Nan Yar village, it said. A resident and a monitoring group, however, said troops fired into the crowd, wounding at least four villagers. (Reporting by Wa Lone and Simon Lewis; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Nick Macfie)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 21:30:27|Editor: Song Lifang

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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- More than 12,400 Afghan families have been forced to flee their houses due to increased Taliban-led militancy and clashes in northern Kunduz province since early 2017, a provincial official said Saturday.

"Up to 12,400 families from remote districts, outskirts of provincial capital Kunduz city and the nearby areas have fled their houses due to recent fightings and clashes in Kunduz over the past seven months," Abdul Salam Hashemi, director of provincial refugees and repatriates department, was quoted in a statement issued by the department as saying.

Some of the displaced families have migrated to the neighboring Baghlan, Takhar and Samangan provinces and hundreds of the displaced families travelled to national capital of Kabul while scores of them are living with their relatives in central parts of Kunduz city, he asserted.

The Kunduz province, as well as neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces, has been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

Residents in Kunduz province are worrying that the Taliban onslaught and increasing militancy would force more families to leave their houses for safer places.

"So far, about 3,000 of the displaced families have been provided with assistance by a number of donor organizations as well as government agencies and the process of supplying aids has been continuing," he added.

Presently, more than 600,000 people, according to official data, have been living as Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Afghanistan. The number of IDPs would further increase due to the ongoing war and insurgency in the country.
Passengers at Nashville Airport in Tennessee were in for a smelly shock when hundreds of bags were sprayed with sewage-tainted water Thursday morning.

Bags belonging to about 380 Southwest Airlines passengers were contaminated due to an overflow in the womans bathroom near Southwest C-5 concourse. According to reports, this happened because someone had stuffed paper towels in the toilet.

The toilet water and sewage leaked through the floor of the bathroom to the conveyor belt on the floor below, soaking the luggage moving on it.

Read: United Airlines Passenger Films Employees Mishandling Customers' Luggage

According to the Daily Mail, officials said around 200 bags that were checked with Southwest Airlines for an early morning flight may have been affected by the sewage leak.

Tom Jurkovich, vice president of communications at Nashville Airport, told News 2 they were not sure about the extent of the contamination, adding no person was exposed to the sewage water.

You have to act like it is, as a practical matter, Jurkovich said.

ABC News reported that Southwest Airlines said it had identified which bags may have been affected and were proactively contacting customers, processing bags and reuniting customers with their luggage.

The airline also said the contaminated bags were being sanitized, and replacement bags were being offered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the extent of the damage caused to the bags.

However, the airline said the leak did not cause any delays to scheduled flights. Some passengers also decided to travel without their soaked baggage.

One passenger on the flight, Kate Riley, told News 2, that some people did not know their luggage was missing until they went to claim their baggage at their destination in Florida.

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We were in Nashville, and they came on right before we boarded and said, Oh, were having some issues with the luggage. Dont worry. Were getting all the bags on; theres just an issue. But were just gonna load up and were gonna take off,' she recalled officials from the airline as saying.

According to reports, this is not the first time that an incident like this has happened at the airport. There was another sewage leak June 1 but no luggage was contaminated at the time.

A similar incident was reported in 2010 at Heathrow Airport in London, when a waste pipe burst spraying about 240 bags with human waste. One witness said: Gallons of raw sewage came spewing out. The stench was appalling.

Read: Dead Dog Treated As 'Lost Luggage' By Chinese Airline, Owner Offered Money As Compensation

Many other instances of luggage being mishandled by airlines and airport authorities have been reported. United Airlines was recently criticized after a passenger filmed and shared a video July 27 of mishandling of luggage by the airline.

In 2010, US Airways lost $50,000 worth of belongings, kept in vintage bags, of fashion heir Giorgio Gucci.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, in May 2017 alone, there were 232 reports of luggage mishandling per 100,000 passengers.

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Laura Ramos is charged with second degree sexual assault: Bridgeport Police Department

A special education teacher and married mother accused of having sex with her 18-year-old student may have slept with at least three other pupils, police in the US state of Connecticut allege.

Laura Ramos, 31, who has a young child, is standing trial accused of sexual assault but faces new charges after another student reportedly confessed to police the pair had slept together.

Police say a second student in the special education unit told them he had sex with her and investigators are now looking for other alleged victims.

Ms Ramos, from New Haven, Connecticut, turned herself in to police on Wednesday after the second student came forward.

Reports said police believed Ms Ramos had sex with at least four students, although she has only been formally charged in connection with two.

Ms Ramos resigned from Central High School in Bridgeport after the first sexual assault charges were brought against her.

Police claim she acknowledged several sexual encounters took place in her car with the first student between December and April.

According to the Connecticut Post, citing a police statement, the student claimed in April he had sex with Ms Ramos in her car after first having dinner at a local restaurant.

The paper reported police as saying that on another occasion in April, Ms Ramos had complained to the student that her husband didnt want to have sex with her before they had sex in the electrical room of a restaurant.

She has pleaded not guilty in that case and has been released on bail.

After her second arrest, Ms Ramos lawyer, Edward Gavin, said: My client voluntarily surrendered to police and we are awaiting the paperwork indicating the basis for the new charge.

Laura Ramos continues to maintain her innocence and we look forward to the progression of the case.

Judge William Holden has barred Ms Ramos from contacting her alleged victims.

Ms Ramos husband reportedly accompanied her to her first court appearance but was said to have appeared alone as she was given the new charges.

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She is due back in court on 14 August.

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The dramatic shake-up in the White House is far from over, it seems. On Wednesday, reports of the dismissal of a senior director of the National Security Council (NSC), Ezra Cohen-Watnick, came as no surprise after Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, and top Middle East advisor Derek J. Harvey were fired in a span of less than 10 days.

General McMaster appreciates the good work accomplished in the NSC's Intelligence directorate under Ezra Cohen's leadership. He has determined that, at this time, a different set of experiences is best-suited to carrying that work forward. General McMaster is confident that Ezra will make many further significant contributions to national security in another position in the administration, a statement by the White House read, according to the Conservative Review that first broke the story.

Read: Who's Really In Charge In The White House?

Curiously, it was not President Donald Trump who played a crucial role in Cohen-Watnicks firing. Cohen-Watnick, who is said to be a Trump loyalist, may have got fired after Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster replaced Michael Flynn, who hired Cohen-Watnick as the national security advisor, in February. In March, Cohen-Watnick was involved in a controversy about leaking classified information to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-California).

However, McMaster could not fire him apparently due to intervention from the president, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.

A journalist from Bloomberg posted a tweet suggesting a replacement may be ready for Cohen-Watnicks post.

It may be worth noting McMaster fired Harvey in July after he came up with a list of Obama administration holdovers in the NSC. Harvey, also among Trumps top advisers, was the first director at the think tank, Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). He announced his emotional departure after his dismissal in a statement, and said he was excited to get a new opportunity in the Trump administration. However, the new opportunity is yet to be announced.

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Another unceremonious departure was that of Rich Higgins, who served in the NSCs strategic planning office, in July after he wrote a controversial memo that detailed threats to Trump presidency and the United States. "Globalists and Islamists recognize that for their visions to succeed, America, both as an ideal and as a national and political identity, must be destroyed," the memo read, according to an Atlantic report published Thursday that carried an excerpt. In the memo, Higgins claimed the Russia story was a part of efforts to subvert Trumps nationalist agenda.

Read: What Does Michael Flynn Know About Russia? Lawmakers Say Too Early To Consider Immunity For Testimony

Earlier, K.T. McFarland was removed from her post of deputy National Security Advisor in April while Bannon, who is among the most powerful people in the White House, was also removed from the Cabinet-level interagency forum and principals committee after McMaster took over. It is hard to miss that all of the people dismissed from the Trump administration have been supporters of the president's "America First" policy.

McMaster has been asserting his presence  ever since he took office  by reshaping the NSC after Flynns dismissal over misleading Vice President Mike Pence. The earliest steps he took for the reorganization had an impact on Dave Cattler, a Flynn pick, who was serving as the deputy assistant to the president for regional affairs at the time. He was moved back to the office of the Director of National Intelligence where he worked under the administration of former President Barack Obama.

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Minnesota mosque blast Law enforcement officials investigate an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017. (Photo: David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

Someone apparently threw a bomb through the window of a suburban Minneapolis mosque on Saturday as people were preparing for morning prayers, damaging the imams office but not injuring anyone, an official said.

The blast happened at around 5 a.m. at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. Police Chief Jeff Potts said at a news conference that investigators were trying to determine the cause of the blast, but authorities have released few details.

Asad Zaman, director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, said at a news conference that a witness saw something being thrown at the imams office window from a van or truck before the blast. WCCO-TV reports that he said it may have been a fire bomb. Mohamed Omar, the centers executive director, said a worshipper saw a pickup truck speeding away afterward.

There were 15 to 20 people inside the mosque when the blast happened. Worshippers managed to extinguish the blaze before firefighters arrived, the society said in a news release.

The mosque, which primarily serves people from the areas large Somali community, occasionally receives threatening calls and emails, Omar told the Star Tribune . (AP)

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Good morning. These are todays top stories:

Trump calls collusion claims total fabrication

At a campaign rally in West Virginia yesterday, President Donald Trump said claims of collusion between his campaign team and Russia were total fabrication. Meanwhile, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has reportedly convened a grand jury to probe Russias interference in the 2016 election. Heres what that means.

Toyota and Mazda are building a U.S. plant

Toyota and Mazda are teaming up to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in America. The two large Japanese automakers said the new plant would produce about 300,000 vehicles each year and would create up to 4,000 jobs, starting in 2021. Trump praised the business alliance as a great investment in American manufacturing.

Fire engulfs worlds tallest residential tower in Dubai

A fire erupted at one of the worlds tallest residential towers in Dubai early this morning, but there were no reported injuries. The blaze at Torch Tower, which is 86 stories high, is now under control.

Woman in texting-suicide case is sentenced

Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman who urged her boyfriend to commit suicide in several text messages, was sentenced to 15 months in jail for involuntary manslaughter. Carter was 17 and her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, was 18 when he died of carbon monoxide poisoning in July 2014.

Also:

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Democrat, is becoming a Republican.

Harvards incoming class is majority nonwhite for the first time.

Dunkin Donuts is considering a name change.

Heres a first glimpse at Malala Yousafzais magical new picture book.

Today is International Beer Day. Here are three brews to try.

The Morning Brief is published Mondays through Fridays. Email Morning Brief writer Melissa Chan at melissa.chan@time.com.
How the planets formed is one of the great mysteries of astronomy, but scientists are finding some clues in the asteroid belt that are a window into the early days of our solar system. A team of researchers has identified a new family of asteroids that split off from the same parent rock 4 billion years ago, and their find offers a clearer picture of the space environment at the time the planets were coming together.

Experts debate whether the planets originated from rocky predecessors that grew slowly as tiny pieces of material clumped together or whether these planetesimals started as large chunks and grew from there. Understanding the formation of the planetesimals, the building blocks of planets, is a crucial problem in planetary science, according to a study in the journal Science. But the new asteroid discovery supports the theory that these rocks were born big.

Read: NASA Would Armageddon an Asteroid That Threatened Earth

This family is 4 billion years old, living in a universe that is roughly 4.6 billion years old.

I cant believe that we could see a family this old, study scientist Kevin Walsh, from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., told International Business Times. Were looking back at the history of the solar system.

The asteroid belt has seen many collisions between rocks over the years, with those collisions creating lots of smaller asteroid fragments. For this study, scientists identified a new group of asteroids that can be traced back to the same planetesimal from the early solar system, and it is one of the oldest families ever found.

Walsh said the team determined which of the numerous asteroids orbiting in the ring between Mars and Jupiter belonged to this one group by analyzing both their properties and their orbit. Related asteroids will have similar compositions and reflect light similarly, for starters. But relatives also reveal their connection through their formation, which is shaped like the letter V.

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asteroid-break

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

An asteroid collision creates a cluster of fragments that drifts apart over time, mostly as a function of how radiation from the sun pushes them around. Smaller pieces get pushed faster and farther until the fragments settle into a V-shape, with the largest piece anchoring the junction of the V as the little ones up top  are blasting off, Walsh said.

Corresponding study author Marco Delbo, from the Observatory of Cote dAzur in Nice, France, called it the signature of a family.

Part of what makes the ancient asteroid set so useful as a classification is knowing which rocks are not members of this or dozens of other previously identified families. Because the leftover, family-less asteroids they identified were larger than 20 miles across, the scientists got a better idea what planetesimals looked like back in the day.

Even though this is a view of the rocks that stayed within the asteroid belt rather than growing into planets, it is information that can help us better understand these pre-planetary bodies and the environment of the young solar system. And researchers say it points to big planetesimals that accumulated even more material and grew into planets.

Read: Is a 10th Planet Hiding Among the Asteroids in Our Solar System?

Its unclear why these planetesimals in the asteroid belt never grew into full-blown planets while others did.

Its a question that has been going on forever and is still not totally resolved, Delbo told IBT. To explain how you go from dust to planets has been incomplete and unsolved for many, many years.

According to Delbo, the next step for the research team is figuring out how big this ancient group of asteroids was when it was still one piece, pre-collision. That would offer further information about the sizes of objects in the young asteroid belt and how many planetesimals once existed there.

What is special about the solar system, what is special about the Earth, he said. We think the discovery of this family  it means something.

asteroid-belt-aerial

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 22:00:39|Editor: Song Lifang

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TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday the United States is not a trustable country to work with over international issues.

Speaking in his swear-in ceremony in the Iranian parliament, Rouhani criticized the United States for threatening the implementation of the nuclear deal.

He said that the Islamic republic would remain committed to the international nuclear deal and would not violate the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the six major powers two years ago.

"However, Iran would not be silent in the face of U.S. threats to the implementation of the deal," he said, adding that "Tehran would reciprocate every threatening move by Washington in this regard."
Rome (AFP) - A British model was drugged and abducted for a week in Italy last month by a British-based Pole who allegedly tried to auction her off as a sex slave on the dark web, Italian police said Saturday.

The unidentified 20-year-old was injected in the arm with the tranquiliser ketamine after going to what was a fake photo shoot at a venue near Milan's central station on July 11.

Her kidnapper and an accomplice allegedly stripped, photographed and bound the woman before driving her in the boot of a car from Milan to a country house in the tiny village of Borgial in the northwestern region of Piedmont.

Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, has been charged with orchestrating the kidnapping and given a version of events which the prosecutor in charge of the case described as barely credible.

Detectives are unclear as to whether Herba was serious about auctioning his victim or if it was simply a threat intended to extort 300,000 euros in Bitcoin from the model's agent and family.

No one took part in the online auction, so it was unclear if Herba had the necessary contacts to organise such an operation of was something of a fantasist, according to the police.

"Fantasist or not, what is clear is that he is a very dangerous man who drugged his victim as soon as she was kidnapped and put her inside a large travel bag in the boot of a car," Milan deputy prosecutor Paolo Storari told a press conference.

"His version of events is barely credible but clearly he does not deny that he was with her for the time she was missing," Storari said.

On July 17, for reasons that are not clear, Herba drove the woman back to Milan and released her close to the British Consulate, where he was arrested.

He had told the model that he could not go on holding her because she was a mother of a young child and such abductions were prohibited by "Black Death", a nefarious web-based group he claimed to belong to.

Police said they were not sure if the group actually existed.
Photo credit: Earl Gibson III / Getty

From Delish

While attempting to film scenes for 'Top Chef' in Boston, host Padma Lakshmi and a female producer were subject to threats, insults, and racist comments by several Teamsters, members of one of the country's biggest labor unions.

This week, 'Top Chef' producers testified in court against the four men, who are charged with attempting to extort a nonunion production company, ABC News reports. Lakshmi is expected to testify as well.

In a disturbing video shown in court, the men can be seen and heard calling the producer a "c" and a "f towel head." According to the trial brief and accounts by the producer, when Lakshmi's car pulled up, one of the men stuck his arm in the vehicle and said, "I'll smash your pretty little face in."

Another producer for the show also testified this week, saying she witnessed the incident and that Lakshmi was "visibly terrified."

On the same day, several production vehicles' tires were slashed, which Milton police confirm, though no arrests were made. According to Deadline, police said the Teamsters were within their rights to picket.

Five days prior to the June 10, 2014 run-in, one of the defendants is said to have approached the 'Top Chef' crew and demanded Teamsters be hired as drivers.

The four men have plead not guilty to the charges. A fifth Teamster, Mark Harrington, plead guilty to the same charges in 2016. He was sentenced to six months of home confinement, two years probation, a $10,000 fine and restitution of $24,023.

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By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic senators introduced two pieces of legislation on Thursday seeking to block President Donald Trump from firing the special counsel probing his ties to Russia, as Congress increasingly seeks to assert its authority on policy. Members of Congress from both parties have expressed concern that Trump might dismiss Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to determine whether there was collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow. The Republican president on May 9 fired FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing the investigation. He also recently criticized his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the probe. With signs that Mueller's investigation is intensifying, members of Congress sought to protect the special counsel, who was appointed on May 17. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday that Mueller had convened a grand jury in Washington to investigate the allegations of Russian meddling. The sources added that grand jury subpoenas had been issued in connection with a June 2016 meeting involving Trump's son, his son-in-law and a Russian lawyer. Moscow has denied any effort to influence the election, and Trump has disputed any allegations of collusion between his associates and Russia. "Our bill allows judicial review of any decision to terminate a counsel to make sure it's done for the reasons cited in the regulations rather than political motivation," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who co-sponsored one of the bills with Democratic Senator Cory Booker. A second, generally similar, measure was introduced by Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic Senator Chris Coons. Coons told reporters that he expected the two groups of senators would work together and seek more co-sponsors from both parties, to come up with a single bill. He said they were in discussions with the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the hope they would take up the bill, a step toward a vote in the full Senate. The measures were introduced as the Senate prepared to leave Washington for its August recess. Lawmakers will return in early September. Members of Congress, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, have recently been pursuing legislation seeking to increase Congress' influence on U.S. policy. Last week, lawmakers voted almost unanimously for a sweeping sanctions bill that gave Congress the right to review any Trump effort to ease or lift sanctions on Russia. Trump signed that bill into law on Wednesday. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney)
North Koreas missile and nuclear programs continue to draw the ire of President Donald Trump and the international community. Harsh economic sanctions are imposed on the country, so where is it making its money? A North Korean defector said a large way is smuggling.

Ri Jong Ho used to work in the high levels of the North Korean government helping the country bring in foreign income until gruesome executions made him want to leave Kim Jong Uns regime.

READ: US Launches Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Off California Amid North Korea Nuclear Threat

Ri said he decided to leave in 2013 when Kim executed his own uncle with an anti-aircraft gun, according to CNN Thursday. Ri called it a cruel and crude method of execution.

It was not just high-level officers, officials, but their families, their children, their followers, Ri said to CNN. It was not just once or twice a year  it was ongoing throughout the year, thousands of people being executed or purged.

Ri worked in a secretive department of the North Korean government called Office 39, which creates a slush fund for its leadership through foreign income.

While Ri said none of the operations the office does are illicit, but the U.S. government and others disagree.

Russian cyber security firm Kaspersky released a report in April saying North Korea was linked to bank hacks in 18 countries. The stolen money could be helping fund North Koreas missile and nuclear advances. This month, North Korea test-launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the longest range missiles the country had ever tested. The Union of Concerned Scientists claimed North Korea has the ability to hit many major American cities with their ICBMs.

In 2013, the Drug Enforcement Agency broke up a drug ring in Thailand, with connections to North Korea. The dealers were trafficking extremely pure methamphetamines believed to have been made in North Korea.

Smuggling is another boon for bringing cash into North Korea.

Story continues

Smuggling is conducted by any and every means you could imagine. Mostly larger items are done using ships, for example by filing a cargo list ... where what's written  is different from what is really being shipped, said Ri to CNN. On the open sea, the Yellow Sea, there are hundreds of fishing boats, both from China and North Korea, and all the smuggling is done by these so-called fishing boats.

Despite sanctions levied by the U.S. and the United Nations (U.N.) against North Korea, Ri said the government works hard to side step them by actions like changing North Korean companys names after theyve been sanctioned.

READ: Exploited North Korean Workers Sent To Russia

Ri explained the best way to go after North Korea is secondary sanctions, especially on Chinese businesses. China is North Koreas biggest trading partner and accounts for around 85 percent of North Korean imports, according to the U.N. in 2015.

China has made some moves on its own, such as curbing coal purchasing from North Korea in response to Uns aggressive missile testing, but Trump has grown increasingly impatient with China hoping that they would fix the problem for him.

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South Koreas spy agency has determined that some of its agents tampered with the 2012 election that put now-disgraced conservative President Park Geun-hye into the top job over liberal Moon Jae-in.

In an attempt to keep a conservative in power, The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said that the agency attempted to sway public opinion using internet experts and social media, according to the BBC.

The investigation has also revealed meddling attempts under Parks predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, who was president from 2008 to 2013. Park and Lee, both part of the same conservative political party and both caught in corruption scandals, were hardliners on North Korea.

The NIS investigation found that at least 30 teams of officials and internet-savvy citizens uploaded pro-conservative social media posts for two years before the 2012 election. Some of the comments described leftist candidates as North Korea sympathizers. (Left-leaning candidates like Moon have long advocated so-called sunshine policies, or greater rapprochement with Pyongyang.)

The teams were charged with spreading pro-government opinions and suppressing anti-government views, branding them as attempts by pro-North Korean forces to disrupt state affairs, the NIS report said, according to the Guardian.

The spy agency had already determined in 2013 that some intelligence officers had been directed to post thousands of online comments about politics, dipping their toes into the election. But the new conclusions, fruits of a task force created by the spy agency this summer, make clear that the NIS was even more ambitious.

Won Sei-hoon, the former director of NIS, is already on trial for tampering with the election, and could face up to four years in prison.

Park only narrowly beat Moon in 2012 to become the first female president of South Korea. She now stands trial on corruption and abuse of power charges, and could face life in prison. Parks popularity has been decreasing since last year when she was impeached for helping Choi Soon-sil, an old friend, coerce businesses into donating large sums of money to foundations that Choi controls.

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This may, Moon won a landslide victory. He has vowed to prevent the spy agency from meddling in any future elections and has pushed intelligence officials to focus on foreign affairs.

Predictably, the task forces conclusions on the spy agencys political meddling drew mixed reactions from South Koreas main parties. The center-left Peoples Party called the news unpardonable, while the conservative Liberty Korea Party decried some sort of political motive behind the findings.

Photo credit: JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images
In a press-conference confrontation earlier this week that has now gone viral, CNN reporter Jim Acosta, the child of Cuban immigrants, accused Stephen Miller, advisor to President Donald Trump, of defending an immigration-reform bill that violated the sacred words printed at the base of the Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired, your poor  Miller responded feebly that the poem had been added after the statue had been installed. He would have spoken to a deeper truth, however, if he had said that immigration policy is not designed to shelter the worlds huddled masses but to make America great. (Ill leave off the again.)

The legislation that Miller was defending is, itself, indefensible. The bill, introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), and loudly trumpeted by our trumpet-in-chief, would reduce immigration by half over the next decade despite overwhelming evidence that immigration boosts economic growth. It would cut the number of refugees the United States takes annually from 85,000 to 50,000, a pitiful figure at a time when Europe is besieged by refugees from Middle Eastern wars. The bill is a sop to the xenophobes who constitute a significant part of Trumps base; it should come as no surprise that white nationalists like Richard Spencer have affixed their seal of approval.

Nevertheless, the reaction to the bill reveals a kind of existential confusion among pro-immigration liberals. Immigration policy is not governed by compassion for the worlds downtrodden. Thats refugee policy. Refugees have a moral claim on the states from which they seek asylum. Immigrants do not. States take them in as a matter of national self-interest, not compassion or international law. Mark Silverman, an immigration advocate, took up Jim Acostas theme by observing sardonically, Maybe they should change the inscription on the Statue of Liberty to, give me your computer engineers and your high-paid professionals yearning to increase their rate of return. I hope they dont, if only because the line doesnt scan as well as the Emma Lazarus poem. But it wouldnt be as grotesque as he seems to think.

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Current law allows American citizens to bring in spouses, unmarried minor children, and parents; a more limited number of visas are available for adult children and siblings, as well as for the spouses and unmarried children of legal permanent residents. Almost two-thirds of immigrants are admitted through such family-reunification programs. The Cotton-Perdue bill would eliminate the provisions for adult children and siblings, known as family preference. It would further reduce immigration by ending the so-called diversity visa program, which allocates 55,000 visas annually to applicants from countries that have sent few citizens to the United States in recent years. Many of the beneficiaries are African, though others come from Europe.

The first provision of the proposed legislation has been denounced as cruel; the second, as racist. In fact, both were part of the 2013 immigration-reform legislation supported by the Obama administration and passed by the Senate before dying in the House. That bill, forged by the bipartisan Gang of Eight, would have established a merit-based program that distributed visas according to a points system based on family ties and work skills  which is just what the Cotton-Perdue bill also proposes to do. (Though the new legislation, in a nod to the poisonous nationalism of our day, would also require English-language skills.) The 2013 bill, in short, would have beckoned computer engineers to our shores. And it would have discarded diversity in favor of the ability to contribute to the American economy.

The reason why the 2013 bill was a serious attempt at reform, and the Cotton-Perdue bill is not, is that the Gang of Eight incorporated changes in the visa system into a larger effort to rethink the immigration system. The bill would have provided a 13-year path to citizenship for illegal immigrants  the killer provision for right-wingers in the House  improvements in border control, and an increase in visa allotments for high-skilled as well as low-skilled workers. The premise of the bill was that immigration, if shaped properly, was good for the country; it would have increased the total number of legal immigrants while changing their composition.

The current Senate bill, by contrast, is predicated on the idea that low-skilled immigrants are bad for the United States. Donald Trump introduced the bill by declaring that immigrants are not going to come in and just immediately collect welfare  something which they are currently legally prohibited from doing. Trump also said that the bill would reduce poverty, increase wages, and save taxpayers billions and billions of dollars.

Democrats volleyed back with studies showing that immigration increases economic growth, and that immigrants do not take jobs from American workers. The evidence for the first is incontrovertible. It is, of course, the second claim that has turned immigration into a zero-sum proposition for so many Americans, especially those with lower levels of education and skills. Here the evidence is more equivocal. Immigrants do seem to crowd out some natives in the competition for jobs not requiring a high-school degree.

You do not have to be a nativist or a Trump supporter to fear that immigration, like free trade, can harm some Americans even as it helps the country overall. And you certainly dont have to be an America-first nationalist to insist that immigration serve the interests of the country rather than that of high-tech employers or agribusiness, which is what Stephen Miller was getting at when he said in his fateful confrontation that special interests were behind the argument for increasing the flow of low-skilled immigrants. A sensible immigration policy, if one could ever be enacted, would almost certainly take more people whose skills match the needs of the American economy, and fewer  as a fraction of the overall total, if not in absolute numbers  who happen to be a relative of a citizen or legal resident. If thats not in the spirit of the Statute of Liberty, thats because, as Miller put it, the statue symbolizes Americas commitment to liberty, not its immigration policy.

I have written in the past that liberals will not win the epochal struggle against anti-liberalism simply by standing on the ramparts and shouting their convictions. They need to distinguish between what is legitimate and illegitimate in the anti-liberal credo and to think anew about how to meet legitimate concerns. Thats the only way to make sure that Donald Trump, and all he stands for, becomes only a dreadful footnote in our national narrative.

Photo credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Floods have killed 27 people in Thailand, stoking tension in the politically divided country, with an opposition figure on Friday accusing the ruling junta of being slow to respond to the disaster. Ten of Thailand's 77 provinces have been inundated in the middle of the annual rainy season, causing damage estimated at $300 million, with the northeastern stronghold of the Shinawatra political family particularly hard-hit. "Supporters in the northeast felt the response was slow, that they were left out and had the floods been in a pro-military zone it might have been faster," said Thida Thawornseth, a senior member of the opposition "red shirt" movement. The "red shirts", or the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, backed the governments of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister, former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose opponents back the traditional establishment. The governments led by the Shinawatras were booted out in coups in 2006 and 2014. The "red shirts" are loathed by the mostly Bangkok-based military-royalist elite who have accused the Shinawatra populist governments of corruption. The junta, which took power after the 2014 coup, has kept a tight lid on dissent by detaining and arresting its critics, some of them "red shirt" supporters. But analysts say the floods, coupled with a looming verdict in a criminal case that accuses Yingluck of mismanaging a rice-buying scheme, are fuelling underlying tension. Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd denied that the floods and Yingluck's trial had put political pressure on the government, however. "It doesn't pressure the government, but spurs the state to work harder to resolve people's problems," he told Reuters. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, head of the junta, visited the northeastern province of Sakon Nakhon this week to inspect the progress of efforts to drain away flood water. In 2011, the worst floods in half a century killed more than 900 people and caused major industrial disruption. Yingluck came under fire for mismanaging them. NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE Supporters of Yingluck have vowed to descend en masse outside the Supreme Court in Bangkok when a verdict in the case is delivered on Aug. 25. If found guilty, she faces up to 10 years in prison. Rising social tension is a "major headwind" to economic reform in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy, Eurasia Group said in a note on Friday. "Opponents of the junta, including the Pheu Thai party, have criticized the lack of warnings to residents and businesses, though the junta's handling of the aftermath has been more effective," it said, referring to the party once led by Thaksin, whose parties have won every election since 2001. "Taken together, the floods and Yingluck's trial will intensify "red shirt" resentment of the junta and exacerbate rural-urban and north-south tensions in the country." (Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
When the latest Republican attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act failed in late July, President Donald Trump could have called out any of the three GOP senators who killed the effort.

He chose Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and this has so far proven to be a poor choice.

SEE ALSO: Forget Trump's wall  this brewery wants a beer bar on the U.S.-Mexico border

The president sent this tweet after the 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

Murkowski responded later that day on CNN, but her response was a mostly mild statement about being focused on her constituents and the work ahead.

But a few folks noticed that, just before the Senate went into August recess, Murkowski closed the chamber's business by announcing that the Senate would hold "pro forma" sessions every few days in August. Pro forma sessions are a procedural motion that prevents the president from appointing anyone during the recess month to a position that would normally require confirmation by the Senate. The motion passed without a dissenting vote.

Senate to meet in pro forma sessions on August 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25, 29 and September 1. Next votes Sept 5  Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) August 3, 2017

The move is a blatant rebuke to Trump's authority, but Murkowski says she only did it because she "asked to read the final orders" as a "courtesy" since she was on the Senate floor, and Democrats "would not agree to adjourn without them."

The pro forma sessions come amid some fear that he might fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and try to appoint someone who would then fire special counsel Robert Mueller, the man in charge of investigating the Trump administration's ties with the Russian government. The attorney general has recused himself from investigations into possible Trump-Moscow collusion, as he aided the Trump campaign on its way to the White House.

The pro-forma sessions mean a Republican senator will have to show up to the Senate once every few days to briefly preside over a chamber of one, before heading out.
Violent turbulence rocked an American Airlines flight traveling to the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago Wednesday night, injuring 30 passengers. According to local media, three passengers received further medical treatment at a health facility after the plane landed.

"On Wednesday, August 2 at 9 p.m., American Airlines Flight 2713 contacted the ATC [Air Traffic Control] Tower to advise that they experienced severe turbulence while en route from Miami to Port-of-Spain and would require medical assistance upon arrival at the Piarco International Airport as there were injuries on board. The Authority and emergency response agencies arrived on site immediately to lend support," the Airport Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (AATT) said in a statement, adding that "three (3) persons were taken to the Arima Health Facility to seek further medical attention.

Read: Lena Dunham Slams American Airlines For Transphobic Talk

An audio recording acquired by the T&T Guardian revealed that the pilot of the plane informed Air Traffic Control that they were trying to stabilize the aircraft for landing. Medical assistance is waiting on your arrival, the ATC told the pilot.

The plane, which flew from Miami, was forced to make an emergency landing at the Piarco International Airport.

One of the passengers spoke to a local media outlet, saying she was left traumatized following the incident.

It was like a nightmare. I remembered going into the washroom and thinking to myself Please Jesus, I dont want to die on this plane, she told T&T Guardian.

The passenger, who identified herself as Stacy Mohammed, was traveling with her 15-year-old son Antonio after a ten-day vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, St Croix. According to the 35-year-old, the incident occurred two-and-a-half hours into the flight.

Mohammed shared with the local media the ordeal of other passengers, saying: Screams filled the cabin. I looked at my son to see if he was okay. He had hit his head very hard on the right side and above the eye, which up to now remains swollen.

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The flight from St Croix was smooth, same airline but was very good. When we left Miami at 5.36 p.m., very shortly after takeoff I knew something was wrong. I was very heavy. It was a rough flight and had a lot of drops due to the air pockets caused by the turbulence, Mohammed said, giving details about the flight.

We had about one hour again to reach Piarco so I decided to go to the wash room. While in there I had to hold on for my life I felt like. I prayed because I did not want to die in there. When I came out I had to almost creep back to my seat. When I got there, a few minutes after my son and I flew off our seats as there was a big drop, she added.

Mohammed, who received injuries to the head, said an elderly couple just behind her was more seriously injured due to the turbulence. One of the mans tooth broke and his wife hit her head.

According to Mohammed, all passengers had seatbelts on as the crew members had warned them of severe turbulence.

Read: United Airlines Leaves Canadian Teenager Behind In Connecticut

Mohammed expressed her disappointment about the airline not contacting them despite taking their information.

"All our information was taken by the airline crew members but up to now, I have not received a phone call from them to find out how my son and I are doing. Very disappointing. I intend to go and seek further medical treatment for myself and my son by a private doctor, she said.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 22:00:41|Editor: Lu Hui

Suspects in telecom and online fraud cases are brought back to China from Fiji at Changchun Longjia International Airport, Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 5, 2017. A total of 77 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been brought back to China from Fiji, the Ministry of Public Security announced Saturday. The suspects are accused in more than 50 cases involving more than 6 million yuan (892,000 U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Lin Hong)

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A total of 77 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been brought back to China from Fiji, the Ministry of Public Security announced Saturday.

It was the first time for Chinese police to bring back so many suspects from an Oceanian country.

The suspects are accused in more than 50 cases involving over 6 million yuan (892,000 U.S. dollars).

On Sept. 22, 2016, one of the victims in northeast China's Jilin Province was swindled out of 1.3 million yuan and committed suicide, which triggered large-scale investigations at provincial and state levels.

An illegal online gambling and lottery gang was soon revealed, directing to more than 200 suspects based in China, Indonesia and Fiji, with nearly 100 million yuan illegal gains involved. Victims were from over 20 provinces and municipalities across China.

Chinese police sent a team to Fiji on July 2 to work with local police. On July 18, they took action, destroying five dens, arresting 77 suspects and confiscating equipment, including mobile phones, computers and bank cards.

In the meantime, police busted eight dens and two technical teams, arresting 83 suspects in China.

In a separate case, the ministry announced on Friday that it had brought 143 such suspects to China from Indonesia. Another 10 suspects, who had been arrested, remained in Indonesia under investigation. Their cases involved more than 20 million yuan, said the ministry.
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. cities that refuse to step up efforts to focus on crimes committed by illegal immigrants will not be allowed to participate in a new crime reduction training program unveiled earlier this year by the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Thursday. In making the announcement, Sessions singled out four local police departments that had expressed interest in the new Public Safety Partnership Program, saying they first had to answer a list of questions by Aug. 18 confirming they do not have any "sanctuary" policies to shield illegal immigrants from possible deportation by ensuring they will allow federal immigration officials access to local jails. "Cities and states with so-called 'sanctuary' policies make all of us less safe," Sessions said. The four police departments that must respond are Albuquerque, New Mexico; Baltimore, Maryland; and San Bernardino and Stockton, California. "Baltimore is a welcoming city. We do not enforce federal immigration laws," said Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, adding that when cities were initially selected for the program, there was no formal selection process and that Baltimore does not control the local jail. Jarrod Burguan, the police chief of San Bernardino, said his department first expressed interest in a similar program during the Obama administration, and remains interested in participating. He added San Bernardino is not a "sanctuary" city, it does not control the local jail, and he will answer the department's questions. Representatives from the other two police departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sessions' announcement reflects part of a broader policy push by President Donald Trump to crack down on illegal immigration. He has urged Congress to support funding the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the administration has moved to dramatically widen the net of illegal immigrants targeted for deportation. The National Public Safety Partnership is a program launched in June that involves a three-year initiative geared toward areas with high rates of violent crime. Twelve cities were selected when it was first launched. Some municipalities have pushed back against the Trump administration's immigration policies. A U.S. judge last month refused to remove a block on an executive order by Trump that would have withheld federal funds from sanctuary cities, which do not use municipal funds or resources to help advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez on Thursday called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop making arrests in courthouses amid concerns it has a chilling effect on local policing and is sweeping up those with low-level misdemeanor cases. Rachael Yong Yow, an ICE spokeswoman, said the agency's arrests are carried out "on a case-by-case basis." (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York; editing by G Crosse and Lisa Shumaker)
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States could shortly broaden talks on a push for stronger U.N. sanctions on North Korea to include all 15 Security Council members, signaling a likely deal with China on new measures, diplomats said on Thursday. Since North Korea's July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the United States has been negotiating with Pyongyang ally China on a draft resolution to impose new sanctions on North Korea, which fired a second ICBM last Friday, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. "We have been working very hard for some time and we certainly hope that this is going to be a consensus resolution," China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi told Reuters on Thursday. Some diplomats said the United States could give the draft resolution to all 15 council members as early as Thursday. Typically, the United States and China have agreed sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, China, Russia, France or Britain to be adopted. The United States has been informally keeping Britain and France in the loop on the negotiations, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said China had been sharing the draft and negotiating with Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and Washington has threatened to impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang. But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, on Friday that China would continue to fully and strictly implement Security Council resolutions on North Korea, the ministry said. Haley said on Sunday the United States was "done talking about North Korea" and China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger U.N. sanctions. But she has also acknowledged that Russia's engagement on the draft resolution would be the "true test." Russia noted on Thursday that the permanent five (P5) veto powers had yet to formally discuss the draft. It was not immediately clear if poor relations between Russia and the United States, which imposed new unilateral sanctions on Russia on Wednesday, would hamper the negotiations. "Even if there is an agreement between the U.S. and China, it doesn't mean there is an agreement between the P5 members," said Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, who met with Liu earlier on Thursday and discussed a possible resolution. "Maybe there is a bilateral agreement (between Beijing and Washington), but that's not a universal one," he said, adding that while he was aware of what might be in the resolution he had not seen "the draft as it stands now." The U.S. mission to the United Nations declined to comment. Moscow has disagreed with assessments by Western powers that Pyongyang has launched two long-range missiles, saying they were mid-range. Diplomats say China and Russia only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible U.N. sanctions. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas, one of the most prominent Latina journalists in the country, announced her plans to leave the network on Thursday.

During her nearly four decades at Univision, the Mexican-American journalist co-hosted both the evening newscast and the Sunday show Aqui y Ahora. The seven-time Emmy-winning journalist will remain in her current role until December.

Salinas delivered the news to viewers during the evening newscast, along with an inspirational speech about what shell be doing next.

Con este mensaje @MariaESalinas anuncia que dejara @Univision despues de 36 anos presentando el noticiero. pic.twitter.com/QbwvQgP7DQ  Univision Noticias (@UniNoticias) August 3, 2017

Salinas told viewers, in Spanish, that she would be leaving Univision to work as an independent journalist and producer, among other things.

Im taking with me an abundance of experience acquired during more than three decades: unparalleled experiences, the joy of having shared moments with a wonderful team of journalists all these years, from whom Ive learned a lot, personally and professionally, she said. But above all, I take with me the honor of having had the opportunity to be allowed into your homes every day, trying to help you better understand this complex world we live in.

Salinas was also clear about the fact that she had not been fired, did not quit and is not retiring, but that she is simply going somewhere else. She thanked Daniel Coronell, President of Univision News, for trying to convince her to renew her contract and explained her decision had to do with following her dreams.

I always tell young people to fight for their dreams, to not give up, Salinas said. And now its time for me to practice what I preach, to do things that Ive dreamed of doing for many years. Its never too late.

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In April, Salinas seemed to foreshadow her departure from Univision with the debut of her new show The Real Story With Maria Elena Salinas on Investigation Discovery. In the series, the journalist reexamines headline-making criminal cases and offers new perspectives.

Univision followed up Salinas announcement with a lengthy press release about her time with the network and highlights from her career. Both Coronell and Randy Falco, President and CEO of Univision Communications, praised Salinas for her work with the Latino community and impressive career.

Fellow journalists at the network, including co-anchor of the evening newscast Jorge Ramos, expressed a similar sentiment online after the announcement.

Hoy @MariaESalinas anuncio el fin de una era. Hizo historia y cambio muchas vidas. Fueron 30 anos juntos. Nos va a hacer mucha falta.  JORGE RAMOS (@jorgeramosnews) August 3, 2017

Today [Maria Elena Salinas] announced the end of an era, Ramos wrote on Twitter. She made history and changed many lives. Its been 30 years together. Were going to really miss her.

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Washington (AFP) - US special operations forces are helping Emirati and local forces as they conduct new operations against Al-Qaeda in Yemen, the Pentagon said Friday.

The operations center on Shabwa province, where Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has an established presence.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the aim was to "degrade" AQAP's ability to coordinate external terrorist operations and plotting.

The United States considers AQAP to be Al-Qaeda's most dangerous branch, and a long-running drone war augmented by occasional raids against the group has intensified since President Donald Trump took office in January.

"Our support there is a continuation of what we have been doing since January," Davis said.

"It involves a very small number of US forces on the ground who are primarily there to facilitate the flow of information," he added, though he noted that "combat can always happen."

The Pentagon announcement came after the United Arab Emirates on Thursday said it was launching a "major" operation.

"The operation is being closely supported by a combined UAE and US enabling force," the UAE embassy said in a statement to AFP.

The US has conducted more than 80 strikes since February 28 in Yemen, Davis said.

Soon after taking office, Trump ordered an airborne raid that ended up with the deaths of a US Navy SEAL and several Yemeni civilians in Baida province, south of Marib.
By Eyanir Chinea and Deisy Buitrago CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Friday inaugurated a new legislative superbody that is expected to rewrite the constitution and give vast new powers to the ruling Socialist Party, defying worldwide condemnation that the new assembly undermines democratic freedoms. The 545-member assembly unanimously elected well-known allies of President Nicolas Maduro to its leadership in a show of unity, signaling that the socialists have put aside differences to focus on consolidating the all-powerful body. Former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez, a close Maduro ally was elected to the presidency while former Vice President Aristobulo Isturiz will serve as vice president. The leadership notably excludes Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello, a long-time rival for power to Maduro, who himself put Rodriguez's name forward. "There is no humanitarian crisis here, what we have is love, what we have is a crisis of the right-wing fascists," said Rodriguez, dressed in a bright red pantsuit, in an opening speech that paid homage to late socialist leader Hugo Chavez. "The people arrived with fighting spirit, on their feet." The assembly will function in the same downtown Caracas palace complex as the existing opposition-run congress, which could potentially be dissolved by the new all-powerful body. The two bodies are expected to hold sessions in parallel, separated by an ornate cobblestone courtyard. The largely ceremonial installation of the constituent assembly offered few hints as what its first moves would be. Leaders including Maduro and Cabello have in recent days suggested it would quickly move against Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who broke with the government this year and described the assembly election as a fraud. Governments ranging from Latin American neighbors to the United States and European Union have condemned the assembly, with the Vatican making a last minute plea for authorities to suspend it. Brazil on Friday recommended that Venezuela be suspended from trade bloc Mercosur until it returns to democracy. MODEST PROTESTS Protests against the inauguration of the assembly by the opposition were relatively modest. Demonstrators have for four months been clashing with security forces, often building barricades and lobbing rocks at security forces. At least 125 people have been killed in the unrest. "Today they're enjoying a pyrrhic victory, without a doubt," said opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara, who joined a group of opposition sympathizers in an upscale neighborhood of Caracas. "We're starting a new stage of the struggle, and we're finishing all the discussions within the coalition to put forward a new agenda." Socialist Party officials arrived at congress carrying portraits of independence hero Simon Bolivar and Chavez, whose image was removed from the legislature's main hall by the opposition legislators when they took over in January 2016. "The constituent assembly is love, peace and loyalty," said Raquel Rodriguez, a 57-year-old government worker who joined the march. "A lot of people have not been loyal to this (movement), but everyone here has." The assembly's election on Sunday prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to label Maduro a dictator, a term the opposition has long used to describe the unpopular leader. Opposition leader Antonio Ledezma, who had encouraged protests against the constituent assembly, on Friday morning was returned to house arrest after being briefly put back in prison. Ledezma and fellow opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez had been taken to prison from house arrest early on Tuesday. It was not immediately evident if Lopez would also be returned to his home. Panama on Friday granted political asylum to two justices recently appointed by the opposition Congress to an alternative Supreme Court. Four other justices named to the alternate tribunal remain holed up in the residence of Chile's ambassador. (Writing by Hugh Bronstein and Brian Ellsworth; Additional reporting by Andreina Aponte, Eyanir Chinea and Enrique Pretel; Editing by W Simon and Andrew Hay)
There is a grand jury in Washington DC. The special counsels team is full of experts in financial crime. On Russia, the president can feel the net closing

The White House, Washington, seen at night. Photograph: Saul Loeb/Getty Images/AFP Creative

The legal net around Donald Trumps beleaguered presidency tightened dramatically this week with news that a grand jury has been established a few hundred yards from the White House, to pursue evidence of collusion with the Kremlin.



It is a troubling development for the president, for several reasons. In the US legal system, a grand jury has broad powers to issue subpoenas, and ultimately indictments, at the request of prosecutors.

The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US election, former FBI chief Robert Mueller, had been using a sitting grand jury in Virginia to authorise his teams demands for documents and witnesses. The convening of a separate grand jury in Washington suggests the Mueller team  working in a suite of offices a few blocks walk from where the 20-odd jurors sit  is going to be making extensive use of it. It will not be hospitable terrain for the president. Trump won only 4% of the vote in the District of Columbia.

This sets the scene of action for criminal trials, where charges will be laid, in the worst possible jurisdiction for Trump, said Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School. Compared to Virginia, Republicans in DC are few and far between.

The grand jury is also clear evidence that the inquiry is widening, not tapering off. It suggests that the special counsel is exploring possible crimes committed inside the District of Columbia.

Muellers investigators are reported by the New York Times to have asked the White House for documents related to the administrations first, short-lived national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who resigned after being found to have concealed the full nature of his contacts with the Russian ambassador to Washington, and who is also under scrutiny for his lobbying work for Turkey during the campaign.

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Meanwhile, a report from Vox says that senior FBI officials have been told to consider themselves potential witnesses in an investigation of Trump for obstruction of justice. The former FBI director James Comey, Muellers successor in the post, has testified that Trump tried to put pressure on him to drop the Flynn investigation.

After Comey rebuffed the pressure and refused to swear personal loyalty to Trump, he was fired, on 9 May. Trump denies trying to coerce Comey into dropping the case but this is not simply one mans word against anothers. Comey made extensive notes and kept an inner circle of top FBI aides informed of daily developments.

This sets the scene of action for criminal trials  in the worst possible jurisdiction for Trump Scott Horton, Columbia Law School

In the investigation into the obstruction of justice, the White House is the potential crime scene. That is where Trump contrived to be alone on two occasions with Comey and where the alleged arm-twisting took place.

In the Watergate scandal, to which the Russian influence affair is drawing inevitable comparisons, it was the cover-up that ultimately proved fatal to Richard Nixons presidency. It is increasingly possible the same fate could befall Trump.

On Tuesday, after adamant denials from Trumps lawyer, the White House admitted that Trump had weighed in as any father would in drafting a misleading statement about his sons June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer with strong Kremlin and intelligence links.

The statement said the meeting was about adoptions of Russian children by US nationals. An email exchange released later by Donald Trump Jr showed that the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was in fact offering damaging material on Hillary Clinton.

Reuters has reported that the grand jury in Washington had already issued subpoenas connected to that meeting at Trump Tower in New York, another sign that the investigation is closing in on the Trump family. Trump Jrs rapid emailed response to the Russian offer of dirt on Clinton  If its what you say I love it  suggests at least an appetite for collusion, like his fathers own call a month later, in July 2016, for Russia to find thousands of Clintons missing emails. The Trump campaign later denied that public appeal represented an encouragement for Moscow to hack his opponents private server. Trump Jr has claimed nothing came of the June meeting with Veselnitskaya.

Grand jury subpoenas could oblige the presidents son and other participants at the meeting, including Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to testify under oath about what really happened in Trump Tower.

Manafort, who ran the campaign for three months in the summer of 2016, has been widely reported to be a focal point of the Mueller inquiry and the FBI investigation before that. Having worked as an adviser to Moscow-backed figures in Ukraine, he represents one of the links between Trump and Moscow. CNN reported on Friday that investigators had found intercepts of Russian operatives referring to conversations with Manafort about coordinating the release of information damaging to Clinton possibly hacked from the Democratic National Committee.

A spokesman for Manafort, Jason Maloni, rejected the report. Paul Manafort did not collude with the Russian government to undermine the 2016 election or to hack the DNC, Maloni said in an email to the Guardian. Other than that comment, we arent going to respond to anonymous officials illegally peddling secondhand conspiracy theories. But the Justice Department, and the courts if necessary, should hold someone to account for the flood of unlawful government leaks targeting Mr Manafort.

This is a wood chipper

It is evident, however, that the scrutiny of Manafort, the now infamous Trump Tower meeting and the obstruction of justice issue are just fragments of a far bigger inquiry. Almost all the 16 lawyers now on Muellers team are specialists in money-laundering and other financial crimes, suggesting that the investigation will spend much of its time unwinding the complexities of the Trump and Kushner real estate empires, looking for where the money has come from to keep them afloat. The latest hire, Greg Andres, is a former deputy assistant attorney general who used to run a unit that targeted foreign bribery.

Their lives are going to be subjected to scrutiny. No one is getting out unscathed. Thats why Trump is so terrified Malcolm Nance, former US intelligence officer

The Mueller dream-team now has the top 14 financial crimes prosecutors in America, said Malcolm Nance, a former US intelligence officer and the author of a book on Moscows role in the 2016 US election, The Plot to Hack America. Nance predicted that the Mueller investigation would look into every corner of Trump and Kushners past business dealings.

The wheels of justice grind finely and slow but this is a wood chipper, and all these various items and going to get fed into it  Flynn, [Jared] Kushner, Trump, Manafort and anyone who has been assigned to the White House over this period, Nance said. Their entire lives are going to be subjected to scrutiny. No one is getting out unscathed. Thats why Trump is so terrified.

In a New York Times interview last month, Trump appeared to suggest that a probe of his financial dealings beyond direct links with Russia would represent a violation, a possible red line which Mueller should not cross. He would not be drawn on whether he would seek to have the special counsel sacked in that eventuality, because I dont think its going to happen.

Firing Mueller would come at a high price, triggering uproar in Washington, alienating some Republicans in Congress. Two bipartisan bills were drafted this week aimed at blocking Trump from doing just that.

Even if the president managed to rid himself of the troublesome special counsel, he would have no guarantee that he could kill off the investigation. The work of other members of the team and of the grand juries would continue.

Trump has also been reported to be exploring the possibility of issuing pardons to family members and other associates found to have broken the law, including even pardoning himself, a stretch of executive prerogative into uncharted territory.

For now, his strategy is to seek to drain the legitimacy of the special counsel and the FBI, ridiculing the investigation as a witch hunt. His supporters are counter-investigating the Mueller team, looking for weaknesses and points of leverage and portraying the investigators as operatives of an amorphous deep state.

They cant beat us at the voting booths, so theyre trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want, Trump told a rally in West Virginia on Thursday, fueling the mood of paranoia among his most committed supporters.

That strategy looks ahead to an endgame in which the Mueller investigation comes into its conclusion, next year or possibly even later than that. The grand juries could issue indictments of Trump associates along the way, but when it comes to the president himself, Muellers judgment will most likely come in the form of a report to Congress.

It will then be up to the House of Representatives whether to proceed with impeachment and then the Senate to decide his guilt. Those will be political judgments. Until now, only a few Republicans have broken ranks openly against Trump.

The presidents general approval ratings have slid to the mid-30s, but they are still high among his core supporters in battleground states, who believe fervently in deep state conspiracies.

Any Republicans voting for impeachment would have to watch their back. The unfolding investigation could topple a president, or could just as easily leave the country even more grievously divided and wounded than it is now.
(WASHINGTON)  The White Houses anger about leaks is growing, and the Trump administration is stepping up efforts to crack down on them.

The attorney general and the national intelligence director are set Friday to discuss what the Justice Department calls leaks of classified material threatening national security.

A presidential adviser is raising the possibility of lie detector tests for the small number of people in the West Wing and elsewhere with access to transcripts of President Donald Trumps phone calls. The Washington Post has published transcripts of his conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia.

Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway tells Fox & Friends that its easier to figure out whos leaking than the leakers may realize.

And might lie detectors be used? She says: Well, they may, they may not.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, are holding a news conference at the Justice Department. Theyll be joined Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, and William Evanina, the governments top counterintelligence executive.

Trump complained on Twitter last week that Sessions was weak when it comes to cracking down on leaks of classified information.
John Kelly and H.R. McMaster are making their mark on the White House national security team, banishing allies of former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn and chief strategist Steve Bannon from key foreign policy roles. The ongoing shakeup follows months of turmoil and internal bickering on the National Security Council, and comes amid President Trumps frustrations with his key foreign policy aides over the situation in Afghanistan.

Trump lashed out at Congress a day after signing a new sanctions bill, blaming lawmakers for the deteriorating relationship with Russia. Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low. You can thank Congress, the same people that cant even give us HCare! he tweeted. Left unsaid was that Russian relations are at a low over Russians election related hacking, its annexation of Crimea and proxy-war in Eastern Ukraine and its other destabilizing efforts around the globe. All the while, Trump and the White House have remained silent on Vladimir Putin forcing reductions to staff counts at U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia.

Short-lived White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci may be gone, but he doesnt want to be forgotten. A memo he prepared for the president on his plans for the office leaked Wednesday, and hes readying to address the public on Friday.

The White House comes under fire for its plans to cut legal immigration. Trumps border force plan faces criticism. And the McMaster-Bannon war.

Here are your must reads:

Must Reads

Trump Says U.S.Losing Afghan War in Tense Meeting With Generals

Trump has yet to approve Afghanistan strategy [NBC]

White House Purging Michael Flynn Allies From National Security Council

Shake-up comes as McMasters tenure is in doubt and Kelly asserts his power [New York Times]

Read the Communications Plan Scaramucci Wrote to WH Staffers

Ousted Communications Director had big plans [CNN]

Inside the McMaster-Bannon War

Under the new chief of staff, H.R. McMaster and Steve Bannon have gone to the mattresses [The Weekly Standard]

Story continues

Trump Urged Mexican President to End his Public Defiance on Border Wall, Transcript Reveals

I am the worlds greatest person that does not want to let people into the country, he told the Australian Prime Minister [Washington Post]

Sound Off

I dont want to get off into a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of liberty and lighting the world. Its a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem that youre referring to, that was added later, is not actually a part of the original Statue of Liberty.  White House Senior Advisor for Policy Stephen Miller on the presidents immigration plan and the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty

The conversations took place. They just simply didnt take place over a phone call; that he had them in person.  White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders revising President Trumps comments about supposed phone calls with the President of Mexico and the leader of the Boy Scouts

Bits and Bites

Trump plan to hire 15,000 border and immigration personnel isnt justified, federal watchdog says [Washington Post]

Trumps new top aide assures Sessions his job is safe [Associated Press]

The Conversations Took Place. White House Denies President Trump Lied About Boy Scouts Call [TIME]

Heres How the White House Would Cut Legal Immigration in Half [TIME]

White House: Statue of Liberty Doesnt Represent U.S. Immigration Policy [TIME]

An NSC Staffer Is Forced Out Over a Controversial Memo [The Atlantic]

Russia Says New U.S. Sanctions Amount to Declaring Trade War [Associated Press]

The story behind our Trump golf story (and a certain explosive quote) [Golf.com]

Trump nominee Sam Clovis blasted progressives as race traders and race traitors in old blog posts [CNN]

8 things the Trump team denied, and then later confirmed [Washington Post]

Zuckerberg hires former Clinton pollster Joel Benenson [Politico]

Scaramucci to hold online event Friday [CNN]
Several studies show that yoga is an effective natural remedy for depression. (Photo: Getty Images)

Theres some real power in doing downward-facing dog.

According to a number of studies being presented at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C., practicing yoga multiple times a week can be an effective treatment for depression, along with using traditional remedies.

One investigation focused on the benefits of hatha yoga, defined as a yoga system that emphasizes physical movements mixed with meditative and breathing exercises. Over approximately a two-month period, 23 male veterans were instructed to attend classes twice a week. Using a scale of 1 through 10, the men rated their enjoyment level at an average of 9.4. But even more noteworthy, the participants who had elevated depression showed a significant reduction in depression symptoms once the course had ended.

Bikram yoga, sometimes referred to as hot yoga (which is a branch of hatha yoga), was the subject of two additional studies highlighted during the convention, which also concluded that adults who took classes two times a week for eight weeks had the same positive results. And the findings from one of these reviews stated that volunteers further reported improvement in quality of life and optimism, as well as cognitive and physical functioning.

In fact, the research is so promising that the U.S. military is currently creating its own yoga-based treatment programs.

Yoga has become increasingly popular in the West, and many new yoga practitioners cite stress-reduction and other mental health concerns as their primary reason for practicing, Lindsey Hopkins, PhD, from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said in a press release. But the empirical research on yoga lags behind its popularity as a first-line approach to mental health.

However, this isnt the first group of studies to highlight the potential mental health benefits that may be derived from this ancient practice. Earlier in 2017, research published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine stated that people who suffer from major depressive disorder should consider participating in yoga and deep breathing classes twice a week, which were found to improve mood, regardless if someone was taking antidepressants.

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Also, investigators from the University of Michigan discovered that pregnant women reported significant reductions in depressive symptoms, as well as a stronger bond with their babies in the womb, after attending a 10-week mindfulness yoga intervention (which combined meditative focus with physical poses).

At this time, we can only recommend yoga as a complementary approach, likely most effective in conjunction with standard approaches delivered by a licensed therapist, concluded Hopkins. Clearly, yoga is not a cure-all. However, based on empirical evidence, there seems to be a lot of potential.

Namaste.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, please follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.
Marcus Hutchins is reportedly being held in Nevada - AP

The young computer expert who stopped the WannaCry global cyber attack could face decades in a US prison following accusations that he helped create and sell a malicious software that targeted bank accounts.

Marcus Hutchins, who saved the NHS from cyber criminals, could face a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison in the US if he is found guilty of the charges.

Hutchins, who was at a hacking conference in Las Vegas when he was arrested by the FBI, faces six counts of helping to create, spread and maintain the banking Trojan Kronos between 2014 and 2015.

According to the US Department of Justice indictment, the alleged offences took place between July 2014 and July 2015.

Hutchins was jointly charged with another individual who was not named.

The indictment alleged that Hutchins "created the Kronos malware" and the other person later sold it for $2,000 (1,500) online.

"The maximum statutory sentence he could face is decades, roughly 40 years," said Tor Ekeland, a US lawyer who specialises in defending alleged cyber criminals. "Would he get that? I doubt it, it would be a bizarre outcome. Is it possible? It sure is."

Hutchins is due to appear in court later on Friday, when he could plead guilty or not guilty. If he pleads guilty he could be sentenced to a short prison sentence or supervised release. If he pleads not guilty, he will be moved to Wisconsin, where the charges have been brought, to face trial, which could start any time between three months and three years, Ekeland said.

"The main thing to do now is enter a not guilty plea as soon as you can, get him out on bail, and then you've got some breathing room," said Ekeland.

But he added it is "highly likely" Hutchins will be refused bail, because he is a foreign national in the US and could be deemed a flight risk.

Ekeland described the allegations against Hutchins as "very thin". "There's not a single allegation that he made any money or anybody came to any harm from it," he said. "The indictment is very thin. It's legally bizarre and there's little detail."

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Hutchins was arrested at an airport in Las Vegas on Wednesday shortly before he was due to fly back to the UK.

Priority boarding so you can add to the time you're sat on a plane that is nowhere near ready to fly   MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) 2 August 2017

The Kronos malware was spread through emails with malicious attachments and allowed users steal money using credentials such as internet banking passwords. It was allegedly sold on the dark web marketplace AlphaBay, which the US Government shut down at the end of July.

The allegations are unrelated to the WannaCry attack he was credited with halting, according to a US official.

The security expert, from Devon, was hailed a hero in May when he discovered a "kill switch" for the WannaCry ransomware, which spread to hundreds of thousands of computers across 150 countries. Among the victims were dozens of NHS Trusts, which were forced to delay operations and turn people away.

About | WannaCry

Hutchins, who stopped the attack from his bedroom under the pseudonym MalwareTech, has reportedly helped GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre since the incident.

A a source said the organisation collaborated with many private individuals and was "very much embedded in the community," of which Hutchins is a part.

On his arrest, an NCSC spokesman said: "We are aware of the situation. This is a law enforcement matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further."

Janet Hutchins, his mother, told the Telegraph she was trying to find out exactly what had happened to her son but said she had not yet managed to get anything confirmed.

"I think I'm going to be rather busy tonight," she added.

A security expert who was staying with Hutchins at the DefCon hacking conference in Nevada said he had been arrested at Las Vagas's McCarran International Airport on Wednesday afternoon.

The friend, who also works in the cyber security industry, said: "He was detained at McCarran airport yesterday. He checked into his flight and I think he was sitting in the Virgin upper class lounge.

"He was escorted out of the airport and never made his flight."

Around 20 hours after he went missing, Hutchins' parents told the friend he had been arrested.

After his arrest, Hutchins was taken to Henderson Detention Center in Nevada before being moved to the Las Vegas FBI field office.

"I had been trying to get in contact with him for the past 20 hours," the friend told the Telegraph. "I finally located him this morning but they moved him before visiting hours. Now he's in the wind again."

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are in touch with local authorities in Las Vegas following reports of a British man being arrested."

The UK's National Crime Agency said: "We are aware a UK national has been arrested but it's a matter for the authorities in the US."

I can confirm @MalwareTechBlog was detained yesterday and FBI/US Marshalls won't tell me where he is. https://t.co/lV5SxZjsRi  Andrew Mabbitt (@MabbsSec) August 3, 2017

Hutchins stopped the spread of the WannaCry ransomware when he accidentally discovered a "kill switch". Working on his own from his small bedroom in his parent's home, Hutchins has been lauded for his computer skills in the wake of the attack.

The WannaCry attack spread to more than 230,000 computers in scores of countries, affecting major organisations including the NHS, Renault and O2. Using a vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system discovered by US security agencies, WannaCry locked victims' computers and demanded a $300 ransom.

Hutchins found a way to stop the virus from rapidly spreading. He was given a $10,000 (7,600) reward for the effort, which he donated to charity.

The ethical hacker, who is largely self-taught and did not go to university, was in the US for the world's largest annual conventions for security experts, BlackHat and DefCon.

His arrest comes as more than 100,000 of digital currency bitcoin that was paid by victims of the WannaCry attack was withdrawn from the hackers' online wallets.

There is no indication that the two events are connected.

Victims were asked to pay around 230 in Bitcoins to get back control of their systems and monitoring websites showed the wallets holding the payments had been emptied on Thursday.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but experts have connected it to Lazarus, a group also linked to the 2014 Sony Pictures hack.

Experts warned the incident will send a "really bad message" to the cyber security community.

"There are major implications for cyber security," said Ekeland, the US lawyer. "By doing this they've made the internet less safe because nobody in their right mind is likely to help the US Government stop attacks now.

"They've sent a really bad message that even if you help the US Government stop a worldwide major malware attack and save people millions of dollars and potentially saved lives, you could be arrested because someone you supposedly associated with supposedly sold malware for $2,000."

Ekeland added that creating and distributing malicious software is different to using it to commit crimes. "They're messing with a multi-billion dollar market," he said. "If I was a certain type of software manufacturer, I would be very concerned about my work right now. I don't understand why this type of software isn't legal."

WannaCry ransomware map - locations of infection
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 22:15:48|Editor: Song Lifang

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Strengthening dialogue and becoming better acquainted with Brazilian law will help Chinese companies achieve greater success, a local expert told Xinhua at the first Brazil-China Seminar held here this week.

"Problems often occur in international business due to insufficient knowledge of local laws and business structures," said Evandro Carvalho, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the Brazilian college Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), at the one-day seminar held Wednesday.

Recent years have seen a growing number of Chinese companies in Brazil, and they must know the local institutional structure and how regulation agencies work, said Carvalho, adding that it is also the case for Brazilian companies investing in China.

"Chinese corporations in Brazil, in order to operate more efficiently, must learn to cooperate with local ones as they have different management methods," he added.

He warned against thinking that knowing the general economic situation of the country is enough.

The seminar, hosted by FGV's Rio de Janeiro Law School, aimed to discuss difficulties faced by Chinese companies in Brazil and seek solutions.

Since 2009, China has been Brazil's leading trade partner, with bilateral trade exchange amounting to 58.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, and is a key investor in the South American country.
In fact, most taxpayers think we should be cutting the defense budget.

The U.S. Army has ordered units to cease the use of DJI drones, according to a memo obtained by sUAS News.

The letter, dated this week, said the U.S. Army Research Lab and U.S. Navy found there were operational risks linked to DJI equipments. Officials cited a classified report called DJI UAS Technology Threat and User Vulnerabilities, as well as a U.S. Navy memorandum called Operational Risks with Regards to DJI Family of Products. The report and the memo were both dated May 2017, which suggests officials have been looking into this for a while.

Read: UK Rules Require Owners To Register Their Drones And Take Safety Tests

In the letter, the U.S. Armys Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson said:

"DJI Unmanned Aircraft Systems [UAS] products are the most widely used non-program of record commercial off-the-shelf UAS employed by the Army. The Army Aviation Engineering Directorate has issued over 300 separate Airworthiness Releases for DJI products in support of multiple organisations with a variety of mission sets. Due to increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities associated with DJI products, it is directed that the US Army halt use of all DJI products."

The Army ordered its units to halt the use of DJI products, including all of the companys unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The rule also applies to other items from the manufacturer, including flight computers, cameras, radios, batteries, speed controllers, GPS units, handheld control stations, and devices with DJI software applications installed. Officials also directed members to uninstall all DJI applications, remove battery and storage media from devices and to secure all equipment.

Read: Inmate In South Carolina Prison Escapes Using Tools Dropped Off By Drone, Cell Phone

DJI told International Business Times it was surprised about the Armys decision.

The company said in a statement:

People, businesses and governments around the world rely on DJI's products and technology for a variety of uses including sensitive and mission critical operations. The Department of the Army memo even reports that they have issued over 300 separate Airworthiness Releases for DJI products in support of multiple organizations with a variety of mission sets. We are surprised and disappointed to read reports of the U.S. Armys unprompted restriction on DJI drones as we were not consulted during their decision. We are happy to work directly with any organization, including the U.S. Army, that has concerns about our management of cyber issues.

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DJI said it planned to reach out to the U.S. Army to confirm the memo and to get to the bottom of that they meant by cyber vulnerabilities.

There have been some cybersecurity concerns regarding drones, as some people attempted to hack DJI's Go app and firmware. Others have expressed privacy concerns regarding data collection, as reports claimed DJI shared information with Chinese authorities.

We want to emphasize that DJI does not routinely share customer information or drone video with Chinese authorities  or any authorities, the company clarified last year.

The manufacturer added:

DJI complies with national laws wherever we operate, and we urge our customers to do the same. If one of our drones is implicated in a potentially illegal flight, authorities in any country may seek flight data information from us as part of their investigation. Like other tech companies around the world, we would consider only valid legal requests on a case-by-case basis and would provide information if we believed it was necessary to comply. Unless a customer has chosen to sync flight data via the DJI GO app or sent the aircraft back to DJI, we would have no flight data to provide.

Related Articles
His mother, Tova Salomon , doesnt call him Shmuel. She refers to her youngest child as the treasure. The treasure is already 31 years old. Two weeks ago, on Thursday, the treasure welcomed his own treasure into the world.

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We gave birth in the afternoon. I mean, Chen, my brave wife, gave birth. Since then, Ive been walking on air. We waited for this baby for three years, Shmuel Salomon told me last Wednesday, near the mourners tent in Elad. Since the birth, his world turned upside down, but he is clinging to life.

Shmuel, who is mourning his father, his sister and his brother , has a thread of life on his wristthe baby wristband from the hospital, which he hasnt taken off although the mother and the baby have already been discharged. Last Thursday, in an emotional circumcision ceremony held in Elad, the baby boy was given the name Ari Yosef, after his grandfather who was murdered in a terror attack

From right to left: Tova Salomon, who lost her husband and two children, her son Shmuel with his wife Chen and baby Ari Yosef, and her daughter-in-law Michal, Elad's widow (Photo: Yuval Chen)

Tova and Yossi Salomon, the proud grandparents, danced with joy upon learning their youngest child had become a father. On Friday morning, Shmuel arrived at his childhood home in Neve Tzuf, the second name of the community of Halamish, to pick up Tova and run some errands.

I was so happy when I got to my parents home, he recalls. They were very excited too. My mother came to help me prepare our house after the birth. We stopped at the Meir Medical Center to visit my wife and the baby.

From the hospital, the proud grandmother and her son travelled to the young Salomon familys home at the Hadassim Youth Village, where Chen works as an instructor.

We organized the house, and then I drove Mother back to Neve Tzuf. I got held up in the house because my mother made sandwiches for me and some to take to Chen too. In between, I took her to the Fogel family. Mother went there to pick up the arbis (chickpeas) that Tzila Fogel prepared for the Shalom Zachar (a feast hosted by the family when a child is born).

While Tova was at the Fogels homethe parents of Udi, who was murdered six years ago in Itamar with his wife and three of their childrenShmuel waited in the car. Its impossible to forget the Fogel case. I remember thinking about them, about how they have been coping since that horrible terror attack. It didnt cross my mind for a minute that I would be dealing with a similar story within several hours," he says.

"A few minutes later, my mother returned to the car with the arbis and a gift from Tzilasocks for the baby. Meanwhile, Michal, Elad and the kids arrived on the fortified bus. We only had time for a quick hello. My sister Haya was in the house too. I said goodbye to everyone in the most ordinary way. At least I managed to hug my father. Elad, Haya and my father never got to see the baby, he says with his voice breaking as he hides the tears behind sunglasses.

He has kept quiet until now, angrily avoiding journalists, failing to come to terms with the fact he lost not only his father and two of his siblings in an instant, but also peace and anonymity.

I realized I was no longer a private person. At first, it was very difficult for me, but thats the way it is. I cant believe were doing something like this, but we decided to invite the entire public to the brit (circumcision ceremony), he explains why he decided to break his silence.

After everyone came to cry with us, everyone should rejoice with us too. I want them to remember us happy. I want them to remember the Salomon family celebrating happy occasions, not being sad. I dont want them to feel sorry for us. The Salomon family is a simple family, not a family of drama. What do terror attacks have to do with us? The only drama in the Salomon family until now was the nonsense I did in high school. In high school, I also stopped observing mitzvot. Today I am a datlash (a formerly religious person).

After leaving Neve Tzuf on Friday afternoon, Shmuel drove back to the Meir Medical Center to meet his wife and their firstborn. A few minutes before 10pm, a terrorist who managed to jump over the settlement's security fence entered the Salomon familys home.

He ran straight into the kitchen, where everyone was gathered to prepare the Shalom Zachar, says 35-year-old Michal Landa-Salomon, who lost her husband Elad in the attack. I was in the kitchen myself half a minute earlier. If (the terrorist) had looked straight ahead, he would have seen me and the kids. We were sitting in the living room opposite the entrance, but he ran into the kitchen. I saw his profile. I signaled for the children to come with me, and we passed two meters behind his back. Elad saw us, but the terrorist missed us. I went upstairs, and we shut ourselves in the room where the twins were sleeping. In spite of the screams, I signaled for the children to be quiet, and I leaned against the door with all my might.

Chen and Shmuel Salomon at their firstborn's circumcision ceremony in Elad, last week. 'It only strengthened the joy over the child' (Photo: Shaul Golan)

The first person the terrorist stabbed was 46-year-old Haya , who was near the entrance. With the little strength she had left, she walked out of the house, and her screams reached the neighbors. Then the terrorists stabbed Tova, the mother . He suddenly pulled out a knife, so I bent down and he stabbed me in the back, Tova said after being discharged from the hospital. I escaped upstairs. At first, I locked myself up in a room, but then I thought they wouldnt find me and I was losing blood, so I came out.

Michal left the room for a moment with the children to get her cellphone, which was in another room, and encountered the wounded Haya for a second. In the meantime, the terrorist had stabbed 70-year-old Yossi and began struggling with Elad.

Elad is a gentle person, but we understood from the investigation and from what my mother-in-law saw that he fought like a lion. He managed to knock the terrorist down twice. He delayed the terrorist and saved us. I keep thinking the outcome could have been much worse, and thanks to Haya who went outside and screamed and thanks to Elad, the children were saved, Michal says with a smile filled with pain.

At the same time, Shmuel and Chen were at the hospital, caring for their baby together, filled with pride and joy. We were in the room with the baby, totally focused on him. We were completely disconnected from our cellphones. I had already planned to go home, but then it turned out Chen needed a blood transfusion, and I stayed with her two more hours.

In the middle of the transfusion, the phone rang and I saw my brother-in-law Drors number. Why is my brother-in-law calling on Shabbat? He told me there had been a terror attack in Neve Tzuf, and asked if I had heard anything. I hadnt heard a thing. Several minutes later, my sister Orit called. She said it had happened in our house.

In the meantime, my brother-in-law managed to get hold of Michal. It was a few minutes after the attack. She was still in the house. She told him on the phone the kids were okay, but added she had seen Elad take his three last breaths and that she thought she was a widow. She told him all of this in English, so the children who were next to her wouldnt understand. Shes a lioness, that woman. A heroine.

Meanwhile, there was a news update that there were people in critical condition. Ive never heard of a person who survived a critical injury. They say critical injuries because the person hasnt been proclaimed dead yet. Orit, my sister, called me again, crying. They killed everyone, she said, everyone.

The medical staff at the Meir Hospital sprung into action. They managed to get hold of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and inquire about the people wounded in the attack. A doctor informed me that Tova Salomon was alive, that she had arrived at the hospital and was in stable condition. I felt my mother had returned to me, he chokes. It took a while before a social worker arrived and officially informed me. Its surreal. I already know what happened, but Im hoping maybe its a mistake. I saw the house in the pictures, but it took me time to come to terms with the situation, if I ever did.

The image is stuck in my head

Theres one thing Shmuel is still unable to deal withthe image of the bloodbath in the kitchen. I didnt want to see the picture. I regret that moment. Its the kitchen I grew up in from the day I was born. My entire childhood was in that house. It destroyed me. Whoever released the photo knew it would destroy my life. The image is stuck in my head. I havent been able to sleep since then.

Shmuel is unable to shake the feelings of guilt over the fact he wasnt there to fight the terrorist alongside his brother Elad. How was I not there? To help him, to lend a hand, to fight, and even to die with Elad. I know Elad fought, and Im not sure it would have ended differently if I were there, but I have an unclear conscience for not being there to protect my father, my sister Haya, to protect Elad.

I had a wonderful childhood in Neve Tzuf. Its an amazing place to grow up in, but at times of terror attacks, as a child, I used to think about what would happen if someone entered (our) house. I always had this kind of scenario in my head of what I would do. Since my military service, I always carry my weapon with me. Im always ready, and at the moment of truth I wasnt there.

The Salomon family members' funeral (Photo: Tal Shahar)

One person who was there was A., the neighbors son. A narrow path separates between the Salomon home and the home of A.s family. Upon hearing Haya scream, A. and his father went outside. The father spotted the wounded Haya, entered the house and saw the terrorists back. He went back outside and informed his son. The son, an IDF soldier in an elite unit, ran home, grabbed his weapon, jumped over the fence under the kitchen window and neutralized the terrorist with one accurate shot.

During the shiva, the seven days of mourning, A. and his family visited the mourners tent and were greeted there with tears and hugs. The IDF, it was reported last week, is considering honoring A. with a Chief of Staff citation for attacking and neutralizing the terrorist.

Im grateful to A. for what he did, Shmuel says. He prevented a greater disaster. At first, when I heard the terrorist was still alive, it destroyed me. After all, hell be released in the next (prisoner exchange) deal. Then I realized A. did the right thing. He was afraid of hurting other people, so he neutralized him with one accurate bullet. When you come into such a scene, the most natural emotion is revenge. I dont know where A. found the strength to leave the t alive. I dont even know what to call that creature.

A., the neighbors son who neutralized the terrorist, with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. He prevented a greater disaster (Photo: Ariel Hermoni, Defense Ministry)

Shmuel stops the conversation. Chen arrives at the shiva with a green stroller carrying the new treasure. Her green eyes shine with joy too. Shmuel greets her with a smile. Six days after giving birth, Chen is already back on her feet, running between her parents home and the mourners tent. Life on one side, death on the other. They stand there together, Shmuel and Chen, holding each other, trying to contain the happiness without falling into a pit of sadness.

I dont feel like my joy from the baby has been damaged. Quite the opposite, perhaps. It has only increased the happiness from the child. I keep thinking about the baby and about Chen. I always thought if someone hurt my family, I would have no reason to keep living and would seek revenge. But Chen and the baby keep me alive. I dont know what I would do if they werent with me. Chen strengthens me and keeps sending me pictures of the baby. I sit in front of consolers and look at the pictures. I have a reason to live.

I give him strength because everyone gives me strength, Chen says. Everyone is running around me. The parents, the family, the friends. They have all offered to help. Its heartwarming. Its very important to me that the brit will be happy. Theres grief here, thats true, but theres happiness here. Theres a child here who were happy about. Weve decided to choose life.

Weve decided to choose life, but we can also say life has chosen us, Shmuel adds. The fact we received the news at the maternity ward is life choosing us. On the other hand, how can a person receive such news in such a situation? When you have such a treasure in your hands? The first thing that crossed my mind was what kind of world did we bring him into. Its simply inconceivable. But we wont be defeated. Well keep going.

The seven bad years

Ruthie, Michals eldest sister, joins the couple. Shes trying to arrange mementos to hand out at the brit, in the form of a keyring. She shows Shmuel and Chen different samples. Shmuel chooses a soft plant reflecting growth. Chen wants the memento to be colorful and joyful. She has a hard time accepting the caption when thou wast in thy blood, Live. The verse, which is said in every brit, takes on a particularly painful interpretation this time.

Ruthie knows very well how to deal with death and loss. Her son, Shai, died of cancer six years ago, before turning five. The Landa family is going through the seven bad years. They will be followed by the seven good years, she says with a smile. The smile on her face is remarkably similar to the smile of the new widow, Michal. A glowing yet realistic, cynical smile.

On Saturday, after the disaster, Michal chose to go and stay with her children at Ruthies house in the settlement of Oranit. Ruthies son is not the only one who has passed away during the seven bad years. So have the grandfather, the uncle and the mother of the family, Ziva.

Were used to cancer, so where did a terror attack come from? Thats really creative, Michal chuckles sardonically.

How do you manage to smile at everyone all the time?

I let myself cry too. But I keep reminding myself the outcome could have been much worse. Besides, how can you not smile when talking about Elad?

Michal and Elad Salomon with their children. 'We did everything together'

How did you meet?

We met in Neve Tzuf and we were separated in Neve Tzuf. It was 12 years ago. I was 22 years old. I was staying at a friends house on Shabbat, and Elad came to visit. On Saturday evening, my friend and I and Elad and a friend of his decided to take a two-day trip to the north. Four months later, we got engaged. In the first year we lived in Neve Tzuf, until the first stone was thrown, and then I was afraid and we left.

I was immediately enchanted by Elad. Elad was a very quiet guy at the time. His friends in the yeshiva in Nehalim called him quiet Elad. But as much as he was quiet, he was goodhearted. Always caring for others and showering them with goodness. Over the years, he opened up because of me.

We built a home for five children together. Elad worked as a computer software inspector and I worked in a nursing company. At home, we did everything together. Every Friday, we would go out to eat together, and then we would clean and cook together. Elad was excited and happy about each child. In many ways, he was a child himself. When our eldest son was still a baby, we went to buy Lego with so much enthusiasm. The saleswoman asked me if it was for the baby. I pointed at Elad and said to her, Its for him. He would open every new toy before anyone else. On the other hand, he was also an authoritative father who knew how to set limits. A special combination. He was particularly excited by the birth of our twins.

Elad always had a smile on his face. Even when we went through difficult things. My mother, who was my inspiration, died of cancer two months before the twins were born. I always felt I had Elads support, and that with his optimism we would get through anything together.

What have you told the children?

I told them we would go on together, that we had each other. And I told them that they had a brave father who fought with all his might to save us.

There seems to be no way to contain this inconceivable situation of celebrating a babys birth on the same week a family buries three of its loved ones after they were massacred around the Shabbat table. But the family members who survived insist on remembering the good, rather than letting death and terror defeat the Salomon heritage.

President Reuven Rivlin consoles Michal Salomon. A smile filled with pain (Photo: Mark Neiman, GPO)

What really makes the three of them unique is their dedication, says Racheli, the fourth Salomon sister. Yossi, my father, was an IDF civilian employee for many years, and after retiring he was in charge of organizing the communitys security. He was the life and soul of the Shabbat Kiddush. He would organize everything and hand out wine to everyone, although he himself couldnt drink for medical reasons. He was always happy and always danced, a well-known figure in the community. In the past few years, he dedicated his life to Torah studies. He would travel to a Torah house of study in Jerusalem three times a week. He really loved it.

He had a beautiful connection with the grandchildren, Michal adds. He would always enlist the grandchildren. Come sit next to me, come organize the synagogue with me. And Haya was dedicated too. She was a teacher in spirit.

Haya, the eldest daughter who never married and didnt get to raise children of her own, raised hundreds of students in a school in Lod, who were like daughters to her. She was Haya the teacher who everyone loved, says Michal. She wouldnt go to school with a small bag, but with a rucksack and a suitcase and a plastic bag, because she always had prizes and surprises to reward the girls with. And she would reward her nieces and nephews too, of course.

I cant understand how anyone could hurt Haya, Shmuel wonders. That woman didnt do anything bad to anyone. Such a gentle woman, who tried to do good things her entire life. After a days work, she would prepare pages and activities for the next day and talk to the girls parents for hours. Even when she shared with the parents things that werent so good about a student, it was always with love and concern.

She was very dedicated to my parents too. She was basically my mothers right-hand woman and her best friend. Every Monday, on Hayas day off, they would run errands or pay visits together. How will my mother manage without her? How will we manage without Elad, without Father?

Salomon is a family of joy, giving and love. A home which accepts anyone, Chen concludes. They accepted me, the secular bride, with a lot of love. Every Shabbat, they would invite us to the Shabbat eve meal. The most important thing is for you to come, they would tell us, even if you drive on Shabbat. We loved coming there. We were there on Shabbat two weeks before the birth. We will pass this giving and this joy on to the next generation.
In spite of his advanced age, his poor healthwhich his concerned doctors define as excellentand his deep frustration over his failure to advance his people to an independent state, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists on holding on to the reins of power. Like other tyrants in the Middle East, he refuses to appoint a successor, groom someone or at least establish a system to select his heir.

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In the Muqataa, one must not mention the day after, although its clear to everyone that its approaching in huge steps. The Palestinians are entering a transit and waiting period, which will be followed by a vague future.

The Israeli government isnt preparing for the day after Abbas either. Likud and Bayit Yehudi leaders are waiting for the departure of the person who they see as the source of all evil in the Palestinians' relations with Israel. They are toying with the illusion that his successor will be more moderate than he is, will stop the incitement, will stop terror. They are daydreaming that his successor will agree to changes in the Muslim control of the Temple Mount, will accept the settlements and will settle for a tiny autonomic Palestinian entity.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian President Abbas in September 2010. The government missed the opportunity of his days in power to try to advance an agreement (Photo: Getty Images)

These hallucinations (which, for David Bitan and Miri Regevs information, exist neither in the Shin Bet nor in the defense establishment) are completely detached from reality. Anyone listening to the discourse in the Palestinian street, elite and political leadership understands that theres no desire to continue Abbas moderate way. As far as theyre concerned, he led the Palestinians to the lowest level of the compromises red line. What all the contenders in the inheritance battleMohammad Dahlan, Mahmoud al-Aloul, Majed Faraj or Marwan Barghoutihave in common is the fact that they are more hawkish than him.

What unites the Palestinians in their battle against Israel is the ethos of the conflict, focusing on the basic principles of the struggle, which include the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, the right of return, the prisoner release and a refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish peoples nation state. A leader who diverts from these principles wont survive.

Abbas is good for the Jews, and he even benefits the Likud and right-wing government. He brought armed and organized terror to an end; he institutionalized the security cooperation, which IDF officers say is helping thwart terror; he stuck to the two-state vision, which he sees as giving up 78 percent of Palestines lands in favor of the Zionist state; he acted aggressively against Hamas and deepened the split between the West Bank and Gazaone of the Rights interests in its battle against the establishment of a Palestinian state; and his firm objection to pointless negotiations served the Netanyahu governments interest to avoid peace talks.

Its true that Abbas annoyed us with his de-legitimization moves and with his battle against the occupation in the international arena, but even without him, there would have been an opposition to settlements and there would have been international support for the two-state solution.

Contrary to the Rights mantra, Abbas could have been the best partner for negotiations. The government missed the opportunity of his days in power to try to advance an agreement. But the right-wing government favors a nationalistic ideology, and is singlehandedly creating the infrastructure for a binational state with an Arab demographic majority in the Land of Israel. And its bad for the Jews.

By the way, the argument that without the security cooperation with Israel Hamas would take over the Palestinian Authority is groundless: Its nothing more than an urban legend aimed at justifying the security cooperation on Israels part. Abbas has trained and obedient army forces, which have proved their ability to prevent Hamas from rearing its head in the West Bank even without Israels help.

Defense establishment officials are, rightly, concerned about the day after Abbas. Palestinian governmental stability guarantees security and could also help develop negotiations in the future. During this transit period, which no one knows how long it will last, Israel should therefore make some gestures, actions and activities which would at least indicate that it wishes to rebuild trust, in a bid to prevent anarchy on the day after.
"What experience and history teach is thisthat people and governments never have learned anything from history or acted on the principles deduced from it." This adage of G.W.F. Hegel succinctly describes lost opportunities for achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

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There is much to learn from President Harry Truman's resolution of a problem not unlike the one facing President Donald Trump today. Polls have consistently shown that Israeli Jews would approve with large majority a two-state resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict conditioned on a US-Israel Mutual Defense Treaty.

During President's Trump visit to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to the similarities between President Truman and his visitor. The 33rd president is best known in Israel as being the first world leader who recognized the new state 11 minutes after David Ben-Gurion's declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. This recognition was not dissimilar to some of Trump's decisions in that it caused dismay and anger in the United States' top government echelons. The objections to Truman's decision were so vehement that even his secretary of state, George Marshall, threatened to hand in his resignation.

US President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Considering the fact that the US has a mutual defense treaty with a country like Montenegro, the absence of a treaty with Israel seems anomalous (Photo: Reuters)

Although ideologically much separates the two presidents, they share traits of unpredictability and iconoclasm, and interestingly both presidents faced seemingly unsolvable problems. In 1951, Truman faced a problem whose solution is applicable to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a conflict that President Trump has undertaken to resolve.

The problem that faced Truman's administration in 1951 emanated from the people of Australia's vehement opposition to the rearmament of Japan, which the US favored in its quest to enlist allies for its war against North Korea. The distrust and insecurity of the Australians in 1951 toward the Japanesefostered by the inhuman treatment of their prisoners by the Japanese during the Second World Warwas at least comparable to the distrust registered by both Israeli Jews and Palestinians in 2017.

It was the signing of the ANZUS mutual defense treaty in 1952 between the United States, Australia and New Zealand that cleared the way for signing a peace treaty with Japan and the eventual limited arming of that country. Commemorating 50 years of the ANZUS treaty, a report of the Australian Parliament stated: "Popular support for the alliance in Australia indicates that the Treaty has also provided Australians with a sense of security, which has had domestic benefits as well as benefiting the nation's regional relationships.

Would an ANZUZ format possibly including Jordan facilitate a two-state solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict as it did 65 years ago with respect to Australia's and New Zealand's acquiescence to the rearmament of Japan? Two public opinion polls conducted in 2012 asked Israeli Jews whether they would accept a two-state based on the Clinton Parameters and conditioned on the signing of a mutual defense treaty with the United States. When Arab League endorsement, a barrier wall and the termination of Hamas control of Gaza is tied in to the mutual defense treaty, 75 percent of Israeli Jews supported a two-state resolution of the conflict.

An in-depth analysis of the 2012 polls evaluates the preeminence of security over other considerations. This point is exemplified by the fact that more than 50 percent of those who intended to vote for right-wing parties supported a two-state solution backed by a mutual defense treaty. The five years since the 2012 poll have registered the disintegration of Syria, the ascendance of Iran and Russia and the creation of a coalition of Arab countries more positively disposed towards Israelevents that, if anything, may have increased the support by Israeli Jews for a mutual defense pact with the United States.

The United States has mutual defense agreements with 58 countries. Few of these countries maintain the level of military cooperation that exists between the US and Israel. According to Listaka, Israel is perceived as the third strongest ally of the United States preceded only by Great Britain and Canada. According to this source, "The United States of America-Israel relation is the most well-known of American Governments foreign relations. Israel is the biggest beneficiary of foreign aid from America which amounts close to a 100 billion dollars Israel is known as USAs footing in the Middle East and provides a strong strategic position in the region

The de-facto existence of a US-Israel defense agreement is capsulated in statements by President Trump ("If Israel is attacked I'd one-hundred percent come to their defense") and former Vice President Joe Biden ("If you were attacked and overwhelmed, we would fight for you.") Considering the fact the US has a mutual defense treaty with a country like Montenegro, the absence of a mutual defense treaty between Israel and the United States seems anomalous. If President Trump can emulate what President Truman achieved 65 years ago by a two-state solution that addresses the security concerns of the Israeli Jews through a mutual defense treaty, he will achieve what in his own words "was the toughest deal to make."
In the past month, the streets of Dubai have been dotted with pink cars with women in pink uniforms. The phenomenon is a new initiative called the Women Responders Unit, intended to provide first aid and emergency services for women only.

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The project was launched by the state ambulance service about a month ago, to allow women more privacy in these situations. "In our society, Arab Muslim society, when patients call for help, they want privacy and they want to feel comfortable," said Bashayer al-Rimm, an emergency medical technician, in a conversation with AFP. She added that they are looking to preserve the privacy of the woman in a way that is consistent with our customs and traditions.

One of the medical professionals operating the women-only service

"This is a fully trained female team," said one of the project's superiors in Dubai. "The driver has a lot of knowledge in getting to the scene of accidents with casualties as soon as possible, and this is also true of the first aid provider in the vehicle."

Dubai said last month that there was a demand for pink ambulance services from women in the emirate. The service was designed to help women who were in labor and children who were in distress. "We have already received 55 calls," they said. Following its success, they intend to introduce another vehicle as part of the service.

Not everyone in the Arab world has applauded the project. One such criticism came from Egypt, where a service of pink taxis has already been launched, offering transportation services to women alone, in an effort to combat sexual harassment, a phenomenon that has become wide-spread in Egyptian society. A female anchor from Egyptian channel DreamTV referred to news of the Saudi Women Responders Unit by saying, "We like to imitate everything, but we are also a slightly more open society." she added that "these things are a bit more suitable for the Gulf countries than for us.

Guys, it's medicine. It shouldn't be segregated," the anchor added. "There are many things like women's cafes or taxis for women, which deepen the separation in society. In the end, we are all human beings."
The State Prosecutor's Office announced Friday that it had asked the police to open an investigation into the shooting incident at the Israeli embassy in Jordan last month involving Israeli security guard Ziv Moyal, in which two Jordanian civilians were killed.

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The State Prosecutor's Office added it has contacted the head of the Investigations and Intelligence Division of the Israel Police, and that the investigation would be conducted with the assistance of the State Attorney's Office. "In view of the findings that will be raised, the possibility will also be considered of contacting the Jordanian authorities in order to transfer additional materials to the police," the statement said.





L to R: Israeli Ambassador to Jordan Einat Schlein, PM Benjamin Netanyahu and security guard Ziv Moyal (Photo: Haim Tzach/GPO)

The examination that will be opened by the police will in fact have investigative characteristics. Apparently it was decided to define this as a "test" because the authorities in Israel are not interested at this stage in investigating the security guard under warning. The announcement came following Jordanian pressure on Israel: King Abdullah II and other Jordanian officials expressed anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's warm reception on his return from Jordan. The Jordanian king and his people made it clear that the appearance of the security guard as a hero in Israel would have serious implications for relations between the two countries.





Moyal

Last month's deadly shootings came as Jordan was involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations to end Israel-Palestinian tensions over the Temple Mount. Ziv Moyal, an Israeli embassy guard in Jordan, shot and killed 17-year-old Muhammad al-Jawawdeh after the young man stabbed Ziv with a screwdriver allegedly during a dispute.

Muhammad al-Jawawdeh

Bassem al-Hamarna, the landlord in the building where the stabbing took place, was killed after being struck with a stray bullet.

Bassem al-Hamarna

Funeral procession for Bassem al-Hamarna (Photo: EPA)

Embassy staff later returned to Israel under the protection of diplomatic immunity and the guard received a warm welcome from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to the dismay of Jordan and particularly its King Adullah II, who called Netanyahu's publishing of his embrace of the guard "unacceptable and provocative behavior."

Netnayahu embraces security guard Moyal upon his return to Israel

Jordanians protest in front of Israeli Embassy in Amman

There has been widespread anger over the incident in Jordan, where a 1994 peace treaty with Israel is unpopular.
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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 22:20:54|Editor: Song Lifang

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NAIROBI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government on Saturday announced elaborate security measures in the coastal region ahead of Tuesday's general elections due to threats posed by Al-Shabaab group.

Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa said the security apparatus will ensure that voting is not disrupted by either local or foreign illegal groups.

Marwa said they have mapped the region and deployed adequate security officers to ensure the elections are peaceful.

"We are aware some groups including the Al-Shabaab are planning to carry attacks ahead of the polls. We have heighted security to avert any possible attacks during or after the election," he told journalists in Mombasa.

Marwa said security has been scaled up in Lamu and Tana River counties following recent terror attacks by the Al-Shabaab militant group. He said they will ensure that residents in both counties will cast their votes next week.

The Al-Shabaab has threatened to conduct several attacks with an aim to cause fear among Kenyans and stop them from taking part in the elections especial along the border town within Kenya Somalia border.

Marwa said the government will not lift curfew in Lamu and Tana River until the Al-Shabaab threats are contained.

Acting Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi imposed a three month dawn to dusk curfew in Lamu, Tana River and Garissa counties to contain al Shabaab.

Holugho Border Point, Galmagala, Sangailu, Masalani, Bodehei, Milimani, Baure, Basuba, Mangai and Maralani are among the areas where the curfew will apply.

Other areas include Ijara, Hola, Garsen, Kipini, Kiunga and Ishakani/ Dar-es-Salaam Border Point.

Matiang'i however said the curfew excludes the Islands of Lamu, Manda and Pate.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 22:30:58|Editor: yan

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KIGALI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DGPR), Saturday conceded defeat in Rwanda's presidential election conducted on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference in Rwandan capital Kigali on Saturday, Habineza acknowledged that there is always a loser and winner in any contest.

"It is clear that Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) candidate has won and we hope our manifesto as well will be taken into consideration because we have some things we believe can transform this country," he said.

Habineza campaigned on pledge to promote food security, reinforce the rule of law in the country, reduce taxes, and grow more environment-friendly economy.

He commended their supporters for what he described as giving them inspiration to continue push for democracy and freedom in the east African country.

He said they saw overwhelming support on the campaign trail and would not give up on the democratic struggle. "We promise to move forward for a better Rwanda," he said.

Earlier Friday Habineza cast his vote at Kimironko Primary School II in Kigali with wife. He had said he was confident, given the support the party received countrywide during the campaign trail.

He spent Friday afternoon in a hotel following and waiting the results. He later went to the National Electoral Commission Friday night when results started to be released but later left saying he would comment later.

But his Saturday message was a stark contrast from Habineza's Friday confidence.

"Yes we had high expectations to win but in elections you have to wait until the final results are announced. As I said we are not pleased with the outcome but we congratulate the winner," he said.

He said he had on Friday pondered to resign as party head but the counsel of his party members prevailed.

His supporters became despondent as they watched even the independent candidate garnering more votes.

"I'm disappointed," said 35-year old Steven Ndayambaje in Kimironko, who said he was a strong supporter of the Green Party candidate. "I just can't even imagine that even a man who returned recently in the country could beat my candidate."

About 6.9 million participated in the election from 5.7 million who participated in 2010 presidential elections, according to the National Electoral Commission (NEC).

Preliminary results from NEC show that Kagame won 98.66 percent of 80 percent of votes cast at national level.

Kagame's two rivals, independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana and Habineza got 0.72 percent and 0.45 percent respectively.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 22:41:02|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Former Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak said Saturday that he only touched upon "very simple things" with former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in a December conversation that finally led to the latter's resignation.

In a news program on the Rossiya 24 TV channel, Kislyak said Moscow had instructed him not to discuss the U.S. sanctions with anyone since they were illegal and he had strictly followed the instruction.

"There were no secrets from our side," he said, stressing that the conversation was transparent and appropriate.

Flynn, the first national security adviser of U.S. President Donald Trump, resigned in February amid rampant reports that he had lied about improperly discussing U.S. sanctions on Russia imposed by the Obama administration with Kislyak weeks before Trump's inauguration.

Flynn has acknowledged that he spoke to the Russian ambassador but denied discussing the sanctions.

Kislyak said he would not testify before the U.S. Congress if invited amid the ongoing investigation into the Trump administration's alleged collusion with the Russian government.

As for Moscow-Washington relations, he said there is not yet a new Cold War, but the current trend in bilateral ties will continue for a long time.

Kislyak returned to Russia last month after serving as the Russian envoy to the United States for nine years. A new ambassador has yet to be appointed.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 23:06:13|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday the United States is not a trustable country to work with over international issues.

Speaking in his swear-in ceremony in the Iranian parliament, Rouhani criticized the United States for threatening the implementation of the nuclear deal.

He said that the Islamic republic would remain committed to the international nuclear deal and would not violate the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the six major powers two years ago.

"However, Iran would not be silent in the face of U.S. threats to the implementation of the deal," he said, adding that "Tehran would reciprocate every threatening move by Washington in this regard."

The Iranian President warned that "those who are thinking of tearing the accord into pieces, in actuality, would harm their political life."

The world would not thrust the United States anymore, he said.

Rouhani was alluding to the U.S. President Donald Trump's comments on Iran's nuclear deal during his presidential campaign, as Trump repeatedly criticized the accord, calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated."

On Thursday, Iran denounced the recent endorsement of new sanctions against the Islamic republic by the U.S. president, saying that it violates nuclear deal.

Recent unilateral sanctions against Iran by the United States are mainly in response to Tehran's growing missile program, the White House says Iran's ballistic missile tests are in violation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

Tehran has emphasized that its ballistic missile advancement is for deterrent purposes and the country will never negotiate over it.

Tehran also said that the new U.S. sanctions against Iran aimed at threatening the international community against cooperating with Iran, which will ultimately limit Iran's gain from the fruits of the deal.

Iran and six world powers, namely Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue in July 2015, which put Tehran on the path of sanctions relief but with more strict limits on its nuclear program.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 23:46:31|Editor: Yamei

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Photo taken on July 15, 2014 shows the melting ice of Purog Kangri Glacier in Shuanghu County, Nagqu, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. As the highest terrain in the world's mid-latitude regions, China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is now under negative influence of the global warming. Purog Kangri Glacier, the third largest in the world, has shrunk by 50 meters over the past 30 years. (Xinhua file photo/Tang Zhaoming)

MOSCOW, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoi on Saturday criticized the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as "terrible mistake."

"It is a terrible mistake!!! President Trump will actually pull the United States -- the largest player -- out of the Paris Agreement," Donskoi wrote on Facebook.

"There is nothing unexpected in terms of history: He repeated the U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, the first international pact on combating climate change," Donskoi said.

The United States on Friday submitted a notice to the United Nations (UN) formally announcing its intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, after President Donald Trump announced the decision in June, citing concerns about the accord's threat to the U.S. economy.

"The decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a note sent Friday night to correspondents.

Under article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a party may withdraw at any time after three years from the date on which the agreement has entered into force for that party.

The United States accepted the Paris Agreement on Sept. 3, 2016 and the agreement entered into force for it on Nov. 4, 2016. This means that the United States must stay in the pact until at least 2019.

The Paris Agreement aims to tackle climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and sets a global target of keeping the rise in the average temperature no higher than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-05 23:46:33|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iraq is promised to get a loan of 195 million U.S. dollars from Japan to develop a thermal power station in Basra province, said an Iraqi government statement Saturday.

The loan was signed during a visit to Iraq by Japan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kentaro Sonoura, who met Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday, the statement said.

Iraq needs external financing to plug a budget deficit of approximately 25 trillion Iraqi dinars (21.44 billion dollars) for this year as it grapples with lower global oil prices and costs associated with the fight against Islamic State.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-06 00:21:49|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- An exiled Syrian opposition leader on Saturday hailed Egypt's successful mediation to reach the recent ceasefire deals in Eastern Ghouta and Homs countryside in Syria.

"Egypt regards Syria as an integral part of its history and national security and it has never taken part by any means in the bloodshed in Syria," said Ahmed Jarba, head of Al-Ghad Movement, a Syrian political opposition group based in Cairo.

Jarba sees Egypt as a fair mediator as "there is no conflict between Egypt and any active Syrian factions and Egypt does not back any military side in the conflict."

"The Egyptian side also did not exceed the limits of mediation and sponsorship, but it always supported what we proposed in the negotiations," the Syrian opposition leader added.

He described the strong relation between Egypt and Russia as "a positive push" for the Syrian opposition to reach the recent ceasefire deals.

Egypt worked with Russia to broker an agreement to create a de-escalation zone in the northern Homs countryside and also brokered an earlier deal to de-escalate conflict in Eastern Ghouta region in Damascus, Egypt's official MENA news agency previously reported.

Russia's military spokesman said earlier in Moscow that the two warring parties in Syria reached the latest ceasefire agreement in Homs after earlier talks in Cairo on July 31.

The Egyptian leadership has always expressed support for a political settlement for the Syrian crisis in a way that ends bloodshed in Syria and maintains the unity of its territories.

Since its eruption in March 2011, the Syrian crisis has claimed the lives of about half a million people and displaced and wounded over 14 million.

Russian troops in Syria have been launching bombing campaigns in support of the government forces, while a U.S.-led international anti-terror coalition has been launching airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in the conflict-stricken country.

Latest UN-sponsored peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, failed to reach an agreement between the administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, mainly backed by Russia and Iran, and the exiled opposition.
Heavy smoke billows following an airstrike on the western frontline of Raqa on July 17, 2017, during an offensive by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a majority Kurdish and Arab alliance, to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. (AFP Photo)

DAMASCUS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 43 civilians were killed Saturday by a fresh round of U.S.-led airstrikes on the northern city of Raqqa, state news agency SANA reported.

SANA said the victims lost their lives when the U.S.-led warplanes carried out several air raids at noon Saturday, targeting residential areas in Raqqa.

This comes hours after seven children were killed in Raqqa overnight Friday.

SANA said the U.S. coalition went on a spree of airstrikes targeting the residential areas in the city.

Meanwhile, Dina Asa'ad, a Raqqa-based official in the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), said the coalition carried out an attack on Thursday evening on Raqqa with white phosphorous.

In remarks carried by SANA, Asa'ad said the white phosphorous bombs struck the National Hospital in Raqqa.

"Over 20 bombs struck the hospital, which damaged the electricity generators, ambulances and several wards inside the hospital," she was quoted as saying.

The hospital serves over 100,000 people in the city, she noted.

Asa'ad pointed out that there is no presence of the IS militants in the hospital, adding that what Raqqa is subject to cannot be fighting terrorism, but destruction.

"The attacks targeted schools and bakeries. Even the government institutions have been completely destroyed as well as the water wells in the city," she said.

Fawaz Assaf, the head of SARC in Raqqa, said the U.S.-led coalition and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are jointly fighting IS in Raqqa, are implementing the "scorched land" tactic.

Over 65 governmental institutions and buildings have been completely obliterated, he said, adding that the sugar factory is the most important of those destroyed establishments.

He added that the shelling and airstrikes hit the schools, banks, marketplaces, and bakeries, noting that the streets have become empty of buyers.

Two months ago, the SDF, with help of the U.S., unleashed a wide-scale offensive to drive out IS from Raqqa, seizing control of 45 percent of the city.

But the Syrian government has countlessly complained to the UN Security Council about what it described as "the crimes of the coalition" in targeting civilians and destroying infrastructure.

The Syria Foreign Ministry has urged the UN to dissolve the U.S.-led coalition, which started its operations in Syria in 2014.
Sergei Kislyak, Russia's then Ambassador to the United States, arrives for a Donald Trump for President campaign event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, April 27, 2016. (Reuters Photo)

MOSCOW, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Former Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak said Saturday that he only touched upon "very simple things" with former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in a December conversation that finally led to the latter's resignation.

In a news program on the Rossiya 24 TV channel, Kislyak said Moscow had instructed him not to discuss the U.S. sanctions with anyone since they were illegal and he had strictly followed the instruction.

"There were no secrets from our side," he said, stressing that the conversation was transparent and appropriate.

Flynn, the first national security adviser of U.S. President Donald Trump, resigned in February amid rampant reports that he had lied about improperly discussing U.S. sanctions on Russia imposed by the Obama administration with Kislyak weeks before Trump's inauguration.

Flynn has acknowledged that he spoke to the Russian ambassador but denied discussing the sanctions.

Kislyak said he would not testify before the U.S. Congress if invited amid the ongoing investigation into the Trump administration's alleged collusion with the Russian government.

As for Moscow-Washington relations, he said there is not yet a new Cold War, but the current trend in bilateral ties will continue for a long time.

Kislyak returned to Russia last month after serving as the Russian envoy to the United States for nine years. A new ambassador has yet to be appointed.
CAPE CORAL, Fla.  Before she starts her workday, Dr. Susan Hook gathers with her staff at Samaritan Health & Wellness for a morning devotional.

"Lord, whoever is supposed to be our patient, we know you're going to bring them," they say.

And the patients keep coming in.

In the nearly three years that Samaritan Health & Wellness Clinic has been open, more than 4,000 patients have made more than 10,000 office visits. Meanwhile, community members have saved more than $1 million dollars in billable services.

Hook started with a staff of two  herself and an office manager. The Christ-based primary health care facility in Cape Coral, which integrates behavioral health for the working underinsured or uninsured, has expanded to 11 staff members. By adding five rooms, more than 1,000 square feet was added in a recent renovation.

Programs include: Discovering Life & the Pursuit of Happiness; Freedom From Food Obsession; Family Support Group; Breaking the Chains of Trauma; and Staying Quit/Relapse Prevention.

"This place has just blown up," Hook said. "This was not Sue Hook's plan. Whatever God has planned is better than my plan."

Filled with a strong faith, big smile and a humble but passionate view of her role, Hook, 54, considers herself a servant of those she serves. Hook has more than 30 years experience in nursing, which included a stint with Lee Physicians Group. She's a registered nurse with the Florida Board of Nursing and is an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner.

As patients enter Samaritan Health & Wellness, there is a wooden cross on the wall and there's another in a patient room, courtesy of Felipe Rivera, a master carpenter. In the waiting room are spiritual books, magazines and newsletters.

If they choose, patients can pray with the specialist before their session.

Hook has had people tell her they feel an immediate peace. One told the doctor that "God brought her here."

Art Doyle has known Hook for 11 years and the two have developed a strong bond. Doyle, 64, battles depression and alcoholism. He'd rather not talk about that but wants others to know about this clinic and his doctor so "it's necessary to suck it up and go with it.

"She's all about people and helping people," Doyle said. "That showed from day 1."

"I had a neighbor who died July 15 of liver failure. The doctor told him, 'Quit drinking or I don't want you to come back in; there's nothing I can do for you.' You don't get that here. I was lucky. So many people fall through the cracks. This is the kind of outfit that if you become a patient, you won't fall through the cracks unless you let it."

Wanita Burlingame, 61, started coming to the clinic two years ago after moving from New York when her husband, Robert, died. She has no insurance and needed an alternative after a doctor visit cost her $400.

Her challenge is overeating, which is partly manifested after being assaulted as a youth for years, starting at age 5.

"It's just very personal," she said of her relationship with Hook. "It's like the doctor that used to come to your house. You know them, you feel like they're your neighbor."

"Sue has a sense of humor when diagnosing; but when getting down to business, she takes it seriously. She makes you feel at ease."

A native of Garrett and Fort Wayne, Indiana, Hook volunteered at a homeless shelter called Samaritan Center in Auburn, Indiana.

When thinking of a name for her clinic, "Samaritan kept coming in my head," she said.

In the Book of Luke, thieves beat and steal from a man, leaving him naked and penniless. A Levite and a priest walk by without giving aid. Ironically, it's the Samaritan who cares for the man, then takes him to an inn where he pays for the man's lodging and continued care with a promise to pay for additional care.

In the early days, Samaritans were considered lower class and clashed with the Jews.

"When you look at your brother, somebody who's in need and you have the ability to help, you do it," Hook said. "That's where this all comes from."

Hook and her patients feel there are two areas that separate Samaritan Health & Wellness from many other facilities  cost and a mind/body/soul approach.

To be seen as a new patient is $50. Follow-up care is offered at $35. Counseling is $40 per session. Radiology Regional, Quest and LabCorp work with the center to keep costs low. Hook said the biggest challenge is getting specialists to work for a lower fee.

"I don't want this to be free and our patients don't want free," she said. "This is not a free clinic and was not supposed to be one."

For those who can't afford the center's prices, there is a Silver Coins Club, modeled after the Good Samaritan who left the innkeeper two coins. The patient pays $5 and the rest comes from the club.

Those patients have access up to five visits, Hook said.

More than half (52 percent) of Samaritan's annual revenue is in the form of private donations. In three years of operations, it has received $228,000 from the Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics grant in 2016-17.

By taking a mind/body/soul concept, specialists can share information on a multi-pronged approach for a patient in the same location.

"Dr. Sue works with the body, another with the mind and they all work with the spirit," Burlingame said.

Doyle had a situation where he went to a doctor for his heart, was put on blood pressure medicine, then told his psych medicine would be changed.

"I said, 'No, you don't,'" Doyle said. "He has no idea how long it takes to get something that works with minimal side effects. You can get bounced around for six, eight months. Here, it's done in house. They sit and meet with each other. Before you know it, you're on your way.

"To get that kind of response, you usually have to be very wealthy or have extremely good insurance or live in an upper-scale facility. People like me don't have those financial resources."

Burlingame and Doyle had a bleak outlook on life six months ago  but it has since changed.

"I have hope for the future," Doyle said.

Burlingame added, "People tell me I'm strong but I feel I'm a weak person.

"My wall was so impenetrable that in the past, we'd would get to a point, then can't get through it. But I'm doing way better than when I first came."

Six years ago, a guest comment on Janet Parshall's 'In The Market' on Moody Bible Channel helped Hook alter her thoughts for the way she wanted to treat her fellow men, women and children.

It came from Scott Morris, founder and executive director of the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tennessee.

"I heard him say, 'If you as the church  Christ followers  aren't involved in the healing ministries, you're leaving one-third out when Christ walked the earth,' " she said.

When Morris added people could attend a workshop on how to start a healing ministry, Hook felt compelled.

She prayed and spoke with her husband, Steve. She attended a workshop in Memphis in October. She talked to her pastor, Dennis Gingerich, at Cape Christian.

"It resonated with a need we already saw and knew existed," Gingerich said. "My wife is a registered nurse at Lee Health and she sees patients that come in. Some had no doctor, no prenatal care and here they're coming in, in labor.

"So when she talked, I immediately saw the need and caught the vision."

Gingerich said he "talked to my people and she talked to her people" and he became part of a steering committee. The church gave seed money, he said, which helped encourage others to donate.

Armed with a year's budget in November 2014, Hook opened Samaritan Health & Wellness.

"This is the hardest job I've ever had but it's the best job I've ever had," she said. "When God puts something before you, it's gonna be hard. But it's worth it because it's from Him."
A combination of file photos show Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) at a press conference in Punkaharju, Finland, on July 27, 2017 and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at a press conference at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on April 29, 2017. (Xinhua)

MOSCOW, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Energy Ministry said Saturday that it is legally groundless for the European Union (EU) to sanction two of its officials over spats around Siemens turbine supply.

"There are no legal grounds for the EU to include the two officials on its sanction list," said the ministry, adding that it was waiting for an explanation from Brussels.

"Interference in disputes between two economic entities is a direct violation of international legal norms," said the ministry in a statement.

On Friday, the EU announced sanctions against three Russian nationals, including a deputy minister and a department head of the energy ministry, and three companies, who will face asset freeze and travel ban in the EU for their responsibility in the allegedly illegal delivery of four gas turbines to Crimea.

The turbines were originally sold by German company Siemens for use in other parts of Russia and were then transferred to Crimea, according to the company.

The EU decision to sanction the two Russian officials is puzzling and based solely on political considerations, said the Russian statement.
Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2017 shows the United Nations Security Council voting on a resolution on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at the UN headquarters in New York. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution that aims to slash by a third the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's 3 billion U.S. dollars annual export revenue over Pyongyang's two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in July.

The resolution would ban DRPK's exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It would also prohibit countries from increasing the current numbers of DPRK's laborers working abroad, ban new joint ventures with DPRK and any new investment in current joint ventures.

Resolution 2371 (2017), adopted unanimously by the Security Council on Saturday, strengthens UN sanctions on the DPRK in response to its two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests conducted on July 3 and July 28, respectively.

As such, this resolution "sends a clear message" to the DPRK that the Security Council is united in condemning its violations and demanding the country give up its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Resolution 2371 (2017) includes the strongest sanctions ever imposed in response to a ballistic missile test. These measures target DPRK's principal exports, imposing a total ban on all exports of coal (DPRK's largest source of external revenue), iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood.

Banning these exports will prevent the DPRK from earning over one billion U.S. dollars per year of hard currency that would be redirected to its illicit programs, according to the resolution.

The DPRK earns approximately 3 billion U.S. dollars per year from its exports. Additional sanctions target the DPRK's arms smuggling, joint ventures with foreign companies, banks, and other sources of revenue.

A resolution needs nine votes in favor, and no vetoes by the United States, China, Russia, France or Britain, to be adopted.

The measures would be the seventh set of UN sanctions imposed on DPRK since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-06 04:48:53|Editor: Zhou Xin

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HELSINKI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Ideological differences and divergent security policy views have become more tangible as the Finnish presidential race slated for 2018 is slowly starting.

With his current major popular backing, the incumbent president Sauli Niinisto is considered certain in making it to the second round. Local commentators have said his popularity is likely to decline when the campaign starts, though.

Actual debate between Niinisto and the contenders has been delayed. Niinisto said in May he would not start campaigning until in December. Following an outcry after his refusal to join other candidates in a panel debate at the Finland Forum in July, Niinisto said he would join one panel in October.

Niinisto is running as an independent candidate with an election association.

In 2012, Niinisto was elected as a candidate of the conservative National Coalition Party, and won 62 percent of the votes against the green candidate Pekka Haavisto in the second round of the election.

Former foreign minister Paavo Vayrynen withdrew his earlier support for Niinisto in June, and said he would also run as an independent candidate.

Vayrynen said he did not accept Niinisto's emphasis of the European Union (EU) as a security policy asset. He said he believed a EU defence system would not be more than a European pillar of NATO.

Vayrynen has earlier run for presidency as a centrist. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament.

Meanwhile, Haavisto was nominated again as a Green Party candidate. He pledged his support for the view that the EU is also a security community. But Haavisto found fault with the way Niinisto had used his influence in domestic politics.

This past week, the populist Finns Party executive gave its support to the candidacy of MP Laura Huhtasaari. She is a conservative nationalist and once rejoiced in the success of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election.

She has harshly criticized Niinisto for meddling with domestic politics and commenting on the criminal convictions of Finns Party politicians.

Matti Vanhanen, former prime minister and the candidate of the ruling Center Party, said on Saturday the candidacy of Huhtasaari may bring up themes that do not belong to the presidency and foreign policy.

Vanhanen said populist movements in Europe have been using presidential elections for publicity purposes.

Left League candidate is Member of European Parliament Merja Kyllonen. The Swedish party has nominated Member of European Parliament Nils Torvalds.

The social democratic ticket remains open with three female politicians running in an internal party vote. The Christian Democrats have not yet nominated a candidate.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-06 04:53:57|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TRIPOLI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj met on Saturday with the newly appointed UN special envoy for Libya in Tripoli.

In a joint press conference following the meeting, Serraj stressed the urgent need for a political solution to the Libyan crisis.

"We face major security, political and economic challenges that need all parties to live up to their national responsibility," he said.

Serraj and Ghassan Salame, head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, also discussed details of the political road map and the recent meeting between Serraj and army commander Gen. Khalifa Haftar in Paris.

"I have no illusions regarding the difficulties and challenges ahead but I am optimistic that Libya can emerge from this crisis soon," Salame said.

"This outreach process is not open-ended. It is for the purpose of articulating a common view, vision and strategy to move the political process forward," he added.

"Every passing day without a political agreement has negative security, economic and social consequences for Libyans," the UN envoy noted.

Despite a UN-sponsored peace agreement in late 2015 leading to Serraj's unity government, Libya has since remained politically divided and suffered insecurity and chaos.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-06 04:58:59|Editor: Zhou Xin

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LONDON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Britain's biggest airport, London Heathrow, welcomed Saturday a decision by the government to scrap landing cards for international passengers arriving by air in Britain.

The interior ministry, the Home Office, said the move will ease travel for the more than 16 million non-Europeans flying into Britain each year.

When it is introduced in the fall, passengers will no longer need to fill out the paper cards while on board the flight or in queues at airports and ports.

Non-European travellers have been required to fill out landing cards with basic information about themselves and their travel since 1971.

Under proposals published Saturday, the outdated paper-based system, which costs the public nearly 5 million U.S. dollars each year, will be replaced as part of an ongoing digital transformation of border control system by Border Control.

The Home Office said the withdrawal of landing cards will not result in the loss of any data used for security checks.

Border Force has increased its use of Advance Passenger Information, with systems in place to receive data on 100 percent of scheduled flights for all international journeys to and from Britain.

All passengers arriving from outside the EU will also continue to be checked against the variety of police, security and immigration watch lists which are used to verify the identity and confirm the status of every passenger arriving at British airports.

Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said: "We are modernising border technology to ensure Border Force staff stop dealing with outdated paperwork and can continue to focus on security and protecting the public."

London Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: "We warmly welcome this proposed change which would give visitors to Britain an improved experience, whilst maintaining a secure border into the UK.

"In post-Brexit Britain, it will be even more important to show we are open for business and make sure that we give investors, tourists and students a great welcome to our country."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-06 04:59:00|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Mohammed M. Mupenda

KIGALI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- From early Friday morning, Rwandan voters queued at polling stations across the country for their turn to cast their ballots to elect the next president who will serve a seven-year term.

They want a president who would accomplish what was not done in previous years.

"The election is crucial," 98-year-old Suleiman Ntiruvuba told Xinhua after casting his ballot for Paul Kagame, the incumbent president, in Northern Province.

Kagame is a leader who has looked after the old people, Ntiruvuba said, expressing the hope that the leader of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) would build on past achievements and move the country further ahead.

Linda Kanyana, customer representative of an internet service company, said that she also voted for Kagame, who will maintain the security, peace, and development that the country has already achieved.

"I have voted for RPF, because it will maintain the security of the country, promote youth empowerment by creating more opportunities leading to jobs, and improve the health sector to the best level," Kanyana said.

Winnie Kazoora, a 20-year-old student in Northern Province, hopes that the elected president would keep what has been achieved with RPF and move other sectors such as information communications technology to even higher levels.

More than 2,300 polling sites, comprising nearly 17,000 polling booths, were open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday.

About 6.9 million eligible voters cast their ballots this time around, up from 5.7 million in the 2010 presidential elections, according to the National Electoral Commission (NEC).

Preliminary results released by the NEC showed that Kagame collected 98.63 percent of the votes, winning a third term as president.

Independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana got 0.73 percent and Frank Habineza, candidate for the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, came last with 0.47 percent.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-06 05:19:08|Editor: yan

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MILAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Italian police said Saturday a man had been arrested for kidnapping a British model in Milan and threatening to auction her online for a ransom of 300,000 U.S. dollars.

According to a police statement, the 30-year-old kidnapper is a Polish national, and the 20-year-old model arrived in Milan on July 10 for an arranged photo shooting by her agent.

As the woman entered the studio on July 11, she was assaulted and drugged, and then taken to a village near Turin where she was kept prisoner by suspect Lukasz Pawel Herba, a British resident born in Poland, police said.

On July 17, Herba freed the model and accompanied her to the British consulate in Milan where, according to local newspaper Corriere della Sera, he was arrested by the police.

Police also said Herba detained the model in the small village and demanded the model's agent pay a sum of 300,000 dollars to avoid the model being sold online.

Police investigation is ongoing.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-06 06:04:19|Editor: yan

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BRASILIA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- South American trade bloc Mercosur (Southern Common Market) on Saturday voted to suspend Venezuela indefinitely for "breaching democratic order."

Foreign affairs ministers from Mercosur's four founding countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay -- issued a statement in Sao Paulo, Brazil, announcing their decision to suspend Venezuela in Mercosur. The five above-memtioned countries are the full members of Mercosur with Bolilvia and Chile as associate members.

"It is a serious sanction of a political nature," designed to politically isolate the country, Brazil's Foreign Affairs Minister Aloysio Nunes told reporters at a press conference following their meeting.

The move comes a day after a National Constituent Assembly (ANC) was installed in Caracas to take on legislative powers in Venezuela until a new Constitution is drafted.

Mercosur foreign ministers said the move was meant to send a message to Venezuela, which is in the mire of a deep political and economic crisis.

Venezuela's right-wing opposition boycotted the ANC election held on July 30 and accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of using the ANC to consolidate power.

Saturday's decision marks the second time Mercosur has suspended Venezuela for alleged violations of democratic principles.

At the end of last year, the bloc suspended Venezuela on legal grounds, saying it had failed to fulfill the agreements and requirements to become a full-fledged member.

Venezuela on Saturday called the suspension baseless.
BISMARCK, N.D.  A suspect in a large-scale Jamaican lottery scam accused of bilking mostly elderly Americans out of millions of dollars has pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court.

Gregory Gooden was arrested in Jamaica on June 6 and brought to the U.S. last week to face charges of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. Court documents show he entered his not guilty plea on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in North Dakota, where the case is being prosecuted.

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to include Gooden with a group of suspects scheduled for trial in January.

Authorities say at least 90 mostly elderly Americans lost a total of more than $5.7 million to the scam. It began to unravel when a woman in the North Dakota town of Harvey lost her life savings of more than $300,000 in 2011. Federal authorities began investigating in 2012, and later charged 15 suspects.

The man who authorities say masterminded the scheme  Lavrick Willocks  pleaded guilty to conspiracy late last month in a deal with prosecutors. About the same time, another suspect, Alrick McLeod, reached a similar agreement with the government. McLeod is expected to change his April not guilty plea during a hearing in October.

Eight other suspects who also have been extradited to North Dakota and have pleaded not guilty are still scheduled for trial in January, though Assistant U.S. Attorney Clare Hochhalter has said plea deal talks are in the works with many of them.

Another suspect is still in Jamaica awaiting extradition, and three others remain fugitives.

Authorities have dubbed the case "Operation Hard Copy," a reference to lists of prospective victims' contact information used by scammers.
Three grizzly bears have been caught since Friday, July 21, and one had to be euthanized according to an official.

Stacy Courville, a wildlife biologist with the Natural Resources Department of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said Monday afternoon that while officials searched for the big male that was killing livestock, the other two bears were captured and then released in remote areas.

Courville said a male weighing 200 pounds was captured south of Pablo on July 21, followed by a female weighing 273 pounds on Sunday, July 23 east of Polson. Both captures lead up to officials catching the beast responsible for multiple livestock deaths, Courville said.

The grizzly that officials were searching for was responsible for killing three llamas, four pigs and a calf that we know of, Courville said. That same bear made attempts on pigs at a residence twice and llamas east of Polson, he added. The sought-after grizzly weighed 572 pounds, Courville confirmed.

It was the same bear Courville said he captured in 2014.

Courville said that while the Mission Valley is bear country, residents and visitors should be aware of their surroundings.

Should humans come in contact with a wild animal, Courville said that responses vary. Depending on the context, however, officials encourage people to carry bear spray.

The last time a bear was euthanized was last September when an adult female was injured after being shot with a shotgun. Officials euthanized the bear, sending her two cubs to Helena then to the Baltimore Zoo.
A semitrailer truck crashed into a homeowner's yard in a residential neighborhood in Missoula on Friday afternoon, but it appears nobody was seriously hurt.

The wreck occurred just after 2 p.m. and was at the corner of South Fifth Street East and Gerald Avenue.

Police and firefighters were on the scene and traffic was blocked on the one-way Fifth Street.

Jen Elison was nearby when the accident happened.

I was working in my office a few houses down and just heard this amazing crash, she said. Apparently the driver blacked out, and the truck went right between two trees somehow and over the sidewalk and through this beautiful iron fence.

Elison said the crash was extremely loud. The driver appeared to have escaped without serious injuries.

This is usually a busy sidewalk but thankfully there were no pedestrians or skateboarders right there, Elison said.

Missoula Police Department spokesperson Travis Welsh said the adult male driver was transported by ambulance to a hospital, but his condition or extent of injuries was unknown. The investigation is underway.
Anderson Easts raw vocals sound like an old bluesman trapped inside a young guys body.

He was the perfect choice for the 16th annual Magic City Blues festival, which kicked off Friday night on Montana Avenue. East epitomizes the vibe that has kept this festival going so long  hot new voices mixed with established acts.

East squeezes so much soul into every note. A highlight was his cover of the horn-heavy "Hold On, I'm Coming," which was featured in the "The Blues Brothers" film and soundtrack.

Promoter Tim Goodridge made the call from the back of the venue  this guy is going to be huge.

Headliner Brian Setzers Rockabilly Riot was set to go on at 10:30 p.m. Friday, a treat for one fan who traveled from across the state to see him.

Belinda Romero, of Helena, first saw Setzer when she was a teenager in Southern California. She brought pictures on her phone of her $12 ticket and her younger self with an 80s pompadour that night at the Hollywood Palladium.

People were rushing the stage so Brian pulled us out of the crowd onstage, Romero said.

Shes been a big fan ever since.

Randy Holt, of Billings, is also a big Setzer fan.

"I was into Brian Setzer before anybody else had even heard of him," Holt said. "In the late '70s I bought two bootlegs from England."

Art Hooker, who has emceed Magic City Blues for all 16 years, said one of the most memorable moments at the festival was the year he was drinking cognac with Buddy Guy.

As I recall it was Luther Dixon and I watching Buddy play from the side stage and we finished off that bottle of cognac, Hooker said.

Bill Donato and his 25-year-old son Tyler came out from Woodstock, Ill., to help Bills brother Paul celebrate his birthday.

I go to a lot of festivals, Bill said. This is a really good set up and I like the diversity of the crowd.

Gladys Friday started the night off with Kelley Sinclair's soulful voice and interesting covers on the Stillwater Stage, nailing songs like the blues rock number, All Right Now."

Next up was followed by Charlie Parr using his unearthly vocals to channel Robert Johnson.

On Saturday night, ZZ Ward opens for Blackberry Smoke on the Budweiser Stage and Montanas own The Dusty Pockets opens the show on the Budweiser. Another Montana music act, Tom Catmull's Last Resort, kicks off the Saturday night lineup at 5:30 p.m. on the Stillwater Stage. Gates open at 5 p.m. and tickets are $60 at the gate.
TTNGL half year results ahead by 26.7 per cent

In a statement issued yesterday, TTNGL chairman Gerry Brooks said this represents a 26.7 percent improvement over the corresponding period last year, when the company recorded $91.5 million in profit after tax.

The company said Brooks was proud to declare an interim 2017 dividend of TT $0.50 per share, payable on September 6, 2017 to shareholders on the Register as at August 21.

Earnings per share for the period were TT $0.59, compared to TT $0.47 for 2016.

This represents an increase of 25.5 percent.

TTNGL said the improved performance was driven by higher share of profit from its investment in Phoenix Park Gas Processors Limited (PPGPL).

Brooks said, The continued challenge at PPGPL; of lower natural gas volumes to Point Lisas for processing, was mitigated by improved Mont Belvieu product prices and company driven initiatives. He added that product prices for 2017 were 33.5 percent higher than that of the corresponding period last year.

Brooks also spoke about the resounding success of the recently- completed Additional Public Offering (APO) of 40.248 million Class B TTNGL shares, offered by The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC). The APO commenced on June 5 and ended on June 28.

Shares were offered to the public at a price of TT $21.00 per share, with TT $845.2 million being raised.

The shares created tremendous excitement on the local stock market, earning endorsements across the financial sector throughout the three and half weeks of the Offer, the company stated.

Brooks spoke about the share offering being oversubscribed by 1.53 times, with the company and institutional categories being oversubscribed by 223 percent and 313 percent respectively. He emphasised that all regulatory and compliance requirements were addressed and shares had been allocated to successful parties.

Brooks thanked the TTNGL board and the many partners and stakeholders who worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth, efficient and transparent process. TTNGL will continue to work for all our investors to maximise the value of and returns on this important piece of our patrimony. This demonstration of support will fuel NGCs, PPGPLs and TTNGLs continued determination to distinguish ourselves in the energy sector, Brooks stated.
The 4Triplets TTs latest musical heartthrobs

The vibrant instrumental four-piece band from San Fernando, consists of former Naparima College, San Fernando, students Joshua Regrello (steelpan), Darren Ramsook (bass guitar), Lyndel Bertie (electric guitar) and former Presentation College, San Fernando, student Daniel Ferguson (drum kit). _Regrello, Ramsook and Bertie are students at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Ferguson, who took one year off from school, will be leaving the band soon to head to the University of California, Los Angeles. Ramsook, Bertie and Ferguson are all national scholarship winners. Regrello is the son of San Fernando Mayor and Skiffle Bunch founder, Junia Regrello. The aspiring attorney-at-law is a tenor player and co-captain of Skiffle Bunch.

The 4Triplets combine their unique style with all genres of music and have just completed their Trinidad tour, entertaining crowds in their hometown of San Fernando at C3 Centre; Chaguanas at Price Plaza; Port of Spain at Fiesta Plaza and Point Fortin at Victor Chin Kit Park._ Regrello spoke to Newsday about the band and how, despite a hectic university life, The 4Triplets had managed to hold on and pursue a dream they have had since coming together three years ago. He said The bands motto was Team work makes the dream work, and that what they did as a band of young instrumentalists was what provided them with that much-needed balance in their lives.

What this band is and what we do, comes as a stress reliever and as leisure for us, Regrello said. So it is good to do it and to balance school work because university life can be very stressful. The band, he said, began in Naparima College when the principal, Dr Michael Dowlath, was asked to send a group to perform at an event hosted by President Anthony Carmona.

I play the pan and I remember the principal calling me to his office and telling me he wanted a musical piece, and I should make it special because it is for the president, Regrello recalled. I once heard a band play David Rudders High Mass and I knew I wanted to play that for the president but I felt I didnt want to do it alone. This prompted him to call on two of his schoolmates, a drummer and a guitarist, and they performed their hearts out._ That was the first time we played together, we were the Triplets, he said. However, as fate would have it, the drummer went abroad to study and they recruited Ferguson.

The 4Triplets has become very popular on the school circuit followed around by screaming teenagers. Just the image they wanted.

You watch television and you hear of a boy band, Regrello said. A boy band doesnt happen every year. It is something that happens irregularly.

There is one in every generation and we want to make sure that we survive. He said boy bands created a certain hype and crowd. When people talk of the 4Triplets today in our teenage years, we want that when we become adults we will still be performing as the 4Triplets and still have the same fans and more. We have a passion for the music. They rehearse together as much as they can.

During school time, practice sessions are less frequent but once school is out they are always in the band room._ The band is inspired by the excellent musicianship of Red Hot Chilli Peppers and local soca stars Machel Montano and Kees Dieffenthaller._ The band is always busy and has performed at numerous events throughout Trinidad, among them The Palliative Societys Poor Mans Dinner at the Trinidad Hilton; the launch of Angosturas 1787 rum; the opening of Starbucks, SouthPark; at the Diplomatic Center for the Prime Ministers Annual Christmas cocktail and numerous graduation balls.

The 4Triplets will host a concert on August 11_at City Hall Auditorium, San Fernando, from 7.30 pm  9.30 pm followed by an after party until 11 pm. Also performing, will be reigning National Youth Extempo Monarch Kevan Calliste; reigning South Calypso Monarch Prince Calliste; Marina Mohan, DNA Productions; Jen-ai Mohammed and Sam Khan.

Follow them on social media: Facebook, Instagram, You- Tube, Twitter and Snapchat @ TripletsTT.
INCREASE IN MENTAL ILLNESS

Thats the word from South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) psychiatric/mental health services regional manager Pooran Sankar who said there has been an increase in mental illness nationally and internationally.

We are well aware that mental illness is rising in the global burden of disease and, as I said in 1998, unipolar major depression was number five, in 2020 it is expected to be number two and in 2030 it is expected to be number 1, Sankar said. So generally, there is an increase in mental health illness. We are seeing 100 persons coming into our departments for mental health services. This is a normal thing that is happening but we are responding and making a difference in terms of treatment.

The major mental health issue is depression and unipolar major depression. One in four people will require mental health services at some point in their lives. Asked whether this was local statistics, he said This is an international World Health Organisation issue, so the research is coming from them. The Global Burden of Disease study is the most comprehensive worldwide observational epidemiological study which describes mortality and morbidity from major diseases, injuries and risk factors to health at global, national and regional levels.

Sankar was speaking with reporters after the launch of the TT Association for the Improvement of Mental Health at the San Fernando Hill Conference Centre yesterday.

Meanwhile SWRHA acting chief executive officer Gail Miller Meade described the challenge of dealing with mental health issues as a worldwide phenomenon.

Around the world, the challenge of dealing with mental health issues is growing, she said, and cited a recent study published in the Daily Telegraph which indicated that some 38 percent or 165 million Europeans suffer from depression, anxiety, insomnia, dementia or other mental and neurological illnesses.

Sankar said the association would also attempt to heighten the level of awareness and to ensure that people are well aware that if, perchance, there is abnormal behaviour, help is available and there is treatment available. We are going to represent their interests. For example, we had a number of our patients who were shot. We havent heard many voices, not that we are blaming anybody, but the fact is we have to be more aware of what is happening in this society and how best to deal with these volatile situations, he said.

In a moving testimonial, former secondary school teacher Caron Asgarali recounted her struggles with depression after having survived being shot in her face, chest and shoulder in an attempted robbery in 2013. She said the first nine months after the incident, she had focused on her physical healing but found she needed professional help for her mental healing.

I went to the NIS and I had to answer a question and, there and then, in the middle of a public building, I started to cry. And if you know me, I am not a person who is easily moved to tears. Asgarali said she was diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder but, with professional help, was able to deal with the illness.
Peter: Im still a policy holder that on May 22, 2012, Permell

A statement issued by the ministry said Imbert noted comments made by Permell that he was still a policyholder and wanted the balance of money owed to him.

The ministry said its records indicate that on May 22, 2012, Permell accepted the former Peoples Partnership governments offer for purchase of his Clico policies by virtue of deeds of assignment and declarations of trust in respect of two executive flexible premium annuities with Clico.

The ministry said Permell received the sum of $75,000 in cash for each policy with the rest being paid in bonds.

In full and final settlement in May 2012, Permell relinquished all claims to these policies.

The ministry said Permell signed a clear and unequivocal waiver of all future claims against Clico with respect to these policies.

The ministry said it had been advised that Permell no longer had any contractual relationship with Clico.

Permell has said he was neither a Clico nor a CLF shareholder.

However, he has maintained that he was a Clico policyholder
Sheila Prince: Beetham children must not be left behind

The retired police inspector in charge of the Beetham Police Youth Club is hosting a fiveday etiquette training camp at the youth club.

The camp began on Wednesday and ends on Monday.

Speaking with Newsday yesterday, Prince said children must be well grounded and taught good social skills.

Honesty, manners and respect need to be instilled in them, Prince said.

Children must know how to walk, speak, eat and have good table manners from a tender age. They must be instilled in all children, including Beetham children. We are here to teach them that they can also experience the finer things in life because they are a part of society. Prince defined etiquette as a way of manners and how you behave around the table. She said it was important that children understand etiquette so that they can teach their parents and others.

Apart from etiquette training, the children have also been learning about drug abuse and alcoholism.

We are teaching them the negative effects of drug abuse and how using drugs can affect the brain. People are telling children dont use drugs, but they arent telling them why. She said the children have also been told they must have a goal and they must dream.

Prince said the camp is knowledge-based and she believes in teaching children the basics through knowledge. She said some people just dont see etiquette as important and it is often put on the back burner.

Indra Mohammed, grandmother of two campers, said todays lack of etiquette stems from broken homes.

A lot of people arent taught how to behave at a table because sometimes you just get a piece of bread and you sit down on the corner and eat your bread. You dont have time to sit at a table. Poverty also has something to do with it. Mohammed said Prince tries her best with these children and she really works hard. One of the children at the camp, 10-year old Jalise Telesford said she learned about having good character.

Jadon Fortune, seven, said he learned the importance of having integrity, while 13-yearold Justin Nunes-Xavier said he appreciated learning good table manners.
Trini art prodigy laid to rest

Smiths past school mates from Hillview College, as well as his school mates from University of Pennsylvania, attended the funeral to pay tribute.

Smith, a Mechanical Engineering major at the University of Pennsylvania and young artist, lost his battle with cancer last week while in Trinidad. A member of the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, Smith moved to Pennsylvania in 2015 to attend the university where he was part of the Caribbean students community.

According to a report from the Daily Pennsylvanian, Smith was diagnosed with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer, during the July-August vacation of last year while preparing for his first solo art exhibition entitled Kyrie. The article said Smith left the university on a medical leave of absence for ten months.

He was the only child of his parents Hayden and Anna Smith who are also artists. In the article, Smith was described as a thoughtful and passionate visual artist and his mother described him as someone who loved adventure.

Transitioning from Trinidad to studying in Pennsylvania was just another adventure for him.

Thats how he treated life...everything as a new adventure, she said.

She said Smith showed other students how to take a break and enjoy the moment while being students.

His friend Chase Rapine said he remembered when he spent over three hours with him in a snowstorm and he was impressed with Smiths pictures. It was Smiths first time seeing snow.

His love of art was ingrained in him, Rapine said. He was able to see the beauty in things that so many of us take for granted each day. Speaking with Newsday on Thursday, acting president of the Art Society, Robert Ramkissoon, said the funeral was abundant with an outpouring of love. He added although Smith was one of the organisations younger members, he was very active and helpful. We are an NGO so we are highly dependent on sponsors and things like that. But Jonathan came forward and helped with graphic arts, creating invitations and stuff. Ramkissoon described Smith and his parents as very helpful. Jonathan gave of his time and his services to help in any way, Ramkissoon said.

Smiths funeral took place on Thursday at Belgroves Funeral Home in Tacarigua. The eulogy was read by a family friend and those who couldnt make it, sent messages which were read to the gathered friends and family.

The family thanked the University of Pennsylvania for their support.

Smiths father said he received quite a few messages from people he never met before, but whose heart Jonathan has touched.
Rowley, Khan praise Jones

Jones died at the Augustus Long Hospital in Pointe-a- Pierre, where he had been hospitalised two weeks earlier after suffering from pneumonia.

Rowley said as a chemical engineer, Jones was at the forefront of the establishment of the Pt Lisas port and industrial complex. He said Jones, dedicated his life to the industrial development of the nation. Rowley said while Jones passing was a great loss to the nation, we should comfort ourselves that he was a patriot. The Prime Minister expressed his condolences and that of the Government to Jones family, relatives and friends. He added that TT was grateful for the service which Jones had given.

In a statement, Energy Minister Franklin Khan said Jones was a true pioneer whose dedication and commitment to the development of the domestic energy sector was unquestionable. Khan said Jones served with distinction at the executive level in several state enterprises, including his last tenure in 2009 as Petrotrins executive chairman. He said Jones was a member of a group of visionaries who transformed TTs energy sector into a world class location and laid the foundation for this countrys economic development.

As a country, we are indebted to pioneers like Malcolm Jones whose contributions to TT helped us gain international recognition as an important energy province and favoured site for energy sector investment, Khan said.
Japan is fretting about running out of hotel rooms as foreign tourist numbers surge and as the capital prepares to host the 2020 Olympics.

But do entire countries really light up the "sorry, no vacancy" sign?

A recent survey by a Tokyo-based real estate service company says Japan has nothing to worry about. It shows that by 2020 or so eight major cities will experience a combined increase of about 60,000 hotel rooms, 26% more than the current level.

This should be plenty to prevent any Olympic shortfall.

In fact, all the new rooms could make for a supply glut.

According to the survey, Tokyo is expected to get another 25,000 hotel rooms by 2020 or shortly thereafter, a 25.6% increase. The number of hotel rooms in Osaka is expected to grow by 18,000 by then, up 34.9%.

Kyoto is forecast to add 8,000 rooms, up 36.1%, according to the survey.

Hotel rooms in the ancient capital, a major tourist draw, are currently in short supply.
The Outdoor Industry Association just released a new report proving that Montanas outdoor economy is bigger than anyone thought. The report detailed outdoor recreation activities such as camping, fishing and hunting, trail and water sports, and their part in contributing $7.1 billion to the states economy. These activities support a love of the outdoors, but more importantly, they also support our way of life.

As an entrepreneur who has started several businesses in the state, Ive witnessed firsthand how our public lands and outdoor amenities help business in Montana recruit and retain top talent. While all lawmakers should be expected to digest these new job numbers, there is one in particular who should study them very carefully: Sen. Steve Daines.

Daines is very good at sharing publicly his love for the great outdoors, whether its his affinity for fishing streams, hunting, or hiking the Beartooth Mountains. As a Montanan, he understands the inherent face value of our landscapes. Unfortunately, the talk has not translated into action. These mixed messages are on full display in the current debate over whether to protect local businesses from the threat of industrial gold mining on the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park, within gateway communities that depend on outdoor amenities and clean air and water to support their livelihoods.

Disappointed businesses

Daines comments and actions are at odds. He is confusing many local businesses and citizens who have asked for his help by saying one thing and effectively doing another. Daines recently told the Billings Gazette editorial board that he wants to protect the local economy and gateway of Yellowstone National Park. However, he disappointed many in the business community by stopping short of supporting the made-in-Montana solution that would accomplish this goal.

Instead he is delaying a solution by voicing his opinion that the current bill before Congress wont go anywhere. He is suggesting a need to start over under the guise that what Montanans are asking for isnt balanced enough for him. With all due respect, Senator Daines, we find these claims hard to believe. The Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act is well on its way, having already been introduced in Congress by Sen. Jon Tester and received a full Senate subcommittee hearing. The legislation is simple and straightforward and doesnt impact private property rights. If it werent balanced, it wouldnt have the support of the local community, 360 businesses, state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and the Park County commission.

The only thing holding this bill back from advancing right now is bipartisan cooperation. The only thing holding that up is Daines. If he would look past the politics and work together with Tester, there would be a much higher probability of delivering a win for our outdoor economy and the many jobs that depend on the protection of the public lands in question.

71,000 outdoor jobs

The right thing to do would be for Daines to listen to the hundreds of businesses and local leaders who have helped craft a homegrown plan for supporting jobs on the doorsteps of Yellowstone. The legislation does not need to be over-complicated or burdened down by any attempts to balance it. If the voices of 360 local businesses are not enough, please read through the Outdoor Industry Report and pay particular attention to these numbers:

The recreation and outdoor-driven economy in Montana supports 71,000 direct jobs;

This economy yields $2.2 billion in wages and salaries;

The outdoor industry bolsters our states well-being by providing $286 million in state and local taxes.

The outdoor industry is continuing to outgrow and outpace the economic impact of nearly every sector in the state. There is a perfect opportunity in front of our Montana delegation to demonstrate a commitment to protecting these outdoor jobs by working to protect the very thing that fuels this economy.

Senator Daines, please align your actions with your words. The numbers supporting the value of an outdoor recreation economy dont lie. If public lands are such a significant driver of Montanas economy, please explain why it is that you cant help us protect our livelihoods?
Back in 2014, YIMBY sat down with the Mayor of Jersey City, Steven Fulop, to discuss the latest happenings across the Hudson. The citys skyline has been continuously changing since then, and YIMBY revisited similar topics once more in an interview with the Mayor this week.

YIMBY in bold.

Jersey Citys skyline is bustling with cranes; looking to the near future when is the next phase of URBY breaking ground and are there any other big projects moving forward under the radar?

Its hard to keep those big projects under the radar but there are conversations right now regarding the second tower for URBY. Were starting to see the China Construction project on the waterfront (99 Hudson Street) really start to get some height on it. In Journal Square, we saw demolition this past week for the second tower next to the first KRE one, so that site is getting prepped. The Boys & Girls Club site is moving forward. Theres lots of activity and we see no signs of it stopping.

With plans for 99 Hudson and One Journal Square vying for the states tallest, in 25 years, will Jersey City or Journal Square be the epicenter for business?

I think that when you look forward 25 years, Journal Square is going to reclaim the title of being the heart of the city from a business standpoint. It used to be, many years ago, and obviously weve seen a surge of development and businesses moving to the waterfront. But when you look to the plans in Journal Square, its transportation infrastructure, it just kind of makes sense. The plans for arts and culture, between the Loews Theatre, and the Museum building that we are acquiring  you just logically come to the conclusion that Journal Square is going to be the heart of the city again.

Speaking of One Journal Square, do you have any updates on progress? And how about the Jersey Journal buildings redevelopment?

We havent seen anything come through at the planning department so everything on that front has been reported on.

With the current administrations enthusiasm for EB-5, do you think Jersey City will see an increase in opportunities for foreign and local investors to work alongside one another?

Its hard to tell how thats going to change, and whether they are enthusiastic or not. My understanding is that the EB-5 program has been supported by President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton, President Bush, etcetera. The city doesnt see the capital deck in that type of detail to know whether a project will or wont need EB-5 financing. We look at the viability and some of the finances, but I wouldnt be able to tell you how changes in Washington will directly impact Jersey City.

What has been your biggest learning lesson in urban planning and development since taking office, and how has that changed your approach?

I always thought that the Port Authority would be more responsive with regards to transportation, and that has been a challenge. I think with the change in administration in Trenton, that will provide better resources in the future on the transportation front. But thats a challenge, and a need, and a priority. I would say its an area of government where there have been a lot of lessons learned.

Finally, with New Yorks transit crisis also spiraling out of control, what advice would you give DeBlasio, if any?

Im not getting involved in New York City politics  in our corner of the world over here, were working with the Port Authority right now in extending the platforms and the train signals. They say were going to be able to get 30% more capacity, so we have enough to focus on over here.

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Welcome back to the week in review, where we take a look at all the top stories making headlines on the Next Generation Communications community this week.

The week started off with word from Nokias CEO, Rajeev Suri (News - Alert). Suri believes that all the coming new technology will open up new opportunities for Nokia and its peers, but also create uncertainties in terms of timing. And that, he said, will mean some near-term risk. You can find all of his thoughts HERE.





Although that was a bit of a grim beginning, Nokia (News - Alert) had a lot of other positive news this week as well. First off, it received $2 billion from Apple in the companies patent dispute settlement. Then, the FCC greenlighted Nokias Mobile World Congress Americas demo. Nokia will be demonstrating its Flexi Zone base station and a mobile unit on 27.5-28.35GHz spectrum during Mobile World Congress Americas. To round out the Nokia news this week, TMCs (News - Alert) Paula Bernier dove into some of the companys insights surrounding 5G. She looks at Nokias 5G timeline as well as its plans for the future HERE.

Finally, Bernier finished off the week by discussing Verizons (News - Alert) 5G plans. Matt Ellis, Verizons executive vice president and chief executive officer, commented that the carrier is confident it will be able to roll out 5G commercially next year. A July 27 statement published by Verizon offers some details on Verizons 5G activities: During second-quarter 2017, Verizon announced fiber purchase agreements with Corning (News - Alert) and Prysmian to extend the company's network lead and position the company to deliver new multiuse fiber services, including 5G, while complementing small-cell deployment, Verizon said. In June, Verizon and the city of Sacramento, Calif., announced a partnership to develop and deploy smart-city services. Verizon has begun previously announced pre-commercial 5G fixed-wireless broadband trials in eight of 11 cities. You can continue reading HERE.

Theres plenty more to read about over on the Next Generation Communications community. Be sure to check out the other articles, and come back next week to read all the latest news.
The Daily News publishes death notices and obituaries on a daily basis for Norfolkans, area residents and former residents.

Death notices, which include information about when and where a person died, funeral services, burial and visitation for the deceased and memorial information, are published free of charge.

If families of the deceased desire to have an obituary printed, there is a fee charged for doing so. Because of that, families of the deceased can decide what information they want included in the obituary, as well as if they desire to have a photograph of the deceased published along with it. The Daily News reserves the right to edit.

Norfolk and area funeral homes have detailed information about placing an obituary in the Daily News. If individuals want to submit obituary information themselves, it can be emailed to funerals@norfolkdailynews.com or faxed to (402) 644-2080.

People needing additional information about death notices and obituaries can call the Daily News at 371-1020 or (877) 371-1020 and ask for the newsroom.
Algeria, Africas largest country, shares borders with 6 countries, all of them are closed with the exception of its land frontiers with Tunisia. This closed-border attitude is reflective of a lack of a neighborhood policy in an increasingly integrated continent where collective efforts are the best means to countering trans-border challenges.

With Morocco, the borders have been closed following a unilateral decision by the Algerian regime in 1994 in response to Moroccos decision to impose visa on Algerian citizens out of security concerns in the wake of an attack on a hotel in Marrakech, at a time Algeria was mired in a bloody civil war.

Sealing the borders from the Algerian side persisted since then despite official calls from Morocco to normalize ties and regardless of the fact that Morocco unilaterally lifted the visa requirements for Algerian nationals in 2006.

Although the Algerian regime justifies the closure of the borders with a quest to fight cannabis trafficking, the deep causes for keeping them sealed lies in Algerias schemes to contain Morocco and keep it in check. Algerian officials who continue to be hostage to a cold war mentality think that opening the borders will be more beneficial for Morocco, which has an attractive tourist market luring Algerian tourists. They also think that the free movement of goods will mostly benefit Morocco, which has a free market and a more competitive industry in contrast to Algerias full dependency on hydrocarbons as a source of revenue.

The hidden agenda behind closing the borders with Morocco was an illusion nurtured by the Algerian regime that the Kingdom will succumb to their oil-funded hegemonic schemes in the region. Algeria, which hosts, arms and funds the separatist Polisario militia, has made of isolating Morocco the supreme goal of its diplomacy.

To their disappointment, that strategy is eroding in the face of the economic and diplomatic inroads made by Morocco with a return to the African Union and an increasing support by countries that once were ardent defenders of the Algerian-nurtured separatist thesis in the Sahara. These countries include heavy weights such as Nigeria and Ethiopia as well as influential countries in terms of economic performance in the continent and democracy such as Rwanda and Tanzania.

Algerias strategy to isolate Morocco has backfired. The zero sum game evinced by the Algerian regime regarding regional integration and rapprochement with Morocco kept the Maghreb in a state of limbo leaving the Kingdom with the only choice of seeking regional integration with its southern neighbors, precisely the ECOWAS where the Kingdoms banks and companies have been operating for years.

A look at Algerias other borders with the Sahel countries, namely Mauritania, Mali and Niger, shows that the country is cutting itself off a region where it aspires to be a regional leader. With Mauritania, Algeria has closed its borders and Nouakchott responded by declaring the border area a military zone forbidden to civilians. With Mali and Niger, Algeria sealed its borders for security reasons, preventing Touareg communities from the freedom of movement in their ancestral lands.

Using the security issue to prevent the freedom of movement of people and goods in the region is flawed. Fighting terrorism in the region should be a collective endeavor as national approaches have long proved their inefficiency. Yet, there is a silently brewing lack of trust between Sahel countries and Algeria on the issue of terrorism. Algeria, the native land of the leaders of most terrorist groups operating in the Sahel, has shown ambivalence in tackling the terrorist threats, which feeds suspicions and erodes trust in Algerias willingness to combat terrorism.

The connivance of Algerias intelligence services with Algerian national Moukhtar Belmoukhtar, aka Mr Marlboro, is no secret. International reports have also accused Algeria of cooperating with Ansar Eddine and its leader Ag Ghali to quell the separatist ambitions of the secular Azawad movement. Algerias support for Ag Ghali was intended to foster extremism in the region to avert a spillover of an independent Tuareg state on its own Tuareg population.

Algerias laxism with Ag Ghali facilitated the merger of four terrorist groups operating in the Sahel into one group pledging allegiance to Al Qaeda and its Jordanian leader Azarkawi. The four terrorist groups were brought together under the command of Ag Ghali. The new terrorist organization bears the name of Jamaat Nasr Al islam wa Al mouminin (Group for the Defense of Islam and the Muslims).

The creation of the G5 has also infuriated Algerian political leaders. It is no coincidence that the anti-Sub-Saharan migrant rhetoric is on the surge following the formation of the G5 force.

While it prides itself of being the Mecca of Revolutionaries, Algeria has later adopted the attitudes of the colonizer in dealing with Sub-Saharans. Anti-migrant rhetoric verging on blatant racism is uttered by senior officials who come to shamefully associate illnesses, AIDs and economic hardships with the arrival of a few thousands of poor Sub-Saharans fleeing difficult conditions and conflict.

The antagonism of Algerian officials makes them myopic to the changes experienced in Africa. As the legitimacy of the Algerian regime erodes at home, its ideological alliances built on generous oil money handouts are gradually dismantled in the continent, since Africa lives in a new dawn where genuine win-win partnerships, technology transfer and investments are the best way to strengthen bilateral relations.
Head of the International Organization for Migration William Lacy Swing, who visited Libya this week, said this North African country remains a top priority for the UN agency.

Swing, who is accompanied by Vincent Houver, IOM deputy director for Emergencies, Othman Belbeisi, IOM Chief of Mission in Libya and other IOM Libya staff, met with the Prime Minister Fayez al Serraj.

The IOM delegation also met with several Government ministers, as well as representatives of the Libyan Coast Guard and the Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM).

Libya remains IOMs top priority and it is therefore important for me to be back in Tripoli so soon after my last visit at the end of March, said Director General Swing. The response from the Libyan authorities has been more than positive and IOM is fully committed to further support and collaborate closely with our Libyan counterparts.

This visit contributed to strengthening the way IOM plans and works together with governmental counterparts to ensure the delivery of tangible results in support of the Governments strategic priorities, Belbeisi said following the visit.

While IOMs delocalized structure is built on a strong field presence with IOM staff all across east, south and west of Libya, an increasing number of international staff is anticipated to be back in Libya as soon as possible.

Throughout the Tripoli mission, IOM pleaded for the improvement of living conditions in the detention centers and alternatives to detention including open centers and safe spaces for women, children and other vulnerable migrants, registration of migrants following rescue-at-sea operations and the continuous technical cooperation to support local partners and Libyan officials.

Director General Swing also met with deputy special representative and deputy Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). Talks focused on IOMs scaling up its collaboration with the UNSMIL.
All you hear nowadays is that we should have free trade. Free trade is often not free trade.

Since the United States has signed all these treaties (NAFTA is just one of them), our country has grown a big money deficit when before we had a good surplus.

Who benefits from signing these treaties? It is not you or I, nor is it our producers, U.S. manufacturers or taxpayers, which are all individuals. Our consumers benefit a little by buying some things cheaper, but they also lose good-paying jobs and eat less of the safest food in the world.

Some of the ones that benefit the most are the U.S. meatpackers. These four companies process 85 percent of the U.S. beef, buy cheaper foreign beef, and sell it with a label of USA meat. These meatpackers fought alongside with Mexico and Canada to get rid of COOL, or country of origin labeling.

These meatpackers are now shipping in beef from countries that are less safe than Mexico and Canada  countries such as Brazil that have hoof and mouth disease.

The big multi-international companies are the winners. They ship stuff, including meat, in and ship stuff out, making a profit each way, while our USA companies lose business and our manufacturing companies go broke. Also, the loss of COOL does not help our cattle producers, either.

Irene Moffett

Fallon
In defiance of the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment, Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir flew on a private visit to Tangier in northern Morocco where he met King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who is holidaying in the city, media reports said.

The Sudanese President was accompanied by a delegation of Ministers and was received at the airport by Sudanese diplomats accredited in Rabat.

The ICC has indicted President Al Bashir in March 2009 on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity following his governments war on Darfur.

Moroccos Le360.ma news website reported that Al-Bashir arrived in the northern city of Tangier on Thursday and made public appearances in a local mosque as well as some attractions in the city on Friday.

This is not the first time Morocco hosts Al Bashir on private visits. Despite being one of the 124 signatories of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, Morocco has received the Sudanese President last November at an African summit in Marrakech, on the sidelines of the COP22 international climate conference.

The Sudanese President had also visited in July 25, 2016 the Saudi King in his summer palace in Tangier to discuss defense issues as the two countries are involved in a bloody conflict in Yemen.
A plan to set up financial incentives to attract more international filmmakers to Morocco was unveiled in Rabat with the aim of tripling investments by foreign producers in the Kingdom.

Speaking at a conference, Director General of Moroccos cinema center (CCM) Sarim Fassi Fihri underscored the plans beneficial impact on job creation notably in the Draa Tafilalet region, the Kingdoms film production hub.

In this respect, he said that the Finance Ministry has agreed to offer 100 million dirhams as part of the 2016 Appropriation bill to subsidy foreign productions in the Kingdom.

In 2016, total investments by foreign producers in Morocco stood at 320 million dirhams, he noted, adding that since 1919 Morocco has been luring foreign filmmakers solely thanks to its natural assets.

He deplored that Morocco, since 1997, maintains only one single form of incentives, namely tax exemption on all goods and services used by the foreign production company.

This incentive is not enough to cope with an increasing international competition by countries in the Mediterranean and beyond who are vying to attract foreign productions, he emphasized.

in 2015, the number of feature movies made in the globe reached around 6,300 film for an overall cost estimated at 330 billion dirhams, the CCM director general said, noting that Morocco received a meagre amount of 0.415 billion dirhams of investments in 2014, which represents only 0.13% of the global budget spent on foreign productions.

Morocco continues to stand as a hub for culture and cinema in a MENA region beset by turmoil and instability. Last year, 24 foreign films were shot in the Kingdom thanks to a solid cinema industry infrastructure and qualified human resources.

Acclaimed masterpieces shot in the kingdom of the stature of Brad Andersons High Wire Act with Rosamund Pike and Jon Hamm, Alexandre Moorss The Yellow Birds with Jennifer Aniston, Per Flys Backstabbing For Beginners with Ben Kingsley, Jason Halls Thank You for Your Services with Amy Schumer, as well as the trailers for The Mummy and Allied, and episodes of Prison Break, The Missing, Viking and Homeland.

The economic return of hosting international filmmakers is highly significant, such as Homeland which was shot for 8 days in Morocco and spent approximately $1.8 million.

In terms of local production, with more than 20 films a year, Morocco is the third biggest producer of films in Africa after Egypt and South Africa.
Cold as ICE. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Politically speaking, nativism and corporatism make a great team. The GOPs hard-line immigration message has allowed it to win the ballots of voters who would otherwise see little appeal in conservative economics  while the partys fealty to big business has enabled it to claim the campaign contributions of companies that would otherwise have no interest in bankrolling xenophobic demagoguery.

The combination of corporate donations and nativist votes has won a lot of elections for the Republican Party.

But while immigration hawks and job creators share a coalition, they dont share an agenda. Breitbarts brand of populism is built on the premise that undocumented immigrants and crony capitalists conspire to keep wages for the native-born artificially low. Which is to say: Steve Bannon wants to increase corporate Americas labor costs.

While running for president, Donald Trump suggested that he did, too. The first sentence on his campaigns Immigration web page was a promise to prioritize the jobs, wages and security of the American people. The second, a vow to establish new immigration controls to boost wages and to ensure that open jobs are offered to American workers first.

To accomplish these goals, the mogul pledged to turn off the jobs and benefits magnet that draws undocumented workers across the border by cracking down on employers who exploit illicit labor.

For some strange reason, the president has largely neglected this prong of his immigration agenda. The administrations initial budget proposal called for $2.6 billion in border-wall funding; $1.5 billion in new resources for deportation and detention; but a mere $15 million for nationwide E-Verify, a system that allows employers to cross-reference a prospective employees work-eligibility documents against government records.

The takeaway is clear, the New York Times editorial board wrote of that last, minuscule appropriation. While it has become politically expedient to malign and scapegoat immigrants, Mr. Trump and Republican lawmakers across the country recognize that finding a way to excise them systematically from payrolls would have a crippling effect on several industries.

Trumps complicity with the jobs and benefits magnet goes beyond his refusal to back adequate funds for E-Verify. The Labor Department has significant authority to punish employers who hire the undocumented. But Trumps initial pick to head the agency was a fast-food CEO who allowed his company to routinely violate labor law, and proudly advertised his preference for immigrant laborers  workers whom he described as being more hardworking and grateful than entitled, native-born Americans. Its hard to imagine such a figure prosecuting an unprecedented crackdown on companies that hire unAmerican. And while Andy Puzders nomination ultimately fell through, the presidents second choice for Labor secretary, Alex Acosta, is a business-friendly moderate on immigration issues.

Now, a report from the Los Angeles Times suggests that in the Trump era, Americas immigration-enforcement regime isnt merely neglecting to punish companies that hire the undocumented  but actively helping employers enjoy the full advantages of exploiting black-market labor:

Federal immigration agents have shown up twice at California labor dispute proceedings to apprehend undocumented workers, in what state officials believe may be cases of employer retaliation.

The Labor Commissioners Office, the states labor enforcement arm, said that since November U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at locations in Van Nuys and Santa Ana looking for workers who had brought claims against their employers. In January, ICE also contacted a state official and asked for details about an ongoing investigation into labor violations at several construction sites across Los Angeles, according to Julie Su, the states labor commissioner and the agencys head.

 Su said she suspects that the employers being accused of underpaying employees tipped off federal immigration agents about the status of the workers. The timing of wage hearings isnt public, and generally the worker and employer are the only ones who know that information outside of the agencyShe said 58 workers have reported immigration-related threats from bosses to her office so far this year, compared with 14 in all of 2016.

A spokesperson for ICE told the paper that the agency had no information to corroborate Sus claims, and insisted that it did not endorse such practices.

Nonetheless, if the California Labor Commissions claims are true, the irony is stark. Instead of chastening employers who rely on undocumented labor, Trumps aggressive immigration enforcement is, in some cases, making it easier for said employers to intimidate undocumented workers into accepting exploitation. And the easier it is for companies to get away with underpaying undocumented workers, the greater their incentive to avoid hiring American citizens.

Now, a humane and rational immigration policy would not seek to make millions of undocumented breadwinners unemployable, but rather, would give them access to citizenship  or, at the very least, to robust labor protections that would both acknowledge their human dignity, and allow native-born workers to compete on an even playing field.

But Trump did not promise his supporters a compassionate immigration policy founded on humanism. He promised to make unpatriotic employers regret their decision to exploit undocumented workers, instead of hire American ones. In California, some ICE agents appear to be doing the opposite. And, at present, Trumps base doesnt seem to mind.

So, perhaps nativists and job-creators can enjoy mutual tolerance and amicable co-existence in the GOP tent  even as they make it evermore difficult for the rest of the country to enjoy those things.
This odd couple remains together, for the time being. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump and his son-in-law/senior adviser Jared Kushner are both pushing back on a widespread campaign to convince Trump to fire his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster. That campaign  which may include some top White House officials, but has primarily been conducted by nationalist, right-wing organizations and news sites  has sought revenge on McMaster for his ousting of four conservatives from Trumps national security council, as well as for his opposition to simply voiding President Obamas Iran nuclear deal without a backup plan. The #FireMcMaster campaign has proliferated on social media, too, including among Russian Twitter bots. As far as the anti-McMaster efforts chances, there had been reports that Trump was thinking about pulling McMaster from the NSC to put him in charge of the war in Afghanistan, but on Friday night, in a rare, clearly concerted effort for this White House, both the president and Kushner released statements expressing their support for McMaster.

General McMaster and I are working very well together, Trump explained. He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country.

A senior White House official also told the New York Times that McMaster still has Trumps total confidence, but that shouldnt be taken very seriously. Trump appears to have total  and no  confidence in lots of people simultaneously, depending on the anonymous source and how the president feels about the latest cable-news coverage.

The reason Trump made the pro-Israel comment is because one of the lines of attack against McMaster has been that he is secretly anti-Israel. The former general has also been accused, without evidence, of leaking internal White House documents, of being a globalist, and of various other slights against Trump and his nationalist agenda. But for now, at least, the campaign has not been able to convince Trump that he should get rid of McMaster, nor has it convinced Kushner, who was a staunch ally of the latest official McMaster pushed out of the NSC: senior director for intelligence Ezra Cohen-Watnick. Heres what Kushner sent the Times on Friday:

General McMaster is a true public servant and a tremendous asset for the president and the administration. He has created and oversees a very thorough and clear process for the agencies to work together to give the president credible options to advance the presidents priorities for Americas foreign policy.

McMaster associates told the Times that they believe White House senior strategist Steve Bannon is behind the campaign to ax McMaster, and thats far from the first time that feud has come to light. Bannon was kicked off the NSCs principals committee soon after McMaster became national security adviser. There has also been hilariously extensive negative coverage of McMaster published by Breitbart News, Bannons former media organization, and the two recently clashed in an awkwardly intense dispute over Afghanistan policy at the White House as well.

McMaster does, however, appear to have the support of new chief of staff and fellow general John Kelly. Politico reports that Kelly told McMaster this past week that he hopes he will stay on in his current role, and should continue to remake the staff of the NSC as he sees fit. Then again, no one who isnt related to the president is ever safe in this White House, and it seems clear that Trump remains antsy about McMaster, but that, for now at least, he is more fond of McMaster than he is of feeling forced to fire him.
Well sometimes have Paris. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Trump administration wants the United Nations to know that the president really, truly meant it when he said that America would be exiting the Paris climate agreement back in June. But the White House would also like the international community to know that the United States reserves the right to change its mind on that subject  and would still like a seat at the table at all international climate talks, regardless.

Under the terms of the Paris deal, the U.S. cant actually, formally notify the U.N. that it is withdrawing until 2019. And Donald Trump already made his administrations informal intentions perfectly clear weeks ago. But the American government delivered an official written notice of its intention to exit the agreement to the U.N. on Friday anyway.

Ironically, that document does less to reiterate Americas intransigent opposition to the deal than to signal the administrations openness to changing course.

As the President indicated in his June 1 announcement and subsequently, he is open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the US can identify terms that are more favorable to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers, the letter from the State Department said. The Paris Agreement is nonbinding, and the U.S. can alter its own carbon-emissions targets at will. So Trump can identify terms that are more favorable to the United States whenever he wants to. And that option, apparently, remains on the table.

The letter also says that the U.S. will participate in upcoming international climate-change negotiations, including those aimed at implementing the Paris deal, so as to protect U.S. interests and ensure all future policy options remain open to the administration.

The earliest that the United States can officially exit the agreement is November 4, 2020  the day after our nations next presidential election. Should Trump lose the Oval Office, his successor could rejoin the agreement.

Heres hoping the debate moderators find time to ask a question about climate change, next time around.
Everything old, or not really that old, is new again in Silicon Valley. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Google is working on its answer to Snapchat. Its called Stamp  a portmanteau of stories and AMP, the acronym for Accelerated Mobile Pages, Googles quick-loading web articles  and you could be seeing it as early as next week, sources with intel on the project told WSJ. The new platform would be similar to Snapchats Discover feature, where publishers create and share made-for-Snapchat (or repurposed-for-Snapchat) content.

The Journal reports Google has been in talked with outlets including CNN, the Washington Post, Time, Vox, and Mic. Participating publishers would run stories that could be several swipeable slides encompassing text, photos and video, just as on Snapchat. Unlike Snapchats Discover section, Stamp wouldnt be part of a designated app. Instead its possible Stamp content would be shown beneath Googles search bar.

Google isnt the only company coming for Snapchat this week. Facebook, fresh on the heels of celebrating the first anniversary of copying Snapchat to create Instagram Stories, began testing a stories feature for desktop users. (It already has stories on mobile, though it often feels like nobody uses them.) Nobody tell Miranda Kerr. The model and wife of Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has historically not been too thrilled about other tech companies ripping off her husbands product. Do they have to steal all of my partners ideas? Im so appalled by that  When you directly copy someone, thats not innovation.
Government has directed the police and other security agencies to firmly take action against intolerant Ugandans especially those opposed to lifting of the presidential age limit.

In a statement issued by the minister of ICT and national guidance and government spokesperson, Frank Tumwebaze, a cabinet meeting yesterday resolved and directed security agencies to take action against those who intimidate, attack any other persons holding divergent views.

According to the statement, several politicians including ministers Beti Olive Namisango Kamya, Kahinda Otafiire and members of parliament like Simeo Nsubuga, Ibrahim Abiriga have all been at one time attacked or assaulted for holding divergent political views.

A soldier chasing and beating up people who were cheering on opposition politician Kizza Besigye last year

Despite persistent denials by government officials and in particular President Yoweri Museveni that the state is mooting the idea of amending the Constitution to lift the presidential age limit, currently capped at 75 years, debate by exponents and critics alike on the matter has been increasingly gaining momentum in the last few months.

Critics opposed to the idea claim that the Constitution should not be amended to favour an individual, President Museveni who in two weeks time be 73 years old and will not be eligible to contest in 2021.

Equally, the proponents also argue that the limit is discriminatory and will edge out their 'winning captain', Museveni, who is now into his fifth consecutive term in office.

Below is the statement from minister Tumwebaze.

Cabinet sitting on Friday 4th August 2017 discussed among other items and noted particularly with concern, the increasing wave of politically motivated intolerance among sections of the political class resulting into physical attacks on targeted people.

In particular, Cabinet took strong exception to the incident which occurred in Mubende at the celebrations to commemorate His Highness the Kabakas coronation where a one Ntege (aka Kyuma Kyayesu ) attacked Hon. Simeo Nsubuga in full public glare allegedly on account of the views Hon. Nsubuga holds on the proposed amendment of Article 102(b) of the Constitution being discussed in the public arena.

Similar cases of extreme intolerance involving actual physical attacks and/or assault against Hon. Ibrahim Abiriga, Hon. Betty Kamya and Hon. Kahinda Otafiire have also been reported.

This is not only unacceptable but criminal. Cabinet has therefore resolved the following;

1) Condemned these extreme cases of intolerance that are resulting into episodes of violence. NO one has a right to intimidate another person on account of his/her views.

Government therefore cautions all those in the habit of taking the law in their hands to stop forthwith. Political disagreements and contestations do not need to degenerate into violence or physical confrontations. That is cowardice and criminal.

2) Directed the Police and other law enforcement agencies to firmly take action against any person alleged to be intimidating and/or attacking any other citizen on account of his/her divergent views.

Nobody, Senior, Junior or Ordinary citizen is above the law.

3) Noted that the Constitution is an expression of the peoples wishes, aspirations and ethos and therefore any citizen is free to express his/her views on any matter of constitutional governance.

Chapter 18 of the Constitution and specifically Article 259 provide for a mechanism of amending the Constitution and therefore gives anyone an opportunity to express him/herself and propose any amendments. It is therefore criminal for anybody to issue threats against any citizen on account of holding certain political views.

4) Encouraged Ugandans to continue freely expressing themselves in accordance with the laws of the land. Government will protect the rights of all.

5). Noted that some leaders have been going in the media to issue threats against others with different views. Cabinet therefore Called upon the media and all journalism practitioners to always moderate their debates within the confines of the minimum broadcasting standards.

They should not allow or tolerate guests who trade in insults and use threatening language bordering on violence against others whose views they disagree with.

A democratic culture can only take root if every citizen is free to express him/herself without any threat from anybody.

6). Leaders of all shades of opinion are also encouraged not to stifle debate on any issue that is of interest and concern to the citizenry, as that would be negating the principles of pluralism and democratic governance.

7). Government has not yet discussed the issue of age limit as contained in article 102(b). The ongoing discussions in the public domain are citizen driven. And any Ugandan or group of Ugandans is/are free to call for any amendment in the Constitution. Government will not stifle them.

Thank you.
President Yoweri Museveni together with his Tanzanian counterpart, John Pombe Magufuli, have today, Saturday laid a foundation stone to kickstart the construction of Uganda's crude oil pipeline.

The $3.55 billion (about Shs 12.6 trillion) 1,445km crude oil pipeline believed to be the world's longest, will run from Hoima in Uganda to Tanga in Tanzania.

At the commissioning event in Tanga, Tanzania, Museveni said that the pipeline is not a two-country infrastructure but an East African project meant to benefit all member states.

"This is a great event for the two countries and for East Africa. This pipeline is not just for the crude oil of Uganda; it can become an East African Pipeline. There are already hydro-carbon resources detected in Eastern Congo, the Semliki valley; there are confirmed hydro-carbon resources in the Turkana area of Kenya; there are also possibilities of hydro-carbons in Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi", Museveni said.

Museveni and Magufuli laid a foundation stone to kickstart the construction of the pipeline

Construction of the pipeline was initially expected to be completed by 2020 and was increasingly looking unlikely but Tanzanian President Magufuli said even if it means working day and night, construction must be completed within the specified period with no delays.

The 24-inch diameter pipeline will move 216,000 barrels of oil per day at a cost of about Shs 44,000 per barrel.

According to Museveni, Uganda has 6.5 billion barrels of oil so far in 40% of the potential area.

"Consequently, there will be both the refining of oil in Uganda in order to produce petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and other petro-chemical products such as plastics. There is also associated gas which we shall use to produce some electricity and, maybe, get some nitrogen to add to our phosphates and potassium to produce the NPK composite fertilizers to support our agriculture", he added.

In January, Uganda and Tanzania awarded the Front-End Engineering Design contract for the pipeline to American Gulf Interstate Engineering.

Tanzania had offered a fiscal incentives package that led Uganda to choose it over Kenya as the favoured host for the pipeline.

However Ugandan government officials at never disclosed the said incentives at the time. Kenya had bid to host the same pipeline, which would have allowed it to earn transit fees and also transport its own crude in the Lokichar basin in the northwest.

Museveni today revealed the incentives that Tanzania offered. They include; no transit fee, no VAT, no corporate income tax, depreciation tax holiday for 20 years, free corridor (land) where the pipeline infrastructure is going to be built. According to Museveni, the Tanzanian government also promised to take up some shares in the pipeline.

With all these concessions, Museveni says, it enabled Uganda "to end up with a tariff fee of $12.2 per barrel, thus enabling the pipeline to remain profitable. The current price of oil in the world of about $50 per barrel notwithstanding."

kamogajonathan50@gmail.com
lol

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lol the rumors on this this lady tho. I can't with the internet

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people like to act like their hate for her is due to her divorce and non-classy acting profession, but it's racism. because they totes know that she's using their precious harry.

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it's clearly racism

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i agree. it's insane.

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ITA its disgusting

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i *hope* she's using him...

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i would not want to be proposed to at the same spot. he has money and can find a new place

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South Africa =/= Kenya...

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i didn't read the full post and only read the OP note at the end.

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Someone fly me into South Africa.

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Sunset on Lion's Head in Capetown, Art Festival in Grahamstown, getting my hair down in PE.. Uegh why don't people pay for my trips.

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Is the biggest thing Meghan's done Suits?

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yeah she doesn't really have much going for her acting wise outside of it. she was going the lifestyle blogger route until him.

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she really lucked out lol. people have been saying "i cant believe shes giving up her career for him!" but who wants to be a d-list actress that has to run a life style blog to get by?

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And being the face of a Reitman's clothing line. That's where I first saw her - I was surprised to find out later that she was an actress, too.

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yep. and suits is still going. it's just so painfully bad now even i can't watch anymore

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Who cares



Prince Hot Ginge is so fugly imo

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yeah he really needs the hat. that's when you kno you're fugly



Edited at 2017-08-05 07:22 pm (UTC)

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He was hot until these past few years. He started looking like Charles and Phillip when he hit 30.

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all royals are gross looking, even though ppl try & convince us that Diana and Kate and random Swedish royal #204 were/are supermodels



Nobody better respond to this comment w/pics of Grace Kelly's (grand)children

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Loooool so true tho

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i think diana was beautiful and i think most would agree. she was in an unfortunate era (80's and early 90's) but i think she killed it even so.

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I love how the ladies of Celeb*tchy are so invested in the royal family. Their thirst for Harry is confusing. I do like that they call out Will and Kate though

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It's funny, LOL. Though last I checked they were pretty evenly split between those who hate Meghan and those who stan for her simply because she has more of a work ethic than Duchess Kate.I suppose you can argue that Will is technically uglier, but Harry is fug too, and more outwardly racist to boot. It's kind of hypocritical to call out Will and Kate for their PR photo-ops when that's basically all Harry does, bloop.

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harry is a racist douchebag

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Right? You could make a case that Harry's work with vets doesn't count towards his royal engagements. But if you add in his extra work, he's still being laughably outworked by his 90+ grandparents and 60+ father and stepmom.



I mostly love that Celeb*tchy is filled with a bunch of bored american housewives who fetishize the royal family to an annoying extent. Like damn.

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What's said about William and Catherine? 

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they're a cute couple

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Harry is ugly inside and out.

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bet you he wouldn't be with her if she was a bit darker

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say it a bit louder for the WOC in the back who are thirsty to live vicariously through MM, sis

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Dating a guy is "making it?"

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Going from a meh career to financial security simply by marrying somebody

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Fringe! I miss you.

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Do you think they'll get a big TV wedding? Obviously it won't be as massive as Will and Kate's but my shameless inner seven-year-old that wanted to become a princess despite being American really wants to live vicariously through something!



(although tbh if I were actually in their situation I'd 100% prefer to have a family/friends-only wedding lol. also, requisite mention of Harry being trash.)

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yes and my ass will be watching.



Edited at 2017-08-05 07:31 pm (UTC)

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i dont think so. i have a feeling they will have a small civil ceremony

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harry's 5th in line. they'll have a televised wedding, but i don't think they'll do it at westminster abbey.

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There will be at least one television camera since the royals need good publicity. But it'll be a smaller ceremony to show that they're ordinary and with the people. Sort of like Victoria and Albert's "wholesome, middle-class family" shtick.

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lol i have some seriously unjustified hatred for Monarchies and i despise the British the most

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I would definitely watch it too. She's pretty. I want to see her dress and everything.

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I seriously hope so Megan is living out so many princess fantasies for us American girls, she needs more love and less hate!

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Absolutely. He's the most popular member, a senior and the son of the heir. His won't be as big as William's, but it'll be a big fucking deal when it happens

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william and catherine's wedding was fantastic because they made it a bank holiday and i didn't have to go to work

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i figured an engagement would come before the invictus games so she could fully participate, but times running out!

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why is the media or whoever is assuming that will propose to kate in Africa means harry is gonna do the same, both are two different people . so why does everyone want harry to propose to meghan so bad, ? it's werid

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because they are celebs people care about? the chances of them getting engaged are extremely high, because he is publicly dating her. so people are just waiting for the announcement.





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i know that, but just because william did doesn't mean harry will?

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I wonder how all the noble racist families that wouldn't let their kids marry poc feel now that their prince is openly dating a woc lmao

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As far as the royal family goes, I bet they are more upset she is divorced. That is heavily frowned upon.

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what's wrong with being divorced

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charles is divorced..........

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Which is funny considering how the Anglican church came to be.

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i feel like they're calm about it because she's really light skinned with dainty features

i would be interested to see what they'd be saying if she was darker w/o typical small "anglo" features.

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Its been a complicated and contradictory quarter for oil giant British Petroleum. The struggling corporation has failed to reduce debt in the second quarter, with total profits falling by 5 percent compared with last year. Despite these lackluster numbers, BP has actually exceeded analysts projections by a wide margin, recovering more quickly than expected despite a plethora of project failures and major expenditures.

In response to their failure to decrease or even stabilize their ballooning debt, the company has now slashed its market forecasts to $50 a barrel over the next five years. This is a considerable cut from their previous projection, which optimistically saw oil returning to $60 a barrel before the end of 2017. While the global market did peak at over $56 a barrel earlier this year, this number has been stymied by high production of shale gas in the U.S. and a global supply glut, bringing prices back below $50.

Part of BPs woes is their continued and costly struggle to bounce back from 2010s devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill, on which theyre still making hefty payments. Thanks in large part to the accident, the companys debt has now risen to a reported $39.8bn at the end of June as compared to $30.9bn at that time last year. Related: Did The Arab Spring Disarm OPEC?

In addition to the continued financial hardships relating to the Gulf spill, BP recently took a huge hit when they cancelled a massive project in Angola, causing their profits to plunge by more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. Profits on a replacement cost basis dropped from $1.5bn in the first quarter to $684m, but this actually exceeds average analyst expectations, which hovered around $500m thanks to Junes Angola fiasco, when BP gave up its 50 percent stake in gas exploration of the coast of the African nation after it was decided to be commercially unattractive.

Despite these major setbacks, BP has a lot of new projects underway, and shares this quarter were actually buoyed by a 10 percent increase in oil and gas production. BP is also trying hard to push into new markets, including an effort to move away from its dependence on fossil fuels in the context of an increasingly unpredictable market that shows no sign of stabilizing in the future.

This initiative has included talks with producers of electric vehicles as part of a plan to establish battery re-charging docks at its fuel service stations across the globe. Like many other oil giants, BP is threatened by the looming rise of electric cars and instead of fighting the changing tides, are trying to cash in on the movement. According to industry estimates, demand for some fossil fuels may plateau before 2030.

BPs case is a prime example of the conflict rocking the entire industry. Across the market, numbers and expectations are low and the future is uncertain. BP isnt the only oil giant that beat out analyst forecasts this quarter - Total and Royal Dutch Shell also surpassed expectations by a comfortable margin - showing that the oil industry continues to be marked by uncertainty and volatility that even the experts just cant get a handle on. In light of this, its really no surprise that the oil industry is turning more and more to embrace a future where oil becomes virtually obsolete.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Drought conditions had already reduced New Salem rancher Lee Henkes hay harvest to only 50 bales with which to feed his 130 cows and calves. But that would not be the only thing to go wrong in the Henkes lives.

It was while he was out gathering the meager hay crop that Lee Henke was run over with his sickle mower, cracking six ribs. He was released from the hospital 10 days ago.

Im a nurse; I dont know how to do (farm work), Claire Henke said.

In a fix, the Henkes swallowed their pride and asked for help.

North Dakota-based nonprofit Farm Rescue, which helps farmers and ranchers in need, is coming to the aid of ranchers affected by drought, transporting hay free of charge. The organization also is accepting donated or discounted hay.

Farm Rescue has 90 ranchers who have applied for help to date, said Dan Erdmann, marketing communications officer.

Claire Henke said Farm Rescue has been easy to work with, stepping in when they heard her husbands story.

Lee Henkes older tractor had to be started from the outside, between the tires. Not realizing it was in gear, he jumped beneath the tractor when it started to roll to keep from being crushed by the large back wheels. But he was still hurt by the sickle.

He had tire tracks across his back, Claire Henke said, and the machine drug him 10 to 15 feet.

He jumped up to chase the still moving tractor as it went into a ravine. After driving himself home from the wreck, he would end up spending four of his days in the hospital on oxygen.

Lee Henke works the ranch mostly on his own, with some help from his 18-year-old son. He also works for the North Dakota Department of Transportation to support his family and the many foster children he and his wife have cared for.

Claire Henke said her husband is walking now but she can tell hes still in pain when he takes a deep breath. It will be another couple weeks before he can run the farm machinery, he cant lift anything and it will be a couple months before he can go back to work at NDDOT.

Meanwhile, Claire Henke said theyre expecting to have to spend large amounts of money on hay on top of the hospital bills. The pastures are all eaten down and theyll likely have to start feeding hay in September rather than the usual November.

So getting hay here is a priority, she said.

Claire Henke said their neighbors have been very helpful, "but neighbors cant drive all the way to Minnesota to pick up hay."

With the help of Farm Rescue, the Henkes are receiving donated hay and a discount on hauling for another load  75 cents compared to the going rate of $5 per mile.

Theyre heroes in my opinion, she said of the Farm Rescue volunteers.

Farm Rescue is still seeking help of CDL drivers who are willing to donate their time, Erdmann said. The organization also is taking monetary donations to help cover fuel costs and purchase hay.
State owned Energy Power Industry of Serbia (EPS - Elektroprivreda Srbije) controls all domestic electricity production. The EPS was established after the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the formation of the Republic of Serbia in 1992. Given its monopoly in Serbia, it has been associated with several corruption scandals, and has been tied to the political elite. Control over EPS is therefore often viewed as a tool that can be utilised to exert influence.

EPS produces 95 percent of the total electricity consumed in Serbia, 70 percent of which originates from coal production. It also controls the countrys coal mines, water dams, and the limited oil and gas reserves (Balkan Energy, June 2016). EPS is credited with providing over 8 percent of the countrys total budget revenues, employing more than 30,000 people. Moreover, EPS is key to the states subsidies policy.

As in other former Socialist countries, Serbia inherited a system of highly subsidised energy prices. Serbian electricity prices are one of the lowest in Europe, with households paying 0.05 per KWh, whilst it was reported (2014) that the real market price of electricity produced by EPS is 18.5 cents per KWh.

EPS is a legacy of the Socialist system of the Yugoslavian era. Highly indebted, EPS was, and remains, key to regulating the price of electricity so that it is affordable to the majority of citizens. Of equal importance, since the fall of Yugoslavia, EPS has been utilised as a political tool for the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS - Socijalisti?ka Partija Srbije), the ruling party in Serbia during the 1990s. Under state control, the SPS used the EPS as a tool to distributed state resources among party members. This further consolidated SPS control over the electricity producer.

This has ultimately permitted the SPS to maintain an influential position in Serbian politics despite their declining popularity. Although the SPS is regarded as the most influential political party in the countrys energy sector, its role in EPS - through the control of most of its directorships and the workers union - has allowed it to exert pressure and influence over different Serbian governments, thereby benefiting politically.

EPS Opacity and SPS Control

The entrenchment of the SPS in EPS has been possible, in part, given the complicated and opaque structures of the company itself.

Although it has been under reform since 2011, EPS still represents one of the biggest state employers in Serbia. Before July 2015, when the first phase of these reforms was completed, most of the assets owned by the company - such as central electrics and dams - were incorporated within the EPS commercial structure, creating a labyrinth of an organisational chart with hundreds of directorships. It is believed that EPS, before the 2011 reforms, had around 600 directorships.

Serbian law stipulates that EPS directorships are chosen by the government, which today is mainly controlled by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS - Srpska Napredna Stranka). However, because of the history of EPS, the ability of the SNS to exert control over this institution is likely to be a long process. Given the long political tenure of the SPS, it successfully filled middle management offices with loyal members, thus directly controlling assets and employees. Although the SPS has steadily lost political influence in Serbia, it was only in 2016 that there were convincing signs that the SNS was beginning to dismantle SPS influence in the highest of EPS positions. This was evidenced by the dismissal of the Executive Director for Energy Production, Dragan Jovanovi?, In May 2016. Jovanovi? was a senior SPS-linked member. Related: U.S. Oil Sanctions Could Push Venezuela To The Brink

Several other cases demonstrate the entanglement of SPS members in EPS structures. During the 2014 general elections, the EPS union threatened to cut the electricity network if their salaries were not raised  this was interpreted as a move to apply pressure on the government. This threat is believed to have placed the SPS in an intermediary role between the union and the government, enabling the SPS to retain its position as a key political player.

Two other prominent members of the SPS - Aleksandar Anti? and Dusan Bajatovi? - hold also influential positions in the Serbian energy sector. Anti? is the Minister of Energy, while Bajatovi? is the General Director of Srbijagas. Both SPS members are understood to have direct ties to Gazprom, the Russian energy giant consistently accused of following a political agenda. In this sense, Anti? enjoys good relations with the Gazprom leadership and allegedly has directly benefited from these links, while Bajatovi? is also a Board Member of YugoRosGaz, an energy distributor in Serbia, and a subsidiary of Gazprom (50 percent).

The SNS-Russia link plays an important role in the on-going power struggle between the SNS and the SPS in the Serbian energy sector. In this sense, Vu?i? will have to take into account the Russian backing of the SPS in his political movements and calculations to diminish SPS influence in this sector.

Despite the SPSs relative political demise, it is still retaining influence in the energy sector and within EPS. In fact, the SPS still appears to be able to utilise the EPS to exert political influence on a national level. However, in order to maintain this position, the SPS needs the organisational structure of the EPS to remain as complex as possible. It is ostensibly through the EPS that the SPS is able to buy loyalty; for example, it is alleged SPS-linked businessmen have been showed preferential treatment in EPS tenders, and loyal SPS followers have been awarded EPS employment.

At the same time, presence of SPS loyalists in EPS allows them to misappropriate the EPS budget for their personal benefit.

Is Vu?i? Enough?

Serbias President, Aleksander Vu?i?, and his political party the SNS, have presented themselves as a unique political opportunity for Serbia to end endemic corruption and align itself with the European Union (EU). Coinciding with the arrival of the SNS to power (2012), Serbia was accepted as a candidate state by the EU.

EU demands for more accountable state structures have had a direct impact on EPS dynamics. The high levels of opacity associated with this entity add a complication to Serbias EU accession negotiations. However, it is these very negotiations that provide SNS legitimacy to embark on a programme of significant reform within the EPS.

Serbia has been working with the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to introduce more liberalised policies, and policies that would pave the road for privatisation. These policies have also had an impact on EPS; and, indirectly, are benefiting Vu?i? strategy of power accumulation. His clear political will to become the most influential political figure in the country will inevitably result in ensuring that these reforms simultaneously align with his personal and political goals.

The political hegemony of the SNS and Vu?i?, as demonstrated in the April 2017 elections, has granted them the legitimacy to continue with reforming the energy sector, as demanded by international institutions. As speculated by the Serbian press, the arrival to power of Vu?i? would have triggered an internal battle between the SNS and SNP for control over EPS, despite both parties forming the same coalition government in 2012.

In this context, Vu?i? is likely to use energy sector reforms to reinforce his informal influence, and informally challenge the influence the SPS has secured over the years over EPS. While these reforms are publicly portrayed as necessary to tackle corruption, it is unlikely that in the short term, EPS and the Serbian energy market will become more transparent and liberalised.

In this context, is the empowered figure of Vu?i? strong enough to revert the situation of EPS?

As Vu?i? has consolidated his power and influence in the Serbian government, he has also changed who controls the higher echelons of the EPS. In March 2016, Aleksandar Obradovi? was dismissed as CEO, and accused of buying two Audi automobiles, while the EPS was in debt. The pro-government press initiated a campaign against Obradovi?, portraying him as the sole senior EPS corrupt figure. Related: Saudi Oil Minister Just Did Something He Has Never Done Before

This media campaign legitimised his dismissal, and paved the road for the appointment of his replacement - Milorad Grci?  an individual known to be even closer to the SNS. Moreover, this scandal triggered a reaction from EPS Chairman, Branko Kova?evi?, who precisely backed the government rhetoric and supported the dismissal of Obradovi?, demonstrating his obedience to Vu?i?.

The reaction of the EPS management to this scandal reveals the lack of independence this institution has from the Serbian government. This clearly highglights the political will of Vu?i? to further reinforce his informal power in EPS, with the ultimate goal of eventually (and finally) replacing the SPS as the most influential political actor in the energy sector.

Can New Laws be Trusted?

While the legal framework of public companies in Serbia remains opaque and easily vulnerable to government (Vu?i?) interests, in July 2015 the EPS implemented the first phase of an energy law passed in 2011. This law aimed to reorganise the energy sector, and adapt it to EU standards. Other international organisations, such as the IMF and the World Bank, have also backed the implementation of this law.

While this law was designed to meet international and Western standards of free market rules, the political context of the Serbian energy sector - and in particular of EPS  turns the law into a potential political tool for Vu?i? to extend his political influence.

The first phase of this law has mainly consisted of centralising EPS management. Prior to July 2015, 14 legal entities operated under EPS, today the number these entities has been reduced to EPS - Public Enterprise Electric Power Industry of Serbia  and two subsidiaries: Distribution System Operator EPS Distribution and EPS Supply, a modification that also allows the SNS to nominate trusted people to fill these new directorships.

Although this law was designed to help introduce greater transparency and efficiency, from a political perspective, the reduction of legal entities within EPS is forcing the reduction of directorships, most of which are believed to be controlled by the SPS. In this sense, these reforms are employing a top-down logic, trying to diminish the influence of middle to senior management officials to ultimately diminishing SPS influence.

Moreover, covered under the discourse of higher efficiency and transparency  as supported by the IMF and the WB - Serbian government bodies have announced the necessary layoff of between 5,000 and 10,000 employees. Given that the high number of low-qualified workers are predominantly SPS supporters, the reduction of employees appears to be a parallel strategy to further reduce SPS influence. The weaker the position of the SPS vis-a-vis the EPS, the higher the chances for Vu?i? to gain control over this institution.

EPS: Liberalisation or the Serbian Leopard

Although EPS is one of the highest indebted state-owned companies in Serbia, the recent and future reforms that this entity is witnessing are not likely to tackle this grave economic problem, but instead, increase SNSs influence vis-a-vis the SPS. Under the current political trends, the current reforms should be viewed in tandem with the continuous political empowerment of President Vu?i?.

Under the political and economic umbrella of the EU, the WB and the IMF, there is a high probability that Vu?i? will look to increase the benefits he, and his circle of loyalists, benefit from the resources available through controlling EPS. Although Vu?i? is leading EPS reforms, his main aim is not to create a more liberalised and transparent energy sector, but to ensure that the influence of the SPS is truly reduced. This can be viewed as part of the next stage of his larger strategy to further consolidate political power. As was written in the famous Italian novel The Leopard: If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. In this sense, Vu?i?-led reforms are likely to focus more on the change of personnel than in the deep structural reforms necessary to make EPS a transparent and profitable company.

This process of change is not likely to be quick, as Vu?i? is fighting against decades of SPS political infiltration and job distribution vis-a-vis the EPS. In any case, international investors should be aware of the political exposure associated via individual EPS directors and senior management, and the influence (although reduced) the SPS - and power players linked to this party, including those backed by Russia  continue to hold.

As announced by Serbian Minster of Energy Aleksandar Anti?, the EPS will not be totally privatised, but private investment will be allowed after transforming EPS into a joint-stock company.

Investors should be cognisant of the on-going internal competition between the SNS and SPS to asset influence over EPS, and how this could threaten current power players within EPS. Moreover, given the level of political exposure associated with EPS senior management / directors, any change in the current political status quo in Serbia would conceivably threaten their positions, and potentially the viability of commercial contracts signed with EPS via SPS loyalists. For the foreseeable future, the destiny of the EPS remains unaltered.

By Shadow Governance Intel for Oilprice.com

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an met with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, at the G20 summit, held in Hamburg, Germany, on July 8. Their conversation during the meeting encompassed two main themes: First, the two leaders discussed issues related to the economy, military and energy, and the second major topic pertained to negotiations on the regional issues encompassing Syria, Iraq and the Gulf Crisis (NTV, July 8).

Over the past three to four months, Turkey and Russia have taken serious steps to bolster their bilateral relations as well as extend their cooperation on resolving regional problems. This progress truly kicked off in earnest on May 3, after Erdo?ans meeting with Putin in Sochi. After this visit, Turkeys relationship with Russia progressed significantly in three directions.

First, Gazprom, the largest (and state-owned) natural gas company in Russia, officially began construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline in the Black Sea, on June 24 (Milliyet, June 24).

Second, Russia eliminated its sanction on Turkey, which Moscow had adopted following Turkeys downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber that crossed into Turkish airspace from Syria. Most of those restrictions on Turkish products were lifted within a month of the two leaders meeting in Sochi. The decree signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, on June 2, dropped Moscows ban on Turkish vegetables and fruit other than tomatoes, while also lifting restrictions on Turkish companies to carry out construction work in Russia (Sabah, June 2). On the other hand, it should be emphasized that Moscow did not ease the visa application process for Turkish businessmen and citizens. Related: The Two OPEC Members Benefitting From The Cut

Third, Putin and Erdo?ans discussion on military cooperation culminated in Turkeys purchase of the advanced S-400 Triumf long-range, anti-air missile system from Russia. According to initial reports, Russia quoted a price of $500 million for the missile system (RBC, May 5). But throughout June, the Turkish media continued to probe the details of the S-400 sale. Nuri Alibol wrote in his column for Turkiye Gazetesi that Russia and Turkey agreed on a two-battery system with 240 missiles as well as search-detection-tracking and guidance radars for $2.5 billion. Importantly, the arms deal includes a technology-transfer component: Turkey and Russia will jointly produce the second of the two purchased S-400 batteries (Turkiye Gazetesi, June 9). Putins military defense advisor, Vladimir Kojin, stated, on June 29, that the parties agreed on the sale of the S-400 and there was also a talk about Ankara opening a line of credit for this purpose. If this agreement is implemented as planned, Turkey will be the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member to integrate the S-400 into its defense system (Milliyet, June 29).

At the same time, Turkish-Russian negotiations have been ongoing regarding a possible agreement over the issue of Kurds in Syrias Afrin regionnamely, the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a group with links to the Turkish-based terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). On June 18, during the operation around Raqqa by the United Statesled coalition forces, an Su-22 fighter-bomber flown by the Syrian regime was shot out of the sky by a U.S. F/A-18 Super Hornet. This greatly disturbed the Russian government, particularly because the shoot-down of the Syrian aircraft was allegedly requested by PYD/YPG forces fighting on the ground. At that time, the Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were seeking to halt the expansion of the PYD/YPG around Raqqa (Milliyet, June 19). A week or so later, an incident erupted between the YPG and Turkish-backed forces operating in northern Syria. Consequently, the Turkish Armed Forces fired on Kurdish PYD/YPG rebel targets in the Afrin region, close to the Turkish border. Conspicuously, Moscow stayed silent regarding Turkeys attack (Reuters, June 28), suggesting the Russian government wants to push the PYD/YPG and other armed groups in Afrin to cooperate with al-Assad and submit to the regime in Damascus (Star, July 3). After the clashes between Turkey and the YPG in Afrin, PYD leader Salih Muslim made a statement, in Kobani, that he is ready to cooperate with Russia (Ak?am, June 28). Related: Saudi Oil Minister Just Did Something He Has Never Done Before

Until recently, the Syrian Kurdish issue seriously divided Moscow and Ankara (see EDM, February 15). Two main reasons explain why these governments have now moved much closer together when it comes to the Kurds in Syria. First, both Ankara and Moscow oppose the formation of a Kurdish-controlled land corridor between Kobani and Afrin. And second, Russia and Turkey are deeply concerned about military cooperation between the Pentagon and the PYD/YPG: Russia does not want to lose its influence over the Kurds, while Turkey does not want to see an autonomous PYD/YPG entity on its border with Syria.

The process to reestablish relations between Russia and Turkey, first launched on August 9, 2016, continues to this day. The two sides are increasingly pushing to improve bilateral relations as well as looking to find common ground when it comes to addressing regional issues. It is important to note a difference in approach between Moscow and Ankara, however. While Turkey wants to deal with bilateral and regional issues separately, Russia tends to view the full spectrum of its relations with Turkey as one interconnected whole. This divergence in expectations when it comes to their relationship has somewhat slowed progress on the Russian-Turkish rapprochement. Yet, for now, common interests continue to push the two countries closer together.

By The Jamestown Foundation

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In recent months, the government of Tanzania has tightened its control over its natural resources  and the mining sector in particular  through a serious government crackdown on tax evasion and corruption, which has largely targeted mining companies, in an attempt to elicit increased revenue from invested companies.

In July 2017, Tanzanias parliament passed three new laws that introduced widespread changes to the legal and regulatory landscape of Tanzanias extractives industry: The Natural Wealth and Resources Contracts (Review and Re-Negotiation of Unconscionable Terms) Bill, 2017; The Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Bill, 2017; and, The Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2017  makes major changes to the countrys Mining Act, Petroleum Act, Insurance Act and other taxes acts.

The new laws, which were fast-tracked through parliament, have increased royalty taxes on both uranium and gold. They have also given the government the right to cancel and renegotiate existing contracts for both mining and energy companies if the terms are deemed unconscionable, and have removed the right for companies operating in Tanzania to seek international arbitration.

Furthermore, the government must now have at least a 16% equity in all mining operations, and now has the power to enforce new regulations which require mining companies to list 30% of their equity on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange by August 2017 .

President Magufuli claims that these reforms will increase transparency in the mining and energy sectors, and increase the countrys fair share of revenues. However, most companies disagree, and have accused the government of unfairly extorting unprofitable amounts of money from them .

Background

Since coming to power in November 2015, Tanzanias President John Magufuli has worked hard to fulfil his campaign promises to eradicate widespread government corruption and mismanagement, increase transparency and promote economic growth.

Government officials and civil servants have already felt the effects of the new Presidents austerity measures, with the downsizing of the government from 30 ministers to just 19, and the removal of more than 10,000 allegedly corrupt public officials over the last 18 months. President Magufuli has now turned his attention to the extractives industry.

Tanzania is the third largest gold producer in Africa, and also has vast deposits of coal, uranium, diamonds and other precious gemstones. In 2016, exports of minerals were valued at US $1.57 billion  of which gold accounted for US $1.45 billion  out of a US $5.69 billion export total . However, most of these resources are being exported in their raw form without being processed, resulting in the mining sector contributing less than 4% to the Tanzania's gross domestic product (GDP). Related: Is The EIA Exaggerating U.S. Oil Production?

According to Tanzanias Five Year Development Plan (FYDP) 2016/172020/21, the mining sector is projected to contribute at least 4.6% by 2025 . As such, targeting the natural resources extractive industry is part of Presidents Magufulis drive to overhaul the economy  largely through ensuring that mining and energy companies pay their fair share of taxes.

Tanzania is extremely reliant on foreign direct investment (FDI) - the mining sector, the oil and gas industry, and the primary agricultural products sector attract the most FDI . Notably, foreign investment has largely been driven by the discoveries of more than 53 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves in Tanzania over the last decade .

The UN Conference on Trade and Developments (UNCTAD) estimates that Tanzania has accumulated FDI stock of US $19.818 billion, the highest in the East Africa region . However, in 2017, the World Investment Report of UNCTAD reported that in 2016 Tanzania only attracted an estimated US $1.365 billion of FDI inflows  a 15% decrease from 2015. This drop has been largely attributed to increased investor concerns over the countrys regulatory environment and tax policies towards foreign firms .

Since President Magufulis election in 2015, the government has introduced a whole host of measures aimed at increasing revenue. These include tax increases on money transfers, banking, tourism services, and cargo transit services. Although this has increased tax revenues by more than 12.74% in the first six months of the 2015/2016 financial year to the same period in 2016/2107, they have also appeared to have affected Tanzanias attraction as an FDI destination .

Export Ban

The governments targeting of the extractives industry only truly began in March 2017  prior to the implementation of the new natural resources laws. As part of President Magufulis plans to tighten the governments control over the countrys mining sector, in March 2017, the government implemented a controversial ban on the export of mineral concentrates and ores for metallic minerals, aimed at ensuring that the processing of raw materials produced from its mine also takes place in the country.

Until now, mineral concentrates produced in Tanzania  which can contain gold, copper and other valuable minerals  have usually been sold to specialised smelting companies oversees, which have the expensive equipment required to extract the minerals. Although the mineral contents of these concentrates are assessed and suitably taxed by the Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency (TMAA) before export, allegations of corruption, tax avoidance and tax evasion through non-declarations have been rampant.

The ban has exposed major issues within Tanzanias mining sector  and has resulted in a high-profile dispute between the government and the largest mining company operating in Tanzania, Acacia.

The government has publicly accused Acacia of seriously under-reporting the amount of concentrate it exports, after two committees  made up of academics, lawyers and economists and established by the government  revealed that a sample of containers from Acacia contained 7 times the amount of gold declared by the company, as well as double the amount of silver and almost a third more copper .

If the committees findings are accurate, this potentially deliberate undervaluation is huge  amounting to approximately 10% of Tanzaniaa GDP .

However, Acacia has vigorously denied these claims. Its position is that these findings merely imply that the companys two gold producing mines, Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi, are the two largest gold producers in the world; and, that Acacia is the worlds third largest gold producer, producing more gold from its three mines than companies like AngloGold Ashanti produce from 19 mines, Goldcorp from 11 mines, and Kinross from their 9 mines.

Although Acacia is Tanzanias largest mining company, both the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines are not considered large in global terms. Acacia is still able to export gold bars  which make up 70% of its output  its inability to export concentrates from two of its three mines has resulted in losseshttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/05/27/acacia-set-close-loss-making-mine-tanzania-export-row-deepens/ amounting to US $1 million a day , and has impacted around 50% of its combined production at the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines.

Acacia, which continues to deny all wrongdoing and insists that it had consistently declared all revenues, has also warned that it may be forced to close its loss-making Bulyanhulu mine by the end of September 2017 if the ban continues.

Shares in the company have fallen by more than 68% since the start of the dispute, suffering a further blow on 25th July 2017 after Acacia was hit with a US $190 billion fine for unpaid taxes, penalties and interest from the government over a 17-year period between 2000 and 2017 .

The tax bill  which is four times the GDP of Tanzania  has attracted widespread international criticism for its size, which amounts to more than twice what all top five global gold miners (including Barrick) combined have paid in taxes since 2000 .

Acacia is simply unable to pay such a huge sum and, in short, if the government continues to insist that Acacia pay the US $190 billion fine, Acacia will be forced to pull out of Tanzania completely. Related: The Race For Floating Wind Farms Has Begun

Although negotiations are currently underway between Acacias Canadian parent company Barrick Gold Corporation and the Tanzanian government, the government has consistently threatened to close all gold mines operating in Tanzania if mining companies remain unwilling to comply with the new regulation or resolve any disputes.

Notably, although the new Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) law now prohibits the use of foreign courts or tribunals in proceedings related to national resources as well as allowing the government to cancel or renegotiate any existing contracts which the government deems unconscionable , Acacia has since served notices of arbitration in London against the Tanzanian government. These notices mean it can seek intervention at the London Court of International Arbitration if the government tries to renege on its original contracts with the company.

Furthermore, South African AngloGold Ashanti has also joined Acacia in announcing, on 13th July, that it had commenced arbitration proceedings as a precautionary step to safeguard its interests in Tanzania in light of the new laws, which allow the government to renegotiate existing contracts at its discretion .

Conclusion

In just a matter of weeks, President Magufuli has completely changed the landscape of Tanzanias extractives industry. By quickly and efficiently implementing new natural resources laws, and boldly challenging the countrys largest gold producer, President Magufuli has demonstrated his commitment to re-assert control over the countrys extractives industry.

Notably, in what can be viewed as a victory for Tanzania, Acacia has already agreed to begin paying higher royalty taxes which were introduced under the new laws  even though this extra cost is expected to cost Acacia an additional US $31 million a year .

However, although the government may feel encouraged and emboldened by its high-profile dispute with Acacia, it also risks undermining its larger economic plans by deterring investors, which Tanzania so largely relies on.

The Australian Stock Exchange has already suspended trading in the shares of several smaller exploration firms, while Shanta Gold  a Channel Islands-listed gold mining company which operates only in Tanzania  has already announced that as a result of the new legislation, Shanta is undergoing a business review of its operation and cost base.

Furthermore, if Acacia does indeed pull out of Tanzania altogether, it is unclear how the government will afford to lose an estimated US $1 million per month in revenue . Interestingly, allegations have also emerged that the dispute with Acacia was deliberately started, and merely used as an excuse to introduce a whole host of further restrictive and costly measures on Tanzanias extractives industry in order to maximise government earnings from the countrys natural resources.

For example, President Magufuli has made it clear that he aims to develop a domestic smelting industry in Tanzania, and it has been suggested that the export ban is merely an attempt to force Acacia into funding a new smelting industry.

Conversely, although these new regulations could increase the governments shares in revenues, not only do they increase the costs of operating in Tanzania, the new laws have also served to paint Tanzania as an unreliable and unpredictable investment destination.

As a result, this perceived assault on Tanzanias mining industry is also likely to have unintended consequences on the countrys nascent oil and gas industry.

With gas production expected to almost double by 2021, and major growth predicted by 2025, increased regulations affecting the extractives industry in Tanzania may deter further investment and make current investors rethink their future in the country, despite the potentially substantial rewards on offer . Currently Statoil, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell (formerly BG Group) Ophir and Swala Energy are the main players in Tanzania's oil and gas exploration industry and stand to be most affected the new legislation.

Furthermore, while President Magufuli has demonstrated his sincerity in the governments fight against corruption and levelling the playing field when it comes to who benefits from natural resources, there is a risk that potential short-term financial gains could come at the cost of long-term investment. It is yet to be seen whether these new measures will benefit the country and the economy in the longer term.

Ultimately, this could all be part of a wider plan to nationalise the natural resources sector  at a time when Tanzanias oil and gas appears to promise substantial rewards.

By Shadow Governance Intel

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
On 1 June 2017, an extraordinary session of Cubas National Assembly of Peoples Power approved important documents which define the character, objectives and strategy of Cuban socialism into the post-Castro era. Since 2011, a programme of updating the Cuban economic and social system has been underway, and these documents aim to establish the parameters within which those developments will take place. Helen Yaffe reports.

Such measures are imperative given the greater space being opened up for market relations: private ownership and business, self-employment and foreign investment. Establishing social welfare and national development priorities will be essential to prevent market forces asserting a capitalist logic over Cuban development. Raul Castro will step down as President of the Council of State in February 2018,1 and the Cuban leadership is working to strengthen the institutional basis of socialism to help safeguard its future when Cuba is no longer led by the historic generation who carried out the Revolution.

The National Assembly is the highest decision-making body in Cuba, with half of its 614 delegates voted up from Municipal and Provincial Assemblies, and the other half representing the mass, grassroots organisations. The documents approved are: Conceptualisation of the Economic and Social Model of Cuban Socialist Development (Conceptualisation) and the Guidelines of the Social and Economic Policy of the Party and the Revolution (the Guidelines). There was also discussion about a third key document, Basis for the Plan of Economic and Social Development up till 2030: Vision of the Nation, Axes and Strategic Sectors (Plan 2030).

All three documents have been through a collective process of writing, analysis, modification and approval: consensus building practices which strengthen unity and commitment to socialist development. President Raul Castro described them as the most studied, discussed and rediscussed documents in the history of the Revolution. That is indicative of their importance.

The Guidelines

In 2007 the Cuban government created forums for everyone in the country to contribute to a Great Debate about Cubas socio-economic problems and to suggest concrete solutions. Subsequently, the draft Guidelines were compiled, with proposals to address the issues raised. These were circulated for six months of public consultation prior to the 6th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) in April 2011. After nearly nine million Cubans, out of a population of 11.2 million, debated the draft, 68% of the Guidelines were modified. The redrafted document returned to the National Assembly for further discussion, modification and approval. This formidable democratic process legitimised the Guidelines, which serve as the template for updating the Cuban model to improve economic efficiency and productive capacity within a socialist framework. Numerous measures have been introduced since 2011 which implement the decisions they endorse. The Guidelines were updated again following the 7th Congress of the CCP in April 2016 for the 2016-2021 period.

Following the April 2016 CCP Congress, the Conceptualisation and the Plan 2030 documents have been through a similar, though more selective, process of debate involving 1,600,000 Cubans in 47,000 meetings. These include members of the CCP and its youth wing, the Union of Young Communists (UJC), and representatives of the organisations of the masses and other sectors. On 19 May 2017, the three documents were approved by the Central Committee of the CCP. Further discussions took place in work commissions prior to the Assembly. A total of 208,161 changes were proposed. Consequently, 92% of the original Conceptualisation document was modified.

Essentially these documents define the character of Cuban socialism: where it is going and how it will get there.2 The three essential pillars of the updated economic model are:

1) Consolidation of the socialist state in its economic (enterprise), political (organs of peoples power and workers representation) and social (socialist welfare and cohesion) aspects.

2) The introduction of a diversity of non-state forms of management and ownership.

3) The primacy of planning which takes into account the functioning of the market.

Conceptualisation  where is it going?

Cuban academics and government specialists worked on the Conceptualisation document for four years before it was presented to the CCP Congress in 2016. It is the first document to formally attempt to conceptualise Cubas socialist system. It combines the theoretical base and essential characteristics of the economic and social model to which we aspire as a result of the process of updating the system.

It is not concerned with how Cubas economic and social model is updated, that is, the concrete measures to be taken and policies introduced to achieve the objectives. It presents the main changes necessary in order to consolidate and advance the principles of our socialism and construct a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable socialism. The order in which these descriptors appear does not change throughout the document. Sovereignty and independence are the only viable frameworks within which the other principles are deemed feasible. As Fidel asserted in 1998 during the Special Period: Right now, we are basically defending the sovereignty and independence of our country and the achievements of socialism. If we can build a little bit of socialism we do it, but mainly we want to improve what we have done, to achieve excellence. Real sovereignty means control over national resources and that denotes resistance to multinational corporations, finance capital and allied political interests which have stripped independence from underdeveloped nations.

In the introduction, the Conceptualisation document highlights the Cuban feat of surviving the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s, the gradual recuperation under the difficult conditions imposed by the US blockade,3 international uncertainty and internal problems that have prevented social and economic development taking place at the required pace. It recognises Cubas structural problems, the result of economic underdevelopment. The principal problems outlined are: the imbalance between the availability and need for hard currency; the offer and supply of products and services; technological obsolescence; under-use and inefficiency of the productive base, infrastructure and the investment process. It flags up economic and social differences between Cubans which are not based on their work  arising from differential access to hard currency and inherited advantages  and the erosion of values, manifestations of corruption, crime, indiscipline and other forms of social marginalisation. It also lists the strengths perceived to facilitate the updating process, such as: unity and youth, majority support, universal social provision, strength of values, diverse and active civil society, potential economic capacity, and international prestige.

The strategic objective is to promote and consolidate a prosperous and sustainable socialist society. The first chapter concerns the principles of our socialism that sustain the Model. These are: dignity, equality, and full human freedoms; the leading role of the CCP (a vanguard party, Martiana,4 Marxist); socialist democracy based on the sovereign power of the people; the socialist state as the guarantor of freedom, independence, sovereignty, peoples participation and control, rights, and laws, and the peoples socialist ownership of the fundamental means of production, as the main form of national economic and socio-economic system based on the real power of the workers and communal ownership via the state.

Chapter two on ownership of the means of production, notes that: Property relations are determinants of any socio-economic system, given that the dominant form of ownership conditions the relations of production, distribution, exchange and consumption, that includes the appropriation of wealth. This is an essential point; property ownership is not a merely economic fact, but has an impact on the reproduction of social relations, consciousness, class and ideology.

Chapter three discusses planned management of the economy, asserting that: The planning (management) system takes into account the presence of market relations, regulating the action of those laws and limiting the space for their operation, such that the laws of the market do not exert a leading role in the Model. It explains that: The objective existence of the market is determined by the level of development of the productive forces, the heterogeneity of forms of ownership and management, the social division of labour in the national sphere and of our foreign trade. In revolutionary Cuba, there has always been recognition of the survival of market relations, expressions of the operation of the law of value. Indeed this was the principal theme addressed in the Great Debate, initiated by Che Guevara in the early 1960s.5 These documents formally confirm the existence of small and medium private businesses in Cuba. This is a precondition for the introduction of urgently needed legislation to regulate and control them.

Chapter four on social policy states that the increased wealth created will be fairly distributed, listing economic and social rights but also referring to the importance of work as the source of welfare and prosperity. The final considerations stress the importance of debate, the exchange of ideas, communication strategies, and other actions that contribute to modifying obsolete conceptions and practices that constitute the main obstacle to updating the Model. It asserts the role of the CCP in driving and controlling the updating process.

Plan 2030  how will it get there?

Framed as the principal tool to achieve the objectives set out in the Conceptualisation document, the Plan 2030 document aims to consolidate socialist planning as governing and defining in the national economic management system. The document deals with 23 guiding principles and central themes for elaborating the national plan of social and economic development. The Plan, it states, needs to confront difficulties in every sphere and must be an exercise in participative construction that guarantees consensus to achieve the vision of the nation 2030: a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable Cuba.

The six strategic areas outlined are:

effective, socialist government and social integration;

productive transformation and international insertion;

infrastructure;

human potential  science, technology and innovation;

natural resources and the environment;

human development, justice and equity.

Each of these is divided into lists of general and specific objectives. However, like the Conceptualisation document there are no details about what policies will be formulated to achieve these objectives and how they may be implemented.

The final section defines the strategic economic sectors as those which:

represent a significant proportion of economic activity;

produce and export value added;

positively affect the balance of payments;

allow development of the productive sector and productive chains;

promote the internal market;

generate productive employment;

connect with new international technology paradigms;

remove logistical and infrastructural restraints;

contribute to sovereignty and national security;

promote environmental sustainability.

The actual sectors proposed as strategic are: construction; electro energy; telecommunications; transport, storage and trade logistics; logistics for network and hydraulic installations; tourism, including marine and nautical tourism; professional services, especially medical; non-sugar agro-industry and foodstuffs; pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and biomedical production; sugar-related agro-industry and derivatives; and light industry.

The participative process behind the compilation of these documents serves to forge consensus and commitment to the collective process of building socialism in Cuba. The real test, however, will emerge in the practice of formulating, implementing and enforcing the policies required to achieve their aims. In practice, how can market forces be both encouraged, as a means of increasing employment and enterprise, and constrained, which is imperative to maintain the dominance of non-exploitative social-relations? These are the difficult challenges facing Cuban socialism.

1. He is expected to remain First Secretary of the CCP, possibly until 2021.

2. This summary is based on the first publicly circulated drafts, as the updated version had not been issued at the time of writing.

3. The US blockade is only mentioned a handful of times; a clear refutation of those who accuse the Cuban government of using the blockade as an excuse for mismanagement and economic failure.

4. Following the ideas, actions and legacy of Cuban national independence hero Jose Marti.

5. See Helen Yaffe, Che Guevara and the Great Debate, Past and Present

Helen Yaffe is author of Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 and a Fellow in the Economic History Department at the London School of Economics.


GLENS FALLS  A Hudson Falls man who was jailed last month for felony charges related to order of protection violation was arrested again Tuesday, hours after he was released from jail.

Shaun M. Santos, 28, was charged with felony counts of criminal contempt and aggravated family offense after Glens Falls Police spotted him on the front porch of a Leonard Street home from which he was banned, police said.

Glens Falls Police said he had been free from jail for about 6 hours. He was jailed in early July on the same charges for allegedly violating an order of protection at the same home.

Santos tried to run from police on Thursday, and was also charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest, police records show.

He was arraigned and sent to Warren County Jail for lack of bail.

Glens Falls Police offices Chris Perrilli and Nate Cross handled the case.
Update-- Smith was located safe and sound on Saturday.

GLENS FALLS  Glens Falls Police are seeking the public's help in locating a missing man with "special needs" who hasn't been seen since Tuesday.

Roger Smith, 64, was last seen walking south on Bay Street on Tuesday, according to Glens Falls Police. He has special needs and is not believed to have medication that he needs to take, Glens Falls Police Detective Sgt. Kyle Diamond said.

He is described as 5-foot-6, 260 pounds with gray hair, and was last seen wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt of unknown color.

He is known to walk around downtown Glens Falls and frequent convenience stores. Police have no indication that he was the victim of foul play, but asked that anyone who has seen him in recent days contact them at 761-3840.
Washington County Sheriff Jeff Murphy has heard the rumor: The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to use the county jail he runs as a detention center for undocumented immigrants who are detained locally.

Not true, the sheriff said last week.

No such request was made, although Murphy said he and his staff have had a couple of meetings with ICE officials in the wake of arrests by ICE agents this year.

Murphy wanted to talk with the agents about what has transpired in recent months with immigrants in the county. Two who were in the country illegally were detained in Kingsbury in March, one of them facing deportation and the other released on conditions; and a restaurant where they were said to be working later closed.

Murphy said that, after the March arrests, he received a number of calls from farmers, advocates for immigrants and other business owners who employ immigrant workers, as rumors spread that their workers would be targeted.

Murphy said his office does not plan to handle enforcement differently in spite of the tack that ICE has taken in recent months.

He said his officers routinely come in contact with undocumented immigrants, and have generally not involved federal immigration officials unless they learn of arrest warrants out for the people they encounter, or that they were involved in a local crime.

We are not doing anything differently than what we always have done, he said. We are not going to go around kicking in doors.

Murphy said many immigrants who are in the country illegally have been living and working in Washington County for years, with children born locally and attending local schools. They serve a vital role in the local economy at farms and quarries, where business owners have been unable to fill jobs because local residents dont want them and opt for public assistance instead, he said.

These farms wouldnt need these workers if it wasnt so easy not to work, Murphy said.

He has found the actions of ICE agents in Washington County to be reasonable, Murphy said. The agencys goal seems to be to find out whos here, and deport those who are criminals or had been deported at least once already, as well as to get the undocumented on a path to legal residency in the country, the sheriff said.

One advocate told The Post-Star an unnamed town official indicated a local detention center was being sought. But Murphy said reserving space in the county jail for a local immigration detention center was not discussed with ICE.

Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for ICE, said the agency does not discuss its plans for detention contracts.

Federal regulations preclude the agency from speculating about possible future detention contracts, he wrote in an email.

Two other sheriffs in the region said they have not had any recent interaction with ICE amid concerns about federal policy changes.

Warren County Sheriff Bud York and Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said their offices have not had any contact with ICE personnel in recent months.

Zurlo said any recent ICE enforcement efforts in Saratoga County that he was aware of occurred in Saratoga Springs, where the Sheriffs Office is not the primary law enforcement agency.

I know they have stepped it up around the country but we havent heard anything locally, York said.

Warren County doesnt have the farms or quarries that employ many Hispanic migrants, but does have many seasonal businesses that bring in foreign workers.
Editor:

Of late I have heard and read suggestions that the Medicare should be expanded into a universal health care system (NBC News, July 30). The arguments in favor boil down to Europe does it, why cant we? I am writing to point out the flaws of that argument.

First off, Europes efforts to finance their massive health care systems are beginning to falter. Theyve scrapped their militaries, raised taxes to twice what we in the U.S. pay, and are borrowing money like crazy; and its still not enough. The entire continent is on the brink of total economic collapse as a result. This is a formula we cant even begin to emulate.

We are facing security threats from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran; four of the largest armies in the world. We have an ongoing campaign against a host of terrorist organizations as well. Disbanding our military isnt an option.

Raising taxes to the level necessary to try financing universal health care would have a massive job-killing effect on our economy. Europes unemployment rate is normally three times ours, in the best of times. Free health care isnt much consolation if you wind up having to live in the streets.

As for further deficit spending, were already in debt up to our ears. Borrowing further to pay for more government subsidized health care would be like maxing out your platinum credit card after taking out three mortgages on the house. Just ask Italy, Spain and Greece how that worked out for them.

Universal health care sounds like an idyllic solution. Unfortunately, this isnt an idyllic world.

David K. Sherwood, Fort Ann
T20 World Cup: Babar Azam wants Pakistan to continue with winning momentum in title clash

T20 World Cup: Morgan backs Willey to play ahead of Jordan in the final if Wood is unavailable

India's tour of New Zealand would be a great learning experience for Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen: Zaheer Khan
Davenport police have arrested a Missouri man they say was peddling methamphetamine and the opioid OxyContin at the Mississippi Valley Fair on Friday.

Sean Michael Anderson, 24, of 222 N. Main St., Louisiana, Missouri, is charged with one count of possession with the intent to deliver 5 grams or less of methamphetamine. He also is charged with possession with the intent to deliver OxyContin.

Each charge is a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Davenport police working security at the fair, officers were called to the carnival area of the fairgrounds where a worker pointed to a man he said was trying to sell methamphetamine.

Officers escorted the man to the command center. Anderson was then told by police that someone made an allegation that he was on the grounds selling illegal drugs, according to the affidavit.

Anderson admitted to having the drugs in his front pants pocket, according to the affidavit. A single bag of methamphetamine was found in his left front pocket.

During a search of Andersons person a small black canister containing another five bags of methamphetamine were located in a front pocket. The total weight of the methamphetamine was 2.4 grams, police said.

Anderson gave officers consent to search his vehicle in the parking lot. Officers located seven pills of OxyContin, a digital scale and additional bags used to package drugs.

Anderson admitted the OxyContin was given to him by someone in Davenport and he was to sell it for $20 per pill, according to the arrest affidavit. He also admitted to being in Davenport to sell the methamphetamine at the fair.

Anderson was being held without bond Friday night in the Scott County Jail.

According to online court records, Anderson also was due to appear Aug. 14 in Missouris 45th Circuit Court for Pike County on charges of unlawful use of weapons and fourth-degree domestic assault stemming from an incident that occurred Jan. 19.
I would like to respond to Cal Thomas' column published July 2017, commenting on the Democratic Party's "better deal."

Thomas gives many reasons why Democrats lost the White House, Congress and many statehouses. He lists progressive Democratic proposals as "warmed over hash." There are some statistics that belie Thomas' take.

The approval rating of Congress is 20 percent. President Trump is at about 40 percent. Bernie Sander was most popular among active politicians in a recent Fox News poll, with a 61 percent rating.

In a 2014 Wall Street Journal poll, 82 percent of voters supporting reducing the cost of student loans. Some 66 percent supported boosting the minimum wage. And 59 percent wanted climate change addressed.

How to explain this anomaly? Republicans have spent millions on think tanks staffed with experts. We know from science that people tend to make decisions from their automatic brain, which is highly influence by emotions.

Feelings are easily influenced through clever marketing.

Democrats must learn the secrets of marketing if they want to take advantage of the opinions expressed in the above polls.

J.H. Gardner

Buffalo
Its been 75 years of growth, friendships, and faith.

From the humble beginnings of holding service in a single-family home, to now thriving with over 900 members, St. Pauls Lutheran Church and School in Rapid City invites the community to help celebrate its 75th anniversary Aug. 12 and 13.

Church elder Jim Weimer, 63, has worshiped at St. Pauls for the past 15 years. I trust that Im receiving the true word of God here, he said. You cant beat the fellowship at our church. Living in the Black Hills and attending St. Pauls makes life fun.

Rev. Doug Free, 60, has served as a pastor at the church for the past 28 years. He also credits the friendly, outgoing and considerate people as a strength of St. Pauls. Additionally, he said St. Pauls is unique in that it serves as a grade school for 80 Kindergarten through 8th grade students along with 40 preschoolers.

The church opened in 1942 at the intersection of Ninth Street and Fairview. Before that, the church operated out of a house, like many early churches. The churchs current property at 835 E. Fairmont Blvd. sits on five acres and was dedicated in 1978.

Over the years, the church has expanded to accommodate its vision for a Lutheran school. We have high standards of education, said Free. Its about bringing children to know Jesus as their savior. The church currently employs five teachers, plus a preschool director. The church is also staffed with Rev. Tim Berg and Rev. Andrew Hussman.

In 1997, St. Pauls added four classrooms for the grade school. In 2007, four additional classrooms were designated for the grade school, preschool and daycarewhich is available during the work day for children ages 3, 4 and 5. A gymnasium was also built. In March 2016, St. Pauls acquired the gymnasium flooring from the old National American University gym.

Church volunteers are over there helping paint lines in the floor as we speak, said Free with a smile.

Free said the churchs 75th anniversary is special in that it coincides with the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran reformation this year.

To celebrate its anniversary, St. Pauls plans a picnic at 11 a.m. on Aug. 12 with food, games and fellowship on church grounds.

On Aug. 13, there will be services at 8 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., followed by a catered luncheon at noon. A special evening service takes place at 4 p.m. Former pastor Peter Sulzle will travel from Redwood Falls, Minn., to discuss giving thanks for Gods grace. St. Pauls Ladies Aid will host a light meal following the service. A free will offering will be taken for all the weekends meals.

St. Pauls falls under the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which Free says means that the church faithfully teaches and preaches the pure word of God.

We take people to the cross of Jesus Christ. By simply believing in Jesus, they get to go to Heaven. Everything we do is to meet that purpose, said Free.

For more information about St. Pauls 75th anniversary celebration, visit http://www.stpaulsknights.org.
Randy Myers smooths back his light brown hair, speckled with gray, and laughs atop his motorcycle Friday morning on the streets of Sturgis.

When he poses for a picture, he turns around and bends over.

"Get my good side," he says.

Myers, 65, has been going to the Sturgis motorcycle rally for "longer than he cares to admit."

"I feel like I'm 105," Myers says with a chuckle.

Originally from Golden, Colo., he meets up with friends at a diner in Johnstown, Colo., every year and then the group spends two days leisurely riding their bikes to Sturgis.

Myers and his friends used to camp, then they stayed in hotels. Then they got old, Myers said. Hotel rooms got expensive, too. One night during the rally can cost more than $400, he said. Now Myers stays at a friend's house in Deadwood and his friends stay in Spearfish. They spend four days at the rally before meandering southwest back to Colorado.

This year, he's riding his blue 2016 Indian Chieftain.

The rally isn't about partying or contests for Myers. He just wants everybody to have a good ride.
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. | Approximately 350 Airmen from the 28th Bomb Wing deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in support of Continuous Bomber Presence operations occurring in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region July 28.

The deployment of U.S. Air Force bombers to the Pacific area of responsibility has been ongoing since March 2004 as a demonstration of Americas commitment to the security and stability of the region.

Our intent is to assure our allies that we care about the stability in the region, said Lt. Col. Daniel Diehl, commander of the 37th Bomb Squadron. For our potential adversaries, we have a credible threat deterrent if they try to upset the balance of [the Pacific], we have the ability to respond.

This is the second time Ellsworth deployed Airmen and B-1 bombers in support of CBP operations.

Previously, Ellsworth had been deploying to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility for more than 10 years. In 2016 it was directed to join the CBP in the U.S. Pacific Command. This change in scenery and allies offers a few benefits.

The benefit of this deployment is that it opens the aperture for our Airmen, Diehl said. Operating in [PACOM] is different than operating in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. Theres a lot of players were not used to dealing with.

The bomber rotations supporting the CBP mission provide the U.S. and its allies with a means of highlighting the importance of joint interoperability through training, exercises and overall integration of deployed forces.

[Interoperability] is extremely important anytime youre going to a joint operation, said Capt. Creighton, a B-1 bomber pilot assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron. You have to make sure everyone is on the same page, looking at interoperability in terms of communications systems and what every asset can bring to the fight.

It is a strategic bomber that combines speed, maneuverability and the largest conventional payload, up to 75,000 pounds, in the Air Force to combat any adversary.

The B-1 is a long-range strike platform, Creighton said. Dealing with the vastness of the Pacific is something it is well suited for. It also brings a very large payload, and a lot of combat experience and capability thats been built up in CENTCOM over the last 15 years.

Ellsworth is taking the baton from the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, who have been deployed since February 2017.
A judge has thrown out a lawsuit that challenged voting by absentee ballot in Detroit, saying a Republican candidate for secretary of state failed to produce any evidence of violations. Wayne County Judge Tim Kenny says critics have raised a red flag of election law wrongdoing. But Kenny says his ruling takes down that flag. Kristina Karamo and others sued to try to force Detroit voters to vote in person or go to the city clerks office to get an absentee ballot. They made a variety of allegations about how Detroit reviews signatures on absentee ballots and monitors ballot drop-off boxes. The judge says they failed dramatically to back up any of it.
PIERRE | The legislator who is sponsoring two possible ballot measures is asking voters to raise tobacco taxes in South Dakota said he wants the money to help fund the state's public technical institutes.

Rep. Mark Mickelson, R-Sioux Falls, said Thursday hed circulate whats labeled version 2. It proposes adding $1 of state tax to a pack of cigarettes and increasing the state tax on other tobacco products such as cigars and smokeless to 55 percent of wholesale price.

South Dakotas current tax rates are $1.53 for a pack of cigarettes and 35 percent of wholesale price for other tobacco products.

Kim Zaske, acting manager of Thrifty Smoke Shop at 1101 W. Omaha St., said it was obvious what a tax increase would do to her business.

They just did that like three years ago, and we saw a big decrease in business, Zaske said. It aint going to make people quit, but it is going to affect business in one way or another.

When told of the proposed rise, she was taken aback. Wow, she said. Thats a lot.

Outside the shop on Friday afternoon, a steady stream of patrons walked in and out of the entrances double-wide glass doors. Samira Jones held a plastic bag with two cartons of Marlboro cigarettes as she explained that the prices in South Dakota are much higher than neighboring cities and states.

She gave Sioux City, Iowa, and Denver as two examples. Ive been in Denver and Ive gotten two packs of cigarettes for $9, Jones said. Almost every other state Ive been to surrounding (South Dakota) is cheaper than here.

Jones friend, Michelle, said price increases have made her think of quitting before, but its never worked for long.

I think about it, but its really hard to quit, she said, noting that shes tried nicotine patches and has quit for five or six months before the stress of work or daily life gets to be too much. Ive tried four times.

She added that she doesnt drink or party. So my pleasure is smoking a cigarette, said Michelle, who declined to give her last name. Thats what I do, and if they raise the price, I will pay the price but I will complain.

Jones jumped in. Weve done the math and shes (Michelle) spent in her 30-plus years of smoking  just under a quarter of a million dollars, Jones said.

I could have bought a house, Michelle said, after opining that universities should be self-funded because as much as they're paying for tuition and everything else, they should be able to pay for their own buildings.

Kim Greager, 40, came to the smoke shop Friday to pick up a family friend. When asked how she would vote if the proposed bill went to a petition, she was hesitant to make a decision.

I dont know, she said. Id like to say that Id vote for it, but that would also directly affect my daily expenses every day, so I dont know. I would likely vote against it.

Greager said one thing was clear: Any tax increase wouldnt likely stop her from smoking.

Ive said more than once Id stop smoking when cigarettes got to this price or this price or this price, she said. Im 40 and Ive smoked a pack a day for 20 years now, so I dont think a tax increase would make me quit.

Mickelson's proposal also calls for creating a tuition reduction and workforce-training fund for technical institutes in South Dakota. Version 2 says $20 million of tobacco taxes shall be deposited annually in the technical institute fund.

State law already requires the first $30 million of tobacco taxes to be deposited in the state's general fund and the next $5 million of tobacco taxes to be used for the tobacco prevention and reduction trust fund.

South Dakota can expect to receive an estimated $55 million from tobacco taxes for the current 2018 fiscal year, which began July 1, according to the revenue forecast adopted in March by the Legislature.

No estimates have been made for fiscal 2019 or 2020. If approved by voters in 2018, the Mickelson tax increases would take effect July 1, 2019, making their revenues part of the fiscal 2020 number.

Currently there are four institutes that would receive the money: Mitchell Technical Institute in Mitchell, Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, Western Dakota Technical Institute in Rapid City and Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls.

Mickelson said Thursday he didnt know how much money the technical institutes needed when he submitted the two ballot measures. He said he doesnt plan to circulate version 1, which would increase the tax by 50 cents on a pack of cigarettes and raise the rate to 45 percent of wholesale price for other tobacco products.

Version 1 proposes placing $15 million annually in the technical institute fund.

The Legislative Research Council finished its review of the two versions June 15. State Attorney General Marty Jackley published his official explanations Tuesday.

Mickelson wants his proposal to attract enough support to make the general election ballot for November 2018. He needs valid signatures from at least 13,871 registered South Dakota voters by Nov. 6 of this year.
The recent news that the Natrona County fire department in Wyoming is facing drastic budget reductions should serve as a wake-up call to legislators who believe they can simply cut their way out of the states financial crisis.

It shows that this is a time to talk about priorities and define them. Right now, it looks very much as though fire safety is not a priority for the state.

Historically, Wyoming has been very anti-tax, and there are reasons for that. The state is fortunate to have valuable natural resources, and a low tax burden makes sense for a state thats working to attract more businesses and residents.

That philosophy works fine as long as the state and its municipalities are able to provide basic services to residents, like public safety. But a million-dollar shortfall in the county fire departments budget  which means it might have to lay off firefighters and close a station  should be a strong distress signal to lawmakers.

The shortfall, which stems from a 37 percent decrease in property tax revenue in the county, has forced Chief Bob Fawcett to essentially do away with the departments training budget and cut overtime pay. But the problem is far from solved. Fawcett and his department  as well as those it serves  still have to contend with the idea of laying off up to five firefighters and shuttering the Evansville station, which would likely increase response times to fire calls.

When you consider that a quick response from trained emergency workers can be the difference between a minor grass fire and a destructive wildland blaze, it becomes clear that this shortfall could have devastating effects on fire prevention in the county.

Its also distressing to know that as we enter wildfire season, residents will have fewer county fire resources to rely on.

This is exactly the kind of situation legislators must keep in mind early next year when they reconvene to work on the states budget. Lawmakers have worried aloud about their re-election prospects if they supported increasing or adding taxes.

Taxes arent popular, of course, but they are the price we pay to ensure that someone responds to help us in an emergency, that our water is clean and our roads are safe to drive. Wyomings legislators must remember that they are in charge of creating a state that people and businesses will want to call home, which begins with ensuring that basic services are available  and it doesnt get much more basic than an adequately funded local fire department.

Simply cutting isnt working. Its limiting Wyomings ability to take care of its residents and their needs. Lawmakers should take a lesson from this: Its time for a new approach.
At the VIP Hospitality Village on Lazelle Street in Sturgis on Friday, 25 riders sheepishly prepared to hop on their cycles for a glimpse of Sturgis, Spearfish Canyon and Deadwood.

For most of them, it was their first time at the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

For a few, it was their first time in the U.S.

Susan Johnson, who runs Black Hills Central Reservations out of Nemo with her husband, has been planning Black Hills vacations for 18 years. She wanted to see if first-time rallygoers would be interested in riding through the region with local motorcyclists who are experts on the Black Hills and the highways.

It turns out, they did. The new Ride with a Local Program offered 25 incoming riders a free tour around the Black Hills, beginning in Sturgis and stopping for lunch in Deadwood. All 25 spots filled up for the ride on Friday and for another on Wednesday.

The 77th Sturgis rally website features other rides, such as the Discovery Ride and the Annual Mayor's and Legends rides, but those cost upward of $75.

Johnson asked Kristi Wagner, who serves on the state tourism board, to help with her plan to properly indoctrinate the rookie riders. Wagner assumed that since the program was free, some people wouldn't show up.

But on Friday, all 25 did.

Two couples were first-time rallygoers from Australia.

James Alcaniz and Elyse Grivell had long planned on coming to the rally but changed their plans to fit the Ride with a Local Program into their itinerary. The couple is from Bonnie Doon, Victoria, on the southeastern edge of Australia.

The couple said they were motorcycle fans and that they came to "experience some of (the) Harleys." Their nine-day trip to the Sturgis rally was also their first time in the U.S.

Tania and Greg Pugh were on a five-month road trip across the U.S. from Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The trip was to celebrate Tania's retirement. They found the program while searching the 77th Sturgis rally website.

The ride takes about five hours, including rest breaks and a lunch stop. Riders drive a loop through Sturgis, Whitewood, Deadwood and Spearfish Canyon. Johnson said they planned to stop at Moonshine Gulch Saloon in Rochford if there was time.

Before heading out, all riders received 77th Sturgis rally challenge coins, only available by participating in rally events.

By 9 a.m. sharp, they set off through the streets of Sturgis.

Johnson says they plan to do the event next year.

"This is an awesome opportunity for us to find out who's here and to hear their stories," she said.
As many as nine persons including the driver died and four others were injured when a jeep met with an accident in Doti on Friday.

The deceased have been identified as driver Bishnu Negi, 28, of Kappale, Shikar Municipality-1, Doti, Bishnu Bahadur Magar, 35, Bhim Gharti Magar, 55, Budho Gharti Magar, 50, Gorakh Thapa Magar, 45, Shashi Ram Pun Magar, 48, Lalita Devi Pun, 45, Tek Bahadur Pun Magar, 40 and Chandra Bahadur Gharti Magar, 30, of Bogtan Rural Municipality  1, according to Inspector Rajendra Bahadur Singh of the District Police Office, Doti.

The incident occurred when the overcrowded jeep (Se 1 Ja 491) en route to Chawara Chautara from Dipayal veered off the slippery road and fell some 400 metres down in Kataigaun Dhar area of Gaguda of Bogtan Rural Municipality  6 at around 10 pm yesterday.

All the injured persons are said to be in critical condition. They are receiving treatment at the Soojung Hospital in Dipayal.

There were 16 persons onboard the jeep when the incident occurred.

The injured passengers had saved their lives by jumping off the vehicle.

Police surmised that the incident occurred due to overload. RSS
Long ago, on one fine autumn afternoon, my friends and I were discussing which one of our friends who had escaped the get-together in that cafe to penalize. An army general sitting next to us was intrigued by our excitement and dragged his chair
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On of the more intimate films that screened at Fantasia 2017 was Most Beautiful Island directed by Ana Asensio, who also wrote, produced, and starred in the film. It was a hit at SXSW and several other festivals before it finally screened with our good friends in Montreal to great reception. I got the chance to speak to Asensio about several aspects of the production. Check out the trailer below the interview.

ScreenAnarchy: You wrote, directed, and starred in your feature debut, Most Beautiful Island. I cant imagine that was easy. Would you do it all over again?

Ana Asensio: It was very hard, partly because it was my first time doing it and because of the low-budget nature of the project. For part of the shoot, I was pregnant, which made it more challenging. I was also producing, and I can say I wouldnt like to do that again! But for me, it's possible to write, direct, and act in a film again. Hopefully next time, it'll be easier!

Did anything in your real life influence this script?

I was inspired by my life in the early 2000s when I was new in NYC, didnt speak English well, and I was trying to obtain my working visa. That was an especially intense time in my life, in which I lived many experiences and learned how to survive in the city with very little money.

How long did it take to bring the project to screen, from the script to its premiere?

I conceived the idea for the film in 2010. Then I completed the earlier drafts of the script in 2011, and it was in 2015 that I was finally able to shoot the film.

What was it like working with Glass Eye Pix?

It was a fantastic experience. Larry Fessenden welcomed me with warmth and incredible support. Jenn Wexler, one of the main producers, also from Glass Eye Pix, helped me tremendously, from the moment that Larry agreed to produce this film. She cared deeply about the story and the integrity of it, as well as making sure we would keep the shoot within the restricted budget we had. Larry, as opposed to other producers with whom I spoke to in the past, was extremely supportive about shooting on Super 16mm and not afraid of the challenges that this choice involved. He is a film director at heart, and at all times, he was empathetic with my dreams and struggles as a first time director. He acted as a mentor in many ways. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with both of them.

Have you worked with any of your actors on previous projects?

No, it was the first time with everyone.

Did it take a long time to find someone to play Olga? I imagine it would have to find just the right person.

Natasha Romanova was great. I was most excited about casting the role of Olga, having thought about her many times and imagined her. And indeed, it was the hardest role to cast. I saw probably thirty actors, all of them provided by the great casting directors Sig De Miguel and Steven Vincent. They kept sending me new actresses, since I couldnt find the right one. I always imagined Olga as a very tall, thin and blond young woman, but when Natasha Romanova walked into the casting room (she was thin but neither blond or as tall as I imagined), I knew she was Olga.

I experienced what I heard other directors talk about the certainty of knowing she was the one at first glance. She was unexpectedly perfect for Olga. She was gorgeous and had a sweet face, but there was something about her that was dangerous --- exactly what I was looking for in this role. We then did a second audition, in which we played the scenes together to see the chemistry and the look of both on camera. The result was better than I imagined it. I was so excited to begin working with her.

You do some particularly brave things in the film. I imagine that your previous life as an actor helped prepare, particularly for some things other actors might not ever touch --- like sitting in a bathtub with what I assume were real roaches?

They were real, and even though I was determined to do this, it was difficult to keep in character and not freak out. Eventually I did and creamed Cut!!! I cant do this anymore!

The basement scenes are intense. How did you and your other actors prepare for that?

The place where we shot was an abandoned building, in the process of being remodeled. There was no one else there but us. The location was also in a remote area in Dumbo, Brooklyn. We didnt have a bathroom there or any comfortable areas to rest. All of this was helpful to create this atmosphere and really feel the isolation that was needed. The actors playing the guests did a terrific job as well. They also stayed apart from the actresses to create the difference between who each one was in the story.

We created this micro-world with the lights and the strange sounds that we could hear through the walls that really helped all of us believe we were part of some sort of clandestine, illegal event.

If you ran into any issues during production, Id love to hear how you overcame them.

It was difficult to find the perfect basement, and we kept running out of time. Every time we thought we finally found one, something will happen that will make obvious we couldnt shoot there, like excess humidity. We finally found our location right before filming.

We barely use special effects in this film, and it was mostly to remove something that shouldnt have appeared. In one particular case, in the taxi scene, I had the driver secured and I really loved him, Sabuj Hassan, is not an actor, but a real taxi driver. A couple of days before filming, I found out that he couldnt access a yellow cab, that the one he could bring to the shoot was the green one. I rewrote the scene with a dialogue that explained that. At the end, it was too confusing for an audience who doesnt live in NYC to understand the whole green taxi business, and we had to use VFX to make the car yellow after all.

Were there any scenes you chose to cut?

Unfortunately, I cut a few. The reason to cut them was that they were slowing down the flow of Lucianas journey (the lead character played by Asensio), and losing the tension that was otherwise present through the entire film. It was particularly hard to remove a few scenes with the actor Jimmy Ryan, who played a business man at a coffee shop. Luciana stumbles on him and spills his coffee over his coat, which leads to a very creepy and tense situation later inside a bathroom. These scenes were in the script for years, and I had a clear vision of them. They were hard to shoot because there was a choreography involved in it and they were long continuous shots. After several screening tests with trusted people, we came to the conclusion that at that point in the story, it was more important to have Luciana moving forward rather than running into another bizarre situation.
A mentally ill man who was put on a 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold two months previously is now in custody after allegedly murdering his mother, engaging in a 15-hour standoff with police Sunday night into Monday, and then turning a gun on himself. While the SFPD has not publicly named him, Mission Local has all but confirmed that 52-year-old Thomas Ragsdale was arrested in the shooting, though he may still be recovering from the self-inflicted bullet wound to the chest that got on Monday afternoon. And it was Ragsdale whom police visited nearly two months earlier, on June 5, after a family member called them concerned that he was "hearing voices" and could potentially be a danger to himself and others.

As Mission Local learns, Ragsdale's mother, 76-year-old Martha Alfaro, answered the door at 2443 15th Street that night in June, and when Ragsdale came to the door, he had a gun holstered on his hip. A further look inside yielded a massive arsenal of guns and ammunition, including half a dozen pistols, a shotgun, and an unmodified AK-47, as well as high-capacity magazines and 28,000 bullets. Ragsdale claimed that he could hear through the walls of the house that the neighbors were plotting to kill him, and police subsequently placed him on the psychiatric hold, from which he would later be freed on June 9.

CBS 5 confirmed Thursday that Martha Alfaro was the victim in last Sunday's shooting. She was apparently found on the street and succumbed to her wounds at SF General. Knowing what they already knew about Ragsdale and guns registered to him that police never found, it's now understandable why the standoff at his home lasted 15 hours.

An elderly female neighbor was contacted by police and she told them she did not know Ragsdale and did not want him dead, and Ragsdale's adult son told police that these claims were all in his father's head.

The open questions are now why Ragsdale was allowed to amass such an arsenal of weapons and why his mental illness had gone untreated.

Mission Local probes the legal issues surrounding forced commitment of the mentally ill to hospitals, which is extremely legally difficult since the passage of California's Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1972. Mort Cohen, a law professor at Golden Gate University, tells Mission Local that "The system is now geared to protect the individual who is being detained... to a greater extent than the individuals who might be at risk" at the hands of the mentally ill individual.

Thus, when the SF District Attorney's office felt there was not enough probable cause to charge Ragsdale back in June, and with the psychiatric community's hands tied, he was released back to his mother's house, where he would ultimately end up (allegedly) killing her in less than 60 days.

And the residents of 15th Street in Corona Heights are certainly right to feel uneasy that a man with obvious mental health problems and a huge cache of weaponry was living in their midst, liable at any moment to crack.

Previously: Police In Standoff With Suspect In Corona Heights Shooting
Next weekend, on August 12, craft beer mecca Toronado will be ringing in 30 years in the Lower Haight, and as Eater explains, they'll be doing so with a "insane" list of special-edition beers made just for the occasion by 30 different breweries from around the country  most from California but with several entries coming from the East Coast and Chicago too.

This follows on similar celebrations that the bar has had for its previous anniversaries  and, for instance, Russian River Brewing will debut its Toronado 30 for the occasion, they previously made Toronado 25 and Toronado 20, some of which you can still find on the open market.

Lagunitas debuted their "Super Critical" at the bar on Thursday, and Eater tells us it's "an experimental concept using cannabis terpenes for flavor." Tonight you can try Mraz's "Black & Red, which is "a barrel-aged wild ale thats their Gabriel Belgian blond ale aged in wine barrels for a year with Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus as well as black currants, red raspberries, and red cherries."

But it'll be next Saturday that all 30 beers will be tapped at once, and it's first-come-first-served, with all the implied lines and waiting that goes with that.

Below, a few more highlights to expect, via Eater's descriptions:

Faction (Alameda) brewed a double IPA called Paulie Pour, named after one of Toronados notoriously gruff bartenders. Its a traditional west coast IPA thats filtered. Pizza Port (Carlsbad) brewed 547 Haight Street, a hoppy red ale theyve made for past Toronado anniversary events. Cellarmaker (San Francisco) brewed Cash Only, a big double unfiltered IPA tribute to the cash-only bar. Societe (San Diego) brewed The Patriarch, a ferrel-style sour thats a true wild beer with boysenberry described as a super soft, delicate sour. Barebottle (San Francisco) is doing a beer called Toronado Dust, part of their dust series (Galaxy Dust being a popular example). Its a blend of two hops, Nelson and Mosaic, that makes for a super tropical, very cloudy beer. Allagash (Portland, Maine) is doing one of their sour variants called Anniversary, and to keep it a surprise, theyve reportedly been rather hush-hush on details. Temescal (Oakland) has an IPA called Your Favorite Jerks made with Simcoe and Citra cryo hop powder thats mellow, ripe, fruit-forward, and ultra-soft. Theyll debut it on August 8th at Toronado and their own taproom and will be selling a limited number of cans at the event. Half Acre (Chicago) debuted their anniversary tribute beer, called Toronado Daisy, on August 1, the first variant of their hazy beer series. Its hopped with Mosaic and a super tropical experimental hop

.

Sixpoint (Brooklyn) are doing a beer called a Toronado Smoothie, a super hazy New York-style IPA. Hollister (Goleta) is sending their 543 Haight Street which theyve brewed in the past for Toronados 25th Anniversary. Anderson Valley (Boonville) brewed Peachy Keene, a Brother Davids Tripel inoculated with their horse-tongue sour and then aged on barrels with peaches thats already been released. Bagby (Oceanside) brewed Thirty Years of Haightronage, a Belgian double, for the occasion.



Toronado - 547 Haight Street between Steiner and Fillmore


Secretary of the Lao Party Central Committee, Head of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committees Commission for Propaganda and Training, and President of the Lao National Council for Social Sciences Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune led the delegation to visit Ho Chi Minh City within the framework of a working visit in Vietnam.City Party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan stressed that the visit took place on the occasion of the 55th establishment anniversary of diplomatic ties (September 5, 1962- 2017) and the 40th anniversary since Vietnam and Laos co-signed Friendship and Cooperation Treaty (July 18, 1977-2017).The fifth theoretical workshop between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party under theme of Rapid and sustainable development has just been organized in Kien Giang province that was considered as a favorable opportunity to strengthen mutual understanding and learning about political theory.The secretary said that traditional friendship, solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos in general and Ho Chi Minh City and Lao localities in particular developed sustainably under assistances of the nations leaders and people in previous years.Party, authority and people of Ho Chi Minh City are ready for sharing experience, boosting multifaceted cooperation with Lao localities, contributing to deepen further Vietnam- Laos traditional friendship, solidarity and comprehensive cooperation.Secretary of the Lao Party Central Committee Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune thanked for the friendly welcome of HCMC Party Committee Secretary; and he pleasured good development of the traditional friendship, solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.The Laotian leader believed that the relationship would continue deepening ties between the two countries in the upcoming years.

BY THUY VU- Translated by Huyen Huong
During the visit, the Mozambican PM had talks and meetings with Vietnams top leaders and had working sessions with several State and business units.At these events, the two sides agreed to continue exchanging visits and coordinating and supporting each other at international forums.The Mozambican side wanted the military-run telecom group Viettel to expand its operation in their country and called on Vietnamese businesses to engage in such fields as trade, oil and gas, maritime transportation, farm and seafood processing.The two sides pledged to make Mozambique a leading partner of Vietnam in South Sahara and Vietnam a bridge for Mozambique to reach Southeast Asia.Vietnam will share its development experience with Mozambique in such areas as natural disaster combat, weather forecast, climate change response, education-training, expert exchange, security and defence.On the occasion, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation to protect and preserve wild flora and fauna and the initialing of an agreement on aviation transport services.

VNS
SIOUX CITY | Sara Kreutz always tries to keep her arsenal of equipment close by.

Reaching into the back of her car, the Holstein, Iowa woman pulls out a plastic plate attached to a stick, a camera made of foam and comically oversized footwear.

"These shoes are meant for walking," Kreutz said, putting on her multicolored clown shoes. "However, they're not very good for driving."

A preschool and special education teacher, she has also been a clown-for-hire for more than 25 years.

"I play a character named Special K'z," Kreutz explained. "I've entertained at birthday parties, festivals, parades, you name it. If you need a clown, I'm your girl."

In addition, Kreutz is a member of the Sioux City Sillies Clown Alley 185, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Clowns of America International (COAI). So is David Chobar, a retired Morningside College adult education associate professor who goes by the clown name of Joyfull.

"I also go by the name of Dr. Bonehead," Chobar explained. "You see, Dr. Bonehead literally wears a hat that is shaped like a bone."

Chobar, Kreutz and six of their Sioux City Sillies colleagues will entertain at Clowns at the Museum, a free event set for 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Sioux City Public Museum, 607 Fourth St.

The presentation is part of International Clown Week. A week-long celebration held the first week of August, the holiday began as National Clown Week when it received a Presidential Proclamation in 1971.

"For some reason, it seemed oddly appropriate that Richard Nixon was the president to sign Clown Week into law," Chobar noted with a laugh.

Describing himself as stressed-out student pursuing a doctoral degree at Kansas State University in the 1980s, Chobar was introduced to clowning after a female student suggested he give it a try.

"My friend knew I wasn't having much fun," he remembered. "As soon as I got in front of a mirror, put some makeup on, I was hooked."

Since then, Chobar has performed everywhere from children's parties to nursing homes.

"When in costume, I feel like I'm an entirely different person," the accomplished organist and puppeteer said. "For a time, David doesn't exist and it is Joyfull who is in control."

Kreutz nodded her head in agreement.

"Special K'z can say and do the things that Sara cannot," Kreutz, a musician and balloon animal artist, acknowledged. "The clown characters we create for ourselves are often an exaggeration of who we really are. It's who we are, only on steroids. It's very freeing."

Indeed, Chobar said clowns have been around in some form since the days of the royal court jester.

"Clowns allow us to laugh at ourselves and to take life less seriously," he said. "When I'm David, I may have a few aches and pains. As Joyfull, those aches and pains always go away."

According to Kreutz, people still find her side gig to be surprising.

"I'm sure they think I'm going through a midlife crisis or something," she said. "I've been doing this so long that people can let go of that theory."

In fact, Kreutz is proud whenever she gets to wear her frizzy yellow wig and bulbous red nose.

"I love making people laugh and seeing them smile," she said. "It's hard not to smile when you see a clown."
DES MOINES | As the United States prepares to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said his priority is do no harm.

Overall, agriculture has done very well under NAFTA and we hope to continue that, Perdue told reporters Saturday at the 2017 Iowa Ag Summit.   So, do no harm, but then lets figure out how we can enhance the agreement.

Federal officials are expected to hold the first round of renegotiations between Aug. 16 and 20.

Perdue is on a five-state tour to discuss the 2018 Farm Bill, which governs a number of agricultural and food support programs including crop insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The Farm Bill is the pre-eminent piece of legislation for rural America.  I know of no other piece of legislation that impacts such a large area of our country, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at the summit.

Agribusinessman and prominent Iowa Republican Bruce Rastetter hosted the Ag Summit, which brought together farmers, state officials and industry representatives. Rastetter is also a former Iowa Board of Regents president.

This years summit came amid proposed changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard, statewide debates on water quality, an expected decline in farm income and arguments the United States needs to reduce its trade deficit with China.

We want to do everything we can to ensure that Iowa continues to be positioned to succeed globally as we not only maintain our existing market and footprint, but we have the opportunity to explore new ones, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, argued the nation needs to negotiate new trade deals with countries in Asia, especially since President Donald Trump pulled the country out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

If we dont pursue these trade agreements, I guarantee you that China will, Ernst said.

Heres what else was discussed Saturday:

Farm Bill

Grassley said he is hopeful Congress can pass a Farm Bill by Christmas. No new funding will be included, though, meaning existing and proposed programs will have to fight over the same money.

Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, said the Farm Bill represents only about 2 percent of the federal budget.

You cant balance the budget on the backs of farmers. ... Even if we take a cut, its not going to make a bit of difference in the federal budget, he said.

Wendy Wintersteen, endowed dean of Iowa State Universitys College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, said Congress should invest more in agricultural research. More research dollars, she said, can help the United States prepare for disease outbreaks or other disasters.

With inadequate investment, were never prepared for the next crisis thats occurring in the food systems, and you literally cant predict it, she said.

Infrastructure

Vermeer Executive Vice President Mark Core said other countries are investing heavily in infrastructure to help agriculture, while the United States does not appear to be doing the same.

We talk about roadways and waterways and those kinds of things, but its also water infrastructure, its broadband infrastructure. Theres a lot of other elements for us to be competitive as a global player and to keep agriculture in the top where we need to be, and its in that whole infrastructure discussion that I assume after Obamacare well talk about, Core said, adding that he cant access internet service fast enough even to stream Netflix despite living 35 miles south of Des Moines.

Perdue said, when its released, Trumps proposed infrastructure bill will include funding for increased rural broadband service.

When you see his infrastructure bill coming out here very soon, youll see a real emphasis on rural prosperity, rural infrastructure, Perdue said.

What others said

While panelists spoke inside the Iowa Events Center, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement members protested outside.

Rastetters Corporate Ag Summit is about fattening the pockets of Big Ag tycoons and championing a race to the bottom in environmental degradation, CCI Board President Cherie Mortice said in a statement.

Responding Saturday, Rastetter said the Ag Summit is not a Republican event, its not a big corporate business event.

The Democratic National Committee also jumped in, arguing Trumps proposed budget cuts would hurt programs that have benefited rural Iowans, including crop insurance.

As Congress is preparing to craft the 2018 Farm Bill, Republicans must work across the aisle to put forward a balanced, bipartisan bill that strengthens programs for farm families, invests in conservation and energy, and creates jobs by growing the economic base of Iowas rural communities, DNC Midwest Press Secretary Mandy McClure said in a statement.
CHICAGO -- Before 11-month-old Charlie Gard died in Britain last week from complications of a rare disease, his short life triggered debate about when it's appropriate to stop treating patients and allow them to die.

His parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, mounted an epic struggle, trying every conceivable effort to save their son. In the end, however, their baby slipped away before they were ready to say goodbye -- they never got to bring their son home for their last hours as a family.

Predictably, there has been outrage and backlash about this family's sad tale.

People read short headlines and feel compelled to pass instant judgment about what Yates and Gard "should have" done. Some think the parents should have accepted the reality of their son's disease, called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, and let him pass "humanely" and quickly. Others believe they should have gone public earlier when there was a better shot at experimental treatments.

There is no right answer.

Seventeen years ago, my daughter was diagnosed, in utero, with a rare disease that would virtually guarantee her death soon after birth. Best case scenarios involved severely debilitating medical conditions and disabilities that would have made a normal childhood impossible.

But when the doctors gave my husband and me the bad news -- and offered us the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy right then -- the specter of a profoundly sick and disabled child that would live for any amount of time was, to us at that point, a gamble worth taking.

It was a less than logical choice. She was my second, high-risk pregnancy. I had a toddler at home and was putting my health in peril by not terminating. The hospital costs were soaring and there was no guarantee our baby would even live long enough for any surgical or medical interventions to try to prolong life.

Really, looking back on it, the easier, less complicated and medically cheaper thing to do would have been to end the pregnancy. I would have saved myself and our family a fair amount of physical, mental and emotional suffering.

But there was no convincing my husband and me that we shouldn't do everything humanly possible to ensure a live birth and pray for the miracle of even a very sick baby.

It's been so many years since our daughter was born and immediately died. But even with the cool-headed benefit of hindsight, I'm sure we made the "right" decision for us. (And thank goodness it wasn't judged in real-time by partisan onlookers around the globe!)

But even having suffered through the tragedy of a lost baby, my husband and I aren't in a position to answer the question of when it's appropriate to treat gravely ill infants and when nature should be allowed to take its course. This is because there is no singular answer to that question. Circumstances change as time goes by, and technology enables previously unimaginable medical and surgical "miracles."

No one -- not parents who've been through similar traumas, not policymakers who have a pet crusade for or against limits to heroic measures for saving lives, and certainly not politicians looking to exploit a family's unspeakable tragedy -- should be weighing in on what Connie Yates and Chris Gard "should have" done.

The conservative British columnist Melanie Phillips described the drama surrounding the Gard case as "a cruel and ignorant campaign." On her blog, Phillips wrote: "The parents in their great distress cannot be blamed [if their baby experienced pain or trauma from having his life extended through desperate measures]. The people who should consider what harm they may have done here are all those who, through giving the parents such false hopes, so cruelly embedded them in their denial of reality."

She's not wrong.

But it is worth noting that though this false hope fueled political grandstanding and ideological bullying -- and, perversely, generated ad revenue for media companies -- it was also probably the only thing helping Charlie Gard's parents endure such a heart-rending time.

If there's any takeaway here, it's that Charlie Gard's life and death are not a case study or parable about the bureaucracy of national medical systems. And his experience doesn't belong to the world, not even to those who mourned for him.

No one but his parents have a right to take any kind of life lesson from it. After all, they're the only ones who have to live with the consequences of a heartbreaking situation that offered no easy solutions.
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.
HOLLYWOOD, Md.

U.S. Attorney's Office Press Release



Former Pastor Of St. Mary's County Church Sentenced To 18 Months Home Confinement For Federal Bank Fraud Charges



GREENBELT, Md.U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced John S. Mattingly, age 71, of Charlotte Hall, Maryland, to 3 years supervised release that includes 18 months of home confinement for bank fraud in connection with a scheme to steal funds from St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, while he was the pastor. Judge Chasanow also ordered Mattingly to pay $400,000 in restitution, which Mattingly paid prior to the sentencing hearing.



The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning; Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, St. Mary's County Sheriff Tim Cameron, and St. Mary's County State's Attorney Richard Fritz.



According to his plea agreement, Mattingly was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1972 and was the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church (St. Francis), in Leonardtown, Maryland, from 1994 until September 1, 2010, when he resigned. While serving as a parish priest, Mattingly was paid a salary and stipend by St. Francis.



From September 2006 through September 2010, Mattingly fraudulently deposited checks from parishioners made payable to St. Francis and to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which were intended by the St. Francis parishioners to be charitable donations, into a bank account he controlled. In order to conceal the scheme, Mattingly falsely represented that that the checks he deposited into his bank account would be used for charitable purposes and/or church maintenance and renovations. Mattingly did not use the charitable contributions from the St. Francis parishioners for their intended purposes, but instead transferred the fraudulently obtained funds from his bank account to his personal individual retirement account. He also wrote unauthorized checks from the St. Francis bank account payable to himself and deposited those checks into his personal individual retirement account.



Mattingly fraudulently deposited more than 500 checks, totaling at least $400,000, written by more than 135 parishioners and made payable to St. Francis or the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and not to Mattingly.



Acting United States Attorney Stephen M. Schenning commended the FBI, St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office, and St. Mary's County State's Attorney's Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Schenning thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan E. Foreman, who prosecuted the case.

(August 04, 2017)John S. Mattingly, former priest at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of theft from his own congregation, has paid $400,000 in restitution per court orders, on line documents from the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt show.Mattingly, 71, faces sentencing July 31 for stealing donations from church members during the last four years of leading one of the oldest Catholic churches in the United States. [See Dept. of Justice press release below for the outcome of the sentencing.]St. Frances Xavier Church in Newtowne Neck dates back to the early 17th century just years after the founding of the Maryland colony.A federal investigation into Mattingly, spurred by questions surrounding the financial health of the parish and the disappearance of tens of thousands of dollars meant for charitable donations that he could not account for, revealed that from 2006 to 2010 Mattingly took checks from parishioners intended for charities and deposited them into a bank account he controlled.The County Times was the first to report on questions into Mattingly's fiscal stewardship of the Newtowne Neck congregation back in 2014.The checks made out by parishioners were for the church and the St. Vincent de Paul Society but Mattingly used his pastor's title to falsely write on checks that they were to be used for those charities but were instead funneled into a personal retirement account.Federal authorities say that Mattingly fraudulently deposited more than 500 checks which totaled at least $76,000 from more than 135 members of the St. Francis Xavier congregation.As the investigation went on the findings showed that nearly half-a-million dollars had been stolen.While serving as priest there Mattingly received a salary and a stipend from the church.Sources close to the church revealed to The County Times that after Mattingly left his position it was discovered that the parish was near financial insolvency despite continual donations from church members.Soon after the church returned to financial stability, the sources told The County Times, when it came under new leadership.
Published on May 29, 2011

To Kill a Mockingbird movie clips: http://j.mp/15vV0dT

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CLIP DESCRIPTION:

Jem (Phillip Alford) is terrified when Bob Ewell (James Anderson) sneaks up to their car while Atticus (Gregory Peck) speaks with Tom's family inside.



FILM DESCRIPTION:

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel was translated to film in 1962 by Horton Foote and the producer/director team of Robert Mulligan and Alan J. Pakula. Set a small Alabama town in the 1930s, the story focuses on scrupulously honest, highly respected lawyer Atticus Finch, magnificently embodied by Gregory Peck. Finch puts his career on the line when he agrees to represent Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of rape. The trial and the events surrounding it are seen through the eyes of Finch's six-year-old daughter Scout (Mary Badham). While Robinson's trial gives the film its momentum, there are plenty of anecdotal occurrences before and after the court date: Scout's ever-strengthening bond with older brother Jem (Philip Alford), her friendship with precocious young Dill Harris (a character based on Lee's childhood chum Truman Capote and played by John Megna), her father's no-nonsense reactions to such life-and-death crises as a rampaging mad dog, and especially Scout's reactions to, and relationship with, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall in his movie debut), the reclusive "village idiot" who turns out to be her salvation when she is attacked by a venomous bigot. To Kill a Mockingbird won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Peck), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction.



CREDITS:

TM &  Universal (1962)

Cast: Phillip Alford, James Anderson, David Crawford, Gregory Peck, Mary Badham

Director: Robert Mulligan

Producer: Alan J. Pakula

Screenwriters: Harper Lee, Horton Foote



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a code of honor and conduct 



Heard this title from Kathy Duvall, RN last year.



Now, checked it out. Wow! The spark of the true writer flashed in every line,



giveand take angle: effectively by using a child's perspective !



"Arts director David Kipen to call her "hysterically funny". [37] To address complex issues, however, Tavernier-Courbin notes that Lee uses parody, satire, and irony effectively by using a child's perspective. "



Theme: a code of honor and conduct  ""Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that To Kill a Mockingbird spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners." [ a code of honor and conduct 



Showcase: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird





Loss of innocence

Lee used the mockingbird to symbolize innocence in the novel Lee used the mockingbird to symbolize innocence in the novel

Listen to 6-year-old girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaVuVu5KXuE&index=3&list=PLC2383F4CE69173C2

Songbirds and their associated symbolism appear throughout the novel. Their family name Finch is also Lee's mother's maiden name. The titular mockingbird is a key motif of this theme, which first appears when Atticus, having given his children air-rifles for Christmas, allows their Uncle Jack to teach them to shoot.



**

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird

After finishing the first draft and returning it to Lippincott, the manuscript, at that point titled "Go Set a Watchman", [6] fell into the hands of Therese von Hohoff Torrey  known professionally as Tay Hohoff  a small, wiry veteran editor in her late 50s. Hohoff was impressed. [T]he spark of the true writer flashed in every line, she would later recount in a corporate history of Lippincott. [6] But as Hohoff saw it, the manuscript was by no means fit for publication. It was, as she described it, more a series of anecdotes than a fully conceived novel. During the next couple of years, she led Lee from one draft to the next until the book finally achieved its finished form and was retitled To Kill a Mockingbird. [6]

Ultimately, Lee spent over two and a half years writing To Kill a Mockingbird. The book was published on July 11, 1960. After rejecting the "Watchman" title, it was initially re-titled Atticus, but Lee renamed it "To Kill a Mockingbird" to reflect that the story went beyond just a character portrait. [7] The editorial team at Lippincott warned Lee that she would probably sell only several thousand copies. [8] In 1964, Lee recalled her hopes for the book when she said, "I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.' ... I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected." [9] Instead of a "quick and merciful death", Reader's Digest Condensed Books chose the book for reprinting in part, which gave it a wide readership immediately. [10] Since the original publication, the book has never been out of print. [11]

Plot summary

The story takes place during three years (193335) of the Great Depression in the fictional "tired old town" of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. It focuses on six-year-old Jean Louise Finch (nicknamed Scout), who lives with her older brother, Jeremy (nicknamed Jem), and their widowed father, Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified yet fascinated by their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and few of them have seen him for many years. The children feed one another's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house. After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone leaves them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.

Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus's actions, calling him a "nigger-lover". Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to. Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. This danger is averted when Scout, Jem, and Dill shame the mob into dispersing by forcing them to view the situation from Atticus' and Tom's perspective.

Atticus does not want Jem and Scout to be present at Tom Robinson's trial. No seat is available on the main floor, so by invitation of the Rev. Sykes, Jem, Scout, and Dill watch from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes that the accusersMayella and her father, Bob Ewell, the town drunkare lying. It also becomes clear that the friendless Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom, and that her father caught her and beat her. Despite significant evidence of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him. Jem's faith in justice becomes badly shaken, as is Atticus', when the hapless Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.

Despite Tom's conviction, Bob Ewell is humiliated by the events of the trial, Atticus explaining that he "destroyed [Ewell's] last shred of credibility at that trial." [12] Ewell vows revenge, spitting in Atticus' face, trying to break into the judge's house, and menacing Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks the defenseless Jem and Scout while they walk home on a dark night after the school Halloween pageant. Jem suffers a broken arm in the struggle, but amid the confusion someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley.

Sheriff Tate arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has died during the fight. The sheriff argues with Atticus about the prudence and ethics of charging Jem (whom Atticus believes to be responsible) or Boo (whom Tate believes to be responsible). Atticus eventually accepts the sheriff's story that Ewell simply fell on his own knife. Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door he disappears again. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective, and regrets that they had never repaid him for the gifts he had given them.

Scout then goes back home to Atticus and stays up with him for a while in Jem's room. Soon Atticus takes her to bed and tucks her in, before leaving to go back to Jem.

Autobiographical elements

Lee has said that To Kill a Mockingbird is not an autobiography, but rather an example of how an author "should write about what he knows and write truthfully". [13] Nevertheless, several people and events from Lee's childhood parallel those of the fictional Scout. Lee's father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was an attorney, similar to Atticus Finch, and in 1919, he defended two black men accused of murder. After they were convicted, hanged and mutilated, [14] he never tried another criminal case. Lee's father was also the editor and publisher of the Monroeville newspaper. Although more of a proponent of racial segregation than Atticus, he gradually became more liberal in his later years. [15] Though Scout's mother died when she was a baby, Lee was 25 when her mother, Frances Cunningham Finch, died. Lee's mother was prone to a nervous condition that rendered her mentally and emotionally absent. [16] Lee's older brother Edwin was the inspiration for Jem.

Lee modeled the character of Dill on her childhood friend, Truman Capote, known then as Truman Persons. [17] [18] Just as Dill lived next door to Scout during the summer, Capote lived next door to Lee with his aunts while his mother visited New York City. [19] Like Dill, Capote had an impressive imagination and a gift for fascinating stories. Both Lee and Capote were atypical children: both loved to read. Lee was a scrappy tomboy who was quick to fight, but Capote was ridiculed for his advanced vocabulary and lisp. She and Capote made up and acted out stories they wrote on an old Underwood typewriter Lee's father gave them. They became good friends when both felt alienated from their peers; Capote called the two of them "apart people". [20] In 1960, Capote and Lee traveled to Kansas together to investigate the multiple murders that were the basis for Capote's nonfiction novel In Cold Blood. [21]

Down the street from the Lees lived a family whose house was always boarded up; they served as the models for the fictional Radleys. The son of the family got into some legal trouble and the father kept him at home for 24 years out of shame. He was hidden until virtually forgotten; he died in 1952. [22]

The origin of Tom Robinson is less clear, although many have speculated that his character was inspired by several models. When Lee was 10 years old, a white woman near Monroeville accused a black man named Walter Lett of raping her. The story and the trial were covered by her father's newspaper which reported that Lett was convicted and sentenced to death. After a series of letters appeared claiming Lett had been falsely accused, his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He died there of tuberculosis in 1937. [23] Scholars believe that Robinson's difficulties reflect the notorious case of the Scottsboro Boys, [24] [25] in which nine black men were convicted of raping two white women on negligible evidence. However, in 2005, Lee stated that she had in mind something less sensational, although the Scottsboro case served "the same purpose" to display Southern prejudices. [26] Emmett Till, a black teenager who was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955, and whose death is credited as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, is also considered a model for Tom Robinson. [27]

Style

The narrative is very tough, because [Lee] has to both be a kid on the street and aware of the mad dogs and the spooky houses, and have this beautiful vision of how justice works and all the creaking mechanisms of the courthouse. Part of the beauty is that she... trusts the visual to lead her, and the sensory. Allan Gurganus [28]

The strongest element of style noted by critics and reviewers is Lee's talent for narration, which in an early review in Time was called "tactile brilliance". [29] Writing a decade later, another scholar noted, "Harper Lee has a remarkable gift of story-telling. Her art is visual, and with cinematographic fluidity and subtlety we see a scene melting into another scene without jolts of transition." [30] Lee combines the narrator's voice of a child observing her surroundings with a grown woman's reflecting on her childhood, using the ambiguity of this voice combined with the narrative technique of flashback to play intricately with perspectives. [31] This narrative method allows Lee to tell a "delightfully deceptive" story that mixes the simplicity of childhood observation with adult situations complicated by hidden motivations and unquestioned tradition. [32] However, at times the blending causes reviewers to question Scout's preternatural vocabulary and depth of understanding. [33] Both Harding LeMay and the novelist and literary critic Granville Hicks expressed doubt that children as sheltered as Scout and Jem could understand the complexities and horrors involved in the trial for Tom Robinson's life. [34] [35]

Writing about Lee's style and use of humor in a tragic story, scholar Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin states: "Laughter ... [exposes] the gangrene under the beautiful surface but also by demeaning it; one can hardly ... be controlled by what one is able to laugh at." [36] Scout's precocious observations about her neighbors and behavior inspire National Endowment of the Arts director David Kipen to call her "hysterically funny". [37] To address complex issues, however, Tavernier-Courbin notes that Lee uses parody, satire, and irony effectively by using a child's perspective. After Dill promises to marry her, then spends too much time with Jem, Scout reasons the best way to get him to pay attention to her is to beat him up, which she does several times. [38] Scout's first day in school is a satirical treatment of education; her teacher says she must undo the damage Atticus has wrought in teaching her to read and write, and forbids Atticus from teaching her further. [39] Lee treats the most unfunny situations with irony, however, as Jem and Scout try to understand how Maycomb embraces racism and still tries sincerely to remain a decent society. Satire and irony are used to such an extent that Tavernier-Courbin suggests one interpretation for the book's title: Lee is doing the mockingof education, the justice system, and her own society by using them as subjects of her humorous disapproval. [36]
Play at the new site will be free and first come, first served through the...
Longviews moratorium on emergency shelters has moved a step closer to ending.

The Longview Planning Commission voted Wednesday to approve new guidelines for where emergency homeless shelters can be located within the city.

The move sends the zoning committees proposal to the City Council for consideration. Longview council members first enacted a six-month moratorium on emergency shelters in October 2015. Since then, the moratorium has been extended three times.

Emergency shelters provide temporary housing and services to families and individuals for up to 90 days.

The moratorium has been a source of contention for many as Longview has struggled to provide sufficient housing for its homeless population.

At a public hearing Wednesday, local residents spoke in favor of the committees proposal and offered suggestions on how to improve it.

I would recommend you have something in the permit that allows for inspections by both the city and county, said Alan Peffley of Kelso. You wouldnt open a restaurant here and sign an agreement that says you cant have the health department go in and inspect it, he said.

Jerry Winchell, a dentist with an office located on the corner of 12th Avenue and Delaware Street, said he was worried the new zoning guidelines could create an unfair burden on local businesses.

We are bearing the financial responsibility for the actions of the city of Longview that the city at large is not taking responsibility for, he said.

Under the proposal, emergency shelters would be allowed in the citys general commercial and office commercial districts.

We need to take care of these people but dont dump the responsibility on a few individuals, Winchell said.

Kathleen Patton, a pastor at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Longview, said she wants to see the proposal adopted as quickly as possible.

I just want to encourage you to do whatever you need to end this moratorium with all speed, she said.

Patton said she recently received an email about a 77-year-old man who is experiencing dementia and will soon have nowhere to live.

John Shepherd, of Longview, said he believed the new guidelines were crafted in a careful way.

I think built into this proposal are some safeguards, precautions, oversight and collaboration between the city and any proposed shelters, he said.

Under the new guidelines, emergency shelters cannot be sited within 1,000 feet of a school, 325 feet from a park or single-family residential neighborhood or within 1,000 feet of another shelter.

Applicants must apply for a special permit from the city and submit a good neighbor agreement detailing how they would minimize impacts to the neighborhood. A public hearing for any new shelter would also be required.

Smaller shelters with 10 or fewer clients would be allowed in the citys R-4 residential districts, which primarily include the Highlands and Broadway neighborhoods. Drugs and alcohol would not be allowed in those shelters.

Longview Planning Manager Steve Langdon said it would have been difficult for the zoning committee to create different guidelines for the many different types of shelters that exist.

We felt this was a mechanism that would apply universally, he said. Now its in the City Councils lap.
Three local rotary clubs donated $21,000 in money, labor and materials to upgrade decorative lights and the spray pad at the Catlin Rotary Spray Park in Kelso  just in time for this weeks sweltering heat wave.

Rotarians from the Kelso, Longview and Longview-Early Edition clubs donated their time to install slip-resistant paint in the spray area, improve landscaping near the senior center and install new lighting features around the spray pad.

Kelso Rotary Club President Marilyn Young Skogland said the club wanted to honor its commitment to take care of the spray park, so they worked with the city to decide what projects they could accomplish.

With the citys blessing, we took it on ourselves to clean (the park) up, Skogland said. It bears our name and we wanted to be as proud of it as our community.

Skogland also pointed out that even though the park is located in Kelso, just as many rotarians from Longview helped in the efforts.

Its a greater community effort coming together, Skogland said. Were all thrilled  to bring a refreshed spray park.

Local groups and volunteers have been working to keep the park clean after a 6-year-old stepped on a hypodermic needle at the park during the summer of 2015. Some community members want the park surrounded completely on all sides by a fence with gates that would lock at night.

While the city of Kelso hasnt agreed to fence off the park, the city did set aside $75,000 in this years budget to update its parks master plan, which includes about $21,000 for the creation of a master plan for the spray park and adjoining senior center.

The free spray park has provided much-need relief during this weeks scorching high temps. Longview broke the record on Wednesday and Thursday for the all-time highest temperatures on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Kelso reached 102 degrees on Thursday. Temperatures are expected to ease back down into the high 80s and low 90s next week.

Other contributors to the spray park projects include Larry Timmons, of Renaud Electric, who installed and wired the new lights; Dan Frazier, from Mountain View Commercial Contracting, who excavated and backfilled the trenching and footings; and Paul Campbell, of CalPortland, who provided the concrete restoration.
Nearly 200,000 comments flooded into the Department of Ecology as the state considers whether to approve of water quality permit for Millennium Bulk Terminals proposed coal dock in Longview.

Thats the highest number of comments Ecology has ever received for a 401 water quality permit application, said Ecology spokesman Dave Bennett.

The number of comments wasnt a big surprise because theres been a lot of public interest in Millenniums proposal, Bennett said Friday.

At Ecologys request, Millennium withdrew and resubmitted its application for a 401 water quality permit at the end of June to reflect changes in its project. Ecology also wanted to review a new wetlands plan for the coal dock and collect additional information from Millennium. A 30-day public comment period on the updated proposal ended last week. Ecology will decide whether to issue the water quality certification by the end of September.

Bennett said Ecology is still evaluating the comments. Its not clear how many of those comments were from a pre-written form letter, nor is it clear how many were for or against the project.

Yet environmental groups with the Power Past Coal coalition said the majority of those comments are from opponents.

Opposition to coal export continues to build, stated Gary Wallace, president of Landowners and Citizens for a Safe Community, in a press release. Over 162,000 people are asking Ecology to stop this dead-end project and help us usher in cleaner, safer industries that benefit our environment and economy. I hope the agency listens.

Wendy Hutchinson, vice president of public affairs for Millennium, said the company respects the process and the right of individuals to express themselves. The Department of Ecologys thorough Final Environmental Impact Statement concluded that the project will have no significant impacts on water quality.

Overall, Millennium needs 23 permits from various federal, state and local agencies. Last month Cowlitz County Building and Planning officials issued a Critical Areas Permit, the first of eight permits the company needs from the county.

The coal terminal would create more than 1,000 construction jobs, 130 permanent jobs and $5.4 million in annual state and local taxes, according to the EIS.

Opponents claim the project would exacerbate climate change by increasing global greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 2 million metric tons annually, according to an EIS. They also point out that rail cars servicing the dock could increase the cancer risk rate by 10 percent over background county levels for residents in Highlands neighborhood of Longview, according to the EIS. (That number is contested by BNSF Railway and Millennium.)
Why Did a Marijuana Company Buy a California Ghost Town?

No, this isn't some plot from a comic-book villain come to life; a company, that has, up till now, focused on marijuana technology and hemp oil, has purchased the town of Nipton, California for $5 million. The plan is to turn the ghost town, population: 6, into a destination for marijuana tourism.

Now, you may be asking: Marijuana tourism? Excuse me? However, in California's last election, marijuana was legalized for recreational use by adults in the state. This means that, soon, any adult will be able to purchase marijuana, like they would cigarettes or alcohol. As states like Colorado have seen, once marijuana is available for the public to buy, a new industry pops up: marijuana tourism.

What Is Marijuana Tourism?

In places where marijuana is legal and can be legally purchased, individuals from states where marijuana is not legal come to visit to partake in the pleasure that is forbidden in their home states. It's that simple. People in other states want to use marijuana legally, so they go visit a state where that is possible. Before states legalized marijuana for recreational use, American tourists often flocked to Amsterdam, or other nations, where marijuana is legal.

As a consultant for the ghost town buying company explained, the idea "isn't to create Woodstock 2017. It's about creating an environment where people come to work and share in a community." The marijuana tourist destination would feature farm tours, likely a lax attitude on use in public, and, of course, a place to buy marijuana.

Getting in on the Ground Floor

Since California's new recreational marijuana laws were only recently passed, the regulatory framework for the sale of marijuana to the public still has not been rolled out. However, business owners and entrepreneurs looking to get into the marijuana tourism industry should not wait. There are many obstacles and regulations that will take time to process.

If you decide to try getting into the marijuana tourism business, be careful about what you offer for sale in tourism deals. You don't want to get caught selling marijuana across state lines as it could be construed as a federal crime, even if your guests are coming from another state where it is legal. Consulting a business attorney early on is very good idea as federal law can land you in serious trouble if you make mistakes.

Related Resources:
Profit motive

Fifty years ago in Seattle, the fall of 1967, the board of the Washington affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union debated a momentous issue: Should marijuana be legalized? As chairman of the ACLU in Cowlitz County, I was one of about 35 board members who, by unanimous vote, made the ACLUW the first non-drug related organization in America to endorse legalization. Then and now, I dont drink, drug or smoke, but 150 people petitioned the Longview School Board to fire me.

Because stupid America established Prohibition in the 1920s, Al Capone ruled Chicago. My own father bribed a Canadian Mountie. A bottle he paid for in Seattle contained tea. Prohibition just does not work!

The profit motive is the great enemy of public health. In 1967, Washington had an excellent system of state liquor stores which gave us at least some control of sin. State Tax on Fools stores should again sell booze, cigarettes, marijuana and other stupidities. If Washington doesnt sell them, drug lords surely will, but without collecting taxes.

L.S. Wagle

Seattle

Minding methanol

In a summer of almost record-breaking dry spells and excessive heat, climate change is frequently on my mind. On the surface, Washington state appears to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change, yet a proposed methanol refinery threatens to undermine our states seemingly green agenda.

Northwest Innovation Works wants to build the worlds largest methanol refinery in Kalama. This project would refine natural gas to methanol, then ship it to China to turn it into plastics. Not only would the refinery emit 1.24 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gases, it would also significantly increase our state emissions. The refinery would consume more gas than any sector of Washingtons economy, which would give not-so-environmentally-friendly frackers the excuse to increase pipeline infrastructure  possibly resulting in a new pipeline down the I-5 corridor. On top of all that, the refinerys final products will likely end up adding to the billions of tonnes of plastics already being stuffed into landfills or polluting our oceans.

We should call on Gov. Inslee to use his influence to block this project and show that Washington stands against pollution, pipelines and plastic production.

Charlotte Linton

Seattle

Syringe exchange

The July 30 issue of The Daily News features an article about Cowlitz Countys revised Syringe Exchange Program (SEP). In the first paragraph of the article, one commissioner is quoted saying, ...he will reject it.

At the June 27 meeting of the Cowlitz County Board of Health, five medical doctors, including two county public health officers (Cowlitz and Clark), and one who is board certified in addiction medicine, all gave convincing testimony as to the importance of continuing the SEP.

I am deeply troubled that even one commissioner would ignore the experience, education, and opinions of highly trained medical practitioners and staff, in favor of a view that has not been informed by sound public health policy.

As the previous co-chair of Cowlitz Countys Mental Health & Substance Abuse Advisory Board, Ive worked closely with most of the Health & Human Services staff, and have found them to be highly competent and professional. I would urge the commissioners to accept their recommendation to continue the SEP. I invite you to do the same.

John Steppert

Longview
Can Undocumented Immigrants Attend Public School?

One of the tropes often trotted out in immigration debates is the notion that undocumented immigrants are getting services meant for citizens without paying into the system that funds those services. While this has been proven untrue (Pew Research estimates 8 million undocumented workers and their employers paid $13 billion in payroll taxes in 2010), the myth of undocumented immigrants getting a free ride in the U.S. persists.

And few forums are as ripe for this sentiment as public education. So can undocumented immigrant children attend public schools?

School Impact

The quick answer is yes. All children in the country are guaranteed a right to an elementary and secondary education, regardless of immigration status. But, like many other legal guarantees, it took a Supreme Court case to get there.

In the mid-1970s, Texas passed a law that limited public school funding by the number of students that were lawfully present in the country. In order to make up for the gap in funds, school districts began charging undocumented students tuition. One in particular, Tyler, Texas, charged undocumented children $1,000 per year. Unable to pay, the students sued the school district, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Societal Impact

In Plyler v. Doe, the Court ruled that the Texas statute restricting state funds for local school districts only for children who were citizens or "legally admitted" into the United States violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. Specifically, the Court noted that public education has a pivotal role in maintaining the fabric of society and sustaining our political and cultural heritage. Therefore, the deprivation of education would take an enormous toll on the social, economic, intellectual, and psychological well-being of the children involved, as well as pose an obstacle to individual achievement

Since Plyler was decided in 1982, schools could no longer bar undocumented immigrants from public K-12 education, nor could they charge them extra to attend public schools.

Related Resources:
From fighting regime to anti-IS, Syria rebel traces US policy shifts

Abu Jaafar A and fellow Turkish-backed rebels pose with an Islamic State group flag as they advance towards the then jihadist-held city of Al-Bab.

AFP, Beirut :

From special forces officer to brigade-hopping rebel, Abu Jaafar has seen Syria's uprising from all angles. But after years of setbacks, culminating in cuts to US support, he feels disillusioned.

The 31-year-old spent three years in a Syrian prison and once counted himself among his US trainers' most admired fighters.

But now with more than 330,000 dead and millions displaced, Abu Jaafar expressed exhaustion and anger.

"I fall apart, I get annoyed and I want to leave but I say no-if I leave and others do too, the country will be even more destroyed than it is now," Abu Jaafar told AFP in interviews via a messaging app.

In some ways, his trajectory has tracked Washington's shifting policy, which originally backed anti-regime factions but is now focused on battling the Islamic State group.

President Donald Trump's administration last month announced it was ending Washington's four-year programme to back rebels.

Abu Jaafar, who worked with two groups supported by that programme but now receives separate Pentagon backing, was left convinced opposition groups were pawns in a proxy war between outside powers.

"Rebel factions were pieces on a chessboard. The board is in Turkey, Trump is on one side, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is on the other," he said ruefully.

Originally from the central province of Homs, Abu Jaafar-born Khaled Karzoun-enrolled in the special forces' officers school at the age of 17.

When protests erupted in 2011, he was stationed on Syria's Mediterranean coast and ordered to fire on the few demonstrations in the regime stronghold.

"The oppression was brutal in a way I cannot describe," he recalled.

In September 2011, he was accused of liaising with rebels and sentenced to 15 years in the notorious Saydnaya prison, where his wife was able to visit him only twice a year.

"Three hours before the visit, I would be taken out to be tortured and beaten so that I would come out for the visit covered in blood," he said.

Abu Jaafar was released on June 14, 2014 after a string of amnesties cut his sentence to three years.

Within a week, he joined the rebel Hazm Movement, at a time when the opposition still controlled swathes of Syria, including half of second city Aleppo.

Washington and its allies were training and arming rebel groups, including Hazm, through a Turkey-based operations room known by its Turkish acronym MOM.

Abu Jaafar spent a month training in Saudi Arabia but returned to Syria disillusioned by what he perceived as corruption among Hazm members.

"I missed the most amazing years of the revolution because I was in jail. By then, I saw the revolution had been turned into a business.

"I rebelled for honour, someone else was against injustice, another because his brother was in jail," he said.

"That's why we were with the revolution. But now, everyone is rushing to expand his faction for his own personal interests."

In September 2014, Abu Jaafar left Hazm as it lost territory and weapons to Al-Qaeda before folding the following year.

For several months, he worked as a schoolbus driver outside second city Aleppo. His wife, who taught at the school, gave birth to a boy.

"He lived 21 days. There was an air strike and he died."

In early 2016, Abu Jaafar was recruited by the Fastaqim Union, a rebel faction in Aleppo.

"We got weapons on a monthly basis, as well as salaries, medical equipment, vehicles, and relief materials" from the MOM, he said.

He led month-long training courses for Fastaqim members in Turkey and Qatar in 2016.

"I had a great relationship with the Americans. They liked me a lot," Abu Jaafar said.




1st Hajj flight from Ctg off to Jeddah

Chittagong Bureau :

This year's first hajj flight from ChittagongShah Amanat International Airport carrying 416 Bangladeshi left for Jeddah on Friday midnight.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon inaugurated the flight at chief guest.

In a view exchange meeting on hajj with journalists at airport conference room, the minister said around 7,000 hajj pilgrims did not get schedule as Saudi Arabia introduced E-visa system this year.

"Hopefully, we will be able to send all hajj pilgrims in time. We have already applied to the authorities concerned of Saudi Arabia to give the slots for the canceled flights to take pilgrims." he added.

Menon said this year 14,700 hajj pilgrims will go to Saudi Arabia from Chittagong. Of them, dedicated flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines will carry 6,285 pilgrims. The rest of them have to go in scheduled fights.

First ever Madina flights from Shah Amanat airport will likely to be operated on August 7 and 8."We are trying to increase flights for Medina from next year", the minister said.

Some 127,198 pilgrims will perform hajj from Bangladesh this year under government and private managements. Some 37,000 hajj pilgrims have already reached Makkah.

On July 24, the first Hajj flight of Biman carrying 418 Bangladeshi pilgrims took off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. The hajj flights will be operated till August 26.

The return flight will start on September 6 and continue till October 5.


Making the school safe for students

Mimi Kirk :

Lisa Hamp is a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, in which 32 people died at the hands of student Seung-Hui Cho. Hamp and her classmates lived because they barricaded their classroom door. "The door did not have a lock," Hamp says. "We used a desk and table to keep the shooter from entering."

Hamp recently joined a group in Washington, D.C., lobbying for funding to make U.S. public schools safer from such assaults. She joined representatives from organizations such as the Secure Schools Alliance and Safe and Sound Schools, as well as the security firm Allegion. These organizations have allies in Congress: Representatives Susan Brooks, a Republican from Indiana, and Rick Larsen, a Democrat from Washington, head the Congressional School Safety Caucus.

School safety is a big business. Allegion, which specializes in "security around the doorway" (meaning locks, steel doors and frames, and the like), reported $2.2 billion in net revenues last year. Tim Eckersley, the president of the Americas region for Allegion, points to the new, rebuilt Sandy Hook elementary school, in which 26 students and staff were killed in 2012, as a current "model school for safety and security." It features such elements as a series of checkpoints along the road that approaches the school, impact-resistant windows, and a high-tech surveillance system. Other school safety paraphernalia on the market include gear like bulletproof whiteboards and backpacks, fingerprint recognition systems, and gunshot detection systems.

Much of the advocates' conversation with lawmakers centers around establishing nationwide provisions for school security, including emergency drills and monitored entrances for visitors. One low-tech fix is emphasized: a requirement to provide locks on classroom doors. "We hear about the need to lock a door time and again when there is violence in a school building," says Michele Gay, who co-founded Safe and Sound Schools after she lost her daughter in the Sandy Hook shootings.

In Hamp's case, an ad-hoc barricade worked, but that's usually not advised. The manufactured barricades that some schools purchase aren't fire code compliant-and while they keep a perpetrator out, they also bar those who would help from coming in. Instead, locks easily engaged and disengaged from the inside of a classroom are recommended.

Allegion and other security companies would likely get a lot of new business if such locks were mandated on all classrooms nationwide. Robert Boyd, the executive director of the Secure Schools Alliance, says it takes about $100,000 to give a school a basic level of security. With, for instance, around 98,000 K-12 public schools in the U.S., each a candidate for outfitting or upgrading, there's a vast amount of money at stake. But Eckersley says that the firm's interest in such legislation has a higher purpose. "We aim to make places safer so that people can thrive," he says. "In this case, that's about learning and teaching."

Boyd and his colleagues aren't asking for funding from the beleaguered Department of Education (which, in President Trump's proposed budget, would see its funding slashed 13.5 percent). Rather, they envision resources for a school security makeover coming out of the president's fabled $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which the Department of Homeland Security would then mete out to states. And the feds wouldn't be footing the whole bill: Boyd advocates for a system in which one-third of each $100,000 would come from the federal government, while states and municipalities would split the rest.

"You have to be careful that you're not preparing for the least-probable attack."

But some researchers caution that a focus on hardware solutions risks taking attention and resources away from more effective methods of preventing shootings and other school violence. The majority of school violence does not involve mass shootings and random victims: They're single incidents between two people-usually students-that are personal in nature. Shootings like those at Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook are shocking, horrific, and exceptionally uncommon. "Even in the deadliest years, the chance of a student or adult being killed at school is roughly one in a million," writes Sasha Abramsky in a critical report on the school security industry in The Nation.

William Woodward, the director of training and technical assistance at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado Boulder, says it's important to keep this infrequency in mind when planning for school safety. "You have to be careful that you're not preparing for the least-probable attack," he says.

Woodward has studied school shootings in depth, and his research shows that reaching the students who would do harm to others early is the key to preventing the violence. He emphasizes that one of the most important things a school can do is to create a "safe school climate"-one where students view teachers as fair, feel welcome and engaged in activities, and know a teacher they feel they can trust and talk to. It's also a climate where rules are consistently enforced.

In such a climate, students with mental health problems and anger issues are more easily detected and treated. "This is really about identifying those kids early and getting them the resources they need so we don't have to rely on locks," Woodward says. It's also crucial for a school's different communities to coordinate. "Teachers, the police, the PTA, parents, students, school administrators-they all have to be working with each other, or you can end up with a shooting," Woodward says.

Last year, he and a co-author published recommendations on how schools can promote intervention, such as diligently documenting student behavior concerns and conducting formal trainings for students and staff on the signs of violence to look out for.

(Mimi Kirk is a contributing writer to CityLab covering education, youth, and aging. Her writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Smithsonian).
GSP may be handed back this year

Economic Reporter :

There is a possibility of Bangladesh winning back trade privileges to the American market at the end of the year, when the United States Trade Representative convenes for appraisal, said a former US ambassador yesterday."At the end of this year GSP comes up for renewal. I personally believe that Bangladesh will find a place in the schedule," said Frank G Wisner, the former US ambassador to Zambia, Egypt and India. The former US diplomat's comments came at a dinner programme of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh, held at the capital's Westin Hotel on Friday. Wisner did not elaborate further on what basis the trade privilege, which was suspended in June 2013 for poor labour rights and weak workplace safety, would be reinstated. He, however, called for protection of human rights in Bangladesh. After the suspension of the Generalized Systems of Preferences scheme Bangladesh signed up for a 16-point action plan to get it back. The country twice submitted its progress reports on the action plan to the USTR but in vain. Rather, the USTR said a lot needs to be done for regaining the privilege.

Meanwhile, Wisner, who served as the chief of the Political Section in the US embassy in Dhaka from July 1973 until March 1974, said he was impressed with what the country has achieved over the years."I am particularly impressed by how you transformed your economy," he said, while singling out the country's export diversification from jute to textiles and heavy industry fields like ship building for praise. Going forward, the emergence of religious extremism and intolerance are one of the challenges for the country, he said. "But, Bangladesh has the tradition of tolerance," he added. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said Bangladesh has made a lot of progress in improvement of workplace safety and labour rights after the suspension of GSP.

"We do not need the GSP. We started to forget about GSP," the minister said while addressing the businessmen at the meeting. The reason being Bangladesh's main export item to the US, apparel, is excluded from the GSP. Bangladesh's apparel exports are subjected to 15.62 percent duty upon entry to the US, whereas the duty for other countries is much lower. The US importers paid nearly $5 billion as duty to the customs for their apparel imports from Bangladesh over the last five years, according to Ahmed. Bangladesh exported goods worth $23 million under the GSP in 2013, when the trade privilege was suspended. Marcia Bernicat, US ambassador in Bangladesh, said Bangladesh's exports to the US doubled in the last 10 years to $6.8 billion at the end of fiscal 2016-17.Regarding bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the US, Bernicat said the two countries discussed several market access issues including workplace safety, labour rights, US investment in Bangladesh and the digital economy of Bangladesh in the third Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement that took place in May in Dhaka.


Nari (woman)

Rabindranath Tagore :

In the creation of the human race the woman is ancient. In this race women power may be said to be the soul-power. It is this power that carries the soul in the world of life, the power that nourishes it .

Many ages have passed to make the earth suitable for habitation by living beings. Before this task was half done nature started creating living beings, and pain came upon the earth. Nature has given the first pain of life in the blood of the woman, in her heart. All the desires connected with rearing life has been enmeshed in the body and mind of the woman. These desires have naturally found their place more in the heart than in the mind. it is these desires in the woman that are weaving the web of attachment to hold oneself and others in love, affection, tender patience. That primitive, bond for rearing the family, for preserving it. It is this family that is the basic foundation of civilization of all societies. In the absence of this binding force men and women would have strewn themselves like formless and characterless vapour; they would not have been able to assemble and establish a centre of union anywhere. This, the first task of consolidating a society, belongs to women.

All the creative processes of nature are deeply secret processes, their self-incitements are spontaneous. Women in their character reveal the natural springing of that original life. That is why many a times suddenly a burst of emotion that is observed in women is beyond arguments - it is not like excavating a watertank according to rules; it is like a gushing out whose logic is hidden in reasonless mystery.

The mystery of love, of affection, is very ancient and unfathomable.

It does not await arguments for its fulfillment. When it faces problems it seeks a quick solution. That is why as soon as the woman enters the house from nowhere she turns into the housewife, and the moment the child comes onto her lap she is ready for it. Mature intellect has come much later in the world of living beings. It has found its place by searching, by waging wars. It takes time to move through hesitations. It attains strength and success through stiff struggle with doubts. Century after century goes by through waves of such hesitation, profound mistakes occur and devastate human history. The creations of the male disappear through destructions, requiring him to construct anew the foundation of his achievements. His works keep constantly changing in such repeated trials. If this constant walk through experience advances him then he survives, but if he fails to correct his mistakes then the crack in the chariot of his life keeps widening and pulls him toward extinction.

Such destruction and reconstruction of civilizations created by the male have been continuing since primeval days. In the meanwhile the lady-love in the woman, the mother in the woman, is steadfastly continuing her own work as an agent of Nature. And she is even causing conflagrations in the families in bursts of emotions. These outbursts are like cataclysms of nature, like hurricanes, like forest fires - sudden, suicidal.

The male is over and over again a new visitor in his own world.

Until today he has devised his own rules and procedures countless number of times. Destiny has not set his course of life; he has had to construct his own path treading upon many lands, many a times. The path of one era became the wrong path for another, turning his history upside down, making him disappear.

Through the ups and downs of newer and newer civilizations the main course of life of the woman is moving along a steady path. The treasure of heart that nature has given her has not been permitted to experiment with ever-curious intellect. Women are ancient.

Men move soliciting from door to door, from office to office. Most men are compelled to accept such work for a livelihood for which they do not have the will or ability. They have to do many types of work requiring hard labour - from this seventy five per cent of males do not get a deserving fulfillment. But work of the women as housewife and as mother are their own, naturally suited to them.

Men attain glory overcoming many obstacles and turning many adverse conditions in their own favour by their valour. Men who reach such extraordinary success are small in number. But such women are seen in house after house who have made their households green with the flow of their heart's tenderness. From nature they have got unlearned skills, have obtained with ease the wealth of sweetness. If unfortunately a woman does not possess this tenderness no education, no artificial means can give her fulfillment.

There is a danger of easily gotten wealth. One source of danger is that it is alluring to others. The powerful one wants to grab a nation with natural wealth in its own exclusive interest. It is easy for an infertile country to remain independent. Men take pride in caging the bird whose wings are beautiful and whose voice is sweet; those with lust for possession forget that the beauty of these birds belongs to the whole forest. Men have for a~es kept the sweetness of women's hearts and their skills for tender care under strict control. Women themselves are prone to accept such bondage, and this has thus been so easy everywhere.

In fact, the very task of rearing a life is a private affair. It does not fall into the category of impersonal theory, and hence its pleasure is not the pleasure of grandiose theorizing. Not only so - even though the skills of women have contained a charm they have not yet been sufficiently successful in the task of Creation.

For many ages the woman's wisdom, her prejudices, her conduct, have been constrained by fixed bounds. Her education, her faith, has not gotten the full opportunity to verify itself with the wider experience of the outside. For this reason she has been indiscriminately offering worship to all raise mirits in imaginery fear and unwurthy Jevutioll. If we look at the whole country we see how very disastrous the damage due to this infatuation has been, how very difficult is it to advance along the hard road to progress carrying this immense burden. Not that there is any shortage of muddy-headed males in the country - from their childhood they are raised by women and they are the ones most brutal to women. All these muddy-headed centres that are popping up all around in this country rely chiefly on the blind sense of judgment of women. Thus is the prison of the heart spreading all around the country, and everyday its foundation is becoming firmer.

On the other hand in almost all countries of the world women are coming out of the bounds of individual families. We see evidences of this in modem Asia as well. The main reason for this is that the age of breaking barriers has come everywhere. Those countries which were totally confined within the geographical and national boundaries cannot anymore be confined by such fences today - they are getting exposed to each other. Everyday the span of experience is expanding, the eyesight has crossed the hitherto accustomed horizons. Situations are changing through conflicts with the outside, and changes in customs and considerations are becoming imperative in response to newer and newer needs.

Our young days were the days of the palanquin for women to go out of the house. In aristocratic families the palanquin had a covering over it. My elder sister led the girls who were the first to enter Bethun College. She used to go to school in a palanquin with its doors open, and this gave no small discomfort to the culture of the aristocrats of those days. In those days women wore just one dress, and it was considered immodesty to wear a chemise. It was not easy to travel by train preserving the ruling practice of modesty.

Today that age of covered palanquin has receded very far. Not slowly, but fast. This change has naturally happened with change in the outside - it has not been necessary to organize meetings and conferences for this. The marriage age for girls has advanced in no time, and that also easily. If for naniral causes the quantity of water in the river increases then the limits of its banks keep receding naturally. In the lives of women today from all sides, naturally, the limits of its shores are receding. The river is becoming the great river.

This change of behaviour in the outside does not remain confined to the outside. This keeps working in the inside as well. The attitude of a woman that is suitable for an enclosed world cannot stay thus, unsuited to a free world. Her mind naturally starts thinking big, judging big, standing on her expanded canvas of life. The process of examining the older practices starts naturally. She may make many mistakes in this situation, but she has to overcome these mistakes crossing obstacles one after another. The way her mind used to judge things within narrow bounds cannot work now without inviting disharmony. There is pain in thus changing habits, there is danger as well; but the tide of modem times cannot be pushed back by such fear.

When the lives of women were confined within the small bounds of the household they could easily live with the natural inclinations of the feminine mind. As they did not need special training for this there has been so much opposition to and farce about women's education. At that time the males had given deliberate indulgence to the very same prejudices in the case of women that they disregarded for themselves, to the opinions that they did not believe in, the rites that they themselves did not observe. At the root of such conduct was this disposition that characterizes that of dictatorial rulers - they knew that an environment of blind prejudices fanned by ignorance creates opportunity for arbitrary rule - this captivated mental condition is most suitable for staying happy even by sacrificing one's human rights. Even today many males in our society have this disposition. But they have got to accept defeat in the fight against time.

As the arena of life of women thus kept expanding, as the women naturally started entering the world of liberty, it became a dire necessity for their self-protection to cultivate, in particular, their intellect and knowledge. That is why the obstacles to this are fast disappearing. Today the shame of illiteracy is the biggest shame for women of elite families, a shame much bigger than the shame in earlier days of women using the umbrella and wearing shoes - the disrepute of not being able to grind spices and whisper rum ours is nothing compared to this. In other words, the valuation of a woman's worth resting on her household skills is not working fully in the marriage market today. Today for valuation of an would-be bride much inquiry is made of those knowledge and skills, going beyond urgent family needs, whose value is universal.

It is by this process that the minds of our modem women are daily graduating in the society of the wider world coming out of the private family.

In the first ages the world was once veiled by the mist of its own hot breath when it could not perceive its own place at all among the planets of the vast sky. Finally one day the sun's rays found a path to enter it. That liberation marked the beginning of the epoch of glory of the earth. Similarly, Once the dense mist of the heart's tenderness had kept the awareness of our women absorbed with the very immediate family. Today rays of light have pierced into their heart that belongs to the free sky, to the whole world. Although the ages of prejudice-laden mesh in which their mind had been entrapped have not fully cleared yet, considerable opening is now being seen. How considerable is known only to ancients like us.

Today women everywhere are stepping out of the door-sill of their homes to stand on the open yard of the world. Now they have got to accept the charge of this wider family; else it will be their shame, their failure.

It appears to me that a new epoch has come to the world. For too long a time the responsibility of human civilization had rested with men. The politics, economics, constitution for social rule of civilization had all been constructed by men. Amidst all this the women had only done housework staying in the invisible background. This civilization had become biased in one direction. This civilization lacked much by way of wealth of the human heart that had been hidden in the vault of the women's bosom under charge of the miserly. Today the treasury has been opened.

The forests that in the earth's young days stood above layers of garbage uninhabited by human beings had for billions of years gathered sun's energy in the marrows of its trees. Those woods got submerged in the womb of the earth and stayed hidden for many ages in transformed states. When finally the gates of that submerged world were opened, men suddenly got those energy, unutilized for hundreds of years, in the form of coal to use for their own purposes. And it is then that the world conquering modern age started.

Just as this happened one day with the external wealth of civilization, today a special mine of wealth, that of the heart, has revealed its accumulations. Everyday domestic women are coming out as women of the world. This addition of a new heart in the creative life of humans has brought a new spirit in human civilization. Today its working is going on perceptibly as well as imperceptibly. Today one hopes that the lack of balance that one observes in the civilization created by men alone will yield gradually to a balance. Fierce earthquake is again and again shaking the foundation of the old civilization. For a long time this civilization has been accumulating forces inimical to it, and hence none can stop the tendency toward destruction. The only big hope is that in this epoch-changing task women have lined up to join in the construction of a new civilization, preparing themselves for this role all over the world. Not only has their physical veil dropped from their faces, the mental veil which had kept most of them concealed from the world is also dropping. The human society in which they are being born is revealing itself before them from all directions and in all fields. It will not befit them now to keep playing dolls made in the factory of blind superstitions. Their natural wisdom for rearing life will now be engaged earnestly in protecting all humans and not just those of their own homes.

From the earliest days the male has constructed the bricks of the fortress of his civilization with the blood of constant human sacrifice they have mercilessly and constantly killed people in order to establish some general order; the wealth of the rich has been accumulated by sucking the life of workers; the mighty has lighted the fire of its might with the sacrifice of the blood of countless weak; the chariot of state power has been run by tying the subjects with ropes with it. This civilization is run by brute power - the place of compassion in this civilization is little. This civilization has been killing countless innocent helpless lives glorifying the pleasure of hunting; this civilization has made humans the most fearsome among living creatures, for human beings as well as for other living beings. Tigers are not frightened to see tigers, but in this civilization human beings are trembling in fear of human beings. It is in such very unnatural circumstances that civilization itself creates its own weapons of destruction. This is what has started today. Along with this, frightened humans are engaged in seeking to construct peace devices; but mechanical peace will not work for those who do not have a peaceful disposition in their heart. A civilization that kills people cannot last.

Let us hope for a new epoch of civilization. If this hope materializes, there is no doubt that this time women will be fully engaged in this creation. If this call reaches the heart of our women let their protective mind not hold dearly to their bosom the unhealthy garbage of ages. Let them free their hearts, brighten their intellect, apply devotion to their search for knowledge. Let them remember that uncritical blind conservatism is against creativity. The age of new creativity is coming.

To qualify for responsibility of this new age one's mind free from delusions has to be made fully respect worthy, one has to lift oneself up from the inertness of ignorance and the downward pull of all kinds of imaginary and real fears. The question of results will come later - it may, even, not come at all - but to qualify oneself for the new epoch is the first task.

Translation :

Md. Anisur Rahman

(Social and Environmental Thinking of Rabindranath Tagore in the light of Post-Tagorian World Development)
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Tagore : Great poet

W. Andrew Robinson :

Rabindranath Tagore, (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India-died August 7, 1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The son of the religious reformer Debendranath Tagore, he early began to write verses, and, after incomplete studies in England in the late 1870s, he returned to India. There he published several books of poetry in the 1880s and completed Manasi (1890), a collection that marks the maturing of his genius. It contains some of his best-known poems, including many in verse forms new to Bengali, as well as some social and political satire that was critical of his fellow Bengalis.

In 1891 Tagore went to East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) to manage his family's estates at Shilaidah and Shazadpur for 10 years. There he often stayed in a houseboat on the Padma River (the main channel of the Ganges river), in close contact with village folk, and his sympathy for them became the keynote of much of his later writing. Most of his finest short stories, which examine "humble lives and their small miseries," date from the 1890s and have a poignancy, laced with gentle irony, that is unique to him (though admirably captured by the director Satyajit Ray in later film adaptations). Tagore came to love the Bengali countryside, most of all the Padma river, an often-repeated image in his verse. During these years he published several poetry collections, notably Sonar Tari (1894; The Golden Boat), and plays, notably Chitrangada (1892; Chitra). Tagore's poems are virtually untranslatable, as are his more than 2,000 songs, which achieved considerable popularity among all classes of Bengali society.

In 1901 Tagore founded an experimental school in rural West Bengal at Shantiniketan ('Abode of Peace'), where he sought to blend the best in the Indian and Western traditions. He settled permanently at the school, which became Visva-Bharati University in 1921. Years of sadness arising from the deaths of his wife and two children between 1902 and 1907 are reflected in his later poetry, which was introduced to the West in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912). This book, containing Tagore's English prose translations of religious poems from several of his Bengali verse collections, including Gitanjali (1910), was hailed by W.B. Yeats and Andre Gide and won him the Nobel Prize in 1913. Tagore was awarded a knighthood in 1915, but he repudiated it in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar (Jallianwalla Bagh) Massacre.

From 1912 Tagore spent long periods out of India, lecturing and reading from his work in Europe, the Americas, and East Asia and becoming an eloquent spokesperson for the cause of Indian independence. Tagore's novels in Bengali are less well known than his poems and short stories; they include Gora (1910) and Ghare-Baire (1916), translated into English as Gora and

The Home and the World, respectively. In the late 1920s, when he was in his 60s, Tagore took up painting and produced works that won him a place among India's foremost contemporary artists.
President flies to Spore for health checkup today



President M Abdul Hamid will leave Dhaka for Singapore today for a medical checkup.

"A regular flight of Singapore airlines carrying the President will take off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 1:25 pm today," President's Press Secretary Mohammad Joynal Abedin told BSS on Saturday afternoon.

Abdul Hamid is scheduled to have his health check at Mount Elizabeth Hospital and eye treatment at Singapore National Eye Centre, he said.
Plan to boost endangered Gharial population

UNB, Dhaka :

In the awake of rapid decline in Gharial population, an initiative has been taken to exchange captive Gharials among the country's zoos aiming to increase the population of the critically endangered freshwater species.

"There're few captive Gharials in the country's zoos. But, there's no any pair of the species. That's why they're unable to breed," principal Gharial investigator of IUCN Bangladesh ABM Sarowar Alam told UNB.

With support from Bangladesh Forest Department, he said, a male Gharial from the Dhaka National Zoo (Dhaka) will be released in Rajshahi Zoo for the first time in the country on next August 13, under a Gharial exchange programme since there is no male Gharial there.

In 2016, the IUCN Bangladesh and Bangladesh Forest Department jointly conducted a survey in Bangladesh National Zoo (Dhaka Zoo), Rajshahi Zoo, Rangpur Zoo and Bangabandhu Safari Park, Gazipur to ascertain the number and condition of captive Gharials in the country.

The captive habitat condition, facilities and measures needed to make the place comfortable to Gharials were also considered during the survey. They survey found that four adult males rescued from fishermen's nets between 1983 and 1997 are now there in Dhaka Zoo and those are now in healthy condition, but there is no female Gharial nor any breeding facility.

Three adult females were found in Rajshahi Zoo. The Gharial enclosure in Rajshahi Zoo

is a circular one with a small island at the centre. Lack of gentle slope makes it difficult for Gharials to reach the island for basking.

Four adult females of the species are kept in Rangpur Zoo while its enclosure in the zoo is comparatively smaller than other zoos. The facilities for basking and nesting of Gharials are also poor.

Under the survey, only one juvenile male of 115 cm was found in Bangabandhu Safari Park, Gazipur. The husbandry condition in the Safari park seems to very poor as well. The Gharial was kept in a small pond with more than a thousand of freshwater turtles.

Sarowar Alam said, Gharials will be exchanged among the National Zoo, Rajshahi Zoo, Rangpur Zoo and Bangabandhu Safari Park so that they can make their pairs and facilitate breeding.

"All the zoo authorities have agreed to do so. And we've already prepared a breeding ground of Gharials in Rajshahi Zoo," he said. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there are only 200 Gharials in wild across the world. It has been declared as a critically endangered species in Bangladesh in 2015.

"We don't find any breeding pair of Gharial in the nature in the country, but find 5 to 10 juvenile is being found Gharials in Padma and Jamuna rivers every year, which get caught in fishermen's nets," Sarowar said.

If the Gharial exchange programme becomes a successful one, the Gharial investigator said, the engendered freshwater species will be released in some selected Gharial hotspots of Padma and Jamuna rivers to increase its population. Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is a unique crocodilian species characterised by its long and slender snout.

According to experts, Gharials mostly live in large-bodied, deep and fast-flowing rivers, and primarily live on eating fish. It is a keystone species of running freshwater ecosystem and plays an important role in aquatic ecosystem. Gharials help distribute nutrients from the bottom of the riverbed to the surface of the water and increase primary production and fish populations and maintain aquatic ecosystem.


BB heist probe report after case disposed of in Philippines

Muhith rules out possibility of making it public

Sagar Biswas :

The government has taken stance not to make public the investigation report of the Bangladesh Bank heist.

And in line with its strategy, Finance Minister AMA Muhith made the latest twist on Saturday saying that it is not possible to publish the report as a case remains pending with the Philippines court in this connection.

"We're unable to publish the investigation report. So far I think, it will not be possible to publish the report until disposal of the case with the Philippines authority," AMA Muhith said yesterday. Soon after the heist, a three-member committee led by former BB Governor Dr Mohammad Farashuddin was formed under the auspices of Finance Ministry to conduct an investigation into the matter. Apart from conducting inquiry, the Farashuddin committee was asked to advise necessary reform in the BB.

The Farashuddin committee submitted its report to the Finance Ministry about one year ago. But the Finance Minister did not make the report public for unknown reason though he had announced several times to publish it.

The head of the investigation team had hinted at the involvement of central bank insiders.

Against this backdrop, the minister yesterday also said, "The Reserve Bank of Philippines has said it would not be possible to get back the stolen money, if the investigation report is made public. So, we're taking time. Already, the case has proceeded. We're hopeful of getting back the looted money."

Earlier on November 13 last year, the BB received $15.25 million from the Philippines' Anti-money Maundering Council, nine months after the heist. In September, 2016, a Filipino court adjudged that BB is the legal owner of around $15 million surrendered by casino boss Kim Wong and his Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company.

Apart from Farashuddin committee, different investigation and intelligence agencies had also conducted extensive investigation to unearth the mystery behind the history's biggest bank heist.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Undertaking had taken decision to sit in a closed door meeting with the BB top brass to discuss the investigation report prepared by Farashuddin committee. But BB's response was not positive in this regard.

Not only that, another Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts also had expressed discontent over the BB heist and wanted to know the exact role of SWIFT, Federal Reserve Bank and Rizal Bank of the Philippines in the incident. The JS body recommended that the government punish the officials who are responsible for the heist.

In the history's biggest bank heist, unknown hackers tried to swindle $1 billion from BB accounts with Federal Reserve Bank of New York using cyber technology and applying forged commands through Swift Messaging system.

The hackers, however, managed to siphon off $81 million to an account in the Philippines using five messages. Besides, $20 million were moved to Sri Lanka through a different command.

By accident, the Sri Lankan transfer was stopped. But the Philippines transfer came out successful. And the money made its way to casinos after conversion into the local currency. It still seems impossible to be recovered.

It is still a million dollar question, why the central bank had lodged the First Information Report (FIR) forty days after the heist? Who tried to delay the case filing? Why the central bank took a long time to inform the matter to the government high-ups?




BRAC University reinstates assaulted teacher after protests

BRAC University has reinstated its law teacher Farhaan Uddin Ahmed, who was allegedly assaulted by officials after termination that angered students. The private university said in a statement on Saturday that actions were taken against the officials accused of assaulting the teacher. Registrar Muhammad Sahool Afzal has gone on 'long' leave while assistant registrar Mahi Uddin and senior officer Jabed Rasel have resigned.

Following a complaint filed by a student, the university formed a committee to investigate alleged assaults on female students by security guards, according to the statement.

"The university expects all stakeholders to fully cooperate in returning academic affairs to normalcy as soon as possible, so as not to hamper the academic progress of students," the statement reads.

Since law teacher Farhaan Uddin Ahmed was allegedly assaulted by Afzal and several other officials on Jul 31, the university in Dhaka's Mohakhali has been in total disarray with the students clamouring for justice.

In another development, several students started a hunger strike on Thursday demanding punishment to the security guards who reportedly attacked them during protests on Tuesday.

The students postponed the hunger strike and other protests after the authorities assured them of investigations.

The students, however, resumed the protests demanding withdrawal of the registrar on Friday.

Earlier, on Sunday, the students announced a boycott of classes and exams. The university authorities, facing protests, also cancelled classes for Wednesday and Thursday.
US notifies UN of Paris climate deal pullout

The Trump administration has issued its first written notification that the US intends to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

But in the notice to the United Nations the US state department said Washington would remain in the talks process.

President Donald Trump drew international condemnation in June when he first announced the US intention to withdraw.

He said the deal "punished" the US and would cost millions of American jobs.

Friday's announcement is seen as largely symbolic as no nation seeking to leave the pact can officially announce an intention to withdraw until 4 November 2019.

The process of leaving then takes another year, meaning it would not be complete until just weeks after the US presidential election in 2020. Any new US president could then decide to rejoin the agreement. Media captionTrump: The world won't laugh any more at the US

"Today, the United States submitted a communication to the United Nations in its capacity as depositary for the Paris Agreement regarding the US intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as it is eligible to do so," the US statement read.

"The United States will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings... to protect US interests and ensure all future policy options remain open to the administration."

In June, Mr Trump indicated he was open to another climate deal "on terms that are fair to the United States".

However, key signatories to the accord quickly ruled that out. The Paris Agreement took decades to finalise.

The US stance on climate change also caused divisions at the G20 summit in Germany last month.

A joint summit statement said it "took note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement". However, leaders of the other G20 members agreed the accord was "irreversible".

Climate change, or global warming, refers to the damaging effect of gases, or emissions, released from industry, transportation, agriculture and other areas into the atmosphere.

The Paris accord aims to limit the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions. Only Syria and Nicaragua did not sign up. Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies says the world's average temperature has risen by about 0.8C since 1880, two-thirds of that since 1975.

US think tank Climate Interactive predicts that if all nations fully achieve their Paris pledges, the average global surface temperature rise by 2100 will be 3.3C, or 3.6C without the US.




Onion price skyrockets

Staff Reporter :

Onion price skyrocketed in the local market, as it went upward in India,the main source of supply of the essential cooking ingredient.

Onion was selling at Tk 45 a kilogram yesterday, which sold at Tk 40 a week ago, according to data from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh. Overall, the prices rose 39 percent to Tk 30-Tk 45 each kilogram yesterday from Tk 22-Tk 32 a month ago.

"The market has been stable over the past several months. Suddenly, it became unstable because of a price spiral in India," said Bidan Chadra Saha, a wholesaler at Moulvibazar, one of the main depots of onion in the capital.

The wholesale prices of Indian onion that were Tk 24-Tk 25 a kg on August 2 shot up to Tk 30 yesterday, he said.

"Rainfall is to blame for the recent price hike," said Redwan Islam, an importer at Bhomra Land Port that mainly handles onion imports, adding that the prices might go up further.

Some Indian media outlets report that the prices of onion have risen in the neighbouring country over the last two weeks.

Bangladesh annually produces more than 17 lakh tonnes of onion, it has to import a good amount to fully meet domestic requirements.

In the first 11 months of last fiscal year, 14.13 lakh tonnes of onion were imported, showed data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

Currently, onions are mainly imported from Nashik, a city in the northwest region of Indian state Maharashtra, which is famous for its fresh agricultural produces.

"We have good domestic production this year, but fluctuation in the prices of onion in the neighbouring country is influencing prices here" said Ratan Saha, who follows agri-commodity market, particularly onion and garlic.

"This is because of our dependence on India for onion," he said, adding that imports from Pakistan, Myanmar and China may rise for the soaring prices.

The bullish trend in the prices of onion is backed by three factors: procurement by Madhya Pradesh government, heavy rainfall in Gujarat and expectations of a lower and delayed crop in Karnataka, reported different Indian newspapers recently.

India had seen a bumper yeild of onion in 2016, which led to prices tumbling below production costs. Farmers protested, forcing the Madhya Pradesh government to procure onions at Rs 8 a kg.

Heavy rainfall in Gujarat reduced onion movement in the state.
Trafficking: A social curse

Gazi Shariful Hasan :

A thirteen-year-old Bangladeshi girl was taken away from her family in Jamalpur and tricked into going to neighbor country. Once there, she was sold to a dance bar owner. She was forced by that owner for doing works which she never did here in Bangladesh. First time she denied doing that nasty work but then she was tortured for days until she finally agreed to do this. Many girls like her acquire an illness that deteriorates their body for doing such type of work. Some turn into sex workers and die from serious diseases. This story shows a typical example of a trafficking situation that happens to some women and children of Bangladesh.

According to US Department of State Bangladesh is primarily a source for men, women and children subjected to force labor and sex trafficking. Some Bangladeshi men and women who migrate willingly to work in the Middle East, East Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States subsequently face conditions indicative of forced labor. The United Nations Protocol on Trafficking in Persons, adopted in November 2000, defines trafficking as: "The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, or deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs". Today, women and children are the main targets of trafficking. Hundreds of thousands of women and children are now commodities traded on local and international market. They are marketed, transported and sold by traffickers. Women and children are often trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, mostly for the growing sex industry in cities and urban areas around the world. Human trafficking is essentially a new term for slave trading. People who are socially and economically vulnerable are easy victim of trafficking. Poverty is the major cause behind woman and child trafficking from rural areas. Other important factors behind trafficking are illiteracy, landlessness and over-population and low levels of income. Lack of employment and opportunities make people vulnerable.

Bangladeshi children and adults are trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and forced and bonded labor, including forced begging. Lack of awareness and respect for human rights of women and children make them vulnerable to exploitation. The unequal balance of power between men and women paves the way for trafficking leaving women and girls powerless. As a result, women and girls get less education and less access to resources. Consequently the overwhelming majority of the victims of trafficking are women and girls. It is also found that existing social structure, economic system, cultural condition and geographical setting of Bangladesh affect trafficking of women and children.

Bangla equivalent of the word 'trafficking' is 'pachar'. In Bangla the phrase 'nari o shishu pachar' means illegal transfer of women and children from one place to another. 20 main points in 16 western districts of Bangladesh near the Indian border are used by the traffickers. The main trafficking route is Dhaka-Mumbai-Karachi-Dubai. Bangladesh is a source and transit country for men, women, and children. Both internal and cross-border trafficking exists in Bangladesh. In the case of internal trafficking, women and children are often taken away from their homes on false promises of a better life with good employment and traffickers sell them to brothels. Women and children from Bangladesh are also trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. Estimates on the number of trafficked women and children are difficult to make. However, various studies reveal that over 1 million women and children have been trafficked out of the country in the last 30 years. Human trafficking is an international problem. In Bangladesh, a UNICEF report says, approximately 400 women and children fall victim to trafficking each month. Most of them are between the ages of 12 and 16 and are forced to work in the commercial sex industry.

There are two basic methods that traffickers use: one is by kidnapping women and children and the second one is by luring the women with false promises of jobs and marriage options. Both government and NGOs have been working in combating trafficking in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has ratified many international laws and conventions like Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with Reservations of Article 2, 13(a), 16.1, and 16.1 (9c) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Human trafficking is a 'social evil'. This is also an offence under the Bangladesh legal system. The Constitution of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh prohibits forced and compulsory labor (Article 34). In addition, the Penal Code, 1860 (Sections 372, 373, and 466A), the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act, 1933 (Sections 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10) and the Repression of Violence against Women and Children Act, 2000 (Articles 5 and 6) clearly provide that trafficking is an illegal and punishable offence for which capital punishment may be imposed as the maximum punishment. The trafficking in women and children is not only a national issue but also a global issue. It is growing at an alarming rate throughout the world. In order to prevent this crime, government has to strictly enforce the existing laws and ensure proper punishment against the traffickers.

We have to establish a system of multisectoral task forces at the national, district and upazila levels to conduct motivational programmes on trafficking issue. Law-enforcing agencies should mobilize the community through local government bodies, educational institutions, and religious institutions to aware people. It has also played an effective role to prevent trafficking all over the country. Rescue is a thorny issue. It has its limitations though the police rescue many women and children. These rescued women and children sometimes are sent to state-run remand homes or to an NGO shelter. Most are unable to go back to their home because of various social problems. There is also a need to strengthen the anti-trafficking network in Bangladesh. A rehabilitation program for the rescued women and children should also be created by the government. Only fear of punishment can't stop the traffickers to stop their crime. It needs a strong social movement and awareness building to stop this crime. Media can play a vital role on this emerging issue.

The Government of Bangladesh made clear anti-trafficking law enforcement progress over the reporting period by passing a comprehensive counter-trafficking law and increasing the number of investigations and prosecutions, although the number of convictions declined compared to the previous year. UNICEF Bangladesh is working to create a culture of respect for children's protection rights through development of child rights based and gender appropriate policies, advocacy, a change of societal attitudes, strengthened capacity in government and civil society responses to protection issues and the establishment of protective mechanisms against abuse exploitation and violence.

Human trafficking is a crime against humanity. No country is immune from human trafficking. Regional cooperation is essential to coordinate action plan against trafficking. Sharing Information among the countries which are affected most by this problem is also very important to stop and combat women and children trafficking. Ministries of Women and Child Affairs, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and Social Welfare should work together to combat trafficking of women and children though Government is aware of trafficking problem. Government should take some additional measures to prevent this curse. Government can strengthen the border posts. Implementation of the existing laws by law-enforcers is very much needed to punish the traffickers. The law enforcing authorities and the judiciary need to be much more sensitized about the issues.

(PID-UNICEF Feature)


Rohingya crisis: OIC must move into action

URGING Myanmar to take back Rohingya populations from Bangladesh, visiting OIC Secretary General Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen yesterday said Myanmar should resolve the ongoing humanitarian crisis over the persecuted minorities. He met refugees at two camps -- one registered and another unregistered -- and talked to those who escaped Rakhine state following grave human rights violations and widespread persecution by Myanmar security forces.



The OIC chief listened to horrific stories of killings, torture, rape, use of human shields by security forces and deaths in custody. He said the world will be informed of these rights violations. Rohingya refugees have been a big headache for Bangladesh as the country has been hosting 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 of them for over three decades. After the latest crackdown began on October 9, 2016, some 75,000 new members of the Myanmarese Muslims entered Bangladesh.



Expressing OIC's solidarity with the Muslims there, Othaimeen said pressure will be put on Myanmar to give them citizenship and return their assets so that the refugees can go back to their own country. He held a meeting with local government and non-government officials. The OIC Secretary General had a long conversation with a number of women who were brutally tortured by the Myanmar troops. He also had separate conversations with a group of another 30 males and females in an IOM-run school.



While talking to journalists, Othaimeen thanked the government and the people of Bangladesh for hosting the refugees for more than three decades and for providing humanitarian assistances to them. During his conversation with the Myanmarese refugees, he also urged the Rohingya people to abide by Bangladeshi laws.



Talk is nice -- but as the saying goes, it is also cheap. The Myanmar government will not pay any attention to the OIC -- it did not pay any attention to ASEAN, so OIC is out of the question. Reports by Al Jazeera TV point to a disturbing collusion between the Myanmarese military and militant monks who spread racial hatred. Documents in the report seem to point to incitements by the military to foment racial hatred directly or indirectly. The same monks who were arrested for fomenting racial hatred during military rule are now funded by the military to foment violence -- and it seems to be an open secret.



If it is a way to show that democracy will not last or is weak then it seems to be succeeding. There are restrictions on the movement of Rohingyas, on their children going to schools, on their ability to go to hospitals to seek medical care. Even those Rohingyas who can present documents to certify their citizenship are denied the ability to get the right. Ms Suu Kyi will have to do much more than mouth empty promises to the world that she will provide justice for the Rohingya. Meanwhile our government, who has been suffering for the last 38 years due to the Rohingya influx, must do much more to engage world attention and bring about a settlement. It does not look as if the Myanmar government is doing anything anytime soon.






City turning unlivable Mayors fail to resolve civic problems: Green activists

Green activists at a programme on Saturday alleged that the two city corporations  Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation -- failed to meet dwellers demand for a planned, safe and livable city.

They suggested for building Dhaka a livable city through eradication of water logging, traffic jam and waste mismanagement.

They made the call from a roundtable discussion titled A Analysis on Budget and Operations of Dhaka City Corporations organised by Poribesh Bachao Andalan (POBA) at its Dhaka office.

Chaired by POBA Chairman Abu Naser Khan the discussion was addressed, among others, by President of Modern Club Abul Hasnat, POBA Secretaries Sayed Mahbubul Alam Tahin and Ferdous Ahmed Ujjal, Co-Secretaries Architect Shahin Aziz, MA Wahed, Nishat Mahmud, and Members Engineer Tofayel Ahmed and Sagirujjaman Shakik.

General Secretary of POBA Engineer Abdus Sobhan presented the keynote paper in the discussion.

Speaking at the discussion, Abu Naser Khan pointed out that development of the two city corporations could be enhanced by placing allocation in the budget clearly directing towards development.

All the city corporations activities are mayor-oriented but its not possible for the two mayors to look into all the development activities of the corporations. So only by increasing the capacity of mayors will not help achieve sustainable development. Rather, the capacity of both the corporations have to be enhanced for proper development, Naser Khan suggested.

He said: Different organizations are working on the development issues of the city but we have observed lack of collaboration among them. Mayors are to ensure cooperation and collaborative efforts among them to ensure sustainable development.

In his keynote paper presentation, Abdus Sobhan pointed out that its the responsibility of the corporations to develop contemporary waste management system, ensure smooth vehicular movement, healthcare of the dwellers, clean environment, water logging, free drainage system, and development of integrated traffic management system.

But in reality both of the mayors have failed to assure dwellers a livable cosmopolitan atmosphere rather dwellers are suffering with deadly diseases like chikungunya, loosing valuable work hours often stacked in traffic congestion and a bit rain dawning them under polluted water, he lamented.

So city corporations should focus more on increasing income sources and revenue more to serve the dwellers with adequate service and ensure healthy, sustainable city lives, Sobhan suggested.

To do so the POBA has recommended for stronger revenue collection system of the corporations like enhancing more holding tax collection network, incorporating all the organizations of the cities under trade licenses, and collect more wheel tax by adding all the rickshaws of the cities.

Besides, they also suggested for contemporary drainage management, preserve water bodies, incorporate dwellers with the development process and develop strategies for increasing revenue generation to attain development with corporations own income and thus focus less on the vulnerable projects like mini dustbins rather attain citizen service through developing human resources, infrastructures and capacity for sustainable development of the capital city.
030817O'NIEL PM

By Aloysius Laukai



The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, PETER O'NIEL was returned as the Prime Minister when parliament met to elect the Prime Minister yesterday.



Out of the declared 106 seats he 60 members on his side to form the next government.

The Alliance could only master 46 members. About 5 more seats are yet to be declared.



From Bougainville we had two each on both sides of the house.

JOE LERA the re-elected Regional Member for Bougainville and the newly elected member for Central Bougainville, FR SIMON DUMARINU are with the PNC led government whilst the two NA members, the member for South Bougainville TIMOTHY MASIU and the newly elected member for North Bougainville WILLIAM NAKIN are on the opposition side.



Bougainville had hoped that all members of parliament were on one side wether in government or opposition to show solidarity of our members as Bougainville prepares for the 2019 Referendum.



Ends
Muhith attacked judiciary like the bureaucrat he was

Perhaps the Finance Minister is brain dead. We pray he is not. But he should not have exposed himself from time to time as an unsteady person.







This time he showed not to possess even the elementary knowledge of the constitutional limitations on the Parliament. He is seen as too anxious to impress upon the government what a knowledgeable person he is. He is only misleading the members of the Parliament and the government.





He is thinking and talking from his bureaucratic background. He should now be one who speaks for the people and in support of the people-given Constitution.







Mr AMA Muhith finds rubbish everywhere and he himself has rubbished the economy of the country. As a failed Finance Minister he should be circumspect, if not ashamed.





Even if he is innocent of the basic knowledge of the Constitution and judiciary, even then as a citizen he can differ with the judgement of any court.







The unanimous judgement of the Supreme Court supported by all the eminent lawyers of the country including Dr. Kamal Hossain and Barrister Amirul Islam who were involved in drafting the Constitution rejected the Constitutional provision passed by the Parliament for impeaching the judges of the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.







Mr Muhith spoke out against the judgement Friday for it not being tenable. In respect of law and the Constitution what credentials he has to be so sure about the tenability of the judgement? Despite that, we concede he, as a citizen, has every right to express his opinion, right or wrong, in respect of the judgement. But, he must not have said it so defiantly as if it is the requirement that the judgement has to be tenable to him to be effective.







It was most objectionable for a minister, fit or unfit, to say who are they meaning the judges of the Supreme Court, we have appointed them. They cannot go over public representatives.







He was indecently arrogant when he threatened that they will bring back the law declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Parliament and will do it again and again. He will see how far the judges can go. Surely, others will not take his advice to make the Parliament a laughing stock.







He is not the Prime Minister, not even the Law Minister to speak with such authority. It is sad to see how little power has corrupted him hugely.







For most of his life, Mr. Muhith was in the employment of others. Now he has posed himself as an employer to say that the Supreme Court judges have been appointed by them. He cannot think that judges are constitutionally independent of the Parliament. They are not answerable to the Parliament like the ministers. Like his job, jobs of the judges are not dependent on the pleasure of the Prime Minister.





It is unbelievable that Mr. Muhith has no knowledge about the position and power of the Parliament of which he is a member, elected or not.





The Parliament is under the Constitution and not above. The people are sovereign and the sovereign people have trusted, not the members of the Parliament but the judges of the Supreme Court as the guardian of the Constitution.







We know there are some members of the Parliament who unknowingly claim that they are the sovereign and can pass any law or change the Constitution that suits them. Of course, there are bureaucrats who tell them to act that way. The politicians must have known their limitations.







It does not need to be enlightened politicians to know that the Supreme Court in its capacity as the protector of the Constitution has full authority to declare a law passed by the Parliament as unconstitutional for crossing the constitutional constraints on its power. Otherwise to have a Constitution as supreme law means nothing.





We also find it difficult to believe that Mr Muhith has no idea what is meant by the separation of power as the fundamental basis of our Constitution. If the Single-house Parliament can punish the judges of the Supreme Court then nothing remains of the notion of separation of power or the Supreme Court's power as protector of the Constitution.







Let him do some study and he will know that nowhere single-house Parliament enjoys the power of impeaching the judges. In England, it is the House of Lords that decides whether a judge should be impeached. In India, it is a committee of judges that decides if the judge is guilty. If guilty, only then both the House take the impeachment decision.







We know the fight against the judiciary is the fight against the peoples Constitution for paving the way for unconstitutional dictatorship. In other words, the fight against the Supreme Court is fight against the rule of law and the peoples sovereignty and people's fundamental rights. Such a conspiracy against the people must not be taken lightly.







There is no guarantee that Mr. Muhith will have a job for life if the dangerous efforts for dictatorship succeeds. He can be less enthusiastic in attacking the judiciary.
Business / Economy

by Staff reporter

The Government has been urged to remove pegs between bond notes and the United States dollar for the surrogate money to establish its own value and become local currency.The need for a local currency took centre stage at a panel discussion during the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) 2017 congress here as captains of industry exchanged views on possible solutions to ending the cash crisis facing the economy.The discussion followed a presentation by economic consultant, Professor Ashok Chakravarti, on cash crisis and possible solutions. The consultant suggested that Zimbabweans could embrace the bond notes as a national currency.The Government has said it will maintain the multiple currency system until such a time when economic fundamentals allowed use of a local currency.Last week Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa revealed the Government was building diamond and gold stocks to back up a local currency upon its future introduction.Prof Chakravarti said attaching value to the bond notes will reduce externalisation of cash as the currency will circulate locally but trading freely."I believe we have a national currency in bond notes and as a country we have to accept this," said Prof Chakravarti.He said bond notes should be allowed to trade freely and what is needed is removal of the peg between them and the United States dollar so that the "surrogate" currency realises value."Let's not take bond notes to be surrogate currency but we should accept that they are our national currency hence not take it as surrogate to the United States dollar. Let the bond note establish its value and the peg between it and the United States dollar should go away and by doing so all the bond notes that have been externalised will make their way back into the local market," said Prof Chakravarti.He said by removing pegs between the bond notes and United States dollar, the country would naturally restore discipline in usage of money as bond notes. Prof Chakravarti said having own national currency will allow the country to keep the value as low as possible to enable exports, which the country desperately needs.There were mixed feelings during the panel discussion about solutions needed to solve the country's cash crisis as some advocated for adoption of the rand while others called for internal devaluation and salary rationalisation.Adoption of the rand will, according to experts, reduce externalisation as the currency only works in the region.The general feeling was that cutting wages will only affect those in the formal employment leaving the majority who are in the informal sector hence not solving any problem."We don't need wage reduction at all. Instead let's have salary rationalisation because we have executives who are earning way beyond what the economy can afford," said one participant.Some experts said lack of competitiveness was a problem and urged Government to focus on dealing with lack of competitiveness in the industry.The congress started on Wednesday under the theme: "Growing manufacturing competitiveness: Realities and Realignment."
Entertainment / Celebrity

by Staff Reporter

Actor Lazarus Boora aka Gringo who travelled all the way from Harare last week just to meet his purported sister Zodwa Wabantu, says he was excited to meet the South African entertainer, describing her as his carbon copy.Gringo who was in Bulawayo for three days initially met Zodwa Wabantu at the Joshua Mqabuko Airport before partying with her at Club Connect last Saturday.Memes of him with Zodwa had been created with many saying the two looked alike, something that prompted Gringo to travel to Bulawayo to meet Zodwa and see if they indeed look alike.And after they met, Gringo said he was thrilled."I was happy when I met her. I realised that in life, there might be people who look like me, but not like Zodwa Wabantu. The only difference between Zodwa and me is that I'm now bald and she has a full set of spiky kinky hair that I also used to have."Besides that, we look alike," said Gringo.He said after interacting with her, he realised he could learn a lot from her as she was a woman who knew how to make money by using her dancing talent."Zodwa has her own talent. She was born with a lot of talents and has a good understanding of people and how to relate to them. She knows how to turn that talent into a money-making scheme, something which inspired me."This is a very important trait that as fellow artistes we should learn and have."On his stay here, Gringo said he felt at home as he was received warmly by fans."When I was in Bulawayo, I never saw anyone fight showing how peaceful the city is because in some other places, with the number of people who thronged the club where Zodwa was, a lot of fights would have been witnessed but not in Bulawayo."I realised that they're a fun loving people," he said.Turning to his career, Gringo said there was a project in the pipeline which was being held up by lack of funds."We've a production that we're working on. The three scripts are there for the series of Gringo, but what we need is money. We've had to cut down on costs here and there so that we come up with a workable budget. We're still failing to come up with the required money which is about $26 000."A Zodwa Wabantu impersonator, Trino Bambino who was also at the party said what made her interaction special was that Zodwa accepted her and offered her tips* as well."At first, I thought she'd be a snob especially considering that many locals here had warmed up to me as their Zodwa, but I was in for a surprise as she showed me a lot of love."I discovered why she's called a people's person as she's fun loving, patient and likes to make people happy without caring what people say," said Trino Bambino.She said during their time together, they spoke about life in general and a possible visit to South Africa."We spoke about life in general and how as women, we could change the perception that people have of us. She also taught me her dance routines and encouraged me to do whatever I want and not think of what people will think."I might be going to Durban soon to also have an experience of Eyadini, the lounge that popularised her. We're still arranging the logistics," said Trino Bambino.Zodwa on the other hand thanked Zimbabweans for warming up to her during her debut visit."Before I travelled to Zimbabwe, a lot of people had instilled fear in me saying people there would not tolerate me because of my dressing but to my surprise, when I got here, people showed me love and came in their numbers to party with me."Thank you to everyone who took time to party with me, I really appreciate it," said Zodwa Wabantu who is now planning to travel to Harare on another partying spree.
News / Education

by Staff reporter

AUTHORITIES at Hillside Teachers' College have "discovered" a forgotten piece land belonging to the institution, 25 years after it was donated by Government.The four-hectare piece of land, which is situated behind the college was donated to the institution by Government in 1992 but had not been utilised or talked about since then.On Thursday, the college's principal, Mr Edward Gumpo said they launched investigations after an offer letter from the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement was discovered in the college's archives.Mr Gumpo, who was appointed the college's principal in September 2014 led Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Professor Jonathan Moyo and senior officials from higher and tertiary institutions on a tour of the piece of land after the college's 58th graduation ceremony on Thursday.The piece of land has since been fenced off, with plans to build staff houses, other additional college infrastructure and a green house.Mr Gumpo said the piece of land came as a pleasant surprise to them because they needed more space for infrastructure."We discovered an offer letter that was written to the college in 1992 by Government. We decided to go to the Bulawayo City Council and they confirmed that the land belonged to us."We also went to the lands ministry and they confirmed that the land was donated to the college," said Mr Gumpo."It's unfortunate that no one knew about the existence of this piece of land but we're happy with the discovery. We've since cleared it, fenced it off and termed it the Hillside Teachers' College Extension. The land will be put to good use through the construction of staff houses, other additional college infrastructure and a green house."He said the clearing of the land also came as a relief to residents as people were being robbed, mugged and murdered in the bushy area.Professor Moyo advised Mr Gumpo and the college authorities to ensure that they have title deeds for the property."An offer letter doesn't confirm ownership of a property. You can only claim ownership when you have title deeds. You therefore have to pursue this issue and make sure that the land indeed belongs to Hillside Teachers' College," said Prof Moyo.
Fourteen people were injured in an eight-vehicle fiery crash Friday on Interstate 24 westbound near Pulleys Mill in Johnson County, according to Illinois State Police.

According to Illinois State Trooper Joey Watson, the accident occurred at about 12:08 p.m. on I-24 westbound at mile marker 1.5 near the I-57 split. Seven passenger cars and one semitrailer were involved. All vehicles, except the 2016 Peterbilt in five axle combination, were stopped or traveling slowly because of construction. The driver of the Peterbilt said he thought he fell asleep when his vehicle struck the end of a 2006, Toyota Corolla, leading to a chain reaction with the other vehicles.

The Peterbilt, a GMS 3500 and a 2016 Toyota 4Runner caught fire, which spread to the tree line adjacent to the interstate. Lake of Egypt Fire Department quickly contained the fire. A passenger in the Corolla, 52-year-old Barbara J. Francis of Paris, Missouri, was pulled out after a team of good Samaritans pushed the vehicle away from the wreckage. They also pulled the other occupants out of burning vehicles, saving their lives.

The involved parties and injuries were (first listed for each vehicle was the driver):

 2016 Peterbilt: Nathan A. Fast, 37, and an 11-year-old passenger, both from Byron, Minnesota, were uninjured.

 2006 Toyota Corolla: Brant A. Francis, 21, of Paris, Missouri, suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital. The passenger, Barbara J. Francis, suffered major, but non-life threatening injuries and was flown to a regional hospital, via medical helicopter.

 GMC 3500 pulling a trailer: Lawrence H. Sutton, 38, of Jackson, South Carolina, suffered minor injuries and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. Passenger Peter D. Karmar, 57, of Sweetwater, Tennessee, suffered major injuries and was taken to a local hospital and then flown to a regional hospital. Passenger Lawrence H. Sutton, 65, of New Ellenton, South Carolina, suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital.

 2016 Toyota 4Runner: Naeen A. Shaikh, 59, of Paducah suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital. Passenger Mark K. Riley, 61, of West Paducah suffered minor injuries and taken to a local hospital.

 2016 Nissan Altima: Timothy C. Williams, 55, of Springhill, Tennessee, was uninjured. Passenger Christy A. Williams, 42, of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, was uninjured.

 2005 Ford F250: James W. Gwinn, 50, of St. Peters, Missouri, was uninjured.

 2011 Honda Odyssey: John M. Boss, 40, of St. Paul, Missouri, suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital. Passengers Kathleen M. Boss, 38, suffered minor injuries. An 11-year-old male, 8-year-old female, 6-year-old male, and a 10-year-old male all suffered minor injuries.

 2017 Toyota Tundra: Yvonne R. Gentry, 53, of Hazelgreen, Alabama, suffered minor injuries.

Interstate 24 eastbound was closed for about one hour to land the medical helicopter and movement of emergency vehicles. Interstate 24 westbound was closed for about five hours for investigation and scene cleanup.

Fast was charged with failure to reduce speed to avoid a crash and driving while fatigued.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A Masvingo man is demanding over $500 000 from King Lion Bus Company following the death of his wife in the Nyamakate bus disaster in June.Mr Isaac Madungwe was married to the late Tendai Madungwe and the couple had five children. Tendai, a nurse by profession, doubled as a cross-border trader.She was among 43 people who died on the spot in the horrific accident involving the Lusaka-bound King Lion bus along the Harare-Chirundu Highway. Mr Madungwe has engaged Mr Charles Ndlovu of Ndlovu and Hwacha Legal Practitioners to act for the family.He is seeking $549 974 from King Lion for loss of support for the family. In the letter dated July 13, Mr Ndlovu accused the company's bus driver of causing the accident which claimed Madungwe's wife.According to the letter, the driver was negligent in that he was speeding, the bus was overloaded, failed to keep the bus under control and failed to act reasonably when the accident was imminent."Before her untimely death, our client was gainfully employed as a nurse earning a monthly salary of $563," said Mr Ndlovu."She was aged 31 and was going to retire at the legal age of 60 years. In the premises, her working career was cut short by 29 years." In the claim, the lawyer considered that his client's wife was a cross-border trader realising $1 000 per month."It is common cause that the driver of the bus was acting within the course and scope of his employment and you are vicariously liable," said Mr Ndlovu.The bus driver, who also died on the spot, lost control of the vehicle at the 257km peg, near Nyamakate shops at around 10pm on the way to Zambia. The bus veered off the road before ploughing into a big tree, killing 43 people.King Lion was given until end of last month to make the payment of $549 974, failing which legal proceedings would be instituted against the company without further notice. The ultimatum expired on Monday and King Lion is yet to respond to the demand.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A BULAWAYO kombi tout who fatally assaulted his "cheating" pregnant wife following a domestic feud over the paternity of their unborn child, was yesterday sentence to 25 years in jail.The woman, who was 39 weeks pregnant, was forced to prematurely deliver the baby through a surgical incision due to the assault. Siphiwe Ngwenya (26) of Nketa 6 suburb slammed his wife, Ntandoyenkosi Sibanda (23) against a wall several times, struck her with a stone on the head before punching and kicking her on the stomach. Ngwenya was convicted of murder with constructive intent by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo.In her judgment, Justice Moyo ruled that the Caesarean section was directly linked to the assault which led to Sibanda's death in November last year.She described Ngwenya as a disgraceful and cruel person who deserved to be removed from society for a long time."The accused person beat up a defenceless and heavily pregnant woman with no apparent justification. The assault was brutal and prolonged and his conduct is an abomination in our society, and the court should indeed display its displeasure," said Justice Moyo.She said the court has a duty to uphold the sanctity of human life through passing deterrent sentences."You dragged a pregnant woman around a suburb and assaulted her in the midst of a community for all who cared to see. The court has time and again expressed its displeasure at the loss of life for the flimsiest of excuses," said the judge."Those who butcher others brutally and contemptuously should be severely punished. The facts of this matter justify a lengthy prison term. Accordingly, a long custodial sentence of 25 years will meet the justice of this case."Prosecuting, Mr Khumbulani Ndlovu said on November 17 last year at around 11PM, Sibanda was at home asleep when her husband arrived and woke her up. Ngwenya confronted her and started shouting accusing her of cheating on him. During the altercation, Ngwenya also accused her of having been impregnated by her alleged boyfriend only identified as Melusi."During the dispute, the accused person picked an electric heater and struck the deceased twice on the head while holding a stone in other hand," said Mr Ndlovu.The court heard that Ngwenya dragged his wife to a neighbour's house whereupon arrival she screamed for help. The owner of the house Ms Sibonisiwe Ndlovu opened the door and Ngwenya continued assaulting the deceased and shouting at her."The deceased tried to run into the house but her husband caught up with her and continued to assault her on the face and head. Ms Ndlovu tried to beg Ngwenya to stop assaulting Sibanda but he did not heed to plea," said Mr Ndlovu.Ms Ndlovu sought the assistance of other occupants at the house and they escorted Ngwenya and Sibanda out of their yard. Ngwenya continued to attack his wife during which he picked a stone and struck her once on the head. "The accused removed his leather belt from the waist and assaulted the deceased several times and she bled through the nose. He then dragged her back to their home where he continued to further assault her and kicked her once on the stomach," said the prosecutor.Ngwenya took out the deceased's clothes and threw them at her before continuing to assault her until Ms Madaly Ben, who is a tenant at the house, got up from bed and tried to restrain the accused person.The court heard that Ngwenya took his wife back to their bedroom where he interrogated her about the paternity of their unborn child. During the scuffle, Ngwenya poured his urine on Sibanda's head before striking her with a broom three times on the left shoulder. Neighbours and other tenants heard the screams and called an ambulance, which came and took Sibanda to Mpilo Central Hospital where doctors conducted an emergency Caesarean section to save the baby. Sibanda delivered a baby girl, but succumbed to injuries 11 days later.
Local lawmakers are divided over whether they should return to Columbia to deal with the fallout from utilities decision to stop work on two nuclear reactors.

Sen. John W. Matthews Jr., D-Bowman, said he would like to set up a special commission to investigate the matter.

"We need to tell the Public Service Commission that there will be no rate increases until we get to the bottom of this," Matthews said. "We need to find out  what happened and who was responsible.

The ratepayers should not take the burden. I think the stockholders need to share in the pain."

South Carolina Electric & Gas and state-owned Santee Cooper announced theyre abandoning work on the reactors at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station. The decision left thousands out of work and customers lost the extra money theyve been paying in their bills to finance the project.

While some lawmakers are calling for a return to Columbia to deal with the issue, House Speaker Jay Lucas said there isn't a reason to immediately call a special session.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, also questioned the value of a special session.

"Unless we are prepared to force SCANA and Santee Cooper to figure out how to release taxpayers from the requirements of the 2007 base load legislation and return a portion of the increased costs that have been incurred, I don't see the point," she said. "I don't see much value in just talking about it without some specific action on our part to bring relief to ratepayers and those who have lost their job."

Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, called the loss of jobs tragic.

Even so, "I would not want to give a knee-jerk reaction and say we should go back to Columbia, he said. "I am not sure what can be done and where our responsibility lies and where the federal governments responsibility lies."

Govan says hes researching what the next step should be.

"Many of us are simply trying to do our homework and gather as much information as possible," he said. "It has caught everyone by surprise."

Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said he supports returning to Columbia because the public is owed an answer.

"It is a potential game-changer in terms of economic impact on that area in Fairfield County," Hutto said. "It could have a far-reaching impact on ratepayers and stakeholders across the state. I think it would be worth our time to go back."

Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, says Lucas' decision to not return is unfortunate.

Ott wants to ensure that, rate hikes are not put on the back of ratepayers.

"We need to investigate what has taken place and what the course of action should be. Constituents need to know their elected leaders get this and that this is a big deal.

Should lawmakers return to Columbia, Cobb-Hunter wants them to take up the governors vetoes  including his veto a bill that would consolidate Orangeburg Countys three school districts into one.

"I will do everything in my power to add the school consolidation veto to the agenda," Cobb-Hunter said. "It would save Orangeburg County taxpayers the expense of holding an election for seats that will no longer exist once consolidation passes."

Hutto believes vetoes could be taken up if lawmakers do go back. He said vetoes are the only outstanding items left on the agenda.

Matthews said while it is possible lawmakers could take up the vetoes, it is not likely.

"I don't think we would get into that," Matthews said. 'Normally, when we do these special sessions, we limit the conversation."
Rep. Russell Ott put a $2,000 check in the mail on Thursday.

The St. Matthews Democrat returned the campaign contributions he received from SCANA Corp., telling CEO Kevin Marsch that there are thousands of unemployed workers and customers who could use the money.

Ott decided to return SCANAs contributions after the companys South Carolina Electric & Gas and state-owned Santee Cooper announced theyre abandoning the project at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station.

The abrupt end put about 6,000 people out of work.

The projects owners  SCE&G and Santee Cooper  said they decided to halt the project following years of delays and cost overruns and the bankruptcy of its main contractor.

The project accounts for 18 percent of SCE&Gs residential electric bills and more than eight percent of Santee Coopers. Neither company plans to refund customers.

SCANA told regulators on Tuesday they want permission to recover an additional $5 billion in costs over 60 years.

Ott says he realizes the $2,000 he gave back to SCANA is merely a drop in the bucket.

I dont think its right to accept the money, he said Thursday.

Hopefully this will put a little pressure on them to do the right thing, he said.

Ott wants SCANA and Santee Cooper to absorb the costs on the abandoned nuclear project.

The projects primary contractor, Westinghouse, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

However, Toshiba Corp., its parent company, agreed to jointly pay SCE&G and Santee Cooper $2.2 billion regardless of whether the reactors are ever completed.

Ott said the money in the Toshiba settlement needs to be paid back to the SCE&G customers.

Its just inconceivable, Ott said about the mounting costs of the project, the burden placed on customers and the loss of jobs for thousands.

Theyve been charging over the past 10 years in rate increase after rate increase for this project with nothing to show for it, Ott said.

Ott said he has yet to see any proof that the project needed to be abandoned at this point.

There are other options so that we dont waste this amount of money. Unfortunately, its the money of the hardworking South Carolinians that were wasting, he said.

In his letter to Marsch, Ott writes, SCE&G has continued to see profits increase and salaries and bonuses for executives grow.

While two thousand dollars is not a lot of money compared to the billions of dollars that have been squandered, for many families it could mean the difference in making a mortgage payment or putting food on the table.

Ott says he looking forward to working on legislation that will prevent this from ever happening again.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Tendai Biti and his People's Democratic Party (PDP) have elected to delay their signing of the opposition coalition pact insisting they were not satisfied with their allocation of both parliamentary seats and council wards to contest unopposed next year.MDC-T secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora confirmed the negotiations had hit a snag."We have not reached an agreement with them (PDP) yet. They have made it clear that they are not signing," Mwonzora said without explaining.A party statement circulated to PDP structures by party secretary general Godern Moyo Friday suggested the PDP was worth more than what is has been allocated by way of seats to contest for. Reports also indicated the PDP was demanding 53 seats countrywide anchored on the 21 seats previously held by members recalled by Tsvangirai in the mayhem that characterised the 2014 split."Contrary to the recent press reports, PDP shall not be signing the MDC alliance agreement on Saturday 5 August 2017," Moyo said."This is because negotiations on substantive issues have not yet been concluded. In particular, coalition framework seats distribution across the country and the 21 seats previously held by the party that are now under Zanu PF control."Until these issues are resolved to the satisfaction of the party no agreement shall be signed.""The party also resolved that an 'acceptable agreement' shall be one that will give a majority of our MPs and councillors a fighting chance," Moyo said.Moyo said the "sticking issues" have now been referred to PDP and MDC-T secretary generals to further haggle over in attempts to break the deadlock.He added: "The party also resolved that an acceptable agreement shall be one that will give a majority of our MPs and councillors a fighting chance in accordance with our party constitution."Moyo added: "President Biti shall attend the pre-signing of the agreement tomorrow Friday August 4 (yesterday) to formally notify the leaders of the alliance about our party position."The president, Tendai Biti, together with a party delegation shall be attending the Saturday function in 'solidarity' with the initiative."This, according to Moyo, was in "solidarity with the initiative".Asked to comment on the authenticity of the letter, Moyo said: "It is not for (the) Press (but) internal party communication. Whoever gave you is mischievous."Biti broke away from Tsvangirai following the 2013 electoral defeat to Mugabe that was marred by allegations of vote-rigging and intimidation.Former Vice-President Joice Mujuru's National People Party will also not be part of the today's deal following a fallout with Tsvangirai despite the two being the first to pen a memorandum of understanding in April this year.
Abu Dhabi Ports today (July 31) signed a 50-year Musataha agreement with Chinas Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Cooperation and Investment Company Limited (JOCIC) for setting up projects in Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone (KPFTZ).



The projects are expected to bring in investments worth Dh1.1 billion ($299.48 million) into the free zone.



Abu Dhabi Ports is the master developer, operator and manager of the emirate's commercial and community ports as well as Khalifa Industrial Zone.



Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State and chairman of Abu Dhabi Ports, signed a cooperation agreement with Huang Lixin, executive vice Governor of Jiangsu Provincial Peoples Government, said a statement.



The agreement with Jiangsu Province was signed to strengthen economic ties and build investment projects through joint opportunities for both the UAE and Chinese economies, it said.



Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports; Peng Xiangfeng, president of China Jiangsu International ETCG; and Luo Hua, general manager of Jiangsu Province Overseas Cooperation and Investment Company were the signatories of the lease agreement, it added.



Under the terms of the agreement, China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation (Jiangsu) Construction Management Co, a UAE company newly established by JOCIC, will occupy and develop approximately 23.7-million-sq-ft of the free trade zone for companies from the Chinese province of Jiangsu, said the statement.



This represents 2.2 per cent of the available free zone space in Kizads newly allotted KPFTZ area, it said.



Al Jaber said: This investment agreement, which is in line with the directives of our wise leadership, marks a new step  in trade and partnership  to strengthen the ties between our two countries, the UAE and China.



Since the visit of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to China in 2015, we witnessed the relationship between the two countries strengthen in a number of areas, most notably in their economic and trade relations. A key development has been the commencement of the Belt and Road and Maritime Silk Road initiatives, which will foster economic growth, he said.



The UAEs history is rooted in trade and lays claim to numerous world-class infrastructure projects. Standing as living testimony to this are Abu Dhabi Ports, Khalifa Industrial Zone and the recently launched Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone, all of which enjoy cutting-edge technologies that ensure speed, efficiency and effectiveness through an integrated system that supports the growth of the trade and logistics industry, he added.



Al Jaber continued: This agreement further cements our friendship with China, with economic development as our mutual goal. We are all in agreement that the partnership with Jiangsu will add value to the commercial and industrial activities at Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone.



In addition to the signing ceremony, representatives from five Chinese tenant companies announced their plans to invest in the lease space, including Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, Jiangsu Fantai Mining Development (Group) Co. Ltd., Xuzhou Jianghe Wood Co. Ltd., Jiangsu Jinzi Environmental Technology Co. Ltd., and Guangzheng Group, it added.



The five companies signed with JOCIC as the frontrunners in taking advantage of the agreements highly competitive trade benefits. Combined, the new tenants will inject over a billion dirhams into KPFTZ, creating over 1,400 jobs, broadening the financial and physical scope of the zone while bolstering its ties to the Belt and Road initiative.



China is the UAEs second largest trading partner and the biggest exporter to the UAE. The UAE is considered a gateway to about 60 per cent of Chinas exports to regional markets at an annual volume of exchange of $70 billion.



Lixin said: Jiangsu and Abu Dhabi are highly complementary to each other in terms of natural endowment, economic structure and industrial systems, bearing the common wishes to speed up industrial structural adjustment and promote economic transformation and upgrading.



It is good timing for us to jointly deepen industrial capacity cooperation and promote the Belt and Road Initiative, and we will have a broad prospect in this undertaking. We will work together with Abu Dhabi to build the UAE-China Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone into a landmark program of the Belt and Road initiative and a beacon of UAE-China exchanges and cooperation, Lixin added.



Al Shamisi said: The Musataha agreement between Abu Dhabi Ports and JOCIC is one of the largest-ever lease agreements for Kizad to date. This investment will drive trade relations with Jiangsu and accelerate investment in industrial assets in Abu Dhabi.



The Musataha agreement between Abu Dhabi Ports and JOCIC will attract foreign investment into Abu Dhabi  an ideal environment for investment opportunities due to the competitive advantages KPFTZ enjoys, including its strategic location, world-class infrastructure and logistics solutions, said a statement.



The lease promises to start a long-term, beneficial relationship between the two entities. It also includes the option for China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation (Jiangsu) Construction Management Co., Ltd. to establish and develop a further 107,639,100-sq-ft of free zone at Kizad Area B to meet additional demand by Jiangsu province businesses.



These signings are a culmination of the efforts to grow investments and create more successful partnerships between the UAE and China as trade and economic relationships between the two countries strengthen as part of the Belt and Road and Maritime Silk Road initiatives, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Iran recently inaugurated its biggest pelletizing unit at the Sangan Iron Ore Complex (SIOC) in Khorasan Razavi Province, said a report.



The pelletizing plant, built at a cost of 103 ($121.7 million), has an annual production capacity of five million tonnes and uses modern technologies to reduce energy consumption, according to a report by Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).



The plant, built in 36 months, was inaugurated by Irans Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammadreza Nematzadeh.



Sangan pelletizing plant was one of the IMIDROs stagnant projects which was reactivated in 2014.



The unit's machinery were imported from Germany, Italy and Austria.
Japanese automotive giants Toyota Motor Corporation and Mazda Motor Corporation have signed an agreement to enter a business and capital alliance, with the aim of further strengthening their lasting partnership.



The agreement is a testament to the positive result of two years of collaborative and deliberate discussions between the two companies, a statement said.



The companies agreed to establish a joint venture that produces vehicles in the US, jointly develop technologies for electric vehicles, jointly develop connected-car technology, collaborate on advanced safety technologies and expand complementary products.



In addition, together with the aim of advancing and strengthening their long-term collaboration, Toyota and Mazda agreed to a capital alliance arrangement that preserves independence and equality for both companies.



In the capital tie-up, the two companies have agreed that Toyota will subscribe for and acquire shares to be newly issued by Mazda through a third-party allotment, and at the same time Mazda will subscribe for and acquire third-party allocation shares of treasury stock disposed of by Toyota in the equivalent amount in value to the Mazda shares. The value of the shares mutually acquired by both companies will be equivalent.



Toyota president Akio Toyoda said: "The greatest fruit of our partnership with Mazda is that we have found a new partner who truly loves cars. It has also sparked Toyota's competitive spirit, increasing our sense of not wanting to be bested by Mazda. This is a partnership in which those who are passionate about cars will work together to make ever-better cars. It is also the realization of our desire to never let cars become commodities."



Mazda president and CEO Masamichi Kogai said: "Nothing would please me more than if, through this alliance, we can help to energize the auto industry and create more car fans by bringing together two competitive spirits to spur each other on, leading to innovations and fostering talent and leaders."



Over the medium- to long-term, the two companies will build a favourable relationship that respects the autonomy and equality of each party and works toward success with the agreed joint projects. With the aim of creating new types of value for future mobility, they will accelerate and enhance bilateral cooperation as long-term partners and contribute to the development of a sustainable society by exceeding customers' expectations.



Business alliance



As part of the new alliance, Toyota and Mazda have agreed to explore establishing a joint venture plant in the US with equal funding contributions. The plant would have an estimated annual production capacity of approximately 300,000 units.



Pending approvals and authorization by relevant government agencies, the companies will begin to examine detailed plans with the goal to starting operations of the new plant in 2021. The plant will require a total investment of approximately $1.6 billion, and will create up to 4,000 jobs.



At the new plant, Mazda expects to produce cross-over models that Mazda will newly introduce to the North American market, and Toyota plans to produce the Corolla for the North American market.



Jointly develop technologies for electric vehicles



With increasing demand and expectations for electric vehicles worldwide, Toyota and Mazda are to explore joint development of technologies for the basic structure of competitive electric vehicles, mobilizing and exchanging expertise freely and actively. These technologies will allow the companies to respond quickly to regulations and market trends in each country. Specific details of the collaboration will be determined as the companies work together going forward.



Jointly develop connected technology



Toyota and Mazda will work together to jointly develop technologies for onboard multimedia infotainment systems in preparation for increased use of in-car information technologies and the increasing demand for connected technologies. In addition, Toyota will cooperate with Mazda in Toyota's vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies with the ultimate goal of creating a mobile society devoid of accidents.  TradeArabia News Service
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has awarded contracts with Dh129.55 million ($35 million) for 1,570 transformers in a move to expand the electricity distribution network, and world-class standards in its services.



Dewa is actively implementing vital projects. Dewa is one of the most outstanding service-institutions in the world, according to standard comparisons with its counterparts in developed countries. Dewa has made great achievements in the efficiency, reliability, sustainability, and management of its optimal-investment infrastructure, as well as the operation of its networks. Dewa focuses on availability, reliability and efficiency in all its services, and is proactively developing and improving all its processes to achieve excellence in everything it does, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dewa.



These transformers will increase the capacity, efficiency and reliability of the electricity distribution network in Dubai, to ensure a continuous and stable supply of power to all stakeholders. All the transformers will be delivered by April 2018, added Al Tayer.  TradeArabia News Service
Multi-speed operating models are increasingly being adopted by todays organizations. Each part of a business moves at a different pace, so leadership needs to master the art of helping each part thrive and contribute, says a new report.



Organizations need to apply agile approaches to their talent strategies, and ensure their HR infrastructure is scalable and can offer a personalized employee experience, said a new report.



Companies looking to build out digital operations will need to develop and hire different skills and match them to new capability requirements, all while continuing to support their more traditional workforces, added the new report titled Multi-speed Talent from Accenture, a global management consulting and professional services company.



An undifferentiated talent strategy that cant meet the needs of both new and traditional workforces, or that is not aligned with business strategy, will weaken business outcomes and stifle growth.



Many companies today are developing more sophisticated capabilities in areas such as automation, analytics and artificial intelligence. It stands to reason that such companies are attractingor need to attractdifferent kinds of employees with different skills and outlooks.



With a monolithic or single-speed talent strategy, it is much harder to tailor the right kind of employee experience that helps engage, develop and retain this new type of talent.



Your workers, especially millennials, are accustomed to personalized consumer experiences. Why should they expect less at work?



Accenture Strategy recently worked with a company in the financial services industry to look at the ways they managed talent and to analyze the different components of their talent strategy. We asked, How can we make everything relevant for the workforce ecosystem you have now, as well as your future workforce? The company was making a series of talent-related changes: locations, the types of work people were doing, the kinds of skills that needed to be recruited, the career pathways and the criteria for advancement. Thats a lot of moving parts.



The team had to work on developing a talent strategy that leveraged what already existed at the company, but also created something nimble enough to meet future requirements. Accenture Strategy eventually developed a standalone, separate talent strategy for a critical workforce supporting IT needs including application development and support. The strategy leveraged the common infrastructure but was tailored to the specific needs of that workforce.



The next logical step, as the company evolves, will be to modularize that approach so that different areas of the organization can pick and choose the pieces relevant for additional critical workforces.



Is your HR organization up to speed?



A multi-speed talent strategy requires new kinds of HR thinking and action to make it all work. HR is a critical player because it is uniquely positioned to connect the needs of the business with the right talent to deliver on those needs.



A first step, then, is to understand the organizations different business objectives and their implications for different workforces. For example, one objective might be to save $X million in costs. This might focus HR on those workforces where automation and augmentation could replace routinized work, redeploying people to areas where their knowledge and skills could make a greater business impact.



On the other hand, the objective to hit new revenue targets would highlight the importance of the sales organization. The need to improve innovation and time to market might result in an emphasis on R&D or IT.



Once those business-centric factors have been determined and relevant workforces identified, then executives can go a layer down to look at the supporting talent strategies for those workforces. Some parts of the strategy might be common across many workforces. Other parts would need to be customized to different groups.



For example, consider how the talent strategies for a sales organization would contrast with strategies for a workforce specializing in digital solutions. Recognition and rewards programs would certainly differ, as would the way workers are engaged and motivated. Training for salespersons would likely be primarily employer-sponsored and there would probably be lots of it because the ROI can be seen directly in terms of increased sales and revenue.



With the digital solutions group, staying abreast of hot skills is a top priority. Companies looking to attract and retain these workers would need to provide additional opportunities for professional development, including allowing people time to participate in open source communities where cutting-edge ideas are shared and discussed. Because of the intense competition for top talent in the digital area, large enterprises might invest time and effort in creating more of a start-up kind of culture, offering more varied work and encouraging entrepreneurial mindsets.



As these examples demonstrate, adopting a multi-speed talent strategy means that HR now needs to (1) understand which parts of the employee lifecycle need to be tailored, while (2) determining which parts can be standardized, modularized and reused. Based on that expertise, HR can more readily attract and retain top talent, keep costs in line, drive excellence in workforce performance and increase impact on the business.



Changing gears



So how does one go about developing a multi-speed talent strategy? Here are a few tips.



Apply a multi-speed mindset across the employee lifecycle



Take a page from IT and apply agile approaches to your talent strategies. Agile development is more flexible, aligned and adaptive than traditional development. When you have an agile, multi-speed talent strategy, you can deliver parts of the lifecycle tailored to different workforces just when they need them.



Make sure your hr organization has a scalable and personalizable infrastructure



Thanks to digital advances, HR can now leverage a common IT platform to create modularized solutions for the business and scale each part as needed to address each critical workforce. HR also needs to apply a consistent framework to support decision making.



Plan and operate from the vantage point of the employee experience



No doubt about it, theres a competitive marketplace for top talent out there. Workers expect a personalized experience. A company should be able to plan experiences across the employee lifecycle, just as they now plan how to deliver differentiating customer experiences. What about enabling employees to choose their own work schedules, or engage in specialized training or sabbatical experiences, or participate in social outreach programs as part of their work day?



Living and working in a multi-speed world



The speed of product development and service delivery are accelerating dramatically. Companies are under increasing pressure to tailor and customizeto different customer segments, different parts of the business and, yes, different parts of the workforce, both internal and external.



Organizations that dont make the leap into modularized, scalable, personalized talent strategies may not be able to keep up with the cost pressures of attracting scarce critical talent or the demands of future workforces. Nor will they be able to deliver on the expanded portfolio of products, services and businesses required to fuel future growth.  TradeArabia News Service
Meet award-winning artisans and buy their products at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village
An estimated 35,000 tourists are expected to descend on Casper to view the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, but theres no reason for local residents to panic because officials are prepared.

That was the message conveyed by emergency and law personnel at an event for the media Thursday afternoon at the Public Safety Communication Center.

We feel comfortable that were as ready as we can be for this eclipse, said John Hatcher, a detective with the Casper Police Department.

Hatcher said residents have expressed concerns that police will be too busy responding to visitors calls to look out for local residents, but the detective said that wont be the case.

On a typical day in Casper, about 10 police officers are patrolling the streets, and the same number will be standing by during the eclipse to handle routine matters, according to Hatcher.

Additional officers will be on hand to handle festival-related incidents, explained Hatcher.

The detective said he could not reveal the exact number of additional officers due to security reasons.

The Natrona County Detention Center has stocked up on extra cots to prepare for potential overcrowding, but Hatcher said law enforcement officers will make every effort to safely solve conflicts without making arrests.

Hatcher also advised residents to stock up on groceries and fill up on gasoline prior to the festival to avoid long lines, and said everyone should be prepared for unreliable cell phone service, as the influx of people will likely strain the system. Paul Fritzler, the district manager of the Department of Family Services, urged families who plan on partaking in the festivities to designate a family-meeting place in case children get separated from their parents and cell phones are down.

As authorities seek to avoid overcrowding at the jail, health officials are trying to avoid a similar situation at emergency rooms.

Anyone who needs medical attention but does not require emergency care should use clinics in order to keep the emergency rooms free for those in life-threatening situations, said Audrey Gray, the public health preparedness manager for the Casper-Natrona County Health Department.

Those who require basic medical care can also seek help from any of the nine first aid stations that the health department will have operating throughout Casper, said Gray.

She advised visitors to be wary of altitude sickness or heat exhaustion, and advised everyone to stay hydrated and wear sunscreen.

Representatives from the Casper Fire Department and the Wyoming Department of Transportation both confirmed that their departments will have extra staff working at all times during the festival.

Although its necessary to be prepared for negative situations, Hatcher said theres no reason to think the eclipse festival will be anything other than an exciting, memorable event in Casper and encouraged everyone to responsibly enjoy themselves and to be kind to visitors.

This is a very positive thing, he remarked.
You cant see it from the street. The humble wood and metal sign might not even catch your eye as you step into Bids Place in Mills.

If you turn into the little doorway between the dining room and the kitchen cranking out pizza, youll find yourself in an out-of-the-way 1920s-style speakeasy.

Theres just enough light to see the array of Wyoming spirits and beer taps and photos of flappers and gentlemen enjoying their last drinks before Prohibition was enacted hanging on the brick-design walls. Customers can take a seat at the bar or in a quiet corner and peruse a menu of drinks youd have seen during the era.

Bids Place owners David and Marci Florence opened Archies Speakeasy bar in May inside their restaurant.

Even people whove heard about Archies often walk in and look a little lost at first, Marci said. Like many speakeasies back in the day, its an obscure, out-of-the-way corner off an established business. The owners designed the space in what once was a storage room and had the doorway cut from the dining room.

Its actually a hole in the wall, David said.

Hes a history buff and working on his masters degree in secondary education to teach the subject. While Marci created the bartop with 5,962 pennies, the speakeasy is his baby, she said. His touches can be found from the decor to the drinks.

Most of the countrys booze during Prohibition was smuggled from Ireland and Canada into Atlantic City, New Jersey and dispersed from there across the country  including to Casper, he said.

You wont find anything with tequila in it, because you couldnt get tequila in Prohibition times, he added.

But he mixes cocktails like old fashioneds, Manhattans and sidecars, and he pours beer and wine. He uses only fresh-squeezed juice, and some drinks are garnished with maraschino cherries infused in house, David said.

The bars cocktail liquors, brews and wine are nearly all made in Wyoming, including Geyser Whiskey from Cody, Table Mountain Vineyards from Huntley and several spirits from Backwards Distillery in Mills. The few bottles on the shelf not made in Wyoming include brandy and cognac, because Wyoming doesnt produce them, David said.

I want to support our state, to show that we have amazing alcohols just in the state of Wyoming, he added.

He also chooses his drinks and cocktails carefully.

If Im going to put my name on it, it tastes good, he said. Same with my food. My name is my reputation.

Hed thought about putting a TV in the space but decided it wouldnt fit, since there was no TV in the 20s and 30s. Sometimes hell put on some music from the day, though.

There is one in the dining room, where the walls are covered in images of Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel and other mobsters, along with old photos of police pouring out the booze from busted speakeasies.

David has always been drawn to the old gangsters.

Its what I wanted to be, he said. I idolized the gangsters from the 20s and 30s. They had class, they had style and they went and got what the people wanted.

Theyd starting making their bucks through booze when the government outlawed it, and underground tunnels even ran through Casper to hidden watering holes, David said.

You had to know a passcode to get in, though. Hes thinking about releasing his own passcodes on Facebook for Archies, though as long as theres room, anyones welcome.

But well make sure theyre well taken care of if they know the pass, David said.

The restaurant has existed in the same place for 24 years, and the Florences took it over almost three years ago. A few family members also work there, and the uniform shirts say, Come join the family at Bids Place.

We treat everyone like theyre family here, David said.

The bar offers a more intimate space to converse with others or the bartenders about sports, weather, life  anything they want. He can usually pick up a conversation where it left off last time they were in, he said, and while a name might slip his mind, he remembers faces.

The owners dont talk about themselves much. But if you ask about some mementos in the space, theyll tell you a story or two. You might notice the black-and-white photo of the rig Marcis grandfather, Archie, was in charge of. Hes the one the bar is named after.

Theres also a beer cocktail named for him, and another, Kyles Brew, after a customer. Hed tested an experiment of Davids and loved it.

It wont kill you, but it might taste terrible, David had joked. Thats why Im having you try it.
A Casper man accused of holding a hostage at knifepoint last August was displeased when Natrona County District Judge Daniel Forgey ordered him to undergo further mental evaluations at his Thursday competency hearing.

You havent even had a chance to look at my letters, said David Chavis, adding that he has already been imprisoned for a year.

The judge was not dissuaded.

Although Forgey said it was clear from the defendants previous evaluations that he is not mentally fit to proceed with a trial at this time, he agreed to District Attorney Mike Blonigens request to order further evaluations to determine if Chaviss competency can be restored with medication or other treatments.

Chavis will undergo the evaluations at the state hospital, which will be required to submit the findings within 60 days, according to Forgey.

The defendant allegedly held a Casper office worker hostage for nearly four hours on Aug. 5 while trying to obtain government files that he believed pertained to him.

Authorities freed the hostage and arrested Chavis without anyone being injured.

Chavis is charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon.

If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The Zanu-PF youth leader, Kudzanayi Chipanga, insists that President Robert Mugabe is "switched on" and able to lead the country to 2023.Chipanga, the Youth secretary who is organising countrywide rallies for the 93-year-old president, said the youths won't "stampede" Mugabe into naming a successor."He is still fit to execute his duties," Chipanga said in comments carried by the state-run Herald. "Mentally and physically he is switched on."These statements come after Mugabe's wife, Grace, urged him to name a successor, saying his word on the matter would be final and put an end to clandestine jockeying by senior party officials to succeed him.But Chipanga said though the youths agreed "100 percent" with the First Lady's call, "we are not stampeding His Excellency to choose a successor"."He can even go up to 2023," he said. "Our President is still strong as you can see him addressing his party supporters for more than an hour when the need arises."Mugabe is limited to two terms under the new constitution. He wants to stand for re-election next year for a second five-year term.At last weekend's youth rally in the northern town of Chinhoyi, the president appeared to be fast asleep on the podium while his wife publicly berated his spokesperson George Charamba for allowing state media to criticise her allies in government.
A report on legislative compensation will be presented to the National Council of State Legislatures meeting today in Boston.

The document deals partly with the question of whether legislative compensation commissions have an influence on legislative pay.

A previous report said they dont.

But a new NCSL study that focused on the rate of change over a biennium found that the presence of a compensation commission, particularly those with the power to set compensation directly, significantly correlate with higher raises for legislators over a biennium.

As of July 2017, a total of 19 states use some form of commission to set compensation for legislators. Of the 19, seven are advisory and only make recommendations to the legislatures based on economic data.

The legislature is under no obligation to act on those recommendations.

Another seven state commissions sets the compensation, which automatically becomes law if not vetoed by a majority of the legislature.

The remaining commissions have the duty of directly setting the salaries for legislators in their respective states, period.

The Wyoming legislative leaders might consider this approach by setting up a separate commission to deal with compensation so they dont have to.

It also would provide some transparency about how much legislators actually get paid.

The information is available through the Legislative Service Office, but national media legislative reports cover only the states base salary  Wyomings $150 and $109 per diem.

Although the Wyoming Constitution prohibits legislators from raising their own salaries, they usually are even reluctant to increase the pay of future legislators.

They are leery of the political fallout.

That is why the Legislature hasnt raised the $150-per-day salary for legislators since 2005. Its a red flag.

Instead, like other states, Wyoming has been able to dodge the critical storm triggered by a salary increase by supplementing compensation in other ways.

Since the last salary increase in 2005, the Legislature has expanded the scope of the $150-per-day salary beyond the period when the lawmakers are in session.

To compensate members for the increase in the interim workload, the Legislature in the 2009 session voted to allow the House speaker and Senate president the $150-per-day salary for six days each month the Legislature is not in session, for a total of $900 per month.

The floor leaders and committee chairmen collect the salary for four days a month during the interim, for a total of $600 per month. All other members get paid for two days per month, or $300 a month, according to the Legislative Service Offices 2016 annual report.

The Legislature also made further adjustments in the 2013 session by making the $750-per-quarter constituent allowance part of the regular compensation.

The allowance began as a way to help legislators defray the costs of travel and other costs related to their work with constituents between legislative sessions.

it was intended to assist legislators with big districts, like some vast Senate districts in southwest Wyoming where a senator must drive miles to a local meeting.

The legislators had to submit vouchers to get the allowance.

The 2011 annual report of the Legislative Service Office showed that no legislator got the full allowance, while others received only part or none.

The legislative leaders decided to include the $3,000 per year automatically as salary.

The problem with poorly paid legislative bodies, the political science experts say, is it results in a lawmaking branch dominated by retired or wealthy people.

The low pay keeps out the ordinary working man or woman who cannot afford to lose money from taking time off the job.

Wyomings founders had agriculture in mind when they set the legislative session in January, which is a slow time for ranchers.

The 30-member Wyoming Senate currently has five ranchers, five lawyers, four retired folks, two educators, an auctioneer and a mechanic.

The rest are business people, including self-employed business people. Only three of the 30 members are women.

Good people, yes, but hardly a cross-section of Wyoming.

Maybe more pay would attract more diverse candidates.

Maybe.
Recently Sheridan Travel and Tourism hosted a show and tell for travel writers.

I cant believe what a ball of fire STTs director Shawn Parker is! If he had a comparison in the canine world I believe it would be a Jack Russell Terrier.

Shawn ramrodded a formidable program and seemed to be everywhere doing everything.

For my part, I am certainly grateful that he chose me to escort a passel of people around a loop of local battle sites on June 24. The first stop was the Fetterman Hundred in the Hand battle site, Fort Phil Kearney and the Wagon Box battle site. Then we followed the old Bozeman trail past French Petes trading post site, and finally the Lt. Shurley skirmish on Prairie Dog.

My passengers remarked again and again what beautiful scenery we in Sheridan are blessed to live in. One tourist from an earlier loop said he had just been to Red Lodge Montana, where he thought that was beautiful, but as he gazed around the country from the Wagon Box site he said Sheridans scenery had Red Lodge beat all hollow.

Spectacular, just spectacular! he kept saying.

The next day, I had two freelance travel writers and an AAA exec whose itinerary began with the Big Horns for many wildflower and scenery stops before hiking down to Porcupine Falls and then the Medicine Wheel. I definitely should not have worn cowboy boots for that!

We went down Highway 14A in hopes of spotting wild horses, but they must have all been shaded up because the Basin was typically hot. On the way to Greybull my passengers spotted the Hawkins and Powers aircraft storage and museum area, so we changed plans midstream.

That evening we toured the excellent dinosaur exhibit in Greybull, were treated to supper cooked by Greybulls mayor at the Greybull Hotel and retired early.

The next day, as promised the day before, we backtracked to the Firefighter Aircraft museum after a great breakfast and quick tour of downtown Greybull. On the way back through Greybull we picked up enormous steak sandwich lunches from Lisas and headed for Devils Kitchen and then the dinosaur tracks as Red Gulch. There were so many stops for photos of wildflowers and wildlife that we almost missed getting back to Sheridan at the appointed hour.

The writers were constantly scribbling. Judging by the questions they asked, it indicated to me that whatever they write about their visit, it will certainly have an impact.

My personal opinion is that having people write about our cities, people, and state by out-of-staters is by far more effective than locals attempting to toot our own horn so to speak.

For me there are no regrets, except that it didnt last long enough. There is so much to see and do that visitors typically never budget near enough time to take it all in. I always stress for people heading home to take a few more days to stop in Buffalo and Kaycee, and if the mountain roads frighten some folks, I always suggest Yellowstone by way of Dubois.

Whichever way you go, have a great summer.
Gov. Matt Mead recently made a historic announcement that will have a positive and significant impact on Wyomings first responders for decades to come. With his decision to accept the FirstNet and AT&T plan to deliver a wireless broadband network to the states public safety community, police, firefighters and emergency personnel will soon have access to new and advanced technologies, making them better equipped to serve citizens during times of need.

As I stepped into the role of overseeing the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2001, we were starting to truly understand the challenges the public safety community has encountered over the years due to incompatible communications systems. One of the key findings of the 9/11 Commission was that the lack of interoperability between police, firefighters and emergency personnel was a barrier to an effective response to those terrorist attacks. Also, communications networks were overwhelmed, which contributed to loss of life when firefighters couldnt be warned as the towers started to collapse. But these challenges werent unique to New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. The ongoing communications problems that first responders experience have been documented during numerous emergency response efforts across the United States in recent years.

With a new nationwide broadband network dedicated to public safety, we can begin the process of solving this problem. FirstNet will allow first responders across Wyoming  and the United States  to coordinate more effectively. It will also give first responders priority access to broadband wireless service when reaction to an incident overwhelms a communications network.

During my DHS tenure, I worked with more than 180,000 employees from a combined 22 agencies to create a unified department that would strengthen protection of our borders and infrastructure. Through this experience, I realized how important it is to have efficient coordination and access to the latest technology. Through FirstNet, we now have an opportunity to strengthen the systems our first responders use to coordinate when peoples lives are at stake. Meads decision to participate in FirstNet is an important step forward in delivering a more unified experience to Wyomings public safety community.

Enhanced coverage throughout rural, mountainous and remote areas, as well as federal and tribal lands, is also going to deliver significantly better support to first responders who work in remote areas of the state. During this time of year especially, interagency and interstate coordination is critical for wildland firefighting. By joining a national network that will cross state lines and strengthen the connection between police, firefighters and EMS, Mead has demonstrated his dedication to equipping first responders with the tools and technologies they need to help save lives and protect communities.

Furthermore, FirstNet will not only bring advanced communications technologies to Wyomings public safety community, but the program will also save state dollars. The responsibility for building and operating this network will fall on the FirstNet authority  not on Wyoming taxpayers.

I applaud Mead for his leadership in choosing to bring the FirstNet network to Wyoming and for making the right decision for the states first responder community.
Longtime local drummer Dan "The Deacon" Bunnell holds blues jams at Rockabilly Grill, 3700 N. Oracle Road, every Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Here is what Star writer Kathleen Allen wrote about the jams this week:

Dan The Deacon Bunnell believes in magic.

And the magic is the music.

Bunnell, long a professional drummer, is immersed in the magic when he leads music jams. He does that twice a week: Sundays at Rockabilly and Tuesdays at Chicago Bar. Though the bars have changed over the years, he has led jams in Tucson since shortly after he moved here from Los Angeles in the early 1980s.

I love watching him, says musician Amber Gaia, who has been joining the jams for about two years. She was at the Chicago Bar, in the middle of the dance floor and moving to the music.

I go to the jams a lot and dont even bring my guitar because I love what he creates.

Actually, Bunnell, 70, doesnt know exactly what he will create each night. Musicians from around the city come in and sign up with the hopes of playing. Some he knows, others are new. He matches the musicians with each other and the music. Those who have come to jam play three songs; if the sign-up list is short and the musician good, theres a chance of more time on stage.

Each jam has a core band  it changes according to availability. Those professional musicians, including Bunnell, step in to play when it is needed, backing up players with less experience but as much passion.

I love how Deacon puts people together to play and have fun, says Gaia, who did a few solo songs at a recent Tuesday night jam.

Hes a master bandleader. I love to sit back and watch what he does and how he puts people together. ... He creates a wonderful time for everyone.

For Bunnell, a member of Arizona Blues Hall of Fame, its all about keeping the magic alive.

In the beginning

Bunnells first decade was spent in rural Kentucky. We were dirt farmers, he says. It was there he discovered a knack for banging on drums. I was good at it, he says. I just had a natural talent for it. I would beat up my mothers furniture with knives and forks. He was so good, in fact, a cousin signed him on to play drums in a bluegrass band.

When he was 10, the family moved to Louisville. He dove more deeply into music.

I learned how to read and write music and play classical, he recalls. I played in the marching band in high school  I was the drum leader.

Bunnell had no doubt what his future would hold.

I didnt have any what-am-I-going-to-be crisis, he says. I knew I was going to be a drummer.

He was in love with the music that was created in the late 50s  The Drifters, Bo Diddley, Little Richard. And, especially, James Brown.

I stole hubcaps one time to get James Brown tickets. Thats how foolish I was, says Bunnell, who was about 15 at the time.

James Brown was practically the second coming  his band changed my life. I had always known I would be a musician, but I was lacking inspiration. James had it.

High school ended with a joke he cant remember.

I got into a little row with the English teacher. I made a joke about a dangling participle. It got me kicked out of class and that was the end of my high school career.

He drifted around Kentucky, getting into minor trouble with the police. Then came the time, in about 64, that he found himself in front of a judge who figured the young man needed some direction.

The judge requested that I join the military, says Bunnell.

He enlisted in the Navy and much of the time during his 1964-68 service he was on a ship off the shores of Vietnam.

But he never forgot music.

I played around here and there with different bands, getting my chops together. I knew I wanted to start music when I got out.

The L.A. years

He got off his last Navy ship in Long Beach, California and immediately started searching for music gigs in the Los Angeles area. Fame was not his goal; playing music was.

I didnt care if I were a star; I kept searching until I found musical work.

He played at hotels, bars and clubs. Often he was called upon to be a backup musician on recordings.

I called myself an unrepentant musical prostitute, he says. Id play polka in a cow pasture if I got paid.

He also started putting together jams in the Los Angeles area.

The idea is the networking, says Bunnell.

If you are in touch with a lot of musicians and see whats happening, it can be very beneficial. I knew a jam would do that. l did it for networking and to help fill an off-night.

His childhood resolve to make a living as a musician had become a reality.

But Los Angeles was becoming glutted with musicians. It was a too-packed scene that no longer appealed to him. In the early 80s, Bunnell moved to Tucson.

The Tucson jams

Once here, Bunnell continued to play music, joining a variety of local bands.

By 1985, he had started his first jam here. In the 90s, he headed up the jams at the now-closed Berkys, where he packed in musicians and fans for about 15 years.

Its also where his reputation as a master jam host grew.

Amo Chip Dabney used to grab his sax and join those jams. These days, the Grammy-nominated musician is often too busy to jump on stage for the jams, but he makes sure to go to them as frequently as possible.

We go to the jams to see new musicians in town, says Dabney, who recently spent a fair amount of time on the dance floor at a Chicago Bar jam. We have a wealth of talent here in the Old Pueblo.

But he also goes to see Bunnell in action.

Its not as easy as it looks, says Dabney about leading the jams.

Deacon is so good at it. Everyone feels involved and invited and theres a real connectivity there with jammers. Deacon is masterful at coordinating people who have shown up, being aware of instruments they play, and he has a pretty extensive song book they can play. Its his specialty.

At a recent Chicago Bar jam, Bunnell stands on stage with his core band for that night: Koko Matsumoto on bass and her husband Bryan Dean on guitar  they are two-thirds of the popular Bryan Dean Trio.

Bunnell has a train conductors cap on  his trademark at the jams  and a t-shirt with an image of Goofy on it.

He has turned the drums over to another musician, but keeps a cowbell nearby  if he starts beating it, you know someone has lost the beat and he is trying to get the music back on track.

Bob Richards, who has been playing jams hosted by Bunnell for about 10 years, straps his guitar around his neck and the band breaks into Mustang Sally. Bunnells bluesy voice growls while the musicians sound, well, as though theyd been playing together much longer than just this night.

Take it Bob, Bunnell says to Richards, a retired civil engineer with a gift for playing guitar. Bunnell makes sure musicians get their time in the spotlight.

While there are other jams to go to in town, Richards prefers the Bunnell-led ones.

Deacon is always at the jam early, setting up the drum kit and the p.a. and making sure everything is ready to go, says Richards.

He takes it very seriously. He calls it a pro jam. You do not have to be an expert but you had better be professional in behavior. And he will get in your face if you are not paying attention to the cues. Everyone is welcome, young and old alike. It is all about producing good-sounding music.

Good-sounding music is why Cindy Mullozzi attends the jams as a fan.

I like the variety of musicians, she says. The music is always good  well, almost always good. And its good to dance to. I hope the jams last for a long time, or at least as long as I am able to go.

The following Sunday, Bunnell is on stage at Rockabilly. He has his conductor hat on, and this time a t-shirt that says Thou shalt not snivel. Its the eleventh commandment, he explains with a chuckle.

On this Sunday, the core band consists of Kenny Wheels and John June, both professional musicians with extensive experience and striking chops.

Thank you all for believing in live music, Bunnell says as he opens the jam. He plays drums and sings on the first song  Knockin On Heavens Door. He dedicates it to the late musician Eric Garcia, who regularly sat in on the jams.

Soon, Terrence Kelly steps up to play harmonica and wail the blues. The veteran musician knows how to hold a stage and demand attention.

Bunnell, who has turned the sticks over to another drummer, walks around the outskirts of the dance floor, checks the sign-up list, and leans back against a pool table as he listens. This is one set where he does not need his cowbell.

He gives everyone a chance to interact, a chance to connect, says Wheels, who has jammed with Bunnell for about 19 years.

But there are a few rules, he adds.

Make sure your instrument is tuned before you come up, and if you cant sing, dont try.

Bunnell doesnt discriminate; he tries to give all musicians a chance to play.

If youre only a beginner, youll have some trouble, Bunnell says. But I do my best to help beginners out.

And the key to making musicians who have never before played together sound as though they had?

Simple songs, he says.

If you have real good players and you do simple tunes, then its pretty easy to come together. Theres a lot of 12-bar blues tunes  Johnny Be Good is a 12-bar format. Its a certain pattern of chord progression that is standard. You can go to Afghanistan and have that same progression.

Why he does it

For most, theres not a lot of money in making music, or hosting jams.

But money doesnt motivate Bunnell; music does.

Its the last vestige of magic left on the planet, he says with a fervor. Without it, I think I would have been dead many years ago, so God bless the magic of music. Watch those jams and youll find something magical two or three times a night, and thats what you are seeking.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some Aug. 5 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.
Karin Uhlich casts a long shadow over the Ward 3 City Council race, specifically over the three Democrats vying for her seat.

In the weeks ahead of the Aug. 29 primary, the two men and one woman running are proving to be as multifaceted as the three-term councilwoman, who is not seeking re-election.

Each candidate has forged a strong cadre of local support as they stake out their economic and social policy stances. The primary winner will face independent Gary Watson in the November election.

Paul Durham

Attorney Durham has experience inside City Hall, serving for a year as the chief of staff for then Councilwoman Nina Trasoff and is well-known to many as the former treasurer of the county Democratic Party.

Durham has a law degree from Stanford University, but it is his MBA from the University of Colorado  and his two decades as a small-business consultant  that Durham talks about on the campaign trail.

Sitting at a midtown restaurant, Durham says he decided hed run for Uhlichs seat after the November election.

It took him weeks to come to terms with the election of Donald Trump, he said, and he opted to run for public office as the best way to serve the community.

I really felt that I had to something more than I had been doing before, Durham said. Just about everywhere you look there is a person (in Tucson) being attacked by Donald Trump.

Tucson, he says, needs someone strong and vocal to defend against the policies handed down from the Trump administration, and, to a lesser extent, the Legislature.

Knowing the players inside both City Hall and in the ward, he said, gives him an advantage over the other two Democrats. He believes he can hit the ground running if elected in November.

His friends and family were receptive to his decision to run, although one friend joked that Durham  an avid cyclist  must have fallen off his bike and hit his head.

Durham says the city needs to act on climate change if the Trump administration will not and says he wants to add solar to city buildings.

Durham has converted the home he bought from former Tucson Mayor George Miller to primarily use solar energy as well as to provide power for his electric car.

I am convinced that I will make it a higher priority than either of the other two candidates, Durham said. It is not a campaign slogan; it is a way of life for me.

Durham took an unpopular stance in a recent debate, refusing at a Pima County Interfaith Council event to commit additional funds to several city-funded programs.

It might have been the political equivalent of standing in front of a bus, but Durham instead got into the minutiae of city budgeting.

He said while he supports the current city funding for the Kidco after-school program and the JobPath skills-training program, he cant support six-digit increases in city funding without understanding what the economic landscape will look like next year.

Durham answered a similar question about the citys bus system the same way, saying he couldnt make any promises about increases in future funding levels.

Felicia Chew

Felicia Chew, a teacher, flashes a quick smile at her 10-year-old son before sipping coffee at a small cafe around the corner from her Ward 3 home.

Chew said her son was the first person she talked to about her foray into professional politics.

A frequent companion to her at various meetings, Noah was quick to approve her running for city office, noting that he knows she wants to help more than just her students, friends and their neighbors.

The only criticism was concern that the single mother would be stretched too thin if she entered the race, but Chew says she opted against a new teaching contract so she could focus on the race, and, eventually, being a full-time councilwoman.

I think they thought I was going to be teaching full-time, Chew said.

Best known as a teacher for more than 20 years  most recently at Mansfeld Middle School  Chew has spent time volunteering as a victims advocate, advocating for local education issues with the Tucson Education Association and helping out at the Valley of the Moon.

She also served on the citys Citizen Police Advisory Review Board.

Chew moved to Tucson in 2011, but was criticized by fellow Democrats for failing to register to vote locally until in 2015.

She countered that for a time after moving to Tucson, she didnt like the divisiveness of politics and was focusing on some personal issues, disclosing that she had been a domestic-violence victim.

However, she was involved in the community as a teacher and became an advocate for domestic-abuse victims.

In a forum organized by Legislative District 9 Democrats, she admitted that she was a Bernie Sanders supporter and that she voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2016 presidential election. She addressed the issue by saying she wanted to see more candidates involved in the political process, including at the national level.

A major focus in Chews campaign has been on improving public transportation, specifically Sun Tran.

At several meetings, Chew has stated she wants the city to consider new products for the city-owned bus line  including a single bus pass designed for entire families.

Such a pass would allow low-income families to get to work, school and the grocery store and also build what she sees as a new generation of frequent users of mass transit.

At least part of the citys issue with the transit system is a drop in ridership, with young adults relying on other forms of transportation.

Chew has repeatedly stated she favors establishing a dedicated revenue fund for public transportation.

The issue, as she sees it, is the reliance on the citys general fund to pay for the majority of the day-to day operations of Sun Tran.

She hasnt identified how to pay for the system, whether it be a sales tax, property tax or another revenue source, but says she will work with bus riders union, the Teamsters and other stakeholders to find the best solution.

Tom Tronsdal

On the campaign trail, Tronsdal has often couched his answers as a nearly lifelong resident of Tucson, growing up in Ward 3 or relating some of his policies to the business he owns, Canyon Fence Co.

He doesnt mention that he has a law degree or that he once worked with inmates in Leavenworth federal prison. He admits it was at the medium-security prison that he realized he didnt want to be a practicing attorney.

It takes a special person to do this, and thats not me, Tronsdal said.

Other notable jobs he has had included working at the Gaslight Theater while in high school and college, running the Planet Hollywood in New Orleans and as a contractor at Microsoft.

However, Tucson kept calling. After a few years working out of state, Tronsdal said his family wanted to come back to the Old Pueblo.

He bought Canyon Fence from a close friend who wanted to retire and is proud of the business.

Tronsdal has frequently talked publicly about paying every one of his 26 employees a living wage and benefits.

A key issue for Tronsdal is acting as a voice for other small-business owners.

He frequently mentions how the city essentially forced the Wildcat House out of business over issues with its parking lot. Years later, with the building vacant and the parking lot empty, the city offered incentives to a new business  Brother Johns BBQ.

At a recent debate, Tronsdal said the city shouldnt be selectively picking businesses regarding incentives and code violations. Ideally, he argued, the Wildcat House could have remained open and a new restaurant could have opened its doors somewhere else.

Another priority for Tronsdal is continued support for public transit, noting his family regularly uses the citys bus system.

Like myself, and for many residents in the city, public transportation is not an option, it is a necessity, Tronsdal said. I will ensure that the public bus system remains affordable, safe and accessible.

Recently, Tronsdal voice objections to the City Councils decision to back a policy that would prohibit the city from investing in private companies that were involved with President Trumps proposed border wall.

Tronsdal says he is completely opposed to the proposed border wall, but the council overstepped its bounds by looking to punish privately run local businesses.
News / Regional

by Staff Reporter

A 27-year-old woman from Victoria Falls is battling for her life at a hospital after ten police officers - including one female - allegedly forced her to sit on caustic soda, badly burning her backside and privates in a shocking incident, NewsDay reported.According to the publication the woman, Zibusiso Moyo, was tortured by the police, who accused her of loitering for purposes of prostitution."At around 3am, near Jehovah's Witness Church in Chinotimba, a ZRP vehicle stopped in front of me and a group of officers asked me where I was coming from, but before I could answer, one of them shouted 'voestek' and ordered me to get into a vehicle," Moyo said.She also told the publication that "upon getting in, I was ordered to sit down and after a few minutes, I told them that I was feeling itchy and there was a burning sensation on my privates, but the officers harassed me. The female officer said my cries sounded like those of someone having s*xual intercourse.""As we arrived at the charge office, I and two other ladies who had also been arrested were made to sit on a bench, but I couldn't and I slept on the floor. I removed all my clothes because I felt like my skin was melting, but none of the police officers attended to me," she said."It was only later that they took me to hospital. They were mocking me saying the pain I felt could not be compared to labour pains."
Tucson may soon be footing the tab for building water lines to new businesses that bring in high-paying jobs.

Tuesday night, the City Council will consider a proposal that would be a sharp departure from the citys traditional practice of having new development pay to build its water infrastructure.

Instead, the city would pay up to $2 million for an individual project and up to $2.5 million per year total to new, nonretail employers, based on the number of jobs they bring and their wages.

The proposal has sparked a debate over how far the city should go to encourage job creation.

Tucson is in competition with other cities and states for large commercial facilities. This incentive provides a reason for companies to consider areas inside city limits where we want to encourage commercial use, but where water infrastructure is not yet in place, said Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, a supporter of the plan.

The proposal came after City Manager Michael Ortega asked the mayor and council if it would be helpful to add water infrastructure incentives to its toolkit, said Assistant City Manager Albert Elias.

The mayor and council said, yes, were interested, voting 5-2 in June to direct the city staff to draft the current proposal, he said.

One of the dissenters, Vice Mayor Regina Romero, said Friday that its inappropriate and unfair for the city of Tucson to pay for infrastructure for corporations, period.

If we are going to build it and they pay it back, I might consider it. But this city has always said that developers have to pay for their growth.

The proposal would affect who pays for building water lines from the nearest city water main to a projects property.

Commonly, the city gets requests from people representing potential employers to provide water infrastructure as an incentive to attract economic development, Rothschild said.

People make an inquiry and a lot of the time you never find out who the company is that they represent, and often they ask, Is the infrastructure ready and what does the city do to assist you if the infrastructure is not ready? Rothschild said.

But he said no prospective employers have asked the city for the current proposal. And Caterpillar Inc., which will bring 600 executive jobs over five years, wouldnt benefit because its west-side site has such infrastructure, Rothschild said.

These incentives would be offered to employers who also meet the standards of the citys existing Primary Jobs Incentive program. It gives new employers construction sales tax breaks for providing job training and paying for public infrastructure.

That programs incentives are available to employers providing at least 25 jobs paying more than 125 percent of Tucsons median income and at least 75 percent of employees health insurance premiums.

Heres how the water infrastructure incentives would work:

Employers would win points based on how many jobs they create, how much they pay and how much capital they invest. The more points, the more incentives.

They would get more points, for instance, depending on how far their job counts and wages go beyond the minimums for the Primary Jobs Incentive program.

Additional points would be based on salaries paid to employees whose wages dont meet Primary Jobs Incentive standards.

For each prospective employer seeking incentives, the citys economic incentive staff must show through independent analysis that the project would generate more tax revenue over five years than the incentives cost the city.

Employers could get up to $100,000 additional bonuses for meeting water conservation standards. They include installing water-efficient plumbing fixtures as well as energy efficient appliances. The projects would also have to have real-time monitoring of water use for cooling towers, boilers and other major facilities.

Companies would be reimbursed for their infrastructure investment over three years, as they provide proof theyre creating and retaining high-paying jobs.

These incentives wouldnt raise water rates. Theyd come out of Tucson Waters existing capital budget, said utility spokesman Fernando Molina.

This program fits right in with the intent of that budget, he said.

While using this money for incentives could mean other capital projects wouldnt get done for awhile, that would just be one more case in which were constantly having to shift money around to meet shifting priorities, he said.

But Romero said that after the city has repeatedly raised water rates to individuals to pay for infrastructure and Central Arizona Project water, its not fair to now ask them to give free infrastructure for new employers.

If this were to pass, I dont think I could support charging people more for water in the future, she said.

The city must be real careful that anything it does regarding water actually benefits the water utility, the water system in general, and the broader community, said Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, the other dissenter in the June vote.

Every dollar the city doesnt collect is money that could have been invested in strategies that ensure our water future, she said. Obviously economic development is a key goal. But water stewardship is not only also a key goal, its integrally related to our ability to achieve economic development.

Councilman Paul Cunningham favors the incentives, saying, I like the idea of being able to provide extra tools in the toolbox for providing jobs. But the proposal should tie the infrastructure incentives directly to a projects use of conservation tools such as rainwater harvesting and xeriscaping, instead of paying bonuses for conserving, he said.

Im not really interested in giving them an extra hundred grand to conserve water if we are already giving them $2 million in free infrastructure, Cunningham said.
Editors note: Dai Duong, a Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, shares his underwhelming experience with a pre-employment health checkup that he felt was mostly a perfunctory procedure.

I recently went for a medical checkup as a requisite for an upcoming promotion at work.

It was early in the afternoon when I arrived at a local medical center, and there were already others who were waiting for their turn to undergo the examination.

Their purposes varied. One needed the medical papers for his promotion into a public notary. Another wanted to become a salesperson for a mobile shop. And there was one who needed the certificate for a job application.

I filled out a pre-printed form with my personal details and medical history, paid a fee of VND205,000 (US$9), and embarked upon my journey.

The eye examination lasted for 30 seconds, with the optometrist pointing at a few letters on an eye chart for me to read before noting down my vision.

The dental and ear, nose and throat checkups were even faster. They mostly involved the doctor asking general questions, me answering those questions, and the doctor signing into my checklist of normal body parts.

The best part was the physical examination. Are your limbs normal? the doctor asked while signing his name into my checklist, without batting an eye at his patient. Barely had I answered yes, they are than he stamped normal into my examination results.

Next up were blood test, urine test and radiography. Contrary to my belief that it would take hours to get my hands on these results, it was only moments later that I was guided into the office of a senior doctor, who stamped fit for work on my examination papers that told me it was all done.

From start to finish, my entire health checkup lasted for no more than 15 minutes.

In my opinion, medical checkups are necessary for promotions and job recruitments, as good health is the prerequisite for good performance at work. From the perspective of employers, they have the right to be informed about their employees state of health and their fitness for work before making important appointments.

However, I cant help but wonder in what way would these kinds of perfunctory, lightning-speed health checkups benefit either the employee or the employer?

Im not even sure if my employer would bother to look at my health results, or would they just hastily check off a list of required papers before shoving them all into a drawer and never look at them again?

It is therefore necessary for relevant authorities to tighten control over how hospitals are performing medical checkups to bring the activity back in course. Medical results must be considered legal documents that stand to testify a persons fitness to work in a particular position.

It would only be to the employees benefit to be informed about their medical conditions in order to seek timely treatment and expertise.

If medical checkups continue to feel like a rushed interview with questions like are your limbs normal? they would be nothing more than a waste of time and money.

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Authorities in the southern province of An Giang are strictly enacting a rule to prevent growth overfishing, a practice of harvesting fish before their growth potential is fully reached, to protect the local precious stock of Siamese mud carp.

Local fishermen are banned from going for catches between June 1 and August 31, and from catching Siamese mud carp smaller than 50mm in length, according to the rule.

The ban is intended to stop growth overfishing and allow the fish to grow to their full size, which would produce the maximum yield per recruit, next month.

Administrators in An Giang have vigorously executed the order, having stopped and slapped fines to three cases of fishing during the past two months.

Even though the ban has affected many locals whose lives depend on this fishing season, the locals have no choice but to wait until the end of August to start catching the fish.

Nguyen Huu Hai, a 57-year-old resident of An Giangs An Phu District, said he earned a substantial amount of money this time last year, but because of the ban, his fishing net is now left in the house corner to gather cobweb.

At the beginning of June, a kilogram of Siamese mud carp would fetch up to VND40,000 (US$1.7) to VND50,000 (US$2.2). However, from September, prices will drop to only VND6,000 (30 cents) a kilogram.

Mai Phu Hung, another fisherman in An Phu, is also struggling to make a living as he could not catch the fish at the moment.

Some local fishermen wish that instead of banning fishing from June to August, the order should be changed in a way that people can still go fishing, but with nets that have bigger holes so small fry will not be caught.

Siamese mud carp is one of the most favorite dishes in the Mekong Delta, which can be cooked with fish sauce and eaten with local vegetables such as common sesban.

A fisherman is seen catching Siamese mud carp in An Phu District, An Giang Province.

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Doan Ngoc Hai, a deputy chairman of District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, has sought to be given full authorization to resume his signature sidewalk clearing campaign.

Initiated earlier this year, Hais campaign had effectively made streets across District 1 clean and clear, and inspired other neighborhoods in Ho Chi Minh City to follow suit, until it suddenly ended in mid-March.

With Hai no longer taking to the street on his own to directly instruct officers to fine wrongly parked cars or remove vendors or establishments that occupied the sidewalks, disorder quickly returned to many streets in District 1.

I have committed to make sidewalks in District 1 completely get rid of being illegally occupied, so I need to be fully authorized to penalize any violators, even public officials, Hai said at a meeting with Ho Chi Minh City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong on Friday.

It is the only way to make District 1 better.

Doan Ngoc Hai asks a traffic police officer to handle a state-owned car for illegal parking in Ho Chi Minh City.

The sidewalk reclamation campaign leader pulled no punches when he briefed the citys leader of how ugly pavements across his district currently look.

Street vendors and drinking establishments freely occupy the sidewalks, while cars, wearing both public and private license plates, would park anywhere they wish, he said.

One big eatery had strictly followed the rule to keep the sidewalk in front of its premises clean and clear, but shortly after the crackdowns ended, they are now even occupying the space in front of the headquarters of the Cau Ong Lanh Wad administration.

There used to be no street vendors on Dong Khoi, but now they are everywhere on the street, Hai said. And the mess created by street peddlers on Nguyen Hue walking street is beyond description.

Hai said some interest groups are to blame for the situation, with some ward officials and urban security officers show sign of corruption and do not fulfill their duty properly.

The District 1 deputy head said it is not difficult to resolve the problem, what matter is authorities are resolute to do so or not.

Hai said the main reason is that he no longer directly leads the campaign, so all of the ten wards of District 1 effectively do nothing and wait for order from their bosses.

Hai suggested removing all of the paid parking lots that occupy the sidewalks and immediately handle wrongly parked cars or sidewalk occupying establishments, instead of developing a detailed action plan.

Doan Ngoc Hai speaks at the meeting.

In response, chairman Phong appreciated District 1 efforts in keeping the sidewalk clean, but said Hai had spoken out his complaints in a wrong place.

These issues should be discussed in a different meeting between the District 1 Party Committee and the municipal administration, he said.

At the meeting today, what we should discuss is how to prevent the sidewalks from being occupied.

This meeting is not a forum where you can complain issues like I want to do this job but why am I assigned another task?.

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The Department of Natural Resources and Environment in the southern province of Dong Nai has rejected rumors on social media that dioxin was found under the bed of the local Dong Nai River.

Results of sediment sampling and analysis show that the chemical does exist in the river, but with an amount much lower than allowed rate, Nguyen Ngoc Thuong, deputy director of the department, said on Friday.

The test was quickly done after rumors circulated on social media suggesting that the river is contaminated with dioxin.

Dioxin is a highly toxic chemical compound which is known to cause serious problems with reproduction, development, and the immune system. A great deal of scientific research also links the chemical to hormone disruption and cancer.

Samples had been taken for analysis at various parts of Dong Nai River, including those at Thien Tan Water Plant, Bien Hoa  Buu Long Quay, Hoa An Bridge, Bien Hoa Water Plant, and the Co, Hiep Hoa, and Ba Xe Islets.

The content of dioxin in these areas was found to be 1.2-3.7 ppt (part per trillion), far below the allowed threshold of 21.5ppt, indicating that the water is safe for everyday use, the environment department official underlined.

The analysis also corroborated that the treated water from all local water plants meet the safety requirements.

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Help India!

New Delhi, (IANS): Condemning the potentially fatal attack on party Vice President Rahul Gandhis cavalcade in Gujarat, the Congress on Saturday said it wont be cowed down by the cult of violence and intimidation that the followers of Nathuram Godse espouse, referring to the RSS and BJP.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said that theirs was a 130 year old party that has seen many ups and downs and its leaders wont be scared by such tactics.

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This stone could kill a human. What was the police doing Let me say that Rahul Gandhi and Congress party wont be intimidated by such tactics, Sharma said as he showed a piece of concrete boulder, that was allegedly hurled at the car of Gandhi in Gujarat on Friday.

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala accused the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani of shielding the goons who perpetrated the attack.

We have lodged a complaint of murderous assault against four BJP workers, but the police has not registered an FIR so far, Surjewala said.

He alleged that the BJP-led Gujarat administration deliberately ignored the protocol that is followed in case of an SPG protectee, as Rahul Gandhi is.

Lets tell them that Godsewaad did not succeed in 1948, and it would neither succeed now. It is Gandhiwaad that has prevailed and will prevail, he said.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi faced hostile black-flag waving crowds shouting slogans in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tour of flood hit Dhanera town in Gujarats Banaskantha district, forcing him to beat a retreat. His car was also pelted with stones, shattering some windows.

Rahul Gandhi has also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party for the attack on his convoy in Gujarat, saying that it was the style of politics pursued by the BJP and RSS.

Nathuram Godse, a Hindu Mahasabha member and perceived close to RSS founder Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.
Help India!

Ahmedabad, (IANS): A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing leader was arrested on Saturday in connection with the attack on Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhis car when he was visiting north Gujarats flood-affected Banaskantha district on Friday.

The action comes after 18 hours of night-long dharna and demonstration by Congress leaders and scores of district level supporters.

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Palanpur unit BJP youth wing general secretary Jayesh Darji was arrested by the Banaskantha district on Saturday after registering an FIR, which also names three others.

One of them is Bhagwanbhai Patel, chairman of Dhanera Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC). It is from the APMC market yard in Dhanera that the wave of protests against Rahul Gandhi started.

The police had through the night refused to take the complaint from former Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia and others till a meeting between district police and senior officers.
Help India!

New Delhi, (IANS): Two Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MPs from Kerala on Saturday could not vote in the vice presidential election as they arrived late at the polling booth in Parliament House.

The two MPs are P.K. Kunhalikutty (Lok Sabha) and Abdul Wahab (Rajya Sabha). They arrived shortly after the close of voting at 5 p.m.

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We were coming from Kozhikode and the connecting flight was from Mumbai which got delayed due to technical snag. By the time we reached Delhi airport, it was 4.35 p.m. We reached Parliament House about 10 minutes late, Wahab told IANS.

Apart from these two MPs, Union Minister Vijay Goel and former Union Minister Sanwar Lal Jat also could not vote because they are indisposed and admitted to hospital.

BJPs Rajya Sabha member Bhushan Lal Jangde was also among the 14 members who could not turn up for voting.

In all, 771 of the 785 members of the electoral college comprising members of both the Houses of Parliament voted in the election.
Help India!

By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

Shankar Gautam, a 35-year-old resident of Varanasi, works in a private firm based in Indore. Once in a month, he has to travel between Varanasi and Indore. And the trains taking the shortest routes between these two stations, sadly, runs through Mughalsarai which is situated in Chandauli district, around 20 kilometres from Varanasi.

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Gautam says, Once I had to come home from Indore for an urgent matter. I had gone to book Tatkal ticket at Indore station, and the man behind the counter asked me in a friendly manner  does Mughalsarai still has Mughalon ki Sarai?

Now no one will recognise this place, it will become like no one had heard of it, added Gautam referring to recent decision of Union Ministry to rename Mughalsarai railway station on the name of Deendayal Upadhyay, a Bharatiya Jan Sangh ideologue who was found dead at the same station under mysterious circumstances in 1968.

The decision was also approved by Union Minister of Home Affairs on Friday. However, the proposal to rename the station is one of the first hardcore Hindu-loving decisions of newly elected Yogi Government in Uttar Pradesh. Yogi Adityanath has already changed the names of localities and townships. The town Ali Nagar in his Loksabha constituency Gorakhpur was renamed as Arya Nagar, Miyaan Bazaar to Maya Bazaar and Urdu Bazaar to Hindi Bazaar.

This is also not the first time when the Indian right wing has tried renaming of this particular railway station. There was one more and rather faint attempt in 1970, two years after the death of Deendayal Upadhyay, to rename the railway station after Upadhyays name. That time the attempt went noticed because that was the time when Indira Gandhi was serving the country as Prime Minister.

The name Mughalsarai originates from the time when Emperor Shershah Suri was building the Grand Trunk Road in the 16th century following the Mauryan route. He made a temporary shelter in the same area for the workers and the contractors. Sherhshah had acceded to the throne after defeating Mughal emperor Humayun in 1540.

84-year-old local Mohammad Affan tells us, This place has a lot of stories. But the most appropriate one I heard is what the name refers to. The region was used by emperors employees for taking rest before proceeding either to Delhi or to Calcutta. Sarai meant resting place for the travellers. Shershah was a far sighted ruler and is known for constructing roads and sarais.

However, the place got its name when British railway laid a junction and named it Mughalsarai in 1883. Mughalsarai does not have any establishment which could be marked as a Mughal structure. But when one proceeds along the line and follow the ancient Grand Trunk Road route, it may come across many such small Sarais. The closest one is located in Saiyad Raja, a town situated around 24 kilometres from Mughalsarai.

Saiyad Raja has a Muslim locality in the name of Sarai. One resident of Saiyad Raja JP Sharma told us, We have heard the same stories about the Sarai in our village. It was a Sarai in Mughal era, but a smaller one than Mughalsarai.

From what it looks from the outside that BJP-led government is trying to establish a Mausoleum for Deendayal Upadhyay before its birth anniversary on September 25, but insiders claim that the government is trying to get rid of any kind of Mughal nomenclature. It may sound obvious when one can relate Yogi Adityanaths recent speeches made in reference to Agra based Taj Mahal.

The decision to change the name of the station with the BJP rivals witnessed opposition from others. Rajya Sabha MP from Samajwadi Party Naresh Agrawal raised some serious objections over the renaming of the 155-year-old railway station and said that the names of those who did not have any hand in countrys freedom struggle are being used to rename monuments and roads.

However, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi from BJP had the strangest explanation for this decision. He said, They want stations in the name of Mughals, but not in the name of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay. He also cited the example of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus of Mumbai, which was renamed from Victoria Terminus.

Mughalsarai is an important station for almost every route of the Indian railway. Possessing the biggest railway yard in the country, the station serves as connecting route between eastern and north-eastern states to the rest of the India. But the station is fighting hard for the top notch sanitary situations.

In the past one week, several shops on the railway junction were either served notices or closed because their foods failed the tests. Moreover, the station also made the news when a dead lizard was found in Veg Biryani of a passenger of Poorva Express. The food was served in the Mughalsarai itself.

Ramlakhan Verma travels daily between Mughalsarai and Varanasi for his work by passenger train. Verma tells, I have spent my last 25 years in travelling on the same route. Nothing has been changed at Mughalsarai. It lacked several facilities and still fighting at the same place.

Meanwhile, the Kashi regional unit of BJP is extremely happy after hearing that the stations name is being finally changed to Mughalsarai, and planning to celebrate the Upadhyays birth anniversary on September 25 in a city-wide celebration. MLC Lakshman Acharya of BJP Kashi Prant told TwoCircles.net, This was a much-awaited decision and not just by us, public too wanted this. So everyone is going to celebrate this decision.
Opinion / Columnist

Tendai Ruben Mbofana is Programmes Director at the Zimbabwe Network for Social Justice (ZimJustice). Please feel free to WhatsApp/call: +263782283975, or email: tendaiandtinta.mbofana@gmail.com. Please also 'Like' the ZimJustice page on Facebook for more.

As employees continue in their seemingly endless struggle for fair labour practices, amidst an ever-growing aggressive anti-worker environment in Zimbabwe, it is disheartening to note that one of the greatest impediments to victory is the disunity and corruption amongst those mandated to represent them.Such disunity and corruption, to some extent, can to attributed to the involvement of political forces in labour issues for selfish political expediency.Workers face an ever-aggressive labour environment, which can never be overcome by a disjointed force, therefore they should outrightly reject to be used as pawns in political games - as they will only end up as the losers, whilst the politicians gain power and wealth.In these very difficult times, there will always be vultures hovering around seeking whom to devour, and if workers are not sage, they will only find themselves the fodder of, not only the employers, but also other parasitic players.As history has so vividly shown us, workers - being the largest organised body in any nation - are ready meat for any hungry lion, and can easily be manipulated for political gain - whilst they are left high and dry.This was clearly witnessed with the 'transformation' of the once unconquerable Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) into the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which left the union as a mere shadow of its former self - and today, is as vicious as an old toothless Alsatian, unable to achieve much tangible results.Then there was the creation of the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU), which was obviously a pro-government outfit meant to counter the 'opposition-inspired' ZCTU.As a result of these political games, all that has since been witnessed have been contentions for power and influence between these rival unions, much to the disadvantage of the workers - whom these unions were supposedly formed to represent.A case in point is one very close to my heart, as Unions at a former Zimbabwe steelmaking giant have expended most of their time not fighting for workers' outstanding salaries to be paid, but have been fighting amongst themselves.As typical of the Biblical Exodus story, a journey that was supposed to take a few weeks ended up taking 40 years - similarly, the workers' case that could have been swiftly resolved has taken what seems a lifetime.Unfortunately, instead of learning something from this experience, the 'war' amongst Unions still rages on in other companies - as naturally, we never learn from history - workers always being the losers at the end.This should not, and can not be allowed to continue, and it up to the workers themselves to reject such shenanigans by their Unions.It is time that the workers put their own interests first, not those of the politicians - who will obviously use them and dump them later.Politicians are clearly placing their own selfish interests ahead of everyone else, so why should workers not turn the tables?Workers should realise that they are the power behind these Unions - as without workers, there would be no Unions.Therefore, workers need to use that power to tell the Unions what to do.They should make it unambiguously clear that without a united front, workers will not be part of either Unions, and will resort to a third force.Workers should never feel that their only options to receiving justice are their Unions.Indeed, whilst negotiating with the employer, they may require their Unions, but as has already been witnessed in the country, most workers have lost faith in any further negotiations - as employers have already proven that they are untrustworthy.Most workers have now resorted to legal avenues to have their labour issues resolves, and as such, their options for representation become wide open beyond their respective Unions.As such, if their Unions refuse to form a genuine united front, in the interest of the workers they purport to represent, then the third force option is placed on the table.Workers can then organise themselves into an informal grouping and independently approach organisations, such as Zimbabwe Network for Social Justice (ZimJustice), which are able to provide pro bono (free) legal assistance.In fact, even Unions that would have opted for the legal route can also approach such organisations.This will also save these workers a lot of money, which clearly they do not have, as they have not been paid their salaries - the very reason they need legal assistance.Disunity amongst Unions has also led to corruption, as a house divided will easily fall and is home to all manner of crooks.This is another reason why seemingly straightforward labour issues never appear to be going anywhere.The main reason being that a disjointed labour force - with disunited Unions - is easy prey for bribery by the employer.The employer can bribe the Union leaders, as a result workers' cases do not get resolved.Another drawback to disunity amongst Unions is the ease at which employers can make dubious secret 'deals' with certain workers - promising them that if they (workers) did not take legal action, they will be paid first, and, if they had been retrenched, they will get their jobs back.Obviously, these would be lies just meant to weaken the workers' efforts in seeking redress.The employer would be fully aware that none of these promises would ever be fulfilled - nevertheless, by the time the gullible and understandably desperate workers realise that they have duped, it would be too late.However, as a united front, it is easier to dispel and resist such machinations by these employers.Workers need to stamp their authority and demand that their Unions properly and genuinely represent their interests as a united front, as failure to do so will only lead to the greater loss of the workers.Furthermore, workers should be aware that, in the event of taking legal action against their employer, there is always a third force that is prepared to assist them, and should be bold enough to engage them.The time has come when workers realised that their destiny is in their own hands, and it is entirely up to them to direct the path of the lives, as they are not beholden to the whims of the selfish interests of politically-inspired Unions.
Help India!

By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths cabinet minister Omprakash Rajbhar, who represents Zahoorabad constituency in Ghazipur district is still sulking after his demand for transfer of District Magistrate of Ghazipur Sanjay Kumar Khatri failed to get desired results.

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Rajbhar views this as anti-backward policy of BJP.

From announcing to resign from the ministry and giving call for dharna for transferring the DM to meeting CM Yogi Adityanath, the minister is yet to get the official transferred. Latest being he conveyed his demand to BJP president Amit Shah who reportedly assured him of action in 15 days.

Meanwhile for the opposition parties, Rajbhar has given them an issue to target Yogi government. Rajbhar is trying his best to make the issue as an effort which is against backward class people.

Rajbhar, heads Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party and contested assembly polls in alliance with BJP winning four seats. Rajbhar holds portfolio of Department of Backward Classes Welfare and Disable welfare.

As per reports the acrimony began when one Narijan Rajbhar from Manirampur village of Ghazipur met Yogi Adityanath in his Janata Darbar in June and handed over a land-grabbing complaint against SBSP party chief Omprakash Rajbhar. The complaint was forwarded to local administration for redressal.

Revenue officials went for land demarcation but the matter got worse when Ramji Rajbhar and Rajnet Rajbhar allegedly manhandled the officials on June 17. DM Khatri then ordered police officials to register a case against Ramji and Rajnet Rajbhar, who are reported to be brothers of minister Omprakash Rajbhar.

Minister Rajbhar took this matter as a personal attack and labelled Khatri as an officer working against Backward castes. He also started a Purvanchal-wide protest for the transfer of Khatri.

In his defence, Rajbhar said, I asked DM to work on roadside encroachments. But instead of working, he booked several of my party leaders.

Rajbhar had planned to sit on dharna on July 4 but cancelled after Yogis intervention. Rajbhar met CM Yogi and his dharna was cancelled. Among his charter of demands, he also demanded that DM should be transferred.

But even after two and a half months, DM Khatri still remains DM of Ghazipur. Rajbhar meanwhile had tried thrice to stage dharna against DM in past one month but called off each time at eleventh hour.

Amidst the tussle, political sources informed that Union Minister Manoj Sinha who is also Ghazipur MP is in favour of Khatri continuing in his office. Since both Sinha and Rajbhar have political ground in Ghazipur, it is necessary for them to hold ground. If sources are to be belived, Sinha was allegedly against the alliance between BJP and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party in assembly polls but had to buckle under pressure from BJPs top leadership.

A local administrative official from Ghazipur confided, Khatri has not taken any action against since the arrest of Rajbhars, but Mantri ji is still furious about what happened in past. He does not want to bend.

Minister Omprakash Rajbhar was in Varanasi on Friday, where he told media, This episode is not maligning my image but of the government because I am a cabinet minister. I have conveyed my views to everyone, but no action has been taken yet.

Now BJP has to look if it wants to continue the alliance with SBSP as Khatris presence in the district is an insult to the people who have voted me and elevated me to the ministers post, added Rajbhar.

When Amit Shah was on a three-day tour of Lucknow he met ministers of Yogi cabinet. Rajbhar also met Amit Shah with the same demand on the table. He requested Shah to make arrangements for the transfer of Ghazipur DM. On this it is reported that Shah had assured of action within 15 days.

Meanwhile Rajbhar is trying to project it as BJPs apathy towards backward classes and allies of BJP. In Varanasi, one party member informed that party is seeing this whole incident as a move to make SBSP inferior in the alliance.

But Rajbhars campaign to transfer DM has surely made him a laughing stock for the opposition parties. Manoj Rai Dhoopchandi, a SP leader who enjoyed minister of state status during previous SP regime said, This is a laughable situation, but also a worrying one. A cabinet minister from the backward community is running everywhere to get a DM transferred, yet the party and the leadership are not willing to hear him. This also proves that BJP is Pro-Upper Caste.

Commenting on the situation, former MLA and Congress leader Ajay Rai said, When CM Yogi was in Varanasi last month, he asked officers to complete the bridge by the months end otherwise he would jail them. Now if a Chief Minister is announcing to jail the officers, what could one expect from his ministers?
From Cornwall to Aberdeenshire, wildlife is suffering because of loss of habitat, pollution, dwindling food supplies and poaching. Things are hard for many species as it is, but people desperate for Selfies and videos are now also a threat.

Animals are being frightened, hurt and even killed in the pursuit of personal media content. The problem is worldwide. A swan was fatally injured for a women's selfie in Macedonia in May 2016. Brazillian beachgoers passed a terrified baby dolphin around a beach for photos and videos until it was dead in February 2016.

In July this year, several men in Florida brutally dragged a shark at high speed behind a motorboat until it was virtually ripped apart: at least one of them was linked to other acts of deliberately harming animals.

Man jumped on seal in Cornwall

The UK is far from immune to this phenomenon. In late July, a group of people filmed themselves in Cornwall at Fistral Beach laughing as one of them, a blond man in a blue bathing suit, jumped on top of a seal in the water. Cornwall police released this statement:

Police have received a third-hand report of a video appearing on Social media which claims to have been filmed at a beach in Newquay, which shows a man jumping into the water near a seal. This has been passed on to the local neighbourhood team for information.

There is some confusion as to whether the police have the name of the suspect or not, with a member of the Cornwall Marine and Coastal Code Group saying the mans identity is known, but no arrest or charges seem forthcoming at present.

People ignoring the signs

At the opposite end of the country, seals are under threat in Aberdeenshire from people who refuse to obey signs, fences and even instructions from marine conservationists to leave the seals undisturbed. Seals need to haul out or rest on the sands for many hours before they take to the sea for food again.

People are legally bound to leave them alone, yet these seals are bombarded by overhead drones, dogs off leashes, and people finding it amusing to frighten the seals back into the water to take videos. This behaviour is prohibited, the signs are clear, and yet people persist.

Ythan Seal Watch is a group of volunteers raising awareness of the problem.

According to the YSE Facebook Page YSW: -

will be around the river Ythan to try to prevent disturbance to Seals that are hauled out on the sand. There has been an increased number of disturbances to Seals including drones, dogs, boats and the most common issue, people getting too close for pictures. Our friendly team of volunteers hope to prevent this from happening by positive public engagement.

John Robins of the charities Animal Concern Advice Line and Save Our Seals Fund said:

People stupid enough to take selfies with wild animals probably dont care if their idiocy ends in the death of the animal. They are not concerned that their actions cause stress and suffering to animals and the abandonment of young animals by their parents.

Perhaps they will be more concerned to learn that disturbing animals can lead to the selfie taker ending up in a police cell, a hospital bed or on a slab at the local mortuary. Unless you have a special licence, it is illegal to take photographs of many protected species of animal and bird. Get caught doing that and you will be carted off to the police station. Seals, even cute and cuddly pups, have a nasty bite which carries a high risk of very dangerous infections which can lead to long term debility and even death. Many other animals and birds carry zoonosis, diseases including salmonella, e-Coli and even rabies which can infect humans. My advice is to use your brain before your camera.

If you are aware of any wildlife crime in the UK  illegal hunting, poaching, snaring  anything call 999 if it is happening now, or 101 for anything else.
"ZenPop" is a service by ZenMarket LLC, a company known for Japanese online shopping and proxy buying services based in Osaka, Japan. The service specializes in delivering boxes filled with must-try Japanese goodies abroad, mostly food, especially in the United States. The company always makes sure that customers are guaranteed to order fresh stuff, that's why they update their items regularly on a monthly basis.

What are the items inside these boxes?

Because they have a lot of merchandises to offer, they categorize all of these awesome authentic Japanese items into 5 different divisions and each division will contain either of the following:

Sweets and Salty Snacks This box contains 14 or more Japanese snacks including: Biscuits Candies Chips Crackers and more!

Instant Noodles This box contains 9 instant noodle bowls with the following variations: Ramen Soba Udon Yakisoba

Beauty Products This box contains 8 or more items that are related to: Cosmetics Skin Care Toiletries

Stationery Products This boxcontain 12 or more cute-themed items such as: Notebooks Pencils Pens Sticky Notes and more!

A mix of Instant Noodles and Sweets The mixed box contains 2 to 3 bowls of noodles and 7 to 10 FULL-SIZED sweet or salty snacks.



How much are these 'ZenPop' boxes?

Given the number of the items in each box presented above, the amount it'll cost you per box is around $30 while the instant noodles and sweets mix box only cost you $25.

If you are worried that you are unfamiliar with the items and wonder if it's worth the money, item description pages are also included in each box telling you a brief background of each item.

Are these prices too expensive or too cheap for your wallets? You're about to find out.

How much is the Shipping Fee of these boxes?

If you have read the subtitle of the article before reading through, you should have noticed the answer to this question. If you don't, never mind scrolling back up to check the answer because the shipping fee is already included in the $25-$30 you'll be paying. Yes, you read that right. There is no additional charge for shipping.

Your only concern would be the country's import regulations and customs fees because the company will not shoulder these fees.

Besides, the declared value of each box is within the duty-free allowance of most countries, at around 2,000 yen. Chances are there won't be any additional fees.

How long would it take for a box to arrive?

Shipping takes 2-4 weeks time locally in Japan as they ship the boxes daily. However, international shipping might take more time because of certain factors like weather conditions.

Anyway, Japan is known to provide excellent service. So if ever there are issues with the shipments, you can contact them via their website to get things sorted out.

Final thoughts...

If you ever start craving for some delicious instant ramen straight from Japan after binge-watching an anime series or Japanese drama, then getting a ZenPop box is all you need to do. With just $30, you can indulge yourself in a legitimate Japanese experience! That's all for ZenPop boxes! Looking forward to getting my next box! See ya!
Prince Harry has taken Meghan Markle on a romantic holiday to Africa to celebrate her 36th birthday. The 32-year-old prince and the "Suits" actress have been dating for almost a year and have spent a considerable amount of time together. Meghan and her mother were in London last week but returned to Toronto so Meghan could wrap up filming "Suits." Then the actress flew back to London to celebrate her birthday with the love of her life.

On Friday, Prince Harry took Meghan to Africa on a romantic holiday. Both of them were smiling as Prince Harry wrapped his arm around Meghan when they were walking on the tarmac.

They were dressed casually and were wearing matching caps. Meghan carried something in her arms that looked like a birthday present.

Prince Harry took the time to give onlookers a thumbs-up. Their destination is making people speculate that they might become engaged while they are away.

Will Harry propose?

People think Harry might propose to Meghan because Africa is a popular spot for engagements and honeymoons. That's where Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton seven years ago. After their engagement, Kate said they were on a holiday in Africa and it was a very romantic. Perhaps it will be a similar experience for Prince Harry and Meghan.

Sources say that Prince Harry had been planning the romantic trip for a long time and had put a lot of thought into the itinerary to make sure it is as romantic as possible.

It has been reported that Harry thinks of Africa as his spiritual home and has been there on several occasions. He has said that's where he can get away from it all.

Whenever the couple is together, they like to spend private time enjoying each other's company. They intend to spend every minute together doing exciting things.

Harry has planned for them to walk in the bush in the early morning, ride in boats across the lakes during the day and camp under the stars at night.

Both William and Harry have ties to Africa. Harry has done a lot of conservation work on that continent with endangered elephants and black rhinos. Meghan has done charity work in Africa, but she has never been there with Prince Harry or on a safari.

She is reported to have said she is excited to see Africa through Harry's eyes.

Harry's birthday

Friends of Harry said the prince wants to be engaged before he turns 33 on September 15. Therefore, this seems like it would be perfect timing for a proposal. The public is waiting to see if Meghan will come back wearing an engagement ring that was custom made by the Queen's jeweler.

Harry will see Meghan again on September 23. He will be in Toronto to open the Invictus Games for wounded Armed Forces veterans.
Martin Shkreli, an American businessman and former pharmaceutical CEO, is colloquially known as "Pharma Bro". He was initially a hedge fund manager but later became a pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He is known as a brash and manipulative man, once referred to as the "most hated man in America".

On Friday, Shkreli appeared in court as his month-long federal court fraud trial drew to an end. This came after he was accused of deceiving investors in a pair of failed hedge funds. Shortly after he was convicted of securities fraud on Friday afternoon, Shrikeli began livestreaming himself, drinking beer and mocking the trial, seemingly without a care in the world.

Legal Experts have warned that such actions could land the "Pharma Bro" in even more trouble if he's not careful.

The trial

Shrikeli was accused of securities fraud and arrested in 2015. He was accused of deceiving investors and encouraging them to invest in hedge funds that later failed. He then also took $11 million in stock and cash from Retrophin, a drug company which he founded, according to ABC News. He tried to pay the investors back with these looted assets. 2015 was not the first time that Shrikeli was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. In fact, in 2014 he was banned from Twitter because of his derogatory comments about a female journalist. He was also known for raising the price of a certain lifesaving drug from $13.50 to $750.

On Friday, the Jury made their decision. Shrikeli has been found guilty of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. He is currently out on a bail of $5 million but according to The Guardian, he faces up to 20 years in prison. A date for sentencing has not yet been set.

Shrikeli's response

The "Pharma Bro" has been rather blase about the whole ordeal.

He continued talking to the press and live-streaming his thoughts on the trial, throughout the course of the trial, despite the Judge's order that he refrain from discussing the matter with the press. Even when he was convicted on Friday, Shrikeli said, "We fought back and we feel like we won", according to the Washington Post.

He then went on to return to his New York apartment and live-stream himself, drinking a beer, playing with his cat and cracking jokes. He even invited a few reporters over so he could answer some questions

Legal experts have since warned that Shrikeli's so-called "lack of remorse" could affect his sentence if he's not careful. It is not wise for him to be treating the matter with such nonchalance and for him to be mocking the legal system in the way that he is. Especially not when he could be facing 20 years in prison. And while Shrikeli doesn't seem to be awfully concerned about the matter, his lawyer has mentioned that he has his work cut out for him. Only time will tell the future of the "Pharma Bro".
A young Boynton Beach girl died on Monday following complications after her cousin dared her to drink boiling water using a straw. Eight-year-old KiAri pope had seriously burned her throat and mouth with the boiling water following the dare from a cousin who was reportedly the same age as her.

Childs cousin dares her to drink boiling water

Marquita Williams, 32, another cousin of the girl, recalled the scalding incident in an interview with The Sun Sentinel, saying it has been difficult to deal with. She said no one told her it was boiling water that KiAri drank and she believed it was hot water from the faucet.

She said she gave Pope a drink of cold water and the little girl and her cousin went to bed, but KiAri awoke crying some time later, saying it burned. The child had suffered serious medical problems in the months following the dare.

KI'ARI POPE 8YR OLD FLORIDA BLACK Girl> Dies After Dare To Drink Boiling HOT Water Through A Straw https://t.co/C2PVmvCfN2 via @nypost  ERIC WRIGHT (@therealeric916) August 4, 2017

Girl experiences problems breathing four months after the dare

Four months after the dare, Pope received a tracheotomy which reportedly led to her suffering chronic respiratory problems and she was unable to speak. On Sunday night the little girl complained that she was experiencing difficulty breathing.

According to Popes mothers boyfriend, she became unconscious and unresponsive minutes later. Paramedics tried for 40 minutes to resuscitate Pope before rushing her to a local hospital where the child was pronounced dead in the early morning hours on Monday.

Family under investigation following girls death

Popes death is under investigation by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) as there have been a series of around 11 cases involving the family dating back to 2009, five of which involved domestic violence between KiAris mother and her boyfriend.

Mike Carroll, the secretary for the DCF, said in a statement that the loss of a child is devastating and sent their condolences to the child's family and loved ones. Carroll went on to say an investigation into the childs death has been opened to look at the circumstances surrounding Popes death. He said a team is to review all the various cases involving the family and the child welfare system.

GoFundMe page set up for funeral expenses

As noted on a GoFundMe campaign page set up to cover Popes funeral expenses, her cousin dared her to drink the boiling water after a YouTube video gave the girls the idea. According to a report in the Palm Beach Post, Pope would have celebrated her ninth birthday on September 10. Popes funeral is set to be held at Johnsons Memorial Chapel in Boynton in Florida on August 12.
Jamie Tull was discovered lying in the tall grass in a farming community, less than a mile from where she crashed her car on July 17. The 33-year-old woman was found to be badly sunburned and emaciated and had been surviving by eating bugs and taking water from a nearby cattle trough.

Woman struggling with emotional problems goes missing

According to authorities, the last time anyone heard from Tull was when her husband received a call from her on July 17, where she told him she was driving and that she had crashed the car into a ditch. Tull, who previously worked as a teacher at a public elementary school, was suffering from emotional problems and had reportedly stopped taking her medication for her condition when she went missing.

One last look near the crash site led to a discovery

By chance, a group of searchers returned to the scene of her Car Crash in one last attempt to find Tull. More than two weeks after going missing, the missing woman was discovered alive in a farming community on Friday, just a short distance from where she crashed her car.

Merced Sheriff tells us about how a ranch hand found Jamie Toll alive in a field near Le Grand. @ABC30 pic.twitter.com/lvou4dxz9l  Nathalie Granda (@NathalieABC30) August 4, 2017

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said she had been surviving in the Le Grand farming community since the crash and had eaten some insects and drank water from a cattle trough on one of the farms to stay alive, pictured in the tweet below.

Sheriff says this is the trough Tull was drinking water from to stay alive. @ABC30 pic.twitter.com/ke6EiQPnhB  Nathalie Granda (@NathalieABC30) August 4, 2017

Warnke said the area where Tull was found was a desolate landscape with long grass and some homes in the distance. The missing woman had been sheltering from the heat next to the water trough.

When the woman was found she was in a weak condition and was badly sunburned and emaciated. She was, however, able to speak and told the people who found her that she had no wish to be found. She asked the searchers to give her water and food and then let her go. According to Warnke, they also found some items belonging to Tull next to a nearby windmill.

ABC News quotes Robert Carpenter, a family friend, as saying he didnt expect Tull to be discovered when he awoke that morning and that it was a miracle that she was found. One of the searchers, Mario Bianchi, said they had seen something that looked out of the ordinary in the field they were searching and that it looked like someones knees. When they got closer, they found it the Modesto woman lying there. Just as they started wondering if she was alive, Tull confirmed it by saying, Im alive.

According to Warnke, Tull had existed in the area through a heat wave, with only insects and cattle trough water to keep her alive. He said she was airlifted to a nearby hospital by helicopter and will eventually be released to relatives.

The LA Times attempted to contact Tulls family for comment but were unsuccessful.

Jamie Tull's father says she may be undergoing surgery for her sunburned skin at Fresno's community regional medical center. Live at 5. pic.twitter.com/qaXmdYkqhm  Kay Recede FOX40 (@KayRecede) August 4, 2017

Fox40 tweeted that Tull's father said his daughter may undergo surgery for her badly sunburned skin.